October 31, 2000
Rating: Mature audience only, please...
Pairings: 1+2+5, 3+4, 6+9, S+11
Warnings: Yaoi Lemon. Sappy in some parts. Angst in other areas. Strong language at unexpected turns. A pregnant Wufei & Noin. Major confusion! Out of control characters... I think that pretty much covers it! ^_^;;
Feedback: C&C is always welcomed and adored.
Disclaimer: Gundam Wing and its characters belong to Bandai, Sunrise and Sotsu Agency and are only being used for non-profit entertainment purposes. References to printed texts, films, sitcoms, musical pieces, and/or other fanfictions don't belong to me either.
Notes: "Oh Baby, Baby" is in approximately 203 AC, placing the boys at ~23-24 years of age.
Hiroshima left Fatina and the Behenna Satellite. Quatre and Trowa left Emerald Gardens and the other pilots to return back to space, a copy of the Hiroshima Files accompanying them. Meanwhile, Heero, Duo, and Wufei were left to maintain the idea of normalcy--with two teenagers at each other's throats.
It had been ten days after she left the Behenna Satellite--the place she had called home for the past ten years. Ten days before she felt... ready. Ready to face her past... her own set of demons. And she had plenty of them.
She had decided to start here, in this lonely cemetery. To the place where slabs of slate mark lifetimes dead and buried. Buried in the past.
A past that still haunted her...
She knelt down on the cold, hard ground, reaching out a trembling hand to caress one of the engraved slabs.
"It's been a long time since I've come to see you, Momma," the forty-two year old woman whispered chokingly. "I'm sorry. I haven't forgotten you..."
She swallowed, blinking tears from her dark eyes. And then she broke, falling over her bent knees, sobbing. "I'm sorry, Momma, so sorry. I'm sorry..."
It was a litany she repeated over and over again as the tears that had refused to fall nearly thirty years ago, fell now.
News Report, January 6, 175AC:
"The colonies mourned today as President Heero Yuy was laid to rest in the simple cemetery where, twenty years ago, both his mother and father were buried. Beside him, Representative Trinity Jackson, Yuy's aunt, was also laid to rest..."
He was sitting at a desk, tinkering with something or another when a young girl tapped his shoulder, nearly eliciting a growl from the elderly man as he turned on her.
"Someone's here to see you, Professor Greene," the girl yelped, jumping away from him.
The man looked past her, his dome-shaped grey hair jutting out over beady eyes that widened suddenly. "Shima!" the man practically shouted, pushing out of his chair with a force that sent the innocent piece of furniture rolling back and crashing into the wall.
The tall, dark woman smiled sadly, but uncrossed her arms and let them hang at her side. "Hello, Garret," she said softly, swallowing, hard.
He stopped short, three feet away from her--but even at that distance, he had to look up to look into her face. He hesitated, not knowing why she was here, not knowing how she would react if he actually tried to touch her, to hug her.
To hug her, after all these years... To hug his goddaughter... his niece... the girl he'd cherished as a daughter since the day she was born...
He swallowed, pulling himself up straight. "It is a pleasure to see you again, Shima," he said politely.
The woman before him seemed to melt away into the child he'd known so many years ago... "G-poppa," she choked in a hoarse whisper. "G-poppa, will you please... please tell me about my father...?"
He caught her up in his arms--old, weak arms, but still sturdy and reassuring. "Of course, child, of course," he cooed against her bowed head, leading her over to the comfy couch in the small office--where they stayed for hours into the night.
Personal Record, undated:
You never asked me how I was. I guess that you blamed me for living when they both died. I can understand that. I blamed myself. I was so filled with hatred then... I can look back on that time now. I can look back and not feel any hatred. Not towards you. Not towards Momma or Heero. I don't even hate myself anymore. Not for that, at least. All I feel is... pity.
But I can't help wondering if it wouldn't have been better, you know? If *I* had died and not Momma or Heero... If it had been me who stepped in front of that bullet... if it had been my heart and lung that had been pierced... what would have happened? Would you still have built your precious Gundams?
I doubt it. The Gundams were built for revenge... intended by those who paid for them to avenge Heero's death. But that's not why you built them. Was it? Oh, no, you were upset by Heero's death... the same as me. I know. But that's not why you built them. In fact, I doubt you would have built them just because Heero had been killed. I know you loved him like a son. We all loved him. Heero was easy to love and adore. I should know. I have loved him and adored him from the moment I met him. I still do, how many years after his death? And I know I always will.
But you didn't build the Gundams for Heero. Don't think I don't know that. You built them for Momma. To revenge her death. If I had died... If I had been the one to lose my life, not Momma... those machines would never have left the design table. Don't think I don't know that. Momma would never have condoned a machine for war, for death...
It's kind of ironic that it was her death that created them... not Heero's...
I wonder if you ever realized that... finally... near the end? Did you realize the Momma would never have wanted to be the cause of so much destruction...? I wonder...
Heero would have hated it too... He hated fighting as much as mother did. He would have been sick to see what we have done to Earth and Space... all because of him... and Momma... so much fighting and destruction... all in the honor of two of the most peace-loving people who ever lived...
It's almost laughable really. To see the result of our nauseating need for revenge...
Tell me, Daddy. Are you happy with the results?
She stayed with Professor Greene for two more days, agreeing to see the others and talk to them, too. But he had been her main stop--her father's best friend and blood brother. The closest of the six-member fellowship, the brotherhood.
Eventually she did go to see the others. More because she was avoiding what she thought might be unpleasantness. But she knew she couldn't keep putting it off.
She enlisted the fellowship's help in tracking down the remaining loose ends of her past, telling herself that once the past had been healed, she could deal with the future... whatever future was left for her...
Pictures... lots and lots of pictures... in no particular order.
One of Heero Yuy at graduation, smiling broadly at the camera in his cap and gown.
One of a group of scrawny teenagers at a lake, swimming.
One of a grinning little girl sitting in front of a cake with four candles lit.
One of Hiroshima Jackson dressed up for a dance.
One of a family of four, waving from a sailboat.
One of Heero Yuy talking to Senate.
One of Trinity Jackson talking to reporters.
One of eleven young adults, lined up and staring at the camera--six women, five men.
One of some of those same eleven people lounging around a rec room.
Several of those eleven people, actually.
There were others of children. Six children, to be specific. Three little boys and three little girls. The pictures seemed to track their lives from infancy to about three or four years of age.
But perhaps the most fascinating of all the pictures--or, at least the most to five young men who were looking through them--were those of six men... Many of the pictures were very old, the oldest of all the pictures there in fact. The pictures captured the six men at various ages--the oldest one depicting six boys of 9 or 10; the newest, six wizened old men, still grinning as cheekily as they had in the first picture.
It was the seventh member in that last picture which jumped out at them. The young woman who had appeared in a majority of the pictures.
The woman who's personal story they were spying upon.
Hiroshima Jackson.
They came together again via vid-conference. Heero, Wufei, and Duo gathered in the study; Quatre and Trowa from their suite on the L1 colony they were currently at. All five faces were grim.
"You've read it all?" Heero asked softly.
President Heero Yuy was assassinated last night while attending the Children of War Benefit Ball...
Quatre and Trowa both nodded, but only Quatre spoke. "Yes," was his hissed answer.
The Federation announced today at 1500 hours, that all traffic between colonies must now be approved...
"And what did you think?" Heero asked calmly. Wufei and Duo sat on either side of him, both frowning, both deadly silent.
Quatrina Raberba came to me today, asking for my help in conceiving a son...
"I think," Quatre began softly...
That stupid bitch! I can't believe she went behind my back like that! Doesn't she understand that she's just signed her own mother's death warrant?
"That there are now more questions to be answered," Quatre finished softly.
Ten serums. Ten serums for ten genetically enhanced humans. Of course, I'll eventually mix and match the ten, blend them together... to create the perfect human...
"I'll say," Duo growled.
They've run away! How dare they! How dare they betray me like this! After all that I've done for them!
"Have you thought about how you want to handle this?" Trowa asked in his soft voice.
There will be six. Six new lives to replace the ten lost. And this time I will be able to start from the beginning.
"At the beginning," Heero answered. "At the source."
Growth and development have progressed normally... they're... beautiful...
"The Behenna Satellite," Wufei said calmly.
Oh my god, they're dead! They're all dead!
"I'll make the arrangements," Trowa told them, calm as ever.
Everything is gone. Everything. Now I must start over from scratch, without even Daddy's notes to guide me.
Quatre nodded. "We will meet you there."
I've sent the neo-serums. I know they're not as good as the originals, but they will have to do. Time has run out and the machines are almost complete. All that remains are the pilots.
"Only Duo and myself," Heero said then. "Wufei will remain here."
I don't understand! I don't understand! Why are they dying?
"Wha--" Quatre frowned, looking from first one face, to another. But no one offered an explanation. It could wait, he decided.
I've waited too long... I've let too much go... it's too late now...
"Then we will see you there, two days," Duo said.
It's done. It's over. It's finally over. Maybe now I can forget it ever happened...
"Agreed," Quatre said before the connection between them died.
In two days time, four young men would return to the Behenna Satellite, searching for answers that only a handful of people still living knew.
********** End of "Oh Baby, Baby" Part Twenty Six **********
Andrea Readwolf
Please send comments to: andrea_readwolf@hotmail.com