November 2, 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.
Heero, Duo, Trowa, and Quatre have returned to the Behenna Satellite in search of answers. Meanwhile, Hiroshima's been busy tying up some lose ends only to find herself at Emerald Gardens with Wufei.
She reached down to retrieve the blade the girl had so carelessly forgotten, studying the blade in the light. She seemed pleased with what she found.
"Here," she said, offering the sword to the young dragon. "I believe this is yours."
Wufei noticed the blade for the first time--or, rather, he noticed which blade exactly it was the young teenager had been waving around. "Kisama!" he hissed, taking up the sword.
"You've taken good care of it," she said, resettling into the comfortable sofa. "Xia would be pleased."
Bronze fingers ran over the shining blade reverently. "It's the only thing I have left," he told her softly. "Of my mother... of my colony... of my heritage."
"I'm sorry," she whispered.
He looked up, a frown marring his face. "Why? It is not your fault."
"It is," she returned. "If it wasn't for me then she wouldn't have died and your life would have been different."
"If it wasn't for you then my mother would never have come to my colony, never have met my father, and I would not have been born," he pointed out.
She paused, thinking this over. She had never looked at her past in that light before. It almost made her mistakes look like... destiny... fate... "Did you tell them?" she asked softly then, looking back at him.
"That Xia Lee was my mother?" he clarified, smiling somewhat whimsically. "No, I didn't."
Hiroshima nodded, thinking. "Do they suspect?"
Wufei was quiet, looking away. "I don't know," he answered finally. "Perhaps." He looked at her then. "What about the others?"
She studied him for a moment, and then smiled. "You have good eyes."
"They are not my best feature," the young man returned with a wry smile. "But I am not blind." His smile seemed to falter. "Neither is Heero."
Hiroshima's smile fell and she looked away. "He knows then..."
"If he does, he did not say," Wufei told her, continuing to study her closely.
Her limbs felt stiff, her body ached, but her mind had cleared from the fog that had inhabited it for what seemed like forever. Still, when she saw the young man sitting in calm stillness in the chair pulled up beside her bed she gasped.
"Galen--"
"No," the man quietly disabused her. He remained sitting, arms and legs crossed, head down to his chest, dark-shadowed hair splaying over his face.
She looked away, ashamed for her mistake. "I'm sorry, you just looked so much like your father then..." There was a rustle of fabric and when she looked, he had uncrossed and re-crossed his long, jean-clad legs. "He would do that sometimes, when he was nervous." She smiled, looking away again.
It was then that she noticed the second man in the room, curled up beside her on the bed. A shaking hand reached out to brush aside a strand of pale golden hair, but hesitated. "Quatre... my beautiful, sweet, little Quatre..."
"I finally convinced him to go to sleep," Trowa said softly, watching the woman with hawk-like intensity.
She slumped back, withdrawing from the sleeping young man. "Sleep... sleep is good..."
"You've been asleep for 10 hours," a calm second voice intoned.
She stared at the face the belonged to the voice, her eyes studying the contours with a thoroughness she'd never allowed herself before. "She was right. You do look a lot like her mother," Fatina said finally.
He said nothing. She said nothing. No one said a word.
"Why are you here?" she asked, breaking the suffocating silence.
"To learn the truth," a third voice answered as Duo walked up beside Heero, leaning up against the other man as he blinked the sleep from his indigo eyes. "Why else?"
"'The truth...'" She laughed. "The truth is just a matter of perspective."
"Then you can share your truth with us," Heero replied, wrapping an arm around the braided man and pulling him closer.
She stared at him for a moment, looked away, but finally nodded. "Yes... I can do that..."
"Good."
"Where to begin..." she said to herself, sipping absently at the tea a servant had brought in at Wufei's request.
"At the beginning would be nice," the dark man replied with a wry smile.
She looked up at him, grinning. "Well, I don't know about that... the beginning was a long time ago... I doubt I'd remember it all very well..." Her smile waned with the onslaught of nostalgia.
He waited in calm silence; the black cat that had returned to its position on his lap when the room quieted, purred.
"The beginning... I suppose that's a good a place as any, huh?" She forced herself to smile again. "I guess the beginning would be Heero... Heero and Momma..."
I was an only child, but as far back as I can remember, Heero lived with us. His parents died in a shuttle crash, and, Momma being his only living relative, he came to live with us.
He was... my idol... the god in my small universe. I don't think my hero-worship ever had a chance to go away... He was constantly doing new things, exciting things, re-sparking my...
It's funny, really. When we were children our dreams lied to us. I thought I would be a wonderful stateswoman like my mother. Heero wanted to be a world-famous scientist, just like daddy...
Funny how he ended up being the politician and me the scientist, huh?
He was so smart and popular... everyone loved him... I can't believe anyone wanted to hurt him... let alone... let alone kill him...
I was already working with Daddy at the time... A glorified secretary--that's how he saw me, I'm sure. Daddy might've been a genius, but he was damn old fashioned when it came down to some things...
But that's when I first came across the AHB project. It had been one of Daddy's more... fanciful ideas, to be sure, but it was fascinating. The idea that the perfect human being could be engineered... an advanced human being.
Daddy never continued the Advanced Human Being project... he just discarded it in favor of something else, some new idea or other. But I read through the reports... I couldn't help myself.
It was a wonderful idea... the concept that a human being could possess a high immunity to sickness and disease; that he could be strong and intelligent, and have high dexterity and speed and extended endurance... a perfect human being...
Yeah, it sounds fanciful, doesn't it... but... I was young and easily impressed then. I thought I could do anything...
Maybe that's why I said I would do it... when Heero and Momma--died...
Tallgeese had already been built. It was one of the finest results of their collaborations. The Zero System was one of Daddy's projects; Wing Zero was his personal baby, though the others helped design it... That's why the four other gundams look so different from Wing and Wing Zero, and yet so similar.
I'm not sure if the gundams were supposed to be for warfare then... I think it was just a case of big boys wanting to have big toys...
When Momma and Heero... died... well, things weren't so great then... That's when Dekim Barton approached Daddy.
He was upset... we were all upset... hurt... hurting... I think Dekim just planted the idea of revenge so deeply in his mind...
That's when the idea of using the gundams as weapon and not just a toy was born...
Of course the colonies were reeling from the double blow of losing two of their most powerful leaders... when Sanc Kingdom was overthrown...
Garret, Pierre, Pal, Indra, Howard, and Daddy decided to split up, go their separate ways. I think that was actually the first time they've ever done something so monumental on their own. It was agreed that they should all try and build their own gundam, and, hopefully, one of them would succeed.
The only thing that held them back was the pilot. Test flights already showed that no normal person could pilot the mobile suit they'd already built, and Tallgeese was definitely less powerful than their Gundam designs...
That's where I came in... They needed a... a... perfect human to pilot their machines... and I was determined to it give them.
Heero left to make a large pot coffee, pulling Duo after him. Fatina continued to cling to the helpless sheets, trembling.
"We won't hurt you," Trowa said gently, noting the fine trembling.
She smiled at him. "I'm fine, really, I know you won't." She closed her eyes and leaned back into her pillow. "Forgive me for being weak."
"I do not think that."
"You wouldn't be the first," she returned. Beside her, the blonde young man murmured and shifted in his sleep.
Trowa left his seat to crouch down near his sleeping one. A gentle hand brushed blonde bangs back, away from his angel's face.
"You love him, don't you?" Fatina asked softly, watching him. "You really love him."
Trowa smiled, not bothering to look away from Quatre's face. "Well, the sex isn't bad, either," he replied softly, trailing his knuckles across the smooth cheek.
Quatre purred. "Mmm, if you ask me, the sex is pretty darn good," he murmured, shifting into the gentle caress.
"No one did," Fatina quipped, poking the sleepy boy in the side.
That woke him up, and with a howl he sat up. "Hey! What'cha do that for? Oh! Fatina! You're up! How do you feel? What time is it? How long have you been awake? Why didn't you wake me sooner? How do you--"
"Oiya! You might want to give her a chance to answer, Q-man!" Duo grinned from the doorway while the blonde woman just laughed before engulfing the younger version of herself in a hug.
"Coffee's ready," Heero added, coming up beside the braided man. "And the living room's cleared."
"I guess that would be a better place for us to talk, huh?" the blonde woman said, smiling, pulling away from her brother. She reached towards the nightstand--and stopped. "Where are my pills?"
"What are they?" Quatre returned.
"My medication," the woman replied, frowning.
"But for what?"
"They..." her frown deepened. "They... keep me stable..."
"Coffee..." Heero reminded the siblings.
"Yes, yes, the living room, we're coming, we're coming," Quatre said, climbing out of bed.
I was sixteen when I first met Hiroshima Jackson. It was after Heero Yuy had been assassinated--yes, the first Heero, I'm sorry. It... messed with her head, I think. Losing her mother and cousin like that.
She was there, you know. She was there when they were shot. The second bullet missed her by centimeters. I don't think she ever forgave herself for living when they died...
But, as I was saying, I was sixteen, never been away from home...
Strange, huh? But, then, mother was alive then and she hated the thought of all of us being scattered all across the galaxy. Most of us still lived at home if not on or near L4.
It wasn't until after Mother died that we moved away.
Oh! It wasn't because of you, Quatre-dear. Don't think that. It was Father. We couldn't stand him on the best of days. Most of us stayed around because of Mother. When she died, there wasn't any reason to stay.
That wasn't your fault, either, Quatre. Please understand that. It was mine.
You see, I thought I could help her--but, wait, I'm jumping ahead of myself, aren't I?
The colonies were more than just a little crazy when President Yuy was killed. Father and some of the other more prominent members tried to... keep the peace... but everyone was just too upset and scared...
When Sanc fell, too... everything just went crazy. There was literally mayhem in the streets. It was... scary, to say the least.
That's when the Federation started the lock-down. It started small, and just... grew... until the Federation controlled everything.
I knew Hiro was hiding... running away from something... but I didn't know what... She was doing research... working on the AHB project. She needed volunteers... so I volunteered myself.
I did it to get away. The others... well, they did it to get off the streets, I think. That, and the supplement pay. Money was scarce--a lot of people were hungry and homeless. The money Hiro offered wasn't anything great by today's standards, but, back then, it could easily pay for a full month's worth of food for a family.
We didn't understand exactly what the studies were for... all we knew was that we'd get injected with some stuff and--miraculously--our bodies would improve. Our memories would improve, our abilities to notice details, or think out complex problems; our bodies grew stronger, too. We were able to do things that we couldn't before.
There weren't any side effects... at least, none that we could see. It was a win-win situation. Our bodies got better and our wallets got thicker. Not that I needed it, of course.
There were ten of us in total. I was first. It was another two months before Katerina came. Here. Here's a picture of her. I have lots of pictures. I used to love pictures... but... but after the fire, I'd put them all away. I never took them back out until a few days ago...
Xia and Jemel were together when they came, less than a month after Kat. They were already a team, and they worked well together.
Ken joined ranks in less than two weeks. It was another month before we found Galen. After Galen joined, it was only a matter of two more months before Sandy, Axel, Marius, and Casey were with us...
We worked well as a team. We got along, and we really did like each other--despite everything. Maybe that's why we tried to keep in touch with one another when everything got shot to hell...
You see, we didn't know *why* we were being enhanced... why we were being tested like we were, trained... trained to become perfect little soldiers...
Sounds familiar? Ah, but that's later in the story. No, we were being trained, our bodies being changed, and we didn't know why. Some of us didn't care. We saw the money, we saw our family and loved ones getting food. We saw our bodies becoming better...
I think it was Casey who couldn't believe it. It was too good of a deal, I think she said. She went sneaking around, spying. She was good at that. You wouldn't even know she was there unless she wanted you to know... could sneak right up on you. She really wasn't big on computers, but she was smart and a quick learner. She'd hacked into Hiro's work files one night.
That's the first time I ever heard of gundam.
The others, they didn't like what they heard... that we were being trained to pilot these machines... these weapons. They didn't want to be a part of any more war and destruction. Most of them came from the streets. They knew what was happening. They said you couldn't stop war by fighting.
And they decided to leave, to run away. Xia and Jemel, Casey and Axel, Katerina and Galen. They left. Kat was already pregnant when they left. Yes, Galen's... she and Galen were a couple, you know. They were the only couple, though it might not look it. We were all paired up, but Galen and Kat were the couple. She was pregnant...
And five months later... she was dead...
We didn't think anything of it at the time. Normal complications during the birth, or something like that. We didn't know it had anything to do with the serums that had been injected into us.
Galen was upset, of course, but then, he now had both a baby and a sister--Kat's sister--to take care of by himself. Here's a picture. Don't they look like a cute little family?
That's your parent's, Trowa. Galen and Michelle and baby Catherine, your half sister. Yes, I believe you've met her...
Galen tried to find work, but there was a depression, not many jobs to be found and a lot of people looking... he finally did find one, with the circus. It wasn't what one could call glamorous, but he had skills, talent, and was hard working.
I'm not sure when he and Michelle married, but I know they did--before you were conceived. I was able to follow them for three years after they joined the circus... but then I lost them. When I managed to find them again, little Catherine was the only one still there...
I had no idea what happened to Galen, or your mother, or you... I wasn't even sure if it *was* you until Hiro ran your blood samples through some tests. Yes, that's one of the reasons she wanted you all to leave samples. She wanted to know if what she suspected was true...
You see, you're all children of the original ten.
Addendum A : Fatina's Photo Gallery
Fatina was a fanatic about pictures. She was on hand to take pictures of each member of the 'original ten' when they arrived and signed the volunteer agreement. The following nine picture-descriptions were taken upon their arrival. Fatina also had a nasty habit of writing on the backs of her pictures--usually a name, age, and date.
[Katerina Day, 20yrs. 6/11/76: shoulder-length red-brown curly hair; grey eyes, pale skin; tall and slender-looking; dressed in a plum, sleeveless, turtleneck and tight, faded, cut-up jeans] (a.k.a. Catherine Bloom's mother)
[Xia Lee, 18yrs. 6/23/76: shoulder-length, fine, straight, black hair; large, dark eyes; golden-colored skin; slender and small; dressed in a once-was-white-but-now-is-grey simple-cut shirt and tan trousers.] (a.k.a. Wufei's mother)
[Jemel (no last name given), 19yrs. 6/23/76: short-cut, black hair; dark chocolate brown eyes; milk-chocolate skin; big and tall; muscular; dressed in a black tee shirt and dark blue jeans]
[Kennet (no last name given), 16yrs. 7/06/76: scruffy, black curls; brown eyes; tannish, sunburned skin; medium build; dressed in grey trousers and a white tank top]
[Galeno Bloom, 20yrs. 8/08/76: golden auburn hair, hazel eyes, olive skin, tall, medium build, dressed in jeans and a green tee]
[Sandara (no last name given), 17yrs. 8/12/76: light brown hair, cropped at the chin; golden, hazel eyes; pale, white skin; medium build; dressed in a simple, well-worn, flower-print sundress]
[Axel (no last name given), 19yrs. 8/28/76: orange/red spiky hair; goatee; dark brown/red eyes; pale, white skin; medium build; dressed in khaki pants and vest with a light blue tee shirt]
[Marius (no last name given), 21yrs. 9/17/76: thick, dark brown/black hair, dark brown eyes, olive skin, tall, dressed in black jeans and a red tee shirt]
[Casey Macgreine, 16yrs. 10/10/76: long, golden auburn/strawberry blonde hair, worn in semi-braid; dark, hazel eyes; pale, golden skin; slender, medium build; dressed in *short* cut-off shorts and a tied off white shirt, sleeves rolled up, midriff showing]
[Galen, baby Catherine, and sister--in-law Michelle]
Galen (golden auburn hair, hazel eyes, olive skin, tall, medium build, dressed in blue jeans and a black tee-shirt) holding an eight month old (laughing grey eyes, drool-glossed rosy lips, frilly pink baby head-band in a dark crop of curls, dressed in a frilly pink dress), propped for the picture. Besides him stood a slender snip of a young woman, Michelle (willowy, golden brown hair, brilliant green eyes, pinkish pale skin, dressed in a simple flower-print dress that did nothing to hide how slender she was). Her shining eyes were turned upon the young man beside her holding the baby. Her young eyes shining with adoration and, perhaps, even young love. Her one arm crossed against her waist, holding her other arm tightly to her side in a shy, timid manner.
********** End of "Oh Baby, Baby" Part Twenty Eight **********
Andrea Readwolf
Please send comments to: andrea_readwolf@hotmail.com