November 4, 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.
The Narratives of Hiroshima Jackson and Fatina Winner continue.
I was more than just a little mad when I found out they ran away like that. That goes without saying. I mean, they were my research, and they just up and left, without even talking to me first. It's not like they had anywhere else to go...
And Katerina was pregnant, too.
It might sound terrible, but I couldn't help but be curious about what effect the serums injected into Katerina might have on the baby she carried.
I never even considered the consequences the baby might have on *her*...
Fatina kept in touch with the ones that left. I don't think she wanted me to know. Frankly, I was too upset at them for leaving. Kennet didn't leave right away, but eventually, he left. Sandara, Marius, and Fatina were the only ones of the original ten who stayed. Really, Fatina's the only one who stayed. Sandara left when word came that the Federation had invaded her home and demolished the place. I never heard from her again, despite her insistence that she would return.
Marius... left too... but not for several more years.
You see, I had the serums, I knew they worked... but I wanted to try something more... adventurous, shall we say...
So in 79, I mixed my DNA with Marius's, administered the serums to the resulting zygotes, and created six new lives. That's *one* thing Winner never did! He never conceived six children at once! Despite his twenty-nine daughters.
It was ambitious, to say the least. Fool-hardy, at the most. With the Federation's lock-down it was near-impossible to find all the resources needed to carry out the six births. Six. One for every gundam, granted of course that the six gundams could be built. If not, then there was always Tallgeese to fall back on.
They were... beautiful... perfect... my six little babies... three boys, three girls. And each was as different in looks as in personality. That always surprised me.
Six children, from the same gene pool, conceived at the same time, born at the same time, raised the same way... and yet so completely different. They were truly marvelous. And that's not just a mother's fancy there.
Not that I was much of a mother figure. I would have made a terrible mother, I'm sure. No, but Marius... Marius... he... doted upon those children... He and Fatina both... It was terrible... but then, I had no experience with children, and they both did. It was obvious.
I found out from Fatina that the others were... experiencing problems.
Quatrina was the first.
Oh, I know. Quatrina Raberba wasn't one of my test subjects, to be sure. No, she came to me for help. She couldn't understand why should couldn't conceive a son. Of course, it would have helped if that son-of-a-bitch she was married to was actually *fertile*...
No, he wasn't. Surprised? Yes, so was she. I have no clue who Quatre's biological father is, but I can guarantee you that Old Winner wasn't it. I don't really care either. That man was a bastard, plain and simple and I never really liked him--and I'm not just saying that because he wouldn't help out more in the financial area of my research.
No, but you see, you're missing what's important. You see, I didn't know it at the time, but Quatrina Raberba was walking around with one of my serums in her bloodstream. Fatina had given it to her without my knowledge. I was just beginning to research the effects of the serum in a mother-offspring study... And in every study, the results came up the same.
The offspring would be fine. In most of the cases, the second generation showed signs of retaining the characteristics of the serum properties introduced to the first generation. In all of the cases, the first generation died. The mothers all died.
I didn't know what to make of it. I didn't know why the mothers were dying. It just didn't make sense. I told Fatina about it, hoping she would contact the others. I might have still been mad at them but I didn't want them to die because of me...
Katerina was already gone. Casey was missing; her last letter to Fatina left no return address; Sandara was missing; and Xia... Xia was already eight months pregnant.
That's when I started given Fatina those pills. They were a mixture of sedatives and birth control--and highly addictive. Yes, it was unethical of me... but... I... I was selfish. I didn't want to lose her, too.
I didn't know what was wrong, but I was determined to find out. That's where Dekim came in. I went to him for funding. Since he was already paying indirectly for the gundams to be built... I managed to convince him to pay for the engineering of the pilots as well...
That's how I met Trowa Barton and his sister Leia. Yes, Dekim used his own children as lab rats.
Well, no, not you, Quatre. Of course Mother wasn't one of the original ten... but she *had* been exposed to the serums. You see, that was my fault.
She'd been getting sick a lot, and, well, I *knew* one of the serums dealt with immunity and resistance to diseases. I... borrowed it... without Hiro's knowledge. At the time, I didn't know anything about the project.
It was before I knew that the serums killed... Just like it killed Katerina... and Casey... and Xia... It killed Mother. But we didn't discover that until after you were born. It was strange... I never did understand why. Hiro tried to tell me, something about a chemical imbalance, a chemical reaction triggered by the baby... I think...
I think I'm the only one left... the only one still alive.
No, but, yes. You are all second generation carriers. Ooh, that makes it sound like a virus or something, doesn't it?
How? What do you mean how? Oh! Why, Trowa is Galen's son, as I've already said, and surely you must have noticed your own resemblance to your mother, Duo. You even act like Casey sometimes. She was the baby, you know. We all doted on about her.
You're not, no. Actually, Trowa's the youngest out of you five. Yes... let me see... I knew this once... one of those trivial facts that you don't think will ever do you any good...
Let's see... It went... Quatre, March 18th; Heero, April 24th; I know Duo was born next, but I don't know when. Sometime late in May--that was the last time I heard from Casey and she kept complaining about how big she was... she never did tell me who the father was, either. I asked her once if it was Axel, since they went off together, you know, but she never said... Wufei was born July 5; and then you, Trowa, November 3rd.
No, dear, you aren't the baby of the group. You're just used to being treated like the baby, because of all us girls.
What was that? Heero and Wufei? Oh, well, didn't Wufei--oh, I guess not.
Xia Lee was Wufei's mother. Surely he must have recognized her name when he read--or didn't he read the files? No, of course he read them. No, I don't know why he didn't tell you.
Heero... Heero's a very special matter indeed. Not that you all aren't special, of course. But you see, you're not just a second generation. But then, you know that, don't you? You read the files; surely you must have guessed, or, at the very least, suspected it.
Six babies... Six babies were created. It was... well, crazy, really. She mixed her own DNA with Marius's. We were the only one's left of the ten, you see. Then she injected the serums into the test tubes. Two doses. I don't know what she was thinking...
But then, I didn't question her either... And nine months later. Voila! Six little babies!
It was laughable, really. You see, Hiro was an only child. She had *no* experience with children, what so ever. She didn't even know how to change a diaper. I wish I had some pictures of those first few weeks after you were born. What a laugh!
No, Marius and I took care of most of it. We must have looked laughable as well, splitting ourselves between six little babies, trying to convince Hiro, she wouldn't break one if she held it. Crazy. Absolutely crazy.
What? They're names? Oh, we had plenty of arguments of that, believe me. Marius took it all in... well, let's just say he let us hammer it out over their names. But it was decided, finally.
Three boys, three girls.
Hiro insisted the first boy be named ‘Heero'. After her cousin, I'm sure. Then there was Trey and Rueben. Brynne, Jade, and Evangeline, were your sisters. I thought it funny at the time when she assigned you each a number designation. But, then, at the time, I still didn't have a great understanding of the Gundams.
00, Heero; 01, Brynne; 02, Jade; 03, Trey; 04, Rueben; and 05, Eva.
They were beautiful babies. Here, here's a picture. One of the few of those first months. You made beautiful newborns; not all red and smushed like most newborns. Very photogenic. Very beautiful.
No, Quatre. I love you, but you were an ugly baby. I'm sorry, I'm sure it would have helped if you didn't scream so much. You were all red and smushed and not happy at all. I think you managed to keep all of L4 awake the night you were born...
What? What happened to the six? Oh, well...
They were beautiful... each so different in looks and temperament. I mean, if I wasn't there when they were conceived and born, I really would doubt they were siblings. Of course, they weren't cursed with the Raberba looks. You do realize, Quatre-dear, that any children you have will have blonde hair and blue eyes just like us. It's a curse. All Raberba's have it.
The six died.
They were only three years old... it was... it was... we were attacked. Rebels. Everything was burned to the ground. We were in the process of moving. We'd just gotten more funding and Hiro found a new lab facility. But...
She was away, visiting someone. She never said who... they died in the fire... all of them... everything... everything was destroyed in the fire...
But I said... yes, I did... you see... only five bodies were found... or, what was left... We... I thought... I didn't think you'd survived either, Heero... but...
I guess whoever attacked us, took you... It would explain a lot. Your name, to begin with... You all had baby bracelets with your names engraved upon them... It would explain how you kept your name after all these years...
Hiro never tried to find out who attacked us that night... she never tried to find out what happened to you... She wouldn't even talk about it. It was as though she didn't even want to acknowledge that you were ever born...
I think she thought that wherever you were it had to be better... She even reported that there were only five babies to begin with, not six... It was like a clean break...
You should have been here when she found out who her father found to pilot Wing. Or, well, maybe it's better that you weren't... it was not pretty...
She knew, of course. She knew right away. Even I didn't know... but she did...
She wasn't sure about the others, but I think she suspected. I did... you all looked too much like your parents for me not to wonder...
I was determined to fix the problem, to correct my mistake...
I thought I had when Leia didn't die after giving birth to Mariemeia... But it wasn't more than a year before she began getting sick... within another year she was dead.
I've spent the last twenty years working on this.
That's why you're so important.
You're a second generation. You're a male. You're pregnant using the artificial womb. The baby you're carrying is a tri-splice, of Heero, Duo, and yourself. She's also a third generation.
They were too wired with caffeine to get to sleep. So instead they just lay there, trapped in their own thoughts. They had returned to the apartment that they had last time they visited the Behenna Satellite, so the bed was big enough to accompany their four stretched out bodies with ease.
"My mom was really pretty, huh?" Duo said suddenly, staring up at the ceiling. He turned on his side and speared his mate with a look. "What'cha thinking, Heero?" he asked.
Heero was quiet for a moment, and then replied, "J was my grandfather." Beside him the braided-man shuddered.
"I'm sorry..." he curled into the other, wrapping his arms around the Japanese man. "I promise it won't make me love you any less."
"Baka," was his answer as he tugged lightly on the braid that magically found its way into his hand.
"Mmm... but you're baka, ne, Hee-chan?" Duo grinned, nuzzling Heero's neck.
"You two aren't really gonna have sex now, are you?" Quatre asked.
"What, Q-man? Not in the mood?" Duo grinned cheekily. "That'll be a first." Quatre didn't answer; Duo just cuddled closer to Heero. "Ne, Quatre, what'cha thinking about?"
"My mother..." the blonde responded softly. "I really did kill her..."
"Nah, the serum your sister told us about did that. Same as my mom and Wufei's."
"I wonder why Wufei didn't say anything..." Quatre thought aloud, leading the other two into their own silent thoughts. Another moment passed in silence, and then Quatre sifted on the bed, turning in to spoon Trowa. "Hey, love, you're quiet. What are *you* thinking about?" he asked, drop-placing tiny kisses on the other man's neck.
Trowa shifted--squirmed almost--before settling back against the blonde man. "About Catherine... and... Galeno Bloom..."
Quatre smiled and squeezed him. "I guess you really do have the circus in your blood, huh?" The silent boy didn't reply.
"So what do we do now?" Duo asked finally, looking over Heero's shoulder to Quatre and Trowa.
"I guess we should go home," Quatre answered. "We need to tell Anne--"
"That the matter has been dealt with," Heero interjected. "That's all she needs to know. There's no threat to the peace. There's no need for the Preventers to know anything more than they already do."
"But Heero--"
"No." Duo's arms wound around his waist. "It's personal, Quatre."
"I agree," Trowa added softly, still not looking at any of them.
"If that's how you feel..." Quatre said slowly.
"It is."
"Then, fine. I'll just tell Anne that the matter's been taken care of, then."
"Thank you," Trowa replied, squeezing the arms that held him.
"Of course," Quatre returned, snuggling closer to his love. "And what about Wufei? What do we tell him when we get back?"
"The truth, of course," Duo replied, grinning.
"What he doesn't already...know of it," Heero added.
"Ne, Heero? You know something we don't?" Duo asked, leaning up over the other man.
"'Know'? No... 'suspect'? You better believe it."
********** End of "Oh Baby, Baby" Part Twenty Nine **********
Andrea Readwolf
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