Disclaimer: Don't own it, just love it.
Kin
A.C. 197
One monitor measured the heart rate. Another measured the breathing rate. One on the left measured the brain waves. A monitor in the centre had a scan of an outline of a body. The woman with medium sky blue hair and royal blue eyes, operated the monitors and had a confused look on her face. Behind her was a tall, platinum blonde man who was looking through a 3' thick glass window that looked into a large laboratory room. The man was Milliardo Peacecraft, formerly known as Zechs Merquise.
In the center of the room was a large cylinder shaped tank filled with warm liquid. In the tank was a young teen girl. She had an oxygen mask over her nose and mouth. On her wrists and ankles were metal braces that had thick wires attached, which connected to the monitors that scanned her system. The girl was only wearing black, tight spandex tank top and short shorts. The tank had air vents on the bottom that pumped air into the tank making the girl's body and hair float.
"Are her stats regular as usual?" asked Milliardo. Some typing was heard by the woman.
"Yes," she replied. Milliardo nodded.
"Good," he said. The woman looked up at him.
"But what about her flaws?" she asked, "For some reason, she doesn't seem to be the advanced version of Pilot 01 that Prof. R intended her to become."
"But can't she control the Zero system better?" Milliardo asked. The woman sighed.
"Yes. That is the only thing that she is able to do that is more advanced than Pilot 01. But her levels in combat, hacking, and general studies are the same as 01. But her speed, reflexes, and flexibility seem to be slightly higher," she stated.
"Alright. Let's have her in the simulator for the new Zero X system," Milliardo suggested, "I still need to know what her limits are with it." He then walked out of the room.
The woman sighed. She typed a code into the computer. The air vents were turned off and the tank began to slowly empty the liquid. Another code was typed in to release the braces off the young girl. The woman then typed one last code that made the glass of the tank to lower into the base. Before going into the lab herself, the woman, known as Prof. S, pushed a button on a control panel next to a microphone.
"Ara, time for the Zero X system simulator," Prof. S said into the microphone. She then pushed another button to open a door to the room and walked in.
********************
The sun shone brightly on the beach. Relena Peacecraft sat under a large umbrella facing the ocean. She wore a powder blue tank top, a long khakis skirt, and a pair of sunglasses with her hair in a simple ponytail. Lena, as she now referred to be called thinking Relena was a childish name, looked up from the book she was reading. Someone had announced her name. 'The voice sounds familiar,' Lena thought. That someone was Dorothy Catalonia. When Lena saw her, she was shocked.
"Dorothy! What are you doing here? It's great to see you," Lena said aloud. She was about to give Dorothy a hug, but stopped herself. She remembered Dorothy as a very cold person. Much like a certain Gundam pilot. Dorothy just smiled.
"Forget the past. Sure," said Dorothy. She gave Lena a hug. She hugged back. Lena was a bit surprised that Dorothy would show this much emotion. After the hug broke, Dorothy asked Lena to take a walk with her. When Lena grabbed her shoes, she followed Dorothy toward the sidewalk and began walking.
"So Dorothy, how have you been?" Lena asked.
"Very well thank you," Dorothy replied, "I have gotten my life back on track as well as obtaining a very interesting job." Lena raised a brow.
"And what job is that?" she asked. Dorothy smirked.
"You'll know when the time comes," she said. Lena had a confused look on her face. She would have asked more questions but let it go. "What about you?" Dorothy asked, "It took me awhile to find you. Why on earth would you not live in your own mansion?"
"I found the mansion a bit suffocating," Lena answered, "I wanted to live in an apartment on my own." Dorothy nodded.
"Well, since we are headed in the direction of your old mansion, why don't we go visit your brother?" she suggested.
"Alright," Lena answered. Both of the young women continued walking and updated each other on their lives. Lena noticed that Dorothy was dressed differently. She didn't wear the old school uniform type clothing. Dorothy was wearing a light grey halter top with a jean jacket over it, a chocolate brown mini skirt, and matching ankle boots. Her hair was half up in a bun with the rest free to flow. Lena had never seen Dorothy wear such clothing, but admitted she looked great. Lena commented on Dorothy's sense in clothes. Dorothy did the same. At age 17, they no longer wore school uniforms. When the girls crossed an intersection, they passed by a group of guys around their age. They gave them approving looks, whistled, and catcalled at them. Lena didn't do anything. But Dorothy did.
"Go find some other chicks you impotent bastards!" she yelled. She continued walking with Lena's eyes open wide. They kept walking ignoring the much louder, illicit comments from the group of guys. After 20 minutes of walking, they reached the estate. It was far from the city, the outskirts.
"Here we are," Dorothy announced. Both looked up at the 4-story mansion and walked up the stairs. Lena knocked on the door and waited. The door opened and revealed an old man. He had a shocked expression on his face.
"Hello Pagan," Lena greeted. Pagan gave her a bear hug.
"Miss Lena! It is great to see you!" he yelled, "Master Milliardo! Your sister is here!" By this time, Lena was now on her feet again. Milliardo walked into the front foyer followed by a woman.
"Lena! Glad you came today," he said as he hugged his sister. Before Lena could say anything, she noticed who the woman was. It was Noin.
"I missed you too Milliardo," she said. He put her down. Lena gave Noin a hug as well. After 2 minutes, the group had settled down and sat in the living room. After some talking and receiving the news of Milliardo and Noin being engaged, Milliardo decided to ask his sister his long waiting question.
"Lena, how do you like living on your own?" he asked.
"It's fine. I've only been living in my own apartment for only 7 months," Lena replied. Milliardo nodded. "Why?" she asked getting suspicious. Milliardo sighed.
"You may be in danger, again," he said. Lena shrugged her shoulders.
"Who is it this time?" asked she. Everyone looked at each other except Lena.
"We are not exactly sure. But we do know they have targeted you to get to me and someone else," Milliardo answered.
"And who is this "someone else"?, Lena said confused. Milliardo hesitated.
"Well, that will be a complicated thing to answer," he said.
"Try me," Lena stated. Milliardo nodded his head and motioned her to follow him and everyone else. He led Lena to a locked room that seemed like a storage closet.
"Ready?" he asked. Lena laughed.
"Ready for anything, even though this feels weird," she replied smiling. Milliardo turned the doorknob 360 degrees twice and a keypad appeared out of a hidden compartment in the wall. He punched in a 5 number code and the door slid open. Lena was not expecting this. As the group walked in, she found out it was an elevator. Dorothy pushed a button and the elevator moved downward. 'I'm guessing this has something to do with Dorothy's interesting job,' Lena thought to herself. After the elevator came to a stop, the door slid open and revealed an underground looking base.
"What's this doing here?" Lena asked her brother.
"This is an underground facility 30 stories from the surface," he answered, "Just before you left, this was built and has been operating since." He then led the group down the hallway and turn right and left quite a few times until they reached another elevator. It was made of bulletproof glass and had gundanium metal lining. They had gone down 2 more floors. After getting out, the only thing in front of them were large gundanium double doors. Noin typed in a code of a keypad that was attached to the wall and the doors slid apart and revealed a large room with chairs. The group walked in and stood in front of a thick, large window, which overlooked an arena, the size of 2 football fields 5 stories below. In the arena was a fiery haired girl dressed in athletic clothing doing gymnastics.
"What is this?" Lena asked amazed.
"I'll explain later," Milliardo said, "First, I need you to meet a few people." They turned left and descended down a wide staircase to the arena. Once inside, a woman greeted them.
"Milliardo, what brings you here?" she asked. All Milliardo did was nod at his sister. The woman looked her over and smiled. Lena politely smiled back. She was observing the unique colour of the woman's hair and eye colour.
"Does she know?" the woman asked. Milliardo said no. "Then introduce us."
"Lena? This is Prof. S." The woman called out to the girl with fiery hair, calling her Pilot 01X. The girl ran up to the group. "And this is Pilot 01X." Lena shook hands with both females. She was astounded by the young girl's features. Along with the hair, she had emerald eyes and had the body of a model and was 5' 9" in height.
"Get straight to the point Milliardo," the girl said, "My name is Ara Peacecraft."
"I am Lana Peacecraft," said the other woman. Lena gasped.
"We are your cousins," Ara said. Lena's eyes opened as far as they could go and practically stopped breathing. Ara chuckled a little. "I suggest we go back upstairs and do some explaining," she suggested.
After 5 minutes, Lena, Milliardo, Noin, Dorothy, Pagan, Lana, and Ara were in the living room. The first thing Lena asked was "How?" Milliardo sighed and explained how everything came to be up until now.
"They are the children of our father's sister. We aren't the only ones that survived the attack 14 years ago," he said. Milliardo informed the history of their survival and what happened to them during the past 14 years. He then briefly told his sister of how Pagan had kept in touch with the cousins and the building of the underground facility. Milliardo explained how he and a professor invented a new system and Gundam as well as rebuilding the gundams of the 5 pilots. After much talking, Lena had only one important question to ask. She looked over at Ara.
"Where were you during both wars in the 2 previous years?" she asked, "Were you in it at all?" Ara looked out the window to her left. She then hesitated.
"Yes, I was," she answered, "But I was only doing small missions to make the Gundam pilots' missions easier and less of a hassle. I did them in secret because I was told to." She looked back to Lena. Lena looked at her hands.
"I need some rest," she said, "I need to process all of this. Pagan, please drive me home." Milliardo held up his hand.
"No, you have to move back in here for your own good," he commanded. Lena just looked at him. But she was too tired and confused to argue. She headed up the large, carpeted staircase to where her old room was. Lena locked the door behind her and walked into the bathroom to wash her face. She then headed over to her queen size bed and collapsed on it and fell asleep.
The next morning, Lena woke up noticing there was someone sitting on the end of her bed. Lena slowly sat up, yawned, and stretched. She looked at whoever was sitting. It was Dorothy. Dorothy looked at Lena and smiled.
"Good morning Lena," she greeted, "I hope you slept well after yesterday." Lena just sighed. Dorothy raised a brow. "Whatever is the matter?" she asked.
"I have no clear memory of my, cousins," Lena replied, "I guess I was too young." Dorothy lightly giggled.
"The memories will come all in due time," Dorothy assured, "In the meantime, get to know them." Lena smiled and nodded. "Get ready for breakfast Lena. We have quite a day ahead of us," told Dorothy. She stood up and left the room. Lena crawled out of bed and walked towards the bathroom to wash up and shower. After 25 minutes, she headed downstairs as she followed the smells of eggs, bacon, and pancakes.
"I hope she's OK today," Milliardo said aloud. Noin rubbed his shoulders.
"Don't worry Zechs, she'll be fine after more explanations," Noin assured. She was the only person that was allowed to call him Zechs still. Dorothy walked in at sat down diagonally from Milliardo. She greeted them good morning and read the newspaper beside her. Ara ran into the kitchen through the back door and washed her hands in the sink. She breathed in the scent of breakfast.
"Pagan, Lana, the food smells good and I'll bet it's as good as it smells," Ara commented. Lana just smiled and elbowed her in the back as she walked to the table and set down a platter of fruit. Ara sat on Milliardo's right.
"Hey Millie," she chirped. Milliardo just grunted. He was always annoyed when she called him that.
Plates and utensils were set on the table as Lena walked in. everyone greeted her and she sat in front of her brother. Everyone dug into the food. Lena watched Ara as she piled her plate with everything in sight. 'How much can this girl eat?' she asked herself. She ate with everyone else until Noin volunteered to do the dishes and everyone left the kitchen.
"Ara, let's go to the activity room," Lana suggested, "Dorothy, would you like to practice with Ara?" Dorothy looked at Ara and both smirked.
"Of course," Dorothy replied. She and Ara headed upstairs to change into more comfortable clothes.
In the activity room, Ara and Dorothy were standing on a large black mat with fencing swords. They didn't wear the traditional fencing outfits. Lana stood away from the mat as Milliardo and Lena sat on a nearby bench. Ara and Dorothy stood 25 feet apart.
"Ready," Lana began. The 2 girls took their stance. "Begin!" Lana said aloud. The girls began circling the mat, their eyes focused on each other.
"Milliardo," Lena said getting her brother's attention, "Why is she called Pilot 01X?"
"Because she was the intended Perfect Soldier to have trained under the advanced Zero system," he replied. Lena was still. The words 'Perfect Soldier' brought memories of a Perfect Soldier she once knew. Lena shrugged the thought off and asked another question.
"What advanced Zero system?" she asked, "Why didn't the original Gundam pilots have it in their Gundams? Why wasn't she in part of the wars along with the others? Don't you think she would have been a great help?" Milliardo laughed at his sister.
"So many questions," Milliardo chuckled, "I'm surprised you haven't asked why she IS Pilot 01X." He watched the girls fight. It was very intense. Lena noticed this for the first time. She was amazed at how the girls were going at it. The duel wasn't only sword contact. Dorothy was jumping around and Ara was doing gymnastic flips and other manoeuvres. Both used other parts of their bodies in the duel as well. Lena was surprised to see that Ara wasn't showing any signs of exhaustion at all.
Reverting back to reality, Milliardo answered his sister's many questions. He explained that Ara was a GEI (genetically engineered individual) child after almost dying at birth and mentioned that right after the attack on the Cinq Kingdom, she was trained to be the Perfect Soldier. Milliardo also mentioned that Lana was also a GEI, but was taught to be a professor.
"The other Gundam pilots didn't have the Zero X system because Prof. R had invented the system and kept it a secret," Milliardo said, "Ara wasn't greatly part of the war because Prof. R was quite protective. Lana and Ara are like daughters to her." Lena listened with a sad expression on her face. "Ara had also gone mad from the middle of the war," he continued, "I don't really know the details. But to answer your last question, yes. She would have been a great help." Milliardo then stood up and continued watching the duel. Lena pondered on everything she was told. She too continued to watch the duel.
Dorothy was beginning to show signs of exhaustion and frustration. Ara on the other hand looked fairly calm. Dorothy was obviously running out of energy and had to stop sometime. The girls had been duelling for a long time and were still fighting. Noin even joined the group.
Finally, Dorothy was too tired to react quickly and was gently knocked down by Ara. She just laid on the mat until Ara extended her arm to help her up.
"Great match Dorothy," she complimented, "You are the only one who gives a good fight." Dorothy laughed and congratulated Ara. Both walked over to the observers. After Lana dismissed them, the girls headed to their rooms to shower and refresh themselves. They returned downstairs. Dorothy was wearing black short shorts, a teal Baby-T, her favourite jean jacket which she wore yesterday, and white runners. Ara wore a dark denim mini skirt with slits on both sides, a white tank top with straps that tied at the top, and black, stiletto sandals that had straps tied up under her knee.
"Lena. We'll stop by your apartment to pack your things," said Dorothy, "You should change as well. We are going to go shopping." Before Lena could protest, Dorothy pushed her out the door with Ara and Pagan following behind. Pagan was the driver of the black limo with the 3 girls sitting in the back. Ara turned on some music, and Dorothy cranked it up. Pagan stopped the vehicle in front of Lena's apartment. The girls entered the apartment and began packing. As Ara, Dorothy, and Pagan carried suitcases and boxes, Lena notified the landlord of her leave. They were on their way back to the mansion when Dorothy asked Pagan to drop them off at the mall. When he did, Ara told him they would call to get a ride back. As the girls entered the mall, a large wave of cool air from the AC of the mall greeted them.
"Why are we here?" Lena asked.
"We are here to shop for evening dresses," Dorothy replied, "Your brother is throwing a 3 nights in a row party."
"WHAT!?" exclaimed Lena, "My brother doesn't do things like that." Ara laughed.
"He does now," she stated, "It's for the engagement. It was all Noin's idea." Lena lightly smiled at her cousin. She still wasn't used to the fact she had blood relatives who survived along with her from the incident years ago. Ara understood Lena's distant behaviour. The girls went to every women's store in search of dresses. After 4 hours of window shopping, they finally found what was suitable for 3 engagement parties. Ara phoned Pagan on her cell phone and asked him to pick them up. When they returned home, the girls went straight to their rooms and changed for the first party. It was 15 minutes before the guests would arrive.
Everyone inspected each other. Milliardo was wearing a simple white collared shirt, navy blue pants, and matching tie. Noin wore a purple no-sleeve and a long black skirt. Lana wore a dark blue pants suit. Ara was wearing a simple thin strapped, black dress which ended at her knees with slits on both sides, and black strapped heels. Dorothy wore a similar dress to Ara's, except it was dark green and had no slits. She also wore colour matching heels. Lena was wearing a light blue, strapless dress that ended just under her knees. Her shoes were the same colour and were slip-ons, which meant the shoes had only one wide band at the front. All of the girls had the hair down naturally.
After much fussing, the doors were opened to the guests arriving.
"Remember everyone," Milliardo began, "For 3 nights, we are to have fun."
Corny ending, I know. R&R! No flames.