Half A Chance – At Innocence

Minako: No one reviewed…

All Else: Nani?

Minako: Three chapters, two weeks, and nobody reviewed… this is a record for me… usually with that amount of time, or with that amount of chapters, I get at least one review. But… no one reviewed.

Ken: Change the summary.

Minako: Will do. Anyhow, will someone please review me? If someone did between now and when I last updated, thank you! If not, please do! I need your feedback, please!
Ken: She's not joking. Kyuka and Kichi keep trying to leave

Quatre: I have a very serious question for you. I read some of your previous works, and also what you originally planned for some other things that never finished, and I'm a little worried about my health…

Minako: *Irks* It's okay… when you mean that, you refer to main character death, right?

Quatre: Um… yeah, that's right!

Minako: Have a sift through the plans, Cat! You don't die! Just come very close two or three times every story! I especially like how you beat the bad dude at the end… and then Tro's reaction… and the bad dude, what he said about you… I like my end!

Quatre: *Goes through plans* Um… I like your plans, actually!

Trowa: *Has a look through* … I like these plans… and what's with your humor complex?

Minako: Oh right… Gundam Pilots built Wing Zero Custom… with the help of telepathy and past experience!

Quatre: …Meanie!

Trowa: …Meanie

Minako: C'mon, you guys won!!!

Disclaimer: DON'T OWN ANYTHING BUT THE PLOT THE CONCEPT AND LOSTER CLAY!

Dedication: Hey, this one is for Leita my best friend!

The Dark Ocean. The place in the Digital World, or rather, Digital Plane, where things can go nothing short of wrong. The place people don't want to remember and don't want to go back to. And the place they were standing at that moment.

But it didn't make any sense. In any other situation, only one or two people would come here, but here they all were, including Gennai. There must be something wrong, of course, that's the only option… right?

The Dark Ocean is a place of anything negative, where the air is oppressive simply because you believe it to be so. At this moment the whispers that told them of another way seeped around, digging at insecurities like fine mist-rain. If you stand out in it for only a little while it seems nothing but a slight layer of moisture on your clothes. But too long and that innocent-seeming mist has clung to you tightly and you feel deeply cold. This is what the ocean does to you. A little while is fine, but over-exposure makes people react in a different way.

Of course, in some situations, there are people who pay intent attention to every detail that crops up. And there are people who are beyond that, for one reason or another, and won't notice what's truly happening. While some pondered as to what phenomena this was, others as sensible questions to the one who may be able to answer.

"Gennai, why have all of us come to the Dark Ocean?"

The look on Gennai's face almost screamed 'I'm PRETTY sure…' and so he spoke. "The Dark Ocean in this plane is like a bank, maybe, or maybe something else. Whatever it is, it is a place that stores negative emotions. The Digital Plane can only take so much, you see, and if anyone has an intense amount of a negative feeling they would be sent here. As for why all of us are here, I can't only guess…"

Ken seemed also to have something on his mind. "This place has only ever called certain people in certain situations to it, and if anyone is so lucky to be around at the wrong time they may or may not be brought along. But what I don't understand is why we can all hear the same thing… if you come here, and they were calling for you, all sorts of inner demons come out, so to speak, and have their say. But it is all voices in your head, you can't hear what is getting to other people, only yourself…"

Hiiro, Izzy, and Taichi seemed to have begun their dispute after noting that the surroundings had changed. Some people never change. Taichi and Izzy were sticking by the fact they had the right to ask questions, and Hiiro stuck by the fact they didn't. All in all, something they weren't likely to agree to disagree about. Sora, being resident peacemaker, decided the conversation had gone far enough.

"Listen to the three of you! If you want to talk about something could you at least be thoughtful to the rest of us who are trying to concentrate the situation? And you shouldn't even be arguing when you can negotiate!"

"Well who do you think is right Sora?" Taichi asked, not keeping the odd tone he used in leader-mode out of his voice.

"Taichi… you are all right, for different reasons."

"We can't all be right Sora, either one of us is or one of us isn't!"

"Quiet! Now Taichi, Koushiro, you do have a point. The current situation is not one where we can't tell anyone anything. You should be able to ask questions. But, Hiiro, you are right as well. There are certain limits to things people might want to talk about and you two should respect that. Koushiro, I think you should have taken no for an answer before…"

Izzy kept his voice low, so only the four of them could hear now. Not that anyone else was interested in the conversation really. "Sora, you know me too well, and you know sometimes I can have a lack of tack. Things did get a bit out of hand and I'm mainly to blame, I shouldn't of raised my voice and drawn attention to the subject when there are subtler ways to say things. But I still maintain that I have every right to ask the both of you questions about what's happening and what you are doing in your own homeland."

"Izzy… if you had paid more attention you would have noticed that you got a lot of answers, and you were being tactless. But Hiiro, you should have been more willing to answer questions and state what you weren't comfortable about talking about, and you should be more careful with your gun and your tone. Now, Hiiro, is there anything in your defense you'd like to say?" Sora knew for sure he would have something to say, something that might even be important. She had a way of getting people to open up, even if only a little. She had realized that Hiiro was probably going to be as difficult as opening an oyster shell if you've never done it before (trust me, it's real hard) But, she was not going to give up on him. Not yet, anyway. And, sure as rain, Hiiro did have something important to say.

"If there is any questions you should ask me, and only me. This situation is hard enough as it is for any of us, but at the moment Quatre is in an extremely fragile state and should be left alone, do you understand?"

Izzy still persevered. "What happened? I can't help but get the feeling you're trying to cover something up, and I just want to know what it is and I'll back off. Will you answer my questions?"

There was an extremely long moment of silence, and then Hiiro gave a brief nod of approval. "There is still some things I cannot or will not answer, clear?"

"Perfectly. First off, what exactly is OZ?"

"OZ is an organization that is trying to control everything on Earth and the Colonies. There was a war going on between Earth and the Colonies, in which five of us were sent to Earth to destroy OZ bases and such. But, soon OZ took over the Alliance, who were oppressing the Colonies, which led to the war in the first place, and started to side with the colonies. And so it seems that we are the bad guys at the moment, when really and truly all this is some sister scheme from Romafeller, the organization behind OZ."

Izzy blinked a little, not expecting so much information. He didn't need to ask what Colonies were, he could gather that much (as can the rest of us) And so he continued on the lines of questioning that seemed fairly safe, until he came to the ones he had really been leading up to. "What exactly is the situation that you keep referring to? Does it have something to do with the system?"

With a small sigh that seemed to speak more words than anything else he'd mentioned, even though at some points he had gone into good detail. It seemed that this was a bad answer. Then Izzy traced in his mind the conversations lines before they had ended up at the Dark Ocean, and some of the strange things Quatre had mentioned. All he had to do was ask a couple of questions, and he, being the almighty Koushiro, would piece together the rest and ask little questions to fill in the gap. "Hiiro… what exactly is ZERO?"

"ZERO is the ultimate Gundam. The Doctors made the blueprints a long time ago and based the other Gundams designs on it. However, as part of the MS was the ZERO system, which you do know a little about. It wouldn't seem like much to anyone, just an extra piece of programming for a completely different kind of MS."

(AN: I actually didn't know for a long time that Q built ZERO… I figured he stole it or the doctors just gave it to him, but I realize now that would have been too simple, and Q wouldn't be able to blame himself nearly as much)

"And Quatre built this machine?"

"He didn't have his Gundam at the time, and built the ZERO instead, from what I can gather. But he didn't know what the system would do, and was unprepared for all the information. The system, which seems to be uncontrollable, makes you see everyone as an enemy. So, when the colonies tried to shoot the MS, Quatre destroyed them."

"All of them?" From what Izzy could gather there were thousands of colonies.

"No, about three I think. Myself and another pilot, Trowa, were sent to stop Quatre by OZ."

"The enemy?" Taichi cut in.

"Trowa was working undercover, and I was forced to pilot, as they were using this as an opportunity to test out new MS they had created."

"But this ZERO was supposed to be the ultimate… so how are you still alive?"

Hiiro's eyes seemed to darken considerably, as if remembering something tragic. Something that had managed to crack through the heavy shields of the stoic boy. Now Sora was listening.

"Well, we fought. I don't understand, even now when we have talked about it, why Quatre only went for me and ignored Trowa. But, at the one moment I probably should have died, Trowa was there and took the shot instead. He said some tings, and somehow managed to snap him out of the system."

"And now he's dead?"

"No, just waiting for the right time, somewhere."

TO BE CONTINUED

Note: Hiiro is nice! If you haven't noticed I've been putting these discrete things that tell you that Hiiro is worried. But as for why… like why he's sticking up for Q, and why he's making everyone leave him alone… is something only I know. However, I think Quatre has a habit of bringing out what's best in people. After all, Trowa who's most famous line is '…' spoke for 90 seconds when he was about to get blown up! And because Quatre is very different from everyone else they get all brig-brotherly… but those are my theories. Sorry for the short chapter. It's about 1:15am when I finish this, and I started about 10pm the day before… because I don't get to go on the net 'cept at weekends, I'll have more time to write a longer chapter next time.

Next time, we've got some more of Minako's theories on people, and also, the effect of the Dark Ocean mixed with residual ZERO waves!