This is a chapter where my writing starts getting darker than the rest of the story. Or at least that's how I see it as I re~read the story.
This story will not have a 'happy' ending.
I've uploaded the first chapter in my LotR/SM x-over.
Calikocat : I hated braces, I was so happy when they came off.
~*~ SilverRose82 ~*~
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"What in nine halls of Hades is going on?" Serena muttered as she stood at the central computer system. Staring at the screen infront of her she balanced her attention from the information she was gathering to the three year old, daughter of Commander Treize, Mariemeia. While downloading information, the alarms started to sound that there was an attack on the base, the red and blue warning lights above the computer room doors started to flash. Serena finished the download and started to pick Mariemeia up, so they could get onto a shuttle out of the base, but stopped when a familiar, black claded, braid wearing, pilot ran into the room and grinned at her. Serena's eye flashed dangerously, she had read her protocols two months ago and being kidnapped wasn't in them.
"Come on we've got to go." Duo urged as he caught the disk Serena had flung at him in her firery anger, as she sprinted out of the room. Duo wasn't far behind as the two, along with the slumbering Mariemeia, made their way towards where Deathscythe Hell was hidden. Serena watched in horror as the ten base shuttles that had been dispatched were sliced in half by Wing and Altron. Wrapping her arms tighter around Mariemeia she silently wept for the child who had just become another war orphan.
Serena had been watched from the computer room as the Commander was herded onto his shuttle, his smokey eyes searching for the familiar fire engine red hair of his daughter and the silvered blonde hair of herself. Another officer must have told him that the two were more than likely on another shuttle for he relented his struggle and walked into the shuttle only to have it ready to take off within seconds. Seconds after the shuttle had departed from the pad he met his sudden death.
"Let's head back." Heero commanded as they turned back toward Cinq Kingdom. While Duo was hollering about their win and getting yelled at by Wufei with Quatre trying to calm the two of them down so they didn't have a fight break out between the two while in their Gundams. Serena was thinking of plans to get a new room, denounce her role as the pilot to Shadow, Chaos and Destruction and take to raising Mariemeia as her own child. She had been thinking of these ever since she had first appeared in the Omega base. She had originally thought of just vanishing from the people that knew her and what she did, but after a few weeks with Mariemeia she had changed her mind about that.
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"Miss Relena?" Serena asked as she was shown into Relena's office, Mariemeia asleep in her arms. Relena looked up from some papers that she had been reading to greet the female pilot.
"Serena, come in." Relena smiled as she studied the blonde's normally bright blue eyes which carry a stormy, dead tone to them.
"Relena, I came here to see if there are any dorm rooms available." Serena told the girl before her as she glanced around the room. Relena looked up, shocked, but slowly nodded when she looked from the adorable little red head in Serena's arms to the blank face of a dead soul.
"We do, but if you and your…."
"My daughter." Serena told the princess there was a clear note of warning in Serena's icy tones.
"Well, as I was saying. If you would like, you can have a room in my mansion. I think it would benefit the both of you better. The only dorms we have openings in are where the party group is and I don't think putting a pilot there would be a good idea especially with a little girl."
"Understood." Serena nodded as Relena started to call for some help.
"You're in room 345, right?" Relena asked as she relayed information to the movers.
"Yes."
"Alright, I'll go help you pack. They're going to be up there within half an hour." Relena told her as she hung up. Standing, she walked over to where Serena was standing and glanced at the child that had her tiny fist curled around Serena's tank top strap. On Serena's neck hung a silver celtic pentacle, ingraved in the circle were cresent moons, along with two star one in the left hand bottom corner and the other in the right, the rest were starbursts, a honey amber stone was set in the center. Serena wasn't a woman to wear jewelry so the necklace was more than likely something of importance.
"They killed her father you know? He gave me this necklace a few days before they attacked the base. Said that I was good luck, Mariemeia didn't take well to anyone but her father." Serena told the shorter girl as they walked out of the office building and towards the dorms. Relena looked up shocked she knew what Serena was talking about, the pilots had asked for a leave of absences that day. Though Lady Une was now incharge of OZ, saying that Commander Treize had been killed in the Gundam attack.
"She's the daughter of….."
"Yes. He was. You know what Relena? Treize Khushrenada was everything that mankind has lost. Chivary died that day. He was a gentlemen, and for his death, I give up my title." Serena told the now shocked Cinq Kingdom Princess.
"But he…… they were….. are trying to rule the Earthsphere and the colonies with an iron fist."
"He fought for what he believed in and I fought for what I believed in. There is one thing that both Commander Treize and I believe in, Mariemeia." Serena told the princess as she smiled down at the little girl in her arms. Relena could only smile at the sincerity in Serena's voice. "And for him I take her as my daughter. It was as he wished, for a Gundam pilot to take care of his child in his death. Only the best."
"He knew and didn't try to kill you?!"
"His honor is great, Relena. His love for Mariemeia stronger." Serena told her as she kicked open the dorm hall door.
"Are you going to tell the pilots?"
"No, they'd kill her. She may be a child but their orders were to kill all in that base. She's not dead only because Yuy, Chang and Barton haven't seen her as of yet."
"Well then, as long as she's in the Cinq Kingdom she will have the protection of the Cinq Kingdom. Any who try, will be banished from the kingdom." Relena anounced as they climbed onto the elevator that would take them to the fourth floor.
"I thank you Relena. For I fear for her." Serena told the woman beside her as the elevator doors opened on the fourth floor. Serena pulled the key out of her pocket as she shifted Mariemeia around in her arms. Pushing the door open she placed Mariemeia on her bed before fishing out her suitcases. While Relena worked on folding her clothes up Serena went around gathering her weapons, CDs, and other things that belonged to her. Throwing a few of Duo's on his bed as she went. Glancing at the gold cross on the desk beside her laptop she shook her head before grabbing the laptop and packing it away. True to their words the men that were going to carry her things over to Relena's mansion had come.
Relena turned to look at the blonde pilot that would give everything up for what she believed in even if it meant facing death in the face. She had to admire the woman before her, Serena had her faults, being too motherly was the main one. But the three year old, much like Rini who's father was the only reason she was to be killed, Mariemeia had the chance to become something better.
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It had been a week, Serena had become used to the fact that people would now be waiting on her weither she liked it or not. The pilot seemed more at ease now that she was out of an element that left her in close range with a man. Serena had confided in Relena about her training and Relena knew she could never judge Serena as anything but strong. Strong to live though something ten times worse than hell, strong to not give up and die, strong to be able to talk about it, and strong to take what ever was dealt her way when she protected Ben or defied her doctors.
Serena, who had not been in school for the week, had heard from Relena that the others were worried. The girls thought that she was on another mission and Duo was worried sick. But defiance was strong within Serena's stormy eyes, she had been betrayed in the worst way. The loss of the man that she had come to admire and love. She was now raising his child as the ways of his last requests, and she'd be damned if she allowed anything to happen to the small child that she had considered her daughter. From the first time she had ever laid eyes on the adorable little girl she hadn't been able to not care for her. Some how caring for Mariemeia was even more natural than caring for Rini had been.