PART THREE:
Disclaimers: Since this story is set about three hundred years after the Gundam characters existed, there isn't much here I don't own. Except maybe any characters I use in flashbacks or the actual names of the characters, which pop up a few times. Some OOC, but no yaoi.
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Via was crouched over the final disk yet again. Nothing, not even her uncle's threats, moved her, and she knew she had a ton of homework to do. Studying the scene before her intently, Via frowned at the image of Heero Yuy. From what she had seen before, he was acting extremely out of character. But, at closer examination, she saw that Chance shared a definite resemblance with the deceased pilot. Especially with the eyes. And the smile. Through the bitterness of Heero's smile, Via could see the angelic quality Chance had in his. Too bad Heero hadn't smiled more often.
There was a knock at the front door, and Via crossed the room towards it. Pulling open the heavy door, she was surprised to see Chance standing on the other side. "Chance! What are you doing here? How did you find this place?"
Chance smiled. "I asked that Tyler guy where you lived. He seemed rather reluctant to tell me."
Via smiled back. "Probably with good reason. Tyler is obsessive. So, why are you here?"
Chance stopped smiling. "I need to talk with you."
"Alright." From inside, Via could hear her uncle getting up. "But not here. You don't want to cross my uncle. He doesn't like many people."
"I'll remember that." He led her outside. "Are you really the descendant of Duo Maxwell?"
"So far as I know. Are you really the descendant of Heero Yuy?" she asked, studying his face for any signs of surprise. It wasn't a long wait.
"How... how do you know about that?" he stared at her, baffled.
"I still have Duo's personal journals. The last disk mentions a girl named Kit Grien and her son by Heero Yuy. I assumed you were a relative. Besides, you look like him."
"My great-grandfather was Heero's son. They named him Oden Grien, after his father." He smiled at Via's confused look. "Oden Lowe was Heero's real name."
"As Heero put it, his legacy lives on," Via said, smiling. She decided not to tell him that he hadn't appeared happy about it. Chance looked at her with concern in his eyes.
"So you know, then? It's true about the disks? They tell about their death?"
"So the disks say. Then it was true? Not just a joke?"
He looked ready to say something else but stopped himself. "It's true. All of it. It was Kit Grien who found the pit, actually. Only a few days after Heero died of suffocation and starvation, and the rats had only begun their feasting. She found the disks and looked through a few, including the last one that had her give the disks to Hilde Maxwell."
"My great great grandmother. So that's how we got the disks back. I'd wondered about it." Via thought this over. "Do you know about the writing on the box?"
"Writing? Can't say that I do. My great-grandfather died just after I was born, and he was the only living member of my family who ever saw the box or the disks it contained."
"How old was he, when the pilots died? Your great-grandfather?"
"About five. He wouldn't have remembered the box even if he had lived to tell me about it."
Via decided to ask a question that had been bothering her for a little while now. "Why did you want to know about the disks?"
"You wouldn't believe me if I told you, Via," Chance replied, shifting his eyes downward.
"I'll take your word for that." She thought a moment. "You look a lot like Heero did, you know. Especially when he smiled. He has that same smile you do."
"Really? The only pictures I've seen of him make him look like he's about to face death itself."
"He usually was. Come on, I'll show you," she lead him inside, quietly so as not to alert her uncle. "Look at this," she whispered, turning on one of the disks that featured Heero smiling.
It was the fifth disk in the new set she had found, and it showed him and the others at a park. Trowa and Quatre were playing a duet in the background and Wufei was sitting in a tree, but Duo and Heero could be seen very clearly. Heero was leaning against a tree, sleeping, and a smile identical to Chance's angelic one played upon his lips. Duo sat at his feet, laughing with a little girl who was walking by. The whole point of showing this, said Duo, was to prove that things were different after the war. Chance looked at it, mystified and pleased.
"Keep watching," Via said as gunfire broke out. The little girl Duo had been talking to ran, and Heero sat up, frowning again. A soldier from the old OZ army ran out, trying to protect his ideals. Heero shot back, and his shot hit its mark. The soldier dropped to the ground, blood spurting from his head. Heero saw this, and, apparently to both the pilot's and Chance's surprise, began to cry. Not heart-wrenching sobs, but silent tears that ran down his face in unfamiliar patterns. Duo, concerned for his friend, quickly turned off the player.
Chance looked up at Via. In a quiet voice, he began to speak. "So that was my great great grandfather. That was Heero Yuy. The real Heero Yuy."
"So to speak. In most cases, according to these disks, he was a lot like the books say. Like a block of ice, immune to all emotion. He changed a little bit after the war and began to regret taking as many lives as he did."
"The real Heero Yuy," he repeated sullenly, staring at the disk player. Chance was silent for a little while. Via was concerned that she had offended him but his next words dispelled that fear. "Thank you. For showing me."
"I was glad to." She smiled. "You're the first person I've shown the disks to. It's a relief to be able to share stuff like this."
"Why don't you share them with your uncle? Hasn't he seen the disks?"
"He doesn't even know they exist. He's not a Maxwell. The disks are mine. They were left to me by my parents, before they died." Via stared at her feet, trying not to let Chance see the tears in her eyes. "He would destroy them if he knew."
Chance put a finger under her chin and lifted her face up to where he could see it. "You've lived a painful life. I think I knew that before. It's in your face, in your eyes."
"Funny. No one else notices."
Chance smiled. "Maybe no one else understands."
Via returned the smile weakly, searching his face. "Do you understand?"
"I think I do. A little." He stood up. "I had better go. I'll see you tomorrow?"
"Sure. I'll meet you outside the math room, okay?"
"Right. See you then," he said, walking out the door and leaving Via alone in the house, with her uncle.
--to be continued--