PART FIVE:
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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Back at Via's home, the three Gundam descendants were gathered around the disk player, the unusual events from earlier still safely tucked away in their minds, watching closely as Duo began to blabber on and on about ceilings. He seemed to believe that ceilings could tell a lot about a person, although every single ceiling in the home he and the other Gundam pilots were sharing at the time was exactly the same, despite who was rooming where.
Khans and Chance gave Via odd looks.
"What?"
"He's your descendant, remember," Chance said with a small smile and a chuckle. Via cursed mildly and stuck out her tongue at the boy who looked like Heero Yuy. Coincidentally, Duo did the same thing on screen to the boy who actually was Heero Yuy, who was busily hacking into the secret files of an OZ database.
Via groaned. "I think I watch these way too often."
Chance laughed, making Via grin. Chance had a great laugh, like big bells were ringing. It made Via wish she could hear Heero laughing on the disks, just to see if the two titters were anything alike. The most Heero had ever done was smile, and even that was a rare event. Duo had thought so, anyway, and Via had been given the impression that he was right.
Khans was frowning, watching the screen with a look of intense concentration plastered quite visibly on his face. "He looks very much like you."
"Don't I know it?" Via answered, rolling her eyes. "I've had to live with that fact my entire life, thanks. People used to go up to me and ask why I wasn't braiding my hair anymore and if I was still harboring Deathscythe in my back pocket."
Chance smiled. "I can just imagine how you replied."
"Something along the lines of 'screw you' and 'get the hell out of my face before I set Shinigami on your ass,'" Duo's look-alike told him quite solemnly, a look which lasted only seconds before her face broke into her usual wide grin.
Khans asked something, but it was in the language he and Chance called Airant, so Via couldn't understand a word of what he was saying. Chance followed along carefully, then grinned widely, a look that was almost alien on his descendant's face, and nodded cheerfully. He spared a glance at Via, then listened to Khan's babble a little while longer. Then he burst out laughing, touching a hand to his forehead.
Via, slightly red in the face and only a little pissed off, glared at the two of them. "Stop it," she hissed, glowering so that her face became quite serious. "If my uncle hears you, I won't be the only one being punished for it."
That shut Chance up very quickly. He knew practically nothing about Via's uncle, except the little that Via had told him, including that he was quick to his fists. Khans gave both Chance and Via an odd look, then turned back to the disks. He smirked as Wufei walked onto the screen, a scowl on his face and a furrowed brow gracing his countenance.
Via said his words along with him. "Maxwell, what in the name of Nataku's justice did you do with my socks?"
Chance couldn't help himself and burst again into peals of laughter. Via rose an eyebrow. It wasn't that funny. Khans smirked.
"Perhaps you are right. You do seem to know this very well." He looked at Chance. "Quiet, boy."
That shut Chance up quickly. "Boy? Is that why the others sent you out to keep an eye on me? Because they think my age is going to keep me from doing this right?" Khans frowned and something in Airant. Chance shook his head emphatically and Via couldn't help but note that Chance was quite a drama queen. Or king, whatever. "No, I'm not about to speak in that infernal tongue. Via has a right to know about us and what we're doing, Khans! She's practically one of us!"
"To know what?"
Khans frowned, glaring at Chance. "Do you see what you've done now?"
"No." Chance crossed his arms over his chest. "I hate having to keep secrets from her, Khans. She's no different from the rest of us. In fact, she's a lot better than all of us because she has no idea what we need from her."
"Perhaps, except that her--" Khans started, then glanced over at Via and switched back to Airant. Via frowned. It sounded suspiciously as though he was saying "Miasma yoyo zealot zizz zoot me," but she had no way of being sure.
Chance bowed his head, his anger made painfully obvious in his venomous voice and the steely glare in his eyes, directed thankfully at Khans and not Via herself. "I'm going to tell her." The disk in front of them all sputtered and came to an ending and the screen turned into a blank gray shield of static. "Via, we need your help. We broke a Gundam."
Via blinked and cocked her head to the side, eyes widening despite herself with wonder and bafflement. "You need my help to do what?"
Chance sighed, his eyes still steely with frustration and anger, looking disturbingly more like his famous ancestor than Via had ever seen him. "Our families have all been keeping watch over the colonies and Earth for years. And the enemies have suits of their own, so we have been holding them off for an indefinable length of time. However, on our last battle one of the ancient suits was damaged."
"You talk like a freaking text book," Via mumbled. "Repeat all that in plain language and start from the beginning."
Chance gave her a small smile. "Sorry. I forget sometimes that not everyone was born into all the knowledge." He coughed nervously. "The Gundams were never actually destroyed. Our ancestors all knew that peace was only an idea and that it wouldn't last very long if it wasn't protected, so they spread a rumor that convinced everyone that the Gundams had been done away with. That way the idea of peace wouldn't be threatened. Well, not by them and their suits in any case. Peace itself was a different matter. So our families have all been keeping the Gundams a secret and have been watching for any threats to the order of peace. Over the years there have been a number of attacks, but never have any been as strong as the threat we face now. The attacks come in greater numbers, and they are more fierce than any we have ever faced. We need you to help us protect the people."
"But the Preventers…"
Khans shook his head at Via's obvious surprise- and confusion. "The Preventers were corrupt even from the beginning and did little to support Miss Peacecraft's ideals of total pacifism," he explained. "The five pilots knew this and arranged to keep the Gundams safe and hidden- in case they were ever needed again. They have been used often enough and descendents of their families, our ancestors, have all been thoroughly trained to pilot them and protect the colonies and Earth. Although we have all the knowledge we need to pilot these suits, we know nothing when it comes to repairing major damages. Small things are easy enough to handle, but most everything else goes beyond our knowledge. We have often been told by our parents and grandparents that Duo Maxwell kept disks that were supposed to keep copies of the Gundam blue prints and repair instructions for things even as delicate as the Zero System. We need those disks now."
"Let me get this straight. You want me to give you the disks so you can pull out a users manual and kill people?"
Chance hesitated, then nodded. "Something like that."
Via snorted. "You've got to be kidding. You want me to go against everything I've ever been taught and help you murder innocent people?"
"They are not innocent people," Khans said harshly. "These people have been trying to destroy the Earth since the Earth Sphere Unified Nations began."
"I don't think so. My great-granddaddy's disks are hands-off."
Khans frowned. "Via, it is for the good of the people. The public good."
"The people you're trying to protect would like to know that you've all been lying to them, I think. And that the pacifism we've all been raised to believe in is all a fib."
"Via, we need the disks! It's very important, OZ is back and they've got inside forces. I think that's what Mr. Aristo was doing here," Chance pleaded. "Please, we need them now."
A loud, booming voice thundered from upstairs. "Girl, what the fuck is going on down there? Who the hell are you talking to?"
Via swore. "You woke up my uncle. You'll be in deep if you don't get out of here quick," she hissed at the two boys. "No one, Sir! I.. I've got the television on!" She turned her back on Chance and Khans and started towards the stairs. "I'll turn it off now, Sir. I'm really sorry I bothered you."
"Damn straight you are! You better be; I'm going to have to come down there and teach you a lesson!"
As the sound of thundering footsteps reached Via's ears, she rushed back to the living room and turned to Chance and Khans in order to warn them to leave, but they had gone. Through the window, by the looks of the curtain flapping in the breeze. She shut it with a bang as her uncle entered the room. He was a big, hulking man who looked nothing like Via, and the very sight of him made Via cower against the wall as a sudden panic gripped her heart.
It wasn't until after her uncle had "taught her a lesson" with all the fury his fists could muster that she realized her disks had disappeared with Khans and Chance. Lying bruised and bloody against the wall, limbs sprawled inelegantly on the floor, she smiled. They had no idea who they were dealing with.
"Let the games begin," she whispered through her already swollen, bloody lip. "Let the games begin."
--to be continued--