The Children Of War
By Mystical Star
A Kitty-Chan Production
Disclaimer: I don't own GW. I do own the new pilots. Uh, you may want to read Gundam Wing: Desecration before you read this, you won't understand anything if you don't.
Author's Note: Thank you so much to Zero!! We had to re-install windows on my computer and I lost absolutely everything, including this ^^; but luckily, I had sent it to Z and she kept it and sent it back to me! Thank you so much!! Everybody must read her fics, I command thee!
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My Lullaby Katsumi's StoryAnya Katsumi had awakened that morning, not feeling really healthy. She had an awful headache and her equilibrium was not at it's best either. She figured it was just a flu bug or something. Despite her rotten feeling, she got up and was getting ready to join Quatre, Severina, and Duo in a nearby park for a picnic lunch, for which she was running late.
Kat found her friends on a grassy knoll in the park, already sitting on the blanket, chatting away. There was a family nearby, also having a picnic.
"Hey, Kat! Thought you'd never get here!" Duo waved at his friend. "Sorry about that, I slept late, I didn't get to sleep till around three this morning," Katsumi excused. She was telling a half-truth, she had gone to sleep at three because she was waking up with terrifying nightmares and night-sweats. The young woman plopped down next to Severina, who handed her a can of soda.
"So what have I missed?" Angel's pilot asked. "Eh, not much, just some mindless conversations entailing Duo's hair," Severina stated. Kat raised an eyebrow.
"I DO NOT dress in drag, I just like my hair long!" Duo insisted, crossing his arms. Quatre and Katsumi burst out into laughter.
Kat looked over at the family that they were sharing the park with. She smiled at the mother, rocking her baby to sleep.
"Hush-a-by now, it's time to sleep, think happy thoughts as you go to dream…"
"Kat? Hello-o?" Severina waved her hand in front of her friend's face to get her attention. Angel's pilot snapped back to the real world. "Huh? What?"
"What kind of sandwich do you want?" Severina reiterated. "Oh…I don't care," Kat murmured as she looked back towards the family.
"Hush-a-by now…"
"Kat, are you okay?" Duo asked.
"I…uh,"
"It's time to sleep…"
"Kat?" Quatre nudged her shoulder. The young woman heard the
sound of a bomb going off somewhere and she fell forward into the grass. She
began to shake as her arms and legs pulled themselves to her body, as if she
was freezing. Katsumi began to shake her head and repeat over and over, "I
won't leave, no, I won't…"
Duo pulled her up to reveal her terror-stricken face. "My God," He gasped, not realizing what was going on.
"It's gotta be the S.I.A., we need to get her to the medical wing!" Quatre decided. Duo scooped Kat into his arms and ran for the Preventer Headquarters as the other two hurriedly picked everything up.
Kat's Dream~
"Momma! I want you to stay here!" A young Katsumi pouted as her mother tucked her into bed.
"I know, sweetie, but I need to do this, it's for you," The woman reasoned. "Huh-uh, it's for everybody else," The little girl argued. Her mother grimaced and cut to the chase.
"You're right, it is for everybody. Including you," she said, tapping Katsumi on the nose. "Keeping peace is very important for your future and your little brother's." She explained.
"If peace is so important and good for us, then why does it take mommies and daddies away from home?" Kat asked.
"Because war takes away more mommies and daddies forever." Her mother sighed. "Now, ssh, it's time for sleep,"
The little girl reluctantly lay down on the pillow as her mother kissed her goodnight and began to sing a lullaby.
"Hush-a-by now, it's time to sleep, think happy thoughts as you go to dream, I will be with you for all time, keep me close in your heart…"
~Meanwhile…
Quatre and Severina burst into the room where Katsumi had been placed to find Duo and Sally Po hovering over their friend, who had calmed down now. She was hooked up to machines that measured her brain waves, blood pressure, and pulse.
"Is she okay?" Severina asked, regarding the hardware.
"All of this is just a precaution and study, so we'll know what to do when this happens again," Sally explained. The two nodded their heads.
"She's dreaming," Duo noted. "Yes, her brain waves are similar with that of a person experiencing R.E.M.*, although, these waves are more intense than R.E.M." Preventer Po said.
"That's the S.I.A.," Quatre noted. Sally nodded.
"Her reaction is different, her sensory nerves are functioning fully, but her motor nerves are coming in and out irregularly." She added.
"I checked her medical records from her database. During the S.I.A. treatment, she had different reactions than all of the other subjects, she visited a doctor the day of one of her attacks, and the report is that she had night-sweats and felt like she had the flu. She slept a lot too that day," Duo noted as he brushed some of Kat's hair out of her face.
"She said she slept late this morning and got to bed really late, didn't she?" The Arabic boy asked. Severina nodded.
"How else did she react?" Sally asked.
"Her temperature would fluctuate rapidly and she'd have seizures," came Duo's reply. "Great, seizures," Sally muttered.
"We'll have to watch her then, if she has one she could throw herself off the bed and could hurt herself," Quatre said. "Yeah," Severina plopped herself down on the white tile floor next to the wall and ran her hand through her hair.
Kat furrowed her brow to something in her dream and she moaned a little. Duo took the young woman's hand, hoping to offer some comfort.
Sally looked back to Kat's brainwaves as the lines on the screen fluctuated, describing the young woman's brain activity as she dreamt.
Kat's Dream~"Wake up! We have to leave!" Katsumi's mother shook her awake. "What's wrong, Momma?" She asked sleepily as she rubbed her eyes.
"We're in danger, we have to leave,"
There was a flash of orange light and the sound of an explosion. Kat could hear her brother, Taro, crying as her mother grabbed her and yanked her out of bed.
Kat ran out of her house to see Leo mobile suits attacking the colony. "Mai, what do they want?" Katsumi's father, who was holding Taro, asked. "Me," The woman replied. She let go of her daughter's hand and took Taro from his father's arms and handed him to his sister.
"Take Taro and run to Obasan's** house," Her mother instructed, referring to her own mother's house. . "Where are you going?" Katsumi asked desperately.
"You will be safer if Papa and I go somewhere else, please, just run!" Her mother gave her and Taro a kiss, as did their father, before they began to run into the shadows of the houses. "When will I see you?" Kat yelled after her them.
"We will find you, just run!"
"I won't! Not without you!"
"Anya Katsumi! Go now! You don't have a choice!" Her mother's voice cracked with emotion as a mobile suit stomped onto the street. It spotted Katsumi's mother, the colony delegate, and the suit took aim and fired.
"GET DOWN!" Katsumi heard her mother scream. She began to run away but she tripped and Taro slipped from her arms. He began to cry as the Leo's ammunition hit the ground. The little girl covered her face as bits of concrete and fire hit her back. She wailed in pain.
She suddenly realized that she couldn't hear Taro crying anymore.
"Hush-a-by now, it's time to sleep…"
~Meanwhile…
Duo jumped, surprised at Katsumi's sudden fit of screams. Sally, who had been reading some medical books, dropped her current reading selection and jumped to study Kat's brain waves.
"Her pulse is gone up, and her brain is responding to pain of some sort," She reported. "Is that caused by the S.I.A.?" Duo asked. "Probably," Severina said, standing up and moving to Kat's side.
"Did she have any injuries when Dr. J started her file?" Quatre questioned. Duo took a file folder off of the end table next to Kat's bed. "Yeah, she had impact wounds and second degree burns on her back. It says she was in some sort of explosion." He explained.
"Didn't Lady Une say something about her family being attacked by terrorists?" Severina asked*** "Yeah, I think so," came Duo's response.
Kat gritted her teeth and furrowed her brow and moaned some more. She gripped the blanket that she was under and squirmed "TARO!" She suddenly called out. Tears dripped from her closed eyes.
Duo took her right hand in both of his and held it up to his face. What are you seeing? I want to know so I can help you, He took his other hand and wiped the tears from Katsumi's cheeks.
Kat's Dream~
Kat opened her eyes and found herself in a bed. She lay there for a minute, and suddenly, she remembered what had happened. "Momma! Papa!" She exclaimed as she sat up. The rusty-haired girl looked about the room. It looked like a hospital room. She had an IV in her arm and was hooked up to various other medical devices. Katsumi felt pain in her back. Someone opened the door.
A woman with icy blue hair in a ponytail and green eyes entered. "Where's my Momma?" Kat asked. The woman looked at her. "Your whole family is dead," She said bluntly. The young Katsumi gasped. Images of her mother, father, and brother flashed through her head. "No…" she whimpered.
"My name is Murasaki, I brought you here to offer you something," the icy-haired lady said. Kat looked at her. "Will you join me in defeating the terrorists that killed your family?" Murasaki asked.
"Close your eyes now, it's time to sleep, think happy thoughts as you go to dream,"Kat hesitated to say yes. She'd remembered what her mother said about wars taking away mothers and fathers. But this was different; this one took away her baby brother and her parents. That wasn't right. Was it?
"Yes,"
"Then you will call me Sensei from now on. After you are healed, we will begin your training to become a pilot," Murasaki explained.
"What kind of pilot?" Katsumi asked.
"A mobile suit pilot,"
~Back to the others…
The medical machines began to beep at a steady rate and Katsumi settled down though tears still streamed from her closed eyes. It was now near five-o'clock.
"Hey, Duo, Quatre and I are going to get something to eat, do you want to come?" Severina asked as she stood.
"I'll stay and watch over her," Sally added, giving Shinigami a reassuring look. "Nah, I think I'll stay here," Duo said.
"We'll bring something back if you want," Quatre proposed. Duo thought for a second. "Sure, just bring me anything, except for vegetables," He finally said. Severina giggled.
"Alright, we'll be back shortly," Quatre waved as the two walked out of the door. "I owe you one!" Duo called after them. Sally looked at Kat's brain waves and pulse again.
"She's gone into a more relaxed reaction." She stated. Duo nodded.
"It's good to know that not all of her past sucked,"
Kat's Dream~
A sixteen-year-old Anya Katsumi walked out of a Gundam simulator looking rather bored. Sensei Murasaki sat at a computer that was hooked up to the simulator and was studying the monitor.
"Pilot accuracy rate: ninety-nine point eight percent. Good," Murasaki said, not looking up.
"My reaction time's down, I stayed up late last night hacking," Kat pointed out. Her icy-haired trainer looked at her.
"You'll have to deal with the lack of energy and try to keep your reaction time the same all the time. However, today's simulation level was three points higher than yesterdays," Sensei noted. Kat nodded.
"Sensei Murasaki," A voice came from the door to the hallway. The two women turned to see the leader of their faction, Dr. J standing there. "I need to speak with you, alone," He said. Murasaki nodded and went to join Dr. J.
"Meditate for a while, I'll be back in a moment," She instructed. Katsumi nodded with no intention, of course, to do what she had been told to do. The rusty-haired teen counted to herself up to thirty and then peeked out of the door. She saw her trainer and Dr. J round the corner and then heard their footsteps stop. Kat stealthily moved out of the room and then tiptoed to one foot away from the corner.
"How exactly are they planning on doing that?" She heard Murasaki ask skeptically. "They've developed a serum that is supposed to take out a person's conscience. They're not sure how it works, however, and they want to test it on the pilots. I don't want to risk Odin, we've already decided that he should go in Wing Gundam." Dr. J. explained.
"So what your saying is that Katsumi is disposable?" Murasaki shot back. "No, she is not. However, I do not want to risk Odin so close to commencing operations," the doctor whispered harshly. Katsumi heard her trainer grumble something.
"You will not have a choice in the matter, these are orders from the organization. You will bring her to the medical wing, room twelve, noon, tomorrow." Dr. J. instructed. Murasaki growled.
I'm no guinea pig. I'm not going to let them treat me like an experiment. Kat decided. The young woman bolted down the corridor towards the trainee wing to her room to take some things and run away.
She entered the security code to her room and once in, she took a pair of pants, a shirt, jacket, some computer programs, and a picture of her family and stuffed them into a duffle bag. She then stuck her trusty handgun in her belt. Just as she was ready to bolt out of the base, the door to her room swished open to reveal Dr. J., Murasaki, and a few people she'd never seen before who were holding guns, at her door. Two men were holding her trainer. She had a desperate look on her face.
"RUN!" Murasaki screamed. Kat didn't take the time to say anything, she dropped her bag and grabbed her gun and pushed past the people. She felt someone grab her legs and she tumbled to the ground and hit the white tile hard.
"I will be with you for all time, keep me close in your heart…""Damn it!" She cursed as her captors pulled her back in. One man grabbed the gun from her while another two pulled her up by her arms. Dr. J. looked at her.
"Did anyone ever tell you eavesdropping was rude?" He joked, peering at her through his odd looking glasses.
"No, I was too busy being trained to be a test subject," She retorted. Dr. J. laughed.
"Katsumi, I'm sorry, when we realized that you were gone, I knew you were going to leave and he made me enter your security code," Murasaki explained, looking towards the ground. Kat didn't say anything.
"Put her back in her room," Dr. J. instructed. He then addressed Katsumi: "You will stay there until noon tomorrow. At that time you will be escorted to the medical wing," He said, clicking his three prosthetic fingers together. Kat glared at him.
~10:00 P.M.
Sally Po checked the monitors one more time before turning off the lights in the medical hall. Severina and Quatre had returned with dinner nearly six hours ago. The two were sitting on chairs up against the wall; Severina leaned over dozing on Quatre's shoulder.
"If there is a risk of seizures, she can't be alone. I'll stay with her tonight," Sally said.
"Duo and I can take shifts, Sally. You don't need to be here the whole time," the platinum blonde suggested.
"I can stay and watch her, you guys can go ahead." Duo said quietly. "Duo, are you sure?" Quatre asked. Duo nodded.
Preventer Po thought it over for a minute. "If she begins to seize, somebody needs to get her on the floor away from things she can injure herself with. There's really nothing you can do while she's having one except make sure she doesn't hit her head on anything or hurt herself. If she starts to seize, push this button," Sally pointed to a red button on the wall that was attached to a cable that went above the ceiling. "That is an alarm that goes to the resident doctor's room. That's where I'll be. I might come in every so often to check on her," Sally explained. Duo and Quatre nodded. Preventer Po smiled and then left.
Quatre gently nudged Severina awake. "I think we should be getting to bed," He laughed. Severina, too tired to argue, nodded and stood. "Duo, will you be okay alone?" She asked. Duo nodded
~Dream
The sixteen-year-old Katsumi sat on her bed. She had her legs pulled up to her body and her head resting on her knees. She was crying quietly.
"What's gonna happen to me?" She murmured, fearing for what was to come. The young girl lifted her head and rested her teary eyes on the picture that she had on the bed before her – the picture of her family.
"I'm scared, Momma," She whispered, hoping that maybe she could get some sort of supernatural advice. Nothing.
Katsumi looked over at the digital clock on the desk next to her computer. It was ten-o-five. Another flash of thoughts ran through her head. Will I live? Will I become a vegetable? I don't want to die, not before I can take vengeance for my family, she thought to herself.
"Why did this happen?!" She cried out angrily. "I want to live!" She sobbed.
"Hush-a-by now, it's time to sleep, think happy thoughts as you go to dream, I will be with you for all time, keep me close in your heart…"
Suddenly, time seemed to speed up**. Katsumi looked at her clock again. 11:56. The door to her room whooshed open. There was Dr. J. and some of his aides. They walked in with guns in hand, keeping close watch on Kat. She hung her head in anguish and cried silently as the men handcuffed her and escorted her to the medical wing.
~11:45 P.M.
"Stop…" Katsumi murmured. Duo, who had been dozing on and off, was suddenly very awake. "Kat?" He asked, taking her hand again.
"Don't…." She moaned. "Please," the rusty-haired girl whimpered. She began to cry again.
"Ssh, it's okay," The braided American stroked his friend's hair and tried to comfort her, even though he knew that she couldn't hear him. Katsumi began to squirm, as if she was trying to escape something.
Duo looked over at the monitors and realized that her pulse and brain waves were racing.
"She's scared?"
Dream~
Katsumi kicked and thrashed as the men tried to lift her on to the stainless steel examination table. This particular table had restraints on it.
"Let me go! I'm not just some lab rat you can do experiments on! I'm a person!" She protested. The men said nothing. Katsumi growled as she tried to break free of her captors.
"Bastards!" She cried as she was finally slammed down on the examination table. The restraints were quickly latched around each wrist and ankle. Even then, she tried to break free. Dr. J. stood over her, holding a syringe in his hand.
"If you would just sit still, my dear," he said, filling the needle, "This would be a lot easier on the both of us,"
"Hush-a-bye now it's time to sleep, think happy thoughts as you go to dream, I will be with you for all time, keep me close in your dreams…"
"Now just hold still," Dr. J. said as he closed in on his victim. Kat let out a sob as she tried to think straight. "I want to live!" She cried as Dr. J. stuck the needle in her arm.
~End Dream
"I want to live!" Katsumi cried as she sat straight up, wide-awake.
"Gah!" Duo yelped, startled yet again. The young woman looked absolutely terror-stricken for a moment and breathed rapidly. She swallowed and then looked about herself.
"Duo?" She nearly whispered as tears began to stream from her eyes. "Hey, I'm here for you, it's okay," Duo put his arms around her shoulders and embraced her. "Where am I?" Katsumi asked, still crying.
"You're in the Preventer's Medical Wing. You've been out for the whole day." Her friend explained. "The last thing I remember is being in a park…I was watching a lady with her baby when I…" Katsumi suddenly realized what she had just experienced and gasped.
"The S.I.A. -" She said. "It wore off, I guess," Duo stated, squeezing her shoulder. "Are you going to be okay?" He asked, looking concerned. Kat blinked as she looked down on the sheets she was covered in and shook her head. "Maybe…what time is it?" She changed the subject. Duo checked his watch.
"12:10 A.M."
"Damn," She sighed. Kat closed her eyes and held her head, apparently trying to ward off a headache. "Are you feeling alright?" Duo asked. "Okay, I guess," Kat mumbled, her eyes still closed. The young woman looked up at him with emotion in her eyes.
"Thanks for staying with me," She said, smiling. Her friend smiled back and held her close, not saying anything.
"… I will be with you for all time, keep me close in your dreams…" echoed in Kat's regained memory and she began to cry again. Duo sat himself up on the bed and gently eased Kat down to the pillow with himself as he tried to comfort her.
"Duo…" She mumbled.
"Ssh, just try to get some sleep," Duo whispered as he pulled the sheets up to their bodies. Katsumi closed her eyes and smiled as she heard her mother's lullaby once again.
"Hush-a-bye now it's time to sleep, think happy thoughts as you go to dream, I will be with you for all time, keep me close in your dreams…"
The End
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Notes
*For those who don't know, R.E.M. stands for Rapid Eye Movement - the stage of sleep in which you dream. There's your science lesson for the day.
**Obasan means "Grandmother" in Japanese.
***See Gundam Wing: Desecration, chapter 9
**The dream jumped from one point in time to another. There was nothing else
important to write in there