Author's notes: Yes, yes, I know, I've been taking my own sweet time in
updating this fic, but I do have a good reason, really. Between makeup
work, regular homework and my mom banning me from the computer in favor of
cleaning, I really haven't had a chance to write anything. I plan to put
up at least two chapters this weekend (I have four days off, yes!!).
Anyway, as I was writing this chapter, I figured out that I screwed up time
more than I thought I did. Heero, Quatre, Duo, and Wu-fei were all born in
AC 180, five years after Heero Yuy's death. In Ac 188, Heero leaves Odin,
for reasons that all of you who have read Episode Zero know, and I don't
want to spoil it for the rest of you yet. He's eight years old, and he
spent at least to years with Odin. That's where I messed up. I have him
as nearly eight when they meet, so I want you all to understand that he is
actually six years old. I'll change it when I can access my saved copies
of the chapters.. But I can't do it right now, so just bear with me.
Disclaimer: No, I don't own Gundam Wing, and I never will. Can you imagine how much fan mail I'd have to answer if I did?
Chapter 4- Odin Lowe
When I woke in the morning it was to the smell of sausages and toast. Confused and disoriented I lay still and watched my strange traveler. Odin Lowe seemed to have no idea I was awake as he unpacked the paper wrapped parcels and started fiddling with the contents of one of them. The cook stove blocked my view and I couldn't see what it was. As the events of the night before assembled themselves into a coherent order I shifted slightly underneath my blanket. Immediately Odin was looking down at me and smiling, the paper wrapped package nowhere in sight.
"So you're awake are you? Good." I sat up, leaving the blanket where it was despite the cool morning air as I crawled over to the stove and stared up into his face, seeing him in an entirely new light. I wasn't sure, but I didn't think that most people would have noticed the slight shift I had made.
"Who are you?" Tact and subtlety in social situations was not something anyone had ever taken the time to teach me. Why bother when I kept my mouth clamped shut most of the time anyway? Odin laughed softly,
"Odin Lowe."
"That's not an answer." I glared up at him, determined to find out why he was willing to take in an unknown child and how he had detected my movement so easily. Odin just pulled toast and sausages off the stove and handed me my share.
"We should reach the town by this evening, depending on how fast you can travel." Change of subject. Obviously I was going to have to figure out who he was for myself.
"What will you do with me when we get there?"
"See if I can find someone who'll take you in, or try to find your relatives." It took me a moment to remember relatives.
"But I don't have any relatives." This I was sure of.
"Well the least I can do is get you some new clothes." He finished pacing up the stove and folded my blanket.
"You done?" I nodded, wiping my greasy hands on the already filthy shorts as I stood up.
"Let's go then." He set off at what I then considered to be a brisk pace, but later found was slower than he was used to. I had to trot a little to keep up with him but my training stood me in good stead as I maintained that pace all afternoon, even managing to eat the bread and cheese we shared for lunch as we traveled. Odin didn't say anything but I could see the surprise in his eyes when I caught him watching me. We reached the town around three in the afternoon.
After asking directions of a passing pedestrian we headed towards the information center. While Odin tried to find anything he could about me and my parentage (they did a DNA and fingerprint scan), I snuck into the room behind the desk and accessed one of the computers, using my training once again to hack through to the colonies' information bans and search for anything on Odin Lowe. Nothing. I tried the Earth sphere and again, nothing. Then I pushed through to military files, where a stray mention led me to OZ.
There I found information on several assassinations, mostly of high-ranking military officials and minor politicians. Memorizing the names and everything I could find about Lowe himself, I once more entered the colonies' files and erased all information on myself and the project that had created me. I think the secretary in the next room was startled when the lead she was following suddenly vanished, leaving her staring at a blank screen as if she had done nothing.
Odin looked at me curiously when I reappeared at his elbow.
"You won't find anything." He considered me seriously for a moment before nodding and turning out of the office, thanking the bewildered secretary on our way.
We started towards the nearest mall in silence. Neither of us spoke until I was trying on the more formal clothing one of the clerks had picked out for me. Then he asked, obviously curious, "What did you find out?" I ignored the fact that he had known what I was doing. Being what I knew him to be he was bound to notice more than most people.
"You're an assassin." He froze for an instant, shocked that I had been able to find that. There was a glimmer of his eyes as he forced himself to relax.
"That doesn't scare you?" he asked, as I emerged from the dressing room in long pants and a cream white collared shirt. I stared at him, expressionless.
"Why should it?"
"Because I've killed more people than you've met."
"No, it doesn't scare me."
"I could kill you."
"No you couldn't." He raised an eyebrow. I smiled, just a little.
"All your guns are wrapped in paper in that pack, I'd be gone before you could get one out." He chuckled, amazed and incredulous as he nodded.
"All right, why are you sticking around then? Is it the food? The clothes?" I shook my head.
"Why then?" I thought about it. The computer in my mind provided it's own reason. I needed to be trained. But another part of me had been drawn to me from the beginning.
"You're the first person who's showed me any kindness." My tongue nearly tripped over the unfamiliar, as alien to my vocabulary as brother and sister. Odin Lowe, assassin of OZ, noticed my stumble.
"I don't suppose you'd tell me what happened to you." It didn't require an answer. I picked up the sports jacket that accompanied my slacks.
"I want you to train me."
"What?" I glanced back at him as I shrugged into the coat.
"I need to learn to be an assassin, and to survive in this world. Not many people would tae me in as you have. I need to now what lies to tell, what to as for, how to act." He regarded me seriously for a moment, then-
"We'll need to do some more shopping if you're going to travel with me." I smiled at him, probably the first real smile of my life. He smiled back, and neither of us realized then that it was a rare event for each of us.
By the time we left that town I had an entirely new wardrobe with a T-shirt nowhere to be seen. For some reason Odin always made sure I had nice clothes. No matter that he himself dressed in sturdy pants with a T-shirt and jacket, no matter how much it cost him, I always had collared shirts with vests or ties, good pants or shorts with a sports jacket and nice yet durable shoes. When got closer to winter he bought me a heavier coat and boots. Sometimes I thought he did it because he could pass me off as a well-off schoolboy to aid his own disguise of retired musician, but other times I decided that he really enjoyed caring for me with the best he could get. I still don't now the truth, but I probably wouldn't have been able to hide myself so well if he hadn't done that. People are less likely to notice someone who looks well provided for than someone who wears the cheapest clothes they can get.
I also had my own pack to carry my new outfits, a blanket, rope, a torch (flashlight), matches, a knife, and the laptop I later convinced him to buy me.
We set off, traveling anywhere we felt lie, or where Odin's assignments led him. As we traveled he taught me everything I needed to now to survive. How to lie, how to act so much at home that I became invisible, or at least unremarkable. Most of all, he taught me how to use the weapons he carried with him, and how to get them and others when I needed them.
About a year after he stumbled over me in the dark, he bought me my first gun. He said it was because he couldn't keep lending me his whenever he had to leave me alone on a mission, but I could see the approval in his eyes and it warmed that inner part of me that my training had tried so hard to destroy. I was still a seven-year-old child, and I longed for approval from my 'father'; even if part of me still cried at the violence we both committed. The mask of emotionless blankness became both lighter and more permanent in the two years I spent with the OZ assassin. I could lift it easily, but I wore it every waking moment otherwise. I thin it was the knowledge that I was destroying lives that did that. It wasn't a conscience thought, I couldn't realize it fully, but the knowledge was there. Odin never let me get close enough to see those I killed, always giving me long range weapons or explosives to set off at a certain time. They were his missions, but I think he was to protect me, to save part of me from the pain he new it would cause me. And it worked.
That was a good time for me. Half of it was training, but the other half was all the childhood I got. I learned what it was to have a father, someone who cared for me in more than just food and clothes, but on a more personal level. And even though I hated the things he did, I couldn't help but care for him as well.
Notes: The next chapter should be the end of Heero's time with Odin, all the stuff in Episode Zero. I got writer's block and couldn't take this one any further. From now on (or rather, Wednesday on), chapters may only come once a week; depending on how much time I can find to write. I really am trying. I'm thinking about stopping this story when I get to the series and maybe doing another one on Heero's thoughts about various events in the series (If I can get the money and the willpower to go buy the series so I can do a decent job of it..). Then maybe I'll connect an after Endless Waltz story to it.. maybe, if I get enough reviews so that I don't lose heart completely. And I'm sorry if time seems to be going too fast, or it's not detailed enough. I need feedback to be able to fix those things!!! And it really should get more detailed. After this next chapter I'll be working completely from my own mind and it won't have to really fit with anything. Besides, Heero'll be at a more manageable age soon, I don't now how to write about small children very well..
Disclaimer: No, I don't own Gundam Wing, and I never will. Can you imagine how much fan mail I'd have to answer if I did?
Chapter 4- Odin Lowe
When I woke in the morning it was to the smell of sausages and toast. Confused and disoriented I lay still and watched my strange traveler. Odin Lowe seemed to have no idea I was awake as he unpacked the paper wrapped parcels and started fiddling with the contents of one of them. The cook stove blocked my view and I couldn't see what it was. As the events of the night before assembled themselves into a coherent order I shifted slightly underneath my blanket. Immediately Odin was looking down at me and smiling, the paper wrapped package nowhere in sight.
"So you're awake are you? Good." I sat up, leaving the blanket where it was despite the cool morning air as I crawled over to the stove and stared up into his face, seeing him in an entirely new light. I wasn't sure, but I didn't think that most people would have noticed the slight shift I had made.
"Who are you?" Tact and subtlety in social situations was not something anyone had ever taken the time to teach me. Why bother when I kept my mouth clamped shut most of the time anyway? Odin laughed softly,
"Odin Lowe."
"That's not an answer." I glared up at him, determined to find out why he was willing to take in an unknown child and how he had detected my movement so easily. Odin just pulled toast and sausages off the stove and handed me my share.
"We should reach the town by this evening, depending on how fast you can travel." Change of subject. Obviously I was going to have to figure out who he was for myself.
"What will you do with me when we get there?"
"See if I can find someone who'll take you in, or try to find your relatives." It took me a moment to remember relatives.
"But I don't have any relatives." This I was sure of.
"Well the least I can do is get you some new clothes." He finished pacing up the stove and folded my blanket.
"You done?" I nodded, wiping my greasy hands on the already filthy shorts as I stood up.
"Let's go then." He set off at what I then considered to be a brisk pace, but later found was slower than he was used to. I had to trot a little to keep up with him but my training stood me in good stead as I maintained that pace all afternoon, even managing to eat the bread and cheese we shared for lunch as we traveled. Odin didn't say anything but I could see the surprise in his eyes when I caught him watching me. We reached the town around three in the afternoon.
After asking directions of a passing pedestrian we headed towards the information center. While Odin tried to find anything he could about me and my parentage (they did a DNA and fingerprint scan), I snuck into the room behind the desk and accessed one of the computers, using my training once again to hack through to the colonies' information bans and search for anything on Odin Lowe. Nothing. I tried the Earth sphere and again, nothing. Then I pushed through to military files, where a stray mention led me to OZ.
There I found information on several assassinations, mostly of high-ranking military officials and minor politicians. Memorizing the names and everything I could find about Lowe himself, I once more entered the colonies' files and erased all information on myself and the project that had created me. I think the secretary in the next room was startled when the lead she was following suddenly vanished, leaving her staring at a blank screen as if she had done nothing.
Odin looked at me curiously when I reappeared at his elbow.
"You won't find anything." He considered me seriously for a moment before nodding and turning out of the office, thanking the bewildered secretary on our way.
We started towards the nearest mall in silence. Neither of us spoke until I was trying on the more formal clothing one of the clerks had picked out for me. Then he asked, obviously curious, "What did you find out?" I ignored the fact that he had known what I was doing. Being what I knew him to be he was bound to notice more than most people.
"You're an assassin." He froze for an instant, shocked that I had been able to find that. There was a glimmer of his eyes as he forced himself to relax.
"That doesn't scare you?" he asked, as I emerged from the dressing room in long pants and a cream white collared shirt. I stared at him, expressionless.
"Why should it?"
"Because I've killed more people than you've met."
"No, it doesn't scare me."
"I could kill you."
"No you couldn't." He raised an eyebrow. I smiled, just a little.
"All your guns are wrapped in paper in that pack, I'd be gone before you could get one out." He chuckled, amazed and incredulous as he nodded.
"All right, why are you sticking around then? Is it the food? The clothes?" I shook my head.
"Why then?" I thought about it. The computer in my mind provided it's own reason. I needed to be trained. But another part of me had been drawn to me from the beginning.
"You're the first person who's showed me any kindness." My tongue nearly tripped over the unfamiliar, as alien to my vocabulary as brother and sister. Odin Lowe, assassin of OZ, noticed my stumble.
"I don't suppose you'd tell me what happened to you." It didn't require an answer. I picked up the sports jacket that accompanied my slacks.
"I want you to train me."
"What?" I glanced back at him as I shrugged into the coat.
"I need to learn to be an assassin, and to survive in this world. Not many people would tae me in as you have. I need to now what lies to tell, what to as for, how to act." He regarded me seriously for a moment, then-
"We'll need to do some more shopping if you're going to travel with me." I smiled at him, probably the first real smile of my life. He smiled back, and neither of us realized then that it was a rare event for each of us.
By the time we left that town I had an entirely new wardrobe with a T-shirt nowhere to be seen. For some reason Odin always made sure I had nice clothes. No matter that he himself dressed in sturdy pants with a T-shirt and jacket, no matter how much it cost him, I always had collared shirts with vests or ties, good pants or shorts with a sports jacket and nice yet durable shoes. When got closer to winter he bought me a heavier coat and boots. Sometimes I thought he did it because he could pass me off as a well-off schoolboy to aid his own disguise of retired musician, but other times I decided that he really enjoyed caring for me with the best he could get. I still don't now the truth, but I probably wouldn't have been able to hide myself so well if he hadn't done that. People are less likely to notice someone who looks well provided for than someone who wears the cheapest clothes they can get.
I also had my own pack to carry my new outfits, a blanket, rope, a torch (flashlight), matches, a knife, and the laptop I later convinced him to buy me.
We set off, traveling anywhere we felt lie, or where Odin's assignments led him. As we traveled he taught me everything I needed to now to survive. How to lie, how to act so much at home that I became invisible, or at least unremarkable. Most of all, he taught me how to use the weapons he carried with him, and how to get them and others when I needed them.
About a year after he stumbled over me in the dark, he bought me my first gun. He said it was because he couldn't keep lending me his whenever he had to leave me alone on a mission, but I could see the approval in his eyes and it warmed that inner part of me that my training had tried so hard to destroy. I was still a seven-year-old child, and I longed for approval from my 'father'; even if part of me still cried at the violence we both committed. The mask of emotionless blankness became both lighter and more permanent in the two years I spent with the OZ assassin. I could lift it easily, but I wore it every waking moment otherwise. I thin it was the knowledge that I was destroying lives that did that. It wasn't a conscience thought, I couldn't realize it fully, but the knowledge was there. Odin never let me get close enough to see those I killed, always giving me long range weapons or explosives to set off at a certain time. They were his missions, but I think he was to protect me, to save part of me from the pain he new it would cause me. And it worked.
That was a good time for me. Half of it was training, but the other half was all the childhood I got. I learned what it was to have a father, someone who cared for me in more than just food and clothes, but on a more personal level. And even though I hated the things he did, I couldn't help but care for him as well.
Notes: The next chapter should be the end of Heero's time with Odin, all the stuff in Episode Zero. I got writer's block and couldn't take this one any further. From now on (or rather, Wednesday on), chapters may only come once a week; depending on how much time I can find to write. I really am trying. I'm thinking about stopping this story when I get to the series and maybe doing another one on Heero's thoughts about various events in the series (If I can get the money and the willpower to go buy the series so I can do a decent job of it..). Then maybe I'll connect an after Endless Waltz story to it.. maybe, if I get enough reviews so that I don't lose heart completely. And I'm sorry if time seems to be going too fast, or it's not detailed enough. I need feedback to be able to fix those things!!! And it really should get more detailed. After this next chapter I'll be working completely from my own mind and it won't have to really fit with anything. Besides, Heero'll be at a more manageable age soon, I don't now how to write about small children very well..