I Am

By Mystical Star

A Kitty-Chan Production

Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam 08th MS Team, but the ideas for the new identities in this story are mine (I'm not going to spoil it for you now! ;) ). Thank you. And please leave a review and tell me what ya think. Arigatou!

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Chapter One ~ The Beginning of the End UC 0100 – Twenty Years after the One-Year-War – St. Gabriel's School in Side 6

Rosaline Amada stepped off of the school bus and breathed in the synthetic Side 6 breeze as it coursed through her two-toned blue hair. Rosaline, better known as Ro to her friends, was a girl of medium height with midnight blue hair with natural icy blue highlights that lined her face. Her blue-green eyes reflected the bright colony lights as she waved to some students she knew who passed her by.

As the young girl headed towards the music department to drop off her violin, someone stepped in front of her and they collided.

"I'm sorry!"

Ro looked at the person she'd run into. He was rather short and wimpy looking with red hair and sky blue eyes. He looked rather embarrassed.

"Don't worry about it. Are you new here?" Ro asked. The boy nodded.

"Micah Ninorich," He said, sticking out his hand in greeting. Rosaline smiled and shook his hand.

"Micah!" A feminine voice called from behind the two. The blue-haired girl turned around to see a near exact copy of Micah standing behind her.

"What the -?" Ro asked, feeling rather confused.

"This is my twin sister, Marina," Micah explained. Ro laughed and nodded.

"I'm Rosaline Amada. Just call me Ro." She said through her laughter.

"Can you help us find the office, we're new here and we're a little lost," Marina asked. Ro nodded.

"Sure, just follow me!"

Later…

Ro settled into History, her first period class, a few minutes before the get-to-class bell rang and pulled out her notebook and began to randomly doodle cartoon characters out of boredom. Her teacher, a small middle-aged woman, sat at her computer, most likely setting up the new year's grading spread-sheet.

Just then, someone walked into the classroom that made Ro turn red. Gavin Massis.

Gavin was a tall, fairly well built young man with long bronze hair that reached his shoulders. Word was that Gavin's father was supposed to be some sort of undiscovered rock star and he had passed his genes down to his son. Gavin had the voice of a god. Ro loved listening to him when they sang in the school choir together. He was one year ahead of her so it was surprising that they were in the same history class, but that was the last thought on Ro's mind.

"Hey, Ro," Gavin said, holding up a hand in greeting. Rosaline smiled and nodded.

"Hi," She said. "What brings you to this class?"

"My mom. She fought in the One-Year-War and thinks this class will be important to me sometime in the future," Gavin shrugged. "Learning from past mistakes I guess,"

The teacher looked up at Gavin and shook her head as if she was disgusted with something to young man had said.

"That's kind of ridiculous isn't it? We live in a neutral colony," Ro pointed out.

"I know," Gavin chuckled as he took a seat in front of Rosaline, who could have melted.

The bell rang and people began to pour into the classroom and took random seats for themselves. After five minutes the tardy bell rang, signaling the beginning of a new school year. The teacher rose from her seat and cleared her throat.

"Hi everybody. I'm Mrs. Bersina and this is the extended history class covering from January of UC 0080 to UC 0084. If you don't be long here then get out," She said, using a southern accent on her last few words.

The history classes were slightly different at St. Gabriel's. There were general classes covering all of the Universal Centuries, pre-Universal Centuries, and so on – then there were the extended classes that covered specific events and time periods, such as the One-Year-War. The particular class that Ro was sitting in was the extended class dealing with the years when the war was winding down, starting with the major defeat of the Zeon forces at a mountain in Southeast Asia and ending after the colony drop on North America.

"I hate to sound boring, but after I hand out your books, please start reading chapter one and we'll discuss tomorrow," Mrs. Bersina said as she took a stack of books from the side of her desk and began giving them out to students. The minute Ro got hers she dug into the book. No matter how boring it was to everyone else, Rosaline always found history interesting.

In the beginning of her reading, Ro just skimmed, looking for important information and absorbing everything else that was interesting to her, but one of the headings stopped her.

"Final Attack of the Apsalus"

Ro frowned. What the hell is the Apsalus? She thought to herself.

"After the Zeon's defeat at Odessa, the Federation gathered in the Himalayan Mountains to execute its next attack on a secret Zeon base in Mount St.Keiran, said to be holding the most advanced Zeon weapon. Unfortunately for the Zeon forces, an explosion gave away their position.

With the target located, the Federation forces began to mobilize quickly, but were attacked by a man named Norris Packard. Packard sacrificed his life to destroy a Feddie artillery battery. This bought the Zeon forces some time to put the finishing touches on their weapon of mass destruction, the Apsalus.

Shortly after the explosion of Norris Packard's mobile suit, the Apsalus was completed and came out of it's hiding place in Mt. St. Keiran. One of the pilots of the great destroying machine proposed a temporary ceasefire to allow the Zeon hospital ship, the Kerguelen, to escape. The ceasefire went into effect as the Kerguelen began to take off, however, due to reasons unknown, the Apsalus fired. The ceasefire was cancelled, and Federation snipers shot down the Kerguelen.

One of the mobile suit team leaders, ensign Shiro Amada…."

Ro blinked and looked at the page closer. Sure enough, the book said "Shiro Amada". But that's my dad, and he's never said anything about a war. What's going on here? She thought as she continued to read.

"…Ensign Shiro Amada, confronted the Apsalus and attempted to destroy it, against the orders of his superiors. The Apsalus fired on the ensign just as he crushed the cockpit, causing both to explode. None of the pilots' bodies were ever found and they have been missing ever since."

Rosaline Amada sat in her desk in awe. She didn't know what to do. Neither her father or mother had never mentioned the One-Year-War before, much less that her dad had been involved in it.

As the blue-haired girl stared at the page in front of her in confusion, a piece of paper dropped over Gavin's back, covering the name of her father. Ro snapped back to reality and unfolded the piece of paper and read the note.

"Ro-

The band's working on a new song that needs a violin solo. I was wondering if you'd be interested in helping us out. Give me a call or catch me after class.

-Gavin  (785-4312)"

All of the thoughts of her father being a possible missing military personnel flew out the window as she felt herself melting on the inside. Playing with Gavin's band? It was like a dream come true for the young musician. The band, entitled Adrenaline, had won numerous competitions singing popular songs and their own originals, and their fans to be able to sing or play with them considered it an honor. Not only that, but let's face it, all of the members were hot. All of the girls were gaga – not excluding Ro.

The young girl spent the rest of the class period struggling between her smitten-ess and the question of her entire existence.

Seventh hour…

Ro lay on the risers in the choir room, staring at her history book. She had a study hall this hour and did not plan on spending it in the study hall room. The young woman hated the awkward silences and the boring atmosphere. The choir room was more interesting. Suddenly, the door opened. Marina Ninorich walked in.

"Hi!" She greeted. Ro put her book down and waved.

"What brings you here?" She asked.

"I was hoping to join the choir, is the director here?"

"Nah, he's out 'checking the water tower'."

"What?"

"Smoking his pipe."

Marina laughed. "So what are you doing here?"

"Study hall. I hate the regular ones so I got a permanent pass here." Ro said. "If you don't mind me asking, what brought you to Side 6?" She asked. Marina sat down next to her and began to explain.

"Well, my parents were both involved in the War, and there was some stuff going on Earth that they just didn't like, I guess."

"Like what?"

"People don't appreciate soldiers," Marina said, hugging her knees to her body. "My dad was trying to get a memorial put up at that mountain where a big battle happened - "

"Mount St. Kieran?" Ro interjected.

"Yeah, how'd you know?"

"What was the memorial for?"

"A couple of pilots whose bodies were never found. My mom said that the guy was his commander. Dad believed for a long time that he wasn't dead, but I guess he just gave up." Marina explained, sounding a little confused. "Why do you want to know?"

"Oh, uh, we were reading about it in extended history." Ro lied. "Sorry for interrupting, what were you saying?"

"Well, my dad wanted a memorial put up on Mount Kieran and people kept on calling our house yelling at him saying that they had no intention on sitting still and watching a memorial being put up that honored terrorists. Soldiers aren't terrorists though, my dad protected them and this is how they repay him." Marina stated bitterly.

"People are stupid," Ro said as the bell signaling the end of the school day rang. The two girls rose from their spot on the risers. "I guess you didn't get to see Mr. Moenia today," she added.

"Eh, I'll see him tomorrow, hopefully. Do you mind if I follow you to your locker?" Marina asked. Ro shook her head.

"Nope, I hope you don't have a bus to catch, I usually take my time and just walk home." Rosaline said.

"Actually, Micah and I were planning on walking home anyway," Marina said as the two reached Ro's locker. The two-tone haired girl entered the numbers to her locker and opened it to reveal a collage of pictures. Marina noticed one of the pictures in the middle. There were three people smiling at the camera lens in it.

"Who's that?" Marina asked, pointing at the picture.

"That's me, my mom and my and my dad at the Side 6 Botanical Gardens last year." Ro said, shoving a book into her messenger bag.

"Cool," Marina said, admiring the picture for a little while before noticing another person at their locker a few feet down. The young man was fairly tall with blonde hair and blue eyes, who seemed to be staring at the picture that Marina had just pointed out. The minute the boy saw Marina looking at him he turned back to packing his backpack.

"Hey, who's that guy?" Marina asked Ro, nodding her head in the young man's direction.

"Captio Sahalin. Stay away from him, he's really freaky," Ro advised as she slammed her locker shut. Marina watched Captio round the corner and then continued to interrogate Ro.

"What do you mean, 'freaky'?"

"Like a stalker. He never talks to anyone unless they piss him off and he only makes threats and sexually harasses women he likes. Stay away from him,"

"Maybe he's just misunderstood,"

"I doubt it. I tried being nice to him until he tried to make moves on me. I socked him in the gut and he got the idea,"

"Oh," Marina said, suddenly feeling embarrassed.

"I hear he's been charged with assault before, but those are just rumors."

"Yikes,"

"Yeah,"

"Marina!" A voice called from behind them. The two young women turned around to see Micah running up to them. "I've been looking all over for you!"

Marina laughed. "What are you, my keeper?"

"Well…no…but - "

"You're such a worry wart,"

Ro laughed at the sibling's interaction. "You guys are lucky, I don't have a brother or sister to pick on," She commented.

"Nah, you're lucky not to have one," Micah said. "They get annoying," he said, sneering at Marina, who stepped on his foot. Rosaline laughed as she took out a pen and a piece of scratch paper she had in her pocket and wrote down her phone number and handed it to Marina.

"Here's my phone number, call me sometime and I'll show you guys some cool places," she said.

"Awesome," Marina and Micah said in unison. Ro gave them a funny look while the twins just laughed.

That night…

After dinner and homework, Rosaline went downstairs to find her father. She found him in the living room with her mother, watching the news.

"Hey, Dad," She said as she walked into the room. Her father looked back at her from the couch and he smiled.

"Hey sweetie," Her father said. Ro could just hear the smile and happiness in his voice as she sat down on the couch between her parents. Her mother, Aina, put her arm over her daughter's shoulders.

"I have a question for you," Ro said.

"Shoot,"

Rosaline stopped short, wondering if this was a question that really needed to be asked.

"Were you ever involved in the One-Year-War?"

Her father suddenly looked very serious and Ro felt her mother's hand twitch. She saw her father's eyes travel to her mother's and then back to hers.

"Yes, I was involved with the war," He sighed.

"What did you do?"

"I was a mobile suit pilot, why do you want to know?"

"We're studying it in extended history, I was just curious." Ro said. She kissed her father and mother on the cheek and then left the room, feeling as though she was being left out of the loop on something. After her parents were sure she was upstairs in her room, the two looked at each other.

"Shiro, do you think we should tell her, the War's long over, there's no way you can be court-martialed if it ever got out." Aina said. Shiro sighed.

"Does she really need to know though? Does she really need to know that her parents are fugitives?"

"We're not fugitives anymore," Aina said, scooting closer to her husband. Shiro put his arm around his wife.

"We'll tell her. I just don't think I'm ready to go relive that part of my past, the stuff that lead up to St. Kieran. I still have nightmares about that stuff," He said, trying to shrug it off his shoulders.

Aina knew all to well that the events that lead up to the final attack of the Apsalus left Shiro terrible emotional scars. He had to kill a Zeon soldier and watch his friend mourn the loss of her father and friends because his plan didn't work. She heard his cries in the middle of the night and saw him staring at the scars on his arms with a forlorn look.

She hugged him. "I love you," she said reassuringly. Shiro leaned his head on his wife's and kissed her hair, trying to think his memories away.

Meanwhile, up in her room, Ro got ready for bed with thoughts of war floating through her head as she hit the pillow.

I wonder why Dad didn't mention Kieran…then again I didn't exactly ask, but you'd think he'd say something, or at least be proud he stopped such a horrible weapon of mass destruction. Or maybe Shiro Amada is a common name and I don't know it,

Ro sighed as she turned out the light next to her bed. Thoughts of Gavin Massis entered her head as she drifted off to sleep, bringing pleasant dreams to that night.

To Be Continued

Next Time: Rosaline searches for more information about her father's past while trying to balance a possible relationship with Gavin Massis, and things get interesting when Captio Sahalin begins to ask Ro questions about her mother. It's obvious that some old friends are going to run into each other, but when and how is the question! All of this and more in the Chapter Two: Love, War, and Espionage!