Returning Home
By: Dal

The neighborhood was completely dark. The streetlights didn't reach the sidewalks and cast eerie shadows on all the parked vehicles. A girl stood on the sidewalk and looked up at the large, two story house in front of her. She carried nothing except a backpack slung over her shoulder. She took one look around the block before she started walking. She had traveled far out of her way to visit this place again. As far as she knew, her family still lived there. They probably didn't think about her much. Maybe they'd even forgotten her already. She'd been gone for over a decade after all. But she'd promised in the letter she'd written before she'd left that she'd visit them whenever she returned to town.
"Tomorrow." She whispered. "I'll see you tomorrow."

The Tsukino's were just sitting down to breakfast when the doorbell rang. Shingo jumped up and rushed to answer it.
"I wonder who on earth would be calling on us this early in the morning?" Kenji asked.
Shingo came back into the room leading a young woman. The woman bowed to the two sitting people before she spoke.
"I'm sorry to bother you at such an early hour," She said unemotionally. "But I won't be here later today and I made a promise that I intend to keep."
Ikuko studied the woman standing in the middle of the room. She had blond hair to her chin that was streaked with silver. She was wearing a pair of baggy, torn jeans and a black tee shirt covered by a leather jacket. A pair of sunglasses covered her eyes. "I'm sorry, ma'am." She said. "But can I ask your name?"
The woman seemed to find this quite amusing but she kept her face emotionless. "My name?" She asked. "I guess I do need to introduce myself. It has been a long time. Still, it's odd you don't recognize me." She pushed the sunglasses onto the top of her head and studied the other people with cold, blue eyes. "It's me, Usagi."
The room went completely silent. Then Ikuko fainted. The two men rushed to her side, but the woman merely dug through her pocket and pulled out a small tube. She opened it and passed it under the older woman's nose. Her eyes fluttered open.
"What the..." She looked at the girl. "Usagi?"
The younger woman nodded. "Hai. It's me." She said.
Kenji stood and helped his wife up. Shingo stood and studied the woman claiming to be his long lost sister. "What happened to you?" He asked.
Usagi turned her icy gaze to the boy. "What do you mean?" She asked.
Shingo shook his head. "You can't be Usagi." He said. "Usagi would have been laughing or crying right now. You're too cold and emotionless to be her."
Usagi smiled, but it didn't touch her eyes. "When you spend ten years fighting wars, you don't find much to smile or laugh at." She said.
"War?" Kenji asked.
Usagi nodded. "The war with the organization OZ." She explained.
Ikuko looked at her daughter. "You mean, you fought in the war. You killed people?" She asked.
Usagi looked at the ground. "I did." She said quietly. " But I had no choice."
"How could you not have a choice?" Shingo demanded angrily.
Usagi looked up, startled. Then she too grew angry. "Do you know how hard it was to shoot those people?" She asked. "Every bullet I fired killed another person. But if I didn't kill them, who would? Who else would have ended that war and brought peace to the world?"
Shingo shrunk back from her gaze, then shot back, "The Gundam Pilots." He said. "That's why they were there."
"I was a Gundam Pilot." Usagi shouted. Then she calmed down immediately. She turned her cold eyes on her shocked family. "I'm sorry, that was un-called for." She said.
"What do you mean?" Kenji asked finally.
Usagi sat down. "I don't have much time here, but I'll explain everything to you the best I can. I've known the doctors for as long as I can remember. They're the ones who trained me and gave me my Gundam. Then, when I was fourteen, they introduced me to the other Gundam pilots.

~Flashback~
"Where are we going?" A young Usagi asked. She looked out the window of the car she was in. "I've got to be at school in an hour. And I can't keep being late like this."
The older man that was driving the car looked at her. "I want you to meet some people." He said. "Besides, being late keeps you from suspicion. No one will think anything's going on if you can keep this charade up for a few more months."
"You shouldn't have picked me up on the street. Someone might have seen." She pointed out.
"I checked on it." The doctor said. He drove into the parking lot of a warehouse and turned off the car. "We're here." He said.
Usagi opened the car door and stepped out. "But, this is where the Gundams-"
The doctor silenced her by waving his hand. "These people you're meeting know all about the Gundams." He said. He opened the door and led her inside the warehouse.
"You're finally here." A man's voice said.
Usagi's quickly turned and focused on the five boys and three men standing inside the building. Six Gundams towered behind them. "Who're they?" She asked the doctor.
The man who had spoken first smiled. "I am Dr. O." He said. "These are the other doctors, (AN: I have no idea what their real name/letters are, so I'm making them up) Drs. H, M, and S. Of course, you already know Dr. J." He gestured to each man as he spoke.
Dr. J stepped in front of her. "The boys are training to be Gundam pilots like you. That's Wufei, Trowa, Quatre, Duo, and Hiiro." He pointed to each boy. The Chinese boy, Wufei, glared at her.
"I don't want to work with any weak onna like her." He said under his breath.
Before he knew it, he found himself flat on his back with a knife to his throat. The girl was sitting on his chest, and she wasn't happy. "Gomen nasai." She said. "But I could swear I heard you call me an onna. And not just and onna, but a weak onna." She pushed the blade against his skin. "Now who's the weak one?" She stood up and pulled the knife from his neck.
Wufei glared at her as he stood up. The other boys stared at her before the one with the braid burst out laughing. "Wu-man got beaten." He said in-between laughing. "I like her."
Usagi smiled at the boy. Her eye caught the clock on the wall and she swore under her breath. "Crap, I'm gonna be late." She said. She bowed to the doctors, picked up her school bag and took off running."
~End Flashback~

"Three months later, I had to leave for my mission." Usagi said. She studied the faces of her parents. Her mother was crying and her father was white with shock. "I wrote the letter, telling you I was okay and I'd be back someday."
"Someday!" Shingo exploded. "You've been gone ten years!"
Her father moved to quiet him, but Usagi shook her head. "He's right." She said. "I missed so much. We all thought we'd only be away for a year or so, but the war kept going on and on." She looked up as the doorbell rang.
Ikuko wiped her eyes with her hand. "I'll get it." She said. She stood and walked to the door. She opened the door to reveal a young man. "Ohayo." She said. "May I help you?"
The man's eyes wandered behind her into the house. "I'm here for Usa-chan." He said.
Ikuko raised an eyebrow. Usa-chan? She turned from the door. "Usagi!" She yelled. "There's someone here to see you." She turned back to the man. "Please, come in."
The man stepped into the house just as Usagi came out of the kitchen. Her eyes widened at the man in front of her. She ran up to him and flung her arms around his neck and kissed him on the cheek. "Hii-kun." She said. "I haven't seen you for the longest time."
Shingo and Kenji had followed her into the hallway. Now, they watched in shock as the man turned his head and kissed her gently on the lips. They could barely hear his words as he whispered into her ear.
"I missed you too, Usa." He whispered.
"Who is he?" Kenji asked. His face was turning red with anger.
Usagi turned to her father. "Tou-san." She said. "Calm down. This is my... friend... Hiiro."
Hiiro looked at the girl in his arms. "I came to tell you we have to go." He said softly.
Ikuko heard this quite clearly. "Go?!" She asked. "She just got here. She can't leave again."
Usagi looked at her mother. "I have to. Just because the war's over doesn't mean people have stopped fighting. We need to stop the fighting before another war breaks out."
Ikuko sighed. "Please, don't go." She begged. "We just got you back, and now you're leaving again."
Usagi clenched her fists. "Please." She said. "Don't make this any harder on me. We'll meet again. And it will be in less then a decade."
Hiiro opened the door for her and let her walk out before he closed the door behind them. "Did you tell them?" He asked as they walked away.
"About us?" Usagi asked. She shook her head. "No. It would only cause more problems." She pulled two rings out of her pocket and slipped them on her left hand. "I mean, if they knew they missed our wedding, they'd freak."
Hiiro wrapped his arm around her shoulders. "Did you plant the bug?" He asked.
Usagi nodded. "Hai, but I still don't see how Shingo can be with OZ. I made sure not to tell him anything he doesn't already know. The only thing he learned was about me being a pilot."
"Good. We need to find out where the OZ resistance is forming." Hiiro said. "You're brother is the best way to do that."
Usagi put her sunglasses on and pulled her jacket tighter around her. "I know. Now, you promised to let me visit some of my friends." She said. She grabbed her husband's hand and led him down the street.