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Chapter One
Arrival
He watched as his father held her hand. And he said nothing during the shuttle ride to Earth. They were supposed to be meeting her family when they landed. Walking through the port, his father held her hand, ignoring the glares from his sons, ignoring the fact that their mother had died, and ignoring the fact that this woman had another family. He could feel his anger boiling beneath his skin.
"Heero!" his father shouted, running to embrace a tall, dark-haired and blue-eyed man who was standing near a videophone station. The stern-looking man suddenly brightened and held his father close, burying his father's head in his shoulder and petting his father's hair.
It amazed him. During his mother's funeral, the strong man named Trowa was the first to shed tears and hug his father. His father's other friend, the smaller blond-haired man named Quatre had also softened immediately and held his father close to him. Wufei, the angry Chinese man even cried and embraced his father. All these strong and dangerous men that his father had known in the war, and all of them had become unwavering pillars of emotional support during his father's time of need. It destroyed the image of the unfeeling and stoic soldier that the history books painted of the Gundam Pilots who fought in the Eve wars. He was glad to have that image destroyed.
Hayden was introduced to Heero, and his brother was too. He and his brother walked silently behind their father and the married couple named Heero and Jin. He listened abstractly as they talked.
"It's good to have you here, Duo," Heero said to his father. "And I'm glad you'll be living at the Academy with us for a while. You're welcome to your old instructor job, I'm sure you're aware of that."
"Where's your daughter?" his father asked.
Heero paused uncomfortably for a moment before he answered. "I'm sorry I wasn't able to make it to Hilde's funeral, Duo. I wish I could have been there for you…"
"Everyone was there, Heero, you didn't have to trouble…"
"…No, Duo, I would have been there. It's just that, well, Kaori hasn't been feeling well lately. We decided that I should stay with her."
"What's been wrong with Kaori?"
This time Jin answered. "She's an empath, Duo. With more mental power than Heero, Quatre, or I have ever experienced. Sometimes, she has trouble controlling it. After feeling Heero's and my sorrow for Hilde, she became so sick."
"We didn't think she could handle going to a funeral," Heero said. "She isn't even at home right now. She's afraid to feel all three of you at the same time."
"We hope she will gain control again soon," Jin added.
His father was silent for a while, listening to his friends talking about their daughter. Hayden was silent, too. He had never met an empath. His brother gave him a glance that said he was thinking the same thing.
They continued talking to his father about little things. From the shuttle port they went to a waiting car. Heero drove. It was the first time Hayden had been to Earth. His father tried to tell him about what the Earth looked like before they arrived. That the moon was farther away and smaller in the night sky, that the air smelled fresher and cleaner than the artificial air of the colonies, that the sky was really a reflection of the immense oceans rather than synthesized colors on a screen. Nothing prepared him for the beauty of it all. Nothing prepared him for the real grass and air and water of the Earth.
Preventor Academy read the sign at the beginning of the drive. He couldn't believe that his father once taught here. That his father was thinking of teaching here. That they were about to move into this building complex and live there. This was more than his imagination could handle.
A woman named Sally met them outside the building, smiling and crying at the same time. She hugged Duo, hugged each of the boys and then apologized for not being able to make it to the funeral. Hayden remembered having seen her daughter at the funeral, along with her daughter's father. They were not married though, so he could not call Wufei her husband. Sally led them to an elevator and took them to the sixth floor.
Heero and Jin lived in the apartments behind door 603. He, his father, and his brother were placed in the quarters next to theirs behind door 605. It was bare and small. Two bedrooms and a living area with a small kitchen attached. It was very small compared to the house they'd lived in with his mother. But his mother wasn't around now.
They had dinner at Heero and Jin's apartment. He didn't pay much attention to the conversation during dinner until they mentioned the Academy.
"Have you talked to your sons about joining the Academy?" Heero asked.
Duo swallowed the food he'd been chewing. "I haven't," he said, glancing aside at his boys. "Hilde had mentioned it to me once or twice, but we never talked to the boys about it. Why do you ask?"
"Just that the cadets will start soon. Within the end of the week, actually," Jin said. "And Kaori will be in the entering class this fall."
"Will she really?" his father asked, a hint of excitement creeping into his voice.
"Yes," Heero answered. "We're very proud of her for joining. You should talk to them about it," he said, nodding his head in the direction of Hayden and Luke.
"Can the boys still join?"
"Of course," Jin said. "The Academy accepts cadets ages 17 and up, so there's no problem with that rule. And I'm sure that we can pull a few strings to get Duo Maxwell's sons admitted at the last minute. I doubt either Noin or Lady Une would object."
They ate in silence for a moment. Then his father asked, "Will Kaori be alright as a cadet?"
"She's a strong girl…"
And Hayden neglected to pay attention to the rest of the dinner conversation. His mind was focused on the possibility of being a cadet for the Preventors. He knew that both of his parents had worked in this institution for a while, but they had rarely talked about their past in the Preventor's ranks or in the military before that. It seemed as if his parents had things that they wanted very much to forget.
The woman Jin was smiling at his father, reaching over occasionally to set her hand on top of his in a gesture of support and warmth. He glared each time she looked in his father's direction. Finally, he could take no more.
"I'm leaving," he said quietly. He left their apartment.
He considered going to his own room, the one he'd have to share with his little brother. But they'd find him there. He decided to leave the sixth floor and wander around the building complex that was now his home.
The hallways were dark and abandoned, the Academy running off of minimal power intake to conserve energy during the summer break. Cadets would arrive at the end of the week, and the halls would be fully lit and cooler then. Right now, he was sweating as he stalked slowly through the sterile and empty passageways in the building. Sighing discontentedly, he found himself outside of the building, heading toward the lake built on the south side of the complex.
Insects, invisible to his eyes, made chirping sounds in the nearby woods. Somewhere on the lake, a water creature rose to the surface and dove into the depths of the water again, making a light sploshing sound. It was surreal to him, being here where his parents used to work together. He had never known of his parents' involvement with the Preventors, or the Eve wars for that matter. They'd kept him and his brother ignorant from the truth and had only reluctantly admitted the truth after he'd found out in history class that Duo Maxwell had been Gundam Pilot 02. His mother had held him close and apologized for lying to him all those years. His mother had been understanding. His mother was now gone.
Tears made his cheeks cold when the breeze blew in from the lake. His thoughts rested on the memories of his mother. The memories that his father was betraying by being so friendly to that Jin Yuy woman. He was sure they weren't involved in an affair, and the logical part of his brain told him that he was simply overreacting due to the stressful events of the last week. But his heart ached to see his father smile at Mrs. Yuy. His heart ached to see his father smile at all, especially when he couldn't force himself to smile. He couldn't make himself discard the sorrow that wrapped so tightly around him he felt as if he'd suffocate.
"Let go of your anger."
His head snapped up, searching around him to find the owner of the voice. He roughly smeared the tears from his face, refusing to let anyone see him cry.
"We all cry sometimes," the voice said again. This time, he found the owner. She was walking toward him from around the lake, her bare feet stepping lightly along the shore of the lake. It was dark outside, with the moon already behind the mass of the Preventor building. She was wearing a simple dress, the tips of which brushed the ground lightly as she walked. He couldn't see her features, the details of her face. But he saw the dark hair that cascaded in waves down her back, ending near her knees. He saw her strangely colored red-violet eyes.
"What do you want?" he barked at her, a little more sternly than he had planned. Uneasily, he shifted his seating position on the hard rock and settled down on the soft sand.
She sat down beside him, drawing her knees up and wrapping her arms around them. Her hair curtained most of her face from view, but he saw her eyes peer unblinking out at the lake and the outline of her nose and lips. "I want to help you," she said simply, not tearing her gaze from the gentle waves lapping at the sandy shore of the lake. Her toes wiggled in the sand.
"Help me with what?" Curiosity laced his stern tone of voice from before.
"Your anger. Your sadness." She stopped speaking for a moment and closed her eyes in concentration. "You miss your mother," she said quietly, barely audible over the chirping night insects.
"Yes." He couldn't bring himself to say anymore than that. Realization dawned. "You're Kaori, aren't you?"
She nodded, her hair making light swishing sounds as it rubbed against her clothing. "Don't be mad at my mother. She has been friends with my father and yours since they were our age. She was a friend of your mother, too."
They sat together in silence for a while, listening to the sounds of the night creatures and the occasional ripple of water.
"I just miss her," he confessed. "And at times like these, I feel like my father doesn't miss her so much. He's more interested in playing with old friends."
"He's torn inside," she replied, closing her eyes again as she focused. "Colonel Maxwell is torn between crying over the love of his life and laughing from seeing old friends and family. Did you know the Gundam pilots lost most of their families before or during the Eve wars? Your father was an orphan from the beginning. My father doesn't remember if he ever had family, since he was trained to be a soldier from infancy. My mother is the same way. Uncle Trowa remembers his mother's death when he was very young, and Uncle Wufei's entire clan was killed. Uncle Quatre's father died to protect peace." Her eyes opened, and she continued her tale. "Our fathers, the Gundam pilots, decided to adopt each other as family. Since they were fifteen years old, they've regarded each other as brothers. So you see why he forgets his sorrow when he's around the family he's missed for the last sixteen years?"
Hayden sighed. He'd never thought of it that way. Since his father never talked about his past, he never knew he was an orphan, or that the men he's met as "Uncles" over the past few days were really not his uncles. They were the good friends and fellow soldiers his father met during the Eve wars. And even his father's long absence from them did not diminish the friendship they'd developed all those years ago. He nodded his head in acknowledgement and continued to stare out over the water.
"How do you know so much about our parents?" he asked. "My father refuses to tell me anything and the little that I do know, my mother reluctantly told me."
"She was probably reluctant because she knew your father did not want you to know."
"I wonder why not?"
Kaori shifted on the sand, stretching her legs out in front of her and leaning back on her hands. "You should ask him."
"Ask him what?"
"Anything."
He was silent. She hadn't said much to him, but she was absolutely correct. Ever since he was about thirteen he'd resented his father. His father never told him anything, denied being a Gundam pilot even though he'd seen his father's picture and read about his accomplishments in history class. He'd not spoken to his father much since that day. Maybe now he should bury old resentments and actually try speaking to his father. "Do you think I should follow him?" he asked, hoping she realized he was referring to applying for the Academy.
"He was not a cadet here."
At least she understood what he'd been talking about. "He wasn't?"
"The Preventors were established after the Eve wars. Your parents were both a part of the military during the wars, and then they became instructors here."
"Your parents are instructors here?" he asked.
"Yes. My father works with computer systems analysis and marksmanship. My mother specializes in combat training and reconnaissance. They both work with body conditioning classes."
"And you want to go to school here?"
"You specialize in using a statement as a question, don't you?" she teased.
He laughed a little. "I guess I do."
"Yea," she agreed. "I guess I want to go to school here," she said.
"You aren't sure about going to school here?"
She smiled when she noted that he did it again, asking a question using a statement. "I don't know my purpose in life," she confessed. "It makes me feel empty to not know my purpose. And since I have no idea what to do, I suppose being a part of the only military in existence and following my parents is the best thing for me."
"No purpose?"
She sighed heavily and stood up. "I suppose I'm like my father. My mother teases him about 'needing a mission' all the time…" She never finished her statement, but reached a hand down to help him up.
He took her offered hand and stood up stiffly. They must have been sitting there for quite a while, since his muscles were cold and not working properly. She tried to pull her hand back, but he kept it in his grip. "I'm Hayden Maxwell," he said, shaking her hand. He used his mother's nickname for him, rather than his real name.
"Kaori Yuy," she said with a shy smile. "I hope I helped."
"You did." He released her hand and started walking with her back to the main building. "I just never considered my father's feelings much in all of this. You're right, I do need to talk to him more often."
"Talking helps when you want to understand someone. Reading minds doesn't work for everyone." She smiled.
Once inside the building, Hayden cursed the low power mode. He'd wanted to see her, to see what she looked like. Though she was distant and quiet, she was beautiful inside, caring and sweet. He wanted to know if the outside matched the inside.
Kaori told him a little about the building as they made their way though the halls and toward the elevator. Down that hallway were the gyms and training module hangars. Down that way was the cafeteria. In the elevator she gave him a quick run-down. The first and second floors contained classrooms, gyms, and instructors' private offices. The third through fifth floors were dorm rooms for the cadets, each floor holding two hundred persons with two people in each room.
"Coed floors, but no coed rooms, much to the disappointment of some…" she added with a smile. He only wished the lights in the elevators worked. She pressed the fourth floor button. "I live on fourth floor," she explained. "Room 437. You're more than welcome to visit me there any time you like."
He smiled. Visiting her was something he'd definitely have to do tomorrow.
"The sixth floor houses the instructors who decided to stay on campus," she continued with her explanation of the Academy building.
"What's on floors seven through fourteen?" he asked, noticing that those buttons did not light on the elevator as brightly as the first six floors did.
"Research, med labs, weapons development, intelligence," she said. "All under strict authorized access rules. That's why we can't just push those buttons." Kaori pointed at the buttons. He noticed that they had a kind of covering over them that only unlocked when an access code was entered to the keypad on the right and there was another security measure that required an id card of some sort.
They exited the elevator together when it reached the fourth floor. He intended to walk her to her room. Something his mother had taught him, to be a gentleman and make sure she arrived safely at her home.
"I hope you feel better," she said, giving him a little hug when they reached her door.
"I hope so too. I'll see you tomorrow?"
She smiled because he asked a question with a statement, again. "I'll be easy to find."
