Title: Mobile Suit Zaku
Chapter 02: The Road not Taken
Disclaimer: Some names, characters, places and events contained in this story are copyrights of Bandai Entertainment. All others are intellectual property of American Zaku Productions. This story is Fanfiction based on the sci-fi anime series Mobile Suit Gundam. It is an original story spin-off of that series which follows the life of Xandra Zabi during the horrific One Year War.
Author's Notes: I wasn't able to find out much about Garma pre-OYW, specifically, about when he entered the military, so I have to take some liberties in this chapter.

Chapter 02
The Road not Taken
0073.12.24 UC

Walking down the dark corridor, the only sounds she could hear were of the echoes of her footsteps and her heartbeat. The enemy was near, her pulse was racing and she was getting nervous. The concrete floor, walls and ceiling created an ominous chill. There was hardly any light, but her eyes had begun to adjust to the darkness. Exiting the corridor into a large room, Xandra quickly scanned her new surroundings. The room was big, the darkness shrouded its full size, but she estimated about fifty by fifty yards and over ten feet high. A few columns along with the lack of light made it impossible to know for sure. Standing around wasn't going to get her anywhere; she knew her objective wasn't too far off. Taking a deep breath she made a dash for the other side of the room. The moment she took her first step, the sound of a gunshot echoed through the room. She could see the spark of light coming from the shooter's location. Taking cover behind a column, she took hold of her gun from the holster on her hip. Xan would make out the outline of the next column and it wasn't too far. Making another attempt for a run and turned and fired blindly in the direction the shots were coming from as she ran towards the column. This time however no shots were fired. She thought it was odd, but so much was rushing through her head she didn't stop to think about it clearly. Now she could see a way out, a light in the darkness, the outline of a doorway. After a moment's hesitation, she made a run for it. But they were ready for her, without her having noticed they had repositioned themselves in the darkness and now had her surrounded. The ceiling lit up brightly as the many lights were turned on and a loud buzzer went off signaling the end of the drill. "Congratulations Zabi, you're dead", said the drill instructor with a rather sarcastic tone.

"Damnit! Why the hell didn't I see that coming?" Xan slammed her fist against her dorm room wall.

Faye, standing in the doorway just let out a sigh. "Don't beat yourself up over it, we all bombed that test, it's a no win scenario. Sending in a lone person with no real special ops training to infiltrate a facility you know nothing about. There really isn't much point to it."

Madison, as always, had her own ideas about things. "I heard it's supposed to be a test to find out of you can tell where people are without seeing them. Some kinda psychic thing."

"You don't really believe all that Newtype stuff Deikun said do you? People take it far too literally, and it's just turning into propaganda." Faye was always a 'non-believer' when it came to the Newtype theory.

As Xan listened to them argue the point back and forth, she thought about what she did, and what she could have done during the drill. Whenever she made a mistake, she always made a point of analyzing it to make sure she didn't repeat it. But she still couldn't come to any final realization.

"Hey Zabi, you got a visitor" a voice yelled out from outside the dorm.

Xan looked up a little puzzled, she wasn't expecting anyone, least of all who stepped into the room. A young officer entered, someone whom she knew from somewhere but couldn't quite place where until she heard his voice. "It's been a while, how have you been?"

"Garma? Is that you?" Xan hadn't seen him since she left for Side 6 all those years ago. She was never particularly close to any of Degwin's children despite being raised as though she were one of their siblings. Garma was the only one that made her feel as though she was part of the family. Faye and Madison stood and saluted when he entered, though a low ranking officer fresh out of the Academy, he was still their superior.

Garma smiled and handed her a wrapped box. "I was going to give this to you when you got back, but work kept getting in the way. So I thought this being Christmas Eve would be as good a time as any, welcome home Xandra." Faye motioned to Madison that they should leave and not intrude on the family reunion. The two quietly slipped out as Xan smiled and thanked Garma for the gift. "Being a soldier doesn't quite seem to suit you, I never would have expected you to enter the Academy, let alone at your age and under the advanced placement program."

Xan blushed a bit when she replied. "Well, I just didn't see my life going in any other meaningful direction. And after seeing that..."

Garma wasn't sure what she meant at first, and then he figured it out. "So father showed you the prototype mobile suit huh? It's still a long way off from being a useable craft. Even the space construction units it was based on just aren't reliable for combat."

Her face turned as he spoke, her expression now one of worry. "You really think there will be a war someday? Between the Federation and us? The thought of defending her homeland was inspiring to her, though she had often times ignored the possibility of going into live combat. It was something she just tried not to think about. She would always just think of chasing off the Federation blockade and defend the colonies from any aggression. In all honesty, the thought of going on an offensive scared the hell out of her.

"I really don't see how it can be avoided. The Earth Federation refuses to acknowledge any colony as an independent nation, and to top things off Gihren has been getting more and more aggressive. If I didn't know better, I'd think he really wanted a war and was just biding his time until we had enough firepower. I hope that's not how it is, but sometimes I wonder." He stopped for a moment and noticed her expression. "Sorry, I don't mean to worry you. At any rate, I don't think father would allow him to just go off and start a war like that, but in the end it'll be up to the Federation to just give us what's rightfully ours."

"I suppose." It was all she could really say.

"Well, I better be going, I'm due to leave on a new Chivvay class fresh out of the shipyards. It was good seeing you again."

Xandra gave him a hug and told him to be careful out there, but she was more worried about her own future then ever before. She was starting to think of things she had put great effort into not thinking of. Before returning to Side 3 she did have other plans on how to spend her life. Part of her fascination with the Mobile Suit was from her skills as a talented engineering student; it was the field she was aiming to go into. Originally she though she could land a high paying job designing and constructing colony construction machines or intercolony transport shuttles. But ever since seeing that huge humanoid machine, something in her stirred, she knew she had to be a part of that project. But now, she was just realizing how far deep in she was getting herself.

She looked down at the present from Garma and began unwrapping it. As she pulled back the cover, a look of surprise appeared. In the box was a picture of a man who she could hardly remember, but she knew who it was. "How did he manage to find a picture of my father?" It was something that had always bothered her. For reasons no one would say, other then 'national security', she was never allowed to see any records relating to her father. Even pictures were seemingly removed from everywhere. She clutched the picture to her chest as distant memories began coming back to her. She remembered vast open skies and endless blue seas, memories of a trip to Earth, a place she had never been to at any other time in her life. Overcome with emotion she nearly collapsed. She had spent so much of her life wondering about her real parents. She wondered if Garma found something out. But if he did, why would he not have just told her?

The picture, which rested in a frame on a table next to her bed, kept her father in her thoughts all that week. Even during her classes and drills she couldn't stop thinking that she wasn't told the truth about what happened to him. In fact, she realized she was never told anything other then that he died when she was two years old. She was clearly distracted by this and Faye and Madison noticed fairly quickly though they didn't want to press the issue if Xan didn't want to talk about it. But when it began affecting their team performance they felt they had no choice but to confront her.

One night after a less then spectacular flight simulation drill, the three returned to their dorm as usual. "So are you going to say what's been eating at you or are we just gunna hafta beat it otta ya?" Madison was never one for subtlety.

"It's nothing... really." Xan replied, though neither of them believed it for a second.

Faye looked her right in the eyes. "Look, you've been acting weird ever since Garma showed up, so what happened with you two?"

"Nothing. . . not anything to do with him, not really. It's personal. . . " She was trying, very unsuccessfully to dodge the issue, the two girls had caught her off guard, she had not realized that her mental state was so obvious.

Madison glared angrily at Xan's reply. "It's gettin' in the way of our kickin' the butts of those damn guys."

"Eloquently put as always Reese." Faye muttered. "Look, something is obviously bothering you, so why not just tell us. If you can't trust us, then who can you trust?"

Xandra thought it over for a moment. Faye had a point, in two years they may very well be going into battle together, and if they were going to be a team they needed to trust each other. And Xan began telling them about her father and the mystery surrounding his death. The girls gave a sympathetic look of suspicion, something was wrong and anyone could see that.

"Well, no problem, we'll help you figure it out." Faye said confidently. "My family has a lot of political and military ties, I'm sure someone knows something."

"Yeah, and before the Principality was formed and took over the press, my family ran a newspaper, they probably have all kinds of inside info." Madison took out a small black book and began sifting through pages looking for contact info.

Xan was speechless. She couldn't come up with words to express her gratitude to them, not just for they're wanting to help, but for being sympathetic to what she was going through. Because of her family, sympathy was not something she saw much of in life. A meek "thank you" was all she could mutter as the three went to work on finding the answers Xan had waiting for the past thirteen years

Wrap up: The first real foreshadowing about Xan's past just happened and I'll be expanding on it all throughout the story, lets just say the Zabis have more then just a few skeletons in the closet lol..