Shadow: well, another chapter winging its way to you now. Sorry for the delay… I've had business to take care of…
Stories in the Dark
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Chapter 3 –
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"Pu… pu… puddle of…" Lili's pupils shrunk to the size of pinheads, "B… bl.. blood…"
"Get her away from there!" Si-ming roared at Cesia, "Do you want her to become unstable?"
With a swift guiding hand Cesia swept the little girl away from the large screen, and towards the professor who was hastily packing things.
"S.. sir?" She looked at him.
"Pass me that helmet on your right," He growled as he continued to pack things into a bullet shaped compartment.
"Sure." She passed him the helmet.
"We're getting away as fast, and as quickly as possible… Knowing Niiro and his internal programming, he'll be in the house in a matter of minutes." He turned, his once calm face was now displaying the simplest emotion. Fear. "Lili my dear..." He held out his arms she walked forwards but did not embrace him. "Thing have gone very, very wrong, and I'm afraid that…"
"I'm going back to the orphanage aren't I…" He eyes didn't meet his as her head was hanging, "You never wanted me around in the first place…"
"Lili…" Cesia choked back tears from both the loss of her dear friends and the immensely cold tone of her voice.
"I am. Aren't I." She looked up, her once blue eyes were now green, with furry.
Si-ming was taken back, "Yes my dear, only for now. I will explain to the..."
"Don't bother." Her eyes narrowed, "They'll figure it out. You never cared for me…"
"Don't you dare think that…!" Cesia snapped, "oh. Sorry stepped over my boundaries…" She returned to her quiet self and continued to pack while Si-ming dealt with the situation.
"Lili." He glared at her, "by now you should have figured out that you are no ordinary girl, you feel it within you don't you, the everlasting power just underneath the surface of your skin." The young girl looked up. The crystal clear eyes clouding over, confusion was now written on her face. "You don't know how to explain that feeling, it's almost like there is another person inside of you at times… taking over..,"
She nodded dumbly.
"I won't be sending you away unless I have to, you're very valuable to me, you're my daughter."
The green eyes were fading back to their blue, tears started to swell and dribble down her face. The old man raised one hand and whipped away the tears with his thumb.
"Now" He stood up, "Would you do us the honors and pilot us away Miss. Lili?"
"You're… You're letting her pilot?" Cesia looked up, the bullet shaped capsule was now loading into a personal shuttle.
"She is a pilot. And she has been trained. Its time she had a practical." He stood up and picked up a large metal Brief case, holding Lili's hand they walked up to the main door on the shuttle.
"Woo yeah!" Solo punched the air, "She's gonna fly!"
"Nana.. How could a child so young, pilot?" Wei looked up at the woman, there was no question in his eyes, only furry.
"If you knew that her, you would be able to understand." She replied calmly. "Swiftly in a matter of seconds…"
"Everything's secured sir." Cesia called from the back as she made her way to the front.
"Good." He nodded, "Lili, start it up."
"Okay…" She blinked and flicked a few buttons, the three small engines kicked into life.
"Now, in front of you there is an underground passage, its tight, but navigational." He belted himself in, so did Cesia in her back seat. "The tunnel goes downwards and through the colony, to pop out from a unused dock which I purchased."
"Right." She nodded.
"Be on your guard, Niiro will be following after us, and will not be pleased that we left the party so early." He spoke more towards Cesia, "there are not many weapons, apart from the main gun on the hull of the ship. If we need to use it."
The two females nodded, and Lili did the last of the pre-flight checkups. The shuttle wobbled as it lifted off into the air lightly and started moving forwards.
"Si-ming, sir.." Cesia whispered so not to distract the girl, "How can she pilot if she can not see over the dashboard?"
"Part of her basic training… during one part of the course all visuals were removed, and she piloted on Radar alone."
"But," She gasped lightly, "there are no mobile suits to show where she is meant to head!"
"True." He nodded, "But the program did not use GPS."
"A Global Positioning System?" She blinked, "can we trust such old technology?"
"We don't have to trust it, she does. All we have to do is trust her." Si-ming replied curtly, "Now hush. Don't distract her."
Inside the young mind of Lili a battle was being fought for control, man against machine. The D chip being the better of the two 'brains' was quickly earning dominance over the young mind. Electric pulses ran through her body as the D chip 'absorbed' the information of the shuttle, but most effort was spent on the production of mental sonar from the GPS unit. The mind of Lili gave in and the computer chip took over fully and flew swiftly though the labyrinth of a tunnel.
"Sir… how is she doing this… We haven't even scratched the wing tips…"
"Cesia, there is something surprisingly strange about this girl. You know that if the D chip activated itself early, the host would turn insane, just as Niiro did."
"Yes. I pity all my brothers and sisters who fell because of that."
"Well, take a good look at Lili." He nodded towards her with closed eyes, "Her D Chip is active, and its that, not her, flying us through this."
The young woman gasped, "She'll be insane!"
"Not unless she can master the chip. If she lets it activate whenever it deems to do so, she will fall like the others. But there is one thing the others did not have."
"What?"
"Me." He smiled, and pat the briefcase at his feet, "And my technology. With it, I will be able to help her control the gift she was given."
"Oh." She blinked, "Profess…" The shuttle jolted violently to the left. "What was that!" She jumped in her seat, "what did we hit!"
Si-ming growled and turned towards Lili, "Status?"
"Approximately two thousand and fifty meters and closing till our designated target, arrival time two minutes unhindered." Lili replied lifelessly as she adjusted a few switches, "Though if we want the ship to remain intact, the speed should be decreased in order to navigate the debris."
"Debris?" Si-ming rubbed his chin, "What is this debris?"
"Scanners indicate that it is a mixture of wood, iron and various other things." She replied and turned slightly, "Sir? Should we decrease the speed or shall I plough through?"
"Keep to the top of the tunnel Lili, but do not decrease our speed, raise it to regulation space travel speed."
"Sir."
"Uh.. Si-ming sir?" Cesia blinked, "What.. What are we doing?"
Si-ming ignored her, "and prepare the airlock for immediate departure."
"Already configured, it will open within 10 seconds of our arrival…."
"Woah, woah, woah…" Mathew looked up, "what type of tunnels are they traveling through?!"
Nana looked at her charge, "Well, technically speaking they weren't meant to have existed, when the colonies were being made, they designed them so that if anything top secret had to be moved…"
"Nana," Isis looked up, "You're lying."
"Ah! Caught me!" She chuckled, "Well, they were service tunnels from when the colony was being made. Afterwards most were used for things like fuel, emergency food and the armed forces… stuff like that. Si-ming somehow got his hands on one of the tunnels, and built it as a private track for his shuttle."
"But…how…"
"Solo, I do not know. It's the magic of the story. Now why cant you three be like the Yuy twins and be quiet…" She smiled sweetly, "Just like Lili said they were out in two minutes…."
"Ok. So we're now out of the colony" Cesia sighed, "What are we doing now?"
"Moving of course my dear girl." Si-ming turned towards Lili, "Turn the ship around full, and cut all power."
"Yes sir." Lili did so in a matter of seconds, her eyes faded back to their normal blue. "Eh?" she looked around, "What are we doing?"
Si-ming pulled out a detonator from his pocket, "Destroying evidence my dear girl.." He pressed the plunger and…
"Nooooo!!!" Isis screamed and slammed her hands to her ears.
"HUH?" Both of the Yuy twins jumped.
"Isis-chan?" Dorothy rested her hand on her friend's shoulder, "Are you ok?"
"He's going to blow them up!" She screamed as she hugged her Arabian father tighter.
Nana rolled her eyes, "No he's not…" she sighed, "If he was this story would have been rather bad."
"Well YEAH!" Duo shouted, "oops sorry… got-in into the story too much... heh."
"Daad, you're sooo weird.." Solo sighed.
Mathew nodded, "hey dad.." he turned towards Trowa, "Can you loosen your grip on my shoulder slightly… I know you don't like yelling…"
"Oh. Sorry." Trowa's hand retracted from his son's young shoulder, and the boy automatically started rubbing life back into it.
"I mean, its not as if we're talking about Mom." Matt laughed lightly.
Solo blinked and looked up at his very weird father, then at Mr. Barton, "Though…" he chewed the inside of his cheek, "Your dad and My dad reacted as if it was your mom…"
Trowa raised an eyebrow and looked at the young Maxwell, and then to Maxwell Senior, who was also looking at his son.
Nana smiled, "And what if I said I was talking about Matt's Mom?"
Matt laughed and was joined in by the rest of the youths. "Ya mean Duette..? That kid?"
"It's Mrs. Barton, Alexander. Not Duette."
"Hey she tells us to call her that." Dorothy countered.
"Your mother would not approve of that." Heero stated.
"Ah relax He-man!" Duo laughed, "Its not like they're doing any harm by calling her Duette." He looked at Alexander and winked.
Nana smirked, "Well, why do you say that Duette can't be this Lili girl?!"
The group was silent. For a few moments, the adults stayed quiet, most smiling lightly.
"Well she's not very smart.."
"HEY! Watch it Chang! That's my mom!" Mathew jumped to his feet; Trowa calmly dragged him back down to the chair, before he glared at the Changs.
"Her eyes don't change colour." Isis stated.
"true. Anything else?" Nana questioned.
"Well... she's too nice!" Solo snapped out.
Nana nodded, "You're right.. All these things point towards her not being Lili… yet still you said that I'm Cesia, just because I have two different coloured eyes… interesting." She sighed.
"But you're different!"
"Oh? How so?" Nana rested her chin on her hand looking over to the young Maxwell.
"Ww..Well… um… your hair!"
"My hair..?" she blinked, "Yes, its silver. Cesia's was rainbow… true."
"No one has naturally rainbow hair, it was died." Wei folded his arms, "You still may by her."
Dorothy pouted, "I thought this was a fictional story…"
The adults in the room paused momentarily and the ex-pilots looked towards the woman known as Nana.
"Ah, well… err…" she stood up and crossed over to a window and looked out. A solitary meteor shot past. "Its not."
You mean the D chip actually did exist? Alexander looked up at the nanny, Just how does she know this story…
"Valid questions Alex…" She chuckled turning around, "I guess I'll have to explain myself. Later though because…
*Ring, ring*
*Bzzzzst bzzzst*
*De-del-di-dee*
*Det-det-de-de-di-det-det-deee*
*Ring, ring, ring… ring, ring, ring phone call phone call..*
"Huh?" the five pilots looked up hearing five different phone rings.
Duo blinked, "woaah, 5 calls at the same time!"
"I don't think so." Nana laughed and pointed her finger towards the now unfolding videophone screen on top of the mantle.
The screen flickered.
"Yo!"
"D?" "Duette?" "Mom?" "HI!"
Duette looked around the room from her screen, "Woah.. There a family meeting which we weren't told about?" her face stilled from its laughing, "something wrong at home?"
"No, No, Duette dearest…" Nana stood up and stepped out in front, "Just telling the kiddies a story."
"…. And since when were the old fogies in the back kiddies?" she winked, "hey Hun." She waved lightly smiling. "So Nana, telling the story about the space pirate?"
"Last week mom."
"Oh." She blinked, "the one about the colony races?"
"Yesterday Duette." Isis smiled.
"I though we told you…"
"Hey hey, Quat!" Duette brought her face closer to the screen as she glared down Quatre, "I let the kids call me by my name." She paused momentarily as she thought, "Hmm, what could you be telling them about… no.. My wedding.. Are you?"
"Ooh!" Duo laughed, "That's a great one!"
"That's because you made that happen, baka." Heero snorted.
"no no, not any of them, though… the smirked looking back at the group, "the wedding one IS rather good… but another day." She looked back at Duette, "I'm telling a story about a young girl…
"Hey you sure Rosie would like you telling her life story?"
"Who was an orphan…"
Duette stopped her laughing, "uh... oh…"
Duo lent over to Trowa's ear, "we are so dead when she gets back…" the clown nodded silently.
"Yeah mom! Its really coool! We just met the bad guy his name's.."
"…Niiro! He's a wicked bad guy! Just slaughtered…" Wei added in.
"…Two people… oh! It was terrible!" Dorothy shook her head.
"And then there's the crazy old scientist guy named…"
"Si-Ming." Duette sighed.
"Uh. Yeah." Solo blinked after getting cut off by Duette, "you heard the story?"
"umh." She nodded. "Well.. Nana…" she flipped on a pair of sunglasses quickly as she looked up to the group.
"Wow… that got her worked up… I haven't seen her put on the shades in years…" Duo blinked.
"Nana… I'll speak to you later about this." She turned slightly, "Oh and Duo, I heard that. " turning fully she waved, mumbling, "doppelganger out."
"Uh. Well then." Nana sighed and sat back down, "that went better than I.." the power flickered and cut out, leaving the light from the fireplace, "… expected…"
"Woah." The kids blinked, "How did the power go out?"
Isis blinked, "Daady, you said that the power would never go out because of the back up generators and advanced circuitry…"
Quatre looked around, "the power's not out… the circuit to the lighting was disconnected."
"How is that possible?" Wei blinked, "I thought that this place was impenetrable…"
"Oh. It is lil' Wei… it is." Duo stood up and looked out the window, the rest of the lights were on for the lower and upper floors. "I think its safe to say that things were re routed… the system believes that there in no second floor lighting…"
"Dad." Solo looked at him, "They'd have to be a 1st class hacker to do that… and why would anyone want to cut out power for one floor?"
"To tell us that she's here…"
"Who? Who's here?"
"The spirit of Lili." Trowa finished off.
"Now... let us continue out story… in the dark."
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KB – Well… I got no where in the last few pages…
Duette *still wearing sunglasses* - Its too dark with these one.. can't I take 'em off?
KB – no… not yet.
Duette – Fiddlesticks! *takes off glasses*
*choom*
Duette – why did the power just go out…
KB – eh heh… no reason! Well folks! I hope you enjoyed this chapter of Stories in the Dark!
Duette – Yesh.. now it really is a story in the dark. Hrrumph *sulks*
Duo *with flashlight* – read and review! *waves*