AN Orphan's Life

Disclaimer: If I owned Gundam Wing, there' d be more episodes with Zechs and Noin laughing at how stupid Lady Une is and how they will one day destroy her in an elaborately set plan that would make her death look like a freak accident. . *Cough* .So, since that hasn't happened, I do not own Gundam Wing.

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Elysia glanced around the packed van and held back a smile. Her newfound cousins were sitting next to her newfound friends.

She couldn't believe that there were two people who were actually related to her in the van. People who were family.

This was really throwing her whole plan off.

She sighed and looked out the window, watching the snow as it fell.

Everything was happening so fast.

During the talk she had with her seventeen-year-old cousin, a few things had come up.

One being that they, Jacob and Lisette, had never known that they had a cousin. Their parents had never told them about her.

To which Lisette became very peeved about, figuring that there was a mass cover-up and that she would get to the bottom of it.

This was why they were in the van, going to the top-secret base that her father ran, expecting to get some more information about everything that happened since they were born.

She was thoroughly pissed at her father for never telling her about Elysia.

Which was a comfort to Elysia, since she realized that she wasn't the only one who was angry.

She was starting to adore her younger cousin.

Something else that came up, much to Elysia's dsappointment, was that her Uncle Zechs and her Aunt Noin were off in Italy, visting Lisette and Jacob's grandparents. They wouldn't be back for a few more days.

Another thing that came up during the conversation was the fact that there was indeed some sort of conspiracy going on among the former gundam pilots and their respected colleagues.

It was up to the eight people in the car to figure out just what exactly that conspiracy was.

Elysia sighed again, realizing that when she finally got to meet her father, there was still going to be a lot of things that would have to be sorted out. She was beginning to wonder if she should even bother trying to figure out all of this stuff.

All she wanted was her mother, and then her father. There was no need to go digging up old conspiracies and secrets.

"Elysia?"

Elysia looked back to her traveling companions and turned to Theo sitting next to her, who had called her name. "Yeah?"

He looked down slightly as he talked to her. "I, um… found this," he pulled out something from his jacket and held it up for her to see," in the hotel room after you left. I figured it was important, so I kind of held it for you." He placed it in her hands quickly and looked away to hide the blush that was creeping up his face for some odd reason.

Elysia frowned a little and looked at what he handed her. Her eyes widened when she realized it was her little box. "Oh, my god! I can't believe I left this!" Without even thinking about what she was doing, she kissed Theo on the cheek and gave him a hug. "Thank you so much! I don't what I would've done if I had l lost it!"

Theo's eyes widened as his hand slowly went up to the cheek she had just touched with her beautiful lips.

"What's got you so happy, El?" Shane asked from the front passenger seat.

Elysia leaned forward happily and waved the box at him. "I just got back something really important to me!"

Shane turned to look at her better. "Really? What is it?"

Elysia opened the box happily and pulled the key out. "My mother gave me this the night before she died. She said it was very important that I keep it." She frowned a little when she saw the picture in the box.

Where the heck did that come from?

She pulled it out to get a better look while Shane asked," What does it go to?"

Elysia studied the picture and answered slowly," I don't know…" She looked at Theo. "Where did you get this?"

Theo frowned a little. "The picture? It was underneath that velvet stuff." He frowned some more. "Why?"

Elysia looked back at the picture and stared at her mother's face. "I never saw it in there."

Lisette turned around from her spot in the middle of the seat in front of Elysia and looked at her. "Can I see that key real quick?"

Elysia nodded and handed her the key, not taking her gaze off of the picture.

All these years she'd had the box and she never noticed the picture underneath it.

She smiled slightly at the image in front of her, recognizing it as the time she, her mother, and Pargan went out on a picnic in front of their house. They had been sitting under her favorite tree and Pargan had pulled out a camera, snapping pictures of them the whole time they ate.

She held back the tears that sprang to her eyes at the thought of Pargan.

Where was he now? Was he even alive still?

She turned the picture over and frowned when she saw some numbers written on the back. "What the…?"

"Aha! I knew it!"

Everybody jumped at Lisette's cry of triumph.

Jennifer glared at the girl who had woken her up from a nice sleep and asked crankily," Knew what?"

Lisette looked to Jacob excitedly. "Jacob, look at this key and tell me what you see."

Jacob took the key from his sister and stared at it annoyed. "Rust?"

Lisette made a face and snatched it away from him, looking to Elysia as she explained. "At the base, there's a bunch of lockers and safety deposit boxes and such. They remodeled the entire building a few years back, but they kept all the older ones on the lower floor."

Elysia frowned at her cousin. "What are you trying to say?"

Lisette handed her the key. "I recognized this key as belonging to one of the older lockers." She smiled a bit, half out of triumph, half out of what the thought was. "If your mother gave this to you before she died, then that means she had to have put something in the locker. Something you probably want." She looked to Jacob happily. "Don't you get it? Aunt Relena put something away in dad's base lockers, because the base is the most secure area in the world! She knew something was up!"

Jacob stared at his younger sister blankly, then shook his head. "Moron. Are you trying to tell me that Aunt Relena knew she was going to die?"

Lisette frowned slightly and gave a shrug. "I don't know about that, exactly, But it sure makes a lot of sense to me." She looked around at the others for help. "Right?"

They all glanced at each other uneasily.

Elysia did not like where everything was leading.

She looked to Lisette and showed her the back of the picture. "So, do these old lockers have a combination or something? Because I have no idea what these numbers could mean."

Lisette looked at the numbers scrawled in her aunt's beautiful handwriting and nodded. "Yeah, they do. This must be it."

Elysia nodded and looked at the picture again. Things were starting to click.

She looked back to Lisette. "So, what are we going to do once we get to the base?"

Lisette looked at the others as she said," Well, I guess we'll take you to the lockers, first. You probably don't want a big group going with you, so Jacob and I will go to the computer room to access the databases for something about this giant conspiracy floating around." She looked at her brother. "Unless you want to go alone. Maybe take Ms. Winner with you. Shane and Jade, too, since you're about in the same age group."

Jacob glared at her. "Wait, who died and made you in charge of operations? I'm the oldest one here!"
Lisette glared back. "Well, you haven't said one damn word about anything, except when you're mocking me. And I haven't heard anybody complain yet, so don't get mad at me!"

Elysia raised her eyebrows at her cousins who launched into another fight. Did they ever get along?

She looked to her right at Theo who was falling asleep. She nudged him with her elbow. "Hey! How can you be tired?"

He opened his eyes slightly and looked at her. "It's late."

Elysia frowned, then shook her head. "it's not that late."

"It's eleven."

Elysa blinked, then nudged him again. "Well stay awake. I want you to go with me when I check out this locker thing."

Theo woke up all the way at that comment. He looked at her in surprise. "Why? I thought…" He trailed off, realizing he had just come close to asking something he didn't want to ask in front of an audience. He was not going to express his feelings in front of Shane. He was such an ass.

He took a deep breath and tired to think of something else to say. "I figured you'd want Jennifer or your cousins to go with you."

Elysia bit her lip in thought and shrugged a bit. "Well, I figured you, because you've been with me throughout this whole week. I… guess I wanted someone I am somewhat close to with me when I discover what it is my mother put in that locker."

Theo, who had been put into temporary shock at her admitting she felt closer to him than anybody else in the van, nodded slowly. "Oh, okay." He smiled at her and gave her hand a squeeze, to which she went into a temporary shock.

Why the heck was he being so damn nice and… weird lately?

She shrugged this off and went on to think about what the heck it was that her mother had hidden away at her uncle's base.

~*~*~

Eventually, they came to the base.

It didn't seem all that top secret and special as her cousin had said it would be, but then again, Elysia figured, maybe it was because of the fact that the base didn't try to stand out that made it a secret to begin with.

Whatever it was, the entrance to the place wasn't all that hard to go through.

Jacob and Jade had to switch seats, so that he could flash his I.d. badge to the guards, but that was all the security measures the place took.

Elysia was beginning to wonder if this was even a government base.

Shouldn't there be armed guards walking the perimeter or something? Or metal detectors? Or at least one guy wearing a black suit talking into an earpiece?

As they walked through the entrance, Jacob stopped and looked to his sister. "So, who's going where?"

Lisette glanced at Elysia expectantly. "Well, it depends on who she wants with her."

Elysia froze, not likening that she had been put on the spot, and thought a bit. "Well, why don't you take me to the lockers, and then you can go with Jacob to the computers like you said earlier?"

Lisette shrugged and nodded, looking back at Jacob. "Okay. That makes sense. We could probably get to the rooms faster anyways, if we don't have extra people tagging along." She glanced at Caterina with that statement.

Caterina didn't even notice, she too busy kissing Jacob.

Lisette stared at them in disgust and started walking away down one of the many hallways. "Follow me this way, guys."

Theo and Elysia walked after her as fast as they could.

Jennifer watched Jacob and Caterina for a couple minutes, then shook her. "Way too much for me to see."

Shane watched the two as they continued to make out.

Jade sighed and grabbed him by his ear and lead him away. "You are such a pervert."

~*~*~

Lisette stopped and gave a sigh. "We're here."

Elysia stopped walking and frowned. "There are only elevators."

Lisette nodded. "Well, yeah. The older lockers are below us." She looked to the doors, then slapped her forehead. "Shoot! I forgot. Only two people can go down there at a time."

Jennifer crossed her arms and frowned. "Why?"

Lisette looked at her, getting a bit annoyed by the green-eyed girl. "The lockers down there mostly belong to people of status from back in the day. There were a lot of secrets and covert operations going on."

Jennifer made a face. "So, what does that have to do with anything?"

Lisette rubbed her forehead, a headache starting. "There are things down there that could change the world, if not the whole galaxy. If someone were to get hold of that stuff, it could be the end of everything we know."

Jennifer narrowed her eyes at the younger girl. "Okay, but why is it that only two people can go down there?"

Lisette sighed. "Because then, there's someone else down there to keep the other person in check and make sure that he or she doesn't take what shouldn't be taken." She walked over to Elysia. "And really, I'm breaking a rule here. Every person who goes down there is supposed to be accompanied by a base agent." She smiled faintly at her. "But I guess we can make an exception here. You probably don't want someone you just met with you when you open that thing." She held out her hand. "Let me have your key."

Elysia smiled back and handed the key to her.

Lisette walked over to the elevator and opened a little door that was underneath the floor number buttons. She stuck the key inside a hole, to which the elevator doors opened.

She looked back at Elysia. "Go on inside. I'm going to type in my password, so you should be able to go through the rest of the way with no problems." She looked over to Theo. "And you better hurry up if you want to go with her."

Theo frowned at her as he walked over to the elevator.

* Geez, this girl is pretty bossy for her age. *

Elysia stepped inside the elevator and stood next to Theo uncertainly. This whole secret business was staring to freak her out.

Lisette pulled out the key and handed it to Elysia. She waved at her as the doors closed. "Good luck."

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A/N: … Wow. That was boring. Did it make any sense to you? Well, whatever. Just R&R and I'll see you next chapter. ~_^