Chapter 6
The Beginning
Kira looked at Celina, curiously. Troy said, " Since you already know my name, what's yours?"
Celina looked at the Admiral for instructions. He said, " It's all right. Troy would understand."
She nodded. She said, " My name's Celina."
Troy said, ' Surname?"
She looked again at the Admiral " Umm, it's-," She stopped and thought, ' Wait a sec. If I give out my name they'll probably hold me hostage or something.'
She continued, " It's Leonard."
The Admiral sighed again in relief. He said, " Now, Celina. I've decided to switch your job."
She said, " All right. To what?"
He leaned back on his chair, " Well, whatever you think you are good at."
" Are you serious?"
He nodded. Troy said, to Natalie " Mom. Dad just arrived from Earth and he wants to see you."
She kept her eyes on Celina, " Not now. Honey. Tell him I have important work to do."
" Like what?"
She nodded at Celina. " Why?" he said. Natalie looked at her father. She said, " Dad?"
Kira walked to Celina and whispered, " Why would you lie about your surname?"
She said, quietly that only he could hear " If I told them that I was Patrick Zala's daughter, what would you think would happen?"
She had a point. He nodded, " You're right. It would become worse than now."
She smiled, " I think I know what I want to do."
She said, to the Admiral " I wish to pilot the Strike."
Troy said, " What? But some Coordinator pilots it and Mwu said it was locked and anyone who goes it in could die."
Celina ignored him, " Admiral Halberton, Miss Halberton. You both know about my abilities so it would be good to use them for once."
The Admiral nodded, " Yes, that's a good choice. When Kira is injured or some how unable to pilot it, you shall take over. Or you guys could take shifts. How does that sound?"
Celina looked at Kira. Kira said, " I don't mind either one." He smiled at her, "It's up to Celina to decide."
Her eyes lit up, but quickly vanished. She said, " When Kira's hurt, I'll take over."
They all stared at her. She quickly said, " He has more abilities than me. And it would probably come out about what I am, if we take shifts. I mean, they already know about Kira."
She looked sadly at him," And they don't treat him like he's normal."
Celina felt her eyes starting to water. She grabbed a sleeve and wiped her eyes. She said, " Sorry. But it's really sad."
Troy said, " I understand."
Kira and Celina both looked at him. The Admiral noticed how they were staring at him and said; quickly " That settles it. Celina will be the second pilot for the Strike. And when she's not piloting, she could help with repairing the Strike."
Celina nodded. He said, " You two can go now."
They got up and Celina bowed. She said, " Thank you for sparing my life, sir." She raised her head and smiled, " I guess, I was wrong to judge you."
She went to the door and sighed. She left the room with Kira close behind her. Kira ran up to her and said, " Celina, are you all right?"
She turned to him and said, " Why do you ask?"
" Because when you saw Troy, you looked like you were in pain."
She lied, " I wasn't."
" Are you sure?"
She nodded. Celina started to become sad, she put her head down. Kira noticed and said, " Celina?"
She stared at him and then saw Sirally's head on Kira's body. She shook her head, then Sirally's head was replaced with Kira's and said, " I'm fine. I'm just hungry."
Kira smiled, " Yeah, same here."
They went to the lunchroom. Marillia, Toelle, Kuzzey, Sai and Fllay were all there. Toelle said, " Hey, guys."
Celina said, cheerfully " Hi, what's today's special?"
Sai said, " Tuna casserole. That hungry, huh?"
" Starving."
She went to the counter and took her tray to the same table as them. She sat next to Sai and Kira sat next to her.
Marillia said, " How did it go?"
Celina put a piece of the casserole to her mouth and swallowed. She said, " It was all right."
Fllay said, " Anything interesting happen?"
Kira choked on his water. Toelle said, " That interesting."
Celina patted Kira's back. She said, " Not really. I mean, yeah sure we met the Admiral and his daughter."
Kira choked, " Julia."
She said, " Oh yeah, plus I'm the new second pilot to the Strike."
Everyone spitted out his or her water. She said, " I thought you guys wanted to hear something interesting."
Sai said, " It's remarkable. No, unbelievable."
" Believe it."
Fllay said, " How come?"
Celina said, " Well, let's see. I drove the Strike remember."
Everyone looked at Kira. Sai said, " What happened, Kira?"
Kira said, " She's not a coordinator if that's what you guys are thinking. She's just talented in the computers and you have to know your computers in order to pilot the Strike."
Celina added, " Plus, he's getting his butt kicked out there."
Kira said, " Julia, please."
She shrugged, " I'm saying it as the Admiral was saying."
Fllay said, " Why?"
Celina said, before Kira could answer, " Because, the Admiral believes Kira's losing his touch with killing his own people."
Everyone looked at Kira in disbelief. Celina got up and said, " I can't believe you people. Do you expect Kira to keep on fighting our battles?"
They looked ashamed of themselves. She continued, " That's why our people are dying out there. We're too dependent on things and also too confident. If we don't be careful, we shall all die."
She went to the trashcan and dumped her food in it. She turned back and said, " Kira, let's go. The Admiral wants you to teach me, remember?"
She went to the door and it opened, but Troy was in front of her. He said, " Hi."
Celina wiped her angry look away and then her cheerful face appeared. She said, " Oh, hello."
He blushed, " Um, I was wondering if I could join you."
She looked at the group, again and said, " Sure, you can." Troy's face lit up. They walked back to the table.
She noticed everyone looking at Troy with wonder, except Kira. She said, " This is Troy Halberton. Did I say your name correctly?"
He said, " Yeah, you got my surname right."
She smiled, " I was positive that I'd get it wrong."
" No, you didn't."
Fllay said, " Hello? Earth to you guys?"
They both said, at the exact same time, " Pardon?"
Celina noticed them staring at her and Troy curiously. She said, " Why are you guys staring?"
Sai said, quickly " Sorry, but do you guys related?"
Troy said, " No, why?"
" Well, because you two look a lot alike."
Celia stared at Troy and he stared at her. She shifted her head to one side. She said, " I don't see any resemblance at all."
" But, you two have the exact same eyes and skin color."
Troy said, " Well, people say that some people look alike."
Celina said, " I heard the exact same thing too."
Troy smiled at her. His smile seemed familiar to her, but she couldn't help but smile back. She said, " Please, sit."
She sat next Kira and Troy came quickly beside her. Fllay said, " So, you are the Admiral's grandson?"
He nodded. " How does it feel living with him?" she said.
" Well, he's hardly ever home and so are my parents."
" Wasn't there another kid?"
" No, there wasn't."
Fllay scratched her head and said, " Well, I heard there was an older child living with you."
Celina noticed that he looked uncomfortable by the topic. She quickly said, " Fllay, please. If he says there isn't, there isn't."
" But-,"
Celina turned to Troy and said, " You never told me your age."
He blushed, " I just turned eleven last week."
She smiled, " Happy belated birthday, then."
" Thanks. What about you?"
" Oh, I turned sixteen like about a couple of weeks ago."
" When?"
She started to feel her blood drain. She stared straight ahead and then, remembered that her birthday was the exact same day she lost her aunt.
She remembered that her Aunt Lenora had to go Junius 7 for some business. Celina was waiting that entire day for her aunt to return, but the night for her birthday party, she received a phone call from the military, it was Patrick Zala. He told her turn on the news, which she did and she saw Junius 7 explode. She screamed into the phone if her aunt was all right. He said the words that she'd always remember, ' There were no survivors.' Celina felt a tear go down her cheek.
Troy said, " Are you all right?"
She looked at him and at everyone else. She said, " Oh sorry. I was just remembering something."
Fllay said, " Like what?"
Celina stared at her. She said, " My birthday is on the same day as the destruction of Junius 7."
" So, why would you cry over that."
Celina glared at her, " It happens to be the same day my mother was tragically killed on Earth."
Fllay said, " By who?"
Everyone stared at her. She looked pretty serious with her question. Sai said, " Fllay, she just told us her mother was killed on her birthday. Can't you have some pity for her."
She said, " I would, if I ever heard of a tragic death."
Celina tried to hold back her tears. She cried, " I told you my mother died on my birthday, do I have to go into those horrible memories. For one freaking day could I at least, be happy for once? No, I can't. Because somebody always has to bring up the topic of her death!"
She stormed out of the room. She ran all the way to the Strike. Celina sat near the bottom of giant machine; she looked up at the Strike.
She said, " Maybe I'm not as strong as I thought I was. I would never run from someone talking about Aunt Lenora."
Celina looked up at the Strike and said, " I was born as a coward. And I shall die as a coward."
" No, you won't," she heard. She turned and saw Troy standing in the doorway. She sighed, " How much did you here?"
He walked over to her. He said, " That you'd never run from someone talking about your aunt. So that woman you called your mother was your aunt?"
She didn't respond to the question. He said, " I guess, that's a yes."
Troy sat next to her and said, " You know, we have one thing in common."
Celina stared at him. He said, " We both lost someone we really loved."
Troy noticed that Celina wouldn't be asking him who, so he said, " I lost my uncle on my birthday, too."
" He was the one that girl was talking about. I didn't feel like talking about him because he just died recently."
Celina said, " I'm sorry."
" You don't have to be. I mean, Coordinators have lost the people they love and the Naturals haven't been sympathetic to them."
Celina didn't seem surprised that he knew about her secret. She smiled, " How did you know?"
" It was obvious. You said, that Kira was being treated differently, because of them knowing about him."
Celina kept quiet. Out of nowhere she said, " My aunt was closest thing to a mother for me. My cousin, he's fighting for his life out there, just to avenge his mother's death. The stuff I'm doing is nothing compared to him. How he fights shows how much he loved his mother."
She sighed. " I just want to do something to stop this war and then he'd stop."
Troy said, " You must really love him."
She smiled, " Yes, I love him. He looks exactly like me and most of our people think we're twins. My uncle encourages me to believe that he's my father and my cousin is my brother. Athrun always gets angry when I call my uncle, Dad."
Troy said, " Why would he be angry?"
" I don't know. I usually think it's best for me to call him Dad. You see my father wasn't a good one."
She turned away. Troy said, " Why?"
" Because, he tried to kill my mother and after that my mother killed herself."
Celina didn't feel her eyes watering up when she said about her mother's death. Troy said, " That's not the truth."
She looked at him with confusion in her eyes. He got up and walked to the door. He said, " That isn't how your mother died."
She spat, " How would you know?"
He turned to her and the expression on his face was extremely familiar. Athrun's face, whenever he was sad. Troy said, " Your face showed me that you want to forget about her death, your father and family. Pain was written all over you face."
She stood in her tracks; she couldn't believe what she heard. She yelled, " I only want to forget about my father, not my mother!"
He said, " No, Celina. You're lying. Either you don't really remember about what happened to your family and have been fed with lies or you want to forget about your dead family."
" You don't know anything about me."
He turned from her, " Maybe."
The door opened and Kira walked in. He said, " There you are."
He walked to Celina and saw how she looked like. He said, " Are you all right?"
She ignored him, " Listen to me. You do not know me; I repeat do not know me. I don't a need a kid saying I feel one way or not or how I think."
Troy shrugged, " Whatever. You my dear seriously need to remember your past and then let go. The way you described your cousin, he's tougher than you. You are the one who supposed to be the tougher one."
Kira said, " What are you talking about?"
Troy smirked, " Celina suffered more than any Coordinator and she knows it. But she's just to weak to kill all the Naturals."
' Mommy, this was the best day ever.'
' Yeah, Auntie Talia. This was the best.'
' Please, stop over exaggerating.'
The face of Celina's mother appeared smiling, again. Celina clutched her head. She screamed, " Stop it!"
Kira rested his hands on her shoulders and started to shake her. He said, " Celina, snap out of it."
Troy said, " She's remembering a painful memory, let her go on with it. She has to remember before it's too late."
" Before, what?"
" Before, she goes mad with agony. She has to let go of everything, she's been suppressing for too long."
" Celina, can you hear me?"
" Athrun, Mommy said go back to Daddy and Troy. Help them with the ice cream. Mommy, there's an odd man staring at us." Her eyes rolled back and she slowly slipped away into the beginning of a never-ending nightmare.
