Chapter 32
Relena studied the young man in front of her. "You've been asking for me," she stated.
Yuri nodded. "And you have been wishing to know why a person like myself can fight such a
war.
"You destroyed my family," he said quietly.
Relena was surprised. She frowned and thought for a moment, then looked Yuri in the eye
again. "And how did I accomplish that?" she asked.
"My name is Yuri Wayridge."
"Wayridge! But then that means-"
"We are not related by blood, Mrs. Yuy," Yuri cut her off. "But yes, I am related
to your grandfather, the Marquis, and so, I am related to you.
"Great-grandfather Wayridge had two daughters by his beloved wife. Your adopted
mother, Mrs. Darlian, and your biological mother, the late Queen Katerina Peacecraft. As
young girls, both were sent to the royal court in the Sank kingdom to be trained. There,
they both met their future husbands, and both married at around the same time. Queen
Peacecraft was in her early twenties when she gave birth to her first child, Prince
Milliardo, and now Zechs Merquise.
"Due to the increased tensions between the Sank kingdom and the Alliance, you were
not born until a few years later. At the same time, Mrs. Darlian also gave birth to a
daughter, a girl named Reese Darlian.
"However, a few years before this time, the Marquis had become lonely. His wife
had died a couple years before, and both his daughters were now married and in a distant
country. As a result, he traveled a lot, trying to stay occupied. On one of his trips
to the L2 colony cluster, he found a young orphan in her early teens. Her name was Sonia.
She was a young, pale, and sickly thing, and only thirteen or fourteen years old. However,
she was also kind, always helping other younger orphans whenever she could, even though
she herself did not have much to give.
"The Marquis took a liking to this girl; he admired her inner strength and virtue,
and so, as a result, adopted her. She became Sonia Anna Wayridge. She loved her adopted
father fiercely, and when the Sank kingdom offered to take her in just as they had done with
his other two daughters, she refused. She wanted to stay with her father.
"And so time passed. You, your brother, and Reese were born. Then tragedy struck.
The relations between the Sank kingdom and the Alliance reached breaking point. The
Sank kingdom was destroyed; the entire court murdered. The Darlians escaped with you;
your brother was also rescued. The Marquis was devastated. He was even more devastated
when little Reese died from her injuries sustained during the attack. As a result, your
adopted parents published a statement saying how the entire royal family had been killed,
and as a result, 'Reese Darlian' would thereafter be named 'Relena Darlian,' to honor her
dead cousin. This of course, as we know now, was a lie, fabricated only to protect you
from discovery. In reality, it was the Princess that had survived, and not the Darlian's
child.
"Soon after, Sonia realized that she had contracted a deadly disease. Actually,
she had caught it as a child; the virus had remained dormant. There was no cure for it;
she would eventually die. Not wanting to see her adopted father have to suffer from yet
another tragedy, she hurried off to L2. She returned with my mother, Katrea."
"WHAT?!"
Heero, who had been sitting with Relena, was on his feet in a flash. He ran to the door,
wrenched it open, and Duo, who had been listening in with his ear plastered against the
door, fell in. Heero glared at him. "What did you think you were doing?" he asked
coldly.
Duo scrambled to his feet. Ignoring Heero, he sputtered, "Kat? Kat was your mother?"
Relena also got to her feet. "You knew her, Duo?" she asked.
Duo nodded. "She was my age, another war orphan. Very fast, very cunning. We called her
'The Kat,' and for good reason. She was never caught whenever she stole anything; she was
the best when it came to surviving the streets. She always landed on her feet, literally,
and she really hated the Alliance, and always stole from them. The last I heard of her was
that she had been adopted, though I never found out by who; I was with my...fifth foster
family at the time. Or was it my sixth?"
Yuri nodded. "Yes. Sonia didn't want her father to be alone again after her death. As a
result, she went to L2 just as he had several years ago and adopted a young girl named
Katrea. She brought her back and begged the Marquis to always take care of her. 'This is
the grandchild I will never be able to give you,' she said. The Marquis promised to take
in the child. Soon after, Sonia died.
"The Marquis made good on his promise. Katrea was given everything and anything a
young girl could ever want. However, she was a wayward child. She continued to hate the
Alliance, and she hated seeing how the Rommefeller and the Alliance were always plotting.
The Marquis, at a loss as to what to do with her, finally sent her off to some obscure
colony with a mansion, money, and plenty of servants. He let her do whatever she wished.
The war began. The Marquis almost forgot about her; he was always busy. My mother was
about eighteen years old, and quite charismatic. She didn't mind that she was on her own.
When the Alliance began to split, she saw it as her opportunity to finally wreak her revenge
on them for her miserable early childhood. She opened her money coffers to whoever the
current enemy of the Alliance was and provided them with weapons and whatever they else
they needed."
Here, Yuri stopped and smiled ruefully. "In addition to opening her money coffers, she
also opened her bed. My sister Sasha was born on her nineteenth birthday; I was
born a year later. We had different fathers; I don't even know who my biological father
is.
"Since my mother had been involved in the whole situation between the Alliance and
the colonies before Operation Meteor, I was about three years old when Operation Meteor
really did begin. Sasha was four. My mother was ecstatic. She knew that Alliance would
now eventually fall.
"During this entire time, the Marquis was in the dark about what his adopted
grand-daughter was doing. Imagine his surprise when he realized that she was supplying
weapons to fuel the war. He was even more surprised to find out she had two children.
Nevertheless, he kept the bargain he had made with Sonia. Whenever our mother was out
carousing, he took care of us. He really was very loving and kind.
"Then you came on the scene. My mother was not happy with your proposal of total
pacifism. She was even more displeased when Rommefeller backed you up. She went to her
grandfather and demanded that he do something about it. At this, he snapped. He could no
longer take what she was doing, especially not the fact that she was so unforgiving that
she would not stop until she had stomped out every single last trace of the Alliance. He
ordered her to stop what she was doing, or risk being stripped of everything. He would
take everything that he had given her; she would be forced to live with him so he could
keep an eye of her; Sasha and I would be sent to foster homes. The Marquis honestly
thought that it was his duty to save his grand-daughter from her destructive path. He
figured that she would give in and settle down and become a docile, obedient lady like her
mother had been. He was wrong.
"My mother was a proud woman. She would not bend to anyone's orders. As a result,
she chose to take her own life. I was four years old when she died, too young to
understand why she had left me; too old to ever be able to forget her.
"And so what my poor grandmother had tried to do was for naught. The Marquis was
nearly felled with this loss. Despite her wild nature, Katrea had indeed loved her
grandfather, and he had loved her too. Sasha and I were taken in by the Marquis.
"AC 203. A revolt was started by Meyer Himmler and Rolf Atkins. Sasha had just
turned thirteen; I was not far from my 12th birthday. When we were taken in by our
great-grandfather, he tried to rid us of any thoughts of violence. We were raised on the
teachings of pacifism. He almost succeeded.
"It is known that young children are very impressionable. Despite our youth when
our mother died, Sasha and I had learned a lot from our mother. And so, even though since
the ages of five and four we had been reared on the idea of pacifism, the philosophies of
our mother still remained within us, unknown to even ourselves. But when this new war
started, my sister Sasha dashed right in. Unlike myself, she had known why our mother had
killed herself. Apparently, Katrea had spent many hours with my sister, telling her the
details of the war. Sasha was well-aware of her hatred for you, and therefore, she also
hated you. In fact, Sasha was the one who had discovered our mother's body.
"My sister followed her mother's example. Though she was very young, she still
participated. We were rich little children, wealthy through both our great-grandfather and
through the vast inheritance our mother had left us. One of these included a space
satellite. Unknown to the Marquis or myself, Sasha had begun to allow Himmler and Atkins
to use it. Therefore, when the war did start, they literally had at least a thousand
mobile doll troops, all made in the factories on that satellite. Sasha wanted revenge.
She wanted to let the world know the pain she felt when our mother died.
"Unfortunately for my sister, Meyer and Himmler were not successful. Fortunately
for her, however, her involvement was never discovered. Still, that destroyed my sister.
She sank into a deep depression. Three years later, I would discover her body in her room.
She had slit her own wrists. Next to her was a letter addressed to me. She apologized for
her actions, and she said that she still loved me and the Marquis. However, she just
couldn't continue to live; she felt like she had failed our mother. Her final request was
that I somehow finish the battle that my mother had started.
"And so here I am. I ran away; in her letter, Sasha had told me that she knew of
a band of the descendants of the Rommefeller foundation that were discontent. I joined
them; I rose to the rank of Baron. However, I have witnessed their inhumane treatment of
your brother's children, which is why I have left them. Sasha would not have approved of
their actions, and I believe my mother would not have either. But, I still hate you for
what you did to my family."
At this, Heero brought up his gun. Yuri laughed harshly. "Mr. Yuy, I have no wish to harm
you or your wife. Not physically, anyway. I know that I can't kill her; it is against
my nature, and besides, she has the best body-guard known throughout the galaxy," and he
nodded at Heero. "However," he said, narrowing his eyes, "I know that my vengeance is
complete now."
He was right. During his talk, Relena had begun to cry softly. She tried to speak; her
voice broke; and she finally started to sob. Yuri smiled victoriously, but there was no
malice; in fact, there wasn't much joy either. "Mother...Sasha...I did this for you," he
whispered. "It is done. May you all rest in peace."
Relena studied the young man in front of her. "You've been asking for me," she stated.
Yuri nodded. "And you have been wishing to know why a person like myself can fight such a
war.
"You destroyed my family," he said quietly.
Relena was surprised. She frowned and thought for a moment, then looked Yuri in the eye
again. "And how did I accomplish that?" she asked.
"My name is Yuri Wayridge."
"Wayridge! But then that means-"
"We are not related by blood, Mrs. Yuy," Yuri cut her off. "But yes, I am related
to your grandfather, the Marquis, and so, I am related to you.
"Great-grandfather Wayridge had two daughters by his beloved wife. Your adopted
mother, Mrs. Darlian, and your biological mother, the late Queen Katerina Peacecraft. As
young girls, both were sent to the royal court in the Sank kingdom to be trained. There,
they both met their future husbands, and both married at around the same time. Queen
Peacecraft was in her early twenties when she gave birth to her first child, Prince
Milliardo, and now Zechs Merquise.
"Due to the increased tensions between the Sank kingdom and the Alliance, you were
not born until a few years later. At the same time, Mrs. Darlian also gave birth to a
daughter, a girl named Reese Darlian.
"However, a few years before this time, the Marquis had become lonely. His wife
had died a couple years before, and both his daughters were now married and in a distant
country. As a result, he traveled a lot, trying to stay occupied. On one of his trips
to the L2 colony cluster, he found a young orphan in her early teens. Her name was Sonia.
She was a young, pale, and sickly thing, and only thirteen or fourteen years old. However,
she was also kind, always helping other younger orphans whenever she could, even though
she herself did not have much to give.
"The Marquis took a liking to this girl; he admired her inner strength and virtue,
and so, as a result, adopted her. She became Sonia Anna Wayridge. She loved her adopted
father fiercely, and when the Sank kingdom offered to take her in just as they had done with
his other two daughters, she refused. She wanted to stay with her father.
"And so time passed. You, your brother, and Reese were born. Then tragedy struck.
The relations between the Sank kingdom and the Alliance reached breaking point. The
Sank kingdom was destroyed; the entire court murdered. The Darlians escaped with you;
your brother was also rescued. The Marquis was devastated. He was even more devastated
when little Reese died from her injuries sustained during the attack. As a result, your
adopted parents published a statement saying how the entire royal family had been killed,
and as a result, 'Reese Darlian' would thereafter be named 'Relena Darlian,' to honor her
dead cousin. This of course, as we know now, was a lie, fabricated only to protect you
from discovery. In reality, it was the Princess that had survived, and not the Darlian's
child.
"Soon after, Sonia realized that she had contracted a deadly disease. Actually,
she had caught it as a child; the virus had remained dormant. There was no cure for it;
she would eventually die. Not wanting to see her adopted father have to suffer from yet
another tragedy, she hurried off to L2. She returned with my mother, Katrea."
"WHAT?!"
Heero, who had been sitting with Relena, was on his feet in a flash. He ran to the door,
wrenched it open, and Duo, who had been listening in with his ear plastered against the
door, fell in. Heero glared at him. "What did you think you were doing?" he asked
coldly.
Duo scrambled to his feet. Ignoring Heero, he sputtered, "Kat? Kat was your mother?"
Relena also got to her feet. "You knew her, Duo?" she asked.
Duo nodded. "She was my age, another war orphan. Very fast, very cunning. We called her
'The Kat,' and for good reason. She was never caught whenever she stole anything; she was
the best when it came to surviving the streets. She always landed on her feet, literally,
and she really hated the Alliance, and always stole from them. The last I heard of her was
that she had been adopted, though I never found out by who; I was with my...fifth foster
family at the time. Or was it my sixth?"
Yuri nodded. "Yes. Sonia didn't want her father to be alone again after her death. As a
result, she went to L2 just as he had several years ago and adopted a young girl named
Katrea. She brought her back and begged the Marquis to always take care of her. 'This is
the grandchild I will never be able to give you,' she said. The Marquis promised to take
in the child. Soon after, Sonia died.
"The Marquis made good on his promise. Katrea was given everything and anything a
young girl could ever want. However, she was a wayward child. She continued to hate the
Alliance, and she hated seeing how the Rommefeller and the Alliance were always plotting.
The Marquis, at a loss as to what to do with her, finally sent her off to some obscure
colony with a mansion, money, and plenty of servants. He let her do whatever she wished.
The war began. The Marquis almost forgot about her; he was always busy. My mother was
about eighteen years old, and quite charismatic. She didn't mind that she was on her own.
When the Alliance began to split, she saw it as her opportunity to finally wreak her revenge
on them for her miserable early childhood. She opened her money coffers to whoever the
current enemy of the Alliance was and provided them with weapons and whatever they else
they needed."
Here, Yuri stopped and smiled ruefully. "In addition to opening her money coffers, she
also opened her bed. My sister Sasha was born on her nineteenth birthday; I was
born a year later. We had different fathers; I don't even know who my biological father
is.
"Since my mother had been involved in the whole situation between the Alliance and
the colonies before Operation Meteor, I was about three years old when Operation Meteor
really did begin. Sasha was four. My mother was ecstatic. She knew that Alliance would
now eventually fall.
"During this entire time, the Marquis was in the dark about what his adopted
grand-daughter was doing. Imagine his surprise when he realized that she was supplying
weapons to fuel the war. He was even more surprised to find out she had two children.
Nevertheless, he kept the bargain he had made with Sonia. Whenever our mother was out
carousing, he took care of us. He really was very loving and kind.
"Then you came on the scene. My mother was not happy with your proposal of total
pacifism. She was even more displeased when Rommefeller backed you up. She went to her
grandfather and demanded that he do something about it. At this, he snapped. He could no
longer take what she was doing, especially not the fact that she was so unforgiving that
she would not stop until she had stomped out every single last trace of the Alliance. He
ordered her to stop what she was doing, or risk being stripped of everything. He would
take everything that he had given her; she would be forced to live with him so he could
keep an eye of her; Sasha and I would be sent to foster homes. The Marquis honestly
thought that it was his duty to save his grand-daughter from her destructive path. He
figured that she would give in and settle down and become a docile, obedient lady like her
mother had been. He was wrong.
"My mother was a proud woman. She would not bend to anyone's orders. As a result,
she chose to take her own life. I was four years old when she died, too young to
understand why she had left me; too old to ever be able to forget her.
"And so what my poor grandmother had tried to do was for naught. The Marquis was
nearly felled with this loss. Despite her wild nature, Katrea had indeed loved her
grandfather, and he had loved her too. Sasha and I were taken in by the Marquis.
"AC 203. A revolt was started by Meyer Himmler and Rolf Atkins. Sasha had just
turned thirteen; I was not far from my 12th birthday. When we were taken in by our
great-grandfather, he tried to rid us of any thoughts of violence. We were raised on the
teachings of pacifism. He almost succeeded.
"It is known that young children are very impressionable. Despite our youth when
our mother died, Sasha and I had learned a lot from our mother. And so, even though since
the ages of five and four we had been reared on the idea of pacifism, the philosophies of
our mother still remained within us, unknown to even ourselves. But when this new war
started, my sister Sasha dashed right in. Unlike myself, she had known why our mother had
killed herself. Apparently, Katrea had spent many hours with my sister, telling her the
details of the war. Sasha was well-aware of her hatred for you, and therefore, she also
hated you. In fact, Sasha was the one who had discovered our mother's body.
"My sister followed her mother's example. Though she was very young, she still
participated. We were rich little children, wealthy through both our great-grandfather and
through the vast inheritance our mother had left us. One of these included a space
satellite. Unknown to the Marquis or myself, Sasha had begun to allow Himmler and Atkins
to use it. Therefore, when the war did start, they literally had at least a thousand
mobile doll troops, all made in the factories on that satellite. Sasha wanted revenge.
She wanted to let the world know the pain she felt when our mother died.
"Unfortunately for my sister, Meyer and Himmler were not successful. Fortunately
for her, however, her involvement was never discovered. Still, that destroyed my sister.
She sank into a deep depression. Three years later, I would discover her body in her room.
She had slit her own wrists. Next to her was a letter addressed to me. She apologized for
her actions, and she said that she still loved me and the Marquis. However, she just
couldn't continue to live; she felt like she had failed our mother. Her final request was
that I somehow finish the battle that my mother had started.
"And so here I am. I ran away; in her letter, Sasha had told me that she knew of
a band of the descendants of the Rommefeller foundation that were discontent. I joined
them; I rose to the rank of Baron. However, I have witnessed their inhumane treatment of
your brother's children, which is why I have left them. Sasha would not have approved of
their actions, and I believe my mother would not have either. But, I still hate you for
what you did to my family."
At this, Heero brought up his gun. Yuri laughed harshly. "Mr. Yuy, I have no wish to harm
you or your wife. Not physically, anyway. I know that I can't kill her; it is against
my nature, and besides, she has the best body-guard known throughout the galaxy," and he
nodded at Heero. "However," he said, narrowing his eyes, "I know that my vengeance is
complete now."
He was right. During his talk, Relena had begun to cry softly. She tried to speak; her
voice broke; and she finally started to sob. Yuri smiled victoriously, but there was no
malice; in fact, there wasn't much joy either. "Mother...Sasha...I did this for you," he
whispered. "It is done. May you all rest in peace."
