Ok, here's chapter 5. On time this week thanks to snow! I love the stuff (Especially when it gives you two days out of school!)

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Chapter 5: Earth

"So where'd you learn how to throw knives?" Dual asked as the three of us entered into the colony shuttleport. The question sort of surprised me.

"How did you know about that?" I asked.
"The terrorists were talking about it. They said you took out one of their best by lodging a knife in his throat," Dual replied, a small smile on his face. "Normal people don't just know that sort of stuff."

"Oh and this is normal?" I exclaimed, meaning everything that had happened since the day began. Dual knew it to. He merely smiled though.

"You still have to tell me."

"Practice," I replied softly. "What were they after?" I thought a quick subject change was in order.

But Dual didn't fall for it.

"Practice?" Dual asked. "You're the last person I'd expect to practice throwing knives,"

"Maybe you don't know me so well," I replied before thinking. I instantly regretted it as Dual assumed a hurt expression.

"Yeah, maybe I don't. But it's only because you make it so difficult," he replied.

Silence fell then between Dual and I. I wanted to fix things, I knew I'd screwed up badly, but I just wasn't sure how to.

Phoenix came back then…I hadn't even realized he'd left us.

"We're on the next shuttle to Earth. It leaves in about twenty minutes or so," he said.

"Then we'd better get there," Dual answered.

So the three of us made our way through the crowded shuttleport in silence. We were going to Earth.

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I'd never been to Earth before. It was night when we arrived and I'll never forget when I first stepped out of the shuttleport and looked up into the nigh sky. There were so many stars scattered everywhere. There were thousands….no millions of stars! And in the center of the sky, shining silver in full brightness was the moon. It looked so different here then from space. Here it looked so calm and tranquil. In the colonies it was too much like a giant graveyard.

"Beautiful isn't it?"

I was startled out of my thoughts when Dual said that. It was the first thing he'd said to me since the incident in the colony shuttleport.

I merely nodded in response.

"Hey, Kiyo, Sorry about earlier,"

What the hell….why was he apologizing?

"No. Don't be," I replied "I'm just not sure who to trust yet. I'm sorry,"

I felt a hand rest on my shoulder and looked up to see Dual smiling.

"Don't worry about it."

"Are you two done now?" Phoenix asked then which brought both Dual and I back to reality.

"Yeah. Come on, Dad and the others are waiting," Dual explained as he followed Phoenix towards the parking lot, probably to hotwire another car. As much as I had always wanted an ordinary life, now I was beginning to think it would be vastly overrated. I smiled as one thought struck me. I wouldn't give this up for anything.

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We came to a stop with a slight jolt in front of what could have been the home of some sort of royalty. Man, this place dwarfed my house by at least tenfold!

"Here?" I asked.

"No. We walk the rest of the way," Phoenix replied as he and Dual were getting out.

"Oh…" so I got out and followed the two down the street. We walked for about twenty minutes before slipping into the yard of your average sized house.

At first glance the entire place was dark, no lights on in any of the windows…nothing.

"Um…are you guys sure this is the right house?" I asked as we walked up to the front door.

Phoenix merely gave me a side glance that had "shut-up" written all over it.

So I fell silent and watched as Phoenix drew a key from the pocket of his jeans and opened the door. We entered into the house, a house that was the size a house should be. Dual and Phoenix headed straight for some stairs that lead to a basement and I followed.

The stairs lead to a long hallway with a number of other doors branching off of it, six that I could see but the hallway turned off to the left a good way down so I couldn't be sure yet how many rooms there actually were. My guess was the basement was actually bigger then the house, which proved correct later. But now I followed Dual and Phoenix down the hall and around the corner which lead to an open room at the end.

"Hey Dad," Dual said as he walked up to Duo, who was waiting for us in that room.

Duo had a worried expression at first, but that changed when he saw us. He gave a smile, one of relief.

"I wasn't sure what to expect after watching the news earlier," Duo said while getting up from the seat he'd been inhabiting when we'd entered. "Are you both ok?"

"Never better," Dual answered with a rueful grin. "Who's hurt?" he asked right after though. It was a question that had been bugging him since Phoenix had mentioned it. I could just tell.

"It's Alix," was Duo's reply.

This made me wonder who Alix was.

"Crap…how badly?"

"She's blind Dual."

There was a pause and Dual paled considerably.

At his side his fist clenched and his head lowered slightly. He wasn't just upset, he was mad.

"Was it those same bastards who came after us?"

"Yeah," Duo replied softly. "Do you want to see her?"

Dual gave a slight nod, still trying to keep his rage in check. This Alix girl must have been a close friend of his.

"I'll take him," Phoenix offered. Duo gave an appreciative look and with that Phoenix lead Dual back down the hall.

"What's going on?" I asked once the other two had gone. "Where's Father?"

"I'm glad you asked that Kiyo," Duo replied. "There's a lot to talk about,"

So I was told, told everything all at once. I found out the terrorists were not only after Dual and I, but an important disk that Father had. As for Father…well that was the surprising part. Last year in history class I'd learned about the incidents of AC 195 and the Gundams that had, in essence, brought peace. Well, go figure, both Duo and my Father were Gundam pilots. Not only that but so was Phoenix's Dad and about three others, one a former member of OZ. I had just too many questions after that.

"So who's Alix?" was my first question.

"She's one of Trowa's twin daughters. She was the one who was supposed to pilot Heavyarms because she proved more apt at it then Cassandra, her sister," Duo answered.

"But now she can't…"

"No."

"Is that why you had Phoenix come and get Dual and I? Are one of us to pilot Heavyarms?"

"No. But since Alix is out for the count Dual has to Pilot Deathscythe to account for the loss," Duo replied.

"Deathscythe's yours right?" I asked, getting a nod in return. "And he can?"

"Yeah. Dual's been trained for it. He would have come with Quatre and I in the first place but we weren't going to leave you alone."

"What am I here for then?"

"First you've got to answer my question. Do you want to help us or not?"

Help or not help? Well there was absolutely no question in my mind what I was going to say. Duo had already explained to me who they were fighting. It was almost a mirror image of what had happened before. Some military organization was planning a coup d'etat and we were all that was keeping them from gaining complete control over everything. Of course I was going to help!

"I want to help," I replied. I was so very determined that it made Duo smile.

"Then you're going to be trained to pilot Sandrock, Quatre's Gundam,"

The thought awed me. I was going to be a Gundam Pilot.

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I have to say, that when I logged on to the internet last Monday and saw so many reviews I was practically jumping for joy. Just ask my mom, it's the happiest she's seen me in a while. SO THANK YOU! I'm soooo happy you all like my fic!

Armygundamgirl: I'll try to make them longer, but I'm already running into the problem that my time is very limited to write this. I'd love to spend all of my time on this, but I just can't. But I'll see what I can do.

Duo's hanyou:He doesn't know yet, but he'll find out later. As for what he'll do well, you'll just have to wait and find out.

Lil' Miss Tipsyiwuvyaoi: I hope this answered some of your questions. And yes, Phoenix is a guy. And I'll make a huge effort to post chapters as soon as I can get them out, don't worry.

nightcrawls: Would you really? I'd like that. The thought of blowing up all of my piles of homework is appealing.

Stary Angel1: Yeah, I hate homework, but you have to do it so there's no way around it unfortunately. I hope you liked this chapter too.