Chapter 2: Led Towards Destiny
-4 years after the White Knight incident-
It has been a year since Charles and Rita met and during that time, they became quick friends and kept in contact with each other. Despite living in different countries, they are close friends and Charles would even say that Rita is his best friend. There is no posturing between them and no political agenda in their friendship. Charles would even say that Rita is his only true friend.
That is not to say that he has no friends in France. He has a lot but most of them are children of his father's colleagues, in other words, children of politicians who are mostly planning to get into business or politics. Most of them became his friend because they're expected to and his father also told him to be friends with them to make connections. Only a few of them are his genuine friends.
He could tell. He doesn't know how but it is quite intuitive. He has always been rather perceptive. He could tell whether someone is being genuine or not by feeling. He always gets a bad feeling from those who only wanted to know him because of his father. But Rita is different. He couldn't really say how but there's just something about her that is different. Something about her resonates deeply with him. For that reason, he kept in contact with her, even called her from his side a few times; something he never does with his other friends unless he really needed to.
A year later, they are still close friends, and Rita has come to visit him for the summer alongside Cecillia and one of their friend, Chelsea Blackett; a twelve years old girl with red hair and wearing a maid outfit. Officially, she's a maid-in-training to the Alcott family. But both Cecillia and Rita consider her more as their close friend than their maid.
The teens and nine years old child are currently staying in one of the Dunois family villa in France for the summer. Actually, Rita had planned to come alone as she's old and smart enough to travel by herself but her mother told her to bring Cecillia and Chelsea with her.
Sending a particularly independent and smart fifteen years old without supervision into another country is one thing, but sending a twelve year old and nine years old with said fifteen years old without any additional supervision is really another thing. Then again, that probably says a lot about how much their mother trusts Rita.
"And your father didn't argue with her?"
"No. Father never argue against mother even when he disagrees with her. Though he should have this time. I'm glad that mother trust me enough to let Chelsea and Cecillia come with me but letting a twelve and nine year old girls travelling abroad without adult supervision is just…"
Rita sighs as she slowly drank her tea. A plate of half eaten croissant set in front of her. Currently, Charles and Rita are chatting together over afternoon tea. Mostly it's just Charles listening to Rita whining. Normally, he would only pretend to listen when his friends whine, because usually it's about inconsequential thing that he's not interested in. But what Rita is complaining about is a rather important matter and she does have a right to whine from what he heard.
"They don't use to be like this you know. I guess mother never forgave father for what happened and father felt guilty so he never said no to mother."
Rita look down to her tea with a complicated expression. She then glanced to her side to see Cecillia who is playing with Chelsea in the garden. She stared at her sister for a while until Cecillia noticed her and waved to her. Rita smiled and waved back. Once Cecillia turn to Chelsea again though, Rita's smile disappeared.
"Look at me, complaining about things you're probably not interested in. I'm sorry you have to listen to me, Charles."
She apologized but Charles shook his head. Unlike most of his friends who complain about trivial things, at least Rita complain about more realistic things. She rarely every complain anyway so the least he can do when she does is to listen to her.
"It's fine. At least you're complaining about a real problem. If there is anything I can help with though, you can just say it."
"No. This is our family's problem so we'll deal with it ourselves. I appreciate the offer though."
This time it was Rite who shook her head. Charles can understand. Family problem should be kept within the family. It's the same with his family after all. While his father and his uncle get along alright, they disagree on a lot of things. You would expect a politician and a businessman to work well together but not in their case. Usually difference in personal philosophy.
Rita even mentioning about her family's problem to an outsider like him is already saying too much, especially considering how her family is active in the British high society, but that just proves how much she trusts him. He's probably the only one she can talk to about this thing anyway.
"Well, that's enough about the depressing stuff. Let's talk about more interesting things. By the way, have I told you about this one time when Cecillia was six?"
After that, Rita began talking about more mundane things, especially about things Cecillia did when she was younger. There are lots of funny and embarrassing stories about the younger Alcott sibling. Charles never knew how it feels to have a younger sibling since he's an only child and while his uncle is married, he has no children yet so he doesn't even have a cousin. From the way Rita speaks of Cecillia though, it sounds like it will be fun to have a younger sibling.
Speaking of the little hellion though…
"It's almost lunch time. We should head back in. Let's call your sister."
Charles told her after noticing the time on his watch. Rita checked her own watch and saw that it is indeed almost time for lunch. They both got up from their chairs and look around the Garden to find the two younger children. They didn't see them though. Come to think of it, they haven't heard the sound of the children playing for a while.
"Cecillia! Chelsea!"
Rita call out, thinking that they're probably playing hide and seek. Those two likes to play that back home and they can be very quiet when they wanted to. Those two can sometimes lost track of time when they're playing and Rita had to call them. There's no reply after a minute though so Rita call them out again.
"Cecillia! Chelsea! It's time for lunch!"
There. If they were playing hide and seek, they wouldn't reply if she called them out. But if she added that it's time for lunch, that means their game is done. Rita waited… but after a minute, there's no reply or any sign of movement anywhere in the garden. Now she's starting to grow concerned.
"Uhh, Rita?"
Charles called her. When Rita turn to him, she saw her friend pointing at something. She followed his finger and saw him pointing at an open door at the edge of the garden leading to the forest behind.
That is not a good sign.
"Cecillia!" "Chelsea!"
Rita and Charles called out the children's names as they scour the woods around the villa. There's no doubt that Cecillia and Chelsea are in the forest since they found footprints on the dirt that looks like they belong to children. Charles had called for the servants to spread out in search of the children with him and Rita also joining in. The more people looking the better.
How careless of him. He should've ordered the door to be locked when he knew that children are coming. The door leading to the forest is usually kept open during the day because he himself like taking a stroll out back and he's usually the youngest person around. At least there's no dangerous wild beast around, at least to his knowledge.
"Fuh, they're not here. Where could they be? Cecillia! Chelsea!"
Charles called out again. There's no reply and he noticed Rita growing more concerned by the second. Charles felt bad. As their host, he is responsible for the safety of his guests. More than that, Rita is his closest friend. He won't be able to forgive himself if anything were to happen to Rita and Chelsea… that and of course the possible diplomatic repercussion from Britain but the former matter more to him.
The two of them continue searching, but just searching randomly won't do them any good. After about forty minutes of searching, Charles and Cecillia took a quick break.
"Where could they be?"
Rita asked no one in particular with worry obvious in her voice. Charles leaned against a tree as they rested. They've gone quite far. Hopefully they'll be able to find the children soon. They're already skipping lunch as it is.
"They can be anywhere inside the forest. Luckily, to my knowledge at least, there's nothing overly dangerous in these woods."
Charles told Rita in an attempt to give her some peace of mind. It at least alleviated her worry as she stopped pacing around and rest on another tree. While they're taking a break, Charles reach into his pocket and threw something at Rita. The girl deftly caught what Charles threw her, which is an apple.
"There are some of them around here. We've skipped lunch so that will at least keep us going."
"Thanks."
The boy took out another apple from his pocket and bit into it. It's not much but it's better than nothing. The two of them ate their apples while resting. Though Charles could actually go on for far longer, he decided to rest since Rita doesn't have as much endurance as him. Coupled with her worrying for her sister, Rita must be physically and mentally exhausted, though the girl didn't notice it but Charles did. His fellow blonde is already sweating a lot and have been shouting since they entered the woods.
"There's a stream nearby. It's clean so we can drink from it directly."
Rita nodded as she finished her apple. Charles then led his friend to the stream nearby. Like he said, the water is clean and looks safe to be drunk directly. Charles and Rita gathered some water with their hand and drank. After drinking a few times, they are finally hydrated.
"You seem used to walking in the woods."
Rita suddenly spoke.
"Huh? Well yeah, I like to go camping in the woods and watch the stars from a clearing. Modern people are out of touch with nature. Sometimes, it's great to just sit back and relax, lying down on the grass under the star and remember where we came from."
"Hnn… that does sound nice."
Rita smiled. It does sound nice and she's interested in trying that out for herself. She has never gone camping. Her family is not the type to take their children on a camping trip. Maybe she should ask Charles to take her on one. It's also good to teach Cecillia about nature before she fully grows up.
As they stood up, ready to continue their search, they felt something touch their mind. The two immediately got up and look around. There was nothing. Then more feeling assaulted their mind, this time from a certain direction. The feeling came from somewhere across the stream.
'Look Chelsea! I found something shiny!'
They heard a voice, the voice of a child, a very familiar voice. It didn't come through their ear but their mind, as if the voice is echoing inside their head. The two looked at each other, knowing that the other experienced the same thing. They nodded and ran across the stream. Whatever that was, they can figure it out later. For now, they must find Cecillia and Chelsea.
"Cecillia! Chelsea!"
Rita called out again as she followed Charles from behind. Being much more familiar with the surroundings, Charles sprinted ahead until he saw a small clearing where the sun shines through the tree leaves. When he arrived, he saw Cecillia and Chelsea having dug out something from the ground.
"Cecillia! Chelsea!"
The elder sister cried out in joy as she arrived and hug the two younger girls. Charles allow the girls to have their moment, more curious about what Cecillia found.
"Big sister?" "Miss Rita?!"
Cecillia and Chelsea are surprised at Rita's appearance. Meanwhile, with the emotional moment passing, Rita let go of the two girls and frowned. While she's glad that nothing happened to them, she still has to scold them for going off on their own.
"The two of you… SIT DOWN, NOW!"
Charles chuckled as Rita started scolding the little girls. But now he is more interested in what Cecillia dug up. Earlier, through that weird phenomenon, he heard Cecillia said that she dug up something shiny. To his recollection, there's no mineral deposit anywhere near here. So what did that child dug out? Or was that voice some kind of hallucination? It could be. But it really led them to where the girls are so he's not ready to dismiss it just yet.
"Hmm? What is this?"
The blonde boy muttered to himself as he found something after digging deeper on the spot Cecillia dug up. He cleared out the dirt until he saw a small piece of metal jutting out from the ground. Its appearance is more akin to a shrapnel than a piece of ore so perhaps it is a broken metal artifact buried by time?
Charles dig up some more until he could take out the shrapnel from the ground. It's not shiny as Cecillia's voice said but it is a metal. An unknown metal he couldn't identify at first glance. It's not bronze and it's nor silver or steel. It is something else, but he doesn't know what.
Then the metal suddenly glow. He then winced as he felt something in his head. He couldn't really describe what it is but it is like someone is touching his mind, however that works. He didn't saw it but Rita also felt the same thing and stopped her impromptu lecture.
"Charles?"
Rita called him, noticing that he had winced like her. Just as the feeling recedes though, the ground began to rumble. With his head still pounding, Charles lost balance and fell on his behind. Rita shoved aside Cecillia and Chelsea and rushed to her friend's side to help him.
"You two, stay away! Charles!"
Just as Rita reached Charles, the ground below them gave out, creating a large hole causing them to fall. Time seemed to stop for a moment as Rita looked back to the screaming Cecillia and Chelsea. On the bright side, the earthquake had stopped and those two are still safe.
Rita and Charles fell down the hole. Rita didn't dare look down but Charles did and he saw that it's a long fall. He got closer to Rita and pulled her to his chest protectively. If they're lucky, there might be something that would cushion their fall below and they can survive. If not, well, at least Rita would have a bigger chance to survive if he cushion her fall.
After falling for around ten to fifteen seconds, they heard the sound of wildly running water. An underground river is beneath them. That's good news, provided they don't crash into a stalagmite or the river is too shallow. Charles braced for impact, holding Rita tightly in his arms. They crashed into the water.
The strong water current carried them through a series of winding tunnels going down. With no shore in sight and the current being too powerful to swim against, the two leave their fate to the current as it carried them through many tunnels, making the turn for them when they meet any forks. Minutes have passed but there's no end in sight. Though the tunnels does get bigger the further they go.
But it seems that their luck is at an end when they heard the sound of falling water up ahead, a sound Charles is quite familiar with after visiting several waterfalls. This is it. They either survive or die here. And like he had thought, there is a waterfall up ahead and they fell down into god-knows-where. The two blondes prayed in their heart for someone or something to save them. The two of them then closed their eyes, waiting for whatever impact that would eventually come.
But none came. In fact, they felt like they are slowing down until finally, they gently fell into a body of water with the same impact of someone slipping by a poolside and falling into the water.
It seems like they will live.
"Well, it seems like we'll live… for now."
Charles commented. Rita nodded as they finally let go of each other and swam to the shore. Fortunately, there is a shore they can swim to, wherever this is. That was the most adrenaline-pumping moment they had ever experienced in their life. Once they got to the shore, they look around. A large cavern extends in front of them filled with light coming from the walls. Seeing that there's no other way, the two of them proceeds deeper into the cavern.
"Wow. There's something like this underneath the mountain?"
Rita look around in wonder. She had never gone spelunking before and while the circumstances is certainly not ideal, it's better to think of it as spelunking than panicking. Not to say that she's not worried, because she is, and there is the feeling of fear in her, but panicking won't help. Besides, there's something in her telling her that everything will be alright. Then she felt Charles gripping her hand tightly as he led her through the cavern. Yes, everything will be fine.
"I never heard of a place like this. Then again, we did fell quite far down. I hope there's a way out of here."
Rita shares that sentiment. As they went in deeper, the light became brighter and brighter and a strange feeling starts to overcome them. A feeling of peace and welcome. Charles felt it and Rita felt it too. Out of curiosity, Charles dug out one of the sources of light from the cavern wall. He was surprised to see that it is a piece of the same metal he found earlier. That would mean that all of these lights that illuminate their path came from the same metal. The two of them proceed until they found the end of the tunnel which leads upward.
What they found next surprised them.
After following an uphill path the lights showed them, they found something they could never possibly imagine. Pieces of machines lying all over the place. Some of them are ordinary machine parts though neither could tell what kind of machine they are, others are parts that glows the same light as the light that led them all the way here in the first place.
But what surprised them the most is when they found the machine's head, staring at them from the same height. A large black helmeted head with broken v-shaped antenna and human-like faceplate. The size of the head itself is huge and awe inspiring despite the state it is in. Under the head is pieces of broken robotic body of immense size. They have never seen something like this before.
"Wow."
Rita said out loud. There's nothing else she could think of saying because she's awed by the sight in front of her. She had seen an IS before. She had even tried one out before but while an IS is impressive, the machine in front of them, broken as it is, have a presence that makes it seems so much more than an IS. How a machine can even have a presence is a mystery to her.
"This is… Rita, come on! We might be able to find something that can help us get out!"
Charles told her as he slides down the slope leading to the large machine. A giant robot. It is certainly a boy's romance and as someone who plan to study engineering, his interests is most definitely piqued, but they have priorities and that is to get out of here. Still, it might be good to have a look around. Who knows what they can find in the machine that can help them get out. It's certainly not just because Charles wanted to touch it at least once before they go their own way.
Once they reached the base of the slope, Charles ran towards the machine with Rita following close behind. The two of them got closer to the machine until they're finally at its waist. Carefully, Charles reached out to the black machine. When he touched it though, light immediately engulfed him and Rita… and then he saw it. A blonde man wearing a black suit on a seat that looks like a cockpit. The man then cried out something, a name.
"Banshee!"
Well, there's much more modification on how Charles found Banshee. For one thing, he's with Rita and both their Newtype ability is awakening. There will be more modification on the next chapter. Ohh and I should probably mention this too. I changed a lot and added details on the Alcott family. I didn't just simply add Rita but the whole story behind the Alcott family is changed because frankly, the canon setting is very lacking. Besides, this is Gundam. I'm not going to do an easily forgotten harem style family setting. The Alcott family story will be expanded and I have hinted something about them in this chapter. It will be a tragedy and it will haunt Rita and Cecillia throughout the story unlike in IS canon where I honestly forgot what Cecillia's background story is after the first volume.
Next we will also have the Dunois family. As should be quite obvious by now, the Dunois family and Charles himself is based on materials from several prominent families in the UC timeline. The Dunois family fun will begin soon enough. The Charles and Rita-centric chapters will continue for a bit more but after that, after the Banshee awakening incident to be precise, we will finally see Ichika, Kanzashi, and Tatenashi. It will be around the time when they're properly teenagers. And following that, Michelle and Jona will likely make their appearance, finally. Though on that subject... it's probably safe to eliminate Chifuyu, Maya, and Beltorchika from Charles' pairing list so it now goes down to Rita and Tatenashi. Personally, I am going for Rita but I also like Tatenashi and I plan to let both options open for a long time. By the way, apart from Jona, there will be one other prominent male character in this story, and I'm not using Dan this time like in Demons of the Sky. He is also a Gundam main character but not part of the UC timeline. This character will be close to Cecillia and Charlotte.
GBF93: We'll see soon. After all, Cecillia is not alone and we see that Rita does care about her a lot. As for Charles x Tatenashi, I did hint on that one before but ultimately, it can go either way and the current setting is in favor of Rita. As for IS in Gundamverse, well, I have some ideas but it doesn't sound appealing to me.
bahrithariq: that's 2 votes for Rita and 2 votes for Tatenashi.
AGundamFan: Yes, Charles as a character actually have a lot of potentials, especially in relation to Charlotte herself and Ichika. It also saves time from making an OC with a whole new background as fitting Charles' background with Charlotte's shouldn't be very hard. Unless you need an OC with very specific setting, Charles can be used for a lot of things. And there's another vote for Tatenashi. I'll try to at least consider it. Tatenashi is also very important to Charles' side of the story. Who knows, maybe the plot with Tatenashi is interesting enough to make me pick her instead of Rita. though definitely no Cecillia. Charles sees Cecillia as a sister and the age difference and maturity level difference makes that pairing a big no for me. As for the appearance of the other Unicorn units, well, they are all damaged right now. But just wait. Their awakening will be epic, I will make sure of that.