Wufei: Shall I help the readers kill you now or later? Exactly how many months has it been since you updated?

ZT: Eh heh….a few. I'm sooooo sorry about the wait people! Here's the next chapter. This chapter is a flashback of when Nessa first joined LAVA. Forewarn, haven't written anything in since the last update, so this isn't exactly my best work… I don't own Gundam Wing. Enjoy!

Fate Sucks II: Clash of the Moon and Star

Vanessa took one look at Heero and mentally sighed. There was no way he was going to let her go without explaining about Sai's dad. She guessed since he seemed so positive that he could get the story out of her that Sai must have mentioned something before to him about his death involving the dark haired mercenary to some extent. Well, that was an understatement to say the least… "I don't know where to begin," she finally said.

"How about at the beginning," Heero suggested. He was a bit tired of being pulled around and he wasn't about to let Vanessa start tugging at his strings as well.

'At the beginning'? Great, now all she needed to do is figure out what exactly the "beginning" was. When she was startled awake? When Sai showed up? When she broke the window? No, it wouldn't make sense if she started from there. She would have to talk about earlier that evening. Vanessa sighed, "Okay then…I had just turned fourteen. As you know, I come from a long line of successful businessmen and women. My dad used to have annual parties at our mansion for his workers and for fellow CEOs who he may form business agreements with some time in the future…"

Flashback

Vanessa wandered around the overly crowded dining hall searching for her parents. Normally she would go find the children of the managers and such who were her age and mingle with them, but today they seemed to be closer to the age of her older siblings and cousins instead. 'Ah, the joys of being the youngest…..' she thought in annoyance, weaving around men in nice suits and women in fine dresses, the majority of them in black. 'Geez, you'd think this was a funeral rather than a party…' she thought. Not that she had anything against the color black; it was the color of her eyes and hair, two traits which she really enjoyed inheriting from her parents.

Going around a few more people, she finally spotted the two people she was looking for. Her father stood chatting in his grey business suit, his black hair slicked back and grey eyes dancing as he laughed at something the man he was talking to apparently said. Next to him stood Vanessa's mother, wearing her navy blue, knee high dress. Her long black hair was tucked behind her ears to keep it out of her face and her sharp onyx eyes trained on the person she was talking to at the moment, possibly the wife of the man her father was talking to. Vanessa decided the two were busy at the moment and decided not to disturb them.

However, as Vanessa was about to turn around, her mother took notice of her and gestured the young girl over. "Don't be shy Nessa, come meet this nice couple." Vanessa didn't want to be a bother to her parents, but there was no one around here that was her age, so she obliged. Vanessa's mother put a gentle hand on the younger girl's shoulder as she came over. "Pam, this is my daughter, Vanessa. Ness, this is Pamela and her husband, Skye."

"A pleasure to meet you," Vanessa said with a slight bow.

"The pleasure's all ours, Ms. Vaughn," Pamela replied, following the same gesture.

"She's gorgeous," Skye commented to Vanessa's father, "You must have a lot of trouble with young men around here, huh?"

"Any other father would completely agree with you," her father stated, "but I don't have to worry about my Ness. She's got her mother's beauty, but she's also got her strong head, and the traditional Vaughn aggression."

Skye laughed, "So I see…I'll have to remember never to pick a fight with someone named Vaughn then…" He looked at the younger girl, "So, do you plan to compete with your brothers and sisters for the position of CEO of your father's company? Or have you some other plan in mind?"

"Oh, she's far too young to be worrying about becoming the CEO of VT Inc.!" Vanessa's mother intervened.

Her father nodded, "Yes, we'd rather she focus on her education and just being a kid while she can. The position will still be there to compete for should she decide she wishes to be the CEO AFTER she's gotten a taste of the world."

Vanessa gave her parents and grateful look. This topic came up every year, and she was getting pretty tired of having to answer the question over and over again. Luckily her parents had caught on to this and would answer for her when they got the chance. People tended not to press the subject when it came from her parents' lips…

Vanessa's mother gave her shoulder a gentle squeeze, "Was there something you needed dear? When you first came up?"

"Oh, I was just looking for a familiar face. No one here is my age so…" Vanessa trailed off, but her mother got the idea. Vanessa would mingle with people her age if there were any, but if not she would go find someone she knew and hang out with them instead. The older woman knew that her daughter would prefer to be with people her own age though, and glanced around the room. After a few moments, she spotted someone, "Ah! Look over there Nessa! That girl looks to be about your age! Why don't you go speak with her?"

Vanessa looked in the direction that her mother was staring. Sure enough, there was a girl hanging out at one of the tables eating some food. Vanessa quickly excused herself and headed that way. As she neared the girl, she noticed that she had a little device in her hand which looked a little like some sort of hand held game. But rather than punch in any buttons, she was just watching the screen. Vanessa guessed that it was a miniature TV screen then as she came upon the table.

The girl noticed that there were two shadows and looked up at the new comer. She smiled at Vanessa, her face covered in cookie crumbs. Before Vanessa could open her mouth to speak, the girl beat her to it, "HI! You need to have some of these cookies; they're great! Do you like sweets? I do! Sweets are so sweet and yummy, guess that's why they're called sweets. Are you having fun? I am! I'm Laury, what's your name? Do you live around here? Are you here with your parents or are you a party crasher? If you're a party crasher, watch out for Ally over there; she doesn't really like people crashing parties…But Alex is a different story, she LOVES crashing parties almost as much as I do! Oh! And…."

Vanessa just stood there and tried to process what the girl was going on about. When she heard her mention other girls, she looked in the directions Laury pointed in. As she looked from place to place, she noticed a girl that the Laury girl had not pointed out yet. She had blond hair tied back in a loose bun. She had on navy blue slacks with an open matching jacket over a white blouse. She was playing with a gadget similar to the one Laury had. "Whose she…?"

Laury stopped in mid-ramble, "Huh? Her? Oh, that's Sai. She's cool. She cool with party crashes just so long as alcohol's not involved; she has a major problem with alcohol, something we've butted heads with a few times."

"I see…" Vanessa said, not really sure what else to say to the bubbly red head in front of her.

That was no problem for Laury though, "So what's your name?"

"Vanessa Vaughn" the dark haired girl answered simply.

Laury's eyes bulged. "Vanessa Vaughn?" Her jaw dropped, "That is SO freaky!"

Vanessa frowned slightly, "What's so freaky about it? This IS the Vaughn residence…"

"I know, but still…..Vaughn is MY last name!" she squealed with delight, catching Vanessa off guard. "This is so cool! We could be distant cousins or something! Or sisters even! That would be so awesome! I've never had a sister before! Ohmygosh I'm so excited!" Laury went on and on, jumping up and down with excitement.

"Uh, yeah, I can tell…" Vanessa said a little nervously, noticing that a lot of people were staring at them now, including the girls who Laury had pointed out. She noticed them glance at each other before the one called Sai got up and walked over to them, "Laury, I think Alex wants to talk to you."

Laury stopped jumping, "Okay!" Sai and Vanessa watched her literally skip over to Alex who was giving her an annoyed look.

Sai turned back to Vanessa and gave her an apologetic smile, "Sorry about that. Laury's a bit…energetic at times…" She stuck out her hand, "I'm Sai."

Vanessa shook her hand, "Vanessa Vaughn…" The dark haired girl looked at the blond in front of her. With her light hair and sapphire eyes, she looked like she may be related to the Skye person her father was talking to. "Are you here with your parents?" Vanessa asked.

Sai gave a shrug, "Well, my dad's supposed to be here if that's what you mean. I'm just here to make sure he doesn't cause any mischief."

Vanessa smirked, "Well there's a change. That's usually the parent's job."

The blond nodded, a hint of sadness behind her sapphire eyes, "Yeah, my dad can be a handful…"

As the night went on, Vanessa talked with the blond and met the rest of the girls Laury had pointed out. She was surprised to find that the four were experts in technology, and the devices they were holding were actually consoles to a multi-player chess game they had made. At the moment Sai and Ally were playing, hence the reason Laury was only watching the game on her console. Vanessa had asked them if they planned to market their creation, but they just gave her shrugs in response.

After awhile, the girls noticed that people were beginning to leave and decided that they should be heading out as well. "Guess your dad decided not to show…" Alex mused out loud as she scanned the group exiting.

Sai didn't look very convinced by the comment, and Vanessa detected a hint of concern in the blonde's eyes, "Is something wrong Sai?"

The blond turned to her and seemed to debate with something before giving the others a knowing glance and pulling out her own game consol, "My dad's probably lying passed out drunk somewhere, but if he just so happens to show up here, push this green button and it'll let us know where to find him, k?" She handed Vanessa the game.

The dark haired girl looked at the toy in her hand and looked at them in shock, "I can't take this! It's your game!"

Sai waved it off, "Sure you can! Just gives me an excuse to come by anyway, to pick it up that is."

Vanessa looked at the girl for a second. She could tell that Sai had no intention of ever asking for the game back, or of letting Vanessa ever give it back. "Thanks," Vanessa said with genuine gratitude. Usually, since she was the "rich girl", everyone decided that she could buy her own things and everyone else's for that matter. Thus, she had never received a gift from anyone other than her parents, but was counted on to buy gifts for everyone else.

Sai grinned, "Don't mention it."

"OOH! And if you push that blue button, it makes the game a multi-line walky-talky so we can talk! These things can get each others' signals from ANYWHERE!" Laury piped up excitedly.

"Yeah, so don't be a stranger; give us a call when you're bored. Chances are we'll be bored too," Alex added with a grin and wink.

Vanessa smiled, "I will; thank you."

"No prob girl! But hey, we've gotta head out. Y'know, we have to find an old guy's drunken butt before he gets himself into trouble….again. See ya!" Alex gave a wave before walking out.

Allison smiled and bowed, "It was nice meeting you." With that she followed Alex.

Laury pouted, "AW! I don't wanna leave yet! There's still perfectly good food here!"

Sai rolled her eyes, "Tough Laury, we gotta go." She gave a wave to Vanessa before dragging Laury after the other two.

Vanessa waved back and watched the four leave. She hoped she would meet them again some time soon. Little did she know she was going to meet them again a lot sooner than she expected…

----

Vanessa was startled out of a deep sleep as she heard a loud crash down stairs. At first she thought it was just one of her family members tripping over something as they went to go get a mid-night snack, however, as she listened, she began to doubt it. More than one person was moving down stairs at a rapid pace. Vanessa quickly got out of bed and replaced her nightgown with a pair of sweats and a t-shirt. 'It can't be a burglar.' She though as she dressed, 'The alarms would have went off!'

She was about to open the door to her room when a woman's scream made her freeze. That was her mother! Vanessa took that as a hint to not go down there and instead locked her door before hastily grabbing her phone, knocking some random things off of her dresser in the process. She quickly punched in 911 and put the phone to her ear…only to discover that the phone was dead. "Damn it!" she cursed under her breath and looked for her cell phone in the mess that she knocked over. It wasn't there. She cursed some more; she had the phone with her in the family library earlier that evening when doing homework. She was willing to put money on the wager that she left it there in her rush to get ready for the party. She rummaged through the pile to find something, anything that she could use to communicate with the outside.

Just as she was about to give up and climb out the window, she saw it: the game the girls had given her. She picked it up and noticed some of the digitalized pieces moving around. They were up! She quickly pushed the blue button, "Hello? Sai, Laury, Alex, Allison, anyone? Please say someone's there who'll pick up!"

"Vanessa? What's wrong?" Allison's voice came through a hidden speaker on the game consol.

"You girls have to help me! Someone's in my house and cut the phone wires. I can hear my mom screaming downstairs and-" she stopped short as she heard a loud bang and her mother's scream cut short then it was followed by some more bangs. Vanessa's voice rose in panic, "Call the police! My mom's been shot! OH MY- My mom's been shot!"

"Vanessa, try to stay calm. Where are you?" Sai's voice came through calmly yet with a serious tone to it.

Vanessa took a few deep breaths to calm her self as much as possible before answering, "In the mansion. I'm in my room."

"Okay help's on the way, Ness, just stay where you..." Vanessa didn't hear the rest of what Sai said because at that moment, the handle of her door began to jiggle violently before there was a loud banging at her door as someone tried to break it down. For a split second, Vanessa was petrified with fear, and dropped the game. Then, her mind hit her hard with two words: "GET OUT!"

She rushed to her window and opened it, grimacing as it beeped, signaling a window had been open. 'Damn alarm company!' There was a tree branch a few feet away from her window. She had never tried to jump to it before, but the thought had crossed her mind…She looked down; it would be a painful fall if she missed the branch…another bang on her door made her make up her mind really quick. Climbing onto the window sill, she propelled herself towards the branch. By devil's luck, she landed somewhat ungracefully on it. She quickly scrambled down the branches until she got to the lowest one about seven feet above the ground. She took a deep breath and jumped, landing on her feet, but the force of gravity pulled her to her knees.

She got back up and listened. She could still hear the banging on her door upstairs. She decided to take advantage of the situation and go get help while the person was still trying to get into her room. However, as she caught a glimpse of the living room through the window, the thought of getting help left her. Through the window, she saw that the white tile floors had been painted red, the ink coming from wounds in her family's bodies. Trembling, she stepped towards the window. There were all there. Her mother, her father, her brothers and sisters….all of them sprawled on the ground staring with unseeing eyes at something or other. "Mama….Papa…." Vanessa whispered in shock, tears rolling down her cheeks as she realized that they were all dead.

The sound of crashing upstairs brought her somewhat out of her shock as she remembered the person in the area was still in the house. She looked at the window, then down at her feet. There was a decent sized rock by her feet. She picked it up. If the alarm on her window worked, why wouldn't this one? Using all her strength, she threw the rock at the window. It hit the window before going through it, taking large, sharp shards of glass with it, and sounding an annoying yet loud alarm. She could hear some cursing up stairs from her room; obviously the attacker thought he killed the alarm when he cut the phone wire.

Not knowing what else to do, Vanessa ran towards the other side of the house. Her home was out of the way, and there was no way that she could run to safety without the attacker catching up to her. Her only option was to avoid the attacker while the girls got a hold of the proper authorities, and maybe find her phone and call the authorities herself in the process, just in case the girls made a mistake when they called them. She ran to the front door and jiggled the handle. It was locked. How did the attacker get in then? She ran to a nearby window, but despite her best efforts, she couldn't get it to open from the outside. 'The alarm's working, the door's locked, the windows are shut tight…how'd he get in?' she wondered.

A noise behind her caught her attention and she took off towards another part of the house, trying to find an open door or window. Long story short, she found none until she finally came to the window she had broke. For a moment she debated jumping through it, despite the fact that she would get wounded in the process. She could hear footsteps heading her way and hoped that her attacker would feel the same way she did about getting cut by the glass, and climbed in, cutting her hands and legs on the broken glass in the process.

Once inside, Vanessa felt a wave of nausea hit her as the smell of blood engulfed her. It was her first time seeing that much blood spilt in real life. Little did she know at the moment that it wasn't even close to being her last time… She couldn't help but stare at the bodies of her fallen family. Who would do such a thing? Why would they do such a thing? As soon as the question crossed her mind, she knew the answer. It was the reason why she never answered the question about wanting to inherit the family business; although the business worked with virtual technology, ever since the war started up, VT inc. had started making weapons and was secretly one of the main suppliers of the rebel groups. The family understood that Vanessa was not very comfortable with this, in fact she was border Pacifist, and thus they didn't push her to compete for the family business. She had always worried for them, worried what would happen if Oz found out who was supplying the rebels...now she knew.

She couldn't take it anymore. Falling to her knees, she let out a choked sob. Her family was gone! What was she going to do? She was just a kid! Would she have to go to an orphanage or could she get away with living on her own? Would she have to take over the family business? If so, would she have to keep producing weapons for the rebels? What if it had been a rebel who killed her family? Then what would she do? Would she have to go into hiding? Was there anywhere she COULD hide? There were so many questions, and none she knew the answer to. That frightened her even more than the person trying to get into her room did…

Had Vanessa not been so overwhelmed at the moment, she might have noticed the footsteps heading her way long before she heard the other ones pounding loudly on the tile floor towards her, "NESS!" The voice shocked her out of her stupor and she turned around quickly, throwing herself away from the knife slashing at her in a horizontal line in the process. She hissed slightly as the tip of the knife grazed her neck, leaving a red line in its wake. Her attacker looked at whoever had yelled to her in shock, "You! You were the one causing so much trouble!" She scrambled backwards, never taking her eyes off her attacker even when she heard something whistle over her head and see her attacker knock one of her family's vases aside as it came flying at him. She couldn't believe it. How was it that someone who has such kind eyes earlier have such murderous eyes now?

She watched as Skye knocked aside a few more items coming his way before pulling out a gun. A voice cursed some distance behind her as Skye fired some shots. She froze as Skye kept firing but the cursing stopped. Did he just take another life…? No, he was still firing; the person must still be alive. As Vanessa inched further back, her fingers brushed against something. Turning her head towards it, she realized she had brushed one of the larger pieces of glass that lay on the floor from when she broke the window.

A clicking sound and some cursing let her know that Skye ran out of bullets. "I may have missed you brat," he yelled at someone behind her. Vanessa took a chance and glanced behind. She couldn't see anyone and guessed whoever it was had taken cover behind the corner of the wall, "But I'll get you some other time; I won't have you getting in the way of my fun." To Vanessa, it wasn't rocket science what he meant and she turned around to see Skye stepping towards her, "Don't worry Miss Vaughn, you'll see your family up in heaven soon."

For years after Vanessa would look back at that moment and try to figure out what it was to no avail, but something he said that moment made her snap. She stood up slowly, her eyes cold and hard, "I'd rather see you in Hell." Skye took that as a challenge and lunged at her, grabbing hold of Vanessa's neck in his iron grip. For a few seconds, one would have guessed that time stopped, that is until Skye let out a harsh, ragged breath, his fingers loosening around her neck. Vanessa took this chance to shove the man away from her. As she coughed and gulped down air, she saw him fall backwards, the thick piece of glass sticking out of his chest. She watched as his breathing grew shallow before finally stopping. 'Oh my God, I just killed a man…' she realized, staggering back. She was a murderer; no better than he was! She took a ragged breath and coughed as it irritated her badly bruised and cut neck. Hot tears rolled down her cheeks filled with pain, both physically and emotionally, and guilt. What was she going to do? There was nothing she could do. Her family was gone and she was a fourteen year old murderer! Numbly, she knelt down and picked up another piece of glass. She didn't deserve to live…Closing her eyes, prepared to stab herself.

Her hand stopped suddenly as a firm grip prevented her arm from going any further. Opening her eyes, she saw herself looking into a familiar pair of eyes: Sai's.

"…Sai took me back to her hangout at the time and cleaned me up. There, she let me know that Skye was her father and a feared killer. She also assured me that I had a place to stay with the girls and her. I accepted because I had no where else to go. I don't think either of us ever imagined that I would become the head of LAVA…" Vanessa finished explaining.

Heero sat there, soaking in the information. Vanessa was a pacifist at one point in time? But she was a mercenary with his level in skills! He never would have guessed that she was a female Quatre in her youth. "So that's what Sai meant when she said that Skye met his match when he messed with you."

Vanessa nodded, "Yeah, they used to say that I was an atom bomb in disguise…" she sighed and leaned back in her chair, "Maybe that's why they didn't want to get me involved…"

Heero raised an eyebrow, "What do you mean?"

"You've seen it in both the real and the fake letters from Night Star, that girl LOVES symbolism. Well, the atom bomb has always been known for its awesome ability for mass destruction…" Vanessa explained, "However, the creators of the atom bomb always wondered if they had done the right thing by letting such a power be unleashed on the world. Maybe the girls wondered if they should have let me become part of LAVA in the first place; lord knows I was hell for my enemies, hence why they called me Hell Fire."

Heero thought back to when he was facing off with LAVA. Saying that the girls were a handful was definitely an understatement; and if they were taking orders from her at the time…he could understand where they were coming from. "So what do you plan to do now?" he asked.

Vanessa shrugged, "I don't know. It depends on what our mysterious friend does. For now, I'll just see what the girls have come up with and watch from the sidelines if they're doing fine."

"And if they're having trouble?"

Vanessa smirked, "Well, then I guess I'll have to send out invitations to LAVA's one year reunion."

Please don't kill me! I'll try to get another update out ASAP, k? Well, love it? Hate it? Review it! Till next time!