Yua was enjoying the peace and quiet at the top of the landship, this morning had been busy, the lung had spared with Hoshiguma and had dealt with a lot of paperwork from her father, she had been reinstated as his assistant.
Yua was glad that she was his secretary again but was dealing with some unpleasant thoughts, "I'm glad that mother and fathers' relationship has started, but what will happen when they have the me of this timeline? Will this Yua be a completely different person? Will father still want me around?" Yua didn't know what the future would hold. The white-haired lung didn't even know if she would be around to witness it. Everything was so uncertain.
"Maybe if I manage to save the future, I will disappear off somewhere quiet and peaceful, that way father and mother won't have to deal with any trouble regarding me, it would be best for everyone here." Yua decided for herself. While it would hurt to have to leave them, the lung wanted them both to live in peace, and she also wanted the Yua of this timeline to enjoy growing up happy, without fear of the seaborn, and having the chance to achieve their dreams.
Yua herself never got that chance, the white-haired lung wanted to become a contest knight in Kazimierz after seeing Nearl the radiant knight in a Kazimierz major, that dream never had a chance to come to fruition once the seaborn invaded Terra...
"Or maybe instead of disappearing, I could finally achieve my dream, I could face Nearl in a match." The lung would love to face her childhood hero in a Kazimierz major. That would be a dream come true for her.
Also, at least by pursuing her dream, Yua believed that she wouldn't have to disappear of the face of Terra, and if her father still did want her in his life he would know where to find her if he wanted to see her.
Putting that to the side for the moment, the lung began to remember the meeting that she had with her grand-uncle. It was the first time she ever went to Lungman, Rhodes Islands' next destination.
Lungman, Yua had never been to her mother's birthplace before she met her grand-uncle. She had been on the highways with Hoshiguma when she was young but never into the city itself. When the Hoshiguma and Swire from her timeline talked about it, they had smiles on their faces, but her mother just looked sad.
Ch'en avoided the topic as much as she could. Yua didn't understand why her mother didn't want to talk about it. That was until she met her grand-uncle. Thankfully, for Yua, it would be the first and last time she would see the man...
Ch'en was driving down the Lungman highway. In her vehicle, she had two passengers with her, her daughter Yua, now fourteen, and her personal bodyguard, who Ch'en appointed to her, Shirayuki. Ch'en was heading to Lungman to see her uncle, Wei-Yenwu.
For years, Ch'en had not wanted to see the man, he had done many things that the blue-haired lung could not forgive, but he always sent letters out to Rhodes Island, asking to see her.
In these letters, he also knew that she had a daughter with the doctor of Rhodes Island and wanted to meet her as well. Ch'en did whatever she could to make sure they never met; she would destroy the letters.
However, with the seaborn attacking nations across Terra, Ch'en realised that she should finally try to put this to rest and see what he wanted, hopefully she would never have to see her uncle again after this.
Yua wanted to ask her mother why they were heading to Lungman, but seeing the face that the older lung had, Yua thought it was best to keep quiet, the white-haired lung didn't want to accidentally catch her mother's wrath.
Looking around at the roads and buildings leading up to the city Yua could see very little if any damage, this meant that the seaborn had not reached here yet, the young lung hoped it would stay that way. Eventually, they came across a checkpoint. It was manned by several LGD personnel.
One of the members of the LGD came on to the road and held up his hand to tell the vehicle to halt. Ch'en slowed down and stopped the vehicle when they arrived at the checkpoint. That same member then came up to the driver's side of the vehicle and wanted to speak to Ch'en.
"Excuse me ma'am, but we have to stop your vehicle to check for any seaborn or anything suspicious or dangerous. Can I see some identification, please?" the officer politely asked Ch'en. Ch'en cursed herself, in her rush to see her uncle she had forgotten her Rhodes Island identification.
The blue-haired lung tried to explain the situation to the officer, "My apologies officer, I am in a rush as I have an important appointment but I forgot my identification, can you please let us through, it is really urgent." The officer shook his head and replied, "I am sorry ma'am, but without identification and a vehicle check, I can not let you through, I apologise."
Ch'en knew that this young officer was only doing his job, she had done this many times before years ago, but it was getting on her nerves, the lung was not in the mood for this "Listen! I don't have time for this! Let me through Dammit!" Ch'en shouted at the man.
"Again, I can not let you through. If you do not have identification, then please turn around and leave. Otherwise, we will resort to force." The officer spoke to Ch'en very sternly. This was getting Yua nervous, the last thing she wanted was her mother getting into a fight with LGD members, Yua knew her mother could easily take them but she didn't want them to be labelled as criminals.
This commotion drew the attention of the LGD commander of the checkpoint, he decided to see what was causing this, when he walked up to the vehicle, he recognised who the driver was, it was his old superior, former superintendent, Ch'en.
"Madam Ch'en! What are you doing here! It has been so long since I last saw you!" The commander shouted. Ch'en didn't know who the commander was, "Do I know you?" she asked the man. The commander replied "You probably don't remember me ma'am, but I was a rookie officer when you were superintendent, we were all shocked when you decided to leave and join Rhodes Island, why are you back here in Lungman?"
Ch'en didn't want to go into the specifics, so the lung just told the man that she had an important appointment. The commander then said "I understand, I know that you mean no harm to Lungman, so I will let you through." He then shouted at the guards to open the checkpoint to let her through, Ch'en thanked him and sped off into the city.
Yua breathed a sigh of relief when they got moving again, when they got closer to the centre of the city the white-haired lung plucked up the courage to ask why they were here "Why are we in Lungman mother? What is so important?"
Ch'en stopped the vehicle on being asked, Yua thought that her mother would lose her temper, but she didn't. Ch'en put her head on the steering wheel, sighed, and then spoke "We are here to see my uncle Yua, your grand-uncle, the leader of Lungman, Wei-Yenwu"
The younger lung gasped on hearing this, "My Grand-uncle is the leader of Lungman? Why didn't you tell me this sooner, mother? What are your reasons why you kept this from me?" Yua asked genuinely curious as to whythis had been kept from her. The lung believed she had a right to know.
Shirayuki who had been quiet this whole journey then spoke up, "Your mother had her reasons to keep this from you, young madam, please do not question her, it is a sensitive subject, I believe you will find out when you meet him." When Shirayuki said that Yua knew it must have been very serious why Ch'en kept that information from her.
Yua then spoke to Ch'en "Okay mother, I won't question you, I will wait until I see him." Ch'en simply mouthed, "Thank you." And they started moving again. After more driving, they then stopped at the largest tower in Lungman.
Ch'en really didn't want to be here, she wanted to be back at Rhodes Island, but she could not ignore this, especially with the seaborn threat, she might not get another chance.
A figure then approached the trio, it was a pink haired individual, someone who Ch'en had not seen in many years, "I never thought I would see you again Ch'en, how long as it been?" Ch'en replied to this figure before them, "Not long enough, Lin."
Lin Yushia, daughter of the infamous rat king, was standing before them. "So you say, I take it you are here to finally see your uncle? He was starting to give up hope of ever seeing you." Lin told the trio. Ch'en responded, "I'm only here to get this over and done with, nothing more."
The zalak then turned her head to Yua, "I guess this is your daughter Ch'en? The daughter who you had with the doctor of Rhodes Island? My condolences, by the way." Ch'en felt a small pang of pain when Lin said that, even though it had been years since her husband had presumably perished it still hurt her talking about the man, she still loved him even though he was gone.
Ch'en then spoke in an annoyed tone, "Can we please get this over with? I want to leave here as soon as possible." Lin seeing Ch'en did not want to hang around led the trio inside the building and into an elevator.
Inside the elevator, Yua was thinking to herself, "Who is this person? What history do they have with mother? They don't seem to be particularly friendly with each other." Yua could sense the tension between the two in the enclosed space. It was suffocating between the pair of them, the white-haired lung wanted out of the elevator.
After what seemed an eternity, the elevator stopped, and the door opened. All of them saw two very large doors, which Yua guessed what was the entrance to her grand-uncle's office.
They approached the doors but Lin stopped them before they could enter, she then looked at Shirayuki and spoke to her, "You must remain out here, he only wants to see Ch'en and her daughter." Shirayuki defiantly responded, "It is my duty to protect the young madam, I will be staying by her side."
The zalak did not like this, but before she could berate Shirayuki; Ch'en spoke, "It is okay Shirayuki, nothing will happen, I promise." Seeing that Ch'en was adamant that nothing would happen, Shirayuki stood down, she would wait here as directed.
Now knowing that it would be only Ch'en and Yua entering, Lin opened the doors, and the three walked inside...
Once inside, both lungs laid eyes on another of their kind, Ch'en could tell these years had not been kind to him, it was her uncle and Yua's grand-uncle, Wei-Yenwu.
Raising his head from the document he had been reading, The lungs eyes widened. Wei-Yenwu had to blink several times to make sure he was not imagining things. But he could see them. It was his niece and presumably his grand-niece standing opposite him.
Taking a few seconds to compose himself, Wei spoke to Lin, "Thank you for bringing them here, Lin, please leave us." Lin did what she was ordered and left the trio alone. He then sat down, and the other two followed suit. He clearly had a lot he wanted to talk about.
"It has been so long since I've seen you Ch'en, I never thought this day would come." Wei said to Ch'en. It was clear to her that he was elated to see her.
Ch'en however, didn't share the same sentiment, "I didn't want to come, I've done my upmost to avoid you since i last saw you. I'm only here to finally see what you want, and why is Lin working for you anyway? Care to explain?" Ch'en asked her uncle.
Wei could tell by her tone that his niece wasn't happy seeing him, he had hoped that she would finally come home to Lungman, and bring her daughter here to stay with her, but that clearly wasn't the case.
Wei then sighed and began explaining to Ch'en the situation with the zalak, "Lin is only working for me on her father's orders, why I do not know, and as for what I wanted Ch'en, I want you to come home, I want your daughter to come home as well. If I'm not mistaken, this young lady next to you is your daughter, correct?" Ch'en did nod to his question and spoke, "Yes, this is my daughter, her name is Yua, and as for coming home, the answer is no, our home is Rhodes Island."
Wei didn't want this answer, he wanted them to come home, even though Ch'en was against the idea, he didn't know what her daughter thought, "Maybe if I can convince her, Ch'en will have no choice but to follow, she wouldn't abandon her daughter." the lung thought to himself. He then turned his head towards Yua and began to speak.
"What do you think, young lady? Would you like to come and live in Lungman?" Wei asked Yua. Yua had been silent throughout all of this so far. She didn't know what to think, "I don't know, sir, I have always lived in Rhodes Island, I've never lived anywhere else."
Wei wanted to probe further, he wanted to find out more about his grand-niece, to see if there was anything he could use to get the both of them here in Lungman "And what do you do in Rhodes Island Yua? I can't imagine you would be out there involved in fighting the seaborn, especially someone as young as you." Wei asked his grand-niece what she did aboard the landship she lived on.
Yua wasn't sure she should answer that question. The white-haired had only been an operator for a short time she wasn't sure how her grand-uncle would react, so Yua refused to answer the question.
When Yua refused to answer, Wei got a horrible realisation and shouted at his niece, "Don't tell me she is fighting?! Why would you do this Ch'en?! If she lived here, she wouldn't have to fight! Yua would be protected here!"
The blue-haired lung replied by shouting just as loudly as her uncle, "Yua would be protected?! Like how you protected my sister! You let Talulah get taken away! You are the reason she became the leader of reunion! And when other nations wanted her dead, you had her executed! You didn't even speak up for her! How do I know that you wouldn't do the same to Yua! Would you sacrifice her to protect Lungman?! You have sacrificed family before! I'm not letting you do it again! and for your information, I'm not letting her fight because i want to! It is for survival! I wish she didn't have to fight!" Ch'en finished her tirade at her uncle.
Yua didn't expect to hear what her mother just said, "I had an aunt?! And she was the leader of reunion!? Just what else aren't you telling me, mother!?" Yua thought to herself as she heard another secret that had been kept from her.
Wei put his head in his hands after Ch'en's rant at him and responded, "I took no joy in what happened to Talulah, other nations were threatening me with war if i didn't comply, they wanted her head. Ch'en, I did what I had to do, if I could turn back time I wouldn't make a different decision, everything I ever did was to protect Lungman, I know you may not agree with my decisions but I believe they were the right thing to do, if both of you lived here Yua would be under constant protection, I would not let what happened to Talulah happen to Yua, you have my word, Ch'en."
Ch'en didn't believe him. The lung was sickened at how he could use the excuse of protecting Lungman to justify what happened to her sister. It was unforgivable.
The blue-haired lung then stood up and spoke her mind to her uncle, "Your word means nothing to me. I will never forgive you for killing Talulah. We are leaving, we are not coming back, I'm not giving you the chance to let Yua be another sacrifice for you. Don't you ever try to contact me or Yua ever again. As far as I'm concerned...You are dead to me. Come Yua, Let's go." Ch'en the began to leave with her daughter following close behind her ready to return home.
Wei-Yenwu tried calling out to his niece and grand-niece but neither of them turned around to look in his direction. As soon as the lung was on his own the only thing that the old lung was left with was his own regrets on what he had done...
After that meeting, they left Lungman and never returned until they saw the city destroyed a few short years later, the seaborn had ravaged it. Yua also felt pity and sorrow for her aunt Talulah. The white-haired wished there was a way to change her fate. "Maybe I can, one day, but for now, I must defeat the seaborn, I will defeat the seaborn..." the lung promised herself before she headed back inside to her father's office...