Gundam Wing Fan Fiction / Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ Tears in the Twilight ❯ Chapter 2

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

TITch2



AN: Thanks so much for all the great reviews!! I was sooo happy when I read them! I am so glad you like this so far! I hope you like this chapter too... if you don't, I'll feel like I've dissapointed you... I always get so paranoid =P
Anyway, on to the fic!!

Chapter Two:

***Nine Months Later***
Duo let out a loud whoop as the OZ base blew up. He wheeled his Gundam around and followed his companions back to the hanger where they kept their gundams. Once he had landed, he jumped out and looked over his gundam for any damage.
"Nice job, Deathsythe." he murmured. Finding no damage, he sauntered over to his companions. Wufei was currently cursing at a dent in his Gundam's leg.
"Hey Wu-man!" Duo said cheerfully. "Nataku take a hit?"
"Don't call me Wu-man, Maxwell." was the only response. Duo didn't mind; he hadn't expected anything else. The others headed inside having already checked their gundams. Quatre told a team of mechanics to fix Nataku and Trowa's gundam, Heavyarms, which had also taken a blow. The pilots headed inside Quatre's mansion, which was conveniently placed over the underground hanger. Actually, the hanger had been built under the house, not the other way around. But who cared?
Duo flopped down on the couch. "Anyone want to see the news? I bet in an hour or so, we'll be on!"
"Nah-uh, Duo, I need sleep," Quatre said as he headed for his room.
"Come on, Q-man! It's only Eleven P.M!"
"Goodnight!" Quatre called from the hall. Duo grumbled, then noticed his other friends were leaving too.
"Hey! Where is everybody going?"
"Circus tomorrow. Have to be up early." came Trowa's short reply.
Heero just said "Hn," and Wufei didn't see any reason to respond. Which left Duo all alone.
"Party poopers," he muttered under his breath as he went to raid one of Quatre's refrigerators. Gathering a decent chocolate supply, he made his way to his room. Dumping all the chocolate at the foot of his bed, he sat at the head and began to munch on the candy. He looked out the window and saw that there was a full moon that night.
'Serena always loved the moon...' He quickly shoved the thought from his head. He got up and went into the bathroom to get ready for bed, abandoning the rest of his chocolate haul for the next day. Ten minutes later he was in bed. He felt tired, but lay awake staring at the ceiling.
It had been nine months since he had gone to find Serena; two years and two months since he last saw her. When he got back, he wouldn't talk to anyone. He stayed locked in his room in one of Quatre's many mansions. He hadn't eaten or slept for several days until Wufei broke the door down and Quatre had forced him to eat. He had drugged Duo too. Duo never did tell them what had happened or why he had left in the first place. After awhile, it seemed to them that the old Duo was coming back. Three months later he had seemed back to normal.
But he wasn't. It was an act. An act to keep him sane, an act to avoid unwanted sympathy. As long as he was preoccupied playing tricks, annoying his fellow companions, and being chased by his fellow companions, he had no time to grieve. No time to even think about what had happened. But at night, when he was alone, it was different. He would lose him self in the memories, and the heartache would return undaunted. He cried every night for five months. Quatre had heard him a few times, but swore never to tell anyone. Still, the blond pilot couldn't help but wonder what had made his happy-go-lucky friend so miserable.
Not that Duo was as happy-go-lucky as he had seemed to be. He had missed Serena terribly, but what could he do? He couldn't leave. He was needed. So he made the best out of it. It kept him from growing cold and detached like Heero, or quiet and reserved like Trowa. He didn't want that. Then he would have to spend all his time with his thoughts. And he would miss Serena even more.
After five months, the nights came less frequently when he would cry himself to sleep. He never felt any shame for crying; it seemed natural. It was a way to voice his broken soul and torn heart. Slowly, he began to move on with his life. His cheerfulness wasn't as much of an act or a routine anymore. Though he would never be the same again, he felt he was able to live again. Maybe not with the same joy of life, but at least he was living. No longer was he the empty, soulless shell behind a masquerade.
But it still hurt so much.



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"Tsuki, your training is complete. I never would have suspected that anyone could learn so fast! Your progress was truly remarkable. You have already been sent on several minor missions. Now you are ready to go on harder ones. At this time you will leave this base and go out into the world. Find a place to stay, enroll in a school perhaps; act like a normal teenager. You will be contacted for e-mails. Understood?"
"Hai."
"Good. If you need anything, feel free to contact me."
And then it was over. At age 16, one year of training had past, and now she was free. What had taken others years to master she had done in one year. Not only that, but she was better at it then some who had trained for years. Better at what?
At piloting a gundam.
She was Tsuki. Codename Usagi Tsukino so she would be able to live as a normal human. Once known as Serena, a girl living on the streets, she was know one of the few fighters known as Gundam pilots. And one of the best.
The only survivor of the destruction of her home town, she had found the doctors and asked them to train her as a Gundam pilot. She never knew where Duo had gone, but she knew he had left her around the time the war had gotten worse. She swore to fight OZ, if only because without the war Duo might have stayed with her. For all she knew, he was dead now, killed by soldiers in battle or maybe a victim of a massacre. She had forced her pain away by taking her anger out on mobile dolls and training ruthlessly to become a fighter. Her pace would have killed others, but somehow she survived, and became stronger for it. She had forced all emotions away. She was now almost as emotionless as Heero on the outside. Emotions still ran rampant inside, but she didn't let them affect her actions, and no one could tell that they existed.
A normal life. Such a thing didn't exist for her anymore, but she supposed she had to try. She had gotten an apartment close to a secret base owned by the rebellion. {AN: is that what it is called?} She stored her gundam, Eternity, in it's underground hanger. She debated enrolling in school. On one hand, she didn't want to be bothered. She had more important things to do, and had learned most of the things she would learn in school from a woman named Setsuna. Setsuna had taught her when she had time from her training as a pilot. She excelled at this as well, especially at astronomy. It was almost as if she had already learned the material but had forgotten until Setsuna had brought it up.
So why waste time? Besides, she didn't want to socialize with people. She had become cold and detached after her town was destroyed. The thought of people her own age with their adolescent, pointless problems and their obliviousness of the real problems in life was not at all appealing. But on the other hand, she would not constantly be on missions, and she would need something to pass the time. Also, if someone knew she wasn't going to school, someone might try to force her. She was only 16 after all, though she could pass for an 18 year old, and she was considered a minor.
Not to mention Setsuna couldn't have taught her everything. She might get useful knowledge for going to school. She decided that if she could find a way to get out of school for missions, then she would go. That didn't mean she had to have a boyfriend or make friends with silly, frivolous, airheaded girls. Hell, she didn't have to socialize at all!
After she had unpacked everything in her new apartment, she grabbed her keys and went outside. She had decided to take a walk to clear her thoughts, having nothing else to do. The only problem with that was when you were just walking, you had time to think. And she didn't want that. Thoughts would come unbidden, and unwanted memories would resurface. She forced herself to keep her mind on her surroundings or thoughts for upcoming missions.
She was currently walking through a nice part of town, she noted. Not the slums, like she was used to. She felt slightly out of place here, like she didn't belong. Cars drove by, kids ran around in the still warm September air. She saw some girls her own age looking in shop windows and talking about what they wanted to buy. There was an ice cream parlor, an arcade, a bakery, and several other stores. The sidewalks started to get a little more crowded as schools let out and some people got off from work. She felt uncomfortable around all the people and increased her pace. She went into a nearby park and breathed a sigh of relief. She enjoyed the solitude. She walked down an old bike trail, listening to the birds.
Somehow, her feet brought her to the hanger her gundam was stored in. She looked up, surprised that she had not realized where she was going. She entered a hidden cave that was actually man-made, and went down the elevator to the hanger below. The elevator was disguised to look like the rock wall of the gave, and only showed itself when she said the password.
There was no one there; there usually wasn't, for the war wasn't in this part of the world. She walked to the base of her gundam and looked up at it. This was her life now, she thought. She stood there for long time, just looking at the gundam and thinking. What would happen after the war? What did she have to live for? After her town was destroyed, she had wandered around for several weeks, lost, broken. She wanted to find Duo, but she didn't know where to start. She hadn't seen him for almost a year and a half; he might have been dead. When she had happened to pass a store with TVs in the windows, she saw a news report on the gundam pilots destroying more of OZ's bases. That was when she had decided to fight.
Another month had passed before she had found the doctors. They had been skeptical at first about training her, but had let her use the simulator. They had seen she had great potential, and had agreed to train her. Now she was living to fight OZ and be Eternity's pilot. But what would happeb when OZ was gone? What was there to keep her alive?
After awhile, she turned and left the hanger.



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AN: Ok, I think they'll find each other next chapter.... or possibly the one after. Don't worry; ROMANCE IS COMING!!!! ^^