Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Blind Reflection ❯ Ghosts of the Past ( Chapter 2 )

A/N: Please, please read this! I haven't written a Gundam fic in a long time, so please, read this one! A new saga of war has begun, and it's gonna have an interesting ending. A very realistic ending too. ^^; Please read and review....

Disclaimer: -_-; Don't satirize me people. I know I don't own Gundam Wing...*sigh*

Geneva was a very beautiful city. One of the most lovely in the world. But it, like many other places on Earth, held ghosts of the past and skeletons in the closet. A place of great beauty and culture, yes. But Geneva held its certain danger. It was a safe house, for several years, for rebel leaders and high power officials. And still today, it held many secrets, and dangers.

Duo, Heero, Trowa, Wufei and Quatre had arrived in Geneva just a day or so ago. They had first decided to rest, plan, then visit Dr. Marlene Evans at St. Maria Hospital. Over the course of the days, they had did a lot of research on the good doctor, and her past.

Dr. Evans was a renowned physician, one of the most famous on the Earth. She had graduated from the Berlin University in Germany at the age of 15 and had been working in Geneva for 4 years. She was the daughter of a well-known doctor and pacifist, the late Dr. Arthur Evans. But besides the basic facts, they could find nothing else on Marlene Evans.

On the third day of their visit in Geneva, the boys finally decided to go and visit Dr. Evans herself. It was time to come clean, and convince this women to help them in this saga of War. One of the questions that ringed in their heads was why she refused to respond to Colonel Une. It was a mystery, though small.

"I hate hospitals," Duo muttered as he and his fellow pilots enter St. Maria. "Too white. Too clean. And they have way too many people in those white coats." He shuddered. "It creeps me out. Feels like I could be experimented on any minute."

"You're over reacting Maxwell," Wufei growled. He looks around, and surprisingly, he agreed with Duo. There were way too many people in white coats. "Let's just find this woman and go. I want to get this over with."

"I think we should give Dr. Evans a little more consideration since she is the one that will be building our Gundams again," stated Quatre. He turned and started walking toward the front desk. The others followed. "We need her help."

The woman at the front desk was wearing a pink hospital uniform. She was possibly a nurse at the hospital. She was quite young with wavy neck length brown hair and sharp aqua eyes. "Comment estce que je peux t'aider?[1]" she asked kindly.

"Umm..." murmured Quatre. "We," he indicated to the other pilots, "Are looking for Dr. Marlene Evans. Do you know where we can find her? It's very important that we speak with Dr. Evans."

The young nurse smiled. "Ah, Dr. Evans is in surgery right now," she answered in well-spoken English, which was lightly accented. She glanced at her watch. "She should be finished very soon. If you want to wait for her, the room is down this hall, turn left, and is the last door on the right." She indicated the direction.

"Thanks for you help," smiled Quatre as he and the others headed for the surgery room. They followed the nurse's instructions and headed down the hall, turned left then waited in front of a pair of large doors. A red light saying "Occupied" was still turned on. In a matter of seconds, the light faded.

"Well, looks like we're finally gonna meet the Doc," said Duo. He and the other pilots waited in front of the door patiently. Then the large doors opened and a women stepped out. She was wearing a dark aqua hospital uniform and had a stethoscope around her neck and she was scribbling something on a clipboard.

"Sophia, the nurse at the front desk called and told me someone wanted to see me," she said without looking up at them and continued to scribble on the clipboard. The women had a soft complexion, rosy lips, and her hair was a platinum silver blonde colour, tied in a louse ponytail. When she finally looked up, her storm gray eyes flashed at them. "I'm Dr. Marlene Evans. You wanted to speak with me?"

"I'm Quatre Reberba Winner," said the young Winner heir, extending his hand toward Marlene.

"I know who you are," Marlene stated plainly. She gazed at the rest of them. "All of you. You're the Gundam pilots am I right?" She gazed at the five of them with a cold and plain stare.

Suddenly, the large surgery doors opened and a group of doctors and nurses pushed a young girl out on a rolling stretcher. She had an I.V connected to her hand and a tube stuck down her throat. She looked bruised and white, with many cuts and bandages around her. Marlene handed the clipboard to one of the nurses.

Duo stared at the bruised girl as they rolled her away. "Geez," muttered Duo lightly as the girl and the doctors disappeared from site. "What happened to her?" He turned to Marlene.

"Raped, beaten, almost killed," she stated simply. She sighed, giving an almost dreamy and dazed look, then reverted back to her old self as she turned her stormy gaze back to the pilots. "But I don't think she is your problem. Getting to the point, what is it that you wanted to talk to me about?"

"You received a call from Colonel Une a couple days ago, but you never returned the call," Wufei stated. For a second, Marlene paused and gave him blank look. Then her storm eyes glittered with fire.

"I told the doctors when I left that I never want to have anything to do with wars ever again," she responded coldly. Her cold storm gray eyes stared at them, not shifting the eye contact. "I told them that almost 10 years ago. And I do keep my word."

"Dr. Evans, we really need your help," pleaded Quatre. "You probably know that a rebellion is likely to happen between some of the Colonies, and there is a very possible chance that the Earth would be attacked." He paused, "We need the Gundams, and you are the only one that knows how to build them."

"If you refuse to help us, thousands of lives would be lost," Trowa put in. "That would only be a burden on your conscious."

Marlene sighed. "Whatever happens in this war is none of my business," she argued. "If the desire of man is war, then so be it. I'm a doctor. My responsibilities are here in Geneva. Not in space. People have not learned from the past, and I won't work to cause another war."

She then turned and started walking away from them. "Hey, wait!" called Duo. But Marlene didn't respond as she continued to walk away.

Then suddenly, Heero spoke. "What are you afraid of Evelyn?" The storm eyed woman stopped in her tracks. The others turned to Heero. "Are you afraid of something from the past? A mistake you made?"

Slowly, Marlene turned around. She stood rigid and limp as she stared at Heero. She narrowed her eyes. "How...how did you--?" she murmured quietly. "What did you just call me?"

Heero repeated, "Why are you so afraid of your past Evelyn?" The doctor stared wide-eyed at the Gundam pilot. Her body shook slightly, her lips and hands trembled with either fear or great anger. "What kind of skeletons do you have in your closet?"

Marlene covered her mouth and shook her head lightly. Her face wore a mask of disbelief, shock and fear. "No...." she murmured. She shook her head, her eyes looked wet with tears. "No more....I can't....I just can't..." She then turned and started to run.

"Great. Nice job Heero. What the heck did you say to her?" asked Duo. The chestnut haired youth sighed and scratched his head. "And why the hell did you call her Evelyn?"

The stoic pilot was quiet for a moment. "The original picture of Marlene that the scientists kept had a name written in very small print on the back," he answered simply. "It said Evelyn Adams, and I just had a feeling this was Marlene's real name. Apparently, I was right."

"Well, what do you propose we do now?" insinuated Trowa. He gazed through the hall, which Marlene had disappeared. "She was quite shocked to be called Evelyn. I wonder why, though."

"I think we should go find her, and find would what this is all about," suggested Duo. "I'm sure she knows more about this situation than she is letting on. After all, she was a protégée of the Doctors."

"Yes, I agree with Duo," Heero answered. "Marlene is definitely keeping something. But what puzzles me most is why she would be so scared of her own name." The Prussian eyed youth paused for a moment. "I think we should find the answer."

Your so lucky Eve, they always want you for a project. You're always the best. Ms. Number One!

Oh, I wouldn't call that lucky Scarlet. I mean, Ira, Alexia and Lillian are all better than me. I just get chosen. But I don't really want to pilot that thing.

Why not Eve? It's such a big honor. This is ADL's creation. It's simply amazing! So, why don't you want to pilot it?

It just scares me Scarlet. I don't know why, it just does. It seems so cold, so dark and almost cruel. Like it's waiting for someone to play with. But, there's something about it. I'm not sure what. But there is something Scarlet.......

A soft sob was heard. Marlene sat firmly in her office chair. Her arms were rested on the table, her hands supporting her head. "It's happening...all over again," she mumbled incoherently. Drops of tears fell from her porcelain face and on to her desk. "I forgot....I should have forgotten it all by now. So why won't it leave me alone?"

The doctor brushed her hand through her silky hair and sigh heavily. With the other hand, she brushed away her tears. Marlene hated memories. It was one of the few things in science that didn't fascinate her. And because of her own past, she hates every memory she ever had. Well, perhaps not all of them.

"Argh, God dammit!" she cried. Her hands came up to cover her face as she let out another soft sob. "Why won't it just leave me the hell alone! Ten year! A decade, and now it comes back....Oh God...." The stormy eyed woman felt once again the pain and fear she felt so many years ago. She was too afraid, too scared of her past to confront her present.

Suddenly, a knock from the door got her attention and Marlene brought up her head just as the door opened. Marlene threw a deathly glare at the five figures entering her office. Anger boiled within her, and quickly she spat, "What do you want now?"

"We just wanted to talk Dr. Evans," explained Quatre. He and the other pilots entered the office and stood in front of Marlene's desk. "One of the nurses told us we could find you hear. We had to persuade you. We can't defeat Nexus without your help."

Marlene gave heavy sigh as held her face in her hands. "You know how long it took me to forget my past?" she asked quietly. "It took me almost ten years for me to forget that nightmare. I can't help you. I just can't...."

"Why not?" inquired Duo. "Why won't you help us? Was Heero right? Are you really that scared of something from your past? What could be so frightening about it?" Marlene adverted her eyes and looked up at them.

"Have you heard of something called the St. Petersburg fire?" she questioned softly. Marlene placed her arms on the desk and gazed at each of the pilots. Some of them nodded, while others remained passive. "It was a disaster which was suspected as one of the worst cases in humanity. They thought the person that started that fire was dead. Back in fact, that person is still alive." The five pilots looked at her curiously and Marlene gazed back. "I was one who demolished 1/3 of St. Petersburg almost 15 years ago."

"What?" exclaimed a surprised Wufei. "You mean to tell us you're the one who started one of the worst disasters to mankind?" Marlene gave a sad little smiled and nodded.

"I was born as an experimental project for a group called Serenity who was part of the former OZ," she explained. "Myself and nine other children were born into this world as dolls for Romefeller and OZ to use. We were trained to be the perfect soldiers, following each order to the last word. We were capable of a lot at such a young age. We were called the Titans.

Back then, they gave me the name Evelyn Adams because I was the first one to be born out of the test tube. I was considered the special one. They trained us with a system called Voice[2], a similar system to the Zero System, which was designed by a doctor called ADL. We only referred to him by those initials. He was the one who designed us, and was the creator of a Gundam called Angel."

"Angel?" muttered Trowa. The others turned to him, then back to Marlene. "I have heard about this Mobile Suit, but I've heard that it was some type of Mobile Doll, not a Gundam." Marlene shook her head and gave a light smile.

"People heard rumors about it, but it was a Gundam. A very powerful Gundam," she confessed. "When it was near finished, they submitted me to test pilot it, along with Voice. Voice was to be the combat system for Angel, but some thought it would do damage to the human psyche. They were close to right.

When I piloted Angel, I accessed Voice, but couldn't control it. It took over my mind and caused me to destroy the training centered where I grew up, half of the city and its citizens. I presume most of those scientists died, but I don't know. I never found out what happened to the other children either. I should think they probably died too."

Marlene sighed and paused for a second, then continued. "Dr. J and his colleagues found out about Serenity's project and me. They found me just after I was able to exit from Angel. They came to a conclusion that Angel was too powerful of a machine for any human to use. They wanted to destroy it, but I couldn't let them. So, instead, they hid it on Earth and deleted all the records of Serenity, its project, and only referred to the incident in St. Petersburg as a fire disaster."

"Why didn't you let the Doctors destroy Angel?" questioned Quatre. "It was the cause of that disaster, so why didn't you let them destroy it?"

"I'm not sure," Marlene answered. "After that, the Doctors took me in and taught me about their Gundam project. They taught me about the Zero system and design of Gundams 01, 02, 03, 04 and 05. They taught me all they knew.

For three years, I traveled around the Colonies, going from one doctor to the other. When I turned 8, I left L-1 right after the Wing Gundam was completed and was adopted by my father, Arthur Evans. He gave me the name Marlene and I promised myself I would never be involved with Wars again.

The last time I heard from Dr. J and others was when I graduated from University. They had sent me a file on the newly updated Gundams, and to delete them when I finished examining them. After the War ended, I deleted all the files on the Gundams and hoped that I would never have to be bothered with those things again." She gave a small laugh. "Turns out my past would come crawling after me."

"Is that why you won't help us?" asked Heero. "Because of those incidents with the St. Petersburg fire? I would have suspected that you were made from stronger stuff than this." Marlene looked at him questioningly. "You can't hide forever from your past, and if this situation worsens, then what? You'd be caught in another battle in which you refuse to fight."

"You own this to all those people that died in the war and the St. Petersburg fire," stated Trowa. "If you won't help us fight against Nexus, it would turn out to be a worse situation that even those of your past. One cannot live in the past, one cannot live in the future. There is only the present."

The stormy-eyed woman sighed and then nodded. "Alright, alright...." she whispered. "I'll help you...But you have to let me do things my own way. I'll help the Preventers through this war, but I shall make my decision on how I will do that." She looked up sadly at the five of them. "The worst is yet to come. Those wars before were only a preparation for the final battle. The one that will decide the fate of mankind."

"Shuttle 7-44 for Moscow, Earth, will be taking off shortly. All passengers for shuttle 7-44 please report to station 12."

A young female turned her head to the speakers, then turned back to her view of the Earth from the airport window. Her deep dark scarlet eyes gazed at the blue planet. Her left hand twirled a strand of her ebony black hair and her soft lips curved into a devilish smirk. She wore a long black leather coat, a blood red turtleneck sweater with loose black pants and point black high-heels.

A large and tall black man came behind her. He wore a black suit with tie and dark shades. "Ms. Dominique?" he questioned the black hair girl. "The shuttle will be talking off soon. I think we should get going before we miss the shuttle. Ms. Dominique?"

The girl turned her devilish smile towards him. "I'm in no hurry, Prauda," she responded. "The ESUN's summit isn't for another 4 months. It doesn't really matter if I go there today, tomorrow, or next month. We really shouldn't hurry. And please stop calling me Ms. Dominique. It makes me feel old. Just call me Glory."

"Ms. Dominique, I refer to call you this with the utmost respect of course," apologized Prauda. "I mean no disrespect when I call you that Miss. I was assigned to follow your orders, and I would like nothing more than to work for you."

"Your much too sentimental Prauda," replied Glory. "You really don't need to apologize to me. It's nothing important. Anyways, maybe we should get on the shuttle already. I would like to get to the Earth early and look around Moscow. It's been years since I have been to Earth, Russia especially." She turned back towards the planet. "Yes, it has been a long time."

"Shall I contact Mr. White before we go?" question Prauda.

"Nah, don't bother," Glory answered. "Ian really isn't going to care if we call him or not. But when we do arrive in Moscow, then perhaps I shall contact him. But, not now. I want to carry out my mission. I want to spend some time in the city and see if I can get a glimpse of the Vice Foreign Minister earlier. Even if I don't, I know interesting things will be going on around there."

The scarlet-eyed girl licked her lips. "I can taste the fire of the battle field already. But a single rose would still grow in the heat of a war. A single rose to hold all of peace and humanity. Until, that is, some one comes a long and destroys it. And I have the pleasure of being that someone."

TBC...

^^ Anyone who can guess who that "single rose in the battle field" is gets a cookie, and perhaps a part in my fic. I'll give you a hint, I mention her in this chapter. Teehee. Please review everyone!

[1] When translated from French, the phrase "Comment estce que je peux t'aider?" means "How may I help you?" Thanks to Alia-san for the translation. ^^

[2] Voice is actually something I got from a show called Cleopatra 2525. Anyone remember that? Anyone?

Au revoir mes amies! ^^ *waves*

© 2002 by Jia-chan.