Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Reuniting The Past ❯ Chapter one ( Chapter 1 )

Italics=thoughts

“Quotes”= talking

 

Note: -desu is pronounced like `-des'. Most Japanese names have no `L's in them but Solo is an exception, because it's not Japanese. Japanese words are broken up into constant-vowel syllables unless three lettered syllables (ex: kya, sha, hyo, pyo, and tsu), vowels, or the letter `n`. The only times these two types of syllables are not used is when there are repeated letters (which are usually represented with small 'tsu's in the Hiragana and Katakana writings).

 

Words commonly used in Reuniting the Past.

 

1. Konnichiwa- Hello

2. Ani- Older brother

3. Omae o Korosu- I will kill you

4. Otooto- Younger brother

5. Sumi-masen- I'm sorry

6. Arigato- Thanks

7. Daijoobu-desu-ka?- Are you all right?

8. Hai- Yes (also means `I agree with you')

9. Genki-desu- I am fine

10. Iie- No (also means `I do not agree with you')

11. Imooto- Younger sister

12. Doozo- Please

13. kodomo- literally means 'child' in this case used as 'kid'

 

A.C. 196 January 07

Earth, Japan, Kyoto

 

He remembered it. He remembered. Before Deathscythe, before these missions, before the Maxwell Church Massacre, even before Solo. He only slightly remembered it. No faces. No voices. That was wrong. One voice. A woman's. She'd said, "Stay right here. Don't move please. Stay right here and I'll be right back." She didn't ever come back. And he didn't even know her name, so there was no hope in finding this woman that could have been his mother, or someone that cared at least in the smallest possible way. He hoped that she cared at least a little bit. After that it was just a blur. A group of unimportant moments that even with all of them added together, amounted to nothing. He didn't feel the need to remember all of those depressing moments in his short life. Until, one day, in a dark alley, he met the most influential people in his life. Solo. He didn't have, he didn't remember, a name, so Solo called him Little Brother. Having no name was nothing compared to being alone. They could call him anything that they wanted to as long as he wasn't alone again. There were others there, too. Jesse, Brenden, Riza, the only girl for a really long time, and Masen, who was the youngest. They were all like a family, those four Solo and himself. At least the closest thing to a family that most of them had ever had. They all ate together, or none of them ate. If one was sick, they all chipped in to make him well again whether that was giving extra food, extra blankets, anything that they needed. If one died, they all mourned. It was... a real family. There was one other person. A girl. Little Brother was the one that found her. He wasn't sure why they met like they did, but he was sort of happy that he did. They fought all the time, but they understood each other.

 

A.C. 186 May 02

L2 Colony Cluster, Main Street

 

He was going to be late for Solo's curfew that he put on him for continuing to be late and almost getting caught by the police. He figured that he might as well walk as slow as possible and prolong the slur of cussing that would be thrown in his face. Solo wasn't a violent person, actually the almost opposite. He was close enough to a saint. Well, except for the stealing. But that was called survival of the fittest. If you couldn't protect your stuff, damn right it was going to be stolen. People out here needed to eat. Hungry people out here needed to eat.

He looked at the sky, he didn't want to look at the ground anymore. Or at the city. Or anything around him. This place brought back so many memories that he didn't want to remember. So many memories that he had tried so hard to block out. He wanted to get out of L2. But where did he have to go? He continued walking looking up at the sky and felt his legs slip from under him.

"What the hell-" he groaned, rolling to his side, "-did I trip on?"

His eyes readjusted from the hard blow of his head to the ground. He didn't know what he had tripped on, but something caught his eye. `Why, on this dimly lit street, would a little girl be just laying there? Is she dead? Is she really, really sick? Like with the plague? Is she dead?' He knew he repeated that question to himself twice, but how often do you see a little girl lying in the street looking really close to dead?

"Hey..." he shook her.

She was small, probably not the little girl that he thought that she was. The expression on her face made her look older than even Solo. Maybe that was because she looked almost dead. She had dark, raven black hair that must have came down to the back of her knees when she was standing up. It covered almost all of her face while she was laying there, though. He was almost sure that she would have been really pale if she wasn't so dirty. It looked like she may have been laying here for at least a couple of days. Her skin was cold.

"Are you dead? Or alive? Or what?" he whispered.

She remained unmoved.

"You've got to be alive. Come on." he said a little louder.

Nothing. Still nothing. Maybe she really was dead. He didn't know her. He didn't know why he might even begin to care. He stood. This shouldn't have been so bothered. He'd seen dead people before, why was this any different? He wasn't quite sure that it was.

He walked a couple steps. 'Just walk away and act like you didn't see anything. It'll make it all better.'

A slight rustling made his ears perk up a bit. He turned a little. She had opened her eyes, only a little bit though. What person on L2 had that shade of blue eyes? They were straight blue, no combination of gray or black like most had.

"Why..." her voice seemed even less than a whisper. If the wind had blown right then, her voice would have been drowned out.

"You're not dead. T-that's good. You're not dead..." he muttered more to himself than the raven haired girl on the ground.

"Why... did you bother?" That was a question that he wasn't expecting. That was a question that he didn't know the answer to. Her eyes had fallen back shut like she didn't even want to try to get up, like she didn't want to try to bother with moving. He fell down to his knees next to her.

"Are you okay? What happened to you?" He put his hand on her arm and her face contorted to a wince. His hand jolted back. He tugged at the sleeve of her shirt trying to see what was wrong with her, despite her silent and motionless unwillingness to work with him. He figured that she just didn't have the strength to fight with him, or put up any type of arguments. He finally managed to get the shirt past her elbow and saw why she had been in so much pain. There were deep cuts along her forearm, they were deep enough to show the muscle and a small part of the bone in certain places. It was amazing that her arm didn't turn green and have to get chopped off. Actually her cuts weren't nearly as bad as they could have been, not that he knew that or anything. He was no where near being relatively close to being a doctor. "How did this happen?"

She moved the opposite shoulder slightly. How could she not know? It was possible she didn't remember, or didn't want to remember. He sat there, next to her. "Do you want help?" he whispered.

"No..."

He stared at her. His face was worried. Solo said that was one of his problems, he showed too much expression. So he had almost managed to keep only one. Happy. When you seemed happy, who would think that anything was wrong? No one. He fooled himself into thinking that was he was normal. Almost, then he remembered who, what, he was. No one. Nothing.

"If I get you help, you can't say no." he said.

"Yes I can."

"What are you going to do run away? You can hardly walk."

"I'm not as weak as you think that I am." Her voice was a little louder, a bit of ferocity behind it.

He was quiet for a second. He didn't want to argue. He didn't want her to die either. "What's your name?"

"Are you ever quiet?" she sounded a lot meaner than she had the first time she spoke. He didn't respond. "M-my name's-" she cut herself off before continuing, "Kiva. Kiva, that's it."

She sounded unsure but her voice caused him to take notice that this wasn't common. It sounded like she wasn't used to being unsure. She pushed herself up against the wall. A look of pain crossed her face, yet again, it didn't seem like it was common. He moved his hands toward her to help her up, but she moved away showing him that she didn't want him any where near her. She looked uncomfortable that he was as close as he was even though he was still a foot away. She was in shorts that came down to her knees, black, a black tank top, over the black long sleeved shirt, and no shoes, which was strange. It was early March meaning it was raining, and raining a lot. He hadn't noticed the cuts on her legs too. Her hair covered her eyes again. She didn't want to look at him, he knew it. She directly avoided his eyes.

He was only six, so that means that she was either his age or five.

Something hit him in the face, softly, like a raindrop. That's what it was. The rain started off like most rain, soft drops, just sprinkles, but the sky got darker, the clouds gathered, lightning clashed in the distance. Soon they were both soaked, but she seemed unfazed.

She closed her eyes though. She didn't move. He sort of thought that she was dead. More dead than he thought that she was earlier. He scooted over to her, placing his hand on her neck trying to feel a pulse or something.

"Little brother! I swear to God I am going to murder you when I find you!" he heard Solo's voice yell through the alleyways. He seemed to make the darkness start to quiver. An angry Solo was a force to be reckoned with.

He hopped to his feet. “He's gonna kill me.” he whined. His chestnut hair fell to his face. And he ran out of the alley coming face-to-face with the one and only Solo. “Konnichiwa(1), Ani(2)....” he said taking a step back, and speaking nervously. “I can explain.”

“Omae o Korosu(3), Otooto(4).” his face was dark, causing him too look a little demented.

“Sumi-masen(5), Solo.” He raised his hand, and waved it in front of his face as if it were the white flag of surrender. “But I have an excuse.”

He glared. “I don't think that an excuse is going to work this time, Otooto. Curfew was two hours ago.”

“Really? You should really give me a bulletin about these types of things. I mean how am I supposed to know these types of things?” the older boy glared. “I was just kidding. But come on I'll show you my excuse.”

“I swear if it's another cat, or dog, or iguana, or any other form of life that isn't human, I will-” he stopped. His eyes first went to the strange insignia on the tank top, then to the one on the shorts, followed by him looking at the cuts on her legs and arms. An almost scared look came into his eyes.

“Her name's Kiva and I think she's dead.” Little brother spoke up.

“Otooto, this isn't a kidding matter.” his voice went from angry to calm in an instant. He lifted her up in his arms. “We're going to make sure that she is okay. We're going to make sure that she doesn't die, and she's going to become one of us.”

“That's not fair! Why doesn't she have to go through all that crap that I had to? Like the whole the little kid thing.”

He stopped and turned to him. An expression that was so calm it was frightening crossed his face. “It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. These are special circumstances.”

“That's bull.” he muttered under his breath. He said nothing after words. He watched. Watched the way that Solo would look at her. It was a combination of worry and, something that he hadn't seen in himself in a long time, hope. He had no idea at the time why Solo took such an interest in what happened to this girl. Sure she was a person and everything, but to every one, even him, she was just another orphan of war. She shouldn't be treated any different than any other orphan. Solo wiped the hair from her eyes and propped her further into his arms.

 

A.C. 186 July 22

L2 Colony Cluster, Orphan's House

 

“I'm leaving!” she shouted.

“Kiva-chan...” Solo managed to keep a calm voice, “I'm only doing this to keep you safe.”

“Solo. I hardly know you. You're not my father. You have no right to say that you need to keep me safe. So back the hell off and leave me alone!” She turned around so swiftly that her raven hair hit her in the face.

“This is going to be good.” Brenden said sitting next to the one named `little brother.'

“Who do ya think'd win?” Lukas said sitting up to the other side of him.

“I think Kiv'd win.” Riza added in as the boy's were starting to argue.

“That's only `cause you're a girl and you girls think that you all gotta stick together or something stupid,” Little Brother muttered. “Pretty soon you'll both be clashing rings together and yelling about 'girl power.'”

“Better than you, No-name. You care more about your hair than both Kiv and me put together.”

Brenden started laughing hysterically for, seemingly, no reason.

“What?” Little Brother said, feeling like he missed something.

He continued to laugh. “Kiva just slapped him in the face.” Lukas started laughing too, realizing that nothing more was hurt on Solo than his pride.

Solo stood there looking stunned and holding his cheek. He looked at the little girl. She looked just as defiant as ever, and Little Brother wondered what in his right mind had possessed him to try to take care of this little demon of a child, not that he was an angel or anything. But when ever this girl was talking, which was rare, she was throwing out some type of insult. He almost could see through all of this that she was putting on. It was all a front, just like his own, except she played it off like she didn't care. And it was a good act. She was the master of what she did.

He watched though. He talked a lot but he found himself watching what was going on so much more. When she wasn't insulting people, she'd be sitting on the floor in one of the corners. She'd wrap her arms around her knees and just stare at the floor. At times, an almost sad look crossed her face, but the more and more he watched the more and more he realized that there was nothing that he could do to make her feel any better because something was really wrong with her, something that couldn't be fixed in couple of weeks. None the less, he liked being around her. Something about this Kiva girl made him seem actually happy, or at least as close to happy as he had felt in a long time. He couldn't put his fingers on what.

“Kiva...” Solo's voice was unusually quiet. Suddenly, the orange haired boy wrapped his arms around her.

`So that's what a hug looks like...Wonder why Solo never hugged me.'

Solo continued to hug her as the confused look crossed over her face. He must have said something in her ear, because her whole body was soon shaking.

“It's okay. I understand.”

Little Brother wasn't sure who was really paying attention right now. Brenden and Lukas, who were both easily distracted, had wondered off somewhere. Jesse, well, he was probably still sleeping. And Riza, who really knew what was going on in her head? She looked like she was concentrating, but more likely than not, she just wanted to look intelligent, which was really making her look rather stupid.

Kiva pushed him away from her and walked away. Solo's desperate attempt to save what ever human was left in this girl failed badly. His eyes fell to the ground. Just after taking in a deep, annoyed breath, he started coughing hard. He was sick. Really sick. This virus/ plague thing was covering the entire colony and fast. There was a cure to it if the ones that were sick got the medicine within the time that it got life threatening. The only problem was the leader of the colony wouldn't give the vaccine to the poor or homeless because they thought that it would be better to get rid of them in the first place. Solo was one of the ones that didn't get it. Solo was one of the ones that was dying more and more everyday. He was the only one that Little Brother had ever looked up to and here he was dying.

“Solo... You okay?” he asked standing up and moving closer to him.

“Y-yeah... Fi-fine. Don't worry about me. I'm just gonna go lay down alright. You're in charge.” He forced a grin onto his face. Most wouldn't think that it was forced, but Little Brother knew all about not really smiling.

“'Kay, Ani. No problem.” he didn't smile but for once left a blank expression on his face.

“Arigato(6), Otooto.” It almost could have passed for a real smile in Little Brother's book but his eyes managed to remain so sad, turning off the attempted luster. He turned and walked away.

No-name, as Riza called him, found his heart swelling up with rage. How dare the government so something like this to it's people just because they are poor, just because they have no place to call home, no people to call family? This wasn't right. This war wasn't right. This was making no sense.

Seconds later, Kiva walked past and straight out of the house. No-name followed.

“Where are you...” he said as he walked out of the door but as he looked around she was gone.

“Hey.” her monotone voice said out of no where. She was a few feet to his left.

“How did you... You weren't there- Nevermind. Where are you going?”

“Solo needs that medicine. So I'm going to get it.”

“You know where it is?” He was slightly surprised, but only a little.

“There's a base down on Central. There are a lot of guards and I don't really know how long that it is going to end up taking... Or how much time he has....” her voice was quiet as always, but it hid a small amount of regret in it.

“Why do you care so much whether he lives or dies?”

“He's all you guys have...” she was expressing concern. He'd better write this one down because for all that he knew, she could never be like this again.

“But you have no one.”

“I don't need anyone.”

He opened his mouth to say something more but decided against it. It was probably true, she didn't need anyone. That didn't mean that people shouldn't be around to help. It was an awkward silence for a few minutes until she said, “Come on. We've got to get down there.” and ran off, leaving him to catch up with her on his own.

“Slow down!” he yelled but she didn't even throw a glance in his direction. 'She really is a loner.' They arrived a few minutes later, she didn't even stop to take a breath. Running nearly 3 mi. in nine minutes was beyond humanly possible. It was like she was trained to do this type of thing. `Maybe she's like a military run away, and she got all those cuts on her from gunshot wounds. Maybe she's one of those mecha pilots we hear so much about. But she's like six. Who's a mecha pilot and a trained soldier at six?'

“Are you coming or what? “ she said as she disconnected a wire on the circuit box. Instantly, the entire building went pitch black.

“Damn you're good.” he muttered as they both slipped through the window.

She nodded. “One problem though. How are we supposed to find the medicine?”

“You mean you didn't plan this out?”

“Spur of the moment sort of thing.”

“I take that complement back...“ None the less, they both started moving as fast as possible.

There were flashlights moving around as fast, orders being called. All those soldiers were as confused, trying to figure out what had caused the power outage. Oh, what a pair of mad six-year-olds could do to a person. Or army. There was a straggler behind most of the other army personnel.

She looked at the guy then back at Little Brother. He knew what she wanted him to do.

“No. Nuh uh. No way. I am not attacking a guy with a gun. You want me killed don't you?”

“I'd be a plus,” he swore that he heard her say under her breath. “Do you want Solo to live or not?”

He looked at the guard hesitantly, then tackled. The guy went down with a dull thud.

“What the hell?!” he shouted out attracting the attention of all his other buddies with guns. Kiva ran up grabbed the flashlight and was gone in a flash. Little Brother followed in a semi-flash.

“Okay, okay, okay. This is it.” she said after a couple of seconds.

She tossed the small rectangle package at him, who barely caught it, and motioned for him to follow her back the way that they had came. She put the flashlight on one of the crates as they jumped out the same window.

“We should really, you know, get out of here. I don't wanna die today. I wanna die tomorrow...” he said squeamishly. She reconnected the lights and they were soon out of there.

“You know your finger prints are all over the place. On the wires, on the crate, on the flashlight, on that guy.” He said.

She stopped and held up her hands. They were smooth. “I don't have fingerprints. Makes me the perfect thief.” She continued on walking.

“Wait. How do you not have fingerprints? I thought that was one of those things that you have to have like a brain or something.”

“Not necessarily, you as example. But with fingerprints, you can burn them off. I just don't ever remember having mine.” She shrugged it off like it was nothing.

Little Brother thought it was very weird. She must have been a solider. That was the only explanation for the way that she acted. She acted, well, like a soldier. Always-mostly always- quiet. Precise. Fingerprint-less. Athletically fit. Mentally brilliant. One of those people that you hate being around because they make you feel like dirt. And made everyone else treat you like you're dirt because you're not as good as that one person is. A perfect person. A perfect spy. A perfect soldier.

“Duo, go back there, give Solo the medicine okay?” she was quiet.

“Why aren't you coming too?”

“I don't think that he wants to see me. I made him a little mad earlier. I'll just be... around I guess.” she walked over to the other side of the house and sat in the window ceil. It really did bother her. That was amazing. She never really cared about anything from what he saw of her.

He smiled to himself as he walked out into the room of his dying friend.

“Ani, Daijoobu-desu-ka(7)?” he said quietly.

“H-hai(8),” he coughed between syllables. “Genki-desu(9)...”

“You sure?”

“Hai. Just leave me be for a little. Don`t want you to get sick too.”

“That`s sorta what I wanted to tell you about.”

“You're not sick are you?!” his voice was slightly scared.

“Iie(10). Iie. It's just that Kiva and me we went out earlie-”

“You left?! The two of you left?!” He sat up wide eyed and attempted to yell.

“Let me finish. Yeah, we left earlier and, well, we went to this place. And they had medicine there. And we sorta got you some.”

He was quiet for a second and sat back against the wall, “Otooto. Are you telling me that you and Imooto(11), who are two six year olds, broke into the colony's military base, took out two to three guards, stole the medicine that you think will get me better, and got out of there without being caught?”

“If I said `no' would you believe me?”

He gave him an annoyed look and blinked twice, very deliberately. He said not a word.

“I'm gonna take that as a no. Okay, so, yeah, we did it. But it was all Kiva's idea. She planned it. She did all the thinking. All I did was tackle a guard and look pretty hot while doing it.”

“You two amaze me sometimes,” He muttered. His voice became stern. “But none the less, that was wrong! I don't even mind the thieving part, it's the part that you two could have been killed! And I refuse to let the two of you die for as long as I am living!” He'd attempted to make his voice loud and angry but couldn't. He sounded like the child that he was. “No matter how little of a time that might be...”

“We got you this medicine! You're gonna live!”

“It was a great effort, but it fell a little too late.”

“No! It didn't... You can still get well again. Solo, this can't be the end. Doozo(12)...”

“Sumi-masen. But it can't be helped. You take that medicine. Then at least I know that you'll be safe.”

“What about the others? I can't live watching all of them die, too.”

“It may seem strange to hear it from me, but I have no idea. You're in charge kodomo(13).”

He was quiet staring down at the ground. If Solo died, if Solo died, he'd be.... alone. He didn't want to be alone. He hated the thought of being alone again. “Solo...”

“Hmm?” He'd remained sitting up, but now didn't bother to open up his eyes. Was he too tired? Was he too tired of life to even attempt living it? That's how Little Brother himself found himself feeling in the last couple minutes.

He finally sat on the bed, looking at Solo. How was he going to die? He couldn't. Otooto knew he wasn't strong enough to do this by himself. He sat the pads of his feet pressed together. His hands placed on his knees.

“Hey, don't be sad,” The orange haired boy said softly. He'd finally opened his eyes back up. “Mata yo(14), Otooto. Mata yo.” He placed his hand to the younger boy's cheek. “We'll be fine.”

“But-”

“No buts. You're just going to have to live through this. And make sure Kiva makes through it with you. She may not seem as if she cares but she does, more than you can ever imagine. She'll help you, I swear it.”

“How do you know?”

“I made her promise. I don't think that she'll be one to break a promise.”

Little Brother moved his feet apart and sat next to Solo, resting his head on his shoulder. “I won't let you die, Solo. You're worth more than that.”

He'd fallen asleep. He hoped that it wouldn't be anything more than that. That he'd wake up to Solo's living face in the morning. Hesitantly, and after many hours, Little Brother fell asleep.