"A Life's Time"

Written By: Zazu

Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing. Any characters outside of those you recognize from Gundam Wing are my own, especially Lily. If you know of anyone or anything that looks like an existing character, event, or idea, it is purely a coincidence.

Archive: Gundam Wing Diaries

Rating: M (Mature) Rated for language and citrus.

Pairings: 1=2, mention of 3+4

Notes: Beta-read by ShenLong Deb...thank you! This was written for Under The Bridge's 2006, the Colour and the Shape, a 1=2 Contest. The ideas within are completely fictional. An unbeta-ed version was submitted for the contest, thus if you read this on the Under The Bridge website, the contents (namely grammar) will be different.

/blah/ denotes thoughts

Warnings: This story involves mature themes, war, and death of a main protagonist.

Summary: After a mysterious disappearance for six and a half years, Heero Yuy finds Duo Maxwell on L2, bringing the news that they are needed at Preventers to stop an impending uprising. At Preventers, Duo finds not only Wufei, but another person, a child named Lily, who must now work with them in attempt to stop the faction from taking over the peace they had fought for over six years ago. Must sacrifices be made for every battle and every war?

Completed: July 1, 2006

"A Life's Time "

Chapter 4

The shuttle had just landed and both Heero and Duo unbuckled their seat belts to stand up and stretch. It was early morning and Agent Victor, who had been sitting in the cockpit, returned to hand Duo a pass.

"What's this?" Duo accepted the pass that was linked with a chain.

"Preventers Pass," Agent Victor replied. "Captain Chang got you a pass in Agent status just to make it more efficient when passing through the gates until we get your retinal file on the system and you can pass through with a short and simple retinal scan." He lowered his voice. "Secretly, I believe the Captain is hoping you will return for good."

Duo gave the agent an amused smile, wondering just how much the man knew about the ex-pilots and their friendship. He opted not to speak and instead, followed him and Heero off the shuttle and into the waiting transport that would take them to Preventers Headquarters. Nothing much was said until Agent Victor pulled out a cellphone and placed a call.

"Captain Chang? Agent Victor speaking. Yes, we've landed. We're on our way. ETA four minutes. Okay." He hung up and turned from the front seat to glance at Heero and Duo. "Captain Chang wants to see you both right away."

"As do we." Heero nodded.

They arrived soon enough at a building four stories high facing a secluded part of the beach. The roof was decorated with two large satellite receivers for communications. Duo knew that the four stories were mainly for show, and that the base extended several floors below ground. Several of these floors were used to hide the more private and confidential work away from prying eyes. One of the floors also served as dormitory for those who needed a place to stay, and along with it, rooms for agents to rest between missions, a lounge, and a cafeteria. Another one served as a medical bay, and a third one served as holding cells for those in both protective and aggressive custody. The parking lot had heavy security and took several minutes to pass. Agent Victor drove into the underground parking; it was two levels only and had one emergency back exit and one other walkway that led up a set of stairs and to the main gate for entry into the depths of the building. This was where Duo, Heero and Agent Victor headed for.

Heero passed the retinal scan easily and just in time to look up and see Wufei come around the corner.

"Heero, Duo." He nodded. "Agent Victor."

"Sir." Agent Victor acknowledged with a salute before disappearing into the depths of the building.

"I need to speak with you both. The retinal scan and imprint can take place later, after we meet. We've made a bit of progress-"

"I wanted to be in the welcoming committee!"

Duo and Heero looked behind Wufei to put a face to the voice. Duo did a double-take.

"Why is there a...a *child* here?" Duo asked, eyeing the petite figure that reached Wufei's waist. Bright blue eyes gazed back at him from under dark brown bangs of hair tied back in a ponytail; the little girl looked no older than ten years old.

"Hey," she pouted. "You were a child when you fought the war, Pilot Duo Maxwell."

"What-" Duo sputtered, shocked, as Wufei turned to look down at the new addition to the group.

"I thought I asked you to wait in the conference room, Lily," Wufei said sternly. "Why are you here?"

"No one saw me," she snubbed him. "Hi, Heero. Did you bring me a treat like you promised?"

"Sorry, Lily," Heero apologized. "I didn't have time to pick anything up."

"Oh." She looked disappointed. She turned. "I'll go back to the conference room now."

"We'll come with you," Wufei said firmly. With Heero and a gawking Duo in tow, they entered the gate past the saluting gate officer and turned the corner to the first door.

"Your retinal scan, please," another voice spoke. Duo's keen eyes caught sight of a sensor by the door that no doubt triggered the voice to speak. He assumed that this was the security computer speaking and his eyes made contact to the retinal scanner that slid up and down a small distance to accommodate various heights.

"Um, do you need a hand?" Duo asked, seeing that the girl was not tall enough to reach the scanner.

She shook her head. "Rika, akete kudasai!" [1] she sang. "Four persons, Rika." She turned to Heero. "That's why I asked you for the Japanese last time." Heero nodded in understanding, noting the girl had put the words into Rika's commands.

"Hello, Lily." The door slid open, and the girl hopped in, followed by Wufei and Heero, who dragged Duo in quickly. The door slid shut behind them, but the girl had disappeared.

"Where did she go?" Heero asked.

Wufei shook his head. "We'll talk in the conference room," he stated firmly before proceeding to lead his company of two down the walkway to the elevators that descended three floors to the conference room. The girl was inside, waiting, when they entered.

"Hi." Duo could see her legs swinging from where she perched on one of the large chairs in front of a laptop. She wriggled up to her knees and offered her hand. "I'm Lily. Nice to meet you."

"Duo Maxwell." Duo shook the hand. "How did you get around so fast?"

"You'll find out later." She turned and sat down again. Wufei took a seat at the head of the table to the girl's right, and gestured for Heero and Duo to sit on his other side. As soon as they were seated, Wufei began.

"I take it you've received something, Duo?"

"The coded sheet? Yes." If Wufei was comfortable speaking in front of the little girl, Duo figured the little girl could be trusted. That, and the fact that Heero had been at ease with the girl as well.

"Can I see it?" Almost all traces of playfulness disappeared from the little girl as she held out her hand.

"Um..." Duo looked at Wufei. "First, can you explain what's going on here?"

Wufei sighed, knowing that this conversation was inevitable. "About a year ago, Preventers dispatched two hackers to a bank to trace someone who was pilfering funds through untraceable means. For a week they worked and each day, the sum that was being pilfered, grew. Preventers had been dispatched because the locals couldn't handle it."

"Interesting." Duo nodded. "But?" he urged.

"Lily here," he nodded to the girl who was ignoring him and typing on the computer. "She's the daughter of the owner of the bank and she had wanted to see Preventers work. Her father grudgingly allowed it."

"Can I go get a drink?" She looked up suddenly. Without waiting for an answer, she slid off the chair and out the door. Wufei sighed, resting a hand on his forehead.

"I forgot how much she doesn't like to hear this," he murmured. "So suddenly, a reel of numbers came onto the screen. The hacker was playing with us. Those numbers, when decoded, could tell us what we needed to know to find this hacker. Only the numbers scrolled by so quickly you could barely see that they were numbers."

"So it was useless," Duo deduced.

"Yes, and no," Wufei sighed, sitting back. "Lily saw the numbers. And she remembered every one of them."

"What?"

"Lily has this very strange talent..." Heero translated, "Of being able to read, process and retain data at very high speeds, and very accurately."

"And she named all several thousand digits rather quickly and once our hackers decoded that easily, we found and arrested the hacker, all three of them rather, and returned the money to their rightful accounts." He sighed again. "The bank owner, Lily's father, was most astonished at this and he offered to pay for our efforts...by giving us his daughter. He said if we didn't take her, he would send her to a mental institution."

"What?" Duo protested. "Why?"

"Apparently, Lily's mother is very sick, and not able to care for her. The bank owner hadn't wanted a child and believes that Lily is the cause of her mother's sickness; and she was. As much as we hate to say it, she was. She's also the spitting image of her mother, which makes her father extremely upset." Wufei looked at Duo, who appeared to be extremely angry.

"You don't throw your kids out like that! You cherish them, especially a smart one like her!"

"We also realized what kind of potential Lily had. We couldn't afford for her to be placed into a mental institution. When her father told her she was a freak, Lily...cried."

"I'd cry if my father called me a freak! How old is she?"

"Nine now. She was eight years old then."

"Fucking asshole!" Duo swore under his breath.

"Lily came crying to me. She found the Preventers number from her father's business cards and my number was on it because I had been head of that case. She begged me to take her. She didn't want to go to some hospital. So after speaking to Lady Une, we took...protective custody of her."

"I don't even know if that's a good or bad thing," Duo murmured. "She's not even ten years old."

"I know," Wufei muttered. "But she has a talent that Preventers can use and here she is now, of her own free will, and perfectly content."

"I see," Duo whispered.

"She's retained a lot of knowledge since then." Heero took over. "She's studied and understood all known forms and formats of decoding and can bring them up faster than anyone else. I assume that's why Wufei placed her in charge of decoding the sheets?"

Wufei reached over and turned the girl's laptop towards him before typing in a command.

"Yes, Captain Chang?" Rika, the security computer, spoke through the speaker of the laptop.

"Rika, locate and retrieve Lily."

"Yes, Captain Chang."

"The strange thing is, Rika doesn't even sound...computerized." Duo's eyes were wide with shock.

"Yes, she's done something to the audio system, somehow." Wufei shook his head. "Works too fast for me, so as long as it's not damaging, I guess she can do what she wants, with consent of course. She calls it child creativity."

"So what progress has been made with regards to the AI?" Heero asked.

"That's Lily's department," Wufei sighed.

"I can see why you're under her thumb," Duo snickered. "How are Lady Une and Doctor Po?"

"They're trying to find files on the people in the faction. Goons, leaders, scientists, all of them. And arranging for the Preventers sub to return to a closer proximity in preparation for a head on collision with the faction, when and if it comes."

"I see."

"Heero's been staying here, Duo," Wufei said. "As have I. We've arranged for you to bunk across the hall from Heero, is that all right?"

"That's fine." Duo shrugged. "So I guess I need to get that retinal scan done, huh?"

"Soon. That's good for your room, the cafe bill, the main gates, any high security computer labs, conference room and the weapons area." He eyed Duo. "I suspect you'll need to do some target practice, even though I know you've worked out to stay in shape."

Duo nodded. "I guess so."

At that moment, the door slid open and Lily re-entered, a small machine in hand and a bag in the other.

"Drinks." She handed the bag to Wufei before dropping the machine onto the table by her laptop and sitting on her chair again. "Can I have your coded slip now?"

Duo obediently handed his slip to the girl. She plugged the machine into her laptop; Duo could now see it was a hand-held scanner, and proceeded to scan the sheet in.

"Rika, project, please."

"Yes, Lily." The room dimmed, and they studied the three scans of the coded slips that were projected onto the wall.

"Is Rika an AI?" Duo suddenly asked.

"Not completely," Wufei answered. "Lily inputted commands and wording she thought would be useful, and there's a lot of them she put in. That's why it seems like it's alive.

"See anything?" Lily asked to the three sitting with her.

"Just a jumble," Wufei muttered, frustrated. "Lily, Heero wants an update on the AI."

"Oh." Her tone was a bit excited. "I've analyzed the AI, Heero. Well, basically, I just read all of the information-"

"Six years worth of information in a week?" Duo blurted.

Lily blinked. "Well, I cheated a bit."

"How?"

"What you saw before. At the gate." Lily fiddled with a lock of her hair. "That was a hologram."

"Another one of her new creations," Wufei said dryly.

"Holograms are not to my credit!" the girl protested. "But a real time one is." She smiled. "Basically, what you saw there, was a projection of me, from here. So when I turned it off, I vanished."

"Handy," Heero said. "To pass messages to people without others seeing, and other things-"

"Unfortunately, it only works for her." Wufei glared at the girl.

"Why's that?" Duo asked.

"Because she's the only one who can access Rika deeply enough. Because of the AI information, Heero," Wufei added. "Like I said, Rika is not completely AI. Lily applied some of the idea to Rika, but somehow, it glitched. I can do exactly what she does, and Rika would still respond only to Lily. So Lily inserted a micro projector into some of the retinal scanners and that's how her hologram projected to the front gates."

"I see," Duo nodded.

"Only a few people really know me," Lily said. "Wufei, the two hackers from the Bank, Heero, Lady Une, Doctor Po, and you. Everyone else thinks I'm some whiz kid who's really good at decoding and encoding messages. That's basically what I do here."

"We can't afford to let everyone know about you, Lily-"

"Because that makes me a liability, I know Fei. That's why even if everyone could use the hologram, you wouldn't let them know."

"Wait. You said you cheated," Heero pointed out. "Then you went to talk about the hologram. What connects the two?"

"Oh." Lily frowned. "Well, I see what I see, and I see what the hologram sees. Like earlier, I had the mobile camera on me so that the hologram would project me out to you. But the camera is one way; I couldn't really see you here. I saw you through the hologram. I can't explain it; my brain just processes the information there, and here. So when I use the hologram, I can read twice the amount of information. So it wasn't really six years of information in a week. I created the hologram after reading the second year worth of information, and the other four years were divided."

/Split personality, much? She can practically cut herself into two!/ Duo thought. There was something decidedly strange about the way the girl spoke, but Duo knew now was not the time to pry.

"So basically, I'm working on further applying the AI now." She turned back to the projection. "But right now, these sheets interest me more. The faction wouldn't send them out for nothing."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

[1] Rika, akete kudasai - This means "Rika, please open!"

 

Chapter 5

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