Chapter Four: Shaky Risks

* Slowly she flickered her eyes up and around. These, these, animals, these humans, these people… they were so loud! And large! Loud and large! This was why she generally avoided people and all other forms of life, whether it be mineral, plant, or animal. This was why she hid behind her books and papers, behind the desks and computers. Learning about humans was so much easier than having to deal with them. So why was she here again?

Because they had a time machine! Her mind snorted and her conscience told her to leave, run now, while she had the chance. To flee before they began laughing at her for being foolish enough to believe their hoax. She was just waiting for them to start sniggering about how there was no time machine, never had been, and never would be. And then she would turn tail and hide, just as she always did.

“Serena?” Catherine waved a hand in front of her face, and Serena instantly shied back, almost to the point of falling off the char she had so delicately perched herself upon. “Sorry if I scared you, you just seemed a little out of it.”

“I’m here.” Her quiet reply cut through the air like a dull knife.

“Good. Did you by chance hear what we were saying about the machine?”

“Then it really exists, it isn’t a joke?” Serena blinked her eyes wide, and due to their already large size, they grew huge in her thick glasses. Both Duo and Wufei snickered, and backed away shuddering.

“Of course not. We’re Preventers woman, not comedians.”

“Speak for yourself Wu-man. I’d much rather be known as a comedian. I am, after all, the comic relief of the Preventers.”

“No, you’re the big joke of the Preventers. There’s a big difference. And for further reference, I’ve already warned you, you braided idiot, my name is not Wu-man, it’s Wufei!”

“The point these two numbskulls were trying to make is that the time machine really does exist. You met, well, all right. You didn’t exactly meet Hiiro, but you more or less know who he is. Anyway, Hiiro is the one who convinced Quatre that he should build the machine. So we all put our heads together and well, the final result is a time machine. Our basic problems lie in two things. One, we don’t know what the machine will do when it’s turned on. We know in theory it should work, but after we’ve tested it on inanimate objects, we still have no idea of the effect upon humans, which is our second problem.”

“So in short, we don’t know if it will work, and if it does, we still don’t know what it’ll do to you when it’s finished sending you through time.” Dorothy clarified. Serena nodded.

“Serena, why don’t you tell us a little about yourself? We’d love to know who we’re trusting with this information. Trowa didn’t even mention you until you walked through the door.” Hilde prompted the mousy blonde.

“Okay.” Serena gulped. “I’m seventeen, blonde, gray eyes, four eleven, and weigh just over a hundred pounds. Any thing else?” Serena hunched her back over, trying to disappear. Humans frightened her. She wanted to be lost, to draw into herself and not have to share anything about herself with them. She did not like these animals.

For a moment the entire dining hall was silent, the pilots and women soaking in the information they had just learned. Or rather, the information that they had already known. It seemed laughable. It seemed hilarious. It seemed…

“My God, you’re like the female version of Hiiro!” Duo cracked up. Wufei fell next, snorting with laughter. Then Hilde fell into giggles with Catherine and Dorothy. Quatre let a light grin grace his golden visage, and Trowa, much amused, took another look at the dumpy woman that stood before them. “She’s the same withdrawn, quiet, perfect person in a different body!”

Serena sat in her chair on the very edge, quite unable to move. They were making fun of her! Laughing at her as if she were a dying fawn and they were hyenas ready to move in for the kill. Those nasty vultures! Picking her bones clean and leaving nothing but fossils. And the most depressing through of all—her bones would never been dug up by any historian, any archeologist, because no one would ever miss her. Quickly Serena stood and grabbed the large, dirty canvas bag she had brought with her and made quickly for the door.

“Wait.” Trowa stood in her way. She hadn’t even seen him move! “Duo has a big mouth, and Wufei’s just as bad. Give them another chance.”

“I want to go home now.” Serena bit back tears and kept her eyes trained on Trowa’s feet.

“What about the time machine? You had a good reason to come on such short notice, why not at least look at the reason?”

“Home.” She whispered.

“Please. We need someone to go with Hiiro. We can’t let him go alone. Please.”

“Home.”

“Please?” Trowa’s voice was the softest, most pitiful voice she had ever heard on a man. Serena looked away from his feet and towards the grandfather clock against the wall. Eleven forty-five.

“I want to go home.” Trowa dropped his head. “But I’ll look at the machine first.” Serena finally conceded. After all, if they really had accomplished the feat, she should be able to see history in the making!

“Thank you!” It was Quatre, this time, who spoke. He smiled at her and Serena could feel her cheeks growing hot. Hoping to hide her embarrassment, she turned away and held her head low.

“We only have fifteen minutes, then Hiiro’s going to leave on his own!” Hilde suddenly shot up. “Look here Serena. We just can’t let Hiiro go alone, but there’s no stopping him from going. You don’t have the time to look at the machine and then decide. You have to do it here and now. Will you go, or won’t you?”

“I don’t know.” Serena shook her head.

“Well, look here. You have to know. But just remember, this trip? It’s only hypothetical. Like Hiiro said, you have to be willing to die. If something goes wrong? The machine doesn’t work? Blows up? Or you get stuck in a black hole? Or goodness knows what else could happen… you need to know that if you say yes, you are taking a risk with all of those possibilities.” Dorothy pointed out.

“Those are risks?” Serena whispered, more to herself then to anybody else. Then she, for the first time, looked up at the people in the room. “You consider death a risk?” She let the air hang heavy for a moment longer, and then she nodded. “I’m going. There are worse things than death in every moment of life—I have no fear of that risk.” Then, as quickly as she had gathered her courage and spoken up, she lost it and slumped back down. Once more she became a tiny, mousy woman who seemed as capable of standing up for herself as a piece of paper surviving a fire.

“Wow. Well, at least she’ll be able to put up with the Perfect Soldier. Or he’ll be able to put up with her, or something. They’re two peas in a pod: the same tempers, ideals, personalities, it’s a match made in heaven.” Hilde nodded, quite sure about her assessment of the situation.

“Look, we only have seven minutes and counting before Hiiro leaves, we should get to the hanger and get Serena familiar with the equipment.” Quatre suggested. Then Wufei shook his head.

“We can’t. I just realized what a major breech of security it would be to let her into those hangers. Quatre, do you know what’s right beside that machine? I’ll give you a hint: it’s big, mobile, and to all public knowledge, destroyed. Letting her in is a no- go.”

“Wufei, she’s going to the 1950’s. It won’t matter when she gets there.”

“No.”

“Wufei, you know I love you.” Sally smiled sweetly at him. Then she glared hard. “Stuff it. Let’s go!” She led the march out of the dining room and towards the hanger. Wufei was grumbling, but he too eventually conceded and joined the procession.

Finally they reached the hanger, and Serena looked up in awe. Before her stood five of the most high tech machines she had ever seen. They were colorfully and artfully painted and detailed, and they seemed to shine with an unnatural gleam for dead metal. These were the…

“The Gundams?” She whispered. “But they were…”

“Destroyed when the public was watching.” Hiiro melted out of the blackened shadows. “You don’t see anything in this hanger except the time machine, correct?”

“Correct.” Serena whispered, barely able to stand her knees were knocking so hard. And she was time traveling with him? How would she survive? He was so very different from the average human she had met in this household. He only spoke when necessary, he was brutally honest, and he didn’t seem to want her to do anything. In fact, he practically ignored her constantly—Serena felt more settled than ever knowing he didn’t give a damn about who or what she was, as long as she left him alone. But all humans had to have a catch. They always had a catch.

“Serena, do you and Hiiro need to do anything to prepare for the fifties?” Quatre asked concerned. Serena flickered her eyes at Hiiro. He wore blue jeans, a white t-shirt, and a black leather jacket from the Eve Wars.

“He’ll be fine.” She told them meekly. “I’ll change when we get there.”

“Currency?” Hiiro clipped.

“I have some I’ve brought from the museum I worked at.” Serena flushed. It felt as if she had stolen the money, though it had been cleared with the museum first.

“Fine.” Hiiro nodded. Then he pulled a gun from his shoulder holsters and checked the clip of bullets. When he was satisfied, he carelessly flung the handgun back into the holster, and Serena gulped. A gun! He was nuts! “Let’s go.” He head flung up.

“Now?” She squeaked. He nodded, and grabbed her shirt from behind. Effortlessly Hiiro picked her up off the ground and placed her on the platform that the time machine had been built around. Then he grabbed a black bag and hoisted himself up as well.

“Now.” He glared.

“Alright Hiiro, are you sure you’re ready for this?” Quatre narrowed his eyes in concern.

“Set the clock.” He ordered. Serena could feel the platform shake from the very vibrations that his dark voice made. He was very intimidating, and she wanted nothing to do with him. What had she been thinking? She couldn’t handle this! This was not for her!

“Okay. Here goes nothing, good luck!” Quatre called out. Just as Serena moved to jump off the platform, the room suddenly spun and her vision swam.

She was thrown off balance, and then began to be pulled out off the platform by sheer force of velocity. Just as Serena’s last grasp of her balance was lost to the heavy gravity pull, She felt a large icy hand grab her arm and pull her back. Hiiro was holding on to a pole that had been placed in the center of the platform.

“Hold on.” Hiiro’s faint voice barely echoed in her ears as the force reverberated through her very cells. Her stomach sloshed, and Serena could literally feel her face become green with motion sickness. Her hair had come out f it’s low knot and was whipping her in her face, blocking any and all vision that might have been possibly if the spinning would stop. Serena could hardly breathe, she felt as though her chest had been compressed by such a force that she could no longer make the effort to fill her lungs with air to breathe. And then it stopped.

Everything was still. Everything was silent. Serena opened her tightly shut eyes and saw stars. White, red, green, and purple splotches invaded her vision, and the room around her was still spinning. To her knees she fell, and over the side of the platform she leaned, just as her stomach lost everything that had been inside.

As she threw-up, two large, cold hands grasped her head and held it steady, pulling her hair out of the way and letting her finish without interrupting. When Serena finally found herself and remembered her fear, she quickly regained her self-reliant attitude and pulled away, wiping her mouth on her sleeve. Slowly, hesitantly, Serena looked up at Hiiro, who was no longer looking at her, but surveying their surroundings. He wasn’t saying anything. He wasn’t laughing, or disgusted, he wasn’t even fazed! So Serena stood up, pulled her hair back, re-knotted it, and grabbed her bag from Hiiro’s hold.

“The fifties.” He very carefully articulated.

“The fifties.” Serena echoed. *

~~~Look! I’ve added! I’m sorry this is taking me so long, but writer’s block can be very evil. On another note, I had a quick poll for you guys: How many of you would respond to a fanfic challenge if I put it out? I’d love to have a contest, but I’m not going to if I can’t get enough response. Let me know in a review! Much love and thanks for your patience, Vixen~~~