NOTES: This fic takes place in the same GW second gen continuency as 'Mother', 'Shared Blood', and possibly all the GW second gen fics I'll ever write. Many cup-cakes goes out to my beta reader, Talia Solarys. *walks by pushing a wheel-barrow of cup-cakey goodness*

In case anyone's wondering, Cena was born in 200 A.C., Jov was born in 202 A.C., and Cena immagrated to Earth in 216 A.C.

Making History

223 A.C.

"Hey Marty," Cena called out wearily in greeting as she stumbled through the door into the apartment building, the first piercing beams of the dawning sun at her back.

"Cena! Good morning. Up early as usual, huh?" Marty laughed, gazing fondly at the dark-haired girl. The African-American boy was the cousin of the old woman who owned the apartment building Cena lived in, and he had more of a hand in running the place than his aunt did. Both Marty and Cena were of the same age, but one always seemed to be older than the other. That morning was Marty's turn to be eldest.

"You know what they say. Old habits kill well...or something like that." Cena wiped her sweaty face and neck with the towel she had kept tucked into her tight white jogging pants. //I made five kilometers today,// Cena thought with pride. When she'd first immigrated to the Earth from Mars seven Terrain years previous, she couldn't even walk under the planet's heavy atmosphere, dragged down by Earth's greater gravity. To her horror, she’d needed a wheelchair to help carry her own weight. Though that was humiliating it was better than going around at a snail's pace with her back stooped forward and her knees bent. //I'll have to do better tomorrow, though,// thought Cena. //A child could run five K.//

"Did the mail arrive yet?" she asked off-handily.

"Actually, I just got it," replied Marty. He picked up the stacks of white envelopes and brown packages and started to sort them into the personal boxes of each tenant.

"And...?" Cena waved her hand in insistent circles.

"And you have to wait for your mail like everybody else," said Marty with a smile.

"Oh come on! I *know* I have a letter in there; I get one exactly every sixty-five days. It shouldn't be very hard to spot, so give me it already."

"But you're so cute when you're angry," he pouted.

"You know, I can accuse you of sexual harassment for that."

"Yeah, two, three centuries ago, maybe. I can accuse you of sexual harassment for wearing those pants now-a-days!"

"I don't have any other pants (it was true; she fell in love with the skirt upon reaching Earth, and had acquired over fifty in different colours, lengths, and styles.)—hey, hand over the red one," Cena grabbed the red package from Marty's hand. "Thanks," she called over her shoulder as she left the front lobby of the apartment complex she lived in and headed for the elevators. "I'll have the rent in by the end of the week—I promise!"

Just as the elevator doors were closing, Cena heard Marty call out: "Good! You still owe me for last month too!" Cena rolled her eyes. It wasn't her fault her superiors never paid her for a project until everything was finished—and she'd argued long and hard for an advance but they were even more stubborn than she was, and so Cena wouldn't get paid for her five months' hard work for a few more days.

But Cena had other things on her mind. She wasted no time opening the letter. By the time the doors of the cramped elevator closed, she had ripped off the stiff red packaging, with it's layered government stamps, and had the hardy gundanium computer disk in her hands. She ran her fingers over the shiny, pure white surface of the disk, lingering on the set of circles and lines that was the Mars Terraforming Project symbol. The disk held all the correspondence she had had with her both her blood family and her adopted family, who still lived on the Mars colony. For a moment Cena pretended that she could smell the traces of anti-freeze and her mother's bread-biscuits. She thought of her family. Her tall, blonde father; always the calm, sensible leader with a slow and serious smile. Her mother, who insisted that everyone call her by her maiden last name, and who took more risks than anyone else, but still managed to remain the sanest person Cena knew. She thought of her intellectually brilliant younger brother Jov, who was a cripple but never that fact hinder him in the slightest. Then there was the other second gen Martian kids; Areis, Joan, Astuko, Peter, and Onder, and the hundred or so other settlers. Life on Earth was good, but Mars was home. //Oh god, I miss them,// thought Cena, feeling the discomforting contraction of something in her chest.

 As soon as she reached her apartment, Cena popped the disk into her computer and opened the most recently created document. //Hey Sis,// it started. //I'm glad to hear that you're doing well on the blue planet. Have you made history yet? Well, don't forget that all of us on the MT Colony are cheering you on. Joan said her first word last week. Jane and Lawrence are still unsure of what that word was exactly. She says that's it's Mama, he thinks that it's Dada. I'm starting to worry about Dad; he's acting strange lately. Don't worry, though. It's probably because you're on Earth and Mom's still on that polar expedition. There's been a killer storm here for the past month. It's very beautiful, actually; all that dust swirling around day in day out. It almost makes me like storms. It's been messing up our comm like you wouldn't believe, though...// Cena read and re-read every word of the letter. Every letter from Jov was filled with trivial, personal information that nobody else in the world would have cared about. She poured over Jov's accounts of ordinary, everyday events, and for a moment she wished that she was back on Mars.

 //Back on Mars...with my family. Where I belong...//

 Cena shook her head sharply. //No. No, my family may be over there, but I *belong* down here.//

 //Everyone thought so. Even Jov...//
 

~~ "You know, it wouldn't be the end of the world if you did go," Jov commented non-chantily, as casual as you please. "Mars won't fall apart the moment you step foot off of it."

~~ "What are you talking about, brain? I can't leave," Cena waved her hand dismissively.

~~ "Why not?"

~~ "Well," Cena hesitated for a moment, wishing she could think of a good comeback. But she answered that question with another question—she always answered with that same question. "What's on Earth anyway?"

~~ "Oh, I don't know...maybe a little thing called an established civilization."

~~ "What are you suggesting?" growled Cena not-quite-teasingly.

~~ "Though I hate to admit this, you're smart. Not quite as smart as me, of course—"

~~ "Of course," said Cena sarcastically.

~~ "—but you like to study. You like to study *things*, and you're good at it too. You're what Earthlings would call a scientist."

~~ "Don't mock me. I'm not a scientist, and I never will be. I'm a colonist; a Martian Terraformer. It's good here..."

~~ "No, no it isn't good here. Not to you Cena," said Jov, who was suddenly serious. "Everyone knows that you're restless here, Cee. The Earth...Life's faster there. It's more exciting, more intricate. I love it here on Mars, and I know that you do too. But the difference is—I'm happy here. You," Jov pointed his index finger at Cena—the only index finger he had, on the only arm he had. "Aren't."

~~ "Whatever."

~~ "I'm serious, Cena. Just watch, you'll be packing for Earth sooner or later."
 

 //And he was right, as usual. I was gone less than a year later,// Cena thought guiltily. True, Mars didn't fall apart at the seams when she'd left. Everyone was happy for her, even those who cried and promised that they'd miss her forever—they were happy for her. But Cena still felt like she did some great wrong to the planet. And to her parents. That sense of wrong-doing, more than home-sickness and fear of the unknown, was why she'd almost boarded the shuttle that could have taken her back to Mars so many times those first two years on Earth. //It's like in that dream I had. I was born and raised by my family, on Martian grounds, but I didn't like it there so I just walked on. In my dream, Mars didn't forgive the betrayal. She tracked me down and swallowed me whole, and kept me in her belly for an eternity. And when Mother and Father and Jov found me there, they just turned their backs and walked away.// Cena had that dream regularly.

 //That's why I have to make that move count. That's why I have to be valuable here.// Cena let her eyes wander to the plain beige paper folder that sat on her desk beside her computer. The folder was thick with papers, and some of them were on the verge of spilling out of their confines. Cena patted the folder fondly; it contained all the notes she had on her five-month long project. //Jov was off of the mark for once. I didn't become a scientist. I got a full scholarship, accelerated through my studies, and became a machibiologist. One of the first. And I never had to ask my Aunt Relena for anything.//

 Cena thought sadly of her late aunt. She had gotten to know her Earth family very well during the summer of 216 A.C., when she'd first gotten to Earth. The Dorlian-Winners had been the very picture of a perfect family—without 1.7 children, they only had one son, but they were happy, loved, and prosperous. Then Quatre Winner died in the winter of that year, and everyone changed. //Now Aunt Relena's passed away too. Poor Alex.// It was one of Cena's biggest fears, the possibility that her parents were not going to be around forever. //I don't know how I'd handle it if my parents died on Mars while I was down here.// Cena shook her head. That wasn't something that she liked to think about.

Instead, Cena picked up the beige folder and opened it to the newest entry. It was a sheet of computer printout, and she studied it with pride. It was a simple line drawing of a human being encased within a suit of metal plates and criss-crossing wires, and captured the essence of her project. She had started working on it in school, and the whole thing had taken the past six years of sleepless nights and headaches and low pay. Cena didn't regret one minute of it. //I worked harder than I ever thought I could to get to this...But it was worth it. This suit will be my justification for being on Earth. This will be how I'll make history.//

But history, and her next pay-check, could wait for at least another half-hour. Cena leaned back in her lightly padded chair and started the pleasant task of writing back to her family on Mars.
 

END

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