Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam SEED or the book The Secret Garden.

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She was not always as she is now. She was a beautiful child, considerate of others and kind. Her hair was of the softest colour pink, shining and full. She wore lovely dresses of all colours and make. One would rarely ever see her with any expression other than happiness, which was mostly shown in her eyes, the colour of the sky, twinkling like the stars at night. Indeed, she was a joy to be around, she lifted the spirits of others, spread her kindness wherever her influence was accepted.

But that was all changed in one eventful day.

The sun had shone brightly that day, spreading its startling warmth through the earth, reaching out everywhere, so that no area was left in shadows. Mr. and Mrs. Clyne had traveled with their daughter, Lacus, to the PLANTS where they were to spend some time away from their home and their responsibilities with their work.

It was a much needed vacation, as they were hardly ever at home, always being needed at the office to sign one more document, one more board meeting, one more hour of important research. They were in politics, and they found early on in life that a life of politics was a demanding one. It left them with scarcely time to spend with their only child, Lacus. But being the good-natured child she was she bore it, the time she spent alone with no-one but her servants. Living with all the times her parents promised to be home earlier, only to cancel at the last moment. Every time they moved from place to place because of promotions.

She said nothing of the increasing loneliness in her heart to anyone. It never seemed important enough. So she continued on living how her parents told her to, moving into bigger and more extravagant houses, growing evermore desolate.

She learned to look forward to those few times a year when she got to spend more than two or three moments with them. She cherished those times more than anything else. When her father would touch her cheek, telling her how proud he was of her accomplishments with home schooling. When her mother would hold her hands in her own and tell her what a fine young woman she was becoming. They were the moments of pure bliss, when she could remember being the most happy.

She never had friends. She never went to a real school with children her own age. She had her tutors and her parents work colleagues always around her, and never had the time to go out and play like a normal child.

And so when her mother and father told her that they were to go on a holiday, just the three of them, she was ecstatic. The day they were to leave could not come quick enough.

That first day, the day they arrived at one of the many PLANTS for their long-awaited vacation, was the day everything changed for Lacus. The day everything about her altered. The day she grew up.

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Chapter One

The Loss of Childhood

The night was rapidly losing its hours; the artificial sunlight soon to brighten the dark skies, when the noises started.

Lacus sat up in her bed, the covers sliding down to her lap. She was panic-stricken for a moment, trying to remember where she was and what was happening. When she realised where she was, in the expensive hotel room, she relaxed, though only slightly, still not knowing what was happening around her, half of her still asleep, among the dying memories of her dreams.

Slowly, she slid out from her warm bed, shivering as soon as the skin of her bare feet touched the cold floorboards. She snuck over to the door, pressing her ear to the wood, trying to decipher the sounds beyond it.

She could hear feet scurrying up and down the corridor, hushed whispers as people quickly exchanged some kind of news before hasting to return to what it was they were supposed to be doing. She frowned, what could possibly be happening?

Curious, Lacus turned the handle, poking her head out, and upon seeing all those who had been here only moments ago had vanished, she silently padded out into the now deserted corridor. Something was wrong, very wrong. It was late, and no one should have been about at this hour.

In mere moments she came to the door of her parents' room, the one just down the lavish hallway from her own. She pressed her ear to the wood, just as she had with the door to her room, straining to hear something within. She had a bad feeling about whatever it was that was happening, and she tried to discern something of the sounds happening with in her parent's room.

Feet were scuttling rapidly around the space, low whispers being uttered secretly. Then she heard something she wouldn't ever forget. The sound of her mother's anguished scream ripped through the air, filling her ears as Lacus desperately faught with herself, afflicted by whether or not to rush into the room. The sounds of a gun being fired, one shot after the other startled her out of her inner battle. Then there was silence.

Lacus shivered, from the cold of the corridor and from fear. What had happened? Why was someone in there with a gun? Her parents were helpless civilians, why would anyone target them?

Without knocking, or thinking fully of the dire consequences which could arise, she turned the brass door handle and opened the door, leaving it open as she stepped hesitantly inside, letting the light from behind her flood into the deadly silent room. It took her eyes some minutes to register just what she was seeing. Her parent's room was dark; the curtains were drawn, the window thrown open, letting the artificial moonlight penetrate the thick darkness in the room, the light from behind her clashing with it to create more light to see by, but not enough to see clearly.

"Father?" Lacus called softly into the gloom. "Mother?" She feared what would happen. For several seconds, she just stood there, waiting for her parents to answer her, but she heard nothing, and saw no movement from the large bed in the centre of the room.

Unsure of what she would find, but in need of some sort of assurance, she crept towards the bed, where she saw the lumpy forms of her parents lying under the rich covers.

After what seemed like a millennium to her, Lacus reached the bedside. She stared at her mothers back, stationary inches from her. With shaking hands, Lacus reached out towards her mothers shoulder and shook it.

"Mother?" She said, her voice wavering. "Mother, are you okay? Are you awake?" When she yet again received no answer, she gently turned her mother onto her back, recoiling and crying out in grief as her own eyes met with the dead, lifeless ones of her mother.