Home is where the heart is

Marina was feeling very awkward in this position. Just from a glance she could tell that this young girl was very affraid to be in Lucia's presence.

The purple haired woman would giggle, wallowing in the child feelings of dread. Pretty exterior aside she was a true sadist. " Well then, i'll be on my way back to Trieste now. I leave her in your care, auntie Marina." She would bring a hand up, stroking that orange hair on the nervous child before climbing her way back into the cockpit of the transformable mobile suit.

" Do you have a name? I am Marina Von Vitzland." Currently she lived all by herself. " I can't believe Lucia took what I said at that family gathering seriously. I shouldn't have drank as much as I did. Oh well, no matter you can rest easy now that she is gone." The Austrian blond would seize up the child, gesturing her to follow to the car she had drove all the way to this mountain top.

Marina would open up the passenger door of her white Mercedes-Maybach, seating the silent girl and fastening her seatbelt. " No name, huh?" This wasn't the first time she had run into war orphans. Whoever this child was she seemed deeply disturbed so much so she wasn't quite willing to talk just yet.

" I still have to call you something ... " The Austrian blond would mumble to herself, clutching the steering wheel as her eyes focused on the highway.Even on a gloomy afternoon such as this one the wight of the Austrian Alps was rather breath taking. Even in this early spring there was snow on the mountain tops.

The rest of the drive would proceed in awkward silence with Marina wondering if this curious child didn't even speak english to start with. She would try her luck again in Italian, German, Spanish an even French to no avail. By the time they arrived at the two store country house she had given up completely on getting the red headed child to utter a single word.

In this house Marina lived by herself. Soon she walked the speechless girl inside, assigning her a bedroom of her own. " Make yourself at home. I'll knock on your door when dinner is ready." The place was rather conservatively decorated, a few pictures of relatives and friends were hung on the walls including group photos of men and women in uniform posing with GM IIIs in the background.

There was a display stand with model kits depicting mobile suits wearing official markings, a few citations among more pictures of uniformed men and women. One particular picture stood out depicting a much younger Marina posing with another blond girl on a park with cherry blossom trees in the background, both wearing a dark blue almost black uniform and berets with Titan's logos.

A few hours later ...

Figuring her "guest" would already be hungry, Marina would approach her bedroom door and knock a few times. " Dinner is served!" She called out loud enough to be heard.

Whenever the child decided to venture out of her bedroom she would find Marina sitting at the table, eating a delicious slab of medium rare steak accompanied by a lush garden salad. There was a bowl of fresh fruit and plenty of bread and the dame accompanied her meal with a glass of red European wine.

There was a plate of food with just the same amount awaiting for the quiet child.

" Come eat before it gets cold." Marina would try her hardest to get the child to sit down at the table and actually start eating. She figured hunger would cause the girl to start eating , after all even Lucia had to feed her somehow.

" I've thought of a new name for you. From now on you'll be Sypha, Sypha Neumann. Do yo like it? It's a German surname that practially means 'new man.'" She would explain quite eloquently.

" What's wrong, you don't like it?" The older woman would ask from where she was sitting.

" I understand you must be deeply disturbed. I would be if I had to share a seat with Lucia for longer than an hour." Every now and then she would attempt to joke about with mixed results.