Disclaimer: Yes, in a way I do own everything in this fic...Okay, I lied. I don't. The characters based to the anime series Gundam Wing are the property of ...I don't even know who! Well, at least they're not mine, so I don't lay claim over them. This fic was written purely for fun purposes and no money was, or will be, made with it.

Oh! This fic is ALSO dedicated to Manami-chan! My best friend outside the Finnish borders. Happy late birthday!

Summary: So, what happens when you go to a library in a nice near summer day to look for a book for your school assignment? You find a body and a book. And why does that book seem to attract your attension more than the obvious murder happened only a little before you arrived...

The Prince, the Hero and the Mystery of the Falcon

Chapter 1: Just another normal day

"I'm now officially bored", a boy with a braid long enough to reach over his butt announced. His friend, a girl with newly cut short black hair giggled.

"Well, that's a first. But don't worry, once you get home you can start making the book essay you still haven't written." Duo's shoulders slumped as he walked.

"Don't remind me. I have personally nothing against books, but I don't spend time reading them. I mean, really. " He stared up at the sky and kicked an empty beer can, that happened to come on his way, to the ditch siding the road. "Okay, if it was some certain book, then I'd have no trouble at all seeing it through, but the essay is about a 'book of your own choice'. I mean, what kind of lame assignment is that? I'm officially disappointed in Miss Bloom."

Hilde surpressed another wave of giggles as she turned her friend towards the library.

"I think you like the word 'officially' too much, Doo-di-di-Duo. Don't use it in your essay."

"Stop calling me that, Hilde!" the boy whined. "Unless you want me to start calling you something much less appropriate." Hilde raised her hands up in surrender.

"Fine, I'll stop." She could already see the library sign. "We're here, Duo. Honestly, it isn't very hard to pick up one book. Just take the first one that catches your attention." Duo snorted.

"Books aren't enough to catch anyone's attention."

The doors opened in front of them. 'Well, at least some place has modern technology', Duo thought darkly. He didn't use the library in normal basis like his friend. The only time he had been here was when he had to come and pull his friend out. The library wasn't the cheeriest place in the world. Who would want to spend their day between dusty books when the sun was shining and the kids were playing basketball in the streets...

He looked around. Yup, he had been right. Not a single book caught his attention. They were all the same.

"Duo! Honestly, stop zoning out. The interesting books are here not there. Those are law books." Hilde hissed at him. He opened his mouth to reply when a scream cut him off.

"Murder! MURDER!" The two friends shared a confused look.

"I thought you weren't allowed to scream in library", Duo said before the time seemed to start running again. They took off running towards the sound.

They found a horror-struck librarian in the back of the library. A body of a young man laid in front of her, neatly shot in the side. 'Ouch, That must've hurt', Duo sent his symphaties to the older student's spirit as he kneeled on his side and checked the guy's pulse, just in case. There wasn't one.

Hilde tried to calm the librarian down. After all, she spent most of her days in the library and knew the staff by name. People were starting to gather around them. Students, teachers, librarians...

Duo grimaced as no one seemed to be in any hurry to call the police. Thank God, he had a cell phone, bought by Howard, just in case he needed it sometimes. He knew it sounded a little morbid, but at least he wasn't bored anymore.

The police arrived fifteen minutes later and started evacuating the area. Duo had done everything he could in keeping the people from messing the crime scene, and he was dead tired at that point.

One of the officers came to them, a nice-looking woman.

"You're the one who called the police, I assume?" Duo nodded at her, sitting on the side of the body. "Did you touch anything?"

"Um... I checked his pulse." Duo thought the woman seemed familiar somehow. "Otherwise no one touched the body. I tried to keep everything as it was." Duo nodded towards the librarian. "She found the body. Hilde's been trying to calm her down. Some people offered to 'clean this place up' but that was just stupid, right?"

"Yes", the woman nodded. "Good, everything is just ...fine. Now, have you seen something like this before, young man? You seem rather calm." Duo looked down to his hands.

"I was present during a mass murder scene few years back... I used to live in the Maxwell Church."

"Exactly!" The officer snapped her fingers. "That's why you looked so familiar. You're Duo Maxwell, aren't you? The only one who survived."

"Yup", Duo felt a lump in his throat. "That's me."

The woman looked at him sympathetically. "Well, kid. You've done a great job here, but why don't you leave it to us now. We're professionals after all." Duo just nodded. He moved to get up from the floor when his hand hit something.

It was a book. A detective book by the looks of it. He guessed this was the book the boy had been reading when he was shot. . It looked nice, with a dark cover. It fit his mood perfectly. Damn police, why couldn't they let him help?

"Officer, is it okay for Hilde and me to leave now? She seems a bit shaken up." He offered his most charming smile to the woman officer. She smiled back.

"Of course, it's only natural. Hey what's that book your holding?" Duo gave the book in his hands a casual glance.

"Oh, this?" He held it up for the woman to see what it was. "I'm writing an essay about it. It's a very exiting book."

"'The Hero', huh?" The officer seemed to lose interest in it. "Well, I'm sure it is. Get going, you two."

Duo pulled Hilde with him as he marched out. The girl stared at him in awe. Once the doors had closed behind them, she couldn't keep her mouth shut anymore.

"Duo, you lied to that officer! That's not your book!" Duo clamped his hand on her mouth.

"Keep it quiet, will you? I didn't lie. I never said it was my book. I only said I'm writing an essay about it." He kicked another can of beer. Who knew, why there was so many of them lying around. They just were there when you needed to kick something.

"And so what, anyway? It's my book now. It wasn't the library's book, that's for sure. Doesn't the door make the kind of beeping sound if you haven't borrowed the book you're carrying? Finder keeps. That's just the way it is." He groaned at her skeptical look. "Oh, come on, Hilde. We both know I'm more than qualified to help them out, but they're all stuck up bastards. 'Go away and thanks for nothing', that's what she meant by 'leaving it to the professionals'. If I can find something in this book, then yay! I'm happy and I'll tell them about it. And if not... well, the least I can do is to make my essay about this book."

"You're getting exited about this, Duo..." Hilde had the kind of motherly worried look on her face. Duo sighed.

"If I remember correctly, it was you who told me to 'pick up the first book that catches my eye'. So, I did. I picked up this book. Just, leave it, okay?"

She bit her lip, still worrying. "I have a bad feeling about this. Please... I think we should take it back. You could get into serious trouble, Duo..."

"No! I already told you, I'm not taking it back! There's nothing in this book. Just, leave me alone, will you?"

Duo stormed off towards the house he shared with the man who had adopted him after the massacre. Hilde sighed watching after him, before shoving her hands into her pockets and going the other way. Her mother was probably already waiting her to come home for dinner...

BRAKE

"I'm home!" Duo shouted out of habit. The old man, Howard, waved his hand at him from the couch where he was seated with self-made hamburgers and beer as his company. He was watching some idiotic reality show about people who were actually competing in who was the most daring in cosmetic surgery. Great, that's just what they needed: A bunch of new Michael Jacksons. Bleh.

Duo shook his head and was about to go straight into his room, when the program was interrupted with a news flash.

"Earlier today the police made a shocking discovery in thelocal library. The discovery in question was a body of a university student who has been missing for the past month: Monroe Vasques. The discovery was made by a staff member who couldn't tell us anything new about the matter. More about this mysterious death in the news after the show. Stay tuned."

"Well, that was something", Howard mused to himself. "Isn't the library on your school way, Duo?"

"Yeah. I'm going upstairs, Howie. I'm not really hungry right now."

He walked up the stairs, but couldn't help hearing his guardian's voice on his way.

"It's a shame that even the library isn't a safe place anymore. This was a murder, mark my words."

"Goodnight, Howard", Duo said dryly, slamming the door shut behind him. Ah, at last some peace!

He dropped his bag carelessly on the floor and yawned widely. He threw himself on his bed lifting the book up above his face and turning it around in his hands. There was no back cover-text. It made him frown.

"'The Hero, written by Heero Yuy'", he read out loud. "He was some congress man, right? Funny, I wonder if this hero turns out to be him." He opened the first page and admired the picture it had. It was a black and white drawing about a young bloke with a cigarette in his mouth. He looked ready to kill anyone who looked at the picture. It was a work of a fine artist.

Duo ran through the pages to see if it had any more of pictures like that, getting disappointed in the middle of the book. The text ended there. Half of the book was empty.

"Damn, you gotta be kidding me! Do I honestly have to go and get another book? It was hard enough to choose this one! It was all he had time to say before he noticed movement on the last page. The book was writing itself!

"The quiet hero was walking down the street. He had heard about the death of the young bloke in the street near by and out of dry curiosity was on his way to see the crime scene by himself. He had absolutely no idea about the surprise that was just about to fall on him..."

The book started sucking him in, that's what it seemed at least. He tried to fight back out of reflex, to close the book in his hands, but it was too late. He felt like falling, falling forever...

Of course it wasn't forever. He landed on something not quite soft but not quite hard either. He opened his eyes and stared into a surprised pair of eyes, that soon looked ready to kill him.

He got off the person as fast as he could, tripping over his own feet in the process. It was a miracle that he stood on his own feet only a minute later.

"I'm so sorry! I mean, not that it was my fault, but it wasn't your fault either and- Damn!" He looked around himself taking in the scenery with wide eyes, before pointing ahead of himself. "Everything's black and white!" He stared at his own hand frightened, then looked down at his body. "I'm black and white too! Shit, this is so not normal. Things like this DON'T HAPPEN!"

TBC….

Author Notes:

Just tell me what you think. I don't appreciate flames, but if you think I deserve them, then whatever, go and write me one. I want lots and lots of reviews. Still, remember one thing... I'm more used to writing fanfiction about digimon, and this just happens to be my first Gundam Wing fic. The characters are half OOC, I know. It's the point. I wanted to write them into the form they're in my head. I'm sorry if this little fic offends anyone, it really wasn't the point. All of these characters are fictional of course.