A/N: So, I'm doing this. First story, inspired by many amazing writers out there. Please tell me what you think.

Starts at the end of the Gundam Unicorn series.

Note: The Unicorn's remaining weaponry are the four beam sabers and the three shields.

Chapter 1: The Journey beyond the Rainbow

It was in a split second when his newly developed senses kicked in and warned Banagher of the incoming beam fired by the Colony Laser. The three shields of the Unicorn, controlled telepathically by Banagher, lined themselves up and produced a gigantic Psyco-field, followed by the Unicorn and the Banshee, which was piloted by Ensign Riddhe Marcenas. And just a moment after, the gigantic beam hit the first field, then the second and lastly the third.

Yet a small amount of the beam slipped past Riddhe's Psyco-field, almost hitting the colony builder they were trying to protect. The pressure threatened to tear his suit apart, the machine creaking and bending to struggle against the energy. The yellow visor of his helmet was smashed and Riddhe himself could feel the strength of the attack even inside the cockpit and was almost about to give in. But in a moment of calmness, Riddhe gathered his focus and reinforced the Psyco-field of the Banshee and changed its yellow glow to the same green as the light emitted by the Unicorn.

The crew of the Nahel Argama could only watch as the beam covered both Gundams as they stopped the beam from reaching the colony builder, the place where Laplace's Box was hidden.

And inside the Unicorn, Banagher was faced with a strange phenomenon.

"There are so many things I can see that all of you can't…", whispered the voice of a familiar woman to him. "Even time seems to glow here…"

Banagher could feel a warm light surround him, empowering his spirit to new heights.

"I can see your heart shine, able to turn even despair into strength…", continued the voice. "Humanity is currently standing at a threshold, preparing to do the next step. And one day, everyone will be able to see this place, on the other side of the rainbow…"

He could feel the energy around him grow stronger by the second, until the Colon Laser finished its attack. And with the fading light of the beam, not a single trace of the Unicorn, its shields and Banagher was left.


"Ughh…"

With a groan, Banagher slowly regained his consciousness. As he woke up, he recognized the cockpit of the Unicorn around him, the screens fading from walls of numbers and symbols to the black vastness of space.

"Where am- Audrey!"

His initial worry changed quickly to the girl that changed his life that day when he saved her life and entered the Unicorn for the first time. Checking the systems of his suit, Banagher turned to look for the others, only to find nothing.

"What-?"

He was just in the middle of space, Industrial 7- his home colony-, the Nahel Argama or any of his friends and comrades were nowhere to be found. And adding to that was the fact that this place wasn't found in the map-data of the Unicorn as well.

Unsure about what to do now, Banagher decided to move around and search the area more thoroughly for clues to his current whereabouts.

"What is going on here?"

As the scanners of the Unicorn searched the surrounding area, Banagher asked this question no one in particular. And while the 360°-Screen of his cockpit continued to show him the gathered information, again his thoughts drifted to his friends, and to Audrey.

"Audrey…"

Suddenly, the sensors picked up explosions just a short distance away. Quickly checking the data, Banagher only got more confused than before. Considering the situation before the Colony Laser was launched, no troops besides the Neo Zeon Remnants and the General Revil should be in the sector, but almost right next to him, two unknown parties were having a firefight in the middle of space. However, with no other useful information at hand, and a conflict with possible casualties right in front of him, Banagher came to the only plausible decision.

"Let's check it out."

And with some simple piloting, he moved the Unicorn towards the battle.

Even before Banagher arrived at the scene, the battle was already a mess. As for the current situation, two of four ships were destroyed, of the two remaining ships one being a simple war ship, and the other one white, somehow reminding Banagher of the Nahel Argama. And all that by a group of mobile suits, from which four seemed to be of different design, while one single mobile suit protected the remaining two ships, alongside something that looked like small fighters.

"What is going on here? I've never seen these types of suits", Banagher said to himself as he continued to accelerate.

With high speed he shot through the battlefield towards the simple looking war ship, which was about to be attacked by another wave of mobile suits.

"Even if it is a war ship, life should not be wasted like this! Unicorn!"

And with a green glow wiping over his screens and controls, Banagher partially activated the NT-D, sending his shields as funnels ahead to block the incoming missiles and beams.


Kira was struggling in his battle. After promising that he would protect the ship Flay's father would come with, two of the escort ships were already destroyed, and he could do nothing as Athrun, his childhood friend and now pilot of the Aegis, the mobile suit he was currently battling with in the Strike, his own mobile suit.

"Kira, stop this! You have no reason to be fighting us!", came the shouts of Athrun over the private channel connecting the two suits.

"Athrun…!"

Kira had no reply to give as he returned fire with his beam rifle, which was dangerously low on energy already. And in the corner of his eyes, he saw a new wave of ZAFT mobile suits approach the remaining ship.

He would have despaired in this impossible-to-save-situation, if it weren't for the sudden alarm of an incoming contact. Both he and Athrun turned to the unknown object, and where surprised to see a completely white mobile suit approach. It seemed to look like a very simple design, however it had something shaped like a single horn on its head. It also seemed to have two, no three, shields, but no other obvious weaponry whatsoever.

'A new enemy!?', was Kira's first thought, but that was forgotten in an instant, as the unknown suit suddenly shined in a green light. He wasn't able to clearly make out everything, but he saw three white objects, glowing with the same green light, flying towards the last escort ship- and block all of the enemy's attacks.

"What is that suit?!", someone shouted over one of the channels, but Kira didn't know who. He just looked at the white suit as it floated in the middle of the battlefield, still emitting a slight green glow.


"That was close, now to stop the rest of them."

Banagher opened the open channel, but he didn't need to say anything as suddenly the whole situation turned into a hostage taking.

Seeing this scene play out before him reminded Banagher again about Audrey, and her circumstances back then. Being a member of the Zabi family, she had to face all the hate towards her family and fellow Zeons. Yet Audrey stood strong even in the face of being used as a bargaining chip against Full Frontal and the Neo Zeon Remnants.

And just as he felt back then, Banagher still didn't agree with involving children in the mindless games of adults.

"Still, making a move now will only cause further unnecessary fighting. Maybe this time the situation can be solved by talking."

Even though it was a very small hope, the young pilot of the Unicorn still wished for it to come true. And so he recalled his shields and moved slowly towards the white ship.

"Unknown mobile suit, this is the Archangel of the Earth Alliance, cease your approach and state your identification and intentions!", came the sudden order as the white ship hailed him. Banagher hesitated a moment to think about his response.

"This is the RX-0 Unicorn. I request to board your ship to confirm the current situation", he said, deciding to sound as professional as possible. If he would try to get on board, he would need to get their trust to not shoot him down. Literally and figuratively.

The answer only came after a few minutes and Banagher used the silence to take a better look at the other remaining Mobile Suit. It reminded Banagher of the Unicorn in its Destroy-Mode, when it became a Gundam. The other suit however had its main body colored blue and grayish-white. It also had a red and black booster-like backpack and carried a red and white shield and a beam rifle.

Banagher did nothing as the Strike grabbed onto the Unicorn and pulled it towards the ship. He floated inside the hanger and slowly walked towards one of the docking stations, as did the Strike opposite to him on the other side of the hangar. And as Banagher powered down the Unicorn, he observed the happenings around him carefully. He just watched as a group of armed soldiers rushed into the hangar towards the Unicorn. It was not hard to understand why they would be pointing guns at his cockpit, but that didn't mean it made Banagher feel more welcome. With the armed soldiers were two more people, one an officer from the look of the uniform, the other one wearing a pilot suit. The officer was a young woman with shoulder long brown hair, the other a tall, blond man.

"Is that the pilot of that Gundam?", Banagher asked himself. "But when did he leave the cockpit?"

It was then that Banagher noticed another machine in the hangar, something similar to a fighter, colored orange and with four barrel-like attachments and a single huge cannon at the front. And then he noticed the hatch of the other suit open, and a person in a blue and white piolt suit exit the machine.

"I guess I should try to talk with them."


The troops tensed slightly when the doors of the cockpit opened. Waiting for the pilot to come out, they saw the pilot in a white suit with red linings, a red-tinged visor and the picture of a unicorn's head on the chest. And they were shocked when the pilot took his helmet of to reveal a young man with brown hair and eyes, who seemed about as old as Kira.

The boy looked at each of the soldiers once before frowning and slowly lifting his hands up. He never stopped throwing disapproving looks at the people on the other end of the guns. Murrue almost flinched at the strong, judging glare, but she kept a tough front, even if she didn't like to have guns pointed at a child.

"We would like to ask you some questions, if it is okay with you", the woman with brown hair asked.

"How much of a choice do I have?", Banagher replied with sarcasm.

Again, a slight feeling of guilt passed through Murrue, but she suppressed it. While the boy in front of her didn't seem to be much of a threat, she still couldn't allow herself to let down her guard. She was aware of what Coordinators were capable, even those that were still children.

"Please, follow me."

Murrue turned around and left, Mu la Flaga following directly after her. The soldiers parted, opening a path for Banagher. He waited for a moment, slightly worrying the soldiers, when suddenly the hatch of the Unicorn closed on its own. Banagher had set it to close and lock down if he didn't reenter the cockpit after a certain amount of time, just as a precaution. Considering that the soldiers didn't leave him out of their sights, it was better than closing the hatch manually. The soldiers kept their tension as Banagher started walking past them to follow Murrue and Mu. On the way, two guards walked in front of Banagher, four behind him. It was impossible to make a break for it, not that he followed that thought. He knew that something like this would happen, and he still decided to go through with it. Even if it means to get into danger. Yet even danger seemed to be something natural for Banagher.

After Walking through several corridors and past several people, including some civilians, judging by their clothing, the group reached the Captain's office. Murrue and Mu entered, followed by Banagher and one of the soldiers, who stood by the door.

Banagher watched as Murrue took a seat at the big desk in the room and Mu stood next to her, his pose relaxed, het his hand placed on his hip, right next to his sidearm. Banagher, whose expression turned somewhat sour and disappointed at the situation, looked between the two officers, standing in the middle of the room.

Murrue observed him for a moment before addressing him.

"Please, take a seat."

She motioned to the free chair opposite of her with her hand and Banagher took a glance at the seat offered to him.

"Why did you take her hostage?"

Both members of the Archangel were slightly surprised at his first words. They exchanged glances before Murrue answered.

"Since the situation turned unfavorably for us, I decided to use what was available to me."

"And you think that justifies using a child as a shield!? Do you have no respect for others!?"

Again, the outburst surprised both Murrue and Mu, but they noticed that this conversation wouldn't turn out well, so Mu went ahead with steering the conversation away for a moment.

"Well, I can understand your point, but it can't be helped. However, before we start shouting at each other, why not introduce ourselves. I'm Mu la Flaga."

"… Banagher Links."

"And I'm Murrue Ramius, acting Captain of this ship. Now, we would first like you to answer a few of our questions. In turn, we would answer some questions as well. Then we can discuss the current situation at hand."

Banagher considered this offer for a moment before nodding.

"Okay, then ask", he said as he sat down on the chair.


Rau le Creuset was in a tight spot. Not only did a great chance of destroying the legged ship with the Strike and a part of the 8th Lunar Fleet slip through his fingers, the daughter of a member of the council was taken hostage and used against them. He didn't really care for the girl, but for his public image and in front of Athrun Zala, the fiancée of the girl and one of his best pilots.

As the blond haired man with a gray mask sat in his chair of his private room, Creuset went over the recordings of the battle once more. The biggest reason though why he wasn't able to destroy the last escort ship of the 8th Fleet was this mysterious white Mobile Suit that jumped into the fray and protected the escort ship. The simple fact that the volley of missiles and beams, which were used with the intention to take down a fortress was stopped by using shields alone was reason enough to warrant his attention.

"Now, what to do about this mess", mused the masked man while looking at a picture of the unknown suit. He wasn't left alone to his thoughts for long though, as a knock on his door pulled Creuset away from his plans.

"Come in."

The door opened, and a young man with dark blue hair and eyes wearing a red ZAFT uniform entered with a salute.

"Athrun Zala reporting. You wanted to talk to me, Sir?"

"Indeed. But how are you feeling?"

Athrun was slightly surprised by his superior's inquiry, but replied nonetheless.

"I'm fine Sir, but…"

"You are concerned about Lacus Clyne."

Again, Athrun showed was momentarily surprised, but when he remembered who was in front of him, he regained his composure.

"Yes, I can't believe they would actually retort to something like this."

"It's true, no one could anticipate that Miss Clyne would be on that ship. An unfortunate development indeed."

Creuset turned back to the screen which still showed the, to him still unknown, Unicorn Gundam and how it manipulated the shields.

"And that isn't the only unfortunate thing that happened today", Creuset continued while nodding to the footage on the screen. "We have no reports on this unit, and it has capabilities unknown to us. It might even be a greater threat than the Strike. And that is the other reason I called you."

Creuset leaned back in his seat while looking at Athrun through his mask.

"You were there on the battlefield and saw it from close up. What is your opinion on it?"

"I'm sorry, Sir, but I only caught a glimpse of it as it was moving too fast to follow it. And as it didn't do anything else besides somehow controlling these shields, I can't say anything for sure, but it seemed capable of much more", Athrun replied, still feeling slightly uneasy about the suit.

"I see. Anyways, you should go rest for now", Creuset said. And before Athrun exited the room he added: "And don't worry, we will save Ms. Clyne."

"Yes, Sir!"

And with a salute Athrun left for his quarters.

Creuset sighed before looking back at the screenshot of the Unicorn again. There were not a single shred of information regarding this unit in the reports he had obtained from the Alliance, so he was sure that this wasn't built by 'Morgenröte'. But if that was the case, who did build it?

"I wonder how I can make use of this…", Creuset thought out loud with a sinister smile on his face.


"And where are you from, exactly?"

"…"

Banagher didn't really want to reveal too much about himself or the Unicorn, so he gave simple answers to how he simply intervened the previous battle to stop any more senseless fighting and casualties. He also told them how the Unicorn is a new model, and the two officers misunderstood it as something that was built by a group called 'Morgenröte', probably a manufacturer for machinery like 'Anaheim' back at his home colony.

And that was the second part of his worries. As he listened to the stories of how the Archangel left Heliopolis, Banagher noticed several things that were just too different to be just slight mistakes. Organizations, history, geographical places and many other things didn't match with what he remembered from his history classes. He could imagine that he was somewhere not his home, and that the Unicorn was responsible for his unintended journey to who-knows-where.

Still, Banagher couldn't just outright tell them he is from a different universe. The only thing that would happen would be weird looks and a one-way ticket to an asylum. Yet he couldn't think of a believable lie either. But time was running and he had to say something.

"I'm not sure myself, to be honest. I have an idea, but it is rather farfetched and is hard to explain."

"Well, I heard my fair share of weird stories, so shoot. I'm sure we can figure out something from there", Mu replied with a shrug.

"I believe I'm in a different universe."

"…" "…"

Their reaction was what Banagher expected, including the blank expressions they were giving him. Yet when he thought about it, it wasn't impossible. After all, when the Unicorn and Full Frontal's Mobile Armor resonated, he experienced something like traveling through time and space. It was one of the many unknown abilities of the Psycoframe, or at least Banagher thought that since he had run out of ideas.

"That's really farfetched, y'know?"

"I'm aware of that. Yet there are too many differences between what I know and what you know about… almost everything."

He continued to explain the differences he noticed and told them about his world, his history, about Newtypes and the theory explaining their appearance. Banagher also told them roughly about the abilities of the Unicorn, and its intended purpose: find a worthy inheritor to Laplace's box.

As Banagher continued to tell his story, the two Alliance officers started to believe his story less and less, yet they could tell he didn't make it up. However, no side had any proof for any of their statements, and so the came to a point where everyone in the office was confused. Somewhere during the talk, Murrue ordered to soldier at the door to leave, so that no one else would learn about this.

"But what are you going to do now?", came the question from Mu.

"Of course, I'm going to look for a way home", Banagher replied almost instantly. "What I want the most is to see my friends again, and that's it."

Banagher was tired of losing anyone else. He didn't save Loni from her cursed past, and he was unable to save Marida from being killed. He had enough of all this sadness. But even so…

"But I think I will stay with you for now", Banagher added.

"And why is that?", Murrue asked. "You have no reason to come with us."

"I saw the civilians on board. They all are affected by this war and have to suffer from it, even if they have nothing to do with it. It's just not right."

"But this is reality. We can only do so much to fight this war, and with the way things are standing, the war isn't going to end anytime soon", Mu said.

"But even so, I believe that I didn't land in this world for no reason. If the Unicorn wanted me to come here, then there must be something only I can do."

Murrue looked at Banagher with a strict glare, but she could tell he was resolved. Something gave him the strength to keep fighting, no matter the odds.

"Very well, I'll let you stay on the ship", she said with a slight sigh. "We will need to come up with a cover story for you, since you shouldn't tell anyone about where you came from. Otherwise some people would think you were crazy."

"I'm aware of that."

"Okay, but do you have any clue as to what you need to do?"

"My biggest bet would be the Unicorn. If it brought me here, then it should also be able to give me clues as to where I need to go."

"Alright, we will leave that to you. Now we should think of a story for you."


After another hour of talking, including a verbal assault by Banagher about how they should be ashamed for taking a child hostage, no matter who they were, Murrue leaned back in her chair and sighed heavily. Banagher had left just a moment ago to take a look at the Unicorn. Murrue had also called the mechanics crew to give them a heads up about Banagher. Should he need help, they should provide him any help they could spare.

"I can't believe this is happening", she said, sighing again.

"To be honest, I can't imagine the kid lying to us. His story is too crazy for that", Mu said, trying to console her. "And even if he is lying, everything is fine as long as he doesn't attack the ship."

"I guess."

"But then again, he isn't the only guest with some issues", Mu obliviously continued.

And there was the second problem that gave Murrue a headache. The minister George Allster, who was on the remaining escort ship that was saved by Banagher, came all the way here just to see his daughter. The first thing he did was jump on a shuttle, fly over to the Archangel, and demand the whereabouts of his daughter Flay. For now, he was silent, but who knows for how long and Murrue knew he would be a handful, possibly even a liability during any combat situation they may come upon.

"Why can't things be easy for once?"