Prologue
There should have been a sunrise. Duo Maxwell stared up into the inky
blanket of the eternal night. His world, the one he shared with his fellow
Gundam pilots, had changed much more then what was imaginable in the
seemingly short period of two years.
Ever since OZ had taken over every colony in the known universe, the need for the power gained through the colonies had decreased drastically.
There were no other powers to rise up and dethrone them so OZ simply
decided to cut down the population and wipe out various colonies
occasionally. Now the same people, who had wanted them dead, were now
crying out for their help again. Duo chuckled to himself, five young boys
against the monopoly of the universe. Brothers of mayhem, that's what
they were. Bringing chaos into a world that desired peace.
He looked over at the other four young men who had become his only
family. Wufei Chang was resting up in a tree branch, looking like he was
about to spring awake and continue the fighting that made his blood race.
He was the woman hater out of the five, after his wife was murdered, he
made himself feel like all woman were useless and petty. He was still
hurting on the inside, longing for the affection the two of them had
shared for each other. He was normally a quite cynic but something in the
passion of a hand to hand battle brought out a crazed side of him. His
black eyes went from being calm and undisturbed to having a blood red tint
and taking over his entire body, he truly was a loner, a solitary dragon,
as he liked to put it.
Duo's eyes shifted again, resting on the small figure lying underneath
the tree where Wufei slept. Quatre Raberba Winner, the little brother out
of all of them all in personality alone. All of the sensitivity and
sentimental feelings the other guys lacked rested in that blonde hair blue
eyed "pretty boy" as Wufei often called him. Quatre was truly the
peacemaker, the modest one, and the only one in their group with a heart
that could feel what others did. He could understand what everyone else
was going through but it never went to his head. No one could hide
anything from him, no matter how hard they tried.
Next to Quatre slept Trowa Barton, the silent intellect, the unofficial
older brother, but above all else, Trowa was the philosophical one. He
normally kept quiet, letting his senses take in everything they could
about a situation but he hardly ever spoke up about what he noticed. When
he did speak though, everyone listened with a noticeable kind of
adoration. If he took the time to say something, it was bound to be worth
the words spoken. He explained his way of communication simply "Too many
people today waste words where they aren't needed. The spoken language is
meant to be a sign of intelligence, not a source of constant noise." Not
to anyone's surprise, but that comment seemed to be directed at Duo most
of the time. But underneath that quiet serious exterior, Trowa was a
master at the art of deceit; he had wormed his way into OZ's trust and
found out the basis to their systems. To that day, they still had no clue
who their lost fighter was.
The remaining member of the brotherhood lay sprawled on the ground,
several yards from where the rest of the group was sleeping. Heero Yuy
was the ultimate source of independence and secrecy. He had let himself
get closer to the other four in the past years but like Wufei, Heero was a
strong believer in the power of a person as a whole and the doubt of the
entire people's society. Heero's past was a mystery as were his thoughts.
His deep blue eyes always had a melancholy gaze about them and his mouth
rarely let a smile crack through. Oddly enough, though, he was rarely
seen frowning either. He was the strong silent type, the steel backbone,
the iron heart, yet deep inside, he was the only one content with his life.
Lastly, you had Duo, the long-haired chatterbox, the playful comedian out
of the five and the one who was determined to live his life to the fullest
he could. He was all for the protection of the innocent and safety of the
universe, but only if there were battles involved. His passion on the
battlefield had earned him the title of the angle of death, a name he was
proud to bear. The violet-eyed 17-year-old was also an accomplished
gymnast and was quite a sight for any eye to witness in person, the long
brown braid flying out from behind him, somehow not normally taking away
from his boyish good looks or adding any unwanted femininity.
His eyes once again ventured up through the canopy of tree branches
seeking out the moon that should have been there but wasn't. The Lunar
colony or L-12 as OZ had renamed it, had been destroyed days earlier. If
there were any survivors there, they needed to be taken to the earth and
put in camps set up just for that purpose.
The numbering of the colonies was just another one of the ways OZ was
using psychology against the trusting souls they had manipulated into
their hands. Each colony had been renamed or, he thought grimly,
renumbered, assigned a color and lost all senses of individuality. The
idea of aging had been lost along the lines as well, once a girl reached
the age of 16, she received a diamond shaped pendent in her home colonies
color that represented her coming of age. Time after that was just an
unending cycle that wasn't necessary in the new unified society. Duo
sighed again and rubbed the brick red, diamond tattoo that had been
branded on him over the period of his last capture. Men had their own
methods of time. The male species was supposed to be able to withstand
pain but the smile fainted from him face when he remembered what happened
with Quatre when he was forced into the chair. No one knew the boy was
terrified of needles and he had fainted the minute he saw it being pulled
out. The other men in the room had laughed at him but all his comrades
could do was sympathize instead of giving the much needed aid. He woke up
a few hours after the procedure and found himself marked with a teal blue
diamond. Trowa had a forest green one while Wufei's was black. Heero was
the only one out of the four who managed to get off without the mark, he
had no known home or history anyone could check. As far as Duo was
concerned, Heero was an illusion of innocence and memories lost to the
world by every passing moment.
He had just settled back down onto his blanket to try to get some more
sleep when the blinding lights were switched on overhead "Damn artificial
sunlight." He muttered, putting on his sunglasses
Heero rose just as quickly "If we're going to do this, then let's get it
over with." He said in his normal monotone voice.
Wufei hopped down from the branch, his blanket in hand and after
stretching for a moment, began to pack up his share of the supplies from
the night before. Quatre sat up slowly and after rubbing the remaining
sleep out of his eyes, smiled almost as brightly as the glaring lights
overhead "Morning everyone." He said, folding up his blanket neatly and
packing it in his bag.
Wufei groaned "Do you always have to be this cheerful every morning?" He
glanced over at the still sleeping Trowa "Are you going to wake him up or
do I have to do it?" He smiled wickedly.
Quatre knelt down and shook the older boy's shoulder "Trowa, we need to
get going." He said, rather softly but it was enough to get the other boy
to open his eyes " You need to get up."
Trowa shook the leaves out of his hair and began to pack up the same way
he did everything else, quietly and efficiently. "Do you think there are
going to be any survivors left on that base?" He asked after a moment of
silence
Heero shrugged "I seriously doubt it." He placed everything in his bag
"It's been too long. If we could have made it there the day after it had
happened, we probably could have found someone. Now they're all probably
lying around dying from radiation or dehydration."
"It's too bad we don't have our Gundams anymore." Wufei remarked, poking
at the fire with the end of a stick. "We could have been there, taken
them back to the Earth and then gone back into space where we could be
kicking some major ass in the time it's taken us to get this far."
"If you feel that way, we could just give this mission up altogether."
Heero replied "It doesn't matter to me one way or another."
"It doesn't seem right." Duo said angrily "First they ask for our help,
then they want us dead and are willing to do anything for that. Now
they're begging for us to help them again, this is all fucked up if you
ask me."
"I didn't." Heero replied, giving him a deadly glare "We need to make a
purpose for ourselves or else they'll turn against us again and then we
won't have any justifiable reason to attack Treize again."
"Do you want the dead to have given their lives up in vain?" Quatre
asked softly "Think of Father Maxwell and my father. Think of Wufei's
entire colony, even if they didn't believe in our actions, they believed
in our purpose. All everyone wants right now is peace. Heero," he rose
his head momentarily "to look at the blonde boy "think of Relena. Even
she had to ive up and what is she now? A former ideal of pacifism is
reduced to a refugee from persecution."
Heero kept his gaze hard "I do what I have to do to stay alive." He
replied cooly
"Well, that's it then." Wufei put a stop to their discussion "Let's just get moving and see what happens."
They all nodded, and after eating a fast breakfast and picking everyone
else up, they climbed back into the space shuttle and took off for the remains of
the colony.