Hanging Gardens

Prologue

By Elysia Erianthe

I never intended my life to take this track. I can't say this whole soldier thing wasn't my fault; it seems like I was born for it, but I don't know. I guess you could say I look at Fate like one big circle. I'm in the exact center and have the option to run any direction, zigzag, double back, or whatever I please, but I'm still going the same place. You can't get out of the ring, out of the loop, just take different paths to meet it. Say I run into it, head on, you know. I want to see what happens.

"Oi, Heero! Hand me that wrench, would ya?"

"Hn."

"Thanks, bud."

"Baka …"

"Forget it; excuse me for a momentary lapse into the thought that you might actually be human."

***

"Ah well, another morning at the office begins …," I mused and stretched my arms over my head, hands hitting the plaque over the hangar doorway. 'Thank God I'm not short anymore.'

As with every usual morning, I read the quotation above the door with solemn regard: "We are not youth any longer. We don't want to take the world by storm. We are fleeing. We fly from ourselves. From our life. We were 15. We had begun to love life and the world; and we had to shoot it to pieces.1" Of course it had been Quatre's idea to put it there; I sure as hell wasn't that well read and if any of the other guys were, they wouldn't suggest it. So it had been Quatre's idea to hang that sign over the doorway to the machines that had stolen our young souls during the Eve Wars. It made sense really, even after the hangar had been converted into a general machinery shop. There were no mobile suits, save the ones in museums and the Gundams in this hangar in this peaceful time. So without any literal war to fight, the broken spawn of the Eve Wars were left alone to forge their own battles against the bloodthirsty psyches. And that is where I am now, trying to shake off the plaguing ghost of Shinigami.2

"Who are you kidding, Duo? You haven't been to the actual office in two months! You've never let the finances slip this much since we started this shop! If you don't clean up your act soon I'm just going to have Heero do it!" My significant other, Hilde, scolded me like a kid and consequently interrupted my thoughts.

"Now Hilde-babe, you know I'll get around to it before the bill collectors get on our asses," I responded, feigning exhaustion so I might just get a reprieve out of my business-minded love.

"You better unless you like sleeping out in the cold!" She stone-faced me before storming off. Yes, Father Maxwell3, I'm living in sin … well almost. I may share a bed with a pixie, but I don't share a bed with her you know. At least part of that lesson stayed with me.

Heading in to start the morning repairs, I'm always enthused, rubbing my grubby hands together looking for the next tedious task awaiting me. I'm not a Capricorn4 for nothing after all; I love this stuff unlike my counterpart over there. Taking a glance at that homicidal maniac, I wonder why I even bother taking in his overly mundane attitude toward working every morning. Then again, he's never shown much of a response to anything aside from one Relena Peacecraft and the Zero system, but even those reactions are shut off as fast as he can pull the hammer back on his gun. I have to think he must enjoy it though, considering he decided to take refuge from the world in my little hole of a compound while the rest of our entourage went their separate ways. Trowa to the circus, Quatre to the desert, and Wufei to the Preventers headquarters in Beijing. So it seems to me, all of them went somewhere where they might be able to find themselves, but Heero has stayed here since that short stint in the Cinq5 royal guard.

That was about a year ago when he literally dropped in on our modest establishment in a hijacked carrier. Some things never change. Anyway, the carrier carried the latest gifts from the Sweepers and, I assume, what was left of the stoic's paycheck as the first rent payment. With that, he unceremoniously dropped his sole duffel in the spare bedroom and collapsed on the bed. Regardless, this whole situation makes me wonder if Heero thinks there's nothing left to salvage of his old self before Operation Meteor. If there's one thing I've learned from being on the street my whole life it is the truth that there is always something of worth left in every scene of destruction.

Crucial Notes and Miscellaneous Musings from Author:

Hello and thank you for reading my newest Gundam Wing fanfic. Yes, I know this is the only true GW ficcie I have posted on Fanfiction.net, but I assure you I have written others. While this little ditty may seem absolutely pointless standing alone, this is only a prologue hinting at what will become the basis of this story in the near future. Are you supposed to pick up on the hints at this time? No, probably not unless you can either get into my head or have had rigorous sessions of picking books apart for their every literary device (I will later refer to this as Sophomore English). This is solely a result of my musings and desire to write something a little out of the ordinary hosting of Gundam Wing fan fiction, as you will soon find out. Did you like it? Is Duo at least somewhat in character? Utterly confused? Well, the universal answer is … review or email me your thoughts. Now for the important stuff …

General Notes:

    • What does the title mean? Well, it refers to one of the wonders of the ancient world: Nebuchadnezzar's Hanging Gardens at Babylon. This will definitely be explained later.

    • This story takes place a few years after Endless Waltz. However, the exact time is relatively unimportant.

    • This assumes that the Gundams were not destroyed after Endless Waltz. ::Shrug:: Is there a problem with this?

Footnotes:

    1. This is a quote from Erich Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front. I slightly changed it from the original text; the actual age of the soldiers in his book was 18, but the rest of the quotation applies nicely to my interpretation of the psychological impact of the Eve Wars on the Gundam boys. War is timeless after all.

    2. Shinigami, also known as the God of Death, represents the inner demon that everyone, namely the haunted soldiers, must face. You'll be hearing a lot about him.

    3. Father Maxwell, along with Sister Helen, are characters from Duo's Episode Zero which I will refer to A LOT. I am also going to on a limb and say that Duo is catholic. That is the original impression I got after reading the segment, and Catholicism is more or less common knowledge to me.

    4. I don't think the series or OAV assigned birthdays to anyone aside from Relena so I have decided to make Duo a Capricorn according to the western Zodiac. From what I've read, they are relatively determined, morbid, persistent, and wear facades in times of despair. This suits Duo well enough in my opinion, but if I've managed to skew my facts terribly, I'd like to know.

    5. The Cinq royal guard in all respects would probably be Relena's troupe of bodyguards. Was Heero part of this? Well, I don't know that, but I have managed to procure a copy of the Endless Waltz manga where Mr. Yuy himself is shown in something resembling a uniform (suit, dark sunglasses, and ear piece) of a bodyguard while watching one of Relena's speeches at the tail end of the volume. I deem it safe to assume that he is a bodyguard at this point because of what the ensemble implies. However, I can't read any Japanese to speak of, so once again, if I'm dead wrong, please inform me. As for the spelling, I know this isn't the official translated spelling, but I have to put those years of French to use sometime, and this is that spelling.