Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam wing, yada yada.
Author Note: I originally had a lot of ideas flowing in my head, and so I decided to put them together and see where they go lol. Also, I know I need to finish Awakening! But! Good news, this fic is actually finished(part one at least) I just need to edit each chapter and then post it :) Also, I promise I'll finish Awakening! I'm sorry! For now, I want to publish a couple chapters from this story, and work on Awakening this weekend. :) Hopefully I get something done!
Please Read and Review!
Violet eyes fluttered open in the dim lighting of the tiny space. Metal walls encompassed the passenger of the small shuttle, the room almost circular in shape, with a small oval cot protruding from the wall. The passenger sat up just as a curved door slid open and a young Asian walked through.
"You still look exhausted." Said the Asian, taking a seat at the end of the bed. Violet eyes looked at the guest dully, taking in their form. "Are you alright Elle?"
Elle, the girl with the piercing violet eyes, watched her comrade intently. She was still hazy from her dream, as she yawned and stretched, almost comical in a way that brought the mood to something lighter, less dreary. "I'm alright." She said, giving her guest a quick grin and hugging her knees. "Just dreaming about the past. How close are we?" She pulled a hair band out from a little dresser next to the cot, and gathered the cascading chestnut locks together and started braiding it.
The Asian, a girl who looked slightly older with harder, more refined features, gave her comrade a suspicious look, but didn't press the issues. Her emerald eyes a distinguishing feature. "We're about a couple days out." She let her voice drop, wanting to press an issue that had been eating at her, but was cut off when Elle stood and stretched.
"Not too far then. I think I'll grab something to eat." Her hair fell down in a completed braid to her hips, a decent three foot long ponytail. The less than normal gravity took hold and let it float around her. She stopped at the door and looked back at her comrade. "You coming?"
The Asian stood, floating over to her, leading with her hand out to stop her just short of running into the other girl. She was slightly bigger, more muscular, and encompassing. Violet eyes looked up and met Emerald Green orbs. Elle smirked playfully, then vanished out of the door.
The Asian didn't look amused as she followed.
"What are our coordinates?" Elle floated along the thin corridors to a small section at the end holding tiny refrigerated compartments and other heating equipment. She grabbed a solid brown mass in an airtight bag from one of the freezers and popped it into a microwave.
"We're just outside of E7-Heilmdal. We'll probably run into one of the clusters of Space Colonies first." Replied the other girl evenly, expressionless.
"You don't have to sound so enthusiastic, Mihn." Chuckled Elle. "Which cluster?"
Mihn, her height almost a couple inches over her comrade, gave an even look. "I don't know. I don't know what terms Earth uses."
"Right." Elle bit her bottom lip, contemplating. "Do you think we should stop at the colonies? They wouldn't be so bad to visit."
"We should go to Earth first because they have security checkpoints with the Colonies and it would be harder to go inconspicuous. On Earth, we could just land in the middle of the desert and they wouldn't notice."
She chuckled. "Yeah, this ship would kind of stand out, wouldn't it?"
"Sorely."
Elle sighed, pulling out the heated bag when the microwave screeched at her. She peeled the wrapping back and bit into the steak like it was a burger.
"We could always turn back." Mihn said suddenly. Elle knew this was coming. Mihn had been trying to talk her out of this since she decided six months ago she was going to Earth. Mihn also knew it was a wasted effort, but that didn't stop her from trying.
"We could." Was all Elle said. Elle looked down at her little baggy of processed meat, fiddling with the plastic. "I just always wanted to visit, you know? Check out my origins."
Mihn gave her a look, knowing when Elle was trying to play on her sympathies. "And this has nothing to do with finding family, does it?"
Elle gave her an incredulous look, scoffing. "How would I find family? I don't have any records. I'm an orphan, remember?"
"Don't think I haven't caught on to your jumping around different Terran settlements. You haven't been to others. And then you suddenly want to go to Earth?"
Elle rolled her eyes. "Puh-lease, why would mom leave Earth to go live on one of the settlement planets?"
"And what about me? They haven't let any non-Terran in their territory for over twenty years."
"Oh come on, they're not going to notice. You look Terran enough." She said, looking her up and down.
Mihn shifted uncomfortably. "And if they do?"
"Then we'll leave." She tossed her empty baggy into the trashcan. "Happy?" She pushed passed her and started heading down the corridor. Mihn followed the braided girl to the end, coming out into the control room with a large window of stars and clusters shinning before them. Elle stopped short of one of the pilot seats, keeping away from messing with the controls. "I doubt they'll even notice you're non-Terran. They've had twenty years to forget."
"I doubt they would forget."
"They would if the majority of them were too focused on their civil war." Mihn didn't respond. Elle chuckled. "Come on, it won't be so bad. We'll land on Earth like you said, and disappear before anyone even notices." The Asian looked away, still obviously not happy with the current plan. "Or you could just leave after you drop me off."
"I'm not leaving you stranded."
"Don't worry, I'm good at making friends." She smiled sweetly, but her friend didn't look convinced. "Okay, okay, if it makes you feel better, you can be my bodyguard or something. Like old times!"
"I'm honored." She replied flatly.
Elle laughed. "Then to Earth we go, my fair knight."
Mihn just watched the girl as she looked out at space, wondering herself what Earth would be like.
.xxx.
Violet eyes fluttered open in the dimly lit room of the square dorm. Saturated walls and dull furniture made the room look empty. The stiff bed creaked when Duo sat up, the haze of his dream still lingering through his eyes. He looked up, half expecting to see a familiar Asian comrade come through the door, but realized there shouldn't be any reason for it.
He hadn't seen Wufei since the war, after all.
Not that he ever wanted to, they were too different. He shrugged; guessing the remnants of the strange dream was what made him think that. He pulled himself together, his face still set in the dazed, empty look as when he woke up. He slipped on his normal black skinny jeans and t-shirt, with a black jean jacket and rolled up sleeves. Trademark Duo.
He exited the small living space, walking down the blank walls and to a small reception desk, slapping a keycard on the counter and walking out the revolving doors. The streetlights were blaring in the back corners where he found the cheap motel; the colony lit with only the city lights. Looking up, it almost looked like the stars in the sky when he was on Earth.
He didn't travel far. He usually did. Living in the colonies, he would often find himself traveling long distances between destinations. He was always moving, hopping from one colony to another, slithering through the slums and ducking into the ghettos unnoticed. He knew his way around the L2 cluster like the controls of his Deathscythe, an easy place to hide where no one knew your name and knew to forget your face. If he ever wanted to disappear, which he often did, this was where he came.
It was his roots after all, the streets. Give him a big city and he could find the dirtiest, noisiest, and easiest places to hide where not even Heero could find him. It was how the Street Rats lived, after all.
When he slipped into the warehouse undetected, he found the small group of men he was looking for. They were predictable; once you learned their pattern. They hopped around the abandoned warehouses like migrating buffalo; they rarely stayed in one place for long.
They were talking, whispering, conspiring. They always did. Ever since the war. It was no wonder; they were against any type of organizational autocracy. One would have thought they disbanded after the war ended merely three years ago, but they still held strong; their ideals of anarchy rooted in their blood.
"The idea was coherent, I believe, but the further they get the more people from the Alliance and OZ they recruit." The group was consisted of men and women ranging in all ages, though segregated. The oldest sat at a table in the middle of the formed room of crates and pallets of consumer goods. The younger generation, which consisted of anyone under thirty all stood around the walls and goods, leaning against and listening to the old men and women conspire in the middle.
An older woman piped up. "I think a couple of White Fang enthusiasts joined as well."
The group of older citizens looked around at each other. "If that were the case, then we should have been able to join. We're hardly invited." Mumbled one of the men, a gentleman that looked older than the rest. It wouldn't be like he would be invited anyway.
"Why do you say that?" Asked one of the younger men at the table. He looked a little worried, considering he was jobless at this point.
"White Fang members were nothing but colonists and rebels, they weren't soldiers." Informed the older man. "The Preventers wouldn't be recruiting anyone without credentials."
Duo always found himself returning to them. Not because they were useful, but because they had good theories. Whenever he needed insight or ideas, he would come listen. Though, they didn't do much except debate. And occasionally blow up OZ and Alliance bases.
Since the war, however, they were more like a homeowners association of crabby old men and women complaining about the fruits of the war; or lack there of.
Those lack of fruits being suitable jobs for veterans. Which was a major concern among everyone in the colonies and Earth.
One thing was for sure; they had noticed the perversions the Preventers were headed towards. Sometimes it took an outside view to see what was going on in the inside.
"Should we do anything about it?" Asked one of the members, standing on the outside. He was tall and had beady looking eyes. Duo knew him from working on his Gundam when he came to space. Heagan Joseph, one of the mechanics and rebel responders to OZ when they came to space.
"Are you kidding? The Preventers are a Terrorist Abolition Organization." Said one of the old men condescendingly. "We wouldn't be able to plan anything before they reigned down on us." He looked offended the younger man even suggested it.
Duo smirked from his little hiding spot among the shadows of the boxes and pallets. The old man was right. "Maybe what you need is someone who is on the inside to help."
Everyone looked up, seeing Duo leaning against one of the stack of cargo boxes in one of the corridor entrances to their little "secret meeting." "Duo!?"
"We didn't think you would be returning." Said one of the old men, the one sitting in the head chair at the table. He had been observing the conversation so far, but was the first to welcome Duo.
"What, and let you old guys conspire till your deaths?" Duo chuckled, his usual smirk and playful eyes finally returning. He walked towards the group from his little corner, stepping into the light of the dimly lit lamps on the table. "I could watch, but the action sounds too fun to leave well enough alone."
The man-in-charge, the one sitting at the head of the table who had observed the conversation before now, gave a concerned look. "Wouldn't that pit you against the Preventers?"
Duo shrugged. "Honestly, as of right now, I don't have a side." He answered honestly. His smirk never left his lips. "I'll decide when I see the truth behind the sheep skin."
The old men and women at the table looked at each other, and a contagious smirk danced across their lips. The old man at the head of the table nodded to him. "Welcome back to the Sweepers then, Duo."
.xxx.
"Within the last seven months, riots and crime have plummeted, there are fewer protests pertaining to disarmament, and the job market has increased with the production of newer technology and space crafts. Thanks to, of course, the Winner Foundation for supplying jobs."
Quatre nodded to the seating of Delegates before him, the old men in stark contrast to him and his youthful companion beside him. Relena smiled approvingly, set with poise and dignity that once befit the Queen of the Earth. "I'm glad things are going well with the job market, I know that was a big concern."
"Most of the Colony citizens didn't have it as rough as those on Earth, since most of the Alliance and OZ soldiers originated there." The older man didn't mean it as a stabbing remark, but the truth hung between them with tension.
"I agree." Relena said, humbling herself as the current Representative of the Earth Sphere Unified Nations. Though she might not have won the election for President, she was still an integral member for Peace and Prosperity Representations. "We are working towards finding ways to give jobs and careers to veterans. The Preventers and the Winner Corporation are key contributors."
"It concerns me that we are putting war veterans back into a line of work that gives them weapons." Said another of the Delegates.
"It concerns Relena and I as well." Said Quatre, stepping in. Being a part-time Preventer himself, Relena knew he was more informed with the situation. "We have discussed with Lady Une about extensive background checks concerning new recruits."
"Being a former Gundam Pilot, Quatre and his comrades do not wish to start another military powerbase." Said Relena.
"We owe a lot to the Gundams." Quatre and Relena nodded, though they knew he actually meant the pilots. "What are the current status of you five, if I may ask?"
Quatre braced himself for this question. Though they were war heroes, they were still originally terrorists, and everyone, including Colonial Leaders and the ESUN, were all concerned if any of them went rogue. They had enough problems with White Fang enthusiasts and former Alliance and OZ soldiers; just one Gundam Pilot could be enough to start another war.
It was scary how much of a threat five teenage boys were.
"Heero Yuy and Wufei Chang are currently full-time Preventers." Relena answered. "Heero has been on my security team for the past year and a half, and Wufei is head of the Preventer Division in Space, and works closely with Doctor Po."
"Trowa Barton is a part-time Preventer, and only answers when called on specific missions." Said Quatre, filling in. "As of now he works for a traveling circus."
The Delegates gave each other a bemused look, not expecting that line of work. "And the fifth? The one with the braid?"
Most colonists remembered the braid. The face was a little fuzzy, but when they saw their first Gundam Pilot showcased on live broadcast, no one could forget.
It was amazing he was able to hide somewhere. "He works as a mechanic in the L2 colony J-08893. He is also a part-time Preventer." Quatre answered effortlessly.
Relena looked at him, then turned back to the Delegates. "You have hardly anything to worry about with the Gundam Pilots. They love outer space, and only wish to protect it."
"Even if it happened to be from the Preventers?"
Relena hesitated.
"Even if it happened to be from the Preventers." Quatre said confidently.
There was a visible release of some of the tension. "I'm glad things are working out for you five." Said the one of the Colonial Leaders, one most of the other leaders looked to. He could be considered the Head Delegate. "With peace finally attained, we should look forward to prosperity in both space and on the Earth."
"As well as the Mars colonization." Said another. The delegates gave each other nods of approval. Though the Mars Colonization would take almost a generation to complete, it was an integral part of supplying jobs, building living conditions for the overgrowing population, and a project everyone could focus on.
One of the delegates chuckled. "I wouldn't be surprised if we started hearing from the Alverons or the Cecerans again."
Quatre and Relena looked around, confused.
Another Delegate laughed. "Of course, they only pop up when they want something, but help us in war, and they disappear like ghosts." Everyone but the two teens chuckled.
"They're more likely to wait till everything is more calmed down." Said the Head Delegate. "I doubt they've heard word that the war is over yet."
"I think it's fortunate neither of our allies picked a side. If they were having a Civil War, we wouldn't want to jump in and help eliminate one side or the other."
"Very true. We might not have an Earth anymore."
"Or Colonies. The Alverons tended to have more dealings with the Alliance."
"Um…" Started Quatre, both him and Relena looking thoroughly confused. "Who are the Cecerans and Alverons?"
The Delegates looked a little taken back, then the Head Delegate laughed. "That's right, you two are a little young to know. I believe you heard about our history with other entities outside the Sol System, correct?"
They both looked shocked. "I think I remember hearing about that in school…" Said Relena. "How we started trade with Humans who lived in other solar systems?"
"They're technically Alien, since they come from other planets, but they are biologically human, yes."
"You think we'll have contact with them again?" Asked Quatre, still a little stunned.
"Probably not for another fifty years or so. We don't plan on contacting them. We still need to fix us."
"Very true." Said the Head Delegate. "We need to focus on our citizens and economy."
The meeting let out a little passed three that afternoon, as Quatre and Relena exited and found three Preventers outside waiting for them. One was stoic in the corner, making his fellow Preventers nervous, watching out of the corner of his eye as the blondes walked up.
Heero was starting to grow into his height and weight, now looking down at the petite female Vice Foreign Minister from before. Muscle rippled through his Preventer jacket, his features more refined and chiseled. His dark eyes reflected more of his orient than before, though they held the still piercing blue. His hair was as ruffled as it always was, still nearly covering his eyes.
The other two Preventers were taller, older. One wore glasses and a button up shirt under his jacket, looking more sophisticated. The other, the tallest, looked more nervous standing next to Heero than his comrade, who was searching for them when the couple walked up.
Relena hadn't grown in height much, looking more petite than she had now standing next to her blonde Delegate comrade who had shot up five inches over the summer. Quatre wasn't as tall or broad as Heero, but he was still as muscular. Though, it was hard to tell under the suit.
"That went a little longer than expected." Said Quatre, as they walked over to the three. "Sorry to have kept you waiting."
"It's alright Mr. Winner." Said the Preventer with the glasses, bowing. "Miss Darlian." He gave her a more respectful bow.
"Everything went smoothly?" The stoic Heero asked, his unruly brown hair almost obscuring his deep penetrating blue eyes.
Relena smiled at him. "Oh Heero, did you know we had contact with other Humans outside the solar system?"
He looked unimpressed. Instead, he was looking her over to make sure she wasn't injured. "Interesting."
Not like she would have been. It was just a meeting. "Apparently we used to trade with them about twenty or so years ago." She continued, excited about her newfound information. Quatre smiled down at her refined bundle of excitement. "Though we might not have contact for a while yet, not while we're still picking up the pieces from the war."
He met her gaze, steady. She was inwardly giddy, but reframed from showing it. "Probably a good idea."
"You don't really get surprised about anything, do you?" She asked almost dejectedly, but she was used to this response, no matter how it disappointed her.
"I have to be ready for anything." He said curtly.
She smiled. At least he was still interesting. "Even aliens?" He simply nodded. She turned to the rest of them, the two recruits looking a little stunned at her information. At least she got the satisfaction of surprising someone. "Since we have the rest of the evening off, why don't we all get dinner? My treat."
"I'm always up for free food." Said the tallest of the group.
His comrade elbowed him. "You shouldn't have a lady pay for your meal."
"No, I want to." Said Relena. "Just because I'm a woman doesn't mean I can't treat anyone to dinner."
"Trust me, don't argue." Chuckled Quatre. "You won't win." Relena turned around confidently, leading the way, followed by her towering soldiers and fellow Delegate.
Ah! Done! Hope you liked it, please read and review!