A/N: Near-empty categories are one of the best things to get my muses out of control. At this rate they really will cross 200 WIPs. *sigh* They're at about 180 now, barring a few oneshots I have in a different file.

Let's see…context. This has elements of SEED Stargazer here, particularly Selene, Sven and the Stargazer of the DSSD. Terms will be explained in text at some point for those of you not familiar. It will then continue back into the canon of SEED Destiny – as Stargazer is a bit of a side-story to that season. There will also be a dead character showing up. Cookie for anyone who can guess who. :) From the point of view of Yugioh GX, this (barring the prologue) occurs post-series but not to the point where the timeline of GX merges with 5D's – if you'd like, you can call this an AT as it probably won't come in to merge with the 5Ds timeline. Neospace will be making an appearance as well, again something that will be explained in-text at some point for non-familiars.

This chapter is just a prologue, addressing the dreams of children about space and set pre-all seasons. In particular this addresses the childhood views of six characters: three from each fandom. If you can't work out who's who, peek at the end. :)

And the first chapter, whenever I get around to writing it, will be a regularly formatted chapter.

Enjoy.

The Door to Space
Prologue

The telescope was out of its box before his father had even let go, and it was only at the low chuckle of both parents that Sven looked up from his birthday gift. The confused look he gave made both burst into full-blown laughter.

He blushed a little; he really hadn't been able to help it. After his father had promised him a telescope for his birthday, the three months in between had seem impossibly long. But they were smiling still; they couldn't be mad at him, could they?

His mother bent down to pat his head. 'We're not angry,' she said softly. 'We're just happy that you're happy.'

His father nodded in agreement, a small grin on his lips at the sight of his son's eagerness.

Sven's eyes sparkled and he hugged them both fiercely before returning his attention to the telescope, feeling cold steel under his hands.

That night, he would be seeing the sky as it truly was, and he couldn't wait for it. The sparkling stars, the mysterious planets, the endless reaches of space –

Three months might have been long, but the afternoon seemed even longer.

His parents shared a smile at his impatience. Sven, as absorbed has he was in his telescope, did not notice. He was looking up to the sky already, wishing it was close enough for him to reach out to now.

Judai watched the recording play once more.

He had been lucky; while he had been walking home from school when he'd seen the live broadcast of Kaiba's competition, his baby-sitter had taped it, thinking he would be interested. He was, even more so when his parents had mentioned it over one of the rare dinners they shared together, and the clogs in his head had started turning.

It took many false starts before he managed to draw monsters he was happy with, and when he did he could barely bear to send them off. It was his baby-sitter to the rescue again, scanning the pictures and saving a copy before posting the originals for him. And it was his baby-sitter who gave him a bone-crushing hug seven days later when the letter of congratulations came.

It was almost time to see the launch now, but Judai found himself still watching the recording which had started it all. The new cards, based off the ideas he had submitted, were sitting in one package on his desk. His deck case was beside it, with his deck – including Yubel – inside.

The recording showed a satellite, then space, and Judai wondered if that was what it really looked like. Whether there really were shooting stars and good light that could mend wounds, and darkness like a moss to comfort them while they healed. He hoped so – and he thought so as well, as everybody knew Kaiba Seto, and they knew he wasn't a man who would believe in aliens without a very good reason.

Sending the cards into space…he really hoped they would feel that good light – and who knew, maybe he would one day go to space as well, and see them all happy.

A smile spread across his face at the thought, before dimming a little at the sight of Yubel. Her card peeking out from the case and he nudged it back inside.

Yubel had to go as well; she was hurt somewhere, he knew. She needed that light more than anyone, and even if he would miss her, it was for the best.

It just meant he'd have to try harder to find a way to visit her. Despite his parents saying it was just too far.

Selene pushed the curtains back, looking at the great expanse of space. To her it was beautiful, mysterious, but nothing new. She had been born here after all, in the DSSD Space Station, just like both parents before her. She probably still had some distant relatives around, though they tended to stop keeping track after a bit. Particularly when it was Coordinators not from the first generation. There were just too few of them…

She sighed, feeling a little lonely. Her short hair itched her neck and she wished it were longer. She also wished the space had a bit more life to it; there were a few children her age, and a baby called Sol. They were all Coordinators too, though the adults were a mix. And they were, for the time being, away from the war.

That was a small mercy, but she was still lonely – and bored. The space was so big, and yet she was stuck on a tiny little Space Station trying to see it all. She was too young to have a hand in the research that went on, but too old to be content with her current life.

What she really wanted, though, was to explore the space in its entirety. To travel all the way to the edge of the universe.

She sighed, then let the curtains fall back again. Maybe when she was a few years older, then she could start making that dream a reality.

He now had a form, though he had always been. It was a reincarnation, perhaps, or maybe just a changing of form. He wasn't always a card though; in fact his body had very newly become a card his spirit housed. At the hands of a man transcribing the drawing of a little boy. The same boy within whose heart he had lived for years without notice.

And now he was in space. Nearer to his home than he remembered being for a long time. Maybe because he had been following that heart, the heart that held him without knowing, and the hearts like it that came before – reincarnations of the same soul, the soul he had sworn his allegiance to in his original form, whatever that may be. It didn't even remember now; it wasn't important, because he did remember – other things. Things he had been incapable of remembering, in the form of non-existence he had been before.

Something about the space had bathed him like a newborn, brought him to life. And something continued to call him, guide him to grow, to become more defined…

Maybe the time was coming too fast, and he couldn't take form within a little boy's heart while waiting for his King. Maybe, they both had to grow separately: the boy on Earth, he in the far reaches of space with the Gentle Darkness his King commanded.

He nodded once, to himself, then followed the soft-glitter trail to where it led, guiding the capsule that housed his card – and those of his comrades.

Kira took his turn at the telescope, focusing on the Earth.

It was rather easy to spot; the Earth was a large planet after all, much larger than the Lunar Colony they were currently on. Much darker too, but that was because there was a war going on there…and in space.

He moved the telescope a little, wondering if he would see the tell-tale flashes of battleships firing at one another – then jerked the telescope as he did. An explosion – or what looked like one – swung in and then out of his view, before the Earth was back again, all green and blue and brown…

He thought he could see a few flashes of light even there, but he wasn't sure. Still, he finished his turn early and moved away.

'Don't you want to look some more?' a classmate asked.

Kira shook his head. No, he didn't want to look anymore – because all he'd see were ships firing at each other and other ships being destroyed. At least their little Lunar Colony was far away from all that. Even if the sky did sometimes get showered in a different light.

It probably did that more often in space, now that the Coordinators had established themselves in various colonies, and the Earth Alliance on the Moon. Orb too had extended its hand into space, but its havens were scattered about – like the Lunar Colony where he attended school. Far from the Earth Alliance's Lunar Base, though still close enough to be considered a part of the moon.

It was certainly far enough to forget there was a war going on…most of the time anyway.

'Ooh, what pretty lights. Kira. Kira! Don't you want to see?!'

No. No, he didn't want to see, because they were probably the lights of battleships and he wanted to stay as far away from war as possible.

She screamed in fury, and saw Judai shut his ears. But then he was gone. She was gone, shooting off into to space. Too far away to protect him. Too far away to even watch.

Too far to do anything.

And something was burning her. Tearing at her.

Her screams changed from rage to pain and she screamed until her voice went hoarse, until tears stung eyes that he had given a form to, after all those years of waiting for him to reappear again –

And in the distance, she thought she heard an answering scream. From Judai. And the pain was a little easier to bare, knowing that she wasn't as far away as she thought. Even if she was still angry, and confused. Even if he didn't know why he had sent her away, to this endlessly horrible place –

And then he was gone, and her screams echoed without end until she was nothing but a hand clinging to the last strands of that life, because as much as it all hurt she couldn't surrender herself to this Black Hole…and she couldn't forget him.

Post A/N: The characters, in order, were: 1. Sven Cal Bayan (the pilot of the Strike Noir in SEED Stargazer, part of Phantom Pain), 2. Yuki Judai (Jaden Yuki in the English dub, the protagist of GX), 3. Selene McGriff (an engineer of DSSD and the pilot of the Stargazer – 12 at this point because there's a 12 year gap between Selene and Sol), 4. Elemental Hero Neos (duel spirit), 5. Kira Yamato (the protagonist of SEED, pilot of Freedom and ex-pilot of Strike), 6. Yubel (another duel spirit).

To those unfamiliar with Gundam SEED, the Lunar Colony and DSSD Space Station are both in space.

For the backstory between Judai and Yubel, for those not familiar with GX I would suggest wikia. It's too complex for me to explain in an A/N.