Oh. My. God. It's finally finished!

This is the first multi-part fic I've ever completed, and now, I present it to you! So, bear with me, and have fun! Right, Pairings, 1113, 696, 1R1, and implied 34. This is the first part of a trilogy, the rest of which I have yet to write!

So, here we go!

Hidden Reflections - Mirrorball part 1

Prologue

The year is AC 193. With high hopes, man abandoned the earth for the colonies, artificial satellites the size of cities. In these, the hardy citizens of outer space sought new life, making themselves the frontier towns of generations to come. Yet tied to the earth they remained. First, by their supply routes, and then, slowly, the United Earthsphere Alliance tightened their grip. The UEA had originally been the United Nations, developing with the times - an organizations whose chief concern was peace and well-being. Yet there then came the UEA army. Add to that the power - hungry businessmen, the Barton foundation, who were major sponsors of the UEA, and soon, they began to crave power. On earth, and in space, the UEA's chokehold fastened. Yet, as always, some still stood for what they believed in. Now, in AC 193, they stand. But they are weak, disorganised. The newest weapon, the mobile suit, belongs to the UEA, as do the communications technology, the money, the highly trained troops. What, then, can these ordinary people do against so organized an institution? What can possibly be done?

For the one who wants it enough, everything.

Chapter 1

"I love you more with every breath, Truly, Madly, Deeply"

And indeed, to Treize Kushrenada, it didn't seem that much more complicated at that point. Cradling his fiancée in his arms, smelling the scent of her hair, the world seemed idyllic. Sure, there were those who thought marriage was a bit of a serious step at his age, being a couple of months short of seventeen, but he didn't care. Come to think of it, Leia Barton, his wife-to-be, didn't either. It was just them, and that was it. She put her arms around his waist, ignoring the giggles from her friends, partying behind them. Laughing, Treize held her even tighter, and swung her to the salsa beat as it pounded over the speakers. They stepped, dancing perfectly in time. The group of single dancers moved out of their way, as the pair salsa danced as though they were one. Leia's eyes sparkled as never before, and Treize felt the familiar jolt in his stomach as he realised all over again that he loved her, pulling her close as the beat stopped. A slower love song came on. Kissing her neck lightly, he placed his hands on her hips.

"I wanna stand with you on a mountain, I wanna bathe with you in the sea, I wanna live like this forever, until the sky falls down on me..."

"May I have the last dance?" he smiled.

"Naturally, sir." They drifted together, just content to be close.

"You're quiet tonight." she remarked.

"I-I just love you, Leia." he sighed, resting his head against her bright red hair.

"Treize" she raised an eyebrow at him. "I love you and all, but even you can't fool a concerned fiancée!" He laughed at that.

"I know, it's just it was about this time last year that Milliardo died..." Treize sighed a little as he remembered his childhood friend. Having both been born into nobility, they had hit it off the first time they had met, and had been almost inseparable since then, the classic double act. But only last year, in the escalating civil war between the United Earthsphere Alliance regime and the rebel forces, King Peacecraft, Milliardo's father, had spoken out in favour of his ideal of true peace, a stance which many did not regard as welcome. His refusal to step down eventually led to his assassination-and the massacre of his whole family, including Prince Milliardo.

"He would have wanted you to be happy." Leia guessed immediately at his line of thought.

"I know." Treize was still distant. As a last resort, Leia subtly shifted her hands from his hips onto his buttocks.

"Hey! Hands off that!" cried Treize, acting outraged.

"Shut up, Kushrenada, you know you love it!" She chuckled. Any reply Treize would have made to that was prevented by a sudden ear-shattering explosion which took the glass out of the hall. The couple hugged together, but beyond the shattered glass, a sudden and raging battle could be seen above the sculpted rooftops of St. Petersburg.

"Rebel forces, sector D, ten o'clock!" came the yell from the advancing Alliance troops. Another platoon burst in, demanding man to help. Treize gazed back at them.

"Treize Kushrenada, don't you dare!" warned Leia.

"I wasn't going to." He turned back to her and Leia sighed, relieved, yet it was short lived, as a rough hand was clapped on Treize's shoulder.

"You! Move along! We need everyone we can get!"

"Treize!" Leia grabbed his arm. "Don't leave me!" He looked in agony between Leia and the sergeant who had accosted him. Yet if the sergeant had ever loved, he did not show it then.

"Come on! We have no time to waste!"

"I'll come back to you." He clasped his hand in hers, biting back desperate tears.

"You promise?" she asked, her tears running freely.

"I promise." She fitted a little silver locket, containing pictures of both of them in happier times, around his neck. He leaned down to kiss her good-bye, and tasted the salty liquid of her tears, jerking his from beneath his eyelids. Without saying anything further, he walked out with the rest of the makeshift platoon, and the night swallowed him.

Treize ran, keeping up easily with the ranks of "volunteers".

"Rifle each!" came the call ahead, as two huge supply trucks came into sight ahead. Treize caught his, noting with sudden disgust and unease that they were ancient and outdated relics, nothing like the laser precision sniper rifles he was used to.

"We're supposed to fight with this?" asked a disgusted comrade next to him.

"Hey, if we die, I guess some ancient ghostly general will be glad to have his gun back." Smiled Treize sardonically.

"True enough!" laughed the man next to him.

"No talking back there!" spat a vicious looking officer in front of them. Treize snorted derisively, and the company ran on. A sudden, close explosion momentarily halted their progress.

"No!" screamed a young man, turning to run back, towards the bombsite.

"You there!" barked the officer. "Get back here!" he raised his pistol, and the youth turned back, a look of utter terror and anguish flooding his eyes. A star of blood blossomed on his forehead, and his skull snapped backwards. The officer had fired.

"Colonel Bunt." went the murmur through the ranks. "Asshole." added the guy next to him, and Treize nodded vehemently, the expression on the young man's face engraved on his mind. They ran on, and the pace took its toll on even Treize. It was almost with the sharpness of an explosion that they stopped about five minutes later. Colonel Bundt peered down his nose at them.

"The enemy ranks are around this corner. You will charge at them and attempt to gain their positions. Any retreating" he gave an especially harsh glare at this point "will be shot. On my call." Treize felt the adrenaline begin to pump, as his knuckled tightened around his antiquated gun. This was suicide, and they all knew it. Oh Leia, I'm sorry...

"Charge!" Treize sprinted around the corner, among the first to go-and ran straight into hell. Bullets zoomed past, white-hot hail, but still he ran on. A grenade detonated on his left and sent him sprawling, but somehow, he managed to hold onto his weapon aware nonetheless that he was in a lot of pain. He rolled onto his stomach, and aimed slowly, picking off one advancing soldier at a time, disgusted and sickened by his own lack of emotion.

"Retreat!" Came the yell from some soldiers, and Treize heard the fatal gunshots of Bundt's weapon silencing them. Then, above all the noise, the click-click of officer's field boots, and he knew Bundt had abandoned them. Typical, really. Treize lay still in the sudden lull in the fighting, not daring to reveal his position. There seemed to be a sudden flurry of panic, and all he could see dived for cover. Then the world was turned upside down and the sky turned black.

He awoke shortly afterwards, and the sky was now black with acrid smoke. Rolling over and wincing at the stings her received, he tried to piece together what had happened. Bundt had left...there was panic, and then...Good God, they had retreated and blown up St. Petersburg in the process! Leia!

Regardless of the danger he could have been in, Treize got up and ran as fast as possible back towards the dance hall. Through the flame and smoke, terrible dread welled up on him. Running through the streets, he could see that the city was in ruins around him. Nothing of it's centuries-old beauty remained. Yet when he rounded the corner, all this was put from his mind.

The dance hall was in ruins. It was completely flat.

"No.." he breathed. He ran around, climbing through the rubble, digging, calling Leia's name. And then he saw her. She was lying on her back, in the little backyard of the hall. Her eyes were closed, and the expression on her face was one of serenity. It looked as if she was peacefully sleeping, if it were not for the jagged tears in her chest where the shrapnel had ploughed into her. Treize looked disbelieving, and then dropped to his knees beside her and sobbed.

"Leia, oh, Leia." He stroked her hair and called her name in vain, for there was no pulse at her wrist or neck, and her skin was cold, her limbs stiff. She had been dead several hours. "My god, I love you." he whispered in the dead girl's ear, laying her hand across her bloodied chest. "I love you, Leia." He remained awhile, crying, loving. Yet slowly, the tears dried, and slowly yet irreversibly, ice-hot fury flowed in their place.

He got up, and walked away from Leia. He walked as if in a dream, but with a terrible knowledge that this was reality. Aimlessly wandering, he came upon a square, where three remaining alliance officers were beating up a captured rebel. Prey. He thought, with a sadistic little smile. He ducked down behind a burnt out car, automatically assessing the situation. His eyes caught on a rifle lying next to the car. It was high-calibre, and fitted with a high-accuracy silencer, so shots would not be affected. Perfect. Sadism again. To conceal his position, he crawled beneath the truck, and took aim. One officer raised his truncheon to hit the rebel on the floor. As the wood impacted with the flesh, Treize pulled the trigger, killing one officer who stood on the outskirts of the group, the rebel's cry making the spat of gunfire, he fell, unnoticed by the others. The officer raised his baton again. The cry masked the death of the second officer, who had been holding the rebel's legs down. Raising his weapon again, the last officer had a look of manic pleasure on his face. Oh no you don't! Treize pulled the trigger once more, filled with a savage victory. Standing up, he took a few steps toward the rebel soldier, who, flinching as he did so, stood himself. Something vaguely familiar hung about the rebel, and the other seemed to reciprocate, as he reached out to touch Treize. Treize tried to move his arm too, but found he did not have the strength, and the world spun, fading slowly to black as he passed out.