The Opening Dance

Key

/.../ thoughts

"..." speech

(...) notes and nonsense

Italics emphasis

Pairings: Heero/Relena, Duo/Hilde, Quatre/Catherine, Wufei/Sally, Noin/Zechs

Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing. All original characters are mine.

Author's Notes: I have introduced a new character and she is mine. If you want to use her ask me first. She is also a minister and I thought that it would be interesting to have another political person thrown into the lives of the Gundam gang :). So, enjoy all of the twists that I have thrown in! R&R!

Chapter 1

Natalie Avenel shifted in her seat out of frustration. Today wasn't going as good as she had planned.

It already had consisted of an early rushed breakfast at six that morning and what seemed like endless meetings that wouldn't stop until two that afternoon when she was able to stop the fast pace for a quick lunch then it was more stuffy meetings and dull old men.

The hasty lunch she could handle but there were only so many stuffy, boring old men that she could deal with.

Her thoughts were brought back to the present as the meeting full of senators and delegates looked her way for some input that she might provide. Quickly rewinding the conversation in her mind, she continued on the path of the meeting and gave her input.

"No, I do not agree to the proposition. These manufacturers of mobile suits need to give their share to the Earth Sphere United Nation. Those weapons of war inflicted much destruction on the Earth and Colonies. They lost billions of dollars with this new peace and who's to say that they won't try to help these rogue factions that are attacking civilians?"

"To have the manufacturers build a small army for the senators and delegates of the whole Earth Sphere to use in defense would be insane. Those machines are unnecessary and would lead to other things than protection." The men seemed ruffled by her bold declaration that they should completely disregard the proposition laid out before them since it wouldn't be in the 'best interests of the ESUN'.

They voted an hour later and Natalie knew that she had lost even before she saw the 27 votes for the proposition verses the 5 votes against it.

She needed to get away from the stupid fools; now. Before she could be excused from the meeting, Natalie gathered her computer and briefcase before walking out of the room.

/If they are going to be stupid and produce mobile suits then I will have to do something to get rid of them. They can't produce any more or there will be another war on our hands and the last one was only two years ago./ Natalie could remember clearly that day that she had fought a little girls' mobile suits, the thought of how a little child could be used in such a way; she still got chills just thinking about it.

She paused to look herself in the mirror. /Had it been so long ago? So very long since, she had been on the battle field and inside one of the mobile suits to defeat the factions: Oz, Romefeller, and, later, White Fang followed by Madimaya./ She sighed at her reflection.

Maybe it was time to visit her cousin Hilde; if she was fast getting home and packing, she could catch the three o'clock flight to the L2 Colony. Her smile bloomed with the idea and she turned down the hall already dialing Hilde's number on her phone.

"Hey, Hilde, how do you feel about me coming to visit you and Duo for a while?" Natalie paused to listen to Hilde speak with a smile on her face.

"How delightful, and, yes, I would love to! No, I won't impose on your space but I will insist on being with you both close to every hour while I'm there... No, the meetings today didn't go well...Yes, I would love to tell you all of the dry details... Alright, I will see you guys soon. Love you both! Bye!" Once she hung up, she was already in her car and starting to pull out of the parking lot to head to her apartment.

Her next call was to her secretary to inform her that she was taking a much needed vacation. On the other side of the line her secretary was smiling as she jotted down notes of what Natalie wanted done while she was gone.

Who else, other than the famed Miss Avenel, would suddenly decide that she had had enough and take a few days off, only to come back to fight more vigorously for what she believed in than when she had left?

Natalie smiled to herself as the L2 Colony came into her window view. She was almost there, all she had to do was be patient and wait for them to dock the port and she would be off to find Hilde and Duo. They made such a great couple and they had so much love between them that it sometimes hurt Natalie to visit them.

She knew that she had allowed her occupation take over her life until the point that she didn't have time for socializing or 'meeting the right guy' out at a club or going on a date.

Natalie couldn't stand any hard alcohol and preferred the fruit drinks because they reminded her of a slushy, only better. But, lonely or not, she still had family that loved and supported her when she needed it.

The shuttle docked and Natalie stood with everyone else. When she walked through the gate into the terminal she was greeted with great enthusiasm; she was hugged and kissed on the cheeks by both of them before moving off in order to get Natalie's luggage.

Hilde smiled at Natalie as Duo got her bags as they came down onto the rotating belt. "So, how were the meetings today? Where there any stuffy, old men with their heads balding and such thick accents that you couldn't understand them?" Hilde asked with a wicked smile as Natalie returned the smile with one of her own.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you. But there is a main reason to my visit. I want to tell you both later. Once I do, Duo might want to call in the Group to talk to them about it." Natalie said with the smile fading with the unpleasant knowledge of the proposition that had been up for voting.

Hilde frowned. "Is it that bad? They haven't been out of war for more than two years and they have done something that could possibly throw us back into the fighting again, haven't they?" She paused and gave a sigh of pure frustration.

"How I hate politicians they never think about the consequences of their decisions. Not that you're a politician, Nat, but you know how I feel about this subject. The only time that you seem to come visit us anymore is when the council has made a bad decision." Hilde stated, upset as Duo came back with Natalie's bags.

He set the bags down, looked at the women, and sighed. "What's happened now, Nat?" He asked and seemed resigned to doing something about the wrong that had been committed.

Natalie only smiled at the two of them before giving them both hugs of appreciation. "You two have no idea how much I've missed you!" She stated with warmth and all her love for them.

"How about we head to your house, let me cook dinner, since I'm counting on crashing at your house for tonight, and allow me to tell you all the details over hot food?" She offered and saw how they agreed instantly without even hesitating to open up their home to her.

She shook her head to clear the thoughts and grabbed a few of her bags from Duo. "Well, let's get going then." Natalie said and followed the couple to their car.

Once they reached home, Hilde took Natalie's bags upstairs herself while Natalie made herself comfortable in the kitchen. As she started cooking her special pasta, Natalie talked with Duo about all that he was planning on doing for his and Hilde's future.

Somehow, the subject got turned around to the subject of military and war.

"Natalie, how did such great girls like you and Hilde end up going out for the military?" Duo asked as he grabbed a slice of tomato and nibbled at it thoughtfully. He watched for her reaction but noticed how she controlled her emotions and looked at him musingly.

"Have you not asked Hilde? You've been married for a while now. Why haven't you asked before now?" Natalie tilted her head to look at Duo as he answered her. The move reflected the sun's rays in such a way that her raven colored hair seemed to have a blue-purple tint to it.

Duo smiled at Natalie as he thought over his answer and settled on the truth as the best method of getting the answers he wanted.

"Well, the other day I was looking through some old files that I had from the wars and I noticed that in one photo taken of me in a public area you were in the background." His smile had slowly faded as he spoke until it was entirely gone.

"There wasn't anything casual about you, although you were wearing a nice sundress, there was a gun being slipped back into your purse. Why? Was I a target that you were sent to kill or was it something more?" Duo asked with a steely glint in his eye.

Natalie stopped cutting the tomato and set the knife down gently on the cutting board. Then she looked steadily into Duo's eyes. "You might want to sit down to hear about this." She stated with a coolness that reminded him of Heero's emotionless voice.

Duo sat at the bar and waited for Natalie to speak.

Natalie waited a few short moments before turning to look Duo square in the eyes. "I want you to know that I had been ordered to do it- wait, you wouldn't know about anything would you..." She stopped to organize her thoughts before starting to tell Duo her and Hilde's story.

Taking a deep breath she started over. "I had been born for fighting. I wasn't born in the 'normal' way that others are born, I was born and breed in a laboratory. Hilde was engineered in a laboratory but she was implanted in her mother's womb and was born normally. She was taken back from her mother a short time after she was born; because they wanted to see who was the strongest out of the two of us." Natalie paused as her past came back in flashes of pain.

"The doctors that had made us had created us to become the next generation of soldiers. Both of us are as strong as, or stronger, than any of the Gundam pilots. We were made female so that we could get close to all of you and destroy you." She sighed and rubbed at the headache that was starting in her temples.

"We both had chips embedded into our brains so that we could be controlled. There are four others just like Hilde and I, who were, also, made and given controlling chips, but they don't like to remember and all of them try to forget. We have nightmares and sometimes they come true, it's unnerving occasionally." Natalie stood to pace from the kitchen to the living room entrance.

"Duo, the reason that I was in that photo with a gun was because I had gotten orders to kill you, we all had received the same orders that day. All of the Gundam Pilots were to be destroyed that day so that evil could win the war." She stopped her pacing to look him in the eye.

"But something happened and we hadn't pulled our triggers. We actually gained something close to a free-will. I have been trying to find out what had happened so that I could use it again the next time they try to control us. I believe that the ones that made us haven't died yet and it is very unnerving to me."

Duo blinked several times at this information. He had never guessed the extent of Hilde and Natalie's training. To think that it had started long before they were born. He was shocked.

Natalie stepped over to Duo and placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. "Don't worry Duo, I'm close to finding out how to control my chip, and once I can, I'll help the others so that their chips can't control them anymore." She smiled at him before she squeezed his shoulder and turned back to making pasta.

Duo gathered his thoughts before speaking. "Hey, Natalie, who are the other female soldiers that were supposed to kill the Gundam Pilots?" He asked.

Natalie looked over at Duo with her assessing blue eyes before answering him. "You know them personally they are possibly the closest women to you. Catherine, Dorothy, Sally, and last but not least, our beloved Relena." With that said, she waited for the shock that would come from Duo.


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