Karma of Powers

by Shadow Master

(BtVS/Gundam Seed/Gundam Wing/Others)[YAHF] To never be wrong. To be above all others. To direct the course of a planetary war. Many believe themselves to be thus and to be the only one suitable to make the big choices. Fortunately an irrepressible being is about to prove them wrong.

1. Chapter 1

"Karma of Powers" by Shadow Master aka Ryley Breen

(BtVS/Gundam Seed/Gundam Seed Destiny/Gundam Wing/?)

[YAHF but only to get things moving]

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the copyrighted material that will be written about in this drabble/short. They are the property of their creators and associated businesses. I am making no profit off of this. I am doing this because I enjoy writing and others seem to enjoy reading what I have to write. Therefore keep the lawyers on their leashes and your fingers away from the speed dial button on your cell phones. I can assure you have nothing that would come even close to the fee you'd be demanding in your lawsuit.

Note: This story came about because of a lot of things: seeing the dubbed version of Gundam Seed Destiny, being a fan of Gundam Wing, being a fan of BtVS and wanting to figure out a way to bring them all together in a way that would be both entertaining and feasible. It took a while and I needed to review information in and download the relevant episodes for viewing but eventually I came up with a possible plot that met the two above requirements (at least I hope it did). In any case this will occur before and during the Halloween episode of BtVS but this will only be about ten percent YAHF since it was the only way I could think of to hook everything up in my plot. In the Gundam Seed universe this would take place around episode 20 of Gundam Seed. I don't wish to give exact dates since that would restrict me in terms of plot and possibly lead to conflicting facts.

Note 2: To those of you who love my stories or at least enjoy reading them during your free time thanks for all the reviews. While it is my own personal enjoyment of writing that keeps me going it is nice to know that there are those who appreciate my stories. To those of you who ridicule and sometimes outright bash my work you are certainly entitled to your opinions but aside from small notes like this I have chosen to ignore them. Whether you believe some scenes should be written differently or that you do not like the format I use it is irrelevant. This is a hobby for me, 'an activity done regularly in one's leisure time for pleasure' as the definition goes, and so I am under no obligation to change how I do things just because you don't like it. The only two things that could get me to change the way I choose to write would be the owners/moderators of the websites I post on freezing my account with the reactivation condition being to change my writing style or sufficient messages from authors I respect telling me to try harder. So until either of those conditions are met I will continue to write as I see fit and all who review with purely negative intent will be given the same regard as any other heckler in the crowd. None.

In any case I hope that you enjoy what you are about to read. Now on with the show…

Karma of Powers

Realm of the Powers That Be, Shortly After the Defeat of the Master

"How in the name of the Creator did this happen!?" exclaimed one of the revered group of celestial beings known collectively as The Powers That Be.

"How did that one MORTAL, that one NORMAL mortal, manage to defy a prophecy we spent centuries putting into motion!?" another member demanded partially in disbelief and partially in anger.

"We're still having our fate thread analysts and probability managers looking over every scrap of information leading up to the fracture point," spoke a more rational member of the group. "So far all signs show that for a period of twenty hours prior to the destined event, he somehow managed to slip out from his predetermined Fate track. At the time this happened we weren't all that concerned since he was just a normal human with no skills or abilities that would interfere with our designs. All our projections showed that at the very most he would become lost in the underground cave network beneath Sunnydale and barely escape to the surface later on after being pursued by numerous demons. Never in any of our scenario projections did we have him coming anywhere close to the event site, much less revive Slayer Summers."

"Well OBVIOUSLY someone in probability projection missed a variable because our plans for the next five years have been turned to ash like a lowly, dusted vampire! Not only that but the one Slayer has now become two since the Slayer genes in former potential Kendra were activated the moment Slayer Summers was clinically dead!" the first speaker yelled, obviously not liking one bit that such carefully laid plans had been rendered worthless.

"I'm afraid things might be even worse than we suspect, my comrades," spoke a calm and soothing voice from the seat of highest power among them.

"What do you mean, Chairwoman?" asked the rational speaker who had outlined the overall situation.

"As soon as Slayer Summers was revived, I contacted our precognitive division to determine what the most likely path would be for the Earth if the mortal Alexander LaVelle Harris continued to 'slip' from his Fate track at crucial points along the way," the Chairwoman replied, sounding genuinely troubled and that had the others worried considering her usual stoic state. "So far they predict that not only will Slayer Summers exceed the maximum set lifespan for a Slayer by four years but the mortal Harris will also play a key role in the destruction of no less than four high level threats over the next five years alone. The most troubling of the predictions is a violation of the most sacred process, the cycle of life and death that could potentially grant our main enemy enough purchase on the mortal plain to pave the way for its full return."

"You don't mean!?" Gasped one of the members in fear.

"The First Evil," exclaimed the one who had been so angry at the destruction of their plans.

"Yes. While the precognitive division states that he was only one of four people responsible for the violation, it was also clear to them that it was his continued presence in Sunnydale, coupled with the possibility of future unforeseen actions on his part, that allowed the situation to develop that far," The Chairwoman managed to reclaim most of her former stoic state. "While I know that our plans for humanity and Earth as a whole might be construed by some of our more compassionate brothers and sisters as being harsh and in some cases outright cruel, it is all for the greater good. We have been fighting against the forces of darkness since Lucifer first drew a weapon against the Creator and have been directing the forces of light ever since. We have both the wisdom and experience to guide the struggle to the best possible outcome for all who dwell within the light. Therefore we must now take action that I had hoped we would never again have to take against one of the Creator's children. We must remove Alexander Harris from the face of the Earth, if not that very dimension."

"W-while I agree that we must take action, Chairwoman, you know the Creator's position on such actions. He made it rather clear the last time we did what you propose that the free will of mortal kind was never to be so blatantly usurped by us again," the Summarizer said with distinct unease at where things were going. "He even reiterated our original mission statement which stated that it was our job to organize the forces of light to fight as one against the darkness rather than let them act independently of each other. If we do something like that again, we might not escape punishment so easily."

"I am fully aware of the Creator's fondness for allowing the mortals to 'find their own paths' and what our mission was in the beginning, however that mandate was created millennia ago and circumstances have changed since then and not necessarily for the better. If we are to win our struggle against Lucifer and his dark brood, exceptions must be made and, if necessary, certain rules must be bent," the Chairwoman said firmly, never losing her composure. "Fortunately for us, though, an opportunity has arisen on Earth that will allow us to remove Harris without invoking the wrath of the Creator. A chaos mage named Ethan Rayne has arrived in Sunnydale and plans to cast a spell Halloween night to transform all who buy something from his store into what they wish to portray. If 'by chance' Harris were to be transformed into something suitably impressive and remained so for, say, ten minutes after the spell has been broken, then we would have to take action to restore the balance."

"Won't the Creator simply order us to use our powers to return the Harris mortal to his original state or perhaps do so himself?" the Summarizer asked, wanting to make sure that the Chairwoman had all the angles worked out before committing to anything.

"We will say that, due to the chaos magic used in the transformation and the unexplained reason for the altered Harris remaining, that it would be dangerous to take premature action. We will say that instead we will remove Harris from that plane of existence and study his altered condition thoroughly before taking any steps to restore him to his natural state. That would be the reasonable course of action to take and it has the mortal's best interest at heart," the Chairwoman replied, making the reasons sound perfectly reasonable and practical. "That should be enough to appease the Creator's interest enough for him to resume his other duties and not look upon us so closely. Once his gaze is no longer fixed upon us we will get rid of Harris completely by casting him into the nexus of realities. He will either be obliterated by the conflicting energies of that realm or he will be deposited into a reality he cannot possibly return from."

"Still, we will have to play this very carefully, Chairwoman. The Creator is no fool and will certainly see our true intentions if any mistakes are made in how the situation is handled," said the being who first opened the topic up for discussion.

"Agreed, however we have been making plans and constructing strategies against adversaries for centuries untold, so I doubt we'll make such mistakes," said the Chairwoman with utmost confidence. "Begin with the preliminary measures and, once finished, begin moving the chess pieces. It will all come together in the end. Yes, it will come together; I'll make sure of it."

Unknown Location, Unknown Realm Running Alongside the Buffy 'verse

"Well, well, well! Finally! That board of bores finally comes up with an idea that is somewhat interesting!" came a voice from behind The Creator, who was far more aware of what his subordinates were up to then they would ever believe.

Of course they couldn't help it; S/He was as far above them as they were above most mortal species and so it was literally impossible for them to do anything without Him/Her knowing. S/He merely allowed them the illusion that it was within their abilities to conceal things from him/her, since it would make interacting with them a little easier. Now, though, S/He had to wonder if she had been giving them a little too much leeway when it came to leading the forces of the light against the darkness. This was the second time that they were contemplating going against His/Her decree that the mortal races be allowed to exert their own free will. The last time it happened, S/He had been forced to put into motion the Reformation of his/her followers on Earth, causing her eventual desire for a unified Earth to be set back considerably. Add to that the fact that His/Her 'cousin' from the reality five continuums over was now interested in how things were going and that could only mean that things were about to get COMPLICATED.

Or chaotic, since the two often went hand-in-hand when he was around.

"Oh, don't be so upset, my dear cousin. I assure you that I have no intention of making your job any harder than it already is with this reality," His/Her cousin said, sounding almost sincere if it wasn't for the grin he had on his face. "I just thought that maybe we should let them have their little bit of fun as long as we get to determine the ending. After all, I am sure you are aware of the troubles your Earth will be facing in the coming years and having an unexpected ace dealt to you might come in handy."

As much as S/He hated to admit it, the next few years for Earth would be difficult, especially with regards to threats not of that world. S/He had seen the initial projections and, while the end result did favor the light, the number of deaths, both civilian and champion, were significant. S/He had discussed this with His/Her advisors and, based on the data they had, they agreed that the planned route was the most beneficial to the light possible. Considering, though, that the data came from divisions under the control of the Powers That Be, S/He had to wonder at the reliability of such information. Seeing what his/her cousin was implying, S/He agreed that with a little tweaking the scenario devised by the Chairwoman could be made to greatly improve the results of the next few battles between the light and the dark. However it would take precise timing in order to reroute the ending before the council known as the Powers That Be could interfere in any way. While he/she was more powerful than all of them combined, to use more than a sliver of His/Her power on the mortal plane would create great disruption of the natural balances that existed therein.

Such was the price of possessing the Power Almighty.

"If it would make things easier on you, I'd be happy to lend a hand," His/Her cousin said with 'genuine' honesty. "While I'll admit that my powers aren't in the same league as your own, I do have a talent for disrupting the plans of beings who think they're in control."

S/He had to grant him that. After all, he'd even managed to trick his own family into accepting certain changes while making them think that they'd consented of their own free will for their own reasons. Add to that the fact that he/she was the only one who knew he was in this 'neck of the woods' and the Powers That Be would be completely taken by surprise when he popped out of nowhere to spoil their plans for the mortal Xander Harris. So, after a moment's consideration, S/He gave her cousin permission to handle the matter as he saw fit so long as he didn't get too carried away.

"You won't regret this, 'dear cousin'! I promise," he said and, with a snap of his fingers, he vanished in a flash of light to go about his mission.

I already am cousin, S/He thought as her omniscience immediately enlightened him/her on how bad things could go with her cousin at the wheel. I already am.

Ethan's Costume Shop, Two Hours Prior to the Start of the Chaperon Assignment

Xander's POV

When it rains, it fucking POURS! he thought angrily as he mentally counted down the three things that had transpired to ruin his day considerably.

First there was the fact that he'd gotten roped into being a chaperon for a bunch of ankle biters from the local elementary school. He'd had planned to just be a couch potato at the Summers home, enjoying a few award winning horror flicks while sneaking a few handfuls of the sweets Mrs. S would probably have by the door. He'd even done some preliminary work on a plan to get Buffy so scared by one of the movies that she'd glomp onto him without even knowing what she was doing. He knew it would take something pretty out of the ordinary or perhaps genuinely scary to provoke the necessary reaction but he had made sure his movie selection would do what he wanted it to. Now, though, thanks to the Troll Snyder, he'd have no choice but to trash his plans and endure what was likely to be two hours of brats asking him annoying questions and running all over the place with him chasing after them. It would, of course, only get worse as more and more sugar got into the brats' systems and, while he would never speak out against all forms of sugary goodness, even he had to admit that the substance was dangerous in the wrong hands. In any case he had his task for the night and would do his best not to snap at the kids no matter how hard they tap danced on his last nerve.

The second thing to ruin his day was the fact that Buffy had 'saved him' from Larry in front of the 'sometimes-working-sometimes-not' soda machine. It had started out like most of his encounters started out with Larry only this time around he'd planned to score some beaucoup respect points from his fellow students by standing up to the jock. It had been going pretty good until her Slayerness showed up and manhandled the linebacker off of him and intimidated the caveman into retreating. However it did the complete opposite of what he'd hoped the situation would do for him by making him look like a sissy man in front of the entire school population. They'd now think that he was so weak that he needed a girl half the size of Larry to protect him rather than do it himself. The worst part of it all was that Buffy didn't even realize that she'd trampled all over his pride, she actually thought she was doing him a FAVOR, and just now aborted her heartfelt apology in order to gush over a frilly dress she was probably going to wear for Deadboy.

That, of course, led to problem number three: the fact that the asshole at the army surplus store had sold the army fatigues he'd specifically asked to be set aside from him. He'd come across the outfit when he'd decided to prepare for the possibility that Willow and Buffy might want to spin by the Bronze for the Halloween party there. He'd had a costume idea all planned out that would come nicely under his twenty dollar budget, with enough left over for a package of Twinkies. Now with the fatigues in the hands of someone else, he had twenty dollars but now no idea how he could use it to put together a worthwhile costume.

That was what he was doing at the moment, walking up and down the rows of costumes looking for something in his price range while inspecting the various prop bins to see if inspiration would hit him. So far he had nothing since most of the costumes he'd be satisfied wearing were at least fifteen dollars over the budget he had. If inspiration was a young woman then she was giving him the silent treatment at the moment. He was about to leave to see if Party Town had some leftovers that some rich fop neglected to pick up and that they might be willing to let go for twenty dollars just to get rid of it when he spotted the spark of inspiration in the distance. It was a bin of odds and ends that caught his attention because, when he combined them with what he had at home in his room, it formed an uber-cool costume idea. What he saw was what looked like a Star Trek Comm badge and next to it in the bin was a handful of pieces that looked like they came from Star Trek and Gundam model kits. Plastic bags with stickers were also present and obviously went with the model pieces, plus something that was probably meant to be a drop pod of some kind for some show. He couldn't be certain but he figured that if he used the pieces to make one whole Gundam model that it just might be able to fit inside the toy drop pod. One after another pieces began to fall into place for him as far as what his costume would be and what he could use to make it.

I'll need this and this! Hmmmm, maybe that but a different type, he thought as he began to pick the odds and ends he wanted from the bin. I've got the tank top and jeans at home as well as the jacket but I'll probably need to check the wig section of this place since his hair color is different.

It took about ten minutes but eventually he was able to find everything in the store he wanted, even the wig, and, surprise of surprises, the shop owner was willing to let it all go even though the total came up to almost three times what had on the cash register. When he brought this up the owner said that since his store was new in town he needed good word of mouth more than he needed money at the moment. That certainly seemed plausible to him but something in his Sunnydale senses was telling him to be wary around this man. Then a thought struck him that, while a certain level of paranoia was healthy in Sunnyhell, being too paranoid would only cause problems for him in the long run. So despite his better judgment he would ignore his inner danger sense and accept the shop owner's generosity as just that rather than something more devious.

With that he walked out the door with the pieces to his costume, eagerly looking forward to finding out if his idea could indeed be brought into being.

The Council Chambers of the Powers That Be, Same Time

"He's taken the first piece of our plan," the Summarizer reported to her colleagues arrayed around her.

"It was a near thing to place those feelings of inspiration, those ideas, in his head as well as quiet his Hellmouth-developed caution," stated the one who had been so upset that the plans he and his comrades had made were rendered useless by Harris' actions. "If we had exerted any more of our power on him it would have attracted too much attention on both sides. I suppose it's a good thing he has such an undisciplined mind, otherwise he might have been able to resist our efforts, or at least suspect someone was influencing him."

"I think you overrate mortals just a bit, my friend. While I will admit that there are a select few mortals capable of sensing or perceiving our actions when they are close enough, there is nothing in Harris to suggest he is one of these few," said another with some derision since he considered the very thought that a mortal could oppose their will insane. "In any case, all we have to do now is make sure that events proceed according to plan and that means making the change that Harris goes through as potent and complete as possible. The more it appears the change will not go away on its own, the more our actions will appear to be justified in the eyes of the Creator."

There were murmurs of agreement throughout the entire group since they all believed that their plan would work, especially since the first part worked out so well.

"For now, though, it is a waiting game until the mortal Ethan Rayne enacts his spell with Janus. Once that is activated we can use our power to influence the changes done on Harris and tailor them to meet our needs," the Chairwoman stated in order to remind her subordinates that they still had a ways to go before achieving their goal. "I suggest that you all review your parts in the next stage and prepare well for it. We will only get one chance at this so we must do it with complete perfection."

More murmurs of agreement filled the area and no hesitation was present in their voices.

Such behavior was to be expected considering that, aside from one other incident, all of their plans have gone exactly the way they wanted without the slightest deviation.

For they were the Powers That Be and they were always right.

Watching From a Corner of Subspace Nearby

"Those arrogant fools! They act like pompous Romulan senators complimenting each other over their latest political conquests," chuckled a man with thick black hair dressed in red and black clothes. "How little they realize where they stand in the great scheme of things. They are mere desk jockeys thinking they can run things however they like without any concern that they might get caught. How amusing it will be to prove them wrong!"

Walking the Streets of Sunnydale's Residential Area, Just Before The Janus Spell

Xander's POV

Well this could have gone better! he thought to himself as he guided his group of kids down the street to the next house.

He'd shown up at Buffy's place, all dressed up in his costume ready to amaze her with his resourcefulness and creativity. After all, it was not an easy thing to put together a great costume on such a limited budget, but he'd done it and done it well as far as he was concerned.

The first thing he'd done when he'd gotten home was assemble the model pieces into the shape he wanted. It was a bit difficult, since many of them belonged to completely different model kits, but with a little ingenuity (plus liberal use of a serrated knife) he'd managed to get everything to look just right. The hard part had been to get the glue to set faster since he didn't have the time to wait the normal amount of time if he wanted to get to Buffy's house in time to meet up with them. He'd used a combination of his mother's blow dryer and the kitchen stove to harden the glue and then used a box of permanent markers to color the model with the colors that best matched what he was going for. This was painstakingly done so he wouldn't have to worry about people making fun of him for doing such a crappy coloring job on the model.

Once the model was complete, he carefully placed it into the drop pod, making sure that while it might have been a snug fit model pieces wouldn't snap off due to the cramped quarters. With the prop part of his costume done he quickly put on clothes associated with his character before slipping the brown, wild-haired wig on his head. He knew he'd be a little off because of the color of his eyes but he hadn't seen any costume contact lenses in the store and hadn't had time to ask the store manager. If anyone asked he'd make something up like he was on an undercover mission that required brown eyes or that he'd contracted some kind of eye condition. The Federation communications badge he put out in plain sight and already had a half-baked explanation for its presence should anyone ask.

Unfortunately, when Buffy had seen his outfit, she had been utterly clueless about who he was supposed to be and that was after he said he was Heero Yuy with the whole 'reporting as ordered' schtick the pilot was known for. He'd kept his voice cold and business-like and only gave that up once he realized it was useless on the blonde Slayer. He'd then explained the background of who he was supposed to be in the hopes that it would inspire a little more respect as well as understanding.

He explained that he was the Heero Yuy from a few months after Gundam Wing Endless Waltz and that he had been asked by Relena Peacecraft to investigate the disappearance of several ships. An area near the edge of the maximum range of their transports had claimed several long range exploration ships that been assigned to investigate a mysterious energy reading detected by the nearest colony. While there were no signs of the ships having been destroyed, all attempts to re-establish contact with them had failed and both the colony as well as Earth governments wanted answers. Reluctantly Heero had agreed to the mission and, along with a reconstructed Wing Zero, the pilot had set out for the area in question. The reason for restoring Zero had been a precaution in case the cause of the missing ships turned out to be more than the transport ship could handle with its moderate armaments.

When the transport ship arrives they find the missing ships dissected and the bodies of the crews scattered around in the vacuum of space. They begin a preliminary investigation with Heero going out in the Wing Zero to take a closer look at the damage to the ships. In the end it was the fact that he was not on board the transport ship that caused the unexpected confrontation to last more than a few moments. With a ripple-like distortion in space an unfamiliar craft came into being that was larger than anything known to Gundam Wing universe. While not approaching the size of the mobile fortress Libra, it made the transport look like most mobile suits did to the colonies. Without warning the unknown ship, which was in fact a D'deridex-class warbird from the Romulan Empire of Star Trek fame, began to lay siege to the transport ship by carefully targeting its primary systems. In response to this Heero went on the offensive but, even with a direct hit from his twin barreled buster rifle, all he managed to do was provoke a few discouraging blasts from the warbird. It was only when he managed to detonate one of its torpedoes at a critical point when it passed through the deflector shields did matters improve. It temporarily disrupted the stability of the shields, giving Heero a chance to get through them and attack the ship directly without the energy barrier getting in the way.

The battle quickly turned in favor of the Wing Zero since, not only did it have the destructive potential to seriously damage the ship, but also it was too fast and maneuverable to hit. Eventually the Romulan in command of the Warbird decided to take desperate measures to save his ship by activating the device used to come to the Gundam Reality in the first place. It created a massive spatial distortion easily twice the size of the warbird and, while the Romulan craft was able to navigate despite the energy pulses the distortion sent out, the Wing Zero wound up getting knocked about like a rag doll. Convinced that the small but dangerous craft would be pummeled into oblivion by the energy pulses, the Romulan commander decided on two final actions: He would destroy the transport vessel that had brought the Gundam to the area to maintain the anonymity his mission here required and he would return home for repairs. However, thanks to Heero's cool, analytical thinking, coupled with the Zero system, the pilot was able to predict this and, in an act that spoke well of his skills, he fired one final shot from his buster rifle. This shot managed to trigger a cascade in the Warbird's main reactor, preventing the Romulan commander from destroying the transport but also causing the spatial distortion to become increasingly chaotic. As a result both the Warbird and the Gundam get pulled into it, leaving only the transport to carry the news of what happened back to the colonies and the Earth governments.

When Heero woke up he found himself aboard a Federation starship heading towards DS9, with the face of the newest version of the EMH program leaning over him. After a brief misunderstanding Heero got informed by the ship's captain that they found him drifting inside his heavily damaged Gundam near the DMZ along with the remains of a Romulan Warbird. A Q&A session followed in which Heero gave very guarded responses since he didn't trust the other unknown military man any farther than he could throw the Wing Zero one handed. It took a few unscheduled disappearances for him to independently confirm what he had been told but eventually he was satisfied that what he was seeing was not a fabrication nor that these people intended him harm.

It was about this time that he realized he was losing his audience so he just summarized the rest by saying that some bad guys decided to make mobile suits of their own, using the Wing Zero as a base idea. As a result Heero felt obligated to put a stop to them and with the help of the starship crew the Wing Zero was not only repaired but upgraded with twenty-fourth century technology. Everything from pulse and beam phasers to deflector shields to a mini-cloaking device got installed in the new Federation Wing Zero, along with a tri-barrel buster rifle capable of hitting with the same punch as a Defiant class starship. With his character summary and background delivered he waited to see what Buffy's response would be.

"That's…interesting." Was what he got and he could tell that Buffy had to think before choosing that last word.

From there on until they all got to the school he was pretty much in an annoyed mood since Buffy didn't appreciate the minor accomplishment he'd managed with only twenty dollars. Willow wasn't much better but at least she knew what he was talking about when he mentioned Heero Yuy, Gundams and Romulan Warbirds. However everything she knew was pretty much what he had related to her in the past so was only a little more informed than the blonde Slayer had been. Still, when he got to the student lounge he had resolved to put on his best smile and had hoped that at least the brats might know who Heero Yuy was and what Gundams were.

Sadly his hopes were dashed and, to make matters worse, there was one brat in particular that took special pleasure in driving him nuts with either endless questions or surprisingly good insults. That pretty much led him to where he was now and that was using all his strength to keep from strangling the kid while escorting the others to one house after another. Looking at his watch, he saw that he had about forty-five more minutes before he had to start herding the ankle biters back to the school. However, listening to the kid rattle off another question he couldn't answer without getting into trouble later, he wasn't sure he could last that long.

All of a sudden a wave of energy rippled outwards across Sunnydale and, when it hit a select few, a transformation occurred causing them to become not who they were but who they pretended to be.

No longer did Alexander LaVelle Harris stand on the street cursing his bad luck. Instead Heero Yuy, dimensionally displaced Gundam pilot, scanned his surroundings and attempted to comprehend what exactly had just happened to him.

The last thing he remembered was being on Risa to meet with an informant who had information on where Section 31's main mobile suit production facility was located. Now he appeared to have been transported to a planet that looked a lot like Earth, the Earth he was from, but he didn't drop his guard. With all the technology he had encountered since being transported to the Federation, he knew this could be anything from a fabricated environment to a holodeck of some kind.

A growl from his right cut off any further deduction and, when he turned, he was surprised to see a small, vicious looking alien leaping at him, claws extended. With skill honed through training and experience he dropped backward and used the creatures own momentum to throw it clear to the other side of the street. Both he and the creature quickly reoriented themselves but one look in his eyes was apparently enough to convince the creature that he was not facing prey at the moment, but instead another predator. With a final growl of anger the small hostile creature scampered off in search of prey, leaving him to resume trying to figure out where he was and why he had been brought here.

Withdrawing his type 2 hand phaser from its holster beneath his jacket he set it to heavy stun and decided to relocate to a more defendable location before planning his next move. Thus, with precise yet swift steps, he began to make his way down the street and out of what appeared to be the residential area of wherever he was.

Realm of the Powers That Be, One Hour Later

"I believe it is time to build up the suspense in preparation for the big finale, my fellow Powers," the Chairwoman said with a satisfied smile as they watched Harris aid their altered Slayer in evading the demons that sought to kill her in her weakened state. "Harris has still not summoned the 'Gundam' and without that the Creator will never sanction his removal from the mortal plane."

"Not to worry, Chairwoman. I anticipated that something like this might happen so I ensured that the appropriate incentive would be at the ready should it become necessary to use it," stated the Summarizer, voice filled with confidence. "Observe."

Warehouse District of Sunnydale, Same Time

Xander Harris aka Heero Yuy's POV

"Prepare to fall back. We won't be able to hold out much longer against in these conditions," he ordered calmly as he used a shotgun he had appropriated from the back of a police squad car to blow the kneecaps off of an approaching demon.

It had been an unusual night for him to say the least and, considering what he had encountered and done as a Gundam pilot, that was no small feat.

Even the beings he encountered after being displaced into the Federation's reality lacked the ferocity, the malevolence, that these 'demons' exuded. He had encountered them at random in the beginning when he had attempted to locate a strategically sound location to evaluate the situation at but that had changed when he'd encountered the hologram of the redheaded young woman. He'd assumed that she was like the EMH program on Voyager in that she was as close to sentient as a collection of photons could be and that she possessed a mobile holographic emitter somewhere on her person (although he had been unable to locate it despite fact little fabric made up the clothes she was wearing and what was there was skin tight). There had been a brief period of mistaken identity, possibly as a result of some damage to her program, but eventually she began to make sense and explained the situation.

According to the hologram a diplomatic delegation that had been meeting on Risa had been abducted by Section 31 for the purpose of turning them into sleeper agents by manipulating their sense of reality. This was apparently done via neurogenic implants and a cutting edge holodeck so that the subjects could be attacked from two different sources.

The hologram, who identified herself as Willow, had been slipped into the simulation by a deep cover Federation Intelligence operative both to keep tabs on things and look for a way to shut the system down from the inside. When he asked her to summarize the progress she'd made so far with her secondary objective she stated that Section 31 had been thorough in their construction of this holodeck. None of the usual controls could be accessed from the inside and, as far as she could tell, the program had been made with certain safeties in place that prevented use of holographic objects to disrupt the system.

In short they were locked inside with no visible means to escape and that meant they had only one choice: they had to keep the delegation alive as long as possible until Starfleet could locate them and shut things down themselves.

Thus he had become a part of a group of four (five if you included the hologram) that Willow insisted made up the entirety of the delegation and spent the better part of the last hour evading hostile threats. Sadly that had come to an end five minutes ago when a large group of enemies approached them and blocked their every effort at retreating through the appearance of additional members at all the primary escape routes. The only bit of good luck that he'd had was finding the shotgun in the back of the police car and he only had one more box of shells before the weapon's use went from projectile weapon to blunt object. That had been why he'd told the others to begin to fall back and, while the only place they could fall back to was the nearest warehouse, it was better than nothing.

However, just as he was about to move in closer to the delegates in order to ensure he could not be cut off from them easily, an object falling from the sky caught his eye. It looked to be a staff of some kind with a crescent moon shaped piece of metal at the top with a ruby embedded in the quarter moon-shaped piece of steel. At first he didn't pay it much mind since it would not land in the immediate area and did not look like it was a serious threat. He was half turned away from the direction he'd been looking when a sudden, violent earthquake began to shake up the area and, as he looked back at the falling staff, he saw a chaotic storm of energy lashing out in all directions where he'd predicted the staff would land.

Was it some kind of seismic device? he thought as he focused on keeping his footing.

His ignorance concerning the nature of the staff was soon remedied as a large golden armored creature with wings sprouted up from ground zero of the energy storm until it reached a size slightly larger than Epyon had been. This combined with the monster's immediate acts of violence solidified its status as a threat but, when his mind attempted to devise a means of dealing with the threat, he was at a loss. While the violent earthquake and the sudden appearance of the giant monster had scattered the demons formerly pursuing the delegation, he was still without a viable weapon to deal with an enemy of that size.

"Pendragon to Heero Yuy! Respond!" came a voice from his comm badge, which he hadn't expected to hear considering where he was.

"I'm here, Captain," he said after touching his badge to activate his side of the connection.

"Good! We've just arrived with a Federation task force and are currently fighting Section 31's forces. What's your situation?" asked the Captain professionally as sounds of bridge chatter and explosions echoed in the background.

"I've managed to keep the three delegates and the hologram alive but a new problem as just cropped up. Two minutes ago a staff fell from the sky in the holodeck and caused a monster to grow in size considerably," he replied, summarizing the current situation. "Current weaponry is insufficient to deal with it and, aside from staying out of its range, I don't have any other ideas to keep the delegates from being killed."

"Don't worry! We have a solution ready to deliver," the Captain stated with satisfaction. "Tell the delegates to get as close to you as possible. We're going to drop the Wing Zero as close to you as we can."

"Drop it? You mean we aren't underground or in a structure?" he asked with minimal surprise in his voice.

"No. It looks like a conventional holodeck was insufficient for what Section 31 was planning. Instead they constructed a force field dome a mile in diameter and are using that to create a large scale simulation," replied the Captain over the comm line. "The defenses around it are tough but Commander T'Pring has installed enhanced multi-phasic shielding around the drop pod. It should make it through both the defenses and the dome around you without difficulty."

"Understood," he said, having faith in the skills of the crew of the Federation starship Pendragon.

Turning to the three delegates, he chose to relocate to their position rather than get them to come to him since the one in the noblewoman's dress was too frightened to move an inch. As for the man in black he looked like he would stick close to the noblewoman no matter what, so if she wouldn't move then neither would he. The young woman in spandex obviously was one of those that followed the will of the majority, high class to the hilt, which meant that she would stay with the other two. So instead of wasting time trying to convince them to come to him he would go to them. What he would do once Wing Zero arrived was something he had to consider since he could not be in two places at once.

While it was true that most of the human-sized creatures had fled once the giant one appeared, he could not discount the possibility that they would return once he started fighting the giant one. Realistically that would be the perfect moment for Section 31 to minimize their losses by killing the delegates before the task forces breached their defenses entirely and rescued them. While this would be officially a failure as far as their mission to turn the delegates into sleeper agents, it would eliminate some major pieces of evidence.

However, the large creature is the greater threat, he thought as the sound of conflicting forces manifested above him. I'll just have to finish the creature quickly.

As the sound of conflicting forces reached its peak, the 'sky' above him opened up to reveal Wing Zero's drop pod against a crimson sky. However this lasted only for a moment because, once the pod had cleared the hole, it sealed itself back up with surprising speed. He filed what he saw away in the back of his mind, though, as the pod impacted on the street forty feet in front of him. Right now he had to board his Gundam and dispatch the giant creature approaching his position before Section 31 could fully react to the change in circumstances.

"Stick together and stay on guard," he told the delegates in the hope that they would obey. "I'll finish this quickly."

Without further words he ran as fast as he could towards the pod and, once there, sought out the control panel that would allow him to open the pod. It took ten seconds but it felt longer as he could feel the ground shake each time the giant took a step and it was definitely getting closer by the second. Tapping in his access code he watched at the pod opened up like a flower blossoming to reveal the Wing Zero standing proud, as though telling him that it was ready for whatever battle he needed its strength for. Hopping up to the floor of the pod he pressed the hidden button on the foot of the mobile suit, causing the cockpit to open up and lower the grapple line. As soon as it came within range he placed his foot in the stirrup and activated the mechanism that would retract it bringing him up to the cockpit in seconds. Turning in the direction of the approaching monster, he could tell that it had caught on to what he intended to do for it had picked up its pace considerably and had its huge sword ready to cut his Gundam in two. With a hop and quick reorientation of his body he landed in the seat of the cockpit, causing the hatch to automatically close.

"Initiate emergency activation sequence. Authorization Heero alpha two three nine," he said, knowing that the audio receptors inside of the suit would pick up his voice and obey his command.

Like the mobile suit had a mind of its own systems came online one after another at a much faster rate than could be accomplished by human hands. It was because of this that he was able to pull Wing Zero's beam saber from its sheath and ignite it in time to block the blade of the attacking monster. Without even waiting to take satisfaction in the beastman's shock he made his Gundam deliver a powerful shoulder check, forcing the monster to scramble to remain on its feet.

Deciding to make it even more difficult for the monster wearing golden armor, he let loose with a full barrage from both his beam and pulse phasers. This did the trick as it caused the creature to actually cry out in pain as it fell to the ground but, even before the dust settled, the beast was back on its feet ready to launch an attack of its own.

Fortunately for him the man beast's technique was sloppy and easy to anticipate, so he had no trouble bringing his shield up to block the energy attack unleashed as the monster slashed with his sword.

Firing up his atmospheric thrusters he lifted into the air until he was sure he'd clear all of the rooftops in the area, then flew forward to deliver a slash of his own with his beam saber. The creature managed to get its sword up to guard in time but it was clear from the images on the screen that Wing Zero was at least twenty percent stronger than it was. Using this to his advantage he quickly twisted the Wing Zero's position so that the enemy's blade would slide off it quickly, causing the creature to lose its balance faster than it could compensate. Then with a swift downward vertical slash the beast man's sword hand was severed, causing both detached limb and the giant sword to fall to the ground.

"Curse you!" roared the beast man as it spoke for the first time.

"If you didn't want to get hurt then you shouldn't have come here in the first place," he said, allowing the audio receivers and the external speakers to carry his voice to the monster. "Now it's too late to turn back."

However the battle was quickly reaching the point that he designated as 'too long' and he knew he had to finish this quickly or risk allowing one of the delegates to come to harm. So, with a swift movement of the controls, he had Wing Zero deliver a powerful side kick to the monster, sending it tumbling a full twenty blocks away. With smooth motion he removed his tri-barrel buster rifle from its holster in the shield and took aim at the creature, intending to end the fight with this final blow. Watching the crosshairs on his HUD shuddered for a bit before settling on the monster, turning green and signifying a positive target lock, he fired, unleashing a blast capable of matching a Defiant class starship's phaser banks in terms of power but with accuracy one would only expect from a precision sniping weapon. As though it were made from matchsticks, the blast tore a gaping hole in the center of the creature and, with a final grunt of pain, the monster fell to the ground before detonating in a violent explosion.

I'd better get back to the delegates, he thought as he prepared to maneuver the Wing Zero back towards the warehouse district.

Sadly it was at this time that things changed course in more ways than one.

Ethan's Costume Shop, Same Time

"Now, tell me how to break the spell," Giles commanded icily after delivering a solid kick to Ethan Rayne's ribs.

"Janus! Break the statue!" Ethan forced out as the act of speaking was only making his cracked ribs hurt even more.

Without wasting time the Watcher walked over to where the bust of Janus, with the glowing jade eyes, rested and picked it up before sending it crashing down to the floor. Like piece of glass it shattered as it hit the floor and a perfect ripple the focused energy shot outwards with the intention of undoing all the alterations it had made to those affected by the spell. However there were greater forces than Janus at work this night and they, too, would have their say in how it came to an end.

Realm of the Powers That Be, Same Time

"Now, my friends! Use your power to ensure that Harris does not revert back to his former self!" ordered the Chairwoman as a green glow began to surround her as she put her vast power to use.

As one they acted and replaced Janus' power with their own in order to ensure that the fictional character Heero Yuy remained in Sunnydale, thus keeping Harris locked within his own body. The timing had to be perfectly in synch with the wave of energy released by the destroyed bust of Janus and could only last while the wave remained at a potent enough level to mask their own powers. They all knew that if their timing was off by even a fraction of a second the Creator would detect their hand in matters, ruining what they were attempting to do. Fortunately millennia of experience aided them well and, by the time the ripple began to die off, they had infused both the Gundam and Harris with enough energy to maintain the transformation for at least an hour before it broke down. That would be more than sufficient to convince the Creator why Harris had to be removed from the mortal realm and from their path for good.

As expected they had planned, executed and accomplished their plan perfectly.

After all, they were the Powers That Be.

Atop a Water Tower, Sunnydale, Ten Seconds Later

"Well, I think we've let them have their little bit of fun. I'd stick around and watch you teach those fools a lesson, but I think it's best to get Xander where he needs to be," stated the man in red and black as he looked at the towering humanoid machine

S/He looked at her cousin and nodded in agreement that it would be best to remove Alexander from this reality before S/He confronted her ambitions subordinates. However S/He conveyed to him the seriousness of the task he was about to undertake and how S/He expected the young Harris lad to be returned in the agreed upon state. It would be difficult enough to put together a replacement council to take over the Powers' responsibilities while S/He dealt with His/Her insubordinate underlings. The only thing that would make it worth it would be the advantage Xander would give the side of light upon his return when the time came to handle threats not of the Earth but of outer space. The champions in Colorado were satisfactory but, from what S/He could foresee, their rate of development technologically would put them short of the mark by the time the Ori came. Infusion of mobile suit technology and other machines from the reality His/Her cousin had told Him/Her about would even the playing field nicely. S/He didn't want him to get carried away with his little bouts of amusement and ruin everything.

"Don't worry, my dear cousin! I promise that by the time I return your precious Alexander to you, he will be more than up to the tasks you set for him," His/Her cousin declared with actual sincerity, much to His/Her surprise, "Why, if all my plans work out as I hope they do, I may even return with a little extra help for you."

While S/He didn't like the sound of that, S/He reluctantly gave His/Her cousin permission to leave and, with a snap of his fingers, both he and his charges vanished in a flash of light.

Cosmic Era Universe, Aprilius One, Lounge of the Amalfi Home, Noon

Xander's POV

"That was wonderful, Heero! You really sound wonderful with Nicol when you play," Romina Amalfi said as the duet between her son and his friend came to an end.

"Thanks, Mrs. Amalfi. It took me a while to get it to sound just right but I think I've pretty much mastered that piece now," he said as he began to put his flute back in its case. "I'd better get going, though. They need me to look over and set up the equipment down in the theater district before tonight's show."

"Are you sure you can't stay for just one more song?" Nicol asked with disappointment, since it was clear he had enjoyed the duet. "I managed to finish the first half of my composition and I want to see how it sounds."

"I wish I could, Nicol, but tonight's the big debut and if something goes wrong it'll be my butt in a sling when it's all over," he replied, conveying that he really did want to stay but that he had other obligations.

"Are you sure it's not because it's Meer's first play in a leading role?" Nicol asked with a bit of mischief in his eyes.

"It's not because of that at all!" he protested but it was obvious from the look on both Mrs. Amalfi and Nicol's face that they didn't believe his words for a moment.

"Well, in that case, I suppose you can go for now. Just make sure to pick up a bouquet of flowers to give her after the show," Mrs. Amalfi said with a bit of mischief in her eyes as well. "After all, a girlfriend expects those sorts of things, especially on important days like this."

"You're all hopeless!" he said with mock anger even though there was a rueful grin on his face. "See you later, Nicol! I'll try to come by for one more duet before you get sent back out to the front lines."

With that he walked out of the Amalfi home, flute case in hand and jacket zipped up to the top. It was only once he exited visual range of the Amalfi home that he allowed his true self to come to the surface rather than the Heero Yuy personae he, Xander Harris, had crafted for himself. It had only been eight months since he arrived in this reality but already PLANT was beginning to feel like home to him even though he knew it wasn't. His home was another reality away and, despite his efforts to come up with a way to go back to where he belonged, there were two major obstacles standing in his way. The first was the fact that, despite the advances that the Coordinators possessed some of the most advanced technology in this dimensions Sector zero zero one, it didn't come close to what he needed.

They hadn't even developed the technology to leave their own solar system and, as long as the conflict with the Naturals on Earth continued, it was unlikely they would any time soon. The other obstacle was the fact that his Gundam, the Federation version of Wing Zero, was operating at twenty percent of its maximum power output and at best could be raised to one quarter of its full power if he left it to charge long enough. That was because of the fact that the majority of the power it had been using during the wackiness of Halloween had come from the spell itself.

Now that I'm no longer in my home dimension and therefore beyond Janus' reach, I lack the fuel necessary to bring Wing Zero's more advanced systems online. He strolled down the busy city street towards the theater district. The deflector shield, the cloaking system and the warp drive would consume too much energy too quickly if I tried to use power from the secondary power supplies. As it stands, even fully charged the secondary power systems can only power the propulsion systems, the motor control systems and the weapons for about forty-five minutes before they're completely drained. The Wing Zero isn't much better than the ZAFT mobile suits in terms of combat effectiveness.

It had been one of the first things he had tried to come up with once he was satisfied that his false identity had been accepted by the PLANT government. He had spent almost every free moment he could get between his jobs and sleeping trying to concoct an alternative fuel for the Gundam that would bring it up to full power. Unfortunately dilithium crystals and deuterium were still unknown to the humans of this world as well as the potential energy that could be released from a matter/anti-matter reaction. That, of course, wasn't stopping from continuing his search but it had been months since he had started looking and he had nothing to show for his efforts. If things continued down this road, he might have to reconsider getting some outside help but he really hoped it didn't come to that. While he trusted the Amalfi family and Meer Cambell as friends, he wasn't sure how they'd react if he let them in on the existence of the Wing Zero. While the bond of friendship was strong, he worried that it might not be strong enough to stand up against things such as duty and loyalty to PLANT. If they decided that his Gundam was something that needed to be brought to the attention of the government and the military, he'd have no choice but to initiate Wing Zero's self-destruct program.

If they choose to reveal Wing Zero to others, you should just kill them, came a thought from the remnants of Heero Yuy that still resided in his mind. Destroying the Gundam should only be considered a last resort option.

He pushed that part of himself away, rejecting its suggested solution, since he would never consider killing the friends he'd made in PLANT unless his own life was at stake. Nevertheless, it was definitely a risk that, if he revealed the existence of the Wing Zero to anyone else, there was a good chance that ZAFT would catch wind of it and attempt to capture it. After all, while there were some mobile suits that were mass produced by ZAFT, he had heard from Nicol that recently his squad had come into possession of mobile suits with capabilities far beyond the average Ginn or Goohn unit. The pilot wasn't able to reveal more than that due to the secrecy of the matter but it was enough to tell him how valuable Wing Zero would be to them. Even with its problem of fuel it was made up of twenty-fourth century Federation technology and that made it centuries ahead of anything anyone else had. To the military brass and those in the government, it would be like the proverbial Holy Grail of mobile suits. They wouldn't hesitate to take it from him once they discovered its existence.

Returning his focus to the area around him, he was thankful to see that even with his head in the clouds he'd been able to navigate his way to the theatre district without any difficulty.

Heading along his usual route for getting to the Cherry Blossom theatre, he spotted a flower vendor selling his wares off to the side and apparently doing well. It was then that he remember Mrs. Amalfi's suggestion and, while he still didn't like how she'd toyed with his affections for Meer, he had to admit she was right about the flowers. Tonight was Meer's big night and he knew one way or another she'd deserve a bouquet of flowers for her performance tonight even if the acting critics crucified her the next day. Walking over, he checked his pockets to see if he'd have enough money for a decent sized bouquet and still have enough money for a snack later after his work was done. Between his job assisting Amalfi family's gardener and his back stage work at the theatre, he barely had enough money to pay for his apartment, so he couldn't afford to indulge himself in extra purchases too often. Add to that the fact that he poured what funds he could into the 'restore the Wing Zero' fund and he was pretty much broke most of the time. Still, his years of squeezing every ounce of fun he could out of the money he was able to 'borrow' safely from his parents back in Sunnydale served him well. Another month or so and he'd be able to afford to take Meer out on a real fancy date and not have to worry about skimping on anything.

"I'd like a dozen roses please," he said after examining what the vendor had to offer and making his choice.

"An excellent selection, young man. I'm sure your lady friend will appreciate them," said a voice he'd been expecting to hear soon but hoped that he'd never have to encounter the owner of the voice.

He looked up and saw a man that looked to be in his forties, with black hair, blue eyes and a smile on his face that practically screamed 'trickster'. From facial features to body type it was exactly the way it had been portray in the TV shows and, while the being in front of him might not be wearing a red and black Starfleet uniform, it was definitely him. With a sigh, he decided not to go with his usual response to people with the vendor's personality type and just find out what the man wanted. Anything else would provoke the jackass into doing something bigger, better and definitely more troublesome later.

"What do you want, Q?" Xander asked, trying to keep any potentially offending emotion out of his voice just in case.

Flower Cart, Q'S POV

"Now is that any way to treat someone who helped you get set up on this primitive space station?" he asked, letting some mock hurt get into his voice.

"I don't know if you're anything like the one in the TV show or not but you only show up when you're bored and want to have some fun at someone else's expense," he replied, staying honest and emotionless. "Sorry but it's just common sense to be cautious around you."

While the straight man routine Xander was using ruined the humor of his question, he conceded that the reasons behind using it were valid.

Back in his preferred dimension he usually only showed himself to life forms he found amusing or could be made amusing with a little tinkering on his part. Still, he had a valid reason for appearing before Xander and it was a little more serious than he liked being given his mischief making personality. As soon as he'd arrived in the current reality he'd done some snooping around to get an idea of the current circumstances as well as the immediate future. Sure, he'd known a lot about the place when he'd brought Xander, having visited it once in the past as humans reckon time, but he still needed to know more if he was going to nudge the young human male in the direction he wanted. When he'd returned from his jaunt into the future he found a path of events that could possibly lead Xander to detour from his 'lesson plan'.

"Oh, I just thought you might like to know about the future," he said casually, as though he didn't think much of what he saw. "Buuutt if you're not interested…"

He could practically see the wheels turning in the young man's head as he considered the potential benefits of advance knowledge as well as the down sides. But in the end the curiosity of youth won out.

"What did you find out?" Xander asked with measured interest.

Not the reaction he wanted but it'd have to do for the time being.

"Well, it seems that on your friend Nicol's next sortie he's going to wind up in a bit of a pinch," he replied, keeping the details to a minimum in order to manipulate Xander's imagination into providing incentive all on its own. "In fact it's safe to say that without outside help, it's not likely he'll survive."

"You're saying he'll die?" Xander asked, managing to keep an admirable amount of his fear concealed.

"Most likely. Just thought you might want to know, seeing as how you've been all buddy-buddy with each other," he said as he began putting together a few roses and wrapping them.

Now, if he acted like most mortals did, he'd be asking for more details before rushing off to either stop his friend from going off on the mission or tail him in the Wing Zero in order to prevent his friend's death. So when the young man closed his eyes and schooled his features, he had a feeling that he was going to get proven wrong many a time by the youth.

"If that's what's fated to happen, then it'll happen," Xander said, managing to keep his concern for his friend under wraps. "This isn't my dimension. I have no right to interfere in what happens here. Besides, if I pilot the Wing Zero, it'll only make the war worse."

Alexander doesn't want to get involved? Based on everything he'd learned about the lad he should've reacted by aggressively pursuing a course of action that'd save his friend. The only possibility he could think of was that the young man's familiarity with various forms of fictional sci-fi stories were impressing upon him the dangers of disrupting the natural flow of a new world.

"Not really. I've already seen where the mundane humans sacrifice the more rational members of their forces in order to wipe out the Coordinators using an improvised nuke," he said, hoping that the future loss of life would provoke the desired response. "Naturally it'll lead to the Coordinators creating a W.M.D. of their own to fire back. Unless something's done, these humans will destroy themselves."

This time he could see the urge to intervene more strongly enough on Alexander's face but it still wasn't powerful enough to spur him into action.

"Even if I wanted to help, the Wing Zero only has enough power to last forty-five minutes before it's reduced to a really big paperweight," Xander said, still putting up a fight about intervening. "Unless you plan on snapping your fingers and restoring it to full strength…"

"Now how would you ever become a great Gundam pilot if I made things easier for you?" he asked rhetorically with a playful smile. "Besides, if I powered it up more for you, it'd be more than a little unfair for your opponents, who can't fight for very long either."

"In other words it wouldn't be as fun to watch if you gave me the power to mop the floor with all of them," Xander said, sounding confident in his deduction. "Not interested. I appreciate what you've done for me so far but I'm no one's puppet."

"Suit yourself," he said, knowing that more was going on inside the young man's mind than could be seen with organic eyes. "Here are your flowers. I hope Miss Campbell appreciates them."

With payment provided the young Gundam pilot walked off, flowers in hand, as he continued on his way to his place of employment. Alexander had done a fine job of hiding it but he could see that signs of a seed coming into being in the boy's mind. With the passage of time it would grow, squeeze into the cracks of the objections to intervening and then, like many who often acted based on their heart, the teenager would take action.

He only hoped that it happened before the ZAFT pilot Nicol was slain in the battle with Kira Yamato, otherwise his information on the future would be useless and derail his plans significantly.

With a thought he put the true flower vendor back into place while he traveled to a level of existence a little bit above where Xander was so he could observe matters properly.

He had high hopes for the young man.

Anyone who could thwart a prophecy of those idiots was worth investing in.

Bloom Theater, One Hour Before Showtime, Xander's POV

"That…should…do it!" he said as he finished the wiring patch job on the theater's main sound system. "It's not pretty but it should hold through tonight's performance and maybe the next two. Still, you should put in an order for replacement parts sooner rather than later."

"You're a life saver, Heero," Mister Noventa said with genuine relief in his voice. "If you hadn't fixed this we would've had to cancel the show for the night and that'd cost us quite a few credits."

"Not a problem, sir. I was looking forward to tonight's show so fixing it was important to me too," he said as he closed the panel and locked it using the key he was given.

"I'll just bet you were," Noventa said with a grin he recognized all too well. "It's a big step for Meer. If the show does well, it might get the attention of a few recording companies."

"As long as singing makes her happy that's the important thing," he said as he rose to his feet and passed back the access key. "Fame can mess people up, ya know."

"I guess you got a point," Noventa said, scratching the back of his head. "Well, you'd better go and give her the flowers before make up gets ahold of her. Giving them to her before the show should cheer her up and make her sing that much more enthusiastically. She might even reward you with a kiss!"

"Knock it off, will ya? I've already gotten this from the Amalfis, I don't need it from you!" he groaned as he walked over to a nearby table and picked up the flowers. "We're just friends, co-workers, nothing else."

"Tell that to someone who hasn't seen the look on both your faces when you're together," Noventa said with a grandfatherly chuckle. "Seeing you two together it makes me wonder why you haven't made it official yet."

"Whatever," he said as he waved back without looking back. "See you later when the curtain goes up."

He left the control room for Meer's dressing room, where he expected her to be. Noventa hadn't been wrong when he'd said that this could be a big break for Meer if everything went off without a hitch. At the moment his friend who was a girl was only popular with those who frequented the Bloom Theater and thus knew of her wonderful singing voice. But with the press tonight's event had attracted it could be enough to get the attention of the main record companies and get them to approach Meer with a contract. While he didn't know how long he'd be in this dimension, he truly hoped that, if his friend did become famous, she wouldn't let it all go to her head. He could see how it would transpire going from a Willow-like girl he treated you like a friend to a bitch like Cordelia, who never let you forget how far below her you were.

It was one of the reasons why he spent time with her when he could; to put her at ease and try to pop any inclinations that could develop into bad personality traits down the road. While not exactly the same thing, he'd seen how people changed when they came to the school as ordinary people but, in order to join the popular crowd, or at least not be targeted by them, they adopted similar likes and dislikes. If things went according to plan they gained entry to the popular cliques, with all the benefits that that entailed. If not, they not only lost their old friends but didn't gain the new ones they'd hoped to.

It was a lonely outcome he'd prefer that Meer never have to face.

Arriving at the door to the dressing room he knocked twice and waited for permission to enter.

"Come in," Meer said from within, sounding a little distracted.

Opening the door he almost immediately averted his eyes since Meer was only half into the outfit she'd be wearing on stage, causing the center of her torso to be revealed from neck to waist. This wouldn't have been quite so bad if she'd been wearing a bra underneath since, in his mind, while not as concealing, a bra and panty combo covered about as much as a bikini. As a result his mind equated it with swimwear and so it didn't bother him quite so much. However, whether it was due to personal choice or a requirement for wearing the kind of outfit she was going to wear, his friend had chosen to go WITHOUT a bra for tonight's performance.

He was just lucky that what Meer did have on at the moment just exposed the inner edges of her breasts, otherwise experience told him that he'd be in BIG trouble.

"Oh!" Meer exclaimed in surprise as she quickly pulled on her shirt to cover up what should be covered. "Heero! Um… would you mind turning around for a moment."

"SURE!" he exclaimed before turning around. "Sorry…I mean, I knocked…but I didn't…"

"Don't worry. I should've waited until I'd buttoned up before telling you to come in," she said from behind him as he heard the rustling of cloth. "Did you manage to fix the problem with the sound system?"

"Yep. It's just a patch job but it should get you through the performance tonight," he replied as he tried not to let his mind slip into the gutter. "I'll be here the entire time in case the repairs fail."

"Good," Meer said, sounding relieved at the resolving of that problem. "You can turn around now."

Doing so he was glad to see everything buttoned up and covering what needed to be covered. As for the outfit as a whole it consisted of form fitting jeans, yellow and white striped short sleeved blouse and aqua green vest. It wasn't very flashy but it did fit with her usual concert clothes so he didn't mind and, with the vest in place, it was impossible to notice what was… missing… and would stay that way unless she moved in such a way to displace it. Given what he remembered of how she moved while performing, the odds of it exposing her were small but not non-existent. He wasn't quite sure if the front row seats were close enough for a member of the audience to get an eyeful but, even if someone did, he guessed that it wouldn't REALLY matter.

It wasn't like the shirt was semi-transparent after all.

"Are… are those for me?" she asked, looking down at his right hand.

"Oh… yeah!" he said, remembering that he had them and raising them for her to see more easily. "I figured since this could be your big break, you should have a vase of pretty flowers in your dressing room."

He looked around for something to put the flowers in but couldn't find anything aside from a water jug that likely was there to keep Meer's throat from drying up. Mentally shrugging he walked over to it and, after removing the paper wrapping, eased the flowers into the jug before taking a moment to move them about so that they'd settle in the best way. He was no flower arranger but after a minute he felt that he'd gotten them as good as they were going to get.

"They're pretty!" she said with love as she walked over to the jug and leaned over a bit to take a closer look at them.

Of course this had the effect of causing the front of her vest to hang apart, as well as cause other… things… to hang in a way that could not be ignored.

"They sure are," he said before he could stop himself or avert his eyes.

Her giggling finally snapped him out of his staring and he couldn't help but feel a little flustered, so he tried to figure out how to handle the situation.

"I decided to be a little daring tonight. After all they say that those afraid to take risks don't get very far," she said after her giggles came to an end. "Besides, it's a little exciting, to tell you the truth."

"Yeah, well, just don't bounce or bend over too much on stage," he said, looking away so he wouldn't get distracted with visual reinforcement. "We want people to focus on your singing, not… other things."

"Okay, I promise not to do too much bouncing on stage," she said with a laugh at his actions. "You'll watch, right? Watch me sing?"

"Of course! I've never missed a chance to see you sing since I got hired here," he said instantly. "I'll have the best seats in the house from the control room, too."

"Would you… would you like to go with me to Chang's Bar after the show?" Meer asked, sounding a little unsure. "To celebrate the show's success, of course!"

"Sure. Drinks'll be on me." he replied, figuring it'd be a good way to cap off the evening. "Just… keep it under thirty credits, okay? Any more and rent'll be a problem at the end of the month."

"Sure! Now, if you don't mind, I need to warm up before the show," she said before darting forward to peck him on the cheek. "See you later!"

"Yeah… sure… see you then," he said, completely floored by the act.

With that he left her dressing room a little confused and uncertain by what'd just happened but shook it off before latching onto doing some final checks of the sound system components. Nothing in depth or anything but enough to make sure there wouldn't be any surprises mid-show. Sure, he'd fixed the one in the control room but that didn't mean that it was the only one in the entire theatre. The place had been around for almost as long as the PLANT had, so it was no surprise that there'd be things in need of repairing or replacing. According to Mister Noventa, the last maintenance guy in the theater's employ had retired three years ago and until him they'd been forced to go with hiring local businesses to fix things.

Now with him on the payroll, the man had been feeling a lot better about his business.

Too bad it won't be forever, he thought as he navigated his way to the first thing he wanted to check. As soon as I find a way to fully power up the Wing Zero, I'm leaving.

He meant what he said to Q earlier: he had no business getting involved in the war between Earth and the PLANTs.

This was not his world, his dimension, and even with echoes of the real Heero Yuy he was still a civilian with a civilian's grasp of things. From all he'd heard about the war, it sounded like hate was at its core. Sure, there were people who were fighting because they thought it was the only way to protect those closest to them, but a lot of them were fighting because they hated the enemy enough to kill them. Whether that hate came from the pain of loss or simply because the other side was too different from the norm to accept, he didn't know.

All he did know for certain was that he wouldn't feel comfortable on either side.

The sooner he could leave before getting drawn into the war, the better.

Chang's Bar, After the Show at the Bloom Theater, Meer's POV

"Heero! Stop it!" she cried as her friend continued to speak.

"What's wrong, oh superior songstress?" he asked with mock reverence as he took her hand and kissed it. "I am only telling the truth. Your voice was like the sirens of old that ensnared the minds of all who heard it. Indeed it ensnared my mind from the beginning! If I'm acting strange then it's only because my mind has not returned to being mine just yet."

She couldn't help but blush at his words, though it was possible that the reason why she was feeling as warm as she was at the moment was the fact that they were on their third bottle of sake. It'd started out as just one but it'd tasted so good that she'd ordered a second one to be shared between the two of them. As for when Heero had gotten particularly flattering, she'd have to put it at beginning after he finished his second mouthful of sake once the third bottle had arrived.

Now… now she was just continuing to enjoy the warm buzz flowing throughout her body.

As she did so, her mind drifted back to her performance earlier in the night and she had to admit that it had been her best one yet. It'd warmed her heart when Heero had brought flowers to her room and it'd made her a little playful as she deliberately positioned herself so he'd have no choice but to notice that she wasn't wearing a bra. It'd been funny as hell to watch him try to be the proper gentleman only to fail along the way. So, caught up in the moment, she'd acted on instinct and kissed him on the cheek before her mind caught up with her. After that she'd stumbled into requesting that he accompany her to Chang's after the performance but he hadn't hesitated a bit in accepting.

Throughout the show the only thing she'd been able to think about was what awaited her after the show and her feelings had come through in her singing. After she'd finished her set of songs, she wound up being treated to an encore request from the audience so she'd sung two of her favorite songs by Lacus Clyne, her idol. When the curtain had finally fallen she'd let out a breath that she hadn't known she'd been holding and walked backstage to the applause of all the stage hands and theater staff. She'd been so overcome by the praise that was greater than anything she'd experienced before that she'd rushed back to her dressing room in order to recover.

Heero came a half hour later and complimented her on her singing, albeit not like he was doing now. She'd already changed into more comfortable clothes so, with a final goodbye to Mister Noventa, they'd left the theater for Chang's Bar.

Word had apparently travelled fast because, when they'd arrived, the owner and lead bartender had offered her own compliments on the performance even though she hadn't been there. They'd been escorted to a table and told that they could have whatever they wanted on the house so long as it wasn't one of the more expensive items.

Missus Chang was running a business after all.

She'd chosen sake after remembering how Noventa often drank some to unwind after a particularly difficult night.

Now… now she just knew she liked it!

Looking at Heero, she came to realize that he was rather handsome but not in one of those pretty boy ways like the guys you saw in all those fashion magazines. It was more of a… rugged handsomeness and it was definitely a change from the sort of guys she was usually attracted, definitely a step up from her last boyfriend.

Boyfriend… now there was an interesting idea.

It'd been six months since she'd dumped that bastard Osamu after she'd caught him chatting up some big shot, claiming that he had complete control over her and how stupid she was. Finding out he was a creep, she hadn't hesitated to let him know it right then and there before telling him that they were through. At first the guy had tried to explain away his actions as just big shot talk but when that failed to pacify her he'd started to threaten her, insult her, with all he'd learned about her since they'd started dating.

Too bad for him the employees of the theater liked her more than him.

She never found out what Mister Noventa had threated her ex with but she hadn't seen him since then, so whatever it'd been it was damn effective.

Since I'm single again, maybe it's time to get back into the saddle, she thought, remembering the phrase her mother had used once.

She giggled at the ways the phrase could be interpreted, both proper and improper.

"Something funny, Meer?" Heero asked, apparently giving up his humor-filled routine.

"Just thinking about what we should do next," she replied rather than telling him the truth. "The night is still young, after all."

"Yeah, I guess we got the time," he said with his usual lopsided grin. "But let's try something new, 'kay. The sake here's good but if we have much more we won't be able to walk, much less do anything else fun."

For a moment she wanted to deny that they were that sloshed but, when her hand almost knocked over the bottle of sake rather than pick it up smoothly, she had to concede that she might've been a bit intoxicated.

"You steady yourself and I'll wait here," he laughed as he got up from his chair with only a slight wobble. "Then we'll find someplace to have some real fun!"

She had to laugh at that but, as he walked away, she did try her best to push the light fog in her head away so she could walk on her own. Looking out the window into the streets, she wondered what other places might still be open this late and what'd make this evening out with Heero even more fun than it'd already been. There were places she'd been to with the other members of the band she sung for but she didn't want to run into any of them. She knew that they'd tease both her and Heero about their date or want to follow them around to see how the drama unfolded.

She'd prefer to keep the party to just the two of them.

It was then that she remembered a place she'd been to once last year when a few of her classmates had been out with her. They hadn't liked the place and to retain solidarity she'd pretended to agree, but the truth was that she had liked the place. The odds of running into anyone that'd be believed there was small and at the moment it was the only fun place she could think of. As she watched Heero walking back to her, waving over his shoulder at the bar owner, her choice was made and locked in.

"So, any ideas on where to go next?" he asked, holding out a hand to help her up.

"Yep!" she said as she accepted his offer of aid and rose from her seat. "It's not too far from here and it should still be open. C'Mon!"

With steps that were a little unsteady if she tried to move too quickly they left the bar before making their way to her car that had been parked nearby. She was about to go over to the driver's side when Xander stopped her, a hand gripped on her upper arm.

"I don't think either of us should be driving tonight," he explained with a friendly smile. "Let's just hail a cab. We can give the driver a SHOW."

He'd said that last part with such mock interest that it set off her giggling again but a part of her was interested in seeing if he'd actually act on it. With a nod she looked up and down the street before spotting one and waving her arm in the air in order to get the driver's attention. Once it'd pulled up to the curb Heero, ever the perfect gentleman, opened the door for her and gestured for her to get in and with a smile she did so.

"Where to, miss?" the man behind the steering wheel asked looking over his shoulder.

"Do you know the Kirara Karaoke Bar?" she asked, hoping that the driver wouldn't need directions.

"Sure! Got a regular that likes being dropped off there," the taxi driver replied with a nod. "That where you want to go?"

"Yes, please," she said with the smile that the audience always loved.

"Karaoke? Are you sure that's a good idea?" Heero asked, sounding a little uncertain. "I mean, you'll do good enough but if I try to sing, they'll probably ban me for life."

"You won't be that bad!" she said with a bit of amusement. "I bet they've had tons of people worse than you without banning them."

"We'll see," he said dubiously, still being of the opinion that he couldn't sing at all.

For the remainder of their trip to the karaoke bar she let him in on a few of the tricks that she'd been taught early on in her singing career while trying to make him more optimistic. She was sure that with a little bit of coaching from her they'd be singing duets together in no time.

She'd make it so!

Kirara Karaoke Bar

Two Hours Later

Xander's POV

"I just feel the "Rhythm Emotion, mistakes and pain lead us to a brilliant, momentary light," he sang, doing his best to match the tempo and notes of the music. "I just feel the "Rhythm Emotion" The beat of my heart reaches out to you, so far away!"

The clapping he got from Meer sounded a little less forced this time and he took that to mean that over the last hour and a half he'd managed to improve by a measurable degree. Honestly there was nothing either from his life in Sunnydale or what he'd inherited that could help him with singing, so he'd been forced to do the best he could. The tips that he'd gotten from Meer had helped a bit but it'd take a few times to get everything clicking right and even then it only made him stop sounding like a cat being tortured.

Still, no one had come by telling him to stop singing, so he guessed that Meer was right if he was being left alone.

"You're getting better! Maybe if we work on it like crazy I can go from being a solo idol to being part of a duo," Meer said, sounding like the idea appealed to her.

"No! Not going to happen!" he protested immediately, imagining him dressed up like a guy from one of Buffy's teenage heartthrob magazines. "As much as I like seeing you on stage, singing showbiz just isn't for me. I like working behind the scenes to make sure things don't screw up for the people in the spotlight."

"I guess you're right. Besides, I don't need you stealing the spotlight from me!" she said with a grin. "I'll have a hard enough time breaking into the music business as it is without having to beat you for the spot."

"Well I don't know about you but I think it's time to call it quits," he said with a huge yawn. "My brain's turning to mush and we're probably going to have a hard enough time dealing with hangovers tomorrow to have to deal with lack of sleep, too."

For a moment it looked like Meer would protest and to be honest he did like spending time with her like this but he knew she still had three more performances in as many days. She needed to get some sleep and hopefully not have to deal with too bad a hangover. His date for the night nodded in agreement and, with a quick swipe of his credit chit through the reader, they made their way towards the front of the bar.

Out in the open air he looked about for taxi but in his looking his eyes came upon something that was both rare as well as potentially volatile. Across the street and half a block away a somewhat plump woman was putting up posters on the side of a wall but it was what as on the posters that had him worried. He couldn't make out anything but the larger words on the poster but 'STOP THE FIGHTING' was pretty unmistakable as was the crossed circle over the ZAFT symbol. While he hadn't seen one before, he'd heard enough talk about a small group of PLANT citizens who protested the continuing war with Earth. They apparently had the utmost faith in diplomacy and didn't think that answering the loss of life at Junius Seven with even more lost lives was right.

The general response he heard from the people who talked about them was either that they were traitors for not wanting to avenge those killed or idiots for thinking that the Naturals would be receptive to a diplomatic solution.

The problem was that he'd heard a couple of propaganda brainwashed thugs say that all the protesters should be hunted down and taught a lesson and that was what had him worried. Most of the people who were still awake at this time of night were either members of the party crowd or those who were up to no good. If someone came along and saw the lady putting up the posters she could be in danger, especially if they turned out to be from the pro-war, anti-intelligence crowd. Evaluating the street, he could see only a few places where posters could be put up. Hopefully the lady was on her last few and would go home once she was finished.

When he began to pick up on the noise of drunken laughter that he remembered how Murphy liked take his optimistic thoughts and crap all over them.

Looking towards the laughter he spotted three guys goofing off as they walked down the sidewalk, with bottles of something in their hands that they took the occasional sip from. They were drunk and looking for a good time but, worse than that, they were wearing ZAFT off duty clothes rather than civilian clothes. If any of them spotted the lady setting up the posters it was practically a given that they'd start some sort of trouble and probably do something damn foolish with their judgment impaired.

Is there any way I can defuse things? he thought as he looked about for something to distract the three idiots from seeing the woman.

He doubted that he could bribe them with more booze in time to keep the lady from getting noticed and going over to her to convince her to make tracks would backfire on him. She'd either be so dedicated to her cause that she'd raise a ruckus defying him or the idiots would notice him going over to her and let their curiosity cause them to follow him. He didn't have anything on him that'd create enough curiosity inspiring ruckus to get them to see him and Meer as the more interesting place to focus their attention.

In the end he was forced to accept that he would just have to wait and hope that the three morons stumbled on through being none the wiser about what the lady was up to.

He winced as he realized what he'd just done and made a mental note to be more careful with his thoughts in the future.

"What the fuck is this?!" one of the drunks asked, his head clearly locked on the woman who now looked away from her work to see what the commotion was about.

"Looks to me like we got a traitor here trying to poison the minds of decent PLANT citizens with cowardice and Natural lovin'," the second simpleton replied, sounding moderately offended. "Can't be letting that slide, now, can we?"

The three advanced towards the woman with ill intent but oddly enough the lady wasn't showing signs of fear or backing away. If anything she seemed more defiant than before and planned on letting the three ZAFT members know it.

"If anyone's a traitor to the PLANTs it's anyone who thinks fighting a war with the Naturals is a good thing," the lady said in a voice that reminded him of a mouthy Melissa Joan Hart. "We lost thousands of our own when Junius Seven was destroyed and this war is just killing even more of us! Where's the sense in that?!"

"They gotta pay! For everyone we've lost!" one of the morons yelled back passionately enough that it was likely that he personally had lost someone.

"So we make them pay for killing a lot of our people by getting more of our people killed?!" the lady asked sarcastically and with no real fear. "Yeah! That makes a lot of sense!"

Obviously completely lacking even a below average survival instinct, he thought as he cringed at the ill-conceived words. When you're outnumbered by angry people with their judgment impaired, you DON'T throw more fuel on the fire.

"So what? We're supposed to just lay down and let those shitheads kill us?!" the second man asked incredulously.

"Of course not but killing them isn't the only solution!" the lady replied defiantly. "They don't want to die any more than we do. We need to make it clear to them that we have no plans of going anywhere near Earth ever again or doing anything to harm them! The only reason they're bothering with us is because they believe we plan on killing or enslaving them all! If we can convince enough of them that we don't intend to do either, whatever idiots are still around can be contained!"

"So we're supposed to beg them to let us live! Bow our head like PETS!" the third guy yelled, getting dangerously angry. "TO HELL WITH THAT! WE ARE THE EVOLVED FORM OF MANKIND! THEY WILL BOW TO US OR DIE!"

"Heh… you sound just like those Blue Cosmos fanatics," the lady sneered, sounding convinced of her moral superiority.

"Meer! Wait here!" he said before sprinting for the woman's side, certain now that violence would erupt.

He wasn't wrong; with that final insult the ZAFT the three men instantly took on hostile attack postures and one strode forward, fist raised to deliver the first blow. Scooping up an empty bottle from the ground he threw it at the man's head, causing the attacker to stumble, reverse course and cry out as blood began to trickle down the side of his face. The other two were so startled by this that they froze, giving him the time he needed to stand between the protester and her antagonists.

"You guys have had a good night and with a bit of patching can keep on having a good one somewhere else," he said as politely and as calmly as he could. "Don't let one lady with strange thoughts ruin it."

"And who do you think you are? Another race traitor?!" the injured attacker asked angrily, reaching up to feel the wound only to come back with blood on his hand.

"Nope. Just a guy who believes that people have a right to think what they want so long as it doesn't hurt others," he replied as he evaluated each off duty soldier for strengths and weaknesses. "You might not like what the lady has to say but that doesn't give you the right to attack her. Now leave her alone or you'll have to get through me first."

"Fine by us!" the injured man yelled before going on the attack again.

Can't seriously hurt these guys, he thought as he ducked the punch before grabbing the man's wrist and executing a throw. The more this stands out in the reports, the more likely ZAFT will take interest and investigate me. My I.D. files might stand up to civilian scrutiny but there's a chance that the military might be able to see through them.

Besides that he doubted that the lady he was helping would approve of him using excessive force on her attackers even if he doubted that they would've shown similar restraint with her. All he wanted to do was to scare the men off, then advise the lady to take the possibility of violence more seriously before leaving the immediate area with Meer. That wouldn't happen if the lady decided to read him the riot act for going too far.

As the other two men came at him he surged forward, taking them by surprise and letting him get the first move in while they recovered. He rammed his elbow into the solar plexus of the closest man before using the same elbow to deliver a blow to the same person's jaw. The two hit combo proved to be enough to send the man to the ground in a daze, allowing him to focus on the last one, who'd gotten close enough to successfully launch an attack of his own. This came in the form of a passable roundhouse kick and, had it been executed a little earlier, he wouldn't have been in a position to do what came next.

Namely dropping into a crouch and performing a leg sweep on the man's planted leg.

With nothing to keep him upright the man fell to the ground, allowing him to go into a roll that gave his elbow enough momentum to strike the downed man's jaw, knocking him out cold.

Getting back to his feet, he turned to face the first man he'd engaged and decided to give the fools one more chance to back down.

"Save yourselves further embarrassment and just go," he said, making it clear with his tone that he expected to be victorious one way or another. "If you don't say anything and I don't say anything, no one will know."

He hoped no one would know but, if the protestor lady decided to boast about this to all her friends, the truth of what'd happened would get around.

Still, it looked like the man still had at least two or three functioning brain cells but no sense of loyalty because he took one look at his friends before dashing off as quick as he could in his intoxicated state. The dazed one that he'd hit in the jaw with his elbow, fortunately, was made of better stuff as he threw his unconscious friend over his shoulder before finding someplace else to be.

Taking a deep breath, he let go of his battle edge before turning to the protestor lady, who apparently hadn't decided to make tracks while he dealt with her attempted assailants.

"Well, here's hoping they decide to protect their reps and keep this to themselves," he said casually, hoping she'd be receptive to what he had to say next. "Still, you should probably think a bit before you get a trio of drunks pissed at you. Sooner or later you'll get into a painful pinch you can't get out of."

"This isn't the first time I've had to deal with jackasses like them," Protestor lady said dismissively towards his warning. "I would have been fine."

"If you say so," he said, not finding the need to force her to see things his way. "But you might want to invest in a little backup. Just a thought."

With that he walked back over to Meer, hoping that his little bit of combat hadn't thrown her too much.

…He really, really should have seen the slap coming.

"WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING!?" Meer yelled at him with a mix of anger and worry. "THEY COULD'VE HURT YOU!"

Nope.

Not thrown at all.

Right.

Residential District, Later, Meer's POV

"You done now?" Heero asked casually as her apartment building came into view.

"Yeah," she replied, deciding that lecturing him all the way there was punishment enough. "I guess I was just a little shocked. Those were ZAFT soldiers and you beat them like they were kids."

"What can I say? My dad was a serious hardass when it came to making sure I could defend myself," Heero said with a shrug. "But after I went a little too far with the neighborhood bully I decided to keep it under wraps unless it was absolutely necessary."

While some people might've been a bit skeptical about this explanation, she decided that it'd probably be better for her mental state to just accept it and move on. After all, the alternative was wondering just who Heero's father was, if he was in ZAFT, and just how bad the 'too far' incident had really been. That'd lead to questions bothering her for weeks until she tried to find out more and that could lead to opening a can of worms best left closed.

Besides, she had to admit that had Heero not intervened the protestor probably would've gotten beaten severely while the three men would've been let go with a slap on the wrist. While not as violent as the trio had been, it was indeed the common consensus amongst the coordinator people that their war against the naturals was justified. More than that there were less than a handful of people who hadn't lost someone either to the Junius Seven tragedy or to the war already, so anyone opposing their desire for revenge would not be well received at all. She was conflicted over letting the protestor speak her mind and thinking that it would be best if the lady kept her opinions to herself.

She'd seen the news reports on the war, everyone had, and she'd also seen the polls regarding how many people supported the war against the Naturals on Earth. It was almost a hundred percent and, while polls weren't anything to base a decision on, it did imply that the pro-war faction had the anti-war faction decidedly outnumbered. Even if the anti-war faction screamed every day for a year for the war to stop, it wouldn't work so long as those in power were mostly in favor of the fighting and couldn't be persuaded to change their mind.

In the face of such futility, what point was there in protesting?

Then a question popped into her mind that she felt like asking just so that she'd know the answer. "What do you think of the war, Heero?"

For a moment it looked like he wouldn't answer, as though he was concerned that his answer might bother her, but he chose to respond to her honesty with honesty.

"Honestly I think hate started this and hate is keeping it going," he replied as they advanced down the sidewalk. "Only when the source of the hate is dealt with can peace be given a chance to spread."

"You mean you agree with ZAFT?" she asked, finding it a little odd that Heero would be with them but oppose three of their officers.

"No. Hate exists on both sides, some natural but mostly artificial, and both ZAFT and the Earth militaries are keeping it going," he replied, disgust just beneath the surface. "Hate of what they feared led to fanatical groups like Blue Cosmos being created. That hate led to the attack on the peace conference at city of Copernicus. That hate led to them blowing up Junius Seven, causing the grief of those who lost someone to turn to hatred as well since they want to return their pain back upon those who they believe caused it. This has led to people on both sides manipulating the masses into believing as they do, or at least thinking that there's no other choice. Both want to achieve their goals and they don't care how many people need to be tossed in the meat grinder to do so. The only way peace is going to be given a chance is if the people who started this war and keep it going are brought to justice and stripped of any ability to mess with things."

"But the news reports all said that it was the Earth Alliance who destroyed Junius Seven. They even showed pictures of one of their warships firing the nuclear missile," she said, remembering that terrible day all too well.

"Only an idiot believes the news. The governments on both sides control the media, or at least have the ability to control the flow of information. The only way to find the truth is to look for it yourself and use your own brain to figure things out," he said dismissively as they entered her apartment building. "Besides, it probably wouldn't have taken much for Blue Cosmos to get enough people into the Alliance military to carry out that attack. I don't know how many that'd be but I doubt it'd be impossible if you planned things out enough."

"Isn't that all a bit far-fetched?" she asked, not quite willing to believe that a Natural terrorist group infiltrated the Alliance and became powerful enough to destroy Junius Seven. "My teacher always told me that the simplest explanation is often the right one. Wouldn't it be simpler just to assume that the Alliance was behind it all?"

"I'll admit I don't have any evidence to back my theory up but it makes more sense than the Earth declaring war on the PLANTs. World leaders have the lives of every citizen under them to think about. A war with the PLANTs wouldn't benefit their people at all and would in fact put them in greater danger," he explained, keeping his eyes focused on the destination. "We're supposed to be smarter and more physically capable than they are. We also possess a technological advantage over them. Even before Junius Seven this was the case. No one in power would rationally pick a fight with an enemy that had a tactical advantage over their own forces. If something existed to make them and the people irrational enough to forget the facts, only then would they start a war. The only answer is that there's some third party that wants this war to happen and the only group I know of is Blue Cosmos."

Put into those terms she had to admit that it made sense. Before the terrorist attack at the city of Copernicus, tensions had been high between Naturals and Coordinators but neither side had openly stated their intention to declare war on the other. It wasn't until after the attack on the peace conference, wherein Supreme Chairman Siegel Clyne was the sole survivor, that the fuse was lit since the Earth Alliance used his survival to implicate the PLANTs as the instigators. When the nuclear attack on Junius Seven occurred at the hands of the Alliance military, the bomb finally went off and both sides stepped fully onto the battlefield of war.

If there was someone manipulating both sides for an as yet unknown purpose, then the war had to be ended by any means necessary so the true instigators could be brought to justice.

Upon reaching the front door of her apartment building she realized that that their date had reach its conclusion because, while she'd entertained the idea of taking things further, time and the topic of discussion had diluted the mood somewhat.

Still, there was one thing she wanted to do before she went inside.

Taking out her phone, she got as close as she could to Heero while holding the device up to face the two of them before clicking the button. With a flash of light that temporarily blinded the two of them, she took a step back to examine the picture that she'd just taken. While it would've been nicer if she could've gotten Heero to smile at the same time, she had there was still a certain charm to seeing him taken by surprise.

"Something to remember this night with," she explained before gesturing for him to get his phone out. "Take out your phone and I'll send you a copy."

With only a second's hesitation he took out his phone and, with a few quick taps of the buttons on her phone, she wirelessly sent the photo to his phone.

"I'll try to get it printed out into a photograph," he said as he put his phone away.

"Same here," she said even though some of her friends would say the format for preserving photos was outdated. "I'll see you tomorrow at the theatre, okay?"

"Sure thing," he said before doing something she hadn't expected: He stepped forward and, before she could stop him, leaned in to give her a kiss on the cheek before turning around and walking away.

She was left stunned for a few minutes since it was completely unexpected but, when her brain finally resumed normal service, she couldn't help but reach up with on hand to touch where his lips had. Most guys would've insisted on a kiss on the lips even though it'd just been the first date. Others might've even pushed for a full on grope session in her apartment. She'd seen it happen with a few of her classmates and, while none of them had such dates end badly, she had heard rumors of what could happen if a girl did not 'put out' when their boyfriend asked for it.

It warmed her heart and, as a byproduct her cheeks since this act made it clear that he wasn't like other guys and wanted a more sincere relationship with her.

Turning around to the doors of her building she began walking, all the while a small smile never left her face.

It was a fierce battle between two mobile suits.

One was colored white, red and blue while the other was just a red as well as white but both were fighting each other with such passion that made the fighting all the more enthralling.

An overhand swing with an energy sword that sprung from the forearm of the red-white one was blocked by the other one's energy broadsword-like weapon. Another attempt was made but was blocked by a forearm and shoved to the side so that the blue-red-white one could deliver a straight right punch to the face of the red-white one, knocking it onto its back. Then, either due to damage or loss of power, the red-white one's swords vanished and the color drained away to shades of grey as ominous as a gravestone. Sensing a chance to deliver the final blow, the red-white-blue one raised its sword up over its head, preparing to cleave the enemy mobile suit in half up the middle.

However out of nowhere another mobile suit colored red and black appeared as though it possessed some sort of optical camouflage tech, carrying a lance in its sole remaining hand. It charged the red-blue-white mobile suit before thrusting the tip forward, intent on running it through the one who threatened to kill its ally. Its target proved to be too skillful as it managed to duck under the lunge to swing its sword horizontally in a move that would likely cut its enemy in half at the waist. Surprisingly, though, before the blade could cut fully through the mobile suit the red-blue-white one let go of the hilt and backed away, as though it hadn't realized what it'd done and only now comprehended. It reminded him of an honorable soldier giving too much leeway to their instincts only to find that they'd shoved their blade into the stomach of an innocent civilian. Such a person would be in shock, would wish to do something to save the person he'd unintentionally injured, but in this case at least it was far too late.

Judging by how far the blade had cut into the red-black mobile suit, it had almost certainly reached the pilot and, even if the person inside had not been killed instantly, what came next would finish the job.

Without warning the point of view changed to inside the fatally wounded cockpit to show that indeed the weapon had cut deep and that its energy edge was at best an inch or less away from the pilot's body. Any mobile suit pilot could tell you that there was a minimum safe distance you needed to keep from a beam saber when it was active and this pilot was definitely too close.

You could not see the pilot's face as they were somewhat slumped in their chair but that changed as they proved with their raising gaze that they weren't quite dead yet. Time seemed to slow as this happened, as though someone wanted to drag out the moment for some unknown purpose, but when the glass face plate came fully into view the pilot's identity could be discerned.

"Athrun, escape-" was all the pilot could say before the close proximity to the energy edge caused a spontaneous rupture of all major veins, coating the interior of the helmet in blood.

BBOOOOMM!

All at once the view switched back to the world outside the mobile suit just in time to see it give off a few more sparks of power before detonating in a fiery, improvised funeral pyre. None who bore witness to this end could move, couldn't even speak for a time, but as the horrible truth sunk in the weakened ally of the fallen screamed the pilot's name in a storm of grief and sadness.

"NICOL!"

Xander's Apartment, Three Hours Before Daytime Lighting, One Week Later

Xander's POV

"NICOL!" he exclaimed in urgency as he sat up in his bed, heart pounding in his chest.

His excited state didn't last long as he soon desired to calm down and this allowed the echo of the Wing Gundam's pilot to assert itself somewhat by bringing the composure of the perfect soldier forward. As a result the emotions, sadness and loss, went from real things to mere wisps of fog inside of him, allowing him to calmly analyze what'd just happened.

Obviously the first possibility was that it was just a bad dream conjured up by his subconscious in reaction to Q's warning a week ago. However the detail in the fight or more specifically the mobile suits made him think otherwise. While he'd seen a few ZAFT mobile suits since arriving in this reality, they tended to prefer the single swiveling eye design. He knew that the Earth Alliance didn't possess mobile suits and tended to prefer the mobile armors along with conventional space fighter designs. He hadn't heard anything to the contrary either during his visits to the Amalfi home or in random conversations he'd heard during his time living in this PLANT. While it was possible that his subconscious had simply created them using bits and pieces from Heero's memories, he didn't think so. Aside from color scheme's there was little to connect the mobile suits from Heero's world, like the Shenlong or Heavy Arms.

The only conclusion he could come to was that his mind was showing him mobile suits he'd never seen before and didn't have knowledge to fabricate from scratch.

That left him with only one possibility.

"Impatient for me to do something, Q?" he asked to the empty room before him.

With a flash of white light the omnipotent being clad in a familiar Starfleet uniform appeared, his usual trickster smile on his face.

"While it's been amusing to see you engage in your tedious mating rituals, there's only so much a superior being such as myself can take," Q replied, showing his contempt for human practices. "Besides, we're quickly approaching the point of no return. Nicol and his friends are looking for their prey in the Orb nation on Earth. I figure at best you have twenty-four human hours before all you'll be able to do is send the Amalfi family flowers and a card in their time of mourning."

"I told you before. This isn't my world. I don't have the right to interfere," he said, reiterating his position. "Even if I did interfere with the war with the Wing Zero, its existence would only escalate things since both sides would try to get their hands on it to give themselves an advantage. With only secondary power sources my defeat and capture would only be a matter of time."

"How like your costume's personae. You view everything from a cold, logical point of view and refuse to let even a little emotion enter into things," Q said drolly with a roll of his eyes. "Then let me present that personae with some cold information of my own. In order to find a way to restore the Wing Zero to full power you need the resources of the PLANTs along with the scientists who live here. If they fall to the Earth Alliance forces you'll have no choice but to relocate to Earth and start your work from scratch, lengthening your stay in this dimension even more. That's, of course, assuming that the 'Naturals' have anything that can help you in the first place."

Point.

In the solar system only the Coordinators and their PLANTs had the level of technology that could get him even close to devising a means of restoring the Wing Zero to full power. Even then it would take time to create since he had to use roundabout methods to get a few choice scientists to work on the problem without exposing the true purpose of the work. While the media and what few sources he had failed to accurately depict the status of the war, it did sound as though it would be dragging out for quite a while. Sure, ZAFT troops had managed to take what the Earth thought would be a swift victory and turn it into an almost year-long war, but that didn't mean that they'd be claiming ultimate victory soon. The Earth would fight back with everything it had and, the scarier things got, the more lines they'd be willing to cross to in order to fight that which was threatening them. Considering how nuts people could get, he really didn't want to find out the hard way what natural born humans were capable of when they were staring defeat in the face. Even if he managed to escape to Earth, Q was right that their tech and scientists weren't quite as advanced as Coordinators.

He'd be in for something of a wait.

"As for your concern that they'd tear your suit apart and use it to make even nastier weapons, I think you're giving them too much credit," Q said, showing his true opinion of this Earth's humans. "They barely have the potential to solve your fuel problem. The odds of them correctly figuring out twenty-fourth century Federation technology enough to do something with it, you'd stand a better chance of having a ten woman harem filled with supermodels."

Yeah. Not happening.

He might've gained some extra traits from Heero but no one who watched the Gundam Wing anime series would say that the character was a ladies man who knew how to charm the hotties. As for him, he was the school outcast who none of the pretty girls would even deign to notice, much less seriously consider as a potential boyfriend. He'd considered for a time that perhaps he might've lucked out when Buffy's Calling as the Slayer cut her off from joining the popular but then she met tall, dark and undead. It was irritating to think you'd finally be given a shot at the brass ring of girlfriends only to have something you loath beat you to the punch. His mind had always been aflutter with reasons why a romantic relationship between Buffy and Angel was a mistake, but neither the Slayer nor Willow would listen to him. They always wrote it off as jealousy or thoroughly embraced the idea that 'love conquered all' and that was when they weren't cooing over the similarities between Romeo and Juliet.

It was truly amazing how many fans of the romance genre failed to remember that the play ended with the two lovers dead because of a botched plan.

So the idea of him somehow pulling together a harem of beauties who genuinely loved him and whom he loved back… snowball chance in hell.

The idea that it would be in his tactical best interest to go to Earth and save Nicol as well as lend a hand towards those who wanted peace was a LITTLE better than Q wanting it done for his own amusement.

And yet…

"If it makes you feel any better, I promise to give you fair warning of any incident wherein there is the slightest chance of Federation tech falling into the hands of either side," Q said, sounding a little more impatient. "If something does get blown off the Wing Zero, I'll recover it personally."

That would eliminate the possibility of future tech falling into the wrong hands.

However Q had a history of bending the truth and twisting words to deceive people, so if he was going to do this he would have to be extra precise in the wording of the promise.

"So you promise to give me advance warning when I'll be going into a battle that could result in any piece of the Wing Zero coming into the possession of either the Earth Alliance or the PLANTs?" he asked, choosing his words as carefully as possible. "You also promise that if any piece gets blown off of my Gundam you'll recover it BEFORE ANYONE gets their hands on it and transport it someplace safe from anyone but the two of us. Is that correct?"

Q looked oddly pleased by his words.

"Indeed that is correct and, by wording it so, you've proven you're more competent than Jean-Luc," Q said with a grin that implied he'd be telling the Starfleet captain all about it later.

"Fine. I'll get in contact with the necessary people and get the ball rolling," he said, finally agreeing to do as the omnipotent being desired. "With luck I'll be flying to Earth within fourteen hours."

"See you there," Q said before flashing out of existence with his usual fanfare.

I just know I'm gonna wind up regretting this, he thought as he looked over at the clock. Too early to contact Captain McGillis. I'll wait a few more hours before making the call.

In the meantime he would begin tying up any loose ends in the PLANT so his absence wouldn't be seen as odd. There were enough people he'd allowed himself to get close to without divulging his true nature that, if he didn't feed them some sort of excuse, they'd draw attention to his absence, potentially causing ZAFT to make the connection between him and the Wing Zero. Perhaps he would simply tell them that he had a family emergency that he needed to see too and that the place he would be going to didn't have the greatest communications gear. It was a fact that the various PLANTs were quite old, so it was only natural that some of their systems would likewise be old and were only replaced when necessary. He could get onto his computer and look through the system for a suitable location that'd mesh well with the cover story. Add to that the few times he'd be able to send messages by bouncing them through a dozen or so satellites and he'd be able to maintain the ruse that he was nowhere near Earth. Things might get a bit complicated if anyone actually tried to find him despite his verbal attempts to dissuade them from 'coming' to him. He'd have to construct his lie so that they believed he was almost always on the move and therefore could not be pinned down to one location.

It might cost him extra but he could probably convince McGillis to plant a few people in the right places so that if anyone came looking for him, these people would claim to have seen or met him.

It's going to be a busy day, he thought as he looked out the window at the still nighttime-lit interior of the PLANT.

Junk Guild Docks, PLANT Maius Eight Hours Later

Captain Alasdair McGillis's POV

"So what's this all about? I get a call from you after weeks of nothing about heading to 'Never Neverland'. What's up?" he asked as he watched the young man walk into his place of business.

From the first time he'd met Heero Yuy, he'd felt like the young man was one helluva complication and would lead to many other complications down the road. Nevertheless the sight of his mobile suit and its design had stoked his curiosity, so he'd helped the kid hide it on one of the resource asteroids that barely had anything worth mining anymore. It was way in the back and he'd even set up some 'keep out' and 'dangerous' signs at every possible path to where it was located with the necessary paperwork with PLANT Resources all filed away.

He had a friend there who owed him and wasn't smart enough to see anything off about keeping a section of a resource asteroid cordoned off.

If his friend chose to inquire he'd just make a few jokes then imply that he was storing a few slightly contraband items there for his own personal enjoyment. His friend would just chuckle and ask to set a little aside for him.

"Suffice it to say that I've received some information that makes waiting an unacceptable course of action," Heero replied in his usual ice cold demeanor. "Is the ship ready to go?"

"Of course! My Jenny is always ready to go," he replied with a proud smile on his face. "All that's needed is to get on board and clear departure with PLANT Control."

"Then let's get going," Heero said before heading towards the door that'd lead to the Junk Guild's dock where the Jenny was waiting for them.

Moving over to the intercom he pressed the button that'd put him through to the ship.

"Our passenger is here. Start going down the pre-flight checklist and get things rolling with PLANT Control," he said in his command voice. "I want to be in space as soon as the two of us are onboard."

"Aye, aye captain," his second in command, Janet Higgins, said through the intercom. "We'll be ready."

Releasing the button he followed Heero but, due to his curious nature, he couldn't help but wonder what information could've prompted the young man to change his original plan. The teenager hadn't been overly open about it but had said that, due to the absence of certain fuel components, the mobile suit wasn't able to operate at full power for very long. Heero had come to PLANT Maius in the hopes of discovering a suitable substitute that'd allow it to work as it was meant to or at least get it three quarters of the way there. That had been a while ago and, while he knew nothing of the suit's inner workings, he could tell just by looking at it that it'd require a fuel just as unique and rare as the mobile suit itself. Indeed, he'd made a mental bet that it'd probably be a decade before any progress was made and perhaps that might get stretched out even more if the war with the Naturals went on too long.

While Janet was the only one he'd told, he personally didn't want anything to do with the war. This was one of the reasons why he'd joined the Junk Guild in the first place. Even before the sparks that started the war occurred, he knew the direction things were headed in and how far those in favor of war would go to make it a reality.

Fools! The whole lot of them!

In terms of numbers and resources the Earth Alliance had them beat several times over and, while the PLANTs might have the edge in enhanced soldiers as well as technology, the best they could hope for was mutually assured destruction. The worst they could hope for? All the PLANTs destroyed, almost all Coordinators killed with their destruction and any survivors hunted down either by soldiers or indoctrinated civilians.

The only chance the PLANTs had for survival was to make fighting between the Naturals and them impossible. That could be accomplished either by devising an invulnerable defense that'd nullify all attacks or for the diplomats to give everything they had, including their lives, to negotiating a lasting peace. Both methods seemed unlikely since much of their technology was based on concepts and facts that'd been born on Earth. As a result, any defense they could come up with would eventually be overcome by the Naturals, forcing the designing of a new obstruction to buy them even more time. At the same time diplomacy didn't sound likely either because there were fools like Zala who sabotaged the efforts or because there were those in the Earth Alliance that believed what Blue Cosmos believed. All he could do was stay out of the fighting and hope that someone smarter than him figured out a way to end things with as little bloodshed as possible.

Upon reaching the hangar he couldn't help but smile at his ship Jenny even though he saw her every day and sometimes spent half the day on her when he had to ferry cargo to the other PLANTs. He supposed it was because she was the first ship he served on as captain and because he'd had a great many wonderful moments on it over the years. It was for the memories that had been made and the good times yet to be had that he smiled.

Heading to the boarding ramp, he spotted Janet waiting for him in her usual at ease posture, where she held out a digital clipboard for him.

"Here's the final check on the cargo we'll be hauling as well as approval from PLANT Control," Janet said as he took the digital clipboard to give it a once over.

Reading and scrolling through the information, he found that everything was in order from the cover story that'd explain their visit to the almost forgotten resource asteroid. Unless ZAFT intelligence had gotten even more paranoid, everything should go smoothly.

If anyone else in the Junk Guild found out about this, he'd have some serious complaining to deal with. Their treaties with the various factions of the war had some pretty serious stipulations and while Heero's mobile suit hadn't strictly speaking violated any of them some other parties might not see it that way. ZAFT and the Earth Alliance would likely fabricate some train of thought that would get the mobile suit turned over to them. Orb would likely keep to the middle road until one of the two militaristic factions exerted just the right kind of pressure to gain their support.

All in all it would be best if no one found out and, out of respect for someone who wished to keep himself off the battlefield, he'd do what he could to keep the people who knew down to the hose he could trust to keep the facts to themselves.

"Looks good. Heero, let's get on board so we can get this show on the road!" he said to the one who'd asked for this little trip.

All he got was a nod as the teenager walked up the ramp.

"Still has a lively personality, I see," Janet said with a grin.

"Yep. The life of the party," he agreed as he followed the youth up the ramp.

In all the time since he'd first met the lad, he'd kept his personality cool and professional, never giving the impression that he wanted their relationship to be anything but business. As with any business relationship there was something both sides gained from the interaction. From Heero he gained some amazing innovations in technology that, while not too far ahead of what PLANT scientists were already working on, was still amazing. The only stipulation that they had to follow was to leave Heero's involvement out of it. Under no circumstances was anyone to know he was the source and to that end he'd gained the cooperation of some of the better engineers and technicians he knew. In exchange for these innovations he provided was the continued secret keeping of the mobile suit and the promise that he'd transport Heero to the resource asteroid whenever asked.

As far as deals went, it wasn't too bad.

However on their way to the bridge Heero stopped and he saw the young man's entire body tense as though preparing for a fight. Following his passenger's gaze he saw Trant Bilmon and understood the problem.

"He's Trant Bilmon. We hired him on a little over a month ago as an engineer when Jay couldn't handle the workload by himself anymore," he explained, hoping that this would satisfy the young man. "Naturally I ran a background check on him and even asked around to make sure his job references were on the up and up. Everything checked out."

"Not exactly ironclad," Heero said, only sounding minimally dissuaded from considering Trant a threat. "ZAFT could fake the background information in the databases and use their business connections to provide capable liars to support Trant's background information."

"Isn't that a little paranoid? We've done nothing to arouse their suspicion and the Junk Guild has non-aggression pact with ZAFT," he said incredulously. "Putting a spy in here would be a violation of that treaty. They'd never do it without a damn good reason and we haven't given them any."

"That you know of," Heero pointed out before resuming his walk to the bridge. "Keep an eye on him."

Shaking his head with a chuckle he began walking again but, even as he walked, he couldn't help but wonder if the young man might be on to something. It wasn't logical, it wasn't rational, but his instincts felt strong and he'd learned to trust his instincts.

"Captain on the bridge!" Janet yelled as they arrived and he had to roll his eyes at that.

Even though they were not a military vessel and only had the bare minimum when it came to a command structure, the discipline of respecting the chain of command was there. He wanted for the people under him to be comfortable where they worked but at the same time always know who was in charge and what their job was. He always listened to what they had to say but decisions couldn't be done by committee. There had to be one person in command leading the way and the rest had to be willing to follow that person with as little hesitation as possible.

It didn't matter where it happened because, in any crisis, situation hesitation could mean the difference between success and failure.

"Everything ready to go, Robby?" he asked his helmsperson as he walked up to his chair.

"You betcha, boss," Robby replied, giving him a thumbs up.

"Then let's get going. It's a little over an hour to the resource satellite and I don't plan on making Heero wait longer than that," he said, sitting down in his chair before taking on an at ease posture.

With that the ship rose off the ground, maneuvering thrusters pushed them down the corridor of the docking bay, before finally entering the void of space. Once they were far enough away from the docking bay the main engines were ignited, increasing their speed until it reached the maximum allowed within PLANT controlled space for Junk Guild ships. Robby maneuvered them onto the heading that'd been plotted to take them to their destination soon after. Once that was done there was precious little to do except wait.

"Janet? Could you escort our passenger to the guest quarters?" he asked his second in command. "I have a feeling he's going to be quite busy after he concludes our business at the asteroid and could probably use some time to prepare."

"Aye, aye captain," Janet said with a mock salute before using the same arm to gesture to the bridge's entry. "This way, Heero."

All he got from his young partner was a single look of significance before the teenager left to follow Janet. Now there were all sorts of messages one could take from the look, ranging from simply a request to be informed once they arrived at their destination to a reiteration of his earlier warning about Trant.

Perhaps it was meant to be both.

"I realize I am new to the crew, Captain McGillis, and that this is likely an impertinent question, but… why does that boy want to go to a forgotten resource asteroid?" Trant asked, sounding only mildly curious. "What could be there that he could possibly want?"

"It is because it's been forgotten that it's so useful when it comes to storing certain items that aren't strictly speaking legal," he replied, keeping close to the truth but not providing details. "Nothing too dangerous and certainly nothing that'd make any PLANT police detective's career if he found them, but it'd be annoying for everyone if they were discovered. Indeed, it's no worse than a stash of recreational drugs that are considered illegal by the law but also are ignored since we do not intent to either profit from them or distribute them to others."

He knew quite a few people in his line of work that had their own personal stashes of contraband and illegal items that'd get them fined, if not sent to prison if found by the police. He, too, had a stash but he kept it in hidden compartments that only he knew the locations of rather than on the old resource asteroid. So if Trant's history was real rather than something fabricated by ZAFT, then it should come as no surprise to the man and his curiosity should be satisfied.

"And you're counting on the usefulness of the Junk Guild to discourage the police from looking into the matter even further. After all, causing trouble between the PLANTs and the Guild over something so small would be ridiculous," Trant said, apparently seeing the big picture as it'd been painted.

"Not necessarily but if that's the way the police patrols decide to interpret things… works for me!" he said with a devil may care grin.

"Same here," Trant said with a more reserved grin. "Thanks for answering my question, captain."

With that his newest crewmember bowed slightly out of respect before walking away.

Walking away in a manner he had seen once before.

Maybe Heero isn't crazy after all, he thought as his mind produced memories of ZAFT soldiers.

He'd have to keep an eye on the newcomer. If Trant really was a ZAFT spy then that meant trouble for the Junk Guild since it meant that someone in the PLANTs military arm was getting ambitious or paranoid.

Possibly both.

Resource Asteroid N0-T, An Hour and a Half Later

Xander's POV

Definitely not who he appears to be, he thought as he glanced over his shoulder at the crew of the Jenny. But that doesn't mean he's ZAFT. Not necessarily.

Indeed, the fictional Gundam pilot Heero Yuy's memories told him that there were often many factions involved in a war besides the ones officially recorded in history. The Colonies, the Earth Sphere Alliance, OZ, the Romefeller Foundation, the Treize faction and White Fang were all factions that had their own agenda's in the era in which his mental imprint had lived. In this war between the Naturals of Earth and the Coordinators of the PLANTs he had no doubt that there were factions, organizations and groups of people who saw opportunities to be seized.

Depending on what goal could be achieved through infiltrating the Junk Guild, it could be someone known or someone completely unknown.

Gripping hold of one of the old utility pipes that ran throughout the asteroid, he planted his feet before pushing off to send him down the tunnel that'd bring him closer to the Wing Zero's hiding spot.

He knew that the secondary power sources were at maximum capacity already since the computer onboard had given him an estimate before he'd left it for PLANT Maius. When added to the controlled environment of the asteroid's interior, he didn't anticipate any problems on start up or on the journey to Earth. During their journey to the asteroid he'd called up everything about the Gundam's performance capabilities as well as the rate at which certain systems would consume energy. The fake memories he'd inherited from Heero Yuy weren't complete but it did give him enough information to make a couple of educated guesses. While with the multi-vector impulse engines that had replaced the Wing Zero Gundam's traditional method of air and space propulsion it'd be easy to propel the mobile suit to just under the speed of light. However, based on the rate at which the energy would be consumed, he'd only be able to maintain such a speed for five minutes at best before the Gundam would drop from the sky. As a result he would have to keep his speed closer to what the top speed of the Wing Zero was prior to its upgrade with Starfleet technology. By his estimation it should still put him a full head and shoulders above what ZAFT mobile suits were capable, as well as whatever aircraft the Earth Alliance might possess.

As for his weaponry, the beam saber, the shoulder mounted phase gatling cannons and the tri-barreled Buster Rifle would also consume power but, with the right strategy, he could make the most of each weapon.

Besides, it's not like I plan on doing any fighting, he thought as he reached a familiar intersection. I just plan on zooming in, beaming Nicol out of whatever situation he's in and then hauling ass off the battlefield.

The use of the built in transporter system would consume a respectable amount of power but it'd be worth it if he could save Nicol from death. He knew that his friend's father was on the PLANT Supreme Council and that he was on the moderate side, but the death of his son could be enough to send the man right into Zala's waiting arms. So his rescue operation had two rewards: his friend would live and the moderate faction wouldn't lose one of its members to the opposition. Once he was sure that Nicol had recovered from his wounds he'd drop him off at the closest ZAFT base. If Nicol regained consciousness after the rescue and saw him with the Wing Zero he'd have to go into hiding after dropping his friend off. He'd probably have to find a way to surgically alter his appearance if he wanted to return to one of the PLANTs.

While he'd like to believe that Nicol could be reasoned with and convinced to leave the identity of the Wing Zero's pilot a mystery, he had to consider the possibility that his friend's military training might oblige him to inform his superiors. They hadn't been friends long enough for a bond stronger than the one of duty that'd likely been formed between Nicol and ZAFT. The most he could probably expect was for his friend to do all he could to ensure that the meetings between him and his superiors ended favorably for both sides.

It wouldn't.

He'd remain faithful to his position of not providing them with advanced technology for their war machine and they'd remain determined to acquire it by any means necessary. If acquiring it proved to be impossible, they'd almost certainly try to destroy both him as well as the Wing Zero to keep it from landing in Earth Alliance hands. Nicol would likely try to plead both with him and with ZAFT to be reasonable, to try and get along, but he'd inevitably fail.

Better for all concerned that he do everything he could to keep Nicol out of a position where he'd have to choose between his duty and a friend.

When he arrived at the corner of the resource asteroid that concealed the Wing Zero, he could see that McGillis had been busy making sure no one entered it, using means that would not arouse suspicion. Warning signs, metal fences and other such things made it look as though it was merely unsafe to go any further and that would be enough to keep civilians out of it. As for the military and the government, they forgot about the place the moment it could no longer provide what they required. So unless someone did something to put cracks in the image of an empty and worthless hunk of space rock, no one would guess at what lay within.

When they finally arrived at the hiding place most people wouldn't see anything amiss.

However if they walked over to the far wall they'd discover the secret before they got halfway. Reaching into his pocket he took out the one thing he'd hid better than anything else when he'd arrived on PLANT Maius: the Starfleet Com-Badge that'd gone with his costume. Clicking it in just the right pattern and at just the right tempo, he entered an access code and, when it was done, the very air shimmered as the hologram generator disengaged. It wasn't a device that required power to be drawn directly from the Wing Zero and, at the rate it'd consume power, he could leave it running for two years before needing to recharge the power cell.

"I can never get over seeing it," McGillis said as the Wing Zero became fully visible. "Twice as big as most humanoid mobile suits out there and I'm betting twice as powerful."

"Something like that," Heero replied as he walked towards the mobile suit.

Upon reaching the leg, Heero opened up a small panel before placing his hand on the security pad within. Red light panned up and down before flashing green, confirming that the handprint he'd provided matched the one on file successfully. Next came a retinal scan and then a voice print comparison, making him roll his eyes mentally at the paranoia involved in all these security precautions. It was obvious that his costume personae hadn't wanted anyone in the cockpit other than him or someone he truly trusted. Still, when the final beep of confirmation sounded, he watched as the stomach hatch of the mobile suit open up and cord with a stirrup at the end descended to ground level.

"Thank you for the trip, Captain McGillis. You'd better get back to your ship, though," he said, turning to face the older man. "When Wing Zero and I get out of here it's gonna raise all kinds of alarms with ZAFT and, if they find out that you're even close to my departure point, they're gonna have questions. POINTED questions. I'll give you guys thirty minutes from takeoff to put as much distance between your ship and this asteroid as possible. Should be enough to give you plausible deniability."

Click.

"Oh, I'm afraid that that ship has already sailed," came a decidedly unfriendly voice from the rear of the group.

Naturally everyone turned towards the source not just to see who'd spoken but also to confirm the mental connection that had been made to the sound that'd preceded the statement. Standing behind them with a military grade handgun raised and ready to fire was none other than Trant Bilmon, looking decidedly cocky and not at all friendly.

Things only got worse when he pulled a radio from his pocket, used his thumb without looking to change the frequency setting and then pressed the transmit button after bringing it up to his mouth.

"This is Pit Spider to command. Authorization Alpha Nine Kilo Mike Three," Trant said in a way that could only be called military. "Have discovered a Prime asset in need of retrieval. Home in on my signal. I'll keep things peaceful until you get here."

"Mind explaining what's going on, Trant?" McGillis asked with a quiet anger to his voice.

"Simple. Ever since the destruction of Junius Seven it's become standard procedure for ZAFT to patrol the space around the remaining PLANTs for any unusual readings," Trant replied, apparently feeling arrogantly generous. "Anything that could hint at another attack by the Naturals of Earth. For a long time we got nothing but then about six months ago a blip showed up on this asteroid. We conducted covert searches to find the source but we never did. I wouldn't want to be a member of the search team over the next week or so when they get chewed out for being fooled by a hologram. ANYway, when sensor logs were reviewed for the time period leading up to the blip's first appearance, the only ship that came anywhere near here was yours, Captain McGillis. After that it was a simple matter of inserting me into your crew to keep an eye on things and call in the cavalry when the source of the blip was discovered. Now that it has, I see a nice promotion in my future and indefinite prison sentences for the rest of you."

"And your plans for Wing Zero?" he asked even though he had a pretty good idea what the answer would be.

"It certainly is an impressive mobile suit. More so than the ones developed by ORB at Heliopolis," Trant said with true admiration in his voice. "I imagine it'll be studied thoroughly and if any part of it can be used to give ZAFT a decisive advantage in the war then it'll be incorporated into every warship and mobile suit. So I guess some thanks are in order for providing the means by which we can finally crush the Earth once and for all."

"I figured as much," he said shaking his head in disappointment, "but I think you're overestimating the reward you'll receive. You found out about this by chance, by doing very little in the grand scheme of things, so at best you'll probably get a commendation put into your record along with a pat on the back. But I suppose that'd be enough for your average soldier. A single moment of recognition in an otherwise unremarkable career."

He could tell that Trant didn't like holes being poked into his sunny future in ZAFT or that he didn't have the potential to rise higher in the military ranks, thus making a name for himself.

"Still, I suppose there's once chance for you to earn a better future," he said, sounding mildly speculative. "If you got into Wing Zero and proved to your superiors that you could pilot it well enough, they might choose to make you its pilot permanently. I think it's safe to say that whoever can prove themselves capable of utilizing its full potential will get quite the spot in the history books. Don't you agree?"

He could see Trant considering the possibility but he could also see that the soldier hadn't quite lowered his guard just yet.

Smart.

Far too many people leapt right at opportunity when it appeared but took no time to consider the possibility that it was a trap. The caution showed that Bilmon was at least a little better than most young, ambitious soldiers.

"But if you think it's too much for you, then that's fine too. It'll just mean someone else will get the star treatment as its pilot instead of you," he said in a way that made it sound like he thought that that was the path that Trant was destined for.

"I'm just as good as any of the other soldiers of ZAFT!" Trant snapped, apparently having heard enough. "The one who will become the Wing Zero's pilot will be me."

With that the ZAFT infiltrator began moving for the stirruped cable, with his aim never failing to keep his targets in sight with a steady hand that was ready to fire at a moment's notice. Putting one foot in the stirrup fully he triggered the retract option on the cable, pulling Trant up and, once he reached the opening into the cockpit, he got in, only lowering his gun once he was too far in the cockpit. Immediately after the hatch closed and the eyes lit up as one by one the Gundam's systems began to come online.

He wasn't worried, though.

"Great! Nice going, Heero!" Robby griped in anger, fear and desperation. "Why'd you have to go and give him the idea of piloting the Wing Zero himself? Now we're likely to get killed when he busts his way out of here!"

"It won't get that far," he said, absolutely confident in his words.

"And why is that?" McGillis asked with a far more even voice.

The answer came a moment later when screams of fear, pain and anger erupted from the cockpit of the Wing Zero, making everyone look at it with apprehension.

Except him, of course, because he knew what was going on because it was the only play he had that did not risk the lives of McGillis and his loyal crew.

A moment later the eyes powered down, the hatch in the abdomen opened up and Trant fell out of it to the ground. It was only when the body came to a stop face up though that all present were gifted with a terrible sight. With a face frozen in fear and blood pouring out of every natural exit the head could provide Trant looked up at the ceiling with unseeing eyes. The crew of the Jenny looked down in horror at the sight, with only McGillis having the courage to step forward to confirm what the rest of them were assuming. A moment to press two fingers to the right spot on the throat and a few seconds more to be sure but the captain of the Jenny reached out with on hand and gently shut Trant's eyes.

"He's dead," McGillis said out loud, confirming what the rest suspected.

"What happened to him?" Janet asked, still recovering from the horror of it all.

"The upgraded Zero System happened to him," he replied coldly to the fool who got into a mobile suit that clearly possessed unknown technology.

"The what?!" Robby asked, looking like he realized that this had been the plan for getting rid of the ZAFT spy all along.

"Zoning and Emotional Range Omitted system. It was designed to decrease a pilot's reaction times and through advanced calculations the pilot is made aware of future outcomes and possible courses of action that can be taken to achieve total victory or defeat," he explained as he began to walk towards the Wing Zero. "It does this by establishing a direct connection to the pilot's mind and uploading the results of the calculations. Before I came to PLANT Maius I met some scientists that were able to upgrade the base system with what they called a hybrid between a neurogenic interface and a synaptic interface. Put it all together and you get a system that not just any mobile suit pilot can handle. Without a strong enough will to make sure that you're in control and not the system, your mind would be destroyed."

"You mean it fried his brain because he couldn't handle it?" McGillis asked, sounding like he wanted to understand it better.

"No. There was a final security precaution that I failed to deactivate before Trant made his move," he replied as he tapped his com-badge to get the cable to come down once more. "When the upgrades were installed the system did a full scan of my brain, both its organic composition and of my brainwaves, to be used as a base each time I got into the cockpit. If someone gets in with a brain that doesn't match what it has on file either as the primary user or an authorized one they're treated as an intruder. It then responds to the intruder by overloading the intruder's mind with a condensed stream of energy and data until the cockpit's internal sensors register the intruder's death."

"But what if someone you know tries to get into it for some reason? Someone who isn't authorized?" Janet asked, sounding shocked by the severity of the retaliatory response to intruders.

"Anyone I both know and trust I plan on informing beforehand so they don't try to get into the cockpit before I enter them as a registered occupant," he replied as the stirrup lowered to within his reach. "As for those that I just know but don't trust, I hope they have the common sense not to get into strange mobile suits without permission."

While there was a part of him that'd prefer to use a nonlethal method of incapacitating unauthorized people trying to use the Wing Zero, he couldn't afford to take the risk. Even with its matter/anti-matter reactor offline due to the absence of dilithium crystals and deuterium, it was still quite powerful as well as quite capable of quite a bit of destruction. It was his responsibility as the pilot to ensure that his Gundam was never used for evil and that meant taking every precaution possible to keep it from happening.

"I'll wait thirty minutes before leaving," he said as he put his foot in the stirrup. "Use that time to get back to the Jenny, take off and make it sound like you had no idea the Wing Zero was here. With luck they'll believe that you were just the innocent taxi that brought me here instead of being directly involved."

Of course there was always the possibility that, even with a flawless acting job, ZAFT might still haul the crew in for questioning and indefinite confinement until they were satisfied with the answers. Given the sort of mindset he'd been encountering from ZAFT soldiers lately, they were becoming increasingly ruthless and amoral in their methodology. If they feel strongly enough that the crew of the Jenny had been working with him and actively trying to keep the existence of the Wing Zero a secret, then he wouldn't be surprised if words like 'traitor' were tossed about.

"Got it. Everyone back to the ship!" McGillis said as he turned to come back the way they'd come. "Double time!"

Seeing them go he settled into the pilot's chair and closed the hatch before waiting for the familiar tingle in his mind of the ZERO system taking a peek before comparing it to what it had on file. He knew it was finished when the 'feel' of the tingle changed from 'is this who I think it is' to 'welcome back, partner', or at least that's how he chose to describe it.

"Glad to be back, partner," he muttered as he began to go through the Wing Zero's pre-flight checklist. "Sorry about the change in schedule but we've got someone in need of saving."

As he pressed buttons and operated the other controls he glanced at the screen to his right and confirmed that all secondary and tertiary power systems were fully charged and ready for use. When the last of the checks came back green he knew it was time to depart and brought the Gundam into full standing position. Looking at the chronometer, he worked out how long it'd been since Captain McGillis and the crew of the Jenny had left.

A little over twenty minutes. I've got less than ten before busting loose.

He was interrupted though when contacts began to pop up on the Wing Zero's sensors and, when he focused the scans, he recognized them as ZAFT mobile suits.

Six ZGMF-515 CGUEs and a Nazca-class destroyer? He raised an eyebrow. I guess I should be flattered they think the Wing Zero is worth this kind of attention.

Still, it was odd that they would send such a force when, according to Trant, they didn't know completely what it was that was hiding on the asteroid. All they had was a sensor contact of some kind that didn't match any known or safe phenomena and, if the searches didn't turn up anything, then deploying six mobile suits and a destroyer was a bit overkill. Still, he was confident that, even if he had to ration out the power for his trip to Earth, Wing Zero's speed would be enough to make it past them. Directing the sensors to where the Jenny was, he could see that they were away from the asteroid and getting further by the second. Extending the sensor range to the limits, he couldn't see any ZAFT ships along their present course so, if he could snag the attention of the force coming his way, everything'd work out.

If getting their attention is a goal then might as well make it flashy, he thought as he brought his tri-barrel buster rifle and took aim so that it'd cross ZAFT's flight path without endangering any of them.

Waiting until he got a solid red crosshairs he then pulled the trigger, causing a brief crackle at the end before a torrent of destructive red and gold energy shot forth. Rock and steel were melted as the blast bore through before exiting the asteroid and crossing in front of the seven obstacles in his way. As he'd predicted they immediately came to a stop in shock and fear, allowing him to bring the multi-vector impulse engines built into the back and wings of the Gundam up to one fifth power. Shooting through the hole leading to the vastness of space in the blink of an eye, he immediately oriented himself, plotting a course to Earth. Fortunately for him the ZAFT contingent wasn't blocking his path so there'd be no trouble on that front and he didn't believe that they'd be fast enough to catch up with him.

Closing his eyes, he reached into his mind for the remnants of Heero Yuy, more specifically his skills as a Gundam Pilot, including his ability to almost completely lock down his emotions. Once his mind and soul felt as cold as the empty space that surrounded him, he popped open his eyes and increased to one quarter impulse with a firm course laid in for Earth.

In order to keep from getting hit and somehow being delayed in his arrival he began employing bursts of speed to shoot the Wing Zero from left to right as well as up and down. He kept it up until the sensor contacts of the ZAFT contingent reached the edge of his range before engaging the shift to fighter mode and straightening out. They'd probably fire a few shots after him in some desperate hope to hit him but he wasn't worried. Every weapon had a maximum effective range and, once you were outside of that distance, it would take a marksman of considerable skill to still hit their desired target.

Looking ahead to the Earth he had only one thing on his mind.

Hang on, Nicol. I'm coming.