AN: This doesn't really follow any of the episodes (that and I can't remember most of them since it have been a while since I saw them all); this is just an idea I was toying with.

Bourn on White Wings

Prologue

By: Miguela

Heero sat at the back of the class, his feet kicked up on the desk in front of him while the teacher rambled on and on. He had switched schools yet again, Duo having followed him, and now the two of them were sitting at the back of an advanced math class, bored out of their minds. These questions that they were supposed to be doing were so simple to them that they didn't even bother to do the work, passing the tests with excellent scores every time.

Duo spent most of his time doodling on his note book—it wasn't used for much else—while he himself spent most of his time on his laptop, which was plugged into the back outlet without the teacher's notice. With his spare time, he hacked into Oz's main systems, finding out necessary information regarding their newest projects. Today there was nothing of interest, so he closed down the window, unplugged the unit, and packed it in its carrying case.

The bell signalling the end of class and the start of lunch sounded and the students swarmed into the hall, Heero and Duo among them.

"That class is too long," Duo complained loudly, eyeing some girls that passed. "Why did you sign up for such an easy class?"

"Because it was easy," Heero replied simply, sighing at Duo's incredulously short attention span when a member of the opposite sex walked by.

Duo snorted. "Why would you even waste your time?"

The truth was that Heero really didn't want to be in school right now, frankly he'd rather be out on the field being useful than be here watching these stuck up, selfish kids strut around like they own the place, but he had gotten a report from Dr. J saying that there was supposed to be a new Oz weapon being deployed somewhere near there and to lie low until there was a confirmed place. Until then, he was going to stay in school and wait until something presented itself.

Duo and Heero made their way through the mass of students to get to the cafeteria to buy their lunches. Thankfully, since it was a high-class school, the food wasn't too bad. They sat near the floor to ceiling windows on the Southside, letting the sun warm them.

"You know Heero," Duo said pleasantly, toying with a fry, "I could get use to living like this." Heero grunted in response, typing furiously on his laptop, food untouched. "Seriously, living the way normal kids do every day, going to school, being a pain in teachers' rears…" Duo chuckled lightly.

Heero wasn't really paying any attention to his comrade at the moment, though he did hear every word he said. He was attempting yet again to get any information on anything Oz might be planning, though he still couldn't find anything of use, besides a name that he caught in passing, Mia Hiten. He knew that he should know that name, though it didn't bring anything to mind. He shrugged philosophically and continued to search.

Duo spent the rest of lunch talking about mundane things while Heero continued to search, though every once in a while he'd pause and think about that name, Mia…

The bell signalling the end of lunch sounded and he and Duo gathered up their books and headed to their next class, which was Physics, another boring class for the both of them. All throughout the two last classes, Heero thought about that name. It was setting the alarms off in his head though he couldn't figure out why. He could picture in his mind a girl about nine years old, long golden hair that rivalled Duo's braided into two long ropes, greyish-green eyes sparkling with mirth, though he couldn't remember why she appeared so happy and carefree.

Later that night, while he was completing today's assignments in his dorm room, Dr. J hacked into his laptop to deliver a message which read: Operation Flight has commenced at the New Star Base in the South; destroy the project and the prototype at all costs.

"So what's the orders for tonight?" Duo asked casually, leaning in the doorframe. "Something fun I hope."

Heero nodded, "Destroy something at the New Star Base," he said in his deep monotone. "Apparently Oz is trying to create some sort of new weapon and we have to destroy the prototype. The plan: you go in, create a diversion while I go and destroy the project."

Duo looked out raged, "How come you get all the fun?" he demanded.

"Because I know what has to be done," Heero retorted softly, typing away on his laptop.

Duo made small sounds of protest, but they fell on deaf ears, so he nodded grimly. "Then we'd better get goin' before we get caught sneakin' out," a mischievous grin quirked the corners of his lips, "and we don't want Shinigami to be late in his appointment to send some Oz soldiers to see their makers, now do we?"

The two undercover Gundam pilots snuck out of the boys' dormitory without anybody noticing, and sprinted across the open lawn with the orange street lamps illuminating them for a split second before they fell under the cover of the leafy boughs of an oak tree. Then they ran deeper into the forest, away from the sleeping school compound. They had chosen this particular school for it's location, right on the edge of the pacific ocean with forests surrounding it on three sides, a perfect place to hide their Gundams and make a quick getaway if necessary.

They found their gigantic mobile suits where they had left them, under a camouflage net far back in the woods. They had found a nice glade that was the perfect size for they two mechanical monstrosities, and had thrown a camouflage net over them to hide them from prying Oz eyes.

Unclipping the ropes that kept the net covering the massive machines, Heero checked his Gundam for any technical malfunctions, but couldn't find anything out of the ordinary on any of the important systems, so he proceeded to climb up into the cockpit of the giant metallic beast, flicking switches as he climbed in. He was so used to piloting the massive mobile suit at night that he knew where every important switch was on the control panel, so he never bothered with the lighting anymore.

Soon the hum of electrical harmony sounded and power flowed through the entire suit, signalling that it was time to go. He pulled the safety harness over his shoulders and buckled it over his stomach, feeling the irritating thing chaff his neck as it did every time he decided to wear the muscle shirt. Shrugging off the mild discomfort, he flicked on the communications to the Deathscythe, testing video and audio transponders for operating quality, as he usually did before a mission of this magnitude. Duo's face popped up on his screen, usual smirk in place.

"Ready to go man?" he chirped happily, looking down at his own console to calibrate something or other.

Heero replied with his usual 'hn', activating the ZERO system within his mobile suit, to prepare him for the mission and put him in the 'Perfect Soldier' state of mind that would be necessary for such a mission.

"Could you liven up a bit man?" Duo whined in exasperation. "We're going in to destroy an Oz project, and you look like you're about to go and squash a bug or something."

Again, Heero replied in the form of a 'hn', and closed the visual connection, though kept the audio connected, as he always did. Duo grumbled from his end about antisocial jerks and talking to himself.

Heero smiled softly to himself, easing the thruster bar forward slowly as the Wing Zero straightened, preparing for it's transformation into Neo Bird mode to fly the Deathscythe Hell to the New Star Base and back before morning. He stepped on the foot pedal and shoved the thruster bar forward as far as it would go, causing the Gundam to assume the form of a giant bird of prey made of metal.

"Let's do this!" came Duo's enthusiastic cry over the audio connection.

Heero positioned Wing Zero over Deathscythe Hell, attaching cables around the shoulder platting of the Shinigami, and, again, eased the thruster bar to full and angling the sleek bird-like Gundam up into the air, rocketing off towards the New Star Base and an old friend.

During the hour-long flight up the coast to the New Star Base, Duo talked constantly, commenting on a kid back at the school, or on the map that was up on his screen portraying their flight path, or on how hard the beds in the dormitories were, anything to dissipate the silence between the two of them.

Finally, the New Star Base came into view on the screen; a tiny blob of cement and metal nestled in a valley near the ocean. Zero flew in low, while Deathscythe Hell activated its hyper jammers to cover their arrival with this valuable piece of technology; they had to go in unnoticed or else they would be stopped one way or another.

Heero set the two Gundams down in an open field just outside the gates of the massive base, locking the cockpit expertly, linking it with the self-destruct so if someone tried to break in and has the wrong password more than once, it would trigger the self-detonate. He and Duo then threw a camouflage net over the two Gundams to keep them hidden from the wandering eye unless someone knew where to look.

"Where to man?" Duo asked coolly over the comlink, the one Heero had clipped to his belt just to be sure he could keep in contact with his comrade at all times.

"Inside to destroy the new project," Heero replied smoothly, jumping down to the ground and landing smoothly.

Duo stuck his head out of the cockpit of Deathscythe Hell; "I know that, but 'where' exactly?"

Heero shrugged. "I don't know where; all I know is that we have to find the door marked with a white feather."

Duo scratched his head in confusion. "That's a funny way to find a room," he said, jumping down to join his companion, black ball cap pulled low over his eyes and the collar of his jacket turned up to hide his long rope of a braid. He turned the communicator on his belt on. "Testing, testing…" he spoke quietly into the small microphone clipped to the collar of his blue jeans jacket.

"Call only if there's an emergency," Heero said quietly, tucking his gun into the waistband of his pants, then headed to the surrounding fence, leaping up to grab the post with one hand easily, swinging his lean form up over fence as quickly and agilely as a cat, landing gracefully on the other side and continuing to sprint as fast as he could to the closest building to find cover.

Duo wandered up to the front gate, cap pulled down low. He decided that the best way to get their attention was by creating some ruckus, so he kicked the wire fence repeatedly until two rather pissed-looking guards ambled out of the guard shed, fingering their automatic weapons threateningly.

"What do you want kid?" one of them asked, leering at the braided youth through the fence.

"I was just wondering if I could ask you guys a few questions regarding the Gundam pilots," he said casually. "I'm making an article for a newspaper and they want to know about their whereabouts." He pulled out a pencil and paper, as if he were going to record their answers.

One guard puffed out his chest proudly. "I caught one of those little bastards before," he said proudly, while his buddy snickered in the background.

"What are you going on about?" he asked, elbowing him out of the way. "I was to one to bring down the great 01, the Perfect Soldier."

"Exactly how did you accomplish such a daunting feat?" Duo asked in mock amazement. "I heard that the pilot of Gundam 01 was invincible."

The two exchanged looks, thinking that they would have the kid sucked into their lies soon enough while that same Gundam pilot raced through the halls, looking for the room marked with a white feather, though finding nothing of the sort. He raced on, pausing at every strategic junction to place a timed bomb, feeling adrenalin race through his system as he heard some rowdy soldiers up ahead in their break room. He snuck past them on the balls of his feet, hoping not to make a noise as he continued his search.

He almost shot right past the feather-marked door, had not a curious swish cut through the air as he charged passed. He skid to a halt, his yellow high tops marking up the floor with rubber skid marks, as he listened intently. There it was again—it sounded like a very large bird trying to take flight. Tip-toeing over to the door, he inspected the lock soundlessly as he listened for the sound of any approaching soldiers; after finding that a simple lock kept the door closed, he withdrew a thin wire from his jeans' pocket. Inserting wire into the lock, he twisted it this way and that, hearing a soft click as the lock released, the door swinging open silently, and what he saw behind it would forever haunt him.

A young girl, probably younger than him, was chained to the opposite wall by her wrists and ankles, but that wasn't what was unusual about her—large, white feathery wings were spilling from the girl's back. Now he understood why there was a white feather on her door. She stared at him menacingly, her glare rivalling his.

"What in the Hell do you want?" she demanded, folding the white feathery masses close to her back. She was incredibly grateful that Oz had at least provided her with a shirt with the appropriate sized holes in the back so she wouldn't be indecent.

Heero gaped at the girl, instantly recognizing the girl that was chained before him. "Mia?"

I know that it's been a while since the last time that I posted any new material, but here is some fresh ideas that haven't gone stale yet. There are currently 7 chapters after this one that have been completed, so you people wont get fustrated with me when I get a massive writer's block. I'm almost done putting my ideas in order, so Read and Review, and I'll post the finished chapters faster. :P