"So the struck eagle, stretch'd upon the plain,
No more through rolling clouds to soar again,
View'd his own feather on the fatal dart,
And wing'd the shaft that quiver'd in his heart"
--- Lord Byron

The Triumphant

The only thing Heero had for any evidence of the past was a single, black and white photo of the five of them. It had been taken by an advantageous reporter during a Winner hosted event directly preceding the events of the Eve War and had been purloined by the Japanese pilot himself upon a later date for proper disposal. He had never fathomed to keep any of the shots taken, let alone an out-of-focus snapshot.

As a man proud of his few words, seeing this photo of five young men---and barely 'men' at that---lined nearly in a straight row sharing a look that bordered on the hysterical brought forth plenty of garbled diction that didn't have much sense. So, in usual analytical manner, Heero kept this incognizable image for himself to someday reexamine with a more keen eye.

Sitting, alone, at his desk deep with in the head quarters of the Preventers main office and staring at this singularly symbolic square of gloss sheet Heero still had yet to realize its significance, seven years later. The line they had tried to form---perhaps as a barrier between 'us' and 'them'---was broken by Duo, who stood beside Heero on the left and the end of their line. He was outward from the wall they hugged, towards the people just as he always had been. Wufei, who happened to be looking directly at Duo, might have called this their 'weak link,' the break in the chain that divided them.

Heero might have believed it then, that Duo was indeed the break in their rank. Yet, now, he did not agree as much. Duo held something within them that they did not have, not even Quatre in his entire diplomatic manner. The wild, free-spirited L2 pilot shared a bond with the people that not one of the others had. Duo understood them, felt as they felt, yearned as they yearned. Heero had never once fought in the war because he felt the people were treated badly, he had been told to do so and thusly had done so. Trowa fought to find his way, find himself and what he was. Quatre fought to escape the life he came from, from the father who could not nor would not accept. Wufei fought for those he had lost, those he could not protect because there was no justice and he had to fill the role.

Heero, however, could not accurately express the exact reason Duo fought in the war. Yes, it was for the people who he shared kindred with, but there was more. Underneath the surface, somewhere just out of reach for anyone to see. Heero could definitely not ever see this hidden value; he had not the means to look---not the heart to understand. Duo, however, represented everything they should have yet none of what they were. He was, indeed, deadly and as much a gundam pilot but he was never a soldier, he was never murderer. Was this what made Duo the weak link in them? Or perhaps it was them that were uneducated, unaware, or just ignorant to the entire situation with which they were faced.

"Yuy."

He started in surprise, a sudden in take of breath and sharp swivel to face the man who had just managed to actually catch him deep in thought. It was Wufei, his often time partner and the only one he ever really talked to since the end of the war. The righteous man had not changed much in the span of ten years, he was still of average height and solid build with his ebony-black hair pulled into a tight neat tail just above his nape. His eyes were as keen as ever and were clearly aware that he had, in fact, found Heero Yuy seemingly staring in space.

Wufei cleared his throat, choosing not to mention his surprise and instead said, "We're having a briefing with Une in ten."

This was actually rather unusual. Heero's time in the preventers, going on something like eight years now, had not been as a field agent of any kind. He was, instead, paid to be a professional hacker for the Preventers. His job detailed more than that, like keeping tabs on the digital activities of terrorists or updating their own firewalls, but it was rarely anything beyond that. In his entire ten years in under Une's service, only once did she ask him to a job outside his own. Since then, he'd been in his office or moving between any Preventers offices to work with computers. Such was the way he kept his oath to not ever take a life again.

These thoughts, just as their prior fellows, fluttered from Heero's brain much like the dust that would have to be blown off their surface due to bitter age. Wufei seemed to take whatever had changed in his countenance as an affirmative to the warning and exited the small office without another word. The Japanese man did not watch him go and instead rose to leave, looking over his workspace without much interest and left.

The walk from his office to the usual briefing room Une preferred to use was a good five minute walk up two flights of stairs and three maze-like halls. Heero, in his practice, could find any where within the building he desired to go without much thought upon it and as such, was once again pulled from the present and into the past. Duo was not an uncommon thought in his head. Often times Heero would catch himself briefly passing something, a person or an item---maybe even a snippet of overheard conversation---and finding himself making a connection to the braided pilot. It was baffling, but a seemingly inane factor that he experienced in everyday life. He rarely, however, really truly stopped to think upon the man in such detail as he had today. Any thoughts were no more beyond the mere pondering of what Duo could be up to in recent years, and whether or not they'd ever meet again. Heero knew they would, ultimately, meet again in the grand scheme of things but as time drew on, it seemed so much more and more like a fantasy.

Despite the deep detail and prolific contemplation that had plagued Heero on this singularly normal day, he still was not one to believe in fate or destiny. It should be noted, however, for the first time in the man's entire life did he ever think such a thing to be plausible. This truly monumental event took place in the hallway just outside the main offices of Une's briefing rooms, as Heero Yuy walked along plagued with thoughts he knew not to do with.

"Well, hello to you, too, Heero," drawled a wry comment, making it the second time that day Heero had to be freed from the prison of his thoughts. This time, however, the start of electricity that coursed through his nerves from the axons in his brain were much sharper, held much more clarity of pain as realization struck him like a lighting bolt.

Before him, just ajar from the door between them, was a man Heero had never expected to see. The one man who could probably ever make him doubt the science of the world with just a smile and a shrug. Duo Maxwell stood half a head taller and just a bit wider from the sinewy youth Heero had known. This was not what made all the difference; however, it was the short, cropped chestnut hair. No longer was there a braid that slithered down Duo's back or the heavy bangs that fell in his eyes.

"Duo--what are you...?" Heero started, quite unduly sure of himself or what to do, now presented with the object of his rumination.

"You don't know?" came the superficially surprised reply, marked with a wide grin and white flash of teeth. "Well, can't ruin the surprise, can I?" Duo chuckled at his own joke, and opened the conference room door with a flourish, looking pointedly at Heero. "In you go."

Heero complied without a word, walking into the room for a more or less shock. An impromptu reunion this would seem. At the table sat Trowa and Quatre, opposite each other on the long stretch of table. Quatre had been quietly talking with Wufei, who was beside him, but immediately ceased as Heero entered, his aqua gaze finding itself fixed on the newcomer. Trowa, however, was lounged in the stiff office chair, pushed back up on two legs and hardly seeming to spare a glance in Heero's direction.
An uneasy silence fell over the room as no one was really quite sure what to say, or do. Then, as in most cases such as these, Duo entered and all barriers of awkwardness seemed to fall. He noticed immediately the remains of their presence and looked between each of them with a amused look, quirking an eyebrow.
"You all seem almost too happy," he quipped, moving around the table to stand at the head as if he needed a different vantage of them.

"Duo!" Quatre finally said, having been broken from his shock as Heero moved to sit down beside Duo at the head of the table. "I---no one told me you'd be here! In fact, I was merely told to meet here on business, nothing more. Is there...?"

The smile playing across Duo's lips pulled further upward to become something more like a smirk and he gave a simple, careless shrug of his shoulders. "Can't start without Une," he said, as if embarking upon them some wisdom of life. Heero wasn't quite sure what to do with it, so he looked up from the glass table top to the man he never deigned to see again.

Duo had lost all the cockiness of his youth, replaced instead with the confidence and accord of a man sure about his place within any situation. He seemed unfazed with any irony or subtle undertones that coursed around the room between the five gentlemen. His eyes, too, had changed in their age. Still, were they, the same unique shade of blue but had lost their brazen sharp slice and had become something that was not subdued but rather...tempered, more like Duo had learned to keep the secrets that could be leaked from their depths. His face had not the lines nor drawn appearance of age but spoke only of it in it's sharper more defined lines and the brief subtle that decorated his chin and jaw. Heero realized, then, that Duo must have just barely had time to come from the shuttle bay and straight here to HQ.
He'd been staring for no more than a minute and had been caught, Duo's eyes drifting down and meeting his with a click, as if a bullet being loaded into its chamber. Heero was a bit uneasy at being caught, but Duo did no more than wink at him. He perhaps did not have the time to do more, as Une walked in without much ceremony. She looked surprised to see all of the former Gundam pilots, though not nearly as much as they had been, but did not speak on it. All attention turned immediately to her, as it almost always did, her presence commanding instant attention as she entered the room.

"I didn't think you all would make it," Une said as she moved past Duo to sit across from Heero. "Are you ready, Duo?" To say that anyone was not confused as they turned their attention from the Preventer's chief director to Duo would be entirely incorrect.

Duo, however, seemed pleased as all eyes turned to him and stood up straighter under the scrutiny. He tapped the laptop in the center of the table awake, causing the flash of a map to appear on the wall behind him. Heero instantly knew the area, it was the small warring area formerly known as Dubai, specifically centered on its northern area. Not else much was to be said, as no other distinctions blemished the map face.

"To put this as simply as possible," Duo began, standing just off center enough to be still within their attention but not obscuring the map, "I have been on an undercover mission of sorts for the past five years. It has been the observation and eradication of a terrorist group calling themselves 'New Order.' It had been rather....mundane and insignificant, as they were mostly gathering members and wasting a great deal of hot air.

"Just recently, however, things have become much more severe than I ever anticipated," Duo shifted then, eyes moving across the room to rest on Heero. "They've been rallying for a movement. Specifically, their intent is to revive the methods and ideology of prewar era. It is their belief that the current state of the Earth and her colonies is a path to ruin. And, obviously, this shit just isn't going to stand." A wicked smile split the American's face as he leaned forward to fix each one of them with a piercing stare. "Ready to protect the peace again?"

to be continued....