Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing or Magic Knight Rayearth. They belong to Bandai and CLAMP, respectively.

World 2 World
Prologue: The Wishes

Glaring at the mountain of papers on his desk, the former pilot of Wing Zero wondered if he made the right choice in joining the Preventers. At the young age of 18, Heero Yuy had already made it to the top of the Preventers, second only to Lady Une, founder of the organization. But then even she didn't have so much paperwork—he could have sworn that she purposely pushed all the tedious paperwork down to him.

Like Heero, the other ex-pilots, minus Quatre—delegate of colony L4 and owner of the Winner Company, —all joined the organization, as they had nothing better to do. However, Duo stillopted to keep his jobat the junkyard with Hilde, and Trowa was often performing at the circus with his sister.

Looking at the clock, Heero saw that he only had to stay for another hour. One more hour until he could retreat tothe quiet and solitude of his apartment.

"Yo, Heero!" came an all too familiarvoice as the door burst open. Heero inwardly groaned and glared at the cobalt-eyed intruder, who ignored the look and continued, "Hey buddy, we're going to that new club that opened up down at the corner. It'll be like a get-together, that is, if you come. And you'll come, right?" The intruder gave Heero his best and cutest puppy face that turned all the girls to jello.

Indifferent, Heero continued glaring at the disturbance. "No."

"Aw, come on! You've got to get out of here more often, man! I mean, everyone else will be there." He started to count off names with his fingers. "Zechs, Noin, Trowa, Midii, Catherine, Quatre, that crazy—I mean Dorothy, Sally, who also convinced Wufei to come, Hilde—the most beautiful woman to ever walk this earth, and of course, you can't forget the most important person, ME!"

"Duo."

"Yeah?"

"Shut up."

Duo feigned a hurt expression. "How can you say that to me Heero? After all we've been through, you tell the great Shinigami to shut up?"

Tuning out his so-called friend's rant, Heero went back to the stacks of papers in front of him, inwardly sighing. He wasn't sure which he preferred—Duo's endless chattering or all the paperwork awaiting him.

"—and just because I'm so sexy that all the girls fawn over me isn't a reason for you to get jealous—" Duo stopped as he realized hiscompanion wasn't listening anymore. "Um, Heero?" Getting no response, Duo rolled his eyes and left the room.

Heero looked up as he sensed Duo's departure. It was strange the braided Preventer had left willing and after such short a time, but Heero decided not to question such a miracle.But he should have known it was too good to be true, for just as he was about to return to his work, Duo returned. With a cart stacked with more papers.

"Well, since you aren't coming with us, there's really no good excuse not to do these papers that Lady Une told me to give you. I told her that you might be going to the club with us later, but since you aren't, I guess you're stuck here with your paper-friends. Have fun!"

Heero blinked, inwardly screaming obscenities at his superior.

Duo grinned proudly, knowing that Heero would definitely agree to come now. "Well, I'll just leave now so you can get this done. It's too bad though, even I would rather go to the club than do this."

Duo would rather go clubbing than do anything else, given the chance. Ignoring his fellow worker, Heero tried to weigh the pros and cons of each task—paperwork or clubbing? Paperwork was a routine, something he could deal with, but maybe it would be fun to let loose at a club, as long as everybody left him alone. Knowing he would regret his decision later, Heero grimaced inwardly as he replied, "Fine."

Duo grinned from ear-to-ear. "I knew you'd see it my way! Well, I'll see you at 10 then!" With that, he started to walk towards the door. "By the way, I'll send Relena here when you're off—I told her you'd walkher to the club." He ran out the door before Heero's irritated mind had the chance to process Duo's statement.

Damn. Clubbing, with Duo and—Heero stopped and stared in horror at the open door.

"Come on, Umi-chan! You're taking so long!" a girl with red pigtails exclaimed, jumping around the room and waving her hands around, brimming with excitement.

Her blue-haired friend giggled and replied, "You know Hikaru, Rome wasn't built in a day," brushing her already neat long hair.

Hikaru stopped in mid-leap and looked confused. "Huh?"

The green-eyed blonde, who was sitting on Umi's bed, just smiled and said, "An analogy, Hikaru. Umi-san, you are already very beautiful."

"Really?"

"Yes."

"Thank you. Then let's go!"

"Yay! Picnic!"

The three girls walked out to see all three boys bored from waiting around. A dark-haired man noticed them first and pushed himself away from the wall, smiling slightly at Hikaru's unbridled joy.

"Ferio-kun, Ascot-san, we're ready," Fuu said as she bent down to tap each of them on the shoulders. The two boys blinked a few times as they stopped counting the cracks on the floor, only to see the girls already walking away Lantis.

"Well, you could have waited for us. After all, we did wait for you girls," Ferio huffed as he caught up to them.

Umi raised an eyebrow at him. "Why would we want to wait for you? You're not important."

Ferio just glared at her, retorting, "I am the king of Cephiro, my dear Umi."

"And I am the Magic Knight of Ceres, my dear Ferio."

"Where's the food?" Hikaru asked, trying to prevent a fight between the two. However, everyone stopped walking at this question, looking pointedly at one another.

"Uh—"

"Didn't you have it?"

"No, I thought you did?"

"Wait, no, you had it."

"But I gave it to you."

"Ithough I gaveit to Lantis." Everyone looked expectantly at Lantis, who just shrugged, eliciting a groan from everyone else.

"We're going on a picnic and we don't have food?" Umi exclaimed, not fond of the idea of walking all the way back to the palace to retrieve the picnic basket.

"Well, if we didn't have to wait for you for so long, we might have remembered and—"

"Puu! Puu!" Everyone turned around to see a pink rabbit hopping up to the group.

"Mokona! Oh! We're sorry we forgot about you!" Hikaru apologized as she picked up the creature, who accepted the apology with a purr.

"Puu!" Mokona pointed at her jewel.

"Oh! That's right! I asked Mokona to keep the food for us!" Hikaru remembered as she touched Mokona's jewel.

"Hikaru, you're so forgetful." Umi shook her head and rubbed her temples.

"Eh?"

Finally finished with all the paperwork (completely ignoring the new cart-load that Duo had left in his office), Heero stretched his arms above him and heard his vertebrae crack, eliciting a small sigh of pleasure from his lips.Gazing lazily at the clock, he noted that it was ten minutes to 10. That gave him enough time to file away all the documents and slip out of the office unnoticed, thus avoiding the otherwise imminent trip to the club. As heslipped the papers into their respective cabinetsandbundled upthe ones to be sent out tomorrow, Heero resisted the urge to hum at the thought of dodging more paperwork and avoiding a clubbing incident. Finished with that task, he glanced at the clock again to see five until 10. Walking out of his office and locking the door, Heero prepared to turn and leave when a voice stopped him in his tracks.

"Heero! Good timing. I guess we can go now," the blue-eyed blonde said cheerfully, nearly skippingup to him.

Heero stared at the girl in front of him, cursing his bad luck. His eye twitched as she shyly grabbed his hand and led him out of the office, all the while talking animatedly.Heero reminded himself to cut off Duo's braid and use it to strangle the American when he saw him.

"The colony delegates are still pressuring me to sign the new treaty to let them access Mars, which isn't evena fourthcompleted. And I know Milliardo would not approve of politicians frolicking about his project at such a critical stage, but I guess it wouldn't hurt to run the idea by him—"

Heero tuned out her chattering as he walked with her, inwardly sulking at his misfortune of knowing two of the most talkative people to inhabit the earth—no, scratch that, the universe. Really, even if he ignored them or demanded thatthey shut up, they wouldn't listen. Don't these people understand that he just wanted to be left alone? How can it be so difficult to find some peace and quiet?

Sighing, he gazed towards the clear night sky and saw a shooting star. Remember hearing once that a wish made upon a shooting star would come true, Heero smiled sadly. Perhaps if he wished for a riot to break out or something, then Duo and Relena would be too preoccupied to bother him with their incessant prattling—but he didn't want to be whisked away into another battle. Realizing his train of thought, Heero mentally scolded himself for believing in such childish ideas. Really, making a wish on a shooting star? How old was he, 8?

"—but of course, they've been pressuring Quatre to do the same thing, for the good of the colony, they say, or to set an example to the public. They even go as far as to comment that he and I would look "cute" together. It's not as if they aren't dropping enough hints."

Heero nodded his head sympathetically, already understanding the issues his friend had to deal with. Quatre had enough problems trying to maintain the Winner company while acting as a delegate for his colony—he did not need the stress of dealing with Miss Queen of the World.

The magic knights and company reached their picnic area, with surprisingly no further arguments between Umi and Ferio, which put the rest of the group on guard waiting for an outburst from the ill-tempered duo. Mokona excitedly produced a blanket and a large basket. They settled down onto the blanket, gathering around Fuu as she removed the refreshments.

Umi settled herself between Hikaru and Ascot, only to have a small sharp object dig into her bottom. Frowning, she reached under the blanket and grasped a small stone, pulling her hand out to produce a sapphire jewel in her palm. She gasped softly in awe at the small but perfectly smooth tear-shaped jewel, her eyes dancing as it shimmered in the sunlight.

"Heaven's Tear!" Ascot said excitedly, eyes lighting up in childish delight.Everyone looked at him strangely and he blushed, explaining, "They're very rare and powerful, and I've never seen one before, but I know enough about them to know that you're holding one, Umi."

"Heaven's Tear?" Umi echoed, still entranced by the jewel in her hand.

Ascot nodded, taking on a slightly scholarly tone. "You knowhow it's said that if you wish on a shooting star, your wish will come true? Well, some people thought of shooting stars as the tears of heaven."

"I'm not sure those two completely random and unrelated comments have todo with a jewel," Ferio interrupted blandly. "Are you trying to tell me that this jewel is a fragment of a star?"

Ascot paused, pondering. "Hm. Never thought of that, but it's quite a possibilty."

After a few more moments of silence, Ferio cleared his throat.

"Oh, sorry," the young man apologized sheepishly. "The reason the Heaven's Tear is considered powerful is because it's said togrant the finder any wish, and that the wish will come true. And since the jewel is blue and shaped like a tear, they named it Heaven's Tear."

Ferio frowned. "I've never heard of it."

"That's because only the most powerful sorcerers know about it," Ascot replied a little smugly. "I learned about it from the Master Mage."

"He never told us about it," Hikaru said. "Did you know about it, Lantis?"

"Clef told me about it before, but I've never seen one until now," Lantisreplied quietly,also gazing at the jewel in admiration.

"A wish, huh? What are you going to wish for?"

Umi stuck her tongue out at the young king. "That's for me to know and for you not to find out."

"Let's worry about that later and eat first, shall we? It would be a shame to waste so much good food again," Fuu interrupted, recalling how Ferio and Umi started a food fight in the banquet hall during the celebration of Ferio's coronation, and overthe triviality ofwhat color icing Umi should have put on the cake. Needless to say, the little skirmish did not make a very good impression on the new king's council members, who left the hall covered in cake, icing, whipped cream, pudding, and fruit juice.

Umi and Ferio had the decency to blush before they both murmured their agreement and accepted the sandwiches offered by by the wind knight.

AsUmi munched on her sandwich, she admired the jewel in her hand, pondering on a wish. There wasn't much that she wanted, as her parents were both very successful and wealthy businessmen;plus, she had the freedom to travel to Cephiro with her friends anytime she wanted. She had everything she wanted. But then, everything seemed a little boring—there was nothing new or exciting. As much as she loved her life right now, it could get slightly dull and monotonous—how she wished something new and exciting would come along, whisking the magic knights away on another adventure.

"Yo! Cephiro to Umi! Are you still with us?" Ferio pinched the girl's arm.

"Ow!" Umi glared at Ferio and pocketed the jewel in preparation of a verbal battle with the king of Cephiro. No one noticed the jewel start to glow a bright blue.

Author's Notes:

Wow. Started this nearly two years ago. I believe this is the third revision the prologue has undergone—and it's turned rather long. Ah well, it's much better than before. I dare to say that my writing has improved over the years (or at least, I would hope so). I listened to all the criticism and aimed to follow their advice, for which I am very grateful. After all, what's writing if you don't develop and improve? So thanks to everyone who's there to leave a critical review on how I can improve my writing or the plot in general, as well as to all those who help to provide fresh ideas or are just there to encourage me. Thanks so much!

Anyways, I love this new editing feature—saves me a lot of trouble as I don't have these stories on my computer anymore. Except it's being a little weird. I can't seem to get the spacing right. Hm. Well, I've got thirteen more chapters to try it out on. Hehe.