Gundam Wing: The Children of Wings
Prologue: Battlefield of Pacifists
Releana Peacecraft, soon to be Releana Peacecraft-Yuy, sat at her desk in the United Earth Sphere parliament building, wondering just what she was going to do about the new bill currently under debate. Picking up a copy of the bill in front of her, Releana once again reviewed its contents.
ESUN Parliament Bill XXXX: Warrior Defusement Act
All persons who have either been, have applied to be, currently are, in armed forces of any kind, whether sanctioned or non-sanctioned, are hereby placed under martial law and are to be detained until a full threat assessment of each individual can be performed. All individuals ranked under a threat level of 3 are to be monitored indefinitely, to protect the interests of any and all lives. Any person who poses a threat level of 4 or higher are to be detained indefinitely.
Releana set the bill down with a huff. She knew exactly who was footing this bill, and knew exactly why he was doing it. Senator Marshall Catalonia, father of Dorothy Catalonia, had introduced the bill as a means to get at both the Gundam pilots, who had been responsible for the death of his father, and Releana, who had nearly gotten his daughter killed multiple times.
"Sometimes," Releana muttered. "I really hate this job."
Pagan, seemingly able to pick up his employer's emotions, walked through the office door with a tea tray.
"Something is bothering you, Miss Releana?" the elderly butler asked his ward.
Releana sighed, she never could figure out just how Pagan seemed to know when something was bothering her. "Yes, unfortunately. This bill that Senator Catalonia wants to pass. Even though most of Parliament knows that he wrote it just as a way to get at me and the Gundam pilots, they want to go through with it anyway because it will tie up a large number of loose ends."
"I see, and you don't think that this bill is necessary." Pagan replied, pouring tea for both himself and his employer.
"No, I just think that there are better ways to go about tying up those loose ends than what ends up being just a lifetime of incarceration." Releana replied, accepting the cup from the elderly butler.
"I'm sure that you will be able to find a way to stop it. If no one else, I, and undoubtedly Heero, have faith in you." Pagan assured her.
"You're right, I'll find a way to deal with this problem, and I'll do it without sending anyone to prison who doesn't need to be there." Releana said, rising to her feet. "Thank you, Pagan. Please tell Heero and the others that I will talk with them after the assembly about what's going on."
Pagan nodded, knowing that his not-so-young-anymore ward was about to enter a battlefield all of her own, the Battlefield of Pacifists.
--25 minutes later, in the ESUN Parliament building-
"Furthermore, this bill will allow us to keep track of any and all potential human weapons, the kind of people responsible for White Fang, the Barton Foundation, and OZ who nearly destroyed the world four years ago." Senator Catalonia concluded, getting a large round of applause from his audience.
Releana sank inwardly, things were looking worse and worse for both her and the Gundam pilots. Judging from the cheers alone, more than three-fourths of the assembled Parliament was for the bill as-is, which would mean the end of freedom for a good many men and women who had risked their lives for the unity of the entire Earth Sphere. How can these people do this to the very men and women who made it possible for them to even live in such a peaceful time as this. Releana thought bitterly.
The chairman of Parliament stood, motioning for the applause to end. "This is a very serious issue. We will now take a vote whether to review this bill before ratifying it to law or not."
In turn, each member of Parliament pressed a button on the desk in front of them, displaying either a green light for yes or a red light for no. To Releana's utter horror, two-thirds of Parliament showed green lights, the bill was now past the largest hurdle on the road to law.
If it passes, not one of us will be safe in the Earth Sphere any longer. After the chairman had made several more closing remarks, mainly just saying when the next meeting would be to discuss the bill further would be in two weeks, Releana and the other members of Parliament left.
--30 minutes later, Winner Family Earth estates-
It wasn't often that all of the Gundam pilots and their loved ones all gathered in the same spot at the same time. This wasn't from a fear of security, it was merely a fact of life for the warriors. Often, Wufei and Sally would be away on assignment, making it difficult to contact them. Duo and Hilde were now the head of the Sweeper group, an occupation that required much of their time. Trowa and Catherine were now the owners of their traveling circus, due to the manager retiring shortly after the Marimaia incident, causing them to travel a lot. Surprisingly, Quatre and Dorothy had became an item, and were making plans for their wedding, at least while they weren't dealing with the problems of the Winner family's numerous resource satellites.
Quatre and Dorothy weren't the only ones who were close to tying the knot. Two years after the war had ended, Releana had cornered Heero and proposed to him, which he surprisingly accepted. The two had settled down, more or less, in the ESUN capital city, London, England, while preparing for their wedding. Heero had accepted a job as a Preventer, mainly to pass the time while Releana continued her career as a politician.
Lady Un, head of the Preventers, had actually taken the injured Marimaia into her own home. Many had speculated that this was a silent salute to the young girl's father, Treiz. Those who knew her best, however, knew that Un took the young girl in to help heal the child who had only known manipulation and anger.
Of the entire group, the only two who were almost completely unaccounted for was Zechs and Noin, who had left for the new Mars colony almost as soon as the war ended, being two of the first colonists to arrive.
Releana thought of all of these things and more as she walked in the door of Quatre's Earth side mansion. Almost as soon as she got in the door, Dorothy greeted her.
"It's good to see you again, Mrs. Releana." Dorothy greeted with a cheerful smile. Not the fake one she used to show everyone, a real, genuine smile that few ever had the opportunity to see.
"'Mrs.' Releana? I'm not married yet, Dorothy." Releana bantered back, but slowly starting to smile as well.
"I know, I'm just practicing for when I really will have to start calling you that." Dorothy replied, leading Releana down the hall to a living room. "The others are all here, we were just waiting for you. Tell me, how bad is it?"
"Bad enough, but I'll explain that to everyone all at once."
The girls entered the living room, which held the entire Gundam group, minus Zechs and Noin. At the small coffee table Duo and Wufei were playing chess, while Sally and Hilde watched. In a corner that boasted a small cupboard of instruments Trowa and Quatre were playing a flute and a violin, livening the rooms atmosphere a little. At a low table that Quatre used for entertaining Arabian guests Heero and Marimaia were engaged in a game of Go, a strategy game that Duo of all people had introduced to the Perfect Soldier some time ago.
All of the activity seemed to slow down as Releana entered the room, stopping only after she had set her small legal briefcase down next to a rather comfy sofa.
"What happened at Parliament?" Heero asked, moving to the side of his fiancé. Releana took a deep breath, exhaled, and began her explanation.
Twenty minutes later, the entire group was stunned.
"I can't believe that after all we've done for them that they're really going to go through with this." Duo stated, his arm around the shoulders of a nearly sobbing Hilde.
"You can't hardly blame them, after all, if we hadn't executed Operation: METEOR they might have came to this state of politics on their own, without so much bloodshed." Trowa replied, lending his shoulder to Catherine.
"The question isn't so much why they're doing it, it's what are we going to do about it?" Sally said, doing her best to keep from getting angry with the lawmen.
"I think theirs only one course of action open to us that will get us out with our freedom relatively intact." Heero said, making eye contact with Releana. Releana nodded, understanding what he was getting at.
"You think we should follow them?" Wufei asked.
"Yeah, the terraforming project is mostly finished, and it's the only place that's completely outside of the ESUN's control." Heero answered.
"It won't be easy, but with a little juggling of resources I think we can pull it off." Quatre commented, mentally starting to draw up a list of all the things he would need to do to make such a venture possible.
After nearly two hours of talking about what they needed just to get to Mars, the group went to their respective homes. They were leaving the Earth Sphere, and in three days they intended to be gone for good.
--One week later-
Duo brought the shuttle in to one of the three space-to-ground docks that Mars had. During the trip Releana had managed to contact Zechs, who promised to have a representative waiting for them when they landed. As the group disembarked from the heavy transport shuttle that Quatre had obtained for them, they met a rather familiar face.
"Miss Noin, did you do something to your hair?" Quatre asked, trying his best to keep a straight face. Indeed, Noin did look different, but not because of hair style.
"I guess I can let it slide this time, but I should tell you guys that I'm not 'Miss Noin' anymore. Zechs and I got married three years ago. I'm now Lucrezia Noin-Marquise."
"That would explain a lot." Duo stated, trying (and miserably failing) to keep a straight face. "So, ah, what's with that third spaceport, it looked like you guys have something in the works?"
Lucrezia led the group into a large underground facility while dock workers unloaded their cargo. "The third station is actually a new shipyard, and we're working on developing some new types of ships. I think you'd be surprised at who our new chief engineer is." Lucrezia explained.
"Wait, don't tell me you conned poor Howard into coming out here?" Releana asked.
Lucrezia laughed. "No, he actually came here of his own free will. He claimed that retirement didn't agree with him, so he came here to start over."
"I noticed something as we were landing, what were those large domes?" Heero asked.
"Those are actually large residential areas. Even though the terraforming project has been rather successful we still have some rather fierce dust storms pass through on a regular basis, making living in uncovered cities difficult at best. Most of our important industries are either in space or underground." Lucrezia answered, leading the group down what appeared to be an industrial district towards a large shaft that led to the surface. "Even with everything working against us, living on Mars isn't that hard, and even though the men and women who live here are not pacifists by any means, we have little to no need for weapons. Most of the people who come here are the people who seek to start their lives over, without the nasty history of the Earth Sphere to haunt them every time they look over their shoulders."
Lucrezia opened a special door in the elevator shaft, one that the general public never had need to open.
"Forgive me for being direct, but, where are we going?" Sally asked.
"We're going to see Zechs." Lucrezia stated simply. After a quick trip in a private elevator, the group walked into an office suite, one of which boor the nameplate of 'Zechs Marquise - President of the United Martian Sphere'.
A/N: Well, it took me a while and the loss of my original version of this story, but I have finally gotten the prologue written. Please tell me what you think, any and all reviews are welcome, flames shall be noted and added to my nest of ashes. this is the one and only Shining Pheonix signing off.