Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing or Magic Knights Rayearth.
Author's Note: On the Magic Knights side of things I will be basing it off the anime but it can fit the manga too as I don't go into anything too distinctive on Hikaru's second trip. There is some Releena bashing as I don't particularly like the character and she was the easiest way to split Duo and Heero up so Duo would go to Cephiro. Hope you enjoy this story.
I apologize for the pronoun confusion. I though I had changed them all to her but I apparantly missed some. Sorry for the confusion. I am going through and catching the ones I missed. One reviewer was asking if Duo was confused and hadn't realized she was a girl. I suspect it was because of the pronouns but just in case anyone is still confused. Duo was born a girl but hides it because of the dangers of L2. Once she left L2, she continued to hide it because she was so used to it and didn't want to risk the dangers which were very likely if she was caught during the war.
Returning Home
The war had ended but she couldn't forget it. The war had ended but her duty, her experience as a soldier hadn't. She was barely sixteen years old but already a killer. She had fought for the freedom of her colony but for that very action, they disowned her. She had never gone back since the end of the war but she had kept fighting for them, even if they wouldn't fight for themselves.
The doctors didn't survive the last battle. Doctor G had been one of the last two people alive to know that Duo Maxwell, gundam pilot of Deathscythe, pilot 02, is a girl. Everyone else believed her to be a boy. She had started to hide her gender when she was barely six years old because it was safer. L2 wasn't the safest colony and it was even worse for women.
Duo and the rest of the pilots parted ways after the war. At first, they had kept in contact, especially Duo and Heero, but they had stopped. It had been gradual and it only seemed to extend to her. Quatre had mentioned a message Wufei had sent her a day before, almost a day and half since Wufei's last message to her. Quatre hadn't sent her another message after it.
Duo had long since gotten over it. She returned to L2 to try and make it a safe place. She was lucky to have the support of Lady Une, the director of the Preventers organization. Unfortunately, Releena, the Queen of the World, had some problems with Duo. These prevented Lady Une from officially supporting her project politically or financially.
Duo had her own suspicions why Releena disliked her. Releena had rescued her fellow gundam pilot, Heero Yuy, when they all first came to Earth and had a crush on him. She still believed Heero was her's despite all the indications that he saw her as more of a little sister. Duo had been in a relationship with the pilot before the communication cut which is what probably led to her dislike of Duo and her disfavor. Without communication, Duo was pretty sure her relationship with the coldest pilot was over.
The project was doing pretty well considering how big a task it was and she had practically no financial backing. Hilde Schbeiker, Mike Howard, and the rest of the sweepers had been helping him but it wasn't enough.
Despite her protests, Hilde and Howard had placed her in charge of the project. They helped and gave advice but gave Duo control over the big decisions. So when a really tall dark-haired man was looking to help with the project, he was directed to Duo. She couldn't explain how but she felt like she knew the stranger. She hired the man to see how he did. The stranger claimed his name was Lance and headed off to do the work Duo assigned.
It was a few weeks later that another man sought to join the project. This man seemed familiar as well. He was almost as tall as Lance with light blond hair. He said his name was Elijah and recognized a description of Lance when Duo mentioned the newcomer.
Over the month that followed Duo found herself seeking out the company of the new members more and more often. She also started having disturbing dreams soon after Lance arrived. In some of them, she was in what greatly resembled a gundam in appearance but lacked the machinery of one, yet it still moved and functioned as if it was alive. A few months after Elijah came, Duo told the two about the dreams. She hadn't meant to but she did. To her surprise, her two friends looked at each other and suggested a trip to Earth, specifically Tokyo Tower. Tokyo Tower was a relic from even before the Alliance. Over the years it had been added on and improved but it remained very similar in appearance to when it had first been built. People still visited it but Duo had never been. She agreed.
A week later, the three headed out. Duo had left Hilde and Howard in charge. She had also informed Lady Une about where she was going. She noticed Lance and Elijah got more nervous as they got closer to the tower. When she confronted them about it, they finally admitted their suggestion wasn't random. They claimed that the trip would give her answers. Duo was suspicious at this but also curious and she continued to follow the two to the tower.
When the three reached the top floor, Duo spent a minute enjoying the view. It was just after she started that she was hit by déjà vu and was surrounded by a bright light. When the light faded, her vision was filled with a half rocky, half grassy landscape and overcast sky. A view much different from the metallic interior and the windowed city view she had been enjoying only a moment before.