This plot bunny has been haunting me for like, three years, if I get any response to it I'll write more then the prologue I'm just glad to finally get this out of my damn head, enjoy!

A Brief Prolouge-Demon Rising

Low Earth Orbit, Next to Derelict Libra Fragment

Duo Maxwell was many many things, an orphan, a thief, a good friend, a mechanic, an engineering savant, a freedom fighter, and most importantly a Gundam pilot. What Duo was not was a quantum physicist, or anything even vaguely related to the subject; so when Heero fired Wing Zero's mega particle cannon at the falling wreckage of Libra he had no idea that the anti-matter fueled explosion was squared by the dying battleships ruptured fusion reactors.

What he was aware of was that the Deathscythe Hell was about to be caught in the wake of the explosion; as the distorted energy wave of ...chaos... atomized all the debris and mobile dolls surrounding him he only had one choice available.

"Come on old buddy don't give out on me now!" Wrapping his mobile suit in the embracing cocoon of its demonic wings Duo dumped all available power into the integrated shielding system the mad five had ganked from the Mercurius. As he turtled the violet eyed young man stared down in horror at his gauges, the gamma radiation levels were high enough that there was not a chance anything other then his stalwart Gundam would survive the onslaught.

With that cheery thought everything went white, then black, then chartreuse, and there might have even been some plaid in there, he really wasn't certain due to the blood seeping out of his nose, ears, and eyes. After a time the shaking stopped and the local radiation levels went back down to normal, groggily rubbing his head Duo wiped the blood from his eyes and attempted to get his bearings and what his instruments displayed both confused and terrified him.

"No local debris fields...well that ain't right...no active IFF's, no local comm chatter, and no sign of two Star Destroyer sized battleships slammed into each other falling towards the Earth...huh..." Risking the chance of discovery he flipped off the Gundams passive sensors and did an active scan of the area, the results were shocking,

"No colonies...the colonies are gone?! Only active concentration large enough to detect is out by L5..." his musings were cut short by an annoying warning klaxon, glancing down he let off a string of curses that would have made Quatre blush and Howard nod in approval. It figured that while sight seeing he'd fall into Earths gravity well, glaring at his instruments his maps showed that he was going to fall somewhere in the south pacific east of New Guinea.

Grimacing at that he shook his head in resignation, "Nothing out that way but water and whales, I'll have enough propellant to slow me down but not nearly enough to get to dry land...shit." As he fell through the atmosphere he reflected on everything he'd accomplished, he'd helped topple the Earth Alliance who had been responsible for the deaths of his adopted family at the Maxwell church, he'd helped gut Oz the puppet of the money grubbing Romefellar Foundation, and he'd made great friends and blown up some very interesting things along the way.

His only true regret was, sadly, having no freaking idea where or when he was, unlike his fellow pilots Duo was a child of late night movies and a fan of stupid conspiracy theories; it was obvious to him that he'd ended up in an alternate dimension, or the past, or some such bull, the lack of four entire colony clusters easily corroborated that theory. Grumbling about wasted efforts his sensors picked up something...interesting,

"Why is there an island chain were there should be open water? Oh...k...rock on!" Now grinning he gently nudged his free falling mobile suit to the largest island and activated his stealth systems, hopefully the battered Gundam could keep the cloak field up long enough to avoid getting shot at. Burning up the last of his propellant the Deathscythe lightly touched down in a rather pretty forest with nothing but fumes left in its tanks.

Bringing the war machine to a crouch Duo let out a brief laugh, the exhaustion driven stress of a solid year of war finally caught up with him as he relaxed against his crash webbing, "The God of Death survives again...right now though...I need some sleep." And with that he passed out till the next day.

Orb Union

Duo woke up groggily and much to his annoyance still caked in blood from his little transition to wherever the hell he was, popping the Deathscythe's hatch he stumbled away from the stealthed mobile suit and fell to his knees next to a small spring. Scrubbing his face clean he let his hands linger a moment as the cool water dripped down his chin,

"Well Heero, you always wanted me out of your hair, I guess we'll call our prank war a draw if you tossed me as far from home as I think you did." Honestly, it had to be pretty damn far away since on his Earth there was no archipelago in this area, just open ocean. With that thought curiosity got the better of him, shaking the now lukewarm water from his head he shook his dripping bangs as he marched back to Deathscythe, riding the winch back up to the cockpit he got to work.

After a few minutes he managed to get an uplink to a local internet hub, the signal was weak but it would do for the time being; what he found truly interesting was how shitty the programming was. He was no hardcore programmer like Heero or Trowa, his skills lay in the realm of hacking but even he could have written better security protocols, grumbling about the end result of hiring grad students he went to work figuring out what the hell was going on.

"Ok...Earth Federation, still assholes in this timeline, PLANTs, fans of clunky acronyms who are genetically modified and called coordinators...wonder what they'd all think if they knew everyone from the colonies had to have some genetic rewrite to survive...space racists...who knew..." Mumbling to himself further he finally found his location and he liked what he saw.

"Hmm...Orb Union, been established for over fifty years, weirdish nobility/democracy hybrid, no discrimination between natural humans and coordinators, refuses to take part or intervene in anyone elses wars but has a standing army and navy to protect itself. Neat, its like the Sanc Kingdom without the hypocrisy," deciding that he needed to see this place for himself Duo created a false identity in the local database and opened a checking account for himself.

After a bit of creative banking he stole a few hundred thousand dollars to get himself established, stripping out of his bloody flight suit he pulled on his old priest outfit and disembarked from his Gundam. Glancing up at the crouched war machine he grinned again, "Wait on me buddy, I'll be back when I figure out what we're up against, rest well." With that he clicked a button on the FOB in his hand and the Deathscythe vanished from sight.

Six Months Later

Duo stared in shock at the images displayed on the bars television, the feds had nuked the agricultural colony of Junius Seven, millions were assumed dead as the hourglass shaped structure disintegrated in radioactive fire. Finishing his glass of scotch he glared at the screen,

"Say this about Oz, outside of that one time with Une no one ever even attempted to lob nukes at military targets, much less civilians." It was much worse then all that though, less then 24 hours after the attack PLANT had ordered their military arm ZAFT to drop neutron jammers across the Earth in retaliation, effectively cutting the power to anyone still using the outdated fission reactors this universe was fond of.

War, war, war, it never changed and the constant escalation was going to get even worse, ZAFT had launched their new mobile weapons, the GINN against the EF forces and of course were slaughtering them because Mobile Suits trump everything else. Mulling his options Duo glanced up to the ceiling, "What would you do Heero...Quatre? I have the means to protect my new home but would that make matters better or worse..."

He honestly didn't know, he had the schematics for all of Oz's little toys aboard the Deathscythe, and his six months of recon had told him he really rather enjoyed being in Orb, the idea they could be dragged into this bullshit war irritated him beyond words. Sighing he realized he'd already made his decision before he'd even thought about it, standing up and throwing the barkeep a twenty note he walked out into the sunlight while shoving his hands into his jackets pockets.

"Welp, looks like I'm breaking into Lord Uzumi's office tonight, hehe...should probably record this one."

That Evening, Onogoro Island, Orb Union, Lord Uzumi Nara Athha's Office

Cagalli Yula Athha trailed after her father as he made his way to his personal offices, the string of meetings following the Earth Federations butchering of Junius Seven and ZAFT's N-Jammer retaliation had consumed his entire day and the man just needed some peace and quiet. After declaring Orb neutral in this fiasco things had settled down to a point but nerves were still on edge, glancing up at her father the blonde asked,

"Do...do you think war will come here father?" Glancing down the goatee'd man just shook his head sadly,

"Cagalli if I could shield you and our nation from the horrors of war forever I'd gladly do so, but I cannot give you any promises," as he said this he opened the office door revealing a pitch black room lit only by his desks monitor. "In truth when men are driven by vengeance they'll simply keep the cycle going. One man is wronged so he retaliates against those that hurt him, those caught in the wake in turn retaliate in turn, it is an endless cycle of misery that draws in even those who want no part."

As he clicked on the lights he just shook his head sadly, "In the end all we can do is prepare ourselves for when others drag us into their conflicts and hope we have the strength to resist." With that a slow clap could be heard from Uzumi's high backed desk chair, after a moment it spun and a grinning young man with violet eyes and and long chestnut brown hair greeted them.

"That Lord Uzumi is exactly the sorta thing I like to hear, I've had to deal with crazy broads rambling about total pacifism, equally crazy people with creepy eyebrows rambling about the beauty of war, and yet so few who actually want to sit tight and let the idiots duke it while they hold the biggest stick to swat down those that wanna drag them in, I like you." The Lion and Princess of Orb stared in shock at the cheeky young man who then threw his booted feet up onto the desk and put his hands behind his head, still grinning like nothing was out of the ordinary.

Cagalli for her part let her firecracker temper go as she snapped out,

"Who the hell are you and what are you doing in my fathers office!?" Grinning even wider the youth dove out of the chair with unexpected grace and flipped over the desk, ending up standing before the pair he gave them a mocking bow.

"Names Duo Maxwell, I may run and hide but I'll never tell a lie, me in a nut shell gorgeous, and why I'm here is simple, I want to save our nation." Blushing at that her retort was cut short as her father stepped in front of her,

"Very well young man, you obviously have some talents making it past our security so what is it you propose?" Sighing he once again put his hands behind his head as he began pacing,

"You have undoubtedly heard how ZAFT's GINN's are kicking the ever loving shit out of the EF's Mobius forces right?" Wincing slightly at the coarse language the Chief Representative nodded, with that Duo continued, "Well ya see being coordinators and all they didn't write a real extensive operating system to pilot the things, they can adjust it on the fly so no real reason to. Now the problem that arises here is that naturals obviously can't pilot MS, I gotta feeling this will be an ongoing issue in the near future." Snorting Cagalli couldn't help but interrupt,

"Its already an issue, a few GINNs ended up on the black market before this war even started and no natural can make heads nor tails of it," smirking at her again the cheeky youth continued as if nothing was said.

"This of course makes matters even more annoying with those N-Jammers they've laced the Earth with, everyone and their mother is having to revert to fossil fuels or batteries since fission reactors are now defunct." Uzumi despite his patient nature was beginning to get annoyed,

"And what pray tell does this have to do with us?" The young mans grin returned in full force as he pulled out a small device that projected several blueprints on the wall,

"Well it just so happens that I'm a rogue engineer and pilot with the blueprints for a variable transforming aerospace Mobile suit and fully functioning cold fusion reactors on top of several varieties of natural friendly Operating Systems, and I wanna give 'em all to you." Both Athha's eyes widened as they gazed at the black mobile suit suit displayed on the wall, before they could say anything Duo finished with,

"Allow me to introduce you to the OZ-12SMS Taurus, Orbs new front line defender."

Five Months Later

Duo for his part had earned his keep as far as Cagalli was concerned, the teen had spent months refining the Taurus design down to something Orb could handle alongside Morgenroete Inc's chief researcher Erica Simmons. While not ready for full scale production quite yet the secret project and its end result the MVF-M11C Murasme was a cut above anything the Feds or ZAFT would be able to muster against her nation. Duo himself though had become an integral part of the lives of anyone who met him, his easy going attitude, quick wit, and quirky sense of humor endeared him to everyone yet not a soul knew anything about his past.

The only one who came close had to be Erica herself who had been according to Duo "Entrusted with taking care of my best buddy, only she's got the full story and its stay'in that way, sorry beautiful." That aside Orb was well on its way to defending itself in this endlessly escalating war, billions were already dead and both sides forces had been bled so harshly that they were drafting kids her and Duo's ages. It was utter insanity, this war had literally killed off an entire generation and the old bastards on both sides seemed intent and wiping out another, as she fumed at this she finally made her way to Duo's office. Knocking on the door then entering she watched as the braided man glanced up from his terminal grinning widely,

"Princess! To what do I owe this honor of being in the presence of one so radiant?" Resisting the urge to blush because that is exactly what her friend was shooting for she simply marched to his desk and handed him a datapad, glancing at it his good humor fell away. After a few moments smoldering anger could be seen in his violet eyes, "Uzumi would never have ordered this, the toys me and Erica are working on would blow any this shit out of the water." Nodding in agreement Cagalli took a seat across from him,

"Agreed, if I hadn't known about your project I'd have assumed father was working behind all our backs, as it stands it just means one of the other four royal families are working with the feds. Duo I need to know whats going on and I can't trust anyone else with this, I know you're busy with Erica but I need someone I can trust, will you come to Heliopolis with me to check this out?" His eyes looked above his reading glasses and stared at the ceiling tiles for a few moments, after awhile he nodded lightly then grinned at her,

"Ah hell I can never say no to ya amber eyes, of course I'll come with you, let me make some last minute arrangements with my team and we can head out as soon as you wanna." Relaxing at this she smiled in return,

"Thanks Duo, I owe you one."