Warning: Spoilers for Gundam Wing. This goes for both the prologue and the rest of the story.

Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing.

True Colors

It seemed like the battle was over, at least that's what Duo surmised. The group of men who were unaware of his presence were commenting on the destruction of one of their battleships and the appearance of a Gundam.

Duo couldn't believe the Gundam bit. He had been there when they were destroyed. He self-destructed his beloved Deathscythe himself. What did that all mean?

Those thoughts would have to go to the back burner for now. The men were leaving the room, all but one of them and Duo couldn't be happier.

Ol' Quentin had come into the room midway into the fight and had sat down to watch with the other men. There was something fishy, though, about the way that Quentin had commented about the battle. It was as if he was rooting for their side. Now, the braided one could tell when someone was lying and he knew that Quentin would have to say things to make his comrades think he was on their side. But it was the way the young man had said his comments that had caught his attention. Now that the young man was alone, he had his chance to interrogate his ally.

"Quite the fight, wasn't it?" he drawled out as soon as he was sure that they wouldn't be interrupted.

Quentin whipped around, eyes wide in horror as they fell over him. Duo couldn't help but notice that but he kept his face straight, not allowing any of his suspicions to leak out.

"You scared me there was a second," Quentin gasped as he had his hand pressed to his chest, just over his heart. "How long have you been there?"

"A few hours," he answered, secretly enjoying the shock that grew on the young man's face. "So what can you tell me about that battle anyway? Something's been going on behind my back and I would like to know some details."

Duo's suspicion was increased as the young man was beginning to show a barely noticeable sheen of sweat, his eyes darting side to side as if trying to think of an answer.

"What's taking ya so long?" he drawled. "We are on the same side, aren't we?"

"Of course we are!" Quentin almost shouted. "It's just…I…don't know what to tell you…"

Did the kid remember to put on deodorant today? He could smell his body odor from where he was standing.

"Look, it's really simple," Duo sighed, exasperated. "What's been going on? Why was there a fight on Earth, in Sanc no less?"

"I'm not really sure on the details," Quentin murmured, not looking Duo in the eyes. "All I know is that Serbiak was ordered to go to Earth to find this disk. Nobody knows what happened but Serbiak got into a Mobile Suit battle. There hasn't been word on how Xavien's been taking the news."

He was lying. Oh he was telling the truth but not all of it and some of what he said were utterly not true. Xavien had to have made his displeasure known or something. And he was sure that Quentin knew exactly why this Serbiak fellow got into a battle in the first place.

"What else is there?" he asked though.

"What else?" Quentin repeated.

"You know more," Duo accused. "For some reason, you're not telling me everything. Like why you're still here. You never told me before you had a partner here until after I saw you again."

Quentin was visibly sweating now. There was panic in his eyes. Like a hint of intuition, his voice out a devastating question.

"You're not a Preventer, are you?"

The look on Quentin's face was answer enough. There was terror in those wide eyes. The young man had the look of a kid who had been caught with his hand in the cookie jar. That was all Duo needed to know, along with the unsubtle movement Quentin's hand was making towards his gun holster.

Oh no he don't.

Duo launched himself at Quentin, one hand grabbing the young man's wrist, holding it away so that he wouldn't get shot while punching him in the face. Quentin cried out as he fell backwards, his gun flying out of his grasp. Duo wasted no time in grabbing the firearm and was turning back to Quentin only to see him running out the door and sounding an alarm.

Cursing, he stashed the gun on his person and hightailed it out of there, the thunderous sound of men and guards heading towards his last location.

How could he have been so stupid! How could he have trusted that little bastard? What if…what if he had betrayed Wufei to Xavien?! Oh man, he had been used! At that realization, his anger ignited into a bonfire. There was no way he was going to let that go without reprisal.

Noticing an air vent, it was simple for him to remove the grating and crawl in, shutting the vent behind him.

Death had escaped once again to strike another day.

---

If there was one thing that Dekim Barton was, it was thorough.

The disk that they now held in their possession held a wealth of information on it. It wasn't just financial records; there was other stuff, such as personal information on Janus Xavien himself. With the bit of knowledge that Quatre himself had, they were able to piece together an incomplete picture of who Xavien was.

Even though there were a few gaps, it was still more than enough to know of Xavien's activities, before, during, and after the wars, the one exception being the Mariemaia incident.

However, there was little info on where Xavien's organization hid itself. It seemed to be the only way they were going to be able to learn that was to take Xavien himself into custody.

That shouldn't be too much of a problem, especially with the information that Noin had brought back with her. With undeniable proof that Xavien wasn't who he said he was, the Preventers had all they needed to arrest him.

"In a few hours from now," Une explained, "the Legislature will convene. Xavien will be there and that is when we will act. I want all of our best to be there for this."

A simple plan, indeed.

Now, if only the best plans didn't fall apart when first confronted with the enemy…