Prologue To After Journey: Gundam

After Colony 197, the wars have ended. Oz has been destroyed. The Alliance has been reestablished. The Gundams are now stored except for the Shenlong. Dr J. and the others are working on improving the Gundams should another war break out. For now there is peace on the self-governed colonies and Earth is united under one country. The Alliance is the government for the Earth but there is no higher ruler than any other. The Elite Alliance are the heads of the government. It is composed of thirty men and women from various colonies and people from Earth. Dr J. has the ex-pilots set up in a house on Earth near the school that Duo and Heero went to with Relena. Relena has been killed during the war. A former Oz assassin shot her down at an assembly of the Elite Alliance, which she was formerly a member of. Only Milliardo Peacecraft is left. Against his better wishes, Milliardo has agreed to run the Sank Kingdom, which is now a major province of the United Earth Sphere. The queen of the Sank Kingdom is now Lieutenant Noin. She and Milliardo are now married.

The characters have changed due to the war and its ending. This is a short description of how each character has been affected and become after the fighting.

Heero doesn't have a mind. It was suppressed during the training. Now that the wars are over, this is the first time he hasn't had to fight or train. His mind is coming back. His feelings are coming out. He can't handle it. This has never happened before. He doesn't understand it. It's too confusing. He's being overwhelmed by the feelings and his mind. His humanity is also gone. It was suppressed during the training as a child as well. Humanity is something he must relearn. Before, in the battlefield, Heero went solely on instinct. He was trained to let his more destructive primitive side handle what to do and then his trained mind to accomplish it.

Duo was formerly outgoing but only before he had no one to fight with. The outwardness was a way of covering up the anxiety and pain from the war. The only reason he destroyed everything was because of his rage. He has an explosive temper that is rarely realized. He controlled it by releasing it on the battlefield. Now it's bottling up since he no longer erases it with fighting on the field. He is more quiet than angry most times. No matter how mad he is with him, he always protects Heero when he needs it.

Quatre is the most caring of the Gundam ex-pilots. He always wants to help the others. He's willing to express his feelings more so. He is like a "mother" to them or a big brother. (Having 29 sisters does that to you.) He shows his feelings openly. His feelings are more "connected" to him. He can't hide his feelings from his face and body language. He has decided to keep the memories of the war fresh in his mind. He keeps them to remember the people who died in the wars that he fought.

Trowa only opens his feelings to Quatre. Other than that, his emotions are like the mask he keeps. They are otherwise unseen. He keeps the mask to remind him of the fact that he "doesn't have" any feelings except for Quatre so he won't show his emotions. The masks still holds flashbacks of the circus. He seldom touches it because of the memories that come back with it. They confuse him. He doesn't understand why they are always coming back. He wears it to only shadow and calm his emotions when they severely effect him.

Wufei is gone. When the wars are done he refused to put down his sword. Nataku has been destroyed. He has destroyed Nataku because he says Nataku has gone through too much fighting and is strong enough. In reality, the Shenlong was too damaged to repair. Wufei has decided to travel the land, growing stronger. Wufei is obsessed with becoming stronger but insists he's not since he defeats his enemies. He says that he is a weakling for fighting only other weaklings.

Sally Po, Wufei's former travelling companion, has died on the battlefield. She was shot down during a fight with her resistance group. Her last words to Wufei as he held her were "Wufei, you are not weak. Being able to fight and win is a sign of strength. If you still believe you are too weak to fight, fight for me, Wufei. Fight for me." Wufei has promised to do this and still thinks of Sally when he believes he is too weak to fight.