AC 209 (9 years later)

"RUN FOR YOUR LIFE!!" Duo's ears perked up and he stood to look down the hallway in the direction of the shouts. Shaking his head he looked to Jason who just shrugged at him. They both recognized the soft, normally gentle voice.

Black sneakers skidded around the corner, followed by a pair of worn out brown combat boots. The two boys took off again once they had regained their balance and darted out into the hangar, heading for Duo and Jason. The eyes of the two adults widened and they took a few steps back, motioning the boys away.

The boy in the lead skidded to a halt in from of his trainers, his black sneakers squeaking on the smooth floor. He wore a very loose pair of khakis that reached just below his knees. A belt held them up, but let the top part of the shorts hang out to the sides. His top was a royal blue tanktop that clung tightly to his small chest. The tanktop was tucked under the lip of his shorts and made the boy appear thinner than he really was. His hair was a dark blonde, like the faded color of a dyed blond. A strange color for growing naturally, but it complimented the boy's eyes perfectly. Anyone who met this fourteen year old would forever remember his eyes. They were a dark metallic blue with the exception of the center, where they faded to a light cornflower blue. With his almost orange hair and blue eyes, the boy was born color coded.

"Alae. What have you done this time?" Duo playfully chastised his trainee.

After a few pants, he stood up, barely reaching Duo's mouth. Although his hair was easily as far up as Duo's eyes. Of anyone the braided man had ever met, Alae's hair was the most ridiculous. 'He had to have gotten that from Heero...only much worse.' The hair stuck out in all directions, with one unusually big spike sticking in front that occasionally fell into the swirling blue eyes.

"Hey, what about Matt. It's his fault too!" Alae smiled and poked his silent companion but Matt just smirked back.

His brown hair had grown out a bit, just past his ears in the past few years when he let it go. He also wore shorts, but his were camouflage and tattered at the end. In the summer it got unusually hot on Earth, which Duo hadn't expected when he had come here all those years ago. But the boys, having grown up here, weren't used to the cold of a home like outer space. Matt wore a dark green t-shirt that was baggy even on his muscular frame. He was taller and much stronger than Alae, taking after his father. Over the t-shirt he almost always wore his camouflage vest that he had cut the arms off of. Combat boots and Matt's dogtags which he wore constantly finished off his outfit. He still never spoke, but Duo had been glad at how easily Matt and Alae got along.

"Ah-ha. Found you. You guys are so dead now." 'The boys got along fine and cause trouble with each other. It's that one I'm worried about.' Duo looked at the third of his charges and wondered what he had been on when he decided on his choice for the third pilot.

Vicious dark green eyes glared at the two culprits. Raising a delicate hand with black nail polish shining in the fluorescent lights, Fia pointed like death to her two victims. The girl was very beautiful, with a strong and thin body. 'She still looks like she lives on the street, I'm going to have to force feed that girl soon.' Duo cocked an eye at her attire, a black midriff shirt with short sleeves and a black pleated skirt. Under the skirt was a pair of black fishnet stockings and ankle high black leather boots. Even her face was done up with the gothic look that Fia loved so much, black eyeliner and black lipstick. Her hair was pulled into a tight ponytail, with just one strand left to dangle in her face down to her chin. Her hair was black, with the exception of her light brown roots that were starting to grow back. Nevertheless, she didn't look like a Gundam pilot right now.

"Fiasha...why are you dressed like that?" Duo laughed at the girl, looking very out of place in the middle of a hangar filled with grease spotted jumpsuits.

"Well, I was supposed to be going out on a date, if it weren't for these two bitches coming into my room-" The two boys in question began to laugh and cut off Fia's rant. One eye twitched and she took a few steps closer to the boys. Alae yelped and he and Matt jumped behind the protection of Duo and Jason.

"Hey, watch it!" Duo yelped as Alae grabbed onto his braid and hid behind him. Very few people ever touched Duo's hair, the man had lost a lot of his lightheartedness from when he was younger, but Alae had a habit of always clinging to Duo's braid when he found himself in that area. Even as a kid, Duo would feel a tug and turn around to see Alae smiling up at him.

"So what did you two troublemakers do to make her chase you down seven hallways all the way from the barracks?" Jason grinned down at his son, who was cautiously averting his eyes to the ceiling, then the floor, then the ceiling again.

Alae grinned and opened his mouth but Matt wisely nodded his head against doing so. Alae's mouth closed and he took a step out from his hiding place. But not before his prism-like blue eyes swept over Duo while he wasn't looking. He knew that Duo was older than him, much older. But he didn't look it. Having grown up in space, Duo's body aged slower than a person on Earth. His real age was 30, but in Earth standards his body was that of a 24 year old. 'Still ten years. Why couldn't I have been born earlier.' Alae broke his gaze from the violet eyes that were curiously watching Matt and looked up...into two sharp emeralds.

"Eep." He muttered. Fia reached out and grabbed Alae by his tanktop and pulled him close, before hissing her words out very slowly into the frightened boy's face.

"Give...them...back...Alae."

Alae swallowed very slowly before reaching into a pocket of his khakis. Shakily he pulled out two small pieces of paper and passed them to the girl in front of him.

"Here ya go."

"Thank you. And if you ever do that again, I will kill you."

Duo blinked. Then began to laugh hysterically. Matt and the rest of the group stared at him like he was insane.

'He hasn't laughed like that in years. Wonder what's so funny?' Jason thought and smiled to see his friend looking happy again.

'Of all the people, Fia tells Alae, son of the perfect soldier, that she will kill him. Oh man..' Another series of laughter followed before Duo got control of himself and wiped the tears away from his violet eyes.

Jason blinked. Then he shook his head and looked back at Fia.

"So what did they take from you that's so important anyway?" Crossing his arms, the impressive man stood with an inquiring look and Fia groaned.

"It's...umm..nothing..really...ummm.." Shifting her dark green eyes back and forth across the ground the one black strand swayed back and forth. Jason cleared his throat and she looked up, angry at her teacher infringing on her personal life.

"I'm going to the freakin ballet." Crossing her arms, Fia humphed and walked swiftly out of the hangar.

"I don't get it." Duo said, scratching his head. But the boys began to laugh again and Jason gave up, walking back towards his room.

"Fia's the biggest tomboy ever. If she were any more of a tomboy, she'd have a dick."

Duo just blinked again and tried to process what Alae was talking about and what it had to do with laughing.

"So you two are late for you training, Fia is pissed off and storming around, and all this is because you two were making fun of her going to the ballet." Duo tapped his foot a few times and glared down at the boys with his arms crossed. Alae wilted under the gaze of his teacher and broke off eye contact. His dark eyes flicked over to Matt who visibly gulped and nodded his head.

"That's what I thought. You two are hopeless." Duo muttered as he walked toward the three Gundams standing in the main hangar. Alae and Matt followed like two boys caught with their hand in the cookie jar.

"S-So what are we doing today?" Alae ventured nervously and flinched and Duo turned his head to glare back at them. Then he smiled and there was a collective relieved sigh from the pilots in training.

"Zero training today."

"Oh man.."

Duo began to climb the metal stairs to the catwalk beside the three newest Gundam models. The two boys, looking bored, followed quickly. 'I hate Zero training. Why does he make us do it so often anyway. We all picked it up fast, and we have complete control over it.' Alae had been too busy thinking to notice that Duo had stopped and ran into his back.

"Haha. Hey, watch it there kid. We haven't gotten to the part where you're supposed to be reckless yet." Duo looked like he had gotten out of his bad move and smiled down at Alae, who was being held up from falling down the stairs by Matt.

"It's not like either of us have ever done anything reckless," Alae winked at Matt "at least not under the Zero."

"Hopeless." Duo walked across the metal plank to the cockpit of Alae's Gundam. Fitting for the boy, although he never knew that his father was a Gundam pilot, Alae received the revamped Wing Zero. The blue and red chest plates of the Wing Zero were kept, as well as the green gem. On the new Zero's legs were attached missile launchers, much like there were on the Heavyarms. The face of the Gundam was the same, but the gold head ornament had more spikes. The main difference between this version of Zero and it's predecessors was that this one didn't have a rifle of any kind. Any weapons of mass destruction would be useless in this era where they had to be silent assassins, taking out only those they had to and not getting caught doing it. To make up for the lack of a buster rifle, the Neo-Zero was equipped with two laser swords, strapped to it's back. The two swords could be combined, and the red beam and green would twist together to form a more powerful sword.*

"Hey Jason, feel free to get Matt set up..in.." Duo swung his head around, searching for his head mechanic.

Matt nodded his head in the direction of the barracks were everyone's rooms were.

"Ah, of course." With a heavy sigh, Duo finished inputting the code that only he knew for the Zero system, and walked back towards the main catwalk. Jerking back towards the cockpit with his thumb, he smiled at the young Yuy. The fire in those blue eyes and the concentration on his face betrayed the warrior's blood in his veins.

"Remember, Neo-Zero won't move with the Zero inputted, but if you start to lose control, better to use the auto shut down just in case."

"Yes dad." Alae said sarcastically and jumped into his cockpit, enthusiastic about training with Zero. It would be an easy day for him, the Zero had always obeyed him perfectly, he'd never once had an issue with it.

Heavy shoes thumping along the metal catwalk, Duo came to the next Gundam in line. The Semitra. This mobile suit had the white arms and legs of all Gundams, but had sharp elbow and knee covers painted dark blue, nearly black. The chest of the Gundam was a dark green, with dark blue tips on the pointed hornlike tips that pass over the Gundams shoulder joint. These two sharp triangles covered up the shoulder vulcans on the Semitra's shoulders. Although the shoulder vulcans provided some cover, the Semitra's major weapon was along it's back. A dark green bow was magnetically held to the back of the Gundam. When used as a weapon, an energy line was formed and both energy arrows, as well as anything else could be fired. Fia was notorious for stealing missiles from downed MS's and shooting them from her bow. Semitra was built for providing cover fire and long range fighting, and did so perfectly with it's dark blue and green hiding it easily.

Matt stared up at the face of the Gundam, squinting in the darkness to see the dark points on the sides of it's face, which blended into the dark hangar perfectly. Then his soft questioning eyes met with his teacher's, asking silently as always.

"Why not put the stealth cloak on the Simetra, just like on the Deathsycthe right? Make them both perfectly stealthy." Matt smiled and cocked his head, waiting for an answer.

"Well Matt. You're the only one who has ever seen or knows about the Deathscythe. I," Duo paused, for once looking unsure of what to say, "It's just as a safety precaution. I need to have some advantage over these three. And if I ever need to check up on them during a mission, I can use the stealth cloak. If Fia had one too, she's be able to detect my electromagnetic field interrupting hers."

Matt just smiled at his friend. He walked forward and patted Duo on the shoulder, shaking his head in mock sadness.

"Oh gimme a break, I am NOT worried about you guys being better than me. Now get in your Gundam, soon you guys will be using the Zero system on actual missions, you better be ready for it."

The 15 year old saluted his instructor and walked away to the cockpit of his own Gundam. Being a hacker genius, Matt could have figured the password of the Zero out on his own. Duo trusted Matt with all his secrets, plus the boy had been raised in the hangar and knew everything already.

Matt pressed a button and the cockpit of his Gundam swung open. The chest plate of the Bladefire was a dark burnt orange. Underneath it were two gattling cannons, which Duo had managed to get Trowa to help install. On the face of the Gundam was a dark brown line running from the corner of its eye to its chin. On the top of its head was a three pronged triton-like gold ornament. Matt has specifically made the curving horns to put on the Bladefire. The two curved prongs went perfectly with the Gundams arms. On each forearm were two enormous blades. Each one was silver and was bright compared to the dark brown forearm plates, which matched the equally dark shin plates. Both blades were permanently on the arms, and were shaped in a curved triangle, like a shark fin. When Matt truly got into battle, the gattling guns were rarely used, he preferred to slash his way through enemies.

Matt crawled slowly into the cockpit of the Bladefire before sitting down. As the door closed, Matt gave a thumbs up to Duo and began to punch in the code to engage the Zero system training.

Duo took a step back to look at the three forbidden weapons which stood still and calm, two with glowing green eyes. Their pilots fought each other ferociously from inside, but with no damage to each other. 'Except the chance of insanity.' Duo had never thought that making the three pilots master Zero was a good idea, he himself had yet to do it completely. Thinking about it, Duo decided to go do some work on the Deathsycthe, one of it's cloaking shields seemed to be moving slower than the others, and this was a rare time he had away from his charges.

* * * * * * * *

*If any of you have played Zelda: Majora's Mask and gotten Oni-Link, he has this wicked two bladed sword, and the blades twist around each other. Think that when I'm talking about the energy swords. ^_^

That was kinda a boring chapter. Sorry people, it will get more exciting, I promise. I had to explain the characters and the Gundams, but I swear it'll get better. ^_^ please don't leave. Oh, for any of you who are reading this, Alae is Latin for wings. I though it was fitting. Try and figure out why the Gundam is named Simetra. It has a secret meaning too. Later readers!