Prelude to Power
Chapter 1- After Colony 196
Disclaimer: You all know the story. I don't own `em. but I do own the kid that Duo and Hilde are havin', see I have the adoption papers right here! Ok, maybe this does contain an Endless Waltz-type plot with the same characters, but believe me, there is a VERY BIG difference with how the plot runs from the OVA Movie, so don't flame.
The year is After Colony 196. After the long period of militaristic conflict, the colonies and earth decided to coexist. In the past ten months, the gundam pilots have began new lives, or resumed ones that they tried to live before the Eve wars. Hilde had twins in late August. A boy named Osiris and a girl named Isis, named after the Egyptian bother and sister rulers over all gods. They both have thick brown hair with ebony hi-lights and blue eyes. She and Duo are living with the twins on L2 where Duo works with Howard for the Sweepers. Hilde manages the secretarial work part-time and also gets out to help. when Duo isn't looking. Trowa moved back to L3. Both he and his sister Catherine still travel with the circus and occasionally run into old acquaintances. Two months ago, Trowa got a call from Midii Une [1], a girl who had been working as a spy for the Alliance at age 10 to support her terminally ill father and three younger brothers. She had been in the area and needed a place to stay. Midii then disappeared, only telling Trowa that she had some unfinished business to do. Wufei returned to space with Sally, the two perusing a new friendship. They got some leads on a young girl creating an uprising. They left under Lady Une's orders to make sure that it doesn't get too much out of hand and if it does, to call the gundam pilots to action. if they could be found. Quatre lives on L4 with his unmarried sisters, totalling a number of 12. Iria [2] had survived the wars and works as a general practitioner in the colony's main hospitals. He runs the Winner corporation with the help of the 40 Magunacs [3]. So far, everything has been going well. Dorothy occasionally visits Quatre and also works for him. They still laugh about her stabbing him back on Libra during the final hours of the war. Heero and Relena disappeared the day after New Year's Day, taking Wing Zero with them.
*Space- Unknown Location* "Are the Serpent Mobile Suits ready?" a man asked a young soldier "Yes sir. And the other MS are ready to go." Replied the young woman "Good, get the troops ready, I want the invasion to be ready as soon as possible." "Sir!" the woman saluted and left the room. "Grandfather?" asked a girl, her voice sounding like it belonged to a teenager full of sadistic, sarcastic and rude remarks. "Hm?" "When will the invasion be ready?" "As soon as we can get the troops ready, we have Major Chang working on it." "Good. The sooner they throw me the crown and give me the throne, I will be the head of the Earth."
*Earth- Unknown Location* "The fire power is still the same, we've done nothing to improve it." "But I've reprogrammed it ten times today!" "At least the wings are working better than expected." "Your first go at an upgrade and you got it to work better than originally thought." "Thanks Heero. You know you've been unusually talkative since New Year. What's the change for?" Heero laughed slightly and reverted back to his 'perfect soldier' mode. That was a good question. but he couldn't say that ever since Relena agreed to go with him and wanted to marry her, he wanted to be 'normal' [4]. "Wait! I didn't say that it was bad. But it's just a little strange, that's all." Relena said, stretching her arms and showing part of her mid-riff under her oil stained blue t-shirt. She had also cut her hair back to shoulder length to keep it out of the way. "Let's take a break." Said Heero, dropping a spanner back into a tool box and sliding off Wing Zero, which at the present moment was lying down on the ground. Relena followed and sat down on the ground. For the past few months, Relena and Heero had been travelling using Wing, making improvements to the way it fought and the ways it manoeuvred. They had also learnt the good and annoying habits of each other like Relena chewing on her fingernails and Heero slurping whenever he drank water. They had also gotten closer, acting more like they were married, than just a couple. "So, how much longer until this upgrade is ready?" Heero asked Relena. She shrugged "Good question, I thought you knew. You know more about these things than I do." Neither spoke but watched as birds fluttered from tree to tree and the specks of sunlight that peeked through the trees played on the ground.
*Colony Cluster L2. Maxwell junkyard.* Duo grinned as he saw Hilde lying on the couch with the twins. All three were unconscious in their dream-scapes and probably wouldn't wake until before dinner. 'Good, now I can get that surprise ready!' he thought to himself. It was a year since he and Hilde had moved in together and then two months later, they found out they were going to be parents. Sighing, Duo set about doing his work, remembering one thing that he tried to do earlier that day.
=FLASHBACK- 6 hours before. 10am, November 17.= Dressed to impress, Duo Maxwell made his way to a building marked 'REGESTRATION, PUBLIC RECORDS AND LOCAL COURT' Inside, it was like a library. Shelves of records filled the large room and made the large building seem small. Duo walked until he found what he was looking for. 'BIRTHS, DEATHS AND MARRIAGES' The old woman behind the desk looked like one of those old women that would club you to death with her handbag if she thought you were going to attack her. This made Duo nervous. "May I help you young man?" she asked in a 'don't mess with me, kid' voice. "Uh. Yeah. Me and my girlfriend were wondering if we had to tell anyone if we were getting married." Duo said, trying not to talk too loud. The old woman smiled and pulled out a book. She opened it and read from it. "Lets see now. On this colony, if both parties are under age, they must get consent from their parents. For a girl, she only needs her parents permission after the age of 16. For a boy, he needs both the court of L2 and his parents permission up until the age of 18." Duo bit his lip. "Is there a problem, young man?" she asked. Duo nodded. "My girlfriend, Hilde, her parent's died before the war and I have been an orphan since way before I could talk. We both have no other family but our kids. Isn't there another way round it?" The old woman took off her glasses and began to clean them. "Well. The judge who does these things is my niece. She would know of any new changes to the law and if there are any. loopholes. So, if you just wait here for a second, I'll go get her." She said as she stood up and went off to get her niece. Duo sat down and waited. About 3 minutes later, a middle-aged woman in a jade green suit walked up to Duo with her aunt. "Hello, I am judge Jennifer Dailey. Could you please come to my office, Mr.." "Duo Maxwell." Duo replied hastily. The woman nodded and lead the way to her office. There, Duo explained the situation and showed her legal papers showing stuff like who Hilde's family were and when they died. "But you have nothing on yourself." Jennifer said. Duo nodded "I grew up on the streets of the now abandoned colony. I was the only survivor of the Maxwell Church massacre." Judge Dailey nodded. "Many people died that day, Mr Maxwell. I was only going through law school at the time, but one of the cases that I was working on was the family of one of the victims. They were going to sue the Alliance for what they did that day." The two were silent for a few moments. "But, with your records, I'm sure we can find something. I used to know Father Maxwell, he was the one who helped me find my aunt after my parents died. I know that he kept records of every single one of the kids that passed through the church, and they were pretty thorough records at that. If you have time, we can sift through what we have here."
Two long hours later, Judge Dailey pulled out a thick file marked 'MXL CH, L2.' As the two looked through, names came up to haunt Duo's mind once again. 'Solo.' "Ah, here we are. Maxwell, Duo." The record had the date that Duo was taken in and a blurry birth certificate indicating a date of birth and a name. "So, Duo is my real name!" The judge took the record and made copies. Back in her office, they sat down and discussed what could be done. "Tell me what you are doing right now." Jennifer said. Duo took a breath "Well, I've been working in a scrapyard for 5 years before the war and then me and Hilde started our own during the war. But after we found out that she was pregnant, I didn't let her out into the yard anymore." "Pregnant. I can see why you seem so tired." Duo shook his head. Jennifer took a breath and wrote everything down. "What did you do during the war?" "I. I can't tell you." "Why not Duo?" "Just because." "I need to know Duo. It's important." Duo sighed in defeat, but still said nothing. "Well?" Jennifer asked. "I was pilot 02 of the Gundam Deathscythe." Jennifer nodded. "Then I owe my life to you. That was the one that spared my aunt and myself along with hundreds on this colony." Duo nodded. "You mentioned that your girlfriend was pregnant." Duo grinned "Yeah, three months ago they were born." "They? Twins." Duo nodded and rummaged around in his pockets. He produced two pieces of paper and a photo. Jennifer looked over them and smiled. "Osiris and Isis. Strange names, but good."
An hour later, Duo walked out of the office with a document about 10 pages long. =END FLASHBACK=
Duo sat down at the kitchen table and began to read the file. Upon hearing a whine from the other room, he hid the file and went to pick up his daughter. He took her back into the kitchen and talked to her. "Ya know 'sis, you and your brother and your mum and me are gonna be a family soon, legally." The tiny infant blinked and wrinkled her nose. Duo smiled and held her close. "You and ya mum are just the same. always doing that nose thing. Always when something makes her laugh. But you got my hair, so I have something to brag about later."
*Space, Location Unknown.* Two people grinned. The display on the screen showed many strategies for wars. "That plan won't work. We don't know where Peacecraft is!" said a man gruffly "But we know that Maxwell has two brats. We kidnap them and the girl and get him to fight over the three." Said the girl. The door opened and in walked another female. "Major Chang, what is happening with my troops?" "Miss Khushrenada, they have all rallied, been trained and are ready to go whenever you wish." "And news on the Gundams?" asked the man "Sir, unit 05 is currently near-by. Unit 04 is on L4, 03 is on L3, 02 is on L2. Location of 01 is unknown." "Anything else?" "No sir." "Good, you are dismissed." The young major walked out and down the halls until she came to a deserted corridor. Rapping on a wall 3 times, it opened and let her in.
"Merian, you're late!" said a young woman, no older than the Major. "I know Midii. Whenever I do stuff like this, I feel like I'm betraying them." "It's almost over now. As soon as dawn comes, you'll be considered dead again. We'll go back to L3 and I'll explain everything to Trowa." Merian sat down next to the blonde and played with the laces of her boots. "I'll give anything to see Wufei again. Ever since I said that I wasn't a woman anymore, I was going to be excluded from my clan, be an outcast because I fought in what's supposed to be a man's duty. But now my clan is no more, the only two surviving being me and Wufei." Midii stood up and stretched her arms. "Listen, can you go down to the mess hall and bring me some food, I'm starving!" Merian smiled. "Sure thing Midii."
TSUZUKU.
[1] Midii Une (spelt in the manga as Middie) isn't related to Lady Une, at least I don't think so. For those who don't know, Midii is the young girl with what looks like a Gameboy Advance around her neck who turns up and is a mercenary with Trowa, who is named 'Nanashi' Japanese for 'No Name', in Trowa's Episode Zero, which is set in AC190, when Trowa is supposedly around 10 years old (if his birth year is the same as the other pilots, making him 15 in the series and 16 in EW). She is briefly mentioned (not by name) in EW where Trowa is shown wearing a crucifix, which was given to him by her. I'm not sure where I heard that she is the only female in her family with her father and some number of brothers between 2 and 4, it might've been from the manga. Confused? Find the manga and read it.
[2] Why do some people think that Quatre's sister Iria died in that episode? I think that she was concussed or something, not dead, so that's why she appears so much in here. Plus she only showed up in one episode, explaining the thought that she's dead. But I think she did die in the manga of GW. *shrugs* Well, she's alive here, so if you have a problem take it up with my management!
[3] If anyone has read or heard about the story '1001 Arabian Nights', especially the story about Ali Baba and the 40 thieves, you would probably guess that this is where the idea of the 40 space pirates came from, but I don't know if that was the influence. Magunac means family, basically saying that these 40 men are like brothers. For those who don't know, they are all test tube babies. Quatre's 29 sisters were also test tube babies. Quatre wasn't, but he doesn't know that. (Quatre Raberba Winner and the 40 Magunacs, hey! I see a very small difference there! HA HA HA!) Another interesting fact: There is a group of Arabians that are blonde, pale and blue eyed. I think they originated from France and the French name for them is "Raberba", giving Quatre one of his names. Another way to get a blonde, pale, blue eyed Arabian is if they're Albino. But tell me why Iria has BLUE eyes too? Any ideas?
[4] I know Heero seems a little. ok a lot STRANGE! But it's only around Relena. And on the subject of Heero being 'normal'. he's gonna be a few cans short of a six pack.
Yeah, yeah. I just love bringing people back from the dead. So Merian is alive. where does that leave poor Wufei? (Poor? What the hell?) And what about the sinister plans for Hilde and the twins? Find out in Chapter 2. -Lyndal
Dedicated to my friends whom I miss very much and to my new friends whom I find are very. indescribable.
[12/2/03]
Disclaimer: You all know the story. I don't own `em. but I do own the kid that Duo and Hilde are havin', see I have the adoption papers right here! Ok, maybe this does contain an Endless Waltz-type plot with the same characters, but believe me, there is a VERY BIG difference with how the plot runs from the OVA Movie, so don't flame.
The year is After Colony 196. After the long period of militaristic conflict, the colonies and earth decided to coexist. In the past ten months, the gundam pilots have began new lives, or resumed ones that they tried to live before the Eve wars. Hilde had twins in late August. A boy named Osiris and a girl named Isis, named after the Egyptian bother and sister rulers over all gods. They both have thick brown hair with ebony hi-lights and blue eyes. She and Duo are living with the twins on L2 where Duo works with Howard for the Sweepers. Hilde manages the secretarial work part-time and also gets out to help. when Duo isn't looking. Trowa moved back to L3. Both he and his sister Catherine still travel with the circus and occasionally run into old acquaintances. Two months ago, Trowa got a call from Midii Une [1], a girl who had been working as a spy for the Alliance at age 10 to support her terminally ill father and three younger brothers. She had been in the area and needed a place to stay. Midii then disappeared, only telling Trowa that she had some unfinished business to do. Wufei returned to space with Sally, the two perusing a new friendship. They got some leads on a young girl creating an uprising. They left under Lady Une's orders to make sure that it doesn't get too much out of hand and if it does, to call the gundam pilots to action. if they could be found. Quatre lives on L4 with his unmarried sisters, totalling a number of 12. Iria [2] had survived the wars and works as a general practitioner in the colony's main hospitals. He runs the Winner corporation with the help of the 40 Magunacs [3]. So far, everything has been going well. Dorothy occasionally visits Quatre and also works for him. They still laugh about her stabbing him back on Libra during the final hours of the war. Heero and Relena disappeared the day after New Year's Day, taking Wing Zero with them.
*Space- Unknown Location* "Are the Serpent Mobile Suits ready?" a man asked a young soldier "Yes sir. And the other MS are ready to go." Replied the young woman "Good, get the troops ready, I want the invasion to be ready as soon as possible." "Sir!" the woman saluted and left the room. "Grandfather?" asked a girl, her voice sounding like it belonged to a teenager full of sadistic, sarcastic and rude remarks. "Hm?" "When will the invasion be ready?" "As soon as we can get the troops ready, we have Major Chang working on it." "Good. The sooner they throw me the crown and give me the throne, I will be the head of the Earth."
*Earth- Unknown Location* "The fire power is still the same, we've done nothing to improve it." "But I've reprogrammed it ten times today!" "At least the wings are working better than expected." "Your first go at an upgrade and you got it to work better than originally thought." "Thanks Heero. You know you've been unusually talkative since New Year. What's the change for?" Heero laughed slightly and reverted back to his 'perfect soldier' mode. That was a good question. but he couldn't say that ever since Relena agreed to go with him and wanted to marry her, he wanted to be 'normal' [4]. "Wait! I didn't say that it was bad. But it's just a little strange, that's all." Relena said, stretching her arms and showing part of her mid-riff under her oil stained blue t-shirt. She had also cut her hair back to shoulder length to keep it out of the way. "Let's take a break." Said Heero, dropping a spanner back into a tool box and sliding off Wing Zero, which at the present moment was lying down on the ground. Relena followed and sat down on the ground. For the past few months, Relena and Heero had been travelling using Wing, making improvements to the way it fought and the ways it manoeuvred. They had also learnt the good and annoying habits of each other like Relena chewing on her fingernails and Heero slurping whenever he drank water. They had also gotten closer, acting more like they were married, than just a couple. "So, how much longer until this upgrade is ready?" Heero asked Relena. She shrugged "Good question, I thought you knew. You know more about these things than I do." Neither spoke but watched as birds fluttered from tree to tree and the specks of sunlight that peeked through the trees played on the ground.
*Colony Cluster L2. Maxwell junkyard.* Duo grinned as he saw Hilde lying on the couch with the twins. All three were unconscious in their dream-scapes and probably wouldn't wake until before dinner. 'Good, now I can get that surprise ready!' he thought to himself. It was a year since he and Hilde had moved in together and then two months later, they found out they were going to be parents. Sighing, Duo set about doing his work, remembering one thing that he tried to do earlier that day.
=FLASHBACK- 6 hours before. 10am, November 17.= Dressed to impress, Duo Maxwell made his way to a building marked 'REGESTRATION, PUBLIC RECORDS AND LOCAL COURT' Inside, it was like a library. Shelves of records filled the large room and made the large building seem small. Duo walked until he found what he was looking for. 'BIRTHS, DEATHS AND MARRIAGES' The old woman behind the desk looked like one of those old women that would club you to death with her handbag if she thought you were going to attack her. This made Duo nervous. "May I help you young man?" she asked in a 'don't mess with me, kid' voice. "Uh. Yeah. Me and my girlfriend were wondering if we had to tell anyone if we were getting married." Duo said, trying not to talk too loud. The old woman smiled and pulled out a book. She opened it and read from it. "Lets see now. On this colony, if both parties are under age, they must get consent from their parents. For a girl, she only needs her parents permission after the age of 16. For a boy, he needs both the court of L2 and his parents permission up until the age of 18." Duo bit his lip. "Is there a problem, young man?" she asked. Duo nodded. "My girlfriend, Hilde, her parent's died before the war and I have been an orphan since way before I could talk. We both have no other family but our kids. Isn't there another way round it?" The old woman took off her glasses and began to clean them. "Well. The judge who does these things is my niece. She would know of any new changes to the law and if there are any. loopholes. So, if you just wait here for a second, I'll go get her." She said as she stood up and went off to get her niece. Duo sat down and waited. About 3 minutes later, a middle-aged woman in a jade green suit walked up to Duo with her aunt. "Hello, I am judge Jennifer Dailey. Could you please come to my office, Mr.." "Duo Maxwell." Duo replied hastily. The woman nodded and lead the way to her office. There, Duo explained the situation and showed her legal papers showing stuff like who Hilde's family were and when they died. "But you have nothing on yourself." Jennifer said. Duo nodded "I grew up on the streets of the now abandoned colony. I was the only survivor of the Maxwell Church massacre." Judge Dailey nodded. "Many people died that day, Mr Maxwell. I was only going through law school at the time, but one of the cases that I was working on was the family of one of the victims. They were going to sue the Alliance for what they did that day." The two were silent for a few moments. "But, with your records, I'm sure we can find something. I used to know Father Maxwell, he was the one who helped me find my aunt after my parents died. I know that he kept records of every single one of the kids that passed through the church, and they were pretty thorough records at that. If you have time, we can sift through what we have here."
Two long hours later, Judge Dailey pulled out a thick file marked 'MXL CH, L2.' As the two looked through, names came up to haunt Duo's mind once again. 'Solo.' "Ah, here we are. Maxwell, Duo." The record had the date that Duo was taken in and a blurry birth certificate indicating a date of birth and a name. "So, Duo is my real name!" The judge took the record and made copies. Back in her office, they sat down and discussed what could be done. "Tell me what you are doing right now." Jennifer said. Duo took a breath "Well, I've been working in a scrapyard for 5 years before the war and then me and Hilde started our own during the war. But after we found out that she was pregnant, I didn't let her out into the yard anymore." "Pregnant. I can see why you seem so tired." Duo shook his head. Jennifer took a breath and wrote everything down. "What did you do during the war?" "I. I can't tell you." "Why not Duo?" "Just because." "I need to know Duo. It's important." Duo sighed in defeat, but still said nothing. "Well?" Jennifer asked. "I was pilot 02 of the Gundam Deathscythe." Jennifer nodded. "Then I owe my life to you. That was the one that spared my aunt and myself along with hundreds on this colony." Duo nodded. "You mentioned that your girlfriend was pregnant." Duo grinned "Yeah, three months ago they were born." "They? Twins." Duo nodded and rummaged around in his pockets. He produced two pieces of paper and a photo. Jennifer looked over them and smiled. "Osiris and Isis. Strange names, but good."
An hour later, Duo walked out of the office with a document about 10 pages long. =END FLASHBACK=
Duo sat down at the kitchen table and began to read the file. Upon hearing a whine from the other room, he hid the file and went to pick up his daughter. He took her back into the kitchen and talked to her. "Ya know 'sis, you and your brother and your mum and me are gonna be a family soon, legally." The tiny infant blinked and wrinkled her nose. Duo smiled and held her close. "You and ya mum are just the same. always doing that nose thing. Always when something makes her laugh. But you got my hair, so I have something to brag about later."
*Space, Location Unknown.* Two people grinned. The display on the screen showed many strategies for wars. "That plan won't work. We don't know where Peacecraft is!" said a man gruffly "But we know that Maxwell has two brats. We kidnap them and the girl and get him to fight over the three." Said the girl. The door opened and in walked another female. "Major Chang, what is happening with my troops?" "Miss Khushrenada, they have all rallied, been trained and are ready to go whenever you wish." "And news on the Gundams?" asked the man "Sir, unit 05 is currently near-by. Unit 04 is on L4, 03 is on L3, 02 is on L2. Location of 01 is unknown." "Anything else?" "No sir." "Good, you are dismissed." The young major walked out and down the halls until she came to a deserted corridor. Rapping on a wall 3 times, it opened and let her in.
"Merian, you're late!" said a young woman, no older than the Major. "I know Midii. Whenever I do stuff like this, I feel like I'm betraying them." "It's almost over now. As soon as dawn comes, you'll be considered dead again. We'll go back to L3 and I'll explain everything to Trowa." Merian sat down next to the blonde and played with the laces of her boots. "I'll give anything to see Wufei again. Ever since I said that I wasn't a woman anymore, I was going to be excluded from my clan, be an outcast because I fought in what's supposed to be a man's duty. But now my clan is no more, the only two surviving being me and Wufei." Midii stood up and stretched her arms. "Listen, can you go down to the mess hall and bring me some food, I'm starving!" Merian smiled. "Sure thing Midii."
TSUZUKU.
[1] Midii Une (spelt in the manga as Middie) isn't related to Lady Une, at least I don't think so. For those who don't know, Midii is the young girl with what looks like a Gameboy Advance around her neck who turns up and is a mercenary with Trowa, who is named 'Nanashi' Japanese for 'No Name', in Trowa's Episode Zero, which is set in AC190, when Trowa is supposedly around 10 years old (if his birth year is the same as the other pilots, making him 15 in the series and 16 in EW). She is briefly mentioned (not by name) in EW where Trowa is shown wearing a crucifix, which was given to him by her. I'm not sure where I heard that she is the only female in her family with her father and some number of brothers between 2 and 4, it might've been from the manga. Confused? Find the manga and read it.
[2] Why do some people think that Quatre's sister Iria died in that episode? I think that she was concussed or something, not dead, so that's why she appears so much in here. Plus she only showed up in one episode, explaining the thought that she's dead. But I think she did die in the manga of GW. *shrugs* Well, she's alive here, so if you have a problem take it up with my management!
[3] If anyone has read or heard about the story '1001 Arabian Nights', especially the story about Ali Baba and the 40 thieves, you would probably guess that this is where the idea of the 40 space pirates came from, but I don't know if that was the influence. Magunac means family, basically saying that these 40 men are like brothers. For those who don't know, they are all test tube babies. Quatre's 29 sisters were also test tube babies. Quatre wasn't, but he doesn't know that. (Quatre Raberba Winner and the 40 Magunacs, hey! I see a very small difference there! HA HA HA!) Another interesting fact: There is a group of Arabians that are blonde, pale and blue eyed. I think they originated from France and the French name for them is "Raberba", giving Quatre one of his names. Another way to get a blonde, pale, blue eyed Arabian is if they're Albino. But tell me why Iria has BLUE eyes too? Any ideas?
[4] I know Heero seems a little. ok a lot STRANGE! But it's only around Relena. And on the subject of Heero being 'normal'. he's gonna be a few cans short of a six pack.
Yeah, yeah. I just love bringing people back from the dead. So Merian is alive. where does that leave poor Wufei? (Poor? What the hell?) And what about the sinister plans for Hilde and the twins? Find out in Chapter 2. -Lyndal
Dedicated to my friends whom I miss very much and to my new friends whom I find are very. indescribable.
[12/2/03]
