*Disclaimer* Gundam is copyrighted by Bandai Co. and what I use in here I don't legally own. It should not be used for profit and/or to control the minds of mice.

Chapter 2- Friendship and Enemies

Alex looked up at the ceiling and had no care in the world. He saw a drop of water land his nose, but paid no attention to it. It was like nothing could reach him, since the dream from earlier. His right leg shook suddenly; this managed to stir him from his stare and Alex glanced over at his leg.

"The call of nature… great…." He let out a big sigh.

He dragged himself out of bed and walked over to the bathroom, the door slammed behind him. A few minutes later, Alex got out of the bathroom after he refreshed himself, and walked over to the dresser then proceeded to look for clean clothes. After the change of clothes, Alex looked out the window and saw the colony sky along with some children as they played nearby.

"I wonder if I should work for the next month?" Alex thought. "I should have enough money to tide me over…." Alex paused in mid-thought. "I do wish I wasn't on my own. I miss you so much Rio." A tear rolled down his face.

Alex saw the children run away as though in fright, but he couldn't quite tell why. A very loud sound erupted behind him, and he looked to see what it was. To his surprise, there was a Leo's arm in his bed with the ceiling collapsed below it.

Alex looked at the rubble; "I hope the motel doesn't charge me for this."

The brown haired boy climbed through the rubble and saw daylight along with the Leo's cockpit, which had a small layer of debris on it. Alex dashed up to the cockpit and forced open the door while he brushed off the debris. He saw the pilot near unconsciousness with a bloody wound in his side.

"Who are you with and what happened?" Alex got into the cockpit.

"I'm with the... Preventors..." The pilot spat up blood. "We were checking on illegal arms coming to this colony, when my group got nailed by a group of Virgos."

"Virgos?" Alex thought. "Must be one of the new type of mobile suit developed during the Earth sphere and colony conflict."

"They got my partner, and me..." the pilot spat up even more blood. "Some of us are still alive, but I'm not sure how many."

"You're going to be ok, man." Alex saw the man's blank eyes. "Shit... I couldn't help him..." Alex closed the pilot's eyes shut and cried a little. He wiped the tears away.

Alex Cros then realized that more people could die from this conflict, much like his brother. He made his way down the rubble and ran once he cleared the debris field.

Meanwhile, two Leos fought for their very existence against a Virgo in the city nearby.

"Johnson, we need to do a different strategy," the pilot commented as the Leos backed off and hid behind buildings.

"Sir, what should we do?" Johnson asked.

"I'm not sure, but at least we should fight," the pilot replied.

The building behind Johnson's Leo exploded with a beam of energy shot out from it. The beam of energy tore apart the Leo, Johnson died immediately.

"Johnson!" The Leo then came out of hiding and fired its rifle at the Virgo. The Virgo looked at the Leo and fired its beam cannon; the upper torso of the Leo got blown off. The Leo then collapsed onto the ground, and the Virgo walked up to the Leo prepared for another shot. A yellow glow came from the beam cannon as the energy built up. Suddenly, a flash of light passed by the Virgo and, after a second of stillness, the Virgo fell into two pieces, which promptly exploded. The pilot of the Leo had fear and realization of life came over him while he waited for the Virgo to deal the deadly strike. He should have done better, if he had better, Johnson would still be alive. After some more time went by, the Leo pilot thought to himself that he should have already been killed, and decided to open the cockpit. He knew that he might stare down the barrel of a beam cannon, but figured that he would die either way. He opened the cockpit and took a look outside.

"What happened..." the pilot was dumbfounded when he didn't see the Virgo. He then saw a beam scythe that glowed through the smoke, and the image of Deathscythe Hell appeared into his sight. "Well, what do you know? I got saved by a Gundam pilot, who would have thought."

A voice spoke over the loud speakers of Deathscythe Hell, "Are you alright?"

"Couldn't be better, thank you."

"No problem," Duo closed the speakers, "for the God of Death."

Deathscythe Hell moved out of the area in search of the other Virgos that had made trouble. It had been awhile since Duo was in Deathscythe Hell, since he blew it up on earth. A smile appeared on his face as he felt his old buddy still functioned as good as it did in the old days.

"Those Preventors really know their stuff."

In fact, Duo felt good from about that pilot he had saved from the Virgo doll, but decided to cut out the happiness to make sure his guard wasn't down.

Deathscythe Hell then stopped in the downtown area of the city. Duo looked at his radar with some confusion. "That's funny, that radar signature doesn't belong to any known mobile suit. Must be a new model," Duo let out a big sigh. "Just my luck."

Icedig turned around a corner and saw Deathscythe Hell in full view. Icedig and Deathscythe Hell stared at each other for a few moments.

Alex recognized the suit in front of him, but couldn't think of where he had seen it. It then occurred to him that this might be one of the Gundams that he had heard about.

A communication link popped up in his cockpit.

Alex's eyes opened wide at the sight on his screen, but Duo didn't notice.

"Identify yourself at once. Or prepare to die."

"I think you shouldn't be worrying about who I am right now," Alex yelled at the top of his lungs.

Icedig pulled out its gundanium sabre and flung it directly at Deathscythe Hell. Duo was taken by surprise on this pilot's action, but didn't hesitate. Before the sabre was even halfway to Deathscythe Hell, the gundam put its thrusters to max and flew towards Icedig with beam scythe in hand while it easily dodged the sabre.

"Bad idea, buddy," Deathscythe Hell was about to deal a fatal swipe.

"Before you decide to kill me, I would advise to look behind you," Alex yelled as fast as he could, but at the same time, as clearly as possible.

Duo thought about the pilot's statement. "Who does this guy think he is? … Telling a gundam pilot what to do? Why should I?" Duo looked at Alex for a second. "He sounds sincere though…."

Deathscythe Hell pulled out of its swing and turned its body to look behind itself. A Virgo lay on the ground after being impaled by the gundanium sabre thrown by the Icedig mobile suit.

"Whoa..." Duo had some sweat roll down his face. "At that range, there would have been no defense against it. Who is this guy anyway?"

**An hour later**

Duo and Alex sat at a table at the Shell Ribbon Cafe', and they had talked for the past half hour.

"So then I finished off the five Leos. That's pretty much my life up until now."

"Now?" Duo had a pissed off look. "Wait a minute, this happened in 194?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Well, why didn't you help us during AC-195 and then again in AC-196?" Duo had an angry tone behind his words.

"Oh yeah... well I'm not sure really..." Alex had some grief in his voice and Duo fell back in his chair.

"Oh boy, and here I thought you were hiding from the world..."

"I guess I was... You see OZ was never my enemy..." Alex hesitated on what he tried to say. "You see my brother used to work for a facility that was owned by them."

"What?" Duo lifted an eyebrow.

"Yeah, I knew it back then... though I hardly they would have thought that they would done that to a dedicated employee..." Alex stated. "Someone else killed him..."

"Let me guess, your hiding from the guys who might have killed your brother. But, you killed the dudes. You don't need to worry about it."

"I know... but who sent them." Alex was frustrated and sat further back in his chair; "I'm staying low until I find out."

A man dressed in a trench coat and hat observed the two and almost fell out of his seat when he heard the last part of the conversation, and began to make little notes in his notepad. Alex and Duo didn't even notice him.

"Alright, help the Preventors. That's your best option to finding out who did it."

"The Preventors?" Alex scratched his head for a minute. "The group trying to diffuse fires by taking away the fuel?"

"That's right…. The gundam pilots help them out from time to time."

"Hmm… I'll think about..." Alex stopped in mid-sentence when a truck drove up and two men stepped out.

"We are from the Preventors."

"Who do you want to talk to?" Alex didn't know what to make of the men.

"You, since Duo here is quite known to the Preventors." the man gave Alex a card.

"What's this?" Alex looked at it weirdly.

"Lady Une's personal business card," the man had a neutral look on his face. "She would like to speak to you."

He got up as he stared at the card. The thought "Who is this Lady Une and why did she want to talk to me?" came to his mind. Alex looked at them oddly for a moment, but got into the truck.

"Duo, Lady Une would like to see you, also."

"Gotcha," Duo headed over and got into the truck. "What about Deathscythe Hell?"

"We already have it moved, along with your new friend's mobile suit."

The man got into the truck and it slowly pulled away from the cafe'. The man, who had observed the entire thing, pulled out a cell phone and pushed a single button.

"Yes, this is Mota. You won't believe, who I found while on vacation... That's correct, I believe I have located test subject #235 after thirteen years of being missing... Affirmative, over and out."

The man got up and slowly walked away.