Disclaimer: I do not own the copyrights to Gundam Wing, Endless Waltz, G-Gundam, any movies or any songs that are used in this story. All copyrights belong to their respective owners.

Notice to Readers: To understand certain parts of this story, you'll have to read the other stories before this one. It is recommended by not required.

Mobile Suit Gundam Wing:

Children of the Gundam

Chapter 3: Growing Up

*

At the High School prom, Julia Peacecraft Rodriguez stood up again as she had fallen to the floor for the third time. Standing up she felt weak in her knees as if she had been fighting for the past hour. As she finally stood up on her own two feet that feeling came back again.

BAM!

It was that incredible impact once again that caused her to faint. Everyone on the dance floor who looked in her direction saw what had just happened. Yet, the only ones who came to her side were her friends, William Maxwell, Hikaru Peacecraft Yuy, Paul Marquise, and her brother Leto Peacecraft Rodriguez. All of them came to Julia's side and tried to figure out what was wrong with her.

Leto picked her up and called to her, "Julia. Hey, Julia. Wake up."

They watched in the dim light as Julia came around, it looked like she was moving her lips, Leto brought his ear down to her lips, and over the beating thump of the music he found out what she was saying.

He looked back up at the other Preventer Teens as he reported what his sister said, "She said our parents are in danger."

* * *

In the nurses office of the school, with the school nurse there with them, the Preventer Teens listened to Julia explain the situation. She said that at a certain point during the dance she had this odd feeling as if she was in a fight. Yet at the same time there was no one around her. It seemed that she was experiencing someone else's fight, but the how and the why was still inexplicable.

"I don't know what to say." The nurse said

"Maybe I can offer an explanation." A voice said from behind them

The nurse and the Preventer teens look and saw Hikaru's mother, Relena Peacecraft Yuy. She stood in the doorway to the nurses' office wearing her three-piece suit with her skirt. She had a look in her eyes like a doctor that was delivering bad news to a dead patient's family. She tried to hide the news of what she had to report but she wasn't the best person in hiding her feelings about anything. Her love for Heero Yuy demonstrates that to its fullest.

"What is it, mom?" Hikaru asked

"Oh, Hikaru!" Relena cried as she threw her arms around her daughter and began to sob, "I just received the news! Its Heero!"

Hikaru took her mothers shoulders and shoved them away to look at her mothers sobbing face, "What is it mother!?" She demanded, "What about my dad?"

"There was a terrible battle." Relena cried taking short gasping breaths as she tried to explain the news. "The Preventers were defeated."

"Is dad dead?!" Hikaru asked, "Tell me, mom! Is dad dead!?!"

Relena continued to sob, "The Gundams were damaged…beyond repair…"

"IS HE DEAD!?" Hikaru screamed

"I don't know…." Relena sobbed even more, "They're searching for him. They already think he's dead. Oh, Hikaru! I'm so sorry!"

She hugged her daughter and continued to sob on her shoulder. Yet, she didn't hear the solitary giggle from her daughter. The laugh slowly trickled into a laugh, and the sobbing Relena looked at her daughter.

"Why are you laughing?" Relena asked

"If dad is just missing," Hikaru stated, "Then he's not dead."

Before Relena could say anything her cell phone rang, she composed herself, wiping away her tears, and cleared her throat.

"This is Vice Foreign Minister Relena Yuy." She answered, "Yes…Really…Oh, thank you very much!" She hung up the phone and turned to the children. "They found all the Preventers. They found all of your parents, as well as Trieze and Lady Une. They're being brought to Colony L-1 for treatment."

"Let's go then!" William jumped out of his seat, "I want to see my mom and dad and find out who did this to them!"

"I second that." Hikaru added, "Let's go mom. Let's go see him."

"Yes." Relena said with the tears of joy welting in her aged eyes.

* * *

In a hospital on Colony L-1, the Preventer Teens had arrived with Relena Yuy as their guide. They came to the hospital and found their parents in the intensive care ward. Which was just one large room with nearly twenty beds arranged in rows with each other. The Preventers were all lying next to each other in their beds. All of them had sustained considerable injuries. Lots of broken bones, cracked bones, cuts, bruises, concussions, loss of blood, and slight whiplash. It was actually amazing to the doctors on staff that all the Preventers survived the battle let alone being discovered in escape pods as well as the core lander for the Gundam pilots. All of the Preventers looked terrible with all the bandages and casts on their arms, legs, and heads.

Looking upon them made the Preventer Teens feel sorry for their parents. It made them all feel so sorry that they couldn't speak to them. They wanted to know who did this to them and wanting to know that turned the sympathy into anger. They became collectively angry as they continued to see how helpless their parents were. Especially after all those things they heard on the news about the heroic deeds that the Preventers would always do. To see them defeated was so heart wrenching that William took his fist and slammed it against the wall.

"Damn it." He cursed between his teeth, "Who did this to them?"

"We don't know who did it, William." Relena explained, "the next available police force is investigating it and so far they haven't come up with anything."

Hikaru went to the side of Heero Yuy, recognizing the bangs of moss brown hair that came out from his bandages. She felt so sorry for her father that she laid her head at side of his bed seeing his heavily bandaged arm. She wanted to do something about the situation, but what could she do? She didn't have a mobile suit as powerful as the Wing Zero and she didn't even know who the enemy was. All of this made her feel inept and out of control. She hated feeling out of control; she wanted to control nearly anything and everything that was around her. She wanted to cry at her fathers' side, but before she could let her tears go she heard a gasp.

She sat up and saw her father breathing heavily, his eyes were partially open, and it looked as if he was fighting to stay away as he spoke.

"Relena." He whispered, "Hikaru, the plans. In…the…core lander. The…plans."

He exhaled again and fell back to deep sleep again. Hikaru was stunned for the moment when she saw her father come out of unconsciousness and try to speak to whoever was listening. At first she thought he was suffering from delirium from whatever happened to him. Yet, knowing her father he never suffered very much from such things. At least not that she knew of, but it was something in his voice that compelled her to ask.

"Mom." She called, "Where are the core landers?"

"From what I was told," Relena reported, "They're in the space hanger, why?"

"I've got an idea." Hikaru said as she dashed out of the hospital room. The other Preventer teens looked at each other in somewhat of a state of confusion but they followed Hikaru as if they were sheep and she was the shepherd.

They all felt frustrated in following Hikaru from the hospital to the hangar without even the simplest courtesy of explanation. The annoyance of this chasing had gotten to William Maxwell the most. It was a trait that he inherited from his father, a short fuse of patience. With a quick burst, he caught up with Hikaru. He noticed a fire in Hikaru's eyes, a determination that he had never seen before. Seeing that kind of fire made William ask his question in a less huffy tone.

"What are you doing?" William asked, "What did he say to you?"

Hikaru answered, "Dad told me of some plans that are in his core lander."

"What kind of plans?"

"I don't know, but that's what I'm going to find out."

After tens of hallways and a few elevator rides, they arrived at the hangar. It was the same as any other, once you've seen one you've seen them all. The same steel walls, grease stained floor, and the ships that were docked there.

Upon entering the Preventer Teens were confronted with an equally horrific sight as seeing their parents beaten and mangled. They saw the Preventer Gundams Core Lander, all of them looking like wrecked cars at a junkyard. Their metallic exteriors crunched inwards like aluminum cans and twisted like tin foil. The wings of some models were bent in impossible directions like paper clips out of shape. Their paintjobs chipped in some places, cracked in others, and also brunt. At first it didn't feel like a hangar to the Preventer Teens, more like a space ship graveyard. That was when all eyes saw the Gundams. All of them, the Wing Zero, the Heavyarms, the DeathScythe Hell, and so on. All of them were in tatters beyond repair, legs missing, arms blown off, and cockpits half ripped open from whatever blasted it. Some Gundams had their heads missing like Greek statues, and others were still hanging on by only a fragment of Gundanium with a few stray wires.

"Dear God Almighty." William uttered seeing his father's Gundam broken and unused like a thrown away car, "What monster could do this?"

Hikaru didn't answer; she instead went for the Wing Zero's core lander. It looked just as trashed as the others and yet the glass over the cockpit was still in tact. That explained how the Gundam pilots survived in space, all of the cockpits in each core lander was safe. She went to the cockpit and looked for the opening switch over the landscape of crumpled metal. She found the crushed inward switch and pushed it in sending its plastic covering to the floor.

The cockpit of the core lander shook as it tried to release itself from its maladjusted groove. It then yanked itself away from its position, shaking as it rose up. Hikaru wasted no time as she dove into the cockpit, scrambling and searching for something that could be "the plans" that her father told her to find. She felt like a desperate treasure hunter looking for a sunken ship containing gold that everyone told her that didn't exist. Yet, in her heart she knew that it had to be there, her father couldn't lie to his own daughter. She searched over the landscapes of the seats and in the crevices in between them, nothing. She scoured and found nothing. She sat in the passenger side of the core lander and leaned back in frustration.

"Damn it dad!" She cursed, "Why didn't you tell me where exactly it was?"

Her frustration escalated and she brought her fist down on the dash.

POP!

Hikaru looked and found the glove compartment spring open and there it was. Lying on top of a stack of miscellaneous papers was a disk in a plastic casing like a jewel just waiting to be taken by some adventurer. Hikaru's heart leaped with glee and her eyes widened, as she knew that this was the very thing that she was searching for. She grabbed the disk and shoved it in between the material of her bra and her breasts since she had no pockets in her prom dress. She got out of the core lander and looked at her friends.

"I need a computer." She said.

* * *

Hikaru needed a computer and the Preventer Teens found one. It really was a good thing that these things were provided in libraries in the colony. Though they had to be very careful in making sure that the librarians didn't catch onto what they were doing, otherwise it would put everything in jeopardy.

Under the cover of the watchful eyes of her friends, Hikaru placed the found CD in the disk tray. As she closed up the CD tray within an instant a new screen came up over the one the library had.

ENTER PASSWORD: _

"Enter Password?" Hikaru thought to herself. She took a quick glance around to see if anyone was watching the task that she was doing. Bringing her attention back to the task at hand she tried to think of what would be the most logical password for her father to use.

"WING ZERO" She typed

INCORRECT

Hikaru thought for a moment once again to think of the key to this treasure trove of secrets. She thought back to the mission that her dad told her about in which he had become a Gundam pilot. Maybe that was the password

"OPERATION METEOR"

INCORRECT

It became frustrating to her, like trying to play baseball without a bat. She ran her fingers through her hair in frustration of not even making a scratch in this problem. Several of the other Preventer Teens tried to open the lock, Paul Marquise tried the word Zero after the Zero system. It was incorrect. Then Julia and Leto both tried their own password, they both typed in the word Peace, but it too was incorrect. Next was William Maxwell, but his was incorrect as well, it didn't even matter what it was.

Hikaru sat back down, she exhaled and as she did something popped into her mind like a memory that was forgotten and suddenly came out of the blue. It was when Hikaru saw her mother and father together. She saw how much they truly loved each other. It was so much that in her heart Hikaru wanted her love to be just like theirs. Yet, it wasn't that which gave her an idea, it was the person, her mother…Relena.

"RELENA" She typed

CORRECT

The drive in the computer spun faster and faster in reading the CD. The screen began to display the Preventer logo as a desktop image, but that wasn't the end of it. As Hikaru's eyes saw the Preventer Logo, out came a small window. In that window Hikaru, as well as the other Preventer Teens, saw the face of her father, Heero Yuy, just as handsome as ever.

He spoke, "To my daughter, Hikaru. If you're seeing this now at a teenager's age, then it means that something has happened to me. I didn't mean for you to have this until the proper age. None of us in Preventer wanted any of you to have this until the proper time. This disk contains plans for a new breed of Gundams…all for you. Except, there are only a few that can build them. Take these plans to Mars. There you shall find your uncle, Kazuki Peacecraft and Id Kushrinada, sometimes called Id the Lion; they are still members of Preventer but at a different post. Take these plans to these Gundam Smiths and they shall be built for you."

The message ended and all of the Preventer Teens felt very moved, as if they had just done a little more growing up in that one moment. Then they were faced with the prospect of fighting, in their very own Gundams no less. How could they live up to such a task? Would they fulfill their parents wish and avenge them for what had been done? Some of them knew they would but others knew that they had to.

"Shouldn't we leave this up to the authorities?" Julia asked sounding just a tad bit wishy-washy.

William automatically shook his head, "We can't." He said grimly, "If we do then they'll be slaughtered. We have to do this on our own."

There was a moments pause among them as they heard the noises of the library, people tapping at the computers, others sorting through the books, turning their pages, and the whir of fluorescent lamps overhead.

"Where to now?" Paul Marquise asked

"We go to Mars." Leto Rodriguez answered.

Hikaru smiled, "In the words of my dad…Mission accepted."

To be continued…