This is one of my fastest updates. I changed the style of the story. I couldn't properly tell events in the style I had started with. The style of the first chapter was simply meant to convey emotion.

Now, as for the change in timeline. The pilots, well at least Heero and Wufei, went to outer space (separately). Heero almost immediately came across Peacemillion, so he didn't enroll a highschool under the name of Duo Maxwell and scare his class with a speech on war. Wufei went directly to his home colony and stayed there until he was discovered. That part you know. I haven't quite figured out what the others did, but Quatre did not destroy his Sandrock, nor did Trowa infiltrate Oz's space forces. That's pretty much it for now. On to the story

Forgot this with the first chapter, I don't own Gundam Wing.

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A alarm sounded weakly, accompanied by the only active screen in the cockpit showing the proximity of an unknown vessel. Onyx eyes opened at the sound. Soldier instinct kicked in and hands reached automatically for the controls, though Gundam Shenlong was severely crippled.

A small inset appeared on screen. Wufei could only stare at it numbly, face set in stone. The display revealed someone he had not expected to see again, certainly not out here.

"Wufei! Are you alright? We barely caught on to your vital signs! What happened?"

Sally. He let her words wash over him. A small, insignificant part of him was relieved to find not another enemy had crept up on him, that it was a friendly voice, greeting him in this cold corner of space. The rest felt nothing but numbing grief, unable to shake itself out of the stupor the loss of his clan had immersed him in.

"Perhaps we should reign him in first," a dry voice interrupted the stream of words from the woman.

Yuy. How had he teamed up with the half Chinese woman? And where had they gotten that ship from? The huge arrowhead loomed over the motionless Gundam, casting a shadow over the metal form. The docking bay opened. Cables shot out, magnetically attracted to Nataku. A faint shuddering was all that told him the ship began pulling the immobilized fighting machine in.

With one last jolt the Gundam was fastened in the dock of the immense white ship. Wufei fumbled clumsily with the belt, finally finding the catch. His fist somehow slammed on the button to open the hatch. It didn't respond to the command. He didn't have the energy to fight.

"Chang, you coming out?" Yuy's nasal voice cut through the silence.

"Hatch is blocked. Can't open it." His voice sounded tired, even to his own ears.

"We'll cut you out," Sally answered.

Wufei leaned back in the pilot chair. Tired eyes closed.

"Wow, kid, you look pretty messed up, there."

An unknown figure was leaning over the young pilot. The black sunglasses seemed ridiculous in outer space and the Hawaiian shirt only made the man look more out of place. "Come on, let's get you out of here." Gentle hands lifted Wufei out of the leather chair, the low gravity aiding them in their task. The Chinese boy was handed over to his fellow pilot who promptly began floating out of the hanger, followed by the blonde military doctor.

The grey hallways glided by at an even pace, the jolt of Heero occasionally pushing off to keep his speed to weak to pain Wufei. He closed his eyes and allowed darkness to consume him.

When he came to, harsh neon light greeted him. It took his pupils a moment to adjust and contract enough to limit the input of light on his retina sufficiently. He was lying on a bed, a simple soldier's bunk, average mattress, sheets and blanket. After the cramped position he had slept in while in his Gundam, it felt like heaven.

His chest was bandaged, he found, as was his right upper arm. His back was little sore as well, superficial bruises. And every muscle in his body protested, when he tried to get up. Grunting he fell back, cursing his weakness. Taking the time for the room to stop spinning, he turned inward.

~~

'Goodbye, Wufei.'

~~

A scream lodged in his throat. His breathing became labored. Spots swam before his eyes.

His clan. His family. They were all gone. It couldn't be! How could all those people have died within twenty seconds? Why? Why did they do it? Why did they choose to die?! Had they collectively decided to rig the entire colony with massive explosives?!

His muscles tensed, then froze. His midriff trembled, his lungs filling and deflating frighteningly fast, but minutely. Sweat began to poor down his skin.

All gone. All gone! No! It wasn't true! Oz had tricked him somehow! They must have! A entire colony couldn't just disappear like that, taking everyone with it!

His abdominal muscles suddenly clenched. Within the tenth of a second, he had rolled over on his side and curled up into foetal position. The trembling ceased. The eyelids lowered. Slowly he fell asleep.

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"Chang, wake up. Message from the doctors."

Wufei jolted awake. For a moment he completely disorientated. His ears searched for Master Long's comfortingly familiar voice. But the moment he recognized his surroundings, he knew he would never hear that voice again.

"Chang?" Yuy darker-than-normal-for-a-boy-his-age voice insisted.

"I heard you. I heard you." Wufei muttered. "I'll be just a minute." Wincing he sat up, Yuy footsteps retreating in the distance. It didn't seem to matter any more, which part of his body was bruised, it all hurt equally so. He pushed the pain aside and rose. He was relieved to find the duffel bag from underneath Nataku's pilot chair next to the foot of the bed. He pulled out some clean clothes and dressed in his usual white outfit. Fleatingly he allowed his mind to stray and wonder about the irony of it. He used to wear white in mourning for his dead wife. Now he had his entire clan to mourn for. How may people had lived on that colony? It didn't really matter. He should focus on the message first. Probably a mission.

The electric door to his cabin slid open as he neared it and he peered outside. Not quite trusting his sense of direction in outer space, he still decided to make a right turn. It did get him to the bridge, where, as he had expected, Yuy was.

"As soon as your Gundam is repaired, we are to return to Earth to rendevous with the others. Winner selected a safehouse for us to stay. I guess they want us to work together."

Wufei snorted derisively. "I work alone."

Prussian blue eyes scrutinized him head to toe. "I do too. But some things cannot be handled by one person, however powerful our Gundams are. You weren't in Siberia, but one Gundam could not have handled it. Four didn't." The eyes suddenly bored into his own black ones. "If it serves the mission, we work together, whether you like it or not."

Wufei crossed his arms. "We'll see."

He spent the remainder of the day in his Nataku's cockpit, gritting his teeth while other people touched his Gundam. His heart cried out he shouldn't let them, but his mind rationalized he could never get the repairs done in time if he gave into that urge. So he resisted and buried his heart. It wasn't until he tiredly lowered himself on his bunk that 'night', that he realized he had no heart left to bury. It had blown up along with his home.

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The straps to his pilot chair clicked in place. His hands curled around the controls. Yuy was in the cockpit of the transport shuttle the two Gundams were loaded in. As soon as they had entered the atmosphere, the stoic pilot would climb into Wing and let the shuttle explode. The two Gundams were supposed to disappear in the debris.

It wasn't a good plan, but the was the best option. Letting the Gundams get themselves inside the atmosphere would be suicide. Not only would they be easier detected, with Gundanium to be a very rare alloy, the Gundams themselves would have a heard time coping with the friction caused upon reentering. Nataku had just been repaired. Wufei didn't like to see her worse off than before.

The shuttle began to shake, indicating their reentry had commenced. Two minutes later the shuddering stopped again. Three more seconds later Yuy appeared on screen, warning the shuttle would explode.

Wufei's fists tightened around the controls. There was no room for error. The energy from their engines had to be untraceable in the heat caused by the explosion. A shudder rippled through the ship. Then flames suddenly engulfed the hull. With a deafening roar the ship exploded, shooting parts in all directions. Amidst the rubble two specs dislodged, seemingly falling with the rest of the remains somewhere towards the American continent.

Wufei struggled with the stabilizers. He couldn't fly in a straight trajectory, but he couldn't let the elements have free reign on his Nataku either. Or he'd be a toy for the winds in the stratosphere.

Until they were right above the designated area, the remained high up, allowing them every possibility to escape should the need arise. Above the mountains of former Montana they let themselves fall. They headed for the coordinates given by pilot 04.

The area where they would hide their Gundams was littered with caves. Subtle hints showed Wufei where they would hide them. A ravine, rather broad, but with walls so smooth they had to be made by glaciers, offered sure protection from eyes as well as radar, considering the interference from the raw iron that no doubt lied within the rocks. Nataku touched down softly next to Gundam 03, Heavyarms, if Wufei remembered well. When the hatch opened he saw the five Gundams in one place again for the first time since the New Edwards disaster. The gigantic machines looked puny compared to the age old mountains hiding them.

The pilots exchanged glances as their feet touched the ground, a duffle-bag slung over their shoulder. As one they turned east and headed for the safehouse where the others would be waiting for them. The walked along in silence. For all the attention they payed to each other, they seemed to be strangers who happened to be walking in the same direction.

After approximately twenty minutes they reached a small clearing where a simple, if fairly large for its kind, log house stood. A blond haired young man stood waiting on the porch. 04, Wufei thought.

"Welcome," the blond boy smiled. "We've been expecting you. Glad you could make it."

The pilots of Wing and Shenlong halted, a good seven feet between them. Black and Prussian eyes coolly measured the slim figure in the doorway in each their own way. A curt nod from Yuy was the only greeting offered in direction of Sandrock's pilot.

Quatre took it for what it was, knowing from what he had heard of the creator of his Gundam, that the two in front of him were as talkative as Trowa, the first pilot he had encountered. He stepped back. "Please, come in."

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