By Justin A. Swartz (jaswartz82yahoo.com)
Disclaimer: Gundam Wing and its names, figures, places, and respective merchandise belong to Sunrise/Bandai and Yoshiyuki Tomino. The Ducat Vanguard, Alexia Rader, and the original mobile suits described in this story are of my creation and belong to me. Any use of them without my permission is prohibited.
Home was Preventer Base LQ-318, a satellite in the orbit of Venus. LQ-318 was a fully functioning environment, minus the pseudo-sun and weather provided by the space colonies that both of the Gundam pilots had called home. After pulling the Guardian into the always-bustling hangar bay, Quatre and Trowa were walking down one of the many peach-on-white corridors of the base when Alexia Rader walked their way.
Alexia was a few years younger than Quatre, probably eighteen at the most, with her hair dyed a magnificent turquoise shade that shone in the warm lights of the hallway. She was an upcoming mobile suit pilot, still learning the finer points of skill that came with years of true experience and endless practice.
It was also clear that there was only one person her violet eyes wanted.
"Evening, you two," she said pleasantly. Her voice was a mixture of refined beauty and throwing back a few beers with the boys. "Back from the mission, I see."
Quatre nodded. "It went well. We were able to disable the base without harming too many people."
Alexia smiled. "You're too nice to be fighting, Quatre."
"That's what everyone tells me," the blonde pilot said back. He couldn't deny the facts as his green eyes danced over Alexia's lithe frame: he liked her a lot. At the very least, he was attracted to her. Heck, anyone would have been, he decided.
"How's training with Agent Noin?" Trowa asked.
"Rough. I know she cuts me some slack because I'm new, but I wish she wouldn't. I like the challenges she puts me to." Alexia frowned. "It's Lady Une that I can't stand."
Quatre and Trowa said nothing. Neither of them liked it when Alexia was starting on one of her "Une Trips." It seemed like one of them was starting to brew, as the violet in Alexia's eyes was flickering like flames, but it died down suddenly.
"Oh well, not much time to argue about that. Got to get some chow and head back for more suit training." She started to move past them. "Glad you made it back safe, Quatre," she said softly, a teasing smile on her lips.
Quatre couldn't hide the blush in his cheeks. He wasn't used to that kind of attention, even now in his more mature years. Alexia smiled wider when she noticed the red growing across his face, and silently made her way down an opposite hallway and out of sight.
The pilot did notice one thing. It was the way Trowa's eyes never left Alexia's throughout the entire conversation, and even when she was leaving. He had never given it much thought, but…could Trowa…no, not the silent gentleman with the devotion to his carefree sister back in the colonies. He couldn't be.
Quatre did keep it filed away in the rolodex of his mind for later referencing, though. At the very least, he thought, he could tease Trowa about it someday while they were waiting for their suits to be prepped.
They continued their trek throughout the base and toward their individual quarters when Lucrezia Noin burst past them in a streak of Preventer blue. Quatre caught her arm gently and got her attention. Her eyes were wide in shock and her breathing was erratic.
"Miss Noin, what's going on?" he asked, his senses beginning to trigger alarms in his head.
"Quatre, Trowa! You have to see the newsfeed from Earth!" she exclaimed, and pulled both of the pilots down the hallway with her and up to a flatscreen monitor inset into the wall. She tapped a few colored buttons next to it, and it sprang to life with the image of the man Quatre hated the most.
Ducat Libreiel, the leader of the Ducat Vanguard.
He was making a statement on the mission the two pilots had just returned from, with images displayed from cameras Quatre realized must have been hidden within the asteroids. It was displaying the small battle played out there, but there was one image that sent Quatre's heart into raging, molten flames.
It was the research domes exploding, one by one, sending all of the unsuspecting researchers inside of it to their gruesome deaths. It was a clever ruse, created by video editing tricks and Ducat sacrificing even his own people for the sake of his vendetta.
The screen was replaced with the image of Ducat as he continued his speech. He was a slim-framed man of forty-some years, with ivory hair down to his neck and a scar across his right cheek that the publicist explained he had suffered while trying to save a woman from being raped. His angular face bespoke of intelligence and deductive reasoning beyond those of mortal men.
"…and this example only shows you the lengths at which the Red Blaze Army and the Preventers of the Earth Sphere Unified Nation will go until all that is left of the rightful Ducat Vanguard is myself. They have spared no mercy on this base, while I continue to show mercy on their haggard forces in Sudan, where they have eliminated all power among the populous, all water lines, and all other forms of communication, as evident in other news reports from Earth to the colonies.
"This war will not end until one of us falls, and I, Ducat Libreiel of the Vanguard that bears my name, will not fall to any nation or man," the calculating man finished in his calm, chastising tone.
Noin shut the monitor off and leaned her forehead against it.
"All those people…and now everyone thinks that you two are responsible," she said, turning around. "Did you see anything suspicious on the sensors out there?"
"Not at all," Quatre said honestly. "We let most of the people evacuate."
"I scattered the workers away who were upgrading the factory before I started my bombardment," Trowa added. "That's just like him."
That was exactly why Quatre hated the man. If Quatre allowed himself to dig deep into the dark side of himself, the side that had emerged during the conflict of A.C. 195, he knew that all it wanted was to take the Guardian and attack Ducat's main complex on Earth. He wouldn't care that it was a suicide mission; he would do it with no regard for his life, or for how his loved ones and family would feel.
If just to free the world of that one man…he would give it his all.
The reasons were still unclear as to why Ducat had declared war on the E.S.U.N., and his rise to power within the lower European providences was also something shrouded behinds curtains of mystery. All anyone knew was that Ducat had developed his plan over four years of peace, and was currently holding Sudan in his killing fingers.
After Quatre stopped by his quarters to change out of his flight suit, he decided that he would stop by Lady Une's office and see what she had come up with in regard to the Sudan problem. If they didn't find a solution to the blackout situation in that area soon, more innocents were going to lose their lives, along with the diminishing Preventer forces.
There was one other person that he needed to speak with as well. An old friend, someone who might be able to tell him something about Ducat's background.
He went by the codename of Heero Yuy.