Standard disclaimers apply. I don't own Gundam Wing, no matter how much I wish for it.

AN: This story is somewhere along the line going to fuse with Star Wars. There are characters that will be OOC, and many pairings with original characters. If you are looking for the standard pairings within the Gundam Wing universe, this is not the place for you. I totally turn everything upside down from the standard Gundam Wing universe, so watch your heads! As always, C&C are welcome. A big thank you goes out to kuro-tenshi-rin for being the first to review the prologue of this fic on ffn.

Chapter 1

Peace had claimed the Earth Sphere Unified Nation and all of the colonies. In the Sank kingdom, Relena Peacecraft-Darlian was putting forth the efforts of making the Mars Terraforming Project a reality, in which more people and resources would be sent to make the project move along. Once the peace had been declared, a grand ceremony was held for the Gundam pilots, in remembrance of the sacrifices that they made without at second thought to themselves. The president made an honorary presentation of awarding those pilots for their valiant effort, having Relena and Director Une stand in for the five pilots, giving the pilots a chance to live their lives with what privacy they could get.

Quatre Raberba Winner attended this ceremony, representing the Winner Enterprises, taking the time to expose himself as the having taken over his father's place as the head of the Winner Enterprise. Of those Preventer Agents that were in attendance, Quatre could catch glimpses of Wufei working in keeping the security up but there were no signs of Trowa or Duo anywhere. Quatre smiled to himself as he fingered the badge in his pocket that identified him as a Preventer Agent, and he knew that Trowa and Duo had ones just like it. Wufei unlike the three other pilots was working as a full time, partnered with Sally Po, the news of their success rate when partnered traveling quickly among all ranks. He allowed himself a real smile to light his face, thinking of how well Sally and Wufei were working, imagining where else this partnership could lead.

"Mr. Winner, it's good to see you out of your office and enjoying this hard earned peace," a smooth, but young voice said from his left.

"Ah, well it is a good reason to celebrate, is it not?" Quatre answered, turning to face the newcomer, his face showing none of his surprise. He smiled and gave a small bow, his move smooth in the only way that comes with a lifetime of practice, as his body took a bit of time to calm the fast beat of his heart.

The woman standing in front of him was exquisitely beautiful in her silver halter dress, adorned only in simple accessories of sapphire and diamond earrings that dangled from her ears like a drop of rain. On her neck, she had a simple pendant of a stone whose color changed continually, never the same in its pattern of changing light. But what had made Quatre feel that quickening beat of his heart was not the maternal beauty that she showed, but it was in her face. It was in the chocolate brown hair that darkened a shade under the light of the chandeliers, the slightly messy bangs that had a wind-blown look to it as it fell into the deepest prussian blue eyes that he had seen only in one other person he had met in his lifetime.

"You seem to have me at a disadvantage," Quatre continued. "It seems like you know who I am, but I do not recall ever having the pleasure of meeting you."

"Oh, I can assure you Mr. Winner, we have met before," she said softly as she leaned closer to him. "The first time we met was under very different circumstances."

While she was speaking, her hand had been slowly rising and now was gently resting on his shoulder. Quatre's eyes widened in shock as he felt her closing the distance as she put her lips right next to his hear. He felt a slight shiver run down his body as he felt her breath tickling the hair on the back of his head, but that shiver which could have been something pleasant turned into one of an unpleasantly chill one as she opened her mouth and whispered into his ear.

To those who were watching from a distance, all they could see was a young lady flirting with the most sought after bachelor of the colonies, the young and wealthy head of Winner Enterprises. The only thing that anyone could see through the stiffening of his shoulders was that she had either insulted him or had made a crude comment. Soon enough, she was moving away from him, moving slowly and with all the grace that she had, her smile small and cute but somehow being suggestive as well. Her body language showed her confidence, as if she knew that all eyes were on her.

Quatre, who was still standing rooted to his spot, could feel the curious looks being turned his way. He took a deep breath to loosen the tensed muscles of his shoulders and only through conscious effort did he keep his hands from clenching into fists. Out of the corner of his eyes, he saw Wufei tracking someone with his eyes and couldn't stop himself from following that gaze to see who it was that had Wufei's attention. The person under Wufei's watchful eyes was the young lady who had just left, with many more eyes following her every move.

"You will never find 01 unless I permit it."

A hand of ice clamped around his heart at the whispered words that was still echoing in his mind. Her voice had been calm and those words were uttered without any feeling, and it left him feeling worried for his missing friend. There was something about this girl that left all his senses in full alert, giving him little room to feel anything but emotionally unbalanced.

Somewhere in the JAP point on Earth: February A.C. 197

The day was cold and windy, with the sun hidden behind a thick gray layer of clouds, making the day seem even more dreary than it could have been, affecting the moods of the people in the area. In the city, a group of three young men were huddled together in front of a small café, each looking around, and their behavior showing that they were waiting for their friend who hadn't shown up yet. Each member of the group was looking in one direction, their body language showing a relaxed group of friends who whose only crime was loitering in front of the establishment, when under their coats, the muscles of each person was ready to spring into action at a moment's notice.

After a few minutes, one member of the group perked up and nudged the others into facing the direction in which a blonde head could be seen darting around a group of shoppers. When the blonde one saw the group, he sped up just a bit more and started to wave, smiling widely as he approached them. When he reached them, he slid on a patch of ice, and ran into one of them. They both hit the ground with a grunt, but ended up laughing at the ridiculousness of the situation.

"Yo, Quat!" he said, "you are an hour late."

"Sorry, sorry." Quatre answered, his breath puffing into a small cloud in the cold. " The meeting ran late, and I couldn't even get out for a few minutes to make a call. I ran out as soon as it ended."

"Wouldn't that be insulting to the others who were there?"

"Not really," Quatre said with a grin, his hand waving off-handedly. "There were a few people who left even before I did!"

"How long have you been in the meeting?" Trowa asked, leading the group into the café and out of the cold.

"Um…. about five hours, I think." Quatre said with half a smile. "I'd rather not think about it, those meetings makes you lose track of time. Really makes you think about Einstein's theory of relativity. Those meetings tend to go on until a conclusion has been agreed on, not allowing us to take breaks in between; they are a form of torture. Almost makes me think about those pacifism classes that Relena used to lead during the war."

"I thought you believed in her ideals." Trowa asked, raising a single eyebrow.

"I support her. Supporting and believing are two completely different things." He answered, letting out a sigh. "I mean, think about it. I didn't go against my father just to spite him, you know."

They paused that line of conversation while they looked through the menus and made their orders. The waitress taking their order played along with Duo's flirting before heading off with their orders.

"Has anyone found anything?" Quatre asked, not having to mention what it was they were searching for. "Because so far, all that I was able to get turned out to be false leads that ended up at a dead end."

The remaining three shook their heads in a negative, their faces grim and all previous signs of playfulness gone. All looked down at the table, feeling lost and frustrated at their inability to find their missing friend. None could believe that he had been kidnapped, but they had accepted it as fact when no traces of Heero Yuy could be found. Even the records form OZ had shown holes in their records, where Heero's records should have been. It was almost as if he had never existed, and that was one thing that the group could not accept.

When their food arrived, they turned their attention to the food and turned the conversation away from the subject of the missing Gundam pilot. Much of the meal was spent teasing Duo about the unfortunate accident that involved a bucket of paint and Hilde trying to re-paint their shop. Trowa had told them of his life at the circus, and how their lion now had a new competition in the spotlight in the form of two snow tigers. The circus had adopted them when the zoo on one of the colonies ran out of funds and could not keep them any longer, and it turned out that one of the tigers was pregnant, which would allow them to train the newborns more easily.

As the meal came to an end, they were laughing at another of Duo's stories of mishaps around the salvage shop. Quatre had beat them to the bill, laughing about paying for being late, and soon they were all standing and saying their goodbyes. Quatre found himself the last to leave, and turned to head for the restroom to wash his hands. He was headed to the back of the café, where the waitress told him the restroom would be, and before he got far, he froze in mid-step.

At another table, her seat angled in such a way that she had been facing the table he had occupied, sat the same woman who had been at the ceremony at the end of the war. There was another person at the table with their back facing him, but all he could see was the girl, who had been watching their table. She caught Quatre's eyes briefly, but made no move to show that she recognized him, turning her full attention back to her companion. Quatre's eyes flickered to the other's back, but found that he was once again drawn to the other, the words that she had spoken still ringing in his mind. He thought that the other person that she was sitting with looked familiar, but for some reason, he could not focus on who that might have been. He focused a bit more on that almost familiar figure, but his attention was riveted back to the young girl's as her quiet laughter rang out. It almost felt like she was laughing at his efforts to piece together the puzzle that was being muddled up in his mind.

"Onii-chan," she said, her smile turning her face into a look of pure angelic innocence. "There's someone who's been staring at us …"

Before the first two words were out of her mouth, Quatre found himself moving toward the exit, noticing the slight tensing of the man's shoulders, and completely forgetting the reason why he was in that part of the café to begin with.

"Quatre…?"

That voice was what made him stop in his tracks. It was a voice that hinted at an accent, making his name sound more exotic than it was. The voice that was so familiar to him, having heard it so many times before; it was the voice that was meant to lead, not wavering in any way. Each inflection was made in a precise and calculated manner, but it was the tone that made him falter. In that tone he heard uncertainty that made his body tense, his mind thinking that this was a trap – be it from his mind or from an outside force – but it was that uncertainty that made his steps falter, not able to choose from its fight or flight reflexes.

He felt someone pulling at his arm, turning him around, and he let out a small gasp that could only be heard my the one who had turned him around. He had come face to face with deep prussian blue eyes that seemed to be made from gundanium.

"He...Heero?"

He felt his whole body go numb, seeing the very person he was searching for standing right in front of him. It felt surreal, almost too easy to be true. He and the other pilots had been searching for this very person who was guiding him to sit at their table, and for nearly a month there had been no real signs of him ever having existed, and here he was…

"Why Mr. Winner, you look like you've seen a ghost!" the girl at the table said.

Heero turned to her and growled something that sounded suspiciously like 'be nice' and then turned to face Quatre.

"Quatre, are you okay?"

All Quatre could do was nod, trying to get his wits together, feeling foolish all the while.

"Onii-chan, I have to get going," the girl at the table said, turning to Heero. "There is a meeting with the Sweeper group that I need to get to. I can't be late to this one."

"I'll see you at home," Heero said, as he received and returned her hug.

As the girl left, Quatre composed himself and turned to face Heero, hundreds of questions flying inside his mind. He tried to contain those questions and get them into some semblance of order, but his mind decided not to cooperate with him today.

"I…you…where have you been all this time Heero?" Quatre blurted out, the eloquence for words lost.

"What do you mean?"

"We, I mean the guys and I, have been looking everywhere for you. We tried to look through all the databases and records on both the earth and the colonies, but nothing showed up. Duo even tried to look through all the old OZ databases, but even there, nothing was left. It was almost like you never even existed."

"Quatre, why were you searching for me?"

"Right after the presidential estate fell, Relena said that she was with you when they took you over to the nearest hospital. As soon as things started to settle down, Duo went to look for you. We were all worried about you, most of us didn't even know that you made it out alive. But when Duo arrived at the hospital, you were missing, and according to the staff that were in charge of your care said that they were shocked that you even made it through, but they knew that you were in no condition to move around on your own. We all came to the conclusion that you had been kidnapped or something."

"Kidnapped?" Heero asked quirking an eyebrow in amusement, not only at the fact that Quatre had said so much so quickly, but also because of what he had said. "Why would you come to that conclusion?"

"Isn't that the first conclusion people jump to when someone they know goes missing?" Quatre asked, feeling much calmer.

"In normal circumstances, yes, that is the most common route." Heero said, his lips barely twitching up in a sign of a smile. "But you have to remember…nothing about us is normal."

"But we couldn't find any records of you." Quatre said, turning his saddened eyes to Heero. "It was almost like you never existed."

"I believe that you already mentioned that."

"Oh…"

Heero let out a sigh, and stood watching Quatre take his lead. When they both stepped out of the café, Heero took out his cell phone, which had been vibrating, and signaled Quatre to wait who was turning to give him some privacy.

"Yuy." Heero answered in the curt manner that he had used during the war, and then frowned slightly. "Ryoukai."

"Sorry Quatre," Heero said, flipping his phone closed. "I have to go. That was Une, I have to…I have to go."

"Are you headed for HQ?" Quatre asked, and then when Heero nodded, he started to lead Heero down the sidewalk. "My car is parked just a couple of blocks down, I'll give you a lift. I was heading that way anyway."

Preventers HQ, location JAP point.

The building looked like any ordinary building in the business section of the city, plain in looks and tall enough to house the many rooms that were needed in their agency. The glass windows reflected everything from outside the building, looking like a multi faceted mirror, instead of the windows that they were. This allowed those within the building to have a bit more privacy, with the knowledge that none from the next building would be able to see what it was that they were doing. Considering their line of work, confidentiality was a must, and even this little bit helped tremendously.

Outside, a sleek sports car pulled up to the front, where the driver was greeted by a uniformed man who exchanged the keys for a ticket, and drove off with the car as soon as all the passengers were out of the car. From above, a blonde and dark haired men watched the car as it drove off, then turned to go into the building, looking only straight ahead, their stance showing that they belonged there.

Once in the building, they were lost in the crowd of Preventers agents that were bustling through the building, each with a task that needed to be done. The click of Quatre's dress shoes was drowned out by the sound of many others that were there. Once they were through the front door, Heero and Quatre went their separate ways; Heero headed over to Director Une's office and Quatre over to Wufei's office, knowing that he would find the others there if they were in the building.

Heero headed over to the elevators, and entered pushing the button for the top floor, but before the door could close, a blurred figure ran into the elevator. He looked at the figure out of his peripheral vision, but could only see a brown haired head and the nondescript black outfit. When he was about to look away, he saw something very familiar to him.

"Twelfth floor please."

"Duo?" Heero asked, automatically pressing the button for the appropriate floor.

"Ye-Heero!" Duo looked at Heero with wide eyes, but then grinned after only a few seconds. "Of all the places to run into you, it figures that it would be here."

Heero's brows lowered slightly, his lips quirking slightly in a small frown. Duo just kept grinning as he kept on staring at Heero.

"Do I have something on my face?" Heero asked, his frown deepening slightly.

"Uh…no. Sorry. It's just that…wow, it's just been a while, and I guess I just wasn't expecting to see you here. Is this where you've been? Are you here for work? Oh I've got to tell the others."

"No, yes, and Quatre will probably beat you to it; in that order."

"Oh, you saw Quatre?" Duo asked, his eyes looking slightly disappointed. "I was with him just about an hour ago, and he didn't know where you were up until that point. When did you see him?"

"Yes, and at the café about an hour ago."

"You were there?"

"Yes"

"Why did you only talk to Quatre? Why not to the rest of us?"

"I almost missed him. He was on his way out when Sei pointed him out to me…Duo, how many cups of coffee did you drink today?"

"Three? Four? I don't remember." Duo said with a grin. "Why?"

Heero just raised an eyebrow, coming to his own conclusion about why Duo seemed so verbose. He looked toward the door when it rang, announcing their arrival to the twelfth floor.

"My floor. Come by Wufei's office if you have time. The gang will probably be there." Duo said waving goodbye as the door closed.

Heero stared at the elevator door for the rest of the trip up to Une's office, thinking about why the other pilots would be so surprised to see him. Then the conversation he had with Quatre and couldn't stop the frown from forming. Quatre had mentioned something about all of his records being missing, but that was easily explained when he thought about it. He shook the thoughts from his head when he found himself in front of Une's office, and knocked on the door, schooling his facial features to the one that he had used during the war before he entered.

"Ah, right on time Agent." Une said, as she picked up a stack of files, shuffling through them before choosing one. "Come in and take a seat. We just received some new information that may be connected with the case you are working on."

To be continued…

Ryoukai – Roger that