Legal Disclaimer- Gundam Seed, Mobile Suit Gundam, Gundam Seed Destiny, Zeta Gundam, and any other Gundam material that I may inadvertently use are the property of Sunrise, not myself. (Wow, that is wordy. I need some way to abbreviate.)

Chapter 1- Twilight

"Kei, lets get out of here," an extraordinarily handsome young man of perhaps twenty drawled, disturbing the entire class. "Who is possibly ever going to use something like this?" Kei through a look of undiluted hatred at his annoying friend. His answer wasn't verbal, instead he stood up, picked the annoying freshman up by the scruff of the neck, and stormed out the door, then dumping him unceremoniously on the steps.

"Class is done in an hour. I'll see you then. How can you possibly hope to pass this class?" Kei replied, attempting in vain to stifle a laugh seeing Santino sprawled on the ground, his impeccably groomed hair hopelessly out of order, his clothes wrinkled beyond reprieve. It was now Santino's turn to look hostile, and he threw himself at the lanky Kei, hoping that surprise would enable him to overpower his stronger friend, who was highly trained in martial arts. Kei smoothly sidestepped, he had anticipated the move from a long way off, and laughed manically as Santino smashed into a trash can, spewing it contents onto the ground... and all over Santino. Kei couldn't stop laughing, even as Santino launched himself at him again, this time knocking the hysterical coordinator off his feet. Then Santino looked at himself, grinned ruefully, and started chuckling himself. Before he knew it, he was laughing uncontrollably as well, and the two had drawn a sizable crowd, some whom laughed bemusedly, others who scoffed, everyone looking at two nearly grown men acting like little children. It was something that they were famous for, though a reputation for immaturity was not necessarily a good thing...

Neither one made it back to class. Neither particularly cared, as Santino now needed to get one hundred and eighty nine percent on the final just to pass advanced computing, while Kei was actually at one hundred and eighty nine percent, as he had done all the extra credit assignments, and had never made mistakes. He was incredibly skilled with computers, able to accomplish almost any task set before him in a fraction of time it took others. Santino, on the other hand, was what was known as a permanent students. The twenty year old had been in school for three years, and had yet to pick a major, which suited him just fine. He enjoyed school immensely, the atmosphere, the people, and especially the girls. Santino had a reputation as a ladies man, one which he was loath to disappoint. Kei on the other hand, also twenty, saw school as merely a challenge to overcome, one which he was determined to surpass as quickly as possible. He was also twenty, and in three short years had nearly completed his doctorate in computer software design, application and integration. His prodigious skill was not, as some of his detractors implied, sometimes not so subtly, because his genes had been altered, but because he worked extremely hard. His mother, a coordinator as well, had married a petty Canadian bureaucrat twenty years ago. He and her had agreed to have their child turned into a coordinator. Then the policies of the Atlantic Federation had underwent yet another radical changed, becoming more vehemently anti-coordinator. The bureaucrat, Mizuchi Starana, had left his pregnant wife for a more natural girl, leaving her destitute. She had emigrated to PLANT, where she became her skills a nuclear physicist had allowed her to get a high paying job. Santino, on the other hand, came from an old money family in Orb, industrialists all, and had a very easy time with things. He had all the money he wanted, and though his family had to go into hiding three years ago, he eventually intended to enter into the family business, and hardly needed a degree. As the eldest son he merely needed to bide his time until his elderly father kicked it, because as the first son in the patriarchal dictatorship his oft absent father ran, his right of inheritance was secure. The two of them were nearly negatives of each other, with Santino being sophisticated and charismatic, whereas Kei was awkward and socially inept. Santino was physically quite weak, plagued by familial allergies and asthma, whereas Kei was strong and fit, and a double black belt in Tae Kwon Do. To an observer the two would seem never to get along, yet they had gravitated to each other, and were the greatest of friends. They had plans to go a fraternity party after class, which started and ended late, and Santino's patience was shot.

They arrived at the party, and to Santino's chagrin, and Kei's secretly jealous bemusement, found one Meyrin Hawke in attendance. After her and Santino's break-up, their exchanges had become increasingly abusive, with shrill insults being exchanged, the two had nearly come to blows several times, an exchange that would have been a disaster for Santino. Like predicted Meyrin made her way towards the duo. She had come to live on this colony after she had defected from ZAFT, a pardon had never been issued, and she was still technically a wanted criminal in the small amount of territory ZAFT now controlled.

"Kei, you're looking well," Meyrin politely said, pointedly ignoring Santino.

"Looks like we're going to be mature about this!" Santino's jibe came out with more ferocity then he had intended, and she looked shocked at the hostility in his voice. A startled, and a hurt looked crossed her young face, and she stormed off, tear lining her cheeks. Santino couldn't help feeling a pang of guilt, and at the same time was confused, as she had broken up with him. Kei merely stood by, choosing to let his friend puzzle things out for himself, while he for once knew exactly why she had dumped Kei, and unfortunately couldn't tell anyone, as she had told him under the strictest of confidences that she was 'in love with someone else.' Kei grabbed a drink from the counter, merely a soda, as alcohol was wasted on a coordinators stamina. Santino approached him from behind, and spoke, "This is lame, lets hit Alpha, they've gotta have better entertainment than thi..." He trailed off, as he saw a gorgeous girl standing off across the room, by herself, looking slightly faint. She was petite, with long soft pink hair, and wearing a short skirt to emphasize her figure. He face was radiant, with a tiny bow for a mouth beautifully expressive grey eyes, and alabaster skin. Even at a distance he was struck by how pale she was. Like a wolf he stealthily slipped up on his prey, and was startled when she stumbled, and he had to rush forward, abandoning his slow confident walk, and managed to catch her before she hit the floor. "Gotta be careful, those drinks are awful big."
She looked up at him, her eyes glimmering in the light, and replied with a wistful grin, her tone carefully composed, "I'm not drunk, I just need a little air." Like a true gentleman, Santino extended his arm, and she gently rested her hand on it, and he led her out to the balcony. Santino threw a glance and a triumphant grin over his shoulder at Kei, who's returning smile was slightly strained. The girl across the room had caught his eye as well, and he had been attempting to gather the confidence necessary to talk to her when Santino had swooped in Hawkelike... hawk-like, and stripped Kei of his chance.

"How's this?" Santino asked, a little surprised, and possibly disappointed when her weakness had indeed disappeared once she had gotten out of the wilting heat of the frat house.

She smiled at him, and spoke, surprising him with her boldness, "Its very much better..." she made a motion with her hand that obviously implied that he should supply his name, which he did. "I'm Rena." She replied more out of courtesy then anything. For the next several minutes the two exchanged amenities, though she continuously evaded answering where she was from. Then, running by some unseen clock, Santino decided to move this exchange to a more isolated location.

"Well this is winding down," he said, looking at the still packed house, "perhaps you'd like to hit a show?"

"That'd be great, " She responded, to his surprise and delight. She pulled out her cell phone, and checked the time. "Though I do need to be home in three hours and twenty-one minutes."

"Hey do you have a friend in their?" Santino asked, a small amount of guilt playing across his features as he thought of how he was abandoning his friend once again. "You see that tall guy over by the bar? He's a friend of mine, and I don't wanna leave him alone."

"Lets go talk to him," Rena replied, a slightly amused look playing across her face. The two made their way back through the crowd, and found themselves at Kei's side. He was sitting at the bar, a thoroughly bored look splayed across his face, one that said clear as day "I do not want to be here." Rena looked at him, and immediately blurted out, "I heard that you were alone here, do you want to go to the movie?" Kei looked stunned.

He turned around, and without hesitation replied "Sure! I would love to go to the movie with you. My name's Kei, by the way."

She smiled but at him, not an indulgent smile, but a genuine grin, and spoke in a very bright tone of voice, "My name's Rena." As the two had been speaking, the smile on Santino's face had vanished, to be replaced by a look of shock. Had she just asked both of them out? She continued, "The three of us are going to have the best of time!"

The joyous expression that was on Kei's face suddenly echoed that of Santino. Nerveless, this was the closest he had come to a date in a very long time, and he was determined to see it through. By sheer force of will he managed to reply without strain or doubt showing in his voice, "What are we going to?"

"I don't know. I haven't seen a movie in forever. This is going to be great!" She said, speaking very fast. She seemed far to excited about something so simple, heightened patches of colour were showing on her cheeks, and she was breathing a little too fast for comfort. She seemed genuinely excited, like she hadn't done anything like this in a very long time. "How close is the theatre?" She added to her rapid-fire line of questions and statements.

Kei, realizing that Santino was too baffled by what was going on moved in smoothly insinuating himself between his friend and Rena. "Allow me to lead the way." Kei said. Santino, realizing his predicament as she started walking at an accelerated pace, practically dragging Kei, who was so much taller than her slight frame that it was almost comical. He almost had to run to catch up.

They had gone no more than four or five blocks when they heard a voice yell out from the distance "Rena!" She jumped when she heard it, spun around, and started walking into a nearby conveniences store. The two baffled men followed her. "What was that?" Santino asked, "Why are you so scared?" She looked at them, with what little colour that was in her face drained completely.

"I'm going to have to leave soon," She said, her normally cheery voice taking on a weary edge. "Can I get you guys numbers?" She begged, a slight catch in her voice. Santino, ever the opportunist, grinned and pointedly reached into his pocket, taking out a pen and a piece of paper, which he reserved explicitly for this purpose.

"Sure, beautiful," he said, and grinned inwardly as she blushed graciously, "on the condition that you hand over yours first." She smiled at him, seeming shy for the first time tonight, and produced a gum wrapper from her pocket, and, snatching the pen from his hand, tore the gum wrapper in half, wrote something, presumably her number, down on both halves of the paper, folded the halves, and handed one to each of the boys. Kei then, after buying a pack of gum for the sole purpose of having a receipt to write on, gave her his number, and Santino, signing his with a flourish, did the same. She kept glancing nervously at the door, and sure enough when a tall handsome blood man, strongly built standing nearly 6'1 entered she started for the washrooms.

"Rena!" He said, with a very slight edge on what would have otherwise have been a very pleasant voice, "Where have you been, your brother is worried sick about you! And more importantly he made me go out and look for you."

"I went out to have some fun, Kyle. Just because you don't ever need to get off the dingy little ship of ours, doesn't mean the rest of us don't."

"Look you're not well enough to be out and about on your own. Its just that-"

"That you're all worried about me. I'm doing just fine, aren't I" Rena voice, which at first had sounded slightly only slightly exasperated, now was climbing into the upper octaves as she got worked up.

"Come on Rena, you're going home. Captain's orders." Kyle walked over, and grabbed her wrist, not hard enough to hurt her, but with enough force to clearly signal that the conversation was over. Santino just stared, trying hard not to be afraid of the big blonde man. Kei on the other hand, strode forward.

"Let her go." He said, using the most menacing tone of voice he could muster. Kyle however didn't look scared at all. Either he had mastered the ability to fake an expression of boredom or disdain, or he truly wasn't scared even slightly.

"Look, Boy. You don't know what's going on, or" he said, giving Rena a pointed glance, what your getting into. Why don't you just leave adult matters to adults, and go home to you mommy." A ugly look crossed Kei's face, and he threw a powerful punch, backed with years of training and stifled rage into Kyle's gut, knocking him to the ground. Instead of just lying there, like most mortals would have, Kyle gamely struggled to his feet, and produced a heavy calibre pistol from inside his black leather jacket. He pointed it at Kei, who immediately put his hands up. Santino threw his hands to the sky, and the clerk dived behind the counter. Kyle grabbed Rena again, and took off out the door, dragging her along behind him. The clerk reappeared holding a handgun. Kei and Santino slipped out the door, before the clerk started asking questions... or shooting.

"What the hell happened there?" Santino asked no one in particular, scratching his head bemusedly.

This chapter is dedicated to Mystical Dreamz, my first reviewer. Keep on reading and reviewing.