Pre notes:

BAC means "Years Before After Colony", so 100 BAC would be 100 years before AC 1. Because I need a term for the world before AC xD

Magnus == Denmark

Had hoped to get this in by the end of February, but I've been sick "/ Part of the reason why this is a crap chapter, sorry.

Also edited L2 because the rest of the fic has been written in present tense, I might as well be consistent.

30 BAC

"I... I want to be my own country!"

Magnus pauses from signing papers to look over his desk. Standing before him is a short boy with platinum hair cropped around his face, all wide-eyed and serious. It was, Magnus could admit to himself, rather cute. "Milliardo, what are you talking about?"

The child huffs, crossing his arms in front of him.

Without a thought, Magnus flicks the small boy on the forehead, laughing. "You're like a century too early for that, squirt." Despite his words, he gives Milliardo a fond smile. "You can get back to me when you find a leader who will be a good boss to you, got it?"

Milliardo glares from beneath his bangs, before he huffs and leaves the room. Magnus can hear a not so quite "I'll show you!" coming from down the hall.

He chuckles to himself and gets back to his paperwork. Ah, to be that young again.

17 BAC

Milliardo smiles as he watches the coronation ceremony from behind the curtains. King Einar Peacecraft looks absolutely stunning in the formal wear. It is, Milliardo hopes, the beginning of a long and prosperous line. And the use of that stunning suit.

AC 146

"We're going to be a pacifist nation!"

Milliardo pauses over the paperwork to send Katrina an odd look. "...All right then?" He wasn't quite sure how that was different than normal for them; Sanq had not participated in any of the wars over the last century. "You do realize how oxymoronic that is, considering what happened with the Wyvern, right?"

His new queen scowls; just because she was an amazing pilot, doesn't mean she was a warmongering scoundrel! She believed in Heero wholeheartedly after all. "Youthful indiscretions!"

"Then maybe you should stop being the Ligntning Queen then!" This had been a conversation the two had rehashed several times in the last few months, but it never failed to make Milliardo crack a grin. "Speaking of 'youthful indiscretions,'" Milliardo begins, taking a sip of his red wine. The best perk of living in Sanq Kingdom's castle was definitely the access to a well-stocked wine cellar, and no one who would hound the young nation for drinking. "Have you noticed Nanna's... dalliances with that captain? Think his name was Rex or something."

The new proposals Katrina is browsing through fell from her hands. Her daughter was doing what with one of the captains of the guard!?

AC 175, April 8

The news trickles down to Earth in bits and pieces. While watching another broadcast, Milliardo raises his glass in respect and mourning to a man that had influenced his queen, and made her speak with such fondness. Perhaps it's callous of him, but Milliardo is rather glad Katrina had passed away last year, leaving her son in law to run the nation.

Had she seen the media circus that has come about with Heero Yuy's death, she probably would have done something drastic and not at all lady-like.

AC 180, April 7

Nanna and Marticus made a splendid couple, even though there were worries early on that one or both were barren. But the birth of the young princess Relena has revitalized the whole castle and many are celebrating such a joyous occasion. While his wife nurses their new born daughter, Marticus finds Milliardo on the veranda, sipping wine as if it's just another day.

"You seem troubled, Milliardo," he rumbles, looking the supposed youth over. He appears as usual, but there is tension around his eyes, and in the stiff fingers that hold the flute.

In response, Milliardo shrugs, placing down his glass so he can pour one for his boss. "Is it an omen that our princess is born on such an ominous day?"

Marticus thinks for a moment, taking a sip from the offered glass. As always, it's a splendid wine, but the Peacecraft mansion is not known for carrying sub-par liquor, something that supposedly is attributed to the being sitting next to him. "Perhaps it means that Relena will take up the mantle that was left on Yuy's passing."

Milliardo scoffs and drinks again. Perhaps, perhaps.

AC 182

The castle is burning and Milliardo, for one horrible moment, wonders if this is his end, not from honorable battle but an intervention. But no, he has a reason to survive, to keep going. Relena is crying in his arms, and it's all he can do to shush his princess as he scrambles over rubble that once was a palace wall. Marticus' booming voice rises for a moment, before it is drown out by the flames. He doesn't have the time to feel the pain of his passing because his only thought is to get the princess to safety.

In the end, he entrusts her to one of Marticus' aides, a man named Darlian. Something in him hates himself for giving her up, but the more sensible part knows that this is how it has to be - Milliardo still has the body of a child, hardly a teen, and taking care of a two year old just wasn't going to work. Darlian, at least, is a good man, who will raise Relena well. It's not much, but he helps secure them passage out of the country before he returns to one of taller hills to watch the destruction of the mansion.

He feels it as his land burns, as his people scream and flee. And in that moment, he throws away ideals he has harbored for nearly two hundred years. He will not rest until the ones who destroyed him burn.

AC 184

There is far too much sand here. Every letter he sends from Lake Victoria starts with those words, much to his brothers' amusement. For the last two years, it's about the only thing he can joke about. He's really 200 years old now, but does it really mean anything when Sanq is nothing more than a footnote in the history books? Magnus calls occasionally, and rarer still are letters from Emil and Bjørn. But despite their attempts to make him come back home, to elect new leaders, he refuses. There is only one person who can rule the Sanq kingdom and she is not ready for it yet.

At least, he's met someone he doesn't mind following around for a while. Treize sees Zechs as a star pupil, if an odd one, and though he knows there's more to him than meets the eye - the young man did help him forge his acceptance papers into the base - he has the wrong idea. In the future, maybe he would use that idea. Katrina's mask is still hidden away in his duffle and maybe today is the day he'll try it on.

AC 186

Lucrezia Noin, Zechs finds out, is an all together weird woman. She was also picked by Treize for the possible mobile suits corps and is a rather good pilot, but half the time he keeps comparing her to Katrina, which is hardly fair at all. Sometimes they bicker over who had the better plan in the simulators and other times they sit down for a cup of tea. Noin goes out of her way to hang around him and Zechs obliges, even putting up with her calling him the prince of the stars. They work well together but, Zechs rationalizes, he could work just as well with any of the other members of his unit.

Later, when Zechs is stranded after the mission at Marius Lunar Base with no one but that stupid Elve, he finds himself surprised that he misses Noin's presence so much.

AC 191

It's been nine years - he's gotten used to being called Zechs and shooting people and being Treize's first lieutenant.

And yet seeing his princess is nearly enough to undo all his hard work. Zechs has to forcibly remind himself that he's done too much, killed too many people to hold Relena in his arms like he used to, ten years ago. But saving her, speaking with her, and seeing that she's safe has made Zechs feel something he hasn't in many years.

Hope.

Hope that, maybe, he can stop being the Lightning Count and be the Sanq Kingdom once again.

Notes:

Am I a horrible person for imagining Zechs running about OZ strongholds, offing people with a katana while yelling "SHI NE!"? Koyasu-sensei, I know you're the most prolific seiyuu ever but all the roles I love you in, you're a bro/siscon.

Researching the back story for this chapter made me pretty much want to rage quit Frozen Teardrop without reading it. There are way too many people named after numbers. Who's bright idea was it to name a bunch of people freakin' Cinquante, Vingt, and Diz-Neuf? And there's a distinct lack of information about the Sanq kingdom other than the fact that wearing awesome clothes and masks might be hereditary.
I realized recently that the exploded hotel in ch1 was probably homage to either Shattered Moments or Child's Eyes. Credit, even if one doesn't realize it, is totes due to these awesome authors.