Disclaimer: Usually I write out a very specific disclaimer explaining exactly what it is I don't own but I find myself not really interested in doing so this time as it is very tedious. Suffice it to say I own nothing that was created by anyone else and I am not making any money off of this story or any of the other stories I have written.

AN: This story is self-beta'd; so there may be occasional grammatical or spelling errors that crop up every now and then and for those I apologize in advance.

Chapter 22: Otherworldly Adventures

Harry slid into his seat, adjusted Seth's position around his shoulders, and buckled his seat belt before he nervously pulled at the slightly bulky space suit he had on over his clothes. He also reached up to confirm that he had all four of his trunks safely disillusioned on the leather cord around his neck as he bit his lip and craned around to watch the other five teens making last minute preparations. Unseen, hidden inside of their secret compartment, his wings rustled nervously as the moment they'd been working towards finally arrived; they were heading into space.

Duo and Heero would be piloting the shuttle; the two of them the best flyers out of their small group. The other three would take turns relieving the two of them as needed once they got out into space. They even planned on tossing Harry behind the controls once they cleared the atmosphere in order to allow him to get used to the slight differences between flying through Earth's atmosphere and space.

"Feeling excited?" Trowa asked with a small grin as the green eyed pilot caught sight Harry's fidgeting.

"And a little nervous," Harry added after nodding in agreement and flashed him a small smile as he caught the helmet that Heero tossed to him on his way to the cockpit. He absently ran his fingers over the lettering proclaiming his code name and suit name on the back of the helmet as he asked the one question that had been hovering at the back of mind since his brothers had first decided to return to space. "What's it like out there?"

"It's quite unlike anything you've ever experienced," Quatre replied fondly. "It's beautiful and intimidating all at the same time; it steals your breath and sets your heart to pounding because it makes you feel so small even as it shows you all of the hidden wonders that can't be seen from Earth."

"And the Colonies? What are they like?"

"Not much different than Earth, though I suppose there are those that consider them to be pale copies when compared to Earth. Even the people are much the same; some good, some bad, and the rest falling some where in between."

"If ya haven't done so yet, now would be da time ta buckle yourselves inta your seat as we're set ta lift off in T minus one minute," Duo announced over the intercom.

Harry checked his seat belt, checked on Seth, and turned his head to the side to glue his eyes to the window. He felt his nerve endings tingle as the shuttle started to rattle when engines of the rocket to which the shuttle was anchored were engaged and his breath hitched in anticipation. A minute later, the rocket shot straight up into the air and the ground below sharply disappeared as the shuttle was carried upwards. When they reached the stratosphere, the shuttle's engines roared to life as the two buster rockets and the external fuel tank broke away causing the entire shuttle to shake and Harry's breath caught in his throat he stared down at the surface of the earth far below.

Just seconds later the view was distorted by the air around the shuttle shimmering with the heat generated from the friction of the shuttle exiting the atmosphere at the same as he felt something inside of him being stretched tautly. Just as they broke free of the Earth's gravity, Harry felt something snap inside of him and he gasped in response to the sudden flash of pain before his eyes caught sight of the earth and he gasped again in wonder.

"It's beautiful," Harry breathed as he watched the Earth slowly getting smaller.

"Are you alright, Harry?" Quatre inquired as he leaned forward in concern. "It felt like you were in pain there for a brief moment."

"Huh? Oh… There was a brief moment when it felt like I was being stretched tight or rather like my magic was being pulled in two different directions before it snapped back into place suddenly and it stung unexpectedly; like snapping a rubber band against your arm."

"So… was that a yes or a no?"

"Yes, I'm fine, Trowa," Harry replied in exasperation with a roll of his eyes. "In fact I feel freer… lighter… as if someone had removed a large weight from my back… or maybe my soul. Is that because we're no longer being affected by gravity?"

"I imagine that would be part of it. There's nothing wrong with your magic is there?"

"No… it feels a little… I don't know… fuller? Less drained? But otherwise it feels pretty much as it usually does."

"Glad to hear that; I wouldn't want you to have trouble taking care of yourself because your magic was on the fritz," Trowa solemnly declared.

"Hey, kiddo, why don't ya come up here and try your hand at flyin' the shuttle for a bit?"

Harry eagerly unbuckled his seat belt at the prospect of flying the shuttle only to yelp when he floated out of the seat unexpectedly. Trowa laughed at him before grabbing Harry by the foot and giving him a gentle push in the direction of the cockpit.

"Relax, it's just like swimming," Trowa quipped with a grin.

"I don't know how to swim!" Harry growled back as he grabbed onto the nearest seat to halt his forward momentum.

Heero opened the door to the cockpit at the same time and chuckled at the sight of Harry hanging upside down clinging to the seat; his thoughts centering on the times Harry had hung him upside down with his magic. Harry glared at the pilot as he was pulled into the cockpit by the foot, Heero using the strategically placed hand grips to prevent him from ending up in the same predicament as Harry.

"Enjoyin' da view?" Duo asked cheekily as he too laughed when he caught sight of Harry.

"Don't worry, you'll get used to moving around in zero-gravity soon enough," Heero assured Harry as he finally took pity on the shorter teen and flipped him right side up and pushed him down into the co-pilot's chair.

Harry wasted no time in buckling himself into the seat before he reached towards the flight controls, eager to learn how to pilot the shuttle only to freeze when their shuttle was hailed by the pilot of another craft. He began trembling as he recognized that voice and let out a near whimper before he shook his head and growled as he stripped off his glove and reached out to activate the invisibility booster and silencing switch so they could escape. Heero dropped a hand on Harry's head while Duo engaged the thrusters and turned the shuttle towards their first destination; no one speaking as Zechs Merquise cursed over the connection before cutting out.

"That was unexpected," Duo stated nearly a half an hour later when they were certain they weren't being followed.

"Not really, Merquise isn't a stupid man," Heero countered as he moved around to the side of the chair so he could study Harry's profile while Harry simply stared at the panel in front of him; his hand still pressing on both switches. "You can let go now, Harry."

"Why? Why is he so determined to follow me? And how; how did he know?"

"I can't answer your first question because I don't know what the man is thinking but as for the second one; he probably put together the clues based upon what we stole from the bases and took a wild guess that you were somehow involved. He might take our disappearing act as proof of your presence out here but space is infinitely larger than Earth; we won't be any easier for him to find here than you were on Earth."

"So… drama aside; how are ya likin' your first foray inta space?" Duo asked to get Harry's mind off of Zechs.

"It's… different," Harry replied slowly as he slowly withdrew his hands and lifted his eyes to stare out of the windows. "I'd seen pictures of what Earth looked like from space before but seeing it in person is… so much more powerful. Although… I'm not sure I like floundering about out of control."

"Yeah, that hangin' about upside down and havin' no way of gettin' back ta your feet can be a real drag," Duo deadpanned.

Harry gave a half-hearted smile at Duo's not so subtle dig at the times he'd been flipped upside down by Harry using his magic. Harry spent another twenty minutes just gazing out at the endless sea of black broken up by the occasional asteroid, gas pocket, or planet (all thoughts of flying the shuttle drowned out by the view). He was then forcefully (if playfully) ejected from the cockpit by Duo who sent him floating across the passenger bay before ordering him to get used to moving about in zero-gravity. He ended up getting stuck near the ceiling as he floundered about a bit until Wufei took pity on him and pulled him down to where he could grab the seats.

The next four hours saw Harry learning how to use the various furniture and the walls to gently push himself in the direction he wanted to go in. He quickly learned that the quickest way to lose control of his movements was to panic and he soon gained an intimate understanding of the phrase; for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Once he felt comfortable moving around by himself, Wufei instructed him to take the top half of his suit off and remove his over shirt to free his wings so that he could learn how they would affect his movements while in zero-gravity.

Harry was not impressed when his tentative control was completely striped from him by the constant fluttering his wings seemed to do in response to his emotions. He at least had some entertainment in the form of watching Seth attempt to slither through the air; the snake complaining loudly the entire time as he flipped and flopped like a fish out of water. Harry actually learned how to better control his own movements (with his wings free) by helping Seth learn how to propel himself through the air.

Once he regained some control, Harry found that his wings actually gave him an advantage when moving through zero-gravity as he could use them to both start and stop his forward momentum. He was really starting to have fun flying about when he suddenly found himself laying belly down, half over the back of a seat as Duo engaged the artificial gravity without any warning. Harry wasn't exactly impressed. Neither was Seth.

As their small group headed towards their first destination, which happened to be the L4 Colony Cluster (Quatre's former home), they each spent a few hours running a systems check on their mobile suits as Harry unshrunk them in turns. Harry was the last one to spend time in his suit and he'd needed a co-pilot and two spotters outside of the shuttle with him since he had absolutely no experience in maneuvering the suit in space; unlike the rest of the pilots who'd grown up in the Colonies. The first time he went out, Heero hitched a ride inside of the suit with him while Trowa and Duo manned their own suits to give him a hand if he should manage to get himself into trouble.

The time Harry had spent learning how to propel himself through zero-gravity actually helped him maneuver the suit through space (which was one of the reasons why they'd not turned on the artificial gravity right away). Learning how to compensate for the recoil generated when using the beam pistols that had been created for his suit took a little longer. On the other hand, adjusting to close combat in space was fairly easy as it was very similar to learning how to use his wings to hover prior to leaving Earth. Harry's favorite part of the training was when he was allowed to transform the suit into flight mode and instructed to simply fly.

Heero nearly regretted volunteering to be Harry's co-pilot after some of the more outrageous stunts that Harry pulled over the next hour. With no gravitational force pulling against the suit, Harry was able to pull off moves that would have seen him crashing spectacularly if he'd tried them while on earth. If not for the magical enhancements and wards that Harry had placed on the suit he'd probably have injured himself and Heero pulling off some of the stunts he did.

All of the long, hard hours of Quidditch practice that Harry had put in under the maniacal and fanatical Oliver Wood really paid off as he incorporated some of the more insane broom maneuvers into the flight pattern of the suit while it was in flight mode. Harry didn't even have to think he just reacted instinctively as he pushed the suit to its limits and then some. The only reason Heero didn't order Harry to stop or end their test flight sooner was because Harry had laughed and crowed happily the entire time.

The first words out of Harry's mouth once they returned to the shuttle were to ask when he could go back out again. The first words out of Heero's mouth in reply were to tell Duo that he'd just been volunteered to be Harry's next co-pilot to the amusement of the others. Seth hadn't been very impressed with the stunts Harry had pulled (the snake having insisted on sticking beside the wizard) and if the cobra had eaten any time in the last three days he probably would have regurgitated his meal from the nauseating feats of speed and daring. The snake was something of a masochist though because he would never hesitate to join Harry in the suit each time the winged wizard went back out and in time would eventually grow immune to the disorientation and nausea Harry's stunts frequently imparted to his passengers.

Harry's next big adventure was a lesson in EVA or extravehicular activity. Trowa was the one who took him out this time with Wufei and Quatre both standing by in their mobile suits in case Harry slipped and went floating off. Once they were out of the shuttle, Harry had been transfixed by the sight of Mars in the distance and he'd just stood there and stared for nearly fifteen minutes. Harry's half whispered comment of, "Mars is bright, huh? Bet the centaurs never saw Mars quite like this before," earned him more than a few weird looks from the other pilots but they soon wrote it off as one of Harry's many odd quirks. His eyes had not drifted far from the red planet during the rest of the training session.

All too soon their shuttle was docking on the landing bay of L4 and Harry was inundated with curiosity and anxiety as the shuttle was swallowed by the enormous construct. When they were finally given clearance to disembark, Harry couldn't help but stare as he followed the others out of the shuttle. Harry was still trying to see everything at once when they were met by a rather stern looking man and a pleasant looking woman; both of whom somewhat reminded Harry of Quatre. Harry felt more than a little uncomfortable when he learned the man was Quatre's father (he wouldn't learn the woman was one of Quatre's twenty-nine sisters until a few days later).

"Hello, father," Quatre greeted with reserve and Harry immediately picked up on the tension radiating from the normally serene pilot.

"Quatre; I must say I was caught by surprise when the traffic controllers informed me that my wayward son was requesting permission to land. I did not expect you to willingly return after you ran off the way you did. I see you've brought a few friends back with you as well."

"Allow me to introduce everyone, father," Quatre stated as he pointedly ignored the thinly veiled accusations and reprimands. "Those standing beside me are Heero Yuy, Duo Maxwell, Trowa Barton, and Wufei Chang. And lastly, the one half hiding in the back is Taliesin Bard. Everyone, this gentleman is the head of Winner Corporation and my father, Zayeed Winner."

"Pleasure to meet you, sir," Heero cordially murmured as he offered the man his hand.

The other pilots were quick to do the same while Harry had to be prompted to greet the man since he was far more interested in watching the various people going about their jobs and taking in the architecture. The man seemed to be caught off guard by Harry's startling mismatched eyes and rather shy and withdrawn nature since everyone else in the group seemed very outgoing and confident by contrast; making Harry stand out even further. It was also very easy for anyone to see that this was Harry's first trip to one of the Colonies due to the way he was constantly craning his neck in order to take in everything all at once.

"Taliesin, make certain don't use any magic unless you absolutely have to," Heero ordered softly as they began walking away from the shuttle. "We don't know how much of a chain reaction it would cause here and we don't want to draw any extra attention to our presence."

"I know, Heero," Harry replied absentmindedly as he stumbled to a stop at his first look of the city portion of the colony.

"Impressive view, is it not?" Zayeed inquired as he noted Harry's reaction; the man having been walking behind the rest of the group. "It appears that this is your first time out in space; what did your parents think of you traveling through space alone with no one but five teens for company?"

"I wouldn't know, my parents are dead and have been for many years," Harry answered absently, his voice barely above a whisper, as he glanced upwards to study the ceiling panels miles above the city. "I would still be living alone in a cave on the beach of a small deserted island or quite possibly be dead right now if not for Heero and the others taking me in. If it were possible to ask them; I think my parents would be happy that I found five exceptional young men to call my brothers."

Harry then turned his mismatched gaze to the man frowning down at him before glancing out over again at the city as he noted, "This place is unlike anything I imagined it would be."

"Oh? What did you imagine the colonies would look like?"

Harry laughed softly and shook his head without answering (his mind on the memories of the various sci-fi shows that Dudley had often enjoyed watching, which usually included an assortment of aliens and alien architecture) before he darted forward to catch up to the others who'd not immediately noticed that Harry had stopped or that Zayeed had been questioning him. Once Harry reached the others, he began firing questions at Quatre one after another; trying to learn everything he could about the colony the blonde had grown up in. That of course led to a hundred other questions about the colonies that the others had lived on or visited.

If Harry's wings had been visible they would have been have been sweeping back and forth in excitement as Harry allowed his curiosity to drive away any anxiety he had been feeling. His happy chatter also dispelled the earlier impression of him being shy and withdrawn; forcing Zayeed to re-examine his earlier assumption he didn't fit in with the rest of the teens.

They would spend a relatively peaceful week on L4, with Quatre and the pilots spending much of their time in meetings with Quatre's father and the Colony's administrative council while Quatre's sister, Doctor Iria Winner, kept an eye on Harry and took him on tours of the different portions of the colony. The young doctor had even taken Harry on a tour of the mining satellite anchored off the Colony that the Winner family owned. Iria had attempted to coerce Harry into getting a medical exam after learning he'd lived on his own for a period of time but Harry had quickly vanished (using his cloak) when she didn't seem to want to take no for an answer.

When she confronted Quatre about Harry's disappearing act later that night (on their third night on the colony), Quatre had (without going into any details) told her bluntly that Harry hadn't had an easy life, that he didn't really trust adults not to wish him harm, and that he had been shocked that Harry hadn't vanished sooner when he'd virtually been abandoned by the pilots the moment they arrived. Harry, of course, had simply been far too fascinated by the colony to care about his company right up until he felt intimidated by Iria's desire to give him a comprehensive physical; which he saw as an invasion of his privacy.

At the end of that first week, things took a turn for the worse when OZ turned up; specifically Lady Une. Harry had been idling about a park within the city when Heero and Trowa had suddenly appeared and called out to him; startling the wizard as he lazily lounged in the branches of a tree watching Seth explore the upper branches. The grim expressions on the two pilots' faces had Harry dropping down out of the tree in an instant with Seth quickly sliding down the trunk to join him.

"Put your cloak on over you and Trowa and follow me, Taliesin," Heero ordered while Trowa kept a look out. "Do you have all of your things with you or do we need to go back to the Winner's to get your stuff?"

"I have everything," Harry murmured as he disappeared beneath the cloak with Trowa; he'd long since stopped taking off the cord holding his trunks unless he needed to get into one of them (a habit that had been formed during the time he'd spent in the custody of OZ).

"Good, stay close and try not to make any noise."

Unseen, Harry was soon hustled onto their shuttle where he found Wufei in the pilot seat and no sign of Quatre or Duo in sight. He felt a considerable amount of trepidation when they immediately took off the moment they closed the door and he pulled off his cloak without waiting for permission only for the trepidation to turn to fear as he briefly glimpsed Lady Une stepping down out of another shuttle within the docking bay. Fury soon replaced the fear along with no little amount of hate as Harry recalled what that woman had intended to allow the three guards to do to him and it was only sheer luck that Harry didn't lose complete control of his magic.

He did, however, destroy both of the shirts he'd been wearing at the time when his wings ignited with flames not long after they cleared the bay doors, the disintegration of his spell work causing his wings, knives, and cards to fall free of their hidden pockets. Luckily he'd not been wearing his invisibility cloak at the time and Seth hadn't been hiding in the extra secret pocket as he usually did when Harry was walking about the colony (the snake having dropped down off of Harry in order to find a quiet place to nap).

It took both Trowa and Heero doing some fast talking to calm Harry down enough to douse the flames. Harry had then spent the next six hours perched on top of the back of one of the seats with his wings and arms wrapped around him and his legs and his face pressed to his knees. Worse than when confronted with Zechs at the start of the trip, coming so close to the woman who'd wanted nothing more than to break him had stirred a wealth of negative emotions within him. He'd known she was out in space but had thought the universe had been large enough that he'd never actually cross paths with her; foolish of him really. He probably wouldn't have had such an extreme reaction if he'd at least prepared himself for the possibility of running into her at some point.

After those six hours, Harry had slowly uncoiled and scowled; angry at himself for losing control of his emotions so easily. Growling, Harry lifted his leather cord of trunks from his neck, returned the one holding his library to full size, and stormed down inside. Once inside, he paused to stare at the seemingly endless rows of bookshelves filled with a wide assortment of magical and non-magical books before he approached the parchment that had been hung upon the wall next to the stairs leading out of the trunk.

The parchment was a rather simplistic directory that consisted of a complete list of the subjects into which all of the books fell and listed where to find that section of the library. There was no magically interactive list containing every single title of every single book that could be used to summon the desired books to his hand; though Harry had wished there was more than once. No, much like any normal library, Harry would have to scour the shelves for the section he needed and browse through books in order to find the one he needed unless he already knew the title of the book he was looking for (which in this case he didn't).

Harry ran his finger down the list of subjects and paused on one that was called Meditation and Mind Magics. Thinking that might be as good of place to start as any, Harry noted the row and shelf numbers associated with that branch of magic before he wandered off in the direction they were supposed to be found. He then spent close to two hours skimming through more than sixty books, looking for something that would help teach him how to better control his emotions.

He ended up selecting three different books; one on mediation called How to Meditate; A Practical Guide by Kathleen McDonald, a book called My Mind is My Fortress by Hank Skullman, and Improving One's Mind; A Complex Guide to Mind Magics also by Hank Skullman.

Tucking the books beneath his arm, Harry climbed up out of his trunk and set them down on one of the seats before he switched over to his supply trunk to grab another pair of shirts to replace the ones he'd destroyed. He also grabbed a bunch of pillows and a sleeping bag before exiting, shrinking the trunk back to a more manageable size, and slipping the cord back over his neck. He then set about making himself a comfortable nest in which he could curl up and read before grabbing his books. Before he got lost in his reading material, Harry took a moment to put away his knives and cards that one of the pilots had kindly collected from the floor and vanished the remains of his ruined shirts.

"What are you planning, Taliesin?" Heero asked softly as he watched Harry bury himself in the middle of the pillow nest.

"I need to find a way to learn how to control my emotions; I'm sick of losing all reason or freezing in fear when faced with certain people and if not for you guys hustling me out of there I might have let loose enough accidental magic to shut down the entire colony; potentially killing the millions of innocents that live there. I can't afford to risk losing control like that; not out here in space where a power failure could mean instant death. That's why we spent so much damn time warding and spelling this shuttle and the suits before leaving Earth, after all."

"Do you really expect magic to solve that for you?" Trowa pointedly asked. "True control of one's emotions like you are speaking of takes years to obtain."

"There are ways for magic to help me do that and while it is not instant, it is effective according to what little I skimmed through while I was searching. I also picked up a book on meditation because I'm well aware that not even magic can provide instant fixes for everything," Harry dryly replied as he looked up at both pilots over the top of his glasses. "I wasn't searching for a quick fix anyway. Those have a tendency of unraveling at the worst possible moment in the most spectacular way with extremely negative results; at least according to my usual luck and past experience."

"Just wanted to make certain," Trowa stated with an unrepentant shrug.

Harry stuck his tongue out at his self-adopted brother before opening up the book on meditation, which only had about two hundred pages, and began reading. The first time he read through the book non-stop in order to get an idea of everything involved in learning to meditate before he flipped back to the beginning and began reading through each chapter very carefully, occasionally pausing in order to attempt some of the beginning exercises suggested by the author.

He was just starting on his third time through the book when he was dragged from his reading by Wufei in order to eat and take a break since he'd been studying for hours without realizing it. The four of them spent an hour playing cards (with a normal deck) after the meal to allow Harry's mind time to rest and reflect upon what he learned. Wufei, who'd been taught meditation growing up, quizzed Harry on what he'd learned, asked several questions, and offered small suggestions that helped Harry better understand what was involved in meditation.

The last thing Harry did before getting some sleep was to make a magical copy of the meditation book and use the transfer spell to absorb the entire book. He didn't use the spell thinking it would be a short cut to learning meditation; he used it so that he would be able to easily reference the material while teaching himself how to meditate in order to avoid having to constantly stop what he was doing to reference the actual book. He hadn't used the spell on the original book because he still wanted to have the book on hand for a reference in case he needed it.

Heero woke him up eight hours later and Harry went through his normal morning routine on autopilot as he reflected on everything he'd learned before resting. A freshly made cup of coffee and a warm breakfast was followed by two hours spent in his spacesuit outside of the shuttle practicing moving about in free-fall to make certain his control hadn't regressed after spending a week in the artificial gravity of the colony. Wufei then had him spend an hour going through his katas before allowing him to dive back into his books; this time reaching for one of the two Mind Magic books.

The concept of Mind Magic greatly intrigued Harry and he wondered if could have prevented the realistic visions he had had about what Voldemort was doing over the course of his fourth year if he'd been able to use Occlumency (the defensive form of Mind Magic) at the time. He also wondered if it would have helped him with his normal nightmares. After reading through the theory he knew having some skill in Occlumency would have made him even less susceptible to various forms of mind control and prevent other magicals from skimming through his memories. The latter something he suspected both Snape and Dumbledore had frequently done to him since there had been times when it seemed as if they knew exactly what he was thinking.

There were similarities between meditation and defensive Mind Magic but Mind Magic quickly outclassed meditation in every way as Harry's magic allowed him far more control over his own mind than simple mediation ever could. The first goal in learning to protect and defend his mind was to seek out what the book called his inner mind or mindscape. It took Harry two waking and sleeping cycles (the concept of day and night a little indistinct out in space where there was no true sunrise or sunset) to find his inner mind and when he did finally stumble across it he'd been so shocked at what he'd found he'd immediately fallen right back out with a startled gasp.

His mind had been a rather desolate stretch of land shrouded in shadows, smoke, and mist that looked as if it had been the battle ground for a long and bloody war. It had been frightening to see how damaged his mind was and there was no doubt his mind was damaged based upon what the book had described. Harry knew part of the damage came from past experiences while the rest of it was the end result of the numerous memory charms and mind control spells that Dumbledore and Snape had used on him. The numerous Unforgivables that had been used on him had left their mark as well; including the killing curse that Voldemort had used on him when he'd been barely out of infanthood.

Slipping back into his mindscape, Harry stared at the destruction around him and knew it wasn't going to be easy to fix and repair all of the damage. He also knew that there would be some things he couldn't fix; the damage done by the Unforgivables one of them. Harry spent a long time carefully climbing through his mind in order to survey the full extent of the damage before he stepped back out into reality. The three teens watching over him expressed concern as he looked rather shaken and pale but Harry didn't know how to explain just how badly damaged his mind was. Nor was he certain he wanted them to know.

After another three waking and sleeping cycles, which was just over two days, the group received a call from Duo stating that things were not looking good. Apparently most of the Colony's council had disregarded everything that the pilots had been telling them over the week their group had spent on the Colony and they were going to throw their lot in with OZ. Lady Une had blinded them with her empty promises of peace and Quatre's father had been voted out of his position as the Colony's leader. Quatre was worried that his father was going to do something drastic.

They were just getting back to the Colony, in order to provide support to Quatre, when the four of them literally ran into an agitated Zayeed Winner. Harry had taken one look at the man and just knew the man was going to do something reckless and that the end result would hurt Quatre. He wasn't certain how he knew but it didn't really matter because Harry refused to allow his brother to be hurt.

Zayeed had paused only briefly when he encountered the group before he brushed passed them and the moment his back was turned, Harry hit him with a discreet, low powered stunner to knock him out. Heero and Trowa had glanced sharply at Harry over that but quickly helped the short teen to hustle the now unconscious man into their shuttle (after making certain that they weren't being watched – their shuttle having been set down out of range of the security cameras by design) before they slipped back out of the Colony and cloaked the ship.

"What the hell was all of that about?" Heero demanded the moment they were safe from detection.

"He was about to pull a stupid Heero stunt," Harry replied as he lifted his chin defiantly and met Heero's slightly angry gaze with steely determination radiating in his blue and green eyes. "I will not allow him to foolishly throw his life away without any regard to how much such an act by him would hurt Quatre."

"How do you know he was going to do something stupid?" Trowa asked with a frown as he'd instantly picked up on Harry's familiar turn of phrase about a stupid Heero (one that Harry had once used in reference to Trowa's own desire to fight against Harry's capture by OZ).

"It was in his eyes; I could read the pain and desperation there," Harry answered as he dropped his glare. "It was the same look Heero had in his eyes the day he was going to detonate Wing and the look you had in your eyes when I was… you know. He should wake up soon, I didn't use much magic because I didn't want to be seen and I didn't want to fry anything."

"What do you expect to be able to do?" Wufei inquired.

"Talk some sense into him and help him if his ultimate goal is for the best; but mostly I just want to make certain he doesn't die a senseless death. Much like I did when you guys first wanted to run off into space."

All three teens had the grace to look sheepish over that remark as Harry smirked slightly before he pulled out his special deck of cards and settled back against the wall in one of the few open parts of the shuttle to practice his juggling. He'd only been practicing for about twenty minutes when Zayeed groaned and sat up. Harry glanced at the man and quickly plucked his cards out of the air and hid the deck as he waited for Zayeed to notice him and the others.

"What the hell did you do to me and where the hell are we?"

"I stopped you from doing something incredibly stupid and we are on our shuttle, cloaked just outside of the colony."

"I'm not the one who was doing something stupid! The council members are the ones who have taken leave of their senses in their decision to allow OZ to build weapons on my satellite. I refuse to allow them to use my resources to make war."

"Like I said, you were about to do something incredibly stupid and the ones who would have paid for it are your daughters and son," Harry repeated as he crossed his arms and glared at the man. "Did you even once think about how your children would feel if you got yourself killed because you acted rashly in the heat of the moment? Did you consider what would happen to them if the council decided to strip them of their holdings and their money because of whatever stunt you were about to pull? No… you did not."

"How dare you…!"

"I dare because Quatre is my brother in all but blood and I will do everything in my power to insure that no one, and I do mean no one, ever hurts him," Harry hissed vehemently as his eyes turned hard and cold. "Your rash actions would have hurt him far deeper than you could ever imagine because the pain of losing you before he even had a chance to repair the floundering relationship you two have would have cut far deeper than any knife. Do you have any idea of what grief and anguish like that would do to the mind of an empath like Quatre?"

"I… I have to do something… I refuse to allow them to use my satellite to build an army of mobile dolls that would be used to destroy other colonies or Earth."

"And do you have a plan?"

"I was going to remove the satellite from the colony."

"Which would have prompted the colony to retaliate and destroy both you and the satellite because if they could not use its resources than they certainly would not want to allow you to use them," Harry deduced with a huff as he rolled his eyes.

"Oh and you have a better idea?"

"Of course… I have five geniuses for brothers and they've been teaching me everything they know," Harry cheekily responded as he flashed a rather feral grin at the skeptical man. "I also have a few tricks up my sleeves."

"What tricks could a kid your age have that could possibly help in this situation?" Zayeed asked incredulously.

Harry glanced beyond Quatre's father to silently ask Heero and Trowa for their opinions and after a moment they shrugged. Harry then stood up and met Zayeed's eyes as he removed his wand from his sleeve and twirled it around his fingers before he settled it into his palm and transfigured a row of passenger seats into a trio of playful puppies that began play-fighting with one another. He then glanced back up at the man and answered, "More than you could possibly imagine because you've never meet another person quite like me."

Zayeed looked gob smacked as he took in the frolicking puppies that had tumbled across the isle until they bumped into the man's legs before they chased each other towards the cargo bay where they froze in mid-step and abruptly reverted back to seats. He glanced back at Harry for a moment before he turned around to see the smirking pilots. Once he got over his shock, the five of them spent the next four hours making plans with the occasional input from the two pilots still inside of the Colony.

By the time they'd finished ironing out the details, Zayeed held a newfound respect for both Harry and the pilots; including his somewhat estranged son.

Notes:

How to Meditate; A Practical Guide by Kathleen McDonald is an actual book but not one that I have read so there will be not be any references made to any actual exercises that are inside of it.

Both My Mind is My Fortress and Improving One's Mind; A Complex Guide to Mind Magics by Hank Skullman are books that I made up strictly for this FanFiction and any resemblance to existing book titles is purely coincidence. I don't believe that I copied either the titles or the author name from another FanFic author but if I have I apologize and if provided the name of the author and the story in which they appeared I will gladly ask for permission to keep them and give credit where credit is due or change them if offense is taken.

AN: And Harry has left the earth. For those who are confused about what he experienced when leaving the atmosphere; please be patient, it will be explained later on. Next chapter will have some action in it and will be posted later this week.

I'd like to thank everyone that replied with information on Une's first name as it confirmed what I already knew; that there is no definitive answer. Ann/Anne has been used as her first name but according to some sources Anne is actually a variation of Une which itself was derived from the French feminine 'An' meaning 'one' according to the Gundam Wiki. So I'll be leaving her first name as 'Lady' for this story since Anne Une is a bit of a mouthful to say. ~ Jenn