I know it's been sometime but the wait is finally over so here's the next chapter of the story.

Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam wing or seed.

Onboard the Nasca class ship known of the Salvation it's only remaining mobile suit which was a heavily damaged CGUE mounted against the hanger wall's hatch opened up allowing a pilot wearing a red flight suit to emerge before they removed their helmet revealing themselves to be a teen boy of around fifteen years of age at the very least with near shoulder length dirty blonde hair and hazel eyes which had a rather stoic and hardened expression that wasn't typical for someone their age.

The pilot in question was a Zaft ace known as Roland Quinby who was a first generation Coordinator that had originally been living on earth until members of the extremist group known as Blue Cosmos slaughtered his family in an attempt to kill Roland himself only for him to slip away before he later found himself taken in by his current foster father and began a life in the Plants before eventually joining Zaft's ranks.

"Roland It's a relief to see that you made at the very least." Came the voice of the captain of the Salvation who was a middle aged man within late thirties or early forties who went by the name Thomason Stone. "Keegan will be relieved that you haven't lost your life during the encounter with that mobile suit."

"Maybe, but that enemy went beyond anything we could have tried to anticipate or prepare for."

Tomason placed a hand on his chin as he recalled what happened. No matter how anyone tried to look at it Roland was right, nothing could have prepared the Zaft unit for what the opposition they encountered. Personally the captain of the Salvation had expected some type of opposition from the other world somewhere down the line considering that the Zaft unit sent there could easily and rather accurately be considered invaders which weren't traditionally welcomed with open arms. Still Thomason at least had confidence that the Zaft squadron would have the element of surprise considering the inhabitants of the other world could not have possibly known about about their existence, the only the captain and the others even knew about the other world's existence at all was only because of an experiment gone both wrong and in a way right at the same time and that was only by an extreme off chance.

Instead not only was it the Zaft unit that found themselves taken by surprise but they were all but completely wiped out and what made it even worse was that it wasn't by an opposing fleet or even a simple squadron but a single mobile suit all its own. It both irked and worried the Captain at the same time, still at the very least the trip confirmed that the otherworld had advanced weaponry not only to the point of essentially possessing its own type of mobile suit but one that was far beyond that of anything within Zaft's current arsonal.

Overall the other world without a doubt had the potential to yield technology that could help further Zaft's advantage in the war effort as well as the groups' crew's more personal agenda but the fact remained that its inhabitants posed a major threat to the crew and its objective in that world.

"True, I suppose the best thing we can hope to do now is bring the matter to Keegan's attention and see if he might be able to come up with an immediate counter measure."

"Agreed, though it's likely going to take time for him to come up with anything effective." Rolamd replied.

"What makes you say that?" Thomason inquired.

"Beyond what we had immediately witnessed we don't have any information on how powerful that mobile suit truly is."

The captain of the Salvation merely shrugged. He wasn't particularly eager to admit it since it meant that the crew's mission to obtain weaponry that could potentially bolster their sides strength was going to be that much more complicated. The underlying truth was that the Zaft red pilot was right.

Essentially everyone who survived the encounter with the unknown mobile suit knew next to nothing about it, in fact the most Thomason or anyone currently onboard the Salvation could determine were two things, that the mobile suit had a balanced weapon set and that its rifle was powerful enough to destroy a ship in its entirety.

The lack of detailed information did nothing to comfort the captain, if anything it was giving him doubts that an expedition to the other world that didn't potentially cost any and everyone involved their lives was even possible but in the end it wasn't his call to make. 'Whatever decision Keegan comes to after we report this to him it'll be crucial that it's well thought out for all our sakes.'

"Fair enough. For now he'll head back to the Plants."

"You sure that's a good idea?" One of the crew members asked. "People at the Plants might wonder how we lost all the GINNs along with the Gallia."

"The official report will say we were ambushed by a large Earth Alliance force that we were barely able to fight off and that the Gallia was lost due to the recklessness of its captain." That last part wasn't untrue, if the captain of the Gallia didn't jump the gun and impulsively fire at the enemy mobile suit then the ship known as the Gallia may have still been intact.

"Okay, but won't that make us look like the laughing stock of Zaft?"

The captain shrugged once again. "Maybe but it's better than telling them the truth and either painting ourselves as completely insane at best or at worst jeopardizing Keegan's agenda."

The crew member was unable to come up with any type of rebuke, as irking as it was to potentially be laughed at, it was a far better alternative to the other scenario Keegan mentioned.

"Now that we have this discussion out of the way…" Thomason turned to the entrance of the hanger. "We can plot a course back to the Plants." With that he left the hangar.

Meanwhile Roland looked back at his damaged CGUE before he began recalling the fight with the enemy that had almost ended him. While they indeed possessed a powerful mobile suit there was more to it than just that alone. What Thomason and the others failed to pick up on was the pilot themselves, whoever they were there skills weren't just that of your run of the mill pilot (they'd never have been able to inflict the amount of damage they did at all, let alone in such a short timespan even with the mobile suit they were using.) and they weren't just at the level of your typical ace pilot either. If anything might have been accurate to say they were beyond anything encountered by anyone from either side.

The most unnerving aspect was that something told the Zaft red pilot that for all that he and those who had survived that unfortunate encounter had witnessed it was only a portion of what they were truly capable of. It was going to take more than a day to truly prepare anyone within the group for that type of enemy.

XXXXX

Looking around the Gundam pilot was relieved to discover that he was okay and that Wing Zero was still in working order which was more than a little bit of a relief considering his other circumstances.

After attempting to follow the unknown through the vortex it created Heero quickly lost track of the ship and before much longer found himself along with Wing Zero being engulfed by a blinding light before he once again found himself out in the middle of space.

That alone wouldn't have been a problem if it had been at the location where he had previously encountered the enemy calling themselves Zaft but that was just it. He wasn't located anywhere near the destroyed colony, at least not the same one but rather the remains of a different one which was amongst a massive debris belt.

Being trained from birth as a soldier who was able to adapt to any situation the Gundam pilot was ever rarely caught off by anything however the situation here counted among that particular category.

Whatever debris belt this was, it wasn't one he was ever familiar with and the situation only perplexed the perfect soldier even further when no information was found within Wing Zero's data banks. Why couldn't he find anything, the only logical explanation was that it was recently formed but the problem with that being the case was that it was far too large for no one to have ever discovered it.

'How can there possibly be an entire debris belt out here along with the remainder of a colony out here that there's no information on?' He thought before trying to have Wing Zero scan the surrounding area to get a better fix on wherever he was currently located only to receive a message that he didn't like seeing.

No data found

The gundam pilot's eyes narrowed upon seeing this. It was one thing when Zero didn't know anything about the wreckage he was in the middle of but for it the machine not to have the slightest inkling to his current whereabouts was bad, REALLY BAD. Essentially the perfect soldier was stranded in the middle of outer space with no idea where the nearest colony or even the earth was with no way to contact anyone he knew.

The gundam pilot felt a combination of worry and anger well up in him. As things stood he was going to eventually die in outer space due to lack of any resources and to make matters worse the enemy he had previously faced was still out there and able to threaten the peace of the after colony era with no one aside from Heero himself even being aware of their existence.

This situation was even worse than when he was shot down during the beginning of Operation meteor. Sure he didn't have to worry about his mobile suit falling into the enemy's hands or being interrogated this time around but there was also nothing he could do to impede them. Committing suicide would be more beneficial to the enemy than anything.

Had he played right into the enemy's hand? Unlikely he got the jump on them in the initial battle before they retreated, and from what was said over the channels between the Salvation's captain and various pilots the enemy was more concerned with retreating and living to fight another day plus they had no way of truly anticipating weather Heero would follow them through the vortex or not meaning that it could only by an off chance that the teen pilot ended up where he did.

The question still remained, just where exactly was he? Thinking things over it was obvious that this debris belt couldn't be a known location, otherwise there'd be some record of it, recalling the enemy's conversions over the radio Heero suddenly remembered one crucial yet irrational detail, the enemy calling themselves Zaft had mentioned that they were from another world, at least by the way the worded it when the spoke to each other.

While the entire concept of that was something that would normally be written off as impossible since there was no basis or evidence to support such a thing the vortex the took Heero to wherever he was currently located forced even a seasoned soldier like him to rethink what was truly possible.

If he truly was in another world then what exactly was this place. From what he saw so far he could easily concluded that whoever inhabited the other world had technology around the same level as the after colony era, the ruins of the destroyed colony only further confirmed this since it was more or less proof that the inhabitants had migrated into space much like the people of the after colony era.

Assuming this was indeed true Heero needed to find somewhere to gather information on the world's history, layout of space, battle strength of any military factions along with other factors pertaining to the world to increase the chances of him successfully carrying out his mission.

Heero's thoughts were interrupted when Wing Zero's systems suddenly picked up a distress signal prompting him to raise an eyebrow. What were the odds of someone else being stranded out here? Either way they were the only potential lead Heero had to find out anything about this place at all.

Navigating carefully through the debris Heero soon caught sight of what looked to be a single person life pod floating in the middle of space but it wasn't alone, a small number of mobile units that looked to be non mobile suit space fighters were flying around.

Initially Heero wondered if they were part of the Zaft faction but he soon all but dismissed the idea. If his last encounter showed anything, Zaft was able to produce its own mobile suit and judging by the performance these units were far below what he previously encountered in terms of battle strength so it wouldn't make any sense for Zaft to ever employ them, no these units had to be of a different faction.

One of the units fired at the life pod grazing its side but the pod ultimately stayed intact. Heero narrowed his eyes whilst watching this play out, whoever these people were either they weren't able to properly differentiate between those who were able to fight back and those who weren't or they simply didn't care.

Laughter soon echoed over an open channel. "These Coordinators aren't so tough when they don't have their mobile suits to hide behind!"

These pilots didn't have much in the way of morality it seemed, in fact from the sound of that one pilot's words it appeared as though this faction was deriving a sadistic pleasure from their actions.

The situation only became even more sickening when a femanine voice replied from the life pod. "Please, we were only out here to perform a memorial service for the lives lost in the bloody Valentine, no one that was on our ship were Zaft soldiers."

So the person inside the life pod was a civilian from the sound of what they said. More laughter was heard over the radio from the pilot of one the fighters. "So what? Whether you're a civilian or soldier or not doesn't matter, your very existence is an offense to nature itself so we're gonna purge the entire earth sphere of you inhuman monsters down to the last child!"

Heero gripped the controls in his cockpit as he watched on in disgust at what was taking place in front of him as he wade his options. The more pragmatistical one would simply be to let these people finish executing the civilian to avoid making unnecessary enemies since it would only serve to complicate his mission which practically already made him an enemy of Zaft. Plus since the group was armed and likely a military faction of some kind meaning they'd have more of the information he was looking for than a single civilian would.

But in spite of all that could the gundam pilot really stand by and watch someone who wasn't even involved in any fighting and likely never intended to take part die needlessly simply because a couple of soldiers were caught up in their personal bloodlust? The perfect soldier already harbored a sense of regret and self loathing from past deaths involving civilians who hadn't done anything wrong but if he decided to step in things could become more complicated since Heero would be in the cross hairs of two military factions.

Regardless of any pros and cons to either however one lesson had always stuck with him more than any other. The only way to live a good life is to act on your emotions. Once the gundam pilot recalled that saying his decision became clear.

As one of the mobile fighters swung around to shoot the life pod again the pilot decided to let off one last gloat. "You can rot in hell with the freaks who died at junius seven." Before the mobile fighter could open fire however a yellow beam struck it destroying the fighter in its entirety leaving the other pilots shocked.

"What the hell?!"

One of the pilots turned in the direction that the beam had come from and saw Wing Zero emerge from the debris. "I thought the ship we attacked was supposed to be a civilian ship!" The pilot exclaimed in panic.

"Relax, from the looks of it this mobile suit is on its own. If we work together we can take this guy down."

"It doesn't look like any model Zaft has deployed so far." Another voice said.

"It doesn't matter, let's show this Coordinator that they're getting a little too cocky coming out here alone." With that one of the remaining fighters flew towards Heero and open fired causing the gundam pilot to strafe to the side. Looking at his radar Heero soon counted a total of twelve mobile fighters before returning fire to the one that had initially fired on him with his shoulder vulcans destroying it outright.

Now that he was out in the open and had a clearer view of what was happening around him he caught sight of a warship that looked completely different to the two Zaft ones he had previously encountered.

Acting quickly Heero took aim at the warship and fire a beam from his buster rifle at thirty percent of its power and the beam in question easily blow clean through the ship before destroying it outright and leaving the enemy pilots at a loss for words at what had just happened

While the enemies were still dumbfounded Heero took the opportunity to shoot down two more before voices started yelling over the radio.

"You damn Coordinators should just die!" One of the pilots screamed over the radio whilst making a beeline for Wing Zero only for Heero to simply shoot them down with his shoulder vulcans.

Nine left

"Why won't you freaks all just lay down and die?!" Another pilot exclaimed before Heero used his shoulder vulcans to shoot them down along with another of their allies.

Seven left.

Heero quickly closed in on another one before using his shield to run it through and following up with a shot from his buster to take out two more within close proximity to each other.

Four left.

One of the mobile suit fighters turned around to leave. "Where are you going?!" One of the other remaining enemies asked.

"Anywhere but here, I don't wanna die!"

In many other other scenarios Heero would have simply let them retreat, but as things stood that was far from being the case, if he allowed anyone here to get away they could report their sighting of him to whatever faction they belonged to which would only add enemies to the gundam pilots list which was something he could do with and if he was being completely honest with himself he really didn't harbor any desire to spare any of them since they were knowingly trying to butcher a civilian out of nothing more than bloodlust and judging from what the surviving civilian said no one that was with them was even a soldier either, these pilots didn't deserve any form of mercy and Heero had no intention of giving them any.

Taking aim with his buster rifle, Heero fired off a beam which quickly caught up with and destroyed the retreating unit before turning his attention to the last remaining three.

One of the remaining pilots screamed in desperation whilst flying blindly ahead of their allies at Wing Zero and firing. With their previous hubris now gone it seemed all the pilots were acting on was pure survival instinct. This act however would earn them no pity from the perfect soldier however as his only response was to use his shoulder vulcans to destroy the incoming pilot before using his rifle to dispatch the second to last fighter and then following via closing in on the final enemy and impaling them with his shield.

With all the bloodthirsty pilots dead and their ship destroyed no one aside from whoever from whoever was inside the life pod would ever know he was here.

"Um I'm not sure who you are but thank you!" Came the voice of the civilian who sounded like someone who was female and around the same age as the gundam pilot himself now that he had time to register what they sounded like.

"You're welcome." The Gundam pilot replied curtly. "Do you know if there are any nearby ships we can go to?"

Silence was all Heero received for a few moments before a reply came. "Well the ship I came here on was destroyed by the earth forces you just defeated."

So that was the faction those pilots belonged to, judging from the bits of information Heero was able to gather from their talk over the radio he was able to piece together that Zaft and these earth forces were enemies. All in all it only strengthened the possibility that Heero may have actually crossed over into another world since all wars had stopped in his own thanks to humanity losing its will to fight, however that begged a new question, if this wasn't the after colony world then what world was it exactly?

The only lead for potential information Heero really had now was the civilian he had just rescued, but he was at a bit of a loss on how to go about inquiring about such a thing after all he couldn't just ask "what world is this?" Without coming off as…..odd to put it vaguely since any normal person would be confused by such a question. The only way they'd understand it is if they knew of where Heero had come from and even then there was the question of how he was going to make sure his intentions weren't misinterpreted. That was a bridge he'd have to cross when he came to it.

"Didn't you come here on a Zaft ship?" The civilian inquired.

"Not exactly." Heero answered, saying nothing more.

"Well di-aahh."

"What's wrong?" The gundam pilot asked.

"My pod is leaking oxygen!"

Heero's eyes widened considerably upon hearing this. There weren't many things to give the gundam pilot reason to become overcome with worry but this situation definitely counted as one, Heero didn't just fight off and destroy that earth force squadron just so the civilian inside the life pod could die regardless.

"Hold on."

Acting quickly Heero ran a scan on the destroyed colony's remains to see if there were any parts that might have still had air pockets in them otherwise he'd have no choice but to try taking the civilian out of the lifepod and directly into the cockpit of his mobile suit which ran a very high risk to their life.

Luckily Wing Zero's systems detected an air lock that by some chance still had working systems. It felt somewhat unrealistic for something like this to occur just as the gundam pilot needed it but he wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth especially when it meant he had the means to save the life of someone who shouldn't have to die.

"I found somewhere that I can safely extract you from your pod, try to conserve whatever oxygen you have left."

"Okay."

Without any further reply Heero quickly grabbed the life pod and headed towards where the airlock was detected and soon came upon on of the larger chunks of the destroyed colony where a docking door was located and ever more convenient was a switched which a mobile suit could grabbed to open the door which the Heero wasted no time in doing. 'I need to hurry before this girl dies.'

It felt like an eternity as the doors to the airlock grinded open, the moment there was enough room Heero entered with the life pod in hand before finding the inner switch and having the door stop the process of opening and begin closing. Once more it seemed like time dragged on forever as the two doors came closer together.

A part of heero was tempted to use wing Zero to grab the doors and pull them shut to speed up the process but he refrained from doing so since it would likely break the doors which in turn would lead to them not being able to seal properly which was something he really couldn't afford.

Finally after the doors were sealed shut the airlock filled itself with oxygen or at least a limited supply of oxygen but it was enough for Heero to get the civilian out of the life pod. The perfect soldier linked his system up with that of the life pod remotely and typed in the code for it to open whilst opening up the hatch of his cockpit and exiting his mobile suit.

Once the life pod had opened the first Heero was greeted with was that of a pink mechanical sphere which had an electric voice that chirp "haro, haro."

The sight caused Heero to raise an eyebrow ever so slightly. The mechanical sphere was not what Heero would have expected a person who had narrowly escaped death to take with them when they escaped from their ship. A part of the gundam pilot had to wonder if whoever this person was had their priorities correct, any logical person would have tried to bring something a bit more essential. Perhaps the sphere had a more personal value to the civilian in question? Whatever the case Heero's priorities were more aligned with the civilian's safety rather than their personal interest.

"Are you the one who saved us?" The voice Heero had previously spoken to over the radio said, which caused him to look in the direction of the pod to behold the sight of a girl who was around his own age.

She had long flowing pink hair with a golden hairpin and wore white shirt which had separated sleeves leaving the girl's shoulders bare along with a long purple skirt. Overall in terms of appearance no one could deny the girl in question was undoubtedly beautiful, so much so that even the gundam pilot couldn't help but momentarily take notice of it before swiftly regaining his focus.

"Yes." Heero replied.

"Thank you so much for saving me and Haro. I'm Lacus Clyne."

"Heero Yuy."

The girl now identified as Lacus shot a glance at Wing Zero. "Your mobile suit is certainly impressive. I never knew Zaft had built such a machine."

Heero chose not to reply to that assumption instead opting to move the conversation forward. "Let's hurry and get out of here, this airlock oxygen supply."

"Okay but may I ask where the ship you came here on is?"

The perfect soldier sighed seeing no way to get around this part of the conversation since the truth of the matter would become apparent in a very short timespan.

"Truth be told I actually only winded up out of here with my mobile suit alone."

"So you don't have a ship to go back to?"

"No, I actually ended up stranded out here by accident with no inkling as to where the nearest colony or resource satellite is nor any means to contact anyone I know due to …..complicated circumstances."

A part of the perfect soldier expected Lacus to despair at the information that she wasn't necessarily out of the woods yet but instead she maintained her smile. "I see, as unfortunate as that is I'm still grateful for what you have done for us. If we hold on to hope someone may come out here to rescue us."

"There's no guarantee."

"Maybe but sometimes holding on to hope can pay off, afterall you saved both of us when no one else came."

"At any rate let's hurry and board my mobile suit." With that Heero and Lacus floated towards Wing Zero's hatch before getting in the cockpit to leave the airlock.

Once outside Heero decided to further explore the debris belt which prompted Lacus to look on curiously. "Do you have a destination in mind?"

"Not exactly, I want to see if there are any resources we can scavenge, we might be stranded out here for sometime before anyone comes out here."

That was assuming anyone would. Heero destroyed the earth force ship to ensure they wouldn't be able to relay any information about his sudden appearance on the scene when he had initially rescued Lacus from them. It was highly unlikely anyone at whatever base the group came from even realized that they'd disappeared yet, actually it would be more accurate to say that there was no way they could have known since not much time has passed, and has for Zaft sending someone out to the debris belt, it was more plausible since they'd want to find out what happened to the missing civilians and if their were any survivors amongst them but it would any amount of time likely from days to weeks depending on where the search party came from which was all the more reason to search for any supplies the could be salvaged.

As far as a place to wait it out, Heero might have chosen the airlock he had previously used to transfer Lacus from her pod to his mobile suit but since it had a very limited amount of oxygen the place was unsuitable on the account of eventual suffocation.

Flying further through the debris belt Heero soon found out the place was much larger than he would have expected stretching out for miles. After almost an hour of drifting through the place Heero caught sight of something that absolutely no one could have anticipated when his secondary camera started picking up on numerous paper flowers floating through the air.

"I didn't expect to see this out here, maybe someone else is trying to pay their respects to the souls lost at Junius seven?" Lacus mused.

Heero could neither affirm nor deny that. It was a bit hard to believe someone else was out here paying their respects to whoever died out here since the ship Lacus was on was destroyed and as far as Heero knew she was the only survivor and even if he was wrong it was doubtful anyone left in the aftermath of the attack would still be concerned with carrying out a memorial when their very survival was on the line. At the same time however Heero really couldn't think of any other reason for the paper flowers to be floating around out here, their numbers suggested it was part of an event of some kind and the only kind that could possibly be taking place in a location that was essentially a makeshift graveyard was a memorial.

Whatever the case was, Heero needed to find who was performing it and board their ship less he and Lacus remain stranded for god knows how long luckily his systems detected an unknown ship giving him a good idea of where to start looking.

It didn't take much time for the gundam pilot to find those responsible, a good number of whom were gathered on a piece of debris in silence likely giving prayer to those who died.

Heero immediately came out into the open seeing no other approach available allowing everyone to catch sight of him while he switched to an open channel.

Upon noticing Wing Zero all those present became visibly shocked and frightened near the point of full blown panic. Not surprising considering they were just in the middle of performing a memorial service meaning they weren't out here expecting in type of battle though that just made the presence of their ship a bit confusing considering it was very clearly armed.

It was a make that Heero had never seen before but from what he could see it was most definitely a military ship. Whether it was Zaft or earth forces was unknown to heero or Lacus apparently. "I've never seen a ship quite like that one before. Is it a new Zaft vessel perhaps?"

"Possibly." Heero mused in response before beginning communications before the crew overreacted to his sudden appearance. "Attention unknown vessel this is Heero Yuy of the unit Wing Zero requestion to come aboard."

Upon hearing this everyone seemed to calm down to a certain extent, at least enough that they appeared to be communicating with each other before a voice replied over the radio.

"This is the Earth Alliance ship known as the Archangel, We read you and our captain has decided to let you onboard and would like to discuss the matter of your sudden arrival in person but be warned you will be dealt with if you turn out to be a threat to this ship."

Heero was a bit surprised that the crew was letting him onboard so easily, he was expecting them to press him for more information before they could trust him enough to let him board but to just let him on like that well to say the least he wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth given his dire circumstances along with Lacus's and he suspected that the captain would want information about his sudden appearance and intentions at the very least.

"Roger that, also be advised I have a civilian with me."

"...Understood we're opening the hatch now." One of the legs of the ship dubbed the Archangel opened up allowing the gundam pilot entrance into the ship.

Once inside Heero was greeted to what could probably be considered the absolute last thing he could have expected. Mounted against the wall on the other side was another mobile suit but that wasn't what caught the perfect soldier's attention. What didn't was its design. It was entirely grey in terms of colors but what stood out was that its head was humanoid with two eyes sensors along a third one on two of its head and below it was a four pronged V-fin along with a mouth plate with two distinct gaps in it complete with a cube like chin. All these features resembled a gundam more than a bit, it was rather accurate to say that the design was the same.

This only raised a big list of questions. If the Earth Alliance had a gundam of all things in their arsonal then why haven't they fielded mobile suits against Zaft, from the little bits of information Heero had gathered so far it was more or less a given that the two sides were at war so surely they would want to use the best weapons available, it was common sense when it came to war in this day and age of any world.

Whatever the reason for relying on fighters to go up against mobile suits was something Heero would have to find out later since he had to meet with the ship's captain to discuss future arrangements amongst other less comfortable things.

Checking the camera feed from the search eye Heero soon saw that a small number of armed soldiers were gathering just outside the cockpit likely to deal with Heero in the case he tried anything that they interpreted as hostile. The gundam pilot simply shrugged at the sight, while it wouldn't be wise to try anything since he would be outnumbered and outgunned considering all he had was a handgun he didn't plan on fighting anyone so long as they didn't get any ideas about his mobile suit or try to hurt Lacus Clyne.

After a few minutes of waiting three more officers showed up. One was a blonde man likely in his twenties, along with two woman

Powering down Wing Zero after setting its self detonation to ensure it wouldn't be tampered with or stolen, Heero opened the hatch allowing both him and Lacus to exit the cockpit.

Upon seeing the two teens exit the cockpit of Wing Zero everyone was more surprised than Heero would have expected, he figured they likely were expecting a fully grown adult pilot rather than a teenager but it didn't call for the silent gaping. "Is that the chairman of the Plants' daughter Lacus Clyne?"

One of the gunmen asked, prompting Heero to shift his position so he was in front of Lacus and ready to use force to protect her if need be. The girl may have been a stranger to the gundam pilot but regardless he wasn't to let the crew try anything with her simply because she was related to a political figure.

The woman with short brown hair came out of her stupor first and turned to address Heero. "I take it you're the pilot of this machine?"

"That's correct."

"I see. I am the acting captain of this vessel Murrue Ramius." The captain said before gesturing to the other two officors with her.

"And this is Mu La Flaga and Natarle Bagriuel. So what's your intention here?"

"I'm Heero Yuy and for now I simply want to obtain temporary lodgings for the time being for both myself and Lacus."

"And just why would you come to this ship of all places for that? Surely you must realize this is an Earth Alliance ship."

"The ship Lacus came here on was destroyed and I ended up stranded in this debris belt inadvertently besides I'm not associated with any military faction."

Everyone's eyes widened considerably for a few moments processing what they had just heard before the woman identified as Natarle spoke up. "That's impossible, aside from the G weapon we have on board and the other four which were stolen by the enemy, any mobile suits that have ever been manufactured were all by Zaft's hands unless you mean to tell us that Orb made another H weapon without our knowledge."

"As far as my mobile suit goes all you need to know is two things which are that it's been manufactured by private benefactors which I'll be keeping to myself."

"And the second thing?" Ramius asked.

"That I don't want anyone attempting to tamper with it or enter its cockpit, should anyone attempt to do either it will self-destruct."

Everyone became alarmed by this news before Ramius spoke up. "You remember that we informed you that you will be dealt with if you turned hostile right?"

"I do and I'm not intending to instigate any hostilities but just the same I didn't come here to provide the opportunity for my mobile suit to be sabotaged, studied or stolen and while were on the subject of what I don't intend to let happen I'll ask that you don't hurt Lacus, she might be from the same place as Zaft but she isn't a soldier."

Ramius sighed. "Very well, I give you my word no one will touch your mobile suit and in spite of her political background no one here intends to hurt Lacus Clyne."

Natarle looked to Ramius with an expression of disbelief. "You can't seriously accept what this boy is telling us, he's a mere civilian in possession of a mobile suit with the same design as the G weapons and on top of that he's refusing to disclose any information about it and threatening the ship."

"I'm aware of that but it can't be helped,mobile suit pilots tend to set their machines with self detonation devices to ensure that none of their machines fall into pur hands whenever they have exit them in the midst of a mission so it's only common sense for this boy to take such a measure, besides given our situation with the enemy it would be in our best interest to make this work in a favor however we can."

Ramius then turned her gaze to Lacus. "And when it comes to Lacus Clyne, while she may be a major figurehead and the daughter of the Plants' current chairman she's still a civilian so I have no intentions of dragging her into this war."

Heero scrutinized the captain not finding any trace of deceit in her expression but kept his guard up nonetheless.

"Now let's head to the office to discuss this further."

Without another word both Heero and Lacus followed the three highest ranking officers to their destination, once there Ramius and Mu sat on one side while the two teens sat on the opposite side across from the two officers whilst Bagriuel stood by the door.

"So Heero if we agree to let both of you stay here, both of your circumstances though they might differ a bit they will still complicate our situation in different ways." Ramius said inciting a slight nod from the pilot.

"I can guess how my presence in the situation creates complications, but Lacus is just a civilian."

"I'm aware but she's a well known figurehead in the plants as well as the chairmen's daughter so the higher ups in Alaska will take an interest in her."

Heero had a suspicion this was going to be the case since he found out about Lacus' political background but a small part of him at least hoped this wouldn't be the case, by bringing her to this ship he freed her from one danger only to expose her to another which was basically being used as a political hostage.

"In that case I intend to return her to Zaft the first chance that arises."

Natarle glared at the gundam pilot. "You can't possibly expect us to agree to something so preposterous especially given our situation. We're being pursued by Zaft."

"I'll be returning Lacus regardless of what anyone aboard this ship thinks and as for your situation I have an offer that can improve by a visible margin in exchange for our stay aboard this ship."

At this Ramius became hopeful especially since the entire Archangel's crew could use any improvement to their situation that they could get, to honestly there was really only one thing she was hoping to get out of this arrangement from the perfect soldier considering he possessed a mobile suit that resembled the Strike and other G weapons along with the fact he wasn't associated with Zaft now the question was would Heero offer it of his own accord or would Ramius have to shift to direction of the conversation and persuade the hope in question out of him. "And what would that be?"

"I'll fight alongside your crew as something of a mercenary of sorts, that being said I'll be doing so using my own judgment and that alone."

Mu raised an eyebrow."Meaning you don't intend on following any order from any of us am I right?"

Heero simply nodded, drawing a sigh from Ramius. While she was getting what she had hoped for it seemed like Heero was pushing this arrangement a bit too far in his own favor much to her chagrin however thanks to the crew's situation with the said crew only being a skeleton of its former self before the attack of Heliopolis, the lack of supplies in terms of...practically everything aside from room on the ship which is why the crew was forced to come to the debris belt and reluctantly loot the ruins of Junius seven, and the worst part was that Zaft was pursuing the Archangel and utilizing the other four G weapons which made getting the Strike to Alaska before it was either captured by the enemy or shot down that much more critical.

Still in spite of all that Murrue at least intended to make sure that this deal was fair for both sides. "Very well, but I expect you to fulfill your promise meaning that whenever we're in battle as long as you're able to you have to take part, while what you do while engaging the enemy is up to you the option of simply refusing to take part is out of the question, it's the least you can do since you getting practically everything you want out of this."

"Agreed." Heero replied.

"Alright now that we've settled our arrangement I'll have someone show you two to the sleeping quarters."

XXXXX

In the cafeteria everyone was in a state of confusion unsure of how to process the sudden appearance of the mobile suit that looked a lot like the Strike.

When it initially showed up everyone who saw almost entered a state of hysteria before whoever piloted it requested permission to come aboard.

While the request didn't dispel everyone's fear of the pilot's intentions at the very least they were relieved that the pilot didn't simply send everyone to the abyss right then and there.

That still left the big question of why the pilot had shown up at all weighing on everyone's mind and it was no different for the group of students that had escaped the destruction of Heliopolis and seen the Strike up close. "So does anyone here have any idea why this random guy decided to show up out of nowhere?" A teen by the name of Tolle Koenig inquired, earning a shrug from a boy with orange tinted glasses by the name of Sai Argyle.

"I don't think anyone really knows except the captain."

"Probably but still if it turns out the guy's not with Zaft then you think he might help us out?"

"Maybe."

A third teen with black hair known as Kuzzy Buskirk stared apprehensively at the food in front of him nervously. "I really hope he's not with Zaft, we already got enough to worry about with them chasing us already."

"I honestly don't think that's the case." Sai mused, drawing a look of uncertainty from Kuzzy.

"What makes you say that?"

"Well you gotta remember Zaft is dead set on trying to destroy this ship, back when that pilot initially showed up they had caught us completely off guard, we weren't even at level two battle stations."

"What are you getting at?" Tolle inquired.

"That if they wanted to destroy this ship and everyone on it then they had the perfect opportunity right then and there since they caught us completely unprepared."

"Now that I think about you're right, they could have taken us out back there before we even had the chance to try and fight back."

A pair of hands slammed down on the table drawing everyone's attention to a girl with red hair who was known as Flay Alster and daughter to the vice forgien minister George Alster. "Are you guys being serious right now, that pilot is a Coordinator, there's no way he could ever be a friend!"

Sai gave the red head a look of disbelief. "Flay we don't know that, the pilot hasn't even done anything to hurt anyone."

"That doesn't matter, he'll try to kill us sooner or later so he needs to be killed along with every single Coordinator alive."

A boy with brown hair and purple eyes felt as if his entire world was about to crumble apart upon hearing this and became visibly downcasted which didn't go unnoticed by Sai. "Kira she didn't mean what she said."

Kira didn't give a reply rather he simply picked up his tray and left the mess hall.

The only female aside from Flay known as Miriallia Haw shot her a scornful look. "That was really uncalled for Flay."

"But it's true, Coordinators are monsters that are nothing but an offense to nature and they need to be wiped out."

At this Tolle began growing upset with Flay. "You do remember that Kira's a Coordinator right?"

This time the only reply Flay gave was an uncomfortable silence now realizing that she hurt someone who Sai and the others considered a friend. "H-he'll get over it." She said before getting up and leaving to avoid being scolded any further when she knew that she wasn't in the wrong in any way, at least as far as she was concerned.

Miriallia sighed in exasperation. "I know she doesn't like Coordinators but she sounds like a member of Blue Cosmos."

Tolle placed his hands on the back of his head staring up at the ceiling. "From what I hear her dad is actually a pretty avid sympathiser of the group, I guess it really rubbed off on his daughter."

Sai could only sigh upon hearing this, as much as he may have wanted to defend his fiance she had made rather hard if not impossible by expressing genocidal beliefs to everyone and hurting Kira in the process, Sai figured the best he could likely hope for was to convince Flay to apologize later on down the road and undo any damage she may have inflicted before she began burning bridges with their friends.

XXXXX

Within the cockpit of his mobile suit Heero began connecting to the archives of the Archangel to pull up any history of the world he was able to while Lacus had simply remained in the crew quarters after he decided to return to the Archangel's hanger. What the perfect soldier found however was both something along the lines of what he expected and well outside the boundaries at the same time.

From what he found this world was one that was in its seventieth year of an age referred to as the "cosmic era" and that as he already more or less confirmed beforehand there was indeed a war going on between the two recently discovered factions of the Earth Alliance and an organization known as Zaft.

The latter of the two was apparently the military of a group of colonies known as the Plants.

When it came to the war itself it was initially started when the Earth Alliance put on a show of forces via nuking an agricultural colony killing a total of 243,721 civilians; the event was promptly named the bloody Valentine.

Considering that the destruction of the said colony was rather recent and that the ruins that Heero found had an airlock that still had oxygen he had a strong suspicion that the colony in the records and the one he previously found himself at were one in the same and the Memorial that the Archangel's crew was performing only strengthened that suspicion to where it was all but confirmed.

Another piece of information Heero found interesting was that the cosmic era's overall population was divided into two factions called Naturals and Coordinators. The former were basically normally human beings whereas the latter were genetically altered from birth to enhance them in every aspect putting them above Naturals in terms of what they could achieve.

Apparently many Naturals grew to resent Coordinators wanting to wipe them out down to the last child which likely is what motivated them to commit the bloody valentine.

In response to that event however the Plants implemented a device known as an neutron jammer which essentially stopped all nuclear reactions by emitting a special type of radio wave which gave them a vast range allowing Zaft to rid the earth of its nuclear capabilities via seeding the planet surface which resulted in a massive energy crises along which led to the death of hundreds of thousands of civilians on earth which only served to fan the fires of war that much more. Coincidentally and much to Heero's relief his mobile suit wasn't rendered inoperable even with the presence of the in jamers likely due to anti radio wave characteristics within the gundanium alloy which allowed it the block the effect of the N jammers and keep them from reaching Wing Zero's core.

In terms of the overall effects of both sides' actions however, nothing they had done so far did much to de-escalate the situation which only led to the start of the full scale war they were currently fighting. Apparently those within the Earth Alliance thought their side would win the war easily since they outnumbered Zaft almost ten to one but were proven wrong when Zaft introduced mobile suits which proved far more powerful than anything the Earth Alliance had in its arsonal. As a result the Earth Alliance had to outnumber Zaft five to one just to have a shot at victory in even the average skirmish; essentially the Earth had the edge in quantity but the Plants had the edge in quality though it seemed the latter was proving to be the more potent factor in the war.

To try and remedy the difference in battle strength the Earth Alliance sought the assistance of a neutral nation known as Orb which in term paved the way for five special mobile suits dubbed the G weapons to be developed on the colony of Heliopolis. Unfortunately for the earth forces Zaft became aware of this and launched an attack on the colony to steal the mobile suits and for the better part were successful capturing four of them which were codenamed the Duel, Buster, Blitz, and Ageist with the last one remaining in the earth forces' hands which was codenamed the Strike.

Shutting down the pc monitor in his cockpit Heero excited the cockpit whilst processing everything he had learned.

Apparently this really was a different world from his own, as hard as it may have been to come to grips with since it went against all common sense it was still the truth of the matter. That still begged the question why Zaft was trying to poke around in his world when it held the advantage in this war? Considering the Earth Alliance attempted to manufacture their own mobile suits it just went to show how far their backs were against the wall and Zaft's advantage only became more apparent when they stole most of the mobile suits in question save for the one still on the ship so there shouldn't shouldn't have ever been any reason for Zaft to turn their attention to Heero's own world.

Looking back on what was said between the intruders when the gundam pilot had first discovered them it sounded as if they simply wanted to add more to their arsenal and take their advantage in battle strength even further.

In order to put a stop to that Heero would need to find more about who specifically was behind the development of technology that gave Zaft the ability to crossover into his own world, so far the only name he had that held any major promise was Keegan but that was it. Whoever they were the most Heero could guess was that they were someone in a high political or militaristic position considering that they had the Zaft force the gundam pilot encountered working for them.

Still he had no more to go on than that alone. From what he saw in the archives he found out about the current chairman Siegel Clyne and that Lacus Clyne was indeed his daughter just like everyone said, interestingly enough he also discovered that Lacus was a famous songstress and a public speaker of sorts that advocated a swift end to the war and the return of peace throughout the Cosmic Era, it seemed there was much more to the pinkette than meets the eye though to her credit weather it was intentional of inadvertently she did a good job of hiding the fact with her almost carefree persona.

Now knowing this the gundam pilot deduced that in spite of the girl's harmless posture she wasn't to be underestimated considering the amount of influence she exerted in the Plants still in spite of the side of herself she wasn't showing to other Lacus seemed genuinely honest and a good person at heart, Heero didn't see any malicious intent and from the information he had gathered seemed to support that point. Still Heero couldn't say anything for sure since he hadn't even known Lacus for even an entire day.

Suddenly the alarms on the Archangel went off before a voice sounded over the intercom. "Attention all crew, we are going to level one battle stations. Strike, Mobius zero, and Wing Zero." Prepare to launch.

Heero simply shrugged upon hearing this. 'I guess Zaft is more eager to destroy this ship than I thought, all things considered it's not very surprising.' It only made sense. Zaft was after the Archangel because it was still in possession of the remaining mobile suit from Heliopolis likely to capture or destroy it if the need arose.

A lot hinged on the Strike, if it was successfully brought to Alaska then the Earth Alliance would be able to start a mass production line of a variant based off the Strike and level out playing field considerably and turn the tide in their favor, on the other hand if Zaft managed to shoot down or capture the Strike first the gap in battle strength would only widen possibly to the point that Zaft could do whatever it wanted unopposed.

As Heero booted up Wing Zero's main systems he established a link to the bridge and was met with the sight of a girl around his own age who looked taken aback upon seeing the gundam from her own monitor.

"I'm guessing you're the pilot of that new mobile suit?"

"That's correct, I'm ready to launch as soon as the hatch is opened."

"Okay but shouldn't you wear a normal suit first?"

"There's no time nor any real need. I've no intention of exiting my mobile suit at any point during the battle."

"Um okay, can I at least get your name?"

"Heero Yuy."

"Alright, I'm Miriallia Haw by the way, anyway could you please load your mobile suit onto the catapult.

"There's no need, my mobile suit has enough power in its thrusters to launch using its own power."

"If you say so, Kira and Mu La Flaga will follow soon after your own launch to assist you."

"Roger that."

The hatch began to open showing Heero the outside. "Heero Yuy, Wing Zero launching." With that the Gundam built with the concept of absolute victory in mind flew forward at speeds that surprised those on the bridge considering it was never loaded on the catapult.

Once Heero was outside his radar had detected three enemy units causing him to briefly question where the final one was before deciding to focus on the ones coming towards him.

'Time find out far the prowess of these enemy machines go.'

And that's the end of this chapter. I'm sorry for the long wait. I had writer's block for a time before I just decided to keep the scenes simple enough to move to the story forward.

Sorry that nothing really happened. This chapter was mainly focused on introducing Heero to Lacus as well as the Archangel's crew before starting his mission to hunt down anyone who might be involved with the appearance of a Zaft unit in his own world.

Next ch will have a lot more action and more detail into the point of views from various characters but for now I'm off to turn my focus to the next chapter of Unwavering heart.