The night was terribly cold, but Quatre didn't seem to mind it one bit. No, he had other things on his mind. It was the year After Colony 216, and he'd been pretty sure that they'd permanently put an end to the endless waltz of war, peace, and revolution in the opening of AC197. In fact, in a few months it would be the twentieth anniversary of the war's end, but now, there was a new threat to peace.

Quatre sighed. "I wonder if this cycle will ever end;" he said to himself. He couldn't help but to think of his father in this time of confusion.

"Quatre!" Mr. Winner shouted at his son. "I will not allow you to go to earth! I'm not losing you too!"

Quatre wondered what his father meant with the "too" at the end. Who else had his father lost? Quatre didn't seem to be able to figure it out. He wasn't going to let his father get in the way of what he thought was right. But in a few months that felt like an instant, his father had been murdered, and Quatre thought he'd never rid himself of the pain.

These days would possibly be much like that if someone didn't find the man/woman who'd been responsible for the Gemini Falls incident. The public had been told that it was nothing but a gas leak that caused the explosion, but the Ex-Gundam pilots knew the truth. That was why they, along with the rest of the ESIA (Earth Sphere Intelligence Agency) had made a plan. They'd confirmed trace amounts of Minovsky particles, which were, on rare occasion, left behind by mega-particle cannons. Which meant that they were dealing with something a lot worse than a gas leak. They'd also heard reports of an unidentified flying object with a demonic form. The thought reminded him of the OZMS-13 Gundam Epyon, the same suit piloted by Zechs in the colony war that had rightfully earned the nickname, "The Devil."

Though he doubted that the Epyon could still exist, this meant that the attack was staged by some sort of mobile suit. And if there was anything he'd learnt as a Gundam pilot/Preventer, it was that you should fight fire with fire. That's why ESIA had spent the last two weeks preparing for an attack by rebuilding the Dendrobium Stamen. The design process for a Gundam could take months, but by using an existing design, they could reduce the time by up to seventy per-cent. Even though terribly out-dated, the RX78-GP03S Gundam Stamen was perfect in every way for a search and destroy operation.

And that was why Quatre was here. The Gundam pilots, Zechs, and Noin, weren't being allowed to pilot this new Gundam for reasons that their superior, Admiral Hill, neglected to mention. And since Quatre had the best people skills, or so everyone thought, he was sent to find the new recruit. Quatre looked over the file he'd brought with him. Daniel Black, aged twenty-three. No criminal record, excellent physical abilities, exceptional skills, not to mention tough, Mr. Black was the perfect recruit. Quatre proceeded towards the address he'd been given, even though he didn't like the idea of walking through the streets of Toronto at this hour.

When he finally found the apartment building, he found to his dismay that Black wasn't home. He was halfway up the street again when he heard a scream, and started running. He found a woman being assaulted by a man with a knife, and was about to go into action when all of a sudden, another man appeared. This new man grabbed the assaulter, and punched him very hard. Quatre was pretty sure that he heard the mugger's nose break. The man grabbed the mugger by his collar, and started talking.

"What's the big idea, huh? Hurting people like that? Now do me a favor: if you ever see this woman again, run. Got it?" He dropped the man, picked up the woman's purse, and handed it to her. She just took it and ran.

Quatre approached the man and said, "Are you Daniel Black?" But before the man could answer, the mugger stood up and pulled his knife. This time however, it was Quatre who was first to act. He hit the mugger in the stomach, than again in the face. The mugger got up and started running. Today obviously wasn't his day.

"Yep," The man said. "All in a days work." Then, turning to Quatre, he said, "Yeah, I'm Daniel Black, but people call me Dante. You are?"

"Quatre Raberba Winner, I'm with the ESIA."

"Look, if this is about those cars, I had nothing to do with it. I might know who-"

Quatre cut him off. "I'm not here about that. I'm here to recruit you."

"Recruit me? Recruit me for what?" Dante demanded.

"You'll see. Just come with me." Dante didn't argue. He just followed Quatre up onto Yonge street and kept walking. Quatre turned to his follower and asked, "What cars?"

"Long story," Dante said. Quatre looked his follower over. He was a tall, well built man. He wore a dress shirt and jeans, and Quatre noticed a few tears in his clothes. From the encounter with the mugger? Probably. His face looked tired. He had green eyes, a goatee, and longish dark brown hair. He looked like a nice guy, but something didn't fit in. Quatre decided it was nothing, and kept walking.

They finally arrived at a club. Dante walked in, and Quatre guided him to a back room. It was a small lounge, and the walls almost completely blocked the sound of the music. Sitting in the lounge were two men. One looked Asian, with short black hair and glasses. the other had a more disturbing appearance to him. He had cold blue eyes, an unshaven face, and looked like he hadn't gotten any sleep lately. "In the back of the club?" Dante demanded. "You guys couldn't think up anything better?"

"Club's last place anyone would suspect," Quatre explained. "Dante Black, meet Preventers Heero Yuy and Wufei Chang."

The two men nodded as their names were mentioned. Heero stood up and shook Dante's hand. "Mr. Black, what you are about to hear a an international secret so significant, that if you turn us down, we'll be forced to place you in protective custody until its over." Dante gulped when he heard that, but didn't hesitate to take a seat. Heero continued. "Of course, you've heard of the Gemini Falls incident. What you may not have heard is that it wasn't an accident caused by a gas leak. In fact, I'm surprised the public even bought that this long. The old fortress was attacked, in what we believe to have been a test for something else." He frowned, then motioned to Wufei. Wufei pulled out a bag of red powder, and placed it onto the table.

"This is a dissolved form of residue left behind by Minovsky particles. The only thing that ever leaves these behind is a mega-particle cannon, and only by very, very powerful ones. We call this stuff "Angel Dust," since it was discovered after an attack by Wing Zero, which has a rather angelic appearance." Dante examined the stuff, than put it back down. "Next," Wufei continued, "We have this." He showed a photo to Dante of the night sky. Dante could barely make out a demonic-looking outline in the sky. It appeared to be holding what looked almost like a gun. A really big gun. "This is obviously a mobile suit," Wufei added.

"So, what do I have to do with all of this?" Dante asked impatiently.

"You have extraordinary physical capabilities, exceptional skills; neurology reports state that you have, apart from minor ADD, a very highly developed brain. God himself couldn't have designed a better mobile suit pilot," Quatre clarified for him.

"Mobile suit pilot?!" Dante repeated. "Why would you guys need a mobile suit pilot?"

"Because in all of our years, we've learned one thing: You have to fight fire with fire. This is what we're offering you." Heero handed him another photo after he finished.

"This looks like a repainted GP03S," Dante commented.

"Its the modified RX78-GP03S II Dendrobium Final. Design's perfect for this mission," Wufei stated. If you come with us, its all yours for the mission."

"When do I start?"

"About as soon as you can get packed and we can get to HQ in L.A."

Dante thought for a second. "Fine," he answered. "From T.O. to L.A.! What a weird night."

***

Dante ran as fast as he could, his brother barely keeping up. "We'll make it!" he shouted, but got no reply. He and his brother, Abdoul, just kept running. They finally got home, locked their door, and waited. "This is insane!" Dante shouted at Abdoul, but Abdoul just slumped over. "Abs?" Dante asked, holding up his brother. His body was full of bullet holes, blood dripping from each one. One sat right between his eyes, like a third eye socket. Dante started crying. He picked up his fallen brother, and carried him to the hospital. The whole way, he kept hearing voices.

You're responsible for this! You were supposed to protect him, no matter what, and now he's dead! You are a failure and a disgrace to the family name! Now, get out of my sight... I don't ever want to see you again! GOT IT?!

"Hey, Dante! Wake up, we're almost there."

Dante woke with a start, only to find Quatre staring at his pale face. "What's wrong? You look like you saw a ghost."

Dante shook his head. It was all just a dream? He was sure of that. He was sure that if he went home, he'd find Abs having dinner with their parents. Parents he'd lied to and told that he had to go away on business. He didn't even know why he accepted the job. The working conditions weren't exactly very good. He may not see his family again, but something deep down told him that he would live to see his parents.

Quatre went back to his seat between Heero and Wufei, and sighed. "Something's obviously wrong with Daniel, I just can't tell what," he explained.

Heero looked closely at Dante, and studied his expression. "His whole life's just changed completely. A day ago he was listening to music and going to clubs with friends. In a few weeks, he'll be a hero. I wish Hill would let us pilot the Final Gundam, then we wouldn't have to put him through this. We've seen it all first-hand, and he's only seen it on television."

The sun crept over the city of Los Angeles, bringing light to every leaf on every tree, and illuminating the windows on every sky-scraper. As this very light crept into Dante Black's room, he awoke slowly. He went to use the shower, then shave and prepare himself for his day. He pulled on a pair of blue jeans with a golf shirt. He'd been given instructions to meet at a given location, so he knew part of what was ahead. As he made his way downstairs from his hotel room, he passed a tall man in sunglasses he thought he recognized. He shook it off, and proceeded to the address he'd been given.

When he'd arrived, he discovered that it was a warehouse. When he went inside, he was surprised at the sight he saw. Shelves upon shelves full of weapons stood before him. Automatics, sniper's rifles, shot guns, explosives, combat knives, and many more. Wufei walked up to him accompanied by two other men. Dante immediately recognized one as the man with sun glasses he'd seen earlier. "Daniel Black, meet Zechs Merquise and Duo Maxwell."

Duo was tall, with short chestnut brown hair, and a goatee. His cheerful-looking cobalt blue eyes greatly contrasted with his all black suit. Shortly said, he looked like he'd just been to a funeral. Zechs Merquise was the one in sunglasses. He had shoulder length platinum blond hair, and sand blue eyes. Dante than remembered that he'd seen Zechs on the cover of one of his mother's old magazine. His hair was longer than, but he'd lost none of his striking appeal. He removed his sunglasses, and shook Dante's hand.

"If you'll follow us now, we can get to the more advanced weaponry," Zechs said as he guided Dante towards an elevator. Dante stared longingly at each and every weapon on the shelves, and had no idea what could be better than this.

As he entered the elevator, he finally asked Zechs something he'd been meaning to from the start. "Where did you get all of this?"

Zechs smiled and replied, "I recently found an encrypted message left behind by his excellency, Treize Khushrenada. It was in a book he'd given me over twenty-two years ago. It was instructions for when he died, if there wasn't any way out of the war but fighting it. It gave directions to two remote weapons caches we had no idea even existed. These are the weapons from the first cache, but when we'd reached the second, it was already empty. We believe that our enemy has already been there, because that's where Treize was keeping designs and prototypes of highly powerful weaponry."

"So these guys have OZ-designed weapons?!" Dante exclaimed as the elevator door opened. Dante let out a sigh. "No wonder you guys need some help."

The room they now entered was a massive hanger. They were on a catwalk in the center of it, leading up to the cockpit of the new Gundam. As Dante walked towards it, he noticed Heero working on something inside of the cockpit. Heero removed an older looking hard drive and replaced it with a new one, causing a eerie glow to emit from both the cockpit and the eyes of the Gundam. Heero stood, brushed of his hands, and walked towards Dante. "I forgot to tell you: you going to be using the Zero System for this mission. I know it's dangerous, but you souldn't have that much trouble controlling it."

"The Zero? You honestly expect me to master it like you?" Dante demanded.

"Your will has already proven to be stronger than mine was when I first used it. Just don't get deluded by it; keep in mind that your enemies are those who wish to destroy peace and those who wish to start another massacre. As long as you always keep that in mind, there shouldn't be any serious problem." Heero turned now to the Gundam. "I've loaded a strategic simulation into the system for you. While its on, the suit won't operate unless I authorize it to do so. That's where Oz made a mistake leading to my going crazy and nearly killing Quatre and I. Try it out."

Dante got into the cockpit and adjusted his seat. There were only the two arm controls in there, as aposed to regular cockpits, which also ha foot pedals. Before him there was a monitor and small dome-shaped thing, and around him was a small black sphere. He took the controls, and the dome, which happened to be the main interface, lit up and started beeping.

He heard a voice that seemed to speak in his mind say, "Now loading strategic simulation program." It sounded - strange. Neither male or female, and didn't even seem to have a voice.

Suddenly, Dante felt a presence. Enemies. Everywhere. He couldn't see them, but he knew they were there. Fifty Space Leos. Target indicator appeared on the sphere around him, and then started disappearing as he keyed the controls to do his bidding. Before long, there were only thirty... then twenty... ten... and finally, he destroyed the last one. What had only been three minutes felt like hours of painstaking work, but he kept going. He kept going because there were more enemies.

Heero kept a very close eye on Dante's neural activity and pulse. He was amazed at how normal Dante's pulse remained, and even more amazed at how high his neural kinetics were. He also kept some attention to the amount of enemies. He'd given Dante fifty suits to begin with, but when those had all been wiped out in only three minutes. So Heero added one hundred, two hundred, and finally four hundred suits. If this didn't work, nothing would. Heero's goal was to defeat Dante, just so he could see how much faith they could put in him. But when the four hundred suits were destroyed, Heero gave up.

Heero deactivated the system, and went to go get Dante out. Dante had already climbed out of the cockpit, but before he could say anything, he fainted in a heap. Heero rushed to help[ him. Having as much medical experience as any paramedic or surgeon, Heero lay Dante flat on his back and made sure all airways were open. He figured out that nothing was wrong with the fallen boy, and that he'd fainted simply from exhaustion. Heero picked him up, and carried him to the rec room. He lay Dante on a sofa and let him get his sleep.

As Heero went back to the hanger, Zechs and two crewmen approached him at a run. "What's going on?" Zechs demanded. "We saw Dante collapse on the security cams. Where is he now?"

"Getting some rest. He'll need it. We'll be needing some, too, if we plan o going any further."

***

Dante awoke with a start, not knowing where he was or what he was doing there. As he remembered the past two days, he looked around to see where he was. He was in a recreation room, the one he'd passed on his way to the hanger. As he got up, a man and woman who were playing table tennis turned to look.

"You're finally awake," The woman said. She was medium height, with dark brown hair tied in a ponytail, and matching brown eyes. She was medium height, and wore a Preventer uniform. She helped him up, and shook his hand. "I'm Ms. Raye, I'm one of the mechanics working on your Gundam."

"You know who I am?" Dante inquired.

"Yeah, I read your file," she explained, turning back to her game. "It was quite interesting," she stated right before serving up a ball. The man she was playing with was tall, with short blonde hair, pale blue eyes, and and another Preventer uniform.

Dante got up, stretched, and walked towards the table. "Andrew," he started, having read the man's nametag, You're losing badly."

"Yeah, I can see that," Andrew replied through gritted teeth.

"Look," Dante said, "you're being far to defensive, and you're limiting yourself. Offense is the best defense; Try to beat her, as opposed to trying not to lose."

Andrew forfeited and turned to Dante. "That's almost Exactly what Mr. Chang said. It didn't work then, it won't work now." He stormed out of the room, slouching as he went.

Dante sighed, and left himself. before he was out the door, he turned back to Ms. Raye, and asked, "What's your name again?"

"Raye. Elektra Raye."

"Well, see ya later," Dante said as he left the room. When he got back up to the main floor, he ran into Heero, who already knew he was awake. Heero stopped him, and handed him a folder.

"This is intelligence we received while you were snoring. Get ready, because tomorrow, you're going on your first mission."

In the next part of Final Gundam, "Betrayal," Dante Starts his job as a Gundam pilot. But when the Preventer warehouse comes under attack, he risks himself to save Elektra, and learns something he'll wish he never knew.