Miss Noin glanced at the screen she was sitting in front of on the large preventer shuttle. “We're nearing the colony, Zechs.”

Milliardo glanced over from where he was working a few feet away. “Good. I only hope they'll be reasonable about holding armaments at this time. Self detonation is the best route, and they may not agree.”

Sally Po glanced sideways from the pilot seat. “Why even keep weapons when it's peace time?”

Without warning several alarms began to wail. Lady Une checked the scanners. “Heads up! They're here too!”

Sally frowned. “Who’s here?”

Lady Une shook her head sadly. “The Eternal Rose.”

“Not good! They must after the weapons!” Noin clenched her fists in a nervous manner.

“They've given us no explanation, and they aren't responding!”

“Sally, warn the R-3 immediately!”

Sally nodded and switched the frequency. “Attention residents of R-3! Your colony is in danger! Please evacuate the colony through your emergency shuttles!”

Noin bit her lip. “But what can the Eternal Rose hope to do? They don't have the firepower to destroy the R-3...”

“The Eternal Rose has only just come into existence. There's no way they could have built up enough power to go for a front line attack like this. I thought Duo Maxwell's division had taken care of the group!” Milliardo frowned. Duo had said that the rebellion organisers had been dealt with...

The four preventers glanced at the main screen at the sound of machinery starting up.

“They're deploying the mobile suits!” Noin could just see the beginnings of a poet hatch opening, and the gleam of metal behind them.

“How much do you want to bet it's their secret weapons?” Sally frowned again. More weapons, more fighting...

Lady Une took charge of the situation. “Bring them up on the screen. I want to see just what they're launching!”

Noin punched in a few commands to bring up the launch ports on the screen, which revealed the image of a green and black suit and a sapphire blue suit being launched. “Wait a minute, don't they look familiar to any of you?”

“Gundams...” Milliardo stood up to have a closer look at the screen.

“07 to 06, do you copy?” A young girl’s silhouette cast distorted shadows in the dimness of the sapphire suit’s cockpit.

“07 here. I copy. What is your location 06?” Another silhouette in a strange blue-green, dim light that indicated the suit’s system activation.

“Completed launch sequence and currently ready to launch weapons. Leave the preventers alone and attack the Eternal Rose. I'll contact C. and tell him to evacuate the colony!”

“Roger that. The preventers don't pose a threat. Over and out.”

The green and black suit turned toward the approaching space fortress, surrounded by twenty Aries, clearly that of a threat.

“Roger! Attention citizens of the R-3 colony. We have a situation here and just as a safety precaution, we ask that all citizens evacuate immediately. We don't know what this group is capable of and we're only playing it safe. Please proceed to the designated shuttles already prepared for launch.” Skilled fingers punched away rapidly at the complex keys inside the unidentified blue gundam. Without warning three claws on each of the gundam's fists shot out as it flew toward the battlefield at an amazing speed.

The sinister-looking space fortress began to open it’s own hatch. Two more suits departed from it and flew straight for the new gundams. On close examination the gundams appeared to be the Deathscythe hell and the Wing Zero gundams.

The pilot of the green suit shook her head. “No way... the other gundams self-detonated after the eve wars...”

The other pilot checked her recorded statistics of the old gundams. “Watch out 06! The Wing Zero has a beam cannon armed!”

The green suit rushed at the Deathscythe Hell. “You know what to do. it's powerful enough to destroy the colony. Therefore it's fair game for the Windance!”

“Don't worry! StarStorm can take care of Wing Zero, it can't fight close range!” The sapphire gundam sped at Wing Zero, taking a swipe with it’s long, gleaming claws. The opposing suit dodged the swipe and stuck out with it’s fist. The blue gundam was sent flying backward. Wing Zero then turned and powered up the beam cannon, firing it into the colony just as three shuttles escaped, unharmed.

A huge, fiery explosion flung pieces of debris out in every direction. The colony was instantly incinerated. One large piece of debris struck the preventer shuttle. Twisted metal from the ship ceiling came lose and pined the four preventers to the floor with a jolt.

“NO! THE COLONY!” The blue suit pilot had little time to become enraged as a giant piece of debris hit her gundam. Her head slammed into the side with a sickening thud, instantly knocking her out cold. She slumped back and released the controls. The gundam powered down and began to drift through the debris-strewn area.

Milliardo pushed himself off the floor, heaving away the metal and tiles that had knocked him to the ground. Glancing around, he noticed with a start that Noin wasn’t even struggling to free herself. “NOIN!”

Lady Une struggled out from under some wreckage. “Is she all right?”

The green suit pilot was quiet, shaking her head uncertainly in the dim emergency light. The debris had knocked her suit out of commission. “No... I... that just can't be... the entire colony...” In the darkness, the pale outline of a brilliant green-blue eye shone with unshed tears. She had to close her eyes to stop them from rolling down her face. The suit, which had been drifting freely, crashed into a twisted mass of debris from the colony. The pilot cried out, and was knocked unconscious by the force of the unexpected blow.

Sally Po had started the scanner back up. “We lost the gundams on the radar. They're no where to be seen.”

Lady Une checked Noin’s pulse. Milliardo had cleared the debris off of her, but she hadn’t moved. Lady Une frowned and shook her head.

“Please tell me she's alive...” Milliardo had trouble holding back his emotion.

Everything was strangely quiet directly after the explosion. The two gundams were drifting through space, being brought slowly toward earth by it’s fain gravitational pull as it passed. The Eternal Rose space fortress had disappeared without leaving so much as a damaged suit to tell of it’s presence.

Milliardo hugged Noin’s limp body gently. He couldn’t believe what had happened to such a kind person. There wasn’t even a war going on. Why did Noin have to die when it was his hands that were stained with blood?

Within a few days the people of earth witnessed two shooting stars fall to the earth, giving a spectacular show. However, no scientist could find the meteorites, and were forced to assume they had burned up in the earth’s atmosphere...

06, the green suit, entered the earths atmosphere and fell without much sound into the sea.

Heero walked by a store front with Relena following closely behind him. The store had a wall of televisions set up in the display window.

The announcer’s phrase caught Heero’s attention. “...And, as you can see from these pictures taken only last night, this mysterious object entered the atmosphere only last night. Authorities are still unsure what to make of it.

Relena glanced over Heero’s shoulder. “Hmm . . .is it a meteor?”

Heero narrowed his eyes. It looked exactly like the pictures of the gundams when they entered the atmosphere for operation meteor, only smaller. Perhaps it was travelling without a carrier. if that was the case, it would have burned up, or be so badly damaged it wouldn’t be functional anymore. Or maybe...

Relena glanced uncertainly at Heero as he stared intently at the screens. “I know that look, and it isn't good. It can't be a mobile suit ...can it?”

Heero tried to take on a casual look. He didn’t want to alarm Relena over nothing. Or was it nothing...? “Probably just a large meteor...”

“Heero, it’s more than that. I can tell. Tell me!”

Heero glanced at Relena. She could take the truth. She had grown up so mush since he had first met her on the beach... “Whatever it is, it's taken a beating. Through the atmosphere without a carrier. It's too small an object to have been inside one. And if it had been a meteor it would have burned up. Only a few substances can survive a fall like that...”

“So what if it's a suit?”

“Hn? It's nothing for you to worry about Relena...” He tried to shrug it off.

“It's plenty to worry about if it means you have to fight again! Do you realise how worried I would always be whenever you flew off to battle?!”

Heero’s eyes softened a little as he smiled at Relena. “Relena, you just worry about helping those colony citizens. They were hit in a terrorist attack, weren’t they?”

“You mean the R-3 citizens who escaped from the colony's destruction?”

“Yes.It's important that someone like you gives them some support. The preventers will take care of anything else.”

“Okay, but I still feel so sad for my brother ...after what happened up there.”

“It was Miss Noin who past away, wasn't it?” Even for Zechs, he had to feel sympathy. With the war being over most people grew closer to others and didn’t expect to lose them so suddenly...

“Yeah... they were struck by R-3 debris after something attacked the colony. Any way, I better go and meet the survivors at the airport. I hope none of them are in any kind of medical shock...” she turned and waved to Heero before running off to catch a Taxi.

Heero waved back before disappearing into the crowd, making his way to one of the earth bases for the preventers.

Quatre sat back in one of the chairs at the preventer base he was visiting. He took a sip of his tea. “So, what's all this about Eternal Rose?

Trowa glanced up from the paper he was scanning over. “They seem to be a new organization that just emerged from out of no where... lead by a male and a female, each covering different aspects of the group.”

Duo straightened in his chair. “And they're the ones who orders the destruction of the R-3 with- let me get this strait- the Deathscythe Hell custom and the Wing Zero custom?”

Wufei nodded. “That’s what the news is.” Duo crossed his arms. “Should have known peace was just too good to be true...”

Quatre set his tea cup down. “We have to do something about these terrorists. What if they rebuilt the other three custom gundams? And what is this about two mysterious mobile suits? We know one of them might be the fireball that came down from space yesterday...”

Trowa gazed into space. “It's just like operation meteor. The preventers issued that it was only a comet... to keep people calm...”

“But we know better.” Duo had become serious at the mention of operation meteor.

“What about the second suit? Could it have been destroyed in the fight?” Wufei mused.

“That's unlikely as the other one is likely to have partially survived it's descent to earth. The pilot is probably dead, though.” As usual, Trowa’s face didn’t betray any emotion.

Wufei nodded. “Should we try to find the suit reported on the news? It crashed in the Mediterranean sea.”

“Think that pilot is alive?” Duo sounded doubtful.

Quatre nodded. “We can organise a search party for the suit. The five of us former gundam pilots can go along.”

Far below the sunlit surface of the Mediterranean sea the green mobile suit was sprawled, unmoving. The pilot was still, showing no signs of life. Eventually one eyebrow twitched, then the bright azure-green eyes slowly opened. The pilot’s surroundings came gradually into focus. She was puzzled. She shouldn’t be alive. And her suit... she could feel stronger effects of gravity than she was used to.

“Where...?” She reached out and flipped on a few lights and screens, which flickered for a moment, then lit up, displaying the sea floor. “The ... sea?” Slowly realisation dawned on her. She hadn’t been to earth for a long time... “I've come in free-fall all the way to earth...” She fiddled with a few controls, the suit creaked, then stood up. The girl gave a half-smile. “Great. Let's see then... That mobile suit...” She hit a few more buttons and brought up a reference of gundams. She flipped through the slides, looking for the one she’d seen. “Wing Zero Custom... Former pilot Heero Yuy... Self-detonated a few months ago? Well... apparently not.” Her eyes narrowed as she stared at the indexed picture of the Wing Zero pilot. “Heero Yuy...”

The green suit suddenly shot out of the water and hovered on the surface, about fifty metres away from the preventer search party that had been scanning the ocean bottom for the fallen suit.

Lady Une stepped into the control room of the ship, where Sally Po was half asleep after her trip back from outer space. “Status report. Anything happening?” She stepped over to the front of the bridge and took a seat in a second chair next to Sally.

Sally glanced at the radar with one sleepy eye. “Noth-” She noticed over the switchboard the green suit in the distance “-ing?”

Lady Une stood up immediately. “That's one of the suits we saw back at the R-3!”

“Well, looks like it just found us!”

“Evasive action! Be prepared in case it tries anything!”

Sally came fully awake instantly, flipping switches until she found the right radio frequency. “This is preventer 1-0-1-5, requesting communication with 06, do you read?”

The girl in the green suit flipped a switch to cut off Sally's voice impatiently, then opened another frequency. “07, do you read? 07!” There was only static in response to the girl’s anxious voice.

Sally put down the headset she’d been using. “Darn it! They cut us off!”

The girl in the green suit frowned. “Looks like this fight is mine alone now...” She flipped the switch back to the preventer’s frequency. “You say preventer? Preventer 1-0-1-5? What do you want?”

Sally pulled the headset back on. “Please identify yourself.”

“This is Gundam 06. What is your business?”

“We want to know your reasons for possessing a mobile suit during peace times, especially when there was an order for all weapons to be destroyed!

The girl closed her eyes and smirked, amused that they believed they had control of situations such as the one she was in. “This suit was of no use until the R-3 was attacked. I mean no harm and I intend to return to space as soon as I have completed my business here.”

Lady Une pulled on a second headset. “And what is your business?”

“That's of no importance or concern to the preventers at this time. No civilians will be involved, I assure you.”

“We order you inform us this instant 06! And why do you call yourself 06?” Lady Une frowned.

“Simple. This is the sixth gundam, after all.”

“6th GUNDAM?!”

The girl leaned back in her seat,crossing her arms, seeming to taunt the preventers with a confident manner. “Can’t you handle the truth? This is a gundam. I’m sure you can tell by it’s basic appearance-” She flipped the frequency off again, her mouth set in a tight line, narrowed eyes barely visible in the dim glow of the cockpit. She had spotted Heero on the deck of the preventer ship. In a smooth movement her gundam disappeared under water. A moment later it had resurfaced next to the ship, and the cockpit door was opening like a gaping mouth.

Sally and Lady Une ran onto the deck next to Heero, just as the pilot leaped out of the opened hatch. In full light the three preventers could see she was very tall, at least five foot eight, with short blonde hair and gleaming blue-green eyes, unnaturally bright. She wore a blue and white space suit, pulled open a bit at the top to reveal a simple white shirt underneath. Her lips were set in a business-like straight line, not unlike Heero’s usual expression. She raised a gun and aimed for Heero’s head.

“Heero Yuy, I have reason to believe you're responsible for the destruction of the R-3 colony.”

Heero didn’t flinch at the perfectly lined up gun. It would go right through his head whenever the girl chose to fire. “What reason?”

“You're the pilot of the Wing Zero, correct?” The girl’s voice sounded cold and empty.

Heero kept his voice monotone, matching her tone. “Why? Who are you?”

“That's not your biggest concern at the moment, is it?” She snapped.

“And what do you plan to do?”

The girl spoke deliberately, without faltering. “Take you out before you take more lives!” Her grip tightened on the trigger. She always meant what she said.

Tsuzuku!

Author’s note: Tsuzuku is what the symbols at the bottom of the screen translate to at the end of every episode. It translates to “To Be Continued”

Laura (A.K.A. Faita) @: Cyber_eight@hotmail.com
Holly (A.K.A. Ceaira) @: Emerald_strife@hotmail.com Homepage
Episode 2:Fire In The Sky