Author's Note: This is an Alternate Reality fanfiction. Some (actually most) of the information in this fanfic contradicts the actual end of the Gundam Wing television series. My apologies to anyone who I offend through Wufei's death, Treize's life, or Dr. J's presence (though you probably shouldn't read this if he offends you, because he comes in a lot later. Also, places on earth where violence occurs in this fic have nothing to do with those actual places in real life. In this story Endless Waltz never occurs (kind of impossible with Wufei gone). There was one more thing... Oh yeah, thought sequences are in italics.
Spoiler: For those of you who don't have total unwavering confidence in Heero's immortality, no he's not dead... yet.
<CENTER>**Substitutions**</CENTER>
Chapter 1-
The new leader of the Sank Kingdom stood on the bridge of the base the Gundam pilots and their machines had been using for the last few months, Peacemillion. Relena watched the falling piece of Libra with growing concern. If that thing hit the Earth, how much damage would it do (it didn't help that it was heading straight for her home)? When she heard that Heero and her brother were in there, she only worried more. She was to the point of nail biting -a habit she a cured herself of years ago- when Sally Poe told her that Quatre had given Heero his Beam Rifle. She could have rejoiced right then, but seeing the number of people around, decided to do it in her head. She hadn't noticed at all the shaky tone in Sally's normally calm voice, but someone else who had had rushed over to comfort her.
She began to worry a little when Wing Zero started to fall backwards through the atmosphere, followed closely by the piece of Libra. She had no real reason to fret. From where she was she could barely make out the outline of Heero's Gundam as it flew, never mind see the position of the Beam Rifle it carried. Heero on the other hand...
Heero looked over his shoulder at the large block of the Libra Battle Station behind him. Turning around, he brought his weapon to bear on his target and tried to get a secure lock before firing. At the speed he was traveling he wouldn't have many chances, so he couldn't afford to miss. His system refused to lock on. It's probably the speed we're going at. That would mess up any system. He turned around again tried to get further in front of his target.
The Gundam pilot realized his mistake a moment too late. Turning a final time, he saw there was no chance he could shoot it down with the Rifle, and quickly discarded the weapon. This is my last shot, thought Heero. I'm ready for this. I've been ready for this.
"This is for you Relena!" he yelled into the empty cockpit of his Gundam as he pressed the self-destruct button. This was followed by large explosion, and to his ears a crash that couldn't be heard though the vacuum of space but would have nearly deafened any pilot that could survive the ordeal of his Gundam breaking apart, sending the separate pieces shooting outward through space. A series of somewhat smaller blasts occurred on Libra as the battlestation suffered explosions of its own. In the end though, his sacrifice made little difference as it only hindered Libra's progress and altered its trajectory. It was no longer headed for northern Europe. Instead it was headed for northeastern Asia, at only half it's original speed. But it was accelerating as fell towards Earth.
On the Bridge of Peacemillion Relena Peacecraft, Sally Poe, Lucreizia Noin, Howard and Hilde watched the occurrence. All at once they sighed, though Relena and Lt. Noin would have proffered to scream by this time. Heero, Zechs and Wufei were most likely dead. If they hadn't seen the two pilot's abilities to survive under the worst odds they would even have thought they were dead, but having no evidence to the contrary couldn't be sure they were alive.
"At least the war is over," Hilde heard the princess say under her breath. Although she wouldn't have said it out loud, she felt the same way. Only to her this was only a battle. If this were a true war, it wouldn't be over until all organizations opposing peace were completely wiped out.
At least Duo is still alive, she thought to herself. That's selfish Hilde, she told herself. You're not a selfish person. Relena, Sally and Noin are mourning and you're just glad Duo didn't die. Hold on there! Hilde told herself, who was Relena crying over?
Looking up again, she saw who. She saw very clearly. Then she saw something else: the piece of Libra. It was still falling towards Earth. "Oh no," she whispered quietly. "Oh God no!" she yelled and in the corner of her vision saw people look toward her, trace her line of sight, and stop, horrified.
Everyone there watched helplessly as it fell towards Earth and watched helplessly as it crashed, then in one pain-stricken voice they all yelled, "NOOOOO!"
To Sally it felt like the scream that had been hidden in her all this time had finally sprung out. Without thinking, she joined in the call. The large chunk of the Libra Battle Station had just dropped through the atmosphere and she could see that most of the Asian continent was doomed. It would be useless to warn them now, just as it would have been useless to warn the continent of Europe before. Thousands of people would die all because Heero couldn't do anything to stop it. That's not right, she knew. It's not Heero's fault; he really tried. Even as she thought it, she knew few others would see it that way.
But there's nothing I can do about them. They don't know Heero. They don't know how much he tried. They don't know what he gave to save people he never even met, now people he would never get a chance to meet. If this war is over, they'll probably start a new one just because of this. And there's nothing I can do about it.
Just like there was nothing I could do about Wufei. I couldn't stop him, even if I had wanted to, and I couldn't help him. And it was as Sally came to that realization that she finally allowed herself to break down and cry.
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A month later, Relena sat in her office thinking about Heero, Milliardo and Wufei, though the first two more than the last. It had taken her a long time to come to terms with what had happened. Sally and Noin helped her through it, but even the other Gundam pilots seemed distant from her. They blamed her, in a way, for what had happened to their friends, just as she had blamed herself. There was nothing I could do to stop this, was her only consolation.
She heard a knock on her door and was about to get up and answer whoever was there, when they decided to let themselves in. Her visitor was an old man who she remembered from when this was had first started, for her, at least, it had started that day. The day her father died.
She was surprised, to say the least, but she didn't show it. Despite the fact that the scientist who created the Gundams had taken all the pilots when they were young children and trained them to be soldiers, she still held the utmost respect for them.
"Would you care to have a seat?" she asked him, though only because it was proper. He declined, seeming to prefer standing. They watched each other for a minute which seemed to pass like an hour as the small clock on her desk ticked away the time. Neither one spoke for awhile, her thinking about why he was here, and he trying to find a way to explain the reason for his visit.
"I heard about the attacks," said Doctor J. It somehow seemed inadequate with everything she was going through. All of the people who blamed her, not for the death of a Gundam pilot, but for that pilot's inability to keep them safe from harm. Still she gave him a tired smile.
"Who hasn't?" she asked truthfully. "I wish I could do something about it," she the man in front of her, though she hadn't confessed this to anyone else. You can, he thought.
He seemed to understand. "I don't see why they would blame you for what happened," he told her. She told him quickly that they knew about Heero and also knew she had associated with him in the past. Some of them thought she had ordered him not to stop the falling Libra from hitting Earth. "Why would anyone think that?" he asked, although he knew why. She had no idea. "There is something you can do about it," he told her after she didn't answer.
"There is?" she asked, managing to sound both curious a desperate. Relena didn't know what he was talking about. She had tried everything she could to talk them into not fighting, but nothing had worked, and she was almost ready to give up. She looked up at him, keeping her head slightly lowered to hide the tears that were building up below her closed lids.
"I know you were a Pacifist, but you have to fight sometime. Now would be a good time to start. We could teach you everything you need to know and more. You could help us in return by protecting the colonies." He looked at her and saw true horror in her eyes.
"I can't!" she yelled at him. "I won't! Never!"
He looked surprised. Relena had never yelled at him before. As far as he knew, she had never yelled at anyone. "I'm a Pacifist!"
Doctor J. left the room. Relena fell back into her chair and thought about his offer as the tears started coming freely, in small rivulets down her face.
~End Chapter 1~
Author's Note: I posted this in honor of my birthday, March 4, and I know it's a little late (by about an hour), but I haven't posted here since the change and I wanted to post something now that I'm out of boarding school for three weeks. (yay! break!)
I'm going to put the next chapter out soon regardless, but I want some positive feedback as chapters 3-5 of this were accidentally deleted, and I need to know whether I should go to the effort of rewriting them.
And for the record, I do not hate Wufei. I find him a jerk some of the time, but that's just his character. I cut him out of this story not because I don't like him, but because his death was necessary for the sake of the plot I've had in my head for a couple days, and left sitting on my computer for a couple years. If you didn't read my note at the beginning and seemed totally lost, or didn't get that Wufei was dead I guess that's your fault for not reading the note
