Fan Fiction / Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Firefly Tides ❯ A Grain to My Sandbox ( Prologue )

Title: Firefly Tides

Author name: CherryStain

Author email: CherryStain@hotmail.com

Category: Drama/Angst

Rating: R (NC-17 in certain chapters-maybe (I haven't decided yet)-will be labeled)

Spoilers: SS/PS, CoS, PoA, GoF, FB, QTTA, Gundam Wing.

Summary: Harry, forever The-Boy-Who-Just-Wouldn't-Die meets familiar faces after thinking them dead for over Five-Hundred Years. Crossover with Gundam Wing. Will have slash, though won't be centered around it.

DISCLAIMER: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended. Gundam Wing is the property of… someone, and that's not me, so… the uses of these characters are in no way profitable to me.

A.N. this story idea came to me completely by surprise. I had been reading a story, and like most stories in the Potter universe, they'd called Harry the Boy who Lived. And Bam! Story idea. Um, I really took my time in this chapter, and I really enjoyed writing it. The real story will begin next chapter, this was sort of an- I dunno- interlude-prologue- whatever word you want- to the rest of the story. Don't worry, all will be explained (muahhahahaha!) *ahem* well, on with it! Go- read and review!

Oh yeah, and about the title. More than just random words thrown together! In Japan, I think, firefly's are supposed to represent immortality and death. The myth says something about a firefly coming back to life, sort of like a phoenix out of the ashes. I was going to call this story something like out of the ashes or A Phoenix Burning or something like that, but I kinda like the firefly idea better- dunno why, I guess I didn't want my story mixed up with the half a million order of Phoenix stories out there. Oh yeah, and the tides, you know, tides in, tides out, sort of like a cycle. Reminded me of something mentioned in this chapter, though I think it might not make complete sense. Oh well, I enjoyed writing it, so *sticks out tongue*

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Prologue- A grain to my Sandbox

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I am not an angel. I am not a god. I am certainly not anything to be worshiped or adored or feared (without a weapon at least) though my nickname and reputation may tell people otherwise.

I am nothing but a human being. Immortal, yes, but human none-the-less. Because I can cry and laugh and hurt and bleed and make mistakes I know that I am human. This is one truth I am sure of now, though I doubted it at first. I spent many years after learning of my… affliction, studying immortality. Scrap that- the theory of immortality. Stupid to think that I would find any information when humankind has been searching for centuries for information to something most people believed impossible.

I found it ironic that I should be immortal with no effort when others spend their lives (a grain of sand to my sand box) trying to be what I myself would willingly give up. I truly understand what a wise man once told me (someone who is gone and long forgotten by everybody save me) about death-"to the ordered-mind, death is but the next great adventure." Though I do not boast of being levelheaded in any way, I do believe I have far exceeded the point were life is a novelty.

Don't get me wrong, life is something I truly do cherish- though not my own. Life is only truly appreciated when it can be taken at any moment. It is why I fight when I could easily layback and let fate- or whatever guides this crazy world- deal with the world's problems. With such a short life span, shouldn't people have a chance to enjoy it? So I fight, as corny as it sounds, to save the world. To make it a better place. Blah blah, insert corny remark here _____.

I guess you could say I am a pawn (ok, well, more like just about half the pieces on the board) in the scheme of things. I have ended people's lives, and saved people's lives, though given the choice, I would not want to, for what gives me the right to take and give lives? But I will never be given the choice. Oh, don't get me wrong, I could choose not to help in any of the bloody wars, but what would be the justice in that?

Justice. Just a seven letter word, and no matter how much I make fun of a certain someone for there obsessive use of the word, I myself fight for it. Even if I am risking my-well, time and sanity because I'm not really risking my life- for bad people-evil people who hurt and pillage and desecrate- I know that there are good people out there also. Who deserve to walk the streets without the fear of being mugged/killed/raped hanging over their heads.

It has taken me years and years, but I have accepted-for the most part- my lot in life.

I sound like some sort of holier than thou bastard-which I most definitely am not. Like I've said, I am not an angel, or a god, or even all that great of a person (some say I'm rather obnoxious and I wouldn't disagree with them)- but I do what I must.

It all started, as most things do, when I was born. People say that God is all knowing. He has reasons for his actions, and that we mere mortals shall never know exactly why things happened in our life until everything is gone and done with, and your body is six feet under. Because I will never die, I may never find out why exactly I was born to live forever. It defies, to most peoples minds including mine, the cycle of things. Things begin. Things end. That is how everything is. Or should be. Everything is balanced, but myself. Hundreds of years of research to find even an inkling of why I am never to leave this life did nothing but give me one monster of a headache.

In my sixth year of school, I had learned my… well-- lets just call it my destiny, though I detest the word.

The details of what happened are not needed at this moment. Needless to say, it was painful, and I was not in too shaken a state for certain… reasons to really grasp the idea of what it truly meant to keep on going… and going… and going. Not until I outlived friends (or those who lived said incident in sixth year). And then children of friends. And grandchildren of friends. I don't know how many other ways I can say it; I don't know how to describe to you what it is like to be forever young. Like being frozen in time, watching others grow old all around you.

I distanced myself from humanity. Seeking comfort in books, in studying, I'd become a regular bookworm. Like a certain someone I once knew.

In the process of finding information on immortality, I learned everything I could. I'd gone through magic books first. Learned everything there was to learn.

And then never picked my wand up again. I know, I know, waste of time (though that wouldn't really matter in my case, would it?), but I didn't see any reason in using magic. I mean, why use a wand when you could do just fine with the body you had? I hid my wand away because I felt no need to bring it around. I mean, I know I could have used it to heal people, make things, change minds, but why prolong a person's life? Why tamper with fate? Who better to understand that a person's life-span should not be tampered with better than I? I did not want people to fear me, I didn't want to have power over anybody.

After reading so many philosophy books (for research on immortality eventual lead me to philosophy), I just didn't feel the need to use a wand. I would live forever, why take shortcuts with a wand? I mean, I believe magic truly is a gift from whomever up there in that wide expanse of heaven, but why abuse it when I certainly don't need it? I decided long ago to remain a muggle.

I went on to muggle technology next. Gleaned all the information that I could. Magic was great, yes, but computers, electricity, and later space shuttles and other far more advanced machinery really sent my mind awhirl. Magic came so *naturally. * I wanted, needed a challenge.

People in this present age think I was a natural at everything I did. The street rat has talent, they'd say. Pick up a gun; toss a dime in the air, shoot it clean through the center with my eyes closed - and with the appearance of a sixteen-year-old no less! Hotwire cars, fly space shuttles with ease, use the largest, most taxing of machinery in the world at the age of sixteen (by appearances at least) with no real training (which is probably one of the only things people perceived about me that was true. I really *hadn't* had any training but by that time, I was so familiar with machinery it wasn't too hard to figure out eventually). No one would have guessed how clumsy I had originally been, how many times I had accidentally blown machinery sky high with a faulty wire. But now, I no longer need to even see under the hood to use most technological apparatus. From a glance and the sound of an engine I know exactly what to find should I look at the engine. It's like learning a foreign language, once you learn the mechanics of it (pardon the pun); the rest of the language is easy.

Like I said before, I am a different person from who I had once been, though that is to be expected. People evolve over time, and God only knows I have enough of that. I was once shy, timid, unsure of myself, and somewhere deep inside, I still am, but like most people, I have changed- will continue to change. I have gained a certain amount of self-confidence, and I am definitely cockier than I had once been.

Like earlier, I will spare you the details of my past, of why I came out of my self-imposed exile. Like a light bulb, epiphany hit me (for which someday you may learn the true irony of that comment) and I realized that with all of the time I would have, I might as well make good use of it. It is why I no longer sit on the sidelines; I embrace the life of the people around me, though it pains me to do so, knowing it will not last long and I must move on to the next generation.

As a sort of bittersweet jibe, an inside joke only I am privy too, I have nicknamed myself after death. (Another part of my evolving personality: I have developed somewhat of a darker sense of humor than I had once had, not unlike another person I once knew.) Too live and watch others die around me while I myself remain frozen, watching death take its toll on others while I stay forever young; I cannot help but find a bit of a connection with the dark spectre of death and myself.

To those who draw on their last breath on the battlefield, I am recognized, with my maniacal laugh and dark hooded and oh so violet eyes, as Shinegami. I am Duo Maxwell, feared Gundam Pilot 02.

From a time long forgotten, I was once known as Harry Potter, the Boy-Who-Lived.

Oh how right they were to give me such a name.

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A.N. Wonder if you guessed that Anyways, review! Harry Potter Canon characters will be seen shortly so don't fret, the actual story will begin in the next chapter.

Oh yeah, um, I was wondering if someone could beta read for me, and also help me with Gundam Wing facts. I am horrible at keeping the story strait, and I'd like to at least try (though I might just scrap the Gundam Wing time line and make my own.)

So yeah, um, beta reader must know info on Gundam Wing, have good Grammar skills, and wont mind slash and other dark things.