Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Chapter Zero ❯ The circle of history ( Chapter 1 )

* Standard disclaimers: About Gundam Wing I own the fantasies it created inside me. I don't get any profit from this, only the pleasure to share my dreams with friends; so don't lay the blame on me if I took the liberty of playing with characters that don't belong to me.

* Author introduction: Good day to everybody that is reading now (or good night...I don't know, what time is it for you now?) and just to begin...THANK YOU for being here. If you aren't already bored to death, let me play safe about what follows.

This is the first time I've written something of mine, that I wasn't ordered to do by those almighty mysterious creatures we common mortals call teachers. So this isn't just the first fan fiction I dare to put on paper, but it is the first mission in absolute that sees on the battlefield me and my PC as a typewriter.

And this isn't the only doubt I've about this. Well, English isn't my language. I'm Italian, and I was born and grew up in Italy, so...I don't know what came up with this attempt I made. You should say this to me. (Hey, don't make that face...I know it's a dirty work, but somebody has to do it, hasn't he? ^_~).

Ok, so I don't throw you in the middle of the ocean without a life vest, I tell you in advance that, as the title suggests, I'll talk about the Chapter Zero of the anime, and I'll show you the point of view from an old acquaintance ("old" in name and in deed) some sides of the prelude to the adventures of our heroes.

OK...I blabbered enough...If I roused your curiosity, here is the work of my warped mind, if not...*shrugs*...never mind, I tried.

Warm greetings to you all! ^___^

Dedicated to my dear evil buddy #1, Estrange, for her wonderful beta-reading work. She's to shy to admit that she's a jedi, but I'm pretty sure she can read my mind. I swear I've proof! She could understand my weird speech even if I didn't know what I was saying!

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Chapter Zero

By Darkwing

First part: The circle of history

Earth. A perfect, silent and magnificent azure-green jewel, hanging on a living black velvet carpet embroidered with stars.

This was its appearance, seen from space, for those that lived there. But it was less than two centuries ago that men could freely look at the world that gave birth to their species from such a privileged point of view. Before the construction of the space colonies, only few explorers and brave pioneers had boasted such a perspective. And it had been thanks to their spirit of sacrifice, and to their determination, that now millions of people could live a normal life inside those technological wonders that were the orbiting towns.

The steady challenge that took up the colonies inhabitants in the exhausting struggles against the power nature had harshly hardened the space people. In their ranks were born extraordinary men and women that were able to build a society starting from nothing. Yet the courage and the devotion of the space people weren't enough to protect the orbiting isles from the sad day the ruthless circle of history had clenched them in an inflexible grip.

An elderly man with long white hair, whose body once strong was now bended by age and by a large number of surgical operations, sighed and rested a robotic hand against the thick glass of the panoramic hall. It as if with that simple act he could have been able to touch the planet from which the entire joys and sorrows of the space people were coming from.

'From here it doesn't seem that dangerous...' He bitterly thought.

He turned towards the promenade, the computerized glasses that had replaced his eyes years ago focusing sharply as he did so. His still sharp and rational mind made a rough estimate and evaluated that about the twenty percent of the L1 inhabitants were wearing a military uniform. They all were federal soldiers sent by the terrestrial government to watch the colonist's movements. A sardonic smile withered his wrinkled skin under the immaculate moustaches, as he thought that reality had a very morbid sense of humor.

Centuries before, that point hanging in the middle of nowhere had been located by the outstanding mathematician from which L1 inherited the name. It was defined to be a point of balance between the gravitational forces binding the earth to the sun, to the moon and to the other celestial bodies belonging to the solar system. It was an oasis of peace that the laws of physics had silently presented to the mankind, allowing them to make that place a fulcrum for huge projects. But the unworthy sons of the earth violated that gift of nature by bringing there instruments of death and destruction and so, a peaceful place, where every force concurred towards quietness, had become the stage that would have seen to be born the most dreadful conflict of the human history.

With a bitter sigh the old colonist thought that scientific discoveries and technological innovations had changed men's life, but they had kept untouched their inner essence.

'History keeps on being inexorable and to repeat its course every time similar to itself since the most ancient mists of time,' he reflected. 'A nation becomes strong, powerful and populous, and it can invest its resources exploring new territories and founding new colonies and satellite states...But when these became economically prosperous and they begin to rival with the mother country...mankind is able to travel only along the same path.

The phantom of war comes back to seduce men's souls, and those that fear it and oppose to the conflict are reduced to silence; otherwise they lose hope and start to believe that war is the only option left. Hate, prejudice and deceptions, skillfully orchestrated by the mass media in the hands of few powerful men, contribute to dig the deep fractures needed to divide the nations. Fear and a natural survival instinct justify the destruction and the sorrows that follow behind a faded flag of justice. In this way the fight and the blood are surrounded with a holy aura that only the men that are blind and deaf to their heart's cry can't see and don't' want to crush.

I'm one of those men.' He admitted, at least to himself.

But in the year 180 A.C. armies didn't fight anymore like the wars Athens fought against Sparta, nor like the Independence war the American colonies fought to free themselves from the English domain. No, if human beings had evolved to the point of being able to build wonderful works of intellect to dominate nature, scientists and engineers, born during the new age, didn't forget to also develop sophisticated instruments of death a thousand times more terrible and deadly than the ancient ones.

An impulse of rage ran through the old man's limbs as he remembered the first invasion he witnessed and lived through, against his will, fifteen years before. He had been a protagonist in that sad event since the beginning.

He was there during the meeting when the pacifist leader, Heero Yuy, was killed. The charismatic pacifist leader had joined the space colonies and promoted the independence process from the Terrestrial Federation. The sniper that had assassinated the popular diplomat had escaped the arrest, but rumors said that behind the attack there was an organization, internal to the Federation, named OZ.

The Organization of Zodiac was a political lobby that, with the help of time and a solid economical support from few wealthy families, had skillfully increased its power on the whole earth and, despite that it didn't act for any particular nation, had been able to insert its members on every level of the political and military hierarchical ladder.

The OZ soldiers had become the elite army corps inside the Federal military forces and it had been they that had invaded the colonies after the attack against Yuy's life, finding it a plausible excuse they need to grant order and safety to the space's citizens.

Those that didn't agree and had struggled against those that were considered invaders had been savagely slain amidst the town's streets. The cruel massacre of the colonists, that fought in vain against an enormously stronger and organized enemy, had been justified by the terrestrial authorities as a sad but necessary mean to extirpate forever the rebel fringes of terrorists that intended to destroy the 'fruitful' unification process between earth and space. Now lacking in an effective political leader, and without any possibility of resistance, colonies had been tamed, their alliance dissolved and they were subdued again to the earth with an iron martial law.

The elderly man shook his head. After fifteen years L1 was still in a state of siege and even if blood no longer stained the town's streets, deep scars were still all along the colony structure, and many blocks had never been reconstructed.

If he still had had his eyes, he'd have closed them to forget, even if only for a moment, the reality that surrounded him. But he couldn't. His body, like the colony's one, was marked with the brand of war, and he couldn't forget the past.

After all that time he still had nightmares about that day in which a Leo had irrupted inside the research institute he worked for as an engineer. A lonely man, at the command of that lethal anthropomorphic armored machine, very common amongst the Federal space infantry, destroyed the whole structure. He was too near to the explosion of a fuel tank and so he had lost an arm, the use of a leg and his eyes. But he had survived, thankfully to some colleagues that, escaped form the attack, that could help him. It was that day he made a vow. He'd have had his revenge.

He was just an old scientist, not a man of action, but this wasn't a good reason to underestimate him. Secretly, together with a few colleagues, he had worked for fifteen years on a project that'd given to the colonies a possibility for their liberation, and each of them had designed a weapon the human mind had never conceived before.

It had been hard to keep it secret and obtain the materials needed for the construction, but at last he had succeeded. He had built the most powerful and versatile mobile suit that had ever existed - the Gundam XXXG-01W Wing - and he had personally trained the pilot that would lead it on mission to earth. He was just a boy, but thanks to his work he had become a perfect warrior and an efficient destructive machine.

In that moment his wrist-comlink rang and a young man appeared on the small liquid crystal screen. "We are ready, doctor J."

The old engineer recognized the detached and professional tone belonging to his pilot even before seeing him, and nodded to give him an answer. Satisfied, he observed the impassive face of the boy, and his dark blue eyes, sharp and resolute, half hidden under the brown ruffled locks falling on his forehead.

The scientist allowed himself a small smile, well knowing that his thick white moustaches would have concealed it.

When he had identified that boy, he was only a child, but he already had that sparkthat was burning in his gaze even in that moment; he had been a talented and clever pupil, and with the rigorous training he subjected him to, he had increased his physical strength out of all proportion, his reflexes and, most of all, his emotional control. Now nothing could distract him from the mission he had trusted him with. Nothing but death.

"I'm on the way." He answered curtly.

Immediately the device became blank and doctor J paced towards his laboratory at the maximum speed allowed by his mechanical prosthesis. He sighed. At last the moment he had waited for so long was coming.

He frowned thoughtfully. 'Who knows if on the other colonies the guys are ready...?'

For the first time in fifteen years he felt the bite of anxiety tightening his stomach, but he quickly banished again the unpleasant feeling. This wasn't the moment for being sentimental...this was the moment for action.

TBC...(?)

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AN: WOW, if you read it until the end you deserve a medal!!

I have no clue if this is disgusting or worthy of a bit of consideration. Until now I showed it just the Italian version to a few friends, and I translated it because I need to know the opinion of my web-friends.

Please, don't be afraid to tell me the truth. I need to listen to the advices you can give me. I believe I made a lot of grammar and typo mistakes, so please don't think I take any offense if you show them to me. You make me a pleasure, indeed.

*Bows in front of all the real fan fiction authors* Let me know, ok? And...*Crosses fingers behind her back*...I swear I won't bite anyone! ^__~