By Silent Moon Sphinx

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Chapter 1: The Light

"What a gorgeous day," the young blonde woman exclaimed as she climbed over a stack of papers in the spacious office and moved past a hunched figure, who was working busily. Giving his broad shoulders a playful squeeze as she passed, she pulled open the elegant drapes, and, stepping on her tip toes, opened the grand window behind the desk, causing a rush of sunlight to bathe the room in a cheerful glow.

The man at the desk squinted in surprise and sighed at his paper work. Twirling his chair around, he wrapped his arms around the smaller woman, who was still adjusting the windows, causing her to fall gently in his lap with a squeal.

"You know I'm a creature of the night, my love," the man told his long time girlfriend as he gave her a peck on the cheek.

"A little sunlight never hurt anyone, Dave," Relena gently cooed and returned his kiss.

"How can you be so awake at seven in the morning? I know you were up late doing paperwork of your own."

"I'm just a morning person, I guess," the girl replied thoughtfully, gazing into his storm-gray eyes, and was about to peck his other cheek when a ringing noise disturbed the couple's quiet moment.

"Sorry, love," Dave said to Relena as she reluctantly slipped off the chair so that her boyfriend could take the call alone.

"Will you be joining me for breakfast? It's strawberry pancakes," she said brightly.

"Of course, dear, of course, I'll be down in a minute."

She smiled, satisfied, as Dave picked up the phone, his face going into "Business Mode" while she headed for the door.

Relena closed the door slowly behind her, but not fast enough to hear her beau whisper harshly into the phone, "I told you never to call me here." The door clicked shut after that, preventing any further eavesdropping opportunities. She stopped short in confusion, her smile now gone, but quickly decided it was none of her business and so continued down the hall towards the wonderful smell of baking pancakes.

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"Ms. Une," the Secretary of Defense addressed the head of the Preventers rather coldly, "after going through this year's budget, I had a few questions I would like to address."

Lady Une looked at the pleasantly plump, to say the least, man in front of her. Secretary Grislow was just one of the many pains in her behind ever since the formation of the Preventer organization. The pompous politician never liked the fact that the Preventers were doing a better job than his own defense forces. In fact, his budget was being cut as more money was granted to the Preventers and their fine work at keeping World Peace. Save a few minor problems, there had not been one war in the seven years since the Mariemeia incident, thanks to Lady Une and her crew, and she was damn proud.

But she still had to put up with Grislow. An oldie but goodie, no one was going to fire him anytime soon, and he was still the figurehead in charge of overlooking all defense organizations of the government, including the Preventers, although they secretly were granted much more power by the President himself than the Secretary would ever know.

"What is it now, Secretary Grislow?" Une questioned in her most pleasant-sounding voice.

"I know it says here that those four other Gundam pilots, besides your very own Agent Chang, are still on special detail and working for the Preventers part-time, and so deserve a reasonable paycheck…" Grislow began. He paused for a dramatic effect before continuing, stroking the ends of his graying beard. "…but what do I hear about a 'special agent' being given a hefty sum for his work? A Gundam pilot 'special agent', in fact. I never was consulted about this--"

Lady Une interrupted. "Yes, we do have a former Gundam pilot in a very classified position and I myself cannot release any information about his employment in the Preventers or his confidential assignments."

The Defense Secretary was growing irritated from being so obviously out of the loop, especially in front of his subordinates. The expression of frustration was evident on the twisted features of his face.

"Don't give me that bullshit, Ms. Une. Why are we wasting precious tax-payer dollars to support an ex-soldier?"

"Why, you ask? Why?" she countered angrily. "I'll tell you why. He's the best of the best. He makes his own rules and there's no way I'm going to stop him. I just thank God every day he's on our side because I would never, ever want to have him as our enemy. And believe me, I know from experience. Therefore, I would suggest keeping him on our payroll so we can at least keep track of him, because I would hate for a man of such power to suddenly disappear," Lady Une glared at Grislow.

The Secretary just sat back in his chair, silently surprised for the moment. Lady Une took the opportunity to escape. Almost jumping from her seat, she addressed the other minor officers in the room.

"Thank you for your time. This meeting is over," she declared. As she turned to leave, everyone followed, leaving Grislow still stunned in his seat.

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The blonde man picked up his cup of coffee, which had now gone cold. He sipped it bitterly and would have preferred a soothing herbal tea much better, but he needed the caffeine jolt offered by the deep black liquid to wake him. The artificial sun had just risen, its metallic glimmer spread over the colony of L4, timidly peeking into Quatre's office window.

Rubbing his temples, the young man forced his eyes open and gazed perplexed at the vision of two- or was it four?- papers swirling before him. He had sworn he was holding one document just a moment ago. Taking another swig of coffee, he was startled by a faint crackling of the computer screen to his side.

Swirling around in his chair, he heard the low voice of someone familiar.

"Quatre…Quatre is this line secure?" the voice asked.

Only one person could hack into the Winner mainframe that the blonde businessman was aware of. A smile escaping his lips, his tired eyes filled with a sparkle as Quatre confirmed the connection. As the picture cleared, Quatre smirked and let out a fond sigh as a threatening, familiar face graced the presence of his screen.

"Heero Yuy. To what do I owe this honor?" Quatre asked the Preventers' agent with a grin. "It's been a long time since you've last popped up on my computer. My engineers still don't know how you do it."

"Quatre," Heero said seriously. "I've come onto something…something big, and this time, your field of expertise may come in handy."

"What's wrong, Heero? What's happened?"

"Do I have your assistance in this investigation?" Heero asked, his face stone cold.

Quatre smiled, shaking his head at his old friend before replying gently, "Need you even ask?"

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ACK! Heero and Relena fans, don't kill me! This is an H & R romance, so you know that they are eventually going to meet up. You've just got to bear with me and stupid old Dave, okay? Thanks. And I have no idea how the defense system works in GW, I just made it up. Ok then.