Heero lay stretched out on his bed. Having just fallen asleep, his restless mind was finally at ease. A mild breeze blew through the open window, ruffling his trademark bangs. Peace…at last.

BANG, BANG, BANG! A loud knock at the door disturbed his quiet slumber. Heero’s eyes shot open. On reflex, his arm reached for his gun on the nightstand next to his bed. He got up quickly and leaned his head against the apartment door. Listening to the muffled voices on the other side, he figured there must be at least three of them. He could handle that, if need be. Heero swung the door open and found his gun pointing just inches away from a familiar face. "Duo?" he said with a puzzled look.

"The Shinigami himself!" the violet-eyed pilot replied cheerfully. "Surprised? I knew you would be. I told you guys I could find him," he said with a huge smile as he turned to his companions, Lucrezia Noin and Sally Po. They nodded. "Um, now, if you wouldn’t mind, could you kindly point your gun somewhere other than my forehead. It’s making me kinda nervous…hee…hee"

"Oh…yeah, sorry," Heero said. He hadn’t noticed he was still aiming his gun at Duo, point blank range.

"We were wondering where you went, man. Are you living here all alone? How long? Aren’t you glad to see us?…" The questions kept coming from the braided boy and Heero didn’t feel like answering them, as usual. He finally interrupted the chattering Duo coldly: "It’s two o’clock in the morning."

"I know," Noin stepped in front of Duo, lightly shoving him out of the way, "and I apologize. But we’ve been looking for you for some time now. With something as fragile as peace on the line, this just couldn’t wait until morning."

Heero’s tired mind drifted off a bit: "Peace…that word…it always makes me think of--"

"Relena’s in danger!" Sally said quickly. She had seen that they were losing the young pilot’s attention and wanted to get to the point. With the sound of her name, Heero’s eyes flashed and his face became serious as his jaw tightened. He focused his stare on Sally, as if silently commanding her to continue.

"Well, that got his attention," she thought to herself slyly, and rushed on with the news. "Something is happening, or going to happen very soon. It seems there is a new force that we must keep an eye on. It was gradually brought to our attention at the Preventer’s base that some ex-OZ and Romefeller members, who we always liked to keep an eye on because of their radical pro-war views, had gone missing. When we did some follow up, we found the situation to be much worse than anticipated. Weapons have been disappearing too, little by little, and also materials used to make Mobile Dolls. By stealing weapons in such small quantities from a variety of bases located all around the world and the colonies, the armament losses were easily overlooked. Added up, however, our studies show that the enemy has a sizable force and a dangerous amount of firepower. If our speculations are correct and one organization is behind all of this, we could be looking at a very serious threat and the possibility of another war."

Heero listened intently, letting out only a slight growl when Sally finished the update. "We need your help, Heero," Noin calmly said in her usual warm tone. "Obviously an organization preparing for war is going to want to eliminate a promoter of peace and balance throughout the universe."

"I understand" Heero’s monotone voice replied. They needed him to help protect the Princess of Peace herself: Relena Peacecraft. He was torn in two. He just wanted to be left alone, to figure things out, to live his life as a rouge soldier. They couldn’t possibly need him that badly, he was sure Relena had bodyguards. But he couldn’t understand why some little part of him wanted to go back, so he could see earth and…

"HELLO!?!" Duo said in an annoyed sing-song voice after a few minutes had gone by and Heero looked as if he were frozen in time. "We haven’t got all day, ya know. Are you gonna help the princess or sit in your little reverie the rest of your life? Huh?"

Noin gave Duo a sharp jab in the side. "Oof…hey!" he began. Noin ignored him. "Heero, this is very important. We need someone who we can count on, who wouldn’t let anything happen to Relena."

"I--" Heero began to say something, but looking as if he was about to say he couldn’t help, Noin interrupted him, this time in a very grave voice. "We’ve had a dozen assassination threats already and three attempts in the past month. We’ve managed to keep them quiet, not just out of the public’s knowledge, but also Relena’s."

"WHAT???" Heero thought to himself in disbelief. And then he got angry.

"A bomb was found by a gardener outside the mansion in a flower bed and luckily was able to be disarmed before it could do any damage. The other two times, guards have caught an armed man sneaking outside of Relena’s balcony and another trying to get into the building where she was leading a conference. Both had loaded pistols and neither is willing to talk. Do you understand the magnitude of our situation? We can’t afford any slip-ups, we can’t afford to lose her."

"And we need some experienced soldiers to defend the kingdom if faced with an attack," Sally chimed in.

"WELL?" Duo, Noin and Sally all looked at Heero, who appeared slightly ticked off.

"Mission…accepted."

The three sighed in relief as Heero gathered his few belongings and headed to the shuttle that would take them back to the Cinq Kingdom. As they flew off to earth, Heero learned more of the mission, and how he would soon be meeting up with the other gundam pilots, whom Noin and Sally were fortunate enough to assemble.

<><>A secret island military facility, somewhere in the South Pacific<><>

"So they’ve finally caught onto our little operation," a deep, shady voice mused. "It’s time to begin."