Disclaimer: Gundam Wing and its characters are the property of Sotsu, Sunrise, TV Asahi, Bandai, etc. I don't own any part of it and I'm not making any money out of it either. This is purely for entertainment purposes, nothing more and nothing less.

Warnings: Language, violence, death, angst.

ZERO SOUL

By: Vegie-kun

Prologue

The year is AC 198; it has been almost two years since the incident with Mariemaia Khushrenada and Dekim Barton and both the Earth and colonies have returned to a state of... 'normalcy'. Hostilities between nations still popped up now and again, but Vice Foreign Minister Relena Darlian was usually there to get it under control. Despite her young age, she still continued to rally much support from both the people of Earth and space as Vice Foreign Minister of the Earth Sphere Unified Nation. She had given up the position as the ruler of the Sank Kingdom long ago to her brother, Milliard Peacecraft. Under him the Sank Kingdom began to grow and flourish once again. Although it had taken awhile, the kingdom was eventually restored to its original state with the exception of a few buildings that were left untouched to serve as a reminder of the horrors of war. Even though he now ruled a pacifist country he still worked for the Preventers, in the shadows of course.

As for the Preventers, they were still doing their job of containing the threats that developed. Lady Une, although sometimes preoccupied with a little redheaded girl, was managing the agency very well. After the coup d'etat by Mariemaia ended, she had decided to adopt the little girl as her own, taking her under her wing and protecting her from anything that would trouble her. Sally Po, on the other hand, was kept busy by her ever justice-ranting partner, Chang Wufei. She was probably the only one who could stand him long enough to actually work with him. Although he hadn't stopped with the 'women are weak' talk, she knew deep down inside that he really didn't mean it; it was just a hard habit to drop. As for Lucrezia Noin, she found herself training new Preventer agents when she wasn't assigned to any missions. Even though she was busy she still acted as an advisor and confidant to Relena and Milliard.

The Gundam pilots had also returned to their 'normal' lives. Duo Maxwell, former pilot of Gundam Deathscythe Hell, had returned to the Sweepers group and was living with his girlfriend, Hilde Schbeiker. Aside from working with the Sweepers, he worked part-time with the Preventers. The former pilot of Gundam Heavyarms Kai, Trowa Barton, still worked as a clown with his sister, Catherine Bloom, in their circus. Quatre Raberba Winner, former pilot of Gundam Sandrock Kai, was doing a remarkable job with his company and with the rebuilding of the colonies. Gundam Altron's former pilot, Chang Wufei, kept himself busy with the Preventers group. Although he would never admit it, he came to respect the women working there, Sally, Noin, and Lady Une mostly. Heero Yuy, former pilot of Gundam WingZERO, however, was nowhere to be found. After the Mariemaia situation he worked for the Preventers on a couple of missions and then was seen a few times before disappearing altogether.

Despite the relative peace that the Earth and colonies were experiencing, the winds of conflict were beginning to blow once more. Those who were not satisfied with the peace and those who wanted revenge for past tragedies were once again igniting the sparks that would fuel the flames of war...

Deep in an unknown location, people, military people, were seated in front of panels and consoles looking over information. The atmosphere in the room was pretty quiet, due mostly in part to the presence of the large man standing in the middle of it. He looked young, tall, handsome, and muscular, with dark hair and cold blue eyes. One look at his somewhat young face and no one would have guessed that he had as much knowledge and experience with the battlefield as someone twice his age. Maybe one would have guessed once they looked at his uniform, which was completely littered with medals and the insignia of a general. The silence in the room was quickly shattered however, when a door slid open and a young soldier walked in.

"General Whitenburg, sir!" the soldier shouted and saluted.

"Yes, what is it, private?" the man asked, eyes steady and hard on the younger man.

"Sir!" the soldier began, "The doctors want to know when you will begin Operation ZERO."

"Hmph, the old men can't wait, can they?" the general mused to himself. "Tell them that we will begin at 1900 hours. At that time we will send our special agents to locate and retrieve the target. Inform the men that they are not to harm the target in any way. Any and all obstacles that get in the way are to be eliminated, but try to do so without causing too much disturbance. We don't want them to become aware of our presence just yet."

"Yes, sir!" With that the soldier left the room.

As soon as the soldier left the general turned around and walked over to the panels and pushed a few buttons causing the screen to light up with an image.

"Captain Dereks!" he said to the image, "We will commence Operation ZERO at 1900 hours. Have your men prepared and I'll send someone in to brief you in a few hours."

"Yes, sir!" the image said before switching out.

"Soon... very soon..." the man said to himself before leaving the room.