After a fierce trial battle, Zechs Merquise escaped the pursue of Alliance troops in a very battered Tallgeese, barely made it out alive. The legendary warrior said to himself that he could not be Treize's friend anymore before he finally lost consciousness. He was found and rescued by a salvage ship that belonged to the Sweepers. Waking up in a small room, Zechs blinked a few times and took the time to reflect where he was and why. His hand instinctively reached up to touch the silver mask on his head, but upon finding its absence, he remembered. The mask that had accompanied him since he was a kid had broke during the battle, and he was no longer bounded by it.           Slowly he pulled himself up, ignoring the pain and soreness of his body. He glanced around the room. There was his bright red Oz uniform jacket resting on a chair. After two seconds of hesitation, he decided to do without it. Zechs mentally went over the events that took place before he lost consciousness. Sighing slightly, he got out of the bed. He paused for a moment before turning the doorknob, not sure what awaited beyond. Making up his mind, he opened the door and stepped out the room. The corridor was empty and quiet, but Zechs could hear faint noises coming from the end of the hallway. He followed the sound, hoping to find someone he could talk to.           When he finally reached the end of the corridor and came upon an opening to a large garage, he was surprised to see people working on Tallgeese. Mechanics were examining and doing repairs on the large white suit under the order of an old man dressed in a Hawaiian shirt, who looked awfully familiar, as if he had seen him somewhere before.           "Hey, you're awake." The first mechanic spotted Zechs and greeted him. "That's quick."           "You can never underestimate the Lightning Count, Yini." The old man wearing funky sunglasses turned to face them.           "You know me?" Zechs was surprised. Not many people had actually seen him, and certainly not without his trademark mask. How did the old man recognize him?           "Who else but the ace pilot Zechs Merquise of Oz is able to pilot a tough suit like Tallgeese?" The old man grinned.           "Zechs Merquise is dead." Zechs replied quietly. The old man gave him an understanding nod.           "You know about the Tallgeese?" The former Oz soldier asked, curious.           "Of course!" The old guy exclaimed. "I am the one responsible for its design!"           "You designed the Tallgeese?" The corner of Zechs' mouth curved up. "I must say that is one impressive suit."           "You got that right." The old man grinned proudly.           "When will Tallgeese be ready?" Zechs asked, his tone serious.           "Planning on leaving already?" The old man glanced at the soldier. "If you're worrying about us, it's ok. It's not the first time we've done something like this."           "I am a traitor in Romefeller's eyes, and they would not give you an easy time if they find out that you're helping me." Zechs said. "And I don't even know you."           Before the old man could reply, the second mechanic called out to him. "Hey, Howard! I can't find the blueprints. They are not in your cabinet."           "They are not?" The old man called Howard scratched his head. "They should be there. I haven't touched them for years."           The first mechanic Yini glanced up from his work. "Wait, I think I know where the blueprints are." He stood up and walked out the garage. A few minutes later, he emerged with a bundle of sheets.           "Where did you find these?" The second mechanic took the sheet from him. "Hey, these aren't just the original blueprints! There're reproduced ones as well."           Yini smiled. "Check out the date on the reproduced prints."           "A.C. 193..." The second mechanic read out.           "Oh, yeah!" Howard suddenly exclaimed, finally recalling. "The originals got old and dusty, so Noin said she's gonna reproduce them. You found these in Noin's cabinet, right?"           "Yup." Yini nodded. "She didn't just make a copy of the blueprints, but added some modifications on her prints too."           "Huh? Let me see that." Howard examined the sheets carefully. "Hmm, these are for use in space. Even before she became a pilot, she had space in her mind."           All the while, Zechs was lost in his thought. 'Noin? Could the Noin they are talking about be the same Noin I know? It's possible... I never know what she's been doing during the five years before she joined Oz. If it's really her, then....'           He moved in closer to see the sheets Howard was holding. Yes, it's definitely Noin's handwriting. He's seen it so many times, he could identity it anytime. "Noin." He whispered.           "You've noticed." Howard grinned. He handed the blueprints to the second mechanic. "Modify Tallgeese with Noin's prints. We're going to send it to space."           After Howard led Zechs to his office, he settled himself in the large armchair. "You've passed out for three days, so I'll fill you in on what's been happening. First of all, the heir to the Sanc Kingdom, Relena Peacecraft, had claimed her right and rebuilt the kingdom. Noin is helping the girl right now. She called me a couple days ago saying that she would do everything in her power to help the Sanc Kingdom to promote its ideal of pacifism. Secondly, Oz sent out a representative, Lady Une, to the space colonies. Apparently, she's done a very good job, and the colonies are now supporting Oz and declaring that they are not on the same side as the Gundams."           "....." Zechs took in the information silently.           The comm unit on Howard's desk blipped, and the cheerful voice of a certain braided boy came out. "Hey, Howard, are you there?"           "Yeah, I'm here." Howard answered. "What's up?"           "What's up? Didn't you see the news? The colonies are lining up with Oz! Can you believe that? They even declared us their enemies!" The boy looked furious.           "Yes, Duo, I know that." Howard sighed. "What do you want?"           "Can you contact the Sweeper branch in L2 and tell them I'll be there shortly? I'm gonna go to space to knock some sense into the colonists."           "You're going to space?" Howard frowned. "But your suit won't be able to handle the pressure of the atmosphere, and Romefeller had closed down all spaceports. I know you don't own a shuttle, how are you planning to get to space?"           "We'll just have to force our way out of here." came a light reply.           "Huh? Where are you right now?" Howard was alarmed.           "I'm at a spaceport with two fellow pilots. We're going to space." He was determined.           Howard turned on the military channels. Three spaceports were under attack. "I see. I'll tell the guys in L2."           "Thanks, Howard." Duo replied. "Oh, and by the way, if the girl with a silver cross ever called, tell her I'm in space. Tell her I'll see her later." With those final words the pilot signed off as the black suit on the screen of the military channel entered the hangar of the spaceport with another Gundam under the cover of a third Gundam which self-detonated.           Howard watched the screen intently until five shuttles left earth for space. "Good luck, kido."           Zechs, too, had been observing the battles and the take-offs. So this old guy knew a Gundam pilot huh? Strange, but when the boy was talking about a girl, it reminded him of Noin. She had a silver cross, too. He spoke up when Howard shut off the screens. "Which is he?"           "DeathScythe, the one you called Gundam 02." Howard answered. There was no point hiding it now.           After a brief pause, Zechs decided to venture on the topic that's been occuping his mind. "Was Noin here after her graduation from the Academy?"           "Yes, she worked here for five years, and I must say that she's one of the most talented engineering mechanics I've seen and trained." Howard was very proud of her.           "Is that so?" Zechs smiled slightly. "Maybe she is more suited as an engineer than a soldier. She never liked wars."           "True, but she has a strong sense of justice and she's always longed for peace." Howard pointed out. "You know that, don't you? I assume you are her closest friend."           "You guessed wrong." Zechs said bitterly. "I only put her in danger for my selfish purposes. I am not worthy of being her friend."           The old mechanic said nothing. He only shrugged and led the soldier out. "We'll see." * * * * * * * * *           While Howard and Zechs watched the five Gundam pilots left for space, another pair of deep blue eyes was also set on the scene. Lucrezia Noin sat quietly in the command quarter of a secret underground base connected to the Sanc Palace near the coast. She observed the battles and the departures of the Gundam pilots in silence, wishing them the best in her heart.           The Sanc Kingdom was slowly getting on track, but there were still a lot of things to do and she needed to be there to help the young Princess. She wanted to go to space with the pilots, but she had promised Zechs that she would take care of Relena for him. Sighing inwardly, Noin turned off the monitor and returned to the Palace. * * * * * * * * *           After the Gundam pilots left for space, they went their separate ways. Their target Oz possessed a space fortress Barge and a lunar base, and four of the pilots, Heero, Duo, Trowa, and Wufei, infiltrated into the lunar base either as a recruit or as war prisoners. The fifth pilot, Quatre, returned to his home colony and had an adventure of his own.           When Tallgeese was finally completed, the former Oz ace pilot went to space as good will ambassador Miliardo Peacecraft. At the lunar base, he learned about the opinions of various colonies on the issue of arming themselves and had a few talks with Oz' representative Une. Une seemed to welcome him very much, but one of her soldiers by the name of Nicols recognized the Romefeller traitor. Nicols was opposed to Une's treatments and attitude toward the captive Gundam pilots and scientists, and he tried to destroy Une in a staged battle between the D4 colony and Barge mobile doll troops.           However, she was saved in the last second by Zechs and got back to the space fortress safely. When Une returned to the lunar base, she found that Romefeller had send in another representative, Tsubarov, to supervise and keep an eye on her. News of Treize being under house arrest was also received.           Report of the sudden disappearance of a resource satellite reached Une, and they quickly found out that it was the deed of a new model of Gundam called Zero, piloted by no other than the fifth pilot, a grief-strickened Quatre Winner. The two Gundam pilots sent out to fight Zero, Heero and Trowa, thought maybe they could join forces and destroy Oz once and for all, but it turned out that Zero was not just an ordinary mobile suit.           The Zero System, a cockpit system that calculated battle information quickly and fed the data to the brain of the pilot directly, would also caused the pilot to hallucinate when activated. It enhanced the battle ability of the pilot, but if the pilot was not perfect enough a soldier, he would not be able to handle the system.           Such was the case with Quatre, that he destroyed the resource satellite and a colony against his usual gentle nature. What's even more sorrowful was that he fired at the suit his fellow Gundam pilot was using and destroyed it, sending Trowa floating into space, lost. Heero finally managed to knock some sense into the crazed Quatre, but not without using up all his energy and falling unconscious himself. Quatre took him back to his home colony before the Romefeller could get them and left Wing Zero behind.           Lady Une returned from battle and opened the prison doors to free the remaining two Gundam pilots and the five scientist. She was rewarded with a bullet piercing through her heart by Tsubarov, who planned to kill the prisoners by cutting off the air supply before Une showed up. The lunar base received considerable damage when the rebuilt Gundam DeathScythe and Nataku returned some favour before they took off.           On Earth, Noin foresaw the problem with a total-pacific kingdom and decided to build up the defence of the country. She seeked out the Gundams that were left on Earth and accidentally had the chance to rescue Sally Po, a former Alliance Major and currently a member of a rebel force, who was also looking for the Gundams. Sally handed over Wing to Noin and both women parted to keep searching.           Many nations of the world were starting to follow the practise of total pacifism that's being promoted by the Sanc Kingdom. The leader of Sanc, Princess Relena Peacecraft, organized a school that would teach those from other countries that were interested in the idea of total pacifism.           Unexpectedly to all, an exchange student by the name of Dorothy Catalonia was sent in from Romefeller to Sanc. She claimed herself to be a great admirer of Relena and saw her as the heroine of the time, but she also expressed her passion and love for wars. Pargen and Noin were wary of the new addition to the school, but Relena did not see Dorothy differently.           However, the appearance of Dorothy and her comments about wars did remind Relena of someone, Heero. Her desire to see the Gundam pilot who threatened to destroy her grew stronger with time, but she did not know where he was. Since she could not leave the kingdom, she implored her trustworthy imperial guard Noin to search for Heero. After making sure that Relena and the Sanc Kingdom would be fine during her absence, Noin set out to look for the pilot, though she had more than just finding Heero in mind. She planned to find all five of them, if possible.           On the other end of the globe, Treize Khushrenada went over the events that had taken place on both earth and the colonies and analyzed the situations. He was somewhat mournful that those that truly understood him, Lady Une and Zechs, were no longer by his side. He was also looking forward to what the young warriors with rebellious wings, namely the Gundam pilots, had to offer to the course of history of mankind. Treize may be under house arrest and stripped of power by the Romefeller, but he was not defeated. Unknown to all people, in a secret room inside his mansion in Luxembourg, there sat patiently a powerful red suit, waiting to be released. Its name was Epyon. The third act of Treize's plan to bring peace unto the world was about to begin. ~to be continued~

Author's Note: I'm sorry for all the decriptive paragraphs in the chapter, but they are needed in order to give you a sense of what's going on, as this chapter covers quite a number of episodes in the series. I personally call these episodes the start of the 'Space chapter' of the series, as the setting is mainly space instead of Earth now. So far, even though most of the characters have different backgrounds than from the series, most of the events follow along the original plot. But things are going to change dramatically from now on, and all the little hints and pointers from previous chapters will start to kick in and reveal their effects. It'll (hopefully) get really interesting starting next chapter on. Stay tuned!^__^ Any remarks and comments are very welcomed and treasured. Please be kind and tell me what you think^^ ~Handsome Puppy~