Prologue: Ninmu Ryoukai

Existence drug slowly on, languidly oozing past the tall alabaster halls. A shadowed figure paced under the tall roof of stone mumbling some ancient chant, or was it a rant, either way it was said in it's long forgotten tongue, "Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita timor mortis conturbat me...[1]"

"What'chya doin'?" the voice came from the satin rafters above. The figure stopped and glared up at the small impish fiend above. The boy smiled from his perch then leapt gracefully down, landing inches from the now fumingwoman.

"Kyrie eleison [2]" She spat turning from the boy.

"Oh come now Astarte [3], you know better than ask favor from Him, he doesn't like us remember." the boy grinned prancing in front of her again, "Anyway's what can He do here? This is outside his domain."

"Shut up Loki [4], don't you have something you should be doing?" the vexed warrioress hissed at the child.

"No, not really. You haven't seen Raz lately, have you? He's more fun than you." Loki chirped oblivious to Astarte's threatening glare.

"..." she was beginning to wish she hadn't followed her brothers in their fall so long ago.

"It's Ok Astarte, I'll entertain him." the soft voice floated up from the shadows. A young man walked from behind one of the lavish alabaster columns that supported the round domed roof. He wore a black shirt and simple blue jeans. Loki beamed at the new arrival, cartwheeling over to him the boy almost fell on one of the too long sleeves of his burgundy turtleneck.

"Raz!" Loki shouted bouncing up to the patiently grinning gentleman.

"Just keep him away from me, Raziel [5]." the woman grunted, turning back to watch time float by, the strange light of the universe reflecting off her shimmering silver tanktop and casting a strange shine on her leather pants and high boots, glinting off the sword on her belt. Loki glared at the woman then lost interest and pulled out the contents of his many pockets. Beginning with the vest he wore, which had ten, then the one on the inside of his left sleeve, then his shorts, all six of theirs, seventeen in all. Raziel watched him amusedly, reclaiming a silver ring he'd ‘misplaced' a few days ago, then separating Astarte's things from the growing pile. Loki's face darkened upon not finding what he was looking for. "What was it?" Raziel asked patiently.

"It was a pretty marble I found this morning in the garden." the boy sighed.

"You haven't been pulling planets again have you?" Astarte turned on theboy.

"No, I found it, really I did, I didn't take it I promise!" he defended, but his grin never faltered.

"You would expect He could lie better than that wouldn't you Raziel?" the woman sighed to the tall man.

"The Vikings never put much pressure on him to practice." he smiled whispering it under his breath.

"Hey! I can lie just fine! It's the truth I can't tell with a strait face." the boy laughed burying his hands in the pouch at the front of his shirt. "Here it is!" he exclaimed pulling out a walnut sized sphere, swirled about in white streaks over a blue and green brown splotched pattern.

"There you are, and there's the missing orb." a tall woman stood in the center of the round hall. Her long red dress swept lightly over the black and white checkered floor as she glided slowly to the group, snatching up the sphere she glared at the child. "I thought I told you not to play with this."

"Oh yes, like that's gonna' stop him." Astarte spat. Suddenly realizing to whom she spoke she ducked her head and turned back to watch time drift endlessly by.

"She's just on edge, Urd [6]. She means nothing by it," Raziel explained "she's only just bored, as is Loki."

"Bored?" the woman asked, Loki looked pitifully up, nodding in agreement. Astarte just looked back, but did not contend the statement. "And you, Raziel, what of you, are you ‘bored ' as well?" she turned to the calm young man. He stood, thought, then shrugged. "I've been worse." he replied stoicly.

"I'm Bored." Loki proclaimed loudly, then clung to the woman's dress, "Give me something to do, Play with us!" he begged laughingly. She smiled down at him, Astarte hrumphed, and Raziel watched with a faint smile.

"Play? I'm afraid I haven't time for that, but very well, I'll give you something to do," she smiled. Astarte turned surprised as Raziel raised an eye brow. "Here, be careful with it, it's the only one you get. Share with the others." The woman handed Loki the orb he had ‘found' and slipped silently into the shadows, and away.

"Wow, a Toy!" Loki beamed, and hoisting it above his head he pranced around their little cell. Astarte's jaw almost dropped in disbelief, it had been so long since she was allowed one of those... she smiled and snatched the ball from the prancing child.

"It's Not a toy, and You're not the one that's going to get to play with it." she smiled devilishly. Holding it up to the light of creation beyond the column bars, she looked into it's clouded surface.

"Give it Back Tarte! I wanna play with it, it's mine she gave it to me!" Loki whined jumping for the orb.

"It's not a toy, she gave it to all of us, and no one's going to ‘play' with it." Raziel broke in, taking the sphere from the two. ‘I can't believe she left this here, with us. Can't she see what could happen to the people there?' Raziel thought to himself, ‘maybe it is their time, or maybe it's deserted. Or maybe...' He looked into it's shimmering blue splotches, the brown and green spots, ‘maybe this is just what we need.'

"How's it work?" Loki piped up suddenly, asking what was on all their minds.

"I don't know." Astarte snapped at the cherubic face smiling up at her from under ragged brown and red hair. She rolled her eyes to her older brother, "So, how does it work, secrets boy?" Raziel glared at his sister, she hadn't called him that for a long time.

"I'm not sure, but I'm afraid it's not the way you hoped." he sighed, "perhaps we could go there, but I don't think we can do much more than visit, nothing like our old power." he handed it to her, he had hoped as well for his old station but he knew better than that.

"So, I'd like to visit, visiting can be fun!" Loki laughed and snatched the world from his sister. "Still, I'd rather like to meet some of the people there, bring ‘em here to talk or sumthin' or we could go there!" he giggled at his revelation, Astarte wondered if her brother really understood the meaning of ‘visit.' "How do we do it?" his big green eyes shone up to Raziel's deep blue. Raziel shook his head and shrugged.

"Give it here, I'm not going to stand around and wait for you two to figure it out!" Astarte shouted grabbing for the orb. Loki held on and fought his sister, they tumbled to the floor as Raziel palmed her sword to avoid a rather messy situation. The two struggled a bit and as Astarte reached for her missing weapon Loki shouted some Viking battle cry. But it was drown out by the rolling of distant thunder then all was lost in a bright flash of light. When Raziel regained his sight he was left alone in his prison at the end of time, the small planet fallen to the floor and his siblings gone. He shook his head and wondered where they may be, and what havoc they would wreak.

The night was unusually tense, thunder rolled on distant hills and the stars were blocked on the southern horizon by some great cloud, the storm raged in the east and a strong hot wind blew from out the south. Trowa watched the weather warily. He'd never liked the desert at night, but this one was a particularly unsettling eve. Heero sat in a high backed chair near an empty fire place cleaning his gun as Wufei meditated on the couch. Quatre was brewing tea again and Duo slept noisily in a large lounge chair. Four years since their last fight the pilots had been called together again by some unknown caller, each had received the mission late last night, it was by chance they all gathered here before the mission. It was but five miles into that storm where they were to receive further orders in fewer than twelve hours, Quatre's house was just a handy place to spend the night, and seek shelter from the gathering storm.

Each of the pilots had gone their separate ways since last they met, none of them really kept in contact. Trowa had visited Quatre a few times, and Duo had the tendency to show up at each of their doors on occasion but aside from that this was the first they'd seen of each other in two years. Trowa examined the changes in his comrades. Heero had grown about seven inches and his shoulders had broadened a bit, but not much. Duo's hair was even longer and he too had grown a bit, but not as much. Quatre had gained an inch or so and taken to wearing a turban on occasion now but that's all he'd changed. Wufei hadn't changed at all. Trowa was the one who'd changed the most. He'd grown to six foot two and built up a sleek swimmer's build. He abandoned his old fashion for something a bit more suited to the climate and now watched the building storm in an open short sleeved shirt and light slacks. That's not all he'd done, his hair had been bleached two shades lighter by the Mediterranean sun and he'd cut it, not all but it was considerably shorter, like he'd had it in his youth, still the bangs persevered. It was cooler that way and he felt safer now, no longer needing to hide behind it. He watched the horizon, he could smell the sandstorm coming. Quatre walked slowly into the room, balancing the tea tray on one arm, holding a blanket in the other. He set down the tea, covered Duo, and came to close the window.

"I hope whoever called us is Ok out there, these storms can get quite bad." he said concernedly. Trowa stepped out of the way to let him shut the hard dry wind out. He smiled inwardly at the boy's concern.

"Do you know who it was?" Heero asked setting the barrel down and picking up the chamber. He looked questioningly to each of them in turn after a few moments of no reply. His eyes didn't get an answer either and he continued cleaning.

"I don't like it." Wufei grumbled.

"You don't like anything, Wu-man." Duo had woken to the smell of sweet tea cakes and little sandwiches as Quatre brought them out from the kitchen. Duo grabbed a few before the Arab even had time to put the plate down. Wufei glared at him but he didn't notice, too busy shoving the food in his face. Quatre muffled a laugh in his hand as Heero rolled his eyes.

"I must say I'm curious as well, but whomever it was had all the right codes." Quatre recovered from the sight and fulled the conversation.

"You don't suppose one of the scientists survived, do you?" Wufei asked from the couch.

"I'm not sure, the orders were different this time, not like they would give." Quatre replied.

"Of course they are known for being strange." Heero mused vigorously cleaning his gun.

"Yes, but still... Wufei, have the Preventers told you anything?" Quatre looked questioningly at the Chinese.

"They were as surprised as I." he answered returning to his meditation.

Duo finished the last of the snacks as the storm hit. The wind howled outside and lightning crashed overhead as the hot sanded wind hit the wall of moist sea air right outside their door. "This is going to be a bad one." Quatre sighed as he went up to bed, bidding the others do the same.

Duo woke, he stretched his arms arching his sore back, he should remember not to fall asleep in chairs, not even Quatre's recliners. He rolled over, expecting to slide out of the chair but only hit a hard curved wall. He shot up opening his eyes wide. He'd been caught off guard, not an easy thing to do. He looked skeptically about him. He could see nothing more than a small stretch of checkered tile floor, reaching away from him in black and white rows as it faded into darkness. He had no idea where he was. He turned to the wall at his back, a long curve ran out and around him in a long arched stone of a white pink hue, alabaster. Duo heard a noise to his left, a slight stir. Turning he caught sight of another form, a faint shadow in the darkness, sit up straight and frantically look about. He recognized Trowa. The tall pilot leapt up and ran his hand along the wall, not knowing quite what to make of this, he was searching for a way out. He heard Duo stand behind him and turned not knowing who it was he put up his fists to ward off the attack.

"Whoa! It's just me. Don't worry, man. I've never seen you so jumpy." Duo trilled, Trowa hid his face behind his shortened bangs, wishing he hadn't cut them.

"I'm not used to waking up to a different place from where I went to sleep." he stated in a flat tone, composure regained he returned to his old self.

"Trowa?" Quatre's voice called out from the dark, "Duo, is that you?" he stumbled into the light and the tall boy caught him before he fell over the body lying in the floor. Wufei scrambled up indignantly and looked around questioningly once his surroundings had sunk in.

"Where are we?" he asked after trying unsuccessfully to answer it himself.

"Trapped." Heero's voice cut through the shadows just before he stepped into the pale greenish light. The others looked at him with a mix of surprise, apathy, fear and concern on their faces. "There's no way out, it's a circle, no doors and a high ceiling. Not even a window."

"Where's the light coming from?" Trowa asked, getting right to the task athand.

"I couldn't find any one place, it seems to just... be here."

"It has to come from somewhere! Doesn't it?" Duo broke in, looking for the source. He couldn't find one, it just sort of floated in their vicinity, not coming from anywhere in particular. He walked to the other side of the circle and as the others joined him the light followed. It stayed with the majority of the group. They spread themselves around the room at Duo's suggestion, just to see what it would do. They stood at even distances around the walls and the light spread through the entire room. They got a good look at it all, about twenty feet in diameter with checkerboard tile and Alabaster walls, the ceiling above was domed, of the same stone but had satin drapes hung from it. There was no way out. "Man, this is weird... If we got in there has to be a way out." Duo concluded and continued to look.

"What logic dictates thus?" A velvety voice drifted down from satin rafters, and roof of stone. They looked up to see the young man leaning against one of the crimson drapes, which shouldn't have supported his weight. He stared down at them with crystal blue eyes.

"Who are you?" Heero glared at him, reaching for his gun, which was notthere.

"Don't waste your time with such frivolous details, Mr. Yuy. It won't get you far." The man responded holding the gun loosely pointed at the air. He slid down one of the drapes pulling it with him he floated to the ground. As the satin fell so too did the walls, exposing the infinite abyss beyond, dimly lit by the lurid stream of Time. The others backed from it's edge, but Heero stayed and glared at the man. He was about Trowa's height, a little shorter, but not much, with icy blue eyes and long white hair that fell lightly on his shoulders. His face was calm and quiet, his faint smile patient and kind. "But since you asked, I am Raguel [7], and this is my brother, Sariel [8]." he gestured to the fallen satin and from out their folds there rose another man, much shorter with a stronger build, and short wild hair, not unlike Heero's but a deep blood red.

Sariel looked disdainfully at the pilots then scoffed to his brother, "These, children can't help us, Raguel, we should just take care of them ourselves, it would be faster, and I haven't had a chance to fight in a long time." he smiled at the thought of combat.

"You know we can't break the treaty," Raguel scolded his brother, "These will do." He turned to the five, looked them over with steady eyes, then came to focus on Heero's glare. "Fate has dealt you a new hand, and the time has come for you to take up arms again. This is a new enemy, one more powerful than any you've ever seen," he smiled to the others. The five pilots looked confused, worried, unsure of what to make of this strange dream, for that's the only thing it could be.

"What enemy?" it sounded more like a statement than a question but Heero's gaze elicited answer.

"The Ragnarok [9]." Sariel glared to the five from behind the taller man, a strange smile on his lips. The reference was lost on most of them. Duo was clueless, Wufei and Quatre looked vaguely interested but lost. Trowa's face hinted at the wide eyed expression of comprehension, the recognition of impending doom. It was impossible to tell if Heero understood or not. His face did not change as he blinked once, then uttered the familiar words.

"Ninmu ryoukai."

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[1]'Halfway through this journey the fear of death concerns me.'
[2]'Lord have Mercy'[3]Semitic goddess of war
[4]Norse god of lies and other such evil stuff
[5]"Secret of God," "angel of mysteries"- the "angel of the secret regions and the chief of the Supreme Mysteries."
[6]Nordic personification of Fate
[7]"Friend of God" One of the principalities, Raguel is given the dubious honor of watching over the good behavior of his fellow angels.
[8]"Command of God" Working along side of Raguel, this seraph is given the role of deciding the fate of angels which stray from God's path.
[9]End of the cosmos in Nordic mythos when the old Gods will fall and earth will sink into the sea.

Shin Kidousenki Gundam Wing © Sunrise, Bandai, and Sotsu Agency.