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| Chapter One The Guardian Angel |
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| Late January, AC 196 A small cloistered community in the American Southwest |
| Leyia stood looking out the window to the courtyard. Although the desert landscape was beautiful, its beauty |
| seemed empty to her. Perhaps, she thought, it was she herself that was empty. Ever since her arrival here three weeks earlier, nothing seemed real to her. She felt as though she had left a large piece of herself behind somewhere, and nothing she could find was able to fill the vast emptiness it left in her. It was foolish to feel this way, she knew. She had accomplished what she had set out to do. Milliardo Peacecraft was safe. She could see him walking in the courtyard below. He moved slowly, still awkward with the crutches that supported him. She moved away from the window. It hurt her to see him struggling so, even though she had been assured that he would recover fully from his injuries. When Cinq Kingdom had fallen some thirteen odd years ago, Leyia had been apalled at the way young Milliardo had been treated. Having a young son herself, she was horrified by the actions of the Darlain family. They took in his younger sister, Relena, but left Milliardo to his own devices because he wanted revenge on the people who had destroyed his family. Milliardo Peacecraft was not the total pacifist that his father was and wanted him to be. Leyia thought that this was a good thing. This was not a perfect world. Eventually every total pacifist was destined to suffer the same fate as King Peacecraft. Obviously the Darlians did not agree. Leyia had wished that she could take in the child herself, but knew that this was impossible. A mere med-tech and her businessman husband were hardly suitable guardians for a child of noble birth. The one thing that Leyia knew she could do for him was to protect him and assure that he had his revenge. When Leyia spoke of this to her husband, he had laughed at her, calling her foolish. As a joke, he had paid for her to have fencing lessons, telling her that noblemen quite often fought with swords. Leyia ignored the jest and accepted the lessons. In only a few months she could find no one with the ability to best her. Her instructors tried to persuade her to enter professional competition, but Leyia had declined, saying that her career as a med-tech was too important for her to leave. Leyia eventually learned of the fate of the older Peacecraft child through connections with her husband's company, Darcon Industries. He had been taken in by an aristocratic military man by the name of Khushrenada. A widower with no plans for remarriage, he wanted the boy to be a companion for his only child, Treize. In spite of the five year difference in age, the boys grew to be very close quite quickly. When Leyia was shown a photo of the two boys together, she was amazed at the appearence of the young Treize Khushrenada. Although he was only twelve years old at the time, he looked more like a man than a child. He was dressed in the uniform of the military academy which he attended. His dark blue eyes were icy and serious. One of his hands rested on the shoulder of his young foster brother. The bond between the two was undeniable. It was also obvoius that Treize was fiercely protective of the younger boy. Milliardo Peacecraft would have his revenge and Treize would help him every step of the way, of that Leyia was certain. She was not certain, however, what role she would be playing in all of this. She was determined that she would have one. Darcon Industries eventually led her to her destiny. An independent development company of weapons, they thought that a med-tech would make an excellent test pilot for their new mobile suit designs. Leyia's husband recommended her for the position, thus she learned to pilot all of the newest and most powerful mobile suits developed by Darcon. Her medical knowledge was invaluable to them in providing information on the effects of different cockpit systems on a pilot. She was also useful in determining the effects of various weapon systems on a human enemy. She soon became an extremely accomplshed mobile suit pilot. If they had known of her abilities, many armies and rebel groups would have begged her to join them. A moot point, since Leyia had her own agenda. She would use all of her abilties to help and protect Milliardo and Treize, but she would join no army. Darcon had provided her with everything she needed to act on her own. Time passed, and Leyia watched and waited until three years ago when a new branch was added to the Alliance military. This new branch was called the OZ Special Forces and was led by the then Major Treize Khushrenada. Never far from the group's leader was a young masked officer calling himself Zechs Merquise. The mask hid nothing from Leyia. She knew that the young officer was Milliardo Peacecraft. She assumed that he hid his identity in order to protect his family's reputation. She also wondered if anyone was actually fooled by his guise. Her husband, Rico Dalton, certainly was not. "Do you really think that those guys need your help or protection?" Rico had once asked her. When she did not respond, he continued,"Even if they did, they would never accept it from you. They're both nothing but spoiled little rich boys, a prince and a duke, I believe. This war and all of its battles are nothing but a game to them. Not that I mind. They are providing use with quite a large source of income, don't you think?" Leyia looked with dismay upon the man whom she had once thought that she loved. Somewhere as the years had passed that love had died. She realized that the only love that Rico Dalton had was for money. As a salesman for a weapons company, this war was quite the financial boon for him. It took a lot of nerve for him to say that the war was just a game for the rich, since to him it was nothing more than a business opportunity. Did he think that his position in this made him any better than Milliardo and Treize? She supposed that he did. A few weeks after their discussion about "poor little rich boys", Leyia discovered the truth about her husband's business dealings. He was selling to all sides. She was apalled by this and confronted him about it. His response to her accusations made her blood run cold. "If I only sold to one side , eventually that side would become more powerful and defeat the others. I have to keep things even. There's too much profit in this to let it end." Too stunned to respond, Leyia had walked away. She was so disgusted that she never wanted to see Rico again. It was time for her to do something, she knew. The next day while he was out making his dirty deals and their boys were at school, she began to sift through his business records. Next Page |