A/N: Written for

The Gen Novel Bingo, #030 – mark
Chapter Set Boot Camp, #019 – 36 chapters
Diversity Writing Challenge, m13 – time-travelling! AU

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Colouring Grandpa

Chapter 1
in the shade of angel wings

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AG 115, Aliston base, Nora Colony

He considered sneaking out, but Vargas would likely ground him if he was caught. Or, since he was Emily's grandfather and not his own, more likely he'd take the Gundam out for a test drive first under the pretext of punishment and Commander Bruzer would probably approve for the same reasons.

The old man was probably looking for an excuse to get the honours. And he wasn't the only one. The Gundam had been long since coveted after all, and yet they wouldn't argue that the one who deserved the honour the most was him. Even the ones displeased he was just a fourteen year old child couldn't deny the hand he'd had in developing the mobile suit and couldn't deny it was his heritage.

And he wouldn't hand it over to anyone else. The white Gundam: the heritage of his family that had, aside from the handheld device his mother had passed to him with her dying breaths, had been lost in the flames of Ovan. But the portrait of the legendary saviour still consumed his mind. Far enough that some thought him obsessed in the Gundam, in the early stages where it didn't look feasible in the least and certainly not competitive. But he'd proved them wrong. A mobile suit that had taken years to fashion on plans that should have become obsolete before its production even began – but he saw that problem before the first seeds of dissent were sowed and he worked to cover it. Because that was what one did with their machines, and in other aspects of life as well. They found their weaknesses, and then covered them: turned them into strengths.

And so the AGE system was born. He worked on it with different people for the most part, so when the two things came together, it swept the military as a whole off its feet. It was still theoretical, both systems, but the calculations spoke positively and next was the trial. Years of work finally showcasing its worth and its rewards. But now that the moment was almost here, he was impatient. He wanted to raise the Gundam to his feet right now – and that might be the last time he ever sat in its cockpit.

The thought hit him like a pang, far stronger than the – admittedly childish – desire to be the first to move its limbs. To have worked all this time towards a machine that would, if not tomorrow than another day, find itself in a new home, with a new pilot. If they ironed out the kinks relatively soon, it'd be Largan Drace and Largan was a nice guy. Not the legendary white wolf but who knew what the white wolf was doing these days and Dique was the one who talked about him anyway. But as far as the Earth Federation pilots at Aliston went, Largan Drace was the best on the base and it went without saying that the best pilot got the new prototype mobile suit set to surpass all the current models. A fourteen year old civilian wasn't even a possibility, once the Gundam passed its final trials. And yet… the thought made him feel hollow and the Gundam hadn't even left his hands. And the device his mother had passed onto him was still here, in his room.

He rolled over and felt for it in the dark. Its shape was comforting, and its warmth, but it did nothing to quell that restless emptiness that welled inside of him. He wouldn't sleep like this – As if there'd been a chance anyway, he thought to himself, slightly amused. He'd had that dream again. Ovan burning. He never did get to sleep after that but usually he tried. He couldn't even muster that up now. Or, rather, he was too riled up to settle back down.

He had school tomorrow. Already, his eyes were burning and there was the test drive too and that would be dangerous or useless if he couldn't keep his eyes open. But even that wasn't enough to coax him back to sleep.

Perhaps he should just skip school tomorrow. Between the Gundam trial runs and the impending attack from the UE (though, granted, the military was only marginally working to tackle that problem and mostly because they didn't believe designing a mobile suit meant his prediction of the UE attack patterns had any merit), he wasn't going to be concentrating anyway.

He sighed and got out of bed and felt around for his light switch. It blinded him momentarily as it always did and he made a mental note to make them gradually brighten instead. But it wasn't the first time he'd made such a note and no doubt he'd forget about it again.

And he did forget, when he spread his map of the space colonies out on his desk and resumed his calculations. The UE were responsible for Ovan, and another colony. And it only took three points to make a vector and then the results would be indisputable but would they seriously wait until Nora was destroyed? The measures Commander Bruzer was taking were too rudimentary. He'd seen the evacuation plan. He'd seen the projected fighting strength of the UEs as well and they had no proof the Genoace, the best mobile suit on the market at the moment, would be effective at all against the UE machines. The Gundam would, if the trial runs succeeded, because the AGE system would make it so. With the right data, it would defeat any enemy.

The white Gundam that would be the saviour of mankind. And the avenger as well. There wouldn't be any other colonies like Ovan. But would it be enough to save a Nora that lost the gamble the military had put their stock in? Or perhaps the question was: would it be fast enough? He still couldn't narrow down the time frame. Soon, yes, but soon was minutes, days, weeks… even years. The Diva was in port at the moment: the only ship at Nora who could pull out its core. What would happen when it left port? What would happen if Nora was attacked when there was no way to evacuate its citizens, because the life boats weren't enough and would never be enough. Or… what would happen if the UE struck too fast and too hard: if Nora was set aflame before the people could run into the life boats or the core? These people weren't prepared for a massacre, and unless the Geonaces could handle the UE machines, they weren't prepared to defend from one either.

He brushed aside the map and stood up. He was only getting more worked up with the calculations but gaining nothing of real value – and his need to see the Gundam was now stronger than ever.

Vargas and Commander Bruzer would scold him, but they'd forgive him as well.

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AG 164, space, approaching new-Nora Colony

The Baronche had a presence, even in the nether regions of space, as the flagship of the Bisidian pirates who'd become a thorn in the side of Earth Federation and Vagan alike. They were the police of space, the maintainers of balance, the arcana of the world…

But they were just a ship in a fleet of ships and the problems of the world were far out of their control.

Captain Ash sat at the help and rubbed his brow. He disliked it. The current situation. The way everything had ended up. The cards had been there but they'd all played poor hands and paid the price. If only they could have worked together… But it was easy to say now, he supposed, in retrospect. Easy for him to say before as well, because they'd been friends first and foremost, before circumstances had revealed they were enemies.

But that had turned out to be a lie, hadn't it? He sighed again. There'd been too many lies and that had only served to further complicate the tale. It wasn't just a war between the Earth Federation and the Vagans. It was a war between people who tried to play god, people who wanted to rule and the treasure in space that would give them that power – but was, instead, dooming them all.

He could understand the sentiment. He'd been that glitter-eyed himself. His son was still that glitter-eyed. His father had been once upon a time too, presumably, or so his mother said. He'd never seen it. His father's eyes were always dark, as far as he'd recalled. And he'd cast too big a shadow in front of the sun to ever get out of.

It was a pity. No, it was more than that. He was sure Flit Asuno had been capable of far more than the eradication of the Vagans – and indirectly, their world. It didn't matter that the mars colony was gone. It didn't matter that SID was currently in slumber. The defences of EXA-DB was such that SID would be recreated and begin a new assault on humanity – and that man had created this endless loop that would take the world out in its destruction and let Flit Asunu unknowingly pull the trigger.

I hope you're satisfied with our doom.

But the truth of the matter was, Flit loved his family and he loved the world. He could never be satisfied with it. He could never love it, love destruction, no matter how much he searched for it and he knew that. It was the one thing that kept him from truly hating that man, sometimes. The man who'd played such a limited role in his life because he'd rather pursue his military career and his vengeance. But that was all people, in the end. Grodek Ainoa was the same. It was because of him hijacking the Diva that the people of Nora were saved and yet his reasons were self-centred. The later achievements of the Diva were under his leadership and driven by that same self-centred desire and some felt the time he spent in jail to pay for those crimes was unjust. Others felt he didn't deserve to be rewarded for selfishness that had turned out to serve the Earth Federation as a mere side-effect.

Grodek Ainoa and Flit Asuno. He'd never met the first man but the two of them sounded so similar. It just so happened that Flit Asuno had authority on his side: a path paved by other people including Grodek Ainoa himself that let him tear the Earth Federation apart and rebuild it from the ground up so it wasn't as corrupt. But was a man driven by revenge considered pure? Not a chance. And a man like that had blocked ears just like the corrupt he'd cleared off.

It might have worked, if things had gone a little differently.

But they were all stubborn fools who didn't want to listen to the voice of the world, weren't they? And now it was too late. In retrospect, he could see all these mistakes and they were with the eyes of a human so who knew how many more mistakes were hidden amongst the rest. If people didn't become clouded by rage. If tragedies didn't create the fires that consumed them and gave birth to that rage. If the Earth Federation hadn't abandoned the Vagans instead of helping them. If the disease had never struck the Mars colonies. If the earth had never become overpopulated in the first place: the thing that triggered the rest of these events like a chain reaction. And if EXA-DB did not exist… and who had thought it was a good idea to put all the knowledge of god into a floating nightmare that no-one could control and then leave it for the lucky treasure hunter to find.

And now – they were going to repeat it all again, play god all over again and the idea was laugable, really. The Earth Federation fought on the front lines but that was the role they took up. The original Gundam sung from the very front like the saviour he was meant to be but he'd fall, and his successors were fleeing the battle and the doomed world.

He knew Kio wasn't very happy about that, but he'd rather fight a fight he had an actual chance of winning. And this could work. Using the information they'd gleaned from the EXA-DB – they, the hypocritical ones who'd tried to destroy it first. But the allure of knowledge was a powerful thing and they'd found this: their hope. Or perhaps their foolishness because people always said they'd do something different if they had the chance but would they really?

'Unidentified ship approaching new-Nora, you are not authorised to land.'

He snorted. The world was about to end and this is what the bureaucrats were worried about?

'We're not an unidentified ship,' he snarked back. 'We're Baronche, the flagship of the Bisidian pirates. What rock have you been living under?'

Probably the one called false peace – and it was about to crumble.

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AG 115, Aliston base, Nora Colony

There it was. The Gundam. Flit greedily drank in the sight – and with a bit of relief as well, because the night guard just waved him in, thinking he was there for some last minute check or something.

Or something was about right. He didn't actually have a plan about what to do. He'd just come because he couldn't stay asleep or away and the Gundam… Well, he supposed it wouldn't be entirely inaccurate to say he was obsessed with it. He touched its leg reverently. It was strong and cold and silent and tomorrow, it would move. The white suit striding across the colony and then after that it would fly into space.

Those who destroyed Ovan would soon get the ragnarok coming to them. A part of him wished it could have been him in the mobile suit delivering that ragnarok but that was just a fleeting dream. He wasn't a pilot. People trained their entire lives for that and he'd been too busy building the Gundam, studying mathematics and electronics and all manners of engineering – and being a child. Commander Bruzer had been surprisingly insistent at that. It was how he'd met Emily, and by extension of her, Dique. And it had been a good thing. They'd had fun together. They helped him settle into Nora, into a normal life aside from the side at the military. They scolded him when he spent too much time (in their opinion; not much in his own) with the Gundam, but supported him all the same. And Emily would run interference with Vargas in the morning as well – though how successful that would prove once they left for school was another matter. Vargas was like a child with a new toy, sometimes, even if he was a grandfather.

'Yo,' said a voice suddenly, and unfamiliar. 'Shouldn't you be in bed, kid?' Flit started and whipped around. The night guard was running up as well, babbling something about an identification and the speaker made an annoyed sound. 'Here, here. Sheesh, all you stiff military…'

'I'm sorry,' said the man, but he sounded mystified as well as apologetic. 'I wasn't told –'

The man waved a hand. And he certainly didn't look like military personal, bedraggled like that. 'I'm not here on anything official. Just…seeing the sights, I suppose you can say.'

The guard hovered, but eventually went. After all, the Aliston base wasn't restricted to the mobile suit hanger.

'So this is the original Gundam,' said the man thoughtfully, after the guard had left. 'And you must be Flit Asuno.'

'Yes, sir,' said Flit warily. His hair was a bit of an unfortunate flag at times. 'I don't recognise you.'

'Suppose not.' The man grinned. 'My name's Captain Ash.'

'Captain?' Flit raised an eyebrow. And no surname? 'Of a battleship?'

'Yep.' The man sounded proud. 'She's a beauty. You'll see her soon, probably. But can't really give a tour in the middle of the night and half the crew asleep.'

'Suppose not.' There was already the Diva docked though, and he knew the captain's name was Dian Fonroid. Perhaps the military was considering the threat to the colony appropriately after all. 'Can't tell you much about the Gundam either,' he said, 'considering the engineers are all asleep. Hopefully.' He added the last part because Vargas was an overgrown child. He wouldn't be surprised if the other man wasn't asleep either. But at least he wasn't here to catch him.

'Don't need them.' Captain Ash waved a careless hand. 'After all, the Gundams are a legacy of the Asuno family.'

Flit frowned at that. Few people knew it. Vargas and Emily. Commander Bruzer and his second in command: Grodek Ainoa. People who'd died in Ovan, the day the angel fell. So who was this guy to have that kind of clearance and know-how? 'What are you doing here?' he asked bluntly.

'Easy,' said Captain Ash, and he was frowning as well. 'There's no-one here to bail you out of hot water if you find yourself swimming in it, you know?'

When Flit tensed, he laughed. 'Easy,' he repeated. 'I'm not an enemy. Isn't there something in here wanting to trust me?' he tapped his chest.

His eyes looked surprisingly hopeful, Flit noted. But the truth was there wasn't. The man was disconcerting and simply that. Unfamiliar and uncomfortable and altogether strange. He was a civilian but he'd met his fair share of military personnel… and yet no-one quite like this Captain Ash. Really, it made him want to trust the man less – and the trust meter was at 0% as it was, considering they'd just met. 'Not particularly,' he snapped.

The man visibly deflated. 'Figures,' he muttered, before turning to stare at the Gundam full force. 'Anyway… She up and running yet?'

'The Gundam?' Was he even supposed to answer that question? He was technically a civilian so military gag orders didn't really apply to him, but the Gundam was his life's work and his family's legacy… 'All Gundam-related inquiries are handled by Commander –'

'What's the date?' the man interrupted.

Flit bristled a little, before blinking at the unorthodox question. But he told the other man the date.

'I see…' mused the man. 'So mobility checks in the morning, and then…' He shook his head. 'Hey kid, did you here? The UEs will be attacking Nora tomorrow.'

'What?' Flit yelped, spinning and almost slipping against the rail. 'Who said that?'

The man tsked, and walked off. 'You haven't worked it out? I'm disappointed, Flit Asuno.'

The Gundam was no longer the centrepiece in his mind. It was the map, and the calculations he'd left sprawled out on his desk. He raced back, passing the night guard on his way out with barely a wave of acknowledgement and probably being too noisy for the middle of the night – but that didn't matter. The man was either yanking his chain or he was right and as much as it galled that he hadn't worked it out to the exact day, if it was tomorrow he needed to see it with his own eyes – or at least see the proof. 'Haro,' he snapped at the green little robot. 'Enter search terms: UE, Nora, projected attack date.'

The Haro whirled in the background and Flit poured over his handiwork. Calculations on top of calculations and the military hadn't even believed Nora was a legitimate target of intervention by the UE and now suddenly this? What had changed? Or, if he was being misled, what did the mysterious Captain Ash have to gain? He was a fourteen year old civilian, after all, and even if his legal guardian was the Commander of Nora himself, the man didn't blindly follow his every recommendation. And Flit wouldn't just take the man's words at face value, either.

There had to be something in the calculations he was missing. Or something he hadn't done yet.

'No data, no data,' Haro said, beeping.

Flit sighed. Well, Haro couldn't exactly hack into confidential military files – beyond his clearance, anyway. So that had been a low chance. There'd be an announcement in the morning news if that was true, anyway. Commander Bruzer wouldn't leave the colony in the dark if an attack was confirmed.

But the fact remained that his prediction was off, regardless of whether Captain Ash's words were truth or lie. There was something… And he was going to crack this puzzle tonight, because tomorrow might be too late.