Maybe Angels

Author's Notes:

Disclaimers: I don't own Gundam Wing, and if I did, I wouldn't know where to begin to spend all that money. And, I would probably be banned from every recording studio in Japan for my stalking of seiyuu. *pulls out empty pockets and lots of lint* If you think I make money for this, then you are totally insane. ^_^;;;

Author's Notes: Yes, a lot of research has gone into this story, as well as countless re-watching of 'Dogma'. Not that I am complaining about the fact that I have to re-watch my favorite movie a few more times. *gigglz* The prologue seems a bit rushed to me, but I didn't really want to give too much away at the beginning. This chapter will deal with the angels themselves and their many, many relationships.

Dedication: To all my lovely angels. You know who you are, and how much I love you all. BTW, *glomps Yuki-chan* You're one of the bestest! Love you!

Symbols: *~*~* change in POV, scene, or time
*~~~* minor change of scene or flashback

*~~~~~~~~*
Could you whisper in my ear
The things you wanna feel
I'll give you anything
To feel it coming
Do you wake up on your own
And wonder where you are
You live with all your faults
I wanna wake up where you are
I won't say anything at all
So why don't you slide
Yeah were gonna let it slide
~ Slide, Goo Goo Dolls
*~~~~~~~*

Slide

Ok, I promised you the story of my life, and so here I start. Please, be patient with me. This will not be an easy or quick tale. I think the best place to start is at the beginning, with the creation: the beginning of it all.

Well, God decided that She was bored, (I tell this as She told the story to us) and wanted things to not be dark and cold. So, She created the Earth and the light on the first day. She was so happy with this process that She decided to create Heaven, and us Angels, as a way to observe the Earth and the goings on of the way things were progressing. Some were just set to write and take notes of all things that God decreed. Then, She decided that all this was good, and that She needed to make dry land to observe.

When there was land, God decided on creating plants - all sorts of plants, trees, flowers, bushes, weeds, and edible things. The world was wonderfully beautiful, and all we could do was stare in awe at the sight of it. Then, God decided that there needed to be more than just plants that would reproduce, but also animals of every kind. The animals were amazing creatures. Some fed upon the plants, and some upon the other beasts. Then, She did something none of us ever expected her to. She made Man, in the image of herself.

There was an uproar in heaven. The Seraphim of the first choir of angels were truly divided about the new creatures. God gave only one commandment to the Man, and his mate, the Female. They were to stay away from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil in order to remain the keepers of the ultimate Paradise, commonly referred to as the Garden of Eden. There were two opinions about the newest creation of Our Lord.

One was that of Jehovah, or when he came down to Earth, Jesus (and he was called Noventa amongst his friends - I do not know why), that we should allow free will to the creatures; give them the knowledge they required to live good lives or bad. Then there was the Morning Star, or Lucifer, Satan. (His familiar name was Dekim, but only his *close* friends were allowed to call him that.) He believed that man did not deserve a chance and that they were made to serve God. That was all.

Oh, many angels were confused, and soon war broke out among the divided sides. I lost my closest companion, Solo, due to the feud. It pains me now to even write this down. I was not the only one either. Heero lost a companion, the wisest of all Cherubim, Odin, as well. When the Holiest of Wars was over, we counted amongst our group those of us that had not been cast down into Hell along with the Fallen One.

There were only us nine, where once there had been at least twenty. None of our companions from the second choir remained. Three of the first choir, Heero, Trowa, and Sally, were with us. Then, there were the six of us, Quatre, Hilde, Noin, Zechs, Cathy, and myself, in the lowest rank of the third choir. We spent many days lamenting the loss of our friends and tending to the wounded.

On the fifth day after the Holiest of Wars, God looked around at Her remaining loyal Angels and began to weep. We were distressed. Never had we seen such a sight before. It gave us pain to have Our Lord so miserable. Finally, She called us all to Her, and gave us Her decision.

Man was to have free will, meaning they would be allowed to decide whether to live righteously or not. We were not to have them forcefully bound to Our God. Of course, this meant that if they did not, they would be cast down with the Fallen One. Her decree was one that we had expected, but the last part was something new to us. We were afraid for the wonderful creatures who had no idea that a battle for their well being had been fought.

As we turned to go - all but the Seraphim, who served Our Lord - She spoke again. This time, we were all given a startling announcement. Man and Woman had eaten the fruit from the forbidden Tree of Knowledge. Many cried, Quatre and Hilde being among the multitude. This meant that they would be made to feel pain, hunger, terror, and even death. Such was the case from then on. She also told us that we were all to be assigned to the fledgling humans who were being born.

That is how the hierarchy of the Angels began to come into real play, though none of us were more important than the others, as far as God was concerned. From that day forth, we were given to the humans at the time of their birth, until their deaths, whenever that would be.

I turned to my friends when were allowed to leave and saw that they were just as shocked as I was. Hilde, Cathy, and Quatre were stunned speechless, but not I. Never was I at a loss for words in those days. (Heero always told me that I would eventually talk them all into madness, but this was said with as much humor as he could muster.)

"Trowa, Heero, do you know what this means?" I asked, my voice excited and worried at the same time.

"Yes, Duo, we *all* know. If Man chooses unwisely, then the Fallen One will receive their souls upon death," Heero said, as stoic as he always was.

"I am weary now. Trowa, will you keep me company?" Quatre asked, not bothering to cover his eagerness when the quiet one nodded. There was a certain perk to his wings as they left.

I wanted to be alone to think, and I think everyone knew that, for they left rather quickly. I had just begun to turn my thoughts over when another presence was felt. I turned to see Heero a pace away. To say I was surprised would have been an understatement. Never before had he been so close to me. His eyes where clouded and confusing.

"Heero?"

"Duo, why are you so quiet? This is not like you," he said, making the small distance between us seem even smaller. I began to feel a certain fear that I could hardly explain. I had known Heero since we were created, and we had been good friends, but at that moment, there seemed a dark under-side to him that had been hidden until this point.

"I... I just find this all a bit much. I don't know. We will have to watch our charges be cast down into Purgatory... It is easy for you, Trowa, and Sally. You are just the Grigori. But the rest of us, we will have to be close to them, interact with them. We will have to deal with their pain. You just have to write down what they do," I said, truly afraid for the first time ever. "I... I guess... I'm just afraid of becoming too attached." I gave a faint smile.

Heero stood, his face softening to something akin with sympathy, and leaned so close I could feel his breath when he spoke. "You will do a fine job, Duo. Trust me," he whispered, kissing me on the cheek and leaving.

I was shocked. I ran a hand up to the spot on my face where his lips had barely brushed against the skin. It was still warm with the heat of his breath. I would have stayed there swooning with all the implications that that single gesture conveyed, but God had called me to Her. It looked like I was about to get my first charge. Yippee!

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Well, I don't think that my first charge could be called anything but shortened. It seems that God decided that Quatre, Trowa, and I made a good team, so we have worked with each other from day one. We were lucky. We got the good son of Adam and Eve (as the first two were called), Abel. Poor Noin, Zechs and Heero were shucked with that Cain guy. So, when Cain decided to kill Abel because God liked Abel better, Noin got a lot of dirty looks. She cried for a while, and none but Zechs could get her to stop.

Soon though, we were too busy to console one another on whose charge did what. When we finally got into the normal pattern of things, God caused plagues, and natural disasters. We were losing charges too quickly to really get to know them. The whole time though, we managed to keep a happy aura around us to keep up with the work our job demanded.

I finally got used to helping out humans when I got the Napoleon guy. He was funny. Short guy in stature, attitude for days, ambitious to no end, but one great sense of humor. He was a little paranoid, and would only talk to me when we were alone, and if I appeared to him as a woman with long blonde hair and big blue eyes. I think Quatre would have enjoyed the job a lot more than I did, but after I got used to the idea of appearing as a woman, I was always welcome.

Things continued like this, and as time passed, Heero tried to spend more time around me. At first it unnerved me, but soon, I got used to it. I also noticed that Trowa wanted to spend more and more time around Heero, but that was logical since they had the same job, basically. Quatre was enamored with Trowa; and was hanging all over me when he wasn't busy trying to get Trowa's attention or watching over our charges. I don't really know why he was so attached to me. We were close as companions, but not close enough to warrant this type of behaviour.

In fact, it seemed as if it was when our charges were asleep that we often paired up. Trowa often managed to get Heero away from me. Hilde and Quatre were often seen sitting chatting. Noin and Zechs seemed attached to one another to the hip; nothing could tear them apart from each other. Sally and Cathy, the mother-hens of our group, seemed to be interested in one another as well, if not only for their minds. They were constantly debating the humans, and their role on Earth. I seemed to drift from one 'couple' to another, not spending much time with any one person. It just didn't seem right. I loved my job, my Boss, my companions, and my charges, but something was missing.

I had no idea what that was until I met my last charge, Chang Wufei, in the year AD 3023, as far as the human calendars go.