Zechs Merquise

Infobox animanga character
name = Zechs Marquise
series = Mobile Suit Gundam Wing


caption = Zechs Marquise, as he appeared unmasked in Gundam Wing.
first =
last =
creator =
voiced by = Takehito Koyasu (JPN)
Brian Drummond
alias = Milliardo Peacecraft ("real name")
Lightning Baron
Lightning Count
Preventer Wind [EW]
age = 19 (series), 20 (Endless Waltz)
born = AC 176
death =
nationality = Sanc Kingdom
relatives = Relena ("sister")
King Peacecraft ("father, deceased")
Katrina ("mother, deceased")
divider = yes
aux1 name = Allegiance
aux1 = OZ, Sweepers, Sanc Kingdom, White Fang [GW] Preventers [EW]
aux2 name = Rank
aux2 = First Lieutenant (OZ)
Colonel (OZ)
Commander-in-chief (White Fang)
aux3 name = Mobile weapons
aux3 = OZ-06MS Leo OZ-07AMS Aries OZ-00MS Tallgeese XXXG-00W0 Wing Gundam Zero OZ-13MS Gundam Epyon OZ-00MS2B Tallgeese III

In the series Mobile Suit Gundam Wing, nihongo|Zechs Marquise|ゼクス・マーキス|Zekusu Mākisu|taken from German "sechs", lit. "six", is a legendary Mobile Suit pilot, belonging to the OZ Faction. Renowned for his amazing skills in combat, his exploits earned him the title of the Lightning Count (Lightning Baron in the original Japanese dialog). A personal friend of OZ leader Treize Khushrenada, Zechs is often the commander of important missions, and receives his orders directly from Treize. However, Zechs has a very important past. His real name is actually Milliardo Peacecraft (French 1,000,000,000 - milliard, one thousand million in long scale, one billion in short scale, continuing the series' named for numbers scheme.), heir to the former kingdom of peace, the Sanc Kingdom. After the destruction of his homeland by United Earth Sphere Alliance forces, he donned his iconic mask, and left behind the name of Peacecraft, for his new moniker, Zechs Marquise. He is also the older brother of the pacifist heroine, Relena Peacecraft, and the rival of Heero Yuy throughout the show.

=Method= Zechs is very much like Char Aznable from the original Mobile Suit Gundam. Both joined the organizations that killed their families for revenge under an alias, and both quickly moved up in rank within them. When the Alliance was overthrown by OZ, Zechs became OZ's undisputed top ace. However, OZ (a corporate subsidiary of the Romefeller Foundation) betrayed Zechs, at which point Zechs became something of a freelancer and fought for his own merit. He occasionally sided with various mercenaries until being offered a head seat of the White Fang Movement. As the head of the White Fang he fought on the behalf of the space colonies, much like Char's speech that he fights for the sake of all "spacenoids". In the end Zechs attempts to crash the battleship Libra into Earth much like Char attempted to crash Axis into Earth. Also, like Char, he had blond hair and wore a helmet as a mask, where as Char wore a mask usually with a helmet as well. In addition, both Zechs and Char have sisters who live under assumed names, and fight on opposing sides.

=History=

= In this manga story, Zechs Marquise presumably received his nickname, the "Lightning Count", when he was sent on a Specials mission to repress a terrorist organization's attack on the Earth Alliance base at the J.A.P. point in the Pacific Ocean, in the year After Colony 191. Piloting the newest model Aries mobile suit, Zechs claimed that he only needed one minute to crush the rebellion, saying "...this battle will end the moment I land." Treize, witnessing Zechs' fight, commented that Zechs was not just talk and that he "fights like lightning."

The surviving terrorists retreated towards the Darlian estate. Zechs, leaving the defense of the base in the hands of Treize, pursued them. One of the fleeing terrorists encountered Relena, who had wandered away from her house. The terrorist then took Relena hostage, an act that was presumably one of the goals of the terrorist attack (The man told Relena, "I" know "you're the Darlian's brat! Never thought... I'd find you so easily!"). While wondering whether she was going to die right there, Relena saw a "shooting star", which was Zechs approaching in his Aries. After the terrorist identified that his hostage was the Darlian girl, Zechs, recognizing Relena as his sister, dismounted his mobile suit. While the terrorist was gloating about his victory and his capture of the latest model Aries, Zechs shot his gun-wielding hand. He then allowed the man to flee, not wishing to kill in front of Relena. Zechs then began reminiscing about Relena's first steps, not realizing that he was still brandishing his gun. While holstering his weapon, Zechs reminded himself that he no longer had any right to even touch Relena because he had abandoned his Peacecraft name and his father's pacifistic ideals. He then addressed Relena as "princess" and asked her if she was all right. Relena, bewildered as to why she was being called a princess, asked Zechs if he was then a knight on a terrible dragon. Zechs replied that he was a "prince of the stars", and left.

=Gundam Wing= After his first encounter with Wing Gundam, Zechs began searching for a mobile suit that can defeat a Gundam, and he has found one in the OZ-00MS Tallgeese (AKA "Prototype Leo"). Before he received the suit, he was involved with "Operation Daybreak", in which OZ crushes the United Earth Sphere Alliance, and Zechs finally gets his revenge after he executed the commanding officer who was part of the destruction of the Sanc Kingdom. Zechs tried to pilot his newly-acquired Tallgeese during his attempt to liberate the Sanc Kingdom, but the Tallgeese's dangerously high thrust rate proved to be nearly fatal for the Lightning Baron, and he was forced to retreat. Eventually, Otto, Zechs' right-hand man, takes the Tallgeese against orders and crashes it into the Alliance base, destroying the base and killing himself in the process. Zechs, now piloting the Tallgeese, dueled with the Wing Gundam in Siberia, but it was cut short after Lady Une threatened to shoot down the colonies unless the Gundam pilots surrender. Doctor J appears on the monitors, offering his and the Scientists' surrender instead. Zechs was shocked to discover that the pilot of the Wing Gundam was just a teenage boy, and that he self-destructed his Gundam in front of his eyes in response to the surrender. After that, Zechs quietly took away parts of the destroyed Wing Gundam and began to secretly rebuild it under OZ's nose. A couple of months later, Zechs learned that Heero Yuy, the Wing Gundam pilot, was still alive, and he offered him a rematch at Antarctica, in which Heero accepts, piloting Trowa Barton's Gundam Heavyarms instead. The rematch was interrupted again, this time by Relena, who learns that Zechs was actually her older brother, Milliardo. Eventually, they were forced to flee, and Zechs surrenders to the OZ forces after Relena and the others are at a safe enough distance. Zechs was forced to destroy numerous Alliance mobile suits during his execution, and at the end of the fight, Zechs' mask shatters, signaling the end of friendship with Treize and his relationship with OZ. Zechs was eventually taken in by Sweeper member Howard, and after he repaired and upgraded the Tallgeese, Howard suggested that he should go to space. Zechs heads off to space, and he encountered two new mobile suits, the Mercurius and the Vayete, piloted by Heero and Trowa, respectively. It was then where he introduced himself to the pilots by his real name, Milliardo Peacecraft, goodwill ambassador from the Sanc Kingdom. After saving Lady Une when the Barge cannon was about to be fired at a colony she was staying at, and overhearing the colonial leaders' conversation that they believe that the only way to avoid war is to arm themselves and embrace OZ, Zechs dons the mask once again and begins destroying OZ mobile doll carriers in space, until he discovered that OZ was planning to destroy the Wing Gundam Zero, which they had confiscated. He engaged in battle with numerous mobile dolls, and he self-detonated his critically damaged Tallgeese upon arrival to the Wing Zero, where he managed to easily destroy any remaining mobile dolls with the Wing Zero.

After his brief encounter with an out-of-control Chang Wufei, Zechs received disturbing news, when Relena announces that she is dissolving the Sanc Kingdom and surrendering herself to the Romefeller Foundation. Zechs immediately rushes back to the Sanc Kingdom, only to engage in battle with the new mobile suit, the Gundam Epyon, piloted by Heero Yuy. After the battle where the two were defeated simultaneously by their own advanced cockpit systems, Zechs and Heero agreed to trade their Gundams; therefore, Zechs becomes the new pilot of the Epyon.

Zechs soon falls into a state of depression after seeing the Sanc Kingdom collapse once again, and felt that he had no use for the Epyon. A mysterious man named Quinze introduces himself, and offers Zechs to be the new leader of the colonial rebel faction, the White Fang. He accepts the offer. During his stint as the White Fang leader, Zechs single-handedly destroys the space station, Barge, with his Epyon, and uses White Fang's space battleship Libra to fire on a remote place on Earth (despite Relena's best efforts to talk him out of it) as a declaration of war to the recently-installed World Nation leader and his former friend Treize. The two former friends, now bitter enemies, along with the forces they were leading, would engage in the final battle of what is now known as the "Eve Wars". Zechs was now hell-bent on dropping the heavily-damaged Libra onto Earth to cause an endless winter on Earth.

Zechs would engage in a final duel with Heero, this time to determine Earth's fate. Heero emerged victorious when he slices off the Epyon's left arm, proverbally drawing "first blood" in dueling terms, but Heero decides to spare Zechs' life for Relena's sake. Without any ammunition left, Heero was about to self-destruct his Gundam in the main generator room to destroy the main generator until Zechs intervenes and destroys the generator himself, with the blast enveloping the Epyon. Zechs was presumed to be killed at this point but Noin, at his grave, says that she didn't bring any flowers to his grave simply because she believes that Zechs is still out there somewhere.

=Endless Waltz= In "" (AC 196) Zechs returned to what is now the Earth Sphere Unified Nation and volunteered to be a Mobile Suit (MS) pilot for 'Preventer' (an elite intelligence bureau designed to stop aggressive conflicts before they are executed) during the attempt to overthrow the government by ramming a Space Colony into Earth by Mariemaia Khushrenada, Treize's pre-adolescent daughter. He piloted the mobile suit OZ-00MS2B Tallgeese III, and began using the callsign 'Preventer Wind'. While he was destroying the first wave of Mariemaia Army's mobile suit carriers, Zechs explains his mysterious return to Dekim Barton:

Zechs: "This is Preventer Wind calling"
Dekim: "Zechs Marquise? I thought you were dead."
Zechs: "That's right, I was; but I find that I cannot quietly sleep in my grave while Treize's spirit is still roaming among us."

When Zechs targeted Dekim's base with the Tallgeese's mega rifle, Dekim threatened to implement Operation Meteor by dropping a colony filled with people onto Earth. Thankfully, the Gundam pilots negated this, allowing Zechs to complete his mission. However, Dekim was able to escape. Zechs was one of the very few people who actively fought against Mariemaia's army, and it is worth noting that he was only seen to have been hit once in the entire fight, on the Tallgeese III's shield. At the end of the conflict, Zechs disappeared once again with his faithful companion Lucrezia Noin, presumably headed for Mars.