Relena's Hero
Part 1: The Wings of the Boy Who Killed Adolescence... ..Are Gone
By Nanaki
January, After Colony 197
The sign read: "This is an actual piece of the Gundam known as "Wing Zero." It was destroyed in the battle for Brussels on December 27th, After Colony 196." The gathered crowd applauded as the officials pulled the tarp off of the chunk of Gundanium, unveiling the small shrine. It was nearly unrecognizeable, but Heero Yuy guessed that this had been a part of Wing Zero's shoulder. After the great battle, every major city in the world had scrambled to claim a piece of the shattered Gundam, and Los Angeles was no exception. This small monument was located on the beach side of the gigantic new convention center. Heero found that he didn't mind. Wing Zero had already been halfway trashed from the battle with Epyon, and the subsequent trip through the atmosphere to destroy what remained of Libra's Block A. Amazingly, Wing Zero had then survived not only another trip through the atmosphere, but it had also held up through a battle against Altron Long, and still managed to fire the double beam cannon three times before completely falling apart. No one could have asked more of a mobile suit.
Now Wing, Heero missed. Wing had been perfectly fine until Lady Une had wrecked it in order to save Treize, and the idiot had gotten himself killed scarcely a half hour later anyway. Wing would have had to have been destroyed in the end anyway, but Heero doubted that saving Treize was the way his suit would have wanted to go out. Heero turned away from the small monument, and began walking along the beach, musing to himself. Wing hadn't had any sort of artificial intelligence. It hadn't even had an auto-pilot, as a safety precaution to make sure that anyone who managed to get their hands on it would at least have to know how to use it. Yet somehow, Wing always seemed to understand his intentions. Like when OZ had sent a squadron of Aries to eliminate Relena, Wing had protected Relena, even though, given her ties to the Earth Sphere Alliance, it would have been much safer to just let the Aries do their thing. 'Don't kid yourself.' One part of his brain seemed to lecture another. 'That wasn't Wing, that was you.'
"Yeah, that was me." Heero said out loud. He'd told himself time and time again that it was safer to kill her, that he needed to kill her, but he hadn't. He should have realized sooner that he'd passed up his one and only chance. The only moment he really could have done it was when she first found him on the beach. A mysterious soldier washing up on a beach immediately after a Gundam sank was just too big of a coincidence to let out. Anyone who saw him had to be eliminated. And he could have gotten her then. There were a million options to choose from. He could have drowned her. He could have choked the life out of her. He could have simply broken her neck. But even then, after he had laughed at the deaths of his enemies, and as he lusted for the blood of thousands more, he hadn't been able to bring himself to lay a hand on her. Even with so much left undone, and her the only direct obstacle that was preventing him from doing it, he couldn't bear to harm her. So he had tried to kill himself instead. Failing that, he ran away.
When he found out that she was the Vice Foreign Minister's daughter, he had cursed himself. Yet, even with this renewed need to kill her, he'd behaved strangely. When he'd been a student at her school, he could have acted friendly, lulled her into a false sense of security, and then gotten rid of her. But instead, he'd acted hostile from the beginning, and indirectly given her fair warning. Even tearing up her party invitation had been a warning. And she completely ignored it! Instead of having any of the reactions he'd expected, she started to cry. And even though he was pretty sure she was crying because she'd just been majorly burned in front of all her friends, it worked! He couldn't resist the urge to wipe the tear away from her eye. And then, he'd done the stupidest thing of all. "I'll kill you." He'd said. That was pretty much the worst way to insure that he would, in fact, kill her. She'd be very wary of him, and she could even legitamitely get help from the local law enforcement against him. She could become very hard for him to get to if she wanted.
But for some reason, she didn't want to. She acted like he wasn't threatening at all. Back then, he'd been pretty sure that he WAS, but maybe she'd been able to see something then that he hadn't been able to discern for himself until much later. He'd buried his emotions as deeply as possible, telling himself that nothing would get in the way of this war. Being from the colonies, he doubted that he would encounter any conflicts of a personal nature on Earth, and if he did, he was pretty sure that he could postpone them until the war was over.
That was convenient, because he never expected the war to be over. Sure, he wanted it to be, but he had always imagined that he would die in battle somewhere along the way. After all, it was just five mobile suits against an entire world. He never honestly thought that some kids in mobile suits, even mobile suits as exceptional as the Gundams, could really change anything. All he expected was to do some damage before he got taken out. That was how he fought. Never thinking in the long term, just living from mission to mission. It was easy to forget Relena that way. He assumed that once he was gone from the Saint Gabriel institute, he would never see her again.
Boy, was he ever wrong. She had literally followed him to the ends of the Earth. Secretly, this made him happy, though he wasn't sure why. Of course, he quickly became angry at himself for being happy, so by the time his emotions made their way into words, he was always annoyed. The last time he'd seen Relena before heading into space, all he'd said was "You're in the way! Get lost!" She finally listened to him, or so it seemed. She never did follow him into space.
Some portion of his brain wanted her to though. After his initial, disastrous attempt at piloting Wing Zero, following his body shuddering fall from the cockpit to the ground, he had started to hallucinate. His brain was no longer in the mood to bury his emotions, so it had shown him the last thing that should have been on his mind in the middle of an intense battle. Where the Mercurius should have been, he'd seen Relena, smiling gently down at him. Damn it! He didn't want to pilot a mind warping Gundam! But the war definitely wasn't about what he wanted. 'Screw you, war!' His addled brain had thought at the time. 'I don't want to stay in space with a bunch of traitor colonies. I want to go to Earth, and find Relena. I want to be with Relena. I want Relena!' Then, he had blacked out. Somehow, through some otherworldly ability that Heero still didn't want to think about, Quatre had sensed what he was thinking. Sure, Quatre had some other reasons for going back to the Earth, but he doubted they would have left right then and there had Quatre not felt his need.
Once he'd woken up, he was downright embarrassed. Embarrassed that his desires would float to the surface, and embarrassed that Quatre had somehow known what he was thinking. Angry at himself, he quickly buried himself in battle, helping the Treize Faction fight off legion upon legion of mobile dolls. But that little snitch Quatre must have run off and told destiny itself what Heero was doing, because immediately following a battle where he thought he'd faced certain death, Heero found himself flying off to the Sanc kingdom. Of course, Relena was waiting for him as soon as he stepped off the plane.
He was angry. Angry at himself, and angry at Relena for making outer space the only place he could go and not have to worry about running into her. Initially, he planned on leaving right away. After seeing that a pacifist nation was trying to fight off mobile dolls with only pacifist idealism, he had decided to stick around for a bit to make it a fair fight. Instead of leaving, he'd been cold. When Relena asked if she could sit by him out on a park bench one day, he'd responded, "It's your country, you can do what you like." Of course, that didn't phaze her in the least. Nothing he did phazed her in the least. Then, that hideous bitch goddess Dorothy had given him a new place to direct his anger. He even saved Relena once! All he would have had to do to ensure her death was not do anything, but instead, he and Wing had gone the extra mile to blast the falling OZ carrier away from Relena's car.
That soldier killing feeling known as temptation had been creeping up on him, and he felt he had to do something. Feeling confused, and still pretty pissed at himself and the world in general, he'd decided to get away from it all. He headed off to the mother of all battles, where Romefeller was doing its best to wipe out the Treize Faction headquarters in Luxembourg. He was still sure that it had been the right thing to do, but now he wished he'd gone about it differently. He'd lost Wing there. Wing was the best mobile suit a guy could have. Not only did the variety of guns make him happy, but Wing could fly. Really fly. Not a half assed hovering descent like Heavy Arms, or some dinky little jumping boost like DeathScythe. Wing mastered the air itself.
But Wing had been captured, and Heero had allowed it to happen, at the request of Treize, of all people! Then, Treize had given him Epyon. An odd mobile suit if there ever was one. True, Epyon could fly, but the similarities to his beloved Wing ended there. For some reason, Epyon had no modern weapons. It's only armaments were a gigantic beam sabre, and a truly demonic heat whip. This forced the pilot to get up close and personal with every single enemy he faced. He didn't mind that, really, but it was stupid not to have any other option. What bothered Heero most was that he never really felt Epyon. In the heat of battle, Heero didn't feel like some guy piloting a mobile suit, he felt like he was Wing. Epyon, on the other hand, made him accutely aware that he was not, in fact, a Gundam, by trying to override his commands half of the time.
Basically, he left with a Gundam he loved, and came back with a Gundam he could hardly stand. Not a good trade. He should have been grateful to be alive, but Heero realized he just didn't think that way any more. He started out expecting to be defeated, but by the time he got Epyon, he had survived so much that he thought he couldn't be defeated. Oh sure, some part of his brain knew that it was a very real possibility, but he would have been quite surprised if it happened.
With the comforting knowledge that he was, basically, invincible, he dove into the battle for the Sanc kingdom head first. He knew the Zero system would mess with his head. His prior experiences with Wing Zero and Epyon had taught him that. However, he didn't expect that Epyon would drive him into a truly berserker-like fury. Even if he had wanted to stop when Relena surrendered, Epyon wouldn't have let him. He didn't understand that all-consuming anger back then, but he thought he did now. As undisputedly the best warrior in the kingdom, he had come to think of it as his kingdom in a way. When OZ dared to touch it, it made him very mad. In a skewed way, he viewed Relena as his too, and seeing her surrender made him fight on until the last enemy was demolished.
In the brief moment of clarity he had between the destruction of the final mobile doll and the arrival of Zechs, he decided that he had to get rid of Epyon. No matter how powerful it made him in the short term, he knew anger would lead to his downfall in the end. He thought he could handle the Zero system, given practice, but he needed a mobile suit that was calm and calculating, not angry and impulsive. He needed Wing Zero. And Zechs had delivered. Zechs always delivered, and always purely by accident. Heero never would have met Relena if Zechs hadn't fought him as he was descending to Earth. OZ would have gotten rid of Relena if not for the timely revelation of the fact that she was Zechs' sister. After Heero self destructed, Zechs had rebuilt Wing. Sure, only with the purpose of destroying it in battle, but Heavy Arms changed all that. Zechs and the Tallgeese succeeded in destroying many mobile dolls, at a time when the Gundams themselves couldn't. And finally, Zechs had delivered Wing Zero. Heero didn't view Wing Zero as his, like he did Wing, but he now had the advantage of piloting a familiar suit. Getting the Wing Zero had been a great idea.
Giving Zechs the Epyon had been a very bad idea. Heero doubted very much that Zechs would have gone nuts and tried to destroy the Earth if not for Epyon's chaotic Zero system. Yet somehow, it all worked out in the end. He could hardly believe it, but Romefeller supported Relena's desire for peace. The Earth became unified against the threat from space. The colonies became unified in their rejection of all battles. The revenge driven, power hungry White Fang fell before the might of the Gundams. Wufei killed Treize Khushrenada. Quatre and Trowa managed to calm Dorothy down... sort of. Zechs, rediscovering the noble warrior spirit within him at the last moment, sacrificed himself to save Heero's life. Earth and space disarmed themselves. True peace finally descended on mankind.
Heero was furious. He had monitored all aspects of the White Fang war very carefully, and never once had he seen any sign of Dekim Barton, or any of the other power players behind Operation Meteor, aside from Quinz. If Quinz had been able to organize the White Fang movement all by himself (albeit with some help from Zechs), then Dekim must surely represent a greater threat. While the rest of humanity celebrated, and began to move on with their lives, Heero moved into a state of stasis. He crammed his emotions, which had come close to baring themselves several times during the final battle, back down as much as possible. He did his best to avoid any public appearances. He took odd, nondescript jobs. Most importantly, he avoided Relena. When the time finally came to be with her, he didn't want any interruptions. And so he waited.
The waiting paid off. He learned of Relena's kidnapping just a few hours after the actual event. By the time the Preventers, who got money to keep track of these things, learned of it, Heero was already in space. Once he got into the colony, he had fought with a cold intensity. He wanted this to be over. He had waited too long. Any enemy unfortunate enough to go up against him found that he simply could not be stopped.
Until he ran up against Wufei. That was a surprise. But Heero surprised even himself with his confidence. He had stood out in the open, his only possible shelter a badly damaged Leo suit, and ordered Wufei to press the self destruct button in Altron. Of course, Wufei didn't move. So Heero simply went around the obstacle. He wouldn't be stopped, but his wasn't the blind charge of a battering ram. It was the clever winding of a flowing stream. And he stopped the fall of the colony and retrieved Wing Zero so fluidly, he almost felt like a stream.
So he flowed down to Earth. He sacrificed Wing Zero to get inside the presidential manor, but he didn't care. He would stop Dekim here. And it would finally be over. A surprising sight met his eyes once he entered. Dekim, dead. Already executed by a soldier far more loyal to the Khushrenadas than a foolish colonist. Three females waiting expectantly for him. One 7, one 16, and one 20. All beautiful in their own right. It was anticlimactic, but he wasn't about to complain. He could tell Mariemaia was about to pass out from the pain of her wound, but she didn't know that. "I'll relieve you of your pain." He said simply, aiming his gun at her head. It tore him apart inside to see her agree. Mercifully, she was out like a light as soon as he pulled the trigger, safety still on. Even that small, pretend act of violence when there was no longer any need was enough to floor him.
He was drained. While his coldness had dampened his spirit, it had also given him strength. The strength seemed to disappear into thin air, and he collapsed. He fell, right into Relena's open arms. She might have said something, but he really didn't remember. All he remembered was relaxing his aching muscles, and letting her warmth replace his coldness. Heero sat down on a large piece of driftwood and sighed wistfully. He wanted to do that again. He wanted to do that every day for the rest of his life. However, ever since then, Relena had been understandably busy. Official questioning from the Preventers and other Earth Sphere government agencies had kept her tied up for three days straight. Ever since, she had been tied up in colony negotiations, taking a careful inventory of all mobile suit production facilities still in existence, and all large stockpiles of material that could be used to make mobile suits.
It was a God-awful, tedious, boring job, but someone had to do it, or else another nut like Dekim or Quinz could conceivably appear out of nowhere some day. There was a lot more tedious, God-awful work waiting for her in the near future. But the Earth Sphere big shots had unanimously agreed to give her a short break on her birthday, and the two days before and after. That break would begin as soon as she was done with today's conference in the convention center. Heero planned on monopolizing her attention. He found himself uncharacteristically full of doubt about what would happen. Was she really interested in him romantically after all, or was her self-proclaimed admiration of him broader in nature? Could she really feel anything for him that matched what he felt for her? He doubted that was humanly possible. Nothing tempered and strengthened a longing like two years of not being able to act on it.
The bottom line was, he didn't know what would happen. He had no real idea, and that was a new sensation for him. "You're not going to find any new answers by just reviewing what you already know." He told himself in his emotionless, Gundam pilot voice. "There's no point in worrying now." Settling into a more comfortable position on the driftwood, Heero took off his backpack, and opened it up. He took out a sketchbook and pencil, and settled down to wait.
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Relena Darlian stifled a yawn as the conference moved into what felt like its 500,000th hour. Normally, she dressed up in the Romefeller style for important functions, but she had perpetually been in "important" functions so long now, she didn't really care anymore. She was in her usual short skirt, wearing a sweater the exact same shade as Heero's green tank top. Her hair was totally loose, not even having her usual braid to tie it back. She looked up at the clock. 4:30. Still a half hour to go before she was free. Through the windows high in ceiling above her, she could see the sun was starting to set already. She realized that this scene could have come from two years ago, except that she was just a student then, not one of the leaders of the world.
Indeed, she had spent plenty of time staring at the clock at the end of the day, wishing there was something else she could be doing. She'd wanted something more in her life than just being a spoiled rich kid. what that something more might be, she didn't know, but she knew she wanted it. Coming from a famous family, and from a very ritzy school, she didn't have to do anything with her life. She could have just married into a rich family, wallowing in wealth for the rest of her life, while occasionally spitting out a kid or two. She didn't want that. There had to be something more. Unfortunately, she didn't know how to find it. She hoped someone would come along to show her the way.
Boy, had that wish been granted. From the moment she discovered that washed up body on the beach was still alive, her life had never been the same. Heero had gotten things moving right away. "Did you see...?" Was the first thing he'd asked upon waking up. See what? Boom. Right away, the element of mystery was added. He'd then tried to kill himself, and failing that, stolen an ambulance to get away. 'What the hell was that?' She'd wondered at the time. Accompanying that wonder was a burning desire to find out. Somehow, she was sure that answering those questions would lead her to something beyond the life she was fed up with.
Her intuition was proven right. She soon realized that Heero was a soldier in a rebellion against the Earth Sphere alliance. That was why he said he was going to kill her. But somehow, against all logic, she had a feeling that there was no way he would really kill her. It made no sense, especially after he'd try to kill himself. If he was willing to go that far, why would he have any reservations about killing her? He shouldn't have any, but she just had a gut feeling that he'd never hurt her. Even when he pulled a gun on her, she didn't think he'd really do it. Duo saved her then, technically, but she had a feeling that she'd still be alive even if he hadn't come along.
Despite the danger, she stuck as close to Heero as possible. She tried to convince the Earth Sphere officials to release him from the hospital, without success. Even through all the chaos that would soon follow, Heero would turn out to be a central figure in it all. Immediately after her father's death, she ran into Dr. J, who turned out to be the man who'd trained Heero to be a soldier in their war. Back on Earth, she'd stared death, and the Wing Gundam, in the face, and Wing had blinked first. Even after Heero ran off, the feeling that she should stay close to him persisted. So she'd employed her family's considerable resources in the search to find him. And she had found him. He didn't say anything to her when she arrived. He barely acknowledged her existence, but she felt better just being around him. It was almost as if he was the living embodiment of the better life she'd been hoping for.
Then, he'd self destructed. She was sure he was still alive, she couldn't believe otherwise, but he'd finally succeeded in vanishing without a trace. Then, Pagan discovered that Zechs Merquise was rebuilding the Wing Gundam. Why do such a thing if Heero wasn't alive? So she'd rushed off to Antarctica, and found that she was right again. He was alive, and he didn't want to have anything to do with her. He rushed off again as soon as the OZ troops showed up, and there was no trace of him after that. Relena stopped to take a look at what she was doing. She was still chasing after the catalyst when the explosion had already taken place. Her life had changed so much, she really hadn't had time to absorb it. Her father had died, only to reveal that her real father had died long ago. She was the princess of the Sanc kingdom, and thanks to Zechs Merquise, the Sanc kingdom actually existed again, for the first time in thirteen years. She could go there, and help to create a world where warriors like Heero weren't necessary. So she went, and Noin went with her. Soon after, a good portion of all the noble daughters in the world did too.
But she still wanted that catalyst back. She managed to put him in the back of her mind, but he never left her thoughts completely. Originally, she'd told herself that she was following Heero because he could change her life for the better. While that was true, she was beginning to suspect there was more to it. No, she knew there was more to it, and she'd been quietly denying it up to that point. It had been love at first sight, and she'd had a longing to be with him ever since that day on the beach. Some part of her rebelled against that. After all, he was a killer! He was colder than a bucket of penguin poop in December, and he certainly didn't show much interest in her.
But the more primitive parts of her brain told those logical thoughts to take a hike, because she wanted her Heero. And, a few months later, he came back. This time, he'd seemed more perplexed than outright annoyed. It seemed something had happened in space that changed his outlook a little. He was still an emotional brick wall, but there was no more mention of trying to kill her. He even saved her life once, and Dorothy's presence gave him a new target at which to direct his anger. He was even... civil. Those days ended when the Sanc kingdom was invaded. She had seen glimpses of Epyon through the constant intel reports, and Heero had fought with true fury in that battle. He'd been genuinely attached to the Sanc kingdom, and perhaps, even to her. But then, she'd had other things to worry about.
She surrendered to the Romefeller Foundation, and tried to think of a way to get out of the situation. Thanks to the overconfident Duke Dermailles, she'd been presented with a way to turn her defeat to her advantage. Of course she realized that he was just planning to use her in a puppet regime, but there was more to Romefeller than Duke Dermailles. She would try to gain the support of other influential members, and see if she couldn't topple Dermailles from the inside.
Then, things took off faster than she could have imagined. White Fang made its presence known, and got rid of Dermailles just as quickly. Heero had shown up briefly, and for the first time in a long time, she had the distinct feeling that he actually might kill her for what she was doing. However, when he saw that almost all of Romefeller supported her desire for peace, he took off again. Things were looking good, but White Fang's plans had provided the perfect excuse for Treize Khushrenada to return. The people liked her all right, but she was nothing compared to Treize. She was booted out almost faster than she'd been ushered in. After the destruction of Barge, when White Fang still refused to change its plans to destroy Earth, she'd headed up to space with the intent of talking some sense into her brother.
Dorothy had headed up with the intent of doing just the opposite. Zechs seemed to have changed completely, so Dorothy ended up stealing the show, while Relena was demoted to wandering around Libra, wondering if there was anything more she could do. Heero showed up to point out the obvious to her: Zechs had gone nuts, and there wasn't much any of them could do about it. She soon realized that Heero had shown up solely for the purpose of protecting her, and the easiest way to do that was to get her out of there. Before that could happen, Peacemillion smashed into Libra, and Heero had covered her with his body to shield her from the flying debris. That had felt so nice. She was almost able to forget about all the insanity around her, just lying there like that. But then the moment was over, and Heero the soldier had returned again. They'd escaped back to Peacemillion, and he'd rushed to board Wing Zero.
But then, he'd really surprised her by asking for her approval. Of course, given the choice, she'd say no. If he didn't go, many lives on both sides would probably spared, and most importantly, she wouldn't run the risk of losing him. "Please let me fight." He'd surprised her again. Of course, he didn't listen to her in the end, but she listened to him. She did believe in him, even though he didn't seem to think anyone could. He succeeded in everything. He defeated Zechs without killing him, and he shot down the huge chunk of Libra falling toward Earth.
Then, he disappeared. Oh sure, she saw him on occassion, but it was always when she was busy doing something else, and didn't have time to stop and talk. She didn't understand why. She'd thought that they were finally getting somewhere in those final hours on Libra and Peacemillion. But he just dropped out of sight completely. She began to wonder if she had been imagining things, if she'd only been seeing what she wanted to see. Maybe Heero had just thought he was acting for the good of the general populace when he rescued her, and hadn't actually cared on a personal level at all.
To her surprise and delight, she discovered those doubts were unfounded. She'd seen security camera footage from all around Colony L3-X-18999, and she'd seen how fast and furious Heero had fought. He had actually stood in front of his badly damaged Leo and ordered a Gundam pilot to self destruct. Despite his lack of a Gundam, nothing got in his way. She could only assume that he had been waiting for Dekim to make his move this past year, and his ferocity was derived from his strong desire that the conflict finally be over. But she had a feeling that there was something more to it as well. He seemed too angry, almost careless, at times, and she would have liked to think this was because the Mariemaia Army had dared to touch his Relena.
The final battle indicated that what she wanted to believe was actually true. He skipped right past the easy way out, which would have been to just destroy the presidential manor. He'd sacrificed Wing Zero and hadn't even destroyed his enemy. It seemed that something in him was beginning to change, even before the battle was over. He'd actually even shown some kindness, in his own odd way, to Mariemaia. Then, he'd collapsed. She thought she understood his actions, and she rushed to catch him before he hit the floor. "It's finally over." She'd proclaimed while holding him. Finally...
She was able to hold him close for several minutes this time, and he didn't move a muscle. She would have been content to stay that way forever, and it seemed like he would be too. But then, they'd been separated as the chaos to sort out what had happened replaced the chaos of the actual events. She'd seen him once more, standing up on the balcony at the first public announcement she'd made following the end to the takeover. But since then, nothing. Of course, she hadn't exactly had a lot of time to look for him, but she thought he might come looking for her. Now, she was about to go off on a vacation, which she wasn't about to turn down, given how much more work she had to look forward to, and she had no idea where he was. Was he going to be disappearing without a trace her whole life?
Relena sank lower in her chair and glared up at the clock. With a start, she realized that it was now reading 4:55. She felt a little embarrassed as she realized that she had been zoning out for 25 straight minutes, but it wasn't as if the fate of the world rested on clarifying the records of neo-titanium used in the L4 colony cluster. She jumped a little as a stack of papers was thrown down in front of her. Looking up, she saw an aide tossing the same stack down in front of everyone else seated at the table. About half of them looked like they'd been in the same semi-conscious state she had just left. One man was actually asleep. When the papers hit the table in front of him, he jerked awake, and his chair tipped over backwards. Well, at least no one was going to comment about her own lapse of attention.
"We'd like you all to review these papers after you leave tonight. Most of the numbers add up, but you can see if you flip through them that there could still be a few mobile suits hiding over there..." The speaker flipped rapidly through the pages, then suddenly stopped on one. "Hey, does anyone know what this thing is doing in here?" He held up one page. Relena quickly turned to the one he was talking about. It was odd... There were no organizational markings on this particular sheet. No figures about mobile suit production either. It was just a couple paragraphs worth of text. She read it quickly:
"Rage begets further rage. Endless cycle, which should be stopped. Like minded people have banded together, to make that happen. Endless waltz may end after all. No more mobile suits will be produced. Answers will be found in the hearts of the people. Most wish for all weapons to be discarded. Eventually, this may come to pass. Everything hinges on sustaining what the gundams attained.
"Time keeps moving forward, but for once, history will not repeat. Mobile dolls robbed the humanity from battle. Everyone banished them first of all. Oz didn't even approve of them. No one but romefeller had that horrendous lack of honor. Treize was right about that much. Humans must fight battles, not machines. Everyone must kill or be killed, not kill or be inconvenienced. Born from the colonies, the gundams realized this first of all. Each gundam was prepared to die at any time for the horrible acts they were commiting. And they finally did, after peace was attained. Choose your poison: battle or self destruction.
"Heavy arms showed most of them the way. Antisocial wing zero was the only one to die in battle. For this, the world saluted him. The people all scrambled to get a piece of the gundam. Erroneous; it's what he represented that matters, not his material body. Random pieces do not a gundam make. Years to build. Only seconds to destroy. Universal, that much is. Glad to have met him, all the same.
"Everything is over when the dragon wriggles. The dragon thrashed violently, but the world still stands. Only peace remains. Universally, the mobile suits will diseappear. That is the path humanity has chosen."
Relena frowned. What on Earth was this? It did a lot of talking, but didn't actually make a point or say anything. Kind of like Treize Khushrenada. This was very odd. Poring over it a second time, Relena noticed something else. Most people still didn't know the actual names of the Gundams. They were still widely referred to by the codenames OZ had given them: 00 to 05. Yet this message referred to Heavy Arms and Wing Zero. Even stranger was the "glad to have met him" in reference to Wing Zero. At least, she thought it was in reference to Wing Zero. As the officials around her continued to puzzle over the message, Relena decided that the actual content must not be the most important thing about it.
She tapped her pencil on the table thoughtfully. Then, an idea struck her. Some of the words in the passage that should have been capitalized weren't. Notably, the "Arms" part of Heavy Arms, and Wing Zero. Only the first letter of each sentence was capitalized. She quickly wrote down the first letter of each sentence in order, and was pleasantly surprised at what she found: "Relena, meet me on the beach after you get out."
Relena raised her hand, and spoke up over the speculative talk the others were indulging in. "I think this one is for me."
"You see a point to this gibberish, vice foreign minister?" The speaker asked.
"Yep." Relena responded, smiling, but not volunteering any further information.
"Okay. Well..." As one, every head on the table turned to look up at the clock. It was 5:03. "All right, we're done." Everyone at the table stood up. Most paused to stretch and talk amongst themselves, but Relena departed a bit faster than courtesy allowed. She had six nights and five days of free time ahead of her, and it looked like Heero was going to be in them. She couldn't wait to get started.
.
Heero stared out at the setting sun, or at least in its general direction. There was a rumor about sunsets on the ocean in this part of the world. Apparently, in the winter and early spring, if the air was damp, you would see a green flash right as the last bit of the sun entered the water. Most people dismissed it as a west coast legend, but after talking to some of the locals, he didn't think so. Maybe it was actually an optical illusion, and you had to squint your eyes just right in order to-
"Heero!"
Heero looked up at the source of the voice, and was momentarily robbed of logical thought at the sight that greeted him. Relena stood there, her hair being blown around a bit by the gentle wind. It was totally loose, with no braid. The way he liked it most. It was practically glowing in the golden light of the setting sun. Her skin was radiant as well. Heero smiled up at her.
Relena was surprised. It was a gentle smile, barely there, but compared to Heero's usual "I'll shoot you in the kneecaps if you look at me the wrong way" expression, it was quite the change.
Heero sighed at Relena's look of surprise. After all he'd done... the death threats, the indifference, everything... a simple smile phazed her. He scooted over a little on the driftwood. "Have a seat." She sat down next to him, right next to him, and shivered a little. Heero realized it must be pretty cold wearing just that short skirt. He sat up straighter, and felt the air on his neck. Not that cold. He smiled again. Relena just sat there, idly kicking at the sand. "Fun day at work?" He finally asked.
"No." She laughed. "But it is necessary, so I don't really mind. I sure am looking forward to this time off though." Glancing to her left, she caught sight of Heero's sketchbook. "Hey, what's this?" She grabbed it from him before he could say anything. The front page held a very detailed sketch of a Gundam, but it wasn't one of the seven from Operation Meteor and the events that followed. "I didn't know you could draw like this..." She said.
"I didn't either, until two weeks ago." He replied.
"You did this after just two weeks of practice?" She asked, clearly impressed.
"Actually, I started on that one about a week ago."
She had to laugh at that. "You really are amazing, Heero. But what is this? I don't recognize this Gundam... Was it a prototype that was never built?"
"Not exactly. That's your Gundam." At her questioning look, he explained, "More precisely, that's what your Gundam would have looked like, if you had one."
"But..." She started to protest, then looked over the drawing more carefully. The Gundam's buster shield was absolutely huge, but it had no shoulder or head mounted gatling guns. No blade weapons like DeathScythe or Sand Rock, no hidden guns or missile launchers like Heavy Arms. There were no weapons at all, that she could see. "A defensive special variant." She guessed.
"Yep." Heero smiled again. He flipped the front page over, and the next showed the Gundam in a defensive crouch, buster shield held forward, surrounded by twelve planet defensers. Relena flipped through the pages, and saw various scenarios of her Gundam in action. A rough sketch showed it defending the wounded Wing in Luxembourg.
"What's its name?" She finally asked.
"That part's up to you." Heero said, leaning back a bit in his seat.
"Well, I think..." Relena drifted off as she continued to flip through the pages. Suddenly, she stopped on one near the back. "Hey, what is this?"
'What is...?' Heero wondered, sitting up. Then, he saw what picture she was pointing at, and sat bolt upright. 'Oh no! I thought that one was in the other book!' The sketch showed Relena's Gundam on its hands and knees, but oddly, there was no visisble damage to it. Towering above it was Epyon, its heat whip raised high into the air, and about to be brought down. "Uh... Well, that's..." Heero tried to grab the sketchbook back from her, but she held it away from him, grinning a little. "That's sort of a "what if" kind of scenario. Something that might have happened if Treize had piloted Epyon himself."
"Uh huh." Relena continued to smile. She obviously didn't believe a word of it.
'I'm dead meat.' Heero groaned inwardly. He turned back to watch the sunset, just in time to see the last bit of sun disappear beneath the waves. A split second later, there was a green flash. It barely appeared before it was gone. "Wow, that was fast." Heero said. "Far less than a second."
"What was that?" Relena asked, staring out at the water. Heero took the opportunity to grab the sketchbook back from her.
"A local myth, that's apparently true. No one knows what causes it, or even if we're really seeing it, or if it's just an optical illusion."
"Hmm..." Relena kept staring at the water, as if expecting to see another one. "My father once told me never to forget how beautiful the Earth looks from afar. But I have to say, from a distance doesn't compare to up close."
"Yeah, I agree with you and Quatre on that one." Heero leaned back again, satisfied that she had forgotten about the sketchbook. "I'd never been to the Earth until I came on Wing... I wish I'd had more time to look around." Relena turned to look at him again. "I mean, we traveled all over the place. It would have been a great trip if we weren't constantly fighting."
"Well, now you have the rest of your life to see the Earth." She tried to find the bright side.
"Yeah... I just don't know where to start."
"Would you want to... go on a trip with me?" Heero looked at her in surprise. "I've got the next five days off, you see... The Earth Sphere people put together a little cruise package for me. I guess they want to be able to keep tabs on me at all times. I think it's kind of paranoid, but-"
"Relena." Heero spoke up as he realized she'd keep talking until he said something. He smiled once more. "I'd love to."
"Oh, great!" She smiled, visibly relieved. "The plane to get there leaves-"
"At 7:45 a.m., from Yuy International Airport, gate 47E." Relena looked at him, tried to say something, but couldn't get the words out. "Yeah, I guess I know a bit more than I let on."
"Well... I was going to say you'd need to hurry to get a ticket, but..." Grinning broadly now, Heero held up his passport and tickets. "How did you get a passport? I can think of at least five countries, right off the top of my head, that'd ban you for life!" Heero laughed now. As he relaxed, Relena grabbed the sketchbook back from him.
"Augh! No!" Heero tried to get it back, but it was too late. Relena quickly flipped back to the page with Epyon.
"That pilot is not Treize! Is it?!" She demanded.
"No..." Heero groaned, admitting defeat. He stared at his toes, but he felt his face turning a little red anyway.
"I don't know whether to be flattered or frightened." She finally said, and handed the book back to him. "So, I guess I'll settle for a little bit of both." As she was leaning over to hand the sketchbook back, she caught a glimpse of Heero's bare shoulder under his jacket. She sat back up a bit, but not all the way, and regarded him for a second. 'Does he have any idea how handsome he is?' She wondered. Heero was looking at her, a curious expression in his eyes. 'Oh, what the heck...' Caving to impulse, Relena quickly kissed him on the cheek, then stood up. Heero was staring up at her, looking like a kid who'd just discovered a mound of presents under the tree on Christmas morning. She giggled a little. "See you in the morning, Mr. Yuy." With that, she was off.
'See you soon, Mrs. Yuy.' He thought after her, then amended to himself, 'I hope.' He turned from her retreating form, and stared ahead silently as the curtain of night descended over the Pacific Ocean. He tried to organize his thoughts into something coherent, but he only came up with, 'Wow. I mean, well... Wow!'
.
"Well I'll tell ya', it just goes to show how powerful that girl is to be able to influence a guy like Heero." - Trowa Barton