Synopsis: Relena is captured by a man who is obsessively in love with her, who has major plans for her, plans that will change the whole solar system. Its origins lie on Mars, where the Terraformation Project has gone frighteningly quiet.
Rated M: For violence and the occasional bout of colorful language.
Pairings: Heero and Relena mostly, others indicated later on.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything to do with Gundam Wing, aside from being a resilient fan for many, many years. Also this story was concocted entirely from the recesses of my brain. If it bares any resemblance to other work (GW related or otherwise); please know that it was entirely unintentional.

Please read in 1/2 (looks nicer).

Gundam Wing Root ZERO

Chapter One Waiting
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After Colony 199 – December

Relena Darlian stared into Lady Une's glassy eyes, they stared unblinkingly back at her. Relena had seen people die in front of her before -her own adoptive father had passed away right beside her- but somehow Lady Une's death shook her deeper, and sent a sharp pain across her heart. The woman had always seemed solid, a strong pillar. She had fought in so many battles, not always for the right side, and had emerged victorious every time. She had been shot before and lived. To see her crumpled form now, with those unseeing eyes staring at Relena, was a blow she wasn't prepared for.

Only a few years ago, Relena would have leapt with joy at Une's passing, but not now.

Not after everything.

Relena leaned down as far as she could and pressed her forehead against Une's cheek. She liked to believe she could feel a whisper of breath leaving the Lady's slightly parted lips.

Une's last breath replayed itself vividly in Relena's memory, much as her father's had. The bullet wound had ripped straight through her back and burst out of her stomach, a spray of blood following. The woman had collapsed to her knees, clutching her stomach as if her life leaked out of the wound with every second and maybe holding her hands in front of it could pause the flow. It didn't. She fell sideways, curled into the foetus position. Relena reached out for her, uttering a distressful cry, her wrists bound together with plastic straps. Relena had crawled on her knees towards Une -her vision blurred with tears- not caring about the blood that now soaked her formal cotton pants.

"You don't seem happy, Relena." A voice spoke. It had only been moments since Une had died, but it felt like an eternity, so long that the voice that spoke was barely recognisable as the man who killed Lady Une.

Relena lifted her gaze; glaring so furiously at the man that her teeth clenched together as she struggled to not to scream. The man was infuriating to even look at, she never before thought she could hate a single person as much as she did now; especially with that hurtful expression marring his own features.

"I did you a favour, Relena. You finally have your revenge!" Samael Wolfos exclaimed; clapping his hands together, the pistol in his left hand giving a dull tink with the contact. "The circle is complete."

Samael Wolfos was a corporate head and one Relena almost trusted if he were not the single leader of a space mining corporation. Relena had met Samael on a number of occasions. While colourful, he had seemed genuine and affectionate with everyone he spoke too. He was either in his mid 40s or early 50s. His skin was thin and pale and he had a crooked nose, his soot black hair with ashy grey streaks lining his temples was pulled back into a tight ponytail. He dressed elaborately, as if he were royalty. No doubt he believed he was. An excited blush had risen to his high cheekbones, paling the rest of his features.

Half an hour earlier; Relena and various other political officials had gathered for a social event, hosted by Samael himself, to celebrate continuing peace efforts and total disarmament. When the darkly clad men burst into the room, with the smell of coppery blood following them; and a brief view of the destruction to the men who had once been the guards stationed around the premises, everyone had been rounded up, forced on their knees and bounded. Samael Wolfos, the only remaining member unbound, swirled dramatically and had eyes only for Relena, his gaze one of a man seeking the approval of his performance.

Samael had then strode to Relena in her kneeling position, getting intimately close to her face and whispering; "I have a present for you."

Lady Une had then been brought in, bound, gagged and blindfolded, dressed in her Preventers uniform. She had looked sedated, her groans of discomfort slurred. The men who had dragged her in released her arms and removed the blindfold, in that time Samael had waltzed behind Une, withdrawing an incredibly decorated pistol from the inner folds of his jacket, aimed, and fired a round straight into Lady Une.

"What would make you believe I wanted this!" Relena cried out, struggling to contain enough of her senses to face Samael.

Samael giggled, actually giggled a high and delighted sound, and said; "Oh Relena, you are a delicate flower indeed, but a sly one as well. You can't pretend to me."

He was delusional, but clever; an incredibly dangerous combination. Not many people could overpower Lady Une and drag her as docilely as an obedient pet. Not many people could organize an event so detailed.

When Relena failed to give an obvious 'Oh, you got me!' expression Samael's features softened affectionately, a smile playing across his lips and his eyes twinkling warmly. With a flick of his head, the two guards that had brought Lady Une in grabbed Relena's upper arms and dragged her into a standing position. Blood started flowing into Relena's legs again, giving her feet pins and needles, but she ignored it, determined to face Samael without fear or weakness.

Samael approached her and, again, stood far too close to her. He reached down and clasped her bound hands in his; "I knew. You're too pure to kill someone on your own. You're just too perfect. I know that your beautiful heart could never allow you to kill the woman who killed your adoptive father –bless his heart- but I know you wanted it."

"What are you talking about?" She exclaimed angrily, but Samael didn't answer. He smiled sympathetically, and disgust and bile rose in Relena's throat as he released her hands and slowly wrapped his arms around her, holding her lightly as if afraid he would break her if he held her too roughly. He inhaled deeply, smelling her hair, heightening her nausea.

"I did it for you, Relena." He said, "And now, my dear, you owe me."

All at once, Relena's stomach plummeted, her heart hollowed and her entire body felt cold. Her mouth felt dry and a bitter taste settled on her tongue. Samael mistook her shiver of disgust for something else, and dared himself to squeeze her a little tighter; she could feel his smile as he nuzzled her loose hair. "I have such big plans, Relena. I've been waiting for such a long time for you to be ready. And you are, my dear, you really are."

He released his hold on her abruptly, stepping back so suddenly she half expected him to raise his pistol and blow her away, but he didn't. His face had changed though, from the sickeningly adoring expression to a severe one, he waved at the men around the room like a musical conductor; "We're leaving. You know what to do."

Samael approached Relena, and gently linked his arm through hers. With an encouraging smile he strode to a door that led away from the carnage the men had arrived in. And suddenly the room was filled with noise again. When the bullet had torn Lady Une apart, the whole world had fallen silent, as if it was just her and Samael. Now Relena finally noticed other sounds. People were crying, someone begged at Samael, but he brushed them aside and ignored them as if they weren't even there.

He unlinked their arms to hold open the door for her, motioning with his free arm for her to go first. Relena glared at him, but he didn't notice it, and stepped through, quickly looking around her. She stood in a hall she didn't recognize, with corridors leading off to different areas of the building. Samael had hosted the party, and had rented out the entire building; it was entirely empty except for the celebrating politicians. Looking back, Relena wondered why she didn't think of it as strange that he had demanded such privacy.

Samael closed the door with a gentle click, and a sudden orchestra of gunfire reigned from the other side, barely muffled by the closed door. Brief screams followed, and then more gunfire. In seconds, the room fell silent. A rush of emotion flooded Relena; sorrow, regret, fear.

But something else coursed through her now; panic induced adrenaline. She felt it similar to the sensation of a space craft pummeling down the runway and lifting up into the sky. Her heart thrummed in her chest desperately, causing her arms and legs to feel loose and ready.

It was a choice of fight or flight. Relena wasn't in the situation to fight.

If she didn't take advantage of the adrenaline now she was never going to escape.

Samael had been speaking, but she had been entirely distracted by this sudden onslaught of adrenaline. As he stepped closer to her, his arms held open wide as if to embrace her again, she rammed her shoulder into him, throwing her whole weight against him. Samael was thin, small, and barely taller than Relena herself; the impact threw him harder than a man of your average build. He stumbled back into the door, and it flew open. His pistol fell to the floor in front of her. Relena, not daring to look inside the room, grabbed the door handle with both hands when it recoiled off of the wall and slammed it closed. She kicked his pistol away, not caring where it spun to a stop. Then, she bolted.

She ran as fast and hard as she could from standstill, holding her still bound arms up against her chest. Above her were transparent lines of plastic with directions to varying areas of the building, but the only one she had interest in was the green sign for 'Fire Exit'. Get out, get help. Please, please don't let them all die. She repeated the prayer multiple times in her head as she dashed.

Two forms suddenly gave Relena a pause, caused her to stumble and fall forward. She fell to her knees, and scrambled up as quickly as she could. When she was upright, two rapiers were held an inch either side of her face.

Two people stood before her. The one to the left was obviously male, tall and muscled, wearing a pale yellow space suit, elaborately decorated with swirling sun patterns on stripes that started from the collarbone to down the legs and ending at the feet, the space suit was form fitting, to allow for quick movement clearly, but widened out at the neck to accommodate the equally elaborately decorated helmet. Its 'face' was largely reinforced glass, tinted black so she couldn't see the face within it, whilst the sides and back were pale yellow, matching the suit. Two small ears stuck out of the top of the helmet. His companion was female, shorter than him by a head and slender, with a matching suit and helmet, though hers was a deep, deep blue, almost black, and her swirling patterns contained crescent moons. They held a rapier sword each, unwavering. They didn't speak.

Relena instinctively took a step back from the rapiers and, almost mechanically, they took a step forward so the blades stayed by her head. Relena stopped moving, she was trapped.

"Sol!" Samael cried behind her, "Luna!"

He reached them, breathing heavily. His face was red and blotchy; his hair had come loose from its ponytail in places. He said nothing for several moments until he gained some semblance of composure, but when he did, a look of fury was spread across his features, and for the first time Relena felt genuine fear of this man. His companions, presumably Luna and Sol, stepped backwards and lowered their blades.

"Mr dear," he said; his voice anything but affectionate now; "What was that all about?"

He had reacquired his pistol, and a sharp pain spread across her right temple as he struck her with it. The pain in her head was instant and overwhelming; she became disorientated as the world around her spun. She lost her balance, and fell to the floor. Samael stood over her, and raised the gun once again. He had struck her with the nozzle end, but turned it around so he was now holding the nozzle end. Relena raised her arm in time to block the second blow, but the pain in her left wrist was excruciating. Three, four, and five more times the melee attack with the pistol came, and she felt something snap. She gritted her teeth together, fighting a scream. She would not cry in front of him, she would not let him beat her. She rolled to her side involuntarily, clutching her hands to her chest when she could tolerate the pain no more. The attacks stopped coming, and she wearily cracked her eyes open to see why.

Samael's arm was raised again, to deal yet another blow, but the yellow garbed man had his hand firmly around Samael's wrist. For a moment, Samael turned furiously to his companion, and then blinked. "Sol?" He said as his face transformed from a mask of pure rage into confusion, at once his complexion went from red and blotchy to pale white. He looked around momentarily, as if he didn't know where he was, and then his eyes met Relena's. Regret filled his face as he caught sight of her.

Relena couldn't help but cringe away from him as he scrabbled down and cuddled her closely to his chest, exclaiming apologize and excuses. Relena felt his tears on her face and was paralyzed by it. All the fight that had been in her a moment ago had left her entirely; she was completely subdued by his sudden attack. She couldn't move. Her mind screamed at her to push him away, to run far away from him but her body refused to move, even when Samael planted a wet kiss on her forehead. Relena felt a black hole of despair in her subconscious, and she could feel herself sliding into it with no will to save herself.

"Relena!"

A voice she recognized.

Heero.

Samael glanced up in surprise, and Relena could see him. Heero was pelting as fast as he could towards them, calculated anger across his handsome features. A handgun was clutched in his right hand, held slightly away from his body.

Shoot him. She thought, she tried to speak but she still couldn't control her body. Kill him, please!

Suddenly, Sol and Luna dived from either side of Samael and Relena, charging with unnatural speed at Heero. Time had slowed for Relena, still sluggish from the blow to her scalp, she watched as Heero dodged the first swing from Luna's blade. He brought his arm down on her sword hand with his gun hand, and a strange muffled cry emitted from the helmet. Luna's sword fell with a clatter to the floor. Heero turned to face Sol, who had abandoned his own blade and aimed a punch at Heero. It connected. He took the punch with no recoil, and spun, bending his arm and driving his elbow into Sol's stomach. Sol grunted, and fell to his knees, stunned. Heero spun again so he was facing Samael and Relena, and ran toward them. Samael gave a frightened squeal and raised his pistol and fired once, twice, three times. The first two shots went wide; knocking chips out of the wall and a door, but the last connect with Heero's own raised gun. His handgun spun out of his hand, but Heero didn't let it stop him.

This all took possibly two minutes, Relena was still groggy from the attack across her head, but she regained enough of her senses to shove Samael away from her. He fell back with a yelp, anger etched on his face again, and suddenly she was standing up and being dragged down the corridor. Heero's gripped on her upper arm was tight, sending jolting pains down her arm and to her throbbing wrist. She tried to match his pace, but she stumbled, she couldn't focus on where they were going. A door banged open, and she was shoved inside a darkened room before it was slammed shut again.

Relena stumbled sideways until she hit a wall, clutching her still-bound arms to her chest, stifling a cry as she slid down the wall.

She opened her eyes wearily as lights flashed on and lit the room. "Heero?" She said blearily, finally finding her voice.

He was hurrying back to the door, clutching a high backed chair, and he leant it against the door, blocked the handle from being turned, before he kneeled down in front of her. "Let me see." He said, holding his hands out palm up for hers.

"I knew you'd come." Relena said as she looked down to her knees. "Thank you." Her voice was shaky, and she realized she was shaking all over from shock and pain. For a moment couldn't move her arms. Heero lifted her chin with a finger to meet his gaze; his eyes were soft with concern, "It won't take them long to find us, we have to be quick." His tone was firm, but not harsh.

Relena nodded once, and unsteadily held out her hands. Heero took her uninjured hand in his right and reached with the other to his jeans pocket were he pulled out a pocket knife. He flipped it to expose the blade; it glinted in the light. He then shifted so he was much closer to her, and spoke softly; "I'm going to cut the straps quickly and reset your wrist, but it'll hurt, bite my shoulder if you need too."

She barely had time to comprehend his words before a sharp tug on the straps sent blinding pain from her wrist, up her arm and spiraled to her head, making the spot where Samael had struck her pulse painfully. A dull series of cracks followed, the pain was extraordinary.

"Aargh!" she cried. Heero had positioned himself so his shoulder was right in front of her; she clamped her teeth around his jacket. It had a padded cloth in the shoulder and she bit onto it as hard as she could to stop herself from screaming. Her toes curled in her shoes with the effort.

Seconds seemed to stretch into minutes, and it felt as if an eternity had passed before the pain subsided enough for her to let Heero go. Her left hand was paler than her other unhurt one, the tips of her fingers tingled and her whole hand felt stiff. Heero examined her hand quickly, touching her fingertips and asking if she could feel it. She could. As Heero stood, she tried to move her fingers. She could but barely and the movements were stiff.

A loud crack caused Relena to startle; Heero had grabbed another chair and had snapped off one of the planks of wood supporting the back. It was then that Relena realized they were in a meeting room of some kind, a round table in the center of the room with chairs around it, and little else. Heero stood the piece of wood against the floor at an angle and stomped out it; another loud crack bursting the silence in the room, then returned to her and removed his jacket, easily tearing off the sleeve. He put the wood under her wrist and palm pressed into the end of the plank softly, there he began to tie the sleeve around her wrist to support the wood, tightly enough so it would not slip off when they moved but not so it cut off her circulation. "Try not to move your hand too much, keep it close to your body at all times." He said as he did so.

"Right." she said as Heero released her hand and she tucked it as carefully as she could against her chest. It couldn't have been more than five minutes since they had entered the room. She tried to control her breathing, closing her eyes and taking deep breaths. Heero called her name and she looked up at him. His expression had hardened into one of calculated determination, and she knew they had to move. Using him as a support she stood up shakily. When he was sure she could stand alone, Heero moved to the door.

He pressed his ear against the door, closing his eyes. He listened for several moments, and then motioned for her to come to him. She stood close to him, and he spoke softly near her ear; "I doubled us back when we ran, but to get outside we'll have to go through the conference room again." He looked into her eyes squarely. Dread and sorrow settled into her heart, she knew what it meant. Back to Une, back to all those people. "Heero, we have to see if anyone's survived." She said, looking up at him imploringly, but he was shaking his head.

"They were executed; all of them. No one survived."

Relena looked away, clenching her right hand into a fist by her side, trying to contain her emotions. "I'll be fine." She responded, her voice was hollow however, she couldn't mask it. It would be a long time before she would be 'fine' with what happened tonight, if ever.

He stared at her for a moment longer, but turned and moved the chair blocking the door aside, and opened it silently.

They quickly examined the hall, found it empty, and hurried down a corridor. Relena still didn't recognize this area, as she had never been down this part of the building before today, so she stayed close to Heero, who seemed to know where he was going. However it didn't take long for the corridors to begin to look familiar and a horrendous stench entered Relena's nose.

The door to the room they had used for the celebration had been left open and the sight inside was a devastating mess. "Oh God..." she breathed.

The bodies of the politicians an hour ago Relena had been talking and celebrating with littered the floor were they had been forced to kneel down. It had been a social event, wives and husbands of the politicians had attended too, and no one was spared, a pang of sorrow hit her once again as she gazed into the faces of those she was an acquaintance with, and with a few she had called friends. Among the bodies, the darkly clad men lay scattered roughly where they had stood as well. Their weapons lay discarded beside them.

When the men had finished executing their hostages, they had committed mass suicide.

Relena's fear and hatred for Samael grew. What could the man have done to convince these people to shoot themselves after killing hostages? She fully believed the two suited people with the rapiers certainly had something to do with it.

The smell ravaged Relena's senses, it was almost overpowering. The coppery scent of blood, of raw meat, fetid, upon death some of the hostages and darkly clad men had excavated their bowels and bladders. Relena felt glad that Une had been spared the same humiliation.

A harsh pain in her wrist brought Relena have to her senses, she had been gripped her makeshift splint so tightly in her right hand the knuckles turned white, causing the splint to shift and disturbing her painful wrist. Relena hurried to Heero's side, taking care not to stand on anyone or in anything. Relief did not get a chance to settle on Relena's subconscious, as the corridor leading outside was filled with the same destruction.

Heero paused momentarily to scoop up a gun beside a dead bodyguard. He ejected the clip and checked it, seemingly satisfied; he clicked it back in place and tucked the gun into the back of his jeans. Relena kept close, breathing through her mouth so she didn't have to breathe through her nose. When they were clear of the bodies and down another corridor, Relena asked; "Where are they?" Knowing he would understand who 'they' were.

"I left my cell phone behind when I found you, if they have any sense they'll have found it and realized the last call I'd made was to the police. They should be escaping, if we have any luck." Heero responded.

Relena paused in her step, "Luck? We can't let them escape, Heero." She said firmly, "They killed Une, and all those people in there. They can't get away with this."

Heero paused as well, and turned to face her squarely, "They won't," he promised, staring right into her eyes as he spoke to convey his seriousness, "but my main concern is getting you out of here."

Relena held his gaze for a moment, but sighed and looked away. "I trust you." She said, "But I don't like this."

In her peripheral vision she saw Heero look past her, though they could not see the bodies now, she knew he was thinking of them. "Neither do I." He said simply. "We need to hurry. I'm trusting in their common sense that they'll have left but I don't know Samael, he may still pursue us."

He turned at once and Relena followed, they sped forward, almost running. Several minutes later, they reached the front doors to the great building without contest. Heero paused in front of one; there were no windows he could look through to see if anyone was waiting for them. He placed his hand on the door knob whilst taking out the handgun he had acquired earlier. Relena stood close to him, ready to run when he did, her broken wrist securely between her breasts. Heero glanced at her once, she nodded her readiness, and he threw his weight against the door.

Heero let the door swing open, he swept his gun wide but neither Samael nor his strange companions were waiting for them outside. Relena stood by his side, looking for anything unusual as he did.

It was winter, and though it was after six the sun had long settled over the horizon, giving way to the thick clouds that hid the stars and leaving them with only the street lamps to see by. A heavy snow had fallen the night previously, seemingly covering the world in white. The cold bit into Relena almost immediately, as she was wearing only light clothing, and her scalp wound throbbed hotly. Footsteps disturbed the snow; scores of them had trampled through the four inch thick snow carpet, all of them heading for the front door.

Two police cars had parked haphazardly in the street, and the bodies of four policemen lay scattered in front of their vehicles, blood staining the snow around them.

Heero kept his gun raised and descended the wide and shallow stone steps slowly, lightly crunching the snow beneath his boots. Relena followed, grim fascination not allowing her to tear her gaze away from the dead policemen; "This must be the response unit." She said quietly, her voice cracked in the effort against her dry throat. Heero nodded his agreement, his eyes seeking every corner or shadow. They silently passed the first policeman and Relena noted the deep slash that began at the collarbone and twisted to his other hip, it had torn through his bulletproof vest and clothing beneath, the blood had only recently stopped flowing, they couldn't have been killed any longer than a few moments ago. Relena wondered vaguely which of Samael's companions had cut this man down as Heero knelt down for a moment beside him long enough to check for a pulse in vain.

"They were killed as soon as they arrived." Relena said distractedly, speaking mostly to herself. Heero was moving around to the other bodies and checking for any signs of life, this turned up in vain too.

An overwhelming sense of responsibility crashed into Relena, and along with the pain in her scalp and wrist caused her knees to buckle. She sat beside the first policeman, not caring about the snow that chilled her body further, her head on her knees as she murmured a prayer for forgiveness to the victims. Samael had come for her, for whatever reason, and so many people had died in one night because of her. Maybe if she had decided to stay at home instead of attending the party, Samael would have noted her absence and either given up the plan for another day or sought her at her house, where she was alone. Samael may have pulled the trigger on Lady Une, he may have forced those men to assassinate those politicians and then turn the gun on themselves, his companions may have cut these men to death on his orders, but it was all done to capture her. She was as much responsible for the deaths of these people as surely if she were in Samael's shoes.

Snow crunched beside Relena, and her head snapped up, but it was Heero who stood beside her. "We have to go." He said, his tone giving no indication of how he felt about the situation, though she knew he was feeling it to. He held his hand out for her, and she took it gratefully. She stood up, her joints stiff from the cold. She began pulling her hand away, but Heero's grip on it tightened ever so slightly. Relena was paralyzed with shock as he twisted his hand, and linked their fingers. They stood apart -joined only by their hands- but from Heero the action was more comforting and intimate than a hug, or a kiss. A breeze had picked up, his bangs flitted lightly across his face, and his eyes were so bright she couldn't tear her gaze away –

The too brief moment was over when he released her hand, but when he did she felt a weight no longer on her shoulders. She knew she was still responsible for these people, but feeling weak and discouraged would get nothing solved. Relena now stood resolved; she would do everything within her power to bring Samael to justice, for him to face what he had done; only then would she feel fully lifted from her responsibility. But for now, she would embrace it and let it give her strength.

A/N: I really need some feedback on this, I'm not sure if I left this chapter right but I had to stop somewhere. Does it flow neatly? I love this site but my only issue is its damn coding which doesn't allow for indentations, otherwise, it would look fine.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed and hope it wasn't too detailed on the gruesome areas, this will probably be as gruesome as it'll get, but I wanted a situation that really forced a change into Relena. Thanks for reading and hope you continue too~ R&R is encouraged but not mandatory.