Key: ''= thinking, ""= saying
Authors note; This was just an idea I had that grew and blossomed in time.
I will be updating frequently. Have fun reading- O by the way, YOU get to
decide the couple. It CAN NOT BE SHONEN-OI. I DON'T LIKE IT, AND ANYWAY, I
WANT THIS TO BE A GOOD STORY. Gundam Wing belongs to their respective
owners, I DO own the name of Zeben Marquis. Have Fun!
The world was a different place. The year is after colony 195, and the greatest war in history is now unfolding. Many men and women have already died protecting their homelands and families. The hero Zex Marquis, one of the greatest fighters in the war, has been fighting at almost every battle taken place.
The colonies have sent five 'shooting stars' to earth, and hidden deep within the fake rocks are deadly battle suits, ready for Operation Meteor. Pilots have been sent to earth, to help the colonies liberate themselves, and for a unified peace. Surprisingly, the Foreign Vice Minister Dorlian, was assassinated very son after the covert Operation Meteor began, and now, the world enters a dark period of time. Zex, under the command of Trieze Khushranada, has been training a new line of soldiers, and one of them, a girl, has been astute in her study in every way. She is fast becoming the 'Perfect Soldier' of the Earth.
Zeben Marquis sighed. She was having trouble with the other students' again. At the tender age of four, she had begun her studies to learn how to kill. Now, nearly eleven years later, her brother, Zex, believed her to be one of the best pilots, and soldiers, alive. She could do anything, anywhere, in record time. She was proud of herself, but she knew the other teenagers were jealous of her. 'Why are they jealous of me? I guess they don't understand they pain of being someone in disguise, or an orphan.' She thought to herself.
Abruptly, she was surrounded by five boys, all older, and (they thought) stronger. One of them, a bulking blonde said loudly,
"Looky here! It's the teachers pet, the killing machine. You know what I heard 'bout you?" he sneered in her face, "I heard you faked your admission test. You can't tell multiplication from adding, can you little girl?" She had remained silent through out his slurred speech.
She was usually quiet in their classes of how to handle machinery, weapons, and stealth operations. She was quiet now. Her right hand slowly coiled into a practiced fist, and, while holding back most of her strength, she swung her fist at the bully's face. Her muscles, strong as cables, lifted Blondie over her head, and sent him into the nearby garden fountain. The other four boys backed away slowly, and Zeben uncurled her destructive hands, and walked calmly away, on the gravel path. Zex would yell at her later, but she didn't care, and, throwing her golden hair over her shoulder in a casual flip, she proceeded to her room, trying not to let the other boys, and few girls, know what she felt inside. As she unlocked her door, she saw something strange written on the door. It said in a loopy, hasty script:
Hey, Could you leave this over under the sapling tree? If you do, you'll find something. Hand it to your brother, and tell him it's from a war buddy.
Thanks-
D.M
Her goldenrod blonde hair had settled itself on her back. She thought, puzzled, who could have written this, before she noticed her room's lights were on. She always left them off, as per regulations to not waste electricity. Immediately, she crouched low to the ground, minimizing her body, and crawled quickly to the bed.
There she stopped, and looked around coldly, calculating every shadow, every movement. Someone was in her room. She saw something dart, quickly as lightning, toward the closed mahogany door. She slid her foot out, smooth as oil, and tripped the person. She drew her gun, and stood protectively in front of the door. The older boy who stood across from her, a lean youth about her own age, glared at her with partially covered cobalt blue eyes. His eyes were covered by his dark chocolate bangs. The teenager wore a forest green tank top, with black biker pants on his slim frame. He appeared to be looking her over, deciding on possible weak spots, just as she was. He looked amazed that she had actually stopped him. She looked determined at him with her riveting violet eyes.
He leaped at her, and she fired a shot, grazing his right arm, and leaving a crimson line on his upper arm. She smiled grimly. She was the best soldier there was, and she knew she could beat him. He had flaws in his speed. He rushed her as if he hadn't felt the bullet. He went around behind her, and grabbed her in a chokehold. She dug her nails into his arm, and met muscles almost as strong as hers. Almost. She bent her knees, and threw her attacker from over her back. He landed with an audible thud against her hard bed. He stood up slowly, and talked to her.
"You're a good fighter. Almost as good as me." He said, barely nodding his head. She smirked. He was trying to distract her. She knew it wouldn't help him.
"You must be weaker than I thought. Are you mute?" he taunted her. All her other opponents in sword fighting had followed the tradition of taunting her with insults. She had never continued this. It was a waste of breath.
Then Zeben noticed something. No matter what he said or did, the no name boy's face didn't change, it remained passive. She glared at the youth, cocking, and aiming her gun at him. He grinned, and brought his fist up to her face. She staggered; it was the hardest she'd ever been hit. In that split second, he jumped over her kneeled form, stood behind her, and brought her up to a knife against her throat. Now his voice was threatening.
"Don't move." He hissed into her ear, forcing her to walk with him out of the room, to the cold, gray corridor. Classes were just ending, and the silent boy stayed hidden, with a heavy, muscular hand to her mouth to stop her from shouting out. His other hand was behind her back, pushing a threatening gun painfully into her back. Her eyes were angry, and she bit savagely down on his hand that held her. He looked at her coldly, then tightened his grip. Then she felt a shiver of fear run down her back. This boy could hold her for ransom. If he knew her true identity, then he would know that she was worth quite a bit of money. She forced herself to remain still.
He looked at the retreating backs of her fellow soldiers-in-training, and forced her to start walking towards a classroom that she knew had a door to the outside. She tried one more time to break free of his hold on her. She pretended to trip on a desk. Reaching for her hidden knife in her ankle sheath, her hand grasped the plain wooden handle. Drawing it slowly out, she allowed the kidnapper to yank her up to her feet roughly. While he was just getting his gun to her back again, she whirled around, slashing at his chest. Instead of hitting his torso, she drew blood on his other arm, the one that hadn't been wounded by her gun. She grinned, but the victory was short lived. As she turned around to run, he grabbed her silky hair, and yanked. She suppressed a yelp of pain, knowing that if he knew he had hurt her, he would do it again. He dragged her back to him, using her hair as a rope in a way. His brown haired bangs fell over his eyes, allowing him to see out of them, but no one to see him. She started shouting to get someone's attention, but he hastily clamped his bloody hand to her mouth.
"Enough is enough." He growled at her, "Do you want me to knock you unconsciunce?" he asked her. She refused to answer to him, instead struggled vainly against him. His gun coldly touched her temple, and she froze. Now, bloody slowly seeping out of both of his arms, and her head, he yanked open a dark green door, and started running, dragging her with him. He walked calmly out the front gate, pretending that he had his arm curled around her waist, with the gun in his hand, urging her on. The guard saluted her, and Zeben, in a tight-lipped smile, lowered her head to him. He had put on a rough brown leather jacket to cover his wounds and the gun.
He made her walk swiftly downtown, to a grubby apartment, with a poor structure and even poorer living quarters. Inside the only clean room, where he brought her, he tied her to an ebony chair, with her hands behind her, took her knife, and briefly looked over her head wound. After applying a little ointment, he bound her feet, near the ankles, and brought another chair over to sit across from her. She sat regally, listening to her blood as it fell to the floor, plop.plop.plop staining her hair a russet red. She glared at her kidnapper. He glared back, examining her, looking at her rank on her shoulders, and her uniform. Finally, after an hour or so, he spoke.
"Who are you?" he asked angrily.
"I think I'm the one who should be asking that question don't you think?" she replied.
"I'm the one asking questions here. What is your rank in the Gabriel School for Military Training?" he asked.
"I'll tell you nothing. I know what you're doing," she declared, her violet eyes narrowing, "you're trying to get information from me so you can ransom me, or to find out about the school. You're probably one of those Gundanium Mobile pilots." She spat it like a poison.
He stood up, and she noticed that he hadn't let any emotion escape him during their fight, and walk. Now his body was tense with anger. He drew back his hand, and slapped her full across the face, leaving a bruise that covered her entire left cheek. She glared at him, her lavender eyes streaming hate at him. Her body was used to beatings. Once when the boys at her school had gotten her off guard, they had broken both of her arms. In return for that, she broke all of their noses; something that would leave them scarred for life. Back then, she had thought, 'An eye for an eye' and had let it go after that. Now, bound and helpless, she longed to hit him back with all of her strength. What would her brother think? She had allowed someone to hit her, and not hit him back. It would ruin her pride. Then her captor sighed.
"I'll tell you who I am, if you tell me who you are." He said to her. She looked at him, wondering if he would tell the truth.
"Sally." She answered finally.
"The deals off unless you tell me your real name." He said, staring at her.
"Fine. Zeben." She said.
"Zeben.?" he trailed off into the question. She thought it over carefully in her mind whether to tell him her last name or not.
'Hmm. If he knew my last name, he could get more money, and yet, I really don't want to get hit again, after all there's only so much a girl can take from someone with her every skill, but less of it.' She thought wryly. She sighed.
"Zeben Marquis." She said it in a tone of resignation. Her hair, the same as her brother's, only darker, was getting sticky where the blood dripped into it. The top half of her hair was bound behind her, to cascade with the rest of her locks to the dirty, unkempt floor. The light, which came from a lamp, fluttered briefly before turning back on again. While all this had been going on, Zeben hung her head, failing to see the look he was now giving her, astonishment mixed with skepticism. His bangs hid his eyes again as he thought over what she had said.
'When I went to that stupid school, it was a scouting mission only. Not kidnapping. I didn't know that Zex's sister was a soldier! She's about my age then, I wonder if she's heard about me. She is as good as I am in soldier skills, maybe better. I'm surprised. I thought that was impossible, since I'm considered by Doctor J to be the 'Perfect Soldier', then again, I believe she is too. I remember reading about her on L1. She started war arts since four. Hmm, younger then even me. Surprising.' While he was pondering, he failed to see her smile, and lower her head.
'Let him think I'm broken. It'll serve him right if I escape because he didn't notice I have another knife.' She thought, her hair over her face to hide her grin. As her muscles stretched to form her smirk, they tightened over her cheek. She winced with pain. He didn't notice, or didn't want to.
'Typical.' She thought, waiting for him to keep his end of the bargain. He noted her head rise to look at him, expectantly.
"My name is none of your concern." He said, turning his back on her.
"It damn well is!" she spat at him, "You've kidnapped me, I can't think of anything else that gets more personal than that!" he smiled, a small one, that her angry form didn't see.
"Very well. My name is Heero Yuy." He said at last. She settled back uncomfortably against the wooden chair. All of a sudden, he brought his head up quickly, looking in anticipation at the door. A figure walked in, dressed in black. His long brown hair was tied back in a braid, and his light amethyst eyes danced mischievously. He wore a smile on his lips, and carried a box under his arm. He looked from the blood stained boy to the injured blonde, and his gaze came back to Heero's. He chuckled, and set his box on the floor. He went over to the blonde and, using a clean towel from the box, wiped away the blood that was trailing down her cheek.
"Thank you." She whispered, barely audible. She was wearing her tan and light green army uniform, this other teenager must know she was a soldier. He turned to the boy.
"Man, Heero! What did you do there? Why'd you bring home a hostage? Do you know who she is?" he said, glancing behind his back at the girl, slumped against her tight bonds, "That's Zex Marquis' little sister! She's an ace soldier, pilot, everything! This puts the mission in total jeopardy. What are the guys gonna say?" he went back to the girl, giving Heero time to think about what he had just said.
"You know me. You don't know that you know me, and he," he jerked his thumb at Heero, "probably didn't mean to kidnap you. Do you have a note for your brother? Signed D.M? That's me. I'm Duo Maxwell. Pleased to meet you. I know what will happen if I take of those bonds, so I'm not going to. I apologize for that, but we know you're dangerous, and, pardon me saying this, but we are more dangerous together, than you are alone. It's for your own good, you know. By the way, now that I'm talking to the one and only you, I'd like to ask you something." He said.
"I'll tell you nothing. Even if he didn't mean to kidnap me, he still did. I'm ashamed of myself to losing to such a person, and as soon as I get the chance, I'm going to run. My brother will find me, at some point. I wouldn't want to be you then." She said it all while standing at the floor, getting more scared by the minute. She didn't want to cause the destruction of the school, and she thought that was what they were after.
" Why won't you look at me?" he asked, perplexed. He put clean fingers under her chin, and using all of his strength, brought her head up to face him. When he saw the growing bruise on her cheek, he growled, deep in his throat. Heero watched him, eyes narrowing at his comrade, as Duo slowly turned around, and asked him if he had done that. Heero glared coldly at him, expecting Duo to back down like he always did when Heero turned on his Death Glare. This time, amazingly, he didn't. Dou was furious at his naïve friend.
He had hit Zeben Marquis! Zeben was known to take revenge on anyone that touched her, or harmed her. It came from being an orphan. Her parents had died in a fire, Zex had told her at an early age. He had also told her her true identity. Dou turned away from the silent Heero, and returned his attentions to Zeben.
"Ahm. Well, I apologize to you for Heero's sake even though I know it won't do any good. Anyway, I was wondering why both your brother and yourself have German names, when intelligence has traced you to the Sanq Kingdom?" She flinched at his question, but kept silent. Duo sighed, and went over to flop onto a torn purple couch with an ugly floral print. Heero went into the kitchen, and fixed himself a turkey sandwich stuffed with lettuce and cheese. Then he drank a glass of milk. Just looking at the refrigerator made her hungry. She pushed the hunger out of her mind, and slept. Heero glanced at the girl he had taken and sighed. He didn't know why he had hit her. She was so beautiful to him! Her hair, bloody and matted it maybe, it was strong. He had loved the feel of it between his hands when he had yanked it. He had greedily stared at those mystifying eyes that held him captive in their depths of violet. He swore, and pinched himself. Duo glanced away from the dingy television to him. He smiled, guessing what Heero was thinking.
"Is Trowa coming with Quatre tonight?" Heero asked, ignoring the knowing grin.
"Yup. I personally think Trowa will like Miss Marquis. Do you know that's just a codename? Zeben means seven in German. Zex means six. And you know Noin? Zex's sweetheart, her name means nine. It's a codename, but I wonder what her real name is." Duo answered, staring at his friend shrewdly. Heero looked at his friend and realized what Duo was doing. He growled.
"I don't need a hobby Maxwell." He said, turning to his bedroom, where all of their computers and technology was. Duo smiled ironically as Heero quietly shut the door and booted up the computers. He got on the Internet, and ran a search engine on the name: Zeben Marquis.
He found two things. One was a picture of the girl at age four, supposedly when she started training to be a warrior. She was doing gymnastics, completing a double cartwheel, and about to do a mid-air flip. He looked at her blurred face. She was unsmiling, and the color photo revealed a platinum blonde man standing behind, silently watching. The caption under the picture said it was Zex. Heero looked at the dark sunglasses that hid the man's eyes, and part of his face. Then he looked at the lean little girl. He smiled faintly. She was very determined. Then he pulled up another picture, this time of her at age fifteen. She was shooting at a dummy. Heero zoomed in on the dummy. She had hit it on the bulls-eye, it's chest, dead center. His smile turned grim. He shouldn't be feeling these emotions now. It was time for the mission, not some skinny girl who was as good as he was in martial arts, strength and durability, if not better. Then he searched under Sanq Kingdom. He found old newspaper articles about the small kingdom. It appeared that, about fourteen years ago, the Colonists had sent terrorists to the kingdom, and had set bombs up in the royal palace. The ruling king, a pacifist called King Peacecraft had died, as had the ruling Queen. Most of the servants died, but what was strange, was that the Prince and Princess had disappeared, the Princess only one year old. They had been in a royal garden miles away when it happened, and authorities had suspected that the terrorists had made a clean sweep of the Peacecrafts. Milliardo and Relena Peacecraft were still missing after a county-wide man hunt brought no results. That was what all the stories more or less said, except for one, that was printed a few years later then all of the other articles. It said that the servants for the Royals that were at the particular garden with the children had all disappeared as well.
'That was no help at all.' Heero thought, frustrated. 'Wait.' * * *
Half an hour later, Heero woke Duo, hissing his impatience. Duo had fallen asleep on the couch, watching soap operas on television. Zeben had stayed asleep. Heero pinched Duo, not lightly, on the cheek to wake him up.
"Duo! You fool! I found out her true identity!" Heero was saying over and over again, looking at the sleeping girl.
"Huuuuhn?" Duo's replay was muffled with sleep.
"Come over here you idiot!" Heero said, almost lifting him up with impatience. Duo struggled out of the warm couch, and staggered over to Heero's bedroom. He closed the door quietly, not waking the snoozing soldier. He yawned, and rubbed his neck, looking curiously at his fellow pilot.
"So? Who is she?"
Heero sat down at the computer chair, and dragged another chair over beside his. Duo sat down, and looked at the data in front of him on the computer screen.
"Whoa! Jeez, Heero, do you know what this means? You not only discovered her identity, but you discovered Zex's too!" Duo stared with astonishment at Heero, his face eerily shadowed by the only light; the computer screens. Heero was silent, for some reason, he didn't like the fact of what he now knew.
"Yea. Duo, Zeben Marquis is actually Princess Relena Peacecraft!" He said empathetically.
"Oh Man! We have Royalty in this filthy sewer of a house!" wailed Duo.
"Duo, don't you think it's kind of ironic? The best, 'Perfect Soldier' a Peacecraft? I heard about them on L1. Total Pacifists. They didn't even take a side in the war. Right now the late Queen's family is ruling the country. Think about this Duo! We could ransom her to her brother or that country!" Heero said.
"Man, I guess you do like her, or you wouldn't be giving her the 'Perfect Soldier Award'. Seriously Heero, do you honestly think we could ransom her? Besides, there's a reason she is hiding from her past, and we should think of that before anything else." There was a knock at the door. Three quick rasps, a pause, then two short knocks.
"They're here." Duo said grimly. He opened the door and stepped out. Heero came after him, holding a clean piece of white cloth. Zeben was awake.
"What are you going to-" her question ended harshly when he gagged her, tightly and wordlessly. The knocks had woken her up. She stared determinedly at Heero, trying not to let her fear slide through. Duo saw it though, and smiled reassuringly at her. She glared at him fiercely, making him laugh for a second, as Heero answered the door.
The rotting door gave way to reveal three boys, all around the age of sixteen. Relena Peacecraft stared shamelessly at the group. The first one was oriental, 'Chinese', Zeben guessed. He wore his short, midnight black hair in a tiny ponytail to keep it out of his eyes. He glanced at her and sneered. He wore a white shirt that buttoned up, and white cotton pants with black slippers. His almond shaped eyes was black, and slender with suspicion.
The next boy had charm, he had grace, and he had money! He was a blonde, stunningly so, and appeared naïve. He looked shocked that there was a girl here, a girl tied up. He looked questioningly at Heero and Duo. This youth was wearing a lavender shirt, with a dark purple vest over that, and a pair of long, khaki pants. The last boy to walk in walked with the grace and easiness of a tiger. He was just as dangerous as the other boys were, and Zeben knew it. He looked with sharp, intelligent green eyes to where she sat, and looked her over. This one was wearing a dark blue turtleneck, with light jeans. His brown hair fell over half of his face, just like Heero's, giving him a protection mask over his face. He nodded coldly at Zeben, and walked into the room. Heero eyes noted everything; he had seen the exchange between her, and the mysterious boy. Zeben gave them look for look, snarl for each snarl. She wasn't broken, or tame! Let anyone know it. Her feet, lying between the chair legs, hid that she could move her knees, it was just the ankles that were bound. She watched as the boys quietly sat down on the flower couch, and pulled up chairs from the kitchen to discuss things. Zeben finally got tired of hearing such things as "Hello, how's your partner?" and so on. Her head nodded, and she let it sink slowly down, her hair hiding her face. She heard someone get up to look at her. The person sighed. Then he sat down again, and started to talk.
"Thanks for getting together everyone! I know we can work together to do this mission." Zeben could only see a little bit, but she saw blonde hair, so she knew which one spoke that time. "Okay guys, before we discuss the plan Trowa and I made up, I have to ask an obvious question. Why do you have a Marquis tied up, bruised, and bloody in your living room?" the blonde asked.
"A woman! She is not fit to be a warrior, or soldier. I can not believe that if you were to kidnap anyone, it would be a woman!" that was the oriental one, but who was he calling inferior?
"How could you tell she's a Marquis?" That would be Duo.
"Blonde hair, violet eyes, and the same facial structure as her brother. Besides, she's been labeled as the 'Perfect Soldier'. I even heard she could kill in the battlefield unthinkingly. Think about it, I know we're talking about a girl, but could she pilot one of our suits?" Blondie.
"Quatre! Don't even say that! I know I vouch for her well being and everything, but those Mobile Suits are for us, to defend the colonies. She's from Earth! And while we're discussing the lovely 'Bruised and bloody' lady over there, Heero did some research about her. After all, Zeben Marquis is only a codename, like Heero's name. Go on Heero." Duo, and know she knew the blonde's name was Quatre. Heero. Quatre. Duo. And who was Trowa? Somehow she knew that the secretive one was Trowa. That left one person. Mr. Sexist.
"Okay, here's what I found on one Zeben Marquis. Birth date, birth certificate all unknown. Hair: goldenrod. Eyes: violet. Age: undetermined, about fifteen. Relatives: Zex Marquis, brother. That's her most obvious traits, but I've found that she's actually from the Sanq Kingdom. Her real name is Princess Relena Peacecraft. She, and her brother, are royalty who supposedly disappeared fourteen years ago. Zex is really Prince Milliardo Peacecraft, heir to the throne of the Sanq Kingdom. The only thing I can't figure out is why they disappeared.
The world was a different place. The year is after colony 195, and the greatest war in history is now unfolding. Many men and women have already died protecting their homelands and families. The hero Zex Marquis, one of the greatest fighters in the war, has been fighting at almost every battle taken place.
The colonies have sent five 'shooting stars' to earth, and hidden deep within the fake rocks are deadly battle suits, ready for Operation Meteor. Pilots have been sent to earth, to help the colonies liberate themselves, and for a unified peace. Surprisingly, the Foreign Vice Minister Dorlian, was assassinated very son after the covert Operation Meteor began, and now, the world enters a dark period of time. Zex, under the command of Trieze Khushranada, has been training a new line of soldiers, and one of them, a girl, has been astute in her study in every way. She is fast becoming the 'Perfect Soldier' of the Earth.
Zeben Marquis sighed. She was having trouble with the other students' again. At the tender age of four, she had begun her studies to learn how to kill. Now, nearly eleven years later, her brother, Zex, believed her to be one of the best pilots, and soldiers, alive. She could do anything, anywhere, in record time. She was proud of herself, but she knew the other teenagers were jealous of her. 'Why are they jealous of me? I guess they don't understand they pain of being someone in disguise, or an orphan.' She thought to herself.
Abruptly, she was surrounded by five boys, all older, and (they thought) stronger. One of them, a bulking blonde said loudly,
"Looky here! It's the teachers pet, the killing machine. You know what I heard 'bout you?" he sneered in her face, "I heard you faked your admission test. You can't tell multiplication from adding, can you little girl?" She had remained silent through out his slurred speech.
She was usually quiet in their classes of how to handle machinery, weapons, and stealth operations. She was quiet now. Her right hand slowly coiled into a practiced fist, and, while holding back most of her strength, she swung her fist at the bully's face. Her muscles, strong as cables, lifted Blondie over her head, and sent him into the nearby garden fountain. The other four boys backed away slowly, and Zeben uncurled her destructive hands, and walked calmly away, on the gravel path. Zex would yell at her later, but she didn't care, and, throwing her golden hair over her shoulder in a casual flip, she proceeded to her room, trying not to let the other boys, and few girls, know what she felt inside. As she unlocked her door, she saw something strange written on the door. It said in a loopy, hasty script:
Hey, Could you leave this over under the sapling tree? If you do, you'll find something. Hand it to your brother, and tell him it's from a war buddy.
Thanks-
D.M
Her goldenrod blonde hair had settled itself on her back. She thought, puzzled, who could have written this, before she noticed her room's lights were on. She always left them off, as per regulations to not waste electricity. Immediately, she crouched low to the ground, minimizing her body, and crawled quickly to the bed.
There she stopped, and looked around coldly, calculating every shadow, every movement. Someone was in her room. She saw something dart, quickly as lightning, toward the closed mahogany door. She slid her foot out, smooth as oil, and tripped the person. She drew her gun, and stood protectively in front of the door. The older boy who stood across from her, a lean youth about her own age, glared at her with partially covered cobalt blue eyes. His eyes were covered by his dark chocolate bangs. The teenager wore a forest green tank top, with black biker pants on his slim frame. He appeared to be looking her over, deciding on possible weak spots, just as she was. He looked amazed that she had actually stopped him. She looked determined at him with her riveting violet eyes.
He leaped at her, and she fired a shot, grazing his right arm, and leaving a crimson line on his upper arm. She smiled grimly. She was the best soldier there was, and she knew she could beat him. He had flaws in his speed. He rushed her as if he hadn't felt the bullet. He went around behind her, and grabbed her in a chokehold. She dug her nails into his arm, and met muscles almost as strong as hers. Almost. She bent her knees, and threw her attacker from over her back. He landed with an audible thud against her hard bed. He stood up slowly, and talked to her.
"You're a good fighter. Almost as good as me." He said, barely nodding his head. She smirked. He was trying to distract her. She knew it wouldn't help him.
"You must be weaker than I thought. Are you mute?" he taunted her. All her other opponents in sword fighting had followed the tradition of taunting her with insults. She had never continued this. It was a waste of breath.
Then Zeben noticed something. No matter what he said or did, the no name boy's face didn't change, it remained passive. She glared at the youth, cocking, and aiming her gun at him. He grinned, and brought his fist up to her face. She staggered; it was the hardest she'd ever been hit. In that split second, he jumped over her kneeled form, stood behind her, and brought her up to a knife against her throat. Now his voice was threatening.
"Don't move." He hissed into her ear, forcing her to walk with him out of the room, to the cold, gray corridor. Classes were just ending, and the silent boy stayed hidden, with a heavy, muscular hand to her mouth to stop her from shouting out. His other hand was behind her back, pushing a threatening gun painfully into her back. Her eyes were angry, and she bit savagely down on his hand that held her. He looked at her coldly, then tightened his grip. Then she felt a shiver of fear run down her back. This boy could hold her for ransom. If he knew her true identity, then he would know that she was worth quite a bit of money. She forced herself to remain still.
He looked at the retreating backs of her fellow soldiers-in-training, and forced her to start walking towards a classroom that she knew had a door to the outside. She tried one more time to break free of his hold on her. She pretended to trip on a desk. Reaching for her hidden knife in her ankle sheath, her hand grasped the plain wooden handle. Drawing it slowly out, she allowed the kidnapper to yank her up to her feet roughly. While he was just getting his gun to her back again, she whirled around, slashing at his chest. Instead of hitting his torso, she drew blood on his other arm, the one that hadn't been wounded by her gun. She grinned, but the victory was short lived. As she turned around to run, he grabbed her silky hair, and yanked. She suppressed a yelp of pain, knowing that if he knew he had hurt her, he would do it again. He dragged her back to him, using her hair as a rope in a way. His brown haired bangs fell over his eyes, allowing him to see out of them, but no one to see him. She started shouting to get someone's attention, but he hastily clamped his bloody hand to her mouth.
"Enough is enough." He growled at her, "Do you want me to knock you unconsciunce?" he asked her. She refused to answer to him, instead struggled vainly against him. His gun coldly touched her temple, and she froze. Now, bloody slowly seeping out of both of his arms, and her head, he yanked open a dark green door, and started running, dragging her with him. He walked calmly out the front gate, pretending that he had his arm curled around her waist, with the gun in his hand, urging her on. The guard saluted her, and Zeben, in a tight-lipped smile, lowered her head to him. He had put on a rough brown leather jacket to cover his wounds and the gun.
He made her walk swiftly downtown, to a grubby apartment, with a poor structure and even poorer living quarters. Inside the only clean room, where he brought her, he tied her to an ebony chair, with her hands behind her, took her knife, and briefly looked over her head wound. After applying a little ointment, he bound her feet, near the ankles, and brought another chair over to sit across from her. She sat regally, listening to her blood as it fell to the floor, plop.plop.plop staining her hair a russet red. She glared at her kidnapper. He glared back, examining her, looking at her rank on her shoulders, and her uniform. Finally, after an hour or so, he spoke.
"Who are you?" he asked angrily.
"I think I'm the one who should be asking that question don't you think?" she replied.
"I'm the one asking questions here. What is your rank in the Gabriel School for Military Training?" he asked.
"I'll tell you nothing. I know what you're doing," she declared, her violet eyes narrowing, "you're trying to get information from me so you can ransom me, or to find out about the school. You're probably one of those Gundanium Mobile pilots." She spat it like a poison.
He stood up, and she noticed that he hadn't let any emotion escape him during their fight, and walk. Now his body was tense with anger. He drew back his hand, and slapped her full across the face, leaving a bruise that covered her entire left cheek. She glared at him, her lavender eyes streaming hate at him. Her body was used to beatings. Once when the boys at her school had gotten her off guard, they had broken both of her arms. In return for that, she broke all of their noses; something that would leave them scarred for life. Back then, she had thought, 'An eye for an eye' and had let it go after that. Now, bound and helpless, she longed to hit him back with all of her strength. What would her brother think? She had allowed someone to hit her, and not hit him back. It would ruin her pride. Then her captor sighed.
"I'll tell you who I am, if you tell me who you are." He said to her. She looked at him, wondering if he would tell the truth.
"Sally." She answered finally.
"The deals off unless you tell me your real name." He said, staring at her.
"Fine. Zeben." She said.
"Zeben.?" he trailed off into the question. She thought it over carefully in her mind whether to tell him her last name or not.
'Hmm. If he knew my last name, he could get more money, and yet, I really don't want to get hit again, after all there's only so much a girl can take from someone with her every skill, but less of it.' She thought wryly. She sighed.
"Zeben Marquis." She said it in a tone of resignation. Her hair, the same as her brother's, only darker, was getting sticky where the blood dripped into it. The top half of her hair was bound behind her, to cascade with the rest of her locks to the dirty, unkempt floor. The light, which came from a lamp, fluttered briefly before turning back on again. While all this had been going on, Zeben hung her head, failing to see the look he was now giving her, astonishment mixed with skepticism. His bangs hid his eyes again as he thought over what she had said.
'When I went to that stupid school, it was a scouting mission only. Not kidnapping. I didn't know that Zex's sister was a soldier! She's about my age then, I wonder if she's heard about me. She is as good as I am in soldier skills, maybe better. I'm surprised. I thought that was impossible, since I'm considered by Doctor J to be the 'Perfect Soldier', then again, I believe she is too. I remember reading about her on L1. She started war arts since four. Hmm, younger then even me. Surprising.' While he was pondering, he failed to see her smile, and lower her head.
'Let him think I'm broken. It'll serve him right if I escape because he didn't notice I have another knife.' She thought, her hair over her face to hide her grin. As her muscles stretched to form her smirk, they tightened over her cheek. She winced with pain. He didn't notice, or didn't want to.
'Typical.' She thought, waiting for him to keep his end of the bargain. He noted her head rise to look at him, expectantly.
"My name is none of your concern." He said, turning his back on her.
"It damn well is!" she spat at him, "You've kidnapped me, I can't think of anything else that gets more personal than that!" he smiled, a small one, that her angry form didn't see.
"Very well. My name is Heero Yuy." He said at last. She settled back uncomfortably against the wooden chair. All of a sudden, he brought his head up quickly, looking in anticipation at the door. A figure walked in, dressed in black. His long brown hair was tied back in a braid, and his light amethyst eyes danced mischievously. He wore a smile on his lips, and carried a box under his arm. He looked from the blood stained boy to the injured blonde, and his gaze came back to Heero's. He chuckled, and set his box on the floor. He went over to the blonde and, using a clean towel from the box, wiped away the blood that was trailing down her cheek.
"Thank you." She whispered, barely audible. She was wearing her tan and light green army uniform, this other teenager must know she was a soldier. He turned to the boy.
"Man, Heero! What did you do there? Why'd you bring home a hostage? Do you know who she is?" he said, glancing behind his back at the girl, slumped against her tight bonds, "That's Zex Marquis' little sister! She's an ace soldier, pilot, everything! This puts the mission in total jeopardy. What are the guys gonna say?" he went back to the girl, giving Heero time to think about what he had just said.
"You know me. You don't know that you know me, and he," he jerked his thumb at Heero, "probably didn't mean to kidnap you. Do you have a note for your brother? Signed D.M? That's me. I'm Duo Maxwell. Pleased to meet you. I know what will happen if I take of those bonds, so I'm not going to. I apologize for that, but we know you're dangerous, and, pardon me saying this, but we are more dangerous together, than you are alone. It's for your own good, you know. By the way, now that I'm talking to the one and only you, I'd like to ask you something." He said.
"I'll tell you nothing. Even if he didn't mean to kidnap me, he still did. I'm ashamed of myself to losing to such a person, and as soon as I get the chance, I'm going to run. My brother will find me, at some point. I wouldn't want to be you then." She said it all while standing at the floor, getting more scared by the minute. She didn't want to cause the destruction of the school, and she thought that was what they were after.
" Why won't you look at me?" he asked, perplexed. He put clean fingers under her chin, and using all of his strength, brought her head up to face him. When he saw the growing bruise on her cheek, he growled, deep in his throat. Heero watched him, eyes narrowing at his comrade, as Duo slowly turned around, and asked him if he had done that. Heero glared coldly at him, expecting Duo to back down like he always did when Heero turned on his Death Glare. This time, amazingly, he didn't. Dou was furious at his naïve friend.
He had hit Zeben Marquis! Zeben was known to take revenge on anyone that touched her, or harmed her. It came from being an orphan. Her parents had died in a fire, Zex had told her at an early age. He had also told her her true identity. Dou turned away from the silent Heero, and returned his attentions to Zeben.
"Ahm. Well, I apologize to you for Heero's sake even though I know it won't do any good. Anyway, I was wondering why both your brother and yourself have German names, when intelligence has traced you to the Sanq Kingdom?" She flinched at his question, but kept silent. Duo sighed, and went over to flop onto a torn purple couch with an ugly floral print. Heero went into the kitchen, and fixed himself a turkey sandwich stuffed with lettuce and cheese. Then he drank a glass of milk. Just looking at the refrigerator made her hungry. She pushed the hunger out of her mind, and slept. Heero glanced at the girl he had taken and sighed. He didn't know why he had hit her. She was so beautiful to him! Her hair, bloody and matted it maybe, it was strong. He had loved the feel of it between his hands when he had yanked it. He had greedily stared at those mystifying eyes that held him captive in their depths of violet. He swore, and pinched himself. Duo glanced away from the dingy television to him. He smiled, guessing what Heero was thinking.
"Is Trowa coming with Quatre tonight?" Heero asked, ignoring the knowing grin.
"Yup. I personally think Trowa will like Miss Marquis. Do you know that's just a codename? Zeben means seven in German. Zex means six. And you know Noin? Zex's sweetheart, her name means nine. It's a codename, but I wonder what her real name is." Duo answered, staring at his friend shrewdly. Heero looked at his friend and realized what Duo was doing. He growled.
"I don't need a hobby Maxwell." He said, turning to his bedroom, where all of their computers and technology was. Duo smiled ironically as Heero quietly shut the door and booted up the computers. He got on the Internet, and ran a search engine on the name: Zeben Marquis.
He found two things. One was a picture of the girl at age four, supposedly when she started training to be a warrior. She was doing gymnastics, completing a double cartwheel, and about to do a mid-air flip. He looked at her blurred face. She was unsmiling, and the color photo revealed a platinum blonde man standing behind, silently watching. The caption under the picture said it was Zex. Heero looked at the dark sunglasses that hid the man's eyes, and part of his face. Then he looked at the lean little girl. He smiled faintly. She was very determined. Then he pulled up another picture, this time of her at age fifteen. She was shooting at a dummy. Heero zoomed in on the dummy. She had hit it on the bulls-eye, it's chest, dead center. His smile turned grim. He shouldn't be feeling these emotions now. It was time for the mission, not some skinny girl who was as good as he was in martial arts, strength and durability, if not better. Then he searched under Sanq Kingdom. He found old newspaper articles about the small kingdom. It appeared that, about fourteen years ago, the Colonists had sent terrorists to the kingdom, and had set bombs up in the royal palace. The ruling king, a pacifist called King Peacecraft had died, as had the ruling Queen. Most of the servants died, but what was strange, was that the Prince and Princess had disappeared, the Princess only one year old. They had been in a royal garden miles away when it happened, and authorities had suspected that the terrorists had made a clean sweep of the Peacecrafts. Milliardo and Relena Peacecraft were still missing after a county-wide man hunt brought no results. That was what all the stories more or less said, except for one, that was printed a few years later then all of the other articles. It said that the servants for the Royals that were at the particular garden with the children had all disappeared as well.
'That was no help at all.' Heero thought, frustrated. 'Wait.' * * *
Half an hour later, Heero woke Duo, hissing his impatience. Duo had fallen asleep on the couch, watching soap operas on television. Zeben had stayed asleep. Heero pinched Duo, not lightly, on the cheek to wake him up.
"Duo! You fool! I found out her true identity!" Heero was saying over and over again, looking at the sleeping girl.
"Huuuuhn?" Duo's replay was muffled with sleep.
"Come over here you idiot!" Heero said, almost lifting him up with impatience. Duo struggled out of the warm couch, and staggered over to Heero's bedroom. He closed the door quietly, not waking the snoozing soldier. He yawned, and rubbed his neck, looking curiously at his fellow pilot.
"So? Who is she?"
Heero sat down at the computer chair, and dragged another chair over beside his. Duo sat down, and looked at the data in front of him on the computer screen.
"Whoa! Jeez, Heero, do you know what this means? You not only discovered her identity, but you discovered Zex's too!" Duo stared with astonishment at Heero, his face eerily shadowed by the only light; the computer screens. Heero was silent, for some reason, he didn't like the fact of what he now knew.
"Yea. Duo, Zeben Marquis is actually Princess Relena Peacecraft!" He said empathetically.
"Oh Man! We have Royalty in this filthy sewer of a house!" wailed Duo.
"Duo, don't you think it's kind of ironic? The best, 'Perfect Soldier' a Peacecraft? I heard about them on L1. Total Pacifists. They didn't even take a side in the war. Right now the late Queen's family is ruling the country. Think about this Duo! We could ransom her to her brother or that country!" Heero said.
"Man, I guess you do like her, or you wouldn't be giving her the 'Perfect Soldier Award'. Seriously Heero, do you honestly think we could ransom her? Besides, there's a reason she is hiding from her past, and we should think of that before anything else." There was a knock at the door. Three quick rasps, a pause, then two short knocks.
"They're here." Duo said grimly. He opened the door and stepped out. Heero came after him, holding a clean piece of white cloth. Zeben was awake.
"What are you going to-" her question ended harshly when he gagged her, tightly and wordlessly. The knocks had woken her up. She stared determinedly at Heero, trying not to let her fear slide through. Duo saw it though, and smiled reassuringly at her. She glared at him fiercely, making him laugh for a second, as Heero answered the door.
The rotting door gave way to reveal three boys, all around the age of sixteen. Relena Peacecraft stared shamelessly at the group. The first one was oriental, 'Chinese', Zeben guessed. He wore his short, midnight black hair in a tiny ponytail to keep it out of his eyes. He glanced at her and sneered. He wore a white shirt that buttoned up, and white cotton pants with black slippers. His almond shaped eyes was black, and slender with suspicion.
The next boy had charm, he had grace, and he had money! He was a blonde, stunningly so, and appeared naïve. He looked shocked that there was a girl here, a girl tied up. He looked questioningly at Heero and Duo. This youth was wearing a lavender shirt, with a dark purple vest over that, and a pair of long, khaki pants. The last boy to walk in walked with the grace and easiness of a tiger. He was just as dangerous as the other boys were, and Zeben knew it. He looked with sharp, intelligent green eyes to where she sat, and looked her over. This one was wearing a dark blue turtleneck, with light jeans. His brown hair fell over half of his face, just like Heero's, giving him a protection mask over his face. He nodded coldly at Zeben, and walked into the room. Heero eyes noted everything; he had seen the exchange between her, and the mysterious boy. Zeben gave them look for look, snarl for each snarl. She wasn't broken, or tame! Let anyone know it. Her feet, lying between the chair legs, hid that she could move her knees, it was just the ankles that were bound. She watched as the boys quietly sat down on the flower couch, and pulled up chairs from the kitchen to discuss things. Zeben finally got tired of hearing such things as "Hello, how's your partner?" and so on. Her head nodded, and she let it sink slowly down, her hair hiding her face. She heard someone get up to look at her. The person sighed. Then he sat down again, and started to talk.
"Thanks for getting together everyone! I know we can work together to do this mission." Zeben could only see a little bit, but she saw blonde hair, so she knew which one spoke that time. "Okay guys, before we discuss the plan Trowa and I made up, I have to ask an obvious question. Why do you have a Marquis tied up, bruised, and bloody in your living room?" the blonde asked.
"A woman! She is not fit to be a warrior, or soldier. I can not believe that if you were to kidnap anyone, it would be a woman!" that was the oriental one, but who was he calling inferior?
"How could you tell she's a Marquis?" That would be Duo.
"Blonde hair, violet eyes, and the same facial structure as her brother. Besides, she's been labeled as the 'Perfect Soldier'. I even heard she could kill in the battlefield unthinkingly. Think about it, I know we're talking about a girl, but could she pilot one of our suits?" Blondie.
"Quatre! Don't even say that! I know I vouch for her well being and everything, but those Mobile Suits are for us, to defend the colonies. She's from Earth! And while we're discussing the lovely 'Bruised and bloody' lady over there, Heero did some research about her. After all, Zeben Marquis is only a codename, like Heero's name. Go on Heero." Duo, and know she knew the blonde's name was Quatre. Heero. Quatre. Duo. And who was Trowa? Somehow she knew that the secretive one was Trowa. That left one person. Mr. Sexist.
"Okay, here's what I found on one Zeben Marquis. Birth date, birth certificate all unknown. Hair: goldenrod. Eyes: violet. Age: undetermined, about fifteen. Relatives: Zex Marquis, brother. That's her most obvious traits, but I've found that she's actually from the Sanq Kingdom. Her real name is Princess Relena Peacecraft. She, and her brother, are royalty who supposedly disappeared fourteen years ago. Zex is really Prince Milliardo Peacecraft, heir to the throne of the Sanq Kingdom. The only thing I can't figure out is why they disappeared.