Relena's Mission (In More Ways Than One) Revised

by stefani teee

I finally finished revising it! Thanks for waiting! RP/HY Secrets are some things that everyone has. But when a girl's secret reveals something to you about someone who's watched over you all your life, what do you do?

Relena's Mission(In More Ways Than One) Re-edited

By: stefani teee a.k.a. Koneko ^Å^

© Tale Spinners inc.

Koneko-chan says!

Konnichiwa minna! Finally, I have finished revising this stuff. I couldn't stand it. Some of my newer ones are going to stay, but the old ones?! God, I had to fix them. I'm keeping them though, partially because I don't want to lose all those nice reviews that were capable of making me feel better of my (then) crappy writing. I don't know. Maybe you'll think my writing now even more stupid. You tell me. The gundams haven't been destroyed as I need them for this fic. And none of the characters belong to me, but if anyone's willing to sell, I have around two bucks somewhere in my room! (Maybe in the back of my closet…)

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It was a standoff. The Princess of the Sank Kingdom versus the Perfect Soldier. But there was one thing different about this than their past meetings. Of course, it had been over a year since they'd last seen each other, but this was still different. They were evenly matched. Now, in any other case, this would have been perfectly acceptable, maybe even expected. Of course, anything involving those two are bound to be unexpected.

Relena glared at Heero with something that was almost hatred. "You?!" she asked in a low, husky voice, recognizing as she cocked her gun aimed at him directly between the eyes. He was shocked of course, but like the stupid 'emotionless soldier' that he was, he hid it fairly well. His hand holding the gun at her neck never wavered. He vaguely wondered what was so different about her voice when she finally spoke, "How many of our meetings end up like this Heero?" she asked not expecting an answer and of course, none was given.

Relena smirked, removing her gun from his forehead. "You're not worth losing a bullet over." She said as she began shoving her gun back into the holster in a rather large black leather belt. "So… I see you haven't given up your favorite pastime of destroying enemy bases. I don't blame you… it amuses me." In her other hand, she held up a small black controller. "I've wired this place to blow after a minute so I'm leaving now… if you have any sense, you're coming with me. What I want isn't here." Heero grunted, "I've got what I need." He said shortly as Relena nodded.

"Fine. There's only one way out right now without triggering it. Follow me." she said, pressing the button and throwing it to the ground. "Let's move!" she yelled as a countdown began on the small screen, running towards the opposite wall. On their side, a door slammed open as soldier rushed out to meet them with flying bullets. Relena gritted her teeth as she felt one of them graze quite deeply against one arm before she whipped out her gun, shooting instead at the steel cables above them holding steel piping along the wall. With a report like gunfire, the cables snapped, burying them in metal. Screams of pain could be heard and Relena bit her lip, feeling more than a little guilty before she concentrated on escaping again. They were the enemy after all.

She leaped up, grasping the edge of the wall, hanging on by her fingertips before she pushed upwards, clearing the jump onto the top platform. She could hear Heero land behind her and continued running, past several soldiers, stopping them with dizzying blows from her punches and kicks. One of them got, lucky, shoving an army knife across her arm, exactly where the bullet wound was. She screamed in pain and in fury, kicking him off the platform, and she heard a distinct CRACK as his skull hit the ground below. She winced feeling guilty and even more sorry. But she continued on her way, to where the wall was lower to the ground outside. She turned to Heero once who was amazed with her fighting skills and pain capacity when she said sardonically, "Hope you aren't afraid to jump." He didn't answer as he watched her vault over the low wall and downwards where he heard a THUMP of her boots hitting earth. He followed her as he cleared the wall, landing in the dirt below.

Her black form-fitting pants and black tank top were streaked with dust and mud and she surreptitiously slapped away some of the dust while waiting for him. As soon as he hit, she began running, gesturing for him to follow. "Get moving! You'll get blown to Alpha Centauri if you wait any longer!" he nodded following her as she ran for the cover of trees as several men followed them off the wall. Apparently, Relena's work had been found out. They were panicking. Relena bit her lip as she checked her watch. Only twenty seconds left… She increased her speed even more, streaking into the trees. 5… 4… Heero followed her as they dove into a relatively safe haven that was a ditch, deep enough to fit them both… if Heero was lying on top of Relena. 3… Relena barely had time to register the blush on her face when she pulled him down closer to her so that several soldiers running past wouldn't notice Heero's green shirt standing out with the brown and gray of the dirt and the rock. 2… 1.

BOOM

Flying dirt and pebbles whizzed past their heads as the explosion rocked the earth, loosening the rocks, and uprooting several trees closer to the destroyed base as flying chunks of twisted metal flew like meteors across the relatively short distance. As soon as the dust settled, Heero looked up slowly, making sure no one was there. "Um… if it's no problem to you… could you please remove your hands?" asked a heavily sarcastic voice from beneath him. He looked down to find that his hands had been on her chest all that time. He removed them quickly and awkwardly. Relena sat up, holding her heavily abused arm. "Damn it." she grumbled as she tried to stop the bleeding. Heero debated with himself for a moment before taking Relena's arm, reaching into his jacket pocket and pulling out a dark blue strip of fabric. He tied it around her arm, to stop the bleeding. She looked at him steadily for a moment before smiling at him, a familiar sunny smile that he still remembered.

"Thank you…"

He grunted looking away, "They'll be looking for us soon." she nodded, her eyes growing serious again. "I know."

"And you two are coming with me." a voice said from above them. The both looked up to face a smirking Dorothy Catalonia in an army suit. Relena smiled up at the girl, finally giving into her weariness. "No luck yet, Dorothy…" Dorothy bent down and caught the slumping girl, lifting up the very light body of the girl. She eyed Heero closely before she finally said, "You're heading for the base aren't you?" Heero was still amazed at how Dorothy knew they were out here when she laughed quietly as they passed quietly through the trees. "She has a job to do, just like you, snooping around enemy bases. Of course… I'm the only one who knows."

Finally, they reached Dorothy's gold car parked at the side of the empty road that led towards the city. "Hop in." she invited as she lay the sleeping Relena into the backseat and took the driver's seat. As she started the car, Heero looked back at the sleeping girl. "She was so… different." Dorothy looked bemused. "You mean not even YOU know?"

"Know what?"

The blonde didn't answer, she instead had a self-satisfied smile on her face. It wouldn't matter, he'd find out soon enough. After an hour of driving, they soon arrived at the city, Relena already beginning to stir behind them. Heero looked back at her just as Dorothy frowned as she looked at the sky through her windshield. "That's Hilde." She said seriously as she increased the speed to the apartment building, which a secret military base was hidden below for their use. "She'll be back in a bit… and from the looks of it, she'll be in a complete hurry." Heero nodded, his mind focused on the mission. They had to find out more about those mobile suits that were continuing to attack them. It was ridiculous how many people and terrorist groups still wanted to disrupt peace. Why want more war right now?

Relena's gun slipped to the floor of the car, making him remember how she'd been back at the base. "Why is she holding a gun?!" Dorothy sighed, "Because she's hiding until everything's safe for her to come back out. And in this world, when you need to be safe, you have to be armed." Heero didn't argue… she was correct… but that didn't mean the Dove of Peace should! It meant going against all her ideals that she'd stood up for.

He looked back at her, noticed her new style of dress, her tattoo, her different hairstyle… her TATTOO?! He stared at the black tattoo of a large bird of sorts that's wings folded over the word, Furies. What was with her? She'd always been afraid of needles and having colored needles jabbed into her skin would have been more than Relena could have handled. "Is her tattoo real?" Dorothy glanced at him as she swerved around a passing car, "You noticed. Yeah it's real, and the Furies… well, I'm sure she'll tell you when it's time." Heero sighed shaking his head, "She wouldn't tell me. She acted like she hated me when I saw her earlier… and I haven't seen her for so long… why would she still talk to me?" Dorothy smiled softly at him as they walked through the lobby in the hotel, she holding Relena. "And she saved you. From what I know of her, that isn't something she'd do to someone she completely hates."

Heero eyed Relena, "Is she heavy?" Dorothy smirked, "No… she's as light as a bird." Her eyes were wide and urging. Was she giving him a clue? "So… do you want me to carry her?" he asked awkwardly. If Dorothy could do a facevault at the moment, she would have done a facevault. But she certainly did give up… Heero could be really dense sometimes. As they were entering the elevator, Relena's eyes finally opened and she yawned, before noticing Dorothy's bemused face above hers. "Oh! You should have woken me up before…!" she exclaimed as she noticed that she nowhere near the car, nor the forest. "It wasn't a bother. It's even less of a bother with… the way you are." Relena tensed, and her smile became forced. "Does he know?" she hissed in her friend's ear. "No."

The princess relaxed slightly as Dorothy set her on her feet. "Where are we headed?" Heero finally spoke, "Our apartment." Relena raised her eyebrow, "'Our apartment'?" she asked.

"All of us are stationed here. We just share one big… apartment."

Dorothy grinned maniacally, "What, were you thinking of something else?"

"Yeah right, with you and Quatre together, you can't think of anything else to pull, you wouldn't even notice if you smashed yourself against a flagpole." Relena retorted, as the elevator doors slid open and they walked out into the red carpeted hallway. Dorothy flushed, but didn't say more than, "I'll get you for this Peacecraft." jokingly to her friend. Heero noticed Dorothy was carrying a large black shoulder bag, which she handed back to Relena, apparently she'd been traveling for some time already. "We've got to get you home."

Relena shook her head, "No. I can't go back until I've retrieved the blueprints for the newest of the Tallgeese." Heero blinked. "Why do you need to get those? Didn't Zechs already have those?"

Relena rolled her eyes. "Yeah, until OZ just decided to 'sneak' into our lab by blowing half the house apart and stealing the blueprints. I was the only one who was… able to go and get them back before they create another Tallgeese… which we don't need from the enemy."

Heero stared at her openly. "What enemy?"

Relena's eyes darkened as if she knew something but she shook her head, "Some rogue revolutionists who think they can overthrow the peace."

"They'd let *you* go? You've got so many meetings and briefings these days being the ruler of the Sank Kingdom I wouldn't think that you'd have enough time to even get a decent night's sleep." Relena nodded, glancing down at herself. "Milliardo is covering for me, as for the job… huh, they don't know much about me anymore than they need to. They've only had a need of me when they want to dump more work on me." Heero looked down at her too and he suddenly noticed that her figure had differed greatly since he'd seen her last, she was finely muscled, and her body more developed. There were however, visible scars and old bruises that she must have suffered a while ago. Not to mention bullet wounds… a lot of them.

They'd reached the hotel 'room' (K: if it could house all the gundam pilots and the Xeron pilots –the girls- then it can't be called a room can it?). Heero reached into his pocket, pulling out his security card, and slid the card through the slot. The light flashed green and the door opened automatically. They walked in to see Duo just walking past.

"Duo!" cried Relena. Duo turned to look with wide-eyed disbelief. "Relena?! What are you doing here?!" he yelled out in his surprise before enveloping her in a hug. Relena winced slightly as he came in contact with her wound on her arm. Sensing her movement, Duo pulled back and noticed the gash. "What happened?" he asked her. Relena shrugged. "I got careless." Someone else came running over. "Relena!" cried the voice and Relena turned to see Catherine, Trowa's sort-of girlfriend. "Catherine! It's been so long! I haven't seen you in ages!" they hugged tightly and Catherine looked over at Heero. "How'd you find her?" she asked him.

"Military base." He replied shortly.

"Where's everyone else?" asked Relena. Catherine sighed. "They're out on other missions. Ever since we started piloting mobile suits, we've been called out on special assignments almost every day." Relena nodded, "I've been busy as well. I've had so many meetings and briefings and speeches it makes my head spin… and physical training takes a lot of hard work too." Catherine nodded. "I know, I've seen you on TV, you looked happy and in control… but also pretty frazzled." Relena blinked. "Was I *that* obvious?" she asked Catherine. The answer was a simple laugh. "No. But then, not everyone's a Xeron pilot, or a gundam pilot for that matter." Relena smiled. "Whew, you freaked me out for a moment. Noin told me that a lot of the other political leaders are starting to dislike me. They've already started criticizing everything I do or say."

Catherine raised an eyebrow. "Like who?" Relena shrugged. "Noin wouldn't name any names." She didn't add that Noin had look extremely worried when she had told Relena. Relena suspected that they had sent her on this mission for the blueprints to stay out of the political world until whatever was building up, blew over. She was even more suspicious since she wasn't in the safest position to take the job although Milliardo had insisted it was because she was the most trust-worthy. Duo had been listening impatiently to the dialogue and he decided to speak up. "So? Other than all that, how come you're the one snooping around a military base? I thought you were a pacifist." Relena looked away, she looked pained. "Please… don't ask me that question." The braided boy was taken aback as he noticed a sparkle in the corner of Relena's eye… a sparkle that looked suspiciously like a tear.

Heero looked up from the chair that he was sitting in. The conversation had progressed until they had all sat down on the couch except for him who took the one-person chair. He could tell from Relena's words Milliardo's plan. Milliardo was afraid that the other political leaders would send the assassins that made the world a bloodthirsty planet to kill Relena… or something along those lines. "So? Do you have a lead to the OZ soldiers yet?" he asked her in his usual monotone. Relena glanced at him. "Not much. I only know that they have a secret base somewhere in the city and they've gotten some anonymous help from some other people… I just don't know who they are." Catherine pursed her lips. "Well, I know we already have a secret base underneath this hotel… but… I think there might be one across town, I've detected a couple of times a gigantic heat source that keeps disappearing before I can get a straight reading on it."

Relena turned her head quickly at a sudden shadow that passed over the window. "What was that?" she said softly and she stood up to go and see. As she neared the window, the glass slammed upwards to show a girl with short black hair dive through the window. "Shut it! Shut it!" she yelled as Relena slammed down the window just in time for the bullets that were pelting after her struck the bullet-proof glass. "What is going on?!" she cried as she backed away from the window. The girl on the ground groaned. "Ohh that did not feel good." Relena looked down at the person on the carpet. "Hilde?! Are you alright?" she asked her bending down. Hilde looked up. "Relena? What are you doing here?" she gasped.

"What? Don't want me here?" asked Relena wryly as she helped the girl up.

Hilde immediately shook her head, "Oh, I'm sure you're welcome here… it's just not the best place to be when OZ has this incredible new mobile suit. It looks like the Tallgeese but it way more advanced, a distance from the town off on the other side."

Heero leaped up as more bullets pelted the glass. "What?! How would they know where we are?" he yelled angrily as he ran for the door along with Duo and Catherine. Relena started after them, but winced as her ankle throbbed painfully. "Had to make yourself known didn't you?" she said accusingly at her ankle. She turned back around to help Hilde. "So it looks like OZ wasted no time in building the new Talllgeese." She mused. "From what you told me, they've duplicated the mobile suit. But what surprises me is that they would have made it in so short a time space. I've been tracking them for around two weeks and I haven't monitored any mobile suit construction anywhere."

Hilde blinked at the unexpected words. "Let me get this straight… you are the one tracking the Tallgeese? And you don't have body guards at every square inch?!" Relena snorted. "Oh, yeah, it'll be *so* much more easier to fight when I'm surrounded by clumsy, muscle-bound morons than when I'm alone and able to run easier." She answered sarcastically, her voice changing tone. She blinked. "Um… I don't think that came out the way I wanted it to… Sorry Hilde… I guess I've changed a bit since you've last known me…" Hilde nodded. "Don't worry 'bout it. We've all changed." She smiled and winced slightly as she gazed at her cut arm. "Ow. This stings." Relena smiled. "You mean more than this?" she showed Hilde her own arm and also her bruised, sprained ankle. "Ouch, that probably hurts as well." The two girls laughed and Hilde led the way to the first aid kit. Relena winced as Hilde poured the iodine on her cut but it was nothing compared to what Hilde did to her ankle to make the swelling go down. "Ow! Are you sure you aren't a professional torturer instead of a mobile suit pilot?" Hilde gave her a wry smile. "You mean there's a difference?"

Suddenly a loud explosion cut into the conversation. "Why do these things always stop my conversations?" complained Relena before forcing herself to stand and walk with only a slight limp towards the door. Hilde made no comment. "You got a gun? I doubt you'd break into a base without one." Relena nodded. "And plenty of ammo. You?" Hilde lifted her shirt slightly to show Relena the two guns strapped to her waist. "Let's go. I think the others need our help." Relena nodded and they both ran, Relena slower than usual and made their way to the basement with only a pause between elevators in which Hilde punched in a code. "If you don't punch it in, it'll send the elevator right back up to the ground floor." She explained before they both ran out to see the huge underground base. (K: Is it just me or do I always have the gundam boys have an underground base?)

Duo was down there slamming desperately on the control panel. "Heero's gone out in the Wing Zero. I don't know how well, he'll do against the Tallgeese. He's cut off communication with the base… it's like one of his suicide missions!" Relena's eyes narrowed. "How like Heero. Always rushing off to battle without asking for help. He can't win against the Tallgeese." She snarled angrily slamming a fist on a wooden table near the elevator that they had just gone through, a large crack appeared in the wood but she ignored it. "Get me a suit. I don't care what kind." Her voice had dropped lower and had a husky vibration to it. Duo stared at her with wide eyes. "Are you nuts?! You think you can defeat that thing? I don't think so!" Relena glared right back at him. "Do you think this last year that I've spent away from you guys has just been involved in meetings, briefings and all that political crap? I've still had enough time for military training. Piloting a suit, even a gundam, is nothing I can't handle." She blinked several times in succession and looked at them nervously, "Um… sorry. I don't know where the 'political crap' part came in…" Both Hilde and Duo were too busy being amazed at the "New Relena" to notice her nervousness.

Duo shook his head. "We don't have any other suits left. The others took them when they were off on their missions. There's only the Deathscythe Hell." Relena sighed, it would be a different model, but it was nothing she couldn't handle. "I'll pilot it. It can't be that different from the prototype." Duo opened his mouth to complain but Hilde stepped in. "This is really dangerous Relena… but if you can do it…" she glared at Duo. "Fine, you can use my mobile suit. Just please don't blow up my old buddy." He pleaded, his big blue eyes going even bigger. Relena smiled warmly. "Now why would I do that to a friend's mobile suit?" she asked before running into the cockpit of the gundam.

Jumping in, she pressed the necessary buttons and grabbed the controls. The control panel and the screens lit up as she flew out of the underground passageway to where the battle was. It was at the edges of the city so there weren't any civilians around and she used the jet propulsion to speed up. Reaching the battleground quickly, she took in the scene. Heero was fighting the enemy mobile suit while crowds of Leos were beginning to circle him. "Not this time!" yelled Relena on the wide band communication so that all present could hear. She expertly guided the mobile suit towards the Leos quickly and using the Deathscythe Hell's scythe, quickly cut through the troops of enemy mobile suits. "Relena what are you doing?!" yelled Heero on the tight band. "What does it look like?" answered Relena destroying another Leo. "Get the hell out of here!" he yelled again. The screen at her side exploded into a window where she could see Heero in his cockpit. He was glaring at her.

"You can't stay here! This is no place for you!"

Relena rolled her eyes. "And do you think you can defeat the Tallgeese? I piloted the damn prototype for that thing. I'm getting rid of this one and I am not going to die doing it like you most definitely will if you do this alone." Her low voice shocked him and he looked away from the monitor towards the enemy mobile suit.

With that, she terminated the visual link and flew straight towards the Tallgeese, slamming the scythe into the mobile suit's neck. Large sparks flew from the suit whose pilot had not been expecting an attack from the other mobile suit. Heero came up to her. "What are you doing? Why hit the neck?" he asked since mobile suits rarely targeted that part of the suit. (K: Whether or not this is true, I don't really care.) Relena smiled. "I memorized the blueprint. How did you think I would find the stolen blueprints if I didn't know what they contained? The Tallgeese's neck is the weakest point of the suit. Destroy that point and it will be immobilized. When that happens, you destroy the chest of the suit completely."

"Why the chest?" The question came in the same monotone but there was a slight hint of surprise. What am I thinking? How can I trust this one person? The thought whirled in Heero's brain before Relena's reply came a moment later. "Because there are explosives all over those parts. They self-detonate if the pilot does not respond. You basically have two choices. One, you can disable them by destroying them completely and save yourself a whole lot of grief, or get your gundanium-covered butt in super flight mode, 'cause when it explodes, it covers several kilometers radius. Now which one would you prefer?" After her lengthy explanation, she stopped talking and focused on the Tallgeese. "Then let's destroy it. There are too many innocent civilians." Answered Heero who immediately flew at the Tallgeese. The Tallgeese had had time to overcome the blow that was given to it and it began to fire its cannon at the Wing Zero. Relena took that small time-space and smashed the scythe against the neck of the mobile suit again. It took a few more blows from both mobile suits to immobilize the suit and Heero aimed his immense buster cannon at the suit, blasting it with tremendous force. The blast disintegrated the chest of the suit and the pilot tumbled out of the cockpit, slumping to the ground. Heero's image came up in Relena's screen and she looked up tiredly. "Yes?"

"Let's get back." was the blunt reply.

"Fine." The two mobile suits quickly flew back to the base in silence, while inside the Wing Zero, Heero's mind was reeling. How the heck did she learn to pilot a mobile suit? And not just any mobile suit, a gundam! "Heero?" the words broke into his thoughts. "What?" he answered.

"We're here." He blinked and noticed that he would have continued to go in the direction they had been heading for and into the city. He immediately turned around and flew into the underground entrance tube before Relena followed him in the Deathscythe Hell.

"I-I don't believe it!" gasped Duo as he stared at the monitor. Relena had returned and true to her word, she had helped Heero defeat the Tallgeese. Hilde was right behind him gaping at the monitor. "I had a hunch she'd survive the battle… but this is amazing!" she continued staring at the monitor and watched as the two mobile suits entered the base. Hilde ran to greet Relena as she came out of the mobile suit. "Ow… Duo, your suit really needs a better balance with your suit's weaponry. My arms already kill from that little battle." She groaned as she rubbed her shoulder. Hilde was still looking at her with wide eyes. "Where did you learn to pilot a suit like that? Even I wasn't given enough military training to be that good of a pilot." Relena smiled, "But then, you're not the little sister of the Lightning Count, the pilot of the Tallgeese. He was the one who gave me training in his mobile suit… after I progressed from a Leo. I wasn't the best pilot then…" she grimaced remembering some of her earlier… mistakes.

Heero exited his suit and Duo caught him before he barely got down from his gundam. "So Heero… are you surprised with Relena's progress?" Heero simply glared at Duo before walking through the silver doors and into the elevator. Relena looked at his retreating back, and somehow, even with her new training, she felt a stab of pain inside of her. And anger, the hot familiar rage she always felt whenever someone did something like that to her. Disappointment was something she couldn't seem to take as easily as she used to anymore. Duo came alongside her and Hilde as they all went into the elevator that had come back down after only a few seconds. But they weren't as lucky as Heero who had went straight up. This time, there was a crowd of people that came in at the lobby and plowed in squashing them at the sides of the elevator. "Oof." grumbled Relena as she was pushed to the wall with the metal bar sticking into her side.

They struggled out of the full elevator and walked to room 724. Hilde opened the door with her own key and the door opened silently. "Hilde!" came a voice behind them and they both turned to see… "Quatre!" cried Relena crossing the distance between them quickly and giving the surprised young man a huge hug. Quatre blinked before staring down at her. "Relena? What are you doing here?" Relena pulled back. "I escaped." Quatre's face became serious and more than a little worried.

"What did they… what did they do to you?" Relena's face was a mask of hurt and pain. "Everything you can imagine." Quatre, the soft-hearted boy he was, had to give the girl a hug. Dorothy standing behind them looked sadly at her friend. She'd gotten past the obvious rivalry back in their old schooldays and supported her friend through everything, even the truth that would destroy her name in front of everyone in the political world. It was well-hidden with her, and with Quatre. No one else knew.

They walked in together, Dorothy and Quatre leading the way while Relena trailed listlessly behind. Being with someone who knew her secret did that to her. It made all the memories come back again. Heero was already in his room and the door was shut. They could hear the tapping sounds, and the obvious conclusion came up. He was on his computer. "Go in Relena… I'm sure he has something to say to you… his whole composure says so… but I doubt he'll let us listen in." said Hilde quietly.

"But I can't just walk in there asking what he wants to say to me!"

"Don't worry. Just say that… uh, Duo honey, think of something."

"What?! So I'm supposed to think up a reason?"

"You're the one who likes to bother Heero so much, you should have a ton of excuses."

"For me. Not for Relena."

"Duo…"

"Okay fine. Just say that you need help with retrieving the Tallgeese blueprints or something. You can act all helpless and everything, like a spoiled little—OW!"

Both Relena and Hilde were glaring at him. Relena's eyes flashed dark blue fire, and when she spoke her voice was low and harsh. "I am not going to act all helpless because I am far from it. As for acting like a spoiled little princess, you can forget it." the couple unconsciously backed away from the girl while Dorothy and Quatre stood hurriedly and came over calming Relena down. The princess blinked and sighed, "I'm so sorry Duo… I just can't help it whenever anyone calls me pathetic or helpless…"

Dorothy sighed, After what happened to her, being called weak would make even the little achievement seem worthless after all the hell she's been through… I can't blame her.

Hilde struggled to regain the conversation, "Duo's a baka, you don't need to pay attention to him. Just ask Heero politely or… in whatever way suits you… smacking him in the face and demanding it might be your way, no matter who disapproves of it."

"This is leading somewhere isn't it?" Duo asked her sneakily.

"Duo?"

"Yes?"

"Shut up." A silence followed. Relena had been looking back and forth between the two her head moving as if watching the ball in a game of Ping-Pong. "Uh, thanks anyway." said Relena before walking over to the door and hesitantly knocking. "Come in." was the short reply from within the room. Relena cast one more look at the two who were watching her closely before stepping in the room and closing the door. Duo grinned at Hilde. "I still bet that she'll be thrown out the door." He whispered to Hilde who slapped him to shut him up. Her vocal chords needed a rest and she went to ponder about the new differences in Relena's personality.

"Heero?" asked Relena softly as she entered the room.

Heero's head jerked up before turning around to face her. "What is it?" he asked roughly.

Relena flushed as she managed to stutter incoherently. "Well… I, uh, well…"

Heero's eyes bored into her own and she took a deep breath. When she finally spoke, it was clipped and clinical, her tone low and breathy.

"Well, the fact that I was looking for the blueprints is out in the open and I might as well make it known as well that I haven't had much success in it. All I've found has been sending me on a wild-goose chase all across Earth and several of the Colonies. At the rate I'm going… well, I was wondering if you could help me out… if you're not too busy on another mission or something. Whoever's got it knows that we can beat the Tallgeese now… and they'll be trying to improve on it even more. I've got to get those blueprints back and stop them from creating something even better." Heero was silent for a moment before slowly nodding. Relena smiled, thanking him.

"Won't they have made copies of it?" Relena shook her head "It's impossible to program it into any computer files other than the one it was originally on. It's impossible to copy, with all it encoding, encrypting, and whatnot. And it's too complex to memorize…" Heero looked at her dead on, "So it's impossible is it?" Relena sighed, "No. It's not impossible. Nothing's impossible." She bit her lip, Especially knowing him… he could do anything to me. "You know something." the statement was blunt and she looked up hurriedly. "Perhaps."

"And you won't tell me."

"No… Not yet."

He let the subject drop knowing that if she wanted to tell him anything she would. He wouldn't press any further. Relena got right back down in business. She grabbed her bag, and reaching in grabbed the biggest thing inside it. A laptop covered in high-tech cushioning so despite all the crash-bang she went through, it wouldn't break. Thank goodness for new technology… she reflected as she dispelled the covering. After gaining access, she proceeded to slip a disk in, containing a map of relatively the entire city up to the point of the now-gone enemy base that Heero had found her in. "I've narrowed down one point in where the mobile suit production is coming from. But… there's so many of them…" she faltered in her explanation as she clicked a button and flashing red dots began to appear on several points on the map. Relena zoomed out some more and the dots multiplied as much as she zoomed out. I've searched through most of them and none of them have them, she said as she clicked another icon and several of the dots turned green. "So you're the one the newspapers are calling the 'mysterious hacker and terrorist'. Relena looked rightfully indignant. "I am not a terrorist. I am getting back something that is rightfully mine. A plan of trial and error just happens to be the way I go by."

Heero zoomed back in to the map of the city. There was a flashing red dot on the other side of the city. "You know… it's not my business but I have something to ask you." He looked up at the strange expression on her face. "This base… everything here is fearfully limited. Who told you to come here?" she asked almost seeming to dread the answer. "Who else? Doctor J and the others. The Preventers were quite willing to follow up on what they were doing." There it was. The answer she'd been dreading. "Then… he has no use for you anymore…" she whispered. "What?"

"Nothing." She whispered.

"No, not 'nothing'. Tell me. What?" Heero was looking at her with that determined look on his face that she had seen so many times. "Dr. J… is, well… different now. He's gotten into some new technological advances and his new training processes…" she let that sentence trail off. That was all Heero needed to know. She'd found out about whatever the Doctors might be doing and was suspecting them of the stolen blueprints. "So you think that the Doctors, that have created the gundams themselves, need the blueprints for the Tallgeese?"

Despite his monotone, Relena could sense the disbelief. She couldn't blame him… he didn't know anything about the Furies after all… "Perhaps I'm wrong… but I have a suspicion… especially after destroying Dr. J's plans in particular, I wouldn't be surprised if something about this has more to do with me than with Milliardo." It bordered on the unbelievable. But with what he knew about Relena, she would never lie, or try to get out of anything. She was stubborn and hard-headed… determined to do whatever it took to accomplish something. If she had been an enemy soldier…

"…and there's something wrong with this 'base' as you so nicely call it."

Heero was snapped out of his thoughts by finally noticing Relena still talking. "So you noticed it as well? No one else thinks it a problem. They only think that the peace has gotten to the people."

"There's too little equipment around here to be called a military base. When I asked Duo for any suit, he told me that there were none left. Even in the smallest base, there should be at least some left for emergencies. How come there are none? How many did they all take?" Heero turned to his own computer and typed rapidly for a few moments, "Duo stayed behind while Hilde didn't take any suits with her. Trowa and Catherine went together and took four only, while Wufei and Sally each took four as well. Dorothy and Quatre both didn't take any because theirs wasn't a seek-and-destroy mission." He told her. "So that's only twelve suits? Who sent you here?"

Relena looked serious, "They've always equipped you with more than enough weaponry than you really need on other missions and when you went on your seek-and-destroy missions, for back-up. Did he tell you why it should be different now?"

There was a short silence, which was finally broken by Heero's sigh. "I don't know." Relena blinked, almost smirking internally. Whoa, call the newspapers! Heero doesn't know something! Heero was thinking something along the lines of that… but unfortunately, his thoughts began to wander. This is starting to get strange… Relena's completely different now. What happened to her? She can't have gotten such training while still attending those meetings and such… Maybe I should have checked up on her when Hilde asked me too… Wait. What am I thinking…? I was the one who told her I wanted nothing more than my anonymity! This schizophrenic conversation kept going on in Heero's head until Relena broke into his thoughts.

"Why do you do that?"

"What?" he asked carelessly, never expecting what she was going to say.

"Why do you always seem to think that you don't matter at all, that nothing in this world really matters?"

"What kind of question is that? I thought we were talking about those blueprints of yours."

"So you're thinking that you don't matter to anyone other than a human tool for a mission?" she pressed, not letting the conversation topic drop.

He sighed, resigning himself to talk. (K: The little that he would.) "Relena, I've told you before. Life is cheap-" Relena finished the sentence off for him. "-Especially yours. I know. I've heard it."

When Heero looked at her questioningly, she explained, "You left me with those words. Remember the teddy bear you gave me? I still have that. In fact-" she pulled something out from the bag that she had brought along with her on her mission. It was a brown teddy bear with a red ribbon on its neck. Heero looked down at it and involuntarily, his hand stretched out to touch it. "You-you'd bring a teddy bear on your mission?"

"It was all I had left of you. I couldn't not bring it on a mission I could possibly die on." The answer was simple, but the meaning of the statement struck Heero in full force. She was speaking the truth. "Are you—are you planning to die on this mission Relena?" Relena shrugged. "I don't know yet. Sure, my brother and my soon-to-be-sister-in-law might miss me and the people will be upset for a while… but there's really no difference in the difference in the world that was thanks to me." Heero stared up into her face. It was open and innocent… but behind that, there was a hidden sadness, anger, and strength… a darker soul of the Dove of Peace. She looked away from his gaze first. "So it doesn't really matter anymore does it? I guess I can look at the world through your eyes now."

He didn't answer for a moment. "Are you still a pacifist?" Relena looked up surprised. "I…" she didn't continue. Heero got up from his computer desk and sat down beside her on the side of the bed. "And you're actually thinking of doing such a thing? I'm the Perfect Soldier. I always will be. But you, you're the Dove of Peace and everyone will be devastated that the symbol of peace is destroyed and there will be no one to lead them." Relena kept her eyes on her hands in her lap. "That's what I don't want. I don't want to be known as a symbol for the rest of my life. I told them all once that peace is not just given to them. They all know that a symbol does nothing. They have to maintain peace themselves." She shook her head before looking up and facing him. "But then, you aren't simply a soldier, Heero. You fight for what you believe is right. You fought for peace in this world even though you're not a pacifist like you're always telling me."

"There is nothing else I know of to do other than fight, Relena. You're different. You have a whole world depending on you as their leader. I can be easily replaced with the training that I've been given to another." Relena laughed harshly, her voice twisted with the irony in his statement. He made as to move and to stand up, but Relena's hand shot out and grabbed his arm preventing him from getting him. When his eyes looked back up at her, she said, "That's not true. Not everyone thinks of you as a soldier, even as the Perfect Soldier. They think of you as a person. Look at the other gundam pilots. They were also ordered to be human weapons and kill as much as you have. But they've let others in; they've learned to trust other people again. Just like you've learned to trust them, in battle and in life. They know you're not simply a human weapon… and… well, I know too."

There was a sudden movement on the screen of Heero's computer and they both looked up to see the now familiar icon flashing on his screen. The vid-screen icon was flashing. It was from Dr. J demanding access to 01 directly. Heero stood up and walked over to the computer clicking the icon and opening the window. He never noticed Relena's face turn white until she'd dived under the desk just as the screen opened. He was wondering what the heck she was doing but he decided to ignore her… for the time being. Of course her body huddled against his legs were quite distracting.

Ah 01. The one young man I wanted to talk to

"What is it?" he asked in his normal, monotonous voice that betrayed nothing of the added distraction of Relena now hugging his legs and the fact her heart was pounding against his leg. She was scared…

I have a new assignment for you, 01

"And that would be to do what?" Had that come from anyone else, Dr. J would have safely deemed it as insolent. But with Heero… you never could be sure of what you thought you knew of him. Not many people could tell what Heero really meant whenever he said something.

It is concerning that girl, Relena Darlian

Relena's body tensed against Heero's leg as if knowing what would come.

"How so?"

I want you to find her. Find her and either bring her back to me here on L2 or destroy her utterly… if you should choose the latter, I would advise you to use caution. She is stronger than you'd believe. She's around your area I believe

"Sir."

Good. Any questions?

"What did she do so that I need to kill her or kidnap her?"

After the incident with Mariemaia she came to me for training purposes. She became part of the military group known as the Furies under my care. She and the rest of the Furies betrayed us The voice said clipped and hard as the screen became nothing but static. He closed it slowly as Relena crawled out. "Bring me back or destroy me utterly… how like him." she said dangerously to the blank screen of his computer. "What did you do?"

"We left."

He was silent for a moment before she was the one who spoke. "The Furies are, or were an elite group of female special soldiers, scientifically designed, crafted, genetically altered and trained by the Doctors in order to for certain victory should another war arise."

"And you went to him for military training?!" Relena looked serious as she finally spoke. "I'd known him for a long time too, Heero. Remember when I followed you to Alaska? You thought I had a crazy crush on you didn't you?"

"Something like that."

"Well, Doctor J sent me there. He wanted me to see whether or not Milliardo would win against you or at least hold his own. Back then, the Furies hadn't been decided as a go, and it wasn't female only either. He thought Milliardo would be a suitable candidate. I wasn't even part of it then… but I was… helping him."

"What do you mean by 'scientifically designed, crafted, genetically altered and trained'?"

"Exactly what those words mean. Dr. J wanted to create a new type of Perfect Soldiers. I was one of those guinea pigs."

She began to laugh, though it sounded strangled. "Well then, lock me up officer." She said sardonically as she held out her wrists. "Not much else I can do. I can't hide from him AND you all too." She was quiet for a moment, thinking of what she'd just said. "Well I could… but I won't. Running away from someone who did something as horrible to you as he did to me is one thing, running away from your friends is another."

"Friends?"

She raised an eyebrow. "Are you a friend, Heero?" she asked bluntly. "And no, I'm not asking to make you feel guilty about anything."

"I consider you someone everyone can depend on…" Relena shrugged, "Well, that wasn't exactly what I was hoping for, but coming from you, it must be a lot."

Heero could not believe the girl. He'd just been ordered to kill her in her own hearing and here she was worrying about the ridiculous business of being a friend with her soon-to-be kidnapper. It was actually quite starkly strange, and unlike something she'd do when he'd first met her. But then, she was completely different from anyone else he'd ever met anyway. It was beginning to become normal that she kept surprising him.

Relena was waiting for him to do something. For once in his life, he was actually not doing something. Not that it was bothering her. Not much could fluster her nowadays, and being left hanging there in silence was not something that had bothered her even before. Then again…

"Does Milliardo know about the Furies?"

"Well… yes. A little. Dr. J informed him of the entire thing back when he was a candidate. He didn't accept it and Dr. J turned his attentions to me."

"Fine. We're going to talk to him."

"Who?"

"Your brother." Relena paled. "But Milliardo doesn't know much about anything to do with the Furies. He thought it was just some military group for emergency cases. He didn't know the experimentation that we had to go through. He… he still doesn't know what's happened to me." Heero shook his head firmly. He was going to find out more about this.

"Come on." He grabbed her arm, physically hauling her out of his room and past the astonished/curious/inquisitive gazes of the gundam/Xeron pilots. Relena looked bemusedly at them, not showing at all that they might have to personally kill her.

As soon as they entered the elevator (Relena swore it was planned) but it seemed every door in that hallway burst open and people flooded out in hordes towards that elevator. And as it was, there was no way to escape the oncoming stampede. They were crushed against each other in a corner, as people began ignoring the two suffocating teenagers. Relena felt someone jam extremely hard on her arm, making the bone threaten to snap and she barely held back a shriek of immense pain. Damn that Doctor and what he did to her bone structure…! They were hollow. Hollow as a bird's, and just as delicate. Heero noticed her grimace of restrained pain and also the way someone was jabbing into her arm. "Hey, move it." he said seriously to the guy. The older man took one look at the serious young teenager, considerably shorter than himself, was about to put him down, before he recognized him and swiftly moved away, bashing another poor woman against the wall.

Relena let out a strangled gasp before grabbing her arm and rubbing it. She was already developing a bruise on her delicate skin. Heero had a sudden desire to shoot that man's egotistical brains out. But the entire crowd disappeared out the door as the level of the lobby came up and that man especially seemed in a greater rush to get out than most because of Heero's implied danger. That and a woman shooting dirty looks at him (not to mention the handbag smacked against his head) quickened his steps.

Relena leaned against the wall, sinking down into a sitting position as Heero punched in the code to get down to the underground level. She was holding her arm carefully, and working out the joints in it. It was with a swift movement that she shoved it back into place with a loud "CRACK". It had been dislocated. She didn't say a word more but she bit her lip. Heero was amazed, primarily with how she could handle the pain with nothing but a grimace, but also how she could have dislocated a bone so easily.

She looked up at him and stood up, dusting herself off. "I'm fine." She told him, not even trying to look at him when she spoke. He looked as though he was about to comment on something but shut it, deciding not to. He gestured for her to go first, more for safety (K: as if he needs it) more than politeness. He herded her directly towards the vid-phone where he began to type in the address to link him to Milliardo Peacecraft. The face that appeared though, was a thoroughly frazzled Noin. She looked first at Heero, then at Relena and looked more relieved. "Relena! Are you all right? Nothing has happened yet has it?"

Relena shook her head seriously, her blue eyes soft and serious. "I've already been found." Noin's face suddenly became serious as Relena gestured to Heero. Heero took the matter into his own hands. "Where's Zechs?"

Noin frowned and got off the link for a moment before she reappeared, "Right here." She said shortly, disappearing from view, and the platinum-blond-haired brother of Relena appeared. "What is the meaning of this?" he said seriously, and even Relena had to shiver at the ice in her brother's voice. Heero however didn't seem to notice. "I need information."

"And why would I give information to you, you little two-sided—" his head jerked away and Relena could almost hear Noin trying to calm him down enough not to insult the enemy… especially an enemy who'd kidnapped his sister. "What do you want to know?" he growled harshly.

"I need to know everything you do about the Furies." Milliardo's already pale skin grew even paler. "What do you mean?"

"Exactly what I just said. I need to know about the Furies." Milliardo resigned himself to telling the facts, seeing the reassuring look on Relena's helpless, but still strong, face. "They are a group created by the old Doctors, who'd wanted to have new 'Perfect Soldiers' ready for a new war. After their success with you gundam pilots, they decided to take it one step further. Stopping at mechanics and military training, they began to experiment more with science. When the project first began, they were already thinking of adding me to the Furies, when it wasn't male exclusive." Relena winced at this point and turned away from the screen. She didn't want either of them to notice her fists clenching, ready to smash through something.

"It was soon after the war that Relena joined. It was too dangerous for her to be a helpless pacifist in the face of all those others. They're already starting to doubt her 'purity' as they say and if they find out about this, they'll know it as hypocrisy and not as something almost forced on her. Once they'd planted that idea in her mind to join, nothing else could've come between her and becoming one of them."

"Is that all you know? Do you know of the other members?"

"I know that there are five of them, and of one woman who acted as their second-in-command."

"No names?"

"No."

Heero nodded, "I am going to tell you now that, even though I am not thoroughly convinced, I am going to find out about this. Relena won't be harmed until I find out what the Furies' 'betrayal' was."

Relena shook her head, "You don't need to find that out." She said, her voice low and angry, "We left. We'd had enough of his torture. The political world was already beginning to suspect and I had to go in hiding. I know that's why Milliardo and Noin made me look for those blueprints. I also know that the Doctors only have the blueprints to bait me." Milliardo looked shocked at her serious tone of voice… and the husky vibration. "Relena…" he said warningly, eyeing Heero nervously (K: if that could even be possible… I can't imagine it…). Heero eyed Milliardo suspiciously but Milliardo was concentrating only on Relena. "Don't worry Brother. I am fine." She said slowly, making sure she said every word clearly, more to stave off her anger than to prove a point. He looked at her carefully but returned to talking to Heero stiffly. "What are you going to tell Doctor J?"

"Nothing yet. He won't expect a full report before another month."

Relena raised an eyebrow, "So… are you telling me you're going to help me?" she asked incredulous. It wasn't very often (hell never) that he would go against his orders. He gave her a Look. "I am going to follow you, yes. But if you turn out to have anything to do with the enemy, don't be too sure your life is very safe." Relena smiled sadly at the harsh irony, "My life was never safe Heero. Now, it's become even worse." If Milliardo could have given his sister a hug, he would have. But as he couldn't, all he could do was look helplessly at the girl who was looking morosely at her hands.

"Very well. Where were you headed?"

"I was going to ask Milliardo that… he informed me to check out the enemy base you found me in. "I see… so you've still got to look for them… well, Doctor J is on L2."

"How do you know that?" she asked incredulous at the new information. "The vid-link has an address of where he was calling from. I just happened to trace it."

Relena snorted, "Knowing him, he'd bounce the signal over five different satellites before he'd reach you."

"I'd counted on that, that's why I made sure. The signals still came from L2 originally." Relena was impressed, this guy knew a lot more than he let on. Of course, he didn't know anything about the Furies yet, but… Hey, he'll find out soon enough. She didn't have a doubt… he could do the most impossible things.

Heero then turned to Milliardo. "Expect me to be in close contact with both you and Noin. I will validate whatever proof I've received with you first before I transmit it to Dr. J." the use of more military terms was to show that he was all business again. Milliardo nodded, and his eyes were as cold as Heero's. "Very well. Have it your way." He disappeared from the screen in a burst of static as Heero cut the link. He turned back to the girl. "Don't think I'm letting you off easy. I'm coming with you. If your mission is to get only those blueprints, then I'll see to it that that's all you're going for." Relena shrugged, "Fine. But I'll have to warn you… you're not the only one coming along."

"What are you talking about?"

"Well… Dorothy and Quatre are coming for one."

"And why wasn't I informed?"

"Because, they've known that I've been on the Doctors' trail for a while now. And they've been the ones helping me along. Besides… you wouldn't have cared what a pathetic little princess who couldn't even defend herself was up to, would you?"

He answered with a normal (well for him) silence. They took the elevator back up, and it was just their luck that another huge crowd of people, not caring about how much weight the elevator could hold, simply piled in, pushing Relena against Heero in on corner. Again. Relena groaned in preparation as she noticed the same man who'd dislocated her bone earlier. This was not a good time as it still ached. Well, she wasn't about to go through anything remotely painful just yet! She turned to Heero as a last resort. "Pick me up." She hissed. "What?"

"Pick me up, or you'll never know why the hell I'm involved with the Furies if I end up a smashed and broken doll on the ground!" Heero uneasily complied and found Relena to weigh almost nothing. If he couldn't feel her warmth, he would've sworn she was still standing beside him. And it was just in time too because that rude man decided to take just that moment to back up a step and stamp backwards with his heel (wearing a very heavy military boot too) that would have completely crushed Relena's foot. She in her turn was giving him a dirty look. He simply turned red to the roots of his hair and turned away so he couldn't see her blue eyes snapping and sparking angrily.

As soon as they exited, there were voices calling to them from the other side of the hallway corridor. "Heero!" they both turned to see Sally and Wufei coming closer to them. "Sally! Wufei! It's you!" cried Relena. While the two pilots stood still in shock, Relena ran over and enveloped them both in a big hug. "I've missed you guys!" she said as she pulled away smiling at them. "HEY! Onna, there is no need to act up so!" said a distinctly rumpled Chang Wufei. Relena grinned loosening her death grip on both of them allowing them to again begin their suspended intake of air.

Sally finally asked the question they'd both been thinking since they'd spotted her. "Relena! What are you doing here?!" Relena could barely keep from laughing at the common words from every gundam and/or Xeron pilot that day.

Sally looked confused. "What?" Relena shook her head. " Nothing… And you Wufei? Still as much of a chauvinist as before?" Wufei bristled but kept silent. Relena looked amazed. "Whoa… okay, I'm taking notes. Sally what drug did you give him to stop him from snapping back at me?!" Sally laughed and answered. "Well… I *can* tell you… but the actual process takes a while." She pointed at Wufei who pointedly looked away. "Here's your proof, a year sufficed with him."

They all returned to their room and walked in. It was as soon as they did that Heero announced before everyone. "New mission. L2 colony. Tomorrow." Hilde swiftly took in the scene (Heero standing very closely beside Relena, Sally and Wufei trying to talk to Relena without Heero hearing) and especially scrutinized Heero and Relena. "This is about Relena isn't it?" Heero didn't say anything.

"If we're going on a mission altogether, then there must be something important. Tell us." The others looked over at Heero as well. Finally, he began to talk in his monotone. "I just received a direct order from Dr. J to either capture Relena Peacecraft or kill her immediately. Why he wants to do this he never cared to elaborate on… I intend to find out for myself before murdering the ex-World Queen."

"So… this would mean that either Relena and her brother are top-notch liars…" Cathrine paused and gave Relena an apologetic look. "Sorry…" Relena nodded, shrugging carelessly. "I know." Catherine continued. "Or there is something wrong with the missions that the Doctors have been sending us into."

Relena looked thoughtful. "First of all… I don't think the Doctors know you've found me yet… they wouldn't be so blatantly obvious of their location if they did… and second of all, I don't think they'd rely on normal methods of mobile suit production if the first Tallgeese that I presume they made was that weak. I know my brother's blueprints call for a lot of gundanium alloy for the completion of the entire Tallgeese… I doubt that the Doctors would expend that much gundanium alloy for a simple test one. That's all it was. A test to study our strength… and since I used Deathscythe instead of my own, he won't have recognized me. I didn't use any special skills or signature moves either so I doubt he tell it was me." The pilots looked in amazement at Relena who was talking a lot like Heero would have while explaining their mission, some of them already knew why but they'd never known it would go this far as to change her entire mental make-up as well as her physical. Even Heero was looking at her out of the corner of his eye and there was something in them, something that resembled… respect, maybe? Or could it be…

Relena didn't notice. But what she *did* notice was a fairly large sized shadow falling across the floor in the direction from the window. "Not again…" she muttered as she ran past the pilots who all immediately noticed the shadow as well and headed towards the window after her.

"Shit!" she yelled as she found out the shadow was indeed, quite like the bomb that had been thrown past her window when whoever had blown apart her house and stole the blueprints. "Duck!" the whole group dove for the deck as the explosion rocked the entire building on its foundations. It hadn't been aimed to kill, it had been aimed only to cause panic. From outside the door, they could hear loud screams of terror and panic and knew the bomb had done its duty.

"Great. Just what was needed, a full-scale attack on the hotel… this'll make everyone believe there is still true peace. And the other politic leaders will blame me. The stupid, incapable young Dove of Peace." growled Relena as she stood up angrily, before a piece of the ceiling cracked and decided to fall on top of her. She wasn't able to fully dodge it and it ended up slamming into her shoulder making her end up back on the floor the wind knocked out of her. She struggled to breathe first while Dorothy, who was beside her immediately began pulling the chunk of cement and plaster off her. Relena then shoved the chunk off her completely, throwing Dorothy back a step. Relena barely had time to apologize before she'd jumped at Dorothy's waist, so that another chunk of falling plaster wouldn't crush her friend's skull in. The princess looked up at her friend, "You okay?" the blonde nodded and Relena left her friend for the worried Arabian to look after his girlfriend.

Hilde who, like most of them was ignorant of what had happened to Relena and was completely amazed… not to mention baffled. "Lena… what happened to you?" Relena looked vulnerable for only a moment before she turned stony again. "I got in with the wrong crowd." She said simply and cryptically. Hilde hadn't the time to ask more because Relena immediately got up again, and kicked open the door with one black-booted foot out into the hallway as it had been squeezed as if in an earthquake. "Come on, let's pack up and go." She commanded as she picked up her own black bag, stuffed in her laptop which was amazingly undamaged and walked out. The others followed suit, as they didn't have much to bring anyway.

"Do you think anyone is willing to take the elevator?" asked Relena as she stopped in the hallway, people running past her shrieking at the tops of their lungs. "Are you kidding? People aren't going to risk it!"

"But are we?" Duo looked uncertain…

"Is there a staircase?"

"No… there is a window, but it's laser-security so it's impossible to get in!" Relena smiled grimly, "One thing about me is, never ever say that word to me. You'll be proven wrong every time." She quickly strode over to the staircase door, kicking that door open as well and letting an old woman bypass her first, she waited for the others. Sally was whispering to Wufei, "Whatever she was asking me about how I tamed you I need to ask her how she trained better than you."

"That is not possible." Wufei contradicted, true to form. Sally sighed, he was impossible at the best of times. At the worst of times… Relena looked back at Wufei with a steady, cold and calculating look. "Don't disobey Wufei," warned Relena, "or I'll bloody knock some sense into your head that women are not weak. And I can think of two people that you really loved. One is standing next to you, another was taken away by a mistake on your part… don't think that can't bloody well happen again." she spat, glaring at him for a moment before her entire face seemed to wake up from a stupor. She blinked and shook her head trying to clear her thoughts, wondering what the hell she'd just said. And why Wufei had leapt at her, pinning her to the wall and holding her up by her neck. Her feet barely touched the ground as she choked under her heavy hand. "HOW DARE YOU MENTION HER!" yelled Wufei in fury, his hand crushing against her throat, "DON'T EVER SHOW SUCH DISRESPECT FOR HER!" Relena's eyes flashed fury suddenly and if Wufei hadn't been consumed with fury, he would have seen that they'd darkened into a deep navy. One hand of hers suddenly came up, fisted and shoved into the side of his head. His hand loosened at the unexpected attack and she dropped down to the ground, breathing heavily while kicking him hard enough to make him fall to the ground, Sally running towards him, eyes wide. Relena was leaning against the wall again and her eyes seemed to change back into the azure that they'd always known. "I-I'm sorry… Wufei… I'm, so… so…" she gasped her eyes wide with horror at the sight of the young man sprawled on the ground… blood at the side of his face.

"Wufei…" Sally was saying as she lifted his head to hers. Wufei gasped for air before sitting up. Heero had whipped out his gun and aimed it at Relena after Wufei had been downed and she'd noticed it obviously. She was standing there, leaning heavily against the wall for support. Wufei pushed Sally's hand away (gently too) and looked up at Relena. His eyes were dark as he said gruffly, "I acted out of rage… I'm sorry." Everyone, even Heero turned round to gape at the Chinese guy. Relena though, bit her lip as if she was trying her hardest not to cry. "I'm… I'm sorry too… I don't know what came over me… I didn't even know who… who…" her eyes widened as the name came to her. "Meiran." Wufei's eyes widened even more as he leaped up and at her again, but not touching her. "What did you know of her?!" he was almost pleading. Relena shook her head bewildered. "I don't even know her… the name just… seemed to come to me."

Sally gaped, "How did you know about Wufei's wife?!" Of course she knew, he'd told her, haltingly the same time he'd confessed that he was in love with her.

"WIFE?!" exclaimed everyone else, who didn't know.

"You're two-timing someone, Wufei?!" gasped Duo. Wufei's eyes filled with rage and again and Sally grabbed him before he could throttle Duo. "NO! His wife is dead!" she snapped at the braided ignorant. Relena had slipped to her knees in front of Wufei. She'd noticed how he'd winced when Sally had mentioned the death of his wife. "Time never changes the pain of sorrow…" she told him softly, "but love can lessen it." She stood up, drawing attention to herself, instead of Wufei. "Now, let's get down there and get out of this city before they blow it to kingdom come." She ordered, and no one objected this time.

She was standing on the grass looking at the window. The laser beams were there, proven when she thrown a handful of dust towards it. A small 'earthquake' hadn't harmed it at all though the window had cracked. The laser shield went higher than the third story window of the place. It was impossible to climb the wall and jump past because the place was high-intensity steel and impossible to get a grip on. Nor would anything that actually could stick onto it, could hold a person, no matter how light. They were impossible to slip through. Relena looked at it thoughtfully, "If only Water Sprite were here…" she was muttering under her breath. She shrugged as she thought carefully. "What happens when the lasers sense something?"

"Those." She looked at the enormous, but well-hidden guns aimed at the target of laser walls. She winced as she imagined dodging all those. "Okay… then I'll have to be careful not to get close to these things…" she backed off a little still staring at the third story where the wall ended. I can do this… I did it before… But before had been when she'd still been training. Before anyone could stop her, she ran full-speed at the wall. "HEY! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" yelled Duo, the most vocal one as he saw her tense to jump. "You can't make that!"

She felt her shoulders tense as the familiar pain grew whenever she was airborne. In a smooth, gymnastic finish, she came out of her leap in a roll, and landing steadily on her feet as she uncurled her body as she cleared the wall… with barely a millimeter to spare. From there, it was easy. And the fact that all of them were gaping at her for what she'd just done. The window lock opened quite easily and she slipped in, finding exactly where the central computer was and disabling the laser beams. She peeked her head back through the window, "Come on in!"

They slipped in, struck dumb with what the 'sheltered little princess' could do. Relena was looking over the mobile suits stored their with a critical eye. "All of the mobile suits, except for yours, aren't equipped for space travel." She finally said to them as they prepped their suits. "Well, looks like Heero's going to be taking his girlfriend!" yelled Duo as he jumped into his cockpit, closing it after him. Heero had to fight the desire to find that self-detonation switch on Duo's suit and blow him to kingdom come. "Fine." He said as he jumped in the cockpit using the cord. He was about to turn around and let Relena on when a whirl of black appeared in front of him at eye level, dropping right beside him. He was actually stunned, he'd sworn he'd seen almost invisible feathers appear around her when she landed. (K: Much like Wing Zero's wings in Endless Waltz when he unfurled the wings) Relena looked at him askance. "What?"

"Nothing."

She shrugged, dropping the subject before looking critically at the cockpit. "That won't fit me will it?"

"Relax, there's a double-seater installed."

"Really… where?"

"Here." He said sitting down and starting it, the eyes flashed green and he pressed something. What seemed to be a sheet of metal slid upwards to reveal another seat. Relena raised an eyebrow. "I'm impressed, Yuy."

"Comes with the job."

"I see…" she got in and the cockpit closed. Wing Zero then followed the rest of the gundams and Xerons out of the city, startling most of the already-frightened citizens.

"What I don't understand is, why do you still have your gundams? I thought you destroyed them."

"Despite what people think, we still have to do so much to help you maintain world peace." Relena was silent. "Maintain peace, huh? So it seems I did nothing to help you guys out did I?"

"Life is much easier on us than it was before though."

She smirked, raising an eyebrow, "Heero… is that your way of saying thank you?"

"Take it in whatever way you will."

There, conversation ended as they blasted themselves into space, out of earth's atmosphere. And it was just as they exited the atmosphere, a group of space Leo's attacked, probably just to obstruct their way in the way of something else. It seemed almost like a decoy. Heero, obviously was the one who saw the flashing on his far-left monitor. He immediately opened the wide-band com link to the others. "Space Leos attacking from far left."

He didn't turn it off quick enough to hear Duo grumble, "And I was hoping we would get there without a fight. What kind of peace is this?" Ah, out-spoken Duo, always knows exactly the right thing to make someone else wish to bury themselves in concrete.

Relena bit her lip hard enough so that she could almost taste her own blood. Heero saw her look just about to explode, and since her hands were too near the controls of the buster rifle for his comfort (and Duo's safety) he said bluntly, "It's better than when we were actually fighting in a war. Just take the weapons and leave them. We won't kill them."
"Won't work." He turned to Relena askance. She had a hard gleam in her eyes. "It won't work." She repeated. "I know who they are. They're ex-army officials that I've exiled because of the new rebellion they were planning. They were already out for revenge before, and they know your style of fighting. They'll know what you'll be after. Have you seen their shields?"
He took a closer look, noticing they were of a make he'd never seen before. "What are they?"
"They're reflector shields, something that Dr. J installed. My—" she paused, "My friend's mobile suit had one that he'd created for her… and I was surprised when I noticed none of the gundams had one." Phew… she let out an inaudible sigh of relief and berated herself for her almost slip of the tongue.

"So what do you propose he do?" he asked as the Leos were fast approaching. "Have the others come equipped themselves with beam rifles?"

"No… they weren't installed yet."

"Then, tell them not to fire. Do you think you want to take them on, on your own?" He looked at her askance as she was eyeing the monitor carefully, probably calculating how many there were. "There aren't too many… perhaps around thirty." He raised an eyebrow. "Thirty isn't a lot?"

She looked surprised, "You mean that's not a lot?"

"It doesn't matter."

"Well, then. Tell the others to just keep them at bay. Any firearms aimed at them won't work at all." He relayed the message to the rest of them. Duo in particular did a complete 180-degree turn and started to complain about how "Heero always gets all the fun!"

Wing Zero was left with the majority of the fast-approaching Leo troops. He ripped out his beam saber, and his expression became completely focused. Relena immediately wished she had a mobile suit so she could be of some help. Sitting there doing nothing was something she wasn't extremely used to. It was tough, despite the obviousness of the Leo suit's weakness, they were extremely well-trained pilots and it took Heero a lot of concentration, some help from Relena, and a little back-up from the rest of them to completely disable all of the suits.

It was later when they all flew away from mobile suits, crackling with electricity. Relena turned her head so that she could see his face although he kept it looking straight ahead. "What do you think of me? The Princess of Peace taking advanced military training from the best, I mean." Heero smirked slightly as he turned his head slightly to look down at her. "No you haven't. Because I am the best."

Relena smirked, but nodded, not willing to start an argument. "How long will it take to get there?"

"A couple of hours."

"I see…" she looked tired and worn-out and… well, delicate. Her slim frame was collapsed down into the seat beside him and she looked ready to fall asleep right there. It was a normal thing with her, after she fought, or she went through severe mental stress, the downside was that her training was a little too exhausting for her body and she would feel the effects. "If you want to sleep, it's fine with me." Relena jerked her head up and she looked abashed, at the sudden wave of exhaustion. "I'll be alright…" she said softly. "Or you could just sleep." She raised an eyebrow at his well-hidden concern before shrugging and resting her head gently on the headrest. "Well, goodnight then… Heero." She mumbled before falling asleep and snoring almost inaudibly.

You'll be alright, huh? Not from what I'm seeing right now… he thought as he glanced at her. While she slept, Heero could look down at her without a crowd near him nudging each other and pointing. "Relena…" the words came from his lips with an almost compassionate tone. He lifted one of his hands off the controls briefly to smooth some of her hair out of her face. She shifted slightly and murmured. "Heero…" he could see a beautiful, genuine smile blossoming on her lips. While sleeping, she had the innocence of a newborn surrounding her. Heero thought back to the day before when they had met in the military base and her words. "I've become more like you than you know. I just don't let it on." He still wondered at her words since in his eyes, and in everyone else's, she was still the beautiful symbol of total pacifism.

And not just that… he knew deep in his heart that she meant more than that to him… but his mind didn't care to register that and he ignored it. His heart was something that he didn't pay attention to. It was another weakness that he didn't care for, something he had to keep safe. Zechs needs her back safe. That is my mission. He told himself firmly. Out loud, he said to no one in particular. "Mission accepted."

They arrived soon at the L1 colony and they landed smoothly. They entered the colony quickly and hid their suits well in the hangar. Heero had woken up Relena and they walked out together to meet the other pilots. "What are we supposed to do?" asked Relena looking around the quiet, peaceful colony. Heero looked over at her. "We can contact the Doctors and say that we have heard that you have arrived here. They would give orders and that should give us clues on where they are." Relena could hear something in his voice. Poor Heero… you're just like those horrible mobile dolls. Programmed to do your mission and follow orders. She shook her head to clear her thoughts and gave them all a smile. "I've got a better idea." She said and pointed to a large building that rose higher than any of the others in the colony. That's the only place they could use the communications satellites from this colony. We know they're here so they should be somewhere around there."

Hilde shook her head in awe. "Whoa Relena! You've got to sign me up for whatever military training you took. If you can do it, then I should be able to become a 'not-so-perfect' soldier as well. Relena pouted and put a hand on her hip. "Are you saying I'm not perfect?!" she asked jokingly pretending to be mad. Catherine laughed. "You'll always still be Relena Peacecraft. You can't suddenly become Heero Yuy." The words were spoken jokingly but there was something else…

Suddenly there was a cry from behind them. "Lena! Lena is that you?!" They all turned to see a girl with long black hair and brown eyes came running. Relena gasped. "Rox? Oh my goodness, Roxanne Grey you came HERE?!" cried Relena coming forward and hugging the strange girl. "ME?! What are you talking about! You know every one of them is looking for you especially! Why in the world would you come here when we sent you away to keep you safe?!"

"Because. They've gone too far to openly taunt me with what they've done to me and what they still can do to me because of my position." The girl nodded immediately understanding. Heero was the first to cough loudly, making Relena look over at him. He nodded his head discreetly to five, quite familiar figures in the distance. Relena gasped and turned pale when she recognized them. "Shit!" she swore under her breath. The girl followed her gaze and immediately grabbed a scarf from around her neck and tied it quickly around Relena's hair so as to hide it's golden appearance. "They can't have known where I was yet can they?!" gasped Relena as the girl watched them, hiding her face behind her hand. "No… he's looking for me." she whispered back. Heero was looking at her suspiciously when she finally noticed them all doing nothing but standing there. "What do you think you're doing?! Come on, follow me quickly before they find out Relena's here!" she hissed at them as she led the blonde at a steady pace. But not before one of the soldier's recognized Rox."

"Found her!" he yelled as he started at a run towards her. Relena immediately sighed in exasperation. She couldn't d anything in front of her friends to get them out of this situation. Only one option left. "RUN!" she yelled as she broke out into a fast sprint. Rox split off from her, leaping for the fabric canopies of the low-hanging market stores. She leaped from pole to pole, dodging the bullets that were beginning to pelt after her as frightened passersby began to shriek and run for cover. The others broke into a dash behind Relena, looking for all the world like they were trying to help chase the two girls. "Come on, hurry!" yelled Roxanne as she leaped over a roof with the same indifference of the feat like Relena had before, and landed in a alleyway. The others took only a moment to run in with them just as Roxanne had opened a brick wall into a doorway. "Quickly!" she hissed as they all rushed in, following Relena, as the wall slid shut. The soldiers, a moment late rushed in, and clambered over the chain link fence on the other side of the alley to find themselves in a junkyard where hours of searching would probably reveal nothing even if they had hidden there.

The group walked in to see a room filled with mobile suits and people running around. "Roxanne! What are you doing bringing intruders into our base!" one of them stopped to yell at Roxanne. "This is Relena Peacecraft. I'm sure you remember her." The guy paled as he recognized her, as she took off the scarf and handed it back to Roxanne. "The others could be spies!"

Roxanne was getting pissed off and she yelled back. "Do you really believe that Relena's friends would be a spies?! She is a friend and I don't want anyone hurting her or her friends!" she yelled.

The guy went red and stalked off in a huff. Roxanne turned back and rolled her eyes. "Sorry 'bout that. Let's go." She stopped at Wufei. "Are you Chinese?" she asked. He nodded stiffly. "Great! So am I. I'm the only one on this colony so you get to miss talking to someone who understands." She continued walking until they reached a large room with a bunch of people working on mobile suits. Stopping one of them she spoke a few words. The lady looked up and her eyes roved the group. She paused on Heero but she didn't let on anything.

"You are welcome here. We oppose a military faction's underground attempts to take over the Earth and also the colonies. We greatly honor the visit of the gundam pilots, the Xeron pilots, and you Relena Peacecraft." Relena smiled. "And I am happy to see you again, Lady Malset."

The pilots were once again surprised. "How many people around here do you know?" Duo asked in amazement. Relena smiled, "I'm so sorry… This is Lady Malset… she was one of the… instructors of mine. She recently came to the L1 colony and disappeared, supposedly in hiding. I haven't heard from you in a while…" Lady Malset shrugged. "I didn't know about how hard the enemy organization has been around here. They have frightened the people of the L1 colony so much that they won't send any communications to you because of the fear of the enemy. There has been trouble brewing lately since they've-" she was cut off as an alarm sounded. "Great. Another attack."

She motioned them to follow her as she walked briskly down a hallway. "There have been some new mobile suits built around here that haven't been approved of down on Earth. We've been trying to destroy them but they are very powerful."

They reached a huge storage place where they could see many space Tauros suits. "We use these to fight them in outer space. They don't dare to attack the colony directly but they are searching for us." Relena looked at the Tauros suits. "These… these are similar to the ones that I had to attempt to pilot when you were training me aren't they?" Lady Malset smirked. "Hopefully you've gotten better so that the mobile suits that you now pilot don't end up like the old Tauros I trained you first with… as I recall, that one exploded… no, that was the Leo, oh yes, you decided to crash that one somewhere." Relena flushed. "Hey! I wasn't that bad was I?" Lady Malset rolled her eyes. "Of course not. That's why your brother threatened to use the Tallgeese to blow you up with the suit if you didn't stop destroying the suits you were using!"

Relena looked sheepish, okay… so the garden got a little scorched…" Lady Malset's eyes widened. "Excuse me? A little scorched? You basically turned that garden into a campfire big enough for the gundams to use to cook s'mores!" Duo snorted with laughter, "Are you kidding? Relena able to kill poor defenseless plants? And I thought, we were bad!" Relena gave him a glare that was even worse than Heero's. "Whoa, okay, I think that look is getting too common around me!" he said backing away slightly. Lady Malset grinned, before returning to the task at hand. "Send out the Tauros suits!" she yelled over as pilots came running in their spacesuits and jumping in with lightning speed. Relena looked in fascination at the suits. "Lady Malset? Can I pilot one? I need to find out about those new suits." Lady Malset looked at as if she was insane. "Are you crazy?! They'll recognize you and your fighting skills!"

Relena sighed, "I am perfectly capable of fighting without using any 'signature moves' as you call them. I fight to win." Lady Malset's eyes sparked sudden understanding. "Fine. You can go, follow Roxanne, she's going to be piloting one as well." Heero suddenly stepped forward. "I'll go." He said in his monotone. "Very well. Follow Roxanne." He nodded stiffly and followed Relena and Roxanne. "Whoa… we've got a princess, and a gundam pilot, what next a fairy godmother?" Relena glanced at Roxanne. "Quit it with the weird humor Rox, it doesn't work."

"Damn." She led them to the suits. "These aren't as good as the gundams so watch it that you don't try and take too much of a blast." She reminded them. "Let's go!" she jumped into her suit and closed the cockpit. Relena and Heero followed her example and slid in. Relena looked around inside, "Whoa… Lady Malset definitely switched around some of the controls here!" she quickly figured them out and followed Roxanne and Heero out the opening into space. She gasped as she saw the suits that were going to fight against. "Now those are suits!" she said in amazement as she stared wide-eyed at the screen in front of her. "Relena, be careful." Heero's voice came on the tight-band. "Don't worry. I can handle it." She told him. She accelerated quickly, and tested out one of the suit's reaction time. That was all they did, keeping out of the way, dodging the blasts. Roxanne was the first to be seriously hit.

Relena could hear Roxanne's cry over the wide-band communication link and she yelled, hoping to get her friend back on track, "Rox! Are you okay?!" Roxanne's face appeared up on the monitor, "They're retreating. They've been toying with us for all this time. That's what totally sucks about these 'battles' that they say they keep winning." Heero's voice came on. "We should head back. We can't fight them in open battle with these suits." Agreeing they all flew back into the entrance to the base. As soon as they set the suits down and got out, Lady Malset came rushing over, "Roxanne! You are trained to be able to pilot a suit better than that!" Roxanne lowered her head.

Roxanne nodded slowly, "I know… but there's something wrong with those suits other than the fact that they're not trying to destroy us… there's something else…" she shook her head, something's wrong with those suits. "It somehow makes me think that they're controlling the pilot more than the pilot is controlling it. I don't know why, but the suits seem to be the ones toying with us…" Heero's breath jolted as he remembered the Zero System. Lady Malset rolled her eyes. "Very well. We can discuss your unusual interpretation of these suits later. For now, why don't you take the pilots and the princess to their rooms?" Roxanne looked confused, "But we don't have enough rooms as it is!" Lady Malset groaned. "Would you mind sharing rooms around here? Our base isn't the best one you can find that opposes any enemy." Relena smiled, "We don't mind. We wouldn't even have a place to stay, if we didn't find you." Roxanne smirked, "You'd better believe it! C'mon, I'll show you the way."

While they were following her, Heero managed to walk alongside Relena. "How do you know to trust them so much?" he asked her, with barely the lifting of the voice to portray it as a question. "Because Rox is my friend and Lady Malset trained me to fight. They would never go against me." Heero raised an eyebrow. "Dr. J trained me to fight and here we are conspiring against him and the other doctors." Relena nodded. "Yes… but unlike the doctors, these people oppose them. Slight difference." Roxanne stopped in a hallway. "Well, there are exactly five bedrooms free. I think you're supposed to stay with one of each of the opposite sex for emergency reasons." (K: Don't be too surprised. She already knows about the Xeron pilots not being as strong as the gundam pilots and that they need some help if the occasion requires it. It isn't for anything remotely resembling the evil thoughts I know some of you people are having.)

Duo and Hilde went together, Catherine and Trowa, Dorothy and Quatre, Sally and Wufei who was complaining of sleeping in the same room as a weak woman. Sally simply rolled her eyes and kissed him senseless. She pushed him into the room. "We're fine here." She told the group who were watching with sweat-drops on the sides of their heads. Hilde laughed, thinking, You'd think by this time, Wufei would've gotten used to a little passion… Heero and Relena were left. Roxanne watched Relena in surprise. "You're the princess of the Sank Kingdom and you have no one after you romantically?" Relena shrugged with a tight smile. "Why should it matter?"

"The fact that all of them seem to be romantically involved."

"Well, it looks like I'm with Heero." She said walking into the room with Heero behind her, ignoring Roxanne's last statement. "Wow!" she said softly as she looked out at the surrounding serenity of outer space before her. "To think that you could wake up every morning looking out the window at this… it seems like there has always been peace… never any battles that have taken place here."

Heero snorted. "There have been plenty of lives lost out here during the time of war. And there will be more lives lost soon as well. There will never be a time when there will always be complete peace." Relena sighed. "War is something that can be prevented… in some times, but I've learned there are times when you have to fight. I was a fool to believe in total pacifism." (K: Oh come on, do you think total pacifism would have worked? Look at World War II, they had to duke it out to reach world peace or else the Germans would still be running around punishing Jews! Or was that World War I…? Sorry, I don't major in history. So you see, I apologize to all of you who think I'm screwing up Relena's philosophy, but the defeat of her kingdom happened because of that.)

Heero looked at her in surprise, "Are you kidding? You've been the one telling *me* that there are *always* ways to stop war without fighting." Relena shrugged, "I guess I'm not so strong in my ideals as I thought. And now that the other politic leaders are against me…" Heero shook his head, This is not my concern. The Perfect Soldier in him screamed within his brain. He nodded and sat down on one of the beds.

Before going to bed, Relena pulled out her gun and slipped under her pillow. Heero had already done so and as he watched her put it under her pillow, he realized that she really had changed. But was it for the better? She looked over and seeing him facing her, smiled and said, "Goodnight Heero." Before reaching over and turning out the light. The room was plunged into darkness and he could hear her padded footsteps on the floor and the rustling of the sheets as she got in. She quickly fell asleep, since her breathing slowed down a little and he could hear an almost inaudible snoring. He fell asleep soon as well, listening in the darkness, a small smile on his lips.

Relena awoke to the unfamiliar feel of no sunlight shining on her face. She sat up and looked around. Heero was still sleeping, his face facing the ceiling, his breath barely ruffling his unruly hair. She could see no trace of a smile on his face, but his eyes were twitching and then his emotionless mouth became a slight frown as his brow wrinkled slightly. Relena looked at him, in his sleep Heero was the same as all humans around him and not a human weapon. Smiling softly, Relena turned away to change into the clothes that she had worn the day before. The cotton shorts and t-shirt that she'd worn to bed she folded and placed on the small, military-style table beside her bed where she'd found them. They were still dirty and torn but she pulled it on, seeing as it was better than wearing the shorts and shirt she had been sleeping in. Her black pants were covered in dust and her black tank top was torn at the bottom. "Don't I look a sight." She muttered to herself. She tried to wipe some of the dirt that had collected on her long journey from the Sank Kingdom. She opened the small bag that she carried with her that hung from her belt and took out a brush. "Well, I've deserve to get some comfort… I guess this'll be it." She began brushing her hair until it slipped through her fingers like honey-gold silk.

Behind her, Heero had awakened but not made a sound. He watched her sitting on her bed, brushing her hair and straightening her clothes never noticing him. He stood up, making her turn around startled, "Oh! Did I wake you up?" Heero shook his head no, and sat down beside her to her surprise. He didn't say a word, but simply ran a hand through her newly brushed hair. "Relena… I-" the door opened to reveal Duo at the door, his face taking on a look of confusion and then sly laughter at the sight of Heero and Relena sitting together, (Heero had changed out of the night-things, sometime during the night) his hand still tangled in Relena's hair. "Uh… good morning guys!" said Duo in an I-didn't-know-anything-was-going-on-so-it-isn't-my-fault voice. He backed out the door and disappeared, as Heero's gaze was more than he could take.

Relena turned back to Heero, "What were you going to say?" Heero shook his head. "Nothing. Let's get moving." She nodded, pushing the small brush back into her bag, grabbed her gun from under her pillow and stuffed it into her belt, which hid the small gun quite adequately, and followed him out the door. They were joined by Sally and Wufei who walked alongside them as they made their way along the hallways to the room that Roxanne had told them to go to the other night. Walking through the door, they were met by Roxanne who was dressed in clothes similar to Relena's with her hair tied up in a ponytail. "Lady Malset needs to talk to all of us, she's called all of the soldiers in this base to the auditorium… or what we happen to call it." She pointed in the direction, "Let's go. Your other friends are already there."

As they neared it, they could hear a loud humming of many voices. "Uh oh… Lady Malset's going to be way pissed when she finds everyone has already found out about you guys being here. She knows there's a spy in here somewhere and that the enemy has infiltrated us in some way. Someone's going to be running off to the enemy and telling them that you guys are here." Heero stopped short. "And you're telling us that we've just given a sign to the Doctors that we haven't been following orders? We're supposed to be on Earth right now!" Roxanne shook her head, "Not necessarily, there aren't going to be any communication today, and there's no one out on patrol so nobody's going to be able to get out of this base. We've got the radar on full alert though."

"ATTENTION!" Lady Malset's voice, resounding a million times louder by the megaphone in her hand. The room fell deathly quiet as all eyes turned to her, not a muscle moved. "THOUGH THERE HAS BEEN AN ORDER THAT PATROL DUTY IS TO BE CANCELED, WE WILL HAVE TO SEND SOLDIERS OUT TO INFILTRATE the enemy base." A low murmuring began anew as they processed this news. Not many soldiers had ever made it inside the enemy base on the L1 and now with the Doctors, they hadn't been successful in even getting close. Lady Malset glared at the crowd. "We are preparing to engage in an all-out battle with them, but before we do so, we have been ordered by Milliardo Peacecraft to help Relena in her mission to steal back the blueprints of the Tallgeese." Relena's eyes widened. "Oh no… this was why I wanted to get away from all the bodyguards…" she said, her smile dropping and breaking on the floor. She seemed to draw herself up, "Well, I guess it's for the best…" she said and continued to listen as Lady Malset went into a long explanation of the expected battle.

As soon as they were filing out, Lady Malset and the other pilots went over to join them. Seeing Relena, she noticed that there was a sadness in her eyes, something that she couldn't hide even when she was smiling. Lady Malset walked up to her, "I see you're not happy about the fact that we are to help you retrieve the blueprints. But Milliardo stressed that we would have to and I couldn't disagree." Relena nodded. "I understand. Who's going with us?" Lady Malset blinked. "Us? You mean the other pilots are going with you?" At her nod, Lady Malset grinned. "Then I'll simply forget that I was supposed to bring along the guards for you… you seem to have enough help as it is!" Relena looked up, her eyes shining. "You mean I don't have to bring along those other people?! Woohoo!" she cried jumping in the air like a child before regaining her dignity and blushing slightly.

Roxanne pouted, "But I wanted to go with you." Relena imitated her pout. "Aww…" she said before the two of them grinned. Lady Malset smiled. "Can you let Roxanne come with you at least? I'm sure she won't be a 'muscle-bound moron' as you fondly used to call your bodyguards." Relena grinned. "Hopefully not. Those guards were simply happy to wear the uniform and that's about it. Watching out for me? Yeah right, they were pretty much big babies." Rox grinned. "Uh huh… and let me guess, tall, dark and handsome?" Relena rolled her eyes. "Ohhh yeah… not. Come on do you think Milliardo would let anyone like that near me? It's not always fun to have a trigger-friendly brother you know." Rox winced, "Don't I know it. Remember when I visited your house? And I, um-" Relena finished her off, "Broke that priceless Ming vase? Mmmhmm."

Lady Malset broke into their conversation quickly. "Before the day is over, I'm sure the Doctors have been seen near the communications tower. You should go over there where the base is." Relena nodded. She turned to the others. "Shall we go?" at the simultaneous approval, Rox led the way to the doorway. Looking at the monitor where the secret camera showed its pictures, she raced out followed quickly by the rest of them. At the main gate, she gestured to the motorcycles in the corner. "We have to get there pretty quickly if we want to get through before they lock the gates after the soldiers go back in from their rounds." She said and jumped on one. "Some of you will have to pair up. I suggest those who can't ride one simply sit in the back behind someone who can ride one!" she called over to them ignoring the prospect of a helmet. Relena simply looked at the gleaming chrome and said, "Oh sure… Roxanne, you know I can't ride these things! Roxanne!!!!" she was talking to air.

Heero stood beside her, "Then ride with me. At least we know you won't be eating gravel." Relena glared at him, but her heart wasn't in it. "Not the best prospect I want to look forward to." Climbing on carefully behind Heero, she looked around the small thing confused. "Where do I hold on?" she asked. Heero turned around smirking slightly, "Do you ever watch any movies?" Relena shook her head, "Not recently. Too much work to do to do anything that remotely resembles fun."

Shrugging, Heero revved up the motor, "Hold on tight to my waist." He instructed her. She obeyed quickly and held on tightly since they were going a little… hell a lot, faster than she wanted to. Heero's hair whipped into her face while her own flew behind her in the wind. Stopping abruptly, her hair flew forwards and blew right into Heero's face. Pulling her head away, so that the strands of hair came away from his face, Relena found herself shivering. "That… is something that I've got to learn how to keep my balance on… I was practically falling off on all the turns!" Heero had gotten off the bike and he turned to face her. "Hey, you were with me remember? Don't you think I can work that motorcycle?"

"Yeah… but if there will ever be a next time, would you mind going a little slower?"

"No."

"Oh. Why?"

"Because if there will be a next time, it'll probably be with a group of terrorists breathing on our necks."

"Had to paint another scary picture didn't you?"

"I tell it like it is." They followed the others who had already gotten off their motorcycles and were following Roxanne. Relena sprinted to catch up with her friend. "Well? You have an idea of what to do?" Roxanne looked at her in amazement. "You mean you don't have a plan?!?!?" she shrieked. "Shhh! Of course I do. I needed to make sure you wouldn't have a better one first." Roxanne quieted down. "Well?"

"Well, I'm sure we can all sneak in through these central doors that lead directly into the main room where the blueprints will be kept. But the doors will be closely guarded and we'll have to have someone to create some sort of distraction when we get in there." Roxanne grinned. "I'll take that job! It would include blowing stuff up right?" Relena laughed. "Yeah, sure. Distractions are distractions." She and Roxanne proceeded to plan out the best way of getting in and out quickly and efficiently.

Relena felt a tap on her shoulder and she turned to see Heero standing there. "Are we supposed to do something?" he asked her quietly. Relena nodded. "If you can all make it through, the blueprints that I'm supposed to get are in the main room. I'm sure they're there and we can all get in through the central doors once Roxanne has produced a big enough distraction- and I assure you she will- we can all get in where the Doctors are and straighten this out about me being a spy or something." Heero nodded. "How exactly is Roxanne going to make a distraction?" Roxanne snorted. "You'd think I wasn't in a training corporation for my entire life… I'm pretty sure a few bombs, shooting off a few shots should bring them running… do I have help? Some people from your group, have to enjoy wreaking havoc on a military base right?" All eyes turned directly to Dorothy. "What?!" she said defiantly. Roxanne grinned. "Let me guess. You're the one that loves war right?" Dorothy blinked. "How'd you know?" Roxanne grinned. "I've got contacts… and before you start glaring at Relena, I assure you she's not one of them. Sadly."

Duo laughed. "I like this girl!" Hilde smirked. "And what about me?" Duo face-vaulted. "Uh… well, I love you, Hilde." Relena laughed at Duo's obvious discomfort. "Oh come on, lay off poor Duo. Simply threaten to cut off his precious braid." Duo stopped and his face grew pale. "NO!!!! BRAID MINE!!!!" he yelled at the top of his lungs before Hilde slammed her hand across his mouth shutting him up. "You idiot! They'll know we're in the grounds!" she whispered fiercely into his ear. Relena nodded, mentally switching her into combat mode.

Nodding to Roxanne who nimbly disappeared onto the roof of the laboratory which would make a fine target to blow stuff up in. Dorothy followed quickly after. She then gestured for someone to come with her as she leaped for one of the doors without looking back to see who the person was. "All the rest of you get in through the other doors!" she yelled as the explosion from the laboratory rocked the very colony's ground. She tried the door and finding it locked, took out one of her guns that were strapped to her, (K: Roxanne's base was more equipped than the gundam boys'.) and blasted the lock off the entire door before opening it. She turned to find Heero behind her. "Come on." She said pointing in the direction where all the soldiers were running. "It's down the hallway from where they're going."

She suddenly ran full speed into the hallway with Heero right beside her, matching each stride she took. Reaching the room she looked around, her gun cocked ready to fire. "Well, look who 01 turned up with. The missing princess." Relena whipped around to aim the gun directly in Doctor J's face. "You!" she said tersely. The doctor was calm. "Me. And I see Heero has brought you to us directly instead of killing you on the spot. Good work 01, you figured out that we weren't on the L7 colony."

Relena glared at him, wishing she could just blow out his brains then and there. But she had to get information. "What the hell are you trying to pull? You don't need the blueprints, you created the gundams amongst yourselves! What do you need me for?!"

The old man smirked, and with all the mechanisms all over his body, it was quite frightening. "What did you think? Both you and Phoenix were my greatest achievements ever. And when you and the rest of the Furies disappeared… well, I finally have a chance for revenge."

"And so you told Heero to find me?!"

"He was disposable." Relena's eyes flashed with anger at how lightly he took the boy's life. She knew without turning around that the guy behind him suddenly felt more than a little hurt and betrayed, even if he hid it well.

The Doctor noticed Relena's sudden anger though, and he laughed. "I see you never gave up your stupid crush on the boy, did you? Will you recall what I told you before when I was still your trainer?"

"Forget about everything except destruction." She said slowly as her finger ached to kill him. He still hadn't told her though. "What were you planning to do with me?!" The old man laughed, his voice cold as he metallic hand glinted in the clinically bright lights. "And why should I tell you, my little guinea pig?"

Relena raised an eyebrow. "Brave words considering you're at the wrong end of a gun to be talking. Where are the blueprints?" she hissed. Heero could feel himself mentally shiver at her cold voice. This… this was a totally different Relena altogether. Heero turned around as he sensed someone or something move behind him. He looked up to see a soldier standing behind him, just in time for the soldier to deliver a stunning blow to the back of his head. Relena whirled, and Dr. J wrenched the gun from her hand and smashed it against her head, joining Heero in oblivion. Dr. J looked disgustedly at the soldier behind Heero, "You took your time young man."

"We were detained."

"Well see to it that they are both closely guarded. I will be making preparations… I would be severely disappointed if they remained under our capture."

"Sir?"

"Never mind. Just follow orders."

"Yes sir."

Heero awakened looking around himself. The first thoughts were Relena… where is Relena? He forced himself to focus on what was happening. He didn't make a noise, made his heart rate stay the same, didn't show any fluctuation of brain waves… something he'd learned how to do, but he could see around the entire room. He was alone, tied down in restraints. Straining at the restraints, he knew that Dr. J had known about his superior strength and made the restraints extra strong. For now, he was helpless and he hated more than anything to be helpless in the enemy's hands.

Relena came into consciousness but didn't open her eyes. Her hands wriggled slightly to show her that she was tied to a chair. She listened but couldn't hear any movements so she opened her eyes. Looking around, she searched for a sign of… something. She struggled vainly at the ropes binding her to the chair. "Great. Just great. I get this close to completing my mission and I blew it completely." The door opened making her eyes turn to the person in the doorway. Roxanne slid in the room looking behind her shoulder. "Ooh, that was a pretty lame move they pulled on you earlier. I couldn't get here quick enough. The others are fine… I think. They left to go back to the base and get their gundams. In other words, they trusted me to get you and your boyfriend outta here." Pulling out a knife, she quickly cut the ropes before looking around warily. "Something's wrong. Can't you tell?" Relena nodded, "It can't be this easy… there's got to be something else."

The door opened again, making the two girls whirl, Roxanne ready to throw the knife in her hand. It was Doctor J. "Congratulations on Heero, Relena. I assure you, you have almost completely undone all the work I have put on him. Now back to the main reason you're here… I am going to completely undo your own work. And I'll make you watch as all notions of peace will be nothing more than mere memories. A new war will begin that will spread across the universe."

Relena gasped, "Why would you want this?!" she cried.

Dr. J laughed, "For those soldiers who know nothing more than battle. They have no other place in this world! Peace does nothing… and I'm sure more than enough of the government agrees with me."

Roxanne raised an eyebrow. "And how will that help you?" Dr. J's grin did nothing to calm either of them. "That's for me to know and you to die trying to find out." Relena whipped out her gun and then glanced at it. "You didn't even clear me of weapons?! Are you that confident in yourself?" Dr. J nodded. Roxanne narrowed her eyes. She suddenly whipped the knife at Dr. J and it passed right through his head. He glanced back at where it had pinned itself to the walls before setting admiring eyes on Roxanne. "Very good. You guessed I was a hologram." He disappeared with a laugh.

Roxanne rolled her eyes. "This not turning out the way we planned. Come on. Let's get your boyfriend and scoot." Relena sighed, though a slight pain shot through her heart. "He's not my boyfriend… and I need the blueprints." Roxanne waved her hand. "Right. Right. He's a boy and he's a friend isn't he?" They looked down the hallway. "There is still something wrong… this place is as empty as a tomb. There should be tons of guards around here!" Roxanne murmured as they ran swiftly. "Do you know where Heero is?" asked Relena. Roxanne nodded. "Uh huh. I was watching when they took him into one of the rooms. I doubt he'd be as easy to get out as you were." As if to prove her point, several guards erupted from rooms in the hallway and began blasting at them with machine guns.

"Oh, perfect. Just when I wanted to get out of this without a bullet in my skull." Said Relena sarcastically as she began to shoot her way through the ranks. "Hey, nothing we haven't handled before." They burst into the room where Heero was in and Relena gasped. Heero was tied down in restraints that looked even more harder to break free of than the time he had been captured and when she had first met Sally. "Oh…" Heero's eyes opened and turned to meet hers. She looked around the room and seeing it empty of anyone or anything, she cautiously inched forward.

Relena… she's safe. Thank god she's safe. I wish I wouldn't be the one who needs to be rescued, my life isn't worth anything close to hers. No. If I can be free of these restraints, I know I can complete my mission and keep her safe. Concluding this, he felt the cold of steel touch his wrist as Relena slid the knife between his skin and the restraints and cut it. Quickly finishing with the others, she looked around. "There's got to be more than that," she said warily. Heero understood her meaning, there was supposed to be at least a hundred guards guarding him and yet, from what he heard from outside the room, there were only a few guards in the hallway. Relena glanced up suddenly seeing a barrage of knives suddenly falling straight at them and leaped away, grabbing Heero along with her. Roxanne glanced up. "Um, HELLO?! If you're going to hear anything we're saying, you're against the Perfect Soldier, and two of the Furies, the Unicorn and the Fox." Relena's face paled as she heard Roxanne's words. "Rox! No one else was supposed to know!" Rox turned to her with a look of surprise. "Lena? Everyone already has known for a long time. That was one of the reasons some of the politicians targeted you, they had already suspected."

Heero looked at her in veiled surprise. "What is she talking about? Is she part of the Furies?" Relena sighed. "I'll have to tell you later. Let's get the stupid blueprints and get outta here." She said running out the door before sighing loudly so that Heero and Roxanne could hear and began shooting. "I TOLD YOU TO GET OUT OF MY SIGHT!" Relena yelled at the continuing group of soldiers that kept stopping her. Her gun was firing multiple times and she could hear others, probably Heero and Roxanne. As she reached the room where the blueprints were, she looked around carefully. On the computer, she began hacking into the system easily, something she had been trained to do for this mission. "Got them." She said as Heero and Roxanne came up behind her. "Mission accomplished. Let's go." She turned around just in time to see the thick steel doors slam down blocking their exit. "I just knew it wouldn't be this easy." Muttered Relena slamming more ammo in her gun and clicking the safety off.

The whole building started to shake, parts of the walls began crumbling and parts of the ceiling began to fall. "This is way lame." Called Roxanne as she dodged more chunks of ceiling. Are they simply going to crush us to death? Any imagination in their pathetic brains?" Relena shook her head, "There's gotta be more. Dr. J and the others didn't become who they are by simple attacks." Heero nodded. "What did he say to you before? Did he talk to you at all?" Relena nodded. "Yeah… something close to what Wufei said to you once. He wanted a world where soldiers have a place in society." Heero's brow furrowed slightly as he thought while still dodging pieces of ceiling. "Oh shit…" he muttered as he figured out Dr. J's plans. "They were toying with you… with all of us. They wanted to get in here and get those blueprints… And while you're at it, a private showing of you and your gun shooting all those OZ soldiers would destroy any more trust the other political leaders have in you and you ideals of total pacifism." Relena paled. "Shoot."

A screen with Dr. J's sneering face appeared on the wall. "Very good 01. I see the way I trained you came in very useful in the end. You were simply lured directly into my trap. You're right, Relena's performance will be publicly broad-casted throughout the world. And now that this has nothing to do with *any* of you anymore, Relena-Unicorn-Peacecraft, you are no longer needed in this world. Goodbye."

The place seemed to shudder violently as the whole building began to collapse and the walls groaned on its supports. Relena looked shocked and she slid to her knees, forgetting all about the falling chunks of twisted metal and stone. "All the work I've done to maintain peace and now he destroys all of what I've done?" she whispered to herself as she stared blankly at the large screen on the wall, already cracking and would explode into slivers of glass at any moment. Roxanne grabbed her shoulders and shook her, hard. "Come on Lena, snap out of it. You've done all you can here and through Heaven or Hell we're getting out of this place. He can't be so lame as to bury us in rubble!" What seemed to be a darkening in Relena's eyes subtly appeared. "You're right." She said seriously as she scanned the place for an escape. And found the simplest thing that everyone had overlooked earlier.

"Rox, still have any bombs on you?" Roxanne slapped her hand on her forehead. "Duh! Why didn't I think of that?!?!" she said disgustedly before throwing a hand grenade at one of the walls. Relena shrugged, "'Cause it was so simple that it was expected."

The fuse quickly burned down and they cleared away from it. "Not a very safe thing to do… but we're desperate."

They ran out as soon as the smoke cleared just as a gigantic force made the whole colony shake. "The battle! The battle's already begun!" yelled Roxanne. She and the others ran towards the two motorcycles left that they had hidden and gunning the motor, raced off to the base while he and Relena raced off to where they knew the gundams were. Relena tapped him lightly on the shoulder. "What am I going to pilot?!" she called as the wind whipped her voice behind them. "You're not going to fight Relena." They had stopped in the hangar so that Relena could hear his words clearly. "But Heero… I…" Heero placed two fingers on her lips. "Please… None of our friends will be hurt… just don't fight."

Relena looked into his eyes. "Heero… I won't pilot one now… but if any of you get hurt, I am going out there. That's all I can promise." Heero could see the determination in her face. A determination he knew all too well. He nodded. "Fine." Relena suddenly snapped her fingers. "And I've suddenly remembered what mobile suit I will pilot." She said tapping herself on the head, berating herself for not remembering.

"Like what?"

"Venom."

"Is that a mobile suit or are you planning to become the next Poison Ivy?"

"Ha ha, very funny."

"I try."

"Well, no… it's my mobile suit."

"Let me get this straight. You, little Unicorn Fury you have a mobile suit named VENOM?"

"Yes… that's what Doctor J called it."

"I never destroyed it like I was supposed to. I know I should've… but I knew I would need it again someday." Heero smiled, "Well it's needed now. If we fail. And we never fail." Relena gave a faint smile. "Never say never… but I hope in this case you're right." Heero immediately ran to Wing Zero and like he had learned since piloting it, he deactivated the active defense system that made him lose his every thought and emotion in battle. As he turned to leave into outer space, he looked back once at Relena. Standing alone in the hangar watching him, trusting that he would return to her. He would. He had made a promise and he was going to keep it, no matter who came up against him.

He brought Zero out into the battle area where the troops of Lady Malset were up against the new mobile suits that the Doctors had created and also many mobile dolls. They were pretty good against the mobile dolls, but they were no match for the superior suits that the Doctors had designed. "Heero?" Came Duo's voice over the wide-beam communication link so that all the troops could hear. "Is Relena okay?" Heero's answer was short. "Yes." He turned to face off against one of the new suits. "So you are the gundam pilot that Dr. J trained… not much without that gundam probably." came the voice from the other mobile suit. Heero didn't answer, but the pulling out of his beam saber was enough.

"Are you insane?! You believe that you can defeat with your beam sword instead of your cannon?!" exclaimed the other pilot trying to lure Heero into trying the reflection shield on his own suit. Heero's only response was to slash directly on the shield of the suit. The energy crackled as the shield was hit but it stayed firm. The pilot laughed. "This suit is invincible!" they pilot's voice was lost in a wave of madness as it began to fire it beam cannon at the Wing Zero who had to repeatedly dodge its attacks. Heero knew. The suits were programmed with something not unlike the Zero system in his own suit. He could attack only a few times since the pilot was busy firing its beam cannon and only Heero's trained instincts could prevent him from getting hit.

Relena watched on the colony's monitor. "He's never going to win that way… I'm going out there." She ran to her mobile suit and climbed in the cockpit. The familiar feel of the machine brought back a wave of unpleasant memories, but she pushed them away. She guided Venom out towards the battle scene. The less strong of the other suits that the doctors had made had been destroyed, but even with the combined help of the remainder of the troops of Lady Malset and the gundam and Xeron pilots, the last one was completely untouchable. A sudden movement at the side of their screens focused on another mobile suit, a gundam. Relena's gundam. "Need a little help?" Came her cheerful voice on the wide-beam. Heero could tell that whatever he did, he couldn't stop her when she decided something.

She took out her beam sword, and flew up close to the mobile suit. Her face became completely focused, the carefree smile gone, she concentrated on the mobile suit in front of her. The mobile suit tried to fire the beam cannon at her, but since she was so close, she grabbed it and jerked it so the beam flew harmlessly into the distant space. As soon as he fired, she slammed her beam sword at the back of the mobile suit, sending out sparks, but it held out. The pilot knew that he couldn't hit her with the cannon and pulled out his beam sword instead. Slamming it on hers, she could almost see the maniacal face of the pilot. "This suit… it's not meant for anyone to use." She murmured, before the pilot's beam saber slammed into her suit forcing her backwards. "Ahhh!" she cried, her head slamming the back of her seat before blinking away the bright lights at the sides of her vision.

She flew back towards the suit again, her eyes cold, indifferent like Heero's. "Not this time." She said coldly slamming her beam sword on the back of the suit again. The pilot screamed as the suit jolted and the shield gave out in a shower of sparks. "Fire!" yelled Relena on the wide-beam and every suit fired their guns directly at the mobile suit. The final scream of the pilot was heard before it was cut off with the explosion of the suit. Relena's gundam was blown back, but Relena braced herself for the blow and recovered quickly. At the side of her vision, she could see the shuttle take off and knew the Doctors were trying to make their escape. Her face appeared on Heero's screen. "They're trying to escape. I'll give you a choice. And leave it up to you. Do you want to let this man continue to run your life or do you want to continue it on your own?" Heero's face was cold as he aimed his beam cannon at the shuttle, destroying it and with it, the man that had made him the way he was. Cold and untouchable. Yet, he could find his heart again, if not now, then in the future.

As soon as they re-entered the colony, Heero leapt out of his gundam and headed for Venom. Relena leaped out, ignoring the cable, in a shower of sparks that were crackling around her mobile suit. She landed on the ground next to Heero quite lightly and he raised an eyebrow. "You'll have to show me how you do that." he said as she grinned. "Hush, hush. You almost broke a promise you know. You didn't do it all on your own."

"Should I be begging you for forgiveness right now?"

"It would help… but no. You would probably never stand for such demeaning acts would you?"

"Don't make me sound like Wufei."

"I'm not. I'm making you sound almost human…"

"You want to know human? I'll show how human I can be."

(Details not included on what they did then.)

Hiding behind a gundam, a very large group of pilots were crowding around watching the two… settle their emotional differences. Or if you want Duo's rendition, they were having a lot of fun "playing tonsil-hockey". Surprisingly, it was Quatre who said quietly, "Mission Accomplished."

~~~*~~~

The End

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The revision is done! And I'm finishing writing this when I should be studying for an exam that is tomorrow. *wince* Oh well, you people will forgive me, even if my parents don't. Give me feedback. The sequel's coming out soon.