As an introduction, I would like to say that this fanfiction is NON-YAOI. I will never write Yaoi, or PWP. In this case, it could be classified as a non-yaoi orange (if you don't know what that is, it's basically the fanfic equivalent of a G-PG. Limes are PG to PG-13. In this case, it's PG. There are also lemons, which are R's, PWP or Hentai, which are X or NC-17). This story is about 2 weeks after Endless Waltz. We finally see the true blue Heero, starting with his quest for humanity, centering on, well... let's let you read the middle, and ending on a fantastic space battle that would rock the solar system. Anyway, that's it. Enjoy.
Disclaimer: I hate to put this at the top, but my advisor insisted. Yada Yada, I put no claim to Gundam Wing (if I did, I'd be arrested,) it's characters, (However, their mental peculiarities serve well in fanfiction), and I certainly put no claim to the creation of the program. (if I had made the show, I'd be rich).
Soul Searcher
Heero Yuy was walking in the street. Then again, walking isn't exactly the best word to use in this situation. The pounding winds and hail bounded into his form, crashing into him, beating him. This made his movements more like a push, as if he was underwater, trying to continue. This didn't matter to Heero. He could care less. He had more important things on his mind. In this icy setting in which he stayed, he thought about his situation. Two weeks ago, he wouldn't even think about doing what he was doing now. 'Why am I doing this?' He thought. Then he remembered. He didn't understand it, he didn't even try to because he knew he couldn't. There was no way he could. There was no possibility of this after he gave up his humanity. He pulled his coat close to his near-freezing body, hoping to keep in the heat for the rest of his short journey. It didn't work. 'Why didn't I just accept Duo's invitation to use Deathscythe Hell?!' he asked himself. He smiled as he remembered the deception. The agent, code-named Preventer Wind, had secretly supplied the doctors with entire tons of Gundanium to build new Gundams, copies of the Custom models. The doctors were still working on his, so he had to accept the fact that the two pilots Duo and Chang were the only ones with Gundams for the moment. As he pushed his way through this bleak scene, he allowed himself thoughts of the past two years. His adventures with the other Gundam pilots, Chang, Quatre, Trowa, Duo, and the woman that had survived it all, Relena. He didn't know what let his thoughts wander. Two years ago, a year ago, even two weeks ago, it never would have happened. However, it happened now, and he had yet to explain why. He looked up, a look of determination in his eyes. Perhaps this quest, this journey, would give him the answer he needed.
Queen Relena Peacecraft was sipping tea in her elaborate room within the palace where she had been given as her home on Earth. She looked around, admiring it. It was a very large room with a chandelier on the ceiling in the middle. There was a silk bed, complete with curtains on the far wall, away from the door. She was sitting in a wooden rocking chair on the corner of the wall nearest to the bed, reading the newspaper while her tea laid on a silver platter, waiting to be sipped some more. On the corner to the right of the bed was a door that led to a private restroom, a world of its own. Other eccentricities were on different cabinets, dressers, and other things. She didn't hold clothes in these since her servants brought her clothes each morning for the day. The cabinets, dressers, and other things along the room held mementos of the past two years. She got up, carrying her tea, and walked to a cabinet nearby. She opened it, and smiled as she saw the contents. Inside, there were pictures of the only two men she could ever have cared about in her life. Milliardo Peacecraft, Preventer Wind, her brother, and another. Heero Yuy, the perfect soldier, his body serving only as an arm of his mission. She sighed, remembering how he refrained from killing her and others, Duo, the Doctors, many people. She let her mind drift off towards memories of the past, and one thought floated to her head, 'You're still human, Heero. You can still be who you really are. Underneath that mission of yours, you are human. You must be.'
'Am I human?' Heero thought to himself as he walked across this icy landscape in nothing more that his jacket and clothes. This thought bounced around the inners of Heero's mind until he decided to let the thought go. Only a human could help him with that question, and that was why he was going to find Relena. As he looked back onto his past, he saw that she was as 'human' as he had ever seen. Sure, she wasn't as friendly as Duo, and didn't have quite the skills of empathy as Quatre, but she was the only person who had ever loved him. Of course, this surprised him since he didn't even know what love really was. 'What does it feel like,' Heero thought, 'to know that somewhere, there is someone who really, really, cares about you.' He sighed as he recalled his life in the past. When he was a small child, he met up with Doctor J, who turned him into a Gundam Class weapon. What few knew was that Doctor J was actually a close friend of the original Heero Yuy, as he had told Heero, the boy now nearly dead of hypothermia in a lonely street on the planet Earth. Back at the start of training, he remembered that he still had emotions, a sense of calm and peace, and a lack of pure desire for the mission. Doctor J turned his life upside-down in a horrid way. He first set up a theoretical wall inside Heero's head, and a physical wall around his sleeping chambers, isolating him from the outside world. Then, he started instilling in him the sense of the mission, further building up the wall in Heero's heart. As far as Heero new, only Relena could break that wall down, and make him human again. Suddenly, as Heero was thinking these things, a fuzzy gray square appeared in front of him. First it got larger, then it became more of a green as it got closer, and when it was nearly a foot from Heero, it stopped, showing Heero that it was actually a jeep.
"Well, Heero Yuy! I didn't expect to see you here! Come inside."
Heero gladly accepted, vaguely recognizing the voice in the flashing wind and hail, crashing on the car and on his body in a symphony of torment. As he stepped inside and felt the warmth of the heated car, everything became clearer, and before him sat Milliardo Peacecraft.
"Where are you going? It's not a smart idea for anyone to be driving around in this cold!" Milliardo yelled.
Heero wondered for a moment why he was shouting, then remembered that he hadn't closed the door, letting the hail drop in its icy minuet. After he closed the doo, the jeep became quiet, and Milliardo started driving off. Heero responded in his usual, quiet fashion.
"How far away is Queen Relena's palace?"
Milliardo responded inquisitively, "About four or five miles the direction you were going. Why?"
Heero ignored the question and said, "Take me there."
Milliardo heartily agreed, doing a U-turn on the slick street, nearly sending the jeep into a spin, then headed towards the palace. Zechs looked Heero over, noting mentally that Heero wasn't bruised by the hail, he wasn't shivering, and he showed no signs of hypothermia, even though Heero was probably simply starting to succumb to it, and not showing any symptoms.
"You must be a fool to be walking towards the palace in weather like this." Milliardo said, breaking the silence. "That's just plain inhuman!"
Heero almost smiled, a strange reaction for him, and said with a longing in his eyes, "Milliardo, you have no idea how close to the truth you are."
Relena had left her chambers after about twenty minutes of contemplation and memories, and she walked out to the terrace, wearing a fur coat to keep in the heat, and a special portable heater that she wore on her neck that Doctor H had offered as a gift to her. She breathed out and watched the vapor go out for a couple of inches, only to be smothered by the snow and small chips of hail that swarmed in the air. She took a seat on one of the bolted-down chairs on the side facing the entrance to the palace. For a moment, she just sat there, enjoying the fresh air as a wonderful chain of pace from the claustrophobic life indoors. For security, her room was inside a nautilus shell shaped hall with a security system second to none. Although this inspired a feeling of security, it induced a form of claustrophobia, and could be considered a nuisance, since it took 2 minutes to simply leave her room and get to the rest of the house. Again, she admired the snow, watching as it fell, when off in the distance, two headlights appeared. These two lights congealed into the form of a jeep. 'Milliardo. You've come back.' She thought. She was about to go back to her silent contemplation when she saw that there was another passenger in the jeep. It was impossible to tell, they were so far away that the other passenger simply looked like a gray splotch on the window. Something in her mind or in heart, she couldn't tell which, whispered 'Heero'. It seemed to echo in her mind, reverberating, giving her a second to think of it's possibility. She didn't really believe in hunches, but she went down there anyway. She tried to convince herself that she was just curious to see if her gut was right, and not anxious, but as she left, the hot chocolate spilled from the speed she got up. It was obvious that she was anxious. Very anxious, indeed.
Milliardo drove the Jeep into the parking garage at the first floor of the palace after his silent trip with Heero. 'He's not the very conversational sort,' he thought. Of course, he already knew this, but it still fascinated him how focused Heero was. He had once tried to get that level of focus at the Academy, but he constantly found himself being distracted by people. Lucrezia, and others posed a challenge to that focus, but now, he was glad that they were there, and that he hadn't turned into the lonely Heero that he would have become if he had so desperately tried. Heero just sat there looking out the front windshield. He was going to leave the car, allowing the smell of oil and lubricants assault his nostrils, when he saw the elevator at the opposite side of the room open, and out came Relena. His spirits suddenly shot up... as far as his spirits ever did, which unfortunately, wasn't much. He saw Relena walk out of the elevator, and just stand there. Their eyes were locked, as if held by an invisible beam. He exited the car, his eyes never looking away from Relena, and just stood there. He stepped out only to make sure he was alive, and that he wasn't dreaming. The assault of smells told him he was.
Relena started heading towards the ground room when she noticed the immense heat when she stepped inside. She smiled, taking off her coat, revealing the pink dress she had worn on that day when she returned to Earth. That very day, she had worn it at the beach when she first saw Heero. And that very same day which had changed her life forever. She took an elevator down to the 1st floor, anxiously pacing, waiting for the silver doors to open to the entrance garage. Anxiously waiting to see Milliardo, and perhaps even Heero. The silver doors opened in their usual, brisk manner, opening up the garage for her eyes. She didn't even have to search. Right in front of her was the jeep, parked along all the others in the lot. Normally, she would have been distracted by all the mechanical things being done, she always appreciated mechanics, but she was focused on the car and its occupants. Milliardo... and Heero. Her gut had been right, he was there, and he was looking straight at her.
Milliardo, unaware of the situation between Heero & Relena, came out of the car, and then looked into the car to tell Heero where he would be if he needed any help. Heero wasn't there. In fact, he was just outside the door, staring at something. For a moment, Milliardo allowed himself to think that the only thing Heero would ever stare at would be his Gundam, when he let his eyes drift to where Heero was looking. Milliardo instantly took back what he said about what Heero found important when he saw what he was staring at. Relena. Although no one had ever heard his thoughts, he suddenly felt embarrassed, a strange sensation for him since he rarely ever felt embarrassed, and rarely had a reason to feel embarrassed, anyway. Even though there were sounds all around the hangar, automatons welding doors shut, engineers cursing, news screens declaring their announcements for the people that were stuck there in the building, he felt a strange silence between Relena and Heero. As if to atone for his earlier thought, he regained his composure and walked over to Relena.
"Hello, Relena. You look stunning today."
This gave Relena a brief relief from staring at Heero, and she smiled and looked at him.
"Thank you, Milliardo. How did your meeting with the other Preventers go?"
He smiled and said "I finished the meeting and went for a test drive on these new engines. Strangely, I found Heero."
She smiled and said, in a light voice, "Thank you."
For a moment, Milliardo was confused, then he was startled as the revelation of what was happening finally hit him. 'Those two have feeling for each other!' He thought. He never would have thought Heero would have feelings for anyone, but he had just proved himself wrong, or at least he think he did. It could be that they were just staring at each other for some other reason. Either way, he decided it would be best for him to just fade away, so he stepped into the elevator and left the two.
After Milliardo left, Heero started walking towards Relena, and suddenly she said,
"So it is you, Heero. It is you."
With an almost affectionate voice, Heero said "Relena."
Suddenly, Relena broke out in laughter, easing the affectionate tension between the two, but not breaking it completely.
"What's so funny?" Heero asked.
Relena simply smiled and said, "I remember the last time we said that. If history repeats itself, you'll pull out a gun and say 'you're way in over your head.'"
Heero allowed himself to remember the past, remembering that day at the naval base, when he had foolishly attempted to destroy his own Gundam, and had nearly lost his life. The two of them walked into the elevator, now returned from dropping off Milliardo. As the elevator rose to the top floor, where Relena lived, there was a silence between the two. Heero didn't really know what to say to Relena to explain why he had come, and Relena simply basked in his presence, and hoped he would tell her why he had come. She had always felt these feelings for him, but now she considered them childish. 'I'm 17 now!' She thought. 'I am Relena Peacecraft, Protector of Peace, Keeper of Right, I need to keep my emotions under control.' In many ways, she knew she could... if she wanted to. However, something kept her from it. Something inside her told her that he was there for a reason, and that emotion wasn't a bad thing, especially next to someone who could care less about his own emotions, even less hers. Someone who needed emotions. Needed them desperately.
When the elevator opened, Relena tried to edge in front of Heero, but he refused. In response to the question he knew she would ask, he said,
"I studied the building. I know where to go."
At the end of the hall, and at the end of the 2 minute silence, they reached the door. Relena finally managed to get in front, and opened the door. Heero managed to find a dresser and plop down what supplies he had brought into one of the empty dresser doors.
"I don't think those will be necessary, Heero." Relena said. "The staff brings our food and clothes, if you would like it that way."
Heero couldn't manage a response, so he allowed his actions to speak, rather than his words. He pulled out the contents of the bag he carried. It was a touch-pad, designed for military use.
"I know you have food and clothes and I... thank you... for it, but all I brought was the slave control to my Gundam."
Relena could tell that he was just barely cracking out the thank you. She knew it was against his nature, but the fact that he even said it was a sign of improvement. Perhaps he was changing, as she had hoped from the start. After about 2 minutes, Heero found a seat and started explaining the question that haunted them both. Relena was haunted because she simply was ignorant, and Heero because he didn't understand what he was starting to feel without a mission hanging over him. It was the question of the moment. Why had he come?
"Relena. I know this seems strange. It is strange even to me, but I came here for your help."
Relena frowned and thought, 'What do you mean, Heero?'
"During the past two weeks, I have gone without a rally point to stay around. I truly have no purpose but to live, because I simply don't have a clue as to how to live as a normal human. When I had a mission, my emotions, me, made no difference. Only the mission did."
He looked up at the chandelier as it reflected light onto the walls, flashing it in a pattern that seemed more like an intricate dance than a reflection.
"Now," Heero said. "I'm simply not sure. I don't know how to live like a human, so I have only two choices. To change into a human, or to die like the automaton that I have become."
He looked straight into her eyes, as if exploring her mind for an explanation, and then she knew what he wanted. He wanted her to help him become human. Relena just stared at him, almost open-mouthed, for a while, and then said, in a calm and deliberate voice,
"Yes, I will help you, Heero."
He stared at her in an almost affectionate stare, as close as he ever got to smiling, and then laid down to fall asleep on the chair where he was sitting. Relena, however, stayed awake for a little while longer, and said under her breath,
"Why do you come to me now... my love? Why now?."
The next morning, Heero woke up before Relena, and took a shower in the restroom nearby. It was really a fascinating place. It was almost completely marble, with pearls used to line the flower pattern of the wallpaper on the wall. The sink had over 3 types of lotions, 4 types of mouthwashs, and who knows what the other bottles were for. The shower, as well, was amazing. It was a marble spa, with a shower-spray on the ceiling that sprayed across the entire spa. After Heero finished his cleaning, including his getting dressed, finding the clothing rack waiting for him outside the bathroom, he sat down on a chair and waited for Relena to wake up.
'Relena...' he thought as he watched her sleeping there so peacefully. During the mission, he considered her a nuisance at first, a danger later, and then a powerful figure, but never really as a person. A woman. As he looked, he changed his opinion. She wasn't just a woman, but a beautiful woman, sleeping there in her silk nightgown. In fact, as he racked his brain for the correct term to use for her looks, the word 'stunning' suddenly drifted up to his mind. He didn't really know why, either. He had never thought that about anyone else, so the idea probably didn't come from him... then he knew.
Wing Zero.
As he thought about the possibility, it started to make sense. Those Gundams had a form of rudimentary AI, and even if the Gundam hadn't formed the opinion, then the zero system probably associated 'Relena' with 'stunning.' He knew that it was possible. In fact, his way of controlling the Zero System made it almost impossible to be otherwise. However, he somehow relished the thought. A short time ago, he would never have thought that he could like, or even acknowledge the beauty of another human. Now, as he stared at Relena, sleeping like a lamb there on her silk bed, he wondered why he didn't. Suddenly, he realized that he was already becoming closer to the person that he wanted to be closer to... the 'himself' that he wanted to be, and Relena. He sighed a sigh of relief, took one last, and very long, look at Relena, and then he walked out of the room. He had made sure that he left enough things in the room that if she woke up, she would know that he wasn't gone for good. He walked down the long hall for a while, feeling rather oppressed in the clothes he was wearing. He had on a pair of black jeans and a matching black vest, and a pair of black sunglasses. He was glad that Relena had had the courtesy to provide the clothes, and he had to admit that they were... to put it in the best words he knew... aesthetically pleasing. However, he sensed an ulterior motive with the all-black choice... but that was probably just his own paranoid mind speaking to him. That mild paranoia was normal for him, or at least the 'him' that he was, but not for the 'him' that he wanted to become. He sighed, this time a sigh of sadness, and then reached the end of the nautilus-hall. He tapped the button on the turbo-elevator, and then stepped inside. He depressed the button for the floor that he wanted to go to, the mess hall. He waited patiently for the elevator to reach the floor, then stepped out. He knew he could have waited at the room for food, but he was more adapted to the atmosphere of the mess hall. After all, he was a military operative. He was THE military operative. Gundam pilot, Assassin, Weapons Expert, Spy, just a few of the many... (many) titles he had accumulated. He walked over to the line where everyone where everyone was getting their food. He felt slightly out of place, being as how everyone else was wearing military insignia except for him. When he got to the food, he picked his choice. Hash browns, sausage, a banana, and orange juice. He chose it for its nutritional content, but he preoccupied himself thinking about how he should probably concentrate on the flavor, now that he was trying to be human. Suddenly, the cafeteria woman looked over the counter and said,
"I recognize you from somewhere."
Heero said in his usual monotone, "Heero Yuy."
When she drew a blank, he said, "Gundam Contingent. My Gundam is Wing Zero."
The woman's eyes widened so far that Heero thought for a second that they would pop out of their sockets.
"You... You really are that Gundam pilot aren't you!?"
Her voice carried for a distance and several pilots got up from their seats. Heero knew what they wanted. He walked over to a seat and laid his tray down, never sitting down. They reached him, and the one in the front asked,
"So. You're the Gundam pilot."
Heero simply nodded, looking him in the eye, but concentrating on the other pilots, waiting for them to strike.
"We've always wanted to see why you Gundam pilots were considered so special."
He grinned, cracked his knuckles, and said "What do you say, boys?! Should we test him?"
The others smiled, and circled. Heero simply watched as the pilots went through the diatribe that pilots in every colony he had been too had gone through. He sighed as he noticed that there were only five. 'No challenge here.' He thought. Suddenly, all of them pulled out knives. He quickly assessed the danger that each of them posed. Heero's adrenaline level shot up, and he allowed a laugh to escape. The same laugh which he gave when he was succeeding in a mission. The same laugh that had haunted his enemies for years after his attack. Suddenly, one of them struck. He dove at Heero, yelling some barbarian-like battle cry. Heero smiled and grabbed his knife hand, pressing his fingers against the fleshy space between the fingers so hard that he kneeled on the ground. While he was occupied with the aforementioned idiot, two others came at him. One of them foolishly threw the knife, hoping to hit Heero. He was standing on the side which the knife came from, so he simply caught it in mid-air. The pilots stared wide-eyed. Suddenly, the other pilot who came in the pair came at him, more cautiously than the first, waving the knife. Heero dispatched the second pilot, then let go of the pilot whom he was holding, letting him crumple to the ground in pain. In an instant, he brought up the knife, blocking the knife of the third pilot, then cut downwards, startling the pilot to the point where he brought his hand back to avoid getting slashed... just to get hit by a jackknife from Heero. Suddenly, Heero felt his arm get hit. He was glad that the vest was just that... a vest, or the knife would have slashed a jacket, rendering it worthless. He was also glad that his skin had been tempered to an almost inhuman level. A gun didn't pierce it, so a knife didn't even get close. He instantly grabbed the handle of that knife, than used it as a holding point. Knowing that the pilot wouldn't let go of the knife, he pushed himself up, using the knife as a pull, doing a back-flip, slamming his foot into his enemy's chin, shooting him several feet up into the air. First, he heard a ripping sound. Then he heard the unmistakable metallic clang of metal hitting metal... to be specific, there was a slight wavering in the first 'twang', leading Heero to believe it was the sound of steel hitting reinforced titanium, the ripping sound being kevlar. He looked back and quickly disabled the last pilot with a crushing blow to the neck. He almost allowed himself a smile and he thought 'Relena. A bulletproof, titanium reinforced vest.' He looked down at the cut and noticed a couple weights... 'Not only that, you made it weighted for physical training while I was here. You are too kind.'
Heero quickly finished his breakfast, vaguely paying attention to the medics who came in to pick up the pilots which he had so easily tattered. He would need to find a better class of drinking establish... or find someone worthy of fighting. He took the elevator back to Relena's floor, and then headed down the nauti-hall. He reached the door, and found it locked. Heero frowned, and picked up a small piece of wire lying on the floor to pick the lock. He opened the door. The first sign of activity was a barrage of smells. Then, he noticed the steam coming from the open bathroom door. He couldn't see in, of course. It was at an angle from him, and it was so long that he would probably have to be looking directly into it to see anything. He quickly went to the clothing rack and found a medication. Isopropyl (rubbing) alcohol. He knew it would sting, but he didn't care. He pulled out the dermal spray and sprayed it on his arm. The pain was minimal, it was a barely noticeable cut after all. In fact, it would be closer to the truth to call it a mark. He found a convenient dresser and sat on it, waiting for Relena to come out. He noticed, as he sat on it, that the top dresser was empty. Curious, he got off and opened the top dresser. As he suspected, it was empty. He opened the second dresser, and inside were pictures from the war... pictures of Milliardo... and him. He noticed as he looked at the myriad display of memorabilia that she had collected a lot of pictures. He regarded a picture with him and Duo carefully. It was a wonder why she kept them... and then he realized something that had haunted him for a long time... and that was why he felt there was a connection to her that he had with no one else, the reason that he didn't ask the infamously energetic Duo or the empathetic Quatre to help him with his problem. Their relationship was different... she cared for him. He looked at the picture, and then noticed a picture from the Marina Bay security protocols of him not shooting Relena, a look of actual compassion on his face for a split second. That was when he realized that the person who he wanted to be was inside of him, and that that person cared for Relena. No, that wasn't it. Whoever it was... loved Relena. As he looked at the pictures, a menagerie of thoughts drifted to his head... the last of which was the thought that somehow, in the deep reaches of all of this, the Zero System had a part in it all. He noticed, in the corner of his mind, that the shower stopped, but he wasn't really paying attention. He went over to a cabinet on the opposite wall... and brought out the slave control. The control was actually an access to the 'input' portion of the Zero System. He couldn't do what he had been wanting to do, but he knew that the Zero System in his Wing could. He activated it, and then splayed his hand over the touchpad to let it identify his fingerprint. He let the thing send out its beam pulse, and he suddenly was Wing Zero... in an ephereal way. He felt that he was completely functioning, and then he noticed that he was in a dark truck. He felt the visual stealth upgrade which either made it look invisible, or like a phantom with a specially designed shimmering silver skin. It was most likely something Doctor J cooked up for Deathscythe Hell that the others used it. He moved his arms and forced open the truck that he was lying in. He left and then phantomized. All five trucks stopped. Duo jumped out and simply stared. Heero turned on his speakerphone and said,
"It's my mobile suit."
In that same monotone voice that he always used. He cloaked himself and sped off towards the palace. He found an empty space in the botanical garden and set down Wing Zero.
"Heero?"
Heero heard the worry in Relena's voice and looked up. She was standing there in her full dress regalia, probably while he was Wing Zero. Heero looked at her and said,
"I'll be back shortly."
He didn't explain, but rather, he left the room and headed for the elevator. Another two minutes and he was there, at the imposing silver double-doors. He pressed the button, walked in, and allowed it to take him to the gardens. He immediately recognized the spot where Wing Zero had landed. Heero felt around until he had Wing Zero, then climbed up in the way that he had done thousands of times. It didn't matter that it was cloaked. He knew. He entered the cockpit, hoping no one had seen him. The delicate peace that existed didn't allow Gundams, or any other form of mobile suit for that matter. He stepped in and instantly felt the Zero System.
"Zero System, disable forced input circuitry, voice code Heero."
There was a slight burst of electronics, and then it all shut off. The secret behind Heero's control, the secret that no one else knew, and therefore, no one else could control, was the fact that the Zero System worked both ways. Not only did the user... become... Wing Zero, and not only did the Zero System destroy personal thoughts and quirks as being threats to the mission, but it stored what it deleted, and that information could be brought back. By shutting off the input system, Heero would not be affected by the Zero system's negative affects, but he would be able to command it to do certain things in his mind, which he did.
"Voice code Heero. Zero, in two bursts, bring back all conversations with Relena, Duo, and Quatre on my mark."
He prepared himself for the mind-blowing blasts of memories and said
"Mark."
Suddenly, a burst of memories, desires, emotions, feelings, everything that came with human communication came to him. He was overwhelmed, since the memories were not only visual and auditory, but they also had many other, intangible things that couldn't be quantified. He gritted his teeth against the barrage, and then a second one came. Even though Heero almost didn't feel pain, he gasped as the memories came flooding into him. He could almost feel the barriers to his mind being brought down... but even after all the memories came to him, he didn't feel as if he'd changed. He was more aware of what he was looking for, but he still wasn't there... then he thought of something. When he was a child, Doctor J had him put into a prototype model of a fantastic Gundam. The Wing Zero Prototype. Suddenly, Heero remembered something from the past, something Doctor J told him to do after his mission was complete.
"Voice code Heero, open up file 'Heero 111011.'"
Suddenly, it was as if the barriers placed into his mind were no longer there. He could almost feel his old self being stored in Wing Zero, probably never to be brought back again. Heero could feel the emotions, the feelings, the attitudes, from events through his entire life. Now he knew what Doctor J did. He strengthened Heero physically and mentally, but stored his ability to emotionally evaluate situations inside the Wing Zero Prototype. By using the same file, and letting Heero put it in himself, he saw everything that had happened in his life with emotions... like a real person would. He opened the cockpit slowly, making sure no one saw him, then jumped out. He walked across the garden, marveling at the flowers, marveling at the fact that he could marvel at the flowers. When he got inside, he stayed silent, but his guts were almost exploding with joy. When he got into an elevator to take him up to Relena's floor, he started laughing so hard that his sides almost burst. So hard, in fact, that he started crying. As he walked into Relena's room, he saw her sitting there on her bed, putting on her shoes, probably getting ready for a walk since she didn't have anything scheduled for the day. In fact, she probably only wore her diplomatic regalia for appearances. When she looked up at Heero and saw him smiling widely, she was caught off guard, and was barely able to manage a "Hello, Heero." Heero, however, didn't care. He walked over to Relena and started to talk at a lightning pace, almost overwhelming her. When she finally calmed down, and he finally slowed down, he got slightly more serious and said.
"I'm sorry Relena, for the past two years, how you've been trying to reach me, and how I've kept pulling away. Without you, I just wouldn't be who I am."
Relena almost stopped him. In fact, she started to say that she really didn't do anything, that she, in fact, really hadn't helped him, but Heero stopped her.
"You've helped me more than you or I could have ever realized. Not that I see what you've done, I'm amazed."
Again, Relena tried to tell him that she didn't do anything to help him, but suddenly, he said,
"Shutup. Just please, shutup."
As he pulled her face to hers in a brief kiss that he had waited for a long time. It was brief, but for Heero, it was remarkable. Relena was left dumbstruck, and could only barely manage a
"Wow."
They were about to come together again when an alarm blared loudly. The intruder alarm. 4 trucks, mobile suit carriers, came. Heero ran with Relena at a heart-stopping pace, reaching the elevator in under a minute. They got down to the ground floor when the alarm shut off. Heero ran out, saw 4 figures coming out of each of the trucks he ran at a pace that was almost inhuman, recognizing that even though he had his emotions, he was just as strong as he always was. He did a triple flip, landed behind one, and had his gun pointed at him, when he recognized the braid.
"Duo? Is that you?"
Heero yelled, smiling. Duo looked behind, more shocked to hear Heero laughing than the fact that the gun was pointed at his head. Heero put that gun down and said.
"In the name of all that's good and right, what in the world are you doing here, Shinigami?!"
That got the attention of the other pilots as well. Who was this clone of Heero that stood before them?
"Uh, Heero?" Quatre asked.
"Yeah?"
"What happened to you?"
Heero smiled. Quatre always was blunt.
"It is me, Quatre. I've changed... for the better."
Quatre managed a tense smile, still not convinced.
"Are you sure?" Quatre asked.
"Yes, offer proof." Trowa said, cautiously.
Chang stepped in for Heero
"Why does our friend need to defend himself. You should all be ashamed that you would question him."
Suddenly Duo saw Relena.
"He came out with you Relena. Is it true?"
Relena nodded yes, smiling, remembering their kiss.
"Well then, that's enough a reason for me."
He put his arm over Heero's shoulder and said,
"You'll need to explain later. At the moment we have a mission."
Heero, still jubilant, smiled, placed his arm over Duo's shoulder, inciting a small jump, obviously Duo wasn't used to the new Heero.
"What's the problem?!"
Milliardo asked, startling the people assembled. Standing next to him was Lucrezia.
"Uh, nothing."
Duo said... then decided he should know. Their voiced went down to a whisper, and Duo said,
"Did Doctor J provide you and Lucrezia with the Cloaking device?"
Milliardo nodded, noting that there was an urgency in Duo's voice.
"Okay. Here's the deal. Lady Une, as you know, is schizophrenic, and she just added another personality to her repertoire. A controlling personality. She made herself a Gundam of unknown origin, very powerful... and assembled an army of Virgo II's, based off of her flight programming."
Duo sighed.
"The Doctors have analyzed her Gundam, and have found that it is theoretically invincible with the Mercurius Shield, Tallgeese's Doblitzer gun, Vayeate's beam cannon, Wing Zero's Beam Sword, the Zero System, everything that makes a mobile suit powerful... and it's made, like you could guess... of Gundanium alloy."
Duo sighed, and then said,
"The Virgo's will be pretty easy, with our Gundams finally all completed... Heero, I suspect you have yours parked somewhere here... however... I am slightly ashamed to say that I'm the reason those Virgo's were made..."
At all of their malevolent glare's, even Relena's, he said,
"Hey, Hey! I'll explain later! Anyway, we need to stop her mobile suits from being seen by the colonies, defeat it, and capture her for psychiatric treatment. Anyway, all of you, except Relena, cloak your Gundams, get them away from the cities, cloak them, then head them off into space. Don't worry, with the cloaking system came a power boost. You can get to space without a rocket launching you."
Everyone complied with what Duo said very quickly, except Heero. He stayed back, and talked to Relena.
"Don't worry about me. You'll see me again in a couple of weeks."
Relena smiled, nodded, and said to herself,
'I'll be seeing you long before then.'
Heero and the 6 other pilots, Chang, Duo, Milliardo, Quatre, Trowa, and Lucrezia, met at a deserted portion of desert and launched off, escaping the atmosphere, and clawing for space. When they finally hit the wild black yonder, Duo went to tight-beam communication s thinking to ask Heero what caused him to take a 180 degree look on life. Unfortunately, all of the other pilots were doing the same. Heero smiled and said to everyone,
"You don't need to tight beam me."
To explain his point, he raised the volume on all of their communiqués to let them hear each other. Then he switched it to the frequency that they were all using.
"Okay, if you want the scoop, here it is..."
He explained everything, allowing Milliardo to add in certain comments at the beginning, starting with him walking through the hail, to the cafeteria incident, to the pictures in the bedroom, to the Zero System, to the kiss.
At the mention of the kiss, Heero could almost feel the smirk that was on all of their faces. It was obvious that they were expecting it for years. Suddenly, Heero saw a blip on the radar.
"Voice code Heero. Activate Zero System minus the active defense system."
He became Wing Zero, except it didn't try to delete his emotions as negative to the mission. The others wondered why he had done that, then noticed the blip. Normal Mobile Suits and radar wouldn't have registered it, after all, it was cloaked, but their Gundams, Deathscythe Hell Custom, Wing Zero Custom, Altron Gundam Custom, Sandrock Kai Custom, Heavyarms Kai Custom, Tallgeese 3 Custom (a new model), and the Mercurius Custom (again, new model), were tuned to the cloaking frequency of their own Gundams. Heero frowned. Who could be in the mysterious Gundam that was one of their own. Suddenly, Wing Zero positively identified the newcomer, a second copy of Wing Zero Custom, but that didn't allow Heero/Wing Zero to identify the pilot. Suddenly, Heero/Wing Zero intercepted a transmission on the tight beam from the other Gundam.
"Hello Heero."
"Relena!!!!!"
Relena may have been on tight band, but Heero wasn't, and the other Gundams turned to her. Suddenly, Heero realized something... Wing Zero would only be effective in the hands of an untrained pilot with the Zero System running. Relena's Gundam came up to his... so close that Heero/Wing Zero could physically see Relena.
Relena suddenly said...
"Voice code Relena. Activate the Zero System..."
"No!!!!"
"Minus the active defense system."
Heero was puzzled. Only he knew what the secret to personal safety with the Zero System was... then he realized that Doctor J must have supplied her with the Gundam, and the explanation. However, he was surprised that Relena's mind could withstand the onslaught of power that Wing Zero pumped into her. The two Gundams came together in mid-space, then they aligned themselves to face the other pilots. Relena said
"I've had this thing for a while. I knew the secret, and so I incrementally increased the pressure the Zero System placed on my brain. I can... withstand it now."
Suddenly, on the wide-band, someone said,
"Shinigami Squadron lead, come in. Shinigami, come in."
Duo responded with,
"I'm here, Shinigami 2. What's the deal?"
"There's a large amount of metal moving fast towards Earth. Billions of dollar's worth. Should we intercept?"
"That's a negative."
Duo said. The person on the other end was obviously puzzled by the answer, but said,
"Very well. See you soon, Shinigami."
Duo closed the connection. Chang snorted and said,
"Who in the name of justice was that?!"
Duo shrugged, although the others couldn't see through the eyeholes to know, and said,
"My salvaging group... we didn't destroy our mobile suits... Shinigami is our space Leo mobile suit squadron. They think I'm flying a space Leo."
Chang snorted again.
"That's disgusting that you would have an ego so expansive that you would name a mobile suit squadron after you, that you didn't destroy your mobile suits like you were ordered, and..."
Chang drifted off for a second. Then he came back and said,
"Waaaaaait. You never told us why it was your fault that the Virgo II's were created."
Duo sighed and said on the wide band,
"Look. You know how all the mobile suit parts were scrunched into little cubes, sent into space, and destroyed?"
Everyone nodded. The even was old news. After all, it was probably the only thing that assured some people that peace was possible.
"Well... they didn't actually blow up. I asked Lady Une to scrunch them down to a size smaller than she was supposed to, smaller than the radar could pick up. Then, I asked her to make the explosives flash explosions, not real, devastating explosions. This charred the pieces, so that they couldn't be seen by the naked eye. I was going to come in with the sweepers and take it all up, smelt it down, and sell it... well... it wasn't there when I went for it."
The tensions rising among the other pilots, along with Heero's buster cannon rising to face Deathscythe Hell, showed how much they really disliked what Duo did. Duo continued on, unfazed by the fact that the buster cannon was faced at his cockpit.
"Anyway, I think Lady Une got to it before me, and formed her army with it. As for the Gundam, she had the Gundanium from Doctor S, and got the blueprint from all of them. It didn't take her long to make it since she was using those new automatons that build directly off of a blueprint."
Heero smirked, then said,
"Hey, Chang! You wanna play 'Shinigami in the middle?!"
"It'll be my pleasure!"
Chang was about to bring up his flamethrower when Duo said,
"No! Remember, my guy said that they detected Lady Une's forces! We should go out there!"
Chang huffed and said,
"Okay. Where is she?"
Duo smiled as he racked his brain for the answer.
"They would have detected her using one of our metal sensor satellites, which would explain how they didn't know that those were working mobile suits. At the moment, we only have 2 running, one in Earth's orbit, and one at colony cluster L7."
"To L7 it is."
All of the Gundams, now 8 adding Relena to the fray, shot off at full power towards the colony cluster. They all were still cloaked, of course, so as the passed the spinning colony itself, they couldn't help but smirk at the ignorant citizens below. Suddenly, Trowa said in that same, monotone voice of his,
"We have contact. 30 targets 400 kilometers away from the base... all black."
Heero smiled at the ingenuity of Lady Une. As an alternative to real cloaking, she painted the suits as black as space. Trowa came back on...
"Correction. That was only a first wave. 100 kilometers farther back are 60 more, and 50 kilometers behind that is Lady Une."
"Let's kick some tail!"
Duo yelled in that boyish, ear rattling sound he made.
"I'm with you all the way, buddy!"
Heero yelled. This still startled the others, but it didn't matter. Cloaked, they shot off towards the first wave of enemies... decimating about 10 of them in the first second. Suddenly, a beam of light came through the ranks of the Virgos, forcing them to divide. That beam nearly slammed into Relena's Wing Zero, but at a warning from Heero, she dodged it. Suddenly, Lady Une disappeared.
"What happened?!"
Duo yelled in a panic, dodging a beam blade that slashed at him from nowhere, than disappeared. Suddenly, Heero/Wing Zero and Relena/Wing One came out of cloak, took their beam swords, and slashed at a point in space... to hear the blades crackle as they hit shields. Matter-of-factly, Trowa said,
"Lady Une is cloaked, so only her radar blip appears to us. Relena and Heero by her radar signature."
Duo screamed his hatred at this fact, de-cloaked, and struck out at one of the nearby Virgos, setting it to explode. The others took the hint, if there was one, and attacked the 60 some odd Virgos that were left. They were going to have to leave the Zero System fighters to fight by themselves, and fight the Virgos the only way they knew how. Trowa with his cannon barrage, Quatre with his scythes, Duo wish his fairy-toed shoes, Milliardo wish his Cannon, Chang with his flamethrower, and Lucrezia with her electro-magnetic discs as ramming shields and weapons.
Meanwhile, Heero and Relena were having problems of their own. A shot from a beam cannon fired at Heero and he intercepted it with his sword, allowing Relena to come in, only to have her saber strike the Mercurius shield that defended Lady Une. Using this tactic, Heero held off Lady Une, firing shot after shot from his beam cannon, using slash after slash from his beam saber to keep Lady Une occupied to let Relena come in... to be pushed back again.
"Why doesn't she run out of power?!"
Relena yelled, firing her beam cannon, hitting the Mercurius shield, sending Lady Une back about ten yards. Lady Une's Gundam didn't even have a scratch. Heero responded to Relena saying,
"I saw the prototype blueprints for her unit right before Operation Meteor. It runs off of a fusion system. It's highly unstable, and the energy must be used instantly and continuously after the charge or else the energy will destroy it."
"How do we deal with it?!"
"I don't have a clue."
The really didn't bolster their confidences, but that didn't matter. They had to defeat Lady Une, and they had to defeat her NOW. Suddenly, Heero went off the defensive, and came at Lady Une full speed, slamming into the shield full-force, slightly charring the Gundanium Alloy. He knew, of course, that that wouldn't damage her, but it would create a static disturbance, and would blind her for a second, which was a second Relena used. She came behind Lady Une and fired her beam cannon, shorting out the cloaking system. Lady Une's suit was visible... and unscathed.
"What the...!"
Heero yelled as Lady Une fired a beam from her cannon, slamming into his suit's arm, charring some of it. In a rage, Relena fired another, sustained shot from her beam cannon. Lady Une reoriented her shields to block, but still fired at Heero... only to have her armor be cut into by two scythes.
"AHHH!"
Was her scream on the broad band wave. Suddenly, all the Gundams, able to see her since the cloak shortage, fired on her open side. She used her other energy discs to block, but it didn't help. The shield sparked under the constant barrage, then broke when Lucrezia slammed it with her own shield. Suddenly, without the constant drain of the excess energy, the fusion drive on the Gundam's back blew, shattering the bottom half of the Gundam, leaving Lady Une alive. Duo sighed and said,
"You do know of course that we can't take her to Earth. After all, she doesn't have her cloak..."
Then an idea came into his head. He opened up on the wide-band and said...
"Shinigami 2! Bring every Sweeper unit over to my coordinates, pronto! We have about 2 billion dollars worth of machinery here for you to pick up!"
Heero smiled. Duo was always very intelligent in such situations... then he frowned. On the wide band, he said...
"Duo, do you have that voice converter prank program still on Deathscythe Hell?"
"Yeah."
"Load it onto Wing Zero."
Heero, still connected to Wing Zero, felt the data coming in...
"Voice code Heero. Disconnect from Zero System."
Suddenly, he was free, and Relena followed suit. He found the program, set it to Lady Une's voice code, and said on the wide-band.
"Voice code Une. Detach all memories of past battle. Detach all memories of explosive mobile suits. Insert more plausible memory in its place."
Betting that her unit's Gundam would still have it's communication system working, and it's Zero System working, both of them being individually operable, he said that, hoping that her comm system would pick it up, then the Zero System would pick it up, assume it was her, and then complete the command. The sudden burst of light in her cockpit affirmed it, then he laid back. Mission accomplished. Suddenly, Duo said,
"Oh, and Shinigami 2, bring a medical team."
Duo smiled and switched to tight beam Heero.
"After all, if she's in a medical facility, her warped little brain can make up a million reasons for being there."
Heero smiled. It had been a long night.
After they had detained Lady Une and convinced her to go to a psychiatric ward temporarily, all of them went to Earth for a private celebration of their victory.
"To victory!"
Duo yelled, popping a bottle of champagne.
"Yes." Trowa said. "We succeeded where others would most definitely would have failed."
Heero smiled at the proceedings, than walked over to Relena who was standing at the other side of the room talking with Lucrezia about the battle, her arms moving as if mobile suits in combat. Heero smiled. Apparently, a little battle had shown Relena the art of being a warrior, and the full extent of the need for peace. Heero walked up to her, getting Relena to look up at him.
"Yes, Heero?"
Heero blushed.
"I've been subconsciously waiting to do this for 2 years,"
Heero said as he pulled out a small black box, suddenly getting the attention of everyone in the room. He opened the box and removed a ring, gold with silver lining along the sides. The room went totally silent.
"Will you marry me?"
Relena was taken aback, but she took the ring, placed it on her finger, and said in a heavy voice,
"Yes, Heero."
As Heero wrapped his arms around her in a slow hug, he whispered softly in her ear,
"I love you... Relena."
Disclaimer: I hate to put this at the top, but my advisor insisted. Yada Yada, I put no claim to Gundam Wing (if I did, I'd be arrested,) it's characters, (However, their mental peculiarities serve well in fanfiction), and I certainly put no claim to the creation of the program. (if I had made the show, I'd be rich).
Soul Searcher
Heero Yuy was walking in the street. Then again, walking isn't exactly the best word to use in this situation. The pounding winds and hail bounded into his form, crashing into him, beating him. This made his movements more like a push, as if he was underwater, trying to continue. This didn't matter to Heero. He could care less. He had more important things on his mind. In this icy setting in which he stayed, he thought about his situation. Two weeks ago, he wouldn't even think about doing what he was doing now. 'Why am I doing this?' He thought. Then he remembered. He didn't understand it, he didn't even try to because he knew he couldn't. There was no way he could. There was no possibility of this after he gave up his humanity. He pulled his coat close to his near-freezing body, hoping to keep in the heat for the rest of his short journey. It didn't work. 'Why didn't I just accept Duo's invitation to use Deathscythe Hell?!' he asked himself. He smiled as he remembered the deception. The agent, code-named Preventer Wind, had secretly supplied the doctors with entire tons of Gundanium to build new Gundams, copies of the Custom models. The doctors were still working on his, so he had to accept the fact that the two pilots Duo and Chang were the only ones with Gundams for the moment. As he pushed his way through this bleak scene, he allowed himself thoughts of the past two years. His adventures with the other Gundam pilots, Chang, Quatre, Trowa, Duo, and the woman that had survived it all, Relena. He didn't know what let his thoughts wander. Two years ago, a year ago, even two weeks ago, it never would have happened. However, it happened now, and he had yet to explain why. He looked up, a look of determination in his eyes. Perhaps this quest, this journey, would give him the answer he needed.
Queen Relena Peacecraft was sipping tea in her elaborate room within the palace where she had been given as her home on Earth. She looked around, admiring it. It was a very large room with a chandelier on the ceiling in the middle. There was a silk bed, complete with curtains on the far wall, away from the door. She was sitting in a wooden rocking chair on the corner of the wall nearest to the bed, reading the newspaper while her tea laid on a silver platter, waiting to be sipped some more. On the corner to the right of the bed was a door that led to a private restroom, a world of its own. Other eccentricities were on different cabinets, dressers, and other things. She didn't hold clothes in these since her servants brought her clothes each morning for the day. The cabinets, dressers, and other things along the room held mementos of the past two years. She got up, carrying her tea, and walked to a cabinet nearby. She opened it, and smiled as she saw the contents. Inside, there were pictures of the only two men she could ever have cared about in her life. Milliardo Peacecraft, Preventer Wind, her brother, and another. Heero Yuy, the perfect soldier, his body serving only as an arm of his mission. She sighed, remembering how he refrained from killing her and others, Duo, the Doctors, many people. She let her mind drift off towards memories of the past, and one thought floated to her head, 'You're still human, Heero. You can still be who you really are. Underneath that mission of yours, you are human. You must be.'
'Am I human?' Heero thought to himself as he walked across this icy landscape in nothing more that his jacket and clothes. This thought bounced around the inners of Heero's mind until he decided to let the thought go. Only a human could help him with that question, and that was why he was going to find Relena. As he looked back onto his past, he saw that she was as 'human' as he had ever seen. Sure, she wasn't as friendly as Duo, and didn't have quite the skills of empathy as Quatre, but she was the only person who had ever loved him. Of course, this surprised him since he didn't even know what love really was. 'What does it feel like,' Heero thought, 'to know that somewhere, there is someone who really, really, cares about you.' He sighed as he recalled his life in the past. When he was a small child, he met up with Doctor J, who turned him into a Gundam Class weapon. What few knew was that Doctor J was actually a close friend of the original Heero Yuy, as he had told Heero, the boy now nearly dead of hypothermia in a lonely street on the planet Earth. Back at the start of training, he remembered that he still had emotions, a sense of calm and peace, and a lack of pure desire for the mission. Doctor J turned his life upside-down in a horrid way. He first set up a theoretical wall inside Heero's head, and a physical wall around his sleeping chambers, isolating him from the outside world. Then, he started instilling in him the sense of the mission, further building up the wall in Heero's heart. As far as Heero new, only Relena could break that wall down, and make him human again. Suddenly, as Heero was thinking these things, a fuzzy gray square appeared in front of him. First it got larger, then it became more of a green as it got closer, and when it was nearly a foot from Heero, it stopped, showing Heero that it was actually a jeep.
"Well, Heero Yuy! I didn't expect to see you here! Come inside."
Heero gladly accepted, vaguely recognizing the voice in the flashing wind and hail, crashing on the car and on his body in a symphony of torment. As he stepped inside and felt the warmth of the heated car, everything became clearer, and before him sat Milliardo Peacecraft.
"Where are you going? It's not a smart idea for anyone to be driving around in this cold!" Milliardo yelled.
Heero wondered for a moment why he was shouting, then remembered that he hadn't closed the door, letting the hail drop in its icy minuet. After he closed the doo, the jeep became quiet, and Milliardo started driving off. Heero responded in his usual, quiet fashion.
"How far away is Queen Relena's palace?"
Milliardo responded inquisitively, "About four or five miles the direction you were going. Why?"
Heero ignored the question and said, "Take me there."
Milliardo heartily agreed, doing a U-turn on the slick street, nearly sending the jeep into a spin, then headed towards the palace. Zechs looked Heero over, noting mentally that Heero wasn't bruised by the hail, he wasn't shivering, and he showed no signs of hypothermia, even though Heero was probably simply starting to succumb to it, and not showing any symptoms.
"You must be a fool to be walking towards the palace in weather like this." Milliardo said, breaking the silence. "That's just plain inhuman!"
Heero almost smiled, a strange reaction for him, and said with a longing in his eyes, "Milliardo, you have no idea how close to the truth you are."
Relena had left her chambers after about twenty minutes of contemplation and memories, and she walked out to the terrace, wearing a fur coat to keep in the heat, and a special portable heater that she wore on her neck that Doctor H had offered as a gift to her. She breathed out and watched the vapor go out for a couple of inches, only to be smothered by the snow and small chips of hail that swarmed in the air. She took a seat on one of the bolted-down chairs on the side facing the entrance to the palace. For a moment, she just sat there, enjoying the fresh air as a wonderful chain of pace from the claustrophobic life indoors. For security, her room was inside a nautilus shell shaped hall with a security system second to none. Although this inspired a feeling of security, it induced a form of claustrophobia, and could be considered a nuisance, since it took 2 minutes to simply leave her room and get to the rest of the house. Again, she admired the snow, watching as it fell, when off in the distance, two headlights appeared. These two lights congealed into the form of a jeep. 'Milliardo. You've come back.' She thought. She was about to go back to her silent contemplation when she saw that there was another passenger in the jeep. It was impossible to tell, they were so far away that the other passenger simply looked like a gray splotch on the window. Something in her mind or in heart, she couldn't tell which, whispered 'Heero'. It seemed to echo in her mind, reverberating, giving her a second to think of it's possibility. She didn't really believe in hunches, but she went down there anyway. She tried to convince herself that she was just curious to see if her gut was right, and not anxious, but as she left, the hot chocolate spilled from the speed she got up. It was obvious that she was anxious. Very anxious, indeed.
Milliardo drove the Jeep into the parking garage at the first floor of the palace after his silent trip with Heero. 'He's not the very conversational sort,' he thought. Of course, he already knew this, but it still fascinated him how focused Heero was. He had once tried to get that level of focus at the Academy, but he constantly found himself being distracted by people. Lucrezia, and others posed a challenge to that focus, but now, he was glad that they were there, and that he hadn't turned into the lonely Heero that he would have become if he had so desperately tried. Heero just sat there looking out the front windshield. He was going to leave the car, allowing the smell of oil and lubricants assault his nostrils, when he saw the elevator at the opposite side of the room open, and out came Relena. His spirits suddenly shot up... as far as his spirits ever did, which unfortunately, wasn't much. He saw Relena walk out of the elevator, and just stand there. Their eyes were locked, as if held by an invisible beam. He exited the car, his eyes never looking away from Relena, and just stood there. He stepped out only to make sure he was alive, and that he wasn't dreaming. The assault of smells told him he was.
Relena started heading towards the ground room when she noticed the immense heat when she stepped inside. She smiled, taking off her coat, revealing the pink dress she had worn on that day when she returned to Earth. That very day, she had worn it at the beach when she first saw Heero. And that very same day which had changed her life forever. She took an elevator down to the 1st floor, anxiously pacing, waiting for the silver doors to open to the entrance garage. Anxiously waiting to see Milliardo, and perhaps even Heero. The silver doors opened in their usual, brisk manner, opening up the garage for her eyes. She didn't even have to search. Right in front of her was the jeep, parked along all the others in the lot. Normally, she would have been distracted by all the mechanical things being done, she always appreciated mechanics, but she was focused on the car and its occupants. Milliardo... and Heero. Her gut had been right, he was there, and he was looking straight at her.
Milliardo, unaware of the situation between Heero & Relena, came out of the car, and then looked into the car to tell Heero where he would be if he needed any help. Heero wasn't there. In fact, he was just outside the door, staring at something. For a moment, Milliardo allowed himself to think that the only thing Heero would ever stare at would be his Gundam, when he let his eyes drift to where Heero was looking. Milliardo instantly took back what he said about what Heero found important when he saw what he was staring at. Relena. Although no one had ever heard his thoughts, he suddenly felt embarrassed, a strange sensation for him since he rarely ever felt embarrassed, and rarely had a reason to feel embarrassed, anyway. Even though there were sounds all around the hangar, automatons welding doors shut, engineers cursing, news screens declaring their announcements for the people that were stuck there in the building, he felt a strange silence between Relena and Heero. As if to atone for his earlier thought, he regained his composure and walked over to Relena.
"Hello, Relena. You look stunning today."
This gave Relena a brief relief from staring at Heero, and she smiled and looked at him.
"Thank you, Milliardo. How did your meeting with the other Preventers go?"
He smiled and said "I finished the meeting and went for a test drive on these new engines. Strangely, I found Heero."
She smiled and said, in a light voice, "Thank you."
For a moment, Milliardo was confused, then he was startled as the revelation of what was happening finally hit him. 'Those two have feeling for each other!' He thought. He never would have thought Heero would have feelings for anyone, but he had just proved himself wrong, or at least he think he did. It could be that they were just staring at each other for some other reason. Either way, he decided it would be best for him to just fade away, so he stepped into the elevator and left the two.
After Milliardo left, Heero started walking towards Relena, and suddenly she said,
"So it is you, Heero. It is you."
With an almost affectionate voice, Heero said "Relena."
Suddenly, Relena broke out in laughter, easing the affectionate tension between the two, but not breaking it completely.
"What's so funny?" Heero asked.
Relena simply smiled and said, "I remember the last time we said that. If history repeats itself, you'll pull out a gun and say 'you're way in over your head.'"
Heero allowed himself to remember the past, remembering that day at the naval base, when he had foolishly attempted to destroy his own Gundam, and had nearly lost his life. The two of them walked into the elevator, now returned from dropping off Milliardo. As the elevator rose to the top floor, where Relena lived, there was a silence between the two. Heero didn't really know what to say to Relena to explain why he had come, and Relena simply basked in his presence, and hoped he would tell her why he had come. She had always felt these feelings for him, but now she considered them childish. 'I'm 17 now!' She thought. 'I am Relena Peacecraft, Protector of Peace, Keeper of Right, I need to keep my emotions under control.' In many ways, she knew she could... if she wanted to. However, something kept her from it. Something inside her told her that he was there for a reason, and that emotion wasn't a bad thing, especially next to someone who could care less about his own emotions, even less hers. Someone who needed emotions. Needed them desperately.
When the elevator opened, Relena tried to edge in front of Heero, but he refused. In response to the question he knew she would ask, he said,
"I studied the building. I know where to go."
At the end of the hall, and at the end of the 2 minute silence, they reached the door. Relena finally managed to get in front, and opened the door. Heero managed to find a dresser and plop down what supplies he had brought into one of the empty dresser doors.
"I don't think those will be necessary, Heero." Relena said. "The staff brings our food and clothes, if you would like it that way."
Heero couldn't manage a response, so he allowed his actions to speak, rather than his words. He pulled out the contents of the bag he carried. It was a touch-pad, designed for military use.
"I know you have food and clothes and I... thank you... for it, but all I brought was the slave control to my Gundam."
Relena could tell that he was just barely cracking out the thank you. She knew it was against his nature, but the fact that he even said it was a sign of improvement. Perhaps he was changing, as she had hoped from the start. After about 2 minutes, Heero found a seat and started explaining the question that haunted them both. Relena was haunted because she simply was ignorant, and Heero because he didn't understand what he was starting to feel without a mission hanging over him. It was the question of the moment. Why had he come?
"Relena. I know this seems strange. It is strange even to me, but I came here for your help."
Relena frowned and thought, 'What do you mean, Heero?'
"During the past two weeks, I have gone without a rally point to stay around. I truly have no purpose but to live, because I simply don't have a clue as to how to live as a normal human. When I had a mission, my emotions, me, made no difference. Only the mission did."
He looked up at the chandelier as it reflected light onto the walls, flashing it in a pattern that seemed more like an intricate dance than a reflection.
"Now," Heero said. "I'm simply not sure. I don't know how to live like a human, so I have only two choices. To change into a human, or to die like the automaton that I have become."
He looked straight into her eyes, as if exploring her mind for an explanation, and then she knew what he wanted. He wanted her to help him become human. Relena just stared at him, almost open-mouthed, for a while, and then said, in a calm and deliberate voice,
"Yes, I will help you, Heero."
He stared at her in an almost affectionate stare, as close as he ever got to smiling, and then laid down to fall asleep on the chair where he was sitting. Relena, however, stayed awake for a little while longer, and said under her breath,
"Why do you come to me now... my love? Why now?."
The next morning, Heero woke up before Relena, and took a shower in the restroom nearby. It was really a fascinating place. It was almost completely marble, with pearls used to line the flower pattern of the wallpaper on the wall. The sink had over 3 types of lotions, 4 types of mouthwashs, and who knows what the other bottles were for. The shower, as well, was amazing. It was a marble spa, with a shower-spray on the ceiling that sprayed across the entire spa. After Heero finished his cleaning, including his getting dressed, finding the clothing rack waiting for him outside the bathroom, he sat down on a chair and waited for Relena to wake up.
'Relena...' he thought as he watched her sleeping there so peacefully. During the mission, he considered her a nuisance at first, a danger later, and then a powerful figure, but never really as a person. A woman. As he looked, he changed his opinion. She wasn't just a woman, but a beautiful woman, sleeping there in her silk nightgown. In fact, as he racked his brain for the correct term to use for her looks, the word 'stunning' suddenly drifted up to his mind. He didn't really know why, either. He had never thought that about anyone else, so the idea probably didn't come from him... then he knew.
Wing Zero.
As he thought about the possibility, it started to make sense. Those Gundams had a form of rudimentary AI, and even if the Gundam hadn't formed the opinion, then the zero system probably associated 'Relena' with 'stunning.' He knew that it was possible. In fact, his way of controlling the Zero System made it almost impossible to be otherwise. However, he somehow relished the thought. A short time ago, he would never have thought that he could like, or even acknowledge the beauty of another human. Now, as he stared at Relena, sleeping like a lamb there on her silk bed, he wondered why he didn't. Suddenly, he realized that he was already becoming closer to the person that he wanted to be closer to... the 'himself' that he wanted to be, and Relena. He sighed a sigh of relief, took one last, and very long, look at Relena, and then he walked out of the room. He had made sure that he left enough things in the room that if she woke up, she would know that he wasn't gone for good. He walked down the long hall for a while, feeling rather oppressed in the clothes he was wearing. He had on a pair of black jeans and a matching black vest, and a pair of black sunglasses. He was glad that Relena had had the courtesy to provide the clothes, and he had to admit that they were... to put it in the best words he knew... aesthetically pleasing. However, he sensed an ulterior motive with the all-black choice... but that was probably just his own paranoid mind speaking to him. That mild paranoia was normal for him, or at least the 'him' that he was, but not for the 'him' that he wanted to become. He sighed, this time a sigh of sadness, and then reached the end of the nautilus-hall. He tapped the button on the turbo-elevator, and then stepped inside. He depressed the button for the floor that he wanted to go to, the mess hall. He waited patiently for the elevator to reach the floor, then stepped out. He knew he could have waited at the room for food, but he was more adapted to the atmosphere of the mess hall. After all, he was a military operative. He was THE military operative. Gundam pilot, Assassin, Weapons Expert, Spy, just a few of the many... (many) titles he had accumulated. He walked over to the line where everyone where everyone was getting their food. He felt slightly out of place, being as how everyone else was wearing military insignia except for him. When he got to the food, he picked his choice. Hash browns, sausage, a banana, and orange juice. He chose it for its nutritional content, but he preoccupied himself thinking about how he should probably concentrate on the flavor, now that he was trying to be human. Suddenly, the cafeteria woman looked over the counter and said,
"I recognize you from somewhere."
Heero said in his usual monotone, "Heero Yuy."
When she drew a blank, he said, "Gundam Contingent. My Gundam is Wing Zero."
The woman's eyes widened so far that Heero thought for a second that they would pop out of their sockets.
"You... You really are that Gundam pilot aren't you!?"
Her voice carried for a distance and several pilots got up from their seats. Heero knew what they wanted. He walked over to a seat and laid his tray down, never sitting down. They reached him, and the one in the front asked,
"So. You're the Gundam pilot."
Heero simply nodded, looking him in the eye, but concentrating on the other pilots, waiting for them to strike.
"We've always wanted to see why you Gundam pilots were considered so special."
He grinned, cracked his knuckles, and said "What do you say, boys?! Should we test him?"
The others smiled, and circled. Heero simply watched as the pilots went through the diatribe that pilots in every colony he had been too had gone through. He sighed as he noticed that there were only five. 'No challenge here.' He thought. Suddenly, all of them pulled out knives. He quickly assessed the danger that each of them posed. Heero's adrenaline level shot up, and he allowed a laugh to escape. The same laugh which he gave when he was succeeding in a mission. The same laugh that had haunted his enemies for years after his attack. Suddenly, one of them struck. He dove at Heero, yelling some barbarian-like battle cry. Heero smiled and grabbed his knife hand, pressing his fingers against the fleshy space between the fingers so hard that he kneeled on the ground. While he was occupied with the aforementioned idiot, two others came at him. One of them foolishly threw the knife, hoping to hit Heero. He was standing on the side which the knife came from, so he simply caught it in mid-air. The pilots stared wide-eyed. Suddenly, the other pilot who came in the pair came at him, more cautiously than the first, waving the knife. Heero dispatched the second pilot, then let go of the pilot whom he was holding, letting him crumple to the ground in pain. In an instant, he brought up the knife, blocking the knife of the third pilot, then cut downwards, startling the pilot to the point where he brought his hand back to avoid getting slashed... just to get hit by a jackknife from Heero. Suddenly, Heero felt his arm get hit. He was glad that the vest was just that... a vest, or the knife would have slashed a jacket, rendering it worthless. He was also glad that his skin had been tempered to an almost inhuman level. A gun didn't pierce it, so a knife didn't even get close. He instantly grabbed the handle of that knife, than used it as a holding point. Knowing that the pilot wouldn't let go of the knife, he pushed himself up, using the knife as a pull, doing a back-flip, slamming his foot into his enemy's chin, shooting him several feet up into the air. First, he heard a ripping sound. Then he heard the unmistakable metallic clang of metal hitting metal... to be specific, there was a slight wavering in the first 'twang', leading Heero to believe it was the sound of steel hitting reinforced titanium, the ripping sound being kevlar. He looked back and quickly disabled the last pilot with a crushing blow to the neck. He almost allowed himself a smile and he thought 'Relena. A bulletproof, titanium reinforced vest.' He looked down at the cut and noticed a couple weights... 'Not only that, you made it weighted for physical training while I was here. You are too kind.'
Heero quickly finished his breakfast, vaguely paying attention to the medics who came in to pick up the pilots which he had so easily tattered. He would need to find a better class of drinking establish... or find someone worthy of fighting. He took the elevator back to Relena's floor, and then headed down the nauti-hall. He reached the door, and found it locked. Heero frowned, and picked up a small piece of wire lying on the floor to pick the lock. He opened the door. The first sign of activity was a barrage of smells. Then, he noticed the steam coming from the open bathroom door. He couldn't see in, of course. It was at an angle from him, and it was so long that he would probably have to be looking directly into it to see anything. He quickly went to the clothing rack and found a medication. Isopropyl (rubbing) alcohol. He knew it would sting, but he didn't care. He pulled out the dermal spray and sprayed it on his arm. The pain was minimal, it was a barely noticeable cut after all. In fact, it would be closer to the truth to call it a mark. He found a convenient dresser and sat on it, waiting for Relena to come out. He noticed, as he sat on it, that the top dresser was empty. Curious, he got off and opened the top dresser. As he suspected, it was empty. He opened the second dresser, and inside were pictures from the war... pictures of Milliardo... and him. He noticed as he looked at the myriad display of memorabilia that she had collected a lot of pictures. He regarded a picture with him and Duo carefully. It was a wonder why she kept them... and then he realized something that had haunted him for a long time... and that was why he felt there was a connection to her that he had with no one else, the reason that he didn't ask the infamously energetic Duo or the empathetic Quatre to help him with his problem. Their relationship was different... she cared for him. He looked at the picture, and then noticed a picture from the Marina Bay security protocols of him not shooting Relena, a look of actual compassion on his face for a split second. That was when he realized that the person who he wanted to be was inside of him, and that that person cared for Relena. No, that wasn't it. Whoever it was... loved Relena. As he looked at the pictures, a menagerie of thoughts drifted to his head... the last of which was the thought that somehow, in the deep reaches of all of this, the Zero System had a part in it all. He noticed, in the corner of his mind, that the shower stopped, but he wasn't really paying attention. He went over to a cabinet on the opposite wall... and brought out the slave control. The control was actually an access to the 'input' portion of the Zero System. He couldn't do what he had been wanting to do, but he knew that the Zero System in his Wing could. He activated it, and then splayed his hand over the touchpad to let it identify his fingerprint. He let the thing send out its beam pulse, and he suddenly was Wing Zero... in an ephereal way. He felt that he was completely functioning, and then he noticed that he was in a dark truck. He felt the visual stealth upgrade which either made it look invisible, or like a phantom with a specially designed shimmering silver skin. It was most likely something Doctor J cooked up for Deathscythe Hell that the others used it. He moved his arms and forced open the truck that he was lying in. He left and then phantomized. All five trucks stopped. Duo jumped out and simply stared. Heero turned on his speakerphone and said,
"It's my mobile suit."
In that same monotone voice that he always used. He cloaked himself and sped off towards the palace. He found an empty space in the botanical garden and set down Wing Zero.
"Heero?"
Heero heard the worry in Relena's voice and looked up. She was standing there in her full dress regalia, probably while he was Wing Zero. Heero looked at her and said,
"I'll be back shortly."
He didn't explain, but rather, he left the room and headed for the elevator. Another two minutes and he was there, at the imposing silver double-doors. He pressed the button, walked in, and allowed it to take him to the gardens. He immediately recognized the spot where Wing Zero had landed. Heero felt around until he had Wing Zero, then climbed up in the way that he had done thousands of times. It didn't matter that it was cloaked. He knew. He entered the cockpit, hoping no one had seen him. The delicate peace that existed didn't allow Gundams, or any other form of mobile suit for that matter. He stepped in and instantly felt the Zero System.
"Zero System, disable forced input circuitry, voice code Heero."
There was a slight burst of electronics, and then it all shut off. The secret behind Heero's control, the secret that no one else knew, and therefore, no one else could control, was the fact that the Zero System worked both ways. Not only did the user... become... Wing Zero, and not only did the Zero System destroy personal thoughts and quirks as being threats to the mission, but it stored what it deleted, and that information could be brought back. By shutting off the input system, Heero would not be affected by the Zero system's negative affects, but he would be able to command it to do certain things in his mind, which he did.
"Voice code Heero. Zero, in two bursts, bring back all conversations with Relena, Duo, and Quatre on my mark."
He prepared himself for the mind-blowing blasts of memories and said
"Mark."
Suddenly, a burst of memories, desires, emotions, feelings, everything that came with human communication came to him. He was overwhelmed, since the memories were not only visual and auditory, but they also had many other, intangible things that couldn't be quantified. He gritted his teeth against the barrage, and then a second one came. Even though Heero almost didn't feel pain, he gasped as the memories came flooding into him. He could almost feel the barriers to his mind being brought down... but even after all the memories came to him, he didn't feel as if he'd changed. He was more aware of what he was looking for, but he still wasn't there... then he thought of something. When he was a child, Doctor J had him put into a prototype model of a fantastic Gundam. The Wing Zero Prototype. Suddenly, Heero remembered something from the past, something Doctor J told him to do after his mission was complete.
"Voice code Heero, open up file 'Heero 111011.'"
Suddenly, it was as if the barriers placed into his mind were no longer there. He could almost feel his old self being stored in Wing Zero, probably never to be brought back again. Heero could feel the emotions, the feelings, the attitudes, from events through his entire life. Now he knew what Doctor J did. He strengthened Heero physically and mentally, but stored his ability to emotionally evaluate situations inside the Wing Zero Prototype. By using the same file, and letting Heero put it in himself, he saw everything that had happened in his life with emotions... like a real person would. He opened the cockpit slowly, making sure no one saw him, then jumped out. He walked across the garden, marveling at the flowers, marveling at the fact that he could marvel at the flowers. When he got inside, he stayed silent, but his guts were almost exploding with joy. When he got into an elevator to take him up to Relena's floor, he started laughing so hard that his sides almost burst. So hard, in fact, that he started crying. As he walked into Relena's room, he saw her sitting there on her bed, putting on her shoes, probably getting ready for a walk since she didn't have anything scheduled for the day. In fact, she probably only wore her diplomatic regalia for appearances. When she looked up at Heero and saw him smiling widely, she was caught off guard, and was barely able to manage a "Hello, Heero." Heero, however, didn't care. He walked over to Relena and started to talk at a lightning pace, almost overwhelming her. When she finally calmed down, and he finally slowed down, he got slightly more serious and said.
"I'm sorry Relena, for the past two years, how you've been trying to reach me, and how I've kept pulling away. Without you, I just wouldn't be who I am."
Relena almost stopped him. In fact, she started to say that she really didn't do anything, that she, in fact, really hadn't helped him, but Heero stopped her.
"You've helped me more than you or I could have ever realized. Not that I see what you've done, I'm amazed."
Again, Relena tried to tell him that she didn't do anything to help him, but suddenly, he said,
"Shutup. Just please, shutup."
As he pulled her face to hers in a brief kiss that he had waited for a long time. It was brief, but for Heero, it was remarkable. Relena was left dumbstruck, and could only barely manage a
"Wow."
They were about to come together again when an alarm blared loudly. The intruder alarm. 4 trucks, mobile suit carriers, came. Heero ran with Relena at a heart-stopping pace, reaching the elevator in under a minute. They got down to the ground floor when the alarm shut off. Heero ran out, saw 4 figures coming out of each of the trucks he ran at a pace that was almost inhuman, recognizing that even though he had his emotions, he was just as strong as he always was. He did a triple flip, landed behind one, and had his gun pointed at him, when he recognized the braid.
"Duo? Is that you?"
Heero yelled, smiling. Duo looked behind, more shocked to hear Heero laughing than the fact that the gun was pointed at his head. Heero put that gun down and said.
"In the name of all that's good and right, what in the world are you doing here, Shinigami?!"
That got the attention of the other pilots as well. Who was this clone of Heero that stood before them?
"Uh, Heero?" Quatre asked.
"Yeah?"
"What happened to you?"
Heero smiled. Quatre always was blunt.
"It is me, Quatre. I've changed... for the better."
Quatre managed a tense smile, still not convinced.
"Are you sure?" Quatre asked.
"Yes, offer proof." Trowa said, cautiously.
Chang stepped in for Heero
"Why does our friend need to defend himself. You should all be ashamed that you would question him."
Suddenly Duo saw Relena.
"He came out with you Relena. Is it true?"
Relena nodded yes, smiling, remembering their kiss.
"Well then, that's enough a reason for me."
He put his arm over Heero's shoulder and said,
"You'll need to explain later. At the moment we have a mission."
Heero, still jubilant, smiled, placed his arm over Duo's shoulder, inciting a small jump, obviously Duo wasn't used to the new Heero.
"What's the problem?!"
Milliardo asked, startling the people assembled. Standing next to him was Lucrezia.
"Uh, nothing."
Duo said... then decided he should know. Their voiced went down to a whisper, and Duo said,
"Did Doctor J provide you and Lucrezia with the Cloaking device?"
Milliardo nodded, noting that there was an urgency in Duo's voice.
"Okay. Here's the deal. Lady Une, as you know, is schizophrenic, and she just added another personality to her repertoire. A controlling personality. She made herself a Gundam of unknown origin, very powerful... and assembled an army of Virgo II's, based off of her flight programming."
Duo sighed.
"The Doctors have analyzed her Gundam, and have found that it is theoretically invincible with the Mercurius Shield, Tallgeese's Doblitzer gun, Vayeate's beam cannon, Wing Zero's Beam Sword, the Zero System, everything that makes a mobile suit powerful... and it's made, like you could guess... of Gundanium alloy."
Duo sighed, and then said,
"The Virgo's will be pretty easy, with our Gundams finally all completed... Heero, I suspect you have yours parked somewhere here... however... I am slightly ashamed to say that I'm the reason those Virgo's were made..."
At all of their malevolent glare's, even Relena's, he said,
"Hey, Hey! I'll explain later! Anyway, we need to stop her mobile suits from being seen by the colonies, defeat it, and capture her for psychiatric treatment. Anyway, all of you, except Relena, cloak your Gundams, get them away from the cities, cloak them, then head them off into space. Don't worry, with the cloaking system came a power boost. You can get to space without a rocket launching you."
Everyone complied with what Duo said very quickly, except Heero. He stayed back, and talked to Relena.
"Don't worry about me. You'll see me again in a couple of weeks."
Relena smiled, nodded, and said to herself,
'I'll be seeing you long before then.'
Heero and the 6 other pilots, Chang, Duo, Milliardo, Quatre, Trowa, and Lucrezia, met at a deserted portion of desert and launched off, escaping the atmosphere, and clawing for space. When they finally hit the wild black yonder, Duo went to tight-beam communication s thinking to ask Heero what caused him to take a 180 degree look on life. Unfortunately, all of the other pilots were doing the same. Heero smiled and said to everyone,
"You don't need to tight beam me."
To explain his point, he raised the volume on all of their communiqués to let them hear each other. Then he switched it to the frequency that they were all using.
"Okay, if you want the scoop, here it is..."
He explained everything, allowing Milliardo to add in certain comments at the beginning, starting with him walking through the hail, to the cafeteria incident, to the pictures in the bedroom, to the Zero System, to the kiss.
At the mention of the kiss, Heero could almost feel the smirk that was on all of their faces. It was obvious that they were expecting it for years. Suddenly, Heero saw a blip on the radar.
"Voice code Heero. Activate Zero System minus the active defense system."
He became Wing Zero, except it didn't try to delete his emotions as negative to the mission. The others wondered why he had done that, then noticed the blip. Normal Mobile Suits and radar wouldn't have registered it, after all, it was cloaked, but their Gundams, Deathscythe Hell Custom, Wing Zero Custom, Altron Gundam Custom, Sandrock Kai Custom, Heavyarms Kai Custom, Tallgeese 3 Custom (a new model), and the Mercurius Custom (again, new model), were tuned to the cloaking frequency of their own Gundams. Heero frowned. Who could be in the mysterious Gundam that was one of their own. Suddenly, Wing Zero positively identified the newcomer, a second copy of Wing Zero Custom, but that didn't allow Heero/Wing Zero to identify the pilot. Suddenly, Heero/Wing Zero intercepted a transmission on the tight beam from the other Gundam.
"Hello Heero."
"Relena!!!!!"
Relena may have been on tight band, but Heero wasn't, and the other Gundams turned to her. Suddenly, Heero realized something... Wing Zero would only be effective in the hands of an untrained pilot with the Zero System running. Relena's Gundam came up to his... so close that Heero/Wing Zero could physically see Relena.
Relena suddenly said...
"Voice code Relena. Activate the Zero System..."
"No!!!!"
"Minus the active defense system."
Heero was puzzled. Only he knew what the secret to personal safety with the Zero System was... then he realized that Doctor J must have supplied her with the Gundam, and the explanation. However, he was surprised that Relena's mind could withstand the onslaught of power that Wing Zero pumped into her. The two Gundams came together in mid-space, then they aligned themselves to face the other pilots. Relena said
"I've had this thing for a while. I knew the secret, and so I incrementally increased the pressure the Zero System placed on my brain. I can... withstand it now."
Suddenly, on the wide-band, someone said,
"Shinigami Squadron lead, come in. Shinigami, come in."
Duo responded with,
"I'm here, Shinigami 2. What's the deal?"
"There's a large amount of metal moving fast towards Earth. Billions of dollar's worth. Should we intercept?"
"That's a negative."
Duo said. The person on the other end was obviously puzzled by the answer, but said,
"Very well. See you soon, Shinigami."
Duo closed the connection. Chang snorted and said,
"Who in the name of justice was that?!"
Duo shrugged, although the others couldn't see through the eyeholes to know, and said,
"My salvaging group... we didn't destroy our mobile suits... Shinigami is our space Leo mobile suit squadron. They think I'm flying a space Leo."
Chang snorted again.
"That's disgusting that you would have an ego so expansive that you would name a mobile suit squadron after you, that you didn't destroy your mobile suits like you were ordered, and..."
Chang drifted off for a second. Then he came back and said,
"Waaaaaait. You never told us why it was your fault that the Virgo II's were created."
Duo sighed and said on the wide band,
"Look. You know how all the mobile suit parts were scrunched into little cubes, sent into space, and destroyed?"
Everyone nodded. The even was old news. After all, it was probably the only thing that assured some people that peace was possible.
"Well... they didn't actually blow up. I asked Lady Une to scrunch them down to a size smaller than she was supposed to, smaller than the radar could pick up. Then, I asked her to make the explosives flash explosions, not real, devastating explosions. This charred the pieces, so that they couldn't be seen by the naked eye. I was going to come in with the sweepers and take it all up, smelt it down, and sell it... well... it wasn't there when I went for it."
The tensions rising among the other pilots, along with Heero's buster cannon rising to face Deathscythe Hell, showed how much they really disliked what Duo did. Duo continued on, unfazed by the fact that the buster cannon was faced at his cockpit.
"Anyway, I think Lady Une got to it before me, and formed her army with it. As for the Gundam, she had the Gundanium from Doctor S, and got the blueprint from all of them. It didn't take her long to make it since she was using those new automatons that build directly off of a blueprint."
Heero smirked, then said,
"Hey, Chang! You wanna play 'Shinigami in the middle?!"
"It'll be my pleasure!"
Chang was about to bring up his flamethrower when Duo said,
"No! Remember, my guy said that they detected Lady Une's forces! We should go out there!"
Chang huffed and said,
"Okay. Where is she?"
Duo smiled as he racked his brain for the answer.
"They would have detected her using one of our metal sensor satellites, which would explain how they didn't know that those were working mobile suits. At the moment, we only have 2 running, one in Earth's orbit, and one at colony cluster L7."
"To L7 it is."
All of the Gundams, now 8 adding Relena to the fray, shot off at full power towards the colony cluster. They all were still cloaked, of course, so as the passed the spinning colony itself, they couldn't help but smirk at the ignorant citizens below. Suddenly, Trowa said in that same, monotone voice of his,
"We have contact. 30 targets 400 kilometers away from the base... all black."
Heero smiled at the ingenuity of Lady Une. As an alternative to real cloaking, she painted the suits as black as space. Trowa came back on...
"Correction. That was only a first wave. 100 kilometers farther back are 60 more, and 50 kilometers behind that is Lady Une."
"Let's kick some tail!"
Duo yelled in that boyish, ear rattling sound he made.
"I'm with you all the way, buddy!"
Heero yelled. This still startled the others, but it didn't matter. Cloaked, they shot off towards the first wave of enemies... decimating about 10 of them in the first second. Suddenly, a beam of light came through the ranks of the Virgos, forcing them to divide. That beam nearly slammed into Relena's Wing Zero, but at a warning from Heero, she dodged it. Suddenly, Lady Une disappeared.
"What happened?!"
Duo yelled in a panic, dodging a beam blade that slashed at him from nowhere, than disappeared. Suddenly, Heero/Wing Zero and Relena/Wing One came out of cloak, took their beam swords, and slashed at a point in space... to hear the blades crackle as they hit shields. Matter-of-factly, Trowa said,
"Lady Une is cloaked, so only her radar blip appears to us. Relena and Heero by her radar signature."
Duo screamed his hatred at this fact, de-cloaked, and struck out at one of the nearby Virgos, setting it to explode. The others took the hint, if there was one, and attacked the 60 some odd Virgos that were left. They were going to have to leave the Zero System fighters to fight by themselves, and fight the Virgos the only way they knew how. Trowa with his cannon barrage, Quatre with his scythes, Duo wish his fairy-toed shoes, Milliardo wish his Cannon, Chang with his flamethrower, and Lucrezia with her electro-magnetic discs as ramming shields and weapons.
Meanwhile, Heero and Relena were having problems of their own. A shot from a beam cannon fired at Heero and he intercepted it with his sword, allowing Relena to come in, only to have her saber strike the Mercurius shield that defended Lady Une. Using this tactic, Heero held off Lady Une, firing shot after shot from his beam cannon, using slash after slash from his beam saber to keep Lady Une occupied to let Relena come in... to be pushed back again.
"Why doesn't she run out of power?!"
Relena yelled, firing her beam cannon, hitting the Mercurius shield, sending Lady Une back about ten yards. Lady Une's Gundam didn't even have a scratch. Heero responded to Relena saying,
"I saw the prototype blueprints for her unit right before Operation Meteor. It runs off of a fusion system. It's highly unstable, and the energy must be used instantly and continuously after the charge or else the energy will destroy it."
"How do we deal with it?!"
"I don't have a clue."
The really didn't bolster their confidences, but that didn't matter. They had to defeat Lady Une, and they had to defeat her NOW. Suddenly, Heero went off the defensive, and came at Lady Une full speed, slamming into the shield full-force, slightly charring the Gundanium Alloy. He knew, of course, that that wouldn't damage her, but it would create a static disturbance, and would blind her for a second, which was a second Relena used. She came behind Lady Une and fired her beam cannon, shorting out the cloaking system. Lady Une's suit was visible... and unscathed.
"What the...!"
Heero yelled as Lady Une fired a beam from her cannon, slamming into his suit's arm, charring some of it. In a rage, Relena fired another, sustained shot from her beam cannon. Lady Une reoriented her shields to block, but still fired at Heero... only to have her armor be cut into by two scythes.
"AHHH!"
Was her scream on the broad band wave. Suddenly, all the Gundams, able to see her since the cloak shortage, fired on her open side. She used her other energy discs to block, but it didn't help. The shield sparked under the constant barrage, then broke when Lucrezia slammed it with her own shield. Suddenly, without the constant drain of the excess energy, the fusion drive on the Gundam's back blew, shattering the bottom half of the Gundam, leaving Lady Une alive. Duo sighed and said,
"You do know of course that we can't take her to Earth. After all, she doesn't have her cloak..."
Then an idea came into his head. He opened up on the wide-band and said...
"Shinigami 2! Bring every Sweeper unit over to my coordinates, pronto! We have about 2 billion dollars worth of machinery here for you to pick up!"
Heero smiled. Duo was always very intelligent in such situations... then he frowned. On the wide band, he said...
"Duo, do you have that voice converter prank program still on Deathscythe Hell?"
"Yeah."
"Load it onto Wing Zero."
Heero, still connected to Wing Zero, felt the data coming in...
"Voice code Heero. Disconnect from Zero System."
Suddenly, he was free, and Relena followed suit. He found the program, set it to Lady Une's voice code, and said on the wide-band.
"Voice code Une. Detach all memories of past battle. Detach all memories of explosive mobile suits. Insert more plausible memory in its place."
Betting that her unit's Gundam would still have it's communication system working, and it's Zero System working, both of them being individually operable, he said that, hoping that her comm system would pick it up, then the Zero System would pick it up, assume it was her, and then complete the command. The sudden burst of light in her cockpit affirmed it, then he laid back. Mission accomplished. Suddenly, Duo said,
"Oh, and Shinigami 2, bring a medical team."
Duo smiled and switched to tight beam Heero.
"After all, if she's in a medical facility, her warped little brain can make up a million reasons for being there."
Heero smiled. It had been a long night.
After they had detained Lady Une and convinced her to go to a psychiatric ward temporarily, all of them went to Earth for a private celebration of their victory.
"To victory!"
Duo yelled, popping a bottle of champagne.
"Yes." Trowa said. "We succeeded where others would most definitely would have failed."
Heero smiled at the proceedings, than walked over to Relena who was standing at the other side of the room talking with Lucrezia about the battle, her arms moving as if mobile suits in combat. Heero smiled. Apparently, a little battle had shown Relena the art of being a warrior, and the full extent of the need for peace. Heero walked up to her, getting Relena to look up at him.
"Yes, Heero?"
Heero blushed.
"I've been subconsciously waiting to do this for 2 years,"
Heero said as he pulled out a small black box, suddenly getting the attention of everyone in the room. He opened the box and removed a ring, gold with silver lining along the sides. The room went totally silent.
"Will you marry me?"
Relena was taken aback, but she took the ring, placed it on her finger, and said in a heavy voice,
"Yes, Heero."
As Heero wrapped his arms around her in a slow hug, he whispered softly in her ear,
"I love you... Relena."