January 5, A.C. 208

Wee hours of the morning

The blank page was his latest enemy.

Heero realized, as he drove to the hotel he and Duo were staying in, that it had been a long time since he'd attempted to write anything. In fact, he'd never tried expressing his own experiences that way. It made him feel uneasy. He wasn't even sure where he could locate paper and writing utensils these days. He was certain that electronic communication wasn't safe, unless he felt like leading Relena through a matrix of dark net and encrypted servers, but all of that effort seemed pointless now that they could finally communicate face to face.

And about damn time, he thought. All of these years, he'd been longing just to see her face up close again. He'd been deprived of her presence for far too long. Unbeknownst to many - unbeknownst to her - it was where he derived his strength, the one place he'd felt he actually belonged.

But that had been taken away from him. Convincing Relena of that - that he didn't have a choice - was going to be a task more arduous than any battle.

Heero stared down at the smooth, white paper, which seemed to stare back up at him tauntingly. He'd managed to procure a few notebooks and pencils from a nearby twenty-four hour convenience store. He'd also perused the pens but decided pencil ink was best; it could, after all, be erased.

And already, he'd done plenty of erasing. He kept starting, erasing, starting over. He scrubbed so hard with the inferior pencil eraser, he ripped holes into the paper. Frustrated, he crumpled up sheet after sheet, pitching them into the wastebin across the room.

Duo, who was apparently awakened by all of this, intercepted one of Heero's tosses.

"Hey," he said through a yawn. "What's up with all the scribbling? You a scribe now or something?"

Heero groaned, rubbing his eyes. "It's for Relena," he said simply, as if that were explanation enough.

"Ah. Ok." Duo stood behind his comrade, peering over his shoulder. "Well if you're trying to write a love letter now, I'd say it's kinda late for that. Not like you haven't had plenty of time up till now."

Heero's shoulders sagged. He was too tired to get into a pointless argument when the point was so obvious. "Yeah, thanks," he muttered sarcastically. "Anyway, it's not a love letter."

"No? Well now I'm intrigued." Duo grabbed the chair next to Heero and sat down in it backwards. When Heero didn't divulge any more information, Duo sighed impatiently. "Come on, man. You can tell me. What is it?"

"I'm trying," Heero said through gritted teeth, "to explain where I was for ten years."

"Wow." Duo whistled. "You haven't told anyone yet."

"No."

"So why Relena? You think she still cares at this point?"

Heero frowned, gripping the pencil tightly. "She has a right to know."

"And I don't?" Duo bellowed. "I thought we were pals."

"You and I weren't sleeping together."

"Ya know, there are plenty of people who would debate you on that," Duo chuckled. "Popular theory about the Gundam pilots…"

"Fuck them," Heero growled.

"I would, but I have Hilde," Duo quipped, grinning. "Anyway, doesn't it piss you off, seeing Relena with that what's-his-face? Prince Tommy, or whoever? Guy seems like such a tool…"

Heero was erasing furiously again. Duo was making it impossible to get anything done, as usual.

"As long as she's happy."

"Seriously?" Duo threw up his hands. "Thirteen years, and that's all you have to say about it?"

"You've already asked me about this before," Heero said with a slight twitch in his jaw. "My answer is the same. If she's happy, I'm not going to interfere."

"Yeah, right," Duo muttered. "You expect me to believe you spent the last several hours with Relena, not interfering?"

Heero's face twitched again. "I was working."

"I don't buy it," the braided Preventer sighed. "Be honest with me- after whatever the hell you went through to get back here, you're going to give it all up, just like that? If you do, you're not the Heero Yuy I know."

Heero tore up another sheet of paper. He turned slowly in his chair to face Duo.

"I'm not Heero Yuy," he said darkly. "Heero Yuy died a long time ago."

Duo gaped at him for a beat before rolling his eyes. "Oh, please. Here we go again. Yeah, I know the real Heero Yuy died decades ago. Big deal. You're allowed to have a codename."

Heero just chuckled. "I don't even have that anymore. There is no 'Codename Heero Yuy,' Preventer, Gundam pilot zero-one. He doesn't exist. He's been erased."

Duo scratched his head. "Oh-kaaay… When- how did that happen?"

"Long story."

"Give me the abridged version."

"Suicide." He said it without a hint of emotion.

Duo stumbled backward. "Dude. Creepy. I think you need to a get a grip…"

"I'm serious." Heero turned back to his notebook.

He heard Duo sighing behind him. "Sometimes you really freak me out, man. Trying to be all dramatic and what not, hovering over your little book… What, so you think you're Hemingway now or something? Get over yourself."

Heero ignored him, trying to write once more. Duo was hard to tune out, but with enough concentration it could be done.

"Wait a minute." Duo was still talking. "So if you really gave up the name Heero Yuy, how did you sign a contract with the Preventers?"

"Simple. I didn't sign it 'Heero Yuy.'"

Duo nearly fell over. "And don't ya think someone's gonna notice?"

Heero shrugged. "No one ever reads those things."

"Oy…" Duo groaned. "So what the hell am I supposed to call you from now on?"

"Heero's fine. If that's what everyone wants to call me, I don't really care."

"So that means you're not telling anyone your new alias?"

"There's no point. He died too."

"W-what?" Duo stammered. "This is nuts. What the hell happened?"

Heero just chuckled. "Accident."

Duo smacked his forehead. "So you're nobody now. Is that it?"

"I always was 'no one.' Perhaps I should follow Trowa's lead and go by 'no name' for a while."

"You're hopeless," Duo moaned.

"That's a good one," Heero quipped.

"Nah, I'm just going to call you 'asshole,' 'cause you're totally being one right now." With that, Duo stalked back to his bedroom.

January 5, A.C. 208

Mid-morning

Sally and Wufei sat in their shared office, silently checking their e-mails and catching up on various paperwork. The man caught at the New Years Eve ball had spilled the beans with hardly any coercion. He spilled a rather boring story by Preventer standards, about a woman from the former Romefeller Foundation who had once had relations with the President of the ESUN, and was still upset that he'd married someone else twenty-five years ago. The woman had given the hired shooter her ticket so he could sneak into the event, then take his chance at killing the President. The kid was just an ametaur, someone she'd found at the country club and paid off to keep his mouth shut.

But, even if the story was boring, it didn't mean they could get out of paperwork. Sally was leaned back in her chair, her feet propped up on her desk with her laptop in her lap, while Wufei sat up straight in his chair with perfect posture. Occasionally, he'd glance at Sally, throwing her an irritated look.

"Must you keep your dirty boots on the desk?" he asked after a while. Sally shifted her gaze up from her laptop and raised an eyebrow.

"What makes you think my boots are dirty?" she asked. Wufei leaned forward and snatched a facial tissue from a box and swiped at the desk under her feet, then lifted the tissue up.

"This is why," he replied, pointing to the dried dirt clinging to the tissue. Sally smirked.

"Technically, Wufei," she began, lifting her boots off the desk and thumping them onto the floor, "This part of the desk is mine." Wufei pressed his lips into a thin line and turned away from her. Sally shook her head and laughed, but kept her feet on the floor.

The chirping of their vid-phone caught the two Preventer agents' attention, and Wufei pressed the button on the device to answer the call. Colonel Une's face appeared on the screen.

"Chang, Po," she said in greeting with a slight bow of her head.

"Afternoon, Colonel Une," Sally said, stepping around to lean over Wufei's chair. "What's up?" Une sighed.

"Something rather strange is up, actually," she said. "We've lost communication with the biological research station on the Moon." Wufei and Sally glanced at each other, then back to Une's face on the screen. "I have a bad feeling about this."

"Oh come on-" Wufei began to say, but Sally shoved him.

"Shut up," she growled. Une waited, then resumed once the two Preventers had settled down.

"I don't want to send just anyone to check it out, so I'd like you two to leave and head up there as soon as possible," Une said. Wufei and Sally nodded.

"Roger that, Colonel."