Finding Paradise
By Lost-Remembrance (Red Tail)

X :

Relena woke up screaming, instantly snapping her body into an upright position. She flinched away when she felt a cool cloth touch her feverish forehead.

"Relena, darling?" Relena turned to face the speaker, eyes wide and glazed with tears. The worried face of her foster mother, the widowed Mrs. Darlain, greeted her vision and made her heart soar.

Relena lunged to hug her mother, holding her tightly around the waist as she buried her head into her mother's chest, tears now soaking the fabric she was trying to smother herself in. "Relena, are you all right?" Relena was gently pried from her mother's body. The worried eyes that met her made her weep even more.

"Oh, mother!" Relena sobbed. Mrs. Darlain, who worried now quite at her daughter's reactions, pulled out a handkerchief to dry the tears rolling down Relena's face.

"Don't cry, dear. Do you know how worried I was when the maids found you passed out in the garden with a fever?" The mother began, running her hands gently through Relena's hair in a soothing manner. "You've been moaning and writhing in such a mess until recently when we managed to break your fever."

"Was it all a dream?" Relena whispered, "Please tell me it was all a dream?"

An image of Heero passed before her mind's eye. His voice whispered into her ear, "Is that how you wish it?" He disappeared when Relena jerked suddenly.

"Why, look at you! So tired that she be a'falling asleep sitting upright!" A maid murmured, "You've had a long day, miss. Try and take it easy."

"But…" Had she fallen asleep? Or had Heero really whispered something in her ear? A cool hand touched her warm forehead. She closed her eyes when she felt the cool relief.

"Rest, Relena. I don't want to lose you like I did your father…"

Relena didn't remember if she had responded or not to her mother's words. All she remembered was that everything was going to be all right and it was a dream. Everything was normal now, just as it should be…

Relena allowed herself to drift off into the comfort of sleep. Before, she had been afraid of sleep. For what reason, she couldn't remember.

Flames crawled high into the night sky, as if trying to burn the clouds. The tapestries were burning. The candles had already melted into a hot pile of wax.

Relena frowned in her sleep. The maid nearby looked up from her needlepoint. Green eyes stared at the figure solemnly before going back to work.

Maids were screaming as they tried to fight off the flames. A window was shattered and she was falling. Her mother was already gone, her life smashed beneath the wooden beams from the entrance hall.

What was happening? Where were these images coming from? They seemed too real; as if they had happened before. She could feel the emotions, each one running through her veins.

She pulled the cloak around her tighter. She could smell death in the air. A bird took flight into the night air, startling her. She couldn't fall asleep—here, in wild territory where there were assassins and feral animals about.

Relena moaned in her sleep. Her hands clenched and unclenched. She shivered, feeling the cold air reach her from the vivid dreams.

Prussian blue eyes. Her breath almost stopped. Blood was on the floor. A wolf. A prince. Zero.

Relena's eyes snapped open. They connected with the green eyes of the maid who stood up in concern.

"Miss Relena?" The maid lifted her sewing and began to walk towards her in small steps, afraid Relena might dart away and hurt herself. She acted as if approaching a skittish wild animal.

"Get away from me." Relena's cold eyes made the woman halt in her footsteps. "You won't trick me, Zero."

The sewing was thrown into the fire, making it burst up into even brighter flames. A smirk traveled onto the face of the maid and Relena shivered as the eerie green eyes pinned her to the bed. "Well, Miss Relena, you've passed the test…" Relena felt a great relief come over her, but the relief vanished and her blood went cold as Zero continued, " Let's see if you can live to tell the tale of it."

Flames licked at the bed, lighting the blankets on fire in an instant. Relena jumped out of bed with a sharp cry. She looked around and felt tears sting her eyes. It was happening all over again…the massacre of what was left of her home.

She fled the room, biting her lower lip as she ran down the stone steps to the first floor. She continued running down the hallways, dodging obstacles to her best. She stumbled once, pulling a muscle in her ankle but she continued on.

She saw the large window with the mermaid. She closed her eyes and smashed into it, shattering the glass as she fell down into the pond below in the outer part of the garden.

The water felt like a slap to her face, making her eyes snap open at the icy cool contact. She had forgotten it was winter outside…

Frowning, she saw a flicker of something in the water and reached down, hands outstretched the grab the object in question.

Blue eyes, as dark and shining as the waters of the ocean assaulted her vision, making her smile. She felt rather than saw a slim and delicate wrist enter her range of reach. She encircled in her hand around it tightly and pulled upward towards the air and land.

'Zero shall not take these two.' She thought, pulling all of her strength and willpower into the fight for the survival of her and the person in the water.

Finally breaking the surface of the water, her oxygen starved lungs gasped in the plentiful air. She coughed out the small droplets of water that entered her mouth as she bobbed up and down in the large pond.

She went under briefly, momentarily forgetting about the person she also supported. She came back up, feeling like a drowned rat as she propped the person's head on her shoulder.

The darkness didn't allow Relena to see what direction she was going in; only what her instincts told her. More than once, her eyes drifted to the taller person she supported but the smoke-filled night clouded all the light from the moon and stars. Only the dying embers told her which was not to go.

Upon reaching the muddy bank of the pond, she pulled her protesting muscles up onto the land and then pulling the other body as well. Before she succumbed to the darkness induced by her exhaustion, she heard a whisper into her ear.

"The desire has been earned…"

TBC