Okay, so here it is, Chapter 11, all of the stories secrets, (okay well not all of them, but all of the Relena-related ones) will be revealed. So sorry for taking so long to get this one up after leaving everyone hanging like that, but this is the longest chapter I've written yet and I needed to make sure that everything lined up exactly right. One thing that I want to immediately clarify: This is a very flashback heavy chapter, but all of the flashbacks are all in chronological order, there is no jumping around.
On a different note, thank you so much for all the reviews, (we broke the 100 mark!!!). I can't tell you how happy it makes me that people are enjoying this story so much. But enough of my blabbering, onto what you're actually here for . . .
Occam's Razor
Chapter Eleven – Hidden in Plain Sight
Tynan
The world fell apart around him. As far as he could tell it no longer existed, all that continued on were him and the image on that screen. Somewhere off in the distance, through the fog that obscured his mind, someone was crying, but he didn't care. The rest of the image began to fade away as well until all that was left was solitary figure of that lab tech, Relena.
It had been her that whole time. How many times he had encountered her that night he couldn't remember, but she had literally slipped through his fingers, and apparently of her own accord.
She had left them, left him, of her own free will.
For nearly three and a half years now he had convinced himself that it was his own carelessness, selfishness, and distraction that had caused her to be taken; that he had been too consumed by his own problems and failed her as a result. But this was not the case and the evidence was displayed in front of them; she had not been taken, she had left and Wufei had helped her. He had been the only one to actually go into her room that night before Sally's team; he had known that she was still in there . . .
A slow movement out of the corner of his eye caught his attention and brought him abruptly back to reality. In the chair by the window Wufei was sitting himself up. Immediately, four heads turned in his direction, each wearing a different expression; sadness, rage, confusion, and betrayal played across their faces. For the first time in his memory, Heero was too stunned to react to anything going on around him; this was not the case for all of them.
With a short yell and a flurry of brown hair Duo flew across the room and seized the barely conscious man by the collar of his jacket, pulling him out of his chair and slamming him into the wall. "You knew this whole time?!" His voice was almost unearthly, displaying his feelings anger and treachery in a way Heero never would have thought possible from his best friend. "You knew this whole time that Relena was alive and you let this happen?! You watched what happened to the rest of us and never said anything?!! You sat there and saw us lose our minds over this –" he pushed into the wall again, harder this time, "You saw Zechs and Noin leave to go find her, and the woman you love cry and not leave her lab for days at a time trying to find a lead, and Hilde going out of her mind and you never said anything?!?" Duo's voice continued to get louder as he lifted Wufei off the ground and slammed him against the wall so hard it knocked one of the pictures off, "You watched them haul Heero off to a mental ward and lock him away for weeks because he was going insane over losing her and you just let it happen?!?! You helped her leave and let us think that she was dead!!! – "
Duo stopped abruptly at a hand gently pulling his shoulder back. Turning around he came face to face with Heero. His eyes were unlike anything Duo had ever seen before; the usual vibrant blue color had seemed to almost fade away, replaced by a dead looking hue surrounded by red veins.
Subconsciously, Duo let Wufei slip back to the ground and turned to face Heero, he was about to speak when the Japanese man stepped right up to Wufei's face and in a barely audible voice demanded: "Explain."
Wufei lifted his head up from his chest meeting Heero's eyes for the first time. He nodded and gestured that Heero should step back, which he did, allowing Wufei to walk back to where he had just been seated. Zechs and Noin silently joined Heero and Duo, who couldn't help but notice hat Noin had begun crying again.
Zechs stepped forward menacingly, "I want answers Chan –"
Wufei cut him off with a simple nod and held up his hand indicating that he needed a minute; on some level Zechs could understand why. The entire left side of his face was splattered with dried blood, his nose was most likely broken, and both of his eyes were beginning to swell, all this in addition to the massive lump that was most likely forming on the side of his head.
Scanning the room, quickly caught sight of the pitcher of water situated on one of the counters running along the side of the room. Without a word he stood with some difficulty, swaying a bit in place before making his way over to the pitcher, tearing off a piece of his t-shirt as he went and soaking it in the clear liquid. As he made his way back he began to wipe some of the blood from his face, then folded the cloth in square and held it to the side of his head.
He sat down and spoke for the first time. "You may want to have a seat, this is going to take a while." Neither Duo nor Heero made a move, but Zechs pulled up the chair from his desk and set his still hiccupping wife in it. Wufei waited for them before continuing, "I'll start from the beginning – "
"Chang, I swear to God –"
"I will tell you everything, Zechs –"
"You'll tell me right now where the hell she is!"
Wufei shook his head a bit, probably to try and shake off the concussion he most likely suffered, "No, you need to hear everything."
Zechs sputtered for a minute, clearly about to begin yelling again, but his wife's voice stopped him, "Fine, then tell us everything."
Wufei nodded solemnly and began, "When I signed on to Preventers five years ago, my first position was given to me directly by Une; she temporarily put me in charge of Relena's security detail until a suitable replacement could be found," he waved a hand at Heero, "it was during this period, back in January of 197, my time with Relena, that all of this started."
- - - - -
Wufei couldn't help but be slightly annoyed as he made his way through the capital building. He was only supposed to have to deal with Relena when she was in need of her security team, and when she was at work in her office was not one of those times. He told himself over and over again that this was only a temporary assignment before he could get on with some real work.
Resigning himself to the situation, Wufei signed in with her secretary who directed him to her office. He knocked lightly on the Vice-Foreign Minister's door, why she needed to see him about so urgently was beyond him, but here he was. She called for him to enter and to his surprise found not only Relena, but Commander Une waiting for him as well. Relena smiled pleasantly at him and gestured for him to take the seat next to Une, which he did.
The confusion must have been evident on his face, because Relena immediately launched into an apology, "I'm very sorry to call you away from your office so early Agent Chang –"
"It's fine," he lied ". . . what is this about?" His first thought was that something must have happened, a new threat had been made against the Peacecraft girl and he would have to do something about it.
"Nothing that would be endangering the Vice-Foreign Minster, Agent Chang," Une answered for Relena, "We've asked you here because we are hoping that you will be willing to lend your assistance to, well sort of a project."
Wufei raised a questioning eyebrow, but to his surprise, Une stood and walked towards the door, "Well then, I'll leave the both of you to discuss this matter."
As soon as the door closed behind her, Wufei rounded on Relena, "Are you going to tell me what this is about?"
She nodded and took a sip of her tea, "Would you like anything to drink?" He shook his head, "I apologize for all the cloak and dagger nonsense, but what I'm about to suggest to you is very sensitive."
"So sensitive that the Commander of the Preventers Bureau can't be informed of it?"
Again she nodded, "I'll get straight to the point, Agent Chang. Commander Une and I are both concerned about you and the other pilots."
"Because under ESUN law we'd be considered war criminals."
Relena smiled sadly, "Yes. Obviously I am very worried about all of you personally and what could happen to should any of you ever be exposed . . ."
Wufei knew what she meant; he, Quatre, Trowa, Duo, and Heero, especially Heero, had all committed acts that ESUN saw as crimes against humanity. They had taken thousands of lives and brought about so much instability that for nearly a year the Earth sphere had been locked in the turmoil of dueling governments. While it was true that in the end their actions had served to better the lives of the people on Earth and in the colonies, the means by which they accomplished this could not be ignored. If their identities were ever brought to light, they would be charged with countless crimes and most likely executed at the end of it.
". . . but Commander Une and I are also uneasy about the impact upon ESUN that could take place should your identities be revealed."
He nodded in agreement, having never really given the matter much though, "It could potentially destroy this fragile peace." He leaned back in his chair, "So why do you need me for this?"
Relena set her tea down and sat forward, resting her forearms on her desk, "As of right now, you are the only one of the pilots in a position within the government. I'm hoping that you would be willing to work with me to ensure that none of you are ever exposed to the public."
Wufei raised his eyebrows in a disbelieving manner, this was certainly not what he had expected to happen at this meeting, "And keeping myself and the others a secret is going to be the responsibility of just the two of us?"
"I went to Une to ask her permission for this little project, but that's all that I wanted from her. If something should happen and it comes to light that there was an effort to keep the Gundam pilots from being brought to justice –"
"You want her to have complete deniability." he finished for her, but a thought struck him, "And what about yourself, can ESUN really stand to have the Vice-Foreign Minister brought down by a scandal involving her personal ties to several mass murders?"
Her face was suddenly set in hard resolve, "It's a chance that I'm more than willing to take. In order for the five of you and my brother to be kept safe there must be someone on the political end making sure that no one goes looking for you and keeping any information that may arise concerning your identities well hidden."
She stood from her seat and walked to the front of her desk to stand in front of him, "But I also need someone who can keep an eye on things outside the political arena, someone with access to the intelligence information that will be coming in and out of the Preventers Bureau. The government isn't the only one who might be after all of you, I need a person who I can trust to have the best interests of your group at heart. To be truthful, I hoping that we'll never need to talk about this again, so long as we both do our parts, we should be able to quell any potential situations that may arise . . . if you agree to help me that is."
He felt puzzled by her proposal for some reason despite the fact that she was making perfect sense, "Miss Peacecraft –"
"Wufei please, Relena's fine."
"Relena, then" he emitted, slightly exasperated. "Why have you come to me of all people with this? Your brother or Heero, or Quatre, Noin, even Maxwell, one of them could do this kind of job."
She smiled in a shrewd way, "Because of all the people you just named, I know that you're the only one who is objective enough to help me accomplish what needs to be done rather than what they think should be done." She set her cup of tea down a looked at him resolutely, "You'll protect ESUN and the established peace, before you'll protect me."
- - - - -
"So wait," Duo's anger appeared to be replaced with confusion. "You and Relena had been making sure that no one finds out that who the Gundam pilots were for like over five years now and you never told any of us about this."
Wufei sighed to himself knowing that he was going to have to answer a lot of these kinds of questions before the day was done, "It was on her orders, not mine. As I said, the mission was classified and there was no reason for any of you to know about it."
Zechs, however did not seem amused but it was Heero who had the outburst, "Are you going to explain how all of this traces back to Relena leaving?" Even as the words escaped his mouth he wished he could take them back; a part of him was not ready to verbally admit that Relena had left rather than been taken.
Wufei stood and walked back to the pitcher of water, pouring himself a glass and leaning against the bookshelf as he took a sip, "I'm going to, but you need to understand everything." He set the cup down and continued, "As I said, Relena first came to me with this back in January of 197 and the subject didn't come up again until September of the following year, 198 . . . right after she became the Foreign Minister."
- - - - -
He spotted her immediately as he walked through the door of the tiny, but crowded pub where he had told her to meet him. She was seated all the way in the back, an untouched drink in front of her. He had known even before catching sight of her that something was very wrong, but seeing her now only made clear to him how grave the situation must have been.
He silently took the seat opposite from her, their waitress was there in a heartbeat and he ordered a beer despite the fact that he didn't really want it. When she finally looked up from where she had been staring at the table he saw that her eyes were bloodshot and dark circles had formed underneath of them.
"What happened?"
She didn't say anything, she only reached down to pull her briefcase onto her lap, extracted a large, flat envelope that had been addressed to her, and was torn open; she handed it to him.
Wufei tilted the brown container on its side and several glossy pieces of paper fell into his hand. Turning them over his heart stopped at the sight of the first one. It was slightly grainy, no doubt from being blown up from whatever security camera it had been taken off of, but it was very clear what it portrayed. Relena Peacecraft, probably some two years ago, greeting two men stepping off a plane . . . a much younger Heero Yuy and Quatre Winner.
Speechless he flipped to the next one, Heero and Relena wearing matching school uniforms of some sort, dancing at a party. Relena and Quatre walking down a hall he recognized as belonging to the palace of the Sanq Kingdom. Heero and Relena, both in space suits floating in a dock of some kind in space, Wing barely visible behind them. Heero standing outside his Gundam, self-detonation trigger held in his hand, extended out in front of his body. Duo after being arrested and led through the streets of one of the colonies, his own sword fight with Treize Khushrenada, Trowa climbing onto Heavy Arms somewhere in a desert, Heero pulling himself out of the wreckage of his Gundam outside the now destroyed bunker at the Prime Minster's home in Brussels. Wufei paused, needing to take a moment to comprehend what he was seeing.
"Keep going." Her voice was soft, but demanding as she spoke for the first time since he had sat down.
Dreading what could possibly be next, Wufei continued on to the next picture and felt his breath leave his chest. A shot taken directly from one of the security cameras in Preventers Head Quarters stared back at him; Heero and Relena walked down a hall together, even from the overhead angle, Heero's badge could still clearly be seen on his chest. The time stamp in the lower right hand corner dated the picture for just last year. The next picture was even more damning, Heero and Duo sitting in Relena's new office, both obviously wearing their agents jackets, Duo and Relena laughing pleasantly, Heero looking mildly interested; then Relena and Quatre, having lunch somewhere with Dorothy, no doubt on Quatre's home colony. The next was of himself, impatiently following Relena through a crowd of people almost two years ago.
"These we delivered by courier to my office this morning." her voice was uneven, Wufei didn't think that he had ever heard this woman sound so nervous, "Someone knows."
He was speechless; to say someone knew was an understatement, someone had pegged them. These photos were irrefutably evidence that not only did Relena Peacecraft know the identities of the Gundam Pilots during the wars, she had continued to associate and work with them even after they were deemed war criminals. Worse, several of them had taken positions in the government with her knowledge and she never revealed them. "Was this all that was in the package."
She started at the sound of his voice, clearly having been lost in her own thoughts, "What do you mean?"
He didn't respond right away, thinking how best to phrase his question, "I mean . . . Relena, someone is clearly trying to blackmail you . . . was there a note or a letter demanding anything." She shook her head in reply, "Would you tell me if there was or would you just try and keep this quiet on your own?"
Her expression immediately shifted to one bordering on anger, "We're partners in this endeavor Wufei, I wouldn't hide anything from you."
He nodded, knowing that she was telling the truth. Relena picked up her martini glass with slightly shaking hands and took a small sip, "What do we do now?"
Wufei almost laughed, the situation was practically absurd; what could they do? "We wait, see if they contact you again, maybe whoever this is will explain what they want."
He knew what she was going to say before she even said it, "What if what they want is just to expose all of you?"
"Then they would have done it already, they wouldn't have sent you pictures to warn you that someone out there knew your past with the Gundam pilots. Whoever these people are Relena, they want something from you." She nodded in silent agreement but still looked apprehensive, honestly he couldn't blame her. He leaned closer to her and lowered his voice, "I know some people, they operate outside the government – they're on our side –" he added quickly at the questioning look on her face, "They support ESUN but they operate under its radar and they're pretty well connected. There isn't a lot that goes on that they don't know about . . . I'll see if I can get in touch with them again, maybe they know something."
"They can be trusted with something like this?"
Wufei couldn't help but be slightly impressed with the level of paranoia Relena was exhibiting, "Yes, I've worked with them personally many times, they can definitely be trusted."
"You'll let me know what they find then?"
He nodded slowly, "We're partners in this endeavor, aren't we?" She smiled and wrinkled her nose at the same time at the prodding, "And you'll call me immediately if you receive anything else?"
It was her turn to nod as she sat back in her chair and took another sip of her drink.
- - - - -
Heero was fuming, all of this had been going on behind his back. Relena and Wufei had taken it upon themselves to hide him and the others from the public eye and even after they received information that someone knew they had not bothered to tell the people involved, namely him. And somehow, as a result of all this Relena had gone. He looked up from where he had been staring at the floor to glare at Wufei, who answered his question before Heero could ask it.
"Yes, we decided not to tell any of you."
Heero practically growled at him; the torrent of emotions coursing through his body were threatening to explode, but he kept his voice calm, "That wasn't your decision to make."
"Someone was after us and neither of you thought that we should know about it?!" Duo sounded outraged to say the least.
"And what would you have done about it?" Wufei shot back at him sounding forceful for the first time since regaining consciousness, "That's the point here, Relena and I handled it because quite frankly, all of us as a collective group couldn't be trusted to!" He looked from face to angry face, but continued, "Trowa probably could have quietly remained hidden, but the three of us would have had a much harder time." He looked to where Heero was sitting, "We both know that you would have just left without saying a word," he turned to Duo, "You and I could have slipped away too but eventually someone would have managed to track down all three of us." He tilted his head to meet Zechs' eyes, "You and Quatre would have had no where to go."
Zechs closed his eyes and rested his head on his folded hands; Wufei was right, there was no arguing that particular point, "Considering that none of us have been arrested and executed I'm going to assume that you and my sister pulled something off." His voice suddenly took on that deadly sounding quality again, "What does any of this have to do with Relena disappearing?!"
Wufei was clearly beginning to feel the after affects of being knocked out, but Zechs was pretty sure that no one in the room gave a damn; Heero looked as though he might lunge for his friend's throat at any second, Duo was glaring at him from his perch in front of the window, his wife was still quietly hiccupping in the chair next to him, her expression was unreadable. He turned back to Wufei who was now wiping some of the blood off his face again. "Well?"
Wufei set the bit of cloth aside, "Well, obviously that wasn't the end of it. It was about a month and a half later, towards the middle of November, that Relena contacted me again . . ."
- - - - -
He looked up as the pub's door opened and a young woman, making a somewhat obvious attempt to disguise her identity entered and began scanning the room. He was waiting for her exactly where they had sat over a month ago; she spotted him and immediately made a beeline is her direction. Despite her somewhat obvious behavior, none of the other patrons seemed to take notice of her; her entrance having been drown out by the traditional and vibrant music coming from the pub's cleverly hidden sound system.
Relena looked pale to say the least; in her hand she was holding a large, brown envelope identical to the one she had presented him with a month ago in the same place. She took a seat opposite him without a word.
She didn't speak so he took it upon himself to ask the question he already knew the answer to, "They contacted you again?"
She let her head dip the tiniest bit in a gesture of affirmation, "More of the same, pictures of you and the others during the war, then some from more recently with me . . ."
She was holding something back. "What else?"
Relena opened the envelope and removed a piece of folded paper, "They left a note this time." she answered as she handed it to him.
Instinctually Wufei grasped the letter by one its corners, but in the back of his mind he knew that there wouldn't be any fingerprints on it and there was no sense in reprimanding Relena for not considering this. Carefully he unfolded the paper and began reading,
Foreign Minister Peacecraft,
We believe that it is fair to say that we have your full attention at this point in time. You may be wondering what exactly it is that we are hoping to obtain from you in exchange for not exposing your secret to the public. The answer is quite simple: You have betrayed the people of ESUN by withholding from them the identities of several mass murders and war criminals. It is the right of the people to bring men like this to justice but after years of adoration and praise from all you encounter you clearly feel that your wants and desires supercede the laws of the government you claim to serve. It is our mission to put an end to politicians such as yourself who corrupt this planet's regime.
However, Foreign Minister, we are not unreasonable people and acknowledge the good that you have done for ESUN; in light of this we wish to present to you the opportunity to reconcile your transgressions. As previously stated, we desire to work towards a better government and the support of a prominent individual such as yourself would certainly aid our cause. Because of the nature of our mission we obviously do not wish to bring ourselves into the public eye so we will leave you with this parting thought: In exchange for our silence we ask only that you be willing to help and support those who come to you for it . . . even if you do not know why. We will be in touch.
Yours Most Humbly,
The Cambridge Five
Wufei set the letter down on the table and looked to where Relena seemed to have grown even more stricken looking, "Well that was . . . dramatic."
He paused for a moment so as to not be overheard by the young waitress who brought him his beer. She smiled pleasantly at Relena who ordered a very strong martini; without even a questioning glance the girl spun on her heals and headed towards the bar.
"They want me to help them . . ."
"No, they just want to help themselves." He paused for a moment, thinking through the sheer brilliance of the plan these people had concocted. "I don't know who these people are or what their true motives are but the last thing that they're after is some sort of moral cleansing of ESUN. Whatever they're really after they can't accomplish it on their own, so they want to use you to help them achieve their ends."
She dipped her head and would not meet his eyes, "Because I'm in power; they're going to use my influence and power in the government to gain their own . . . and we have no idea what they'll do with it."
Wufei closed his eyes and sat back in his chair; he was maintaining his calm as best he could but the situation had taken a horrible turn. It seemed that these people blackmailing Relena were determined to harm the ESUN government one way or another; either they would expose the world's beloved Foreign Minister as knowingly harboring and concealing several men wanted for war crimes, or they would keep their silence but use Relena to accomplish whatever their own agenda was . . . and his gut told him that it couldn't be good.
"What do we do?" Relena's quiet voice shook him from his thoughts.
He sat up in the chair and let out a breath he hadn't realized that he'd been holding and ran a hand over his hair. "I don't know . . . I'm still waiting to hear back from those, well I suppose you could call them 'friends' for lack of a better term – "
"Who are these 'friends' of yours, Wufei?"
Wufei stopped, debating for a moment how much to tell her, "I told you Relena, they're on our side. That's all you need to worry about." His voice was a little sharper than he meant it to be.
She looked like she was about to argue with him but kept herself from doing so, instead she said something he hadn't even considered, "Do we tell Une about this?"
In his haste to begin investigating this personally Wufei had all but completely forgotten about his Commander. "I thought that the idea here was that only you and I would be involved in situations like these."
Relena laughed in a sick sort of way, "Honestly, I never really thought that we'd actually have one . . . not like this anyway." She finally turned to look him in the eye, "Wufei, I don't know what to do. Dozens of people come to my office to meet with myself or my staff every week to ask for help or support, it's how the world of politics works. I cannot fathom how I could possibly even begin to distinguish any of these individuals. They could be anyone, lobbyist, businessmen, they could already be serving in ESUN . . . And even if I was able to discover their identity what course of action could I take then? Should I help them and allow them to potentially undermine the government or deny them and risk that they are actually bold enough and desperate enough to expose you and the others?"
Wufei let her calm down for a moment; she had not been yelling but seemed almost out of breath when she finally finished. "I think what is most important right now is that we try and discover who these people are and what they are really after . . . I'll get in touch with my, well friends and see if they've come up with anything yet."
"And if they haven't?"
"The best we can do right now is wait for them to reveal themselves. If they want your help they're going to have to come to you to get it; keep your eyes open for anything even slightly unusual . . . in an operation like this one they're bound to make a mistake sooner or later."
She smiled in a sad sort of way, "Let us hope that it is sooner."
- - - - -
"But it wasn't?"
Wufei shook his head, and immediately regretted it but Heero didn't seem to notice or care. "No, as I said, that was in the middle of November of 198 . . . I was worried, we both were. I began spending as much time as I could trying to track down these people calling themselves The Cambridge Five, but they were obviously well prepared for this and had hidden themselves accordingly.
By the beginning of January I had not uncovered anything about them and I was forced to rely on what information my informants could dig up for me. I put a lot of pressure on them to find something, anything to go off of and they did at great risk to themselves. Despite all their efforts, it was a time consuming process; we didn't see or hear anything that could possibly be connected to them until a month and a half later in the end of February 199 . . ."
- - - - -
Relena was sitting exactly where he had instructed her to wait for him. The snow was beginning to take on a wet, heavy quality as it fell onto the park and he noted that she must have been sitting on the bench for a good bit of time now as there was a reasonable amount of accumulation on her coat. She stood as she saw him coming and walked to meet him. He never broke his stride and she silently fell in step beside him as they started on the snow covered path that would take them around the park.
Relena didn't speak; in fairness he had been the one that called the meeting (though she had something to tell him as well), he should be the one to start the conversation. Just as he was about to open his mouth, she beat him to it. "I am beginning to have some suspicions about one of the new Representatives in ESUN."
Wufei turned to look at her a little more quickly than he had meant to; this was not what he was expecting to hear, "Someone's come to my attention as a potential member of the Cambridge Five."
He couldn't help the expression on his face; he had anticipated that tracking down this group would take a considerable amount of time; but not this long, and he certainly hadn't foreseen that it would be Relena to uncover one of them first.
He didn't speak and she continued her explanation, "His name is Michael Whitney, he's a Parliamentary Representative for the Central Northern American Region. He's fairly new to ESUN having only been sworn into office less than a year ago. He's young and ambitious . . . and he seems to think that I should be very willing to aid him in these ambitions."
Wufei nodded and wordlessly steered Relena towards the left side of the fork in the path, "He'd come out and asked you for help?"
She shook her head, "No, not in such a blatant manner however . . . at the risk of sounding arrogant, Michael Whitney has barely been in office for a year, he's certainly in no position to be expecting the direct support of the Foreign Minister's office – "
"Unless there's some reason he feels that he's entitled to it." he finished for her.
"Yes." She paused for a moment to look around as they began to exit the park and walk towards a street that wrapped around the ice covered river but did not question it. "Aside from that fact, I . . . well I suppose something about him," she sighed, "I know it must sound silly –"
"It doesn't." he stated abruptly, "After all these years, your instincts are most likely correct, you need to trust them. Give yourself more credit Relena, you're much more shrewd when it comes to situations like this than you realize."
Relena stared at him in a way he took to be surprised at the complement he had practically hit her over the head with but he took her expression in stride and continued, "I'll have my people start looking into Michael Whitney, see what they can come up with." He drew in a breath to give himself a moment to consider how best to continue. "In the meantime, we have another problem to deal with."
She stopped dead in her tracks and turned to him with a panic stricken look on her face, "They haven't leaked . . ."
"No, Preventers hasn't received any information concerning the identities of the Gundam pilots; however my contacts have uncovered some disturbing information in their investigation of The Cambridge Five." She raised her eyebrows in a questioning manner. "They believe that a there is serious threat against your life."
Relena looked as though she might laugh, "Wufei, you of all people should know that there are frequently serious threats made against my life. I have my own task force in your office to deal with – "
"This one's different Relena." His voice was quiet and deadly sounding, as though trying to convey the seriousness of the situation. "My friends wouldn't have brought it to my attention if they didn't think that it had significant merit." She was looking at them as they walked and he knew that he must be obviously worried. "Unfortunately, they don't have many details as of yet, there is nothing that I can tell Heero, or even Une for that matter."
"If they don't have any details, how do they know that it's a serious threat?" Her voice was skeptical sounding.
"They mean that whoever it is that's threatening you is considered a serious risk; they're still trying to track down who the individual or individuals actually are but from what they can tell so far they are very well connected . . . and they may be operating within ESUN."
Her eyes widened as she made the connection in her mind, "You think that they're somehow related to The Cambridge Five?"
Wufei half shrugged, "It seems like too great a coincidence and my people agree. For now I'm tipping off Preventers as much as I can; I'll see Heero personally tomorrow and tell him I've heard some rumors, he and his team can start looking into it. In the meantime, you need to be careful . . . more so than usual." He put an arm on her back to steer her through the crowd coming towards them and around the corner onto another street.
They walked a short distance before arriving at their destination. She looked up at it and turned back to face him; they were standing outside the pub they had frequented in their previous meetings. It was only late morning, the lights were out and the shade drawn over the windows, "Here again? It looks like they're not open yet."
He didn't acknowledge her question, "You've been coming here a lot."
She smiled a little, "I enjoy the atmosphere; despite the seriousness of our meetings here I find this place comforting."
"They've noticed," she looked confused, "the owner, Doyle, his staff, they've noticed you here a lot with your friends and colleagues."
Relena raised her eyebrows questioningly, "And what? They call you to tell you that I'm here a lot?"
He couldn't help but smirk, "No, they keep an eye on you," she opened her mouth to question him but he continued before she could, "They keep an eye on you because I ask them to. This pub is an outposts used by my informants." He pushed open one of the doors and held it for her to walk through, "You're in a great deal of danger Relena, it's time for you to meet the people that are helping me keep you safe."
- - - - -
"And you didn't see fit to inform any of us as to these developments?!" Zechs roared at him; Noin put a hand on his leg to stop him from lunging at the Chinese man.
Wufei was steadily losing his patience at having to repeat himself, "I told you already, I passed as much information onto to Security and Intelligence as I knew." To his surprise Heero nodded in affirmation to the group, "The problem was that I didn't have much, if anything specific."
"You could have mentioned that some well connected, high profile people were after Relena and had a real chance at actually killing her." Duo was back to sounding very bitter.
"I'm not going to explain again that there was nothing I could have told anyone that would have assisted in any sort of an investigation. These people were good, better than us – "
"But not better than your friends." Heero stated in a dead pan, but demanding voice.
"No, but it took even them a while. It wasn't until the end of June that we were able to make a break in what was happening."
- - - - -
Doyle smiled from behind the bar at him as he entered and gestured with his head towards the back of the bar, where Relena must have been waiting. "The usual then Agent Chang?"
Wufei nodded and silently joined Relena, already sipping on her usual martini. She did not smile in greeting; he knew that the tone of his voice when he had called her to meet him was enough to tell her that something was very wrong. He did not give her the chance to question him, "My informants have concluded that Michael Whitney is definitely operating within the Cambridge Five."
She seemed to take a minute to absorb the information, "He's one of the five then?"
Wufei shook his head, "Neither they nor I believe that he a leader of any sort in the group; right now however, they're not even sure if there are actually five leaders or if that's just a name. It doesn't matter though, the point is that Michael Whitney is working with them, or he was at least."
She closed her eyes as though in thought and did not speak, leaving Wufei to prompt her, "But he hasn't contacted you lately?"
She opened her eyes and sat up completely straight, "No, as I said before, he hasn't attempted to solicit and sort of help or support from my office since February."
Wufei sighed and leaned back in his chair, "This is what I was afraid of." Relena sat forward and gestured for him to continue, "Relena, it seems that whatever their original plan was, they've diverted from it. Back in November we believed that they would be blackmailing you to work their way into undermining the government using the help and connections of your office." He paused as the waitress sat a large mug in front of him and waited until she had left before continuing, "However, they haven't pursued this despite the valuable information that they are in possession of and all we've uncovered since then is that someone is working on a very elaborate plan to have you killed.
"They know who all of the Gundam pilots are and what they're doing now and I have no doubt in my mind that regardless of whether or not you helped them they still planned to expose us and you and use the chaos that would inevitably follow to gain some sort of foothold of power."
"But they aren't planning on this anymore?" It was more of a statement than a question.
He shook his head and took a long swig from the cup in front of him, "Relena . . . they don't need you anymore, not in the way that they did initially. My friends believe that it is the Cambridge Five who are plotting to kill you and are still planning to expose the identities of the Gundam pilots."
Relena looked more than slightly confused and maybe a little panicked, "If they're planning to expose them anyway, why go through the trouble of killing me?"
Wufei ran a hand across his hair; he had hoped that she would catch on and not force him to explain, "Relena, think about it. The Foreign Minister is killed, murdered in her own home for example. In a matter of days after the murder the identities of the Gundam pilots are leaked to the public and it is revealed that not only do three of them work in top positions in the Preventers Bureau, but two of them directly oversaw the Foreign Minister's security and they allowed her to be murdered on their watch . . . these people would have a field day."
Relena was looking considerably paler but her voice sounded almost amused, "You and your informants," she gestured to where Doyle was behind the bar, "think that these people are going to kill me, then frame Heero and Duo for it by exposing them as Gundam pilots?" He didn't answer, and she continued, "At the risk of sounding overconfident, what makes them think that they are going to be able to kill me?"
Wufei sat up and looked directly into her eyes, "They're not going to." he stated resolutely. "Now that we know what they're planning we have a distinct advantage. We have the benefit of knowing that in order for this plan of theirs to work they'd have to kill you privately and in a location that Heero and Duo would have uninterrupted access to, that basically eliminates everywhere but your home and office. Heero and his team already know that someone is planning to make a serious attempt against your life; they're ready and waiting."
She smiled in a sad but grateful way, "But what do we do about Michael Whitney?"
"For now nothing, we need to use him to try and trace back to the rest of the Cambridge Five – " he was cut off as a young woman, thin woman in her early twenties with shoulder length auburn hair and bluish eyes took a seat next to Relena and leaned across the table to clasp his shoulder in a friendly way.
"'Lo there, you lot! And how are we this fine evening?"
Wufei tried not to look too exasperated with Erin, she knew that Relena was here to discuss something important . . . on the other hand Erin was in fact the one passing Wufei the information in the first place. She was now back to talking to Relena, and Wufei was getting the distinct impression that she'd been enjoying Doyle's hospitality a little too much this evening.
"Lena, luv, I mean it, don't be worrin' that pretty little head o' yours 'bout one little thing. Me mates and I, we'll be trackin' these bastards 'tils we hunt them down and kill every last one of the bleedin' wankers! Here here!!!" She laughed in a gleeful sort of way raising her mug about her head and Wufei could tell that Relena felt Erin's good mood to be contagious. Sighing in defeat he picked up his own drink to clank against Erin's, Relena following suit. Wufei couldn't help but smile at seeing Relena relaxed and in happy conversation with Erin; he worried that soon these already sparse moments would become even rarer.
- - - - -
"And still you didn't tell us?! Tell anyone for that matter?! Relena's life was in serious danger and the two of you saw fit to go up against this group of people that you couldn't even track down?!!" Zechs was now out of his chair, lifting Wufei out of his own by the collar of his jacket.
Wufei slowly reached a hand up to pull Zechs' off him; once free he sat down again and tried to steady his now swimming head. "Judging by your current reaction I can see that we made the right choice."
"You sanctimonious bast – "
"This was Relena's choice to make, Zechs!" Wufei interrupted forcefully, "I already explained to you why we kept this to ourselves. We were both very careful, I made sure that Preventers knew that Relena's life was in more danger than usual, but as I've already said, I didn't have any other information to give them."
Duo, practically launched himself at Wufei but stopped short, "You could have told them that a group of lunatics were blackmailing her and then planning to kill her and frame us for it!"
"Were you not listening earlier, Maxwell when I explained that part?"
Before anyone could stop him, Duo had caused Wufei's nose to begin gushing blood yet again. Taken by surprise, but not render unconscious this time, Wufei saw fit to retaliate hitting Duo square in the eye. Before either of them knew what happened, a dark blur had pushed them apart. Noin stood between the two men, expression still unreadable.
"Finish your story, Wufei. What happened that made her leave?"
Wufei put a hand up to his face to touch his already swollen eye, but otherwise ignored his injuries as he continued, "It was about a month after the last time we had met in the pub, July 29th, I was on my way into work . . ."
- - - - -
He was practically running down the hall to Relena's office and forced himself to slow down in order to not draw attention to his mad dash through the Capital Building. Her phone call had been brief but frantic: get to her office as soon as he possibly could. He had been on his way into work when she called and had immediately turned around to head back towards the capital building; the whole way his mind was reeling, coming up with every horrible thing that possibly could have happened.
He pushed open the door to her office suites and found the lobby area empty as she said it would be. Not stopping to look around he marched straight back to her private office; she must have heard his approach as she opened the door before he reached for the handle and ushered him inside. He took a moment to look her over, to say that he had never seen her like this was the understatement of the year; her narrow face was completely white and pasty with a sheen of sweat glistening on her forehead, she was wringing her hand nervously and pacing back and forth in front of her desk, all the while ranting in a somewhat incoherent manner.
". . . and I should have known, we said that we could handle it, but apparently we can't, after all these years you'd think that someone like me of all people would know these sort of things by now, but no, I'm too bloody – "
Wufei stopped her by taking hold of her shoulders, "Relena, what happened."
Her eyes filled with liquid and without a word she pointed to her laptop situated on her desk. With a sense of dread, he crossed the room and took a seat in front of it. A window was open in the screen with a small icon in it indicating that there was a CD in the drive with a small file on it. Taking a deep breath, Wufei clicked open the file; almost instantly he felt the blood drain from his face as he stared at the image that had appeared on the screen. It had been taken with a night vision lens, but there was not doubt as to what it depicted: Relena, asleep in her room, curled under her blankets, the windows in the background, the camera not more than four feet from her sleeping form. He could not believe it . . .
"They were in my room, Wufei." she sounded borderline hysterical but kept her composure, "last night, they were in my room when I was asleep."
Wufei could not form words, there was no disputing it; this picture had been taken from inside Relena's room, where not even security cameras could go. He grasped desperately at any rational explanation, "This picture may not have been taken last night – "
He saw Relena lose it before he heard, but just barely; her resolve crumpled and she rounded on him mercilessly, "It was taken last night! That's what I wore to bed last night! There is no possible way that anyone could have doctored it without at least having seen me! Someone was in my room last night, they got past everything Preventers has in place and took this picture of me while I was asleep and sent a CD of it to my office this morning!!!" Without warning slumped against the wall, slid to the floor and broke down into heart-wrenching sobs.
Before he even realized what he was doing, he was kneeling on the floor next to her, holding her trembling and limp form to his chest. Her skin felt clammy and he could feel how thin she had become. She had put up a good front until now, they had fought a good fight, but it was time to admit defeat, they both knew it.
"They're going to kill me." her voice was calm again, but tiny sounding and he didn't know how to respond, "They got past the best security ESUN could give me last night," she stifled a choking noise, "no one is going to be able to stop them Wufei . . . eventually they're going to find a way, and after I'm gone . . ." She trailed off and began crying again but Wufei didn't need her to finish her sentence. Once Relena was out of the way the Cambridge Five would make their move and in the aftermath the world would most likely spin into chaos and war yet again.
She pulled back and sat up to face him, her face looked terrified but also set with hardened resolve; before she spoke the words, he knew what she was going to say, "Wufei, I need to disappear." He nodded but she continued anyway, "I think we both knew that this could happen, I-I've become too much of a liability . . . with things the way they are I could single-handedly bring about the end to this fragile peace." She smiled the tiniest and saddest smile he'd ever seen, "I need to go away for a while . . . I'm not helping anyone anymore."
Wufei closed his eyes and shifted to lean against the wall behind them; he had known that something like this might happen when the whole situation had begun; he had come up with a plan in case it did. "Doyle and his people can hide you."
Relena turned sharply towards him, clearly startled. "You mean . . ."
"They can take you away with their group, keep you hidden until it's safe for you to come back."
With tears forming in her eyes again she nodded in silent acceptance. "I can't tell any of them, can I?"
He was still racking his brain, trying to come up with any other solution to this problem, but they had been beaten; all he could hope for now was that they could keep Relena safe until she could be taken away. "No, they're very secretive, they won't reveal, let alone take anyone besides you . . . even if we told them everything, your brother and Heero would never hear of letting you do something like this – "
"They'd find a way to stop me, I'd be murdered and . . ." She stifled another sob as she spoke, "I love all of you more than anything else in this world; I'd die in an instant for any of you . . . giving up my own life is not, I-I'm more than willing to leave everything b-but," she began to cry in earnest again and barely choked out ". . . if it means breaking their hearts in order to save them, t-then I'll do it."
Wufei turned to look at her knowing that what he was about to say would make this decision that much harder, "Relena, you're going to have to do something to prove to my friends that they can trust you . . ."
- - - - -
The room fell silent; what each of them was thinking he could not tell. The silence was deafening and for the first time since he had woken up in this room Wufei wished that they would just start screaming at him again, anything to break this horrible quiet.
Heero's mind, which had been constantly racing since Zechs had attacked Wufei finally slowed, weighed down by the overwhelming reality of Wufei's story: Relena had left in order to protect them and the rest of the world. She and Wufei had been right, there was no other way. Even if they had chosen to tell him or Une, nothing could have been done without launching an investigation, one that would eventually reveal their secret anyway and accomplish the Cambridge Five's plot for them. That he cared for her, that he would do anything for her, that without a second though he would die for her, it all meant nothing because even all that could not have stopped what would have happened if she stayed. Admitting and accepting it was like a knife ripping though his chest, but Relena and Wufei had done the only thing they could in order save everything she had worked so hard to build: they sent her away.
To his surprise, it was as though everything suddenly made sense, as if some cloud had been lifted. That night, at the ESUN Ball . . . Relena had insisted that all of her friends be there, even then she had been nervous, later hysterical, and she had taken him to her bed . . . to say goodbye.
Heero could not find words and slowly looked around the room, hoping for anything that would break the tension that had taken hold over his body. His eyes fell on Zechs who, judging by the expression on his face, was gradually arriving at the same conclusion Heero already had. It was Duo who finally broke the quiet.
"What did she have to do?"
- - - - -
"You're sure that you're going to be able to this?"
She nodded in a way that left him unconvinced and refused to meet his eyes as she turned the small firearm over in her hand.
"Relena, now's the time to tell me if you don't think that –"
"I'll do it Wufei," her voice was cold and distant sounding, "I don't like it, but it's what has to be done."
He closed the short distance between them and took the gun from her, holding it so she could see it very clearly, "Remember, this is the safety, it has to be –"
"I know how to fire a gun."
He tried to not let his temper get the best of him as he watched the tiny woman swing her leg up onto the chair in front of her and lift her long ball gown up enough to slide the weapon she was holding into the holster on her leg. Part of him wondered if she knew how big a risk they were taking, how many things could go wrong tonight, and how severe the consequences would be if they did, and not just for the two of them. "You have the earpiece in?"
"It feels like I have a rock in there." she answered as she fiddled with the extremely small electronic device again.
"You'll get used to it. Now remember, I'll cue you as soon as I've managed to get him to a deserted area, you'll need to get there and take him out as fast as you can."
She wrinkled her nose the slightest bit, apparently not caring for his choice of language but said nothing of it. "And you'll try and distract Heero?"
Wufei let out a small sigh, "I'll try . . . no matter what I can do I don't think you'll have more than ten minutes to leave the party, take care of him, and dispose of your gloves and the gun."
She turned to him wearing a confused expression, "My gloves?"
"It won't take long for someone to find out what's happened, as soon as they do the whole place will be locked down, Heero will come straight for you and I don't doubt for a second that he'd recognize the smell of gunpowder on your hands. But you need the gloves so that in case the gun is discovered your fingerprints won't be on it. Preventers would have them on file with everyone else in ESUN, you'd be found out in a matter of hours."
"What if they still expose all of you even after I'm gone?" she asked quietly.
The question caught him off guard somewhat and he tried to think of the most confident way to answer her, "They won't, there wouldn't be a point. With you removed from the picture all they would get out of revealing us is six guys to try as war criminals and execute." She glared at him, no doubt for making such a callous statement and he quickly tried to make up for it, "Relena, if it came to that we'd all be long gone before ESUN came after us." She seemed to accept the lie.
She nodded and took a seat in the chair next to him, "Do you really think that this is going to work? There are so many variables, I-I'm concerned that I'll do something wrong and all of this planning – "
"Relena, if you want to back out now is the time to do it."
She stood abruptly and turned to him, a look of fierce determination on her face, "I will most certainly not back out of this! You said it yourself, there's no other way! If we want to prevent these people from gaining control of ESUN and keep all of you safe . . ." her voice began to falter, "We both agreed that at this point in time I've become too much of a liability, I-I know what I have to do, and if that means leaving the people that I love in order to keep them safe then I'm more than willing to make that sacrifice."
The tiniest of smiles crept onto Wufei's face, "As long as you remember that, you'll find a way to make sure this works."
- - - - -
Zechs wasn't sure how much more his heart could take of this, "At the ESUN Ball . . . Relena was the one who killed Michael Whitney?" his voice was even but disbelieving.
Duo was not so calm, "Wh-What?! No, I mean, no! Relena doesn't kill people!!" He turned frantically to Heero, as if hoping that his friend would somehow prove that there was no way what Wufei was telling them could possibly be true, but Heero did nothing. He whipped back around to where Wufei was again rubbing the side of his head, "But, I- . . . Why?! I thought that you guys needed Whitney, instead they just have Relena haul off and kill him as some sick sort of initiation?!"
Wufei had expected this question, "It had been determined that Whitney was no longer any sort of asset, they hadn't been able to trace anything from him and believed that he may have been acting against orders when he went to Relena. He seemed to have been cut off from the Cambridge Five . . . he wasn't of any use to either side anymore.
"But he was to Relena." he concluded.
Again the room fell completely silent, each of its inhabitants lost in their own thoughts.
Zechs was trying madly to rationalize the situation, but quickly concluded that there was simply no way to do so. But there were still so many unanswered questions; he lifted his head to look at Wufei, renewed anger and frustration suddenly bubbling to the surface. "Now explain what happened!" his voice, brought the other four people in the room back to reality.
Wufei rubbed his eyes and leaned back in the chair, "The night of August 21, went exactly as it was supposed to. I was able to signal Relena that Michael Whitney was alone in the gardens outside; she killed him, hid the evidence and made it back to the party before anyone noticed that she was missing. We knew that the mansion would be locked down once his body was discovered and so I wouldn't see her until she arrived back in Brussels two days later."
- - - - -
He could tell she was trying not to cry and ruin her perfect make-up as she stood and smoothed out her dress, "Heero's waiting for me."
Wufei nodded, "I'll see you back in Brussels." He turned to look directly at her, "Forty-eight hours, Relena. Just get through these next two days."
- - - - -
"In the meantime she needed to use those two days to find a way to get Duo to be the one to escort her home from the airport."
- - - - -
"Remember, it has to be me at you're home that night, do whatever you have to in order to make sure that Duo's the one who will met you at the airport, I'll handle everything else."
- - - - -
"Why me?" Duo sounded confused for not the first time, "Why not you instead?"
"It would have been too obvious if I had been specifically called, but in order for our plan to work I had to be the agent in charge at the manor that night. You were the clear choice to meet her as you were the one scheduled to be on duty that evening."
- - - - -
"What if you can't, Wufei? What do we do if something goes wrong tonight, or that night? We don't have any sort of a contingency plan in place."
- - - - -
Wufei sat forward in his seat again, "I sabotaged Duo's car by setting a small, timed charge on his alternator so that it would go when he was too far from head quarters to go back, but not close enough to the airport. He called back to head quarters, I made sure I was in Une's office and volunteered to go in his place."
- - - - -
"That's because we only have one shot at this; everything we've worked for, it all comes down to these next forty-eight hours, Relena."
- - - - -
"I had the bag of supplies Relena would need waiting in my car and slipped it in with her luggage once we arrived back at the manor."
- - - - -
"I'll have everything in place, everything you need will be ready. You just have to do these two things . . ."
- - - - -
"After she retired to her room, I made sure she had enough time to accomplish what she needed to before I sounded the alarm that she was missing . . ."
- - - - -
". . . kill Michael Whitney . . ."
- - - - -
". . . and she slipped out of the manor."
- - - - -
". . . and make sure we're not discovered by Heero or anyone else."
- - - - -
For a moment none of them spoke; they were all mulling the same question over in their heads, but it was Noin who blurted it out, "How the hell did the two of you do it?"
Wufei took a long drink from the cup in front of him before answering, "The bag I left Relena contained, a small tarp, a sharp pair of scissors, a waxing kit, hair dye, contact lenses, and a lab technician's biohazard suit. Relena was to go into her room, spread the tarp on the bathroom floor and cut her hair as short and neatly as she could in a manner that would not draw attention to herself, making sure that all of the hair fell on the tarp. She'd then dye her hair and eyebrows black and wax them as to as thin as she could. Once she had showered and made sure to clean the dye residue out of the stall, she put in the contacts and dressed in the bio hazard suit. I intentionally stole Sally's so that it would be too big on Relena and make her look smaller than she actually is. From there she was to roll up the tarp, taking all of the hair and trash with it and put it back in the bag I had given her.
"When I went to check on her, I confirmed that she was ready and announced that she was missing. When I put in the call to Preventers, I told them about the fumes in the room and made sure that they sent a lab team first and foremost; this also allowed me to keep anyone from going into her room before they got there."
Zechs was beside himself trying to wrap his head around how something so simple could have gone unnoticed by so many people. "But there were fumes in the room," he turned to Heero almost desperately, "Yuy, you said it yourself, the room smelt like chemicals."
Heero was looking at the floor with his eyes closed, "It did . . ." he lifted his head to look at Wufei, "It was the fumes from the hair dye?"
Wufei nodded in confirmation, "Relena positioned herself just off to the side of the door, completely covered and looking nothing like the person everyone was searching for. When the team of eight came in, we knew that they'd immediately begin searching the different rooms; it was easy for Relena to slip in with them unnoticed and then to follow them out, get in one of the vans, carrying the bag with the tarp in it and leave."
Heero felt his heart slow down; he had literally had her in the palm of his hands and let her get slip away. His mind was racing with every way he could have stopped this from happening, "She was right in front of me . . ."
"But you weren't looking for her." Wufei concluded for him, "Not there anyway. It's what we were counting on, that all of you would be too distracted organizing a search and dealing with the crime scene to notice that one more lab tech was leaving than came in. It worked, all she had to do was keep a low profile and blend until she could make it to one of the vans as get away from the manor."
"To go where?" Duo sounded as though his head might explode at any moment.
"Back to HQ, but one of my friends was waiting for her there, to take her to rendezvous' point . . . the pub that we always met at, the one that was their Brussels outpost . . . O'Malley's, that place in Old City."
Heero felt his eyes go wide, "O'Malley's . . . that was Relena's –"
"So where did they take her?!" Zechs roared and pounded his fist onto the desk he was leaning on, "Who the hell are these friends of yours?!"
Wufei took a deep breath, causing Zechs to dread the answer he had wanted since he first saw the tape.
Wufei lifted his head to look straight into his eyes and answered the most steady, unwavering voice he could muster, "Keiji . . . Relena's with Keiji in China. She's a Keiji operative now."
- - - - -
Wufei quietly pushed open the door he knew would be unlocked even though the pub had closed three hours ago. At five o'clock in the morning the sun was barely beginning to rise over Brussels, but the inside of O'Malley's remained as dark as it would be in the middle of the night.
He made his way through the kitchen and up the set of stairs in the back that would led to the rooms on the second floor. As he reached the top he could hear voices off in the distance; they grew louder as he approached.
"Lena, luv, we really can't be waiting any longer –"
"I'm not leaving until –", she stopped short as Wufei pushed the door open. A look of relief swept over her face at the sight of him; in a matter of seconds she had crossed the room and thrown her arms around his neck, "I was worried you wouldn't get here in time."
He pulled back from her, "Then you should have left and not waited for me."
She smiled sadly at him. Relena looked odd to say the least; her hair was still black and cropped very close to her head, her thin eyebrows looked nothing short of ridiculous, and seeing her wearing jeans and t-shirts was a significant departure from her usual business suits and dresses. She had been hidden away in the upper rooms of the pub for two weeks now; they had to wait until the intense manhunt for her had died down before it was safe for her to leave Brussels, even now it was risky. In those two weeks he had only managed to sneak away to visit her two other times; once to make sure she arrived alright, and another to go over the plan to get her out of Brussels one last time.
Erin stood in the corner watching them, "I'll give you a moment to say 'yer goodbyes, but we need to be off, and soon at that."
No sooner had she closed the door behind her than Relena's eyes began to water and she turned back to Wufei with a look of panic on her face, "I don't know if I can do this . . ." she choked out.
"You have to now, and you can." He sighed and put a hand on her shoulder, "Something is going on Relena, but we'll figure out what it is, and once we do you'll be able to come back."
She nodded and stifled a sob softly, "How is, my brother and Heero, how are –"
"I haven't heard from your brother, no one has. He and Noin didn't tell anyone where they were going."
"And Heero?"
Wufei paused, not sure whether the truth or a lie would hurt her worse; he opted for the former, "He's a wreck, Relena. He's holding himself together as best he can; he doesn't let anyone see it but . . . he's going out of his mind."
As he predicted Relena broke down into a fit of tears, "I can't do this, Wufei. I can't do this to all of them, to my friends. How will I ever explain what I've done, how will they ever forgive me?"
"When this is over, and we can tell them everything, they'll understand." He lifted her face, forcing her to meet his eyes, "They love you, they'll forgive you, but you have to make sure you stay alive long enough for that to happen."
She sniffed and wiped her eyes, "I will."
"You're a strong woman Relena, you'll be fine. Erin will get you safely to China and Keiji; I'll try and get out there as soon as I can, but it may be a while. Keiji will take care of you, you're one of them now."
She was about to open her mouth to answer when a sharp knock from the door interrupted her and Erin entered. "You're ready then? We really can't be waiting any longer."
Relena nodded to her and bent down to pick her knapsack up off the floor, slinging over her back. Without warning, she again threw her arms around him, "Please make sure that Heero is alright."
"I will."
She stepped away from him and over to where Erin was waiting in the door, casting him one last sad smile before turning and following the Irish girl down the hall.
Wufei waited in the room, listening to the sounds of their foot steps fade as they descended the stairs and made their way out on to the street. He walked to the window to watch the two shadowy figures disappear into the morning fog, all the while praying to the gods of his ancestors that they had made the right decision.
- - - - -
"Erin took Relena safely to the province of Guizhou in southwest China; she lives in a little village called Shitou. It's one of the seven hidden Keiji bases."
The heavy silence was almost immediately broken by Zechs, "She's with KEIJI?! That was your master plan?! You sent her half way across the world to hide within a paramilitary group?! What the hell were you two thinking?!"
"Milliardo," Noin interrupted quietly, but Zechs would not hear it.
"Don't 'Milliardo' me Lu!! This lunatic saw fit to ship my little sister off to be an operative for one of the most reckless groups of people ever to grace the planet!!" He whipped around to face Wufei, "What the hell could you possibly have been thinking?! She's not a soldier for God's sake, she's –"
A disgusted sounding noise came from Wufei's direction and Zech whipped around to face him, "Do you have something to say Chang?"
Wufei gave a sort of twisted chuckle and pulled himself up in his chair so he was facing Zechs, "Yes, that in all the years you have none that woman, not one of you has ever given her the credit that she deserves."
Zechs' face began to turn red, "You son of a bitch, where the hell do you get off – "
"Listen to yourselves! I tell you that Relena left, of her own free will, in order to do what she felt was right and you're too busy screaming that her determination of what was right should have been left to you to even consider the situation she was in!"
The room fell silent as Wufei's words sank in, Duo mindlessly leaned back on the desk behind him, Heero continued to glare at Wufei and Noin emitted a soft sob. Regardless, Wufei was suddenly feeling less merciful, "Relena is one the most noble, self-sacrificing individuals I have ever met. When she learned that someone out knew who all of us were and wanted to use that information and her office to destabilize ESUN she did not hesitate for a second to do what had to be done."
"There were other ways!" Zechs sounded as though desperately trying to justify his thoughts, but Wufei was ready.
"No, there weren't!" Wufei practically launched himself as he stood from his seat, "This is why she came to me instead of any of you – "
"Because you're a heartless bastard?" Duo spat at him bitterly.
Wufei flinched but ignored the comment, "Because she knew that as far as she is concerned none of you can think rationally!!" Surrendering to the throbbing pain in his head, he took a seat again. "Relena knew that given the situation the only completely safe course of action was to remove the lynch pin in the Cambridge Five's plan: her. If she was no longer available to blackmail or be killed their plot would never be able to accomplish what they wanted."
He leaned his head against the high back of the chair, his voice calmer now, "Understand that what the Cambridge Five was doing wouldn't have worked with just anyone, even if they did have the same sort of conclusive evidence as they did for her. Relena was an icon to the people of ESUN, to find out that their most beloved leader was knowingly harboring war criminals . . . it would have torn the peace she worked for apart and all of us would most likely have been executed. She came to me because she knew that all of you would be too selfish with your love for her to act if something like this had to be done. And when the decision came she made it without hesitation . . . she left to save all of you, to save the world, again."
"She didn't have to . . . we could have, I . . ." All four of them turned to face Heero, who had remained silent up to this point. Hands clenched at his sides and breathing heavily, he looked as though he might break down at any moment.
Wufei took a deep breath, an overwhelming sense of compassion washing over him, "She didn't want to go, but she knew she had to." He stood to and walked to the other side of the room to refill his glass with water again, "She was planning on coming back as soon as she could, but just five months after she left . . ."
The heads of the four other people in the room shot up and turned to face him and Wufei felt compelled to quickly launch into an explanation, "None of us knew anything about Josef or what he was planning. Looking back on it now, it's obvious that the Cambridge Five were working for him; but we had no way of knowing that. We believed that they were a small group that between myself and Keiji we'd be able to root out and eliminate . . . we were wrong."
"Obviously!" Duo snapped at him.
Wufei only nodded, "Like Minister Trotsky those three years ago when he came to tell us about Agent Hall's betrayal, Josef's original plan did have something to do with Relena, it was what the Cambridge Five had been plotting. We also concluded that the attack on the New Delhi Peace Summit was carried out on Josef's orders to kill off as many ESUN members as possible and open up spots for Josef's cronies, and also to make sure Relena became Foreign Minister."
"But the almost killed her!" Duo practically yelled.
"But they didn't." Wufei concluded for him, "We weren't able to make the connection until it was too late . . . and by that point there was no sense in telling you. Relena would have been in more danger than ever, beside that . . . Keiji needed her."
Zechs looked at him incredulously, "For what?! What could she possibly be doing with a group like that?! She could be hurt, killed running around with them! How do you know that she's even alive? Did you see her the last time you were there?!"
Wufei shook his head, "No, I didn't." He paused, considering how to phrase his next sentence, "We missed each other by a few days. She was . . . away, on a mission."
Heero and Zechs both erupted at the same time.
"A what?"
"So you haven't actually seen her in over a year?! She could be dead!"
"She's not dead."
Zechs was practically raving, "You don't know that! You haven't seen her in – "
"I saw her less than two months ago." Wufei interrupted, and turned to look at Heero and Duo, "We all did."
- - - - -
People were still moving around behind them, shots still being fired; if it had not been for one freak moment of silence neither of them would have heard the crackle of the taller man's radio and the sharp voice coming from it. ". . . kimi, we're leaving now, you've got two seconds to . . . get your ass to the front . . . we'll meet . . ."
As soon as the words were spoken another person wearing the same black dress dropped gracefully from the balcony off to their left and dashed to where the man in front of them was standing pausing a moment to look down at Heero's unconscious body. Without a word the smaller person placed hand on his shoulder as though to indicate their presence and the two broke into a run maneuvering gracefully between Wufei and Duo; the taller one stopped for one second to turn back and yell "You're supposed to be letting us know about this stuff, Chang!" And with that they made a break down the aisle and straight out what was left of the back door.
- - - - -
"She's Okimi."
"No."
"What?" Wufei turned to face Duo, who had a very resolute expression on his face.
"No. That big guy who killed the man that went after Heero, that was Okimi."
Wufei shook his head, "No, that was her second in command. Relena's one of the leaders of a global rebellion, they don't let her just run around in the middle of a gun fight. She went to South America on Keiji business, probably for a meeting with one of the gang leaders. My guess is whatever negotiations they were in went bad and Keiji decided to take them out. Relena would have gone with them but been hidden somewhere safe."
Duo still looked as though he could not accept this, "No, we heard that guy's radio, someone called him Okimi!"
"Of course you heard it on his radio, as I said, he's Relena's second in command, he'd be on the same channel as her. And you didn't hear her called Okimi."
Duo was getting mad now, "What the hell do you mean –"
"You heard her called 'Kimi'." Wufei cut him off, "That's what the actually code name is; Kimi . . . and Daisuke, Inari, Izanam, Kisho, Shito, and Yukio . . . the 'O' added to the beginning is actually just a little joke by the Irish who felt left out of the naming process." His voice was dry and exasperated sounding, but he smiled the tiniest bit, "But it was the Irish version that got around and the Nanami decided to keep it that way reasoning that anyone outside their group wouldn't know to call them otherwise."
Wufei stopped to glance around the room; Heero was back to staring at nothing in a dazed sort of way, Duo next to him, continuing to sputter in confusion, Noin's eyes were still red but she was no longer crying, Zechs looked as though he may be in need of CPR soon. Wufei walked back to his seat, running his hand over his hair as he went. The four other people in the room were clearly in varying states of shock; he didn't like doing this to them, the whole situation had gotten out of control. Maybe he should have told them sooner, gotten Relena to come back at least to let them know that she was alright. But deep down inside he knew that that had never been an option, there was too much risk involved and she was desperately needed by Keiji.
But right now, none of that changed the expressions of hurt and grief on his friend's faces. "She's been watching all of you, checking to make sure that you're okay."
Only Heero looked up, a bewildered look on his face, "She's . . " His eyes grew wide as everything suddenly clicked in his head, "The lady who helped Ashley . . ." he felt the blood drain from his face again, "the nurse at Ichtaca Base . . ." This sense that he was being haunted, the overwhelming feeling of her presence he'd been fighting for the past year . . .
"She was careless," Wufei interrupted his thoughts, "but she was worried about all of you."
- - - - -
"What the hell could you possibly be thinking Relena?!" he screamed at her as soon as Erin shut the door securely behind them. "For the love of God, do you have any idea how lucky we were that this kind of thing worked three years ago but now you're going to go into his hospital room when he's already dreaming about you and hallucinating and just hope that he's drugged up enough not to recognize you?!"
"I had to see him!" She had pulled off her mask and cap very abruptly loosening the bun in the back of her head in the process and allowing a thick blond braid to fall down past her waist. "How could you expect me to see him lying there, bleeding and unconscious on the floor and not check to make sure he was okay? I thought he had died!" She asked him these questions as if to inquire whether or not he really was that stupid but her eyes were starting to water a bit. "He didn't recognize me and I made sure not to speak in front of him!"
"You can't keep doing things like this! You're getting too brazen, we didn't go for all of this trouble so that you could blow it by wondering around Parliament helping lost little girls!"
Relena's eyes got wide, "You saw me?"
"Of course I saw you! I amazed you people actually – "
"I was there on business for Keiji Wufei – "
"They shouldn't be sending you to places where you're practically worshipped as a patron saint with nothing more than funny glasses, a wig, and a bad make-up job obscuring your identity!"
"That wasn't a wig!" She tugged at her length of braided hair, "And they needed someone who knew the layout of that building, thanks to you and Heero even our best hackers couldn't get the schematics for that place."
"That's the idea." he practically spat at her.
Relena was clearly in no mood however, "Well if that's the case, you should be a little more careful about what gets in and out of that building, if Sean hadn't figured out that Ajani had planted an explosive device there, we never would have gotten to it in time, and half of what's left of ESUN would be dead."
Wufei rubbed the bridge of his nose; she was right of course, that Ajani operative had managed to slip past them and almost killed most of the sitting members of ESUN, they had been lucky Keiji was keeping an eye on things too . . . and no one in Preventers was the wiser . . . "You're not understanding me, Relena – "
"Oh Wufei, quit your whining." Erin stood from where she had been leaning against the wall and strode over to them, "You can't be blamin' the girl for wanting to make sure her long lost love was breathin' and all after seeing him take a fall like that."
"He's not my long lost love, Erin."
Erin rolled her eyes and smiled as she put a hand on Relena's shoulder and answered dryly, "Of course he's not dearie."
"Both of you are completely missing the point here!" Wufei was back to screaming again.
"No, I think you be makin' the point loud an – "
He rounded on her viciously, "Don't even get me started on you Erin! Its bad enough Relena's willing to risk her own life like this but you're supposed to be keeping her out of harm's way when she called to areas like this one! Instead you help her sneak on to this base so she can go practically dance around in front of a dozen people who all think she's dead!"
Both women began yelling back at him at once.
"I don't need to be looked after, Wufei. I though you of all people agreed with me – "
"I don't appreciate what you be insinuatin' there laddy! You know damn good and well that Miss Relena's safety is the most important thing to – "
"Alright, enough both of you!" He turned to face Relena, almost pleading, "You and Erin need to leave, get back to where ever it is that you guys are hiding out –"
"You really are quite the head case there, Wufei." Erin appeared at Relena's side wearing her usual sly smile. To his surprise however, her face suddenly became very sincere, "I promise we'll get back ourselves back safe as houses and all."
Wufei nodded, "Do you need me to cover for you?"
Relena shook her head, "We'll be fine." She pulled her mask and cap back on and headed for the door, Erin right behind her, but stopped to turn back to look at him, "I just need to make sure that he was okay."
Wufei let his head drop a bit, "I understand." He looked back up to them, "Please be careful."
"We will," she smiled under her mask, "Oh and Wufei, congratulations." She held up a hand and pointed to her ring finger.
He closed his eyes and shook his head with a smile; he opened them again to thank her, but they were already out the door.
- - - - -
For what felt like the hundredth time in less than an hour the room fell completely still and quiet. Wufei bowed his head so that it rested on his folded hands, "Relena's safe; she misses all of you but felt she working for Keiji was more important than her own personal happiness. She's still working towards peace . . . just in a different way."
At first none of them responded until Heero lifted his head from his chest, "How do I find her?"