She should have known the move would cost her.

No sooner had his name fled her lips than the guard standing over him brandished his semi-automatic rifle and shouted at her. "Shut up, and sit down!"

Relena had stared down many a gun in her time, but she wasn't about to try anything rash. Not with Heero's life in danger. Not to mention their unborn child.

Which she still needed to tell him about.

For now, she did as she was told, and sank back into her seat, her eyes desperately trying to communicate with Heero from across the room. He held her gaze, and her heart flipped over as she watched the corners of his mouth crease into a smile. He slowly raised a finger to his lips. The gesture filled Relena with an inexplicable sense of calm. Perhaps she should have been panicking, but if he wasn't afraid, she figured she shouldn't be, either.

And then Heero leapt up and sprang his own weapon on the guard Talon had called "Frankie." Relena's eyes widened in shock.

"Drop it," Heero instructed, pressing his gun against the man's temple.

"I'll shoot her!" he bellowed.

"Try me," Heero replied, cocking his weapon. It was clear he meant business. Relena tore her eyes away. This wasn't going to end well for Frankie.

She was wise to turn away when she did. The crackling sound of the gun, and the bullet connecting with the poor man's skull, sickened her. Relena didn't dare turn around.

Seconds later she felt Heero kneeling beside her chair, his arms swiftly encircling her. She turned and raised her arms over his shoulders to complete the embrace, burying her face against his chest.

"Relena, I'm sorry," he whispered into her hair. "I didn't want to have to do that."

"I know." She grasped him tighter. Was he even real? She was starting to doubt her own senses. But it looked, felt and smelled like the real Heero. She inhaled deeply, reveling in that heady, masculine scent that belonged only to him. "It's been so long," she breathed, delirious.

"I'm sorry about that, too." Heero pulled back slightly to meet her eyes before pressing their foreheads together. "Forgive me," he said softly. Relena noted with some humor that it wasn't exactly a request. And, then, Heero's lips were equally demanding, yet gentle, as they sought hers for a kiss. She complied instantly.

After they broke apart, Relena couldn't resist tugging on Heero's long braid, sliding the wig off his head. "Mind telling me what this is all about?"

"Long story." He shoved the wig inside the Preventers jacket he wore, which Relena realized belonged to Duo. "We don't have time."

"Yes, we do," she countered. "Talon won't be back for an hour."

"He's bluffing," Heero said flatly. "He'll be back as soon as he realizes I'm missing."

"And that you killed one of his guards…" Relena clucked her tongue. Surely that had been captured by surveillance. But then why hadn't anyone responded to the commotion?

"The security cameras have been taken out of commission," Heero said, as if reading her thoughts. "Quatre will have seen to that."

"Quatre? Where's he?"

"The control room."

Relena blinked, trying to process Heero's monotone answers. "You're going to have to do better than that," she sighed.

"How about we stop talking, and you let me get you out of here," he said gruffly.

Relena knew she couldn't argue with that. She allowed Heero to pull her to her feet, wincing as they passed poor Frankie's nearly headless body. She kept her gaze trained on the floor as Heero picked up the dead man's assault rifle, holstering his own gun. Keeping one arm on his new weapon, Heero gingerly opened the door and peered around it. The hallway was empty, but Relena was surprised when Heero broke into a run, pulling her along behind him. She couldn't begin to match his pace and hated to think she was slowing him down, so she pushed herself as hard as she could. Her lungs burned with the effort, and she felt a sharp pang in her side. She kept one arm over her abdomen, hoping her stride wouldn't hurt the baby.

Heero stopped abruptly when they came to another door. He thrust it open and pulled her inside. Relena wasn't sure they would be safe in there, but she trusted Heero knew what he was doing. At the very least, he knew his way around the facility.

She waited until he'd locked the door before chancing a look at their new surroundings. It was smaller than the room they'd just been in, and the boxes piled up around them indicated it was used for storage.

A closet. They were hiding in a closet.

But, then, there were worse places to be stuck with Heero Yuy. And after all this time apart, she was grateful to be anywhere with him.

She gazed up at him, her eyes drinking in every handsome feature, from his dark, unruly hair and those mesmerizing eyes, to the amused smile twitching at his lips that threatened to break his otherwise stoic composure. Had it really been twelve weeks since they'd been face to face? He was watching her closely as well, the hungry look in his eyes strongly hinting that he was thinking the exact same thing.

He set his weapon down gingerly before bending his head to hers, drawing her in for another kiss. Relena parted her lips to deepen the contact, savoring the taste of his tongue as it teased hers with slow, deliberate circles. She could have let the kiss go on forever, but it was a foolish thought to entertain when, for all she knew, they were still in grave danger. He seemed to come to same conclusion, releasing her. But Relena kept her hands on either side of his face, holding his gaze.

"Explain," she said simply. He shook his head, even as she touched him.

"I told you, there's no time."

"Give me the abridged version, then."

"I'll try."

"Please."

Relena dropped her hands, and Heero turned his eyes upward, seemingly collecting his thoughts.

"Seventeen years ago, this colony passed its scheduled condemnation date," he began.

Relena gaped at him. "Heero, you don't have to start every story with the entire history of things, you know."

He glared at her impatiently. "Do you want to hear this or not?"

He sounds like a father already, she thought gleefully. She waved him on to continue.

"Back then, we used it as a rendezvous point."

"We?" Relena interjected.

"The five Gundam pilots," he answered curtly, crossing his arms. "I was getting to that."

"Fine, I'll be quiet." Relena mimed zipping her lips.

"Anyway, it was here that Quatre first approached me about destroying the Zero System, and the Gundams along with it. Everyone agreed to it at the time, except Wufei. And then it turned out we needed the Gundams one last time."

"The Mariemaia Incident," Relena supplied, forgetting her promise not to interrupt. Her hand flew to her mouth, but Heero didn't seem annoyed.

"Exactly." He nodded. "But after that, we forgot about this place. It was in shambles, anyway. Talon Van Holt purchased the colony ten years later to turn it into his warehouse and build a spacecraft. The fact is, the entire colony is the craft."

"What?" Relena hadn't noticed anything that unusual about the place. From the outside, it looked like any other cylindrical colony, although it was smaller than the others in the L4 cluster.

"That's right. He had the spaceship constructed around the colony, so this entire base is… mobile."

Relena shook her head. "I don't understand. What's he doing this for?"

"You saw his satellite plans, right? Those were decoys. The ship is the satellite. He wants to launch this and colonize Mars."

"And that's what the mobile dolls are for, right?"

"To build the new colonies, yes. Problem is, he also wants to weaponize the bots as the planet's police force."

"But that's ridiculous," Relena sputtered. "What's the point of policing the planet if there aren't any people on it yet?"

"There are people on this colony." Heero shrugged. "Apparently that's how he plans to keep them in line. But don't bother trying to extract logic from the thoughts of a crazy person."

"But where do you come in?" Relena frowned. "I mean, you came here to investigate this for the Preventers, right?"

"At first." Heero seemed to hesitate. Relena's eyes prodded him to continue. "Une asked me to check the place out, and I knew the colony right away. I was concerned because Quatre had set up a version of the Zero System here, but this place was such a death trap, I don't think any of us counted on it still being here all these years later." He paused and drew in a breath. Relena watched him carefully, this time not daring to interrupt.

"So I had my concerns. I came here and met with Talon. He gave me a generic tour, but I knew something was up. Never trusted the guy." He gave Relena a look, seemingly referencing the conversations they'd had about Talon during their time at NASA. She nodded at him to go on.

"So after he gave me the run around, I decided to come back, undercover. I forged a resume, made a disguise and applied to work here. Naturally I got the job, and soon managed to hack the company database. I started pulling data and storing it in an encrypted cloud server I'd set up. It took Talon a while, but eventually he caught on, busted my disguise and confiscated my things."

"Like your phone?" Relena tipped her head at him.

"I ditched that before I came here; it was a liability I didn't need."

She nodded in understanding. At least she wouldn't have to worry about him ever reading several weeks' worth of her frantic, angry text messages.

"So what happened after you got caught?"

"He forced me to work for him, employing my knowledge of the Zero System." Heero scowled deeply. "I was confined to an office all day and a cell at night. I continued infiltrating his database, but any time he caught me tampering with the system, he'd retaliate."

Relena sucked in a breath. "What did he do to you?"

Heero looked away from her briefly. "Just the usual torture tactics."

"Heero!" She covered her mouth in horror, thinking of the nightmare she'd had about Heero just a few nights ago that involved him being beaten in a cell. Had her intuition been guiding her?

"I'm fine." He moved in closer, taking her hands in his. "My manhood is still intact. In case you were worried." He gave her a wry smile. Relena just sighed.

"Is everything else intact?" She was worried about how wounded he might actually be. Knowing Heero, he was good at hiding his injuries and pressing on as if nothing were wrong. "How badly are you hurt?"

He smiled and brushed a kiss to her forehead. "I'll live. What about you? That was a pretty hard hit you took earlier." He stroked the cheek where Talon had struck her.

She shrugged, giving him a wry smile of her own. "I've had worse."

Heero's eyes tightened. "I admit, that pushed me over the edge. If he hadn't done that I might not have killed a guy. But if he touches you again, his buddy back there won't be the last."

The dark look on his face made Relena shiver; she knew that expression all too well. Heero could be downright deadly, when he had to be. She was glad, not for the first time, that he was on her side.

"So what's your plan?"

A smile tugged at his lips. Relena suspected he was proud of whatever it was.

"My plan," he started, lowering his voice, "is exactly the same plan I devised when I first got here. Long before everyone else showed up."

Relena rolled her eyes. "Well, excuse us for coming here to rescue you."

"I told Une before not to interfere," he said flatly. "Apparently some people were overly concerned about the status of my mission when clearly I was handling it."

"Clearly." Relena tossed his word back at him, newly annoyed. She planted her hands at her hips. "You mean before or after you got captured?"

"Regardless," he grumbled, "I am proceeding with my original plan."

"Which is?"

"Destroy this base."

Relena threw up her hands. "That's it?"

Heero frowned at her. "What?"

"That's your master plan? Why couldn't you have just called in the Preventers for reinforcements, weeks ago? Hell, they could have brought you a whole slew of explosives."

Now Heero rolled his eyes. "It's not that simple, Relena."

"Why not?" He was beginning to exasperate her.

"This isn't the kind of battle you win in a firefight." He shook his head firmly. "Too many casualties."

Never mind the casualty from earlier, Relena couldn't help wanting to add. "But Heero…"

He looked at her intensely. "This is cyberwarfare."

Relena thought of all those books in Heero's room at her home in Sanc, which had also captured Trowa's attention. She surmised there had been more to her bodyguard's voracious reading over the Christmas holiday than mere curiosity.

"So everyone else is in on this, now?"

Heero nodded. "Quatre and Trowa got here hours ago, tried to break me out. Told me Wufei and Sally were waiting in the shuttle. They didn't bother to bring any explosives, by the way." Relena could tell he was teasing her, which she didn't appreciate.

"And why didn't you just go with them?" She sighed.

"A couple reasons. For one, I hadn't implemented my plan. Not doing so would have nullified all the months I spent here. Two, they told me you were coming." Heero's face seemed to soften, his eyes revealing a myriad of emotions she knew he would struggle to put to words. She lifted a hand to caress him.

"Did I wreck your plan?"

"No." He caught her hand in his. "Like I said, even if I hadn't known you were coming, I would've stayed here to finish the job. Unfortunately, your being here complicates things. Because now I'm going to have to get you out of here."

Relena frowned. "But how did Duo, Trowa and the others escape?"

"That's another story. And the reason I wore a disguise."

Her mind whirred to try to piece it all together. "You took Duo's place?"

Heero nodded. "Quatre and I were watching everything unfold from the control room while Trowa… well, you know Trowa. He was up in the rafters somewhere. We knew Talon would do something to Duo and use him as leverage to get you to cooperate."

Relena swallowed around a lump forming in her throat. "What did he do with Trowa?"

"Nothing. Wufei was one of the guards. Quatre created a diversion so that Duo and I could switch places. Wufei pretended to drag Trowa off, while, uh, Frankie took me."

"So everyone else is safe now?" She looked up at Heero hopefully.

"They should be."

"But I still don't understand…" Her eyes searched his. "You could have left with the others; I could have talked my way out of this. There was no need for you to stay behind. You could have conducted your cyberwarfare from the safety of the shuttle, right?"

"I already told you." Heero ran his thumb along the curve of her jaw. "I'm not leaving without you."

Relena's heart leapt into her throat. "But you've been stuck here for months, and you had the chance to escape-"

Heero's lips captured hers before she could finish the thought. She pulled back, dizzy.

"You have a bad habit of interrupting me when I'm speaking, you know." Her tone was stern, but she was sure her eyes resembled puddles.

"Sorry." He smirked, clearly not one bit sorry. "I'll have to work on that."

Relena shook her head, trying to ward off the dizziness that had come over her. Heero placed his hands on her waist to steady her. She wondered, briefly, if he'd noticed the subtle changes to her figure, if he noticed things like that. He didn't seem to, but then she hadn't learned how to read his thoughts. Yet.

"How long are we going to hide in the closet?" She wondered out loud. She wanted to get out of there, more than anything, and get Heero alone. Really alone. There was no way she was going to tell him about his impending fatherhood while they were hiding from certain doom among the cleaning supplies.

He tightened his hold on her. "Not much longer. We'll be able to move once the countdown begins."

Relena stiffened. "What countdown?" She was sure it had nothing to do with New Year's.

"The one Talon is going to initiate to launch."

"He's going to launch… this ship?"

Heero nodded.

"How do you know?"

"I've spent the past three months getting to know the inner workings of a psychopath, Relena. It didn't take that long to learn his plan."

Relena felt like she would lose her mind, too, trying to add it all up. "But what about his needing ESUN to sign off on his proposal?"

"I already told you, that was a ruse," Heero explained. "He was always going to do what he wanted, anyway. He wanted the chance to show off some of his crazier ideas, knowing no one would actually approve them. His public persona is just one huge distraction."

She raised hopeful eyes back up to Heero. "Can you stop it?"

He reached out to ruffle her hair. "If Quatre has finished uploading the malicious code I wrote into the Zero System, that will disable the launch sequence, and cripple the mobile dolls."

Relena sighed, her shoulders heaving. "Well, that's good, right?"

"Right." Heero frowned. "But…"

Relena frowned right back "But what?"

"There's another phase to his plan."

Before Relena could ask what it was, Heero startled her by cursing. Something was hissing outside the door. The small room quickly filled up with smoke.

Heero's eyes went wide as he shouted, "Get down!"

A/N: "My boyfriend's back, so you're gonna be in trouble..." At last! I hope you 1xR shippers are happy... sorry for having another cliffhanger, though, but we are almost at the very end! Happy Sunday Funday!