Disclaimer: Not mine, never will be. Oh, GW, how I burn for you.

Chapter 25

It was Relena's turn to protect Heero as the heel of her hand came up and cracked Zephyr Cronis in the jaw just as the gun went off, the shot ringing through the empty halls like the toll of a bell. At the same moment, the injured pilot staggered away from the wall and let off two more shots, forcing the Osiris leader to roll off and away from her body. The moment she was free, Relena scrabbled to her feet and hurtled towards Heero, careful to keep low in case it was necessary for him to take another shot. Her heart pounding in her throat, Relena met the hard-eyed soldier with a fierce hug, feeling safe as his useless right arm came up to encircle her shoulders and draw her close, his left arm aimed over her shoulder in the same movement so that Cronis remained in his sights. The moment was a tense one.

The first sign of movement in Cronis and Relena watched as Heero's finger tightened against the trigger before the red-faced general could even raise his gun. Cronis snarled, his eyes wild with rage and what Relena had come to associate as insanity. Silence reigned and the stalemate remained between the two men, but she could feel the energy slowly draining from Heero's body as he leaned more and more heavily upon her by the moment.

He was hitting his limits of exhaustion, even as the Perfect Soldier.

Cronis must have realized this as well, for the next moment all trace of anger and madness had disappeared from his face, replaced by that calm and cruel mask. "Do you really think you can win this, Heero Yuy? You're fighting gravity as we stand here. How many bullets are left in that gun? Three? Six? I've only set off one round, and I'm not the one on the defensive. How long do you think you can last before your strength fails and you are just a burden to the woman you want so desperately to protect?" They could both hear the laughter resounding in the general's words, the growing sneer on his lips evidence of his assumed triumph.

Peering down the length of Heero's outstretched arm, Relena could see the subtle tremble in his hand as he struggled to keep the gun upright. Cronis was right; he would not last long in any sense of a struggle.

"You're a foolish boy. You always have been: fighting in a war you have no stakes in, for a purpose you never fully understood. What you never realized was how you pilots corrupted the pure intentions that started the wars to begin with," Cronis spat coldly, voice losing its humor as he stared at the object of his hatred. "Humans are warring creatures. We live for conflict, encourage and nurture it. It is only through war that we evolve and maintain ourselves on both harsh Earth and endless Space, both of which wish to snuff us out of existence for our brilliance. We have the ability to surpass gods, but nature would have us as nothing more than apes. It is at the base of our existence that we must war against Nature itself, and thus against those that would keep us from our true potential."

"And that would be?" Heero asked, clearly unaffected by Cronis's words.

"To be as God." He said it so simply it was as though he were discussing tea. Cronis' eyes were once again wild. "Treize understood this potential. Humans are the only creature capable of overcoming even the environments that spawn them. Already we have achieved the ability to create life outside of the womb, as with the entire Winner family, and to erase an entire civilization from existence, as with the original plans of Operation Meteor. But not all men realize this. Some wish to erase war, and thus erase all that humanity could become; Men like you, Yuy, and pacifists like you, Miss Dorlian. It is people like you that corrupted the vision of His Excellency, Treize."

Looking up, Relena could see Heero's eyes narrow in disgust and understanding.

"Treize meant to end war, not cultivate it. From the beginning he entered into the war to the moment Tallgeese was destroyed, he worked to stop all conflict," Heero explained without question, his hand suddenly steady before Relena's eyes. She had often wondered how much of an understanding had passed between he and Treize Khushrenada when the Oz leader had released her as Queen of the World, and she was only now beginning to realize the true depth of connection the soldiers of the war had shared with one another.

"Wrong!" Cronis shouted, obviously irate by the assumption that Heero knew anything about the fallen Khushrenada. "Treize did all in his power to continue the war between the Earth and Colonies until the Earth forces were triumphant, so that we might evolve once again. His vision was to have Earth rule over Space as it was meant to do from the beginning when humans first created the colonies." But even she knew that was not true.

"It is you who is wrong, Cronis," Relena felt herself say, forcing herself not to look away when the Osiris general shifted his crushing gaze onto her face, seeming to have almost forgotten she was there in his rant. He was still holding his gun, but that, too, must have fallen to the back of his mind, for it was no longer so firmly pointed at them as Heero's was at Cronis. She felt hope and boldness swell in her chest and pressed onward. "My brother, Milliardo, thought much like you, but he also came to the wrong conclusions. He and Treize fought together in Oz, but when Treize created his own faction and attempted to unite Romefeller and the colonies in a different way, Milliardo united with the White Fang that almost succeeded in destroying all that they had fought for to begin with. In his quest for peace, he only propagated more war and fought against Treize, who held the same ideals of peace through conflict. It was never about domination!"

Her words angered Cronis, for the next moment Relena was concealed almost completely behind Heero's bare back, the gun brandished valiantly in her direction.

"What would you know about a man as great as Treize Khushrenada? Milliardo Peacecraft was a traitor to Treize's cause, just like you corrupted him with your false sense of peace. Do you know he spoke so highly of you and your misguided pacifism? He thought you were adorable: a stubborn little girl who didn't know when to quit. Even when you became his tool, you never realized your own role in the great play of life. He admired your conviction. That's why it was so fun to use you, because you kept pretending you were so strong even when I had you writhing underneath me like a little whor—" The shot came before either she or Cronis expected it, the general crying out as blood spurted from a wound in his shoulder, the gun dropping from his suddenly limp fingers.

"Treize would have been disgusted by you."

Cronis looked up from where he knelt, blood flowing freely down his arm from where Heero had successfully disarmed him with a bullet. Gritting his teeth and looking as though something had finally broken in his thin hold on sanity, the Osiris leader grabbed up the discarded gun and rushed forward in one fluid movement. Heero was too drained by his own blood loss to properly dodge the attack, managing only to throw Relena away from him as Cronis collided with his body and knocked them both to the floor. Using the momentum of the movement, Heero twisted and managed to hoist the heavier man across the floor, both guns falling away in the scuffle so that he was left with only his wits and rapidly fading agility.

They moved at the same moment, Cronis to rise and Heero to reach after his gun. Cronis won out, crawling in spider-like fashion across the floor so that he could sweep-kick the gun out of Heero's reach and grapple with the Gundam pilot in the midst of the hallway.

They fought for dominance on the cold concrete floor, every roll and twist causing agony to rush through Heero's body so that he was forced to keep a firm hold on consciousness while fighting spots in his vision and near-blackouts. Forgetting about using sight at all, he relied on the skill of his body and the sound and feel of Cronis' movement to guide him.

"Heero!"

Relena called out to him somewhere in the background, and then she was a blur of weight that slammed into both of them and carried Cronis off and away from him. The princess and general landed in a heap on the other side of the hall, with Cronis easily gaining the upper hand and knocking the small woman into the wall with enough force to cause her to crumple like a doll. Standing, the grey-eyed man looked cruelly down at her as he recomposed himself. "I'll get to you in due time. Wait your turn, Princess." Heero felt rage burn in his chest, forcing him to stand and meet the challenge before him.

"Treize attracted people like you all throughout the war: men who never had any purpose in their lives, so they resorted to war to achieve a sense of accomplishment and belonging. He was proud to give soldiers a home to go back to, a side to belong to, and he was good at what he strived to do. But what he failed at was providing a place for them after the wars, instead spawning a generation of lost souls who do not know how to live outside of the battlefield. The Eve Wars, Mariemeia, The Barton Foundation… all of them were remnants of a generation that had never experienced life outside of war. They were afraid of what peace would mean for them, and so they meant to continue war to give themselves a new purpose. Osiris is the same. You are the same."

Silence reigned, deadly in its viscosity. Both men had gone still as stone.

"You… dare…" The words were ground out, grey eyes like granite and clashing with cool Prussian blue. Heero used that anger and pushed forward, purposefully centering on Treize's involvement in the war.

"Osiris was a faction that came about after Treize's death, during the Eve Wars and the surfacing of Mariemeia. Originally, it was filled with remnants of the Treize Faction who could not accept Treize's defeat and meant to 'continue Treize's ideals' in the era of Relena Peacecraft and the Preventers. Unfortunately, no one in Osiris actually understood Treize's true ideals and the original Osiris fell apart, eaten alive from the inside by its own ranks. Treize Khushrenada left behind a legacy of disaster for the soldiers who followed him blindly, but he achieved the goal he had strived for from the beginning of it all: the end of all wars. He understood that battles would still be fought over the question of war, but he left those battles to the people he trusted most: Relena, Une, Zechs, and all the people now and in generations to come that would continue to rally for peace.

"Treize hated war, and he was willing to die in order to let a new era live. That is what you and others like you don't and never will understand, Cronis," he finished quietly, confidently. It was not a righteous speech or a smug knowledge, simply fact, monotonous and clean as it rang true in the empty hallways.

"Blasphemous…" It was little more than a hiss, Zephyr Cronis red-faced and trembling where he stood across from Heero. Next to him, Relena began to stir without Cronis' notice, and Heero slowly began to back away, trusting in the general's instinct to follow his prey. Sure enough, Cronis began to step forward in time with Heero's retreat, forgetting the fallen woman and focusing solely on the man who dared to ruin the memory that he retained of Treize Khushrenada. "You… I should take you apart, piece by piece, and send you to every corner of Space and Earth to set an example. You…"

Heero did not know whether to be wary or amused by Cronis' sudden speechlessness, but he took the opportunity to lead him as far from Relena as he would go. She had yet to raise her head.

"I knew Treize much better than you think I do, Cronis. I fought beside him and against him. Treize Khushrenada was not the man you think he was."

That was the push.

"I knew Treize! I fought beside him through the war, up until the moment he died! I saw you Gundam brats and that worthless girl for what you really were! I warned him against you, but you filled his head with those ridiculous ideas of peace and resolution! You know nothing, Yuy! You were the reason why Treize died, why Oz lost the war and the Colonies are still separated from the rest of humanity! You are the reason that holds us back from our true potential and you are the cause that must be snuffed out to ensure Treize's success!"

Zephyr Cronis was insane, of that Heero was sure.

The general dove for him, forcing Heero to throw himself back and away. Unfortunately, despite rolling safely out of reach, the pain that rebounded from the action caused him to all but pass out. The world went dangerously dark, his consciousness a hard fight to win. By the time he had grasped it and gained a firm hold, Cronis was practically on top of him, uninjured fist aimed at Heero's face. Using Relena's example, he jammed his own palm straight up into the jaw above him, stunning the older man and using the moment to free himself.

This time, however, Cronis had no incentive to stay back. As soon as he had recovered he rushed back at Heero, and this time the Gundam pilot found himself too weak to fend off the attack. Realizing his advantage, the leader of Osiris caught his prey up in a headlock and unceremoniously dragged him back towards the empty office and the unsuspecting body of Relena Peacecraft. Heero surveyed the area, playing the victim while his body used the borrowed time to recover what little strength it could manage, and it was then that he noticed one of the discarded guns tucked back in the shadows.

"I will enjoy killing you, Yuy, I hope you know that. Unlike you, I do not kill because I am ordered or it is my duty. I kill to better the world, knowing that when I take a life it is for the benefit of mankind. It will be a great pleasure to kill you, just as it was a great honor for you to experience the death of Treize. Never will there be a more spectacular death than yours will be, I will make sure of that. The agony you'll feel will be supreme. Of course, I'll kill you today if I have to, but I think you and I both realize that I have the upper hand here. No, no, you and I will have a grand ending. The whole of Earth and the Colonies will be watching, and I will finally fulfill the unity Treize dreamed of beneath a military regime. Miss Dorlian, of course, will remain in my custody, but you… You will become a brilliant martyr for our purpose." Heero could hear the malicious smile in the voice, distant with imagination of the terrible things he surely had in mind for the pilot. Heero, however, heard the rant with only one ear, concentrating on the gun as it crept closer. Just a little bit more and…

"Heero?"

Relena stirred, opening bleary, painful eyes to take in the pair of them. Heero forced himself to remain limp in Cronis' hold, playing the victim so that he might have a little more time. The general, for his part, was almost giddy with the sudden wakefulness of the princess.

"Ah! Miss Dorlian! We were just discussing your presence in my future plans. You see, Yuy will be a brilliant martyr, and you… you, my dear, have a much more important part to play…"

There!

Twisting with all the speed and strength of a man who had never suffered a bullet in his life, Heero Yuy gripped the arm of his captor, dug the heels of his boots into the floor, and bodily threw the man over his shoulder and into an adjacent wall. Cronis hit with a thud and a crunch, falling like a bag of bricks to the floor as Heero dove for the gun, feeling it slide with an almost liquid grace into his fingers. The weight of the gun was familiar and comforting in a way that would normally disturb him, but today it felt right.

Aiming it at Cronis, he fired a shot directly into the thigh of the insane radical, disabling the leg and rending him all but immobile. Cronis howled in pain and anger, gripping the leg as he crouched in a pool of quickly-forming blood, and looked up to glare at Heero with all the malice and hatred one might have for another human. His finger still on the trigger as those grey eyes watched him, Heero momentarily considered forgoing his promise to never kill again. A man like Cronis would never stop, would never leave them in peace…

Men like Zephyr Cronis were the same ones that had first made war necessary.

Hands tightening, Heero prepared himself to accept the consequences to his actions.

"Don't." And then it came. Gentle even in her anger, Relena's hand came to rest over his own, carefully directing the muzzle towards the floor. "You've already taken on too many burdens. You don't need to take this one."

He turned just enough to look her in the eyes, bruises forming on her cheek and around her throat where the man in question had both strangled and hit her. For that alone, Heero was willing to pull the trigger, knowing all that had been done to her over the years she had been trapped with that man. Nevertheless, he could see the pleading in her eyes.

"I'm ready to enjoy this peace we've made. Please stay with me, Heero," she asked quietly, neither demanding nor assuming. She waited patiently for his answer, her hand remaining on his while they read the expression in each other's eyes.

She had also sacrificed much for this peace. It was the least he owed her, to put aside his gun one last time, to let her rescue him. She had always been his salvation; a reprieve Cronis had never experienced. Like Relena, Heero was ready to enjoy the peace he had suffered through death, madness, and pain to achieve. He was ready, and not even Cronis would stand in their way.

It was with ease that he lowered his gun once and for all and slipped it back into its holster. His hand, once free, was filled with a small, feminine one. Relena, suddenly calm and composed despite her state of dishevelment, turned to regard the man that had caused them three years of pain and loneliness.

"You've lost this war, General Cronis."

Crippled and on the verge of failing, Zephyr Cronis seethed before them.

Next Chapter: 26, Desperation, At the end of his fight and his rope, Cronis tries one last tactic to win against Heero and the conflict comes to a close, for better or worse.