A.N. This chapter is rated M for mature. For violence and language. We hope you enjoy.

"IT'S SNOWING!" She squealed as she bounced in the limousine. "We're going to have a white Christmas after all. Look, look, look!"

"If only everyone at the party could see the primmest young lady from the ball now bouncing around like a little child. Everyone told me how proud I should be to have such a respectable and proper ward. They could never understand why I laughed." Treize smoothly replied returning her teasing glare with a small smile.

"You would think you've never seen snow before. How can you be excited about it anyways?" Zechs laughed shaking his head as he watched with amusement.

"How can you NOT be excited? Snowball fights, sledding, and snowmen? Sitting in front of the fireplace with hot cocoa with all the light outs just watching it fall. It's just so so…It's snow!" She bounced again her nose pressed to the window with awe on her face.

"Calm down, Thiana. We still have an hour drive ahead before we reach home." Treize leaned back into his seat relaxing as he listened to their hushed whispers.

"Sir." The radio between the back of the limo and the front cracked.

"Yes, what it is, Sean?"Treize replied.

"The road is getting worse and the snow is slightly mixed with ice it will take us longer to make it back."

"That is fine, take your time." He disconnected the link. "Well it looks like it's going to take longer now because of your wonderful snow." He nodded as he saw Une make a quick call to the house to inform the guards of what was going on.

"I'm ok with that…" Thiana said softly as she leaned back watching the flakes fall with silence.

"They're both out of it." Une stated next to Treize as she looked at Thiana and Zechs. Thiana was curled up on her side with her head resting against Zechs' thigh as he was stretched out sleeping while still sitting.

Treize looked up from a file of papers he was looking over. "Yes it seems they are." He lightly rubbed the bridge of his nose as the party, car ride, and late night were finally starting to stretch him too thin.

"You've heard the rumors…" Une stated.

Treize just nodded closing the file as he settled into thought.

"She's going to leave me." He finally broke the silence.

"How do you know? You're her only family. She wouldn't leave you when she knows how much you'll need her." Une countered totally convinced in her statement.

"I'm not her only family. They're still alive, but when she learns what the plans are she won't stand by me." He closed his eyes as he fully accepted his future choices and what he would have to pay for them.

"Don't let her find out then." Une hastily replied.

"Oh my Lady Une, I would truly lose her forever if I tried to pull the wool over her eyes. No, I'll send her on the ambassador mission because I need to know how much they know, as does she, and then I believe she'll find the finishing piece to the boarder. Men have been piecing this puzzle together for years. I've been handed my section and I'll put it together. It's my duty and honor, and if I play the game correctly I might just end up with the masterpiece."

"All the more reason to make sure she stays by your side."

"No, She'll never stand by passively. She might be part of the puzzle, but she also has her own section to piece together. Never forget that Lady Une. She is not a follower, and she'll never stand behind or beside a person if she doesn't fully agree. War is on the horizon. The beautiful dance of human nature is coming back out onto the floor, and our dance cards are leading us to different partners." He sighed as he looked out the window and felt the smallest of cracks form in his heart.

"Sir, we're approaching the main gates now."

"Thank you Sean." Treize moved down the limo before sitting on the very edge next to Thiana. He looked down at her peaceful face and couldn't imagine that it had only been five years since the night that changed his life. He wouldn't change a thing even though he knew he would be losing her soon.

"Little panther…" He lightly ran his finger tip down the side of her face to slowly wake her up. "Come now, we're home." He watched as her body came alive first, testing her surroundings to see if when her eyes opened she would need to attack. "Thiana…" There came her eyes. The blackish blue depths that always seemed to make him drown in their knowledge. She studied him for a second.

"What's wrong?" Her question hit him in the gut. How can he let her go? He didn't know the answer but he knew he would anyways. She had her own part to this coming dance and it wasn't with him. He just hoped she would leave at least one spot open for him.

"Nothing is wrong, except it's three in the morning, and you are sleeping in the limo when your room is just a few steps away." He tapped her nose. "And if you don't come in now, you will never be able to sneak down into the main room to fall asleep beneath the Christmas tree.

Her smile came at that statement but it never reached her eyes. He knew she could see something but he thanked her silently as she didn't push. He slowly moved back to exit as Thiana sat up to wake Zechs.

"Come on sleepy head. Wakey wakey!" Thiana said in a sing song voice as she lightly poked at his face. All she got in reply was a swipe at her hand and a muffled 'go away'. By this time Treize and Une were already heading up the stairs. Yet the bellow of anger followed by uncontrollable laughter had them looking back at the limo.

"THIANA! GET BACK HERE!" Zechs' voice echoed out of the limo right behind the culprit.

"Um…..NO!" She laughed back as she ran up the stairs towards the doors. It wasn't until she had reached level with Treize, and Une that Zechs finally made it out of the limo and Treize started laughing.

"You threw snow at him?" Treize asked but already knew the answer by the flakes still in Zechs' hair and the soaked front of his dinner attire.

"He wouldn't get up." Thiana stated before ducking, just dodging a return attack.

"It is just cruel to awaken a man like that." Treize bent down taking up a large pile of snow. "I think retaliation is in order." He laughed again when a flash of excitement crossed her eyes right before she was off. "Just try your luck."

It was there on the front yard of the Khushrenada estate at three in the morning on Christmas day a full out snow ball fight was launched. In full out formal attire the three launched snow balls until they were as soaked as if they had gone swimming. They only stopped when the nearby village's clock tower rang out four loud gongs.

"Come now you two hellions. It's nearly Christmas morning and we have yet to sleep on Christmas Eve. Do not forget the guest will be arriving tomorrow night around three pm. We must be ready for them preferably without yawning. Now off to bed, both of you." Treize stated before heading into the house and up to his room.

"Merry Christmas Thiana, goodnight." Zechs followed shortly after, already yawning as he entered the house.

"Merry Christmas, Boy, Serene." Thiana closed her eyes lifting her face to the sky and let herself relax to the music of the night. "Please keep fighting, never let them win."

She slowly worked her way up to her room removing the soaked dress and slipping into her sleeping attire before slipping back down stairs. She laughed lightly as she saw a small bed of blankets already made up next to the tree ready for her tradition of sleeping next to the glittering lights. It was as she snuggled beneath the blankets ready to fall asleep her eyes spied a small package wrapped in black wrapping with a black ribbon.

She couldn't stop herself from pulling the gift towards her. 'Who would have wrapped a Christmas gift in black wrapping? How un-festive.' She thought before she froze as the name on the card read Alpha.

Her body reacted before she could think. Ripping the paper off and inserting the video into the player before she realized what she was doing. The following scenes and sounds had her gasping for breath as her chest constricted as waves of pure anger ran through her body.

"Serene…no…"

He rolled over in bed and groaned as the clock read only six in the morning. He hadn't even been to sleep for two hours. Why was he suddenly awake? He laid thinking about it and couldn't get Thiana out of his mind. She would make fun of him if he went down to check on her but he knew he wouldn't fall asleep if he didn't see her sleeping.

Giving a sigh he rolled out of bed and slowly made his way out of his room and down the stairs. It took seconds for his mind to register the sounds that were coming from the main room.

"Scream damn you! I want to hear you beg me to stop you bitch! You fucking little bitch!"

The sound of a slap filtered out and Zechs was running. He heard the gasps of a person in extreme pain as more filtered out of abuse. He rounded the corner Thiana's name on his lips but froze as his eyes found the television. The sounds were coming from it. Static followed before it started over again.

"Merry Christmas Alpha."

Then images of a small blonde haired female no older then the age of seven filtered across the screen. All that could be seen was her being abused. The attacker's face was always hidden but it showed extreme hatred towards the child. The next clip was of a different child, a boy. His was working his way through a gantlet of a task, all abusing his body to weaken him. When he reached the end a voice declared to slow and he was sent back through the same task. Zechs realized that they would continue over and over until the boy either passed out from the pain or the training was called to a stop. He knew that this was a training exercise by some sick person. Then the clip changed again and it was the blonde older now but still being tormented. She was on the ground her body arched to the breaking point as electricity ran through her.

Zechs was in total shock as the girl began to be kicked while the electricity was still shooting through her erratically. He never even noticed the tears start to fall down his face as the abuser started yelling at the girl, and he realized it was all directed at Thiana. This man was taking his anger, and fear because of Thiana out on this girl.

"You stupid little bitch! How dare you betray me and become his little lap-dog! You ungrateful bitch! I'll teach you!" and on it went.

When the fuzz started signaling the end he was in a daze. He wanted to scream, break something, and hide in a corner crying for two lives he had no knowledge of. He stumbled through the halls as the video started repeating. His hands rose to cover his ears but he stopped at seeing the tremor of anger in them. "Thiana…" If he was reacting this way and he had no knowledge of the two children he could not even imagine how she would be dealing. He started running around the house throwing open doors headless of the noise as he couldn't find her. It wasn't until he stopped to try and think that one place only made sense. 'Outside' He quickly turned to the workout room as it was the closest room with an exit door and gasped at the disaster.

Almost everything was destroyed. Every mirror was shattered littering the ground with broken shards. The weights were thrown everywhere as the bunching bags were ripped spilling their innards to the floor. Lights were broken and some hanging down at severe angles about ready to fully fall from the ceiling. The open back door drew his attention as he slowly made his way through the destruction.

There she was. Her hair whipped around her form as she knelt in the snow. No lights from the house reached her as she took solace in the darkness. Her arms were limp at her sides her face upturned to the sky. Nature seemed to echo her silent screams of pain and anger as even the moon was nowhere to be found in the star lit sky. His heart broke as her pain washed over him. Even if he hadn't seen the video he would have been staggered just by her inner turmoil.

He'd never been one for feeling people's pain but right then it was like she was punching him in the gut it hurt so much to look at her. He knew in that moment she was beyond him; that through these past five years, even after the Portugal mission, he had never truly seen her inner self. And now that he was seeing what drove her he realized that she would travel down paths he could never follow.

At the next second anger at her flashed through him. How could she just sit there? How could she have left those two children to that torture? Why had she never gone to free them? He had seen what she could do. He would have helped and he was sure that Treize would have too. Why had she never told him? He had thought by the way she had acted the girl she had avenged for was dead but by the look of the video she was still very much alive.

He took a couple steps closer and could finally make out that her body was shaking. When he finally reached her he noticed the tears running down her face and the dark stain of blood on the snow from where the glass had cut her hands. He was at war with himself; his anger at her lack of trying to save the two other children and his feelings to take her in his arms and protect.

"Zechs…It's all because of me. Every time I fought against him he would hurt them. How can I ever face them again?" Her eyes pleaded with him for something neither of them understood. It was in the next instance he found himself kneeling in the snow and his arms where around her, holding her close to him as their lips met. Her hands fisted in his shirt as she met his confusion and anger with her own sorrow and rage. The world ignited around them. He had never felt this connection with anyone and he lost himself in it.

By the time they broke apart they were both gasping for breath. "We'll go after them. Right now."

"Zechs…no…" She ran her hand down the side of his face as the sorrow settled back into her eyes

"What? Why not?" Zechs pulled even more away.

"Please don't. There's more going on then what you know about. I don't even know everything but I do know it's not time for me to get them out yet."

"Please DON'T! PLEASE DON'T? How can you do nothing?" Zechs stood up his whole body shaking with anger. "That man, those people are torturing those two children. Instead of taking action; instead of fighting back all you do is go and destroy the training room?"

"Don't you DARE, Zechs Merquise!" She stood up matching his outrage with pure anger. "I lived that video for eight years. Eight years of my life I was trained to kill and if I didn't make progress the soldiers would get their kicks out of kicking me. I know they'll never forgive me for not at least trying to break them out but if I tried we'd all be dead. I survived their methods and so will they. So instead, my 'doing nothing' is foiling all of that bastards plans and making him fear every minute of his existence for the lack of knowing when I'll finally bring justice to him."

Her words hit him like knives but he wasn't willing to back down. "You foiling his plans are the reason he beats them." He reached out grasping her arms trying to make her see reason.

"I KNOW THAT!" She pushed him away with enough force knocking him to the ground that he gasped for breath. "I know that every time I've hit a major blow against him he took his anger out on them. I know that everyone of those kicks and punches are meant for me. I know that there's a circle in hell for me because I took Treize's offer of life instead of going back to certain death. I can only hope that I'm forgiven enough that we're not placed in the same circle." She yelled down at him.

"I never thought you would be a coward and not go after them."

"You, you, you!" She jumped on him. "You know nothing! How dare you even say that?" Her fist hit him square across the face and the sound of his nose breaking filled the silence before they started a full out fight. Not many words were said as they both fought out their anger. When she delivered a back handed hit to the side of his head and she saw his eyes go dazed she screamed in fear that she'd finally lost it and was no better then what she had been originally trained for.

"Zechs!" She dropped down to his side cradling his head in her lap as she lightly slapped his face to wake him up. "No no no, please wake up…..Zechs, I'm so sorry. I lost it." Her tears dropped down on his face as a door slamming open echoed across the ground.

"Wake up! Oh please wake up!" She ran her hand against his face now wiping the blood from his nose away with the sleeve of her shirt. She laid her forehead down against his whispering nonsense words trying to awaken him.

"Thiana, what happened?" Treize was at her side trying to pull her back away from Zechs.

"NO!" she screamed sobs racking her body. "He sent a video, I lost it, and then Zechs watched and found me. We fought and now I think I killed him." She wrapped her armed across his chest as if hugging his head to her body. "Treize do something please, save him."

"I'll do whatever I can but I need you to lean back first." Treize ran his hand up and down her back in a soothing motion to calm her down. However, neither of them needed to worry as at the next moment a groan came from Zechs.

Thiana sat up her eyes wide as she looked down into his face.

"Zechs…" Her voice was barely a whisper and Treize even noticed that she had stopped breathing.

"Thia…" The reply was even softer and the breath she had been holding came out in a rush.

"Come now; help me get him into the house." Treize stood up and with Thiana's help they half carried Zechs back up to his room.

A stinging smell wafted across his senses making him jerk awake and the bright splash of sun falling across his face made him groan as he slowly opened his eyes. His head felt like a thousand sledge hammers were at work and his body was the stiffness that came after an extreme workout or fight. 'The Fight!'

"Thiana…" He gasped as he tried to sit up.

"Ah, you're up." Zechs slowly followed the voice to the fuzzy form that after a couple blinks solidified into Treize.

"Where is she? Is she ok?" He had been so wrong, so very, very wrong. How could he have said those things to her?

"She's sleeping. I sent her to get cleaned up, and then ordered her to bed." Treize replied, watching as the statement seemed to settle the young man while he rebottled the smelling salts.

"I got the story, word for word before she went to bed." The silence was as loud as if Treize were yelling at him.

"I was wrong."

"Yes, you were."

"Did you find the video?"

"Oh yes, the video; I watched it and have already started working out on how it made into the pile of Christmas presents." Zechs could hear the barely controlled anger in Treize's voice and knew that the servant who had placed the gift under the tree would be in major trouble. Which again made him realize how terribly he had handled everything.

"You've known about this the whole time haven't you?" Zechs looked up at him

"I had ideas, but I learned everything on the night of her twelfth birthday. She had been planning to go after them that night. I talked her out of it and started to train and teach her in ways to fully destroy their personal demon and create a better future for her friends in the long run. Rather than make rash decisions and actions." He stated

"I was so wrong."

"Again, yes you were." Treize paused, "Zechs, there is going to come a time that your rash decisions are going to cause more trouble then they fix. Like today, even though she's taking the full blame, you kept pushing her. You picked a fight with someone better trained, and it almost cost you your life. Her going to try and free her friends would come out with the same reaction as you fighting Thiana, death. You're lucky she cares for you and didn't take the final blow."

Treize stood up and walked over to the door before stopping. "Christmas dinner will be served in three hours. You have a slight concussion. I've been keeping you awake these last couple hours but seeing as your now with it I think the pain is a well needed reminder for you right now. However, I want you to fix the tension between you two before we eat." And with that he was gone.

Zechs knew he was right and so slowly made his way out of bed and got dressed before heading to her room. He knocked three times and gave a sigh of relief when he heard her soft come in.

She was curled up on her side on the window bench, wrapped in a blanket. He stopped for a moment and just watched. Their earlier kiss flashed through his mind and it felt like it had been ages ago. He moved forward sitting on the bench by her feet and a slightly uneasy silence settled between them.

He looked up to find her eyes trained on him and he saw the same anguish inside himself reflected in her eyes.

"I'm sorry." They said at the same time and the unease shattered.

"Thia, I was wrong. I should never have said those things."

"I should have kept better control." They both watched each other wondering how so much could have happened in less than 24 hours.

She was the first to move as she sat up and leaned into him for a hug. He sighed as he wrapped his arms around her. It felt so right that both of them settled into their old traditional silences.

"I know what it's like to want to reach out to someone but can't because it would cause them more danger. My sister, Relena, survived the attack." Thiana looked up at him her eyes wide. "I know I've told you what happened but I had to keep her secret." He ran his hand lightly up and down her arm.

"I should have realized that the same reasons I've never told her who I am or her birthright are the same reasons you haven't gone after them."

"Thank you." Thiana gave a small smile before settling back against him. The room was silent as he held her. But there was a feeling of contentment and even peace as another snow fall started covering the mistakes of yesterday and painting the world once again in a pure layer of white.