Farewell
Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing or any of its characters.
Relena couldn't seem to absorb it. A part of her mind raged, screaming in agony, but the rest of her mind still felt numb, somehow distant and removed from the harsh reality of the news she had received.
Heero was dead. While on a mission from the Preventers to infiltrate the suspected base of a group of terrorists and destroy their weapons store, Heero had been ambushed. He had defeated his attackers, but not before he was seriously injured. Ever the Perfect Soldier, he managed to complete his mission and destroy the weapons, and then he had collapsed. By the time help arrived he was gone and all attempts to revive him had failed.
It was almost unbelievable to Relena. Although she had always known that Heero lived a very risky life, at the same time he had always seemed almost indestructible. He had always survived. No matter how many times he was almost killed, either by himself or others, he ad always made it out of those attempts alive. Until now.
Relena walked to her nightstand and picked up a framed picture. It was her only picture of Heero. Duo had taken the picture and given it to Relena only a few months before. In the picture Heero was as he had always been. Cold blue eyes set in a handsome, unsmiling face, with his brown spiky bangs falling over his forehead.
Relena had talked to Heero only rarely ever since the wars. She had occasionally seen him in the shadows, watching over her, but he'd always disappeared if she tried to approach him. He had never spoken of his feelings for her or even said whether he had any feelings for her, but Relena knew. For her part, Relena's feelings for Heero had grown deeper with time. What had once been an adolescent crush had gained the strength and depth of true, soul-deep love, even though she had accepted that they would probably never be together.
Suddenly, as she gazed at the picture of her only love, her mind accepted that he was gone and pain rushed through every fiber of her being. It was too much to contain and Relena fell to the bed, clutching the picture, as soul-wrenching sobs racked her body. She cried for hours and even after all her tears were gone her body still shuddered sobs. Eventually she stilled, exhausted.
Finally, Relena sat up, once more gazing at the picture of Heero. Though she knew the tears would soon return, the release of those first tears had brought a new clarity to Relena.
"Heero," she whispered, softly running a finger along the face in the picture, "I won't give up. I won't let my grief stop me. I will continue to do all I can to maintain the peace that you fought so hard to attain. I'll do it for you, for as long as I live. And then, my love, my spirit will join yours and we'll finally be able to be together."