The Greatest Loss
Part IV: The Search Begins
Disclaimer: Sotsu Agency * Sunrise*ANB owns Gundam Wing. I am; it was written purely for enjoyment
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"You like looking in other people's drawers?" the voice in the doorway made Relena look up. She couldn't tell who it was so she stayed still in the chair. She didn't really hear the voice- her thoughts were stuck on Heero and the dream. The person came into the room and entered into the moonlight that flowed through the large windows. It was Duo.
"Oh, Duo. It's you. You startled me," Relena commented softly as she closed the desk drawer. "Any news?"
"Nope, not yet. Sorry," he paused and sat down in the chair in front of the desk. He had a sad but thoughtful expression on his face. "But, Lena, you know that there is a small chance that-"
"Duo! Don't even say that!" She jumped up from the chair. "You know just as well as I do, being his best friend and all, that Heero Yuy is an incredibly strong person and that he could have survived that detonation; he's done it before." When she stopped, her eyes had swelled up with tears. She walked over by the bookshelf to hide her eyes from Duo. She was afraid to blink because if she did the tears would fall. She looked back and blinked. Duo noticed as the tears reflected the moonlight. He sighed and looked at the floor. Wiping the tears away, she went and sat back down in Heero's desk chair.
"Relena, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to upset you, but you know that there is a chance. Even though it is Heero, there is still a chance. I just don't want all of us to get our hopes to high and then have them crashed when reality hits us and we accept that Heero may be dead. Just because I, or anyone else, didn't find anything on the beach doesn't mean anything. He could still be dead. The only way we can know if he is alive or not is to find him. But where could we look?" Duo stopped and silently pondered, as did Relena.
"He could be on any of the Colonies. That search could take forever. Millions of people live on the Colonies. We could search the docking bay and shuttle records for the past two months, but if we did, we would have to for every Colony and every docking bay. Knowing Heero, he would go under a fake name anyways wouldn't he? We could search here on Earth, but that search, too, could be near impossible to do. Billions of people live on Earth. Where would we even begin? If Heero were here and he was looking for you or one of the other pilots, he probably would have found you by now," she stopped and sighed. She looked at Duo with wondering eyes. "He would probably have set up some sort of search program on his computer to search the names on the shuttle lists for certain names or something." She folded her arms and laid them on the desk. 'Oh, Heero, Why did you have to leave me?' She felt like crying, so she laid her head on her arms.
"I know what you mean. Heero was an expert at anything hi-tech. Hacking, creating programs and viruses, you name it he could do it. You're right: Heero Yuy would have found any of us the moment we came out of hiding." Duo stood up and walked over by Relena. He rested his hand on her shoulder. "I'm sorry, Lena. Milliardo sent me to get you, but you can just come back to the control room when you're okay, alright?" And then Duo left the room and went back to the control room where the others were.
"Heero." She stood up from the chair. "Shoot, I don't want them to know I was crying. I probably look like shit," she walked over the bathroom. She pressed the door open just enough to fit in. She turned on the light and looked in the mirror. Making sure her eyes weren't so red and puffy, she turned the light off and walked out of the bathroom out into the main office, and down the control room to see what her brother wanted.
"Yes Milliardo?" she said as she walked into the room. "You wanted to see me?" As she walked in, she got sad looks from the other people in the room, but she didn't notice. She walked up to her brother and he gave her a hug.
" I just wanted to know that you were okay. You've been gone all day. Where were you?" he asked her as he ended the hug and led Relena over to where Noin and Trowa were.
"I was in Heero's office," she looked down so she didn't have to see the shocked and worried glances that were on her; she could feel them. "I fell asleep. I'm sorry to have worried you, Milliardo."
"Oh, it's alright. Well, we've been searching all over and we haven't found anything yet," He said to his sister.
"Any luck on the shuttles to or from L1, Trowa?" Milliardo asked looking at the screen over Trowa's shoulder.
"No, nothing yet. I've been searching for names that Heero might use or might be related to him in some way, but there is nothing on L1. I've looked up every record for the past two months on docking bay on the damned thing, and nothing. I'm sorry," and Trowa closed his eyes as he winced.
'No luck here Heero, but I swear, we will find you. For Relena's sake and ours.' "Anything from the rest of you?"
"Nothing here," Quatre said sadly and the look made Relena feel like crying all over again.
"No. I can't find him either," said a very annoyed and angry WuFei. 'Oh, the injustice of it all! Heero, why even try to hide from us? Why?'
"I haven't had any luck either, none of us have. I'm sorry," commented Sally. Relena bowed her head. She had to think of somewhere that Heero may have gone to.
Duo was searching now too, and after another two hours of searching, no one had come up with anything and he was becoming royally pissed. "That's it!" he shouted as he stood up from his chair after everyone gave his or her bad news. "This is bullshit. We can't focus all of our thoughts on him being on the Colonies. The Earth is a huge place! He could be here, in the Kingdom, and we wouldn't know because we have spent the last 40 fucking hours sitting in front of computer screens, searching list after list of names of people who we don't know, or give a damn about! I don't care what you guys do, continue searching on the Colonies, but I am going to search here- on Earth." He looked at Relena who had tears swelling in her eyes again. " I'm gonna go find Heero."
"Duo, wait for me," and Relena followed him out of the room, leaving everyone else awestruck and contemplating what they should do.
Sally was the first to speak. "All right, everyone listen to me. Duo is right. We can't only focus on the Colonies. We can dispatch some soldiers to go and search the Airport passenger lists. They could search the cities, and look through police reports, or hospital records. We have to find him. Do what you think will be best. But we will have people here on the computers looking through the Colonies."
"Duo, before we leave, I want to see something in Heero's office quick," Relena said as she remembered the overturned picture from before. They were right down the hall from his office anyways.
"All right, but be quick about it. I'll be in my office. We'll leave in 10 minutes."
Relena ran over to Heero's office. She twisted the handle only to find it had been locked. 'I don't remember locking his door when I came out,' She thought. 'Duo might have a key.' She ran back to Duo's office.
"That was quick," he commented and smiled. "I was only kidding. What's up?"
"Well, his door is locked and I was wondering if you had a key?" Relena asked him. Duo reached into his top left desk drawer and pulled out a key. He tossed it to Relena. "Thank you." She ran back to Heero's office and unlocked the door. She slipped through the door when it was wide enough. She quietly closed the door behind her. As Relena reached for the light switch her hand was grabbed by another hand and it was pulled up behind her back. She winced before she felt one clamp down hard on her mouth so she wouldn't be able to scream. Relena tried to struggle away from the intruder but the grip they had was too strong. Her arm was pulled up tight and she arched her back to follow her hand trying to lessen the pain. Relena ended up leaning against the intruder. 'It's a man. Oh, God. Help me. Heero. Where are you when I need you? If I could only get Duo's attention.' Then she got an idea. She tried to bend forward, bringing the man with her. But then she snapped her waist back and as they both toppled over, she tried to kick the window on the door. If it broke and made a crashing noise, Duo might hear it and come to her rescue. As the man and Relena fell, he noticed her attempt and kicked her leg down with his own. When hitting the ground, he got the wind knocked out of him and lost hid grip on Relena. She got back up to her feet. She tried to reach the door, but the man grabbed her ankle and she tripped and landed on the hardwood floor. The man crawled up to her and put his knee on her waist so she would then be grounded.
He grabbed her hands and pulled them behind her and there he held them with one hand and used the other to cover her mouth. He leaned down and whispered in her ear, "I'm sorry." She didn't have time to try and recognize the voice before she was knocked unconscious.
'What is taking her so long?' Duo wondered. He walked over to Heero's office and opened the door. He reached and turned on the light switch. "Well, the lights are on but nobody's home." He searched the room for Relena but he couldn't find her anywhere. 'Maybe she had to talk to Milliardo again. But wouldn't she tell me she was going back?' Duo turned the lights off and went back to the control room to see if Relena was there.
"Hey Duo," Sally greeted.
"Have you guys seen Relena?" he asked after not seeing her in the room.
"No, I thought she went with you Maxwell?" Milliardo asked the pilot.
"Well, she had to go see something in Heero's office, but when I went there to get her she was gone. I just figured she came here to see you or something." He said.
"No, she hasn't been here. Maybe she went to the bathroom?" Sally questioned.
"Yeah, probably. I better go back. See ya." And Duo ran back down to his office.
"Ya know what? Heero is a very strange guy. First he disappears after the whole Mariemaya incident, and finally decided to come back and work for the Preventers. Now, he self-detonates and supposedly fakes his death, hides from all of us, and has practically vanished from the face of the Earth. He is one remarkable person. Not to mention the fact that he seems so... inhuman. He has no emotions and barely shows it when he gets hurt. Like when Duo told us that Heero set his leg back in place; how on Earth could he do that? Think about how you would act with that much pain, forgetting of course that you are Gundam pilots. How bad would that hurt? I mean... ow," besides now and reporting her status on her search, Hilde had been quiet the whole time.
Milliardo and the others just gave her a funny look. "Yes Hilde, we all know how Heero is. But we have to find him. He is an important part of the Preventers and a good friend to us, well most of us anyways." Quatre said. Everyone had a silent reflection on how Heero has affected their lives. WuFei had only one thought about all of it: 'If only you knew what you were putting us through, Heero. We will find you, and when we do, you can believe that you're gonna get your ass kicked.'
Angel Yuy