Chapter Eleven

Warnings: Mild language

Chapter Eight

"Shit! Shit! Shit!" Heero's fist slammed down on the desk as he cursed.

"Calm down, buddy." Duo soothed "I know it looks bad, but maybe she is just mad at you because your, well, you."

"Baka!" Heero glared at Duo "I should never have left her, dam it! I should have followed my gut feeling. Duo!" Duo jumped and backed up a little from Heero who stormed up to him "Call Hilde. See if she has had any communication with Relena."

"Ok, you're the boss!" Duo moved cautiously around Heero to the console and initiated the call.

"What is all the noise." Wufei had emerged from the examination room, followed by Trowa who sat on a chair and used a remote to turn on a television and started to flick through channels. He snorted when Heero held a finger up warning him to be quiet, and muted the sound putting on the subtitles. Duo had connected with Hilde and started to talk to her.

"Hey babe." He said with a winning smile "How ya doing?"

"Fine Duo." Hilde smiled broadly "I'm finding it a bit hard keeping your absence quiet – when are you coming back?"

"Er, might be a little while yet." Duo gaze flickered from Hilde to Heero, who was beginning to finger his gun in agitation "Things are getting a little tricky. Hon, have you spoken to Relena lately?"

"No." Hilde shook her head "I tried a couple of times, but couldn't get past her secretary. Why? You want me to try and get a message to her for you?" Heero had walked around to Duos side whilst Hilde talked. Hilde's eyes narrowed at Heero holding his gun and looking grim. "What's going on Heero?" she asked.

"Hilde, don't try and contact Relena again." Heero said, "If any Preventors ask where Duo is, say he took off. You don't know where he is and don't know when he will be back."

"Well that's the truth anyway." Hilde said sarcastically "I'm guessing things are not going so well."

"Yeah honey" Duo nodded "And it seems like they are going to get worse. Look - if the questioning gets too intense, take off. Lie low until I contact you – you know where." Hilde nodded. "Don't trust anyone. Not Relena, not Lady Une, no one. Not until I tell you its safe."

Hilde hugged herself "God, Duo, now I am worried!"

Duo grinned at her "Its gonna be fine, sugar. Look, I gotta go. Remember what I said."

Hilde nodded "I will Duo." She said, "You take care." She kissed her fingers and held them up to the screen, Duo winked at her and terminated the call.

"So she hasn't had contact with Relena. The Minister is a busy person, so what!" Wufei grunted.

"Relena just told Heero never to contact her again!" Duo said "Now I don't know about you, but that is a little bit of a change from the princess who chased him all over Earth."

"So she finally came to her senses!" Wufei argued "The woman has decided to be strong and stand up for herself!"

"Please, can we have a little less shouting!" Sally came into the room. "I would like Quatre to sleep as long as possible. All this arguing is going to wake him."

"Relena is not herself." Heero growled at Wufei.

"Just because she told you to leave her alone does not mean she is not herself." Wufei frowned back.

"She. Is. Not. Herself!" Heero folded his arms "I don't like repeating myself!"

"Guys." Trowa's quiet voice interrupted, but Wufei ignored him.

"She is a strong woman. She has decided to move on." He crossed his arms too, glaring at Heero.

"Guys…" Trowa said a little more loudly. Sally moved to Trowa's side and started watching what he was watching on the television.

"She has NOT moved on! I know that something has happened to her. And you are too ignorant of our situations to make any comments about her moving on." Heero eyes narrowed dangerously.

"Guys…" Trowa tried again, and Duo went to see what he was watching.

"Injustice!"

"Baka!"

"GUYS!" Trowa yelled. Wufei and Heero tore their glares away from each other and looked at Trowa. Trowa pointed at the television. Wufei and Heero looked at the television. Archived footage of Relena was playing, showing her in a black evening gown arriving at a gala. Trowa turned the subtitles off and turned the volume up.

"Foreign Minister Dorlian, seen here at the War Orphans Charity Ball held last month, announced today that she will be setting up a Justice Committee which will be dedicated to bringing persons guilty of war crimes to justice. Ms Dorlian has special interest in war crimes as her own father was assassinated at the start of the Oz conflict. The identity of the assassin was never established.

"There have been many accusations lodged against the infamous Gundam pilots. It has been alleged that they caused unnecessary pain and suffering to civilian populations during the wars. Ms Dorlian has promised that the five Gundam pilots will be the first to be investigated by the new Justice Committee. Whilst at present the Gundam pilots identities are secret, Ms Dorlian has advised that if the pilots are found guilty then their identities will be exposed and they will be made accountable for their crimes.

"It is widely believed that Ms Dorlian had first hand contact with the Gundam pilots during the wars." The announcer moved to another story.

"Shit." Said Duo.

"Your right. The woman hasn't moved on." Wufei shook his head "There is no way she would do this to us."

"They must be manipulating her as they did Quatre." Sally put her hand on Heero's shoulder "Are you alright Heero?"

Heero remained silent, eyes lowered, fringe falling over his face. He took a breath and turned to Sally.

"I'm going to get her." He started walking to the door.

"Wait, shit wait Heero." Duo moved in front of the door. "You can't go off half cocked, we have to have a plan buddy!"

"The plan is I'm going to get her." Heero said.

"Yes, well you are going to need me at least." Sally said "If she has been implanted with a nanobot, you will need me there to get rid of it, or at least wait until I have shown you how to do it." Heero stopped and looked over his shoulder at Sally. "OK, you would probably be able to hack into a bot's controls, but you don't know what condition she is going to be in." she went on "We know that they have been drugging her, if that has been going on long enough it could have caused physical damage. I know she is important to you, Heero, but you don't do her any favours if you go now. At least wait for Quatre to come around so we know that what they have done to her is reversible."

Heero nodded slowly then looked past Sally. Sally turned and saw Quatre standing in the doorway will Dr J.

"Hi guys" he said weakly, holding a hand up "I believe I need to apologise to you all, I don't believe I have been myself." He gave a half smile. He walked slowly to the couch and sat beside Trowa, running his hand through his hair as he did so. He winced as his fingers encountered the bump on the back of his head and he looked at Wufei. "I believe I did deserve this." Quatre said, "I said some very unkind things about Miss Po. Sorry."

Wufei nodded his head accepting the apology, but did not offer one in return. Sally put her arms around Quatre's shoulders and gave him a hug, before pulling out a penlight torch from her pocket and shining it into first one, then the other of Quatre's eyes.

"How are you feeling beside the headache?" she asked. "Dizzy, nauseous. Confused?"

"I'm fine, Miss Po, really." Quatre said, "Just embarrassed by my actions of the last couple of weeks and rather angry at Lady Une for placing me in this situation. She was so considerate and kind, then drugged my coffee and the next thing I know is that you are all my enemies."

"So Lady Une was behind it." Wufei shook his head, "I thought that she was one person we could trust."

"Do you remember what you were instructed to do?" Heero asked. He looked like he had calmed down, and was leaning up against the wall arms folded, head bent. Quatre could sense that he was extremely agitated.

"Yes. It's a very weird feeling. You all were plotting against the security of ESUN and against me personally. My task was to try and stabilise ESUNs position with the colonies by voting tactically against some of the larger colonies – my God, I've single-handedly disrupted the Martian Agreement." Quatre groaned and covered his face in his hands. He paused for a few seconds, then sat up straight again. "I was also supposed to keep you away from the Earth Heero. The bomb was a decoy to get you to L1, I'm afraid the reason why you couldn't work out how it was smuggled past security was because I placed it in my office. I am afraid it's a bit hazy, I am not sure why I had to do it but it seemed completely logical at the time."

"Yeah, well the reason is obvious now. Lady Une needed Heero away so she could get her hands on Lena." Duo was feeling very angry "Une is using her to turn the public against us".

"Yes, she must consider us a threat to her overall plan, whatever that is." Wufei agreed.

"Miss Relena?" Quatre looked shocked "You mean that she has had this done to her as well?"

"Appears so." Trowa nodded.

"So now its time to come up with a plan." Heero looked up. He smiled dangerously "And it is going to have to be a good one, failure is not an option with this mission."