warpeace3.html Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing....MWAHAHA..but I am insane.

Fic Notes: Violence, language, shounen ai, angst, sap.
At War with Peace
-Chapter Three
The Day the Sun Set at Sunrise

~The Sanc Kingdom

"Your majesty, the assassins have returned." Princess Relena looked up, spotted one of her servants standing before her throne. The Princess pushed a strand her of her long golden hair behind her ear before speaking with the most uninterested tone.

"Bring them in." She said in the cold tone that she had always possessed, a feminine, yet dominant voice. The servant bowed his head, then turned swiftly towards the giant doors of the throne. Gripping the door handles with both arms, the servant pulled the doors open with all his strength, so that they were parallel to the sides of red carpet that laid all the way to the Princess's throne. Standing there were the three assassins that had been ordered to seize the Empire of Rippa Na Tatemono.

"You may enter." The servant ordered with in his monotone voice, then stepping aside so the three huge men could enter. The large men, looking as if they could simply push the small servant to the other side of the room, stepped in and walked towards the throne, taking giant, pounding steps towards the Princess, who looked completely unafraid and un-alarmed. As the assassins approached the throne they got down of one knee, bowing their heads to the Princess.

"Your mission status, gentlemen."

"Accomplished, your majesty." The assassin in the middle spoke, never lifted his head or getting up on his feet. His voice as deep and coarse, raspy and deadly. The Princess had a feeling that the men were only doing to job for the money, not because they wished to served the kingdom. She didn't even know where the men were originally from, or if they had escaped from a jail or not. Quite frankly, she didn't care. She was afraid of no one, and had plenty of men to protect her kingdom.

"Have you already taken the prisoner to the dungeon, then?" The Princess questioned. The assassin lifted his head, and she could see the hesitation on his face. Her eyebrow's curved inward.

"The prisoner, gentlemen? If you do not recall a part of your mission was to bring the heir of the Rippa Na Tatemono estate to *me*." Her voice was raised an anger, fists clenched. The mission would not be complete until the boy was at her palace, the only exception being that he was killed.

"Your majesty, the heir was killed. We found him dead in his room. Perhaps he heard the gunshots and killed himself before we could get to him.. Our most sincere apologies." The assassin explained. Princess Relena's eyes lit up in rage. She got up from her place at the throne, walking towards the men, long dress dragging on the floor behind her.

"I told you, I did want the boy dead!" She yelled, practically nose to nose with the head assassin.

"Your majesty, we did not disobey orders. You ordered us not to *kill* the boy. You cannot kill us if we didn't commit the crime." The assassin reasoned.

"How do I know that is the truth?" The Princess asked. When the assassin did not answer, she frowned again, "But since there is no evidence of if the crime was committed or not, each one you shall have one of your hands taken for allowing this to happen." At first the three assassins seemed completely fine with this, as if they had known that's what would have happened to them, but as the princess called in one of her guards to take each of their hands, one assassin began to look uneasy.

As the blade was lied against this assassin's wrist, then lifted up, the assassin screamed and moved his hand away just as the blade came down for the kill. The other two assassins along with the Princess gasped as his actions.

"No, it's the truth! The heir is alive! He's alive, I tell you!" The assassin yelled, gripping his wrist. He looked apologetic at the other two assassins, who were glaring at him through clenched teeth. With a flick of her wrist the Princess ordered the guard away, and walked up to the assassin who resisted the blade.

"Where is he?" She was practically nose to nose with the man, who was breathing heavily with fright. Knowing that his fellow assassins would probably kill him if he gave away the information, hesitated, grasping his wrist with his other hand. Thinking of the consequences just made matters worse. If he told the Princess, he would be able to keep his hand. However, the worse case scenario would be that the other two assassins would kill him, or the heir to Rippa Na Tatemono would take over the Sanc kingdom and his reputation there would either be destroyed, or he would be arrested. 'Damnit, I should have kept my mouth shut.' He thought.

"Well?!" The assassin jumped as Princess Relena's piercing scream echoed off the walls of the palace. He stuttered nervously, glancing over at the other assassins, who were glaring at him as equally as the Princess was.

"W-we took him to an island off the coast of the North America, to the West." He mumbled. The Princess's glare got more icy.

"Do you remember how to get there?" She asked. The assassin looked over at the other two, who looked as though they had no intention of talking.

"Well, I don't know your majesty. We took a ship and everything and all we had was some crummy old map and a compass and I think it would be really difficult to find the exact same island." He said this all too quickly but the Princess finally stepped back, walking back to her throne.

"You will take the jet to get there." Before the assassins could say anything or even gasp in astonishment, she Princess continued quickly. "You will arrive at the island tomorrow morning with that jet, and you will find the heir and bring him back to me. This time, even if he *is* actually killed, all three of you will lose your heads. Understood?"

The three assassins could only bow in response.

***

Mornings have always been a hassle for me. Everyday of the week aside from Sunday my servants, or should I say, my *parents'* servants, woke me up at seven a.m. I then would be bathed, dressed, fed, and trained within the next three hours of my rise. At ten-o-clock I would go into town, which my parents usually forbade, not that it made any difference to me. They didn't care what happened to me anyway. In town I went in disguise, so I wouldn't attract a crowd, although not many people were fond of me anyhow. That didn't disturb me, since being in rule didn't mean you had to be liked in my kingdom, my father had enormous power, and although I doubted it greatly, he told me once that he would hand down his entire fortune to me. Of course, after the baby was conceived, plans were changed. Somehow my parents thought the baby would be a better person than I was. That might have been true if they took the time to get to know the child, like they refused to do with me.

Anyway, I seem to be talking about my parents a lot. My parents are long gone now, and I'm surprised I'm remembering them this much, thinking of what could have become of me if they had lived to manipulate me any further. What would have happened if I hadn't met Duo.. I'll tell you now, I'm grateful that my parents are dead. No future could be any better for me than a future with Duo.

As I was saying, mornings at the palace are usually a hassle. Well, it was quite a surprise to me how easy mornings seemed to be at the orphanage. I wasn't woken up until 8:00, and Duo told me that I could sleep as late as I wanted on Saturday and Sunday. An extra day would be bliss. Sleeping is one of my favorite things to do. Breakfast is at 8:30, giving everyone just enough to time to take a shower and get dressed, then school was at 9:15. Ah, school. The one thing I feared most about this new way of living. Perhaps you'd like to hear my first encounter? Well, that didn't come until later, much later, after the assassins came. I guess you'd like to hear about that as well, so I shall start at 7:47 Monday.

I felt a lot better when I woke Monday morning. My back didn't, from sleeping on that awful mattress, but at least my stomach would be prepared for breakfast that morning. Blinking my eyes open, the first thing I spotted was the window right across from my bunk, open, and a cool breeze was flowing into the tiny room. A cold sweat covered my bare chest, and the breeze against it felt good. I didn't want to move. If I moved I would be brought back to my kidnapped reality. I wasn't ready to wake up.

I listened to the sounds of the room. Soft snoring coming from the top bunk beside me. Wufei, I remembered. I lifted my head just a bit so I could see him, huddled up under the covers, everything covered but the top of his head. There were sounds of birds chirping from the window, and I concentrated on that until I heard shifting from the bed below me. Duo...he was awake.

I didn't move from my position, and it wasn't long before I saw Duo's head peeking over the rim of my bed. His hair was tousled and half-loose, but his eyes seemed wide awake, and his grin was as well.

"Hey Heero, how'd you sleep?" He asked, pulling himself up on the bed with his arms, then rolling onto the mattress onto my converter covered legs. I could only groan in response, reaching back to grab the pillow out from under my head, then covering my face with it. I heard Duo laugh and threw off the pillow, smiling sheepishly at him.

"So, what's for breakfast?" I asked, stretching, trying to make a conversation. I saw his eyes watch me as I sat up, running a hand through my sweaty bangs. It hit me that I needed a shower, but wasn't too thrilled about showering in those public showers again.

"Plenty to choose from. Just make sure you ask me what's edible before you eat it." He flashed me a grin and jumped off the bed in a graceful swing over the bedside. I watched as he gathered his shower supplies. He had three combs of all different shapes and sizes, as well a thick brush, a huge container of conditioner as well as shampoo. I briefly wondered why he didn't just cut it off if it caused him so much trouble, not that I wanted him too. I had never seen his hair down but it still was beautiful. I followed Duo's lead and walked with him to the showers, hearing Trowa and Wufei stirring awake just as we made our exit.

The showers were a lot more full than they had been yesterday afternoon, and I did my best tot keep my eyes to my myself, and the wall in front of me as a bathed. It was a lot more uncomfortable, of course, but once I was done Duo tossed a towel right to me. I smiled my thanks and we went back to the room to get dressed, Duo blushing his hair out along the way. I positioned myself to walk right behind him so I could stare at those beautiful brown locks, and was mesmerized by the way the tangles straightened out just a the brush went through them. When we got to the room Wufei and Trowa were gathering their shower supplies, greeted us good morning and exited to go get their showers. Duo and I dressed wordlessly, and when we were done he grabbed my arm and lead me outside after picking up some sort of bag by the door. He called it his book bag.

Breakfast was short and easy, much like dinner was the night before. Duo had his infamous vitamin drink and I settled for some eggs and waffles, while I usually only had a grapefruit with sugar at the palace. My parents wouldn't allow anything else. Duo did pick at some of my scrambled eggs, witch made me feel better since he hadn't been eating good. Trowa and Wufei had sat down to eat with us also, and we talked and ate, and I enjoyed that moment before duo tugged me out of the orphanage, with no more than a "we have to go."

While walking out I glanced down at myself, in the clothes that Duo had loaned me. Baggy blue jeans and a white T-shirt that hugged my body, different from all the silk and lace I had to wear at the palace, the clothes that took me at least a half hour to get on right. I wore the shoes I had bought before, which looked more comfortable than Duo's sandals. Maybe if I got enough money I would buy him some. If only I had my jewels back. After a while of walking I realized Duo was leading me to the school, recognizing the streets we had walked down yesterday. By then the hand that was grasping my arm had slid down to my own hand, and I couldn't help but grasp his hand as well. His long, silky hair was even more beautiful as it began to dry, it's magnificent color glistening in the sunlight. I was glad he had left it down, it made it easier to brush against my skin with it's softness.

I guess this is the turn point for everything. A good morning turned into a horrible one even before we got to the school. To tell you the truth, it would have been a horrible morning anyway if Duo hadn't been there. I wasn't exactly enjoying my time being kidnapped. It was such a huge change for me, but somehow Duo had made it better. Everything about that changed that morning.

I don't know how we were, or why, but Duo and I were ambushed, in brood daylight. You would think those damned assassins would wait until nightfall if they wanted to kidnap me for a second time, but it seemed they were in some sort of hurry, since they were at great risk of getting caught. One minute we were walking towards that dreaded school, and another a hand was over my mouth and a strong arm was picking me up by the waist and taking me into the same alley I had been dumped off at. Another one of them took Duo too, I guess so he would keep his mouth shut. It was when I discovered I couldn't escape that man's grip when it hit me that they were the same assassins that brought me there.

There were three of them, just has a remembered them with their big bulky bodies and unshaven faces, stringy dirty hair and tiny eyes that were always glaring at you. I wanted to sock the one that was grasping Duo, around the waist with his dirty disgusting hand, with the other over Duo's mouth, keeping him quiet. I finally caught his gaze, and looked at him apologetically. I didn't have long to communicate with Duo using my eyes before the man tossed me into the alley, hard against the wall. Another man was still holding Duo, and I focussed on him, making sure he didn't hurt that boy. I brought myself to my knees, feeling blood trickle down my split bottom lip.

What the hell do you want with me now?" I sneered, wiping away the blood. The largest man out of the three of them stepped forward, and grabbed the front of my shirt with his enormous hand. I heard Duo yelling something but was muffled by the man's hand over his mouth. I grasped the man's wrist with both my hands as he lifted me up off my feet, then slammed me into the wall again, pinning me there, hanging about two feet off the ground. I felt dizzy as the back of my head slammed against that wall. The last thing I saw was the man's tiny black eyes staring at me before I was out cold.

AN-I've decided to end this chapter here, making it a bit short. ^_^ Sorry! But tell me what you think!