Disclaimer: Don't own Gundam Wing, never have, never will.

Author's Note: Some background story was changed here and there but overall this chapter remained the same. I've also decided to forego most of the Japanese that was in the original version. Somehow it didn't seem to fit in as well as it did when I first started this story.

ZERO SOUL

Chapter 3: Defeat and Loss

By: Vegie-kun

At the sound of the unfamiliar voice, Heero and Relena quickly turned around. The person who greeted them was a man dressed in a black military uniform, and as Heero mentally noted, one designed for covert operations. The gun he held, pointing straight at the former Gundam pilot, left little doubt in their minds as to what they were here to accomplish. Heero, quicker than the normal eye could see, pulled out his own gun from the holster around his waist to train at their uninvited interloper. As soon as he did so, the sound of rustling leaves and cocking guns filled their ears.

"Heero..." Relena whispered, frightened, and inched closer to him.

Heero momentarily took his eyes from the man in front of him to assess their current situation. His eyes shifted slightly to the right then left and he counted at least fifteen men surrounding them with guns drawn. "I suggest you put that gun down," the man in front said, "If you do, we might just consider taking you in as a prisoner instead of killing you outright."

Heero didn't waiver at those words, instead, his glare became even harder and colder. His eyes never left the man as he grabbed Relena's hand to pull her closer to him.

"Relena," he whispered, "when I give the word, drop down to the ground. Got it?"

"… Alright," she whispered back. "Please be careful..."

"NOW!"

Relena quickly dropped to the ground and Heero began to shoot at the figures in black, taking down three of them with extreme precision and speed. Those he didn't manage to shoot down fired back, but Heero quickly jumped out of the way. He landed and rolled on the ground, firing his gun and taking down another enemy. They quickly scattered themselves behind trees and bushes and anywhere else the shadows would hide them, in an attempt to dodge Heero's deadly aim.

/Shit! I recognize that guy now! That was the Gundam pilot of WingZERO, Heero Yuy. No wonder he took down our men so fast. I've got to be more careful from now on./ The enemy squad leader realized as he managed to find safety behind a tree.

"Maxwell! Will you turn down the music?! I'm trying to read!" Wufei yelled as he came out of the library and entered the main living room. He was none too pleased with the sight that welcomed him.

Duo, sprawled out on a lavishly decorated and very comfortable couch, was listening to very loud rock music on the Peacecraft's state-of-the-art stereo sound system. He was so relaxed he barely heard or noticed Wufei until the Chinese man was hovering over him with a 'Heero Yuy' death glare. Duo quickly turned off the stereo and apologized. "Sorry 'bout that Wufei, I didn't realize it was that loud."

"I would prefer it if you stopped listening to that sort of rubbish altogether," Wufei said while scanning the room. "Hey, where did Barton go?"

"I-I don't know." Duo realized as he turned his head in hopes of spotting the tall pilot. "I guess he musta slipped out awhile ago."

The darkness along with their black uniform hid them well and to a normal soldier that kind of disadvantage would have proven fatal, but Heero had never been a normal soldier. Using his keen senses, born of natural talent and combined with years of training, he managed to locate them by the sounds of their movement. /Don't think that you can hide from me. I'm more experienced in this line of work than you'll ever be./ Heero stalked around the garden quietly, like a predator hunting its prey. Taking a few more steps he looked down and saw the shadows made by the leaves of a nearby bush moving and paused. Stilling his breath he listened intently to his surroundings. Without further warning he suddenly jumped, almost soundlessly, behind that bush taking out two more figures. Unfortunately the remaining soldiers were faster and proved to be more elusive than the Japanese anticipated. Heero soon found himself out of bullets with at least six more targets to take down. He quickly ran over to a huddled figure and stood his ground, guarding Relena as she knelt close to the cobblestone path.

*BANG*

A bullet suddenly come out from the shadows and struck Heero's shoulder from the back. Without so much as a grunt to acknowledge the shot he fell to his knees, one hand still on the gun while the other felt for the wound.

"Heero! Are you okay?!" Relena cried out fearfully as she put a hand on his back, feeling the wet blood.

/Shit! I didn't expect them to send this many people just to kill her.../ He mentally berated himself. He turned his head left and right, scanning the grounds to ascertain the enemies' whereabouts and assess the situation they were currently in. /Were they expecting me? No, that couldn't be it.../

Heero continued to stay quiet, his mind working quickly, simultaneously trying to devise an alternative plan while ignoring the pain in his shoulder. He soon heard more rustling and jerked his head upwards to see the remaining six figures walking towards them slowly and cautiously. Then, to everyone's surprise, he quickly lunged at the figure in front of him. As soon as he was on top, he swung out with his gun and knocked the man unconscious. Another soldier shot at his head, but Heero quickly ducked then swept the man's feet from under him. However, as he moved to get up another figure shot him in his other shoulder, causing him to stumble backwards. Suppressing the pain radiating from his new wound, Heero managed to lift his head up only to find himself staring down the barrel of a gun.

*BANG*

The enemy fell right before him, clutching the arm that previously held a gun to his head. Heero turned to his left to see where the shot had come from and caught sight of Trowa standing only a few meters away, smoking gun in hand.

"Need some help?" He asked with a wry grin.

Heero didn't say a word, but his thanks and gratitude were clearly expressed through his eyes and that was enough for Trowa.

"HEERO! HELP!" Relena's scream pierced the night sky. Two of the four remaining men had grabbed Relena and were all now making a hasty retreat back into the darkness.

"Relena!" Heero shouted as he got up and tried to run after them. His pursuit was halted however when one of the enemies spotted him and threw an object in the young man's direction. The object landed a few meters away from Heero, beeped a few times then exploded, sending the unfortunate Japanese youth tumbling across the ground.

"Damn! What the hell was that!" exclaimed Duo as he quickly got up from the couch. He suddenly heard running footsteps and immediately looked towards the stairs to see Quatre making his way down.

"Guys! There was an explosion outside near the garden!" Quatre informed. "I saw it from the upstairs window. We have to get out there and fast! Relena went out for a walk near there!"

"Oh no, Relena!" Duo shouted as the three made their way outside.

When the smoke began to clear Trowa found Heero sprawled on the ground, soaked in his own blood, face bruised, cut, and dirty. Trowa walked towards his fallen comrade and proceeded to help him up. Heero's eyes shot open immediately and he slapped Trowa's hand away from him, denying the offered assistance.

"I can get up myself," Heero replied coldly. Just as he got up he saw Quatre, Duo, and Wufei running towards them.

"What happened?!" Quatre asked panicked.

"Relena was taken by some unidentified men," Trowa responded stoicly.

"Most likely that new OZ organization," Wufei muttered under his breath as he surveyed the grounds for any potential lingering threat. "Those low life scum... When I get my hands on them I'll make them pay dearly for this."

"Dammit! I can't believe we let this happen," Duo cursed as he surveyed the damage and the bodies littering the garden. All three were so caught up with surveying the rubble it was minutes before they registered Heero's presence.

"Heero?! You're here!" Quatre shouted in surprise as he noticed the injured young man staggering towards the mansion.

"Oi, Heero! Stop, man," Duo said jumping forward to block off his path. "Tell us what happened."

"I don't have time for this," Heero replied coldly, "I have to find Relena; there's no telling what OZ is going to do with her."

"Then help us, or at least let us help you. We were responsible for protecting her you know!" Duo snapped. His face was unwavering but his eyes betrayed the grief and sadness running through him.

"We shouldn't be wasting time arguing," Wufei cut in, "Come on Yuy, let's go inside and have those wounds tended. We'll also need to call Sally, Noin, and Zechs and inform them of what's happened." The grip Wufei had on Heero's wrist made it clear to the Japanese that there was no room for further protests. His jaw clenched into a tight grimace as he allowed himself to be led to the mansion with Duo, Quatre, and Trowa following behind.

It was about 10:25 pm by the time Zechs, Sally, and Noin arrived at the mansion. Once they were informed of what had occurred over the phone, the three had flown out from headquarters almost immediately. Zechs and Noin had barely touched ground in Brussels when Sally came rushing at them with the news. To make haste they opted to take Une's private jet rather than wait for the next flight out. When they arrived, to no one's surprise, Zechs was brimming with unbridled fury and directed all his anger at the closest thing within reach - Heero.

"How the hell did you let this happen!? Dammit, aren't you supposed to be 'The Perfect Soldier'!?" Zechs fumed as he grab Heero's collar and stared down at him. "Dammit, Yuy! We try for months to get in contact with you but you ignore everything we send your way! Then all of a sudden you just decide to show yourself... only to royally fuck everything up!"

"Zechs! Stop it!"

He ignored Noin's plea. "If you had just shown yourself earlier none of this would've happened!" His eyes narrowed and his lip curled up in disgust, "The only reason she was out there was because of you!"

"I know that," Heero's seethed coldly as he matched Zechs' icy glare with an even icier one of his own. "I did everything I could to protect her."

"Yeah, you did a real good job of protecting her," the older man sneered back.

"At least I was there," Heero retorted in his monotone voice as he wrenched his shirt collar free.

"How dare you-"

"ZECHS! That's enough!" Noin snapped angrily. "Fighting one another won't help get Relena back."

"Noin's right," Sally spoke up, "We won't get anywhere this way. Now Heero, tell us exactly what happened. How many men attacked you and Relena?"

Prying his eyes away from the deadly glare of the elder Peacecraft, the wounded young man surveyed the room and saw that he had everyone's attention. "Fifteen. I managed to take down ten and Trowa took down one as well," Heero answered stoically.

"Fifteen? Wow, I can't believe you were able to hold off that many for the duration of that time," Quatre whispered from the corner he occupied, clearly impressed with Heero's abilities.

"Do you know what they were trying to do? Were they trying to kill Relena?" Sally asked calmly.

"No," he stated simply. "They directed all their fire at me and left Relena alone. They were also using standard hand guns. If they wanted to kill Relena it would have been more logical to use a long distance sniper." Mentally he recalled what had transpired, "They were looking to kidnap her, not kill her."

"You seem to know a lot about this, don't you, Yuy?" Zechs queried as he eyed the shorter boy. "Tell us what the hell you're doing here!"

"I came here to protect Relena," Heero stated, his declaration firm and unwavering, "and to also deliver a message."

"What message?" Zechs inquired.

Heero looked around the room to catch the gaze of his fellow Gundam pilots. "As of this moment reconstruction of all five Gundams are 75% complete."

All heads turned towards him, "GUNDAMS?!"

"Y-You mean our Gundams are being rebuilt?" stuttered Duo. "B-But… who would?"

"Our former mentors," Heero replied indifferently. "We are to report to L1 in two weeks for re-training."

Quatre stared at Heero, looking bewildered. "They're alive? I thought they died when they crashed Peacemillion into Libra."

"You know what they say about roaches, Quatre. They're the only things that can survive a nuclear holocaust," Duo joked lightly. "By the way, Heero, I know those geezers are considered geniuses when it comes to mobile suits but still..." He crossed his arms over his chest and cocked his head to the side. "I mean it must have taken them at least a year to rebuild the Gundams this far. So how did they catch wind of this before we did?"

"They used the old prototypes that our Gundams were modeled after," Heero began, "Though WingZERO was the original prototype, they all made a second prototype for each Gundam before scraping them halfway due to design changes."

"That's right..." Quatre piped up, "I remember seeing those old blueprints with the ones of WingZERO in that lab. We ignored them when it was obvious they didn't match up to the firepower of the Gundams we were using at the time."

"Indeed..." Heero began again, "But even though they were considered inferior, those prototypes were still hidden well enough away to keep White Fang from catching wind of them during the war. With those unfinished suits they were able to remodel them instead of having to start over from scratch just."

"That makes sense..." Duo remarked, "since I doubt they're able to get their hands on the same level of resources they did during the last war now that the Barton Foundation is no longer backing them."

Heero nodded at the correct assessment made by the American before continuing. "As to when they started this project, reconstruction of the Gundams began six months ago when I contacted and told them about this new OZ."

"Well then, Yuy, how did you find out about this new OZ?" Wufei inquired.

"About a year ago I noticed some strange activities going on at the transportation company I was working at. During a number of shipments they started to lose small amounts of material that went into building the labor mobile suits. The shipping weight before and after transportation didn't match up." Heero paused for a while to make sure that the others were listening. "At first it didn't seem odd because it could have been mismanagement or just a filing mistake; however, it began to occur with more frequency. When I checked with other companies it appeared they were having the same problems. I started to look further into it, locating the areas where materials were reported missing. No one there seemed to be aware of anything amiss. My guess was that it was an-"

"Inside job," Duo finished.

"Correct." Heero confirmed sternly, "I decided to investigate the people who worked at one of the companies and was able to isolate one of them. I forced him to tell me everything he knew. But it turned out that he didn't know much. He was just told by his superiors to sneak away some mobile suit materials without raising suspicion. After that I tracked down the old geezers and informed them of the latest developments and left the man I interrogated with them. Reconstruction of the Gundams began shortly afterwards."

"Man, those OZ creeps sure are sneaky sons of-Oi! Heero, where are you going?" Duo hollered when he noticed Heero walking towards the door. "You're not leaving, are you?"

"Of course he's leaving," Zechs gritted through his teeth. "He always leaves whenever Relena needs him."

"Zechs, you know that's not true!" Noin protested. "Heero, please don't go. We could really use your help with the investigation. We can get this done a whole lot faster and get Relena back quicker if you stay."

"Fine," Heero said before he left the room.

"This must really be tearing him up inside," Quatre said, concern written all over his face.

"So what do we do now?" Duo piped up.

"Well," Noin interjected, "if we don't get Relena back before the conference next week, the public and the Earth Sphere Unified Nation will know that something is wrong. When that happens we have no other choice but to tell them."

"We can't do that! When they hear that Miss Relena has been kidnapped they're just going to start pointing fingers at each other. Some of them might even use this to their advantage and start causing trouble," protested Quatre.

"We won't have a choice about that," Noin confessed in defeat.

Outside, near the side of the mansion, a lone figure stood, venting his frustration on the mansion's hapless wall. His head rested against the wall while his fists made slow, steady punches on the deceivingly smooth surface.

/Shit!/ *punch* /Shit!/ *punch* /Shit!/ *punch* /DAMMIT I FAILED!/ *punch* /Relena... please forgive me.../ *punch* /I didn't mean to let this happen to you.../ *punch* /I promise I'll find you, and if they do anything to you, I'll make them all pay dearly-/

"I don't think that wall can take any more damage."

Heero stopped his relentless abuse and turned to his right to see Trowa leaning with his back against the wall. The taller pilot had his eyes closed as his head bent forward, arms crossed over his chest. "It wasn't your fault," he entreated in an uncharacteristically compassionate voice.

"It was my duty to protect her and I failed," Heero countered, as he leaned his head against the wall again.

Trowa's eyes softened as he gave the shorter man a sympathetic smile. "You care about her, don't you?"

"She's important to the Earth and colonies, and she brings the people hope," he replied indifferently.

Trowa smirked at Heero's predictable response. "I see... So… why were you working for a shipping company?" he asked trying to lighten the mood.

Heero regarded him with an impassive gaze. "It was a low profile job and I needed the money to pay for school..." he was quiet again.

"School? What would you need to go to school for?" Trowa asked, clearly amused.

"Getting a respectable job isn't easy without a college degree these days, Trowa."

Trowa laughed aloud and shook his head. "What about Relena? She was the Vice Foreign Minister at 16 and now, barely even 18 she's the Foreign Minister. Besides, Heero," He began seriously once more, "couldn't you have just hacked into the Department of Education's database and given yourself a degree? From what Duo told me, you were quite proficient at falsifying school records."

"…."

Trowa smiled as he laid a hand on Heero's shoulder. "Don't worry," he reassured his friend, "we'll find her."

"What are you planning to do with me!?" Relena demanded as a soldier shoved her into a dark cell. "If you're going to kill me then I suggest you do it now."

"My, my, my, such spirit and determination," came a condescending voice. Relena looked past the soldier to the shadow behind him and gazed into ice-cold blue eyes.

"What do you plan to do with me?" she asked more firmly. "If you think you can use me to get what you want from the Earth Sphere Unified Nation then you are sadly mistaken, they would never give in to such demands from terrorists. And quite frankly I would rather kill myself before I let that happen."

"Oh, we're not going to use you as a bargaining chip, but we do plan to use you for something," the man replied with a sinister gleam in his eyes. Suddenly another soldier appeared from behind.

"General Whitenburg, sir!" the soldier saluted. "The doctors are ready to begin."

"Good," came the cold reply as he continued to eye Relena as she began to retreat to the back of the cell.

-to be continued-