Disclaimer: You know the drill... I don't own Gundam Wing; they belong to their respective companies. I own nothing and am making nothing from this.

Author's Note: The only changes made in this chapter were stylistic ones plus a more in-depth examination of Rei's abilities and training. Plus, I realized that there was some discrepancies with the seasons in the original one. Going by the timeline Relena was abducted late February, so by now it should be mid January.

ZERO SOUL

Chapter 7: Bittersweet

By: Vegie-kun

"Zechs, stop pacing around like that, you're making all of us nervous," Sally huffed, getting more and more irritated at the blond man as they continued to wait outside in the cold winter night. The hour had come and gone yet the Gundam pilots still weren't there. Much of headquarters was abuzz with a mixture of excitement and trepidation when they were informed that a specially trained OZ soldier was being brought in. What they weren't told, however, was that the soldier may also be the missing Foreign Minister. Sally, Noin, Une, and Zechs all agreed that it would be best to withhold that piece of information for the time being. Taking extra precautionary measures they made sure that no other agents would be at the landing site when the plane arrived; ensuring that this secret would remain so. "Zechs, do I have to knock you out in order for you to stop pacing!?" she threatened dangerously, rubbing her gloved hands together in an attempt to ward off the chill.

"Sally, let him do what he wants," Noin placated though she herself was feeling quite irritated, "He's just very excited that's all."

"Everyone, hush!" Une ordered sternly, "I think I hear the plane coming around." Sure enough, they heard in the distance the unmistakable sounds of jet engines. As they turned their gaze to the night sky they were able to make out the blinking lights of the plane. Soon the roar of the jet engines deafened their ears as the plane landed several meters away. Altron followed suit and landed close by; the cockpit opening immediately as soon as it touched the ground. As Wufei reeled himself down the four Preventers ran to meet him before turning their attention to the plane when the hatch opened.

"Where is she?!"

"Zechs, calm down. They're coming out right now," as soon as Noin said that Duo and Quatre were out and walking towards them. Following right behind them they glimpsed a female form walking out with Trowa whose gun was still trained on her as Heero brought up the rear.

"Relena!" Zechs ran over to the girl and immediately wrapped his arms around her. "You have no idea how overjoyed I am to have you returned safely back to us. We've all been so worried about - huh?" he stopped when his little sister made no attempts to embrace him in turn, or rather she didn't move at all. He slowly eased his embrace and stared at her, confused. That was when he noticed her eyes. "W-What is this? What's happened to her?!"

"We don't know," Trowa replied calmly.

"She was like this when we caught her," Quatre informed them, "We were hoping Sally could take a look at her and figure out what's wrong," He hesitated with what he was going to say next. "Umm... she also said that her name was Rei... I uh... think that it's Japanese." All eyes suddenly turned to Heero as he walked up to them.

"Rei stands for zero," he answered, "I'm not sure of the significance of the name, but I think it either designates her as a prototype for something or that she's lacking something." Before saying anything more he turned to look at her enigmatic face. "I have a feeling it's the latter… Just take a good look at her eyes, and you'll understand." His voice was cold, but there was a certain degree of hatred that underlined it. Without another word he headed towards the vans parked nearby, he couldn't wait to get back to his apartment. Une had assigned each pilot a temporary apartment in the building adjacent to Preventer Headquarters and currently Heero sought its comfort and seclusion.

"We better get going as well," Une commanded, "Sally needs to perform a full check-up asap. There's no telling what OZ could've done to make her like this." With that they followed Heero's lead and in a matter of minutes they were headed towards headquarters.

In a large underground medical room within Preventer Headquarters Sally had Rei strapped to an examination table, much like the one Heero occupied when he was brought to the Alliance hospital. Her flight suit had been discarded and now hung on a rack next to the table, leaving her in nothing but a white tank top and gym shorts. To their surprise she hadn't put up much of a fight, due in no small part to the fact that Trowa and Wufei had their guns trained on her. Strapped down she'd turned her emotionless gaze to the restraints and tested them, giving no signs of whether she approved or disapproved. Afterwards she'd turned her head to concentrate on the ceiling above.

Because of the limited space the others were relegated to the adjoining room where they stood watching intently through the glass window. They watched as Sally took her temperature before turning to the machines whose wires were hooked up to the pilot's arms, legs, and body, monitoring her vital readings. Sally observed with relief the normalcy of her heart rate, breathing, and nerve connections. Upon further inspection she realized that the girl's reflexes were better than what the woman was used to seeing from her. Then she was reminded of something odd when she had taken her weight and height...

"Any progress?" Heero inquired as he came through the door and made his way over to the group in the adjoining room. He had changed into a white button shirt, having discarded his bloody green one into the laundry. The opened neckline of his shirt revealed his freshly bandaged shoulder.

They all turned their heads and acknowledged his presence as Quatre moved from the window to give him a view of the lab and its 'patient'. "Sally hasn't found anything yet; she's just checking on the status of her health," the Arabian pilot kindly explained when suddenly Sally's voice spoke to them through the intercom.

"Guys, I just went over Relena's height and weight data and... Well, it seems like she's gained about 6.5 kilos since we last saw her but her height and build hasn't changed much which means..."

"She's gone through a lot of muscle development." Heero finished for her. "No surprise considering the possibility that OZ has probably been training her for this type of work since the day they got a hold of her." /Yeah, and it also looks very familiar. I'm not quite sure yet but this is very, very familiar... I see the way she looks me and it reminds me of something.../

"But how would they have gotten her to do that?" came Noin's voice from the corner of the room. "Relena isn't someone who would just stand there and take those kinds of orders, especially from OZ. She would rather kill herself rather then help accomplish OZ's goals. It wouldn't make sense that she'd just go along with it."

"Hey!" Duo jumped in, "Maybe she's a clone. I mean they had her there for a while; they could've made a copy of her, like one of those test tube babies." Everyone glared at him with a look that said 'you've got to be kidding, right?'

"Then that is what she'd be right now, Duo, a baby." Sally spoke again from the intercom. "Test tube babies don't have rapid growth enhancement. Their growth rate is the same as everybody else's. I know for a fact that the Relena you're seeing is the real one because that's what the DNA scan is showing me... Heero's right on this one."

"Yeah, I guess, but then the question is," Duo interjected again, "what type of training have they been putting her through? I mean, considering the way she handled herself at those bases I wouldn't be surprised if she was able to pilot a Gundam."

"Maybe that's what she's been using to get to the bases," Heero's voice cut in as panicked eyes turned to his direction.

"But we didn't detect any signs of one there, and I certainly didn't see a Gundam, or any other mobile suit for that matter, there," Wufei informed him.

With a hand placed under his chin, Quatre's eyebrows furrowed as he stood there contemplating. "Maybe they knew we were coming and decided she should do the mission on foot." He thoughtfully put in.

"If that's the case," Zechs said as he went closer to the window, "then they would have anticipated or wanted her failure… which means that her being here is nothing but a trap. I know that OZ may seem careless now and again… but I don't think they would jeopardize losing one of their experiments for anything." To this everyone nodded their heads in agreement. /Oh, Relena, I'm sorry this happened to you... I'll make OZ pay for this… and Heero as well for failing to protect you./

"Hello, is there a Duo Maxwell there?" Everyone turned their heads to see the screen of the video phone mounted on the wall light up with the face of another Preventer agent.

"Yeah, I'm right here," Duo replied as he sauntered to the monitor. "What can I do for ya?"

"There's a Hilde Schbeiker on the other line; she wants to talk to you. She said that it's about an important client who's asking for special parts," the man informed him.

"Alright then, I'll take the call in my office; just let her know I'll be there in a few minutes." Turning back to his friends he gave them a smile. "I'll be back in a sec, just need to take care of some business." When he left the room became oddly quiet.

"Sally, what about the other tests you ran on her?" Wufei inquired, shattering the uncomfortable silence.

The doctor waited a moment as she went over the forms and charts on her clipboard. "I still don't know what's causing the strange eye discoloration so I'll set that aside for now…" She flipped a page and scanned its contents, "Her reflexes are extraordinary... They match up to Heero's and Trowa's in terms of reaction time... It also seems as if she's developed a high tolerance to pain. She didn't even react the slightest bit when I drew some blood from her...," another page was turned, "Oh my... they must have been training her really hard; she's got less than 10% body fat on her. It's almost unnatural for it to be that low for a girl... it seems as if they were aiming to create a killing machine…"

"Hi, babe," Duo greeted the German girl. "Great seeing ya again. Sorry I haven't been keepin' in touch as often as I should," He flashed his trademark grin. "So what did ya want to see me for?"

The moment it appeared on his boyish face, the girl couldn't help but stifle a giggle. "Baka. You forgot to tell me where you kept the labor suit's engine parts, the ones that Mr. Daniels ordered. The guy was going crazy 'cause they're now two days behind schedule."

"Oops," he replied innocently as he rubbed the back of his head, "Musta slipped my mind back there. Um, let's see... oh yeah! They're down in the basement under the scrap metal in the right corner next to the box full of motorcycle parts."

"Thanks, Duo, Mr. Daniels will be happy when I give him the stuff... um, by the way..." she began nervously.

"Hmmm?"

"Have you found Relena yet? I'm really worried that something bad might have happened to her." The German girl's face held nothing but concern.

He gave her an uncertain smile. "Don't worry," he reassured, "We found her... sort of."

"What do mean by that?" she asked, now bewildered.

"Well, I'm not really sure. I mean it's her but then it's not her." Seeing the confused look on his girlfriend's face he decided to elaborate. "She looks like her but then again she doesn't act like her. I don't know how else to describe it. Don't worry about it, Hilde. Just concentrate on the business, okay? We'll figure this out in no time."

"Okay, Duo... Oh, don't forget you have to come to L2 next week. The guys at the construction site won't make the deal unless you're present," she gave him a stern look.

A wide grin graced his boyish face. "Gotcha, I won't forget. Bye, babe." He turned off the videophone and headed back to the downstairs med lab. /She's even cuter than I last remember... Oooo... I can't wait to go back into those loving arms. Can't wait to hug her and kiss her and pull all those jokes on her... hehehe./

"Guys! I think I've found something." At the sound of Sally's urgent voice all ran towards the window of the med lab. Through the glass they saw Sally's hand turning the girl's head to the side. Her hair was pulled out of the way to reveal a small circular device, no bigger or thicker than a small coin, at the base of her skull. "I don't know why the scanners didn't pick this up earlier but there's also something else like it on both sides of her head." Sally moved the hair covering the girl's ear out of the way. They saw similar though triangular shaped devices above each ear.

"Do you think it's some kind of mind controlling device?" Quatre asked and received a shrug from the doctor.

"Well, then, should we remove it?"

Sally turned her head in the direction of her partner's voice. "No," she replied, shaking her. "There's no telling what will happen if we do. We can't risk it. For now, we have to leave them on and see what they do. I think I'm going to need Heero's help on this one; he might be able to figure the devices out," she heaved a heavy sigh. "I think we should call it a night, put her in her designated cell and begin again tomorrow morning." She turned to look at the others and saw that no one disagreed with her, not even Zechs. With the help of Wufei and Trowa they 'escorted' the girl through another door leading into a hall. At its end was an isolated cell, padded like the ones in a mental ward with a bed in the far back corner. The only thing separating the prisoner from the outside was a thick reinforced glass wall.

"Never thought I'd see 'Jousan locked up like this; Heero definitely, Wufei maybe, Trowa... eh, but never 'Jousan," the braided pilot commented as he rejoined the others. Wufei shot him a death glare and smiled to himself when Duo jumped to hide behind Quatre.

"We can't trust her to be here alone." All turned when they heard Lady Une speak. "I want Heero, Wufei, and Trowa to take shifts and watch over her during the night." She then noticed that Zechs was about to open his mouth to suggest that he be allowed to keep watch but she stopped him. "Sorry Wind, but you have a training exercise to oversee tomorrow. So who will take the first watch?"

"I'll go first," Heero spoke up in his familiar monotone voice.

"Then I'll take the second watch," the stoic pilot of Heavyarms piped up.

"I guess that means I'm last."

They all turned to leave Heero to his watch; Zechs throwing him a glare before Noin dragged him out. When they had all left to retire for the night, the Japanese pilot stood and leaned against the wall, staring at the girl directly in front of him who matched his stance. /Why did I volunteer to take the first shift? It would have been easier if I had taken the second or third. At lease she might have been asleep by then... and I wouldn't have to stare at those eyes... ::But you always did like taking the hard road, Yuy, the easy path was never for you... never. You took the harsh path so that others wouldn't have to, others like her... but in the end... it was all for nothing, wasn't it?:: No... it was for something... it was for myself... If I hadn't taken the hard road then... then I would have never met her... Dammit! We got her back so why am I not happy about it?/

Stealing a quick glance at the clock on the wall Heero saw that it was ten; he had three more hours before his shift was over. Trying to block the images of the girl from his head, he closed his eyes and began to mentally draw up battle plans, deciding on how he would make OZ suffer. /Suffer a lot!/ Yet, his thoughts concerning OZ was accompanied by those of Relena. He tried another tactic and began to occupy his time with thoughts of his Gundam, the Preventers, ways to shut Duo up, ways to torture OZ, but he kept on feeling the girl's gaze on him. He cautiously opened his eyes and met the girl's dead on. Oh, how it pained him to see those eyes! He recalled when they were a bluish-green hue and thought of how he could drown in those eyes, like he did when they were aboard Libra. But he was jerked back to reality when he realized they were blood red now. Crimson red, reminding him of all the killings, all the battles, all the pain... all the blood...

"Who are you?"

Snapping his head up in surprise, though his face remained impassive; he met her eyes once more. Not the comforting blue, but the mocking red set in that enigmatic face that ate away at him. Pain. He felt pain in his chest. /She doesn't know you... You never existed in her life... ::But isn't that what you've always wanted?... For her to forget all about you?::... No... No! Dammit!... Oh Gods, the pain... Pain... T-this hurts even more than dying... much more.../ Whatever thoughts raged in his head, they never reached the surface of his face; he was too well trained. /::She is too, ya know::/

"Heero Yuy," he replied as coldly as possible to mask his other emotions.

Then the silence enveloped them once again as the pilot of WingZERO kept his dutiful watch over her. For the remainder of his shift Rei never went to sleep or showed any signs of exhaustion. No. For the entire time she stared emotionlessly at the young man in front of her. She herself was unsure as to why she asked that question; simple as it was, why had she asked it? She stared intently at his hard blue eyes, hardly blinking and never wavering. /Those eyes... death./ In her mind, she wondered why those eyes haunted her, why they wouldn't leave her be. She studied his cold expression; it was almost like the one she had on. What she saw in them were hatred and pain. Pain… She remembered feeling something akin to that when she saw him fall after taking the bullet meant for her. She didn't know why that had happened; Whitenburg and the doctors told her she was incapable of feeling emotions and only capable of following orders.

"Heero, I'm here to relieve you," Trowa's voice broke through their respective thoughts.

"Hn," he answered as he pushed himself from the wall and proceeded to leave, but stopped to take one last glimpse back at the cell. To his surprise the girl was asleep on the bed, probably having done so the moment he turned his back on her. Anger and relief threatened to take hold of him but he quickly left.

The captive girl had been simultaneously relieved and disappointed when she heard that young man leave. Looking into her new guard's face she saw the same emotionless mask the previous had on, however, the eyes were different. They weren't full of pain; they were full of concern and compassion. That allowed her to go to sleep, knowing those Prussian blue eyes weren't there.

"So what is the point of this test again," Duo popped his head in between Sally and Quatre.

"We're just going to see how far her skills extend. We need to get an idea of what kind of training she's been going through," Sally explained - for the third time - to the chipper Deathscythe Hell pilot. The testing had begun at six that morning and most of the room's occupants were dead tired. The three who stood watch the previous night had been excused from having to be there, but Heero showed up regardless. So far everything had gone smoothly and 'Rei' was behaving herself, doing everything that Sally asked of her. She didn't know why but she felt comfortable with these people, with the exception of the one known as the pilot of Gundam WingZERO. The intensity in his eyes made her uneasy.

"Wow, she's pretty fast," Duo awed watching Rei as she ran on the treadmill, "Never thought 'Jousan could run like that. Of course, I'm faster though," he added with grin.

"Yeah, she's also got a lot of stamina and dexterity," Sally confirmed. "She's been running at this pace for an hour already and still has yet to show signs of exhaustion. I don't know whether I should be impressed with OZ or disgusted with them for turning a sweet kid into this."

"I know what ya mean," Duo sighed as he slumped next to the wall. "It's pretty scary if ya think about it. I mean, if they can turn Relena, Miss Peace and Love for All, into a cold-blooded soldier, just imagine what they could do to us. God, she acts just like Heero. That's all we need right now another -"

"That's exactly it," Heero's quiet statement hushed the room and all heads turned to him.

"What's 'it', Heero?" Duo asked, curious about the Japanese's sudden statement.

"The training she's been through," he began indifferently, "it's similar to or maybe even the same one that I went through."

"WHAT?!" the other three shouted in surprise.

"The way she acted," he began again once the others had calmed down, "it reminded me of how I was told to conduct myself whenever I was sent on a mission. I wasn't sure at first so last night I went over the security videos to analyze her behavior and actions."

"Boy, you really know how to have fun, don't ya, Heero buddy?"

"Hn. When I was on L1, before Operation Meteor was set into motion, I was under Doctor J's guidance. In order to prepare me for the numerous types of scenarios that I would encounter he had me undergo countless different exercises." He raised his hand and began to tick off every skill Doctor J had drilled into him. "Aside from learning how to pilot a Gundam and operating all types of heavy machinery, he especially wanted me to be proficient in the use of firearms, close and long range weapons, hand to hand combat, military, government and mainframe hacking, espionage, English, physics, engineering, pain tolerance, wilderness survival, and assembly and diffusion of any type of explosive."

Duo shook his head in disbelief. "Well aren't you the Renaissance man."

Heero gave him a stern look. "After studying those videos, including the ones from last night, I noticed that every single decision she made during those raids were what I would have I would have done myself… I don't know how OZ was able to do it but they must have raided Doctor J's lab on L1 sometime during or after the war and found my old training logs."

Sally contemplated this new possibility. "If that were the case then how would we be able to confirm it?

"When I mentioned being trained in the assembly and diffusion of any type of explosive, many were unique to the training… So I made something to test out that theory." With that he reached into the bag he'd brought with him and fished out a small package. He walked over to the girl, now resting on a bench, and dropped the package into her hands. "Disarm it."

"Shit! It's a bomb!" Duo yelled as he frantically looked for cover.

"It's not real," the girl replied, instantly bringing Duo relief.

"Whew," he sighed. "Dammit, Heero! Don't do that to us! I nearly had a heart attack."

"Then disarm this one," Heero ordered again as he produced another package from inside his jacket. This time it was real and blinking very rapidly when he dropped it into the girl's hands.

"Dammit, Heero!"

"Done."

"Whew…" Duo sighed once more in relief before whirling on the Japanese. "Dammit, Heero!"

WingZERO's pilot gave the girl a steely glare before turning around to leave the room. "I'm going to contact Doctor J.

"Wait, Heero!" Sally called after him. "I would really appreciate it if you could stay and help me; your insight into her training will be very useful. You can contact Doctor J later." She smiled when he made his way back to the group. "We have to see if we can break through the barriers they set in her mind and maybe, just maybe undo all this."

"Hn," he nodded in acknowledgement, pulling up a chair to sit in.

"Now, Rei," Sally began as she sat in a chair in front of the girl, "we should try to get to know each other."

"Why?" Came the emotionless question.

"So that we can become friends," the doctor replied, giving her a warm smile.

The OZ pilot leveled them with a stony gaze. "Friends aren't needed on the battlefield, allies are." That statement sent a chill down Heero's spine as he recalled saying the exact same thing to her in the garden. "If you aren't my ally then you're my enemy." The girl's icy voice and intense gaze would have unsettled anyone else but it only served to make Heero angrier.

"Alright then," Sally spoke up again, "Let's get to work analyzing those things on her head."

"Hn."

-to be continued-