Chapter Twenty
Heero stood there, holding his head with his hands, Milliardo and the Gundam pilots did not know what to do. Then Dr J repeated the order to Heero.
"Kill Relena Peacecraft, Project Zero, you have to kill Relena Peacecraft".
Then Relena shouted:
"Heero! You can't kill me, your mission is to protect me, remember?".
"Heero? Is that my name?" said Heero looking at Relena incredibly confused.
"Yes, don't you remember?" asked Trowa.
"Yes, Heero, we are your friends, remember?" added Quatre.
"Heero? My name…You? My friends…I don't understand…my brain does not understand this information…" said Heero.
What happened next was unreal. It all happened inside one fraction of a second. No one could actually have predicted it, so no one did nothing to prevent it. Dr Pieter, losing patience and seeing that Heero was not going to execute the order, took a gun from one of the guards and, without thinking twice shot Relena. The bullet hit the girl's stomach and the impact made her fall backwards.
After this, everything was sent into sheer chaos. Milliardo caught Relena's falling body before it hit the ground. Trowa shot Dr Pieter and Duo, at the same, time shoot Dr J who was about to shoot Heero. Wufei and Quatre pushed a completely shocked Mr Valliant, Mr Lacroix and Mr Taylor inside the shuttle, Duo grabbed Heero and took him into the shuttle as well. Milliardo took Relena in his arms and ordered everyone to board the shuttle. They had to get to the base as soon as possible, Relena urgently needed medical help.
All of this while the other guards had started firing at them, hitting Duo in one of his arms, luckily only scratching him. One of the bullets actually hit Heero as well, the bullet getting inside one of his shoulders.
"Heero!" shouted Duo, seeing the blood coming out from his friend's shoulder. Unbelievably enough, Heero did not even wince. It was like he felt nothing. Then Duo shouted at Milliardo:
"Man, we need to get to the base. Heero's been hit as well!".
"You've been hit too!" replied the platinum haired man.
"It's only a flesh wound! Let's get the hell out of here!" replied Duo.
Wufei and Trowa were guarding the three men while Quatre piloted the shuttle out of the base. He had to blow the gate up with the shuttle's laser beam. Quatre shouted, via the shuttle's outside speaker, to all the guards to get out of there…the lack of pressure from outside would kill them all if they did not leave the room and took shelter someplace else.
Going as fast as he had ever gone, Quatre got them to the base in a record time of less than twenty minutes. He did not care whether he wrecked the shuttle's engine.
In the back of the shuttle, a desperate Milliardo was trying to stop the blood coming out his sister's wound. Thankfully she had passed out. At the same time Duo was trying to do the same with Heero. Heero was still very confused and did not understand what was going on. It looked like his brain had been completely burned.
When they finally got to the base, Sally was already waiting there. Taking Relena to the medical centre the Chinese doctor fought several hours to save the girl's life. Meanwhile, the other doctors from the centre, took the bullet out from Heero's shoulder and also took care of Duo's scratch. They left Heero sedated and tied up on his bed so they could run some tests on him as soon as he got better.
Wufei and Trowa locked the three prisoners in a room and went to the medical centre where they found Quatre and two very worried Milliardo and Lucrezia sitting in the waiting room.
After what it seemed an eternity, Sally came out the operating theatre looking incredibly tired and very upset. After telling everyone that Duo was fine and that both Heero and Relena were out of danger and recovering, she asked both Milliardo and Lucrezia to come with her to a separate room.
"Milliardo, Lu, I'm not sure whether you knew this for it was still early…" Sally started saying.
"We know she's pregnant…" interrupted Lucrezia.
Hearing this Sally nodded and said with a very sad voice:
"Well, I am terribly sorry to say this but, while we managed to save Relena's life, there was nothing we could do regarding the baby's. She had a miscarriage due to the trauma caused by being shot".