I can play with these characters all I want, but I still don't own them. Oh
well...borrowing is nice too.
As I said in the last chapter, there will be some angst in here.more like a lot instead of some; and many of you will probably want to kill me by the time you get to the end (especially since I've been updating at the speed of a slug stuck in molasses). I don't really mind, but could you please wait until October 6th until you do it? I don't want to miss C-Kon. Oh, speaking of which I don't own the brief set of song lyrics that appear at the end of the chapter either. They belong to whoever did the video game Legend of Dragoon. If you like RPG games, then I think you'd like this game. Anyway, on with the story!
Enjoy!
Heero blinked. "Lita.you're not supposed to be here.. DAMN IT DUO!" he cursed, as Duo came skidding into the crowded room, taking Heero down with him.
"Sorry," Duo said. "Didn't mean to run you over."
"I don't care. What the hell is this?" Heero pointed at Lita. "I thought you had things under control. Now everything's all fouled up."
"Time out," a tall man in a blue uniform said. "Would either of you two care to explain what you're doing here?" he said, looking first at Lita then at Duo.
"I could ask you the same question," Lita said, looking over at the room's four other inhabitants.policemen.
"We were getting a confession out of Relena's killer until we were so rudely interrupted," another cop wearing glasses said.
"Confession.? I KNEW IT! Heero, you were up to something!"
Heero scowled. "Lita, get out of here now.before.."
"Before what?" the tall policeman said. "I don't think she's going anywhere. She seems to know you.." And that could indicate a possible conspiracy he thought to himself. "Tell me, what's your relationship to the suspect?" he asked Lita.
"I'm his fiancé," she answered.
"And how do you feel knowing you are engaged to the murderer of Relena Peacecraft?"
"You'll have to ask him."
"What does that mean? He's the one who killed her.."
"That may be what he told you, but it isn't true," Lita said softly. It hadn't taken her long to figure out just what Heero had planned to do. She knew her coming here had upset his plan, but she couldn't let him go through with it.
"Not.true.?"
"Don't do this Lita," Duo pleaded.
"I have to Duo," she answered. "I can't hide it anymore." The next thing she knew she was telling the police everything that had happened, confessing to murder.
Heero for his part, seemed not to notice. He'd fallen silent and was staring blankly at the goings on around him. You couldn't really blame him though; his plan had failed and the thought of what they would do to the one person he cared about had made him numb to all reality. What brought him back was a metallic sound followed by the sight of Lita's wrists bound by a pair of handcuffs.
"I'm sorry Heero.for everything." It was all the time she had as the police led her out of the room.
There was silence for a couple minutes, until it was disturbed by the muffled sound of a motor as the police left with their prisoner. Then followed the running of several pairs of feet as Rei and the other three pilots appeared in the doorway.
"Heero.." Quatre said softly, looking at the slump-shouldered pilot. "You alright?"
"Laptop," Heero said, straightening up.
"Huh? Laptop?" Duo asked.
"We're going to get her out of there."
"But.but I thought.."
"You thought I'd leave her?"
"You better not!" Rei huffed.
"No, Heero wouldn't let her rot in jail," Duo said to Rei. "But after that discussion we had the other night we didn't think you'd resort to jail breaks. You said it was out of the question because then she'd be a fugitive and she'd have to change her identity and all that."
"I know what I said.but I also know what Quatre said. He's right.they're going to kill her, right or not. No jury will let her go. Besides, I thought this plan was going to work.it wouldn't have involved her at all and we wouldn't have had to resort to breaking the law. But things are different now.it may be a rotten life, but at least she'll be alive."
Inwardly, Quatre breathed a sigh of relief. Of course, he was not normally a fan of law breaking, but this was an extreme case. He knew once he saw Lita being led out the door in handcuffs that she'd confessed. Then he had prayed Heero would change his mind on the issue of escape.
"Come on.we don't have time to waste," Heero said, heading for Lita's room. The other pilots and Rei followed behind, all of them crowding into the room to see what could be found. Heero booted up his laptop and connected to the net.
"So what's the first step?" Duo asked.
"We need to find out where they plan on keeping her. Once we know that, we can get a layout of the prison and plan the escape," Heero answered.
"That's easy to say, but how are you going to find that out? It isn't like you can send the cops an e-mail asking where she is," Rei said matter-of- factly.
"That is quite true," Quatre answered. "But you have to understand that sometimes in our line of work we have to use back doors."
"Back doors?"
Wufei rolled his eyes. "He's going to hack into the police network onna."
"Hack??" Rei exclaimed. "You guys can do that?"
"Of course we can. We aren't stupid."
"Well I'm not stupid and I can't hack."
Trowa shifted from where he was leaning against the wall. "You must have some degree of intelligence to be able to hack, yes. However, it is no lack if you can not. We have been trained for this sort of thing. As Quatre said, sometimes we must use back doors. Think of this skill as the bobby pin that picks the lock on the door when you have no key."
"You think this is bad, you don't want to know what else we've done," Duo said.
"Shut up Maxwell!" Wufei said fiercely, elbowing Duo in the ribs.
"All of you shut up!" Heero hissed. "I don't have any tolerance for your antics right now. I need to be able to concentrate." His words were punctuated with a dark scowl.
For the first time since she'd known them, Rei was afraid of these young men. She'd accepted without question that they were soldiers and she expected them to act a little rough at times. However, this hacking business and Duo's intimations that they had been involved in other.unpleasant things.unnerved her.
Several silently tense minutes passed. The only sounds were the rapid tapping of Heero's fingers on the keyboard and an occasional noise of irritation from the same person. Finally, he stopped, sitting up from his hunched over position. "I'm in."
There was a general sigh of relief from the group. "We should know something soon then?" Rei asked.
Heero gave a distracted nod as he opened up the prison roster. He quickly scanned down the list; then he frowned and scanned through it again.
"Something wrong?" Duo asked.
"Something is very wrong," Heero said, his eyes narrowed. "Her name isn't on this roster."
"Maybe the system just isn't updated," Rei said.
"Possible, but highly unlikely. After they left, they should have taken her and put her straight into a cell. They got a confession here, so it's unlikely they would have re-questioned her."
"Can you prove that?"
"No," he said flatly. "But I'm beginning to have my suspicions."
"So what do we do now?" Duo asked.
"We don't have any choice.we have to wait."
"Waiting is going to help us how.?" Rei asked.
Heero's already short fuse was about to blow, but he reminded himself that Rei was not exactly experienced in this sort of thing. Realizing he was starting to let his emotions over take him, Heero sat for a minute, staring at the laptop screen telling himself that getting worked up wouldn't help anybody. He couldn't afford to let himself lose control when somebody's life was on the line.
Rei was just about to repeat her question when Quatre laid a gentle hand on her arm. Shaking his head, he whispered softly. "I know you're anxious to help Lita Rei, but please remember that you aren't the only one who wants to see her come back."
"I'm sorry," she said softly. "I guess I'm just.feeling a little helpless. One of my best friends just got arrested and I can't do anything about it except wait.and patience has never been my strong point."
Quatre smiled. "It's alright.I think we're all a little short on patience right now. It just means we have to work harder on cooperating."
"ARGH!" Wufei cried out, interrupting the quiet conversation. "Yuy, stop that damn noise! It's driving me mad!"
"So much for working together and cooperation," Rei said, looking over to where Heero was sitting, drumming his fingers on his laptop. "Um.Heero, he is right though..That is kind of.annoying.."
"Do you think I give a shit if it's annoying or not?" Heero growled, glaring at the laptop.
Quatre bit his lip. This was going nowhere fast, except toward a catastrophe. Heero was silently stewing in front of the laptop, which only caused his anger and frustration to grow; Quatre knew he had to do something and fast. "Heero, you mentioned you had suspicions.about what?"
Heero erased his cyber-tracks, exiting the police network. He got up and turned on the radio that was sitting on the bookshelf.
"Heero?" Quatre asked, not understanding. What did music have to do with it? The group looked at each other, then back at Heero. Suddenly the music stopped and the hourly news update came on.
"Listen carefully," Heero commanded.
The group did as told. At the end of the news, Duo frowned. "What were we supposed to be listening for? I didn't hear anything unusual."
"That's just it," Heero said. "The arrest of Relena's murderer.I would consider that big news wouldn't you?"
"Now that you mention it," Duo said, "they didn't mention the arrest at all. That doesn't make any sense. I would think that kind of news would be plastered all over."
"I'd stake my life on it.there is something going on under the table," Heero said.
"Are you sure?"
"I don't have hard proof, but watch the news tonight.I'd lay you odds there won't be one mention of a murder confession involving Relena."
Wufei frowned. "If that does turn out to be the case, we must find out why."
"Oh that's easy," Heero said. "And in a few hours I intend to prove my theory."
"Why not just tell us now?"
"I could.but I'm not immune to failure. There is a slim chance I'm wrong.and to whatever forces control our lives, I pray that I've made a mistake."
"So now we wait." Rei said. And wait they did. The group tried to carry on a normal afternoon, but it was all in vain. The cloud of uncertainty hanging over their heads made it quite impossible. Things got no better after dinner. They had watched the news, all 2 hours of it.and not one word was mentioned about the capture of Relena's killer.
"You were right," Duo said. "Not a thing."
"More confirmation. Now it's time to see if the proof is where I think it is," Heero said, heading back toward Lita's room.
"What does that mean?" Rei asked.
As the group piled into the room, Heero booted up the internet connection. "I knew from the moment I laid eyes on that roster that something wasn't right. I'm convinced that the police here in Juuban are in contact with the Sanq Kingdom."
"Sanq Kingdom? Why would our police be involved with that place?"
"Relena was from the Sanq Kingdom," Quatre explained. "But I do agree.what makes you think there's a connection?"
"I think I see where Heero's train of thought is going," Trowa said. "As we've already established, nobody really believes that Relena committed suicide, least of all the people of the Sanq Kingdom. If they were to find out that Relena's murderer had been captured, they'd want swift justice would they not?"
"Well yeah, but what does that have to do with anything?" Duo asked.
"Think for a minute Duo. If she goes through the whole process of booking she'll be started in the legal system and that means a trial," Heero said, as he maneuvered through a maze of back doors to get to the e-mail of the prison.
Quatre's eyes widened in realization. "That means if they don't book her and she's an 'unofficial' prisoner she won't be involved with the courts which means no trial.."
"And no trial means certain death," Trowa finished.
"Oh no, no!" Rei exclaimed. "That can't be true!"
"I'm afraid it is," Heero said pointing to the document
Wufei peered over Heero's shoulder, running eyes down the document on the screen. "So far, correct .this e-mail is from the Juuban police informing the Sanq Kingdom of Lita's confession and subsequent arrest. It requests instructions on how to deal with the prisoner."
Heero closed the e-mail, opening the next message on the in-box list. "This reply from the Sanq Kingdom 'suggests' that a lapse in procedure be made so no official record of her arrest exists, therefore keeping her effectively out of the media and the legal system." He closed that document, opening another one. "A following mail from Juuban asks for a sentence, since 'a great crime was committed against their people by this violent act'." He moved onto the last message on the list, a reply from the Sanq Kingdom. But this time, he didn't summarize its contents or pass any thing along. He only ripped the phone cord from the wall, taking the laptop and hurling it through the room's sliding paper door. The deafening silence created by his action was broken the moment the laptop shattered apart.
"Heero..?" Quatre asked tentatively.
"She doesn't deserve to see another day. Kill her before midnight's last bell."
"The last message," Trowa said softly.
"No!" Rei cried. "There has to be something we can do!"
"What do you want me to do?" Heero smashed his fist into the wall. "We don't know where in the prison she is or what time they plan on doing it; and even if we did the 5 of us can't take on a whole police force right now. Under normal circumstances, easily.but we're talking about a friend here and that's when emotions get involved and when emotions get involved things go wrong. Besides, I don't even know if she's even at the prison still. They could have taken her any number of places by now."
"You can't just leave her there. You said you wouldn't do that!" Rei swiped at the tears gathering in her eyes.
Quatre took her elbow, ushering her from the room while motioning for the other pilots to join him. Once they had all gathered in the living room, he looked at all of them. "I know how much this hurts all of you to hear, but in reality Heero is right. With no information we don't have enough to go on to make a safe, effective plan."
"But you can't just abandon her!" Rei shouted.
"Believe me, none of us wants to be in this position.but look at Heero Rei. He's the best of all of us and he's in no emotional state to do anything. We could try on our own, but without all of us working together, our chances for success are virtually non-existent."
"Stop making excuses! If none of you will do anything, then I will!"
"Rei!" Quatre said loudly, pounding his fist on the coffee table. "If you think we want to sit here and do nothing you're sadly mistaken. Do you think any of us wants to see her meet that end? Do you think I enjoy being told there's no chance when I know what I know? Damn it Rei! It was hard enough for Heero to see his fiancé get arrested, but it was equally hard for me to see her escorted out in handcuffs knowing she was willingly sacrificing herself and her son to protect Heero?"
"Son?" Duo's eyes widened. "She was.?"
Quatre nodded. "She told me when she first found out and made me promise not to tell anyone, especially not Heero. She didn't want to burden him with a family he wasn't ready for."
"Bastards," a choked voice hissed.
"Heero!" Quatre turned toward the kitchen in alarm, silently cursing himself for not paying closer attention.
"They're going to take from me not only my fiancé, but my son.." Anger flashed in his midnight eyes as he squeezed the glass in his hand, letting it explode in a rain of shards. "Even after her death, Relena plagues my life. She's destroyed everything!" Seething, he kicked one of the kitchen chairs into the living room. He was prepared to kick the chair again, when he stopped. "No.it wasn't Relena, it was me. It's cowardly to hide behind her when it's my fault this all happened. Oh god, what have I done?" Sinking to the floor, he brushed the fingers of his bloodied hand through his hair.
"Come on Heero, pull yourself together," Duo said, kneeling down next to his compatriot.
"How?? I killed them Duo! I fucking killed them! And now that I've realized that I've also realized I don't know what to do.."
"None of us do Heero.none of us do."
"Then all is lost." So saying, Heero allowed himself to fall victim to his emotions and broke down, staring at Duo with eyes that ran with silent tears.
The hours flew swiftly in the shrine as well as the jail; and all too soon she had finished writing a last message with pen and paper supplied by a guard. Upon it's completion, Lita was escorted toward her chamber of fate and the letter was given to the guard for delivery. However, when he found out it was not a humble apology for the crime or any reflections of such a nature, he crumpled it into a ball and threw it in the waste basket as he passed by.
While they made ready to carry out the secret execution, a transparent figure lifted from the basket the ball of paper, unfolding it a little to read these words:
If from where you're standing
You can see the sky above
I'll be waiting for you
If you still believe in love.
As I said in the last chapter, there will be some angst in here.more like a lot instead of some; and many of you will probably want to kill me by the time you get to the end (especially since I've been updating at the speed of a slug stuck in molasses). I don't really mind, but could you please wait until October 6th until you do it? I don't want to miss C-Kon. Oh, speaking of which I don't own the brief set of song lyrics that appear at the end of the chapter either. They belong to whoever did the video game Legend of Dragoon. If you like RPG games, then I think you'd like this game. Anyway, on with the story!
Enjoy!
Heero blinked. "Lita.you're not supposed to be here.. DAMN IT DUO!" he cursed, as Duo came skidding into the crowded room, taking Heero down with him.
"Sorry," Duo said. "Didn't mean to run you over."
"I don't care. What the hell is this?" Heero pointed at Lita. "I thought you had things under control. Now everything's all fouled up."
"Time out," a tall man in a blue uniform said. "Would either of you two care to explain what you're doing here?" he said, looking first at Lita then at Duo.
"I could ask you the same question," Lita said, looking over at the room's four other inhabitants.policemen.
"We were getting a confession out of Relena's killer until we were so rudely interrupted," another cop wearing glasses said.
"Confession.? I KNEW IT! Heero, you were up to something!"
Heero scowled. "Lita, get out of here now.before.."
"Before what?" the tall policeman said. "I don't think she's going anywhere. She seems to know you.." And that could indicate a possible conspiracy he thought to himself. "Tell me, what's your relationship to the suspect?" he asked Lita.
"I'm his fiancé," she answered.
"And how do you feel knowing you are engaged to the murderer of Relena Peacecraft?"
"You'll have to ask him."
"What does that mean? He's the one who killed her.."
"That may be what he told you, but it isn't true," Lita said softly. It hadn't taken her long to figure out just what Heero had planned to do. She knew her coming here had upset his plan, but she couldn't let him go through with it.
"Not.true.?"
"Don't do this Lita," Duo pleaded.
"I have to Duo," she answered. "I can't hide it anymore." The next thing she knew she was telling the police everything that had happened, confessing to murder.
Heero for his part, seemed not to notice. He'd fallen silent and was staring blankly at the goings on around him. You couldn't really blame him though; his plan had failed and the thought of what they would do to the one person he cared about had made him numb to all reality. What brought him back was a metallic sound followed by the sight of Lita's wrists bound by a pair of handcuffs.
"I'm sorry Heero.for everything." It was all the time she had as the police led her out of the room.
There was silence for a couple minutes, until it was disturbed by the muffled sound of a motor as the police left with their prisoner. Then followed the running of several pairs of feet as Rei and the other three pilots appeared in the doorway.
"Heero.." Quatre said softly, looking at the slump-shouldered pilot. "You alright?"
"Laptop," Heero said, straightening up.
"Huh? Laptop?" Duo asked.
"We're going to get her out of there."
"But.but I thought.."
"You thought I'd leave her?"
"You better not!" Rei huffed.
"No, Heero wouldn't let her rot in jail," Duo said to Rei. "But after that discussion we had the other night we didn't think you'd resort to jail breaks. You said it was out of the question because then she'd be a fugitive and she'd have to change her identity and all that."
"I know what I said.but I also know what Quatre said. He's right.they're going to kill her, right or not. No jury will let her go. Besides, I thought this plan was going to work.it wouldn't have involved her at all and we wouldn't have had to resort to breaking the law. But things are different now.it may be a rotten life, but at least she'll be alive."
Inwardly, Quatre breathed a sigh of relief. Of course, he was not normally a fan of law breaking, but this was an extreme case. He knew once he saw Lita being led out the door in handcuffs that she'd confessed. Then he had prayed Heero would change his mind on the issue of escape.
"Come on.we don't have time to waste," Heero said, heading for Lita's room. The other pilots and Rei followed behind, all of them crowding into the room to see what could be found. Heero booted up his laptop and connected to the net.
"So what's the first step?" Duo asked.
"We need to find out where they plan on keeping her. Once we know that, we can get a layout of the prison and plan the escape," Heero answered.
"That's easy to say, but how are you going to find that out? It isn't like you can send the cops an e-mail asking where she is," Rei said matter-of- factly.
"That is quite true," Quatre answered. "But you have to understand that sometimes in our line of work we have to use back doors."
"Back doors?"
Wufei rolled his eyes. "He's going to hack into the police network onna."
"Hack??" Rei exclaimed. "You guys can do that?"
"Of course we can. We aren't stupid."
"Well I'm not stupid and I can't hack."
Trowa shifted from where he was leaning against the wall. "You must have some degree of intelligence to be able to hack, yes. However, it is no lack if you can not. We have been trained for this sort of thing. As Quatre said, sometimes we must use back doors. Think of this skill as the bobby pin that picks the lock on the door when you have no key."
"You think this is bad, you don't want to know what else we've done," Duo said.
"Shut up Maxwell!" Wufei said fiercely, elbowing Duo in the ribs.
"All of you shut up!" Heero hissed. "I don't have any tolerance for your antics right now. I need to be able to concentrate." His words were punctuated with a dark scowl.
For the first time since she'd known them, Rei was afraid of these young men. She'd accepted without question that they were soldiers and she expected them to act a little rough at times. However, this hacking business and Duo's intimations that they had been involved in other.unpleasant things.unnerved her.
Several silently tense minutes passed. The only sounds were the rapid tapping of Heero's fingers on the keyboard and an occasional noise of irritation from the same person. Finally, he stopped, sitting up from his hunched over position. "I'm in."
There was a general sigh of relief from the group. "We should know something soon then?" Rei asked.
Heero gave a distracted nod as he opened up the prison roster. He quickly scanned down the list; then he frowned and scanned through it again.
"Something wrong?" Duo asked.
"Something is very wrong," Heero said, his eyes narrowed. "Her name isn't on this roster."
"Maybe the system just isn't updated," Rei said.
"Possible, but highly unlikely. After they left, they should have taken her and put her straight into a cell. They got a confession here, so it's unlikely they would have re-questioned her."
"Can you prove that?"
"No," he said flatly. "But I'm beginning to have my suspicions."
"So what do we do now?" Duo asked.
"We don't have any choice.we have to wait."
"Waiting is going to help us how.?" Rei asked.
Heero's already short fuse was about to blow, but he reminded himself that Rei was not exactly experienced in this sort of thing. Realizing he was starting to let his emotions over take him, Heero sat for a minute, staring at the laptop screen telling himself that getting worked up wouldn't help anybody. He couldn't afford to let himself lose control when somebody's life was on the line.
Rei was just about to repeat her question when Quatre laid a gentle hand on her arm. Shaking his head, he whispered softly. "I know you're anxious to help Lita Rei, but please remember that you aren't the only one who wants to see her come back."
"I'm sorry," she said softly. "I guess I'm just.feeling a little helpless. One of my best friends just got arrested and I can't do anything about it except wait.and patience has never been my strong point."
Quatre smiled. "It's alright.I think we're all a little short on patience right now. It just means we have to work harder on cooperating."
"ARGH!" Wufei cried out, interrupting the quiet conversation. "Yuy, stop that damn noise! It's driving me mad!"
"So much for working together and cooperation," Rei said, looking over to where Heero was sitting, drumming his fingers on his laptop. "Um.Heero, he is right though..That is kind of.annoying.."
"Do you think I give a shit if it's annoying or not?" Heero growled, glaring at the laptop.
Quatre bit his lip. This was going nowhere fast, except toward a catastrophe. Heero was silently stewing in front of the laptop, which only caused his anger and frustration to grow; Quatre knew he had to do something and fast. "Heero, you mentioned you had suspicions.about what?"
Heero erased his cyber-tracks, exiting the police network. He got up and turned on the radio that was sitting on the bookshelf.
"Heero?" Quatre asked, not understanding. What did music have to do with it? The group looked at each other, then back at Heero. Suddenly the music stopped and the hourly news update came on.
"Listen carefully," Heero commanded.
The group did as told. At the end of the news, Duo frowned. "What were we supposed to be listening for? I didn't hear anything unusual."
"That's just it," Heero said. "The arrest of Relena's murderer.I would consider that big news wouldn't you?"
"Now that you mention it," Duo said, "they didn't mention the arrest at all. That doesn't make any sense. I would think that kind of news would be plastered all over."
"I'd stake my life on it.there is something going on under the table," Heero said.
"Are you sure?"
"I don't have hard proof, but watch the news tonight.I'd lay you odds there won't be one mention of a murder confession involving Relena."
Wufei frowned. "If that does turn out to be the case, we must find out why."
"Oh that's easy," Heero said. "And in a few hours I intend to prove my theory."
"Why not just tell us now?"
"I could.but I'm not immune to failure. There is a slim chance I'm wrong.and to whatever forces control our lives, I pray that I've made a mistake."
"So now we wait." Rei said. And wait they did. The group tried to carry on a normal afternoon, but it was all in vain. The cloud of uncertainty hanging over their heads made it quite impossible. Things got no better after dinner. They had watched the news, all 2 hours of it.and not one word was mentioned about the capture of Relena's killer.
"You were right," Duo said. "Not a thing."
"More confirmation. Now it's time to see if the proof is where I think it is," Heero said, heading back toward Lita's room.
"What does that mean?" Rei asked.
As the group piled into the room, Heero booted up the internet connection. "I knew from the moment I laid eyes on that roster that something wasn't right. I'm convinced that the police here in Juuban are in contact with the Sanq Kingdom."
"Sanq Kingdom? Why would our police be involved with that place?"
"Relena was from the Sanq Kingdom," Quatre explained. "But I do agree.what makes you think there's a connection?"
"I think I see where Heero's train of thought is going," Trowa said. "As we've already established, nobody really believes that Relena committed suicide, least of all the people of the Sanq Kingdom. If they were to find out that Relena's murderer had been captured, they'd want swift justice would they not?"
"Well yeah, but what does that have to do with anything?" Duo asked.
"Think for a minute Duo. If she goes through the whole process of booking she'll be started in the legal system and that means a trial," Heero said, as he maneuvered through a maze of back doors to get to the e-mail of the prison.
Quatre's eyes widened in realization. "That means if they don't book her and she's an 'unofficial' prisoner she won't be involved with the courts which means no trial.."
"And no trial means certain death," Trowa finished.
"Oh no, no!" Rei exclaimed. "That can't be true!"
"I'm afraid it is," Heero said pointing to the document
Wufei peered over Heero's shoulder, running eyes down the document on the screen. "So far, correct .this e-mail is from the Juuban police informing the Sanq Kingdom of Lita's confession and subsequent arrest. It requests instructions on how to deal with the prisoner."
Heero closed the e-mail, opening the next message on the in-box list. "This reply from the Sanq Kingdom 'suggests' that a lapse in procedure be made so no official record of her arrest exists, therefore keeping her effectively out of the media and the legal system." He closed that document, opening another one. "A following mail from Juuban asks for a sentence, since 'a great crime was committed against their people by this violent act'." He moved onto the last message on the list, a reply from the Sanq Kingdom. But this time, he didn't summarize its contents or pass any thing along. He only ripped the phone cord from the wall, taking the laptop and hurling it through the room's sliding paper door. The deafening silence created by his action was broken the moment the laptop shattered apart.
"Heero..?" Quatre asked tentatively.
"She doesn't deserve to see another day. Kill her before midnight's last bell."
"The last message," Trowa said softly.
"No!" Rei cried. "There has to be something we can do!"
"What do you want me to do?" Heero smashed his fist into the wall. "We don't know where in the prison she is or what time they plan on doing it; and even if we did the 5 of us can't take on a whole police force right now. Under normal circumstances, easily.but we're talking about a friend here and that's when emotions get involved and when emotions get involved things go wrong. Besides, I don't even know if she's even at the prison still. They could have taken her any number of places by now."
"You can't just leave her there. You said you wouldn't do that!" Rei swiped at the tears gathering in her eyes.
Quatre took her elbow, ushering her from the room while motioning for the other pilots to join him. Once they had all gathered in the living room, he looked at all of them. "I know how much this hurts all of you to hear, but in reality Heero is right. With no information we don't have enough to go on to make a safe, effective plan."
"But you can't just abandon her!" Rei shouted.
"Believe me, none of us wants to be in this position.but look at Heero Rei. He's the best of all of us and he's in no emotional state to do anything. We could try on our own, but without all of us working together, our chances for success are virtually non-existent."
"Stop making excuses! If none of you will do anything, then I will!"
"Rei!" Quatre said loudly, pounding his fist on the coffee table. "If you think we want to sit here and do nothing you're sadly mistaken. Do you think any of us wants to see her meet that end? Do you think I enjoy being told there's no chance when I know what I know? Damn it Rei! It was hard enough for Heero to see his fiancé get arrested, but it was equally hard for me to see her escorted out in handcuffs knowing she was willingly sacrificing herself and her son to protect Heero?"
"Son?" Duo's eyes widened. "She was.?"
Quatre nodded. "She told me when she first found out and made me promise not to tell anyone, especially not Heero. She didn't want to burden him with a family he wasn't ready for."
"Bastards," a choked voice hissed.
"Heero!" Quatre turned toward the kitchen in alarm, silently cursing himself for not paying closer attention.
"They're going to take from me not only my fiancé, but my son.." Anger flashed in his midnight eyes as he squeezed the glass in his hand, letting it explode in a rain of shards. "Even after her death, Relena plagues my life. She's destroyed everything!" Seething, he kicked one of the kitchen chairs into the living room. He was prepared to kick the chair again, when he stopped. "No.it wasn't Relena, it was me. It's cowardly to hide behind her when it's my fault this all happened. Oh god, what have I done?" Sinking to the floor, he brushed the fingers of his bloodied hand through his hair.
"Come on Heero, pull yourself together," Duo said, kneeling down next to his compatriot.
"How?? I killed them Duo! I fucking killed them! And now that I've realized that I've also realized I don't know what to do.."
"None of us do Heero.none of us do."
"Then all is lost." So saying, Heero allowed himself to fall victim to his emotions and broke down, staring at Duo with eyes that ran with silent tears.
The hours flew swiftly in the shrine as well as the jail; and all too soon she had finished writing a last message with pen and paper supplied by a guard. Upon it's completion, Lita was escorted toward her chamber of fate and the letter was given to the guard for delivery. However, when he found out it was not a humble apology for the crime or any reflections of such a nature, he crumpled it into a ball and threw it in the waste basket as he passed by.
While they made ready to carry out the secret execution, a transparent figure lifted from the basket the ball of paper, unfolding it a little to read these words:
If from where you're standing
You can see the sky above
I'll be waiting for you
If you still believe in love.