A Childhood Promise
Chapter 9

 No matter what, you will be forced to make decisions. However, do you ever really know what you're doing?

 "That soldier." Une began immediately, sitting down across the desk from Relena. "Passed with flying colors. He'll be nothing short of an asset, great work Mistress."

 Relena cleared her throat, wary of the name. How long was she supposed to be addressed like that? Dumb question; she was in this thing for life. A whole, long, boring life. She quickly pushed those thoughts into a dark corner of her mind for later.

 "Excellent. Now, the next action is to send out troops for the next battle, am I right?" Une nodded. Relena folded her hands in front of her on the table and sat forward. "Is anyone going to... join them?" Trieze sat back and closed his eyes.

 "I was thinking maybe, that I should… for the thrill of the battle. I feel like I haven't been out of this castle in forever. Relena, next battle is yours, if you wish." Trieze opened one eye to watch her nod. "Good. Lady Une, if you could please escort Commanders Barton and Winner through the enemy's base?"

 By 'escorting', he meant break in with them. Une agreed, big surprise. They'd go into battle within hours, and they were to steal two of those special mobile suits, or 'Gundams'. There were five of them, and three suitable pilots. The two commanders were some of the Earth's best pilots.

 "Catherine will come with you three as a lookout. We leave in four hours. Meeting adjourned." They nodded and left the room, each towards their own. Relena flopped onto her bed, letting earlier thoughts come through.

 Before that day, everything seemed so straight-forward. After Mars's defeat, she was to rule, but since those meetings with Hilde… She began questioning her role in all of this. It had occurred to her that this was a permanent decision. Of course, she knew it before, but this was the first time it really hit her. She was in this thing for life, until she was an old lady with a fucking crane, she was in this for her entire life. About sixty years of perfect everything, could she handle it? A single mistake, and all lost lives would be for no reason.

 Was that what she really wanted? To be on the high pedestal all her life? An outcast to the population, a leader to over a billion people. Clearly she hadn't thought it out when she agreed… but now it seemed like an awfully long time.

 The new soldier entered her room, doing a quick sweep-through in case of bugs, assassins and anything of the like. Relena never even bothered to look up at the nameless boy; she knew who he was, after all.

*~*~*~*~*

 Something was not right; the Mistress hadn't even looked up when he entered, and her face was never clear enough to make out. Just the blonde hair. Wouldn't she at least want to know who was in her room? It was possible she did know, although curiosity should've gotten the better of her, wondering what he actually looked like and all.

 Whatever it was, Heero didn't spend all that much time on it. There was going to be an attack soon, and Kushrenada and his lady would be leaving with an army. That left Mistress Dorlain, him, and a considerably decreased security staff. Perfect.

 Lady Luck was definitely on his side right now; everything would work out just fine. He'd go in tonight, shoot the girl, and the next morning, no one would know what happened. The stupid girl had even requested no security cameras, which resulted in bedroom checks by soldiers. Like he said, perfect.

 Now it was a matter of waiting.

*~*~*~*~*

 "Ready Captain?" A male voice crackled through her ear. Hilde thrust the joysticks forward, making her mobile suit fly out the door.

 "Guess." No sooner had she said that, a tirade of mobile suits flew past, and she stood in the middle of it all. A mass of approximately five hundred mobile suits flew to counter them. Wufei flew out on his Gundam, Nataku. Dorothy was still getting used to Duo's old Gundam. She hesitated a second at the thought, but thrust forward again as the Earth's squadron headed towards them. She was soon in front, flying along side Wufei.

 "How's she handling?" She asked. Wufei's face popped up on her left screen, and she couldn't help but smile at the Chinese boy's smirk. His arms moved, doing what she could only guess was stroking the keys.

 "Like a dream." He replied. He looked forward again, then straight at her, frowning.

 "Captain Hilde, are you sure you want to fight today? We have plenty of t-"

 "I'm alright, Wufei, but thanks for worrying. Now, it's time to get down to business."

 Wufei sped ahead, moving right into the line of fire. It didn't bother him much, though, as he aimed his arm and shot his dragon fist. It took down quite a few. The rest of the Mars Squadron took on one or two at a time.  Another Mobile suit exploded in front of Hilde, and she let her mind switch to auto pilot…

 What if Relena was in one of these suits? Or Heero? Maybe even… Duo?

 "Captain!" Heat from her backside made Hilde turn around, only to be met by a burst of flames, and a giant scythe in the middle of it all. Dorothy? The smoke cleared, and it revealed Death Scythe, Duo's Gundam. Dorothy's face replaced the blank screen that was once Wufei.

 "Watch it Captain, there's a lot of people here… and I'm betting the Earth's main targets right now are me, you, and Wufei." Hilde nodded a little shakily, unnerved that it had taken Dorothy to save her from death. Why was fighting becoming more difficult these days? "Okay then Captain. Since I last heard, twelve of our soldiers have been killed, and about fifty thanks to Wufei over there."

 "Great, thanks. Now watch your back. Dorothy."

 "Like you should talk." The two girls lined up back to back and shot at various targets. Hundreds of explosions lit up the deep space, which could be seen from both Earth and Mars.

*~*~*~*~*

 Trowa and Quatre were watching from their shuttle. Lady Une was piloting for now. They were near Mars anyways. Quatre sighed at the huge spectacle, making his best friend look over.

 "Don't you think all this fighting and death could've been avoided?" the blonde asked, making sure to keep his voice low so that Lady Une couldn't hear. The taller brunette didn't speak for a while, which was normal for him.

 "It reminds me of an old tale, I heard a long time ago…" he began. Quatre nodded.

 "The two kings and their eggs? I don't seem to recall the title." A finger delicately touched the window's glass. "Do you think our situation is like theirs? Maybe… maybe we should have cracked the egg down the middle?"

 "Yes." The shuttle sped on, neither of them attempting to stop it. It was no use; they weren't that high in status. If the war was to be stopped before it ended, someone of top ranking would have to take the stand. Two commanders weren't going to change anything.

 Funny how Relena was thinking the same thing, hundreds of miles away, on Earth.

Well, that was what she had been thinking. A call interrupted her as her communicator rang, and she flipped the switch, "Yes?" The girl at the desk looked up suddenly, as if taken by surprise. "Can I help you?"

 "Oh, yes Mistress. Trieze has reported in, there are only two Gundams in the battle. Lady Une is approaching the hangar, and will contact us about the Gundam situation in there."

 "Is that all?" she couldn't help but hope the little spark or irritation from her voice, and the girl gulped.

 "Y- yes Ma'am." Without another word, Relena terminated the connection. She hated it when people pulled her out of concentration for some useless information. Well, it wasn't exactly useless, but she couldn't do anything with it.

 Just then, the door creaked open. The soldier, the one with chocolate hair and Prussian blue eyes, stepped in. He held a gun, obviously doing the routine check up. His eyes fell on her and his face betrayed his look of shock. Relena giggled. How very unprofessional.

 "So, you recognize me, I dare say?" She teased. The soldier's mask went back up, and she sat in one of the chairs beside her bed, picking up and old Shakespeare book, since she obviously couldn't concentrate now.

 "So, you know my name now. Do I have the pleasure of knowing yours?" Relena sat back against the cushioned back, and relaxed, her book forgotten in her lap at the chance of actually learning the soldier's name.

 "Heero." She smiled. She liked that name.

*~*~*~*~*

 He couldn't believe it. It was her. Out of all people, it was the one girl he hadn't wanted to kill, his mission. He was confused. Before, his mission came before himself, but this time, Heero already knew he wouldn't win. Damn that little bitch. She was going to ruin all of the plans.

 Yet, he couldn't kill her. This simple fact made him anxious. Would he be able to work around this?

*~*~*~*~*

 *peeks out from behind a corner* Ah! Don't hate me! I know I haven't updated in forever, but I have a very good excuse. *nods* my schedule has taken an unexpected twist. Now, I have writing a summary for a book I've read, website upkeep, writing an explanation of tsunamis for school, more homework altogether, and I tend to trail off on the computer. Luckily, a storm (rain!! Finally!!) knocked out my internet so I had a lot of time to write this. Even then, I was trailing off to draw something for my new website layout.

 I'm trying to get a host right now, and make a layout from pretty much scratch. Crazy? Yes. My family thinks I should get more exercise too. I think that's all… I have to post this up later today cause internet's still down -_-. I'll try to update more!