AN: This is chapter 9. Enjoying this? Well I most certainly am enjoying writing this. I am becoming very excited about the next up and coming chapters. I am motivated and will assure you that I will finish this fic. I just hope that everyone begins to enjoy it as much as I am. More action to come. The conspiracy is developing. The pilots and Preventers will soon find themselves in heaps of trouble. Uh- oh! Always R&R!

Preventer space base…

Duo was sleeping peacefully in his bunk. He and many others had spent the entire day working on the Gundams. They had been doing so for the entire week. Things appeared to be moving along nicely, although at times Duo found small problems arising.

But for now, the pilot of Deathscythe Hell slept, dreaming about what his life would be like after this was all over. He dreamt of Hilde, her face smiling at him, and her laughter ringing in his ears. This was the first time in months that nightmares from the war hadn't managed to creep up on him.

Below him, however, on the bottom bunk, lay Wufei, trying, without much success, to catch some sleep as well. His roommate's soft snoring was distracting.

"Injustice. Why did I ever agree to share a room with this braided baka?" exclaimed the Preventer as he opened his eyes.

He decided that he had had enough. If he could not relax then neither should he. Wufei stood up and grabbed his pillow. He looked up onto the top bunk where his roommate lay. Using his pillow, Wufei landed a hard blow on the sleeping pilot.

"Stop that infernal racket!" screamed Wufei.

Duo sat upright in alarm. He squirmed and fell out of his bed, entangled in a mess of sheets and blankets. Duo rubbed his hazy eyes and looked up at his attacker.

"Damn it Wufei! Can't a fella get a decent amount of sleep around this place?!"

"Humph! Injustice! I've been listening to your snoring all night. It is I who has not been able to relax!"

Duo rolled his eyes. He looked across the room at the digital clock that sat on a small nightstand. Duo's violet eyes grew wide as he read the time.

"Wufei, it's three in the morning! I'm never going to get back to sleep now! Damn it! I was having such a good dream too!"

"Listen Maxwell, if you and I are going to attempt to bunk together, then we best set some things straight…"

The Vidphone blinking with an urgent message interrupted Wufei. Duo reached it first; revealing Lady Une's worried face. She spoke quickly,

"We need the two of you at once down here in the landing bay. Don't waste any time! I will explain once you get here!"

She shut down the line. Duo and Wufei scrambled to thrown on their clothes. One the way out of the door Duo muttered under his breath,

"So much for a good night's rest."

"Shut up, Maxwell."

Once they had reached the landing bay, the two Gundam pilots met up with Lady Une, Zechs, and Noin. All three of them had a worried expression on their face. Duo looked at the head of the Preventers questioningly. She however, stood in silence. Seconds later, Sally and Hilde arrived panting, apparently alarmed just a Duo and Wufei had been.

Lady Une spoke,

"Zechs what do we have?"

"They shall be arriving within the next 30 seconds. I suggest we open the hatch," he replied.

"Very well do so. Everyone stand aside."

Zechs and Noin ran over to a control panel. After pressing a few buttons the large hatch opened and a small private shuttle made it's way into the landing area. Noin closed the large doors to the space station. She and Zechs raced towards the shuttle, the other following closely behind them.

All stood back as the shuttle doors opened. Four figures emerged slowly. Three young men, and one young woman who stood between them.

"Relena!" cried Zechs as he ran towards his younger sister. He embraced her then stood back to inspect her making sure she was safe. He frowned as he looked at her left cheek, which was still red, and slightly swollen from the blow she had taken earlier.

"It's nothing Milliardo, I'm fine."

"But Relena…"

"Really, all I need right now is some rest. Please don't worry so much," she said smiling slightly.

Zechs nodded then looked to the three young men who stood behind her.

"My thanks to you all, especially you, Yuy," he said.

Heero only nodded in return.

Lady Une stepped forward,

"Has the prisoner been properly detained?"

"Yes, you will find him inside," Heero stated coldly.

"Maxwell, Wufei, take the prisoner and lead him to my office. There he shall be questioned."

Duo and Wufei looked at each other then simply shrugged. They would get their answers later. The two of them followed Trowa inside the shuttle.

"The rest of you, follow me," commanded Lady Une.

The man who had tired to abduct Relena now sat in a leather chair unbound, facing a group of men and women. The only ones he recognized were the Vice Foreign Minister and her three saviors from earlier that evening. Especially the dark hair youth who stood in the corner of the room. His arms were folded out in front of his body and he glared at the man coldly, with Prussian blue eyes. The man sneered at the tall youth that had delivered him to this place.

"State your name," said Zechs.

"Why is my name any of your concern?"

"I will ask you nicely one more time…please state your name."

The man sighed. It didn't matter know. He was a dead man either way.

"Clancy Penn."

"Very well, Mr. Penn. Might I ask you why you tried to abduct and or harm the Vice Foreign Minister earlier this evening?"

"My orders were to bring the Vice Foreign Minister with me."

"Who gave you these orders?" asked Zechs.

"This I can not tell you," sneered Clancy.

"Mr. Penn, by not giving us the answers we need, you are only making things increasingly difficult on yourself," stated Lady Une. "Now please answer the question."

"Why should I? If I tell you they will kill me. If I don't tell you then they will kill me anyway for failing my mission."

"Who are you speaking of?" questioned Zechs once more.

The man smirked and narrowed his eyes. His next words were cold and fearful,

"Men whom you think you know everything about, when in fact they are the enemy you have been looking for."

All in the room snapped their heads at this reply. The man was chilling and hateful. His eyes were cold. It was evident that he had been a soldier all his life.

"Very well Mr. Penn. If you will not tell us whom you are working for, at least tell us where you come from," stated Zechs.

"I will tell you nothing, for we are all dead men in the end."

Zechs was growing impatient. He did not wish to lose his temper with this man. He was a valuable hostage who could answer all of the questions that had been raised over the last couple of weeks.

"Sally, administer the sedative," commanded Lady Une.

Sally nodded and walked toward prisoner. She leaned down and rolled up the man's shirtsleeve. She swabbed the area she was about to prick with a needle with alcohol. As she administered the drug the man looked into the eyes of each of the rooms occupants.

"You know, you really should be monitoring the Earth's security right now instead of your own," he said coldly.

This statement raised alarm. Sally stopped abruptly, shocked at the man's words. Before she could react however, the man grabbed the gun that was holstered at her waist. He pushed Sally onto the ground. All in the room, who had guns, raised their own weapons to meet the man's.

"Put the weapon down at once!" shouted Lady Une.

"Do as she says if you value your life," retorted Zechs.

Clancy smirked slightly and raised the gun. There was sadness in his eyes as he spoke his next words,

"That's the thing…I don't."

With that, he raised the gun to his head and pulled the trigger.

"No!" screamed Relena as the shot rang throughout the room.

Sally still somewhat dizzy from the blow she had taken crawled over to the lifeless form that lay sprawled on the floor in a pool of crimson blood. She touched the man feeling for a pulse, then shook her head sadly.

"Why?" Hilde asked out loud.

"Because he gave us too much information," said Heero from the corner of the room. His gun was still in his hand. All in the room looked at him gravely. He continued,

"Before we left Quatre's estate, I took the liberty to search the man. I found this on him," said the Gundam pilot as he held up a disk in his hand. "On this disk are the layout plans to a secret base on colony L1. It must be where this man was from. It also must be where he was planning to take Relena had he succeeded with his mission. The disk holds security codes and passwords for the base. Thanks to him, we have these now."

"He knew that they would come for him, because he knew that Heero had the codes. That's why he killed himself," said Zechs who stared at the body.

"All right, I want everyone to retire for the what's left of the night. Noin, show Relena to a room. She needs some rest," said Lady Une.

"We all do," muttered Duo.

"I would like for everyone to meet here tomorrow for an important meeting. I will give you a specific time in the morning. Until then, you are all dismissed. Zechs send someone in to clean up this… mess," said Lady Une as she walked out of the room.

The following morning…

Heero had spent much of the morning working alongside of Duo and the rest of the mechanics on the Gundams. The braided pilot had so far done a wonderful job supervising the reconstruction. With the pace that they were working at and with about ten mechanics working on each Gundam, they would be completed in just a few more weeks. That is if they had that much time.

Heero shrugged the horrible thought from his mind. Right now he needed to concentrate of the Wing Zero. He had taken charge of it ever since he set foot on the space station.

"Heero buddy, why don't you take a break like a normal person?" cried Duo from across the bay.

"Hn," was the only reply.

"Whatever, man," said the braided pilot as he started to work once more on the soon-to-be cockpit of Deathscythe.

"All right let's see how the communicator works," he said to himself as he switched it on. However, as soon as he did so, sparks began to fly, and Duo jumped out of his seat.

"Ouch! Damn it!" he screamed. He waved his injured hand around in the air and shook his head.

"Duo! What happened? Are you hurt?" cried Hilde as she ran up to him.

"No babe, I'm fine. Shit! I thought I had installed the communicator perfectly yesterday. Now, today, when I try to switch it on, it practically blows up in my face!"

"Obviously you made a mistake," said Hilde grinning slightly.

"No, I could have swore I put it in properly."

"Duo, maybe you should just take a break for a few. I know we have to meet a deadline, but we also need you to be in tip top shape to do it."

"Hilde…"

She put a finger up to his mouth. She then leaned and whispered something to him. Duo started to grin from ear to ear. Hilde pulled away and looked at him almost shyly.

"Is that a promise?" Duo joked.

"Maybe, we'll just have to see."

"Hey babe! Whatever you say!" he said as he swung his arm around her shoulders and led her out of the bay.

Heero smirked at the two of them as they left. So Duo was finally with Hilde. That was almost hard to imagine.

Heero decided to follow the braided pilot's advice though. He hoped down from a platform he had been working on, and took a seat next to his Gundam. The body of the massive mobile suit was pretty much complete. He leaned against one of the legs. How long had it been since he had slept? He couldn't remember. He had been awake the entire might before, looking over the disk that Clancy Penn had held. It would indeed prove to be very helpful to them.

Heero slowly closed his eyes and relaxed. He felt himself being lulled into darkness. His body finally receiving the long needed rest it yearned for.

He was running, running from an unknown enemy, but the fear that gripped inside of him pushed him on. Sweat covered his battered body. And the heat that surrounded him was too much for even the Perfect Soldier to handle. He didn't know where he was it was too dark. So dark that he couldn't even see his hand on front of his face. But he just kept running, running away from the enemy, something that he had never done before.

He suddenly stopped. He was alone. Nothing chase after him now, the fear that had seized his heart was now gone. He heard a voice calling his name. He turned towards the direction of the voice.

"Heero."

"Heero where are you?"

Heero began to make his way towards a pale light. The closer he came to it, the louder the voice became.

"Heero."

Then the light was gone, darkness enveloped him, and the fear over took him once more.

Heero awoke with a start. He was breathing heavily and a cold sweat covered his forehead. Someone was calling his name.

"Heero? Heero are you in here?"

Relena appeared amidst the mechanics and machines that were moving about in the bay. She spotted him standing up from the foot of his Gundam and walked over to him.

"There you are, Duo said that I might find you here. Lady Une wishes to speak with us…" she paused and looked at Heero carefully. "Heero, are you all right?"

"I'm fine," he answered curtly.

"But…"

"Relena you have more important things to worry about than me. Focus on them," said Heero as he moved past her.

Relena felt pain run through her as he spoke those words. He was still the cold and unemotional person that she had met years ago. She didn't understand why he wouldn't at least talk to her in the slightest. She was about to turn and go when Heero's deep voice stopped her,

"You haven't changed at all."

Relena turned to look at him. His back was turned towards her; he had just finished putting his tools away. He continued,

"You always worry and care so much for others."

"Heero, please don't tell me this… not now," she said trying to hold back the tears and pain in her voice.

Heero turned around surprised at her response. He stared at her. But she had turned her gaze to the ground so that he would not see her eyes. He walked over to her and stood directly in front of her.

"What's wrong Relena?"

It was not only the question; it was the sincerity with which he spoke it. She gazed at him her eyes wide with an unfamiliar emotion.

"I… I… I have to go. The meeting…" and with that she fled from the bay before Heero could respond.

She passed Duo on the way out. He stared at her questioningly. He then turned his gaze toward Heero who was looking in the direction that the young woman had just taken. Duo smirked.

"Heero, been looking for you. But I guess I wasn't the first to find you."

"Hn," said Heero as he and Duo made their way towards Lady Une's office.

"Relena sure has become quite the woman these past years, I must say," Duo babbled on.

"What are you insinuating?" asked Heero coldly.

"Oh nothing really, I mean well…"

Heero stopped abruptly and looked at the fellow pilot. Duo tried to act serious.

"Well Heero, I mean do you care for her?"

"It is my mission to protect her," replied Heero as he continued to walk once more.

"Well I know that but I mean do you think that you might have stronger feelings for her?"

Heero froze once more and turned to look at Duo again.

"Do you mean love?" he asked.

"Yeah!" said Duo excitedly hoping to receive a fruitful answer.

Heero's eyes changed for that moment. Duo saw this and grew very serious. Heero did not show his emotions. This was indeed a rarity. But, the thing that bothered Duo even more was the hint of sadness that his blues orbs possessed. Heero spoke gravely,

"I do not know what love is."

Heero continued to walk down the corridor towards their destination. Duo stood for a moment in shock at the words that Heero had just spoken, but soon ran to catch up with his fellow pilot.

AN: All right. This chapter is complete. Some very interesting information was put into this chapter so I hope that you read it closely. (Just like all of the others right?) Anyways… some good stuff coming up in the second half of this story. I really hope that you enjoy it. Right now, I know exactly what I wish to write. It just takes much longer than expected to actually write it! But I can assure you that there is more action coming up and more important information too. More Heero and Relena interactions as well as Duo and Hilde. ( I really love those two couples!) Please send me your comments and reviews any time! WildRose1404aol.com