"Reminiscing"

Chapter 4: Renewal

Hi everyone!! Disclaimers: I do not own Gundam Wing or any of its characters. (In this chapter, two new characters are introduced but they're mine.) Anyhow, enjoy!

The sun's rays slowly filtered through a window that was nearby Heero. He shifted uncomfortably in his seat, in which he must have dozed off a couple of times from the previous night. All he could remember was wrestling Relena's attacker to the floor and that the attacker managed to fall onto his own knife. He stared over to Relena, who was still peacefully asleep for the moment. "At least she's safe..." he murmured to himself and let out a sigh of relief. He got up from his seat and headed towards his bathroom to freshen up from the night before.

As for Relena, the sound of running water finally awoke her from her slumber. At first, she blinked a couple of times as she stared towards the ceiling and wondered where she was. She felt a small wave of pain emanating from her neck, but after feeling the sore spot, she finally realized what happened from the previous night. She tried to move, but the pain on her chest was too much for her and she collapsed back down on the bed. She lay in the bed for a while, as she collected her thoughts, but then she saw someone emerge from the bathroom. Her eyes widened for a moment, but then realized that it was Heero himself.

The two remained silent as if time stood still for them both before Relena was the first to break the silence, "How did you know that I was here?" She managed her upper strength and rested her back on a pile of pillows.

"I have my ways."

Relena tried to get up again, but this time, Heero was there by her side. "I should be heading back to my room now, I'm leaving this evening." Flashes from the previous night's encounter came to her, which made her body shiver slightly at the thought of her near death experience. She slightly spoke, "If it weren't for you, I would be dead by now."

Tears began to stream down her face, as Heero held her closer. He wished he could tell her his feelings, but he didn't dare to mix his emotions with his missions, even though he was now a Preventer. He continued to hold her, sshing her and that he knew she was sorry for leaving them abruptly. "You should stay here for the day, in case anyone tries to harm you again. I'll have your belongings secured on a jet that'll take you back home for tonight."

Within the Preventer Headquarters, everyone was busy as ever in trying to track down the unknown hit man. Some officers were scanning through the French newspapers to see if anyone had any idea of what group was responsible for the attempted murder. Others were telephoning various sources near the area, but all in all, everyone found nothing in their reports and searches.

Noin entered Une's office with a look of disappointment on her face, "So, what's the verdict?"

"Why are you still here, I thought I told you to go back to Zechs."

"I did, but he sent me right back here in the middle of the night."

Une held a look of frustration in her eyes, "There's nothing, we can't even find anything. It seems like whoever this group is; they did a complete vanishing act right before our eyes. There's no trace of them anywhere."

"Do you think it was linked to the reporter that escaped here a few weeks ago?"

Sally had then entered in on the conversation, "It looks like that way, doesn't it?"

"Whatever happened in Paris might happen again. But why would they go after Relena? They should be going after Zechs or the other members of the E.S.U.N. We should be on the look out for anything." Une gave a puzzling look as she resumed looking through the stacks of papers on her desk, along with Noin and Sally.

Relena was all to herself for the remainder of the day, even though she was still in Heero's room. She fingered through her belongings that Heero had salvaged from her room and he even brought her the teddy bear that she took along for the trip.

"Oh Heero," she whispered, "I just wish I could say one thing to you." She let out a soft sigh as tears welled up in her eyes and placed the bear within her belongings. By nightfall, she was finished packing and was ready to leave Paris along with the hopes of having any relationship with Heero.

Heero finalized the plans for obtaining the private jet, while Relena checked herself out of the hotel. The manager was careful of being discrete about her leaving in case of any media trying to get a hold of her for an impromptu interview and with the previous night's incident. He eventually met up with Relena in a private room of the hotel, where he escorted her to the airfield, where the two would be flying home back in the safety of Zechs and the Preventers. By the time the two reached the tarmac, rain started to fall and with a slight mist over the area, Relena imprinted a last image of Paris in her heart.

The flight home went uneventful and at times, Relena drifted into a light sleep, but she never looked back to the seat, where Heero was sitting at. Within a couple of hours, the jet landed on an open landing field within the boundaries of the Preventers Headquarters. It was close to dawn, but it was still somewhat dark. Once the door leading to the outside world was open, she felt a sigh of relief that she was finally home and that she could get on with her own life, away from the public's eye.

Zechs was waiting for her along with Pagan. "Welcome back, Ms. Relena."

"Thank you, Pagan. It's nice to be home for now." She looked towards Zechs.

"Welcome home." He ran over to hug her.

Relena then looked over her brother's shoulders and saw Heero emerged from the jet and before long, he disappeared into the confines of the Preventer Headquarters awaiting for his next mission. "Let's go home, now."

Somewhere in a remote area, two guards in a beige uniforms stood on watch at a metal gate as a black limousine slowly made its way up a dirt path. At first, the two guards examined the vehicle until they gave the driver clearance to enter the compound along with his passenger. "We're here, sir." With that, the man in the back emerged from the limousine, as guards awaited from the side in a salute to him. He was about thirty and of medium statute. His dark brown eyes scanned the wooded area in case any spies that laid hidden in the trees that surrounded his camouflaged base. He wanted to be cautious than ever.

"General Norfolk, sir."

"At ease, gentlemen." He was then escorted through glass doors and within the building, a maze of intelligence informants were situated at various monitors that were keeping track of the Preventers' progress. "I heard that our mission in Paris failed."

"That's affirmative, sir," replied one of the guards that was walking with him. The mere teenager guided his leader to a series of hallways.

"Was there any evidence leading towards our group?"

"No, sir. Our rogue agents went to the scene immediately and carried the suspect's body out of the room. I was told that the bloodstains and the knife were removed, but our other sources say that some bloodstains remained, but were tampered with. The only object that was left on the scene was the syringe used to sedate Ms. Peacecraft. Again, the fingerprints were wiped clean from that object."

"Very well then...do we have a new recruit in our next mission?"

"He's waiting in a room right now. Sir, would it be wise just to take down Milliardo directly rather than going through his family first?"

"Are you questioning my judgment?" His voice was harsh and calculating.

"No sir." The soldier kept his peace for the rest of the walk and only spoke when directly asked.
The two entered through another corridor of hallways that lead to the screening room, where the interviewing process began. After going through a retinal scan, the two finally met their new recruit, face to face. He sat in a metallic chair under the one main light in the silver cell. His light brown hair was short and that he had soft blue eyes. Overall, he was muscular for his age of twenty-two. He wore jeans and a gray t-shirt.

"So what is your name?"

"Travis Donal."

"It seems your credentials are in order, my officers will notify you in weeks to come of your possible assignment. For now, you must keep this meeting a secret and that you mustn't disclose any information to the public or to anyone else."

"Fair enough."

"These layouts might come in handy later on." He gave a Travis a small brown manila envelope filled with details of Relena's home. "This was the very last information from our previous rouge agent gave to us before he was eliminated."

"I'll make sure that these will be well hidden."

Very well...you're dismissed."

With that Travis, saluted to his primary officer and left the premise under the cover of darkness. He went to his car that was parked nearby and when he stepped into it, he sat in the driver's seat for a while. Curiosity began to take over his mind and he opened the small manila envelope inside there were the snapshots of Relena's home and second floor layout of her home. "This is my mission." He quickly returned the items back to their envelope and speedily drove off into the dark night on an endless winding road.

Back within the base, General Norfolk entered his own private room. Within the room, pictures from his military days were scattered about with him in front of some OZ mobile suits. "It just seems like yesterday, I was piloting one of those suits." He quickly went to a small refrigerator and pulled out a small bottle of red wine. He quickly uncorked the bottle and poured him a glass. He then sat in a leather swivel chair and turned on the news for the day. A screen lighted up in front of him and on there was a picture of Zechs. He didn't hear what the feminine reporter was saying, he could only see her lips were mouthing something about Zechs. "One day my friend, we'll meet again...you can count on that." He raised his glass to the onscreen picture of Zechs.

A month passed by since Relena's return from her European vacation. Her life slowly returned back to normal, in which she could finally enjoy the peace around her home at last. But during the same time, thoughts of Heero emerged from her sub conscience and plagued in her dreams. The landscape was now dusted in white as the first snow shower engulfed the area.

Pagan then walked in, "Ms. Relena, I've picked up your dress at the local cleaners. They have made the alterations that you requested. I placed it in your closet."

"Thank you, Pagan. Tell Zechs that I'll be ready in about two hours." Pagan nodded at her request and slowly left the study area.

In two hours, Relena was ready and she walked out of her room wearing a light blue spaghetti strapped dress that nearly touched the floor along with a floral patterned diamond necklace. "Well, how do I look?"

"You look stunning. We better leave now, before all of the guests think that I had abandoned them."

"Where's Noin?"

"I'm right here." She was running across the foyer in a black dinner dress that barely covered her shoulders, "The snow's getting pretty bad out there."

With that, the three left and headed to a nearby dance hall that was rented out for the night's occasion. Within the party, a quartet played the background music, while various diplomats were invited for the Christmas party. Relena wandered about the hall finding anyone she could recognize, but for the most part, she only found diplomats who sent warm wishes to her and her family for the Christmas season. For most of the dance, she sat out and watched Zechs and Noin have the time of their lives. She never had seen the two be that happy in such a long while.

Eventually she left the main dance hall and wandered into the empty chandelier lit hallway. Her high heels clicked along the tiled floor, as she walked into one of the private rooms to escape her thoughts. The room that she had entered was dark, but it still contained enough light from the hallway to navigate towards the cold frosted windows. She looked outside to see that the roads were completely covered with snow and that a few snowflakes lingered in the air. But when she looked at the window itself, all she could make out was the faint shimmering of her floral patterned diamond necklace.

She whispered something that was inaudible to anyone else in the room. Her breath materialized in the cold air of the room and eventually, it frosted the window in front of her even more.

The thoughts of her Paris experience weren't too far away from her mind still. The images gave her goose bumps and she slightly shivered in the cold room.

Travis was at his small apartment putting his tools in order. Just three weeks ago, an unexpected letter was found at the foot of his apartment door. The message had a symbol on it with a red bird rising from the flames. One sentence was written on it, "It is time to finish." Within minutes, he was out the door.

TBC

Stay tuned for chapter five!! Please review and thank you.