"Reminiscing"

Chapter 6: Survival

Hi everyone, sorry about the long delay, it's just that organic chemistry is taking up most of my time. But, I thank you for your patience and hopefully you'll enjoy this chapter. Disclaimers: I don't own Gundam Wing or any of its characters.

"RING...RING...RING."

"What's taking him so long to answer?" Noin was on her phone at the Preventer headquarters. She received an abrupt call from Lady Une, the minute she walked into Zechs's home.

One line from their conversation captured her fear, "Relena has been stabbed....they're trying to revive her right now." With that, she dropped the receiver she held in her hands and immediately changed into her Preventer uniform and headed back to headquarters in the dark silent night. Within less than twenty minutes, she was in her office, trying to get a hold of Zechs. "Come on please answer, I know the phone was working the minute I left." On the other end, the endless ringing was still heard.

Her vid phone was down due to some jamming signal to prevent the early morning's story from leaking out to the public, even though certain preventive measures were already implemented throughout the headquarters.

"Hey there, it's me."

"Noin, where have you been? The minute I walked in, you were gone."

"Something unexpected came up," her voice slightly trailed off, trying to fight back the tears that came to her. Her voice remained calm. Right then, an officer walked in and handed her a small brief note that was from the hospital, it was face down on her desk. She looked at the white sheet that lay in front of her, and dreaded the message that it might contain. Thinking within her conscience, "Please don't let it be...I don't think I can handle the news." Her right hand trembled as it crept towards the white colored paper. She felt the rough surface within her fingers and she quickly flipped it over, her eyes slowly reading the lines of fine print.

"What's wrong, Noin?" He heard her let out a sigh.

"It's Relena...someone broke into her home early this morning. She was stabbed, Zechs. They took her to Neumann General hospital. Heero was injured too...they just notified me." She waited for him to respond on the other end, all she heard was dead silence. "Talk to me, Zechs." She heard him breathing rapidly now. "The perpetrator was caught...we have him in custody right now."

"I want to see this bastard." The phone went silent.

Noin knew that Zechs would be there in a matter of minutes. The interrogation would be long, especially with Zechs. To help pass the time, she decided to notify the other Gundam pilots. Luckily, they all had returned from their respective colonies just a few weeks ago from their own Preventer missions.

She decided to dial up Quatre's number, hoping that he would respond quickly. The phone rang for only a brief moment, "Hi Quatre."

A sleepy voice answered on the other end, "Noin? Is something wrong?"

"I'm afraid I have some bad news to tell you...Relena and Heero has been injured during this early morning."

"Will they be alright?"

"I'm not so sure about Relena's condition nor Heero's. Could you please contact the others for me? They took them to Neumann General Hospital. Zechs just walked in."

"Will do."

"Thank you."

He heard the normal emptiness of the phone tone on the other end. With that, he hung the phone up and sat on the edge of his bed, his eyes filled with confusion of who would harm his closest friends. The news was still fresh to him and with Relena and Heero in the hospital, the shock was just going through his mind right now. He had heard of Relena's other incident, and was relieved when Heero was there. With two of his friends in the hospital, he felt he was at the crossroads between helplessness and despair. He then immersed himself in the task of giving out the news to the remainder of his friends. He figured that Wufei would hear the news from Sally since he knows that Wufei usually works in just another two hours. He called up Duo first. He noticed that he was as cheerful as ever, but once he dropped the news that cheerfulness turned to an eerie silence on the other end. As for Trowa, the dead silence was noticeable again. In the end, Quatre didn't want to be the bearer of bad news. He hung up his phone and looked out on the cold quiet morning. He had asked for the other two to come over his mansion, just in case any more news came from Noin or from the headquarters.

Within a half an hour, the threesome waited in Quatre's living room for any important phone calls. The severity of the problem was shown on all of their faces, as they sat on a large couch. Quatre decided to put his hands to some use to help ease the tension away, "Would anyone like a cup of tea or coffee? I can go make some."

"Coffee would be great," replied Duo, who got up from his seat and headed straight towards a window, looking at the dusted landscape. He whispered to himself, "Hang in there, you two."

"Where is he?"

"He's being heavily guarded in our cells." Noin escorted her fiancé to the inner core of the Preventer headquarters. In order to get there, they had to bypass numerous security guards and through a vault like door, where Noin had to slide her identification card through a card scanner, along with a retinal scan. And once the light on the scanner showed green, the two were cleared for entry.

"Lady Une started the interrogation process. We've learned that his name is Travis Donal and that he was ordered to carry out this mission of his."

Zechs's mood was starting to change, as he was getting more enraged as every second that went by Relena could be closer to death.

"Here we are." Noin showed Zechs the cell and noticed that the door was securely sealed with a keypad. "You can go in now."

Before he stepped in, he heard Lady Une's voice from inside, "Who hired you for this mission?" Her voice was loud and unwavering.

"Noin, could I have your gun?"

"You're not going to shoot our suspect?" She cautiously took the slim black object from her coat pocket and handed it to him. "Or... I will have to charge you with aggravated assault on a suspect."

"I'm just going to rattle things up with him." With that, he entered the room. He noticed that Lady Une had a surprised look on her face as the former "Wind" stood before her.

"I'll just get out of your way right now. He won't talk."

"Understood."

Lady Une and Noin stood on the outside of the cell. "Why does he have a gun in the cell?"

"He said he needed it."

Back inside the cell, Zechs walked around Travis, who was now handcuffed to the metal table. "I hear that you're not talking to us right now."

Travis didn't even respond to him and looked off towards a corner of the cell.

"Do you know what happens if she dies right now?" He pulled out the small metal object and before Travis knew what had occurred, a small bullet whizzed passed his head.

The two women heard the gunfire and immediately went in. "What the hell do you think you're trying to do, Zechs?"

"Noin, just stay out of this...it's between him and me." He prepared for another shot. "This time I won't miss."

Travis noticed that the gun was pointed directly at his chest.

"You better talk...three...two...o"

"All right...all right...get this man out of my cell right now. I'll talk."

Lady Une then ushered Zechs out and took the gun away from him. "Thank you."

"You're welcome." A small smile of victory was on his face.

Lady Une then returned with the gun in hand, "You better talk, or I'll shoot." She held the trigger in her hand, while Noin looked on.

Travis started to weaken in his defenses, "I was hired by someone only a couple of months ago. I think it was by the name of General Norfolk."

With that, the two Preventers immediately left the cell and secured the lock on it. Zechs awaited an answer from the two. Lady Une spoke, "We have a name...General Norfolk."

"Intriguing indeed. At least, that's a start." He became slightly hesitant once he heard that name, but brushed the foreshadowing feeling from his mind. "I'm heading over to the hospital now. I'll let everyone know about the further updates in both of their conditions."

"Be careful, Zechs."

"I will." In seconds, he was out of sight and through the winding corridors of the base.

"I'm going to do a background check on this General Norfolk and see what other files we have on him."

"All right, I'll manage the media, since they're bound to hear about the news."

The two women were heading out of the secured inner core of the headquarters when Sally and Wufei just walked in.

"Wufei and I just heard the news about the night's incident. Are there any updates?"

"We have the prime suspect locked up in C-56. So far, we know his name and that he is working for a General Norfolk." Lady Une looked restless as she continued to walk down the long corridor. "Wufei, I want you to stand by near that area just in case anything happens. As for the rest of us, we'll be in the main consult room."

He obeyed and walked off. He traversed the same pathway that Noin and Zechs had walked through earlier. In reality, he wanted to track down the persons responsible for nearly killing his friends. He wasn't really close to Relena, but all in all, he noticed that she had helped to get the people through during the Mariemeia incident. As for Heero, he was glad that he had helped him finally realize what he was truly fighting for. He couldn't just let someone take the two away from him. He walked over to sector C and guarded the area closely.

Zechs arrived at the hospital in secrecy, hoping not to attract the media that would soon be hearing the news. He entered through the back doors and pretended to know what he was doing. He carefully bypassed all the nurses and doctors that ran about the emergency room, and even the security guards that were posted about. "So much for security around here." He pressed further until he came across the front desk.

"May I be any of assistance?"

"I'm looking for Relena Peacecraft."

"Sorry sir, I can't disclose any information unless you're the immediate family."

"I'm her brother."

The nurse behind the desk immediately apologized, "Sorry about that, I nearly didn't recognize you. They took her up to the OR. She's been in there for an hour."

"What about a Heero Yuy?"

"Let me see here..." She keyed in a couple of buttons and looked on the white screen in front of her, "He's still in the ER I guess his wounds weren't that serious, but they found him passed out in front of the trauma room, where your sister was. He should be in exam room #5. If you make a left down this hallway, the room will be four doors down and it'll be on your right. The layout in this ER can be very tricky."

"Thank you."

"My pleasure. I'll try to hold back the press if they find out."

Zechs nodded at the nurse. He followed her directions and before long, he stood outside exam room #5. He didn't know what to expect. He slowly turned the brass knob and inside, he saw Heero sitting straight up with his right shoulder wrapped in gauze. A slight hint of blood was seeping through. He was dismantling the IV that a med student had placed in an hour before, the student just wanted to make sure that he wouldn't faint from the lack of fluids in his body. "Where do you think you're going?"

"I'm getting out of here."

"You can't in your condition."

"I need to know if Relena will be alright."

"Heero, she's in the OR right now. She's been in there for an hour." He walked closer to Heero and helped him get off the bed. "I know we haven't been on the friendliest of terms, but... thank you for trying to save her."

He nodded at his response and found his shirt lying underneath his bed. He quickly got dressed and headed for the doors when an old nurse came in.

"Young man, you get back there. You're in no condition of walking right now. You've lost a great deal of blood. I don't know how you got the IV out, but you need to get back in bed right now."

"Sorry, but I have to see a friend, who needs me right now." He brushed passed the nurse.

Zechs then followed him out the door, "He's a stubborn patient. I'll make sure that he doesn't pass out."

"Fine with me." The nurse left after him and resumed her duties by taking care her other patients that needed her.

The two then took an elevator to the fifth floor, where the OR was located in. When it finally stopped, they immediately set out on foot to see where the information services desk was located. They followed the black signs that hung above their heads, either making left or right turns. Eventually, they found the area, where Zechs had to go through the same routine of telling them that he was her brother. He was glad that his disguise was working to some degree.

The nurse with rimless glasses responded, "She's still in there. They haven't sent out any reports. I'll let the doctor know that you'll be in the waiting room."

Heero and Zechs then walked over to the waiting room. It was small, yet it looked newly renovated with blue wallpaper hanging on the walls and that the gray couches were still firm. The two sat across from each other at a corner.

Zechs decided to start a conversation, "We interrogated the suspect...his name is Travis Donal, and he was hired by a General Norfolk. Ring any bells?"

"No." He sat with his arms crossed against his chest. He didn't care if his wound would tear open again. He just wanted Relena to be safe.

Right then, a doctor in blue scrubs with shoulder length auburn hair emerged from the glass doors. "Mr. Peacecraft?"

"Yes." Zechs looked in front of him.

"I'm Maggie Stenson, I was operating on Relena for the two hours."

"Is she out of the OR?"

"I have some bad news to tell you."

Heero's face showed despair in his eyes. He said to himself in his mind, "What could have gone wrong?" He had failed his mission.

"I can't just sit here," Duo suddenly got up from his seat that he went back to just ten minutes ago. He paced around the room and began to fidget with his hands. "Aren't we going to do something?"

"We just have to wait, Duo. We can't just rush in." Trowa continued to look out the window from his seat.

"He's right, Duo." He was hoping to break down the tension in the room. "I think that fresh pot of coffee is ready." When he was just about to get up from his seat, the phone rang. The ringing silenced all of them in the living room, as if it had cast a spell of immobility on them.

Their blood just drained from their faces as the phone continued to ring.

"Is anyone going to answer that?" Duo immediately ran over to the phone. His hand shook as it was over the phone. He held the receiver to his ear. "Hello." His voice was calm.

"Hi Duo..."

TBC

So how was that? Will Relena survive or will there be complications? Will Zechs unravel the mystery behind General Norfolk or will it be too late? Thank you for reading chapter six and please review. I would love to read any of your comments and thank you again. I would like to give a personal thanks to Silentheaven, Rayo, and Sylsch. Thanks for your reviews. Stay tune for chapter seven!!!