Kitty-chan 1: Chapter three! One thing! The songs are all property of Evenescance!

Kitty-chan: Look at dis story grow! This is gonna be fun!

Kitty-chan 3:I know it! The more the merrier!

Duo: The more painkiller the better. Oy.

Kitty-chan 3: 'sees Duo's braid' STRING!

Kitty-chan 12: YAY! 'Kitty-chans tackle Duo'

Duo: Someone shoot them!

Quatre: 'Pops up out of nowhere' Kitty-chan doesn't own the characters from Gundam Wing. 'shmile'


"Heero? Ranya cooked you some dinner." Relena knocked on the door before slowly stepping onto the plush blue carpet of his room. Her eyes roamed about, but stopped when she realized the former-soldier was absent. Relena groaned. "Now where is he?"

Ranya shrugged slim shoulders. "Is he still outside?"

"Still? Why is he outside in the first place? His body is exhausted!"

"Yes, well he's trying to build his strength back up." Ranya explained.

"We gotta get him back in here before he kills himself!" Relena cried. She darted toward the back door, as Ranya set the tray of food down on Heero's desk and took off after her boss. They looked out the window at the man outside.

Heero wore his black shorts, and his green tank top was laying a few feet away. There was a bandage wrapped firmly around his middle, protecting his bullet wound from the air. He stood in a defensive position, a mid-sized tree branch in his hand serving as an ersatz weapon. He was panting heavily, and a wet glean of sweat shone on all of his visible skin. Relena could just barely tell, but his entire body was shaking.

"I swear this is suicide." Relena muttered under her breath.

Heero jumped into the air, swiping the air with the stick. He did a front flip, then landed, crouching on the ground. His invisible opponent came at him again, and he shot to his feet. He threw a few lightning punches, then a high sidekick. He jumped up again and threw another kick, apparently meant for a head. But, when he landed on the ground, his exhausted legs gave out, dropping him to the earth. He caught himself before he hit ground and sat there, on his hands and knees, panting heavily.

"Heero?" Relena called running up to him.

Heero heaved a few breaths before speaking. "What?"

"The one rule in my house that I insist be followed is the rule against suicide!" she cried, grabbing his arm to help him up.

Heero rolled his eyes and yanked his arm out of her grasp. "I'm not going to let myself die until I see Suuchin and Katome dead."

"I thought you weren't going to kill them."

"I said I'd listen to your idea. I said nothing about altering my mission." Heero grumbled, then attempted to stand.

"Stay still! I'll call the hospital! You need medical attention!" Relena stood, but turned when something similar to a laugh came from the man on the ground.

"The hospital? That's a joke. If you're going to do that, why not cuff me right now?" Heero finally gave up on trying to stand and dropped to lie on his stomach, pillowing his head on his arms.

Relena's eyes widened in realization as the truth of the man's words hit her. She nodded and walked over to sit down in front of him. "Heero?"

"Hn?"

"What in the heck do you think you're doing out here?"

"What does it look like?"

"It looks like you're trying to work yourself to death."

"Not exactly. If I do die by my own hand, it will be by gun or knife. Not exhaustion."

Relena sweat-dropped. That was I not the answer I was thinking of! "Heero, why do you want to take your own life in the first place?"

"Do I really need to explain it to you?"

Relena smiled and sighed gently, shaking her head. "No, I guess not."

Heero looked at her for a minute. He felt suddenly grateful that she wasn't pushing the matter. She understood that he didn't have any motivation to explain it to anyone… especially her. He decided that he could let her in on other things for not forcing the answers out of him. He looked straight ahead again as he spoke. "I don't plan on dying by my own hands, actually. But, I can't say for sure."

"You think about death a lot, don't you?"

Heero eyed her suspiciously. "I think everyone thinks about death a lot more than you'd think. When we grow up, we constantly say 'I'm going to kill you' when someone does something annoying. They say it only in play, but still… and when we get older, people are saying 'go to hell' a lot. Death is thought about a lot. The very essence of fear is fretting that you will lose your life somehow. One's death is constantly at the back of one's mind, whether we realize it or not." Heero closed his eyes once again and turned his head away from her.

"Still, not as much as it is on your mind."

Heero grunted. "Point taken. But mine's the mind of a soldier."

"Listen, you will kill yourself if you keep this up. Come on inside and take a shower. You should relax. If you don't want to kill yourself by exhaustion, I'd say you should come in… now."

Heero grunted again. Without a word, he gathered up his shirt and followed her inside.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Relena peered into Heero's room. His door was open, after all. The lights were off, save for the light blue glow of Heero's laptop on the desk. The man himself sat at the desk, typing away at the computer. He now wore a white shirt with baggy cargo jeans. She ventured on, quietly speaking. "Heero? Can I come in?"

Heero neither looked at her, nor made a sound. He simply bobbed his head in affirmation and continued to work. Relena entered, leaving the door open, allowing the light from the hallway to somewhat illuminate the floor before her. She finally made it over to his desk and peered over his shoulder at the screen. He was reading some kind of encoded mail. Apparently encoded because all that Relena saw were a bunch of circles and odd characters. "Heero? What are you doing?"

"What does it look like?"

Relena sighed. Heero had a gift of finding the button that would annoy her the most and pushing it with all his might. The one he had just pushed was labeled, 'Answering a Question with a Question'. "It looks like you're answering mail. Who's it from?"

"It's encoded for a reason." He answered monotonely, continuing to read over the mail.

"Yes, so any government officials who could hack into it couldn't read it." Relena set a hand on her slender hip.

"You are a government official, are you not?"

Relena growled at his childish behavior but spoke in a calm tone. "I'm not on Suuchin and Katome's side! You're staying here with me, aren't you?"

"Did I really have a choice in the matter?"

Relena wanted to kiss him for that one. Wait… kiss him? Would that be a punishment? For him maybe… Let's try that again.

(A/N: Kittychan clears her throat.)

Relena wanted to kick him for that one. She mentally growled and answered. "Yes, you did. You could have left, you know."

"You didn't exactly give me a choice. You grabbed me and dragged me inside."

Relena gave an exasperated sigh. She figured there was no use continuing an argument she was going to lose. Heero was just too good with words. She decided to quibble back to the mail. "So, what does the email say?"

"It's from Wufei." He said, acting as if the previous conversation had no occurred. "He's telling me that ha won't be coming. I have to say that it's a wise move on his part."

"Why?"

"It's much more advantageous for him to remain a Preventor at this point. Even if Suuchin and Katome did find him in the Preventors, they wouldn't think of taking action."

"Why not?"

"Because even though Katome and Suuchin are putting on a face that says they're concerned for the welfare of the people, they're really just radicals for Treize, Quinze and Oz itself. They want revenge for the defeat of Oz and the White Fang."

"But what does that have to do with the Preventors?"

"They're putting on the face of people trying to protect peace, right?"

"Yeah."

"What do the Preventors do?"

"Prevent wars."

"Correct. If they got rid of an organization working with them to, supposedly, protect peace, they'd reveal their ulterior motives. Which is, simply to dispose of the Gundam pilots."

"But, if they found Wufei, wouldn't they just fire him from the Preventors and arrest him instead of disbanding the Preventors entirely?"

"Yes, and no. They could have a reason for disbanding the Preventors. The Preventors know who works there. That means that everyone who works with the Preventors knows that Wufei is there. Their own new laws state that anyone who protects or hides a Gundam Pilot is to be immediately arrested. According to that, they would have to disband the Preventor's whole network.Even they know that anyone who is truly working for peace wouldn't even think about destroying such a useful organization."

Relena stared at him for a minute. Wow. It's all so complicated, and yet Heero thinks of these things without any effort. Everything he does and considers is so well thought out. He considers every advantage and disadvantage to both his side and his enemy's side. And it's so effortless. "I see. Have any of the other pilots responded?"

"Wufei was the last. All of them have contacted me now."

"How are they all doing?" She paused, then continued before Heero could give her the answer she was almost positive was coming. "And don't tell me that it's none of my business. Because it very much is. By hiding you in my home, I've become involved in this as much as you. I deserve to know that's going on."

Heero stood and wandered over to his bed, sat on it, and began sifting through his things. He reclined back against a pillow and pulled a sleek, silver object from his bag. Relena had no idea what the object was, but her focus was more on his answer to her question than anything else. She cleared her throat and began to tap her foot slightly. Heero looked up, eyeing her as if he just noticed she was there. He sighed, realizing she wasn't going to let it drop, and looked back to the silver object before speaking. "Wufei, you know. Duo's coming and he's bringing Hilde… don't ask me why. Trowa and his sister are also coming and Quatre's with them."

"Why is Quatre with them? Wouldn't he be coming with the Maguanac corp.?"

"Trowa wrote me extensively about what happened to Quatre. He was with the Maguanacs until the government showed up. They attacked and took all the Maguanacs away, even killed some. Quatre managed to escape with some bad injuries to his leg and back."

"Oh, gosh! Is he alright?"

"Trowa says that the physical wounds are healed. But mentally, he still has a ways to go. Apparently, the Maguanacs that died were killed right in front of Quatre. It was so incredibly bloody that the sight of blood can send him into hysterics and mental relapses of the scene. Trowa says that for the most part, he's perfectly normal. He also says that Quatre's condition is temporary. After a while, he will get over it."

Relena pondered on what had been said, then found two questions for him. "How did Suuchin and Katome justify their bloody murder of the Maguanacs? You pilots have been faced with the death penalty, but killing them there was way outside the line of the law."

"Suuchin and Katome convinced everyone that the reports came back that some of the Maguanacs saw that they were losing to the government troops, and killed themselves. Since the only witnesses were Quatre and the other Maguanacs, there was virtually no one to oppose their story."

"One other thing, how could that killing traumatize Quatre? He was a main soldier in the bloodiest war in history."

"A lot of factors played into the traumatization. It happened under very specific conditions."

"What do you mean? What conditions?"

Heero sighed. It had been a long time since he had to talk this much, but he'd live. "Quatre has never been completely mentally stable since the death of his father. That death caused him to go mad. I remember that well. When he piloted the zero system in that time, it made it even worse. After those things played their hands in this problem, he was so paranoid that he would lose another one of his loved ones. Now, he has. The mental stress it put onto his mind was too much, and it was simply a matter of too many things on his mind at once. His mind broke down, and now it simply has to reboot."

Relena sighed and shifted her gaze to her slippered feet. She looked back at the zero one pilot who had rolled onto his side, his back facing her, a clear sign that he was done talking. But she couldn't resist asking one more question. "How soon do you think they'll be here?"

"None of them were on earth, but they have connections. They could be here in as little as a week."

Relena nodded and gave a small bow to him, though he couldn't see it. A decision was reached in her mind, one that he hadn't even been aware she was considering. She needed to help the five boys. They had done so much for the earth and the space colonies in the past, and they were getting nothing for their efforts. For a moment, the thought of publically trying to defend them passed through her mind, but she immediately dismissed it. The people of the world and the colonies knew where she stood on the Gundams' innocence. With how much of a grip Suuchin and Katome had on everyone, she would be dismissed as biased and unnecissarily emotional. It would do little to help the boys, if at all. If she were to help them, she couldn't be involved with her duties as Vice Foreign Minister. She would lie… difficult, but not impossible. She walked into the hall to see Ranya on her way to her office. "Ranya!" The young woman stopped and turned to face her. Relena closed the door to Heero's bedroom and talked in a hushed tone. "We're going to cause an uproar. Will you help me?"

"Of course, ma'am."

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

"Quit fiddling with it!" Hilde ordered as Duo once again stuck his hands into his hair.

"I don't like it! My hair gets in the way of everything I do!" Duo complained. His thigh length hair had been unbraided and caught in a low ponytail that now swished about freely. He wore a floor length black overcoat, with gray shoes. Black sunglasses covered his dark blue eyes and a red and white cane-like pole was held in his right hand. "What's the point in all this?"

"Because if any of the security guards figured out who you were, you'd be off to prison before you could say 'Deathscythe'!" Hilde took a breath and continued, linking her arm through his. "Now remember. You're Tran Kadachi. You're headed to Earth on your own business, right?"

"Yeah yeah."

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Vice Foreign Minister Darlin: Missing!

The young woman completely disappeared on Saturday after her assistant, Ranya, left her alone to get some food from nearby restaurant, Panera. "She went in, but never came out." Ranya told detective Ryan Yameshee that day. The people reported to have been in the restaurant that day and time say that they do not remember the girl ever even coming in, but they did hear the scream of a young girl and saw her limo in the parking lot with Ranya leaning against it. Detective searches have started at the restaurant and the Sanc Kingdom, and the entire staff of Panera has been interrogated. Miss Darlin's reluctance to answer to the press in the past has left the location of her personal home a complete mystery. To avoid the press, the Vice Foreign Minister had kept her personal residence a complete secret to everyone, save for the people who work there. No ransom has been ordered, and the detectives are unsure of the motivation behind the kidnapping. More information will be available as it is released.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Heero lay in the lush grass, the minor tune floating in his head. Even though he didn't hear the person, he could sense someone approaching. And he knew who it was. "That was a bold move; faking your own disappearance." He stated monotonely, not bothering to open his eyes.

"Well, I need some time off if I'm to help you guys out. I'll reappear as soon as this blows over." Relena informed him, seating herself next to him on the grass. Something seemed different about him. She wasn't sure what, but it was something. She studied him for a few minutes before her eyes settled on his ear. A silver piece of metal was wrapped around the back of his ear, and then looped back around to nestle right into the opening. He's wearing headphones! Small ones, probably so no one will see them. What is he listening to? I never imagined Heero listening to music. He's probably listening to police radio signals he hacked into or something. Her eyes wandered over his body until they chanced upon a small silver object, obviously the thing she had seen him pull out the night before. But, it wasn't a police radio, or any governmental device at all. It was in fact, a sleek, simple cd player. She allowed her eyes to linger on the object, which seemed so alien to the man, before quietly speaking. "Heero, what are you listening to?"

His eyes opened, a bit wide, and he sent a glare her way. Apparently he hadn't planned on her seeing the headphones. And even if she had, he hadn't planned on her saying anything about it. After a second, he relaxed, closing his eyes again. "None of your business."

Relena sighed. "Come on. Who do you think I'll tell if it's such a big secret?"

"It's not a secret. It's just not something that you need to know."

"What if I want to know?"

"Suit yourself." Heero still didn't open his eyes, but took off one earphone and held it out to her. Excited, Relena lay down on the grass next to him (the cord was only so long) and put the offered piece to her ear. She stopped moving to listen carefully to the words of the song.

Now that I know what I'm without…

You can't just leave me…

Breathe into me and make me real…

Bring… me… … to life

Wake me up inside…

Wake me up inside…

Call my name and save me from the dark…

Bid my blood to run…

Before I come undone…

Save me from the nothing I've become…

Relena lifted the phone off her ear briefly. "You like Evanescence?"

"I guess so." Heero grunted.

Relena pondered this for a minute before propping herself up on her elbows to look down at him. "What are your favorite songs?"

Heero rolled hidden eyes. He really didn't want to talk, but he'd go with the flow. He pressed the skip button on the CD player and the sound of the spinning cd was heard faintly. A tune began playing softly.

I'm so tired of being here…

Suppressed by all my childish fears…

But if you have to leave…

I wish that you would just leave…

'Cause your presence still lingers here…

And it won't leave me alone…

These wounds won't seem to heal…

This pain is just too real…

There's just too much that time cannot erase…

You'd cry I'd wipe away all of your tears…

You'd scream I'd fight away all of your fears…

I held your hand through all of these years…

And you still have all of me…

You used to captivate me by your resonating light…

Now I'm bound by the life you left behind…

Your face, it haunts…

My once pleasant dreams…

Your voice has chased away…

All the sanity in me…

These wounds won't seem to heal…

This paint is just too real…

There's just too much that time cannot erase…

You'd cry I'd wipe away all of your tears…

You'd scream I'd fight away all of you fears…

I held your hand through all of these years…

And you still have all of me…

I tried so hard to tell myself that you're gone…

But though you're still with me…

I've been alone, all along…

You'd cry I'd wipe away all of your tears…

You'd scream I'd fight away all of your fears…

And I held your hand through all of these years…

And you still have all of me… ahhhh

Me… ahhhh

Me… ahhhh

Me… ahhhh

Relena sighed as the song ended. Heero absently traced his hand down the cord and pressed the skip button a few times. A new song slowly became apparent as Relena strained to hear the melody. After a few minutes, a heavy metal song began, startling her.

You don't remember me…

But I remember you…

I lie awake and try so hard not to think of you…

But who can decide what they dream? And dream I do…

I believe in you…

I'll give up everything just to find you…

I have to be near you…

To live…

To breathe…

You're taking over me…

Have you forgotten all I know…

And all we had?

You saw me mourning my love for you and touched my hand…

I knew you loved me then…

I believe in you…

I'll give up everything just to find you…

I have to be near you…

To live…

To breathe…

You're taking over me…

I look in the mirror and see your face…

If I look deep enough…

So many things inside are just like…

You are taking over…

I believe in you…

I'll give up everything just to find you…

I need to be near you…

To live…

To breathe…

You're taking over me…

I believe in you… (I believe in you)

I'll give up everything just to find you…

I need to be near you…

To live…

To breathe…

You're taking over me… (Taking over me)

You're taking over me… (Taking over me)

You're taking over me…

"This one is my favorite." Heero stated as if it meant nothing.

"Cool. I like it too."

"Miss Relena!" Ranya called, running across the yard, her shiny light brown hair flowing like a river behind her.

"What is it, Ranya?"

"The paper this morning. It had a large article about your kidnapping. That's a good thing, isn't it?" She said cautiously, stopping in front of them. She gave them a look that wondered if she had interrupted something.

Relena interpreted the look and looked at Heero, who still as almost always, had his eyes hidden behind closed lids. She looked at their positions and paused. Heero was lying on his back, one hand resting on his rising and falling chest, the other pillowing his head against the ground. She lay on her stomach, her torso propped up by her elbows and her face rest only inches away from his. Now that this had come to her attention, she began to feel his warm breath on her face. She quickly threw the headphone off her ear and sat up. Heero calmly caught the thrown item and hooked it back over his own ear. "Yes it is. That way, people know why I'm not in public view. Simple. I'll make my 'struggled escape'," She sighed, striking a dramatic pose, "after the problem with the Confinement Act is over."

"Yes, Miss Relena."

I look in the mirror and see your face…

If I look deep enough…

So many things are just like you are taking over…

I believe in you…

I'll give up everything just to find you…

I need to be near you…

To live…

To breathe…

You're taking over me…

I believe in you… (I believe in you)

I'll give up everything just to find you…

I need to be near you…

To live…

To breathe…

You're taking over me… (Taking over me)

You're taking over me… (Taking over me)

You're taking over me…

Relena sighed as the song ended. She had borrowed Heero's Evanescence CD and had listened to the song of his choice a few times. She had listened to the rest of the CD as well, and all the songs seemed to portray two things; all consuming pain, and death. "Heero… there's more to life than that."

She sighed again. She didn't have a clue how to convey such a message to someone who had been taught nothing different. She rolled onto her stomach, taking her headphones away from her ears and hanging them around her neck. The three Gundam Pilots were to arrive any day now. It had been over a week. Relena was getting ready to tie Heero to the bed. He was constantly trying to 'build up his strength'. Relena scoffed. He's going to kill himself. I don't care what he says. He's human as I am, and he has his limits. He's crossed all of them, and he's treading into deep water. He can die from exhaustion as easily as I can. Relena pushed death out of her mind. Maybe Heero was right. Death did seem to be on her mind a lot lately. But, that was just because Heero was back, wasn't it? She shook her head and put her CD player away. She walked out of her room, leaving the painful music behind.


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