Hey all, thanx, for the reviews and the spot corrections on me messing up. Hopefully I fixed the problem without screwing up the story/flow too much. I can't update everyday because I'm overloaded with work for school, work from my job, and work in general. So don't get too angry if I can't update for a while.
Guardian Shadow
Chapter 4: The Enemy
The explosion happened just as he knew it would. It was a powerful bomb he had set, the main purpose was shrapnel. He had set a functional bomb, not a stupid fireball that didn't do any damage except burn like movies made. Though the movies made you think a piece of steel would explode if grazed by a bullet if there were any truth in movie stunt work. The damage was severe. The "safe" car was destroyed. He turned it into a driving claymore mine to kill. Though he knew it wouldn't work. His enemy was too good. He had studied his target for too long to think he could accomplish his goal so easily.
He watched as the guards were all ripped to shreds by his creation. His art wasn't pretty, but he was a master at it. Much like how is target was good at keeping war away. He watched as a boy, much younger than any of the guards but from the look of him and the way he moved the boy was much more of a soldier, got up quickly even after getting in front of the guards objective and receiving shrapnel shards imbed themselves into his chest and arms. He picked up the girl, who didn't get hit directly by a single piece of flying metal because of his quick actions. The boy cradled the girl, then picked her up like she was a sack of feathers to spite his injuries and ran to one of the cars. Watching as the black sedan sped off the runway and onto the highway at speeds the man could tell the boy was used to going, the man turned and walked away from the disaster just as other guards were starting to stir and people started to crowd the window to see the aftermath. They were too late for the real show though.
Lady Une sat and watched the Vice Foreign Minister sleep in her hospital bed. She knew this was the work of someone very good. Probably as skilled of an assassin as Heero or better since Heero wasn't raised to be an assassin, he was raised for something more…important. Though no doubt to survive as an assassin at a young age you needed to be skilled and would only grow better with age, this new man could probably rival Heero for the best assassin in the world if Heero was still working in that field. Lady Une sighed, she had no idea what to do. Heero had informed her of the situation and she knew Heero doesn't get worried for small stuff. Heck she didn't think he ever got worried even when the whole world was in danger.
She hadn't gone to check on the ex-gundam pilot. She didn't need to, she knew his record with hospitals. When the alliance captured him and ran some tests before he regained consciousness during Operation Meteor, he had awoken, planned an escape, and broken out of his bonds (by injuring his own hand) without increasing his brain activity or heart rate. The pilot could survive. She had watched him as he self detonated while still in his gundam. If anything you could say Heero had a knack for taking suicidal missions and surviving. She needed to know how the VFM was doing. She sat in silence thinking. The Preventors were really powerless to do anything effective. Just then she got a call on her phone. It was Preventor Chang Wufei. When she hung up the phone she was a little relieved. Duo Maxwell and Quatre Winner were offering their survaces, as well as Duo's fiancé, Hilde. She would have 4 ex pilots working for her, and Heero was going to be head of the VFM's security. The door to the room opened silently, amazingly so because the hinges were quite squeaky. She looked up and left to see ex gundam pilot, ex assassin, new Preventor, and now…worried man Heero Yuy. This "boy" had been a man to her for a long time. All of the ex pilots were men to spite their age. They had fought two wars, caused death, protected peace, broken down, stayed strong, and won against all odds. They had maturity beyond many men she knew.
This 17 or 18 year old manno one knew his age, he had no name, birthday, or history that anyone could find, including himself—looked at the woman lying on the bed. He had bandages on his arms and torso. Lady Une knew that he had stayed to watch over Relena's medical treatment, refusing his own injuries until he passed out from blood loss. The nurses were frantic, they thought he might die, but she knew better. Lady Une informed the nurses to just clean and dress his wounds and he would do the rest. They followed her instructions to a T, not even cleaning his hands that had his dried bload coating them up to his elbows. He looked, relieved to see her. To him she was beautiful even in this state. She was surrounded by flowers the hospital have given her, it was too soon for other to have sent them. This man stepped forward until he noticed his hands. He looked how they were covered. Then he backed up. He looked at his hands as if they confirmed something to him. And as if he was contaminated by something he didn't want to get on the room or the VFM he left. Only briefly stopping to say something to Lady Une.
"I'm going after him. Tell her what you want, but I can't be with her." And with that he left. The nurses in the hospital never even knowing he had woken up until he was gone. This statement surprised Lady Une. She knew the VFM had longed for this man, but the look in his eyes showed something like regret, sadness, or even a loss of hope. She knew he wasn't going to be working for her. She had had some doubts, but now it was confirmed. Though if she knew anything about pilot 01, she knew he was dedicated. She had no doubt that he would kill this man, who ever he was, and she knew that this man might kill the pilot she had just watched leave. But 01 would accomplish his mission if it cost him his life.
Just as the door clicked closed behind Heero, the VFM began to stir. She woke up, looked at Lady Une, saw her sad expression, then asked with a shaky voice, "Where's Heero?" obviously expecting to see the object of her love here to make sure she was safe.
Lady Une didn't know how to put it. This woman's love was going off to commit suicide to keep her safe. Lady Une had just been told by the man this girl was worried about that he couldn't be there for her. She would have to move on. And even though the VFM was a very capable woman, she was still a girl in love. When she only looked at the VFM with a sad look, the woman reeled; crying out and sobbing. "He can't be dead," barely audible came the crying of the VFM. Lady Une decided to let her think what the man had felt about himself.
A nurse came in at the sound of Relena crying. The white clad woman tried to comfort someone that she misinterpreted as a girl crying over wounds or the deaths of body guards. To Relena the nurse's constant insult about how the guards would be in heaven now and that her injuries weren't bad and wouldn't scar were making the loss worse. Eventually the nurse figured out she wasn't doing the comforting job well and gave her a few pills to relax her and put her to sleep.
When Relena awoke she was being guarded by two men standing and talking at the foot of her bed. Groggily she blinked to clear up the blurry vision, then she noticed, it was Duo with his braid and Quatre with his blond hair. She wondered why they were here before she remembered the bomb that killed Heero. This thought alone almost made her loose control and cry uncontrollably again. She held her strength though and only let out a few tears. This caught the attention of both the ex pilots, who were excellent observers. Duo was smiling at her, but she could tell he wasn't his normal bouncing off the wall American self. Quatre was smiling reassuringly, but she could tell he was sad as well. They had lost a comrade from the wars, or so she thought.
Duo broke off the conversation immediately on seeing the tears on Relena's cheeks. He had been telling Quatre what Heero had told him. Heero was going after the man that did this, he was doing it alone, which meant probable suicide, and that they were to follow whatever story Relena was told by Lady Une about him. Quatre didn't like the idea of lying to Relena that Heero was dead. It was wrong to him, but he didn't want to hurt Relena or Heero more than necessary. This incident had caused them both a lot of pain.
The next day Relena had moved back to her own house, the guards had been doubled, the 3 Preventer ex gundam pilots were taking shifts watching the estate. Quatre was the closest to Relena, Duo was the best with the guards, and Wufei was the best at leading the group. Though they were equals, each brought their own talents to the team. Each pilot did his job and only Heero would have been able to get through their protection, or so they hoped. Realistically they knew that if Heero could do it, this new threat could. They discussed, without Relena's knowledge, if Heero would be able to do it alone. Duo and Quatre had full confidence, but were still protective of Relena and cautious. Wufei wasn't so sure, but he didn't doubt Heero, he was confident in him too.
Not so far away, Heero sat in a warehouse, the records showed a phony company owning it, but really he controlled it. This was where he stored some of his equipment, if you knew which create to look in. After taking care of his wounds, he set to finding his target. After the explosion he knew who it was. He hadn't needed to figure it out, he knew. This was a man he had almost discounted as ever becoming a problem. this guy's style was deceptive, and this man even deceived himself for a little bit. This little bit pissed Heero off. He had warned, then snuck in close a second time to warn, third he snuck in close to silently kill with a close weapon; a knife, before making a real move from afar with a bomb. No doubt. No thinking, Heero just knew. It was the other one like him.
Dr. J. had trained two boys before deciding the younger was the better one than the older. Being 5 years older, the other boy was jealous of the younger one's constant success, skill, and eventually beating him. The other nameless boy had told him that he wanted this more than Heero could imagine and would kill him if he got it. Shortly after Dr. J. chose who would be code named Heero Yuy the kid had "died" according to Dr. J. Heero had taken this news without emotion. He was a rival, his first enemy. But he hadn't wished for the other's death. Dr. J. left no doubt that the boy was killed by him in the way he worded the information. Though "Heero Yuy" didn't really think that guy was dead, because he wasn't dead. Now he would confront him. This man was like Heero, trained for war, only a soldier that had no place in a peaceful world. Heero would have to kill again, and that meant he could never be with Relena.
Relena was too pure to be tainted by his murderous, blood stained, calloused, and soldier like hands. He would have to kill this man because like him, he would not stop until his target was eliminated. As Heero left he knew he was no match for this man, he hadn't been training like he should have been these past few years. Since the wars he hasn't been working until he passed out, either from lack of sleep after having been working for 5 straight days or from exhaustion from working until his muscles burned and he couldn't feel the pain anymore. This man he was going to face, he hadn't slacked off, ever. Heero doubted he even took one day off to recover from injures while on his own professional missions or training.
The security system was a joke, it was state of the art, fully customized to the building, lethal weapons, silent alarms, cameras, and motion sensors. Heero wondered why this guy had even bothered until he realized, the only entrance was the one he was going to use. It was only guarded by 4 separate things, and likely the doors were rigged to explode without a way of turning them off. This guy used this entrance for his comings and goings as well. This guy knew this was the only way in and would be expecting the attack to come from here. Information logged, thought Heero. This still wouldn't stop him.
Silently jumping down to the concrete floor, he looked around and noticed that who ever set up the area knew he would be coming and had cleaned out the area. Walking around a crate he saw him. Sitting in a chair, a very built man, about 23 years old, wearing a Preventer body guard uniform sat his old rival. The man looked calm.
"I thought you would be here earlier, but I guess the bomb got you better than I thought," Jansen said with a sarcastic smirk. "That woman will never survive."
"She is mine to protect, and I always finish my missions." Heero stated coolly.
"Oh, I have no quarrel with her, I want to kill you. You ruined my life, you took away my purpose with Dr. J. Then you took away my war. I had a second chance with Mariemaia's army. But once again you took away my life. I am a soldier, I only know how to fight. What am I supposed to do! She is the only one in the way of a world at war. For that she deserves to die." Heero took this all without any emotion, only slight anger showing in his eyes. "After the wars I was able to quell my instincts as an assassin using my Preventer connections to get information and easily kill my target. Though I liked the body guard position, I could see a way to use my skills as a soldier in that field. But you took that away again! You are always ruining my life." Jansen raised a controller with a single button, both knew what he was doing without any thought. "For that you will die, but I need to kill your girl as well so soldiers can live without being discarded." As he said the last word he pushed the button. The creates on either side of "Heero" exploded with shrapnel.
Jansen was just out of the kill zone. He hadn't bothered to watch. The massive amounts of wood flying had blocked his view. But he knew Heero was dead. Now was the easy part, getting by those stupid other ex pilots and taking out that little girl.
This is Chapter 4, I will probably finish this story in the next chapter and then have an epilogue. I hope you like this one and will like the finished story.
