"Manifestations"
By: Isis
Chapter 5

The private landing area for the Preventer air base was relatively quiet. For early morning Saturday, he supposed it should be. Heero stood in front of a small passenger space plane, one of five specifically used by the Preventers forces. It had no special markings on it and would pass for any private carrier's plane, which was its job. Only the inside electronics and cockpit instruments were different from any other passenger aircraft. That, and the fact that these planes housed the most sophisticated tracking equipment at the disposal of the ESUN government.

This plane, 004, had been reserved for Relena's mission. Its tracking ID was being checked at the moment by base command and the exterior was being scanned for any foreign objects that could have been planted on it during its time in the hanger next door. Two of his team members, Alli Carver and Ry Noland, were on the sweep team, checking over the outside equipment and systems. Inside, the last member of his team was preparing for flight, their resident pilot Delano Ather.

Alli Carver was not only the "token female" as Ry often referred to her as; she was specifically selected by Lt. Jameson for her position with the team. She had grown up in an L2 colony and had joined a small alliance as the result of the war. As far as her report said she had been selected as a tactical officer, basically used at communications. She had never really seen battle as the group disbanded when the White Fang began its own recruiting. However, she had managed to obtain some experience to match her high degree in political science.

It was no accident that she was placed with one of the female politicians. So far, she seemed worth her weight as a political analyst. However, her worth as a bodyguard worried him a bit. He casually glanced over the tail fin to where she was monitoring the progress of the equipment.

Physically, she was petite but strong, which gave her great agility and speed. Her weapons training showed that she was a good marksman and could handle herself in a firefight. However, her stature wasn't inclined to hand-to-hand confrontation, a fact that registered in her file as having just passed her combat exam.

Were it any other member of the team, he probably wouldn't have worried about it. But as the only female, she was inclined to be the closest member to Relena during certain times. He had two decisions that he could make in good conscience, and only one left her on the team.

He had found the chance to ask her about the situation at their introduction meeting, and she had been more than willing to agree to his plan of additional training in her weak areas. Although, he thought she was just a bit discouraged when she learned she would be training with him. But it didn't matter, knowing that she could handle herself in an unarmed situation during those times couldn't be helped.

Times that including sleeping arrangements. Heero would admit that he was rather exasperated with the quantity of work put into quartering arrangements by his predecessor. But thankfully, due to their previous training, they all knew the routine. Where a suite was allowed, Relena and Alli would share the space, surrounded by the other officers in adjacent rooms, and one directly across the hall, which was usually his. If not, the girls would usually bunk together, and in rare cases, they would have to have separate rooms.

Heero wondered what exactly Jameson had thought would happen if Relena was left alone in her own room. Upon checking in, the room or rooms were swept for surveillance equipment, chemical agents, foreign entities, ect. The room was then wired with motion detectors on the windows, doors and any other possible forms of entry. Not to mention that Relena carried a tiny "panic button" at all times during her trips, which not only alerted the entire team to a panic situation, but also transmitted the best in tracking technology.

He wondered every once in a while if the President had this much gear strapped to him.

It was slightly irritating that most of the effort put into Relena's safe-keeping was by way of gadgets, instead of by people. She really didn't deserve to be tracked and managed within an inch of imprisonment. He sighed silently to himself and forced down that little over-protective feeling.

He wouldn't change the odd set of rules governing her motions at this point in time.

He did a quick check on the rest of his team; Ather sat in the pilot seat in the front window of the cockpit. He was a tall man, slightly older than the others, in his mid-twenties; he had black hair and eyes, and a brown complexion. Originally he was raised somewhere in the L3 section, although he seemed to have had a very mobile history.

Ather was quiet, but very quick-witted, and rather opinionated when you really pressed him on an issue. The man was certainly more comfortable with machines than with people, developing himself as a pilot and mechanic originally under the Alliance before training to be a MS pilot for OZ. All in all, Delano had very good marks in both mental and physical challenges, and in the time they had spent together he had shown a great deal of respect for Relena.

Noland on the other hand…. The young man hummed to himself as he scouted out the other side of the plane, looking rather weary with the readouts he was watching. Ry Noland was… not as bright as the rest of the team. His test scores showed a certain lack of enthusiasm on the part of academic study. However, what he lacked in brains he did make up for in weapons and physical competition.

Ry had apparently been a professional wrestling and boxing champion, lying about his age at the start of the conflicts. He had never taken a side before the war's end—at least not one that was found in his file—but was easily accepted into the Preventers ranks during the first recruitment process. He had bounced around a couple different assignments, always completing each to specification, before requesting the transfer to Relena's team.

Apparently he was following Alli, who he had worked with before in a previous tour of duty. The young man was a couple of years younger than her at nineteen, but he was miles away from her on the maturity scale. Probably why she didn't seem to return the affection.

Heero had read several notes in Jameson's handwriting that the two may need to be reassigned if their relationship turned romantic. He figured he would deal with the two if and when that time came. He had seen nothing in either of them that would indicate that they would allow their… bickering to interfere with their work. If he did, there would be changes.

The four of them would be accompanying Relena to Quatre's new colony site. Her aid and the other attendees of the conference starting on Tuesday in the L3 sector would arrive on their own accord with the President. In the mean time, Relena was on a mini-vacation.

Heero kept an eye on the readouts from the sweep equipment as the two officers moved over the ship. The data pad in his hand read density, consistency and scanned for variations of height or mass. It also searched for foreign communication equipment or signals.

A group of footsteps was heard coming up from behind him and Heero turned to acknowledge Relena and the three officers that accompanied her. She had a long brown coat wrapped tightly around her in the morning cold, the wind wiping it around her knees. She blinked quickly against the cold air as she and the officers hurried over to the small protection of the wing.

"Good morning, Agent Heero," she called as soon as they were within earshot.

"Hn." He nodded at the officers who quickly stashed her luggage inside, and said their well wishes for a safe trip, then exited back to the base.

She walked up next to him, setting down her carryon bag and dug her hands into her coat pockets. "Lovely day to fly," she mumbled. The wind caught a lock of her hair that had slipped out of the warmth of her coat and flipped it into her face. Her nose was pink, and her eyes were still teary, stung by the wind-chill.

"Go on inside, we'll be ready in a minute."

She picked the hair out of her mouth and smiled at him. "I'll do just that," she nodded and headed toward the open ramp.

Heero returned to the monitor in front of him with an almost unnoticeable smile on his face.

Finishing up the outside inspection Heero had entered the shuttle and waited for the other two to come aboard. Relena had taken a seat in the front row next to the window and had picked a folder out of her carryon to look through. Ather was in the cockpit rechecking preflight and wasting time until they were taxied out to the runway.

Heero stowed the monitor and his outside inspection gear in the appropriate place in the back of the plane and was securing some of the larger equipment when Alli and Ry raced up the ramp at a dead sprint. His instincts kicked in full force as they raced through the hatch and into the plane. He dodged out of the way of the two hurried bodies and primed himself against the opposite wall to push off toward the attacker that was obviously right behind them.

"Out of my way, Alli."

"Not a chance this time, Noland!"

"I called it!"

The cries and obvious hurry to enter the cockpit area instead of mounting a front to an invading party, alerted him that perhaps he had gotten mixed signals from the two officers. Still, Heero quickly reached the entranceway and did a complete sweep of the outside area, none of which showed any sign of a threat.

He turned towards the front of the plane again and watched the two struggle to fit through the doorway together. A bit confused he closed down the hatch and drew the ramp up. Relena must have been more used to the sight, considering she was quietly giggling at the pair as she stood up to take off her coat.

The door automatically shut behind the last two members of his team and Heero was alone in the passenger cabin of the plane with a still giggling Vice Minister. She shook her head at them and tossed her coat back to the second row.

"Don't worry, they aren't always this bad," she mumbled, nodding for him to join her up front.

He looked from the door to her and sighed silently. Maybe he should have recruited his own team after all.

She laughed again, taking her seat and fastening the belt. "You'll have to watch those two. They aren't quite as professional as Del… or you," she looked back pointedly.

Heero blinked at the reference a moment and then made his way up front.

"Welcome ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for flying Preventer passenger plane 004, where your safety guarantees our jobs!—Ouch. Um… please fasten seatbelts and enjoy your flight!"

The inter-plane speaker clicked off and Heero stood still in front of the cockpit door. A round a giggles came from his right and he couldn't help but glance over at her. She looked up and composed herself. "I'm afraid Ry does this every time."

Looking back at the door he mentally berated himself for leaving her in the charge of these…. Closing his eyes Heero reminded himself that he had dealt with worse.

"Are you sorry you stayed yet?"

He looked down at her, startled by the question. She sat with her elbow on the armrest and her chin on her hand. She didn't seem offended that he didn't respond right away, there was a small smile on her lips as she looked up at him.

"This isn't exactly your type of a mission."

The same quiet understanding turned over in his mind, "My missions are over."

Her eyes softened she nodded slightly. The plane began to taxi out towards the runway strip and Heero resisted the impulse to pull Delano out of the seat and do it himself.

Instead he sat down next to Relena and fastened the seatbelt. She reopened the folder in front of her and then reached down to push her bag back towards her feet. The motion caught his eye as he noticed a small patch of fur just visible from the open flap.

He stole a glance at her from the corner of his eye, thinking that maybe that story really had been true.

She straightened again and looked at him. "Thank you Heero."

He blinked at her.

"—Today we will be will traveling extra-planetary to the L4 colony cluster—"

"They know where we're going."

"—Ow."

Heero had to hold himself down to the seat before he decided to injure someone in that cockpit. It wasn't until he felt a hand on his arm that he turned back to find Relena barely containing her giggles. Shaking her head she leaned over to him with a wide smile. "Thank you for putting up with us."

"Colonies seem a lot… bigger when they're empty," Relena mumbled, timidly looking over the edge of the catwalk between the elevator and the Operations office, which hung from the "ceiling" of the colony structure.

Quatre stood beside her, pleasantly being the tour guild for the group. "Now Miss Relena, don't tell me you're afraid of heights."

She glanced up at him weakly, "Well, I didn't think I was…."

He chuckled in good humor and offered her an arm to help her into the office. She laughed at herself and took it anyway.

"Boy, you're not kidding," Alli mumbled, glancing over the edge. Her braided black hair fell over her shoulder and hung over the guardrail of the walkway.

"Don't worry dear, I'll protect you!" Ry announced from behind her.

She whirled on him as he tried to take her hand. "Touch me and you'll be ending this tour early."

Heero sighed quietly from behind the two; maybe he should have volunteered himself to close up the ship instead of Delano.

"Please, don't mind the mess," Quatre apologized as they entered the ops building. "Still of lot of systems that need to be double checked and maintained." He led them into a comfy sitting room in the center of the building and found them all seats and then excused himself to check on the tea.

Quatre had done a wonderful acting job when they had landed. Relena had been able to relate to him that Heero was joining the team and that the others would know nothing about his past. Quatre had understood completely; after all, he was in no way making his part in the war public knowledge either. He had shaken his hand, easily introducing himself and Rasid Kurama to him.

Ry paced over to the window and looked out, taken in by the place. "You know, eighteen years and I've never been up here before."

"Neither have I," Alli said joining him at the window. "You never really think about all the stuff up here when you live down below."

"Miss Relena, you're missing a great view!" Ry sign-songed to her, pointing at the window.

"Yes, I can see it from here," she stated from her chair on the other side of the room.

The group chuckled to themselves. "Agent Yuy, you don't seem all that impressed," Alli piped in.

Heero shook his head slightly, "I've been here before." He'd spent a great deal of time living out of a storage hanger on the ceiling of an L1 Colony before….

"It really makes you realize that you're living in a giant donut, doesn't it?"

The girls laughed at Ry until he apparently figured he needed to defend himself. "Well, I'm serious! Think about it, we're standing on the inside of the hole part, and then you have this big empty space where these little cream filling clouds are, and then you have everybody else living down there towards the outside."

"Do you realize that all of your analogies have to do with food?"

"Alli, I'm trying to explain complicated physics here!" he held up a hand in front of her for silence.

Well, the day hadn't been a waste, Heero had managed to find Duo's lost twin after all.

Relena stood up from her chair and moved over to the one next to him, watching the two bicker about the manufacturing flaws of cream-filled doughnuts. "Well they do make life interesting," she smiled.

"Hn," he favored her with a weary expression that she chuckled at.

She crossed her legs and leaned back sideways on the padded chair, propping her chin up with an elbow on its arm next to him. "I like them," she mumbled.

Watching her moves from the corner of his eye, he'd figured that.

"Why do you think the cream filled ones don't have holes? There's no room otherwise."

"They just need to make them bigger, then they'd have room."

"Then how would you dunk yours in your coffee?"

"I'd put coffee flavored cream in the middle."

"What?"

"I need to patent that! That would totally solve all of people's doughnut problems."

Relena leaned in a little closer and whispered, "But I'd understand if you have to reassign them."

He blinked at her expectantly a second before he realized she was kidding. Her humored smile stayed in place as she watched them argue, her profile next to him.

Seeing her truly happy was… something he wasn't accustomed to. Watching her watch the others brought a rather confusing mix of emotions up in him. On one hand, it was… warming almost, to see her happy and out of harm's way. An experience he had really never been around to see before. In all of their history together, he'd seen her through every sorrow a human being could know. But this….

He glanced away, pretending to be following the argument as well. He rolled the feelings over not wanting to let go of them yet. Part of him felt a pang of regret at the thought that it was almost two years before he could see this side of her. But the rest just seemed—well, happy that she was happy.

Maybe… maybe this was what peace really felt like.

"Here we go," Quatre announced himself, cutting his thoughts short. "Enjoying the view?" he asked the other two as he set the tray down on the center table.

"Yes, it's beautiful," Alli stated politely.

"There is an observation platform directly beneath us," Quatre nodded towards the exit door on the right. "You can certainly take a look if you'd like."

"Hey, cool," Ry interjected. The two turned to Heero who nodded quickly and let them leave.

"We'll just be a few moments. Thank you, Mr. Winner."

"Stay as long as you like, Officer Carver."

The two exited and Heero sighed silently to himself.

"Well, they seem fun," Quatre commented.

Relena giggled, nodding. Heero just blinked.

Quatre smiled tightly and shrugged. "Well, while I have the two of you," he pulled a chair over closer and sat down. "I'm happy to see both of you again."

"Hn," he nodded.

"It's a pleasure, Quatre."

The tour had been relatively finished by that evening and the group sat down to supper with Quatre and a group of the Maguanacs, who were all introduced as the former heads of his mining operations which had made the jump to construction with him. It had been a rather loud meal, but Relena especially seemed to revel in it.

Quatre knew she needed a break from politics as well as her own security force sometimes. He had kept up communications with her since the war—especially after her abduction—and had heard all about the new measures put into play. He had been very happy to hear that Heero had not only come back to join the Preventers, but had taken charge of her team.

They both needed a little looking after.

He had arranged rooms for the group in his house; one of only a dozen or so that was actually completed on the slowly finishing colony. But he was up early to check on breakfast and to just look over a few things that needed some attention before the opening.

There were quiet steps on the stairs that he picked out against the coffee machine's whirl. He was trying to ease some of the old instincts but they still had their uses.

Taking a chair by the window in the dinning room he waited for Heero's entrance. When he did he nodded to him, the other former pilot knowing he was already there. "Good morning, Heero," he said quietly, figuring no one else was up quite yet.

"Morning."

"Coffee?"

The other nodded and he filled a couple of mugs, then nodded towards the outside patio. Heero following him out into the back area and picked a spot against the cement ledge.

"You seem well, Heero."

The other nodded, "You too."

He smiled, setting his cup down on the ledge. "I'm doing pretty well these days." Glancing around at the large courtyard enclosure he felt a swell of pride in their accomplishments. "This project has really been good for me… good for all of us actually," he corrected, thinking of the team of Maguanacs.

"I understand."

Glancing sideways he could see the barest trace of a smile on Heero's face. Of course he understood. Better than even his friends here did….

"I didn't really expect you to join up with the Preventers," he ventured quietly.

Heero gazed down at his coffee cup and nodded slightly. "It's the only useful place for me."

Quatre smiled but held back the chuckle. "The placement with Miss Relena wasn't Commander Une's decision, was it?"

He looked up at him with a bit of surprise as Quatre tried to hide the smile behind a fist. The other blinked and let out a small sigh before shaking his head. Staring back into his cup he nearly whispered, "She asked me to stay."

Quatre was a bit taken off guard by the confession. Why, he wasn't sure. After all, why wouldn't Miss Relena have asked for him to stay, and why shouldn't Heero have accepted. And surely he should have expected it to affect him as much as it apparently had…. "I think I understand," he said instead, shaking the list of thoughts out of his head.

Heero didn't say anything else, and Quatre didn't figure he would. For all of his friend's sage advice about following your emotions, he wasn't that good at it. Or, more probably, he just didn't understand himself enough to sometimes. In truth, none of them were very good at life in general. It was something that got put on a shelf when you were surrounded by as much death as the five of them had experienced. It was just something pretty to look at from time to time….

"Quite a project, Quatre."

Apparently Heero had revived from his thoughts before he had, and Quatre quickly dismissed the images. "Well, thank you, but it wasn't just me," he smiled.

Heero nodded, looking out over the courtyard at the few newly completed rooftops that could be seen beyond. "I wondered about that."

He blinked and looked over at his friend. "What do you mean?"

"You have a silent partner that backed a quarter of your end of the project."

He winced slightly and turned back to his cup. "I figured you'd dig that far."

"I was curious."

He chuckled; some level of curiosity. "Did you find out who?"

The other nodded and then turned his head to look at him. "Are you sure that was a wise decision?"

"I figure I may as well try something different." She paced slowly back and forth in front of Quatre's desk, her arms crossed in front of her. "Although I hate colonies, it might be just the place to reinvent my name."

"Why do you hate the Colonies?" Quatre asked, still bit taken off guard by Dorothy Catalonia's abrupt visit.

"Oh, I deeply admire the spirit of the people, I just hate the place," she reasoned to him.

"Something about space?"

She flipped her knee length hair behind her and folded her hands behind her back, pacing back the other direction. "I am just a child of the Earth is all. If humans were meant to be canned why aren't we food?" she mumbled, stopping in front of the giant bulletin board covered with the blueprints and schematics of the new colony project.

"If we all stayed on Earth there would be no room for us all," he mumbled from behind her.

"Is there room to live on the Colonies? All of these perfect little square houses, with their thin walls and paper roofs, nothing but concrete for a yard and the exact same view as all of the rest of your neighbors. Where is the passion of the sunset, and the thrill of the changing seasons?"

Quatre blinked at her back. "It isn't all the same. Every person that comes here brings something different. That's the way of colony life, you focus on the inside."

Dorothy turned and looked at him with a smile of challenge on her face. "That is because there is nothing to see outside." She waved one hand vaguely about before re-crossing her arms and pacing towards him. "But that doesn't matter. My opinion has never stopped anyone from living here. After all, what good will my investment be if no one comes?"

She perched herself on the side of his desk, crossing her legs under the short white skirt that she wore under the long-sleeved purple sweater. He gave her a nervous laugh and shrugged. "I guess we will wish for the best."

"Wishes are only for things that one doesn't expect to actually happen." She leaned in closer to him and looked him straight in the eye. "I never wish for anything, Quatre."

"She was rather persuasive," he said instead, smiling tightly.

"She always is."

Quatre shrugged; picking up his cup he tinked it against Heero's. "Women," he saluted with a laugh, taking a sip.

"The saying "Getting there is half the fun" became obsolete with the advent of commercial airlines." – Henry J. Tillman

"'Stay' is a charming word in a friend's vocabulary." Louisa May Alcott

Proofed by: Melika Elena. Thank you.