Title: No Matter What

Author: x1-TaKeN-oVer

Chapter 2


SIX YEARS LATER ON EARTH...

"Miss Relena, no disrespect when I say this but we want 01 and we want him now." Senator Dockson replied and other politicians in the conference room nodded their head in accord.

Relena sighed and took off her reading glasses, she could steadily feel a headache coming on and knew that it would be a bitch to deal with. She wanted out of the conference ASAP; they had been discussing the same topic for over five hours without a break. The air conditioner broke three hours before and it was getting to be eighty-five degrees outside and ninety inside.

Relena picked up a stack of papers and began to fan herself while she spoke tiredly, "Ladies and Gentlemen, I know exactly what you want and I want it too but it just isn't possible..."

"Miss Relena, I don't think that you grasp this situation as strongly as the rest of us," Dockson cut through. "We have had this reunion, get together or function, whatever you want to call it, for five years now and have all our pilots show up except one. Pilot 01 is the only one of our pilots that has not shown up and people are getting a bit testy. I have many people emailing my office or calling in like it's a damn radio station and questioning where 'the other pilot' is."

Relena had, had enough of Senator Dockson. He had been rude to her since they had met and she wondered if it had something to do with women handling power at the same level or higher as men. She nastily replied, "So Mr. Dockson, you only want 01 to get rid of all the people that are calling you? I, myself, find that a bit selfish."

Dockson frowned and was about to reply when Ms. Swib hastily cut in; "Miss Relena, another reason that we would like 01 is because we noticed recently that after the third year of not showing there had been a steady decrease of people coming, as well." Ms. Swib was one of the people that helped with creating the reunion.

Another person who helped was Mr. JoHansen, and he spoke up as well, "But the whole reason that we decided to do this is to commemorate our soldiers, look back at the times that we had during the wars whether they be good or bad, and somehow laugh. If you have gone to Hell and back during the war and, no doubt, had more bad times then good, you can reflect on the good times and share them with others who have gone through the same."

Relena took a moment to think and knew that they were right. Some people may find their yearly reunion to be soothing and in some way, therapeutic. She couldn't let down her people and so was then forced to agree.

"All right, I see your point. It won't be easy so don't put out a date; the first thing we have to do is locate him. You know that we haven't thought about his feelings towards this; he may be busy or something."

Dockson rolled his eyes and began to stack his papers together. "If he is busy, then you'll just have to persuade him. I can't honestly think of someone who would be too busy to show up for something of this importance."
Relena shook her head and sighed.

Carter Boykins spoke, "Who are you going to get to help you?"

"Well, I was going to have the Preventers help me. They are very experienced in this sort of thing, as you all know, so I thought it smart to go with them. I also have a few agents in mind to help."

Boykins nodded, "That sounds good."

Relena stood up and gathered her things together, "Well, Ladies and Gentlemen, if there are no more questions, then we are done."

Everyone nodded and clapped briefly before gathering their things and walking out the room. As Dockson walked by he mumbled, "Good Job."

Relena snorted and finished piling her papers into her briefcase. She knew that he was being sarcastic so didn't respond to his remark. She walked out the room and shut the door. She took a moment to breathe deep the cool, air conditioned, air before walking over to her secretary.

"Janet, cancel all my meetings for the rest of the day and if anyone calls for me, just tell them they can reach me on my cell."

"Yes, Miss Peacecraft," Janet nodded her blonde head and quickly set to work.

Relena thanked her kindly then made her way to the elevators. Once they opened she noticed that Tad, one of her colleagues, was in the elevator reading over various documents.

He smiled, "Going down?"

"Yes, I am." They made small talk before Tad came to the second floor and Relena was left alone once again. She leaned against the wall and thought, 'This is not going to be easy.'

It wasn't until he had left that Relena got all the information. She was the only one who had no idea about what was going on between Heero, Duo and Hilde since she had to go away on a business trip that particular time period.

When Relena found out she was furious with everyone, especially Duo. Relena had admitted to herself, long before, that Heero would never love her but that didn't mean she still couldn't have feelings for him. She was heartbroken for a while but then got together with Dorothy. She didn't really talk to any of them for almost two weeks and she could've gone longer but they were very insistent on getting to better terms with her.

She came out of her musings with a start and looked to see the elevator doors open. She shook her head and sighed heavily. She walked through the lobby and out the doors towards her car. She got into her Convertible, revved the engine and took out her cell phone. She called Preventers HQ and requested a small conference with some particular agents. Once the conference was set she hit the 'end' button and sped towards HQ.


"I wonder who called us here?" Wufei questioned.

"Well, we will soon find out won't we?" Duo stated irritably.

"What the hell is your problem?" Wufei looked over at Duo who was frowning down at his hands.

Quatre frowned, "Yeah, you've been moping about all morning, what's wrong? "

Trowa looked Duo over quietly and raised his eyebrow in quiet inquiry.

Duo sighed and ran a hand through his long, chestnut colored, bangs and said, "I was about to go to that new pizza place down the road and I had a coupon for a free pizza."

"Oh my God," Wufei mumbled before turning around in his swivel chair.

Duo ignored Wufei and continued, "And the bad part is the coupon expired because they said that they were only giving away the pizzas in lunch hours and their lunch hours were from 11 to 3."

They all turned their heads and saw the clock hit 4:03.

Quatre frowned, "I don't understand. Why didn't you just go earlier?"

Duo sighed, sometimes Quatre was five pennies short of a nickel. "I didn't go earlier because I wasn't hungry earlier...duh!"

They all sighed and rolled their eyes but looked up startled by the new voice. "Well, then Maxwell, that seems to be a mistake on your part."

Duo smiled and laughed charmingly, "I should've known; you're the one who set up this conference, aren't you?"

"Yes sir," she replied. She thanked the young officer that had escorted her and walked into the room. She made her way to an empty chair and sat down; she sighed loudly which blew her bangs up.

"Long day?" Quatre questioned. He knew very well the stress of trying to meet everyone's needs and wants. It was a tough job but no one had any doubt that Relena Peacecraft 1 couldn't get the job done...well no one except for a certain someone.

"Long week actually." She noticed the confused stares and began. It was going to be very hard but she knew that with the help of the young men in front of her she would be able to successfully locate 01. From what she knew, the men in front of her knew nothing of the demand for 01. She knew that they would all be reluctant but...it had to be done.

"Okay, I want you to hear me out before you say anything, all right?" Once they nodded she began, "It has come to our attention that, slowly, people are starting to skip out on the yearly reunion. By skipping out I mean that they no longer come or want to have anything to do with the it unless something happens. That something is if we have Pilot 01 attend to our celebrations. The people are starting to get upset that we have every pilot except for 01."

She took a breath and continued, "What I need the Preventers to do is to find 01 and persuade him to come here. I know that it won't be easy but I will even allow you to offer money to him...it is very important that we have him at the reunion this year and hopefully, the ones to come." She closed her mouth and looked over each of the young men.

Quatre cleared his throat, "So you would like us to find him and bring him back so that he can go to the reunion? Do I have it right?"

Relena nodded, "Pretty much, yes. I know this may sound a bit strange to you but this is for the good of Earth. We, as individuals, would like to thank the heroes for saving us and with that statement we want to say 'thank you' to ALL our heroes."

"I don't see how 'this is for the good of our Earth.' How does having him there help others?" Wufei questioned.

"It helps others because our Reunion is sort of like...healing therapy for some people. I know it may be asking a lot..."

"It's asking a helluva lot," concluded Trowa.

"What makes you think he even wants to come? I'm sure that, wherever he is, he has seen the reunions or heard of them from press and TV." Despite what he just said Wufei knew why the public needed 01 but he just couldn't bring himself to fully understand it. He, under no means necessary, wanted to go and get him because of the 'incident' that had happened 6 years prior...he didn't think that anyone did.

"That is kind of why, if worst comes to worst, I want you to offer him a sum of money and by that maybe..." Poor Relena was cut off again.

"So you want us to bribe him? That doesn't seem very...right." Quatre said.

Throughout the whole conversation Duo had sat very still, head down, staring at his hands in his lap. He finally spoke up, "Relena, let's say that we give him the benefit of the doubt and for some crazy reason he hasn't heard of the reunion. What makes you think that he would want to come here? We all know what happened a couple years back, no need for me to remind anyone, obviously. I'm very sure that he wants nothing to do with us and I totally understand that...I think that we should consider his feelings and respect his wishes."

Relena sadly stared at Duo and sighed. "You guys, I know what happened and I know that this is very hard for you to even consider but...I'm asking you to think about the other people who NEED to see him and maybe have a talk with him, as well. I don't expect you to understand their wishes, needs and wants...sometimes we can barely understand our own."

"Relena, you know that we would do anything to help you but this...this is too much. We can't just go up to him and say, 'Hi, how ya doing? I know that we betrayed you and everything but why don't you just forget about all that and come to our party that we're throwing for the wars.'"

Relena smiled briefly towards Trowa; "If it were my choice I would have the reunion go on without him but you see...it just isn't up to me."

Each ex-pilot looked toward their Queen and thought for a moment. They all knew that it wasn't exactly up to her; in the long run she is just a referee making sure all sides get their equal turn. They all mentally sighed and gathered any strength they had for their upcoming battle.


DOWNTOWN L1...

"Hey, Cotton Tail! Can I get fries with that shake? " He smiled lecherously while his friends laughed drunkenly.

"What are we, in the 5th grade," Heero inquired to himself. He mentally cursed his outfit that resembled a Play Boy Bunny but the difference was that on Heero, he had a small vest that stopped mid-chest showing off his tight abs and tight boy shorts that left nothing to the imagination complete with a fluffy, white bunny tail in the back.

He sighed but turned around, put on a sexy smile and swayed his hips enticingly as he made his way over to the table of old men who were way too drunk. When he reached the table, he set down his tray of empty cups and asked over the loud music, "What can I get you boys tonight?"

They all snickered while the man in the middle addressed him again. "You can give me about 30 minutes in the next alley."

Heero glared, "Personally, I don't fuck men over 50," he looked over the man which was about head to chest because of the high table, "and you don't look like a man that can hold for 30 whole minutes. The most I would give you is 5 minutes. Now, I'm going back to work and you had better not call me anymore obscenities from across the room." He added sweetly, "Thank you for getting your entertainment at G-Spot and I hope you have a wonderful evening."

Heero turned around and walked away only to be grabbed roughly by the wrist. He growled and turned around only to have to look up and stare into blazing black eyes. Heero swallowed when he saw the very pissed off expression that Johnny was wearing.

"What the fuck do you think you're doing?" Johnny asked gruffly. He gripped Heero's arm tighter and snarled down at him.

Heero gulped and shakily replied, "The guy was being a complete ass. Now, let go you're causing a scene."

Johnny looked up to see other patrons and workers look towards them. He glared at them all before they immediately turned back to what they were previously doing. Johnny leaned down and whispered harshly, "Follow me."

Johnny walked in strides towards the back room while Heero stumbled after him. Johnny led Heero towards an old beaten, black door and walked in. Heero hesitantly followed before Johnny turned a menacing gaze towards Heero and looked him over. "Put that tray down before you break my damn china." It was sad but Johnny called all his shot glasses his china.

Heero carefully placed the dishes on a nearby stand and noticed his hands were trembling lightly. He cursed himself and balled his hands into fists to stop the tremors. 'Stop being such a little girl and straighten up. You're tougher than this; don't let this sad excuse of a man throw you around like some rag doll, stand up...' He wasn't able to finish his sentence because of the stinging slap that was delivered to his right cheek.

Heero clenched his teeth and turned blazing blue eyes towards the man in front of him. "I told you to never ever..." Once again he was interrupted as a slap was delivered to the same cheek. He wiped the blood that seeped out of his mouth. He felt the tears stinging the back of his eyes and blinked rapidly...he wouldn't let them fall-not this time. This had happened many times before and sometimes he fought back, other times he didn't but there was usually one recurring outcome-him on the floor with some bodily injury. He didn't feel like dealing with his bullying shit so he kept quiet and put his head down.

As if seeing Heero's defeat Johnny smiled wickedly and stepped closer to him. "That's right you little shit, shut the fuck up. I own you; what I say goes. You do I what I say, when I say it, understand? None of this talking back nonsense that you like to play every now and then. You pull this shit again, and I'll kill you. Now what is your job?"

"To make the customers happy," Heero replied automatically.

"That's right, so if they say they want a lap dance, you give em' a lap dance. If they want you to strip, you strip without hesitation. And if they say they want to fuck you in the next alley for 30 minutes you damn well better say yes and lead the fucking way, understand?"

"Yes Johnny," he spoke obediently.

"Good," he smiled before roughly grabbing Heero's chin and swallowing his mouth into a brutal kiss.

Heero didn't fight as Johnny raped his mouth over and over.

Once he was finished he pushed Heero away roughly and smiled through yellow teeth. "Don't go home too early tonight," and with that he left.

Heero breathed out before wiping a hand across his mouth. He slowly made his way over to the dressing rooms and sat himself down at his station. He looked in the mirror to see his reddened cheek and cursed loudly. He grabbed at his blush viciously and applied it to his left cheek so that it would even out and look like he did it on purpose. As he set down the small case a girl beautiful girl in a neon pink string bikini rushed into the room.

"Heero! There you are, are you okay? I saw what happened outside and..." Lina trailed off as she rushed to Heero and noticed the bright red cheeks. She cursed softly before running a hand through chocolate brown locks.

"He is such a fucking push over. I swear someone bigger and tougher is goin' to come along and knock him on his ass. And I will personally fuck the guy as a reward." She spoke looking into the mirror at Heero's reflection.

Heero gently pushed her away. "I'm fine, Lina. It's not nearly as bad as it usually is so don't worry. Now, go away, you're making me feel nauseous."

She smiled softly, "Yeah, yeah, yeah Mr. Tough Guy. Whatever you say. Hey, are you comin' back out?"

"Yeah, in a minute, why?" He questioned as he tidied his hair in the mirror.
"You can dance with me the rest of the night. Johnny won't dare touch me, Killer made sure of that so you'll be safe while you're with me," she ended softly.

Heero smiled gratefully. "Thanks Lina, I really appreciate it."

She blushed and waved her hand, "No problem, Sugar. You just owe me by taking me to that new Italian restaurant down on 22nd."

He mock sighed heavily, "Fine, deal."

She squealed happily and grabbed his arm while making her way to the door. "I can't wait! I heard they have the BEST lasagna in like...the whole world. Um...not including Italy or...wherever else but yummo! Tomorrow night, oh my gosh you have to take..."

Heero sighed, this time for real, as Lina proceeded to talk his ear off about how he just had to take her to the damn resteraunt.


Chapter 2 is done...NEXT!