AN: Well, here I am, in the "M" section. I think, by moving here, I lost a few of my usual readers and reviewers, and I'm really sorry. But I also found new reviewers – or, rather, they found me – and I'm really glad. To everyone, if you could kindly drop me a review, you would let me know that you're still with me, and I would appreciate your support so much. I kind of miss reading reviews from familiar names.
Oh, and RedLion2? You're absolutely right. He was quite abusive (which is no laughing matter), and although I don't think Relena would fear him now – she didn't fear him when he lunged at her with Wing's giant shield thing – she is definitely very shaken and upset. You will see just how deeply she is affected by all this in the next few chapters. I hope to hear from you again; I'd love to know what insights you have regarding this chapter.
Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing.
Her breathing was ragged, strained, panting-sobs. Her eyes were blinded by her tears, and the blood and the wind howled fiercely in competition in her ears, but the only thing she knew was the pounding of her bare feet on the forest floor. The burning in her chest was nothing to her. The leaves and her own golden hair teamed up to slap at her face, but she paid them no mind. Occasionally she would stumble on the gnarled roots and broken stones, but she always hurtled on, her unbroken stride a tragic cadence.
Away. She had to run away. Away from the people, away from her home, away from her friends, away from him. There was no other way.
Ever since she recovered enough on the floor of her room to form some coherent thoughts, she had known.
Pulling herself up onto unsteady legs, she half-walked, half-crawled to the balcony. The very same one? Yes, but she had not known that. It was only clear that she could not go through the house, where everybody would see her, in order to reach the doors.
With no more sense of self-preservation, she leaned blindly over the railing and dropped from the balcony. Fortunately, it was not impossibly far of a fall, and the soft grasses of the garden cushioned her impact. Only the darling buds of the flower bed, not yet even bloomed, were crushed – the necessary casualties of her war.
And then she took off.
There was a forest behind her mansion. Its vastness helped to maintain the reasonable seclusion from the media. Its great trees, centuries old, sheltered everything under its spreading branches. It was to them, and the darkness they harbored, that Relena went to seek her refuge from the cruelness of men; of life. Above her, the stars of outer space dimmed infinitesimally in sympathy. They all felt it – the tiny bit of their sister's heart, their sister star who had come down to Earth to light the way for all humanity, had been destroyed.
She ran thus, in no direction at all in the pitch black of the forest's night, sprinting at full speed for close to twenty minutes. Her labored pants, each a desperate bid for air, carried her voice broken by sobs into the still night air. She was getting light-headed, and she hoped she would collapse. Blacking-out would be her greatest desire. She yearned for its relief. To black out. Forget... Leave...
Just as she sank onto her knees and was about to give in to the merciful beckoning void, her world exploded in a blinding explosion of light – Light so white it was a whole new color; Light so bright it burned its way into her soul and scorched her. She heard warped, garbled electronic voices that made no sense. Crying out, she tried to shield her eyes with her arm while at the same time making out who it was that blinded her. Squinting into this new white void, she could only discern several figures running about. Twenty, maybe twenty-five. Were those guns they were carrying? Large hands gripped her roughly on the upper arm. They hauled her to her feet, handcuffed her, gagged her roughly. Already weakened, she attempted to fight them off, but her flagging struggles were only mild annoyances to the soldiers. They struck her harshly across the face, creating an explosion of colorful stars behind her eyelids and inducing a red welt in the shape of a large hand on her cheek. The force of their punch, and the way she reeled from it, tore the diamond necklace from her throat. Dekedenz Cocytus' engagement gift fell from the angel and landed on the dirt - all that remained of the stolen princess as nameless soldiers threw her unceremoniously into a small high-powered jet and took her away.
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The four remaining Gundam pilots and their three female friends were standing or seated in various locations around Trowa's room. They had retreated there when both Relena and Heero had left the ball. Trowa's first priority was to report this new development to Commander Une. Sitting at the desk, he typed out the memo on his laptop with blazing speed and sent it flying to Preventer Headquarters before the thin red second hand on the clock even ticked five times. Then he wheeled his chair around to face the rest of the room.
"The guy's name is Dekedenz Cocytus. Who is he?" he questioned in an even voice.
Quatre sat in the armchair by the window, his own laptop open before him. He had been doing an extensive background search on the man. His fingers flew across the keyboard just as quickly, but the faster they danced, the deeper he frowned. "There's nothing on him, other than the fact that he's the head of Cocytus Corp., a jet-manufacturing company. No documents, no history, no media coverage, no past. Nothing." He sounded very worried.
A thoughtful silence, thick as the mountain fog, permeated the room. Then, from the foot of Trowa's bed, Dorothy spoke up.
"That's interesting..." she mumbled vaguely. Her brow was furrowed in concentration.
"What is? What's interesting?" Duo tilted his head back to look up at her from his comfortable seat on the floor, his back leaning against the bed.
"Cocytus..." she replied, eyes not looking at him but staring unfocused at a point of space about three feet directly in front of her face. Her concentration brought a faraway look into her expression. "It sounds familiar... somehow."
Duo looked at Hilde, who sat cross-legged in the middle of the bed. She shrugged and looked at Sally. "Anyone heard it anywhere before?" he put the question out.
"Hell." It was Trowa's voice.
"What?" said Duo, rather loudly. "Look, Tro, if you don't know that's ok, but you don't have to curse in front of these lovely la-"
"Hell. The Underworld. In Dante's The Inferno, Cocytus was the name of the ninth and innermost circle of Hell." His voice was monotone and his expression blank, one green eye covered by his hair. "Located right next to Lucifer, King of the Underworld," he added as an afterthought.
Everyone stared at him in amazement.
"O...k..." ventured Duo. "So we've got that. Mr. Ninth-Circle-of-Hell. How convenient."
"That's not all." It was Sally this time, speaking from the edge of the bed, near the nightstand.
Wufei joined in from his standing vigil by the door, back pressed to the wall, arms crossed, head dropped, and eyes closed. "Dekedenz," he continued Sally's thought. She nodded once, gravely.
"It's just a funny name," said Duo.
Wufei snapped opened his black eyes to look at him piercingly. "It's not just a funny name, Maxwell. Decadence - ever heard it before?"
Duo shook his head.
Sally's turn. "Decadence: mental or moral decline; decay."
"Perversion. Corruption. Debasement. Degeneration. Dissipation. Dissolution," Wufei ticked off his fingers one by one before his face. Index, middle, ring, pinky, thumb, index. "EVIL," he finished firmly with a pointed look at the American pilot, ending with his middle finger.
Duo gaped at him with his mouth wide open, not quite catching the whole meaning of what had just happened. "Whoa... No way," he breathed incredulously.
"This guy sounds like bad news," said Hilde, worry flooding her tone, "Is he for real?"
"Filthy rich, no past, crazy name, proposed to Miss Relena..." Dorothy shook her head sullenly. "Yeah, I'd say so."
Quatre closed the lid of his laptop sorrowfully. "We've got to watch out for this guy, keep a close eye on him. Who knows what he's got in mind?" They all nodded in agreement.
Suddenly, Duo lept up from the carpeted floor. "Oh my god!" he yelled, "You don't think–?... Une's memo?" Everyone looked at him. One second. Two seconds. Click. Comprehension, and great fear, dawned on their faces. "We've got to tell Heero."
AN: Thanks to all who read this and all who review this.