az: Okay... Damn it was WAY long time... I'm not dead. But lost Ideas seemed to abandone me... GOMEN!

Disclamer: I don't own Gundam Wing... except all the GW mangas that I've collected and the Endless Waltz vcd that I owned. Gundam Wing characters and original excerpt from the fic are copyrights of Yoshiyuki Tomino, Hajime Yadate, Koichi Tokita and various other ppl involved in this Gundam legacy. No copyright infringement are intended. So don't send over armies, gundams, MS or MDs if there are any similarities on this fics with other written works...

Relena Strikes Back

Fleeting concern

Written by AzzieAz alias Izumi Ishtar

Darlian Estate - January After Colony 196 -

Pargan looked at the ancient clock anxiously, waiting for him. Where is he... he should have arrived now! Pargan paced back and forth again.

DINGDONG!

Pargan stopped in his tracks. He's here..., hethought as he heard the sound of the door opened and feet rushing over him. The door of the room Pargan's in opened. He turned and smiled as he saw the person standing at the entrance, a beautiful 16-year-old boy panting as he took a seat near him. Concern painted all over his face as he regained his composure.

Pargan chuckled, as he offered a cup of tea to him. 'Drink this, slowly. You must have been rushing to get here... I glad that you are so concerned of the mistress...', he said as he too, sipped his tea. The boy looked up to him, puzzled, clearly wanted to know the meaning of that remark. Pargan laughed, 'I'm glad she had friends who care for her. Especially you... right? Oh, don't bother with me... I'm just an old man.'

The boy looked back down and kept silent, his cheeks turned light pink at the slight tease. Noticing this, Pargan thought deeply...

Was this the same boy that Miss Relena had been telling me all the time, who frequently tried to kill her? Heh, she must have been influencing him so much, because I can't relate this boy as the one she described.

And then suddenly, he noticed... Heero Yuy. Yes, he and Miss Relena was very much alike. Why, seeing him is like seeing the old Princess Relena again, back before she first met Zechs. How amazing it is, that both of them had formed such unlikely friendship with each other... Pargan thought sadly, he knew that the mobile suit war had a part on making their lives, these innocent children's lives miserable. If only this war not exist...

Heero put down his cup. 'Why did you called me? Certainly not to say just this words... and just staring at me like that, right?', Heero asked plainly. Pargan nodded his head. 'Yes, it was about Miss Relena.'

Heero kept still. He quickly looked down towards the carpeted floor, unable to imagine what more trouble she had caused.

'Is... is she all right?', he asked almost timidly. Pargan took a sip and replaced the cup onto the table. 'Yes, and no...', the old man replied. Heero quickly raised his head, 'Umm... what? What do you mean?'

'She's now at St. Gabriel alone and I'm worried of her safety. After Milliard or Zechs, if you prefer to call him, went missing that day, Miss Relena always went out alone when she's not on duty...', Pargan started explaining. Heero rolled his eyes, 'Why? Is that a problem? I don't think going out alone is that bad...', said Heero plainly as he wondered if Relena will ever live like normal girl anymore.

'But not for Miss Relena!', stressed Pargan, 'During times like this, she should never go out alone, especially after that rumor...'

His eyes shot up. 'What rumor?', Heero said as he straightened himself up, 'The war is over. No, too early to say that but still she should be ok, right?'

Pargan shook his head. 'No. Not when there's rumors of Anti-Earth and White Fang factions still free. I'm worried, if anything were to happen to her that conference would not succeed...'

Heero blinked. 'Conference?'

The old man eased himself on the chair. 'A conference to discuss new ideas to improve the policies of the Earth Sphere Unified Nation. This matter is very important as the policies had not totally completed yet...'

And then the reasoning reached him. 'Oh, I see. They would have wanted the Total Pacifism Policies to be abolished and to do that--hey, didn't you ever tried convincing her not to go out freely?', he asked. Obviously if he was that worried over her he shouldn't have--

The old man sighed. 'I've tried... but she didn't listen. But I don't blame Miss Relena. She had been in low spirit these few months... with the war, and her brother...'

Heero rose from his seat and walked to the door, 'Then, I'll just have to go and convince her! Stupid girl... why everytime I had to fix everything that you do...', he muttered annoyingly as he went out. Pargan just smiled.

XXX

St. Gabriel, hillside

Relena stared into the farther horizon as she wondered over the events that had happened before.

St. Gabriel. Where it all started. The place where I met the people that changed my life.

Relena sighed, remembering the things that had happened before. This is the place where she had encounter Heero for the second time, where he had said to her that he would kill her. The place where she had met Dorothy Catalonia.

Also the place, where I met the boy who had caused me to regain my memory, of that fire that destroy Sanq kingdom long ago. Relena kept on looking at the building and was startled when she heard the voice behind her.

'Thinking about the past?', Heero asked. Relena turned towards Heero. 'Heero...', she cried as she rushed towards him and embraced him, '...how in the world do you found me? I missed you... so much!', Heero looked at her closely, the girl whom he had grown to care much about.

He pulled her from the embrace, frowning. 'That doesn't mean you can recklessly abandon your safety and gone out without company!' Relena quickly released herself from Heero. 'Oh, guess Pargan decided to call you to find me...'

Relena went to a boulder nearby, took her things and the teddy bear she had had brought along. 'I'm human too! I need time to be by myself. To ease the stress I felt. You don't know the burden I had felt while trying to reshape the government right now. As Vice Foreign Minister!'

Tears gently flows on her cheeks. 'Even now, not everyone wanted peace...' Heero came closer and noticed the teddy bear she held, the one he had given her a month ago. 'Hey, you don't have to take it to youself all the burden. Remember, you still have Quatre and Dorothy to back you up. And also you have the Preventers, Lady Une, Noin and Sally...' , he said.

'But they had their own responsibilities! I-- I'm tired... But I can't rest while there's still things to do.. '

Heero pulled her towards him.

'No, don't think like that! You can't do your duty if you don't stop to rest. Do it slowly, trust yourself. And anyway I need to take you home right now... It's safer...', Heero said as he took her hands. Relena let go of him. 'I'll go home myself, thank you! Did Pargan told you about the rumor? Ooh, I get it. You think I can't take care of myself? Okay, I'll show you--! I'll go home myself!', she snapped as Relena turned around and left Heero.

'Do as you like, it's YOUR safety--', Heero started to say. Relena turned, 'And where had I heard such similar sentence before...?', and continued on her way.

'Relena wait--!', Heero called, regreting his words but she didn't respond. He sighed and kicked a small boulder beside him, 'Relena... why are you so stubborn! So much like that that idiot Zechs... oh!', he mused as he saw Relena's teddy bear and took it.

She forgoten this, he thought as Heero walked back towards the Darlian's estate while he reminisced about the painful memories involving that teddy bear. Of how he had accidentally caused the death of a girl and her dog during one of his mission. A girl so fragile... so much like Relena. He had failed to protect that little girl. But he won't allow anything to fall to Relena!

The thought had occupied him so much that it distracted him to the point that he didn't realized he was being followed until it was too late!

Heero tensed, 'Come out! I know you're out there! What do you want?' At his call, four men in black emerges from around him. One of them spoke, 'We want you!'

Heero gasped, feigning ignorance. 'Huh? For what! I don't know you guys!', he answered back as he backed away. 'Don't try to deny it. We know you're the Wing Gundam pilot, that's why we're taking you in!' The four men came closing in on him. Heero hissed as he looked around for an escape route. Yes! Saw it!, he thought as he took out his gun, shot the man in front of him and jump towards a tree branch.

He quickly disappeared. The leader followed him behind and fired a shot at him. The shot hit him on his sides. Suddenly feeling dizzy, he jumped to the ground and ran. As he ran, he could see the Darlian's estate in the distance. He felt a surge of hope at the fact he might be able to lose his pursuers but sudden bout of dizziness alarmed him. He stumbled to the ground. The teddy bear that he had been holding tight, slipped away. He tried to get up again but his strength left him.

Damn! Tranquilizer bullets, he thought as he felt his sides. Heero tried crawling towards the estate as he saw the four men come, smiling as their target had been surrounded and paralyzed. Before he passed out, he desperately shouted for Relena, to no avail...

TBC

az: okay... please don't kill me! I had left this fic so long so updating it means I have to edit the whole story to my current style.