az: I probably bore you guys with my plea of firgiveness... though perhaps the old readers already ignored this fic, so well. Please forgive me...

Disclamer: I don't own Gundam Wing... except all the GW mangas that I've collected (all except Ground Zero) 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...

Discerning Worries

Written by Azzie/Az alias Izumi Ishtar

Darlian's estate...

Relena gently massages her ankle. Surprised at the fact that she had slipped while going up the stairs. And she had never slipped from these stairs before!

Pargan rushed over to help. She suddenly felt awful as Pargan helped her up, not because of her ankle but because she felt that she heard Heero calling to her. It was bad anough that she had left him back there, when he had obviously came for her. She quickly dismissed that feeling as she entered her room.

She had been deeply in thought when she was later interrupted by yet another visitor. It was Duo. At first, she had liked to greet him happily, but seeing his serious face stopped her in her tracks.

'What is it? What's the matter?', she said as she rushed after him.

Duo burst out. 'Relena, had you seen Heero?', he cried, holding Relena by the shoulder. Relena was startled, 'Yeah, but...'

'When is it? Where? Was he here?'

Relena stuttered as she shook her head. '---no, an hour ago. At St. Gabriel. And he's not here! Why, has anything happened to him?', she exclaimed in shock.

Duo slowly released his grip and sat on the chair. Relena followed suit. 'What's the matter? You looked awful...',

Duo shook his head. 'A few minutes ago, I received an anonymous e-mail saying that they had one of the Gundam pilots with them. They demanded the Gundams, in exchange for the pilot's life. I was so worried, that I called the others to make sure they're all right. All but Heero answered. They also received that same e-mail and neither of us managed to contact Heero. And then, Quatre told me that he remembered Pargan asking his help to contact Heero before and I thought I would find him here.'

Relena looked down, suddenly feeling guilty.

'Oh, that's why... umm, but maybe there's nothing wrong. Heero could take care of himself...', she said, more to herself that to Duo.

Duo sighed and rose, deciding that it's time to leave, 'I guessed you're right. Probably just a rouse to fool us into handing over the Gundams...', he said. Relena accompanied him out. 'But if you have news about him, don't forget to call me...', he said. Relena just nodded as Duo left on his jeep.

XXX

Relena took a deep breath as she closed the door to her room. She opened her window and looked out. 'Heero...', and subconsciously, her hand searched over the small table on which she had always placed her teddy bear, the birthday gift from Heero. Relena jumped as she realised it was not there. She turned around at the bare table. It's gone, she thought in alarm. It's-- ah, probably Heero has it! And he must have still waited for me! Silly me...

Relena immediately ran and went out towards the hills. Pargan, who was at the time washing the car, called out to her but she just ran and ignored him. Relena's heart thumped even faster. She quickly remembered her feeling few hours ago, of hearing Heero's call...

Heero... you must be all right! Please... be all right, she thought as she ran.

Relena ran through the woods, her shortcut towards St. Gabriel. And then, there was a flash of light and she stopped short. It was a gun, the type Heero always used. She looked around, saw the teddy and took both things. But where's Heero..., she thought suddenly feeling uneasy. As she was holding her teddy, she felt something wet on it. She examined it and dreaded what she saw. It was blood!

'Oh no, it can't be--!', she gasped as she turned around. 'Heero---! Where are you!-!', she shouted, as she held tight on the teddy bear as if it was Heero's life.

XXX

Relena...

Heero opened his eyes. Uh, where am I...? It's so dark..., he thought. He then tried moving his arms and legs, but he couldn't. I'm all tied up..., he began to realized as the past events returned into his mind. A door in front of him opened as a shadow of a man came in. Lights were turned on in an instant as Heero flinched, for the sudden burst of light almost blinded him. Few more men came in. The first one took a chair and sat in front of him. Heero made a face, as the man, apparently their leader stared at him.

'What! Never seen a kid before?' he asked, mockingly as he rolled his eyes at him.

The man chuckled, 'Hah, I never knew you could joke...' Heero smiled, suddenly having a wicked mind to retort back. 'I learnt it from a friend. Good thing to have some sense of humor in the kind of world we had to live with now--'

The man was amused. 'I see. Brave boy...', he said as he suddenly he grasp Heero's shirt by the neck. 'Tell me where you hid your Gundams! I want it and I want it so!'

Heero remained motionless. 'What are you talking about? I don't... hide any Gundam or whatever you called it...'

The man went furious in anger and almost choke Heero to death. Still, Heero didn't make any reaction. Instead he had hoped that he'd just wheeled over dead and their efforts goes to nothing. The man slowly let go of Heero. Heero fall back on the chair which he was put to.

'Foolish... But even though you deny your identity, I still know who you are! We were... among the men of White Fang and I recognize you as one of the Gundam pilots. Very well. I already told your friends that we had you hostage. If you don't give up your Gundam, they will. Hmmh, otherwise, you're dead.'

Heero smiled, 'I don't care if I die... The others won't give you anything regardless what you say to them. They aren't worth much if they go as far as obeying the likes of stupid you! And I know them not like that! Anyway, life is cheap, especially mine...', he said. This angered the man as he flung the wooden chair towards Heero...

TBC

az: Added more words... but new readers perhaps won't notice. Well... it sounded like a kindergarden work... so minor adjustment...