Between Love and Hate

Disclaimer: Gah... I don't own Gundam Wing... So don't even think of chasing me with your law enforcement certificates!

Hello again my lubblies! This chapter has to be longest one for this fic yet, so I'm sorry to anyone out there who doesn't like long chapters! But yeah... do you know what i just realised? If we shorten 'Between Love and Hate' down to its initials, what do we get but, BLaH... hahahahaha... yeah funny huh?

Interviewer: Hello there Allura... now tell us, what fanfiction do you write?

Allura: Oh, i write BLaH... It's very detailed and informative... like any truly good fanfiction (hahaha... not)

Interviewer: I'm sorry, did you say... blah?

Allura: Yes, indeed, I did.

Interviewer: Riiiiiight... okay, CUT, this girl's just messing around with us...

Allura: But... but... no wait, it really is called BLaH!

(ahem) And I'll let you get on with the story...

Chapter eight: Please don't

Heero was relaxing in the lobby when he heard the high-pitched piercing scream penetrate his ears. He jumped up suddenly, startled, and tried to concentrate on where he had heard it before.

It suddenly clicked in his head.

'How could I have forgotten? That voice… that scream was the one that had gotten me fired from my previous job.'

Concentrating, once again, he tried to remember in what direction the cry had come from, and upon finding it was from the Northern regions of the land, he ran.

Dashing towards the door, he gave no explanation to Nikki on where he was going, he just ran, his heart was guiding him, and he was following.

Once outside he stumbled, down the last few steps of Quatre's mansion, in his haste to get to her. That scream, unlike the one that had departed from her lips three years ago, was real, it wasn't a play put on to get anyone into trouble. This one was a cry for help, a cry of danger, that something wasn't right.

His heart was racing in his chest as he neared the edges of the dark forest. The moons light casting silvery rays down through the gaps in the leaves, but apart from that, the place was pitch black. After glancing quickly around him, Heero darted forward, keeping to the northward direction. The whole place was silent… too silent to be natural. The birds were quiet, the crickets were still and the trees were not rustling in the gentle breeze. It was eerie and the atmosphere was heavily burdened with a sense of danger.

Feeling all of these, Heero pushed himself faster, his legs darting quickly, yet quietly, through the spaces between the large trees and bushes.

He felt like he had been running forever before he heard distant indistinct noises coming from just a little further up ahead. He crouched down slightly and deceivingly silent, he crawled through the bushes, not making a sound, and peered through a gap, scanning the area and surroundings.

His eyes rested on Relena's small form, which was unnaturally still, but moving, her arms draped above her head and her head, lolling unconsciously on her shoulders.

Studying the scene further, he came to find that there was a large man, dragging Relena by the arms, through the forest.

Pushing down his initial instincts to dive into the scene and tackle her attacker, he planned the situation in his head.

If he could somehow divert the attacker's attention, then he could strike him from behind, grab Relena and haul her to safety.

After deciding this that the plan sounded satisfactory, he waited, for a few seconds, for the perfect moment and then lunging up from his hiding spot, he struck his opponent at the back of the neck, rendering him temporarily unconscious.

He carefully lifted Relena from the ground, cradling her small delicate frame in his strong arms. She stirred slightly, as he shifted her weight in his arms, and her eyelids flickered open to display a slit of glittering cerulean blue orbs.

"Trowa…" she whispered huskily.

Heero frowned back down at her, his eyebrows furrowing down in confusion.

"Care to elaborate?" He asked, in his usual monotonous voice.

"…Over… there…" She jerked her head to the side, and Heero, following this movement with his eyes, came to find an unconscious body lying lifeless and surrounded by a dark liquid that glowed silver under the moons rays. His eyes widened as he recognised the form to be Trowa.

"Shit-" He said quietly, and unable to say anything else, he walked over to him, laying Relena down at the base of a tree, with its trunk supporting her back.

Before going to inspect the comatose Trowa, Heero turned back around to Relena,

"Are you badly hurt?" Relena shook her head in response, and to prove her point, clambered to her feet, somewhat unsteadily. Heero nodded, satisfied, and turned his full attention back to his unresponsive friend.

As he scanned over Trowa's form and inspected the injuries, he concluded that he was, indeed, in a critical state. The wound to his head was still bleeding intensely and didn't look as though it were going to come to a halt anytime soon.

Trowa's cinnamon brown hair was stained with red from the masses of blood on his forehead and his eyes were only partly closed, and from what Heero could see of them, they were dull and lifeless. Heero's heart started hammering in his chest and he felt panic set in. He hadn't felt this feeling for a very long time, in fact the last time he had felt it was when he had found out that Relena had been captured during the Mariemaia incident, but still he would never let this emotion show.

Heero reached out, and grabbing his cold, limp wrist, he searched anxiously for a pulse. He felt a faint throb, and although it was slowly and barely noticeable, it was still there.

"Umm… Heero?" Relena started, interrupting his thoughts, he whipped around to see Relena, who was staring at something on the opposite side. Heero's eyes darted to the object that she was staring at. The body of the heavily built man that he had knocked out earlier was stirring on the ground. In seconds, he was on his feet and frantically glancing around him. Heero moved to get up, but the man saw his subtle action and dashed quickly out of sight. Heero was about to chase after him before Relena grabbed his arm with a shaky hand.

"No… don't leave… please?" She pleaded with him, her eyes glistening softly in the moonlight. Heero's heart softened and he sighed heavily after glaring longingly in the direction in which the man had disappeared.

"Fine," He answered her and Relena loosened her grip on his arm, let her arm fall limply to her side. Her face contorted in pain and she nursed her arm, Heero was quickly by her side and examining her arm. "Does this hurt?" He squeezed her arm and she yelped in reply. "Thought so, he's broken your arm, is there anywhere else you think he may have injured?"

"No that's all." She replied, casting her eyes onto Trowa's flaccid body. "What about Trowa, will he… will he make it?" She asked, her voice shaking with fear and anxiety and her hands were trembling as she stared at him.

"I hope so. Although his heart rate is very slow, so the sooner we get him out of here, the higher the chance of him surviving." Relena nodded mutely, staring rather blankly at him, still shaking rather violently. Heero knew that now, the shock would be setting in. It was something that happened quite often to witnesses of violent events. And this was certainly a violent event, seeing as Trowa was lying, half-dead, amongst the decaying leave and plants. If they waited much longer, Trowa would be joining them. The decaying leaf litter that is.

Heero stooped down and picking Trowa's body up into his arms, he guided Relena back through the forest and out into the open gardens.

The moon shining down from the clear night's sky shed an eerie glow upon their surroundings. And they were no longer walking in darkness.

Relena let out a small-relieved sigh, but as she turned to the two people, walking beside her she inhaled a deep breath again, and unknowingly held it.

"How are you holding up?" Heero asked her, she glanced at him quickly, if he was struggling with the weight of the former heavyarms pilot, he sure wasn't showing any signs of it.

"I'm fine, I just feel… useless." She told him, her voice husky, most likely from lack of use for the last few minutes.

"Don't. As soon as we get him back to Quatre's he'll be fine." Although Relena wanted to believe what he had said, when she stared at Trowa and the bloody messes that enveloped his head, she found it hard.

As they reached the front door to Quatre's mansion, Relena opened it, allowing Heero and Trowa to pass through with ease.

"Duo!" Heero yelled after his braided American friend. His voice echoed and bounced off the corridors around him.

A few moments later, Duo came bounding out of the lobby, a bright smile plastered on his mischievous face.

"Hey guys, what ya-" His smile quickly disappeared as his eyes fell upon Heero and the inert Trowa. "What the hell happened here?"

"I'm not quite sure yet, all I know is that some guy tried to take these two out, he succeeded with Trowa, but I got to Relena before he could do any critical damage." Heero told him, somewhat solemnly as he stared down at his friend.

Duo scanned Relena quickly, looking for any form of visible damage, and upon not finding any; he once again settled his eyes upon their silent friend.

"Holy crap," He said quietly.

"Duo…" Heero growled, "Stop staring at him and do something, go contact Sally."

Duo needed no further persuasion, for he was off a few seconds later, darting down one of the long corridors, Heero could hear his footsteps echoing in the distance.

"Relena…" he said, turning to face the honey-blond haired girl. Now that they were in the light, he could see that she was still shaking, her face was extremely pale and her eyes were never faltering from Trowa.

'It couldn't be good for her to see him like this,'

"Go get Quatre for me, would you?" Relena nodded in agreement, and ran towards the lobby.

She emerged a few seconds later, pursued by a concerned looking Quatre. Quatre took one glance at his best friend and froze.

"When you said there was something wrong with him Relena…" He stopped mid-sentence at a loss for words, in fact, Heero was sure he was going to break down in a few seconds. "Oh, Trowa…" He whispered, stepping closer to his long time friend, "I think it would be best if we left him in one of the rooms on this floor, that way it would be easier for the doctors and paramedics to get to him," He told Heero, "follow me and I'll show you to a spare room."

Heero started after Quatre, following him down the long, and now depressingly, gloomy corridors. It seemed as if the whole mansion had fallen under a miserable spell, casting sadness through each room of the house.

---------------------------------------------------

Relena started to follow them, behind Heero, but a hand caught her shoulder and she spun around quickly to find her intruder.

Hilde frowned at her confusedly.

"Oh, Hilde, it's just you, you startled me," Relena told her, holding her hand over her chest as if to slow her heart rate.

"So I can see, come with me and we'll get you some hot chocolate, you seem very tense," Hilde replied, grabbing her left arm, to guide her into the lobby, but at the contact on her arm, Relena gasped and pulled away.

"Oh… You're hurt." Hilde said, and lifted up her arm to inspect the damage, "It's a minor fracture, with the right cast, and it should mend in no time, but first let's get you that hot chocolate.

"Hmm… Sounds good," Relena answered, trailing after her friend.

As she walked into the lobby, she threw herself into one of the large chairs and as she sunk into the comfortable cushions, she let out a grave sigh.

"Do you wanna talk about it?" Hilde called from the side kitchen.

'Good question,' Relena thought, 'If I talk about it, it'll be off my chest I guess, but it means reliving it all… the fear, the blood, Trowa…' she didn't feel that she had quite come to terms with the recent events, never mind telling someone else.

"Not yet. Hilde," she replied.

Hilde came out, a few minutes later, two large mugs gripped in her small hands.

"That's okay then, but I'm here when you are ready to talk," Hilde placed a mug into Relena's right hand and Relena watched, fascinated, as the steam curled into spirals, floating upwards and fading into the open air.

She carefully lifted her left hand to hold the other side of the mug but gasped as an excruciating pain shot through her arm, causing her to let go of the mug, and the contents to spill out over her and the armchair.

Jumping up quickly, she tried to brush the residue liquid off her – already stained from the soil in the forest – outfit. She sighed heavily, for what seemed to be the hundredth time that day.

"Great," she said sardonically.

"Oh it's okay," Hilde told her, already looking for something to clean up the mess.

"Hilde, get back in here and sit down!" Relena cried, frustrated, "You're pregnant; I can't have you running around after me."

"Relena, it's no problem. As I told Duo, I may be pregnant but that doesn't make me physically impaired, besides, sitting helpless in a chair all day - 'relaxing', as the doctor calls it – bores me." Hilde explained, "I'm an active girl and I can't stand having nothing to do. That's one of the reasons I forced Duo to bring me here, it's easier to get away with being pregnant and over-active in a house full of people, and at Quatre's, something eventful always happens, and that drifts the attention away from me."

"What? Like Trowa getting attacked and having his head split open?" Relena asked, rather bitterly.

Hilde gasped, staring at her, with a stunned expression on her pretty face.

'Oh yeah, I forgot that I hadn't told her,' Relena thought silently, she went to turn away and mop up the spillage but Hilde grabbed her right arm.

"Trowa got attacked?" She asked, her voice shaky and surprised.

"Yeah…" Relena answered slowly, "I don't want to talk about it,"

"No Relena, you can't just tell me what you did, and then just drop it like that," Hilde pushed Relena gently into another chair, "Now spill,"

Relena sighed, and reluctantly told her friend what had happened.

"… and then 'Action man' shows up-"

"Hold on," Hilde interrupted, "Who's 'Action man'?"

"Hah," Relena laughed, somewhat resentfully, "Heero."

"Oh I see… continue."

"Yeah, so then 'Action man' shows up, conks the guy over the head, rendering him unconscious, and once again… saves the day. However, there's no surprise there, it's what Heero's here for, right? You know, to be our hero, our knight in shining armour, our superman-"

"Alright, alright I get it… you have a crush on Heero," Hilde teased and giggling slightly, she ducked the cushion that was thrown at her, and watched it fall to the ground a few feet away from where she was sitting.

"I… Do… Not…" Relena told her, taking time to pronounce each syllable slowly and carefully, "have a crush on that heartless soldier… why would you say such a thing?"

Hilde laughed, "Because Relena, you're always so horrible about him. Do you remember in high school? When you had a crush on someone? And you were always really mean to them in order to cover up your true feelings-"

"Oh! No, no, no!" Relena exclaimed, disrupting Hilde.

"Oh! Yes, yes, yes…" Hilde mocked, and then she stopped, realising the innuendo behind her last sentence.

Relena had noticed it too and had cracked up laughing.

"Is that what you say to Duo in bed?" Relena asked, in between trying to stifle her laughs.

"No." Hilde answered stubbornly. "How did my mocking you, twist around to be you mocking me?"

"I don't know," Relena answered, taking in a deep breath to calm her. Upon hearing the click of the lobby door, both girls spun around on their chairs to establish who their visitor was.

Catherine Bloom stood at the door, her eyes blood shot – obviously from a lot of recent crying – and her usually bright and cheerful face now pale with fear and worry.

"Cathy!" Relena cried, standing up from her spot on the sofa, "What's wrong?"

"It's Trowa…" Cathy answered, sniffling. Relena noticed that she was biting her bottom lip, so hard that Relena was sure that there would soon be blood spurting out of it, and her small hands were clutched together and shaking, badly. "He's stable…"

"But, isn't that a good thing Cathy?" Hilde asked gently.

Cathy replied by shaking her head furiously,

"He's in a coma, and… and… Sally is doubtful that… that he'll ever come out of it…" With that said, she broke down, crying into Hilde's shoulder, with Hilde patting her back soothingly.

'Oh god no… no please don't take him away from me… not Trowa…'


'Hating is a feeling which leads to the extinction of values,' -- Jose Ortega y Gasset

(sniffles) Trowa...! Please be okay!

You wanna know what happens to our pilot 03? Do ya, do ya? ... Well, you'll just have to wait till the next chapter cause i'm not spilling me plot... no sur-ee! Heh... i'm evil!

But even though i am, evil that is, it doesn't mean that i don't love you guys, i've got soooooo many hits from you. Thanks for reading guys! And please review, Danke!

Love ya'll

Allura