Chapter 4

"Councilman, I understand your concerns, but this project is precious to future generations. If we do not begin now, a time will come when the Earth will be a dead rock in the universe and we will have no true beaches to show our children, nothing but artificial air for our descendants to breathe. Everything that the human race is based around will be gone; we need soil to grow crops, continents to build houses, water to drink and replenish. We need a home. Humanity was never meant to live solely in space, and it is only by our own folly that we've come to this devastating juncture, thus it is only right that we be the ones to bring about a solution." Relena's voice rang through the chamber as she spoke. She was poised over a table, both hands resting on the dark oak surface as she rose half out of her seat to address an inscrutable older man across the room. The councilman, trying to maintain his neutral expression, hunkered down into his seat and crossed his arms in a manner that easily conveyed his refusal to comprehend what the younger woman was saying.

"I fail to see how spending billions of dollars and potentially several lifetimes of work on something that is purely hypothetical will somehow save humanity, Minister Darlian," her opponent said, his face souring gradually. "You're asking to fund a project that has never been attempted before. The science is not complete, much less reliable—success is not even a guarantee! And then, on top of that, you and a handful of men and women wish to convince us that the Earth is dying and that our time to accomplish this goal is severely limited, thus pushing your own agenda. The Earth has existed for millions of years against every rock and meteor that God has thrown at it and it still rotates in the sky to this day. And these people want us to believe that will no longer happen? With all due respect, Minister, don't you think this sounds a bit far-fetched even to your own ears?"

"Physicists, Councilman Oren," she said, emphasizing the words, her eyes weary but fierce, "the top physicists from both Earth and the Colonies, who have been studying the physical and environmental changes of the planet over decades, and most significantly since a battleship damaged the planet beyond repair!" The arguments had been going on for hours, Relena fighting an uphill battle against ESUN representatives that, up until now, had maintained an unwavering restriction on monetary and vocational resources being publicly funded into the project despite its growing popularity. To this point, the Mars project was almost entirely financed and staffed by the private sector, but the project was quickly reaching a level that required the support of the public and subsequent government funding that the ESUN could provide.

The older man sighed, clearly feeling that his time was being wasted. "Miss Darlian, I don't deny that the Eve Wars left undeniable scars on this planet, but they are hardly grounds for this radical venture you're trying to rope the rest of us into." He leaned forward in his seat so that his forearms rested against the edge of the table where he sat, gazing at Relena like a long-suffering grandfather who had finally chosen to chastise a delinquent child. "The way it appears to me is that your personal resources, though significant, are dwindling due to a choice to invest in a flawed ideal - an ideal into which you have also drawn a great deal of other influential persons of both planet and space. However, now that the true scope of your error is coming to light and your associates are starting to see that they have squandered their money on something unobtainable, you have concocted a theory that will allow you to save face and continue this farce long enough to place the blame elsewhere." A low murmur rippled through the room, but no one rose to the Foreign Minister's defense, faces creased by doubt and skepticism. A look of satisfaction passed over Oren's face as he sat back in his chair, lounging in victory.

Heero could see the moment Relena's patience broke. Her face changed, from a passionate entreaty to an eloquent, cool mask of calm, like the reflection of an undisturbed lake against the sky. She straightened completely so that she stood to address the entirety of the members scattered throughout the room, tall and imposing despite her small stature.

"Gentlemen, there is a hole in the Earth." Her words pierced every corner of the chamber, at once powerful and bracing. Here and there members sat up straighter in their chairs, as though pulled upward by an invisible thread. Relena's eyes were relentless—blazing—as they swept the room. "Ten years ago the White Fang used a massive military-grade battleship to wage war on the Earth itself, and the result was a void passing through the core of the planet itself and out the other side. Vast portions of Africa and South America no longer exist, along with millions of people and much of the Pacific Ocean. We are fortunate that the blast did not hit more landmass, but already the Earth's oceans are changing. Water levels have reduced drastically – an almost one percent drop across all known bodies around the globe, not to mention the thousands of streams and rivers that no longer exist because water no longer runs through them. Temperatures are rising in arctic regions and dropping in tropical; the magnetic poles are fluctuating and the planet has sustained more earthquakes in the decade since that blast than in a hundred years' history! And that is only the bare surface of the problems that we are facing."

She leaned forward once again, resting flat palms on the tabletop to stare directly at the motionless form of Councilman Oren, the posture at once aggressive and imposing despite her calm demeanor. The councilman looked suddenly very pale and small in his seat.

"If you will not believe the experts who are telling you that the Earth is slowly edging towards a celestial death, please do not fool yourselves into ignoring that there are, at the very least, irreparable, irreconcilable changes coming to the planet as we know it. You can be assured that I will continue to contribute my own funds into this project as fervently as I have since I first proposed it, but I ask that you do what you can to aid me in this effort. We may be a resourceful race, but sometimes we seem to forget that this planet is where those resources originate. If we do nothing, one day our children will wake to realize they have never seen the sun rise beneath a blue sky." Abruptly, she lowered herself back into her chair and folded her hands before her, face serene and eyes bright. Silence reigned, and Relena smiled politely. "As always, the decision remains in your capable hands. Thank you."

Heero could not help the brutal smirk that crossed his lips.

He stood above them unseen, watching the people gathered below him as the room remained stunned by the Foreign Minister's speech. The meeting was being held on a floor of the ESUN Towers that was technically made up of two levels: the main story that housed the chambers themselves, and an upper deck hidden from view by two-way mirrors and wall paneling. All ESUN personnel were aware that Preventer agents monitored conferences for the protection of their people, but visiting guests and other unaffiliated parties that entered the buildings were only privy to the scattering of men and women in uniform who publicly manned the hallways. Behind the walls, Preventers streamed back and forth, vigilant, free to observe any perceived threats and counteract them without prior detection. Of course, only authorized personnel with a revolving code and a security pass could even access the upper levels.

In the past month, Heero had practically lived behind those walls as Relena inhabited the rooms below. She was truly tireless. Her duties as Foreign Minister ate up her days, but it failed to prevent her from lobbying ferociously for the Mars Project on any landscape she could find. The arguments, like today, were still muddled and hard-fought, but she was unrelenting. Slowly, they were beginning to see support flow in from other members of the ESUN.

Below, the council members were beginning to clear out of the chamber. The decision would come another day, and most likely not tomorrow. There would be more long debates and arguments, more meetings in small stuffy rooms with stiff people whose jobs were to tell Relena 'no'. But, eventually, there would come a day when they would be forced to make a decision, and Heero had no doubt as to which way she would sway them at that time.

He left the observation deck and emerged out on the main floor from a door that looked like any other and locked as securely as a vault behind him. At the same moment Relena exited the council chamber and headed down the hallway that would lead to the elevators. Heero fell into step several feet and a few bodies behind her, losing himself in the ever-busy chaos of the hallways as politicians, staff, and visitors went about their days oblivious as to his association with the blonde woman. When she stepped into the elevator, he followed, and when she exited onto her floor with a spattering of other representatives and Preventers, Heero was a familiar shadow. It was not until she approached her doorway that he conveniently stopped to check his phone and let people stream by for a long moment.

When he finally stepped into the office, she had hung her suit jacket on the back of her chair, drawn the blinds, and was waiting for him, eyes still full of fire.

"How do you make people see what's right in front of their eyes?"

"You don't. If they don't already see it, the problem has nothing to do with vision," he replied monotonously, choosing to stand just inside the doorway where he would be out of sight of the casual passerby. She paced in a short, terse line in front of her desk, her mind working as her eyes tracked the pattern of her steps.

"Years, I've been arguing this point, and they still want to tell me that I'm making this up! I can't make up the hole my brother shot through the planet!" Heero attempted to calculate the time it would take to wear a track in the carpet if she continued pacing in that fashion. "What more evidence do they need me to give them?"

"It isn't about evidence; it's about money." The factors were too varied on what his brain accepted as a 'track'.

"I know! That's why it makes me so angry!"

The office was far enough removed from the remainder of the floor that their voices would not carry, but Heero moved to close the door nevertheless. When he turned back, she was leafing through a pile of paperwork on her desk, frowning but composed.

"Most of them know you're right, that's why they're fighting you so hard. Accepting loss is the hardest thing for humans to do because then they have to also accept responsibility for that loss; once it happens, you'll have the cooperation you need for the terraformation." She looked up at him, her eyes tired, and nodded with a sigh.

"You always see everything so clearly," she mused, loosing her golden hair to fall around her shoulders.

"Not everything," he murmured. "But I'm also watching from a different view than you are." She smiled briefly, kindly, then returned to shifting the paperwork before her.

Since she had returned from vacation her schedule had seemed to triple, every moment consumed by work to the point that he had literally been forced to carry her up to her apartment one night and physically hand her sleeping form to a very surprised David. Their doorman, who up until now had been a familiar face, was now on a first name basis with Heero and frequently offered up small facts about his wife and family in the spare moments when they saw one another. A month had passed swiftly, and in that time he and Relena had discussed everything with one another–everything but their argument and the nameless weight that continued to press on her shoulders. Despite their comfort with one another, he could feel the tension that remained between them.

Attempting to change the subject and ease her frustration, Heero stood across from her desk and watched her shuffle through the ever-present stack. "That was your last meeting of the day. It's early, but it wouldn't be a bad idea to head home."

"No," she said, shaking her head, "I have to finish sorting out that appearance for next month on the Coranis resource satellite and go through some of my correspondence. I'd rather do it here than have to take it home with me." Finding the papers she was searching for, she spread several thick packets out on the desk and started flipping between them.

He said nothing for several long minutes while she buried herself in work, studying her carefully. Unlike a month ago when he had first walked into her office, she looked controlled and calm, if agitated. The vacation had done her good, but the strain was starting to creep back into her eyes. There were things she was not telling him. "I still think Coranis is a bad idea. The satellite is too unstable. They've had scaffolding come down and the gases trapped within the rock have caused explosions and sink holes to form throughout the body. The atmosphere is barely habitable above the surface, and below is still toxic in some places. I don't trust Litz. Choose a different station." She glanced up at him and then held his gaze when their eyes met, the papers momentarily forgotten.

"Heero, you know this trip is important. Coranis is the first resource excavation being entirely funded by someone other than myself or one of my known supporters. Cecil Litz is taking a great risk by contributing at this stage of the debates. I have to show confidence and trust if we are going to succeed in getting government funding as well." When his expression did not change, her eyes softened. "We can't always make my safety the top priority. You, better than anyone, know that sometimes you have to risk yourself to gain something." It was an old argument by now, one they had been having since she announced the trip. Even he was tired of hitting the same wall, but he had to keep trying.

"You don't risk the most important asset on an unknown variable. My life is expendable, yours isn't." She looked at him sharply, angrily, the second the words left his mouth. Heero steeled himself against that expression. "You're too important – to Earth, to the colonies, to the Mars Project. You should not risk yourself for the sake of appearance. You'll persuade them, Relena."

A hard, silent moment passed between them as she continued to glare at him, unwilling to let him brush away his own words.

"You are not expendable."

It was barely a whisper, but he could feel the force behind her words. She was furious with him.

"And I'm still going." He said nothing, observing her with his arms across his chest and a guarded expression. Again, they were at an impasse. They remained that way for several minutes and then, suddenly, she smiled mischievously. He could see the effort in the gesture, so unlike her.

"Besides, you'll be there in case I fall down a hole. You can come diving in after me like you always do since you're so 'expendable'!"

His eyebrow quirked involuntarily at the remark but she only barked a brittle, angry laugh and returned to the papers before her, pointedly ignoring him in her fury. A moment later he silently conceded the fact that neither of them were leaving the office soon and reached forward to pluck one of the packets out of her grip, settling into a plush office chair to help her do her work.

They sat in silence as they had so many times before and worked into the late hours, interrupted periodically by phone calls and mail deliveries. Eventually Heero finished with the packets and moved on to working on his laptop, his fingers flowing rapidly over the keyboard as he lost himself in the glow of the screen and the tap of the keys. He listened with one ear as she worked beside him, picking up extended silences and sharp intakes of breath as she sorted through her mail. She reread several letters that were gathered into a small pile at her side, away from him, and then later tucked into a locked drawer that piqued his interest. Relena was never a locked-drawer type of person. He made a mental note about the drawer and returned his attention to his laptop.

It was only when he heard a loud knock on the door that he realized how long they had stayed in each other's company, eyes glancing up as the door swung wide to reveal David's tall form. The businessman was unsurprised to see the dark-haired Preventer seated beside his wife, nodding to Heero respectfully and receiving the same in return.

"I figured it would probably be another long day if the media is any indication. Brought some food," he offered, holding up a box full of what smelled like Chinese food and had several pairs of chopsticks poking into the air from various bags and boxes.

Stretching in her seat and leaning back to take in the sight of her husband, Relena beamed. "My savior."

They rose and cleared the papers from the desk, setting out the food and opening containers, pulling chairs into a rough circle so that they could talk while eating. Relena, her shoes kicked off into a corner of the office and anger forgotten somewhere along the way, reclined in her chair with her feet laying across David's lap as they made conversation and ate.

"—so now I'm stuck with five tons of this adhesive that we can't use, and I'm trying to talk to this shipping supervisor about the fact that he shipped to the wrong business. After forty minutes of arguing about this, it seems like we've come to an understanding and he's going to take care of it, right?" David flailed his chopsticks in the air as he spoke, the other hand running casually across his wife's legs while an open container of pork-fried rice sat in the crook of his arm. "Well, I walk into the warehouse today and he's sent another five ton shipment of the same stuff!"

"He didn't!" Relena gasped, her face red from trying not to laugh at her husband's predicament.

"Mm-hm! 'Lena, I can't tell you how much effort it took not to scream at this guy. I finally got his manager on the phone and we got the whole thing straightened out, but I think I stood there for ten minutes just staring at that extra shipment this morning. I couldn't believe it! The guys in the office gave me a wide berth today, I can tell you that!" Heero felt his mouth kick up for the third time that day as his companions laughed. "I know we just got back from vacation, but I can't wait for this trip of yours next month if this week is any indication of what's to come."

Relena's eyebrows shot up. "You want to come to Coranis with me next month?"

"You don't want me to?"

"No, it's not that. I'm just surprised! Usually you stay behind when I go on business trips, I didn't think you would want to come," she admitted.

"I always want to come, but work has this nasty tendency to interfere. I just figured, since we've been on such a roll, what's another day? I think I have so much vacation stored up at work that I might break human resources if I tried to take it all at once, but a day here and there couldn't hurt, right?" One hand rose to rifle through his hair as the tall man surveyed his wife's reaction then shifted to include Heero. "It's a good idea, don't you think, Heero?"

"I don't think Coranis is a good idea to begin with. I've been telling that to Relena since she first started planning the trip," Heero said honestly, turning narrowed eyes on a suddenly tight-lipped Foreign Minister.

It was David's turn to look at him in surprise. "What? Why not?"

"The satellite is volatile; dangerously so. I don't think she should be anywhere near it until the crews have a chance to stabilize the environment." He ignored a glare hot enough to melt steel that Relena was sending in his direction, instead meeting David's steady green gaze. The blond man turned to her and frowned, concern obvious.

"Why didn't you say something?"

"This is an important trip for the project. If I decided to avoid my work every time there was the threat of danger, I would be out of a job pretty quickly." Feet still flung across his lap, the resolute expression Relena shot her husband was one Heero knew well; a reason why he was already losing the battle over the trip to the resource satellite. To his credit, David shot a similar expression back at his wife.

"Relena…"

"David, this isn't a matter of changing my mind or making me see reason," she said, stopping him with a raised hand before he could even begin to protest. "I understand the risks that I take for the sake of my job and my ideals. I understand that this is a piece of space rock that humans have converted for their own means, and thus can be dangerous, and I accepted that fact when I first decided to make a trip to a hazardous location. I'm not going out there to get blown up; I'm going to make a point to the people who are doubting the Mars project – a project, mind you, that you were fully aware I was endorsing from the moment we first met. This is nothing new for me. Please stop acting as though I'm going to my death every time you hear the word 'danger' associated with my profession." She leaned back in her chair, arms crossed and eyes piercing as she silently dared her husband to say anything combative. She was not wrong; that was the problem.

A tense moment passed where conflict flickered visibly across the face of the blond businessman, a hardness in his features surfacing and easing as he struggled internally. From the intensity of the moment Heero wondered if they had not entertained many similar arguments before now. Eventually David sighed, again running a hand through sandy hair in a gesture Heero had come to recognize as an agitated one. His other hand, which had ceased its ministrations when the subject of danger arose, resumed its slow stroke over her legs. "…I can see I'm not going to get anywhere with this."

"…No, you're not."

"But I am most definitely coming with you."

"David—"

"Fair's fair, Relena. We've discussed this before. This is my line in the sand. I'm coming."

The spouses stared each other down. Abruptly, Relena deflated back into the cushion of her chair, the tension easing between them. "You fight dirty," she pouted.

"Says the politician," David quipped. Relena's lips quirked and she giggled. Heero, forgotten amidst the argument, took a bite of his food and said nothing, succeeding only in drawing attention back to the meal at hand so that both husband and wife returned to their food as well. Together, all three chewed quietly, digesting the information that had passed between them in their individual manners.

Finally green eyes shifted between Preventer and Foreign Minister, a guarded expression lingering subtly in David's gaze as he set aside a now empty container. "So, getting back to banal subjects, how has your day been?" The question was asked in general, but both men knew who it was directed towards.

Relena sighed, resting her head back against her chair and staring up at the ceiling so that golden hair spilled over the seat arm. "They still won't believe me. I feel like I'm trying to describe the color blue to a blind person. Oh, David… I know the way the game is played, but even I'm losing patience at this point." Those hands once again slowed their strokes on her shins. "At least I have Heero here to ground me. I think Une realized I needed the support." The movement stopped altogether over her legs.

"You hardly need me here for that, Relena," Heero found himself saying, Prussian blue meeting green as he spoke. She snorted loudly, still looking at the ceiling.

"Those politicians are lucky I haven't thrown something at their heads by now, Heero. I've been fighting this battle for the better part of a decade; I'm tired of trying to convince people of facts that are bared for them to see. Sometimes I think about what you might do in a given situation. It helps. You're always so calm in the face of opposition. David, you should have seen him back when we were teenagers. He used to say the most outrageous things with this completely neutral expression. You don't let anything disturb your composure, do you?" Cerulean caught his gaze, as intent as the green.

"…You would be surprised." She grinned, eyes gleaming.

"How did you two meet again?" David asked. His voice was quiet, curious. Relena sat up abruptly, dropping her feet to the floor so she could lean forward, the grin remaining.

"I told you, didn't I? Heero went to my school and ripped up the invitation to my birthday party. Later, I knew him as a soldier." It was not quite a lie, but it slipped so effortlessly between her lips that he knew she had used it often. It was the closest she had come to ever telling the truth about him to someone outside their circle of allies forged from the war. He wondered how much she and her husband discussed the time that existed before they had known each other. David's face had gone blank, unreadable.

"Weren't you fifteen?"

She faltered this time. "It was war… They made me Queen of the World that young. Would it be so unusual to think of a soldier the same age?"

Both husband and wife went quiet staring at each other again, something passing between them that Heero could not decipher beyond that it was different than their previous silence.

"…No, I suppose not."

"How did you two meet?" Heero found himself asking. He knew, of course, but something in him made him want to hear the answer from them directly. Relena's eyes snapped to his face, knowing just as well that he had been there to see it.

David's brow furrowed thoughtfully, his attention shifting in lieu of the question. "You might have been there that night, I think… Her eighteenth birthday? Quatre held that ESUN gala at his home in the desert. You and your other friends came, didn't you?"

"Hn."

"Well, 'Lena was being wooed by all the 'young gentlemen', but Quatre was kind enough to introduce us. We danced; we spoke for, what? Most of the night, 'Lena?" David's hand reached to rest gently on her knee. Relena smiled.

"Something like that."

"The next day I made Quatre give me her number and I asked her out on a proper date. We've been together since." The blond man considered his wife for a long moment when he finished speaking, his hand still resting on her knee. Relena's own hand slipped over his and stayed there. Finally, David looked back at Heero, teeth bared in a sheepish smile. "A bit cliché, isn't it?"

"…Hn."

The evening was quickly turning uncomfortable: a fact that did not escape the businessman as he glanced at the wall clock and slapped a hand against his thigh in shock. "We should probably be heading home; it's getting late. Are you all done here for the night, Love?" He was already out of his seat and packing the food back into the box while he spoke. Relena stood to help him, looking between the two men as she did so with concern painting her face. Heero broke away from the two of them to check the hallways and note any other stragglers in the building. By the time he returned, the office looked as it had when they had first entered after the meeting and Relena was shrugging back into her jacket with her husband's help, talking in low voices to each other that he was unable to make out.

"Halls are clear," he said, interrupting their conversation. "I have a few things to finish up in the building before I leave, so I'm going to head downstairs." He waited long enough to acknowledge their goodbyes before turning abruptly and heading out to the stairwell. Three stories down, he emerged into what was considered the Preventer floor and navigated a chain of hallways that was almost completely deserted. Most Preventers remaining in the building would be attached to specific parties at this time of night, leaving the floor quiet but for the hum of software and machines.

It was days like these that he remembered why he remained in the shadows, on the edges of society and just beyond the casual reach of the people he had come to call 'friends'. He wondered vaguely what Quatre would think of the evening, made a mental note to consider discussing it with the platinum-haired man.

He kept an office on the Preventer floor that was essentially a desk, a chair, a computer, and a filing cabinet. It was more a place to return to than an actual office space, gray walls neutral and unadorned. However, he bypassed the office to walk further into the maze of halls and stop just outside a doorway illuminated by the glow of a computer screen. A dark head was partially hidden behind a digital monitor, Preventer fatigues peeking out as the figure leaned back in a leather chair and watched something that was out of Heero's line of sight.

He waited in the doorway until dark eyes swung upward to acknowledge him.

"Yuy."

"Wufei," he greeted.

"I'm assuming you need something?"

"I want your opinion on Cecil Litz and the Coranis resource satellite."

Those black eyes narrowed. "Litz is scum. How much time do you have?"

Well, then.

Settling several steps further into the office so as to fully face the Chinese pilot, Heero crossed his arms and leaned back against a wall almost as bare as his own. Wufei turned to assess him, mirroring Heero's stance from his seat, a scowl painting his face.

"Tell me."