Chapter 21 - The Firefly

Relena POV

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The interior of the camper quickly warmed up from the summer sun, and soon the air inside became stuffy and thick, turning Relena's sleep unpleasant. She opened her eyes and rose from the mattress. She was covered with Heero's denim jacket, which gently slipped off her shoulders as she sat up. She rubbed her sleepy eyes and looked around, but Heero wasn't in the camper. The plaster on her neck made her feel uncomfortable, the skin under it felt sweaty and hot. Relena swung her legs over the edge of the bed and went outside, ripping the plaster off her wound.

The grass under her bare feet was crawly and warm. The day was sunny and steamy, there was not the slightest trace of any wind. The birds chirped lazily in the treetops on the edge of their meadow. Relena looked around but couldn't see Heero anywhere. He had to go to look for supplies, she thought. She remembered his advice not to remain visible during the day without reason. But the camper was stuffy enough that she didn't have the slightest intention to return inside.

She walked a few steps away from the camper and looked at the skyscrapers in the distance. She sighed; the city wasn't far away, and the day ahead would undoubtedly be at least as hot as the previous one. Relena stretched her arms above her head, closing her eyes.

Then the grass rustled behind her. Was Heero back? Before she could turn around, she heard the familiar, ominous sound of an overloaded gun, and she froze.

"I'm sorry to interrupt this pleasant morning," a feminine, slightly vibrating voice sounded in Relena's ears. "Hand over your ammunition and supplies. Don't try to resist."

Relena slowly moved her hands away from her body and swallowed hard. The voice came so suddenly and without notice that for a moment she thought she overheard it. "Take it easy," she murmured calmly, "I'm not going to fight you. We can talk…"

"Shut the fuck up. Don't overthink," the voice interrupted her. "Hands behind your head. Guide me to your belongings. Slowly."

Relena did as a determined voice told her, but the woman was still standing behind her back, and she couldn't see her. She tried to remain calm despite being in a deplorable situation. She gazed around, hoping to see Heero approaching from somewhere, but this didn't happen. Holding her hands behind her head, Relena slowly approached the camper, stopping in front of the entrance. "I have to go inside," she announced to a woman standing behind her back. "My supplies are on the table inside."

The voice didn't answer for a moment, then Relena felt something hard and round, sticking between her shoulder blades and pushing her toward the stairs. "Get in. Bring everything back here."

Relena regained her balance and slowly climbed the stairs inside the camper. Their backpacks were lying on a table just in front of the entrance. She suddenly remembered that there still had to be a vaccine vial hidden somewhere in Heero's bag. Relena froze, holding her hands over her head, desperately trying to figure a way to handle the situation. "I have them in front of me... I have to pick them up."

"Do it with one hand. Let me see you."

Relena gritted her teeth, then pushed one hand away from her head and grabbed both backpacks by the handles.

"Now turn around now. Slowly."

Obediently, Relena began to turn in the direction she came from, and suddenly, from the corner of her eye, through the windshield of the vehicle, she noticed a familiar figure emerging from the bushes.

Heero. He was approaching the entrance to the camper on slightly bent knees, his gun in front of him, apparently already seeing the attacker.

"What's up? Move!" a categorical voice brought Relena back to reality so abruptly that she almost jumped. Relena looked away quickly, trying hard to keep her cool and not reveal what she just saw. She looked up. In the glare of the sun rays falling into the camper, she noticed the outline of a tall, slender woman aiming at her with a gun. She had long, light blond hair, reaching almost to her thighs. The woman looked back at her with bright blue eyes, slightly lowering the barrel. "How many backpacks you have in there...?"

And suddenly, the situation changed in the blink of an eye. A loud bang broke the silence of the morning; Relena dropped the backpacks and jumped back inside the camper, hiding behind the wall. She heard the startled scream and the sound of some heavy object falling to the ground.

"Relena," came a familiar, calm voice. "You're all right?"

Relena swallowed and left her hiding place. Right next to the camper, she noticed Heero with his gun. When their eyes met for a moment, Relena recognized the feeling of relief in his look. A woman who was pointing at her a moment ago was now kneeling on the ground a few meters further, holding her wrist with a pained look. Relena gave her a curious glance, at which a woman raised her cold eyes and sent her a hateful one in return.

"I could assume you wouldn't be alone," the woman murmured through clenched teeth. "My mistake."

The woman fell silent, looking sideways from where Heero was slowly approaching her, still holding his gun in front of him. Relena gave Heero a relieved smile and walked in his direction. "Heero..."

Suddenly, the blond woman darted in Relena's direction, pulling an object from behind her bosom. Seeing her aggressive approach, Relena cried quietly, jumping backward, covering her face with her arm. Then the gunshot stunned everyone once again, and the blonde woman fell to the ground on her side, holding her knee and screaming in pain. A few meters away, a small knife stuck into the ground.

"Heero...!" Relena gave him a slightly panicked look. Heero was now promptly approaching the lying blonde woman, his eyes fixed on her like at a prey, keeping her on his line of shot.

Relena suddenly realized that she had seen this enraged look in his eyes before.

"That's enough," Heero stopped just above the woman, aiming the gun at her head. "You won't get another warning."

The woman calmed her breath and looked up and Heero with her bright eyes. Then she released her bleeding knee and spread her arms wide.

"Do it," she barked provocatively. "Shoot me, you handsome motherfucker!"

Heero narrowed his predatory eyes at her, his finger curling around the trigger again.

Realizing what was about to happen, inexplicable panic squeezed Relena's chest, and without thinking much, she ran to Heero's side. "Heero, don't do that!"

"Get back, Relena," Heero warned her, his eyes never leaving his target.

"No! Don't kill her! She didn't hurt me-"

"Oh, believe me, I tried," the blonde woman hissed, clenching her both fists.

"Shut the fuck up," Heero growled ominously.

With every spoken word, the atmosphere thickened, while Heero's finger was still dangerously tightly curled around the trigger of the gun. His menacing, predatory eyes darkened and narrowed, concentrating on the person in front of him; there was absolutely no hesitation in those eyes. Relena knew that look of him; she realized that she was reliving a memory from Baltimore when Heero killed a man right in front of her. Her heart was struck again with the same crippling feeling of fear she experienced back then; the fear of Heero. The same terror she felt when he drew his weapon and almost shot her the second they found out that she had been bitten.

Every cell of her body was overwhelmed by the terror of witnessing the same thing happen again.

Relena approached Heero, clasping her hand on his shoulder. "Heero, I'm begging you," she whispered, "take her weapon, tie her up, but don't kill her."

Her eyes briefly met the eyes of a woman lying on the ground, and Relena noticed that aggression in the woman's look was slowly being replaced by surprise. Heero still kept the woman on the line of aim, never taking his eyes off her. Relena herself wasn't sure why she was trying this hard to protect this woman, but she knew that seeing her beloved man kill another human was something that she simply couldn't endure. She didn't want to feel such fear of him ever again. She didn't want him to ever have to kill anyone again…

Relena squeezed her hand on Heero's shoulder. "Please..."

Eventually, Heero gave her a quick glance. As he looked at her, his gaze softened slightly as if words that she was saying to him lit up the darkness he was immersed in. As if she was leading him out of the dark room. Relena smiled gently to him, and then Heero looked back at the woman lying on the ground.

"Sit down," he ordered.

Hearing him, Relena sighed with relief, while the blonde woman blinked several times as if in surprise, then slowly sat on her heels, her hands up.

"Take off your backpack, throw it here." Hearing his words, the woman gave Heero a distrustful look but then did as she was told. "Now, your jacket. Slowly."

"Why won't you play some music for it?" the woman sent them a contemptuous look as she slowly unbuttoned her leather jacket. She took it off and threw at their feet, staying in a T-shirt.

"Check her stuff," Heero murmured to Relena. Relena bent down and began to search through the rejected backpack and jacket. She found ammunition, two knives, and one gun - she confiscated them immediately, keeping them away from the woman's reach.

"On your feet. Face the camper," Heero continued.

"It would be easier if you wouldn't have shot my knee," the blonde woman muttered sinisterly.

"Get up," Heero drawled.

The woman looked up at Heero with a provocative glance in her eyes. "As you wish," she rose up slowly, letting out a low moan of pain.

"Check if she has any weapon somewhere else," Heero said to Relena.

Relena slowly walked over to the woman and let her hands slip over the surface of her hips and buttocks. The blonde sent her a scoffing smile over her shoulder. "That's how he likes to play? Two girls and their master?"

Relena ignored the remark and checked the woman even twice and then returned to Heero's side, giving him a nod.

"Turn around," Heero commanded, keeping the woman on the line of his shot. When the woman did as he ordered, he narrowed his eyes at her.

"You're a Firefly*," Heero stated coldly. "What are you doing here?"

Relena raised her both eyebrows in a surprise of his words, but then she noticed a unique, silver pendant hanging on the woman's neck. It's shaping evidently resembled an insect that became a symbol of this underground, revolutionary organization. Hearing Heero's words, the woman lifted her chin boldly and eyed Heero with a look that made Relena feel uncomfortable.

"That's an unusual combination of a man: equally handsome as smart and dangerous," the woman said and made a significant pause, but Heero didn't even flinch at those words. "Don't expect me to reveal my plans or anything. I'm on my way back to the Atlanta City."

"Are there more of you there?" Heero asked.

"Maybe," the woman replied mockingly.

"Then why did you attack her?" Heero pointed at Relena slightly with his chin. "If there are more of your armed friends downtown, then why to bother risking on robbing innocent civilians met on the way all by yourself?"

Hearing this question, the blonde woman looked away. "I was out of ammo."

"You were not," Relena kicked the woman's backpack, knocking it over. Three full boxes of ammunition fell out on the grass.

The woman swallowed but kept her face straight. Relena studied the woman with undisguised interest; she had never dealt with the Firefly before. In fact, she had never seen a single member of this organization alive. Several times in her life, she saw corpses of the Fireflies, lying on the outskirts of the zone after spectacular executions held by the military. Although the zone's propaganda always portrayed the Fireflies as an anarchic terrorist organization, Relena knew that many people supported them in their uneven, revolutionary battle with the military, which introduced tyranny into the zones.

But right then, Relena wasn't sure what to think about the Fireflies. After all, this woman almost had killed her.

"You're by yourself. Either you broke away from the group by accident, and now you are trying to catch up with them, or you're coming back from some mission," Heero analyzed aloud. "Either way, it seems that something bad had happened to your unit."

The woman narrowed her eyes, sending Heero a sinister look, but he didn't seem to be bothered at all.

"If you think I won't shoot you because she asked me to," he continued with an icy tone, "then you're wrong. At this point, you pose a threat. If you continue to pose a threat to her, I'll shoot you like a dog."

He fell silent, letting his words sink between them, and the blonde's eyes wandered downcast as she was mulling over her current situation. Heero's protective words terrified and made Relena's stomach flutter simultaneously. She felt it would be better to let Heero get on with it this time and remained silent.

When the mysterious woman lifted her pale-blue eyes again, she seemed much more confident.

"Well, I guess it can't be helped," the woman started suddenly, making a fake sigh, fixing her look on both of them. "I think I had played this first game very badly. Can we start again? My name is Dorothy. And you are…?"

Heero didn't react in any discernible way to this childishly-sounding offer, but Relena bestowed the woman with a gentle smile.

"It's never too late," she said. "I'm Relena, and that's Heero."

"Well, I'm sorry for attacking you, Relena," the woman said curtly, bending a little to catch her wounded knee and then looked at Heero. "Plus, no hard feelings for this, Heero. Being shot by such a good-looking man almost didn't hurt."

Relena felt an unpleasant sensation struck her heart for a moment as if she had been excluded from the conversation, and then a slight feeling of anxiety when she noticed the bold way this barely met girl was frowning at Heero. But Heero ignored Dorothy's remark, letting his gun to his side. Yet, he didn't hide it, nor let his cautious eyes leave her.

Relena made a few steps closer and kneeled near Dorothy's wounded leg. "The bullet only grazed your skin," she diagnosed. "I can bandage it for you."

Hearing Relena's words, Dorothy looked up and frowned at Relena for an uncomfortably long moment, studying her with caution and undisguised curiosity in her eyes, almost a shock. Relena returned the look but had an unpleasant impression that something mischievous started creeping behind the woman's cold, bright eyes. The second later, Dorothy smiled widely, the look in her eyes changing again.

"Thanks, I guess. Heero… right?" Dorothy gazed longingly at Heero again, ignoring Relena. "Just so you know. My three mates and I went to search for supplies north of Atlanta two weeks ago. We were scattered by a group of infected…" her voice hung, she looked away, "I am the only survivor. When I tried to go back into the city from the north side… it seemed like something attacked the main group too. I ran."

"If there's nobody alive there, then why you're going back to Atlanta?" Heero asked, his voice flat and cold.

Dorothy leaned in his direction. "I have to go back. The group may be completely lost, but if there's the slightest chance that anybody is still alive in there… It's my duty and obligation as a Firefly to go back to get them out of there. Each Firefly would do it for another. And I wasn't lying about the ammo. If there's something out there… I wanted to be better prepared."

"Well, good luck then," Heero murmured indifferently.

"No, wait! Hear me out," Dorothy continued. "I know we had a bad start. No surprise that you wanted to shoot me. I apologize to you both for what I did. I need your help," she bent her head slightly. "If you help me get back to my group, or to anybody still alive from it, I promise you will get an allocation of ammunition and weapons, maybe even some transport, if you want. I know where we have our reserves in the city… Just help me get through."

Relena studied Dorothy, her face, and the fear in her pale blue eyes. Her sorrow for companions seemed honest to her; she couldn't find a reason why she wouldn't believe her. And her words for help sounded familiar.

Relena glanced at Heero. "We have to help her."

"No," he replied with a severe tone that almost cut the discussion.

"Heero!" Relena stood and walked to him. "We're going through the city anyway, right?"

Heero frowned at Relena with a stern look. "You're irrational," he muttered quietly to her so that Dorothy wouldn't hear. "She almost robbed us a moment ago, maybe even tried to kill us. And after hearing what she had to say, I have even less than any intention of letting us get into another city, probably full of infected."

Relena understood what he meant by his emphasizing words, but decided to insist. "We can't just leave her like that…"

"Yes, we can. And we will."

Relena narrowed her eyes on him. "When we met, I also aimed at you. Then Duo asked you for help. Have you ever wondered what would have happened if you didn't do this one good deed and didn't decide to help Duo and me?"

She didn't want to remember that back then, Duo was the first to help Heero, and she didn't have bullets in her gun. The look in Heero's eyes told her that he remembered that, though he didn't say anything. Relena lifted her chin a bit up, withstanding his confident gaze. She could feel Dorothy's eyes staring at them expectantly.

"Very well," Heero eventually announced coldly, his eyes suddenly turning ice-cold like on the day they first met. Relena held her breath. She had not seen this indifferent look of his for weeks; the look as if he decided to hide all his feelings deep inside and didn't care anymore. As if he was returning to the same dark room from which she pulled him out a moment before. Heero shot a sideways glance at Dorothy, while he took all Dorothy's stuff. "We will leave in the afternoon so that we can enter the city after dark. I'm taking these from you for now on."

"It was simply impressive," Dorothy applauded falsely to Relena. "I didn't think you have such an influence on this brave man, Relena."

Relena didn't react at those words, watching Heero moving away from them toward the camper. She was feeling the uncertainty growing in her; she didn't expect Heero to give in so easily. Has she done the right thing?

"Don't get the wrong idea," Relena eventually replied coldly, kneeling at Dorothy's side again, bandaging her knee, "once we help you find your fellows, we go our separate ways."

"That might be the deal. For now," Dorothy looked over Relena's shoulder to send Heero a clearly seductive smile, completely ignoring Relena's presence. It was already too much for Relena to bear, and she tied a bandage knot… way too tightly. Dorothy's reaction was instantaneous. "Ouch! Fuck, that hurts!"

"Oh shoot, forgive me," Relena spelled her false excuse, letting an ominous smirk form at the corner of her mouth. "Don't move, I'm almost done."

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TBC

* - 'Fireflies' is the name of the members of the organization of the revolutionary and military-like profile, that is carrying the country-wide revolt against the military's terror (that's governing nearly all Quarantine Zones) to restore the proper U.S. government. Their symbol is a drawing of a firefly.

Fasten your seatbelts to the next chapters! A lot is going to happen! And yes, writing this chapter, I was definitely inspired by the silhouette of Dorothy from the first manga Gundam Wing, in which she was evidently flirting with Heero (in the anime and in Glory of Losers this is not so apparent). Are you curious how long Relena will be able to endure Dorothy's behavior? See you in the next chapter!