The elevator doors slid open and he went to unlock his door, hoping for a good meal, a shower and some rest, but it never happened that night.

Somewhere I Belong
Chapter 1
It starts again
By: Miguela

Opening the door to his apartment, he inspected the locks before even stepping foot over the threshold, as it was his habit which he continued even after the end of the war. He remembered that Relena used to call it paranoia and simply barge in half the time, but this tactic had saved his skin more than once during the war. He then entered, kicking off his shoes so that they landed in a pile in the corner, unzipped his Preventers jacket and threw it over the arm of the faded couch, and went over to his laptop, which was set up on the counter so that he could make himself a meal and look at his e-mail at the same time.

He threw the switch on the power bar next to the microwave, which turned on all the kitchen appliances, besides the refrigerator, and his laptop in one simple surge of electricity. He thought himself a genius by hooking up all the appliances to one switch to control the electrical bill, as he had done when he was making less than minimum wage an hour. Even though he now has one of the best paying positions in the Preventers, he never bothered to rewire the appliances.

He stuck his head inside the fridge, grabbed a can of Pepsi, and swung the door closed with his foot, going over to the bar stool before the portable computer as it warmed up. He cracked the can open, too a mouth full, and placed it down on the granite finish of the counter. He was rather fond of the counter tops, having refinished them himself after acquiring some money and time off from work. It was somewhat rough, but smooth enough for his liking.

Typing in the passwords needed to get past the many firewalls, also left over from the war, he hooked up to the Internet and opened his inbox. He mostly received junk mail that went straight to his trash can, but today there was a different message awaiting him. It was encrypted, he soon discovered, and ran the deciphering program that he himself had designed. He soon discovered that it was from Wufei. Out of all the pilots, Wufei and Trowa were the only two he had kept in contact with over the years, and even then it had not been out of choice. Lady Une had recently assigned them to be part of the security detail protecting Relena at all hours of the day. He always got a message or two now and them from them, but it was strictly business, nothing personal.

Today, it seems there was an assassination attempt on Relena's life. That caught the ex-Gundam pilot's attention, and he read the letter carefully. According to Wufei, a lone assassin attempted to shot Relena with a sniper rifle from a balcony at the summit meeting earlier that morning. Thankfully, Trowa and Wufei himself had been assigned to be her bodyguards for the event and Trowa had taken the bullet in the arm, hence saving her from any harm. The two of them had taken out the assailant, then ushered the startled politician from the room and into a waiting Preventer vehicle parked behind the building and whisked her into the main Preventers HQ in the area. That was where the e-mail had originated from, it seemed, as the encoding was the standard Preventer frequency along with the Gundam encoding that the pilots used during the war for all their messages.

Heero ran a trembling hand through his long, shaggy brown hair. He was thankful Lady Une had assigned the two of them to her today, otherwise he would've lost her.

He took another sip of his Pepsi. He would have to get into the Preventers database and find the report on the incident to find out how Trowa was faring, for Wufei didn't volunteer any information on how his arm was doing. Or he could just go to L2 – D23452 and find out for himself just how he was doing; he hadn't contacted Trowa in a while and he could use the vacation from his ordinary day. Maybe he might even see Relena... No, he shook his head, she told me that she never wanted to see me again.

He logged on to a shuttle transit site and reserved a round trip flight to L2 that would be leaving in 2 hours.

While on the shuttle, Heero plugged in his lap top and sent an e-mail to Duo, requesting a meeting in St. Cinnamon, a well reputed café in the centre of the prosperous colony, the next day. It was lucky that Trowa, Wufei and Duo were all on the same colony for the time being. While he was at it, he sent an e-mail to Wufei, requesting that he and Trowa meet him and Duo at the café ten minutes after the time he gave Duo. He wanted to catch up with his fellow pilots, and since he was the closest to Duo, he figured that they would want to chat longer than the other two would.

After finishing that, he checked up on Relena via Preventer satellite. She was at a desk in Lady Une's office, writing down something on a pad of paper. He was of course using the security cameras to spy on her, but she was well aware that the room was constantly surveyed and would never know that he was watching her. He was glad to see, when he zoomed in on her figure, that she wasn't harmed, except for a slight bruise on her right arm which was probably from Trowa covering her and the two of them crashing to the ground when the shot rang out.

He closed the link to the satellite and shut off his lap top, closing his eyes and resting for the remainder of the flight.

Two hours later, he was awoken by the pilot saying to fasten their seatbelts and that they had arrived at the L2 colony cluster. He straightened from his slouched sleeping position and fastened the annoying seat belt and waited for the shuttle to be guided inside the colony by the tractor beams and the pilot's expertise. It was nice not having to disguise himself to get through security now, with a Preventers' pass to get through customs and security, and it wasn't a forgery either.

He picked up his small duffle bad off the conveyer in the lobby, and then headed out through the main exit to hail a taxi. The rounded walls of the colony were just like the one he now lived on, though this one was newer and had less rust.

As he was walking out, a man in a trench coat next to the doors spoke up. "You and your friends, the Gundam pilots, have less than 24 hours to surrender yourselves," he said in a drunken ramble. He reeked of alcohol and smoke, though his eyes weren't bloodshot. "If you do not obey, we wont miss your girlfriend Miss Peacecraft the next time." With that, he turned and fled down the street.

Stunned, Heero ran after the strange man, dropping his laptop case - thank goodness that it was made especilally to protect the small computer from such rough treatment though he knew dropping it still wasn't very good for it - and his duffle bag, and pulled out the gun he kept in a holster under his jacket. It didn't take him long to catch up to the weaker man, ramming a shoulder into him and sending the two of them tumbling to the ground. Heero wrestled with the man until he gained the upper hand and wound up sitting atop him, gun pressed to the man's temple.

"What do you mean 'you won't miss Relena the next time'?" Heero hissed at him, seething in rage from the run and the man's previous words.

"I mean exactly that," he said calmly. "We'll kill her without a second thought if you all don't surrender yourselves." The smell of his breath was overwhelming, but Heero wasn't sure if it was from alcohol or not now. He scrunched up his nose in disgust.

"You're under arrest for threatening a Preventers' officer," he replied, pulling out the handcuffs that were on his belt.

"I don't think so," said the man under him, grinning a yellow grin of cracked teeth. Suddenly, there was a searing pain at the base of Heero's skull, his vision going black for an instant as he became disoriented. "Sweet dreams Gundam pilot," the man hissed as Heero toppled off of him, rendered unconscious from a second blow.

He awoke some time later, to someone shaking him gently. "Hey man, are you okay?" Said a somewhat familiar voice.

Heero opened his eyes slowly, his vision blurry, his head aching greatly from the slightest movement. Closing his eyes again, he just ignored the irritating voice.

"Come on man, answer me," the voice persisted. "Talk to me; just say something!"

"Ow," he replied, not moving from his prone position on the ground. There was a sigh of relief somewhere off to his right.

"Thank God," there was a sigh, "Now let's get you out of here before something else happens to you." He felt an arm slip under his back, under his arms, as hands grabbed his own, hoisting him to his feet slowly. He was dizzy and disoriented, and had to lean heavily on the people helping to keep from falling over again. The world spun and he felt nauseous. He turned to the side and vomited all over the wall next to him, hoping no one was in the way.

"Man, you're a mess," this time it was a female voice speaking to him. "What do you figure happened Duo?" That was obviously Hilde and Duo was the one helping him stand.

"I don't know, but we had better get him to our place before he passes out on us," Duo said, and then turned his attention to him. "Are you all right now Heero?" he asked gently. "That's one heck of a wallop you got on the head."

Heero pressed a hand to the back of his head and felt a wet, sticky substance coat his fingertips. Pulling away to look at it, he saw blood thickly coating his fingers. He groaned.

"Do you have a car Duo?" he asked quietly, not feeling like walking to where they lived with double vision and a splitting headache.

"Yeah," he replied. "Just down the street a bit. I'll ask Hilde to bring the car." He lowered his old friend down to sit on the sidewalk, placing the old duffle bag down next to him and his laptop case. "Just stay there for a minute and I'll tell Hilde."

Heero nodded slowly and pressed a handkerchief to the top of his neck to stem the blood flow a bit. He knew that he would pass out soon, with the way he was bleeding and the way the world spun. Duo soon returned, as he was beginning to feel faint, and the nausea that accompanied a concussion.

"Do you think that you'll be able to make it to our apartment?" Duo asked him gently.

"Yeah," he mumbled. "And I want to take a shower."

He could hear Duo start in disbelief. "You can barely stand on your own yet; let Hilde and I fix you up." Duo slung Heero's arm around his own shoulders, placing one around his waist to keep him steady, as a blue Toyota pulled up to the curb, Hilde behind the wheel.

"Get in the back with him Duo," she said. "I need you to keep his head still and keep him awake while I drive."

Duo nodded and opened the back door of the small car, helping his friend sit down on the soft seats. Heero leaned his head back on the headrest, closing his eyes. The colony just wouldn't stop spinning, no matter how hard he tried, and the intense headache didn't help any.

"Hey man, don't go falling asleep on me yet," Duo reminded him, "We have to look at that wound yet."

Heero waved him off, "I've had worse than this and still kept going," he reminded.

"Yeah, like after the incident with Dekim, and how you hauled your ass out of Zero to go 'kill' Mariemaia and then fainted into Relena's arms," Duo laughed. "Yeah, and now you have a concussion."

Heero growled. "I don't need to be reminded about that," he growled. "Relena and I are a thing of the past."

"Aw, how come Heero?" Hilde asked from the driver's seat. "You two made a really nice couple."

"I don't want to talk about it," Heero mumbled, slouching in his seat, resting his head against the window. "Wake me when we get there."

"Hey man, I said don't fall asleep!" Duo shouted.

"Leave him sleep Duo," Hilde scolded. "I guess he'll be all right, just make sure he doesn't have a fever and is breathing normally."

"Do you know how hard it's going to be to monitor his breathing when he can slow it down to nothing and that would be considered normal," Duo complained loudly.

Heero chuckled to himself, as he listened to the two of them bicker and drifted off into sleep for the short drive to the apartment complex where Hilde and Duo lived.

So? What did you guys think? Thank you so much to those of you who reviewed for the prologue; I wasn't expecting many, to be honest. Please keep those reviews coming to keep the inspiration level high and to get more new chapters! Again, thank you so much to:

RedLion2, shadowreader, crystal-gundam, Tail Fray, and Alexander Joseph for your support and lovely reviews. Please keep reviewing!