They were to meet at a point in space at six that evening.

Somewhere I Belong

Chapter 7

Meeting

By: Miguela

Duo paced the floor restlessly as they awaited the arrival of Quatre and Trowa back in Relena's room. They had decided to hold a privet meeting of all five Gundam pilots to decide what they were going to do about this strange message. Heero lounged on Relena's bed, watching Duo pace back and forth in front of him, wearing a hole in the floor under the soles of his shoes. Relena hadn't spoken since the delivery of the message, staring at the floor in shock while Duo and Wufei talked quietly to each other. Heero rarely participated in these conversations, preferring to keep an eye on Relena.

"What do you think about all this Heero?" Duo asked suddenly. "I mean what in the Hell could they want with us? We're minor players here, why not just kill off the politicians and get on with starting their revolution?"

Heero shrugged philosophically, not really caring that Duo had reverted to calling him by his code name instead of by his real name. "There's probably a number of reasons that they want us instead of just attacking right away," he replied. "For instance, they probably realize that we're going to stop them if they tried an all out assault. They figure that they have to get rid of us first then proceed with taking over the Earth Sphere."

Duo stopped mid pace and crossed his arms over his chest, thinking hard on the possibilities. "Then it would be like we would be walking right into a trap if they want to do away with us," he said. "Is there any way that we can avoid getting killed if we do go to that rendezvous point?"

"Nothing is for sure Maxwell," Wufei interjected. "They may just want us distracted enough so that they can go ahead and start the revolution under our very noses."

Heero nodded. There seemed to be an endless amount of grim possibilities that may lie in wait for them in the control room of this colony. The Black Wolves never ceased to amaze him with new ways of getting their message across, and who knew whom the mastermind behind this organization was.

Relena seemed to be in a daze as she stared at the floor. Heero stared at her in turn, as she suddenly seemed to start listening to the conversation and finally spoke what she thought.

She blinked in surprise, and looked away from him. "I can't help but worry," she replied. "By the way Duo talks, it doesn't sound like we don't have much of a chance against them, do we?"

Heero shook his head. "We really don't know for sure our selves," he said, twiddling with a piece of string that had come lose from his shirt. "It could be that they're bluffing."

Relena laughed mockingly. "Yeah, those assassination attempts were just bluffs Heero," she said, crossing her ankles under her.

He glared at her lightly. "We're doing our best to try and find out about those attacks," he said. "The only thing we can do for now is wait for Quatre and Trowa and keep you safe." He pushed himself up off the comfortable mattress and sat up slowly.

Relena ran a hand through her long tresses, untying the knots in various places, the silky strands falling down her back in long, cascading waves of golden silk. She was really mad that Heero talked about his life like it didn't matter to him in the least. Hadn't the four years that they had been apart taught him anything about valuing life, especially his own? Guess not. She pulled her knees up to her chest up on the chair, balancing, while she continued to run her fingers through her hair.

There was a sharp rap on the door, and the guards snapped to attention as Quatre and Trowa entered Relena's suit, Quatre dressed nicely in his Preventers' jacket with a shirt and tie while Trowa looked like he had just crawled out of bed, his white shirt under his Preventers jacket wrinkled, his hair a little on the messy side and his eyes weary.

Heero rose to greet his former comrades in arms, hissing at the strain in his abdomen, and extended his hand to Quatre, whom he hadn't seen in a couple of years now.

Quatre smiled warmly at the young Japanese man, taking his proffered hand and grasping it warmly, saying, "It's so good to see you Heero."

Heero nodded, his usual scowl in place though his eyes were softened slightly in mirth at seeing the kind-hearted young man who was now in charge of the largest corporation in the entire earth sphere. "How has life been treating you, Quatre?" he asked, catching the movements of Relena out of the corner of his eye as she came over to greet the two late arrivals.

"It's been good, and how has life been to you?" he replied, enjoying the polite banter that was long over due with the stoic pilot who had suddenly disappeared into thin air. He had had the Maguanacs search for him on several occasions on Relena's behalf, but had never been successful in finding the ever-elusive 01 pilot. He was disheartened when Relena had called him up one night crying, saying that she had chased Heero away and now she didn't know where to find him. He had volunteered his resources to try and find him with no luck; when Heero wanted to disappear, he did so without a trace.

"Well enough for a man who only knew how to kill all his life," Heero replied, but there was a hint of a joke in his tone.

"And how have you been, Miss Relena?" Quatre asked, turning from his old friend to the young woman at his side. "Long time no see."

"Yes it has been a while, hasn't Mr. Winner?" she asked, giving the kind young man a warm embrace. "I've been wonderful, how about you?"

Quatre laughed as she pulled back, "Only those who don't know me well call me Mr. Winner, Miss Relena," he said. "I want you to call me Quatre and nothing but Quatre."

Relena giggled happily. Leave it to Quatre to make her as giddy as a schoolgirl, Heero thought ruefully.

"All right, but you have to promise to stop calling me Miss Relena," she said. "I get that enough from the older men at the congress meetings."

He chuckled. "Fair enough."

Heero went over to Trowa, who looked like he was going to fall asleep on his feet. "Sorry we had to call you here," Heero said quietly to his friend, "but we need everyone for this."

Trowa nodded. "No problem, I just wish that Sally hadn't used those pain relievers that put me to sleep," he muttered. The two of them watched the joyful reunion quietly, preferring to stay out of the way and let Quatre, Duo, and Relena exchange joyful banter. After the initial greetings had been said, Heero decided to cut right to the chase and tell them all exactly what had been going on recently.

"Recently, there have been a number of attempts on Relena's life," Heero said monotonously. "We have discovered that the nationalist group, the Black Wolves, is behind it. They have an unknown number of members, and have proven themselves competent with an array of weapons. We need to discover their goal and stop them at all costs." He took a breath and sat down on the edge of Relena's desk, glaring at his feet. "These psychopaths are dangerous and until we find out what their motives are; I warn that each and every one of you remain clear of them. They're not our average enemies here."

"Are we going to meet them at the resource satellite?" Quatre asked. "I don't think that we should ignore their threats; I think that they will go through with whatever plan they have concerning us."

"I agree," Heero said. "But we need to come up with a plan of action before we act on this threat."

"Man, it was easier during the war," Duo huffed. "These types of guys just jumped our in front of us and they were blown away, plain and simple."

"These days, it requires more cunning to deal with these threats," Wufei added, an underlining rebuke for Duo's careless words in his tone. "We need to find out what their plans are before we act."

Heero nodded. "Wufei, you and Quatre take a shuttle out to that resource satellite and see what you guys and find out," he instructed. "Duo, you access the satellite's computer logs and see who accessed them last and when. Trowa and I will guard Relena while you guys work. We'll meet up here tonight."

Each of them nodded and dispersed to their assigned tasks. Quatre and Wufei gathered up their possessions and left to take one of Quatre's privet shuttles to the resource satellites. Duo went down the hall to the information room to use a computer to find the requested information, and Heero and Trowa settled themselves in Relena's room, talking quietly and speculating about the new radical group.

"So Heero, what are your thoughts on the current situation?" Trowa asked quietly, crossing his slender legs smoothly as he stared calmly out the window.

"I don't like it," Heero grumbled. "This isn't my idea of a vacation."

Trowa smirked, tilting his head to the side. "Aren't you happy to be with Relena?" he asked quietly. "You don't seem to be as troubled now that you're here with her."

Heero was thankful that Relena currently wasn't in the room as he scowled. "What are you getting at, Trowa?" he asked.

"You should ask yourself, Heero, whether or not fighting with her is helping," Trowa told him gently. "You and Relena both know what I'm talking about."

Heero's scowl deepened. "Not exactly; I'm not in the mood for mind games today, Trowa."

Trowa sighed. "Do you and Relena really want to be constantly at each other's throats?" he asked plainly. "The two of you got along so well and it didn't take any effort for the two of you to become so close."

Heero frowned as he realized that Trowa was trying to nudge him toward another relationship with Relena. "I'm not going to try and repair the rift between us if she's not going to try with me. I can't mend things between us by myself."

Trowa smiled gently. "Have you tried talking to Relena alone?" he asked. "How can you be sure that she doesn't want to try and mend things when you haven't talked to her?"

Heero turned away from his friend and slouched, crossing his arms over his chest. "I don't want to try and mend things with Relena," he said firmly.

"So you'd rather let Relena cry herself to sleep at night because you refuse to talk to her?" Trowa asked, his question hinting towards accusing him.

"I didn't start this," Heero reminded him sharply. "She was the one that said that she wanted me to leave. She was more concerned with her job than my feelings."

"Maybe you only had one opinion in the matter and you didn't think to consider her feelings," Trowa suggested mildly.

Heero suddenly remembered why he had refrained from telling Trowa that Relena and he had gone their separate ways. Trowa was one of these people that were always optimistic about every relationship. He had never given up hope that Relena and Heero were perfect for each other, but in Heero's opinion, he was too heavily medicated to realize what he was saying.

"Maybe you've taken too many pills today," Heero shot back coldly.

Trowa chuckled, but Heero couldn't think of anything that he just said as being funny. "Ah, Heero," he said, settling back in his chair. "You and Relena really are good for each other; she told me the same thing earlier."

"You actually talked to her?" Heero asked in outrage.

Trowa shrugged. "I needed to get the facts from both of you," he said simply.

Heero shook his head. "You really are hard to dissuade, aren't you?" he said it more to himself than to his friend. "I'll talk to Relena when she wants to talk to me."

Trowa nodded. "That's all I could ever ask of you," he said. "Just remember what you just said the next time that she tries to talk to you."

Heero grunted quietly.

I'm so sorry people that I haven't updated this recently. Please forgive me. I'm trying to start working on it again, finish it, so I can work on other stories as well as school work, so give me points for trying. I need some suggestions because I'm in a bit of a rutt here. I would welcome your feedback and will respond to reviews in the next chapters.