Identity Lost

Disclaimer: Gundam Wing and its characters, I do not own.

Nineteen – The End of the Search

Only when you are lost can love find itself in you without losing its way.

Relena slowly woke to a throbbing headache. She tried to feel her forehead but only to discover that both hands were tied behind her back against a metal poll. The concrete ground she was sitting on chilled her and the cool, stagnant air only made it worse. Looking around she saw a small wooden stool nearby that summed up all the furniture in the dark room. No traces of any light were noticeable aside from a bright, thin glow peeking underneath the doorframe. The door seemed as if it was suspended in midair but then she noticed the flight of stairs leading up to it. Further inspecting her surroundings, there were two darkly painted windows on either side of her that only confirmed where she thought she was being held captive – an unfinished basement.

It took less than a minute to get her bearings straight and she was already sick of it. Now the next step was to wiggle out of the rope. The man who tied and knotted the damn thing knew what he was doing. There was not the slightest amount of give and the more she struggled, the tighter the rope felt on her delicate skin. She only pushed and pulled even more but it didn't do much to help her situation. Her biceps felt strained and her arms turned numb from her effort.

"Breathe, Relena." She announced to the empty space as she panted and grew short of breath from her struggles. The last thing she needed was to panic.

"You'll get through this. You've been through worse. Now think!" She took three deep breaths and focused on the rope again by angling her arms and wrists in other untried positions.

With a few more tugs and pulls, she heard distant thumping from above and froze on the spot. Like the incessant ticking of a metronome, the footsteps crept closer to the other side of the door and she heard the clicking of a lock being opened. The light from the main floor suddenly washed in, temporarily blinding Relena as her irises adjusted.

Her abductor loomed underneath the doorframe; his appearance masked in shadow as the light behind him silhouetted his strong build. She knew he was staring at her by the way her skin broke out into goosebumps.

"Who are you?" Relena demanded, no longer able to maintain the silence.

"You're awake." The man stated the obvious. It was a strangely familiar voice, one that she had heard before but couldn't pinpoint where exactly.

"What do you want?" Relena hoped he would continue speaking so that she could dissect the voice and figure out who he was.

He gave a throaty laugh and said, "All in good time. You be a good girl now." Suddenly the door was closed with a gentle click. The latch on the lock was snapped back into place and she was swallowed by darkness once again.

Nobody knew where she was because they all assumed that she had moved. Nobody who mattered would be looking for her. She didn't even know if she could get herself out of this scrape and if she could, it would be one helluva miracle. Her mortality never looked as real as it did now and she was never more terrified for her survival.


It took no time at all to track down Relena's address; Mima's address to be more concise but he didn't want to deal with semantics right now. Heero headed to Preventer Headquarters and logged into the federal database that provided all the information the government had ever collected on its citizens: social security numbers, annual income, employer information, spending habits, and of course, their addresses. According to her previous tax claims, she lived with Harry, Samantha, and Jezzie Hieronymous. Jezzie… she was the one claiming to be Relena. He recalled all the times how simple it was for him to believe the lie and it sickened him.

With a few more keystrokes, he brought up Jezzie's birth certificate, the schools she was enrolled in since elementary, and other miscellaneous facts regarding her extra curricular activities. There was a plethora of information regarding Jezzie's true identity and unsurprisingly, Mima's paper trail only started 10 years ago. It seemed as if a citizen was created overnight. Incredible. And no one bothered to check this? More specifically, why didn't he even look into their backgrounds? There were enough injustices coming from him that could warrant self-loathing to last the next century.

He took snapshot photos in his memory of all the information regarding Relena's history over the last decade and easily memorized all the possible addresses to locate her. Once he felt he had all the information needed to find Relena, he shut down his terminal computer and threw his jacket on.


Minutes dragged into hours. Her wrists were bruised raw from working against the restraint and she was slowly losing strength. Relena tried to rotate her shoulders and moved her arms around as much as she could to keep her blood circulation flowing; she could already feel her joints stiffen from being locked in one position for too long. She leaned her head against the post and made every effort to stay awake but it felt like a losing battle. The main floor above her was eerily silent and she almost wished she could hear some form of noise to keep her thoughts active. Several more hours later, Relena was having a difficult time keeping her eyelids from closing and she eventually drifted off into a restless sleep.


The owners of the Restaurant and Pub, Hieronymous, were unsurprisingly reluctant to speak to him. With their curt, single word responses, Heero suspected they were hiding something and he didn't want to waste time interrogating them. There will be time later to conduct a full-fledged investigation but now, his only concern was to find Relena.

His next stop was the apartment. Standing in front of the apartment complex where she lived brought a painful realization of how close Relena was to them all and how they were oblivious to the fact. How many times had they canvassed this neighborhood and came up empty handed? He physically shook his head to ward off his negative train of thought and buzzed Relena's room. No one answered. Heero tried again and waited agonizing seconds for someone to be there. The intercom remained deathly mute and he decided to ring the landlord.

"Yes?" A gruff sounding voice boomed over the voicebox.

"Official police business, sir. I'm looking for Mima Kanzaki. She doesn't seem to be at home. Can I have you open her door for me?" Heero replied.

"Mima, you say? I'll be down in a few." Then the line went dead.

Heero was let in by a slightly overweight man in his fifties who had strong, hardened features. The landlord's name, Heero learned, was Gregory Steinbeck when he led him upstairs to Relena's apartment.

"What do the police want with Mima?" Steinbeck asked. "She's never been much trouble. In fact she's always been helpful to the other tenants and now she's moving away."

Steinbeck reached into his pocket to produce the master key and walked up to the correct door. "Moving away?" Heero inquired. "Do you know where she's going?"

The older man shrugged and pulled open the door to her apartment. "No clue. She didn't leave a forwarding address."

As they walked further into her room, it was clear that she was packing up and leaving for good. Several large cardboard boxes lined the walls in the living room and two fully loaded garbage bags were leaning against a closed door, which Heero assumed was a closet. Only a few larger furniture items remained with huge plastic covers spread over the sofas, double bed, and tables ready for transport. They took a quick tour around and the other rooms looked similar to the living room. It looked like someone was in the middle of moving in, or moving out.

"When did she say she was leaving?" Heero asked as he looked at the kitchen sink; it was completely bare and dry. The place looked undisturbed for at least a few days.

"Two days ago. That's the strange thing. I assumed she would've had this place all cleared out."

"Hmmm…."

"Well, uh… I really need to get some things done." The older man said. "Is it alright if I leave things here with you? I'll be up in about half an hour to lock up the apartment." Without waiting for Heero's response, he ambled his way out the door and left the former Gundam pilot to his own musings.

Glad to finally be alone, he made a closer inspection of her apartment to see if he could determine what happened to her. He saw three average-sized luggages and a purse sitting by the bedroom doorway. The purse was what caught his eye. Heero unzipped the charcoal black leather bag and found a cell phone where the battery had long since gone dead, car keys, chap-stick, and her wallet. It didn't take a genius to figure out something was really wrong here. She wouldn't have left without any money or identification. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed a blinking red light – indicating that she had messages left on her phone. He hit the play button and waited for the two-second delay before the message started.

An older gentleman's voice rang through the speakers, "Hi, Mima. This is Joseph from the Mosaic Moving Company. I have my staff here on the main floor of the building today, March 30th, to move some furniture for ya but you don't seem to be home. Please give us a call to re-schedule the move. Thanks."

It wasn't typical of her to miss an appointment, especially one that she arranged. He could only recall how punctual Relena had always been before her 10-year disappearance and it goes without saying that Mima's behavior would be reminiscent of her former self. None of this made any sense!

"Relena, where are you?"


Three days had passed and he only offered her a few sips of water. She could only judge the passing of days by the number of times the tainted windows were hit by natural light trying to break into the darkness. As much as she wanted to stay awake, Relena kept dozing in and out of consciousness. Sometimes her mind would take her into the past where she was still with Milliardo and Heero and then reality would sink its ugly teeth back into her thoughts. Was the man drugging her water?

The few times her kidnapper came down into the basement to get some fluids into her, they had ceased any communication with each other. After all, what was the point? None of her questions were getting answered and she figured it was pointless trying to reason with a psychopath.

Relena could feel herself growing weaker as the days wore on and she was beginning to think that it was intentional. Whatever he had planned for her, he didn't want her to retaliate. This worried her greatly. When the time came, would she have enough strength in her to fight back, to escape? Clearly, she wasn't going to wait to find out.

"There's only one thing left to do…." Relena whispered.

She sat very still and slowed her breathing. The next time he came downstairs to check on her, she would be ready.


The man unlocked all three locks on the wooden door to get down to his prisoner. It was time to rehydrate his little pet. With his dark ski mask firmly in place, he briskly walked down the staircase to where the woman was lying. Fortunately, his plan didn't require much forethought or strategizing; take a few days, maybe a week, to starve her so she didn't have the strength to fight back for what he had in mind. He was looking forward to having his way with her and he'd make sure that she was aware of everything he was going to do to her.

As he gingerly walked down the steps he noticed the odd posture of her slumped form. Usually she was leaned against the metal post, looking defeated but she was crouched forward with her arms stretched far beyond her flexibility for it to be in a comfortable position. He urgently jumped off the last few steps to reach her. Something was very wrong.

As he crouched down beside her, he didn't even notice the water that stained his right pant leg when he dropped the plastic cup. Very carefully, he straightened her upper body so that she was leaning against the pole. As soon as he let go, gravity would set in once again and she'd fall forward.

"No…" He muttered. She couldn't be dead. He raced back up the stairs and in his haste he neglected to relock the door.

Relena mentally cursed herself for her bad luck. She thought that he would have released her from the ropes if he felt that he already lost his captive. Through sheer determination, she remained motionless and slowed her breathing even further to make it seem like she wasn't breathing at all. Her muscles screamed at her for being in the awkward position but she fought the pain. Relena refused to give up the only chance she had of escaping from this lunatic. She only wished she knew what he was doing upstairs. As the sounds of his approaching footsteps made its way down to the basement again, she hoped she could hold out a little bit longer.

The man rushed down the stairs and reached for the binds behind Relena. With her eyes still closed she didn't realize what he was doing until she felt her arms suddenly sprang free. She inwardly swallowed a groan of relief and remained ever so still and mute as she flopped down to the concrete floor as if she were a lifeless ragdoll. Relena assumed that in her captor's haste he didn't bother to check whether she still had a pulse or not and started to shake her violently.

"Not fair!" He cried petulantly. The force he exerted as he continued to shake her backwards and forwards was almost unbearable. He was squeezing her arms so hard that she fought back the urge to struggle or make a sound. By the time he exhausted himself, he threw her down and she crash-landed on her left shoulder. The pain of the impact made her see stars but she remained lifeless. Not long afterwards, he stomped back up the stairs in frustration.

Relena heard lots of noise from the main floor, a door opening and slamming shut, and finally the sound of a car's engine turning. Even though she knew the perpetrator had left, she was too afraid to move. Perhaps she was going into shock from the pain and the sheer trauma of the moment but she forced herself to get up. This may be the only chance she had of escaping. Very slowly, she picked herself up and refused to give in to her sore muscles; there would be plenty of time for rest when she got out of there. As her eyes adjusted to the light that crawled down the stairwell, she saw the door wide open. The door! It was open! Weakened but renewed with hope, she made her way to the bottom step to drag her way up. Her arms felt like dead weight on her as she took one tiresome step after the other. By the time she reached the top, she waited a few seconds to make sure there weren't anyone else in the vicinity. The last thing she needed was to be caught by his accomplice, if he even had one. She doubted if her kidnapper would make the same mistake again.

She waited longer still and when only silence greeted her, she ventured further onto the main floor. Relena didn't even bother taking inventory of what the place looked like; she ran for the main door and opened it without a moment's hesitation. Darkness engulfed her once again when she made her way down the porch to the road. She looked left then right. Vehicles were passing by sporadically. It must've been late in the evening but she didn't even know how late. Relena hid behind an aging tree that shielded most of her body and waited; she wasn't going to randomly flag down a car. Sure, she needed help but what if she brought the wrong sort of attention? She'd be right back to where she started, wouldn't she?

Relena heard footsteps drawing closer on the sidewalk and she fought the ongoing debate whether to approach the stranger or not. It didn't take long for the darkly clad figure to walk far past her and continue down the street. If she didn't run out to the individual, she may not have another chance. She decided to go for it…

She ran out and yelled, "Please, you have to help me."


Five days and there was still nothing. Heero had long since updated the other men regarding the situation, hoping that they could pull all their resources to find her. Day after day as the search came up empty handed, his frustration grew exponentially.

With all the documents carefully laid out, his office was a war zone. Maps were strewn across couches and tacked onto walls. Sectors within the city were divided up between the five former Gundam Pilots to speed up the search. They all agreed to wait until they have confirmation before informing Zechs of the whole matter. And by confirmation, they wanted to make sure they had Relena with them as proof for their bizarre story. It was also possible that Heero wanted to delay the inevitable because he could foresee the man's outrage in how everything went inextricably wrong.

He reviewed his notes for the fourteenth time when he heard pounding footsteps in the hall.

Duo Maxwell rushed into his office sounding out of breath. "Heero."

He looked up to see the man clearly frazzled and excited. "What is it?"

"We got something. A police radio frequency was picked up and they were sent to investigate a kidnapping." Duo explained as calmly as possible.

Heero sighed. "You know we don't have time to follow-up on a politician's missing son or daughter. Let the other divisions handle it."

"No, you don't get it." He continued, "This is Relena. An ambulance took a female victim by the name of Mima Kanzaki to the hospital. Police are on the scene right now."

Heero didn't wait until he finished with his explanation. He was already to the door when he said, "explain in the car. Let's get to that hospital now."

TBC

Yeah, I know, folks… I've been very very VERY bad. I haven't updated in ages. I'm so sorry!!! Things have been hectic but the good news is that there should be one more chapter and then I'll be done this fic for good! It's just not fair to you for not updating in a timely manner and I'm afraid I don't have the time anymore for fanfic writing. =( This next installment will NOT take a year to be updated. I intend to have the conclusion up by the end of August at the latest. Thank you again for your constant support and patience, dear reader!

Thank YOU: theevilashleyness, flipped, jellybean-kitty, MyUnchainedMelody, YUIAyuNamietUtada, Purdy, Koori Youkai Hime, Amulak, WolfCry17, Alaskantiger, orangestory08, Marli8907, animechick2487, lilac310, salimaran, c, akatsuki-justice, blissful trinity, Geminia, Hellody, Adonis, Mystic Jade, 09'Cavallo, NightsMist, dancer443, and Tabs…. Holla!