Author's note: If you are a regular reader of this story, you might have noticed the increased frequency of updates lately. A couple of reasons for that, first, the last three chapters were originally intended to be one chapter. But after starting to write it, I realized how much I was trying to cram into one chapter. So I ended up breaking it up. But that also meant that I had large sections of all three chapters already written. Convenient. Second, my boss is on vacation which means I've had a little more time than usual to write. So if you've been wondering why it seems like I've been writing up a storm, hope that clears things up.

Elsewhere

The sounds of crashing waves faded into the distance. His monitors filled with a million tiny white bubbles and before long, they too faded into the darkness of the ocean. There was only the humming of the engine now. The oddly reassuring yet completely sterile sound of the only man-made object in an infinite expanse of the natural, calmed him. It was familiar. Familiar enough for him to feel something he had never felt before. Home. So this was where he was to die, in the depths of the ocean, thousands of miles away from anywhere and anyone, never to be found, never to be heard from again. Nameless he was born and nameless he would die. A fitting end to a miserable life.

His hands loosened their grip on the side sticks. He relaxed his feet on the throttles. Those instruments of war, well-worn by endless battles, had served him well. This machine, this monster, this angel, had shared his sweat, shared his blood, shared his pain, shared his anger. They had shared much together. And this was as honourable a death as he could imagine.

He breathed slowly, enjoying the sensation. Soon, the oxygen reserve would run out, and the remaining power left in his suit would fail, and the pressurization would collapse, cracking the Gundanium frame. And soon he would be choking on icy salt water. It was the worst way to die. But he deserved the worst.

He looked over at his pressure gauge on his on his left console. It flickered slightly. He must have been at least a kilometre below sea level by now.

Then a thought came to him. An absurd thought, so absurd that it almost made him laugh. But it stuck with him, needling him, insisting itself upon his will. He was going to die anyway. What did it matter?

Why not say now that which he has never said?

He turned on the camera mounted above his main monitor, that which was primarily used for visual communication and set it to record mode. He took a deep breath. He looked at the blinking red light at the corner of the monitor. Recording.

"Relena… You'll never see this so perhaps this is all for nothing…"

He woke up. Blinded by the glow of the early morning sun, it took his eyes a few seconds to adjust. He drew his first breath of the day. As he slowly began to shake off his sleep, he noticed that softness of his bed, the cold and gentle air upon his skin, and the warmth of another human body next to him.

His right arm was underneath. He tried to pull it out but all it did was cause the woman to turn and face him. She was beautiful. And for a moment he didn't even know who she was. She opened her eyes and looked at him. She smiled.

"Morning," she said with a languorous drawl.

She leaned forward and kissed him gently on the lips.

"Morning," he replied with a smile of his own.

"What time is it?" she asked.

Heero turned to his left to check his phone on the bedside table.

"7:45," Heero said.

"Shit! Really?" she said as she sprung up.

She rolled on top of Heero, pressing her warmth and her curves along his torso, exciting him. She hopped out of bed with one graceful leap and headed towards the bathroom. Heero watched as her hips naturally swayed a little when she moved. She her turquoise lace panties and a white tank top. Her curly brown hair with blonde highlights bounced a little with every step. God she was beautiful, he thought.

"Come back to bed," he pleaded impotently.

"I can't," she said from the bathroom. "There's a staff meeting today and I'm already late."

"I hate that our schedules don't line up," Heero said as he reluctantly got out of bed and followed her into the bathroom.

Heero looked at himself in the mirror. He was surprised. He looked good. He wore only a pair of baggy grey sweatpants and his hair was messy but other than that, he looked good. He had no bruises anywhere and muscles looked healthy. He pulled the waistband on his sweatpants and looked down at his leg, no gaping knife wound, no gnarled flesh.

"They could if you wanted them to," she said as she looked at him with an incredulous yet affectionate stare. "Just stop hanging out with those guys at the bar. They're a bad influence on you. Trust me, I would know."

"I'm not one of your students, Inés," Heero said.

She pulled back the translucent shower current and turned on the water. With her slender fingers, she tested the water.

"Boys are all the same," Inés said as she gave him a knowing look. "Always trying to one up another, always trying to look stronger, braver. You're better than that. You don't need those guys."

She took off her white tank top and dropped it on the floor. She then shimmied out of her panties and hopped into the shower.

Heero eyed her up and down. "You know if you were my teacher I'd have paid far more attention in class."

"Oh please," Inés said as she began to wet her hair. "I bet you were a nerd in school."

"What makes you say that?" Heero asked with a smile as he dropped his pants and joined her in the shower.

She could feel his fingertips on the small of her back. They wandered up and down her back and eventually to her front and downward. Reluctantly and painfully, she slapped his hands away.

"I'm serious," she said with a hint of a whine. "I have to get to work."

Inés grabbed a bottle of body wash and pushed it towards Heero.

"Wash my back, and no funny business," she said.

"Alright, alright." Heero compiled and did as he was told. He squeezed the gel into his hands and lathered it up. Inés washed her hair.

This was their routine, a little ritual that was performed every morning. In their tiny green bathroom with only a single small window for natural light, they secluded themselves from the world and bathed each other. His hands caressing her curves, her fingertips tracing the contours of his muscles and scars.

"You know, one day I'm going to get you to tell me about these," Inés said as her soap fingers gently traced the rough edges of an old scar on his collar bone.

"I've told already, there's nothing to tell," Heero said softly. "I got that one from slipping and falling off a staircase."

"And you got the other one by running into a doorknob, and the other one came from jiu-jitsu, I know, I know," Inés said with a hint of exasperation in her voice. "In the eight months we've been dating, I've never seen you slip or fall or so much as stub your toe. You're not clumsy, you're hiding something."

"Like… that I used to be in the circus or something?" Heero tried to use Trowa's backstory.

"No…" Unfazed by Heero's attempt at a joke, Inés' eyes darkened. "Like you were a soldier during the war or that you were abused or something."

Heero lifted her head by her chin and gently kissed her several times.

"I wasn't and I wasn't," Heero lied.

He had to lie. He had to protect her from his past. What he had done, the countless men he had killed, she could never know. She was happy with him, he was happy with her. He was a new man, the man he thought he could be if he wasn't Heero Yuy. If he wasn't a Gundam Pilot. Why ruin a good thing?

She wrapped her arms around his shoulders and stared deeply into his eyes.

"Then why do I sense an intense sadness in you?" Inés whispered.

"I'm not sad, not with you," Heero said. But his eyes betrayed him.

"You are wonderful, you know that?" She asked.

"I'm okay," Heero said with a smirk.

"No, you are wonderful," she insisted. "I'm so lucky to have found you."

Heero leaned in and kissed her again. His hands explored her in diverging directions. His left entangle his fingers where her silky wet her, his right grabbed her plump butt and squeezed, causing her to exhale suddenly into his mouth. Suddenly, she felt a searing hot pressure against her inner thigh.

She broke the kiss and gave him a knowing look.

He leaned in and whispered in her ear, "please, I need you."

This too was part of their ritual.

She relented. She gave in. She kissed his neck, then his collar bone. Then his chest. Then his abs. She continued downward.

Sometimes the colony administration would go a little overboard with the artificial weather systems. Heero brushed his hair out of his face but the harsh winds blew it right back, partially obscuring his view of the city in the distance. He sat on the tin roof of an abandoned two storey townhouse in the slums outside the metropolitan core, eating his lunch of a half dozen saltine crackers and a tin of dehydrated military rations. That was all the food he was guaranteed today. If he could win the next contest, he would be provided with an evening meal and possibly even ice cream.

He was on his lunch break, the sole bit of free time he had in a day. He chose to spend it alone, staring out at the wonders of the city beyond. So close and yet a world away. He loved the look of the city, the wondrous buildings like filled it's skyline. Large glass slabs that shot up from the ground, giant shiny monoliths, a testament of human ingenuity and the newfound wealth of the colonists. These were the people he was apparently fighting for.

Heero had recently learned in one of the books he had to eat that guerrilla commanders of the wars of the 20th century often spiked the food supply of their child soldiers with gunpowder, which in addition to being thematically appropriate, contained hallucinogenic compounds that made them more compliant. He looked down at his rations and wondered if Doctor J had done to same to him. In any case, it didn't really matter, as he had no other choices. It was either eat or starve and the taste of the thing, all things considered, was tolerable.

"Hey!" The old man's voice came from below. "What are you doing?"

Heero looked down towards the little courtyard behind him. Doctor J was standing there, shielding his eyes with one hand and holding his cane in the other.

"Lunch," Heero answered.

"Your lunch break ended two minutes ago, get down here!" Doctor J shouted at him.

Heero stuffed the remaining crackers into his mouth, packed up his stuff, and jumped off of the roof into a graceful roll to avoid breaking his neck.

He then quickly ran inside and dropped off his stuff and grabbed a duffle bag off of his cot and returned to the dusty little courtyard. When he returned he saw, Alpha White there, already wrapping up his hands. He glared at Heero menacingly and spat. Heero didn't react. He merely dropped his bag, unzipped it, took out his grimy bloodstained hand wraps and began to roll them around his knuckles.

Doctor J sat down on a little stool against the wall. Adjusting his glasses, he looked at both boys each in their little corner of the courtyard preparing for hand to hand combat, he smiled and nodded at both of them.

"Alright, I think we've had enough of the kendo sticks for a little while," Doctor J announced. "Today's contest is boxing. You know the rules, no kicks, no knees, no elbows. This is about distance and timing, not inflicting the maximum amount of damage!"

"That's just a bonus!" Alpha White said as he walked towards the center of the courtyard with his hands up.

Heero did the same. Both he and Alpha White stood in an orthodox stance, with their left foot and left hand forward. They began to circle around each other, rather tentatively at first, as both were trying to find their speed and gauge their distance. Alpha White was the first to pop a jab in to see how Heero would react. Heero didn't. He maintained his guard and didn't flinch. After a few more jabs from Alpha White, Heero slipped the last punch and let loose a flurry that connected with Alpha White's nose.

With that last cross, Alpha White got angry. This time when he threw his jabs and Heero slipped underneath, he countered with a powerful looping left hook that connected with Heero's temple, knocking him to the ground.

"That's right, that's what you get," Alpha White danced around Heero, stalking him, waiting for him to get up.

With one swift leap, Heero got to his feet and reguarded. He became more aggressive. Every shot that Alpha White threw was responded to with fury by Heero. If Alpha White threw a left, Heero countered with a right. If Alpha White threw a flurry, Heero would back step, pivot and counter with a simple one-two.

Although they were both naturally gifted fighters and were quick learners, they were still barely 60 pounds and thoroughly incapable of generating knock out power. So as they traded blows, without fear of the retaliation from the other, they took more and more damage until they were both a bloody mess. Doctor J had to physically tear the boys away from each other.

There was no winner that day. Consequently neither of them would get a second meal.

"Go clean yourself up," Doctor J said coldly to Heero. "You have five minutes. After that, wait in the truck."

Heero did as he was told. In an old grimy windowless bathroom, he unwrapped his hands, rinsed the wraps with soap and hung them on the doorknob to dry. No doubt he would need them again tomorrow. He cleaned his open cuts with antiseptic wash and tried to clean as much of the blood off of his face as possible.

After cleaning himself as much as possible in the slotted time, he ran into his little room to grab his backpack. He then went out front and jumped into the back of the truck where Alpha White already was. They stared at each other intensely but neither of them did anything.

The journey between the slums and the space port took about 25 minutes. Once they neared the security checkpoint, but Heero and Alpha White knew to get into the barrels in the back of the truck in case the Alliance guard of the day found himself in a particularly fastidious mood. On this day, they were not and they got through without any trouble.

When they arrived at the private hangar, Heero and Alpha White climbed out of the back of the truck, looked around to see if anyone was looking at them. Once they were satisfied that there was no one around, they went to the backdoor and unlocked it. Doctor J followed them from distance. Inside the empty and dilapidated hangar, Doctor J turned on the lights and the whole space was filled with a warm yellow glow. In front of them was a giant monstrosity of electronics, wiring, and metal.

Doctor J handed both of them a few sheets of paper.

"These are the sections for today," Doctor J said simply. "Get to work. We don't stop until tomorrow morning."

He didn't say anymore to them, he didn't have to do. They had been doing this for the better part of a year now and both boys knew what to do at this point. In many ways, they were more familiar with the mobile suit than the elderly creator was.

"I can't wait for this to be finished," Alpha White said stepping forward, looking admiringly at the half-finished Wing Gundam. "I can't wait to fly it."

Heero said nothing.

His body still ached from the fall. Wing Zero's descent from the sky after he fired the final shot had not been gentle. He wondered for a moment if he should have stayed in the hospital bed and waited for a doctor to take a better look at him and perhaps even… wait for Relena. But he quickly shook that thought from his head. He had done what was needed. He didn't want anything else, not from the government, not from The Preventers, not from her.

He felt the blue wool scarf between his fingers. It was cold outside. He couldn't afford it but when has that ever stopped him? He took tore off the security tag and walked out of the boutique briskly. He didn't get ten paces out of the store before he heard her voice.

"You gonna pay for that?"

He turned around. A young girl with sandy blonde hair and green eyes stood before him. She wore a dark green trench coat with a cream turtleneck underneath, a black knee length skirt and matching leather boots.

"You don't remember me," she said with a knowing smile.

"Sylvia Noventa," Heero said.

"Hello Heero," she said warmly.

Heero let out his instinctual hn.

"Leaving so soon?" she asked. "It's only been a couple of hours. Relena hasn't even given her address yet."

"I've done what I needed to do," Heero said.

"Ahh yes, the perfect soldier, shows up whenever he is needed, defeats whatever enemy needs to defeated, and leaves just as quickly," Sylvia said in a tone halfway between admiration and mocking. "What a way to live. Still trying to atone for all the suffering you've caused, I see."

"There's no other way," Heero replied.

"Where will you go now?" Sylvia asked.

"Nowhere in particular," Heero answered.

"What a coincidence. Me too."

They walked together through the crowded train station, which had only an hour before resumed operations. Mariemaia's army had secured all routes in and out of the city and when they had announced their surrender, there was a mad dash to get out as soon and as fast as possible. Sylvia managed to get the attention of a car attendant and discreetly slipped him a bribe. They ended up in a private cabin together.

"You didn't have to do that," Heero said.

"Oh, it was no bother," Sylvia said as she took off her trench coat and tossed it on the seat on the opposite side of the cabin as Heero and sat down. "After all, you'd think that the hero of Brussels and the world could use a little luxury after all that."

Heero stared out the window and said nothing.

"But no, you're not like that, are you?" Sylvia said. "You're more pure."

Heero looked at her. She stares right back at him.

"There's nothing else in the world that you want," Sylvia said as she got up. "Nothing but her."

She closed the distance between her and Heero. She caressed his cheek with her index finger.

"I wonder…" she mused. "Does the blood of battle still run through your veins?"

Sylvia hiked her skirt up and straddled him and took his hands and placed them on her breasts.

"Does the soldier want nothing?"

She played with the collar of his jacket before opening it wide to expose his chest.

"No reward for his valiant efforts?"

She grabbed him by his hair and yanked his head back. She stared deeply into his eyes.

"I know I'm not Relena," she whispered. "But I'm here right now…"

She leaned in and kissed him gently, massaging his lips with her own. Their tongues collided with passion.

"So, what do you say?" Sylvia whispered through her kisses. "Can I be your Rosaline to her Juliet?"

Suddenly and without warning, Heero lifted her up, freed himself, turned them around and pinned her against the cabin wall, forcing an breath of excitement and bewilderment out of her. She felt him pull her panties aside and her fingers enter her.

"Actually, I've always thought of you as Briseis," Heero said in a low voice seething with irresistible fury.

Her shot wide open. Those words broke her. The fact that he thought of her at all made her weak. For a moment she didn't say anything. Her breathing said it all. She was afraid, afraid but excited. In an instant, he had taken her dominance and turned it into submission.

"You sick motherfucker," she hissed. "Alright… Achilles, breaker of men! Take what is yours!"

She moaned as she felt him enter her.

She pushed herself up against his chest and wiped the fog from the mirror mounted on the wall of the cabin. Her hair was an utter mess. Although given the way he grabbed it and when drove himself against her from behind, she thought it would've been worse. She ran her fingers through the hair as a made shift comb but it was no use. There was no fixing it.

Sylvia lay her head down on his bare chest again and stared out the window at the bleak overcast countryside. She wondered if the neighbouring cabins heard. They must've.

"Jesus Heero," Sylvia said. "That was… rough."

"Sorry."

She wasn't sure if he meant it.

"When was the last time you fucked a girl?"

"That was my first time," Heero answered.

Her eyes opened wide and she smiled. For a moment, she felt special. She turned around to look at him. His expression was stoic as ever. She leaned in and kissed him gently.

"That explains a lot," she said.

He said nothing.

"So," she said, knowing that if she left it to him, he would never say a word again. "Where to now?"

"No idea," Heero said.

"None, whatsoever?" Sylvia said as she looked up at him. "No job to return to? No friends? No family?"

Heero shook his head.

"How lonely," she murmured.

"What about you?" Heero asked.

She smiled. "Like you care."

"You're right, I don't," Heero said.

"I volunteer with various aid organizations," Sylvia said. "This war has taken too much from too many."

"That's kind of you," Heero said.

"I'm just trying to do my part, keep the memory of my grandfather alive," she said.

"I'm sorry," Heero said with a deep sense of anguish in his voice.

She kissed him again. "Don't be. It's over. What's done is done. You're finally free."

"I'm just trying to figure out rm what that means," Heero said.

"In the meantime, do you want to come with me?" Sylvia asked.

Heero pushed himself up to his elbows. Sylvia sat up alongside him. He looked directly at her.

"I can't stay…"

"I know," Sylvia said with a melancholy smile. "I'm not asking for forever. Just right here, right now."

"You're a disgrace."

Normally his words meant nothing to Heero. He had learned to tune out Alpha White's taunting long ago. Once he had earned the code name Heero Yuy, any and all insults that Alpha White could've and did hurl his way only confirmed to Heero, his rival's own insecurities. The fact was, Heero had been chosen, he had been given the Wing Gundam, with the blessing of both Doctor J and Dekim Barton.

Until now.

"You had it all, the codename, the Gundam, the mission," Alpha White said with a tone of revulsion. "You had them all convinced that you were the better soldier. The more capable warrior. And you had to go and screw it all up… Well your loss is my gain."

Heero had shown weakness. He had shown compassion and remorse. And that put his whole position in jeopardy. When news got back to command that he had wandered through the mission site and buried the girl and her dog, Dekim was furious and immediately dragged he and Doctor J in for questioning. There they sat, in the hallway outside of Dekim's office listening to the muffled arguing of the two elders inside.

The Alliance built bases deep within colonial cities precisely to impose their power! This is nothing but collateral damage!

You're suggesting the use of a Gundam as a tool for massacre?!

This is war! The sacrifice of the masses are inevitable and ultimately of no consequence! Is that clear?! Now retrain him at once! The humane feeling of kindness is unnecessary for our weapon!

You're right there. But do you really believe that Heero Yuy would be pleased if we buried his humanity?

Heero Yuy is dead! If he wasn't, we wouldn't be here.

Heero heard those words and others come from the other side of the door. Alpha White heard them too. He listened with glee. Half an hour later, the arguing had died down. Dekim and Doctor J came out of the office. Dekim looked at Heero and then at Alpha White.

"Him, he's the new pilot of 01," Dekim declared.

Doctor J simply nodded in submission before escorting the two boys out of the office of the Barton Foundation headquarters. Alpha White rode in the front seat with Doctor J quietly, but evidently quite satisfied with his newfound favour. He was the new favourite of the architect of Operation Meteor and Heero was out. He was destined for greatness.

Doctor J looked at Heero in the rear view mirror, hoping to get a sense of what he was thinking. But Heero sat in the back and affected a neutral expression. One that in time he would perfect.

When they arrived back at their base of operations and had dinner, Alpha White went to train in the simulator. Heero went into the hangar by himself, grabbed a laptop from the supply closet, took out the technical manual, connected the laptop to Wing's main console and began to run diagnostics. A while later Doctor J came into the hangar.

"Don't be sorry for what you did," he said.

"Huh?"

Heero looked over at the elderly man standing several feet away from him.

"The girl was innocent," Doctor J said. "I'm sorry about what happened."

"Doesn't matter," Heero said.

"It does," Doctor J said as he approached. "And you know it does. And that's why you buried her. What are we fighting for, if not for her?"

"The architect disagrees," Heero said as he turned his attention back to his laptop.

"Dekim lost his way when Heero Yuy was killed," Doctor J said. "He's never been the same since. His thirst for revenge blinds him."

"So what are you saying?" Heero asked.

"I'm saying, don't be like him" Doctor J answered. "Don't let revenge blind you to what's right and what's good."

Heero put down the laptop and stood up. "Is that why you had me read all of those books? Is that why you taught me how to fight? How to shoot? How to survive?"

"My boy… what else were in those books?" Doctor J asked. "I didn't just teach you how to be a soldier."

Heero looked down and said nothing.

"When the time comes…" Doctor J said. "Take the Wing. Go to Earth. Find your own path."

"What about Operation Meteor?" Heero asked.

"Forget it," Doctor J said. "We're not going to kill and enslave millions on Earth, all to satisfy Dekim's ambitions."

"All by myself, without support?" Heero asked. "That's impossible!"

"It is impossible," Doctor J confirmed. "Do the impossible."

Her hands were soft. The softest hands he had ever felt before. But of course they would be. Heero tried not to grip them too hard for fear of hurting her. Which was ridiculous on its face because he still planned on killing her. She must've known that too. And yet, she wore a smile of contentment upon her face. What was she thinking? Why was she smiling? Her father was just days ago assassinated and yet she's smiling. Who was she? Who was this girl really?

They glided across the dance floor, swaying back and forth, hand in hand, staring at each other, while Relena's friends stared at them. Heero glowered at her menacingly, she returned the look lovingly. There was something about her. Something naturally radiant, when all the girls at the ball were wearing beautiful gowns and she only wore her school uniform, it seemed impossible for her to stand out, and yet she did. And Heero noticed.

"Heero," she said softly. "I know too much now. Are you still going to kill me?"

"Yeah," he answered.

"Is that what you truly want?" Relena asked.

Heero's eyes widened. Somehow, that's not what he expected.

"Is this all you want of me? A memory? An image? An idea?" Relena asked.

"Huh?"

"Is that all you want? Is this the sum of your life?" Relena continued. "All you think you deserve? A few memories, a taste of what almost was? How little do you think you deserve? And why do you keep denying yourself? Why do you hate yourself?"

"I don't understand," Heero said.

"That's not surprising," Relena said with a hint of a laugh. "You thought you had the answer all along. No need to question it, right?"

"What are you saying?" Heero asked.

"That perhaps, they were wrong about you," Relena said. "Dekim, J, Odin. Perhaps you have it in you to be better than all of came before you."

"How do you know all this?" Heero asked.

"Because I know you Heero Yuy," she said as she closed her eyes. "I was there. I watched the whole thing. I saw you save millions. I saw you sacrifice everything. You don't have to anymore. I won't let you."

The last shot's recoil heavily damaged his suit. It blew off the left army completely, which would make the next shot that much more difficult. Truthfully, he only had one shot left. He only needed that one shot. With damaged thrusters, it was becoming increasingly difficult to stabilize the Wing Zero in atmospheric flight.

"Stop it, don't you realize Relena Peacecraft is in here!" Dekim's voice came through the comm.

Relena was in that bunker. Could he risk the shot? The war was over. They had lived through hell. They had achieved peace. Then why was this happening? Why was he here? Why was this happening again? Could he in the end, kill her?

No!

This isn't happening!

What's happening?!

Why am I here?!

This isn't right!

I've done this before…

How many times?

How many times must I kill her?

He opened his eyes. His vision was blurry, his limbs were numb and heavy, and his couldn't breathe. He was being dragged under water. He surfaced again. He began to cough. He coughed violently as he expelled the salt water from his lungs and even when he had gotten most of it out he continued to cough. He lost consciousness. He regained consciousness. He coughed again. More water. More pain. But this time… something hard underneath of him. His shivering fingers curled. Sand.

Sand. Beach. A beach. He was on a beach. No, no, he was in the Wing Zero. He was aiming at the Presidential Bunker. No. He was rejected for Operation Meteor. No. That's not right. That was… He didn't know what that was.

With great difficulty he managed to sit up. He was soaked. He was freezing. He looked around at his surroundings. He was indeed on a beach. There was no one around. What was the last thing he remembered? A fight. A mobile suit battle. Alpha White. The Mercurius. He had detonated the Serpent he was in.

He leaned forward, he threw up more salt water. He passed out again.

The next time he woke up, he wasn't in nearly as much pain. Nor was he wet or shivering. In fact he was quite comfortable. He was in a bed. He had fresh clothes. His wounds had been treated. He was sore but all things considered, much better than he had been.

There was someone standing at the end of his bed. His eyes came into focus. She was standing there, dressed in an ash grey pantsuit and a white dress shirt underneath. Evidently, she was supposed to be at work. Her expression was calm but her eyes betrayed her. They glistened with the brink of tears.

"Relena," Heero whispered.

"Don't try to get up," Relena said. "The doctors said you almost died."

"They exaggerate," Heero said.

Relena forced a smile and gently asked, "how are you feeling?"

"I'm fine," Heero answered.

"Okay, that's good," she said. "Then next question… WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU?!"