Author's Note: Sometimes I take forever, sometimes I take little more than a week. Who knows when I decide to post? Anyway, as always, thank you so much to Wings Landing and Revy679 for fixing this up for me. I feel like these latest chapters have been so much better for it.

Marble and Steel

Denton Spaceport, X-12553, L3 Colony Cluster

As Trowa had expected, the Serpents that he had found at Hunt didn't stay there for long. Once it was clear that they had been discovered, the suits were loaded into trucks and moved to another location. They had even managed to lose Trowa in the dead of night, traveling down the unlit backroads of the colony. But it didn't matter. Trowa knew that they had to deliver the suits and there was no way to move that much cargo through the main spaceport in New Galveston without raising alarms.

Denton Spaceport, just outside the small town of Denton, was the only other suitable spaceport in the whole colony for the amount of cargo they needed to move. It was small enough to be of little consequence to the political and law enforcement class but large enough to be useful to the criminal element of the colony. Trowa remembered that in his youth, that the colonial rebels used the spaceport to smuggle in weapons, munitions, and contraband.

Nowadays, it was a much more lively place, although still rather quaint compared to the spaceport in the capital. Trowa sat in the terminal near the window looking out at the cargo ships coming and going. He was connected to the wireless network of the spaceport and had hacked into the internal control systems. He watched the ships that took off and cross referenced them with control system data. He was waiting for a large ship, with no markings, and a vague bill of lading. He hoped he wasn't too late.

A few hours into his wait, he found what he was looking for. A large transport was about to disembark. The digital bill of lading attached to the vessel said that it was empty but judging by the slow acceleration rate of the ship, he knew it was carrying something heavy. This was definitely the one.

Trowa already had his transport ready. He had found a private shuttle owned by one of the colony's millionaires in the system and queued it up for departure. The autopilot system brought it from the hangar to the ramp. Once there, it was a simple matter of hacking the doors of the aircraft and letting himself in. He then cleared himself for take off.

Trowa was only about an hour behind the transport which was still clearly visible on his long range sensors. There was no way the lumbering transport was going to outrun his nimble little shuttle. He tailed his prey from a generous distance, not wanting to arouse any suspicions while still within the colony cluster.

Three hours later, they had cleared the last of the L3 perimetre satellites, Trowa closed in on the transport. His plan was to run his shuttle alongside the cargo ship, board it, and sabotage it from within.

What he wasn't expecting was to be fired upon. They came prepared. The portside hull opened up and a beam cannon was deployed. Trowa just barely managed to manoeuvre his shuttle away from the arc of the beam, drop his speed, and retreat to a safe distance.

The cargo ship made no attempt to follow or evade him. That shot was evidently a friendly fuck off. Trowa considered his options. His private shuttle was unarmed. It was fast and agile but probably not so much that he could evade every attack. Trowa suspected that the transport was packing even more firepower than just the portside beam cannon. He thought about using his shuttle as a battering ram but that didn't seem sensible either. Whatever they were carrying, as valuable as it was, it seemed unlikely that taking the out the cargo ship right now would hinder their plans for good.

There was a time in his life that he wouldn't have thought twice about going out in a blaze of glory. He was a fucking idiot back then. He took suicide off the table. Still, he couldn't come up with a solution to this problem. He had enough fuel to stay on the cargo ship's tail and there was no way the lumbering barge was going to lose him.

He couldn't attack and they couldn't lose him. They were in a stalemate.

In transit between L2 and Earth

Heero stared at his phone curiously. He was looking at an encrypted message from Trowa. Trowa had never sent one of these before, preferring real time communications even in the most sensitive of situations. Furthermore, he hadn't informed Heero that he was going to deliver such a thing the last time they spoke. Heero wondered what it was. For a moment, he thought about opening it but decided against it. If it was important, there was nothing he could do about it while they were in the middle of space flying back to Earth. He'd rather not have another thing on his mind if he could help it.

Having put the issue out of his mind for the moment, Heero made his way from the private area at the front of the shuttle towards the main cabin in the back. He found Ainsley sitting in the front aisle on his left. She had a blank look in her eyes as if still processing the events of the precious day. He had seen that look countless times before. He knew that it would fade with time but for now there was nothing to do but for her mind to replay those traumatic few minutes over and over again.

"You okay?" Heero felt obliged to ask. He knew what it was to experience that trauma a thousand fold.

"Yes, thank you," Ainsley answered in a breathless whisper as her eyes darted up to meet Heero's.

She was still visibly shivering. There were bags under her eyes. Heero wondered if she had slept at all since the incident.

He made his way past the first few rows back to his seat next to Relena. He noted the stark difference in demeanour between the two women. It seemed as though they hadn't experienced the same traumatic event at all. Relena was her usual poised self. She sat in the window seat, her legs crossed, evidently relaxed as she leaned against the wall while she read something on her tablet.

Heero took his seat next to her and placed his hand on hers. Her fingers gently laced themselves among his and she gave him a gentle little squeeze. He relaxed into his chair and closed his eyes for a moment.

He was expecting her to say something. So he waited. And yet she didn't. He opened his eyes again and looked over at her. She was still transfixed with the words on her tablet. He peeked over to see what she was reading. The Colonist, one of her favourite daily newspapers. The headline of the article caught his attention and it horrified him to his very core.

"Warrior-bodyguard of Vice-Foreign Minister Effortlessly Thwarts Terrorist Attack…"

If he had a mirror in that moment, he was sure he would have seen an expression of utter shock and terror on his face. His eyes darted around the screen before he noticed that she had seen him peeking over her shoulder. Her eyes locked with his as a slight curl appeared upon her lips.

"A glowing review," Relena said with as calm and collected a voice as she could muster in that moment.

Heero stared at her for a moment. He wondered what that look meant. If she was holding a teasing smile, she was doing a remarkably good job. Although not quite good enough for him to miss it.

He reached over and swiped away the article. "That's enough of that."

"Hey! I was reading that!" Relena said emphatically, trying her very best to sound genuinely offended.

He wasn't buying any of it. Heero reached over and tried to take the tablet away from her but she in turn held the tablet close to her chest and quickly rotated to face away from him. His hands reached over and began to tickle her.

"Help! I'm being assaulted!" Relena yelled through her helpless giggles.

"Okay stop, we're being obnoxious," Relena said as she managed to extricate herself from his grasp and stiff arm him for a moment.

"We?" Heero asked quizzically.

Heero reached for the tablet again, this time only to be blocked by Relena's hand as she leaned in and planted a passionate kiss on his lips that stopped him dead in his tracks. She lingered there for a moment, draining him of all of his vitality and desire to take the tablet from her. She opened her eyes slowly and looked into his. He stared back at her with complete adoration.

"Seriously," Heero began to say softly. "Are you okay? Yesterday was a little scary, wasn't it?"

"Heero, I'm fine." Relena smiled as she placed her palm on his chest. "You don't have to worry about me so much. It's not the first time I've been shot at, remember?"

For some unknown reason he felt a desperate need to kiss her again. So he did. His lips met hers and she invited him in eagerly. No doubt they were even more obnoxious now. No doubt Cindy was blushing in her seat a few rows back. No doubt Dorothy was rolling her eyes. But he didn't care. In that moment all he could think of was how proud he was of his badass little princess.

Peacecraft Royal Palace, Sanc Kingdom

Mareen's stay with the Darlians had been, as always, challenging. But at least, this time, it wasn't pointless. She, Beatrice, and Stella had compiled a list of acceptable suitors and had sent them all invitations to Beatrice's upcoming party. They had received the enthusiastic replies from all of them within hours, accepting the invitation. She had also ended her stay at Ravensthorpe Castle on better terms with Beatrice than she had been in a long time. And if nothing else, that alone was worth the trip to England.

Mareen sat silently in the back of her limousine as it made its way along the serene country road towards the royal palace. She was reading up on current events on her phone, catching up on the news about the assassination of the state's witness and the ensuing chaos in the capital when she came across the image of that boy that Relena had been seeing, Heero.

"In an act of superheroic proportions, the bodyguard and purported paramour of the Vice-Foreign Minister, after extracting his charge from immediate danger, without hesitation rushed back into the fray to secure the other government VIP, the Vice-Finance Minister, Ainsley Mortimer and in the process neutralizing the terrorists single handedly. The miraculous actions of the man, identified as Heero Yuy, was caught on film from various angles, by news organizations and civilian bystanders alike. The footage of the action has gone viral, prompting an onslaught of interest in this 'hero'..."

Mareen read every article on the terrorist attack on L2-G-17868 that she could find. Partly out of instinctual worry for Relena, but mostly out of curiosity about Heero. Having exhausted all of the news articles regarding the incident and found herself down the tabloid rabbit hole of their rumoured romance. And once she reached the lurid stories of what "supposed" act they had been caught doing in the locker room of the Vustgaarde University Athletic Centre, she decided that she needed to stop. This was her daughter after all, and if she needed to know such details she could simply ask.

But having pulled herself out of her news spiral, it irked her to have to admit that the young man had piqued her interest. Still, just because he was interesting didn't make him right for Relena. Just because he had saved her life once again didn't make him a suitable match. He was her bodyguard afterall, that was his job.

Aftering having been let in by the guard at the gate, Mareen's limousine pulled up to the front of the nearly completed royal palace to find Pagan, waiting atop the stairs ready to greet her. Her driver pulled the vehicle to a stop and promptly came around to open the door for her. She stepped out gracefully into the brisk winter air and looked up at Pagan.

"Pagan," she said warmly.

"Your ladyship, welcome," Pagan replied. "Forgive me for the rather informal greeting. We weren't expecting you."

"Oh, it's quite alright, Pagan," Mareen said sweetly. "I admit, it was rather rude of me to drop by unannounced."

"Not at all, my lady," Pagan said. "But, Miss Relena isn't currently here. She's off in space on a diplomatic assignment."

"Yes, I am quite aware," Mareen said.

"Please, do come inside, it is quite a cold day," Pagan said.

"Actually..." Mareen paused for a second to think. "Would it be terribly inconvenient if I asked you to prepare a mount for me? I have a sudden urge to ride."

Pagan helped Mareen's driver unload her luggage and carry it into the palace. Immediately, Pagan assigned a maid to Mareen and instructed her to find Mareen a suitable riding jacket and a pair of boots. Pagan then escorted Mareen into the small library to wait, while he went to the groom so that he could prepare her a mount.

Pagan was caught unprepared when not 15 minutes later Mareen appeared at the front of the stables already completely dressed with a riding crop in hand, all before Pagan and Santino, the groom, had prepared a horse.

"Forgive me, my lady, but we haven't found a suitable mount yet," Pagan said apologetically.

"Is Diamond still around?" Mareen asked.

"Yes, my lady," Pagan answered.

"I'll ride her," Mareen said with a smile. "Relena won't mind."

Pagan bowed meekly and went to Santino and told him to fetch Diamond, Relena's favourite horse. A few minutes later, they emerged with Diamond, put on her bridle, saddled her up, and helped Mareen horse.

"Is there anything else, my lady," Pagan asked.

Mareen thought about it for a second. "Ride with me."

"I couldn't," Pagan said.

"Oh come on, don't pretend like you can't do it anymore," Mareen insisted. "You forget but I saw you ride with King Marticus."

"That was another lifetime ago, my lady," Pagan said.

"Yes, it does seem that way, doesn't it?" Mareen's voice softened asking the question. "Come, let's reminiscence some more."

Santino found Pagan a pair of boots that fit and prepared him an old but rugged destrier that hadn't been ridden in a while. He mounted it with ease and pulled up alongside Mareen. She shot the old butler a sly look as if to remind him of his younger self, of the restless young adventurer that came into the king's service, and how he was not so old as to forget the joys of those halcyon days.

The February sky was overcast, the air was cold but still. The two riders slowly began to make their way from the stables, away from the palace, towards the open rolling hills towards the east. Mareen took the lead, while Pagan dutifully followed her. Slowly they picked up the pace and soon they were racing off into the distance.

"So how are things around here?" Mareen asked as they finally slowed down a few miles from where they had started.

"Busy, very busy, my lady," Pagan answered. "Well, not for the household staff, I admit. Without Miss Relena around, they have no one to serve but the house and themselves. And sometimes they get bored. Sometimes it is all I can do to keep the household staff and the construction crews from tearing each other apart."

"A civil war in the royal household?" Mareen joked. "How scandalous."

"That would be the least of her scandals," Pagan said.

"Oh, don't I know it," Mareen said with an exasperated sigh.

Sensing her distress, Pagan made a concerted effort to steer their conversation in another direction. "Miss Relena has some grandiose plans for the rest of the royal estates. Hospitals, orphanages, museums, and galleries. It's all happening. She says three residences is more than enough."

"Heavens, and what happens when she inherits Darlian House and my apartment in Paris?" Mareen asked, half-joking. "Will she have them converted into public amusements as well?"

"Well you know how she feels about the obstinacy of the old Aristocracy in terms of their houses," Pagan chuckled. "But I will do my utmost to convince her to preserve them."

"See that you do," Mareen said gravely.

They rode a little further in silence. Pagan could clearly see on the pained expression on Mareen's face that something heavy was on her mind.

"Tell me about this boy that she's been seeing," Mareen finally summoned the courage to ask.

"Ahh, now I understand the true purpose of your visit," Pagan said.

"Can't a mother be interested in all aspects of her daughter's life?" Mareen asked innocently.

"A mother can always ask her daughter directly," Pagan countered.

"She's hard to talk to when it comes to him," Mareen said. "You must know this."

"I admit, at first I found her infatuation charming and a little bit naïve…" Pagan's voice trailed off.

"Do you approve of him?" Mareen asked, sounding slightly shocked.

"I am sorry to disappoint you, my lady, but Heero Yuy is a fine young man," Pagan answered directly and without hesitation.

"Pagan, my dear," Mareen was at a loss for words. "I… I thought better of you. He's a commoner."

"He's a Gundam Pilot, my lady," Pagan said, almost as if he was correcting her.

"That's beside the point," Mareen said defensively.

"Maybe so, but he loves her," Pagan said. "He loves her so much that it scares him. He would die for her without a moment's hesitation. Men like that… love like that… is the most precious thing in the world."

"Is that enough?" Mareen said as she turned to look at the old butler.

"Was it enough for your ladyship and his lordship?" Pagan asked.

Mareen looked down at Diamond's mane and ran her gloved fingers through it. The gentle horse stirred. She closed her eyes and suppressed her tears. God damn it, Pagan, she thought to herself. But it wasn't his fault. She came to him because she knew he would advocate on Relena's behalf, truthfully and forcefully, as he had always done. And she respected his wise counsel above all else. Somehow, Mareen knew it would come to this. She was just having a hard time admitting it to herself.

Evere, Brussels

Jacques St. Pierre watched from around the corner as a blockade of police cruisers had formed around his apartment. Men in black tactical gear flooded out of the back of two large armored vehicles and took positions around the building. His poor neighbours were being quietly escorted out of the building.

He was sorry for their inconvenience. The police are always such assholes.

But he had expected this all along. The moment Kerestina called him, he knew that he was going to be dragged into some bullshit again. It's what she does. It's what she had always done. And he planned accordingly. Afterall, he knew what he signed up for. He could've gone straight after the war, there had been plenty of opportunities to do so. He chose not to. And he knew that occasionally having to pick up his life and go on the lamb for a few months was just part of the deal.

Jacques turned around and headed back to his car, sighing as he opened the door. He liked Brussels too. It was a nice city with a good nightlife, even if every other girl he met was some kind of government functionary. And hey, sometimes that could be fun. And he did well with them. Their jobs were stuffy, as were the men they worked with. A good looking guy like himself with an air of danger was pretty hard to resist given the choices.

Click.

"Don't move." He heard a female voice say as something cold and metallic touched his temple.

"Fuck…" Jacques whisper with a grimace.

Should've been paying attention.

His gaze turned slowly and out of the corner of his eye, he saw a woman in a Preventers jacket pointing a gun at him. She was young. Young and pretty too. Too bad he would have to kill her. She really shouldn't have pointed a gun at him so close.

With one sudden motion, he turned his body and tried to parry the gun off handle but before he could complete the action, his seat was shoved forward, crushing his chest against the steering wheel. A split second later, he felt something tight around his neck, as his seat was pulled back. His head was now pinned against the headrest while choking.

"What the fuck did the lady just say?" A man voice came from behind him.

"I… I surrender…" Jacques coughed out.

"They always do things the hard way," Hope said as she holstered her gun and took out a pair of handcuffs.

"And they're dumb as hell too," Duo said, still holding the garrote wire around Jacques' neck. "Hey buddy, I gotta ask. Why did you keep these?"

Jacques eyes moved towards the rearview mirror and saw the man who currently held his life in his hands wearing the pig's mask he had left in the backseat of his car.

"You know there's cameras all over the city right?" Duo asked.

Royal Windsor Hotel, Brussels

February 5th, AC 199

"These two ancient republican concepts of authority, which were once used to describe the separate jurisdictions of the power of moral force versus the power of law and assemblies are now being employed by the high medieval Papacy to delineate the spiritual powers of the Pope versus the temporal powers of the emperor..."

The monotonous tones of the professor on the live stream put Heero into a flow state as he parsed through all of the previous night's intel. Heero had been sitting at the dinner table of Relena's penthouse suite for the better part of an hour, simultaneously listening to the lecture that he and Relena were missing, all while wading through the mountain of intel from the Preventers database that came in since he last checked the night before. He was looking for any valuable information that could shed some light on the attempted assassination of Relena just a week ago.

Heero had insisted that Relena stay at her residence in Brussels for the time being, despite their less than secure experience at the Whitmore Grand in L2 and against Relena's protests, the hotel was still much safer than her townhouse in Vustgaarde. Heero had coordinated his security efforts with hotel management and had armed guards placed at every entrance of the building for the duration of the city's lockdown.

It was further from school but it was an inconvenience that couldn't be avoided in Heero's estimation. Security came first and until he could determine the source of the attack on L2, this was the best he could do. It had its upsides, for however much further they were from school, they were that much closer to work. And with the city in crisis, they had a lot of work to do. Relena had been scrambling from meeting to meeting, sitting down with anyone and everyone, from the city government to the World Security Council, ever since they got back. Heero was in and out of the Valknut himself, trying to piece together the puzzle of what he considered a security failure of the highest order.

They were used to being busy and ever since they heard about the assassination of Toro Campana while they were in space, they had expected the worst in regards to their schedules. Their mornings were even more rushed than before. Calls poured in from 6 in the morning until 11 at night. They had all but stopped attending classes, except for her dance class which Relena for some odd reason insisted that she not miss. Utilizing what meagre periods between work engagements they had, during car rides or lunch breaks, they tried to keep up with their readings and watch their lectures on their phones. They were both accustomed to high stress situations, Relena having done the job since she was 17 and Heero having been trained from childhood for far worse than a mere mountain of paperwork. But it left them very little time for each other.

He heard the front door open.

"Okay, you were right," Relena said as she entered the suite. "It's really convenient having a gym in the house."

Heero turned to look at her. She had her hair up in a tight ponytail, her ample cleavage was about to burst out of her pink sports bra, and in that typical way after she worked out, her newly developed muscles glistened in the early morning. She looked absolutely delicious.

"What?" she asked.

"This is an inefficient use of your time," Heero said as he turned away to look at his laptop again.

"Sorry, not all of us were born carved out of marble," Relena said sarcastically.

Heero with his characteristic swiftness jumped out his chair, rushed over to Relena, picked her up, and pinned her against the wall.

"On the contrary," he said in a low dulcet tone. "I wasn't born like this."

He took her hand and slid it underneath his shirt and pressed, first her fingers, then her palm against his mountainous abs. He felt her shiver. That made him smile. He picked her up by her thighs and hoisted her up to him. His lips brushed against hers.

"Do you know how many tens of thousands of hours of running, climbing, wrestling, boxing, and fighting went into producing this?" Heero whispered as he pressed her hand against his obliques.

"Show off," Relena whispered with a delirious smile.

"Just trying to impress a girl," Heero replied with that private smile reserved only for her.

"Well I do like marble," her voice trembled.

Her hands slid down his thighs then inward towards his hardness.

"And steel." Relena's voice was barely audible.

But just as they were about to close in for a kiss, there was a knock on the door.

"Uuughhh," Relena let out a frustrated grunt as she separated herself from Heero to go answer the door. "And this is why I didn't want to stay in the capital. Everyone lives here!"

When she opened the door, Cindy and Augusta came barging in.

"The Whitmore Grand sent a fruit basket and an apology note," Cindy announced as she placed the gaudy package on the table next to Heero's laptop.

"An apology note?" Heero said suspiciously. "What does it say? Sorry we let terrorists ruin dinner?"

"It makes jokes!" Augusta remarked with genuine surprise. "Do you want to do late night? I'm serious, I've had several requests."

"I thought I made myself clear," Heero said. "No interviews, no public appearances of any kind."

"Come on, it'll be fun," Augusta insisted. "You show up, let the host ask a few softball questions, show them your little bodyguard routine. People will love it!"

"I only care about one person's love," Heero said.

"Awwww!" Relena squealed as she ran over, wrapping her arms around his neck, and gave him a big kiss.

"Ughh, gross," Augusta said rolling her eyes.

"But you should do something to acknowledge the chatter," Cindy said. "There are social media accounts dedicated to you two! There are legions of shippers!"

"I don't know how much clearer I can be," Heero said. "I'm just not cut out to be… known."

"I don't know how feasible that is in the long run, babe," Relena said as gently as she could. "It comes with the territory. Personally, I think you would be great on late night. But I will agree, no to encouraging the shippers. They're just a little too much."

"She says that but she spends hours scrolling through their feeds in bed before falling asleep," Heero said.

"Heero!" Relena said as she gave him a big shove. "Is nothing sacred?!"

"Okay!" Augusta cut in. "As disgustingly adorable as you two are, we've got a long day ahead of us. We're running low on pictures for social media, so we're going to have to book another session with the photographer."

"You know my friends just take their own social media pictures," Relena commented snidely.

"Yeah well, tough shit. Your friends aren't one of the senior most officials in the Foreign Ministry," Augusta shot back. "And as many interview requests have come in for the bodyguard over here, there are twice as many that are for you. And no, you don't have the option of turning them down. You almost got shot and some people are thinking it has something to do with the deal you negotiated with L2 and the President is getting nervous. You have to say something."

"Fine! I'll do an interview with The Colonist," Relena said petulantly. "They're nice… sometimes."

"Also the president wants to see you," Augusta said.

"What?! Again?" Relena whined.

"No one told you to undercut the Vice-Finance Minister's authority during the negotiations, that's on you girl…"

As Relena, Augusta, and Cindy fell into their daily rhythm, Heero faded into the background. He noticed that his laptop filled with confidential Preventers intel was still on. He quietly made his way over to the dinner table and closed the lid. He took a sip of his coffee and watched as his little princess, still dressed in her gym gear, argued back and forth with her handlers. Despite, the stress of the recent assassination attempt, a quiet peace fell over him in that moment.

Port of Hong Kong

The overcast February sky that accompanied him as Vincent moved along the endless sea of containers at the terminal port, put him at ease. The smell of salt water, reinvigorated him and put him in a good mood. The port was pretty quiet today all things considered and there were few people about. Vincent, in his stolen hard hat and safety vest, looked up and down for a specific red box with a specific number he had received from one of his contacts.

After looking around for half an hour and doubling back a couple of times, he finally found his box. He stood in front of it for a moment and smiled. How funny would it be if he cracked open the metal container only to find Kerestina's and Tristan's lifeless bodies, having starved or suffocated to death.

He knocked on the box and shouted, "anyone alive in there?"

There was silence for a few seconds.

Then a voice came from within.

"Open the fucking door, Vincent!"

Damn, he had gotten his hopes up for nothing.

Vincent wiped away the dust from the keypad display, held out the door code he had gotten from his contact and punched in the 8 digit string of numbers. The door popped open and a pungent smell came wafting out.

Slowly, from the shadows two beleaguered figures emerged into the daylight. They both looked utterly exhausted. Tristan had a vacant look upon his face while Kerestina merely snarled at the sight of Vincent.

Vincent had found a local fisherman in Marseilles that was willing to take them into the middle of the Mediterranean, at which point they rendezvoused with a tanker that was on its way to Hong Kong. For the last leg of the journey, to avoid the port authorities, the two fugitives had to be stashed in a container the tanker was offloading. And there they waited for the duration of a night.

"You look like hell," Vincent commented.

Kerestina steadied herself on the side of the box.

"Fuck off."

"What? I was talking to him!" Vincent chuckled.

Tristan said nothing and only stared at the red haired mercenary curiously. What Kerestina had told him in Marseilles stuck with him. Was this maniac actually meant to be a Gundam Pilot? They are considered heroes, legends, even if no one knew their identities. Certainly Tristan considered them as such, even if he did fight for the other side during the war. Could it be that this asshole could have been one? It made him wonder about the real pilots that fought to end the greatest war of their generation. Were they also, petty, small-minded, short-tempered, little shits like Vincent?

Vustgaarde University, Sanc Kingdom

The thumping bass of the song vibrated through her core as she spun. It was surprisingly nice feeling. She opened her eyes and the purple and blue strobes drew a sensual silhouette of her body as she hung upside down. She squeezed the pole between her thighs as her hands released it.

"Yes! Yes! Just like that!" Relena could just hear Lexi's voice over the blaring music.

She spread her arms straight and thrust out her chest. The knot of her tied up t-shirt squeezed against the underside of her breasts as she did so. She looked at herself in the mirror for a moment. How strange it was to see herself like that. Upside down, in nothing but a T-shirt, booty shorts, knee braces, and a pair of seven inch leather heels. Was this Relena Darlian? It certainly looked like her. And yet it didn't.

"Perfect!" She heard Lexi shout again. "But enough of that lost puppy dog look. Give me something sexy!"

"I don't know how!" Relena shouted back.

"Oh my god! Yes you do!" Lexi insisted. "Give me the man-eater look! I know you can do it! I've seen it before!"

Relena thought back to the last time Lexi mentioned it. She had been taking extra classes with Lexi after their regular dance class all week trying to make up for the lessons she missed while she was in space. She had been thinking about Heero. She was thinking about how frustrating it was that ever since they got back they had been so busy that they barely had any intimate time together. Oh, now she knew the look Lexi was talking about.

She began to slide down the pole. She retracted her hands and grabbed the pole while she spread her legs straight and spun around it.

"Now slide down slowly! Remember your balance, don't put too much pressure on your shoulders or you'll hurt yourself!"

Relena did as Lexi instructed, all the way down to pole just before her ponytail touched the floor.

"Now invert!"

Relena folded her legs at the knee and slowly started to transfer her weight from her upper body towards her hips, pushing her back into an upright position. She then slid down the pole, her knees touching the ground first.

"Yes! Perfect!"

Relena let go of the pole, pushed off one knee and pivoted on the other until she was facing the mirror again. She ran her hands up her body, caressing herself, until she reached her face. She was doing the look now. Then quickly she dove forward and down, catching herself on her elbows.

"Yes! Now arch your back!"

She did so, forcing her butt into the air as she tapped her heels together. The music stopped. The strobes turned off. Lexi turned the lights back on. Relena sat back up and let out an exasperated sigh. That was her best effort yet.

"You know you can end with a little twerk if you wanted to. He'd love that," Lexi said as she walked over and handed Relena her water bottle.

Relena drank half the bottle before saying, in a breathy voice, "I don't know if I can pull that off."

Lexi merely rolled her eyes as she sat down on the floor next to Relena. "Please, that goddess I just saw up there can pull anything off."

"You created that goddess up there," Relena said as she took another big gulp of water.

"No, no," Lexi protested. "That's all you! I'm just showing you the technique. But the sensuality, the performance. That's you. You just have to trust it."

"I'm getting there, slowly," Relena said with a nervous laugh. "But I do want to get the basic routine down by Valentine's Day. I want to surprise him."

"Lucky him," Lexi said.

"Well, we'll see if he even likes it," Relena said.

"Speaking of, how was the work trip?" Lexi asked. "Did you manage to… you know? Get a little more out of him?"

"Yes! Actually I did!" Relena said excitedly. "And all I had to do was taunt him until he broke."

"And?" Lexi asked leaning in.

"And… he's a monster," Relena said. "He's an absolute beast."

"But that's what you wanted right?" Lexi asked, suddenly sounding a little nervous.

Relena looked a little unsure. Her eyes darted around as if to check if anyone was around despite the fact that they had the studio all to themselves. She leaned in as if to whisper. Lexi did the same.

"I fucking loved it!"

Ixelles, Brussels

Heero knocked on the door. There was no answer. He knocked again. Only several minutes after the second knock did he hear the faint sound of footsteps approaching from the other side. With a loud click, the door opened. Mariemaia stood in front of him, still in her school uniform minus her shoes. She stared at him blankly.

"Normal people use the front door," Mariemaia said.

"Secret meeting," Heero said simply.

"Are you sure you're not just avoiding the press?" Mariemaia asked, perhaps teasingly, although her voice didn't show it.

"He's not the only one," Une said as she appeared behind Mariemaia.

It was odd for Heero to see Une like that. He rarely ever saw her out of uniform. She was wearing a large tan sweater with a black shawl draped at the crook of her elbow. She wore no pants and no shoes and her hair was messier than he had ever seen it. But he supposed Une was also a human underneath it all.

Mariemaia stepped out of the way to let him in. He followed to the two of them inside. It was a nice place, nicer than he had expected.

"Would you like something to drink?" Une offered. "Water? Wine?"

It took a moment for Heero to respond. Again, he was caught off guard by the informality of Une.

"No, thank you," Heero said. "I have to get back to Vustgaarde right after this."

"Down to business, then?" Une asked.

Heero simply nodded.

He followed her into her home office. She closed the door behind him and made her way over to her desk. It surprised Heero to see how messy it was. Several plates and empty wine glasses were stacked next to her keyboard on one side and on the other an unorganized pile of paper of varying colours and sizes.

"Are you okay?" Heero felt compelled to ask.

"I am not the work from home type," Une admitted as she tried her best to clear her desk a little.

For a moment, Heero wondered if he had to be worried for the mental health of the Director of the Preventers, but he then promptly remembered the circumstances of the last week and how barricading herself in her home office was not only rational but, given the circumstances, probably the most strategically correct choice.

"First things first, you know what I'm going to ask," Heero said.

"What do you want me to say?" Une asked as she threw her hands up in the air. "I already gave you carte blanche access to the entire intel network."

"That's just noise, there's thousands of pieces of intel every day," Heero said. "I need analysts."

"In case you haven't noticed, I'm a little tied up right now," Une said as she gestured at the mess around her. "Department resources are stretched to the limit already. I can't spare the manpower."

"Someone tried to kill Relena. That's my first priority," Heero insisted.

"Well according to the media, you got this." Une's sardonic wit was rarely deployed but when it was, it hit with devastating effect.

"Katerina…" Heero said, deliberately trying to de-escalate an already mercurial situation.

"What do you want me to do, Heero?" Une fired back. "A state's witness was just assassinated, successfully I might add, and the whole continent is still on lock down because of it. I'm waging a war against the police for leads and evidence—"

"May I ask why you are at war with the city police?" Heero cut in.

Une sighed and leaned back in her chair. "It's a long story…"

"Either way, I can't just sit around knowing that someone tried to take out Relena," Heero insisted.

Une noticed Heero's shoulders tense and his hands ball up into a fist. She could clearly see the rage boiling within him. When it came to Relena, he was utterly transparent.

"Don't do something stupid, Heero," Une warned.

He didn't immediately respond. His eyes darted back and forth around the room. Une recognized the look. It was the look Heero had when he was thinking; when he was planning; strategizing.

"Heero?" Une said once again.

He took a few deep breaths before letting out a deep breath and nodding in acknowledgement.

"Did you get the other thing?" Heero asked as he tried to put the anger out of his head.

"Why can't you ever bring me good news?" Une asked.

"Every time I don't report in, consider that your good news," Heero answered.

Une tapped a couple of times on her keyboard and brought up the images that Heero had sent in earlier in the week. It was the contents of the encrypted mail that Trowa had sent to him, a few blurry photos of the cargo ship Trowa had been tailing, and a short report describing his brief engagement with the craft.

"So what can we do about this? I'm open to suggestions," Une asked.

"The original plan was to hijack the ship and sabotage it from within," Heero explained. "But it seems that they were prepared for that."

"Do we know where it is headed?" Une asked.

"Possibly L5, possibly Earth, difficult to tell with its current trajectory," Heero answered. "At its current speed, we won't know for at least another week."

"I can ask the L5 station chief to create a blockade, stop it from slipping by," Une said unenthusiastically.

"Hmmm… it's risky," Heero said. "Do you have enough fire power out there?"

"Just barely, a three or four armoured frigates, a couple of Taurus' if it comes to that," Une said nervously.

"This thing is armed to the teeth," Heero said. "If it wants to, it will tear a hole right through your defenses. And if you lose it in the cluster, you'll never find it again."

"Yes… I'm well aware," Une said sounding rather annoyed. "But what choice do I have?"

Mae Hong Son, Thailand

As soon as they got back to the compound, Kerestina and Tristan immediately went to their rooms and crashed. Vincent headed upstairs to make his report to the Merchant. He found the old man, sitting at his desk, nursing a drink, staring out the window.

"How are our adventurers?" the Merchant asked, startling Vincent a bit. He hadn't realized that the old man noticed him.

"A little beat up, but fine," Vincent reported.

"That's good, tell them I appreciate the work," the Merchant said.

Vincent furrowed his brow but said nothing.

"Where is everyone? Place seems deserted," Vincent asked.

"They had to take off," the Merchant said. "They are wanted fugitives after all. Can't stay in one place for too long. Plus, now that Campana is dead, it's time for them to get to work."

"So all that was to scare the right people?" Vincent asked.

"Persuade," the Merchant said as he put his drink down on the coaster on his desk. "One does not rule with fear for very long. And I find people much less effective in those situations."

"You do know how to fight a war, I'll give you that," Vincent remarked.

"Speaking of," the Merchant said as he, with a great deal of effort, pushed himself out of the chair and to his feet. "I'd like to show you something."

He lead the way as Vincent followed behind him. The old man said nothing as they descended the floors into the underground garage that used to be a magazine during its Alliance days, and hopped into the passenger side of the off-road vehicle. Vincent got into the driver's seat.

"Where are we going?" Vincent asked.

"Just follow the dash," the Merchant said.

They drove for the better part of half an hour on a narrow dirt road, through the thickest parts of the lush jungle that surrounded the compound, careful to avoid and larger fauna in the area as well as the mosquitoes. Eventually, they came to a clearing several miles from the villa. Vincent knew what it was immediately. Despite the overgrowth and intrusion of wildlife into the area, Vincent could immediately make out that this had been an airbase. There was nothing there now but the trace of the old runway and the ruins of what used to be the control tower.

Vincent followed the Merchant from their car into the ruins until they came upon a large door. The Merchant brushed aside some foliage that obscured a biometric lock that accepted a hand print. A few seconds later, the door cracked open with a shriek and the two men entered. The ride down the shaft was long and silent, the creaking and strain of the old lift was all the music they needed.

They emerged from the elevator into a dark room. The Merchant clapped and as the echoes bounced off the walls as the central spotlights turned on with a clap of their own.

Vincent couldn't believe his eyes.

"I know you've been itching to avenge your defeat in Buenos Aires," the Merchant said. "I want you to know your patience is appreciated."

Vincent thought he'd never see it again.

"I've been having the engineers working on it for six months," Merchant said.

The emerald green eyes, the white porcelain finish, the elegance of the aerodynamic curves.

"It's not even close to being done, and I can't say that any of our guys possess the genius of Jay Null but…"

But this was more than he ever expected. The gear heads had even made upgrades. The wings were modified, bigger, and most likely faster. The legs had been trimmed to make it even more agile. The buster rifle… he couldn't wait to test that thing.

"It's not bad, if I do say so myself," the Merchant said.

They had even painted it his signature red.

"It'll do," Vincent said simply with a grin.