Chapter 5

The look Relena had on her face when Duo showed her Heero's email was enough to make Duo's heart nearly break in two. She wasn't sad; she wasn't crying. It was a cold, hard mask, as if her face had been made out of stone.

Oh my gosh, he thought, a horrible thought jolting his mind and heart. Don't start becoming like Heero, Relena!

"Duo," she said quietly, her voice flat and lifeless. "Two questions."

"Yeah?" he asked, rather hesitantly.

"What does 'BB' mean, and what do the numbers mean?"

Duo would have laughed had the situation not been so serious. "Well, 'BB' is kind of a nickname for my nickname. Quatre calls me Braid Boy all the time, but he shortened it to BB. I guess Heero uses it as some sort of code now, I don't know. As for the numbers, they're his coordinates."

Relena's eyes narrowed. "Those aren't coordinates."

"In Gundam language, they are," Wufei retorted, speaking for the first time. "Stupid woman."

Suddenly, Relena whirled around and slapped him – hard – across the face.

"Don't…you…ever…say…that…to…me…again," she said, her teeth clenched. Then, she stalked out of the room.

Duo watched her go, a strange expression on his face.

"Okay," he said seriously. "I don't know who the heck that is, but it isn't Relena."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Heero awoke in a dark place.

His eyes flew open, expecting bright light; instead he was met with total darkness. He tried to stand up and grimaced in pain; his whole body was on fire. He groaned and felt around with his arms, gritting his teeth. His groping fingers met solid wall behind him, and empty space in front.

He was laying against a wall. Forcing himself to sit up, Heero tried to shove the pain out of his mind. He nearly succeeded, except when he tried to walk and found that his legs buckled underneath him. He had been badly beaten.

Heero sat back down and closed his eyes, gingerly feeling a bump on the back of his head, dried blood caking the wound. He was bruised and battered all over, yet the last thing he could remember was his ship flying to pieces at the onslaught of the enemy. He hadn't expected to live, yet here he was.

He let out a long breath and decided that he was too weak to explore his surroundings further than the wall behind him. Defeated, Heero closed his eyes and went back to sleep.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

A tall, shapely woman in a form-hugging black dress walked briskly down the main corridor, heels clicking on the floor. The files in her arms were thick and full, stuffed to bursting with papers and documents. She pushed open the door to a computer control room and hurried in.

"Miss Robinson, you are late," came the hard, cold voice from the man in the chair.

The woman sneered behind his back, then said politely, "I apologize, Mr. Shaefer. I had a few holdups with one pilot."

"But you got them all?"

She tossed her long blonde hair over her shoulder and said, "Of course I did, sir."

"All five?"

"Yes, sir."

"Name them. I want to hear their names."

She sighed. "Sir, I am here to receive further orders, not to – "

"Ma'am, I control your paycheck and your career. Name them now."

Rolling her eyes, she said, "The five pilots are Heero Yuy, Duo Maxwell, Quatre Winner, Trowa Barton, and Chang Wufei."

"And where are they now?"

"At present, sir, all in space."

"How do you know that?"

"I have my sources, sir."

"Which one of them do we have?"

"Yuy, sir."

"And he is the strongest?"

"Without a doubt, sir."

Fingers pressed buttons, and a face shot up on the vidcam.

"Mr. Jones, if in the case that our captive gets away, is the trap in place?"

"Of course, Mr. Shaefer."

"Thank you." The vidcam was turned off.

"Miss Robinson, where is Relena Peacecraft right now?" The hard voice sounded slightly eager.

The woman shuffled nervously. "She's on a Colony in L1, sir, we've – "

"Bring her to me."

She knew a dismissal when she heard one. "Yes, sir. I'll do it right away."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Relena collapsed on her bed, on the verge of tears. The door was locked, the windows down; no one could ever get inside, so, finally, she could cry.

But she didn't. She was beyond tears.

For seven years she had dreamed of Heero. Him coming back, begging forgiveness, telling her he loved her, all these wonderful fantasies. And now – now it would never happen. Her dreams of having a family and living happily ever after would never come true.

Though she had no confirmation, she believed he was dead. His email had been enough to convince her. But she knew in her heart that him being dead wasn't even the worst part – the worst part was that basically, she had killed him.

After all, she had flown into space to find him, not knowing dangerous people were out there to kidnap her, and he had flown into space after her, when he had gotten killed. If she hadn't taken off in the first place, none of this would have ever happened and Heero would still be alive. Better alive and hidden than dead and gone.

But now he was dead, and Relena knew she'd never be able to go on without him. It had been hard enough, dealing with the gigantic pressures at home with business affairs without anyone to help get her through it. Of course, her brother and his family tried hard, but none of them could ever comfort her like Heero could. He had, once before, and Relena could still remember the feeling it had given her; like she could do anything. That memory had given her strength through some of the hardest ordeals of her painful career. And now, what use was a memory if the giver of it was gone?

Someone knocked on the door, but Relena didn't move. She dimly heard Quatre's voice, and reluctantly she got up from the bed and opened the door.

He stood there, with his bright green eyes and blonde hair, a few inches taller than her 5-foot-6-inches, and the look on his face told her he was genuinely worried.

Of course, Quatre always is, Relena said to herself.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

She nodded once.

There was silence for a moment, then he said, "Can I come in?"

Without a word she stepped aside, and he entered. Once she had closed the door and locked it, he said, "Relena, Heero talked to Duo on the vidcam before he sent the email."

Relena whirled around. "What!"

Quatre said quietly, "Heero called Duo on the vidcam before he sent the email."

Relena sat down hard in a chair. "Wha – what did he say? Did he look all right? Was he – "

"Calm down, Re," Quatre said, taking a seat beside her. "He was fine – same old Heero. But as to what he said – you might want to talk to Duo about it, not me."

Relena nodded slowly. "All right. Why didn't he tell me?"

"He was too busy with the email." Quatre stood up and went to the door. He paused before going out, and said, "Relena, I don't believe he's dead, you know. Heero's an incredible person, and he wouldn't give up that easily."

A broad smile stretched across Relena's face, and even though the smile didn't reach her eyes, Quatre knew his words had helped. With a small smile, he left the room.

A few minutes later, Relena exited her room and made her way down the hall to Duo's room. Her bare feet padded on the floor; even though it was late afternoon, she wore flannel pants and a sweatshirt. Outside, the water ducts that controlled the Colony's rain and snow supply had been frozen and emptied to create a soft, late-autumn snowfall. Her thoughts went to the Peacecraft estate, and she imagined it in a blanket of snow. Winter had always been her favorite season; she loved to wake up to white all around and snowflakes falling from the sky.

She nodded to a man in a black jacket standing next to the door next to Duo's, that just stared at her.

Suddenly, for no reason at all, Heero's face flashed across her mind, yelling at her to run as fast and far as she could. Bewildered, she stood there for a moment, her hand in the air, ready to knock on Duo's door.

It was all the time the man needed. He strode over to her, and, surprise and fear evident on her face, Relena fell to the floor with one hard blow.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The door to Zechs's room burst open. Zechs stood up from his computer in alarm, knocking over the chair. His wife dashed into the room, breathing heavily, fear on her face.

"What is it?" Zechs asked, fearing the worst.

Lucrezia's eyes were large and round, and she said, "Zechs – it's happened. She's been kidnapped."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

There was a council held in Zechs's meeting room an hour later.

William Romaenger, Ambassador to Earth from the Colonies, stood up to speak to the council.

"I will swear on my life that the Foreign Minister was not taken captive by the Colonies to start war or cause trouble. We have upheld our side of the treaty for seven years now, and on no terms would we break it unless the Earth did first!"

Zechs stood up, wearing his regal commander's uniform.

"Ambassador, no one from the Earth did this to create trouble for us. I would be crazy to order my sister to be kidnapped. We have no idea where she has gone, and we know that no one from the Colonies did it to start war. In fact, we have information from – " At this point, Zechs happened to glance at his wife, who was giving him a warning glare. Zechs paused, cleared his throat, and continued, "We have information from a very reliable source that her Highness has been kidnapped to give away information that relates to the old wars – information that she does not have. The five Gundam pilots, who, as all of you know, are peacefully settled down on Earth, are now also in danger. We have their whereabouts and are carefully monitoring their actions, but we are sure that they are as worried about our Foreign Minister and the relationship between the Colonies and Earth as we are."

Ogden Smithson, General of the Colonies' front-rank X-fleet, stood up to speak.

"Sir," he said, addressing Zechs. "Though I cannot know how you feel – don't look so surprised, man, we all know it's your sister that's been kidnapped – I want to help in any way I can. More than just the peace between the Colonies and Earth rests on finding Miss Peacecraft, and I know every man and woman in here knows it. For seven years Miss Peacecraft has guided both the Earth and Colonies with a loving hand, and she's got more talent in leading the people than anyone before her. I am going to help find her, even if it means teaming up with the Gundam pilots."

Murmurs and the nodding of heads signified that everyone in the room agreed, save for a rebellious few.

Zechs stood again to speak. "Thank you, General. I know how you all feel about the Gundam pilots, but I know them personally and can guarantee they now want peace as much as we do. Let's try and find our Princess before something horrible happens."

And with that, the council was adjourned.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Duo paced the hallway nervously, brushing past the many policemen that were stationed around the hall, taking notes and holding back the press. No one except Zechs and the council knew that Relena had been kidnapped, and it was going to stay that way.

Duo had heard a low moan outside his door, and had opened it just in time to see someone jumping out the window with Relena in his arms. He had dashed to the window, but already a black sedan was driving away at top speed.

He had ran to Quatre's door and nearly pounded it down, which had alerted the other pilots, too. Now, fifteen minutes later, the police had found absolutely nothing.

The police chief, a skinny, lanky guy, grabbed Duo by the arm and said, "We're leavin'. Gotta get back to the station. There ain't no clues roundabouts, an' there ain't nothin' we can do."

The chief must have expected the words to have a hard impact on the man with the braid, but he only nodded once and said, "We'll take care of it."

With one nod, the chief and his force left.

Trowa put a hand on Duo's shoulder, a gesture that never happened. Wufei was leaning against the wall, staring into space, and Quatre was right next to him, wearing the same expression. With a groan, Duo slumped to the ground.

"Why, oh why did we ever let her out of our sight, guys?" he said, and put his head in his hands.

Quatre came over to sit next to him, and said, "We couldn't have known it would happen this soon, that they would attack now. It's not anybody's fault."

"Not according to Heero."

And Quatre knew exactly what Duo was thinking. Relena's kidnapping was equally scary to what Heero's rage would mount to when he found out that they had let their guard down.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Within an hour, Heero was up and moving around his prison. It was an ability he'd always had, to heal quickly and efficiently, though his head still pounded and a cut on his arm bled from time to time. Feeling around with his hands, he found that he was in a square room, completely empty. He tried the door, and the lock, several times, but it didn't work, and there were no cracks for light to shine through.

All in all, he could see no way out. Sitting with his back against the wall opposite the door, Heero pressed a button on his wristwatch so that it was illuminated. 5:23 PM. He closed his eyes and leaned back against the wall.

Suddenly the door burst open and light flooded into the room. Blinded for a split second, Heero used the moment to reach instinctively for his gun, which was not there. He jumped to his feet, shielding his eyes against the light.

"Come with me," said a curt, feminine voice. Its owner turned and briskly walked out of the room again, and, stumbling slightly, Heero followed.

Within a few seconds his eyes were used to light again, and his legs felt considerably stronger. He found that he was walking along a blindingly white corridor; the walls, floor, and ceiling were completely white and clean. Likewise, white doors opened into what Heero guessed were equally white rooms. He turned his gaze to the woman in front of him, tall and slim, wearing a tight black dress. For a moment, all he thought was how much this woman tried to make herself beautiful by wearing skimpy outfits and lots of makeup, when all she really had to do was act exactly how Re…

Heero shook his head fervently. Not those thoughts, out of everything. Perfect Soldier, he told himself, and immediately set his face in its mask. There was no way they would get any information out of him. He had survived torture before; he could do it again.

However, he was not led to a torture session; instead, the woman opened a door that led into another white room, except this one had a long table and two chairs. She motioned for Heero to enter, and when he did, she promptly turned on her heel and walked out the door, closing it behind her.

"Have a seat," said a hard, cold voice. Heero did so, taking the chair opposite the man that was seated in front of him.

Heero got a good look at him. He was in his late middle-ages, with graying hair and a wrinkled face, but shrewd, calculating, cold eyes. He wore a white lab coat and shiny black shoes, along with small spectacles.

Heero leaned back in his chair and folded his arms, keeping the expressionless mask on his face.

"Heero Yuy," said the man, leaning forward and folding his fingers together. "It took us a while to hunt you down, you know. You should have stayed at L3 instead of rushing down to visit your girlfriend's brother."

Heero bristled inwardly, but would not allow himself to show anything on the outside. He hated comments like that.

"You should know by now that we want the information regarding the hidden Gundams. We want it now, and if you don't give it to us, we'll attack you in every way we know how. Everyone has a weak point, Yuy, and we know exactly what yours is."

Heero raised an eyebrow and smirked. "There is no chance in heaven or hell I'm giving you the information, and there's no way that you're going to get it from me."

The man gave a cold, heartless smile that suddenly made Heero afraid of whatever this man had planned.

"So," he said, rising and walking to the door. "You won't mind if we've already done this?"

The door was thrown open and in tumbled the last person in the world Heero wanted to see there.

Relena struggled to her feet, bleeding from every cut on her body, her clothes tattered, bruises covering her from head to toe. She had changed, drastically; her hair was in a long, simple braid, and she wore tan khakis, a tank top, and a light jacket – and everything was torn. Yet even in such an awful state, Heero felt his heart leap at the sight of her.

He jumped to his feet, going to help her, but two burly men picked her up and held her there, and that was when their eyes met.

Oh, he had dreamed of those eyes every single night when he had been alone, picturing and remembering every little detail, but everything was so much better now. Her beautiful blue eyes stared at him, taking in all of his features, and he saw something in her eyes that he had never seen before. He stared at her, and suddenly he felt the mask fall off his face, and he knew, right then and there, that he loved her.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Those two burly men who had kidnapped her from the hotel and beat her all the way to the white building pushed Relena into a room. She hurt so bad she didn't even look up to check her surroundings; every single part of her body was screaming in pain. She struggled to get to her feet again, and once again felt those men grab her arms again and hold her up roughly, bruising her arms yet again. A chair was knocked to the ground as someone leaped to their feet, and Relena looked up tiredly into the dark blue eyes of Heero Yuy.

Her heart skipped a beat as she realized that here, standing ten feet away from her, was the man she had started this whole crazy mission to find. He looked just as badly beaten as she felt, but in her eyes he was just as handsome as ever. He had matured into a man, the boyish features on his face had hardened, and he was heavily muscled all over. Also, he had grown several inches, so that he now stood at an easy six-foot even. Though they were tattered, Relena noted his tan khaki pants and black shirt. But then she looked back up at his eyes, and it took all her strength just to keep herself from shaking. There in those dark blue eyes was something she had never even dreamed about seeing, yet she couldn't name it. But in the deepest part of her heart she couldn't help but think and hope that it could be love.

"So, Yuy," said the man's voice. "You do have a weakness. We had a few doubts, you know, when you didn't speak with her for seven years, but we all know now that the great Gundam pilot number one has a weakness, and a very big one at that."

Suddenly, Heero had that expressionless face on again, and Relena felt so tired she could barely move. Her very heart hurt; surely she hadn't seen love in his eyes a second before. Here he stood, tall and strong, but he was still the same uncaring, unloving man he had been seven years before.

She felt like crying.

Heero turned to glare at the middle-aged man standing by the door, and said in a careless tone, "What makes you think she's my weakness?"

The man just smirked at him, and Relena felt a jolt of fear in her stomach. They hadn't kidnapped her for her to relate the information after all; they had kidnapped her as bait for Heero.

"So you won't mind if we do this?" The man motioned once, and one of the burly men behind Relena suddenly whipped out a pistol and pushed it against her temple.

Relena stiffened instinctively, her heart hammering in her chest. Her mouth felt dry, and she felt as though her stomach had plunged to her toes. Her eyes darted back to Heero, praying that for once in his life the man could care a little.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Duo suddenly leaped to his feet, scaring the rest of the pilots half to death.

"I'VE GOT IT!" he yelled, so loud that Quatre nearly fell over.

"Quiet!" said Trowa.

"Got what?" asked Quatre.

"He gave me coordinates before!" Duo cried. "I thought they were to his ship, but they must be where he thought they'd take Relena! I mean, come on, where else would they be to?"

Wufei scoffed, "He wouldn't give out coordinates just like that."

"Oh, then where are they to? The beauty shop in case we wanted manicures? Come on, 'Fei, get real! Quatre, go grab that email off my desk. Let's go, guys!"

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Heero's heart skipped a beat as he saw the pistol, saw Relena go straight as a ramrod. She glanced at him, and he saw such intense fear in her beautiful blue eyes that his heart contracted painfully.

"Since you don't feel anything at all for her, you won't mind if we shoot her, do you?"

Relena was giving him such a pleading look that he was cross for a split second. You think I'm going to say I wouldn't mind, don't you? But then, the guard pressed the gun harder to her head, and he said immediately, "Don't shoot."

The man rubbed his hands together and said with a grin, "Ah, so you do love her!"

Heero was silent, staring at Relena.

"Then, of course, you'll give us the coordinates."

Thinking quickly, Heero turned to the man and said, "Let's make a deal."

The man's grin spread wider. "Have a seat, Yuy, and be careful what you say. At any time the guard's trigger finger could…ahem…slip."

Again his heart leaped, but Heero forced his face to stay blank and sat down, saying, "And if it slips, I guarantee you'll never get the coordinates, as long as you live."

The man sat down and said, "And why is that? There's always the other Gundam pilots, and Zechs Merquise of course. The pilots have their wives, and if Merquise won't talk, well, there's always his children."

Heero saw the alarm flash through Relena's eyes, and he said immediately, "Zechs doesn't have the information."

The man smirked. "Oh, but he does."

Heero turned to face the man and put his best acting skills to hand. "He does not. After we pretended to destroy the Gundams, Zechs somehow found out that we had hidden them instead and demanded to know where they were. The pilots and myself did not trust him, and we gave him the wrong coordinates. Whatever information he'll give you will be fake, even if he tells what he knows."

The man was silent for a while, then said, "And what about you, Yuy? You wouldn't want your girlfriend dead, would you?"

Heero ignored half of the remark and said, "If you killed Relena, you'd never get information out of me. I'd grab the gun and kill myself, and I swear to you the other pilots and their wives will do the exact same thing. It's what we were all trained for, and we never go back on training."

There was dead silence in the room for a long, long time, until the man said quietly, "All right, Yuy, what's your deal?"

Heero's face was impossible to decipher as he said, "Right now, you let me talk to one of the pilots on a vidcam and tell him exactly where we are. Then, when he arrives, he'll take Relena safely and I'll give you the coordinates."

Relena made as if to start toward the table, but the guards held her back. Heero glanced at her, and saw her shake her head "no", a tiny motion.

The man's eyes narrowed as he scrutinized Heero. "Then what happens to you?"

Heero met the man's gaze squarely. "I leave safely."

"Not possible."

"And why not?" Relena burst out, speaking for the first time. Heero's heart began thumping unusually fast at the sound of her voice. She continued quickly, "It's not as if he can cause any more damage. He knows where this building is now, but I'll bet my life he's known for a long time. He's probably told everyone, now. Anyway, you can always move your location. If you won't let him out because he's seen you, well, you're not the head official anyway. Don't look so surprised, I've lived around important people and officials all my life. I can always tell. No one will be after you, you know. You're not worth it."

Though both of them knew the man would definitely be angry about this, neither of them cared. Anger flashed across his face, but after a minute of rapid thinking, the man said, "All right. But on one condition."

"What?" Heero asked quickly.

The man eyed him. "Before your friend takes your girlfriend away, all three of you are going to stay here while I look up the coordinates."

Heero shook his head immediately. "I'll stay, but you have no further use for Relena."

There was silence, and then the man said grudgingly, "Agreed. Tomás, drop the gun, release her, and flip on the vidcam."

The man holding the gun to Relena's head released his hold and put the gun back in its holster as he walked out of the room.

Relena fell to the floor, her legs finally giving out on her. She sat on her knees and tried to look dignified, but Heero couldn't help but see the tear trickle down her cheek. His arms ached for want of holding her, but he knew everything depended on his actions. He'd make it up to her later.

Suddenly, one whole wall turned black, and a panel of buttons appeared near the blackness on a neighboring wall.

The man turned to Heero and said coldly, "Sending digits, please."

Heero thought fast. If Duo was smart enough, he was already in a ship cruising toward the building they were in now. If he wasn't, he was still at the hotel. One or the other? Closing his eyes for a split second, Heero decided to trust in his old comrade.

"63-78-2-14. And don't bother to trace it, it's an old ship they'll never use again."

The man nodded once and punched in the numbers. It took about a minute, then suddenly Duo's face appeared on the screen, looking anxious and worried.

"Heero!" he yelled, then looked over his shoulder and yelled, "GUYS! IT'S HEERO!"

"Duo, shut up!" Heero hissed, standing and walking over to the vidcam wall.

Duo did so promptly and got a good look at his "buddy."

Heero said wryly, "Thanks for the compliment."

Duo caught sight of Relena on the floor, and his mouth dropped open. After a second, he grinned teasingly at both of them and said, "Ooh, met up, did we?"

Heero said immediately, "Duo, this isn't time for fooling around. Those coordinates I gave you, remember?"

"Yeah, we're headed there right now."

Heero shook his head. "I'm there right now. Listen, I've got a deal going here, and I need you here now to get Relena."

Duo's eyes widened. "Just Relena? Not you?"

Relena suddenly stood and said, "He's coming too, Duo, right after we leave." Heero turned to look at her, and she glared at him. "Isn't that right, Heero?"

Heero turned back to Duo and rolled his eyes, then continued, "They'll let you in without any trouble – " Here Heero shot a Death Glare at the man standing impatiently in the corner. "And somebody will lead you to our room." He glanced at Duo and said, "And you'll need to bring a first aid kit, too."

A slow grin spread over Duo's face, and he said, "With the Band-Aids, of course."

Heero nodded once.

Duo grinned and said, "All right, buddy, I'll be there before you can say "God of Death." See you soon!" And with a jovial wave, Duo shut off his vidcam.

Heero sighed and sat down.

"Miss Peacecraft, have a seat," said the man curtly. "We'll have to wait until this Duo arrives for any further deals to be made."

Relena obeyed and pulled her chair around to sit next to Heero. He didn't move.

They had sat in silence for about fifteen minutes when the man said suddenly, "I'm going to turn in a report. There'll be guards posted at the door, so you can't escape. Of course, if you did, we'll kill everyone you've ever loved, no matter what."

He left the room, taking the other guard with him, and shut the door.

After a minute Relena started sobbing quietly, tears running down her bruised and bloody face. She put her face in her hands, her shoulders heaving.

There was a moment of silence, then Heero turned in his chair and watched her for a moment. Even though it was one of her longtime "life rules" to not cry in front of Heero Yuy, she couldn't help it. Everything was so mixed up and confusing, the tears just came.

And then something totally unexpected happened, something that neither of them ever thought possible. Heero reached out and pulled her to himself, hugging her tight. Though surprised, Relena gratefully let him hold her and sobbed into his chest. Heero rocked back and forth slightly, his mind in a whirl. He had no idea what had come over him, yet it felt so incredibly right to hold her, and he didn't want to ever let go.

After a few minutes, her tears subsided, yet she didn't move. Her eyes closed, she leaned against his chest. Heero listened as her breathing slowed and she calmed down. He closed his eyes and breathed in the faint scent of her shampoo, enjoying the feeling of finally having her in his arms.

Suddenly the door burst open and Duo dashed into the room, closely followed by the man and two guards. Immediately Heero released Relena and stood up.

Duo stopped short, and a slow grin spread over his face.

"Ohohoho, so the Perfect Sol – "

"Shut up," said Relena and Heero in unison.

The man said curtly, "Maxwell, take Miss Peacecraft away now."

Duo's eyes widened. "What? Without Heero? No – "

"Duo," said Heero quickly. "Go. Don't worry – I've got it all taken care of. I'll be right behind you."

"Heero," said Relena softly. He turned to look at her, and she said, "Please, please come with us now." A stray tear trickled down one cheek as she gazed pleadingly up at him.

Heero shook his head, but with two fingers wiped away her tear. "I'll be right behind you," he whispered for only her ears to hear.

Bravely, Relena nodded and held her head high, then walked over to Duo. "Let's go," she said.

Duo glanced at her, then turned to Heero and said quietly, "I'll leave, buddy, but I just want you to know I brought the first aid kit."

Heero nodded once. "I'll be needing it."

Duo gave him a very small smile, and said, "I know." Then, without further ado, he turned and walked out of the room, Relena at his heels.

Heero watched her go for a moment, then turned to the man and said, "Take me to the computer room, and I'll show you those coordinates."

________________________________________________________________________