I do not own Gundam Wing.  This fan fiction has no commercial value and I am not making any kind of profit or income off of this.  

Chapter 9

Relena awoke on a small dingy cot in a dark room with a musty smell.  It was no place she recognized.  There was a dizzying pain in her head that made thought difficult.  “Why does my head hurt?” she asked herself. “How did I get here?” She tried to move, but felt something heavy weighing down her arms. She opened her eyes and saw the shackles – thick steel bracelets joined by a chain. “I’m a prisoner,” she thought fearfully before passing out again.

She awoke later; she had no idea how long she had been there. She was only dimly aware of voices coming from somewhere outside the room. Suddenly, the door opened, and light streamed in, blinding her momentarily. A soldier in a red uniform stood in the doorway, his face obscured by the light streaming in from behind. “Get up,” he barked at her.

Relena tried to stand, but her legs gave out, and she fell back onto the cot. The soldier moved towards her, and grabbed her roughly by the arm, yanking her to a standing position. He half dragged her out of the room, then pushed her along in front of him. She walked in silence with her eyes cast down to the floor.

After turning and twisting their way through a maze of corridors, the soldier finally opened a door and led her into a white room, bare except for a small wooden table, two chairs, and a curtain drawn across a window that looked into another room.

A large man with broad shoulders and piercing black eyes watched her enter. The soldier who had escorted her there abruptly left. The other man ordered her in a loud voice to sit down. She complied wordlessly.

He crossed the room and addressed her, “Miss Peacecraft,” he snarled. “What an honor it is to have you here.” He was met with silence. She kept looking at the table in front of her. “You have been brought here for two reasons. The first was to stop that wedding of yours and hopefully break the fragile peace that exists between the colonies and earth. As we speak, colony leaders are blaming one another, and arming for battle. The second reason is that there are only a few people in the universe that know where those Gundams are being kept. And those blasted pilots won’t talk. We’ve already tried the one we found, but he’s not being too cooperative. It’s my belief that you might be a little easier to convince.”

She looked straight ahead, avoiding his gaze. “Never,” she replied through clenched teeth.

The man laughed. “I was afraid you’d say that. Well, I’d like to re-introduce you to an old friend of yours. I’ll give you the chance to say good-bye to him,” he said with a hard glint in his eyes.

He crossed the room and pulled the curtain. Relena gasped. There, strapped to a table, blood pouring out of cuts all over his body, and his fingertips, was Heero. The man gave a nod to a soldier standing next to the pilot, who promptly drew his gun. “NO!” Relena screamed, and ran towards the glass. The shot was deafening as his head slumped forward, a perfect hole in his right temple. Relena banged on the glass, “NO! Heero, NO!” She lost focus and pure instinct took over. She kicked her captor hard in the groin, then brought her hands down with the steel shackles, knocking him over the head. She tore the door open and ran down the hallway, only to come nose to nose with the barrel of a gun.

She kneeled down in front of the soldier that had just killed the man she loved with all her heart, and begged him to take her life.

*             *             *             *             *             *             *             *             *             *             *

It was 4 am, and an emergency meeting had been called. Noin, Duo, Trowa, Wu-fei, and Sally were already present, waiting on a distraught Milliardo before they called the meeting to order. What they didn’t expect was the groom-to-be to be in attendance.

As he entered the room, he caught sight of Duo, and anger flashed in his cold green eyes. In a heartbeat, he hurdled the long conference table and had Duo in a vice grip against the wall.

“You promised me you would protect her with your life!” he raged, beating Duo’s head against the wall. Duo’s eyes grew round, and his face turned red as he gasped for air but failed. “You promised!” he hissed in anger.

The rest of the room looked on in shocked silence, except for Trowa. The empathic Gundam pilot put a hand on the blond man’s shoulder, “Heero, you can’t blame Duo for this,” he began. Heero relaxed his grip, his shoulders sagging slightly. “You can’t blame yourself, either. It’s not your fault. We did everything we could to protect her.”

Duo rubbed his neck and sucked in air. “Heero?” he questioned. “Is that you, buddy?”

            Heero’s face regained its blank expression, but his eyes still blazed with fury. “Yes,” was all he said before taking his place in the dark corner of the room, fists clenched, his face unreadable in the shadows.

“But…but how?”

“Easy enough,” replied Trowa. “Heero and Jacob were similar in height and build. With a hair cut, some peroxide, green contact lenses, and a goatee, he makes a believable double, wouldn’t you say, Quatre?”

Quatre had just arrived on the tail end of the conversation. He didn’t like the tension in the room. “Yes, Trowa?”

“You knew Quatre?” Noin asked incredulously.

“Knew what?” he asked, a sinking feeling in his stomach.

“That Heero was posing as Jacob Quincy,” Trowa replied.

Quatre felt his face flush red, as he answered, “Not right away. He didn’t clue me in to his plan until I confronted him. The real Jacob is a louse that I can’t stand. He didn’t care about Relena at all, and I tried to steer the colony leaders away from choosing him for this sort of alliance. But he’s charismatic and charming to people that don’t know him. The other leaders liked him. And they didn’t like me.” Quatre blushed. “I knew she wouldn’t be completely happy with me, either, but at least she and I are friends. At least I wouldn’t have hurt her, the way I knew he would.” Quatre gulped for air as he looked around the room.

“This guy that arrived was too silent. He was too caring towards her, and even acted jealous when I danced with her. I knew it wasn’t Jacob, but I hadn’t guessed it was Heero. Not until, like I said, I confronted him. That first night at the party, he was standing out on the balcony. After everyone had left, I pulled a gun and asked who had sent him. I was afraid he might be there to assassinate her.”

“He had me on the ground in a matter of seconds. I knew then who it was; there was no need for words. I promised to help him, knowing that he’s always been the one in her heart.”

“How long have you known, Trowa?” Noin asked.

“I knew when he came into this room and had Duo in a choke hold in under five seconds. Other than that, his words gave him away. ‘You promised me you would protect her with your life.’ The only one who would have extracted that promise from Duo is Heero.”

They were interrupted by the entrance of Milliardo, looking grimly determined. “Why is Jacob here?” he mused. “And why is he standing in a corner glaring at the world like he was Heero Yuy?”

“They found nothing,” he said aloud. Noin moved to put a comforting hand on his shoulder.
            “Heero, now that you’re here, why don’t you tell us who this is, and what we’re up against,” Sally asked.

“Sally, it’s four in the morning,” Milliardo began irritably. “And we’re all a little stressed, but how could you possibly mistake Jacob for that cold-hearted, arrogant, suicidal son-of-a-bitch, Heero Yuy?”

Everyone froze, fearful of what might happen next.

“Because, Zeches, I am that cold-hearted, arrogant, suicidal son-of-a-bitch,” Heero growled, stepping forward into the light. Hard emerald flashed as his eyes met ice blue.

“YUY!” Milliardo shouted angrily. “What in the hell do you think you are doing? What did you do with Jacob? And so help me, God, if you’ve laid one hand on my sister, I’m going to…”

“What?” Heero asked with a smirk on his lips, and death in his eyes. “You’re going to what?”

*          *          *         *          *         *          *         *          *         *          *

Relena whimpered softly as Hugh, the soldier who spared her life, tended her wounds. The general had flogged her so long she finally passed out. “But I didn’t talk,” she told herself with a feeling of satisfaction. “And I never will.” Sleep took hold of her, numbing the pain in her body, but not in her soul.

*             *             *             *             *             *             *             *             *             *          *

“The L6 colony prospered during the time of war. They built most of the mobile suits used by Oz. Once peace came, mobile suit production reached an all time low, and has left the economy and government of L6 in complete chaos. A new leader by the name of Tavey, calling himself by the title of general, has seized power and assembled soldiers from the last war. He has put the mobile suit factories back in business, using the money from his vast drug smuggling operation. He believes a war will bring his colony back to its former prosperity. Why he wanted Relena alive, I don’t know. I have my suspicions, of course.”

“The Gundams,” Trowa said.

“But nothing has been confirmed,” Heero finished, eyeing Trowa.

“On this disk is the layout of their main base, as well as the design drawings for the new mobile suits they have been manufacturing.”

“What is our plan of attack?” Sally asked.

“As long as Relena could be on that base, we can’t risk an all out effort. We have to battle on all fronts. Milliardo and Quatre will be needed to keep the channels of discourse open between the colonies and earth. Tavey’s group will have planted misinformation about the abduction in order to start finger pointing, hoping it will result in war. You two will need to keep this from happening. Sally and Wu-fei, we need the Preventers to escalate troops, but quietly. Trowa and Duo, depending on whether I can confirm my suspicions, I will either need you to back me up, or run interference. Either way, I need you to hang out here for a few hours.”

“What are you going to do, Yuy?” Milliardo’s deep voice, filled with loathing, inquired.

“I’m going after Relena.”