Hating a Phoenix, Chapter 8

By: Firey Angelwings

***Hello guys! So here comes chapter 8, and some moments you’ve all been waiting for...*drumroll*...YES! We have some Heero/Relena warmer moments! Enough of all this fighting! Make love, not war, etc, etc, etc. Well, we still have a long way to go but, at least a little change is nice, right?

Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing, or anything having to do with the show, characters, etc...

***************

Sally Po and Wufei stood in what was now dubbed the ‘computer room’. It was a small box of a room that overlooked the Gundams in their hangar, and it was filled with small computer screens that monitored activity around all the colonies. There was normally always somebody in this room, just to make sure that there was no fights to break up anywhere.

Wufei was fighting back the burning sensation that still remained in his cheeks from a few minutes ago, when he and Sally had walked into each other and fell on some of the equipment.

‘It’s a good thing nothing was damaged’ Wufei thought bitterly. ‘Stupid woman, should have watched where she was going.’

She was wondering whether to try to start a conversation with Wufei, even though Sally was almost positive that it was futile to try. Nonetheless, she started,

“Wufei, you know... I think that....” Sally trailed off. She was silently reprimanding herself, as she hadn’t thought of anything to say FIRST.

At her voice, the pilot of Nataku watched her out of the corner of his eye. When Sally didn’t continue, he became irritated.

‘Why must she keep breaking my concentration!’ His mind was shouting angrily, ‘I thought I saw something on that screen to the left...’

Wufei’s frustration was evident on his face, but Sally didn’t give up. She finally said in a low voice,

“I hope you return from your next mission in good shape, Wufei.”

At this he straightened and turned back to face her. In a biting voice, Wufei inquired,

“Why do you say that? Don’t I always?”

Sally opened her mouth to answer, but never got the chance. One of the larger moniters made a loud blip, and both of them rushed over to it.

“An attack on L1, we’ve got to move!” Wufei muttered.

“It looks pretty big...we’d better round up everyone for this.”

******************

The pilots, Relena and Milliardo were briefed on the situation quickly, and were then assigned their sector s of battle to clear out. As they began walking towards their mobile suits, Heero noticed that Relena’s brother kept glancing over to his sister, protectively and..strangely.

‘What’s going on with him?’ His mind made note of Milliardo’s odd behaviour.

Nobody else seemed to notice anything strange, however. In a very short amount of time, they had all switched into battle mode, and they wasted no time in making their way towards their areas of battle.

L1 loomed in front of them, and it was easy to make out the burst of fire and explosions as enemy and ally suits were destroyed. Milliardo, Duo, Trowa and Wufei all blasted away from the group to their sectors on the opposite sides. Quatre wound up beside Heero, who was beside Relena, who was getting ready to try out the new Zero system for the first time in actual battle. Quietly she said,

“Viore Zero system engage”.

****************

Maxwell Pavey had a prime spot in his ship to watch the battle unfold, far enough to be in safety, cloaked heavily so nobody could notice his ship’s presence.

“Sir, the Gundams have arrived to the battle.” A messanger was announcing to him every important detail of the battle.

Pavey felt a twinge of annoyance at the arrival of his enemy, but was then gratified when he asked,

“Tell me, is the mobile suit known as Viore among the group?”

There was a pause before the reply,

“Affirmative sir.”

A great smile of delight broke across Pavey’s face as he demanded a communication link be opened between him and his troops. When it was ready, he bellowed out his order,

“Men, if you are in the vicinity of the mobile suit Viore, your orders are to cease what you are doing and focus all your attacks on that single suit. That is all.”

As the comm link was broken, he muttered to himself,

“I know that is you, Relena Peacecraft. I will make sure that you die first, as you should have.”

***************

Relena had broken out into a sweat long ago. She was very confused because as she was fighting, she was trying to locate the malfunction in the Zero system, namely, why it wouldn’t start.

She decided to let it go for a while, and focused her efforts on destroying the people who attacked her. However, it soon became evident that she was becoming swamped by enemies. Relena quickly asked for stats, and discovered that more suits were closing in on her than on any other of her friends.

‘What is going on?’ She thought in frustration. ‘Why are they concentrating their numbers on me?’ And a moment later, ‘Why is the Zero system disconnected?!’

In a moment of distraction, Viore was hit multiple times.

***************

In the middle of a battle, Heero never became distracted with the position of other people. He reverted back to the Perfect Soldier, meant to distroy his enemy.

He always left his comm link on, in case of new orders. After a solid hit was delivered to the Wing Zero, the frequency changed and crackled for a moment. It was then that he heard,

“Men, if you are in the vicinity of the mobile suit Viore, your orders are to cease what you are doing and focus all your attacks on that single suit. That is all.”

‘What the hell?’ His mind raced as everything clicked.’Enemy. Those are the orders of the enemy. Relena. Why focus on...Relena?’

He spun his Gundam around to come face to face with the vision of the Viore being swamped by attacks.

Relena could not, COULD NOT believe the fact that somebody had disconnected the Zero system. Who? Why?

It wasn’t a priority right now, as her mobile suit was taking heavy damage. The enemy ratio was way too high, there was no way she could handle all this.

“Damn it!” She shouted out, as Relena noticed another enemy heading straight for her.

A huge blast of energy tore a line through her attackers. She turned and noticed...Wing Zero. Heero.

She had never been so happy to see anyone.

With a powerful blast forward, Heero plunged into battle in Relena’s sector, making sure that the Viore took no more hits. He fought in a blind rage, pushing back their numbers, and was only stopped when he heard Quatre’s confirmation of the defeat of their enemy.

In half of her mind she felt grateful, and decided that she would never EVER be cruel to Heero again, no matter what he said to her.

But in the other half of her mind, Relena was furious. It had finally clicked for her. She understood what had just happened to the Zero system, and she was seeing red.

*****************

As the pilots all emerged from their suits, they all spared no time in running to where Relena was standing. However, they all stopped when they saw the look of fury on the normally peaceful Lena’s face. Finally Quatre asked,

“What happened Lena?”

She took a deep breath, closed her eyes for a moment and pulled out the elastic that was hoding back her hair. As the silver strands fell across her face, she finally spoke.

“What happened. Well, first of all, the Zero system was disconnected.”

There was a sharp intake of breath from all as she continued.

“It is obvious that the enemies were, for some reason, focusing on me. It was very lucky that Heero,” she gestured in his direction, “noticed and protected me.” She raised her eyes to meet her brother’s when Relena finally demanded,

“So what was your reasoning, Milliardo,” Her tone was biting, “To disconnect the Zero system?”

All eyes turned towards Relena’s brother. He looked surprised for a moment, but then covered his face with his hands.

“Lena. God, I’m so sorry. I just...didn’t think that you were..ready yet. For all those new improvements. I....” He trailed off.

Relena stared at her long-haired brother for a long while, her stare ready to rival any of Heero’s anytime. Finally, without saying a word, she walked off and out of the hangar. Slowly, the rest of them dispersed as well.

*************

Duo and Hilde stood in the kitchen, stirring, dicing, mixing, broiling. They had volunteered to make dinner, as it was te cook’s day off. They talked easily and comfortably.

“I still can’t believe Milliardo would do that!”

“Well, you know it was just because he cares so much about Lena.”

“Yeah, but did you see the look on her face! She was furious!”

“Tell me about it...”

“I don’t think she is going to talk to him for a while.”

“Really? I dunno...Lena’s a pretty peaceful person.”

“You don’t know her like I do. When it comes to family feuds, she’s all like ‘Screw pacifism’.”

“Bet on it?”

“Bet on what?”

“Let’s say...I bet Lena will talk to Milliardo sometime tonight.”

“Alright. I bet she won’t until at least tomorrow.”

“Ten bucks?”

“Sure. You’re going to lose, Duo Maxwell!”

“We’ll see. We’ll see.”

***************

Relena spurred her black stallion into a furious gallop across the red ground of Mars. Behind was a huge cloud of dust from the horse’s hoofs. She felt the need to get away and think. She was still angry as ever, but Relena felt calmer and more calculating out here in the fresh air, with the wind whipping at her face and hair.

In the distance, she notice the seated figure of Heero Yuy, reading some printed pages. Relena remembered how she hadn’t thanked him properly. After a moment’s hesitation, she turned her horse towards him and slowed down.

Heero looked up from the information that he had procured when he noticed the sound of hoofbeats. He lifted his head towards the sound and saw Relena heading towards him on horseback. He made no move to get up or move away as she halted in front of him.

Relena bit her bottom lip before quietly saying,

“Look, I just want to say thank you for what you did today...” She trailed off.

Heero caught her eyes and paused before he said,

“If you want to thank me, do something for me.”

She raised an eyebrow and motioned for him to continue.

“I need to talk to you...later, about what happened in that battle. Not now, I don’t have enough information yet.”

Relena pondered for a moment, then nodded.

“Alright. How about...the basement sparring room at...8:30?”

Heero nodded, his eyes already scanning the pages before him.

Relena sensed that she had been dismissed but wasn’t offended by it. She simply turned her horse, and started riding back to the mansion.

**************

Dinner wasn’t too lively. Both Duo and Hilde made some effort to try and engage certain people in conversation, but it was no use. All had at least made some comment that the dinner had turned out well; a great acheivement for the two.

It was obvious that Relena was pointedly not talking to her brother, and Hilde shot Duo triumphant glances.

Relena’s mind wasn’t on her food, but wondering what it was Heero had to talk to her about.

***************

Later on, at 8:30 exactly, Relena stood waiting in the sparring room when Heero walked in. Her eyes were questioning and he went straight to the point.

“During the battle today, I intercepted an order from the leader of the Purifiers, Maxwell Pavey. He ordered all the troops in your vicinity to attack only you. I researched this afternoon on any sort of relationship that Pavey may have to you and discovered that he has a history with your biological mother.”

Relena cleared her throat nervously and asked,

“And that is?”

He continued,

“It is that his father wanted to marry your mother when she was already engaged. She refused him and later on his father was killed. It was called an accident. When Pavey grew up however, he claimed that your mother killed his father, and he also believed that your mother was not...human. Nobody believed him, of course. Therefore, this whole history would give him a great reason to want to kill you.”

Relena was dumbstruck. She didn’t say anything for a moment. She then stated,

“My mother did not kill anyone.”

Heero then said back,

“It is probably true, like it or not. If you think about it, she could have easily used her Phoenix powers-”

Relena interrupted him in anger,

“My mother wouldn’t have done that! Phoenix powers are NEVER used for purposed such as that! This is ridiculous!”

She made a beeline for the door, but Heero would not be dismissed so fast. He grabbed her wrist in a vice of steel.

“Maybe you believe that for yourself, but it is not neccessarily true for anyone else.”

Relena’s eyes shot fire as she pulled fiercely away and headed for the door. In a calculated move, Heero had her pinned against a wall and held her arms away. Relena spat out,

“How dare you touch me. You will regret it.”

Her body contracted and Heero could hear the back of her shirt rip as two glorious wings sprouted from her back. She immediately pushed him back.

What followed was a quick scuffle, as Relena said,

“I would never believe such a thing about my....”

Her voice trailed off. Her expression changed from one of fury to amazement to consternation. She looked shocked, but not in a bad way. She croaked out,

“You...you...”

Heero tried to figure out what was going on when the reality hit them both.

Heero’s hand was holding one of her wings, among the silky feathers. He didn’t know if this was a bad thing, or a good thing. Relena looked conpletely amazed, as she finally said,

“It’s...warm.”

With that she collapsed onto the ground. For a moment Heero didn’t know what to think as her stared at the unconscious woman/angel on the ground.

Finally, he knelt and gingerly picked up Relena’s limp body, being careful not to touch her wings again. He slowly made his way up to Relena’s room, making sure he didn’t run into anybody.

Heero quietly opened the door to Relena’s set of chambers, all the while wondering how somebody could be so light. He lay her down on the bed and stared at her for a while, annoyed at his lack of understanding of this species. Phoenixes.

He made the sunconscious decision to stay until she woke up, and walked over to the balcony, staring at the darkening sky.

*************

Milliardo sat on his bed, while Noin tried to work out the kinks of tension in his shoulders. He asked quietly,

“Do you think Lena will be all right?”

Noin sighed quietly and reassuringly. She answered equally as softly,

“Don’t worry. Just let her sleep on it.

*************

***Yeah! Alright! It’s done! I can’t believe I just wrote that. So what do you think? I know, more to be explained in later chapters, but...well? Don’t forget to review, give me your opinion, ideas, whatever.

Important stuff #1: Visit my website for fastest updates:

www.geocities.com/angelwingsfics/Home.html

Important stuff #2: After much deliberation and mail from both sides, the final verdict is that I will not write a lemon chapter for this fanfic. It will be left unsaid. But I felt sort of bad, as there were a lot of people who wanted a lemon, so I’ve come up with an alternative. Visit my site for all the details on this.

Luv you all,

-Angelwings

Finished~August 21st, 2001.