Consciousness 5/?

Gin Ryo no Nari

Standard disclaimers, I own nothing but the plot and maybe the bad guys if they are original.

For those with sensitive ears, there is a cuss word present in this part.

As the three left the ballroom another figure that had gone unnoticed began their preparations.

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Quatre and Relena danced for ten minutes or so, discussing their recent activities, such as the meetings they had attended and other friendly chit chat. “Quatre, how is your family’s business? I’ve meant to come by to see you when I’m on your colony, but I never have the time. Is everything running smoothly, I had heard for a while that there were some problems with your mining facility.”

“It’s doing fine, since you ask. There were some problems with the housing on one of the asteroids; the exterior door seals weren’t sealing all the way. But everything’s working smoothly now. Katina, one of my oldest sisters, and Laria, the next to youngest, are managing the company while I’m here on Earth for talks and conferences.” He smiled kindly at Relena, “How have you been? You are always going somewhere according to the colony news. Have you had any down time in the past four months?”

Relena chuckled softly, “I think I forget what down time is. Actually Heero, of all people, has been trying to convince me to take off for the past week. I can’t take off though. Peace is a thread from a spider’s web, one must handle it carefully and tread lightly upon it, or else it shall be destroyed.” She looked up to his face and saw him watching her seriously, “What Quatre? You’re plotting something --aren’t you?”

“Miss Relena, I was simply thinking that, should you have the time in your schedule, you should come to visit for a few days. You could just “hang out” and be yourself. --You know, like normal people our age would. You wouldn’t be Vice-Foreign Minister Dorlian, Duchess* Peacecraft, or the Former Queen Peacecraft, you’d be Relena, twenty-one year old woman looking for a good time.” The green eyed Arabian smiled at her mischievously.

“That does sound very interesting. I think that could be arranged, but not until the end of the month.” She smiled at the thought of taking a vacation, if only for a few days. Quatre had gone quiet and when she looked up at the, five-foot eight, man she noticed that he seemed to be paying attention to something. She followed his gaze to the stairway leading to the upper interior balcony. She was in time to see Wufei rushing up the stairs with his gun drawn.

“Relena, I think you should get down, or I should get you to…”At that moment a brown-haired figure pushed through the slight crowd surrounding them. The figure pushed Quatre down and pulled Relena under it as it fell to the ground, at the same time there were gunshots fired. The crowd panicked; due to their self-preservation instinct many ducked and hid behind other people or tables and columns. The various bodyguards throughout the room had crouched and drawn their side arms, but by now the action was over and, with the exception of a few panicked voices crying or asking questions of those around them, there was silence.

Earlier in a secure room in the Palace

Heero and Wufei were having a tough time with the interrogation. At least they were until Wufei grabbed his Katana. Relena allowed him to keep it at the palace for when he was there and wished to practice and meditate. Wufei quickly threatened to cut the man’s body parts off starting with his right hand, if he didn’t start talking. The Katana was a centimeter away from removing the man’s hand when he started talking about another assassin present in the balcony.

Heero and Wufei left the man manacled and closely guarded by three other Preventers who were on security detail. Heero told Wufei to take care of the assassin and he would get to Relena. Once they were in the ballroom they split up, Heero found Relena close to his position thankfully and went to intercept her. On his way he saw Trowa, in the shadows of a column, pull out his weapon, ‘Shit!’ He pushed through the crowd; he had to get to her. ‘Quatre get her out of the way.’ He finally saw them; he pushed Quatre down and pulled Relena closer to himself. He heard three rounds fired and felt a burning sensation brush along his bicep as he fell with Relena in his grasp. He looked at her face and saw her scrunch her eyes closed and noticed her nose wrinkling in the process. His eyes closed involuntarily just before they hit the hard, marbleized floor, but he still heard the thunk of Relena hitting the floor hard.

Relena felt herself being pulled to someone harshly and she saw Quatre being pushed down, she knew instantly that it was Heero who had grabbed her to protect her. She heard gunfire and felt a slight burning along the outside of her upper arm. She closed her eyes tightly as she waited to hit the floor. She knew it couldn’t possibly be as far to the floor as it felt, but she hadn’t hit the floor-. The wind was promptly knocked out of her at impact and further crushed from her lungs as Heero fell onto her, but she didn’t have time to register that sensation as she simultaneously felt an explosion in the back of her head and saw a great flash of white.

To be continued…

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*I’m working from the theory that while Milliardo is the recognized as the heir to the Peacecraft throne, he feels inadequate to rule. However, under ESUN there is no ruling sovereignty, so he wouldn’t rule as either a figurehead or actual king anyway.