Part 1 - Peace is Shattered

Hello Everyone! As requested, here is the first fic in the Sequel Series to Heero's Peace. I know, I know, but I totally could NOT come up with a title, try as I might. There's going to be plenty of action and romance (mostly H & R), SO, without further ado: Enjoy the story! - Stella

Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing or any of these characters and so on and so forth, amen.

Kingdom of Lowen
AC 203

Trowa Barton leaned against shuttle hanger wall. He looked from the clock over the door to his own watch, and back to the clear blue sky and field just beyond the window. His apprehension started to get the better of him and pushed himself up, walking outside to wait. 'They should be here by now!' he thought, silently worrying. He and Heero had wasted no time in getting the communication to them that they were all in danger, even the children. Trowa checked the sky again, letting out a sigh of relief as the Winner family shuttle came into view, flanked on either side by a dozen Maguanac mobile suits. The shuttle landed and Trowa made his way out to the landing strip to meet Quatre and his wife and children. "Thank God they escaped," Trowa murmured as the spacecraft's doors opened.

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"Shhh, here he comes!" Daniel Maxwell whispered to his twin brother Deiter as they hid behind a corner at the end of a long hallway. The boys had been playing hide and seek when they had looked outside and noticed the man in the Preventer uniform entering this part of Lowen palace. They never missed an opportunity to play a prank on him. Daniel stole a quick glance down the hall to confirm the presence of their target, and then flattened himself back against the wall. With a mischievous grin he held out a hand and began to count down on fingers. "Three, two, one!" They jumped out growling and screaming, intending to surprise the unsuspecting soldier, but they were the ones who were surprised. No one was there. The baffled pair of four year olds started to search around the hallway, when all of a sudden a dark shape appeared before them.

"GRRRRRR!!!!!" Both boys nearly jumped out of their skins and took off running in the opposite direction, howling down the corridors. A smug looking Wufei Chang stood in the middle of the hall watching them go, his arms crossed and a faint smile finding its way to his lips. 'Serves them right,' he thought, and continued on his way all the while muttering something about the injustice of the fact that there were two more Maxwells in the world to torment him.

He reached the conference room and sharply opened the door. Heero and Duo were waiting for him, but only Duo lifted his head to acknowledge Wufei's entry. "Sally said you called, and that it was important." Duo didn't answer right away, which led to the hint of irritation in Wufei's voice as he pressed for an answer. "What is it?"

To his surprise it was Heero who answered. "The White Fang's back," he said stiffly, "And we're being targeted, all of us gundam pilots. Quatre was the first, but we got word to him in time. Trowa called and he just landed."

Wufei looked at him in disbelief. "But the Preventers... we've heard nothing."

Heero seemed as though he were ready to strike out at any second. "There was nothing to hear, at least not for the Preventers. This is an inside job - it's someone close to us," he said as he flung a stack of printouts on the table in the direction of a stunned Wufei. He flipped through the papers as Duo picked up where Heero had left off.

"They see us pilots as traitors, since we ended up fighting to save earth. Of course they'll be after Zechs, Noin and Relena, too. It's just that Quatre was the most convenient at the moment. I'm pretty sure they'll save Zechs for the end since he was their leader. But it's someone in the Preventers, we're sure of it." Duo's expression lightened a bit as he cast a glance at Heero. "Whoever they are, they didn't take into consideration that the master hacker is still at large. Those transmissions were only superficially deleted."

"What actions do you intend to take? The gundams?" Wufei asked. "Won't your wife want to try and talk to them?"

"Let's wait for Trowa and Quatre," Heero said coldly. Duo again looked in his direction.

"Man, don't tell me she doesn't know." Heero said nothing, but Duo pressed him. "Heero, it's been five years and you still didn't tell her that we rebuilt all the gundams and built that army of suits? She's gonna find out now! I told you to..."

Heero didn't need Duo giving him advice right now. The fact that he had deceived Relena weighed more heavily on him than the situation they were now facing. He'd decided to build those suits just in case something like this ever happened again. He felt that she didn't need to know. Relena should not be responsible for HIS actions, and she was still the Vice Foreign Minister. Knowledge of the rebuilt suits might force her into compromising situations and he didn't want to do that to her. But yet he knew that this could destroy her trust in him, and it made him revert back to his icy emotionless shell. He had never wanted to hurt her, and he had hoped above all other things that he would never need that army or the gundams, but he'd wanted to have them for safety's sake. After the "Tremen Incident," he didn't want to be caught unprepared. But Heero was about to be caught unprepared in another way. He was shaken out of his thoughts as his wife walked into the conference room.

The sweet expression that she usually wore had retreated and left no trace of itself on her shocked and anguished face. She spoke to Duo, but kept her eyes locked on Heero. "Duo, what did you just say?" Her voice was shaky; her hands were white and trembling. Duo sputtered and made a series of unintelligible grunts and syllables. Heero leaned across the table and took one of her hands.

"Relena, please let me make you understand. I did this for our protection. And that is the same reason that I didn't tell you. I didn't want you to have to lie for me or be answerable to my actions."

"Then it's true," she whispered. She kept her watery eyes locked on his, and for a moment Heero worried that she might faint. But with a sudden show of force she ripped her hand from his, nearly back-handing Wufei.

Heero was unable to mask the look of surprise on his face. "Relena, I'm sorry..."

"You're sorry, Heero?" she said through tears. The venom in her voice was unlike anything he had heard. "Heero, I trusted you. We made a promise to defend our kingdoms together, and you do this without telling me. It's not the first time, either! Did my brother know? Did he?" Heero only nodded an affirmation. "You all knew! And you hid it from me like I was still some child - like I'm not capable of understanding your reasons! I make speeches day in and day out asking people to discard their weapons and my own husband and councilors build an arsenal right under my nose!" They all stood there with their heads bowed as Relena looked wildly at each of them. Through her anger, Heero could see that look about her. Again he watched her heart break right in front of his eyes. There was nothing he could say to her as she started to walk away. She put her hand on the door latch, but turned around to address them all a final time. "So you're going to fight again, too?" No one answered her. "That's what I thought," she said as she stormed out, letting the door slam loudly behind her.

The three men left in the room were silent for a long time until Duo spoke up. Looking at a scowling Heero, he piped up. "That went well." Heero didn't even look at him, he was still trying to grasp what had just happened.

"Shut up, Maxwell," Wufei growled.

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Relena stalked up to her office, barely able to see through the tears. How could they have done this to her? Deceived her and lied over all this time? And Heero? She thought he'd always be the one she could trust - her own husband. Over the last five years she had been hard pressed to see traces of the cold unfeeling soldier she had once known. He had become so affectionate and considerate. Heero laughed and smiled, even joked with Duo once in a while. He had embraced his role as the Prince Regent of Lowen, and together they had united their kingdoms and helped their people recover from the wars. After everything that had happened with Tremen and Heero finding his birthright, and most of all confessing their love for each other... she just couldn't believe this. Relena had never felt so betrayed in all her life.

She plopped down in her chair and covered her face with her hands, but she found that she was too mad to sob. Instead she felt sick, and her stomach lurched so hard that she was afraid that she might lose her breakfast. Maybe subconsciously she knew that this was coming because she'd been feeling sick for weeks now. She took a deep breath and decided to try and distract herself with work. She rummaged through papers and turned to a pile of unopened mail. She sifted through memos and banquet invitations, but it was a letter from her doctor's office that caught her attention. She's made an appointment two weeks ago when she'd started feeling ill. They'd run a bunch of tests and sent her home, telling her that it was probably just a virus that would go away in a few days. She opened the letter and began to read:

"Dear Mrs. Darlian-Lowe,

We are writing concerning your visit to our office about two weeks ago. Due to your hectic schedule we have been unable to get a hold of you otherwise. We just wanted to let you know that all of your test results came back normal, so you needn't worry about your health. However, we did a find a bit of a surprise when we ran an additional test on the blood samples we took from you. From the information you gave us during your office visit and the blood test, Doctor Hale feels that congratulations are in order. It is his opinion that you are about 10 weeks..."

Relena looked up from the letter and froze as she sensed that someone was standing over her. She made a slight movement to get up, the letter still clutched in her hand, when a strong arm grabbed her around the neck as the cold steel barrel of a gun was pressed to her temple. "Scream and you die, Mrs. Vice Foreign Minister," hissed a cold voice.