Heero's Peace Sequel - Part 7: The Beginning of the End

Disclaimer - Do I have to say it again? Ok, I don't own Gundam Wing. There!

Just to remind you all where we left off last time...

"Heero? Heero!" Relena jumped out of her seat and ran to his side. She eased him to the floor and removed his helmet. Seeing the bluish tinge around his lips she knew he was barely breathing. She unzipped his suit only to find that the clothes he wore underneath were soaked in blood, which was already pooling beside them in a thick red puddle. Trowa entered the room and Relena all but screamed for him to call Sally. "Heero, can you hear me? Open your eyes, please, Heero!" Relena pushed his hair away from his damp forehead and held him. His eyes fluttered open and he began to speak in a barely audible whisper.

"Do you forgive me?" He asked quietly, rasping out the words.

"F-forgive you? For what, Heero?" Relena asked desperately.

"The gundams - do you forgive me? Do you understand why I...?"

"Yes!" She cried out. Fighting back tears, Relena looked into Heero's half-closed eyes. The last thing he heard her say was, "Heero, there is nothing to forgive." Then the darkness overtook him.


**Three Months Later...**

The fragrance from the multitudes of flowers hung in the humid air of the sweltering summer afternoon. Relena shifted uncomfortably from one foot to another as she took a step back from a very large arrangement. The odor emanating from the bouquet was so sickly-sweet that she wasn't altogether sure if the lurching in her stomach was strictly due to the movements of her unborn child. She sighed heavily and turned around when Duo laid a hand on her arm. He could see that she had been crying, but he couldn't think of anything to tell her in the way of comfort. They were all grieving, and there was nothing he could say that would change that fact.

Duo raised his violet eyes skyward while he led Relena across the Lowen Palace grounds to the garden where the service was being held. The sun was blaring down relentlessly on all the mourners gathered for the funeral, and many of those who had congregated to pay their respects were flushed and tired looking after only a few minutes. "Are you sure you can make it?" Duo asked as Relena huffed down the walkway toward a row of chairs.

"I'm sure," she replied quietly, eyeing the casket that stood before them, draped in even more flowers and the brightly colored banners of the Sank and Lowen Kingdoms. Duo regarded it as well, and spoke his thoughts aloud.

"Would he have wanted all this fuss?"

Relena looked even more stricken for a moment, but eventually managed to muster an authoritative voice. "It's a state funeral for a high-ranking official," she stated, trying to sound stoic despite her emotions. "Anything less would be inappropriate." Relena choked on the last word. Duo accepted her reply and helped her into a seat next to where Hilde was already waiting with their sons Daniel and Deiter. Hilde glanced up at him solemnly before turning to Relena.

He heard Hilde ask her, "Are you feeling ok?" as he made his way past the casket to join his fellow former pilots, who would be serving as the pall bearers. Quatre looked up as his friend approached.

"How is she doing?"

"Seems to be all right for now. Hilde was worried about her being out in this heat for so long since she's so close to her due date."

Quatre nodded in agreement. "Luna said the same thing."

"But you know Relena - she insisted on being here. She wanted to say good-bye with the rest of us," Duo added. Glancing sadly at the coffin beside them, he let out a long breath. "He'd sort of become like a father to us; you know. It was nice - most of us don't remember our parents... especially Heero, and since George knew his father and mother so well. Poor guy's taking this pretty hard, though he'd never say anything." Trowa cleared his throat as a subtle signal to Duo that he best shut up, as Heero had just joined them.

He walked slowly towards the group, dressed in all the formal regalia befitting the Prince Regent of the Lowen and Sank Kingdoms. Colored cords were draped around the shoulders of his crisp white suit; medallions hung from ribbons on his jacket and over the sash across his chest embroidered with the lion of the Lowe family. In contrast to his lively wardrobe, his face was pale, blank and expressionless. Heero barely acknowledged his comrades before he scanned the crowd methodically, checking for the uniformed Preventers and guards that he had ordered posted for the ceremony. Relena sat only a few feet away from where he stood, and though he showed no signs of the worry churning inside him, Heero hated the fact that she was more than an arm's length away. When he was satisfied with the security, he gave a nod to the pastor, who began the funeral service for High Councilor General George Hydek, who had been killed in a surprise attack staged by the White Fang along the Lowen border six days ago. As he listened to the prayers and psalms, Heero replayed the events of the past three months in his mind.

**Flashback**

He awoke in a darkened room to the sounds of monitors beeping and humming. It took quite some time for him to focus, but the first thing he saw clearly was the long cascade of golden hair hanging over her face while she slept in a chair beside the bed. An arm protectively encircled her rounding belly while the other rested on the bed, her hand holding onto his. Heero tried to sit up, but the pain in his side was so severe that he sunk back down into the pillows after only a few seconds of effort. The movement had been enough to rouse her, and Relena began to stir, pushing away the unruly strands before her eyes met his. "Heero..." she breathed, getting up from the chair to be closer to him, though she never let go of his hand. She sat down on the bed, tracing her finger over his forehead and down his cheek; smiling as it came to rest on his lips, which she promptly kissed.

"I thought you were going to sleep all the way back to earth!" she said cheerily, though Heero knew her well enough to know that the happy tone was forced over her urge to burst into tears. She knew he hated it when she cried, especially over him.

"How long have I...?"

"Two days," was the answer, but it didn't come from Relena. Sally Po had entered the room, flanked by Zechs and Noin. Zechs looked somewhat less fierce than he had the last time Heero had seen him. And Noin knew, though he would be loathe to admit it, Heero's brother-in-law was greatly relieved that he was going to make a full recovery.

"Hey, Heero," Sally smiled. Heero only looked up in reply. "You had us worried there for a little while - but I think I managed to patch you up... almost as good as new, in fact." With that comment a bit of wry grin began to cross her patient's face, but it was quickly replaced by look of pain as he winced while he once again attempted to sit up. Sally simply pushed him back. "Oh no you don't. Bed rest, for at least a month - do you hear me? You almost killed yoursel-" She stopped short, seeing the worried look on Relena's face. "Anyway," Sally continued, having thought out a better way to put things, "You and your wife have been through far too much for your present conditions. You both need plenty of rest, and I've let Duo know 'the doctor's orders,' and he'll be strictly enforcing them." Relena stifled a giggle as she heard her husband groan at that statement. Duo could be relentless when it came to things like this. Sally patted Heero on the shoulder and left the room. Zechs was left towering over the bedside with Noin and Relena beside him.

Heero recognized the look on his brother-in-law's face as one that meant business. It was
one of the things he liked most about Zechs - there was no fooling around. "What's the
status on the location of the enemy on earth?" was Heero's question. Zechs had been
prepared.

"There have been reports of carriers landing on an abandoned air strip between Lowen and Sank - they go back a couple of days. No confirmed sightings of mobile suits, though. I know Quinze. He's going to lay low for a while and then try to surprise us. He needs time to recoup - losing his base on the colony where Relena was held was a major blow to his resources."

Heero nodded, processing the information he was just given. "Where are the others now?"

Noin took a step closer as she began to speak. "Trowa's already on earth. He took Zero back so that they could begin repairs. Duo and Quatre are rounding up pilots for the other mobile suits you have stored in the hanger, and Wufei's out on patrol ahead of us. We'll be back on the earth in about two hours."



A nervous tension carried through Lowen palace for the next three months. There was no sign of the enemy - all leads had turned to dead ends, all re-con and information gathering missions proved fruitless. If Heero hadn't known better, he would have thought that perhaps Quinze had abandoned the whole plot and headed back to space. But Heero never let himself believe that.

In the mean time, recovering had proved to be a maddening experience, as anytime he tried to leave the bed for more than five minutes, he was chased down and corralled back in by Duo. Relena had been ordered to rest as well, so they lay there, the two of them, with Heero typing furiously away at his laptop, or waking up underneath a pile of Relena's paperwork (she tended to use him as a filing cabinet when he was asleep). But sometimes, between reading reports or Preventer mission logs, Heero would take a moment and just stare at his wife in wonder. He was grateful that she was here with him, where she belonged. He watched in awe as the child growing inside her began to move - often falling asleep with his hand on her stomach to feel their baby's kicks and jabs. Heero hadn't grown up with any family to speak of. All that he knew of his mother and father had come from George Hydek, who had been as close to Odin Lowe, Sr. as a brother. Many a night had been spent with George regaling Heero, Relena and the others about one exploit or another he had shared with Odin. The latest of these tales had been centered around how edgy the older Lowe had been when he was about to become a father. Heero had had his own bouts with apprehension, but somehow, being back here in the place where he was born was a comfort to him and any nervousness he felt at the prospect of becoming a father ebbed away as time wore on. But the nervousness over the White Fang's plans for Lowen and the Sank Kingdom did not.



George had insisted on going himself, citing that if Relena went into labor, Heero might miss the birth of his child if he were away to check out an enemy mobile suit sighting at the border. Wufei and Trowa had offered to go, but Hydek stated that they would be needed to pilot the gundams if an attack was launched within the kingdom. The pilots all agreed, and last week, when George had made his way to the border, a half dozen suits showed up without warning and destroyed the guard posts, and everyone in them, before reinforcements arrived.

"Amen."

Heero snapped back into the present. Moving in line with Duo, Trowa, Quatre, Wufei and Zechs, they lifted the casket from its place on the riser and carried it across the rolling grounds of Lowen Palace, to the Lowe family crypt where General Hydek was laid to rest.
No sooner had the heavy wooden doors been closed then the sirens sounded. The familiar noise of mobile suit engines filled the air as a dozen suits, seemingly coming out of nowhere, descended from the sky like locusts. People were running in all directions, screaming and fleeing in search of cover. Heero rushed out into the courtyard and looked around frantically, his eyes searching through the chaos that surrounded him. There was no sign of her.

"RELENA!!!"