By the Black Rose
Chapter 2
Rated NC-17
How
hard it is, sometimes, to trust the evidence of one's senses! How
reluctantly the mind
consents to reality.
Norman Douglas
The acrid smell of gunpowder and blood incinerated Relena’s sweet flavor of jasmine and vanilla. His very cells absorbed the perverted stench; it permeated every fiber of his being - threatening to leave him hollow, and decaying his body and soul.
Terror devoured him bit by bit as he fought another in the endless wave of mobile dolls. “All who fight are my enemy,” he thought and shattered the air with his heat whip, thrashing another suit. He swung, cut, pushed forward, then slammed on the thrusters. The haze of utter destruction halted at the sound of her voice.
“Heero!”
“Relena, what are you doing out here?” He yelled. He whipped around to annihilate a threatening doll.
“I can’t let you fight, Heero. Please. I don’t want you to fight anymore!”
“Relena….”
The unearthly scream of the warning system alerted him that a mobile doll had her locked on target, and he dove forward, grabbing her up in Epyon’s giant hand. With deadly calm and accuracy, he held her while continuing to cut down everything in his path.
“Relena what are you doing, there’s a war going on out here. Do you want to be killed?” Anger throbbed through his body at her carelessness. Didn’t she realize how important she was? How important it was that she live? He was a nameless soldier, it didn’t matter if he was lost in battle – it was his destiny, his future….
He wasn’t even aware that they were no longer on the battlefield, they were…they were…. He blinked. Where are we? Treize’s fortress? The same voice told him truth once more.
“No – the
“There may be a war going on out there, but that doesn’t mean there has to be one going on in here,” she said and brought her hand up to her heart.
She was staring at him with those soft blue eyes that held him captive in his dreams at night keeping him from needed sleep. He wanted to look away, but was afraid of what he’d see…
His gaze finally flickered down where her hand was resting on her chest, and with that strange force fueling his movements once more, he reached to take it into his own. His fingers brushed something soft and from the blush in her cheeks, he could guess what it was. He pulled her close to him, her breath tickling the hairs on his neck, his hands sliding easily over the fabric of her uniform.
“Relena…” He whispered and then claimed her mouth in a greedy kiss.
He heard her moan as she broke the connection and breathily uttered his name. This was nothing like the kisses they had shared before. There was something different, something so much more powerful and all consuming. She reached inside him and gave life to the decaying cells, making them tingle and ache.
For her.
He leaned down to drink her in once more….
Urgent, his need became urgent as he sought to tear away the fabric separating their bodies. He wanted something from her he had never thought possible, and yet here she was, in his arms – kissing him, nourishing him, her tongue dancing seductively with his. He stepped back from her and pulled off her blouse, his hands sliding up to claim the breast he had grazed just moments before.
She was panting, her breath coming in gasps and he realized that she was now completely naked before him. He laid her on the bed, his hands traveling and exploring, his mouth trailing down to suckle the dark areola of her breasts. He was only vaguely aware of the golden glow that seemed to radiate from her skin as she moaned his name and writhed beneath him.
He felt her hands on his fevered skin smoothing over his chest and down his body, ignoring ugly scars and making his groin ache with need. Her mouth traced kisses down the same thriving path her delicate fingers had taken. He had no idea when it was she had managed to change positions with him, or how his clothes had disappeared, but it didn’t matter. He leaned back into the soft mattress and closed his eyes, just feeling her velvet mouth on his skin, smelling the delicious fragrance of her hair, the taste of her lips still lingering…Always lingering like the last bit of hope that clung to him, willing him to press on.
And then he jolted upright - his eyes wide as he looked down and saw her golden hair spread about his legs, her moist mouth pleasing him and stoking the desire that coursed through his veins in time with the rapid beating of his heart. “Relena…”
Her tongue played in erotic circles along his swollen arousal. Beneath her, he thrashed and bucked wildly, burning for his release. He forgot the battle, and the desperate need to touch her….
He finally came in a flood of golden light that left him panting and on the vapid edge of consciousness. “Relena…” He gasped out, trembling with effort.
“Relena…” His voice turned to a question as he looked around for her, his body telling him he was ready to take her – to feel her soft breasts pressed against him as he released himself inside her center this time…only to have the cold, harsh grip of reality crush him in its grasp.
He was still caught inside the jaws of the hellish Epyon.
He was out of breath, his lungs burning for air – not after a sexual encounter, but from the devastation he had wrought on the metal strewn and blood-soaked battlefield.
“Where is my enemy?”
He returned the suit to Treize, his body completely spent. His flesh protested in all sorts of ways, but mostly it ached for Relena.
“It’s the same…It’s exactly like Wing Zero.” He blinked his eyes and tried to recall what had really happened the night before, in her room. He had kissed her, then left while he still had control over himself – hadn’t he? She had been…shy and modest – behavior appropriate for a fifteen year old girl and sovereign of a nation…or had she been willing to please him, no matter what the cost to her innocence?
He couldn’t remember now; all he could remember was the tantalizing dance of her nude body on the bed, under him, above him…her mouth enticing his hardened shaft towards liquid release. With the last of his strength, he threw open the hatch of Epyon’s cockpit, and drank in cool, refreshing air with just the faintest hint of jasmine.
“Relena…” His eyes burned as he tried to remember…. He took a tremulous step forward.
“So tell me, did you see your future?” There was a short pause as Treize watched the young pilot’s convulsions subside. “I see. Then let’s get started shall we?” The aristocrat asked, holding out a dueling pistol to the trembling and ailing young man.
“I don’t have the right,” Heero faltered an instant before his legs gave out and he collapsed onto the floor.
* * * * * *
Neither were supposed to make it back that day – he was finally to die in battle, mirroring her own ultimately futile death at the hands of the devious Romafeller Foundation. But fate or providence or whatever cruel force driving the universe interfered once again, pushing them away from the dark and cavernous cliffs that sought to claim them, and once more towards each other.
He saw her briefly, hair tossing about wildly as she moved down the hallway, a stricken expression on her face. Was she…did they…? She almost walked right passed him without uttering a syllable. He frowned and grabbed her arm, pulling her out of her thoughts and into a loose embrace.
“Heero…” Only she could say that name and have it sound like it had always been his. Only she could make him want to keep that name forever, as long as she would say it, utter it like the ardent prayer of someone forever faithful.
He studied her face as he always did - memorizing every detail from the tiny scar on her forehead to the ever-present look of raw determination firmly etched into flushed cheeks and a strong jaw line that led up to…. Her eyes burned like the blue-hot center of a flame, searing her image into his brain.
“Where are you going?” She appeared startled by his move to arrest her progress, and the blush in her cheeks deepened.
“Oz is planning on attacking this nation. I have to contact Duke Dermail.” She tried to look away, but his right hand flew up to her chin, tilting her head and forcing her eyes back towards his gaze.
“Relena, they are your enemy.”
“Pacifists have no enemies. We must all…”
His left hand tightened its grip on her waist, his palm fisting a handful of the graceful fabric of her skirt. “There will be time for pacifism later. Right now you need to defend your country.”
She
tried to pull away, but he held her in place. “No, Heero. Life is too precious
to be wasted in such a manner. My
people’s lives, your life, Heero, is far too precious a thing to be sacrificed
for the selfish desires of others.”
The pleading look in her eyes
loosened his grip – on her, on reality. “My life, Relena….” His heart contacted in a painful lurch as
that steady blue flame flickered - her tears threatening to extinguish its
burning beauty.
“Please don’t.” She turned away successfully this time. “It’s precious to me, and that’s all that matters. If you’ll excuse me….” She started down the hallway again, her head bowed slightly, even though she moved as briskly as before. He watched her form diminish, then evaporate amidst the fading sunlight that lit the tiled hall.
I’ll
fight for this nation, and against Romafeller. It’s all I can do…
* * * * * *
It was a demon the color of fire from deepest pits of hell, Heero decided as he climbed up into the terrible cockpit of the Epyon. He flipped the visor down and the control panel came alive with thousands of blinking buttons and digits. Instantly, his body recognized the drug that tore his sanity, and welcomed it back with the ferocious hunger of an addict.
They
flew in formation, sailing low over the terrain on the outskirts of the
“I thought I
might find you here. May I sit beside
you?”
“It’s your
country, you can do what you want.”
The familiar, menacing gray fog rolled into his mind like mist rising above the ocean tide. His fingers twitched against the control panel as the venomous chill worked it’s way through his body. The system was taking hold, he could feel it … “No, stop it. Don’t go doing that.”
“Stop it, Epyon!” He pleaded with the merciless monster. “If I start going out of control again, no one’s going to be able to stop me.”
A
new image appeared in front of his eyes – startlingly vivid…
“It’s
just that…” She came closer, staring up at him, inviting him to…
Cold
beads of sweat pricked the skin on his forehead and neck. I have to control the system this time, or
else I could end up killing them all just like I did at
He leaned towards Relena and brushed his lips against hers, feeling her sigh into his mouth and press closer. He could feel the grain of the wood bench cutting into his palm…
“It knows how to distract me…”
He pulled her
into his lap, never breaking their kiss.
She shifted and sat up onto her knees, moving to where she straddled his
legs. He slid his tongue into her mouth, and clutched her tighter to his
body. He could feel his consciousness
ebbing away as their kiss deepened, but he couldn’t lose himself to her this
time – there was something…
He felt rage
boil through the heat of their embrace, and he pulled away from her. He shoved her off of his lap, disgusted with
himself for being weak. “Get away from
me!” His lip curled up into a snarl as he watched a tremor seize her body with
his outburst. Golden tears filled her
eyes, and she turned away from him and ran back towards the city, into her
school.
He wiped the lipstick from his mouth and
glared at her retreating figure.
“Why didn’t I kill her when I had the chance?” But he knew the answer to that – he couldn’t, didn’t want to kill Relena. But maybe Epyon didn’t know that.
The scene
evaporated, and Heero smirked as the battlefield came back into view. He had beaten the system using his anger, and
he could use that rage to keep himself focused and in control. “You are nothing but a tool, Epyon. A tool for
destruction.”
A surge of power slammed through his veins, victory crushed into the palm of his hands where he gripped the controls – where he gripped them. He had won against the zero system. His eyes narrowed as another target loomed closer. With rage still a burning fire at the core of his body, he threw his upper body against the controls, wrenching Epyon around, and slashing the heat whip through doll after doll…
A sinister voice cut
through muscle with a serrated edge; a fresh sense of terror flew into the pit
of his stomach, grabbing hold and wringing it with giant talons. “You’re too late…”
A wave of gunfire crashed over the shore of the kingdom, aimed directly at the heart of the city. The explosion roared, only to be swallowed by another torrent of bullets and artillery fire. That ethereal golden light swept over him again, illuminating the truth he was supposed to see…
“The city is being attacked.”
His heart stopped when he saw her. Time stopped. Rage simmered for a brief instant, as that strange urge to protect her seemed to slow down his every movement. He pitched forward, but Epyon couldn’t move fast enough. He saw her…That sad expression haunting her eyes, so many strands of hair catching the light…She was so real.
She never blinked, never cried out, never showed any weakness. When the next tidal wave of firepower broke over the city, she stood there calmly, the faintest trace of the tears he had caused still evident in her eyes…. He tore wildly at his restraints, wanting to get to her, wanting to stop the inevitable - wanting to block out the image of what he knew would come next…
But knowing he’d be unable to.
The palace erupted into an angry fireball in perfect time with the destruction of his heart. Red hazed on the horizon as he couldn’t stop the last moment he had with her, what would become his last memory…
“Re-leena.” He choked on her name and could have sworn he tasted blood – her blood; he watched the terrible image of her limbs being torn from her body like a rag doll’s, her eyes still sad and pleading with him an instant before she just vanished – incinerated by the ferocious blast.
Disbelief quickly evaporated in the blistering heat of the explosion, taking with it hope and light – and all the air in his lungs. He convulsed in a violent fit that left him faint and struggling to breathe. “Relena.”
The world splintered into a thousand jagged pieces of glass that rained down and cut his outstretched hands. His bloody palms lost their grip on the controls, as the darkness he fought to keep deep within escaped and choked the last of consciousness from his body….