Disclaimer: Yadda yadda I don’t own Gundam Wing and so on.

The Symbol of Temptation

Chapter Ten

Just as he ran out into the hallway he was nearly knocked over by Relena crashing into him. At first she just jerked around and tried to get away, as if she didn’t recognize him. Then she slowed down and stared at his face, her eyes full of terror.

She tentatively reached up and touched his cheek, her hands shaking. “Oh, thank God,”

He looked at her, confused. Hadn’t she just been attacked? “What happened? What’d he do?”

She suddenly embraced him, locking her arms around his neck and burying her face in his neck. “He told me he was going to kill you, that when you went back to your room you would-,” she choked on the last word. He could feel his shirt being soaked with her tears.

“He was here,” he stated, his body frozen stiff despite feeling her against him.

“Yes,” she said, raising her head to look at him, “He was standing behind me. I didn’t see him, I just…heard him.” She closed her and he watched a shiver pass through her body. “His voice was so cold.”

Cold.

The expression on her face changed. “Heero? What’s wrong?”

He didn’t look at her. He merely stared at the wall behind her, not wanting her to see the bloodlust in his eyes. “I thought he’d done something to you.”

“He nearly did.”

His body jerked.

It was time to ‘meet’ Alex.

“Heero, before you-”

He cut her off by pushing her away, moving past her and heading towards her room. He didn’t say a word, his body on fire with rage and pure hatred. Alex had the nerve to come into her bedroom without permission and try to attack her. That son of a bitch.

When he reached her door the security detail was already there, searching the room. Zechs was just turning the corner into the hall. He felt a hand on his arm.

“Heero,” he heard Relena say, “Please be calm.”

He didn’t move. He didn’t say anything. He just stared into her room, the room where Alex had just been. She moved around to where she was facing him and tried to get his attention, but he didn’t really notice her. He just stared into the room, as if he expected Alex to suddenly emerge and say something to him.

When she grabbed his shoulders and started to shake him he snapped to attention.

“Heero, what’s wrong with you?” she asked, exasperated. He looked at her and tried to regain focus.

“I…I don’t know,” he said, honestly. She reached up and brushed a strand of hair out of his face. Zechs appeared beside them.

“Are you alright?” he asked Relena, concern written all over his face.

“Yes, I’m fine,” she said, breaking the connection between them and turning to face her brother. “Don’t you think you should be worried about Heero?”

Huh?

Zechs frowned. “You’re right. Have you told him?”

Relena paused. “Not everything.”

Zechs nodded his understanding. Heero did not.

“What are you talking about?” he asked.

Relena turned back to him and sighed. “There’s something I left out that night in the study. Please, come with me.”

His face slowly started to form a scowl. She’d kept things from him? Still?

Just when he was about to ask her why she was still keeping secrets, she turned and walked down the hall, followed by Zechs. He followed as well. They walked down the hall and turned left. He guessed they were heading to her home office. They weren’t. They walked downstairs and into the study, which Relena must have decided was neutral territory. When they were all inside she closed the door and turned around, not meeting his eyes. He took that as a sign.

She took a few deep breaths and focused her eyes on a spot behind him. He did not like the way she was acting. What was left for her to tell? Hadn’t she told him everything already?

“There’s a world-renowned plastic surgeon that Alex always kept in touch with,” she began, “In case he needed to…disappear. The surgeon’s name is Dr. William Netkin, and he is the best.”

Zechs cut in. “Dr. Netkin can literally turn you into a different person. If Alex wanted to be someone else, Dr. Netkin would be his first call.”

Heero was confused. “Where are you going with this?”

Relena sighed. “We think that Alex may be planning to impersonate someone. Someone close to me. It’s the only way he would be able to break security and get to me. Only…I can’t figure out who it would be.”

His mind buzzed. A plastic surgeon?

If that were true, then he could be anyone right now.

“Heero? What are you thinking?” Relena asked. He finally locked eyes with her, seeing her fear and uncertainty. With her being so vulnerable, he felt more protective than ever.

There was only one way to find Alex before something happened to her. “Move up the date.”

Both she and Zechs seemed to blink simultaneously. “What?”

“The wedding. Move up the date. Alex won’t have time to form a plan, he’ll just have to act.” He took a moment to let them think, his own thoughts coming together as the words came out of his mouth. “He’s expecting the wedding to take place months from now. In that time, he could take on a new face. If the date were changed-”

“He’d have to expose himself as he is,” Zechs interrupted, coming to the same realizations that Heero had.

“What do mean?” Relena asked, “’As he is’?”

Zechs turned to her. “Because if you’re what he’s after, he’s going to do whatever it takes to stop that wedding. If he thinks he’s got months to sabotage it, then he may be slacking right now. That may be why he came here tonight; he’s too relaxed. If it all changes when he doesn’t expect it to, then he’ll have no time to take on his new face. He’ll have to stop the wedding with his present one.”

Relena’s face darkened. “You mean, you think he’s impersonating someone right now.”

She was stating, not asking.

“Yes,” Heero said, hoping she would turn and look at him again. She did, and he thought for sure there was hatred in her eyes. Pure, uninhibited hatred. It shocked him. He couldn’t believe that she could hate someone.

“So you mean that, right now, someone I care about is either dead or being held somewhere so Alex can terrorize me for being happy with Heero?”

He had never heard her voice sound so cold.

In all honesty, he said, “It’s possible.”

Her eyes snapped shut. She was angry, she was very angry, but she was trying to contain it. It was amazing to him that she would make an effort to stay calm during half of things she went through. But this topped it all. He knew how much the people around her meant to her; when she wasn’t with him, or at the office, she was helping someone. She placed a higher value on the health and happiness of the people around her than she did herself, and now someone she cared about may be injured, or worse. And not only that, but she was being terrorized for following her heart. He knew exactly how she was feeling.

He looked at Zechs and Zechs looked at him, both of them nodding. She needed to sleep. That was the only way she would be able to calm down. Heero did not want her to go back into her room, so he convinced Zechs to let her sleep in his room while he watched over her. He didn’t trust the security detail anymore. Any of them. They could all be Alex.

Zechs walked the pair of them up to Heero’s room and gave them a knowing look before he turned and headed back down the hall. He didn’t say goodnight or give any warnings. He simply left. Heero led a shaking Relena to the bed and directed her to lie down. As she did, her hair fell behind her and fanned out over the pillows, tempting him to run his fingers through it. She closed her eyes and sighed, and he found himself drawn to the way her chest rose slowly and then fell. He moved his gaze back up to her face, her lips slightly parted and her features relaxed. Seeing her like that caused desire to course through him like a deluge, and his mind began to wander to a place he’d forbidden.

He turned away from her and walked over to the window.

As he stared up at the moon, he heard her whisper, “I will never love anyone, as much as I love you.”

He turned his head back to her, his ears filled with the sound of his heart pounding. Yet he still heard her words.

“Come to me.”

He wanted to. He would give anything to. But he couldn’t.

“I can’t.”

“Why?”

He clamped his eyes shut. He couldn’t even answer that to himself.

“Because I can’t,” he repeated.

“Tell me why.”

He opened his eyes and saw her lying on his bed, her eyes half open and her voice like the song of a Siren. She was pleading with him, but he convinced himself that it was only for comfort that she did so, because of what was happening around her.

“You are vulnerable right now.”

She looked down, nodding her understanding. He tore his eyes from her and gazed back up at the moon. It’s pale light resembled the glow she gave off when she stared directly into his eyes, whispering words of tenderness and affection. She was his world. She was everything. If Alex took her away from him, there would be Hell to pay.

* * *

The wedding was moved from nine weeks away to just two weeks, causing absolute chaos in the planning. Relena had bought a dress first thing after they announced their engagement, so the rest of the planning could be handled (barely) in the time the wedding planners had been given. The location was moved from Relena’s church to the mansion, which eased the tension Heero felt as the days passed by.

With only one week left to go, the mansion was constantly busy. He barely saw Relena before the wedding and when he did, he felt himself tremor. Imagining her in her wedding dress had a similar effect, and he found himself beginning to feel anxious. Wedding. Wife. Relena.

Alex.

It was all coming together. Everything was happening according to plan, and the wedding was only days away. Ignoring the tension between himself and his fiancé, Heero went about teaching the members of Relena’s security detail what they would be instructed to do when Alex was discovered. As much as he wanted to, he wouldn’t kill Alex. He knew that he would never recover from it if he did. And besides that, Relena had asked him not to. So, Heero drilled them on simply detaining Alex. Killing him was not an option.

His proper punishment required him to be alive.

On the day of the wedding, Relena wouldn’t allow Heero to see her. Something about ‘bad luck’. He didn’t understand, but he left her alone. She wished to not be seen until the ceremony; that was fine. He was standing in his room, putting on his tux when a chill ran up his spine. The room wasn’t cold, but something felt cold. He heard a knock on the door and went over to answer it.

“Peagen,” he greeted the old man. Peagen pushed past him into the room, not turning around or acknowledging Heero’s presence. Heero decided to go back to his mirror and finish tying his bowtie. There were only a few hours left until the wedding.

He was very nervous about seeing her walk down the isle. To him.

“You don’t deserve her,” Peagen said. It made Heero stop and look at the old man through the mirror. He was wearing a tuxedo as well, and had his hands clasped behind his back, looking up out the window.

“I know,” Heero answered, going back to his tie.

“Then why are you with her?”

He didn’t look at the old man this time. “Because she wants me.”

He heard the click of a gun. It came from behind him, and he stopped moving immediately. Through the mirror he could see Peagen pointing a gun right at his head.

“You impertinent bastard,” the old man said, his voice suddenly sounding different. It hit Heero all too late.

Alex.

“Alex,” he said. Their eyes locked onto each other through the mirror and sparks of fire shot between them.

“Heero,” Alex said, his tenor voice strange and unfitting to the face he boar. “Heero, Heero. The ‘great’ Heero. She talks about you…”

Unconsciously, he flinched. “Who talks about me?”

“Why, my darling Relena,” he said, smiling in a sick, twisted manner. “She speaks of you so often. Every day she tells me of how much she adores you, how much she admires you, how much she loves you.”

Alex stopped for a moment, and Heero’s only thought was that Relena loved him.

She loved him.

“She loves you. You,” Alex went on, “A boy with nothing to offer her, and yet she prefers you. She prefers you over me. Me!”

Alex was shaking. It didn’t faze Heero to hear his speech, but the thought that he might kill him and hurt Relena did.

He must not allow himself to be killed. For Relena.

“And just what am I supposed to do about that?” Heero asked, trying to egg on his anger so that he might try to strike him with the gun. Then he’d have a chance to take it from him.

Alex laughed. “Nothing. I don’t expect you to do anything! Except to sit…here, until I’ve made her my wife.”

“Huh?” He heard the shot before he had time to move. The dart went into his shoulder, and he whipped around to charge at Alex. He made it to him, clasping his hands around the other man’s neck as his fake face started to blur.

“She will be mine,” Alex said, watching him with madness in his eyes. Heero felt his body relaxing, his mind slipping. He fought to hold on to consciousness, which he did by tightening his grip on Alex’s neck. His arms and legs began to feel lax, and he slowly slumped to the floor. Alex’s eyes looked confident, and Heero wondered how he could not have known. From the moment he arrived, he’d been watched by the man he hunted. It was all so clear now. But as his knees hit the floor, the final piece of the puzzle fell into place.

Alex reached under his chin, hooking his fingers under a rubbery looking seem and pulling it up over his face. He dropped the mask to the floor and breathed deeply, then looked back down at Heero as he was swallowed by darkness.

Heero panicked for the fourth time in his life as he stared at the mirror image of himself.