The Beehive: Ch5 (The Abduction)
Posted: Fri Jul 18, 2003 9:20 pm
Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing or any of the characters or devices of the Gundam Wing Universe. I am not making money off of this, it is completely for my own musings. Standard Disclaimer.
The Beehive
Chapter 5: The Abduction
DATE: February 17, 203 AC
LOCATION: The Presidential Residence of the Earth Sphere Unified Nation
~*~*~TIME: 7:12 AM (Maine Time: 2:12 AM)~*~*~
He was surprised that she wasn’t up yet. So he navigated his way through the living quarters until he found his way to the door of the President’s bedchamber. He was about knock on the door, but he noticed that it wasn’t completely shut; then an idea crossed his mind. He turned his head left and right; no one else would see him, good. He opened the door just a little bit more and took a peek inside; the room was still, decorated with beautiful painstaking carvings in the white painted wood walls. A set of porcelain jars and containers, filled with who knows what, sat idly atop a hard wood dresser, topped with an old fashioned round mirror; across from that, on the bed, under those navy blue blankets peacefully slept a small, caramel blond, angelic, European girl, who just happened to hold the highest office in the whole Earth Sphere, clad in a white night gown.
‘Good’, he thought.
Heero silently slipped into the room and closed the door behind him, he then took another long look at the sleeping beauty before him. She lay still, on her back, save for the rhythmic heaving of her chest. She stirred a bit, sliding her right arm up the bed over her head and turned her head to greet it. Heero, also being to the right of the resting president, took a step back in surprise, his heart inactive, while his mind calculated as many possible explanations as to why he was there as he could; and realized she was still asleep. She murmured something but he couldn’t tell what. Heero Yuy then recollected himself, took in a big breath of air and then pushed himself forwards to carry out his spur of the moment mission.
Ever since the incident on Valentines Day night, Relena and Heero had barely spoken to each other. Relena was usually the one to initiate non-business conversations but for the past two days she had gone out of her way to avoid him and the few exchanges they did have usually went something along the lines of:
Heero hands Relena his latest report; Relena thanks him and smiles weakly. Heero stays for a few seconds, expecting her to say something else while she just shrinks back into her chair, like she was afraid of him. Heero decides that she isn’t in a mood to talk and leaves.
To tell the truth, they had never worked with each other this efficiently, ever, which in some ways was a good thing considering the fact he had such an important investigation on his hands; but it was disturbingly unnatural and he actually had intended to take Duo’s advice, eventually. He had two problems though. His first problem was the fact that he could only barely choke out the words “I love you” to a mirror, let alone say it to her face, but in his mind that was of little consequence. His second problem was method, what could he do that would surprise Relena, make up for the other night, and get his point across without saying those three damned words. It had puzzled him until yesterday afternoon when he overheard some soap opera one of the office security team members happened to have on in the lunch room. An idea had suddenly struck him and, in accordance, he rushed out to buy everything he needed later that afternoon. This presented a new problem though, it would be awkward to just do what he was planning on doing out of nowhere, he had to lead up to it somehow; he was no expert on relationships but he’d watched enough TV to generally figure that part out. So, he realized this morning as he drove to work, with much dissatisfaction, that he was back to square one after all. Upon seeing his unofficial master was still asleep, he was reminded of an old fairy tale he once heard. This born assassin had normally never been in to fairy tales, even when he was small, but this one, or at least this part of this one, he did happen to remember and realized that it would be the perfect way to start off. And, even if he was wrong, its not like she would fire him, not after the other night’s fiasco. So, cautiously, he tip toed up to the bed and looked down upon his spinning wheel pricked princess. Her brownish blond hair hung over her left shoulder in a pony tail, her lips seemed to stare at him, as if to invite him in. There was something mournful about her expression though, leading Heero to wonder exactly what she was dreaming about.
‘This will do it’, he thought as he tried to force his back into leaning his mouth into her soft face, ‘it’s right out of a fairy tale, it couldn’t possibly not work.’ His body wasn’t responding however; he could do nothing but hover above her watching her sleep.
Heero then noticed something he had been too distracted to notice before, something, not entirely, but still at the same time awful. As the reality of the situation began to crawl up his spine, from the pit of his stomach he took a half step back, then forwards, and then knelt down in front of Relena’s bed in concern, it was the only thing he could think of to do. Heero had noticed that on top of the nearby ornate night stand, underneath the umbrella of the fancy, gold fringed, lamp, ominously stood a small half depleted bottle of sleeping pills.
He held the suspicious bottle in his hand and browsed the back, ‘one pill dosage……… you may want to consult a doctor before use……… extended use may lead to serious medical issues……… contact a doctor immediately if you have any problems……… do not drink alcohol while using this product………’, his cobalt eyes froze on that ultra fine print, it just jumped out at him, ‘why?’ It then occurred to him that Relena had been drinking a glass of some kind of liquor before he left yesterday. He didn’t really pay any attention though since he was focused on his plan; all he did was stop by to inform her that he had to leave early.
While he was reading the bottle Relena mumbled something in her sleep - something about someone not leaving; he hadn’t caught most of it though.
‘She’s definitely still breathing all right’, he confirmed; a sigh of relief rushed over him. He stood back up and looked down at her, not quite sure what to do. His resolve to find out about the pills had just overshadowed his romantic notions – which unsurprisingly were few and far between – and delicately shook her shoulders a bit while he quietly called out her name, “Relena……… wake up.”
He wasn’t expecting what happened next, one second his head was still a comfortable distance above the bed pondering what to say, the next, her arms held it tightly to hers as she hungrily indulged her mouth.
All that time that Heero had been in the room, Relena had been dreaming a not entirely, but at the same time unpleasant dream about him. As her eyes dreamily half opened to meet Heero’s golf balls staring back at her, her conscious mind once again began to function. She examined the current situation, ‘I was kissing him goodbye……… I’m in my bed……… his eyes are the size of hockey pucks……… Wait, this doesn’t make sense. He was about to leave on some mission and……… no, the war is over……… I’m in my bed, did we have sex……? no, I would have remembered that - I hope………’, and soon, as the answer to all her questions hit her like a slab of free falling shale; a sinking sensation developed in Relena’s stomach, followed soon after by blind panic. “Oh my god! Not again!”, she shouted, forcefully shoving Heero away in horror.
Heero stumbled back a pace but caught himself before he lost balance, “………Relena?”, he finally spit out.
She was sitting up in her bed diverting her eyes for Heero’s gaze and nervously fidgeting with her brownish blond pony tale over her shoulder. Tears were welling up in her eyes, she was so angry at herself. She had grown acutely afraid that if Heero knew exactly how she felt he’d be scared off; it wasn’t like he showed any clear romantic interest in her, after all. In fact, the only thing she knew about how Heero felt towards her was that she could trust him with almost anything and he trusted her, or at least, had trusted her; before she managed to royally betray that trust twice within a three day period; she had realized that trying to force herself on him was probably a dumb move. “Heero……… I, I’m sorry……… I’m so sorry I, I……… didn’t……… I didn’t………”, as her mind raced to find some magical words that would make it all better, something else occurred to her. “Why are you in my room?”, she looked back up at him as she interrupted herself matte-of-factly.
Heero’s stern bodyguard face came up and he held the newly discovered bottle up so Relena could see it.
“Insomnia”, the surprised and embarrassed young president responded defensively.
The blue eyed Japanese man narrowed his eyes some; “Your not supposed to drink while using these”, he critically commented in monotone.
“I know that”, she shot back, a little annoyed by Heero’s inquisition, “I wasn’t”
“I caught you drinking before I left yesterday Relena. Actually, you’ve been drinking a lot lately”, he spoke with a tone that couldn’t help but imply suspicion.
Relena shook her head, “That was a long time before I went to bed, Heero”, she sat up some more and glared at Heero with her cerulean eyes, “And I’m not having an alcohol problem, I just need a little drink every now and then to help calm down; I’ve been under a lot of stress lately, that’s all.”
“And what happened on the tenth?”, Heero’s face kept like a rock.
Relena’s face reddened as she recalled waking up the eleventh with a vengeful hangover and a couple of aspirins, a cup of water and a note from Heero saying “You’ll probably need this when you wake up” on her night stand.
Heero recalled having to stealthily navigate a incessantly giggling, ranting, stumbling and slurring strawberry blond politician to her room so as few people as possible realized that the president of the ESUN was hammered; listening to amazingly stupid comments like, “We need some waffles” and “You know what I like about you Heero? Tee….. he….. he….. You have a cute butt” and then having to ignore all of her drunken efforts to seduce him. After he finally unplugged the phone in her room (just in case), got away and locked the door behind him he stood guard for fifteen minutes and peeked back in to find her sleeping on the floor ON TOP of her cloths. His first impulse was to just get the hell out of there but after a minute of arguing with himself he decided that he couldn’t just leave her like that. So he carefully found a nightgown for her, slipped it on her as best he could and tucked her in bed, using every ounce of his willpower to not take advantage of her compromising state. He then left her some aspirin and a note, rushed back to his apartment and took a really cold shower. He decided to spare Relena the uncomfortable details when she woke up the following morning. “You were completely drunk”, his heartless voice continued in aggravation, “you didn’t even remember what happened, and you probably don’t want to.”
“That only happened once!”, she heatedly protested
Heero wasn’t done though, he didn’t particularly want to say this, not to her, especially not to her; he didn’t even want to admit it, had anyone else said it while he was around he would have beaten them to the emergency room, but it had to be said, “Relena, I think you might be becoming an alcoholic.”
“Why am I taking this from you anyway!? It’s none of your business! Get out!”, she screeched as she furiously pointed to the door.
For a few moments, the two of them stayed silent and still, just scowling at each other. A diminutive amount of regret crept up on the scarlet faced Relena but she was still too embarrassed and frustrated for it to take hold.
Heero took in a gulp of air in a failed effort to suppress some nameless mix of emotions Relena’s words stirred in his abdomen; “You’re scheduled to leave at 8:30 AM”, he bluntly stated before turning around and marching out the door.
LOCATION: Preventer Aircraft, Maine.
~*~*~ TIME: 3:30 AM (Belgium Time: 8:30 AM) ~*~*~
“Negative, you wouldn’t make it in time. Just intercept your current target and try to bring as much of it back as you can.”, replied the voice of Lady Une over the intercom.
Sally navigated through the menus on the monitor, until finally finalizing her choice with the feathery decent of her callous index finger. The data they were just sent opened up on the screen; a small page of glyphs and satellite photos. “Roger”, replied the blond Asian as her squinty blue eyes focused on the skimpy data table she just received.
“Good luck”, bid the Preventer’s commander and the communication channel closed with an almost inaudible click.
Sally turned to her 23-year-old partner, Preventer Ace, former Gundam Pilot and the last remnants of the once proud Long Clan, Chang WuFei. “You hear that, WuFei?”, she asked.
WuFei turned his dark Asian eyes from the systems check for the aircraft to the monitor displaying the target information, he didn’t want to go into a battle with a dysfunctional machine but he wanted to know what he was up against too. “I heard it”, he grunted, his focus clearly on the mechanical operations.
“Have you ever seen a mobile suit like that?”, she questioned, turning her focus to another small screen, “one-hundred-eighty seconds until we reach the target”, she stated.
“Not a clue what it is”, WuFei admitted, “It’s hard to even call it a mobile suit, more like a mobile monkey”.
The photos were fuzzy but the target looked green, and had the basic general shape and look of a Leo, except it had large thrashers on its back, it was bigger then even the Tallgeese, and the legs and arms were almost indistinguishable, it was reasonable to assume that both sets of limbs could be used for either function. Several of then looked slightly different from each other; for example, the one that was spotted on the North American West Coast had several large storage tanks, it was believed to have been sent to capture resources.
“It just doesn’t make any sense”, WuFei commented, “Why would someone send new model Mobile Suit to Maine, a civilian area to boot?”
“A show of force?”, Sally suggested, shrugging a bit as she turned her eyes to another set of controls.
WuFei sighed and shook his head, “Nah, if it was just to show off there are far better places then some small port town in Maine; New York City, Tokyo, Mexico City, Hong Kong………”, he trailed off for a moment and continued, “none of those appear to be targeted.”
Sally turned her bright blue, mongrel Chinese eyes back to her partner. He had grown so much, he was no longer the angry kid she met in China back during the war. He was more mature, more focused and above all else, had more control over his temper. She felt kind of proud about it, like she was his big sister or something; she at least found it pleasing to think that she had something to do with his growth.
“They have to be after something”, he continued, “and isn’t lobster.”
“or someone”, Sally suggested as a small little red light began flashing, along with a low toned screech. “forty-five seconds!”, she stated.
WuFei tightened his grip on the smooth, metallic black direction controls and directed his attention to the viewing and data monitors. “I see him”, he hissed. “Sally you have some missiles ready for me?”, he directed.
Sally nodded her head and pointed to an image monitor, “Remember, the orders are to spare as much of it as possible; we should aim for this leg joint and that rocket” Sally’s finger hovered over the unusual mobile suit’s left verier, “that should disable it.”
The mobile suit landed on all fours in a nearby forest.
“It must have seen us coming”, he commented, “he looked just ahead to notice that there were houses nearby. “Just as well”, he continued, “we couldn’t fight if it got to those houses.”
A beam turret dropped form the quadruped mobile suit’s belly while a second unsheathed from its back and opened fire. These were the times when WuFei felt most alive, this was why he joined Preventers. These instances were few and far between but the rush he felt in a battle made his normally boring and mundane job complete. The streaks of light dashed over under and around the fighter but WuFei kept the wings from getting so much as singed. His heart pumped like a rabbit, adrenaline coursed through is veins, each movement played through in slow motion. WuFei dodged before the turrets could lock on; up, right, left, right, down, barrel roll. The fighter was neither as mobile nor as versatile as a mobile suit but there was a speed advantage and WuFei had trained himself over the years to use every bit of it. WuFei’s eyes narrowed on the crosiers as his thumb smashed in a red button on the right control stick. One, two, three, four, five parallels of light were expelled from the fighter’s double beam cannons, carving a dotted line of mangled metal from the bottom turret up to the top.
“Ready Sally?”, WuFei asked, the excitement of the fire exchange was radiating from him like an exploding star.
The blond Chinese woman pressed a few buttons, fixating the targets into the rockets computers, “got em”, she confirmed, catching WuFei’s high spirit. Her finger compressed the final button and the two rockets were released.
As the rockets blasted off, three long, thin, mechanical tentacles shot out of the mobile suit’s side. WuFei, surprised by this reacted a little slow and was barely able to weave between the first two. The third however caught the missile plowing for the vernier rocket and was blown in two by the fiery shock wave. The Preventer Aircraft was too close to the blast radius to avoid the its wake entirely; it was thrown off course and lost part of its right wing.
The cockpit was blinking red, lights of all type flashed, in an effort to warn the pilot about what he already knew, buzzers buzzed like yellow jackets, beepers beeped a chaotic symphony of despair; it was utter pandemonium as the fighter spiraled down into the dark, moonlit forest of leafless, frozen trees. Out of the corner of her sapphire eye, sally caught the image of the first missile connecting with its target and blowing off the mobile suit’s leg, it then began to lose balance and fall as she and WuFei were shaken by another jolting shock-wave.
“Brace yourself!”, WuFei warned as he regained an unsteady control of the ship.
The safety straps in there seats were the only things that the two Preventers from smashing their heads against the bulkheads as the aircraft dug into the rocky snow-covered earth. The friction of the trees, rocks and frozen soil against the metal belly of the fighter shook the two about in a violent frenzied storm of crashes, bumps, torn metal and bruises. It took about a minute for either of them to realize they were still alive. Many of the monitors were, blank, busted, or showing static but most of the communication equipment still looked functional.
Sally released her safety straps and gasped; WuFei followed, shot up out of his seat and stumbled due to a weakness in his legs. Sally leaped to try and catch him but found herself stumbling as well; they found themselves in a tangled heap on the floor.
“You contact Preventer Earth about this”, he stated as he worked himself to his feet, “I’ll see what I can do outside”
“Wait, WuFei!” his somewhat annoyed partner called after him as he jumped out of a hatch into the freezing early morning air.
He was always doing this, it was almost offensive at times but Sally had come to terms with the fact that his chauvinistic protection of women was just WuFei’s way long ago and could generally deal with it. Still, he could have at least stayed long enough to head her advice in taking one of the emergency winter jackets.
WuFei came to a clearing, the frosty wind swirled around him and bit his cheeks. He finished zipping his presenters jacket in a futile effort to stay warm and then caught a sight of horror above him, illuminated by the almost full moon’s light. The mobile suit wasn’t standing on four legs anymore it was standing on two, upside down, while tentacle like devices, similar to the ones that caused him to crash were hoisting the leg, or arm, which its counterpart seemed to be functioning as now, up towards the socket that it had been torn from. It then began walking in the direction of the settlement.
“Oh, damn it!”, the distraught Asian colonist cussed as he forced his legs, now damp in melted snow, out of there statue frozen position.
He pursued the mobile suit through the woods as fast as he could, his moist panting hanging in the air in front of him. Crashing through ice coated thickets, glistening in the moonlight; jumping frozen logs hidden under snow, one of which tripping him, throwing his hands and face into a snow dune. Even that didn’t stop him though, he just picked himself up and forced his stiff legs forward, not even bothering to brush the snow out of his shaggy ebony hair, held back in a short pony tale. The wind turned against him, blowing snow and a razor chill into his eyes, forcing them shut and agitating a teardrop to flow down his face for a half second before crystallizing at nose height. WuFei began slipping on something, presumably ice, but regained his balance, turning it into a short slide before latching onto something, a tree he thought. Eventually, after what seemed like an eternity of following the echoing footsteps of a titanium giant, the faded screams of civilians and the honking of horns through an endless obstacle course of trees, frozen ponds and thorny underbrush he emerged into a snowy, incomplete subdivision street. His lips were blue, he was chattering like a wind up toy, his nose was full of mucus, he was out of breath, he could barely open his eyes and there was absolutely no feeling in any of his limbs. He saw his target, now standing right side up, leaning over a house down the street. Some people were running away, panicking in the street, some people just watched in bewilderment, others obviously hid in their houses while still a very few were too sound asleep to notice. He couldn’t see exactly what was going on but from the blurry shadows he could make out against illumination of the street lights, it seemed that the mobile suit had just stuffed a person inside its chest.
‘Must be an internal compartment’, WuFei figured in a frigid spur of enlightenment.
The mobile suit then turned on its vernier rockets and blasted off, WuFei helpless to do anything but watch.
“D………d………d………damn………mn……… it”, WuFei chattered out as he began to realize what a stupid idea it was to pursue that thing through the woods of Maine in the dead of winter. He tried to walk down the street some more to find some help but his legs bowed under him, unable, too cold and exhausted, to move another step and he fell to his knees.
‘I guess this is the end’, he regretfully realized as his upper body slowly descended, face first, into the snowy sidewalk. ‘Nataku……… I’ll be joining you shortly.’
WuFei’s final thoughts, however, were cut short as a strong, gloved, yet feminine hand pulled his body up out of the snow while the other slapped a cold weather jacket over his shoulders. The owner of the hands then knelt down in front of him and began wrapping the jacket around him tighter and slipped the hood over his round head. She – this was definitely a she – was wearing the same type of black, heavy coat, with synthetic fur around the zippers and openings. This woman was obviously tall and strong too, and kind judging from the way she wiped away the blood that began dripping from WuFei’s nose. Her hood was up but he could see two long curls of sun gold hair draping out both sides and, though the glare from the streetlights kept him from looking through her snow goggles and into her eyes, he already knew they were blue but had an oriental squint about them; and also, probably were about as smug as her red lips. “Sally..?”, he weakly asked, half expecting (his ego hoping) it was a hallucination.
“Preventer Water to you, Preventer Five”, she responded half jokingly. Her tone suddenly shifted to a patronizing one as she took off her gloves and began massaging the freezing Chinese man’s bitter cold fingers; “You listen! I’m the ranking officer here, I don’t boss you around half as much as I should, so when I say wait, you wait, got it!?”, she hissed.
“Yes ma’am”, WuFei weekly uttered out. If he still had feeling in his limbs his pride might have been hurt, but he wasn’t in a condition to argue.
Sally then hoisted WuFei up, as much as she could at least, and supported him as they went to look for warmth. Though WuFei, like the other former Gundam Pilots, had grown over the years he was still an inch or two shorter then Sally, which wasn’t too much to be embarrassed about, Sally was tall for a woman. “I guess your still more hot headed then I thought”, she commented as they limped up the walkway of the nearest house.
~*~*~ TIME: 3:56 AM (Belgium Time: 8:56 AM) ~*~*~
“Thank you for your hospitality. Sniff!”, a stuffy, blanket draped WuFei bid as a middle aged woman wrapped tightly in a pink robe, adorning bunny slippers on her feet, poured hot water into a mug.
She looked down at him with a head full of curlers and replied, “You’re welcome.”
“Well, can you tell us what that thing was then?”, her husband, a balding man dressed in long underwear, asked.
Sally let out a deep sigh as she weighed exactly what or if she should tell them, “A new model mobile suit”, she finally revealed, they had taken them in after all, “that’s all I can tell you.”
Too eager to warm his cold, aching bones to wait for the tea bag to saturate the steamy liquid, WuFei took a sip of the weak tea. A comforting warmth glided down his throat, settling in his belly and then diffusing throughout his body. “Don’t panic, Preventers HQ is already on the situation. This should be over with by the end of the week”, he assured he and his partner’s hosts.
Sally’s aqua eyes diverted looking at her partner for a moment; “Could you please leave us for a moment?” she asked the two spouses kindly, “I have something I need to discuss with my partner; it’s classified.”
The two accordingly exited the kitchen but stood near the door. Sally expected as much but it couldn’t be helped so she whispered, “We got another update from Preventer Earth after we crashed. They’ve located a few more. They were using stealth technology.”, she took a deep sigh hoping that it would give her partner time to brace himself for what’s coming next, “One was found heading northwest at 6 E, 50 N………”
The words only slowly began to sink into WuFei’s mind. ‘6 E means that its just east of the Prime Meridian’, he figured, ’50 N puts it fairly north; it’s heading northwest.’ WuFei soon found that the only thing keeping one of the largest strings of profanity he had ever conceived from escaping his mouth were the two bystanders at the door and the fact that he concluded that kids must also have been living in this house.
~*~*~ TIME: 8:44 AM (Maine Time: 3:44 AM) ~*~*~
Save the low humming of the engine, silence filled the passenger part of the presidential limousine. Heero was on one side watching for any possible disturbances. It was an almost useless gesture since the limousine was always escorted but it made him feel like he was doing something. On the other side Relena watched the fields fly past her tinted window. Not that she could see much on a day like this. Warm air currents which blow in from the Atlantic usual kept Brussels and the surrounding area (former Belgium) fairly mild during the winter. However, in the winter months, clouds and fog weren’t an uncommon site and today was no exception for that. It was pretty cold out though, not freezing, but there was still snow on the ground from the previous day.
“Who ever thought of making the capital Brussels?”, Relena asked, hoping that she could somehow ease the tension with some meaningless chatter.
Heero simply shrugged a bit and grunted out an, “I don’t know”, under his breath.
“I mean, why couldn’t it be closer to the equator”, she continued, “I mean, there are plenty of beautiful things around here but it would be nice if there was more sun in the winter months; don’t you think?”
Heero turned his attention to his employer for a moment; “where would you put it?”, he asked.
“Oh, I don’t know; some place warmer”, she answered. “I hear Cuba is nice”, she chimed, smiling a bit.
“Hmph”, Heero grunted in response. It was still amazing to him how different she appeared in public then she was in real life. Up at a podium or anywhere in the public eye or the presence of other politicians she always seemed so strong and independent; when it was just him, however, her backbone seemed to dissolve, especially lately. He’d been trying to determine why for the past five years but the answer always eluded him. Sometimes he even wondered if his presence was just detrimental to her health.
The painful silence continued, tearing into the mind of the already ill at ease young woman, dressed in her normal business attire. It hurt so much, it drove into her stomach where it burst into shrapnel tearing chunks out of her heart. What made it even worse was the knowledge that it was her fault; had she kept her legs crossed at least they could have maintained that awkward friendship they were able to work out. Now she didn’t even know what they had, what she had. She was very much alone and isolated; it wasn’t like there were a lot of people she associated with on a day to day basis she considered as friends; her adoptive mother was still alive but was living on the other half of the Earth; her brother, Milliardo and Noin – whom she also considered to be a friend – were on Mars; Cheryl was nice but she never got too close with her and Pagan died two years ago. In effect, the only person in her life right now that she felt close to was a Japanese colonist with intense blue eyes and had been trained as an assassin; whom she just so happened to find on a beach eight years ago; initially threatened to kill her; seemed to have a dislike for people in general; was stoically silent and was sitting no more then a few feet away, angry at her. Her soft creamy hand clenched her ivory suit as tears once again began building up in her aqua blue eyes. “H,Heero……?”, she stuttered, “I want to talk to you about something.”
Heero turned faced her fixating his icy blue eyes on her. “What is it?”, he asked.
After two deep breaths Relena felt composed enough to continue, “I wanted to say I’m sorry, Heero.”
“That it?”, he asked turning his attention back to the window. It was nice to know, but he assumed that much already.
“No, it isn’t”, she hurtfully shot back, “I wanted to try and explain why that happened. It isn’t any excuse but I’ve been under a lot of stress lately; my career, the media, this accounting scandal and………”, she trailed off.
Heero turned his head back around with interest, “And what?” He couldn’t do much about the career thing but the media he had always helped her out with and he was beginning to make progress on the accounting scandal; if there was something he could do about item number four he’d do it.
“and you!”, she blurted out releasing a stream of salty fluid down her rosy cheek.
“Me?”, Heero repeated; her words hitting him like a throwing dart, “what did I do?”
“You……… I……… If you could just………”, she bit her bottom lip, the fluid liberation of her eyeballs intensified, “I didn’t want to make you feel uncomfortable or like some piece of meat or like I just want your body or anything like that. It just all was so much and I needed some kind of relief, from somewhere, and you were there and………”, she heisted, “if no one else has ever told you this before, you are really hot and I am so sorry”, and moment’s awkward silence passed, “I’m not strong like you Heero, I can’t cope with things as well as you can; I need……… comforts. Ever since you’ve become my bodyguard you’ve been so much help, you’ve always gone out of your way for me and I completely violated your trust and there’s no excuse; but, but”, she swallowed and took another breath of air, “You don’t feel the same way I do, I understand; but if you can just forgive me I promise I won’t ever push you to do anything you don’t want to again.”
Heero was shocked. He looked deep into those teary cerulean eyes of hers and came to a decision, “Relena……… I’ve been meaning to talk about that too.”
Relena - who was dabbing the wet spots on her cheek with a tissue, expecting the worst and briefly contemplating whether suicide would be a good way to alleviate her pain or not - looked back at Heero, with a perk of interest. There wasn’t any malice in his voice; that was a good sign.
“I wanted to say that I’m sorry.”, he continued.
“No”, Relena cut him off, “Heero, it’s your body; you shouldn’t feel obligated to do anything you don’t want to with it. Just because you’re a guy doesn’t mean you have to; and that’s part of what I admire about you, Heero.”
Heero took a deep sigh and resumed, “I wouldn’t have held it against you anyway; you’ve done a lot for………”
A powerful explosive noise shook the limousine, interrupting Heero’s speech. Their vehicle skid to a halt shaking both passengers senseless. Heero, being the bodyguard, figured out what happened with only a moments delay, upon hearing the terrifying and familiar sound of a mobile suit landing nearby. He looked out the window to size what they were up against. The suit was like none he had ever seen; it was a light whitish gray color, allowing it to blend in with the cloudy sky and fog more effectively. Furthermore, it was also unusually large and had a beam cannon on its belly and back. It also seemed to have some kind of stealth device, much like the Deathscythe’s hyper jammers but Heero couldn’t be sure about that. Lastly, the mobile suit was on all fours.
His mind raced, was Relena safer in the car or out? Was this a kidnapping or an assassination? Judgeing by the mobile suit’s size it wasn’t likely that the armament carried by the escort vehicles wouldn’t be able to fend the suit off anyway, so even if it was a kidnapping she was still a sitting duck in the limousine. He unbuckled her safety belt, “GET OUT NOW!”
Relena, still dazed, followed her body guards instructions and shakily stepped out of the vehicle.
Heero was right behind her and gave her a small but forceful shove, “RUN!”, he ordered as he looked back at the advancing mobile suit. Bullets and beams and even a small rocket were pounding it but none of the escort vehicles had enough fire power to do any significant damage.
His communicator clicked on, “Agent Yuy, there is an unidentified mobile suit in the Brussles area, get the president to………”
“We’re fighting it off, she was in transit!”, he screamed back at it. He reached for his hand gun but then stopped himself, ‘waste of ammo’, he thought. For all he knew the suit was a decoy. He looked back to see that Relena had escaping into the foggy field; he could barely see her faint outline through to fog. “Shit!”, he chided himself as he raced after her.
The sound of the blaring guns had grown distant as the panting frenzied President escaped deeper and deeper into the ghostly abyss, cursing both herself, for eating a full breakfast this morning and whoever brilliant person invented the corset. Her pallid dress shoes made a panicked rhythm with the cold mud upon the field; the fog seemed to grow worse, enveloping her in a blanket of white; she had no idea where she was or where she was going, except away from the violent flashes behind her. A large resounding boom overtook her from behind, accompanied by the faint death cries of men. The distraction caused her to stumble and lose her balance, plummeting face first into the mud. Her sore hands lifted her torso out of the wet, rich soil as she tried to ignore the pain flaring up in her side. She squealed as two callous masculine arms wrapped around her waist and pulled her up.
“Keep going!”, the familiar voice of her bodyguard boomed in her ear.
“Heero……?”, she asked, already knowing the answer as her feet began scampering again.
“GO!”, he insisted, tugging on her mud drenched hand, in an effort urge her along.
The weapons fire behind them had ceased; Heero could reasonably assume it wasn’t a victory for them which meant the Suit would advance on their position soon enough. He frantically looked about for someplace they could hide or escape to, but all he saw was empty fields and whiteness. Then, they came across what could be their salvation, a river. It wasn’t a big river but it seemed to have a good flow from the sound of it; he just hoped it didn’t become too violent for Relena to handle as he dragged the somewhat surprised and reluctant young woman into the current.
Jumping into that water was comparable to being mauled by a gang of thugs, armed with sickles carved out of solid ice; it took the breath right out of them. The current was a little stronger then Heero predicted, carrying them along at a, not entirely rapid but uncomfortably fast pace; Heero struggling to keep both his and the terrified president’s head above water against they’re full soaking attire weighing them down. “Calm down; try to relax”, he instructed the moment he had they’re heads were above the water in unison.
Relena couldn’t calm down though, this water was freezing, all of her cloths were bogging her down underneath the surface constantly, and when she above the water the cold almost kept her breath away; plus, she knew she was swallowing water. Then, she felt something coil around her waist uncomfortably tight. It couldn’t be Heero, he was latching onto her upper body – one hand conveniently over her breast – and it was too long and hard to be something organic. Out of the water she came, Heero still latching onto her, and before she knew it what was going on the two of them were thrown into a small dark padded compartment. The door closed behind them, with a snap, cutting off the only light source.
As he lay under and next to a violently shivering, soaking wet, cold to the touch and choking out water Miss Relena Darlian, he examined their current situation. They were just tossed into a small padded compartment in the chest of the new mobile suit; the target was clearly Relena but he just happened to come along for the ride; both he and Relena are dripping profusely and shaking; this compartment was very small – only a bit bigger then a coffin – forcing them to be within a very interment proximity of each other and there was almost no light whatsoever, the most he could see was some small glistening from water droplets, reflecting the emissions of a small red dot on the ceiling.. His shaking hands searched the wall and found a small grated hard place, ‘at least there’s an air source’, he thought.
“H-H-Heero?”, she stuttered.
Until Heero opened his mouth to answer, he hadn’t realized exactly how cold he was, “W-what?”
“W………w, where are we?”
He took in as deep a breath as he could, “W, we’re in the m, mobile suit”. He knew what had to be done, the dripping garments had to be taken off or they might freeze to death. He began unbuttoning Relena’s jacket, “D,don’t t,take this the wrong way”, he assured her.
Relena, who was just about done emptying her lungs of fluid, understood and after several minutes of awkward, often embarrassing positioning and shifting about in the cramped confines of their coffin-like prison, lost in a tangle of their own arms an legs, they were finally down to their undergarments – neither of them were bold enough to suggest the release of those. They huddled together, shivering moist flesh against shivering moist flesh, to keep warm.
Heero ran his hand through Relena’s wet golden hair to try and calm her. The words that soon slipped from his mouth he couldn’t control, but he did his best to keep the statement as matter of fact as possible – this wasn’t the time nor place to do that – “Relena, I had no idea you could bend like that.” There wasn’t much light but he could tell when they were rolling around that she had gotten herself into some less then usual positions.
“I used to do some gymnastics”, she commented; she couldn’t restrain herself from playing with that wet, messy, chocolate mop on his head.
Something began swelling in his head, clouding his thoughts, as the impact of the idea that he was only wearing some wet boxers while she only adorned a bra and panties – both equally wet – finally took full effect in his mind. He took a deep breath, “I did not know that; you shouldn’t have quit”, he commented. Embarrassment overtook him as he began to realize that blood was rushing to a particular region of his lower body. Heero didn’t know where they were being taken to but wherever it was, it was going to be a very long trip.
The Beehive
Chapter 5: The Abduction
DATE: February 17, 203 AC
LOCATION: The Presidential Residence of the Earth Sphere Unified Nation
~*~*~TIME: 7:12 AM (Maine Time: 2:12 AM)~*~*~
He was surprised that she wasn’t up yet. So he navigated his way through the living quarters until he found his way to the door of the President’s bedchamber. He was about knock on the door, but he noticed that it wasn’t completely shut; then an idea crossed his mind. He turned his head left and right; no one else would see him, good. He opened the door just a little bit more and took a peek inside; the room was still, decorated with beautiful painstaking carvings in the white painted wood walls. A set of porcelain jars and containers, filled with who knows what, sat idly atop a hard wood dresser, topped with an old fashioned round mirror; across from that, on the bed, under those navy blue blankets peacefully slept a small, caramel blond, angelic, European girl, who just happened to hold the highest office in the whole Earth Sphere, clad in a white night gown.
‘Good’, he thought.
Heero silently slipped into the room and closed the door behind him, he then took another long look at the sleeping beauty before him. She lay still, on her back, save for the rhythmic heaving of her chest. She stirred a bit, sliding her right arm up the bed over her head and turned her head to greet it. Heero, also being to the right of the resting president, took a step back in surprise, his heart inactive, while his mind calculated as many possible explanations as to why he was there as he could; and realized she was still asleep. She murmured something but he couldn’t tell what. Heero Yuy then recollected himself, took in a big breath of air and then pushed himself forwards to carry out his spur of the moment mission.
Ever since the incident on Valentines Day night, Relena and Heero had barely spoken to each other. Relena was usually the one to initiate non-business conversations but for the past two days she had gone out of her way to avoid him and the few exchanges they did have usually went something along the lines of:
Heero hands Relena his latest report; Relena thanks him and smiles weakly. Heero stays for a few seconds, expecting her to say something else while she just shrinks back into her chair, like she was afraid of him. Heero decides that she isn’t in a mood to talk and leaves.
To tell the truth, they had never worked with each other this efficiently, ever, which in some ways was a good thing considering the fact he had such an important investigation on his hands; but it was disturbingly unnatural and he actually had intended to take Duo’s advice, eventually. He had two problems though. His first problem was the fact that he could only barely choke out the words “I love you” to a mirror, let alone say it to her face, but in his mind that was of little consequence. His second problem was method, what could he do that would surprise Relena, make up for the other night, and get his point across without saying those three damned words. It had puzzled him until yesterday afternoon when he overheard some soap opera one of the office security team members happened to have on in the lunch room. An idea had suddenly struck him and, in accordance, he rushed out to buy everything he needed later that afternoon. This presented a new problem though, it would be awkward to just do what he was planning on doing out of nowhere, he had to lead up to it somehow; he was no expert on relationships but he’d watched enough TV to generally figure that part out. So, he realized this morning as he drove to work, with much dissatisfaction, that he was back to square one after all. Upon seeing his unofficial master was still asleep, he was reminded of an old fairy tale he once heard. This born assassin had normally never been in to fairy tales, even when he was small, but this one, or at least this part of this one, he did happen to remember and realized that it would be the perfect way to start off. And, even if he was wrong, its not like she would fire him, not after the other night’s fiasco. So, cautiously, he tip toed up to the bed and looked down upon his spinning wheel pricked princess. Her brownish blond hair hung over her left shoulder in a pony tail, her lips seemed to stare at him, as if to invite him in. There was something mournful about her expression though, leading Heero to wonder exactly what she was dreaming about.
‘This will do it’, he thought as he tried to force his back into leaning his mouth into her soft face, ‘it’s right out of a fairy tale, it couldn’t possibly not work.’ His body wasn’t responding however; he could do nothing but hover above her watching her sleep.
Heero then noticed something he had been too distracted to notice before, something, not entirely, but still at the same time awful. As the reality of the situation began to crawl up his spine, from the pit of his stomach he took a half step back, then forwards, and then knelt down in front of Relena’s bed in concern, it was the only thing he could think of to do. Heero had noticed that on top of the nearby ornate night stand, underneath the umbrella of the fancy, gold fringed, lamp, ominously stood a small half depleted bottle of sleeping pills.
He held the suspicious bottle in his hand and browsed the back, ‘one pill dosage……… you may want to consult a doctor before use……… extended use may lead to serious medical issues……… contact a doctor immediately if you have any problems……… do not drink alcohol while using this product………’, his cobalt eyes froze on that ultra fine print, it just jumped out at him, ‘why?’ It then occurred to him that Relena had been drinking a glass of some kind of liquor before he left yesterday. He didn’t really pay any attention though since he was focused on his plan; all he did was stop by to inform her that he had to leave early.
While he was reading the bottle Relena mumbled something in her sleep - something about someone not leaving; he hadn’t caught most of it though.
‘She’s definitely still breathing all right’, he confirmed; a sigh of relief rushed over him. He stood back up and looked down at her, not quite sure what to do. His resolve to find out about the pills had just overshadowed his romantic notions – which unsurprisingly were few and far between – and delicately shook her shoulders a bit while he quietly called out her name, “Relena……… wake up.”
He wasn’t expecting what happened next, one second his head was still a comfortable distance above the bed pondering what to say, the next, her arms held it tightly to hers as she hungrily indulged her mouth.
All that time that Heero had been in the room, Relena had been dreaming a not entirely, but at the same time unpleasant dream about him. As her eyes dreamily half opened to meet Heero’s golf balls staring back at her, her conscious mind once again began to function. She examined the current situation, ‘I was kissing him goodbye……… I’m in my bed……… his eyes are the size of hockey pucks……… Wait, this doesn’t make sense. He was about to leave on some mission and……… no, the war is over……… I’m in my bed, did we have sex……? no, I would have remembered that - I hope………’, and soon, as the answer to all her questions hit her like a slab of free falling shale; a sinking sensation developed in Relena’s stomach, followed soon after by blind panic. “Oh my god! Not again!”, she shouted, forcefully shoving Heero away in horror.
Heero stumbled back a pace but caught himself before he lost balance, “………Relena?”, he finally spit out.
She was sitting up in her bed diverting her eyes for Heero’s gaze and nervously fidgeting with her brownish blond pony tale over her shoulder. Tears were welling up in her eyes, she was so angry at herself. She had grown acutely afraid that if Heero knew exactly how she felt he’d be scared off; it wasn’t like he showed any clear romantic interest in her, after all. In fact, the only thing she knew about how Heero felt towards her was that she could trust him with almost anything and he trusted her, or at least, had trusted her; before she managed to royally betray that trust twice within a three day period; she had realized that trying to force herself on him was probably a dumb move. “Heero……… I, I’m sorry……… I’m so sorry I, I……… didn’t……… I didn’t………”, as her mind raced to find some magical words that would make it all better, something else occurred to her. “Why are you in my room?”, she looked back up at him as she interrupted herself matte-of-factly.
Heero’s stern bodyguard face came up and he held the newly discovered bottle up so Relena could see it.
“Insomnia”, the surprised and embarrassed young president responded defensively.
The blue eyed Japanese man narrowed his eyes some; “Your not supposed to drink while using these”, he critically commented in monotone.
“I know that”, she shot back, a little annoyed by Heero’s inquisition, “I wasn’t”
“I caught you drinking before I left yesterday Relena. Actually, you’ve been drinking a lot lately”, he spoke with a tone that couldn’t help but imply suspicion.
Relena shook her head, “That was a long time before I went to bed, Heero”, she sat up some more and glared at Heero with her cerulean eyes, “And I’m not having an alcohol problem, I just need a little drink every now and then to help calm down; I’ve been under a lot of stress lately, that’s all.”
“And what happened on the tenth?”, Heero’s face kept like a rock.
Relena’s face reddened as she recalled waking up the eleventh with a vengeful hangover and a couple of aspirins, a cup of water and a note from Heero saying “You’ll probably need this when you wake up” on her night stand.
Heero recalled having to stealthily navigate a incessantly giggling, ranting, stumbling and slurring strawberry blond politician to her room so as few people as possible realized that the president of the ESUN was hammered; listening to amazingly stupid comments like, “We need some waffles” and “You know what I like about you Heero? Tee….. he….. he….. You have a cute butt” and then having to ignore all of her drunken efforts to seduce him. After he finally unplugged the phone in her room (just in case), got away and locked the door behind him he stood guard for fifteen minutes and peeked back in to find her sleeping on the floor ON TOP of her cloths. His first impulse was to just get the hell out of there but after a minute of arguing with himself he decided that he couldn’t just leave her like that. So he carefully found a nightgown for her, slipped it on her as best he could and tucked her in bed, using every ounce of his willpower to not take advantage of her compromising state. He then left her some aspirin and a note, rushed back to his apartment and took a really cold shower. He decided to spare Relena the uncomfortable details when she woke up the following morning. “You were completely drunk”, his heartless voice continued in aggravation, “you didn’t even remember what happened, and you probably don’t want to.”
“That only happened once!”, she heatedly protested
Heero wasn’t done though, he didn’t particularly want to say this, not to her, especially not to her; he didn’t even want to admit it, had anyone else said it while he was around he would have beaten them to the emergency room, but it had to be said, “Relena, I think you might be becoming an alcoholic.”
“Why am I taking this from you anyway!? It’s none of your business! Get out!”, she screeched as she furiously pointed to the door.
For a few moments, the two of them stayed silent and still, just scowling at each other. A diminutive amount of regret crept up on the scarlet faced Relena but she was still too embarrassed and frustrated for it to take hold.
Heero took in a gulp of air in a failed effort to suppress some nameless mix of emotions Relena’s words stirred in his abdomen; “You’re scheduled to leave at 8:30 AM”, he bluntly stated before turning around and marching out the door.
LOCATION: Preventer Aircraft, Maine.
~*~*~ TIME: 3:30 AM (Belgium Time: 8:30 AM) ~*~*~
“Negative, you wouldn’t make it in time. Just intercept your current target and try to bring as much of it back as you can.”, replied the voice of Lady Une over the intercom.
Sally navigated through the menus on the monitor, until finally finalizing her choice with the feathery decent of her callous index finger. The data they were just sent opened up on the screen; a small page of glyphs and satellite photos. “Roger”, replied the blond Asian as her squinty blue eyes focused on the skimpy data table she just received.
“Good luck”, bid the Preventer’s commander and the communication channel closed with an almost inaudible click.
Sally turned to her 23-year-old partner, Preventer Ace, former Gundam Pilot and the last remnants of the once proud Long Clan, Chang WuFei. “You hear that, WuFei?”, she asked.
WuFei turned his dark Asian eyes from the systems check for the aircraft to the monitor displaying the target information, he didn’t want to go into a battle with a dysfunctional machine but he wanted to know what he was up against too. “I heard it”, he grunted, his focus clearly on the mechanical operations.
“Have you ever seen a mobile suit like that?”, she questioned, turning her focus to another small screen, “one-hundred-eighty seconds until we reach the target”, she stated.
“Not a clue what it is”, WuFei admitted, “It’s hard to even call it a mobile suit, more like a mobile monkey”.
The photos were fuzzy but the target looked green, and had the basic general shape and look of a Leo, except it had large thrashers on its back, it was bigger then even the Tallgeese, and the legs and arms were almost indistinguishable, it was reasonable to assume that both sets of limbs could be used for either function. Several of then looked slightly different from each other; for example, the one that was spotted on the North American West Coast had several large storage tanks, it was believed to have been sent to capture resources.
“It just doesn’t make any sense”, WuFei commented, “Why would someone send new model Mobile Suit to Maine, a civilian area to boot?”
“A show of force?”, Sally suggested, shrugging a bit as she turned her eyes to another set of controls.
WuFei sighed and shook his head, “Nah, if it was just to show off there are far better places then some small port town in Maine; New York City, Tokyo, Mexico City, Hong Kong………”, he trailed off for a moment and continued, “none of those appear to be targeted.”
Sally turned her bright blue, mongrel Chinese eyes back to her partner. He had grown so much, he was no longer the angry kid she met in China back during the war. He was more mature, more focused and above all else, had more control over his temper. She felt kind of proud about it, like she was his big sister or something; she at least found it pleasing to think that she had something to do with his growth.
“They have to be after something”, he continued, “and isn’t lobster.”
“or someone”, Sally suggested as a small little red light began flashing, along with a low toned screech. “forty-five seconds!”, she stated.
WuFei tightened his grip on the smooth, metallic black direction controls and directed his attention to the viewing and data monitors. “I see him”, he hissed. “Sally you have some missiles ready for me?”, he directed.
Sally nodded her head and pointed to an image monitor, “Remember, the orders are to spare as much of it as possible; we should aim for this leg joint and that rocket” Sally’s finger hovered over the unusual mobile suit’s left verier, “that should disable it.”
The mobile suit landed on all fours in a nearby forest.
“It must have seen us coming”, he commented, “he looked just ahead to notice that there were houses nearby. “Just as well”, he continued, “we couldn’t fight if it got to those houses.”
A beam turret dropped form the quadruped mobile suit’s belly while a second unsheathed from its back and opened fire. These were the times when WuFei felt most alive, this was why he joined Preventers. These instances were few and far between but the rush he felt in a battle made his normally boring and mundane job complete. The streaks of light dashed over under and around the fighter but WuFei kept the wings from getting so much as singed. His heart pumped like a rabbit, adrenaline coursed through is veins, each movement played through in slow motion. WuFei dodged before the turrets could lock on; up, right, left, right, down, barrel roll. The fighter was neither as mobile nor as versatile as a mobile suit but there was a speed advantage and WuFei had trained himself over the years to use every bit of it. WuFei’s eyes narrowed on the crosiers as his thumb smashed in a red button on the right control stick. One, two, three, four, five parallels of light were expelled from the fighter’s double beam cannons, carving a dotted line of mangled metal from the bottom turret up to the top.
“Ready Sally?”, WuFei asked, the excitement of the fire exchange was radiating from him like an exploding star.
The blond Chinese woman pressed a few buttons, fixating the targets into the rockets computers, “got em”, she confirmed, catching WuFei’s high spirit. Her finger compressed the final button and the two rockets were released.
As the rockets blasted off, three long, thin, mechanical tentacles shot out of the mobile suit’s side. WuFei, surprised by this reacted a little slow and was barely able to weave between the first two. The third however caught the missile plowing for the vernier rocket and was blown in two by the fiery shock wave. The Preventer Aircraft was too close to the blast radius to avoid the its wake entirely; it was thrown off course and lost part of its right wing.
The cockpit was blinking red, lights of all type flashed, in an effort to warn the pilot about what he already knew, buzzers buzzed like yellow jackets, beepers beeped a chaotic symphony of despair; it was utter pandemonium as the fighter spiraled down into the dark, moonlit forest of leafless, frozen trees. Out of the corner of her sapphire eye, sally caught the image of the first missile connecting with its target and blowing off the mobile suit’s leg, it then began to lose balance and fall as she and WuFei were shaken by another jolting shock-wave.
“Brace yourself!”, WuFei warned as he regained an unsteady control of the ship.
The safety straps in there seats were the only things that the two Preventers from smashing their heads against the bulkheads as the aircraft dug into the rocky snow-covered earth. The friction of the trees, rocks and frozen soil against the metal belly of the fighter shook the two about in a violent frenzied storm of crashes, bumps, torn metal and bruises. It took about a minute for either of them to realize they were still alive. Many of the monitors were, blank, busted, or showing static but most of the communication equipment still looked functional.
Sally released her safety straps and gasped; WuFei followed, shot up out of his seat and stumbled due to a weakness in his legs. Sally leaped to try and catch him but found herself stumbling as well; they found themselves in a tangled heap on the floor.
“You contact Preventer Earth about this”, he stated as he worked himself to his feet, “I’ll see what I can do outside”
“Wait, WuFei!” his somewhat annoyed partner called after him as he jumped out of a hatch into the freezing early morning air.
He was always doing this, it was almost offensive at times but Sally had come to terms with the fact that his chauvinistic protection of women was just WuFei’s way long ago and could generally deal with it. Still, he could have at least stayed long enough to head her advice in taking one of the emergency winter jackets.
WuFei came to a clearing, the frosty wind swirled around him and bit his cheeks. He finished zipping his presenters jacket in a futile effort to stay warm and then caught a sight of horror above him, illuminated by the almost full moon’s light. The mobile suit wasn’t standing on four legs anymore it was standing on two, upside down, while tentacle like devices, similar to the ones that caused him to crash were hoisting the leg, or arm, which its counterpart seemed to be functioning as now, up towards the socket that it had been torn from. It then began walking in the direction of the settlement.
“Oh, damn it!”, the distraught Asian colonist cussed as he forced his legs, now damp in melted snow, out of there statue frozen position.
He pursued the mobile suit through the woods as fast as he could, his moist panting hanging in the air in front of him. Crashing through ice coated thickets, glistening in the moonlight; jumping frozen logs hidden under snow, one of which tripping him, throwing his hands and face into a snow dune. Even that didn’t stop him though, he just picked himself up and forced his stiff legs forward, not even bothering to brush the snow out of his shaggy ebony hair, held back in a short pony tale. The wind turned against him, blowing snow and a razor chill into his eyes, forcing them shut and agitating a teardrop to flow down his face for a half second before crystallizing at nose height. WuFei began slipping on something, presumably ice, but regained his balance, turning it into a short slide before latching onto something, a tree he thought. Eventually, after what seemed like an eternity of following the echoing footsteps of a titanium giant, the faded screams of civilians and the honking of horns through an endless obstacle course of trees, frozen ponds and thorny underbrush he emerged into a snowy, incomplete subdivision street. His lips were blue, he was chattering like a wind up toy, his nose was full of mucus, he was out of breath, he could barely open his eyes and there was absolutely no feeling in any of his limbs. He saw his target, now standing right side up, leaning over a house down the street. Some people were running away, panicking in the street, some people just watched in bewilderment, others obviously hid in their houses while still a very few were too sound asleep to notice. He couldn’t see exactly what was going on but from the blurry shadows he could make out against illumination of the street lights, it seemed that the mobile suit had just stuffed a person inside its chest.
‘Must be an internal compartment’, WuFei figured in a frigid spur of enlightenment.
The mobile suit then turned on its vernier rockets and blasted off, WuFei helpless to do anything but watch.
“D………d………d………damn………mn……… it”, WuFei chattered out as he began to realize what a stupid idea it was to pursue that thing through the woods of Maine in the dead of winter. He tried to walk down the street some more to find some help but his legs bowed under him, unable, too cold and exhausted, to move another step and he fell to his knees.
‘I guess this is the end’, he regretfully realized as his upper body slowly descended, face first, into the snowy sidewalk. ‘Nataku……… I’ll be joining you shortly.’
WuFei’s final thoughts, however, were cut short as a strong, gloved, yet feminine hand pulled his body up out of the snow while the other slapped a cold weather jacket over his shoulders. The owner of the hands then knelt down in front of him and began wrapping the jacket around him tighter and slipped the hood over his round head. She – this was definitely a she – was wearing the same type of black, heavy coat, with synthetic fur around the zippers and openings. This woman was obviously tall and strong too, and kind judging from the way she wiped away the blood that began dripping from WuFei’s nose. Her hood was up but he could see two long curls of sun gold hair draping out both sides and, though the glare from the streetlights kept him from looking through her snow goggles and into her eyes, he already knew they were blue but had an oriental squint about them; and also, probably were about as smug as her red lips. “Sally..?”, he weakly asked, half expecting (his ego hoping) it was a hallucination.
“Preventer Water to you, Preventer Five”, she responded half jokingly. Her tone suddenly shifted to a patronizing one as she took off her gloves and began massaging the freezing Chinese man’s bitter cold fingers; “You listen! I’m the ranking officer here, I don’t boss you around half as much as I should, so when I say wait, you wait, got it!?”, she hissed.
“Yes ma’am”, WuFei weekly uttered out. If he still had feeling in his limbs his pride might have been hurt, but he wasn’t in a condition to argue.
Sally then hoisted WuFei up, as much as she could at least, and supported him as they went to look for warmth. Though WuFei, like the other former Gundam Pilots, had grown over the years he was still an inch or two shorter then Sally, which wasn’t too much to be embarrassed about, Sally was tall for a woman. “I guess your still more hot headed then I thought”, she commented as they limped up the walkway of the nearest house.
~*~*~ TIME: 3:56 AM (Belgium Time: 8:56 AM) ~*~*~
“Thank you for your hospitality. Sniff!”, a stuffy, blanket draped WuFei bid as a middle aged woman wrapped tightly in a pink robe, adorning bunny slippers on her feet, poured hot water into a mug.
She looked down at him with a head full of curlers and replied, “You’re welcome.”
“Well, can you tell us what that thing was then?”, her husband, a balding man dressed in long underwear, asked.
Sally let out a deep sigh as she weighed exactly what or if she should tell them, “A new model mobile suit”, she finally revealed, they had taken them in after all, “that’s all I can tell you.”
Too eager to warm his cold, aching bones to wait for the tea bag to saturate the steamy liquid, WuFei took a sip of the weak tea. A comforting warmth glided down his throat, settling in his belly and then diffusing throughout his body. “Don’t panic, Preventers HQ is already on the situation. This should be over with by the end of the week”, he assured he and his partner’s hosts.
Sally’s aqua eyes diverted looking at her partner for a moment; “Could you please leave us for a moment?” she asked the two spouses kindly, “I have something I need to discuss with my partner; it’s classified.”
The two accordingly exited the kitchen but stood near the door. Sally expected as much but it couldn’t be helped so she whispered, “We got another update from Preventer Earth after we crashed. They’ve located a few more. They were using stealth technology.”, she took a deep sigh hoping that it would give her partner time to brace himself for what’s coming next, “One was found heading northwest at 6 E, 50 N………”
The words only slowly began to sink into WuFei’s mind. ‘6 E means that its just east of the Prime Meridian’, he figured, ’50 N puts it fairly north; it’s heading northwest.’ WuFei soon found that the only thing keeping one of the largest strings of profanity he had ever conceived from escaping his mouth were the two bystanders at the door and the fact that he concluded that kids must also have been living in this house.
~*~*~ TIME: 8:44 AM (Maine Time: 3:44 AM) ~*~*~
Save the low humming of the engine, silence filled the passenger part of the presidential limousine. Heero was on one side watching for any possible disturbances. It was an almost useless gesture since the limousine was always escorted but it made him feel like he was doing something. On the other side Relena watched the fields fly past her tinted window. Not that she could see much on a day like this. Warm air currents which blow in from the Atlantic usual kept Brussels and the surrounding area (former Belgium) fairly mild during the winter. However, in the winter months, clouds and fog weren’t an uncommon site and today was no exception for that. It was pretty cold out though, not freezing, but there was still snow on the ground from the previous day.
“Who ever thought of making the capital Brussels?”, Relena asked, hoping that she could somehow ease the tension with some meaningless chatter.
Heero simply shrugged a bit and grunted out an, “I don’t know”, under his breath.
“I mean, why couldn’t it be closer to the equator”, she continued, “I mean, there are plenty of beautiful things around here but it would be nice if there was more sun in the winter months; don’t you think?”
Heero turned his attention to his employer for a moment; “where would you put it?”, he asked.
“Oh, I don’t know; some place warmer”, she answered. “I hear Cuba is nice”, she chimed, smiling a bit.
“Hmph”, Heero grunted in response. It was still amazing to him how different she appeared in public then she was in real life. Up at a podium or anywhere in the public eye or the presence of other politicians she always seemed so strong and independent; when it was just him, however, her backbone seemed to dissolve, especially lately. He’d been trying to determine why for the past five years but the answer always eluded him. Sometimes he even wondered if his presence was just detrimental to her health.
The painful silence continued, tearing into the mind of the already ill at ease young woman, dressed in her normal business attire. It hurt so much, it drove into her stomach where it burst into shrapnel tearing chunks out of her heart. What made it even worse was the knowledge that it was her fault; had she kept her legs crossed at least they could have maintained that awkward friendship they were able to work out. Now she didn’t even know what they had, what she had. She was very much alone and isolated; it wasn’t like there were a lot of people she associated with on a day to day basis she considered as friends; her adoptive mother was still alive but was living on the other half of the Earth; her brother, Milliardo and Noin – whom she also considered to be a friend – were on Mars; Cheryl was nice but she never got too close with her and Pagan died two years ago. In effect, the only person in her life right now that she felt close to was a Japanese colonist with intense blue eyes and had been trained as an assassin; whom she just so happened to find on a beach eight years ago; initially threatened to kill her; seemed to have a dislike for people in general; was stoically silent and was sitting no more then a few feet away, angry at her. Her soft creamy hand clenched her ivory suit as tears once again began building up in her aqua blue eyes. “H,Heero……?”, she stuttered, “I want to talk to you about something.”
Heero turned faced her fixating his icy blue eyes on her. “What is it?”, he asked.
After two deep breaths Relena felt composed enough to continue, “I wanted to say I’m sorry, Heero.”
“That it?”, he asked turning his attention back to the window. It was nice to know, but he assumed that much already.
“No, it isn’t”, she hurtfully shot back, “I wanted to try and explain why that happened. It isn’t any excuse but I’ve been under a lot of stress lately; my career, the media, this accounting scandal and………”, she trailed off.
Heero turned his head back around with interest, “And what?” He couldn’t do much about the career thing but the media he had always helped her out with and he was beginning to make progress on the accounting scandal; if there was something he could do about item number four he’d do it.
“and you!”, she blurted out releasing a stream of salty fluid down her rosy cheek.
“Me?”, Heero repeated; her words hitting him like a throwing dart, “what did I do?”
“You……… I……… If you could just………”, she bit her bottom lip, the fluid liberation of her eyeballs intensified, “I didn’t want to make you feel uncomfortable or like some piece of meat or like I just want your body or anything like that. It just all was so much and I needed some kind of relief, from somewhere, and you were there and………”, she heisted, “if no one else has ever told you this before, you are really hot and I am so sorry”, and moment’s awkward silence passed, “I’m not strong like you Heero, I can’t cope with things as well as you can; I need……… comforts. Ever since you’ve become my bodyguard you’ve been so much help, you’ve always gone out of your way for me and I completely violated your trust and there’s no excuse; but, but”, she swallowed and took another breath of air, “You don’t feel the same way I do, I understand; but if you can just forgive me I promise I won’t ever push you to do anything you don’t want to again.”
Heero was shocked. He looked deep into those teary cerulean eyes of hers and came to a decision, “Relena……… I’ve been meaning to talk about that too.”
Relena - who was dabbing the wet spots on her cheek with a tissue, expecting the worst and briefly contemplating whether suicide would be a good way to alleviate her pain or not - looked back at Heero, with a perk of interest. There wasn’t any malice in his voice; that was a good sign.
“I wanted to say that I’m sorry.”, he continued.
“No”, Relena cut him off, “Heero, it’s your body; you shouldn’t feel obligated to do anything you don’t want to with it. Just because you’re a guy doesn’t mean you have to; and that’s part of what I admire about you, Heero.”
Heero took a deep sigh and resumed, “I wouldn’t have held it against you anyway; you’ve done a lot for………”
A powerful explosive noise shook the limousine, interrupting Heero’s speech. Their vehicle skid to a halt shaking both passengers senseless. Heero, being the bodyguard, figured out what happened with only a moments delay, upon hearing the terrifying and familiar sound of a mobile suit landing nearby. He looked out the window to size what they were up against. The suit was like none he had ever seen; it was a light whitish gray color, allowing it to blend in with the cloudy sky and fog more effectively. Furthermore, it was also unusually large and had a beam cannon on its belly and back. It also seemed to have some kind of stealth device, much like the Deathscythe’s hyper jammers but Heero couldn’t be sure about that. Lastly, the mobile suit was on all fours.
His mind raced, was Relena safer in the car or out? Was this a kidnapping or an assassination? Judgeing by the mobile suit’s size it wasn’t likely that the armament carried by the escort vehicles wouldn’t be able to fend the suit off anyway, so even if it was a kidnapping she was still a sitting duck in the limousine. He unbuckled her safety belt, “GET OUT NOW!”
Relena, still dazed, followed her body guards instructions and shakily stepped out of the vehicle.
Heero was right behind her and gave her a small but forceful shove, “RUN!”, he ordered as he looked back at the advancing mobile suit. Bullets and beams and even a small rocket were pounding it but none of the escort vehicles had enough fire power to do any significant damage.
His communicator clicked on, “Agent Yuy, there is an unidentified mobile suit in the Brussles area, get the president to………”
“We’re fighting it off, she was in transit!”, he screamed back at it. He reached for his hand gun but then stopped himself, ‘waste of ammo’, he thought. For all he knew the suit was a decoy. He looked back to see that Relena had escaping into the foggy field; he could barely see her faint outline through to fog. “Shit!”, he chided himself as he raced after her.
The sound of the blaring guns had grown distant as the panting frenzied President escaped deeper and deeper into the ghostly abyss, cursing both herself, for eating a full breakfast this morning and whoever brilliant person invented the corset. Her pallid dress shoes made a panicked rhythm with the cold mud upon the field; the fog seemed to grow worse, enveloping her in a blanket of white; she had no idea where she was or where she was going, except away from the violent flashes behind her. A large resounding boom overtook her from behind, accompanied by the faint death cries of men. The distraction caused her to stumble and lose her balance, plummeting face first into the mud. Her sore hands lifted her torso out of the wet, rich soil as she tried to ignore the pain flaring up in her side. She squealed as two callous masculine arms wrapped around her waist and pulled her up.
“Keep going!”, the familiar voice of her bodyguard boomed in her ear.
“Heero……?”, she asked, already knowing the answer as her feet began scampering again.
“GO!”, he insisted, tugging on her mud drenched hand, in an effort urge her along.
The weapons fire behind them had ceased; Heero could reasonably assume it wasn’t a victory for them which meant the Suit would advance on their position soon enough. He frantically looked about for someplace they could hide or escape to, but all he saw was empty fields and whiteness. Then, they came across what could be their salvation, a river. It wasn’t a big river but it seemed to have a good flow from the sound of it; he just hoped it didn’t become too violent for Relena to handle as he dragged the somewhat surprised and reluctant young woman into the current.
Jumping into that water was comparable to being mauled by a gang of thugs, armed with sickles carved out of solid ice; it took the breath right out of them. The current was a little stronger then Heero predicted, carrying them along at a, not entirely rapid but uncomfortably fast pace; Heero struggling to keep both his and the terrified president’s head above water against they’re full soaking attire weighing them down. “Calm down; try to relax”, he instructed the moment he had they’re heads were above the water in unison.
Relena couldn’t calm down though, this water was freezing, all of her cloths were bogging her down underneath the surface constantly, and when she above the water the cold almost kept her breath away; plus, she knew she was swallowing water. Then, she felt something coil around her waist uncomfortably tight. It couldn’t be Heero, he was latching onto her upper body – one hand conveniently over her breast – and it was too long and hard to be something organic. Out of the water she came, Heero still latching onto her, and before she knew it what was going on the two of them were thrown into a small dark padded compartment. The door closed behind them, with a snap, cutting off the only light source.
As he lay under and next to a violently shivering, soaking wet, cold to the touch and choking out water Miss Relena Darlian, he examined their current situation. They were just tossed into a small padded compartment in the chest of the new mobile suit; the target was clearly Relena but he just happened to come along for the ride; both he and Relena are dripping profusely and shaking; this compartment was very small – only a bit bigger then a coffin – forcing them to be within a very interment proximity of each other and there was almost no light whatsoever, the most he could see was some small glistening from water droplets, reflecting the emissions of a small red dot on the ceiling.. His shaking hands searched the wall and found a small grated hard place, ‘at least there’s an air source’, he thought.
“H-H-Heero?”, she stuttered.
Until Heero opened his mouth to answer, he hadn’t realized exactly how cold he was, “W-what?”
“W………w, where are we?”
He took in as deep a breath as he could, “W, we’re in the m, mobile suit”. He knew what had to be done, the dripping garments had to be taken off or they might freeze to death. He began unbuttoning Relena’s jacket, “D,don’t t,take this the wrong way”, he assured her.
Relena, who was just about done emptying her lungs of fluid, understood and after several minutes of awkward, often embarrassing positioning and shifting about in the cramped confines of their coffin-like prison, lost in a tangle of their own arms an legs, they were finally down to their undergarments – neither of them were bold enough to suggest the release of those. They huddled together, shivering moist flesh against shivering moist flesh, to keep warm.
Heero ran his hand through Relena’s wet golden hair to try and calm her. The words that soon slipped from his mouth he couldn’t control, but he did his best to keep the statement as matter of fact as possible – this wasn’t the time nor place to do that – “Relena, I had no idea you could bend like that.” There wasn’t much light but he could tell when they were rolling around that she had gotten herself into some less then usual positions.
“I used to do some gymnastics”, she commented; she couldn’t restrain herself from playing with that wet, messy, chocolate mop on his head.
Something began swelling in his head, clouding his thoughts, as the impact of the idea that he was only wearing some wet boxers while she only adorned a bra and panties – both equally wet – finally took full effect in his mind. He took a deep breath, “I did not know that; you shouldn’t have quit”, he commented. Embarrassment overtook him as he began to realize that blood was rushing to a particular region of his lower body. Heero didn’t know where they were being taken to but wherever it was, it was going to be a very long trip.
isn't that every girls answer to "I didn't know you could bend that way" 
I just really like this story so far.