Blissful Ignorance

AN: This story is different like everything else I write. ?The ending will surprise you, and there are quite a few twists in the plot; so I hope you like it. ?Thanks everyone, and I hope you are all happy and well. ?This was called "Once to Be Made... Only to Be Broken," but I just reposted it. Please review everyone (this was posted so long ago, I had to re-read it to remember what it was about).

Disclaimers: I don't own Gundam Wing.

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"Come on men, find her now!" the old general commanded his regiment as this great army pursued its mark, a group of many so young yet untamed, along the brush.

"But sir, we've searched the entire grounds, and she is nowhere to be found. Perhaps she esc..."

"Don't be an imbecile! ?She's nothing more than a little girl, so how is it that she can slip through the hands of the most distinguished army of his Excellency Colar?"

"Well sir..."

"She can't have gone far... I know that for a fact," the arrogant man snorted at the soldier in his aggravation, interrupting the poor subordinate's reply in defense of his corp's hesitation--the official clenching his knuckles in contempt of his men's insolence in capturing one, little child.

"Yes sir, we would think so, but remember, she had the Gundam pilots to protect her. ?So I think it's best if we try to..."

"Gundam pilots! ?All of you are giving those mere children too much credit!" he snapped at the youth again in annoyance, heaving his palms but an inch away from the boy's face. "There are only eleven people guarding that little twit--eleven! ?Do you really think that eleven is enough to match an assault of 50,000... and that's just in our corp," a grin too wild to claim as mortal countenance flashing across the general's sneer as he boasted. "Their rebellion will soon be put to rest, and the rightful ruler of this central kingdom can take the crown. ?We are to make sure that that happens, is that quite understood Captain?" the towering man's eyes narrowed at his assault.

"Y-yes sir, General Laural, we'll keep looking and let you know if we find anything," the young officer stuttered to his enraged superior in compliance, taking a large gulp after he finished his sentence to convey his sincerity. ?

"There's a good lad. ?Oh, and Captain," Laural called back as Captain Renio deserted his better to return to his post as ordered, "Don't disappoint me, hmm? I've heard some good things about you from the Marshal, and I wouldn't like to think that he has a poor taste in judgment... if you understand what I'm telling you."
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Renio nervously bowed his head in response to the gentleman's caveat, assuring his understanding of the elder man's words, and retreated to his patrol unit. ?

*That pitiful princess can't stay hidden forever. ?Soon she will be ours as well as her little prize... and then the rest will be ours for the taking,* the general thought to himself by such sinister pleasure as a paralleled grin to the former spread across his features as in the disgust of any witness unfortunate enough to consume. ?

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

*How... how could this all be happening? ?All of this... over one God-damned piece of jewelry,* Relena thought to herself by the darkness of the hour tolling in the bell's dying shriek as she looked in revulsion upon the soldiers and officers of the Colar Army tear to ruins what once stood as her dormitory, her palace--her entire kingdom. ?All of this... all of this was because they were looking for her, and her alone, for she held the accessory which they so desired. ?

As she watched them destroy and burn into cinders and their sister-ashes everything that she'd ever known, ever held dear, she had to lower her brow in infamy, for she could soon gaze upon the debris of the once renowned monarchy that allowed such utopia to thrive within its gates no more.
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Her bedroom was reduced to a pile of
splintered mahogany and broken glass, her eyes satiated by the hindered tears she refused to let smear her cheeks as she remembered what sanction and seclusion it had once held for her on nights so lonely through reflection and guilt from the damnation of her fellow soul. ?Why, even the bed which she had been sleeping in only hours before the aggression was slashed in two by a grave saber, the blankets sprawling in unkempt fashion, stained by the carnage of that eve in the rapture of the enemy, over its legs; and the canopy that once kept the caress of the dawn from her eyes in the morns of the nightingale's retreating lullaby of slumber and holding light to the serenade of blonde canary, lay torn and tattered upon the mattress strewn with innards. ?Her vanity, the place wherein at the aurora's touch she first met, where she sat and reflected so earnestly on her very essence, very purpose of coming into life--the only mirror in the entire manor that failed to shadow her reality from her wanted gaze--, lay chopped into kindling along the floor, half of it missing since it had been hauled away by the soldiers and used for firewood. ?The looking-glass lay shattered upon the carpet, rippled by the waves of the moonlight in her own canticle, showing the princess dozens of images of herself both jagged and fine, but yet not one did she now find appealing--similar to the twin once shown before. And across the room in the dampened corner by crimson and maggot in feast alike at the decaying flesh of decapitated flavor were dispersed the contents of the trunk which her brother had shown her but a few days before. According to him, it had been the place, beyond even the predator's glance that was to soon devour their kingdom, where their mother stored her most treasured possessions and family heirlooms; and as Relena looked upon the trinkets covered in the dust of a mother's ashes and dirt from the ghost soldiers' boots as they haunted the nigh, she couldn't help but grab from her neck the object which the enemy so wanted, so needed--the locket which she found in that very chest only yesterday. ?

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Earlier that morning, Milliardo had brought over to Relena a drab colored chest that within held their mother's most prized memories of a name forgotten by her daughter after the Eve Wars had settled in their massacre. ?He'd figured that since Relena had almost no memory as being a child of Peacecraft, it would benefit her to glance through these items and get an idea of her parents as well as her heritage that she could claim no part of... as of then.
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As it is not surprising for the former Lightning Baron, he quickly left after Relena almost strangled him in tight embrace and kisses for his gift, and she immediately began to sort through the antiquated remembrances once he left her to her own. ?At first, one may surely think so, she found nothing more than some old, ruined pictures from balls and weddings of distant cousins and dolls whose porcelain had yellowed from time's humor, but as she was about finished with rummaging through the insolvent merchandise, she happened to stumble upon a rather small booklet covered under a gaudy frock of lace and ruffles. ?It was leather-bound in cranberry hue and had a white ribbon with which one could mark the pages, along with Relena's name scrawled along its cover. The book, she could tell, had once been white as its band, but over the years dirt and mold had reduced the brilliant tinge to same yellowed, almost parchment color like the pictures before described--her name written in solid gold letters in the center of the binding.

Thinking it was possibly her baby-book, she decided to see what her mother had written about her at so tender an age, but as she turned the pages eagerly for the sentences she yearned to read, she found dulled scratches of passages on only the last page. ?She really could only make out a word here or there, but that last sentence was quite clear, and it read: "My little Relena has taken a liking to that odd little boy, like to none ever before." ?

She didn't know what her mother was taking about--as was to be expected. What boy? ?She couldn't even remember her own brother, let alone a little play-mate she may once have had.
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With a sigh to accompany the frustration of her trials, she threw the book across the room to erase it from her mind, but as it hit the wall at that opposite end, something fell from between the pages and caught her eye. ?Of course, she knelt down and picked it up, only to discover that it was a beautiful, golden locket. ?The necklace was in the shape of a heart so finely crafted, and decorating this ornate charm were beautiful porcelain roses of pink and lamb-white with her pink nose as babe whose vines and stems intertwined with each other to meet at their roots--along the locket's face and rim. ?She opened this intrinsic gem to find two pictures hidden within the jewel's past forgotten by fate's hand: on the left was a picture of her as a little girl, her long hair shades of flaxen lighter than now cascading down her shoulders and her eyes stunning and adazzle with innocence and the wonder of a child's dream; while on the right lay a picture of a small boy, a little bit older than she at the time, with brown hair that did all its strands could to partake in shielding his orbs, those entrancing, midnight irises to compliment. A little smile was gracing his face, and his irises just seemed so tender and purely happy at that instant, that Relena couldn't help but find herself in continual stare at the portrait--not for its beauty or perception... but for the familiarity of the countenance. She couldn't quite understand it, but something, something about that child looked so familiar, like she had seen him before--even if just in the fevered dream of a night.
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As she looked even more closely, she noticed that her name had been engraved beneath her picture in the same calligraphy as on the front of the book, and she therefore searched for the title of her companion below his... but found that the name was encrusted in dirt and oils, unable to be discerned. ?She had tried to polish it, but for some reason all of her cleansers were of no use on the golden metal--as if this mystery was meant to remain anonymous for the rest of mortals' breath. Eventually, though, she decided to simply place the chain around her neck and fasten the clasp, and when she did at that first attempt, a sudden dizziness came over her in urgency, allowing her to fall and find herself in the dream of a lost memory.

!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*

Relena, only three years of age, was seated outside upon a field of marigolds and violets that swayed in their gentle dance with the breeze, weaving a crown of that alluring flora by scent and vivid spectrum, while a little boy sat there beside her, pulling the grass up from the ground to the roots. ?Strangely, he never made eye-contact with the Lady, but only sat there in silence, concentrating with all of his ability on his occupation at hand--willing himself not to be caught in her stare.
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Once she had finished with her tiara so graciously woven in affection, she giggled to herself a little as warning to the male near her touch and placed the crown of nature on the head of her accompaniment; his response to this irritant: he turned to her with a look of annoyance to discourage her from further tricks, and then proceeded to return to his task.
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At this she stopped laughing, realizing she must have indeed offended the boy, and asked him as solemnly as an infant could, "I made it just for you. Don't you like it?"

He replied, "It is pretty, but I have no use for it." Again, he kept his gaze from meeting her own--afraid where such contact could take his sentiments.

"What do you mean by that? ?It has plenty of meaning," she responded to his dismissal, cementing her hands to her side in impatience.

"It's just flowers. How much meaning can they have?" he asked with such an inquisitive character, not understanding what she was talking about or why she even dared to challenge him then.

"It's simple. ?I made that for you out of love. ?I love you as my friend, and as long as you keep these flowers, our friendship will last forever and we'll always be together... somehow."

"You, you care about me?"

"Of course! You're the only one who's ever been really nice to me," she said to him in all the sincerity a child of her youth can manage, tears forming upon her lashes at his genuine confusion prancing across his face.

"When?"

"You remember when I was walking along the rail of the bridge, and I accidentally lost my balance?" Relena asked, her friend nodding in response. ?"Well, when I called out for help, you came for me. ?You pulled me up and promised that you wouldn't let anything bad happen anymore. ?That was a truly good thing you did. ?And I can't forget that.
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When I saw you that day, I knew we would be friends always. So, everyday I come here to visit you, 'cause when you're lonely, I hurt inside, right here," she said, pointing to her heart. ?"See?"

The boy smiled at her confession, and actually began to laugh, something she had never heard him do since the day she met him upon the rail of that bridge--that hour of destiny.

"You, you laughed! ?Oh Adin!" she cried out in happiness at his own joy, burying herself in his arms to feel the warmth of his elation.
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He held her close, snuggling deeper into the embrace that welcomed his so, and whispered in his own absolution into her ear, so that only she could hear, "Relena, I won't ever hurt you... I would rather die.
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"I know we won't be able to see each other anymore, but if I ever see you again, you don't have ta be afraid, 'cause somehow I'll remember."

"W-what do you mean we can't see each other anymore... why?" she pleaded with him desperately for an answer she could accept.

"Just 'cause Relena, I can't come here anymore."

"But, but why? ?Please come back Adin, I don't know what I'll do without you."

"Relena," he whispered, shoving her away from his breast and running from the shade of the willow, disappearing into the sunset past the arms of the tree that clothed them.
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Unknown to her, a tear ran down his cheek as he retreated from his fate at her blush, and it gave rise to even more in the years to come; while she just knelt there under the tree, stoic and calm, not believing that her friend could just leave her as if he didn't care at all. ?But, as the diamonds of the heavens soon illuminated the velvet sky of royalty in the sun's glow of recoil, she collapsed to the ground beneath her feet and cried for days she would soon forget, vowing that he would be in her heart always...

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

"Sister... dear Relena. Come on, we have to move," Milliardo chided, as gently as man hardened by battle and blood could manage, to the form of his baby sister that rested near him, still from weariness, as she was pulled from her caprice and obliged to enter their reality once again. ?

"Hmm?"

"You were out of it there for a while, Lena... must've been some daydream," Duo commented perversely with grin quite wicked to convoy the remark, Hilde slapping him behind the head for implying such things about the Lady. ?

"Oh, it was nothing... really. ?Just trying to escape from this hell that's become my life."

"Miss Relena, don't talk like that," Quatre pleaded to his fellow diplomat in severity of her despair. "Things must always get worse before they can get better... you know that. ?Besides, this won't last forever; the men will come to their senses, abandon Colar, and soon everything will be..."

"Please Quatre stop!" Relena yelped in protest to the Arabian's usual display of kindness and camaraderie by the hope of his character splendid in these precepts, throwing her palms over her lobes that she would be free from the persuasion of his axioms.
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"What do you mean this won't last forever? ?Can't you see that everyone... everyone has joined Colar?
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"I'll tell you what can't last forever... our hiding from them. Sometime, someday they'll find us. Twelve Quatre--twelve of us against the millions of them! ?This is hopeless... so why don't you just try to feed some of that 'happy-sunshine' crap to someone who cares! " she spat with all of the venom her pitch, hoarse in its call, could gather as her long-deferred emotions gushed forth from her soul in the waters of fountains as they echo in the luminous beads of the sun, creating both the beauty of the spectrum yet bringing with it the precursor of gruesome providence to come.
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As to be expected from an outburst so sudden, she took her head into her hands and just cried, mourned by the gale's weep as she had never known her capability of; only content in drawing on how futile their circumstance had become. ?Not only was her life in danger, but the lives of all she cared for, all she loved; and this, this she couldn't bear on her shoulders... not this time. ?

"Relena, you must be strong," Sally assured the girl, taking Relena in her arms and rocking her back and forth in maternal sway--child to parent suckling of wisdom. ?"We're going to make it to that shrine, and as everyone already knows, we won't lose. ?All we have to do is sneak past their defenses, courtesy of Duo, and then it'll be like nothing even happened; you just have to stop blaming yourself for some thing you couldn't have prevented." ?

"But Sally, that's not true, and you know it. I could have done something, all right: I could've given them this stupid locket when I had the chance; but instead I had to be indignant. And because of my foolishness, what's going to become of us... of them... of you all?" Relena questioned as her gaze turned to the friends surrounding her then, she exhausted and weak from her constant musings along with the weight of her responsibility in the matter.

"What happens will happen, Little Missy," Duo whispered to the maiden as he gave her a wink for confidence of his statement. "If there's one thing I've learned from fightin', it's that if you're gonna go... you're gonna go; whether you want to or not."

"Relena, they want who they wish to rule the Earth and the colonies, and your kingdom, once the focus of Earth and space during the Eve Wars, is the perfect place for them to call their capital city, both strategically as well as diplomatically... and they need that locket to accomplish their conquest," Sally added to Duo's remark, sighing as she realized just how much truth her words had borne.

"But why would they want to destroy everything humanity has done to create peace, when their children will be the one littering the battlefield. Can they really want that for their children?"

"Oh Relena, they want to shape the world in their own way, and that locket's the key... the key to the shrine. ?That's why it's our duty to stop them from... Relena... Relena?" Sally called to princess resting in her arms, but Relena was already in deep repose safe in the protection of that bind Sally provided.
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Shaking her head at the child's remorse, she laid Relena against the wall of the corridor to continue her rest, both needed and deserved for her unwarranted shame, and called the whole group together, needing to discuss their tactic to venture to the shrine without threat of capture.

"Guys, we need to move from here before they find us, and we're going to have to make our move sooner or later for that altar. ?I suggest we all go in pairs, clearing the branches of the army so that Relena will have a clear path to reach the sanctuary."

"That sounds good, Woman, but someone has to stay here with Relena, just incase we can't clear a way in time," Wufei argued to his wife out of spite, crossing his arms over his breast and furrowing his brow so maliciously. ?

"Yeah, I know that Wufei," Sally rejoined him dangerously, "but it's the only choice we have. ?So, who's gonna stay with her?"?

"I will," Heero spoke up immediately, his eyes staring the woman down that his request would be honored. ?

"Heero, are you sure that..."

"We need someone here who can protect her to the death. ?Though all of you may feel qualified, I believe that I'm the best candidate for this mission... she our only chance at peace; and I'm done with killing," he replied simply with no passion to support his demand.

"I'll have to agree with Heero," Milliardo seconded, knowing that his baby sister's life was on the line at this point. "She's the only one that matters now, so we need our best man to watch her." ?

"All right Zechs, we'll leave her then. ?Heero," Sally said turning to him, "keep a close eye on her... she's our chance at a future."

"Hn," he grunted as he picked Relena up and laid her upon the straw that was strewn around the passage of the concealed panel in the mansion, packing it gingerly behind her head and under her back. ?They had taken refuge there when the soldiers attacked and had been in hiding ever since, watching the torment from behind closed doors. ?

They all nodded to each other in agreement of their task, wishing luck and good-will to them all, and all but Heero left for the battlefield in heated cry. ?Poor Relena remained undisturbed by all of their commotion, and as her only response to their thunders, she meekly stirred amongst the hay as they left--their footfalls echoing amidst her dreams.
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Heero then sat down beside her, his senses in-sync to all of their surroundings in protection of this girl lying near his side, and began to watch Relena as she slept in blissful silence. ?

He had to hold his breath as his eyes traveled along her slender frame of winsome blessed unto female by God's desire, and in his scour he could feel the heat rise throughout his body by the wants of man to woman in union of sweat and blood, wanting nothing more than to be released within the hollows of her own flesh. ?She was gorgeous, there was just no other word to describe her radiance... gorgeous. ?Her tresses of silken swan's down, dipped in a lagoon of the rarest blonde shimmer of its wing glistened as the tears of the moonlight showered them through the cracks in the panel, and her lips that were glossed like fresh-settled ice upon a lake within the depths of winter gave rise to a flushing of rose through the darkness--the deep tigress in her coat. ?Her skin was a soft cream against her pallet of being, and the licentious curves that her physique of the caged maiden's beauty bequeathed made her overwhelmingly pleasing to his eye as the long gown she wore of a pale blue sky--as where her virtue soared alongside the cherubs and their feathers--and its low cut gave him a precious glance of her breasts in their bundles of virgin milk, her face becoming stained with blush as she felt his eyes search her essence.
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He wanted nothing more than to claim her as his own... his and only his. He had been waiting to touch the entity, as in a child's fancy, he was forbidden to hold, but he knew even in his dire of a last breath that she could never love someone so blatantly cruel as he--although within he yearned for only release from his chains securing the gun to his fist.
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Upon his revelation, an undeniable truth of his sanctuary drilled from first to last in his thoughts since child within the bars of his cradle mattress, he turned away from her, his chest aching feverishly as he pushed his lust and fantasy of passion aside; he was a soldier, simple and merciless... he would surely wither if given the chance to feel again... to pursue that baby aforesaid mentioned in the crib. ?

As he moved away from her reach in jaundice for his scent to penetrate her aspire, she began to whimper for his warmth and presence of salvation that he beforehand conferred upon her breath by that very company; she was lost without him. ?Her dreams from such abandonment at his dispense became plagued with demons and their callow young having fang, claw, and talons all sired of which she could not engage, for she herself was not fulfilled with her own sway against the nemesis embodied by this fantasy; and called out his name amongst the night, writhing, thrashing, crying for him to come and save her from possessed torture as these beasts dared to witness... but he never came. ?In her dream, she was eaten alive by the animals that once called her their beloved, their hope, their only princess. Betrayal... it was all around her, and she would become its victim once more... at least that's what it seemed. ?

Heero, on impulse at her tears--same as that afternoon when he caught the pearl from scraping her cheek--, took her within the impassable refuge of his arms and whispered into her ears sweet words of compassion that little boy would try to speak in his tongue of a child's ignorance--in the dark one can cry, and in the light he can hide from those fears he sees in that former blackness--, his only thought right then was to keep her in bliss; it reminded him of the little girl and her dog too vividly to see the princess in pain... emotional or physical.
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Soon, as he lulled her to sleep in his roundelay of confusion and wonder at his nature, she quieted--once more satisfied within his embrace that promised truth. ?

However, just as her moans subsided, Catherine's voice interrupted such a tender moment of masculine profanity and feminine sanction of the souls' union in need of relaying a message.

"Heero! ?Heero!" The woman's voice crackled over the speaker, his name the only discernable phrase. "Hurry!... can't hold... longer... You have to..." the connection then shorted out as abruptly as it had come, leaving Heero to muse over this unclear message that could possibly mean the life or death of his team... of her.

"Heero... what was that?" Relena asked him so meekly in the haze of her slumber, rubbing her eyes and smoothing her hair from her nominal sleep. ?

"It was them, Relena," he answered her quickly, tearing the sheet from around her body as if preparing to leave. "Something's wrong, and we have to..." but before he could finish, scores of soldiers came stampeding through the walls that had kept them veiled within the castle's stone and into their crevice, wanting nothing more than to smell the devastating and yet rewarding pungency of newly slaughtered flesh and blood, rotting to its core with an aura of hazard. ?

Returning to his callous self only moments before forgotten, Heero removed his gun from his jeans and began to fire at them with the precision he'd been noted for by axis and ally alike, but also used his free hand to keep the rest of the men away from Relena--flailing at these officers in vain; it was no use, because even for the Perfect Soldier there were too many of them to keep at bay. ?

Without any other choice, he flung Relena to his side from the onslaught of the men and held her ear oh so closely to his lips dampened by sweat and whispered in adrenaline for only her to hear, "Relena, when I say 'now,' get out of here and make a break for that sanctuary. ?Hopefully the others succeeded in clearing a route for you, but you have to try. It's the only way."

"But Heero," Relena pleaded, horrified at his inevitable damnation, "I can't let you draw all these men! You'll ..."

"Just go Relena!" he called to her. ?"Now!" ?Then, with a harsh shove, he pushed the startled woman into the hallway, past the soldiers grabbing at her hem. ?

She landed upon the walk dazed from the stress of his thrust, and seeing the men realize their fatal mistake at her almost silent cry of pain, she ran down the corridors frantically for a thread of moonlight to meet her eyes, finding her way to the outside with a number of infantry at her back; outside, she heightened her pace even further than she could recollect and made a hard sprint for the shrine not even a full mile away, determined to thwart the soldiers nipping at her heels for blood.
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Even so, it wasn't that easy for her. ?The troops laying dormant beyond the palace gates saw her emerge from the bastion's walls immediately, and they too ran after her with their brothers in arms from within chasing her as well, laughing to themselves seeing what an easy target she turned out to be in the end--despite all of the warnings they'd received from their commander about 01; without her little puppy there to guard her, she was easy game for these sportsmen and their much more brutal hounds.
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Although she eluded them for more than was to be expected, they trapped her amidst Hannibal's tactic of encirclement, which only broke to leave room for their almighty leader to enter and claim his winnings.

"Calor," she hissed as he approached with cat-like grace, not taking his eyes off of the chain that choked her neck. ?He was a tall, brutal man with a Caesar cut inflicted upon his locks of apocalyptic red flame, and his eyes were bleak without color to mask them in their fury, filled with the same blackness as the smoke that rises from the tongues of flame in hell itself. ?

He gave her a cunning smile in reply to her sneer at his advance and cackled, "My dear lady, did you really think I wouldn't have you before this war came to an end? ?Ha! ?You underestimate me, Child.
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"You know what I want, so I demand that you give me what is rightfully mine!" he so mockingly commanded as he pointed to the chain strangling her essence before him.

Her rebel spirit getting the best of her, Relena stared straight into his eyes devoid of entrance to a soul's hall and spat into the one that glared at her treasure with wanting hunger--his expedition finally put to an end after a day of conquest with her seizure. He gritted his teeth at her defiance, enraged by her intrepid act, and grabbed her hair in one quick flip of his wrist, pulling her down over his knee for accurate scope--the veins in her neck coursing with vivacity and life, taunting him to slice through these lines. Completing the execution, he brought his sword down upon her collar to aver her vigor, but as she waited for the sepulchral blow to race through her last thoughts, she felt her whole body being thrown into the distance away from her nemesis and onto the ground nearby. ?

Once she opened her eyes from the curtness of the shove, she saw Heero grappling with the villain just beside her, blood making a beautiful painting of splashing crimson down the muscles of his barren arms as they were pushed to their limits in keeping the blade away from his throat, and she soon shrieked in stagger as she witnessed Calor slice Heero's thigh with the sword meant for her neck. ?

"Relena, go now! Go to the shrine! ?Hurry!" Heero shouted to her as pain shot through his system, keeping his eyes locked with hers as he forced the brute to the ground beneath him, and he grunted in agony as his only reaction to the throbbing. ?

Some unknown force propelling her at that moment to leave his side for the sake of commitment, she bolted to her feet at his summon and raced for the temple, determined against any aggressor that might attempt to steal her... no, their victory.
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But as she stepped onto the sanctuary hidden amidst the nest of butterflies at the rear of her kingdom, she collapsed, tired and lifeless to the marble pedestal, for she had nothing left to give in the name of peace, hope, or even love... she had spent her portion of humanity's perseverance.

By now, I'm sure the reader is interested in knowing exactly what this shrine essentially is, and, well, if one would see the sight with his own eyes, he would not believe the magnanimity of the ruins. ?Carved in priceless marble stone wedged in place after man's generations of labor and adoration to the seraphim of God were the angels of the sun and of the moon reigning over thy mortal lands. ?The spirit of the sun, placed on the right of the stand to portray her dominance among the two and that the moon's light is a gift from the veil of the sun, was a handsome woman that would indeed, if life coursed through her veins as the girl lying beneath her, capture the heart of any man who would gaze upon her. ?This seductress had short locks that curled into her chin in elusive ringlets, perfectly framing her face and giving accent to the pouting lips that attracted male eye to her countenance; and her eyes were bright and alert through their auburn hue, holding a quality of fierce or wayward mischief as they glared at their respective individual--her curves of hourglass design made her even more compelling in sexual desire. ?She wore a long, plain dress of the same flint as the stone beside that fell to her feet, the only ornament to this garment a few glossed pearls upon her bodice--her smirk sly and alluring to call suitor near. ?

On the other hand, the angel of the moon was nothing more than the sculpture of a small child with long, flowing tendrils that swirled and made an illusion of the Northern Wind's tempest by tundra and ice as it gathered around her feet, and her eyes were mysterious in their bluish tint, almost with a fairy-like twinkle to the orbs as they seemingly gazed over the landscape; that gown of hers was very short, but adorned with beautiful crystal and diamonds along its folds, enhancing the sparkle of those irises only imp could claim.

Both of these angelic statues held within them great power to either protect or vanquish the Earth's beauty as bestowed upon them by the Creator in His wish to show His presence tangibly among man, depending on the one who held the charm which could awaken then from their slumber of many an age. ?

Once Relena fell, the locket became unclasped from her neck as if on decree and sank within the recesses of the shrine to the hearts of the inanimates, when a blinding light came forth from the angels, beautiful cinders outlining the newly formed cracks in the once granite dedications. ?Thunderous roars were heard by human and fellow beast alike, along with songs of hallow chant and harmony to reawaken the subordinates--allowing these two miracles to resurrect from their sleep once more.
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They looked upon the body of the girl that had risen them in a glance of thanks turned to dispassion at an instant, and using but their mythical attributes, they called Relena to her feet; and doing as they bid, her form yielded to their wish and commenced its transformation into a goddess--sated with glory and influence over normal man.

Her chic tresses made waterfalls of the sun's mournful tears as she floated above man's stature, and adorning her strands of wonder was the mourning shed by all mothers in the loss of a son or a daughter of virtue--damned soul placing his hand with the redeemed. ?She wore a gown of florescent silk, and as she hovered above all in majestic poise, at this time unaware of her grandeur, beautiful prisms and rainbows of wind-whipped colors took the breath away of all those who admired her, for upon her head lay a tiara of snow-drift doves, their feathers becoming lost in her falling tendrils as they tried to flutter beyond her touch; and out from her back blossomed wings of sprite known crystal, shimmering in the luminescence of her majesty. ?

Heero beheld Relena in awe, unable to tear his eyes away from this vision of heaven that floated before him--purity he had never been able to dream of in his confinement--, and his breath was halted as he was captured in his own lusts of fantasy and enigma at her sight. ?

"Daughter of Our Father on High," the angel from the sun, Aurora, began as she addressed the maiden, "your heart is pure, and you wish for only goodness from this world. ?You, Child, are indeed worthy of the restoration of Earth's initial radiance, and therefore we will grant thy wish.

"Alas, I fear, we must feed off of your energy, and what negative affects this process could have on thee we aren't certain. ?Seeing that you are willing to take such risk, as I can see by the glow of your heart, I shall begin by restoring the beauty of the morn, the noon, and the eve from Satan's mortal slaves in sin."

Upon her finish, Aurora lifted herself into the air with her wings of eagle stride and hovered before Relena, raising her arms that she may feed off of the necessary energy that would stream through her blood sundry with potion and elixir to compliment. ?With a quick flick of her wrists, a shower of sparkles, glistening dust from the Garden of Eden itself, and shooting stars that left behind them a trail of blazing ashes misted from Relena's breast and spread across the Earth.
?
As the sparkles and righteous beauty touched the charred, scorched shrubbery of the terrain, the brilliant greens of forest fair and olive dark began to swallow the dreary colors of black and brown, and the pastel spectrums of the wilted flora were once again restored, little buds beginning to peek out from the broken stems. ?From the sky of dull gray clouds of lightening and thunderous roars, a single ray of sunlight shot through the haze, and the clouds which it touched began to dissipate, soon only leaving a breath-taking vision of the sun in her awesome majesty. ?A dead fawn whose blood caressed the newly resurrected herbage and eyes closed in tight sleep, lifted her head and called out desperately for her mother, rising to her hooves and trotting into the brush nearby; her calls remained resonant with the carol, the song of the robin rang through the aura, full of vitality and spirit, and awoke all who was in reign of its hypnotic power--the dog whose hearing was intense to the minuet of this bird, rose from his slumber and ran across the hills, using his bark and screeching howl to join in the illustrious bolero of the day.
??
Everything, everything was brought back into life by the virgin's ?lan: the wind raced across the land once more, whispering words of praise to its dear princess, and the trees swayed in tune to the jubilant hum as creatures scurried through their limbs. ?But sadly it was not enough, for Relena was losing too much strength; and she still had to awaken the dawn in the colonies and the night of the Earth. ?

Aurora noticed Relena's diminishing character as her face paled against the now glazed sunbeams that took their orange hue the blush from her cheeks, and turning her attention to the fields in search of "The Other," announced, "There is one among us who holds the energy which can bring to life all that has perished in the colonies, for as this girl is the Core of the Earth, he is rightfully the Heart of Outer Space! Which ever one of you it is, you know who you are!
?
"Rise up... rise up and greet your destiny... Heero Yuy!" she cried as her eyes instantly landed on his person, scorching his breath with her stare as she identified him.
?
As she finished her speech, a beam of magical light was sent forth from her fingers and trapped him in its glow, and in that infant globe his jeans and normal attire were changed into garments of white capes in their purest snow and golden chains to show his regal influence; for upon his head he wore a crown of newly bloomed marigolds and violets, bringing out an toddler's flush through his face he's long ago forgotten. ?

Aurora then began to take his energy as she had his charge, returning the colonies to their eternal glory within the recesses of endless space, though such beauty could never be compared to the Earth--its magnificence just as great but perhaps modified. ?Yet, there was still more to be done, for although the day had been restored as was foretold, the darkened but mystical beauty of the night was still in need of being replenished, and knowing this prophesy to be true, Aurora backed down from the two, only to reveal the angel of the moon, Artemis, who was prepared to receive the energy needed to return the holiness of the sacred night. ?

As Artemis raised her little arms, she drew forth not beautiful sparkles and dust as her sister light had done, but instead she evoked two horses made of crystal and lunar beams as moon offspring who pulled behind them a blinding chariot of luminescence, carrying within its ivory the moon. Blossoming wings, these now pegasuses took to the sky and placed the silver orb back into its original position, and following these two stallions were many a colt who trailed behind them the guiding shimmer of the North Star and Southern Cross--along with the many dazzling mysteries of the constellations and annual zodiac. ?Across the hills and the far off mountains, the florescent glows upon nature which only the blessed moon could provide along with the shadows that haunted both man and beast overcame the world, creating the amazing seen of the eve once again--silver quaking against the twilight of blue. ?The cry of the nocturnal bat as its wings flapped hard in the distance and the nocturne of the whimsical owl whose elegance took reign over all other creatures of the blackness echoed through the trees and made music upon the wind. ?

It was done now: the Earth and colonies were as they once were, and the evil that had just before taken over the universe by Lucifer's yoke on weaker humanity had now been vanquished... but all of this for the price of a life?
?
Relena's breath, as one must know, was harsh and fleeting in her struggle for life, and she clasped her chest even in such weariness of the pain--her wings not being able to hold her up anymore as they dissipated from her back to nothing but tattered messenger's down; falling upon the ground completely lifeless... dead. ?

"No..." Heero whispered in his doubt as he dropped to the ground with her to catch the falling angel, taking her in his warm embrace and holding her close to his own heart that hers may perhaps be given life by his own; but she did not awaken... and so would not ever again.
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"I'm so sorry Relena. I broke my promise to protect you," he whispered, the revelation of how much Relena really meant, resilient by his failure, to him not coming until she was gone... just like that little girl and her dog.
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A lone tear rolling down his flushed cheek, a first and last the assassin would ever shed for human demise, he kissed her beneath the fluency of the moonlight, and murmured into her ear, "I love you." ?

As he said this to his bride and their lips brushed in their promise now broken by death, the two angels joined hands to culminate their rule, and a rainbow from the streaks of the clouds now but a memory surrounded the forsaken lovers and turned them into mineral, an ornament or sacrifice made in their honor. Frozen... they were forever frozen in that kiss of innocent love they finally pronounced to share, and their dreams were for eternity taken away from them in mortals' sire; for this was a repose from which no one could wake them... no matter what their intentions--only God Himself.

"No! ?No you can't do this to them! ?How can you take away their happiness?" Hilde called out to the angels, cursing them for what they'd done as tears spilled down her face while she fell to her knees.

"Dear child," Aurora answered, shaking her head at their ignorance, "we admire them so, and want them to be with us always; for their sacrifices were noble and true. ?Heaven is their home now, where God wishes them to be. But he needed them here to bring humanity through one of its darkest hours; they belonged at His side from the start, and he parted with these cherubs for your sakes. ?They will always be with you as long as you don't forget them." ?

Then Aurora and Artemis closed their eyes in a last farewell, and they were instantaneously turned back to stone from which they awakened, leaving Hilde and the others to mourn over the loss of their friends from their lost but perhaps acquired faith.
?
However, what these two angels recited upon the demise of love was true that day, for Relena and Heero watched over the ones they kept within their spirits, locked away by stone, always, because that following night, a new constellation was formed in the darkened sky that blanketed the land of two lovers whose first and only kiss was theirs to never be broken...


AN: Sorry about the ending, but I thought it was really sappy and romantic... so I chose it. ?Tell me what you think, and God bless. ?