I do not own Gundam Wing. This fan fiction has no commercial value and I am not making any kind of profit or income off of this.

AN: This chapter is dedicated to a dedicated reader and friend – Peygan!  **glomps Peygan**  Thank you for all your encouragement!

I’d also like to thank Stella, for her betareading/polishing services.  She’ll get a much better reward later on, but I can’t help but mention it now, and for every chapter here on out!

One more point I’d like to bring up… It was mentioned that I have a “fan club”, and I’d like to dispel this rumor right here and now.  To my knowledge, and at the risk of - hopefully I’m not offending anyone - but I don’t have a “fan club”.  I have ONE loyal minion – Saz (happy birthday, Saz!!!) – and she volunteered for the job.  Other than that, I am a respectful member of the fanfic community just like everyone else that comes to FFN to read or write.  I don’t feel like I’m any different…And I sincerely hope that I don’t act like I’m any different.  I have plenty of fellow fanfic writers that I consider friends and who, I think have made it their goal to make sure I don’t ever get near an ego problem.  Here’s to Reb and the angry mob for burning my likeness in effigy at least once a week.  :P

So, with that in mind….**bows humbly** thank you all for reading my fic.  Much love, Rose

 Chapter 25

Cromwell Airspace

Une’s words echoed and pulsed through his veins like venom.  “The prisoner is still in confinement.  Repeat: the prisoner is still in confinement.”

Heero ceased to breathe, feeling the blood drain from his face and limbs despite the pressurized flight suit.  A chill seeded itself in his chest and began to radiate throughout his body, forcing the captive air from his lungs.

“No…” he wheezed out, weakly shaking his head, refusing at first to believe what he had heard.  His aching fingers clutched the controls, seeking to grasp onto anything – as if holding some object would allow him to hold onto the hope that this mission had not failed.  Could it be?  Had they failed?

  The carefully constructed subterfuge came fluttering down like a house of cards blown over by the mere force of a careless breath. “I should have gone in myself,” he seethed, rehashing all the carefully laid plans in his head, trying to decide what might have gone wrong inside the Preventer Headquarters, and what went awry in the air above Cromwell.  But in the end only one thing, one person mattered.  Relena…

Heero’s fingers tightened their grip around the thruster bar, and he eyed the fuel gauge.  There was no way he could make the retreat to the Arctic if he made an assault on Preventer Headquarters in Luxembourg, but he would not admit failure just yet.  Steadying himself, he narrowed his eyes in concentration as he inhaled the cool air flowing through his oxygen mask; his hand now searching for the switch on the control panel that wouldreopen communications.

So, it has come to this…

Duo held his position, glancing up from the dots dancing across the radar screen only to see the opposition looming in the distance.  They were outnumbered, outgunned and engaging the Preventer reinforcements would be a death sentence.  Still, it was difficult to accept, having to run.  No one had to tell him it was time to retreat, he knew all too well that this was it, time to get out of there or time to die. 

Even still, doubts poured through his mind: was running really the right thing to do?  For so long he had been careless with his life - fearless, reckless and unconcerned whether he would live to see another day.  He thought he had changed, marrying Hilde and building a life after the war.  He now had a wife to go home to, but what kind of life would they lead if he always had to live in fear of discovery? 

Duo waited – for a sign, feeling his heart sink lower into his chest, constricting his lungs as he got the strange sense that something was horribly wrong, and that it had nothing to do with Preventer squadrons out on the horizon.

The feeling was confirmed when the control panel blared at him, indicating the airwaves were no longer locked around Cromwell, and he saw the ghost of a familiar face appear on his vid screen.

“Pilot zero-one to Preventer. You will hand over the prisoner, or face the consequences, over.”

“Heero?  Shit!” There was no response from Preventer headquarters, and so the former Zero pilot repeated the message.  Duo tried to break in to find out what was going on, but Heero was either blocking him or ignoring his attempts to hail the mission leader.

“Pilot zero-one to Preventer.  You will hand over the prisoner or face the consequences.  Do you copy? Over.”

“Yuy, dammit!” Zechs seethed, “What the hell are you doing?”  This is not within the scope of the mission, he thought to himself, feeling his entire body grow cold.

Receiving no response on the reserved frequency, Zechs growled angrily and slammed his fist against the glass of the vid screen. He hated not knowing what was going on.  Obviously something had gone terribly wrong if Heero was threatening to attack Preventer Headquarters, but his fellow pilot had to know they didn’t have the ammunition or the fuel to back up a threat like that.  All Zechs could do was sit back and attempt to figure out just what Heero was trying to accomplish.

The screen broke in half as Duo’s face appeared.  “What the hell is he doing?”

“I don’t know, he’s blocking me.  He’s…”  The former Deathscythe pilot trailed off, and his head jolted away from the monitor. 

“They…they’re retreating!”  Duo’s voice crackled slightly, but Zechs wasn’t sure it was due to the technology. 

“What?”

“The squadrons.  They’re turning!”

Zechs stared mutely at the man on the screen for a moment before checking his own radar, seeing for himself that the once threatening formation of points were moving out of range – and away from them.  What is going on up here?

His thoughts were interrupted once again by zero-two.  “Well, that’s a relief,” Duo said lifting his visor and pushing his sweat-dampened bangs away from his face.  But his cheerful countenance soon fell as reality nipped at his mind.  “Even still, man, there’s nothing else we can do.  If we attack Preventer… Shit, where’s he…?”

“He’s broken formation and heading toward Luxembourg.  I can’t go after him.”

“He can’t have enough fuel to do this.  I’ll try to contact him again, maybe he’s not blocking us.”

Duo frantically flipped the com-switch, his violet eyes wide and following the sleek fighter plane that was cutting through the clouds in the opposite direction.

“Heero, come in Heero.”

The former Zero pilot adjusted his oxygen mask again as he stared straight ahead, ignoring his friend’s hail.

“Pilot zero one, answer me!”

“I’m coming Relena.”  He flexed his hands around the controls, gone was the crushing feeling of anxiety sitting atop his chest,.  Suddenly he was back to being numb…like he was before the war…like he was before her.

“Heero, I know you can’t make it there and still retreat!  Are you trying to kill yourself?”

He could remember…those light blue eyes just staring at him, into him, showing concern for a total stranger, and for a young man unworthy of such affection.

“Heero, there’s still a chance.” Duo all but shouted over their connection.  We don’t know…Trowa’s still in there, he could still succeed, don’t give up hope yet!”

Hope… Heero blinked and looked up from the path he was hell bent on following towards Luxembourg, dies like us all.

*                      *                      *                      *                      *                      *

Preventer Headquarters

Conference Room 129

            She had let herself into a room, and lost her pursuers.  Now was the perfect time to grab her and get her out of there.  Wufei thought he was long gone, and they could go through the air ducts most of the way, since the schedule had already been blown and Relena turned out to be more agile than he had previously thought. 

Trowa looked down through the grate and saw a partially obstructed view of the young woman kneeling in front of a chair.  He applied pressure to the thin metal screen in order to remove it, but it didn’t budge.  He frowned and searched out his small set of tools, including what looked like a dentist’s mirror.  Pushing it through the slits in the grate, he instantly saw the problem – it was screwed in from the bottom.  He pulled out a thin and oddly-shaped, battery powered screwdriver, making quick work of the first screw.  Three more to go.  He could have just shot it like the one before, he reasoned, but he didn’t want to attract attention to Relena’s location. 

His work was interrupted when noticed a strange movement in the room below.  Turning his attention from the task at hand, Trowa watched with widened eyes as the former princess sucked in a deep breath and brought his pistol up to her head.  The world seemed to stop as she stood there, body trembling with the gun poised at her temple. 

            “Oh God no,” he whispered, pushing violently against the grate, shuffling in the constricting vent and banging loudly against his metal confines.  She didn’t seem to hear him, and didn’t turn around to acknowledge the noise from above.  The only movement she made was all too visible from Trowa’s perch.  Her finger squeezed the trigger. 

Another forceful thrust and the grate snapped in his hands, his body pitching forward and dropping quickly to the floor behind her at the same instant a loud gunshot rang out in the room, sending a warm shower of blood to mix with the cold beads of perspiration on his forehead.  Trowa caught her wilted form before it could hit the ground, aware of nothing else but the sensation of her liquid life oozing down his cheek.

“It is not our own death that will be the penalty if we don’t succeed.”

*                      *                      *                      *                      *                      *

Main Control Room

Preventer Headquarters

            “Colonel, we’re getting a transmission from Cromwell over the telegraph.”

            Colonel Une turned around to face the private, finally removing her eyes from the empty doorway.  The picture of Relena holding the gun was still etched deeply in her mind, but she couldn’t allow herself to be distracted, not right now.

“What are they saying? How bad is the damage?”

            “It…they are reporting zero damage, Colonel.”

            “What? But that’s not possible!”

            “I don’t know Colonel.  Cromwell’s commander says their communication has been cut off for the last two hours.  ‘There were no casualties, stop. Explain situation, stop.’  What should I tell them?”

            “Tell them we will apprise them of the situation once we have more details. In the meantime, I want Rogers and Taylor to get over there, and find out what the hell went on this morning.”

*                      *                      *                      *                      *                      *

Somewhere over Western Europe

Shit! I don’t even know if he can hear me.  “Why won’t you talk to me?” Duo screamed out loud at his friend.  He watched Heero’s plane still set on its course, barreling towards Luxembourg and certain death.  And right now he was helpless to stop it.   All he could do now was talk.

“Heero, God damn it, as long as she’s alive there’s still hope, but if you attack Preventer Headquarters you will be making everything she’s sacrificed be for nothing, don’t you understand that?”

Zechs interrupted them then, sounding firmly in command of the floundering mission.  “Yuy, let’s go back and regroup.  This isn’t over.”

“Listen to me!” Duo tried again.  “If you attack them, you’re proving them right, that we ARE the enemy.  We bluffed, they called it, but that doesn’t mean it’s over.  Heero, are you really going to seal her fate and yours in death right now? Are you going to break your promise never to kill again?  Would she want that, Heero?  Would Relena really want you to kill for her?  Did you hear Zechs?  He’s right, Heero, this isn’t over!”

Duo’s words cut through him, causing him to loosen his grasp on the Tomcat’s thruster.  “Would Relena want you to kill for her?”  Heero closed his eyes, listening to the hiss of the air flowing through the oxygen mask.  His fingers trembled against the plane’s controls as if they alone held the power to make the choice whether to guide the pilot towards Luxembourg and death, or safely back to the base.

Duo held his breath, watching Heero’s fighter plane diminish in the distance.  .  He crossed himself and prayed silently for his friend, then settled his hands back on the controls to break formation and head towards the Arctic rendezvous point. As he completed the turn in the dawning sky, he cast one last regretful glance at the white trail his friend’s fighter left behind…   “You’ve made your choice.  God help you, Heero.”

“This isn’t over,” he tried to convince himself, repeating the words aloud as he led the plane into a sweeping arc, turning it back towards the Arctic.  He could see Duo and Zechs on the horizon, and watched listlessly as the vast shimmering blue of the sea unfurled far below, the plane carrying him farther and farther away from the land - from her.  The console beeped loudly and flashed once again, causing Heero to look up.

            “Welcome back, buddy.  You had me worried, there.”  Duo said, relief evident is his voice.  “I thought we lost you.”

“This isn’t over,” Heero repeated, ignoring zero-two.   “This isn’t…” Another alarm sounded jolting his attention back to the controls.  He was met by a row of green zeroes staring back at him from the panel, contradicting him boldly, stating the finality of the mission.  In mocking silence they remained, taunting the pilot with their stillness, wordlessly telling him:  It is over.  The countdown has ended.  You are out of time.

*                      *                      *                      *                      *                      *

Somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean

He didn’t remember leaving the room, knocking out the guards, or climbing in his waiting shuttle with the Tomcat nestled in its belly.  He didn’t remember the blood on his hands when he took off, but he could see it now, congealing and gumming up the flight controls, making his fingers stick to one another and leaving fingerprints on various knobs and buttons. But it was only a minor nuisance. What bothered him most was how unworthy he felt to touch it, how wrong it was for her sparkling life to be bathing an insignificant shuttle and a nameless soldier in its royalty. 

He didn’t remember worrying about being caught escaping the Preventer base, or a time when he felt quite so empty.  What he did remember, he didn’t want to see playing and replaying in his mind.  He squeezed his eyes shut trying to block out the memory….

He didn’t want to remember the sound of her breath leaving her body, or the way she fell against him, laying back in his arms like she might have greeted a lover longing to hold her.  He didn’t want to remember the blood gurgling over Wufei’s hands as he applied pressure to the wound and shouted at him to leave.  He didn’t want to remember feeling the urge to ask why. Looking back, the answer was obvious….

But he wanted to remember his friend’s promise, and held onto it with the desperation of a drowning man embracing a life preserver tossed amidst a boiling sea.

“I’ll get her help. She’ll be all right,” Wufei growled at Trowa, throwing off his jacket and dropping to his knees beside the fallen princess, pressing both hands against the wound like they had been taught in Preventer training.  Keeping the heel of his right hand tight against deep gash, he brought his left wrist with the comm. device up to his mouth.  “I need an emergency response team in conference room one two nine, at the north entrance, the west entrance is disabled.  Repeat: the west entrance is disabled.” 

“Right away!” A voice crackled in response.

“You’d better go, Barton, while you still have a chance.”

Trowa stood up from the ground, staring blankly at the two figures on the floor.  He walked towards the exit, not bothering to wipe the blood off of his hands, turning back to Wufei before he left.. “Thank you.  Not for letting me go, but for saving her.”

“Suicide is not an honorable way to die. Now leave before they get here.”

Trowa nodded slowly, he was having trouble tearing his eyes away from the sight of her lying on the ground, a growing pool of crimson collecting under her right shoulder -  where Wufei had shot her. 

            *                      *                      *                      *                      *                      *

Medical Wing

Preventer Headquarters

            “You are a stubborn woman,” Wufei spoke to the semi-conscious girl lying before him on the hospital bed, tubes running under her nose and hooked into veins in her arm and chest.  Her eyes moved beneath their lids before the flesh separated, revealing glistening white.  It was slow, but she managed to curve the corners of her mouth up into a smile for the Chinese Preventer.  He scowled in response.

            “You are trying to take the coward’s way out, Relena, and I won’t allow it.”

            Her left hand moved, inched, rather, towards his arm, grabbing at his sleeve with trembling fingers.  “I am..not…a.coward,” she whispered.  Her breath came in gasps, and he could tell she was fighting to keep her eyes open.  “You know..me..protected me.”

            “I protected you – the honorable woman that stood up in front of the entire ESUN senate and handed them a box of ashes.  I protected that woman even when she was weak and clinging to her friends to fight her battles for her, because I believed in the person I saw that day.  I saw her again when she shot the communication device in the main control room to protect the man she loves.”

            “I…I have never…been strong..enough.  Not without him.”

            “You’re wrong, Relena. Yuy doesn’t give you your strength, it’s just an excuse.  The only noble thing you can do is to stop running away.  You have to face your fears and consequences.  All of us have had to do that at some point in our lives – face our mistakes, admit our fears, and go on with our lives. It’s what makes us stronger, it’s what gives us honor.”

            “I…I’m sorry…”

            “I am disappointed in you. You have lost my respect today… as a soldier and as your friend.”

            He could see the tear leak quietly from beneath her dark lashes, translucent against her pallid skin.  He grabbed the hand that was still resting on his arm and placed it gently next to the other on her stomach.  His voice softened.  “Get some rest.  Sally will be in to check on you.”

            Wufei turned to walk out of the room, stepping quietly in case she had already tumbled back into sleep.  He was almost at the door when he heard her quiet voice, strained and broken calling out to him.  “I’m so sorry….”

            *                      *                      *                      *                      *                      *

            “I didn’t hear you.” A male voice sifted through the dark fabric hood over Catherine’s head.  It sounded like he was on the phone, again, and not very happy about what he ‘wasn’t’ hearing.  She shifted slightly in the chair, testing the ropes that rubbed painfully against her wrists and ankles, but upon hearing the man slam his phone down, she froze.  Footsteps reached her ears, she could feel him coming closer, feel his hand tightening around her neck.

            “Trowa please have found the information I uploaded.  And please, God, I don’t want to die.”

AN: We’re closing in on the end – finally, right?  ^__^  I’m estimating 30 chapters plus an epilogue << don’t like put any money on that or anything, but at this point, that is the estimate. Thanks for staying with me!  Love, Rose