The Ice Princess
Part IIX
He stood starring at the woman that looked like Relena. The woman looked so much like her. So much, that it scared him. Heero Yuy found himself shaking inside his body. Though he never showed any outer emotions, he did feel them inside. This was fear that he was feeling. Utter fear and he felt he couldn’t breathe.
The woman had her eyes closed and she had no emotion reflecting on her face. She looked like she was sleeping inside the see through tube that glowed green. She was evening wearing a small crown that looked like it might be worth than a single man’s life.
"What is this?" He asked.
"Before the Sank Kingdom was burned down years ago, King Peacecraft knew that his enemies would one day come and kill all that he loved. He decided upon himself in finding a solution in order to keep the Peacecraft family alive. He found it with the help of the Peacecraft doctors and scientists. The first attempts were unsuccessful, but the last few would be successful and nearly unrecognizable. King Peacecraft and his scientists discovered the science of completely cloning a human being." Zechs answered.
Heero didn’t turn to look at them man who had just finished telling him about cloning. He knew it could be achieved but to completely clone a human being would mean to completely clone a human with another’s memories. That clone would have the original’s memories, personality, and feelings. He knew where Zechs was going with this, but he didn't want to hear it. He just knew that if he would hear it, it would change everything. If he didn’t hear it, it wasn’t true.
"Ever since that fateful day, King Peacecraft made sure his family would survive no matter what. He built an underground lab near his kingdom and had scientists living here twenty-four hours a day. These scientists have been watching and guarding everything in this lab. They observed the outside world until they were needed. Only King Peacecraft knew of this place. Not even the Queen knew of its existence, is she did, we wouldn’t be here now." Zechs continued.
Heero noticed that Zechs’ tone of voice was slowly changing, almost as if he was hurt by all of this. As it effected his entire life. Maybe it did. He was a Peacecraft.
"Over two months ago, Relena went on a trip to a colony. There were complications on the trip. There was no sabotage, no intention on the shuttle, but something went wrong. They lost communications and power. The scientists here knew instantly what had happened and headed there before anyone even knew of the situation. When they got there, nearly the whole crew was already dead. There were still some who were alive, but it was bearly. But they took Relena and some of the men who were bearly alive with them. They left the shuttle at another colony. For some unknown reason they left Glenn Daniels at the colony as well. As for Relena……………."
Zechs was slowing down. He was going to say it. Heero didn’t want to hear, but he felt he had to know the truth. He just didn’t want to hear it.
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Trowa stood outside Relena’s bedroom door. He stared at the oak door with no emotion. Quatre stood right behind him, his breathing nearly touching Trowa’s back neck. Trowa knocked. He could hear Relena moving in her bed.
"Come in." She said.
Trowa and Quatre entered the room. Both men stood at the edge of Relena’s bedroom. Trowa stared at her lovely face. He couldn’t believe that Quatre had already shared this bed with her. Who would have thought that these two would have gotten it on already, maybe it was envy but he was angry at Quatre. Yes it was envy, who was he kidding? He wanted this woman, but he also wanted her to be happy and he knew Quatre could do it.
"Hello Trowa." She said.
Trowa nodded at her like so many other times before.
"Relena, how are you doing?" He asked.
"I’m doing better now, thank you." She replied.
Trowa couldn’t help but stare longer at the woman. For some odd reason, he felt that something was wrong. Suddenly he could remember a memory, a memory that was very important.
-------------------------Flashback--------------------------
Trowa entered Relena’s office again. Relena had sent him secretly on an assignment. He was gone for two months in investigating her suspicions. Now he was returning in order to report his discoveries to her.
She sat at her desk patiently waiting for him to sit down. When he sat down he nodded to her and she smiled at him. Since his mission began he found himself thinking more and more about her. He couldn’t help it, she was someone to idolized and to love. Shocking enough, he felt himself blushing with her smile.
"I discovered some surprises." He started to say.
"So you did find something." She said rather than asked.
"There was an underground lab near the kingdom. Though they were strict on security, I managed to pass as a janitor for the level two section. Though I didn’t get to see much of their experiments, I did managed to get a file." He handed the file to her.
She looked over the file and shook her head.
"I can’t believe it." She said.
"They are cloning people Relena. I’m not sure how far they have gotten, but I hardly believe it’s a test tube baby factory." Trowa stated.
Relena kept shaking her head. She didn’t seem surprise to him though, he somehow expected more of a reaction from her than merely shaking her head.
Relena turned around and walked up to her shredded at the side of her desk. Trowa stared at her, questioning her with his eyes on what she was going to do. She ignored him and shredded the file. Trowa’s eyes widen but quickly became emotionless when remembering he had another copy on a disk just in case. He just wanted to know why Relena had done such a thing.
"I just wanted to make sure Trowa. I needed to know if it was true." She said with her back to him.
Trowa stood up and began to walk to the door.
"Trowa?" Relena said softly.
Trowa stopped and waited for Relena to speak again.
"Please don’t tell anyone about this." She said.
"Don’t worry." Trowa said.
"Thank you." She said as she turned around to look at him.
He felt her movement behind him and he turned around as well. She was smiling at him. And he found himself smiling back at her. This woman was a remarkable one. He didn’t have to question her, he trusted her. Now he knew how Heero felt.
Trowa then turned around and left her in her office to her thoughts.
-------------------------End of Flashback----------------------
Trowa didn’t quite understand why he was remembering something like that now. That happened over two years ago and there was not point to it now. Or was there? He didn’t know. He just wanted her to be safe and happy.
"Trowa, are you okay?" Trowa suddenly heard Quatre asked.
He turned around and looked at his old friend. But then turned to look at Relena. She was looking at him too.
"I was just remembering a few things." Trowa answered.
Quatre sighed and Relena just kept starring at him. And all Trowa could do was stare back at Relena.
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Heero couldn’t stop starring at the woman. He watched the ice inside the tube carefully, wondering if he could break such a thing.
"Heero, they made a clone of Relena. Well more likely they awoke Relena’s clone and somehow injected the clone with Relena’s memories." Zechs said.
Heero stopped listening for awhile. But forced himself to understand what had said before.
"The woman who came back as Relena is the clone. Relena never came home. They kept her here….." Zechs said with such a sad filled tone of voice.
Heero’s fists were clenching together. That woman was imposing as Relena. That explained much. The break-up, the engagement to Quatre, Zechs’ depression, and the clone’s fear when discovering he had heard her conversation with Zechs. It explained a lot, but it didn’t explain where Relena, the one they had all come to love and admire, was being kept at.
"Heero, the clone has Relena’s memories, but she was sent in order to maintain peace no matter what. So far the clone has been successful. She has established an engagement with Quatre R. Winner. This marriage would surely maintain peace between Earth and its colonies. But it isn’t the same. She’s not Relena. She looks like her, acts like her, but it’s not her. This clone isn’t perfect either. She lacks some of Relena’s memories. She’s just replacing Relena." Zechs said.
Heero felt blood in his hands due to clenching his fists too hard. He was angry. His anger was mentally blinding him.
"Where is she?" Heero asked.
Silence
Heero turned around and rammed Zechs to the floor. Heero stood above him, he looked down at Relena’s brother with anger.
"Where is she?" Heero asked again.
"Right behind you." Zechs answered.
Heero backed away. He felt the floor move a slight bit. He looked down at the floor and saw his blood trickle down to it. He turned around and his gaze finally looked up to see Relena. He knew it was her, once he had seen her, but to hear it was as reality had come to bite him on the ass.
"Is she alive?" Heero finally asked what he wanted to since laying his eyes on her.
Heero heard Zechs stand up and then stand behind him.
"She was already dead when they found her." Zechs stated.
Heero felt himself swallow hard. He gently took his hand and laid it against the ice cold glass tube. She had been dead all this time. His Relena was dead.
"Good-bye Heero" She had said before she had left for her trip.
"Relena" Heero said softly to the Ice Princess inside the tube.
"They kept her frozen in time for over two months. They awoke her clone up and juiced her up with Relena’s memories. I’m still not sure why they let her clone take her place." Zechs said.
Heero suddenly turned around and faced Zechs.
"How did you find out? Why didn’t you tell us what happened? Why didn’t you tell us Relena was dead?" Heero said while taking his gun out and pointing his gun at Zechs’ forehead.
Zechs smiled and Heero saw Zechs press a button on his belt button. That’s when Heero noticed that the other part of the large room had been dark. But now Zechs somehow managed to turn on the lights on the rest of the large room.
At the other side of the well-lighted room, Heero saw what Zechs wanted him to see. Heero stared at the object. He couldn’t believe what he was looking at, then again, nothing could surprise him anymore. In another ice cold tube, Millardo Peacecraft silently rested.
"Relena wasn’t the only one cloned."
To be continue………………………….
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