Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Eternal Promises ❯ Part 5 ( Chapter 5 )

Disclaimer : I've never claimed to own Gundam Wing, or it's affiliated characters, so you can't sue me for that. I'm mearly borrowing them for my entertainment, and shall return them upon compleation of this fic, . . . perhaps ^_^. I do however stake claim to all original characters I happen to throw in here, and to this particular story.

Eternal Promises

By Eden

Part 5

The man pushed open the heavy door in front of them, and stepped aside and gestured for Relena to enter the room first. Taking in a breath, she squared her shoulders and went into the room.

At first she was surprised to see the early evening sunshine slanting through the vertical blinds at the front of the room. She never would've guessed it was so late in the day. Of course she had been inside the windowless cell for what could've been days. There was no way of knowing.

The whole set up of the room seemed to be a lot like what she thought an office should look like. The large open space by the door and the large windows by the back wall. Almost like her office at home. Actually, as she heard the man close the door after he came in after her, she had begun to notice the office furnishings in the dim light.

There was a large desk directly in font of the windows, and a tall rubber plant beside it too the right. Against the walls on either side there were bookcases and slanted in fount of the desk were two, soft looking chairs.

At first she hadn't thought that there was anybody in the room. She had thought that it was empty, but then, as she squinted against the orangey glow coming from the window, she noticed that the tall chair behind the desk was turned to face the window.

Gathering her courage, she took a few steps across the room towards the desk. Just as she was opening her mouth to say something, a voice that wasn't her own spoke.

"Thank you for co-operating, Miss Relena. We are very sorry for any inconvenience this has caused you so far, but this should all be over for you soon." The very male voice came form the chair that faced the window.

The back of the chair was quite tall, but it wasn't tall enough to block the top of the man's head from showing. The dying glow of the sun coming though the window made what must be blond hair have an orange tinge.

Relena was confused. She hadn't recognized the voice, and she only know two blond hared men, both of which she knew would never do this to her. Of course this blond hared man was a stranger, but what did he want?

She hadn't realized that she had spoken the last part out loud until the man answered her question.

He let out a small chuckle. "I can imagine how you would want to know about that, and for good reason."

As she watched the chair turned around from the window, and faced the desk.

The blond man who turned his eyes up to look at her was only a few years older than herself, but seemed to command authority from the men around him. She noticed out of the corner of her eye as the large man who had accompanied her straitened his posture and stiffened.

She was intrigued. How could someone so young command such attention, and seeming obedience from men so much older and supposedly with more experience? Who was she to wonder about that though? People had thought the same thing about her for years, ever since she had taken up the role as the monarch of the Sanc Kingdom.

Her eyes were drawn to her face, which although was obscured by shadows, seemed to be very attractive. The blond hair, that she had noticed first, fell over his eyes in an unruly way. Something about that seemed familiar, but she couldn't place her finger on exactly who it reminded her of.

He continued talking to her, his voice came at her in smooth fluid tones. "As you may have already noticed, Miss Relena, it's not you that we are interested in. We have absolutely no interest in using you to exploit the ESUN, or in disrupting your ideals of peace. Of course we do realize the commotion that your disappearance has caused with the other countries and colonies."

A smile passed over his face. "We are very sorry for the inconvenience, but hopefully this will all be over for you soon."

She took another step towards the desk so that she could get a better look at the young man seated behind it.

"If you have no demands against the ESUN, my ideals of peace or my life, then why kidnap me at all? You realize that weather you intended to or not, you may cause an international incident?" Relena spoke calmly, and yet did not try to hide her curiosity.

"Unfortunately I can't tell you the exact reason why, but what I will tell you is that the best way to bring a rabbit out of its hole is with the right bait." He smiled and then stood up and walked around the desk towards her.

"And what bait you are." He stopped right in front of her and reached out a hand to gently touch her cheek. "There are many men who would gladly throw their lives away to protect someone as beautiful and as wise as yourself."

The way those eyes were looking at her seemed wrong, the hungry look didn't fit. Of course there was something strangely familiar in those eyes that she couldn't quite place. She looked up and met his gaze.

Even though Relena knew what she would see she was still unprepared to see it. Seeing those familiar eyes in such an unfamiliar face was very disconcerting. Not only that, but she had always thought that no one else could ever have eyes like those.

Blue. The brightest shade of Prussian blue she had ever seen. Relena would've never believed that it was humanly possible to have eyes quite that shade until she'd seen it herself. And now, here she was. Face to face with another young man who by some unbelievable act of God, had the exact color eyes she had thought so impossible.

But they weren't the same. Relena shook her head and turned away from the hand on her cheek. After taking a few steps away from the man, she could think clearly again. The eyes might look the same, but the person that they belonged to wasn't.

She heard a low chuckle come from behind her. When she turned around to look she saw that the blond man was now leaning against the front of the desk, his head bent forward allowing his unruly hair to cover the unbelievable eyes completely.

Something about the way this man acted made Relena think of someone executing a sick plan. The worst thing was that she felt like she was a large part of it.

"Who is this person that you're trying to draw out?" She had regained her composure, and intended to get the most information out of this man as possible before he tried anything else.

"Oh now why would I want to spoil the surprise so early?" He had remained where he was, but had brought a hand up to smooth the top of his hair. "Why don't you ask me another question?"

This man was totally infuriating. It seemed as thought he had an inability to give a straight answer.

"Why don't you tell me who the spy was that you put into my home?" Relena could feel her fist clench again in anger.

She saw a smile appear on his lips as he slowly raised his head. "Now that's a good question, but one that I can't actually answer. You see I can't take any credit for thinking of putting a spy in your home. We just thought we'd ask around your office and see who knew your clothing size for a new outfit that someone saw you liked.

Relena hated the fact that this man seemed to get enjoyment out of mocking her with his plans. It was plain to her that he had thought this whole thing over very well before he had executed it, and now he was enjoying his own cleverness.

Well at least now she could stop worrying about how she would get rid of a spy. The fact that there hadn't been one made her feel a little better. Her employees had thought that they were only helping with a gift, not anything sinister. Who could get mad about that?

With a sigh, she shook her head and unclenched her fist. What other surprises awaited her next question?

He was looking at her, his arms crossed across his chest, awaiting her next question. The look that passed across his face was almost as thought he was challenging her to ask him something he wasn't prepared for.

`I will try not to disappoint you.' Her mouth turned a little harder as she took up his challenge.

"There is one last thing that I want to ask you. Of course, it's something I realize I should've asked you first."

"Really?" He had continued smiling towards her.

Relena noticed movement out the corner of her eye. She turned to see the large man who had brought her to the office step forward a few steps and clear his throat. She turned again, this time to see the younger man turn his attention towards him, suddenly loosing his smile and growing immediately business-like.

"Yes, what is it Reiko?"

"Sir, I'm sorry to interrupt, but it's almost time to begin the broadcast."

The young man looked down at his own watch and then smiled again, slowly. "Yes, it would seem that you are correct, thank you."

"What kind of broadcast?" Relena asked as he turned his eyes away form his watch to look at her.

"Relena, we are about to begin the process of getting you back home." He pushed himself up from the desk and uncrossed his arms. Almost all trace of his earlier teasing attitude was gone, replaced by down to business, polite mannerisms. "I have to go and take care of a few things, but if you would be so kind to go with Reiko, he will show you to the room where we will do the broadcast."

She was completely taken aback by this sudden turn in events.

"You mean your going to send me home now?"

He nodded. "Very soon. You will be on your way home in no more than a few hours."

Relena narrowed her eyes. "What's the catch? What is it that you hope to get out of this whole thing?"

"Whatever it is that I wish to receive form this endeavor is something that you shouldn't worry about. Now please go with Reiko and I will see you a little later." He gave a curt nod and strode out of the office.

As he departed, Relena was left to stair out the large windows behind the desk. As she stood there for a moment and tried to understand what exactly was going on, a heavy hand came down and rested on her shoulder.

"We really must be going as well, Miss."

Without turning around she nodded. "I will go with you, because you are going to let me go home. There is one thing that I'd like you to do for me while we go though."

Reiko's large hand dropped from her shoulder. "What would that be?"

She turned around to face the large man. "Would you be able to tell me what this broadcast is all about?"

The corner of his mouth turned up into an unexpected smile. "Miss, this is the first time that I can indeed tell you what it is you want to know about."

He motioned for Relena to walk with him, and they began to walk through the door.

"This broadcast that we are going to do is actually to your home so that we can let the people there know that you are alright, and also to tell them where they can pick you up." Reiko walked beside her down the hallway, that they had already walked down once that day, without looking at her.

"Who is supposed to be there?" She had begun to like this large man. He had begun to feel like one of her assistants, someone she could feel at ease with, defiantly not a good thing. Thoughts like those were the one's that could get you killed in a situation like this.

He went on, not even noticing the way she had straitened her posture, and hardened her jaw.

"The Preventers will be their for sure, and perhaps some others."

She looked up at Reiko. "Others? Who do you mean by others?"

"We won't know who else is there until we actually do the broadcast."

"Oh, I see." Relena thought for a moment. "So will you tell them to come and get me here?"

"No," He answered quickly. "We will not tell them where we are, even though if we're not careful they may find out anyways. We will take you to another location to wait for them to come and get you."

She nodded. As she looked up she noticed that they were turning into another room, just off the main hallway. It wasn't a large room by any standards, but it did have some things that made it interesting. A computer sat at the far side of the room, and a man stood there fiddling with the wired in the back of it.

Reiko put a hand on her back when she stopped in doorway, and maneuvered her towards the machine.

"Is it ready yet?" He asked the man who was still fiddling with the wires as if they weren't there.

"Well, I think that this will give us access to broadcast out and receive information in without being traced." The man leaned down a little lower to get a better look at the wires coming out of the computer's back. "Of course we have no idea what kind of preparations they did to their own system before now."

"How soon can you get us up?"

The man looked up from the wires for the first time. "Give me about five more minutes to get ready."

Reiko nodded at him and them turned towards Relena. "We'll use this time to go over what you should say while we're on the air."

As he went over the things that she should say she watched the other man as he attached a few more wires to the back of the computer and then went to the keyboard and began to type. He typed so fast that his fingers practically flew across the keys. It reminded her of someone . . .

Just as he pressed the enter key that cleared the screen, Reiko finished talking and asked her a question.

She jumped a little and then smiled out of embarrassment. "Sorry, what was that?"

"Do you understand everything that you're going to say?"

"Oh yes." She nodded and regained her professional composure. The fact that she would be going home soon had made her act almost happy for a moment. That was something that she shouldn't let show until she was actually at home. Just them saying that she would soon be home could be part of a greater ploy to get her to trust them, and then they would find a way to use that trust against her. She couldn't have that.

"Alright then," Reiko stood up and went towards the computer. "Let's get started with this. Is everything ready?"

"All that we need to do now is connect and then we're up and running."

"Good." He nodded and gestured for Relena to sit down on the chair in front of the computer. "Do it now."

The man leaned over the keyboard again as Relena sat down, and then looked up at her face. "Are you ready?"

Taking a deep breath she nodded her head. It was always better to get these things over with than to wait.

"Alright," He hit another key, and stood back away from the screen. "Your on."

Relena watched as the screen slowly went form black to reveal first a fuzzy view of a number of figures standing around closely together. As she watched the faces and figures became clearer.

Some of the people she wasn't too surprised to see, like Sally or Wufei. They were Preventers after all, and she was used to working closely with them. Quatre also was someone she had seen a lot in the last few years, and she almost smiled in spite of herself when she saw Duo and Trowa standing behind the blond Arabian boy.

She was a little shocked with the image of Miss Noin and her brother Milliardo, both of whom she hadn't seen since the Mariemaia crises. Any shock she felt about seeing both of them was forgotten once her eyes fell on a familiar dark head and lean frame.

It could only be the person she had been envisioning the whole time she had been in this awful situation. She was having problems believing the proof right in front of her though.

"Relena."

Hearing her name being uttered in those hard tones confirmed what her eyes couldn't. There was only one person it could possibly be.

"Heero."