Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Eternal Promises ❯ Part 19 ( Chapter 19 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing, or any of its associated characters, much to my dismay and pain. Of course I do claim ownership of this particular story and any original characters I happen to throw in.

Part 19

Caution : contains sceans of attempted rape

"Relena?"

Her eyes opened with a start at the sound of her name. Heero's room, not a cold metal prison. She raised a hand to her forehead and tried to slow her breathing. It was only a dream.

A gentle hand came down on her shoulder. "Are you alright?"

She looked up to see the concern crossing Heero's features. Forcing herself to shake off the remaining feelings from the dream and smile Relena nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine. Bad dream, that's all."

His eyes narrowed ever so slightly, "I'm beginning to think that hypnosis isn't the best idea for you. It drags up too many unpleasant images and stops you from really sleeping."

"No, its fine. Really." She felt silly. It had simply been a bad dream, not worth any fuss. "Actually, I think I may have remembered something else." Relena lowered her head and rubbed at her eyes.

Heero continued speaking as though he hadn't heard her. "I know how much you want to help find the people that did this, but putting yourself through all of this isn't worth it, Relena." She felt the hand on her shoulder move up to cup her cheek.

She stopped rubbing at her eyes , startled by Heero's words and movement. "I'm sorry?"

"You've already done so much to help, your aware of that aren't you?" He caught her gaze with his serious expression. "If you can remember more on your own that would help immensely, but don't do this anymore. Don't let Sally hypnotize you or whatever it is to try and pump you for information."

Relena's eyes were locked on his when she answered. "Alright."

Surprise flashed across his features and he dropped the hand from her cheek. "Why do you always do that?"

"Do what?" She was beginning to lean towards him without realizing it. She must be more tired then she first realized.

"I always expect you to put up more of a fight, and so far you've just agreed to my suggestions without so much as a question. You did the same thing when I said that it might not be a good idea for you to continue to work. Why is it that your so agreeable?"

Relena smiled and stretched her arms out in front of her, enjoying the feeling of her muscles un bunching. "I would have to say that it's because so far you haven't suggest I stop anything I have a problem with. I was planning on taking time away from work to begin with, even before any of this kidnapping business, and now I have no reason to continue the hypnosis with Sally because I've remembered all I need to about the kidnappers."

Heero's eyes regarded her questioningly "You have?"

Nodding Relena ran her fingers absently through her hair to straiten it after her nap. "I was trying to tell you. I believe that I've remembered the kidnappers name. It was Ekin, Ekin Lowe."

OoOo

It was like falling into a swirling tunnel. He felt the pull, the rush of emotion, the confusion, and disbelief of his ears and what he just heard. It couldn't be right. How could someone he knew to be dead be coming after the only person he felt anything for? Unless of course he wasn't dead, but how? Thoughts spun through Heero's mind uncontrollably. He knew that he hadn't moved and that Relena was waiting for him to say something, he could feel her eyes on him, trying to gauge his reaction. What was his reaction? He hardly knew himself, he could only feel conflicted emotions.

"Your sure you remember right? Ekin Lowe?" He couldn't bring himself to meet her eyes.

He saw her nod carefully out of the corner of his eye, and closed his eyes in a slow blink as he let out a silent breath and steeled himself. "Can you describe what he looked like?"

With every detail Heero grew more sure that Relena wasn't mistaken, and that he was in a situation he never in his worst nightmares could have imagined possible. The dead simply didn't come back to life, but in this case they had and now he needed to figure out a way to deal with it.

Relena was looking at him expectantly, Confusion and worry settling on her delicate features. "What is it Heero? Do you actually know this person?"

He didn't know how to answer her, he hardly knew how to explain it to himself. He'd never been one to share his problems with others, or talk about his past. Those were things he simply didn't find enjoyable, and so avoided doing so. But this was simply something he'd never expected to come across, never expected to have to deal with when it was nearly ancient history.

Gritting his teeth with barely suppressed frustration Heero shook his head at the young woman. She didn't deserve to have this put upon her after all she'd already been through. God damn it, it was all his fault, and not just because he hadn't been with her to stop it from happening. The whole kidnapping had been a ploy all along to get him out of hiding.

He didn't deserver her sympathy, her empathy, her understanding. The best thing in the world for her would've been if he'd never fallen into her life.

"I'm not sure what exactly it means yet. I need to talk to Zechs." The answer sounded thin even to his own ears, and he cringed inwardly while he kept the impassive expression that was so at home on his outward features.

He was saved from having to say anymore on the subject when there was a knock at the door.

Getting up from the bed, Heero walked over to the door and leaned against the frame. "Who is it?"

"Its Wufei."

Heero pulled his gun off of the nearby table before unlocking the door, and slowly opening it a crack so he could look out and verify that it was safe to open it all the way.

Once Wufei had been admitted to the room and Heero had returned his gun to the table, Heero cut to the chase. "Have you finished searching the rooms from the work order?"

The Chinese man nodded. "We found cameras in Relena's bedroom as well as her office."

Heero heard a small intake of breath and looked towards Relena to see she had covered her mouth with a hand. Her face had lost all of its color, her eyes were wide and unbelieving. "A camera in my bedroom?" She asked just to be clear of what she heard.

Wufei nodded. "We've removed them now. We also -" Heero shot the other man a look and he stopped his train of thought and restarted. "We've removed all the monitoring devices, its quite safe now."

As both med watched, Relena stood up from where she was sitting on the bed and mumbled an "Excuse me." before walking towards the bathroom and locking herself inside.

In a low voice Heero asked "What else did you find?"

"There were listening devices in all of the rooms on the work order, but as I mentioned, cameras only in her bedroom and office. From what we can tell they've been functional up until now." Wufei looked grim.

"So anything thats been said or done in those rooms is potentially information that the kidnappers can use against us." Heero contemplated aloud crossing his arms across his chest.

"It looks that way."

Heero shook his head. "What else do we know?"

OoOo

Relena didn't know how long she spent in the bathroom before she heard a soft knock at the door. She swiped at her eyes with a tissue before answering. "I'll be out in a minute."

Taking a look at herself in the mirror, she frowned. Her face was tear streaked and red, and it only matched the way she felt inside. She felt violated in the worst possible way. Someone had been spying on her, had watched her in her bedroom when she had felt safe and alone.

Had she ever truly been safe? She had felt safe when she was younger, before all the fighting on the earth had started, when she was still a naive girl who's biggest concerns had to do with parties and what dress she should wear. But had that really been the best way to live? She hadn't known so many things, she had truly lead a shallow existence. It had only been once she met Heero that she had felt like there was something worth living for, even if it had ment loosing her life.

Yes. This was a better life, no matter what it threw at her.

She sniffed again and tried to smile at herself in the mirror. "You look horrible." She whispered, before turning on the cold water.

By the time she had straitened herself out and unlocked the bathroom door, Wufei had left. Heero sat on the corner of the bed, but he stood up when she stepped into the room.

"Are you alright?" He didn't try to mask his concern for her well being, and it touched Relena to see it.

"I am, thank you. It was just . . . a shock." She gave him a small smile.

Heero moved until he was in front of her and then gently layed a hand on her cheek. "I'm sorry this is happening to you."

"I'm sorry someone would go to these lengths to get to you." Relena closed her eyes and leaned into his palm.. "Its clear now thats the case, isn't it? You recognized Ekin's name."

She felt rather then heard him sigh. "I did. I'm sorry."

"Don't be. This is just something that happened. There will always be things like this. I'm a public figure, and your an icon. There will always be some rebel faction, some twisted individual who thinks they can make some vast point by getting to either us or another of the Gundam pilots or my brother." Relena echoed his earlier sigh. "It would be nice to not have to worry about these things though."

"You would have to be a regular person." Heero's thumb lazily stroked her cheek as Relena stepped into him.

"That might be okay." She answered leaning her forehead against his chest. "I wonder what regular people do to fill up the time that the don't need to worry about terrorists and being kidnapped?"

What might've been a chuckle vibrated Heero's chest. "I would imagine that it would be something like school, work, marriage, and then children."

"So simple. But it sounds nice. I couldn't imagine living my own life like that."

He wrapped an arm around Relena's waist and rested his chin on the top of her head. "You've never thought about it, how your life might be if you'd never met me, or if you had simply left me alone?"

"I think about it every day." She confessed. "And if I hadn't met you, or done everything I could to follow you around the world, I would still be that spoiled pampered girl, surrounded by her spoiled pampered friends with no concept of what was truly going on in the world. You opened my eyes, and I thank the stars every day that you did."

They stood in silence for a long moment before Relena broke it. "I don't think I'd want to imagine a life that I hadn't met you in."

"I've brought you so much trouble."

"Not half as much as I've brought myself." She scoffed. "I had such a temper then. I was trying to prove that I wasn't weak or a child who needed to be coddled. I very nearly got myself killed a few times."

"You and me both." Relena could detect a trace of a smile in his words.

Again the silence engulfed them. They continued to stand holding on to each other in a comfortable sort of way that neither of them completely understood.

"Having you here, during all of this, seems to make everything easier to deal with. I think I've always felt that way." She mussed, her voice muffled against his shoulder as she burried her face into him.

Heero's arms tightened around her slightly. "Even when I was trying to kill you?"

Relena laughed. "As demented as it sounds, yes. Even when you were trying to kill me I knew that it wasn't without a good reason, and that sureness always comforted me."

"I was never sure when it came to you" His voice deepened, softened.. "Something about the way you carried yourself, and your decisions always made me question my own judgment. Even when you went out of your way to tell me things were alright."

"You gave me a cause to fight for." She raised her honey head to meet his eyes, "It was the least I could do." Relena smiled at him, and was pleased that he returned hers with a small one of his own.

"I'll keep you safe Relena." He stated simply.

"I know you will. Thank you.” She ment it sincerely, and hoped he could tell.

Heero lead her towards the bed and sat down next to her. "I do need to go and speak with Zechs."

Relena nodded. "To discuss strategy, and other things your not telling me." She hated saying the words, but they were true and she was tired of being kept in the dark about things that obviously had to do with her, or at least with the kidnapping situation.

"Yet." Heero's expression was unreadable.

"Excuse me?" Relena was startled by the statement.

"Things I'm not telling you yet. I will tell you everything, but give me a chance to work out what some of these things mean before I explain them to you." When Relena caught his eyes she saw pleading, just a hint, but it was there. She couldn't say no to him in that instant.

"Alright. I understand." She wasn't used to giving in to requests such as this and her agreement was somewhat grudgingly. She had grown much more accustomed to getting answers and the with holding of information wasn't something she was enjoying in the slightest. But if the promise of an explanation was on the horizon, then she would accept the delay, for now.

"I'll get Duo to stay with you here while I talk with Zechs if thats alright."

Relena nodded her assent. "That would be fine." And then she stopped. She'd had a thought and it surprised her, because of the nature of it, but before she could second guess herself she simply said what was on her mind. "Are you sure you need to talk to my brother now? Couldn't it wait?"

The look Heero gave her then was full of confusion.

"What I mean to say is," She leaned forward towards him and whispered in his ear. "Its not urgent is it?" Before she could think about it for another minute she brushed her lips lightly across his cheek.

As quickly as she could imagine Heero caught her face in the palm of his hand and turned to face her. His eyes were stormy pools. "It is important," He brought his lips to hers just as gentle as she had been. "But it can wait a little while."

He kissed her again, this time slowly, laggardly. Allowing her time to move closer to him. Relena felt no need to rush only to feel, to enjoy the moment. The sweet way his free hand trailed through her loose hair, his other arm wrapped behind her back, holding her close.

She couldn't help thinking about what he had said the night before, that he would stay if she wanted him to. She had told him that she hadn't wanted him to leave, and she had ment it. If he did indeed do as he'd said, he could be hers. She would never again need to wonder when she would see him again, or hope for glimpses of him or word from a rumour about how he was doing. The thought made Relena raise her hand between them to rest on his chest, to grip at the front of his shirt, leaning into him, deepening the kiss.

Heero responded in kind and she felt the hand that had been running through her hair reach up and take hold of the back of her head.

The contact sent a warm intoxicating feeling through her body. She felt herself making moves that she knew were purely instinctual. The waves of pleasure she felt going through her body were intoxicating and made it impossible to form coherent thought. Relena hardly realized when Heero leaned her back against the bed, and propped himself over her, his hands wandering down her side to massage her hip through the fitted pants she wore.

His tongue slowly forced its way into her mouth and twined with her own, tasting her. Relena could taste him as well, the familiar taste of the coffee he loved, and the taste that could only be described as Heero himself. She arched herself towards him, brought an arm to wrap around his back so she could push herself closer to him. She wanted this, she wanted Heero.

Then just as she felt him slipping his hands under the hem of her silky short sleeved shirt a loud gurgling sound broke the mood.

Heero raised his head to look at her as Relena groaned, throughly embarrassed.

"We did miss dinner didn't we?" He asked, his lips turning up ever so slightly at the corners as he gazed down at her.

"I suppose we did." Relena couldn't help but answer, her voice weak. She couldn`t believe it. To be in a perfect situation and to have it ruined souly by her stomach of all things. "I'm a little hungary."

Getting up off the bed, Heero stood, his dark hair seeming more tousled then usual, and offered her a hand. Relena accepted it, and he helped her to her feet. "Then I think we should get you something to eat."

Keeping hold of her hand, he began to lead her towards the door.

She was sullen as she followed after him, but tried to keep it from her features. By no means did she want to let him know how disappointed she was, and embarrassed.

Suddenly sensing her unhappiness, Heero turned around, his blue eyes intensely regarding her. Without saying a word, he leaned down and captured her lips once more. His kiss was hard, and bruising, and made Relena's legs nearly give out.

When he raised his head and she opened her eyes, struggling to compose herself, she saw the flash of a satisfied smirk curl up the corner of his lips, before Heero turned and proceeded to push open the bedroom door and lead her from the room.

OoOo

"Sir, they've found the cameras."

"Oh? They've figured it out already have they?" Ekin looked up from the pile of papers he was going through at the announcement. He felt a smile form at the corner of his lips.

"There are reports from what we were able to gather before the microphones and cameras were removed saying that they have also discovered where we are located. This base has been compromised."

The blond man laughed. It was a deep throaty sound that made the other man look at him, confusion in his expression. Ekin ignored him in favour of the other man coming up behind him to his right.

"Are you sure this is what you want to do?" Reiko asked, crossing his arms over his large chest when he had come around to stand beside him and look down.

Ekin chuckled again, softer this time. "Oh yes, I've been waiting for this. A chance to show them just how little I care for their 'security measures'."

OoOo

After leaving Relena in the care of Duo in the kitchen, with the promise that the braided pilot would escort her back to his room and then stay with her untill he returned, Heero reluctantly proceeded to the room Zechs and Noin were sharing.

He found it easily, and saw when he arrived that the door was ajar, soft light spilling out the crack into the hallway.

Heero pulled open the door far enough to allow him to side step inside the room before closing it behind himself. Only the older Peacecraft sibling was in the room, his attention solely on the small screen infront of him.

"I'm ready to talk." Heero hated the way his voice sounded almost as much as he hated the words that passed his lips.

Zechs looked up from the laptop where he himself had been going through the files of temporary staff employed at the Peacecraft mansion and checking backgrounds. Heero could tell that the platinum blond man was trying to keep the surprise from his face as he responded. "Why now?"

There was no easy way to describe how utterly irritated at the situation Heero was, No way to simply express his overwhelming feeling of loosing control, of being caught unaware by the recent developments regarding the identity of the kidnapper. He kept wishing there was something else he could have done to prevent any of this from ever occurring, or before it had gone so far as to involve other people.

"I have something to tell you that you should know about. It has to do with the way I've been overworking on the Mars base and it has to do with my past.`` He took in a slow breath. ``It seems some things that I thought were long since finished with have come back to haunt me." Heero's voice was measured and even. His outward appearance showing an equivocal sence of calm as he leaned against the frame of the closed door, his arms crossed across his chest, his head bent, and eyes hooded.

Without seeing him, Heero knew that Zech's face was thoughtful. It was an expression he seemed to wear more since the wars had ended. "Is it about the nightmares? Why you can't sleep?"

Heero nodded once. "It's not what you think though. I don't have nightmares about the war, or the fighting. I probably should, I've done so many things that others wouldn't understand, things that even now I sometimes have a hard time acceptin.`` He shook his head. ``But it was a different time, and it was all I could do to find a place so that I could survive. I had to be strong and show others that I was strong." He stopped and took a breath to steady himself. This wasn't what he had come here to talk about.

"My nightmares are from when I was still a boy." Heero kept his head down, and his gaze briefly flitted over to Zechs to gauge his reaction. The older man remained seated at the small wooden table that he had been at when Heero had come into the room, his legs crossed, one ankle over his knee, leaned back casually in the hard strait backed wooden chair, Listening. He didn't try to say anything, simply leaving it up to Heero to volunteer what he would.

"I don't know what happened to my parents, only that I didn't didn't live with them long. They may have been killed in the conflicts that surrounded the colonies at that time. I was raised by a man named Odin Lowe." Heero paused for a moment, remembering. "He was an assassin working for the highest bidder. At a young age he taught me how to fight, how to care for and use a gun." Again he paused. "Odin taught both my brother and I."

Heero knew the moment Zechs looked up, startled. He could literally feel the man`s eyes on him He wasn't sure how to proceed. He hadn't known since the moment he'd started speaking how he was supposed to tell Relena's brother that he was the reason why his sister had been kidnapped, why her life had quite possibly been in danger.

"Please, don't stop." Zechs managed to get out sounding relativlly calm. Heero could hear the strain in his words though, and knew that he had no choice but to simply plow ahead and tell him everything.

"It happened so long ago, I was only about eight, and I suffered a head injury at the same time. I forgot about it for a long time, and only remembered as I realized what I've been having nightmares about for the last few months. I keep seeing the fire that killed my older brother, and how I couldn't save him." Heero stopped talking long enough to look up and meet Zech's gaze directly. "The reason why I'm telling you this is because I have good reason to believe that my brother may not be dead as I thought he was, and that he's trying to draw me out for some reason."

"What gives you the idea that he may be alive?" Confusion passed over Zech's expression.

Heero narrowed his eyes before answering. "Relena told me about the hypnosis that Sally did this afternoon and about the man she remembered seeing, the one who was in charge." He wasn't about to accuse Zechs of withholding information from him, but he wanted to make it clear that he wasn't pleased. "She remembered something else on her own afterwards, the man's name. Ekin Lowe."

"Its your brother's name." Zechs nodded, understanding without needing an explanation.

"Yes. He's been after me, wants to draw me out, and I don't know why. I'm concerned that he may try and come after Relena again if I can't figure out what he wants." Heero looked past Zechs towards the darkened balcony doors. The night had crept in without his noticing.

Zechs raised an eyebrow, his words cutting into the younger mans thoughts. "Why would you be concerned about that? She's incredibly well protected here, we would easily be able to stop any assault on her."

Sighing inwardly and forcing himself to change his focus back to Zechs; Heero responded. "I haven't seen Ekin since I was eight years old. I can't begin to predict the sorts of things that go through his mind, or his motivation behind his actions. What I do know is that while he held Relena, she told me that he seemed to show . . . Interest in her." He spoke the last part as though it was a bad taste on his tongue.

"Ah. Well if he's using Relena to draw you out, whats stopping him from using her to get to you in other ways. Of course thats providing he knows how you feel for her." The older man contemplated.

"The cameras in her room." Heero could barely keep his voice level as he revealed this information. "Wufei informed me earlier that they did indeed find cameras and a few other pieces of monitoring equipment in the rooms that had been scheduled for electrical maintenance. The concerns about the outbuilding were also correct. They sent all the feeds to the building wirelessly and had a satelight feed uploading them online."

Interest sparked in Zech's eyes. "Have you found out if the destination is the same for the video upload as for the transmission for Relena's broadcast?"

"Wufei and Sally are looking into it now," Heero shrugged. "It will take some time to pinpoint it conclusively. The images were uploaded to a third party site and simply accessed as a streaming video file. They need to to search through the access points to see if any match."

An unreadable expression passed over Zechs' face before he said, "So if Ekin now has proof that you care for Relena, I suppose that means-" His voice trailed off.

Heero met his eyes once more. "We were . . . Affectionate." He wouldn't say more than that. His eyes hardened. Let the older Peacecraft think what he would.

"Ahh." The older man didn't look inclined to push for any more information. "You'll look after her." It wasn't a question.

Heero didn't hesitate before answering. "I will."

"Where is she now?"

"With Duo. They were supposed to go back to the room I've been using after Relena finished eating. She said she didn't feel comfortable returning to her own room yet so soon after finding out about the cameras." As he spoke Heero realized that the small phone Wufei had given him was vibrating in his pocket. He pulled it out to see a message sent from Duo. His forehead creased in displeasure.

"What is it?" Zechs looked at Heero, his blue eyes cold as steel.

He read the message again just to be sure before speaking. "It would seem that Relena has had a change of heart and decided to return to her own room after all. Duo is still with her of course, he said that he checked the room over again thoroughly." Heero looked up from the screen. "I should go."

"What have you decided what to do about your brother?"

Realizing that this was the reason why he had come to see the older man, Heero sank back against the door before answering. "As I see it I have two options. One is a pre-emptive strike against the base in Greece we've found thanks to Trowa's recon mission. We would need to split into two groups, one to go in after Ekin and the other to stay and guard Relena in case the base is abandoned and its merely being used as a distraction to leave her vulnerable." He paused for a moment before continuing. "The second option would be to stay put and wait for the contact that we've been promised would come in the next few days to the person of interest."

By the look that passed over Zech's face Heero could tell that like himself neither one of these plans sat very well. Of course one thing that Heero refused to mention was that he had another option he had started to consider. It involved taking Relena away on his own and going into hiding so that he could investigate Ekin at his leisure without the added threat against Relena's life. He was sure that he would be able to successfully hide the young women for the time needed to eliminate the threat of Ekin who could possibly be his long thought to be dead brother.

"I don't like the idea of waiting to be contacted." Zechs said after a long few minutes of contemplation. "And I like less the idea of splitting our power to pursue what could possibly be a false lead, but at least it would be doing something."

Heero nodded. "Waiting could be playing right into their hands, they may not expect us to have figured out the location of the Greece base. It would give us an advantage if we're able to catch them unaware, that is if they haven't already abandoned that location." He was thoughtful.

Zechs lowered his eyes as he too mulled over their options before raising his head to meet Heero's gaze. "Go to Relena for now. In the morning we should discuss this with everyone."

Restraining a sigh, Heero nodded. He was far from looking forward to a group discussion but with everyone`s input they would more than likely come up with a feasable plan of action or defence. He was anxious to get back to Relena though. He couldn't fathom why she had changed her mind about spending the night in her own room when she had been simply against the idea when he had left her maybe half an hour ago. "Till tomorrow then." He stood up from against the wall and exited the room the same way he'd entered it.

OoOo

She was resting comfortably, floating in a velvety darkness, hardly aware of her own physical body. Her mind flitted from one thought to the next without a second look. She was defiantly dreaming, but of nothing in particular until she felt the lips against her forehead. They wern`t her imagination.

Smiling slightly, she chose to keep her eyes closed and simply enjoy the sensations.

The lips slowly moved down to kiss her temple and then lower to her jaw and across to her chin. They captured her own lips for a brief sweet moment before continuing downwards to the side of her neck. Pausing to lick and suck at a particularly shivery part of her skin, At that point she almost opened her eyes simply in pleasure to glimpse at her seducer, but was saved from the effort when the cool lips moved still lower to the nape of her neck that joined with her collarbone.

She vaguely realized that her hand moved up the arm braced against the bed beside her, up over the jacketed shoulder and still higher to tangle her fingers in the thick unruly hair. He smelled like the cool crisp outdoors.

"Heero," She sighed willing the lips to capture hers once more.

There was a pause when the body above hers froze and then slowly leaned back down towards her, the mouth moving to whisper in her ear. "No."

Relena froze, her eyes snapping open in the darkened room. Not Heero.

She was very still for a long moment as her mind rushed to decided what she should do. Was she in danger? Should she scream? Would anyone even hear her?

Her hand slowly stretched out across the bed and gripped the lamp cord, fumbling for the switch. Light suddenly blossomed and she was able to see for the first time since the seduction began. She gasped silently to herself. The thick hair that her other hand was still tangled in wasn't the dark mass she had invisioned, it was blond.

All at once she felt herself revulsed, and tried to push away. "Ekin." Relena cringed at the name that crossed her lips. Her hand coming up to brush against her mouth, as though to wipe away the feeling of his lips upon hers. "How did you get in here?"

No matter how she tried, Ekin would not let her push him away. He stayed locked above her, his hands and weight restricting her movements greatly.

"The same as last time," A mocking smile flashed across his features. "Although it was much more difficult this time. You got rid of my camera. That is precisely the reason I came you know. I needed to make sure for myself you were alright." His hand moved to try and brush back a strand of hair from her face, but she jerked away from the contact. "Ah yes. Your precious Heero, who seems to have left you all alone."

"He'll be back." She tried to make her voice hard and sure.

"Of course he will be." Ekin sounded indulgent.

"I want you to leave." Relena was finding it difficult to keep her voice steady. She was frightened. There was no way of telling what Ekin wanted with her. He might just be there to kill her in order to get at Heero again.

"I really don't want to do that. You see as I said, it was much more difficult to get here this time, what with all the toy soldiers patrolling around like they know what they're up against. " He brushed a finger down the side of her arm and caused her to shudder. "I really don't feel like leaving right away after all the time and effort it took to get in. Maybe you could entertain me for a while first." A cruel smile crossed Ekin's lips as he stared down at her.

"What do you want with me? I don't even know you." A tone between asperation and hysteria came through even as Relena clutched at calm despretly.

"Of course you don't. We were never introduced before I kidnapped you.`` Ekin`s words fell in the range of sarcasm. ``In fact as you might recall, you weren't even the one I was interested in to begin with. You were merely a means to draw out the one person I was truly after." His hand moved up her arm to idly run across her collarbone. "But you knew that."

"Heero-" Relena tried to say, but her voice faltered.

Ekin ignored her, and continued as though she hadn't been trying to speak. "It was hard, you know. Trying to find something, anything that would peak his interest enough to crawl out of whatever hole he had dug himself into after all the fighting had stopped. At first I thought that I could pick off one of his pilot friends, but of course as you can imagine it proved to be a fairly difficult task to accomplish, and that plan was given up even before it had left the ground." He was still above her on the bed, his weight on his knees and elbows, leaned over her face, contemplating something carefully.

"Why is it that he shows such reguard for you, do you think?" Ekin was truly mulling over this fact as though it was the most important thing in the world to him at this moment. "I know your beauty has something to do with it, but that can't be all." Gentle as a whisper his hand brushed through the loose strands of hair sweeping across the pillow she was laying on. "If your reaction to me earlier when you thought I was him is any indication then I suppose that he has some deeper feelings for you. Could it be that your feelings are as of yet unrequited?"

Ekin seemed to enjoy this possibility very much, and laughed out loud. It was a deep baritone sound, hearty even, but underlaid with a cruelty that made Relena's skin crawl.

She was determined not to say anything to this man. She couldn't bring herself to spur him on, or give him any more information about Heero or herself that he hadn't figured out on his own. She would not be goaded. But she still needed to buy time, he still hadn't come back yet. Her mind worked franticly. Duo must be on guard outside the bedroom door, he had ben with her earlier but he must have left while she was asleep. How could she alert him to what was going on without tipping Ekin off to what she was up to? Oh God, how long was Heero going to be with her brother before he came to find her?

Ekin finally seemed to be paying some attention to her. His eyes looked at her, concern flashing through them. "Oh there now, shh." He gave her a small smile. "No need to be frightened, I"m not going to hurt you."

Relena couldn't help the small gasp of relief that came from her at the words, no matter that she probably couldn't trust them. "Then why are you here? What do you want with me?"

The smile he gave her stretched across his face. "Oh I don't want anything with you for the moment. I'm making a point, don't you see?" Ekin looked at her as though willing her to understand where he was coming from. "They've put what they feel is the best security all around you, and they've gotten rid of my survalence equipment. It was almost as good as an invitation!"

Realization began to dawn on her. "It was a challenge? You wanted to prove that you could still get to me?"

"Precisely!" Ekin's face was brilliant with happiness.

Relena wasn't sure what to think about this sudden revelation. "So now that you've gotten in here, what are you going to do?" She was afraid of the answer, but she needed to know.

"Well, there's no reason why we can't continue from where we left off earlier." The blond hair fell into his familiar eyes in an even more families way.

She couldn't help the shudder that passed through her at the thought, nor the involuntary jerk when Ekin tried to run his finger over her cheek. "No, stop!"

"Whats the matter? You could pretend I'm Heero if it would make you feel better." Ekin's hand had started moving down the side of her body, his thumb stroking the side of her breast through her clothing.

"No!" She was beginning to panic now, he was holding her down too firmly to get away. "Get off of me!" She struggled against him, hoping to make him loose his grip.

He adjusted himself over her to pin her down against the bed with his own body weight. "You can't fight me, I have you."

"No!" She cried, louder this time. "No, no, no! Please stop!"

Ekin shut off her pleading by pressing his mouth firmly over hers.

Relena couldn't help the hopeless tears that began to stream from her eyes as she tried to no avail to twist away from him. She tried to bite him, but Ekin only laughed and pulled out of her reach.

"Now now. Thats not very nice, is it?"

"She's being nicer then I am." A strangely rough sounding voice said from the foot of the bed before Relena saw one of the wooden chairs from the small table in the corner come down on Ekin's back.

The blond man let out a grunt of pain before moving quick as lightning and pulling what looked like a gun of some kind out of his front jacket pocket and shooting it.

She'd only been able to catch a glimpse of a chestnut braid before Relena heard the loud pop and snapping sound of a stun gun connecting to its target.

"Oh, Duo!" Ekin had moved off of her in order to pull the weapon from his pocket and so she was now easily able to get out from underneath of him. She dropped to the floor beside the fallen man.

The electrodes were still imbedded in his chest, and with a quick movement she removed them and turned to see if he was conscious. Duo's eyes were partially open, but they rolled up into his skull. "Duo, can you hear me? Duo!" Relena felt for a pulse, and sighed in relief when she felt it beating strongly.

"I suppose this means that our time has come to an end." Ekin's voice came from behind her.

Relena whirled around to see him come down beside her and plant a chaste kiss on her forehead before she could stop him or pull away.

He stood quickly, giving her what he must have supposed to be a dashing smile that only served to make Relena's skin crawl before saying, "Till next time." and heading towards the open balcony doors.

She was torn. Somehow she needed to get help for Duo, and she despritely wanted to sound some kind of alarm to let everyone know that Ekin had been here and to get them after him before he could get away. She didn't feel as though she had time to waste, so she did the only thing she felt she was able to do.

Rising from the floor beside the unconscious Duo, she ran towards her bedroom door, intent on searching for Heero.

OoOo

As soon as Heero pushed the door to Relena's bedroom open, he was almost bowled over.

"Oh thank God your back!" Relena exclaimed, her voice sounding like barely contained panic. "He was here, I told him you'd be back, but he just kept talking and Oh God I thought he was you at first." Her face turned up to his, desperation in her eyes. "I don't know how he got in, that scares me more than anything."

Heero was flabbergasted. "Who was here? When?"

It was like someone had slapped her, the reaction was so severe. As he watched, Relena's eyes filled with tears and they suddenly spilled down her cheeks as she dissolved into sobs.

"I'm sorry!" She hiccuped, as she sobbed. "I don't know whats wrong with me, I'm fine. Nothing happened to me, but Ekin-"

Suddenly understanding Heero gripped her shoulders and helped to support her weight as she sagged against him. "Ekin was here?"

"Yes, he was here." Relena continued to sob out of pure shock. "He didn't hurt me." She said again, seeming to want to make sure he knew, that it was important.

Heero checked her over himself quickly just to be sure. She was fine, not even a bruise from what he could see. He gritted his teeth together as he gathered her against him carefully and made her move far enough with him inside the room so that he could grab the extra blanket that she kept folded at the foot of her bed. Once inside he stopped when his eyes landed on the crumpled form on the floor.

"Duo?" He took another step towards the figure and confirmed that it was indeed the braided pilot he'd charged with guarding Relena. He felt ice in his veins even as Relena started babbling again.

"Ekin knocked him out, I'm not sure how the first time, but the second time he hit him with a stun gun. It happened so fast-" She hiccuped back another sob. "He has a pulse, but he'll probably need medical attention, I was just about to find you."

Heero pulled out his phone in the next minute, pressing in Wufei's number. When the chinese man answered Heero started talking quickly.

"Send a medical team to Relena's room as soon as possible, Ekin has been here. He shot Duo with a stun gun, and I believe that he's probably still on the property, attempting to escape. Point of entry and exit to the building was the balcony in Relena's room." He raised his eyebrows in question towards Relena who managed to nod, confirming his suspicions.

He hung up the phone after a few more words with the Preventer, and turned his attention to Relena again. He managed to wrap the blanket still clutched in his hand around her shoulders and made her sit on the end of the bed. She was still sobbing but it wasn't quite so hysterical anymore.

"I'm going to check on Duo." He placed a hand on her cheek briefly until she nodded her blond head and sniffed.

Going over to the fallen pilot Heero confirmed that Relena had been correct in her assessment. Duo's pulse was strong, and his breathing was hitched, but otherwise normal. He ran his hands over his limbs and found no broken bones, but he did find a few possible bruises that would be sore for a few days. He let out a breath he handn't realized he'd been holding as he sat back on his heels.

"He'll be alright." Heero told Relena, who had been watching him anxiously the whole time he'd been examining the other man.

"I'm glad." She responded, and Heero caught the overwhelming sincerity in her words.

Heero looked at Relena. Her face was tear streaked, and her hair was disheveled, strands standing up around the crown of her head, the rest hung limply around her face. Her eyes were puffy and red, but it was her expression that made him pause in his assessment. She looked disturbed in a way that Heero had never seen her.

He got up suddenly and went towards her, eyes never leaving her face. She watched him as he quickly crossed the distance to the bed and sat down next to her. "What did he do to you?"

She started saying the same thing she'd said when he had come into the room. "Ekin didn't hurt me, I'm fine. Really I am." Her words rang hollow even to his ears.

Taking gentle hold of her shoulders Heero looked down at her intently, firmly. "What did he do to you, Relena?"

The young woman who he knew possessed a core of steel when she needed to, leant on that skill when she answered. "Its nothing as bad as you think. He didn't get the chance. Duo woke up from whatever Ekin had done to knock him out the first time."

He wanted to force her to tell him, he would've shook her shoulders once if Sally and a Preventer medical team hadn't come through the bedroom door, given them one look and then headed strait towards Duo.

Heero and Relena watched as they went through the same motions that Heero had to confirm the well being of the chestnut haired man, before they loaded him carefully onto a stretcher and two of the medical workers proceeded to remove him from the room. One more of the Preventer's medical team remained in the room along with Sally, and she turned to Relena with a bright smile.

"We should take a quick look at you as well Miss Relena, just to make sure your alright." The Preventers voice was high and sweet. It seemed to match her seemingly sunny disposition, and blond curls.

"If you feel like you have to. But I'm fine, I wasn't hurt at all." Relena's voice was tired but polite. "What I would really like to do is just explain what happened, maybe Ekin can be caught." Heero felt her lean towards him, distancing herself from the curly haired Preventer.

Sally caught his eye and he answered her silent question. "I checked her over quickly when I found her, she seems fine physically. Maybe a bruise or two, nothing serious."

The red haired woman nodded and put her hand on the bubbly Preventer's shoulder. "I think MIss Relena will be fine. She'll come and see me tomorrow morning if she needs anything, Right?" Sally flashed a friendly smile towards Relena.

"I will, thank you." Relena looked relieved. She returned the smile briefly and swiped a sleeve across her face to wipe away the tears drying on her cheeks. She tried to laugh at herself. "This is the second time today I've been reduced to this. Its embarrassing."

Heero put his arm around her shoulders as the younger Preventer left the room. Sally continued to stair down at them.

"Everyone has gone to search the grounds and the surrounding area for Ekin. Noin is coming to meet us here." She said simply. "Zechs was more worried about Relena but Noin convinced him that she would look after her. It would be such a relief if we could get our hands on this man."

"Hn." Heero was hardly paying attention to Sally's words, so focused he was on Relena. She seemed small, and huddled into herself even as she leaned against him. He was burning with desire to find out what had happened to her, but he had enough sence to realize that she wouldn't be inclined to talk about it with too many people around, she wouldn't even tell him when they were alone.

"Lets move down to the dinning room." Heero suggested quickly, realizing perhaps slowly that it might be best to get Relena out of the scene of the attack. "The others can meet us there later if there is news."

"That would be a good idea." Noin answered from the doorway. "Miss Relena looks as though she could use a cup of tea."

At the sound of her sister in law's voice, Relena perked up slightly, and nodded. "Yes, that sounds wonderful." Her voice was tired and drawn, but she was trying to be reasonable.

Heero stood up then and took her by the hand, lifting her off the bed. "Lets go."

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