Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Eternal Promises ❯ Part 1 - rewrite ( Chapter 1 )

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

Disclaimer: I claim absolutely no ownership of Gundam Wing, or its associated characters.  This story has been written for entertainment purposes only, and no money has been made from its conception.  I only claim ownership of any new characters that I may throw in.

Part 1

It was a beautiful morning in the Sanc kingdom.  The sun was shinning brightly, melting away the last remnants of the snow, and chasing away the chill that was left in the air.

Vice foreign minister Darlian could see the cloudless sky through the window behind the speaking dignitary.  He had been sent to inform the counsel of changes in the colonies.  While she listened, only half interested in what was being said, Relena continued to look out the window and let her mind wander.

She imagined all the things that she could be doing if she wasn’t in meetings all day, and somehow it didn’t make her feel any better about where she was.  To be inside in such a beautiful day seemed cruel punishment.  But she forced her mind back to the matters at hand, and continued to listen to the discussions going on around her.

Ever since the Eve war, there hadn't been many major problems keeping the peace between earth and the colonies.  The Preventers had been able to disarm any minor threats before they had become anything larger to worry about.  They had largely succeeded in destroying all military mobile suits, and found that most Earth nations and colonies were in favor of complete demilitarization to preserve the peace they had fought to protect.  But of course, there would always be those who refused to give up their violent ideals.

Relena found herself constantly working along side the Preventers in many of these instances to try and resolve the problems through peace talks and negations, before other drastic measures needed to be taken.  With these negotiations on top of general concerns that dignitary's from various nations and colonies had, she was kept extremely busy, with very little time to call her own.

As she had been reflecting on these things, the dignitary had stopped talking and had opened the floor for discussion and questions.  After a time, all the important questions were asked, all the things that needed to be said were, and everyone in the room came to a general understanding about the current state of affairs.

Finally, after the good-byes from all the dignitaries, Relena made her way  outside.  She was able to take advantage of the short time she had now to feel how good the warm sun felt on her face, and reflect on the wonders it was able to accomplish in rejuvenating her soul.  A smile came to her lips as she stood outside on the sidewalk waiting for her car amongst a crowd of laughing bustling people.  It made her happy to think about how her work helped to keep the peace so that people both in space and on earth were able to enjoy simple things such as this without need to worry about impending war breaking out again.

Even as she thought about it, she felt a small frown come across her lips.  She was always happy being able to help nations come to peaceful understandings with one another; and found her work fulfilling, but Relena constantly felt the need for something more.  This need came whenever she was by herself, like now, and then as soon as people surrounded her again, the feeling seemed to dull.

Maybe she needed a dog.

She felt her expression settle into an easy smile again as she watched a silver limousine pull around to let her in.  Taking another last look around the busy street, she entered the limo.  It had only been a fleeting thought, but for some reason she'd had the strangest sensation that someone had been  watching her.  Not that it was strange for people to be looking at her, they usually did with varying degrees of intensity, but this had felt like whoever was watching her had mal intent.

It was slightly unnerving to feel as thought your being watched, but not to know where the person is watching from seemed to feel worse.

Relena shivered a little, climbing into the car.  Fortunately, she was distracted immediately by her assistant, who was waiting with a new schedule, papers and briefings for the remainder of the day's business.  It was easy to bury her uneasiness in her work.  She had been doing it for the last two years.  

Going through proposals for trade agreements and vid conferences with colony representatives easily took the rest of the morning and the afternoon was spent in another meeting with representatives from the Earth Sphere Unified Nation.

It wasn't until late that night when she finally got home and was alone in her room that Relena even had a chance to think.  The day had been busy, like they all were now.  Full of listening to problems from other nations and trying to help them come to a conscience within themselves.  She was usually so wrapped up in the problems of nations around the earth sphere, that she didn't often have any time to think about things that might be bothering her.

On most nights she was so tired that by the time she made it to her room she didn't want to do anything but go to sleep.  Tonight though, Relena felt strangely awake, and sleep eluded her.  She put on her pajamas, and grabbed a thick robe from her closet before opening her balcony doors and stepping outside.

The nights out in the country on the Peacecraft family estate were cooler in the early spring than in the city, so as she made her way over to the railing, she pulled the robe tightly around herself.  She rested her hands on the rail and raised her face to the sky, looking up to behold the sea of stars above her.

Relena's mind began to wander as she looked up at the winking pin pricks of light.  It had been two years since their had been any war on the earth or in the colonies.  Two years of hard negotiations, and difficult new policies to approve.  The memories of war were still fresh in everyone's mind, and no one, except for the odd rebellious group, made any move to take up arms and attempt to dissolve what they had fought so hard to achieve.

Relena's eyes moved to gaze at the moon.  Two years ago had been the last time she had seen him.

It was so easy to call up an image in her mind, even after all this time.  
The unruly dark hair and amazing blue eyes that framed his constantly severe expression.

He had rescued her from Mariemaia, and passed out in her arms shortly after.  The last time she had seen him had been when she had waited by his bed in the hospital.  He had looked so peaceful, lying in the sterile, stiff bed.  Relena had never seen him look that way before.

Her mind brought her back to that day.  She had only left for a minute, just to the hallway coffee machine, but before she left she had squeezed his hand to reassure herself, even if he was sleeping, that she would come back to him.

The strangest and most surprising thing happened then. Relena could've sworn that he returned the pressure to her hand.  Shocked, she had looked down at his face, the normally somber facial expression was surprisingly relaxed, and his eye lids hid what Relena know were startling Prussian blue eyes.

Not a move.  He hadn't made a move. Perhaps she had imagined it.  She had stood there longer then she had intended, just watching him, but he made no more movements.

When she came back from the coffee machine, a steaming cup in her hands, an empty bed greeted her.  He was no longer in it.

At first Relena had stood there in the doorway, dumbfounded.  Then all of a sudden she had snapped to life, rushing out of the empty room to the nurses' station.  After taking a moment to quickly explain the situation she learned that hey hadn't taken him anywhere, and an announcement was put over the intercom.

It was too late though.  Relena knew it as soon as she made it back to the room.  She hadn't noticed the most obvious fact the first time she'd been the room, she had been too focused on the empty bed.  When she came back she saw it plain as day.  The window stood wide open, the curtains billowing in the wind.

His clothes, a pair of blue jeans, a green tank top and a black jacket, were gone as well.

Relena rushed to the window and leaned as far out as she could without falling.  She scanned the ground down below.  They were only three floors up, so she hadn’t been overly worried about him getting hurt.  He was a survivor, and no matter what the odds, he'd never had a problem getting  out of impossible situations in one piece.  All that she had wanted was to catch a glimpse of him, anything to show he was all right.

She thought she saw something familiar in the distance, off by the road, a tousled brown head walking away from her.  Without a second thought she had cupped her hands around her mouth and shouted out at him, trying to get his attention.

It was an impulsive thing to do, and she really hadn’t been surprised when the figure in the distance hadn’t turned around.  Heero had always been strong, and this had been another demonstration of that fact.

That was the last time Relena had seen him.  Just a glimpse of a shadowy figure walking away from her, not even turning around for a second of contemplation.

She’d envied his resolve, and strength.

Relena had gone on with her life as part of the Earth Sphere Unified Nation, never knowing what had truly happened to Heero after that day, where he had gone, or what he had done.  He had walked out of her life as surely and as completely as anyone could.

She came back to the present then, and shook herself from her reminiscing.  It had been a long time since she had thought of these things, and even now she wondered what exactly had triggered the memories.  It wasn’t that she was prone to these bouts of nostalgia, but for some reason the night seemed right.  With the crisp air, and the darkness, she felt very isolated in her old family home.  She knew that downstairs her butler Pagen was sitting at the table in the kitchen having a last cup of tea while he read a book, and various other staff were around finishing up for the evening if they hadn't already retired for the night.

Even down below her balcony there should be a few night guards making the rounds of the grounds to ensure there were no trespassers.  She had lost the battle about the guards with the former Lady Une, now Preventer Anne Une, who insisted that she needed the protection.  Tonight Relena was grateful for the men or women who patrolled the grounds, needing to know the extra layer of protection was there, as well as the knowledge that she wasn’t truly alone.

Thinking about Preventer Une sparked thoughts about other people who had played key parts in the past wars.  She had on occasion had the chance to actually come across these people, and was glad to see that everyone was seeming to find a comfortable place in the new world.

Quatre Winner had taken over his family business, much to the relief of his sisters.  He had been a huge supporter of the pacifism Relena promoted, staying true to his own father's beliefs.  Relena had also had the pleasure to be involved in proposals for complete disarmament with him.  She was proud to call him an ally of sorts, as well as a friend.

Chang Wufei, Sally Po and Lady Une were all still involved with the Preventers, an organization Relena worked very closely with to stop any little problem on earth or in the colonies before it became anything big.  They had been very successful in stopping the minor uprisings from occurring while Relena had been dispatched to find the cause of the problems, and to diffuse them with negotiations.

One person that she had never worked with or had any contact with personally was the pilot they had called Trowa Barton.  When she had spoken to Quatre, he had mentioned in passing that the secretive pilot had gone back to the circus where he had been hiding during the war, and was now a main performance with his sister Catherine.  Relena had always wanted to see the duo, she was told they were truly amazing.

From what she could tell, Duo Maxwell had been making a killing up in the colonies with his company. He, along with another former soldier Relena had met once or twice during the Eve war, Hildi,  were hired out to clean up space debris like space mines and parts from long destroyed mobile suits and space shuttles.  The success was so well known that whenever Relena went to space she saw at least one or two billboards advertising Maxwell clean up.  He was also starting to earn a reputation for  reliable shuttle repair.

The only former Gundam pilot that Relena hadn't heard anything about was Heero Yuy.  Not a word, glance or anything for two whole years.  She supposed that the other pilots had probably heard from him, but Relena herself had not.

The thought made her sad on one level.  She had spent so much time in those early months following him, learning about him, and in many ways she had become a stronger person because of him.  To not hear from him or know how he was felt very lonely.  Without her being aware of it, he had become more to her then just a boy she had met, or someone who had saved her, he had become a pillar of strength and security.

On the other hand, the more practical hand, she knew that he was fine, and that was enough for her.  Even if he wasn't aware of it, he had done so much for her during the time that she had known him, that she couldn’t ask anymore of him.

As she stood on the darkened balcony thinking, a slight wind had come up, and began to blow Relena's hair back from her forehead.

“Heero,” She spoke the name aloud softly to no one but the moon.  The guards who were stationed around the estate probably wouldn't be able to hear her, and even if they could, they wouldn't understand.

She didn't care anyways.  All that she could think about was the boy she had grown to admire during the war, the boy with the wild brown hair, amazing Prussian blue eyes, and serious expression.

With a smile, Relena remembered the first time she had met him.

He had been lying on the beach, and Relena had mistaken him for dead.  After she'd called an ambulance, she had taken off his helmet, and had been surprised to see that he was no older than she was.

When he had woken up, jumping to his feet and covering his face, she had been taken aback.  It was not the sort of response that she had been expecting.

It was more then apparent that the boy had not expected to be where he was, and to say that she was intrigued by the sight of him and that she wanted to know how he happened  to end up on this lonely stretch of sand in the middle of no where was putting it mildly.

Relena just watched in awe as he first tried to commit suicide in front of her.  When that had failed, and the ambulance had arrived, he had knocked out the driver, and took off in it, the siren still wining as he disappeared down the road.

That day had been the beginning of her admiration in him, in his strength, and presents.

The next day at school when he had shown up in her classroom, introducing himself as Heero Yuy, Relena knew that she wanted to know him.  She had even tried to invite him to her birthday party.  To the shock of Relena and everyone else who had been a witness that day, Heero hadn't even looked at the invitation before ripping it in half.  Then while she was still in shock, he spoke in low tones that only she could hear. The words that he spoke ended her innocent adolescence forever: “I will kill you.”

She caught his eye for the briefest of moments before he had turned away from her and walked away.  It hadn’t just been the words themselves that had changed her, she realized now looking back, it was the cold look in those frozen eyes.  He would do it.  She knew it as clearly as she could know anything.  He would kill her, and he wouldn’t regret it or hesitate.  The thought and realization had chilled her as nothing else could.

Arguably, it was that chilled thought that, while it had frightened her, had awoken something inside of her she hadn’t even realized existed.  A reckless part of her that wasn’t her father's well behaved little girl, a part that wanted nothing more then to see what lengths a person like Heero would go to in order to actually kill her.

Relena wasn't a fool, she knew when she had found Heero on the beach that he was a soldier of some kind, and when he had turned up in her school she reasoned that he was undercover in some way.  Perhaps knowing that had been enough reason for Heero to determine that she was a risk to have around, and the only course of action to keep his identity a secret was to eliminate her.

She had felt strangely important with that thought. To think that She knew something about Heero Yuy that was so secret he would kill her to keep it that way.  The idea that her days might be numbered made her more reckless.  If Heero wanted to kill her, why not give him a fair chance?

Maybe that's what crossed her mind on her birthday, and caused her to go after him, leaving behind all her friends at her own party.  She had a fleeting thought that she couldn't let him do whatever it was he was planning. Relena feared that whatever it was, when he was finished he might leave and she wouldn’t see him again.

So she left, and found him at the military port loading torpedos from the base's storage.  He had seemed to ignore all her questions about what he was doing, but as soon as she stopped asking questions he turned around, his eyes softened for a moment and he spoke her name as he actually registered her presents.

For a split second she could see the glimmer of something vulnerable in his expression, like a sad acceptance of what he was inevitably going to do.

Relena felt herself relax, and a strange feeling of relief came over her when she tought that she might’ve gotten through to him finally.  In the next moment she realized it had been a mistake to let her guard down, and to assume that he would stop what he had been about to do, and to think that he would suddenly stop seeing her as an enemy.

The moment he aimed the gun at her his eyes visibly hardened and a determined look spread over his face.  Just like that moment at school when he had met her eyes so briefly and Relena had realized that causing her death would be easy for him, she realized that moment was upon her.

If she would've had more time to consider this circumstance, she might have decided that a death at the hands of the pilot Heero Yuy was an honorable way to die.  She would have resolved to accept her fate without regrets.  Fortunately, none of that had been nessary.

Everything happened very quickly.  Relena heard the shot before she saw anything, and her first reaction was to duck down and cover her head with her hands.  When she assessed that she hadn’t been shot she raised her eyes and saw Heero sprawled on the ground, his good hand clutching the upper part of his other arm, blood already starting to run between his fingers.  The gun had fallen from his hand when he had been shot.  Another boy, this one all dressed in black, stood at the end of the pier, pointing his own gun towards Heero.

He said something then, explaining why he had shot Heero, but Relena hadn’t been listening.  She shot up and stood between the two young men.

“Stop!” She shouted at the boy in black, before he got anymore ideas.  Her arms spread out to block the other boy from shooting again, “What did you have to shoot him for?”

The other boy was clearly confused, and tried to say so, but before he was able to finish, he took aim with his gun again and the echo of the gun going off rang in her ears.

Relena spun around in time to see Heero lunging for his gun as the bullet connected with his thigh.

He didn’t make a sound as he layed sprawled on the ground, holding onto his injured arm, watching as the blood started flowing out of the bullet wound on his leg.

Acting as silently as Heero had, Relena dropped down onto her knees beside him, and began ripping strips of fabric from the hem of her dress that she used to bandage up his injures.

Both boys watched her in awe, the boy in black muttering under his breath the whole time about saving the guy who tried to kill her.

She had known then how crazy it all seemed.  Relena knew that if he had half a chance, Heero would try to kill her again, but that thought didn’t seem important.  She wasn’t afraid.  As she felt the thoughts ripple across her own face, it was clear to see that for the second time that night she had succeeded in startling Heero, only she wasn’t completely sure how.

It was plain that he was unsure of her now,seemed to be regarding her with a careful expression on his face, as though he was observing a starving lion.  he was wary of her, unsure as to what she would do next.  Relena had no illusions in this moment.  She knew that if Heero tried again to kill her in the next minute she had no chance of saving herself, but she also knew that she wouldn’t try and stop him.

Already she admired his strength, and found something inside of him that made her want to learn more about him.  Perhaps it was the mystery behind him that drew her, or the fact that she knew something about him that no one else knew.

Whatever it was that drew her to him in that moment was the same thing that made it easier to understand him once she met Doctor J, and learned about his real reasons for being on the Earth.

Relena shivered a little bit inside of her robe as she remembered the day her foster father had been killed.  She had thought that she would never feel safe again, that she would never be able to understand why this tragedy had happened. That was the same day she had met the Doctor who had sent Heero to Earth.  He told her everything she had wanted to know about his true missions and more.  At the time she had almost thought that she should’ve felt more wary of him because of what she knew, but she couldn’t help the way she felt.  It was as thought she became more determined to stay with him, no matter what happened.

When she went back to Earth, and back to school on the night of a class party, her full intentions had been to let Heero know that he didn't need to try and hide from her any more because she knew all about his mission.  Relena had felt stronger than ever about being on the same side as he was, against OZ.  It gave her a feeling of comradeship that he didn't necessarily feel, but it made her want to be stronger.

The night she returned to Earth and to the St. Gabriel Institute, the night of the class party, she had confronted Heero.  She had felt a strange sort of comradery with the young assassin.  She had left the Earth a child, and returned as someone else, someone who wasn’t afraid to stand with Heero, no matter what his missions asked him to do.  

It had always been difficult to explain to anyone that it wasn’t a crush, it hadn’t been about romance.  It had been about right and wrong, and about doing the right thing, and about having the strength and the power to achieve what you set out to do.  Heero had the both of them, and enough determination to crush the world if he wanted to.  It was something that she wanted to be a part of, needed to be near to.

In the beginning it might have been a bit like a crush, as she tried to find out more about him, but that was no longer the case after her foster father had been assassinated.  She admired him, and his strength.  She wanted to find a way to be a stronger person and to deal with the problems that now faced her.  She knew that she had to do that her own way, and Heero had to do it his.

It took her until she was nearly captured by OZ for an assassination attempt on the former OZ leader, Lady Une, to realize that she could find another way to accomplish her goals.  That, and the heavy hand that Noin played in her life, guiding her into the intricate game of politics.  At first she hadn’t liked the path she was being led down, she had felt that it took her further from the things she wanted to accomplish, but the more she learned, the more she realized that she wasn't alone, and that there were many people who felt the same way about what was going on as she did, and as the Gundam pilots did.

Noin helped her finally learn about her Peacecraft heritage, and gave her the best tool she could have ever needed to help stop the mindless killing and the tyranny of the OZ organization.

She grew up.  She stopped needing to follow Heero around.  Just knowing that he was fighting to keep the peace the same as she was kept her going.

The fact that over time he had saved her life on numerous occasions told her more than he had ever said with words.  It told her that he believed in what she was trying to do.  He supported her.

Near the end of the Eve war, she had begun to feel something unlike anything she had ever felt for anyone before.  It was as if she felt stronger, yet weaker every time she was near Heero.  Their faces seemed to move close together whenever they spoke, and it seemed to Relena that he caught her eye more often, and that his words were softer, and more kind.

He had also stopped threatening to kill her.

A sigh escaped her lips, as she stood up straighter.  Relena didn't know why she was thinking about these things now.  It had been two years since she had seen or heard from Heero, and the chance that she would actually see him again seemed so small that it was almost easier to try and forget him entirely.  But how are you supposed to forget someone who, without even knowing, shaped the way you had become?  Again Relena sighed.  It was getting late.  The moon, that had been lower in the sky and dim before, was now a bright white glowing disc in the sky.

Relena looked up at the moon, up to space where Heero most likely was, “I hope your well.” she whispered impulsively.

A shiver shook her body and she wrapped her robe around her tighter.  She took one last look up at the sky, “Good night, Heero.”

OoOoOo

A note to my readers:

If your reading this, then your one dedicated person, and I’d like to thank you for sticking with me.  As you can see, I have not abandoned this fic, its merely been put on hold while I get some life stuff dealt with.  I’ve been slowly working myself up to fixing some of what I think are the major problems with the early chapters, and I hope to improve the overall feel of the story.

I’m not about to make promises for dates when things will be done, as I have a few things on the go that are simply higher on my priority list, but this is defiantly something I plan to dedicate more time to in the near future.

Thank you again for reading, and I hope you liked the updated Part 1

Eden