Disclaimer: Standard disclaimers apply here. I do not own Gundam Wing; however, I DO own Alexandra, Adjani, Joshua, Glacia, Eve and anyone else who is unfamiliar to the show. If you should wish to borrow them, PLEASE let me know!

Lyrics are by …I do not own the lyrics!

Series: Gundam Wing

For Eternity

Chapter Four: Never Die

By: Tiasha

2002 © Tiasha and Co.

~

So let the children play

Inside your heart always

And death you will defy

'Cause your youth will never die

…

Never die

I won't let go of that youthful soul

Despite body and mind my youth will never die

Lyrics by Creed

~

Relena emerged from the back room of the carrier having finished donning her soft-suit. The deep navy and deep maroon soft-suit was practically a second skin to her and she stretched her arms above her head as she moved to the cockpit of the carrier. She heard Maxwell's whistle and chuckled at him, giving him an assessing look as he lounged in one of the bench chairs. Shaking her head at his teasing, she moved to stand behind Adjani, well aware of Yuy's gaze as she passed by the ex-gundam pilot.

"Adjani-chan, go check the exo-suits onegaishimasu [1]," Relena asked as soon as she reached her friend.

Adjani nodded and left, the seat to the co-pilot now vacant. Sliding in to the chair, Relena scanned the console and monitors, noting that their ETA [2] would be another fifteen to ten minutes. She groaned at the thought. Hilde, who was piloting the carrier, glanced at her and tipped her head to the side.

"What's up?" she asked and Relena in turn tipped her head back towards the extra cargo they carried. The young petite nodded in understanding. She too was growing anxious to have them out of the way.

"So Relena, when'd you get a kid?" Maxwell asked from where he sat. Relena's back went ridged and she sat straight up in her chair. She had allowed herself to momentarily forget about Eve as she usually did on missions; she found that if she did not, she sometimes became clumsy and that was not acceptable. For to become clumsy could very well mean her downfall.

"It's none of your business!" Alex snapped at the braided young man, having noticed Relena's response. She came to stand behind Relena, just having finished changing into her own soft-suit, and ignored the disapproving look the latter was giving her.

Sighing, Relena stood and gave the co-pilot seat to Alex, moving to stand in the doorway of the cockpit. She crossed her arms and leaned against it, eyeing Maxwell, considering if she should really tell him. She mentally shrugged; what harm would come of it? They would most likely find out later, and she had no doubt that Yuy would attempt grunge up as much information as he could. After all, she was Relena and whenever Relena was around, Yuy made it his mission to protect her.

"I've raised that child since she was born," she informed Maxwell placidly. She diverted her gaze to a section of the carrier's walls, not wishing to make eye contact with any of them, especially not Yuy.

"Who's the father?"

"My you're curious today. I do not know, and as far as I'm concerned, she has no father." She could not dare look at Yuy for if she did, she knew that he would see how much pain she had had to endure to keep the child safe.

"What do you mean you don't know?"

"She was born inside the walls of the compound that Midii, Alex and myself were placed in. They gave me the task of taking care of her. She has been my daughter ever since." He would be able to see all those months of torture and pain in her green-blue eyes if she looked at him now. And she could not chance it.

"What about the child's real mother?" Quatre asked, joining the conversation.

"She's dead." Not now…not ever.

Silence filled the room and Relena bit her lower lip as she considered what to do or say next. Nothing came to her usually acute and focused mind. Adjani returned presently and gave her a thumbs up, "Everything's set boss! The calibrations have been made and I even triple-checked 'em!"

"Good, Persephone! ETA?"

"About five more minutes!" Hilde announced and Relena could feel her bring the carrier into a slow decent.

"All right then. Girls, lets get suited up! Adjani you've got helm and astrometrics. Alex, I hope you haven't lost your touch on tactical. Hilde, you're with me. The three of us will search the area but be careful! Continue scanning the area and don't stop 'till we've lifted off with Nemesis and are half way back to base! IS that understood?" Relena ordered as Adjani passed her to relieve Hilde of the controls.

"Why? What do you think is going to happen?" Quatre asked, watching her and then allowing his gaze to drift towards Yuy.

"An ambush, that's what," she stated blatantly as she finally turned her gaze away from the wall to meet Quatre's startled eyes.

Hilde paused in her steps to raise an eyebrow at her as she passed by. "Since when did you become fortune-teller?" the dark-haired petite goaded at her leader as Relena narrowed her eyes in consideration.

"Since I realized that an ambush is the only explanation to why we are now finding Nemesis's location. It's all too coincidental, if you ask me," she explained, continuing to lean against the cockpit doorway. "If my memory serves me correctly, we did a sweep of this area nearly a dozen times before and found nothing. They must have jammed any frequencies until they were ready to face us. So it has to be an ambush."

"When did you become an expert on military operations, Relena?" Yuy challenged and Relena glared at him. She closed off any windows or openings that would give him any indication as to how terrible that compound had truly been. He did not need to know, it was she who would have to live with it, not him.

"When? When I was placed in that compound and killed two men to save Midii from being raped again right in front of my very eyes! I learned the hard way that one has to put aside beliefs for the better good. The fire, the blade, the electricity, the punches, the kicks, the shots, the drugs…all of it did nothing to change my mind on what I believed in. Nothing they did could make me turn from my beliefs, but they found that one weakness and they did not even know it until they lost those two drunk guards."

Silence reigned for a few moments until she looked back at Hilde and motioned for her to go suit up. Relena followed the dark-haired petite and just barely heard Alex thank Yuy for opening an old wound and rubbing salt in it. She ignored the look Yuy had thrown her way; she was not ready to deal with his regret and probably would not be for a long time.

Where were you when I truly needed you, Heero?

---

Relena finished buckling the helmet of her exo-suit together before activating the jet packs and moving out into the ruins of an old military building. It was easy to believe that everything had been destroyed in the blasts for when Midii set explosives, she rarely left a trace. The ruins were scattered for miles, even up to the very edge of the forest that had surrounded, sheltered and hidden the base only months before. And it had been those woods that had betrayed the base to the feline predator that the Erinnyes knew as Midii.

Relena set her scanners for heat sensor and ignored the two humanoid shapes it produced. She already knew that those two hovering shapes were Hilde and Alex…but as she returned to surveying the rubble, she gained nothing. This wild goose chase was beginning to aggravate her.

"Anything?" Adjani's voice asked over the com-link from where she remained inside the carrier. Relena responded negatively as she heaved a large slab of concrete off a metal beam.

"Nothing here either," Alex answered in an angered tone, "I'm checkin' the south side."

"Don't get antsy Alex, it clouds your judgment and slows your reaction time."

"Says she who stays in the safety of the carrier."

"Hey! I get enough action in here thank you very much! Not only do I have to monitor the area but I have to monitor your suits and check for bugs and keep you from going and having a little trigger-fun!"

"That is SO NOT TRUE!"

"It so is!"

"Enough!" Relena hissed at the two bickering teammates. This was almost a routine now on any mission they had. Alex always became moody when a mission did not go as smoothly as she thought it should, and Adjani always had to become the voice of reason.

Pausing in her thoughts and flight, Relena hovered over an area she had scanned nearly ten times before. Something was pulling at her and as she tried to decipher the reason of this pull, there was the slightest sound. She narrowed her eyes and scanned the rubble again. Nothing. But she could have sworn she'd heard SOMETHING…

"What's up? What are you getting? Talk to me Len," Hilde pressured, coming to hover next to Relena. Relena raised a hand to silence her. It had almost sounded like flesh against rock.

Relena frowned, "I don't know…Adjani, scan for any jamming devices. Beta-7 type."

"Beta-7 type? I never heard of those…" came Maxwell's voice in the background and Relena chuckled at his remark. So even those jamming devices had escaped the part-time sweeper's notice.

"Don't worry Maxwell, you're not missing much," she reassured the retired gundam pilot. I wonder what else slipped by him and the others…

"Lena [3]…it's affirmative. You got Beta-7 and Beta-5's out there somewhere," Adjani informed the three armored Erinnyes. Relena heard Alex growl in displeasure and Hilde sigh in frustration.

"And you know that whenever there are Beta jammers…" Hilde began.

"There are always mobile dolls close behind," all three armored Erinnyes chorused together. Relena frowned at the thought.

"Shit, this is so not good!" Relena cursed, raising her M-16 and readying it to fire. "Stay on guard girls…we've got company."

---

"Amazing how she knows these things before we even touch ground," Adjani muttered appraisingly as she swiveled in the chair to check another monitor. "Sometimes I wonder if they didn't inject her psychic drugs or something."

She continued to swivel back and forth until a hand rested gently on her shoulder. She looked up into Quatre Winner's gentle eyes.

"Care for some help?" he offered and Adjani stiffened in her seat. She was fully capable of completing this mission by herself…without help. She had done it before on all the other missions and she was not going to give in and admit that she was inadequate for the job.

"No," was all she said before she rolled her chair to another monitor.

"It just seems that with someone else helping, you'd be able to keep them safer."

Adjani glanced at him and then sighed in frustration, knowing that he was right. Sometimes she really hated logic. "Fine! Keep an eye on the area. If there's anything unusual let them know immediately! We only have one shot at this."

He nodded and sat down in front the console that controlled the area system sweep. Glancing at him one last time from the corner of her eye, Adjani turned her attention to the exo-suit monitors. It had been nearly fifteen minutes since they had touched ground and the fact that there was no ambush yet, was beginning to unnerve her.

"Think we should retreat and call for back-up?" Alex spat through clenched teeth. The suggestion Alex had just made, left Adjani in shock and no doubt the other Erinnyes.

"Alex…suggesting we run? What is the world coming to?!" she exclaimed, feigning absolute fear. Alex growled at the comment but Relena promptly rebuked the two.

"That's enough you two! We have enough problems without having to add the two of you to the list. Now quit it! That's an order, you hear?" Relena snapped in frustration.

Adjani grimaced at the tone their leader had used for it meant she was down right serious; "Yes ma'am…should I get out and help you all look?"

"No need! We've got her!" Hilde interrupted in an excited voice over the com-link. Adjani blinked rapidly in surprise.

"What? Already? With no fight…" Adjani whispered in bewilderment. How? There should have at least been one or two mobile dolls since their scanners had picked up Beta-7 and Beta-5 jammers.

---

"Aw shit! Hilde! Look out!" Relena screamed, ramming herself into Hilde's exo-suit and taking the brunt of the blast. The mobile doll had the good fortune of surprising all them and had naturally chosen the easiest target, which happened to be Hilde since she was distracted.

"Relena!" Hilde cried out, quickly firing a missile at the mobile doll. The metal suit exploded, littering the ground with shrapnel as Hilde quickly reloaded her missile launcher. Relena gritted her teeth as she continued to hover protectively in front of Hilde and Midii. It had been luck that allowed Relena to save Hilde from any permanent damage, luck and only luck.

"I'm all right! Just get Midii back to the carrier! Alex cover her!" Relena ordered, checking her suit's damage. A dent to the chest plate was the only extreme damage but nothing else that could not be fixed with more than a little elbow grease.

"And what about you?" Alex growled in disapproval. Relena smiled a wicked smile, though none could see due to her helmet. But her next words told Alex, Adjani and Hilde all they needed to know.

"I'm going to play Huntress and prey…" She would make those bastards pay for what they had done to Midii, and anyone else they had harmed. She would make them pay dearly…with their lives.

"Oh great," Hilde muttered as she pushed beam after beam away from an alcove basement to reach Midii's prone form. "She's gone off to do her little justice trip."

"Hmmm, but at least she's distracting them," Alex agreed, keeping an eye out for any stray mobile dolls. What was bothering the young redhead was the fact that this seemed to be almost too easy. Alex turned her attention back to the task at hand as Hilde shouted out in triumph.

"Gotcha! Come on Midii! Let's get you out of here. And next time choose a place with a little more class, my dear. The hospitality here is absolutely terrible," Hilde teased as she gently cradled their young comrade in her arms. Midii smiled weakly up at her, only a small ounce of the genuine smile she usually wore.

"I completely agree you, mon amie [4]. Their hospitality is atrocious. Definitely not a five-star hotel, non [5]?" Midii joked, her smile broadening as both Alex and Hilde laughed in relief.

"Nope, no five-star hotel here, Frenchie. Now let's get you back home," Alex stated, guarding the two as they took off towards the carrier.

The three had reached the carrier in less than three minutes and to Hilde's surprise, Trowa Barton had a blanket ready for Midii. The young stoic Preventer had just finished wrapping the blanket around Midii when the young woman's eyes grew wide and she began to thrash about.

"No!" Midii cried suddenly. "NO! Stop her! You must stop Relena! It's not safe! Zero's out there! Bring her back! Bring her back now! Relena!"

Trowa frowned while attempting to keep Midii from landing on her rump and Hilde jerked her helmet off, turning and snapping at Alex to do the same. "Adjani! Tell Lena to get her ass back here NOW! Zero's out there!" Hilde exclaimed in a near panic.

"Zero? As in-" Duo began but was cut off by a sudden scream and Adjani's cry of alarm.

"NO! No no no no no! Her blood pressure's too low, heart rate slowing, brain activity too high! RELENA! Take the DAMN HELMET OFF!" Adjani cried into to the com-link.

"Get it out-must get it out! NO! Get out Zero! Attack? -No no! NO! Stop it! Stop it! GET OUT!!!" came Relena's crazy response. "Can't-mustn't-it won't let me! Help! Help me! Someone help! Heero!"

None of them could utter a word before they realized that the Perfect Soldier was not among them.

Terms: onegaishimas = please ETA = Estimated Time of Arrival Lena = her nickname (if you had not figured that out yet) mon ami = French for 'my friend'-feminine singular non = French for 'no'