Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Hating a Phoenix ❯ Chapter 12.0 ( Chapter 12 )

Hating a Phoenix, Chapter 12

By: Firey Angelwings

~~~Hello, hello. Here I am again, out of the obscurity. Did you miss me? Ah, who cares, time to write chapter 12….

Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing, its characters, etc…

  “Well, this is an unforeseen pleasure.”

  The man on the screen chuckled, his slumped shoulders shaking at her tiny hint of sarcasm. He scratched his head slowly, then replied, “It has taken me a while to locate you, Miss Peacecraft, but I am finally successful.”

  Her delicate eyebrows arched on her high forehead. Relena plopped softly into the nearest chair, and faced the screen once more. “I don't have time for small talk, Dr J. If there's something you have to say, then say it. I am a busy woman.”

  He nodded, suddenly grave again. It made shivers go down her spine, the fact that she couldn't make out his eyes. An important aspect of speaking was maintaining eye contact, and Relena was thrown immediately off-balance. The doctor finally spoke. “I have a proposition for you, Relena.”

  She shook her head without even having to think about it. Getting involved with the man who was responsible for most of Heero's pain wasn't her first priority. “No. I have absolutely no wish to have contact with you.”

  Dr J examined her confident self as he chose his words carefully. “I think you might, actually. And even if you don't accept my proposition, I still have something for you to pick up.”

  Relena looked somewhat startled, and he could almost visualize the gears turning in her mind. “And that would be…?”

  The screen blanked for a split second, then an image of the Viore mobile suit flashed onscreen. Dr J appeared in the corner. “This is yours, I believe?”

  She looked very surprised, then extremely annoyed. The idea of Dr J getting his hands on ancient Phoenixan technology was completely preposterous, not to mention dangerous. “Give it back, J.”

  He held his hand and mechanical arm in mock defeat. “Of course, of course. I'll give you the co-ordinates to come to my research colony to pick it up. And all I ask in return is…” He trailed off.

  “Is?”

  “Is that you pay attention to my proposition, while you're here.”

  The choice was obvious for Relena. Leaving that suit in his hands…well…claw…was absolutely stupid. How could she have been so careless? “Fine. Send me those co-ordinates, now.”

  Two blurred figures with almost identical shades of hair were heading down a long hall, connecting to the large hangar. The larger of the two had a look of almost-anger on his fine features. “Lena. Stop. Just explain to me why you're leaving and I'll let you go.”

  The smaller one stopped in front of a small jet suited for space. She turned her head to look at him, before sighing, as though she was explaining to a child. “Milliardo. Don't worry. If I tell you, you'll just get even more uptight, and that's the LAST thing you need. You really need to unwind. You are going to have a mental breakdown.”

  He placed his large hands on her slender shoulders firmly. “Relena Artemis Peacecraft. Stop this right now. At least have somebody go with you.”

  Relena shook her head and chuckled at his insistent, childish behaviour. She shrugged off his arms and reached up, planted a soft kiss on his high cheek. “No. I'll be right back. There's no reason to bother anyone.”

  Milliardo winced, as though in pain. He opened his mouth to speak, but before he could, the door to the hangar flew open. One of his hands flew up to massage his aching temple.

  Hilde strolled in purposefully, and then gave a sigh of relief as soon as she laid eyes upon Relena, who waved. She broke into a brisk jog and stopped in front of her friend, panting softly. “Lena…I have a favor to ask ya.”

  Relena put her hands on her hips and turned towards her. “You don't even have to ask, Hilde. What is it?”

  She surveyed Relena and her brother, and then answered, “When you get back from wherever you're going, could you and I have a serious talk? I have some issues to think over.”

  She nudged her brother to point out how easily Hilde had accepted that Relena was heading out somewhere before accepting graciously. “Of course, of course. You'll have my undivided attention.”

  Hilde smiled widely, already reflecting back on how she'd present her problem with Duo to Lena. She held a hand up, and then left the large, empty room.

  Relena and her brother picked up right where they left off.

  “Why do you have to fight with me all the time? Haven't you ever heard the saying `respect your elders'?”

  “Oh please. I've heard you trash that saying thousands of times. Don't you dare start with it now.”

  “I'm just doing what's best for you. Why don't you see that?”

  “I do see it. But in this case, you're just way off base. And have come down with a really bad case of over-protectiveness.”

  “Listen to me, little blossom—“

  “No, you listen to ME, tadpole. I'm leaving now, and there is nothing you can do to stop me. I'll be back in a few hours.”

  The grand doors to the hangar swung open once more. The two figures whirled and came upon Duo, with their eyes blazing.

  Duo, always ignorant, never noticed, but started into his question right away. “Hey, Lena, I seem to have misplaced my intelligence when it comes to Hilde, so—“

  Milliardo looked furious. “Duo, will you tell Relena that she isn't going anywhere?”

  Relena looked equally as scary. “Well, will you tell my brother that I don't give a damn what he says?”

  Now Duo looked freaked, He held up his hands. “I've also misplaced my white flag. Have you seen it?”

  The both of them giggled and relaxed a little. Relena rested a hand on Duo's shoulder. “Yeah. No problem. I'll be advice girl.”

  With that, she grinned widely and swung up into the shuttle's cockpit. With a few flicks of certain switches, Relena was gone, leaving a dismayed Duo and a once-again furious Milliardo behind.

  Loud thumps were being emitted from a training room when Wufei walked in. He came upon Heero, beating the hell out of a bruised looking punching bag. A fine sheen of sweat was coating the young man's skin.

  Wufei grunted to make his presence known. Heero turned his head ever so slightly in mid-movement and noticed Wufei out of the corner of his eye. He made a barely perceptible nod before hitting the beaten bag soundly once more.

  The Chinese man waited with a quiet patience until Heero finally stopped and straightened. Intense eyes bored through him. “What is it, Wufei?”

  He looked away, as if checking for other people. There were none. Wufei looked back. He stayed silent for a few moments, before he began pacing slowly. “So…what happened with Relena Peacecraft? Where did you take her?”

  Heero looked to the ceiling, as if looking for a way out. He made a loud groan of irritation, then stared at the wall. He focused on a particular crack in the corner.

  Wufei analyzed his reaction, waiting for any sign of a response. Inwardly, he sighed, though he knew very well in advance that Heero would never answer to his question, but it had been worth a try.

  A throat cleared at the opposite side of the room. Both of the men looked over, only to find Sally waiting there with her eyes closed peacefully. She spoke softly. “Can I borrow Wufei for a minute?”

  Heero shrugged in utter carelessness and started beating up the lumpy punching bag once more. He stopped once to say, “Be my guest.”

  Sally smiled slightly, opened her eyes and focused lazily on Wufei. She motioned for him to follow her to the hall.

  Once alone, she began without any ado at all. “Look, I just have something important I want to ask you.”

  His head tipped forward in a gesture that showed he was listening. She continued, “Basically, in the inevitable battle against the main forces of the Purifiers, the Preventor troops will be needed. I just wanted to know if there was any possibility that you…” She stared at his expression intently, “might lead those troops. I think you're perfect for it.”

  Wufei's eyes fluttered open in complete surprise. His jaw fell without his command, only to further his stupefaction. He could not, COULD NOT believe that Sally would ask him to do such a honourable thing in the upcoming battles.

  She cocked her head to the side delicately. “Well? I need an answer.”

  He formed enough thought to pull his jaw up off the floor and nod shakily. He cleared his throat a few times before finally replying, “That would be an honour, Sally Po. I will accept your offer.”

  Relena stared in true wonder at the smooth titanium and tile décor of the halls of Dr J's `lab colony'. She had been very surprised after coming upon the miniature version of a regular colony. Imagine keeping a facility like this a secret from the government.

  The one and only doctor waited at the very end of the long corridor. He made some motion that seemed like an attempt at a bow, but it failed miserably with his mechanical arm. He smiled crookedly. “We finally meet face to face once more, Miss Peacecraft.”

  She gave him a hard, cool look. “I'm not here for small talk, so just get down to it, Dr J.”

  He gestured futilely, then began, “At this moment, the Viore mobile suit is being loaded onto your shuttle. I had a chance to look it over after it picked it up from Earth. Such amazing technology, quite ingenious. It blows my mind.”

  Relena stared at the ceiling. He sighed quietly. “I have noticed a change in your health, Relena. I'm sure you know what I'm talking about…the migraines, seizures, all at the same time.”

  Her gaze slid over to him, watching Dr J obliquely. “I want to run some tests…to help you find out what is the cause of it.”

  She laughed out loud. “Of course. Help me. Very funny, but not likely. Now it's my turn to ask something that has bothered me for some time.”

  Relena's careless voice caught him off-guard. “And that would be…?”

  “What are Heero Yuy's origins? Parents, and everything.”

  Dr J examined her as though he were weighing her up, sizing up data. He was trying to evaluate whether or not he should divulge this information. And what he could get out of it.

  Finally, a smile tugged at his thin lips and he bargained, “How about, if I tell you, you let me take a vial of your blood for tests.”

  A frown crossed onto her beautiful features as Relena thought out her options. Her curiosity was getting the better of her.

  “That's fine.”

  The smile became wider as Dr J pulled out a syringe from the breast pocket of his lab coat. While Relena looked away, he quickly drew a small quantity of the crimson fluid from her finger, sealed it, and put it back within the folds of his lab coat.

  After this was done, he led Relena through to a comfortable sitting room. She sat abruptly, as did he.

  “I am proud to say that I had a great part in the making of the man you know as Heero. We may have had him only under long-distance supervision during his early childhood as Odin Lowe Jr, but we were still there…watching, waiting.”

  Relena flinched at his cold words.

  “Heero doesn't truly have…parents. He was designed before birth, as were many other test subjects. But he was the only one to survive to birth, and beyond.”

  “You don't believe that his strength, speed and agility come from just his training, do you?” He laughed bitterly. “Well, Relena, you don't have enough military education to recognize that there's only so much one can do, even with the most intense training conditions.”

  “The other Gundam pilots and your brother Milliardo have been puzzled by it, but they leave it alone. So the truth is, Heero's genes were designed and specially constructed for him to be the way he is.”

  Relena looked away in raw shock, trying not to show her expression.

  “Not only that, but he was also added to in another way. A large portion of his DNA comes directly from that of the actual late Heero Yuy, hence why I chose his code name. Quite a mixture, is he not?”

  Finally, Relena stood. She looked down on Dr J with the greatest look of contempt and disgust. “You are a sick individual for trying to play God. I could say a hell of a lot of other things, but that would only put me closer to your level on the hierarchy of people. You are…like pond scum. And if you dare to EVER AGAIN do what you have succeeded with Heero, to throw away so many innocent lives with such carelessness, I will hunt you down and tear you limb from limb. No matter WHAT the consequences may be.”

  She turned and strode out, making her way back to all that was warm and friendly, not like the metal and cold tiles of this hideous place.

   Dumbfounded wasn't a strong enough word to describe Relena Artemis Peacecraft's current state. She was filled with a powerful emotion of disgust and indignation at Dr J's revelation.

   The information she had received had been completely unexpected and one of the very last responses she could have ever heard. Deep inside, she was experiencing a powerful sadness, for Heero, for all the people whose lives had been affected by manipulation.

   She geared up the Viore mobile suit, setting an autopilot route for Mars. Relena didn't feel like flying at all, she was far too distracted by the events swirling around her. “And to think that a little while ago I was carefree as a musician.”

   Images of her supposedly `normal' life flew into vision. Relena shook her head violently, clearing her mind.

   Up above, the ghostly blood-red form of Mars was coming into view. She sighed in relief, thinking ahead to a wonderful warm bath she was going to spend an hour in.

   A distressed beeping was emitted from the glowing screen before her.

   Relena's loud groan went out undisguised, already guessing what the message could be. The grinning face of Duo materialized.

  “Hey girl! We thought you had left us forever or something!”

   In true Duo style, she couldn't help but crack a smile while answering, “Yeah, I wish. What's the crisis now?”

   His face went into an uncharacteristic serious look. “Battle. Head for the lunar base, we'll meet ya there, Lena.”

   The screen resumed its former glowing greenness. Relena reached for the controls, adrenaline already making its way through her veins. She pulled viciously on two levers, forcing the suit to go to a full one-eighty degree turn. Flicking a switch, the autopilot was turned off and Relena made her way manually in a lunar-bound direction.

   Her mind wasn't on the upcoming battle, but on how she would fare during it. She spoke her mind aloud, “I'd better not start these damn seizures again. That's the last thing to have going on in a firestorm.”

   When Trowa was fighting, in space or on Earth, his mind never strayed from the task at hand. Whether it be destroying, infiltrating or undercover operations, he was always completely focused.

   Perhaps that was one of the bonds between himself and Relena Peacecraft. They both became wrapped up in the present, not reflecting on what would happen later, but what would happen now.

   The two of them were taking the same sector, forming several battle formations when it was needed. They were both staying just a few hundred miles above the lunar surface.

   Giving a signal to Relena, Heavyarms dove into a massive arrangement of Tauruses, with Viore close behind backing him up.

    Something caught his eye.

   His ally behind him faltered ever so slightly. Trowa shook his head in an attempt to forget about all distractions.

   He succeeded in keeping his mind off other things for about five minutes, when Relena wavered again in her offensive and defensive. By the third time, Trowa was justifiably concerned because Lena never, repeat NEVER, weakened in battle. It just wasn't done.

   The slight weakening on Relena's part didn't have an effect on the inevitable outcome of the fight: the Gundams won. In an effort to regroup, all the mobile suits entered the same area, discussing what each had noted on the defenses, information and new equipment.

   Throughout the whole time, Trowa kept silence about his wonder at Relena, though he did watch her on his screen whenever possible. And he noticed…a slight trembling. Though not from fear, but as though she was straining herself. Her jaw was set too tightly and her face was very pale.

   Relena herself was more panicked than any of the others, even Trowa, could tell. She was shaking quite vigorously, though doing a good job to disguise it.

   On the side screen, a private message appeared. Without making it obvious, she examined the expressionless face of Dr J.

  “Relena, I'm going to give you a last chance. I'm sure you know that I have the most advanced supplies you can find in a large radius, so why don't you allow me to run those tests?”

   She weighed her options hesitantly. If she accepted the offer, she could find out what was wrong and possibly get rid of it. If she didn't…well…this would continue.

   There really wasn't any other choice. Relena sent out her acceptance. She then turned back to her motley crew of friends and stated flatly, “Gotta go. Meet y'all back on Mars.”

   Without waiting for any response, her communications link was shut and she sped off for Dr J's laboratory colony.

   There was a loud crash from behind the doors to Maxwell Pavey's office. On the inside, the first thing one would note was the smashed glass paperweight against the wall.

   Pavey himself wasn't a pretty sight, as his face was red from anger, with the veins popping out frighteningly. He glared at every object in the room before fixing his stare on the man who had delivered the news that the lunar attack had failed.

   The man looked extremely afraid and held up his hands in surrender. “Wait, sir! We did note that the Viore faltered many times in the course of the battle. This means that Operation Lazuria is in full effect.”

   As though a switch had been flicked, the anger evaporated from Pavey's face. He calmed considerably, trying not to let his excitement show.

   Relena lay on her back on a large gurney. There was nobody else in the room, and she was feeling extremely faint at the amount of blood that Dr J had taken for testing.

  That had been an hour ago.

  She was tired, she was hungry and she was upset. This whole examination seemed to be a waste of time right now.

   As though on cue, Dr J strolled in, looking just as expressionless as ever. He glanced at her before referring to his clipboard. He waited a full minute before starting.

  “Well, I'm not going to pamper the truth. I'll give it straight. To be painfully blunt, all signs point to one thing. Relena Peacecraft, when you where held hostage by the Purifiers, you were injected with a disease. It's maturing rapidly with your DNA.”

~~

*Scene is a large graveyard. Focus on one rotting tombstone with the heading “Firey Angelwings. She never finished.” The ground before the tombstone begins to crumble and all of a sudden……. a hand pops out!

Angelwings has risen again!*

Well, now I know what it's like to come back from the dead. OK now people…did you miss me?

I can't hear you…did you miss me?

Ok…who cares if there's someone else in the room, they don't know what it's about. Say it out loud now…DID YOU MISS ME??

Alright then.

I am a million times sorry for the long wait; my life has been seriously messed up for a while. No matter, I'm back and still kickin' ass!

By the way…I'd like to dedicate this chapter to one Demented Fly. You've been a great supporter and NO, I didn't forget about your e-mail a while back, when you said that this fic was an escape for ya. I got up off my lazy butt because my conscience was naggin', so it's you to thank!

Much love to y'all,

Angelwings