Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Of Princesses and Harems ❯ Revolution ( Chapter 3 )

Of Princesses and Harems: chapter III - REVISED

Author: Mara202 (nanashi202 AT yahoo . co . uk)

Archive: ff . net as mara202, fanfiction . vectorracing . com (my own website)

Category: Drama?

Warnings/classifications: angst, AU, bastardised Relena, implied NCS, shonen-ai

Pairings: 1plus2plus1, the other pairings are a surprise

Disclaimer: To own or not to own, that's the question. As for me, the answer is 'not to own'... Too bad... -.-;

Summary: About half a year after the Revolution, Duo and Heero are contemplating their past lives as... members of a certain person's harem?!?

Author's notes: since it's now over half a year ago that I uploaded the first part of this story, it's time to finish it! The last chapter, and now the complete version! Enjoy!

I'm really sorry that it took me so long… it seems like I can't even finish a three-chapter story within a few weeks :P

Author's notes part II: as I learned from the book 'Een nieuwe werkelijkheid' ('A new reality'), I shouldn't rush things towards the end and shouldn't do things by halves, since that's bad for my energy-flow/stream/whatever (?), sooooo… I revised this chapter, and chapter one and two also, while I was at it. I hope it's better then it was before (because it was kinda bad :P )…

Thanks to: linnie, Biene, Nic, ahanchan, lauren, Tom Somers, Solanum Dulcamara, WingedBonnie03 and little princess for reviewing chapters 2 and/or 3a! I really really appreciate it!

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Part 3: Revolution

"I don't know if we'd been able to escape the Palace if Trowa and that other guard hadn't helped us."

"Probably not," Heero, realistically as ever, commented. "I still don't really get why exactly they wanted to help us. I mean, two mere boys, without fighting experience, weren't really useful for their organisation," he continued, thoughtfully.

Duo smiled at his boyfriend, then nudged him and said: "Hey, this memory-reliving thing is meant to discuss whatever happened to us and what we felt, not to get to the bottom of other's motives for doing things."

"You're right," Heero told him, smiling back. "Where were we? The escape from the palace, right?"

------

"Here, through this door."

Duo and Heero froze. Then the speaker, who had been invisible in the shadows of the nocturnal Palace, stepped forward and revealed himself. They relaxed; it was the same guard that had passed them the key, thus making their escape possible. At least, the escape from their prison; leaving the Palace-grounds would still be very difficult, near impossible actually, regarding the number of people that was guarding it.

But now it seemed that they wouldn't have to worry too much about that anymore.

Trowa said: "If you go through this door, and then take the first corridor on the right, you'll walk straight towards one of the less well-known exits of the Palace. One of my… colleagues is there, waiting for you. He'll help you leave the Palace-grounds."

The green-eyed guard looked at them, then continued: "I have to return to my post now. I shouldn't do anything to raise suspicion now that the time has almost come. Good luck." And with that, he melted into the shadows, not leaving them any clue as to where he'd gone.

As Heero and Duo did as the guard had told them and went through the door, they thought about those last, cryptic words. The time had almost come? What time? They turned right, and as Trowa had said, they immediately saw the door that led to the Palace-gardens. As fast as they could, without making any noise, the two of them neared the door.

When they had almost reached it, someone emerged from the shadows. This guard appeared to have light-coloured hair, but it wasn't easy to see in the dark. He waited until the two boys were within one metre range, then spoke softly: "Follow me, I'll lead you to the gate."

Wow, this had obviously been prepared very well. Duo shook his head, a bit confused. Unbelievable that people had gone through so much trouble just to get them, two members of the princess's harem, out of the Palace! He couldn't help but wondering if their rescuers had some hidden agenda… It just couldn't be this easy, could it? Ah well, it wasn't like they had much of a choice: they could escape now, with help of these people, or return to their prison. And that wasn't much of an option in Duo's eyes.

He looked at Heero, and saw the same questions he had been asking himself in the eyes of his friend. Heh, seems like I'm not the only paranoiac person here, he thought, smiling slightly.

The Palace-gardens were almost surreal at this time of the day, or rather, night. The sculpted bushes that were so beautiful at daylight, now looked sinister and threatening; the sudden sound of an owl almost made them jump.

After what seemed like an eternity, they finally reached the gate. To their surprise, no guards were standing watch. This strange event was explained when their companion said: "I'm the one who guards this door at night. Trowa asked me if I could help you escape, and since I know what you two have gone through - or at least have some ideas about what Relena forces the members of her harem to do - I, of course, agreed to do so." He pointed at a small house nearby. "If you wait there, an… acquaintance of mine will pick you up and bring you to -" He looked about and swallowed nervously. "Well, you'll see…"

What was going on? Heero eyed the blond guard suspiciously. Were they trying to trick them or something? But there was no time to ask him, Duo was already dragging him towards the small house.

------

"I didn't really like being dragged from one place to another, without being told where we were going or why we were brought there," Heero said.

"Neither did I. But since almost everything -- well, actually I can't think of anything that could be worse than being imprisoned, waiting to be executed -- was bound to be better than what was going to happen if we didn't go along, I decided just to follow them, come what may."

"That's what I liked about you from the start," Heero thought aloud. "The way you take life the way it's presented to you, and try to make the best of it, whatever the circumstances."

------

It seemed like they were waiting for hours already, but he figured it couldn't have been more then thirty, maybe forty minutes. Duo was growing restless, he was constantly fidgeting with his hair or picking at his clothes. Then, finally, they heard a soft cough somewhere behind them. Heero, who had been standing on his feet all the time, turned around, while Duo, who had been sitting on the ground, leaning against the house, jumped up to face the newcomer.

She was taller than them, and had short, dark hair. "Hi, I'm Lucrezia, but please call me Noin. You're Heero and Duo, right?" As the two boys nodded, she continued: "I'm terribly sorry, but I'll have to blindfold you, just to be sure, until we know for certain that you're on our side."

Heero frowned. "Where are you taking us, then?" he asked. "I, for one, don't like being blindfolded at all, so if you don't have a damned good reason, I'm outta here."

"You've got some explaining to do, lady," Duo said, his arms crossed in a defying pose.

Noin sighed. "Well, I guess your right. It's just that… we can't afford any mistakes, now that the time has almost come for us to act."

Again that phrase, the time has almost come.

"Why don't you just tell us what you're up to, then we can decide whether or not to follow you," Duo suggested.

She seemed to find this a good idea, for she started explaining, her voice low: "I'm part of an organisation that wants to put an end to this government. And we thought that you, as former members of Relena's harem, might sympathise with us." She sighed. "If you don't want to join us, please say so now. I'd have to kill you then, as much as I'd hate to do so."

The two boys didn't have to think for a long time about this. Of course they wanted to help an organisation that would try to put an end to this fucked up empire.

"But no blindfolding!"

------

Half an hour later, they found themselves in a house in the middle of the forest, surrounded and almost covered by trees and plants. The house was hardly visible for people who didn't know that it was there.

When they entered it, they were surprised by the activity inside. Even though it was past midnight, lots of people were walking about, studying papers with difficult-looking diagrams on it, or discussing things. Everyone had the same look of determination on his or her face.

A tall man caught Duo's eye. He had long - very long actually - platinum-blond hair and was wearing a uniform, but that weren't his most striking qualities, no, it was the silvery mask that covered his eyes, giving him an especially mysterious and dangerous air. He must be the leader here, Duo thought.

His thought was confirmed when Noin, who had stayed with them, said: "I'll take you to the private room of our leader, he'll tell you everything you need to know."

They entered a large room, which was - surprisingly enough - lit with an electric lamp. This was very unusual: there weren't many electric objects left from before the Great Flood, and people who knew how these things worked were even harder to find. Heero's father had, as far as Heero knew, been the only one in the city who knew something about electricity, and he doubted that these people would let 'outsiders' enter their secret base.

Duo was also quite amazed; not only by the presence of electricity, but also by the decoration of the room. It looked in nothing like anything they could have imagined when thinking of the Rebels' headquarters.

Then the blond man he had assumed was the Rebels' leader entered the room. Noin, who had remained with them as they were waiting, introduced them: "Heero, Duo, this is Zechs Marquise, the leader of this organisation." She bowed slightly and said: "I'm going to leave you now. Zechs will tell you everything you need to know." Noin turned and left the room, closing the door behind her. The 'click' that sounded when she did so, told the two boys that the door was now locked.

Zechs, who had noticed their discomfort at this fact, said nonchalantly: "Just in case you two gentlemen would get the idea to run away and tell our enemy about this organisation. We can't allow that, understandably."

Duo, albeit reluctantly, nodded. It was just a safety-precaution, he had to agree to that.

The man continued: "I guess I own you an explanation for the situation you two found yourselves in. But first I'll tell you something about the past, about how this organisation came to be." He looked the two boys in front of him straight in the eyes, his light-blue ones piercing through their very souls.

He began his story. "You all know about the tradition that a queen is succeeded by her eldest daughter, I presume? Well, there's a lot more to it. This is just what the normal people in the towns and villages know. What they do not tell is… what happens when the eldest child of the queen is a boy."

Duo interrupted: "But sir, there's never been a queen who had a son. So this information you're telling us, isn't really relevant, is it?"

Zechs smiled almost invisibly. "Oh, I wish that was true, but no… Almost every queen in the history of this world - the world after the Great Flood I mean - had at least one son. The reason that no one knows about them… is because they were killed. At first this happened because there wasn't a tradition or law that stated that a queen should be succeeded by her daughter, and the queens didn't want a man on the throne. Their idea was that women in general had been suppressed way to long and now needed to keep in control. And thus, when a queen became pregnant, she hid this from the rest of the world until the baby was born. That way, if the baby was a boy, she could get rid of it without having to answer for it."

The masked leader was pacing through the room. After a short silence he continued: "The present queen gave birth to a son, about four years before princess Relena was born. The baby was left in the woods to die. But this baby didn't die. A traveller, who by chance travelled through that distant part of the forest, found him. The traveller, a young man, took the baby with him and decided to find himself a home and raise the baby. At that time, this house had been abandoned for years, and the traveller's quest for a house ended here.

"The traveller, who had been a carpenter before he left his hometown -- for reasons I do not know -- did up the house, restoring it to its original state. The baby grew up, unaware of his origin, and became a healthy seven-year old. But then fate struck. The traveller got sick and was dying. As he lay on his bed, he asked the young boy to sit at his bedside, because he had to tell him something. He told the boy who he was and where he came from. He also told him his real name: Milliardo Peacecraft. When he had finished the story…"

To Heero and Duo's surprise, the voice of the man in front of them was full of emotion now. But then it began to dawn on them. Would the boy Zechs was talking about…?

The uniformed man continued, confirming their suspicions: "He told me to make them sorry that they had tried to kill me. I sat at his side when he breathed his last. I was shocked by what he had told me, and thirst for revenge seethed through me. But I knew I had to wait. As young as I was, I knew I had to carefully plan this, or everything would fail. I started with reading everything I could find about the Palace and the queens. I discovered that my foster-parent had already been thinking about this, for in one of the chambers on the first floor I found a huge library, filled with books that might be useful.

"When I got older, I began to try and find other people, who had the same ideals as I had. Eventually, when I had quite a few supporters, phase two of my plan was set into action: I had to find people who would be able to spy for the Rebels in the Palace. One of the first people that joined my cause was Trowa, the one who helped you escape. He was - and still is - a very valuable source of information. Several other guards and other employees followed Trowa's example, and by now we have a very good network of informants in the Palace. It seems that the queen and her allies have no clue about what's hanging above their heads."

Suddenly Heero interrupted Zechs' monologue. "Why did you save us? I see no logical reason for you to risk so much just to get two mere boys out of there."

Zechs smiled a half-smile. "Oh, you're absolutely right. But I just couldn't let the queen and the princess take yet another two innocent lives. And what's more, I thought that you might want to take revenge on Relena for what she's done to you. Unless I'm very much mistaken, I'd say that you two have a very good reason to help us overthrow this government, and motivated people are often the best soldiers."

The face behind the mask turned serious, as did his tone. "But enough of this chit-chat. Do you want to join our cause and help us trying to make this world a better place?"

Duo and Heero looked at each other briefly, then said: "We'd be honoured."

------

They had been sitting there for several hours now, their muscles cramped and aching, so they decided to walk a bit, through the forests of the Fifth Country. They had opted to stay here for a week or so, to rest from the first part of their journey and be fit again for the rest of it. After all, they still had to travel hundreds of miles to the Tenth Country, to Duo's home country.

The sun was beginning to set; as the story of their pasts neared its end, the day reached its end too.

When they were walking, Duo slipped his hand into Heero's. "Beautiful here, isn't it?" he said softly. "I'd almost forgotten how beautiful the Earth could be, after years of being confined to the Palace and its perfectly kept gardens, where nothing natural was to be seen…"

Heero smiled and squeezed Duo's hand gently. "That's one of the good things the Revolution has achieved. We can now go freely wherever we want to go and visit the places we were denied to visit for all these years."

"I wonder if my parents are still alive…" the braided boy wondered. "I still can hope to find them, alive and healthy, but you don't have that kind of hope anymore…"

"At least I have seen my father before the end, and I'm glad about that. Sure, I would've hoped to spend more time with him, but knowing that he survived until the Revolution and died for something he believed in, that's worth a lot for me," Heero said, reliving these few weeks, in which he had found his father… and lost him again.

------

All day long people had been sneaking in and out of the building. Heero and Duo didn't know why, until the reason for this commotion was about to begin: there would be a secret meeting, which all Rebel leaders would attend to. Since the two of them had only arrived seven days earlier, it was thought not wise to tell them beforehand, in case they might want to change allegiances.

When they were hanging about in the building, they had seen Quatre arrive and leave - he had a late watch and in order not to raise suspicion, he had to return to the Palace, meeting or not - and Trowa, who, as leader of the Rebel spies at the Palace, would speak at the meeting. But the biggest surprise of all was…

"Father!" Heero exclaimed, and ran to the person who'd just entered the building. He'd thought his father was dead, and here he was, a Rebel!

The man, who had messy grey hair and blue eyes, blinked in disbelief, before asking softly: "Heero? Is that really you? But… the princess? The guards?"

"We escaped," Heero answered simply. "But what are you doing here, at the Rebel's Headquarters?"

But before his father could answer, they were called to the meeting…

"My friends and Rebels, today we will decide our tactics, and plan a date for the Revolution. We also welcome two new faces among us." He motioned Heero and Duo to stand up. "These two people were part of princess Relena's harem. She wanted to execute them, but we managed to free them, and now they'll swear loyalty to our cause."

He looked at them intently. "Do you, Heero Yuy and Duo Maxwell, swear to be loyal to the Rebels and not to betray them, whatever the reason?"

Heero, who hadn't been told about this… ceremony, was a bit surprised. But since there was no way he'd ever choose the side of the Princess and her followers, he didn't have much choice. "I swear."

Duo just shrugged, then said solemnly: "I swear."

The other Rebel's erupted into applause and cheers.

Zechs cleared his throat. "Now that's been said, we can continue our briefing.

"The first part of the plan is to dismantle the Palace's power source, so that the lighting in the Palace will fail. This will cause at least temporary turmoil, during which another team can infiltrate the building. Mr Yuy here," he nodded in the direction of Heero's father, "will be the leader of the team, which will disable the electricity-supply, and Mr Barton," he nodded at Trowa, "will co-ordinate the team, which will infiltrate the Palace.

"This last team will kill as many of the Palace's soldiers - or convince them to change allegiances. A smaller part of this team will find the Princess and imprison her. The queen must also be captured alive. The group of Mr Yuy will assist Mr Barton's team, after they've destroyed the power source.

"After that, all Rebels will go into town, where we'll notify the people that the queen and the princess have been captured. Unless the people of the first District aren't willing to accept us as the new rulers, we won't use violence. If they decide to fight us, however, we will have no choice but to fight back.

"I hope, that if we'll have conquered the first District, the other Districts and Countries will follow. The night after our attack on the Palace, Rebels in other Countries will try to overthrow the local governments there. If we succeed, this world will be free of the tyranny of the Queens. So we'd better not fail!"

The Rebels expressed their approval with loud applause.

------

"Do you think Zechs actually believed that the Revolution would go by without violence?" Duo asked.

"I don't know. I don't really think he was that naive, but on the other hand… he urged us a couple of times to refrain from violence unless there was no other way." Heero shook his head. "Zechs still is a bit of an enigma to me… I do understand why he wanted to put an end to the queen's reign, but some of his other motives are very unclear to me."

Duo shrugged. "Maybe he'd always wanted to become world-dictator or something like that, and his heritage provided him with a good reason and the means to do that. Time will tell, I guess…"

------

Two weeks later, in the middle of the night, a small group of people, among which Heero's father, Heero himself and Duo, sneaked into the Palace, let in by Quatre Winner, who had been waiting at the back door. They silently went to the cellar, to the power source of the Palace.

It was decided to blow the thing up, so that it would be very hard to repair the thing. Even Heero's father, who had an almost life-long experience with electricity, wouldn't be able to fix it in less than a couple of weeks then. But… this mission would be a lot more dangerous now for the participating Rebels, than if they'd just had to cut some wires. Since the Rebels didn't have any explosive-experts, they'd had to make a bomb only using information from ancient books, from before the Great Flood, so if the bomb would explode - which was uncertain - they had no idea how much destruction it would cause.

"Bomb, please," Mr Yuy whispered. One of the Rebels present handed it over to him, and he placed it on the power source, there where it would cause most harm.

"Match, please."

A Rebel stepped forward and lit the fuse.

"Let's get out of here."

The Rebels ran towards the stairs, away from the bomb. When they reached the end of the chairs however, Heero's father halted and said something like: "It still hasn't gone off. I'm going back!" and before the others could stop him, he'd already descended towards the cellar again.

Heero prepared to run after him, but was stopped by one of the Rebels. "No. We should go. He'll come after us when he's done."

Knowing that the older Rebel was right, Heero inclined his head and followed the others.

At that moment, the bomb exploded. The first Rebel to die for the cause had been killed…

------

"That must've been horrible," Duo said, while pulling Heero close in a comforting gesture. "You hadn't seen your dad for years, and when you finally find him back…"

The blue-eyed boy sighed. "Yeah… but as I said before: I'm glad I saw him again, even though it was for a short time. Otherwise I'd have wondered what had happened to him for the rest of my life."

"And he wasn't the last one to die during the Revolution…"

------

The group Heero and Duo were parts of, would join Trowa's group, and help them carry out the rest of the plan.

Inside the Palace they found a huge disorder: soldiers were running about, in the dark colliding with walls and with each other, vases with flowers had been pushed down. In this panicky situation, the Rebels didn't attract too much attention. Since they had been working in the cellar, where it was dark, they could quite easily find their way through the castle, and - if possible without attracting to much attention - they killed all Palace soldiers they encountered. The other group of Rebels, however, they didn't encounter.

They heard screams, coming from the other end of the hallway.

"Follow me!" the Rebel, who had assumed leadership of their group when Heero's father had been killed, shouted. And what they found there…

Rebels and Palace soldiers were fighting viciously, and the corridor was smeared with blood. They were just in time to see Trowa go down, blood streaming from a wound at his right-shoulder. "I'm sorry…" he whispered, before losing consciousness.

That was the only motivation the Rebels needed; they swept down on the enemy, killing as many of them as they could. When all soldiers were dead or had fled, Heero kneeled down next to Trowa's motionless body. "He's still alive," he said, looking up.

Their leader looked at him, regret in his eyes. "I'm sorry, but we can't miss anyone to bring him to the headquarters. It's probably too far anyway for someone in his condition."

They left the corridor, and after fifteen minutes of walking through the Palace, they finally reached the quarters of Princess Relena. The two former harem-members looked at their leader, the unspoken question in their eyes. "Go ahead," he mouthed and stepped back from the door.

Heero smirked, his eyes narrowed, and kicked the door open with brute force. Finally…

"You!!!" the Princess cried.

"Yes, me," Heero answered. "And now you're gonna pay for what you've done to us!" With that, the Rebels entered the room, tied the hands of the Princess and her friends, gagged them and dragged them forcefully to the prison…

------

The sun had now almost sank below the horizon and they returned to the inn they were staying at.

"You know," Duo began, "I kinda feel sorry for Relena. I mean… sure, she did some horrible things to us, but I think that was probably because she had been taught from her childhood on that such behaviour was normal, or even desirable. I don't think she deserved to die."

Heero thought this over for a while. "I agree with you on that. But we must keep in mind that she chose death, when Zechs gave her the choice between joining him and death by hanging."

"But still…"

------

"Relena, do you know who I am?" Zechs asked his sister.

She spat at him. "You should address me as 'Your Highness'! You… you worthless Rebel! You're nothing!"

"No," he replied calmly, "as a matter of fact, I'm your brother, Milliardo Peacecraft. Isn't that true… mother?" he said, turning towards the queen.

The queen glared at him, not answering.

"I'm also…" he paused for a more dramatic effect, "the new leader of this Country. And as such, I give you the choice. Join our cause… or die."

The former princess gaped at him in shock. "How dare you! I'd never ever listen to the rule of anyone like you! I'd rather die!"

"Well, that's settled then," Zechs calmly stated. "Tomorrow morning you will be executed."

The queen would be executed no matter what, since she'd tried to kill an innocent baby, a long time ago, and because she'd allowed this harem-business to continue. Relena's friends were also given the choice: join them or die.

All but one of them chose to join the Rebels, for it had not been their own choice to become Relena's friends. Only Dorothy Catalonia, who had been Relena's best friend by choice, chose death, with the words: "I'll always be loyal to Miss Relena, even in death!"

That evening, the gallows were set up in the Palace garden…

------

"Actually, Zechs did kind of trick her into saying that. She was just shouting at him, and didn't really get the chance to choose. I think that's why so many people were angry about her execution, even though they knew what she'd done," Heero reminisced.

"That's what I meant; It wasn't a real fair trial." Duo sighed. "If I hadn't agreed with the Rebels that there had to be put an end to the reign of the queens, I wouldn't have wanted to be part of the Revolution. The bloodshed, the deaths…"

------

Many civilians had come to the Palace garden to witness the execution. Not only the queen and the princess would be hanged, but also all members of the District Council and all Palace soldiers who hadn't wanted to be under Zechs's rule. Lady Une, surprisingly enough, wasn't one of them.

"Civilians of the first District of the first Country," Zechs began. "We're gathered here today to witness the death of tyrants and their followers. The former queen, and princess Relena have committed an uncountable number of crimes, among which the repression of you, the inhabitants of their District! And they both are guilty of making the lives of young boys to hell! Yes, I'm talking about their harems now! Did you ever wonder why eight of the ten members of the queen's harem killed themselves?"

Clearly, the crowd had never wondered about that, for only a surprised murmur was to be heard.

"For those crimes, they will be executed today, so that the inhabitants of this world finally can be free! All men, who didn't want to see the truth, will be hanged also, for they are a danger towards the freedom the new order will achieve. They want to suppress you, deny you your rights!" Zechs shouted, directly addressing himself to the crowd, which erupted into applause.

It was time for the execution…

"Is there anything you'd like to say before you'll be hanged?" Zechs asked the queen.

She looked at him, eyes full of hate. "Yes, there is one thing I want to say to the people here," she replied, "You'll be sorry for following him! There was a good reason why women ruled the world for such a long time. It's because men can't handle the power that comes with this job! All men are tyrants!"

She had wanted to say more, but Zechs, who was shocked by her words, shouted, furiously: "This woman is clearly out of her mind! We must hang her before she makes an even bigger fool of herself!"

Two tall Rebels walked towards her and each grabbed one of her arms. They dragged her towards the gallows, and attached the rope. The queen chose to stay quiet and die with dignity. But her words had affected the onlookers, for they had become restless and some people even publicly voiced their disagreement with Zechs's words and with the execution.

After the queen's execution, it was Relena's turn. She was also asked if she wanted to say something before she was hanged, but chose not to speak. She just glared at her brother and walked to the gallows, chin in the air, followed by Dorothy, who, even in the sight of death, remained loyal to her.

------

"I think that's where Milliardo made a mistake; by publicly executing Relena and the queen. Many people really didn't know about the horrors they committed, and executing a sixteen-year old girl, cold and heartless as she might have been, must've seemed pretty cruel to them," Heero commented.

Duo nodded. "Yeah, maybe if he hadn't done that, the Revolution would've taken place without this much bloodshed." After a while he continued: "I can't help but wonder if the queen was really out of her mind, if she shouted these things just because she was angry at Zechs or scared of being hanged or… if she was telling the truth. Maybe they did have a good reason, centuries ago, to forbid men to rule the world…"

"I don't know about that," Heero said, "but I know that it wasn't wise of him to let her say anything before she was hanged. Out of her mind or not, she was bound to say some things Zechs wouldn't be happy with."

They had reached the edge of the forest, and could now see the small village and the inn. It was past dinner time, but fortunately for them the owner of the inn, a friendly old man, had left them some food.

------

The day after the executions, Zechs - who was staying at the Palace now - was awakened by the noise of a huge mass of people, outside the Palace-walls. He quickly got up and called the Rebels, most of which were also residing at the Palace. The wounded Rebels had been taken to the left wing, where a physician was taking care of them, the others to the right wing, where Relena's room also had been located.

"Can anyone tell me what this is all about?" he demanded.

After a painful silence, one of the Rebels cleared his throat and said: "Well… it seems that not all civilians are happy with the change of rule… At least two thousand people are standing in front of the gate, waiting to be let in."

Zechs thought this over for a while, then said, pointing at Heero and Duo: "You, go to the gate and tell the crowd that I'll be there shortly."

The two boys left and went to the gate. But what they found there, was beyond everything they had expected: it seemed like at least half the First District had come here to protest against the new leader! When they climbed up the wall, so that everyone could see them, and Duo waved at the crowd to attract attention for what he was about to say, they didn't turn quiet, but instead started throwing things at them! At first only bad fruits, but later on even small stones and other heavy objects.

"I don't think they're willing to listen to us," Duo said, grabbing Heero's hand and pulling him with him, away from the wall and the crazed crowd.

"I think you're right!"

They hurried back to the other Rebels, to report to Zechs. When they had told their story, the longhaired Rebel leader shook his head and said: "Why are people so stupid? Can't they see we are trying to make things better for them?" He sighed. "Well, we only have one option, then."

He turned towards the Rebel who had led Heero's and Duo's team, and continued: "Gather as many Rebels as you can, take the back exit of the Palace Gardens and try to get the people to leave. Try to avoid the use of violence, unless you have no choice. Good luck."

------

Duo shivered. "It was horrible! As soon as they got wind of us, they attacked! We had no choice but to kill them, we didn't stand a chance against thousands of them!"

"All those deaths…" Heero sighed. "But at least it achieved peace, so they didn't die completely in vain."

"I'm glad the Revolution was a lot less violent in the other Countries and their Districts. Otherwise, the world population would have been decimated!"

"And all cities would've been destroyed, just like the capital of the First Country," Heero added. "Then Zechs wouldn't have had a world to rule anymore!"

------

They were in the capital of the First Country, fighting their way to the centre of the city, together with their fellow Rebels. The fight had started hours ago, and still people carrying weapons were descending upon them. It was like a never-ending flood of people. Duo was tired, tired of killing, tired of seeing friends of him get killed. He had seen at least thousands of citizens be reduced to bloody heaps of flesh and bones, and some of the Rebels, who had been careless enough to leave their formation, were simply squashed by the enraged people of the District, who seemed not to care if they lived or died, as long as they took one or more Rebels with them, preferably more.

Until now, he had been lucky, but he didn't know about Heero. He had lost sight of him after the first round of battles.

Just when he thought he couldn't take any more, he heard a familiar voice shouting his name: "Duo! Are you alright?"

Heero! The knowledge that his lover was still alive gave him the strength to go on. They fought side by side, more trying to disarm and discourage the civilians rather than trying to kill them. And finally… the crowd seemed to thin until only the Rebels, the dead and the wounded people remained.

He dropped his blood-stained sword unceremoniously on the ground and threw himself in Heero's arms, both of them seeking comfort with the other, after the horrors of that day…

------

"I feel really guilty about those deaths," Heero said, pain written on his face. "If I could've prevented this useless killing by remaining in Relena's harem, I would have chosen that."

"We can only hope we've established a long-lasting peace by this Revolution. Otherwise, these deaths were indeed useless," Duo sighed. "But… now we've reached the end of the story, and with that, the end of our 'therapeutic talk'," he continued, his expression turning from pensive to almost mischievous, "I suggest we go to our room to find some… distraction from all these horrible things. After all, it's very unhealthy to go to sleep with such heavy thoughts on one's mind, don't ya think?"

The end

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Will Zechs be a good king? Have Trowa and Quatre survived the Revolution? Are Duo's parents still alive? Stay tuned for 'Of Tyrants and Gundams', the sequel to 'Of Princesses and Harems'! (it might take me a while to write it, though… ::grins sheepishly::)

If you liked this fic, please tell me! If you didn't, please tell me why! Thanks! :)