Mobile Suit Gundam Fan Fiction ❯ Starting a New Path ❯ The Runaway ( Prologue )

[ P - Pre-Teen ]

STARTING A NEW PATH
Prologue: The Runaway
An action/romance/drama Gundam Wing fanfiction novel
Written by Ice Dragoness

Relena Peacecraft sat on her window-seat and stared at the near-cloudless sky through a window. A single white bird, most likely a dove, soared past her window, silhouetted against the bright light of the sun. I wish I were like you, little bird, Relena thought enviously. So free to do whatever you like, believe whatever you want. I sit here, day after day, practically preaching something I don't believe in. Pacifism. Why did I do this to myself? she thought to herself.
The Foreign Minister frowned, somewhat bitterly. Of course. How could I forget? My biological family was a family of pacifists. And King Peacecraft's diary, of course. It's what everyone expected and wanted me to do. Especially Zechs. She shaded her eyes and looked out the window as the few clouds there were cleared and the sunlight hit her eyes.
Her door opened with a creak. "Miss Relena?" asked a girl as she popped her blond head in the room.
Relena sat straight up and glanced at her visitor, a young woman with long white-blond hair and piercing ice blue eyes. "Hello, Dorothy," Relena responded, looking out the window again.
Dorothy's interestingly-shaped eyebrows furrowed slightly. "What's your problem?" she asked, amused to the point of grinning, but also slightly worried. Relena's way too uptight, she decided. "Heero, huh?"
Relena smiled a lopsided half-smile and rolled her eyes. "Hardly." She wouldn't understand.
Dorothy eased herself down onto Relena's four-poster bed with teal sheets (thank goodness, Dorothy despised pink in every form), making it crystal clear that she was going to stay until she got an answer. "Well?" she prompted after a few moments of silence from Relena.
"It's none of your business," Relena snapped, beginning to grow irritated. She tossed her dark blond hair over her shoulder.
Dorothy glared right back unreservedly with those unnatural eyes. "What's got the burr up your saddle?" Dorothy shot back indignantly.
A loud "whirr" and an explosion in the not-to-far distance cut off their "conversation". Relena paled noticeably. "Those . . . those sounded like . . . like - oh, my God! I'm getting Noin!" She left without a second word to her friend. Dorothy narrowed her eyes. That sounds oddly familiar. Wait a second . . . those sounded like mobile suit carriers and bombs!

I have to get Noin, was the only thought running through the princess's head as she dashed down a corridor. As she burst into Noin's office, she was glad that no one else was there at the moment-besides Noin herself, of course.
"Princess, you need to get out of here," Noin ordered. "We have an attack on Sank."
"I know," Relena gasped breathlessly. "I came here to tell you, Dorothy and I heard an explosion and mobile doll/suit carriers."
"We still have the white Taurus suits from the wars," Noin stated grimly, brushing some purple hair out of her dark eyes. "I didn't think we'd ever have to use them again after the Mariemaia incident." The former soldier started towards the door. "I'm getting Zechs," she added, coming back for a second. Noin always called Milliardo Peacecraft that still, even after the wars-well, then again, so did Relena. "Get everyone you can out of here, Princess."
Relena rushed from confrence room to personal rooms and back again, warning everyone of the danger they were in. People were very annoyed about interrupted meetings, but they got the picture quickly and decided that their lives were worth more than a conference.
As Relena reached the last set of rooms, she saw Quatre and Duo talking and laughing, until they noticed her. "What's up, ojou-sama?" Duo asked, noticing her harried expression. They had apparently not heard the news or the explosions.
"Several mobile doll carriers have arrived and are attacking the Sank Kingdom." Anticipating their next question, Relena added, "Noin's in the secret hangar with the white Tauruses. She wants you to join her." The two young men nodded, and ran off in that general direction.
There was only one thing that Relena wanted to get before she left. She hurried back to her room and dove into her closet frantically. Only so much time until the attackers turned to the palace.
She flipped on the light quickly and searched desperately for what she was seeking. After several agonizing moments, Relena spotted what she was looking for, a plain, white box about two and a half feet long and a foot wide. She touched the box, and was bombarded with memories. No time for that, she thought as she picked it up. She slipped her hand inside the box and was greeted with the touch of cold metal and silk.
Relena breathed a quick sigh of relief, and hurried to leave the premises herself. She had just left the huge building when an explosion rocked it. Debris and chunks of stone flew out from behind her. Instantly, she dropped to the ground and flattened herself, the box beneath her, and with her hands guarding her neck.
Shortly after the bombs stopped exploding, Relena breathed a sigh of relief and glanced behind her. Well, that building won't be used for a long, long time, she thought with an amused, yet grim, smile. She got to her feet and glanced back again, realizing something important. I don't have to come back.

A day later . . .
Howard glanced at the paper in his hand as he sipped his coffee. His shirt was, of course, the Hawaiian type with big flowers, palm trees, and ocean depicted. A normal life. I didn't ever think I'd get this, not after I designed Tallgeese. His gray hair was slightly messy and his eyes roved the newspaper. Wait, what's this say? he thought, alarmed as the headline caught his eye. I guess I haven't heard. He skimmed the article.
Yesterday, December first, the Sank Kingdom palace, where Deputy Foreign Minister Peacecraft lives, was bombed and raided by an unknown source. Lucrezia Noin, Head of Defense in the palace, and several of the Gundam pilots were able to fight off the intruders, but the Foreign Minister's whereabouts are yet unknown. Almost everyone believes her to be dead, as she was in the building at the time of the attack. There is too much debris to search through in one day, and if she wasn't dead then, she most likely is now. She was last seen ushering people out of the building, and many regard this as her last good deed.
As Howard glanced through the article, he called for Duo. "Hey! Duo! Where are you?"
Duo appeared in the doorway. "Yeah?"
"What's this all about?" he asked the former Gundam pilot #2 of Deathscythe Hell, waving the newspaper in front of Duo's face.
Duo glanced at the article and swallowed. "Yesterday, Quatre and I were visiting," he began hoarsely, "The Sank Kingdom was attacked. Relena never made it out of the building. She's...dead," he said, looking away.
"Dead?" Howard echoed. Duo just nodded silently. He and Relena had been good friends through their connection with his girlfriend Hilde (who was Relena's closest friend along with Dorothy), and though he didn't want to believe it, his mind pointed out that all the evidence clearly pointed in that direction.
"I can't believe that she's dead." Howard shook his head. "Why, I just talked to her a couple of days ago."
"Did you guys hear the news?" Hilde began quietly as she entered the room with a cup of hot tea in one hand. "Relena, she's, she's..." Hilde couldn't continue speaking and turned her face away to hide red-rimmed eyes. Her throat was choked up.
She didn't seem to notice that her hand was shaking so badly tea was sloshing over the sides. Duo gently pulled the cup away from Hilde and pulled her close to him.

A week after the attack . . .
Relena smiled inwardly as she made her way through the streets of Akita. I'm glad I still kept that box, she reflected. It could really help me out. She grinned at the looks people were giving her. The ornate sword strapped to her back in its sheath sort of "surprised" everyone who saw her. A duffel bag hung at her side.
After she had left the Sank palace, she had traveled to her summerhouse in the Nerima district of Tokyo, the entire journey taking about a week since she was out on foot. At her house she had tied her hair up into a ponytail on the top of her head and opened the box she saved from the ruined mansion for the first time in four years.
When she was younger, she had been kidnapped by a group of people. Knowing that she was the Vice-Foreign Minister's daughter, they figured a good ransom would come their way. After that scandal, she had promised herself that she would never let that happen again. She had studied the traditional style of Tae Kwon-Do for about a year, but gave it up when her family had to move to China for ten months. In China, Relena had picked up a bit of kendo from a forty-odd-year-old woman named Xian Pu.
In honor of her student's accomplishments (Relena had picked up kendo rather quickly), Xian Pu had presented Relena with a sword. Its hilt was rather plain, with a single green jewel adorning the hilt. As a souvenir of her trip, Relena had made herself a traditional Chinese peasant outfit and a formal dress. After she claimed absolute pacifism, she had locked away all things connected to her study of martial arts regretfully.
When she turned seventeen, Relena's older brother Milliardo had convinced her to learn self-defense. Relena had tried to resist for two reasons: she was already quite well aquainted with self-defense (if a bit rusty), and she believed that if the people knew she would be viewed as a hypocrite. Eventually Milliardo wore Relena down, telling her that there were always people like Mariemaia who would hurt her without qualm, and she'd had private lessons that Milliardo had paid for. After two straight years of lessons, her tutor disappeared for an unknown reason. Relena continued to practice, but this time, just on her own.
The tunic of the peasant outfit was made out of blue silk with silver silk frogs and a silver sash around her waist. The collar came halfway up on her neck, and the sleeves were short. The pants were made of black satin and were very form fitting. The dress was a bright red with gold trimmings and a gold sash. On the dress were white silk flowers and green leaves and had a slit up the left side all the way up to her hip (the sash). The Chinese outfits, a large sum of cash, and some more normal clothes were stashed in the duffel bag.
Right now, walking down a street of Akita, she was wearing tight black jeans and a plain white sweater with the sword strapped to her back, in its sheath. She had cut her hair to chin-length and dyed it brown because otherwise people would recognize her. Without thinking, she reached behind her and clasped the hilt of the sword. She closed her eyes and remembered exactly the occasion she had gotten it.
Her foot hit a patch of slippery ice, and she fell down abruptly. Instinctively, Relena threw her hands out in front of her to catch her when she hit the ice. She landed flat, facedown on the glassy surface, and she noted as she stood up that her palms were slightly bloody. It was a minor injury, but it stung a lot in the harsh December winds. Relena closed her eyes against the pain.
Where am I going? she asked herself when she opened her eyes. Truth was, she didn't know. I go where destiny takes me.