A.N.- I make no claims over the original characters of Gundam Wing or Endless Waltz. Nor do I take credit for the song I have borrowed. They each belong to their respective owners.

Another A.N.- The song "Anyway..." may not be familiar to those reading this. It is somewhat old, and only done once, in a movie. But I thought it appropriate for this particular theme. I hope you enjoy it.

--Sequel to the fic, "To Live Again".--

By Aina Song

He was packing away the last of his handguns into his bag when he heard her knock. He shouldered his bag and opened the door. She stood there with her hands clasped together and a painfully sad expression across her face. "You're leaving to stop them. Aren't you?"

He lowered his eyes, nodding.

"Will you be back?"

His prussian eyes lifted and met hers.

She reached out and touched a hand to the broad scar lining his cheek. He covered her hand with his. "I'll be careful."

She nodded, "I'll wait for you, you know."

"I know."

"I love you."

He didn't reply to that. He couldn't. Too much of the Perfect Soldier still lived in him. So he did what he always had when she'd told him that. He leaned close, kissing her mouth, knowing she'd understand. Hoping it was enough. He then lifted a tan cap to his head and fitted dark sunglasses to his, and he stepped passed her.

Relena took his arm, causing him to look back. "I waited six years the last time. Don't make me do that again."

After a long, silent moment, Heero nodded.

"Peace. The most fragile and crucial word in the Earth Sphere Unified Nation. Today, that peace is being threatened. A rebel colony, one we thought to be abandoned, has risen with demands from its leaders to declare their superiority over all others. Their demands, of course, have not been met; and so they have begun to destroy the lives of their own people to show that they will stop at nothing to reach their goal. A count of sixty-five have already been randomly assassinated. As the Foreign Minister, it is now my responsibility to bring forth any action to ensure the Peace. With the new President's permission, I have done this. As we speak the best of the ESUN's Preventers are on their way to stop the rebel colony's massacre from progressing beyond its walls. . ."

He watched her speech on the small monitor as he piloted the shuttle through space. She was good. It wasn't her speech that made her so noticeable to the press. It was the sincerity behind it. Heero nodded occasionally as he listened, agreeing with most of what she said. Of course, a few of her ideas were still a bit naive. But as she was now a young woman, her ways of speaking those ideas were becoming more convincing.

His hand jerked from the controls when he heard the shot. Even over the monitor, that sound could only have come from a bullet being released. His eyes darted to the screen.

She was no longer speaking. The pedestal stood empty; behind it lay a slender young lady with no strength to move. People were crowding around her. Zechs, her older brother who also stood as her bodyguard when Heero was away, shoved everybody back. He demanded room, carefully taking his sister in his arms. The cameras of the press missed nothing, and caught sight of the blood already staining the front of her beige uniform.

Heero cursed viciously and turned his shuttle around. For the first time in life, he was abandoning his mission. With an order to the men of his sector that they continue without him, he worked the familiar controls and brought his old shuttle to maximum speed.

"I'm coming, Relena."

~~~
I've had time to write a book
About the way you act and look
I haven't got a paragraph
~~~

The demons of his past haunted as he raced through space. He had to reach her. She was his sanctuary. She had constantly reminded him to live again. He would never have existed as long as he had if it hadn't been for her. Somehow he had to tell her that. It was his turn to remind her all the things she must live for. And he placed himself at the top of that list.

~~~
Words are always getting in my way
Anyway I love you
That's all I have to tell you
That's all I've got to say
~~~

He couldn't come to her dressed to kill. In his rush to the Hospital Block, he shed his Preventer jacket, leaving it on the walk, and threw his back in an abandoned alley behing a large dumpster. He ran now half-clad in uniform, with dark khaki slacks and a black T-shirt. His tan cap and dark sunglasses he tossed to the ground.

~~~
And now I'd like to make a speech
About the hand that touched my cheek
But stumbling I would make you laugh
~~~

He burst into the waiting room, causing many of his friends to stand. Everyone was there: Zechs Marquiez and his wife Lucrezia (whom he still called Noin at times); Lady Une and Mariemeia Cushrenada; Quatre Raberba Winner and his manservant, Rashid; Trowa and Catherine Barton; Duo and Hilde Maxwell, with their son Zephyr; Chang Wufei; and Sally Po. These were just a few of the lives she had touched in that way of hers. These were the lives she had personally blessed during the Wars of Peace.

All except little Zephyr, Duo's son. He'd only been born early last month. Heero pitied him the chance to know such a miraculous woman.

With a passing glance at each of them, his eyes finally settled on her brother. Zechs lowered his eyes and turned his head. He'd been crying. Reality had a bitter feel to those it stung.

Heero gave a desperate shout and made to break through the doors that led into a large corridor and eventually to wherever they were holding her. Duo and Trowa only barely managed to hold him back, though it took tremendous effort on their part. Momentarily defeated, he collapsed against them and sank to the tiled floor. He hid his face in his hands and wouldn't speak to anyone.

~~~
I feel as though my
Tongue were made of clay
Anyway I love you
That's all I've got to tell you...
~~~

Unable to stand the wait any longer Duo, Quatre, Trowa, and Wufei left to join the rest of the Preventers on their mission to stop the rebel colony's madness. Noin took the women down to the cafeteria on the first floor for something to eat. The silent waiting was too much. Heero finally rose to his feet and stepped very close to the fated doors. Zechs made no attempt to stop him. He knew the ex-Pilot could not be kept from his goal if he was truly determined. He even hoped there was something the younger man could do to save his sister. In this, he gave all his trust to the one man who above all else had come the closest to destroying him and on several occasions.

Heero pulled a gun from his pocket, the only gun he never left behind. Attaching a device to silence his weapon he cracked open the doors, slipped his arm in between them, and fired at the corridor's ceiling lights. One by one, they were forceably blown out, so that he could walk freely among the enlargened shadows of the corridor. As good fortune would have it, he encountered no one as he made his way around. He moved about so silently, even the broken glass at his feet from blowing out the lights would not crack at his step.

He detached the silencer and pocketed his gun, having found what he'd come for. He slid into her room unnoticed, as its only occupant was deeply asleep. He knelt at the side of her bed, tears trailing unckecked down the sides of his face. "Relena? Can you hear me?"

It didn't seem as though she could. He sighed, taking her hand in his. The machines at the other side of the bed were mocking him, displaying a weakened pulse and a slowed heartbeat. He turned back to Relena, preferring to see her face than those damned machines. "Don't you dare die on me, Relena," he begged through a second amount of tears. "Don't you dare . . ."

Zechs pulled off the wall to greet the doctor as he arrived. The doctor gave a kind smile and nodded his head. Zechs Marquiez fell to his knees and cried with the overflowing joy that came with this new diagnosis. ~o~

She was so beautiful. God, what it did for him just watch her breathe! He carefully drew away the hospital sheets and examined the wound just below her gown's neckline. He almost laughed in his relief at what he found. The bandage were wrapped around her arm and chest. But the way they were set, gave the wound away. She'd only been shot in the shoulder. The arm might be useless for a while, but she was going to live! Heero replaced the sheets around her with a smile. Kissing her hair, he rested his head on his arm. Giving a small sigh, he closed his eyes.

~~~
I'm not a man of poetry
Music isn't one with me
It runs from me
It runs from me
~~~

Hearing that shot over the monitor had nearly wrenched his heart in two. It was horrible. She may have been shot, but it was his heart that bled with the wound. He feared to think what would happen if he'd lost her. Peace would have been Hell without her by his side.

~~~
And I've tried to write a symphony
But I've lost the melody
Alas, I've only finished half
~~~

It had gotten to be a habit now. He'd look over his shoulder to find she'd caught him watching the sun rise; or he'd lift his head from his paperwork just knowing when she'd be walking through his office door. Six years without her had only barely been tolerable, because he'd had her to think about. Now, three months since his return, he didn't like what he was thinking. Of course, he'd tried his damnest to be worthy of her. He wondered how he'd been doing, up to this point.

"Heero?"

Her voice was gentle, softened from the wound. He lifted his head. And saw that her eyes had opened.

~~~ And finish I suppose I never may Anyway I love you That's all I have to tell you That's all I've got to say ~~~

He swallowed. "Hello, Relena."

"Wh-What are you doing here? Has the mission been successful?"

He supposed he deserved that one. His mission were once his main priority, after all. Still. It hurt to hear her ask as though he hadn't changed. "I don't know," he answered. "I never saw it through."

Her eyes widened. She knew he'd never left a mission undone before in his entire life. "You came back for me?"

He lifted the hand he still held and pressed his lips against it. "I promised I would. Besides," he shrugged, "I wouldn't have been much of a threat to them."

"Why?"

~~~
That's all I have to tell you
~~~

"Because of another promise I'd made to a beautiful young lady, years ago. One never to hurt anyone, _ever_ again." He leaned close, finally able to tell her what he couldn't for so long. Kissing her passionately, he whispered his heart's soul against her lips.

"I love you, Relena..."

~~~
That's all I've got to say
~~~

END