"...Mission accepted..."

The words fell from his lips as though someone else had spoken them. As though he had flipped a switch, and somehow managed to detach himself from all reason, and become nothing more than the unfeeling machine they had wanted him to be. No feelings rose within him as he tightened his grasp on the small detonation switch, which was displayed defiantly in his outstretched hand. The words Dr. J had offered replayed in his memory, carrying with it the unspoken solution ensuring a continuation of life for the colonies. A mission in sight was all that remained.

The mechanical beast that sheltered his enemy stopped instantly in its tracks, hesitant to abandon its attack completely, yet fearful of the extreme decision he was preparing to make. Instead, it stared down on him, as though daring him to continue, trapped in a moment of disbelief and mild admiration.

Without the thought of consequence, a satisfying click sounded, as the tiny red button depressed beneath the increased pressure of his thumb. In the passing of that moment, he felt his mobile suit shake in its mechanical death throes, powering up for a surge massive enough to destroy itself...and its pilot. Yet, he felt nothing.

Beams of light pulsed from beneath the massive plates of gundanium, cutting through the barely lit sky, with the sheerest intensity. In a brilliant flash of light, a sound unlike any he'd heard before touched his ears, coursing through his body with a pain so extreme as to steal the very breath from his lungs. His screams were drowned in an explosive thunderclap that plunged his world into darkness, and he found himself falling, tumbling through the void with nothing more than the knowledge of a mission failed.

Death was the price of failure. He had accepted that as fact, for as far back as he could remember. Now, death had come for him. He felt the soldier slipping away, seeping from his mind and body into a crimson pool below, and embraced his end with open arms.

Heero woke with a start, his body trembling in the faint reminiscence of a dream that he couldn't dismiss as reality, yet no matter how hard he tried, couldn't bring himself to recollect, either. The room was filled by a stillness that was strangely soothing to him, his surroundings dim, yet no longer blurred in an obscurity of pain.

A soft hum radiated from somewhere nearby, and he slowly shifted his weight to search out its source. The tangled mass of tubes and wires that encompassed his arms and torso moved with him as he pushed himself upright, making every effort not to disturb the sleeping figure beside him in the process.

Images of her flooded his still wakening senses as the past several hours seized his fractured memory.

She had stayed, close enough that he had felt her presence and her warmth...

She had always been by his side...

Watching over him.

Protecting him.

Still, he resisted his own questions as to why.

He only knew with an unnerving certainty, that for whatever reason, he was a threat to her. And that simple knowledge alone made his heart ache. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't shake the uneasy feeling that just being near her was placing her in danger, somehow.

Glancing down at his arm, he pulled back the thick medical tape holding the needle of his IV in place, proceeding to extract it from his skin as frustration welled inside him once again.

Fingering the bruises still painfully visible along his forearm, he felt an unwanted shiver course through him; his mind turning traitorous as visions of being back in the lab resurfaced.

The lights, so unforgiving and painfully silent, standing witness to his pain.

The restraints...

The injections...

He clutched his head as the memory of words floated dangerously close to his understanding, yet somehow, still managed to evade him.

...You'll remember nothing...

The electrodes monitoring his vitals sent the machines into a frenzy as he ripped them from the surface of his arms and chest, and he quickly flipped the switch of the EKG off, before its frantic beeps could wake Relena.

His breath caught in his throat as she stirred, a soft sigh escaping her lips, before drifting back into the depths of slumber once more. Never removing his eyes from her face, he gingerly lifted himself off the bed.

The room swayed slightly, as the blood renewed its pace through his body, but righted itself with every minute that he remained on his feet. He could feel the distinct pull of tape and bandages across his side as he rose to full height, lifting the oversized, cotton hospital gown in order to view the wound that lay beneath.

The jagged crimson scars that stretched across the surface of his skin stared back at him, the pristine ebony stitches that crossed over each one only raising more unanswered questions in his mind. Running his hand along one of the more serious looking lacerations, his mind began to reel, flashing images in his head until he was forced to steady himself, using the wall for support.

...A large white room with a tiny steel-barred window...one full of voices, which hid his screams from the world...

Pictures flashing in his mind...a woman, her dark brown hair and soft painted lips the color of blood...

He struggled to put the pieces together, to give the face in the photograph they had shown him a name, but felt the image slip further from his grasp, the harder he tried.

Her face came to his mind again, this time with hair drawn back, her thin framed glasses glaring as they revealed a cold and calculated glare...the glare of an enemy...

The noise of the rain quickly disrupted his thoughts, the fleeting images once again erasing themselves from his mind, as he turned to observe the storm through the small window across the room. By the looks of it, night had fallen quite some time ago. The streets normally polluted by noise and lights were now vacant, the people having scurried to some place dry and warm until the first light of morning.

He could still feel the invading chill of his memories clinging to the darkness in the room, and quickly settled himself on the windowsill overlooking the expansive world beyond. Resting his head against the cool glass, he ran his fingers along its surface, chasing the trail of tiny drops snaking down the other side, soothed by the sounds of the falling rain.

* * * * *

Dr. Bertrem crossed the lab with the distinct feel of urgency guiding his step.

He could hear Selleste and Wendt, their voices a taut whispering in light of the surrounding noises in the lab, and it didn't take much to figure out that they were engrossed in conversation regarding the project.

Dr. Arend and Dr. Jerard were already present, and he could just make out Dr. Arend's words as he closed the distance between them.

"Selleste, at present, this situation is far from what I would define as contained. The fact that you're as relaxed as you are, only worries me all the more. Need I remind you that the time frame you gave us is rapidly diminishing."

"Arend, I can assure you, I hold that Preventer, Colton Reid, in the palm of my hand. Within hours, he'll have found the boy. The project will be back on track, as though the last 48 hours had been nothing more than a dream." Selleste replied, eyeing each of the four remaining scientists as though daring them to object. "We continue to play it smart and all of our efforts will be rewarded."

"That's assuming that that pilot hasn't already given our descriptions to Preventer Headquarters." Dr. Arend commented, dryly.

Dr. Jerard was quick to respond, his temper and general in-your-face demeanor reaching the point of absurdity. "Don't you think if they had that information, we would have received a visit from them by now?"

"Precisely, and the fact that ESUN is still fumbling for answers in light of the Vice Foreign Minister's leave of absence, only suggests to me that we still have time." Selleste answered, eagerly.

"So what are your plans for the boy after Reid finds him?" Wendt questioned, eyeing Selleste in anxious anticipation.

"He is a threat to the project, Selleste." Jerard stated, pointedly.

"But can the project even reach its final phase without him?" Bertrem asked, quietly. "The fact that he survived his exposure to the toxin only convinces me that he will be far more difficult to replace then you would like us to think."

"Though the treatments were incomplete, I believe we were close..." Wendt continued, observing the other scientists. "The human body can be manipulated to perform insurmountable, even inconceivable acts of violence, when properly provoked. So long as we can perfect the means to manipulate the mind of a human subject, we can always find a replacement for that boy."

"Unless our young former Gundam pilot is still compromised, in which case, he can still be of use to us." Cairn stated, monotonously. "If not, he will simply be eliminated. Either way, the Preventers will have no way of stopping us."