Disclaimer: No, I don’t own them. I thought you owned them. Well, if you don’t own them…Oh, yeah, now I remember, it’s those people at Sunrise, Sotsu, Bandai, and…well, anyone else I may have left out. THEY own them. Sorry, I just like to borrow them for my own sadistic torturing purposes, so don’t sue me-get me psychiatric help instead!

Author’s Note: Just my usual thank you going out to anyone who is still reading and reviewing my fics! Especially Stella-thanks for the torture talks, they’re always a boost for me! Hope this doesn’t get too dark for you, because Heero is going to be on the receiving end of some pretty intense physical and psychological abuse. I like Heero, really I do, and in my own sick little way, this is just how I express it. But I don’t mean to offend or upset anyone, so if you’re not into this sort of thing, I apologize, but it’s probably best you don’t read this. Also, I didn’t get my usual number of reviews on the last chapter, (with this new chaptering system, I’m not sure how anyone is supposed to know which chapters are new…) so for those of you who missed it, Episode 3 was posted already, please go back and check it out first, k? Thanks again and enjoy!

War’s Restitution by Luvspook

Episode 4: Starlit Destiny

He stirred himself awake to the deafening silence, as time itself seemed to hold its breath, lying in anxious wait for his return to consciousness.

He was lost…

The darkness melted away beneath the harsh glare of the fluorescent overhead lights, and he blinked several times, struggling to bring his surroundings into focus.

The room was vacant, save for him, the white walls stretching endlessly overhead and surrounding him on all sides. At the far end of the room, a heavy steel door, with a small bolted window, blocked his escape.

Forcing himself upright, he fought off the offending waves of nausea, and crawled the few remaining feet to the wall, sagging against it in the dire need for support.

The previous "session" had sapped his precious reserves, and for the first time in what must have been days, he had finally lapsed into unconsciousness.

His body ached…even more so than before…and the dull throb in his abdomen was all the indication he needed to assume that they had not bothered to wait for him to regain consciousness to resume their "tests". Further evidence to entertain that thought caught his attention as he grazed the surface of a thin, folded gauze bandage on his forearm. He tore it away from his skin to find several deep, circular puncture wounds that made him shiver involuntarily. The skin surrounding the injection sites were bruised an unhealthy shade of purple, and several spidery red streaks spiraled away from each one. He could only imagine what these injections were doing to him internally.

Exhaustion tingled through his tired limbs, as he struggled to remember how long it had been since the doctors had brought him here. And why?…Had they ever given him their reason for subjecting him to these little "tests" of theirs?

He couldn’t remember, and he found that the harder he tried to grasp the answers, the further out of his reach they seemed to get. The more questions his mind posed, the more agitated he was becoming, and his agitation only served to worsen the pain.

The drugs they had injected him with were making him sluggish, and coupled with the debilitating lack of decent sleep, he felt as though he were beginning to lose it completely. But he was sure that was what they wanted, so he forced himself to keep fighting it.

Looking back down at his arms, the only other sight to greet him was his own bruised and bloodied wrists; a symbol of the single victory he could claim. The wounds stood as proof of his unwillingness to cooperate, of his resistance to the injections and the scars they had left on both his mind and body, and gave him the strength he needed to keep fighting.

Laying his head back against the wall, he let his eyes slip shut, admitting temporary defeat to the fleeting and intangible answers still teetering just beyond comprehension.

His last clear thought was spent wondering why they were keeping him alive.

As unconsciousness beckoned, like a long forgotten friend, he felt his sanity cry out with the one certainty that remained…

He had to survive long enough to find a way out of this.

* * * * *

All eyes in the room turned to face her, as she made her way, slowly and gracefully, to the podium, still displaying the demeanor of one formerly addressed as a Queen.

The occasional flash from a reporter’s camera caught her eye as she took a deep, cleansing breath, pushing all apprehension from the surface of her mind.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, and dear members of the Earth Sphere Unified Nation. I have been asked to speak here today on behalf of the delegation here on Earth, regarding the recent tragedies in outer space. Perhaps the delegation feels that by speaking out to those who still cling to the fragile hopes for peace, that we might shed some light on these events. But no words, no matter how eloquently spoken, can disguise the treacherous deeds that I have seen in the past several days. The ever-present threat of war, and the power struggles that claim innocent lives as victims, can never truly be explained and must never be viewed as acceptable. No reason that I can offer will ever ease the souls who suffered, unknowingly. No kind words can relieve the grief of their loved ones, and those left orphaned by their loss. I stand before you today, ashamed of the feeble comfort my words can provide, hoping that in those words, you can find peace within yourselves. It is my sincere hope that someday, we will be able to lay petty differences and prejudices aside, so that we may all share a world where no one has to be afraid. Where meaningless battles no longer claim human lives, and where meaningless actions no longer bring suffering and pain. Hasn’t the world suffered enough of these battles? Hasn’t conflict tested our strength more times than will ever be necessary? I ask all of you, where will you draw the line that marks your indifferences? And would you change where you draw those lines, when it is your loved ones on the other side?…When it is your loved ones who suffer? Are your differences a good enough reason to destroy the peace the world has struggled so hard to maintain? Or is it that you have just never tried to find an alternative to fighting? The world watches today, hoping for that alternative. It waits for you to decide when we have all suffered enough, asking you to let the problems of the past die, so that we might all live in today…in a world where we can be at peace. Thank you."

The platform erupted with applause as Relena turned and abruptly left the stage, ignoring the flood of reporters struggling to get their questions asked.

"Vice Foreign Minister Darlian…are the Preventers still in charge of the investigation?"

"Are there any leads as to who might have done this?"

"Has it been confirmed yet as to how many died in the incident on Colony Z?"

"What does the Earth Sphere intend to do about the incident?"

"Does the Earth Sphere intend to retaliate…Vice Minister Darlian?"

She could hear the voices, but it was nothing more than a monotonous droning in her ears. Her heart and soul was consumed with thoughts of him, of where he was, and if he was safe. Wondering if he had finally earned his peace.

As she climbed into the back seat of her limousine, her mind drifted, as it had so many countless times before, and Pargan drove her back to the Peacecraft mansion.

…I hope that wherever you are, Heero, you’ve found the peace you couldn’t find here. But, if you are alive…please find a way to come back to me…

He was just about to ask her how the assembly went when he caught sight of her reflection in the rearview mirror, and was silenced by the tears glistening in her sapphire eyes.

* * * * *

***Two days later***

"Wind…this is Fire…You didn’t fall asleep out there, did you?" Noin said, jokingly, not surprised when she didn’t receive a reply.

Morale had been down in Preventer Group ever since the incident, which just seemed too surreal to have really happened. The pilots still had not recovered from Heero’s disappearance, yet had been both unable and unwilling to rule out the possibility that he could still be alive.

Searches over the course of the last week had turned up nothing unusual, and all trace of those responsible for the toxin and its subsequent release on Colony Z, had vanished. All they could do was wait…

…Wait for another colony to be wiped out, while we float around out here in outer space looking for a needle in a haystack… Noin thought to herself, with a heavy heart.

"Fire…This is Wind. Are you on a secure frequency?"

"Yeah, Zechs, go ahead." Noin replied, sensing the faintest hint of urgency in her fiancee’s voice. "Did you find something?"

He didn’t answer right away, wanting to be sure that he was certain so as not to alert her unnecessarily. They had all had enough false alarms in the past several days.

"I’m picking something up on radar." He finally answered, as he magnified the image before him on viewscreen.

The object looked like an old space pod from the Alliance days. The outer hull was breached toward the base of the pod where the main thrusters were located, and the rest of its surface bore the marks of what appeared to be fresh battle. Just looking at it set his entire body on edge.

"What is it, Zechs?…Zechs!"

"It’s a space pod…" He stated, softly, not liking the cadence of panic in her voice.

"A space pod? Out here?" Noin retorted, feeling no more at ease than she had felt at not knowing at all. "Why would it be out here?"

"That’s what I aim to find out, Noin."

"Be careful, Zechs, I’ve got a bad feeling about this one. It could be a trap."

He could sense her definite dislike of the situation, but something was nagging at the back of his mind…something he couldn’t ignore.

Scanning the pod’s diagnostics, he found all drive functions and guidance systems to be off-line, and the life support systems failing.

"Attention unidentified space pod…This is Preventer Wind calling. Please identify yourself..."

He clicked to several different frequencies, but received no response.

Keeping a watchful eye on the drifting pod, he hailed again.

"Your space pod has suffered irreparable damage, and life support systems are flatlining. Are you in need of assistance?"

Again, nothing.

"Noin, I’m going over there."

"You’re what!" Noin screamed, momentarily panic-stricken. "No way, Zechs, they could have set this up instead of a shipping container, figuring we wouldn’t suspect anything. Let’s just haul it back to Headquarters."

"The capsule would never survive re-entry in the Earth’s atmosphere…"

"Then we can haul it to one of the nearby colonies and inspect it once we port." Noin argued.

"Noin, I know you’re concerned…but you’re not thinking this through clearly. If it does have any sign of the toxin on board, we couldn’t possibly risk bringing it to the colonies, we would be endangering countless lives."

"But, Zechs…"

"I’ll be fine, Noin." Zechs assured her, his icy blue eyes finding hers as soon as her image appeared on his viewscreen.

"Please, be careful." She whispered, caressing the cold monitor as though she could reach through to where he was and touch him, if only for a moment.

Before she could release the breath she was holding, he was gone…

The air inside the pod was stale and thick as Zechs made his way through the tiny compartments, searching for any signs of life. His body felt tense, like a trap about to spring, and he could feel the sweat breaking out across his body, beneath the protective cover of his flight suit. His breathing sounded ragged inside the helmet, and he forced himself to calm it, as he moved toward the forward part of the pod.

Luckily, the inside of the pod had suffered only minor damage, and he had little trouble navigating through the debris toward the cockpit. The light emanating from the control panel cast an eerie glow throughout the small, silent room, and he could feel his chest growing tight as he noticed the back of a humanoid figure slumped in the pilot’s seat.

He couldn’t bring himself to move or speak, as he stared at the figure, unsure of what to do.

The body remained unmoving, it’s head lolled forward as if unable to support the weight of the helmet it wore. It’s left arm hung loosely over the side of the chair, the other laid across it’s lap, having previously been wrapped around it’s own waist.

It didn’t take long for Zechs to find the reason why, as he spotted the swelling stains of blood soaking through the person’s flight suit.

Convinced that the pilot, if still alive, was now in dire need of medical attention, he quickly moved to the figure’s side, hoping to find some sign of life.

He wasn’t prepared for the sight that greeted him as he pushed the pilot to what he assumed would be a more comfortable and upright position, bringing the boy’s unmistakable face into view.

"…Heero Yuy…"

END

Okay, I know! I know! Please don’t hate me. It’s just that I have been dying to get to this part of the story, I just couldn’t wait anymore! Now the real fun begins. Lots more Heero torture and angst coming up…Remember there were two days that I left out there. Let’s just say, Heero may be back physically, but who knows what he’s been through while he was missing. Just food for thought! Be seeing you next time!