Disclaimer: Yall know the drill. Gundam Wing does not belong to me. I don't even speak Japanese that well; I ended up with a C in Japanese I, which I fully intend to pull up in Japanese II. Anyways, I don't own it. I just like playing around with it.

Author's Notes: "Broken Road: The Path of Peace" was supposed to be one part, but...um...it got too long. And I'm impatient. No, the second part isn't finished yet, but almost...almost. Thanks for sticking with me, minna:) Also, this section gets a little....citrusy towards the end. If you don't like Vitamin C, click your back brower button now.

Dedication: To everyone who has stuck with the story:)

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Broken Road: The Path of Peace
by Kristen Elizabeth

*********

After Colony 203
Earth

"What you are telling me, Colonel Brandon, is that there was absolutely no way to get our people out of L3 without such heavy losses to both armies?"

The heavyset man on the screen nodded emphatically. "That is correct, Ms. President. I felt that in this situation, drastic measures had to be taken to ensure that in the future, any men of ours who are captured by enemy troops will be treated with the same dignity and respect that we treat our captured prisoners."

Relena Peacecraft took a deep breath and counted to ten. "You blew up almost 100 mobile suits, Colonel, taking not only the colonists, but your own men! How can you ensure dignity with such a disgusting act of war?"

"President Peacecraft...", the man began.

She held up one hand, stopping him. "That will be all, Colonel. And in the future, I expect you to show a little more mercy in your strategy. We are at war, but we are not barbarians." Before he could reply, she flicked the communicator screen off, clearing away his pudgy face.

Fighting back the urge to scream, she abruptly stood up and walked to her office window. The ocean view had comforted her more times than she could remember in the two years since the war had begun, but tonight even the ocean's gentle lull through the dark could not calm her.

She crossed her arms tightly across the bodice of her blue silk ballgown. From downstairs, she could hear the sounds of the gala event, a celebration of the Earth troops' victory at L3. The very notion made her sick; celebrating a bloody battle. But, perhaps there was something more to her anger and restlessness than just her general distaste for fighting.

L3. She had hoped and prayed for nearly two years. When she finally recieved news that L3 was stable and under the occupation of Earth, she had almost fooled herself into believing he would be there, waiting for his freedom to come, waiting to get back to her. But after an extremely thorough search, her colonel in charge of the search party was forced to give her the news that no one matching Heero Yuy's description had been found on the occupied colony.

She knew it was time to let go of the dream that he might be alive somewhere. Two years was a very long time; a determined Heero would never have needed that long to break out of any prison or colony work camp. Only death could ever stop him from being where he wanted to be. Unless, this wasn't where he wanted to be...

Shaking her head violently as if to clear her mind of such thoughts, she stepped away from the window. There was a knock at the door. "Come in", she called out.

Her sister-in-law, Lucrezia Noin, poked her head into the room. "Am I interrupting?"

Relena smiled wearily. "No...I just finished arguing with Colonel Brandon. I can do that anytime."

"Ah." Noin smiled and opened the door further. "Well, I have someone here who really wants to see you."

"Oh...not again", she laughed. Her sister-in-law nodded. Relena waited patiently for the expected person to appear next to Noin. When the little girl finally toddled into the doorway in her tiny nightgown, a much broader smile spread onto Relena's face. "Adia...what are you doing to your aunt, child?" Walking to the door, she scooped her daughter up into her arms and held her close. "I put you to bed hours ago and you were just fine."

The little girl giggled mischieviously and buried her face in Relena's neck. Grinning, Noin touched a curled lock of her niece's hair. "I found her wide awake in her crib when I went to check on the boys", she told Relena, referring to her twins, Samuel and David. "They were completely conked out, of course, but she was just lying there, playing with her feet. She started to whine when I left the room and you know I can't resist that face."

Relena gently kissed her daughter's mop of chestnut colored curls. The child was already falling asleep. This was a familiar game of Adia's, to see which adult she could garner the most sympathy from. Her Uncle Millardo was usually the one to lose, but this time, she had coerced her aunt into taking pity on her. "I think she's going to give us more headaches than the twins combined. Everything I read told me that girls are supposed to be sweet and well-behaved and easier to handle than boys."

Noin shrugged good-naturedly. "Well, you can't completely rely on those parenting books for guidelines, you know." *Because not every child is the daughter of Heero Yuy*, she added to herself.

"Thank you, Lucy", she told her brother's wife. "I'll check on the twins again when I put her to bed. You go back and enjoy the party."

"Goodnight, Adia Marie", Noin whispered, waving her index finger at her sleepy niece. "See you downstairs, Relena." She backed out of the room, leaving Relena alone with her daughter.

Relena brought her other arm up to support Adia's little body. The joy she felt when the baby was in her arms was incomparable. While the child should have been a constant, painful reminder of something lost to her, Adia's presence almost let her forget that anything *was* lost. She was a tiny bit of perfection that Relena had been given completely out of the blue.

It was hard to believe that it had only been a year ago that the little girl had made her way into Relena's life. She chuckled, thinking back to that evening. Millardo in a panic, a hugely pregnant Noin trying to calm him down while organizing the entire group, Quatre by her side in the car, helping her to breathe, Trowa driving to the military base's hospital because no one had the heart to wake up Pagan. It had been a completely insane, intensely painful night. Perhaps the best of her life, with only one possible exception.

But when all the panic and pain was over, there was a tiny person who belonged entirely to her. Who had been concieved in love and born in the same way.

A person who really *wouldn't* ever leave her, no matter what.

The child stirred against her chest, giving the peaceful sigh of the sleeping innocent. Relena kissed her head again and breathed in the clean scent of her baby shampoo. Her hair was so much like his, but her eyes were entirely Relena's. "He would be very proud of you, Adia", she whispered. "Even if he never said it."

A beeping from her desk told her someone was calling. Swallowing back the melancholy that had sprung up on her, she went to answer it. Quatre Raberba Winner's familiar face appeared on the screen. When he saw Adia in her arms, his perpetual smile grew even warmer. "I see the Peacecraft women are doing well tonight."

Relena returned his smile. "She's been playing the game with Lucy. And now she's put herself to sleep." She readjusted her hold on her daughter. "How are you, Quatre?"

"Fine. I was just calling to wish the little princess a very happy first birthday. Trowa and I..." He hesitated. "Well, we're leaving for L4 in the morning and we won't be able to call during her party." Quatre's smile dimmed a bit.

Relena's disappeared altogether. "They're sending you two out to the front? So close to the holidays?"

"We volunteered." Quatre looked down at his lap. "I'm sorry, Relena. They need us."

"I know", she whispered. Holding Adia even tighter, she forced the smile back onto her lips. "If you promise to take care of each other, I'll try not to worry too much."

Quatre scratched his cheek innocently. "I promise. Now, you promise me something."

"Anything."

"Miss Adia should be getting a rather large, rather complex package from her uncles tomorrow. Will you make sure that she thoroughly enjoys it and maybe even shares it with her cousins?"

Relena laughed. "You two are determined to spoil her, aren't you?"

"Absolutely. Do you promise?"

"I promise. Any hints as to what this might be, so I can prepare the mansion if necessary?"

Quatre grinned. "It's not a pack of forty bodyguards, if that's what you're thinking."

"That comes when she reaches puberty, right?"

He chuckled. "Maybe. All I'll say about this present is that there is not a sandbox in the world to rival it."

"Of course", Relena laughed as loudly as she could without waking Adia. "What else should I have expected from you, desert boy?"

"I'm just sorry I won't get to see her enjoy it right away."

The mood a bit more somber, Relena reached out and brushed her fingers across the screen as if she could almost touch him. "That's why you have to come back safely and quickly. So you can see her bury her cousins in the sand."

"That does sound like something Hee...your daughter would do." Quatre shook his head. "I'm sorry, Relena. I.."

"Quatre, you don't have to tiptoe around me anymore. I can hear his name; I won't fall apart."

The blond man sighed. "I just...don't like making it any harder on you." He looked at the sleeping child in Relena's arms. She was the picture of Heero. "I can't believe it's been a year."

"Almost two", she corrected him.

"I meant since she was born." Quatre smiled. "I've been thinking about it all day."

Relena let herself smile back. "Me too." She paused. "Quatre, I don't know if I've ever really thanked you and Trowa...for everything you did for me. Not just that night, but since he...since Heero left."

"You don't need to thank us, Relena. We should thank you for letting us be a part of your life. Of her life. But if you ever decide to do that again, it'll be Trowa's turn to hold your hand. I'm just now getting feeling back into mine."

She laughed again. How her old friend could put her in such a good mood was beyond her. She was just thankful for it. "Please...I could have squeezed much harder than I did." With her free hand, she kissed the tips of her fingers and pressed them to the screen. "Come back to us, Quatre. You and Trowa both. Before Christmas."

"It's a deal. Goodbye, Relena."

"Bye." The screen went blank. She sat for a long minute, content to simply hold her daughter for the rest of the night. Anything was better than facing a ballroom full of boasting colonels and their simpering wives.

Adia yawned, revealing the first tiny teeth that were pushing their way into her mouth. If she hadn't seen them with her own eyes, Relena probably wouldn't have even known her daughter was teething. The child bore pain like her father. It had taken her less than two days to learn to walk; when she fell, she got right back up again, no tears, no quitting. So much like Heero.

She rarely cried at all, in fact. Her younger cousins were a mystery to the little girl as they were constantly alternating between squealing laughter and high-pitched wailing. Relena often caught Adia with a block or a cookie in her little hand, staring at the boys as if she were trying to decide just what was *wrong* with them. If Relena kept watching, she would see Adia eventually shake her dark curls and return to her toy or snack, studiously ignoring her rambunctious cousins. At the age of one, Adia had perfected the looks of total annoyance and complete apathy.

Relena didn't know if it should amuse or worry her.

She sighed and stood up. Careful to not jostle Adia too much, she left her office and made her way through the manor to the nursery. Millardo and Noin's boys were fast asleep in their cribs, lying on their pudgy little stomachs, white blond curls askew. Gently, she lay Adia down in her own bassinette and drew a tiny, pink baby blanket around her.

"I love you", she told her daughter. The achingly familiar teddy bear, still so dear to her after all these years, sat propped up in the corner of the crib. Relena ran her fingers over its worn fur before picking it up and setting it down next to Adia. The little girl sneezed, but still didn't wake. Relena smiled sadly.

The stuffed animal was a poor subsitute for the man, but it was all Relena had to give their child of Heero. She wanted to tell Adia all about her father in words she could understand. She didn't want her to grow up without him in her life. The pain of not knowing exactly what sort of person your father had been was a burden she herself bore, and one she desperately hoped her daughter wouldn't have to. Relena had decided long before that when the time was right, when Adia was old enough to really understand, she would tell her all about Heero. The good and the bad.

Until then, she had the teddy bear.

**********

The dream woke him once again. It had become familiar, something he expected every night without fail. He lay in his miniscule, regulation cot, a cold sweat causing the coarse blanket around him to stick to his skin. His chest rose and fell; the sound of his own breathing was audible throughout the barracks. No one woke, however; a full day of back-breaking work was enough to put them to sleep for the entire night.

But he was different. The dreams plagued him; they never let him rest. There was no explaination for them, no way for him to understand what they meant. And as the days grew into weeks and the weeks into months, he felt they were getting more and more distant, as though he would never understand.

The woman. She had come to him, as usual, in his sleep. Her hair flowed around her body; her eyes sparkled. She smiled at him and her lips moved, forming a word he couldn't hear. Perhaps his name, perhaps a simple greeting, he really didn't know. Names were not necessary where he was; numbers sufficed. Not that he knew if he even had a name.

He turned over onto his side and closed his eyes, attempting sleep once more. But she was still there, in his head. Her face filled his thoughts...strangely recognizable, yet hazy and unidentifiable. She wore white; he wasn't sure why she always appeared to him in white. It made her delicate, untouchable. White was not a color he saw when he was awake. Every night, her arm would reach out to him as if beckoning him to come to her. He wanted to; he never hesitated to try. But his feet were always frozen into place. He could never move. Yelling to her to wait, he would struggle, but it would be to no avail. Twinkling tears would begin to run down her cheeks and as her lips continued to mouth the unreadable word, she would fade away. And he would wake up.

The frustration of not knowing who she was, of not really knowing who *he* was, consumed him. He knew he must be from somewhere, but the memories were completely out of his grasp. The only thing he knew for sure, however, was that he was nothing. A slave, a menial worker somewhere in outer space.

There were other things in these dreams that he didn't understand. The strangely shaped mobile machines, the priest with braided hair who never spoke, only laughed, but she was the one thing he held on to. He survived every day knowing that she would be with him in the night. As distant as she was, she had become everything to him.

"Who are you?", he asked out loud, his words echoing throughout the barracks. "Why are you haunting me?"

*********

"Mobile 104 is clear to take off." Quatre had been waiting patiently for the flight colonel's words over the cockpit's speaker. He grasped the main control with one hand. "Good luck, sir", the man continued.

"Yes. Thank you", Quatre replied back. Looking at the monitors around him, he could see Trowa's mobile suit preparing to take off as well. He smiled and relaxed into the seat a bit more. "Mobile 104...taking off now."

With the ease that comes only with practice, Quatre smoothly guided the suit into the air. He was rising steadily; ten thousand feet, thirty thousand feet. He braced himself as he left Earth's gravitational pull. In less than twenty minutes, he was in space.

"Ready?", Trowa asked over the intercom system.

Quatre sighed. "I suppose so. Remind me again why we're doing this."

He could hear Trowa punching coordinates into his suit's control panel. "Obligation. Sense of duty. Lack of anything better to do. Take your pick."

"You'd better watch out, love. You're almost getting a sense of humor in your old age." Quatre smiled and began programming his own suit. "So, just how many troops are meeting us at L4?"

"15 was what I heard", Trowa replied. "Did you get to speak to Relena last night?"

"For a few minutes. She was about to put Adia to bed, I think. That child...she looks more like Heero every time I see her", he replied, settling back into his seat. "I wonder if she'll ever get to know..." He stopped.

But Trowa didn't need to hear the rest of his sentence to know what he was thinking. "If he can, Heero will find a way."

Quatre nodded, even though Trowa couldn't see it. "I know. Still...it's been nearly two years...I'm rather inclined to think the worst at this point." He paused for a second. "But suppose he did show up today...can you imagine what that would be like? 'Welcome home, Heero. We're still at war, Relena's the president now and by the way, you have a one year old daughter'. I'm not sure even Heero Yuy could handle all of that."

Trowa made a sound that was halfway between agreement and amusement. "At least he'd be there."

"Quit being so reasonable", Quatre teased. His monitor beeped. "Oh no. We've got company."

"I'm way ahead of you", Trowa replied. When he flicked on his outside monitors once again, Quatre could see his lover's mobile suit systematically take down two nearly identical suits, painted red and white, the rebellion's colors. "That was easy", he continued when he was done.

"A little too easy." Quatre's body tensed. "Let's keep an even closer eye from now on. I'd hate to be snuck up on from behind."

*********

The guards were on edge. He could tell from the way they were clumping together, talking in low tones as he and the other men worked. They didn't usually keep such a wayward eye, but today they were definitely distracted. He wondered why; was there something coming? The idea of liberation was such a foriegn one that he had never taken the time to wish for it. When all you could remember was captivity, freedom didn't hold that much appeal.

He returned to his work, programming parts for some sort of machine. From the time he could remember, he had shown skill with computers although he had no idea where he had gained such knowledge. His fingers flew over the keys of the laptop assigned to him, but his mind was still on the worried guards.

The war that he had come to understand was being waged...had it finally reached wherever he was? Would he perhaps someday get to leave here? To go out into whatever the real world was...perhaps even find out who he was? Find out who she was?

He shook his head and tried to concentrate on his work. It didn't really matter who he was. No one else seemed to care; why should he? In all likelihood, he *wasn't* anyone. Maybe he had no family, no friends...maybe she was just a dream. Perhaps he was better off not knowing.

Suddenly, there was a loud explosion from above. He raised his arms instinctively to shield his eyes as the very ground beneath him shook. The guards panicked; people were running all around him in a frantic attempt at escape.

"They're here!", he heard one guard shout. "Retreat!"

"What about them?", another man yelled, gesturing to the work area.

The first man replied, "Forget them. It doesn't matter what happens to them. Get moving!"

He stood up, computer forgotten. In all the shouting and cries, he could hear the sounds of gunfire from somewhere nearby, and also the strangely familiar sound of metal crunching. Another explosion rocked the foundation; he gripped onto his work table for support.

Through the smoke that now filled the room, he could make out the bulky, awkward shapes of several mobile machines. He blinked. They were so much like the ones in his dreams, only perhaps not as sophisticated. They stopped in front of the frightened group of prisoners, their huge bodies looking around as if trying to locate targets.

A door swung open on one of the machines; a man stepped out from inside of it. "My name is Quatre Raberba Winner", he yelled to the prisoners. "I represent the United Alliance of Earth. You are all liberated under the rule of President Relena Peacecraft."

He squinted up at the blond man. What was he saying? He was freeing them? Why did the man's voice tug at his brain? He felt the man's gaze sweep over the people, settling on him for an extra beat. Their stare was broken by a bullet that slammed into the blond man's shoulder.

He swung his head around to see who had shot this Quatre Raberba Winner. One of the guards crouched behind an upturned work table, gun in hand. He made a motion to attack the guard; for some strange reason, he felt the overwhelming desire to. But before he could, the wounded man pulled a pistol from his flight suit, aimed and fired a direct hit at his attacker. The guard cried out and fell to the ground, mortally wounded.

Blood rapidly stained the blond man's flight suit, but he ignored it and simply put a hand over the wound. He jerked his head and the two machines behind him advanced forward, in search of more snipers. Only one stayed behind and another man stepped out from inside of it. He and the blond man exchanged a few words.

He watched them. Their conversation became heated. It seemed as though the blond man was trying to tell his friend something, but the man with the long bangs shook his head slowly. After a moment, the blond man, still holding his hand over the bullet wound in his shoulder, began to climb down from his machine. He hit the ground with only a grunt of pain and started to make his way through the workers. Most let him pass easily, so stunned were they by their long-awaited freedom. Freedom he had given them. Others reached out for the blond man, as though afraid he was just a figment of their imaginations. He paused to recognize them, but quickly pushed on.

Quatre Raberba Winner's path led straight to him.

He stopped a few feet away and just stared for a long moment. His face held a look of surprise, wonder, confusion; sweat beaded his forehead, plastering down his long, blond bangs. His breath was labored as he struggled against what had to be a painful wound. But the tears he saw in the man's sea colored eyes weren't ones of pain.

"Is it really you?", Quatre Raberba Winner whispered. "Can it really be you?" A smile spread across his face. "Heero...." Suddenly, the man hugged him; his blood was warm against his skin. "You're alive! Heero....Allah be praised!"

He blinked as the blond man pulled away after a moment. "Who are you?"

********

"What are we going to do?" Quatre stared at the man across the room. Heero Yuy. The long absent man sat by the thick glass window of the shuttle's anteroom, staring out into the vacuum of space. A piece of bread was in his hand, but he wasn't eating even though Quatre suspected, from his thin body, that he needed to.

Trowa wrapped another layer of gauze around his lover's wound. "We need to contact Relena. She should know, before anyone else."

"What are we supposed to say to her? How on earth do you tell someone this? That the man they love can't remember *anything* about them?" Quatre flinched as the gauze pulled against the broken flesh of his arm. "It will kill her inside." He swallowed heavily. "Believe me...I know."

Trowa stopped for a second before kissing the top of Quatre's blond head. "I know you know", he said softly.

Quatre closed his eyes. "Still, we can't keep it from her."

"No. We can't." Satisfied that the bandage would hold, Trowa tied off the gauze. "Do you want me to talk to her?"

"Thanks. But I can do this." He stood up, carefully testing just how far he could stretch his wounded arm. "Maybe you could take him...Heero out of here. I don't think she needs to see him just yet."

His lover nodded in agreement. After a few minutes, Quatre watched Trowa lead Heero out of the anteroom, leaving him to the daunting task ahead. With a sigh, Quatre sat at the desk and used his good arm to punch up the communicator screen.

"Connect me to the private office of President Peacecraft. Security override code: QW4-12", he instructed the computer.

In a moment, Relena's lovely face came into view on the screen. Her eyes moistened upon seeing him. "Quatre!"

He smiled wearily. "You're a sight for sore eyes, Relena."

"Oh thank God you're all right, Quatre!" She wiped at her cheeks. "We hadn't heard anything about the battle...I was getting so worried!"

"The battle was...rough. Six days if you don't count today." He shifted in his chair, wincing in pain as his arm moved too far in the wrong direction.

She noticed. "*Are* you all right?!"

"Oh...it's not as bad as it looks, I promise. Just a stray bullet." Quatre leaned forward. "Relena..."

"Trowa!", she cut him off. "Is Trowa all right?"

"Trowa's fine. We're both fine and we have L4. But Relena....there's something I have to tell you."

Relena visibly stiffened. "What is it?"

He took a deep breath, exhaling slowly. "Relena..." He paused. "We found him."

All color drained from the President's face. "What?", she whispered when she found breath to speak.

"Heero. He's here, on L4. We found him, Relena."

"Oh God..." She put a hand to her mouth. Her blue eyes were wide, filling with hot tears. Quatre wanted to reach out to her; she looked as though she were about to faint. "He's...he's not dead? He's alive!" The tears spilled over as her eyes closed. "Heero...."

Quatre looked up at the ceiling to blink back his own tears. "Relena, there's more."

She shook her head. A smile was rapidly spreading on her tear streaked face. "It doesn't matter. Whatever it is, it can wait. He's alive, Quatre!!"

"Relena..."

"Quatre...he's coming home!! He..."

"He doesn't remember anything."

As the seconds passed in silence, Quatre watched Relena's smile die. "What do you mean?" Her voice wobbled dangerously. When after a long time he still hadn't answered, she pressed further. "Quatre, what does that mean?"

Quatre ran his hand through his hair. "We'll have to get him to a doctor, but I think it's amnesia. Complete amnesia. He didn't recognize me or Trowa. When we asked him a few questions, he couldn't answer any of them. The only thing he seems to remember is being in the colony's work camp." He paused. "I'm so sorry, Relena."

"He can't....can't remember me? He can't remember....anything?" New tears sprung up, but the joy behind them was long since dead.

The look in her eyes made Quatre want to hit something. *She should not have to go through this*, he said to himself. *Not after everything that's happened.* "I'm sorry", he repeated.

She spoke again, her voice faint and detached. "Bring him home, Quatre."

"Relena, I..."

"Adia needs him." Relena's watery eyes were vacant. "She needs a father. And he couldn't have forgotten about something he never knew existed."

Quatre swallowed heavily. "What about you, Relena?"

She shook her head, but it was just motion, no feeling behind it. "Doesn't matter."

"Relena...stop. Tell me what you're thinking because you're not making any sense." Quatre leaned closer to the screen. "Don't shut down, Relena."

"I have to", she whispered. "I'm hanging by a thread...." Her eyes closed. "Bring him home. We'll go from there."

"Relena..", he began again.

"Safe journey, Quatre." The screen went blank.

He sat for a long a moment after she had gone. Without thinking, he picked up a paperweight from the desk and hurtled it across the room. It shattered as he cried out in pain. Clutching his wounded arm, he pressed another button on the communicator pad, calling the shuttle's pilot. "Let's go home", he managed to order.

*********

It was well past midnight when Relena finally worked up the courage to go to him. It had taken an hour of completely silent thought at her desk before she felt confident enough. She hated herself for having taken even that long. Although he had been in her home for half a day, she hadn't been able to bring herself to face him.

It wasn't as though he was missing her.

She couldn't put it off any longer. The need to see him was too great. If he was asleep, she reasoned, it would be much easier.

The carpeted hallways masked the sounds of her shoes and kept her from being heard as she made her way through the mansion to the wing where she had asked that Heero be put. She was especially quiet as she opened the door to his room; Quatre and Trowa were just next door, at her request. She hadn't wanted Heero to be all alone in the house.

Even breathing filled the dark room. She still remembered that sound. A lump formed in her throat, but she valiantly fought it back as she closed the door behind her and approached the bed.

His face hadn't changed much. It was, perhaps, a little more weathered. Overworked. But the features were still exactly as she remembered. Nose, cheeks, lips...all so perfectly sculpted. His hair was shaggy from years of neglect; the bangs were longer. But they still hung over his forehead in the familiar patterns. In sleep, he was so beautiful.

"Heero?", she whispered. When he didn't answer, she continued. "Sleep, darling. I have a lot to tell you....and I'd rather you not be awake."

Relena carefully sat on the edge of the bed next to his sleeping body. Her hands ached to touch him, but she folded them in her lap primly. "Quatre said you don't remember anything. From before. The doctor who examined you after you arrived told me...that you have amnesia." Her breath caught in the back of her throat. "And that you might never remember."

It was too hard. She bit her lip to keep from crying. Mentally chiding herself for her weakness, she forced herself to continue. "You left...you left me almost two years ago. A year and nine months if you want to be precise. You were going on a mission..." She stopped. "But you never got there. And you never came back."

"We tried to find you. Sent out search parties, interrogated captured colonists. But...no one knew anything. You had just disappeared. I wanted to keep looking...but that was around the time when..." Relena smiled. "When I found out I was pregnant."

She watched him for any sign of reaction. None came; he was truly and deeply asleep. "You know, I fainted when I found out", she told him. "I even..." Relena's fingernails dug into her palms. "I even considered...not having the baby. I hope someday...if you can remember...you'll forgive me for that. But I was 21 years old, unmarried and a world leader. A baby...I didn't know what to do. I was worried about what people would think...what they would say."

"It was Quatre who convinced me not to do it. He reminded me...just how precious life is. And that I shouldn't throw it away because of what others might think. It's too great a gift, life. If you could remember Duo, you'd understand. So, I didn't do it. And I haven't ever regretted my decision." A tiny laugh escaped her lips. "Not even when the reactions came...and my God did they ever come. I think I'm still the favorite piece of gossip."

Relena idly rubbed the marks her nails had made in her palm. "It was the hardest nine months of my life. But I wasn't alone. Like you told me once, I had my brother and Lucy. Quatre and Trowa. They were all there when she was born. Well, Millardo and Trowa were just outside the room. Even Wufei was there, but only because he was woken up along with Sally Po when she was called to help me. It's amazing, Heero...how happy he is. I never thought he would be after losing his leg. I suppose something like that has to change a man. Either for good or for bad. He's become a...true friend." The memories made her smile. "It wasn't a hard birth. Well, that's according to Sally. But, Heero..." She shook her head. "Maybe it was a good thing you weren't there."

"I named our daughter Adia Marie. Two names synonomous with peace." Relena sighed. "I wanted her last name to be Yuy. But she's Adia Marie Peacecraft. It's probably better that way."

"She's so beautiful, Heero. I know...all mothers say that about their children. But she really is. It's like someone took the best parts of both of us and put them into this one perfect creature. I want you to see her. Maybe if you do, you'll see that and then you'll be able to..." She stopped. "I don't know what I'm saying. I haven't really been all that coherent since I found out..."

She could no longer sit. It was getting too painful to be so close to him, yet not be able to touch him. Relena stood and went to the window. "I want to tell you so much more. I mean, I *could* tell you everything I know. How we met, what you were doing during the war, how you came back to me. I could tell you all about your friends, the other Gundam pilots. Duo..." She took a breath. "I could tell you what kind of man you were. I could tell you how much I loved you. How much I still love you. But none of it matters, Heero! It doesn't matter if you can't remember!! They'll just be stories to you! I don't want that."

Relena walked back to him. His chest still rose and fell in peaceful sleep. "I spent two years of my life dreaming about having you this close to me again. And now that I do...it hurts more than when you were gone and I was all alone." She sat next to him again. "But I'm not giving up on you. We will do everything we can to make you remember. Everything."

Unable to hold back anymore, she reached one hand out and brushed his bangs away from his forehead. "I love you so much, Heero. And I know that at one time, you loved me. You didn't think I heard you that night, right before you left, but I did. I don't think I could have survived the past two years if I hadn't heard that." Her gentle touch moved from his forehead down to the hand that lay at his side. Her fingers glanced against his.

As she looked down at their hands, she frowned. There was something different about his. Gently, she picked his hand up and brought it into the moonlight where she could see it better. Tattooed on the flesh of his inner wrist was a series of numbers and letters. "Oh God...Heero!", she whispered. They had branded him like some sort of animal. A tear fell down her cheek and splashed onto his skin. "How could they do that to you?"

He had no reply for her, except to turn his head into a different position. She set his hand back down onto the comforter and leaned forward. "It's over now. Whatever they did to you, you're safe here...with me. I promise."

She was so close, she could feel his breath on her lips. *It would be so easy*, her heart cried. *Just a little kiss...he might not even wake up!* Relena closed her eyes and parted her lips.

Two strong hands grabbed her shoulders, pushing her away. Her eyes flew open. Heero was sitting up right in bed, his eyes cold, a death grip on her slender body. "What do you think you're doing?"

Hot tears stung her eyes, not only from his words, but from his fingers digging into her skin. "Heero...Heero, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have done that."

His head jerked a bit. "Who are you? Why are you here?"

"I just...wanted to see you", she said as calmly as possible. His grip tightened and she couldn't hold back her cry of pain. "Heero!"

With a little growl, he let go of her. Relena's shoulders sagged; she would definitely be bruised in the morning. "Why do you keep calling me that?", he asked.

Unconciously, she rubbed her shoulder. "It's...it's your name."

"My name?", he repeated suspiciously. "Heero."

She nodded, biting her lip. "Heero Yuy."

Heero thought for a moment. "You still haven't told me who you are. And why the hell you're here."

"I know...you don't know me, Heero. I shouldn't have come here at all. I..." She was cut off by his hand touching her cheek. Instinctively, she recoiled. Her shoulders throbbed, reminding her of just what that hand was capable of doing.

"Are you afraid of me?", he asked in a voice that was half taunting and half genuine curiousity. She shook her head. His hand reached for her again, touching her chin. "You look so much like..." He stopped and looked down at the covers.

"Like who?", she whispered. Her heart was in her throat.

His head rose. "No one. She doesn't exist; she's not real. I'm free. I don't need her anymore." His eyes smoldered. "But you're here..." Heero ran his tongue across his lips, wetting them. "You're right here..."

"Heero?", Relena asked, warily. He didn't reply, so intent was he on studying her face. "Heero...", she repeated.

"Don't call me that", he ordered in a low tone. His eyelids lowered as he pressed his mouth against hers. The kiss was rough, almost animalistic. And she loved it. A shiver ran down her spine as his demanding tongue explored the farthest recesses of her mouth. He pulled her body to his, crushing her breasts against his bare chest.

Without breaking the kiss, he rolled her over onto her back. His body was solid over hers; her arms lifted and wrapped around his neck. His mouth left hers, nipping and biting its way down the length of her throat. She gasped at the pain-tinged sensations, so unlike the gentle caresses she remembered from two years before. It was not an unwelcome change, she decided as he sucked the skin over her collarbone.

His hands fumbled with the top button of her blouse. When it refused to come undone, he grabbed a handful of material and pulled, ripping the blouse apart. He wasted no time with tenderness. His lips found one nipple through the satin of her bra; his tongue madly laved it. Relena's back arched off the mattress. He took the opportunity to reach behind her and tear apart the hooks of the annoying garment that seperated his mouth from her skin.

She helped him push the bra and what remained of the blouse off her body, exposing every inch of her torso to his desire-enflamed eyes. Heero pulled back as if savoring the moment. His hands ran over her milky-white flesh. She closed her eyes as his fingers brushed across the tips of her breasts. They were bigger now, as a result of having had Adia. She wished he knew this.

Taking her waist in his hands, he lifted her body as he lowered his mouth to her stomach. His tongue traced pattens on the delicate skin, dipping every now and then into her navel. He moved his mouth up to the flesh between her breasts, but refused to touch the aching centers. She moaned in protest, eyes firmly shut.

The creature beneath him was breathtaking. It was obvious that she knew him; why else would she let him touch her this way? Desire coursed through his veins, a foreign feeling. He wanted to take her right then, to free himself from that desire. Something nagged at the back of his brain, telling him to take his time with this woman. She was special.

He shook his head violently as his mouth captured one nipple, sucking roughly. He didn't know this woman; he didn't owe her any kindness. She was there and he wanted her. And by the noises she was making in the back of her throat, he knew she wanted him too.

Now if only she would stop calling him "Heero".

He wanted her. She felt the evidence of his desire pressing into her belly. Perhaps there was some little part of him that remembered their night together. How many nights had she lain in bed and hoped for this sort of moment? She knew that she really shouldn't be doing this. She should wait until he remembered again and they could make love. But when his hand grasped her inner thigh, she abandoned the thought. *I deserve this*, she told conscience. *I deserve this pleasure.*

She repeated this to herself as he divulged her of the rest of her clothing. He had been sleeping in the nude; his skin felt heavenly against hers. Her legs parted through no will of her own; she kissed him deeply as she felt him join their bodies.

He thought he would lose control when she let him enter her. One of the other prisoners had told him once that the answers to all the mysteries and problems of the world could be solved in the arms and between the legs of a woman. Now he realized...the solutions weren't actually there; it was just that nobody gave a damn about the world when buried inside a woman's body. He tried to stay still, to prolong the feeling. But it wasn't even a minute before he felt the need to move.

It was just as she remembered, minus the initial pain. The feeling of being entirely filled by him...it brought tears to her eyes. He wasn't moving; his face was locked in concentration. Taking the initiative, she raised her hips. Her move worked; he slowly began thrusting. Relena gasped as each forward motion of his hips brought him deeper inside her body. It wasn't deep enough. She hooked her legs around his waist, drawing him in further.

He looked down at the woman below him. Her eyes were closed; her teeth frantically worked at her full bottom lip. Her golden hair was spread across the pillow. So familiar.... His hand reached down and twisted a few strands around his fingers, pulling the soft silk over her shoulder and down to her breast. He brushed her hair across her nipple. The strange sensation made her cry out. "Heero!"

"Don't call me that." He released her hair and slid his hands under her body, lifting her back off the mattress as he continued to thrust himself into her. Burying his face in the crook of her neck, he bit down on a patch of her skin.

The feel of his teeth sent her over the edge. Intense pleasure, long forgotten, washed over her entire being. She wrapped herself around Heero as it momentarily took her mind away from him. She could hear herself screaming his name into his shoulder, but it would be awhile before she cared if anyone heard her.

Feeling her tightening around him brought on his own release. Clutching her small frame, he cried out, his vocalized pleasure muffled by her hair. After several long seconds, he relaxed and lowered her back to the bed. He rested his cheek against her breast.

They lay, still joined, as they caught their breath. She felt him falling asleep against her body, as he thought she had done the last time they had been together. This time, however, she was far from sleepy. If she closed her eyes, the spell might be broken. And she might wake up, only to find herself alone.

"Who are you?", he murmured into her perspiring skin.

She kissed the top of his head. "Someone who loves you."

*********

The dream came to him again. *She* came to him again, with her hair so long, eyes so full...full of what?

"Who are you?", he called out. She had no reply; she simply held out her hand. "Go away! I don't need you anymore!!"

The look she gave him cut deeper than he would have liked. She was hurting. He made a motion to step forward, but found himself still stuck in place. "Auughhhh!!!", he screamed. "Get out of my head!!!!"

"She can't, buddy."

The voice...it was new, yet somehow familiar. He swiveled his head around, scanning the emptiness. "Who is that?"

"She's an eagle...", the voice continued.

"And a sparrow", he found himself saying. He blinked before shaking his head. "What the hell...?"

The unidentified man laughed merrily. The laugh...the priest with the braided hair. "Let me help you."

"Who are you?", he asked again. He looked back at the woman; she was slowly fading away, arm still stretched out towards him. "What is all of this?" He grabbed his head with both hands. "Why can't you leave me alone??!!!"

********

He woke with a start, bolting upright in bed. A fine sheen of sweat stuck to his body as he caught his breath. After a moment, he frowned. Where was he? Nothing looked familiar; the room he was in was rich. Large, soft bed, heavy curtains, gilded furniture. Certainly nothing like the barracks of his work camp.

It was then that he remembered. His rescue, being brought to this huge house on the sea by the two men. What were their names? Quatre and something. He wiped his brow with the back of his hand before using it to prop himself up. The space he set it down on was empty. A memory tugged at his mind. Someone had been here, not too long ago. The woman who had called him Heero.

He could smell her perfume on the sheets, on his skin. There was evidence all around that she had been there, but she was gone now. Growling in frustration, he flipped the sheet off his naked body and stood up. A quick search led him to clothes that had been laid out for him; he dressed rapidly. He wanted answers....immediately.

And she seemed to have at least a few.

The hallway outside the room he was occupying was silent and empty. But he knew there was someone staying next door to him; he had heard voices speaking before he had fallen asleep the night before. Just then, the doorknob to that very room began to turn; someone was getting ready to step into the hall. Thinking quickly, he flattened himself up against the wall next to the door, lying in wait.

The man with the long brown bangs stepped out. Trowa...that was his name. He was concentrating on a small, hand-held computer, punching numbers in as he shut the door behind him. And he wasn't even aware that anyone was near him, until he was grabbed from behind.

Trowa barely reacted to the hand around his mouth and the death grip on his arm. The computer fell to the carpeted floor. He didn't try to fight; he simply let whatever was going to happen next, happen.

"Take me to see her." After a second's pause, he let the hand over Trowa's mouth fall.

"Her, Heero?", Trowa repeated, completely non-plussed by the entire situation.

Heero tightened his hold, illiciting no reaction from Trowa. "Yes, her. The woman...you know who I'm talking about. I want to see her....now."

Trowa sighed. Suddenly, he jerked his arm out of Heero's grip, grabbing ahold of the other man's hand and twisting it around. The tables had been turned and Heero found himself wondering how. "Fine", Trowa said in a calm, detatched voice. "I will. But if you ever try that stealth shit again, you will regret it." *Amnesia or not*, he thought to himself.

Heero scowled and struggled against Trowa's grip. "Just take me to her."

He was about to let go of his old friend's arm when Trowa noticed something. On Heero's wrist there was a tattoo of several numbers and letters. 367YH119. His eyes narrowed slightly.

"What?", Heero snapped. With a sudden burst of energy, he wrestled his arm away from the other man.

Trowa blinked before bending down to retrieve his small computer. "Nothing. Follow me."

*********

"So, she took a handful of cake and just hurtled it at little David", Relena laughed, recounting the tale of Adia's first birthday party to Quatre. "We have it all recorded; you have to watch it sometime. The look on David's face, not to mention Millardo's as he realizes a tiny girl has just bested his son at a cake fight, is priceless."

Quatre laughed and jostled the knee Adia was perched upon. Relena's daughter squealed happily as she bounced up and down. "Miss Adia, you are a terror with the face of an angel", he told her. She giggled as if she understood him. He carefully gathered her back into his arms. "Where are Millardo and Lucy?"

"Taking a much needed Christmas vacation", Relena replied. "They took the boys away for the weekend. I wouldn't let them tell anyone where, so no one would disturb them."

"You're such a good sister", Quatre transferred Adia to his other arm. Even the pain medication he was on wasn't enough to let him hold her with his wounded side. "Oh, I almost forgot to ask. Does Miss Adia like her sandbox?"

"She loves it", Relena assured him. "She'd be out there now if she had any say in it. But it's just a little bit too cold. When you buy a present, you buy a present, Quatre."

He smiled as Adia grabbed a long bang of his blond hair and tugged. "I loved playing in the sand when I was her age. I'm glad she does, too. And when she gets older, I hope she'll like the jungle gym part, and not just the sand."

"I'm sure she will. Did I tell you she already tried to climb it? I nearly had a heart attack when I caught her toddling her way over to..." Relena was cut off by a loud knock on her office door. She gave Quatre a strange look before calling out, "Come in."

Trowa poked his head in the room. He wasted no words...she was beginning to think it was an unbreakable Gundam pilot trait. "Relena...he wants to see you."

The President's face instantly paled. "He...? Um..." She looked at Quatre for help.

Her friend looked down at the baby in his arms. "Don't you think it's time she met him?"

Relena nodded. She didn't trust her voice to reply. Trowa opened the door further.

Heero stalked into the room, dressed in the pants and shirt Relena had dug up in her room from those blissful weeks before the war had begun. Seeing him in the daylight, in her office, in those clothes...it was almost too much. If not for Adia, it would have been like stepping back in time. She found she couldn't meet his glare. "Good morning", she greeted him, softly.

He folded his arms over his chest. "Who are you?"

She took as much air into her lungs as she could. "Don't you want to know who you are first?"

"You've already told me what you think my name is. You screamed it in..."

Trowa spoke up before Heero could finish his sentence. "She just wants to help. You should be grateful."

Heero's stormy blue eyes narrowed again. "I want to know who all of you are and why you've brought me here."

Relena forced herself to look up at him. "Where would you rather be?"

"Anywhere." His voice was as cold as his stare. "Anything has to be better than trading one prison for another." He moved his stare up and down her body. "Even if being here has certain...perks."

She found her arms crossing unconciously across her chest. "If you want to go, so be it. You're not my prisoner. You never have been."

"Relena...", Quatre began.

"No, it's all right. If he wants to leave, I won't try to stop him." Relena stood and approached Heero. "Is that really what you want?"

"I want answers", he replied. "And if you don't give them to me, I'll go *find* them."

They watched each other for several long seconds. The words refused to come to her. She should do it; she should tell him everything. But the man in front of her wasn't her Heero, not really. He wouldn't be until he could remember...on his own. "I'm sorry", she finally said.

Heero's lip curled disdainfully. A dark glare upon his face, he backed up and stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind him as hard as he could.

There was silence after he left, broken by Adia. The little girl looked at the abnormally quiet adults, a huge tear forming in each of her wide, blue eyes. She whimpered; the whimper turned quickly into loud cries. Quatre snapped out of his momentary reverie. "Shhh, Adia. It's all right." The baby paid no heed to his soothing tone and continued to wail. "Relena?"

She blinked. "I'm sorry", she repeated as she took her daughter from him. Even in her mother's arms, Adia continued to cry. Relena gently rocked the baby, her cheek pressed against the little girl's temple. She kissed Adia's curls as her own tears began to fall. "He didn't even look at you, did he?"

********

He wasn't quite sure how he got there, but soon he found himself outside of the house. The patio he stood on looked out over sprawling, winter gardens. The wind was cold...refreshing. A reflection pond stretched across the garden, nearly frozen in the December air. He couldn't explain it, but a bit of his inner turmoil settled as he stood in silence for several long minutes.

His mind wandered back to the encounter in her office. He had only seen her twice, but somehow the woman had the power to get under his skin. It infuriated him.

"Relena", he repeated the name by which the blond man, Quatre, had addressed her. He looked down at his hands. The hands she had allowed to touch her. If she knew him well enough to let him take her like that, why couldn't she tell him anything about himself? What was she afraid of? A dark part of him wanted to make her divulge everything she knew, by sheer physical force if necessary.

*Let me help you.*

"Braided baka", he found himself whispering. His brow furred. Where had that come from? He put a hand to his forehead. Things just below the surface of his mind threatened to boil over; he felt their strain. His gaze lifted to the blue sky as if by staring at it, the answers would come to him.

There was something there. It was no more than quick, silver flash but for some reason, it made his blood run colder than the reflection pool's water. Slowly, he backed up until he was inside the house again. There was a flurry of activity, uniformed men and women running to and fro...it reminded him of the days leading up to his liberation from what he had been told was a colony work camp.

Something was coming. And it wasn't welcome.

********

After Colony 203
Earth

"How many?"

"At least two dozen mobile suits, quite probably more."

"And our defenses...?"

"Limited. Most of our soliders are on leave for the holidays."

"How long will it take to recall them?"

"Could be hours, Ms. President."

"The enemy's ETA?"

"At the most, an hour before they break through our first line of defense. Don't even ask me how they got into the Earth's atmosphere at all. We're investigating that."

Relena closed her eyes as she processed the information. "Suggestions, Colonel Geraw?"

Her Chief Minister of Domestic Affairs sighed. "Unsure, Ms. President. We'll try our best to stave them off for as long as possible. But until the troops return, I'm afraid there's not too much we can do." He paused. "This attack was....well planned."

"Perhaps..."

Colonel Geraw cleared his throat. "I'd like to have you moved to a safer location, Ms. President. You and your family."

Relena opened her eyes. "I appreciate that. But I don't intend to pick up and flee when my people need me the most. We'll be staying here."

The handsome colonel's brow crinkled with uncertaintly. "Ms. President..."

"I promise you, Colonel. My safety is not going to be an issue." Relena looked at Trowa, sitting on her office couch, arms tightly folded.

"Yes, ma'am", Geraw gave in, reluctantly. "I will keep you fully posted on the situation."

"Thank you." The communicator screen became blank.

"They've upped the ante", Trowa commented after a long second of silence.

Relena nodded wearily. "It would appear that the colonists are tired of playing defense. Now it's our turn." With a sigh, she stood up.

Trowa unfolded, then refolded his arms. "How did they get into our atmosphere?"

"That is the question", Relena quipped. "It's being investigated."

Her old friend's eyes narrowed into two slits. "Hmm", was all the response he gave.

The office door opened unexpectedly. Relena jumped, but quickly relaxed upon seeing Quatre in the door's frame. "Did Adia go down for her nap without giving you too much trouble?" The lightness in her words was strained.

Quatre smiled faintly. "The nurse is still trying to get her to sleep." He shut the door behind him and walked to Trowa, accepting the man's comforting hand around his waist. "Call me crazy, but I think she knows what's going on."

Relena attempted a smile of her own. "I wish she could tell me, then."

"It's bad...isn't it?" Quatre's voice was soft. Relena nodded in reply. He looked at Trowa. An unspoken agreement was reached when their eyes met, a result of their long, intimate relationship. "Trowa and I are going to help the defense fleet."

Relena looked back and forth at the two men, so stoic in their determination to do whatever they could for the Earth, together. Blinking back tears, she nodded. "Just please...please be careful. If I lost..." She choked. "I can't lose anymore...people I love."

Quatre moved to embrace her as tightly as his wounded arm would let him. "We won't let them get past us, Relena."

"We have a lot to protect here", Trowa added.

Relena approached him and kissed his cheek. "Thank you."

Quatre smiled at this, but the smile faded as a thought came to him. "What about Heero?"

"What about him?" Relena's voice was surprisingly detached.

The men exchanged another look. "Has anyone seen him since he stormed off?", Quatre asked.

Relena shrugged in an effort to maintain her cool. "I really don't know." After a moment, her blank expression dissolved, unable to keep up the pretense of apathy where Heero was concerned. "I can't let myself think about Heero right now. If he's still here, good. If he's left..." She stopped.

"We understand." Trowa looked at Quatre.

"Wish us luck", his partner said, leaning in to kiss Relena's cheek.

"I wish you more than mere luck", Relena replied, her eyes glistening with new tears.

After a pause, the two men left the room, bound for the basement headquaters and the mobile suit fleet that was housed there.

Relena closed her eyes. "I wish you didn't have to go."

********

Heero wandered aimlessly around the manor like a shadow. The uniformed men and women were in a state of near panic; they passed by him without so much as a glance. Anonymity: both a comforting and frightening reality. But, because of his relative invisibility, he learned what was happening.

"When do you think they'll be here?", one woman asked another soldier as they quickly headed down a long hallway to the staircase. From his place in a deep doorway, Heero could just make out the man's reply.

"Thirty minutes, so they say. All the mobile suits are on full alert." The couple moved out of hearing distance.

As soon as they were gone, another group of soldiers, comprised of two men and a woman, walked past him.

"....hear that Commanders Barton and Winner are leading the defense fleet?"

The uniformed woman touched a hand to her heart. "That makes me feel a little better. You know they were Gundam pilots, right?"

"That's just a rumor, Sariah", the third man scoffed. "Haven't all records of that been..." They rounded a corner and disappeared. The hallway became eerily quiet, leaving Heero to his jumbled thoughts.

*Gundam.*

The word stuck to his mind, refusing to dissipate. Gundam. Was it a type of plane? The soldiers had said the captains were pilots of Gundams. The first two had mentioned mobile suits, also. Could a Gundam be a mobile suit?

He felt like he should know, beyond a shadow of a doubt. Running a hand down his face, he looked up at the ceiling in frustration. Gundam.

There was only one way to know for sure. He glanced up and down the hallway, before stepping out from the doorway and turning to the left. Slowly, deliberately, he began to follow the path of the first couple of soliders. To the mobile suits.

********

The harness in the mobile suit he was settling himself into was too loose. A bigger man must have been last to pilot it. Quatre found himself briefly wondering who it might have been. Obviously someone who had returned from the battlefield, but perhaps had perished in another battle, with a different mobile suit. He shook his head as he painstakingly readjusted the harness straps to secure his body. Such thoughts were no good when heading into battle, much less when getting ready to lead a battle.

With the push of a button, the swinging doors of the mobile suit closed, sealing him into the suit's cockpit. A rush of adrenaline ran down his spine. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a small communicator screen pop up; Trowa's face looked back at him.

"I'm going to lead ten suits to the east. You take fifteen over the ocean to the west", Trowa mapped out his plan.

Quatre nodded. "How many suits are staying behind?"

"Five." Trowa closed his eyes briefly. "She'll be all right, Quatre."

"I know." After a pause, Quatre flipped a switch to project his voice to all the mobile suits under his command. "I'm Commander Quatre Winner. Commander Barton and I will be leading you all today. I don't have to tell you that the situation is highly dangerous. We have no idea who we're fighting or how many of them we'll be fighting. But I have faith in you all. Who is the second in command for each troop?"

Two more screens popped up, just barely overlapping Trowa's face. "I'm your second in command, Commander Winner. Captain Eli Smith." A young man, perhaps only a few years younger than him

An even younger girl smiled at him from the second screen. "I'm Captain Sariah Dagman...second in command to Commander Barton, sir."

Quatre forced a return smile. "You both know what to do. Should anything happen to Commander Barton or myself...the mission is defend and protect. There is to be no direct attack on any enemy without instructions from the base or President Peacecraft herself. Understood?"

"Yes sir", both youths replied before their screens disappeared.

Bending his neck to one side and then the other, Quatre carefully placed his hands on the mobile suit's control grips. "West troop....pull out."

Five minutes into the flight over the ocean, Captain Smith's face reappeared. "Sir...", he began. Fear was etched on his features. "Enemy spotted."

"How many?"

Smith checked something on his monitors. "Looks like twenty mobile suits. Colony suits, sir."

Quatre took a breath. "We don't engage. We'll circle back around and see what they...." Suddenly, there was a blast dangerously close to the left side of his suit.

"Sir!", Captain Smith shouted. "Are you all right?"

"I'm fine. Send word to the base. Enemy spotted and engaged." Quatre wiped his brow. The battle was just beginning.

********

"Commander Barton....we have confirmation of direct attack on the first line of suits", Captain Dagman reported. "Your orders, sir?"

Trowa lifted his head. "Inform the base. The battle's begun."

********

"Sir...two of our suits are down. We have no confirmation of any enemy suits destroyed." Captain Smith's voice was shrill. "Also sir...we were two miles out to sea...and now we're only a mile offshore."

Quatre flicked his wrist, ignoring the pain from his wound, and sprayed a line of bullets at an unidentified enemy. "They're pushing us back....but for what reason?"

Smith scratched his head. "Do you think they want us over land, sir?"

"It would be far easier to fight over water, having no place to set a suit down", Quatre replied. "They're pushing us back to the base. We can not let them."

"Yes sir."

********

"How many suits are down?"

"Four, Commander Barton. Nothing seems to be destroying the enemy suits. It's like our firepower just bounces off of them. Like they were made of..."

"Gundanium", Trowa finished the girl's sentence. "How far are we from the base?"

Captain Dagman checked her monitors. "Five miles. They've pushed us back three miles already, sir. If this keeps up, we'll be fighting over the Manor."

"I'm guessing that's just what they want."

********

"Commander Winner....there's mobile suits behind us." Captain Smith paused. "It's Commander Barton's troop, sir!!"

Quatre's brow crinkled. "They've pushed us nearly back to the Manor. They seem to want us clumped together." He rubbed his temple. "Did we strategize wrong? Could we have prevented this?"

"With all due respect, sir....we shouldn't be focusing on that right now. Two more of our suits are down."

"Quatre." A screen with Trowa's face appeared in front of his eyeline. "Are you all right?"

"Trowa", he whispered in relief. "Yes...I'm fine. They managed to push you back too."

Trowa nodded. "I believe their suits are made of Gundanium. Our weapons are going to be useless against them."

"What are you saying? Are you suggesting we surrender??" When Trowa didn't reply, he continued. "Reinforcements are on their way, Trowa. We just have to hold out a little bit...." Before he could finish his sentence, Trowa's screen disappeared. "Trowa? Trowa?!"

Another screen replaced it, bearing Captain Dagman's pretty face. "Commander Winner....Commander Barton's been hit!"

"No", Quatre whispered. "No...no...." His face was pale and his hands shook, but he readjusted his grip on the suit's controls. "Captain Smith....you're in charge of the troop. Keep them away from the Manor." Before the man could reply, Quatre dropped his suit out of flight mode, heading for the distant ground below.

Flipping on his outside monitor, he carefully scanned the tree covered hills. Just when he was about to double back, he spotted smoke. "Trowa..."

He landed his suit as close to the wreckage as he could. Ignoring his wound, he frantically worked at the harness holding him back. The door swung open and he bolted from the pilot seat into the sunlight.

The smoke was coming from the right side of the suit. The terrific heat of the blast Trowa had been delivered had caused the metal to simply melt, sending the suit to the ground. Quatre was just relieved that the blast hadn't struck a few feet to the wrong side. "Trowa!", he called out, lowering himself from the cockpit of his suit.

His arm throbbed in intense pain as he climbed up his lover's fallen suit. His fingers ran over the indentations the door made, but failed to find the exterior release button. "Trowa", he screamed, banging on the door. Without warning, the door fell open; Quatre barely had time to move aside. As soon as he could, he leaned into the cockpit. "Trowa....are you all right??"

His partner was still securely fastened into his seat, although his head hung down to his chest. He coughed twice before looking up. "Quatre?" A trickle of blood ran down his cheek.

"Don't worry...I'm going to get you out of here." Quatre ducked to step into the cramped cockpit. He pulled at Trowa's harness until it came undone. One arm slipped around the man's slender waist, hauling him out of his seat. "Can you walk at all?"

Trowa nodded. Together, the two men stepped onto the platform created by the door. Quatre began to climb down first, holding onto Trowa's hand as he helped him follow a minute later. They landed on the ground and embraced. Quatre pulled back and ran his hand over his lover's face, examining him. He appeared to have gotten away with only minor cuts and bruises.

"It's just my shoulder...it might be dislocated", Trowa assured him. "You didn't need to leave the troop."

"Would you have stayed if it had been me?" Quatre waited for the expected shake of his lover's head. "All right then. We need to get back to the..." He stopped as Trowa's eyes grew wide. "Trowa?"

"Run. Quatre...run." Trowa's hand tugged at his, pulling him forward. "Now!!"

Out of instinct, Quatre's head swung around to see what he should be running from. A colony mobile suit waded through the trees on an evident 'search and destroy' mission. It didn't take genius to realize who the suit was searching to destroy. With their suits in plain sight, it would only be moments before they were spotted.

They were defenseless unless they could get lost in the woods. Quatre felt Trowa pull at his hand again. "Quatre!!" But Quatre couldn't move. "Jesus...", Trowa breathed, in as close to a prayer as he had ever come.

The mobile suit had targeted them.

Trowa's arms wrapped around Quatre in an attempt to physically drag him to safety. The suit advanced forward. He managed to pull the blond man away just as a blast of firepower hit the spot they had just been standing in. Another blast landed to their other side. "Shit!"

The men watched as the mobile suit located them once again. The blaster in its arm raised.

There was a terrific explosion. Quatre shielded his eyes from the intense light. After a moment, he blinked. They were still alive. "Trowa?"

His lover pointed to the colony suit, now badly damaged from the mysterious blast. "Someone got a direct hit." Trowa's green eyes scanned the area. "Was it one of the troop?"

"No." Quatre pointed. "Look." The mystery suit flew over their heads. "I know that flight pattern." He wiped sweat from his brow. "That's Heero."

Trowa shook his head. "Heero?"

"Heero. Heero Yuy." A voice behind them laughed. Trowa and Quatre spun around. "He's a harder bastard to kill than you two are." The man addressing them stood in front of a group of soliders. A dozen guns were pointed at the two former Gundam pilots. They were surrounded.

Quatre's brow crinkled. The man's face was familiar, but try as he did, he failed to place it. "What do you want?"

"Isn't it obvious by now, Quatre Raberba Winner?" The man laughed again.

A gleam ran across Trowa's eye. "I know who you are", he told the leader.

The man cocked an eyebrow, smiled pleasantly and looked back at Quatre. "Hold onto your boy. He's going to need it."

Before Quatre could open his mouth to reply, the man pulled a pistol from his belt, aimed and fired at Trowa, sending a bullet straight through his thigh. "Trowa!", Quatre cried as blood splattered across his body. Trowa took the bullet stoically, but after a second, he lost his balance. Quatre's arms kept him up.

"Shit", Quatre heard his partner mutter into his vest.

"Are you colonists?", Quatre shouted to the soldiers. "There are laws, you know....rules of warfare."

The man chuckled. "You just...don't get it. Do you?" He looked up to see the strange mobile suit doubling back. Then, he glanced back at his soldiers. "Shoot down 01. Take 03 and 04 back to the Manor."

Quatre didn't hear the explosion. His face was buried in Trowa's neck; his fingers worked at his lover's wound, attempting to stop the flow of blood. He felt a soldier pulling roughly at his arm. *Heero*, he thought before something hit the back of his neck. *Don't let them get us all.*

********

The men who escorted her down to the sub-basement were surprisingly kind. Relena laughed at herself for having the thought. These were the same men who had broken through every line of defense she had available to get to her. Her amusement died. If they had gotten to her....did that mean that Quatre and Trowa were dead? Her knees weakened.

"Ms. President?", one of the young colony soldiers asked when her pace slowed down. "We really must hurry."

"I'm fine", she replied. Her eyes searched the boy's for any sign of condesencion in his use of her full title. She saw none. Only the eyes of a boy placed in the middle of a war for reasons that were too great for him to comprehend. His eyes reminded her of Heero's.

The door to the basement swung open and she was gently urged inside. As her eyes adjusted to the lack of light, she looked around. Colonel Geraw and the other Earth soliders who ran the base were grouped into the corner, held at gunpoint by several colonists. She caught the colonel's eye and gave him what she hoped was a reassuring smile.

"He'll be here soon, Ms. President", the same young soldier informed her.

Relena straightened her back. "He? Who is he?"

"Me, *Miss* President." The voice behind her sent a shiver through her entire body. Slowly, she turned around.

"You?", she whispered after a long minute. "Colonel Brandon?"

The obsese man smiled gleefully and moved aside to let the rest of his troop in. The last two men in dragged the unconcious, bleeding bodies of Quatre and Trowa. Relying on her years of political experience, Relena managed to keep a calm face. "Colonel..", she began, praying for her voice to remain steady. "Explain all of this."

Colonel Brandon made a noise of disappointment. "You're a smart girl. Don't tell me you can't put the pieces together."

"You are...a colonel for the United Alliance of Earth. I am the leader of the United Alliance of Earth. You *will* explain yourself to me."

All amusement was wiped from the colonel's face at her words. "I wouldn't say you're in the best position to be giving orders, little girl", he hissed. With a jerk of his head, he signaled to an unseen soldier. After a second, a third body was dragged into the room.

Her mask of detachment crumbled. "Heero!", Relena cried out as the soldier dropped him practically on top of Quatre. His clothes, stained with blood, seemed to have been burned. His skin was pale. Too pale. "What the hell do you want with them?"

"Ah..." The colonel smiled again. "You *are* starting to get it."

Relena stared at Heero as hot tears built up in her eyes. "Why are you doing this? You're....you're a colonel...my colonel..." She closed her eyes and the tears fell. "I trusted you..."

"You mean they didn't tell you?" Colonel Brandon gestured to the three former Gundam pilots. "You can't trust anyone in a war, little girl." The fat man stepped forward and kicked Heero's unconcious body. "Especially not them."

********

Quatre watched himself claw through the fog surrounding his mind. He heard voices. A man's and a woman's. Relena. Cold tile pressed into his cheek. Something heavy lay on his right arm. He squeezed his eyes tighter before forcing them open. He found himself staring straight at the strange lump on his arm, Heero Yuy. His old friend was frighteningly still, covered with blood and burns. Quatre painstakingly lifted his head to glance to the other side. He was startled to see a familiar pair of green eyes looking back at him.

His partner didn't blink for a long moment; Quatre's heart was in his throat as he waited for that little sign of life. Finally, Trowa's eyelids lowered briefly. When he opened them again, he met Quatre's gaze and held it.

Everything about Trowa's look said something to Quatre. From the black centers surrounded by forest green, he knew that Trowa was in pain, but hanging on. That he was grateful that Quatre was all right. Quatre smiled. After a moment, Trowa's eyes looked up and then back, repeating the motion several times until Quatre looked up.

He saw Relena, surrounded by colony soldiers. The dim light of the room caught the shiny path of tears on her cheeks, although her posture and demenor remained that of the queen she had once been. He knew in that instant what Trowa wanted him to do. They had, after all, made a promise to themselves to protect her at any cost to their own lives.

Quatre slowly brought his hand up to his head, placing it flat upon the ground as he prepared to use it to flip Heero off of him and haul himself up from the floor. Before he could, a boot landed centimeters away from his nose.

"Mr. Winner...." The man who had captured them looked down sadly. "You don't really want to do anything stupid, do you? Anything that will get her killed?" He pointed to Relena with his gun.

Beside him, Trowa grimaced. "Leave them alone", he managed to spit out.

The colonel grabbed a handful of Trowa's long bangs, pulling him to his feet. "You're lucky I haven't killed you all yet!", he yelled. "I could have just shot you to bits. Like I did your friend."

Quatre inched his body out from under Heero, wincing as the other man's body flopped lifelessly onto the ground. He raised himself onto his knees. "Our friend....?"

Colonel Brandon released Trowa's hair, sending him staggering backwards. "I can see I'm going to have to explain things very slowly to you all."

"He's talking about Duo", Relena whispered. "He killed Duo."

"Ah, ah, ah..." The fat man shook one plump finger. "I didn't shoot the bastard down. I just arranged for someone else to do the deed."

"Why?", was all Quatre could think to ask.

Colonel Brandon ignored his question. "I have to say...I'm enjoying this far more than I did his death. It was too easy to kill him. He didn't even know what hit him....didn't know that he was supposed to die that day. But the rest of you...." The man grinned. "I made sure you knew someone was going to get you."

"So..." Relena took a breath. "You killed Duo...and you sent them those horrible notes." She paused. "You set off the bomb on L3. You started the war...."

"I always thought you were the brains behind the operation, Miss President, ma'am. Yes...I left a little gift for 05. It
didn't go *exactly* the way I wanted it to, but you can't always have your way. Besides..." He laughed. "Sometimes the unexpected is far more fun than anything I could ever plan." He stepped past Quatre to prod at Heero's body with the toe of his boot. "Take, for example, 01."

Relena bit her lip. "What did you do to him?"

Trowa ran a bloody hand through his hair. "They kept him away from you, Relena. Didn't you see his wrist?"

"His wrist?" Her eyes widened. "The tattoo..."

"It has his initials", Trowa continued. "YH. They knew exactly who they had in their work camp all along."

Colonel Brandon nodded happily. Like a child in a candy store. "You forget, princess, I'm a colonel for the United Alliance of Earth. A former Preventer. I'm the one who *sent* Heero Yuy to L3. What amuses me beyond belief is that wonderful case of amnesia. No fighting, no attempts to escape. Just a dead man in a living body. How could I arrange for something that perfect?" He laughed. "You could say, it was a gift from the gods."

********

He was lying on a beach. Half of his body was still in the surf; warm water crashed over his lower legs at regular intervals. His mouth was gritty with blood and sand. Blinking salt water from his eyes, he struggled to lift his head.

She was there, in front of him. The woman he knew now was Relena. Her clothes were childish, her face young...far younger than she had ever appeared to him before. She was looking at him so strangely. Fright...curiousity...perhaps even a bit of a blush colored her cheeks.

"Relena....", he heard himself whisper. But somehow, it was all in his head.

"That's right, Heero."

It wasn't her who spoke the words; her lips remained still as she watched him, frozen in time and space. The voice came from behind him. With every bit of his will, he rose to his knees and turned his head. The priest stood a few feet away, the ocean's surf flowing over his bare feet. His long braid rested over his right shoulder; his violet eyes were large and laughing.

"Duo." The name came to him suddenly.

The man's smile grew even broader. "Now that's more like it. I figured someone as stubborn as you couldn't block his own memories forever." He walked a bit closer, seeming to enjoy the sand between his toes, the water around his ankles.

Heero blinked once and then again. "You're....dead."

Duo made a scoffing noise. He stopped just in front of Heero. "Please....Death doesn't die. As long as you don't forget...." He cleared his throat pointedly. "....they won't have ever really gotten rid of me."

He found himself smiling. "The God of Death is back from hell.....to see me?"

"Don't flatter yourself, *Hee-chan*. This is all in your head, not mine." Duo stuck his hands in his pockets and looked beyond Heero to Relena's frozen figure. "How 'bout it? Ready to remember?"

"Ready to remember what?"

Duo gave an exaggerated sigh. "You really are thick, aren't you? Are you ready to remember her? Yourself? Me....everything!? Do you *want* to be a stranger in your own life forever?"

Heero swallowed. "I don't know..."

"I guess some things'll never change." Duo shook his head sadly. "You're never gonna let me help you." After a minute, he squatted down next to Heero. "It's not all good stuff, Heero. In fact, most of it is gonna be pretty damn bad. But you gotta remember it all. You owe it to her."

"Why?", Heero asked, finding it hard to use his voice. "What is she to me?"

"Everything." Duo stood. "As you are to her." He held out his hand. "C'mon...let me help you."

Heero studied his hand for a long moment before accepting it.

********

"You bastard", Relena whispered. "Why? Why have you done this to them?"

Colonel Brandon shook his head, condescendingly. "Oh...there's so many *reasons*, Miss President. We're at war! Didn't you tell me that?"

"I also remember saying we weren't barbarians", she replied. "At least...most of us aren't."

"So, I'm a barbarian now. Revenge is animalistic..." He raised his meaty shoulders in indifference. "I suppose you're right about that. People don't look too kindly on revenge nowadays. They need a real reason to kill. Like a war...."

"Revenge? You started the war....to kill them?" Relena wrapped her arms around her trembling body. "What could they possibly have..."

He looked at her coldly. "If you even have to finish that sentence, princess, I gave you too much credit when I said you were smart."

From his spot on the floor, Quatre spoke up, quietly, but clearly. "Who was it that we killed?"

The hatred in the colonel's eyes burned. "Every single one of my sons", he spat out. "You killed Matthew in outer space. 05 killed Gregory at Victoria. And 01..." He took his gun and pointed it at Heero's head. "Slaughtered Zachary and Aidan on the Libra."

"It was a war." Relena's nails dug into her arms. "People die in wars....you've killed people!! You can't hold them accountable for...."

"Our actions?", Quatre finished her sentence.

"Quatre..." Relena slowly shook her head as new tears fell. "Please don't say that..."

Colonel Brandon looked at the blond man with interest. "You've always been a mystery to me, 04. The man who kills with mercy. Tell me...." He knelt as best he could. "How did it feel when you killed my son?"

Quatre lifted his head and looked the man in the eye. "You know...I honestly don't recall."

The colonel's face grew dangerously red. His hand tightened around his gun as he brought it up, pressing the barrel into Quatre's blond bangs. Relena was barely concious of her body running forward.

"No!!", she heard herself scream as her fists attacked the colonel's back. Two soldiers grabbed her arms, pinning them behind her back. Quatre started forward, but another solider grabbed him. Colonel Brandon hauled his mass back up and turned on the former Queen of the World. Not for the first time in her life, Relena found herself on the wrong end of a gun.

"Bad girl", Colonel Brandon whispered. "Don't you know that if anything happens to me....it would only be a matter of seconds until I could have soldiers in the nursery?"

Unable to keep her facade of calm, Relena felt herself slumping to the ground at the man's horrible words. The soldiers kept her halfway standing. "You wouldn't....she's nothing to do with....you couldn't..."

"The illegitmate bastard of 01?" The colonel laughed heartily. "Don't tempt me. Princess."

********

The floor beneath him was cold. As he slowly came to, he forced his eyes open, focusing them on the scene before him. The fat one...he had the woman at gunpoint. He had Relena at gunpoint. His Relena. Rage boiled in his blood. His muscles strained as he pulled up himself up off the floor. Staggering to his feet, he glared at the man's massive back.

"Leave her alone", he muttered. With reflexes and speed long forgotten, he lunged forward.

Quatre spied the sudden movement out of the corner of his eye. "Heero!" He struggled against the man holding him back.

With the side of his flattened palm, Heero delivered a powerful blow to the back of the Colonel's neck. The man's knees wavered; the arm holding his gun flailed. Heero took the opportunity to grab the arm, snapping it behind the Colonel's back. Wrenching the gun out of his hand, Heero brought his leg up, kicking Colonel Brandon to the floor. Before the man could recover, he found himself staring down the barrel of his own gun.

Heero cocked the safety off with his thumb. His arm was steady; his glare deadly. "Omae o korusu."

"Heero....no!!", Relena cried out. "Don't do it! You don't have to kill anymore...remember?"

A long second passed. Quatre held his breath as he watched. Finally, the clear sound of a gun's safety being flicked back on bounced off the steel walls. Taking his finger off the trigger, Heero pointed the gun to the ceiling. "Bang", he said in dead monotone.

As soon as the word was out of his mouth, the control room's doors burst open. A troop of uniformed men flooded in, weapons raised. Colonel Brandon and his guards were surrounded.

Heero stepped back to allow three soldiers access to his fallen enemy. The leader of the new troop ran to Relena and looked her over. "Are you all right, Ms. President? They didn't harm you, did they?"

She shook her head and struggled to find her voice. "No...I'm fine. Please....my friends..." Her arm pointed to Trowa. A solider immediately ran to the former Gundam pilot. Quatre was already by his side, wrapping a piece of his ripped shirt around his lover's thigh.

Relena approached Heero and gently pried the gun from his hand. The metal was cold and heavy against the skin of her palm. She looked at it as she spoke. "You can remember."

"I remember. I remember it all", he whispered. "But how did you...know? I could have killed him." He gestured to the Colonel who was being held up by the three Earth soliders.

She smiled and looked up for a brief second. "I just knew." As her eyes lowered, her voice hardened. "Colonel Brandon....you are under arrest for high treason to the United Alliance of Earth, the attempted murders of Trowa Barton, Quatre Raberba Winner and Chang Wufei, conspiracy to commit the murder of Duo Maxwell and..." She wavered slightly. "The kidnapping and unlawful imprisonment of Heero Yuy." She turned to her soliders. "Please take him away."

As the Colonel and his men were led out one by one, Relena felt a great weight lift off her shoulders. It was all over. And soon, the war would be too. But more importantly...he was back. Her Heero. She looked back up at him.

"Relena", he said again. It was all he could think to say.

Relena touched his chin. "What is your name?"

A trace of smile colored his lips. "Heero."

"How old are you?"

He thought for a second. "Twenty...three."

She pointed to Quatre, holding Trowa's hand as a medic snapped his lover's dislocated shoulder back into place. "Who are they?"

He paused. "My friends."

A lump rose in her throat. "You really do remember, don't you?" He nodded. "How? What happened?"

Heero looked at the ceiling. "I...took one of the mobile suits." Shaking his head, he searched for the right words. "I knew how to operate it, but I still didn't know *why* I knew. I wish I could explain it better..." He stopped. "I saw him, Relena. Duo. I let him help me." He felt her questioning gaze boring into him. "I don't want to be a stranger in my own life."

Relena needed no further explaination. The tears that had filled her eyes spilled over. "Heero..." She embraced him tightly. "You're not...not anymore."

His arms wrapped around her. "I'm... I need to say..." He corrected himself. "I *want* to say... Gomen nasai."

"For what?" Her words were muffled by his shoulder.

"It's not all clear yet....everything is still hazy. But I just feel like...I hurt you again. I promised I wouldn't leave you. And I did." He swallowed heavily. "I took advantage of....I mean, I...when I...last night..."

She smiled softly. "I seem to recall there being two of us there, Heero. And nothing happened that I didn't want."

One hand idly stroked her back. "I don't deserve you. After everything..."

Relena shook her head as she lifted it from his body. "You're here. You can remember. That's all that matters to me now." A silent moment passed. "Heero....there's someone I want....I want you to meet."

*********

Heero Yuy approached the crib with more caution than he could ever remember have used in his entire life. His heart pounded in his chest cavity; a trickle of sweat ran down his neck, disappearing into his collar. He swallowed back fear with the thought that, as far as he could remember, no near-suicide mission had ever worked him up like this.

But then, no mission had ever been as *vital* as this.

He stopped a foot away from the crib and looked down. Sitting upright admist baby pink flannel and white eyelet lace was a perfect little person. A miniscule child with his hair and Relena's eyes. His daughter.

Adia gazed up at him with a wide stare. Clouded blue met crystal blue. Suddenly, her tiny, chubby arms lifted towards her father, asking to be held. He didn't move. She was so small; he was afraid that by touching her, he might somehow hurt her.

Heero felt Relena come up behind him. "She won't break, Heero."

"Hai...hai. Zya...", he whispered. Wiping his clammy hands on his jeans, he leaned into the crib, catching his daughter under the arms to lift her out. Holding her at arm's length, he stared at her for a long moment. "What is her name?"

Relena bit her lip to keep from crying. "Adia", she managed to reply. "Adia Marie."

"Adia Marie", he repeated. On some sort of instinct, he pulled his arms back towards his chest, holding the baby to his body. "And she's mine. She's really and truly mine?" He paused. "Ours?"

"She's ours." Relena's voice cracked under the weight of her emotions. "Really and truly."

Heero looked down at the little girl. "She's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen."

Relena rested her head on Heero's shoulder as she touched a curl of Adia's hair. The baby cooed, perfectly content with both her parents. "She's been waiting for you." She turned her face into Heero's arm, wetting his shirt with her tears. "I've been waiting for you."

Heero lowered his head and closed his eyes. "No more waiting." His lips touched Adia's curls. "No more leaving." He kissed Relena's forehead.

A chuckle tore through Relena's throat. "So...what else is there to us besides waiting and leaving?"

His free hand lifted her chin. "I told you once that I would tell you...how I felt about you." He took a breath. "Relena, I..."

She cut him off with a finger to his lips. "You don't have to say it, Heero. I know."

Heero sighed. "You...you are almost as frustrating as that American baka." Transferring Adia to one arm, he cupped Relena's face with his hand. "It has taken me nearly an entire decade to be able to say this to you. Nothing and no one can stop me." Heero cleared his throat. "Relena, I love...."

Just then, the nursery door flew open. Millardo stood in the frame, chest heaving, cheeks pink with exertion. He double blinked as he took in the sight before him. "Yuy?", he asked. He looked at his sister incredously.

Noin appeared beside him, a small, blond boy in either arm. "Heero?", she whispered. "Oh my God...Heero!"

Quatre's voice could be heard behind Millardo's little family. "Is Heero in there? Adia's in there."

A large smile spread on Noin's lovely face. She moved to the side. "See for yourself."

Millardo blinked again. "What the hell is going on?"

"I think it's fairly obvious, dear", Noin murmured into her husband's ear.

"Perhaps we should give them some time alone." Trowa, eternally calm.

"Are you kidding, love?" Quatre squeezed his slender body between his lover and Noin's children to see into the room. "I would pay good money to see this."

"We heard over the wire that the entire house was being held hostage. We get back just as it's all over...and now...this...?" Millardo made a fumbling gesture towards Heero.

Noin sighed and thrust one baby into his father's arms. "Here, darling. Keep yourself busy."

Suddenly, Heero began to laugh. The four adults and two children in the doorway to the nursery stared at him. His daughter in his arms stared at him. And Relena, ever at his side, stared at him. He continued to laugh.

"What's wrong?", Relena finally asked.

Heero shook his head. "Daizyoobu desu." He laughed again. "Nothing's wrong." His amused gaze settled back onto Relena. His fingers ran through her hair. "My little sparrow."

Her brow crinkled. "Heero? Are you sure you're all right? You might have hit your head pretty hard...."

"Want to know something? I think...I might actually be...happy", he told her in a confidential tone. As though he were sharing some great secret meant only for his own little family.

Relena's worried expression melted into one of complete joy. Raising her chin, she gave him a thorough kiss. "Welcome home, Heero."

********

I think about the years I spent,
Just passing through.
I'd like to take the time I lost
And give it back to you.
But you just smile and take my hand,
You've been there; you understand.
It's all part of a grander plan,
That is coming true.

Every long lost dream, led me to where you are.
Others who broke my heart; they were just northern stars.
Pointing me on my way, into your loving arms.
This much I know is true:
God blessed the broken road that led me straight to you.