Relena had forgotten. Relena had forgotten to say thank you! She was so frustrated, she had even forgotten him! Heero knew how terrible she must have been feeling, and it was eating him up. He wanted to kill someone! But wait! He had promised, just before approaching the edge of blackness, not to kill anyone anymore. Promised her. He didn't keep his promises- except when they were to her. But still, that didn't mean he couldn't hurt someone really, really badly.

And he knew just who deserved it. The logical part of his mind explained how terrible it would look for Relena if he hurt her rival, but he was far past reasoning. No, he always acted on his emotions, and his emotions were telling him to beat Ariel Yuy to a pulp! With the smooth-limbed grace of a cat, Heero swung out of his lookout point and hit the ground running. He knew the hotel in which the woman had been staying, knew the suite she slept in.

And as his body ran forward, his mind ran back.

"Stealth is the first asset of an assassin. He must be cool, clean, and emotionless. This is the difference between killer and a murderer. A murderer is too angry to fully think through the death of his target or to plan properly. An assassin does not have that disadvantage. Are you listening to me, boy?"

Heero ducked into a service entrance and knocked out a bellhop that startled him. He stole the man's clothes and shoved him into a closet. He was confident fit into the role of bellhop perfectly. He was not suspected.

"Don't be indirect, boy, but always be thorough. This is not a game. Make sure your target is alone before you strike, and never let them see you until you want them to."

Heero broke into her room easily and listened for signs of movement. There were none. Ariel Yuy was incautious, just like Her. He stepped into the light of her study boldly, knowing her back was turned to the door.

"Welcome to my rooms, Heero Yuy."

He caught his breath. How did she know?!

She turned to him, smile dark and haunting, "Who could forget the footsteps their little brother?"

"What's wrong, Relena?" Pegan asked as he picked up his ward's untouched tray. She was bent at her desk doing paperwork, where she had been since afte rthe news program. It was very late, but, as usual, she would only go to bed when all her work was finished. Her butler couldn't help but worry. She would soon work herself to death, that girl.

"Oh, nothing's wrong, Pegan," Relena replied absently. The young woman shivered and looked up, "I don't know. I just feel suddenly cold, as if someone has just clutched my heart."

"Omae o korosou." The former Gundam pilot growled, repeating the phrase an assassin named Odin Lowe had taught him in his boyhood, raising a gun up to point at the deadly politician that sat calmly before him.

"Is that what you tell her? Is that the sweet nothing you whisper into her ear when you make love?"

"What are you talking about?" Heero snapped, eyes glinting dangerously in the darkened room.

"Omae o korosou. 'I will kill you.' I asked you if that's what you say to Relena when you make love."

"I've never-"

She grinned, "Oh really?" Three pictures of the Vice Foreign Minister and himself being intimate were spread on the desk.

"Those are-"

"Faked? Yes, but I'd say they are quite uncannily realistic, don't you?" Her voice mocked and challenged him, "Won't the press just love these photos? When Relena is revealed to be your pawn, how long do you think her career will last? Will she be kicked out of office? I'd have to admit that that is very likely, but something else is even more likely. People don't like being deceived. Sometimes they even kill over it."

"Why?"

"Why do people kill over deception or why am I doing this?"

"Why are you doing this?!" He was really getting angry. He was forgetting what his mentor had told him. He was showing his one fear to his intended victim.

Ariel Yuy stroked her long reddish hair, "Why, it should be obvious. As I said before, one cannot forget the footsteps of a brother." She saw the fury spark in his eyes, "You don't believe me? Here's the file, check for yourself. When you were captured in A.C. 195, your mitochondrial DNA had been sequenced. Mine is identical. We share the same mother."

He paused for a moment. The muscle below his eye twitched as he tried to regain his composure. His enhanced eyes could see the file resting on Ariel's desk just as well as she. He drew a shuddering breath, but his monotone remained intact, "So?"

"I wanted to meet you. Replacing Relena Darlian in her seat of influence in the new government is merely an additional bonus."

"What?"

"Oh I want Relena's Governmental Reconstruction Act to pass. I just want to be the one to get the benefits, not her." She stood up, "Our grandfather was Heero Yuy, the famed peace leader of the colonies. My father was a businessman that believed in Grandfather's ideals. Your father was the kitchen boy that had been enamoured with our mother, and had raped her one day when walking her home from a political banquet. You were the result, but you were still loved. I hated that.

"An assassin shot our grandfather and bombed our home. We were the only two survivors." She flung forward a picture of a little girl and boy sitting playing in front of a fireplace. He knew immediately that it was younger versions of both of them. He was only several years of age. She looked about ten.

"Another fake."

"Think a bit, brother, don't you remember anything?"

His mother's arms, her death! The grizzly face of a sympathetic assassin! "Who killed our family?"

"A man named Odin Lowe. He took you, and left me in the rubble to die."

It flashed back to him. He could not remember his childhood, or his mother's face, but he recalled the explosion. His mind fetched up an image of a young girl with unruly hair and acid yellow eyes, "A-Ariel?"

"Ah, so apparently you do remember something."

"Did our mother die in the explosion as well?" There was something broken, something dead in the boy's tone. Ariel relished it.

"No, you bastard. She died giving birth to you."