CHAPTER VIII- Confetti

The door slammed. Everyone waiting in the conference room jumped.

Heero Yuy entered the room, somewhat more mean looking than normal.

"Ah, Heero’s here!" Duo said boisterously. His package of donuts had been devoured, and now he was working on sunflower seeds, "Hey, but where’s your girl?"

Heero glared at his ‘friend.’ "I don’t know."

Lady Une looked at him with a travesty of a shocked expression, "You let her go unprotected?!"

He narrowed his searing blue eyes, "She waiting outside for Trowa and Duo to escort her home."

Lady Une sighed and shook her head, "Heero, how many years have you known Relena?"

"A couple."

"And over that nebulous amount of time, have you ever seen her hang around for anyone, especially in the protection department?"

Heero drew a breath to reply, but the door opened, "I’m here, Une, don’t worry. I still have a while left to live. But if you all don’t mind, I would like to get home." It was Relena, her expression hidden in the shadows of the hallway.

Heero looked over at Duo. The teen stood up and brushed the remaining donut crumbs off of his chest, "Well, we had better get you home then, Jousan."

Trowa stood up as well, but he remained silent. Heero looked at both of them and then at Relena before settling down in a seat for the meeting.

They were dancing. They looked like very strange mimes, faces colored white, with painted smiles open their faces. Trowa, Duo, and Relena ignored them. In the vast city called Acropolis, home of the ESUN Capitol building, many such performers sported the streets, displaying their talents for pennies from the many citizens.

But these men were not normal performers.

They wound their way easily between the passers-by, laughing and giggling as they juggled and danced. They formed a circle around the three travelers, laughing gleefully.

"Would you like to see a trick, pretty lady?" One of them asked.

Trowa rolled his eyes. Duo and Relena were enchanted.

"We are well versed in the art of magic, is that not right, my brothers?" The other two nodded solemnly. Trowa knew this act all too well. Being an undercover agent to the Preventers, he spent the majority of his days as a circus performer. Clowns lost their antiquated beauty when you saw them 24/7.

"We, my good friends, can make things appear-" a dove fluttered out of his previously empty palm- "And even, in some lucky cases, make princesses disappear."

White confetti was everywhere, softly fluttering to the Earth like snowflakes. When the air was clear, Relena and the mimes were nowhere to be seen, while her two protectors lay passed out on the pavement, their mission a failure.

"So, The Smith partnership and Crawley are our last additions to the guard detail?" Lady Une confirmed, rubbing her aching forehead with a long-fingered hand.

Heero nodded stiffly, "Confirmed."

"You can have Abdul from my guard, he’s very trustworthy." Quatre brought up.

Une brought her other hand to her head. The meeting was going to go on even longer…

Suddenly Heero jerked, as if he had been touch by a cold hand. His wide blue eyes met with Une’s, and they both knew something terrible had happened.

The vidphone beeped urgently. Une answered.

"Colonel Une? We have a situation here." The picture was grainy, but the entire conference room recognized Duo’s irregular features.

"What do you have to report, Duo," Lady Une asked carefully.

Heero stood up nervously.

"It’s Relena. We think she’s been kidnapped," came the cautious reply.

Heero slammed his fist on the table, "Dammit, Duo, I trusted you." He tensed angrily, face contorting slightly, "I swear, Duo. If she doesn’t survive this, I’ll take your life for payment."

And he was completely serious.

Ariel Yuy placed an interested hand on her cheek, eyes sparkling with glee. She did not notice Mr. Basu’s approach.

"What are you looking at, Ms. Yuy?"

"Ah, reports released from an experimental lab on L1, where my brother had been held." She replied cheerfully, "I’ve found some information that makes me a very happy person!"

There was a rumbling sound. Relena rolled over in the darkness. She was moving…somewhere. She was lying on metal plates, and the floor was tilting. A plane, she mused silently, resting her forehead on the cool floor, or a shuttle taking off…

I never thought I’d want this, but please God, please make it so he doesn’t really love me…don’t take love away from him again…

Loved?

Was it perhaps only dependence?

Was she using Heero as a support, manipulating him just as everyone else had in his life?

She didn’t know. She had never loved someone before. She didn’t know that her concern was proof enough.

She could do nothing. Nothing at all.

She was all alone.

"Sally Po." It was growled as if the woman with that name was a vile monster that needed to be destroyed. Sally PO was seated in front of the main door to the hangar, leaning casually against the wall, a cool grin playing across her lips.

To Heero Yuy, she was blocking his path. In other words, she was going to become roadkill really soon.

"Hello, Heero."

"What do you want, Sally?" He had a gun cocked in one hand, his eyes cold and filled with hate.

"To ask you to calm down. Where exactly are you going?"

"To find Relena. She has to have been on one of the planes that left around the time of her capture."

"Have you thought your plan out yet?"

He eyed her wrathfully, hands shaking, "No." he finally spat.

"Heero, how do you know she’s on a plane?"

His words were choked, "I just know….She’s on the flight to India. I know-" He pressed one hand to his head and lowered the gun.

Sally took the opportunity to step forward and embrace him gingerly in a maternal fashion. She would occasionally do this for Wufei as well, her friend and partner. Sometimes, people just needed to feel cared for. He wrapped one arm around Sally and buried his face into her shoulder, "Shh, Shh…"

"You don’t understand, Sally," he growled, voice muffled, "I promised to protect her, promised I would be the only one to kill her…"

Sally tried not to listen too carefully to his words (she had already thought up several meanings to the last sentence). Heero was not a man who wanted false hope, "Heero, you know she could already be dead…"

He pushed himself out of her arms and drew a deep breath, "No, she’s not." A cold mask had settled upon his face.

"How do you know that?"

"Because I haven’t killed her yet."

Ten minutes later, Sally, Wufei, Trowa, and Heero had boarded a shuttle to pursue Heero’s ‘hunch.’

Relena’s eyes darted around nervously. She could not her an air circulator, and already the air within the compartment was hot and stuffy with her own toxic breath. How much longer would she be trapped in the gloomy darkness?

Relena’s ears began popping, and she shook her head distractedly. They were landing! The sooner she was on ground, the sooner she could devise a plan for escape.

"Good morning and thank you for tuning into Early Bird News. Today’s top story is a collection of recently released photos of Vice Minister Relena Darlain-Peacecraft involved in an intimate affair with the renowned Gundam pilot of unit 01. Relena’s sudden disappearance yesterday seems to confirm that these photos hold some truth. Reactions to this scandal have proved violent. Already, riots have begun in several major colonies and all over Earth’s major cities."

The screen fuzzed and Ariel Yuy shut it off. Things were looking up.