Chapter 3: Defeat and Loss

At the sound of the strange voice, Heero and Relena quickly turned around. What they saw was a man, dressed in an all black uniform, pointing a gun straight at Heero. Heero, quicker than the normal eye could see, pulled out his own gun from the holster around his waist. As soon as he did that, there were rustling and clicking sounds.

"Heero..." Relena whispered as she inched closer to him.

Heero momentarily took his eyes from the man in front of him to look at their current situation. His eyes shifted slightly to the right then left and he saw at least fifteen men surrounding them with guns drawn. "I suggest you put that gun down," the man in front of them said, "If you do, we might just consider taking you in as a prisoner instead of killing you."

Heero didn't even waiver at those words; instead, his glare became even harder and colder. His eyes never left the man as he grabbed Relena's hand to pull her closer to him.

"Relena," he whispered, "when I give the word, drop down to the ground. Got it?"

"Uh huh," she whispered back. "Please be careful..."

"NOW!"

With that one word Relena dropped to the ground while Heero began to shoot at the figures in the black uniform, taking down three of them with extreme precision and speed. Some of the figures fired back, but Heero jumped out of the way and rolled on the ground, firing his gun, taking down another enemy. They quickly scattered themselves behind the trees and bushes to try and avoid getting shot.

//Shit! I recognize that guy now! That was the Gundam pilot of 01, Heero Yuy. No wonder he took down our men so fast. I have to be more careful from now on.// The enemy leader thought to himself as he hid behind a tree.

"Maxwell! Will you turn down the music?! I'm trying to read!" Wufei yelled as he came out of the library and entered the main living room. He was none too pleased with the sight that welcomed him.

Duo, sprawled out on a lavishly decorated, and very comfortable couch, was listening to very loud rock music on the Peacecraft's state-of-the-art stereo and sound system. He was so relaxed he barely heard or noticed Wufei until the Chinese man was hovering over him with a 'Heero Yuy' death glare. Upon seeing that, Duo quickly turned off the stereo and apologized. "Sorry 'bout that Wufei, I didn't realize it was that loud."

"Just make sure you do realize it next time," Wufei said while scanning the room. "Hey, where did Barton go?"

"I-I don't know. I guess he musta slipped out awhile ago."

Even though they were hard to spot, because of the darkness and the enemiesí black uniform, Heero still managed to locate them by the sounds of their movement behind a few bushes.//Don't think that you can hide from me. I'm more experienced in this than you'll ever be.// Heero stalked around the garden quietly, like a predator hunting its prey, and suddenly jumped almost soundlessly behind another bush taking out two more figures. The rest of the enemies, however, were faster and Heero soon found himself out of bullets with at least six more to kill. He quickly ran over to a huddled figure and stood his ground, guarding Relena who knelt close to the cobblestone path.

*BANG*

A bullet come out of nowhere and struck Heero between his shoulder blades. Without much of a sound he fell to his knees, one hand still on the gun while the other tried to reach for and cover the wound.

"Heero! Are you okay?!î Relena cried out in sadness and fear as she put a hand on his back, feeling the wet blood.

//KUSO!! I didn't expect them to send this many people just to kill her... Were they expecting me? No, that can't be it...//

Heero continued to stay quiet trying to devise an alternative plan while ignoring the pain in his back at the same time. He soon heard some more rustling and jerked his head upwards to see the remaining six figures walking towards them slowly and cautiously. Then, to everyone's surprise, he quickly lunged at the figure in front of him. As soon as he was on top of the enemy, he swung out with his gun and knocked the man unconscious. Another soldier shot at his head, but Heero quickly ducked then swept the man's feet from under him. As he got up, however, another figure shot him in his left shoulder, causing Heero to stumble backwards. Although pained, Heero managed to lift his head up only to find himself staring down the barrel of a gun.

*BANG*

The other man fell right before him, shot in his gun arm. Heero turned to his left to see where the shot came from and caught sight of Trowa standing only a few meters away, smoking gun in hand.

"Need some help?" the taller boy asked.

Heero didn't say a word, but his thanks and gratitude were shown through his eyes and that was enough for Trowa.

"HEERO! HELP!" Relena's scream pierced the night sky. Two of the four remaining men had grabbed Relena and all were now making a hasty retreat back into the darkness.

"Relena!" Heero shouted as he got up and tried to run after them; however, one of the enemies saw him and threw an object in the young man's direction. The object landed a few feet away from Heero, beeped a few times then exploded, sending the unfortunate young man tumbling across the ground.

"Damn! What the hell was that!" exclaimed Duo as he quickly got up from the couch. He suddenly heard running footsteps and immediately looked towards the stairs to see Quatre making his way down.

"Guys! There was an explosion outside near the garden," Quatre informed. "I saw it from the windows upstairs. We have to get out there and fast! Relena went out for a walk near there!"

"Oh no, Relena!" Duo shouted as the three boys made their way to the outside.

When some of the smoke cleared Trowa found Heero sprawled on the ground, clothes soaked in his own blood and face bruised, cut, and dirty. Trowa walked towards his fallen comrade and proceeded to help him up. Heero's eyes shot open immediately, and he slapped Trowa's hand away from him, denying the offered assistance.

"I can get up myself," Heero replied coldly. Just as he got up he saw Quatre, Duo, and Wufei running towards their direction.

"What happened?" came Quatre's initial question.

"Relena was taken by some unidentified men," Trowa responded.

"Most likely that new OZ organization," Wufei muttered under his breath. "Those low life scum! I will make them pay dearly for this."

"Dammit! I can't believe we let this happen," Duo cursed as he surveyed the damage and the bodies that littered the garden. All three of them were so busy looking at the scene that it took them a few minutes to register Heero's presence.

"Heero?! You're here!" Quatre shouted in surprise as he noticed the injured young man staggering towards the mansion.

"Oi, Heero! Stop, man," Duo said jumping in front of him and blocking off his path. "Tell us what happened."

"I don't have time for this," Heero replied coldly, "I have to find Relena; there's no telling what OZ is going to do with her."

"Then help us, or at least let us help you. We were responsible for her well being you know!" Duo retorted, face set but eyes betraying grief and sadness.

"We shouldn't be wasting time arguing," Wufei cut in, "Come on, Yuy, let's go inside and have those wounds tended. We also have to call Sally, Noin, and Zechs and inform them of what's happened." Wufei then led Heero to the palace while Duo, Quatre, and Trowa followed behind.

It was about 9:25 pm by the time Milliard, Sally, and Noin arrived at the mansion. Once they were told of what had occurred over the phone, the three rushed to get there as quickly as possible. Milliard was furious, to put it mildly, and directed all his anger at the closest thing within reach, namely Heero.

"How did you let this happen? Dammit, aren't you supposed to be ëThe Perfect Soldierí!" Milliard fumed as he grab Heero's collar and stared down at him. "Dammit, Yuy! Why the hell are you here anyways?! We never asked you to show up!"

"I was protecting Vice Foreign Minister Darlian," came Heero's cold reply as he matched Milliard's icy glare with an even icier one of his own.

"Yeah, you did a real good job of protecting her," the older man sneered back.

"At least I was there," Heero retorted in his monotone voice as he wrenched his shirt collar free.

"How dare you-"

"ZECHS! That's enough!" Noin barged in. Milliard knew to stop when Noin used his former alias; it meant that she wasn't going to take any more of it. "Fighting one another won't help get Relena back."

"Noin's right," Sally spoke up, "We won't get anywhere this way. Now Heero, tell us exactly what happened. How many men attacked you and Relena?"

"Fifteen. I managed to take down ten and Trowa took down one as well," Heero answered without much emotion.

"Fifteen? Wow, I can't believe you able to hold off that many for that amount of time," Quatre whispered from the corner he was standing in.

"Do you know what they were trying to do? Were they trying to kill Relena?" Sally asked calmly.

"No," he stated simply. "They directed all their fire at me and left Relena alone. They were also using standard guns. If they wanted to kill Relena it would have been more logical to use a long distance sniper. They were looking to kidnap her, not kill her."

"You seem to know a lot about this, don't you, Yuy?" Milliard asked as he eyed the shorter boy. "Tell us what the hell youíre doing here!"

"I came here to look out for Relena," Heero replied again, "and to also deliver a message."

"What message!" spat Milliard.

"Our Gundams are 75% complete."

"OUR GUNDAMS?" the pilots shouted in unison, except for Trowa, he just whispered it to himself.

"Y-You mean our Gundams are being rebuilt?" stuttered Duo. "B-But by who?"

"The five scientists," Heero replied, tone steady, voice still cold. "We are to report to L1 in two weeks for re-training."

"I can't believe those mad geezers are still alive. They've got more lives than a cat," Duo joked lightly. "By the way, how did they know? I mean it must have taken them at least a year to rebuild the Gundams this far."

"After we self-destructed our Gundams," Heero began, "they managed to retrieve the remains so they didn't have to start over from scratch. They began reconstruction six months ago when I contacted and told them OZ was back."

"Well then, how did you know, Yuy?" Wufei inquired.

"About a year ago I noticed some strange activities going on at the shipping company I was working at. During transportations they started to lose small amounts of the material that went into building the labor mobile suits." Heero paused for a while to make sure that the others were listening. "At first it didn't seem odd because it could have been just a filing mistake; however, it began to occur more often. When I checked with other companies it appeared that they were having the same problems. I started to look further into it, locating the areas where material was reported missing. No one there seemed to be aware of anything missing. My guess was that it was an-"

"Inside job," Duo finished.

"Correct. I did some investigation into the people who worked at one of the companies and was able to isolate one of them. I forced him to tell me everything he knew. He didn't know much though. All he was told to do from his superiors was to sneak away some mobile suit materials without being detected. After that I went to the scientists to inform them of the latest developments and to leave the man I interrogated with them. Afterwards they immediately started reconstruction of the Gundams."

"Man, those OZ creeps are sneaky-Oi! Heero, where are you going?" Duo asked when he noticed Heero walking towards the door. "You're not leaving, are you?"

"Of course he's leaving," Milliard gritted through his teeth. "He always leaves Relena behind when she needs him."

"Zechs, you know that's not true!" Noin shouted. "Heero, please don't leave. We could really use your help with the investigation. I know that we'll get this done a whole lot faster and get Relena back quicker if you stay."

"Fine," Heero said before he left the room.

"This must really be tearing him up inside," Quatre said, concern written all over his face.

"So what do we do now?" Duo piped up.

"Well," Noin interjected, "if we don't get Relena back before the conference next week, the public and the Earth Sphere Unified Nation will know that something is wrong. When that happens we have no other choice but to tell them."

"We can't do that! When they hear that Miss Relena has been kidnapped they're just going to start pointing fingers at each other. Some might even use this to their advantage and start causing trouble," protested Quatre.

"We don't have a choice about that," Noin confessed in defeat.

Outside, near the side of the mansion, a lone figure stood, venting its frustration on the mansion's wall. Its head was leaning on the wall while its fists made slow, steady punches on the almost smooth surface.

//KUSO! *punch* KUSO! *punch* KUSO! *punch* DAMMIT I FAILED!!! *punch* Relena... please forgive me... *punch* I didn't mean to let this happen to you... *punch* Don't worry. I'll find you, and if they do anything to you, I'll make them all pay dearly-//

"I don't think that wall can take any more damage."

Heero stopped his relentless abuse and turned to the direction of the voice to see Trowa leaning with his back on the wall. The taller pilot had his eyes closed, head facing forward, and arms crossed against his chest.

"It wasn't your fault," came the usually quiet pilot's comment.

"It was my duty to protect her, and I failed," Heero said, as he leaned his head against the wall again.

"You care about her, don't you?"

"She's important to the Earth and colonies, and she brings the people hope," he said in his usual cold voice.

"I see... So you were working for a shipping company?" he asked trying to lighten the mood.

"Yeah, it was a low profile job and I needed the money..." he was quiet again.

"Don't worry," the stoic pilot began again, "we'll find her."

"What do you plan to do with me!?" Relena demanded as a soldier shoved her into a dark cell. "If you're going to kill me then I suggest that you do it now."

"My, my, my, such spirit and determination," came a condescending voice. Relena looked to the shadow behind the soldier and gazed upon ice-cold blue eyes.

"What do you plan to do with me?" she asked more firmly. "If you think that you can use me to get what you want from the Earth Sphere Unified Nation, then you are sadly mistaken, they would never give in to such demands. And quite frankly I would rather kill myself before I let that happen."

"Oh, we're not going to use you as a bargaining chip, but we do plan to use you for something," the man replied with a sinister gleam in his eyes. Suddenly another soldier appeared from behind and proceeded towards the man.

"General Whitenburg, sir!" the soldier saluted. "The doctors said that they are ready to begin."

"Good," came the cold reply as he continued to eye Relena in the cell.