Chapter 4: Fading Hope

It had already been six days and the Gundam pilots and Preventers still hadn't found any evidence that Relena was dead, or alive for that matter. In a way it seemed like she just vanished off the face of the Earth. Quatre and Duo had gone back to the colonies in hopes of finding some traces that she had been taken there. Wufei and Trowa decided to go undercover, trying to find out any information they could in the underground syndicates and black-markets. They knew Relena was a valuable person and countries would pay almost anything to get their hands on her, to use as a trophy, propaganda, or negotiation tool. Sally and the other Preventers had fanned out across the globe, spurred on by rumors and logical guesses. In the meantime, Milliard, along with Noin's help, had taken over Relena's workload to cover up the fact that she was missing. Heero on the other hand, had vanished as well, but he still made daily calls to the Preventerís Headquarters to report his findings, or rather lack-there-of. They had only one day left before they had to make the announcement to the public that Relena had been kidnapped and the week was drawing to a close.

In a port located on the L4 colony a shuttle had just landed; lots of people beginning to file out once the spacecraft had been secured. The last people to leave were two young men. The taller of the two wore a black leather jacket, a red T-shirt and a pair of dark blue jeans. He had chestnut colored hair that was covered by a black cap and a braid that seemed to be tucked under his jacket. The smaller boy wore a blue button-down shirt, nicely pressed khakis, and dark sunglasses. Both walked out carrying a large duffle bag each and nothing else; looking like they hadn't had a decent night's sleep in days.

//We've been going through every single colony and we still haven't found anything. Wherever OZ took her, they made sure she wasn't going to be easily found. Even those OZ soldiers we detained and interrogated wouldn't spill a single word... They even killed themselves so that they wouldn't have to talk... This situation is getting more hopeless by the minute.//

"So, Quatre," Duo piped up, bored from the silence that hung in the air, "when are we gonna have lunch? I'm starving!"

"Duo, this is not the time to be thinking about food! Can't you be serious for once? If we can't find her on this colony then Milliard has no other choice than to release this news to the public. When that happens, all hell will break loose," Quatre said in a voice that was all too serious and grave. "For all we know, she could already be dead-"

"Now stop that!" Duo jumped in front of Quatre, his face burning red, trying to suppress his anger. "Relena is not dead! She can't be. They wouldn't kidnap her just to kill her. It just wouldn't make sense. We're going to find her, even if it takes us forever, b-because I know she's out there..." After he said that tears began to form at the corner of his eyes but he tried his best to hold it back. Quatre saw how much pain he was in and placed a hand on Duo's shoulder to comfort him.

"... I-I'm sorry Duo," he apologized, "I know that you care about her a lot... it's just that I'm so frustrated. I mean... we're doing our best to find Relena so that those politicians won't worry, but they never really cared for her or for what she tried to do for everyone. It just makes me mad to know that Relena was fighting to protect those kind of people." He turned his head to the side to try and hide the tears that were also forming in his own eyes.

"You know that she didn't do it for them; she did it for the innocent people who suffered during the wars. She did it for you and me and the rest of the guys... C'mon," Duo comforted with a forced smile, but a smile nonetheless, on his face, "are we going to start looking for her or what? The sooner we get to a computer, the sooner we can hack into the files and records and go back to Earth and rejoin the others." With that said the two boys were off again heading in the direction of the Winner estate.

*KNOCK* *KNOCK*

"Come in."

A woman with short black hair, wearing the Sank Kingdom's uniform, walked into the office carrying a manila folder under her right arm. She walked across the length of the room up to the desk situated near the window in the back. Before the man behind it could address her, sheíd already seated herself in a chair and threw the folder on the man's desk.

"After six days, this was all we managed to get done," the woman said in a disgusted tone.

"Noin..."

"Zechs... what are we going to do? The Earth Sphere Unified Nation has already started to ask questions about why they haven't been able to speak to Relena personally. We can't withhold this information anymore... have you finished with the speech that you're going to give at the conference?" she finished with a defeated look etched on her face.

The man got up out of his chair and walked around the desk to stand next to her. He then laid a hand her shoulder and squeezed it gently in a comforting manner.//If this wasn't such a grave situation I'd be able to show you more affection than this. I'm sorry I can't do anything more to ease your pain, Lucrezia...// "Noin, Relena is a strong girl; she wouldn't die on us that easily. And about the speech, I just finished revising when you walked in." After hesitating a moment he took his hand from her shoulder and reached out to grab the folder. Opening it, he gave a slight gasp as he looked at Noin questioningly. "Is this correct?"

"Yes," she sighed as if anticipating his thoughts, "those numbers are correct. After we finished calculating the data Heero gave us, this was the lowest estimate we could come up with. The amount of material reported missing is enough to make those amounts for each type of mobile suit," she paused as her brows furrowed in concern, "but that isn't the worse case scenario, that's on page three. It seems that this has gone unnoticed for a longer period of time than we thought; however, we don't know if they plan on building the old models or if they've come up with something totally new."

"Dammit! Heero should have come to us about this sooner! Then we could have avoided all this turmoil," the man scowled and tried to walk away only to have a hand grab his wrist none to gently. He turned around and met impatient dark eyes.

"Zechs, stop blaming Heero for all of this. It wasn't his fault. He couldn't just go and assume things without confirming them first. Heero's actions were what Relena would have taken if she was the one who found out." She then eased her grip and her eyes softened. "I know that you and Heero haven't really gotten along in the past but you two have to make amends with each other now. If not for your own well being... then for Relena's. You and Heero are the two most important men in her life and whether you believe it or not, she loves him."

"I will not make amends with him until I see Relena back in this office safe and sound. Until then I will continue to place him at fault because he is at fault," he said in a voice with steady, cold anger. "Surely you haven't forgotten all the stunts he's tried in the past: withholding information from us and making things more difficult for himself and the rest of the world? And if she turns up dead then I will make him wish that he was as well." With that he stormed out of the office leaving Noin to stand there alone and helpless, with a desolate look on her face.

"Oh Zechs, aren't you the one making it more difficult than what it has to be?" she asked, staring at the door he exited through.

"Kisama! Another dead end," growled a young Asian man wearing a well-tailored dark navy-blue suit sporting medium-length black hair that came to his shoulders. "This information is garbage. We might as well stop downloading the rest of it; it's practically useless."

Trowa and Wufei found themselves going undercover as the bodyguards for a particularly wealthy arms dealer who had high access in many organizations and crime syndicates. Despite their youthful appearance, their natural skills in handling guns and hand-to-hand combat made them the obvious choice as protectors for the syndicate's arms dealer. Prior to being hired they had created false identities for themselves. Should the syndicate ever need to check on their backgrounds they would only find one Marcus Taylor and one Zheng(Chung) Mingshan. They suspected that the organization had a lot to gain with Relena's death, mainly by selling weapons to the countries that would easily go to war without the Vice Foreign Minister around.

"Don't always take things at face value, Wufei," said a calm, tall, young man wearing a similar-looking suit, brown bang covering one side of his face as he hovered above a computer. "Things that appear useless are probably meant to look that way so as to throw off suspicion." With that the room became silent once more.

"We have one more day and then another week before we leave this investigation to start training once more," the Asian boy mused to himself. "By that time our Gundams will be 85% complete."//Nataku... soon I shall be with you once more... then we will make OZ pay for all their injustices.// Wufei didn't like the idea of staying in this place for as long as he needed to. It wasnít because the potential danger of being caught scared him; it was being around such degenerate lowlifes that disgusted him. In the three and a half days that he and Trowa worked there, Wufei had seen some of the most disturbing sights ever, especially during their trips to the black market. He saw slave trades, drug deals, and lots of corruption. Deep inside he hoped that Relena was as far away from this place as possible; the thought of any girl here was sickening.

"I'm done," Trowa's voice broke Wufei from his thoughts.

"Well then," Wufei replied, "we better get back before they suspect something. I'll contact Sally later tonight to tell her about our findings and ask her to send a troop of Preventers to break this up before it gets worse."

The two fixed the office making sure it looked the way it did before their intrusion. Then they left, checking to see that no one was around, and walked soundlessly back to their rooms.

Inside a small apartment building all signs of life were almost nonexistent, except for the figure of a slender boy hunched over a laptop. His face, bathed in the blue glowing light of the screen, showed nothing, his mind solely devoted to the task at hand. His fingers flew over the keys of the keyboard like a blur of motion, almost unconscious of what they were doing. Suddenly the screen changed and the image of three metal claws appeared before him.

"Dr. J." the boy acknowledged, his concentration broken.

"Hello, Heero," the image of the old man soon graced the screen, "How are things going? Have you located any of their bases yet?"

"Just one," came the cold and monotone reply, "it's too small to do much harm, but I will destroy it anyway." Just by the tone of his voice everyone could see that Heero Yuy had gone back into complete soldier mode. He seemed totally different from the person just six days earlier who vented his angry emotions at an unarmed wall. Any emotion that once presided in that body was totally gone now.

"Good, Heero, that's my boy. What about Darlian? The Earth and colonies are getting uneasy and trust is wearing thin."

"There is still no sign of her so far..." At the mention of her name Heero seemed almost lost, a vacant look washed over his face.//I swore I'd protect you... Yuy... you failed-//

"Heero, I want to inform you that I'm going to make some minor adjustments to your Gundam. The thrusters and jet engines have been modified so that it'll be a bit faster than what you're used to, but I'm sure you'll adjust to it all nicely after some training. We will tune your Gundam to your specific needs once you arrive. You know where to meet us." The old man then stopped and waited for something like a response from the silent boy.

"Ryoukai." With that the image disappeared and the screen before the transmission reappeared. Heero began typing away again only to find that his concentration had not returned. Staring at the screen for a moment he saved the data and then turned it off.//What's wrong with you, Yuy... it's not like you haven't botched a mission before... so why feel so sad?//

Not even aware of his actions, he had turned the laptop on again. Instead of finishing his previous assignment he clicked of a file entitled 'Peace'. Suddenly the bio for Relena Darlian/Peacecraft popped up, and Heero quickly scanned through the reports that had featured her in it.//She tries to do too much... for too many people-//

*FLASHBACK*

"... I've done nothing but try to be your friend."

*END FLASHBACK*

"Relena..." he said softly, "I nee-... you are-"

*FLASHBACK*

>"Friends aren't needed on the battlefield, allies are."

"Oh, is that all I am?"

"Friends aren't needed on the battlefield."

"Oh, is that all I am?"

"Friends aren't needed."

"Oh, is that all I am?"

"Friends."

*END FLASHBACK*

"A friend..." Silence fell once again as he turned off the machine and proceeded to go to bed. Tomorrow he would be off to destroy a base and no matter how small it was, he would give them no mercy.//::B-But what if she's there? Can you handle another innocent life on hands?::// Silence.

"Ow... my head," the soft voice of a girl echoed around in an empty cell. "Why does my head hurt so much?" She paused to get up and look around but gave up in a few seconds when she realized that the room was completely dark. The girl then sighed in exhaustion and slumped to the ground once more. If the lights had been on you could have seen the girl's brow as it furrowed deep in concentration, and she tried to recall the events of the past few hours, days, or weeks that she had obviously missed.//Let's see... the last thing I remember was being blindfolded and then 'escorted' out of my cell... and then being led to another room. After I had gone inside... I felt... a needle jab my arm... and then... and then... nothing... Oh God, how much time have I lost?... Am I going to die here?//

"Heero..." she cried out softly, tears lightly rolling down her cheeks. "I wish you were here... I need to borrow some of your strength once again... Oh, if those politicians could only see me now, crying like some damned child... but that's what I am... I'm still a child. God, I haven't even turned eighteen yet... Please God... don't let me die without seeing those I love one more time... please..." After that she cried herself into an exhausted sleep.

In front of a large building on L1 a mass of people consisting of the media and the general public were gathered to hear a speech that was taking place near the building's steps. They didn't know what it was about, but it seemed important enough if a conference was being rescheduled just to have it be announced. The members of the E.S.U.N. were inside the building but they had a T.V screen to look at for the speech so they weren't going to miss anything. Silence swept the crowd as a tall man with waist length platinum blonde hair walked up to the podium. He studied the crowd for a moment from behind the podium before proceeding onward.

"Citizens of the Earth and the colonies," he began, "I know that you are all curious as to why I have called for this press conference when another one was to be held this morning. To be honest, you would have probably found out sooner or later after this day had passed, but I believe that this will make things easier. I hope that you can all stay calm for what I am about to tell you. Vice Foreign Minister Darlian is nowhere to be found," he stopped when he heard the wave of gasps and whispers that started to grow. Holding a hand up and giving a commanding stare he forced the crowd into silence once more.

"She disappeared a week ago," he continued, "since then we have searched without rest for any signs of her whereabouts. I know that you're probably wondering why we didn't disclose such information earlier and for that I am sorry. We were hoping to find her before this conference took place in order to prevent hysteria and worry among you. But it seems that we have failed. However, I, along with the Preventers, will continue our search. I hope that you understand why we took the actions we did. Since she is gone I will ask the Earth Sphere Unified Nation to find a temporary replacement for her position. Before I end this speech I would like to make a request of the people of Earth and the colonies. I would like for you not to lose hope. Relena will be found, but until she is, please remain calm. I know that she wouldn't want you to worry about her like this. Thank you."

As Milliard left the podium the cameras started flashing and reporters began to hound him, badgering him on whether or not wars would result from this among many other irritating questions. Milliard just ignored them and made his way inside the building. The rest of the crowd soon dispersed after a couple of minutes except for a shadow that continued to loiter in a corner.

"Hope, huh?"