Chapter 7: Bittersweet

"Wind, stop pacing around like that. You're making all of us nervous," Sally said, getting very irritated at the blonde man. It had been fifty minutes and the Gundam pilots still weren't there. Much of the headquarters were a bit nervous when they were told that they were bringing in that specially trained OZ soldier; however, what they didn't know was that it was the missing Vice Foreign Minister. The only ones who were told of this detail were Sally Po, Lucrezia Noin, Lady Une, and Milliard Peacecraft. They would be the only ones to greet the plane when it arrived so that they would be sure that this information wouldn't leak out. "Wind, do I have to knock you out in order for you to stop pacing!?" she threatened this time.

"Sally, let him do what he wants; he's just very excited that's all," said Noin although she was getting annoyed as well.

"Everybody, hush. I think I hear the plane coming around," Lady Une ordered them. Sure enough they started to see some lights blinking in the sky and heard the unmistakable sound of the jet engines. Soon the grass in the meeting area began to swirl with the air as the plane landed a few meters away from the four Preventers. Altron landed a few more meters away from the plane and soon the cockpit opened and Wufei reeled down. The four ran to the plane when the hatch opened.

"Where is she?!"

"Zechs, calm down. They're coming out right now," as soon as Noin said that Duo and Quatre were out and walking towards them. Then they saw a female form walk out with Trowa right behind still pointing a gun at her. Heero was the last one out, but he kept a watchful eye on the girl.

"Relena!" Zechs shouted as he ran over to the girl and wrapped his arms around her. "You don't know how much I've missed you. We've all been so worried about - huh?" he stopped when he noticed that his little sister had made no attempt to hug him back, or rather she didn't move at all. He slowly withdrew his embrace and stared at her in confusion. That was when he noticed her eyes. "W-What is this? What happened to her?!"

"We don't know," Trowa replied calmly, gun still aimed at the girl.

"She was like this when we caught her. We were hoping that Sally could take a look at her and maybe tell us what's wrong," explained Quatre who then slightly hesitated at what he was going to say next. "Umm... she also said that her name was Rei Tamashii... I uh... think that it's Japanese." All eyes suddenly turned to Heero questioningly as he walked up to them.

"Rei means zero and Tamashii means soul," he answered them after a few seconds of silence. Before saying anything more he turned to look at her enigmatic face. "Just take a look into her eyes, and you'll see the full meaning of that name." His voice was the same cold one, but there was an underlining to it that bordered on hatred. Without another word he left the area and headed straight to his assigned apartment room at Preventer Headquarters.

"We better get going as well and have Sally check up on her. There's no telling what OZ could've done to make her like this," Lady Une suggested and saw the nods of approval. In a matter of seconds they were headed towards the building as well.

In a large underground section of the Preventer Headquarters Sally was in a medical room with Rei strapped to a table, much like the one occupied by Heero when he was brought to the Alliance hospital. Rei's tight-fitting flight suit was discarded and now hanging on a rack next to the table. She was just wearing the white tank top and gym shorts that she had on under the suit. To their surprise she didn't put up much of a fight... due in no small part to the fact that Trowa and Wufei had their guns trained on her. Once the girl was strapped down she turned her emotionless gaze on the restraints and tested them while giving no signs that she either approved or disapproved. After her testing she turned her head forward to concentrate on the ceiling.

Sally was in the room with Trowa and Wufei while the others were watching intently through the glass window, determined to see what was wrong with Relena for his or her self. They watched as Sally took her temperature and then turn to the machines that were hooked up to the arms, legs, and body of their 'patient' to see how her other vital signs were doing. Sally saw that her heart rate was normal along with her breathing and nerve connections and reflexes. In fact, her reflexes were better than what the woman was used to seeing from this girl. Then she had remembered something odd when she had taken her weight and height...

"Any progress?" Heero inquired as he made his way down and over to the group. He was wearing a white tank top this time, having discarded his bloody green one into the laundry. The bandages on his shoulder matched his shirt perfectly despite the small drops of blood that seeped through.

Everyone except Milliard acknowledged his presence and moved from the window to give him a good look at the lab and its 'patient'. "Sally hasn't found anything yet; she's just checking on her health status," the Arabian pilot kindly explained when suddenly Sally's voice spoke to them from the intercom.

"Guys, I just went over Relena's height and weight data and... Well, it seems like she's gained about twenty extra pounds since we last saw her but her height and build hasn't changed much which means..."

"She's gone through a lot of muscle development." Heero finished for her. "No surprise considering the fact that OZ has probably been training her for this type of work since the day they got hold of her." //Yeah, and it also looks very familiar. I'm not quite sure yet but this is very VERY familiar... I see the way she looks me and it reminds me of something...//

"But then how did they get her to do that?" came Noin's voice from the corner of the room. "Relena isn't one to just stand there and take those kinds of orders, especially from OZ. She'd most likely kill herself rather then help accomplish OZ's goals. It wouldn't make sense that she'd just go along with it."

"Hey!" Duo jumped in, "Maybe she's a clone. I mean they had her there, and they could've made a copy of her, like one of those test tube babies." Everyone glared at him with a look that said 'you've got to be kidding, right?'.

"Then that is what she'd be right now, Duo, a baby." Sally spoke again from the intercom. "Test tube babies don't have rapid growth enhancement. Their growth rate is the same as everybody else's. I know for a fact that the Relena you're seeing is the real one because that's what the DNA scan showed me.... Heero's right on this one."

"Yeah, I guess, but then the question is," Duo popped in again, "what type of training have they been putting her through? I mean, considering the way she handled herself at those bases I wouldn't be surprised if she was able to fly a Gundam."

"Maybe that's what she's been using to get to the bases," Heero's voice cut in, and everyone turned a worried look in his direction.

"But we didn't detect anything there, and I didn't see a Gundam or any other mobile suit there anywhere," Wufei informed him.

"Maybe they knew we were coming and decided that she could do the mission on foot." Quatre thoughtfully put in.

"Unlikely," Milliard said as he went closer to the window. "If they did, then they would have anticipated or wanted her failure and her being here is nothing but a trap. OZ may seem careless now and again, but they wouldn't jeopardize losing one of their experiments for anything." To this everyone nodded their heads in agreement.//Oh, Relena, I'm sorry this happened to you.... I'll make OZ pay, and Heero too for failing.//

"Hello, is there a Duo Maxwell in here?" Everyone turned their heads to see another Preventer agent walking down the stairs towards them.

"Yeah, that's me," Duo replied as he waved to the other man. "What can I do for ya?"

"There's a Hilde Schbeiker on the videophone, and she wants to talk to you. She said that it's about an important client who's asking for special parts," the man informed him.

"Alright then, lead the way." Turning back to his friends he gave them a smile. "I'll be back in a sec, just need to take care of some business." With that he left and the room became oddly quiet.

"Sally, what about the other tests you ran on her?" Wufei asked, shattering the uncomfortable silence.

The doctor waited a moment as she went over the forms and charts on her clipboard. "I still don't know what's causing the strange eye discoloration so I'll set that aside for now. Her reflexes are extraordinary.... They almost match up to Heero's and Trowa's in terms of reaction time.... It also seems as if she's developed a high tolerance to pain. She didn't even react the slightest bit when I drew some blood from her.... Oh my... they must have been training her really hard; she's got less than 3% body fat on her. It's almost unnatural for it to be that low."

"Hi, babe," Duo greeted the German girl. "Great seeing ya again. Sorry I haven't been keepin' in touch as often as I should. So what did ya want to see me for?" Then he flashed her his very sly grin.

The moment it appeared on his boyish face, the shorthaired girl couldn't help but stifle a giggle before answering him. "Baka. You forgot to tell me where you kept the labor suit's engine parts, the ones that Mr. Daniels ordered. The guy was going crazy 'cause they're now two days behind schedule."

"Oops," he replied innocently as he rubbed the back of his head with his right hand. "Musta slipped my mind back then. Um, let's see... oh yeah! They're down in the basement under the scrap metal in the right corner next to the box full of motorcycle parts."

"Thanks, Duo, Mr. Daniels will be happy when I give him the stuff... um, by the way..." she began nervously.

"Hmmm?"

"Have you found Relena yet? I'm really worried that something bad might have happened to her." The German girl's face was full of nothing but concern.

"Don't worry. We found her... sort of."

"What do mean by that?" she asked, now bewildered.

"Well, I'm not really sure. I mean it's her but then it isn't." Seeing the confused look on his girlfriend's face he decided to elaborate on what he just said. "It looks like her but then again it doesn't act like her. I don't know how else to describe it. Don't worry about it, Hilde. Just concentrate on the business, okay? We'll figure this out in no time."

"Okay, Duo... Oh, don't forget you have to come to L2 next week. The guys at the construction site won't make the deal unless you're present," she said giving him a stern look.

"Gotcha, I won't forget. Bye, babe." He turned off the videophone and headed back to the downstairs med lab.//She's even cuter than I last remembered her... Oooo... I can't wait to go back into those loving arms of hers. Can't wait to hug her and kiss her and pull all those jokes on her... hehehe.//

"Guys! I think I've found something." At the sound of Sally's urgent voice all ran towards the window of the medical lab. Through the glass they saw Sally's hand turning the girl's head to the side. Her hair was pulled out of the way to reveal a small circular device, no bigger or thicker than a small coin, on the back of her neck. "I don't know why the scanners didn't pick this up earlier but there's also something else like it on both sides of her head." Sally then moved some of the hair that was over her ear out of the way. What they saw was similar to the thing on her neck but triangular in form and located above each ear.

"Do you think that it's some kind of mind controlling device?" Quatre asked and received a shrug from the doctor.

"Well, then, should we remove it?"

Sally turned her head in the direction of her partner's voice. "No," she replied with a sigh. "There's no telling what'll happen if we do. We can't risk it. For now, we have to leave it on and try to see what it does. I think I'm going to need Heero's help on this one; he might be able to figure the device out. We'll put her in her designated cell for tonight and begin again tomorrow morning." She turned to look at the others and saw that no one disagreed with her, even Milliard. With the help of Wufei and Trowa they 'escorted' the girl through another door that led into a hall. At the end of the hall was an isolated cell. It was padded like the ones in a mental ward with a bed in the far back corner. The only thing that would separate the prisoner from the outside was a thick reinforced glass wall. The room wasn't soundproof though so communication could be exchanged freely in and out.

"Never thought I'd see 'Jousan locked up like this; Heero definitely, Wufei maybe, Trowa... eh, but never 'Jousan," the braided pilot commented as he rejoined the others. Wufei shot him a death glare and smiled to himself when Duo jumped to hide behind Quatre.

"We can't trust her to be here by herself." All turned when they heard Lady Une speak. "I want Heero, Wufei, and Trowa to take shifts and watch over her during the night." She then noticed that Milliard was about to open his mouth to suggest that he be the one to keep watch but she stopped him. "Sorry Wind, but you have a meeting tomorrow. So who will take the first watch?"

"I'll go first," came the monotone voice and everyone turned to look at him for a moment.

"Then I'll take the second watch," the stoic pilot of Heavyarms Kai piped up.

"I guess that means I'm last."

With that they all turned to leave Heero to his watch; Milliard throwing him a glare before Noin dragged him out. When they had all left to retire for the night, the Japanese pilot stood with his back leaning against the wall and stared at the girl directly in front of him who matched his stance.//Why did I take the first shift? It would have been easier if I had taken the second or third. She might have been asleep by then... and then I wouldn't have to stare at those eyes... ::But you always take the hard road, Yuy, the easy path was never for you... never. You took the harsh path so that others wouldn't have to, others like her... but in the end... it was all for nothing, wasn't it?:: No... it was for something... it was for myself... If I hadn't taken the hard road then... then I would have never met her... DAMMIT!! We got her back so why am I not happy about it?//

Stealing a quick glance at the clock on the wall Heero saw that it was ten o'clock, and that he had three hours before his shift was over. Trying to block the images of the girl out of his head, he closed his eyes and began to draw up battle plans in his mind, seeing how he would make OZ suffer.//Suffer a lot!// However, every time he thought about OZ he thought about Relena. He tried to occupy his time with thoughts of his Gundam, the Preventers, ways to shut Duo up, ways to torture OZ, but then he kept on feeling the girl's eyes on him. He cautiously opened his eyes and met the girl's dead on. Oh, how it pained him to see those eyes! He recalled them in his mind to when they were a bluish-green color and thought of how he could drown in those eyes, like he almost did when they were aboard Libra. But he was jerked back to reality when he realized that they were blood red now. Blood red, reminding him of all the killings, all the battles, all the pain... all the blood....

"Who are you?"

Snapping his head up in surprise, although it didn't show on his face, he met her eyes once more. Not the comforting blue eyes, but the mocking red ones that were set in that enigmatic face that kept eating away at him. Pain. He felt pain in his chest.//She doesn't know you... You never existed in her mind... ::But isn't that what you've always wanted?... For her to forget all about you?::... No... NO!! DAMMIT!!!... Oh Gods, the pain... Pain... T-this hurts even more than dying... much more...// Whatever thoughts raged in his head never reached the surface of his face; he was too well trained to ever let that happen.//::She is too, ya know:://

"Heero Yuy," he replied as coldly as possible to try and mask his other emotions.

Then the silence enveloped them once again and the pilot of WingZERO kept his dutiful watch over her. For the remainder of the time Rei never went to sleep or even showed signs that she was tired. No. For the entire time she stared emotionlessly at the young man in front of her. She didn't know why she asked that question; although it was a simple question, but why had she asked it? She then stared intently at his hard blue eyes, hardly blinking but never wavering.//Those eyes... death.// In her mind, she wondered why those eyes were haunting her, why they wouldn't leave her. She had been staring at him, studying his cold expression, which was almost like the one she had on. What she saw in them was hatred and pain. Pain. She remembered feeling something akin to that when she saw him fall after taking the bullet that was meant for her. She didn't know why that had happened. Whitenburg and the doctors told her that she was incapable of it and only capable of following orders.

"Heero, I'm here to relieve you," Trowa's voice broke through their respective thoughts.

"Hn," he answered back and pushed himself from the wall and proceeded out, but then stopped to take one last look back at the cell. To his surprise the girl was on the bed and had gone to sleep, probably the moment he turned his back on her. Anger and relief threatened to take hold of him but he quickly left.

The girl lying on he bed was relieved and disappointed at the same time. When she looked into her new watcher's face she saw the same emotionless mask that the previous had on, however, the eyes were different. They weren't full of pain; they were full of concern and compassion. That allowed her to go to sleep, knowing that those Prussian blue eyes weren't there.

"So what is the point of this test again," Duo popped his head in between Sally and Quatre.

"We're just going to see how far her skills extend. We need to get an idea of what kind of training she's been going through," Sally explained - for the third time - to the chipper Deathscythe Hell pilot. The tests they were doing had begun at six in the morning and most of the people there were dead tired. The three who stood watch the previous night were excused from being here to rest, but Heero stayed to help Sally. So far everything went smoothly and 'Rei' was behaving herself, doing what Sally asked of her. She didn't know why but she felt comfortable with these people, except for the one known as the pilot of Gundam 01. The intensity in his eyes made her want to shudder sometimes although her mind prevented her from doing so.

"Wow, she's pretty fast. Never thought 'Jousan could run like that," the American pilot said again as he saw Rei on the treadmill. "Of course, I'm faster though," he added with grin.

"Yeah, she's also got a lot of stamina and dexterity. She's been running at this pace for thirty minutes and is just now starting to show signs of exhaustion. I don't know whether I should be impressed with OZ or be disgusted with them for turning a sweet kid into this," came the doctor's reply.

"I know what ya mean," Duo sighed as he slumped next to the wall. "It's pretty scary if ya think about it. I mean, if they can turn Relena, Miss Peace, into a cold-blooded soldier, just imagine what they could do to us. God, she acts just like Heero. That's all we need right now another -"

"That's it," Heero's quiet statement hushed the room and all heads turned to him.

"What's 'it', Heero?" Duo asked somewhat taken aback by the Japanese pilot's sudden decision to talk.

"The training she's been through," he began in his usual voice, "it's the same one I went through."

"WHAT?!" the other three shouted in surprise.

"The way she acted," he began again after they had calmed down, "it reminded me of how I was during my own training. I wasn't sure at first so last night I went over the security videos to analyze her movements and actions."

"Boy, you really know how to have fun, don't ya, Heero buddy?"

"Hn. I don't know how OZ was able to do it, but I made something to test out that theory." With that he reached behind his back and brought out a small package. He then walked over to the girl who, was now resting on a bench, and dropped the package in her hands. "Disarm it."

"KUSO!! IT'S A BOMB!" Duo yelled as he frantically looked for cover.

"It's not real," was the girl's simple statement, which brought Duo back to his 'normal' self.

"Whew," he sighed. "Dammit, Heero! Don't do that to us! I nearly had a heart attack."

"Then disarm this one," Heero ordered again as he produced another package from inside his jacket. This time it was real and blinking very rapidly when he dropped it into the girl's hands.

"Dammit, Heero!"

"Done."

"Whew. Dammit, Heero!"

"I'm going to contact Dr. J," Heero informed them as he began to walk out of the room.

"Wait, Heero!" Sally called after him and sighed in relief when he didn't move any further. "I want you to stay and help me. You can contact Dr. J later. We have to see if we can break through the barriers that they set in her mind and maybe, just maybe undo all this."

"Hn," he replied making his way back to the chair he had been sitting on.

"Now, Rei," Sally began as she stood near the girl, "we should try to get to know each other."

"Why?" was the cold response.

"So that we can become friends," the doctor replied with a smile.

"Friends aren't needed on the battlefield, allies are." That statement sent a chill down Heero's spine as he remembered the time that he had said the exact thing to her in the garden. "If you aren't my ally then you're my enemy." The girl's icy voice and intense gaze made Sally and Quatre quiver slightly while it made Heero angrier.

"Alright then," Sally spoke up again, "Heero, let's get to work analyzing those things on her head."

"Hn."