***Part 2***

Noin, Sally, Duo and Heero had finally arrived at the palace and were now making their way through the maze of beautiful rooms and halls until they eventually reached the main conference room. All of the other guests were already there. Noin opened the door to the room and was greeted by a smiling Milliardo Peacecraft, who embraced the blushing woman and gave her a soft kiss on the cheek. When Sally saw the confusion on Heero's face by the gesture, she let out a small laugh, gave the boy a nudge and whispered, "Been gone a while, huh Heero? If you were wondering, Noin and Milliardo are engaged." Heero nodded. He had been gone a while.

"Heero!" cried Quatre, who ran up to the dark-haired boy and gave him a warm handshake. "I can't believe it's you. We all thought we would never find you. It's been too long."

"Yeah," Heero replied.

Heero looked around the room. Trowa gave him a small wave and Wufei nodded at him. Not only were the other Gundam pilots at the palace, so were Relena's friends, Hilde, Catherine, and Dorothy, who were chatting away with the GW-boys. It was like a Gundam gang reunion, except there was one person missing.

"Where's Relena?" Heero whispered to Sally.

"Oh, she's at a meeting in the neighboring kingdom right now. She'll be back tonight. It's actually a good thing she isn't here at the moment, because we have a lot of things to talk about," Sally replied.

"That's right," Noin added. Sally ushered the girls out the room, leaving only Milliardo and the Gundam pilots. "Can I have your attention everyone?" The room quieted as the pilots took their seats around a big conference table. Noin continued, "I wanted to thank you all for coming on such short notice. Now that we've found Heero, all of you are finally here. As you may know, we need your help. Relena is in trouble. I believe you been filled in with the details of the Preventers discovering a possible new threat to peace. Right now, you pilots are the only protection this kingdom has against a hostile enemy. We have transported all of your Gundams here to our Hangar. During this time, you should be fixing up your Gundams and doing any repairs in case they are needed in battle. Otherwise, just enjoy your stay here, and keep a close eye on Miss Relena. We can't let anything happen to her. Relena will be returning from a meeting this evening. She doesn't know any of you are he! re or the real reason for your visit. She will just think all of you are here for her birthday celebration, which is tomorrow."

"So that's why the girls are here," Heero thought. Relena's birthday could not have made a more perfect cover-up for why all of the Gundam pilots had returned to Earth.

"Got a gift yet for the little lady?" whispered Duo to Heero. The emotionless pilot didn't respond, but inside, he cursed himself for having forgotten about Relena's birthday, then cursed himself again for caring so much that he forgot. What a battle his heart and his head were having ever since he had arrived back on earth! It seemed Relena was affecting the Perfect Soldier more than he had expected, and he hadn't even seen the girl yet.

"Is everything ready?" a snake-like voice hissed out of the darkness.

"Yes, sir. All key figures are in position. The second phase of Operation Cloud Cover is now ready to take place."

"Good. See that you get the girl and bring her back alive."

"But, sir, didn't you want to get rid of her?"

"DON'T QUESTION MY ORDERS, FOOL. She will be used as bait for the Gundams. Then after they have been destroyed, she will have served her purpose and will be disposed of."

"Yes, your Excellency, forgive my impotence. I will succeed in carrying out your orders," the young soldier said as he left his leader sitting in the shadows.

"Soon this world of dreams with its false ideals of peace will fall into my nightmare reign of chaos. Soon there will be war," the man whispered to himself as he let out an evil smirk.

"Finally," Relena thought with relief as she arrived home. The meeting had lasted the whole day and was a grueling process of refining the borders of the Kingdoms of Europe. Disputes had sprung up during the whole session, as everyone tried to get as much land as possible for themselves and their kingdom. Relena was tired of settling a bunch of boring old men's selfish disagreements and endless bickering. Having to continually make reminders about fairness and peace was exhausting. It had been a long day and she was happy to be home.

As the princess went through the door, she was taken aback.

"SURPRISE!" yelled Noin, Milliardo, Hilde, Catherine, Dorothy, Sally, Duo and Quatre. Even Trowa let out a softer version of the word, while Wufei mumbled it in a less-than-enthusiastic way, but said it none the less, more than could be said for Heero. "HEERO!?! What was he doing here?" Relena thought to herself. He was still standing there in his cold, unfeeling manner, staring at her with those indifferent eyes like no time had gone by at all since he had left.

"Oh my goodness. I can't believe it, you're all here! Wait a minute, why are you all here?" Relena asked.

"How could you forget your own birthday? It's tomorrow!" laughed Noin. "I managed to gather up a few people for the occasion," she said as she nodded her head towards the Gundam pilots and the girls.

"Oh, you shouldn't have. I can't even believe you found all of them," Relena said as she looked straight at Heero, "but I'm glad you did." The boy whose stare had never strayed from the girl since she walked through the door quickly looked away with her last remark. Relena only sighed, but forgot all about it when she was bombarded by hugs from Hilde, Catherine and Dorothy. Relena had been so busy, they hardly ever got to see one another. She was so glad they had been able to come. Next came the greetings from the Gundam Pilots. Duo bounded up to Relena, gave her an enormous bear hug and then proceeded to lift her off the ground, spin her around, and set her back to earth with a final squeeze. "Man, Lena, it's been a long time. It's great to see ya!" The playful pilot then snuck up behind Hilde and grabbed on to the surprised girl's waist, "I missed you too, babe," he said with a dashing smile. Even though Hilde worked at his garage on the L2 colony, Duo had been working with the Preventers for the past few weeks and hadn't been able to see his long-time girlfriend.

Heero had watched Duo's whole production of the hug without a blink. Was that jealousy he was feeling as the grinning idiot got to hold on to Relena so tightly? He tried to shake the episode out of his mind.

Quatre quickly went up to Relena next, giving her a gentle, loving hug and even a kiss on the cheek. Relena had always been one of the kind-hearted boy's best friends. "Relena! I'm so happy to see you. I've missed you. We really have try to get together more often. I know my sisters' were asking how you were doing."

"Send them my best regards, Quatre, " Relena told him, and with a warm smile added, "I've missed you too, friend."

Now Heero was beginning to get very upset, and it made him even angrier that he didn't know why he was getting upset. But he did know that he felt a pain in his chest every time Relena gazed lovingly at a pilot other than himself. Duo noticed the death stare that was coming over Heero as now even Trowa managed to shyly give Relena a quick hug.

"Don't worry buddy, you don't need to protect her here. Don't take your job so seriously. She's a big girl now. Besides, it's only us." Duo whispered to the cold, silent boy.

"That's what I'm afraid of." Heero mumbled to himself.

Sally shoved Wufei towards Relena, the unhappy pilot grumbling "Woman!" under his breath. He gave the princess a hand-shake and a "Happy Birthday," which was pretty good to get out of Wufei. The boy then sneered at Sally and she gave a beautiful smile back to him.

So now there was only one pilot left to greet the princess. Seeing that it was now his turn, Heero un-propped himself from the wall he was leaning against and slowly walked over to the girl. He cleared his throat. In that deep, musty voice of his, Heero stated simply "Happy Birthday, Relena."

"Thank you, Heero." Relena said, fidgeting nervously with her hands. "I must say, I'm surprised to see you here. How have you been?"

"Fine." But then he thought this over to himself, "Fine? FINE? What was he saying? He hadn't been fine. He had been tortured from everything out of his past, including her."

"You?" he asked her.

"I've been...busy," Relena replied. Well, this was certainly awkward. Just as Relena was thinking of what to say next, Milliardo swept her away and asked her all about the latest news of the Cinq Kingdom. He was always interested in his homeland, even though he was still part of the Preventers, along with Sally, Lady Une and Wufei, and barely had time to come back and visit his sister. Besides, if something should ever happen to Relena, he needed to be prepared to take her place as ruler of the kingdom. It was his birthright, after all. Unlike her fiancée, Noin always made time to shuttle back and forth from the Preventer's Headquarters to the Palace, where she kept watch over Relena.

The sun had set long before everyone had finally finished catching up. Noticing the time, Relena apologized to her guests, "I'm sorry I have to disappear on you so suddenly, but I have a million papers on my desk that I have neglected long enough. Please feel right at home, Noin and Milliardo can show you where things are. You all can watch a movie, or grab a bite to eat, whatever you want. I will have someone show you to your rooms when you are ready. Goodnight everyone. You really don't know how happy I am to see all of you." And with that Relena trudged to her office and sat down, overwhelmed by all the work that had to be done.