***Part 5***

Duo managed to find Heero late in the night, sitting by a fountain in a rose garden-a different garden than the one where he had previously had his heart broken. In fact, Duo hadn't really ever noticed this garden before. It was somewhat hidden, either by walls or by the surrounding forest. The moment the braided pilot had found it, he knew the secluded garden would be the perfect place to find the secluded Heero Yuy.

Duo walked up to the enigmatic pilot.

"I don't want to talk to you. Leave me alone," said Heero.

"Oh, man. He definitely saw the kiss," thought Duo, but continued approaching the pilot.

"Heero, I'm here to explain what happened back there," Duo said.

"I know what happened. Why should I care? She's allowed to do whatever she wants," Heero said flatly.

"What you saw was not the truth," Duo continued. He proceeded to explain the episode he had overheard between Relena and Hilde. Heero just sat there listening the whole time. The brooding boy was relieved that the kiss hadn't meant anything and was pleased that Relena had run away from Andrew because of him. Duo then sat down next to Heero and began talking about his future plans for his garage and with Hilde, trying to lighten up the serious atmosphere. But somehow, a conversation with Heero always ended up being serious.

Relena snuck out of her room quietly, as she often did on this type of night. A night in which the moon looked down upon her with twinkling eyes, protecting her, guiding her. She needed to think, about her life, her duties, everything. Often the moon would comfort her and give her ancient wisdom with its purest light. The silver orb illuminated wisps of clouds that floated out through the sea of heaven. Relena swiftly glided down the steps outside of the palace and approached her secret rose garden. Instead of entering the garden right away, Relena followed a little path up to a balcony that overlooked the entire rose garden. Leaning out over the edge to take in the full view of her garden, Relena heard soft voices down below her. She slipped into the shadows and crept over to a spot where she could clearly make out the figures to whom the voices belonged. Perched on the edge of a fountain, Heero and Duo sat together in conversation. Well, Heero sat and listened to Duo's ch! atter. Relena caught herself gazing at Heero, who looked so mysterious yet somehow beautiful, as the moonlight reflecting off the water gave a glowing outline of his handsome features. "Stop it," Relena scolded herself for letting Heero penetrate her thoughts again. She concentrated to hear some of the pilots' conversation.

Duo's chatter had ended and the comical expression he had on his face dropped suddenly. "But Heero, you can't go on like this forever. You can't keep revolving your life around the memories of your Gundam anymore. You're a person now, you no longer need to be a soldier. So go out there and do what normal people do, have some fun."

"I have not been trained to be anything but a soldier," Heero gravely replied.

"And that's why you're the Perfect Soldier," Duo sighed and shook his head.

The two sat in silence for a long time. Then, a smirk came to Duo's face.

"But what about love? I know you have something in there," Duo said as he pointed to Heero's heart.

Heero just looked at him blankly.

"What about...Relena?" Duo stretched out the syllables of her name, trying to get a reaction out of his friend. "I've seen the way you look at her, admit it." Duo looked at Heero. Nothing. "This guy's a rock," Duo thought to himself, but not giving up so easily, he continued. "Jeez, there are so many guys that are just dying to get with her, and she picks the one that just can't appreciate her. Oh the humanity!!!"

"What do you mean?" Heero asked slowly in his monotone voice, staring at the wind-blown ripples of the pool. Meanwhile, Relena was trying to contain herself to keep quiet. "Oh God, they're talking about me," she thought to herself.

"Come on!" gasped Duo. "She is head over heels for you, yet you do nothing. Yeah, you may stare at her, but sometimes I think you try to avoid her. What sane man would do that? If I didn't have Hilde, boy, look out, I'd be after Relena in a second. Wait, don't tell Hilde I said that. Anyway, back to the point. Do you love her, Heero? Is there any chance you could? You can tell me, ya know."

Heero looked up at Duo. He studied his friend. Could he tell him his feelings? What were his feelings anyway? From the balcony, Relena took a deep breath in and held it tight. "Could I be so foolish to think Heero may actually love me?" she thought. It was almost as if Heero could hear Relena's nervous inhale of air. He felt a presence and lost his trust in the moment. His eyes that before had held a glint of openness now formed an icy barrier once again.

"I do not know what love is," he replied.

With his reply, the disappointed Relena quickly got up and ran out into the night, her eyes full of tears. "How could I have been so stupid to give myself hope that he loved me? I have chased after him too long. Too many times I have pretended that he could possibly feel for me. I must stop this nonsense. No longer will I care for he who is clearly beyond my reach." After years of love and fascination, almost obsession, Relena finally broke down. It was too hard for her to keep convincing herself that there was love in such a man. Earlier in the night, she had been sobbing like a baby, concerned about Heero's feelings if he had seen her kiss Andrew. Now she saw that he was just fine, nothing like that could ever matter to him. Shoving Heero Yuy out of her mind, Relena realized she was in the middle of a forest. She had never gone this far off of her estate. Exhausted from running, she collapsed in dewy grass.

Relena awoke the next morning to a tapping on her shoulder. "Miss? Miss? Are you alright?" She slowly opened her eyes and blinking looked to see the worn, but kind face of an older man.

"Yes, thank you, I'm fine," Relena replied with a yawn as the man helped her up. "Where am I?"

"You're on the far edge of the woods on my farm," the man said with a kind smile, "beyond them is the palace and grounds of the princess of the Cinq Kingdom. By the way, it seems to me you look an awful lot like the princess." His eyes brightened. "Do I have the honor of being in the presence of Princess Relena herself?"

"Oh, no," Relena said quickly, trying to think of a story to give the man, "many people have said I look like the princess, but I am definitely not her. I am just a traveler and was passing through these woods last night and got lost. Thank goodness you found me."

"Oh," replied the man, the brightness of his eyes had dimmed when he learned she was not the princess, but he liked the girl nevertheless. "Just glad I could help. Let me show you back to my cottage so you can wash up and get some breakfast before you continue on your journey." Relena thanked the farmer for his kindness and followed him back to his house, located on the top of a little hill, enabling one to see a beautiful view of the surrounding area, including the palace. "There is no way I am going back there," Relena thought as she gazed down upon her estate, "I am tiring of being a ruler of the kingdom, I am tired of being ruled by love."

After a delicious breakfast, Relena thanked the kind old man and started off for the nearest village. She managed to sell a ring and a bracelet she had on and with the money bought a ticket for the next shuttle out of the kingdom, which happened to be going to North America. "Well, here goes nothing," Relena said to herself as she boarded the aircraft.

It was one o'clock in the afternoon and everyone in the palace had been up long ago, except for the princess. Noin knew that after late night balls and celebrations, Relena often slept in, but she had never slept this late, especially when guests were over. The Italian woman headed up the stairs to the princess' room and knocked on the door. No answer. She knocked again, this time opening the door slightly. She peeked in the room and looked at the bed. Empty. Noin frantically searched the entire room and called out the girl's name. "Oh Lord," Noin said under her breath, "it's happened."

When Relena arrived in the eastern part of North America, she got on a bus and headed out west, finally ending up in a small farming town. Relena had slicked back her bangs and tied her hair back, too. She put on a pair of sunglasses which she had bought along her journey and felt prepared to begin her new life in the town. Surprisingly, no one recognized her, or even seemed to care who she was or where she was from. They accepted her kindly, and for that Relena was relieved. She was also pleased to learn that politics really didn't matter that much to the townspeople, for she desperately wanted a break from hearing about anything happening in the political arena, including the news of her disappearance.

Relena took on the name Emilia Swift and applied for a job at the local equestrian center. She had always been fond of horses and was already an experienced rider. Relena was so happy when she hired as an instructor for the center. "Finally!" she exclaimed, "I'm just like a regular person. No boring meetings, no body guards following my every move, no piles of papers to be signed. I'm free at last."

Meanwhile, the Cinq Kingdom was in a state of confusion. After Noin had informed everyone of Relena's disappearance, the search for the princess began immediately. Sally went back to the Preventers and delivered the news, getting her top agents to work on the case. Each of the Gundam pilots split up to look for Relena themselves. Milliardo had temporarily taken over Relena's duties, merely explaining to the people that the over-worked princess had decided to take a leave of absence from her position, but would soon return. However, he could not keep up that story for much longer. Rumors of kidnapping, and even assassination were flying around the kingdom. It had been three months since Relena had disappeared, and no one had been able to find any leads to her whereabouts.

The Gundam pilots had returned back to the palace after searching for Relena and all sat together in the conference room, deciding what to do next. None of them had any luck on locating the princess.

"I checked out every military facility from here to God knows where!" Duo said, aggravated. "If it was a kidnapping, whoever's got her definitely covered up their tracks."

"So maybe what we're looking at isn't a kidnapping," suggested Trowa, who had been contemplating the matter for some time now. "There were no signs of struggle or forced entry. None of the guards saw anything."

"The guards are useless," Wufei snapped.

"Maybe so," said Quatre, "but we have to consider other possibilities. What if she wanted to disappear? Everyone seems to believe she was kidnapped, but what if she just ran away?"

"If that was the case, it would explain why we've been looking in all of the wrong places," Heero thought to himself. Then his thoughts drifted to Relena, whom he found himself missing more and more each day. "What I would give to see her, just one more time," he thought. But then the memory of Relena kissing Andrew flashed through his mind. "Why should I care so much about her? She's obviously found someone else." But, in his heart, he knew that was not true. For some reason, Heero thought, at least he hoped, that he could never be replaced. The young man shook his head as thoughts he knew were way out-of-character began to fill his mind. "That wasn't even a kiss! Next time, I'll show Relena what a real kiss is like," he told himself and gave a quick, devilish smile, hoping no one noticed.

But someone did notice. Duo watched his mysterious friend in amusement. The God of Death could tell Heero was off in his dream world, thinking of who knows what. "What cha thinking about Heero?" Duo asked the young man, who jolted out of his thoughts when he heard his name. "And was that a smile I saw on your face?" the violet-eyed pilot continued. "Were you thinking of--"

"Grrrr..." Heero growled at Duo to shut him up.

Duo finished his thought and slowly mouthed out "Relena" for everyone to see.

"Oh, stop harassing him, Duo," Quatre said sternly.

"Hey, man, it's all in fun, all in fun," Duo said holding up his hands innocently.

Just then a knock was heard at the door which broke through the tense atmosphere and an old man entered, followed by Noin.

"Who are you?" blurted out Duo. Quatre gave him a look as if to remind him of his manners.

"I, I think I can help you," the man replied, as everyone's eyes focused on him deeply.

"About three months ago, early in the morning, I found a girl asleep on the edge of my woods. I mistook her for the princess, but she told me she was just a traveler. I gave her some breakfast and she went on her way. But with the recent events and all of the rumors surrounding Miss Peacecraft's absence, I am beginning to think that the lady I mistook for Princess Relena actually was the princess."

The pilots looked at the man in disbelief. In all of their searches, they had never thought to look in the area right next to them! DUHHH! They hit themselves for blowing the whole disappearance out of proportion.

"Do you know anything else? Where she was going? ANYTHING?" Quatre asked excitedly.

"She asked for the direction of the nearest village, but that was about it," the old man said.

"Thank you, you've been most helpful!" Quatre said to the man.

After the kind, old farmer left, Noin contacted Sally at the Preventer's base, who was quickly able to dig up the records of all shuttle trips that had taken place from the village in the past three months. She got a lead on one which had traveled to North America on the morning the old man had spoke of. After a few minutes of looking through more travel records, Sally's bright smile lit up the screen in the conference room, "I've think we've found her."

"Let's go," ordered Heero as the pilots ran out of the room to get ready for the trip.