Chapter 1, Part 2 (3/4)

 

In the hall of the Darlian estate, Relena's 15th birthday is celebrated with great pomp.

On the tables, luxurious dishes and desserts are lined up and around them, nicely dressed ladies and gentlemen are coming and going. It looks as if tropical fish were swimming around.

The main actor has not yet appeared, but the invited guests keep conversing without being concerned. For the upper class, which is familiar with these kind of parties, the diplomacy until the guest of honour appears is one of the important pleasures.

In that instant, loud cheering starts with a "Whaaa". Relena has appeared on the broad stairs, wearing a blue dress.

It's a flowing one-piece dress. At her hips, the dress is held together by a ribbon imitating a flower. Around her neck, there's a thin, simple necklace. Her hands are covered by white gloves. It's a figure where girlishness and straining adulthood meet in a good match.

"Dear Guests, I couldn't be happier that today you came together here because of me."

After coming down the stairs which are covered completely by a thick, plush fur carpet, Relena bows.

"Miss Relena!"

The classmates from the St. Gabriel School quickly gather around Relena. They shower her with congratulations.

While Relena gives back thanks to one after the other, her gaze wanders around the hall as if looking for something. The intricate expression visible now and then, is it a mixture of expecation and anxiety?

Her gaze settles on the figures of her parents which are standing as if hiding in the shadows of the stairs.

"Do you have to leave after all?"

"Yes."

"Can't you stay a bit longer for Relena's sake?"

While approaching, Relena hears the dialogue between her parents. She sighs inside her.

"Father" Relena addresses him with a quiet voice.

"I'm sorry, Relena."

"No, father. I'm not a child anymore who doesn't understand her father's reasons. Please take care of yourself."

"I will."

Darlian bends down and Relena places a kiss on his cheek. In this moment, a few photos fall out of the bundle of documents Darlian is holding.

"What are these pictures?" asks Relena her father while she picks up the photos.

"These are artifical satellites which have fallen down. Nothing of importance."

As if preventing that this matter is further pursued, Darlian leaves the hall quickly behind him once he is given the pictures.

Artificial satellites...? That's a lie!

Relena suddenly remembers what she saw from the shuttle.

There was no indication that this had been an artificial satellite. But all mass media report that an artificial satellite has fallen down over the Pacific Ocean.

Heero had been in the cockpit of that fighter plane posing as a shuttle. The time also fits. Maybe he has come from the colonies! If so, is Heero a star prince?

As a young girl in her puberty, Relena has in her heart a conviction growing which is a mix of reality and fantasy.

Heero has said that he will kill me. Why? Because I've seen his secret? So, what is this secret? The true face of that child? That's why I am supposed to be killed?

It seems I have read too many cheap mystery novels.

That's how she admonishes herself.

But... thinks Relena.

Whatever the reason is, nobody has looked at me so far with such a serious look....

"Miss Relena, please blow them out."

Having entered her own world, Relena is brought back to herself by the voice of her classmate.

"Huh?"

"The candles."

A big birthday cake is set before her eyes, each of the 15 candles lighted. The main event has come up in the meantime.

When Relena is about to take in a breath to blow out the candles, a boy comes storming into the hall. Relena involuntarily rises her head and for reasons unknown even to herself loses her courage. The boy is her classmate Kai.

"Ah, I'm glad I still came on time. Happy Birthday, Relena!"

"Thank you."

Relena smiles at Kai who offers her affectedly a bunch of roses.

While looking around his surroundings, Kai murmurs as if talking to himself "Heero hasn't come after all? Was that then really him...?"

"You've happened to see Heero?" Relena involuntarily rises slightly from her seat.

"Yes, on the sea-shore street. But I had to laugh. He was in an ambulance. It must have been a mistake."

When she hears "ambulance", Relena is convinced. When she had encountered Heero for the first time on the beach, he had stolen the ambulance Relena had called.

"So, whereto was the ambulance heading?"

"Uh? Towards the army port, but..."

Relena turns her back on an astonished Kai, storms suddenly out of the room, then turns around.

"Dear guests, please enjoy the party. Because I will be back right away."

"If you go to the port, I can go too..."

Rising her hand, Relena holds back Kai who wants to follow her.

"No way! Don't come!"

She throws those words at him in a sharp voice one cannot imagine hearing normally from Relena. As if she had noticed this herself, she lifts her dress and bows.

"Excuse me, dear guests."

After turning around, she calls the butler Pagan and runs outside.

Heero... what do you want to do? Whom do you want to kill?

While getting into the limousine driven by Pagan, such thoughts swirl inside Relena's head.

When Relena arrives, the Alliance Navy base is in chaos.

Here and there small explosions happen at the same time and the results are many injured people. Additionally, the staff and the guards have become very few since the main fleet has gone out in order to retrieve the sunken unidentified mobile suit.

Those are the reasons that Relena is not even noticed when she sneaks onto the base in her dress.

Searching for Heero's figure, Relena approaches the quay where the submarines are anchored. She doesn't understand why. She just has the feeling he might be here. Then, as suspected, she discovers the boy she's looking for.

"Heero! So it is you!"

Manipulating the control panel on deck of a submarine, Heero continues working as if he didn't hear Relena's voice.

"Don't do it, Heero!"

A crane above their heads transports three cylinder-shaped things towards the sea. Relena understand with one glance the true meaning of this. Her father has connections to the Alliance and besides, there are plenty of military documents in her house.

Torpedoes... Besides, these are rocket propelled torpedoes for use under water and loaded into submarines and mobile suits.

"Heero, what do you intend to do? Tell me. Then, what are you? I want to know about you..."

"Relena..."

As if finally hearing Relena's voice, Heero turns around. Relena smiles involuntarily out of joy.

But her face instantly freezes. In Heero's hand thrust at her there's a black gleaming gun.

"You're involved too deeply."

The muzzle points directly at Relena's forehead.

"Goodbye, Relena."

After saying this words of farewell in an emotionless voice, Heero presses onto the trigger with his finger.

In the expression of Heero, standing before Relena, there's no trace of hesitation.

Relena opens her eyes wide, as if to ask "why". In this moment, the sound of a shot reverberates.

But it's not Heero who is shooting. Heero's arm is hit by a bullet and he drops the gun.

He clutches his arm and crouches. Relena sees the figure of another boy on the side Heero faces now.

It's a boy who wears black clothing exactly like a priest and who has brown hair which has grown to his hip and is put in a thick braid - it's Duo.

His peaked cap is drawn deep into his face as if to hide his features. Then Duo opens his mouth without moving away the muzzle from Heero.

"In such a case, I guess no matter how you look at it, it's you who is the bad guy. Are you injured, Miss?"

It's a cheerful tone, which is unsuited for such a place. The cause is probably that there is no reason to play the hero saving the cute girl.

"Are you okay, Heero?" Relena runs towards the groaning Heero.

"Hey!"

Surprised by this action, Duo looks at Relena for some time as if he didn't believe his eyes.

For a moment Relena's body blocks Duo's line of fire.

Without letting escape this moment, Heero reflexively jumps to pick up his gun.

But Duo's reaction is a bit quicker. The second shot goes through Heero's right thigh. Going head over, Heero falls to the floor.

"Don't overdo it, you're injured after all!" Duo says this as if he were very astonished.

Before him, Relena stands in his way, both arms outstretched.

"Stop it already! What do you have against this person?!"

Duo just stares perplexed at this girl who talks to him in such an angry tone.

After staring back at Duo, Relena crouches down and looks at Heero's injuries. The bullets seem to have passed through, but the bleeding doesn't stop. Without hesitation, Relena rips the dress's hem and binds it tightly around Heero's arm and thigh. Immediately the quick bandage made out of the blue dress is soaked with blood and is dyed violet.

"Wait up! Shit! How did I become the bad guy?"

As Duo throws out these words not understand the reasons, the sound of a huge wave comes from the open sea.

Duo throws a glance at his diver's watch and clicks his tongue.

"Has it come this far? Looks like I made a mistake in calculating the tide" murmurs Duo.

It was his intention to have it stop more towards the open sea. This way, they approach the Alliance base too much. The plan was to arrive early, place the bombs in the base and do the salvage protected by the confusion, but this other visitor has forestalled him. Besides, they are exploding more strikingly than Duo thought.

"What is that?"

Relena stares at the surface of the sea for a long time. A huge something divides the wave and approaches the harbour on the surface of the sea. She has the feeling she caught a glance of a characteristic mobile suit head between the waves.

But she can see this scene only for a moment.

Immediately, a flash from the side colours Relena's sight white.

"Watching not allowed!" says Duo with an unexpectedly harsh voice while he obstructs Relena's sight with an emergency flashlight.

"So, Miss, you seem to have your reasons, but it would be better if you left. For your own sake."

Duo brandishes his gun as if to say "go quickly".

In this moment Heero, who has stopped all movement, jumps up.

"Haven't given up yet?"

Has Duo thought that Heero would come his way? He positions himself for battle for a moment. But Heero flies towards the torpedoes which are on their way to be unloaded onto the surface of the sea.

"So it *is* my mobile suit after all!?"

After murmuring this, Heero opens the control panel and manipulates the buttons. He starts over with the settings since the original plan was to blow up the mobile suit sunk in the oceanic trench.

"What are you doing, idiot?!" Duo calls, noticing Heero's intentions.

That guy has the intention to blow up the mobile suits!

He runs towards the control panel, intending to manipulate the crane so that the torpedoes can't be launched. But it's already too late. Heero has finished the settings and cuts the torpedoes off the crane.

"With this, everything ends."

Flames shoot out and the torpedoes go off towards their target as if they're thrust out. Heero is thrown off of them.

"Mission... accomplished."

Heero's body dances through the sky and crashes onto the surface of the sea.

The torpedoes crash into the two mobile suits approaching on the surface of the sea.

The moment they hit full on, the sound of the explosions shakes the surroundings and and a flash of light makes everything vanish for a moment. The pressure of the explosion repels the energy of the two mobile suits. They lose their balance and sink into the sea.

"That guy... he knew the explosive's place of that mobile suit. If I hadn't destroyed the fuse, my Gundam would have accompanied it."

While murmuring this, Duo looks over to the body of Heero floating on the water without any force left. Suddenly he comes to a conclusion.

"The guy is that mobile suit's pilot..."

Duo clicks his tongue when he sees an ambulance, sirenes wailing, heading towards him.

"Miss, it would be better if you didn't get involved with this guy."

Leaving these words behind, Duo jumps into a boat which is moored to the ladder of the submarine and goes away over the surface of the sea.

Relena watches perplexed the motionless Heero swimming on the water and the black clad boy from behind. Then she murmurs "What are these people?"

Relena is left standing alone in the middle of continuous explosions and black smoke.

 

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