Chapter 7: The Mist

Relena flipped through the channels of the small TV in the Preventers' issued apartment. Heero was on his laptop again, as usual, reporting the news of Dave's disappearance to Lady Une. Relena could hear the angry scolding of the Preventers' chief, even though Heero was on the complete opposite side of the living quarters.

Simply shaking her head--the girl was thankful she wasn't on the receiving end of Une's anger--Relena stopped her channel surfing as a familiar event caught her eye on one of the news stations.

A reporter stood in front of the Bowman residence while firefighters were extinguishing the last of some uncooperative flames.

"That would be ex-significant other," Relena corrected the reporter. "And sweetheart of the Cinq Kingdom?" she pondered aloud. "Hmm…I like that…"

"What's on?" Heero questioned, stepping into the room.

"Look, I'm on TV!" Relena pointed to the screen, where a photo of herself and Dave were being shown under the heading "MISSING". The TV continued to blare the breaking story…

"But Heero-" Relena questioned him. "Lady Une knows I'm alive and that Dave was too, until he got away from us last night."

"Yes, she does, but we don't want to release that information to the press just yet. Whoever started that fire was out to destroy both you and Dave. Once they know where you are, they may not hesitate to finish the job. Until we know how serious these attackers are, you're still a missing person."

"I see," Relena stated.

"But now that it is known you still may be alive, it’s not safe here. Your attackers are probably still in the area, and because of these reports, they've most likely begun a search for you," Heero explained. "We need to leave, now."

"But where will we go? How will we get there?" Relena asked him frantically. It was just now registering that her life was in danger.

"You'll see," Heero said in his unfeeling voice, which never sounded too reassuring.

<><>

The mist was heavy that morning, but it proved the perfect shield to enable Relena's escape. She stumbled through alleyways with Heero literally dragging the tired girl behind him.

Coming upon his car, Heero hastily packed Relena in the passenger's seat and, when he had secured himself, sped off into the eerie cloud cobwebs, driving quickly, yet cautiously, to the nearest shuttle-port. Neither spoke a word.

Relena sat mesmerized by the whiteness surrounding them. The mist twirled and parted as the car cut through it, revealing hidden trees and buildings at the very last minute, then swallowing the outside world once again when the car had passed.

The low cloud cover blanketed the planet as if it were keeping a secret, hiding the precious Earth and all that lay in its depths. Mysterious, unreadable, dangerous at times…yet beautiful. That's what the mist was to Relena. She then stole a glimpse at her companion; his form focused on the short span of visible road ahead of them. Heero was just like the mist, Relena thought, amazed by the similar connection.

Arriving at the shuttle-port, Heero drove towards a special Hangar, reserved for official government use, where he had kept the Preventers' ship he had arrived in.

"Come away from the window," Heero muttered to Relena. "We still have to pass a security check, and I don't trust anyone right now."

Heero reached to the backseat and grabbed his worn, jean jacket, tossing it at Relena.

"Use this to cover up," he commanded. "Try to hide as much as your face as possible without looking suspicious, and pretend you're asleep."

Relena obeyed, curling up against the Heero's faded garment. She pulled the jacket up close to her face and buried her nose underneath it, taking in all of the smells of its wearer and its past. Her hot breath only served to intensify the smell of gasoline and burnt metal lingering on the aged blue jean material, mixed also with a spicy scent the girl could to only attribute to the man himself.

The car lurked towards the checkpoint. Heero flashed his badge, but apparently that wasn't enough for the guard stationed there.

Tugging down his cap, the guard signaled for Heero to roll down his window and then proceeded to peek inside.

The guard spoke, pointing to Relena. "Seems to me you didn't have this extra bundle when you arrived here Mr.--" He paused, quickly glancing down at Heero's badge, "--Yuy."

'Why does that voice seem familiar?' Heero questioned himself as he continued speaking to the guard.

"Well it seems to me that as a Preventer's Special Forces Agent, I don't need to be questioned," Heero told the man gruffly. He wanted to catch the guard's eye in a death glare, but the man smartly kept his gaze downward, his eyes also hidden in the shadow of his cap.

"Look here, I'm only trying to do my job--" the man started, but was interrupted by a perturbed Heero.

"Sir…" said the Preventers' agent as he patted the man's shoulder, immediately causing the "guard" to let out a slight yelp of pain, "…I'm only trying to do mine." With that, Heero delivered a swift punch to the man's face, knocking him out on the spot. As he fell, a gun was revealed from behind his back.

Heero immediately sped off. Knowing something was wrong, Relena gasped and turned around to catch a glimpse of the scene behind her. "What happened?"

"They're onto us already," Heero stated. "That guard was one of the men who started the fire last night. I thought his voice sounded familiar, and I did remember giving him a nice bruise on the shoulder, so I checked to make sure. It turned out that my theory was indeed correct. He's going to come to soon, so we better be gone before he wakes up. We can't afford to have anyone following us."

The runaways made it to the Hangar and, soon after, Heero's ship took off, while the attacker was still knocked out cold.

'If I'm not mistaken,' Relena thought to herself in disbelief, 'Heero's still keeping his promise. I don't think he's killed anyone yet since I've seen him.' And she smiled at the thought. Her life's work as a diplomat was so that people like Heero wouldn't have to kill anymore…perhaps it was finally paying off, at least in his case. But Relena did realize that only a skilled enough fighter such as Heero could manage to defeat a foe without taking his life. 'The world still has a lot to learn,' she sighed.

Settling her gaze upon the well-built young man next to her, a small smile formed upon Relena's lips and her eyes softened a bit, both actions a reflex of the heart that the girl couldn't quite figure out how to control.

"He is truly one of a kind," Relena whispered to herself without even realizing it.

"Hm?" Heero glanced at her.

Embarrassed, the girl cleared her throat. "N-nothing, Heero." She gave him her diplomatic smile and scrunched lower in her seat, focusing her vision on the many beautiful stars of outer space. They were much safer to look at than the toned pilot just a few feet away from her, whose physical traits were having a much greater effect on the girl now that she finally had time to study the man up close.

With Heero piloting the shuttle, Relena felt more comfortable and, after awhile of whisking stars and twinkling lights, she was able to fall asleep, yet threats upon her life still haunted her dreams.

<><>

They arrived at their destination sometime later, and Relena couldn't have been happier with Heero's choice of hideaway when she saw Quatre Winner coming out of his mansion on L4 to greet them. Though his eyes were filled with concern, Quatre's joy that Relena was safe was evident, and he and the girl embraced like true old friends.

"I thought we had lost you, Miss Relena," the gentle Arabian said, hugging her more tightly. "I am so relieved you are alright."

"Well, you can thank Heero, as usual," Relena said as they broke the hug. "He was there to save me just in time."

Quatre smiled at the girl and nodded his approval to Heero.

"Come! Come into the house. I haven't seen you in ages. Would you like some tea?" Quatre led Relena into the mansion, eager to please his new guest, while Heero simply followed the two chatting friends at a distance. He had other matters to attend to.

<><>

Trowa's face appeared on Heero's computer screen as the undercover agent told of his latest findings at SpinTech…

"Heero, Terry Spindown is quite adamant in his decision to eliminate Mr. Bowman and Vice Foreign Minister Darlian. It seems he will stop at nothing until they are silenced."

"I know," Heero said monotonously, thinking of the trials and tribulations of the evening and morning spent with Relena and her attackers.

Trowa understood his comment. "I was hoping you would be there to save Mr. Bowman and Relena from the fire. I didn't find out about that scheme until too late." The green-eyed pilot them smirked. "But seeing that you and Ms. Darlian are alive, I guess I didn't have to worry."

"Hn," Heero responded, but then remembered the earlier incident at the shuttle-port.

"Trowa, one of Spindown's men saw my face this morning. I don't want them to be able to identify me."

"Say no more," Trowa piped in. "You've no need to for concern. Once Spindown learned his men weren't able to kill Relena, he promptly had them shot on the spot. Not a good move, when they could have given him valuable information on the Vice Foreign Minister's protector, wouldn't you say, Heero?"

The stormy pilot let out a grunt. "Well good, that's one problem taken care of. What about the satellite?"

"Apparently, SpinTech's satellite, also known as 'Lavender', is going to be used to gather information, rather than anything hostile. I suspect it's for spying, and because it doesn't look like an immediate threat, you can tell the Preventers to calm down."

"I'll do that. Information like that is good to hear," Heero stated.

"Yes, but I'm still investigating the operation," Trowa informed him. "Spindown's become more paranoid as of late. He doesn't let information slip too freely. I'm learning the most from talking to his workers. I'm still working on hacking into Spindown's private files, but the security is hell. I heard he upped it after someone mysteriously got through."

Heero simply nodded. "Well, keep me posted as you find out more. Relena's safe with me now, but I need to know the details of Project Lavender."

"Roger that. I'm out," Trowa told his fellow Preventer and the computer screen went blank.

<><><>

Hi Everyone!

Please tell me what you think of the story so far. I had to wrap up some things in this chapter, but a lot will be revealed in the next one, so stay tuned!