Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing or it's characters, however I do own this fic and therefore it is copyright by Me!




The Dark War
by: Discorde

He stood silently in the middle of the agitated crowd, observing the peoples movements. Some were there to witness the events that were to take place, others simply wanted to have a glimpse of the young woman who was there to speak, and there was one man present with the intention of putting an end to the young woman's existence, and that man was the reason why He was there.

It had been quite some time since he had made his promise to protect her, but it was a promise he intended to keep till death, his or hers. His eyes wandered over to the stage where an old man slowly made his way to the podium and, in a very loud and strong voice, that was not befitting of his aged appearance, announced, "Ladies and gentlemen of Colony L2 I am honored to present to you the representative of the Earth Sphere Unified Nations, her majesty Princess Relena Peacecraft of the Sanq Kingdom." The crowd suddenly came to life with clapping and cheers as a tall blond 18-year-old woman approached the podium and curtsied to the old man before approaching the microphone to speak. As she began her speech the noise quickly died down.

"People of the Colony, I am greatly honored to be here today, it is because of your great efforts that we have finally been able to declare this Colony as part of the Earth's Sphere Alliance and it's efforts in having peace between Earth and the Colonies." The crowd erupted into loud cheers and clapping once again. Once the noise had died down Relena calmly continued her speech.

'It's about time this colony got a taste of what peace and freedom is.' Duo thought as he smiled at the young woman at his side, vaguely hearing the rest of Relena's speech. The short blackish blue haired pixie was all he cared about and peace was something they both wanted and had fought for. But he still didn't believe that it would last, there was only one way he knew of to maintain peace and that was to fight for it. Although he knew that if she hadn't gotten the information from Libra they might not be here today, he didn't want her to get hurt like that ever again no matter the cost, and peace would ensure that she wouldn't. 'Hilde' Duo thought as he focused his attention back to her. Since the end of the war the two had been very close, the God of Death had finally found a light amidst the darkness that surrounded him.

Hilde looked up at the man besides her noticing that his violet eyes were focused on her and that he wasn't paying any attention to what was happening in front of him, she gently nudged him and motioned to the front. He chuckled and wrapped his arms around her before turning his attention back to what Relena was saying.

Relena was just about to officially declare the Colony as part of the Earth's Sphere Alliance when she noticed the lights reflecting off of a metallic object that a man seemed to be pointing at her. Her mind quickly registered exactly what the object was when he moved it and the light was no longer reflecting off of it. There was nowhere to turn if the man decided to shoot, she wouldn't be able to dodge it, besides she wanted the bullet to pierce her heart, she wanted to die. 'If only things weren't the way they are' she thought before she closed her eyes and accepted her fate. 'Maybe I can find peace in death.'

The sound of a gunshot pierced through the noise of the crowd and the frightened people quickly made their way out of the building. The room had emptied itself of all its occupants except for five people.

Hilde ran to the stage where Relena was laying and knelt down beside her friend "Oh God, Relena, are you alright?" she asked, looking her friend over to make sure she hadn't been injured. "Your not hurt right?" she asked again, "No Hilde I'm fine, I just kinda dived to the floor when I heard the shot. Reflexes, I guess." she gave Hilde a small but reassuring smile. After having listened in and being satisfied that Relena hadn't been harmed, Duo turned to the other two men in the room.

The young man that had been watching the crowd so intently had somehow managed to make his way through the throng of people and tackled the man, that had been aiming his gun at Relena, a split second before he took his shot and now he was standing over the guy with his own gun aimed at the would-be assassins head. The young man shoved the guy once with his foot before he lowered his gun and stuffed it back underneath his shirt in the waistband of his jeans. Satisfied that the unconscious guy would cause no more trouble the young man turned his back to the others in the room and started to walk away.

Acting on instinct and the fact that he couldn't rule out the possibility that the young man who was walking away could be responsible for the attempt at ending Relena's life, Duo pulled out his gun and yelled to the young man "Hey, not so fast buddy, you ain't going nowhere. Stop where you are put your hands behind your head and turn around slowly." The young man stopped and did as he was told and ended up facing a very shocked Duo.

When Relena saw her savior for the first time she gasped in shock before sprinting towards him and wrapping her arms around his waist and crying. She hadn't seen the young man, which she was now holding onto so tightly, since the Mariemaia incident years ago. "God, I thought I'd never see you again." she chocked out as her tears soaked his green tank top. "Oh, Heero." she cried as her body shook from her sobs. Heero stood, unmoving, as he let her cry on his chest and patiently waited for her to stop crying as her tears soaked through the material of his tank top. After a few minutes her body had finally ceased shacking, she was no longer crying and had somehow managed to fall asleep while still standing. Heero bent down, lifting up her limp body and carefully carried her to the stage, where Duo and Hilde were sitting waiting for him.

"Hey Heero, how've you been man" Duo asked in his usual cheerful voice as Heero approached him. Heero simply shrugged his shoulders in response. "Still as talkative as ever, it's nice to know you haven't changed" Duo stated, smiling at his best friend, who had now taken a seat next to him with Relena sleeping peacefully on his lap.

"I was going to stop by later to ask you this but I might as well do it now, I need to ask you for a favor." Heero stated in his usual monotone "I need you to protect her for a while," he said as he motioned towards the young woman sleeping on his lap, "there's some things I need to take care of and I won't be around to look after her."

"Sure man! You know you can count on me." Duo said, looking over at his 'best friend' and the woman on his lap, with a huge grin plastered on his face.

"Good" Heero answered then got up off the stage, gently laid Relena down and started to walk away.

Hilde couldn't believe what was happening, Heero had just saved Relena's life once again and she had cried her heart out because she missed him so much and had spent most of her time believing that she was never going to see him again and then Relena had fallen asleep. Now Heero was pawning off his 'duty's' to Duo, the guy wasn't even going to stick around to even talk to Relena, he was just going to leave her again. 'Well I sure as hell ain't gonna stand by and do nothing' she thought, after all Relena was one of the only real friends she's ever had, and she'd be damned if she was going to let the man that her friend loved walk away without a fight.

Hilde quickly rose from the stage and stood in front of Heero, effectively stopping him from leaving.

"You wait just one god damn minute Heero Yuy, I'll be damned if I let you leave here without saying a word to Relena. The poor girl's been heartbroken since you left, she lost everything in that war you know, she lost her parents, her brother is of on some other planet, she never has time to see her friends because of her duty's as a Princess, she's lost her privacy because of all this and people just keep taking everything from her..........she's lost her life, sold her soul for peace without ever asking for anything in return, all so that you wouldn't have to fight anymore. You're the only one she's ever felt she could count on, and your walking away! Do you have any idea what you're doing to her, your killing her Heero and I don't think she could take it if you left again." She screamed at the Wing Zero pilot.

Duo looked at the scene stunned, sure he had seen Hilde upset before but she didn't usually blow up like that, but he knew that she was right about the things that she had said. Even if Heero was his best friend he never thought he was being fair in the way that he treated Relena. The girl had suffered enough, but he accepted the fact that there was nothing he could do about the situation. Things would be different though if Heero wasn't what he was.

"It's alright Hilde," a small voice behind the three whispered, "if he wants to leave then he has a right to do so, the people of earth and the Colony's are free to do as they please, they are free now that there is peace. I wouldn't want him to stay against his will anyway, it wouldn't be fair to him or me." Relena told Hilde as she looked at Heero, hoping that he would turn around so that she would be able to look into his prussian eyes one last time, her eyes once again filled with tears. Heero turned to face Relena and nodded to her in a silent thank you and then left.

"Relena...." Hilde whispered. "I don't want to hear it Hilde, I'm fine, I don't need anyone's pity. Heero's free to make his own choices and I'm not going to force him into something that he obviously doesn't want." Hilde was just about to reply when a voice from across the room interrupted the conversation. "Miss Relena, will you be going home now?" Relena looked up from the spot on the floor that she was staring at and got up off of the stage and headed for the door, where Pagan was patiently awaiting her response. "Yes Pagan, I suppose I should be leaving now". Once she reached the double doors she turned around to face Duo and Hilde once more, "I hope to see you both again soon. Good bye Hilde, Duo." with those final words and a nod of her head Relena went out the door and went to her limousine.

When she was sure that Relena was out of earshot Hilde turned and glared at Duo "Duo Maxwell, how could you just stand there and let him leave!"

"Hilde, babe, there are just some things about this whole situation that you couldn't possibly understand right now" ,Duo sighed and walked over to her, "but right now lets just go home." he said as he wrapped his arms around Hilde and kissed the top of her head.

********

During the drive home Duo and Hilde were silent. "I'm going straight to bed." Hilde announced as she entered their house and started climbing the stairs that led to their bedroom. "I'll be up in a bit babe" he yelled up to her. Duo waited till he heard her close the door to their room before he spoke again. "You can come out now Heero." Heero slowly stepped out of the shadows and into the dim porch light.

"So what exactly is this thing that you need to take care of?"

Heero looked Duo straight in the eyes before answering "My father".

"WHAT!" Duo nearly screamed at him. "You can't possibly be serious, even I wouldn't face him alone, you should bring me along with you so you can have some sort of defense."

"No, I need you to stay here and keep an eye on Relena in case he decides to send someone after her, your the only one I can trust to protect her if it becomes necessary."

"At least get one of the other guys to go with you, I'm sure they'd go along if you would explain things to them, besides you'd stand a better chance of actually coming back alive if you did."

"I have to try and take care of this on my own Duo. If I don't make it back before the war starts I'm counting on you guys to put an end to things by any means necesarry." With those words said Heero turned and left the house, heading for the shuttle bay.

"Good luck buddy" Duo whispered as he watched his friend walk away, "you're going to need it."




AN: Finally done revising this chapter, I might have the second chapter revised sometime this weekend or the next (I've already started), so till then R&R people.