By: Godshatter

Blood, blood everywhere. I look down below me to see my kingdom bathed in blood and war. I cannot speak; I cannot move; I cannot even blink. I look up and see the moon and gasp in my mind. There is no moon, there is not even the soft light cast by the stars in the jeweled heavens. The sky is black except for a heart, a cancerous black heart that pumps not the blood of life but a thick oil that pours onto the land and strangles from its war torn hills the last inkling of life. In the midst of this a line floats into my mind, “In the end there is cruelty and death alone over the land, not in a single ray of light or grain of sand will you find solace. For all is dark and the gaze of God’s indifferent, heavy lidded eyes falls on all with equal disdain.” “Yes, that has certainly happened here” I think as I look out on to untold miles of Hell’s surface, or at least what I would think Hell would look like.

Dark clouds form over the countryside and the rain begins to fall. The rain soaks into the ground and pools with the blood in the streets and in the walkways, washing its filth from the ground. Its sweet smell cleanses the air of the stink of death and of fear. It seems that for now life may have a chance to reclaim its lost ground. I cautiously begin to descend the hill that I had been standing on. “What has happened here.” “What is this war in the hearts of men.” I say as I look down at my kingdom in ruins. “Why does nature vie with itself; the land contend with the sea? Is there some avenging power in nature? Not one power but two?” I muse to myself aloud. “One of these days I’m going to find out what drives men to fight each other and themselves, even if it takes the entirety of my life”.

Down the road Releena comes to a curious white and blue structure laying on the ground. Upon closer examination she realizes to her horror that it is the prone figure of Wing Zero Custom. Laying face down, arms outstretched towards the sparkling ocean, it looks like a fallen angel, “Heero”, Releena murmurs to herself, barley above a whisper. “You’re a fallen angel Heero, my fallen angel.” The tears came again but were fought off, “This is no time for tears, I have to be strong; for myself and for my people.” But as Releena picked herself off from the cobblestone road she noticed a figure on a wall, chained and horribly marred and disfigured.

Fighting against her better judgment Releena ran over to the figure, that’s all she could think of it as. She couldn’t even think of it as human, much less a man or a woman. The head was shaved accept for a small dark long bang, the ears had been torn off save for a little scrap of skin hanging from the left ear lobe. On the right cheek there was a long slash that ran from where the right ear would have been across the right eye (through the socket where the eye had “popped” and ran) and down across the nose where it stopped just above the upper lip. There was another slash that ran from just above the right eye down to the neck where there was a gaping hole in the throat, blood still warm poured out and pooled on the ground.

The face was a mass of blood and brain matter, completely unrecognizable except for a glint of color that caught Releena’s eye just as she was about to continue her examination of the body. It was there for only a moment, just the smallest hint of steely blue in the left eye, like glacial ice it was there and then… nothing; it had slipped into the frozen ocean of death. Releena gasped in recognition as she realized that this broken shell of a man, this hideous, battered creature was her Heero. Releena collapsed onto the ground sobbing uncontrollably. She looked up through her crystalline tears at the body in front of her, she saw the whip marks on the chest, the knife wounds that ran from his waist all the way up to his fore arms and finally her gaze fell to his abdomen, where a long deep gash running from left to right had spilled his entrails all over himself. Blood ran red and freely from his wounds and saturated the ground around him. The stench of decay violated her delicate nostrils and filled her whole being. She gagged, once, twice and vomited all over herself adding to the filth around her. Releena collapsed to kneel before he who was once her knight in shining armor, tears streaking down her face...

The clink of chains roused Releena out of her stupor. She looked up and saw that Heero was alive. He jerked his left arm a bit. The chain grated against the concrete wall that he was bound to. His head moved a bit as if he were looking around. Heero gave the most feral, blood-curdling scream. Releena's vision shivered before his scream, then cracked down the center to shatter like glass, as her scream joined his before her the world faded into nothingness...

Releena awoke screaming and soaked in sweat in her bed. Moments latter a loud *BANG* and then, “OUCH! Dammit.” Still sobbing Releena looked up to see Duo open her door and quietly slide inside her bedchambers while holding his hand to his head.

“You alright Lena? I heard you screaming from across the hall and thought maybe someone had come back for you”, whispered Duo as he began looking around the room, checking the window locks and sweeping the closet for intruders. When Releena didn’t say anything he looked back at her huddled form quivering under the blankets, tears glistening in the moonlight.

“Duo you baka” he said as he mentally kicked himself in the ass for the second time that evening. Duo softly walked over to Releena’s bed and sat down, circling his arm around her waist. Releena leaned on his shoulder and continued to sob quietly to herself. Soon though, Releena’s sobs became less intense and less frequent as her body began to shake less and less Duo could tell that she was calming down. “You going to be alright?” asked Duo quietly. “Yes Duo, I think I’ll be ok. It was only a bad dream, nothing more”, Releena said quietly, unsure if what she said was what she felt.

“Alright, I’m going to go back to bed, you need to get some sleep. Tomorrow is going to be a long day. Sweet dreams Lena”, he whispered. Duo smiled at her and gave her a small hug and kiss on her forehead before he got up and exited quietly, like a wraith in the night.

Relena laid in her bed lost in thought. “I wish Heero would show outward emotion like that sometimes. Duo sure can be sweet though, Hilde is a very lucky girl”, said Releena wistfully. As she stared out her window her thoughts began to wonder. “I pray that you are alright Heero. May the gods be with you.” With those last words in her mind she drifted back into darkness, lulled by the gentle chirping of the crickets and the songs of the night.

The next morning Releena awoke to the sun pouring in through her window, momentarily blinded by the dazzling light she stirred and rubbed the last remnants of sleep from her lashes. Releena got up, put on a deep blue bathrobe and headed for her morning shower.

As the warm water streamed down her body she reflected on the previous nights events, mainly on her dream. It had seemed so real. She just couldn’t shake the feeling that something horrible was coming and it lay just over the horizon. Call it a hunch, a “feeling”, or just plain woman’s intuition. It scared the hell out of her.

Releena stepped out of her shower and walked over to her oaken dresser and pulled out her wardrobe for the day: dark blue stonewashed jeans, light yellow spaghetti strap tank top and her white tennis shoes, “No work today, thank God”, she muttered to herself as she tossed on her shoes and ran out the door.

As she glided down the stairwell that led from her upper hall to her kitchen she noticed a strange noise, like a deep grumbling. When she stepped through the double swinging door to her kitchen the sight before her was rather amusing.

Duo lay slumped over the table snoring. Wearing nothing but black boxers with his head resting in his arms, a bottle of whiskey next to him. Releena couldn’t help but giggle to herself, though the thought of Duo drinking like this at such a young age disturbed her a bit. “I hope he doesn’t have a hangover. It would sure be hard to get any information from him if he is passed out on my table though. Guess I should wake him up”. The grin on Releena’s face would have frozen the blood in Duo’s veins.

Duo had been enjoying a particularly steamy dream involving him, Hilde and a * very * large hot tub. The next thing he knew was that he was on the ground being tickled to death. “What” * gasp * “In” * pant * “The hell?” panted Duo in between ragged gasps of air. “ARE YOU DOING TO ME” Duo finally managed to yell. Looking at Releena an evil grin spread across his face

“Uh, oh. Duo Maxwell don’t you even think abo- GAAH!“ Releena was cut off when Duo promptly glomped her and began to tickle her.

As the two rolled around the floor in fits of laughter Pagan had come in from the garage after he had gone on an errand.

“Mr. Maxwell, Miss Releena just what exactly are you two doing hmm?”

Releena jumped at Pagan’s seemingly unannounced entrance and turned 14 different shades of read, Duo laughing all the while

“Ahahahahaha, Releena I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone turn that many shades of red before”, remarked Duo in between fits of laughter as he rolled around on the floor clutching his sides.

“Mr. Maxwell, I have reserved you and Ms. Releena a flight on the next shuttle to Mars. However, since it was on such short notice I didn’t have much choice about flights and yours leaves in about 5 hours. I suggest that you go back to Preventers HQ and pack. I’ll help Ms. Releena here,” said Pagan, a hint of steel in his voice.

“Er um, heh heh, Sure Pagan, I’ll be ready in a few hours. Pick me up at the base around noon, that way I can eat before we go.” Duo blanches and then “I can’t stand airline food”

Pagan glances at the clock. “Alright Duo, I’ll pick you up at the west gate.”

“Sure thing Pagan.” As Duo bounds out of the kitchen and heads upstairs to change Pagan remembers the other thing he meant to tell Duo.

“Oh, Mr. Maxwell? I forgot to tell you that Dr. J told me to tell you that Hilde needed to come also, so I took the liberty to book her for the same flight. Make sure you both are ready at 12:00 sharp. Remember, it’s the WEST gate.”

“Sure, sure. I’ll remember” Duo, noticing that Pagan is glaring daggers at him quickly adds, “Really, I’ll remember”

“Mr. Maxwell, do get on with it”

“All right all right, catcha on the flip side Lena.” With that he excused himself from the kitchen and bolted upstairs.

Duo opened the door to his room and pulled his Preventers uniform out of a duffel bag and threw it on. Heh heh, Colonel Maxwell, that has a nice ring to it. I sure am glad they signed us Gundam Pilots on as officers. Being a grunt would be so uncool. Anyways, I should get going. Gotta be ready at the East gate? No, it was the West gate… I think. Dammit! Wait, it was the west gate, whew. Thought I forgot it already. Duo stands up from tying his boots and bolts out the door and downstairs to the driveway where his black Harley was waiting.

* * *

“Honestly Miss Releena I don’t see what Ms. Schbieker sees in that boy. He is very strange.”

“I know Pagan, he has to be the way he is, or the pain of war would drive him mad. Inside that cheerful exterior is a bleeding wound that has just begun to heal. Hopefully Hilde can help heal him.” Replied Releen. I know someone I wish I could help heal, but I don’t even know where he is. Duo and Hilde don’t know how lucky they really are to have each other, to not be alone all the time…

“Are you all right Ms. Releena?” asked Pagan, concern in his eyes.

Releena, a distant look in her eyes, snaps her attention to Pagan, “Yes Pagan, I just dazed out for a moment, it’s still early in the morning and I’m not quite awake yet”, replied Releena, a tinge of pain in her voice.

“Alright, now, lets get you packed and ready to go.”

* * *

Duo sat at a red light, thinking. Wonder what doc J wants to see Hilde for anyways. I didn’t even know she had ever met him, much less have any reason to see him. The light turned green while Duo was still in lala land. The car behind him honked, startling Duo out of his demur. He sped off, flipping the driver behind him an obscene gesture as the man roared past him. Oh man, I’ve got a bad feeling about this one…

* * *

Hilde Schbieker had joined the Preventers organization after the Sigon Clan’s insurrection 2 years ago. Now she found herself in command of an elite group of mobile suit pilots specializing in covert ops and demolition. She had just gotten back from a small demo job on colony 6-M. Even though the job was relatively small, (only a furniture factory) because it once housed ammunition and contraband material it was considered a military ops.

“What a way to spend the week, cooped up in a small command bunker with no action. 6 days of absolute boredom ended with 30 seconds of mild excitement” complained Hilde to her friend Kat over her breakfast of powdered eggs and dry toast.

“No shit. Oh well, at least I got to push the button” Replied Kat, idly poking at her hashbrowns. “And another thing, with all the power the Preventers has you’d think that we could get some better food. This stuff tastes like something I would scrape off the bottom of my boots.”

“Ugh, that’s disgusting Kat, couldn’t you just say that the food is awful? I don’t think I can finish this” remarked Hilde as she slid her plate aside. “I wonder what Duo is up to, I haven’t seen him in about a week.”

As if on cue Duo burst through mess hall door, tripped over some spilt orange juice and landed face first right beside Hilde’s chair.

“Duo, you’re a lost cause” said Hilde smiling.

“Yeah, yeah, I try love.”

“I know you do. Now where have you been the past week?” asked Hilde expectantly.

“Oh you know, around. The usual. You need to go get packed though, we’re supposed to meat doc J on Mars and our flight leaves at 3:00. I want to eat lunch before we go, you know how I feel about airline food” as Duo said this he visibly flinched at the last remark.

“Alright, I’ll run up and pack” laughed Hilde. “By the way, how long are we going to be there?”

“Umm…” Duo began thinking. After a few moments it was clear that the effort was beginning to have adverse effects on him.

“Forget about it, I’ll pack for a few days and if we end up staying longer I’ll just have to find a laundry mat”

“No, wait. Doc said we would probably be there about 4 days” replied Duo, grinning sheepishly.

Both girls look at each other and grinned, “Hopeless” they say in tandem.

* * *

“Admiral, the Ultrawave Drive is complete. Fleet upgrades should be complete sometime late in the week and the final upgrades to our strike craft can be made en route. Your flagship, Hunter-Gratzna, should be fully refitted and operational by 18:00 hours tomorrow, the old kinetic particle weapons have all been replaced by the new rail guns and the sub-light engines have all been upgraded to ramscoop fusion drives. Though I don’t know how the computer will handle the upgrades, it should hold up fairly well” explained the low level tech.

“Very well sergeant, you are dismissed”

“Sir, if I may ask, what do you plan to do now?” queried the technician.

Admiral Verner fixed the soldier with a withering glare, then he replied, “Ride the light.”

AN: Alright, I know I ended it at an odd point but I had too >;). Part III might be out shortly, might not. I’m working on 2 songfics, a Tenchi multipart and one other one.