"Sea of Stars"

A Gundam Wing Story

by Trekkiexb5

Category: Drama, Romance

Couples: 1xR, 2xH--the normal match-ups

Rating: R for language.  Heero has a potty mouth and so does Zechs.  It's a bit lime-y in parts, too.

Caution: part of this story is about rape, though it is really never described in detail.

Posting:  I'm posting at fanfiction.net, but anyone can post it, as long as my name stays attached.  AND you write me and tell me how bad (or good) it was.  My address is: [email protected]

Summary:  Relena told him to get a life, so he did, of sorts.  Now, it's her turn.  But the past often shows it's ugly head at the worst of times.  Are they ready to handle a past when they are just getting grips with the Present?

Dedication:  To Athena and David; deppers from heck and my reason for sanity during a troubling time.   And putting up with me and reading all my stories.  To Noah, my beloved Beta, who understands the term "Constructive Criticism" and thinks it is "so cool" I know as much about comic books as he does.  To Derek Wildstar; without him, I would have never watched Gundam Wing.  And finally, to fools who showed me a Ranma 1/2 tape, (not to mention X-Files tapes) in Spain not realizing what kind of monster they created.  Thanks Guys, I'm now a lot poorer, but 200+ anime tapes and DVDs richer.

Gundam Wing isn't mine.  If it was, you would be watching this, not reading it.

Author's notes:  You can skip this if (a) you have no patience, (b) You think the author's opinion should have no relevance on the story or (c) you don't want anything to give away the story.  Go ahead and read the story, now.  I'm waiting.

...

…

…

...

Ok, now that the unwanted crowd has left, I can expound on my reasons the story is written the way it is.

I have tried to stay as close to the show/movie/manga as possible.  The possible exception being is Zechs and Noin on Earth. There isn't a lot of Mobile Suit battles, however there are lots of tense scenes of danger.  And, of course, the obligatory rescue of Relena.  After all, it wouldn't be Gundam Wing without it.

This story has lots of OoC.  Actually, it really isn't OoC, it is the fact the characters are older and (hopefully) a little wiser.  No, I don't dislike Zechs. I needed a springboard and him acting like a overbearing, over concerned brother was too perfect.  He redeems himself later.  I like Zechs.

 I do hate the "happy ever after" ending to the show.  Real life wouldn't end like that.  I wanted to show that getting to that ending was a lot harder than what the show depicted.  No Gundams my butt!!  First of all, Zechs didn't destroy his; and 2; Wing Zero was only partially destroyed.  Remember, it was rebuilt when Heero tried to self-destruct it.  Also, the Manga and "Endless Waltz" left a lot to the imagination and was ultimately unsatisfying to this fan.

Also, I don't have a problem with same-sex relationships. Several of the characters that I have created for this story are same-sex.  I just don't think Heero and Duo have that kind of relationship.  Looking at the episodes, Heero's emotional (and in part, sexual) growth is out of his reactions with Relena.  And the show's creator went out of the way to introduce a character that wasn't really necessary (but cool!) to the plotline: Hilde, for Duo.  It was obvious that the creators did not want you get the idea of a relationship between the two pilots.  Trowa and Quartre, a different story.  Both are shown with SISTERS, but no other females.  Though Quartre's religion would shun homosexuality.

Like all people, Heero does have a past, even though he  may not know it. He also has emotions, a truly uncaring "machine" would not save Relena and would have killed off Duo along time ago!  So this is my theory of what happened next.

Ok, why the story, then?  Funny you asked.

Here are six kids, at the start of emotional and sexual maturity, forced to put normal (as they see it) lives aside and deal with a world that the adults screwed up.  As much I like a little romance with my mecha, in this case it was justified NOT to have it as part of the plotline. There was no time for them to rub noses with anyone.  However, after Endless Waltz, They could all hang up their war machines and live like the rest of us.  But they are not like the rest of us, and haven't been for some time.  This is the story of the most extraordinary of the group, Heero and Relena.

Not because of their relationship, anybody can (and have) write mushy fluff up and down the rating scale.  I am trying to explore the reactions between the two, as they try to grow up after they have grown up.  Does that make sense?  War and Gundams, world leaders and life and death situations; these they can handle, but ordinary things, like relationships and dreams and reality of everyday life is not something they can handle very well.  Duo is very stable emotionally, despite his upbringing.  Wufei is, too, he had a mom, a dad, a wife, and a close-knit clan at one time.  For someone who doesn't have a past, Trowa was raised with soldiers that took care of him and loved him in a way.  Quatre has the most stable background, with a father he thought he hated and mother he thought he killed and lots of big sisters. Compared to the rest, stable. 

Not so with Relena and Heero.  Relena was raised as an adopted (and only) child of a prominent politician.  She was always in the spotlight.  She was the rich kid.  Then your dad dies.  You find out you are adopted and your real dad was a king of a nation.  You have a brother who didn't know existed who is now destroying everything your adopted dad (and later, you) work so hard to achieve.  She has some issues.  And Heero, do I really need explain him?  Trowa was raised as a soldier, but he was loved, praised, care for and was taught values by a bunch of soldiers.  Heero was PROGRAMMED.   This will be explored in this story, also.

Finally, this story is through Heero's changed eyes, as written in a journal.  In this story, Heero is the one who saves Relena emotionally, not the opposite.  This is his expression, his train of thought.  He'll tend to get bogged down in details, but I feel Heero believes attention to detail is very important.  There may be a couple slow chapters please bear with me (and Him!)

I hope this wasn't too long winded.  But these things needed to be said to understand where I was coming from in this little scribble you are about to read.  Now, on with the Show...

Oh yeah, my first story, be nice.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Sea of Stars"

Chapter 1

Fate and Confrontation

I often wonder why I do this.  Why run to her every time she is in danger, or in need?

Right now, I'm sitting in a prop plane. An ANTIQUE prop plane. This museum piece is currently preparing to vibrate to pieces over the North Atlantic due to three weather satellites malfunctioning; thus causing sudden severe storms.  Like the one we are currently "flying" in.  Because of these said storms, I have received a hospital visit and was granted a shattered leg, bruised ribs, and contusions all over my body.  Oh yeah, the concussion.

Thanks to my almost super-human healing ability, I was able to walk out of the hospital in two weeks wearing only a walking cast.  Now, to the pain medication I'm taking and the insane turbulence, I feel like regurgitating the awful food I ate earlier.

With Luck, I'll hit the pilot.

But I digress- let me introduce myself.  My name is Heero Yuy- age 22.  Well, at least that is the only name a can remember having. 

I am a deadly Killer.  I am the most talented and dangerous mobile suit pilot with the most powerful suit ever made, Gundam Wing Zero.  I have ended thousands upon thousands of lives without blinking, and I did this before the age of 16.

I am the Assassin.

I am the Perfect Soldier.

I can also play the piano, draw, and speak English, Japanese and French.  Unlike other things have learned, I don't know how I learned to do these things.  Hell, I can't remember anything before the age of six.

I am also having problems stopping myself from vomiting on this roller-coaster ride.  For last eight hours, the nausea has slowly eroded my iron will.  It's the painkillers, I think, and maybe the fever that has started not long ago.

Now, with these injuries, I should be resting.  I would normally rest; after all, a soldier who can't keep his dinner down is useless on the field.  So why am I going through this unnecessary risk, you ask?  For the one woman, no the one PERSON who can turn my life upside down with a smile, or in this case, make me run to the ends of the Earth and fly to furthest LaGrange points whenever she is in danger.

Well, she WAS in danger, let me stress that. So again, why?

Because Relena Peacecraft was attacked and raped in hotel in Chicago after a speech three weeks ago.

This all happened when I was unconscious in the hospital.  I was going to go to Chicago, in fact leaving two days before the incident, but fate intervened.

Now why, you ask, I wasn't there, as the ever-present bodyguard that I'm famous being?  Well, it might have something to do with her firing me for being TOO good.  If there is such a thing.  This was over three years ago.  Oh, she had help- from one Millardo Peacecraft aka Zechs Marquis aka her brother.

Now, I don't fear Zechs.  I can kick (and have) his ass four ways.  But Relena- the way she said it and the tone sounded very final.  For the first time I was frightened.  Relena's voice scared me more than anything.  I've never been scared of anything, but her voice...and I don't even know why.

So what do I do?  I followed her orders, her "advice".  After all, I did not know what else I could do at the time.  She told me to, and I quote; "Get a life Heero, and stay out of mine."  So I did the first part, sort of.  I even got a physiatrist because she said I needed my head examined.  He talks to me about psychosis, dependency issues, and lack of experience with emotion.  Hell, he makes me write it down for each session, hence this damnable journal. 

As for the second part, Well, I still protect her.  My shrink says that I have some obsessions I need to release. hn.  Still I show up for every big speech or soiree where I know that the security is less than efficient (another words, no Wufei who replaced me).  So I show up- armed and dangerous.

Oh, she knows I'm there.  Every professional soldier in the audience, the Preventers, and the five assassins that I've taken down in the last three years and, even sadly, her own bodyguards don't see me.  But she can.  I think she actually seeks me out, scanning the rafters for me.  Our eyes seem to connect, and then she takes a deep breath and starts her speech.

I live to keep her safe.

As Duo would say "You're pathetic, man."

It's bad enough that my conscience sounds like him.  Damn-

"Hey, Heero, We're coming into JFK Spaceport."

That's Willard.  He owns this piece of junk, and he flies it, too.  If you want to call this flying.  He was an OZ transport pilot during the war.  He tried to head towards the European Continent but the weather was too fierce for this...aircraft.  So, he took me to New York, so I can catch a sub orbital- and evade the storms; and towards the Europe.  Towards the Sanq Kingdom.

"Hey, Heero, got clearance! Will be landing in a few!"

Finally-this must have been the longest flight I've taken since... Well since I was fired.  I wandered for weeks after that...event, never staying in one place more than a few days.

I feel the shutter of the landing gear touching ground.  I gaze at the city nightscape from the portal and Willard deftly heads the craft towards the hangers that hold other Cantilena Mark 5's.

I stiffly stand up after the plane shuddered to a halt.  I grab my only luggage, a backpack and a duffle bag (no, no laptop, OR weapons, imagine that) and limped out onto the gangway and down the steps. I then crossed the hanger itself to a staircase led to the airport itself.

The hanger is attached to main terminal; abet way on the opposite side from the spaceport.  I check my watch.  40 minutes until my connection takes off.  Normally not a problem but with a serious leg injury...  I grabbed the staircase railing that leads up to terminal, swaying slightly.  A wave of nausea overcomes me.  I close my eyes and try desperately to regain control.

I opened my eyes, glade there was now only one staircase and it wasn't moving.  I ascended the steps slowly and pass through the automatic doors into main concourse.  I sighed as I limped onto the tiled surface of the concourse.  There were tons of passengers everywhere.

I weave around the milling people like it was a drunken obstacle course to my destination.  Well, not quite.  Halfway there, I had to make a stop, to empty my stomach in the lavatory.

Losing ten minutes there, I barely made it to the craft before the hatch was sealed.  I found my seat  (thankfully an aisle seat), stored my gear, put on my seatbelt, and closed my eyes.  Two hours to the Sanq Kingdom.

I slept the entire trip.  We arrived with a major thunderstorm.  Weather satellites, again. Thankfully there were no delays landing at the Sanq Kingdom's only Spaceport.   I disembarked and went to the rental counter to get a vehicle.  I limped to the parking lot and got in my rental and drove to the Peacecraft Mansion.

What happened next surprised me.  I mean, I didn't expect a warm reception, but I didn't expect this. Looking back, I would have handled it better, but for the pain, the fever, the medications.  So my ability to think, and to react was slowed down considerably.

You think I'm using this as an excuse?  Well, two things.  One, If you know me, you would know that I am fairly intolerant of excuses and, two; my shrink says I should remember that I AM NOT PERFECT, and that the WEIGHT OF HUMANITY doesn't rest on MY SHOULDERS.

hn.

I'll leave those two statements to your contemplation and keep using the pain/fever/meds excuse.

I arrived at the mansion front gates; the storm is now so fierce that when I unrolled my window to run my access card through, the rain drenches me.  My card still works as predicted.  Small wonder someone hasn't slipped through security to her here.

I drive up to the house itself and get out.  Now I am thoroughly soaked.  Normally I would sneak in the house via Relena's window, but under the circumstances it seemed not to be good idea.  I didn't want to spook her and, well, my leg.

So I went up to the front door and knocked.  Instead of getting one of the servants or Pagan, it was Zechs.  It took a moment to recognize me in my current saturated state, but when he did, his face turned deep red and screamed into the storm.

"You ASSHOLE!!!!  How DARE you show up after you let my sister get raped!!  This is all YOUR FAULT!!" With that, he pushed me- hard.

I fell backwards, my training sluggishly kicking in so I could land correctly but that required two good legs.

Shit, Fuck, Shit!!!  I land right on the leg.  A wave of pain came over me so fierce that I nearly blacked out.  All the while Zechs screams constantly.  He was ranting and raving, but I only heard two of the statements.  He said something about killing me if I ever got near Relena again.

And how she was so disgusted with me that she never ever wanted to see me again.

SLAM!  Zechs closed the door louder than any thunder.  But not fast enough to for me not to notice his wife, Noin, standing behind him.  I could hear raised voices over the storm but not what they were saying.

It didn't matter to me now.  The pain in my leg and this emptiness spreading inside me was consuming what was left of my soul, my strength.  I wanted to run.  I wanted to die.  If I was feeling better, I would have realized that I should take ANYTHING that Zechs said with a grain of salt.

Instead I very carefully stood up off the cold, wet gravel, climbed into the car and drove off.

I wanted to go back home where people liked me for who I was.  Who treated me like a Human.

Then again, I wasn't honest with them, either.

But fate wasn't done with me yet.

END CHAPTER 1