So, Quatre went to where the powerful Gundams were kept, to see Heero getting ready to take out the Epyon, without telling anyone; of course. Quatre walked up behind him, and asked quietly, "Heero? What's up?"

"Relena has been abducted," replied Heero in his ever-annoying calm voice, still preparing for his leave.

"By who?!" cried Quatre.

"I don't know."

"When?"

"I don't know."

"Where are they going? What do they want?"

"I don't know."

"Well, jeez Heero, what're we gonna do?!" Quatre nearly yelled, which was unusual for him. At the same time, he was thinking, "What great information, Heero. That'll really help. That only leaves the entire universe to search for her. Thanks for narrowing it down."

Heero raised an eyebrow at the "we," but otherwise kept getting ready. "Well, I'm going to find and rescue her."

"We're," corrected Quatre stubbornly, and began preparing the Wing Zero.

She groaned softly, a reaction she couldn't suppress, caused by a nasty wound on her head; a fresh wound, caused by the impact that had awakened her. The impact, in turn, had been caused by the train's rocking motion as it clattered noisily along, and a sudden jerk in its course had thrown Relena against one of the walls.

Her moan attracted the unwelcome attention of the slouched figure. He glanced at her, and his teeth flashed in a cruel, wolflike grin as he stood up and walked through the door to the next car. She was left wondering for only a moment; he soon returned with two other men. One was clad all in black, from head to toe, his cloak only revealing fierce, glinting gray eyes. The other... wore a smart white dress suit, with a red overcoat that cascaded in a formal but relaxed fashion over his chest, as they had been designed to. The coat was trimmed in gold cloth, with bright golden buttons to match, even though they weren't in use, as the coat was open. His white pants led down to black boots, gleaming with bright new polish, which came to above the knee in the front, and dipped down to right below in the back. The rich brown hair was swept back along the head into a small ponytail at the neck; a fashion he had picked up from Heero's friend, Wufei Chang. Miliardo, Relena's brother, had fought long and hard to keep those uniforms for head commanders; he had won, as he was the one leader of the entire army. Second only to Relena's husband, Heero, Miliardo was the strongest man in the entire world. This, however, was Miliardo's first officer, Lieutenant General Tequine Merano.

"You're...!" gasped Relena, as Miliardo had trusted Tequine deeply. Then, her voice and face were filled with malice as she snapped, "What do you want from me?"

Laughing softly, Tequine smirked. "Ah, a testy one... I've always admired you for that, Relena. All I need, however, is for you to sign this. Then, you'll have your freedom, your husband will have you, and I'll have my power. We'll all be one big happy super war-power. That is, until I overthrow you and Heero." He laughed again, more loudly, and pulled out a paper, holding it out for Relena to see space for her signature.

Relena strained her eyes to read in the dark surroundings, and leaned against the handcuffs to get closer to the paper. The first few sentences read...

"Miliardo Peacecraft, Traitor!!!
His sister, Queen Relena Peacecraft, admits it here, with her signature!"
(There was a space for her signature)
"He has been running an orginaza-- "

A cuff across her head stopped her reading short. "Don't worry your pretty little head about what it is," Tequine snarled. "Just sign it."

The man in black un-handcuffed her, but held her firmly so there would be absolutely no possibility of her escape.

"He'd be fired! He'd be executed!" Relena cried.

"I know!" Tequine responded, and there was something in his voice that was close to glee, but just beneath it lay an edge of evil as cold as ice. "Then, I would become the most powerful man in the world, besides your husband. And you, of course." He stopped a moment. "Wait, there's that hot chick Noin, too, she's equal to me in rank... Hmm... But, anyway, once the entire army was under my command... well, revolts aren't that hard to organize."

"NO! Never! Get away from me, I'd never betray my brother or my husband like that!" Relena screamed, thrashing violently. However, despite her efforts, the man in black restrained her slightest movement. Tequine shook his head, rather sadly.

"As I said earlier, Relena, I like you. I was hoping I wouldn't have to resort to this. But alas, you leave me no choice. You see, getting you to sign this isn't the only way to overthrow Miliardo. It's just the easiest. On the other hand, there's the point I just made; revolts aren't that hard to organize. I'll just use my current power to organize one." Chuckling softly, Tequine drew a gleaming ivory dagger from his belt. It was beautiful, with an engraved picture of a dragon and a unicorn fiercely battling on its handle. The ivory was polished, and glinted brightly in the dim lantern light. Relena would have gasped in awe, if her throat had not been constricted with fear. "If you won't cooperate, we'll have to get you out of the way. Please understand," he said, almost gently.

He raised the knife, pulled it in a swift downward motion, and Relena didn't even have time to cry out as the blade pierced the skin...

... of her arm.

A violent collision from outside had rocked the train, almost fully on its side, and the dagger had flown wide off its mark of the jugular vein. Relena now had a deep wound in her arm, but was grateful it wasn't in her neck. Another violent impact hit the train, and Relena closed her eyes tightly. Tequine was cursing, as were his two comrades. None of them knew what was going on, as the train was simply jerking violently, with apparently no cause.

Then, the earsplitting, roaring noise of metal being torn brought quiet to all. For about three seconds, no one could even draw breath, and it seemed as if the entire world was dead silent.

Relena peeked her eyes open in this space of time, and looked up through the area where the train's roof had been, to see a sky laden with heavy clouds, along with one of the last things she had expected to see. Her cry of joy broke the silence; it was the Wing Zero!!

The Gundams were here!

"We've been spotted already. I'll fight off their reinforcements. You find Relena... get her out of here, quick. She doesn't get hurt. You hear me, Quatre? She doesn't get hurt," Heero had said to him.

"Yeah, Heero, point taken," Quatre had responded, a little unnerved by the fierce emotion in Heero's usually calm voice. "You know, Heero, we should call the others..."

"Yeah. We should."

Neither made a move to do anything. Eventually, it was silently agreed by the two pilots that they would leave the others out of this (the others being Trowa Barton, Duo Maxwell, and Wufei Chang); they didn't want the other G-Boys getting hurt.

"Okay, anyway. I'm going in. Get Relena, and then? We make our getaway." Heero, not waiting for a response, had launched the Epyon straight towards the oncoming wave of Tequine's back-up troops.

"Good luck, my friend," Quatre had whispered, and then set off with the Wing Zero towards the retreating train. Now, he was advancing, and preparing to attack. It only took two rakes along the train's roof with his energy sword to rip off the roof, and a well-aimed kick at the engine to stop its motion.

"Relena!" Quatre cried out. Tequine's associates, including the one holding Relena still, had fled the train at the sight of Quatre's mighty Gundam, but Tequine had the dagger against Relena's throat, and appeared to be whispering something to her. Whatever he was saying must have confused and awed her, because her face was pale, and her eyes were unfocused.

Quatre lowered the Wing Zero close enough to the ground that he could jump back in when necessary, then opened the hatch and leapt out. He was aiming a powerful fly kick towards Tequine. Just as the kick connected, however, Tequine yanked the ivory dagger sharply up and away, leaving a thin line across Relena's neck. Thin, but deep. The wound hadn't cut as far as the jugular, but the loss of blood was tremendous.

By now, Tequine's two associates had returned with more ground troops from compartments further up in the train; far too many for Quatre alone to handle. So, Quatre glanced at Relena and hissed, "Don't take this the wrong way; Trust me." With that, he swept her off her feet (literally), gave a tremendous heave upward, and threw her straight up into the air. He then jumped up to the Wing Zero's hatch, whirled around, and gracefully caught the now falling Relena. Grinning at her amazed look, he shut the door to the Gundam and gently sat her down.

Once relatively safe inside, Quatre quickly began tending to the worst of Relena's wounds. Her neck and arm were the worst ones; she had lost an unbelievable amount of blood. However, the bad cut on her head had finally stopped bleeding, and most of the rest were either minor or superficial. He was most concerned about the blood loss, so he bandaged her neck and arm, instructing her to keep lots of pressure on them.

That taken care of, Quatre guided Relena gently to the pilot seat of Wing Zero. "Here, Relena, sit down here. That's it, and strap yourself in..." he said quietly.

"Why?" questioned Relena even more softly, because of the pain in her throat. "I can't pilot it, are you crazy...?"

"No, no, nothing like that, but it's the safest part of the Gundam."

"What about you? You need to pilot, I can stand, Quatre, it's fine-- "

"Hush, no, I can't let you do that. I was told to keep you safe..."

Relena looked at him, fresh curiosity overtaking her. "By who...?" Smiling a bit sadly, Quatre whispered...

"A cursed Angel..."

Heero had dispatched of the enemies in mobile suits; the ones left were irrelevant, since the were retreating. Now, he was frantically looking for Relena. He hadn't seen if Quatre had gotten her or not, and was pretty sure he hadn't. His normal calm lost with his worry, he pulled up the Wing Zero in video conference, and began talking to Quatre, though his eyes were scanning other screens. He was looking desperately for Relena, and he also refused to look at Quatre he was about to fall apart.

"Quatre!" Heero, cried, still not looking at him. His voice was shaking, and he was thinking-- "I can't find her! Where is she?! What if... no, no, no, Relena! Where is she?!?" Not getting a response from the other pilot, he looked up. "Quatre?! Where's Rel--" Only... it wasn't Quatre. It was...

"--ena?" He finished, more than a little confused that he was staring at Relena, who was apparently piloting the Wing Zero. He also realized that hot tears were glistening in his eyes, but didn't care, as he was beginning to notice Relena's many wounds. Anger welled up within him.

"Quatre... damn him!... I told him to keep you safe..." he muttered, more to himself than to her.

"Ah, Heero... so, you're my ‘cursed angel'..." she said softly. "Heero, don't be mad at him... this (she gestured at her cuts and bruises) happened before either of you got here.

The anger flowed out of Heero, leaving him feeling empty and guilty. She was right, Quatre probably didn't have any control over it. Heero didn't have it in him to truly be mad at him, anyway.

Taking a deep breath to steady his voice, Heero said, "All right... Quatre, can you pilot that thing standing?" Heero asked, because he knew the other pilot was somewhere in the background.

"Yes," came the soft reply.

"Okay then... let's get out of here, and quick. They've got new cannons, Quatre; one shot from those, well-aimed and taking us off guard, will take us down. Be careful."

"General?"

There was silence on the other side of Commanding General Miliardo Peacecraft's office door. Lieutenant General Lucretia Noin, Miliardo's assistant and fiancee, stood outside, more than a little worried.

"Miliardo?"

Still, there was no answer, so Noin reached out a trembling hand and wrapped it around the doorknob. "Miliardo? I'm coming in now, all right?" Noin opened the door, and saw Miliardo at his desk, with his back to her. He was bent over his desk, with his elbows resting heavily on the oak wood, and his head resting heavily in his hands. Over all, he looked tired, worried, and stressed. He still hadn't responded to her, or even acknowledged that she was there.

"Oh, Miliardo... Is something wrong?" she asked softly, knowing very well that something was.

Miliardo slammed down his fists on the desk, but still didn't face her.

"Damnit, Noin! Yes something's wrong!" he yelled. Noin only recoiled a bit; she had come to associate the terms "guy" and "temper tantrum" as synonyms. So, when he began with a curse and his voice steadily rose into a furious rage, she was used to it. However, she definitely wasn't ready for what happened next.

"I–..." He began, still in his raging tantrum... but then, his voice cracked, and he whispered, "I... want to know where my sister is."

Though she was surprised and startled at his first ever open display of weakness in the presence of another, she moved forward and began to gently prod and work Miliardo's shoulders with her fingers in a back massage, as she often did when he got stressed. However, his shoulders tensed with anger and he whirled on the dumbfounded Noin, jerking his arm. She stumbled backwards, and landed unceremoniously in a heap on the floor. He had never lashed out at her like that; even now, it wasn't exactly a hit, more so a thrash that had happened to affect her. He turned, and his face was so contorted with pain, worry, and helpless rage, that she nearly cried just looking at him.

She stood, and gently moved forward again, to comfort him, but this time in the form of a simple hug; he reveled in those, and she knew it would make him feel better. However, she was in store for another, bigger surprise; he staggered forward and he embraced her. He simply wrapped his arms around her and held her tightly. He made no move to kiss, simply hugged and held on to her as if she were the only thing keeping him from falling into an abyss leading to Hell. First; just an embrace, and then a tremble ran through his form. Noin felt it, slight as it was; it was followed by another, and another; it took her a moment to realize. He was crying.

In another hour, Miliardo had pulled himself together. Suddenly, a voice crackled across Miliardo's private intercom system.

"General Miliardo, two falling objects located due North. We think they're the Gundams..."

"Well, man, get on with it! How far, coordinates, how long will it take to get there? Well?!?!?" Miliardo yelled.

"Well, sir, by plane, it would take about 30 minutes to power up, and about 2 minutes to get to the site. Now, if you were to walk, it would only take about 15 min..."

Not three seconds later, Miliardo was out the door, and Noin was chasing after him. "Miliardo! No, come back, it could be dangerous... Miliardo!"

Intermission- Okay! You have reached the first part of section 3!!!! You are to be commended for staying with my pitiful story this long, and not dying of boredom and sappiness. Thank you, my loyal readers. Anyway, as stated before, you should take a rest right about now. This is the big mood changing part, and I personally think that the next section is by far the most sorrowful and dramatic. So, prepare yourself. Tally Ho!

"YAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Quatre was wordlessly fighting to regain control of the plummeting Gundam, Heero was doing the same, but with a flavor of cursing here and there, and Relena was... you guessed it, screaming.

In the confusion of retreat from Heero's terrifying Gundam, only Tequine had retained some sense and ordered the cannons to be brought to bear. As Heero and Quatre were desperately trying to put distance between themselves and the huge things, the cannons had fired and caught them in a weak moment as Heero had feared. They weren't very good at aiming over long range, but had managed to destroy both the Epyon's and the Wing Zero's engines completely. The Gundams had been pretty far into the air, but were now crashing straight towards the ground.

"Relena, here!" Quatre said (with a bit of Heero's annoyingly calm tone evident) as he handed Relena a parachute. "Hurry up, put it on, NOW!"

It was the only parachute left aboard the Wing Zero, but Quatre figured Relena didn't have to know that. As she hesitated at the now open hatch of the still plummeting Gundam, Quatre pushed Relena out and yelled, "Pull the stupid string already!"

Relena did as she was told, but nothing happened. Quatre, who was standing braced in the doorway of the Wing Zero, (still falling; it had been quite a long distance up) realized that coincidentally, the only parachute in the Gundam had been the one that Heero had disabled when...

"Damnd alcoholic cake," muttered Quatre as he leapt out of the Gundam toward Relena.

Heero had seen Relena jump out of the Gundam with a parachute, and figured that it was probably a pretty good idea. He took a parachute and also jumped out of the Epyon, to find that Relena's parachute had still not opened. Suddenly, Heero realized...

"Damnd alcoholic cake," he muttered, (at the same time as Quatre, though he didn't realize it) and then glanced to his left to see Quatre jump from the Wing Zero and begin free-falling towards Relena. Since the Epyon had possessed a good bit more altitude than the Wing Zero, Heero was far higher than the other two "sky-divers." They were dangerously nearing the ground. Quatre might be able to survive that kind of a fall; after all, he was a Gundam pilot. However, Relena, your average girl, wouldn't be able to. No question.

"Relenaaaaa!" Heero yelled. He was filled with cold terror and helplessness. He saw Quatre throw a glance at him, but Heero's eyes were riveted on Relena. He used every trick he knew to quicken his decent and catch up to the falling girl, but it was no use. By now, Quatre and Relena were three feet apart, seventy feet from the ground. And that seventy foot gap was closing.

Quatre saw the terrified look on Heero's face. He glanced down and saw that he had ninety, maybe one hundred feet before the ground. Relena was three feet away. Close enough to grab. He knew that since he was a G-pilot, he could probably take the hit from the ground, if he landed on his legs. A broken bone or two, but he would live. Relena? No way.

Quatre's eyes were filled with tears even as he descended. He was going to lose Relena... she had always been so kind to him.

"Relena," he whispered, even though he guessed she couldn't hear him, "I'm so sorry. Goodbye, Relena."

Even before he did it, it was clear what was going to happen. And Miliardo could hardly bear it. Eighty, seventy, sixty feet until the ground... fifty... forty... and then it happened. What both Miliardo and Noin knew would, even as they ran. There was no way they were going to reach the falling trio in time. Miliardo was no longer _as_ terrified for his sister; he knew that she would live. As soon as he saw the look on Quatre's face, Miliardo knew Relena would live.

Even if it was at Quatre's expense.

Grabbing her arm, the young boy twisted violently, so she was on top of him. He pushed forward, actually throwing her farther into the air, close enough for Heero to grab onto her. Then, a sharp blow to the spine, a bright red light filling his eyes, even though they were closed; and then a wave of pain surging through him, so deep and penetrating... so harsh...

Then, everything was a deep, and almost comforting, hue of black.

So astonished, Heero was, that he just barely pulled the parachute string. It opened too late, but slowed their decent enough anyway. Of course, upon impact, a bone in Heero's leg had broken; but, amazingly, it was only his left leg. He shouldered off the immense pain and staggered toward Quatre, Relena in his arms. She had been knocked out, but her chest was rising and falling with struggling breath.

The same could not be said for Quatre. Gasping, Heero stumbled backwards and shut his eyes tightly. It was terrible.

Quatre, at the last moment, had thrown Relena towards Heero, who had a working parachute. From there, about twenty feet up, Quatre hadn't had enough time to twist onto his legs. His spine had been the first part of the body to connect with the ground; it must have shattered almost immediately. His arms were spread to the sides, and his face was sideways; his mouth slightly open. His blonde hair cascaded gently over his closed eyes. Already, a pool of blood was extending slowly from his body.

A sudden small break in the clouds let the sun shine through. It may have been Heero's imagination, but suddenly Quatre's hair seemed to be of molten gold, bright and indomitable. His body was illuminated and shone fiercely with an unearthly light. Then, the patch of light was covered, and the rain came. There was no gentle warning, simply a cold torrent unleashed upon the blood-stained earth.

"And the angel's tears were sent down to soothe the anger of the world at losing him..." Heero quoted from an unknown source; then, the sorrow and exhaustion overwhelmed him, and he sank to the ground, Relena still held protectively in his arms.

Relena awoke a few days later surrounded by bright lights and monitors, with her brother Miliardo beside her. He smiled gently at his sister, but there was a sorrow lying beneath his gaze. This was pretty well hidden, and Relena didn't notice it. She tried to speak, but he hushed her and told her to get some rest. She dozed off happily, feeling that her brother would watch over her and all would be well.

However, though she didn't know it, all was definitely not well. Quatre, as mentioned earlier, had passed into the next life. Everybody had originally thought that Heero was fine, but... he wasn't. His training for being a G-boy had saved him from dying, but the damage inflicted on his body had caused tremendous blood loss, and he had gone into a deep coma. His chances for coming out... were... less than favorable, to say the least. Even taking his will to live and physical state into consideration, he had a chance in ten million.

When Relena opened her eyes the next day, she was surrounded by reporters, cameras, and lawyers.

"Relena Peacecraft has just awoken! Mrs. Peacecraft, any comments?"

"After the startling downfall of Quatre Raberba Winner and the near-death of Heero Yuy, Relena Peacecraft keeps on going..." one said to the camera man next to him.

"See the trial of Tequine Merano, in four days, at eleven o' clock on UPN 27, Judge Judy! And then again, on Judge Joe Brown!"

Everybody fell silent for about two seconds. Then, the jabber picked up again.

"And here we are, with the Queen of the Sanct Kingdom, Mrs. Relena Peacecraft. She was recently kidnaped and rescued by her husband Heero Yuy, whom is sadly now in a coma! The full story at elev--" a reporter donning a red jacket began, also facing a camera.

A quick, cinder-block fist slammed the red jacketed reporter's jaw with a ferocious upper-cut. He fell back, out cold. Everybody fell silent again, this time not even a breath was drawn.

"I. Want. Everybody out, NOW!!!!!!!" Miliardo yelled, and everybody dove for cover, then slunk quickly out of the room. He was enraged with the reporter for saying that, what with his sister's weak state. Relena's eyes had gone wide, and she had actually sat straight up in bed, ignoring the pains shooting up her back. No, no, not in a coma, O dear God! she thought desperately. Upon feeling Miliardo's hand upon her shoulder, she turned her fear-stricken gaze upon him.

"A... coma...?" she choked out, her voice dry and hoarse from disuse and the still-healing wound on her neck.

"Hush, hush, those reporters were simply being jerks, hush Relena, lie down, don't worry. Everything will be alright, it will..." he said soothingly, never actually saying the reporters were lying. She obeyed and lay back down, her racing heart beginning to calm. She was sick, or else she would have pressed him for a less evasive answer; for now, she simply took his reply as an assurance that Heero was not in a coma. She was so tired...

"The trial... when is it again...?" she said softly. "Do I have to go? I'd imagine I would, right?"

"The real trial is in three days; the whole Judge Judy and Joe Brown things are just publicity... and you only have to go if you're well. They have enough witnesses and evidence to convict him without your testimony, sister, so you don't have to worry if you're still not ready."

"I'm ready... will you go with me, Miliardo?"

"Of course! What are brothers for?"

Heero Yuy never awoke from his coma.