Ice Princess
Chapter Five
Relena lay on the cold metal floor, gasping for air through pain-stricken lungs. Things hadn’t quite gone according to plan. Kensington had been waiting for them. The pilots had barely gotten through the first door when they were ambushed. Relena and Heero were the only ones who made it to their target without interference. But as the other pilots struggled their way to their targets, the two of them were in deep trouble as Kensington started a fight with a strength he’d never shown before.
Their weapons tossed aside, Heero and Relena vowed to do this hand to hand, and at the time of their decision the odds were in their favor, two to one. Boy, were they wrong. She watched as Heero and Kensington continued the battle. Through the earpiece she was wearing to keep in contact with the other pilots, she heard Duo’s voice.
“That’s all of ‘em, Relena.”
Quatre’s voice was behind his. “The charges are set to go off in twenty minutes.”
“Good,” she muttered into her microphone. “Get out of here,” she strained to say the last sentance through labored breaths.
“What about you two?” asked Quatre. “You sound like you need help.”
“Don’t worry about us. We’ll get out.”
There was a pause on the other end. “Forget it, Relena,” she heard Duo’s voice again. “We’re on our way up.”
“Duo!” she tried to shout, but she choked on the breath. Her chest was really hurting from two hard kicks she’d received from Kensington. A few broken ribs, no doubt.
“If all of us don’t get out, none of us get out.”
She heard Quatre’s voice again. “Trowa and Wufei are making sure Kensington’s operatives are getting out. Duo and I are coming up.”
She heard gunshots down the corridor, the twp pilots making their way in. She gave up on trying to talk sense into them, mainly since she was beginning to have difficulty speaking.
She tried to push herself up off the floor as she kept watching the fight. She looked around her, searching for one of the two weapons she and Heero had tossed aside. Since she had apparently mistaken his intentions on having a fair fight, she would end this quickly. She finally found one of the two guns nearby and reached for it, only to be blocked by the person least likely to be there.
“Kay, don’t do this the hard way,” he said, just before her leg came around swiftly, knocking him off his feet.
She forced herself to her feet as he muttered a few curses before standing himself. She forced the screaming pain to subside and stared at him.
“How fortunate that Mr. Kensington likes me enough to give me a mission that would lead me back to you. I gave him my report and he said that as long as he got Yuy, he didn’t care what happens to you. But I care, Kayla. I do.”
She wiped a spot of blood from her mouth with the back of her hand. She took a deep, painful breath. “Do you even know who I am, Eric? Did Kensington even tell you?”
“What kind of question is that, Kayla?” He continued to stare at her. The stare that she had once found completely annoying was beginning to make her feel very uncomfortable, and even frightened.
Fear had never been in her vocabulary, and she wasn’t about to let it get in now. She balled up her fist and threw a hard punch into his gut. “Being involved with Kensington, you ought to know by now.” She threw a punch towards his face with her other hand, but her blocked it by grabbing her wrist.
He had doubled over with her punch but quickly recovered in time to block her next punch. “Kay, why so violent?” He grabbed her other wrist as she tried to punch with that hand again. He held on to both wrists tightly as he forced her back to the wall. He leaned against her to keep her from struggling.
The pressure of his body against hers was making her chest hurt even worse than before. And his closeness made her even more uncomfortable. He was stronger than her. Her arms weren’t free to make another attack. She tried to position herself so that one of her legs could do the work, but he was in to close. She had to get him to back away. He had finally moved further in to the point that her chest was screaming in pain, so she did the same.
He immediately backed off, but not much. “I don’t want to hurt you, Kay. I’m in love with you. Mr. Kensington said you felt the same way, you just didn’t want to tell me.”
He was finally far enough away. She pulled her left leg up and in then shoved out into his gut, just enough to push him completely away from her.
“Kayla Landry doesn’t exist, Eric. She never did.” Her arms free, she sent another punch towards his face, this one connecting. “My name is Relena Peacecraft. And I’ve been convinced that it’ll take a hell of a lot more than just throwing away weapons to get people like Kensington to accept peace. He’s nothing but a liar, a cheater, and a manipulative son of a bitch, just like his father.” She threw a full force kick to his chest, knocking him onto his back. “And I’ve also learned that sometimes violence is necessary to make such points.”
She stared into the face below filled with shock...and confusion? The man looked as if he didn’t know what was going on.. “I don’t want you to die, Eric. You have a potential to be a good man guided in the right direction,” and with some mental help, “but this place is set to go up in fire and smoke in,” she looked at her watch, “twelve minutes.”
She looked up as Duo and Quatre had blasted their way through the doors to the command center.
Eric shook his head before climbing to his feet. When he spoke again, his voice was different. It was almost as if he was a completely different person. “What have I been doing?” He looked down to Relena. “Miss Relena, whatever I’ve done, forgive me. I... I haven’t been myself.”
She looked back to him. That glare that had made her uncomfortable was no longer there.
“Relena!” she heard Duo’s voice as he made is way towards her. “The first of the charges are goin’ off in ten minutes.”
“What?” asked Eric as he looked in
Duo’s direction.
“Charges?
This isn’t a mountain.
She looked back to Eric. “Dammit! He was expecting this all along! We got fucking played!”
“There isn’t enough time to disarm the charges,” said Quatre, “even if we could. Once they were set, there’s no turning them off.”
“Well, we can’t fucking sit here and debate. Eric, hit the alarm, get everyone out of here.” She reached down to pick up the gun she had reached for earlier and checked it for ammunition. “Duo, you and Quatre make sure it’s done. Heero and I will meet you outside.”
“Relena...,” started Duo.
“NOW, DUO!”
He nodded and tapped Quatre’s arm as he raced back out the door, Quatre behind.
Eric jogged over to a nearby console and pressed a few buttons. Loud alarms and red lights sounded and shone throughout the command center. He stopped just before he passed Relena.
“Miss Relena, you have a lot more strength than Mr. Kensington realizes. Yuy’s lucky to have you.” He leaned towards her and gave her a small kiss on the cheek. “In response to your earlier remark, I was a good man, before I met Mr. Kensington.”
“Maybe the Preventers have a place for you, Eric.” She smiled. “Now go.”
He nodded and raced out the door, yelling to other men as they joined him.
She looked back to the task at hand. She walked towards the fight. The pain which she had gotten good at ignoring, was beginning to take over again. She couldn’t help that now. She watched the two of them, Heero and the fake Kensington. She raised the gun and took aim. The scoffed when she couldn’t get a clear shot, but her legs refused to make her move any closer to get one.
“HEERO!” she yelled, to get his attention.
She got it. He stopped long enough to give her a clear view of the fake. She pulled the trigger and hit the man straight in the chest.
“He’s a decoy, let’s move, I’ll explain when we get out!” She barely took a step before the pain overtook her. Heero was quick to catch her before she fell, just as the first of the charges went off.
The ground outside the mountain shook as the charge went off. Milliardo adjusted himself to keep his balance. That shouldn’t have happened. He suddenly had a very, very bad feeling about this plan. He looked to Wufei and Trowa for some sort of explanation before Lady Une raced up behind him.
“Zechs, we have to move. That’s a volcano. Those damned specialists finally came back with the specs. The charges are triggering an eruption.”
“What? Why didn’t they mark that when they charted this area? Do they know how big the eruption would be?”
She shook her head. “They don’t know, but with those explosives moving it along, and considering how long it’s been dormant, we don’t know for sure. But the quakes alone will do some damage. I’ve already informed local authorities and they’re taking precautions to protect their cities.”
He glanced back at the mountain as Une shouted orders to those around. He heard his voice behind him before turning back to her.
“Zechs, they’ll be alright. We’ve got to move.”
“Zechs!” called Duo as he and Quatre raced towards them. “The guy set us up!”
The ground shook even more violently as several more charges went off, opening holes in the mountainside. Cracks in the earth’s surface darted out from the base of the mountain.
“Lady,” said the voice of Eric Guillroy as he approached after the two pilots. “I hereby resign my position in the Preventers and turn myself and my men in to you.”
“We’ll discuss it later,” she said as she directed them to transports that would take them to safety. She looked back to Milliardo. “Move, General Peacecraft.”
When she used titles and proper names, Milliardo knew she meant it as an order. He had to obey, though he stressed over the position is baby sister was in as he ran. He glanced back just in time to see lava pouring from the holes left by the explosives.
One last explosion sent ashes and fire into the air. The earth violently shook again, sending all of them off their feet.