Know Me, Love Me

Part Two

 

Relena took a deep breath as she stared into the almond shaped eyes of the Chinese pilot.  She was about to bear her soul and innermost secrets to a young man she realized that she hardly knew, but someone other than her brother and Paegan needed to know.  And she knew he would honorably keep those secrets.

 

“I don’t remember much about the actual events that took place, only the scars and repercussions that they left.

“I was very young, just beginning to walk, I think.  A child that young is easily influenced, and unlike most think, easy to discipline.

“I remember nothing before that time.  If what I’ve been told is true, it all began with the murder of the Sanq king, my father.

“I was taken into the custody of the men that later became the prime creators of Operation: Meteor.  The Gundams were only in the beginning stages of development at the time.

“Several children were taken by these men for the same purpose.  Only two of us survived the necessary training....”

 

She stopped a moment and listened as she could hear the roar of the wind above them.  She could sense the approaching storm.  The cabin was well protected from the storm, and there was well enough food, water, and firewood to last them for well into the spring, if need be.

She continued:

 

“I was almost ready for my first assignment.  It was to be a battle for life between me and the other survivor, later I find out to be Heero.  The child who survived was to become the pilot for the Wing Gundam.

“Then, I was ‘rescued’ by the old alliance military.  Mr. Dorlain was heading the faction at the time.  After some... ‘reprogramming’ he adopted me.

“Every now and then, something will break through the ‘reprogramming’.  As many times as my life as the Vice Foreign Minister has been threatened, that hasn’t been what’s caused the break downs.  It’s pushing my stress level to the max that does it.

            “If those walls were to actually break down…  Well, let’s just say that I would have to be killed in order to be stopped…There would be no ‘reprogramming’ if that were ever to happen.

            “I know more ways to kill a man than Heero does.  My problem-solving skills outwit those of Quatre.  And I’m willing to bet that my skills in the martial arts area match your own.  I’ve never seen you use them, so I wouldn’t know for sure.

            “This place is my sanctuary, a place where I can relieve my tension without the interference or knowledge of outsiders.  My views on the pacification of humankind would never be taken serious if anyone knew of my childhood.”

 

She stared at the floor for a few moments.  Well, she told most of the truth.  She did remember the things that happened, but they released images so horrible into her mind that she didn’t want them revealed, not yet.  She wasn’t quite emotionally ready for that kind of closure yet.

Wufei watched her in silence.  He didn’t know whether or not to believe what he had just heard.  Even though it wasn’t really much to go on, he couldn’t believe that the pacifism of this woman was, more or less, a sheath for the violence she was capable of.  Was she really capable of such violence?  If not, then why did her ‘sanctuary’ consist of such weapons as he was used to using in battle?

Why, then, if she has so much capability, does she not use it?  Why hide behind the mask? 

He looked to the mat, remembering something from long ago, someone who really didn’t have the capability, but felt the need to do these things, anyway.  He sat, staring at the mat in silence, for several minutes, reminiscing on his own experiences.

“Wufei?” she asked, not once, but twice.  He heard the name, but he didn’t hear it in Relena’s voice.  It was the voice of a past life.

“Wufei?” she asked again.

This time, he looked up to her.

“What is it?”

He hesitated for a moment in answering.  “You...you’ve entrusted me with a truth from your past....  I’d like to do the same...”  He paused and briefly glanced down to the mat before turning all of his attention to her.

She nodded.  “All right..”

 

“I wasn’t the first choice for Shenlong’s pilot,” he said.  “I was a boy, wrapped up in books, in my studies.  Then, the clan elders decided that it was time for my marriage to Meirin.  She was from a good family, a strong family.

“I was raised with the thought that women were weak, that women had no business in dealing with war or politics, or anything that didn’t have to do with the home and children.  I refused to believe that Meirin would be anything but a woman, weak, a lesser being.

“Our colony was attacked.  Among numerous mobile suits, Shenlong was released, with Meirin in the pilot’s seat.  Before I had a chance to even realize what had happened, I watched as she was thrashed about, torn from one side to the other.

“She was forced to return.”

 

He paused for a moment.

 

“I held her for a long time, scolding her for being so weak, for being a woman.  When, in our marriage, she had scolded me for keeping my nose in my books.  I had scolded her for being a woman, but I had not been a man.

“She died in my arms.  Barely fourteen years old.

“I took it on myself to pilot Shenlong, affectionately called ‘Nataku’ in her memory.

“Then it was released that our colony was the one chosen to be dropped to Earth, signaling the beginning of Operation: Meteor.

“I watched from the cockpit as the colony burned in Earth’s atmosphere.  I realized then, more than ever, that men are just as weak as, if not more than, women.  I felt from that point forward that my purpose in life was to fight and to win, to prove my strength.  That was the only way to prove the strength of men.”

 

He stared back down at the mat for a long time.

“Strength doesn’t come from battles, or physical force, Wufei.  It comes from the soul.  To stick by what you believe in without fault.”  She looked away at the waterfall on the other side of the cavern.

“If anyone is weak, it’s me.  The children that died in the ‘conditioning’ for war...all of the men and women who died in battle...they’re the strong ones.  They stood by their beliefs until the end, even if they were the wrong beliefs, and going about proving them the wrong way...”

She looked back to him.  “If we are ever to become strong again, we’ve got to find a way to settle differences.  War is the easy way out.  It’s for the weak at heart.  It is the strong ones that do not fight back when they’re being fired upon.”

He nodded.  “So I’ve come to understand.  That Christmas Eve, two years ago.  All of those men, women, and children standing in the street, confronting the suits in battle.  They stood up for what they believed in without fighting back.  Words really do mean something when so many people support them...”

It was at that point that Wufei really understood Relena.  He admired that understanding.  And, more than ever, he admired her.

 

“Zechs, we’ve got a problem,” said Noin as she walked into his office at Preventer Headquarters.  “Heero just got back with information on that little band of so-called terrorists on L-1.  That ‘little band’ turns out to be an entire faction spreading across all of the colonies and parts of Earth.”

“That’s one hell of a ‘fire’...,” he said looking up.  “What orders has Une given out?”

“None, yet,” she replied as she handed him a folder.  “She wants you to go through the information and give her some suggestions.  From what we can tell, they’re still far from making an all-out attack.  They’re sticking to the little ‘brush-fires’ here and there.”

He opened the folder and briefly glanced over it.  He noted some of the names and places mentioned.  He was suddenly glad that he sent Relena away.  And he was really glad that a blizzard kept her there.  That meant that no one could reach her.  Of course, that also meant that she couldn’t get out easily, if needed.

“I’ll have something ready for her this afternoon,” he said.  There was a change in his voice that Noin couldn’t quite place, but it sounded like anger.

She nodded and was about to respond when he rushed past her and down the hall.

 

The older man paced the floor in an almost empty conference room.  He seemed very aggrivated as he puffed on a cigar.  The cape of his uniform nearly caught fire from the cigar every time he spun around.

“What do you mean, ‘she isn’t coming’?” he asked, bitterly.

His aide sat at the conference table watching the general pace.  “Her secretary sent us a message saying that she had an emergency to tend to.  Our people say she’s left for the mountains...without her usual bodyguard.”  He tapped his fingertips on the tabletop.

“Sir, this could be made to our advantage.”  He stood up, a good foot shorter than the general, and looked up at him.

“When will your people have an exact location?  With the current weather conditions up there, she’s isolated.”  He raised a brow, looking down to his aide.

“We’ll know within the hour, sir.  What about Yuy?”

“He’ll eventually show up...after we have her.”  He took a final puff from the cigar before tossing it to the ground, rubbing it into the carpet with his boot.

“Of course, he may show up on his own.  I’m counting on it.  That is, of course, if your people got that ‘information’ to the Preventers.  They did, didn’t they?”

The aide nodded.

“Good...Now...get rid of the delegates.  They’re beginning to ask too many questions,” he said before exiting the conference room.  “In fact...let’s just blow this whole place to Hell.  After all, that’s what this world is about to become once we get those two retrained...”

“Yes, sir,” replied his aide, giving a salute before following him out.

 

Relena opened the front door just a crack.  She reached one hand out and grabbed a handful of snow, packing it into a Ziplock bag.  She shut the door again and bolted it.  She zipped up the back as she walked over to Wufei, sitting on the couch.  She sat down beside him and placed the bag over his eye, swollen shut with black and blue.

“I’m sorry, Wufei,” she said.  “I didn’t judge the distance that well on that last attack.”

He shrugged.  He sighed a bit.  The cold snow felt good on his sweating face.  “It’s okay.  I have to say, though, you fight well....for a woman.”  He smiled, looking at her with his good eye before quickly turning it to the fire.

“It’s...,” his voice cracked a moment.  He cleared his throat before continuing.  “It’s a shame that people have taken something so beautiful as martial arts and turned it into a weapon.  There’s a reason it’s called martial arts.  It is an art form, just like music, or photography, or painting, sculpting, and the like.  Not just for the pleasure of the spectator, though, but for the spirit of the performer, as well.  Just like any other form of art...It is an expression of the soul...”

Relena held the snow pack on his blackened eye and watched the fire with him.  She found herself listening to the tone of his voice rather than the words being spoken.

After an awkward moment of silence, she spoke.

“You know, I think I’ve heard you talk more today than in the three years I’ve known you.”  She glanced to him briefly, intending to turn back to the fire.  She ended up meeting his eye.

“It’s because I think I’m in love,” he said without thinking.

“What?” she asked, a little surprised, but to her own surprise, not as much as she should have been.  The bag of snow slipped out of her hand onto the floor behind the couch.  She didn’t bother to tear her eyes from him to look for it.

“Fuck...I just said that out loud, didn’t I?” he replied, kind of nonchalantly.

Relena couldn’t tell if his face was red from embarrassment or from the heat of the sparring match earlier.  Wufei had trouble telling the same in her face.  Whatever the surprise in those words, what happened next was only natural.  They found themselves in a very deep, very passionate kiss.