In the Darkness of One's Heart

Chapter Nine of Blood Thicker

Shocking huh? Another Chapter so soon!

Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing!

Rated: M (for sexual situations & violence)

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It felt completely strange to have the feeling of being watched. Relena tried her hardest not to focus on that as she was being lead down into the secret chamber. Her hand tightened around her husband's as she took a deep breath, looking about the place as though it were moving in on her.

"It will be alright Relena; I just need to make sure that you're secure." Heero said as his fingers started to stroke the top of her hand. She wanted to believe him, truly she did. But something felt awfully wrong. Not that she didn't believe in Heero's abilities to fight off the intruder, something stuck inside her throat at the thought.

No, she worried of his well being. Whoever was trying to invade was not human.

Placing her free hand against her chest, she felt the warmth of the choker about her neck. She thought at first that it had been from her own body heat, but it grew hotter every moment they moved forward into the darkness of the mansion.

Heero stopped, making her nearly collide into his back. If she ever thought it couldn't be any darker, she'd been wrong. Opening the room, she watched as more darkness flooded across the walkway. Her heartbeat quickened.

"Why is it so dark?" She asked, not budging when Heero started to walk forward. He gave her a small tug and she realized she had planted her feet so firmly into the ground that she felt Heero actually having to try and pull her.

"Mainly because no one's used it for a very long time," Relena made out the movement of his other has he brushed up against something on the wall. Dim light flooded the darkened room, nearly making it appear as a bright light.

Heero made another tug and this time she obeyed and walked through the threshold of the room. Everything still seemed so dark, even with the light that lightly shinned to give her some clue as to where even her own hands were.

"I know you don't like this anymore than I do, but this is the safest place for you to be." Heero rubbed his hand along her back as she stepped into his arms. He knew she hated the dark. When she had become ill it felt like a dark hole had swallowed her like her parents. Ever since then she made an effort to stay in the light, away from the darkness that wished to eat her alive.

He gently embraced her, like a child scared of the imagination that became overpowered with monsters and ghouls. Gently she eased her head under his chin as she closed her eyes, listening to the pounding of his heart beat. Unlike hers, it beat smoothly as if not even phased by the happenings going around the mansion. "Heero, please I don't want you to be hurt."

Heero sighed; he knew she was going to give him that begging line. But he had to protect his family, their home. If he ran away, others would see fear and cowardliness in the king of the night and that he couldn't have, not if he ever wished to protect what he held dear.

Speaking of what he felt was the most important thing; she was currently squeezing him tighter around his ribs. He gave a halfhearted laugh but knowing all too well there was no humor in their situation. He kissed her forehead before untangling her arms from him. "I know Relena, but I have to keep you safe and the only way to do that is to face whoever is out there. I promise I'll be careful."

She didn't buy it, not a word of it. Even though that in order to be safe, Heero had to protect, Relena knew that it didn't necessarily have to be in a violent manner. It was one thing the two never agreed upon. As much as he tried to get her to see it in his light, she would always give him a disappointed look before curtly changing the subject to something irrelevant in their lives.

He never saw it as a weakness though and actually was proud that she was stubborn about her beliefs.

But at the moment, she wasn't seeing any true peaceful solution to this problem either. Whoever was after them wanted blood, their blood.

That, she could feel in her bones without a doubt.

An unexpected chill ran up her spine and she couldn't help the chattering of her teeth.

To her relief, Heero didn't notice or at least hadn't given any indication that he had.

While she was busy mulling over other options, different scenarios other than her husband running off into a blindness battle, she stumbled, hitting her head into said man's shoulder blade. Quickly regaining her balance, she whispered an apology as she tried to reassess her bearings.

"Just be careful, I would want you to be hurt from your own clumsiness." There was mirth in his voice and Relena stuck out her tongue, knowing he could see in the darkness unlike her inexperienced sight. "Be careful of that as well or I might just end up giving you a reason not to stick your tongue at me." Immediately her tongue slipped back in without hesitation. He laughed.

"Stop teasing me," Relena moved closer toward his back as he swerved to find a source of light "or who knows how long you'll go without any bedtime activities." That killed his laughter. Relena gave a chuckle at how well she knew him "Thought you'd see it my way."

Suddenly a warm light washed over the room, giving her a better clue as to where exactly they were located at. Most likely from all the darkness before Heero turned on an oil lamp, it was way farther than even electricity hadn't been wired in. 'Must be an older part of the mansion.' Relena mused as she stepped near small cot in the corner. "Were you expecting company that you already set a place for me to sleep?"

Heero surprisingly gave a wink toward her with a smile "You could say that a bird told me we would be expecting company way before I even brought you here to live."

Well at least that answered why there were a few sets of her clothes over by the cot's wall.

"You'll be safe down here Relena." Heero kissed her forehead, rubbing lightly against her forearms as he tried to comfort his wife as much as he could. "I'll be back to retrieve you from here once the threat has been dealt with."

Stubborn tears wished to fall down her face but she held back, not quite getting rid of them in her throat as she told him that she loved him. He smiled and gave her a fierce kiss that had her toes curling in her shoes. "Be careful," A small whisper reached his ears as he pulled away.

"I will."

It didn't take them long to find Duo crouched up by a phone booth that looked like it had better days. A black cap sat over his head, bangs skewing his face from view unless you looked under. His clothes looked like they'd been thrown in a dirt patch along with his arms and hands.

When Wufei pulled up next to him and he moved inside the car did he see the blood.

"Maxwell what the hell…" He silenced himself at the shake of the American's head.

"Not now. Trowa first."

He didn't like this. Not a damn bit.

Duo closed the door and Wufei was flying down the street within seconds.

"Who's the girl?" Duo asked, inclining his head toward the seat in front of him. The blanket had been pulled up around her head, making it hard for him to see her identity when he entered the car. He was a little curious especially considering she was in the presence of Wufei, Chang.

Sylvia turned herself around in her chair and glanced over into the back seat. "The girl is Sylvia. We've met."

Wufei caught sight of Duo's eyes growing wide as recognition dawned his mind. "Shit! What the hell are you doing here? You realize you're cousin would have a fucking fit at seeing you out this late at night."

Sylvia scoffed with pain in her voice. "Believe me; I doubt my dear cousin is going to care about me being out late compared to what I've done to him and his wife."

Now that caused an eyebrow to rise on the American. "Pardon?"

The car swerved and they heard Wufei swearing. "Company. Sit back in your seat Sylvia."

She complied quickly, turning her gaze toward the side door mirror. Great, that's exactly what they needed. Making out two sleek black SUV's coming up the rear, they seemed to gear up as soon as Wufei became aware of them.

They most likely had been the men following her and just decided to come out of hiding when they picked up Duo.

Someone definitely wanted her dead. A cold involuntary shudder went through her form and she bit down on her lower lip to keep it from quivering.

"We can't lead them to Trowa," Duo said, pushing up to look out the back window. They all agreed on that silently. With a quick turn, Wufei slipped down a narrow paved street before making another sharp left followed by three rights and then a reverse into a dark alley way. Lights must have not been needed, Sylvia thought as theirs quickly cut off and they sat in the darkness.

Not a moment passed by before the two SUV's went flying past them, thinking most likely that they had just lost them by a few seconds. Closing her eyes Sylvia tapped into her own power and closed in on of the car's passengers. She could see them arguing with one another, trying to figure out where their target had disappeared to. A few muffled words echoed out from behind the driver's seat but when she tried to catch a look, her connection was severed by another force.

Taking a deep breath, Sylvia tried to stop everything from spinning in circles and focused on the glove compartment instead. She could feel a warm hand smoothing down her shoulders to her back and then up again. Wufei whispered to her, asking of what she saw.

"They can't get a read on us." Her mind wandered about the voice in the back. "But I couldn't get a look at everyone in the car. Someone cut me off before I could see who was in the backseat. It was almost like someone picked up on my frequency and broke it with another channel."

Wufei frowned. Was that even possible?

He never heard any of Heero's family members ever losing connection to their powers. Though Sylvia was of his mother's side, he knew her side to be just as strong as the Yuy's.

"Can you link the break back?" Duo asked, giving an eye out the window while Wufei eased Sylvia's back against the seat.

She shook her head, causing bits of blonde to light fall onto Wufei's hand. It felt like silk to him. "No. Who ever it is, they know about me and my ability because they seemed to expect it and were prepared."

That didn't sound good.

Wufei took his eyes off the woman beside him and glanced out the tinted windshield. "Can they track us?" He watched Sylvia ease herself into a calm serenity as she felt outside the boundaries of physical to mental connections. She shook her head.

"No. Their able to break away from my powers but they cannot sense my location through them. Nor can they through you're life forces thankfully."

Nodding, Wufei pulled out and headed out once again toward the direction they'd last known of their friend Trowa. He just hoped that he was still in one piece by the time they arrived.

The screeching of tires filled the air in the night sky.

Catherine paced the small room, wanting more than anything to go and find her best friend. She'd been sitting in wait while Dorothy, a long time friend who'd been in the same practice of magic as she. It'd had taken all her willpower not to burst through the woman's door when she had left her to sit in the living room.

Thirty minutes had passed. What could be taking her so much time?

She faintly heard the sound of heels clacking against the hardwood floor and sighed in relief. It was about damn time she moved her butt. Close friend be damned, the woman had the slowness of a snail.

Dorothy reentered the room with a slight frown marring her lips. Uh oh.

"What is it?" Catherine asked, already two feet in front of her. The woman shook her head, trying to pass away the frown but it didn't work. Catherine was an empathic after all. There was no way to hide it without her catching it flowing through her mind.

Seeing the determined look in her friend's eye, Dorothy sighed and spilled. "I was looking for some of my tools and couldn't find them. So, I went into my storage only to notice that my tarot cards had been laid out in the cross pattern." Rubbing a hand over her temple, Dorothy took a ragged breath in. "Relena is in some serious trouble Catherine. My cards only show themselves to me like that when they fear a very destructive future approaches."

Catherine could feel the rising of panic snarl up inside her throat, a whimper slipping past her throat. "Is there anyway to prevent this? Can we find Relena and protect her?"

Dorothy raised an eyebrow. "What makes you think that it only involves Relena? It involves just about all of us. I even fear one of our friends is near the brink of death."

Swallowing somehow became all that much harder. "Could you tell who it was?"

Brow drawing tight in pain and worry, Dorothy closed the space between them and touched her hands lightly. "My cards were played out to show someone close to me then that of a blood relative – Catherine!" Quickly grabbing a hold of the fainting redhead, Dorothy pulled her toward the couch. She could feel the woman's body drained of power.

"P-please tell me Trowa is alright Dorothy. Please!" Sickness swallowed her, engulfing her in a fury of pain and anguish. She had to know if her brother was alright.

Dorothy turned her head away. For as long as she had been a mediator of the greater power, she never felt so helpless for her friend. In truth, she had felt dread well inside her at the sight before her. Trowa had been someone dear to her as well.

She shook her head – no he was someone dear to her. There was still hope.

"Call Quatre, Catherine. Tell the others quickly while I can see what I can do on my end. If anything I can give them a few warnings to prevent anymore bloodshed in this crazy war path."

Nodding, Catherine pulled out her cell phone when she paused. "Wait, Miss Loves a Good Fight doesn't want blood shed?"

Dorothy scoffed. "Yes. Like the title says, I love a good fight but not needless bloodshed."

Shaking her head at her friend, Catherine quickly dialed in the numbers she needed before reaching voicemail. Damn it all. Well, she at least tried her brother's number. The next one was Quatre and she got to him on the second ring.

"Yes, listen Quatre. Dorothy foresaw…"

Heero left the chambers in the deep part of the mansion with pain lacerating his heart. He hated seeing the look of terror on his wife's beautiful face that should only be filled with joy. There was still no way he could tell her about the small being inside of her that he felt. Hell, he wasn't even sure if she was actually pregnant. While she had slept he had tried to listen for any telltale only to find none. It made no sense.

A tingling went down his spine and he knew in that instant that the enemy walked across the boundaries to his home. Quickly his feet carried him up and out of the basement as he pulled out his phone from his pant pocket. He hit a few buttons and spoke quickly on the end "Relena is in the basement, retrieve her within a few hours if you haven't word from me," then hit end and went for his weaponry upstairs, a room away from their bedroom.

Arming himself with an assortment of small daggers and his sword, Heero went to check on his enemies advances. Barely making out the two from a hidden window in the armory room, he noticed a large one looking about like he were hunting for prey while the smaller one was busy calculating while also watching his partner from the corner of his eye. It gave a good idea that the bigger one was more dangerous than he appeared.

He would also be keeping his eye out on him.

Stepping back from the window, Heero closed his eyes and concentrated on the front end of his mansion. With a vivid visualization, Heero could feel himself lift from the armory room and then to the floor of the forest.

His piercing blue eyes opened to find a pair of hazel ones staring at him with wonder.

"I was wondering when you were going to show yourself to us," The small man said, a smug look on his face that Heero wished to kick right into his skull.

The second the king appeared before him, Ronnie knew it to be the calm before the storm. Larry would no doubt charge in after him, demanding for the princess like a mad man. But now his plans had changed. This whole deal was far off than he or Larry could have compared to.

"As you can see, we've been here a little while." Larry was starting to narrow in on Heero who looked coolly over to him like he was witnessing a mosquito coming narrowing in on its prey.

Heero turned his gaze from Larry long enough to give Ronnie a quick look. "That I know. What I want to know is what you want."

Well, at least the man didn't beat around the bush like some other royalty he knew. Larry was quick to his own agenda. "The Princess! I want her now!" He demanded with his forefinger pounding into his other palm.

Heero's gaze turned red. The bastard actually thought he was getting near Relena. Just the thought of his dirty hands on his wife had his blood boiling and his powers rising.

Catching on, Ronnie quickly retrieved the young king's attention. "That's what we came for originally by order of Prince Millardo. But things have changed," He could feel Larry's eyes turn to him with anger, "as you might have guessed were basically a distraction. Millardo doesn't even realize how well he's being played into hands that wish to see his sister tied and bound."

He could tell how quickly Larry fell silent as the king listened in on what he was saying. Good, maybe he could actually make good of this situation. "My point is I'm here to warn you. A man named Trieze Kushrenada wishes to take a hold of the princess and use her powers for his own greed."

It was Larry's turn to turn red with anger. "He can't have her! She's mine!"

Ronnie sighed, rubbing a grubby hand down his face as he tried to think of a way to shut the man up. Maybe if he were lucky, the king would cut him down and he didn't have to deal the insane man again. "Ignore him, at this point he's lost in his own delusional thoughts."

There was no way that he could detect that the men were lying, but Heero listened to the short one. From what he could tell, there was no lie hidden in his words. However, his monster of a partner was a completely different matter. One in which Heero planned to deal with at the tip of a sword.

"Where's Millardo now?" Heero questioned, keeping his attention on Larry.

Ronnie shrugged. "My guess is he got tired of waiting for us and set out to do it himself."

Heero's blue eyes glazed "and that would be what?"

"Find the princess and kill you. But as you can see, that doesn't seem to be the real issue."

Alright, fine. Heero could deal with the bastard when he was finished with this Trieze person. "How did you find me?"

For the first time, Ronnie paled and turned his face away. "Someone tricked your cousin into telling where you're location was, thinking you were in danger. I don't really know what happened to her after that." He could feel heat burning into his body from the man's stare. Then again if he found out that a family member had been taken and there was no sign of where they may be, he'd be just as pissed.

This time, Larry was the one to move closer to the king. Ronnie mentally groaned. Yep, the man wanted to be killed off.

Though he'd never seen the king in action, he heard plenty of stories that had him believing he could kill Larry right were he stood.

Heero kept his attention to Ronnie though. "This Treize, what exactly is it that he needs my wife for?"

Larry inched closer, his hands wiggling around like they were aching to strangle the king's neck. "That no one knows expect for his chief advisor. Not even his own daughter knows of it."

An eyebrow went up. "You know of Marameia being his daughter?"

Scoffing, Ronnie crossed his arms though not doing it quickly to show he wasn't about to pull a weapon out from his pocket. "It's my job to be in the know." An eye shifted back over toward his partner then turned back to the king. He watched as a smirk pulled at the king's lips.

Was he serious?

"Move an inch closer and you'll find yourself meeting Hades' personally," The caution held a promise of pain and death that had a shiver running up Ronnie's back. Larry, however, too stupid or just plain dead set on getting the princess advanced forward and just like that, Heero's hand gave the oversized man an upper cut, sending him flying on his back. "Now" Heero pulled his arm back to his side and waited a moment before continuing "be in the know. The next move toward my mansion and death will be the event of the day."

They could hear curses flying out of the giant who had pulled himself up off the ground, a course line of crimson spilling over his lip and down his chin.

"As I've said," Ronnie pulled open his jacket to show Heero his gun, "my plans have changed. I'm no longer serving Millardo nor am I helping Treize. Things have gotten a lot more .complicated than what I call tolerable for my work ethics. Hell, they've even crossed my life morals."

Heero's eyebrow shot up.

"Yeah, I have them."

"Would you like to grace me with your point yet or am I going to have to wait here all day? Because I'm much rather prefer dealing with other things." Ronnie scoffed; yeah he knew exactly what Heero rather deal with like a certain beautiful princess, a man after their lives and his brother in law hell bent on killing him.

"Enough said. My point is that I'm here to give you information you may need to know about you're enemy. At this point, I know a lot more than you do."

Heero interjected quickly with a hot glare. "I do not need of a messenger, I have-"

Ronnie laughed "…men. Yes, men that you haven't been in contact with for quite some time. Believe that is no coincidence. Hell has broken loose thanks to Trieze and his hell crazed agenda to have you're wife."

A passive stone set look crossed over the king as he thought this over. That would explain why he hadn't heard word back from Quatre or the others.

"Do you know of their whereabouts?"

The short man gave a sigh as he ran his hand covered in a torn up glove through his black hair. "No. Everything is tight lipped. Though I heard someone talking about a man held captive in the East sanctum. They said something about falsely labeling him as a spy in order to keep him locked up."

Trowa.

Glaring toward Larry, he shot a venomous warning that did little help on Ronnie's nerves. "Keep him away from the mansion. I don't want him anywhere near my wife."

Ronnie grunted and Heero turned back to find that both men had stilled. He moved closer to the shorter man, noticing that he wasn't even breathing. He glanced about and found the whole forest around him had been frozen in place.

A soft whisper brushed his ear and turned to find no one behind him. He didn't like this.

Another whisper behind him caused his hand to tighten on the hilt of his sword. "Who are you?"

Blackness started to spot about his feet, he stepped back and the spot grew larger until he felt his whole body stiffening. He tried to push his body to obey but it was no use. Within seconds everything became like night and then his eyes closed and the world had been shut off to him.

A hand touched lightly against the globe. She could feel worry swim in the man's heart. Easing his mind into calm, she gently eased him and his only thoughts were of his wife.

Meanwhile, her powers quickly made work of the two other men and sent them back to where they came from. She would need the smarter one to do his part in her plans; of course he wouldn't realize it.

Closing her eyes, she concentrated trying to keep a minimum use of her powers as they were still in shock from using so much on the choker that was currently wrapped around the princess's neck.

As long as she was kept safe, that's all that mattered.

TBC