Agents scattered as Heero stormed through the halls of Preventer Headquarters and straight into Une's office. Throwing the orders on her desk he demanded an explanation.
Shaking her head the former OZ officer truly felt sorry for this. Une knew Yui and Maxwell romantically involved. There were even rumors a marriage was in the works. Now this had to happen. Hadn't these children suffered enough? Hadn't they earned their happiness?
Evidently not.
Une had attempted every means she knew to have the order rescinded. She called in all favors owed to her, contacted anyone even remotely sympathetic to the former pilots. She even threatened a few officials with exposure of their dirty little secrets. Nothing worked. Despite everything the orders remained.
Heero was to marry Relena. As her husband he had a perfect excuse to remain close to her.
Heero tried fighting it as well. But the orders were clear, as was the penalty for his refusal to accept. So reluctantly Heero packed his clothes and left the apartment he'd shared with the one person he loved in all his short life.
Duo Maxwell didn't take the news of his lover abandoning him for Relena very well. He tried a dozen times to contact Heero, to discover why he'd left without one word or letter. Was it something he'd done? Something he hadn't done, or done well enough? He had to know the reason!!
Only the guards at Relena's estate refused him entrance. His letters all returned unopened and his calls were all cut off before they could reach the Japanese pilot. On his last attempt Relena herself answered. With malicious glee she gloated over how Heero had chosen her. Saying smugly to the braided youth Heero had never loved him. He was just using Duo to relieve his needs. After all, what would a wonderful man like Heero want with a filthy, little street rat like him!
Despondant, Duo never called again.
Heero nearly abandoned his mission months later when the news reached him. Duo had tried to commit suicide, not once, but twice, when the news of Heero and Relena's engagement was announced.
Risking everything Heero tried to visit Duo, to finally offer an explanation, only to find the other Gundam pilots already there.
With glares and harsh words they closed rank around their injured friend and ordered Heero to leave. He'd hurt Duo too much already and they weren't going to stand for it anymore. When Heero tried to force his way past Wufei nearly broke his jaw.
Furious over his cruel and callous treatment of Duo, the Chinese youth promised if Heero ever came near Duo again he'd be a head shorter. Trowa didn't say it in quite that manner but his silent threat was clearly recognizable and understood. Even Quatre, the gentlest of them all, slapped Heero hard enough to rattle already loosened teeth. Heero left before the violence escalated any further.
Upon his release Duo promptly disappeared, and all of Heero's vaulted computer skills couldn't find a trace of him.
Bereft of his lover and his friends Heero returned to Relena.
Now every day was like a nightmare he couldn't wake from, each worse than the one before. The thought of taking his own life was sweet. But his training kept interceding, stopping him each time just short of oblivion's release.
Heero fell into depression.
Wraith-like, a shadow of his former self, he haunted the estate's halls; never speaking, never smiling.
Two people, trapped by circumstance and duty, in a miserable existence. Both longing desperately for a return to happier times, tortured by the knowledge it could never be so.
Pagan was deeply concerned. Both the Princess and Master Yui were so still and silent. They rarely ate and neither spoke often, even to each other. He cursed the cruel hand of fate, which had brutally ripped away the young couple's happiness.
Without an heir to cement her claim the throne would now pass to Milliardo; or one of his children should he have any. The latter being more likely as the Prince still denied his birthright. The faithful old servant knew Milliardo had returned from Mars and was now living somewhere in the Mediterranean. Perhaps... perhaps a visit with her brother would help Miss Relena stir from this dreadful melancholy.
It was a slim hope at best, but at the moment it was all that he had.