Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Stolen Memories ❯ Chapter 15 ( Chapter 15 )

Chapter Fifteen

Relena sat on the bed, cross-legged, eyes closed and breathed deeply. She ignored the pilots and Dr Po who were leaving her well alone. Relena had woken from a drug-induced sleep, her head sore and her chest tight. She recalled the unsettling questions that Sally Po had asked her. She did not like her inability to answer them.

Once again Relena worked on basic relaxation techniques, tensing muscles then relaxing them one by one. Her breathing was soft and regular. When she had achieved a state that she considered calm, Relena would force herself to remember one thing that should be so easy to recall. How did she meet her fiancé Basil. She struggled with the thought, trying to recall not the moment, not the exact day, but the circumstance. Was it at a party, was it at a conference, or maybe a visit to a hospital. Relena felt her heart start to palpitate, her breathing coming faster, her palms become sweaty. Was it through an introduction from a friend, a chance meeting, or did he have business with the ministry. Relena's arm started to ache, her fingers were tingling.

"Stop it!" Heero shook her gently. "Stop doing this to yourself!" he had come to her unnoticed and was crouched in front on her, hands on her arms. He looked to Relena concerned and maybe a little afraid, and it struck Relena odd that the man responsible for the murder of her father and also responsible for her abduction should be afraid for her safety.

"I need to remember." She said hoarsely, her voice betraying how upset she felt. "I cant remember things that I ought to…its…its just not right."

"Relena, we are working on making your memories return, you need to be patient and not push yourself." Heero was now sitting beside her, one leg tucked under him and his arms folded. "We explained that to you." He watched as she nodded and waited until her breathing evened again. "I am curious about something," he said hesitantly. Relena raised an eyebrow indicating that he could continue. Heero looked at a spot on the floor "Do you have any memories about me?" He looked up directly into her eyes "About us?"

Relena blinked "I remember you killing my father and trying to kill me." She said bluntly. Heero tensed and stood up. Relena looked back at the spot on the floor that had interested Heero shortly before "However I find it difficult to match those memories with the Heero Yuy here." Relena started to pant, and Heero crouched beside her again.

"Don't try." He said urgently and reached out to stroke her hair. Relena looked into his eyes again and could not look away.

"I have memories of you telling me you would kill me." She said softly "Yet I don't have any fear associated with those memories."

Duo, who had been listening to their conversation with interest, sat beside Relena and grinned at her "That would be because those are true memories. Heero was always saying he was going to kill you." Heero glared at him, but Duo laughed at Relena's horrified expression "He never meant it, he couldn't kill you" Duo assured her "Ya know, when we first met I thought Heero was going to kill you and I shot him. You threw yourself in front of my gun to stop me shooting him again. I thought then that you were a little crazy, but very brave." Duo sighed "It will be nice to have my Lena back."

Sally walked in, looking at some notes, then came to stand in front of Relena. She smiled trying to be reassuring, but Relena felt trapped and scared.

"Have you been able to find a way of deactivating the bot without harm to Relena?" Sally asked, looking at Heero.

"I contacted Dr J, and he suggested a way that I could hack into the bots programming and override the failsafe mechanism." Heero confirmed "I have written the code, its just a matter of trialing it."

"Seems like Dr J knows more about these bot things than he was letting on, wouldn't surprise me in the least." Duo commented, and Heero nodded grimly.

"I intend to find out just how much he knows after we deactivate it." He said.

"OK, so we are ready to attempt to deactivate the bot." Sally said "Relena, I won't do this unless you agree to it." Heero looked like he was going to protest, but Sally held up her hand to stop him "No Heero, this has to be Relena's choice." She turned her attention back to Relena "You know that there is something wrong, Relena, otherwise you wouldn't have this reaction to trying to remember past events. However, there is an element of risk in deactivating this bot. I can't promise you that your memories will return, it may be that you won't regain them. It may be that we get an adverse physical reaction to deactivation."

Relena bit her lip "I need to be able to remember Dr Po. You have all treated me well and I know that all is not right with my current memories. You have kidnapped me and I have considered whether you are the ones interfering with my memories." Heero frowned at this. "But if you planned to do me harm, I doubt that you would seek my permission." Relena continued. She looked at Sally. "I will put myself into your hands."

Heero drew a sigh of relief and smiled at her, Duo gave her a hug. Wufei, Trowa and Quatre had all entered the room as Sally had been talking.

"Lets hope we get it right." Trowa murmured, and Wufei and Quatre could only nod in agreement.

"If we don't, it will mean a war." Quatre said, watching as Sally attached electrodes to Relena's temples and pulse points on her chest under her top.

"Relena is in the best of hands." Wufei said confidently, watching Sally work.

"Relena, I am going to give you a mild sedative. Just to relax you, it won't render you unconscious." Sally said as she tapped the back of Relena's hand. "First of all, though, I want to put a line in your hand so that if something does go wrong we will be able to administer medication and fluids quickly. Its just standard medical practice."

Relena looked away as Sally, satisfied that she had a suitable vein, proceeded to place a catheter in it. Sally taped it firmly in place, then injected a saline solution through to check that it was placed properly. Then she injected a small amount of clear fluid in, and Relena felt a slight burning sensation in the back of her arm. She smiled as her eyelids felt a bit heavy, and Sally smiled back.

"You might want to lie down now, honey." Sally suggested, and Heero helped make Relena recline on the bed. "Ok, next I need to place these electrodes on your chest. These are only precautionary. The bot seems to be controlling the beating of your heart, and if it sends a signal that stops your heart, these electrodes will send a mild electrical current to a couple of areas on your heart and will regulate your heartbeat. Basically they will act as a pace maker."

Heero had moved away and was taping furiously into his laptop, double-checking the program.

"We know that the signal from the bot is being monitored. Any interference with it would normally be recorded and sent to the person monitoring the bot. I have written a program that will make the bot send the previous twenty minutes of data in a continual loop. That way, Une and Holt will believe that you are still under their control" he said.

"To what end?" Relena asked sleepily

"To keep information from Une." Heero answered, and Relena smiled

"….chess…" she murmured.

Heero finished typing and looked at her "Yes, like a chess game. We are going to make our opponent think we are attacking one way, when in fact we are sneaking up another."

"OK, lets talk chess later." Sally said, then smoothed back Relena's hair. "Just stay calm. Remember we are all here with you and nothing bad is going to happen. Are you ready?"

Relena and Heero both nodded. Relena closed her eyes.

"Begin" Sally instructed.

Heero typed a few commands into the laptop. "Looping sequence standing by. Deactivate program started." He reported.

Sally looked at her monitor. Relena's heartbeat was rapid and she was panting. Her blood pressure was elevated.

"My…. arm…..hurts" Relena complained, wriggling her fingers "feels all pins and needles".

Sally held Relena's wrist, feeling her pulse and comparing with what her monitors were relaying. Relena suddenly pulled her arm away, clutching at her chest. Her eyes rolled back and she lay back still. The monitor showing her heart beat suddenly started to alarm, as it recorded a heart rate that was abnormally elevated, but erratic. Heero came to his feet in alarm.

"Sally!" he warned.

"I'm on it!" Sally said curtly, already activating the pacemaker. Relena gasped again as the pacemaker started regulating her heartbeat, but her eyes didn't open and she didn't move. Sally altered the controls gradually bringing the beat of her heart back into a normal rhythm.

Heero sat down again, and glanced over to where the other pilots were standing watching. Duo grinned and wiped his brow mouthing "Phew". Heero rolled his eyes and looked back at his monitor. "Bot has now deactivated. False signal loop in place. I am deleting the database."

Sally was monitoring Relena's respiration, and she nodded in satisfaction. "As soon as I am satisfied that her heart is stable, I will take her off the pacemaker." She said smiling at the others "Looks like we did it."