Inevitable Meetings

by Leap of Faith

Four years after that fateful day, she got a call that would once again change her life. Sequel to To Chance Encounters.

Inevitable Meetings

By: Ms. Perfect

"The only thing scarier than finding Mr. Wrong, is finding Mr. Right." - Someone Like You

*****

"Usagi, they've stopped looking. They say that it has been long enough; that it's more than likely that his Gundam was blown up..."

Usagi's eyes watered slightly.

"Do you – do you believe that?" she choked out.

"I don't know what to believe, Usagi... Wu-man's a strong guy."

Usagi nodded, biting her lip to keep the tears from falling. "Did they say if they were going to have a funeral or anything like that?"

"Not a funeral, no. But they have already put a grave maker up in memorial to Wu-man and Hiiro," Duo replied.

She placed a hand on the grave with Wufei's name and traced it.

"Ai shiteru, Wufei..." she whispered. "I'll never, ever forget you..."

It had been long since she had whispered those words. Three years or so. Now she, along with Kiki, was working with the people who had tried to find him. The Preventers.

"So, tell me again how we are supposed to test this?" Kiki asked that morning.

Usagi tried not to roll her eyes. This would be the fifteenth time she had explained it. "I told you, we're going to test it on a Gundam prototype."

"But we don't have one, Usagi..."

Usagi grunted. "Yes, as a matter of fact, we do. I have contacted one of the scientists. He will be providing us with the prototype."

"Kiki, what are you doing?" Usagi yelled through the microphone.

"Testing the chip prototype out. What the hell did you think I'm doing – flossing?" Kiki replied.

Usagi covered the headphones with her hands, pressing them against her ears so she could hear Kiki's reply over the roar of the Gundams engine.

"Kiki! You're not ready for this! You don't know how to use a Gundam. Let alone the chip!" Usagi screamed.

"Don't worry, Usagi, I'll be fine!" Kiki's voice came from the headphones.

Even as she said it, Usagi watched the Gundam lift off into the air. Kiki wasn't ready for this. She didn't know how to control a Gundam...

"You're going to get yourself killed, Kiki! Land that Gundam right now!" Usagi ordered, sounding very much like Wufei when he did the same thing.

"Fine! But I still say that this thing needs to be tested..." Kiki replied.

Usagi craned her head back, shielding the sun from her eyes with her arm. Her eyes widened as she saw something happen. Kiki didn't have control of the Gundam.

"Kiki!" she screamed at the top of her lungs.

She got no reply as the Gundam prototype crashed into the sea.

"A... at... lea... least... we... k... know... i... it... w... work... s," Kiki's voice whispered into Usagi's headphones.

"Kiki!" she screamed again. "No! God damn it, Kiki! I told you that you weren't ready..."

Usagi sat at her regular table in the familiar coffee shop, sipping her hot chocolate. She had come inside to get away from the cold winter winds.

"This seat taken?" a familiar voice asked.

"Duo!" Usagi cried, snapped from her memories. She jumped up and gave him a hug like she was a child again. "What are you doing here?"

Duo sat down across from her, "Came to visit an old friend ... You're looking a lot better now, Usa."

Usagi nodded, "yeah. It's been almost four years, you know?"

Duo noticed the slight inclination to sadness in her voice. She still hadn't gotten over Wufei...

"Usa..."

"Duo, don't. I know what you're going to say. But I just – can't," Usagi said.

Duo looked at her, masking his sympathy. He remembered from a pervious meeting that she hated having people feel sorry for her. "I have to get going. See you some other time, 'kay?"

Usagi nodded and took another sip of her hot chocolate. "See you later Duo."

She locked the door behind herself and leaned against it. Only then did she realize how she missed Kiki's familiar "That you Usagi?" when she walked in the door. Almost a year ago, Kiki had been testing their prototype when she crashed. Somehow, Usagi had gotten over the loss quicker than she thought she would.

Dropping her keys on the counter, she pressed the message button on her answering machine.

"Usagi, it's me. I know you're on your vacation, but we need that chip. Come to L2 right away. I'll brief you when you arrive. Don't forget to change." The machine beeped before she shut it off and erased the message.

Usagi ran up to her room quickly and went directly to her closet. Pulling out a small chest, she flipped the latches up and opened it.

Hm... Brown, black or red... she thought. Then she plucked the black wig out and went into her bathroom. She tied up all her hair and put a net over it, she couldn't have any of her blonde hair sticking out, and put the black wig on, securing it with black bobby pins.

"Now, what to do about my eyes..." she murmured to herself. Then she opened a contact case and put the black contacts in. Already she looked different. She didn't doubt that her own mother wouldn't be able to figure out who she was.

Walking back into her room, she put on a pair of well-worn blue jeans and a tan tank top. Packing a few necessities into a carry-on bag, she was ready to go.

This had better be important too. I'm supposed to be on my vacation. Usagi thought as she zipped up her jacket and walked out the door to her car, remembering to lock the door behind her.

She boarded the shuttle to L2 and surveyed all the passengers behind her black sunglasses. She almost grinned when she saw her happy-go-lucky friend in the seat next to hers.

"Hey, babe," he said, giving her the I'm-such-a-stud grin.

Usagi tried not to laugh. He didn't recognize her. So instead of responding, she put her headphones on and turned her music up loud.

Duo's face fell; this was the first time his charm hadn't worked.

"There's always a first time for everything," the girl next to him whispered into his ear before placing the headphones back on her head.

She seemed familiar to him, but he couldn't place how he might know her.

Usagi quickly made her way through the throng of people trying to get out of the shuttle port and to an awaiting car.

"Do you have any clue on what this is about?" she asked the driver.

"All I know is that she's going to get it for taking me off my vacation. You know I haven't had a decent one in six years?" the dark blue haired woman said.

Usagi sighed, "too true..."

They both hopped out of the car when they arrived at a large house.

Usagi lifted up her sunglasses, "since when did she get this place?"

"From what I know, it's not hers," the other woman said.

Usagi snorted, "you've got a point. She doesn't make enough money to pay for a house like this."

"How nice of you two to point that out," a new voice said stiffly.

The two women looked at her.

"Well, come in. I'm sure you want to know why I took you off your vacations."

Usagi nodded, "you've got a lot of explaining to do, Une."

"Hey! It's that chick from the shuttle!" Duo whispered to someone that Usagi couldn't see as they walked past the living room. Whoever he was talking to just grunted in reply.

When they entered the meeting room, Une asked the pilots to join them in five minuets.

"Now, Usagi—"

"Call me Serenity for now, Une," Usagi interrupted smoothly.

Une and Noin looked confused, but didn't question it. Sure it was Usagi's code name, but she rarely had them use it.

"Okay, Serenity, I brought you here because you and Kiki have finished with the chip, yes?"

"Kiki – passed away," Usagi, or rather, Serenity said. "But in answer to your question, yes, I have finished the chip."

"May I have it?" Une asked. Serenity snatched it out of her bag and flipped it at Une. And as she was doing so, the boys entered the room.

Serenity, who still had her sunglasses on, held back a gasp.

Wufei... she thought at the sight of him. He's alive... why didn't he contact me? Why didn't Duo tell me? Lucky for her they couldn't see her eyes tearing, or her blinking rapidly. She clenched and unclenched her hand under the table to keep from slamming it on the table in anger.

Wufei and the rest of the pilots entered the room, and at the sight of the black haired woman, his first thought was: Meriam? But it wasn't her; it was someone else he had never seen before.

Une cleared her throat to get everyone's attention. "I'm sure you all know Noin, so I will only introduce you to Serenity. She is one of my elite. Serenity, I don't have to guess that you know who everyone is already?"

Serenity nodded curtly. "If we could get back on the topic, Une," she said, masking her voice slightly.

"Yes," Une said. "Now, the reason I pulled you two off of your vacations, and called you boys in is: Serenity and her late partner have come up with a way to enhance your Gundams. Please explain to them, Serenity."

"As Une said, the chip will give your Gundams, and you, more capabilities. For example: Duo's scythe will now be stronger. Heavyarms will have farther shooting ranges. You get the point. So far, only a prototype has been built, but it has been tested and all the kinks have been worked out."

"A chip? Where would it go?" Duo asked, it was an intelligent question coming from him.

"You put it in the mainframe of your Gundam," Serenity replied.

"How do you if it'll work if the prototype wasn't tested on a Gundam?" Wufei's cold voice said.

Serenity winced inside her head. He had changed... "Because it was tested on a Gundam."

Une stared at Serenity in surprise, "it was?"

Serenity gave a curt nod, "a year and a half ago when we needed a Gundam to test the prototype on, one of the Gundam scientists was contacted. He supplied us with a Gundam prototype to use."

"Which one?" Hiiro asked.

"Sorry, that's confidential," she replied.

He grunted before leaning back and crossing his arms.

"So, what happened to your partner?" Duo asked once he was alone with Serenity; he still had some questions about the prototype.

Serenity sighed, "she was testing the prototype. I told her she wasn't ready for it, or anywhere near strong enough... she crashed after I told her to land."

"Then how do you know we are?" he questioned.

Serenity looked at him, "because Kiki wasn't a Gundam Pilot. She didn't understand a lot of the controls in the prototype we were using."

"Kiki? One of my friends has a friend named that," Duo said.

Serenity mentally smacked herself, "must be a coincidence. Now, if you don't have anymore questions about the prototype, I have a few for you."

"Nope, go right ahead," Duo said cheerfully.

She kept her glasses on, "I thought it odd that the two missing Gundam Pilots thought to be dead were here today. When did you happen to find them?"

"Well, we found Hiiro – or more accurately – he found us, when the factions started getting restless again," Duo motioned for her to lean closer. "And Wufei, well, I'm not really supposed to say anything... but I can trust you. Well, Wufei was never gone. He told me to tell the people to call his search off. I remember him saying that the girl he really liked was deserving of someone better."

Serenity nodded. Swallowing hard, she found her voice again. "Don't you think that's kind of cruel to just leave her hanging? Always hoping that he'll somehow be found?"

"Yeah, but he wouldn't listen to me. Truth-be-told, I've never seen him happier than when he's talking about her. He still does, sometimes. Not too often anymore though. I think he's trying to move on. Doubt that'll happen – he's too far gone."

Serenity chortled, "You two sound like your good friends."

"Yeah... I still annoy him sometimes, but we're good," Duo stated.

Serenity opened her mouth, but clamped it shut with a snap when the door opened to reveal Wufei.

"Hey there Wu-man!" Duo said cheerfully.

"Maxwell..." he said warningly.

Serenity covered her mouth with her hand, trying in vain to stifle her laughter.

"What's so funny, onna?" Wufei asked cruelly.

Serenity snatched her sunglasses off her face, glaring at him darkly. She didn't care if she loved him. She knew full well that she didn't deserve to be called onna.

"My name isn't onna."

Duo's eyes were wide as he watched Serenity glare at Wufei, who actually looked unnerved by the look.

Wufei regained his composure he had lost when she had looked him in the eyes. "Why should I care what your name is, onna? You're probably just another weak onna."

Before he could even blink, Serenity brought her hand up and made stinging contact with his cheek.

"Whoa... Wu-man, you just got bitch-slapped. Alright, Sere!" Duo said as he doubled over with laughter.

"I am not weak. I have had to go through a lot more shit then you could possibly imagine," and with that, she turned and left the room.

Wufei stared after her, his cheek still stinging and red from her slap. Then his eyes hardened and he walked after her only to find her to have all but disappeared.

Serenity had managed to avoid Wufei for almost two weeks now, and she was sure getting a kick out of it. She would watch him enter a room she had been in seconds earlier only to storm out angrily because she wasn't in there.

"How do you do it?" Duo asked.

"Do what?" she asked.

Duo gestured with his hands, "that! Normally he would have found a person by now. But it's almost been two weeks and he still hasn't found you!"

Serenity grinned, "just lucky I guess."

"You gotta teach me how to do that," Duo replied. "It'd sure save my butt sometimes."

"It's not that hard, Duo. If you don't want to be found, you won't. If you do, you will. It's as simple as that," Serenity replied. "Now, if you'll excuse me."

Before Duo could snap to attention, she was gone. He scratched the back of his head and chuckled. She sure was good at that.

She snatched the stay piece of hair from her face and tucked it behind her ear. Often enough she found herself here, on the roof of the mansion. There was an old Widow's Walk still built onto the top that she liked to think about things in.

Serenity turned around quickly when she heard a board creek. Then she smirked.

Wufei looked at her, that smirk was familiar. It reminded him of Usagi.

"So... you finally found me, did you?" Serenity asked. "Took you quite awhile."

Wufei grunted.

You've changed... Serenity thought. What happened to the Wufei I once knew?

"Who are you?" Wufei asked.

Serenity looked at him like he had lost his mind. "Last time I checked, I was Serenity."

He cornered her, glaring at her. "I will ask you again. Who are you?"

"I am me. Who are you?" she said sarcastically.

"Usagi..." Wufei whispered.

"No... Serenity," she corrected. "Though the name is familiar."

"What?" Wufei asked, surprise laced in his voice.

Serenity moved away from him, walking around the Walk. "Usagi. The name is familiar. Do you speak of Tsukino Usagi?"

Wufei stared, shock registering in his eyes.

"I'll take that as a yes. I knew your Usagi. She was a very kind-hearted girl. Or at least she was."

"What do you mean 'was'?" Wufei asked coldly.

"Don't you know? She's dead," Serenity replied.

"What!" Wufei exclaimed. "How? Maxwell said he saw her just before he left!"

Serenity continued her lazy walk, tapping her finger to her chin. "Can you be so sure? He may have seen her, but he didn't see her."

"What are you babbling about, onna?"

Serenity eyes flashed dangerously, "I'll let that one slide this time. However, what I mean is, he saw her... but he didn't really see her. The Usagi you know and the Usagi I know are completely different. Just as I'm sure the Wufei she knows and the Wufei I know are different. Are you?"

He grunted.

Serenity smiled mysteriously. "The Usagi I know is only a shell of what she used to be. She once told me that someone she held very close to her heart left her, without a trace, she said. I could tell right then and there that she didn't like having to live her life without him. I wonder, is it the same for you, Wufei?"

Wufei turned to reply to this, but Serenity was already gone. In his anger, he slammed his fist onto the railing. Perhaps this onna was right. Perhaps the Usagi he knew was different now; he was.

"Maxwell!" Wufei bellowed as he entered the house.

"I didn't do anything!" Duo cried out.

"I didn't accuse you!" Wufei yelled back.

"Then what do you want?" Duo said, calming down.

Wufei lowered his own voice. "What was Usagi like when you saw her before you left?"

"Well... you want the truth sugar coated or not?" Duo asked.

"Maxwell," Wufei growled.

Duo panicked, "okay, okay. She wasn't all that great. When I saw her, she was staring off into space and then when I told her she was looking better these days she got that same look on her face. Wu-man, she isn't lettin' go. I think she's determined to wait for you."

Wufei nodded curtly before walking away. He needed to find Serenity again.

Duo knocked on the bedroom door that led to Serenity's room. He thought he should warn her that Wufei was coming for her again.

"Sere?" he asked opening the door slightly. Then, not seeing anyone, he walked in and shut it behind him. He looked around, he was sure she had come in here.

"Sere—" he stopped short, his eyes wide.

Serenity screamed. "What the hell are you doing in here!"

"What the...?" Duo asked in confusion.

"Duo... I think there's something I should tell you," Serenity said, rubbing the back of her head, her golden blonde hair still slightly wet.

"Usagi... what the hell are doing here? How'd you get caught up in this?" Duo asked.

"That's none of your business," Usagi stated. She secured the black wig on her head again before opening the door. "I trust you enough to keep my secret. Obviously you're good at it."

Duo stared after her, guilt weighing down on him heavily. She had a point. He was good at keeping secrets; he had kept Wufei's until she saw him in the conference room.

"Usa—Serenity wait." Duo said as he ran out the door after her. "Do you think I wanted to keep it a secret?" he asked once he caught up to her.

"Yes, Duo. As a matter of fact, I do," Serenity stated.

He stepped in front of her, blocking her way. "Look, it wasn't my choice. I wanted to tell you many times, but I couldn't."

"Duo, for once in your life, listen to me. I don't care about the circumstances behind your not telling me. I don't care, got it? All I care about is the guy I love, the guy I thought was dead, is suddenly not. And now, I have to live with the fact that he has changed. That he'll never been the same guy I fell in love with. War has hardened his heart, Duo. And now I have to accept that."

Duo watched as she walked away from him. Now that he thought about it, Wufei had changed.

She stood up from her crouched position, her knees popping from the release of strain. Over the past week and a half she had made copies of the chip, each specialized to each Gundam and now she was installing them.

Serenity moved over to Shen-Long, digging through her bag to find its chip when she bumped into someone. "Sorry," she muttered before trying to move around him.

Wufei just stared down at her.

She sighed, "look, I said I was sorry. Now please get out of my way, I have work to do."

He watched her every move; something about her was familiar. What it was, he couldn't place. Wufei watched as she opened the mainframe up and went to work, occasionally tucking stray hairs behind her ears.

"Why are you doing this?" Wufei finally asked.

She glanced up, then back to the mainframe. "Doing what?"

"Putting these chips in our Gundams. We don't need them."

Serenity shrugged, "because there's always that chance that you guys will need it. Besides, I vowed to make this chip work after... after..."

After what he didn't exactly find out. Serenity went back to her silent work, looking as though she had something very large on her mind.

"Who are you?"

Serenity closed the mainframes door, the chip installed. "Why do you keep asking me that? I've told you already."

Shaking her head, she went to walk past him, but his hand shot out to catch her arm. Serenity lifted her other hand to smack his away, but her caught her wrist with his other hand.

"Look, I'm sorry in advance for anything I might have said or done to piss you off, but the world doesn't revolve around you," Serenity snapped. "I'm sorry that you've had some sort of hard life. And sorry to tell you this, but you're not the only one! Everyone has had hard times, and they deal with it in different ways, but that doesn't mean that you can't get on with your life!"

"You apologize a lot," Wufei said.

"It's in my nature," Serenity replied. Then she was hit with a sense of déjà vu.

"Usagi..." he whispered.

Serenity looked down, wrenching her arm and hand from his grip. "I'm not Usagi... not the one you knew at least," she turned and ran out of the hanger quickly.

Not Usagi? Is that the most intelligent thing you can come up with? She asked herself. She ran all the way from the hanger to the Widow's Walk. It was a safe haven of sorts for her.

"What do you want me to do, huh?" she screamed at the sky. "It's not like I can just say 'Hey, look, I'm not Serenity. My real name is Tsukino Usagi and the man I love is heartless from the war!' Is that what you want me to do?" Serenity sighed.

"The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them."

Serenity turned around quickly, "Albert Einstein said that."

"I know," he replied.

"What's that got to do with me?" she asked dejectedly.

"Everything and nothing," he replied.

She glanced at him, a smile tugging at her lips. "You sure know a lot for someone who doesn't talk much, Trowa."

"There's no need to talk when you can watch," he replied.

She sat down on the railing, "so, tell me, what have you seen?"

"Lots of confusion... you hid your identity, for what reason we don't know, and he faked his death because he thought you deserved better. Now yours and his' new worlds have collided again and neither of you know what to do."

"I do know what to do, Trowa. I have to face the fact that he has changed, I'm sure I have myself, and that I'll never get back the guy that helped me out when I ran into him so long ago."

"And why is that?"

Serenity sighed, "I don't know... Maybe – maybe it's because I know that he has changed. Maybe he's moved on, I sure haven't, but maybe he has. I just want him to be happy..."

"What if you being with him makes him happy?" Trowa said wisely.

"You sound like my Grandfather... he always knew what to say and when to say it."

Trowa raised his eyebrow as she laughed.

"Thanks for the advice, Trowa. As vague as it was, it helps," she said as she walked down the stairs and through the attic door.

She had left the house a few weeks ago. She knew of course that she should have done something about Wufei, but that was in the past. She couldn't dwell in the past any longer; it was eating at her soul. She had to live for what was to come, not what had happened.

After installing the last two chips, she had said her good-byes and left L2 for the sanctuary of her home. Somehow, the emptiness of her house was comforting.

Usagi looked up from her book as she heard knocking at her door. She climbed out from under the throw blanket, setting the book down and walked over to the door. Who would be coming to her house now? It was raining so hard she couldn't even see out her windows.

"Can I help..." her words fell away at the site before her. Finally her mind jumped out of its shock. "Wufei, get in here! What on earth are you doing out in the rain? Are you trying to catch your death? Oh, wait, you're already dead..." Usagi said with a wry laugh as she grabbed some towels from the closet.

She pointed him in the direction of the bathroom with some dry clothes. "Go dry off, then you can explain yourself."

When the door closed, she leaned against the wall and slid down it until her butt hit the floor. She put her head on knees. What was he doing here? Why did her life have to be so cruel to her?

She didn't hear the door open, nor did she hear him walk towards her. Usagi jumped when he touched her arm.

"What are you doing here?" she asked in a whisper as she started to get lost in his ebony eyes.

He lifted her up as he himself stood.

"Wufei..." she started, but stopped at the curt shake of his head.

"Usagi, I'm sorry."

"For what?" she asked.

"For thinking that I didn't deserve you, that you would be better off without me," he said huskily.

Usagi's knees almost buckled from under him, yet it wouldn't have matter if they had, Wufei was still holding her up.

"Is – is that all?" Usagi asked.

He shook his head. "You being you, I'm sure you love someone else by now, but I just needed to tell you this anyway," he leaned closer to her ear and whispered: "Ai shiteru."

Usagi shivered. Then she found her voice again, "I do have a love..."

Wufei looked away.

"But he died," Usagi finished in a whisper, looking up into his eyes. "How about we start over?"

Wufei nodded as Usagi stepped out of his hold.

She stuck out her hand, "my name's Tsukino Usagi, nice to meet you."

"Chang Wufei," he replied before taking her hand and giving it a little tug. Usagi walked towards him as he captured her lips in his.

When she pulled back, she smiled. "Ai shiteru, Wufei."

~~

Author's note: Are all you happy readers out there... well, happy? ;) I thought you would be. Hope you liked this sequel, it took awhile to write because I kept getting stuck! Hate when that happens.

For the reviewers: Thank you all so very much! Without you guys I wouldn't have been able to do this sequel as quickly as I did! I cannot believe the feedback I got for it on its very first day! I was so happy I couldn't stop smiling! Thank you very, very much!