Chapter 1: The Mysterious Girl

Ring

"Ugg, stupid phone," Heero groaned rolling over in bed.

Ring

He glanced at the clock. Half past noon. Who calls at half past noon?

Ring

Don't People ever sleep?

Ring

Heero pulled the blanket over his head. Let the answering machine get it. He thought.

Ring

"You have reached me," he heard his voice say. "If you don't know who 'me' is then you shouldn't be calling. Anyways if it's important leave a message after the beep, if not stop calling."

BEEP

"Hey Heero, or 'me'," There was a pause for laughter. "This is Relena, and I was just calling to see if you wanted to hang out for awhile this afternoon. So meet me in the food court in the mall at 2. Feel free to bring a friend or two. If you're not going to make it, be sure to call me. Bye!"

Heero rolled over again. he saw no real reason for not meeting Relena. The mall was cool. Hey, he might even invite Duo along.

School was starting next week, and everyone wanted to get out and enjoy the last of Summer. Everyone, except Heero that is. Life wasn't the same for him anymore, and even though he felt like he should be up and moving, the laziness just seemed to bare down on him more of' than not.

Heero just wanted to sleep. But hey, 2 o'clock was still an hour and a half away. So with that he rolled over one final time and closed his eyes.

Quatre glanced at the screen far above the street. It held an advertisment for Peacecraft College. The college was elite, very hard to get in.

Of course Quatre, Heero, and Duo would be attending. It all comes from knowing the founder. Relena Peacecraft, or Relena Darlin as she still insisted upon referring to herself, was actually the reason Quatre was up this early. She had insisted that he and Duo meet her at the food court. She wanted to have some sort of Birthday party/gathering (to hang out) for Heero and wanted everyone to show up.

It was stupid really. Today wasn't Heero's birthday, nor was any day soon. At least not that anyone knew. That would be touching on the past. Every time anyone, including Relena, would bring up Heero's past, he would clam up and then proceed to go off wandering for days. Eventually everyone gave up. There may be no more wars but some poeple still wanted to keep secrets.

Oh well, Quatre thought to himself. That's no excuse for why we can't party.

Just after 2 Heero climbed out of his car and began to walk toward the food court. Duo hadn't answered his phone earlier, which was unusual, but not un-heard of.

As Heero steped inside, he found himself a little shoked. Duo, Quatre, and Relena were all sitting at one table off in the corner together. Relena jumped up to greet him.

"Glad you got the message. I figured that you were just sleeping."

It was scary what she knew. "You're wrong. I was out jogging and missed the call."

"Ok," she smiled, not quit accepting the story. "Anyways, Happy Birthday!"

Heero walked over to the table with her and sat down. "You know it's not my birthday."

"No I don't," Relena smiled. "You won't tell me so I decided to just take a guess and hope I was right."

"Well you're wrong."

"Says who? You can't be trusted. You lie!"

"I do not."

"Of course you do. Like when you told me that you would kill me the second time we meet." She stopped to throw Heero a glance.

"She's got you there," Duo mumbled while Quatre laughed.

"Who said I was lying?" Heero asked. "I just haven't found the best moment yet." Everyone laughed, although it was a nervous laugh, because with Heero you just never knew.

"Excuse me miss?" a female voice asked from behind Heero and Relena.

Heero turned around a saw a face that brought back bittersweet memories. Black hair and ice blue eyes, he shuddered. He had never expected to see that face again, although he sometimes hoped. Apparently though, everyone was not as stunned as he was, so she continued.

"You might want to watch out for Mr. Yuy here. His past is darkened with dirty little secrets," and with that she walked away leaving everyone speechless.

After a moment, however, the conversation continued as Relena went off as to how rude some people could be.

It was only Duo who noticed how pale Heero had gone.

In the years following the war life had changed drastically for the former gundam pilots. They had once been trained to fight, and fight well, however with no fighting of any kind going on they were forced to re-adjust to life, as civilians.

Chang Wufei had an easy time of this. He accepted an offer to join the preventors, and now worked alongside Noin and Poe. Wufei had adjusted his definition of justice several times, but finally had his feet firmly on the ground as to how to handle it.

Trowa Barton, as he still refered to himself, returned to the traveling circus. He spent a lot of time in space, as it appears that the colonies have more demand for a circus than the Earth. Trowa had settled the matters behind his past. He had decided that he would probably never know, and began to look towards his future, the life that lay ahead.

Duo Maxwell had wandered the colonies for awhile, before finally settling back on earth (something about liking clouds...). Nothing ever developed between Hildi and him, because of some guy named Max. They still to this day remain close friends however, and he always visits her when he's up in the colonies. Duo had also accepted Relena's offer to enroll in college and, college life was treating him well. Parties rule!

Quatre Raberba Winner still kept in touch with his sisters (all 29 of them!)! Quatre had briefly returned to the Winner estates, but had immediately accepted Relena's offer to attend the newly founded Peacecraft College. So he left his sisters in charge and moved out. He had wanted to leave anyways. Lately, he noticed, he could never seem to stay in one place.

Heero Yuy had never quit adjusted to his new life. He attended Peacecraft College, but only because he had nothing better to do. The classes hardly kept his attention, and he would aimlessly wander around town some nights with no objective, only to show up for class again the next morning. Relena, especially, had begun to worry about Heero when he said that he would rather stay home and sleep rather than go see a boxing match with her.

Recent events had made Relena begin to worry even more. This strange girl, and her comment, hadn't worried Relena until she had gotten up this morning. Something about that girl just didn't seem right. That girl had appeared and disappeared almost instantly. So fast that you hardly noticed, until you thought about it. Thinking about it now she realized she'd only ever seen 3 people move that fast; Heero, Duo, and Wufei. There may be of no connection, but it was still unnerving.

The doorbell rang. Relena snapped out of her thoughts and back into her office. The doorbell rang again. Give me a minute! Relena thought. She got up, walked across the house, and answered the door, but not before the doorbell had rung one more time.

Relena let out a huge gasp when she opened the door. The mystery girl was standing in front of her. Seeing her again brought something up from deep within Relena. It was a feeling of familiarity, mostly from her movements. It was as if she had seen this girl before, and not just yesterday.

The girl stood there with her black hair pulled back in a ponytail looking like she was ready for a fight. You didn't need the battle fatigue's and combat boots to tell you that. Her clothes looked worn, as if she had been using them for a long time.

"Well," the girl said, "are you going to invite me in or just stand there staring?"

Relena stepped out of the way. Her gut told her not to, but her head was screaming that it had to know. "Who are you?" escaped from her lips before she could stop herself.

"Me?" the girl asked pacing through the living room. "My name is Jade. Jade Meka. If you really wanted to know you just had to ask."

Jade! So the mystery girl did have a name. "So why are you here?" Relena asked swallowing a lump in her throat.

"Leverage. Plain and simple. Heero doesn't want to talk to me and I need to talk to him."

"So how am I leverage?"

"Simple, you're going to call the idiot and let him know that you've just been taken hostage. He has 2 hours to get here."

"Hostage?"

"Yes! Si! Ja!, Hai!"

Relena felt herself begin to freak out.

"Well you better get moving," Jade reminded her, "only an hour 59 left."

A tear ran down Relena's face as she dialed up Heero's number. His face appeared on the screen. "What's wrong?"

"Heero," Relena began, Jade smiling just out of sight of the camera/screen, "I need help."