Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing or Anything else copyrighted in this story. I write this purely for entertainment and receive no profit.
Note: words in italics are meant for emphasis while a phrase between '' is a person whispering italics and '' are thoughts
Thank you Ley, Ninjor, lil' Dreamer, Dana, Cruel Destiny, majin_b, Relena Maxwell, Kmf, Josh, Radical Edward, Meio-chan, Silver Wing, Wildfire's Flame, Jupiter's Light and last but NEVER EVER least Dark Deity. Thank you all for your criticism and suggestions.
Chapter 14- Crystalline
By Aku Tenshi
Lucretzia's shoulder's sagged and she looked down at the floor, in her eyes tears shone but dared not fall. She raised a pale hand and touched one of the sketches; she sighed mournfully. Her chamber door opened, but she didn't look, up she didn't want to.
"Don't be sad Lucretzia." A voice holding false sympathy drifted to her.
Now her eyes burned with hate and she snapped her head up. "You." She breathed angrily.
"What so I no longer have a name?" A feminine voice asked cheerfully.
"Yeah you've got a name but it sure as hell ain't Relena." Lucretzia alleged.
"Oh harsh, I'm hurt really I am," Relena said with a roll of her eyes, she stepped closer to the bed. "Do you know why you shouldn't be sad Lucretzia?" Relena asked playfully.
Lucretzia didn't respond in fact she turned her head away from Relena and crossed her arms. Relena only smirked at this.
"You shouldn't be sad because I'm not going to kill you…yet. And I'm not going to be as mean to make you watch the execution of your husband and his friends." Relena told the woman the smirk still playing on her features.
"No." Lucretzia refused, it was barely above a whisper.
Relena turned with a fluttering of skirts and left Lucretzia alone, her crystalline tears tailing down her face.
Sally let out a yelp as a bullet penetrated the flesh over her abdomen, Hilde momentarily stopped shooting to make sure her friend was okay but Sally took her position once again her gun pointed at the shooters. Sweat rested atop her brow as she gritted her teeth and squeezed the trigger again and again. They had only one shooter left, but one was enough to kill, and this one was better than the others this one was like he had been bred for war. He managed to shoot Hilde in her upper left arm and in her right hand, her shooting hand. The gun flew from her hand and clattered to the floor, Sally watched as her pregnant friend crouched down she looked to Sally her eyes wide, afraid and helpless. Sally knew that if they didn't get out of here fast enough than that'd be the end of her; the gunshot wound in her abdomen was bleeding heavily and she knew he'd gotten an organ already her vision was becoming blurry. She was able to get off another clip before she fell to the ground unconscious, Hilde crawled to her friend and used her left arm, and she could hear him approaching. The gun was in her hand just as he pointed his own down at her. In the distance one shot was heard, followed by silence.
Marimaea crept and crawled all over the castle, she had been stopped by no one but she still held her breath. So far all she had heard of was this Okami, and so she assumed that was Relena. She was afraid of asking anyone if they knew where the Okami was, she was afraid that they'd know she didn't belong here, and so she searched the rooms secretly and quietly barely making any sound at all. Vengeance fueled her but her hate blinded her, she couldn't tell that someone was following her, almost snakelike in a way.
"Augh, Dammit!" Heero shouted and pounded his fist on the cement, it felt like thousands of needles had pricked his skin, but he didn't mind at the moment his rage was blinding his pain.
"I still can't believe that, Relena…" Quatre said and trailed off.
"Well believe it Quatre, remove the fucking rose glasses from your eyes and believe it!" Duo shouted, he had now lost all composure and his jovial façade had been long since thrown aside.
Quatre ignored his friends' shout he knew at the moment Duo was between hysterical and insanity and he didn't want him to topple over that very fine line. "How do you suppose that we get out of this?" he asked.
"Well, these locks are no problem. It's just the door and the guards behind it, if we could get pass them than we have maybe a few minutes." Heero deducted.
"A few minutes ain't shit Heero and you know it, not even you could pull that off." Duo mumbled his logical side kicking in and his rage subsiding for the moment.
"No, not after all the rumble and tumble I've been through the past few days but maybe…" Heero trailed off.
"Maybe what?" Milliardo inquired his voice soft, it had seemed as if he was going through the same thing, as Duo except he seemed weaker, fragile even.
"Maybe we could get Tasha to bring our weapons." Heero finished his brow furrowing.
"She cannot be trusted." Wufei argued, it seemed as though he had not gone through any type of alteration of emotional status.
"What else can we do?" Heero asked.
Wufei remained silent and looked to the door, "Shadow games?" he suggested.
"But where would the missing person hide and how would we get back out if the guard knows we can get lose and then we get caught?" Heero argued, it was like they were in a tennis match, volleying ideas to one another.
"There's the problem." Wufei muttered a low 'hmm' sound as his lips pursed into a frown.
"There's nothing else, none of us have any type of equipment." Heero stated.
"not necessarily." Came Duo's calm reply, so calm in fact that it frightened them. He picked out of his manacles and released his arms, his right hand raised to the band that held his hair in that infamous long chestnut braid. He pulled the band and this hair unweave itself pooling to the floor, along with the falling of his hair many other things fell to the floor, things including a small pistol, a lock picking kit and a pad of matches. "Hilde always said I had thick hair." He murmured softly and grimaced as he thought of what may have happened to his wife, as if the thought brought him pain, too much pain.
The pilot's eyes brightened as they glanced at the objects, plans formulating in their minds, plans of escaping and vengeance.
Relena stopped on her way back to her room to speak with a young girl, "Fetch Natasha for me I would like to speak with her." She asked her voice flat.
'This is just paranoia Relena, Tasha would never do such a thing to you. Not ever, Raphael must be lying of course.' These thoughts rumbled around in her head as she walked to her room, her heels tapping on the floor. Her attention was nowhere near where she was headed in fact she bumped into a younger girl, causing for her bonnet to slightly tumble and reveal a wisp of blood red hair. Unbeknownst to Relena the girl straightened her bonnet and followed her, clandestinely hiding in the shadows. Relena's heels continually tapped loudly on the floor too engrossed in her own thoughts to notice, that she was being followed by not one but two person's each following the other.
She reached the large double oak doors of her room and pulled the doors open, they closed shut with a whisper. She flowed into the room gracefully, as liquid did into a glass and discarded her cloak on the armchair. Her now severed hair lay forgotten on the ground the scissors lying on the dresser forgotten as well. 'Of course now that Teresa is gone…but how would she find out about what I did?' Relena asked herself, she sat in the armchair and pulled off her shoes. 'I mean how could anyone have found out about that?' She asked herself and stepped out onto the floor with her bare feet, she walked over to her desk in the process stepping on a few stray pieces of the broken mirror, yet she didn't notice. She left a faint red trail as she walked over to her desk, her mind mulling over so many details.
Marimaea had found her finally she knew where Relena was, her hand had reached the doorknob and she was about to open the door when she was tapped on the shoulder. She whirled around and looked up into brown eyes, blond hair swept gracefully over his left eye, that left eye narrowed. Marimaea was almost breath taken by his face, she had never seen a more beautiful man in her life yet; those eyes something in them frightened her. She swallowed thickly and found her voice under his penetrating glare.
"Yes?" she asked hoping to everything that she sounded convincing.
His eye narrowed for a moment as they looked over her dress, he nodded, "I thought you were someone different never mind." And with that he turned and disappeared.
'That was close, Mari…now is not the time,' she thought and turned to look at the door 'next time though Relena you're mine' she promised to herself and walked down the hallway one hand protectively in the apron pocket.
Tasha rummaged through her closet, she could have sworn she had another dress. From being in the kitchen she had spilled the batter all over the one she was wearing now, and she could have sworn she had an apron and bonnet missing. She sighed loudly and went to her dresser; she had a pair or two of civilian clothes, which she had planned on wearing on laundry day. Some which had been given to her by Teresa, tears came to her eyes as she looked over the clothes and she decided that she was going to wear what Teresa had deemed to look great on her. She pulled off her batter caked clothes and discarded them in a pile, there was a knock at her door and she was still in her underwear.
"Yes?" she called as she hopped on one foot trying to put on a pair of blue jeans.
"Okami would like to see you Tasha." A girl called through the door.
Tasha almost laughed, if Relena would make her come at this moment when she was barely wearing any clothing at all, she'd freak. "I'll be there in a moment, I spilled batter all over me in kitchen duty so I must change." She responded.
She heard a short snort from the girl and her heels tap angrily away. Tasha merely rolled her eyes and finished pulling on the boot-cut blue jeans, she zipped them up and clasped the button and then looked for a shirt to wear. Seeing as it was neither mild nor cold outside nor inside the castle she pulled on a short sleeved black shirt with the words 'Ominous' printed across the chest. She sat on her bed and was about to pull on her boots but noticed that they were becoming a bit worn, and so she opted for the sneakers that were sitting in her closet, never pulled out of the box. She dragged them over and slid her feet into them the cotton sidings a nice comfort compared to the thin and tight sidings of her boots. She laced them up and looked in the mirror, almost shocked at what she saw, she looked like those girls she had seen in a fashion magazine once. Timidly she reached up to the clips that restrained her hair and pulled them loose, her bronze hair tumbled down to her knees and she looked at her reflection in shock. 'is that…me?' she asked herself in disbelief and then shook her head. 'no time to worry about this now, I've got to go talk to Relena' she told herself and with a twirl of her knee length bronze hair she left the room.
She walked down the hallway receiving odd glances from every direction and slightly became uncomfortable, her pace quickened and she finally reached Relena's room with no hesitation she turned the knob and pushed her way into the room. The door closed shut with a whisper and Relena turned to her from her position at the desk and looked at Tasha with a hint of surprise in her large blue orbs.
"Tasha?" Relena questioned as if she didn't know the woman that stood before her.
"Yes Relena, you wanted to see me." Tasha greeted with a nod of her head.
"That's the first time you've worn those types of clothes," She murmured and then looked towards the window. "Tasha I called you here today to ask you something, I wanted to ask you…" she trailed off and frowned. It seemed so stupid to be asking her this she was about to finish her sentence when Tasha gasped.
"Relena, you're bleeding," she said forcing sympathy into her words, "I'll go get the first aid kit and be right back." Tasha turned and went into the bathroom. Relena heard cabinets open and close and water running.
Tasha came back moments later a damp washcloth in her hand and the blue and white box of the first aid kit in her hand. Her eyes momentarily rested on the broken mirror and severed pieces of hair but she said nothing. She laid the box next to Relena, Relena could see the vivid red cross that lay on the white top of the kit, and lifted the lid; slowly she pulled out tweezers, alcohol, cotton balls and Band-Aids. She kneeled and wiped the blood from Relena's feet with the cloth and began removing the shards of glass, placing each piece she removed in the astray near by.
"Thank you Tasha." Relena murmured she was so tired.
"What did you want to ask me?" Tasha asked,
"I wanted to know about the times you spend down there with Heero, is…is it that you love him?" Relena asked timidly her eyes large and vulnerable.
'yes I love him Relena more than you can ever know, more than you will ever know and I'd stab these tweezers in your eye if it weren't for him. Too bad he doesn't love me.' Her mind shouted loudly but Tasha only smiled up at Relena.
"He tells me stories Relena, that's all." Tasha explained, it wasn't a lie but neither was it the whole truth.
"So I was right, you'd never betray me Tasha." Relena said with a smile.
Tasha looked back down to Relena's feet where the last and particularly large shard of glass protruded, she decided to make this especially hard for Relena she twisted and yanked until the piece of glass came free. Tasha released the pressure of the tweezers and the glass clattered into the crystal astray.
TBC
Not really one of my lovely cliffhanger endings, but I decided to give you guys a break. ^_^ Well now, I'm off to the next chapter to find out what happens to Hilde and Sally, I hope it's nothing…bad. Criticism, praise, shouting kicking and screaming accepted but flames will either be ignored…or…ignored. ^_^