Disclaimer: No, none of the characters in Gundam Wing are mine.
Blah blah blah. I do not plan to make money off of this. I
don't have any money. Non GW characters and concepts ARE mine, though,
and protected by copyright law. This is suspense/action/mystery
which means you need to pay attention to details if you want to be able
to figure out what's going on. It was my first attempt at a multi
part, moves a little quick and it's not a romance, though there is some
1xR content.
by Zapenstap
"Do you like this dress on me, Cor?" Felicia asked insinously, twisting so he could get a good look at the light material, trimly cut and falling at mid-shin in the current fashion. Her eyes were like dark almonds, gazing at him alluringly from beneath long lashes like feathers.
Coran peered at her over the rim of his styrofoam coffee cup and raised his eyebrows. "Red's always been your color, but you know I'm not the one you should ask."
"But you're the only person I know here," she complained, stamping her foot. "You gotta tell me something."
"Well, in that case," he said at last. "I'll say it looks the same as the last dress you had." He lowered the cup as her angular eyes widened in incredulous fury. "What?" he said. "Don't look at me like that. What am I supposed to say?"
"If you were my boyfriend instead of my friend, I'd kill you," she barked tersely.
Cor grinned, though it might have made him nervous. "All right. Which way do you want to walk?"
They were standing in the middle of a wood, two minutes from the main road and roughly fifteen from the Cinq Kingdom's capitol New Port City. All was still in the morning hours.
Felicia spun in a tight circle with her eyes closed, stopped suddenly, and pointed west. "Thatta way."
They walked to the West.
"I forget what we're looking for," Felicia said with a sigh, stopping.
"A nice open space."
"Ah. And what are we supposed to do when we find one?"
"Nothing yet. We appear to be merely standby characters that offer unaffiliated commentary to a very confused audience currently wondering who we are and what the plot of the overall story could possibly be."
"Unaffiliated? I don't like the idea that my life doesn't have a very direct purpose, Cor. Tell me there's some larger plan!"
"You know there is or Mandred wouldn't have called on us."
Felicia sighed. "Why does everything always have to go wrong and I'm left to clean up the mess?"
Coran shrugged. "Somebody has to deal with the inconvenient people."
Felicia sighed. "It's just as well, I suppose." She glanced at him sideways, her eyes full of mysterious mischief. "It's probably time to meet the locals anyway," she purred, and then her eyes brightened suddenly. "Hey! I think I see something."
Coran looked where she was pointing and stopped dead. "Wow."
*****
Quatre flung a brown cloak around his shoulders and ran out into city square. The attendants in the foyer of his estates exchanged fond glances and let him go, shuffling clipboards of the day's work between them. Quatre smiled to himself. He had good people working for him, remnants of his father's legacy, but he would never embarrass them by saying so.
He crossed the main plaza to where a limo waited to take him to the airport and in minutes he was sitting in a plane, making way for Cinq, where reconstruction efforts from the war were nearly completed. Today at four, a war memorial to the soldiers who lost their lives would be erected and celebrated in the legendary land where the fight for true peace had begun. Relena Darilan was scheduled to cut the ribbon.
Quatre knew all the other Gundam Pilots would convene there. He had sent them all invitations to join him for an after-party celebration, but only Duo had replied with a definite positive. Trowa had sent a notice that his circus performance group was currently touring in Europe and he would make the scene if at all possible. Neither Wufei nor Heero had responded; Quatre wasn't even sure if they had received the message, as Heero was incredibly difficult to track down and Wufei was always busy. He hoped they would make it.
"Mr. Winner?" a female voice called out. Quatre turned to see a woman a year or so his senior with short red hair and freckles stumbling toward him. "Hi. I'm Angela Moise, Coordinator of Cross Continental Affairs. I work for Miss Darilan."
"Hello, Angela," Quatre said politely. She was cute! "Are you accompanying me?"
"It is a courtesy," she laughed, blushing. "Miss Relena greatly anticipates a gathering of all five Gundam pilots in these peaceful times. I was only happy to assist." She lowered her head.
"Well, thank you, Miss Angela," he said sincerely. A lot of people felt nervous around him, both for his inheritance and for being an ex-gundam pilot. "Did you serve during the war?" he inquired.
She nodded soberly. "I was a lieutenant for OZ actually, under Colonel Treize. I... I know that sounds bad, but..." she bit her lip. "I am just as happy now to serve Miss Relena now."
Quatre nodded. He still met many people who admired the bravery and honor of the late Colonel Treize, including Lady Une and Dorothy Catelonia. Quatre himself didn't really know enough about Treiz to really say much about him. He remembered the treachery at the New Edwards Base, but he had also heard so many good things about the man, that it was hard to believe the Treize who fought to save the earth was the same Treize who had arranged the deaths of the Earth's pacifists. People could change, he supposed. The man had certainly been brilliant. He had had the world in the palm of his hand, manipulated everything, and his war with Zechs in space had destroyed so many weapons, paving the way for peace, though things went awry in the end. He wondered how Wufei was dealing now, but with Wufei, it was sometimes better not to ask.
"Well, it's good to have you aboard, Miss Angela," he said with a smile.
*****
Heero dropped from the ceiling and landed lightly on the carpeted floor, the soft thud of shoes making very little noise. Rising from a crouch, he slipped between the furniture in the darkened room and slid into the chair before a wide computer screen.
He had stolen into the estates of an old member of the Romafeller Foundation, David Strongarm, avoiding both guards and servants with relative ease. The activities of Strongarm made him suspicious after catching news of the shipping of a large amount of gundamian alloy to his warehouses. That news had been a tip from Wufei, Sally, Zechs and Noin, so he knew it was reliable. It made him suspicious because he knew Mr. Strongman to be in league with one of the other scientists who had made the Tallgeese with Howard years ago, and also that he had retrieved blueprints of the Wing Zero from somewhere. A conversation with Howard over the internet had confirmed his suspicions. Someone was planning an assassination to prove that total pacifism was impossible, that defense weapons were needed, that another war was inevitable.
Hacking into Mr. Strongman's system was little effort, and what he found was what he expected to see, and it made his hands clench into fists, his palms sweat. It was a message.
Miss Red Viper,
I sincerely apologize. I will not be able to meet you at 4:00 as previously planned. Some uninvited guests have dropped in and I must attend to them. Please take care of my girl. She's very naive and I can't dissuade her from foolishness so I'm counting on you. I trust I have nothing to worry about as your references were good. I assume you have already received the gift I sent you. I hope you like it.
Heero sat back in the chair and tried to control his breathing. He could only summon one response: Not again.
"Relena," Heero said roughly, hearing his own heart pumping in his ears. "You are the bane of my existence."
He hated this. She was like a dark shadow in his thoughts, always there, never straying. Sometimes he thought he could feel her shadowy hands on his head, commanding him to sit and stay and be kind. The touch was nice, but the feelings that accompanied were not. They were scary. Always kindness she wanted from him, kindness and protection and understanding and so many things she had no right to ask. He had dreams of her all the time, rich dreams that seemed so real until he woke. In his dreams he gave her everything she wanted, everything she thought she saw in him. He could smile at her and not feel strange. They would sit on the grass and watch the sky and he would feel nothing but kindness, or walk in fields of flowers and see nothing but butterflies, but that was not who he really was. And when he woke, there were always shadows. They had been steadily creeping up on him since he left Cinq after Mariemaia. He hadn't slept for than three hours at a time since.
When he saw her now, in the flesh, she was always staring at him with such concern on her face, watching him with gentle eyes, speaking in soft tones. And when he was rude she would merely tighten her mouth and clench her hands and hold back whatever retorts flickered in eyes like blue steel. They were intense eyes, too hot and too cold for him to bear, and far too pretty. She needed to leave him alone and just let him protect her. Everyone just needed to leave him alone.
He blinked. The message. She really was far too distracting. And now she was in danger, terrible danger. He could not get away if he kept having to save her lif, but there had to be peace.
A few things were clear.
1. David Strongman was making a gundam.
2. The gundam would be piloted by whoever had written this message...Red
Viper.
3. Red Viper would attempt to assassinate Relena at the ceremony of
the war memorial late this afternoon.
4. Red Viper had received something in return for the service,
probably the gundam, or another one.
He did not know if the Gundam was intended to be the weapon with which to assassinate Relena, a gift for the assassin in exchange for the service, or both. He also didn't know the identity of the Red Viper yet, but it was a woman. Strongman had said he needed to take care of a few "uninvited guests." He knew they were coming. Heero smiled smugly. They could never be prepared enough. "I'm on to you, Red Viper," Heero said. He would find out.
Something caught his attention.
He heard nothing, but long hours of conditioning warned him of a presence creeping behind the door to the room. It was good to know that the tenseness that weighed upon every moment, that thinly stretched anxiety and perpertual fear of attack that drove him almost to distraction, was at least good for its purpose and not just paranoia. Before the to door completely opened, Heero twisted to his feet, whipping a gun from his belt and aiming straight for the head of the attacker, all without any fluctuation in his emotion or expression.
Duo Maxwell greeted him with a lopsided grin, both hands upraised. "Hey, buddy, easy now. It's tough enough just knowing you beat me here."
Heero snorted and lowered his gun, turning. "What are you doing here? I have it under control."
"Well you could have told me that before I travelled out here. You know I was planning on attending the ceremony today."
"I didn't know," he said tonelessly. "And I don't care. I have other things to do."
Duo laughed and clapped him on the shoulder. Heero narrowed his eyes and said nothing. It would do no good to tell Duo to keep out of his personal space.
"Oh, you're going, Heero," Duo said firmly. "You wouldn't miss seeing everybody, would you?" He looked at Heero and frowned. "Maybe you would at that. Come on, now, don't you want to see Relena cut the ribbon or Quatre in a suit? They'll both be there for sure."
"You go then. I've got to take care of this."
Duo sighed. "Yeah, I know. The assassination attempt. You'd think people would get tired of trying to kill Relena with you hovering around the way you do. I mean, they ought to know you have dibs on her life. But anyways, if you're going to do this assassination thing, you might as well join the party afterward."
There's a party going on right now. You might as well stay and enjoy it.
"No," Heero said curtly. "I'm just going to get to this new gundam before Red Viper does and kill her when she comes to claim it."
Duo sighed. "All right. I'll watch your back then, but after we bag this creep, I say we go to the celebration."
Heero didn't answer.
*****
"Well," Coran said dubiously. "This space is certainly large enough."
"Too bad there's an enormous gundam laying in the middle of it," Felicia said darkly.
"There's a truck too," Coran added.
"A very large truck," Felicia agreed.
They stood in an enormous clearing within a sheltered grove of trees. Green grass blanketed the ground like a lawn, racing up to the very trunks of the pine trees that enclosed it, crushed under their feet. Birds chirped and sang to one another from the tree branches, their wing and beaks glowing under the streams of sunlight that shone down through the trees, forming puddles of light on the grass below. The only thing that ruined the scene was the presence of an enormous carrier truck parked in the center of the clearing and the equally enormous mobile suit gundam that lay upon it.
"It really is perfect," Coran said thoughtfully, hands in the pockets of his brown jacket.
"We'll have to move it," Felicia said with a grin.
Coran nodded as if this made perfect practical sense. Sucking in his breath, he uttered the obvious question. "How?"
Felicia flitted out in front and trotted up to the truck on light feet. She inspected it for a moment, turned, and said firmly. "It has wheels."
"I see that. But where are we going to move it to?"
"Roadside works for me."
Coran nodded as if this, too, made perfect practical sense. "Are you always this determined?"
"You've known me for years. Don't you think so?"
"Well, no, I've always found you rather fickle."
Felicia opened her mouth and shut it without a sound.
Cor nodded as if this confirmed something. "It's a passing phase."
Felicia put her hands on her hips and spun about, looking up at the gigantic machine. "Well, I still say it needs to be moved."
"I agree. We need it perfectly placed for our plan to succeed."
"Fine. I'll drive the truck."
*****
"You'll want to look your absolute best, Miss Relena," Dorothy said from her perch on Relena's desk, her words dripping like honey as she kicked her feet. "After all, this is the celebration of all you've worked so very hard for."
Relena sighed and ran a brush through her hair. She did not work for celebrations. She worked for peace and had achieved it to the thanks of many besides herself. Everyone's fuss over her being the only one to maintain it was nonsense. "Thank you, Dorothy," she said anyway, and couldn't resist retorting, "I'm glad to see your insincerity as sharp as ever."
"Now, that's harsh, Miss Relena," Dorothy replied, completely unmoved. "You don't want everybody to think you're spiteful and short-tempered, do you? After all, you're the world's symbol of harmony."
Relena said nothing. Most times, Dorothy was not worth responding to. She had her good days when she was beyond helpful, but most of the time she was just a nuisance. A nuisance with powerful relations Relena could not affort to offend if she wanted to get anything done this year. Dorothy had recently put red streaks in her hair last year and made as show of displaying them all the time, as if she wanted Relena to take some sort of special notice. It might have been mockery because Relena was too much of figure to do anything like it, but it might also have been something else. The sad thing was that she thought she knew what, even if she couldn't prove it.
Standing, Relena decided to just let her own hair hang loose and took a quick look in the mirror to make sure that everything was in order for international television. Her dress was a simple, wide straps over the shoulders, a modest swoop neck and a loose skirt that end just above the knees. She shrugged into a professional cut jacket cut short and fit to her ribcage for a final effect. This ceremony was supposed to be fun, a finalization of a coming carefree existence.
Stooping, she swung her purse over her shoulder and exited the room. As expected, Dorothy followed her, swerving to her side, hands clasped behind her back. They walked in silence down the hall.
It was a great relief to see Lucrezia Noin and Sally Po waiting in the foyer. There were some other officials standing about too, waiting to escort her to the ceremony. She noted the soothing presence of Marquis Weyridge happily, but not that of David Strongman. His cold confidence remined her of Duke Durmail, and it was not a pleasant reminder.
"Are you ready, Relena?" Noin asked.
"Ready for what?" Relena responded. "It's just a ribbon." But she smiled to appease them. The event would have been enjoyable if not for an entire morning spent harassed by Dorothy. "We had best be going. I'm sure they're waiting for us."
"Yes, Miss Relena. No need to disappoint your fans," Dorothy commented in those oh-so-pleasant tones of hers.
"Shut up, Dorothy," Sally said bluntly. "I think Relena could do without this today."
Dorothy's snake-like eyes grew very wide with innocence. "Why, whatever do you mean, Sally? I only speak the absolute truth to Miss Relena. I absolutely adore everything she does!"
It really was easier just to ignore her.
"Shall we go, Relena?" Noin said with a small smile.
Relena returned the smile and nodded. As they walked, she noted Dorothy out of the corner of her eye, falling to the back of the line to speak to David Strongman. She pursed her lips, but said nothing. Keep your friends close and your enemies closer, and especially those you weren't sure of. It was not a very safe policy perhaps, but easier to track friends and enemies alike. But Miss Catelonia was a peculiar case. Dorothy thought she had power over Relena, was insanely infatuated with mocking her, and yet was sometimes exceedingly helpful, and for those reasons, as shaky as they were, Relena felt she could trust Dorothy with her life. Perhaps it was more of a gun instinct.
Nobody knew she was aware of a possible assassination attempt on her life today, and she wasn't going to say anything.
*****
There are four parts (yes, it's short) and not the most complicated
or engaging plotline, but this fic and another are preludes to the Mandred
Chronicles. As for this fic; main mystery: Who's Red Viper?
Will Heero be able to stop her? Is Relena being stupid or does she
have a plan? What will happen to Quatre and Angela? what are
Felicia and Coran up to?