stumble-2
Lookie! New chapter!! *points downwards* See? See? Isn't special? (Why am I so hyper? This doesn't make sense! I should be in a bad mood, and stuff!!) Well, ANYWAY, I just wanted to warn you that this chapter is the one with the messed up dream. (Baaad Quatre. *tsk* Such a naughty boy. He tires to hide it, but I can tell. ^_~) Actually, because I was struggling with writing it up, this version is actually milder than the original...
Also, I thought I should clear up the Setsuna reference. See, Setsuna keeps the back of her hair in odango, and that's what Usagi saw...so Setsuna's hair would look kind of like Usagi's. See? Make more sense? Now, on to answering questions. (See? People should review more, because I answer when they do. *pokes her readers* Ne?)
Golden Goddess: Well the pairings are.....WIERD! Sorry, but with the exception of one (well...two, kinda) the couples aren't really standard, and I'm trying to keep an element of surprise.
Samantha: Right now! See? *points down to Quatre*
siren: Minako-chan is fighting what she's always been fighting...the Dark Kingdom. Now, if for some reason OZ and the Dark Kingdom were working together, she'd be fighting them too... (huh, that's like the biggest hint I've given, isn't it?) And the senshi and test subjects? Hmm..well....*begins to giggle a little evilly* Sore wa himitsu desu!
Nanatsusaya: Mou...Minako-chan was in the last chapter wasn't she? (And Ami-chan will be in 2b...) I'm working on pacing! But don't worry, they'll ALL show up eventually. As for the Sara Mclaughlan thing...*laughs* You're right! You get a gold star! *throws Yaten's transformation head set to Kei-chan*
Yaten: HEY!!
^_^; Anyway, I was originally going to title this 'Fumbling Towards Ecstasy' but then I thought..well, let's try not to blatantly plagiarize from too many people. And 'Stumbling' sounds better for all that will happen, and 'Destiny' fit just as well. Soo...a title was born! (Good thing too, because I was having so much trouble titling this thing! >_) But 'Fumbling Towards Ecstasy' would be a good title for a lemon side story....But none of that yet! Story! Read now!!

(P.S. Dorothy kicks ass.)

"Intuition tells me how to live my day
Intuition tells me when to walk away
Could have turned left
Could have turned right
But I ended up here
Bang in the middle of real life "
-Natalie Imbruglia, Intuition

Stumbling Towards Destiny
Chapter Two-A

As Quatre glanced about, he came to realize that there was something strange about his surroundings. It was all gray. Everything, like a thick, dense, fog that swallowed anything that walked into it. Maybe that was what it really was. But the absence of cold. The absence of moisture. It was like he was walking through nothing. A void. Maybe...he was alone...
'But...I;m dreaming, aren't I?'
And he was, for Quatre could feel himself moving throughout the gray, but without control of his actions of his destination. He found moving to be impossible, and even as the fog dissipated , and sunlight began to pierce through, Quatre could feel a haze surrounding his vision which made it hard to focus. And now, he was in a vast field, that seemed to stretch on forever. Green and blue met at the horizon, a cloudless sky blankented the fields below. It was simply perfect.
Almost perfect.
Even with the more pleasant surroundings, it was still exactly like the gray. There was...nothing. Now winds blew the tall grass out of place, not a blade moving or twisting a bit. No birds called to each other, and filled the air with their song. It was as if he was standing in a snapshot, a moment forever frozen in time. There was only a faint, steady rhythm continuing in the back of his mind. So unobtrusive was the sound, that he managed to push it away all together. Quatre could feel himself floating now, high above the field, the vast expanses of light green stretching out below him.
And something moved.
Curious, Quatre willed himself towards the movement. It happened without effort, and he wondered vaguely if it had not been the intention of the dream all along. He concluded that it had, but the sight of what he found shocked him so deeply, that he questioned if his conclusion was accurate.
Lying in the field was Hiiro, and he was....with....a girl, no, a woman. Her eyes were closed, and he could not see their color, and she smiled as if she held a well kept secret. Her otherwise pale skin was colored with a rosy blush probably from her...activities...with Hiiro. Her long, silken gold hair was undone and fanned out below her in the grass. Her hands stroked over Hiiro's exposed flesh, ran through his hair, intertwined with his fingers...
Hiiro, kissed the blonde gently and let his head fall into the crook of her shoulder. They simply stayed that way, as their breathing slowed. Quatre was almost trapped in a permanent blush, from spying on such a private moment. Frustrated, Quatre found he still couldn't turn away. But now...something odd was happening. The sky was darkening. Winds were beginning to chase through the field.
Time jumped. Hiiro was gone.
Now the woman was left in the felt alone, eyes gazing out at the sky but seeing nothing. The passage of time was tangible, and the the blonde's body grew, her stomach swelling with life. The rhythm in the back of his head grew louder, and Quatre had trouble ignoring it. It was speeding up as well, and the sound was so familiar that he had a hard time concentrating on all the events unfolding around him.
Time jumped. The woman was giving birth. Faceless shadows swarmed around her, attending to her as she screamed without sound. For a moment, it seemed like the dream was simulating a broken record for a moment, as the scene skipped from moment to moment. Until everything melted away from the woman, and all was dark but her and the bundle she held in her arms.
The world.
'She is...the mother of Earth?'
The rhythm in the back of his head grew louder, until he could no longer ignore it. The world the woman cradled in her arms pulsed along, until Quatre finally recognized the sound for what it was. The beating of his heart. The heartbeat of the world. It was everything. Slow and steady, growing louder in his ears. The woman smiled sadly, as the planet slipped from her grasp and suddenly everything changed.
Caught by invisible string, the woman was lifted to her feet, into the air, struggling as the wire cut into her flesh. It pulled and tugged, as she was forced with her arms spread and her feet bound together. His heart beat faster, like an oncoming train, it was all consuming as he watched the scene unfold before him. Now bound crucified, the girl look at him with deep blue eyes.
'Find her.' the command echoed around him, deep into his soul.
And she smiled.
And the strings pulled tighter, ripping her body to pieces, falling in a rain of blood and limbs.
And his heartbeat stopped.

"Ah!" Quatre bolted upright in bed, breathing heavily. That dream had disturbed him greatly, and something told him it was more than just that. There was something important about it, like a premonition.

"Maybe I should call Hiiro..." Hiiro had been the only person he recognized in the dream. Maybe he'd met that blonde girl somewhere, and they could go about finding her. And he was pretty sure that was what he should do. It was the only thing spoken in the entire episode, after all. But...it was one o'clock in the morning. Quatre couldn't quite figure out the time distance to Hiiro's location on Earth, but he was sure the stoic boy wouldn't appreciate it. And he had a conference tomorrow with some fellow executives about acquiring another company on L4. Tomorrow would be better. He'd just call Hiiro tomorrow...

^>^>^>^>^>^>^>^>^>^>^>^>^>^>^>^>

"...yes." Quatre was having trouble keeping his eyes open. Luckily, Dorothy had planned to do most of the talking during this merger. She was always good at getting what she wanted. But it was almost done with, and then he could go home, call Hiiro and take a nice long nap...

"But now that the war is just ending, doesn't it seem that the sudden merging of Catalonia and Winner industries, followed by the number of corporate acquisitions would remind people too much of the tactics of the Romefeller Foundation?" one executive asked.

"I assure you, we have no such intentions." Quatre replied, quick to defend the recent business decisions of he and his partner. "We only wish to assure the survival of you're company and other companies in the current universal market. Which is why we should..."

Quatre paused. He frowned, and rubbed his arm. Trying to decrease the sudden tension that was building up there. Something was definitely wrong.

"We should..."

He couldn't concentrate. His head was spinning, and it felt like he was burning up. His skin was getting hot, and his vision blurred. All around him, concerned faces spun, and one of the executives closer to him got up quickly from his seat. Quatre silently cursed himself for getting sick now, of all times. This conference was important. Not just to his company, but now more than ever they needed to calm the worries of the people and prove that the war truly was over.

"Mr. Winner?" he heard Dorothy from the other side of the table. She sounded so far away, though. Like she was talking from the other side of a tunnel. Everything felt thick, like treading through water. Suddenly, there was a sharp pain in his head, and another stabbing at his chest. The pain was almost unbearable and he stumbled to the floor. Vaguely, he was aware that people were crowding around him, that Dorothy had moved close to his side, cradling his head in her lap. Again, from somewhere far away he heard a voice he didn't recognize shouting.

"Oh, god. Somebody call an ambulance dammit! Hurry!"

He could still hear them. But he didn't care. He couldn't understand why they needed to shout, why they needed to be so loud. The pain had stopped now, and his mind wandered. Dorothy was warm...it was funny to think of, but she was. Warm and soft, and her hair felt silky as it brushed against his skin. Quatre couldn't understand why he had never noticed it before. Everything was getting farther and farther away, and suddenly it all made sense. He finally felt free. As a sweet sense of darkness covered him, the last words he would ever hear pierced into the remains of his consciousness.

"Find Her."

And then it was perfect.

^>^>^>^>^>^>^>^>^>^>^>^>^>^>^>^>

"In other news, the five young men recently credited to putting an end to the Eve Wars died today. Reports say they simultaneously suffered from massive heart failure. It has been assumed they have been assassinated, from someone with a vendetta from the war, and experts are currently looking for clues regarding the case. A memorial for the pilots will be held at-"

Dorothy Catalonia turned off the vidscreen and closed her eyes. She knew what had happened, and would bet her fortune that they'd never catch the man who'd done this to the pilots. Not the right one anyway. She sank back into the pillows of her bed, reflecting on the situation as it was now. Dorothy had shut herself into her bedroom the moment she'd come back from the hospital, and warned all around her that she not be disturbed. And of course, all around her knew that it was dangerous to disobey Dorothy Catalonia. She supposed though, that in part they thought she was mourning.

'But why cry for someone who isn't dead?'

Because she knew they weren't. They had been like her, trapped in this worthless game. And she had to admit, she'd enjoyed the company, and their willingness to participate in her little war. No, that wasn't quite true. It had been HIS little way. But still, she had gotten bored and he had provided her entertainment. And no one was really getting hurt anyway. She reached up to rub her eyes, but pulled her hand away quickly. Tears. She was...crying? But she hadn't cried since...she didn't want to remember the last time she cried.

"Why?!" she demanded angrily.

Seething, she grabbed a pillow and hurled it across the room. It fell to the ground with an unsatisfying flop, and Dorothy reached for something more destructive. Her hand came across a silver picture frame, which she pitched with all her might into a dresser mirror on the other side of the room. A much more satisfying sound of shattering glass snapped her out of her momentary fury, breath still coming in gasps from anger.
Shivering as the adrenaline high ebbed away, Dorothy slowly got out of bed, and stooped to pick up the picture frame. She ignored the shards of glass that cut into her feet, and brushed away the debris left within the frame from its abuse. Truthfully, she didn't care about the frame, but the picture inside it.
Her and Quatre, shaking hands and smiling politely for the camera. It was a publicity photo, taken when the two companies had merged, after the Eve Wars had ended. They had decided that together, they could expand and grow faster. Help the colonies that had been torn apart in the fight the fight for freedom. That had been his dream, and she found it a profitable business arrangement but...
She missed them.

'I guess, just because they're alive doesn't change the fact that they're gone.'

Sighing, Dorothy felt her strength leave and she dropped to the ground, glass crunching beneath her weight.

"Quatre...I hope you find Her. Otherwise, your freedom will be as worthless as this game."

^>^>^>^>^>^>^>^>^>^>^>^>^>^>^>^>
At the same time:

The room was in absolute chaos. At first, it had been on computer to blank out, while a repair crew tried to fix it. It hadn't especially phased anyone in the room, and all resumed work as usual. But quickly after the first computer, another went down, then another, and another, until all the other systems simply turned off. Panic ensued. For fifteen minutes and thirty seven seconds he had been yelling out orders, trying to keep his employees under control.

"Re-route the power to the control program! Keep an eye on those readings at all times! I want to find out who responsible for this!"

In the midst of it all, a woman stood, long auburn hair curled down her back. In the dim light he was suddenly reminded of the color of blood. She stood, calm and poised, amidst the scrambling assistants and experts desperately trying to fix the mistake. To save their necks. From her. She grinned ferally, discreetly slipping a foot out from her long purple dress, the low neckline obscured by the lab coat she wore over it. A hapless computer analyst tripped over her, spilling readings and repair instruments across the floor.

"Fool! Where were you looking?!" the woman screamed in falsified rage.

The girl on the floor reach for the glasses that had been knocked off her face. Blushing, and reaching for papers that were now scattered about her on the ground, she hurriedly picking up her belongings, nervous of the older woman's wrath.

"I-I'm so-so sorry, Beryl-sama. Please, I'll be more careful next time, just...please..." she stammered and back away, leaving the room quickly.

With a slow smirk, Beryl turned to her "superior" and said, "Check. You're move."

His eyes narrowed.

"Pull them out of the system. Now!"

"But, sir! That will-"

"I know what it will do, dammit! They're more useful to us alive than dead, though. Send them to get medical treatment. And make not to the same facilities!" he closed his eyes and rubbed his temple, mulling over the havoc his "assistant" had caused. But now it was his move, and he'd have to resort to drastic measures to get out of check.

"Beryl, proceed to secondary resource plans. Target Tokyo."

Beryl mocked a salute and purred, "Yes, sir. Excellent move. I'll begin damage control as well."

The man sighed. They didn't care about why they were doing what they were doing, or at what the cost. All Beryl and her monsters cared about was the entertainment. They were vicious, and exceedingly powerful. To powerful to resist. They would be able to give him what he wanted. What they had agreed on when the game began.

'Damn them all...but they'll keep their end of it if I win...'

"And I won't fail her."

^>^>^>^>^>^>^>^>^>^>^>^>^>^>^>^>
Hm, I like my new separator. ^_^ Don't worry! Part 2b is coming very soon. But I was getting restless typing up this chapter, and I wanted to post it now. Plus, I'm totally sore from last night (Senior Prom ^_^;; ooohh..my neck is killing me now) and I have TWO huge projects due in the span of two weeks. I need to work on them. (Crossover fanfics have taken over my life!! I need to get it back for another week, okay?)

Disclaimer: Bishoujo Senshi Sailormoon belongs to Naoko Takeuchi, Nakayoshi, Kodansha, and Toei and all it's holdings. Gundam Wing belongs to Sohei Entertainment (I think…) and Sunrise. 'Intuition' belongs to Natalie Imbruglia. This story is written without intent of copyright infringement. If one of the aforementioned companies/individuals finds this, please don't sue. I will happily direct you to people who abuse you're materials much worse than me. Thank you.

And always remember: Reviews are the only payment fanfic writer get.