Chapter 6 - Threads Of Fate

Up there in some high heaven, looking onto the world was Fate. She frowned in a displeased matter at how things were going for Cosmos. She couldn't affect Cosmos herself though, it was beyond her powers, but she couldn't affect something that would influence her.

With that in mind she reached out and grabbed a particular thread from the billions surrounding her in suspended air. This one was a grain yellow, like all the others, but it was outlined in blue. She stared at it for a moment, before she pulled it tautly and watched with a guarded face as it broke. She watched as the thread next to it, outlined in bright forest green, was affected. The green outline broke away from the thread and she watched as it and the blue outline left in flashes of their color.

She stared at the now loose plain yellow thread, and then it twitched and floated back to the place where it was just was in the air. The two loose ends of the one threaded stretched and wrapped around each other, glowing as it did so. When the glow receded, the thread was now one, whole, and new. She then watched as the once bright emerald thread flashed with an emerald outline before it was absorbed into the thread. The newly made over old thread flashed a mist gray outline before; it too was absorbed into the thread.

She nodded in approvingly manner for the two lives born and turned to stare down to Earth. Then after a while staring she turned and picked another thread, this one outlined also by blue, but Prussian in its shade of color. Slowly, and carefully she shook it loose from its suspended place in the air. She gazed at it, trying to decide what she should do with this one. Slowly, ever so gently she unraveled the strings, and then, just as slowly and gently, threaded them back together, in different positions then before.

Satisfied, she raised her palm up that held the thread and watched it glow Prussian blue for a moment, before it went back to its suspended place in the air.

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Ami was jerked form her stumper by Usagi's warning. She looked around too see what was the computer room of a military base and her heartbeat froze.

When Operation Meteor first started…which meant she had been on the mission of….!!! She turned about and ran out of the room looking back over her shoulder to see if anyone was following her.

On one.

She turned a corner and ran into the next open door. She rolled on the floor and ducked behind a pole. She put her hand on her heart and willed her breathing to slow.

When Operation Meteor first started…she looked around the room for a window, vent, whatever that could have been her passageway out. She looked on with dread at what she found.

Nothing.

No! Not again, not this place!! She looked around her frantically. She had been lucky the first time and had still been barely able to escape. There was no means of escape in the room.

She took a deep breath and ran to the door and out of the room. To stop with dread at what she saw and took slow steps back into the room.

She stared at the barrel of the gun pointed at her and at the soldiers blocking her way. She whirled around to run back, only to see soldiers run in from the other door. Her heartbeat finally slowed and her breathing returned to normal as she accept what was going to happen.

She looked down to the ground with a serene face and dropped to her knees. The disc she held in her hand felt cold but her hand was numb to feeling it now. She felt tears prick at her eyes, happy tears.

She thanked Kami-sama that she had been able to see Trowa one more even though she hadn't really seen him, the meeting had never taken place. A smile twisted her lips as she thanked him for the meeting and prayed to Makoto to tell her that she would be waiting for her on the other side.

She did not even feel the bullet that killed her body, but freed her soul.

The disc slipped from her limp fingers and her body slumped over, dead. Midii Ami Une was no more.

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Somewhere else a nameless soldier was in the process of getting out of his Gundam fell to his knees in pain, gasping and gaping. The pain hurt and felt so real, it was as if someone was pulling at his very soul. But it was there one moment and gone the next. Leaving him to debate if he had felt it at all and wishing that he'll never feel it again.

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Hotaru was roused to a half dream, half awake state by Usagi's warning but jerked awake totally and completely as she felt one of her friends pass over to the other side. The feeling washed over her like the tide, followed by a bolt of electric energy made of the power of her birthright running through her, leaving all ten of her fingertips tingling.

" No Ami-chan…" she whispered with huge unfocused eyes.

She was snapped out of her stumper when she heard someone yell.

" Hey! The girl Duo brought in finally woke up!" a man's voice yelled out to his comrades. " Hey Duo, glad to have you back!! Your girlfriend just woke up!!"

This was followed by footsteps running down some flights of stairs. Hotaru wiped her eyes on her sleeve and for the first time took in that she was wearing a black shirt too large for her, as she couldn't see her hands. She looked around too see she was in some kind of a bedroom and heard loud machinery outside.

" Hey! Your really up!" a chirpy voice said as the boy with a long braid slammed the door open ands he saw men working on mobile suits outside.

" Umm…hey." she said shyly to him, even though she already knew him some but she wasn't sure if she did right now as Usagi's warning finally sunk into her brain.

" How you feeling?" he asked her.

She tried to smile, she really did, but instead tears pricked at her eyes and when she opened her mouth to speak, a choked sob came out instead.

" Aww…don't feel so glum." Duo said and wrapped his arms around her shaking form.

She gave up all notion of speaking and cried into his shirt. {Ami-chan, Ami-chan, Ami-chan.} the name whirled around in her head and was the only thought she had, she hadn't realized she was saying it and slurring it out loud.

" Shh…its alright. She's gone to a better place now." She heard Duo say and looked up at him with childish eyes.

" You really think so?"

" Yeah sure!" he said upbeat and flicked a finger over her nose, " Now you need to stop crying and eat something, your thin as a stick!"

" I thought that was good for girls?" she slurred out as she sniffled and watched him bring in a tray of food.

She put the tray on the bed next to her a snorted.

" Yeah sure, if you want to get killed." He said and handed her a bowl of soup, he gave a sigh and watched her try to drink it through sniffles and soft gasps.

He saw her give annoyed glances at the large shirt she was wearing, the sleeves were too long and she couldn't use her hands really well. She finally handed him back his bowl and use the long sleeves to her watery eyes and mouth. She gave him a questioning look as she stared at his shirt and at the one she had on.

" How did I get here?" she asked him.

" I found you outside in the cold a few days ago in the rain. You were in bad health as well as shape. You've been slipping in and out of consciousness for the last few days. I've been feeding you whatever you would keep down but that's been nothing much but water and a little broth." He explained, " The clothes you wore were scathed and thin, not to mention soaked from rain. So I changed you, not really!" he was quick to say at her wide eyes, " I got a doctor to check you out and she changed you, I just gave her the clothes! She was a woman so you don't have to worry!"

They both gave an inward sigh of relief and Duo finished his tale. " You've been getting better and I'm glad to see you're finally awake."

" Thank you." She said quietly and gave him a small smile. Duo liked that better than her sobs, much better. " Here, eat what you like." He said and pushed the tray closer to her.

She bent forward to her hands to see what he had brought. The blanket that had been barely able to keep it's hold on her legs, slipped off form the bed and onto the floor. Revealing long slender smooth skinned legs. The shirt's first bottom was not done up and exposed some cleavage to his viewing.

He jumped up suddenly and Hotaru stared up at him with curious eyes. He mentally cursed his hormones and tried not to gasp and gape. She stared up at him with a shirt that was too long for her at the sleeves, baggy at the waist, hung there by her small shoulders and barely reached past her mid-thigh. She had on no pants or short and a bottom was undone on the shirt top, added to the image was her large amethyst eyes and messed up hair, she looked like a curious water sprite that just had a tumble with someone.

He cleared his throat in half nervousness as he reminded himself that she was NOT a water sprite and that she had NOT had a 'tumble with someone' as his thought put it, also that she would probably be bedridden for another day or so and should not go outside for more.

" So what's your name? Mine's Duo. Duo Maxwell." He said in attempt to draw his thoughts away form where they were leading.

" Hotaru." She said, " Hotaru Tomoe."

" Are your parents still alive Hotaru?" he asked.

She shook her head.

" Do you have a place to stay? Or someone you could stay with?"

She shook her head again.

" That's it then, you can stay here." He proclaimed.

She seemed hesitant to take him up on the offer and he caught her glancing from him to the other men working outside.

" Ah don't worry. They'll love to have ya around, right?" he raised his voice at the ending.

" We'll love anyone that could keep Duo and his tricks away from us, yeah!" a man shouted back and others laughed.

Duo mocked pouted and Hotaru let out a giggle. Duo smiled at the delightful sound.

" Ok." She said with her soft voice.

The smile widened into a grin.

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Somewhere on Earth, in a apartment for two, Rei jerked as she swept the floor. Her eyes widened and the broom hit the floor with a 'clang' without her hearing. Her legs slowly gave out from under her and she slid to the ground with a soft 'thump'. She stared at the ceiling unseeing. " Ami-chan…"

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Somewhere in the desert Minako played beautifully on the piano to pass the time until Quatre came back, but suddenly her finger jerked to the wrong key and her body froze.

{Ami-chan…}

She stared down at her hands and the piano keys under them. Slowly she pressed down on one, then two, then the song continued as if it had not been stopped. Her fingers flew over the keyboard never stopping, never missing a beat, never feeling, never caring. A teardrop dripped onto a key, followed by a flood. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Usagi walked out of the office and into the patio with her dorm number and key in hand. She smirked as she remembered how Relena had tried to ditch her and keep up with Heero. In the end, the teacher had told her to go to the office to get her dorm key and assigned room, and Heero had slipped out of their sights unnoticed.

She turned the corner to look up at the balcony where Heero and Relena, as well as Relena's groupies were seen. Her smirked widened as she got there just in time to see Heero rip up Relena's invitation.

She shook her head, she knew what was coming up. Tears and a death threat, my what a scene. She gave a slight chuckle but then slumped to the ground, her body giving out. Her heart stopped, she had no pupils and there was no pulsed, and she was dead. A major part of her died with her friend, protector and fellow scout that instant.

And Selenity Moon Cosmos was born 14 years ago.

Nobody saw her die and no body saw her fingers twitch now. Slowly her blood started to flow once again in her body; her heart beating and her pulse came back. Her hair was blonde but with silver streaks and crystal blue eye flickered with silver specks. Her hair reaching to her mid-shin and odango shapes were piled on top of her head.

She pushed herself up by her hands and got on her legs. Who was she?

Selenity Moon Cosmos, codename Usagi Tsukino.

And she was on a mission.

***TBC...***

Chapter Seven