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, Silent Fear, Fire and Ice Monkey Wildfire's Flame, Jupiter's Light and last but NEVER EVER least Dark Deity. Thank you all for your criticism and suggestions.
Chapter 16- Intertwined Fates
By Aku Tenshi
It was as if everything so far was only a dream, to her the world seemed to be plagued in a ghostly mist. As if this was all in her mind and she almost believed it too, until she shook her head and made the world come back into focus. And there was the woman whom she had known to be Relena, holding a loaded gun pointed right at her.
"Get up Lucretzia," she breathed heavily as if she had run the whole way here. Lucretzia glared at the younger woman before her, and with one hand she lifted the chain and then dropped it, a subtle sign of defiance. Relena cocked back the hammer, aimed and then squeezed the trigger. Relena shot with deadly precision, and the chain broke right before it met with the manacle, "After you." She commanded coolly.
Lucretzia narrowed her eyes before she complied, "So you're taking the cowards way out I see." Her eyes held nothing but hate and anger as they bored into the younger woman.
"No only the more logical route now move!" she ordered as she grasped onto Lucretzia's arm roughly and pulled her to her feet and out of the room.
"This way." Tasha said as she led the way, running as if her own life depended on it for certainly a friend did. She made a sharp left down another corridor and came to a screeching halt. There, before her stood Relena, and she already had possession of Lucretzia.
Relena pulled Lucretzia before her, one arm locking Lucretzia in a chokehold the other steadily holding a gun to her temple.
"It seems Natasha that you have betrayed me, and for what? Nothing!" she shouted as she peeked at the others with half of her face, for Lucretzia's own head was blocking the other half.
"Not at all Ida!" Tasha retorted, her voice cold, harsh yet dead in a way.
Relena or rather Ida gasped at these words, "My name is Relena Peacecraft, I am the heir to the Cinq kingdom and you are going to die for a man that doesn't love you!" She shouted angrily.
Tasha laughed, it was a cynical laugh bordering on hysteria, "Oh no Ida I know who and what you are! And I'm not the one who will die here tonight," she volleyed as she closed her eyes and smiled, "No Ida I heard, I heard everything that went on in that room, the night you killed Teresa. Everything and there's nothing you can do now, nothing! Just accept it, you're going to die sooner or later why not now?" Tasha mocked and laughed again although tears shone brightly in her eyes.
"No I am Relena Peacecraft," Ida denied and her eyes hardened. "And either you let me walk out of here or…" Relena changed her guns position from Lucretzia's head to her abdomen "Another Peacecraft dies tonight!" she exclaimed.
Lucretzia swallowed thickly but kept from crying, instead she held her head up higher, "Ida it's nice to finally see the real you. Just some street trash of a coward." She snubbed her eyes wavering.
"You shut-up! I'll kill you now I swear it!" Ida shouted at the top of her lungs, as she shuffled her feet backwards; in doing so she knocked over a standing torch causing it to fall against a tapestry and burn the smooth fabric.
"No you won't you need me to get out of here alive." Lucretzia rebuked.
Milliardo stepped closer to his wife, "Don't." he murmured a soft warning for Lucretzia.
Lucretzia looked to him and her eyes softened and a message passed between them, he only shook his head.
"No I won't risk it Lu." He stated softly
She only nodded her head sternly and a tear slid down her cheek, "You must my love." She ordered.
Milliardo turned to Duo "Give me the gun." He ordered softly, Duo only shook his head and looked up into the elder's man's sapphire eyes, which were wet with tears. Duo then sighed and handed the gun to Milliardo. "Thank you." Milliardo whispered.
Milliardo turned back to Lucretzia and Ida in his eyes there was determination and loathing. He aimed the gun directly at the side of Ida's face that was showing. She 'tsked' and cocked the hammer of her own gun back, and moved the position of the gun back to Lucretzia's temple.
"I wouldn't Milliardo, what's that saying again oh yes. I can kill two birds with one stone." She mused out loud and laughed softly.
Milliardo showed no type of emotion and only cocked the hammer of his gun back as well, "I will always love you Lucretzia." He stated before a shot was heard.
Lucretzia and Ida crumpled to the floor in unison like a cherry blossom did in the spring, both fallen flowers, both falling too slowly in everyone's eyes. The seven stood shocked, Milliardo glanced back down at his own gun; the trigger had not even been squeezed thus the nozzle was not smoking. And to them that only meant that Ida was the one to fire; they rushed forward to the fallen women both of their eyes were closed. Milliardo kneeled next to Lucretzia, bowed his head and cried softly, but stopped as her pale hand reached out to him and rested on his forearm.
"Milliardo, I'm okay." She soothed.
Milliardo looked up his eyes wide with shock; to him she was an apparition he could have sworn that she was the one that was dead. He hooked his arms around her and stood carrying her in his arms as though she were a fragile infant. The other six looked to Ida, she had crumpled to the ground and beneath her the ground was tainted red. Her eyes were closed; they couldn't tell if she was alive or dead. Heero removed the gun clasped in her hand as Tasha felt for a pulse, either it was weak or there wasn't one there; she couldn't tell. Out of the shadows in front of them stood a girl, her red hair peeking from beneath her stark white bonnet, and the smoke of the gun curling around her. She looked down at the fallen body of Ida and asked her voice colder and deader than even Trowa could muster,
"Is she dead?"
They looked at her shocked, for one as to how she got here and two that she had indeed shot Ida. She looked to them an eyebrow quirked; "I only shot her in her back, although she may still be alive." She explained monotonously
Tasha's shoulder's shrugged, "I don't know, I think that she is dead." She said with a sigh.
All seemed to be oblivious that the building was burning down around them, until Tasha looked about alarmed,
" It's burning!" she shouted her eyes wide with surprise.
The other eight nodded and looked to her, "This way." She ordered and ran down the hallway all forgetting about the body of Ida that lay on the floor. They seemed to run for only minutes but the whole castle had begun to catch fire, hurriedly they ran down and pass corridors until Tasha opened the last door that released them into the cool and crisp night air. Instead of the usual music of insects and night animals there was silence because with their higher and more alert instinct the animals had long since fled the scene. The sky was dark around them heavy with smoke, so much so that they could barely see the stars yet they moved onward until with were a good distance from the castle at the base of the hill a light coating of morning dew still hung to the blades of grass and now shimmered in what little light there was left. It was now that Duo took point,
"The jeep's this way." He ordered and began walking.
Tasha stopped and looked back to watch the home she had known for all these years burn to the ground, she sighed deeply and turned. Quickly she walked to catch up with the others, just as the fingertips of dawn touched the horizon.
In an operating room a doctor sighed and angrily took off his gloves,
"Nurse time of death?" he called
"12:30 Am." She responded.
He sighed and threw his scrubs in the medical waste bin, "Call the morgue so they can wheel her away." He muttered. Losing a patient was rough, even for an experienced doctor such as himself. He washed his hands and dried them and then forcefully pushed open the doors of the operating room, the metal clanging softly against the plaster of the wall, and walked into the hallway. He leaned against the wall and took several deep breaths until he straightened up and went into the ICU ward. He walked into a patient's room and looked at her stats and then smiled softly as she opened her eyes her blue orbs shining. She looked to her left and saw a doctor Shields sitting there clasping onto her own pale hand, tears shining in her eyes.
"What happened?" she croaked, her tongue was large and dry from thirst.
"Welcome back to the world of the living Sally." Dr. Shields greeted as a few tears slid down her cheeks.
TBC
Well because FF.net was down I didn't have time to upload and then I went on my 3-week vacation so no I'm not dead!! Heh well I'm back and have a disk full of stories and now I am uploading. I will be writing one more chapter and then the epilogue. Until then criticism is accepted always.