What if: Myth

By Prinder

Disclaimer: I do not own gundam wing or any of its characters. I also do not own Felina or Jasmine they were so gratefully lent to me by my dear role-playing friend Ashley.

Keys:

"…" Indicates talking

'…' Indicates thinking

(Notes from me)

Chapter 4

"So… let me get this straight… you want me, to steal some disguises from my father's ship, just so you, a street kid, can sneak into a castle as a nobleman, just to see some prince friend of yours? ARE YOU NUTS?"

"Is that a trick question?" Duo asked with an amused tone.

They had been arguing over this for hours now, and neither of them looked like they were going to give in anytime soon.

"Well then, riddle me this kid, if he was really and truly your friend… then why do you need to sneak in?" Fiora asked.

"Cause his dad just died and he's gonna become a king and everything so he's really busy!"

"Why should I even help you? I've already saved your sorry hide once today!" Fiora yelled throwing her arms up in the air then promptly bringing them back down because of the pain it gave her in her sides.

"HEY! I saved you too remember?"

"Case and point… We're even! I don't owe you anything you don't owe me anything! Fair is fair!" Fiora said triumphantly.

"Not so fast, I got us out of that fight alive didn't I? If I weren't there… you'd be dead" Duo said with a smug grin.

"IF YOU WEREN'T? If I weren't there… not only would you be dead, but they would be scraping your remains off of their boots by the end of the day!" Fiora shouted.

"Oh come on! Please? I just gotta see if he needs my help!" Duo said miserably.

"If he really was your friend… he wouldn't be letting you starve out here" Fiora said hesitantly.

"He doesn't know…" Duo whispered.

"Hum? What was that? Squeak up little man!" Fiora laughed.

"I SAID HE DOESN'T KNOW I'M AN ORPHAN! I never told him…" Duo yelled.

"Oh please! There is just no way he could be so stupid as not to see that! Even if you didn't tell him, he would have known! God you just wreak of it!" Fiora replied wryly.

"Yeah well, he's not the most perceptive person in the land, and besides, I stole an earl's uniform when I snuck in the first time" Duo replied with a sniff. That last remark hurt.

"Oh… whoops… okay… I guess I can help you out… when do you want the goods?" Fiora said, suddenly very sorry about letting her mouth get the better of her.

'Wait! Sense when was I ever sorry for something like that?' her mind screamed.

"You mean you'll do it for me?" Duo asked, quickly cheering up.

'Why do I get the sinking feeling that I was just tricked?' Fiora thought with a strange smirk on her face.

"Sure, I ain't got anything better to do, why not?" Fiora replied.

'Too easy! Who ever said that pirates were dumb was right!' Duo thought with a smile.

"Thank you!" Duo yelled as he jumped up and flung his arms around her in a suffocating hug.

"GAHHH! Ouch! That hurts!" Fiora screamed as she pushed him away.

"Oops… sorry about that…" Duo said with a nervous grin.

"Don't. Chu. Eva. Do. That. Again! I like my personal space… three feet away at all times if I can help it! If you want my help… you're just gonna have'ta deal with not TOUCHING ME!" Fiora yelled shaking her fist at him threateningly.

"Okay okay! I'll keep my hands off jeez!" Duo said with his hands in the air as he slowly backed off.

"Good!" Fiora said with a smile as she dropped her fist and turned to leave. "I'll have your stuff by morning… be here at sunrise… if ya ain't then I take the stuff back and pretend that I don't know you… got it?"

"Yeah… got it," Duo said, nodding at her slowly.

"Great! See you then!" Fiora said with a wave of her hand as she walked out of the church, her hair pulled back under her hat with the brim hiding her face.

"Huh… weird girl… hang on Quatre… your old pal's a comin'" Duo said with a chuckle as he found a comfortable place to rest until morning.

*****

They were fed, fattened, magic recharged, given supplies, and then they were once again out in the human world. Felina, already changed back into her normal clothing, was jumping from tree branch to tree branch as she talked and giggled merrily to Heero, who was walking silently below her.

"…And I just couldn't believe my hears! They were, like, be a good little sprite and maybe someday you'll get to meet the king! I ALREADY KNOW THE KING! But would they listen to me? NO! They just thought that I was talking about some imaginary friend or something! I'm 16 human years old for crying out loud! Its like they still think of us as just a couple of nosy Nymphs its just not right! I still can't believe…" on and on she went.

Heero did his best to remain indifferent as always, but even he had his limits when it came to his cheerful and talkative cousin. Enough was enough. "Is there a point to all of this? Or are you just talking because you like the sound of your voice?"

"…Pwa? Huh? What? I'm not! I just thought that it would be nice to talk to someone for a while that's all" she said as she stood and looked down at him.

Heero just kept walking. Now completely ignoring her.

"Humph!" Felina scoffed as she jumped out of the tree she was in and followed him. "You still haven't told me where we're going Heero!" she chirped after about twenty minutes of silence.

"WE aren't going anywhere, I'M going to go back to that castle again and…" he was cut off.

"YOU'RE WHAT? Heero! Are you crazy? You can't go back there! They captured us remember?" Felina shouted.

"Yes, I remember. Something isn't sitting right with me about it though… I think it's that girl… that princess Relena… something isn't right, and I want to know why, that spell on her wasn't cast by just some warlock, warlock magic is easy to take care of, this was strong magic… I'm beginning to think that there is something more to this then what we were told" Heero stated calmly.

Felina shuddered. "What do you think it is?" she asked.

"I don't know, but I'll do all I can to find out" Heero replied.

"Do you think that the other humans are in danger?"

"I don't know"

"Do you think it's dangerous?"

"Yes"

"Well… if it is… how do we stop it?"

"I'm not sure if we can"

"That's not good at all"

"…."

They continued walking late into the night before they stopped to rest. While Heero was setting up a campfire, Felina sat on a high tree branch and looked up at the full moon and star lit sky.

"Heero, do you think that Humans and fairies will ever learn to trust each other?" Felina asked quietly.

"Hum? I don't know. Maybe. Someday" Heero replied, though he doubted his answer.

"Yeah. Maybe" Felina sighed as she watched a star shoot across the flawless sky above her.

'Someday… maybe we'll all get along and I'll get to see you again Trowa… someday' she wished just before she went to sleep, still curled up in the treetops.

Heero looked up at her once he was finished with building the fire. 'Looks like I'm taking the first watch after all' he thought with a smirk as he sat down on a large boulder and started poking a stick at the fire to keep it going, and to keep him from being bored.

Normally travelers avoided staying overnight in the forests, with the wild animals, thieves, and your occasional monster, humans tended not to like it there during the night, which was a shame because that was when it truly was the most beautiful time to be in the forest. It was just one more secret that the fairies kept.

The moons silver-blue beams shimmered on everything it touched, giving off an unearthly glow. The birds of the night cooed, tweeted and chirped in the background as they unfolded their wings and took of in search of food. Wolves added harmony to the tune as they sent their praise to the moon above. The melody was played by crickets along with the wind whistling among the trees as fireflies danced along to the music.

Yes, it was beautiful at night, he would never say so out loud, that wasn't this way, but be knew beauty when he saw it, people thought if him as unemotional, detached, cold even. It was a common mistake, made by fairies and humans alike, but it was also very untrue. He did feel he just never let it show as much as most, if you looked in his eyes, listened to what he said, how he said it, you would know. No, he wasn't emotionless, he was full of emotion, it was just how he was, if anyone cared enough to look then they would see, but until then, he was going to let them believe whatever they wanted about him, even if it was a lie.

He had lost track of time, it was almost sunup before he realized that he had stayed up all night and watched the world unfold before him, he looked back up in the tree, she was still asleep on that branch, he shook his head. 'How did she manage to say up there all night without falling is beyond me' he thought as he allowed himself a chuckle before he put out what was left of the fire.

"Felina! Time to wake up!" He called up to her.

"Hum? Pwa?" Felina yawned as she opened her eyes.

"How did you stay up there all night?" Heero asked.

"Up what?" Felina said as she yawned again and looked around. "Oh!" she laughed.

"Come on, we have to get a move on"

"Heero! You didn't wake me up for my shift!" Felina said with shock as she jumped down from the tree with ease.

Heero shrugged. "You were tired, don't worry about it, I'll be fine" he replied.

"Ok… so which way do we go next?" Felina asked with her usual bright smile.

"That way" Heero said as he pointed to the north after a moment.

"Okie-dokie!" Felina chirped as they started walking.

About an hour later they arrived at their destination. Castle Cinq. It was nowhere near as beautiful as Castle Grandeur, seeing as it was made of ordinary gray stone, as Grandeur was made out of gold and gems, Cinq's gate was a drawbridge that allowed one the only way across the mote, it was only made out of aged wood and iron nails, while Grandeur's was a great ivory gate that swung inward into the main gardens leading up to the castle itself. No indeed, this was nothing like Grandeur, in fact, it looked rather cold and unwelcoming in comparison.

"You'll feel right at home here Heero, it's just like you!" Felina quipped.

Heero glared at her out of the corner of his eye but ignored her comment.

"So… how do we get in?" Felina asked when she had finished laughing at her joke.

"We could knock" Heero replied wryly.

"Right… any other ideas?" Felina asked, surprised that Heero actually made a joke.

"We could scale the wall," He suggested.

"Huh…." Felina looked up, way up. 'There is no way we could climb that!' she thought.

"We could sneak in under a cart," Heero said finally.

"Okay… and where do we find this cart?" Felina asked as she tapped her foot on the ground.

"There" He replied as he pointed at a cart coming up the road.

"Oh…"

They ran over so that they were close enough to get under it and waited for the guardsman to turn his back to lower the drawbridge and the scrambled under the cart and grabbed onto the bottom of it as it was pulled inside the castle.

"Wait until I say" Heero whispered as he waited for the their chance.

Felina could only nod as she got herself ready to drop down from the cart's underside and possibly make a run for it.

They didn't have to wait long and as soon as Heero gave the signal, they let go of the cart, rolled out from underneath it, and ran inside, surprisingly, they went unnoticed.

"Damn… humans are slower then I thought" Felina mumbled quietly from the shadows.

Heero nodded in agreement.

"Now what do we do?" Felina asked.

"I don't know, I didn't know what to expect once we got in so I didn't plan that far ahead" Heero replied.

"You mean we don't have a plan? Great" she whimpered.

*****

She weaved her way through the crowd back to the docks and made her way over to her father's ship. The strangely christened Dark Stone, why one would call a ship that, she never knew. But it what it was called was hardly worth her time in thinking about at the moment. She still had to get back on board it, get the things she would need and get back off without getting spotted by any of the crew. Which was proving to be a more difficult task then she had hoped it would be.

"I don't care what Gethin said! I don't want any of you to do anything else until she is back on this ship and in my sight!" the familiar voice of her aunt said.

Fiora ducked into the shadows then tip-toed her way behind some large crates to avoid being detected. She snorted at what her aunt had said. 'They won't get any work done then you moron, and I'm not about to get caught willingly either!' she thought with a smirk.

The other pirates took their posts once again by the gangplank leading up to the ship as Kiora walked down it and into the small town. 'I don't need my fortune told to know what she's up to… she's just never gonna give up on looking for me is she?' Fiora asked herself before looking back up at the ship. 'Well I'm not getting in that way that's for sure…' she thought when she saw that the men guarding the gangplank were more loyal to her aunt then to herself.

She dropped onto her hands and knees and crawled her way to the back of the ship where they couldn't see her. 'Looks like I have to a different way in…' she thought as she stood up and dusted herself off.

The Dark Stone was a three mast ship with a basket like perch called the crow's nest on the top of the tallest one in the center of the ship, it carried a flag not of the Jolly Roger (the one with the skull and the two swords crossing it is the Jolly Roger) but a flag that her mother designed, it was blood red with a black border around its edges with a dark blue raven carrying a sprig of holly in its beak, they dubbed it Raven's Ways (just so you know, holly is a sign of death in some cultures and the raven is a sign for dead that can't pass on into the afterlife, so basically what its saying is, we'll not only kill you, but we'll also take and torture your very soul… creepy huh? Holly is also a sign of rebirth just so you know) the very thought of being the attacked instead of being the attacker by this ship made most peoples skins crawl. 'I can't say that I don't blame them! It's a pretty nasty ship to go against' Fiora thought with a shudder.

Fiora rolled a barrel as quietly as she could over to the edge of the dock and climbed up onto it. "One for the money, two for the show, three to get ready, and four to go!" she chanted aloud as she jumped and grabbed the edge of a cut opening for the cannons below deck and pulled herself inside with a groan and a huff as she hit the floor on head and banged her foot on the cannon itself. "Ow…" she murmured as she rubbed her head and stood up. "Well… at least I got in…" she said with a laugh. She looked around for a moment before she took off for the storage rooms to get some bandages, food, weapons and a few sets of clothes.

She opened the door to the first room with a loud SCREECH of the door's hinges. She winced slightly at the noise but continued into the room. 'If they hear me now it doesn't matter, I'll just tell them I'm looking for something to eat and fix my wounds with…' she thought mischievously.

"Now I know you're not a stowaway, they're quieter, and I know you ain't a street kid cause you're not skinny enough… so that must mean that you're my little sister getting into trouble again" a deep voice said from behind her, somewhere near the door way from what Fiora could tell.

"If I told ya once I told ya twice!" Fiora said as she spun around in one fluid motion and sent her knife flying into the door jam about two inches from his nose. "Don't be getting into it! I ain't got time to play games with you Racimous!" she said with a twinkle in her eyes and a smirk on her lips.

"This is how you greet your dear loving big brother?" Racimous said wryly.

"Yeah… as loving as an angry bull maybe!" Fiora huffed.

"And you're just about as saintly as a street whore!" Racimous retorted.

"Yeah so what if I'm a bad apple? What can I say? The good die young!" Fiora said with a laugh.

"You're still the same I see…" Racimous said with a smirk.

"Why do you ask? Did you really think that I would change?" Fiora snickered.

"No, but that's hardly the point here… how have you been?" he asked.

"If these slimy sea dogs would listen to me for once I would be perfect! What about you? And more importantly… what are you doing here?" Fiora questioned.

"I'm alive and breathing, that's about all I can say… I came into port two hours ago and saw Dad so I thought I would trade supplies with him 'tis all" He replied.

"'Tis all, 'tis all my ASS! Its never just 'tis all with you! You're a pirate for Christ's sakes!" Fiora shouted.

Racimous just ruffled her bangs and laughed. "Still the same old Fiora! Now what in tar nation are you doing in here hum?" he asked with a smirk.

"Just getting something to fix myself up… got into a scuffle with these land lovers and I think they busted up a few of me ribs, two of the bigger ones held me down while this short shit tried pounding my hide into the gravel! Damn near snapped my jaw off too he did! Anyway that ain't the worst of it! Then when they finally let me go they decide it would be fun to take their weapons to me! Damn near didn't make it outta there alive… this street kid helped me out and here I am now," Fiora explained.

"You get any of the names of those land folks that did this?" Racimous asked.

"Naw… don't worry about it Racimous… I'll be getting them back my way later" she replied.

"Fine, fine…" Racimous murmured as he walked over to one of the shelves and pulled down some cotton strips. "Okay… lift up your shirt"

"YOU WANT ME TO WHAT?" Fiora screamed.

"I wanna see how bad it is… and you can't really get yourself bandaged up on your own" he replied.

"TO HELL I CAN'T! Give me those damn things!" she yelled as she lunged at him.

"Whoa! Easy there! You're worse then them Chinese firecrackers!" Racimous exclaimed as he held the bandages above his head and out of her reach.

Fiora balled up her fists as she looked up at him, silently cursing her small height.

"Now, you gonna let me help ya or what?" Racimous asked, glaring down at his sister.

"Fine!" She said, pouting like a three year old as she flopped down onto a low crate and folded her arms over her chest.

"That's better…" Racimous said as he knelt down on the floor next to her and lifted up the lower part of her shirt, careful not to lift it too high, just enough to get at her broken rib cage.

"Humph! Just hurry it up will ya? I ain't got all day!" Fiora snapped.

"I'm working just as quickly as I can you big sissy" Racimous returned the verbal attack.

"Whatever!" Fiora muttered as she stared blankly at the wall behind him.

"There…" Racimous said as he stood up. "All done, you know for a short shit, you sure get into a whole lot of trouble for someone even twice your size!" he quipped.

"Do I look like I care? Hum… NO! When I want your opinion on something I'll ask! But until then! Keep your remarks to yourself Racy!" Fiora yelled using his childhood nickname.

"Whatever you say Pet" he replied with a snicker as he used hers.

"Don't you have a ship to run?" Fiora asked wryly.

"Yeah as a matter of fact, I'll be seeing you around kid, don't get into too much trouble you hear?" Racimous laughed as he turned and left.

Fiora waited until she was sure he was gone before she let out a long sigh as she sunk to the floor. "Why? Why out of all the times that he could have chosen to show up… why now? Me and I rotten luck!" Fiora said aloud to the ships hull. She waited a few moments longer then heaved herself up and went back to getting what came there for.

'Lets see here… food? Check! Bandages? Check! Costumes? Check and double check! What about weapons in case of a fight? Check! That's everything… I hope… oh well… now to get outta here…' she thought as she stuffed her things into a large canvas sack and made her way to one of the openings for the cannons.

"Oh boy… this could be tricky…" She said aloud as she leaned out the opening and peered way down at the dock below. "… Ha! Funny… it didn't see so high up not long ago… oh well!" and with that she pushed the sack out and tossed it onto the dock below. "Guess this means I'm next" Fiora gulped as she pulled herself onto the thin ledge and crouched down on it as she looked for a safe way down. 'It would really suck to get this far only to fall and get myself killed…' she thought with a snicker. She spotted a rope hanging down from a wooden pulley system used to hoist heavy objects onto the main deck. 'That'll work! Well here I go…' she thought as she made a jump for it, she missed where she wanted to grab and almost missed entirely, but as fate would have it, she managed to snag it just before she really started to panic. 'Whew! That's the last time I try that one!' she thought as she wiped the sweat dripping down her face as she life flashed before her very eyes.

"Whoa, wow wee! Crazy is as crazy does… they say… ha… I believe them!" Fiora laughed as she picked up her sack, once again hiding her face with her cap, and walking away from the docks, Dark Stone and into the crowded streets once again.

______________________________________________________________________________

Yeah! See? Didn't I tell you this one would be longer? Gah! I know I promised I would get Felina and Trowa back together soon but it just didn't happen in this chapter! Okay? Don't kill me! I promise it will happen soon though! I swear it! So like please please PLEASE! R&R! Yes… you too Ashley! My lovable friend and Bata reader! Thank you thank you thank you! You are the best! Lol! ^_^; You know the drill by now… all flames, questions, comments, suggestions send them all to FioraEmbyr@aol.com! Okay? Chio peoples!