What if: Myth

By Prinder

A gundam wing fan fiction

Rating: PG 13- R for swearing, violent situations

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 6

She held her hands close to her heart as the door closed and the darkness enveloped her once again, only this time, there were no strong warm arms wrapped around her.

'Should I tell my brother and his wife about this?' she thought. 'No, Heero wouldn't have come to only me if he thought that he couldn't take care of it… would he? What if he can't? He could get himself killed! I should tell them… but what if Heero doesn't want me to? Oh god! What do I do?' her mind shouted to her.

"Relena? Relena! Relena where are you?" a voice called from outside the door.

Quickly snapping out of her thoughts, Relena rushed over to the door and tried to yank it open. 'Oh no! It's locked! Heero must have locked it without realizing it!' she thought wildly. "I'm in here! Someone help! I'm locked in!" she yelled as she tugged on the door again.

Lucrezia looked at the door for only an instant before she ran over to it. "Relena?" she called.

"Lucrezia! You've got to get me out! The door accidentally locked behind me!" Relena's voice cried, muffled from behind the solid oak door.

"Don't worry Relena I'm here" Lucrezia called back as she fumbled with the keys, her fingers suddenly numb with fear for her husband's little sister and friend.

Relena sighed with relief when the door finally opened and Lucrezia ran into the room and gave her a hug.

"Relena are you alright?" she asked as she looked at Relena carefully.

"A little shaken, but nothing a good cup of tea wont cure" Relena quipped with a smile.

Lucrezia laughed as she took her young friend by the hand. "Lets get you out of here before we both get locked in!" she said with a smile.

"Yes, lets" Relena replied as they walked out of the dark and desolate room and walked down the halls and into a large room full of acrobats, lion tamers, magicians, and a host of other kinds of people that one would only find at a circus.

"Lucrezia… who are all these people?" Relena whispered as they crossed the room slowly.

"Why they're the circus performers that Milliardo asked to came here for our guests' entertainment… didn't he tell you about them?" Lucrezia asked as she looked at Relena.

"It must have slipped his mind…" Relena said as one of the acrobats all but flew above them in a long string of flips, twists and spins before landing in front of them.

"Oh! Pardon me… I'm sorry, we didn't mean to get in the way," Relena said quickly.

"Don't worry about it, sorry if I surprised you" the acrobat said, Relena was curious on how he got his hair to seemingly float in mid-air and affectively hiding half of his face.

"You didn't surprise us at all, that was quite a feat that you preformed" Lucrezia said with a smile.

He merely shrugged his shoulders. "It was nothing really" he replied.

"Trowa! Come and get your dinner before it gets cold!" a young woman with auburn hair called out.

"I'm coming sis!" the man, now known as Trowa, called back as he bowed to them before turning and walking over to his sister.

Relena blinked a few times at this then turned to Lucrezia and they made it out the door on the other end of the room and finally into the dinning hall where all of the knights, dukes, duchesses, maidens, counts, countesses, earls, lords, ladies, princes, princesses and her Brother all had gathered for the harvest feast.

"Good you're here" Milliardo commented as he walked over to them and gave each of them a hug and a kiss on cheek, or in Relena's case, on her forehead.

"Yes, it took a while, but as you can see, I found her, she had stumbled into a room and the door locked on her" Lucrezia said and Relena blushed from embarrassment.

"Don't worry about it little sister, I'm just glad that you're alright" Milliardo said reassuringly as they made their way to the head of the table and sat down.

"Now that everyone is here… let the banquets begin!" Milliardo announced and everyone clapped cheerfully and partied long into the night.

*****

He smirked at her as she once again lost what little was in her stomach over the rail and into the sea below. Even if it was cruel to find amusement in someone else's misery he couldn't help it if he thought it was funny how she looked like she would hurl herself off the ship every time she vomited her lunch.

"Ohh… I hope to never have to step foot on a ship again I will surely kill everyone of its crew before we even leave the dock" She moaned as she pressed a cold and clammy hand onto her forehead as she dropped to her knees.

'If he has one ounce of pity left in him; he'll take mercy on me and stop making me try to take it like a man, I'm not a man! I'm a woman! And I can't take much more it this!' Wong thought as she choked on what little puke that didn't come up after the last hurling session.

Things had gone from bad to worse for the two scholars, first their water goes bad five weeks into the boat trip, and then the captain dies of food poisoning, they had to toss over half of their supplies over the ship because rats had gotten into it, but that wasn't the worst of it, now a big storm has hit and if they fall off their course too much, they'll never make it to the Cinq Kingdom!

Wufei looked at his lost wife's long-time servant/friend as the smug look on his face died away. 'She really looks miserable Wufei' a voice in the back of his head murmured. 'Too bad for her, weakling woman! She should never have come to begin with' his mind argued with itself. 'You don't really mean that and you know it!' the voice echoed. 'This is crazy! I am NOT having an argument with myself!' 'Like it or not, yes you are Chang Wufei!' 'Go. Away.' 'Make. Me.' "Ugh! What the hell do you want?' 'She's sick you know…' 'Yeah, seasick' Wufei thought with a snort. 'No! She is SICK! Even you can see how pale she is! No sea sickness could do that!' 'Just what are you implying? That I'm blind?' 'If the shoe fits…' the voice quipped. 'Who. Are. You?' 'You know vary well who I am!' 'You can't be me…' 'Thank gods for that Chang!' the voice replied wryly. 'Meiran…' Wufei thought as his eyes widened and a gasp escaped his lips. '…Didn't think that you would catch on that quickly' the voice replied with a sarcastic tone. 'WHAT?' 'Never mind…' 'I've had enough of this!' he thought as he turned and started walking down to his cabin below deck while the odd sound of something like laughter echoed through his head.

Wong watched him from her position on the deck during all of this, and when he stormed below deck she could only stare at his backside with a look akin to confusion. 'What in the world? That's not like him at all… it looked as though he had just seen a ghost' she thought as she grabbed the railing next to her and pulled herself onto her feet. "Master Wufei?" she called out softly as she slowly made her way to the lower deck, the bitter wind and rain beating into her face and back at the same time.

"Just was is it that you find so amusing?" Wufei said to the otherwise empty room, it only had a small desk with a chair and a lumpy bed.

'You, of course, what else is there for a ghost to laugh about?' Meiran's voice replied.

"Show yourself woman!" Wufei yelled.

"Too late" her voice replied, suddenly a lot clearer and a lot closer.

Wufei spun around to look behind him; he took a step back at what he saw. There his wife stood, dressed in that very same robe that she had worn the one the very day that she was killed, although, she was a lot less bloody and a lot more pale then she was then.

"And to think that you called me the weakling… you're not afraid of me, are you Wufei?" she asked with a slight smile.

"Meir-Meiran! H-how…?" he stammered.

"How come I'm still here? Walking with the living dead? You" she replied as she floated over the chair and seemingly sat down on it.

"Me?"

"Yes, Chang, you. You and your moping, whimpering, whining and complaining! It's enough to keep any spirit from resting in peace!" she replied with what could only be a ghost's equivalent of an aggravated sigh, although her voice wasn't as distant as it was before, it still sounded unearthly to human ears.

Wufei clenched his jaw shut as he stared at her, it was hard to believe that she was there the whole time and he didn't even know about it!

"Don't you have anything to say Chang?" she asked as she looked at him.

"What do I have to do to make sure that you can rest again?" he asked, ignoring her question.

"I don't know. But your whining what is really annoying me. You are a warrior Chang! Warriors don't whine! If they want something they TAKE IT! If someone tries to take something from them they KILL to protect it! You're doing nothing but sniveling around, with your nose planted in a book! I told you that you were stronger then that before I died and I cannot allow you to be degrading yourself because your self-esteem got stuck on the wrong side of the great china wall!" she scolded.

Wufei snorted. "You are still just as arrogant as you were when you were alive I see" he said wryly.

"Look who's talking, Mister I'm-only-better-because-I-am-a-man Wufei!" she retorted.

"Master Wufei? Are you all right in here? Who are you talking to?" Wong's voice rang above the sound of the storm and through the wood door.

"I'm fine! Go away!" Wufei yelled back.

Meiran's ghost laughed. "No you aren't"

"Shut up Woman!"

"Master Wufei? What is going on in there? Open this door! Open this door at once!" Wong shouted as she pounded on the heavy door with her fist.

"You should let her in, she's worried about you, you wouldn't want her to think you're crazy, would you?" Meiran said with a snicker.

"WOMAN! I said GO AWAY!" Wufei yelled back at the door.

"MASTER WUFEI! IF YOU DO NOT OPEN THIS DOOR BY THE TIME I COUNT TO TEN, I WILL HAVE THE FIRST-MATE BRAKE IT DOWN!" Wong screamed back.

"She knew I was going to die that day… she promised that she would never leave and help you in whatever way she could, I knew it was my time to die Wufei! Stop punishing yourself for something that was unavoidable!" Meiran said as she stood up and glided over to him.

"NO! You're wrong! What you are suggesting is that fate ripped you away from me without justification! What right did mankind have to take you away? WELL?"

"One… two… three…"

"Nothing in life is ever fair Wufei! Look at Wong! She or her family never did anything wrong, and yet she was a slave for our house! Where is the justice in that? What right did the world have to take away her family's basic right of freedom? Answer me Wufei! I fought for justice, I fought so that she would have freedom, is it not true that after my death that all of the other servants were set free? That she chose to stay so as to keep her promise to me? WELL? Tell me! Was my death in vain?" Meiran yelled.

"Six… seven… eight… Master Wufei! Please! Open the door! Please…"

Wufei stared at the spirit for a long moment in mute shock. "…Meiran…I… no, Nataku… you died without your work complete! So many still suffer from the injustices of this world…"

She smiled a ghost smile as she reached up to touch his face with a transparent hand. "Yes, there is still much that needs to be done, but it was not for me to do Wufei… no, I'm not Nataku, I am not the strongest, I can't bring justice to this world. No, I am not Nataku… you are…" and with that she faded way.

"Meiran? Meiran! MEIRAN! MEEIIRAAANNNNNNNN! NOOOOO!" he screamed as he dropped to his knees.

"MASTER WUFEI!" Wong shouted when she heard his cries. "GET THIS DOOR OPEN! I DON'T CARE HOW! JUST DO IT! MASTER WUFEI MIGHT BE IN DANGER!" she screamed at one of the crewmen that stopped to watch the scene before him.

"Aye, aye ma'am!" he said quickly as he rammed his shoulder into the door.

It gave way without a struggle and the crewman fell to the floor of the small room with Wong rushing in as fast as her feet could manage over to Wufei, who was sitting on the floor with his hands over his eyes and the whole ship rocked within the fierce storm raging above deck. The small chair skidded into Wong as she tripped and scraped her hands and knees on the harsh wood planks that was the flooring, quickly recovering, she got back up and sat down next to Wufei, wrapping a comforting and supporting arm around his shoulders.

*****

She got a small room to stay in at the back of the local Tavern with what gold she had earned from their latest ship raid, which amounted to quite a large sum, and turned in for the night. The next morning however, she spilt the gold into three smaller leather pouches and made her way back to the old church with the large canvas sack full of what she had borrowed from her father's ship only the day before.

'Lets see if this kid's got enough gall to try and pull this off… it takes more then just guts and balls to brake into a castle in the middle of the day after all…' she thought as she turned into the ally and into the small opening in the wall that served as the street kid's front door, the original was blocked by fallen rubble and could not be opened.

"Raise and shine gorgeous! We got a…YIKES!" Fiora screeched as a long spear whizzed by her ear, grazed her hair and lodged itself into the wall behind her.

"Who are you?" a skinny black haired, blue-eyed, dirt-smeared girl questioned angrily as she readied another spear.

"WHO AM I? JUST WHO THE HELL ARE YOU?" Fiora screamed as she dropped her sack and with one fluid motion, had her sword drawn, knocked the spear out of the girl's hands and had her pinned against the wall.

"DUO! HELP!" the girl cried as the tip of Fiora's blade touched the spot right between her eyes.

"Oh! So you know Duo then huh? Well, that's a little different now then isn't it?" Fiora said with a laugh as she removed her sword from the girl's frightened face and placed it back in its sheath.

"Wh-wh-wh-who a-a-are yo-you?" the girl stammered from the shock of having a near-death experience with the small, brown-eyed, quick-tempered girl before her.

"That really none of your business. I'm looking for Duo, where is he?" Fiora said with a laugh.

"What do you want with him?" the blue-eyed girl asked.

"Not what I want with HIM… more like what HE wants with ME… now do you mind killing the small talk? As much as I enjoy chatting, and I do, very much so, I don't have the time to deal with you right now… so could you point out which rock he crawled under and get lost?" Fiora snickered.

"DON'T TALK ABOUT MY DUO THAT WAY!" she yelled.

"YOUR Duo? I'm sorry… I didn't see your name written on him when I found him, terribly sorry about that… look girly! I couldn't give a shit about what he does behind closed doors! I'm only helping him out… once this is all over you can have your Duo back, but until then, I'll just borrow him the time being" Fiora said wryly.

"It's okay Hilde! She's telling the truth" Duo's voice sounded as he ducked through the doorway and walked over to them.

"…Well… as much of the truth as one can get outta a person such as myself" Fiora said with a smirk.

"Duo, what's going on here… and who is she?" Hilde asked as she eyed Fiora carefully.

"Her name isn't of any importance to you, girly! Just stay outta this and you live to see your next birthday!" Fiora said casually as she walked back over to her sack and began to dig through it.

Hilde and Duo both gulped nervously. "Um… Hill… maybe you should go…" Duo said as he motioned her towards the door.

"Um… yeah, that might not be a bad idea, I'll catch you later then Duo… bye!" she replied as she rushed out the door and back down the ally and out of sight.

At first it was too muffled to tell, but as Fiora stood upright again it was clear that she was laughing like there was no tomorrow. "PRICELESS! You guys have gotta be the MOST gullible people I've ever MET!" Fiora howled.

"Yeah… well… whatever! Did you get the stuff or not?" Duo asked impatiently, tapping his foot on the floor rapidly.

"Yeah, I got it all right… said you was an earl the first time right?" she said as she pulled out two large packages covered with a parchment wrapping.

"Yeah, that's right" Duo replied as he ran over to her excitedly.

"Whoa! Easy there… can't be letting to touch these just yet," she said as she quickly maneuvered them behind her back.

"Why not?" he asked with a whine.

"I'd hate to brake it to ya, but truth be told, you're not only a walking dirt ball, but you smell like something that crawled outta the mouth of a serpent's cave! And ya look three times worse! Uh huh! No way am I gonna risk THESE things getting ruined! I'm in enough trouble cause if you! I don't need destroying perfectly nice costumes added to my list of things that'll get me hanged from the yardarm by my toes! Thank you very much!" Fiora replied loudly.

"Well, what exactly are we gonna do about it? Its not like I'm gonna take a bath or something!" Duo shouted back.

Fiora's eyes suddenly started to glint almost evilly in the light, her lips turned up in a mischievous sneer as a soft chuckle rumbled from her stomach, suddenly exploding into an all out booming laugh.

Duo shrank back from her about two feet. 'Oh man, oh man, oh man, oh man! I do NOT like the sound of this!' he thought as she slowly advanced on him, as if a panther set out to capture her pray. "Fiora? What're ya gonna do?" he asked fearfully.

"Come on!" Fiora exclaimed as she grabbed him by the wrist with her free hand and hauled him out of the church down to the river that ran through the small town.

"Fiora! No! What are you gonna do? FIORA! NO WAY! THAT WATER IS COLD!" Duo yelled as his eyes almost shot out of his head when he realized what was going on and started struggling, trying to break the grasp her small hand had on his bony wrist.

"Consider it incentive to get clean the first time so ya wont have to go back in!" Fiora replied, laughing until she had tears in her eyes.

"There is NO WAY I'm getting in there! FORGET IT FIORA! I'll catch the flu in this weather! I AIN'T GOING IN THERE!" Duo exclaimed, still trying to fight his way out of her surprisingly strong grip.

"THE HELL YOU AIN'T! You… are… getting… in… even… if… I… have… to… DRAG YOUR SORRY HIDE IN THERE! I… don't… care… if I… have to… FORCE… you to take a… BATH! You… ARE… going to… and that's THAT!" Fiora proclaimed as she dragged him across the crowded gravel streets to the river where she have one last harsh tug on his arm and sent him staggering forward, tripping over her outstretched leg and teetering on the edge of the banks before falling in with a SPLASH!

Duo thrashed around like a mad man as he screamed from the shock of the icy water zapping him of his beloved body-heat. "FIORA! THIS WATER IS DAMNED FUCKING COLD!" He added once he had gotten his bearings and was trying to get out of the water that had gotten him thoroughly soaked to the bone.

"OH NO YOU DON'T!" Fiora yelled as she tackled him back into the water by launching herself at him and taking him down with her.

This resulted in even more splashing, screaming, and swearing on Duo's part. Fiora promptly busied herself with scrambling over to an old lady who was washing her clothes when they had arrived, asked if she could borrow the lye soap before grabbing it and using large amounts of it in Duo's hair.

"UGH! FIORA! WHAT THE HELL IS THIS? WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU PUTTING IN MY BRAID?" Duo screeched when he reached up and touched his now very slimy hair on the top of his head.

"AW SHUT UP AND HOLD STILL! AIN'T YOU NEVER HEARD OF SOAP BEFORE?" she yelled back as she dunked him under the water's surface to rinse out the apposing goop.

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU TRYING TO DO? DROWN ME?" Duo gasped loudly when he finally came up for the much-needed oxygen.

"WELL IF YA WOULD STOP STRUGGLING… GAH!" Fiora yelled as he knocked her back and she went under the water herself.

By this time they had gathered quite the crowd as they fought among the dirty clothes, lye soap, and what was the grime that was plastered onto Duo and the rags that he called clothing. It really shouldn't have come to much of a surprise to her aunt when she had happened upon the scene. She only hesitated but for an instant, before she snapped her eyes shut, opened her mouth and screamed at the top of her lungs, "FIORA ELERI!"

Fiora froze that in that very second, before murmuring, "Uh oh…" slowly she turned her head to see, right behind her stood one very red, very angry and very murderous looking aunt Kiora.

"JUST WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING? GET. OUT. OF. THERE. THIS. INSTANT!" Kiora's once regal voice screeched as she grabbed Fiora by her arm and yanked her onto her feet and out of the water as if she were nothing more then a soggy dish rag.

"Why Aunty Kiora! How nice to--" Fiora started but was cut off.

"DON'T YOU EVEN THINK ABOUT STARTING WITH ME YOUNG LADY," Kiora cut in with a glare at her niece.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever… what do ya want?" Fiora asked as she yanked her arm out of her aunt's grasp and started rubbing the tender flesh where she was sure that she would get a bruise later.

"Just what did you think you were doing?" Kiora questioned, ignoring Fiora completely.

"Helping a friend take a long over-due bath? What the hell is wrong with that?" Fiora replied.

"Hey! I was just--" Duo started to say.

"SHUT UP!" both Fiora and Kiora yelled at the same time.

"Jeez! Okay, okay, I can take a hint…" Duo muttered as he dragged himself out of the river and sloshed his way up the bank where he started drip-drying in the sun.

"Just where have you been? Everyone has been worried sick!" Kiora scolded.

"Bullshit, ain't nobody would of missed me unless they needed me, which I doubt cause when I left there was nothing for me to do… you just missed picking on me!" Fiora retorted.

"Watch your mouth with me young lady!" Kiora snapped.

"…Two words. Bite. Me!" Fiora yelled as she grabbed her things, snagged Duo's still vary sore wrist and marched off.

"YOUNG LADY! YOU GET BACK HERE THIS INSTANT!" Kiora screamed as she stomped her foot on the ground angrily.

"Later, Aunty!" Fiora remarked with a laugh as they took off running into the crowds and out of sight. The only sign of which way they went, were the muddy imprints of the two's shoes left behind them.

______________________________________________________________________________

Whew! Christ did that ever take long to write! I hope you like it, dang writers block! I'm running out of chapter fillers here! I know what I WANT to happen; I just don't know for sure HOW to make it happen! Grrr! Any ideas? All are welcome you know; just E-mail me at FioraEmbyr@aol.com thanks a bunch! And see you latter people!