Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing, or any of its characters, so don't sue me!

Pairings: Just read you impatient lot.

Plot: A vampire of immense strength brings forth the ancient ones of its culture, but appears to have hidden motives as to why. Works undercover with the people who hunt its kind, and its true alliances, and the limitations of its power are as yet, unknown.

Chapter Five - A new tactic

For one long moment time stood still, and I shook my head, marveling at the timing of these things.

Whilst time stood still, and the actors of this play stood frozen in their stances, I casually strolled over to the vampire who'd offered me safe passage. The audacity of the bloodthirsty idiot made my blood simmer. He claimed possession over my place, over the people and things I had marked. I don't think so.

Only just resisting the impulse to wave my hand in front of his cold, cruel face, I delved into his pockets instead.

A second of rifling procured the pass, and I turned the small gold coin over in my hand thoughtfully. This could be of some use.

Relieving the vampire of his stash of safe passes, I then returned to my previous position quickly, aware of the ironic sense of humour the fates had.

Time started moving once more, and I pretended to still be thinking the vampire's offer over. Kill? Be bad, like our nature supposedly dictated? And in return have the protection of the elder vampires? Sounded like a supremely good deal, and definitely needed my stomping all over it.

"It sounds like a good offer, but I don't play well with others. Nor do I follow orders, no matter how innocuously they are phrased. So, I'll have to pass."

A brief silence passed as the vampire digested my rejection, then he glanced at the three cohorts he had with him. No nod to start the fight, after all they were vampires, not cliché gangsters. No, they had a different signal.

"Well I'm sorry to hear that. But if you aren't willing to accept my offer of amnesty, then I will have to withdraw it, and we're back to where we started."

"Goody."

I'd barely got my comment in before all three of his goons fell into fighting stances. Oooh, they were trained gorillas. Extra rare. They hesitated slightly at the grin that had appeared on my face, then sucked it up and dove in feet first.

I took the first one with a headbutt. The second and third leapt in simultaneously when he went down, then Heero was there, his paralysis finally used up, yanking one of the idiots of me.

While Heero went at it with his target, I circled the other two.

They came at me again, and I whirled in a circle, sweeping the ground with one outstretched leg. One got knocked down, but the other had the presence of mind to jump.

Fully intent on having fun, I temporarily locked up a portion of myself, and settled in for a down and dirty fight.

While legs and fists flew the leader watched from the shadows, eyes narrowing as I played with his buddies.

The fight was a good one, but I kept half my mind fixed on the leader, I had definite plans for him. Just as the fight was nearing its conclusion another vampire joined the one I was watching. This one felt older in my head, and somewhat familiar as well.

My concentration was distracted briefly, long enough for one of my opponents to land a blow on my torso, hard enough to draw blood. I knocked him back absentmindedly, turning and looking at the vampire and his companion.

I turned just in time to see the new comer pulling the other vampire away by the arm, and as he started to turn I saw the flash of the newcomers eyes.

Returning to the fight, and staking the vampires with ease, I turned this new puzzle over in my head. Yellow. The eyes of the new vampire had been yellow. I had only ever seen that piercing shade on one other vampire, and that had been the one who escorted me out of the gathering.

So, I mused to myself as I gooped my last vampire, at least one of the traitorous bastards that are nestled in the ancient ones has been uncovered. Now to plot my next course of action, since this affront can't go unanswered.

"So, Peter, you mind telling me something?" Heero wasn't even breathing hard, despite the fierce battle he had just fought with his vampire.

"What did you want to know?"

"Well for starters, I thought your name was Michael. So why did you answer when I called you Peter?"

Oops.

"Then there is the fact that those vampires thought you were one of them, and thought you had killed me. I have studied vampires and I know they are perfectly capable of sensing whether or not someone is alive, so that makes no sense. Then the whole conversation you had with them, seeming not in the least bit surprised that they thought you were one of them, and the way you managed to handle two extremely well trained vampires without working up a bit of a sweat."

Okay, I had definitely underestimated his powers of observation, or rather, his willingness to confront me over it. I'd figured he would simply resort to keeping an eye on me, which is easily overcome. Instead he is lining up his suspicions in front of me, and asking for an explanation.

I guess I can at least give it a go, if I go wrong I can easily fix it I suppose.

"I heard them coming, and pretended to attack you, thus making them think I was one of them. I don't know why they didn't sense you were still alive, maybe their senses are on the blink, or something. I've been training a lot lately, and I told you I was good at fighting, that's why it didn't take that much out of me when I fought them."

Running out of steam, and incredibly flimsy excuses, I ground to a halt, waiting to see if he would take the reasoning.

His brain processed the information, and he started to nod his head, when a piece of data didn't stand up to his internal examination and stopped him mid-motion.

"What about your name?"

The suspicion was high in his eyes, as they narrowed to twin blue flames. He looked amazing, and very ready to kill me in that moment. Made me wish I had a camera.

Unfortunately it had to go.

Reaching into his mind I grabbed his suspicions and tugged at them. This showed me where the roots of them were, and these I then mentally followed, until I found myself at the source of it all. Working quickly I pulled his suspicions out by the root, and then stuffed a vague answer to his questions where before there had been none.

Blinking back to reality, I left the blue haze that were his thoughts, and looked over at his blank face, the smell of cinnamon hovering in the air between us.

Backing into the deep shadows behind me, I found the mindset he had been in before he tried to tackle me tonight, and carefully pulled it to the fore. Let him think he truly did want to test my skills, and let him also think that I'd lost him, whether deliberately or not let him guess.

I checked over his mind one last time, making sure everything was like it was before, with a few exceptions, then let go the grip I had on him.

Expression slowly infused his face with life again, and he was immediately aware, looking around to see where I had gone. Upon finding no trace of me he looked confused, then turned and went to try his luck inside again.

The whole encounter had taken about thirty minutes, two of which were the brainwashing of Heero. Not bad I suppose.

Now to find out what the hell was happening amongst those bloody stupid ancients. God how I hate politics.

Should be getting better soon. At the moment it is basically some boring fluff, but it should get interesting soon.

Anybody guessed who the vampire is yet, you'll probably be wrong, but it never hurts to have a go.

Anyway - R + R please, it makes me type faster - sometimes - I swear! Plus, it is just common courtesy. Or should be.