Once Upon The Night Of Death
By: Moonlit Love
Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing but I own (most) of this story line.
Chapter One: Discovery
The days following Hilde's death were filled with silence and research. Heero
and Relena were constantly searching for information on Death, it was their way of
staying close. Trowa and Catherine just sat in each others company, enjoying the
presence of their love.
Duo was often by himself, he insisted he not be with anyone. His heart was still
heavy over Hilde's death, and he didn't know how to cope without her. She had been in
his life for ten years, but it took less than ten seconds for her to be gone. He didn't want
to be by anyone for fear they would be the next to go.
Duo often wandered through the halls of the large complex, taking his stealth
training to the max. No one saw him much, but the small amounts of food gone from the
refrigerator told them he still was there. No one searched for him, knowing this was his
way of letting go.
'Her funeral is tomorrow, we request your presence,' a note read on the freezer.
Duo took it between his hands and crumpled it into a ball before tossing it into the
garbage. 'Tomorrow will be here too soon, and I am not ready to let her go forever,' Duo
thought with a resigned sigh, 'But for her I will go. I owe it to her for not being able to
save her.'
Duo walked to his room and sat on the bed, the springs squeaking gently beneath
his weight. He dropped his head into his hands, a few stray bangs drifting over them.
Time slowly passed on, the seconds ticking on seemed to never end, but then it was night.
He could forget about her death in his dreams, then he didn't have to know she was dead.
Night had become his favorite time of day, his time of escape.
~~
Relena was typing away at the computer. She had learned a few codes and access
numbers, thus she was able to get into some of the government's files and find out just
how much they knew about Death. Heero was on the other computer, searching for
myths about Death. He didn't have the codes, and knew the government hack proofed
their files, so he had to take the looking instead of the breaking, as Relena was doing.
"Find anything yet?" Heero asked between searches.
"No, they don't seem to know anymore about Death than you guys do, but I know
they have to have some more information somewhere in their database," Relena replied as
she continued to type in code after code.
"None of the myths seem to know what truly happens when Death comes again,
some say it kills all, some say it takes the chosen one, and others say it takes all but the
chosen one, leaving it to suffer alone," Heero replied as his web-page popped up.
"I guess we can only continue to look up info, then we may be able to piece
everything together and stop Death before it gets to anyone else," Relena shrugged.
Heero nodded and once again the room grew quiet. The only sound was the
humming of the computers. "I found it!" Relena exclaimed. Heero went over to her
computer and there was the complete, pieced together, totally secret government
knowledge of Death.
Together they read:
~Reports of a Death mist have gone all the way back into the early ages, some
even are reported in cavemen's drawings. Recently, however, there has been some
extensive research into the subjects. Agent Robert Jameston of the FBI was put at the
head of a project to find this information. The team he formed became known as the
'Investigators For A Better Tomorrow', or IF.
~Agent Jameston was found dead a few months later from an unidentified disease.
Autopsies did not confirm any certain death, and there were no leads on whether a
murderer was involved. It is thought Death may have come and taken his life. IF still
remained in commission, though. It slowly began to uncover findings which no one had
heard of before. This was an account of one witness taken from When Will You Believe
(a book on the supernatural) complied by Robert Jamestone (another weird thing):
~"I was walking home one day. I believe it was ten or maybe eleven at
night. Either way, I was alone. My town was usually quiet, so I didn't worry about
anything. A few moments later, I was tackled by some guy who began to run with me
over his shoulder. I was too afraid to ask anything right away.
~"Then the guy who had taken me stopped suddenly. I squirmed around
to take a look and there was the most hideous thing in front of us. It was a shapeless mist,
darker than the night, (which was pretty dark due to the moon being in its new moon
stage.) The guy immediately turned and began to run in the opposite direction, but there
were these dark mists all around. (I forgot to tell you why they were so hideous. Even
though they had no shape, they still seemed to have poring sores which were almost
bleeding with blood as black as they were. Fangs as stark white as can be were in the
place of a mouth, but I could not detect eyes or noses, or any other facial features. Jagged
claws were on the ends of what seemed to be arms.)
~"The guy couldn't seem to escape, so he set me on the ground and turned
to face the misty things. They all seemed to tighten the circle and I watched in morbid
fascination. There was nothing I could do but watch. I found a gap in their circle just
before they enveloped us in. I tugged on his hand so he would come with, but he refused
to budge. I managed to get away, but I stood just outside the circle. I heard him scream,
but I saw nothing besides the ugly black shapes in front of me.
~"As the mist dispersed, I saw nothing of him anymore. It was as if he
had never been there. I stayed a few moments to see if he would come back, but he never
did. I walked home after that. Nothing of the sorts has happened to me since."
~ The woman who had given this testimony died a few nights later, terribly
murdered on a roadside in the countryside. It was also coincidentally under a new moon.
There were no leads, no clues, no footprints, just her.
~The IF workers kept on working around the clock, and many uncovered things.
The most surprising of the things was when they uncovered what the Death mist actually
went after. It went after the 'chosen' one. It killed the 'chosen' one or killed off its loved
ones. It either tortured them to death or made it live its life alone.
~Not much else has really come our way on this subject, but we have found some
people have a 'trait' for finding Death. It is almost as if they can sense the mist in some
way. We have hired these people to try stop Death from taking innocent lives.
Sometimes it works, but mostly they fail. One more thing, Death cannot get you after
midnight on the night of the new moon.
~This Death mist may continue to elude us for the rest of our lives, but IF hopes
they can change all this and get information on Death.
~#Special Agent Roland Anders#~
"They really don't know much on this Death mist, huh?" Relena asked as she
finished reading.
Heero, who had finished reading much before her, nodded his head in agreement.
"They don't seem to have any extensive research on the project, such as why Death can
come back and what it can use to make its attacks," Heero added.
"I guess we are the first people to live through Death and then have it come back
to haunt us," Relena stated with a defeated half smile.
"Yes, we have to find out which is the chosen one of us five remaining. But then
again, it might have been Hilde, after all, she was the only one who really had gotten
Death," Heero informed her.
"So, Death may be done torturing us for now?" Relena asked, hope clear in her
voice.
"Yes," Heero told her, looking down at her with loving eyes.
Relena offered him a childish smile and flirty bats of her eyelashes. "Tease," he
whispered to her before giving her a soft kiss.
Relena only grinned. "Suppertime," she replied while his lips were still close to
hers. He pretended to act disappointed, but Relena saw a reflection of happiness and a
touch of love in his eyes. "You should really have your eyes checked, seems as if the veil
which once covered them is no more," Relena smiled to him before leaving.
He watched her go, a tender smile softening his face. She really was one in a
million, he only hoped Death wouldn't go after her as well. 'Hopefully Hilde was the
chosen one and no more suffering will go on,' Heero though morosely.
~~
Trowa and Catherine had gotten out of doing a few shows, at least while this
tragedy passed through their household. The couple mostly sat outside, carefully
enjoying the gardens. They didn't have to talk to express themselves, they knew each
other well enough to know they didn't need to say anything to speak the volumes of love
they both felt for each other.
Catherine stood up one afternoon when they were together and began to walk
around the gardens, her eyes looked to Trowa for a second, but soon she turned around
once more. Trowa silently got up and began to follow her. When he reached her, he
slipped her hand in his. Catherine turned to smile at him before they continued to walk
on their way.
"How many more shows should we do?" Catherine asked quietly, hoping not to
ruin the tranquil serenity of the garden.
"Only as many as we need. The circus is moving on, they don't need us anymore.
I say we do two more shows, and they we shall call it quits," Trowa replied just as softly.
Catherine nodded. She had been doing the show for ages, and practicing just as
long. It would be hard to quit, but she didn't have the concentration she used to, not
when she knew Death could come at any second and take either Trowa or her, or quite
possibly both. "I'm ready," she whispered too gently for him to hear.
~~
Hilde's funeral was a quiet ceremony led by the minister of the church. Family
and friends were there, but they didn't know the truth behind her death, only the five
sitting ever so quietly in the corner knew the truth, but to speak it would cause more
damage than they knew to prevent. "Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust, we become what we
once were, and we shall see the Lord once again. It has been promised in the days long
before we were alive," the minister concluded.
There was not a dry eye in the whole church, Hilde had been much loved. Duo
took it the hardest and had left halfway through the ceremony. He said he couldn't sit
here and watch as her death became final, it was something he was not ready for quite yet.
"Meet us in the living room, we need a group meeting," Heero quietly stated.
Duo nodded meekly and sauntered out into the hall. He leaned against the cool
wall and breathed deeply, trying not to let the sobs overtake him. 'You can't leave me
like this, Hilde. It isn't fair!' he yelled up for only her to hear.
Tears escaped his eyes and began to fall freely, the course of the tears falling
faster and faster until his whole frame shook with the sobs he had not willed himself to
cry in the days which had passed from her death until now. He couldn't concentrate on
anything around him. He suddenly became angry at Hilde. 'Why did you leave me here
alone! You know I can't live without you!' he screamed, fury at her and Death ringing in
his head like the clanging of a metal bell struck by a metal mallet.
'You can't leave me,' he sobbed. His head dropped into his hands and he sat
there, long after he knew everyone had left. He didn't know how long he was there,
exactly, but he eventually got the strength to go to the meeting Heero had asked for. He
stumbled in late, not caring if the tears were still stuck to his face.
No one said anything when he came in, and he guessed no one had said anything
since the funeral either. Duo slowly went over to the chair and used to sit in with Hilde at
his side, sinking into it as if she still was there and would soon waltz into the room,
mumbling apologies for being 'so desperately late.' A semblance of a smile touched his
lips.
"I'm sure all of you are wondering why we have to have this meeting, right?"
Heero waited for them to nod before he continued, "Relena and I have uncovered some
information about the Death mist. It isn't very much and it doesn't give a lot of details,
but there is reason to hope to keep on living. We found that Death goes after a 'chosen'
one or the ones the 'chosen' one loves. We believe Hilde may have been the chosen one,
and she was just taken. Some one else may be the 'chosen' one, but we hope no one else
passes from our presence."
A few murmurs passed through Catherine, Trowa, and Duo's lips. Relena knew
what Heero had been going to say. "How do we know for sure? Do we wait until Death
takes another soul, or do we live as if we won't be attacked?" Duo asked, his voice a little
accusing, though he was not accusing anyone up front.
"We don't know. All we can really do is wait," Heero admitted quietly.
Everyone just nodded. They dispersed from the meeting, hoping to find
relaxation. But two hours later, they all met in the living room once again, but this time
they one stopped to decide what they were going to all do for supper. They never knew if
it would be the last one they all had together.
"Heero, what is that behind you?" Catherine gasped as something began to appear
on the wall.
Heero turned to see what she was talking about while the others focused on what
she was looking at. There, they saw the bricks of the mantle piece crumbling and big, red
letters appearing and running as if they had been drawn in blood. Soon a whole message
was displayed on the wall for all of them to see.
It read:
~I am Death. You are sure to know me by the pain I caused. Wasn't it fantastic.
But that isn't the point. Soon, I will take more lives. I am not happy with the one soul I
took, I need more. No longer will I lay dormant. Just wait until you see what I can do
now.~
Then the writing dried up and the bricks flew back into place, as if nothing had
happened. Now they knew. And the pain was so fresh, the reality so new. Everything
had been going so happily, and then death came. Heartache was the meaning of life for
them and they had to get used to it. Death would not stop at the recent soul it had
claimed. Everything would soon end, but who would be next?
tbc...
~~
Did you like the newest chapter? Please review and tell me if you did or not.
Sorry I seem to like ending my chapters with cliffhangers. I know this story is a little
dark, but remember it is a fic about death. I will try to make my next story not so heavy
with death. Later,
~*Moonlit*~
~~
By: Moonlit Love
Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing but I own (most) of this story line.
Chapter One: Discovery
The days following Hilde's death were filled with silence and research. Heero
and Relena were constantly searching for information on Death, it was their way of
staying close. Trowa and Catherine just sat in each others company, enjoying the
presence of their love.
Duo was often by himself, he insisted he not be with anyone. His heart was still
heavy over Hilde's death, and he didn't know how to cope without her. She had been in
his life for ten years, but it took less than ten seconds for her to be gone. He didn't want
to be by anyone for fear they would be the next to go.
Duo often wandered through the halls of the large complex, taking his stealth
training to the max. No one saw him much, but the small amounts of food gone from the
refrigerator told them he still was there. No one searched for him, knowing this was his
way of letting go.
'Her funeral is tomorrow, we request your presence,' a note read on the freezer.
Duo took it between his hands and crumpled it into a ball before tossing it into the
garbage. 'Tomorrow will be here too soon, and I am not ready to let her go forever,' Duo
thought with a resigned sigh, 'But for her I will go. I owe it to her for not being able to
save her.'
Duo walked to his room and sat on the bed, the springs squeaking gently beneath
his weight. He dropped his head into his hands, a few stray bangs drifting over them.
Time slowly passed on, the seconds ticking on seemed to never end, but then it was night.
He could forget about her death in his dreams, then he didn't have to know she was dead.
Night had become his favorite time of day, his time of escape.
~~
Relena was typing away at the computer. She had learned a few codes and access
numbers, thus she was able to get into some of the government's files and find out just
how much they knew about Death. Heero was on the other computer, searching for
myths about Death. He didn't have the codes, and knew the government hack proofed
their files, so he had to take the looking instead of the breaking, as Relena was doing.
"Find anything yet?" Heero asked between searches.
"No, they don't seem to know anymore about Death than you guys do, but I know
they have to have some more information somewhere in their database," Relena replied as
she continued to type in code after code.
"None of the myths seem to know what truly happens when Death comes again,
some say it kills all, some say it takes the chosen one, and others say it takes all but the
chosen one, leaving it to suffer alone," Heero replied as his web-page popped up.
"I guess we can only continue to look up info, then we may be able to piece
everything together and stop Death before it gets to anyone else," Relena shrugged.
Heero nodded and once again the room grew quiet. The only sound was the
humming of the computers. "I found it!" Relena exclaimed. Heero went over to her
computer and there was the complete, pieced together, totally secret government
knowledge of Death.
Together they read:
~Reports of a Death mist have gone all the way back into the early ages, some
even are reported in cavemen's drawings. Recently, however, there has been some
extensive research into the subjects. Agent Robert Jameston of the FBI was put at the
head of a project to find this information. The team he formed became known as the
'Investigators For A Better Tomorrow', or IF.
~Agent Jameston was found dead a few months later from an unidentified disease.
Autopsies did not confirm any certain death, and there were no leads on whether a
murderer was involved. It is thought Death may have come and taken his life. IF still
remained in commission, though. It slowly began to uncover findings which no one had
heard of before. This was an account of one witness taken from When Will You Believe
(a book on the supernatural) complied by Robert Jamestone (another weird thing):
~"I was walking home one day. I believe it was ten or maybe eleven at
night. Either way, I was alone. My town was usually quiet, so I didn't worry about
anything. A few moments later, I was tackled by some guy who began to run with me
over his shoulder. I was too afraid to ask anything right away.
~"Then the guy who had taken me stopped suddenly. I squirmed around
to take a look and there was the most hideous thing in front of us. It was a shapeless mist,
darker than the night, (which was pretty dark due to the moon being in its new moon
stage.) The guy immediately turned and began to run in the opposite direction, but there
were these dark mists all around. (I forgot to tell you why they were so hideous. Even
though they had no shape, they still seemed to have poring sores which were almost
bleeding with blood as black as they were. Fangs as stark white as can be were in the
place of a mouth, but I could not detect eyes or noses, or any other facial features. Jagged
claws were on the ends of what seemed to be arms.)
~"The guy couldn't seem to escape, so he set me on the ground and turned
to face the misty things. They all seemed to tighten the circle and I watched in morbid
fascination. There was nothing I could do but watch. I found a gap in their circle just
before they enveloped us in. I tugged on his hand so he would come with, but he refused
to budge. I managed to get away, but I stood just outside the circle. I heard him scream,
but I saw nothing besides the ugly black shapes in front of me.
~"As the mist dispersed, I saw nothing of him anymore. It was as if he
had never been there. I stayed a few moments to see if he would come back, but he never
did. I walked home after that. Nothing of the sorts has happened to me since."
~ The woman who had given this testimony died a few nights later, terribly
murdered on a roadside in the countryside. It was also coincidentally under a new moon.
There were no leads, no clues, no footprints, just her.
~The IF workers kept on working around the clock, and many uncovered things.
The most surprising of the things was when they uncovered what the Death mist actually
went after. It went after the 'chosen' one. It killed the 'chosen' one or killed off its loved
ones. It either tortured them to death or made it live its life alone.
~Not much else has really come our way on this subject, but we have found some
people have a 'trait' for finding Death. It is almost as if they can sense the mist in some
way. We have hired these people to try stop Death from taking innocent lives.
Sometimes it works, but mostly they fail. One more thing, Death cannot get you after
midnight on the night of the new moon.
~This Death mist may continue to elude us for the rest of our lives, but IF hopes
they can change all this and get information on Death.
~#Special Agent Roland Anders#~
"They really don't know much on this Death mist, huh?" Relena asked as she
finished reading.
Heero, who had finished reading much before her, nodded his head in agreement.
"They don't seem to have any extensive research on the project, such as why Death can
come back and what it can use to make its attacks," Heero added.
"I guess we are the first people to live through Death and then have it come back
to haunt us," Relena stated with a defeated half smile.
"Yes, we have to find out which is the chosen one of us five remaining. But then
again, it might have been Hilde, after all, she was the only one who really had gotten
Death," Heero informed her.
"So, Death may be done torturing us for now?" Relena asked, hope clear in her
voice.
"Yes," Heero told her, looking down at her with loving eyes.
Relena offered him a childish smile and flirty bats of her eyelashes. "Tease," he
whispered to her before giving her a soft kiss.
Relena only grinned. "Suppertime," she replied while his lips were still close to
hers. He pretended to act disappointed, but Relena saw a reflection of happiness and a
touch of love in his eyes. "You should really have your eyes checked, seems as if the veil
which once covered them is no more," Relena smiled to him before leaving.
He watched her go, a tender smile softening his face. She really was one in a
million, he only hoped Death wouldn't go after her as well. 'Hopefully Hilde was the
chosen one and no more suffering will go on,' Heero though morosely.
~~
Trowa and Catherine had gotten out of doing a few shows, at least while this
tragedy passed through their household. The couple mostly sat outside, carefully
enjoying the gardens. They didn't have to talk to express themselves, they knew each
other well enough to know they didn't need to say anything to speak the volumes of love
they both felt for each other.
Catherine stood up one afternoon when they were together and began to walk
around the gardens, her eyes looked to Trowa for a second, but soon she turned around
once more. Trowa silently got up and began to follow her. When he reached her, he
slipped her hand in his. Catherine turned to smile at him before they continued to walk
on their way.
"How many more shows should we do?" Catherine asked quietly, hoping not to
ruin the tranquil serenity of the garden.
"Only as many as we need. The circus is moving on, they don't need us anymore.
I say we do two more shows, and they we shall call it quits," Trowa replied just as softly.
Catherine nodded. She had been doing the show for ages, and practicing just as
long. It would be hard to quit, but she didn't have the concentration she used to, not
when she knew Death could come at any second and take either Trowa or her, or quite
possibly both. "I'm ready," she whispered too gently for him to hear.
~~
Hilde's funeral was a quiet ceremony led by the minister of the church. Family
and friends were there, but they didn't know the truth behind her death, only the five
sitting ever so quietly in the corner knew the truth, but to speak it would cause more
damage than they knew to prevent. "Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust, we become what we
once were, and we shall see the Lord once again. It has been promised in the days long
before we were alive," the minister concluded.
There was not a dry eye in the whole church, Hilde had been much loved. Duo
took it the hardest and had left halfway through the ceremony. He said he couldn't sit
here and watch as her death became final, it was something he was not ready for quite yet.
"Meet us in the living room, we need a group meeting," Heero quietly stated.
Duo nodded meekly and sauntered out into the hall. He leaned against the cool
wall and breathed deeply, trying not to let the sobs overtake him. 'You can't leave me
like this, Hilde. It isn't fair!' he yelled up for only her to hear.
Tears escaped his eyes and began to fall freely, the course of the tears falling
faster and faster until his whole frame shook with the sobs he had not willed himself to
cry in the days which had passed from her death until now. He couldn't concentrate on
anything around him. He suddenly became angry at Hilde. 'Why did you leave me here
alone! You know I can't live without you!' he screamed, fury at her and Death ringing in
his head like the clanging of a metal bell struck by a metal mallet.
'You can't leave me,' he sobbed. His head dropped into his hands and he sat
there, long after he knew everyone had left. He didn't know how long he was there,
exactly, but he eventually got the strength to go to the meeting Heero had asked for. He
stumbled in late, not caring if the tears were still stuck to his face.
No one said anything when he came in, and he guessed no one had said anything
since the funeral either. Duo slowly went over to the chair and used to sit in with Hilde at
his side, sinking into it as if she still was there and would soon waltz into the room,
mumbling apologies for being 'so desperately late.' A semblance of a smile touched his
lips.
"I'm sure all of you are wondering why we have to have this meeting, right?"
Heero waited for them to nod before he continued, "Relena and I have uncovered some
information about the Death mist. It isn't very much and it doesn't give a lot of details,
but there is reason to hope to keep on living. We found that Death goes after a 'chosen'
one or the ones the 'chosen' one loves. We believe Hilde may have been the chosen one,
and she was just taken. Some one else may be the 'chosen' one, but we hope no one else
passes from our presence."
A few murmurs passed through Catherine, Trowa, and Duo's lips. Relena knew
what Heero had been going to say. "How do we know for sure? Do we wait until Death
takes another soul, or do we live as if we won't be attacked?" Duo asked, his voice a little
accusing, though he was not accusing anyone up front.
"We don't know. All we can really do is wait," Heero admitted quietly.
Everyone just nodded. They dispersed from the meeting, hoping to find
relaxation. But two hours later, they all met in the living room once again, but this time
they one stopped to decide what they were going to all do for supper. They never knew if
it would be the last one they all had together.
"Heero, what is that behind you?" Catherine gasped as something began to appear
on the wall.
Heero turned to see what she was talking about while the others focused on what
she was looking at. There, they saw the bricks of the mantle piece crumbling and big, red
letters appearing and running as if they had been drawn in blood. Soon a whole message
was displayed on the wall for all of them to see.
It read:
~I am Death. You are sure to know me by the pain I caused. Wasn't it fantastic.
But that isn't the point. Soon, I will take more lives. I am not happy with the one soul I
took, I need more. No longer will I lay dormant. Just wait until you see what I can do
now.~
Then the writing dried up and the bricks flew back into place, as if nothing had
happened. Now they knew. And the pain was so fresh, the reality so new. Everything
had been going so happily, and then death came. Heartache was the meaning of life for
them and they had to get used to it. Death would not stop at the recent soul it had
claimed. Everything would soon end, but who would be next?
tbc...
~~
Did you like the newest chapter? Please review and tell me if you did or not.
Sorry I seem to like ending my chapters with cliffhangers. I know this story is a little
dark, but remember it is a fic about death. I will try to make my next story not so heavy
with death. Later,
~*Moonlit*~
~~