A/N: I can't believe I'm actually writing after...I think about 8 years! This chapter starts where I last left it off, then continues with my latest offerings. I apologize for any whiplash sustained from possible difference in writing style. It's been a LONG time. Please review if possible, I'd love some feedback, and possibly some inspiration since I have no idea where to go with the story right now. I do not have a beta so apologies for any mistakes along the way.

Disclaimer: Gundam Wing isn't mine. Boohoo.

The two women made themselves comfortable at the kitchen table and simply stared back at one another unable to fully comprehend what had just transpired.

Relena was the first to speak. "We have to do something."

Hilde's face shifted into a slight smile. "Thanks for stating the obvious."

Relena frowned slightly then her face smoothed and she smiled as well. "Well someone had to I suppose."

"I suppose." Hilde sighed. "How can this sort of thing happen anyway? This is the kind of thing that happens in books and fairy tales, not in real life!"

Relena shook her head. "Who knows how or why something happens? I think it's enough for us right now that it HAS happened and we just need to concentrate on dealing with it as best we can."

"I don't know...maybe if we knew how or why it happened then we just might be able to reverse it."

"Ok you have a point there." Relena frowned slightly then leaned back and sighed. "I can tell this is going to be a long process. Why can't normal things ever happen to us anyway?"

"Oh because that would be cosmically much too easy."

"Hey!" Both women jumped at the sound of Duo/book's voice suddenly piercing the silence. They hurried into the living room to see what it was all about to find that Duo/book was already explaining the reason for his outburst to Heero/cat "...place where you got the bottle from, that dealer, maybe he'll know something!"

"You know," said Heero/cat, "that's the first good idea I've heard all day."

"What? Are you giving me a compliment?"

"Never, just stating a fact."

"Figures."

"Never mind that!" Hilde said in exasperation. "That IS a good idea and we need to act on it as soon as we can."

"I agree" added Relena before Duo/book could say anything else.

"Only one slight problem I can see here."

Duo/book mock glared at Heero/cat. "I thought you liked my idea."

"I do like your idea. However that particular flea market doesn't open again until next weekend."

"Oh." Duo frowned. "Hey wait a minute, how did you know that anyway?"

Heero just looked smug as only a cat can. "Even as an ex-soldier it is my duty to always be updated on current information that might be useful at a later date."

"Never mind" Duo shook his head. Rather, he attempted to that is. The action shook his whole body and made him fall on his back cover due to the fact that he'd jumped to his feet in his excitement. He groaned. "As I was saying, I really think I just don't want to know."

The others tried their best to keep from laughing and Hilde helped her unsteady husband to right himself as he blushed a leathery, brick red.

It was a long week; a week that each of the four wished would fly by, yet crawled by with agonizing slowness. It was not without its higher points; one being when Duo/book realized he didn't have the need or ability to eat, and Heero/cat gleefully downing salmon in front of him with superb relish. Another being the first time Heero/cat attempted to use the toilet (because no one had thought to get him a litter box at first), and promptly fell in with a shriek that only frantic feline vocal chords can produce! Despite his superb strength, agility, and human mind, poor Heero/cat was unable to extract himself from the (albeit, thankfully clean) half full toilet bowl. His rescuer was not long in coming to his aid, and though Relena tried her very level best to keep a straight face when she realized what happened, she couldn't help letting out a quick, explosive snort of laughter, receiving a rather damp growl for her efforts. After Heero/cat was fished out, bathed, dried and warm again, it took him two days to make a sound, other than a malevolent growl, when Relena came near. Duo and Hilde had no idea why Heero/cat was acting so aggresively, but Relena knew better than to explain. The majority of the week however, was uneventful, and long though it may have seemed, Saturday morning finally arrived exactly when it should have done.

Having learned that the flea market opened bright and early at 7am, the four friends arrived 30 minutes early, hoping to get in and catch the vendor before too many people were around. After parking relatively far away in a nice remote area, Relena opted to go find the vendor and speak to him, while Hilde agreed to stay in the car with their unfortunate men folk. Relena managed to slip between some vehicles and sauntered down the rows of vendors still doing last minute setting up, hoping she would recognize the particular vendor she sought. She almost walked by him in the early dawn's soft light, but slow recognition brought her to a halt and she spun on her heel and charged over to his stall. The poor man jumped backwards with a gasp and she stopped abruptly with a quick apology.

"I know you!" He exclaimed. "You're the girl who liked that bottle last weekend. Beautiful isn't it? Your boyfriend DID give it to you, right?"

"Oh he gave it to me all right." She said wryly. "That's why I'm here."

"I'm afraid I don't understand…" Replied the confused man as he resumed his market opening preparations.

"I hope you're lying." Relena said quietly as she moved as closely to the stall as she was able, and leaned over a bit so she didn't have to raise her voice. "Because of that bottle a couple really horrible and as far as we know, non-reversible things have happened to people I love, and you better have an explanation or know someone who does, because if you don't…" She let the words hang ominously in the air as she glared at the man, who, once she had begun to speak stopped moving altogether.

He cleared his throat nervously and avoided her gaze to look down at the ground as if it were suddenly the most interesting thing at the moment.

"I'm waiting." Her tone implying he did not do well to keep her as such.

The now quite nervous and jittery vendor cleared his throat again. "I..ah..ahem, that is, what kind of, ah, non-reversible things?"

Relena finally caught his eye and glared stonily at him. "I'm not telling you a thing until you explain to me what you know about that bottle you sold my boyfriend! Better yet," she had a sudden thought, "you can come with me and tell all of us exactly what it is you know."

He shook his head suddenly. "I can't leave my stall unoccupied! That's like begging to be robbed! I have money invested in these items!" He argued, "I can't just walk away."

"Maybe you should have thought of that before you sold a bottle with a dangerous substance in it to unsuspecting customers." She snapped. "I don't ca…" She was interrupted by an audible gasp. "You can't mean someone actually ingested" (he emphasized the latter syllable of the word as if to create more weight for it) "the contents of that bottle?!" The man was shaking his head "Oh this is bad, very bad."

"You think?!" Relena was about to jump over the table of the stall and strangle the imbecile when the man threw up his hands as if to protect himself. "Please! I..I'll go with you. I have a…friend who can watch my stall." He waved to someone across from him, "hey Jer, mind watching my stall for a few?" he called out. "Sure thing man, I'll keep an eye on it." He gave his friend a thumbs-up and walked around the back of the stall to join Relena as she waited. Together they walked quickly back to Relena's car where Hilde and their men waited not-so-patiently.

Hilde saw them coming and told Heero/cat and Duo/book to keep a lid on it and climbed nonchalantly out of the car and stood to meet them.

"Hilde this is the vendor Heero bought the bottle from." She looked at the man and blinked, "I'm sorry, I didn't get your name." He shuffled his feet a bit and replied that his name was Tom. "Well then, Hilde, meet Tom, Tom, my best friend Hilde." The man nodded and Hilde expressed a greeting.

"Ok now that that's out of the way, what do you know about the bottle and its contents?"

The man seemed to wilt the moment she mentioned the bottle again. He heaved a sigh.

"The stories tell that there is some kind of curse associated with that bottle's contents." He said finally. "No one knows exactly how old it is; only that it is thought to have been created by gypsies. I never really believed the stories, or the warnings about gypsy curses, I have a living to make you know?" He looked at Hilde imploringly and found no more sympathy in her hard gaze than he had seen in Relena's. He looked away.

"So, what exactly DO the stories say about the bottle's contents?" Hilde said finally, breaking the lengthening silence.

"Well…" He hesitated, glancing at her. "They do say that if one happens to ingest the cursed liquid inside, strange things happen to that person." His eyes flicked to Relena's and then back to Hilde's.

"Strange things, huh? Just how strange are we talking about?" Relena questioned.

"Strange enough that they are things that shouldn't normally be able to happen." He sighed. "If you must know, people have been known to disappear after partaking of the bottle's contents. Some have been…" he hesitated "changed."

"Did they ever change back to normal?" Hilde questioned, almost too quickly.

The man looked away. "No." He said quietly. "I have never heard a story in which could have been found a 'happy ending'. The stories imply that Gypsy curses are by their very nature malevolent, and usually do not come with an equal counterpart de-curse."

Relena and Hilde both stood silently, trying to accept what they were hearing, and neither able to entirely comprehend the current status quo remaining permanent. Their eyes caught and skittered away, each unwilling to hold the other's gaze.

"Are you sure?" There was a slight tremor in Relena's voice and she hated herself for it.

Tom felt a bit of pity for the girl, as roughly as he felt she'd treated him he was sure something terrible must have happened to someone she knew and he had no clue how to help. "I'm sorry." His tone was sincere. "I would truly help you if I could."

"Do you know anyone who might know anything more?" Hilde wasn't about to just give up, just like that. There HAD to be someone who knew more about it!

A shadow seemed to cross his face for a moment. "There is…someone. I have only heard talk, legends if you will, but she is, from what I've heard, a very powerful, very old and very dangerous woman." He frowned. "She is a gypsy. Not one of these, fly-by-night, wannabe gypsies, but a real living gypsy of the old world."

"Where can we find her?"

There was a moment of silence. "The tales say you don't merely find Madam Vadoma; she will summon you if she desires your audience."

"Then how exactly DO we get an audience with this freaky old hag anyway?" All three of them jumped and three pairs of eyes stared at one love encyclopedia leaning half in, and half out of the car's window that he had lowered sometime in the middle of their conversation.

Tom choked and spluttered and coughed, whacking his chest with a trembling hand and trying to tell himself that he was certainly NOT seeing a large, talking book with impossibly thin arms. Hilde and Relena chose that moment to un-freeze.

"DUO!" They shouted in unison, and he jumped, losing his balance and falling back into the car and off the seat down to the floor, once again on his face. He thumped his tiny fists on the carpet and began the slow process of righting himself, muttering all the while about 'women'.

Relena immediately glanced around to see if anyone had heard their outburst, but luckily no one was visible nearby. Hilde apologized to Tom. "Sorry about that. I guess the cat's out of the bag so to speak." She muttered wryly.

"No" came a smaller but distinctly male voice "NOW the cat is out of the bag."

Once again all three heads snapped to the door of the car, this time to see Heero/cat standing on the seat, paws on the door next to the door lock, looking positively pleased with himself as only a cat can.

Relena made a strangled, gurgling sound, opening and closing her mouth as if she'd been a fish pulled out of water. Hilde's breath whooshed out of her and her eyes flew to the heavens in some sort of silent plea for this nightmare to please, please, be over.

The poor flea market vendor just stood there, blinking, telling himself that he wasn't looking at a talking cat. No…of course not, wasn't possible. Stories were one thing, this, this was something else altogether.

Duo/book chose this moment to pop his flat head back over the door having finally managed to climb back up.

"Ok, I understand why he's so shocked, but what's wrong with you two?" The tension was almost palpable. The very air seemed to thicken and darken with the weight of female wrath. "Duo." Heero/cat said matter-of-factly. "You, are an idiot. Incidentally, so am I. That's what's wrong with them."

"How do you figure?" Duo/book was feeling a bit confused. "I know you're an idiot, but that doesn't make me one by association!" He grinned.

Heero/cat slanted his eyes at the love encyclopedia. "Ok genius; tell me the one thing Relena and Hilde told us NOT to do when Relena went to find the vendor?" Duo/book blinked, and then his flat leather lips formed a small O and he looked up first at Hilde, then Relena in apology. "Sorry, I sorta forgot what you said about staying hidden. I just got excited and…" His voice trailed off uncertainly. "Sorry Relena" Heero/cat apologized simply. "It was an accident."

Relena finally had a hold of herself and she let her breath hiss through her teeth. "You..you..oooh!" She said angrily, as if she had no other words to express herself at that exact moment, clenching her fists and glaring at the two offenders in absolute frustration and irritation. She gathered herself finally and squared her shoulders, her head high. "You two are worse than a couple of children! How hard is it to keep quiet and hidden? I mean really?! Do you have any idea what kind of trouble you may have caused us?" Her voice had begun to get louder and she realized it. Lowering her voice she began again. "This is a public place you numbskulls!" She hissed quietly. "Did you stop to think what might happen if the authorities were to see you? What if Tom here decides to rat us out? What do you think they'd do to us, not to mention to the two of you if they got ahold of you huh? Did you think of that, smart guys?" She took a deep breath and looked over at the man she had mentioned. Tom still looked rather shell-shocked, but by this time it seemed more like slight amusement. He didn't give the offender's time to answer.

"I can understand your predicament, and certainly your wish for secrecy. I definitely understand your interest in finding Madam Vadoma." The corners of his mouth kept trying to stretch upwards into a smile but the man managed to control them admirably.

Hilde looked as if she were grinding her teeth for a moment before saying "well this certainly wasn't how we had planned to do this, but since the..." she checked herself. "Since the beans have been spilled it appears we have no choice but to trust you." She turned to completely face the poor vendor, planted her hands on her hips and leaned forwards slightly in an intimidating gesture. "If you even THINK about ratting us out; I will hunt you down like a dog! There is nowhere in this world that you can hide. Remember that!"

Duo/book's eyebrows (such as they were) raised a little at the concentrated venom in his wife's tone. He wasn't the only one. Relena was looking at her slightly askance, and Heero/cat had also raised a feline brow, if such were possible.

Tom had taken a step back in the face of Hilde's undisguised threat, and he cleared his throat nervously as he had done when Relena had first pressured him in his stall not so very long ago. Only this time, he was well and truly spooked. He was no snitch, he hadn't lived this long by being so, and somehow he had to make sure these people knew that. He had a feeling they could make good on whatever promises they made. "I..I..ahem" he stuttered and cleared his throat again "I will not betray your confidence." He finished, breathing a sigh of relief, as if speaking had suddenly become quite difficult.

"You better not!" This time it was Relena who spoke. The man hastened to assure them that he would keep their secret and agreed to assist them in any way he could. "Well yeah, seeing as how it's YOUR fault I'm a flipping book right now and all, you darn right better help!" Duo/book added sourly.

"SHUT UP!" It was like being shushed in stereo. Relena and Hilde glared equally angrily at Duo/book and he quietly slid down the car door to lean back against the seat in consternation. Heero/cat flattened his ears and slunk off the car door himself and crouched down on the seat next to him. They exchanged a look that seemed to say "we know when we're licked" and they individually resolved to keep silent; it appeared to be safer that way.

Relena asked the man for his phone number and threatened him with the wrath of all the women wronged by men in the world if he gave her the wrong number. Hilde produced a piece of paper and pen and he hastened to write his name and phone number on it. "That's my real name and number I promise." He assured them. "It had better be, or else!" Hilde said emphatically, not wanting to be left out.

"Ah, well it's been…interesting, but I really need to get back to my stall. Jerry must be getting a little frantic trying to manage both of ours." He was proud of himself for his calm delivery of that statement considering the things he'd just seen.

"Of course." Relena nodded her head. "Thank you for your information and cooperation Tom. We will be in touch for more details."

He laughed nervously, "sure thing" he answered as he strode away, hoping to put as much distance between he, and them, as quickly as possible.

"Let's get out of here, I, for one, have seen enough of this place." Relena stated, and they piled into the car and drove away, each quietly wondering how the next step of their journey would present itself.