Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Life Is Pain ❯ Part 4 ( Chapter 4 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

LiP: Can we say, Group Hug?
Okay, this is part 4. Yes, I'm being a bit sarcastic with the title. For those of you who care (Kitsune, you'd better be listening!!) I'm writing this *even* tho it's the week before my finals (gasp!!) But, since these don't take me much time, I should still have plenty o' time for studying.
Disclaimers: Not mine. I only have my five, and that's assuming they quit stealing my pocky. 1x2, 2+5, 3x4, R&H bashing, *waaaaaaay* AU, YAOI, OOC, OC, magic, mayhem, the whole nine yards. NO, none of "my" girls end up with the pilots. I like the yaoi pairings intact.
A/N: Um, in "life", the girls weren't precisely human. Akabri was a vampire, Ierne was a were-panther (You find this out *waaaaaay* later, BTW), and see if you can figure out the other three.
Life Is Pain: Can We Get Moving?
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Flaming Eagle sat at the nice round table in the dining room. :Whoever picked out the digs sure did nice,: she thought, looking around. :Nice to know that Quatre's got that kind of connection.:

Wufei sat opposite her, concentrating intently on anything but her. *Bad enough she has to show up here, but she dragged me out of *my* room by the neck of my shirt and the seat of my pants.*

Ierne walked in, Duo's braid in tow. "Flame, I thought we agreed that you wouldn't carry him down like so much baggage?" she asked, absently tugging on the braid.

"ITAI!! That hurts!!" Duo yelled, clutching the base of his braid.

Flaming Eagle looked at Ierne and then at her screaming shadow. "I didn't. I put him down like he was just so much *expensive* baggage." She said, stifling a grin. Pointing at the braid clutched in the petite redhead's hand, she raised an eyebrow. "And I thought we agreed that his braid would go untouched?"

Ierne sheepishly grinned and let go of the braid. "Heh." She ran a hand through her shoulder-length curls. "The others coming?"

Flaming Eagle nodded. "Sköll, Akabri and Chen are on their way as we speak." She messed with a crease in her shirt, a habit that even death didn't break.

"Make that Akabri and Sköll are on the way," Chen said softly, her hand in a death grip on Heero's wrist. He glared up at her, but maintained a stony silence.

Duo looked in shock at his silent lover. *He's not fighting her? Has the world suddenly gone mad?* his shock at seeing Heero so calm made him forget that Ierne still had his braid in her hand. He walked forward, towards Heero, before feeling like someone was trying to scalp him. "Leggo leggo leggo!!!" He yelled, reaching around to swat the petite redhead.

Ierne grinned. "You wish," she said dryly, her grey eyes glinting evilly.

Trowa and Sköll came in silently, Trowa shying away from the tall blonde.

Sköll sighed. "They remember you?" she asked, not bothering to explain, since the women all knew what she meant.

Chen and Ierne nodded. Chen's soft voice seemed to ring. "You?"

Sköll sighed and nodded. "A bit too much, I'm afraid. Seems that it didn't work." Her blonde hair fell gently down her back in a waterfall as she stood there, Trowa noticed absently.

Quatre entered the room with Akabri behind him. "Ah," Quatre suddenly gasped with shock. "I didn't think anyone would be down here, right now." He said apologetically.

Akabri shrugged. "Actually, it's better now that all of us are together. We have little time to explain things, and we need to not have to repeat ourselves." Her gold eyes scrutinized each of the pilots. "I'd recommend that you all sit, but I am certain that none of you will, so I won't say it."

Chen nodded and tugged on Heero's wrist. "Do yourself a favor and calm down. We're not here to eat you--you're scrawnier than I remembered, anyway." She grinned.

Ierne had wrapped Duo's braid around her hand. "Take a seat," she said, tugging on the braid, enough to qualify as a warning. With a glare, Duo dropped into the chair in front of him.

Akabri's gold eyes widened with surprise, but it washed over her briefly. "Well, we should get this over with so you know what you've gotten into." She let her hands fall to her sides as she stood there. "Chen, would you--?"

Chen's green eyes narrowed for a second as she sat down, but her face was bemused. "As you may have guessed, we are those 'evil demons' that you've heard about. Well, 'demon' isn't actually accurate. We were dead, long ago," she said, setting her hands on the table.

Ierne grinned and patted Duo's shoulder. "But some real half-brained-nimrod of a witch decided to jolt us out of our deserved rest so we could do her mistress's dirty work."

Chen shot a glare at the petite redhead, and sighed. "Blunt, but true. We were bound--magically--to her mistress, to do whatever she required."

Sköll nodded. "She wanted us to kill Duo." Her voice seemed to catch over the name. "And make Heero love her." She shuddered in disgust. "As if even with our *combined* powers we could do that."

Heero went pale. "Who?" he asked quietly, looking at Chen.

Chen shrugged. "As Quatre already knows, to give someone one's soulname is to give them power over you. As such, the bitch never told us her name. We learned it later, of course," she said, almost flippantly.

"But until we did learn it, we were in no position to even try and rid ourselves of her." Flaming Eagle said dryly, tapping the table with her nails. "Then she made a crucial mistake."
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Relena frowned as she looked at her latest reports on Heero. He had been seen with a young Asian woman, who had even gone so far as to embrace him. Her anger started to rise. *That little whore--I'll teach her who he belongs to,* she thought, ripping the report into shreds. "HILDE!" she yelled, causing her castle to reverberate with the sound.

Hilde, a small woman with jet black hair and fair skin, suddenly appeared in Relena's chamber. "Mistress?" she asked, her voice syrupy sweet as she bowed.

Relena looked at Dorothy's replacement. *Pity one of those demons killed Doro-chan like that--if it had left the head and heart intact, I could have had Hilde raise her. But, not even the most skilled necromancer can do *that* without head and heart intact.* She sighed. "What do you know about this woman that was seen with my fiancé?" she asked calmly, as if inquiring about the weather.

Hilde inwardly groaned. *Damn. And here I thought that today would be something different. I'm a sorceress, damn it, and I *should* be using my skills with *some* diversity--not just to spy on some poor snot who has attracted *her* attention,* she thought. "I know nothing, Mistress, other than she has not been seen outside of his presence. But, there are other reports of different women appearing close to your fiancé's friends--"

Relena waved it away. "I care nothing about those other women. I only want to know of the woman seen with *him*." Her cornflower blue eyes were wide with contained rage.

Hilde recognized a dismissal when she heard one. *Time to go,* she thought, vanishing quickly. She already had one scar from the last time Relena had gotten angry--a nice long gash that ran up her spine uninterrupted.

When she reappeared in her laboratory, Hilde was shocked to find two of the self-styled Queen's bodyguards. The more menacing of the two was examining a cauldron bubbling with Hilde's lunch--not that anyone would recognize it as such.

"Lady Une, Lady Noin, I am surprised by your sudden arrival," Hilde said, mentally calculating the quickest way to get them out.

Une was the taller of the two, her hair precisely combed and braided into two buns on either side of her head. Her glasses gleamed, even in the low light. "Schbieker-san, how nice of you to finally grace us with your presence." (A/N: If someone could review with how you're actually *supposed* to spell her last name, I'd be *very* grateful!)

Noin was the kinder of the two. Her hair, blue-black in most lights, was arranged neatly so that one eye was covered at all times. Only those who knew her knew that it covered a scar that cut across her right eye. "We were wondering, Hilde-san, if you could tell us precisely what threat these unknown women would prove to be?" her voice was sweet and gentle, though it was common knowledge that she could break a man's neck with little exertion.

Hilde gulped and fidgeted with the hem of her over-large tee shirt. *Gods, do I tell them that I have no idea and risk being hung, or lie and pray that they don't catch it?* she thought quickly. "Quite honestly, mi'ladies, I have no idea as to what kind of threat they may be."

Une's head snapped up to look directly at the smaller woman. "You're a sorceress and you don't know?" she asked incredulously. "Maybe Queen Relena-san has overestimated your abilities?"

Noin put a gentle hand on Une's shoulder. "She's telling the truth, Une. She really doesn't know." Her words were soft, as if consoling the taller woman. It was well known that they were lovers, but very few people actually caught them being any more than polite when other people were around.

Hilde's mouth hung open with shock. *I'd heard rumors that one of her bodyguards could be a truth-senser, but NOIN?!* her thoughts started running in circles in her head. *I'm dead I'm dead I'm dead!*

Une snorted and gently removed the hand. "Well, since you know nothing *now*, please inform us as to when you do." Her request was not just that: it was a command. Her eyes narrowed behind her glasses as she looked at the small sorceress. "You will, won't you?"

Hilde nodded. "How could I refuse?" she whispered, fear crawling over her skin like a wet snake.

Une nodded and started to leave. Noin, however, lingered for a second, staring at the goop in the cauldron.

"Hilde?" Noin asked, looking with a very puzzled expression on her face." Aren't there more--modern ways to go about brewing this stuff?"

Hilde grinned and nodded. "Hai, but you lose some of the potency with the more 'modern' ways."

Noin cringed and shuddered. "I hope that Relena-san doesn't get near this stuff. For your sake."

Hilde grinned. "Hey--don't tell me that. *YOU* are supposed to keep her out of here--aren't you?"

Noin started turning green. "I'll keep that in mind."

After Noin left, Hilde laughed and tasted the evil-smelling brew. *Hm. Nearly ready. Just needs some salt.*
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Chen looked grim. "Well, now you know. You with us?"

Duo nodded. "After the hell Relena's put us through, I'm in. She's due for a payback." His amethystine eyes were humorless as he spoke.

Trowa nodded. "Definitely." His emerald green eyes were narrow.

Quatre nodded also, silently putting his hand on Trowa's. "After what she's put you through, she should be punished--even though it's dangerous."

Wufei snorted. "She is a weak onna. I see no reason as to--" his speech broke off abruptly.

Flaming Eagle had his arm firm in a joint lock. "You finish that statement and you'll not be going anywhere except to the infirmary, baka." Her voice was cold, and the typical laughing look she wore was nowhere to be seen.

Chen looked over at Heero. "Well? Are you with us?"

Heero simply looked at her. *If we go--then we might kill Relena--but if we don't, she'll try and kill Duo again.* He thought, trying to figure out what to do.

Sköll put a hand on his shoulder. "You're coming." She said, an evil glint in her eye. "We need bait to keep her occupied while we disable her latest sorceress."

Heero looked at the blonde in shock. Jerking his shoulder back, he growled, "Kill Relena and I'll kill you. The only one who will do it is me."

Chen's eyes widened in shock at the sudden transformation. Akabri gulped loudly. Flaming Eagle only grinned. Ierne frowned slightly, but the frown was defeated by the manic gleam in her eyes. Sköll only smiled.

Ierne finally cleared her throat. "Well, now that that is decided, shall we team up?"
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Soooooo, whatcha think? ::nudges Ryu-kun to act as announcer:: Will Heero finally rid himself of Relena? Will Wufei realize that a woman isn't weak simply because she's...well...a woman? Why are the strange women so determined to kill Relena, anyway? Until Part 5, ciao! ^.~