FUTURE HAUNTS
By ~ K.T.

Chapter I

Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing (no kidding) and I'm not worth the
trouble it would take to go through a load of hassle and the years it would
take before the case would ever actually ensue in a court room...if any
offense is taken, please forgive, ya da, ya da, ya da....

Words surrounded in ** means that they're italicized.

Relena Darlian breathed in the crisp, clean air.  She walked brusquely, the
chill of the sharp morning breeze beginning to penetrate her thin sweater.
She glanced up and saw a blond haired young man ahead.  Her eyes widened in
delightful surprise.
         "Relena!"  The boy called with a hand to his mouth.
   Relena began to run and met him in a hug.
         "Quatre!"  She pulled back to gaze at his boyish face.  His gentle
blue eyes sought hers and smiled at the contentment they saw.
        "Hello, Relena."  He took her arm and looped it through his own in
joyful comradery.
     "When did you get in?"  She asked, curious that no one had bothered to
tell her.
    "Last night. We had to..."
         "We?"  She stopped and looked at him, her gaze hopeful.
     Quatre laughed.
        "Heero and I."
     "Oh!"  Relena gave him an impulsive hug and then laughed at her own
childishness.
Quatre merely smiled.  Abruptly, Relena cocked her head to one side the
long, sandy hair swishing to the side.  She stared at him, her brows furred
in question as she found she was looking *up* at her blond friend.
    "Quatre...I...have you grown?"
His eyes twinkled.
     "I'll say.  And it's about time too."
   Relena laughed.
--------------------------------------

"I don't like it, Pagan."  Heero told Relena's butler while watching Quatre
and Relena from an upstairs window.  He turned and faced the older man.
           "There have been too many space shuttles sneaking past
surveillance and onto Earth. Not only that," he looked back out the window,
his voice dropping to a near whisper. "We don't have an army to fight off
any attacks made by outside groups."
       "Their are the Preventers as well as the Gundam pilots..." Pagan
pointed out but stopped when he saw Heero's shoulders droop.  The older man
had never truly taken a liking to this proud, young soldier.  He feared that
one day, Heero Yuy would bring Relena more harm then he could save her from.
But, this strange sign of emotion stirred the older man's heart.
"We aren't going to be around forever."  Heero told the butler quietly,
evenly. "What if...what if something happened to us..."  His eyes trailed
Relena's slim form as she laughed at something Quatre said.  The two bodies
walked towards the Mansion's front door, and out of Heero's sight.  He drew
back from the window and closer to the fire crackling in the hearth.
           Pagan, wisely, said nothing.
      "I *do* not."  Quatre protested as both he and Relena entered the
spacious room laughingly-breathless.
     Relena stopped when she saw Heero.  A smile broke out on her face,
stretching from eye to eye. Heero suppressed a wince at that look of
adoration.  She walked towards him and stood closely, staring up at his
stoic features.
"Hello, Heero."  She said in that quiet, soothing manner of hers.  Heero
glanced up at movement behind her and saw the backs of Pagan and Quatre as
they left the room and shut the door behind them quietly.
     Heero's gaze returned to Relena.  He gave her a nod of acknowledgment.
       "Relena."  He named her, his voice sounding hoarse to his own ears.
Why did she always have this effect on him?!  Just because she was kind and
sweet and loving, and...everything he had never known.  She was like a
heaven of its own. He could control his attraction to other girls fine.
After all, it was only physical abstinence.  He could control his mind and
body...but his heart...his soul.  Whenever he hear Relena's name mentioned,
his heart beat just a little faster; his soul seemed to expand at her nearness.
        "I'm glad you came."  She told him in that same honesty that had
always drawn him to her.
    Heero couldn't meet her warm gaze.
      "I was just going this way and met up with Quatre, and..."   And he
forgot the rest.
      Relena's blue eyes were like two stars, shining; shining just for him.
He allowed his gaze to travel over her close face down to her lips.  He
watched in fascination as they parted slightly, her breath coming faster
between them. Heero unconsciously began to lean forward.  Relena's eye-lids
drooped, dimming the shine in them.

*A mahogany haired girl in a white-floppy hat smiled down at him, her face
so innocent.  So sweatily trusting.  A white, shaggy puppy licked his cheek
and the girl laughed, a sound so beautiful he was sure she had to be an angel...
The buildings fell, demolished by the exploded pieces of mobile
doll...fire, fire burned everywhere...A small, furry gray-ish lump lying in
a pile of ruble from one of the apartment buildings.  A squished and torn,
white-floppy hat...*

         Heero pulled back and stared a Relena in shock.  He turned from her
and strode back to the window staring up at the sky in horrified
recollection.  He could never allow his feelings for Relena Darlian turn
into anything more than admiration for her courageous personality.  He had
too much blood on his hands.  She deserved better.
          "Heero?"  Her troubled voice filled his ears and he closed his eyes.
      *Why?!  Why did he have to care about this girl?!*
He turned, his gaze impassive.
     "Actually, I came to see Lady Use."  He told her.
         Relena blinked, her eyes filled with betrayal.  Heero merely waited.
     "Oh."  She breathed.
         Heero strode past her toward the door, but Relena caught at the
sleeve of his collared shirt as he went by.
        "Heero, can you look me in the eye and tell me honestly that you
don't care for me."  Her lips trembled slightly but Heero steeled himself
against the plea in her blue-green eyes; those same eyes that always
reminded him of the beauty and depth of the ocean.
       "I don't know how to care..."  He began.
    "Oh, stop!"  She ground out, tears of frustration actually spilling out
over her soft cheeks. "you know as well as I do that's not true."  She
tugged hard on his sleeve for emphasis. "I know you, Heero Yuy..."
         "Do you?"  He gripped her soft shoulders and brought her face close
to his own.  His brows were drawn sharply together, two lines cut between
them.  "Than who am I, Relena.  What is my real name?"  He shook her
demandingly.
Relena felt the same haunting fear she had felt the first time she had met
Heero. Then, it had been a fear death, and the fact  that someone her age
would threaten to kill her and mean it.  Now it was a fear of something
bigger than both her and Heero. Something beyond her grasp that hovered
between them and she couldn't seem to reach it.
  Nearly a year ago, Heero had risked his life to save her, again.  He had
gotten shot at, blown up, and rescued her from Mariamia's grandfather.
Relena remembered the two weeks of recuperation that Heero spent at her
home.  She thought that they were at least becoming friends.  Then he had
left, again.
As she looked at him now, Relena began to doubt her instincts.  This was
not her Heero.  This was a stranger...oh, he still had that haunted look
that drew Relena to him as a mother would her child, but now...now there was
something else as well, something new. He was...older.  His body was still
lean, but filled out in places that had been so holocaust-ly emaciated.  His
face was more defined, the planes and curves chiseled to a perfection which
only added to his boyish-manly good-looks.  The hands that moved down to
grip her upper arms were both strong and large; the hold captivating without
pain.
  She gazed up at him, hurt and pity mingling in her tear filled gaze.
Heero let her go, shoving her lightly away.   He was disgusted.  Disgusted
with her pity and disgusted with himself.
       "I'm sorry."  He told her.
      A slim hand rested on his arm but he jerked out from under her touch
as if it burned him.  Relena drew back in hurt.
         Heero ran a hand through his mop of brown hair, giving a frustrated
sigh of his own. Then he made his way to the door. He stopped at the door,
his back to her. Heero turned slightly, his deep eyes burning with all the
longing he felt.
        "You know," he swallowed, and Relena saw a sheen glaze over his blue
eyes. His voice was once again hoarse when he spoke and Relena longed to
hold him close to her, to comfort the lonely confusion she saw mirrored in
his tragic gaze. "if I...if I could care about someone...it would be someone
like you."  He turned the knob and walked out.
Relena sank into a nearby chair and threw her head on her arms.  Her slim
shoulders shook with  the sobs she had always stubbornly held back.
  ----------------------------

"Hey, Heero!  Wait up!"  Quatre shouted to his friend.
        Heero kept walking, knowing Quatre would catch up anyway.  The kid
had suddenly started growing and hadn't stopped.  Heero began to feel his
5"11" height was being threatened by the 5"10" blond.
        "Where're you going?"  The boy asked in his gentle,  breathless
voice which was pitched some where between a man and a boy's.  He drew up
along side Heero and matched his stride with the slightly taller, young
man's long-legged one.
"I already told you that I was coming here for a reason."  Heero told him.
     "Yeah."  Quatre nodded, his eyes intent on his feet. "But I just
assumed the reason was Relena."
      Heero stopped abruptly and Quatre stopped to turn and face the dark
haired young man.
        "Why does everyone think that there is something between Relena and
me?!"  He demanded.
      Quatre shrugged.
         "Well..." he drawled. "it's plain on her face and you...you always
come to her rescue...and you talk about her at the oddest times..." Quatre
trailed off uncertainly.
      Heero pressed his lips into a thin, white line and then let out a
curse.  He glared at the horizon and then started off again.  Quatre once
again matched his pace to that of his friend's.  He took one last glance
back at the large mansion and then turned forward.
----------------------------------
"Everyone should be made aware of the Shadow's presence."  A man told
another in a low voice.  The older man, Gerald Kroitsoff, shook his head
determinedly.
         "That would cause the information to spread too far.  It could
never be contained to just the base."
         His companion, a man his junior by about twenty years, slammed his
fist down on the table between them.
"What is so important about keeping the Shadow's presence a secret?!"  He
eyed the older man with a fanatical gleam lurking in their blue depths.  "I,
for one, do not intend upon following some young, swaggering fool who thinks
he can lead the OZ forces into an attack against the Gundams.  If no one has
succeeded before, what makes him think he can?!"
          "Because I know how the Gundams were built."  A deep, smooth voice
with a hint of the old Spanish accent in it, came from the entrance of the
tent.
      Kroitsoff stood hastily to his feet, giving the OZ salute.  His
younger man sat still, scowling at the Shadow's cloaked form.
The Shadow came forward and sat in the third chair staring at the two
soldiers who sat at either side, his dark-skinned hands folded together on
the table-top.
     "I am prepared to die for my intentions."   He looked both of them in
the eye and then dropped his shadowed gaze, studying the table. "You should
ask yourselves if you are also so prepared."
       "Listen, you cocky little bastard," the younger man grabbed the front
of the Shadow's poncho and jerked him half way across the table. "Don't
think you can presume to tell me what to do.  As far as I've been told,
you're just riding along on this little venture."
          The Shadow's face was half-hidden by the lip of the sombrero he
wore, but the curve of his own lips were seen as he began to laugh.  Not
just a snicker, a real laugh.  Maniacal, knowing, and devoid of all feeling
but bitter hatred; the laugh made Kroitsoff's hair stand on end.
        "Ryden, let him..."  But Kroitsoff was cut off by Ryden Alayn's cry.
The boy staggered back, tumbling over his chair.   He sat up, a dazed
expression on his handsome face, his hand pressed to his neck.
        Kroitsoff had stood to his feet as Ryden fell back and he now stared
at the, tall, broad  form of the Shadow.  The cloaked, young man wiped his
bloodied knife on his pant leg, turned to Kroitsoff, and regarded him with
his shaded eyes.
       "Your faithfulness will be remembered."   He said, sketching a
mocking bow with a brown-skinned hand. Then he was gone.
    "Ryden," Kroitsoff knelt next to the shuddering younger man. "Ryden?"
        The young man pulled his hand from his throat to show a smeared line
of blood cut from ear to ear.
     "Did he puncture your pipe?"  The older man asked.
          Ryden shook his head, the humiliation of what had just occurred
sinking in and causing his blood to boil.
       "That Shadow will be sorry for this."  He rasped, glaring at the tent
flaps with seething hatred.  "I swear it!"
----------------------------------------------------

"I can't say that I've seen anything strange..."  Une glanced at the
computer screen and gave the needed code. "I think I've done it."  She
glanced at Heero with a satisfied smile and then looked back at the screen.
"This should give us access to any satellite shots for the past fifteen
hours."
      Heero leaned over her shoulder, his gaze fixed on the screen shots as
they downloaded.
         "Can they trace the download?"   He asked.
     "Who?"  Une looked at him.
           "Space Immigration Control."   He met her honey-brown gaze. "Can
they trace the download to here?"   Lady Une frowned at the screen.
      "I don't think so..."
    Heero nudged her to the side and took a place infront of the keyboard.
         "Let's make sure."
      He played around with the inside data, hacking his way into the
central computer system until the main file was brought up.
        "We'll just lead them to suspect every member of their company
before they even think to look for any outside infiltration."   He threw Une
a grin.
Une gave a bright laugh.
        "Heero Yuy, you never cease to amaze me."
------------------------------------
"So, some little space craft has landed somewhere in the old,  U.S. of A.,
uh?"  Quatre looked at the print outs. "I doubt they were carrying anything
that would pose a threat to Earth."
          Heero grunted.
    "And besides," Quatre went on. "The satellite shields would have
detected any large metal substances..."
         Heero leaned back in his chair and toyed with the mouse.
     "What is it?"  Quatre stood behind him resting his hands on the
slightly older man's shoulders.
    "Don't know..."  Heero answered quietly, more to himself than Quatre.
"Maybe..."   His fingers came to life, dancing on the keyboard as he typed
in the needed codes.
         "What are you doing?"  Quatre leaned forward a little to see the
screen better.
      "If *I* can get to the central computer system and control the
satellites to see what I want to..."  Heero began.
     "Why can't *someone else* override the alarm command and enter the
atmosphere undetected."  Quatre finished.
        "Exactly."  Heero gave Quatre a humorless smile.
-----------------------------------

Duo Maxwell stared up at the stars, a dumb grin stretched out across his
handsome face.  He let his dark, indigo eyes wander down to the mountains
surrounding the small valley he had stayed the night in.  He nearly started
laughing at the unaccountable joy that well up with in him.
          Duo rolled over onto his stomach, propping himself up onto his
elbows and typed a few memos into his small, travel sized lap-top.  He
frowned for a moment over the spelling of a word.
       "All those years of training to become the God of Death and someone
could take me out at a spelling bee."  He chewed on his thumb nail and then
squirmed a bit in his position.
     "Ah, to hell with it!"   He exclaimed, his deep voice echoing into the
night and even startling *himself*.  Than a beeping went off and that
startled him even worse.
         "Duo?"  A voice came across his com-link. "Duo?"
    The voice cracked, causing Duo to snicker at his young, blond friend's
sudden growth spurt.
        "Hey, Quatre."  He buzzed through. "What's going down?"
     "Duo, I think we've got some trouble."
        "Oh, man."  Duo rolled his head back and rubbed the back of his neck
with a strong hand. "What now?"  He demanded a second later.
       "Well, Heero's found out some pretty interesting stuff."
     "Uh-uh."  Duo nodded to the com-link. "What *kind* of 'interesting
stuff'?"
         "Look, Duo."  Heero's strong, monotone-as-usual voice came through.
"Either you get your lazy ass over here, or I'm going to come get you."
      Duo bristled.
      "Is that a threat?"  He demanded, his voice a mixture of mocking and
dead-intensity.
    "It's a fact."  Heero snapped.
      Duo calmed at the sign of emotion in his friend's voice.  It still
amazed him every time he heard *any* emotion there.
   "Where are you?"  He asked them.
      "At Une's."  Came the reply.
    "See you in thirteen."  He informed them.
       -------------------------------
        Catherine Bloom stared through the target board even as she drew
back her arm to let a knife fly.  She didn't really need the practice, just
something to distract her mind from the worry she felt over Trowa's long
absence.  She hadn't heard from him in over eight months!  Catherine threw
all five of her knives and then ran out of the large circus tent before even
waiting to see if they hit the target.
She stared up at the night sky, willing Trowa to fall from it. Where was he?!
       Something warm and hard clamped over her mouth and a strong arm
pinned her own arms to her sides.  She wriggled, but to no avail.
"Well, well, well."  Hot breath hit her ear and tickled the inside.
Catherine gave a muffled scream from behind her captor's hand. "What have we
here?"
                        -------------------------








Mary Paradis