Hey there. This is the first
part of the sequal to Future
Haunts. I'm hoping to do one more "sequal" to this one which will be a three
part story. Nevermind, you'll see when I'm finished.
This story is mostly Action and Angst/Death.
Description: It's been seven mons. since the G-gang met Sabriel. While
they're glad to have another ally, there's not much they know about
this mysterious red-head...
Past Ghosts
A Gundam Fan-Fiction & Sequel To
Future Haunts
Part I
Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing. I do, however, own the characters
of Sabriel, N'Brekk, Rina, the Shadow Warriors (each and every one ^_~) and the
bad
guys.Oh! And the story line.
Note: the Preventers are like the Army/Police of Space. The Shadow
Warriors are the Army/Police of Earth. Also, this fic is mainly to explain
some of the things in Future Haunts which may be in question.
Words surrounded by * are in italics.
A.C. 198
5:23pm
Amber eyes stared, unflinchingly, into chocolate brown. The
golden
gaze dared the brown-eyed owner to make a move. The lids closed
half-way
on theamber gaze as the young woman sat back in triumph. Then, before she
could react, the little brown-eyed owner darted for the sofa.
"Oh no, you don't!" Sabriel lunged for the puppy
and managed to
grasp one of its hind legs.
She laughed softly as the puppy turned around and nipped at her hand.
Then, switching her hand from leg to leg, Sabriel pulled the light-yellow
bundle of fur toward her and scooped him up into her arms.
"Sabriel? Oh!" Relena stopped in the
doorway as the
spikey-red-head emerged from underneath the coffee table. Relena smiled lovingly
down
on the girl until the young woman stood to her feet. Then Relena's gaze
moved
up to meet the amber eyes of the embarrassed looking Sabriel.
"I didn't let him get onto the couch." The red
head said, her
cheeks faintly pink.
Relena's smile grew to one of amusement and she shook her head at
the silly things which so easily bothered the younger girl.
"I'm not worried." Relena said as she
turned back out. "I just
came to let you know I have to go to an emergency meeting and will probably
not be back before dark."
Sabriel's gaze immediately changed to a serious,
shut-off look.
"Do you need me?" Monotone.
Relena's head cocked to one side as she
studied her young
friend. Then she shook her head.
"I think it will be okay. Just some, over-paranoid, older men
with
too much time on their hands."
Sabriel remained impassive, but Relena had been the
with girl long
enough to recognize the hesitation in the taller woman's stance.
"What?" Relena questioned.
Sabriel's gaze narrowed as she chewed her lower lip
thoughtfully.
"Just be careful, okay."
It was not a request.
Relena gave an inward smile while nodding gravely to the quiet red
head. Then she gave a friendly wave while moving out the door.
Sabriel stared at the spot her employer and
friend had just
vacated, absently stroking the puppy in her arms. The puppy nipped at her
fingers and caught one, returning Sabriel's full attention over to him once
again.
-----------------------------------
4:30pm
Heero shot a death glare at Duo over the big-mouth's
last joke and
then pressed back into the seat of the shuttle, sighing in defeat. He was
never going to get any sleep at this rate. He closed his eyes, his mind
running over the past few days...past few weeks...past few months.
Actually,
it had been seven months. Seven months since he and Trowa had rejoined
their
friends in a beat up Preventer's jeep with an unconscious Sabriel
Aerran on their hands. Seven months of cleaning up the New Dawn's damage
and
following the trail some of the escapees left behind.
After a week of recuperating and relaxing with friends, both Duo and
Heero had headed back to space to join with Wufei in the Preventers Corps.
Duo, because it had been his job. Heero, because he *needed* a job.
True,
he loved Relena Darlian, but people can't live on love, and Heero felt he
needed something a little more substantial in his life then a past full
of death.
He cracked an eye and watched the stars shoot by. They were taking a
leave. Two weeks on vacation. Heero had refrained from telling anyone
on earth in order to surprise Relena. Duo blabbed it to everyone in
headquarters, rubbing it in to some of the lower stationed. Heero's
brows lowered and his other eye snapped open as he listened to the loud-mouth
carry on with the girl next to them. Ugh! He was so annoying...
The shuttle gave a sudden jar and
Heero sat up straight,
immediately alert to any danger. Duo's face had time to scrunch into a
frown
before men with guns poured into the civilian flight deck of the shuttle craft.
"We advise everyone to remain seated.
We are not here to harm
anyone...if you are willing to cooperate."
Duo caught Heero's gaze and the two young men
exchanged a knowing
look.
--------------------------------
6:01pm
"Relena, I'm glad you're here."
Quatre said as he moved to
walk along-side the sandy-blond.
"Quatre, what are you doing he..."
"Look, Relena, there's been a terrorist take over on one of
the
civilian shuttle crafts, which was scheduled to dock at Earth in..." he glanced
at his watch while swinging his brief case out of a secretary's path.
"Twenty-minutes."
Relena stared hard at the floor, her quick thinking
mind working
over-time.
"Fuel?"
"They've enough to finish the trip and make another round to
the
colony."
"How many terrorists?"
Quatre shrugged, running a
flurried hand through his unruly
blond tresses.
"They have no idea. The vid-coms were all shut off, making it
impossible to tell..."
The two diplomats pushed through large
mahogany-wood doors.
Relena stopped in the doorway, Quatre just behind her, as she stared at the
bickering politicians. Quatre and Relena exchanged "why me?" glances
and then Relena proceeded into the room, taking her place at the head of
the large wood table.
"Gentlemen?"
Quatre took the chair at her right, lying his brief case on
top of
the table and opening it with a click.
"GENTLEMEN."
Every eye and ear had the young woman's attention.
"I have just been temp-briefed," her
eyes slid to Quatre and
then back to the others. "about the current situation, but I feel I need
more info."
Everyone sat in his or her seat immediately,
rummaging through
the, haphazardly stacked, papers before them.
Quatre threw the sandy-blond an admiring glance before
pulling out
his organized materials with swift proficiency. He handed them to
the
Foreign-vice-minister and then sat down. Relena sat as well, holding
the papers up before her as she scanned them hungrily.
"Here!" Relena slapped down the paper,
pressing her finger on
the spot she had found. She stood once again to her feet and then waited
until she had every one's attention.
"It says that there are two-hundred, seventy-four
passengers on
the shuttle craft." She looked around the room, pausing for emphasis. "I
want to know every name, every age, every job, every school...in short, I
wish to know everything about each person on board in order to inform their
families of the situation...and...make sure that all civilians are accounted for
when they land."
The
politicians stared at one another and then the room was
filled with a flurry of activity.
Quatre gave Relena an amused smile.
"Nicely done, Foreign-vice-minister."
Relena gave him a queenly nod.
----------------------------------
6:55pm
Trowa slipped into his clown suit, oblivious to all the sounds of
cheering from the crowd just on the other side of the canvas he dressed behind.
His eyes were focused on a cross. More precisely, a cross necklace. He
held it tightly in his hand and then closed his eyes, letting the memories of
so long ago drip into his thoughts.
He saw her, a small blond haired child with large brown eyes. She was
crying, he could see her in his rear-view mirror as he drove away from
her, the large fire behind her a unforgettable back-drop for her sin.
Trowa squeezed his eyes shut tighter, swallowing the acrid taste of
regret that threatened to choke him. His memories traveled back to a time
not
so long ago. Merely seventeen months ago.
*She stared at him, her eyes
filled with betrayal and
righteous anger. "I was a child, Nanashi! And you left
me alone!!!" The beautiful
blond hugged herself, her eyes dripping hot tears. "Everyone leaves me.
Everyone..."
Then she lunged at him with a
knife he hadn't even noticed...
The left side of his face burned with hot blood...*
"Trowa?!"
Catherine's voice penetrated his thoughts and his
eyes snapped open.
"Trowa, we're on!"
Trowa stood to his feet and walked out calmly beside the
smaller
form of his sister.
"TRITON AND CATHERINE BLOOM!!!"
Applause filled the big-top and echoed out into the
night.
--------------------------------------
7:10pm
Sabriel barely brushed her finger tips against the small puppy's head,
marveling at its ability to sleep so peacefully. She sat down on the
bed, her thoughts filled with a young man of eighteen with deep blue eyes
and shaggy brown hair. A smile tugged at her lips as she petted the puppy
once again. She drew it onto her lap and played with the paws, tugged
gently on the velvety ears.
Her brown gaze lightened to its amber
color as she raised her
eyes to the darkening skies and the light of the lamp caught them. He was
out there, somewhere. Heero. The young man who had both destroyed
and
saved her.
She still did not know quite what to feel about
him. She didn't
hate him...it wasn't in her nature to hate. She didn't love him...she
couldn't remember love. It was such a foreign feeling...like an old habit
long
dead.
But, somehow, she felt safe with
Heero Yuy. Safe...and... Her
brother's face flashed into her mind, smiling. She closed her eyes,
picturing him as he was, before they had escaped from their prison of
painful tests and painful deaths.
* "Don't worry, kid. I won't let them get away with
this." He held her tightly to him while she tried to remember who she was.
Her body would not stop shaking, racked with a pain so horrible, so deep
inside her that she could not speak. Could not remember how. All
their
was...was the pain.
"I won't let them get away with
this." His arm unraveled from
around her and he reached out to the tray that had been slid under a
little flap at the bottom of their cell door. Two syringes lay on top.
One
for her. One for him. A counter-acting agent to the pain, while at
the
same time, a mind-controlling drug, inducing chemicals into the brain which
built endurance to pain.
He bared his arm,
injecting the bluish fluid into his body.
Then he grabbed her wrist with one hand and her dosage with the other.
Their gazes met, only for a moment. His blue eyes and her golden-brown...*
Sabriel started and then looked down at the whining puppy in her arms.
She blinked.
"Oh, Ryue. I'm sorry." She buried her face into
the puppy's back,
wishing she could cry the tears that would not come.
--------------------------
7:48pm
"All right, you guys, listen up." Quatre ordered as he held the large
print out of passengers on the shuttle. He glanced down at the papers and
then back
up at the large group of politicians, negotiators, interns, and Shadow
Warriors.
"Counting the pilots and stewardesses on the shuttle, there are exactly
two-hundred, eighty-two people aboard this shuttle. What we need to
find out is how many were killed during the take-over. Another thing we
need to know, is how many terrorists we have on our hands, here."
"Shouldn't we find out what exactly
the terrorists want?" A
man asked from the back of the room.
Quatre nodded, holding up a hand for those who
were voicing their
agreement.
"That's a little difficult with the vid-coms down.
We DO need
confirmation from the terrorists themselves that no one will be hurt
unless we agree to their terms, but until they contact US, we'll just have to
do the best we can with what we know."
People began mumbling, some breaking
out into shouting matches
as each tried to explain his or her idea. Quatre felt the beginnings of a
head ache when the room suddenly hushed. Quatre blinked and then realized
their gazes weren't on him, but waiting expectantly on someone behind him.
"The terrorists have contacted us."
Relena told the crowd,
giving Quatre a small smile of sympathy. Then she turned to the large
monitor
behind her and switched on the vid-screen.
A dark haired man with hazel eyes stared at them, a charming smile
stretched across his Italian features.
"People of the United Sphere. I am
Mikkal deGallo and these,"
the vid-com swept over a long line of black clothed, soldiers. "are my
people. We are the only ones left of the Family."
Quatre frowned, remembering
what Miss Sally had told him about
the Family. Mikkal deGallo's next words, however, emptied every thought
from his head.
"We demand that we be given the new colony
L8 for our clan's
kingdom. You do not need to rule every colony as well as the earth, and we
believe that our terms are reasonable." His smile faded and his eyes
darkened.
"However, until we receive an answer, we are prepared to execute a
hostage every hour." He stared at them for a moment before smiling once
again.
"I hope you know that this will bring me no
pleasure and so I await your
answer with great anxiety."
The vid-com cut off.
"I'll bet he's anxious!" A man yelled from
the crowd. "They
should be landing on Earth any second!"
Quatre frowned thoughtfully at this and
then caught Relena's
blank stare. He moved over to her.
"Relena?"
She started and then focused on him.
"We can't let him kill anyone, Quatre."
Her voice was filled
with determination and dread.
"Don't worry." Quatre pulled her into a half-embrace
while
watching the small mass of people bustle about the large room. "We'll think of
something."
-----------------------------------------
8:37pm
Catherine stared at her knife, the image of a smiling blond passing
through her thoughts. Her lips quirked into a loving smile before she
let her knife fly, barely missing her younger brother's arm.
"Oh!!! I'm never going to get this
new throw down." She
growled.
Trowa remained motionless, knowing she didn't expect him to answer.
A radio near-by, played soft jazz music and was starting to grate on
his, usually cool, nerves. Catherine threw another knife at him,
this
time, not even aiming, and then she whirled around to listen as a news flash
interrupted her music.
Trowa caught the knife expertly
before it embedded into his
stomach, and then straightened to listen as well.
"...and it sounds like this Mikkal deGallo really expects the Earth
Sphere government to give into his demands of a colony of his own.
(Pause/static). We've just received some very disturbing information. It
seems that
one of the hostages has just been executed. Oh, God, this is
terrible...That's right, for all of you just tuning in, the space shuttle 959
was
subjected to a terrorist take over not more than three hours ago..."
Catherine gasped
and then whirled around to talk to Trowa
but her brother was gone. She stared angrily and despairingly at the
half-mask
he left by her target board.
-------------------------------------------
Hilde sat up close to her television,
staring wide-eyed at the
news man. When the name of the shuttle was announced she gave a negative
shout and then raced into her room for her shoes.
Hurtling out the door, Hilde missed the news man announce the name of
the executed victim.
-------------------------
Relena sank to the ground, landing on her knees, her mind in numb
shock as they announced the name of the victim. Sylvia Noventa.
Relena's eyes
closed as she shook her head in denial.
"Relena." Quatre knelt down in front of the
young woman. His
gaze darted around before resting on her horror-filled face. "Relena there
was nothing we could do. You know we can't give in to their demands."
She gave a small shake of her head,
wisps of hair tickling her
cheeks as they pulled loose from her golden braid.
"Get up, Relena Darlian."
Relena's eyes snapped open as she stared up
at Quatre's tall,
forbidding form. He stared down at her with hard eyes.
"You are most of these people's example. If
you give up, who
will they turn to?"
"I'm not strong enough..." Relena
choked on a sob.
Quatre reached down, gripped her arm, and dragged her to her
feet.
"Well, you're going to have to be..."
He growled lowly, giving
Relena a little shake.
"How can you say that?!" Relena's own anger
kindled. She flung
off his hands and straightened to her full five foot, four inch' height.
"How can you ask ME to decide whether someone lives or dies?!"
Everyone in the room stopped and
Relena was swiftly aware of
the uncomfortable silence.
"Someone has to do what you do, Relena.
And if it's not
you...than who do you propose do the job?" Quatre said softly, not meeting
her
sea-green gaze.
Relena lifted her chin a fraction higher
and then looked around
the room.
"All right, so we can't bargain for more time, and we
can't give
in to their demands. What can we do?" She demanded of all the
people
staring at her. Relena frowned pensively and then her face cleared once
again. "I
want a full evac alert of the nearest space-station to the shuttle and I
want a patroon of Preventers stationed at the space station. Gerard,"
Relena
turned to one of the leaders of the Shadow Warriors. "I want you to
position your troops at every docking area along the west coast."
Quatre couldn't hold back his smile
any longer as the Queen of
the World dictated military orders to her fellow Peace-workers.
--------------------------------
8:51pm
"Are you sure this is a good idea?" N'Brekk asked Sally as the golden
haired woman gave him his orders.
"I couldn't say. I'm merely
following orders...just as you
will."
N'Brekk nodded at his superior officer's commanding
tone and then
gave her a rakish grin.
"Where's that hot-headed man of
yours?"
Sally's lips tugged into a reluctant grin.
"He'll meet up with you at the space
station at 21:00
hundred..."
N'Brekk gave Sally a mock salute.
"Affirmative. Over and out."
-------------------------------------------
Marimai, Lady Une, and
Dorthy Catalonia looked at one another
as the Space Station *AX0012* gave a full alert evac.
"Now we'll have to go back to the colony." Dorthy stomped her foot in
anger.
"Maybe we can catch a shuttle with a few extra seats."
Une said
comfortingly.
Marimai held tightly onto her
step-mother's arm, her legs
beginning to tire from their day's traveling.
"I was looking forward to going home..."
She said quietly.
--------------------------------------
Heero leaned against the wall in the flight deck all the passengers
had been herded into. He shrank away from the pressing bodies around him
and concentrated on a plan. Unfortunately, the terrorists had
already
executed one of the passengers on board the shuttle. A few had been kept
outside of the flight deck, and those were the ones who were to be killed with
in
the next couple hours. Heero's jaw clenched spasmodically and he studied
the large deck with heavy lidded eyes.
"Heero." Duo
squeezed up next to him.
Heero's attention switched to his friend at the sight
of Duo's
tragic face.
"It was Sylvia Noventa, Heero."
Duo's words seemed to hang in the air
around them.
"She was the first to be
killed."
Heero's mind went numb.
-----------------------------------
9:40pm
Sabriel helped Pagan bring out the dinner dishes and then sat down at
the long dining table with Mrs. Darlian.
No one felt much like
eating.
"My poor darling. To be under all that
pressure..."
"Miss Relena is very strong. She will be able to
handle it."
Pagan assured the worried mother.
"Besides," Sabriel commented
softly, staring at the crystal
goblet before her. "Mr. Winner is with her. They make an excellent team."
Silence encased the small
group, and for the better part of
an hour, all that could be heard was the scraping of utensils against
their late-diner plates.
"I think I'm going to go lie down." Mrs. Darlian said suddenly.
She
stood to her feet giving an affectionate smile to Pagan and Sabriel. "I hope
you can manage without me."
"Of course, Madam."
Pagan gave the woman a bow and Sabriel
stood as the mother passed her. Then her shadowed gaze met Pagan's.
"I think I shall go to bed as well." The elderly man said.
Sabriel nodded as he walked slowly from the dining
room. With a
resigned sigh, the young woman moved to pick up the half-eaten plates
of food.
--------------------------------------
"We're not going to land on Earth." Heero told a half-asleep Duo.
They had been circling the Earth nearly five hours. Heero glanced at his
watch and then mentally calculated the time where Relena was. 10:30.
"They can't fly around forever.
The reserve fuel can't last
that long..."
Heero gave a quiet grunt and then frowned at the
information
tugging the edges of his mind. He straightened suddenly, bumping Duo into
a
dark haired woman.
"Their going to have to land at
one of the space stations.
There, they can last for at least a year without Earth support."
Duo gave a nervous chuckle.
"Yeah, but they're going to run
out of hostages before then."
The two young men looked back out into
space.
----------------------------
"They've changed their route!" A man came into the large council
room, waving print-out sheets wildly around his head. "Their headed for
the
Space Station *AX0012*!"
Relena sat down in
her chair as if all the air had left her.
Her disbelieving gaze met Quatre's.
"That's great!" He said,
smiling enthusiastically. "We'll be
able to capture the Family more easily from their because the Preventers
have all-ready made their way to the station..."
"Quatre!" Relena's
horrified voice rang in his ears. "Lady
Une, Miss Dorthy, and Miss Marimai are on that station...they were supposed
to catch the next shuttle to Earth!"
The room was silent
for a full minute before people jumped
into action.
-----------------------
DBP/MLP