By Tenshu

Duo kicked off his shoes, and did a gigantic belly flop onto the living room couch. He scooped up the remote, and pressed the power button

"…Next time, on ‘Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?’."

"Aw come on now, they never mentioned ‘Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?’ was coming off early." Duo flipped the channel.

"Ah, ESPN, what would the world be without sports networks?"

"…Today we’re gonna go fishin’ for porgies…Porgies come in very large schools and are quite plentiful in the summer, right, Jeff?" Duo flipped the channel again. It seemed like nothing good was on at this time.

"Hilde, are you finished cooking yet?! I feel like eating a roasted pig whole." Hilde ambly walked into the livingroom with two plates, one in each hand.

"Is this a freak show or something?"

"What?" Duo almost burst into pure laughter. Hilde’s hair, first of all, was dyed blonde and she had short bouncy curls. She was wearing a black and white shirt, like the ones you would see in a French nightclub. She had a pair of black Capri pants on and high heel sandals. She was also wearing a black beret which was tilted a little to the side.

"You! Look at you…Your hair and your clothes…It’s just isn’t you." Hilde sat her plate down on the coffee table.

"I think I’ve never looked better." Hilde sat beside Duo on the couch, and picked up her plate. The phone rang. Hilde sat her plate down quickly, and got up to trot into the kitchen.

"Moshi moshi?"

"This is Sally, can I have a word with you?"

"Sure, what is it?" Sally took a deep breath.

"I know I have no right to pry, but I was wondering if you knew about this whole thing all along?"

"What ‘whole thing’?" Sally sighed.

"Don’t play dumb with me Hilde, let’s just cut to the chase…Did you know about Relena’s whole situation?" Hilde paused, before speaking.

"Sally, why fret over it? What happened, happened and it’s too late to change…"

"That’s not what I asked for, Hilde." Hilde sighed, apparently exasperated by Sally’s behavior.

"All right, I give up. Relena had told me when I was trying to get the data on Libra…She had confided in me not to tell. I guess she believed that I wouldn’t make it out alive anyway." Hilde could hear the intake of breath coming from the other line.

"Sally? Sally!" Duo walked into the kitchen.

"What’s going on in there? Who called?" Hilde hung up the phone, turning to Duo with a worried face.

"I think Sally’s in trouble."

Heero, working dextrally over his laptop, grunted.

"All of Trowa’s files are inaccurately impossible to open with my laptop’s format," he mumbled, wanting to curse using every vulgar word he could think of. Heero took out the floppy disk, spilling his coffee on the floor.

"This isn’t the disk." He got up from his wooden desk.

"Trowa…That back stabber. Wait until I get my hands on him."

Trowa inserted the floppy disk, and clicked on the "open" icon.

"Interesting. Mariemeia’s mother happens to be the daughter of Dechem Barton, Leia Barton." Trowa scrolled down the document, when something caught his eye.

"AC 195 September 27…Aki?" Trowa thought for a moment.

"Aki…That means ‘fall’ or ‘autumn’…But what significance does it have?"

Dorothy pounded a fist onto her pillow, her tears running down the pillowcase. Her adrenaline ran quickly through her veins, giving her a sudden rush of power. But, feeling she had no use for it, Dorothy did nothing but cry. This bed, the bed that she was spilling her heart and soul into, was that same bed which had labeled Catherine as the true winner, especially in the circumstances of Quatre Winner. Her room was dark, because she was asleep for only two hours until she had awoken once more. The thought of Catherine and Quatre engaging in such an activity, especially in her bed, turned her stomach. Velvet mint green sheets turned to jade as more tears slid from the pillowcase. Dorothy regained self control of herself, lifting her tear stained, reddened face from her pillow. Her vidphone, before it have even rung, scrambled into an image.

"Dorothy, I have something to say…" Dorothy, getting angry at the sight of his face, turned away from the screen.

‘I can’t let him see that I was crying…’

"What do you want?"

"I want to say that I was sorry, what I did was wrong…"

"Got that right."

"Please Dorothy, cooperate with me here. What Catherine and I did was really out of hand. However Dorothy, I can assure you, we didn’t go any further than what you saw." Dorothy snorted.

"How do I know if you didn’t just invite her over to finish what you’ve started? Maybe even vice versa." Quatre heaved a heavy sigh.

"Dorothy, you’re making this even harder than it already is!" Dorothy turned to face the vidphone.

"Maybe I am Quatre."

"That’s better."

"However, I don’t believe that’s so. You and I have so much differences, our personalities just seem to clash."

"But Dorothy, what we had--"

"We didn’t have shit! You got that down? S-H-I-T, shit!" Quatre put his head down sadly.

"Dorothy, you have every right to be mad at me. But I-I didn’t know you cared about me in that way."

"I don’t." And with that, Dorothy cut off the vidphone.

Quatre got up from his desk, and slowly exited his study room. He took out a small case from his pocket, and opened it up. There sparkled a diamond ring, probably 48kt. gold.

"I guess I ruined it, eh Dorothy?" Quatre walked slowly to the staircase.

"If only she had listened to the whole story, maybe she would have understood better." Quatre threw the ring, the ring bouncing off each step into the darkness.

Noin was there the time Hilde and Duo had arrived.

"What happened?" Noin shook her head unknowingly.

"A sharp intake of breath…And then all of a sudden, here she is, laying flat out on the carpet." Duo knelt down on Sally’s other side, and pressed two fingers on the side of her neck.

"She’s been poisoned." Hilde stared down at him.

"How do you know?" Duo explained.

"Her pulse…It’s growing slow. If you ask me, I think she’s been drugged." The room fell silent for awhile, until Hilde spoke.

"With what?"

"Overdose of morphine. Morphine is a depressant, so it slows down the body system. Her heart is pumping the blood slower than normal. If this keeps up, the only option we have left is to wish her luck on her way to the golden gates." Sally, her milky skin pale, breathing rate began to go at a slower pace. Noin stood up, grabbing the phone from Sally’s open hand.

"I’m going to call Wufei."

"What good would that do?," Hilde objected.

"It might be a long shot, but I know this is the only way he’ll open up."

"Are you insane, onna? You have obviously calculated the situation wrong and came up with a stupid assumption. Maybe she was just tired."

"Wufei, what will it take for you to believe me? Her deathbed?"

"Fine. But don’t think of this, onna, of giving in to your theory." Wufei hung up the phone promptly.

Relena brushed her daughter’s wispy bangs from across her face. Though it was only her first day staying at her mother’s house, she still felt an uneasiness which made her unusually tense. It was a feeling so indescribable, that even she couldn’t draw up a conclusion. Relena spun around at the sound of creaking floor boards. Relena withdrew a gun.

"Who’s there?" Her voice was cracking, the sign of fear which was consuming her. The lights slowly flickered on.

"Relena? What in God’s name are you doing with that gun?" Relena put her hands to her side.

"I’m sorry mother, but I thought it was someone else."

"Like who?" Relena shuddered. ‘Why does everyone act so strangely now?’

"No one in particular," Relena replied, trying to sound normal. Ms. Darlian nodded slowly, still not buying what Relena was telling her. But she did not want to seem nosey, so she just moved on to another subject.

"I spoke to Miss Une earlier today. Over the phone."

"And what did she say?" Ms. Darlian walked over to Autumn Rose’s pink bed, and eased herself on it’s edge.

"Casual conversation."

"Don’t B. S. with me…What did she say?" Ms. Darlian looked up at Relena, a look of shock obvious on her face. Relena withdrew her gun once more. Ms. Darlian became rigid, clutching onto the side of the bed she was on.

"Relena…You aren’t going to shoot me are you?"

"In this vast cruel world, no one can be trusted. I cannot trust anyone or anybody, not even you." Ms. Darlian gasped.

"Now tell me, what did Anne say in your conversation?" Ms. Darlian drew in a deep breath.

"She said nothing important, at least not to you. She was just wondering how well I was doing. Anne and I usually have casual conversations. It is so that we can keep up with your well being. Now, Relena, you may shoot me." Relena lowered the gun.

"I don’t kill unless I have a reason. Mother, though I too are not innocent of keeping my tolerance to a certain degree, I cannot kill. Taking the life of someone else sickens me. But when things must be done, they tend to be left to rot. I am not capable of such doing. As soon as I know what must be done, I get to it." Relena’s mother got up from the bed, the glint of sweat running down her forehead like beads.

"Relena, you have changed dramatically over the years."

"No. That’s where you are wrong. All that has changed about me is that I have strengthen myself. Please leave…Now."

The house was dimly lit, and the moon was hidden behind dark gray clouds. The sky was smoky, like mist, and the block was silent; the crickets not even daring to chirp. Wufei had arrived half an hour ago. Sally, who lay still on the couch, had sweat on her face, making it shiny. She looked like Snow White, and the rest of them were dwarves. Her skin was so ashen and ghostly, and her hair was so rich, she almost looked as if she was calm and peaceful; wherever her mind was drifting off to. Her breathing had quickened, which Duo and Wufei had concluded that she was lacking oxygen. Noin and Hilde watched on, feeling as if their services weren’t of any need. All they could do was think. Think of a way, somehow, to stop what was to come.

"Who poisoned her?"

"That’s not important right now, onna." Noin bit her tongue. She was about to call him the most vulgar word she could think of, but ceased her tongue. She didn’t want to say anything until everything was back to normal.

‘Back to normal, ne? That’s going back to living with Milliardo…Milliardo. I had almost forgotten already about how it feels to be in your loving arms.

‘But if they were so loving, why were those the same hands that had slapped me?’

"Noin!"

"What!"

"Wufei said to get a wet wash cloth!," Hilde shouted, after calling the older woman for exactly two minutes. Noin left the room, and soon after came back with a wet rag. Wufei snatched it, and carefully placed it on Sally’s forehead.

"I don’t know what good that’ll do," Noin snorted sarcastically.

"Well, it does a whole lot better than what you’re capable of doing."

"Just one time…Just one time I need to sock your face so hard that even that tight ass ponytail of yours would come a loose!" Wufei quirked an eyebrow, a smirk visible on his face.

"I don’t have time for your immature ways, if you are not capable of helping your onna friend, then I’ll have to ask you to leave…No, not ask, demand you to leave." Noin was obviously mad.

"Wufei, I swear, just one time…" Wufei knew he had won this one, just like he had won many others with Noin in particular, and turned back to Sally.

‘Baka onna, shouldn’t have gotten herself involved with Peacecraft’s misfortune. Now look at you, lying on your deathbed like a vacant ghost. From where I see it, you have died externally. But there is still a chance to save you internally. I just have to figure out on how I can stop this poison from completely stopping your blood flow.’

"Are you sure it’s just morphine?" Duo shook his head at Wufei.

"It could be some other stuff to, but all I know is that the morphine does have something to do with it." Wufei nodded, more to himself than to Duo.

"What you’re planning to do, Chang Wufei?" Wufei looked over his shoulder, finding Noin standing to the left hand side of the door.

"It doesn’t matter what I’m planning to do. It matters what I am going to do to plan it."

Dorothy looked up at her clock: 4:34 a.m. She sat up in her bed, and slowly got up to walk into the bathroom. She turned on the bathroom light, and stared into the mirror. Her hair was clinging to her sweaty forehead, and her face was still red from crying so hard during the previous hours. Blood was trickling down from her right wrist. There on the bathroom floor was a small pocket knife. She bent down to pick it up.

"I must have forgot to put back when I was done," Dorothy said to herself, turning on the bathroom sink to wash the blood off the small knife. Once she was done, she sat the knife back down next to the sink. The house was so quiet now. The only light inside the house was from the bathroom she was standing in. Dorothy walked out the bathroom, not even bothering to clean up her bloody wrist, and picked her phone. She quickly dialed up a number, and waited for it to ring.

"Hello, Trowa? Yes, this is Dorothy. I’m wondering if we can go meet up some time."