Title: Mirrors
Author: Daine Artillo
E-mail: atia@crosswinds.net
Rating: high PG (violence - no more than what is in the show)

Part Two: First Signals

Dorothy had always enjoyed waking up to see the splendor of the morning. The fact that she was on vacation did not change this. At promptly five in the morning, the blond haired girl was sitting on one of the cold, stone benches in the garden waiting for the sun to rise.

She shivered slightly at the dampness that still clung to the air, the trees, and to her. The clouds did not seem to be getting visibly lighter, and all the while it appeared that the temperature was dropping. Waiting another ten minutes, Dorothy finally gave up and walked inside with only a damp towel to show for her efforts.

Walking to the library that they had toured last night, Dorothy paused momentarily to breathe in the unique smell of old leather, thread, and paper. It was one of those unique scents that could never be imitated by human hands, much like the cleansing smell of rain.

She walked into the kitchen and saw Catherine was also up, frying sausages and scrambling eggs. Catherine turned and gave a tired smile in greeting.

"I didn't know you were a morning person," Dorothy said.

Catherine gave a yawn that threatened to split her head in two. "I'm not," she replied blearily. "But I figured that if I didn't get breakfast going, no one else would."

Dorothy set the towel down on the table fully intending to drop it in her hamper later. "Why don't you go back to bed? I'll take care of the cooking."

Catherine, half-asleep on her feet, jumped slightly when Dorothy spoke.

"Pardon?"

Dorothy put a hand on each shoulder and directed the tired girl up the stairs and back to her room. Catherine slipped her bathroom robe off as she snuggled back under the warm quilt that had been neatly tucked in around the mattress. Dorothy smiled and softly shut her door.

Walking just as quietly down the hallway that was filled with sleeping people, she re-entered the kitchen. Tying a navy blue apron around her bright yellow tee shirt and white shorts, she pulled a white ribbon out of her pocket and tied it around her hair. She washed her hands quickly, thankful that Hilde's Aunt Marie had at least installed running water into the structure of the house, and prepared to make breakfast for everyone.

Dorothy took the sausages, which were threatening to burn, off the stove and hunted around in the cupboards for the plates. Finally finding the plates and cups stacked neatly on two shelves, she caught sight of a platter. It had a lid as well as a tray that made it look like the so-called silver platters that were supposed to be used on the very wealthy people. She took this down and piled the meat in, hoping that the structure of the platter would keep the food warm.

Taking the half-beaten bowl of eggs, she continued to stir the mixture until it was well blended. She dumped this into the other frying pan that was lying ready on the stove. Seeing that Catherine had already set out flour, butter, and milk, and some canned berries, Dorothy guessed that the now sleeping girl had also planned on making pancakes and possibly even muffins. She smiled, marveling at Catherine's ability to prepare food, even when half-asleep.

As Dorothy began to stir the batter together for the pancakes, the sky darkened and was filled with thunder and lightning much like the night before. It began to storm.

¤¤¤¤¤

Trowa opened one eye as he heard the gentle drumming of rain on the windowpane. Rolling over slightly, he untangled himself from the sheets and blankets of his bed. As he stretched, he glanced at his travel clock: 6:45. Since Aunt Marie's house apparently had no electricity, Trowa's clock was dependent upon its batteries. Of course, being ever prepared, the batteries had been charged beforehand in case they would be needed.

The tall boy stood and stretched, loosening some of his tired arm muscles. He shivered slightly in the frank coldness of the air, and quickly made his bed before heading out his door. Mentally slapping himself, he retreated to his room to grab his bathrobe. Now officially ready, he walked down the stairway.

Trowa approached the warmth of the kitchen, noticing that it was the only section of the building that was lit and also had a fire burning. He pushed open the swinging door, fully expecting to see Catherine, but instead, Dorothy.

She appeared surprised at first, then smiled and bid him good morning. Trowa simply nodded.

"I didn't think anyone else would be up," she said. "Catherine was up for a little bit, but she went back to bed."

Trowa nodded again. His sister had never been much of a morning person, even though she usually made breakfast for a majority of the circus crew. Dorothy seemed to be watching the window of the stove. When she peeked into it slightly, she looked around for something to grab the pan in the oven. Catching sight of the damp hand towel on the table, she folded it twice and pulled the tray of muffins out of the stove.

"Could you start a fire in the dining room? I haven't gotten the chance yet, so it's probably pretty cold."

"Let me get dressed first," Trowa answered shortly.

Dorothy nodded. "After you do manage to get the fire started, you can help me set the table."

Trowa trudged back up the stairs while Dorothy arranged the food on plates in the kitchen. Covering them securely, she hoped that they would stay warm until everyone had the chance to wake up, whenever that would be.

¤¤¤¤¤

Heero blinked sleepily at the dry coldness on one of his limbs. Pulling the exposed arm back into the interior warmth of the blankets, Heero rolled over and tried to go back to sleep.

From down the hall, he heard a door softly creak open, silence, then another creaking sound. Deciding that if someone was already up, he might as well rise himself. Heero quickly tucked the blankets around the bed in his quick, efficient manner, and opened his own door a crack to see who was up.

He saw Trowa at the end of the hallway, fully dressed and heading down the stairs.

"Trowa," he called. The pilot turned around. Seeing Heero, he put his finger to his lips, motioning him to be quiet. Heero nodded, and shut his door quickly. Trowa continued walking down the stairs, planning to meet his comrade in the kitchen.

Heero peeked into his charge's room to make sure that nothing had gone awry during the night. All he could make out from the door was the tousled golden hair buried beneath the blankets. What other people would call a 'smile' seemed to barely touch the boy's features as he softly resealed the entrance to her room and went in the same direction Trowa had.

All the soldier could see was a very faint light emitted from the doorway of the dining room and the kitchen. He peeked into the kitchen first, and saw no one there. He then ventured over to the entryway of the dining room and saw Trowa in the middle of building a fire. Dorothy was placing many covered platters on the table. Glancing up, she saw Heero and gave brief greeting.

Heero, like Trowa, simply nodded.

"I see that you've already changed. Have you been up a while?" Dorothy inquired.

Heero shook his head. "I don't wear pajamas."

Dorothy also shook her head. Somehow, this did not surprise her. "You can help Trowa start a fire," she said, pointing toward the large fireplace.

"No, I'm fine," Trowa said.

Dorothy sighed. Why did it have to be these two that were up first? "Okay then, Heero, could you go get the plates, cups, and other things from the kitchen? They're in the cupboard on the right of the sink."

Heero made no comment as he headed toward the kitchen to perform the task that had been asked of him.

The kitchen was, in fact, the only warm room of the house at the moment. Because Dorothy had seemed to have been in there all morning, the fire that had been lit in the stove provided sufficient warmth.

Finding the door Dorothy had spoken of, he reached up and quickly took down about five plates. Mentally counting off the inhabitants of the house, he took down four more plates and neatly stacked nine cups on top of the dishes that were lying on the counter. He swung the door shut and placed his hands under the breakable utensils.

Before leaving the kitchen, he noticed a wooden sheath of sorts that held many sharp knives.

That's comforting, he thought wryly. Shrugging, he sauntered back out the swinging door of the kitchen.

Dorothy would be putting the finishing touches on the table. Trowa would be fanning the fire to have it burn more brightly. At least, that's what Heero had thought he would see. Instead, he saw both Trowa and Dorothy crowded around one of the oil lamps trying to make it stop smoking.

Heero sighed and put his load down on the table, and went over to help the other two. Turning the knob on the side of the lamp caused the smoking to stop as well as the lamp to burn brightly. Dorothy blushed slightly while Trowa settled for looking slightly sheepish.

"Uh, thanks, Heero," Dorothy said. She looked around for a clock to see what the time was, but seeing none, she grabbed Trowa's arm and pushed his sleeve up. Trowa was displeased, to put it mildly, but allowed the girl to look at his wristwatch. "Hm, it's almost seven." Dorothy looked back up at Heero. "Could you go tell everyone breakfast is ready?"

Heero nodded and walked out the doorway. The two in the dining room now set the plates and cups around the places at the table. Trowa frowned slightly. "He forgot the silverware."

At the top of the stairs, Heero stood and prepared to wake everyone up for breakfast.

A loud explosion of gunfire erupted as a majority of the inhabitants in the hallway stumbled out, wide eyed and adrenaline filled.

The ceiling overhead now sported a small hole caused by the still smoking barrel of the gun. Dorothy and Trowa ran up the stairs to see just what was wrong. They took one glance down the hall, Heero, and then the ceiling.

"Sure hope Aunt Marie has insurance."

"Yup."

"Is something wrong?!" Relena finally managed to ask, her right hand on her chest trying to calm down her racing heart. Everyone else in the hallway was still trying to collect their shell-shocked wits.

"No, Heero was just announcing breakfast," Trowa said, making a slight face. Everyone sighed and re-entered their rooms for bathrobes. Dorothy and Trowa looked like they were going to rip their trigger-happy comrade to pieces at any moment. He simply looked at them.

"You said to wake them up; you didn't say how."

¤¤¤¤¤

When everyone was seated in the, Dorothy started to uncover the platters. She offered a sigh of relief to see that everything was still hot. She was about to start dishing out some of the eggs onto her plate, when Quatre commented, "Where's Duo?"

Wufei grumbled slightly. "If he's not up, let him miss breakfast for all I care."

"No," Relena said, "let's go get him up. He probably won't get anything to eat until lunch otherwise, and I'm really not in the mood to hear his whining."

Everyone lethargically tried to process what Relena had just said when Heero and Trowa caught the other's eye and left the room together. Everyone watched them leave and simply waited with slightly puzzled looks. Then down the hall was heard an outrageous yell.

"PUT ME DOWN!"

Catherine rose from her chair, somewhat calmly under the circumstances, and glanced down the hall.

"Oh my."

Duo was being carried/dragged down the steps, all the while loudly protesting.

"What do you think you're doing?! Unless the place is on fire, we're under enemy attack, or some other 'serious' happening, I'm not getting up!"

Heero looked over at Trowa who was holding Duo by his ankles. "Any ideas?" he asked in an annoyed manner.

"Food's ready."

Duo immediately stopped his outburst when he heard what Trowa had said. "Food?" he asked quickly. Managing somehow to dislodge himself from Heero and Trowa's grasp, he vaulted toward the dining room almost bowling Catherine over in the process. Both restrainers looked at the other and shrugged.

¤¤¤¤¤

With full stomachs, everyone was now warm and content. They decided to spend the rainy day in the library. Heero went in ahead of the others to light a few of the oil lamps and also a fire before the rest of the inhabitants entered. Because of the storm that had quickly taken over the area, the house was much darker and colder than it would normally be during the autumn.

Everyone except Heero, Trowa, Dorothy went upstairs to change from pajamas to day clothes. Heero went to prepare the library while Dorothy and Trowa handled the dirty dishes in the kitchen.

Relena was the first to finish dressing. She quickly threw the blankets around her bed, praying that the arrangement looked something like a made bed, and thumped downstairs. In the frigid library, she peeked in to see enough lamps lit to illuminate the room. Seeing a large container of oil in a nearby closet, Relena was glad that there appeared to be enough oil to supply them for the weekend.

Heero was kneeling near the fireplace trying to coax the wood to start burning.

The princess was now thankful that they had made an effort to drag all that wood into the house before the storm had stuck. Even now, torrents of rain steadily pelted the roof and windows, almost causing one to think a great multitude of people were running up and down the roof.

Relena felt someone watching her, as she turned to see Heero looking at her from his position below the mantle. She blushed slightly as he concentrated on her in an expectant manner.

"The matches?"

"What?"

Heero sighed. "Can you hand me the matches? They're on the table."

"Oh." Relena cheeks turned a shade of crimson as she went over to the table in the middle of the library and grasped the book of matches that were lying there. Apparently, almost half the book was now gone in an attempt to light the lamps around the room. Relena frowned hoping that they would manage to efficiently survive the week.

She walked back over to Heero and dropped the matches into his waiting hand. He nodded his thanks as he began hold the match near the fireplace. Paying more attention to walls and their bookcases than Heero and the fireplace, Relena began strolling around the room.

Aunt Marie had apparently enjoyed books, and many of them. The entire library had shelves that were stocked wall to wall with books. After glancing briefly at them, she noticed that a majority of them were ancient copies of many classics by Dickens, Hardy, and Bronte, to name a few.

Relena heard Heero curse quietly behind him as he burned his finger on a low burning match. He had apparently been involved in watching the fire causing the match to burn flesh instead of wood. Biting her lip, Relena tried to think of a way to help Heero light the fireplace. Her eyes once again drifted to the large container of lamp oil in the storage closet. She went over to it, and rolled up the sleeves of her sweater before picking up a small metal cup that was lying next to the container. Carefully scooping a small amount of oil out, she carried it over toward Heero, trying not to spill.

Heero had stuck a few of his fingers in his mouth as he tried to recover from the minor burn. His eyes drifted up to Relena when he saw her standing there with the oil cup. She offered it to him with one hand underneath the cup to keep it from dripping on the carpet.

"Why don't you pour some oil on the wood? It might help the fire to start burning."

Heero regarded her as he mulled over her suggestion. Then, nodding, he accepted the cup from her hands and poured a small amount on the pile of logs. Striking another match, he jerked his hand back as the fire started almost immediately.

Relena smiled at the fact that her idea had worked, and picked up the cup from where it lay on the stones surrounding the open mouth of the fireplace. Heero put the metal grill around the fire and stood up. He shook his hands to get rid of the dust that had been on the wood.

Relena set the cup back down where she had originally found it, and said to Heero, "I'm going to go back upstairs and wash my hands. I have oil on them."

Heero nodded as Relena turned to walk out the door. She passed Trowa and Dorothy, both of whom had seemed to finish the work in the kitchen. She greeted them briefly, then continued to head toward the direction of the staircase. When she reached the bottom of the ascent, Relena was greeted by a majority of the others coming from their rooms. They all greeted her and asked if Heero had been successful at lighting the fire. She told them yes, and walked toward the back of the hall where her room was.

Relena paused at Hilde's door, noticing that she was still in her room, or more appropriately, in the bathroom.

"Hilde," Relena started, strolling into the bedroom, "aren't you going downstairs?"

"Yes."

Relena now walked into the bathroom that Hilde shared with Dorothy. The girl seemed to be touching the mirror with the flat of her palm, and moving her hand across it in a sweeping motion.

"What are you doing?" Relena asked in a puzzled manner.

"I'm cleaning the mirror."

"Without a wash cloth?"

"Yes."

Relena now felt cold shivers all over her body. "But your hand's not even wet." Hilde, ignoring her, strode past her on her way out of the bathroom. The back of her hand brushed against the exposed part of Relena's arm. Hilde's skin was frigid. Rubbing her tingling forearm, Relena called after her, "Do you mind if I use your bathroom? I'd like to wash my hands."

"Go ahead."

Relena frowned at her reflection in the mirror.

Why is Hilde acting so strangely? She turned on the water, and covered her hands with soap. Washing both of them thoroughly, Relena completed the task by shaking the extra water off before drying her hands on a bright yellow towel.

She thought again of Hilde's strange behavior. She must still be steamed at Duo for making those comments on the ride up.

Relena now pushed a strand of hair behind her ear as she glanced again at herself in the mirror. Meeting her own eyes in the reflection, she noticed something was wrong.

The eyes she saw in the glass were empty.

¤¤¤¤¤

The library had proved to be more of a resource room than a place to keep the books. It had many things to look at that the guests found interesting, and also numerous activities to participate in. A majority of them had found a book that sparked their interest, and were in the middle of reading. Others of them simply milled about seeing what everyone else was doing. The main interest at the moment, however seemed to be a chess match between Heero and Wufei.

Relena stood on the right side of the table, near the fireplace. Above her was a medium sized mirror that reflected the flickering lights in the room. She seemed to be watching the chess game with a great amount of interest, as the two Gundam pilots fought in methods of strategy and skill.

Many pieces of both colors stood scattered around the chessboard as Heero made the next move.

Wufei frowned slightly in concentration. Heero had made a good move that had put his king in check. Looking at ivory chess board (yet another item that showed the wealth of Aunt Marie), he looked the pieces over and analyzed the moves they could make with the possible outcomes. He had always enjoyed the challenge that chess had involved, even when he had not been a warrior.

A few minutes passed with Heero waiting silently for Wufei's next move. By this time, the martial artist was frustrated. Heero had obviously planned far in advance for this particular move; he could see no way out of it but to surrender his king.

"Use the bishop on the right side of the board. You can move it diagonally to take out Heero's knight. After you do that, you'll have him in checkmate."

Wufei looked up sharply. Was that Relena who said that? Everyone else in the room also looked up abruptly. Who would have thought that Relena had such a tactful mind for chess strategies?

Relena looked at everyone in the room with an expressionless face. "Wouldn't you agree that the best way to defeat the enemy in war is to first go on the offensive, crushing the frontal forces, then attack the back-up forces?"

"Miss Relena, are you feeling all right?" Dorothy asked with a concerned expression on her face.

"I'm fine. Why do you ask?"

Duo, who was sitting next to Hilde on the other side of the fireplace, watched this. He shuttered; this was too much like the experience he had last night. Hilde seemed absorbed in her book.

"Relena," Heero said, getting up from his chair, "this isn't like you at all. What's wrong?" He looked her over closely, trying to figure out what was wrong. All that he could see where the expressionless face and dark eyes. There seemed to be no shimmering of light in them whatsoever.

"Relena," Quatre said, "you seem a little pale." He walked over and turned her in the direction of the mirror. "See?"

Relena stared blankly for a moment into the mirror before she jerked suddenly. Before the others knew it, she was doubled over, clutching her head, and moaning.

"Miss Relena!" Dorothy cried, quickly coming to her aid. Heero also reacted and went over to her right side to keep her from collapsing to the floor.

Relena, still holding her head, smiled weakly at the two people on either side of her.

"I'm all right," she whispered weakly. "I-I think I'm going to go up to bed." Relena started to stumble out of the library, but tripped clumsily over the carpet. Heero, having all ready noticed her shaky movements, caught her before she plummeted to the ground. She looked up at him, shock registered on her face, before a slight blush covered her features. He said nothing, as he gently picked her up and carried her to her room.

Not yet assured that everything was back to normal, the others in the room kept a vigil watch until Heero re-entered the room. He nodded slightly as if to reassure everyone that Relena was okay. "She's sleeping now," was all he said.

Hilde put her book down on her lap. "Is Relena all right?" she asked Duo. He turned to her replying, "Heero said she was sleeping." Duo waited for her response.

"That's good." He looked at her sharply. There did not seem to be any concern, or any emotion for that matter, in her voice.

"What about you?" he asked. "Are you doing okay?"

"I'm fine."

"Are you sure?" Duo pressed. "Your face seems a little flushed." He reached up to press a hand to her cheek. He had barely touched her skin when she abruptly stood and walked briskly away. He sat there with his hand still in mid air. She had been sitting in front of the fire as long as he was, but her temperature was still very low. She didn't seem to be too much warmer than she had been last night.

Duo finally put his hand down in his lap, at a lost. What was going on?

¤¤¤¤¤

Wufei glanced out one of the windows in the library. The storm seemed to be calming down, with the rain refraining from pouring sheets to light drizzle.

"Hey, guys, the storm looks like-"

A loud crack of thunder seared the sound waves in the air shortly accompanied by a brilliant flash of thunder.

"What were you saying, Wufei?" Quatre asked, momentarily glancing up from his book he was reading.

The Chinese boy closed his mouth causing a fine line across his face. "Nothing."

¤¤¤¤¤

Hilde glanced in the mirror room on the way to her bathroom. Another of the candles on the wall had flickered out. She smiled.

¤¤¤¤¤

By Daine
Written 6-26-00

Disclaimer: All characters, trademarks, etc. of Gundam Wing are copyright of Sunrise, Sotsu Agency, Bandai and others. All story content is copyright of Daine. Please ask before posting.