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

Part Four: Duration of the Storm

Duo crouched on the ground. He put his arms around his head as a mean of protection. However, nothing could save him now. He was surrounded. By mirrors.

On all sides of him, Duo could see nothing but mirrors. But these mirrors held no reflection. They were as black as ebony, absorbing all and giving nothing back. One by one, he saw images in his mind, made clearer by the darkness of his closed eyes. He scrunched them tighter and curled into a tight ball as he felt an icy grip on his arm.

And then…

And then, Duo woke up.

He shivered, then began to untangle himself from the gripping hold of his sheets and blankets. A frigid wind stirred his bangs off his sweaty face as he turned to what had woken him up. Duo’s balcony door stood open allowing the wind, cooled by the long-lived storm, to blow in and drop the room’s temperature. He shivered in his thin nightclothes as the chilly breeze rushed past his body.

On the balcony stood Hilde, already dressed in a light sweater and jeans.

Duo stood, leaving the warm haven of the bed, and pulled his bathrobe on before joining Hilde on the balcony. He remained next to her for a moment, then asked, "Hilde, what are you doing out here?"

Hilde turned to him and smiled. Duo felt a small sliver of hope rise in him when he saw this. It was the first time she had smiled since they had arrived at her Aunt Marie’s. He joyfully returned her smile.

"I wanted to come outside on a balcony, and your door was the only one that was open."

Duo mentally frowned. He was sure that he had closed his door last night.

"But actually, Duo," Hilde said as she inched near him. "I wanted to tell you that you’re right." Duo looked at her in a puzzled manner. She put her hand on his as he stood looking at her. "I am too old to believe in a silly thing like soul mates. Thanks for making me realize that."

Warning bells went off in Duo’s head as he heard those words and saw Hilde leaning closer to him. Hilde would never give up her dream so easily. She was about to slip her arm around him when Duo caught her by the shoulders and pushed her away. Hilde looked up at him and frowned.

"What’s wrong? Don’t you like spending time with me?"

"Hilde, normally I would be more than glad to share the morning with you, but you have not been yourself lately. I-it doesn’t feel right."

Duo felt the girl stiffen as she abruptly turned and walked out of his room, slamming the door behind her. He almost sighed with relief at the sound of her fading steps down the hallway. It was almost too much for him to be around her anymore. Her behavior was far from normal, and it made him extremely uncomfortable. It didn’t help that her eyes were still dark, although they were beginning to obtain a dull gleam.

Duo shut the balcony door and got ready for breakfast.

¤¤¤¤¤

Heero felt dejected. No one appeared to notice, since his face still sported the usually frown. Had they noticed, the others still would not know the reason behind his unusual mood.

The storm seemed to have stopped momentarily, and each person took the opportunity to take a brisk walk in the damp outdoors. Heavily bundled, everyone except Heero and Trowa took advantage of the momentarily clear weather.

When asked why they wanted to stay indoors, Heero said he had some things to think about, while Trowa replied that he was in the middle of a good book. Many in the group had tried to persuade the two stubborn boys into the fresh air, but Heero and Trowa refused to compromise. So, the remaining group sighed in exasperation and left them alone in the house.

They had planned to hike around the surrounding woods and would be gone for a couple hours, unless it started to storm again.

¤¤¤¤¤

When everyone had finally found their way out the door, Trowa headed to the library just as Heero seemed to linger before going into the main room. Once inside the library, Trowa lit one of the lamps above the fireplace. The extra light from outside made any more lights unnecessary, but Trowa also lit two candles that were on the fireplace. They were held steady by polished bronze candlesticks. The banked fire still had a few coals that remained glowing, but a majority had burned themselves out.

He then turned toward the bookcase and scanned the many titles before finding the book he had began reading the night before. After the somewhat embarrassing chess match he had played with Quatre, Trowa had decided to let his mind wander by reading. In the proceedings of the night, Trowa had become quite enthralled with his book, but had to put it down because he grew tired. Since there was no light in his room, he had waited until the next morning to pick up where he had left off.

Trowa slid his hand up on the shelf and pulled the book down, feeling the worn leather cover in his hand. He brushed off some of the dust that had seemed to gather overnight, and walked over to a well-stuffed chair, his footfalls muffled by the thick carpet on the floor.

Despite the cold temperature of the room, Trowa soon became absorbed in his book. Time to time, his numb limbs would remind him of the temperature, but he would always mentally promise to light a fire in the next five minutes.

Finally, his limbs became so numb, that Trowa stiffly stood up and walked over to the fireplace. He took about six pieces of firewood and piled them into place. Still in a crouched position, he reached up to find the book of matches on top of the mantle. However, his hand felt nothing but cold stone. Now standing, Trowa saw the flat paper book on the very edge of the stone.

He picked it up and frowned when he saw that all the matches had been used. Dropping the now useless item into the fireplace, Trowa padded his pants pockets as if he expected some matches to be tucked in somewhere. Sighing, Trowa looked around for ideas. He would rather just light the fire with whatever could be found in the library instead of going up the stairs to find more matches.

Trowa caught sight of the dripping candles on the top of the stone blocks. Reaching over, he tried to pull the candle out of the right candlestick, but the wax had glued it together.

Like my life needs to be any more difficult, he thought frowning. He carefully lowered the candlestick to the open mouth of the fireplace and tilted the candle slightly so the flame would start the fire.

Now that the fire had begun to burn, Trowa stood up, stretching his stiffened limbs, and prepared to replace the candlestick on the mantle. Before he put it down, he caught sight of his distorted reflection in the shiny brass.

¤¤¤¤¤

Relena giggled as she saw Duo almost land flat on his back due to the slippery mud. It felt wonderful to be outside after being cooped up. The air was heavy with moisture and the fragrance of wet and growing things. There was no better smell in the world.

Catherine ran ahead of the others. She turned around and giggled in an almost child-like manner. "Hey you guys, let’s play tag!" She turned and ran.

Everyone else glanced around and took off at top speed leaving a very surprised Relena behind.

¤¤¤¤¤

Heero sat in the main room on one of the couches. He had been staring out one of the main windows for some time now, and still could not get the occurrence of last night out of his mind.

For one thing, Heero did not remember what had caused his behavior. All he could remember was Relena slumped against the wall of her room, and red marks around her neck. Caused by someone’s hands. When he had tried to help her up, she had slapped his hand. This only confirmed his fears.

He was the one who had attacked her.

After she had clamed down, Relena had voiced her forgiveness for Heero, and had left it behind in the past, but what had happened still bothered him. Heero sighed and stood up. Even though he preferred keeping things to himself, this was one problem he wanted to talk about.

He went to the library to find Trowa.

¤¤¤¤¤

Duo made a face at his current run of luck. How the heck had Relena managed to tag him anyway? He did not think her former highness could run worth beans. However, all those near death experiences seemed to have put the girl in tiptop shape.

Duo stood there for a moment before he heard quiet chuckling behind a nearby bush. He growled as he took a flying tackle at it. Wufei, however, had other ideas as he quickly moved to the side just as Duo landed in his former spot. When he turned back, he saw the boy now tangled in the bush and facedown in the mud. He laughed.

"Nice move, Maxwell!"

Duo grumbled something incoherent then stood to wipe the mud off his face. By the time he was done, not only were his hands caked with mud, Wufei and the others were hidden again. He had had enough.

"That’s it! I’m heading in!"

"Oh, Duo! Don’t be a sore loser!" came the somewhat amused voice of Quatre.

"Look!" Duo shot back, "I’m cold and I’m muddy; I’m going in!"

Wufei almost started laughing out loud from the tree he was hidden behind. He quickly covered his mouth with his gloved hand. Duo was quite a sight; he had mud splotched all over his coat as well as a somewhat white face. He looked like something that had walked out of a swamp.

He had stared defiantly at his hidden comrades before he would turn and walk back to the house. Wufei looked over to the neighboring tree that Relena was hiding behind. She gave him a wink.

"Awww c’mon, Duo! Where’s that manliness of yours?"

Wufei once again almost had a laughing fit. Relena had thought up a good one.

Duo glared even more darkly at the forest. "It’s inside!"

¤¤¤¤¤

Heero walked briskly into the library to find Trowa siting in his chair, appearing to stare off into blank space. The fire had been lit, obviously by Trowa, and had already begun to warm the room with its heat. Heero cleared his throat slightly to get Trowa’s attention.

The other boy jumped slightly like he had bitten by some poisonous animal as he turned toward Heero. He smiled slightly. "Oi, Heero. I didn’t hear you."

Heero felt wintry pickles on his back. Trowa actually smiled?

¤¤¤¤¤

Duo stomped his way though the woods. All he could think of at the moment was a hot shower and a warm fireplace. At least, that’s what he hoped to find. He was not sure what to expect any more with all that had been going on.

The game of tag was still going on where Duo had left it, and currently, Quatre was the one ‘it.’ Relena had still managed to hide behind her tree in an extremely uncomfortable crouched position. When she was finally discovered, Relena tried to run away, but fell to the ground when she tried to get up.

"Relena! You’re it!" Quatre exclaimed as he ran up to her.

Relena just rubbed her numb legs with her covered hands. "I think I’m going to go inside too," she said, trying to get back up. This time she managed to stay on her feet as she stiffly walked back to the house.

¤¤¤¤¤

After the events of the previous night, Heero was wary of Trowa’s abnormal behavior. He remained standing in the doorframe with his arms crossed. "Trowa, could I talk to you for a minute?"

"Sure thing," Trowa responded as he got up to head over to the fireplace. He appeared to be warming himself up.

"Have you noticed anything odd going on during the past few days?"

Trowa looked at him calmly. "Such as…?"

Heero gulped slightly as he continued. "Such as something controlling me to kill Relena?"

The boy at the fireplace did not move. Heero frowned slightly; even Trowa would have shown some reaction to his previous statement. Right now, he just seemed fixated on the top of the mantle. Finally, he said, "I thought you had quit doing that."

Heero glared at him. Trowa quickly became serious. "That bad?"

"It might get worse. It was a lot like the afternoon Relena was acting strangely," he looked up, to see what Trowa’s response would be.

"Really? How could you tell?"

Heero shivered slightly in remembrance.

¤Flashback¤

After taking in much needed oxygen, Relena accepted Heero’s helping hand to pull her to her feet. She was still unnerved by the incident, but now her main focus was to get to the bottom of it. She sat down on the ruffled covers of her bed and motioned for Heero to sit down as well.

"Heero, just what is going on?" she choked slightly on the lump that formed in her throat. "What came over you?"

Heero looked down. "Relena, I-I really don’t know. I don’t remember much of what happened." He placed his hand over hers slightly while she looked at him in surprise. "I know it’s asking a lot, but could you put this incident behind us?"

Relena smiled at him. "Of course, Heero. I can’t hold a grudge against you for long no matter how hard I try."

There was a slight pause.

"But then again, Heero, I’ve become quite accustomed to you trying to kill me. You must really want to see Siberia again."

This comment caused even Heero to smile. He sobered quickly as he began to question her on what he had done while he was apparently gone from the world.

¤End Flashback¤

Trowa nodded again when he heard this information. "You know," he said, "it kind of reminds me of Clue."

He raised his eyes to look at Heero instead of the floor. "The most unusual weapons are put in the game to kill everyone."

Heero felt the pit of his stomach seemingly drop at the look in Trowa’s eyes; or, for the sake of a more accurate description, the lack of one.

¤¤¤¤¤

"Duo!" Relena yelled as she ran to catch up with the sullen boy. "You heading to the house?"

"No," he snapped, "I’m heading toward the Lake Victoria!"

"Esheesh, sorry."

Duo sighed. "Sorry, ‘Jou-san. I just need to warm up and I’ll be much more pleasant to be around." Around the bend of the worn trail, both of them caught sight of the large house.

Relena shot Duo a mischievous glance. "Not that you were ever pleasant to begin with."

Duo growled and ran at top speed at Relena’s retreating figure. At least they were both running in the right direction.

¤¤¤¤¤

"In Clue, the candlestick is one of the weapons of choice," Trowa said, still eyeing the top of the mantle. "Don’t you find that somewhat interesting?"

Heero was fully on his guard now. "Trowa…" he said in a wary voice as Trowa’s hand drifted nearer toward one of the two candlesticks. "…what are you doing?"

Trowa’s face again sported a smile. A menacing one. "I’m using it as a weapon."

¤¤¤¤¤

Duo and Relena, now officially out of breath, leaned and panted against the side of the large, wooden doors before heading in. Already in a better mood, Duo opened the door in a mocking fashion trying to copy the gestures of a gentleman.

"After you, my lady?" Playing along, Relena pretended to curtsey in her heavily bundled form as Duo held the door open.

¤¤¤¤¤

Heero did not move from his position from the doorway. Both he and Trowa were equally matched in combat. The taller boy’s form slowly inched closer to the other, still holding the polished candlestick in his hand. Heero’s mind whirled as he tried to piece together all that had happened. His memory was rapidly scanned for any connection of all the occurrences. His eyes darted around the room for ideas.

Heero caught sight of the mirror on the left of the fireplace.

¤¤¤¤¤

The door slammed shut before Duo could grab it. A thunderous, resounding crash filled the room as Relena glared slightly at his cringing form. "Nice going."

Duo simply stuck his tongue out at her as he looked around the main room. "Hey, where’s Heero?"

¤¤¤¤¤

Something clicked in his mind as Heero saw the mirror. Trowa’s body tensed as it looked like he was going to pounce upon his comrade like a cat on a mouse. Heero ran toward the left side of the room as Trowa narrowly missed striking him on the head. Regaining his balance, Trowa quietly turned around for the next attack.

¤¤¤¤¤

"He’s probably in the library with Trowa," Relena said as she took off some of her outer wrappings. Duo was doing the same. When they were both finished, Relena commented, "You would think Heero would have built a fire at least."

Duo shrugged. "Maybe that’s why he went in the library. Besides, it saves us from having to go out to the wood pile again." He glanced toward the general area of the library. "Why don’t we go join them? At least, I’m going to until I’m warm enough to go take my shower."

They both started to walk through the cold air, shivering slightly from the loss of heat. "It doesn’t seem any different from being outside," Relena chattered. Duo simply nodded as he rubbed his arms.

The door to the library was closed when they reached it, also apparently trying to conserve heat. Duo reached for the handle and pulled the door open. Inside, neither of the two seemed to notice the new arrivals.

¤¤¤¤¤

Heero’s balance was momentarily lost as he fell to one side. He had been leaning to far over when he was jogging to the mirror. Quickly pushing himself up, he saw that Trowa was all ready upon him. Now putting his life on the line, Heero hoped that his assumptions about the mirror were correct.

His gaze was suddenly shifted from his attacker to two other people at the door: Relena and Duo.

Of course, they were in shock.

"Trowa! What are you doing?!" Duo shouted as he ran over to help his downed comrade. Trowa did not answer as he evidently was looking in the mirror. Without warning, he dropped the candlestick and crumpled to the ground. Duo, now more worried about the danger of fire than Trowa, snuffed out the fire’s flame before it could set the carpet ablaze. Relena also ran over toward the three other boys.

She took one glance at Trowa’s current position, and knew immediately what had happened. "Oh, Trowa. You too?"

¤¤¤¤¤

Hilde quietly slipped in the doorway as she quickly hung her garments up. She walked in a quick, noiseless manner toward the library and pressed her ear against the keyhole of the door.

¤¤¤¤¤

After the pain in his head had more or less worn off, Trowa stayed on the floor and discussed with other others what had been going on.

"So now that makes, what, three of us?" Duo asked, pacing somewhat.

Heero nodded slowly. "Unless something else like this happened when we weren’t aware of it."

Relena looked at Duo with some amount of respect in her eyes. "I guess you were right to assume something odd is happening here."

Heero glared at Duo. "You confined in Relena about this?"

Duo stopped pacing. "Well, uh, you see… with her incident being so fresh… not to mention her ability to actually socialize…"

His ‘omae o koroso’ partner looked quite prepared to strangle the living quality of Duo out of him. He punctually tackled the formerly pacing pilot to the ground and was about to plant a well-aimed punch in the middle of Duo’s face when they heard the main door slam. Trowa stood up and motioned for them to quit. "Let’s hold a meeting tonight in Duo’s room."

The braided Gundam pilot promptly rebelled. "What?! Why my room?"

"Because my room is between yours and Quatre’s and there’s an empty room between Wufei’s room," Trowa reasoned calmly. Everyone nodded at this as Heero slowly (and painfully) got up off the source of his irritation, and said, "All right. In Duo’s room at midnight."

¤¤¤¤¤

Hearing the information she needed to hear, Hilde quickly stood up and walked away from the entrance of the library to be greeted by a very curious Catherine.

"There you are, Hilde! We were wondering where you had disappeared to!" She paused. "So, where have you been?"

Hilde smiled slightly in Catherine’s direction. "I’ve been around. Is everyone back now?"

¤¤¤¤¤

After dinner that evening, everyone decided to go spend some time rambling around the house. Hilde had decided to show Catherine around the star gazing room.

Inside the small room that resided at the top of the house, Catherine saw it sported a decent looking telescope, a somewhat worn couch, and a plain mirror with a single crack in it.

"So, Hilde," Catherine asked after they had stood and viewed the room for a moment. "what exactly did you want to show me? And why did you have me bring my throwing knives?"

Catherine looked around the room in a confused manner for some object of interest. Through the glass doors of the balcony, she could see the cloud covered sky. It looked like it was going to start down pouring again.

"Here," Hilde said, leading her toward the mirror. "Look in here."

Catherine looked at her reflection, trying to figure out what Hilde found so interesting. Finding nothing, she looked again at her companion with a blank look on her face.

Hilde guided her gaze back toward the mirror. "It’s the eyes," she said mysteriously. "Look at the eyes."

¤¤¤¤¤

Trowa stood knocking at his sister’s door. He paused and waited for either a cheery reply, or the door to be opened. When nothing came, he frowned and prepared to open the door himself.

"She’s not in there," Hilde said, coming down the flight of stairs that led to the third floor.

The slight frown remained on Trowa’s face. "Well, where is she then?"

"Upstairs. She’s in the star gazing room."

Hilde brushed past him as she continued heading down the hall. Trowa walked briskly in the direction the German girl had just come from. Had he looked behind him, he would have seen her watching him for a moment before a smile crept upon her features. She turned and walked the distance to her room.

¤¤¤¤¤

An invisible wind seemed to breathe its way through the mirror room as the second of two candles quietly snuffed themselves out. In the darkened room, a shadowed being in the mirror stood and chuckled to itself.

¤¤¤¤¤

Thwack. Trowa heard the all too familiar sound of metal embedding itself into wood. "Catherine?" he called.

Thwack.

Trowa reached the top of the stairway and saw the figure of his sister… holding her throwing knives. Her arm lay outstretched for the knife she had just thrown. Slowly, Catherine turned around and smiled at Trowa.

"Hi, Trowa. What brings you up here?"

¤¤¤¤¤

Author’s Notes:

In case some of you are confused, here’s where everyone’s room is:

On the right side from the front of the hall to the back:

Hilde
Dorothy
Catherine
Relena
Heero

On the left side from the front of the hall to the back:

Quatre
Trowa
Duo
Empty room
Wufei

-Daine
Written 7-2-00

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.