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

Part Five: Gathering Clouds

Trowa simply stared. His sister was throwing her knives into one of the walls of the star gazing room. He started nervously, "Um… Catherine, I could be wrong, but I don't think Hilde's Aunt Marie will be too thrilled to see knife holes all over her walls."

Although he hid it (as he always did), he was worried, Catherine of all people was the first to think about proper behavior when they were at another person's house. She would never breech the universal codes of hospitality. Such a thing could not easily be forgiven!

To put it simply, this was not like her at all.

"I'll patch it up later," Catherine said, walking over to take out the two embedded knives. "Besides, I need to practice for the next show at the circus."

She smiled slightly at him. "Would you like to stay up here and practice too?"

Trowa shook his head. "I think I'll go back downstairs to, uh…" His mind searched for a reason to leave. "…finish that book I was reading." Trowa turned and walked down the stairs.

¤¤¤¤¤

Heero was inside his room typing what information he had about the occurrences on his computer. He heard someone walking slowly down the stairs and walk toward the hallway. When it reached his door, the footsteps stopped. He heard a few knocks before he called, "Come in."

Trowa walked in with a slightly white face. "I think Cathy is the next one."

¤¤¤¤¤

Wufei sat on his bed near the window and was reading the book he had brought along. It was a book focused heavily on China and the origins of their martial arts, and it had greatly caught his attention. So he had sat on his bed for quite a while, losing himself in the history of ancient China and their methods of self-defense.

Duo knocked on his door and then barged in not waiting for the corresponding 'Come in.' He grinned at the irritated Chinese boy. "Hey, Wufei! How are you fairing? Why don't you come out and be more social?"

"I prefer my privacy, Maxwell! Get out!" he growled, his hands now white from gripping the book so tightly.

Duo looked like he was pouting.

"Okay, fine! Be that way, but I still don't see why you wouldn't want to be around our luminous personalities!"

He shut the door behind him while Wufei made a slight face and returned to the spellbinding book.

¤¤¤¤¤

Heero looked grave as Trowa explained the current situation to him. "I think you had better go back up there and make sure she doesn't do anything rash while she's… not herself." Trowa nodded.

"You're right. But what should I do if she starts attacking me or something?"

Heero grinned ever so slightly. "You can't handle your own sister?"

Trowa shook his head slightly. "She has her knives with her, and I'm going to be unarmed."

"So take your gun with you."

"No. I don't want to hurt her when I'm just trying to contain her."

Heero shrugged. "Do whatever you see fit."

¤¤¤¤¤

Catherine grinned at the four knife handles that were now jutting out from the wood. She still had one knife left. Turning toward the cracked mirror on her right, she threw the remaining knife and struck the mirror squarely. The only difference from her practicing on the wall was she had hit the glass with the handle section of the knife.

The mirror was shattered.

Hearing footsteps coming up the stairs, Catherine quickly picked up the fallen knife among the glass and then began the task of loosening the embedded ones in the wall. Trowa reappeared at the open doorway. Glancing at his sister, he watched her movements closely. "Hi, Catherine."

"Hello, Trowa," she said, still working on her knives. "I thought you were reading."

"I finished," Trowa said, mentally cursing the fact that he had forgotten the reason he had given for going back down. He recovered quickly and said, "Are you still practicing?"

"Sure am."

Trowa looked around the room, and noticed the pieces of mirror on the ground. He took it for a bad sign. "I see you hit the mirror."

"Yeah, that's why I need to practice."

Trowa looked wary. When she finally turned around, Trowa looked Catherine in the face. He jumped slightly when he saw the blank eyes. Was that how the others and I looked? He had not looked at Relena's face quickly enough to see what her expression was when she had acted strangely, but if his suspicions were correct, the eyes would have been no different.

"Um, Cathy," he started.

"Hm?" Catherine had started to throw her knives again.

Trowa shut his mouth. Just how do you say 'I think you've been taken over by mirror people, let's go downstairs and try to change you back'? "Nothing."

"No, what were you going to say, Trowa?"

"Well, you're eyes look like a contained storm; they look really wild."

Catherine did not turn to look at him, but swiftly threw one of her knives and smiled. It embedded itself exactly in a formerly made hole. "How right you are, Trowa. I guess pretty soon, you'll see the tempest raging, huh?"

¤¤¤¤¤

Relena stared out the window of her bedroom. The storm was still on hold, but from the gray clouds gathering on the horizon, it was clear that it would be back again. It was only five o'clock, but she wanted to think about what had happened at least a little. Who would want to show up to the meeting with no information or thoughts on it at all? She could not say that she had seen many of the incidents, but with the two that she knew of, Relena struggled to remember every detail.

While she was pondering, she heard a yell from upstairs. It was Trowa.

¤¤¤¤¤

Duo was bored. He lay on his bed staring at the ceiling, counting the cracks in the tiles. It was amazing that a vacation weekend could turn out to be so boring. He chuckled at his last thought. Boring? Far from it. Duo's thoughts turned to the many eerie events that had taken place in the past two and a half days. And it had all started with Hilde…

A sudden shouting that seemed to be on the floor above broke his thoughts. Was that Trowa? He took off through the open door.

In the hallway, he saw Heero and Relena also outside their doorways. Heero had a knowing look on his face as he took off toward the stairs leading to the third floor. The other occupants of the rooms heard the shouts, saw Heero, and were quick to follow suit.

Duo quickly stuck his head in Wufei's room and yelled, "Wufei, we've kind of got an emergency here! Put your book down and get up here!"

Wufei acted immediately and began running to the doorway. Seeing something out of the corner of his eye, he stopped and looked at his dresser mirror arrangement. Someone had set a vase of flowers on it. When he looked closer at the flowers, shock could be registered on his face. They were the same type of flowers that his wife Melian had seen before she died. They were identical to the field of flowers that she had tried so hard to defend.

Wufei paused and reached out a hesitant hand to touch one of the flowers. His hand met the mirror before the flowers. Wufei looked up as he realized that the flowers were only in the reflection. He stared at the echo of himself.

Relena and Duo were the last two to head up the stairway.

¤¤¤¤¤

When Heero had reached the top of the stairs, his worst fears were confirmed. Trowa stood on the balcony clutching his left arm. Running through, over, and under his fingers was blood. Catherine stood about a yard away from him with two of her knives. From the open door, a moisture filled breeze filled the room.

Everyone else reached the top of the stairs and gaped at the sight. Heero looked around quickly to see the mirror he had observed during his tour of the house. He grimaced when he saw the shattered pieces of glass scattered on the ground. Obviously, the enemy was beginning to plan ahead.

Catherine, noting his presence, seemed to ignore Heero and the others. Her main focus was on Trowa. Her right arm leaned back to drive one of the knives into another section of Trowa. Dorothy, finally recovering from her initial shock, ran forward and grabbed Catherine's arm.

"Catherine, what are you doing?!" With a surprising amount of strength, Catherine threw Dorothy off of her. The blond landed in a heap inside the room.

The knife thrower again reached her hand back. She had Trowa in the perfect position, trapped with his back to the railing of the balcony. Heero snapped his gaze over at Relena.

"Where's your compact?"

Relena fished around in the pockets of her jeans as she frantically looked for her makeup. Catherine had thrown the first knife, which Trowa had managed to dodge. He now seemed to be wrestling with his sister, trying to get the remaining knife out of her hand. But, being injured, Catherine had the advantage. The others dared not interfere incase anyone else should become hurt. Catherine was beginning to push Trowa over the edge of the balcony rail.

Relena finally found her compact, and dropped it on the floor in her hurry. In one smooth motion, Heero picked it up, ran toward the siblings, and opened the compact. Grabbing Catherine's hand from behind, he spun her around and showed her the dusty reflection in the compact. Catherine glared for a moment before making the transition.

Now changed, her hand dropped the knife as she stumbled backward. Her head in acute pain, Catherine was about to go over the railing of the balcony. Trowa grabbed her with his right hand and pulled her back into the room. Heero shut the doors as a final breath of air crept into the room.

Everyone gathered around Catherine making sure she was all right. Duo was also among the group of people watching the befuddled girl when he remembered something.

Where's Wufei?

¤¤¤¤¤

Wufei now held one of the flowers that had been in the vase. He placed it gently on the bed next to his semi-automatic handgun that he had just gotten out of his travel bag.

¤¤¤¤¤

Duo ran with lightning speed back down the steps. His teammates did not seem to notice because of their present concern for Catherine. He made the sharp turn, but stumbled slightly and ran into the wall. He felt a dull pain on his shoulder before he cursed under his breath, righted himself, and ran into Wufei's room.

What Duo saw surprised him. Wufei sat perfectly still on his bed with his back toward the door. He had half expected to be yelled at for barging into the room uninvited. He approached his comrade cautiously.

"Hey, Wufei? What happened? We kind of needed you upstairs."

Wufei turned around. Duo felt his jaw pop open. There was a steady stream of tears coming down the fierce warrior's face. He held a delicate flower in his hand. The way he was cradling it, one would think he expected to wilt at his very touch.

Duo felt his alarm rise a few more notches. "Wufei?! What's wrong?"

Wufei put the flower gently on the sheets of the bed and wiped the stream of tears from his face. "I have failed her."

"Who?"

"Nataku. Melian."

His hand now reached for the semi-automatic handgun. Wufei picked it up with purpose set in his face. "I'm going to honor her."

"Wufei! Don't!" Duo lunged forward.

The gun went off.

¤¤¤¤¤

Upstairs, everyone felt their systems receive another shock as they heard a gunshot. Looking around frantically, Relena noticed that Duo and Wufei were not there. She was about to mention this, when she saw Heero running back down the stairwell with break neck speed. She ran after him. The others soon followed.

Wufei's door was open. Relena ran in after Heero and stopped abruptly. She stared, horrified at what she saw. Both boys were on the floor; the handgun had skidded to the dresser. Neither of them was moving. Heero leaned over to pick up the weapon to keep any other mishap from happening. Relena felt her eyes fill with tears.

Suddenly, Duo moved. As he sat up, he clutched his left arm much like Trowa had earlier. And, like Trowa, there was a steady stream of blood flowing around his fingers. Despite his obvious pain, he was careful to keep Wufei pinned to the ground.

But instead of struggling, Wufei reached up and brushed two of his fingers against Duo wound. He brought his two fingers back down and stared at the gore that now coated his fingers. His hand started to shake violently. Then, Wufei jerked his hand up and held his head.

Duo got off of his comrade still holding his arm. "Seems you're back."

Still with his eyes closed and his hands on his head, Wufei snapped. "Shut up, Maxwell."

"Yup, it seems you're back to normal." Duo made a slight face. "If that can be considered a good thing."

Now at the door, a very grievous Catherine appeared. "Duo! You too?" She walked up to him and ushered him out the door. "Go to my bathroom this instant! I'll patch you and Trowa up."

¤¤¤¤¤

Hilde stood in the mirror room just after dinner.

"Is everything going according to plan?"

"Yes, it seems that everything is on schedule."

Hilde stood with her back to the mirror. The room was still pitch black except for two candles burning, one on each side of the door.

Two hands slid around Hilde's shoulder and held her close. "Excellent."

She turned around and viewed the dark figure. "Everything will be finished soon," she said chuckling slightly at the crumpled figure of herself on the other side of the mirror.

Thunder rumbled in the air, announcing that the worst of the storm would soon come.

¤¤¤¤¤

Relena lay on her bed and stared at the darkness that had enveloped the room. Sighing, she pulled her hand up to look at her watch again. 10:00. She made a face and let her hand plop back down on top of the sheets.

Finally, after checking her watch five minutes later, she sat up and walked toward the door. If I'm going to have to stay awake to go to a midnight meeting, I'm not going to be by myself that whole time.

Her door creaked when she opened it. She then slunk out into the hallway. Hilde walked up from the mirror room, Relents back to her.

"Relena?"

She jumped as she turned around to see Hilde looking at. "What are you doing?"

"Well, I was uh… I felt like getting some fresh air, and uh…"

"You could have opened the window in your room."

Relena slapped her forehead. "Silly me! Why didn't I think of that?"

Both girls went back to their rooms.

Five minutes later:

A door creaked open.

"Do you have your window open, Relena?"

A sigh.

"Yes."

"Good night then."

Five minutes after that:

Relena's door opened again.

"Relena."

TEN minutes after that:

Relena peeked out into the hallway and made absolutely sure that no one was watching her. Getting out of her door as quickly and noiselessly as she could, she ran a room down and opened Heero's door.

It was completely dark in his room as well. The only light was were the muffled light of the moon, surrounded by clouds, shone thorough, and where the computer screen lit the area encompassing it. She frowned as she saw Heero no where in sight.

When she walked a few feet from the door, she heard a slight sigh, and turned to see Heero crouched in the shadows with his semi-automatic in his hand. Relena made a slight face at him, "Are we back to that 'Omae o koroso' bit?"

Heero walked up to her with the usual frown on his face. "What were you doing?"

"We have two hours before the meeting, and I didn't want to be by myself." She looked over to the computer that was perched on the top of the bed covers. "What were you doing?"

"Analyzing and gathering data from the most recent of the happenings. I just finished when you came in." He walked over to the bed and turned off his computer. Looking back at her, he asked, "What did you want to do?"

¤¤¤¤¤

Duo lay in resting position on his bed. Even though Catherine had done an excellent job of bandaging his flesh wound, it still ached dully from the afternoon events. He looked at the ceiling, feeling his eyes drooping.

I'm gonna stay awake. There's no way I can let the others come in and find me like this. There won't be any way I'll…

Duo fell asleep.

¤¤¤¤¤

Trowa sat on his bed and gently rubbed his left arm to try to dull the pain in it. From when he had last looked at the clock, he had about two hours before the meeting would take place. That would give him a long time to think over all that had happened.

A slight knock on the bathroom door gathered his attention as he whispered, "Come in," knowing full well who was going to be at the door.

Quatre peeped into Trowa's room, fully decked out in his pajamas. The faint bathroom light streamed in from behind him. Trowa smiled and could not help but think how Quatre looked like a little boy ready for bed in his night attire.

"How are your wounds, Trowa?" he asked.

"They're okay."

Quatre came in and sat on the unruffled bed next to him. "That's good. That knife wound that Catherine gave you looked pretty painful." He laughed nervously at the thought of the wound he had almost gotten last night. "I wonder why she acted that way, but then again, lots of people have been acting strangely."

Trowa looked at Quatre with a slight amount of curiosity. "Who else?"

Quatre counted the people off his fingers. "Well, tonight we had Catherine and Wufei, and yesterday we had Relena and Dorothy."

"Dorothy?"

Quatre slapped himself slightly. "Well, no one was up. I was having this really severe pain in my side, and went downstairs to see if there was any aspirin. When I got down there, Dorothy tried to stab me with one of the butcher knives."

"Really? She tried to stab you?" He paused. "Again?"

"Yeah, I'm not sure what came over her either. One moment she's coming after me, and the next, she's sobbing."

Trowa nodded slightly in the darkness. He had just discovered another piece to the puzzle. "Yeah, it does seem that something odd is going on around here. Hopefully, nothing else will happen before we leave."

Quatre smiled at Trowa. "I sure hope not. G'night, Trowa."

"'Night, Quatre."

When the door to the bathroom shut, Trowa remained where he was and thought.

¤¤¤¤¤

"Okay, Relena, guess what this one is."

"Um, a Gundam?

"Right, which one?"

Relena and Heero were on the floor of his room participating in important business of making shadow puppets. Just behind them, they had a flashlight set up.

Heero had his hands twisted together to form a shadow on the far wall. Relena sat next to him.

"Is it… Wing Zero?"

Heero looked hurt. "No, it's the original model. Can't you tell?"

Relena sweatdropped.

¤¤¤¤¤

Trowa had finally had enough of thinking and trying to figure out bits and pieces of different ideas. Now he decided to resort to trying to get some actual sleep and waking up when it was time for the meeting.

The only problem was Trowa could not sleep.

"11:05."

A pause.

"11:06."

Another pause.

"11:06... 11:07."

A sigh.

¤¤¤¤¤

A loud snoring was heard. Duo sputtered slightly in his sleep, scratched the top of his head, and turned over. The snoring began again.

¤¤¤¤¤

Heero looked over at Relena. He tried to pick up any stray emotion, any sort of hint that would help him know what to do next. She sat across from him on the floor and stared resolutely back at him giving a pretty good imitation of his usual expression.

Finally breaking the silence, Heero said, "Here, what do you think of that!" He laid his cards down on the table and glanced securely at his dwindling pile of candy. Relena simply smiled sweetly at him and also set her cards down on the table. Heero groaned. It was the third game of poker she had won.

"Hand it over, Yuy."

Heero grumpily and regretfully handed the remaining pile of M&Ms, Reese's Pieces, and Skittles over to Relena. She simply laughed somewhat evilly and gathered the rest of the candy to her all ready large pile.

Still sulking, Heero asked, "Where'd you learn to play poker?"

Relena gave him another sickening smile. "It's an art, only the gifted can learn it."

Heero glared at her.

¤¤¤¤¤

"11:30."

The bed covers were adjusted.

"11:32."

The pillow was fluffed.

"11:33."

A muffled groan was heard, from someone who sounded like they had buried their face in a pillow.

"11:34."

The wristwatch on the left hand was twisted to make it more comfortable.

"11:34."

The pillow was fluffed... again.

¤¤¤¤¤

Duo sat up abruptly in bed. He had a slight smile on his face as he said, "I'd like a chocolate shake, thanks." He fell back on the bed and pulled the covers up to his chin.

¤¤¤¤¤

Heero lay on the floor, staring at the ceiling. Relena lay about a yard away from him, also staring at the ceiling.

"Hey, Heero?"

"Hm?"

"What do you think about soul mates?"

Heero turned so he was on his side with his left arm supporting his head. Relena simply moved her head slightly to look back at him.

"I don't know. I never really had a reason to think about it. What do you think?"

Relena sighed almost dreamily. "I think they exist, and that some people were just destined to be together. I guess you could say that I hope to one day find my soul mate."

Heero looked slightly uncomfortable as silence once again filled the room.

"Heero?"

He nearly jumped.

"What?"

"What time is it?"

Heero sat up and looked for his watch in his carry on bag. When he had finally managed to find his wristwatch, he said, "11:45. We'll go soon."

¤¤¤¤¤

Trowa nearly wept with joy when his wristwatch alarm started to go off. He got out of his bed, straightened the covers slightly, and opened the door. No one else was in the pitch-black hall. His footsteps were quiet as he made his way across the wooden floor.

When he reached Duo's room, he found the other boy fast asleep. Trowa almost slapped his forehead in frustration. He walked over to Duo and tried to awaken him by shaking him on the shoulders. Apparently that did not work, because the sleeping boy just mumbled something about a free massage and went back to sleep. Now Trowa had to use his back up idea.

"Hey, Duo! Pretty girl at three o'clock!"

Duo's eyes snapped open as he sat up saying, "Where?! Where?!" When his eyes adjusted to the darkness, and on Trowa, he glared. "Aw, Trowa, that ain't funny." His speech had been slurred from his sudden awakening.

"Duo, you have to wake up. The others will be here soon."

"Here? Why here?!"

"Because that was what we agreed on."

"So? We'll move to your room."

"Too much noise."

Trowa waited for the responding argument. When all he heard was a muffled, "Mmmm..." he saw that Duo had fallen asleep while sitting up. Sighing, Trowa moved on to the back up of his back up idea.

Making Duo lay on his back, Trowa put a pillow over his face and yanked his braid. Hard.

As predicted, Duo yelled, but the pillow muffled the sound.

Ripping the pillow off his face, he glared at Trowa. "Why'd you do that?!"

"Wake up."

Duo crossed his arms, and grumpily complied.

¤¤¤¤¤

Heero and Relena silently opened Heero's door (which he had oiled earlier), and padded across the wooden planks that made up the floor. Relena suddenly felt someone step on the back of her nightgown. Before she could fall on her face, Heero caught her around the waist and pulled her back up to her feet.

Relena looked in the direction of his hidden figure with suspicion. There was no way he could be that clumsy. "Did you do that on purpose?"

"No." Heero's slight smile remained unseen in the dark.

They reached Duo's door.

¤¤¤¤¤

Wide-awake Trowa and half-asleep Duo looked up when the other two attendees for the meeting appeared at the door.

"Finally!" Duo exclaimed, blearily rubbing his eyes.

Relena and Heero simply glared at him.

"Okay," Trowa started. "Where should we begin?"

¤¤¤¤¤

Hilde sat up in bed as her wristwatch alarm went off. The moonlight started to be smothered by clouds once again as it tried to shine through the yellow curtains on the window. She padded softly over to the mirror in her room and watched it intently. Her reflection stared back at her. A dark, shadowed figure appeared in the mirror behind the imprisoned Hilde that caused the bound girl to shutter.

"Is everything ready?" Hilde asked on the other side of the mirror.

"Yes, they are all in Duo's room. You should be able to see them soon."

"Good." The image in the mirror began to waver as the reflection now showed the settings to a different room with Duo, Trowa, Heero, and Relena sitting inside. Even though the sight of the four was on a slight angle due to the position of the mirror/dresser arrangement, it allowed a clear view into the room. What they were doing and saying carried over into Hilde's room, all by mirror.

¤¤¤¤¤

"Okay," Trowa began, "we all have a fairly good idea of who's been affected." Everyone nodded.

"That's true, Trowa," Relena said, "but let's make a list and try to figure out when they happened. That might give us some more insight to the situation."

Heero nodded and seemed to grasp for something at his side. When he started looking around for the object, the others asked, "What are you doing, Heero?"

"I had typed all this information on my laptop." He sighed. "It looks like I forgot to grab it on our way out."

"Our?" Duo questioned with a big grin on his face. Heero ignored him and Relena blushed slightly.

"Well it's too late now," Trowa said, trying to keep things on track. "We'll just work with what we have."

Duo reached into his bag and produced a yellow legal pad and a pen that he had brought with him on the trip. "Relena," he started, "you were the first to switch." He wrote down her name at the top. "Who else has switched? We can put them in order once we get them down."

Heero continued the topic. "We know that Catherine and Wufei switched today," Duo wrote it down. "And Trowa and I were also switched."

Duo looked up in surprise. "You were switched?"

Heero ignored him while Trowa continued. "Quatre told me before the meeting that Dorothy tried to stab him last night, so we can assume that she was switched as well."

Duo wrote down all the names. He looked at the scribbled list and made a slight face. "Now all we have to do is figure out who goes where."

After a little bit of discussion, they finally decided on where everyone went on the list:

Day 1 (afternoon): Relena
Day 1 (evening): Heero, Dorothy
Day 2 (afternoon): Trowa, Catherine, Wufei

They all looked at the list and decided that it was as accurate as they could make it.

"So, who are the other potential victims that we have left?" Heero asked, studying the list.

Relena mentally counted the inhabitants off her fingers. "Looks like we have Quatre, Hilde…"

"But Hilde was switched," Duo said. Everyone turned to look at him.

"You never told us that," Trowa said. "When did this happen?"

"On the very first night here."

Relena nodded. "That would explain why you were asking me all those details after my switching."

Duo also nodded. "Yeah, I knew there had to be a connection."

"What would the list look like now?" Heero asked.

½ Day (evening): Hilde
Day 1 (afternoon): Relena
Day 1 (evening): Heero, Dorothy
Day 2 (afternoon): Trowa, Catherine, Wufei

"Has anyone noticed a trend?" Heero asked. The others looked at him questioningly. "They start out with somewhat mild changes, like Relena thinking up war strategies. As the changes progress, they become more obvious and drastic." Trowa and Duo subconsciously rubbed their left arm.

"So," Relena said slowly, "since no one seems to be switched twice, the only people left are Quatre and…"

Duo nodded grimly. "…me."

¤¤¤¤¤

Quatre restlessly tossed and turned in his bed. He sighed and made a slight face at the ceiling. It was the second night in a row that he had suffered from insomnia. At least this night, he did not have friends trying to stab him. He groaned and pushed his bed covers off as he sat up.

Quatre knew one of the reasons for not being able to sleep. Trowa had seemed somewhat interested in the peculiar behavior people had been showing. The only question was why? The Arabian knew because of all that had happened, something must be wrong. The only thing was he had no idea what that something would be.

Walking over to the shared bathroom, Quatre opened his door, then Trowa's. He hoped that his silent friend would still be awake so he could at least bounce some questions and ideas off of him.

At a quick glance around the room, Quatre frowned when he saw that no one was there.

Where would he have gone at this time of night? He sighed in frustration and walked over to the bed. When he sat down on it, he noticed that the covers had hardly even been rumpled. Did Trowa even go to bed?

Quatre looked around the room for ideas. The only thing he saw was the mirror and dresser. He looked at the reflection of him alone in the abandoned room. When he looked at his own facial expression, he shivered when he saw the reflection with a surreal smile playing on its features.

¤¤¤¤¤

Hilde's transmission of Duo's room was interrupted by the shadowed figure in the mirror. She frowned in irritation.

"What is it?" she snapped.

"We are almost ready. Another of them has been changed."

The mirror again darkened to show one candle bravely shining in the otherwise dishearteningly black room of mirrors. Hilde smiled.

"Excellent. By tomorrow, everything should be done with."

She turned from the mirror to the window where a sharp crackling was heard. A mixture of rain and ice pelted the window as well as the rest of the house. By far, this seemed to be the most violent of the storm that the others had seen.

¤¤¤¤¤

-Daine
Written 7-6-00

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.