18-Dec-1999
All the disclaimer stuff is because the fic is supposed to be posted on a site soon.
Hope you enjoy. This is part one. Let me know if you think part two would be a good idea.
Sarah Conelly was ecstatic. After all this time she finally had a real place to stay. A clean, comfortable, safe place to stay. It was a small, one bedroom, full kitchen and bath apartment. Much more than she was used to. Best of all, the apartment once belonged to Heero Yuy. He left it shortly after his best friend, Duo Maxwell, disappeared, and before he married Queen Relena. In the four years since then, no one had stayed long in the apartment. Maybe it held too many memories. Sarah didn’t care. All in all, it was a great place
for the new Preventer to start her career.
It took three hours to move in and four more to completely unpack. By ten she was completely exhausted, but had at least gotten the bed made. Sarah took a quick shower and got ready for bed, all the while marveling over how the events in her life had taken a turn for the better. A few short weeks ago, she had been a street rat whose only use was hacking. Not a great career choice. Too many people thought of her as expendable. That was how she met Wufei Chang.
He had been trying to track down some weapons smugglers. They were better at covering their tracks than he was at uncovering them, however. One of his informants had mentioned Sarah as someone who could maybe help. Their first meeting had been less than friendly. The man simply didn’t know how to ask politely. He’d found the 5’4", blue eyed, red head to be very annoying. She’d turned him down flat. Under most circumstances that would have been the end of
it, but the smugglers decided they couldn’t afford Sarah’s involvement. The only reason she was alive was because of Chang. The former pilot had stubbornly refused to give up on her and showed up at just the right time.
No one had ever, EVER, risked their life for Sarah before. Wufei had ended up in the hospital because he saved her. Figuring she owed the brave young man, Sarah went to work. By the time he was out of the hospital, the smugglers had been caught and all their contacts as well. Then Wufei had surprised her even more by sponsoring her for Preventer training. She would work half time with the computers and take the regular training the rest of the time. And she was getting paid! For honest work, no less. Not bad for someone whose life expectancy used to be very short.
She had chosen the apartment herself, but was beginning to wonder if maybe she should have moved in slower. All day she kept seeing things out of the corner of her eyes. Or to be more specific, someone. Sarah kept seeing a young man with violet eyes and an incredibly long braid. When she turned to face him, no one was there.
The young Preventer put it all down to having too much excitement in one day. Finally, she fell asleep.
Her dreams were disjointed images that seemed to make no sense. There was blood and yelling, then smiles and laughter. Finally, an agony filled voice cried out one name "Heero!" and the force of that cry shattered her sleep. Sarah awoke to find herself staring into the most intense violet eyes she had ever seen. They were surrounded by a heart shaped face and filled with great loneliness. She
stared at the face for several moments refusing to accept the reality of what she saw. However, when the image before her spoke, reality became too real.
"I wish you could see or hear me," the young man said. "You look like you’d be fun to talk to. I never imagined being dead would be so lonely or boring." He sounded so sad.
Sarah launched herself backwards and fell off the bed. She kept going until she hit the wall. When she finally looked back at the bed, there was no sign of her visitor. Cautiously, the Preventer approached the bed. Had someone been observing her they might have thought she expected it to bite. After a thorough search of the bed, and under it, Sarah was sure insanity had finally claimed her. There was no impression or body heat to indicate that anyone besides her had ever occupied the bed. Just as she had started to relax and breathe normally again, however, all the hairs on the back of her neck rose. Something was behind her. With speed born of years on the streets, she turned to find the young man standing in almost the same spot she had hit the wall.
"You can see me," he whispered in awe.
"I can see right through you," Sarah whispered back. Panic was eating away at her mind. This couldn’t be real. Could it?
The young man took a step toward her. Sarah scrambled over the bed and put it between them.
"I won’t hurt you."
"Damn straight." Sarah had drawn a gun and was pointing it across the bed.
Laughter filled the room. For a few seconds, Sarah was confused. Most people didn’t laugh at the site of gun, then it hit her. She was pointing a gun at a ghost!
"Damn," she muttered and then joined the dead man in his laughter. It was just too ridiculous. "Who are you?"
"I run, I hide, but I never lie, Duo Maxwell, at your service," the ghost said with a little bow. A close look verified his claim. The ghost was exactly like the pictures. So that was what happened to the young pilot. He was dead. Wait a minute. He was DEAD!?
"How did it happen? People looked for you all over the place. The best experts tried to find out what happened to you. Nobody found anything." Sarah realized she was babbling and shut up.
The ghost’s face crumpled.
"I was murdered. Right in this room."
"I’m sorry." She didn’t know what else to say. What do you say to something like that? "Is there anything I can do?" Surprisingly, she meant it. Duo seemed so sad. Besides, ghosts couldn’t hurt you, could they? Surely there was something that would allow the ghost to find peace.
"Could you tell me...tell me how long it’s been? You’re the first person who’s ever been able to really see or hear me. How’s Heero? The others? What’s happened in the world? Do we still have peace?"
The questions poured from Duo. For the rest of the night, Sarah told him all she could. Somehow the conversation made the situation seem more real. Instead of cheering him up, however, most of the news she had seemed to depress the ghost further. An hour before dawn, Sarah had Duo up to speed.
"So Heero married Relena?" The question sounded forced. Sarah was sure she heard something like grief in the tone. "Oh, Heero. How could you?"
"When you disappeared, he looked everywhere. All the other pilots helped. Queen Relena even put the Preventers at his disposal. After about a year, he lost hope, I guess. You couldn’t be found. The Queen helped him every step of the way, comforted him and, well, they fell in love. It’s four years next month they’ve been married."
Wind suddenly tore through the room. Duo glowed as it wrapped around him. Sarah stared in awe. ‘Remind me never to piss him off,’ she thought in shock.
"How could you Heero? How could you marry the bitch that killed me!?" The words were torn from a throat hoarse with pain, anger, and loss. Duo collapsed to his knees. The wind grew stronger and threatened to knock Sarah over. With a desolate cry, he uttered a word that seemed ripped from his soul. It was the most terrible sound Sarah had every heard.
"HHHHHHHEEEEEEEEERRRRRRROOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!"