Cracks In The Mirror

Chapter Six: I Need You

By: Tracie Somebody

Noin walked down the hall, unsure what she would see when she opened the bed room door to the room Relena was staying in. But she had not even semi prepared herself for what she saw when she walked in. Zechs had successfully pinned Heero against the wall and was holding a knife to Heero's throat. Heero flickered a glance toward her and brief understanding shown in his face.

"Milliardo Peacecraft!" Noin yelled shaking Zechs. Noin only called him that when she was VERY angry. "What are you doing?!?" She asked looking at Heero who was glaring again.

"Just talking," Zechs told her unpinning Heero from the wall who landed on his feet with no problem.

"Yeah I bet," Noin told him raising an eyebrow and indicating the knife. Zechs pocketed it. "About Relena I suppose?" Heero rubbed his arm and nodded. "You," Noin looked at Heero, "Out, Now." She ordered. Heero left glaring at Zechs.

"Are you crazy? He'll just go into Relena's room and upset her more!" Zechs told Noin.

"No, he's to chicken to go into there," Noin informed him. "Apparently she thinks he hates her, and some thing tells me the last thing he wants to do is go in there and tell her he's sorry whether he hates her or not," Noin told Zechs sighing. Zechs nodded and lead his wife into their where they could have a more private conversation.

Meanwhile

Relena was completely done crying now, and she felt oddly empty. Like she had been drained of every thing. She sighed, a hollow sound showing how tired and emotionally drained she was. She fell slowly into a deep sleep, vaguely wondering why Noin hadn't come back yet.

"Heero I need you," Relena whispered to her pillow before she fell off to sleep. Heero looked in at her from where he had been silently standing in the door way. His eyes flickered with a brief moment of deep emotion as he looked at her, but the moment left him and his eyes gained control of his emotions and reverted to his frozen blue stare. He heard a person approach him from behind, and he could tell that he was trying to be quiet in the coming. Heero tensed ready to fight if it was Zechs again.

"You know once, pretty long ago, a very weird suicidal boy told me to follow my emotions," Trowa started in, "Maybe it's time he followed his own advice" Trowa finished, meeting Heero's icy stare.

"Why are you here?" Heero asked. Trowa lifted the left corner of his mouth into what seemed to be a smile.

"Zechs asked me to come and help add to security measures," Trowa told him. "The others are on their way as well."

"Hn" Heero told him, as if unsatisfied with something on his mind. Trowa had no time to question what it was however because a loud yelling was heard just then through out the house.

"Hey! Any body home!?!" It was Duo's voice.

"I'll go down there and shut him up," Trowa told Heero. Heero nodded and shut Relena's door.

"I'll help," Heero told Trowa and the two made their way down stairs.

"Shut up you baka!" This came from Wufei who had just arrived and had heard Duo's yelling from out side the house. Heero and Trowa entered then and as if synchronized by clocks the two turned left and took a seat on the couch.

"Weirdos," Duo remarked watching Heero and Trowa.

"Duo that's not very nice," this came from Quatre who was standing just out side the living room door.

"Whoa where have you been?" Duo asked squeezing Quatre with a big bear hug.

"Ugh Working," Quatre told him. Duo smiled.

"Finally your back," Duo pointed at the other three pilots, "They almost killed me!" Duo told him.

"Oh what a shame they didn't," Quatre said under his breath. Wufei let out a small laugh.

"Awe I'm not that bad, am I?" Duo looked quite shaken by what Quatre had said.

"No your worse," Heero said throwing a couch pillow at him lazily.

"Children," Zechs muttered walking in. Heero and Zechs exchanged glares as Zechs took a seat.

"Oh and YOUR mature," Noin said skeptically sitting next to Zechs. Zechs glared at her, and she smiled sweetly at him. "Now lets get down to business," Noin announced.

"Are you sure we should talk about this in front of a woman?" Wufei asked indicating Noin and addressing Zechs. Noin looked increasingly displeased.

"YES," Zechs assured Wufei. Already in hot water with Noin, Zechs wasn't about to get in deeper.

"Does anyone have any updates before we start?" Noin asked. No one said anything.

"I might have a lead," Wufei said producing a brown paper package from inside his tan trench coat. He slid out an assortment of papers as well as one good sized paper-back book. "I have been investigating the clues left by the murderer. At first my assumption was that he was writing his own analogies on paper, but then again what he said sounded very familiar. So I went on-line and researched all of the phrases. I came up with one match. Cracks In The Mirror a novel by Thompson Egrets a slightly insane polish man who believed strongly in woman abuse. He wrote the novel to express his deepest thoughts and analogies of life, all of the phrases written so far are in this book," Wufei then handed the book to Zechs. "He also died in jail leaving all he owned, which wasn't much, to his cell mate a criminal by the name of Samuel Palter," Wufei then handed the papers to Zechs. "It included a small house which was sold immediately, and around 100,000 dollars cash," Wufei concluded.

"Wow," Duo announced.

"Isn't Samuel Palter the alias Relena gave us?" Heero asked Zechs.

"Yes it was," Noin said.

"Relena gave this alias?" Trowa asked.

"She was attacked again in Heero's home," Noin announced. "She made a positive I.D. on her attacker, he was someone she knew from high school." Quatre shifted his feet uneasily.

"Where's the bathroom?" Quatre finally asked and Noin pointed it out to him and he left down the hall way.

"So now we know who the bad guy is, let's go track him down and blow his brains out," Duo said.

"I wish it were that simple," Noin told him, "But we can't just go and find him and take him out just like that. We need a warrant and other things before we can even talk to this guy. That is, assuming he didn't skip town the second he realized Relena might be able to identify him. And to add to the 'what ifs?' he might have had help from others."

"This sucks," Duo told everyone. The others nodded their agreement.

"Also Lady Une, president of the preventers is on vacation with Marie Maya. And as we all know you can not get a warrant with out her signature and she'll be gone until Tomorrow," Zechs added. "And until then Relena's life is still is in danger. We have all seen what this guy is capable of," The rest nodded. They had seen, if not in person, then in photographs the victims of these murders. Just then Quatre re-entered and Trowa updated him on what was happening.

"I'll get more information on this Samuel Palter," Heero offered.

"Also try 'Simon Pax'," Noin told him, and Heero nodded and left.

"Here is a lay out of your guard positions," Zechs told them handing out papers to the other four pilots. The others studied them carefully.