AN: Next part here, and this is where the story starts picking up the pace. Poor Heero and Relena... I have so many devious things planned for them.

Disclaimers: I don't own Gundam Wing.

"Who were you talking to Relena?" Heero asked as he carried Relena up to her bedroom. She still seemed in a daze, and such oblivion was not a common behavior of hers, so therefore Heero was determined to find out why she was acting this way.

"I... I wasn't talking to anyone Heero... just myself," she answered, looking directly into his eyes and giving him the most precious expression of puppy-eyes she could muster.

"It's not going to work this time Relena," he replied to her while looking away. He knew that if he kept staring into those eyes that sparkled and glistened with divine affection he would give in to her... it worked on him one too many times for him to be that careless. "Tell me who you were talking to, and this time I want the truth."

"It's none of your business who I was talking to!" Relena huffed before she could even think about what words she wanted to allow pour from her mouth. With a slight hesitation, after seeing Heero's astonishment at her outburst, she continued, "What do you care anyway? It's not as if you have any feelings for me whatsoever! I'm just your mission, something which you promised to protect so that you wouldn't have to fight anymore! Don't you understand? I don't want to be your mission anymore! I want to be something that you hold dear, something that you want, you want...," she sobbed as tears began to well up within her irises and made transient streams of glitter to adorn her face with lamentation. She clenched her fists tightly and buried her face in his chest, wishing he could just understand her, just this once. How could he not see that she loved him more than one can love? How can he not want to return the gentle aura that illuminated her face and all of her gesture when he came into sight? Why couldn't he have just been dead on the sand that day when she found him... her heart would then never have had to been broken and lost in an endless waltz of sentiment.

Without her even noticing, he had lain her down upon the satin sheets of her bed and pulled the translucent curtain of her canopy to conceal her within her bliss of eternal fantasy, leaving her within the merit and watch of the lustrous, feather-winged angles that were so delicately woven into the silken shade to guard her from both nightmare and evil prowler. He tied the drape shut with the billowing white ribbon and said, "Desperation is both an enemy and an ally. Sometimes this simple emotion, which even I can feel, can bring us through our darkest hours, helping us to accomplish what must be done for those that need not suffer anymore. But, it's also a seductress in itself, because it can be linked to poor judgement and the destruction of a life. It takes hold upon us, and it's usually the pure at heart that this sentiment takes advantage of. For those of innocence can't fathom the consequences of their immaculate feelings. To be honest Relena, despair had never led me astray, so I know that my heart, or whatever I have of one, is filled with some sort of blackness. Now good-night... princess," he whispered as he sauntered from her bedside and shut the door behind him.

*Desperation? I'm not desperate for anything, I have all I could ever want... or maybe I'm starved of the one thing everyone has that I need,* Relena pondered to herself before she fell into a deep, restless sleep.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

"Don't listen to him dear child!" a voice echoed in the distance as Relena walked through the shroud of smoke and haze. All around her was emptiness, just the stars, tears of those who have loved and lost, of those who never got a chance to feel true devotion, and a cloud of onerous breath that filled her soul with implausible dread.

"Who, who shouldn't I trust?" Relena called out into the nothingness, horrible screams of a young woman and her fondling infant resounding in the aura and permeating her ears, she shrieking inside to be freed from this desolate place.

"The sprite, that little water fairy!" the voice replied forcefully. "He isn't here to help you, he can only cause you pain! He will steal everything away from you, everything you have ever held dear and will! Love blooms in time, it cannot be forced, or terrible consequences begin to arise!"

"Who are you? Why are you doing this to me?" Relena cried out, shrinking down to her feet and pulling her knees to her chest, rocking herself back and forth to calm herself.

"Because child, I care for you, and he will hurt you! Keep with you always a hallow object, and show him his face in a mirror, and he will bother you no more!"

"But why..."

"He is Lucifer, Satan himself, come for you, a true daughter of the Divine! He cannot withstand holy ground, and his reflection is too much for even him to bear! Go now, and don't trust him, get rid of him once and for all!" the voice reverberated throughout the bleak terrain.

"No, don't leave me here! I'm frightened... I'm frightened! Stop..." she screeched as everything turned dark and disappeared from all around her.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"No!" Relena screamed as she woke from her dream. She looked around her, and she was back in her room, safe and sound as if she had never left. The winged children looked down at her, smiling with grace and comforting her heart back to its normal beat, her sheets pulled securely around her body. Her window was open and letting in freely the cool night breeze, the drapes wafting in the winds like the untamed tides of ocean waters, foam of the trickling waves or dainty lace falling to the floor in sanguine fashion. Her teddy bear, the one with its small red ribbon that Heero had so thoughtfully given her, sitting on her stomach, his look seeming to give her a feeling of strength and reassurance as his eyes showed her untaught beauty in the bathing moonlight.

*Just a dream... but a rather disturbing one at that,* Relena thought to herself as she rolled onto her side and tried to resume her slumber, but before she closed her eyes she heard a quaking little voice say, "Now where were we?"

She sprang up from her pillow and looked around for the source of the glass-shattering tone, her heart again beating in-sync with the dizzying thoughts that raced through her mind.

"I'm right over here, on you're vanity,' the voice spoke again, this time a little amusement evident amid the rasps.

"Stay away from me you, you... DEVIL!" Relena cried, ripping her crucifix from above her head and thrusting it into his view. The creature's eyes widened, and a look of almost panic struck across the sprite's face as the sullen Jesus, in all his glory stared back at him, nailed mercilessly to a cross. Still shaking, but keeping his voice calm, he said, "My lady, why on Earth are you shoving that... THING in my face?"

"I know all about you, so don't try to play innocent you serpent!" she shouted to him sternly, shaking the cross as she spoke. The fairy, out of shock and weariness from the divine parcel, meekly fell off of her vanity and struggled to get to her side.

"I wouldn't come any closer if I were you," she retorted with confidence. "My canopy is decorated with angels, and so your trials will be futile because you can't touch the sacred print on the fabric."

"Dear girl," the pixie gasped, his energy diminishing, "do you really believe a silly little dream? THAT was the devil who spoke to you in your dream! He's deceived both of us! Don't believe what it said!"

"Well, if what you say is true, then why do tremble at the sign of my crucifix, the one blessed by the Pope himself?"

"I do not quake at the cross, I am tired because of the long journey and incarnation I had to make to get to you. Forgive me for not being used to the customs of your world," he said coyly, capturing her eyes in his own.

"Well, then prove it to me by looking in the mirror, show me you are not afraid of your reflection," she said weakly, his hypnotic effects beginning to take hold of her.

He walked, a distance kept between he and the bed, and picked up her glass of water, pouring it onto the floor. He peered straight into the puddle and said, "You see, my reflection is true, you are just being deceived by the Evil One," he chuckled.

"I see," Relena murmured as she fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.

The sprite raised his hands and called out, "What's yours is now mine, and in return I will give you the courage to speak the truth to your mortal love... but is it worth the risk," he cackled as dark sparks and mournful howls encircled the sleeping princess's body...

AN: I just got a great inspiration with this one, and I can't wait to write more. I was really sick for that past few days, so that's why I haven't been writing. Tell me what you think.