Disclaimer: I don’t Gundam Wing, or the characters from Gundam Wing. I do own
the minor characters and non-GW people.

Warnings: You should know at this point what warnings I have.
Pairings: Ditto on this point.
Surprises: Isn’t ever chapter a surprise? ^_~

Final note, I’d like to thank Midii Une for being such a good beta. You really
point out things that I’ve neglected in the first draft. That’s how great you
are. Of course Bryony, you seem to love this story very much, so this shout-out
is also for you.

Gundam Wing: Phases of Memory
Phase 07-Dreamscape
By Sailor Celaeno

Quatre’s heart pounded in his chest. “Where could he have gone to?” Quatre
searched frantically through the crowd for Liam until he bumped into a man with
a little girl by his side. “Excuse me sir, but have you seen…?” Suddenly the
man simply walked right through Quatre. His eyes grew wide with shock. Quatre
stared after the man, his mouth hanging in stunned disbelief.
He tried grabbing and touching things, but they all passed straight through
his hands. Confusion soon consumed his mind. He glanced over at a garbage can
nearby with a newspaper. Quatre happened to spy the date on the page and was
beyond surprised. “AC 186!” Quatre felt very odd. “How did I go back in time?”

*****

Present-AC 198

Lady Une thought that it would be an excellent day to be with Mariemaia. Now
after 2 years together, they were as happy as could be. Mariemaia would be 9
this year and she had come a long way from the teachings of Dekim Barton. Une
often told Mariemaia as much as she could about Treize. She’d regale the young
girl with stories of his bravery, his sharp intellect, but most importantly his
idealism. Trying to make a better world is a very beautiful thing, Une always
said to her. Treize admired aesthetics, but most importantly he respected a
hard struggle. Life wasn’t easy, he admitted once, but it didn’t matter because
what matters is honor and courage. Mariemaia admired the man called Treize
Khushrenada. He was more than a figure of history, he was her father.
When Mariemaia became free to act like a child, she was curious about her
father. After her real mother died young and she had been raised by an
impersonal series of governesses hand picked her grandfather. However, when she
was five Dekim made it clear that her that her father was a man of great
influence, and that as his only child, she had to take her place in his legacy.
Being an impressionable child, she readily believed in her father’s greatness.
Dekim’s desire for glory became her own. She developed that taste for power and
a strong sense of destiny. She was the perfect puppet leader for Dekim’s plan.
But that was three years ago. Mariemaia was better adapted to her new civilian
life with Lady Une as her second mother. Une was very successful in this
venture. Une could see Treize within this young girl by her side. She was very
optimistic about life and the possibilities of the future. Une was happy to
that Treize wouldn’t really by dead. Treize lived inside the growing, young,
red-head.
Une and Mariemaia proceeded into the large park. “I’m glad you could leave
work early, Mama. It’s too beautiful today to stay indoors.”
Une smiled at her youthful exuberance. “Of course Mariemaia.” Une did need
some time to pull herself together. Her office was swamped with tension hanging
in the air. Especially with the dirty business of Arliss Linner. Une glanced at
her little Mariemaia. She couldn’t imagine was sort of terrors that Mariemaia
would have endured if she had been created in Linner’s test tubes. It made Une
shudder with disgust at the thought that terrible things had been done to the
innocent children he created. They were nothing more than laboratory
experiments, exploited by the Alliance in a extreme attempt to gain complete
reign over the colonies.
They were walking towards Mariemaia’s favorite part of the park, the old
carousel. During her austere life with her grandfather, she was treated like a
small adult. The child had never even seen a carousel before. She had ridden
this one for the first time, after she had finally healed from her gunshot
wound. The music was lovely, and the toy horses sent her to a lovely place of
the mind that the little girl had never experienced before. Une was happy to
see that Mariemaia could know the feeling of real happiness. She knew that the
girl she thought of as her own daughter had suffered from exploitation just as
those they were trying to help now had. How grateful she was that Treize’s
daughter had been saved from a similar fate.
As they neared the beloved ride, Une was more than a little surprised to see
Quatre. Not only because he was accompanied by a young boy by his side, but
because he didn’t respond to her friendly greeting with his usual politeness.
“Quatre?”
She and Mariemaia approached Quatre. “Quatre?” whimpered the boy tugging at
his guardian’s hand to get his attention. Liam was terrified by the eerie look
of detachment on Quatre’s face.
“Can you hear me?” Une said with some firmness.
Quatre just stared into empty air without any apparent notice of what was
going on around him. His face was completely blank and expressionless.
Une frowned. “I better call for an ambulance.”

*****

AC 186-Quatre’s Vision

Quatre was beyond confused. “How in the world can I be 12 years in the past?”
It didn’t matter whether he said it aloud since none of the people around him
could see or hear him. He was like a ghost to these people. He needed to find
out how he had traveled to the past, and a way out of it. The other question
was why. Why had this happened, why here at this carousel, and why now?
He had to calm down and try to think rationally. Whatever that strange energy
was, it was responsible for bringing him to the past. The carousel continued to
twirl merrily, the music floated on the air with the same lilting melody. The
laughter of the delighted children mingled with the happy sound as it had a few
moments ago when he had been here with Liam. The carousel was the key! But what
was so special about this particular one?
Like a dream transforming into a nightmare the vision shifted. The joyous
sound became muffled and slow as the outlines of this reality turned blurry.
Something unnamable was different in a way he could find no words to describe.
An intense sensation pulled him towards the carousel. And just as he heard a
voice whispering maliciously in his head, he saw her…

*****

AC 198-20 minutes later…

Everyone was worried about Quatre. He had lost consciousness a minute after
Lady Une found him and Liam. Mrs. Baines had taken control of Mariemaia and
Liam, while Lady Une went with Quatre to the hospital. Dorothy was there with
Relena, Heero, and Abdul. Everyone else was unable to come to the hospital.
Relena promised to call as soon as she could.
The doctors did X-rays and various tests on Quatre. There was a possibility
that he had heat exhaustion, but no one, not even the doctors, believed that
was the cause.
Quatre was placed in a room to rest. He was alive and overall perfectly
healthy. Abdul watched his young master asleep. “I have a feeling that he’s
having an episode.”
“An episode?” asked Une.
“This has happened before?” Relena asked with some surprise.
“He doesn’t remember since it was when he was still young. He goes through
this when he senses things.”
“Senses things… like what?” asked Heero.
“Sometimes he gets feelings about someone. Sometimes he gets premonitions of
what will happen. Right now, he could have been responding to just about
anything. We will know when he wakes up.”
Just then, Quatre bolted up in the bed. Everyone was startled by the
suddenness of his recovery. His eyes were wild until he saw the faces of his
friends. He breathed heavily for a few moments until he calmed down.
Dorothy immediately reached over. “What’s wrong? Are you all right?”
Quatre looked into her face. “I am now.”
“I was worried crazy about you. Please don’t do that to me again,” she said
somberly.
“I’m sorry, but I couldn’t help it.”
“What did you see this time, Master Quatre?” asked Rashid.
Quatre frowned. “I saw a terrible evil such as I’ve never seen or felt in my
entire life.”
Heero narrowed his eyes at that news. “Something evil? Tell me exactly what
you saw Quatre.”
Quatre sighed for a moment. “Well…” he told his tale.

*****

AC 186-Quatre’s vision

She was riding the carousel. She wasn’t happy, but she wasn’t sad either. She
wasn’t very sure of herself. She glanced over at a woman. Quatre could sense
that the woman was the girl’s mother. Just as the girl stared at her mother,
she stared straight at Quatre.
Quatre had unpleasant feelings about her. Not only could he sense the strange
energy from the girl, but the fact she was the only one who seemed to be able
to see him made it more eerie to him.
As the ride spun, she kept staring at him as she approached his range of view.
A cold sensation swept through him from those strange orbs. Though she was only
a child, there was something terrible and intimidating about her. Her eyes
spoke a thousand things to him for the few seconds that they had eye contact.
The noise of people talking no longer mattered to him or her. They were
inconsequential and the sounds faded away. Quatre noted that the people were
also fading away into shadow and darkness. There was only him, and that
spinning carousel. The girl still watched him. It was as though she was the
only rider there. Though her lips didn’t move, he could hear her voice.
“Don’t you see? We’re alone here. There’s no one to bring us happiness. Only
we can make ourselves happy. We have the power and we don’t need them.”
It was then that Quatre had jolted back into consciousness. He was very
puzzled for the reason and meaning behind the dream. “I don’t know much, but it
has to do with that carousel. It was very important in the vision. I think I
should go back there.”
“Are you crazy? What if the same thing happens again? You could be in more
trouble than you already are,” Dorothy exclaimed her voice filled with stern
concern.
Quatre merely smiled reassuringly. “The only way I can understand what this
means is if I get a vision again. I get a strong feeling that this vision is
the key to this whole thing. Missed opportunities could get innocent people
hurt. I’d never forgive myself if anything like that happened just because I
didn’t have the courage to put myself before others.”
There were reluctant and uncertain looks on everyone’s face. Une turned to
Quatre. “If you really believe that you can discover the truth, then I can’t
stop you. I have faith in you Quatre because of your strength. I also believe
your visions are the only way we will find the answers to this mystery.”
Quatre nodded with appreciation of her confidence. They soon left him alone so
he could rest. Quatre couldn’t stop thinking about that strange girl. Despite
dark impression he felt emanating from her, there was something sad and
miserable in her. What was it about her that filled him with fear and pity?

*****

Cass’s eyes flew open. There was a severe scowl of disapproval that made her
face ugly with a certain rage. “Damn… so close. I almost found another one.”
Phips Gemini was fiercely loyal to the cause and Cass’s right-hand in many
ways. “Where Cassie?”
Cass sat up from the bed that she had been lying on. She was meditating trying
to find more Newtypes. “I was so close!” she banged her fist on the table. “I
almost had him!” She got off and began pacing like a caged animal. “The Newtype
is a weak one. So I had serious trouble detecting this one.”
Phips wrapped his arms around her shoulders and placed a much needed kiss on
her pale neck. He talked softly to her, “I know it means the world to you to
find other Newtypes, but you gotta understand you might never find all of them.
Just do what you can, Cassie. You can’t force it or you’ll end up hurting
yourself.”
Cass knew he was right, but she was too stubborn to give up. She couldn’t bear
the idea that Linner was still out there walking freely, while people like her
had to hide in fear of being discovered. It wasn’t prejudice she feared. It was
exploitation. No would be able to use her or anyone else like a pawn to be used
for their own purposes. All Newtypes will join together and rid themselves of
people that would only use them for power. But now… it will be Newtypes to
realize their destinies. Newtypes are the way of the future, and “normal”
humans would be the end.

Next time: Wow, what kind of insanity is Cassandra Taylor/Kelly Gallagher up
to? And how does Quatre fit in? Find out next time in Phase 08-Ghost