Snapshots.

Name: Natea <natea2x1@btinternet.com>
Title: Snapshots
Pairings: 1+2+1 leading to 2x1, 3x4, 5xS
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Shounen ai, Yaoi, AU, Gore. Talk of death (but not of main character)
Summary: A serial killer is on the loose and the Preventers call in the Gundam pilots.
Disclaimer: Gundam Wing belongs to Sunrise/Bandai/Sotsu and I am making no money at all from writing this.

 
Chapter One.

 
 
Duo stood quietly outside the door listening to the sound of voices coming from the room in front of him. They were soft, muted through the thick panelling, and for a second the ghost of a smile crossed his face. He knew those voices, knew them well although he hadn\'t heard some of them in over two years. Placing a hand on the door he pushed it open firmly and took in the scene in front of him.

The room was a typical, Preventers office, small with white walls and a single large window. The overall appearance was cold and clinical, only slightly offset by the colourful posters scattered about - a gift from one Duo Maxwell. Against the left wall there was a small gunmetal grey cabinet. It was locked but held nothing more important than the coffee supplies and a half packet of biscuits. On top of the cabinet sat an old, stained electric kettle with a cable so frayed it was almost a fire hazard. Two small, rectangular tables had been pushed together in the middle of the room to form one larger desk around which six chairs had been set out, and sitting in three of these seats were the owners of the voices Duo had heard. He grinned.

\"Hey Guys.\"

Quatre was the first to turn and before he knew it Duo was enveloped in a hug from the exuberant Arab. A hug that he returned enthusiastically. \"Duo!\" Quatre\'s smile was so large it was almost painful to look at, \"Allah, it\'s been so long. How are you?\" The past two years had been good to Quatre, he had grown taller and broader although he was still short compared to Duo who had shot up almost overnight.

After the war the five pilots had gone their own ways. Heero, the first to leave, disappearing from the hospital overnight. WuFei and Duo had both decided to remain on Earth and work in the Preventers while Quatre and Trowa had later signed up as temporary agents. The past two years had been good to all of them, calming and soothing wounded souls. Duo was no longer a braided joker, although he would still fall back on the humour often. WuFei was no longer quite as justice driven as he had been during the wars. Trowa had opened up a little more. Quatre, however, was still Quatre. Perhaps a good few inches taller than before but other than that just the same

Duo grinned and raised a shoulder in a slight shrug. \"Can\'t complain Q, can\'t complain,\" he grinned. Glancing at the other person he nodded once. \"Trowa.\"

\"It\'s good to see you again, Duo.\" Came the quiet reply.

WuFei merely glanced across and nodded. \"You\'re late.\" He said. He had seen Duo yesterday in the main office whilst he\'d been typing up his mission report so felt no need to hug the braided boy in greeting.

\"You\'re right.\" Duo answered unconcernedly as he pulled out a seat at the table. \"Not my fault though. Some idiot on the sixth floor of my apartment decided to have a sofa delivered and the elevators were out. The delivery guys got it stuck on the stairwell just below the second floor wouldn\'t let me climb over so I had to wait till they\'d got it up to the next level before I could slip past.\" He snickered, \"I made a pretty inspired joke about squeezing something that big into such a tight passage. They forgot to laugh, I forgot to tell them about the huge, comfy service elevator at the back of the building.\"

WuFei poured a mug of coffee from the jug on the table and passed it down to Duo. \"Lady Une was delayed by a call so you\'re lucky this time.\"

Duo nodded and took a sip of his coffee. Setting it down he glanced around at the others. \"So any ideas why we\'re all here?\" He asked curiously, \"All Une said when she contacted me last night was that an urgent mission had come up.\"

\"I have no idea.\" Quatre answered shaking his head. \"We were just asking WuFei the same thing when you came in Duo. I only received the call to come in yesterday too,\" he sighed in frustration, \"I\'m actually supposed to be in a meeting with the heads of the Winner Corporation this morning. It must be something important though if it requires all of us here.\"

Duo winced slightly at Quatre\'s innocent comment. Trowa noticed the reaction. He studied Duo through narrow eyes and reached for his own mug of coffee, taking a long gulp before replacing it on the faux wooden surface. \"You still haven\'t managed to locate Heero then.\" It was a definite statement, not a question, and Duo nodded, all remaining traces of humour fading from his expression.

\"No one\'s seen him since after the Eve war.\" He said with a heavy sigh, \"No activity on any of his accounts, no reported sightings...it\'s like he just dropped off the end of the universe.\"

Quatre smiled sympathetically, \"If Heero doesn\'t want to be found then there\'s not much we can really do about it.\" He caught Duo\'s eye, \"He\'ll show up one day Duo, probably in the last place we ever expect it.\"

\"Hmm.\" Duo smirked, \"You\'ve looked for him too then?\"

Quatre flushed, \"A year ago,\" he confirmed. \"We wanted to invite him to our wedding next month.\" Besides him Trowa nodded. \"We sent out a coded message through the internet but he never replied.\"

Duo sighed; “It wouldn’t be so bad if I knew for certain that he was alive.” he said, \"Even if it was only an e-mail.\"

\"For all his suicidal tendencies Yuy is harder to kill than a cockroach.\" Said WuFei seriously. \"You shouldn\'t worry Maxwell, he will get in contact when he is ready and not before.\"

\"Damn WuFei you really know how to squick a guy out you know.\" Duo said, suppressing a shudder as an image of a spandex clad cockroach suddenly sprang unbidden into his mind. \"You\'re right though,\" he continued with a sigh, \"I just wish--\"

But whatever he wished died on his tongue as Lady Une chose that moment to walk into the room. She was carrying a stack of thick, manila folders that she placed down at the head of the desk before drawing out a seat and sitting down in silence. The former Oz colonel looked tired, her eyes were red-rimmed underneath her glasses and her hair was mussed a little, as though she hadn\'t brushed it in a long time. Despite that though she was still a formidable presence.

WuFei passed down a mug of coffee, which Lady Une accepted with a grateful nod. She took a sip, closing her eyes briefly in bliss, before replacing the mug on the desk. \"I suppose you want to know why I\'ve called you here?\" She began without preamble. At the assortment of nods she smiled thinly, pushing the pile of folders down the table while keeping one back for herself. \"Take one each but don\'t open them just yet.\" She said.

Duo, the nearest, grabbed the top folder before pushing the rest down towards the others. Curiously he stared down at the A4 sized packet in front of him, taking in the large red letters stamped across the otherwise blank front cover \'CLASSIFIED INFORMATION\'. Besides him Quatre was doing much the same thing. A small cough from Lady Une caught their attention again.

\"Gentlemen,\" she started briskly, \"I\'m tired. I haven\'t seen the inside of my house for almost forty eight hours now and I have another five hours to go at least before I can leave this building. Therefore I\'m not in the mood for jokes...\" she glanced fleetingly at Duo as she spoke, \"...or idle chitchat. We\'re going to get straight down to it. Any questions?\" The four boys seated around the table shook their heads in answer and Lady Une smiled, it didn\'t reach her eyes. \"Good. Now, first things first. As I\'m sure you\'ve guessed, a mission has come up that requires your particular skills. It\'s not something you\'ve dealt with before and, I stress this now, it is a high priority case, extremely confidential. You do, however, have the choice of whether or not you wish to be a part of it. I hope you will stay but if you do decide to walk out the door at the end of this briefing then I would ask that any and all information discussed here remains private. Is that understood?\"

They nodded again. Lady Une opened her notes and scanned the first page for an instant. She looked up and began. \"On January eighth this year the body of a young woman was discovered in the deep end of a university swimming pool in England. She had been murdered. Another murder was committed exactly seven weeks later on March the fifth, another on April thirtieth and a fourth on June twenty ninth; again with precisely seven weeks between each killing, even down to the day; a tuesday in each case. Enough evidence exists to suggest that these deaths were all caused by the same person.\"

WuFei frowned, \"If this killer has been in operation since January why are we only hearing about it now over halfway through the year?\" He queried.

\"We have known of this killer for a little over two months now, since before the forth murder.\" Une informed the Chinese Preventer coolly. \"You were not briefed on the details earlier as it was not your case. The reason you have been added to the mission now will become apparent later on I can promise you.\" She took a sip of her coffee before continuing. \"This is a serial killer on a vastly different scale to the usual. Certain tactics have been used to hinder the discovery of the killer\'s modus. The murders are spread out...not just across one country but across the globe. One murder per country; so far England, Germany, Japan and Australia have been targeted. The very fact that the victims have been so wide spread has hindered the matching of information. Each country has been dealing with what they believe to be a small-time, one off murder. We may never have discovered the truth except for one major flaw on the part of our killer, \" she smiled sadistically, \"They are an artist.\"

\"An artist? What kind of artist?\" Duo threw a puzzled look at the others before glancing back at Une. She stared back at him impassively.

\"That would be easier shown than explained.\" She said. \"If you could just open your files to the first page, I\'ll show you an example of his work.\"

They did so with varying levels of trepidation; the rustle of paper as four covers were turned back sounding overly loud in the room. Duo stared down at the contents in interest.

The folder was split into four parts sectioned off by red, A4 sized cardboard dividers. They each contained a tab on the right hand side that jutted out from the main body of the notes and on each tab was a number ranging from one to four. Duo surmised they contained the details of each victim. At the very back of the file was another divider, this one emblazoned with the number five. As of yet though there was nothing behind it. The papers were held in place by a plastic lace that threaded through two holes in much the same way as the usual ring binder did. The only difference being that the lace lay flat against the paperwork and therefore enabled the files to be a lot thinner, saving space in filing cabinets.

Duo flipped over the first divider.

\"Victim number one.\" Une said, tapping her index finger on the folder. \"Jessica Hanley, a single, white, female, twenty five years old and a mature student reading psychology at the University of Exeter in England. She was in her second year at the university and had just moved into a one-bedroom apartment close to the halls of residence. Her parents were killed in a road traffic accident ten years prior and she was an only child. Raised by her aunt who died last November of a stroke.\"

Staring at the page in front of him Duo took in the details. Most of the paper was filled with typical identity information. Name, age, weight, height, next of kin; at the bottom of the page was a printed out commentary box that was filled with more general input. A small passport sized photograph in the top right hand corner held the face and shoulders of a young woman who was skinny rather than slim. Her hair was long and looked greasy, falling below the bottom of the picture; it was bleached blonde with the natural, dark roots beginning to show through. She had no bangs. Large blue grey eyes, made even larger by square rimmed spectacles, stared out at him silently. Her face was free of makeup and she had a weak chin and a large spot on her forehead. She was pretty, he decided, but if she had made an effort she could have been a real beauty.

“I don’t expect you to read through this right now,” Lady Une was saying, “It’s the pictures that I want you to take note of for the moment. If you turn over.\"

A rustle of paper once more and suddenly the words were gone, replaced by an A4 sized photograph of the same girl. This one though was vastly different.

Again it was a shot of the upper body extending down to just above the waist; the single subject practically filled the entire photograph. In the bottom left corner of the print out, stamped in small whitxt, xt, were the date and time, 01.01.199, 00:01. Jessica\'s hair was pulled back off her face with a set of clips; it had been straightened and her roots bleached to match the rest. It fell to her lower back. The glasses were gone, replaced by a small, tasteful, silver mask that covered her eyes and nose. Her loose halter-top was silver also and glittered with sequins; obviously she had been at a party of some sort. She had been captured on film in the process of turning away from the camera and so her face was in a three-quarter profile shot while her hair had fanned out a little from the force of the spin. She was smiling, her eyes sparkling with mirth, their blue grey colour striking, made even more potent by the lack of warm colour in the background. From the angle of the shot it was clear that the camera had been raised slightly above her.

It was also clear that the person who had taken the shot had been a professional. The whole scene was intricately set up for maximum effect. The major light source was coming in from the left, bathing the whole scene in cool, sharp blue - obviously from a regular disco strobe - it reflected off the sequins on Jessica\'s top and tinted her hair to an ethereal white grey. The angle of the light picked out the strong features of her face, throwing long shadows across the arc of her cheek while highlighting other parts, such as the curve of her lips and chin. The existence of another, smaller light behind her was shown by a halo of clear white light that picked out the glossy shine in her hair.

Blue, white and silver, they were the only colours apparent in the picture. Even the normal pink, fleshy t of of skin were absent, Jessica\'s arms and face leeched of colour. Dry ice and a subtle use of soft focus and depth of field obscured the background and added to the effect.

There were no other people in the shot.

\"Damn.\" Duo whispered, \"It doesn\'t even look like the same person.\" He flicked back the page and studied the small passport photo once more, comparing the two.

Lady Une nodded in agreement. \"This photograph was taken at a New Year\'s party in Exeter\'s student union at one minute past midnight; just after Big Ben had finished it\'s chimes.\"

\"That explains the mask.\" Trowa murmured.

\"This was the first photograph taken by the killer,\" Une continued, \"but it wasn\'t the last. There were six others taken in total, one for each day she was watched. I\'m afraid I don\'t have the time right now to go through them all with you in detail. The most important picture is the last.\" She flicked through her own file briefly. \"If you could turn to the photograph labelled 1G please.\"

There was the sound of paper rustling once more and then a gasp.

\"Allah!\"

\"This picture was taken on January eighth, exactly one week after the first.\" Lady Une said quietly, breaking the sudden silence that had fallen over the room. She looked up and caught the eyes of the four boys. None of them looked unaffected. Quatre was pale, his hand raised over his mouth in shock and horror at the scene. Trowa and WuFei were more reserved in their reactions but the light of disgust was burning in their eyes. And Duo...it was hard to judge.

It was a beautiful portrait. A horrifyingly, morbidly, beautiful portrait.

Again the major colour scheme had been blue, white and silver. Again the composition was an upper body shot of Jessica. Only this time there was no glittering mirth sparking from her eyes. Their blue grey colour gazed sightlessly through the camera. She was floating submerged in water, the scene backlit and surrounding her in a liquid-blue luminescence that was curiously dappled. It was brightest directly around her body, a soft turquoise darkening to more of a sky blue farther away from the centre of the shot.

Her arms were stretched out to her sides and supported by the fluid she was bathed in, elbows, hands, and fingers curling lazily. Her hair had spread out, following the pull of the water, and now surrounded her, a dark halo as opposed to the bright white aura of the first photograph. Adorning her body and weighting it down in the water was a long, fine blue-grey chain no thicker than a necklace; it had been wrapped around her figure in a loose intricate pattern that began just below her jaw. A series of gentle loops were formed around her throat before the chain criss-crossed her chest and finally snaked down her arms to wind through her fingers. She was naked. She was also, very obviously, dead.

There were small bubbles clinging to the fine hair on her cheeks, more trapped within her eyelashes, brows and hair; a larger bubble was caught in the area between her breasts. The light caught them, distorting and highlighting the small spheres. Each, individual bubble was focused clearly; it was obvious that the camera used was a good one.

\"What the hell?\" Duo\'s voice broke the silence that had fallen over the room. He sounded horror stricken.

\"You\'ve noticed I see.\" Une Une said. “Good. It took me a lot longer.”

\"That\'s disgusting!\"

\"I agree.\"

Quatre looked puzzled, \"What is?\" He looked down at the picture in front of him once more and squinted, as if hoping that the gesture would show him what Duo and Une could obviously see.

\"Jessica is floating face down in the water. Our killer, in the interests of artistic effect, entered the pool and took the photograph from underneath the body.\" Une explained. \"The whole e wae was intricately set up. Forensics investigated the pool, which was incidentally, the students’ pool in their gym.\" Une grimaced. \"They reported back that the only way that lighting effect could have been created was by setting up one single white spot directly over the centre of the shot and then submerging themselves and positioning the body in between the camera and the light source. A flash was used on the camera to avoid silhouetting the subject against the bright backdrop.\" She sounded disgusted at the very idea of it all.

Suddenly it all made sense. \"That\'s why the chains are hanging that way.\" WuFei exclaimed. \"I wondered how they could be floating up towards the camera.\"

Une nodded, \"They\'re not,\" she said, expanding on his thoughts. \"They\'re hanging down.\"

\"How was she killed?\" Trowa asked.

\"Forced overdose of barbiturates injected into the left brachial artery.\" Une informed them matter of factly. \"She didn\'t drown; she was dead before she entered the water. In fact, wait a second...\" she paused, flicking through the file to double-check some information. \"...Yes, I thought so.\" she mumbled before raising her voice once more. \"She had been dead for at least two hours before she was placed in the pool. Apparently her body had been cleaned, her skin was scoured, shaved, and waterf maf makeup was applied to her lips, eyelids, fingernails and nipples.\" She snorted, \"Silver glitter paste.\"

Duo glanced back at the picture, noticing for the first time the hint of sparkle on the girl\'s face and chest.

\"Jessica\'s toenails were also painted and her groin shaved.\" Lady Une looked up from the picture; \"this could suggest the existence of other pictures.\"

WuFei nodded thoughtfully, \"Aa, whoever it was wouldn\'t go to all that trouble for nothing. Jbecabecause it\'s not shown on this picture doesn\'t mean it wasn\'t taken.\"

Lady Une nodded, \"Exactly.\"

\"What about the other photographs? The ones taken in the days between the first and last?\" Quatre asked, pulling his attention away from the dead gaze of the girl on the paper with difficulty.

\"They\'re merely day to day shots, still artistic in layout but nothing on this level.\" Une informed him. \"The major pictures are these two. The final one, the one taken after Jessica\'s death, was posted to the local police station by first class post. It arrived two days after her body was recovered from the pool. This has occurred in all the cases so far.\"

\"And this has happened to three other people?\" WuFei looked disgusted. Lady Une nodded.

\"Not the exact same scene but yes, and it is about to happen again.\" She said matter of factly. \"You may remember I mentioned the killer had a flaw?\"

There were nods from the other occupants of the room. Lady Une continued. \"They are immensely proud of their talent,\" she said. \"We know from the previous kills that all the victims were chosen at least one week before their deaths and followed closely. Photographs were taken of each individual daily,\" she looked at each of the boys in turn, her eyes piercing. \"These photographs are not your average run-of-the-mill snaps. A lot of care and forethought has gone into each and every one of them.\" She looked down at the file once more. \"Unlike the photograph taken post mortem these pictures were scanned into a computer and placed on various photography sites on the \'net on the same day they were taken.\"

\"But...but that\'s crazy.\" Duo said. \"Why put yourself at risk of discovery like that? It\'s just courting disaster.\"

\"How so?\" Was Une\'s reply. She raised an eyebrow in a query. \"The pictures taken before the death are innocent. They are merely life studies...highly artistic, and in some cases poignant, life studies. We can\'t even connect them to the murders officially; there\'s no evidence to support the fact.\"

\"No evidence?\" Duo shook his head in disbelief, \"All you have to do is look at the damn things,\" he said. \"Even the colour layout was the same.\"

Une shrugged. \"Coincidence.\" She murmured lightly.

\"No way.\"

wou wouldn\'t hold up in a court of law Duo, no matter what we know to be true.\"

Quatre looked thoughtful. \"Lady Une? You mentioned earlier that all the murders took place on a tuesday exactly seven weeks apart.\"

\"Aa, I did.\"

\"We\'re now six weeks after the last date,\" Quatre continued. \"If that fact still stands then that would mean that the first photograph of the fifth victim would have been posted on the \'net yesterday.\"

Lady Une nodded. \"You\'re r and and it was.\" She said.

There was silence in the room for a while as the boys digested this information. Duo was the first to break the quiet. \"So...\" The braided boy picked up his mug of coffee and sipped at the long cold brew absently, \"What you\'re telling us is that we have six days left to catch a killer before he strikes again and he or she could be absolutely anywhere.\"

\"No.\" Une shook her head. \"That\'s not what I\'m telling you. We already have a team in place who are working on that angle...who have been working on that angle for almost a month now.\" She held up a hand, forestalling the queries. “You were all Gundam pilots, soldiers, not detectives.” she explained in a placating tone, \"None of you have sufficient training in this area; I would feel...apprehensive at the very least, sending you out there.\"

\"Then what--\" They were looking confused now.

\"Your mission is slightly different. If you choose to accept then you will be working alongside the main body of the investigation but you will be searching not for the killer but rather for the victim.\"

\"Why search for the victim?\" Trowa asked. \"Surely that would be even harder than locating the killer? With the killer at least we have some form of MO, the victim is just a face on a piece of paper.\"

\"At first I would agree with you.\" Une said, \"But this killer has proven himself or herself to be extremely adept at going to ground. They have money enough to be able to travel the world at will as they\'ve shown by the different locations they\'ve killed in. Even a search on the \'net came up empty handed,\" she said with a sigh, \"they are competent enough with computers to be able to hide their tracks well. Locating the victim may very well be the only way we can catch them.\"

\"If you\'ve known of the killer since before the forth murder then why didn\'t you try this idea then?\" Trowa asked.

\"We did. It didn\'t work.\" Une replied. \"The photographs taken before the death only hold very basic background information and we had no concrete leads to go on. We couldn\'t broadcast a worldwide plea for obvious reasons; we would cause an international panic and we would be tipping off the killer at the same time. The information we had was, in the end, simply too little to save them.\"

\"And you think we\'ll be able to do better this time?\" Quatre asked, hiows ows creasing in thought. \"The World is a big place Lady Une. What makes you think we can succeed when you failed before?\"

\"I have faith in your abilities.\"

Duo snorted, spilling coffee over the side of his mug in the process. Lady Une glared at him. \"I\'m sorry...\" he sniggered, \"...but what you\'re asking is impossible. You may have faith in our abilities, \" he quoted mockingly, \"but you\'re asking for a fucking miracle here. You\'re saying we have six days in which to correctly identify and locate one person...one person,\" he held up his index finger and gestured wildly, \"...out of billions on this planet, and we have to do it without being overt about it? Forget about looking for a needle in a haystack, this is like looking for a needle in a huge pile of other needles. Jeez Une, this person could live in a log cabin halfway up Mount Everest or in the apartment above mine for all the good it\'ll do. How are we supposed to locate them if we can\'t do an active search? I think I\'ll have to pass on this one.\"

\"If that\'s the way you feel...\" Une said softly.

\"That\'s the way I feel. This victim is going to die whether I\'m involved or not. I\'d rather not have it on my conscience; I have enough deaths there already without adding another.\" Duo replied coldly. \"Sorry Lady but this whole thing just sounds like a complete waste of our time.\"

\"And does this go for all of you?\" There were various nods and murmurs of assent in the others. Lady Une frowned slightly. \"As I said at the beginning, you can walk out of that door at any time, all we ask is that you keep all the information you hear in this room to yourself.\"

\"I\'m sorry we didn’t live up to your expectations.\" Duo stood up, closing the file as he did so. The others followed suit, picking up their things and preparing to leave. Une simply smiled, a small, strange smile that made Duo feel distinctly uneasy.

\"Perhaps you\'ll feel differently after you see the most recent photograph.\" She said.

Duo shook his head. \"I doubt it Lady Une, why would we?\"

Lady Une didn\'t answer but pulled a large, brown enve oue out of her folder and opened the top wordlessly. Removing a single sheet of glossy printer paper carefully she placed it face up on the table and pushed it down to where the boys were now standing. \"That\'s why.\" She said. A small smirk crossed her face as she watched their reactions.

\"Well gentlemen, we have a lot of work still to cover. Shall we get back to it?\"

Duo stood in silence for a second, just staring down at the picture on the table. He blinked once; twice...then suddenly without warning he threw his head back and laughed. Standing next to him Quatre winced; it was not a happy sound. Still laughing Duo sat back down in his seat and smiled broadly, falsely, at Lady Une, \"I think we should.\" he said. Around him the others were pulling up their chairs once more.

In the middle of the table the reason for their abrupt change of heart remained. Against a background of blue sky and sea Heero Yuy\'s face stared out impassively from the surface of a glossy photograph.

 
TBC......................