Crystal Fantasy by Comet~Princess

Disclaimer: Does wishing make things happen? . . .On second thought, I´ll tell you when I finish with this fic. =)P

AN: Yes, I´m quite horrible. _ I should have written the next chapter to SW first. . . and I was actually done planning that one before I started this one. So how did this chapter get done before the next one to SW? I don´t know. SW just doesn´t like me.

Anyways, I thank you all for your reviews. I was quite surprised that so many people liked this. My pre-reader, namely my brother, certainly didn´t. But he liked this chapter. o_O I hope you guys do too.

Angelight88: They don´t really teach you to program games, but what you learn can be applied to program games. I had to do that last year for my computer class, but let´s just say my game was a simplified version of the first "Space Invaders" ever created. ^^"" Couldn´t even figure out how to do "Pong." And no, you can´t skip the rest of the year. At least I don´t think so. Then again, I wouldn´t be able to do what Hee-chan´s about to do here. . .

Akiko-chan: Uh. . . remind me to tell you the other weird idea I have. I would write the prologue to that too, but you guys must be sick of my prologues. -_-;;;

Warnings: Bizarre, tiniest bit of Relena-bashing, Duo torture (but not too bad), and just plain strange.

Okay, let´s get started. ^_^

Chapter 1 – Chemical Mishap

Heero never considered himself normal. Far from it, actually. He knew that the closest he came to normal was that he needed to breathe, to eat, and to sleep. And even then, he could still go for days without catching a snooze.

Now, he stared at the picture he had just drawn without even paying attention. Last he knew, art took imagination. And last he checked, he didn´t have one. So how did he come up with this? He frowned slightly. Oh well, at least he had a model for programming a character now.

He put the sketch down on his desk and flipped open the laptop, accessing a programming language and an image map. His fingers moved deftly, almost automatically, across the keyboard as he transferred what he had on paper onto the computer screen.

(AN: A programming language is a software that allows you to write computer programs. An image map is used for graphics you want to include in the program. Hope that´s right. I stopped taking computers last year. ^_^"")

It wasn´t until hours later that he finished transforming his rough sketch into a digital image. There was now a form of a girl in a dress on his computer screen. The dress was a pure white, with silver rings around the chest area. Once again, he didn´t know where the ideas came from. They just flowed as easily as he had drawn the sketch. He had just known that white and silver would be a perfect combination for this character. The innocence of the digitally created girl shone through, if that was even possible.

Dropping his fingers from the keyboard, Heero stared into the only missing piece of the picture, the face. He couldn´t think of anything that would fit into the perfectly heart-shaped face, not that that was a big surprise. He was actually on the astonished side that he had gone this far with designing something.

Quickly, he saved what he had and decided to move on to the next aspect of his project. Now, he needed an objective in the game, and since this was supposed to be impressive, he probably needed a story to go with it too. But Heero´s creativity, or whatever had inspired him about the girl, was all gone.

Growling lowly under his breath, he tried to think of a solution to his dilemma, and caught sight of the clock. It read 3:30, which meant that school was over for today, and the guys should all be back. He stood up from his chair, realizing that he knew one person who had enough imagination for every one of the Gundam pilots.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Duo walked into his room with the rest of his fellow pilots, minus Heero. He swung his schoolbag carelessly onto the couch and turned to his friends.

"Anyone know what happened to the Perfect Soldier? He didn´t show up for chemistry," he commented.

Quatre shook his head, a frown crossing his usually smiling face. "He wasn´t in calculus either," he answered. "I´m kind of worried."

"Don´t be a wuss, Winner," Wufei snorted as he opened his textbooks. "Like Yuy would actually get himself into something he can´t get out of."

Trowa nodded his agreement and left for his room, intent on starting that computer project from the morning. Heero had faced death more than once and survived. He doubted that anything incredibly bad had happened.

"I was bored in chemistry without him!" Duo explained.

This outburst earned him a couple of strange looks from Quatre and Wufei. Heero was by no means entertaining.

"What?" the braided one said innocently. "I didn´t get chased around the room all class."

Wufei muttered some choice words in Chinese under his breath about idiots. He was about to make the same comment in a language Duo could understand when they heard the door to the dorm open.

All heads turned to the subject of their previous conversation, who was currently walking calmly into the room. He ignored the questioning looks he got and stopped in front of Duo.

"Give me a story," Heero demanded in monotone.

"Guh?" was Duo´s dumbfounded reply. He had no idea what his best friend was talking about. Story? What story?

"I need a story," Heero stated. "Give me a story."

"Oh! You mean an excuse for skipping class?" Duo replied. "Uh. . . how about you were at the vet with your dog?"

Heero gave the braided boy a death glare, making Duo look back in confusion. "A story," Heero repeated, trying not to be annoyed with the seemingly dense Duo right now. "A story for the computer game."

The former pilot of Deathscythe blinked a few times and broke into a grin. "Oh, that kind of story," he realized. "Um. . . how about a plumber saves a princess from a gigantic tortoise?"

Heero gave a grunt, meaning no in his language.

Wufei snorted again. "Braided baka," he muttered.

"An insane priest sends you on a quest to find a sword?" Duo suggested.

A blank look came from Quatre, who merely wondered what the purpose of that story was. Meanwhile, Wufei raised an eyebrow and pondered Maxwell´s sanity, or lack thereof.

"A guy can travel between present and future using a musical instrument!" Duo tried again. "A little animal pilots a specially made plane to save the universe!"

Heero twitched and was ready to pull his gun on his so-called best friend.

"Hmm," Duo drawled. "Uh. . . a mercenary meets up with a girl, who´s the only person who can prevent the destruction of the world."

"Better," Heero stated in monotone, "but the main character has to be a girl."

"A weak woman?!" Wufei practically shouted.

Quatre blinked at the astonishing request. As for Duo, he broke into a huge grin. "Got something in mind, Heero?" he questioned suggestively. "You know, you just gave me an idea for my game! So, about this gir-"

He was cut off by his meeting with the barrel of Heero´s gun, for the umpteenth time today. "I don´t care what you think," the Perfect Soldier answered emotionlessly. "Story, now."

Duo gulped as Heero clicked off the safety in one fluid motion. "Uh. . .um . . .can´t you just make the girl who´s the only one who can save the world the main character?" he blurted out.

"Why is she the only one who can?" Heero demanded.

"Because, because," Duo racked his brain for an answer, "because the evil queen can only be defeated using a. . . a. . . a crystal! And the girl is the only one who can use it!"

"Hn. . ." Heero murmured as he thought about the suggested plotline. "Too easy for a game."

"Then why don´t you make stages?" Quatre spoke up, concerned for Duo´s safety. "You can say the crystal was broken into separate pieces, and you need to find all the pieces. A magician or something can have the power to put the pieces back together."

Heero finally lowered his gun, making Duo breath a sigh of relief. He gave a nod at Quatre and left the room, shutting the dorm door quietly behind him.

As soon as the door shut, Wufei turned to Duo. "Maxwell, that was a pathetic story," he voiced.

Duo pretended to look hurt at the comment. "Well, I´d like to see you try and come up with a story when you´re held at gunpoint!" he exclaimed.

Wufei was about to reply when Trowa walked back into the room.

"Hey Trowa!" Duo called out, "You working on the computer game? How´s it-"

Duo was cut off again when he found himself staring into the barrel of a gun, this time courtesy of the Silencer.

"I need a story," was the only thing Trowa said.

(AN: Duo´s suggestions, except the crystal one, are all references to video games in existence. See how many you can guess. ^_^)

~*~*~*~*~

A few days later found Heero in front of his laptop. . .again. The knock from his dorm room door barely disturbed him as he continued to type.

"Heero?" came the questioning voice of Quatre.

"Hn," was the grunt that came from the Perfect Soldier.

"I´m sorry if I´m disturbing you, but we were wondering if you want to have some dinner," Quatre informed him.

"I´m not hungry," Heero replied, not even bothering to look up from the screen.

Quatre gave a sigh. He was worried about Heero. For the past few days, the trigger-happy boy had hardly left his room at all. In fact, he didn´t even show up for classes. It wasn´t as though he needed to listen to the lessons, but it had been almost an unspoken agreement between all of the former pilots to attend them. It gave them a sense of having something to do, and a sense of fitting in with normal people their age. The blond-haired boy, however, knew when his friends wanted time alone. He cast another worried glance at the still working Heero, when he was suddenly shoved aside by a brown and black blur.

"Sorry about that, Q-man," Duo apologized quickly. He struggled slightly to balance two trays of food in his hands.

"That´s alright, Duo," Quatre started, "but what are you doing with those?"

Duo broke into a grin. "If Perfect Soldier Boy won´t move to have dinner with us, I´ll move to have dinner with him!" he chatted. "It´s got to be unhealthy to be without the company of Shinigami for so long!"

Quatre chuckled. He knew that despite Duo´s denial, the braided boy was just as worried as him. "I suppose Wufei is happy about escaping your company," he joked lightly.

Duo pretended to look hurt. "Q-man! I´d expect that from anyone but you!" he whined. "Ah, but what´s the saying? Out of the frying pan and into the fire? Or in my case, away from Wufei´s katana and into Heero´s gun."

Quatre laughed. "I´m sorry about the comment Duo," he replied with a smile. "Just yell if you need help fending off Heero."

"You bet I will," Duo muttered under his breath and proceeded go into his best friend´s dorm.

"Yo Heero!" he called out after somehow managing to shut the door with his hands still full of food.

"Hn," came the automatic reply.

Duo shrugged it off and carried the two trays up to the desk where Heero was working, depositing them next to a whole pile of papers on which there were drawings, written outlines, and calculations of all shapes and forms. It was enough to make the braided boy run out and get a bottle of Aspirin.

"You know you need to eat sometime, right?" Duo began, peering over Heero´s shoulder where lines and lines of programming codes covered the screen.

"Hn," Heero muttered again, not paying attention to Duo.

The former pilot of Deathscythe shrugged and pulled up a chair. He ate with one hand while flipping through what he could understand of Heero´s complicated work with the other. He wondered briefly wondered why his friend was working so hard on something that could be done in half an hour´s time. Absentmindedly, he put everything that had numbers into one pile, everything that had words into another, and everything that had drawings into the last one.

It was as he was sorting through these that he came across a sketch of a girl in a white dress. He whistled softly to himself. "Whoa, didn´t know you were this observant about the body shape of girls," he commented.

Without looking up from his work, Heero pulled out his gun and pointed it between Duo´s eyes, still typing with one hand.

"Okay okay!" Duo cried out. "I´m sorry! At least it couldn´t have been Relena."

Heero put away the gun and chose to ignore Duo, who was now interested in the drawings of the female lead of this new game. He continued to flip through the numerous pages. Some had the girl in the white dress in it. Others had either a woman with fiery red hair, who wore a dress in a strange shade of purple, or a man with black hair wearing armor.

"Hey Heero, who are these?" Duo asked, waving the two pieces of paper around.

When he got no answer, the braided boy sighed to himself. He could probably sit here all night, and Heero would barely notice. . .

~*~*~*~*~

The Perfect Soldier continued to type while Duo chatted to himself in the background. So far, he had completed about three quarters of the game. The story went as follows.

A girl by the name of Serenity was the last of her race. In her blood, she carried the ability to draw power from a mythological crystal, the Ginzuishou. An evil queen who wants to rule the universe started using her magic powers to suppress the people, and only the power of the Ginzuishou can stop her. With this piece of information in mind, Serenity sets out to stop her. The only problem is, the Ginzuishou had been separated into seven pieces, named the Nijizuishou, by her ancestors. Only by collecting all of them and through the help of a magician can Serenity recall the Ginzuishou from its slumber and draw power from it.

There were, of course, stages for the seven pieces, and one to combine them together. Heero´s difficulty was that he didn´t actually have an idea to how the story should end. He sighed mentally, and blinked when he read what he had just typed on the screen.

First, I play Wu-man. Then, I play me.

Heero glared at the screen, then turned around to glare at Duo, who was sitting on the floor with his laptop.

"Wu-man´s turn," the braided boy muttered to himself. Then, he broke into a grin. "Ha! Wu-man has to pay me property tax!"

"Duo, what the hell are you doing?" Heero demanded in monotone.

"Huh? Oh hey! You´re paying attention to me!" Duo exclaimed. Spotting Heero´s slightly irritated look, he quickly went on. "I´m playing monopoly!"

"With Wufei?" Heero asked skeptically. None of the pilots would play computer games with Duo, especially not Wufei. He was just much too hyper for them to handle.

"No, I´m playing by myself," Duo answered happily. "See? First, I play Wu-man. Then, I play me. Then, it´s Wuffie´s turn. Next is Wu-ster. Last is Wu-wu!"

Heero raised an eyebrow. If Wufei ever found out about this, Duo would be bald. No questions asked.

"What?!" Duo suddenly blurted out. "I have to pay for renovations on my houses and hotels? But then I won´t have any money left! . . .and Wu-man would win!"

Heero blinked. "And you´re playing by yourself," he muttered.

Duo jumped up from the floor. "That´s not fair! This is rigged! I lost last time too!" he grumbled.

Heero blinked again. He wasn´t quite sure which was more pitiable, that Duo lost while playing monopoly by himself, or that there was a "last time" to this insanity. The braided boy really had too much time on his hands. "Will you leave now?" Heero inquired in monotone.

"But I want to know who those characters were," Duo replied. He raced over to the desk and picked up the two pieces of paper he had earlier, waving them in Heero´s face.

"Evil queen and the magician," Heero answered, knowing that Duo would just annoy him until he got the answer. "Now leave."

"Do they have names?" Duo asked, adding the picture of the main character to his collection.

"Serenity, Endymion, and Beryl," Heero stated, pointing to each.

"How´d you come up with these? You have as much imagination as Wu-man," Duo commented, still fascinated by the picture of Serenity, not to mention Heero´s artistic ability.

"Beryl was off the cover of a horror movie. Endymion was from Quatre´s mythology book. I didn´t draw them; they´re photocopies," Heero replied. He was starting to lose patience with the persistent Deathscythe pilot. "Leave me alone now."

"Just three more questions, then I promise I´ll leave," Duo begged.

Heero crossed his arms and gave Duo a death glare, which he brushed off. "What about Serenity?" he asked.

"I drew her."

Duo broke into a mischievous grin, but before he could comment, he was face to face with the barrel of Heero´s gun . . . again. "Um. . .question two," Duo started, deciding he should probably tease Heero when his own life wasn´t in danger, "Why doesn´t Serenity have a face?"

"I don´t know what she should look like," came from the stoic boy. "One more question, then you leave."

"Right, right," Duo responded nonchalantly. "So what´s the plot of this game?"

He got his answer in the form of a piece of paper. Across the top was the title "plot." Well, then, Duo thought to himself. He had something to read in math class tomorrow. As he was about to leave with his laptop, directed by Heero´s gun, he suddenly realized what he came here for in the first place.

"Hey Heero, you ever going to leave this room?" he asked his friend.

"You don´t have any more questions," Heero replied.

"Look, Quatre is worried because you haven´t been to any of your classes," Duo explained. "I know we don´t need to attend, but you need some fresh air. Plus, I need someone to annoy, uh. . .talk to, in chemistry."

"I´ll show up when this is done," Heero answered.

"Show up tomorrow!" Duo practically shouted. "We have a lab, and I need a partner to copy off, uh. . .work with. And you don´t really want a full worry-mode Quatre refusing to leave you alone in this dark, damp cell, oops, I mean room."

Heero was silently debating with himself. To shoot Duo, or not to shoot Duo.

"I. . .I won´t bother you for the next month if you come!" Duo negotiated.

Heero raised an eyebrow. There was a suggestion he´d seriously consider.

"Hmm. . .maybe the next week," the braided boy reconsidered. After all, a month was a long time, and he didn´t know if he can refrain himself for that amount of time. "Wait, the next day!"

Heero twitched. Somehow, his Duo-free month had turned into a day. . . It´s still better than nothing, his subconscious told him. "Mission accepted," the Perfect Soldier droned. "Now get out."

~*~*~*~*~

"Look Heero!" Duo shouted, waving two test tubes around in front of his best friend´s face. He had NOT counted on Heero bringing his laptop into the chemistry lab, which was a really stupid thing to miss on his part. That, he´ll admit. So this was how he had managed to get Heero out of his room. But the Perfect Soldier didn´t seem to care for his surroundings. Whether it was the quiet of his own dorm room or the chaos of Duo plus chemicals in a lab, he continued to work on his project, which completely ruined the entire purpose of the Deathscythe pilot dragging him to class.

Meanwhile, Heero was glaring at the screen of his laptop. He still had no idea how to finish the story. . . and no idea what Serenity should look like, which really bothered him because he couldn´t complete his game without those two details. After another couple of minutes of glaring, he finally decided to drop the issue for a couple of hours. Maybe the ideas will flow again afterwards. Quickly, he saved what he had onto a disk.

He snapped his laptop shut and put the disk on top of the cover, standing up to actually do the lab he was supposed to do. After all, if he left it to Duo, he would either not get any results, or get the results of an experiment gone wrong.

As he began to gather the chemicals he needed, Duo broke into a grin. Momentarily unaware that he was holding two test tubes of unknown chemicals in his hands, the braided boy threw his hands into the air and cheered for the success of his plan.

The mixture of liquid, solid, and whatnot flew from their confines. . . and landed on the cover of Heero´s laptop across the counter, and inevitably, the disk as well.

Miraculously, the Perfect Soldier had everything he was previously holding in a test tube rack, and had jumped over the counter with a huge stack of paper towels as he tried to prevent the disk from being any more damaged than it already was.

Duo cringed and dropped the two test tubes into the rack Heero had gotten out.

"Uh. . . I just remembered that I need to. . .um, walk my dog!" Duo rambled as he inched towards the chemistry room door and away from Heero´s glare of doom, as well as the gun that was sure to follow. "Toodles!"

The former pilot of Deathscythe ran down the halls and hoped fervently that Heero´s need to grab his laptop would give him enough time for a place to hide under further notice from Quatre or Trowa.

~*~*~*~*~

Error. Please re-enter password.

Heero glared at the screen of his laptop. He had initially set up the security system on his disk so that no one, namely Duo, can copy his work. Now, hours and hours after trying to break his own code, he still couldn´t get into the disk and retrieve the project he had worked so hard on.

It was already past midnight. From the window of his room, Heero could just see a very pale, but perfectly shaped, crescent moon. Around it, clouds gathered, lightning flashed, and thunder rumbled.

He had spent almost the entire afternoon hunting down Duo. But the braided boy was nowhere to be found. A little before dinner time, Heero decided that he needed a different plan. He had purposely shown up at the dinner table, sure that Duo would make an appearance for food. But he didn´t give Duo enough credit for his intelligence, so it seemed. He had sat in Quatre´s dorm until 11 o´clock, and still, there was no sign of Duo.

So, he had gone to go back to his own room to check how damaged the disk was, and how much information he may have lost. That led him to the current situation.

I WILL kill him, Heero thought darkly.

He left his laptop and his room to search for Duo again. If anything, he´ll outwait Duo by Quatre´s fridge.

The door shut behind the Perfect Soldier just as a bolt of lightning flashed outside. All lights went out in the building. In the now empty room, a fully turned-on laptop computer flickered, and the cord that attached it to the wall sparked. The screen glowed an iridescent colour, and gave a sudden flash of bright light.

For a very brief moment, three dark figures could be seen, as well as seven tiny stones. Seconds later, the seven stones had dispersed, and two out of the three figures have disappeared. The laptop screen returned to normal. The lights of the building came back on.

All that was evidence of the event was gone. . . except the unconscious form of a young girl in a flowing white dress lying across the floor of the room.

End of Chapter 1.

AN: There´s that. ^_^ Where did Duo hide? What will happen when Heero finds the girl? If he gets back before she wakes up. . . -_-;;; All shall be answered in the next chapter! Please REVIEW!!! I appreciate your feedback, both good and bad.