DiScLaImEr: If YoU tHiNk I oWn GuNdAm WiNg ThEn YoU'rE eVeN sTuPiDeR tHaN i ThOuGhT.
NeW mAgE gEnErAtIoN
(Inspired by Tamora Pierce, particularly the Circle of Magic books. Gotta love her). This is an AU fic, by the way.
"God dammit, this sucks!" yelled Wufei. "No freaking Gundams in this era and they are attacking us by ship!" I do not appreciate being sent to the Middle Ages!" he shouted at the ceiling.
"Oh hush." Authoress's voice comes from nowhere.
"Baka onna, how dare you! What's the plot, anyway?!"
"I'm not telling, but I am I am making you shut up and now you all will have forgotten I was here." *Authoress's voice vanishes and she's forgotten*
Relena was sitting quietly working on her knitting when a movement caught her attention.
"Aaaah! Oh, ew, nasty, a spider!" she shrieked, voice rising in pitch and decibels. Suddenly bright fire lanced out of her fingertips. It brushed past her thing (burning a hole in her skirt and scoring her leg); hit Heero's ankle, and finally hit the particularly large spider, leaving a rather big burn mark on the floor. Relena stared at her fingertips incredulously, shaken, before realizing she had hit Heero.
"Oh, Heero, I'm sorry." she said, kneeling by his chair and ripping off a strip of her petticoat. As she moved to bandage the burn he pushed her hand away.
"I," he began, "can do it."
Looking slightly hurt, Relena went back to her chair and picked up her knitting, wondering why fire had sprung from her fingers.
However, Heero found that the strip from Relena's petticoat (which he had taken from her) was unnecessary. The moment his fingertips touched the cut, it closed up. What the hell? he thought.
Meanwhile Relena remembered that she, too, had been hit with the mysterious fire, when she saw the growing deep red stain on her skirt. Ripping off another piece of her petticoat, she slid her skirt up. Duo practically started drooling, causing Quatre to elbow him slightly and glare.
"Hold on a minute," Heero instructed.
"Huh?" Relena glanced up, the skirt sliding from her hands and back down by her calves. Moving over by her, Heero bushed the skirt back up. Relena tensed, looking as though she wanted to slap him. She turned vermilion as Heero pressed his fingers to her thigh. Duo arched an eyebrow, and Trowa seemed about to protest until he noticed the bleeding stop and the burn disappear from Relena's thigh, her skin suddenly flawless again. Hastily she pushed down her skirt again, her face still pink.
Wufei expressed all their thoughts with a single monosyllable: "Huh?"
CLAP! The Authoress appears.
"Oh! Oh, hey, I know you! I dated you at the end of that one fic!" Duo exclaimed out of nowhere. Vague waves of recognition passed through Heero and Relena's faces.
"Yep, and your welcome to date me again but right now that isn't the point." glancing around the room, the Authoress clears her throat. "Since you all seem to be so dense, you have magic powers. Relena and Duo, you guys are war-slash-fire mages. In this universe it's the same thing. Heero, you're a healer (no duh). Trowa, you can talk to anything in the kingdom Animalia and shape shift. And Quatre, you have plant magic."
"What about meee?" whined Wufei.
"You, I don't like cause you're a male chauvinist pig so I might not give you any powers."
"INJUSTICE!" Wufei yelled to the puff of smoke that was now occupying the spot where the Authoress had stood.
Suddenly it started raining torrents.
"Whoa... Did I do that?" Wufei wondered. As a test, he yelled, "Stop!" Immediately the rain stopped. "Cooool." he said, placated for the moment. (Gomen, I wasn't gonna give him powers and I go and give him cool powers. I just though being a weather mage suited him.)
"Why did I get stuck as a healer?" Heero asked, or rather, whined.
"I would gladly trade with you." Relena said, clutching her hands tightly into little fists.
"Aw, c'mon this is cool!" Duo said, experimentally throwing more fire into the hearth.
"You know Duo, it might not be wise to waste your power like that. You'll probably need it later."
"Quatre, you're no fun." Duo said, but stopped his pyromaniacal antics.
Trowa said nothing, as usual.
+*+
The enemy ships attacked, throwing cannons and mage fire at them with a vengeance. Half of the castle stronghold had already crumbled into the sea.
"So, now that we have magic powers, what can we do with them?" Trowa asked, uncharacteristically speaking.
"Use your imagination! Go wild!" Duo replied, making a halo of fire and tossing it like a frisbee at the enemy ships. It landed atop the mast and slowly the fire spread until in consumed to ship.
"If we're all in the same room, that could get distracting. Let's limit it to two." Quatre pointed out logically.
"I'm not fighting." came a quiet voice. "I think this is stupid. Maybe if we tried talking to them they would stop." Relena continued.
"Weak woman would probably be more of a hindrance than a help anyway. No loss."
"You should be more considerate of her feelings, Wufei." (Wufei thinks women are weak in general and Trowa thinks we're emotionally weak. *sigh*)
+*+
Trowa quickly shed his humanity for the albatross form. As he flew out the window he heard Quatre call out, "Good luck!"
Yeah, I'll need it. I don't even have a plan.
Landing on the ship, Trowa located the captain and changed into a parakeet. He perched gently on the captain's shoulder. Good, he failed to notice the small bird. Then....
"TWEET!" Trowa let out his loudest parakeet screech. The captain's hands jerked on the wheel.
"God-forsaken bird!" he yelled, but by that time the parakeet was gone. Instead Trowa was a mosquito, biting at the captain's face and hands. Then he was a flea, going under the captain's heavy clothes to drive him crazy with itches he couldn't scratch.
Finally Trowa realized there was a much faster way to take a ship down. Going below deck to the back of one of the many ships. he changed into an elephant...and jumped. The wooden floor broke beneath his huge feet. The ship would sink soon enough.
Trowa left to find his next target.
+*+
Quatre leaned against the window sill, looking inattentive. However, he was speaking to the plants. He called the kelp to catch on the oars and pull the ships toward the rocks. They crashed, one by one, slowly sinking.
"Gomen ne, mina-san." he whispered, thinking of all the deaths he was causing.
+*+
"Deck the halls with boughs of holly, fa-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la," Duo sang, none too in-key, tossing fire wreaths at the ships casually.
"Duo, it's nowhere near Christmas." Wufei complained, accidentally throwing a tidal wave over a ship that Duo had just ringed with fire.
"Hey, don't mess up my lovely handiwork!"
"Sorry. It was accident."
The two boys went back to wrecking the ships.
+*+
In the the last room, both Heero and Relena felt utterly useless. They didn't speak to each other, just sat watching the carnage outside. Heero wished he was part of it, Relena wished it would stop. Finally Heero got up. Maybe someone would need a healer. If not, he would get something to drink. Or do something, anything, to keep him away this room's pressing silence, and the sight of the battle he couldn't take part in.
+*+
Knock, knock. Relena opened the door and saw Quatre and Duo there. Duo had collected a ball of fire and was spinning it like a basketball.
"Come in." she said courteously. Duo grabbed Heero's chair, but Relena let Quatre have her own.
"Relena," Duo began as he moved the chair so he could sit backwards in it. "We need you to fight. Their main-and last-ship has a reflective shield over it, but we think if we all throw our powers at once we might be able to get through. And a fifth person would be a big help."
"Please, Relena?" Quatre asked, eyes pleading, the moment Duo stopped talking.
"Yes."
"Yes?!" both boys were rather surprised.
"Well, that was easy enough." Duo said, getting up.
"What made you change your mind?"
"My not helping prolongs the fighting. Also, if we lose, my pacifism will be totally forgotten, and everyone I love will have been killed. And myself." she added, as if she were unimportant. "So, yes."
"Great. We attack on the hour. It's two till. Listen for the obnoxious bells, we stole them from Shojo Kakumei Utena."
+*+
Ding. The bells rang out. The sign to attack. The five lashed out with raw power. But more about that later. No sooner do the bells start ringing the first note than QuatreGirl, enraged, appears with a giant mallet and smashes them all.
"Phew. Finally those stupid things will shut up." (*Authoress rolls eyes @ best friend*)
+*+
Heero hurried back down the hall. First he had heard the beginning of those horrendous hourly bells. Then he had heard a tremendous crash. He should probably check on his fellow pilots; this might give him a chance to be useful.
Wufei and Duo's room was first. It was filled with steam, and the floor was covered with about two feet of water. Flames licked the ceiling. But the amazing thing was none of this left the room when Heero opened the door. It was as if there was an invisible wall holding it all in.
Both Wufei and Duo were slumped on the floor. They're probably drowning! Heero thought. Quickly he reached out for the heart of Wufei's magic and jerked.
"Itai! Heero, baka, that hurt! I was in suspended animation, that was completely unnecessary."
"Sorry. I didn't know how else to wake you up."
"Apologies are weak. And what about Maxwell over there? He's probably drowning."
With a quick pull at his magic, Duo sat up, spitting out water.
"Ow...bleah, that tastes nasty."
"What happened?"
"They had a shield. We got through, but about half our magic got thrown back. You might want to go check on the others.
Quatre and Trowa were little better off. The place was crawling with vines and animals. Trowa was trapped as a hawk (which looked exceptionally odd because his human clothes were hanging off him), and Quatre was being half strangled by the vines. Neither were hurt because shortly after the discovery of their magic they had gotten amulets that made it so one couldn't be directly harmed by their own magic (which was why Wufei didn't drown and Duo didn't burn, though Heero supposed the water had canceled out most of Duo's fire anyway).
Heero hoped he could wake them up. It was actually rather magic-consuming; but he should have just enough left. Wufei and Duo had taken about half of it.
Quickly he located Trowa's magical center and gave it a sharp tug. He turned back into a human, sat up, and winced. Heero turned to Quatre. Thank God-or thank someone, he didn't believe in God-this was the last time he would have to do this.
Quatre woke up (he was the only one who did so without complaining that it hurt) and sent the vines receding. Heero left. Relena might not know it was over; he should probably tell her.
Opening the door to the last room, Heero was shocked. Relena had decided to join the fight at the last minute , and flames were consuming the entire room. Vaguely he saw her tiny and and her delicately featured face-eyes glazed, moth slightly ajar-lying on the floor. He couldn't see the rest of her; the fire was in the way. He couldn't wake her up and he couldn't get her out. This sucked. Maybe Wufei would help douse the flames that licked her body like a funeral pyre, except eerily not burning her at all. But he doubted Wufei would do anything to help a "weak woman." Still, he had to try. Walking back to the first room he grabbed Wufei's arm and dragged him down the hall.
"Ah, dammit Yuy, where are you taking me??"
"I need water in the last room."
Wufei looked at the scene and muttered something that sounded strangely like, "it's her fault for being a weak woman," but sent the water in and left before examining the results.
Relena lay in the middle of the floor. She was barely breathing and as she did her lungs filled with water. Everything in the room but the walls and Relena herself had been reduced to the finest ashes, from the chairs to her hair ribbon.
Wading into the room, Heero picked up Relena's body. Her face had turned kind of grayish, and she was completely limp in his arms. Her skin was hot, like she'd been lying in the sun, and her lips were dry.
As he neared Relena's bedroom, Heero realized something. Shit, he thought. Only the password said by the owner of the room lets people in. Heero turned around to own his own room. He would leave her there. No point in worrying about something he could do nothing about.
After sliding her between the sheets Heero left the room.
+*+
"I'm glad that's over!" Duo exclaimed.
"Yeah, but we aren't going to be able to use any of those rooms for a while." Quatre said.
"Well, I'm not going to clean them up. Leave that to some weak maid who didn't help us fight."
Heero glared a bit, he hadn't helped fight, did they expect him to clean?
"We didn't mean you, Heero." Trowa quickly amended Wufei's words. (The twenty-eighth amendment! Heh, 'cept this isn't to the Constitution...)
"Shinigami needs sleep." Duo said. "Not to mention a change or clothes, which applies to all of you I believe." Duo's clothes were partially burnt and wholly soaked, as were Wufei's. Quatre and Trow both had animal droppings and dead leaves clinging to them. Heero was the only one whose garments were still in good condition.
The five boys went their separate ways.
+*+
"Oh, Heero!" Miss Noin said. "I was just looking for you. Zechs just got here, and since he found out he was too late to help, he wanted to see Relena. I thought you might know where she was?"
Heero nodded his head. "Yeah."
Zechs was waiting in the entry hall. His eyes narrowed when he saw Heero; the two harnessed no great love for each other.
If Noin thought it odd that they stopped at Heero's room, she said nothing. However, Zechs was unable to restrain himself when he saw Relena's bare back slightly revealed by the sheets of Heero's bed.
"Damn you, Yuy, what did you do to my sister?"
"Nothing."
Zechs looked about to hit Heero, but Noin put a restraining hand on his arm while Heero explained.
"...and she joined the fight at the last minute."
"You goaded her into it, I'm sure."
"I wasn't even there when she made the decision."
"So you abandoned her."
Heero sighed; in Zech's eyes, nothing he did would ever be right, particularly if it involved Relena.
"You still haven't explained why she's in your bed." Zechs spat, not adding "not wearing anything." (AN: There is no getting around that part, because her magic can't directly harm HER but her clothes aren't really a part of her... Besides, it's not like Heero was ogling her or anything.)
"Now, really, Zechs, I think we both know them a bit better than that." input Noin, walking over to the bed. She turned Relena over and pulled the sheet up. "But...that's not a very heathly color..."
"Her magical self and her physical self are both unconscious. I used all my magic waking up the others from the same state."
"Oh, so my sister is last priority?"
"Zechs..." Noin warned.
"Well, since you're too lazy I think I can wake her up."
"He's a healer, too?" Heero asked, surprised.
"Not really. Kind of a Jack of all trades but master of none. I'm sure he can do it though."
Relena sat up seddenly, clutching at her heart (and the sheet). Slowly she leaned back again.
"Did that Yuy bastard do anything to you?" Zechs demanded.
"Oniisama!! No! Of course not." she slid her leg out from beneath the covers. "See, he even healed me this morning." Relena pointed at the pinkish line that was all that remained from the discovery of her powers. Noting where the scar was, Zechs once again looked on the verge of hitting Heero, but was again stopped by Miss Noin.
Again Relena sat up quickly. Pulling the sheet around her tightly she swung her legs off the bed.
"The ship! It might not have sunk; I don't know if we got through in time!"
Heero pushed her back down onto the bed.
"They're gone."
"Good. I hope I don't ever have to do that again."
"Particularly if you're in Yuy's room at the end again." Zechs griped in an undertone.
.T.h.E.e.N.d.
AN: I know that's a really rough conclusion, but that's where the story ends. Sorry! And if a place for a bit of HYxRP romance fit in I would have put it, but it didn't really. Cos that whole thing was mostly Zechs taking the situation the wrong way, and there wasn't really any emotion on Heero or Relena's part.