Cover Image byサンド on Pixiv. All of the characters featured in this story belong to KOEI.

Author's Note:

It's been almost a year since I wrote anything for Dynasty Warriors, which is a shame because I love the series, but I finally got some inspiration and motivation from the wonderful FlowerGirly who writes awesome fanfics for the series also and you should totally go check her stuff out now. Yeah. Like... Right now. Go, go, go.

Oh, I do apologise for any grammatical/spelling mistakes since I wrote this in a sort of rush and didn't have time to check over it. Please enjoy!

"Fall back!" The cry rung across the battlefield, piercing the humid and dusty air, but it was disregarded.

Exhausted men continued to slash through endless hordes of enemy soldiers, blinded and defeaned by the heat and tiredness felt from days out in the field without rest or proper meals. Nothing said now was clear. The only thing that hung over them was the need to stay alive.

Grip your sword tight. Don't strike too low. Leave yourself open and you'll join the sea of bodies painting the dry earth red.

"Fall back, I said!" The command was repeated, a lone figure riding his horse through the chaos and picking off several more enemies on his way to the rear of the battlion. They were being driven to the brink of extermination and their leader was in no way pleased. This had been a hopeless battle from the start but he had been hoping to stave off their losses and hold the fort long enough for their allies to arrive, but even reinforcements were days away from arriving here with rations and aid.

They couldn't last another half day let alone half a week.

Wei's forces were simply too strong, both in number and experience, worst of all was the artillery.

Several soldiers had now began to respond to the command, their morale having reached an all time low and they stumbled back blindly towards the mountain pass where they were being led like sheep.

How did they get here? Why had they stayed? Where were they going? Enemies. Enemies on every side.

"Ma Dai! Wei Yan! Ma Chao!" The leader called, halting his horse a moment to allow the small group of the remaining infantry men to catch up. A very small group, he realised, and a frown made its way onto his face. "Cover our retreat, we will rendevouz on the other side of the mountain pass at the shore! Is that clear?!" He called, trying to maintain his sense of authority. He couldn't break in front of his men now. Not when they had come this far.

"Yes, my lord!" Ma Chao called back, fighting with the same ferocity he always did, but Ma Dai was looking worse for wear.

"Ma... Su!" Wei Yan growled at him irately, violently wrenching his Voulge out of a now dead body which dropped to the ground with a sickening thud, and he was on to the next man straight away.

"Hang in there, Wei Yan" Ma Dai tried to keep him from making the poor decision of launching his weapon at the 'man in charge', summoning up several ink figures that burst up around him and sent men flying left, right and centre.

"Fight until you find a gap, then we'll pursue" Ma Chao suggested, just about missing a sword being swung at him. Despite his burning spirit, it was quite obvious that he had slowed down significantly and was lacking energy. They had been on the front line for days and without proper rations they were struggling to pull their weight alone. He stabbed his spear into the ground, securing it tightly between his hands before summoning the last bits of his energy to swing his legs up and catch his adversary around the shoulders, hurling him away with great force before landing on his feet again and retrieving his weapon.

Ma Dai was being pushed back by two foot soldiers who were swinging at him furiously, their swords chipping into the wooden body of his brush and occasionally scraping the armour plates of his gauntlets. He was feeling faint and the hot air made it difficult to breathe, the pounding of his heart loud in his ears and his muscles shuddering with fatigue, arms feeling terribly heavy. Any minute now, he felt like he would pass out.

"Ma Chao... hey... help..." He huffed, barely able to hold up his weapon anymore.

"There's an opening!" He heard his cousin declare, his voice sounding very far off.

"... Help" He felt his weapon slip from his hands and he briefly had the chance to realise his mistake before a cold sensation washed over him as the merciless sun reflected off the steel of the heavy club bearing down on him from a third soldier who had joined the fray.

Clank!

The air was knocked from his lungs, his skull feeling like it had caved in and for a long moment he forgot how to breathe, everything blacking out as he hit the floor, blood trickling from his ears.

"Bozhan!" Ma Chao spun around frightfully as he saw the younger man's hat hit the floor with a pitiful clank, and his heart rate skyrocketed as he watched the club-wielding brute lift the heavy weapon once more.

"... Die, scum!" Wei Yan roared, sprinting past him with the speed of a man half his build and probably age. The barbaric general slammed into the Wei soldier shoulder first, knocking the club out of his hand and procceeding to lift him right off his feet before ramming him down and practically breaking his back as he bent him back over his steel padded knee.

Seeing this set Ma Chao back on the right track and he rushed over to Ma Dai's side to check his pulse, tearing his collar open to search for it. "Come on, cousin, come on, you're stronger than this" He needed something, anything, to know that he was alive.

"Ma Chao!" The older man called for his attention and he looked up briefly to see more units on their way.

"He's not breathing!" Ma Chao replied frustratedly, trying to resuscitate him by pressing his hands to his chest.

"Up! Go! Now!" Wei Yan snapped at him impatiently, picking the unconscious man up and pushing Ma Chao to move. They could find out if he was alive once they were not risking being clubbered to death themselves. Then none of them would be breathing.

"I don't take orders from you!" Ma Chao grumbled, but snatched his spear and Ma Dai's headwear up as he scampered after Wei Yan, really wishing that he had his horse right now so that they could catch up faster. All they had to do was get to the mountain pass, that's all they had to do for now.

Somewhere along the way, they began to see figures dotted in the distance and Ma Chao felt his spirits soar again. He was worried about Ma Dai, worried to the point that he felt slightly sick in his stomach, but he couldn't spare to think about the possibility that his closest companion might be dead or seriously hurt. Not now in the middle of battle. He would be fine. He would be fine because the Heavens were watching over them, he was sure of it. They were helping people, right? This was for the sake of the people, for the good of the land, surely the skies were on their side.

"My lord! We've made it!" He could have almost laughed with relief once they were close enough to see them clearly, although it didn't look like Ma Su had any intention to stop or wait for them since he was already half way through the pass.

"Ma Chao... Stop! Dangerous!" Wei Yan warned him, having trailed slightly behind since he was carrying Ma Dai on his back.

"Dangerous? Nonsense, they're almost through we better..." A loud rumbling and shaking stirred up dust and he turned to look back at the remaining Shu forces ahead of them only to freeze. "... hurry" He muttered, his stomach sinking as he watched a hail of rocks roll down on them.

Screams of petrified, dying men filled the air once more, coupled with the sound of bones breaking and bodies being crushed under boulders and Ma Chao's hopes alongside them. The debris scattered dust in his eyes and he rubbed at them furiously, hoping that when he opened them again this would all be a bad dream and they wouldn't be here and his cousin wouldn't be hurt but... He opened his eyes again.

Everything. It was almost funny how everything could just go downhill so quickly because of one man's poor decision.

If Ma Su was still alive, Ma Chao would kill him with his own two hands.

Wei Yan came to stand beside him, looking just about as incredulous as he did, if not more. What now? Where would they go? They were being hunted by Cao Cao's men from the back and the canyon was now filled with impassable debris.

"Do we have another choice?" The Flying General asked almost defeatedly, but with all of the shocking events that were taking place one after the other, he didn't know what kind of answer he wanted. Everyone was dead as far as they knew and this realisation made his knees weak and he threw his spear carelessly aside, dropping down in surrender. The Heavens had betrayed him after all. "It's over now... This isn't the way I imagined I would be going..." He muttered, tears of fury boiling in his eyes as he clenched the dirt in his hands. But he wouldn't cry. Never again for the same reason. Never again because of anything to do with Cao Cao. "This is not the way I want to go!" He yelled angrily, voice echoing off the mountains.

Wei Yan was silent for a long moment before suddenly kicking him in the ribs none too gently.

"Hey what the fu-?!" He began to shout at him in his rage, but the barbaric general wasn't listening and was making his way towards the mountain, starting to clamber up with some difficulty because of Ma Dai's weight on him. "What the hell are you doing, you idiot?!" Ma Chao demanded to know, snatching up his weapon and trotting after him as the larger man misplaced his foot and skidded back down to ground level, luckily maintaining his balance.

The general turned on him frustratedly, his intimidating stature coming into play to shut Ma Chao up a moment. "Want to die?!" He growled, and Ma Chao stared dumbfounded. "Up! Now!" Wei Yan commanded, obviously too angry to listen to Ma Chao's complaints or insults for the moment.

"D- don't tell me what to do..." He repeated, confused when the older general circled him, laying Ma Dai down a moment.

Riiiiiip!

Ma Chao's blood boiled as he felt his cape being torn free from his shoulder pads, but had no chance to say anything before Wei Yan booted him in the backside in a manner of telling him to start climbing.

Oh he was going to give it to him the minute he got the chance!

The cloth was used as a manner of securing Ma Dai to his back, almost like a sling, and he began to climb with more speed, seeming more focused now that he no longer had to worry about dropping him on the way up.

"This.. is the stupidest thing ever!" Ma Chao grumbled as he heaved himself up, looking briefly towards the amassing unit of Wei soldiers who were getting closer now.

"Quiet... Climb!" Wei Yan hissed at him, not willing to give him a chance.

Ma Chao was about to respond when something whizzed past his head, breaking as it hit the stone. An arrow? Oh crap. He began to climb with more haste as arrows were rained on them from archers down below and he heard Wei Yan grunt, presumably in irritation.

They were pretty far up by this point anyway and if they kept moving, they could get away with it since the wind was on their back and helped to misdirect some of the more accurate shots, but it was quite obvioust that there wasn't much effort being put into chasing down three men and soon enough cheers of victory began to rise from below as they got further and further up and out of sight.

Each one of those cheers increased the bitterness the two warriors felt, the stench of bodies being cremated soon rising up with the black smoke in the distance. They had probably been climbing for hours now and the sun was beginning to set, temperatures dropping at a concerning rate and the wind picking up speed.

Ma Chao was already tired and he wasn't sure how much longer he could keep going. There was a ledge wide enough to probably house some flatland just up and out of reach. "Almost there" He huffed, more to himself in a manner of encouragement, and paused to catch his breath. Wei Yan had fallen slightly behind but he was catching up now.

"Up here, come on, big guy" He pointed out, not sure if he sounded as confident as he should have, his hands feeling sore as he grabbed the next holds.

"Bad move" Wei Yan warned him, and he had a brief feeling of falling as his foot was misplaced and he went skidding down. Wei Yan managed to catch him, the sudden lurching motion making Ma Chao feel like his arm had been wrenched out of its socket but he just stared at where the older general's fingers were digging to his limb. He was just about holding him up, and he realised just how strong the other must be to carry himself, Ma Dai and Ma Chao with him.

"Heavy!" The general growled at him, urging him to grab onto the nearest ledge to support his own weight. He should have said thank you, but his life had been flashing before his eyes right then so he just huffed in response, stopping there to regain his composure and Wei Yan did the same.

"I'm not heavy" Ma Chao muttered under his breath, feeling cold sweat on his skin, and he glanced off to the side. The sun would be disappearing soon and the only light would be the distant fires of men marching back to their camp. At least they were no longer being pursued and this gave him the drive to continue.

The three warriors succeeded in reaching their destination a little before the light in the sky faded and the temperature had dropped significantly.

Wei Yan carefully lay Ma Dai down, tilting his head to inspect for the source of the wound. If it was an external cut, then they didn't have much to worry about aside from concussion, but if there was nothing to be seen and he was bleeding from his ears, then the case would be a lot more serious.

"Hey, what are you doing?" Ma Chao demanded to know, perhaps being a little over protective since he didn't know what to do in this kind of situation. It wasn't like he was expecting the man to harm his cousin in any way, but people like Wei Yan didn't exactly come across as the 'delicate' type.

Wei Yan ignored him, much to his chagrin, and he had half the mind to toss him off the cliffside, but he could neither carry him nor did he know the first thing about survival... He was perhaps, also a little grateful that he hadn't let him fall to his death earlier. Not that he would ever admit it to himself let alone anyone else.

A cold shudder racked his form as a breeze blew by, but it was not from the weather so much as it was from the memory of those men being crushed under boulders, the sound of their bones breaking still echoing in his mind and it made him feel sick again.

"O- oi-" He began hesitantly, deciding that arguing with his only conscious companion wasn't the best idea right now, but Wei Yan was annoyed and snapped at him.

"What?!" The barbaric general demanded to know impatiently, probably assuming that he was still going on about the same thing from earlier.

"Don't yell at me!" Ma Chao snapped, all thoughts of trying to get along gone with the wind.

Wei Yan growled at him in a feral manner, but Ma Chao wasn't not going to back off on this.

"You've been ordering me around and hitting me like you're some kind of hero saving the day for a while now and I think it's about time you remembered your place!" The Flying General was angry. No. Not angry, he was upset and miserable and ballistic. At Cao Cao, at Ma Su, at Wei Yan, at himself- heck, he was annoyed at Ma Dai for getting hurt! "Who do you think you are, huh?! Some hero?! Some high ranked officer?! I'm the Tiger General here and I know what I'm doing!" He continued to yell, not because he was actually thinking this through and trying to get a point across, but because it was giving him back his confidence that he had lost when he saw Ma Dai fall.

Wei Yan just stared at him in silence which didn't help.

It was pointless, anyway, right? The idiot probably didn't understand half of what he was saying. He was a mindless brute. Yes. And that was okay, because he didn't have to worry about saying anything hurtful then.

Ma Chao's rant was loud enough to disturb Ma Dai, and the younger man began to stir. The sound was distant, like he was in a tunnel and it was all echoing. Everything hurt, but his skull and shoulders especially and his ears were ringing as he slowly regained conciousness. The cool wind brushed against his skin, raising goosebumps and making his hair stand on end.

Just what was all that shouting? It sounded like Ma Chao.

Alarm bells went off in his mind as he struggled to wake up, telling himself to get up, to be quick, that there was danger and that his cousin was in trouble.

Brown eyes opened blearily, seeing nothing but black at first, but the darkness slowly danced its way to the edge of his vision and he blinked several times in an attempt to rid himself of it. Perhaps two minutes passed before it began to ease but the world was spinning around him and he couldn't even sit up. He felt sick. He felt really sick, but there was nothing in his stomach worth throwing up over.

"Everything... hurts..." He slurred, his voice sounding weird to him as he slowly shifted to push himself up but the dizziness would not clear and he just dropped back down. Ma Dai just wanted to go home and lie down on his not so comfortable futon inside his uncomfortably hot room while he tried to get all his painting done in the morning because using up candles at night had to be moderated since their price on the market these days just kept rising. Why the hell did everything hurt? More than anything, he just wanted the pain and the noise to disappear.

"Are you even listening to me, you ignorant savage?!" Ma Chao was livid when Wei Yan decided to do better things with his time than pay attention to him.

That was the last straw.

Ma Dai succeeded in calming his spinning mind, pushing himself to sit up, only to witness Wei Yan slam his fist into Ma Chao's face with such force that there was a loud crack.

Ma Chao stumbled. Ma Dai stared. Wei Yan just tried to breathe through the fury.

"What the fuck?!" Mengqi wasn't even sure what had happened there, but the next thing he knew, his nose was burning and there was hot blood running from it, prompting him to quickly hold it. "You broke my nose, you bastard! You fucking broke it! What the actual fuck?!"

It was quite evident from his cursing that he was more shocked than furious.

Ma Dai thought he was having some really weird dream because he had never seen Wei Yan that mad at someone and certainly never seen Ma Chao get punched in the face or talk to someone in such an insensitive manner. Not including Cao Cao of course, but the warlord deserved that so it didn't count.

Without sparing it too much thought, he lay back down again and closed his eyes for all of one minute before opening them again. No. This was certainly not a dream because that same dark sky was still up there.

Oh dear lord.

Ma Chao swung next, socking Wei Yan in the jaw, but the impact was nowhere near as strong and the taller man probably would have returned the favour if Ma Dai hadn't interferred.

"Guys, just what the hell are you doing?" He asked, hating the hoarseness in his own voice.

"Bozhan, you're awake!" Ma Chao forgot all about his revenge and rushed over to his cousin's side, having to stop a moment to tip his head slightly forward in order to stop the blood running from his nose.

Wei Yan actually looked guilty and quietly moved closer to inspect him as well.

"You got any water?" The pained man asked hopefully, clutching his head in his hands as he sat up. "I feel like some is holding a mallet and hitting me over the head with it again and again and again" He muttered.

"I got my canteeeen..." Ma Chao's sentence trailed off as he remembered that he had left it on his horse back at the camp. "No. No I don't" He glared in Wei Yan's direction as though telling him to deal with it.

"No" Wenchang grunted out, patting his belt to check, but his own things along with his weapon had been left back on the battlefield.

"Great, you're so useless"

"Shut... up... Annoying!"

Oh for the love of everything between this life and the next.

"Guys"

"I'm annoying? This was all your stupid idea. There's not even any water or food up here!"

"Not... Wei Yan's fault!"

Why? Just why did he have to get stuck with the only two people in Shu who could not even stand to be within a five metre distance of each other without finding something to fight about?

"Guys, it's alright. It's safe up here, right?" He was trying to stay positive, but at least his head wasn't so foggy anymore and he could actually concentrate on what was being said.

Ma Chao and Wei Yan exchanged glare but neither said anything to the other after that and the older of the two silently moved away to sit at the edge of the cliff, his legs dangling idly as he surveyed several of the scratches he had earned today.

"Bozhan... How are you feeling?" The Flying General inquired quietly, gingerly touching his head and pulling his fingers away quickly when Ma Dai flinched.

"In pain, but I'm fine" He smiled, looking apologetic at having caused the elder so much trouble. "Sorry"

Ma Chao frowned at this, but it was Ma Dai after all and he wasn't exactly surprised by it. "Don't apologise you idiot, you had me worried sick" He grumbled, pouting at him and Ma Dai half laughed half coughed at this expression.

"Sorry, sorry, my bad" He apologised again, pulling him into a hug.

The cavalier returned it stiffly at first, not used to displaying affection in public, but it wasn't really like there was anyone here and he relaxed. "You're such an idiot" He sighed, but he was clearly relieved that he was okay.

"I know, I'm sorry"

"Stop apologising"

"Sorry, I don't mean to"

"Why are you apologising for apologising?!"

Wei Yan didn't bother looking over, but at least he knew Ma Dai was alright and this brought a faint smile to his scarred lips. The artist had probably lost a few brain cells, but his head was still intact so he would be just fine.

He brought his arms up to cradle his head as he lay back, casting his gaze up at the starless sky.

If there was indeed some entity up there watching... he couldn't ask for more than this mercy, for what would he have truly done if Ma Dai had died back there?

They would be just fine.

Maybe.

You actually got down here? You mean you read the whole chapter? Nice.

Here's a cookie. I'll give you the milk to go with it if you Review! Let me know if you enjoyed this chapter and if you think it's worth carrying on!

Yours Truly,

XShay