A/N: The corn bucket has officially been put aside, people! And it's been replaced by the "What the hell, another chapter ONLY A WEEK AFTER the last one?!" sack. And the snail-shell container of crap metaphors.

Anyway, to get on with the thankies: Huge thankies and virtual hugs/cookies/kittens to all who read/reviewed/liked my last chapter! In particular, thebladeofchaos, Its_all_over_but_the_crying, The Three Spearmen, Bladed Thesis, Redondo 20, and Changgirl. I don't think I even have to say how much I love you all at this point!

Disclaimer: Anyone else thing the word "lame" halfway through the word "disclaimer" sort of gives you a hint? Yeah, Su Zhi is mine, Bai Yu is mine, random sense of humour, you get the idea.

"I'm sure you're aware of the situation at the minute. Yesterday, a Wei messenger was sent to us from Fan Castle in the Jing province, where Cao Ren is currently being besieged by a small, but powerful, Shu army..."

I sighed, but quietly. It was late 219, and the peace which had reigned supreme over the provinces we ruled looked to be coming to an end, and all at the request of a rival faction.

"I am aware that there are some... personal disagreements between us and the officers of Wei," said Lu Meng, standing up as Sun Quan finished his introductory speech and sat down, "but, if we team up with them, we can help neutralise a potentially deadly threat to our kingdom, as well as regaining control over the province of Jing. However, this will not be easy - otherwise Wei would not be asking for our help. At the head of the Shu army is Guan Yu, one of the five Shu Tiger generals and the so called 'God of War'. We have also had word that reinforcements are heading for Guan Yu's position, lead by Zhang Fei. These two must not be underestimated! They have proven themselves as very capable warriors on several occasions, and all due caution must be taken if you engage in battle with either of them!"

I glanced around the room as Lu Meng walked over to the map. There weren't many people at all in the room that was being used for the battle preparation meeting - apart from Lu Meng and Sun Quan (who would remain at the palace while the fighting went on), there was me, Lu Xun, Gan Ning leaning against a nearby wall, and a couple of other generals whose names escaped me at the minute. Everyone else was either too busy to be called away at such short notice, or had some other reason why they couldn't attend.

The room itself was sparcely decorated, with plain walls, and the long table in the middle looking strangely empty. A map of Fan Castle and the surrounding area was at the head of the table, where we had all gathered.

"Cao Ren is holding fort in Fan Castle, while Guan Yu has set up a base to the south-west.", Meng said, pointing at the appropriate parts of the map. "However, Fan Castle is situated at the bottom of a small valley, making it susceptible to water attacks. Guan Yu is well aware of this - reports have shown that Guan Ping is already making preparations for such an attack in the north-west - here -" another point at the map, "and the province of Jing has suffered an unusually heavy rainfall over the last few days. Therefore, we have to act fast to stop Cao Ren being defeated.

"However, Lu Xun and I have come up with a strategy. Guan Yu is aware that we are coming as backup, but he will underestimate us on account of our size. This means that all we have to do is..."

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Once the meeting was over, I went to go and find Tong. With the situation as it was, we would be leaving at first light the next day, and I wanted to tell my husband face to face - after all, we would be gone for a while, and I didn't want Tong to worry too much.

I tried the training arena first, but Tong was nowhere to be seen. Shang Xiang was there, however - Quan had refused to let the Wu princess go into battle against one of Shu's most fearsome generals, and Shang Xiang had responded to this by throwing herself into training, but I knew that, secretly, she was rather relieved.

"Hey, Shang Xiang!" I called out, interrupting her as she was about to launch another volley of attacks on the training dummy. "Have you seen Tong around anywhere?"

"Not since he finished training earlier, no. Why?" she asked, running a distracted hand through her hair.

"We leave at dawn tomorrow to help Wei, and I wanted to talk to him first."

"That's pretty short notice for something like this. Who else is going?"

"It's just me, Lu Meng, Lu Xun, and Ning, plus a few soldiers."

"Just you lot?" she asked, raising her eyebrows in surprise.

"Yeah. So, do you know where Tong might be?"

Shang Xiang shrugged.

"No idea. If he isn't in his room or eating, then I couldn't say where he is."

"Ok. Thanks, anyway."

I turned to leave, but Shang Xiang called out to me.

"Good luck if I don't see you before you go tomorrow - it sounds like you're going to need it!"

I grinned wearily back at her.

"You don't know the half of it, trust me..." I said, before leaving the training arena.

Back inside the palace, I checked both his bedroom and the mess hall, but my husband was nowhere to be seen. Feeling vaguely annoyed at the lack of the cynical man, I wandered back outside, and into an ornamental garden -

"There you are!" I said, and Tong turned from staring at the distant town to look at me, looking mildly surprised to see me there.

"I didn't think that the meeting would be over so soon," said Tong, pulling me into a quick embrace and giving me a peck on the cheek as I reached him. "So, what's going on with Fan Castle?"

"Lu Meng says we leave at dawn tomorrow."

"That soon?" asked Tong, looking rather dismayed.

"Yeah. Apparently, if we leave it any longer, Wei might not be able to hold out until we get there, and Lu Meng's strategy would fail without them."

"Oh? What's the strategy?"

I hesitated. Dangerous - that's what this strategy was. It all depended on Shu thinking we were weak because there weren't many of us, and in particular because I was a woman... but I didn't want Tong to worry while we were away...

"...Complicated." I lied. "And risky. Look, as long as everyone does as they're told, then we should win. Besides, Ning's coming as well."

"It can't be that complicated or risky if they expect Ning to be able to understand it, then."

I smiled slightly, but then my smile faded.

"We are fighting Guan Yu, you know. The Shu 'God of War'. Wei are heavily disadvantaged, and if they fall then we've got no chance. Ning knows that as well as I do!"

"Hey, hey, I know," said Tong, before pulling me into a long embrace. "Come on! I've never known you to be so worried about a battle before!"

I sighed, and leaned into the skinny general's chest.

"I know... It's just that there's a lot riding on this battle. And I'm not sure if Sun Quan or Lu Meng thought this one through - how are Shu going to react to us suddenly helping Wei? What will they do if we somehow manage to kill Guan Yu?"

Tong pulled back slightly so he could look down at me, and smiled reassuring,y at the worried look on my face.

"That's a bit ambitious, isn't it? Look, don't worry about it - if you manage to kill Guan Yu - that's if you manage it - then we'll worry about it then. But for now, you should just be focusing on Fan Castle, hmm?"

I gave my husband a quick kiss on the lips, before standing back.

"I suppose I'd better go and get ready, then..."

I went to turn away, but Tong caught my arm. I turned back to look up at him - and was mildly, if not pleasantly surprised when he caught my lips with his in a long, passionate kiss. When we finally broke apart, he looked me in the eyes, still holding me close.

"Just promise me one thing - come back in one piece, okay? Don't do anything stupid."

I grinned up at him cheekily.

"You ruin all my fun."

Tong chuckled, and let me go. I walked back to my room, opened my wardrobe - and paused. Why was I worried about this battle? Yeah, Guan Yu was no-one to take lightly, and Shu would hardly be ecstatic if - when - they lost, but... Oh, I don't know, I just had this sort of... uneasy feeling, but not about the battle. It just felt like the repercussions from this battle would lead to something terrible, and it had me feeling on edge.

I sighed, and shut the wardrobe again. I really wouldn't be helping anyone by worrying what would happen after Fan Castle. First, we had to see if this strategy would even work...

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Having ridden hard over the past two days to reach Fan Castle, it was almost a relief to arrive, but, if the screams of the fallen and air of terrified desperation were anything to go by, we'd just found ourselves in one hell of an uphill struggle.

I jumped off my horse, and had a good look around the plain we were in as Ning followed suit. It looked like this area hadn't seen much action yet, although I could see that there was a friendly base of some sort between us and the Shu camp to the west. In the north-east corner was another base, looking rather quiet, but clearly flying green banners. A Shu base.

I flicked out my wrist blades - I'd placed them on that morning as we had decamped, knowing that I'd have little time to prepare when we arrived - and eyed the base as Lu Meng and Lu Xun talked strategy.

"You ready for the go-ahead?" said Ning from behind me. I nodded, my eyes not leaving the base.

I suppose it was true that I wanted to be started, but only so that we could be done faster. My feeling of unease hadn't lessened as we had approached our rendezvous, and it really wasn't helping any that I'd been given a huge task to achieve.

Lu Meng started shouting instructions at the soldiers, and I flicked my wrist blades in and out agitatedly. The lack of action was putting me on edge even more than usual - enough so that even Ning noticed, but just as he was about to say something to me -

"It is time! This army shall bring death to Guan Yu!"

Without another prompt, I set off at a dead run toward the base I'd been eyeing. The doors swung shut as I approached, but I just executed a quick series of slashes, which ended in all five guards outside the base slumping to the ground, dead. The gates swung open again, but I was attacking the guard captain before they'd even ground to a halt again, and within seconds, a huge spurt of blood from the man's neck signalled his death, sending the rest of the base into a panic. Half a minute had passed since Meng's shout before I emerged from the base again, through the same doors as I'd entered by, looking for the next unlucky lot of Shu soldiers to gut.

I found some quickly enough, and started to hack my way through them. I could see Xun nearby, fighting alongside Meng and talking about how morale was low among two of the Shu generals. So what? It would be gone by the time I'd finished with them.

What was I doing? At this rate, I'd wear myself out before I even got to my target, and that was the last thing that I wanted to happen...

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a horse approaching. With a final thrust of my blade, I finished off the soldier I was fighting, and turned to face the approaching general.

"Do you honestly think you can help Cao Ren with those few soldiers?" he shouted at me.

I half-turned from him to decapitate a charging soldier.

"And who are you, that you think those words will intimidate us?" I asked quietly, still turned from him. He gave a derisive snort.

"Me? I am Guan Suo, trusted officer under Guan Yu, the God of War!"

"Really?" I said, as another charging soldier met a brutal death as my high kick snapped his head back far too fast. "If he is the God of War, then that will make me the Angel of Death."

Guan paled slightly, although his sneer stayed locked in place.

"Oh? Who are you, then, Angel of Death?"

Without giving any warning, I launched myself at him. He started in surprise, but as my blade came whistling through the air toward his stomach, he had no choice but to fall out of the saddle as he clumsily dodged. He had the sense to scramble to his feet as I ran wide to avoid being trampled by the skittish horse, but all that meant was that he was upright for my ferocious onslaught of slashes and the occasional kick.

It wasn't long before I got an attack in past his guard, and as he crumpled to the ground, I drew back my blade for one final stab-

"Hey, Su!"

I hesitated, my arm still poised to kill the helpless general, and as I held my arm there, I could feel whatever it was that had been pushing me forward ebb away.

"Su,what's up with you?" said Ning, coming up to me as I stepped back from the fallen Guan Suo, and let my arm fall to my side. I could feel the Shu general's eyes on me, searching my face for a sign of what I would do next.

"You can tell Guan Yu," I said, breathing heavily from the recent exertion, "that Su Zhi of Wu is here to take his head." I then quickly booted him in the temple, before he had time to react.

Turning from his recumbent form, I saw Ning staring at me.

"What was that about?" he asked, resting the blunt edge of his blade on his shoulder and raising an eyebrow.

"Nothing." I said, starting toward a nearby gate captain. Before I was even halfway there, though, Ning had darted in front of me and killed the captain, plus a few other soldiers who had been grouped around him.

"Don't go giving me that shit," he said, turning back to face me. "I've known you for too long for that. I know when something's up with you."

I gave an irritated snort and turned away from him again, but before I could walk away, he was in front of me, gripping my shoulder with his free hand.

"Talk to me."

I shrugged off his hand, and glared intently at a patch of ground several feet behind him.

"It's this whole damn battle, okay?" I snapped. "The strategy might work if we're incredibly lucky, we might be too late to help anyway, we're helping Wei here, I've got a bad feeling about what this battle might spark off down the line, and because I'm so irritated, I'm pushing myself too hard, which will make killing Guan Yu impossible if I'm too tired, and if he survives this battle then we've got no chance!"

Ning blinked in the silence after my rant.

"Well, first off, I've had to help pull off far dodgier strategies than this one," he said, putting his hand on his hip and his sword back on his shoulder. "Remember Chi Bi?"

I nodded reluctantly. It shouldn't have been possible for the wind to change direction mid-winter - but it had.

"And I know we aren't too late, because otherwise Lu Meng would have ordered our retreat. His strategy won't work without Wei. So just relax - it's no use getting worked up about it. 'Sides, like you said, you don't want to go wearing yourself out too quickly."

Behind Ning, I could see a couple of Shu soldiers drag a groaning Guan Suo away. He wouldn't be any more trouble - I'd have been impressed if he could have fought on in that state - but now there was no turning back.

Shu would soon know that I intended to kill Guan Yu before the end of the day.

"Alright," I said with a sigh. "What now?"

"Lu Meng's holding camp for now, and Xun's gone west to try and get a couple of generals to defect." said Ning as he shifted his grip on his weapon and glanced casually around himself. "I reckon we should break through to Fan Castle, see how Cao Ren's holding out after Shu used a water attack to flood the place."

"A water attack?" I asked, mildly horrified as I turned to look at him. "What about the citizens?"

Ning shrugged.

"Either they drowned or they got out," he said, non-commitally.

I turned away again.

"And Shu are supposed to be virtuous..." I muttered, feeling slightly nauseous.

"You never see much virtue on a battlefield." said Ning. "But, come on, are we fighting this battle or not?"

I nodded grimly, and we set off toward Fan Castle together. There were no generals that we could see in the throng ahead of us, but I remained on my guard anyway. I needed to avoid as many injuries as possible to pose any sort of threat to the God of War, Guan Yu.

We were just approaching a Wei controlled passage when the sound of hoofbeats made me tense up and whip my head in the direction of the noise. A horse was emerging from behind the gate captain, carrying on its back a huge, well-muscled man, wielding an enormous poleaxe which must have weighed a tonne. I sensed Ning relax beside me as I recognised the monster who had just arrived as Huang Zu - in any other battle, a dangerous foe, but, here, welcome reinforcements.

He regarded us with barely concealed discontent, before turning back to his squad, who had emerged after him. I glanced at Ning - clearly, the Wei generals were just as annoyed at the current alliance as I was - before we continued on our way.

Not long after, we reached the edge of the fight in the plains before the castle, which did have a certain... waterlogged look to them. I launched myself into the fray, swinging my blade sideways at one private, before dodging an attack to my side by someone rather faster on the uptake than the rest.. A quick boot under the chin snapped his head back, however, and as he stumbled backwards, I followed up with a series of kicks and deadly slashes which took out not only him, but half a dozen other men either side of him.

To my side, Ning executed a nasty little series of moves which sent a good portion of the crowd in front of him flying. As I threw myself back into the fight, I saw, just for a second, a heavily blue-armoured man with two huge polearms somewhat reminiscent of that of Huang Zu's, dispatch a number of green-clad soldiers. I span around with my arms held straight out, scything off a few heads, before an over-zealous strike made me back off hurriedly.

I dealt with that lot as quickly as I could, glancing up to see the Wei general utterly surrounded by green and looking incredibly weary. I gritted my teeth as I blocked an attack from my left - we didn't have much time left to reach that general, but there were still far too many Shu soldiers between us and him-

To my right, I heard Ning grunt, before a blur suddenly took out a huge chunk of the green in front of me. I paused for a second to stare at Ning, before a blade nicked my forearm, badly enough to draw blood, but not enough to make it serious. I lashed out at the culprit as the pain shot up my arm, but as I turned, out of the corner of my eye, I saw the general we were trying to reach go down to an attack from behind.

Now would be a good time for a miracle.

A/N: Hahaha, I just typed all that up in one sitting, and now my back hurts from this crappy computer chair! So please review, so I forget how uncomfortable my back is at the minute. Or at least think that it was worth it. See y'all in the next ... portentous chapter!