Disclaimer: We do not own Gundam Wing.

Warning: language, violence, death

Dancing in the Moondust

Solo may not have been the brightest of people but he was street smart and it was only now that he figured it all out. These things, whatever they were, were coming in droves at them and they hadn't really done that until after he began throwing his magic about.

They were surrounded on both sides and the way he saw it, Trowa and Heero weren't really being helpful. It wasn't like they were doing it on purpose, it was just these things were too tough on their own and the stuff that the two had brought along with them weren't having much effect—

There was a boom and the paw of one of these things landed right next to him. Okay, somebody had brought a grenade. Wished he had been warned about that first but okay.

He was tackled to a side as Trowa shoved them both against a fall just in time to dodge a creature that had gotten too close and had leapt at them.

"Damn it," the blond swore. "Do these things not know when ta give up?"

"I don't think so but you think you can take them all out yet?" Trowa replied to his rhetorical question.

"Not without a lot of fuckin' power," he muttered under his breath. "Eh, why da hell not?"

Pushing Trowa away from him, he gathered as much of his magic as he possibly could, cancelling out all other spells he had active at the moment. This, however, had the effect of blanketing everything into darkness which produced many ominous growls from the creatures. Or at least, they were growls before they suddenly became frightened yowls.

And in the darkness, Solo's lips twisted into a bloodthirsty smirk.

---

The trio paused on the stairs as wolf howls reached their ears. It didn't sound anything like triumph but none of them were going to be heading back to check it out anytime soon. That and the stairs seemed to be disappearing behind them into darkness. It was almost unnatural and despite their bravery, or stupidity, in the past, none had the will to head backwards.

Survival instincts were a powerful thing, you know.

There was something in the air, or so Duo felt, and it made all the nerves in his body tingle, the hairs on his neck and arms stand on end, and all his muscles tense. It was anticipation, like there was something big at the end of this upward path just waiting for them.

And then they reached the end and it was…disappointing.

They came out of it only to meet the sight of an empty, flat arena that had a silvery glow to it all. Yes, the sky was amazingly clear for a city sky, the stars twinkling in the dark expanse and silver moondust littered the ground, a beautiful sight to be sure but it was just so…not what he was expecting.

Beautiful, breathtaking, but totally uncalled for. Yeah, that was the way to describe it.

"Wrong…" Quatre murmured. "This is wrong. There shouldn't be anything here…"

"Typical," a soft voice from above scorned. "Because reality doesn't bend to your rules, your will, it's wrong? I thought that at least you of all people would enjoy something as perfect as this. I suppose I was wrong."

The three of them spun around, eyes darting to and fro, searching for the source of the bodiless voice. Despite their sharp eyes, none of them were able to locate it, something that seemed to amuse the voice as was evident when it spoke again.

"You really are simple creatures, aren't you? No beauty in your souls to appreciate all this."

"I think you threatening and trying to kill us kinda makes that moot," Duo spoke up defiantly, fists clenching tightly.

The voice paused at that, as if considering his words. "I shouldn't have expected less out of the one who is Death's chosen," the voice said. "No, you are beyond our petty mortal doings. However, your two companions are not so advantaged."

"You're the one that sent those chimera, aren't you?" Wufei suddenly shouted out. "You would stoop to using lowly beasts to do your dirty work than to face us yourself. And you dare to lecture us?!"

Perhaps that hadn't been a good idea as the voice suddenly thundered at them with a vengeance.

"LOWLY BEASTS?! You dare to associate such works of art with those derogatory words you uncivilized SAVAGE?! You lack the appreciation of such works, the blood and sweat that went into them and do not think I do not know what you did to my beloved creations!"

"As my friend just said, I think you trying to kill us makes that a moot point," Quatre stated, a spell already forming in his hands. "And when has art ever killed?"

"You would be surprise," the voice chuckled ominously. "This very building in which we stand in is a work of art. The various buildings you see throughout the world are works of art and living beings have died creating them as well as when they fall."

"Are you talking about architecture?" Quatre asked, eyes narrowing.

"Why am I surprised you don't get it?"

"Hey! Back on track here!" Duo shouted out, taking a step forward. "You wanted us here and now you have us here. What is it that you want?!"

The scraping of boots against the sandy ground attracted their attention and they noticed that two men had appeared behind them to block off the path that led to the stairs. There was something that wasn't right about them but the braided one couldn't pick it out quite yet. Maybe it was the lifelessness that was in their eyes or how indescribably pale these men were but something was screaming at his instincts that something was wrong about them.

His attention, though, was then diverted to a sudden shaking of the ground and a large mound of the silvery dirt rising up to the sky. Sprouting out of it, a large rounded block of pure white marble rose up to the sky, ever widening as its base emerged out of the dust. Once the column ceased growing, a figure was spotted standing at the base of the marble structure.

The ever-present pale light that seemed to lighten up the arena glared off of gleaming armor that looked as if it had been carved out of marble itself, black marble intertwined with the white in imperfect patterns all over the body. This smooth yet earthen armor made the figure look bigger than the small size he probably was in reality, what with the spines that seemed to be sticking out on various points from his shoulders to his back then to his waist and kneecaps.

But it was the uncovered head that really caught the braided one's attention and he almost jumped back at it as recognition dawned on him.

The spiky white hair that defied gravity, the too-awfully pale, white skin, and those eyes that were so blue that they were practically steel. Hey, was that actually…that guy, the one he practically ran over just the night before? What was his name…Pick? Pal? Pike? Perhaps he hadn't said sorry enough or something…or this guy wasn't some innocent bystander with a grudge…but another member of The Collective…?

A member who undoubtedly would have had the opportunity to follow him back to the safe house last night…

Damn it, how could he have been stupid enough to not make sure he wasn't being followed? Basic tenet in his pilot and terrorism training: never let the enemy find out where you're hiding. Oh, G had to be rolling in his non-existent grave on this one.

Pike took a few steps away from his marble monument, his smooth, marble armor not hindering his movements whatsoever as they slid back and forth along his body. He stopped when he was perhaps only a stone's throw away from the three ex-pilots and Duo was now surer that this was the same guy from last night. Not that prick who tried to flirt with him but the second one.

"Allow me to introduce myself," the pale man said, bowing elegantly towards them. "I am Pike Verso, artist, art admirer, and professional hunter. I have come for you, Death Mage, on behalf of my employer who so desperately wishes to meet you."

"And I bet that employer is a member of The Collective," Quatre spat.

"He is but I'm not," Pike replied, not put off by the blond's tone.

Wufei, frowning at this, spoke up before the other two could. "If you're not one of The Collective, then why are you involved with this? What is your stake?"

"Money," Pike answered without missing a beat. "It takes money to craft works of art, even in this day and age. I could care less what my employer wants with the Death Mage but it would be a crime not to at least immortalize the visage of Death's chosen, especially with such a beautiful specimen such as you."

Duo found himself taking a step away from Pike. Okay, like that suddenly didn't make this a creepy moment.

"If you surrender yourself into my custody, I can guarantee that no harm will come to your friends, any of them," Pike continued, his steel blue eyes boring into Duo with unnatural interest. "It's as simple as that."

A bolt of continuous magic slammed into the hunter, sending him flying back. Flipping in the air, Pike landed catlike on the ground, particles of dust rising from his landing. However, it wasn't from Duo that this attack came from but from Quatre who was glaring at the armored man.

"I'm afraid he's going to have to decline your offer," the blond snarled. "None of us are going to let you get your hands on Duo."

"Well, I tried doing this the easy way," Pike shrugged before his facial features darkened. "I guess I am going to have the opportunity to avenge my precious chimeras after all."

In a quick motion, Wufei unsheathed a long, curved sword from somewhere on his person and spun around to halt the advance of the woman in brown leather from earlier. Duo copied this action as well but only drew out a gun and aimed it at an incredibly ugly and scarred man who was giving all of them the evil eye.

From the ground itself, pale arms and hands sprouted and all sorts of henchmen emerged from hiding, staring all of them down with lifeless looks. The three of them were surrounded but none of them were put off by the odds they faced.

It was Duo who seemed to shatter the would-be stare off with his words, "Looks like it's ass-kicking time."

---

Wufei was the first to strike out towards the enemy, slashing his sword out in a practiced move as he charged towards the only leather clad female in the arena. In a quick move, the female pulled out a sword of her own, one of European make to be exact, and blocked his attack immediately; the two forced into a stalemate right off the bat.

But Wufei called upon years of training in the arts of the swordsman and with a burst of strength shoved the woman away. The woman stumbled back but caught her balance quickly enough, just in time to block another strike from Wufei.

Backing away in a leap, he spun in a circle and sliced off the head of one of the pale henchman, not pausing to get a good look at his kill as he easily parried an attempted attack from the woman. With lightning quick reflexes, he kicked her in her gut and let her stumble back, not going after her in preference to stabbing the heart out of another henchman who had tried to sneak up on him from behind.

He paid the crumbling man no mind as he began circling his opponent, sneering at her. "Don't you think you're in over your head?"

The woman frowned. "What's that suppose to mean?" she spat.

He didn't bother to give her an answer as he charged at her again, slashing his sword at her, fully expecting her to block it and when his expectation was met, he was already twisting his body and moving his sword to slice at her undefended back. However, the woman dropped to the ground and rolled away, scrambling back up to her feet and eyeing him warily. But he wasn't about to give her any breathing room; that was just not his method of fighting.

He was in her face, striking and slashing without pausing, barely smirking as he managed to get a cut on her left lower arm. She hissed in pain but kept her sword steady as she tried to turn the tables and go on the offensive.

To be brutally honest, he decided to let her do so if only to see how good she really was for a moment but he could see that her technique was sloppy and she was wielding her weapon more like a club. It was embarrassing to watch but he shouldn't have expected so much from a woman.

As she was slashing at him, her sword arcing downward in the hopes of meeting his head, he merely sidestepped the attack and thrust his sword so that it was next to the pommel of the broadsword. With the flick of his wrist and the spinning of his sword blade, he broke her grip on her weapon, sending it flipping up into the air. With a graceful leap, he caught it in midair and flipped so that he landed on the ground, crouching like a tiger.

He spun around, a sword in each hand and feinted jabs at her to get her to back off, not moving from the spot he had landed, a smirk gracing his face.

"Pathetic," he proclaimed. "I expected more from you than amateur hour."

"Bastard," the woman hissed at him but he was not intimidated by such a weakling. There were only two women he was afraid of; neither of them was here at the moment and she wasn't one of them.

Standing straighter, he balanced the broadsword for a moment before suddenly tossing it over to her, her confused look priceless.

"Come at me," he dared her. "I expect a good fight and I won't accept anything less."

The woman growled at him and let out a bloody shrieked as she charged.

---

It was Quatre who picked out Pike Verso as his target. Since he was more experienced with magic, it was obvious that he was the only one here that was capable to take on another student of the mystic arts. Just by looking at what Pike had done to this ancient structure, he knew the other wasn't a pushover. He'd let Duo and Wufei handle the entourage; he'd take on the head of this snake and put an end to this battle.

As Wufei and Duo began their assaults on Pike's help, he threw his arms up and flexed them back into a maneuver that would have even the most dedicated yoga instructor wince. His hands wrapped around well-worn handles and with a practiced elegance he pulled out two curved swords that had an impeccable resemblance to the ones his precious Sandrock wielded. However, the metal for these weapons were made of solid gold, thus allowing him to fuse into them and boost his magical powers exponentially.

How he got either of them passed security at the airports was a Winner Family Secret.

He lunged at Pike, not giving the other the opportunity to use any spells he may have at his command, his curved scimitars igniting with golden, flaming magic. Pike raised the armguards he had on his lower arms and used them as small shields to block each and every strike the blond threw at him. It didn't take long for Quatre to figure out this tactic and the strategist in him offered up a whole array of potential attacks he could do.

Picking one without necessary thought, he pulled back and crossed his curved swords in front of each other, pulling them apart in diagonal slashes and shooting out a blast of gold-colored magic that took the shape of an "X."

The attack was enough to knock Pike off his feet and Quatre increased the flow of his magic into the swords as he went in for another strike. Pike, though, was already retaliating as he blasted a shimmering, white orb of magic at him. The blond reversed his hold on one of his swords and used the weapon to slash the orb in half, bringing his other sword up to block a large spike of marble that shot out of the dusty ground.

He was pushed back and slightly jarred but no worse for wear as he murmured a teleportation spell to himself and warped up to Pike's face to dodge any other potential attacks that could be thrown at him. Pike was ready for him, however, and he spun his body like a top, forcing Quatre to pull back and defend himself from the spines that stuck out from the marble white armor.

Throughout the fight, Pike had remained expressionless, not giving away any clue as to what emotion he could be feeling and that slightly unnerved the blond who was so used to the explosive affects of his friends and brothers-in-arms. His empathy, which he used to at least read what his enemies were feeling, allowing him to have a more accurate guess of what they would do, was suddenly a bit of a liability as he was finding himself distracted by the blankness and dispassionate façade Pike was displaying.

It was proving to be a greater distraction as he was caught off guard when Pike was suddenly in his face.

---

It seemed like he always got the short end of the stick, Duo grumbled to himself. Not only did he have to face off against one really ugly guy, but also all those minions of Pike's were coming after him as well in one, nonsexual gangbang.

In short, it sucked.

It also sucked that he wasn't as skilled with magic as Solo or Quatre were. The best he was able to do on short notice at this time was put up a barrier behind him so that no one snuck up on him. Pulling out two hunting knives from each of his boots, he fell into the stance that Trowa had taught to him back during the wars when he had professed an interest in knife fighting to the other pilot.

The ugly, scarred man held back as the other nameless henchman had a go at him. He ducked under a lunge and flipped the first man over his back, gripping one of his knives tightly and plunging it into the guy's throat as he lay on the ground. Instantly he was spinning on his feet, as another charged at him and he used the guy's momentum to his advantage to throw him at one of his buddies.

Raising a knife up, he slashed one guy who got too close and slit open his neck but what was surprising was that there was no blood coming from the wound. He raised an eyebrow at that but summoned up a few illusions, all copies of himself, to distract his opponents, making himself invisible at the same time.

As his illusions made pests of their selves, he crouched close to the ground, watching all the pale men scrambling around like chickens with their heads cut off and running into one another. Suddenly, a whip cracked and swiped through one of his illusions, causing it to dissipate immediately.

His eyes shot over to the scarred man who wielded said whip and was looking a bit disgusted at the scene before him. He made a gesture with a hand and—what the hell, was that another Goddamn chimera?!

Indeed, there was one creeping out from behind the man but the creature was not distracted by all the illusions out on the field of battle but directly at him…and shit. The chimera charged at him, growling gutturally, and leapt up into the air in order to pounce on him. Duo let himself roll onto his back and he kicked his legs up, catching the beast on his underbelly and let his legs drop in before he extended them back up, throwing the creature over him and into one of Pike's pale men.

Seeing the man shatter into pieces like a table dish shocked Duo long enough that he lost his concentration and dropped his illusion of invisibility over himself. A big mistake that was since a certain whip was suddenly wrapping around his neck and he was pulled backwards onto his ass and dragged through the glimmering dirt.

"Got'cha, ya fuckin' varmit," the ugly man howled in delight. "Good job Betsy!"

Duo gritted his teeth as he tried to provide some relief from the pressure being exerted on his neck. He kept an eye on the salivating chimera he presumed to be "Betsy" as it slowly made its way towards him, disregarding the man that it had shattered from earlier. Not only was Betsy creeping towards him but also the rest of the remaining henchmen.

The next thing he knew he was surrounded and suddenly getting his ass handed to him as all those henchman began to beat on him, the scarred man's voice rooting them on. Fuck, this was just like whenever he got captured by OZ during the wars. Where the hell was his shield again? It couldn't have been broken already but then again those feet were very, very real.

Problem? A deep voice reverberated in his head, surprising him so much that he didn't feel a couple of the blows landed on him. Why am I not surprised?

"I don't hear you suggesting anything," Duo gritted his teeth together.

Shouldn't it be obvious? Death replied. Dig deep into yourself and use the power that I have bestowed upon you. It shouldn't be too hard. Here, I'll even get you started.

And with that, he suddenly felt his whole body become enflamed with burning power, all of it just dying to be used at his command. He no longer felt the multitudes of blows hitting him and on instinct, he let the power out.

The dark purple energies erupted from every pore on his body and reduced all the pale men to dust in an instant, all the magical energies imbued into them released and dissipated. He slowly got up to his feet and he looked down in awe at his hands, the skin still attached to his bones and everything. He barely heard the growl due to the power that was buzzing in his ears but he easily stopped the chimera that leapt at him in its tracks with one hand placed firmly on its forehead.

The chimera groaned and shattered into pieces so small that it was nothing but a cloud of dust. He stared impassively at the mound of dust that blended in with the silvery ground, ignoring the wail of despair from the scarred man he was fighting.

Twisting his waist, he caught the end of the cracking whip and held on tight, the power rushing throughout his body giving him a boost of strength. The scarred man pulled and exerted himself, trying to pull his whip back but Duo had other ideas about that. Through the whip, he shot a small burst of his magic that traveled all the way to the scarred man and hit him off his feet.

Forming a ball of pure death magic in one hand, he paused then blasted a wave of the magic straight into the scarred man, obliterating him in an instant.

---

The sudden explosion of power stopped both Pike and his blond adversary in their tracks as they watched the Death Mage in action as he terminated his force of statue men. He felt a surge of fury nearly floor him as his works of art were decimated but that was soon overcome as he saw the Death Mage stand up.

The beauty, the potential in immortalizing that figure overcame his fury and he forgot all about why he was here. His priorities to capture the Death Mage for The Collective had switched to his all consuming passion for creating art.

He didn't pay any attention to the death of one of his associates, preferring to marvel at this specimen. He needed to face that power; triumph over the man-turned-god but there was an obstacle that happened to lay in his way.

And like that, his blond opponent reappeared into his vision and he narrowed his eyes. He was going to have dispatch this savage first before he could deal with the Mage…very well then.

He held an arm out to a side and cast a spell straight into the moondust at their feet. From the ground, a pike sprang into existence, pure white with a black tipped, one sided blade at the end with a sharp, black marble spike on the top of it. Gripping his hand on the long, thin shaft, he pulled the pike out of the ground and spun it once before swinging it forth to strike his opponent.

The blond, though, was skilled, and had brought his scimitars up to block his strike, spinning around to face him once more. But Pike only gave his enemy a smirk and he spun his weapon, pulling one of the blond's scimitars out of his hands. Reversing his pike, he jabbed the blunt end of it into the blond's gut and his smirk widened as he froze, a bright whiteness spreading from where he was struck until he was completely consumed.

Oh how he loved turning living things into works of art…

In essence, it was a binding spell but it was one that he customized to fit his repertoire. Instead of being held still by magic, the inflicted was covered in a shell of magic that took the form of the pure white rock that was his favorite material to sculpt.

Turning his attention away from his latest work, he focused his gaze on the sight of the Death Mage, his grip tightening on his pike's shaft in anticipation.

However, before he could do anything to try and get his latest muse's attention, the ground shuddered and a distance away exploded, writhing shadows snaking out of the resulting hole like serpents. Parting, the shadows revealed a tall, blond figure who looked quite at home within the swarm and two other brunets leapt out of them, guns drawn and trained on anything that moved.

"Looks like we're late ta da party," the blond said, eyes narrowed and sharp, his tone nonchalant.

And Pike growled. Interlopers. Well, he'd just have to deal with them first…