Started: 5 de abril del 2001
Finished: 19 de abril del 2001
Disclaimer: No hablo ingles!! ^_^ Perdon! No tengo "Gundam Wing" y los
personajes. Bandai tienes ellos. Mi gusto escribo de vez en cuado. Estoy nada.
Um.. okay. C&C WELCOME!! Epic fic!! O_O... Oy, my Spanish sucks. I'll get
better, though! I'm only first year!
1+2/2+1, 3x4. Used to be 1x2, 3x4, 5xN. AU, obviously. Surprise couple.
SO FAR: The Gundam boys have been alerted to the fact that there are three
worlds, two which they might end up in when they die. But the thing is, one
of the worlds is loosing souls quickly to something called the Void, which
is all that is hopelessness. They try to contact the Angels (from the 3rd
World) to help through the usage of Holy Fire, and Duo's guardian NightMare
tells that the Angels can't help. They're on their own to try and fix the
problem of souls dying- by going back 2000 years to the original problem.
Gaining a time key and going back through time, the boys have arrived at a
village named Conosere- which is connected to them in a way that they haven't
figured out yet....
Imminent Fate, part 17
Shamera
sitafire@hotmail.com
"This is truly interesting," Quatre stated, looking about him as he sat
down on one of the chairs off the the right. Trowa settled down besides him
as Wufei glanced around to take in the scene of the people laughing and
sharing stories as they took their own seats.
"They all know each other here," Wufei observed.
"Like they really are family," Quatre nodded, "Just like was said
before. I wonder if we're the only people here that doesn't know anyone."
"We do know some people," Trowa stated. He eyed the crowds of people
offhandedly, wondering how some people could be so social.
"Hi! You mind if we sat here?"
Quatre looked up and saw Daeon smiling at them, with four others
tagging behind him and looking at them curiously.
"Go ahead!" Quatre gestured. "I'm sorry if we're in your seats..."
"Don't worry!" The blonde behind Daeon said, and smiled slyly, "We can
sit anywhere we want anytime... No one really takes in whether you're sitting
in the same seat or not. Just if you came or not."
"Oh," Daeon rolled his eyes as he took the seat opposite of Quatre.
"That's Keon. Try not to listen to him, cause soon he'll be able to talk you
into almost anything. I've gotten in trouble enough times because of him."
Keon mocked hurt as he sat a couple of seats down, and grinned at the
tall boy that sat down besides him, "I'm hurt you think that way, Dae!"
Dae ignored him. "That's Triton sitting besides Keon- the one with the
red hair... and this is Wayne," he gestured to the black-haired boy who took
the seat down from Dae and helped the dark-haired lady besides him to sit
down, "And his wife Nataku."
Wufei gave a small noise of protest when he heard that name.
Nataku looked up at Wufei when she heard that, and the pilots startled
at the perfect features on her that simply did not exist back then. She smiled
then, as if knowing what they were thinking, tossing back her black hair
slightly, dark eyes twinkling in delight. "Pleased to meet you." she said
softly.
"Nataku was a Guardian," Dae explained casually.
"Was?" Wufei echoed.
Looking over at the said girl in question and seeing her nod with her
permission, and give a shrug to say that she didn't care what Dae said, the
chestnut-haired boy turned back to the pilots and said, "She gave up her
position for Wayne. Gone mortal, if you want."
She nodded. "My father wasn't very happy about that."
"What were you, if you were a Guardian?" Wufei asked, intent.
Nataku gave him a curious look, then narrowed her eyes as she saw some-
thing familiar in him. "I was a dragon. Why do you ask?"
"N-nothing." Wufei's eyes were now wide.
"I don't know, but it might be that the boy likes her," came a voice
behind the three pilots. The turned their head away from Dae's amused grin
and saw the brown haired boy that had sneaked up behind them and was crossing
over the table to sit next to Dae.
"Hey, dear," the boy said casually before sliding an arm around Dae's
waist and pulling the slightly smaller boy to nuzzle. Dae yelped.
The Gundam pilots were shocked, and Keon explained, "That's Hyan. Dae's
fiance. Didn't Lady Ann ask you guys to stay for the wedding?" Then he looked
confused, "Or are you guys from a place where they aren't as 'open'? I heard
that there's a lot of places like that, and we won't get offended-"
"We don't mind," Quatre quickly put in. "It's just that we never
expected you guys to... well, be so accepting. Especially not at this period."
"Oh," Keon was relieved. "We are." he looked at Triton. "We have no
objectives about love here. I mean, Nataku and Wayne are strange enough. Not
even the same species, yet they fell in love. This is nothing." he shrugged.
"Especially not compaired to to people- like Lady Ann, who plans on marrying
T'ynne when he comes of age."
"T'ynne?" Trowa asked.
"A Guardian from Daijin. He'll be 200 in two moons. Lady Ann plans on
preposing that very day." he grinned, and looked over at Dae and Hyan, who
were still trapped in each other's embrace. "Oh!" he looked embarressed.
"Save that after the wedding!"
Wayne chuckled. "And little Joanne, planning on marrying Seis when
they're still only eight years old.(1)" He shook his head. "Love is a prickly
thing, that's for sure."
"Oh." Wufei looked uncomfortable. "That's... interesting."
"We *will* understand if you're not comfortable with it," Dae pipped
up, trying to hold Hyan off with his hands, although it wasn't working and
his throat was being thoroughly attacked. He gasped. "Hyan, stop that! We're
at the dinner table!" there was a second or two when they were all too shocked
to say anything, "ah- oooohhh, never mind. Hey!" He yelped again.
After a few seconds, Quatre started chuckling. He couldn't help it. It
was cute, really, the way that the two were. If Trowa ever wanted to get more
open about their relationship... he looked up at the Heavyarms pilot and saw
the green-eyed boy to be looking right back him, a faint smile on his face.
Quatre looked down, and blushed.
"Will you two stop necking?" Wayne growled, covering his face in his
hands. Nataku rubbed his back in sympathy.
"I'm not necking!" Dae protested.
"Hyan is!" Wayne stated. The boy in question only grinned at him, and
then went back to his object of affection.
"Well, excuse me, Justice-boy! I don't tell him how to do everything!"
"You can tell him to stop, though, you ditz!"
"What?! Nutbrain!"
"Lazybutt!"
"Oooh... how do you know if my butt's lazy or not?"
There was some sputtering from Wayne, and Wufei was wondering why this
arguement sounded so familiar.
By the time that Heero and Duo reached the place where the rest of the
pilots were, they were treated to the sight of Dae and Hyan openly being...
"affectionate" just to annoy Wayne, Nataku and Wufei having a conversation
and Keon, Triton, Trowa, and Quatre talking to each other.
"We missed something, didn't we?" Duo asked as Quatre looked up to see
him and Heero.
After introductions were made all around, Duo sat next to Wufei and
Heero sat next to him.
"So the wedding's in two days?" Duo asked cautiously, directing the
question straight towards either Dae or Hyan. The food was starting to get
passed around, and the pilots eyed what Wayne made eerily and passed it on.
They didn't miss the fact that Nataku also passed it on when Wayne wasn't
looking. (AN: ^_^;;)
"Yeah." Hyan answered, watching Duo. He and Dae had seperated, but he
still had an arm around Dae and the other looked slightly pissed.
"We should be able to make it," Duo said with a grin and looked over at
Heero, who nodded reluctantly. Then he sobered. "But there is something that
we have to talk to either Lady Ann or the Guardians."
"Well, most of the Guardians were trying to contact the Angels today,"
Wayne looked uncomfortable explaining it, "But they should be back and free
by tomorrow. If they aren't, they'll be free after the wedding. The Guardians
never miss a wedding."
"Alright, then." Quatre said quietly. He was picking at his food
silently, his eyes worried. "But we don't know what time we'll have to go..."
"It will be after the wedding, though, right?" Dae asked, leaning across
the table and with a confused expression. "Shouldn't you be able to stay
longer if you wanted to?"
"Not really," Quatre responded. "We... have some very important business
to attend to."
"I'm sure." Nataku commented. She was sitting in a regal manner at the
table, unlike everyone else, who had adopted more informal positions. She
nodded at Quatre's admission. "Time is of the essence, is it not?"
"Yes." Quatre replied, slightly relieved that Nataku understood. "We
don't know how long we'll be able to stay."
"I'd like to talk to you for a second,"
Duo turned and smiled politely at Nataku, who was leaning on the table
with her arms crossed and frowning at him. Dinner was over, having consisted
of a terrible silence for half the time before everyone's spirits started to
lift again and they started diccussing the wedding.
Excusing himself from the others, Duo joined Nataku back at the table,
raising an eyebrow to her flicker her hair back in a most conceeded manner.
"Sorry," she murmured as she realized what she did. "Habit."
"Yes?" he asked, ignoring the statement. He was looking at her and
wondering at her asian-like features.
Suddenly, those features hardened. "You're not telling them the whole
truth. There's something more. I want to know."
Duo stared back at her. "I wasn't the one doing the talking."
"But you're the one this is all about." She retorted.
Duo startled. "No, it isn't." he said instinctively.
Nataku snorted, very unladylike for her part. "Okay. You think you're
telling the truth. That means that you don't know. I'll believe that, then.
But it is still about you and you're still not telling me the things that you
do know."
"You give me no reason to."
"My reason is that what you are not sharing with me at this moment might
endanger the lives of the people of this village. I will not allow that to
happen. As you were told, I used to be a Guardian. As you can see, I'm very
protective of this place." She pushed herself off the table. "I need you to
tell me what's going on. I can guarentee you that I will not tell anyone else
if it is not as important than what I thought. But I will not settle for
anything that threatens my family."
Seeing that Duo wasn't satisfied, she continued. "I may be able to help
you. You never know. I may be able to contact the Guardians much sooner than
you shall be able to. I give you no reason to trust me, yes, seeing that you
have only just met me, but I refuse to be left out of whatever you're
planning. I want to know."
Duo glared at her, but didn't say anything.
"Perhaps you grew up in an enviroment where you do not trust others."
she mused, talking more to herself than to him. "But I pose no danger."
"You will, once you know."
"That only makes me all the more curious."
Duo carefully pulled out a seat, eyes wandering to the fires that were
slowly beeing diminished as they spoke. The sun had already set and most
people were heading back to their houses. Should he trust her with their
secret? Who knew how much time they had here?
They didn't know what to do here, besides finding the banished Angel.
They didn't know how much time they had, nor did they know anything about the
place or what they were supposed to do. Was there something that would
identify the Angel for them? Or did they have to go by instinct? What were
they supposed to do *after* they found the Angel?
"How did you know that we were hiding something?" he asked. It was a
fair question, seeing that they had behaved very normally.
Her dark eyes narrowed. "Fine." she snapped. Turnabout was fair play.
"You're being here is more something of an impossiblity." she explained,
smoothing the linen dress that she wore.
Duo stayed silent for her to continue.
"You've met Dae and Hyan, as well as Wayne and Triton and Keon. Don't
you find anything strange about that? About them?"
The boy blinked. "W-well," he stammered, not seeing the point. "They
seemed familiar when I first met them. Is that it?"
Nataku studied him for a moment. "You really don't know, do you?"
"Know what?"
She waved his question off, changing the topic. "You didn't seem very
surprised when you were told about the Guardians. Most people, even those who
had heard legends about Conosere, are shocked to actually see the reality of
this town. Yet you boys act as if you have gotten used to the idea of
Guardians already. That was what first set me off." She looked at him again,
a collected expression in her eyes. "You will tell me why later. But first,
since you have already been exposed to things that others do not believe in,
do you believe in reincarnation?"
"I think I'd believe in almost anything." Duo said casusally, asnwering
automatically to Nataku's question. Then his eyes widened as he realized what
she was strongly hinting at. "You mean- they're.... us?!"
"More like you're them." she corrected. "I'm sorry if you're used to
thinking that you're the only ones. That's that I think. Each of you- pairing
you up, of course, have the same soul. There's no way that's possible. Yes,
you can both survive at the same time here, but that's because you have fully
developed souls. That's not possible, though. The only way for someone to have
the same soul as someone else is through reincarnation. I'm sorry to say, but
my friends don't look dead to me."
"I'm not dead either." Duo stated. Then he thought for a moment.
"Although I guess that could be possible... too much coincidences, though."
She frowned at him. "Explain."
He shook his head, but did not refuse. "I guess I can tell you. As long
as you don't tell anyone else."
"I won't." she confirmed.
Duo nodded. "We're not actually from this time. We're from 2000 years
in the future."
She didn't react to that, only nodding.
"In the future, the Angels were checking their ranks or something and
realized that they were missing an Angel. Because of that, they're in so much
havoc that they can't detect the fact that there are souls from Daejin that
went missing. Those souls ended up on Earth and died." he took a deep breath.
"I saw a lot of that happen."
There was a flicker of sympathy in her eyes, and then it disappeared.
"Something's happening to those souls that died." he continued. "And
because of an Angel that went missing around this time period, nothing is done
about it. We're here to find that Angel and solve the problem for them so they
can solve our problem."
"That's why you're on a time limit." she concluded.
"Yes. I'm not sure if I just created a time paradox by telling you
this much already."
Nataku grimaced, then started to laugh. She placed a hand on the table
and smiled at Duo afterwards. "Whatever happens has already happened from
where you come from. That is how there is not such thing as time paradoxes.
If you tell me something, it means that it has already happened and you can't
stop it. So don't worry about *that*."
Her expression suddenly became more serious. "There are other things
that you should be worried about."
Duo leaned towards her from where he was sitting, intrigued.
"The Angels do not have an IOU system. Just because you find a lost
Angel for them does not mean that they will solve your problem for you. They
might, of course, you can keep that possibility. But the reality is, most of
the time something else will occur because you have prevented one thing. You
can have someone else solve your problems."
"But it wasn't our problem to begin with," Duo bargained. "The Angels
are supposed to notice when souls start dying, are they not? But since they
didn't notice, we're trying to do something about it. They're the ones having
someone else solve their problems."
She shook her head. "You don't get it. Remember when I said that this
is all about you? They have nothing to do with it here. Maybe it's fate, maybe
it's destiny- but the five of you were destined to take up this problem."
she tapped her skull once. "It's something that I can see."
"You can see?" he asked.
She nodded. "And I'm sorry to say, but I can also see without you
telling me everything that you're trying to do something that's literally
impossible."
"It's already been impossible ever since we started this." Duo said.
"Yes, perhaps you've been through a lot. But that's not the kind of
impossible that I see. You might have thought of some things to be impossible
and then have to do it, but what I'm talking about is something like your
very existance. Like if you had really been living here without travelling
through time and still have the same soul as Dae."
Duo shook his head again. "I don't get it."
"You will have to give me more information for you to get it. Right now
all I have is answers, and I don't know your questions. Will you trust me with
what you know?"
Duo hesistated before answer, "Of course!"
She nodded. "Good. Then I'd like to see the book you brought with you
today, before the sun rises again. I have a feeling that you're very limited
on the time."
Heero stood up from where he was sitting around the fire as Duo came
back, Nataku right behind him.
Duo turned his eyes to Heero, and shook his head. "She's going to help
us." He explained softly. "I'll go get the book. Can you wake the others,
Heero?"
There was a serious tone is Duo's voice, and Heero nodded. Giving
Nataku a curious glance, he turned to knock on each of the small doors while
Duo went in their room and dug around. Pretty soon, the others were also
gathered in the small living area by the fire and Duo handed Nataku the
dark red bound book.
After flipping just a few pages, she shut the book again, eyes down-
cast. "This is far worse than I suspected," she said softly. "The time frame
that Conosere has is ten years... it was as I thought. You have till sometime
at the end of the week. Everyone in the village has until the end of the
week. I don't know the precise day, but it's close."
"Thank you." Quatre said. "That narrows it down for us. I'm sorry that
you have to do through something like this..."
Nataku waved it off. "It's destined to happen. You can't tell the others
about this. At least, no one but the Guardians."
"Can you help us find the Angel that the book was talking about,
though?" Wufei asked.
She shook her head. "That's the strangest thing. This book talks of a
banished Angel, but there is none that matches the description. It takes at
least a moon for the Angel ranks to banish someone, and they aren't doing that
at the moment. There's no one that matches the rank that the book is talking
about."
"But what Angel is it talking about?" Duo said, leaning over the fire
and glaring at the book in her hands. Heero had a hand on Duo's arm to make
sure the longhaired boy didn't fall into the fire on accident.
"That's the strangest thing." Nataku explained. "Because this Angel, if
banished, could cause havoc among the ranks, yes. But everyone would know if
she was banished- so they could search for a replacement."
"Who is she?" Duo repeated.
Nataku turned her head to look him in the eye. "The Angel of Death and
power of the moon."
1. I know that I didn't play around with the other names, but I thought this
was too cute to pass up. Joanne- in Manderin, at least, the Jo means 9. And in
Spanish, Seis means 6. See anything here? ^_^
End part 17.
*shifts* I guess this one was okay. I'm really sorry about the delay, though!
I had started this on the nineth, and then had so many tests and projects to
do before and during spring break that I was going to scream. I still have a
lot of projects to do before the end of the week (which is the end of the
one week vacation that we have. Yeah, vacation my ass) but I needed to take
the time off the finish this. I hope you enjoyed! Comments, PLEASE. I think I
only got one comment for the last chapter... *sobs* could be why I'm writing
so slow... (or that could just be my excuse. ^^;;)
Finished: 19 de abril del 2001
Disclaimer: No hablo ingles!! ^_^ Perdon! No tengo "Gundam Wing" y los
personajes. Bandai tienes ellos. Mi gusto escribo de vez en cuado. Estoy nada.
Um.. okay. C&C WELCOME!! Epic fic!! O_O... Oy, my Spanish sucks. I'll get
better, though! I'm only first year!
1+2/2+1, 3x4. Used to be 1x2, 3x4, 5xN. AU, obviously. Surprise couple.
SO FAR: The Gundam boys have been alerted to the fact that there are three
worlds, two which they might end up in when they die. But the thing is, one
of the worlds is loosing souls quickly to something called the Void, which
is all that is hopelessness. They try to contact the Angels (from the 3rd
World) to help through the usage of Holy Fire, and Duo's guardian NightMare
tells that the Angels can't help. They're on their own to try and fix the
problem of souls dying- by going back 2000 years to the original problem.
Gaining a time key and going back through time, the boys have arrived at a
village named Conosere- which is connected to them in a way that they haven't
figured out yet....
Imminent Fate, part 17
Shamera
sitafire@hotmail.com
"This is truly interesting," Quatre stated, looking about him as he sat
down on one of the chairs off the the right. Trowa settled down besides him
as Wufei glanced around to take in the scene of the people laughing and
sharing stories as they took their own seats.
"They all know each other here," Wufei observed.
"Like they really are family," Quatre nodded, "Just like was said
before. I wonder if we're the only people here that doesn't know anyone."
"We do know some people," Trowa stated. He eyed the crowds of people
offhandedly, wondering how some people could be so social.
"Hi! You mind if we sat here?"
Quatre looked up and saw Daeon smiling at them, with four others
tagging behind him and looking at them curiously.
"Go ahead!" Quatre gestured. "I'm sorry if we're in your seats..."
"Don't worry!" The blonde behind Daeon said, and smiled slyly, "We can
sit anywhere we want anytime... No one really takes in whether you're sitting
in the same seat or not. Just if you came or not."
"Oh," Daeon rolled his eyes as he took the seat opposite of Quatre.
"That's Keon. Try not to listen to him, cause soon he'll be able to talk you
into almost anything. I've gotten in trouble enough times because of him."
Keon mocked hurt as he sat a couple of seats down, and grinned at the
tall boy that sat down besides him, "I'm hurt you think that way, Dae!"
Dae ignored him. "That's Triton sitting besides Keon- the one with the
red hair... and this is Wayne," he gestured to the black-haired boy who took
the seat down from Dae and helped the dark-haired lady besides him to sit
down, "And his wife Nataku."
Wufei gave a small noise of protest when he heard that name.
Nataku looked up at Wufei when she heard that, and the pilots startled
at the perfect features on her that simply did not exist back then. She smiled
then, as if knowing what they were thinking, tossing back her black hair
slightly, dark eyes twinkling in delight. "Pleased to meet you." she said
softly.
"Nataku was a Guardian," Dae explained casually.
"Was?" Wufei echoed.
Looking over at the said girl in question and seeing her nod with her
permission, and give a shrug to say that she didn't care what Dae said, the
chestnut-haired boy turned back to the pilots and said, "She gave up her
position for Wayne. Gone mortal, if you want."
She nodded. "My father wasn't very happy about that."
"What were you, if you were a Guardian?" Wufei asked, intent.
Nataku gave him a curious look, then narrowed her eyes as she saw some-
thing familiar in him. "I was a dragon. Why do you ask?"
"N-nothing." Wufei's eyes were now wide.
"I don't know, but it might be that the boy likes her," came a voice
behind the three pilots. The turned their head away from Dae's amused grin
and saw the brown haired boy that had sneaked up behind them and was crossing
over the table to sit next to Dae.
"Hey, dear," the boy said casually before sliding an arm around Dae's
waist and pulling the slightly smaller boy to nuzzle. Dae yelped.
The Gundam pilots were shocked, and Keon explained, "That's Hyan. Dae's
fiance. Didn't Lady Ann ask you guys to stay for the wedding?" Then he looked
confused, "Or are you guys from a place where they aren't as 'open'? I heard
that there's a lot of places like that, and we won't get offended-"
"We don't mind," Quatre quickly put in. "It's just that we never
expected you guys to... well, be so accepting. Especially not at this period."
"Oh," Keon was relieved. "We are." he looked at Triton. "We have no
objectives about love here. I mean, Nataku and Wayne are strange enough. Not
even the same species, yet they fell in love. This is nothing." he shrugged.
"Especially not compaired to to people- like Lady Ann, who plans on marrying
T'ynne when he comes of age."
"T'ynne?" Trowa asked.
"A Guardian from Daijin. He'll be 200 in two moons. Lady Ann plans on
preposing that very day." he grinned, and looked over at Dae and Hyan, who
were still trapped in each other's embrace. "Oh!" he looked embarressed.
"Save that after the wedding!"
Wayne chuckled. "And little Joanne, planning on marrying Seis when
they're still only eight years old.(1)" He shook his head. "Love is a prickly
thing, that's for sure."
"Oh." Wufei looked uncomfortable. "That's... interesting."
"We *will* understand if you're not comfortable with it," Dae pipped
up, trying to hold Hyan off with his hands, although it wasn't working and
his throat was being thoroughly attacked. He gasped. "Hyan, stop that! We're
at the dinner table!" there was a second or two when they were all too shocked
to say anything, "ah- oooohhh, never mind. Hey!" He yelped again.
After a few seconds, Quatre started chuckling. He couldn't help it. It
was cute, really, the way that the two were. If Trowa ever wanted to get more
open about their relationship... he looked up at the Heavyarms pilot and saw
the green-eyed boy to be looking right back him, a faint smile on his face.
Quatre looked down, and blushed.
"Will you two stop necking?" Wayne growled, covering his face in his
hands. Nataku rubbed his back in sympathy.
"I'm not necking!" Dae protested.
"Hyan is!" Wayne stated. The boy in question only grinned at him, and
then went back to his object of affection.
"Well, excuse me, Justice-boy! I don't tell him how to do everything!"
"You can tell him to stop, though, you ditz!"
"What?! Nutbrain!"
"Lazybutt!"
"Oooh... how do you know if my butt's lazy or not?"
There was some sputtering from Wayne, and Wufei was wondering why this
arguement sounded so familiar.
By the time that Heero and Duo reached the place where the rest of the
pilots were, they were treated to the sight of Dae and Hyan openly being...
"affectionate" just to annoy Wayne, Nataku and Wufei having a conversation
and Keon, Triton, Trowa, and Quatre talking to each other.
"We missed something, didn't we?" Duo asked as Quatre looked up to see
him and Heero.
After introductions were made all around, Duo sat next to Wufei and
Heero sat next to him.
"So the wedding's in two days?" Duo asked cautiously, directing the
question straight towards either Dae or Hyan. The food was starting to get
passed around, and the pilots eyed what Wayne made eerily and passed it on.
They didn't miss the fact that Nataku also passed it on when Wayne wasn't
looking. (AN: ^_^;;)
"Yeah." Hyan answered, watching Duo. He and Dae had seperated, but he
still had an arm around Dae and the other looked slightly pissed.
"We should be able to make it," Duo said with a grin and looked over at
Heero, who nodded reluctantly. Then he sobered. "But there is something that
we have to talk to either Lady Ann or the Guardians."
"Well, most of the Guardians were trying to contact the Angels today,"
Wayne looked uncomfortable explaining it, "But they should be back and free
by tomorrow. If they aren't, they'll be free after the wedding. The Guardians
never miss a wedding."
"Alright, then." Quatre said quietly. He was picking at his food
silently, his eyes worried. "But we don't know what time we'll have to go..."
"It will be after the wedding, though, right?" Dae asked, leaning across
the table and with a confused expression. "Shouldn't you be able to stay
longer if you wanted to?"
"Not really," Quatre responded. "We... have some very important business
to attend to."
"I'm sure." Nataku commented. She was sitting in a regal manner at the
table, unlike everyone else, who had adopted more informal positions. She
nodded at Quatre's admission. "Time is of the essence, is it not?"
"Yes." Quatre replied, slightly relieved that Nataku understood. "We
don't know how long we'll be able to stay."
"I'd like to talk to you for a second,"
Duo turned and smiled politely at Nataku, who was leaning on the table
with her arms crossed and frowning at him. Dinner was over, having consisted
of a terrible silence for half the time before everyone's spirits started to
lift again and they started diccussing the wedding.
Excusing himself from the others, Duo joined Nataku back at the table,
raising an eyebrow to her flicker her hair back in a most conceeded manner.
"Sorry," she murmured as she realized what she did. "Habit."
"Yes?" he asked, ignoring the statement. He was looking at her and
wondering at her asian-like features.
Suddenly, those features hardened. "You're not telling them the whole
truth. There's something more. I want to know."
Duo stared back at her. "I wasn't the one doing the talking."
"But you're the one this is all about." She retorted.
Duo startled. "No, it isn't." he said instinctively.
Nataku snorted, very unladylike for her part. "Okay. You think you're
telling the truth. That means that you don't know. I'll believe that, then.
But it is still about you and you're still not telling me the things that you
do know."
"You give me no reason to."
"My reason is that what you are not sharing with me at this moment might
endanger the lives of the people of this village. I will not allow that to
happen. As you were told, I used to be a Guardian. As you can see, I'm very
protective of this place." She pushed herself off the table. "I need you to
tell me what's going on. I can guarentee you that I will not tell anyone else
if it is not as important than what I thought. But I will not settle for
anything that threatens my family."
Seeing that Duo wasn't satisfied, she continued. "I may be able to help
you. You never know. I may be able to contact the Guardians much sooner than
you shall be able to. I give you no reason to trust me, yes, seeing that you
have only just met me, but I refuse to be left out of whatever you're
planning. I want to know."
Duo glared at her, but didn't say anything.
"Perhaps you grew up in an enviroment where you do not trust others."
she mused, talking more to herself than to him. "But I pose no danger."
"You will, once you know."
"That only makes me all the more curious."
Duo carefully pulled out a seat, eyes wandering to the fires that were
slowly beeing diminished as they spoke. The sun had already set and most
people were heading back to their houses. Should he trust her with their
secret? Who knew how much time they had here?
They didn't know what to do here, besides finding the banished Angel.
They didn't know how much time they had, nor did they know anything about the
place or what they were supposed to do. Was there something that would
identify the Angel for them? Or did they have to go by instinct? What were
they supposed to do *after* they found the Angel?
"How did you know that we were hiding something?" he asked. It was a
fair question, seeing that they had behaved very normally.
Her dark eyes narrowed. "Fine." she snapped. Turnabout was fair play.
"You're being here is more something of an impossiblity." she explained,
smoothing the linen dress that she wore.
Duo stayed silent for her to continue.
"You've met Dae and Hyan, as well as Wayne and Triton and Keon. Don't
you find anything strange about that? About them?"
The boy blinked. "W-well," he stammered, not seeing the point. "They
seemed familiar when I first met them. Is that it?"
Nataku studied him for a moment. "You really don't know, do you?"
"Know what?"
She waved his question off, changing the topic. "You didn't seem very
surprised when you were told about the Guardians. Most people, even those who
had heard legends about Conosere, are shocked to actually see the reality of
this town. Yet you boys act as if you have gotten used to the idea of
Guardians already. That was what first set me off." She looked at him again,
a collected expression in her eyes. "You will tell me why later. But first,
since you have already been exposed to things that others do not believe in,
do you believe in reincarnation?"
"I think I'd believe in almost anything." Duo said casusally, asnwering
automatically to Nataku's question. Then his eyes widened as he realized what
she was strongly hinting at. "You mean- they're.... us?!"
"More like you're them." she corrected. "I'm sorry if you're used to
thinking that you're the only ones. That's that I think. Each of you- pairing
you up, of course, have the same soul. There's no way that's possible. Yes,
you can both survive at the same time here, but that's because you have fully
developed souls. That's not possible, though. The only way for someone to have
the same soul as someone else is through reincarnation. I'm sorry to say, but
my friends don't look dead to me."
"I'm not dead either." Duo stated. Then he thought for a moment.
"Although I guess that could be possible... too much coincidences, though."
She frowned at him. "Explain."
He shook his head, but did not refuse. "I guess I can tell you. As long
as you don't tell anyone else."
"I won't." she confirmed.
Duo nodded. "We're not actually from this time. We're from 2000 years
in the future."
She didn't react to that, only nodding.
"In the future, the Angels were checking their ranks or something and
realized that they were missing an Angel. Because of that, they're in so much
havoc that they can't detect the fact that there are souls from Daejin that
went missing. Those souls ended up on Earth and died." he took a deep breath.
"I saw a lot of that happen."
There was a flicker of sympathy in her eyes, and then it disappeared.
"Something's happening to those souls that died." he continued. "And
because of an Angel that went missing around this time period, nothing is done
about it. We're here to find that Angel and solve the problem for them so they
can solve our problem."
"That's why you're on a time limit." she concluded.
"Yes. I'm not sure if I just created a time paradox by telling you
this much already."
Nataku grimaced, then started to laugh. She placed a hand on the table
and smiled at Duo afterwards. "Whatever happens has already happened from
where you come from. That is how there is not such thing as time paradoxes.
If you tell me something, it means that it has already happened and you can't
stop it. So don't worry about *that*."
Her expression suddenly became more serious. "There are other things
that you should be worried about."
Duo leaned towards her from where he was sitting, intrigued.
"The Angels do not have an IOU system. Just because you find a lost
Angel for them does not mean that they will solve your problem for you. They
might, of course, you can keep that possibility. But the reality is, most of
the time something else will occur because you have prevented one thing. You
can have someone else solve your problems."
"But it wasn't our problem to begin with," Duo bargained. "The Angels
are supposed to notice when souls start dying, are they not? But since they
didn't notice, we're trying to do something about it. They're the ones having
someone else solve their problems."
She shook her head. "You don't get it. Remember when I said that this
is all about you? They have nothing to do with it here. Maybe it's fate, maybe
it's destiny- but the five of you were destined to take up this problem."
she tapped her skull once. "It's something that I can see."
"You can see?" he asked.
She nodded. "And I'm sorry to say, but I can also see without you
telling me everything that you're trying to do something that's literally
impossible."
"It's already been impossible ever since we started this." Duo said.
"Yes, perhaps you've been through a lot. But that's not the kind of
impossible that I see. You might have thought of some things to be impossible
and then have to do it, but what I'm talking about is something like your
very existance. Like if you had really been living here without travelling
through time and still have the same soul as Dae."
Duo shook his head again. "I don't get it."
"You will have to give me more information for you to get it. Right now
all I have is answers, and I don't know your questions. Will you trust me with
what you know?"
Duo hesistated before answer, "Of course!"
She nodded. "Good. Then I'd like to see the book you brought with you
today, before the sun rises again. I have a feeling that you're very limited
on the time."
Heero stood up from where he was sitting around the fire as Duo came
back, Nataku right behind him.
Duo turned his eyes to Heero, and shook his head. "She's going to help
us." He explained softly. "I'll go get the book. Can you wake the others,
Heero?"
There was a serious tone is Duo's voice, and Heero nodded. Giving
Nataku a curious glance, he turned to knock on each of the small doors while
Duo went in their room and dug around. Pretty soon, the others were also
gathered in the small living area by the fire and Duo handed Nataku the
dark red bound book.
After flipping just a few pages, she shut the book again, eyes down-
cast. "This is far worse than I suspected," she said softly. "The time frame
that Conosere has is ten years... it was as I thought. You have till sometime
at the end of the week. Everyone in the village has until the end of the
week. I don't know the precise day, but it's close."
"Thank you." Quatre said. "That narrows it down for us. I'm sorry that
you have to do through something like this..."
Nataku waved it off. "It's destined to happen. You can't tell the others
about this. At least, no one but the Guardians."
"Can you help us find the Angel that the book was talking about,
though?" Wufei asked.
She shook her head. "That's the strangest thing. This book talks of a
banished Angel, but there is none that matches the description. It takes at
least a moon for the Angel ranks to banish someone, and they aren't doing that
at the moment. There's no one that matches the rank that the book is talking
about."
"But what Angel is it talking about?" Duo said, leaning over the fire
and glaring at the book in her hands. Heero had a hand on Duo's arm to make
sure the longhaired boy didn't fall into the fire on accident.
"That's the strangest thing." Nataku explained. "Because this Angel, if
banished, could cause havoc among the ranks, yes. But everyone would know if
she was banished- so they could search for a replacement."
"Who is she?" Duo repeated.
Nataku turned her head to look him in the eye. "The Angel of Death and
power of the moon."
1. I know that I didn't play around with the other names, but I thought this
was too cute to pass up. Joanne- in Manderin, at least, the Jo means 9. And in
Spanish, Seis means 6. See anything here? ^_^
End part 17.
*shifts* I guess this one was okay. I'm really sorry about the delay, though!
I had started this on the nineth, and then had so many tests and projects to
do before and during spring break that I was going to scream. I still have a
lot of projects to do before the end of the week (which is the end of the
one week vacation that we have. Yeah, vacation my ass) but I needed to take
the time off the finish this. I hope you enjoyed! Comments, PLEASE. I think I
only got one comment for the last chapter... *sobs* could be why I'm writing
so slow... (or that could just be my excuse. ^^;;)