"Your majesty!"
Treize looked up as one of his messengers came running up to him, holding a piece of parchment in his hand. Then his vision blurred slightly, and he raised a hand to his head. He hadn't slept a full night's sleep in over a week, ever since all of his captive mages had escaped. He hadn't succeeded in capturing a single one of them yet - it was as if they'd all been swallowed up by the earth. But no one could completely disappear - they had to be out there somewhere, he just hadn't found them yet.
Or so I believe. I also believed that I had them all completely cowed, even young Quatre and his group. I believed that there was no way for them to escape past the bars and walls and guards, and I believed that after they escaped, I would easily be able to recapture them. All mages have rather distinctive marks, after all. How could they be hiding their features? There hasn't been a drastic increase in the number of people wearing hoods, I'm watching for that. I don't even have the faintest idea as to how they escaped.
"Any news about the escaped faeries?' he asked hopefully.
"No sir, I'm from the group of scholars you hired to search through your libraries..." the man seemed uncertain of himself now, when before he'd nearly been bursting with pride. Treize cursed his carelessness - he knew the difference between the uniform of a household messenger and one that came from outside the palace.
"My apologies," he said with what grace he could muster in his current state. "You have news?"
"Yes, my lord." He held the piece of parchment out in front of him. "We found a clearer description in one of the most ancient texts of prophesy of those who are destined to defend the world from the evil. There are five of them, lord, and they... well, the descriptions are quite usual. All the pertinent information is on that page."
"Thank you very much. Please convey my thanks to all of them, and ask them to continue their fine work."
"Yes, your majesty." The messenger bowed, and left him alone with the parchment.
Treize took a sip of tea, and settled back into his most comfortable chair, checked to make sure he had fresh candles, and then started to read the paper. "The five will not come into their full powers until they are drawn together by seeming circumstance, but by a pawn of prophesy itself. Only then will they come into their full powers, drawn from five great sources: life, death, magic, nature, and the people who must be protected. And the five fated warriors shall earn their names, the Solemn Soldier, the Laughing Killer, the Foreign Dragon, the Masked Clown, and the Desert Prince..."
Desert Prince? Oh, gods no.
Quatre, dear sweet innocent, dangerous Quatre had sometimes been called the Prince of the Desert by his people before he was dubbed an animal and brought here. And there were five... It couldn't be coincidence. The Foreign Dragon - the black-haired foreigner, who came from a land where they named their families after animals. The Solemn Soldier - the dark-haired boy who never spoke. The one with the reddish hair had come from a circus of some sort, he remembered, where he'd been a clown. And that meant that the new boy, the one with the long hair, must be the Laughing Killer. The Hunters who'd captured him had said there'd been a disturbing smile on his face as he killed half of them.
I had them, and I let them slip through my fingers, he thought, outraged. Then his mind was brought back to the quote from the text. "...seeming circumstance, but by a pawn of prophesy itself..." A pawn of prophesy?! he thought, his outrage growing.
The paper crumbled in his hands before he got control of himself. He stood up and walked across the room to stand in front of the mirror, carefully checking his image to see if there were any visible signs of his momentary loss of control. There weren't any, but he carefully combed his hair back, just to be sure.
I will not be a pawn! I will not be incidental in the greatest test humanity has experienced in the last five thousand years. Now that I know who they are, I can abandon the search for the others, and concentrate on the important ones. I must have them in my hands when the evil arrives.
Treize turned to give orders to that effect, but for some reason he paused and looked in the mirror at his reflection again. On an impulse, he reached under his shirt and withdrew the crystal pendant he always wore. He pulled it over his head, and watched critically as his image shimmered, ears lengthening and sharpening to points, his eyes getting slightly larger and his body lengthening slightly. He traced the point of his ear with one hand, then slipped the pendant back on and shoved it under his clothes. He checked one more time in the mirror to make sure the illusion was still solid, then went to give orders to his men.
----------------------------------------------
Wufei started as the wind succeeded in tearing the edge of his cloak's hood out of his hand, sending yet another burst of cold rain down his back. He snarled a few choice curses, then regrasped the trailing end of his hood and pulled it back over his head. Not that it mattered - he was already soaked to the bone, they all were, but the hood kept new cold water from running down his back, and kept the wind from hitting him directly. At least by now his body heat had warmed most of the water in his clothes.
His clothes... there was yet another source of dissatisfaction for the last surviving member of the Dragon Clan. The impossible thief, Duo, had stolen 'regular' clothes for all of them the first night they were out, and while these were marginally better than the slaves' clothes that had been forced upon them while they were in captivity, they did nothing for his sense of dignity. At his insistence, Duo had gotten him a proper white shirt and loose dark pants, not exactly the proper style, but close. Then he'd felt the need to improvise, because he thought that Wufei didn't match *his* idea of what a foreigner should look like. That's where the bright *green* over-shirt came in, and the flamboyantly embroidered red cloak that was forever slipping off his head.
:There's a fairly large town another half-mile up the road,: Quatre's voice said into his head. That particular talent had appeared the third day of their journey, and was yet another source of irritation (one of many) on this trip. :We might as well stop there for the night. There's no way we'll make the next village beyond it.:
:I'm happy to report that our funds are sufficient to stay in a decent lodge tonight,: Duo reported cheerfully. :Thanks to the skills of a certain master thief, used on the person of that son of a bitch who tried to run us off the road this morning. No, no, there's no need to thank me for exercising my brilliance on so worthy an individual. I know it was close to perfect.:
:Duo...:
:Yeah, Heero?:
:Shut up.:
Wufei breathed a silent sigh of relief. The main problem with this silent mental communication is that there was no way to shut Duo out. So they were all forced to listen to his endless babbling about all sorts of topics. He might have listened to Quatre if the boy had asked him to stop, but Quatre had been raised a nobleman and was too polite to tell Duo to shut up. That left the other three, and of them, Heero was the only one he listened to, for some strange reason. If Heero told him to shut up, he usually did - at least for a little while.
They reached the town less than a half-hour later and headed inside the first boarding place they saw. Duo quickly arranged for them to have a room with several beds for the night, asked that dinner be sent up to them, and then they quickly walked through the tavern and up the stairs to the room, avoiding the boisterous and loud drinkers downstairs.
Quatre was shivering violently as he removed his cloak, hanging it neatly on a hook before sinking onto the nearest cot. Trowa immediately removed his cloak and walked over to Quatre. Wufei gave a snort of disgust at Quatre's weakness, and at their refusal to acknowledge the obvious bond between the two. In Quatre's defense, he didn't have much experience in traveling in anything but a carriage. He was probably doing the best he could, and he never complained, but each night he looked worse than the night before, and they'd only been traveling for a week. Much longer and he wasn't going to be able to move at all. There has to be another way to get... wherever we're going, he thought, dissatisfied with the entire issue. None of them wanted to talk about whatever it was that was keeping them together and always driving them north.
:Is anyone watching?: Quatre asked, sniffling. He must have picked up a cold today, as well. That would slow them down, too.
"No," Heero replied after a moment's silence.
Quatre immediately began to glow as he healed himself. That was the only reason he'd been able to keep up so far, but magical healing wasn't a replacement for just being in shape and having strength, as it was becoming painfully clear. Wufei made a short gesture with his hand, igniting the logs he saw laid out in the fireplace. The others immediately moved around the fireplace, holding out their hands and rubbing them, trying to restore feeling to their extremities.
Despite the fact that they'd been traveling together for a week now, Wufei knew very little more about his companions then he had after living in captivity with them. He knew nothing more about whatever powers they possessed, or anything about their pasts. Well, Quatre's past was hardly a secret - half the country knew about him, and it was impossible not to know that Duo was a street urchin, not with him dubbing himself the King of Thieves all the time. But he knew nothing else about the boy. There was certainly no sign that he was anything but a joking, laughing, endlessly-talking fool, but he had managed to kill six Hunters. Maybe it had been some sort of accident. At least his thieving skills were keeping them fed, and had gotten all of the collars off their necks. Wufei still found himself rubbing his neck three and four times every hour, to make sure that it was really gone.
As usual, they sat in silence, broken only by Duo's babble and occasional remarks from Quatre or Heero, usually asking him for a little bit of quiet, or to shut up, respectively. Duo did, and then they sat in silence until food arrived. They ate it in the same silence, and then Quatre immediately collapsed into one of the cots, almost asleep before his body was completely on the thin mattress. Trowa silently got up and pushed him the rest of the way into the bed, tucking a blanket around him when he continued to shiver in his sleep.
"This isn't working," Duo said unnecessarily. "He's trying, but he can't keep this up."
"We can't leave him behind!" Wufei snapped, his irritation finally getting the better of him. He wasn't referring to any sort of honor debt, although he probably owed one to Quatre for all the times he'd healed him after a particularly brutal beating. But that wasn't what he was talking about. He was talking about the same thing that had been driving them northward. That same feeling was keeping them together, long past the point when Wufei would have liked to throw his hands up in disgust and walk away from the lot of them. Sometimes these barbarians were so uncivilized that it astonished him. And to think that they called his people primitive!
But it was the fact that it seemed that he had completely lost control of his life that was really bothering him. Even in the compound, he'd had a level of control over his own life, even if it was limited to irritating the guards by not reacting to their pathetic insults. Now... he was caught up in something that he had no control of, he didn't even know what it was, but it was controlling his every action. North, north, north... the drive hummed in his bones, and he hated it.
"I wasn't talking on abandoning him!" Duo looked shocked. "Damn! What's with you! I was just saying that we've got to figure out something else. He's going to collapse completely in a few days."
"What do you suggest?" Wufei asked acidly.
"I don't know... I thought about stealing some horses, but that will really attract some attention, and we can't afford that right now. I'll work on it in the morning." Duo seemed to think it was his responsibility to provide for them. Granted, he had been doing most of the providing, by keeping up a steady stream of thefts from those they passed on the road. Surprisingly enough, Heero occasionally added a bit of money from his own efforts to the group pot.
Duo glared at the storm outside. "It would sure help if we could get some decent weather tomorrow, for a change."
Just like him to complain about something we can't change.
"Yes, it would, wouldn't it," Trowa said softly, so softly that Wufei almost missed it, his eyes traveling to the window.
As they all prepared to go to sleep, Wufei noticed Trowa standing by the window, staring outside at the storm. The storm had drastically increased in intensity since they came inside, and lightening flashed so often that it looked as bright as day outside. Wufei stared at the flashes of lightening reflecting off of Trowa's one visible eye. It might have been his imagination, but as he fell asleep, Wufei thought that he might have seen lightening in Trowa's eye even when there was none outside
--------------------------------------------------------
The next morning the sun shone brightly in a clear sky. When Quatre woke, he walked immediately walked over to the window, looked out of it, and exclaimed softly, "What a beautiful day!" Then he glanced at Heero, who was awake and staring at him, and fell silent.
Heero had already been up for a few hours - he didn't need much sleep. It would take a lot more exercise then just walking all day in a rainstorm to tire him out. He'd already ordered breakfast for everyone, which Quatre sat down and started eating without any more attempts at conversation, for which Heero was grateful.
For months, Quatre had been the most talkative of the group in the compound, but at least he had the good sense not to try to fill the silence with meaningless chatter. Unlike the newest addition to their group... Heero gritted his teeth unconsciously at the thought of the endless stream of babble that came out of the braided boy's mouth. It didn't seem to matter to him whether or not he had anything of interest, or value, to say, he just kept talking no matter what.
Quatre finished eating, neatly put his utensils on the side of the plate, then looked sharply at Trowa. "Heero, what did Trowa do last night after I fell asleep?" he asked suddenly.
"Nothing."
"Nothing? Are you sure?"
Heero treated Quatre to one of his coldest glares. The blond boy should have known better than to ask a question like that.
Quatre flushed and glanced down at his feet. "Sorry." A second later he raised his head again and stared at Trowa.
After a few minutes of this, Heero's curiosity got the better of him. "Why?"
"He's exhausted, even after a full night's sleep. I can feel it." Quatre got to his feet and walked over to stand beside Trowa's cot. Suddenly his eyes went vacant, and Heero felt the faintest hint of a tingle at the back of his neck as Quatre searched their room and the rest of the building for unseen observers. He's good, Heero was forced to grudgingly admit. Whatever weaknesses Quatre had physically, he was the strongest, most controlled, and most adept mage Heero had ever seen or heard of since the Mage Wars.
After a few seconds Quatre's eyes focused again, and he held one glowing hand over Trowa's body for a minute. Trowa's body glowed as Quatre restored his energy. Then Quatre moved to the other two, pausing for a few seconds over each of them to make sure they had full energy reserves. Then he looked at Heero. "Do you want me to..." he trailed off as Heero glared at him.
The others woke up a few minutes later, and ate a mostly silent meal, because Duo was more interested in getting as much food into his mouth in as little time as possible than he was in talking. Heero reveled in the silence, which he knew wouldn't last.
As soon as they finished eating, they left the town, and continued on north. Almost immediately Duo started talking again, drifting from one topic to another as soon as the thoughts occurred to him. After a few minutes, Heero simply shut the long-haired boy's voice out of his mind. It was almost as good as not having to listen to Duo at all.
As they trudged down the road, Heero considered the strange drive that was forcing them all northward. He disliked not knowing what it was that was pushing them, but since he couldn't do anything about it, at least not right now, he pushed the matter out of his mind. For now, he concentrated on where they were going - north. There wasn't much that was north of here. In Oz, there were a bunch of villages surrounded by farmland, and then there were a few major cities close to the border. Beyond them was the Sank kingdom, and beyond that was the Empire of Romafella. Beyond the Empire was a vast expanse of wastelands.
Heero hoped that they weren't going to the wastelands. They had that name for a reason, and he doubted that he could survive more than a few weeks up there. He doubted the others would last more than a few days, at the most.
His mind turned the problem over in his head. If they were headed for the wastelands, there was nothing he could do. Therefore, it was more logical to assume for now that they were heading either to one of the cities or one of the two kingdoms to the north. That, at least, he could plan for.
A few minutes later he discovered, to his dismay, that this was true, but only in the broadest sense. He had no way of narrowing down the list of possible destinations without any more information, information he didn't have. Until he learned more about whatever was driving them northward, there was no good way of planning. He frowned in distaste - he hated leaving so much to chance.
With a warrior's instinct, he sensed something on the road behind him, and his hand automatically reached for a sword that wasn't there. Silently cursing, he gripped his stolen knife instead, eyes fixed on the long train of wagons coming up the road. After a few seconds he relaxed marginally, going back to his state of wary alertness. The wagons weren't soldiers looking for them, more likely it was a caravan of sorts. No danger to us.
Several minutes later, Duo broke off his chattering mid-sentence and turned to look behind them. "Who's that?" he asked.
"Caravan," Heero grunted.
"Do they have any guards?" Duo asked, surprising Heero by asking a relevant question.
"No."
"Too bad. Caravans without guards rarely have anything worth stealing," he said in a professional tone, and then proceeded to tell them yet another pointless story about a caravan he'd robbed at some point in the past.
Heero noted that neither Wufei nor Trowa, who was currently in the lead, had bothered to turn around and look at the caravan, trusting that he would watch their backs. Heero spent another few minutes debating with himself whether their trust was an indication of weakness - he didn't know if they did this because they knew that he would not fail in any mission he set before himself, or if they did it because they were foolish and trusted too easily. He finally decided that it had to be the former - they'd lived with him for months, and it would take a true fool not to realize that he rarely failed at any mission, much less something as simple as watching the road behind them. Their backs were safe while he was on guard.
Several minutes later, Heero automatically stepped off the side of the road as the caravan caught up with them, noting in disgust that even the old horses pulling wagons were moving faster than his group. They definitely had to find someway to move faster. But Duo had been right, they couldn't leave Quatre behind...
As the first wagon passed him, Heero found out that his earlier assumption that the wagons were a caravan was incorrect. It was a traveling show of some sort, he found out as he looked behind him and saw a couple of lions in a wheeled cage. So his initial assessment that the wagon train wasn't a danger had been correct, even if his guess about their nature wasn't correct. Still, it was an error, and he carefully memorized the image of the first wagon so he wouldn't make it again.
The first wagon was driven by a middle-aged man with a thick black beard. A young girl with short red hair sat beside him, wearing some sort of costume. There was a large sign proclaiming the name of the show on the side of the wagon. Satisfied that their images were firmly fixed in his mind, Heero returned his attention to the ground in front of him, which was quite bumpy now that he was off the road.
At least, he did that until the girl sitting on the head wagon suddenly jumped down off the seat, landing on the ground with unusual ease, shouting, "Trowa!" as she did so. She ran up to Trowa and grabbed his shoulder. "Trowa, where have you been? We were so worried about you when the soldiers took you..." she trailed off as Trowa turned around to look at her, and Heero saw that her eyes were fixed on Trowa's ears. "Oh, I'm sorry! I thought you were someone..." She trailed off.
Trowa's one visible eye widened slightly. "Catherine?!" There was actually a hint of emotion in his voice. Heero checked a mental list he'd started out of boredom while they were still in the compound. This was the third time he'd heard Trowa say anything with any sort of emotion. That was one more time then he'd heard Wufei say a female's name, instead of calling them 'onna'.
"Trowa, it is you!" the girl... Catherine... exclaimed. "But what happened to your ears? And how did you escape? What happened after the soldiers took you away? Who are these people?" the words tumbled out of her mouth at a rate that would have done Duo proud.
Trowa got himself back under control and gasped Catherine's arm, pulling her away from the caravan.
"Hey, boy!" the bearded man shouted. "What do you think... Trowa?" he exclaimed in shock. Then he carefully looked around, up and down the road, looking for possible over listeners. At least he had some idea of the danger they were all in. He glanced over his shoulder at the wagons behind him. "Hold up!" he shouted backwards. "We're stopping for lunch!" He pulled his wagon off the side of the road and tied the reigns to a hook on the wagons before jumping down. He examined Trowa's face. "You are Trowa," he said determinedly. "But what the hell happened to you?"
Trowa glanced at Heero, who sent him a warning look. These people seemed friendly, but the girl had already proved that she couldn't keep her mouth shut. If either of them presented the slightest risk that his group would be caught and sent back to Treize, Heero wouldn't hesitate to kill the lot of them. Trowa saw his intentions and shook his head slightly. :Don't worry, they won't betray us. I'll take care of it,: Trowa told them, then steered the two of them away from the group and began talking to them in low tones.
The other four, even Duo, waited quietly, listening to the soft tones, wondering what Trowa was saying, and how in the world he knew a bunch of circus performers.
After several minutes, Trowa came back to them. "They're headed for the capital city of Sank, to perform at a birthday celebration for their queen. They're performing five other times on their way, and should be at their destination within a month. After that they turn and head back down into Oz, but they say that we're welcome to join them until then. At the very least, it will get us into the middle of the Sank kingdom, if we have to go that far. Even with the stops for shows, they'll make better time then we could on our own." He stopped and waited for a reaction from the others, who stared at him. It was the longest single statement Heero had ever heard him say.
Duo was the first to recover. "Why are they willing to give us shelter, anyway? Do they know who and what we are?"
"They know we're wanted by the crown, and that we did nothing to deserve such treatment. They'll do it because they protect their own."
"Protect their own?" Duo repeated. "You were a circus performer?" Trowa nodded. "What did you do?"
"I was a clown."
Duo burst out laughing. "You must have been the unfunniest clown in the entire world!" he exclaimed.
Wufei suddenly started coughing, and Quatre hid a small smile. "Is unfunniest a word?" he asked.
"Are we going to stay with them?" Heero growled. He had no time for joking around, even if it was sort of amusing to think of Trowa as a clown.
"I think we have to," Quatre said seriously. Everyone turned to stare at him now.
"Why?" Heero growled.
"I... I can't explain it, but I think they're here to help us." Quatre turned to Trowa. "Were they supposed to come by here?"
Trowa frowned slightly. Well, the corners of his lips twitched. "No. They were supposed to be doing a loop around the towns in the south, but they got a special request to perform at the Queen's birthday celebration."
"Queen!" Wufei snorted, somehow managing to put an entire conversation's worth of disgust into that one word.
Quatre ignored him. "See? I think we were meant to go with them!" he exclaimed, cheerfully disregarding anything resembling logic. On the other hand, magic wasn't logical, so it was entirely possible that Quatre might actually know what he was talking about.
Heero glared at Quatre, then turned to include everyone in the glare. If he could, he would have included the entire world. He hated not knowing enough to make any sort of plans.
Trowa stared at him, unconcerned, and Duo finally said, "So I guess this means that we get to join the circus? Cool! I always thought that would be loads of fun!" It seemed to Heero that his joking smile was a little forced.
----------------------------------------------------
It was strange being back. Everything looked the same, even the people had hardly hanged in the year that he'd been away. On the surface, everything was just the same, but underneath...
Underneath, he knew that no matter how much Catherine tried to pretend that nothing had happened, he had not come home. The circus had been a home to him, more so than any other place he'd ever stayed, and if he could have, he might have stayed here for the rest of his life, but that was before the Hunters came for him. Before they'd treated him like an animal. That had almost destroyed his mind. He thought he'd finally gotten away from his past...
He couldn't remember what happened before the mercenaries arrived. The first thing he remembered was standing by the side of the road, at the edge of a town, as a group of mercenaries marched by. Then one of them turned to look at him, and grinned... reached down and pulled him up onto the horse, saying something about wanting a new servant. He had been lucky, in ways. He did have a home for eight years with the mercenaries, and if he was a slave, at least while he was with them he was safe from rapists and worse. He did learn a number of useful skills in that time, even his master couldn't take that from him. Some of the mercenaries were worse than others. Most were reasonably kind to him, and a few even looked at him as some sort of little brother, but the one who'd claimed him first beat him at the least excuse. He and his friends were the ones who tried to convince him that he wasn't human. More than once he'd been tied to a tree at night because his master told him that he was stupid, that he'd wander off and not be able to find his way back. He'd never believed a word his 'master' told him. Sometimes the others helped him, letting him hide in their tents to avoid punishments. They even taught him how to defend himself, and his 'master' allowed it, thinking that he'd never use it against him. He thought his silence meant that he was broken, that he really thought of himself as a slave or something less.
He'd waited until he was strong enough to survive on his own, then had left in the middle of the night. Despite everything they'd done to him, he had no desire to kill them. After all, they had taken him in, even if it was as a slave. And they hadn't killed him, although they certainly could have when he became a liability during more than one of their operations.
His 'master' and two friends came after him, and he killed them, feeling no remorse. All he wanted then was to be left alone. His master was the only one who really still wanted him as a slave, anyway, and they did leave him alone. He even saw a few of them a few years later, when he was working as a bounty hunter. A few had been angry, but most had been pretty calm about it, even admiring of his bravery in taking off on his own at the age of eleven. It had been different, during that one visit, almost brotherly, some of them, and Trowa had been tempted to stay, but he'd long since hardened his heart towards anything like caring. He collected his bounty and left.
He worked as a bounty hunter for a year, but didn't really enjoy the work. He didn't want to be hunting people down for a living, but he had to do something, and fighting was the only thing he knew how to do. A circus happened to be in the area, and an idea occurred to him. It was a little crazy, but he had nothing to lose - if it didn't work, he could always go back to doing what he was doing now. There was a certain advantage in having no ties whatsoever.
But it had worked, and he'd managed to join the circus as a juggler. He juggled the only thing he knew how to - knives - but that only looked more impressive than balls. Eventually he ended up working in an act with Catherine, who was a talented knife-thrower. She treated him just like a brother, and the rest of the circus was his extended family. It was the first time he'd ever been treated like that, and for the first time that he could remember, he was almost happy.
He'd stayed with the circus for three years. Then the soldiers came for him. He fought them off the best he could, but there were too many of them, and finally they took Catherine hostage, threatened to kill her and the rest of his 'family' if he didn't surrender himself. He didn't have a choice - he turned himself over immediately.
When they'd put that metal collar around his neck and stuck him in that cage, he'd lost his mind. It was like everything he'd gone through when the mercenaries first found him was repeating itself. He was almost expecting to see his master's face when he woke up in the mornings. He didn't remember much of the trip to the compound, and knew only that it had lasted several weeks. The first clear memory he had was of a cool hand on his forehead and a soothing voice. Still caught in the delusional dream that he was back with the mercenaries, Trowa reacted like a trapped animal - he attacked.
He'd broken Quatre's wrist, but Quatre had simply healed himself, and never mentioned the incident again. It was Quatre who'd managed to bring him out of his brush with insanity by the simple method of treating him like a human being, and expecting that he act like one. He'd been in the compound for a year before they escaped. He could have escaped at any time, but as long as Quatre stayed there, he wouldn't leave either. Now he knew that Quatre could have left at any time, and Wufei... why had they been staying there? He strongly suspected that the reason for that was linked with whatever had driven them north, and was now conveniently providing transportation for them.
Which brought him back to his unease with his current situation. He wasn't the same person he'd been when he was taken away, and he never could be again. There was some greater force at work in his life now, and like it or not, he had to respond to it. The Ringmaster understood. As far as Trowa knew, he had no other name, and was perfectly satisfied with that. The Ringmaster hadn't asked him if he wanted to start performing again, like Catherine had. The five boys helped out with ordinary, menial tasks, and didn't draw attention to themselves. The circus folk helped them keep their heads low whenever they passed through a town. They might not know the whole story, but they weren't stupid - Trowa was dragged off a year ago by a bunch of Oz soldiers, and now he returned with a bunch of boys who also appeared to be hiding, with his appearance radically changed through magical means. But they protected their own, so he considered himself relatively safe with them.
Right now he and Quatre were sitting in the second wagon. He was driving it, while Quatre quietly dozed in the back. The blond boy was still recovering from their initial flight. Trowa suspected he'd never let any of them know how exhausted he really was. It would be just like him to try to spare them the worry. He's so self-sacrificing... Quatre gave so easily of his time, effort, and care, it was sometimes astonishing to the former mercenary. He'd be exhausted all the time if he ever tried to live like Quatre...
He was jolted out of his thoughts as Duo came running up beside his wagon. Besides having an inexhaustible supply of subjects to talk about, Duo also had a rather large supply of energy, and had decided that he'd prefer walking to riding in one of the wagons. Heero and Wufei were also walking, although they walked sedately to the side of Trowa's wagon, occasionally throwing murderous glances at the ever-perky Duo.
Duo had apparently gone to the back of the wagon train to check things out, and now he was back. That meant that the blissful cessation of chatter would end now.
"What's the name of this area?" Duo asked. "It looks familiar."
"That's Birnam Wood," Trowa said, nodding in the correct direction with his head. "And we're in the Valley of Donalbain.[1] Have you been here recently?"
"No, not recently," Duo said, shaking his head. There was an unusual shadow in his violet eyes. "If I have been here, it would have been years ago. It's hard to tell sometimes, things look so different from the outside," he muttered, almost to himself. Trowa frowned, it was unlike Duo to be so quiet, but before he could question it, Duo started talking in a normal voice. "But, you know, it all starts to look the same after a while, when you've seen as much as I have..." Trowa sighed as the chatter resumed.
"Hey, what's that?" Duo asked a few minutes later as Trowa guided his wagon after the Ringmaster's. The wagon train was turning slightly as the road turned, but to the right an old road, barely visible because of the grass that had grown on top of it, went on in a straight line.
"It's the old road," Trowa told him.
"What's wrong with it?"
"Nothing."
"So why don't we use it? I know the road is that way," he said, pointing off down the old road. "So why are we going this way?"
"We're detouring around the forest. No one likes to go too close to it, and the old road came within a few hundred feet of it. The new one stays a healthy distance from the forest at all times."
"Why don't they like the forest?"
"There are rumors that there are faeries living there."
"Oh." Suddenly Duo sounded very interested. With a sly look at Trowa, he asked, "Do you believe in faeries, Trowa? Real faeries, I mean, not what they call us."
"They exist."
"How do you know? Have you ever seen one?" Duo asked.
Trowa grunted, unhappy with the way this discussion was going. "Why the interest?" he asked, hoping to turn it around, away from dangerous questions.
"No reason," Duo said, and then actually fell silent. Something about the question really bothered him.
They both looked back as Quatre started moaning loudly as he slept, shaking his head back and forth as his lips moved silently. "Quatre?" Trowa called as Duo leapt up to sit beside him on the seat. Quatre didn't respond, and Trowa handed Duo the reins and climbed into the back seat. He shook Quatre's shoulder, but Quatre still didn't respond.
Growing alarmed now, Trowa reached into Quatre's mind. :Wake up!:
:I can't, I'm trying!: Quatre shouted. :I can hear you, but I can't wake up. You've got to warn everyone, something's coming!:
:What's coming?: Duo asked from the seat of the wagon, and Trowa felt the others joining in the silent discussion.
:I don't know.:
:Why can't you wake up?:
:They didn't want me to warn you. It's a spell of some sort, but its nothing like anything I've ever seen before. I don't know how to counteract it.:
Trowa looked up as Wufei climbed in the back of the wagon. "Let me see him," he said shortly, and Trowa backed up as Heero also climbed inside. Wufei stared at Quatre for a few seconds, then held out one of his hands. There was a flash of red light, then Quatre started and suddenly sat up.
"They're coming!" he shouted, eyes wild.
"You told us that already," Trowa said, trying to be patient despite his desire to throw his arms around Quatre's shoulders. He'd been... frightened, more frightened then he could remember being in years, since he froze his heart to protect himself. "What's coming?"
"I don't know," Quatre said, brow furrowed in concentration. He shook his head. "I can't tell."
"Hey guys," came Duo's voice. He sounded very nervous. "You might want to come out here."
A shiver ran down Trowa's spine as he looked out of the back of the wagon and saw only white. It was fog, but unlike any fog he'd ever seen, thicker and heavier, making it difficult to breath as it started to seep into the wagon itself. It was completely unnatural, and Trowa's skin crawled. He tried to 'look' through it, and saw that the other wagons that should have been there, weren't. "Catherine!" he gasped despite himself and looked out the front of the wagon. He could still see the wagon in front of them - barely, and without thinking, used his power to clear a path to the other wagon. "Catherine! Sir! Get back here!" he called, hearing urgency in his own voice. A few seconds later both Catherine and the Ringmaster came flying out of the back of the wagon and jumped into his own.
The fog, which had somehow been fighting back against his power, suddenly surged, and the fog collapsed back across the gap he'd created, and the other wagon disappeared completely.
"Trowa, what's going on?!" Catherine cried, fear in her voice.
"Get in the back," he told her, and she and the Ringmaster obediently climbed into the back as the other boys peered out.
"It just snuck up behind us," Duo replied in a shaken voice. "I just came up and all of a sudden it was everywhere!"
"Is this the danger?" Heero asked Quatre, who shook his head.
"This was just to separate us from the others. The real threat is still coming."
"Can you tell what it is yet?"
Quatre started to shake his head again, then stopped. "Maybe I can... Stop the horse, Duo," he instructed. Once the slightly rocking of the wagon had stopped, Quatre shook his head, throwing his blond hair out of his eyes. "This is really sensitive, and I've only tried it a few times," he warned. "Don't, whatever you do, interrupt me or touch me. We really don't want this backfiring on us."
They carefully backed away from him. Quatre's hands started to glow, and his lips moved quickly as he muttered to himself. The glow left his hands and formed a large ball of light floating in the air just in front of him. The light ball formed a large ring in the air, then collapsed in on itself. Quatre's frown deepened, and his lips were pressed in a thin line as he glared at the ball of light in front of him. Once again it formed a ring, and then collapsed in on itself. By now there was sweat forming on Quatre's brow, and his breathing was becoming labored. This time he practically snarled at the light, which suddenly formed a ring again, and this time, it stayed in that shape. Within the ring, images began to form.
At first there was nothing but endlessly swirling mist, the kind that blanketed every inch of the wagon. Trowa kept a firm grip on the edge of the seat, just in case, since he could barely see his own hands anymore. The only thing clearly visible was the glowing ring of light and the images within it. Suddenly the fog in the image was swept away, revealing several... creatures. He couldn't think of any other name for them. They were vaguely humanoid, but entirely black and covered with shiny armor that seemed to be part of their bodies, something like an ant. Slime dripped from sharp-toothed, large mouths, and he could see sharpened claws.
Wufei cursed in his own language. It was a curse of recognition.
"You know what those things are?" Duo asked very quietly. At least he had the sense not to distract Quatre while he was casting this spell.
"They are... your language does not have the proper word. The closest I can say is demon. They are brought... summoned here from another realm to kill, and then they can return."
"How did you come by this information?" Heero asked.
"Demons like those killed my entire Clan!" Wufei hissed in anger. "I barely escaped, and I vowed to avenge them, so I found out all I could about the demons."
"Trowa, I... by the gods!" Catherine exclaimed as she saw Quatre standing there, hands held out in front of him in front of a glowing ring with images of monsters inside. She would have said more, but Duo leaped at her and clamped a hand over her mouth, preventing any speech. His other arm he wrapped around her waist, trapping her arms at her side.
He was just in time, because as Catherine had started speaking, the ring had wobbled dangerously, and Quatre had moaned, holding his hands up to protect himself from something. When Catherine fell silent, he managed to get the spell back under control.
"He's casting a very dangerous spell right now," Duo said in low tones. "If you distract him, he could lose control of it, and no one knows what it will do. Do you understand?"
Catherine let out a frightened squeak, but she stopped struggling.
"How can you kill them?" Heero asked Wufei in a low voice.
"You can't," Wufei said, staring at the image. "They're immortal. The only way you can escape is to run, and stay ahead of them until they're drawn back to their own world. Normally they stay until they've completed their mission, but there's a time limit. They usually complete the mission before then, but if you avoid them for two days, they get pulled back to their own realm no matter what. That's how I escaped."
"We're not going to be able to stay ahead of them for two days," Duo said unnecessarily as they watched the creatures running through the fog.
"I can't hold this up much longer..." Quatre murmured.
Heero turned to Quatre. "Can you tell who they're hunting?"
Quatre's face twisted with exhaustion, but the image in the ring changed, to show... the five of them. But not the five of them as they were, it was the five of them as they'd appeared in the dream, with wings sprouting out of their backs and unnatural light glistening around them. Then the ring twisted, and collapsed in on itself, and the ball disappeared. Suddenly the fog seemed twice as thick. "Sorry, I couldn't hold it," Quatre whispered as he collapsed. Trowa's hands shot out and grabbed Quatre before he could disappear in the fog.
"So they're looking for us," Duo said. "Any ideas, anyone?" he asked. Silence greeted him as Trowa pulled Quatre's body into the wagon. The fact that Quatre was already beginning to heal himself didn't relieve him in the least. Those creatures weren't natural, they were here to kill, and he could feel them getting closer, now that he knew what to look for.
"Damn," Duo cursed. "All right, I have an idea. It's not much, and it's a long shot - I was hoping that one of you would have something better, but if we don't..." he turned to Trowa. "You cleared a path through the fog to the other wagon, think you can clear one to the forest? It should be about three-hundred feet in that direction, if we haven't moved."
Trowa could feel the demons coming closer. "I think so, if we haven't moved," he felt obliged to point out. "Why the forest?"
"It's protected. I can get us through those protections, I think, but the demons won't be able to. I think. It's the only thing I can think of."
"They're getting closer," Wufei said urgently, staring off into the fog.
"Do it," Heero instructed Duo, who turned to Trowa and clasped his shoulder. "It's your turn first."
"Get ready to move," Trowa instructed Duo, who was still holding the reins. "I won't be able to hold it open very long."
"Yes sir!" Duo said, apparently cheerful again, and gave him a salute before taking up the reins.
Trowa concentrated in the direction that Duo had indicated that the forest was. Normally manipulating fog was like sweeping a gauzy curtain away. Trying to move this fog was like trying to move a lead-weighted blanket. Sweat began to form on his forehead as he poured all of his energy into the attempt, but the fog didn't move. Then he felt a hand reach for his own, and suddenly vast amounts of energy poured into his body. He stiffened involuntarily, and then looked down at Quatre, who was holding his hand as he sat on the floor of the wagon, glowing softly.
:Hurry, Trowa, I can't keep this up forever!:
Trowa turned back to the fog, and using the energy Quatre was giving him, forced a past through the fog. He could see the forest at the end of the tunnel he'd created. "Go!" he instructed through gritted teeth, feeling the unnatural fog fighting against him. There was a pounding in his head and he dropped to his knees, focusing all of his attention on keeping the tunnel up as Duo shouted at the horse and snapped the reins. It didn't take much effort to get the horse galloping towards the forest - the animal was already terrified, and Duo was shouting at the top of his lungs at the horse.
Trowa allowed the fog to collapse back into the tunnel as they passed through it, but it got harder and harder to hold it up, even with the energy Quatre was giving him. Then, as they were only a few feet from the forest, the horse suddenly skidded to a halt. It stopped at the edge of a boundary, about eight feet from the forest, but within that boundary, there was no fog. Swearing ferociously, Duo jumped down from his seat and dragged the horse into the safe region, and Trowa breathed a sigh of relief as he let the tunnel collapse behind him.
"Don't relax, we're not safe yet," Duo muttered. "Get out here!"
As Trowa started to climb out of the wagon, he was highly aware of Quatre at his side, although it was impossible to tell who was supporting who. They hit the ground, then both froze as there was a scream behind them. Trowa spun and saw Catherine scrambling backwards to get out of the reach of the two demons who had climbed into the back of the wagon. The Ringmaster backed up in front of Catherine, shielding her, and Trowa tried to get up the energy to jump back in the wagon, but he was completely drained. His eyes widened in horror as the demons stepped forward - they were even uglier in real life, and there was something about them that screamed out to him that they were not of this world.
There was a flash of white light, followed an instant later by a red flash. Trowa was temporarily blinded by the intense light. When his eyes cleared, Heero and Wufei were standing over the bodies of the two demons, but they were staring at each other with shocked expressions on their faces. At least, that's how it looked to Trowa, who knew a lot about people who don't show much expression. He knew that they were both shocked, even though Heero's expression looked the same as it always did, and Wufei looked angry, which was not unusual. But they were both definitely shocked.
"Oh great, you killed the monsters. Are you going to sit here and congratulate yourselves for a while, or are you interested in escaping from the rest of them?" Duo asked sarcastically as he lifted Catherine out of the wagon without any difficulty at all. He was stronger than he looked. They climbed out of the wagon and followed Duo to the actual boundary of the woods. It wasn't natural, the trees were in a perfectly straight line, but there wasn't the feeling of 'wrongness' that he had felt from the fog.
Duo put his hand out in the space between the trees, and there was a flash of light. He drew back a hand with an oath. "Yeah, it's still here. Cut the horse loose," he instructed. "We can't bring it with us, and unless you want to leave it for those things..."
Heero grunted and quickly cut the horse loose. It disappeared into the forest, as Duo considered to stare at the space between the trees.
"What is it?" Catherine asked.
"It's a magical ward that the faeries put up around their forests to protect them from humans and other dangers," Duo remarked casually, still staring at the empty space. "They don't really come and steal children, you know. They really prefer to be left alone by humans."
"Will you get to the point, already?" Wufei demanded, glancing uneasily at the fog.
"Working on it," Duo muttered. "Ah, here it is!" He made several strange gestures with his right hand, thrust his left hand through the barrier, and said a number of strange, nonsense phrases that Trowa could not remember even as he heard them. Suddenly a glowing blue arch appeared in between the trees. "All right, go," Duo said, keeping one of his hands through the archway at all times.
Catherine and the Ringmaster hesitated. "But that's the faery forest!" she protested.
"You want to deal with faeries or demons?!" Duo demanded.
Catherine looked like she was about to refuse, but there was a chilling howl from inside the wagon, and the wagon suddenly started to shudder as something inside moved. They all froze.
"Ah, Heero?" Quatre said softly. "Are you guys sure you killed that thing?"
"No," Heero replied through gritted teeth.
Catherine ran through the portal, dragging the Ringmaster behind her. Trowa and Quatre followed them, then Heero, then Wufei, and finally Duo. The archway disappeared as soon as his hand left it, and they were standing in the forest. The demons came out of the wagon and slowly approached them. Duo stood still and stared at them through the invisible shield. "Nah nah, you can't get us!" he suddenly shouted. One of the demons tried to throw itself through the barrier. There was a burst of light and a howl of pain, then the smoking demon backed up to watch with his partner at the edge of the fog.
"What are you doing?!" Wufei demanded. "Are you crazy?!"
"Me? Nah, not too much. I knew there wasn't a chance that they could get through it," Duo said casually, nodding towards the edge of the forest. "Nothing gets through the faeries' borders."
"They're from another dimension, how do you know that?" Wufei was quite angry, and not bothering to hide any of it.
"Nothing gets through the border. Nothing. The borders stood up through the Mage Wars, they can certainly stand up to a bunch of so-called demons," Duo said, tossing his braid over a shoulder.
"How do you know that?" Heero demanded in a low voice, but Duo held up his hands, gesturing for silence. If Duo wanted quiet, there was something very, very wrong. They fell silent.
Duo was absolutely still now, his expression one of intense concentration as he stood with his head tilted to one side, listening to the still forest. After a few seconds his eyes flew open, and he cursed again, switching through several languages that Trowa didn't recognize. Finally he reverted to the local dialect. "I thought they didn't use those anymore!" he exclaimed, and then surprised them all by suddenly pulling the pendant off his neck. His body shimmered, then returned to it's normal form, pointed ears and all. "Take them off!" he hissed, a strange intensity in his voice. "By the Lady, take them off!"
"Why?" Heero asked in a flat voice.
"Just do it!" Duo ordered, and made a short gesture with his hand. Suddenly Trowa's pendant ripped itself through his shirt, it caught briefly about his neck, then the string snapped as it flew through the air towards Duo, who held up a casual hand as the five pendants floated in the air in front of him. "Sorry, but you guys have no idea what you're doing here. Make sure your ears are visible," he said, pocketing the stones.
Trowa stared at him. For the first time he could remember, there was no laughter in Duo's eyes. Instead there was a darkness blacker than anything he'd ever seen, and a deep determination. What happened to him?
[1] - This is what happens when I'm reading Macbeth at the same time as I'm writing stuff.
I hope everyone's enjoying this. I'm having a good time writing it, at least. If you like it (or if you hate it) you can write me at Marika_89@hotmail.com.
Comments and criticism welcome.
Treize looked up as one of his messengers came running up to him, holding a piece of parchment in his hand. Then his vision blurred slightly, and he raised a hand to his head. He hadn't slept a full night's sleep in over a week, ever since all of his captive mages had escaped. He hadn't succeeded in capturing a single one of them yet - it was as if they'd all been swallowed up by the earth. But no one could completely disappear - they had to be out there somewhere, he just hadn't found them yet.
Or so I believe. I also believed that I had them all completely cowed, even young Quatre and his group. I believed that there was no way for them to escape past the bars and walls and guards, and I believed that after they escaped, I would easily be able to recapture them. All mages have rather distinctive marks, after all. How could they be hiding their features? There hasn't been a drastic increase in the number of people wearing hoods, I'm watching for that. I don't even have the faintest idea as to how they escaped.
"Any news about the escaped faeries?' he asked hopefully.
"No sir, I'm from the group of scholars you hired to search through your libraries..." the man seemed uncertain of himself now, when before he'd nearly been bursting with pride. Treize cursed his carelessness - he knew the difference between the uniform of a household messenger and one that came from outside the palace.
"My apologies," he said with what grace he could muster in his current state. "You have news?"
"Yes, my lord." He held the piece of parchment out in front of him. "We found a clearer description in one of the most ancient texts of prophesy of those who are destined to defend the world from the evil. There are five of them, lord, and they... well, the descriptions are quite usual. All the pertinent information is on that page."
"Thank you very much. Please convey my thanks to all of them, and ask them to continue their fine work."
"Yes, your majesty." The messenger bowed, and left him alone with the parchment.
Treize took a sip of tea, and settled back into his most comfortable chair, checked to make sure he had fresh candles, and then started to read the paper. "The five will not come into their full powers until they are drawn together by seeming circumstance, but by a pawn of prophesy itself. Only then will they come into their full powers, drawn from five great sources: life, death, magic, nature, and the people who must be protected. And the five fated warriors shall earn their names, the Solemn Soldier, the Laughing Killer, the Foreign Dragon, the Masked Clown, and the Desert Prince..."
Desert Prince? Oh, gods no.
Quatre, dear sweet innocent, dangerous Quatre had sometimes been called the Prince of the Desert by his people before he was dubbed an animal and brought here. And there were five... It couldn't be coincidence. The Foreign Dragon - the black-haired foreigner, who came from a land where they named their families after animals. The Solemn Soldier - the dark-haired boy who never spoke. The one with the reddish hair had come from a circus of some sort, he remembered, where he'd been a clown. And that meant that the new boy, the one with the long hair, must be the Laughing Killer. The Hunters who'd captured him had said there'd been a disturbing smile on his face as he killed half of them.
I had them, and I let them slip through my fingers, he thought, outraged. Then his mind was brought back to the quote from the text. "...seeming circumstance, but by a pawn of prophesy itself..." A pawn of prophesy?! he thought, his outrage growing.
The paper crumbled in his hands before he got control of himself. He stood up and walked across the room to stand in front of the mirror, carefully checking his image to see if there were any visible signs of his momentary loss of control. There weren't any, but he carefully combed his hair back, just to be sure.
I will not be a pawn! I will not be incidental in the greatest test humanity has experienced in the last five thousand years. Now that I know who they are, I can abandon the search for the others, and concentrate on the important ones. I must have them in my hands when the evil arrives.
Treize turned to give orders to that effect, but for some reason he paused and looked in the mirror at his reflection again. On an impulse, he reached under his shirt and withdrew the crystal pendant he always wore. He pulled it over his head, and watched critically as his image shimmered, ears lengthening and sharpening to points, his eyes getting slightly larger and his body lengthening slightly. He traced the point of his ear with one hand, then slipped the pendant back on and shoved it under his clothes. He checked one more time in the mirror to make sure the illusion was still solid, then went to give orders to his men.
----------------------------------------------
Wufei started as the wind succeeded in tearing the edge of his cloak's hood out of his hand, sending yet another burst of cold rain down his back. He snarled a few choice curses, then regrasped the trailing end of his hood and pulled it back over his head. Not that it mattered - he was already soaked to the bone, they all were, but the hood kept new cold water from running down his back, and kept the wind from hitting him directly. At least by now his body heat had warmed most of the water in his clothes.
His clothes... there was yet another source of dissatisfaction for the last surviving member of the Dragon Clan. The impossible thief, Duo, had stolen 'regular' clothes for all of them the first night they were out, and while these were marginally better than the slaves' clothes that had been forced upon them while they were in captivity, they did nothing for his sense of dignity. At his insistence, Duo had gotten him a proper white shirt and loose dark pants, not exactly the proper style, but close. Then he'd felt the need to improvise, because he thought that Wufei didn't match *his* idea of what a foreigner should look like. That's where the bright *green* over-shirt came in, and the flamboyantly embroidered red cloak that was forever slipping off his head.
:There's a fairly large town another half-mile up the road,: Quatre's voice said into his head. That particular talent had appeared the third day of their journey, and was yet another source of irritation (one of many) on this trip. :We might as well stop there for the night. There's no way we'll make the next village beyond it.:
:I'm happy to report that our funds are sufficient to stay in a decent lodge tonight,: Duo reported cheerfully. :Thanks to the skills of a certain master thief, used on the person of that son of a bitch who tried to run us off the road this morning. No, no, there's no need to thank me for exercising my brilliance on so worthy an individual. I know it was close to perfect.:
:Duo...:
:Yeah, Heero?:
:Shut up.:
Wufei breathed a silent sigh of relief. The main problem with this silent mental communication is that there was no way to shut Duo out. So they were all forced to listen to his endless babbling about all sorts of topics. He might have listened to Quatre if the boy had asked him to stop, but Quatre had been raised a nobleman and was too polite to tell Duo to shut up. That left the other three, and of them, Heero was the only one he listened to, for some strange reason. If Heero told him to shut up, he usually did - at least for a little while.
They reached the town less than a half-hour later and headed inside the first boarding place they saw. Duo quickly arranged for them to have a room with several beds for the night, asked that dinner be sent up to them, and then they quickly walked through the tavern and up the stairs to the room, avoiding the boisterous and loud drinkers downstairs.
Quatre was shivering violently as he removed his cloak, hanging it neatly on a hook before sinking onto the nearest cot. Trowa immediately removed his cloak and walked over to Quatre. Wufei gave a snort of disgust at Quatre's weakness, and at their refusal to acknowledge the obvious bond between the two. In Quatre's defense, he didn't have much experience in traveling in anything but a carriage. He was probably doing the best he could, and he never complained, but each night he looked worse than the night before, and they'd only been traveling for a week. Much longer and he wasn't going to be able to move at all. There has to be another way to get... wherever we're going, he thought, dissatisfied with the entire issue. None of them wanted to talk about whatever it was that was keeping them together and always driving them north.
:Is anyone watching?: Quatre asked, sniffling. He must have picked up a cold today, as well. That would slow them down, too.
"No," Heero replied after a moment's silence.
Quatre immediately began to glow as he healed himself. That was the only reason he'd been able to keep up so far, but magical healing wasn't a replacement for just being in shape and having strength, as it was becoming painfully clear. Wufei made a short gesture with his hand, igniting the logs he saw laid out in the fireplace. The others immediately moved around the fireplace, holding out their hands and rubbing them, trying to restore feeling to their extremities.
Despite the fact that they'd been traveling together for a week now, Wufei knew very little more about his companions then he had after living in captivity with them. He knew nothing more about whatever powers they possessed, or anything about their pasts. Well, Quatre's past was hardly a secret - half the country knew about him, and it was impossible not to know that Duo was a street urchin, not with him dubbing himself the King of Thieves all the time. But he knew nothing else about the boy. There was certainly no sign that he was anything but a joking, laughing, endlessly-talking fool, but he had managed to kill six Hunters. Maybe it had been some sort of accident. At least his thieving skills were keeping them fed, and had gotten all of the collars off their necks. Wufei still found himself rubbing his neck three and four times every hour, to make sure that it was really gone.
As usual, they sat in silence, broken only by Duo's babble and occasional remarks from Quatre or Heero, usually asking him for a little bit of quiet, or to shut up, respectively. Duo did, and then they sat in silence until food arrived. They ate it in the same silence, and then Quatre immediately collapsed into one of the cots, almost asleep before his body was completely on the thin mattress. Trowa silently got up and pushed him the rest of the way into the bed, tucking a blanket around him when he continued to shiver in his sleep.
"This isn't working," Duo said unnecessarily. "He's trying, but he can't keep this up."
"We can't leave him behind!" Wufei snapped, his irritation finally getting the better of him. He wasn't referring to any sort of honor debt, although he probably owed one to Quatre for all the times he'd healed him after a particularly brutal beating. But that wasn't what he was talking about. He was talking about the same thing that had been driving them northward. That same feeling was keeping them together, long past the point when Wufei would have liked to throw his hands up in disgust and walk away from the lot of them. Sometimes these barbarians were so uncivilized that it astonished him. And to think that they called his people primitive!
But it was the fact that it seemed that he had completely lost control of his life that was really bothering him. Even in the compound, he'd had a level of control over his own life, even if it was limited to irritating the guards by not reacting to their pathetic insults. Now... he was caught up in something that he had no control of, he didn't even know what it was, but it was controlling his every action. North, north, north... the drive hummed in his bones, and he hated it.
"I wasn't talking on abandoning him!" Duo looked shocked. "Damn! What's with you! I was just saying that we've got to figure out something else. He's going to collapse completely in a few days."
"What do you suggest?" Wufei asked acidly.
"I don't know... I thought about stealing some horses, but that will really attract some attention, and we can't afford that right now. I'll work on it in the morning." Duo seemed to think it was his responsibility to provide for them. Granted, he had been doing most of the providing, by keeping up a steady stream of thefts from those they passed on the road. Surprisingly enough, Heero occasionally added a bit of money from his own efforts to the group pot.
Duo glared at the storm outside. "It would sure help if we could get some decent weather tomorrow, for a change."
Just like him to complain about something we can't change.
"Yes, it would, wouldn't it," Trowa said softly, so softly that Wufei almost missed it, his eyes traveling to the window.
As they all prepared to go to sleep, Wufei noticed Trowa standing by the window, staring outside at the storm. The storm had drastically increased in intensity since they came inside, and lightening flashed so often that it looked as bright as day outside. Wufei stared at the flashes of lightening reflecting off of Trowa's one visible eye. It might have been his imagination, but as he fell asleep, Wufei thought that he might have seen lightening in Trowa's eye even when there was none outside
--------------------------------------------------------
The next morning the sun shone brightly in a clear sky. When Quatre woke, he walked immediately walked over to the window, looked out of it, and exclaimed softly, "What a beautiful day!" Then he glanced at Heero, who was awake and staring at him, and fell silent.
Heero had already been up for a few hours - he didn't need much sleep. It would take a lot more exercise then just walking all day in a rainstorm to tire him out. He'd already ordered breakfast for everyone, which Quatre sat down and started eating without any more attempts at conversation, for which Heero was grateful.
For months, Quatre had been the most talkative of the group in the compound, but at least he had the good sense not to try to fill the silence with meaningless chatter. Unlike the newest addition to their group... Heero gritted his teeth unconsciously at the thought of the endless stream of babble that came out of the braided boy's mouth. It didn't seem to matter to him whether or not he had anything of interest, or value, to say, he just kept talking no matter what.
Quatre finished eating, neatly put his utensils on the side of the plate, then looked sharply at Trowa. "Heero, what did Trowa do last night after I fell asleep?" he asked suddenly.
"Nothing."
"Nothing? Are you sure?"
Heero treated Quatre to one of his coldest glares. The blond boy should have known better than to ask a question like that.
Quatre flushed and glanced down at his feet. "Sorry." A second later he raised his head again and stared at Trowa.
After a few minutes of this, Heero's curiosity got the better of him. "Why?"
"He's exhausted, even after a full night's sleep. I can feel it." Quatre got to his feet and walked over to stand beside Trowa's cot. Suddenly his eyes went vacant, and Heero felt the faintest hint of a tingle at the back of his neck as Quatre searched their room and the rest of the building for unseen observers. He's good, Heero was forced to grudgingly admit. Whatever weaknesses Quatre had physically, he was the strongest, most controlled, and most adept mage Heero had ever seen or heard of since the Mage Wars.
After a few seconds Quatre's eyes focused again, and he held one glowing hand over Trowa's body for a minute. Trowa's body glowed as Quatre restored his energy. Then Quatre moved to the other two, pausing for a few seconds over each of them to make sure they had full energy reserves. Then he looked at Heero. "Do you want me to..." he trailed off as Heero glared at him.
The others woke up a few minutes later, and ate a mostly silent meal, because Duo was more interested in getting as much food into his mouth in as little time as possible than he was in talking. Heero reveled in the silence, which he knew wouldn't last.
As soon as they finished eating, they left the town, and continued on north. Almost immediately Duo started talking again, drifting from one topic to another as soon as the thoughts occurred to him. After a few minutes, Heero simply shut the long-haired boy's voice out of his mind. It was almost as good as not having to listen to Duo at all.
As they trudged down the road, Heero considered the strange drive that was forcing them all northward. He disliked not knowing what it was that was pushing them, but since he couldn't do anything about it, at least not right now, he pushed the matter out of his mind. For now, he concentrated on where they were going - north. There wasn't much that was north of here. In Oz, there were a bunch of villages surrounded by farmland, and then there were a few major cities close to the border. Beyond them was the Sank kingdom, and beyond that was the Empire of Romafella. Beyond the Empire was a vast expanse of wastelands.
Heero hoped that they weren't going to the wastelands. They had that name for a reason, and he doubted that he could survive more than a few weeks up there. He doubted the others would last more than a few days, at the most.
His mind turned the problem over in his head. If they were headed for the wastelands, there was nothing he could do. Therefore, it was more logical to assume for now that they were heading either to one of the cities or one of the two kingdoms to the north. That, at least, he could plan for.
A few minutes later he discovered, to his dismay, that this was true, but only in the broadest sense. He had no way of narrowing down the list of possible destinations without any more information, information he didn't have. Until he learned more about whatever was driving them northward, there was no good way of planning. He frowned in distaste - he hated leaving so much to chance.
With a warrior's instinct, he sensed something on the road behind him, and his hand automatically reached for a sword that wasn't there. Silently cursing, he gripped his stolen knife instead, eyes fixed on the long train of wagons coming up the road. After a few seconds he relaxed marginally, going back to his state of wary alertness. The wagons weren't soldiers looking for them, more likely it was a caravan of sorts. No danger to us.
Several minutes later, Duo broke off his chattering mid-sentence and turned to look behind them. "Who's that?" he asked.
"Caravan," Heero grunted.
"Do they have any guards?" Duo asked, surprising Heero by asking a relevant question.
"No."
"Too bad. Caravans without guards rarely have anything worth stealing," he said in a professional tone, and then proceeded to tell them yet another pointless story about a caravan he'd robbed at some point in the past.
Heero noted that neither Wufei nor Trowa, who was currently in the lead, had bothered to turn around and look at the caravan, trusting that he would watch their backs. Heero spent another few minutes debating with himself whether their trust was an indication of weakness - he didn't know if they did this because they knew that he would not fail in any mission he set before himself, or if they did it because they were foolish and trusted too easily. He finally decided that it had to be the former - they'd lived with him for months, and it would take a true fool not to realize that he rarely failed at any mission, much less something as simple as watching the road behind them. Their backs were safe while he was on guard.
Several minutes later, Heero automatically stepped off the side of the road as the caravan caught up with them, noting in disgust that even the old horses pulling wagons were moving faster than his group. They definitely had to find someway to move faster. But Duo had been right, they couldn't leave Quatre behind...
As the first wagon passed him, Heero found out that his earlier assumption that the wagons were a caravan was incorrect. It was a traveling show of some sort, he found out as he looked behind him and saw a couple of lions in a wheeled cage. So his initial assessment that the wagon train wasn't a danger had been correct, even if his guess about their nature wasn't correct. Still, it was an error, and he carefully memorized the image of the first wagon so he wouldn't make it again.
The first wagon was driven by a middle-aged man with a thick black beard. A young girl with short red hair sat beside him, wearing some sort of costume. There was a large sign proclaiming the name of the show on the side of the wagon. Satisfied that their images were firmly fixed in his mind, Heero returned his attention to the ground in front of him, which was quite bumpy now that he was off the road.
At least, he did that until the girl sitting on the head wagon suddenly jumped down off the seat, landing on the ground with unusual ease, shouting, "Trowa!" as she did so. She ran up to Trowa and grabbed his shoulder. "Trowa, where have you been? We were so worried about you when the soldiers took you..." she trailed off as Trowa turned around to look at her, and Heero saw that her eyes were fixed on Trowa's ears. "Oh, I'm sorry! I thought you were someone..." She trailed off.
Trowa's one visible eye widened slightly. "Catherine?!" There was actually a hint of emotion in his voice. Heero checked a mental list he'd started out of boredom while they were still in the compound. This was the third time he'd heard Trowa say anything with any sort of emotion. That was one more time then he'd heard Wufei say a female's name, instead of calling them 'onna'.
"Trowa, it is you!" the girl... Catherine... exclaimed. "But what happened to your ears? And how did you escape? What happened after the soldiers took you away? Who are these people?" the words tumbled out of her mouth at a rate that would have done Duo proud.
Trowa got himself back under control and gasped Catherine's arm, pulling her away from the caravan.
"Hey, boy!" the bearded man shouted. "What do you think... Trowa?" he exclaimed in shock. Then he carefully looked around, up and down the road, looking for possible over listeners. At least he had some idea of the danger they were all in. He glanced over his shoulder at the wagons behind him. "Hold up!" he shouted backwards. "We're stopping for lunch!" He pulled his wagon off the side of the road and tied the reigns to a hook on the wagons before jumping down. He examined Trowa's face. "You are Trowa," he said determinedly. "But what the hell happened to you?"
Trowa glanced at Heero, who sent him a warning look. These people seemed friendly, but the girl had already proved that she couldn't keep her mouth shut. If either of them presented the slightest risk that his group would be caught and sent back to Treize, Heero wouldn't hesitate to kill the lot of them. Trowa saw his intentions and shook his head slightly. :Don't worry, they won't betray us. I'll take care of it,: Trowa told them, then steered the two of them away from the group and began talking to them in low tones.
The other four, even Duo, waited quietly, listening to the soft tones, wondering what Trowa was saying, and how in the world he knew a bunch of circus performers.
After several minutes, Trowa came back to them. "They're headed for the capital city of Sank, to perform at a birthday celebration for their queen. They're performing five other times on their way, and should be at their destination within a month. After that they turn and head back down into Oz, but they say that we're welcome to join them until then. At the very least, it will get us into the middle of the Sank kingdom, if we have to go that far. Even with the stops for shows, they'll make better time then we could on our own." He stopped and waited for a reaction from the others, who stared at him. It was the longest single statement Heero had ever heard him say.
Duo was the first to recover. "Why are they willing to give us shelter, anyway? Do they know who and what we are?"
"They know we're wanted by the crown, and that we did nothing to deserve such treatment. They'll do it because they protect their own."
"Protect their own?" Duo repeated. "You were a circus performer?" Trowa nodded. "What did you do?"
"I was a clown."
Duo burst out laughing. "You must have been the unfunniest clown in the entire world!" he exclaimed.
Wufei suddenly started coughing, and Quatre hid a small smile. "Is unfunniest a word?" he asked.
"Are we going to stay with them?" Heero growled. He had no time for joking around, even if it was sort of amusing to think of Trowa as a clown.
"I think we have to," Quatre said seriously. Everyone turned to stare at him now.
"Why?" Heero growled.
"I... I can't explain it, but I think they're here to help us." Quatre turned to Trowa. "Were they supposed to come by here?"
Trowa frowned slightly. Well, the corners of his lips twitched. "No. They were supposed to be doing a loop around the towns in the south, but they got a special request to perform at the Queen's birthday celebration."
"Queen!" Wufei snorted, somehow managing to put an entire conversation's worth of disgust into that one word.
Quatre ignored him. "See? I think we were meant to go with them!" he exclaimed, cheerfully disregarding anything resembling logic. On the other hand, magic wasn't logical, so it was entirely possible that Quatre might actually know what he was talking about.
Heero glared at Quatre, then turned to include everyone in the glare. If he could, he would have included the entire world. He hated not knowing enough to make any sort of plans.
Trowa stared at him, unconcerned, and Duo finally said, "So I guess this means that we get to join the circus? Cool! I always thought that would be loads of fun!" It seemed to Heero that his joking smile was a little forced.
----------------------------------------------------
It was strange being back. Everything looked the same, even the people had hardly hanged in the year that he'd been away. On the surface, everything was just the same, but underneath...
Underneath, he knew that no matter how much Catherine tried to pretend that nothing had happened, he had not come home. The circus had been a home to him, more so than any other place he'd ever stayed, and if he could have, he might have stayed here for the rest of his life, but that was before the Hunters came for him. Before they'd treated him like an animal. That had almost destroyed his mind. He thought he'd finally gotten away from his past...
He couldn't remember what happened before the mercenaries arrived. The first thing he remembered was standing by the side of the road, at the edge of a town, as a group of mercenaries marched by. Then one of them turned to look at him, and grinned... reached down and pulled him up onto the horse, saying something about wanting a new servant. He had been lucky, in ways. He did have a home for eight years with the mercenaries, and if he was a slave, at least while he was with them he was safe from rapists and worse. He did learn a number of useful skills in that time, even his master couldn't take that from him. Some of the mercenaries were worse than others. Most were reasonably kind to him, and a few even looked at him as some sort of little brother, but the one who'd claimed him first beat him at the least excuse. He and his friends were the ones who tried to convince him that he wasn't human. More than once he'd been tied to a tree at night because his master told him that he was stupid, that he'd wander off and not be able to find his way back. He'd never believed a word his 'master' told him. Sometimes the others helped him, letting him hide in their tents to avoid punishments. They even taught him how to defend himself, and his 'master' allowed it, thinking that he'd never use it against him. He thought his silence meant that he was broken, that he really thought of himself as a slave or something less.
He'd waited until he was strong enough to survive on his own, then had left in the middle of the night. Despite everything they'd done to him, he had no desire to kill them. After all, they had taken him in, even if it was as a slave. And they hadn't killed him, although they certainly could have when he became a liability during more than one of their operations.
His 'master' and two friends came after him, and he killed them, feeling no remorse. All he wanted then was to be left alone. His master was the only one who really still wanted him as a slave, anyway, and they did leave him alone. He even saw a few of them a few years later, when he was working as a bounty hunter. A few had been angry, but most had been pretty calm about it, even admiring of his bravery in taking off on his own at the age of eleven. It had been different, during that one visit, almost brotherly, some of them, and Trowa had been tempted to stay, but he'd long since hardened his heart towards anything like caring. He collected his bounty and left.
He worked as a bounty hunter for a year, but didn't really enjoy the work. He didn't want to be hunting people down for a living, but he had to do something, and fighting was the only thing he knew how to do. A circus happened to be in the area, and an idea occurred to him. It was a little crazy, but he had nothing to lose - if it didn't work, he could always go back to doing what he was doing now. There was a certain advantage in having no ties whatsoever.
But it had worked, and he'd managed to join the circus as a juggler. He juggled the only thing he knew how to - knives - but that only looked more impressive than balls. Eventually he ended up working in an act with Catherine, who was a talented knife-thrower. She treated him just like a brother, and the rest of the circus was his extended family. It was the first time he'd ever been treated like that, and for the first time that he could remember, he was almost happy.
He'd stayed with the circus for three years. Then the soldiers came for him. He fought them off the best he could, but there were too many of them, and finally they took Catherine hostage, threatened to kill her and the rest of his 'family' if he didn't surrender himself. He didn't have a choice - he turned himself over immediately.
When they'd put that metal collar around his neck and stuck him in that cage, he'd lost his mind. It was like everything he'd gone through when the mercenaries first found him was repeating itself. He was almost expecting to see his master's face when he woke up in the mornings. He didn't remember much of the trip to the compound, and knew only that it had lasted several weeks. The first clear memory he had was of a cool hand on his forehead and a soothing voice. Still caught in the delusional dream that he was back with the mercenaries, Trowa reacted like a trapped animal - he attacked.
He'd broken Quatre's wrist, but Quatre had simply healed himself, and never mentioned the incident again. It was Quatre who'd managed to bring him out of his brush with insanity by the simple method of treating him like a human being, and expecting that he act like one. He'd been in the compound for a year before they escaped. He could have escaped at any time, but as long as Quatre stayed there, he wouldn't leave either. Now he knew that Quatre could have left at any time, and Wufei... why had they been staying there? He strongly suspected that the reason for that was linked with whatever had driven them north, and was now conveniently providing transportation for them.
Which brought him back to his unease with his current situation. He wasn't the same person he'd been when he was taken away, and he never could be again. There was some greater force at work in his life now, and like it or not, he had to respond to it. The Ringmaster understood. As far as Trowa knew, he had no other name, and was perfectly satisfied with that. The Ringmaster hadn't asked him if he wanted to start performing again, like Catherine had. The five boys helped out with ordinary, menial tasks, and didn't draw attention to themselves. The circus folk helped them keep their heads low whenever they passed through a town. They might not know the whole story, but they weren't stupid - Trowa was dragged off a year ago by a bunch of Oz soldiers, and now he returned with a bunch of boys who also appeared to be hiding, with his appearance radically changed through magical means. But they protected their own, so he considered himself relatively safe with them.
Right now he and Quatre were sitting in the second wagon. He was driving it, while Quatre quietly dozed in the back. The blond boy was still recovering from their initial flight. Trowa suspected he'd never let any of them know how exhausted he really was. It would be just like him to try to spare them the worry. He's so self-sacrificing... Quatre gave so easily of his time, effort, and care, it was sometimes astonishing to the former mercenary. He'd be exhausted all the time if he ever tried to live like Quatre...
He was jolted out of his thoughts as Duo came running up beside his wagon. Besides having an inexhaustible supply of subjects to talk about, Duo also had a rather large supply of energy, and had decided that he'd prefer walking to riding in one of the wagons. Heero and Wufei were also walking, although they walked sedately to the side of Trowa's wagon, occasionally throwing murderous glances at the ever-perky Duo.
Duo had apparently gone to the back of the wagon train to check things out, and now he was back. That meant that the blissful cessation of chatter would end now.
"What's the name of this area?" Duo asked. "It looks familiar."
"That's Birnam Wood," Trowa said, nodding in the correct direction with his head. "And we're in the Valley of Donalbain.[1] Have you been here recently?"
"No, not recently," Duo said, shaking his head. There was an unusual shadow in his violet eyes. "If I have been here, it would have been years ago. It's hard to tell sometimes, things look so different from the outside," he muttered, almost to himself. Trowa frowned, it was unlike Duo to be so quiet, but before he could question it, Duo started talking in a normal voice. "But, you know, it all starts to look the same after a while, when you've seen as much as I have..." Trowa sighed as the chatter resumed.
"Hey, what's that?" Duo asked a few minutes later as Trowa guided his wagon after the Ringmaster's. The wagon train was turning slightly as the road turned, but to the right an old road, barely visible because of the grass that had grown on top of it, went on in a straight line.
"It's the old road," Trowa told him.
"What's wrong with it?"
"Nothing."
"So why don't we use it? I know the road is that way," he said, pointing off down the old road. "So why are we going this way?"
"We're detouring around the forest. No one likes to go too close to it, and the old road came within a few hundred feet of it. The new one stays a healthy distance from the forest at all times."
"Why don't they like the forest?"
"There are rumors that there are faeries living there."
"Oh." Suddenly Duo sounded very interested. With a sly look at Trowa, he asked, "Do you believe in faeries, Trowa? Real faeries, I mean, not what they call us."
"They exist."
"How do you know? Have you ever seen one?" Duo asked.
Trowa grunted, unhappy with the way this discussion was going. "Why the interest?" he asked, hoping to turn it around, away from dangerous questions.
"No reason," Duo said, and then actually fell silent. Something about the question really bothered him.
They both looked back as Quatre started moaning loudly as he slept, shaking his head back and forth as his lips moved silently. "Quatre?" Trowa called as Duo leapt up to sit beside him on the seat. Quatre didn't respond, and Trowa handed Duo the reins and climbed into the back seat. He shook Quatre's shoulder, but Quatre still didn't respond.
Growing alarmed now, Trowa reached into Quatre's mind. :Wake up!:
:I can't, I'm trying!: Quatre shouted. :I can hear you, but I can't wake up. You've got to warn everyone, something's coming!:
:What's coming?: Duo asked from the seat of the wagon, and Trowa felt the others joining in the silent discussion.
:I don't know.:
:Why can't you wake up?:
:They didn't want me to warn you. It's a spell of some sort, but its nothing like anything I've ever seen before. I don't know how to counteract it.:
Trowa looked up as Wufei climbed in the back of the wagon. "Let me see him," he said shortly, and Trowa backed up as Heero also climbed inside. Wufei stared at Quatre for a few seconds, then held out one of his hands. There was a flash of red light, then Quatre started and suddenly sat up.
"They're coming!" he shouted, eyes wild.
"You told us that already," Trowa said, trying to be patient despite his desire to throw his arms around Quatre's shoulders. He'd been... frightened, more frightened then he could remember being in years, since he froze his heart to protect himself. "What's coming?"
"I don't know," Quatre said, brow furrowed in concentration. He shook his head. "I can't tell."
"Hey guys," came Duo's voice. He sounded very nervous. "You might want to come out here."
A shiver ran down Trowa's spine as he looked out of the back of the wagon and saw only white. It was fog, but unlike any fog he'd ever seen, thicker and heavier, making it difficult to breath as it started to seep into the wagon itself. It was completely unnatural, and Trowa's skin crawled. He tried to 'look' through it, and saw that the other wagons that should have been there, weren't. "Catherine!" he gasped despite himself and looked out the front of the wagon. He could still see the wagon in front of them - barely, and without thinking, used his power to clear a path to the other wagon. "Catherine! Sir! Get back here!" he called, hearing urgency in his own voice. A few seconds later both Catherine and the Ringmaster came flying out of the back of the wagon and jumped into his own.
The fog, which had somehow been fighting back against his power, suddenly surged, and the fog collapsed back across the gap he'd created, and the other wagon disappeared completely.
"Trowa, what's going on?!" Catherine cried, fear in her voice.
"Get in the back," he told her, and she and the Ringmaster obediently climbed into the back as the other boys peered out.
"It just snuck up behind us," Duo replied in a shaken voice. "I just came up and all of a sudden it was everywhere!"
"Is this the danger?" Heero asked Quatre, who shook his head.
"This was just to separate us from the others. The real threat is still coming."
"Can you tell what it is yet?"
Quatre started to shake his head again, then stopped. "Maybe I can... Stop the horse, Duo," he instructed. Once the slightly rocking of the wagon had stopped, Quatre shook his head, throwing his blond hair out of his eyes. "This is really sensitive, and I've only tried it a few times," he warned. "Don't, whatever you do, interrupt me or touch me. We really don't want this backfiring on us."
They carefully backed away from him. Quatre's hands started to glow, and his lips moved quickly as he muttered to himself. The glow left his hands and formed a large ball of light floating in the air just in front of him. The light ball formed a large ring in the air, then collapsed in on itself. Quatre's frown deepened, and his lips were pressed in a thin line as he glared at the ball of light in front of him. Once again it formed a ring, and then collapsed in on itself. By now there was sweat forming on Quatre's brow, and his breathing was becoming labored. This time he practically snarled at the light, which suddenly formed a ring again, and this time, it stayed in that shape. Within the ring, images began to form.
At first there was nothing but endlessly swirling mist, the kind that blanketed every inch of the wagon. Trowa kept a firm grip on the edge of the seat, just in case, since he could barely see his own hands anymore. The only thing clearly visible was the glowing ring of light and the images within it. Suddenly the fog in the image was swept away, revealing several... creatures. He couldn't think of any other name for them. They were vaguely humanoid, but entirely black and covered with shiny armor that seemed to be part of their bodies, something like an ant. Slime dripped from sharp-toothed, large mouths, and he could see sharpened claws.
Wufei cursed in his own language. It was a curse of recognition.
"You know what those things are?" Duo asked very quietly. At least he had the sense not to distract Quatre while he was casting this spell.
"They are... your language does not have the proper word. The closest I can say is demon. They are brought... summoned here from another realm to kill, and then they can return."
"How did you come by this information?" Heero asked.
"Demons like those killed my entire Clan!" Wufei hissed in anger. "I barely escaped, and I vowed to avenge them, so I found out all I could about the demons."
"Trowa, I... by the gods!" Catherine exclaimed as she saw Quatre standing there, hands held out in front of him in front of a glowing ring with images of monsters inside. She would have said more, but Duo leaped at her and clamped a hand over her mouth, preventing any speech. His other arm he wrapped around her waist, trapping her arms at her side.
He was just in time, because as Catherine had started speaking, the ring had wobbled dangerously, and Quatre had moaned, holding his hands up to protect himself from something. When Catherine fell silent, he managed to get the spell back under control.
"He's casting a very dangerous spell right now," Duo said in low tones. "If you distract him, he could lose control of it, and no one knows what it will do. Do you understand?"
Catherine let out a frightened squeak, but she stopped struggling.
"How can you kill them?" Heero asked Wufei in a low voice.
"You can't," Wufei said, staring at the image. "They're immortal. The only way you can escape is to run, and stay ahead of them until they're drawn back to their own world. Normally they stay until they've completed their mission, but there's a time limit. They usually complete the mission before then, but if you avoid them for two days, they get pulled back to their own realm no matter what. That's how I escaped."
"We're not going to be able to stay ahead of them for two days," Duo said unnecessarily as they watched the creatures running through the fog.
"I can't hold this up much longer..." Quatre murmured.
Heero turned to Quatre. "Can you tell who they're hunting?"
Quatre's face twisted with exhaustion, but the image in the ring changed, to show... the five of them. But not the five of them as they were, it was the five of them as they'd appeared in the dream, with wings sprouting out of their backs and unnatural light glistening around them. Then the ring twisted, and collapsed in on itself, and the ball disappeared. Suddenly the fog seemed twice as thick. "Sorry, I couldn't hold it," Quatre whispered as he collapsed. Trowa's hands shot out and grabbed Quatre before he could disappear in the fog.
"So they're looking for us," Duo said. "Any ideas, anyone?" he asked. Silence greeted him as Trowa pulled Quatre's body into the wagon. The fact that Quatre was already beginning to heal himself didn't relieve him in the least. Those creatures weren't natural, they were here to kill, and he could feel them getting closer, now that he knew what to look for.
"Damn," Duo cursed. "All right, I have an idea. It's not much, and it's a long shot - I was hoping that one of you would have something better, but if we don't..." he turned to Trowa. "You cleared a path through the fog to the other wagon, think you can clear one to the forest? It should be about three-hundred feet in that direction, if we haven't moved."
Trowa could feel the demons coming closer. "I think so, if we haven't moved," he felt obliged to point out. "Why the forest?"
"It's protected. I can get us through those protections, I think, but the demons won't be able to. I think. It's the only thing I can think of."
"They're getting closer," Wufei said urgently, staring off into the fog.
"Do it," Heero instructed Duo, who turned to Trowa and clasped his shoulder. "It's your turn first."
"Get ready to move," Trowa instructed Duo, who was still holding the reins. "I won't be able to hold it open very long."
"Yes sir!" Duo said, apparently cheerful again, and gave him a salute before taking up the reins.
Trowa concentrated in the direction that Duo had indicated that the forest was. Normally manipulating fog was like sweeping a gauzy curtain away. Trying to move this fog was like trying to move a lead-weighted blanket. Sweat began to form on his forehead as he poured all of his energy into the attempt, but the fog didn't move. Then he felt a hand reach for his own, and suddenly vast amounts of energy poured into his body. He stiffened involuntarily, and then looked down at Quatre, who was holding his hand as he sat on the floor of the wagon, glowing softly.
:Hurry, Trowa, I can't keep this up forever!:
Trowa turned back to the fog, and using the energy Quatre was giving him, forced a past through the fog. He could see the forest at the end of the tunnel he'd created. "Go!" he instructed through gritted teeth, feeling the unnatural fog fighting against him. There was a pounding in his head and he dropped to his knees, focusing all of his attention on keeping the tunnel up as Duo shouted at the horse and snapped the reins. It didn't take much effort to get the horse galloping towards the forest - the animal was already terrified, and Duo was shouting at the top of his lungs at the horse.
Trowa allowed the fog to collapse back into the tunnel as they passed through it, but it got harder and harder to hold it up, even with the energy Quatre was giving him. Then, as they were only a few feet from the forest, the horse suddenly skidded to a halt. It stopped at the edge of a boundary, about eight feet from the forest, but within that boundary, there was no fog. Swearing ferociously, Duo jumped down from his seat and dragged the horse into the safe region, and Trowa breathed a sigh of relief as he let the tunnel collapse behind him.
"Don't relax, we're not safe yet," Duo muttered. "Get out here!"
As Trowa started to climb out of the wagon, he was highly aware of Quatre at his side, although it was impossible to tell who was supporting who. They hit the ground, then both froze as there was a scream behind them. Trowa spun and saw Catherine scrambling backwards to get out of the reach of the two demons who had climbed into the back of the wagon. The Ringmaster backed up in front of Catherine, shielding her, and Trowa tried to get up the energy to jump back in the wagon, but he was completely drained. His eyes widened in horror as the demons stepped forward - they were even uglier in real life, and there was something about them that screamed out to him that they were not of this world.
There was a flash of white light, followed an instant later by a red flash. Trowa was temporarily blinded by the intense light. When his eyes cleared, Heero and Wufei were standing over the bodies of the two demons, but they were staring at each other with shocked expressions on their faces. At least, that's how it looked to Trowa, who knew a lot about people who don't show much expression. He knew that they were both shocked, even though Heero's expression looked the same as it always did, and Wufei looked angry, which was not unusual. But they were both definitely shocked.
"Oh great, you killed the monsters. Are you going to sit here and congratulate yourselves for a while, or are you interested in escaping from the rest of them?" Duo asked sarcastically as he lifted Catherine out of the wagon without any difficulty at all. He was stronger than he looked. They climbed out of the wagon and followed Duo to the actual boundary of the woods. It wasn't natural, the trees were in a perfectly straight line, but there wasn't the feeling of 'wrongness' that he had felt from the fog.
Duo put his hand out in the space between the trees, and there was a flash of light. He drew back a hand with an oath. "Yeah, it's still here. Cut the horse loose," he instructed. "We can't bring it with us, and unless you want to leave it for those things..."
Heero grunted and quickly cut the horse loose. It disappeared into the forest, as Duo considered to stare at the space between the trees.
"What is it?" Catherine asked.
"It's a magical ward that the faeries put up around their forests to protect them from humans and other dangers," Duo remarked casually, still staring at the empty space. "They don't really come and steal children, you know. They really prefer to be left alone by humans."
"Will you get to the point, already?" Wufei demanded, glancing uneasily at the fog.
"Working on it," Duo muttered. "Ah, here it is!" He made several strange gestures with his right hand, thrust his left hand through the barrier, and said a number of strange, nonsense phrases that Trowa could not remember even as he heard them. Suddenly a glowing blue arch appeared in between the trees. "All right, go," Duo said, keeping one of his hands through the archway at all times.
Catherine and the Ringmaster hesitated. "But that's the faery forest!" she protested.
"You want to deal with faeries or demons?!" Duo demanded.
Catherine looked like she was about to refuse, but there was a chilling howl from inside the wagon, and the wagon suddenly started to shudder as something inside moved. They all froze.
"Ah, Heero?" Quatre said softly. "Are you guys sure you killed that thing?"
"No," Heero replied through gritted teeth.
Catherine ran through the portal, dragging the Ringmaster behind her. Trowa and Quatre followed them, then Heero, then Wufei, and finally Duo. The archway disappeared as soon as his hand left it, and they were standing in the forest. The demons came out of the wagon and slowly approached them. Duo stood still and stared at them through the invisible shield. "Nah nah, you can't get us!" he suddenly shouted. One of the demons tried to throw itself through the barrier. There was a burst of light and a howl of pain, then the smoking demon backed up to watch with his partner at the edge of the fog.
"What are you doing?!" Wufei demanded. "Are you crazy?!"
"Me? Nah, not too much. I knew there wasn't a chance that they could get through it," Duo said casually, nodding towards the edge of the forest. "Nothing gets through the faeries' borders."
"They're from another dimension, how do you know that?" Wufei was quite angry, and not bothering to hide any of it.
"Nothing gets through the border. Nothing. The borders stood up through the Mage Wars, they can certainly stand up to a bunch of so-called demons," Duo said, tossing his braid over a shoulder.
"How do you know that?" Heero demanded in a low voice, but Duo held up his hands, gesturing for silence. If Duo wanted quiet, there was something very, very wrong. They fell silent.
Duo was absolutely still now, his expression one of intense concentration as he stood with his head tilted to one side, listening to the still forest. After a few seconds his eyes flew open, and he cursed again, switching through several languages that Trowa didn't recognize. Finally he reverted to the local dialect. "I thought they didn't use those anymore!" he exclaimed, and then surprised them all by suddenly pulling the pendant off his neck. His body shimmered, then returned to it's normal form, pointed ears and all. "Take them off!" he hissed, a strange intensity in his voice. "By the Lady, take them off!"
"Why?" Heero asked in a flat voice.
"Just do it!" Duo ordered, and made a short gesture with his hand. Suddenly Trowa's pendant ripped itself through his shirt, it caught briefly about his neck, then the string snapped as it flew through the air towards Duo, who held up a casual hand as the five pendants floated in the air in front of him. "Sorry, but you guys have no idea what you're doing here. Make sure your ears are visible," he said, pocketing the stones.
Trowa stared at him. For the first time he could remember, there was no laughter in Duo's eyes. Instead there was a darkness blacker than anything he'd ever seen, and a deep determination. What happened to him?
[1] - This is what happens when I'm reading Macbeth at the same time as I'm writing stuff.
I hope everyone's enjoying this. I'm having a good time writing it, at least. If you like it (or if you hate it) you can write me at Marika_89@hotmail.com.
Comments and criticism welcome.