"Any word?" Treize asked, showing impatience for once. It was a bad lapse, and he silently berated himself even as he waited for an answer.
"No, sir. No word on the boys."
Treize hid his anger and frustration the way he usually hid his impatience. Lady Une was one of his best people, brilliant, ruthless, and completely loyal, an unusual thing these days. She didn't deserve to bear the brunt of his frustration. He dismissed her, and looked around the room, wishing there was some sort of graceful and dignified way to throw a temper tantrum. There wasn't, so he settled back into his seat, looking over the new versions of the prophecy that had arrived this morning. That was suspicious, not this particular version, but that suddenly his scholars were finding so many different versions, all at once, when before it had been a struggle to find even one.
He briefly considered the possibility that somehow these things had been held back and were being delivered to him, but dismissed it. A prophecy only told what was going to happen in the future, it couldn't change anything, except indirectly, if someone read them and then changed the present. As I intend to. But they couldn't change anything on their own.
He made himself as comfortable as possible and started reading this new version. With each new prophecy he read, he gained another piece of information, and the pieces were beginning to come together. Now he had the identities of the five who were destined to save humanity, and if he didn't have them in his hands, it was only a matter of time until he did. He was also learning the names of some companions to the five: the Peaceful Girl, the Faithful Followers, and the Disinherited, whatever that meant. The one who would become the incarnation of the danger was referred to as the Seeker. His life would be so much simpler if the prophecies would just use people's names instead of these mystical and mysterious names.
Oh, well, there was no help for it. He'd have to wait until either something was revealed, or he got another piece of information that would help him positively identify these, and others.
There was another option, of course. When he finally had Quatre and the others in his hands, chances were these other people would come to him on their own, which would solve a great number of his problems.
He continued to read, and didn't notice Lady Une quietly close the door, slipping away before someone could catch her eavesdropping.
------------------------------------------------
Quatre stared at the suddenly changed Duo. Gone was the laughing, easy-going (although sometimes irritating) fellow who had been with them for almost a month. Now there was a hard-eyed man who gave orders and expected them to be followed. Then there was the whole matter of Duo ripping their pendants away from them. It wasn't so much the loss of his that bothered Quatre - Trowa's friends were trustworthy, and there was no one else to see them, but he'd never seen Duo use magic of any kind before, not even the little magics that normal mages could do. If not for the power that Quatre sensed in him and the physical differences that marked their kind, he could have been a normal human.
"Get in a circle around the humans," Duo instructed in a low voice as he reached under his shirt and pulled out a small necklace with some sort of cross hanging from it. He carefully placed it on the outside of his clothes so that it was clearly visible. "We'll have to protect them. I don't think they'll attack us."
"Who?" Quatre asked nervously as they moved into a circle around the two normal humans. And since when do you call them humans, not 'normal humans' or 'non-mages'?
"The vestia," Duo said. "They're forest spirits who have been given a physical form and bound to protect the boundaries of the forest. Very few of the faeries use them anymore - the boundaries are enough to keep humans out. I only saw one once because we visited a distant forest that bordered a very dangerous region, and the faeries there kept a few vestia on that border to make sure nothing got through."
"We?"
"Never mind. Here they come. I don't think they'll attack us, but I know they'll attack the humans. That's why we have to stay between the vestia and the humans until I can convince them we won't harm the forest. Got it?"
They nodded nervously, and Quatre could practically hear Heero promising himself he'd get the entire story out of Duo if he had to beat it out of him with his fists. If he could do it. Quatre knew as much about magic as almost anyone, and he never felt anything like what he'd felt today, first from Trowa, then from Heero and Wufei, and now from Duo, too. Something about their situation was changing them, and he wasn't sure it was for the best.
Then he saw what had to be the vestia. They looked like ghosts, really, six or eight feet tall, white masses of faint light in a vaguely human shape, but he could partially see through them, and he shivered. Duo, although wary, walked directly up to one of them, holding his arms out to the sides. One of the... the beings swept up over him and all around him, then backed off, while the others moved in and swept around the group. Quatre felt a damp chill on his skin, but nothing more.
The ghosts moved back towards Duo, and a strange howling sound emerged from their forms. He shook his head firmly, opened his mouth... and a strange trilling noise, like birdsong, emerged from his lips. The ghosts hesitated, then howled again. Once again Duo opened that mouth and let that odd bird-song come out. The ghosts howled, and this time Duo crossed his arms and shot them a sharp look, and they actually fell silent, and backed up several feet. Duo sighed and turned around. "You guys might as well sit down and get some rest. I've managed to convince them not to kill us or the humans now, but they're not letting us go anywhere until some of their masters arrived. They should be here in under an hour."
"You managed to convince them..." Wufei managed to say in a half-choked voice.
"Yeah. They hesitated 'cause of our ears and magic. Otherwise they would have killed us without a second thought. But they're definitely not happy about the humans being here. Luckily, they can sense the demons out there, and it's confusing them, so they are waiting for instructions." He glanced out past the barrier into the fog, where they could now see a half-dozen demons waiting for them. He shrugged to himself and sank down onto the ground and settled back against a tree, closing his eyes.
"Wait!" Quatre called, hopelessly confused. "Who are their masters, and what language were you speaking?"
"The faeries, of course," Duo replied in a completely unconcerned voice, eyes still closed. "And I was speaking the only language they'd understand."
"What language?"
Duo shrugged. "It doesn't have a name. Sit down and calm down, Quatre. You can't do anything right now, and we may have to do a lot of walking tonight."
"Why?" Quatre asked, trying to calm himself.
"Well, we took shelter in the faeries' woods from a danger, and I don't know what this is going to mean for them. It's good manners to thank a person and give your apologies when you bring trouble right up to their doorstep. When the faeries come, we'll have to go with them and convey our thanks to their elders."
"Elders?" The only things that Quatre knew about faeries were the few stories he'd been told as a young child. As soon as he realized what he was, he stopped showing any interest in those stories, not wanting to draw attention to the similarities between himself and the mystical creatures, and he hadn't heard anything about them in years. So he knew virtually nothing about them except that he was supposed to look like them and they were trick-players and troublemakers. "How do you know so much about the faeries?" That question covered a myriad of others, like how he'd known how to get through the barrier, where his confidence was coming from now, how he'd known about the ghost-creatures, how he knew that language, and how he knew all about the faeries.
"I lived with them for a few years," Duo said with another casual shrug.
Quatre gasped and saw shock on the others faces. "That's impossible!"
"Why? Because the faeries only kidnap kids to use them in their spells, or to frighten parents?" Duo snorted. "Those stupid tales aren't true, any more than it's true that we're some kind of strange animal that needs to be kept locked up for the protection of the people. They took care of me when humans, who were supposed to be my own kind, turned me out!" for a second his voice dripped with anger, then, just as suddenly, he was his usual self. "So they let me live with them for a couple years. They taught me the secrets of their forests, some of their magic, and I helped them learn more about humans." He shrugged. "This wasn't my forest, but I visited it once before, I think, so the faeries had to adapt their border defenses to let me in. Most of the forests won't let a human of any kind in, even if I know the spell." He shrugged. "It's a good thing that I guessed right, and this was a forest I visited before."
"You guessed?!" Catherine shrieked, and fainted as the stress finally got to her.
Duo's eyes snapped open as Quatre just barely managed to catch Catherine and ease her to the ground. He held out a hand, checking to see if she'd injured herself. She seemed fine - it must have just been the shock. He found himself not particularily surprised that Duo had risked their lives on a chance like that. He had said that it was a risky plan. Maybe next time he says it's a risky plan I'll kill myself then and spare myself the misery, he thought ironically.
"That was a rather large risk," Trowa, the master of understatement, observed.
Duo shrugged. "It was that or the demons. I don't think even I can kill one of those."
Quatre's eyebrows shot up as the bitterness in Duo's voice hit him, as did his choice of words. Even I? That implies he's especially good at killing? But why... why would that make him hate himself? The depth of Duo's self-hatred hit him like a blow, and he gasped, pressing a hand against his chest, and unconsciously drew closer to Trowa.
"Who did you kill?" he whispered, not really expecting Duo to answer him.
"Everyone," Duo said with a shrug that belied the furious anger Quatre knew he felt. "So you might want to watch out for me. I'm a killer. The fucking king was right about one thing, at least." Another wave of self-hatred that caused Quatre to drop to his knees. Duo stared at him. "Q-man, are you all right?"
Quatre shook his head slightly, ashamed by the lack of control that had allowed him to peer into Duo's mind and see something that was profoundly personal, but at the same time wanting to know why Duo felt that way, and help him. "It's nothing," he said unconvincingly.
Duo obviously didn't believe him, but he suddenly sat straight up. "Here they come..."
Quatre's head snapped up as several... they looked a little like children, each only about three feet tall, but they had bluish skin, and very, very sharply pointed ears, translucent wings rising from their shoulders, and... there was an overwhelming sense of belonging about them. They fit in perfectly with their surroundings, and were somehow linked with each other. He blinked. He was used to getting strange feelings about certain things, but rarely did those feelings give him quite as much information as he was getting right now.
Duo opened his mouth and that odd bird-song emerged again. The faeries chattered back at him, then looked at the group, then chattered again. Suddenly one of them vanished in a puff of smoke, and reappeared next to Quatre. It reached out and touched Quatre, first his ears, then his hair, and finally the little creature lay a hand on his heart. He looked at Duo and sang some more.
"Say hi, Quatre, he just introduced himself. His name is," Duo frowned. "The closest human languages have is a very detailed definition of a specific type of leaf on a specific type of tree. He says you can call him Leaf, though."
"Leaf? Is that really his name?"
"Of course not. His real name is unpronounceable by human tongues, and even then, that isn't his secret name. He'd never tell you his real name, no more than I would," Duo snorted at the very thought. "And, by the way, he likes your hair. None of them have blond hair. Green, blue, brown and white, but not yellow. He says it looks like the sun. That's a high compliment, in their language."
"Thank you, Leaf," Quatre said formally.
"They're leaving," Trowa murmured as the ghosts turned and disappeared into the forest.
"Yeah, Bright Stream told them that we're not invaders. But we have to go see the elders," Duo said, standing. He held out a hand, and then boosted one of the faeries onto his shoulder. He grinned at Quatre, all of his earlier dark emotions either gone or buried deep enough that Quatre couldn't feel them. "They like me because I'm taller than any of them, and I give good rides, to the younglings, anyway. That doesn't happen too often among humans, either. Let's go."
Quatre got to his feet. Trowa lifted Catherine up, then looked at him. Quatre understood, held a hand over Catherine's head, and with a little mental shove woke her up. "What happened?" she asked weakly as Trowa set her on her feet, ready to catch her if she fell again.
"You fainted," the Ringmaster told her, his face creased with concern. It was the first thing he'd said since they entered the forest. "Are you all right?"
"I think so." Catherine's eyes got very wide as she saw the faery who was now clinging to Quatre's hand. "Is that..."
"This is Leaf," Quatre said firmly, with a smile at the faery, who seemed frightened by Catherine.
"That's a faery?" Catherine asked, leaning forward to look at Leaf, who cowered behind Quatre. "He's cute!"
"I wouldn't get to close," Duo warned as he started walking off into the woods. Quatre did a double take - where had all the faeries come from? Suddenly Duo was surrounded by en entire crowd of them. "They don't like normal humans much. You people have been hunting them for as long as they've existed, and you're scaring the crap out of him. Just be quiet and try not to draw attention to yourselves. Its bad manners to scare your hosts."
"Since when do you care about manners?" Wufei demanded, obviously thinking of Duo's rather... ah... unique eating habits, which more often then not did not include the use of utensils and quite often did include speaking with his mouth full, as he was not patient enough to wait for the food to leave his mouth before expressing his opinion on one matter or another.
"What? You mean human manners? That's fun, this is serious," Duo said. "You just don't act rudely to a faery elder. That's the way it is."
This? From Duo? Quatre liked Duo as much as any of them (except Trowa) - it was impossible not to like him, but he wasn't entirely sure it was Duo he was talking to right now.
"Come on," Duo said, walking away.
"Did he really mean it?" Catherine whispered. "About them not liking humans? And about meeting the elders? Who are the elders?"
Trowa, ever eloquent, shrugged as they started following Duo deeper into the forest.
---------------------------------------------------
Duo wasn't sure if this was some sort of dream come true, or a nightmare come to life to haunt him. It was great being back, the only time in his entire life that he could ever remember being happy was when he was with the faeries, just like the ones who were crowded around his waist and the one riding on his shoulder. They were all youngsters, a few of whom remembered him as he'd been back then and who were very excited to see him again. But then, they wouldn't know the truth about him. The elders weren't so innocent. They were like polar opposites, the youngsters and the elders, the youngsters were eternally innocent and carefree until they joined the ranks of the elders, at which point they gained a wisdom as ancient as the world itself. None of this ridiculous fiddling around in the middle time that most humans spent their entire lives in. Things were very clear-cut here, and it felt good to be in the only home he'd ever known.
But it was also like reliving the nightmares that tormented him most nights. Being around the faeries made him feel like he was actually living in one of the dreams, and he kept waiting for the cries of alarm as the borders, which had stood up against the ancient Mage Wars, shimmered and collapsed. Someone had mistakenly invited the destroyers in, he knew that was how they'd managed to destroy the borders, from the inside, but who the invaders were or how they managed to trick one of the elders into inviting them in, that was still a mystery. He'd been away from the glen when the border was broken, and had felt the magic wall collapse. They always were trying to get him to stay close, but his years as a street rat had made him detest any sort of confinement, so he could usually be found two or three nights a week creeping around the borders of the forest to prevent the feeling of being trapped from taking over him.
The shattering shields hit him like a physical blow, and he must have blacked out for a few minutes. When he woke up, he could feel the trees shrieking their alarm, and raced back to the glen as fast as his legs could carry him. He was too late to do anything - by the time he arrived... there was nothing left. The glen itself had been burned, everything burned, and there were bodies everywhere. No stranger to death even before that, he'd stayed long enough to identify the bodies of the elders, and his closest friends among the younglings. I won't cry, he promised himself. The faeries couldn't cry - that was why they'd taken him in in the first place. They'd found him crying as he fled through the fields near the forest, trying to hide from what he'd done to his best friend. The younglings had never seen tears before, and brought him back to the elders to ask what was wrong with him, and the elders had let him stay. But tears always upset the younglings, once they knew what the strange water meant, so he didn't cry anymore, not even when remembering hurt so bad that he wanted to die.
After a few minutes he left the ruined glen. He spent a few more days in the forest, searching for any survivors. He stayed long after he knew that there was no one left, that they were all dead, hoping vainly that one or two had been frightened and stayed in hiding all this time. But there was no one left, and without the borders, this forest was as dangerous as any other wild place. Already the trees warned him that dangerous animals were starting to move in. So he went back to the human world, which he had abandoned two years earlier. He was nine.
I kill everyone that cares for me. The thought rose to the front of his mind, unbidden.
He pushed the thought aside and concentrated on the rapid-fire questions the younglings were asking him, about himself, his friends, and the scary humans they'd brought with them. Duo chuckled. He still couldn't get over the fact that the faeries thought that Heero and Wufei were less frightening than Catherine and the Ringmaster. It was hilarious. The faeries certainly liked Trowa and Quatre, though. Well, anyone would like Quatre, but why they were so attracted to Trowa was a mystery to him.
He could still feel Heero's glare burning two holes in the back of his head, and Wufei wasn't exactly happy, either. Oh well, he thought cheerfully, it was worth almost anything to see the surprise on their faces when I started talking to the vestia. I think Heero even opened his mouth a little, too. Oh, yes, that moment had been worth a lot, and it was great being back in one of the protected forests, where the tree-spirits talked freely and the weather was never bad, but nothing was worth another slaughter like the one he'd witnessed six years ago.
In a very short time, they reached the glen, which was surprising. Glens were rarely less than two hours walk from the edge of the forest. He suspected that some of the elders had spelled them closer - they were apparently anxious to see him. The eager younglings led him up to a slightly raised platform in front of the elders' tree. Eight elders were sitting in a semi-circle on the platform. Duo set down Kelish' el' fenre ka and bowed with deep respect to the elders. :Bow,: he instructed the others, getting a great deal of enjoyment over the expression on Wufei's face at having to take orders from him before his companion composed himself and bowed solemnly to the elders, who outwardly looked almost the same as the younglings. It was very difficult to see the differences, unless you lived with them for a long time. For Duo, it was obvious.
"Much time has passed since any clan has heard from you, sisters' human-son," one of the elders commented. At first, Duo had visited with the sister clans of 'his' clan, but although none of them blamed him for his clan's death, he couldn't shake the fear that he'd end up killing more of his 'family', so eventually he left the faeries' forest for good. "It has been... two years?"
"Four, actually, honored elder of my former mother's sisters," Duo replied in their own language, not offended that they didn't know. Time passed differently for them here. An immortal creature didn't need to pay as much attention to time as a mortal one did. Similarly, the mode of address was very important to the faeries. When the elder had called him 'sisters' human-son', they were acknowledging that he had been the adopted son of the sister clan. It was, in effect, like bringing him into the family. He couldn't afford that - the last clan to welcome him was extinct now. "I have been living among humans for many years now, and can no longer be considered one of the little people."
"Not so little anymore, either," a second elder observed. Duo wasn't sure whether that was a compliment or not, but at least he'd managed to separate himself from their 'family'.
"Why have you brought humans into our forest?" demanded one of the ones sitting on the end. Despite the hostile tone of his voice, Duo wasn't too upset. The ones on the end were always supposed to take opposing and extreme views of any case. The elders accusation had nothing to do with the group or his personal opinion. "And so many. How could you bring six humans into our forest?"
Now there was something that had to be corrected. "Two," he replied promptly.
"Six," the elder repeated.
"Two. Two humans, and four like me," Duo replied firmly.
"Six humans," the elder repeated stubbornly, and Duo allowed a hint of a frown to appear on his face. He could be just as stubborn as them, and he wanted them to know it.
"Two."
"Duo, what are you doing?" Quatre murmured. "We can't understand it, you know, but you sound like a merchant haggling over a price."
"I'm haggling over how many humans I brought into their forest."
Quatre looked confused, and Ran' vir' kel ar, the one that Quatre was calling Leaf, patted his hand comfortingly. The thought of any of them trying to pronounce 'Leaf' or 'Bright Stream's' real names was fairly funny, too.
"Six. You are also human."
"I said I'd been living among humans," he corrected. "Two."
"There is a difference? Six."
"Yes. Humans do not like my kind. Just now we five are escaping from a human who wanted to lock us up. Two."
The elder frowned. The faeries didn't have stupid prejudices, so he was in no position to understand human ones. Finally he gave up. "Two," he agreed, then asked, "Why would they do such a thing?"
Duo shrugged. "Humans are strange."
Remembering his role, the elder put on a stern face and asked, "Why have you brought humans into our forest?"
"We were being pursued by evil creatures, who wanted to destroy us though we committed no crime. I thought that we might be able to hide behind the border shields, knowing that the little people would never truly harm innocents, as humans believe you would, knowing that you would, in fact, protect them." If nothing else worked, flattery was always a good idea.
The elder scowled at him, trying to figure out what was wrong with that statement.
"Of course we will protect you and your friends!" said the elder on the end, who was supposed to be his advocate. In fact, Duo was sort of surprised that she hadn't spoken up earlier. "How long must you stay?"
"Only until the sun sets twice," Duo assured her. "Then the evil creatures will be sent back to where they came from, and we will leave. No one will ever tell your secrets, either."
"How can you guarantee that?" demanded the other elder, back in his role of devil's advocate.
"I am a mage, as are some of my companions. We can ensure that the humans will never speak about what they have seen here."
"Holy Lady! It's THEM!" the first elder to speak suddenly exclaimed, pointing straight at Duo. Then his wavering finger moved to point at the other four. The elder made a gesture and the half-circle disappeared entirely.
:What's happening?: Heero growled in his mind.
:I don't know, I've never seen anything like this!:
:I thought you knew these creatures,: Wufei accused.
Duo's temper flared. :These creatures, as you call them, are completely as intelligent as any human, and a damn sight more compassionate, too! When my kind,: sarcasm dripped form his voice, :was letting people like me die like animals, when they kicked me out of villages and treated me like some sort of disease in society, just because I didn't have a family, these creatures took me in! Tell me one human family who would have done the same!:
:Mine,: Quatre said softly. :We try, but we can't get to everyone, and we're not allowed to help people beyond our borders.:
:I didn't mean you, Quatre,: Duo said. :I'm sure there are good humans out there somewhere, but I haven't met any. When humans turned me out, the faeries took me in. So don't go about thinking that they're what most humans think they are. They're different, but not evil. Like us.: Silence followed his words. Except I really am what they fear, he added to himself.
Suddenly the eight elders reappeared. "You may stay," said the one who had spoken first.
Duo blinked. It wasn't supposed to be this easy. He had expected that they would eventually be allowed to stay for the few days they needed, he couldn't have imagined the faeries not letting them, but it should have been a long and drawn-out argument. This sudden capitulation made him nervous. "Thank you, honored elders," he said with a bow. "If it doesn't bother you, may I ask why you agreed so easily?"
They stared at him as if he'd sprouted another head. "You mean you don't know?" one of them asked incredulously.
He shook his head. "Know what?"
---------------------------------------------------
Duo and the suddenly-there faeries were talking again, then Duo shook his head and said something in response to the faeries. The faeries exchanged a glance, and then there was a brilliant flash of light. Heero shielded his eyes, and when he put his arm down, he was standing on some sort of endless flat gray plain. The other four were also standing there, as were the eight faeries. "What did you do? Where are we?" he growled, readying himself to attack.
"Calm yourself, young Master," one of the faeries said. "Your physical bodies are fine, but it was necessary to bring your spirit selves to this place so that we could speak with you. We do not speak your tongue with any fluency."
"Young Master?" Duo asked, and his voice trembled slightly. "Why did you call him that?" he asked in an accusing voice.
"What's wrong?" Quatre asked.
"They don't call anyone Master, it's part of their life, one of their few laws," Duo told him, still staring at Heero. "They haven't called anyone Master since the Mage Wars. Then their Masters were the great magicians of that time who created many magical beings, like the faeries, in the midst of their wars. I don't think the word 'master' has passed the lips of a faery in almost a thousand years."
"Exactly a thousand years, young Master," another faery said to Duo, who blanched and turned white.
"It's been one thousand years since the world was nearly destroyed by human magics. Human magics and demon masters," yet another faery added, and Heero added to his list of annoyances that Duo had brought about the fact that he couldn't tell any of the faeries apart.
"What?"
"Humans lost much of their knowledge in those times," a faery said, shaking his head. "They know nothing of what happened back there."
"Then tell us," Duo said coldly. "We don't know. Tell us what happened, and why you keep calling us 'Master.' Kir' ur' te chavel told me that you would never call another that."
"It is your destiny, young Master. All of your destinies. The battles that mortals now call the mage wars were fought between men, yes, but what few know is that those mortals were merely the agents of greater powers, fighting for domination of this world."
"Not merely," another corrected. "But they didn't fight for themselves. Back then there were many powerful mages, who toyed with their magics and used them against each other, or to create beings like ourselves. But the most powerful among them were there for a greater purpose. On one side were those fighting for the inhabitants of this planet were five who embodied various powers of this world. And there were a few, we never knew the true number, who, through their ambition or arrogance, were tricked, or forced, into serving the invaders. A power from the same realm as the evil that chases you now wishes to move from that realm into this one. I do not think anyone would wish to live in this world if they got control."
"So what happened?" Duo demanded. "If they were so powerful, shouldn't there be some sort of resolution? I'm assuming our guys won, because we're here having this conversation."
"The invaders were being beaten back, although the battles were tearing this world apart. Evidence of the damage still exists to the north of here."
"The wastelands?" Duo asked, air whistling through his teeth as he grimaced and sucked in a deep breath. "Fuck. All right, what happened?"
"They were being beaten back, but before they could be trapped and permanently barred from this world, they escaped, jumping back to their own world. There was nothing our people could do - we can't live on their world, so they couldn't follow, and there's no way to attack from this world. So they did the only thing they could think of - they erected a magical barrier around this world to keep the invaders out for a thousand years, to give humanity a chance to recover from the devastation so you could fight again when the invaders came back."
"That's why there are no great mages anymore!" Quatre suddenly exclaimed. "All of this world's magic is going into keeping the barrier up, so there wasn't any excess that... seeped into people."
"There were no great mages," the elder corrected him. "Your very existence tells us that the barrier is coming down. It has been one thousand years, and the invaders will be able to return. I suspect in another dozen years, you will see quite a few 'great mages', as you call them, as the magic returns to the inhabitants of the world. If the world still exists then."
His words were not reassuring. "What does this have to do with us?" Trowa asked quietly.
"Is it not obvious? You have been born to embody the power of this world, so that you may protect it."
"What sort of power?"
"If you don't know, then I may not tell you. I may have said too much already. Too much foreknowledge voids the prophecies."
"Prophecies!" Duo exclaimed in disgust. "His fuck-head the king was talking about them too! What is this?"
"Prophecies are very important, but they must be filled out exactly to be valid. There are things you must do at certain times or in certain places, or all is lost."
"We're being driven to the north," Quatre offered hesitantly. "Can you tell us anything about that? Are we headed for the wastelands?"
"I can't tell you that, but you will know when you've reached your destination. And why we will help you now. You must be allowed to continue your journey safely. We shall pass word on to the other clans, so that they will know you and provide aid if you ever need it."
"Is there anything you can tell us about the demons that chased us today that might give us a chance to fight them off?" Quatre asked calmly. He seemed to be taking this all in stride. At least it didn't seem to be affecting his ability to think. Duo seemed stunned. At least, that's what Heero was assuming it was, because the braided idiot was actually quiet for once. As for Heero himself, he was very, very angry at the entire situation, but he shunted that aside. Anger at the faeries, or anyone else, wouldn't do him any good. He started to carefully go over everything they faeries had said, assimilating the data. If the wastelands were the location of the last battle, it was entirely possible that that was where they were heading.
"You cannot kill them, but if you sever the link between the bodies they inhabit here and their spirits, they will not be able to remain on this world. The ancient Masters were able to do this, but I do not know how. If you cannot do that, run, there is nothing else that will stop them. It is possible," he glanced at one of his companions. "That we will be able to construct some talismans that will keep them from being able to track you. We will attempt that immediately, so that we will be able to give them to you when you leave. Your departure must not be delayed."
"In the meantime, you have our hospitality," the female faery said. "And if I may make a suggestion, you may want to exchange a bit of information about yourselves. Secrecy may have protected you in the past, but trust is what will get you through this journey. You are stronger together than you are apart, and knowing each other's strengths and weaknesses would be wise." She gave them a sharp look, then clapped her hands, and abruptly they were standing back in the middle of the faeries' home.
One of the elders started speaking in that odd language again, and Duo bowed, nodded, and pointed to one of the trees that surrounded the edge of the glade. "They say there's a huge room in there we can use to sleep for the next two nights. The demons should be gone after that. We can rejoin the circus at the other end of the forest. We won't even have lost any time."
-------------------------------------------
That night, long after Catherine and the Ringmaster were safely asleep, the five of them sat up, awake. "We should talk. Exchange stories at least," Duo finally muttered. "I don't have the faintest clue what any of you can do, besides Quatre. I've seen some pretty weird magic living with the faeries, but none of it was anything like what I saw today, when you fought through the fog, Trowa, or the two of you struck down those demons," his glance included Wufei and Heero, who glared at him. "Maybe... it might be important. I'd hate for someone to get hurt because we were trying to hide from each other." Unspoken was the comment that he had revealed quite a bit about himself in order to protect them. Wufei understood the point, but did not wish to be the first to speak.
"My father was Lord Winner, Earl of the Desert," Quatre said quietly. "I have twenty-nine older sisters, born to my father by many of his wives. My mother was his favorite, but she died giving birth to me. I was the heir to the Winner estates, until I was found out. I've known I was... different for a long time. Even before I understood what I was, I knew to hide it. I wore my hair long over my ears, and I slumped my shoulders to hide how long and thin I was. When I was nine, I found out what I was when I was in court and heard Treize's announcement that all 'faeries' were to be incarcerated. I was angry, I was frightened, but I didn't think there was anything I could do about it. So I kept hiding. I managed to keep it a secret for over six years, not even my sisters knew, and in that time I also discovered that I was not a normal mage. I never got tired when I risked using my magic, and I could do every spell that I read about in the books I was able to sneak out of the library. I got caught one day when I was out in the marketplace with my father. There was a runaway horse, and this little orphan girl..." he sighed and blinked away tears. "I healed her. She would have died otherwise. I knew the Hunters were right there - they were actually walking in the market with my father, talking about something Treize was doing, but I couldn't let her die. I couldn't let them know that I was different, either, so I pretended to collapse after I healed her. The Hunters immediately took hold of me, locked that collar around my neck..." his hand went to his throat. "... They thought I was asleep, but I heard everything they said about me, said to my father about me, and I felt it when they tied me up and threw me in the cage. After that... well, you all know what happened. I stayed with you. I should have tried to do something earlier to stop what Treize was doing, but I was scared. I'm sorry." He looked around the group nervously, as if expecting some sort of angry judgment from one of them.
Trowa reached out and actually embraced Quatre while he was awake. "I don't use my power very often, I never have, but I always knew it was there," Trowa said softly. He didn't let go of Quatre, and Quatre leaned against his chest, a faint smile on his face. "I... I have no real name. I started using the name Trowa Barton when I became a bounty hunter. I was raised by a band of mercenaries as their slave, but I learned from them. I escaped when I was eleven. I became a bounty hunter for a year after that, but I didn't like it very much. I joined the circus when I was twelve, because I knew how to throw knives. I was there for three years before the Hunters tracked me down." He shrugged.
"And what is your power?" Duo asked, eyes bright.
"I can manipulate the forces of nature, weather, earth, water... they obey me. The fog... was unnatural. And I can change form."
"What?" Quatre sat up straight and looked at Trowa. "What forms?"
"Anything that's alive and exists in nature. Animals are easier than plants, though."
"Can I see?"
Wufei didn't miss the fact that Quatre had asked Trowa to show 'him', not 'them'. Their attraction was blatantly obvious to everyone except the two of them.
Trowa nodded once, then stood up. Suddenly his body seemed to melt downwards in a sickening process that made Wufei vaguely nauseous to watch. He averted his eyes briefly, and when he looked back, there was a huge, tawny-maned lion standing in front of him, just like the ones Trowa was always petting back in the circus wagon.
Quatre's eyes were as large as saucers. "Trowa, is that you?"
:It's me,: Trowa assured them mentally. :I can't talk properly with other bodies.: He did that strange melting thing, but upward this time, and a few seconds later he stood there, looking perfectly normal. He sat down again, but did not reach for Quatre, who looked slightly disappointed.
"Trowa, did you change the weather that night before we met your circus?" Wufei asked suspiciously. Trowa nodded, looking vaguely embarrassed, and Quatre smiled slightly.
"Your turn, Heero," Duo said in a teasing voice.
Heero glared at him, but he did speak. "My name is Heero Yuy. That is not my real name, I do not know my real name. It is a name given to my by the man who raised me. Odin Lowe was a lone mercenary and assassin. He never told me where he found me. He trained me to work with him, and to complete my missions with utmost efficiency, without letting my emotions get in the way. He was killed in a mission five years ago, but I completed the mission before I left." He gave out another broad round of glares as if promising doom on anyone who even suggested that he wouldn't complete a mission.
"I do not know the source of my power. I can heal without exhaustion, like Quatre, and I can throw balls of pure energy to kill. The first talent was considered inappropriate for an assassin, so Odin... discouraged it. Strongly. The second might be appropriate, but it was too flashy, so I only used it in practice." He distributed one more glare and fell silent.
Wufei realized that both Trowa and Heero had exceeded their conversation limits for the next three weeks, and would probably remain silent all that time because of it. That meant that the only one talking would be Duo... he shuddered.
As if his thoughts had brought doom upon himself, Duo turned to him. "All right, Wu-man! What's your story?"
Wufei barely restrained a snarl of anger. "My name is not Wu-man. My name is Chang Wufei. I am the last surviving member of the Dragon Clan."
"Hey, wait a second. Chang Wufei? You mean we've been calling you by your last name all this time?" Duo asked. "That's cold. You didn't even tell us your name."
"Duo, Wufei is his first name," Quatre murmured. "Change is his family name. They say their family names first in his land."
Maybe they're not all ignorant barbarians... Wufei turned a surprised eye to Quatre, who smiled faintly. "Someone as close to the throne as I was had to be able to deal with ambassadors from all sorts of places. I spent hours every week learning customs from other lands, even ones as distant as your own, Chang Wufei."
Hearing his name pronounced correctly hurt more than he wanted to think about, so Wufei nodded sharply and continued speaking. "I was a scholar for most of my life, and I did not know of my power. When I was ten, I was married to a girl from another clan to cement ties between us. She was a warrior, and although we did not care for each other, there was... respect." He swallowed. He hadn't spoken to anyone of what happened since the actual event. "At our wedding, a dozen of the demons arrived. Warriors from both of our clans tried to fight them off, but they cannot be harmed by normal means. One of Meiran's uncles was a priest and a prophet, and managed to cast a spell that bought us a few seconds. He ordered my wife and I to flee. At the time I was quite angry, and Meiran was angrier, but we obeyed. The demons broke through his shields a few seconds after we started to run, and he was cut down. Meiran turned to fight the demon to avenge her uncle, and was killed." He was astonished at how careless his own voice sounded as he described the death of his wife. "I thought I was going to die, but as they approached me, flames burst from my body. The demons recoiled, and I ran. I managed to stay ahead of them for two days, because every time they got close, the flames returned and I was able to escape." He swallowed as he remembered those two horrible days of constant flight, when he was unable to sleep or even rest as he fled those who had destroyed two clans. "When they were gone, I pledged myself to the sword to avenge their deaths. I trained, and learned to control my power as well. I found out that somehow the demons had come from this land, so I came across the sea to find out why they had come, who had sent them, and to kill them. I had barely arrived when I was captured by the Hunters." He snorted in disgust at his own weakness.
"Wait a second. If you didn't know what most mages could do, how did you know to conceal your power?" Duo asked.
"I did not know."
"Then you used your power in front of them?!"
"No. I would not use magic on those who had none themselves. It is dishonorable and weak."
Duo stared at him as if he'd started to speak some incomprehensible language. "Dishonorable. Right. Whatever."
Wufei glared at him, wishing he was as good at it as Heero.
"So your power is fire?" Quatre said timidly.
Wufei sighed and conjured a ball of fire. "And I see magic. I see it everywhere," he added in a weary voice. When that particular talent had emerged, it had taken him weeks to get used to seeing flowing streams of light all around him, all the time. There was magic all over the world, and it nearly blinded him at first. Now he could ignore it, but it was an irritation.
"Oh." Quatre sounded unenlightened, but Wufei decided he had talked enough for today.
"Duo?" he asked, arching an eyebrow.
"What?"
"Your turn."
"You already know my story."
"We know you lived with the faeries at one point, and that you were a thief at another," Heero growled. "The whole story. Now."
Something dark flickered in Duo's eyes before he looked away. "Fine. I'm a street rat, born and raised. Never had any family." He shrugged. "So what. When I was little, I was part of this gang. There was this older kid, Solo, he protected all of the little kids, and he taught me how to survive on the streets. I was with him until I turned seven. That was... nine years ago, right? That year there was a disease that ran through the slums that year. The wealthy had enough money to buy a cure. We didn't. Solo and the others got sick. I didn't. Since I was the only one healthy enough to move, I went into one of the rich people's homes, and stole their medicine. I took it back with me, tried to give it to Solo, but he insisted I give it to the other kids first. I did, and I gave what was left over to him, but I guess there wasn't enough." There was a dead quality in his voice now, and a dead look in his eyes. "The others started getting better, but Solo didn't. He was dying, and he was in so much pain. I knew I could heal, a little. I tried to help him - I just wanted his pain to end. And I ended it. I killed him, sucked the life right out of him.
"Some of the so-good humans," his voice dripped with bitterness now. "Some of them had followed me back from when I stole the medicine. And they walked in on us like that, a bunch of sick little *human* kids, halfway between life and death, one dead kid, Solo, and little old me, the faery-child, sitting over his body with my ears in plain view. Who do you think they blamed, not only for Solo's death, but for the others and for the entire plague? It wasn't the son of the rich man I robbed. They ran me out of the town that night. I ran so fast, even though..." he cut himself off. "I ran fast enough that they couldn't catch me to stone me. That's when the faeries found me. They took me back into their forest and gave me a home and a family. They taught me their language, and some of their magic. They were good people. I killed them too."
"What?" Quatre gasped.
"I didn't see what happened. I was off in the woods. The border shields shattered, and I was linked to them. I collapsed, and when I woke up, the trees were screaming warnings. I ran back to the glen, but it was too late. They were all dead. Something killed them all. I searched for days for someone, anyone, but no one survived. So I left the faery forest, went back to the humans. Called myself Duo Maxwell, Duo for Solo, and Maxwell, because that's pretty close to the faery word for 'human.' I've been on the streets by myself since then, till I got caught by those damn Hunters. But I took a bunch of them out with me, first," he added with satisfaction.
"The faeries weren't your fault, Duo," Quatre said quietly.
"Oh, but they were. I don't think you understand. Everyone who gets close to me dies," Duo said with a grin that had more than a tinge of madness in it. "Cause that's my power. I'm Death."
"No, sir. No word on the boys."
Treize hid his anger and frustration the way he usually hid his impatience. Lady Une was one of his best people, brilliant, ruthless, and completely loyal, an unusual thing these days. She didn't deserve to bear the brunt of his frustration. He dismissed her, and looked around the room, wishing there was some sort of graceful and dignified way to throw a temper tantrum. There wasn't, so he settled back into his seat, looking over the new versions of the prophecy that had arrived this morning. That was suspicious, not this particular version, but that suddenly his scholars were finding so many different versions, all at once, when before it had been a struggle to find even one.
He briefly considered the possibility that somehow these things had been held back and were being delivered to him, but dismissed it. A prophecy only told what was going to happen in the future, it couldn't change anything, except indirectly, if someone read them and then changed the present. As I intend to. But they couldn't change anything on their own.
He made himself as comfortable as possible and started reading this new version. With each new prophecy he read, he gained another piece of information, and the pieces were beginning to come together. Now he had the identities of the five who were destined to save humanity, and if he didn't have them in his hands, it was only a matter of time until he did. He was also learning the names of some companions to the five: the Peaceful Girl, the Faithful Followers, and the Disinherited, whatever that meant. The one who would become the incarnation of the danger was referred to as the Seeker. His life would be so much simpler if the prophecies would just use people's names instead of these mystical and mysterious names.
Oh, well, there was no help for it. He'd have to wait until either something was revealed, or he got another piece of information that would help him positively identify these, and others.
There was another option, of course. When he finally had Quatre and the others in his hands, chances were these other people would come to him on their own, which would solve a great number of his problems.
He continued to read, and didn't notice Lady Une quietly close the door, slipping away before someone could catch her eavesdropping.
------------------------------------------------
Quatre stared at the suddenly changed Duo. Gone was the laughing, easy-going (although sometimes irritating) fellow who had been with them for almost a month. Now there was a hard-eyed man who gave orders and expected them to be followed. Then there was the whole matter of Duo ripping their pendants away from them. It wasn't so much the loss of his that bothered Quatre - Trowa's friends were trustworthy, and there was no one else to see them, but he'd never seen Duo use magic of any kind before, not even the little magics that normal mages could do. If not for the power that Quatre sensed in him and the physical differences that marked their kind, he could have been a normal human.
"Get in a circle around the humans," Duo instructed in a low voice as he reached under his shirt and pulled out a small necklace with some sort of cross hanging from it. He carefully placed it on the outside of his clothes so that it was clearly visible. "We'll have to protect them. I don't think they'll attack us."
"Who?" Quatre asked nervously as they moved into a circle around the two normal humans. And since when do you call them humans, not 'normal humans' or 'non-mages'?
"The vestia," Duo said. "They're forest spirits who have been given a physical form and bound to protect the boundaries of the forest. Very few of the faeries use them anymore - the boundaries are enough to keep humans out. I only saw one once because we visited a distant forest that bordered a very dangerous region, and the faeries there kept a few vestia on that border to make sure nothing got through."
"We?"
"Never mind. Here they come. I don't think they'll attack us, but I know they'll attack the humans. That's why we have to stay between the vestia and the humans until I can convince them we won't harm the forest. Got it?"
They nodded nervously, and Quatre could practically hear Heero promising himself he'd get the entire story out of Duo if he had to beat it out of him with his fists. If he could do it. Quatre knew as much about magic as almost anyone, and he never felt anything like what he'd felt today, first from Trowa, then from Heero and Wufei, and now from Duo, too. Something about their situation was changing them, and he wasn't sure it was for the best.
Then he saw what had to be the vestia. They looked like ghosts, really, six or eight feet tall, white masses of faint light in a vaguely human shape, but he could partially see through them, and he shivered. Duo, although wary, walked directly up to one of them, holding his arms out to the sides. One of the... the beings swept up over him and all around him, then backed off, while the others moved in and swept around the group. Quatre felt a damp chill on his skin, but nothing more.
The ghosts moved back towards Duo, and a strange howling sound emerged from their forms. He shook his head firmly, opened his mouth... and a strange trilling noise, like birdsong, emerged from his lips. The ghosts hesitated, then howled again. Once again Duo opened that mouth and let that odd bird-song come out. The ghosts howled, and this time Duo crossed his arms and shot them a sharp look, and they actually fell silent, and backed up several feet. Duo sighed and turned around. "You guys might as well sit down and get some rest. I've managed to convince them not to kill us or the humans now, but they're not letting us go anywhere until some of their masters arrived. They should be here in under an hour."
"You managed to convince them..." Wufei managed to say in a half-choked voice.
"Yeah. They hesitated 'cause of our ears and magic. Otherwise they would have killed us without a second thought. But they're definitely not happy about the humans being here. Luckily, they can sense the demons out there, and it's confusing them, so they are waiting for instructions." He glanced out past the barrier into the fog, where they could now see a half-dozen demons waiting for them. He shrugged to himself and sank down onto the ground and settled back against a tree, closing his eyes.
"Wait!" Quatre called, hopelessly confused. "Who are their masters, and what language were you speaking?"
"The faeries, of course," Duo replied in a completely unconcerned voice, eyes still closed. "And I was speaking the only language they'd understand."
"What language?"
Duo shrugged. "It doesn't have a name. Sit down and calm down, Quatre. You can't do anything right now, and we may have to do a lot of walking tonight."
"Why?" Quatre asked, trying to calm himself.
"Well, we took shelter in the faeries' woods from a danger, and I don't know what this is going to mean for them. It's good manners to thank a person and give your apologies when you bring trouble right up to their doorstep. When the faeries come, we'll have to go with them and convey our thanks to their elders."
"Elders?" The only things that Quatre knew about faeries were the few stories he'd been told as a young child. As soon as he realized what he was, he stopped showing any interest in those stories, not wanting to draw attention to the similarities between himself and the mystical creatures, and he hadn't heard anything about them in years. So he knew virtually nothing about them except that he was supposed to look like them and they were trick-players and troublemakers. "How do you know so much about the faeries?" That question covered a myriad of others, like how he'd known how to get through the barrier, where his confidence was coming from now, how he'd known about the ghost-creatures, how he knew that language, and how he knew all about the faeries.
"I lived with them for a few years," Duo said with another casual shrug.
Quatre gasped and saw shock on the others faces. "That's impossible!"
"Why? Because the faeries only kidnap kids to use them in their spells, or to frighten parents?" Duo snorted. "Those stupid tales aren't true, any more than it's true that we're some kind of strange animal that needs to be kept locked up for the protection of the people. They took care of me when humans, who were supposed to be my own kind, turned me out!" for a second his voice dripped with anger, then, just as suddenly, he was his usual self. "So they let me live with them for a couple years. They taught me the secrets of their forests, some of their magic, and I helped them learn more about humans." He shrugged. "This wasn't my forest, but I visited it once before, I think, so the faeries had to adapt their border defenses to let me in. Most of the forests won't let a human of any kind in, even if I know the spell." He shrugged. "It's a good thing that I guessed right, and this was a forest I visited before."
"You guessed?!" Catherine shrieked, and fainted as the stress finally got to her.
Duo's eyes snapped open as Quatre just barely managed to catch Catherine and ease her to the ground. He held out a hand, checking to see if she'd injured herself. She seemed fine - it must have just been the shock. He found himself not particularily surprised that Duo had risked their lives on a chance like that. He had said that it was a risky plan. Maybe next time he says it's a risky plan I'll kill myself then and spare myself the misery, he thought ironically.
"That was a rather large risk," Trowa, the master of understatement, observed.
Duo shrugged. "It was that or the demons. I don't think even I can kill one of those."
Quatre's eyebrows shot up as the bitterness in Duo's voice hit him, as did his choice of words. Even I? That implies he's especially good at killing? But why... why would that make him hate himself? The depth of Duo's self-hatred hit him like a blow, and he gasped, pressing a hand against his chest, and unconsciously drew closer to Trowa.
"Who did you kill?" he whispered, not really expecting Duo to answer him.
"Everyone," Duo said with a shrug that belied the furious anger Quatre knew he felt. "So you might want to watch out for me. I'm a killer. The fucking king was right about one thing, at least." Another wave of self-hatred that caused Quatre to drop to his knees. Duo stared at him. "Q-man, are you all right?"
Quatre shook his head slightly, ashamed by the lack of control that had allowed him to peer into Duo's mind and see something that was profoundly personal, but at the same time wanting to know why Duo felt that way, and help him. "It's nothing," he said unconvincingly.
Duo obviously didn't believe him, but he suddenly sat straight up. "Here they come..."
Quatre's head snapped up as several... they looked a little like children, each only about three feet tall, but they had bluish skin, and very, very sharply pointed ears, translucent wings rising from their shoulders, and... there was an overwhelming sense of belonging about them. They fit in perfectly with their surroundings, and were somehow linked with each other. He blinked. He was used to getting strange feelings about certain things, but rarely did those feelings give him quite as much information as he was getting right now.
Duo opened his mouth and that odd bird-song emerged again. The faeries chattered back at him, then looked at the group, then chattered again. Suddenly one of them vanished in a puff of smoke, and reappeared next to Quatre. It reached out and touched Quatre, first his ears, then his hair, and finally the little creature lay a hand on his heart. He looked at Duo and sang some more.
"Say hi, Quatre, he just introduced himself. His name is," Duo frowned. "The closest human languages have is a very detailed definition of a specific type of leaf on a specific type of tree. He says you can call him Leaf, though."
"Leaf? Is that really his name?"
"Of course not. His real name is unpronounceable by human tongues, and even then, that isn't his secret name. He'd never tell you his real name, no more than I would," Duo snorted at the very thought. "And, by the way, he likes your hair. None of them have blond hair. Green, blue, brown and white, but not yellow. He says it looks like the sun. That's a high compliment, in their language."
"Thank you, Leaf," Quatre said formally.
"They're leaving," Trowa murmured as the ghosts turned and disappeared into the forest.
"Yeah, Bright Stream told them that we're not invaders. But we have to go see the elders," Duo said, standing. He held out a hand, and then boosted one of the faeries onto his shoulder. He grinned at Quatre, all of his earlier dark emotions either gone or buried deep enough that Quatre couldn't feel them. "They like me because I'm taller than any of them, and I give good rides, to the younglings, anyway. That doesn't happen too often among humans, either. Let's go."
Quatre got to his feet. Trowa lifted Catherine up, then looked at him. Quatre understood, held a hand over Catherine's head, and with a little mental shove woke her up. "What happened?" she asked weakly as Trowa set her on her feet, ready to catch her if she fell again.
"You fainted," the Ringmaster told her, his face creased with concern. It was the first thing he'd said since they entered the forest. "Are you all right?"
"I think so." Catherine's eyes got very wide as she saw the faery who was now clinging to Quatre's hand. "Is that..."
"This is Leaf," Quatre said firmly, with a smile at the faery, who seemed frightened by Catherine.
"That's a faery?" Catherine asked, leaning forward to look at Leaf, who cowered behind Quatre. "He's cute!"
"I wouldn't get to close," Duo warned as he started walking off into the woods. Quatre did a double take - where had all the faeries come from? Suddenly Duo was surrounded by en entire crowd of them. "They don't like normal humans much. You people have been hunting them for as long as they've existed, and you're scaring the crap out of him. Just be quiet and try not to draw attention to yourselves. Its bad manners to scare your hosts."
"Since when do you care about manners?" Wufei demanded, obviously thinking of Duo's rather... ah... unique eating habits, which more often then not did not include the use of utensils and quite often did include speaking with his mouth full, as he was not patient enough to wait for the food to leave his mouth before expressing his opinion on one matter or another.
"What? You mean human manners? That's fun, this is serious," Duo said. "You just don't act rudely to a faery elder. That's the way it is."
This? From Duo? Quatre liked Duo as much as any of them (except Trowa) - it was impossible not to like him, but he wasn't entirely sure it was Duo he was talking to right now.
"Come on," Duo said, walking away.
"Did he really mean it?" Catherine whispered. "About them not liking humans? And about meeting the elders? Who are the elders?"
Trowa, ever eloquent, shrugged as they started following Duo deeper into the forest.
---------------------------------------------------
Duo wasn't sure if this was some sort of dream come true, or a nightmare come to life to haunt him. It was great being back, the only time in his entire life that he could ever remember being happy was when he was with the faeries, just like the ones who were crowded around his waist and the one riding on his shoulder. They were all youngsters, a few of whom remembered him as he'd been back then and who were very excited to see him again. But then, they wouldn't know the truth about him. The elders weren't so innocent. They were like polar opposites, the youngsters and the elders, the youngsters were eternally innocent and carefree until they joined the ranks of the elders, at which point they gained a wisdom as ancient as the world itself. None of this ridiculous fiddling around in the middle time that most humans spent their entire lives in. Things were very clear-cut here, and it felt good to be in the only home he'd ever known.
But it was also like reliving the nightmares that tormented him most nights. Being around the faeries made him feel like he was actually living in one of the dreams, and he kept waiting for the cries of alarm as the borders, which had stood up against the ancient Mage Wars, shimmered and collapsed. Someone had mistakenly invited the destroyers in, he knew that was how they'd managed to destroy the borders, from the inside, but who the invaders were or how they managed to trick one of the elders into inviting them in, that was still a mystery. He'd been away from the glen when the border was broken, and had felt the magic wall collapse. They always were trying to get him to stay close, but his years as a street rat had made him detest any sort of confinement, so he could usually be found two or three nights a week creeping around the borders of the forest to prevent the feeling of being trapped from taking over him.
The shattering shields hit him like a physical blow, and he must have blacked out for a few minutes. When he woke up, he could feel the trees shrieking their alarm, and raced back to the glen as fast as his legs could carry him. He was too late to do anything - by the time he arrived... there was nothing left. The glen itself had been burned, everything burned, and there were bodies everywhere. No stranger to death even before that, he'd stayed long enough to identify the bodies of the elders, and his closest friends among the younglings. I won't cry, he promised himself. The faeries couldn't cry - that was why they'd taken him in in the first place. They'd found him crying as he fled through the fields near the forest, trying to hide from what he'd done to his best friend. The younglings had never seen tears before, and brought him back to the elders to ask what was wrong with him, and the elders had let him stay. But tears always upset the younglings, once they knew what the strange water meant, so he didn't cry anymore, not even when remembering hurt so bad that he wanted to die.
After a few minutes he left the ruined glen. He spent a few more days in the forest, searching for any survivors. He stayed long after he knew that there was no one left, that they were all dead, hoping vainly that one or two had been frightened and stayed in hiding all this time. But there was no one left, and without the borders, this forest was as dangerous as any other wild place. Already the trees warned him that dangerous animals were starting to move in. So he went back to the human world, which he had abandoned two years earlier. He was nine.
I kill everyone that cares for me. The thought rose to the front of his mind, unbidden.
He pushed the thought aside and concentrated on the rapid-fire questions the younglings were asking him, about himself, his friends, and the scary humans they'd brought with them. Duo chuckled. He still couldn't get over the fact that the faeries thought that Heero and Wufei were less frightening than Catherine and the Ringmaster. It was hilarious. The faeries certainly liked Trowa and Quatre, though. Well, anyone would like Quatre, but why they were so attracted to Trowa was a mystery to him.
He could still feel Heero's glare burning two holes in the back of his head, and Wufei wasn't exactly happy, either. Oh well, he thought cheerfully, it was worth almost anything to see the surprise on their faces when I started talking to the vestia. I think Heero even opened his mouth a little, too. Oh, yes, that moment had been worth a lot, and it was great being back in one of the protected forests, where the tree-spirits talked freely and the weather was never bad, but nothing was worth another slaughter like the one he'd witnessed six years ago.
In a very short time, they reached the glen, which was surprising. Glens were rarely less than two hours walk from the edge of the forest. He suspected that some of the elders had spelled them closer - they were apparently anxious to see him. The eager younglings led him up to a slightly raised platform in front of the elders' tree. Eight elders were sitting in a semi-circle on the platform. Duo set down Kelish' el' fenre ka and bowed with deep respect to the elders. :Bow,: he instructed the others, getting a great deal of enjoyment over the expression on Wufei's face at having to take orders from him before his companion composed himself and bowed solemnly to the elders, who outwardly looked almost the same as the younglings. It was very difficult to see the differences, unless you lived with them for a long time. For Duo, it was obvious.
"Much time has passed since any clan has heard from you, sisters' human-son," one of the elders commented. At first, Duo had visited with the sister clans of 'his' clan, but although none of them blamed him for his clan's death, he couldn't shake the fear that he'd end up killing more of his 'family', so eventually he left the faeries' forest for good. "It has been... two years?"
"Four, actually, honored elder of my former mother's sisters," Duo replied in their own language, not offended that they didn't know. Time passed differently for them here. An immortal creature didn't need to pay as much attention to time as a mortal one did. Similarly, the mode of address was very important to the faeries. When the elder had called him 'sisters' human-son', they were acknowledging that he had been the adopted son of the sister clan. It was, in effect, like bringing him into the family. He couldn't afford that - the last clan to welcome him was extinct now. "I have been living among humans for many years now, and can no longer be considered one of the little people."
"Not so little anymore, either," a second elder observed. Duo wasn't sure whether that was a compliment or not, but at least he'd managed to separate himself from their 'family'.
"Why have you brought humans into our forest?" demanded one of the ones sitting on the end. Despite the hostile tone of his voice, Duo wasn't too upset. The ones on the end were always supposed to take opposing and extreme views of any case. The elders accusation had nothing to do with the group or his personal opinion. "And so many. How could you bring six humans into our forest?"
Now there was something that had to be corrected. "Two," he replied promptly.
"Six," the elder repeated.
"Two. Two humans, and four like me," Duo replied firmly.
"Six humans," the elder repeated stubbornly, and Duo allowed a hint of a frown to appear on his face. He could be just as stubborn as them, and he wanted them to know it.
"Two."
"Duo, what are you doing?" Quatre murmured. "We can't understand it, you know, but you sound like a merchant haggling over a price."
"I'm haggling over how many humans I brought into their forest."
Quatre looked confused, and Ran' vir' kel ar, the one that Quatre was calling Leaf, patted his hand comfortingly. The thought of any of them trying to pronounce 'Leaf' or 'Bright Stream's' real names was fairly funny, too.
"Six. You are also human."
"I said I'd been living among humans," he corrected. "Two."
"There is a difference? Six."
"Yes. Humans do not like my kind. Just now we five are escaping from a human who wanted to lock us up. Two."
The elder frowned. The faeries didn't have stupid prejudices, so he was in no position to understand human ones. Finally he gave up. "Two," he agreed, then asked, "Why would they do such a thing?"
Duo shrugged. "Humans are strange."
Remembering his role, the elder put on a stern face and asked, "Why have you brought humans into our forest?"
"We were being pursued by evil creatures, who wanted to destroy us though we committed no crime. I thought that we might be able to hide behind the border shields, knowing that the little people would never truly harm innocents, as humans believe you would, knowing that you would, in fact, protect them." If nothing else worked, flattery was always a good idea.
The elder scowled at him, trying to figure out what was wrong with that statement.
"Of course we will protect you and your friends!" said the elder on the end, who was supposed to be his advocate. In fact, Duo was sort of surprised that she hadn't spoken up earlier. "How long must you stay?"
"Only until the sun sets twice," Duo assured her. "Then the evil creatures will be sent back to where they came from, and we will leave. No one will ever tell your secrets, either."
"How can you guarantee that?" demanded the other elder, back in his role of devil's advocate.
"I am a mage, as are some of my companions. We can ensure that the humans will never speak about what they have seen here."
"Holy Lady! It's THEM!" the first elder to speak suddenly exclaimed, pointing straight at Duo. Then his wavering finger moved to point at the other four. The elder made a gesture and the half-circle disappeared entirely.
:What's happening?: Heero growled in his mind.
:I don't know, I've never seen anything like this!:
:I thought you knew these creatures,: Wufei accused.
Duo's temper flared. :These creatures, as you call them, are completely as intelligent as any human, and a damn sight more compassionate, too! When my kind,: sarcasm dripped form his voice, :was letting people like me die like animals, when they kicked me out of villages and treated me like some sort of disease in society, just because I didn't have a family, these creatures took me in! Tell me one human family who would have done the same!:
:Mine,: Quatre said softly. :We try, but we can't get to everyone, and we're not allowed to help people beyond our borders.:
:I didn't mean you, Quatre,: Duo said. :I'm sure there are good humans out there somewhere, but I haven't met any. When humans turned me out, the faeries took me in. So don't go about thinking that they're what most humans think they are. They're different, but not evil. Like us.: Silence followed his words. Except I really am what they fear, he added to himself.
Suddenly the eight elders reappeared. "You may stay," said the one who had spoken first.
Duo blinked. It wasn't supposed to be this easy. He had expected that they would eventually be allowed to stay for the few days they needed, he couldn't have imagined the faeries not letting them, but it should have been a long and drawn-out argument. This sudden capitulation made him nervous. "Thank you, honored elders," he said with a bow. "If it doesn't bother you, may I ask why you agreed so easily?"
They stared at him as if he'd sprouted another head. "You mean you don't know?" one of them asked incredulously.
He shook his head. "Know what?"
---------------------------------------------------
Duo and the suddenly-there faeries were talking again, then Duo shook his head and said something in response to the faeries. The faeries exchanged a glance, and then there was a brilliant flash of light. Heero shielded his eyes, and when he put his arm down, he was standing on some sort of endless flat gray plain. The other four were also standing there, as were the eight faeries. "What did you do? Where are we?" he growled, readying himself to attack.
"Calm yourself, young Master," one of the faeries said. "Your physical bodies are fine, but it was necessary to bring your spirit selves to this place so that we could speak with you. We do not speak your tongue with any fluency."
"Young Master?" Duo asked, and his voice trembled slightly. "Why did you call him that?" he asked in an accusing voice.
"What's wrong?" Quatre asked.
"They don't call anyone Master, it's part of their life, one of their few laws," Duo told him, still staring at Heero. "They haven't called anyone Master since the Mage Wars. Then their Masters were the great magicians of that time who created many magical beings, like the faeries, in the midst of their wars. I don't think the word 'master' has passed the lips of a faery in almost a thousand years."
"Exactly a thousand years, young Master," another faery said to Duo, who blanched and turned white.
"It's been one thousand years since the world was nearly destroyed by human magics. Human magics and demon masters," yet another faery added, and Heero added to his list of annoyances that Duo had brought about the fact that he couldn't tell any of the faeries apart.
"What?"
"Humans lost much of their knowledge in those times," a faery said, shaking his head. "They know nothing of what happened back there."
"Then tell us," Duo said coldly. "We don't know. Tell us what happened, and why you keep calling us 'Master.' Kir' ur' te chavel told me that you would never call another that."
"It is your destiny, young Master. All of your destinies. The battles that mortals now call the mage wars were fought between men, yes, but what few know is that those mortals were merely the agents of greater powers, fighting for domination of this world."
"Not merely," another corrected. "But they didn't fight for themselves. Back then there were many powerful mages, who toyed with their magics and used them against each other, or to create beings like ourselves. But the most powerful among them were there for a greater purpose. On one side were those fighting for the inhabitants of this planet were five who embodied various powers of this world. And there were a few, we never knew the true number, who, through their ambition or arrogance, were tricked, or forced, into serving the invaders. A power from the same realm as the evil that chases you now wishes to move from that realm into this one. I do not think anyone would wish to live in this world if they got control."
"So what happened?" Duo demanded. "If they were so powerful, shouldn't there be some sort of resolution? I'm assuming our guys won, because we're here having this conversation."
"The invaders were being beaten back, although the battles were tearing this world apart. Evidence of the damage still exists to the north of here."
"The wastelands?" Duo asked, air whistling through his teeth as he grimaced and sucked in a deep breath. "Fuck. All right, what happened?"
"They were being beaten back, but before they could be trapped and permanently barred from this world, they escaped, jumping back to their own world. There was nothing our people could do - we can't live on their world, so they couldn't follow, and there's no way to attack from this world. So they did the only thing they could think of - they erected a magical barrier around this world to keep the invaders out for a thousand years, to give humanity a chance to recover from the devastation so you could fight again when the invaders came back."
"That's why there are no great mages anymore!" Quatre suddenly exclaimed. "All of this world's magic is going into keeping the barrier up, so there wasn't any excess that... seeped into people."
"There were no great mages," the elder corrected him. "Your very existence tells us that the barrier is coming down. It has been one thousand years, and the invaders will be able to return. I suspect in another dozen years, you will see quite a few 'great mages', as you call them, as the magic returns to the inhabitants of the world. If the world still exists then."
His words were not reassuring. "What does this have to do with us?" Trowa asked quietly.
"Is it not obvious? You have been born to embody the power of this world, so that you may protect it."
"What sort of power?"
"If you don't know, then I may not tell you. I may have said too much already. Too much foreknowledge voids the prophecies."
"Prophecies!" Duo exclaimed in disgust. "His fuck-head the king was talking about them too! What is this?"
"Prophecies are very important, but they must be filled out exactly to be valid. There are things you must do at certain times or in certain places, or all is lost."
"We're being driven to the north," Quatre offered hesitantly. "Can you tell us anything about that? Are we headed for the wastelands?"
"I can't tell you that, but you will know when you've reached your destination. And why we will help you now. You must be allowed to continue your journey safely. We shall pass word on to the other clans, so that they will know you and provide aid if you ever need it."
"Is there anything you can tell us about the demons that chased us today that might give us a chance to fight them off?" Quatre asked calmly. He seemed to be taking this all in stride. At least it didn't seem to be affecting his ability to think. Duo seemed stunned. At least, that's what Heero was assuming it was, because the braided idiot was actually quiet for once. As for Heero himself, he was very, very angry at the entire situation, but he shunted that aside. Anger at the faeries, or anyone else, wouldn't do him any good. He started to carefully go over everything they faeries had said, assimilating the data. If the wastelands were the location of the last battle, it was entirely possible that that was where they were heading.
"You cannot kill them, but if you sever the link between the bodies they inhabit here and their spirits, they will not be able to remain on this world. The ancient Masters were able to do this, but I do not know how. If you cannot do that, run, there is nothing else that will stop them. It is possible," he glanced at one of his companions. "That we will be able to construct some talismans that will keep them from being able to track you. We will attempt that immediately, so that we will be able to give them to you when you leave. Your departure must not be delayed."
"In the meantime, you have our hospitality," the female faery said. "And if I may make a suggestion, you may want to exchange a bit of information about yourselves. Secrecy may have protected you in the past, but trust is what will get you through this journey. You are stronger together than you are apart, and knowing each other's strengths and weaknesses would be wise." She gave them a sharp look, then clapped her hands, and abruptly they were standing back in the middle of the faeries' home.
One of the elders started speaking in that odd language again, and Duo bowed, nodded, and pointed to one of the trees that surrounded the edge of the glade. "They say there's a huge room in there we can use to sleep for the next two nights. The demons should be gone after that. We can rejoin the circus at the other end of the forest. We won't even have lost any time."
-------------------------------------------
That night, long after Catherine and the Ringmaster were safely asleep, the five of them sat up, awake. "We should talk. Exchange stories at least," Duo finally muttered. "I don't have the faintest clue what any of you can do, besides Quatre. I've seen some pretty weird magic living with the faeries, but none of it was anything like what I saw today, when you fought through the fog, Trowa, or the two of you struck down those demons," his glance included Wufei and Heero, who glared at him. "Maybe... it might be important. I'd hate for someone to get hurt because we were trying to hide from each other." Unspoken was the comment that he had revealed quite a bit about himself in order to protect them. Wufei understood the point, but did not wish to be the first to speak.
"My father was Lord Winner, Earl of the Desert," Quatre said quietly. "I have twenty-nine older sisters, born to my father by many of his wives. My mother was his favorite, but she died giving birth to me. I was the heir to the Winner estates, until I was found out. I've known I was... different for a long time. Even before I understood what I was, I knew to hide it. I wore my hair long over my ears, and I slumped my shoulders to hide how long and thin I was. When I was nine, I found out what I was when I was in court and heard Treize's announcement that all 'faeries' were to be incarcerated. I was angry, I was frightened, but I didn't think there was anything I could do about it. So I kept hiding. I managed to keep it a secret for over six years, not even my sisters knew, and in that time I also discovered that I was not a normal mage. I never got tired when I risked using my magic, and I could do every spell that I read about in the books I was able to sneak out of the library. I got caught one day when I was out in the marketplace with my father. There was a runaway horse, and this little orphan girl..." he sighed and blinked away tears. "I healed her. She would have died otherwise. I knew the Hunters were right there - they were actually walking in the market with my father, talking about something Treize was doing, but I couldn't let her die. I couldn't let them know that I was different, either, so I pretended to collapse after I healed her. The Hunters immediately took hold of me, locked that collar around my neck..." his hand went to his throat. "... They thought I was asleep, but I heard everything they said about me, said to my father about me, and I felt it when they tied me up and threw me in the cage. After that... well, you all know what happened. I stayed with you. I should have tried to do something earlier to stop what Treize was doing, but I was scared. I'm sorry." He looked around the group nervously, as if expecting some sort of angry judgment from one of them.
Trowa reached out and actually embraced Quatre while he was awake. "I don't use my power very often, I never have, but I always knew it was there," Trowa said softly. He didn't let go of Quatre, and Quatre leaned against his chest, a faint smile on his face. "I... I have no real name. I started using the name Trowa Barton when I became a bounty hunter. I was raised by a band of mercenaries as their slave, but I learned from them. I escaped when I was eleven. I became a bounty hunter for a year after that, but I didn't like it very much. I joined the circus when I was twelve, because I knew how to throw knives. I was there for three years before the Hunters tracked me down." He shrugged.
"And what is your power?" Duo asked, eyes bright.
"I can manipulate the forces of nature, weather, earth, water... they obey me. The fog... was unnatural. And I can change form."
"What?" Quatre sat up straight and looked at Trowa. "What forms?"
"Anything that's alive and exists in nature. Animals are easier than plants, though."
"Can I see?"
Wufei didn't miss the fact that Quatre had asked Trowa to show 'him', not 'them'. Their attraction was blatantly obvious to everyone except the two of them.
Trowa nodded once, then stood up. Suddenly his body seemed to melt downwards in a sickening process that made Wufei vaguely nauseous to watch. He averted his eyes briefly, and when he looked back, there was a huge, tawny-maned lion standing in front of him, just like the ones Trowa was always petting back in the circus wagon.
Quatre's eyes were as large as saucers. "Trowa, is that you?"
:It's me,: Trowa assured them mentally. :I can't talk properly with other bodies.: He did that strange melting thing, but upward this time, and a few seconds later he stood there, looking perfectly normal. He sat down again, but did not reach for Quatre, who looked slightly disappointed.
"Trowa, did you change the weather that night before we met your circus?" Wufei asked suspiciously. Trowa nodded, looking vaguely embarrassed, and Quatre smiled slightly.
"Your turn, Heero," Duo said in a teasing voice.
Heero glared at him, but he did speak. "My name is Heero Yuy. That is not my real name, I do not know my real name. It is a name given to my by the man who raised me. Odin Lowe was a lone mercenary and assassin. He never told me where he found me. He trained me to work with him, and to complete my missions with utmost efficiency, without letting my emotions get in the way. He was killed in a mission five years ago, but I completed the mission before I left." He gave out another broad round of glares as if promising doom on anyone who even suggested that he wouldn't complete a mission.
"I do not know the source of my power. I can heal without exhaustion, like Quatre, and I can throw balls of pure energy to kill. The first talent was considered inappropriate for an assassin, so Odin... discouraged it. Strongly. The second might be appropriate, but it was too flashy, so I only used it in practice." He distributed one more glare and fell silent.
Wufei realized that both Trowa and Heero had exceeded their conversation limits for the next three weeks, and would probably remain silent all that time because of it. That meant that the only one talking would be Duo... he shuddered.
As if his thoughts had brought doom upon himself, Duo turned to him. "All right, Wu-man! What's your story?"
Wufei barely restrained a snarl of anger. "My name is not Wu-man. My name is Chang Wufei. I am the last surviving member of the Dragon Clan."
"Hey, wait a second. Chang Wufei? You mean we've been calling you by your last name all this time?" Duo asked. "That's cold. You didn't even tell us your name."
"Duo, Wufei is his first name," Quatre murmured. "Change is his family name. They say their family names first in his land."
Maybe they're not all ignorant barbarians... Wufei turned a surprised eye to Quatre, who smiled faintly. "Someone as close to the throne as I was had to be able to deal with ambassadors from all sorts of places. I spent hours every week learning customs from other lands, even ones as distant as your own, Chang Wufei."
Hearing his name pronounced correctly hurt more than he wanted to think about, so Wufei nodded sharply and continued speaking. "I was a scholar for most of my life, and I did not know of my power. When I was ten, I was married to a girl from another clan to cement ties between us. She was a warrior, and although we did not care for each other, there was... respect." He swallowed. He hadn't spoken to anyone of what happened since the actual event. "At our wedding, a dozen of the demons arrived. Warriors from both of our clans tried to fight them off, but they cannot be harmed by normal means. One of Meiran's uncles was a priest and a prophet, and managed to cast a spell that bought us a few seconds. He ordered my wife and I to flee. At the time I was quite angry, and Meiran was angrier, but we obeyed. The demons broke through his shields a few seconds after we started to run, and he was cut down. Meiran turned to fight the demon to avenge her uncle, and was killed." He was astonished at how careless his own voice sounded as he described the death of his wife. "I thought I was going to die, but as they approached me, flames burst from my body. The demons recoiled, and I ran. I managed to stay ahead of them for two days, because every time they got close, the flames returned and I was able to escape." He swallowed as he remembered those two horrible days of constant flight, when he was unable to sleep or even rest as he fled those who had destroyed two clans. "When they were gone, I pledged myself to the sword to avenge their deaths. I trained, and learned to control my power as well. I found out that somehow the demons had come from this land, so I came across the sea to find out why they had come, who had sent them, and to kill them. I had barely arrived when I was captured by the Hunters." He snorted in disgust at his own weakness.
"Wait a second. If you didn't know what most mages could do, how did you know to conceal your power?" Duo asked.
"I did not know."
"Then you used your power in front of them?!"
"No. I would not use magic on those who had none themselves. It is dishonorable and weak."
Duo stared at him as if he'd started to speak some incomprehensible language. "Dishonorable. Right. Whatever."
Wufei glared at him, wishing he was as good at it as Heero.
"So your power is fire?" Quatre said timidly.
Wufei sighed and conjured a ball of fire. "And I see magic. I see it everywhere," he added in a weary voice. When that particular talent had emerged, it had taken him weeks to get used to seeing flowing streams of light all around him, all the time. There was magic all over the world, and it nearly blinded him at first. Now he could ignore it, but it was an irritation.
"Oh." Quatre sounded unenlightened, but Wufei decided he had talked enough for today.
"Duo?" he asked, arching an eyebrow.
"What?"
"Your turn."
"You already know my story."
"We know you lived with the faeries at one point, and that you were a thief at another," Heero growled. "The whole story. Now."
Something dark flickered in Duo's eyes before he looked away. "Fine. I'm a street rat, born and raised. Never had any family." He shrugged. "So what. When I was little, I was part of this gang. There was this older kid, Solo, he protected all of the little kids, and he taught me how to survive on the streets. I was with him until I turned seven. That was... nine years ago, right? That year there was a disease that ran through the slums that year. The wealthy had enough money to buy a cure. We didn't. Solo and the others got sick. I didn't. Since I was the only one healthy enough to move, I went into one of the rich people's homes, and stole their medicine. I took it back with me, tried to give it to Solo, but he insisted I give it to the other kids first. I did, and I gave what was left over to him, but I guess there wasn't enough." There was a dead quality in his voice now, and a dead look in his eyes. "The others started getting better, but Solo didn't. He was dying, and he was in so much pain. I knew I could heal, a little. I tried to help him - I just wanted his pain to end. And I ended it. I killed him, sucked the life right out of him.
"Some of the so-good humans," his voice dripped with bitterness now. "Some of them had followed me back from when I stole the medicine. And they walked in on us like that, a bunch of sick little *human* kids, halfway between life and death, one dead kid, Solo, and little old me, the faery-child, sitting over his body with my ears in plain view. Who do you think they blamed, not only for Solo's death, but for the others and for the entire plague? It wasn't the son of the rich man I robbed. They ran me out of the town that night. I ran so fast, even though..." he cut himself off. "I ran fast enough that they couldn't catch me to stone me. That's when the faeries found me. They took me back into their forest and gave me a home and a family. They taught me their language, and some of their magic. They were good people. I killed them too."
"What?" Quatre gasped.
"I didn't see what happened. I was off in the woods. The border shields shattered, and I was linked to them. I collapsed, and when I woke up, the trees were screaming warnings. I ran back to the glen, but it was too late. They were all dead. Something killed them all. I searched for days for someone, anyone, but no one survived. So I left the faery forest, went back to the humans. Called myself Duo Maxwell, Duo for Solo, and Maxwell, because that's pretty close to the faery word for 'human.' I've been on the streets by myself since then, till I got caught by those damn Hunters. But I took a bunch of them out with me, first," he added with satisfaction.
"The faeries weren't your fault, Duo," Quatre said quietly.
"Oh, but they were. I don't think you understand. Everyone who gets close to me dies," Duo said with a grin that had more than a tinge of madness in it. "Cause that's my power. I'm Death."