I feel that I should clarify something: on one of the previous chapters, someone commented on how fast I write. While I do consider myself a fast writer, I'm not turning out two or three chapters a day! Each chapter is 10 - 15 pages long, and takes me anywhere between three days and three weeks to get out, depeding on what's going on in my normal life, etc. I started this story months ago, and right now I'm posting them whenever I get the time to change the files into txt format. Once I get to eleven or twelve, though, it's probably going to slow down a lot, because I'll actually have to write the chapters, not just convert them.
Thanx for all of the comments I've gotten on this story - it's really encouraging me to write more.
Zechs led them down several flights of stairs, until they were down in the bowels of Relena's castle, in an area that was most definitely a dungeon, and Quatre stirred uneasily. The last place with bars he'd seen had been the compound, and he didn't want to think about that place. "What are we doing down here?" he asked.
"I hid the Crystal down here. My sister doesn't use more than a quarter of her prisons, and only on the most dangerous criminals, so it was safer down here." There was a definite emphasis on the way he said 'crystal', but he didn't explain it.
"You wanted to protect something, so you stuck it among the worst criminals in your country. That was bright," Duo remarked sarcastically. Surprisingly, Heero didn't give pull on his braid for that comment - apparently he thought it was a legitimate concern. Either that or he was finally taking pity on Duo's head. No, probably not. Quatre hadn't missed the hint of a smile on Heero's face as he grabbed onto Duo's braid, but Heero was doing his best to make sure that Duo never saw anything unusual from him. It was a very interesting thing to watch, Duo trying to get a reaction out of Heero, and getting one, but Heero hiding it, so that Duo kept trying even harder. Funny to watch, sometimes, too. Quatre wondered how much longer Heero could keep up the act.
"I wasn't trying to protect it from humans," Zechs said in a sharp voice. "It's safe from them - a human who tried to move it would be instantly killed. I was protecting it from Treize and the few of his Hunters who could touch it."
Quatre's head spun around. "What?!"
Zechs frowned. "You didn't know?"
"What?!"
"Treize is a mage, the same as most of his former prisoners. Some of his best Hunters are minor mages, as well. He's a hypocrite, as well as a number of other things. He turned those like himself into animals in his own kingdom, and then tried to do the same in mine." That was the first time Quatre could remember Zechs referring to the Sank kingdom as his own - that was the sort of thing Milliardo would have said. He was having less trouble keeping Milliardo and Zechs separate in his own mind then he would have a year ago. He was two people, too - they didn't have completely different names, like Zechs/Milliardo, but they were separate just the same.
"How did you know?"
"You forget, Quatre, I'm several years older than you. I saw Treize when I was very young, long before he declared that mages weren't human, even before he started with this obsession about prophecies. Back then he displayed his ears quite openly, almost like he was daring someone to look down on him because of it. Then he started reading those prophecies, and hiding his ears. By the time he declared that mages weren't human, few people remembered that he was a mage himself, and those that did either kept their mouths shut on their own or were silenced by the Hunters. His first hunters were the few mages who joined him of their own free will, you know."
Quatre shook his head in disbelief. I always knew that he was more dangerous than I knew, but not why, and that some of the Hunters were more dangerous than others, and not because of their physical strengths. It was incredible, but it made a sort of twisted sense. He'd known that Treize didn't really believe the nonsense he spouted about the mages, and he could very easily Treize having that sort of secret while he locked up his own people, if he really believed that he was doing the right thing. It still wasn't right, but he could very easily see it, even understand it, a little...
Quatre cut off his thoughts as Zechs unlocked and opened a very large, thick wooden door, braced with metal strips. The door swung open and immediately their eyes, which had finally started to get used to the gloom down here, were assaulted by bright white light. Quatre held up his hand to shield his eyes against the light, instinctively stepping forward towards the source. It felt... good. He was dimly aware of the others doing the same thing.
When his eyes finally adjusted, Quatre saw that they were standing in a circle around a low table. On that table was a huge crystal, the biggest one he'd ever seen, easily three feet tall and five in diameter. It was what was glowing, bright white, and just being around it seemed comforting to him. He found himself smiling without any good reason, and glanced around the circle, and saw shock and wonder reflected on the faces of all of his companions, even those who usually didn't admit to any emotions.
"What... what is it?" he asked after a few minutes of basking in the stone's glow. He noticed that Zechs had backed up into the corner of the room, getting as far away as possible from the stone without actually leaving the room. "What's wrong?"
"It's the stone," Zechs said, turning his head away from it. "This is the crystal your predecessors used to trap their essences and their power to build the shield. It's been waiting for you for a thousand years. It's your inheritance, in a manner of speaking."
"But you..."
"It has ways of making sure that it was not tampered with. The truth is that no human would be able to get close enough to be killed by it. The stone emits a feeling of discomfort, aversion even, to everyone except those to whom it belongs. It allowed me to touch it long enough to move it, but since then it doesn't want me any nearer than anyone else. Right now... it is tolerating me, because it knows I must be here to instruct you, but it is still not... pleasant."
"Zechs... who are you?" Quatre asked suddenly. "You have more power than the... the normal mages, but you're not one of us, either."
Zechs snorted. "I'm your protector, and the protector of this stone, and the prophecies and the information they contain. My only purpose is to help you. Because of that I have been given some additional powers, weaker than those of the old mages, but close. I can do little more than what you've already seen." His voice was bitter, and Quatre understood. Bad enough to be pushed along because of a destiny you didn't know or understand or want, but it would be even worse to be pushed into a destiny where all you could do was help someone else, not have a purpose yourself.
"I..." he started to say, wanting to comfort Zechs, but Zechs cut him off.
"Don't. It's not your fault. Just go. Put your hands on the Crystal, and it will give you answers. Go. It's your destiny." Quatre heard the slight emphasis on the second-to-last word, but the others immediately put their hands on the stone, and he quickly followed suit. There was an immediate feeling of welcome, then a bright flash of light...
Quatre opened his eyes and saw that they were no longer standing in Relena's dungeon. Instead, they were standing on the same plain they'd been standing on in the first dream, the one that prompted them to break out of the compound. Again there was that feeling of anticipation hanging in the air, but not of the desperation that had marked the dream. The rest of it, the endless rolling plains, the black clouds... it was all the same.
"We're back here!" Duo cried in tones of dismay, looking around.
"Not exactly," said a voice that didn't belong to anyone in the group. Quatre spun around and saw a group of five people walking towards them from five different directions. The one who'd just spoken was the one headed for Duo, a young woman dressed entirely in black, a pair of pants and a shirt with a an over shirt with a number of long pieces of flimsy black fabric trailing behind her, waving slightly in the wind. Two huge bat-like wings rose from her back, and she had short brown hair, sharply pointed ears, and the same violet eyes as Duo, and in her hand was a large scythe. She set the end of it on the ground and leaned against it, the blade curving through the air above her head. "You aren't really here now, you never were here, and you never will be here, because this place doesn't exist anymore. This is simply... well, it's a little more solid than a vision, and a little less than reality. Let's just call it a bubble of existence out of time. In your time, this place is located in a region that you call the wastelands."
"This... this is what the wastelands used to look like?" Quatre asked, never taking his eyes off the black-clad girl. He was purposefully avoiding looking at any of the other newcomers. He had a feeling he wasn't ready to see them yet.
"Yes. Beautiful, wasn't it? There were tribes of nomads scattered all over," the girl replied, a sad look in her eyes as she gestured with her free hand. "I grew up on these plains."
"Who the fuck are you?" Duo demanded.
The girl's eyes sparkled with amusement. "Death at your service," she said, bowing deeply to them, never letting go of the scythe.
"Thanatos[1], you're scaring them," scolded a voice behind Quatre. He swallowed, and turned. There was a boy with black hair and green eyes standing a few feet away from him, smiling pleasantly. He was dressed in tan pants and a white shirt, and two glowing gossamer wings rose from his back. "They're on our side, remember?"
"Just joking around, Gente[2]," the girl said. "Go ahead."
The boy turned back to Quatre, who felt a shiver run down his spine. "My apologies. We are... I believe that Zechs has been referring to us as your predecessors, which is correct, although not entirely accurate. We are your predecessors, but we are more than that. More like earlier incarnations of yourselves. You are us, born over again. Different souls, but mirrors of each other. It's complicated. But we are the ones who battled the demon lords a thousand years ago, and we're going to pass our knowledge and power onto you. We trapped our spirits here for two purposes - first to build the shield, second to still be around to teach you. Once we teach you, the shield will fall within a year, and we will finally be able to pass on." He smiled in relief and anticipation.
"You... you've been waiting here a thousand years, just for us?" Quatre asked.
"No, we've been waiting for the whole world," corrected a young woman with platinum hair in a long braid down her back. She was dressed in an indecently short dress made of a red material, a sword was strapped to her back, and fiery wings sprouted from her back. "You just happen to be the way that we show our caring for the whole world. I must say I am disappointed with my present form," she said, gazing at Wufei with distaste.
"I was an onna?!" Wufei shouted, outraged.
"See? It's just a good thing that one of our present incarnations wasn't female, or we'd be in big trouble," she observed, looking down her nose at Wufei. "I can't believe that I waited a thousand years to be reborn and got reborn as a male chauvinist."
Wufei was looking like he was about to explode, but Quatre was distracted by a comment from Gente. "It's good to be together again."
Quatre stared at him. "Haven't you guys been together here the whole time?"
"We couldn't," the girl standing near Wufei said with a toss of her head that sent her braid flying. "Our lives went to different parts of the spell that would protect our world and bring us back here when it was time to pass on our power. There wasn't much intermingling of our essences."
"She's sugar-coating it for you," Thanatos said with a grin much like Duo's. "This is the first time any of us has had any company in the last thousand years. Gets kinda lonely after the first few hundred, and watching those who are still alive wandering around on the surface loses interest after the first five hundred." For a second her grin faltered and her face reflected great loss before it disappeared and was covered by that grin again. "It will be good to move on," she said softly.
"Hn."
For a second, Quatre thought that it was Heero, but then he saw that the sound had come from the oriental boy standing just beyond Heero, dressed entirely in white and with white feathered wings rising from his back. He wore a sword at his side, and one hand always rested on it. His eyes flashed with emotion for a moment as he grunted agreement to Thantos' words, but then they were back to blank black pools.
"We should start," murmured the last of their predecessors, the one nearest Trowa, a young man with long reddish hair worn in a ponytail that ran down his back. He was dressed entirely in green, and carried a bow in one hand. A quiver of arrows sat on his back, in between two large brown feathered wings. They shook slightly before folding down on his back, making him look as if he had some huge deformity in his back.
"Of course, Gael[3]," Gente replied with another smile, and Quatre found himself smiling in return. "Meet back here in a few hours? Vida[4]?" he asked, looking at the boy garbed in white, who nodded and then looked around.
The others nodded their agreement, and suddenly everyone except Gente vanished. "Where?" Quatre asked.
"They've retreated to their own areas to teach your friends what they need to know. From their perspective, we're the ones who've disappeared. It's all relative, here."
"Oh."
"Is this all coming a little too fast?"
"A bit," Quatre said with a shrug. "I'm not sure I'm happy with the idea that someone was messing around with my personality."
Gente stared at him. "Who told you that?"
"Zechs."
Gente shook his head. "He's got the right idea, but he doesn't understand. I was originally picked to protect the world by drawing power from people simply because my personality was best suited to it. Of course, the fact that I was quite a powerful mage didn't hurt, either." He smiled sadly. "I only lived a few dozen years on this world, and I spent a thousand watching it from afar, and I still can't get used to the idea of how little magic there is in your world now."
"You only lived a few dozen years?" for some reason that seemed to be the saddest thing of all.
"Twenty-eight, to be exact. You're just seeing me as I was when I first got the power. We fought for twelve years before we finally fought them off. Almost half our lives," he said without a hint of bitterness or rancor. He wasn't at all angry that his entire life had been torn from him, practically, first with years of fighting that wore him down until he was a mere shadow of himself, and then stole what remained when he killed himself with the others to protect the world they'd fought for.
Quatre started - how had he seen all that?
Gente nodded. "I always was more sensitive than the others to stray thoughts - I see you share the same trait. It doesn't matter - I was going to show it all to you anyway. Part of what I'm going to teach you is how to shield yourself, so you won't be picking up stray thoughts anymore. But back to the point. Before we go on, I want you to understand that whatever tampering the magic did with you was incidental. You weren't molded to fit the magic - the magic was made so that it worked for people with personalities like us. That's why we're so much alike - the magic wouldn't work for someone who was different. That doesn't mean that you are any different then you would have been otherwise. If you'd been born a few generations earlier, you would have just lived out your life normally, and been known as a very nice person. That's it. So don't you worry that you're somehow not yourself anymore. Same for the rest of the others - they're just who they would have been if they didn't have the magic - the magic just... intensifies some feelings."
"Intensifies?"
"Well, take your Trowa, for example. I bet that if he was normal, he would just avoid people, except for the few he forces himself to get close to, to remind himself of his humanity. Gael used to do that. But because of the power... well, nature isn't an enemy of mankind, exactly, but I saw the power take over Gael once, and he obliterated a mining camp that was absolutely destroying the forest around it - it was horrible - but what Gael did to those men was horrible, too." He frowned. "You have to be very careful, because the power will act for itself, if you don't watch out. Anyway, because of the power, Gael had to force himself to talk to people. His power wanted him to be alone, and it was the way he was, too, but he didn't want to be controlled by the power, so he forced himself to interact with people. I don't know if your Trowa will be the same, but if he has trouble with people, it may not be entirely his fault. Try to keep that in mind."
"I will," Quatre said with a nod.
Gente smiled. "I know you will. I never had a relationship with any of the others beyond friendship. It might have been easier if I had, but I know you'll do well."
"You didn't..."
Gente's smile faltered slightly. "Strange, isn't it? Life and Death, Magic and Nature. In the words of my untactful colleague, 'You're great at loving people in general, mediocre at loving a few people, and pretty bad at loving just one person.[5]' A little cruel, but accurate in my case. I don't think you have that problem, and for that I'm grateful, even if the relationship is a little... unconventional."
My father would disown me again, if he found out, Quatre thought, but the memory of his father disowning him, abandoning him when he refused to admit that what Treize was doing was wrong - it didn't hurt quite as much as it used to. His father had been willing to interfere on his behalf, not because he thought that Treize was wrong and the mages were people and not animals, but because he thought that his son was special. His father couldn't understand why he would choose imprisonment and slavery to stay with the people who he considered animals - similarly, he would never be able to understand what he and Trowa were building.
He deliberately steered his mind away from such disturbing thoughts and back to Gente, who looked nothing like him but was already like the brother he never had.
"Don't get too attached to me, Quatre," Gente said. "Don't forget, I'm still dead, and as soon as the shield comes down, my spirit will finally depart. None of this is real."
"So are you going to teach me or not?" Quatre asked quietly. It was almost impossible to remember that the boy standing next to him was dead. Except that he could see clearly into Gente's mind, and he could see the boy - no man's - very clear memories of his own death. "You know, this might be easier if you didn't look like this. Show me what you looked like when you died."
Gente stared at him with a sad expression on his face. "You know, it took me eight years to become as hard as you are now."
"Hard?" Quatre had heard himself described a lot of ways in other people's minds. The most common thought was 'angel', which wasn't really their fault - he couldn't help the way he looked, but it bothered him when people looked at him like he was a sacred object or something. He didn't think that 'hard' had ever come into anyone's mind. Ever.
"We were all... we all had our weaknesses, although I was the worst. The responsibility came on us too quickly, we didn't know what was happening. The first you must also deal with, but perhaps the second we can ease. We have the knowledge, but what I was really worried about was that you'd be weak, like me. I couldn't even conceive of killing another person. Did you know it was years before I was able to bring myself to kill another human, even those I knew who were being controlled by the demons? Astonishing, isn't it? That I could be in a war and not kill."
"I still haven't killed. Not with my magic, anyway."
"Not surprising. We're not supposed to be able to feel that way, even about our enemies. It was over a year before I could get myself angry enough to try, and then my power failed me. I can teach you how to make sure that doesn't happen, but I saw the rage when you thought Zechs was attacking Trowa. I never had that. You five are stronger than we were. It might make the difference, so there isn't another drawn-out war."
Quatre frowned. "What do you mean?"
"I preferred pleasant dreams to realities. I would never have asked to see my true form," he explained. Suddenly his entire body blurred, and when it became clear again, he was a different person. He was only slightly taller, but there were dark circles under both of his eyes, eyes that were bloodshot. He was thin - not just long like all of the mages, but emaciated. The wings were still there, but they barely glowed - instead, they hung down his back. They looked more like a fly's wings then something magical. Besides all of those obvious things, there was something lacking about him that had been there when he was in the other form. He looked dead.
"So now you know," Gente said. "The truth was that it wasn't much of a sacrifice when we killed ourselves a thousand years ago. We were all more than half-dead, and sick at heart because of the years of war. There wasn't much left for us here, either. We'd destroyed my homeland in the wars. The others had about as much to go back to. So killing ourselves for the world seemed to be the next logical step."
"How... how did this happen?" Quatre asked, finding his voice again.
"The power, it always comes back to the power," Gente said, a small smile on his face. It did nothing to improve his looks. "We have an enormous amount of power - too much, actually. The human body just can't take that kind of stress. It takes enormous amounts of energy to control that sort of power, and that has a drain on your body. Towards the end of the war, we were eating a ton of food, we just couldn't get any energy because our bodies were so drained. We were just worn down. We did some pretty desperate things back then, to end the war, because we weren't going to last much longer. It was a war of attrition, and we were losing. We managed to drive them back to their own world, and then we threw what was left of our energy back into the shield."
Quatre nodded. It made sense, he guessed. It had to be an amazing amount of power, but he could see it doing that. Look what using their powers did to normal mages. "Is it... is it going to happen to me?"
Gente sighed. "I don't know. It really depends on how long this war is drawn out. We didn't start to show signs of the stress until the ninth year. It didn't get this bad until the very end - by then we were practically dragging ourselves out of our graves to fight and then collapsing again immediately afterwards. To this day I don't know how we managed to win, even if the victory was only partial. If the war ends earlier, faster this time, I don't think the strain will be too great. And, of course, assuming that you really defeat them, not just force them back like we did, you won't have to give your lives like we did, to build another shield. I really hope that doesn't happen - I've had a number of nightmares about this becoming a cycle, happening every thousand years." He grimaced. "There is a bit of bad news, though. It's no coincidence that I'm only an inch taller than you. From now on, your body will be devoting all of it's energy to containing the power. That means that it can't devote any energy to growing. I will be extremely surprised if any of you grow more than an inch or two."
Quatre frowned at that news. He was the smallest of the five by far, and didn't relish the idea of being the runt for the rest of his life. Then he realized how ridiculous it was, that he was worrying about his size when he was about to fight in a battle against demons that wanted to take over his world. He laughed at the irony.
Gente, following his thoughts, also smiled. "Yeah. Let's work on one problem at a time, huh? If it makes you feel better, you can always cast an illusion to look taller."
"I'll keep that in mind," Quatre said. "Now, we'd better get started. You have more to teach me then how to look more imposing then I actually am."
--------------------------------------------
Duo gasped as the others disappeared. "What the hell? Where'd they go?" he asked the girl that the others had called Thanatos, who was the only one left.
"They're still here, sorta," the girl said with a cocky smile. "We just moved to different planes. They're not really gone, neither are we. We'll meet up with them later."
"That's very helpful," Duo remarked sarcastically.
"You'll understand when I finish giving you everything I know," Thanatos said in what was probably supposed to be a comforting tone.
"Great. How are you planning on doing that?"
"Magic."
"That's helpful," he remarked sarcastically.
"It's easier not to try to explain now. Lets just say that I'm going to use magic to teach you how to use your magic, and once I do, you'll understand how I did it. It's a waste of time for me to explain something that you'll understand later anyway. Got it?"
"Sure. Whatever." He turned his head aside and feigned boredom, waiting for her to do whatever it was that she was going to do. When several minutes passed with nothing happening, he finally gave up and turned back and saw that she was staring at him, a wistful expression on her face. "What?!"
"It touched you too, didn't it?"
There was something about her voice - almost but not quite breaking from the emotion she was hiding - that made him pause before he started yelling. He hated when people started getting all vague on him, but something told him that she wasn't just being mysterious for effect - that she wasn't being more specific because it was painful to talk about. He knew what that was like, so instead of yelling, he asked, "What?"
"The power. I can see its mark on you. How did you discover it?"
Duo bit off the automatic response, which was to mock her. "Why do you ask?"
"I was just... curious, I suppose. Can you tell me?" Suddenly her face looked incredibly young and vulnerable, for all that she was his age.
"I killed my best friend."
"That's not bad."
Duo's head snapped up. "What the hell are you talking about?!" he demanded angrily.
"I'm sorry, that came out wrong. I mean, it could have been a lot worse."
"How?"
"You could have wiped out your entire clan. That's what I did," she said with a smile carefully calculated to hide the pain. He should know - he'd perfected his own version of that smile.
He stared at her in horror as she shifted her grip on the huge scythe she carried, then raised it and casually swung it in front of her. A large strip of grass suddenly became eight or ten inches shorter. "Apparently, as soon as the demons opened a gateway to our world to invade it, the world responded to defend itself by giving the five of us our powers. The only problem was that it forgot to tell us. I was a mage, a fairly weak one at that, and I was playing a game with my older brother. He threw a pretend mage-bolt at me, and I... reacted. I just used my power, the way I always had, but I didn't realize that I had all this extra energy. And... I remember seeing his body drop to the ground like a rag doll. I thought at first that it was some sort of joke, but when I got over there, he wasn't breathing. I... I ran back to the camp to get help, but everyone there was dead, too. I sucked the life out of all of them in less than a second."
Duo didn't say anything, knowing how much he hated it when people mouthed empty platitudes. He'd never thought of himself as lucky before, but she was right. It could have been a lot worse. Those stupid humans who'd run him out of town, the ones who blamed him for the plague - he could have done much worse to them, without ever realizing it. "When did you find out that you were responsible?" he asked.
"Not for years, luckily," she said with a bitter laugh. "If I'd found out at the time, I probably would have killed myself, and then where would we be?" She eyed him thoughtfully. "Have you ever tried to kill yourself?"
"Nah. I... I've wanted to die a few times, but I've never done anything about it. Too much of a coward. Run and hide rather than do something about it, that's me."
"Sometimes it takes more courage to live."
"Depends how you define living," he said sourly. There was silence for a minute, each lost in their own painful memories.
"When?"
"When what?"
"When did you want to die?"
"When I killed Solo."
"Your friend?"
"Friend, protector, brother, yeah, that was Solo."
"Any other times?"
"After the faeries."
"Faeries? Oh, yes, you lived with them for a while, didn't you?"
"How did you know that?" he asked, eyes narrowing suspiciously.
"We kept an eye on you guys. We can't interact physically with your world, but we can watch, and we were very curious about the people we'd waited a thousand years for."
"Just how long have you known about us?" he demanded.
"You mean that you guys would be coming or that it was you in particular?" she asked with a cocky grin that he usually used to irritate Wufei or Heero. It was more than a little irritating to have it turned on him. "We've known there would be five to replace us when the time came from the moment we cast the spell. As for knowing it was you in particular - we've known the five of you since birth. We haven't been watching you constantly, just keeping an eye on you. That reminds me... why did you leave the faeries? None of us were paying enough attention, and the next thing we knew, you were back on the streets."
"You missed quite a sight," he drawled, forcing himself not to think too hard about what had happened, or he might start crying, and he didn't do that anymore. "I killed them all."
"You what?"
"You wiped out your Clan, I wiped out the faeries that took me in. These things happen."
"You didn't kill them," she declared immediately. "We could sense it whenever you used your powers, and you only did it once, with your friend. The minor stuff doesn't trigger our notice, and you certainly didn't use your power to kill an entire village. I would have sensed that."
"I never said that I used my power to kill them," he protested, but inwardly he felt a hint of relief. He'd never been able to rid himself of the fear that somehow he'd drawn on his powers unconsciously and killed them without realizing it. It didn't make any sense, especially with what he remembered, but he didn't have a great track record when it came to using his power, so he'd always had the thought hanging around in the back of his mind... Now he could dismiss that, at least. Their deaths were still his fault, but at least he hadn't made the same mistake twice.
"So what happened? I don't believe that you went around the village with a knife and slit their throats."
"Of course not!" he snapped, a little ill at the image she'd just put in his mind. What was even worse was that it fit in so perfectly with his memories of what had happened there, so he could very easily picture gaping wounds in the necks of the scorched bodies he'd seen. Damn her, anyway. "Everyone who gets close to me dies. If you weren't dead already, I might be concerned. Then again, maybe not," he snapped.
"Touché," she said quietly. Duo didn't care enough to ask her what the hell she was talking about. "But that doesn't answer my question. We may be Death, but that doesn't mean that we kill everyone we come into contact with, or get close to, or whatever. There's no curse attached to the power, except for the nature of the power itself."
"Yeah, well that's easy to say when your friends aren't dropping like flies around you," Duo said shortly. He really didn't want to be discussing this.
"There's something very wrong here," she said with a slight frown, and made a slight motion with her hand. A black circle appeared on the ground. It wasn't a shadow, or darker in color, it was simply black. He heard a faint voice in the back of his mind muttering something, and realized that she was casting some sort of spell. He closed his eyes for a moment, feeling the magic in the air around him, getting a taste of the distinct flavor. It was unlike any magic he'd ever felt before - there was so much power in it, and the fact that he got the general feeling that it was natural, effortless, at least for her.
"What did you do?" he asked in a whisper. "What sort of spell is that?"
"Spyer," she said unhelpfully, frowning at the black circle. He could see something swirling around inside now. An image of a forest was forming, but very slowly.
"What?"
"Sorry," she said without looking at him. "Spy spell. One of a number of spells we have to spy on our enemies. This one allows me to look back through time."
"Through time? That could be handy."
She shrugged, eyes still focused on the black circle. "It has it's uses. Sometimes. Actually, it can be kind of frustrating to see events happening and know you can't do anything to stop them, because it's already happened. But any information is power, so we use all the spells we know."
"What are you doing now?" he asked, then his breath caught in his throat as he recognized the forest in the circle. It was his forest, the faeries forest, his home for years. He knew every tree by name, knew every plant and stream as well as he knew his own hand. He'd been told that most humans could barely tell one forest from another, much less one tree from another, but he had trouble believing it. How couldn't they see the difference?
"I'm going to find out what really happened to the faeries."
Duo gasped. "Why?"
"Because something that could get through their shields and kill them all is too powerful to leave out there, unknown. You may think that you're cursed - which I doubt, but even a curse has to act through a medium. They didn't just drop dead, did they?"
He didn't respond. It was too painful to think about.
"Did they?" her voice struck at him like a whip, and before he realized what he was doing, he answered.
"No! It was burned. Everything was burned. The bodies..." he cut himself off, and felt anger rising inside of him. "What did you do?!" he demanded. "I never talk about it..." She'd done something to make him talk, spelled him to do it. He couldn't remember the last time he'd been this angry.
"We can debate the ends and the means5 later. You may need this information. Or did you want to let more of your friends die because you're afraid to look now?"
If it was possible, her words made Duo even more angry, but he reined it in as images of his clan appeared in the circle. His breath caught in his throat - he could never have imagined that seeing them again would be so painful. They were bustling around the village, playing their games or doing their chores, the way he'd seen them doing a hundred times before.
Suddenly every one of them froze at exactly the same instant, as the forest called out a warning to them. This was another thing he didn't understand - the forest should have given them warning in plenty of time to at least run and hide. Not one of them had escaped the carnage, and all the bodies had been lying in the village. He would at least have expected them to try hiding in the forest. "I don't want to see this," he muttered. "I... I can't." He desperately wanted to look away, but he couldn't.
"You'll see much worse before this is over," Thanatos murmured.
Duo searched his mind for some sort of retort, but suddenly the image changed and all thought fled him. The picture shimmered once, and he stared, horrified because he knew what it meant. "That was the shields going. Somehow they tricked an elder into inviting one of them in, and then shattered them from the inside. I... I felt it, inside my head. It knocked me unconscious."
Thanatos looked at him. "That's not a normal reaction for magic like that. You must have somehow linked yourself - and your power - to the shields. There's no other explanation for you having a physical reaction like that."
"I didn't mean to."
"Well, I didn't mean to slaughter my Clan, but we're not always in complete control of our powers," she replied bitterly. "It doesn't matter. If anything, the shields would have stayed up a little longer because of it. And I doubt that you could have done anything to stop something that could kill an entire faery clan, including the elders, at least not then."
Duo didn't answer. His eyes were fixed on the image as the faeries stood absolutely still. He knew from experience that they were talking with the trees, even if he couldn't hear it in this recreation. Suddenly they all started running away in every direction, but when they reached the edge of the clearing that marked the end of the village, a wall of black fire sprouted up in front of them, forming a circle around the village, trapping them there. So that's why they didn't scatter, he thought numbly, in the part of his mind that wasn't shrieking in anguish as he saw several of his friends fling themselves at the fire, obviously trying to get through it. They'd done that sort of thing before, flinging themselves through flames too quickly to be badly burned, but this time something went horribly wrong. It was as if the wall of fire was actually solid. The faeries who tried to jump through it either bounced off or were caught in the flames. He could see them screaming as they were burned alive. Don't think, he told himself. If he thought about this, he'd go crazy.
Then something... several somethings, actually, walked through the wall of flame. Duo gasped, and heard Thanatos cursing. "The demons who chased us!" he gasped. "But... it was years ago!" he turned accusing eyes on his companion as she stared at the image. After a few seconds, she spat out a word he didn't recognize and the black circle disappeared. "How did this happen?!"
"We underestimated them," she growled, and his temper flared.
"What?! You mean they all died because you made a mistake?!"
"We thought that they wouldn't be able to identify you until you got your powers. Somehow they managed to open a temporary portal to this world and used it to attack you."
"Me?!" the word came out in a very undignified squeak. It was followed by a realization, this one crushing. "Then they did die because of me. The demons were looking for me, they were trying to kill me, and if I hadn't been there, they'd still be alive." It hurt more than he wanted to think about to have all of his suspicions born out in such a manner.
"It had to be this way," Thanatos said softly.
"What? I had to be a murderer?" he demanded angrily, spinning around to face her, fists clenched.
"Goddess, no!" she shouted back, eyes flashing angrily. "Don't you understand? They saved your life!"
"And died for it!" he responded bitterly. "I killed them, just as much as you killed your Clan," he added, knowing it would hurt her.
Her eyes darkened for a second. "You're trying to hurt me, distract me," she said, glaring at him through narrowed eyes. "It won't work. You don't think that our enemies didn't try that method more than once during the war? And they'll try it on you, too, if you don't learn to live with the fact that people die in wars."
"You're not supposed to kill your allies, though," he said sarcastically. "They would have been better off if they'd never found me."
"If they hadn't found you, you would have died."
"Better one than many."
"Goddess, you really don't understand, don't you?" she asked. "You're the important one. In fact, for all we care, you and the other four are the only ones who matter in the entire world. Your elders knew it. They sacrificed themselves for you, because they knew how important you were. You don't think that they couldn't look ahead, that they didn't know what was coming? Give them more credit than that. If you had died then, the entire world would die now."
"They... they knew what was coming?" he asked falteringly.
"They did. And they chose to protect you, for the good of the entire world. Now what are you going to do with the life they gave you? You owe them."
Duo knew what she wanted - she wanted him to fight for her cause, but there was only one thought in his mind right then - revenge. It made him ashamed, knowing that wasn't what his friends had died for, but he couldn't help it. All he wanted was to hurt those who had hurt his friends.
"You can have both, you know," Thanatos said quietly.
"Stop reading my mind."
"It's true though. You can avenge them and protect the world at the same time. The means to both goals are the same. Take your place along with the others and defend this world. You'll get plenty of opportunity to kill the demons, as you call them, and be fulfilling the destiny they died to preserve at the same time."
For several minutes Duo stared into the distance, remembering the scenes of death that were permanently imprinted in his mind. First Solo, and then many of them, from his time with the faeries. There were more, people he'd killed with his own hands when they tried to hurt him, or tried to hurt some innocent orphan kids as he'd roamed from village to village. Never did anything to help anyone beyond a few random killings and a few gifts of extra money. Didn't want to get attached to anyone, because everyone he ever loved ended up dead. Sure it was lonely, but it was much safer that way.
He'd thought that he was Death, and now he'd found out that he was right. He'd thought that anyone who got close to him would die, and now he knew that was true as well, but he also knew that there was a reason for it. He could end it now, make sure that he didn't kill anyone else just by knowing them. Maybe Death would leave him alone if he did this last thing.
"Are you going to teach me or not?"
--------------------------------------------
Trowa blinked in surprise as the others disappeared, but when his companion didn't show any alarm, he decided it must have been expected and didn't comment. Instead, he turned to the other man and said, "You can drop the illusion now."
The illusion of a young man his own age shimmered and then disappeared to be replaced by the reality - a man almost a dozen years older than himself, haggard and scarred. He looked half-dead already. He sighed. "I knew you'd see through the illusion, but Gente thought that it would be better to break it to you gently."
"We're going to look like that?" Trowa asked. It was easy to picture himself that way, he felt half-dead most of the time, but the thought of seeing his Quatre in that condition hurt. He'd seen through the illusions the others wore in a matter of seconds. Did that mean that the others hadn't seen through them? Why was he different?
"It is one possibility. We didn't start to look like this for years. If your war is shorter than ours was, you may have a long life in front of you."
Trowa nodded, absorbing the information. "Why did I see through the illusions when the others didn't?"
"We don't do so well at seeing things other than reality, it goes against our power," Gael said with a hint of a smile. "It comes in handy in battle sometimes, but... well, you always see the truth. Exactly as it is - you're not allowed any personal illusions. A little different then your Quatre."
"I've never had any illusions."
Gael nodded his head slightly in response to that comment, then fell silent. The two of them stood in comfortable silence together for several minutes, and Trowa found himself more comfortable with this stranger then he'd ever been with anyone, except Quatre.
"It makes sense. We were chosen for the same personal characteristics - we're almost one person. Almost," Gael responded to his thoughts.
"So what now?"
"I'm going to use magic to give you all of my knowledge about how our magic works, about what we can do with it, what limitations we have. You'll also be getting a good number of my memories of the war, so you'll know what sort of tricks they pulled on us. Maybe you won't be tricked by the same things. It could save lives," he said bleakly.
Trowa nodded. "Will it take long?"
"Time has no meaning here. You're going to exit the crystal less than a second after you entered it. You're not really in it, of course."
"Mm."
"Are you ready to begin?"
Trowa shrugged, then nodded his head slightly.
"It might be better if you sat down. This may take some time..." he trailed off, remembering his previous comment. "Well, it will seem to take some time."
Trowa nodded again and seated himself. Gael sat on the ground facing him. "There's one thing I want to tell you about before I give you my memories. You have to be very, very careful not to let your power control you, because it will try. You have to work to keep from drawing away from people, and even more dangerous, to stop from devoting all your time to protecting Nature. The power can't make decisions, it doesn't realize that there are more important things than protecting one little bit of forest. You have to conserve your energy for the actual battles. Once I lost control totally... well, you'll see. Just be very careful. Now relax. This won't hurt. Much."
He raised his hands to Trowa's forehead, and everything went black.
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Heero blinked as the others disappeared, and his hand went to the sword at his hip.
"Don't bother," said the boy who looked like he came from the same land as Wufei. He was the only one who hadn't disappeared. "They aren't being harmed, we just wanted some privacy for the transfer."
"Transfer?" Heero growled.
"I'm going to give you all my knowledge about how to use your magic, and how to effectively fight the invaders." The boy crossed his arms across his chest and gazed dispassionately at Heero. He walked in a slow circle around him, looking him over like he was a piece of meat. "You're good enough," he finally said with a frown. "But this has got to be the first time in the history of the universe that the person to have the power of Life was an assassin. You're not going to be doing that anymore."
Heero decided right then that he was not going to let some boy he'd never met, or some power that he'd never asked for dictate his life.
"You don't have a choice. The power won't let you kill unnecessarily. If you don't believe me, try going back to killing people for money and see what happens. You'll freeze. But if it makes you feel better, you'll have plenty of people to kill in the upcoming years." Heero glared at him, trying to shield his own thoughts from his intrusive companion. Stay out of my mind, he growled. Vida's lips twitched in what might be considered a smile by some, if they were very generous and not to specific with the definition of a smile. "You need to relax. I was like you before - never showed anything, even if I wasn't as dead on the inside as I pretended. It's not worth it - inefficient, if you can believe that. I spent too much energy suppressing my emotions and pretending that I didn't have them. By the end of the war I didn't have the energy to keep it up. And... and Thanatos would never let me get away with pretending I didn't care." There was a hint of pain in his eyes now, and happiness as well.
"Hn."
"Well, you'll see. I don't think your Duo will let you get away with it anymore than... than Thanatos would."
Heero's eyes widened despite his attempt at self-control. "Duo? That... That baka? What are you talking about?!" he demanded.
The sort-of-smile Vida wore blossomed into a full-fledged smile. "Yeah, I know, we're always the last to know, but you're acting just the way I did before Thanatos jumped me. The others saw it too, at the time."
Heero only had one word for him. "No."
Vida shrugged. "You'll see. I give it less than a month before he proves you wrong, and trust me, you'll be glad he proved you wrong."
Heero glared at him, trying very hard not to think of the braided baka, of his smile, of the weird twinkle in his eye that shouldn't have been there, not after all the death he'd seen. He tried very hard not to think about Duo, because if he did, Vida would read his mind, and then... He swore under his breath as a smug smirk appeared on Vida's face. He glared at him some more.
"You'll see," Vida said with a shake of his head. "Is there anything you want to know before I start?" As he spoke, his wings extended out behind him, almost as if he was stretching.
Heero continued to glare at him.
Vida shrugged. "Then lets do this," he said, all signs of emotion draining from his face until it was as emotionless as Heero's. Suddenly he looked very capable, although not quite as deadly as Heero. He took several steps closer and put both of his hands on Heero's head. "This is going to hurt..."
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Wufei grunted in surprise as the others all disappeared, all except that infuriating woman who claimed to be him in a past life. He drew his sword and held it in front of him uncertainly. He would never have been a weak woman in a past life, and he wanted to kill this creature who dared to suggest that he would have, but at the same time, his honor would not allow him to attack an opponent weaker than himself, especially a woman.
"Are you planning on attacking me with that?" she asked scornfully. "Or were you just going to stand there and look frustrated?" Sky-blue eyes flashed as she glared at him. Then the glare turned into a cruel smile. "Or are you afraid that I'll beat you if you ever do get up the guts to attack me?"
"Kisama!" he exclaimed, sheathing his weapon in disgust. "I won't disgrace myself by fighting a woman."
"Suit yourself," she said, drawing her own sword. "That attitude of yours is the first thing we have to get rid of."
"What are you doing, onna?!" he demanded as she approached him, the weapon held before her. She looked very comfortable and competent with it, but then, all she'd done was threaten him. Threats were no judge of a warrior's true strength.
"I should think even a chauvinist like you would get this - I'm attacking you. Defend yourself."
"You're insane," he accused, drawing his own sword to defend himself as she swung her blade at his head. He ducked under the attack, and then raised his own sword to block the follow-up strike that came a second later.
"Not particularly. No more than any of the others," she replied evenly, attacking again. What was truly disturbing was that she was able to keep up a conversation like this as she fought. Well, the real problem was that she wasn't out of breath as she spoke - not at all. It was almost as if this was no effort for her.
"It isn't," she said.
"What?" he growled.
"It isn't much of an effort for me," she responded, jumping back to avoid a strike of his own, then instantly jumping forward again. Her breathing continued to be even and calm, as he began to breath harder from the exertion.
"Stay out of my mind!" he grunted in between his breaths. Then, "You're not human!"
"I'm as human as you are," she retorted, still breathing evenly. "Or at least you will be." Their swords met with the clash of steel on steel, and even generated a few sparks from the friction of the blades against each other. Suddenly she twisted her wrists, and his sword flew out of his hand as his grip failed. He stared at the end of her sword and swallowed once. He raised his eyes to meet hers. He would not dishonor himself further by closing his eyes like a child. He would face his death like a warrior.
"Do it."
She stared at him as if he was some incomprehensible object, and then shook her head. She took a step back and sheathed her sword, letting it rest between her fire-wings. "I was just making a point. I'm not going to kill you. I may not like you very much, but you are necessary for the survival of this world. All I can do is try to beat some sense into your head. Just because an opponent is female doesn't mean they're not dangerous. You'll probably have some females against you, and if you underestimate them the way you underestimated me, it's going to cost you a lot."
"You... onna!" he shouted angrily, reverting back to his native tongue in his frustration.
She raised an eyebrow. "How observant. Are you ready to accept my knowledge yet, or do you want to go at it again?"
"What could a woman teach me?" he asked scornfully, picking up his own sword and sheathing it.
"Well, I could teach you to do this," she suggested wickedly, and then held up a hand. His eyes widened as the magic in the air around her literally began to dance as she somehow disrupted the patterns without destroying them. He'd never seen anything like that before, not ever.
"That's..."
"My power. Your power. Our power. And I have to show you how to fully utilize it, no matter how much you dislike me, but I can't do that if you close your mind to me. You have to open your mind in order to receive the information. So? Are you ready to let me in, to accept what I can teach you? Or do you need me to beat you up a little more? In the interest of honesty, I'll tell you that you don't have a chance against me. I know how to use my power to augment my strength while fighting. You don't, and until you learn, you can't beat me. So are you ready to learn?"
Wufei glared at her. She was a warrior, he couldn't deny it, but something within him rebelled at the idea of submitting to the teaching of a woman, no matter how skilled. It just didn't seem right.
"Maybe if you stop thinking of me as a woman, it will be easier," she suggested. "I'm not really a woman, you know. I've been dead for a thousand years. I'm a ghost."
"You were a woman."
"Woman is just a name," she pointed out.
"You've given me no other for you," he returned.
She closed her eyes and sighed. "Then... you can call me... you might as well call me Magic."
"That's not a name," he said, disgusted that she thought so little of him that she wouldn't even give her real name to him.
"No, it's not, but it's who I am now. There's very little left of me but my powers."
"What does that mean?" he demanded. "At least give me your true name! It is dishonorable to do less!"
"If I remembered it, I'd be happy to tell you!" she snapped angrily.
"You... you don't remember?" he asked, horrified. His name was such a big part of his identity - losing it would be like losing a part of himself, a part vital to his survival.
"We sent most of our memories and all of our power into the shield when we killed ourselves," she said soberly. "But not everything made the transfer properly, I don't know why. Perhaps it's because so many of our memories were tied up in our powers that when the spell started to fail, the memories did too. We've existed so long simply for our power that we've become little more than those powers. Especially in the last hundred years, we've been forgetting things. Names, places, people... I remember the exact date that I killed my first demon, but my mother's face... it's a blur, it has been for years." There was an emptiness in her eyes now, something that nothing could fill. "We've all lost different things, different amounts. Gente... or the man we call Gente remembers the most, but our own names were some of the first things to go. I know, in life, I had a relationship with Gael, but I can't remember it. I can't even remember his true name. We hope, when we pass on, it will come back, but there's no guarantee."
"I'm sorry," he murmured, unable to come up with any better way to express his feelings over the horror of what had happened to her, to all of them.
"We survive. We always do. We have no choice," she said simply. "Now, are you ready to take on this burden yourself, knowing what possible future awaits?"
The thought of losing his identity was the most horrible thing that Wufei could think of, but no member of the Dragon Clan would ever be called a coward. He raised his chin and stared evenly at her. "Do what you must."
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Quatre didn't gasp as the others all reappeared - why should he, he'd cast the spell that brought them back. He looked around and saw that the others were changed - just as he was. The wings that had been on their predecessors were now on his group, and there was a faint glimmer in the air around each of them. At the same time, their predecessors had lost their wings and the glow, and were now practically transparent, lifeless, listless. They'd given the last of their power for this last transfer of power and information, now there was practically nothing left of them. The only thing keeping them here was their own willpower.
:Ready?: Quatre asked the others, and felt their agreement. This pocket of existence was getting ready to collapse, anyway, and they'd be a lot better off if their consciousnesses weren't in it when it did. He turned to look at Gente, then let his gaze drift over the others. "Thank you all very much."
"End this. Please," Gente said quietly, and the others nodded agreement. "We won't be able to contact you again, but we'll be watching."
Quatre nodded, smiling sadly as Vida moved next to Thanatos, linking hands while Gael and the other girl did the same. Gente stood by, also watching, a glowing smile on his face. "Are we ready?" he asked quietly.
"Ready?" Thanatos asked. "I've been waiting for this for centuries!" And with this, she planted a very enthusiastic kiss on Vida's lips. Gael did the same to the other girl.
Gente's smile somehow broadened. "Good-bye," he murmured, and their bodies faded away. As soon as they were completely gone, Quatre automatically threw his consciousness back into his body, trusting the others to do the same as the universe fell apart.
Author's notes: Well, this one was not as much fun to write, but there were things that had to be said. Now I can get back to the action stuff. There were a couple of weird/random references here, so I marked them.
1. Thanatos is Greek for death
2. Gente is Spanish for people
3. Gael is a male version of Gaea, the spirit of the earth
4. Vida is Spanish for life
5. this little quote is paraphrased from one of my favorite books, Xenocide, by Orson Scott Card. It's part of the Ender's Game series, and I recommend that anyone who likes science fiction read it.
Thanx for all of the comments I've gotten on this story - it's really encouraging me to write more.
Zechs led them down several flights of stairs, until they were down in the bowels of Relena's castle, in an area that was most definitely a dungeon, and Quatre stirred uneasily. The last place with bars he'd seen had been the compound, and he didn't want to think about that place. "What are we doing down here?" he asked.
"I hid the Crystal down here. My sister doesn't use more than a quarter of her prisons, and only on the most dangerous criminals, so it was safer down here." There was a definite emphasis on the way he said 'crystal', but he didn't explain it.
"You wanted to protect something, so you stuck it among the worst criminals in your country. That was bright," Duo remarked sarcastically. Surprisingly, Heero didn't give pull on his braid for that comment - apparently he thought it was a legitimate concern. Either that or he was finally taking pity on Duo's head. No, probably not. Quatre hadn't missed the hint of a smile on Heero's face as he grabbed onto Duo's braid, but Heero was doing his best to make sure that Duo never saw anything unusual from him. It was a very interesting thing to watch, Duo trying to get a reaction out of Heero, and getting one, but Heero hiding it, so that Duo kept trying even harder. Funny to watch, sometimes, too. Quatre wondered how much longer Heero could keep up the act.
"I wasn't trying to protect it from humans," Zechs said in a sharp voice. "It's safe from them - a human who tried to move it would be instantly killed. I was protecting it from Treize and the few of his Hunters who could touch it."
Quatre's head spun around. "What?!"
Zechs frowned. "You didn't know?"
"What?!"
"Treize is a mage, the same as most of his former prisoners. Some of his best Hunters are minor mages, as well. He's a hypocrite, as well as a number of other things. He turned those like himself into animals in his own kingdom, and then tried to do the same in mine." That was the first time Quatre could remember Zechs referring to the Sank kingdom as his own - that was the sort of thing Milliardo would have said. He was having less trouble keeping Milliardo and Zechs separate in his own mind then he would have a year ago. He was two people, too - they didn't have completely different names, like Zechs/Milliardo, but they were separate just the same.
"How did you know?"
"You forget, Quatre, I'm several years older than you. I saw Treize when I was very young, long before he declared that mages weren't human, even before he started with this obsession about prophecies. Back then he displayed his ears quite openly, almost like he was daring someone to look down on him because of it. Then he started reading those prophecies, and hiding his ears. By the time he declared that mages weren't human, few people remembered that he was a mage himself, and those that did either kept their mouths shut on their own or were silenced by the Hunters. His first hunters were the few mages who joined him of their own free will, you know."
Quatre shook his head in disbelief. I always knew that he was more dangerous than I knew, but not why, and that some of the Hunters were more dangerous than others, and not because of their physical strengths. It was incredible, but it made a sort of twisted sense. He'd known that Treize didn't really believe the nonsense he spouted about the mages, and he could very easily Treize having that sort of secret while he locked up his own people, if he really believed that he was doing the right thing. It still wasn't right, but he could very easily see it, even understand it, a little...
Quatre cut off his thoughts as Zechs unlocked and opened a very large, thick wooden door, braced with metal strips. The door swung open and immediately their eyes, which had finally started to get used to the gloom down here, were assaulted by bright white light. Quatre held up his hand to shield his eyes against the light, instinctively stepping forward towards the source. It felt... good. He was dimly aware of the others doing the same thing.
When his eyes finally adjusted, Quatre saw that they were standing in a circle around a low table. On that table was a huge crystal, the biggest one he'd ever seen, easily three feet tall and five in diameter. It was what was glowing, bright white, and just being around it seemed comforting to him. He found himself smiling without any good reason, and glanced around the circle, and saw shock and wonder reflected on the faces of all of his companions, even those who usually didn't admit to any emotions.
"What... what is it?" he asked after a few minutes of basking in the stone's glow. He noticed that Zechs had backed up into the corner of the room, getting as far away as possible from the stone without actually leaving the room. "What's wrong?"
"It's the stone," Zechs said, turning his head away from it. "This is the crystal your predecessors used to trap their essences and their power to build the shield. It's been waiting for you for a thousand years. It's your inheritance, in a manner of speaking."
"But you..."
"It has ways of making sure that it was not tampered with. The truth is that no human would be able to get close enough to be killed by it. The stone emits a feeling of discomfort, aversion even, to everyone except those to whom it belongs. It allowed me to touch it long enough to move it, but since then it doesn't want me any nearer than anyone else. Right now... it is tolerating me, because it knows I must be here to instruct you, but it is still not... pleasant."
"Zechs... who are you?" Quatre asked suddenly. "You have more power than the... the normal mages, but you're not one of us, either."
Zechs snorted. "I'm your protector, and the protector of this stone, and the prophecies and the information they contain. My only purpose is to help you. Because of that I have been given some additional powers, weaker than those of the old mages, but close. I can do little more than what you've already seen." His voice was bitter, and Quatre understood. Bad enough to be pushed along because of a destiny you didn't know or understand or want, but it would be even worse to be pushed into a destiny where all you could do was help someone else, not have a purpose yourself.
"I..." he started to say, wanting to comfort Zechs, but Zechs cut him off.
"Don't. It's not your fault. Just go. Put your hands on the Crystal, and it will give you answers. Go. It's your destiny." Quatre heard the slight emphasis on the second-to-last word, but the others immediately put their hands on the stone, and he quickly followed suit. There was an immediate feeling of welcome, then a bright flash of light...
Quatre opened his eyes and saw that they were no longer standing in Relena's dungeon. Instead, they were standing on the same plain they'd been standing on in the first dream, the one that prompted them to break out of the compound. Again there was that feeling of anticipation hanging in the air, but not of the desperation that had marked the dream. The rest of it, the endless rolling plains, the black clouds... it was all the same.
"We're back here!" Duo cried in tones of dismay, looking around.
"Not exactly," said a voice that didn't belong to anyone in the group. Quatre spun around and saw a group of five people walking towards them from five different directions. The one who'd just spoken was the one headed for Duo, a young woman dressed entirely in black, a pair of pants and a shirt with a an over shirt with a number of long pieces of flimsy black fabric trailing behind her, waving slightly in the wind. Two huge bat-like wings rose from her back, and she had short brown hair, sharply pointed ears, and the same violet eyes as Duo, and in her hand was a large scythe. She set the end of it on the ground and leaned against it, the blade curving through the air above her head. "You aren't really here now, you never were here, and you never will be here, because this place doesn't exist anymore. This is simply... well, it's a little more solid than a vision, and a little less than reality. Let's just call it a bubble of existence out of time. In your time, this place is located in a region that you call the wastelands."
"This... this is what the wastelands used to look like?" Quatre asked, never taking his eyes off the black-clad girl. He was purposefully avoiding looking at any of the other newcomers. He had a feeling he wasn't ready to see them yet.
"Yes. Beautiful, wasn't it? There were tribes of nomads scattered all over," the girl replied, a sad look in her eyes as she gestured with her free hand. "I grew up on these plains."
"Who the fuck are you?" Duo demanded.
The girl's eyes sparkled with amusement. "Death at your service," she said, bowing deeply to them, never letting go of the scythe.
"Thanatos[1], you're scaring them," scolded a voice behind Quatre. He swallowed, and turned. There was a boy with black hair and green eyes standing a few feet away from him, smiling pleasantly. He was dressed in tan pants and a white shirt, and two glowing gossamer wings rose from his back. "They're on our side, remember?"
"Just joking around, Gente[2]," the girl said. "Go ahead."
The boy turned back to Quatre, who felt a shiver run down his spine. "My apologies. We are... I believe that Zechs has been referring to us as your predecessors, which is correct, although not entirely accurate. We are your predecessors, but we are more than that. More like earlier incarnations of yourselves. You are us, born over again. Different souls, but mirrors of each other. It's complicated. But we are the ones who battled the demon lords a thousand years ago, and we're going to pass our knowledge and power onto you. We trapped our spirits here for two purposes - first to build the shield, second to still be around to teach you. Once we teach you, the shield will fall within a year, and we will finally be able to pass on." He smiled in relief and anticipation.
"You... you've been waiting here a thousand years, just for us?" Quatre asked.
"No, we've been waiting for the whole world," corrected a young woman with platinum hair in a long braid down her back. She was dressed in an indecently short dress made of a red material, a sword was strapped to her back, and fiery wings sprouted from her back. "You just happen to be the way that we show our caring for the whole world. I must say I am disappointed with my present form," she said, gazing at Wufei with distaste.
"I was an onna?!" Wufei shouted, outraged.
"See? It's just a good thing that one of our present incarnations wasn't female, or we'd be in big trouble," she observed, looking down her nose at Wufei. "I can't believe that I waited a thousand years to be reborn and got reborn as a male chauvinist."
Wufei was looking like he was about to explode, but Quatre was distracted by a comment from Gente. "It's good to be together again."
Quatre stared at him. "Haven't you guys been together here the whole time?"
"We couldn't," the girl standing near Wufei said with a toss of her head that sent her braid flying. "Our lives went to different parts of the spell that would protect our world and bring us back here when it was time to pass on our power. There wasn't much intermingling of our essences."
"She's sugar-coating it for you," Thanatos said with a grin much like Duo's. "This is the first time any of us has had any company in the last thousand years. Gets kinda lonely after the first few hundred, and watching those who are still alive wandering around on the surface loses interest after the first five hundred." For a second her grin faltered and her face reflected great loss before it disappeared and was covered by that grin again. "It will be good to move on," she said softly.
"Hn."
For a second, Quatre thought that it was Heero, but then he saw that the sound had come from the oriental boy standing just beyond Heero, dressed entirely in white and with white feathered wings rising from his back. He wore a sword at his side, and one hand always rested on it. His eyes flashed with emotion for a moment as he grunted agreement to Thantos' words, but then they were back to blank black pools.
"We should start," murmured the last of their predecessors, the one nearest Trowa, a young man with long reddish hair worn in a ponytail that ran down his back. He was dressed entirely in green, and carried a bow in one hand. A quiver of arrows sat on his back, in between two large brown feathered wings. They shook slightly before folding down on his back, making him look as if he had some huge deformity in his back.
"Of course, Gael[3]," Gente replied with another smile, and Quatre found himself smiling in return. "Meet back here in a few hours? Vida[4]?" he asked, looking at the boy garbed in white, who nodded and then looked around.
The others nodded their agreement, and suddenly everyone except Gente vanished. "Where?" Quatre asked.
"They've retreated to their own areas to teach your friends what they need to know. From their perspective, we're the ones who've disappeared. It's all relative, here."
"Oh."
"Is this all coming a little too fast?"
"A bit," Quatre said with a shrug. "I'm not sure I'm happy with the idea that someone was messing around with my personality."
Gente stared at him. "Who told you that?"
"Zechs."
Gente shook his head. "He's got the right idea, but he doesn't understand. I was originally picked to protect the world by drawing power from people simply because my personality was best suited to it. Of course, the fact that I was quite a powerful mage didn't hurt, either." He smiled sadly. "I only lived a few dozen years on this world, and I spent a thousand watching it from afar, and I still can't get used to the idea of how little magic there is in your world now."
"You only lived a few dozen years?" for some reason that seemed to be the saddest thing of all.
"Twenty-eight, to be exact. You're just seeing me as I was when I first got the power. We fought for twelve years before we finally fought them off. Almost half our lives," he said without a hint of bitterness or rancor. He wasn't at all angry that his entire life had been torn from him, practically, first with years of fighting that wore him down until he was a mere shadow of himself, and then stole what remained when he killed himself with the others to protect the world they'd fought for.
Quatre started - how had he seen all that?
Gente nodded. "I always was more sensitive than the others to stray thoughts - I see you share the same trait. It doesn't matter - I was going to show it all to you anyway. Part of what I'm going to teach you is how to shield yourself, so you won't be picking up stray thoughts anymore. But back to the point. Before we go on, I want you to understand that whatever tampering the magic did with you was incidental. You weren't molded to fit the magic - the magic was made so that it worked for people with personalities like us. That's why we're so much alike - the magic wouldn't work for someone who was different. That doesn't mean that you are any different then you would have been otherwise. If you'd been born a few generations earlier, you would have just lived out your life normally, and been known as a very nice person. That's it. So don't you worry that you're somehow not yourself anymore. Same for the rest of the others - they're just who they would have been if they didn't have the magic - the magic just... intensifies some feelings."
"Intensifies?"
"Well, take your Trowa, for example. I bet that if he was normal, he would just avoid people, except for the few he forces himself to get close to, to remind himself of his humanity. Gael used to do that. But because of the power... well, nature isn't an enemy of mankind, exactly, but I saw the power take over Gael once, and he obliterated a mining camp that was absolutely destroying the forest around it - it was horrible - but what Gael did to those men was horrible, too." He frowned. "You have to be very careful, because the power will act for itself, if you don't watch out. Anyway, because of the power, Gael had to force himself to talk to people. His power wanted him to be alone, and it was the way he was, too, but he didn't want to be controlled by the power, so he forced himself to interact with people. I don't know if your Trowa will be the same, but if he has trouble with people, it may not be entirely his fault. Try to keep that in mind."
"I will," Quatre said with a nod.
Gente smiled. "I know you will. I never had a relationship with any of the others beyond friendship. It might have been easier if I had, but I know you'll do well."
"You didn't..."
Gente's smile faltered slightly. "Strange, isn't it? Life and Death, Magic and Nature. In the words of my untactful colleague, 'You're great at loving people in general, mediocre at loving a few people, and pretty bad at loving just one person.[5]' A little cruel, but accurate in my case. I don't think you have that problem, and for that I'm grateful, even if the relationship is a little... unconventional."
My father would disown me again, if he found out, Quatre thought, but the memory of his father disowning him, abandoning him when he refused to admit that what Treize was doing was wrong - it didn't hurt quite as much as it used to. His father had been willing to interfere on his behalf, not because he thought that Treize was wrong and the mages were people and not animals, but because he thought that his son was special. His father couldn't understand why he would choose imprisonment and slavery to stay with the people who he considered animals - similarly, he would never be able to understand what he and Trowa were building.
He deliberately steered his mind away from such disturbing thoughts and back to Gente, who looked nothing like him but was already like the brother he never had.
"Don't get too attached to me, Quatre," Gente said. "Don't forget, I'm still dead, and as soon as the shield comes down, my spirit will finally depart. None of this is real."
"So are you going to teach me or not?" Quatre asked quietly. It was almost impossible to remember that the boy standing next to him was dead. Except that he could see clearly into Gente's mind, and he could see the boy - no man's - very clear memories of his own death. "You know, this might be easier if you didn't look like this. Show me what you looked like when you died."
Gente stared at him with a sad expression on his face. "You know, it took me eight years to become as hard as you are now."
"Hard?" Quatre had heard himself described a lot of ways in other people's minds. The most common thought was 'angel', which wasn't really their fault - he couldn't help the way he looked, but it bothered him when people looked at him like he was a sacred object or something. He didn't think that 'hard' had ever come into anyone's mind. Ever.
"We were all... we all had our weaknesses, although I was the worst. The responsibility came on us too quickly, we didn't know what was happening. The first you must also deal with, but perhaps the second we can ease. We have the knowledge, but what I was really worried about was that you'd be weak, like me. I couldn't even conceive of killing another person. Did you know it was years before I was able to bring myself to kill another human, even those I knew who were being controlled by the demons? Astonishing, isn't it? That I could be in a war and not kill."
"I still haven't killed. Not with my magic, anyway."
"Not surprising. We're not supposed to be able to feel that way, even about our enemies. It was over a year before I could get myself angry enough to try, and then my power failed me. I can teach you how to make sure that doesn't happen, but I saw the rage when you thought Zechs was attacking Trowa. I never had that. You five are stronger than we were. It might make the difference, so there isn't another drawn-out war."
Quatre frowned. "What do you mean?"
"I preferred pleasant dreams to realities. I would never have asked to see my true form," he explained. Suddenly his entire body blurred, and when it became clear again, he was a different person. He was only slightly taller, but there were dark circles under both of his eyes, eyes that were bloodshot. He was thin - not just long like all of the mages, but emaciated. The wings were still there, but they barely glowed - instead, they hung down his back. They looked more like a fly's wings then something magical. Besides all of those obvious things, there was something lacking about him that had been there when he was in the other form. He looked dead.
"So now you know," Gente said. "The truth was that it wasn't much of a sacrifice when we killed ourselves a thousand years ago. We were all more than half-dead, and sick at heart because of the years of war. There wasn't much left for us here, either. We'd destroyed my homeland in the wars. The others had about as much to go back to. So killing ourselves for the world seemed to be the next logical step."
"How... how did this happen?" Quatre asked, finding his voice again.
"The power, it always comes back to the power," Gente said, a small smile on his face. It did nothing to improve his looks. "We have an enormous amount of power - too much, actually. The human body just can't take that kind of stress. It takes enormous amounts of energy to control that sort of power, and that has a drain on your body. Towards the end of the war, we were eating a ton of food, we just couldn't get any energy because our bodies were so drained. We were just worn down. We did some pretty desperate things back then, to end the war, because we weren't going to last much longer. It was a war of attrition, and we were losing. We managed to drive them back to their own world, and then we threw what was left of our energy back into the shield."
Quatre nodded. It made sense, he guessed. It had to be an amazing amount of power, but he could see it doing that. Look what using their powers did to normal mages. "Is it... is it going to happen to me?"
Gente sighed. "I don't know. It really depends on how long this war is drawn out. We didn't start to show signs of the stress until the ninth year. It didn't get this bad until the very end - by then we were practically dragging ourselves out of our graves to fight and then collapsing again immediately afterwards. To this day I don't know how we managed to win, even if the victory was only partial. If the war ends earlier, faster this time, I don't think the strain will be too great. And, of course, assuming that you really defeat them, not just force them back like we did, you won't have to give your lives like we did, to build another shield. I really hope that doesn't happen - I've had a number of nightmares about this becoming a cycle, happening every thousand years." He grimaced. "There is a bit of bad news, though. It's no coincidence that I'm only an inch taller than you. From now on, your body will be devoting all of it's energy to containing the power. That means that it can't devote any energy to growing. I will be extremely surprised if any of you grow more than an inch or two."
Quatre frowned at that news. He was the smallest of the five by far, and didn't relish the idea of being the runt for the rest of his life. Then he realized how ridiculous it was, that he was worrying about his size when he was about to fight in a battle against demons that wanted to take over his world. He laughed at the irony.
Gente, following his thoughts, also smiled. "Yeah. Let's work on one problem at a time, huh? If it makes you feel better, you can always cast an illusion to look taller."
"I'll keep that in mind," Quatre said. "Now, we'd better get started. You have more to teach me then how to look more imposing then I actually am."
--------------------------------------------
Duo gasped as the others disappeared. "What the hell? Where'd they go?" he asked the girl that the others had called Thanatos, who was the only one left.
"They're still here, sorta," the girl said with a cocky smile. "We just moved to different planes. They're not really gone, neither are we. We'll meet up with them later."
"That's very helpful," Duo remarked sarcastically.
"You'll understand when I finish giving you everything I know," Thanatos said in what was probably supposed to be a comforting tone.
"Great. How are you planning on doing that?"
"Magic."
"That's helpful," he remarked sarcastically.
"It's easier not to try to explain now. Lets just say that I'm going to use magic to teach you how to use your magic, and once I do, you'll understand how I did it. It's a waste of time for me to explain something that you'll understand later anyway. Got it?"
"Sure. Whatever." He turned his head aside and feigned boredom, waiting for her to do whatever it was that she was going to do. When several minutes passed with nothing happening, he finally gave up and turned back and saw that she was staring at him, a wistful expression on her face. "What?!"
"It touched you too, didn't it?"
There was something about her voice - almost but not quite breaking from the emotion she was hiding - that made him pause before he started yelling. He hated when people started getting all vague on him, but something told him that she wasn't just being mysterious for effect - that she wasn't being more specific because it was painful to talk about. He knew what that was like, so instead of yelling, he asked, "What?"
"The power. I can see its mark on you. How did you discover it?"
Duo bit off the automatic response, which was to mock her. "Why do you ask?"
"I was just... curious, I suppose. Can you tell me?" Suddenly her face looked incredibly young and vulnerable, for all that she was his age.
"I killed my best friend."
"That's not bad."
Duo's head snapped up. "What the hell are you talking about?!" he demanded angrily.
"I'm sorry, that came out wrong. I mean, it could have been a lot worse."
"How?"
"You could have wiped out your entire clan. That's what I did," she said with a smile carefully calculated to hide the pain. He should know - he'd perfected his own version of that smile.
He stared at her in horror as she shifted her grip on the huge scythe she carried, then raised it and casually swung it in front of her. A large strip of grass suddenly became eight or ten inches shorter. "Apparently, as soon as the demons opened a gateway to our world to invade it, the world responded to defend itself by giving the five of us our powers. The only problem was that it forgot to tell us. I was a mage, a fairly weak one at that, and I was playing a game with my older brother. He threw a pretend mage-bolt at me, and I... reacted. I just used my power, the way I always had, but I didn't realize that I had all this extra energy. And... I remember seeing his body drop to the ground like a rag doll. I thought at first that it was some sort of joke, but when I got over there, he wasn't breathing. I... I ran back to the camp to get help, but everyone there was dead, too. I sucked the life out of all of them in less than a second."
Duo didn't say anything, knowing how much he hated it when people mouthed empty platitudes. He'd never thought of himself as lucky before, but she was right. It could have been a lot worse. Those stupid humans who'd run him out of town, the ones who blamed him for the plague - he could have done much worse to them, without ever realizing it. "When did you find out that you were responsible?" he asked.
"Not for years, luckily," she said with a bitter laugh. "If I'd found out at the time, I probably would have killed myself, and then where would we be?" She eyed him thoughtfully. "Have you ever tried to kill yourself?"
"Nah. I... I've wanted to die a few times, but I've never done anything about it. Too much of a coward. Run and hide rather than do something about it, that's me."
"Sometimes it takes more courage to live."
"Depends how you define living," he said sourly. There was silence for a minute, each lost in their own painful memories.
"When?"
"When what?"
"When did you want to die?"
"When I killed Solo."
"Your friend?"
"Friend, protector, brother, yeah, that was Solo."
"Any other times?"
"After the faeries."
"Faeries? Oh, yes, you lived with them for a while, didn't you?"
"How did you know that?" he asked, eyes narrowing suspiciously.
"We kept an eye on you guys. We can't interact physically with your world, but we can watch, and we were very curious about the people we'd waited a thousand years for."
"Just how long have you known about us?" he demanded.
"You mean that you guys would be coming or that it was you in particular?" she asked with a cocky grin that he usually used to irritate Wufei or Heero. It was more than a little irritating to have it turned on him. "We've known there would be five to replace us when the time came from the moment we cast the spell. As for knowing it was you in particular - we've known the five of you since birth. We haven't been watching you constantly, just keeping an eye on you. That reminds me... why did you leave the faeries? None of us were paying enough attention, and the next thing we knew, you were back on the streets."
"You missed quite a sight," he drawled, forcing himself not to think too hard about what had happened, or he might start crying, and he didn't do that anymore. "I killed them all."
"You what?"
"You wiped out your Clan, I wiped out the faeries that took me in. These things happen."
"You didn't kill them," she declared immediately. "We could sense it whenever you used your powers, and you only did it once, with your friend. The minor stuff doesn't trigger our notice, and you certainly didn't use your power to kill an entire village. I would have sensed that."
"I never said that I used my power to kill them," he protested, but inwardly he felt a hint of relief. He'd never been able to rid himself of the fear that somehow he'd drawn on his powers unconsciously and killed them without realizing it. It didn't make any sense, especially with what he remembered, but he didn't have a great track record when it came to using his power, so he'd always had the thought hanging around in the back of his mind... Now he could dismiss that, at least. Their deaths were still his fault, but at least he hadn't made the same mistake twice.
"So what happened? I don't believe that you went around the village with a knife and slit their throats."
"Of course not!" he snapped, a little ill at the image she'd just put in his mind. What was even worse was that it fit in so perfectly with his memories of what had happened there, so he could very easily picture gaping wounds in the necks of the scorched bodies he'd seen. Damn her, anyway. "Everyone who gets close to me dies. If you weren't dead already, I might be concerned. Then again, maybe not," he snapped.
"Touché," she said quietly. Duo didn't care enough to ask her what the hell she was talking about. "But that doesn't answer my question. We may be Death, but that doesn't mean that we kill everyone we come into contact with, or get close to, or whatever. There's no curse attached to the power, except for the nature of the power itself."
"Yeah, well that's easy to say when your friends aren't dropping like flies around you," Duo said shortly. He really didn't want to be discussing this.
"There's something very wrong here," she said with a slight frown, and made a slight motion with her hand. A black circle appeared on the ground. It wasn't a shadow, or darker in color, it was simply black. He heard a faint voice in the back of his mind muttering something, and realized that she was casting some sort of spell. He closed his eyes for a moment, feeling the magic in the air around him, getting a taste of the distinct flavor. It was unlike any magic he'd ever felt before - there was so much power in it, and the fact that he got the general feeling that it was natural, effortless, at least for her.
"What did you do?" he asked in a whisper. "What sort of spell is that?"
"Spyer," she said unhelpfully, frowning at the black circle. He could see something swirling around inside now. An image of a forest was forming, but very slowly.
"What?"
"Sorry," she said without looking at him. "Spy spell. One of a number of spells we have to spy on our enemies. This one allows me to look back through time."
"Through time? That could be handy."
She shrugged, eyes still focused on the black circle. "It has it's uses. Sometimes. Actually, it can be kind of frustrating to see events happening and know you can't do anything to stop them, because it's already happened. But any information is power, so we use all the spells we know."
"What are you doing now?" he asked, then his breath caught in his throat as he recognized the forest in the circle. It was his forest, the faeries forest, his home for years. He knew every tree by name, knew every plant and stream as well as he knew his own hand. He'd been told that most humans could barely tell one forest from another, much less one tree from another, but he had trouble believing it. How couldn't they see the difference?
"I'm going to find out what really happened to the faeries."
Duo gasped. "Why?"
"Because something that could get through their shields and kill them all is too powerful to leave out there, unknown. You may think that you're cursed - which I doubt, but even a curse has to act through a medium. They didn't just drop dead, did they?"
He didn't respond. It was too painful to think about.
"Did they?" her voice struck at him like a whip, and before he realized what he was doing, he answered.
"No! It was burned. Everything was burned. The bodies..." he cut himself off, and felt anger rising inside of him. "What did you do?!" he demanded. "I never talk about it..." She'd done something to make him talk, spelled him to do it. He couldn't remember the last time he'd been this angry.
"We can debate the ends and the means5 later. You may need this information. Or did you want to let more of your friends die because you're afraid to look now?"
If it was possible, her words made Duo even more angry, but he reined it in as images of his clan appeared in the circle. His breath caught in his throat - he could never have imagined that seeing them again would be so painful. They were bustling around the village, playing their games or doing their chores, the way he'd seen them doing a hundred times before.
Suddenly every one of them froze at exactly the same instant, as the forest called out a warning to them. This was another thing he didn't understand - the forest should have given them warning in plenty of time to at least run and hide. Not one of them had escaped the carnage, and all the bodies had been lying in the village. He would at least have expected them to try hiding in the forest. "I don't want to see this," he muttered. "I... I can't." He desperately wanted to look away, but he couldn't.
"You'll see much worse before this is over," Thanatos murmured.
Duo searched his mind for some sort of retort, but suddenly the image changed and all thought fled him. The picture shimmered once, and he stared, horrified because he knew what it meant. "That was the shields going. Somehow they tricked an elder into inviting one of them in, and then shattered them from the inside. I... I felt it, inside my head. It knocked me unconscious."
Thanatos looked at him. "That's not a normal reaction for magic like that. You must have somehow linked yourself - and your power - to the shields. There's no other explanation for you having a physical reaction like that."
"I didn't mean to."
"Well, I didn't mean to slaughter my Clan, but we're not always in complete control of our powers," she replied bitterly. "It doesn't matter. If anything, the shields would have stayed up a little longer because of it. And I doubt that you could have done anything to stop something that could kill an entire faery clan, including the elders, at least not then."
Duo didn't answer. His eyes were fixed on the image as the faeries stood absolutely still. He knew from experience that they were talking with the trees, even if he couldn't hear it in this recreation. Suddenly they all started running away in every direction, but when they reached the edge of the clearing that marked the end of the village, a wall of black fire sprouted up in front of them, forming a circle around the village, trapping them there. So that's why they didn't scatter, he thought numbly, in the part of his mind that wasn't shrieking in anguish as he saw several of his friends fling themselves at the fire, obviously trying to get through it. They'd done that sort of thing before, flinging themselves through flames too quickly to be badly burned, but this time something went horribly wrong. It was as if the wall of fire was actually solid. The faeries who tried to jump through it either bounced off or were caught in the flames. He could see them screaming as they were burned alive. Don't think, he told himself. If he thought about this, he'd go crazy.
Then something... several somethings, actually, walked through the wall of flame. Duo gasped, and heard Thanatos cursing. "The demons who chased us!" he gasped. "But... it was years ago!" he turned accusing eyes on his companion as she stared at the image. After a few seconds, she spat out a word he didn't recognize and the black circle disappeared. "How did this happen?!"
"We underestimated them," she growled, and his temper flared.
"What?! You mean they all died because you made a mistake?!"
"We thought that they wouldn't be able to identify you until you got your powers. Somehow they managed to open a temporary portal to this world and used it to attack you."
"Me?!" the word came out in a very undignified squeak. It was followed by a realization, this one crushing. "Then they did die because of me. The demons were looking for me, they were trying to kill me, and if I hadn't been there, they'd still be alive." It hurt more than he wanted to think about to have all of his suspicions born out in such a manner.
"It had to be this way," Thanatos said softly.
"What? I had to be a murderer?" he demanded angrily, spinning around to face her, fists clenched.
"Goddess, no!" she shouted back, eyes flashing angrily. "Don't you understand? They saved your life!"
"And died for it!" he responded bitterly. "I killed them, just as much as you killed your Clan," he added, knowing it would hurt her.
Her eyes darkened for a second. "You're trying to hurt me, distract me," she said, glaring at him through narrowed eyes. "It won't work. You don't think that our enemies didn't try that method more than once during the war? And they'll try it on you, too, if you don't learn to live with the fact that people die in wars."
"You're not supposed to kill your allies, though," he said sarcastically. "They would have been better off if they'd never found me."
"If they hadn't found you, you would have died."
"Better one than many."
"Goddess, you really don't understand, don't you?" she asked. "You're the important one. In fact, for all we care, you and the other four are the only ones who matter in the entire world. Your elders knew it. They sacrificed themselves for you, because they knew how important you were. You don't think that they couldn't look ahead, that they didn't know what was coming? Give them more credit than that. If you had died then, the entire world would die now."
"They... they knew what was coming?" he asked falteringly.
"They did. And they chose to protect you, for the good of the entire world. Now what are you going to do with the life they gave you? You owe them."
Duo knew what she wanted - she wanted him to fight for her cause, but there was only one thought in his mind right then - revenge. It made him ashamed, knowing that wasn't what his friends had died for, but he couldn't help it. All he wanted was to hurt those who had hurt his friends.
"You can have both, you know," Thanatos said quietly.
"Stop reading my mind."
"It's true though. You can avenge them and protect the world at the same time. The means to both goals are the same. Take your place along with the others and defend this world. You'll get plenty of opportunity to kill the demons, as you call them, and be fulfilling the destiny they died to preserve at the same time."
For several minutes Duo stared into the distance, remembering the scenes of death that were permanently imprinted in his mind. First Solo, and then many of them, from his time with the faeries. There were more, people he'd killed with his own hands when they tried to hurt him, or tried to hurt some innocent orphan kids as he'd roamed from village to village. Never did anything to help anyone beyond a few random killings and a few gifts of extra money. Didn't want to get attached to anyone, because everyone he ever loved ended up dead. Sure it was lonely, but it was much safer that way.
He'd thought that he was Death, and now he'd found out that he was right. He'd thought that anyone who got close to him would die, and now he knew that was true as well, but he also knew that there was a reason for it. He could end it now, make sure that he didn't kill anyone else just by knowing them. Maybe Death would leave him alone if he did this last thing.
"Are you going to teach me or not?"
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Trowa blinked in surprise as the others disappeared, but when his companion didn't show any alarm, he decided it must have been expected and didn't comment. Instead, he turned to the other man and said, "You can drop the illusion now."
The illusion of a young man his own age shimmered and then disappeared to be replaced by the reality - a man almost a dozen years older than himself, haggard and scarred. He looked half-dead already. He sighed. "I knew you'd see through the illusion, but Gente thought that it would be better to break it to you gently."
"We're going to look like that?" Trowa asked. It was easy to picture himself that way, he felt half-dead most of the time, but the thought of seeing his Quatre in that condition hurt. He'd seen through the illusions the others wore in a matter of seconds. Did that mean that the others hadn't seen through them? Why was he different?
"It is one possibility. We didn't start to look like this for years. If your war is shorter than ours was, you may have a long life in front of you."
Trowa nodded, absorbing the information. "Why did I see through the illusions when the others didn't?"
"We don't do so well at seeing things other than reality, it goes against our power," Gael said with a hint of a smile. "It comes in handy in battle sometimes, but... well, you always see the truth. Exactly as it is - you're not allowed any personal illusions. A little different then your Quatre."
"I've never had any illusions."
Gael nodded his head slightly in response to that comment, then fell silent. The two of them stood in comfortable silence together for several minutes, and Trowa found himself more comfortable with this stranger then he'd ever been with anyone, except Quatre.
"It makes sense. We were chosen for the same personal characteristics - we're almost one person. Almost," Gael responded to his thoughts.
"So what now?"
"I'm going to use magic to give you all of my knowledge about how our magic works, about what we can do with it, what limitations we have. You'll also be getting a good number of my memories of the war, so you'll know what sort of tricks they pulled on us. Maybe you won't be tricked by the same things. It could save lives," he said bleakly.
Trowa nodded. "Will it take long?"
"Time has no meaning here. You're going to exit the crystal less than a second after you entered it. You're not really in it, of course."
"Mm."
"Are you ready to begin?"
Trowa shrugged, then nodded his head slightly.
"It might be better if you sat down. This may take some time..." he trailed off, remembering his previous comment. "Well, it will seem to take some time."
Trowa nodded again and seated himself. Gael sat on the ground facing him. "There's one thing I want to tell you about before I give you my memories. You have to be very, very careful not to let your power control you, because it will try. You have to work to keep from drawing away from people, and even more dangerous, to stop from devoting all your time to protecting Nature. The power can't make decisions, it doesn't realize that there are more important things than protecting one little bit of forest. You have to conserve your energy for the actual battles. Once I lost control totally... well, you'll see. Just be very careful. Now relax. This won't hurt. Much."
He raised his hands to Trowa's forehead, and everything went black.
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Heero blinked as the others disappeared, and his hand went to the sword at his hip.
"Don't bother," said the boy who looked like he came from the same land as Wufei. He was the only one who hadn't disappeared. "They aren't being harmed, we just wanted some privacy for the transfer."
"Transfer?" Heero growled.
"I'm going to give you all my knowledge about how to use your magic, and how to effectively fight the invaders." The boy crossed his arms across his chest and gazed dispassionately at Heero. He walked in a slow circle around him, looking him over like he was a piece of meat. "You're good enough," he finally said with a frown. "But this has got to be the first time in the history of the universe that the person to have the power of Life was an assassin. You're not going to be doing that anymore."
Heero decided right then that he was not going to let some boy he'd never met, or some power that he'd never asked for dictate his life.
"You don't have a choice. The power won't let you kill unnecessarily. If you don't believe me, try going back to killing people for money and see what happens. You'll freeze. But if it makes you feel better, you'll have plenty of people to kill in the upcoming years." Heero glared at him, trying to shield his own thoughts from his intrusive companion. Stay out of my mind, he growled. Vida's lips twitched in what might be considered a smile by some, if they were very generous and not to specific with the definition of a smile. "You need to relax. I was like you before - never showed anything, even if I wasn't as dead on the inside as I pretended. It's not worth it - inefficient, if you can believe that. I spent too much energy suppressing my emotions and pretending that I didn't have them. By the end of the war I didn't have the energy to keep it up. And... and Thanatos would never let me get away with pretending I didn't care." There was a hint of pain in his eyes now, and happiness as well.
"Hn."
"Well, you'll see. I don't think your Duo will let you get away with it anymore than... than Thanatos would."
Heero's eyes widened despite his attempt at self-control. "Duo? That... That baka? What are you talking about?!" he demanded.
The sort-of-smile Vida wore blossomed into a full-fledged smile. "Yeah, I know, we're always the last to know, but you're acting just the way I did before Thanatos jumped me. The others saw it too, at the time."
Heero only had one word for him. "No."
Vida shrugged. "You'll see. I give it less than a month before he proves you wrong, and trust me, you'll be glad he proved you wrong."
Heero glared at him, trying very hard not to think of the braided baka, of his smile, of the weird twinkle in his eye that shouldn't have been there, not after all the death he'd seen. He tried very hard not to think about Duo, because if he did, Vida would read his mind, and then... He swore under his breath as a smug smirk appeared on Vida's face. He glared at him some more.
"You'll see," Vida said with a shake of his head. "Is there anything you want to know before I start?" As he spoke, his wings extended out behind him, almost as if he was stretching.
Heero continued to glare at him.
Vida shrugged. "Then lets do this," he said, all signs of emotion draining from his face until it was as emotionless as Heero's. Suddenly he looked very capable, although not quite as deadly as Heero. He took several steps closer and put both of his hands on Heero's head. "This is going to hurt..."
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Wufei grunted in surprise as the others all disappeared, all except that infuriating woman who claimed to be him in a past life. He drew his sword and held it in front of him uncertainly. He would never have been a weak woman in a past life, and he wanted to kill this creature who dared to suggest that he would have, but at the same time, his honor would not allow him to attack an opponent weaker than himself, especially a woman.
"Are you planning on attacking me with that?" she asked scornfully. "Or were you just going to stand there and look frustrated?" Sky-blue eyes flashed as she glared at him. Then the glare turned into a cruel smile. "Or are you afraid that I'll beat you if you ever do get up the guts to attack me?"
"Kisama!" he exclaimed, sheathing his weapon in disgust. "I won't disgrace myself by fighting a woman."
"Suit yourself," she said, drawing her own sword. "That attitude of yours is the first thing we have to get rid of."
"What are you doing, onna?!" he demanded as she approached him, the weapon held before her. She looked very comfortable and competent with it, but then, all she'd done was threaten him. Threats were no judge of a warrior's true strength.
"I should think even a chauvinist like you would get this - I'm attacking you. Defend yourself."
"You're insane," he accused, drawing his own sword to defend himself as she swung her blade at his head. He ducked under the attack, and then raised his own sword to block the follow-up strike that came a second later.
"Not particularly. No more than any of the others," she replied evenly, attacking again. What was truly disturbing was that she was able to keep up a conversation like this as she fought. Well, the real problem was that she wasn't out of breath as she spoke - not at all. It was almost as if this was no effort for her.
"It isn't," she said.
"What?" he growled.
"It isn't much of an effort for me," she responded, jumping back to avoid a strike of his own, then instantly jumping forward again. Her breathing continued to be even and calm, as he began to breath harder from the exertion.
"Stay out of my mind!" he grunted in between his breaths. Then, "You're not human!"
"I'm as human as you are," she retorted, still breathing evenly. "Or at least you will be." Their swords met with the clash of steel on steel, and even generated a few sparks from the friction of the blades against each other. Suddenly she twisted her wrists, and his sword flew out of his hand as his grip failed. He stared at the end of her sword and swallowed once. He raised his eyes to meet hers. He would not dishonor himself further by closing his eyes like a child. He would face his death like a warrior.
"Do it."
She stared at him as if he was some incomprehensible object, and then shook her head. She took a step back and sheathed her sword, letting it rest between her fire-wings. "I was just making a point. I'm not going to kill you. I may not like you very much, but you are necessary for the survival of this world. All I can do is try to beat some sense into your head. Just because an opponent is female doesn't mean they're not dangerous. You'll probably have some females against you, and if you underestimate them the way you underestimated me, it's going to cost you a lot."
"You... onna!" he shouted angrily, reverting back to his native tongue in his frustration.
She raised an eyebrow. "How observant. Are you ready to accept my knowledge yet, or do you want to go at it again?"
"What could a woman teach me?" he asked scornfully, picking up his own sword and sheathing it.
"Well, I could teach you to do this," she suggested wickedly, and then held up a hand. His eyes widened as the magic in the air around her literally began to dance as she somehow disrupted the patterns without destroying them. He'd never seen anything like that before, not ever.
"That's..."
"My power. Your power. Our power. And I have to show you how to fully utilize it, no matter how much you dislike me, but I can't do that if you close your mind to me. You have to open your mind in order to receive the information. So? Are you ready to let me in, to accept what I can teach you? Or do you need me to beat you up a little more? In the interest of honesty, I'll tell you that you don't have a chance against me. I know how to use my power to augment my strength while fighting. You don't, and until you learn, you can't beat me. So are you ready to learn?"
Wufei glared at her. She was a warrior, he couldn't deny it, but something within him rebelled at the idea of submitting to the teaching of a woman, no matter how skilled. It just didn't seem right.
"Maybe if you stop thinking of me as a woman, it will be easier," she suggested. "I'm not really a woman, you know. I've been dead for a thousand years. I'm a ghost."
"You were a woman."
"Woman is just a name," she pointed out.
"You've given me no other for you," he returned.
She closed her eyes and sighed. "Then... you can call me... you might as well call me Magic."
"That's not a name," he said, disgusted that she thought so little of him that she wouldn't even give her real name to him.
"No, it's not, but it's who I am now. There's very little left of me but my powers."
"What does that mean?" he demanded. "At least give me your true name! It is dishonorable to do less!"
"If I remembered it, I'd be happy to tell you!" she snapped angrily.
"You... you don't remember?" he asked, horrified. His name was such a big part of his identity - losing it would be like losing a part of himself, a part vital to his survival.
"We sent most of our memories and all of our power into the shield when we killed ourselves," she said soberly. "But not everything made the transfer properly, I don't know why. Perhaps it's because so many of our memories were tied up in our powers that when the spell started to fail, the memories did too. We've existed so long simply for our power that we've become little more than those powers. Especially in the last hundred years, we've been forgetting things. Names, places, people... I remember the exact date that I killed my first demon, but my mother's face... it's a blur, it has been for years." There was an emptiness in her eyes now, something that nothing could fill. "We've all lost different things, different amounts. Gente... or the man we call Gente remembers the most, but our own names were some of the first things to go. I know, in life, I had a relationship with Gael, but I can't remember it. I can't even remember his true name. We hope, when we pass on, it will come back, but there's no guarantee."
"I'm sorry," he murmured, unable to come up with any better way to express his feelings over the horror of what had happened to her, to all of them.
"We survive. We always do. We have no choice," she said simply. "Now, are you ready to take on this burden yourself, knowing what possible future awaits?"
The thought of losing his identity was the most horrible thing that Wufei could think of, but no member of the Dragon Clan would ever be called a coward. He raised his chin and stared evenly at her. "Do what you must."
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Quatre didn't gasp as the others all reappeared - why should he, he'd cast the spell that brought them back. He looked around and saw that the others were changed - just as he was. The wings that had been on their predecessors were now on his group, and there was a faint glimmer in the air around each of them. At the same time, their predecessors had lost their wings and the glow, and were now practically transparent, lifeless, listless. They'd given the last of their power for this last transfer of power and information, now there was practically nothing left of them. The only thing keeping them here was their own willpower.
:Ready?: Quatre asked the others, and felt their agreement. This pocket of existence was getting ready to collapse, anyway, and they'd be a lot better off if their consciousnesses weren't in it when it did. He turned to look at Gente, then let his gaze drift over the others. "Thank you all very much."
"End this. Please," Gente said quietly, and the others nodded agreement. "We won't be able to contact you again, but we'll be watching."
Quatre nodded, smiling sadly as Vida moved next to Thanatos, linking hands while Gael and the other girl did the same. Gente stood by, also watching, a glowing smile on his face. "Are we ready?" he asked quietly.
"Ready?" Thanatos asked. "I've been waiting for this for centuries!" And with this, she planted a very enthusiastic kiss on Vida's lips. Gael did the same to the other girl.
Gente's smile somehow broadened. "Good-bye," he murmured, and their bodies faded away. As soon as they were completely gone, Quatre automatically threw his consciousness back into his body, trusting the others to do the same as the universe fell apart.
Author's notes: Well, this one was not as much fun to write, but there were things that had to be said. Now I can get back to the action stuff. There were a couple of weird/random references here, so I marked them.
1. Thanatos is Greek for death
2. Gente is Spanish for people
3. Gael is a male version of Gaea, the spirit of the earth
4. Vida is Spanish for life
5. this little quote is paraphrased from one of my favorite books, Xenocide, by Orson Scott Card. It's part of the Ender's Game series, and I recommend that anyone who likes science fiction read it.