By midnight the next day, they had over two dozen mages, along with about a dozen non-mages who'd accompanied their loved ones when they'd left their homes and who now refused to return, even after finding out that they'd be in danger. Or maybe it was especially after they'd found out that they (and their loved ones) would be in danger. Quatre worked hard to convince as many as the non-mages as he could to go back to their homes, because he didn't want them getting hurt. Unsaid was the fact that he wanted to do the same for the mages he'd summoned, but he needed them too badly to send them to safety, the way he wanted.
Finally Quatre stood on the road in front of the building, his eyes unfocussed. A few minutes later he came back inside and quietly announced that all the mages in Sank kingdom were there. They all headed outside, and then Trowa carefully cast the spell to bring them all to the desert. He tried not to think about the last time he'd cast this spell, when Quatre had lost control of himself, but he couldn't stop an almost invisible shiver from running down his spine.
The time he'd spent without his memories was somewhat blurry and vague within his own memories, as if it had happened to someone else and he was just an observer, and in a way, it had. He hadn't been the same person without his memories. He'd been helpless. He hadn't been so helpless in a long time, and the memory of the experience was not pleasant. He hadn't liked it any more the second time around, now that he could remember both instances.
The thing that he remembered most clearly was a seemingly endless darkness, from the time when he still drifted in unconsciousness, before Treize had *permitted* him to wake up, before he was allowed to start making memories, any kind of memories to fill the empty void that existed in his mind without his memories. That void had given him nightmares even after he started making new memories, and the previous night he'd put himself in a deep trance so that he wouldn't have any nightmares. Not so much for himself - he had nightmares all the time, he was used to them - but for Quatre, now that they were linked again.
Even now, the thought of how close he'd come to losing Quatre was enough to make his heartbeat speed up and his throat to tighten. First Quatre losing control of himself to the power, then him attacking Trowa... He'd been ready to do anything, including dying, in order to bring Quatre out of it, but he'd never really thought about how much Quatre would suffer if Trowa died. He knew how he'd feel if Quatre died, but somehow, he'd just never pictured Quatre being the same... he was a loner, he knew that, partially because of his powers and partly because of who he was. He had trouble getting to know people at all, and the four friends he had now were more than he'd ever had before. Even at the circus, he'd had only a casual relationship with most of the other performers - the only person he'd gotten remotely close to was Catherine, and that was more because of her than because of any effort on his part. Quatre made friends with everyone he met, and did so as easily as he breathed. He would have thought that Quatre would turn to one of them if he lost Trowa, but obviously that was not the case.
And that terrified him. They were about to enter a war where neither of them had much of a chance of survival. He wasn't sure what he'd do if Quatre died and he didn't. He wasn't the type to consider suicide an option, or he would have died long ago, when he was still a slave of the mercenaries, but if Quatre didn't survive, it might become an option. But what about Quatre? He didn't know what would happen if he died and left Quatre behind, and he didn't really want to think about it, since if it happened he wouldn't be able to do anything about it. He promised himself he'd do his best to survive, if only for Quatre's sake.
:Trowa?: Quatre asked, and then he realized that he'd been so caught up in his thoughts that he'd never completed the spell. :If... doing this with me bothers you too much, one of the others can go with you,: he said quietly, doing his best not to sound hurt.
:It doesn't bother me,: he told Quatre while mentally scolding himself for his carelessness. :I just wasn't paying attention.:
:You're sure...:
:Certain,: he said firmly, giving Quatre a brief squeeze. He quickly completed the spell, and suddenly they (along with all of the mages and their relatives) were standing in the middle of the desert, the wind whipping around them, the sun beating down on them overhead.
Trowa felt the shock and surprise of the mages around him, and quietly reinforced his shields.
"Come on," Quatre said encouragingly to the others. "It's only a few hours from here, and they'll be out to meet us, I'm sure!" he said cheerfully.
Sure enough, less than an hour later, a man on horseback approached them.
"Abdul!" Quatre shouted as he was suddenly embraced by a man who probably weighed twice as much as he did. At least twice as much.
"Master Quatre!" Abdul shouted in return, sounding just as pleased. "What are you doing here? And who are these people?"
"The war's almost here," Quatre said seriously. "And I'm going to base it out of your fortress. These are some mages, and they need to be there. The supply train arrived on time, didn't it?"
"It left just a few days ago, Master," Abdul replied, his eyes traveling over the group. "Will you be staying as well?"
Trowa marveled at their loyalty, that Quatre had just appeared (literally), announced that he was about to make their home the center of the greatest war the world had seen in a thousand years and that he was bringing along a bunch of defenseless mages, and their only question was whether or not Quatre was staying.
"I can't, not yet," Quatre said apologetically. "We have to collect the rest of the mages. We should be back within the week, though, and we'll be dropping off more mages between now and then. I'd appreciate it very much if you'd have someone posted to watch in this direction - we'll always approach this way." He smiled hopefully at Abdul, who grinned at him.
"No problem, Master Quatre! I'll make sure we do that as soon as I finish escorting these people back to the fort!"
"Thank you very much," Quatre told him with another brilliant smile. "I'm very sorry, but we have to get back as quickly as possible... time is of the essence."
"I understand," Abdul replied. "And I will escort them back to the fort."
"Thank you! We really need to go, now, though." :Do you want to do this or should I?: he asked Trowa.
:There isn't a power center near Sally's place - the closest I can get us is a couple of hours.:
:Then I'll do it, I can take us directly to the others.: "See you soon, Abdul!" he said out loud, then Trowa felt him reach for his power. There was a flash of light, a moment of disorientation, and then they were standing in the middle of the main room of Sally's place.
Heero, Duo, and Wufei were sitting at a table directly in front of them, and all three started as they suddenly appeared, but that was nothing compared to the reactions of the rest of the people in the room. Half of them turned very white and just stared, the other half jumped to their feet, upsetting the tables and reaching for their weapons. One of the serving women let out a little shriek and fainted dead away.
"Oh dear," Quatre murmured, and a hint of power drifted out from him. Suddenly everyone in the room collapsed, unconscious before they hit the ground.
"Oh dear?" Duo asked, then snickered. "Come on, Quatre, you can say a curse, I'm sure of it!"
Quatre shot Duo an irritated look. "We really have to get going," he replied.
"Yeah, yeah, I know," Duo said, getting up out of his seat. "Was everything OK?"
"We saw Abdul, and I told him what was happening," Quatre replied. "He took them back to the fortress."
"Oh, that's good," Duo remarked with a yawn and a slow stretch, reaching his arms towards the ceiling. "So we're just going to start flying, and they're going to find us?" he asked dubiously.
"On the main north-south road," Quatre replied. "They should be in groups, by now, so that will be easier. We'll stop in... we'll stop at my old home and pick up some supplies from Iria, and then head for the desert. I don't want to ... let anyone else get involved." He swallowed, and Trowa felt Quatre raising his mental shields, although whether it was to shield himself or the others was questionable. Either way, Trowa decided that it was unacceptable.
He pushed gently against the shields and said, :It wasn't you.:
Quatre winced. "It was me," he said out loud. "The worst part of me." He swallowed. "It is my fault, but we have other things to deal with now. I just want to do my best to make sure that I don't hurt any more innocents."
Trowa wasn't sure that that adjective applied to any of the people he'd killed - they were all Oz soldiers - but he didn't think Quatre was ready to listen to an argument about that now. :Everyone has a darker side, a part of them that they do not like,: he said quietly. He should know. He was intimately familiar with his own. :Having one does not make you an evil person.:
:But letting it out to kill hundreds of people?: Quatre asked in response, then shook his head. :It doesn't matter right now. We have to go.:
Trowa frowned, not wanting to leave it like this, but he could tell that Quatre wasn't ready to forgive himself yet, and no argument was going to change his mind. He nodded slightly and followed Quatre outside.
---------------------------------
They'd barely flown for two hours when they came across the first group of mages, just like Quatre had said there'd be. There were seven mages and three normal humans who refused to leave the side of their loved ones. This time Quatre didn't bother to try to convince them otherwise, he and Trowa just took them straight to the Manguanac's base down in the desert, while Duo, Heero, and Wufei continued along the road, keeping an eye out for other groups of mages.
And they found them - two of them, actually - while they were waiting for Quatre and Trowa to return. Between the two groups there were over a dozen mages and four more normal humans. That group had two children in it, who'd been prisoners along with the other mages, but neither of whom had even reached ten years. We can't take children with us to war! he thought, horrified. But when Quatre and Trowa returned, after a shorter period of time than for the last trip, they took those mages to the desert, as well. Including the two children.
When Duo realized that Quatre was going to bring them along, he'd shot the smaller boy a horrified look. Children! Quatre's back had been turned, but when he turned to look at Duo, Duo thought that he'd overheard the thought. But when he didn't say anything, just stared at Duo for a moment before turning his head away, Duo decided that he must be mistaken.
The moment that the second group disappeared, Heero turned to frown at Duo. Duo was somewhat amazed to find that he could actually tell the difference between a thoughtful frown and a glare. It was tough, sometimes, probably because Heero's eyes were always so intense... Now he wasn't angry, just thoughtful, and it was something having to do with him.
"What is it, Hee-chan?" he asked without thinking, then winced. Heero was becoming more tolerant of the pet names Duo made up for him when he said them silently, but he still tended to get irritated when he said them out loud.
Heero blinked, but didn't say anything. Finally he said, "Trowa asks that you shield more firmly, or stop thinking so strongly when Quatre is around, because you're upsetting him."
"But they're just children!" Duo protested, ignoring for the moment that by the laws of both Oz and Sank, they were all supposed to be children. You weren't supposed to drag children into wars. The five of them didn't count as children, for obvious reasons. "They shouldn't be here!"
Heero stared at him, then said, "We need them. Our enemies will possess as many of Treize's troops as possible, and all of his mages. We'll need as much magical energy on our side as we can muster."
"Not children!" Duo insisted.
"Duo..." Heero actually hesitated for a second, then closed his eyes for a long moment. "You're the only one of us who doesn't have any tactical training. Trowa had it from the mercenaries, I learned it from the few times that Odin worked with an actual army, and both Wufei and Quatre learned it as heirs to their families."
"So?" Duo frowned. It wasn't like Heero to hold his lack of an education against him - it wasn't like it was his fault that he'd grown up on the streets! In fact, this was the first time he could ever remember Heero bringing it up.
"This is a tactical decision. If we bring them along, we not only gain their power to aid us, we also deny their power to the enemy. If they are not under our protection, they would be possessed to use against us."
Duo was horrified, and angry with himself for not seeing it soon. Thanatos' memories of the depths to which their enemies were quite clear, he should have seen what would have happened if they left the children behind - there was no way they could shield them while they were spread across Oz and Sank while they fought. And now that he thought about it, it was simple logic to bring them along to help fight. (Which was probably why Heero had no problems with it.) His clan had sacrificed themselves to protect him, so he could protect the world, and as much as he didn't like to admit it, in the grand scheme of things, these children's lives weren't as important as his own. He swallowed when he realized that it might become necessary to sacrifice those lives to save the lives of countless people who hadn't been born yet.
By this time, Duo was well aware of the fact that all five of them were well above normal in terms of intelligence and quickness of wit, enough so that they would all be fairly dangerous on their own even without their powers. He'd taught himself to read, and relied on his wits to make up for the lack of any formal education, and was also aware that his time with the faeries had shaped the way he thought into patterns that were distinctly non-human at times. The faeries always took the long view of everything - whether it was protecting him as a child for something that wouldn't happen for years, or planting a sapling in a particular spot, so that it wouldn't crowd another in a few hundred years, or even analyzing the movement of the stars for hundreds or even thousands of years. It was a by-product of being almost immortal, and was completely different from the lessons that Duo had learned on the streets.
Right now the way of thinking he'd learned from the faeries was clashing very violently with the things that he'd learned from Solo, about protecting people smaller than him, who couldn't protect themselves. There hadn't been lessons, of course, he'd learned from watching what Solo did, and then doing it himself. It just seemed like the obvious thing to do. Learning two such different viewpoints had given him his own... unique... perspective, but right now it left him with a very difficult question... which was more important? He valued both parts of his education.
Then he realized it didn't really matter. They couldn't protect the kids unless they took them right into the center of the danger, and those kids would definitely be possessed if they didn't protect them. They would just have to be extra careful to keep the kids out of danger. Duo promised himself that as long as he was alive, he wasn't going to let them get hurt, and he knew the others felt the same way. The only way someone would get to the kids was if they were all dead, and if that was the case then the entire world was screwed, anyway.
All of this flickered through his head in a matter of seconds, and he found himself nodding. "OK, I get it. I don't like it much, but I get it," he replied. Now Quatre... Oh, shit! he swore to himself. He *knew* how sensitive Quatre was to stray thoughts, and then he practically had to go shouting his thoughts from the rooftop, accusing him? I am such an idiot! he scolded himself. "I'll be careful with Quat from now on. Who told him?"
"Told him what?" Heero asked. He had waited patiently for Duo to come to his own conclusions. If there was one thing about Heero, it was that he was an amazing listener. Once Duo realized that Heero wasn't ignoring his talking, on the contrary, he listened to everything his lover said with his usual intensity, it had gotten a lot easier to talk to him about all sorts of things that he'd never discussed with anyone, and a lot harder to just babble away. Not that it slowed him down much, it just made him think a little more before he started.
"Who told Quatre that we had to do this? How'd he take it?" Duo couldn't believe he'd missed this conversation, but maybe it had been when he and Trowa were alone.
Heero shot him a strange look. "No one told him. He told us. Quatre has the most tactical training of all of us, he recognized the necessity immediately. Trowa thinks that's why it's bothering him so much, because he was the one who came up with the idea."
"Oh. Damn it." Duo was feeling worse by the second, although he was surprised that Quatre would come up with something like that. It seemed more like the sort of reasoning that Trowa or Heero would use. "I'll apologize to him when he gets back, OK?"
Heero nodded slightly, a smug look on his face, and Duo realized something. "Hey, how did you know that I was hurting Quatre?" Then he remembered something else. "You said that Trowa *said* that I was upsetting Quatre! You two didn't talk like this, did you?" he asked, pointing to his own head. That was all they needed, to have Quatre know that they were tiptoeing around him like this...
"Baka. Of course not," Heero said. "We didn't want him hearing."
"Then how did you..." Duo trailed off, trying to remember if Heero and Trowa had had any time alone before he and Quatre headed off again. He didn't think so... Trowa hadn't left Quatre's side for more than three seconds since they rescued both of them.
"There are ways to communicate without speaking," Heero said with a faint smile, then raised an eyebrow.
Duo's jaw dropped. I don't believe it. I don't believe it. The two of them finally came up with a language that consists entirely of monosyllabic grunts, lip-twitching and eyebrow raising! Unbelievable! "You two... talk to each other?" he asked. "Like a code?"
Heero nodded, looking entirely too pleased with himself. "And occasionally to Wufei," he said, giving the other boy a nod. Wufei smiled at Duo, and it was full of malice. Friendly malice, to be sure, but malice just the same. Duo imagined it was what his face looked like when he was playing practical jokes.
"Him too?" Duo cried.
"You talk enough out loud," Heero replied with a tug on his braid. "And Quatre hears too much as it is. You miss out on a lot when you talk too much, Duo," he added with another tug before wrapping his arms around him, still clutching firmly onto the end of his braid. Since both their wings were still out, Heero completed the gesture by folding his wings around Duo.
"You... I... all this time..." For the first time in his memory, Duo was absolutely speechless. "This is to get me back for singing on the road, isn't it?" he asked, turning his head slightly towards Heero.
"Hn."
------------------------------
Four days later, when they reached the castle that Quatre once called home, there was a surprise waiting for them. By then they'd collected well over a hundred mages (close to one hundred fifty when you included the ones from Sank). Quatre knew all of the ones who'd been prisoners with them by name, and somehow also knew the names of the dozen or so others who showed up, mages who'd managed to hide from the Hunters. They were all safely at the Manguanac's base now, and soon their group would be there was well - they were only stopping long enough to get some extra supplies from Quatre's sister to help them through what was coming.
They'd barely flown over the wall when they realized something was going on. Already there was a large stack of boxes, and as they landed, servents were still adding to the pile.
:Quatre, did you send word that we were coming?: Duo asked. He'd been unusually quiet for the last few days - not silent, of course, but there'd been slightly less babbling, and Quatre wondered if it was because of what was coming or something else.
:No, but they did know that we were coming,: Quatre replied, having already picked up that much information from the minds of those around him. All activity had practically ceased as the people in the courtyard tried - and failed miserably - not to stare at them.
:How?:
Quatre did a quick scan of the minds of the people around them. The only thing they knew was that they had to get these supplies ready, and that they were supposed to keep an eye on the skies, for some reason. Well, that reason was obvious now.
:I don't know. Let's go talk to Iria.:
They were still in the halls when Iria suddenly turned the corner. "Quatre!" she cried, joy apparent in her voice. She ran the few steps that separated them and then embraced him warmly. Quatre hesitated... how could she forgive him, after what he did?
"Iria... I'm sorry," he said softly.
"Sorry?" she stopped hugging him and held him at arm's length. "What for?" Her eyes widened. "You can't possibly blame yourself for..." her eyes narrowed. "You do! Now I know that you can read my mind, Quatre. Read it now. It was not your fault, what happened here. The only people at fault were the soldiers and Treize. You just executed a bunch of murderers."
I'm a murderer, he thought, but he could tell from the look on her face that he'd better not argue with her. He might have enough power to flatten the castle, and enough guts to tell off Treize Khushrenada, King of Oz, but he wasn't about to make his sister (any of his sisters) angry.
"Are you all right?" he asked instead.
"I'm fine. We're secure, now. I managed to call in enough of our reserve troops to cover the difference until we can recruit more people," Iria told him. "You know that I..."
"I'm sure that you will do a very good job," he told her. "Our homeland will prosper, Lady Iria," he said with a warm smile and a slight bow.
"Thank you," she told him, eyes sad. He wasn't that disappointed, actually, he'd never really wanted to be heir, it was just the way things were. Iria would do a good job, and he had a different destiny.
"Iria, how did you know that we would be coming?" Quatre asked, nodding his head towards the courtyard.
"I told her," said a familiar voice, and Quatre's eyes widened as he saw one of the people who'd followed Iria.
"Miss Po!" he exclaimed as she stepped forward. "Did you reach all of your people?"
"I did, and then I hurried here so I could catch you."
:Hurried?: Duo remarked sarcastically. :She must have been riding all night every night since we left in order to get here before us.:
Quatre quickly realized that Duo was right - they hadn't been flying very quickly, but even slow flying was faster than most horses. And they'd gone straight down the road. Given, she'd gotten a day-and-a-half head start, but if she had to go anywhere off the road... Quatre reached out with his mind and discovered that she was, understandably, exhausted, and only barely managing to stay on her feet. He quietly healed the soreness that so many days in the saddle will always cause, and gave her a bit of his energy. Her eyes widened, then fixed on him, and she bowed slightly. A bow, not a curtsy, that was interesting, he noted.
"Thank you very much," she said formally.
"You're welcome," he said automatically. "Why were you so intent on catching up with us?"
"I want to help you."
"You already have," he responded.
"No, I want to come with you when you go down into the desert."
That caught him by surprise. "Excuse me?" he asked, feeling the sudden tension in the others.
"I want to come with you," she repeated calmly. "I realize that I'm not a mage, and I realize that you have plenty of warriors there, but I believe that I can help."
"How?" his mind was already flying ahead, seeing what contributions she could make.
"I can help organize things. Not on the battlefield, but I can keep track of supplies, wounded... or not," she corrected herself with a slight smile. "Shifts, duty rosters, things like that. I have run an inn for several years, in addition to Sank's spy network."
Quatre hesitated. :What do you think?: he asked the others.
:You can do all of that, right?: Duo asked.
:Not if I'm pouring all of my energy into fighting,: Quatre responded. :And I know nothing about managing like that. She'd probably do a better job, anyway. She does have the experience.:
:What? I thought that you had all sorts of lessons in that stuff.:
:I was taught how to govern a region, not a single fort. There's a difference,: Quatre responded. :I think we should accept her offer.:
Wufei abruptly broke off contact with the others, but he didn't say no. Quatre took that as encouragement. :Well?:
:If she's crazy enough to want to take part in this, that's fine with me,: Duo replied.
:Heero?:
:She seems competent.:
Quatre didn't have to ask to know that he had Trowa's support.
"Then you're welcome to come," Quatre said with a grateful smile.
---------------------------------
They only stayed at Quatre's place long enough for them to finish gathering the supplies that Sally had suggested that they'd need. It seemed as if she already had a good idea of what they needed in order to survive a siege.
Heero hadn't missed the fact that Quatre had asked all of them for their opinions before accepting Sally's offer, although he'd certainly thought it was a good idea from the moment she made it. Quatre's confidence had taken a blow in the last few weeks, and he wondered - and worried - how this would affect Quatre in the upcoming fight. Trowa was worried, too, and was keeping an eye on him.
Heero had exaggerated when he said that he and Trowa could talk without using words at all - they could communicate, but that was mostly because their minds tended to follow the same patterns, and because they'd been together for so long. But it had been worth it to see the look on Duo's face. He smiled slightly.
He wondered when, exactly, enjoying himself (in any manner) had become important to him. He couldn't remember the exact moment (which bothered him slightly), but suspected that the change was because of Duo. In fact, he knew that it was because of Duo. As quietly as he could, he reached out to find his lover. Duo was playing with some of the children they'd brought along, creating illusions to entertain them as he told stories, and then joining him in a rousing game of tag while the Manguanacs watched in amusement.
Up on the roof, where he was certain no one could see him, Heero let his smile broaden slightly. Duo was half-child, most of the time. That was a good thing.
His smile disappeared as he remembered another child, but he pushed the memory away. It was over, in the past, and thinking about it now wouldn't change anything. He could practically hear Odin telling him those very words, and he repeated them to himself until the memory subsided.
Duo, sensing his change in mood, asked, :Are you OK, Hee-chan?:
Heero's lips threatened to curl upwards again after hearing that irritating nickname that Duo had thought up for him. :Hn,: he said affirmatively.
:Are you sure?: Duo asked, but before Heero could answer, an alarmed shout went up from the guard at the front gate.
A sword appeared in Heero's hand as he conjured himself to the top of the outer wall right next to the huge gates. He crouched on one of the huge stones, wings partially unfurled, sword in hand, ready... and stared.
There was... a hole in the air above the sand, that was the only way to describe it. And through the hole, he could see green grass, trees... a forest. There was a line of faeries - real faeries - walking through the hole, each of them carrying a small sapling. As he watched, they started to walk around the fort in a long line.
:Heero, what's going on?: Duo asked, crouched protectively over the now-silent children.
:Duo, get up here, it's faeries.:
A second later Duo appeared right next to him, also crouching, his wings already out and ready. Heero heard Duo muttering to himself and felt a slight ripple of energy. He made a mental note to ask Duo about the magic he'd learned from the faeries - it didn't feel like anything he'd ever felt before, and it might provide them all with an advantage later on, if they could learn it fast enough.
"It *is* them," Duo muttered, and then jumped off the wall, his wings snapping out to catch him before he fell too far. He easily swooped down to land beside the hole, where one faery was standing, watching the line. Duo obviously knew something that they didn't, because he bowed respectfully to the faery, then started talking.
After a few seconds, he stopped, listening to the faery's response. He tilted his head to the side and asked another question. He listened to the answer, then smiled broadly and bowed again. :Hey, guys! Come here!:
Heero spread his wings and glided down to land beside Duo. A few seconds later Trowa, Quatre, and Wufei appeared behind him. :What's going on?: Quatre asked.
:They're here to help us,: Duo replied, his eyes on the line of faeries. :They're going to make sure that this place is secure.:
:How?:
:They're going to build shields like the ones they use to protect their forests. Nothing gets through those, not even demons, remember? Trowa, they're going to need your help making those trees grow. After that they'll sustain themselves, even in the desert.:
:Why?: Wufei asked.
:It's their contribution to the war,: Duo explained. :They can't fight - they always rely on their shields and magic to either keep danger away or to hide from it, but they know how much depends on us. All of the faeries all over the world will be adding parts of their power to the shield - nothing's getting through it.: Duo turned his head to the other side, and Heero saw that the line of faeries now stretched all the way around the fort. As soon as the circle was completed, the faeries set down their burdens and started digging holes in the sand.
:Quat, are all of your people inside the fort? I mean, are there any out on patrol?:
:There are five out there,: Quatre replied immediately. :Why?:
:You've got to call them back. When the elders set the spell, they're going to make it so anyone who's in the fort can pass in and out of the shields. If they're not inside with us when it's cast, they won't be able to come in at all.:
:I'll bring them in now,: Quatre replied, closing his eyes. Heero felt a ripple of power and then a sudden surge. There were some startled shouts from inside the fort. :I have to go explain things to them now,: Quatre said, then vanished.
By then the faeries had pretty much finished with their holes and were now carefully placing the saplings in the holes, then scraping sand carefully in place around the roots. Suddenly the seven faeries next to the hole all turned and stared at Trowa.
:Go for it. Just make them grow,: Duo instructed him. Trowa raised an eyebrow at Duo's unusually sober tone, then dropped to one knee, closing his eyes. He plunged both of his hands into the sand up to the wrists, and the sand parted like water to let him. Heero felt power welling up all around him as the earth responded to Trowa's call, and suddenly the saplings shot upwards, maturing to huge full-grown trees in mere seconds. Trowa stopped when the top branches of the trees were just below the level of the walls, so that they wouldn't interfere with the view from the walls.
:Is that enough?: he asked.
Duo turned and let out some more of that bird-like language. The faeries spoke back to him, and he nodded. :They say that's fine. We have to get inside now. Are we sure that everyone's inside?:
:Everyone's here,: Quatre told them from somewhere inside the fort.
Heero conjured himself inside the gates, and appeared at the same time as the other three. As soon as they appeared, he felt a tremor in his bones as the faeries started casting their spell. Faery magic felt different than human magic. It flowed along more natural lines, and was less noticeable because of that.
The faeries continued their work for several minutes, then there was a small surge of energy and the tremor disappeared completely.
:They're done,: Duo said, and conjured himself back out to the faeries. Heero followed. Now they were marching back through the portal, although not as sedately as they'd come. Now most of them were dancing around, hugging each other, even jumping into the air and fluttering their wings to hover for several seconds before landing and continuing through the hole in reality. In just a few minutes only the elders remained.
Duo started talking in that bird-language again, then bowed to the faeries again. They all raised their hands to touch their foreheads, and Duo looked very surprised. Then they turned and walked through the hole, before it disappeared and Duo was left staring into space.
:What did they say?:
:Oh, nothing much, they just honored me. It doesn't happen very often,: Duo remarked in an off-hand manner that told Heero that it was very, very important to him. He made another mental note to get it out of him later. :Anyway, the shield's up!: he said with forced cheerfulness. :And its fixed so only we will be able to get through it. We can't change it, but that also means that they won't be able to trick someone into letting them in.:
Duo sighed, then turned to face Heero, putting a big smile on his face. :So what now, Hee-chan?:
Heero shrugged slightly. :We wait.:
--------------------------------
"I'm sorry, sir, but we haven't been able to find out anything yet," the young officer said with a slight bow. "Less than a week ago, every single spy for the Sank kingdom that we'd identified within our own forces disappeared, along with a number of other soldiers who were under suspicion of being spies. We were unable to apprehend any of them before they disappeared or fled back to Sank." The man hesitated, then shrugged slightly.
"Is that all?" Treize asked coldly.
"Yes sir."
"Dismissed," Treize told him. All of the Sank spies had disappeared. The Chosen had vanished. Treize actually had a report that Sank's spymaster had also vanished (not that he knew who he was). They all knew something that he didn't. He could practically feel the energy in the air... something was happening, but he didn't know what, and the frustration was almost enough to drive him mad.
Why hadn't Quatre killed him? The question had been haunting him for over a week now. He had meant it when he said that he would rather die with glory than live in obscurity. And he'd almost had it... Quatre had been poised to strike, he felt the energy rushing around him... and then nothing.
Quatre had looked startled, frightened, almost, and immediately took a step back. Treize continued to turn the meeting over in his mind. Then he boy had said that he was sorry. For what? Not killing him? Treize had been disappointed, but he doubted that Quatre would apologize for not killing him. Then came the most puzzling bit... Quatre had told him to be careful for what he wished for. What did that mean?
He wanted to be a part of the war for this world, not be stuck on the side while the others played out their destinies. What could the problem with that be?
No, the most important part was figuring out why, exactly, he hadn't killed him. Treize replayed the scene in his mind again. He and Quatre had talked briefly, then Quatre raised a glowing hand... he could still feel the power swirling around him, with him waiting for the strike that would end his life...
Wait! Hadn't there been a surge of energy, almost unnoticeable because of how much energy there was to begin with, but now that he thought about it, he was certain it was true. Quatre had attacked him!
That realization brought on another. He did try to kill me, but he couldn't! He could not kill me!
That thought opened a realm of possibilities. If Quatre couldn't kill him, it meant that he was much more powerful then he'd realized. How?
A glimmer of a possibility flickered through his mind, and in that momentary realization came damnation.
I'm the Seeker... he thought with a growing feeling of horror. Then there was a clap of thunder, a flash of light, and everything faded to blackness.
Well, there went Treize. Now we can finally get on to the actual fighting! I'm not crazy about this part, but I needed some sort of transition into the actual battle. Look for some more action next time!
Marika 5/6/01
Finally Quatre stood on the road in front of the building, his eyes unfocussed. A few minutes later he came back inside and quietly announced that all the mages in Sank kingdom were there. They all headed outside, and then Trowa carefully cast the spell to bring them all to the desert. He tried not to think about the last time he'd cast this spell, when Quatre had lost control of himself, but he couldn't stop an almost invisible shiver from running down his spine.
The time he'd spent without his memories was somewhat blurry and vague within his own memories, as if it had happened to someone else and he was just an observer, and in a way, it had. He hadn't been the same person without his memories. He'd been helpless. He hadn't been so helpless in a long time, and the memory of the experience was not pleasant. He hadn't liked it any more the second time around, now that he could remember both instances.
The thing that he remembered most clearly was a seemingly endless darkness, from the time when he still drifted in unconsciousness, before Treize had *permitted* him to wake up, before he was allowed to start making memories, any kind of memories to fill the empty void that existed in his mind without his memories. That void had given him nightmares even after he started making new memories, and the previous night he'd put himself in a deep trance so that he wouldn't have any nightmares. Not so much for himself - he had nightmares all the time, he was used to them - but for Quatre, now that they were linked again.
Even now, the thought of how close he'd come to losing Quatre was enough to make his heartbeat speed up and his throat to tighten. First Quatre losing control of himself to the power, then him attacking Trowa... He'd been ready to do anything, including dying, in order to bring Quatre out of it, but he'd never really thought about how much Quatre would suffer if Trowa died. He knew how he'd feel if Quatre died, but somehow, he'd just never pictured Quatre being the same... he was a loner, he knew that, partially because of his powers and partly because of who he was. He had trouble getting to know people at all, and the four friends he had now were more than he'd ever had before. Even at the circus, he'd had only a casual relationship with most of the other performers - the only person he'd gotten remotely close to was Catherine, and that was more because of her than because of any effort on his part. Quatre made friends with everyone he met, and did so as easily as he breathed. He would have thought that Quatre would turn to one of them if he lost Trowa, but obviously that was not the case.
And that terrified him. They were about to enter a war where neither of them had much of a chance of survival. He wasn't sure what he'd do if Quatre died and he didn't. He wasn't the type to consider suicide an option, or he would have died long ago, when he was still a slave of the mercenaries, but if Quatre didn't survive, it might become an option. But what about Quatre? He didn't know what would happen if he died and left Quatre behind, and he didn't really want to think about it, since if it happened he wouldn't be able to do anything about it. He promised himself he'd do his best to survive, if only for Quatre's sake.
:Trowa?: Quatre asked, and then he realized that he'd been so caught up in his thoughts that he'd never completed the spell. :If... doing this with me bothers you too much, one of the others can go with you,: he said quietly, doing his best not to sound hurt.
:It doesn't bother me,: he told Quatre while mentally scolding himself for his carelessness. :I just wasn't paying attention.:
:You're sure...:
:Certain,: he said firmly, giving Quatre a brief squeeze. He quickly completed the spell, and suddenly they (along with all of the mages and their relatives) were standing in the middle of the desert, the wind whipping around them, the sun beating down on them overhead.
Trowa felt the shock and surprise of the mages around him, and quietly reinforced his shields.
"Come on," Quatre said encouragingly to the others. "It's only a few hours from here, and they'll be out to meet us, I'm sure!" he said cheerfully.
Sure enough, less than an hour later, a man on horseback approached them.
"Abdul!" Quatre shouted as he was suddenly embraced by a man who probably weighed twice as much as he did. At least twice as much.
"Master Quatre!" Abdul shouted in return, sounding just as pleased. "What are you doing here? And who are these people?"
"The war's almost here," Quatre said seriously. "And I'm going to base it out of your fortress. These are some mages, and they need to be there. The supply train arrived on time, didn't it?"
"It left just a few days ago, Master," Abdul replied, his eyes traveling over the group. "Will you be staying as well?"
Trowa marveled at their loyalty, that Quatre had just appeared (literally), announced that he was about to make their home the center of the greatest war the world had seen in a thousand years and that he was bringing along a bunch of defenseless mages, and their only question was whether or not Quatre was staying.
"I can't, not yet," Quatre said apologetically. "We have to collect the rest of the mages. We should be back within the week, though, and we'll be dropping off more mages between now and then. I'd appreciate it very much if you'd have someone posted to watch in this direction - we'll always approach this way." He smiled hopefully at Abdul, who grinned at him.
"No problem, Master Quatre! I'll make sure we do that as soon as I finish escorting these people back to the fort!"
"Thank you very much," Quatre told him with another brilliant smile. "I'm very sorry, but we have to get back as quickly as possible... time is of the essence."
"I understand," Abdul replied. "And I will escort them back to the fort."
"Thank you! We really need to go, now, though." :Do you want to do this or should I?: he asked Trowa.
:There isn't a power center near Sally's place - the closest I can get us is a couple of hours.:
:Then I'll do it, I can take us directly to the others.: "See you soon, Abdul!" he said out loud, then Trowa felt him reach for his power. There was a flash of light, a moment of disorientation, and then they were standing in the middle of the main room of Sally's place.
Heero, Duo, and Wufei were sitting at a table directly in front of them, and all three started as they suddenly appeared, but that was nothing compared to the reactions of the rest of the people in the room. Half of them turned very white and just stared, the other half jumped to their feet, upsetting the tables and reaching for their weapons. One of the serving women let out a little shriek and fainted dead away.
"Oh dear," Quatre murmured, and a hint of power drifted out from him. Suddenly everyone in the room collapsed, unconscious before they hit the ground.
"Oh dear?" Duo asked, then snickered. "Come on, Quatre, you can say a curse, I'm sure of it!"
Quatre shot Duo an irritated look. "We really have to get going," he replied.
"Yeah, yeah, I know," Duo said, getting up out of his seat. "Was everything OK?"
"We saw Abdul, and I told him what was happening," Quatre replied. "He took them back to the fortress."
"Oh, that's good," Duo remarked with a yawn and a slow stretch, reaching his arms towards the ceiling. "So we're just going to start flying, and they're going to find us?" he asked dubiously.
"On the main north-south road," Quatre replied. "They should be in groups, by now, so that will be easier. We'll stop in... we'll stop at my old home and pick up some supplies from Iria, and then head for the desert. I don't want to ... let anyone else get involved." He swallowed, and Trowa felt Quatre raising his mental shields, although whether it was to shield himself or the others was questionable. Either way, Trowa decided that it was unacceptable.
He pushed gently against the shields and said, :It wasn't you.:
Quatre winced. "It was me," he said out loud. "The worst part of me." He swallowed. "It is my fault, but we have other things to deal with now. I just want to do my best to make sure that I don't hurt any more innocents."
Trowa wasn't sure that that adjective applied to any of the people he'd killed - they were all Oz soldiers - but he didn't think Quatre was ready to listen to an argument about that now. :Everyone has a darker side, a part of them that they do not like,: he said quietly. He should know. He was intimately familiar with his own. :Having one does not make you an evil person.:
:But letting it out to kill hundreds of people?: Quatre asked in response, then shook his head. :It doesn't matter right now. We have to go.:
Trowa frowned, not wanting to leave it like this, but he could tell that Quatre wasn't ready to forgive himself yet, and no argument was going to change his mind. He nodded slightly and followed Quatre outside.
---------------------------------
They'd barely flown for two hours when they came across the first group of mages, just like Quatre had said there'd be. There were seven mages and three normal humans who refused to leave the side of their loved ones. This time Quatre didn't bother to try to convince them otherwise, he and Trowa just took them straight to the Manguanac's base down in the desert, while Duo, Heero, and Wufei continued along the road, keeping an eye out for other groups of mages.
And they found them - two of them, actually - while they were waiting for Quatre and Trowa to return. Between the two groups there were over a dozen mages and four more normal humans. That group had two children in it, who'd been prisoners along with the other mages, but neither of whom had even reached ten years. We can't take children with us to war! he thought, horrified. But when Quatre and Trowa returned, after a shorter period of time than for the last trip, they took those mages to the desert, as well. Including the two children.
When Duo realized that Quatre was going to bring them along, he'd shot the smaller boy a horrified look. Children! Quatre's back had been turned, but when he turned to look at Duo, Duo thought that he'd overheard the thought. But when he didn't say anything, just stared at Duo for a moment before turning his head away, Duo decided that he must be mistaken.
The moment that the second group disappeared, Heero turned to frown at Duo. Duo was somewhat amazed to find that he could actually tell the difference between a thoughtful frown and a glare. It was tough, sometimes, probably because Heero's eyes were always so intense... Now he wasn't angry, just thoughtful, and it was something having to do with him.
"What is it, Hee-chan?" he asked without thinking, then winced. Heero was becoming more tolerant of the pet names Duo made up for him when he said them silently, but he still tended to get irritated when he said them out loud.
Heero blinked, but didn't say anything. Finally he said, "Trowa asks that you shield more firmly, or stop thinking so strongly when Quatre is around, because you're upsetting him."
"But they're just children!" Duo protested, ignoring for the moment that by the laws of both Oz and Sank, they were all supposed to be children. You weren't supposed to drag children into wars. The five of them didn't count as children, for obvious reasons. "They shouldn't be here!"
Heero stared at him, then said, "We need them. Our enemies will possess as many of Treize's troops as possible, and all of his mages. We'll need as much magical energy on our side as we can muster."
"Not children!" Duo insisted.
"Duo..." Heero actually hesitated for a second, then closed his eyes for a long moment. "You're the only one of us who doesn't have any tactical training. Trowa had it from the mercenaries, I learned it from the few times that Odin worked with an actual army, and both Wufei and Quatre learned it as heirs to their families."
"So?" Duo frowned. It wasn't like Heero to hold his lack of an education against him - it wasn't like it was his fault that he'd grown up on the streets! In fact, this was the first time he could ever remember Heero bringing it up.
"This is a tactical decision. If we bring them along, we not only gain their power to aid us, we also deny their power to the enemy. If they are not under our protection, they would be possessed to use against us."
Duo was horrified, and angry with himself for not seeing it soon. Thanatos' memories of the depths to which their enemies were quite clear, he should have seen what would have happened if they left the children behind - there was no way they could shield them while they were spread across Oz and Sank while they fought. And now that he thought about it, it was simple logic to bring them along to help fight. (Which was probably why Heero had no problems with it.) His clan had sacrificed themselves to protect him, so he could protect the world, and as much as he didn't like to admit it, in the grand scheme of things, these children's lives weren't as important as his own. He swallowed when he realized that it might become necessary to sacrifice those lives to save the lives of countless people who hadn't been born yet.
By this time, Duo was well aware of the fact that all five of them were well above normal in terms of intelligence and quickness of wit, enough so that they would all be fairly dangerous on their own even without their powers. He'd taught himself to read, and relied on his wits to make up for the lack of any formal education, and was also aware that his time with the faeries had shaped the way he thought into patterns that were distinctly non-human at times. The faeries always took the long view of everything - whether it was protecting him as a child for something that wouldn't happen for years, or planting a sapling in a particular spot, so that it wouldn't crowd another in a few hundred years, or even analyzing the movement of the stars for hundreds or even thousands of years. It was a by-product of being almost immortal, and was completely different from the lessons that Duo had learned on the streets.
Right now the way of thinking he'd learned from the faeries was clashing very violently with the things that he'd learned from Solo, about protecting people smaller than him, who couldn't protect themselves. There hadn't been lessons, of course, he'd learned from watching what Solo did, and then doing it himself. It just seemed like the obvious thing to do. Learning two such different viewpoints had given him his own... unique... perspective, but right now it left him with a very difficult question... which was more important? He valued both parts of his education.
Then he realized it didn't really matter. They couldn't protect the kids unless they took them right into the center of the danger, and those kids would definitely be possessed if they didn't protect them. They would just have to be extra careful to keep the kids out of danger. Duo promised himself that as long as he was alive, he wasn't going to let them get hurt, and he knew the others felt the same way. The only way someone would get to the kids was if they were all dead, and if that was the case then the entire world was screwed, anyway.
All of this flickered through his head in a matter of seconds, and he found himself nodding. "OK, I get it. I don't like it much, but I get it," he replied. Now Quatre... Oh, shit! he swore to himself. He *knew* how sensitive Quatre was to stray thoughts, and then he practically had to go shouting his thoughts from the rooftop, accusing him? I am such an idiot! he scolded himself. "I'll be careful with Quat from now on. Who told him?"
"Told him what?" Heero asked. He had waited patiently for Duo to come to his own conclusions. If there was one thing about Heero, it was that he was an amazing listener. Once Duo realized that Heero wasn't ignoring his talking, on the contrary, he listened to everything his lover said with his usual intensity, it had gotten a lot easier to talk to him about all sorts of things that he'd never discussed with anyone, and a lot harder to just babble away. Not that it slowed him down much, it just made him think a little more before he started.
"Who told Quatre that we had to do this? How'd he take it?" Duo couldn't believe he'd missed this conversation, but maybe it had been when he and Trowa were alone.
Heero shot him a strange look. "No one told him. He told us. Quatre has the most tactical training of all of us, he recognized the necessity immediately. Trowa thinks that's why it's bothering him so much, because he was the one who came up with the idea."
"Oh. Damn it." Duo was feeling worse by the second, although he was surprised that Quatre would come up with something like that. It seemed more like the sort of reasoning that Trowa or Heero would use. "I'll apologize to him when he gets back, OK?"
Heero nodded slightly, a smug look on his face, and Duo realized something. "Hey, how did you know that I was hurting Quatre?" Then he remembered something else. "You said that Trowa *said* that I was upsetting Quatre! You two didn't talk like this, did you?" he asked, pointing to his own head. That was all they needed, to have Quatre know that they were tiptoeing around him like this...
"Baka. Of course not," Heero said. "We didn't want him hearing."
"Then how did you..." Duo trailed off, trying to remember if Heero and Trowa had had any time alone before he and Quatre headed off again. He didn't think so... Trowa hadn't left Quatre's side for more than three seconds since they rescued both of them.
"There are ways to communicate without speaking," Heero said with a faint smile, then raised an eyebrow.
Duo's jaw dropped. I don't believe it. I don't believe it. The two of them finally came up with a language that consists entirely of monosyllabic grunts, lip-twitching and eyebrow raising! Unbelievable! "You two... talk to each other?" he asked. "Like a code?"
Heero nodded, looking entirely too pleased with himself. "And occasionally to Wufei," he said, giving the other boy a nod. Wufei smiled at Duo, and it was full of malice. Friendly malice, to be sure, but malice just the same. Duo imagined it was what his face looked like when he was playing practical jokes.
"Him too?" Duo cried.
"You talk enough out loud," Heero replied with a tug on his braid. "And Quatre hears too much as it is. You miss out on a lot when you talk too much, Duo," he added with another tug before wrapping his arms around him, still clutching firmly onto the end of his braid. Since both their wings were still out, Heero completed the gesture by folding his wings around Duo.
"You... I... all this time..." For the first time in his memory, Duo was absolutely speechless. "This is to get me back for singing on the road, isn't it?" he asked, turning his head slightly towards Heero.
"Hn."
------------------------------
Four days later, when they reached the castle that Quatre once called home, there was a surprise waiting for them. By then they'd collected well over a hundred mages (close to one hundred fifty when you included the ones from Sank). Quatre knew all of the ones who'd been prisoners with them by name, and somehow also knew the names of the dozen or so others who showed up, mages who'd managed to hide from the Hunters. They were all safely at the Manguanac's base now, and soon their group would be there was well - they were only stopping long enough to get some extra supplies from Quatre's sister to help them through what was coming.
They'd barely flown over the wall when they realized something was going on. Already there was a large stack of boxes, and as they landed, servents were still adding to the pile.
:Quatre, did you send word that we were coming?: Duo asked. He'd been unusually quiet for the last few days - not silent, of course, but there'd been slightly less babbling, and Quatre wondered if it was because of what was coming or something else.
:No, but they did know that we were coming,: Quatre replied, having already picked up that much information from the minds of those around him. All activity had practically ceased as the people in the courtyard tried - and failed miserably - not to stare at them.
:How?:
Quatre did a quick scan of the minds of the people around them. The only thing they knew was that they had to get these supplies ready, and that they were supposed to keep an eye on the skies, for some reason. Well, that reason was obvious now.
:I don't know. Let's go talk to Iria.:
They were still in the halls when Iria suddenly turned the corner. "Quatre!" she cried, joy apparent in her voice. She ran the few steps that separated them and then embraced him warmly. Quatre hesitated... how could she forgive him, after what he did?
"Iria... I'm sorry," he said softly.
"Sorry?" she stopped hugging him and held him at arm's length. "What for?" Her eyes widened. "You can't possibly blame yourself for..." her eyes narrowed. "You do! Now I know that you can read my mind, Quatre. Read it now. It was not your fault, what happened here. The only people at fault were the soldiers and Treize. You just executed a bunch of murderers."
I'm a murderer, he thought, but he could tell from the look on her face that he'd better not argue with her. He might have enough power to flatten the castle, and enough guts to tell off Treize Khushrenada, King of Oz, but he wasn't about to make his sister (any of his sisters) angry.
"Are you all right?" he asked instead.
"I'm fine. We're secure, now. I managed to call in enough of our reserve troops to cover the difference until we can recruit more people," Iria told him. "You know that I..."
"I'm sure that you will do a very good job," he told her. "Our homeland will prosper, Lady Iria," he said with a warm smile and a slight bow.
"Thank you," she told him, eyes sad. He wasn't that disappointed, actually, he'd never really wanted to be heir, it was just the way things were. Iria would do a good job, and he had a different destiny.
"Iria, how did you know that we would be coming?" Quatre asked, nodding his head towards the courtyard.
"I told her," said a familiar voice, and Quatre's eyes widened as he saw one of the people who'd followed Iria.
"Miss Po!" he exclaimed as she stepped forward. "Did you reach all of your people?"
"I did, and then I hurried here so I could catch you."
:Hurried?: Duo remarked sarcastically. :She must have been riding all night every night since we left in order to get here before us.:
Quatre quickly realized that Duo was right - they hadn't been flying very quickly, but even slow flying was faster than most horses. And they'd gone straight down the road. Given, she'd gotten a day-and-a-half head start, but if she had to go anywhere off the road... Quatre reached out with his mind and discovered that she was, understandably, exhausted, and only barely managing to stay on her feet. He quietly healed the soreness that so many days in the saddle will always cause, and gave her a bit of his energy. Her eyes widened, then fixed on him, and she bowed slightly. A bow, not a curtsy, that was interesting, he noted.
"Thank you very much," she said formally.
"You're welcome," he said automatically. "Why were you so intent on catching up with us?"
"I want to help you."
"You already have," he responded.
"No, I want to come with you when you go down into the desert."
That caught him by surprise. "Excuse me?" he asked, feeling the sudden tension in the others.
"I want to come with you," she repeated calmly. "I realize that I'm not a mage, and I realize that you have plenty of warriors there, but I believe that I can help."
"How?" his mind was already flying ahead, seeing what contributions she could make.
"I can help organize things. Not on the battlefield, but I can keep track of supplies, wounded... or not," she corrected herself with a slight smile. "Shifts, duty rosters, things like that. I have run an inn for several years, in addition to Sank's spy network."
Quatre hesitated. :What do you think?: he asked the others.
:You can do all of that, right?: Duo asked.
:Not if I'm pouring all of my energy into fighting,: Quatre responded. :And I know nothing about managing like that. She'd probably do a better job, anyway. She does have the experience.:
:What? I thought that you had all sorts of lessons in that stuff.:
:I was taught how to govern a region, not a single fort. There's a difference,: Quatre responded. :I think we should accept her offer.:
Wufei abruptly broke off contact with the others, but he didn't say no. Quatre took that as encouragement. :Well?:
:If she's crazy enough to want to take part in this, that's fine with me,: Duo replied.
:Heero?:
:She seems competent.:
Quatre didn't have to ask to know that he had Trowa's support.
"Then you're welcome to come," Quatre said with a grateful smile.
---------------------------------
They only stayed at Quatre's place long enough for them to finish gathering the supplies that Sally had suggested that they'd need. It seemed as if she already had a good idea of what they needed in order to survive a siege.
Heero hadn't missed the fact that Quatre had asked all of them for their opinions before accepting Sally's offer, although he'd certainly thought it was a good idea from the moment she made it. Quatre's confidence had taken a blow in the last few weeks, and he wondered - and worried - how this would affect Quatre in the upcoming fight. Trowa was worried, too, and was keeping an eye on him.
Heero had exaggerated when he said that he and Trowa could talk without using words at all - they could communicate, but that was mostly because their minds tended to follow the same patterns, and because they'd been together for so long. But it had been worth it to see the look on Duo's face. He smiled slightly.
He wondered when, exactly, enjoying himself (in any manner) had become important to him. He couldn't remember the exact moment (which bothered him slightly), but suspected that the change was because of Duo. In fact, he knew that it was because of Duo. As quietly as he could, he reached out to find his lover. Duo was playing with some of the children they'd brought along, creating illusions to entertain them as he told stories, and then joining him in a rousing game of tag while the Manguanacs watched in amusement.
Up on the roof, where he was certain no one could see him, Heero let his smile broaden slightly. Duo was half-child, most of the time. That was a good thing.
His smile disappeared as he remembered another child, but he pushed the memory away. It was over, in the past, and thinking about it now wouldn't change anything. He could practically hear Odin telling him those very words, and he repeated them to himself until the memory subsided.
Duo, sensing his change in mood, asked, :Are you OK, Hee-chan?:
Heero's lips threatened to curl upwards again after hearing that irritating nickname that Duo had thought up for him. :Hn,: he said affirmatively.
:Are you sure?: Duo asked, but before Heero could answer, an alarmed shout went up from the guard at the front gate.
A sword appeared in Heero's hand as he conjured himself to the top of the outer wall right next to the huge gates. He crouched on one of the huge stones, wings partially unfurled, sword in hand, ready... and stared.
There was... a hole in the air above the sand, that was the only way to describe it. And through the hole, he could see green grass, trees... a forest. There was a line of faeries - real faeries - walking through the hole, each of them carrying a small sapling. As he watched, they started to walk around the fort in a long line.
:Heero, what's going on?: Duo asked, crouched protectively over the now-silent children.
:Duo, get up here, it's faeries.:
A second later Duo appeared right next to him, also crouching, his wings already out and ready. Heero heard Duo muttering to himself and felt a slight ripple of energy. He made a mental note to ask Duo about the magic he'd learned from the faeries - it didn't feel like anything he'd ever felt before, and it might provide them all with an advantage later on, if they could learn it fast enough.
"It *is* them," Duo muttered, and then jumped off the wall, his wings snapping out to catch him before he fell too far. He easily swooped down to land beside the hole, where one faery was standing, watching the line. Duo obviously knew something that they didn't, because he bowed respectfully to the faery, then started talking.
After a few seconds, he stopped, listening to the faery's response. He tilted his head to the side and asked another question. He listened to the answer, then smiled broadly and bowed again. :Hey, guys! Come here!:
Heero spread his wings and glided down to land beside Duo. A few seconds later Trowa, Quatre, and Wufei appeared behind him. :What's going on?: Quatre asked.
:They're here to help us,: Duo replied, his eyes on the line of faeries. :They're going to make sure that this place is secure.:
:How?:
:They're going to build shields like the ones they use to protect their forests. Nothing gets through those, not even demons, remember? Trowa, they're going to need your help making those trees grow. After that they'll sustain themselves, even in the desert.:
:Why?: Wufei asked.
:It's their contribution to the war,: Duo explained. :They can't fight - they always rely on their shields and magic to either keep danger away or to hide from it, but they know how much depends on us. All of the faeries all over the world will be adding parts of their power to the shield - nothing's getting through it.: Duo turned his head to the other side, and Heero saw that the line of faeries now stretched all the way around the fort. As soon as the circle was completed, the faeries set down their burdens and started digging holes in the sand.
:Quat, are all of your people inside the fort? I mean, are there any out on patrol?:
:There are five out there,: Quatre replied immediately. :Why?:
:You've got to call them back. When the elders set the spell, they're going to make it so anyone who's in the fort can pass in and out of the shields. If they're not inside with us when it's cast, they won't be able to come in at all.:
:I'll bring them in now,: Quatre replied, closing his eyes. Heero felt a ripple of power and then a sudden surge. There were some startled shouts from inside the fort. :I have to go explain things to them now,: Quatre said, then vanished.
By then the faeries had pretty much finished with their holes and were now carefully placing the saplings in the holes, then scraping sand carefully in place around the roots. Suddenly the seven faeries next to the hole all turned and stared at Trowa.
:Go for it. Just make them grow,: Duo instructed him. Trowa raised an eyebrow at Duo's unusually sober tone, then dropped to one knee, closing his eyes. He plunged both of his hands into the sand up to the wrists, and the sand parted like water to let him. Heero felt power welling up all around him as the earth responded to Trowa's call, and suddenly the saplings shot upwards, maturing to huge full-grown trees in mere seconds. Trowa stopped when the top branches of the trees were just below the level of the walls, so that they wouldn't interfere with the view from the walls.
:Is that enough?: he asked.
Duo turned and let out some more of that bird-like language. The faeries spoke back to him, and he nodded. :They say that's fine. We have to get inside now. Are we sure that everyone's inside?:
:Everyone's here,: Quatre told them from somewhere inside the fort.
Heero conjured himself inside the gates, and appeared at the same time as the other three. As soon as they appeared, he felt a tremor in his bones as the faeries started casting their spell. Faery magic felt different than human magic. It flowed along more natural lines, and was less noticeable because of that.
The faeries continued their work for several minutes, then there was a small surge of energy and the tremor disappeared completely.
:They're done,: Duo said, and conjured himself back out to the faeries. Heero followed. Now they were marching back through the portal, although not as sedately as they'd come. Now most of them were dancing around, hugging each other, even jumping into the air and fluttering their wings to hover for several seconds before landing and continuing through the hole in reality. In just a few minutes only the elders remained.
Duo started talking in that bird-language again, then bowed to the faeries again. They all raised their hands to touch their foreheads, and Duo looked very surprised. Then they turned and walked through the hole, before it disappeared and Duo was left staring into space.
:What did they say?:
:Oh, nothing much, they just honored me. It doesn't happen very often,: Duo remarked in an off-hand manner that told Heero that it was very, very important to him. He made another mental note to get it out of him later. :Anyway, the shield's up!: he said with forced cheerfulness. :And its fixed so only we will be able to get through it. We can't change it, but that also means that they won't be able to trick someone into letting them in.:
Duo sighed, then turned to face Heero, putting a big smile on his face. :So what now, Hee-chan?:
Heero shrugged slightly. :We wait.:
--------------------------------
"I'm sorry, sir, but we haven't been able to find out anything yet," the young officer said with a slight bow. "Less than a week ago, every single spy for the Sank kingdom that we'd identified within our own forces disappeared, along with a number of other soldiers who were under suspicion of being spies. We were unable to apprehend any of them before they disappeared or fled back to Sank." The man hesitated, then shrugged slightly.
"Is that all?" Treize asked coldly.
"Yes sir."
"Dismissed," Treize told him. All of the Sank spies had disappeared. The Chosen had vanished. Treize actually had a report that Sank's spymaster had also vanished (not that he knew who he was). They all knew something that he didn't. He could practically feel the energy in the air... something was happening, but he didn't know what, and the frustration was almost enough to drive him mad.
Why hadn't Quatre killed him? The question had been haunting him for over a week now. He had meant it when he said that he would rather die with glory than live in obscurity. And he'd almost had it... Quatre had been poised to strike, he felt the energy rushing around him... and then nothing.
Quatre had looked startled, frightened, almost, and immediately took a step back. Treize continued to turn the meeting over in his mind. Then he boy had said that he was sorry. For what? Not killing him? Treize had been disappointed, but he doubted that Quatre would apologize for not killing him. Then came the most puzzling bit... Quatre had told him to be careful for what he wished for. What did that mean?
He wanted to be a part of the war for this world, not be stuck on the side while the others played out their destinies. What could the problem with that be?
No, the most important part was figuring out why, exactly, he hadn't killed him. Treize replayed the scene in his mind again. He and Quatre had talked briefly, then Quatre raised a glowing hand... he could still feel the power swirling around him, with him waiting for the strike that would end his life...
Wait! Hadn't there been a surge of energy, almost unnoticeable because of how much energy there was to begin with, but now that he thought about it, he was certain it was true. Quatre had attacked him!
That realization brought on another. He did try to kill me, but he couldn't! He could not kill me!
That thought opened a realm of possibilities. If Quatre couldn't kill him, it meant that he was much more powerful then he'd realized. How?
A glimmer of a possibility flickered through his mind, and in that momentary realization came damnation.
I'm the Seeker... he thought with a growing feeling of horror. Then there was a clap of thunder, a flash of light, and everything faded to blackness.
Well, there went Treize. Now we can finally get on to the actual fighting! I'm not crazy about this part, but I needed some sort of transition into the actual battle. Look for some more action next time!
Marika 5/6/01