Several days after they moved into the Manguanac's fort, Wufei was watching Sally order a bunch of the Manguanacs around, having them rearrange their stores while Duo and the children ran around underfoot. Apparently the soldiers had been satisfied with the old arrangement, but she wasn't. Something about not being able to find anything with less than a full hour of searching through boxes and barrels, so she'd bothered them until they helped her rearrange everything. No, wait, that wasn't quite fair. They'd been impressed with how organized the supplies she'd brought in were, and had offered to let her look through their stuff sometime. She decided that now was a good time, and wouldn't leave them alone until they helped her.
She was doing a decent job of it, too. Wufei had been watching very closely for any mistakes so that he could point them out, and hadn't been able to find any, even with the chaos that Duo was causing. So far.
Sudden a sharp pain lanced through his head, causing him to grit his teeth to keep from crying out and almost driving him to his knees. That was immediately followed by a rush of energy that did push him up onto his tiptoes as the energy filled him, energizing him beyond anything he'd felt before. In the next instant it was gone.
Wufei opened his eyes and automatically looked up. For the first time that he could remember, there was no solid barrier of light up at the very limits of his sight. The amount of magic in the air seemed to have increased exponentially, though. The barrier's gone.
Below him, all of the kids had stopped playing. Several were rubbing their heads and a few were crying. Duo had both hands pressed against his temples, and there was a maelstrom of energy surging around him. Duo always had a good deal of energy floating around him, as did all of their group, but this was absolutely ridiculous. Then he glanced down at himself and swore. He was glowing just as much as Duo, and Wufei felt the beginnings of a headache stirring. It had taken him a long time to get used to how much energy the others had, now the problem was even worse.
:Hey, Wu, what happened?: Duo asked him.
:The shield collapsed!: Wufei snapped. :And my name is Wufei!:
:I know that,: Duo said sarcastically. :The energy...: he prompted.
:All the energy that was in the shield has reentered the world,: Wufei told him. From his vantage point he could see Sally walking around the suddenly quiet children, comforting them, trying to figure out what had happened. Duo appeared to be completely caught up in what had happened and hadn't even noticed her. :Duo, tell her what happened,: he ordered without thinking.
:Tell who... oh, Sally! Gee, Wufei, I didn't know you cared,: Duo said, then laughed as he turned to talk to Sally. :Sounds like someone's interested in a certain onna!:
:Kisama! I have no interest in weaklings!: Wufei snapped, which was entirely true. He wasn't sure why he had told Duo to explain things to her, but they did know things that she couldn't, and she was doing admirably well keeping up even without that information. The Manguanacs who were moving the boxes hadn't noticed anything was wrong yet.
Wufei suddenly realized where his thoughts were headed and started cursing again. He was *not* going to think about this!
Suddenly something pressed gently against the back of his mind, something that felt entirely different from one of his companions asking permission to talk to him (which they rarely did) or anything else he'd ever felt before. His attention immediately focused on the strange sensation. It was close, perhaps mile or two away from the fort itself. Wufei automatically cast a spell so he could see what was going on. He blinked as an image resolved in the air in front of him - it was the desert, but there was power out there, dancing in strange patterns above the sand. A lot of power, enough so that a non-mage could probably see the lights.
He frowned. There was something vaguely familiar about that particular pattern of lights, the feel of the magic. He'd felt something... not exactly like this, but similar, very recently, if he could only remember where!
Suddenly a line of light appeared over the desert, which quickly became a circle of light, and he started cursing again as he realized why the magic felt so familiar... this magic was similar to the spell the faeries had used to bring themselves here to establish the shield. This was human magic, which was why it felt so different, but the purpose was the same. He frowned and concentrated on the mind who was casting the spell. He wasn't as good at this as Quatre, but it took a fair bit of concentration to cast a spell of this difficulty, so it wouldn't be hard to find them and figure out why they were casting the spell.
He did locate the mind almost immediately by tracing the magic signature back to it's source. Almost immediately he broke the contact, then proceeded to grit his teeth to keep himself from throwing up. What he had just touched was not human. Not in it's mind, anyway, the body was that of one of Treize's Hunters. His touch had been brief, but it had been enough to tell him that Treize... or whatever was currently in charge of Treize's body... was trying to bring through most of his troops. They'd be fresh, and within a few miles of their target.
Wufei interrupted the spell with a spoke word, and the portal disappeared. There was a momentary pause, then someone started to cast the spell again. He interrupted it again, but for some reason it was harder this time. They cast it again. And again. And again. And *again*. By the seventh or eight time, there was less than a second between the castings, and a sweat had begun to bead on his forehead from the effort he was expending to keep his enemy from opening the portal. How had he suddenly become so powerful? Wufei hadn't stayed very long in the other man's mind, but he'd been certain that the Hunter was still much weaker than he was, so what had happened?
He gritted his teeth as the next spell came. They were practically attacks, now, assaults on the spells he'd set up to interrupt their work, each new spell they cast chipping away at his defenses. At this point he couldn't even spare the concentration to call the others for help - if they got even one of their spells established, he'd never be able to break it and Treize would be able to bring every one of his cursed troops through before they could break the spell. He silently cursed himself for not calling the others for help earlier, when he could have.
Yet another wave of power was cast at him, and he groaned and actually dropped to his knees. Suddenly he realized what had happened... many, maybe all of the Hunters had to be combining their energy in order to fight him. How many of them was he facing, anyway?
^Enough of us, human,^ a voice sneered in his mind, and Wufei hurriedly raised his mental shields, remembering that the demons had attacked through the mind in the last war.
^We have no need for that now, you're about to collapse on your own,^ the voice taunted him. It sounded vaguely like Treize, but there was more emotion and rage in this voice then he could ever remember hearing from the king of Oz. ^It's only your stubbornness that's kept us out so far, and you can't last much longer. You'll be the first to fall, and all because of a stupid...^ The voice was suddenly cut off.
:Wufei, here!: Quatre's voice said into his mind, and he felt a mental hand being extended.
With a gratitude that he could never express to them, Wufei grabbed for the link and felt power pour into him. He got a shock as he realized that the power was far more than Quatre by himself could provide. The other four must have linked to each other before extending their power to him.
:I'm sorry,: Quatre apologized. :I didn't notice you were in trouble until just a minute ago, and then we had to link...:
:It's fine,: Wufei said sharply.
:What's going on?: Duo asked.
:They're attempting to open a portal to bring Treize's troops through,: Wufei replied as he effortlessly deflected another attempt to disrupt his spells. What had been a major effort for him by himself was almost unconscious with the five of them linked.
:Oh, so what do we do now?: Duo asked after a moment's hesitation. :I mean, this isn't too tough, but we can't keep it up forever. They can't, either, but they'll probably come back as soon as our backs are turned, so...:
Wufei thought quickly. :I know a spell that won't allow them to create any portals within a certain radius of this spot. But it will take me several minutes to cast, and I need all of my concentration.:
:No, problem, Wu-man!: Duo declared cheerfully. :Me and Heero'll watch them for now, you just concentrate on that spell!:
Wufei decided to forgo correcting Duo about his name this one time, and carefully started constructing the spell in his mind. While a good deal of the spells did have some words that had to be spoken, or a few gestures that accompanied them, almost all of the actual formation of the spell was done in your mind.
He had barely started when Duo let out a loud curse and started muttering to himself. Linked as they were, Wufei couldn't help but overhear him. :Those sneaky rat-bastards! I swear, when I get my hands on them, they're going to wish their mother's mother's mother's never looked at that mule! Those fucking...:
:Duo! I need to concentrate!:
Miracle of miracles, Duo actually did fall silent, leaving Wufei to wonder exactly what they'd done to provoke that reaction from him.
It did take him several minutes to construct the spell, but the moment it was ready (and he'd finished checking it over), Wufei spoke the words that were the trigger. He felt the momentary drain as the spell pulled power from their link, and then it was gone and the faint stress of holding off their enemy also disappeared. Wufei started to drop out of the link, then remembered what the result to Quatre would be, and restrained himself.
After a few seconds Quatre said, :All right, I'm ready,: and dropped out of the link himself. With Quatre gone, the link itself dissolved, and the others automatically fell out of it.
Wufei became aware of his body again and opened his eyes to see a blond head hovering worriedly over him. "Wufei, are you all right?" Quatre asked, extending a hand to pull him to his feet.
Wufei stood up on his own, brushing off of the knees of his pants, which had gotten dirty when he dropped to the ground. He looked around and saw that they'd all conjured themselves to his position to aid him with the link. Duo was somehow managing to look angry and concerned about him at the same time, and Heero and Trowa had no expression, as usual, although as he watched, Heero placed a hand on Duo's shoulder, and Duo seemed to relax slightly, leaning back against Heero. Quatre suddenly turned very red.
"Can you guys, ah, talk about that in private?" he asked, and Duo's eyes widened.
"Aw shit! I forgot again! Sorry, Quatre, you weren't supposed to hear that."
"I guessed," Quatre said quietly with a slight grimace before he turned to Wufei. "Are you all right?" he asked again.
Wufei gave him a curt nod. "Fine. Thank you for the link."
"I'm sorry," Quatre apologized again. "I should have realized something wasn't right, but I wasn't paying attention..."
"Quatre," Wufei said with a slight edge in his voice, and Quatre stopped talking. "Thank you."
Quatre stared at him for a second, then said, "You're welcome."
There was a short silence, then Duo asked, "Hey Wu, what's the range on that spell you cast?"
"My name is Wufei," Wufei said, then replied, "About twenty-five miles. That's the limit of it's effectiveness. They'll probably cast a spell right outside the barrier."
"And what, exactly, does that spell do? Does it keep them from casting any magic, or just that one particular spell?" Duo asked curiously, keeping himself surprisingly on-topic.
"It keeps them from casting any spells that would allow them to bring their people in, all the transportation spells, but that's it. It would take more power than the five of us combined have to keep them from using any magic over a region that large."
"But can we do it at all?"
"No. It's inefficient. A shield like that would only be effective a few hundred feet around this place, and only stop people within the area from casting spells themselves, not from having people step back from the field and casting spells to affect people within it. Very few of the mages on his side will be exposing themselves, anyway."
Duo nodded, but his face had a distant expression, which told Wufei that he hadn't given up on the idea.
Suddenly they all turned as they felt the ripple of power outside the shields Wufei had just built.
"Well, that's it," Duo commented unnecessarily.
Quatre suddenly gasped, and his face had a pained expression on it.
"What's wrong, Q?" Duo asked worriedly.
"Treize has started bringing his people through," Quatre responded in a strained voice. "They're possessed. I can hear them screaming in their own minds." He closed his eyes and swallowed. His lips moved silently, and Wufei felt him cast a spell. Then he visibly relaxed, the tension draining from his body, although his expression was still pained. He made a visible effort to get control of himself, and smiled weakly at all of them. "I forgot. Gente told me that I'd feel that, and he taught me a spell to block it out, but I forgot to cast it. I'm fine now." His pale face belied the truth of that statement, though.
There was another moment of silence, then Duo asked, "How long until they get here?"
"There will be an attack at noon tomorrow," Quatre replied, his eyes distant.
"That soon?" Duo asked, eyeing the sun which was well past it's high point today. "Doesn't it take time, or something, to move that many people?"
"They'll march all night, and leave as soon as the last troops are through the portal."
Duo blinked. "Even I know that's bad tactics," he commented. "They're going to be exhausted by the time they get here."
"They're possessing the bodies of those men," Quatre replied. "The demons don't care if a couple of men drop dead of exhaustion on the way here, and they'll be supporting their troops through magic during the battles." He swallowed. "I'm going to have to do the same thing to my men, or they won't be able to keep up." For a long moment he didn't speak, then he turned away from the sands, heading for the stairs. "We'd better get some rest, tomorrow's going to be a long day."
"What about the army? What if they try something..." Duo trailed off as Quatre shook his head, looking at Trowa.
"They won't strike before noon," he said with finality.
"But..."
"They won't," Quatre repeated, his eyes still on Trowa. Wufei suddenly noticed that Trowa seemed somewhat pale himself.
"How do you..." Duo asked.
"I have visions," Trowa said quietly. "They won't strike until tomorrow, at noon, but the attack will come." And with that, he turned, put one arm around Quatre's shoulders, and started down the stairs. They'd only walked down a few steps when Quatre put his own arm around Trowa's lower back and murmured something in a comforting tone.
Duo stared after them silently for several seconds, then turned to look at Heero and raised an eyebrow. Something flashed through Heero's eyes before he grunted and they both disappeared.
Swallowing his jealously at what the other two couples had, Wufei conjured himself to his own rooms.
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The next morning was strained, to say the least. Duo and Heero had restrained themselves the night before, only playing for a little while before they went to sleep. Duo couldn't believe that Quatre hadn't told them that Trowa had been having visions - this was obviously something that had been going on for a long time, if they were so confident that his visions could be trusted, but he assumed they had a good reason for not mentioning it until now.
Not too long after breakfast the army arrived. They settled in and started making camp a few miles away from the fort, far enough away so that it would be a pain in the ass to throw anything at them or to attack them, but close enough that they could move in to attack the fort on a regular basis. Great.
Duo entertained himself by spying on the Oz soldiers. Almost immediately he saw what Quatre had meant when he said that they were being controlled like puppets. They didn't move like normal people, they never looked at each other as they went about their appointed tasks, never spoke to each other, never smiled... their movements were somewhat jerky and stilted, and often they appeared to be having difficulty doing tasks that should be second nature to them. He made a mental note to ask Quatre just how much of the person remained in those bodies. If they had as little skill fighting as they did walking, this might be a little easier than they'd thought.
Duo swallowed as he realized that they were probably going to have to kill most of these men. He never had a problem killing people, but it had always been in self-defense or some bastard who deserved it. He didn't like the idea of killing a bunch of puppets who couldn't stop themselves, but there was nothing he could do about it, anyway, so he tried to push the matter out of his mind.
He found Treize's tent, all the way at the back of the camp and surrounded on all sides by a number of well-armed guards. Damn it, they were going to have to fight their way through all of them to get to Treize. Duo carefully reached out towards the tent, maybe...
He pulled back with a curse. Treize hadn't been stupid enough not to shield his quarters. Oh well, it was a little much to hope for.
Suddenly a tall man with long white hair stepped out of the tent and looked around. His eyes glowed a dull yellow, and Duo could feel the power within him. Was he one of Treize's hunters? He felt... familiar, somehow, but Duo couldn't remember why he felt that way. He hadn't been one of the sons-of-bitches who'd captured him a long time ago, and he'd barely seen any of the others. How could he know them?
:Quatre?: he asked, picking the one least likely to snap at him.
:Yes?:
:Can you come up here for a minute? I wanna show you something.:
Quatre appeared beside him. "What is it?" he asked, his eyes automatically traveling to the army in the distance.
"This guy," Duo said, pointing to the circle he was looking through at the white-haired man.
Quatre looked, and his eyes widened. Then sweet, innocent, endlessly polite Quatre began to swear, using words that would make a sailor blanch. Duo stared at him in absolute shock as Quatre proved that he could indeed swear, and with quite a bit of creativity, too. After a minute he switched to another language that sounded suspiciously like Wufei's, then switched again. While he was still in the third language, Trowa, Wufei, and Heero arrived. They all stared at Quatre as he continued to curse, waving his hands around wildly and looking at the image every couple of seconds.
Finally he fell silent, and Duo asked, "Ah, Quatre? Are you in there?" He was halfway afraid that... well, whatever else had been in control before was back.
"No, it's me," Quatre said wearily, running a hand through his hair and staring sadly at the image. "I'm so stupid!"
"What happened? Who is this guy?" Duo asked pointing at the image again.
"It's Milliardo," Quatre said with a sigh.
"Milliardo?" Duo asked, trying to remember where he'd heard that name before. He knew he had, but where...
"Zechs," Quatre clarified, creating a small illusion of the masked man standing in his hand. "Milliardo was what he was called when he was ruling Sank. Relena's brother, remember?"
"Shit!" Duo exclaimed, suddenly understanding why Quatre had started cursing before. Zechs was the most powerful mage out there, except for them. The demons could feed enough power into ordinary mages to make them dangerous, but Zechs... "I thought he was on our side!"
"I forgot to warn him," Quatre berated himself. "I knew I forgot something! He wasn't under our protection when the shield came down, they must have grabbed him immediately. He wouldn't have had a chance."
"This is really bad news, isn't it?" Duo asked, already knowing the answer. Quatre just looked at him, and Duo felt the strongest urge to go have a cursing fit of his own, except Quatre had already covered that and Duo didn't want to copy him.
"Can we do anything?" Heero asked with a frown, staring at the image.
Quatre shook his head. "Not that I know of, unless you know some way of getting rid of the possession short of killing him."
"But he didn't want this, doesn't that make a difference?" Duo asked. Zechs/Milliardo wasn't his favorite person in the world, but he didn't deserve to be possessed and killed by them, not after all the crap he'd been through. But since when was the world fair?
"And you think that any of them wanted to be possessed so they could fight for demon invaders?" Quatre asked with only the barest hint of sarcasm in his voice. "It's always against the will of the victim." He stared at the image for a second, then turned his eyes away, a pained expression on his face. "We need to concentrate on killing him, if we can. He's far too powerful to leave in their hands."
Duo averted his eyes from the pained expression on Quatre's face, knowing that this was going to be difficult enough as it was. He didn't want to copy Quatre, but he couldn't resist one comment.
"Shit."
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The attack came exactly when Quatre and Trowa had said it was coming - just as the sun reached it's zenith, the Oz soldiers came across the sands that separated them from the fort. There was no hint of the hesitation that had marked their movements earlier, just deadly determination with an external origin.
Just before the soldiers reached the fort, Quatre gave the order, and the huge doors were opened. The Manguanacs all poured out onto the sand, and the five joined them. Then the two forces clashed.
As it turned out, they were fairly evenly matched. Treize had more soldiers, but they had more power to reinforce their own fighters with, along with the fact that the five of them were willing to fight themselves, instead of hiding in the distance, the way that all of the Hunters were.
Heero swept through the Oz soldiers with the same brutal efficiency he'd once used when he was still serving Odin, killing soldiers on either side of him with one of the knives clenched in each fist. It gave him a slight disadvantage, especially when fighting opponents with swords, since he had to close in order to kill them, but his power allowed him to enhance his strength and speed to a level that the demons couldn't hope to match, so it wasn't much of a disadvantage.
The battle wasn't that long, no more than an hour or so, and they killed quite a few of the enemy. Suddenly the survivors among the Oz soldiers were retreating, and Quatre ordered them all to let them go. Heero had been aware of Quatre giving orders to various people - usually by name - throughout the battle, ordering them to move to help others, or occasionally warning them of a danger they didn't see. He'd even had a comment or two directed at him, which he chose to listen to. They'd been good suggestions, and he meant to discuss this with Quatre later.
After the Oz soldiers ran off, they were left standing on the battlefield, surrounded by the smell of blood and by dead bodies. Heero looked around and saw that the Manguanacs were breathing hard, but that there didn't seem to be any of them lying among the dead, but he wasn't sure. He knew that none of the others had gotten hurt - he would have felt that.
:Casualties?: he asked Quatre.
:No, we all made it through,: Quatre said, his soft voice belying his exhaustion. Of course, he'd been supporting the Manguanacs through the fight, too, in addition to doing his own fighting. Heero hadn't seen much of him, but the few times he had, he'd seemed to be making a decent accounting of himself, and the edge of his curved sword was covered with blood. Heero made a mental note to speak to him about that later, as well. There had to be some way that they could help support the Manguanacs, so that Quatre wasn't exhausting himself as much.
Quatre spoke softly to the huge leader of the Manguanacs, who stood beside him, and the man nodded and then shouted to the others, who turned and walked back into the fort, occasionally pausing by a body to thrust a sword in to make sure the job was done.
Heero felt a slight surge of energy as Trowa passed some of his own energy to Quatre, who immediately straightened slightly as he healed himself with the energy. :We need to burn all of this,: he said quietly, his eyes traveling over the bodies, a pained expression on his face.
:Why?: Heero queried.
:Sometimes the demons put spells on the soldiers they possess, Heero,: Duo told him. His eyes were wide and he was breathing rather deeply, and Heero realized that he was gaining an enormous amount of power from the people who'd died here. :They might rise. I don't think they'll be able to get through the shields, but there's no reason to take the chance. I'll take care of it.:
:Rise?: Wufei asked sharply.
:Zombies,: Duo clarified. :Thanatos told me. They're not much as fighters, but they're tough as hell to kill. Better to burn them all now then have to deal with it later. Just a second.: Duo closed his eyes and raised one hand over the still battlefield. Suddenly the entire area burst into flames, black flames which consumed every body and all their possessions, but which did not touch any of the five mages. After only a few seconds the fires died down and there was nothing left to show that there'd been a battle here, only some scorched spots on the sand and the blood left over indicated that there'd been anything wrong at all.
They all turned and walked back into the fort. There was no celebration there, no sense of victory, for all that they'd killed so many without a single loss on their side. There was only vague relief on that count, along with a tension that that condition couldn't last forever. This was only the first battle, and there could be years more of this ahead of them.
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After the first battle they healed quickly, and within minutes of stopping the fighting, they were back in top shape, at least physically. They healed the wounds that the Manguanacs had suffered, and then went to the meal that Sally had ordered prepared for them. Trowa assured them that there'd be no attack this afternoon or evening, and they all drifted off to deal with the aftermath first battle in their own way.
Quatre was probably affected the most, both because of the exhaustion from supporting the Manguanacs, and because he was the only one who hadn't killed regularly before he met the others. Duo suspected that there was more to it than that, especially after he woke the rest of them up with screaming nightmares about the voices in his head, but Trowa soothed him through that; and as more battles came and went, the nightmares slowed and then disappeared.
They did managed to figure out a way to avoid draining Quatre every battle while he was supporting his people, by spreading the effort amongst the five of them. They also got more skilled at using the energy that Quatre was draining from the mages they'd brought with them, while those mages learned to conserve their energy by laying quietly and not exerting themselves, so there was that much more available for use.
The attacks came almost randomly, it seemed, sometimes there'd be none for two or three days, sometimes they came once or twice a day, and there was one battle that lasted for nearly twenty-four hours. Luckily it seemed that Treize's mages were as exhausted as they were from the effort of supporting their troops, because no attacks came for almost three days after that. That particular battle had ended when one of the demons had faltered in their spellcasting. Wufei had sensed it when the protection that kept them from being able to use their powers against the soldiers directly failed, and immediately struck. Every single one of the Oz soldiers had immediately dropped dead. Duo burned the bodies and then they retreated to the relative safety of the fort to recover.
The shields had proven themselves, though. Once a group of Oz soldiers had gotten through the fighting and thrown themselves at the gate. There wasn't anything left of them to burn, and after that the defenders didn't have to worry so much about letting people get through, only about defending their own backs.
Duo and Heero had stopped having sex almost totally, although they slept together every night. By mutual agreement they never had sex within twenty four hours of a battle. There was something wrong about spending your day with your hands drenched in blood up to your wrists and then having sex a few hours later. Duo discovered that there was more comfort available for him in just laying in Heero's arms after a particularly brutal fight than he ever would have imagined. He didn't know what Heero thought about that, and didn't ask, but every night he fell asleep with Duo's braid clenched in his fist, and was in that same position when he woke up.
As far as Duo could tell, the attacks were completely random, but Quatre said that there was a pattern, that Treize was testing them, testing his reactions to certain techniques and their skill in deflecting spells hurled at them in the midst of combat. Duo didn't know what he was talking about, but trusted him. Quatre had turned out to be some sort of military genius, at least that was the impression that he got from Heero. At the very least Duo knew that during the battles Quatre always knew the location and condition of every single one of his people, and of the other four, which was no small task in itself.
They killed hundreds upon hundreds of Oz soldiers, sometimes in just one battle, and they kept coming...
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One day Duo sat with the others in a brief meeting with a few of the Manguanacs and Sally, who'd proven to have a solid grasp of combat tactics, even if she rarely fought herself, and who also knew the stores better than anyone. They were discussing the battle from the day before, in which their (relatively) small group had killed over a thousand Oz soldiers. Great, at this rate it will only take us a few hundred years to get all of them. And Treize is probably training more soldiers back in the center of Oz even as we kill them here, Duo thought pessimistically, and felt Quatre's eyes on him.
Before either one of them could say anything though, Sally spoke up. "This is all well and good. We all know how many of us there are, how many of them they've killed, and how many they have left. We've got plenty of supplies left, enough to last for a year or more, and there's no sign that they can stop us from transporting in more supplies if we need them. The real question is how we're doing in the war, the magic war, and we don't have the answers to that," she continued, glancing at the Manguanacs, who regarded her with no little respect and sometimes gentle amusement. "So, how are we doing, in comparison to the last time?" she asked the five of them. "You're the only ones who really remember that time. So?"
Duo wondered how she'd found out that, but shrugged it off. She had a way of turning up with the most random pieces of information, and never told any of them where she got it from. But he was more interested in Quatre's answer, since he'd been bouncing that question around in his head for many nights now, shielding so Quatre wouldn't realize he was worried. Blondie had enough to think about without Duo adding to that mess by thinking indiscriminately.
Quatre closed his eyes for a long moment while he organized his thoughts. "Compared to the last time? There really is no comparison. At this point in the war last time, our predecessors were still trying to figure out what was going on. They had no idea how to use the full extent of their powers, or to link, or..." he shrugged. "Just about anything. On the other hand, the demons in that time didn't have as much experience controlling humans, or in casting magic in our world, so they were more clumsy as well, although they definitely had the upper hand in that conflict. All things considered, I think we are doing better than they did. We haven't lost anyone yet, while they've lost thousands. But..." he trailed off, looking uncomfortable.
"But what?" Sally asked.
"It's not enough," Heero said flatly. Duo's lips curled upwards. Leave it to his Hee-chan to give it to them straight.
"We can't keep this up forever," Quatre clarified. "We can keep going for a good long while," he quickly added to reassure the Manguanacs and Sally, all of whom looked very concerned at his first statement. "But he's right, it isn't enough. Even if we killed every single Oz soldier..." Quatre looked vaguely naueous at the thought, "...they'd just bring in more, from Sank or Romafeller, or they'd start using commoners and just give them weapons. It isn't enough to kill them, we have to actually strike at the mages, they're the ones with the power to control the people, and there are a limited number of those."
"So we've got to kill the mages," Duo said. "How are we going to do that? None of *them* ever come anywhere near the battlefield, and they're nestled in the middle of Treize's damn army!"
"I know," Quatre sighed. "But we've got to figure out some way to do it. This way just won't work."
Well, this is a slightly shorter section, but there was a bit more action in it. Yes, I know I suck at writing fighting sequences, but I think I'm happy with the rest of it. Wufei and Heero are beginning to come easier to me. I think there are three or four more sections left, and maybe an epilogue or two. What'd ya think?
She was doing a decent job of it, too. Wufei had been watching very closely for any mistakes so that he could point them out, and hadn't been able to find any, even with the chaos that Duo was causing. So far.
Sudden a sharp pain lanced through his head, causing him to grit his teeth to keep from crying out and almost driving him to his knees. That was immediately followed by a rush of energy that did push him up onto his tiptoes as the energy filled him, energizing him beyond anything he'd felt before. In the next instant it was gone.
Wufei opened his eyes and automatically looked up. For the first time that he could remember, there was no solid barrier of light up at the very limits of his sight. The amount of magic in the air seemed to have increased exponentially, though. The barrier's gone.
Below him, all of the kids had stopped playing. Several were rubbing their heads and a few were crying. Duo had both hands pressed against his temples, and there was a maelstrom of energy surging around him. Duo always had a good deal of energy floating around him, as did all of their group, but this was absolutely ridiculous. Then he glanced down at himself and swore. He was glowing just as much as Duo, and Wufei felt the beginnings of a headache stirring. It had taken him a long time to get used to how much energy the others had, now the problem was even worse.
:Hey, Wu, what happened?: Duo asked him.
:The shield collapsed!: Wufei snapped. :And my name is Wufei!:
:I know that,: Duo said sarcastically. :The energy...: he prompted.
:All the energy that was in the shield has reentered the world,: Wufei told him. From his vantage point he could see Sally walking around the suddenly quiet children, comforting them, trying to figure out what had happened. Duo appeared to be completely caught up in what had happened and hadn't even noticed her. :Duo, tell her what happened,: he ordered without thinking.
:Tell who... oh, Sally! Gee, Wufei, I didn't know you cared,: Duo said, then laughed as he turned to talk to Sally. :Sounds like someone's interested in a certain onna!:
:Kisama! I have no interest in weaklings!: Wufei snapped, which was entirely true. He wasn't sure why he had told Duo to explain things to her, but they did know things that she couldn't, and she was doing admirably well keeping up even without that information. The Manguanacs who were moving the boxes hadn't noticed anything was wrong yet.
Wufei suddenly realized where his thoughts were headed and started cursing again. He was *not* going to think about this!
Suddenly something pressed gently against the back of his mind, something that felt entirely different from one of his companions asking permission to talk to him (which they rarely did) or anything else he'd ever felt before. His attention immediately focused on the strange sensation. It was close, perhaps mile or two away from the fort itself. Wufei automatically cast a spell so he could see what was going on. He blinked as an image resolved in the air in front of him - it was the desert, but there was power out there, dancing in strange patterns above the sand. A lot of power, enough so that a non-mage could probably see the lights.
He frowned. There was something vaguely familiar about that particular pattern of lights, the feel of the magic. He'd felt something... not exactly like this, but similar, very recently, if he could only remember where!
Suddenly a line of light appeared over the desert, which quickly became a circle of light, and he started cursing again as he realized why the magic felt so familiar... this magic was similar to the spell the faeries had used to bring themselves here to establish the shield. This was human magic, which was why it felt so different, but the purpose was the same. He frowned and concentrated on the mind who was casting the spell. He wasn't as good at this as Quatre, but it took a fair bit of concentration to cast a spell of this difficulty, so it wouldn't be hard to find them and figure out why they were casting the spell.
He did locate the mind almost immediately by tracing the magic signature back to it's source. Almost immediately he broke the contact, then proceeded to grit his teeth to keep himself from throwing up. What he had just touched was not human. Not in it's mind, anyway, the body was that of one of Treize's Hunters. His touch had been brief, but it had been enough to tell him that Treize... or whatever was currently in charge of Treize's body... was trying to bring through most of his troops. They'd be fresh, and within a few miles of their target.
Wufei interrupted the spell with a spoke word, and the portal disappeared. There was a momentary pause, then someone started to cast the spell again. He interrupted it again, but for some reason it was harder this time. They cast it again. And again. And again. And *again*. By the seventh or eight time, there was less than a second between the castings, and a sweat had begun to bead on his forehead from the effort he was expending to keep his enemy from opening the portal. How had he suddenly become so powerful? Wufei hadn't stayed very long in the other man's mind, but he'd been certain that the Hunter was still much weaker than he was, so what had happened?
He gritted his teeth as the next spell came. They were practically attacks, now, assaults on the spells he'd set up to interrupt their work, each new spell they cast chipping away at his defenses. At this point he couldn't even spare the concentration to call the others for help - if they got even one of their spells established, he'd never be able to break it and Treize would be able to bring every one of his cursed troops through before they could break the spell. He silently cursed himself for not calling the others for help earlier, when he could have.
Yet another wave of power was cast at him, and he groaned and actually dropped to his knees. Suddenly he realized what had happened... many, maybe all of the Hunters had to be combining their energy in order to fight him. How many of them was he facing, anyway?
^Enough of us, human,^ a voice sneered in his mind, and Wufei hurriedly raised his mental shields, remembering that the demons had attacked through the mind in the last war.
^We have no need for that now, you're about to collapse on your own,^ the voice taunted him. It sounded vaguely like Treize, but there was more emotion and rage in this voice then he could ever remember hearing from the king of Oz. ^It's only your stubbornness that's kept us out so far, and you can't last much longer. You'll be the first to fall, and all because of a stupid...^ The voice was suddenly cut off.
:Wufei, here!: Quatre's voice said into his mind, and he felt a mental hand being extended.
With a gratitude that he could never express to them, Wufei grabbed for the link and felt power pour into him. He got a shock as he realized that the power was far more than Quatre by himself could provide. The other four must have linked to each other before extending their power to him.
:I'm sorry,: Quatre apologized. :I didn't notice you were in trouble until just a minute ago, and then we had to link...:
:It's fine,: Wufei said sharply.
:What's going on?: Duo asked.
:They're attempting to open a portal to bring Treize's troops through,: Wufei replied as he effortlessly deflected another attempt to disrupt his spells. What had been a major effort for him by himself was almost unconscious with the five of them linked.
:Oh, so what do we do now?: Duo asked after a moment's hesitation. :I mean, this isn't too tough, but we can't keep it up forever. They can't, either, but they'll probably come back as soon as our backs are turned, so...:
Wufei thought quickly. :I know a spell that won't allow them to create any portals within a certain radius of this spot. But it will take me several minutes to cast, and I need all of my concentration.:
:No, problem, Wu-man!: Duo declared cheerfully. :Me and Heero'll watch them for now, you just concentrate on that spell!:
Wufei decided to forgo correcting Duo about his name this one time, and carefully started constructing the spell in his mind. While a good deal of the spells did have some words that had to be spoken, or a few gestures that accompanied them, almost all of the actual formation of the spell was done in your mind.
He had barely started when Duo let out a loud curse and started muttering to himself. Linked as they were, Wufei couldn't help but overhear him. :Those sneaky rat-bastards! I swear, when I get my hands on them, they're going to wish their mother's mother's mother's never looked at that mule! Those fucking...:
:Duo! I need to concentrate!:
Miracle of miracles, Duo actually did fall silent, leaving Wufei to wonder exactly what they'd done to provoke that reaction from him.
It did take him several minutes to construct the spell, but the moment it was ready (and he'd finished checking it over), Wufei spoke the words that were the trigger. He felt the momentary drain as the spell pulled power from their link, and then it was gone and the faint stress of holding off their enemy also disappeared. Wufei started to drop out of the link, then remembered what the result to Quatre would be, and restrained himself.
After a few seconds Quatre said, :All right, I'm ready,: and dropped out of the link himself. With Quatre gone, the link itself dissolved, and the others automatically fell out of it.
Wufei became aware of his body again and opened his eyes to see a blond head hovering worriedly over him. "Wufei, are you all right?" Quatre asked, extending a hand to pull him to his feet.
Wufei stood up on his own, brushing off of the knees of his pants, which had gotten dirty when he dropped to the ground. He looked around and saw that they'd all conjured themselves to his position to aid him with the link. Duo was somehow managing to look angry and concerned about him at the same time, and Heero and Trowa had no expression, as usual, although as he watched, Heero placed a hand on Duo's shoulder, and Duo seemed to relax slightly, leaning back against Heero. Quatre suddenly turned very red.
"Can you guys, ah, talk about that in private?" he asked, and Duo's eyes widened.
"Aw shit! I forgot again! Sorry, Quatre, you weren't supposed to hear that."
"I guessed," Quatre said quietly with a slight grimace before he turned to Wufei. "Are you all right?" he asked again.
Wufei gave him a curt nod. "Fine. Thank you for the link."
"I'm sorry," Quatre apologized again. "I should have realized something wasn't right, but I wasn't paying attention..."
"Quatre," Wufei said with a slight edge in his voice, and Quatre stopped talking. "Thank you."
Quatre stared at him for a second, then said, "You're welcome."
There was a short silence, then Duo asked, "Hey Wu, what's the range on that spell you cast?"
"My name is Wufei," Wufei said, then replied, "About twenty-five miles. That's the limit of it's effectiveness. They'll probably cast a spell right outside the barrier."
"And what, exactly, does that spell do? Does it keep them from casting any magic, or just that one particular spell?" Duo asked curiously, keeping himself surprisingly on-topic.
"It keeps them from casting any spells that would allow them to bring their people in, all the transportation spells, but that's it. It would take more power than the five of us combined have to keep them from using any magic over a region that large."
"But can we do it at all?"
"No. It's inefficient. A shield like that would only be effective a few hundred feet around this place, and only stop people within the area from casting spells themselves, not from having people step back from the field and casting spells to affect people within it. Very few of the mages on his side will be exposing themselves, anyway."
Duo nodded, but his face had a distant expression, which told Wufei that he hadn't given up on the idea.
Suddenly they all turned as they felt the ripple of power outside the shields Wufei had just built.
"Well, that's it," Duo commented unnecessarily.
Quatre suddenly gasped, and his face had a pained expression on it.
"What's wrong, Q?" Duo asked worriedly.
"Treize has started bringing his people through," Quatre responded in a strained voice. "They're possessed. I can hear them screaming in their own minds." He closed his eyes and swallowed. His lips moved silently, and Wufei felt him cast a spell. Then he visibly relaxed, the tension draining from his body, although his expression was still pained. He made a visible effort to get control of himself, and smiled weakly at all of them. "I forgot. Gente told me that I'd feel that, and he taught me a spell to block it out, but I forgot to cast it. I'm fine now." His pale face belied the truth of that statement, though.
There was another moment of silence, then Duo asked, "How long until they get here?"
"There will be an attack at noon tomorrow," Quatre replied, his eyes distant.
"That soon?" Duo asked, eyeing the sun which was well past it's high point today. "Doesn't it take time, or something, to move that many people?"
"They'll march all night, and leave as soon as the last troops are through the portal."
Duo blinked. "Even I know that's bad tactics," he commented. "They're going to be exhausted by the time they get here."
"They're possessing the bodies of those men," Quatre replied. "The demons don't care if a couple of men drop dead of exhaustion on the way here, and they'll be supporting their troops through magic during the battles." He swallowed. "I'm going to have to do the same thing to my men, or they won't be able to keep up." For a long moment he didn't speak, then he turned away from the sands, heading for the stairs. "We'd better get some rest, tomorrow's going to be a long day."
"What about the army? What if they try something..." Duo trailed off as Quatre shook his head, looking at Trowa.
"They won't strike before noon," he said with finality.
"But..."
"They won't," Quatre repeated, his eyes still on Trowa. Wufei suddenly noticed that Trowa seemed somewhat pale himself.
"How do you..." Duo asked.
"I have visions," Trowa said quietly. "They won't strike until tomorrow, at noon, but the attack will come." And with that, he turned, put one arm around Quatre's shoulders, and started down the stairs. They'd only walked down a few steps when Quatre put his own arm around Trowa's lower back and murmured something in a comforting tone.
Duo stared after them silently for several seconds, then turned to look at Heero and raised an eyebrow. Something flashed through Heero's eyes before he grunted and they both disappeared.
Swallowing his jealously at what the other two couples had, Wufei conjured himself to his own rooms.
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The next morning was strained, to say the least. Duo and Heero had restrained themselves the night before, only playing for a little while before they went to sleep. Duo couldn't believe that Quatre hadn't told them that Trowa had been having visions - this was obviously something that had been going on for a long time, if they were so confident that his visions could be trusted, but he assumed they had a good reason for not mentioning it until now.
Not too long after breakfast the army arrived. They settled in and started making camp a few miles away from the fort, far enough away so that it would be a pain in the ass to throw anything at them or to attack them, but close enough that they could move in to attack the fort on a regular basis. Great.
Duo entertained himself by spying on the Oz soldiers. Almost immediately he saw what Quatre had meant when he said that they were being controlled like puppets. They didn't move like normal people, they never looked at each other as they went about their appointed tasks, never spoke to each other, never smiled... their movements were somewhat jerky and stilted, and often they appeared to be having difficulty doing tasks that should be second nature to them. He made a mental note to ask Quatre just how much of the person remained in those bodies. If they had as little skill fighting as they did walking, this might be a little easier than they'd thought.
Duo swallowed as he realized that they were probably going to have to kill most of these men. He never had a problem killing people, but it had always been in self-defense or some bastard who deserved it. He didn't like the idea of killing a bunch of puppets who couldn't stop themselves, but there was nothing he could do about it, anyway, so he tried to push the matter out of his mind.
He found Treize's tent, all the way at the back of the camp and surrounded on all sides by a number of well-armed guards. Damn it, they were going to have to fight their way through all of them to get to Treize. Duo carefully reached out towards the tent, maybe...
He pulled back with a curse. Treize hadn't been stupid enough not to shield his quarters. Oh well, it was a little much to hope for.
Suddenly a tall man with long white hair stepped out of the tent and looked around. His eyes glowed a dull yellow, and Duo could feel the power within him. Was he one of Treize's hunters? He felt... familiar, somehow, but Duo couldn't remember why he felt that way. He hadn't been one of the sons-of-bitches who'd captured him a long time ago, and he'd barely seen any of the others. How could he know them?
:Quatre?: he asked, picking the one least likely to snap at him.
:Yes?:
:Can you come up here for a minute? I wanna show you something.:
Quatre appeared beside him. "What is it?" he asked, his eyes automatically traveling to the army in the distance.
"This guy," Duo said, pointing to the circle he was looking through at the white-haired man.
Quatre looked, and his eyes widened. Then sweet, innocent, endlessly polite Quatre began to swear, using words that would make a sailor blanch. Duo stared at him in absolute shock as Quatre proved that he could indeed swear, and with quite a bit of creativity, too. After a minute he switched to another language that sounded suspiciously like Wufei's, then switched again. While he was still in the third language, Trowa, Wufei, and Heero arrived. They all stared at Quatre as he continued to curse, waving his hands around wildly and looking at the image every couple of seconds.
Finally he fell silent, and Duo asked, "Ah, Quatre? Are you in there?" He was halfway afraid that... well, whatever else had been in control before was back.
"No, it's me," Quatre said wearily, running a hand through his hair and staring sadly at the image. "I'm so stupid!"
"What happened? Who is this guy?" Duo asked pointing at the image again.
"It's Milliardo," Quatre said with a sigh.
"Milliardo?" Duo asked, trying to remember where he'd heard that name before. He knew he had, but where...
"Zechs," Quatre clarified, creating a small illusion of the masked man standing in his hand. "Milliardo was what he was called when he was ruling Sank. Relena's brother, remember?"
"Shit!" Duo exclaimed, suddenly understanding why Quatre had started cursing before. Zechs was the most powerful mage out there, except for them. The demons could feed enough power into ordinary mages to make them dangerous, but Zechs... "I thought he was on our side!"
"I forgot to warn him," Quatre berated himself. "I knew I forgot something! He wasn't under our protection when the shield came down, they must have grabbed him immediately. He wouldn't have had a chance."
"This is really bad news, isn't it?" Duo asked, already knowing the answer. Quatre just looked at him, and Duo felt the strongest urge to go have a cursing fit of his own, except Quatre had already covered that and Duo didn't want to copy him.
"Can we do anything?" Heero asked with a frown, staring at the image.
Quatre shook his head. "Not that I know of, unless you know some way of getting rid of the possession short of killing him."
"But he didn't want this, doesn't that make a difference?" Duo asked. Zechs/Milliardo wasn't his favorite person in the world, but he didn't deserve to be possessed and killed by them, not after all the crap he'd been through. But since when was the world fair?
"And you think that any of them wanted to be possessed so they could fight for demon invaders?" Quatre asked with only the barest hint of sarcasm in his voice. "It's always against the will of the victim." He stared at the image for a second, then turned his eyes away, a pained expression on his face. "We need to concentrate on killing him, if we can. He's far too powerful to leave in their hands."
Duo averted his eyes from the pained expression on Quatre's face, knowing that this was going to be difficult enough as it was. He didn't want to copy Quatre, but he couldn't resist one comment.
"Shit."
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The attack came exactly when Quatre and Trowa had said it was coming - just as the sun reached it's zenith, the Oz soldiers came across the sands that separated them from the fort. There was no hint of the hesitation that had marked their movements earlier, just deadly determination with an external origin.
Just before the soldiers reached the fort, Quatre gave the order, and the huge doors were opened. The Manguanacs all poured out onto the sand, and the five joined them. Then the two forces clashed.
As it turned out, they were fairly evenly matched. Treize had more soldiers, but they had more power to reinforce their own fighters with, along with the fact that the five of them were willing to fight themselves, instead of hiding in the distance, the way that all of the Hunters were.
Heero swept through the Oz soldiers with the same brutal efficiency he'd once used when he was still serving Odin, killing soldiers on either side of him with one of the knives clenched in each fist. It gave him a slight disadvantage, especially when fighting opponents with swords, since he had to close in order to kill them, but his power allowed him to enhance his strength and speed to a level that the demons couldn't hope to match, so it wasn't much of a disadvantage.
The battle wasn't that long, no more than an hour or so, and they killed quite a few of the enemy. Suddenly the survivors among the Oz soldiers were retreating, and Quatre ordered them all to let them go. Heero had been aware of Quatre giving orders to various people - usually by name - throughout the battle, ordering them to move to help others, or occasionally warning them of a danger they didn't see. He'd even had a comment or two directed at him, which he chose to listen to. They'd been good suggestions, and he meant to discuss this with Quatre later.
After the Oz soldiers ran off, they were left standing on the battlefield, surrounded by the smell of blood and by dead bodies. Heero looked around and saw that the Manguanacs were breathing hard, but that there didn't seem to be any of them lying among the dead, but he wasn't sure. He knew that none of the others had gotten hurt - he would have felt that.
:Casualties?: he asked Quatre.
:No, we all made it through,: Quatre said, his soft voice belying his exhaustion. Of course, he'd been supporting the Manguanacs through the fight, too, in addition to doing his own fighting. Heero hadn't seen much of him, but the few times he had, he'd seemed to be making a decent accounting of himself, and the edge of his curved sword was covered with blood. Heero made a mental note to speak to him about that later, as well. There had to be some way that they could help support the Manguanacs, so that Quatre wasn't exhausting himself as much.
Quatre spoke softly to the huge leader of the Manguanacs, who stood beside him, and the man nodded and then shouted to the others, who turned and walked back into the fort, occasionally pausing by a body to thrust a sword in to make sure the job was done.
Heero felt a slight surge of energy as Trowa passed some of his own energy to Quatre, who immediately straightened slightly as he healed himself with the energy. :We need to burn all of this,: he said quietly, his eyes traveling over the bodies, a pained expression on his face.
:Why?: Heero queried.
:Sometimes the demons put spells on the soldiers they possess, Heero,: Duo told him. His eyes were wide and he was breathing rather deeply, and Heero realized that he was gaining an enormous amount of power from the people who'd died here. :They might rise. I don't think they'll be able to get through the shields, but there's no reason to take the chance. I'll take care of it.:
:Rise?: Wufei asked sharply.
:Zombies,: Duo clarified. :Thanatos told me. They're not much as fighters, but they're tough as hell to kill. Better to burn them all now then have to deal with it later. Just a second.: Duo closed his eyes and raised one hand over the still battlefield. Suddenly the entire area burst into flames, black flames which consumed every body and all their possessions, but which did not touch any of the five mages. After only a few seconds the fires died down and there was nothing left to show that there'd been a battle here, only some scorched spots on the sand and the blood left over indicated that there'd been anything wrong at all.
They all turned and walked back into the fort. There was no celebration there, no sense of victory, for all that they'd killed so many without a single loss on their side. There was only vague relief on that count, along with a tension that that condition couldn't last forever. This was only the first battle, and there could be years more of this ahead of them.
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After the first battle they healed quickly, and within minutes of stopping the fighting, they were back in top shape, at least physically. They healed the wounds that the Manguanacs had suffered, and then went to the meal that Sally had ordered prepared for them. Trowa assured them that there'd be no attack this afternoon or evening, and they all drifted off to deal with the aftermath first battle in their own way.
Quatre was probably affected the most, both because of the exhaustion from supporting the Manguanacs, and because he was the only one who hadn't killed regularly before he met the others. Duo suspected that there was more to it than that, especially after he woke the rest of them up with screaming nightmares about the voices in his head, but Trowa soothed him through that; and as more battles came and went, the nightmares slowed and then disappeared.
They did managed to figure out a way to avoid draining Quatre every battle while he was supporting his people, by spreading the effort amongst the five of them. They also got more skilled at using the energy that Quatre was draining from the mages they'd brought with them, while those mages learned to conserve their energy by laying quietly and not exerting themselves, so there was that much more available for use.
The attacks came almost randomly, it seemed, sometimes there'd be none for two or three days, sometimes they came once or twice a day, and there was one battle that lasted for nearly twenty-four hours. Luckily it seemed that Treize's mages were as exhausted as they were from the effort of supporting their troops, because no attacks came for almost three days after that. That particular battle had ended when one of the demons had faltered in their spellcasting. Wufei had sensed it when the protection that kept them from being able to use their powers against the soldiers directly failed, and immediately struck. Every single one of the Oz soldiers had immediately dropped dead. Duo burned the bodies and then they retreated to the relative safety of the fort to recover.
The shields had proven themselves, though. Once a group of Oz soldiers had gotten through the fighting and thrown themselves at the gate. There wasn't anything left of them to burn, and after that the defenders didn't have to worry so much about letting people get through, only about defending their own backs.
Duo and Heero had stopped having sex almost totally, although they slept together every night. By mutual agreement they never had sex within twenty four hours of a battle. There was something wrong about spending your day with your hands drenched in blood up to your wrists and then having sex a few hours later. Duo discovered that there was more comfort available for him in just laying in Heero's arms after a particularly brutal fight than he ever would have imagined. He didn't know what Heero thought about that, and didn't ask, but every night he fell asleep with Duo's braid clenched in his fist, and was in that same position when he woke up.
As far as Duo could tell, the attacks were completely random, but Quatre said that there was a pattern, that Treize was testing them, testing his reactions to certain techniques and their skill in deflecting spells hurled at them in the midst of combat. Duo didn't know what he was talking about, but trusted him. Quatre had turned out to be some sort of military genius, at least that was the impression that he got from Heero. At the very least Duo knew that during the battles Quatre always knew the location and condition of every single one of his people, and of the other four, which was no small task in itself.
They killed hundreds upon hundreds of Oz soldiers, sometimes in just one battle, and they kept coming...
---------------------------------
One day Duo sat with the others in a brief meeting with a few of the Manguanacs and Sally, who'd proven to have a solid grasp of combat tactics, even if she rarely fought herself, and who also knew the stores better than anyone. They were discussing the battle from the day before, in which their (relatively) small group had killed over a thousand Oz soldiers. Great, at this rate it will only take us a few hundred years to get all of them. And Treize is probably training more soldiers back in the center of Oz even as we kill them here, Duo thought pessimistically, and felt Quatre's eyes on him.
Before either one of them could say anything though, Sally spoke up. "This is all well and good. We all know how many of us there are, how many of them they've killed, and how many they have left. We've got plenty of supplies left, enough to last for a year or more, and there's no sign that they can stop us from transporting in more supplies if we need them. The real question is how we're doing in the war, the magic war, and we don't have the answers to that," she continued, glancing at the Manguanacs, who regarded her with no little respect and sometimes gentle amusement. "So, how are we doing, in comparison to the last time?" she asked the five of them. "You're the only ones who really remember that time. So?"
Duo wondered how she'd found out that, but shrugged it off. She had a way of turning up with the most random pieces of information, and never told any of them where she got it from. But he was more interested in Quatre's answer, since he'd been bouncing that question around in his head for many nights now, shielding so Quatre wouldn't realize he was worried. Blondie had enough to think about without Duo adding to that mess by thinking indiscriminately.
Quatre closed his eyes for a long moment while he organized his thoughts. "Compared to the last time? There really is no comparison. At this point in the war last time, our predecessors were still trying to figure out what was going on. They had no idea how to use the full extent of their powers, or to link, or..." he shrugged. "Just about anything. On the other hand, the demons in that time didn't have as much experience controlling humans, or in casting magic in our world, so they were more clumsy as well, although they definitely had the upper hand in that conflict. All things considered, I think we are doing better than they did. We haven't lost anyone yet, while they've lost thousands. But..." he trailed off, looking uncomfortable.
"But what?" Sally asked.
"It's not enough," Heero said flatly. Duo's lips curled upwards. Leave it to his Hee-chan to give it to them straight.
"We can't keep this up forever," Quatre clarified. "We can keep going for a good long while," he quickly added to reassure the Manguanacs and Sally, all of whom looked very concerned at his first statement. "But he's right, it isn't enough. Even if we killed every single Oz soldier..." Quatre looked vaguely naueous at the thought, "...they'd just bring in more, from Sank or Romafeller, or they'd start using commoners and just give them weapons. It isn't enough to kill them, we have to actually strike at the mages, they're the ones with the power to control the people, and there are a limited number of those."
"So we've got to kill the mages," Duo said. "How are we going to do that? None of *them* ever come anywhere near the battlefield, and they're nestled in the middle of Treize's damn army!"
"I know," Quatre sighed. "But we've got to figure out some way to do it. This way just won't work."
Well, this is a slightly shorter section, but there was a bit more action in it. Yes, I know I suck at writing fighting sequences, but I think I'm happy with the rest of it. Wufei and Heero are beginning to come easier to me. I think there are three or four more sections left, and maybe an epilogue or two. What'd ya think?