This was unlike any fighting that any of them had ever done, probably because no one had ever had to fight this way before. In the distant past, when there had been really powerful mages with lands and titles of their own (mostly because no one dared to take the belongings of someone who could kill with a glance), all of the fighting between the mages had been solely with magic. All fighting with others involved supporting troops, combined with devastating magical attacks directed at the enemy troops, never with the mages using magic to support their own troops, or with them doing any fighting themselves.
Here was a situation that no one could have ever anticipated or prepared for - one which the five of them were better able to deal with than maybe anyone else could be. All of them had spent much of their lives running and hiding, their adaptability was one reason that they'd survived as long as they had, and now that ability served them well.
This was an entirely new type of fighting, where you dodged a couple of swords, stabbed someone, ducked behind a falling body, and saw a slight flaw in the shield that protected the soldiers from magic attack. Then you used a fast magic attack, and whatever soldiers were supposed to be protected behind that shield would immediately drop dead. Sometimes that bought you a couple seconds of rest, if you were surrounded by the soldiers whose protection had failed. More often, though, the soldiers were mixed together, and they just dropped wherever they were, sprinkled throughout the chaos, and it was immediately back to fighting, dodging, and slashing at those around you.
Duo lost count of the number of times that he automatically healed minor wounds he received in the course of the fighting, several of which were serious enough that they might have disabled a normal human for the duration of the battle. But for the first time, he felt like they were really making progress. More than once he'd seen an enemy mage, thick in the midst of the battle, stumble and fall, and not get up, proof that the poison Quatre had provided was working.
Even more encouraging was the fact that as soon as those mages died, all of the people that they were controlling - the normal soldiers - would immediately drop to the ground, unconscious, like puppets whose strings had been cut. Each mage that died, either by their hands or because of the poison, significantly decreased the number of soldiers that they had to fight. Besides, even though they were obviously completely outnumbered, there were a limit to the number of soldiers that could possibly attack any of them at one time, so that helped.
The real danger came from the mages that hid themselves among the common soldiers, the ones who could strike at them using magic. The only outward sign visible that they were anything different than the regular human soldiers would be the glowing yellow eyes - it was very easy to hide the large eyes, slender figure, and pointed ears that marked a mage, as Quatre had obviously proven. So the only warning you had was a brief flash of those glowing eyes, which hopefully gave enough time to throw up your shields before the attack came. Then you had to hunt down and kill the mage that had attacked you, generally a fairly difficult task in a battlefield. And there were a good many more minor mages among Treize's people then they'd originally thought, enough to make a major impact on the fighting.
Duo had just found a serious flaw in someone's shields, and had managed to kill, not only the fighters under the shield, but the mage who was supposed to be holding the shield in the first place. That was a stupid way to hold a shield, anyway, any idiot knew that linking the shield to your personal energy supply directly resulted in death when the shield was breached.
On the other hand, the mage in question might not have had a choice. Most mages were weaker than they were - this was being dealt with by the demons funneling their power through the human mages, but if the mage in question was weak enough, then it became very difficult for the demons to give them enough power. Kind of like trying to let a waterfall run through a hole the size of his fist, it didn't matter how much power there was on the demon side, it just couldn't get through to their world. So the only way that they could get enough power to the shields to have them possibly stand up to their attack would be by linking them directly to their life force. And, of course, the demons didn't care if the process ended up being deadly to the humans, who didn't have a choice in the matter.
Duo let his mind drift slightly, so that he would know what was going on with the rest of them without letting himself get killed. He would have known immediately if something serious happened to them, but that didn't mean that he knew exactly what was going on or where they all were.
Quatre had his back to the wall of the fort on the far side of the immense structure. He was doing less damage than the rest of them, but his position was much more protected, as well. He seemed to be holding his own. Trowa was definitely holding his own, standing amidst a pile of bodies with more soldiers crowded around him. His style switched from time to time, depending on who was in control of his body, sometimes fighting with cold determination, other times with violent ferocity that reminded Duo of the lions that Trowa had hung out with in the circus. As far as Duo could tell, Trowa hadn't noticed the violent change, and if he hadn't, Duo wasn't about to tell him. If it was him, he wouldn't wanted to have known.
Wufei was, as usual, right in the thick of it, his sword slashing through the soldiers who were trying to get at him. He paused for a fraction of a second, and with an ease that Duo envied, he sliced with his magic at the shield over the soldiers on his left, killing them, and then switched back to the sword with barely a pause. He was doing just fine.
Heero was closest, and dealing with the soldiers around him in his usual efficient fashion, wasting no movements as he used all of the weapons at his disposal to kill those around him. He noticed Duo's attention, and sent a tendril of thought in his direction, just to make sure he was OK.
:I'm fine, Heero,: Duo told him as he cut a soldier in half with his scythe. He might have overreacted a little bit on that one, he reflected as the momentum of the weapon carried it halfway through another soldier before he bothered to stop it. :How you doing?:
:No injuries,: Heero reported, and Duo sighed. If they lived through this stupid battle, this was definitely something they were going to have to work on. It made him feel like an army sergeant when Heero reported to him like that.
:Good, you have any idea how we're doing?: he asked.
It wasn't Heero, but Quatre, who answered him. :Not too badly. We're doing some serious damage to them, and some of them are still dropping from the poison. They've started sending their minor mages into the field, the least effective ones. After we work our way through them, the only ones that they can send are the major mages: Milliardo, Treize, and the others.:
Duo thought about the weak shield and the mage attached to it that he'd just killed. If what Quatre was saying was right, and that really was a sign that they were getting desperate for mages, then the heavy hitters should start showing up soon. Then it would get interesting.
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Heero was in the midst of searching out another crack in the shield over the soldiers when he suddenly became aware of someone *powerful* standing nearby and broke off his search. Instead he scanned the fighting around him, not knowing what he was looking for, but knowing that he would recognize it when he saw it. After a few seconds, he had his answer.
A very familiar figure with long blond hair and glowing eyes stood less than a dozen feet away. As if he wasn't recognizable enough on his own, the soldiers actually stopped attacking him, clearing a circle around the two of them. Heero kept his guard up, not trusting that one of the soldiers at the edge of the circle wouldn't take the opportunity to stab him in the back.
"Zechs," he growled, feeling every muscle in his body tense in anticipation of battle. This was the one who'd hurt Duo, and he was going to pay.
"So, you're the assassin," he drawled in a low voice, a smile openly visible on his face as he studied Heero. "This body's memories of you are quite strong, almost as strong as the other one." His smile widened. "I'm surprised he's still alive. I would have thought that he would have cracked five minutes after the battle ended. You should have seen the look on his face when he saw those little creatures. Truly pathetic."
Heero's rage increased by a marked amount, but it didn't cause him to try to attack Zechs, or to lose control. Mistakes like that were for amateurs, he knew better. Instead, he studied his enemy for possible weaknesses.
There was a very strong mage shield covering him from head to toe, and as far as Heero could tell, he didn't have responsibility for any of the soldiers or shields on the battlefield, meaning that he could devote his full energy and attention to killing his enemy. However, he was also not really the enemy, the true enemy was in another world, and just controlling Zechs' body. That had to be an advantage, if he could figure out how to use it against him.
Suddenly, without changing expression at all, Zechs cast a mage-bolt at him. It moved as fast as a bolt of lightening, and it looked a lot like one, too, if the lightening bolt had been bright red instead of white. Heero grunted slightly as the bolt impacted against his shields, and the force of the blow forced him to take a step back before he dug his feet into the sand. Immediately he felt Duo's touch. :You all right? What happened?:
:Fine,: he grunted, and unleashed a flurry of mage-bolts back at Zechs. For once, he didn't bother to aim too carefully, and as the dozens of bolts of energy struck the ground around Zechs, he killed a dozen or so soldiers. None of the bolts penetrated the shield that Zechs had erected around himself.
Zechs raised one hand to the sky, and suddenly all of the soldiers around him scrambled backwards, obviously trying to get out of the way before they got caught up in whatever he was about to do. Since they were still being controlled by the demons, who had to know what Zechs' controller was doing, Heero took that as a bad sign, and reinforced his shields. Sure enough, seconds later, tiny flames began dancing in the air around his outstretched hand.
That was the only warning Heero got before fireballs began materializing in Zechs' hand and flying towards him with no visible effort on Zechs' part. Heero didn't waste energy deflecting them with his shield, he dropped the shield slightly, and smashed the first fireball away from him with his bare hand. He got a great deal of satisfaction out of seeing naked shock on the other man's face as he caught the next fireball and threw it back at him.
Apparently whatever was controlling Zechs was not a skilled enough mage to duplicate his feat, because he reinforced *his* shields as the fireball smashed into it, disintegrating on impact.
Heero gave him a tight-lipped smile as he glanced over his shoulders, striking at the weak point in the shield over the soldiers who were trying to sneak up on him from behind. About half of them dropped, the rest he set into with his sword, all the while keeping one eye on Zechs, who tried to sneak a few lightening-strikes in on him but otherwise tried no trickery. As the last of that group of soldiers died, he once again raised a hand, pointing at the sky.
Heero's eyes widened slightly as a black circle appeared in the air over him, one that rapidly grew in size until it was several feet across. Out of that hole suddenly leapt five of the demons, the brute killers that were the only one of the enemy that could survive the journey, mostly because they had no minds to speak of. Zechs smiled openly as he silently pointed at Heero.
Heero had only seen such creatures once before, on the edge of the faery forest, but he'd seen into Duo's nightmares more than one night. Duo didn't cry in his sleep, no more than he did when he was awake, but it was easy to tell when he had bad dreams, if you knew what signs to look for. Besides being mindlinked, he knew his lover very well, probably even better than Duo suspected. Ever since Thanatos had shown him what really happened to the faeries, those images had joined a number of others in his nightmares, ones that he had on a fairly regular basis.
These were the demons that had killed all of Wufei's family, too, and had chased him for days. Heero had seen some of what they'd done to Wufei, as well.
Heero's eyes narrowed slightly, and his fists clenched involuntarily. Duo had nightmares about these creatures, and although he'd never asked, he bet that Wufei did too. Now he got to destroy them.
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Trowa made sure to keep within range of sight with Quatre, although he was sure that the other mage would have protested that he didn't need protection. Well, just as Gael had told him before he even knew what he really was, they weren't allowed any illusions, and although he might have wished otherwise, while Quatre was quite competent as a fighter, he was also their weak point, and as such, should be protected. He knew that Quatre would probably be angry with him later, but that could be dealt with when they were out of danger. If they survived.
For now, however, Quatre seemed to be holding his own, so Trowa was free to dedicate most of his concentration on the battle going on around him. He was aware, without really knowing how, that Heero had finally caught up to Zechs and was currently engaged in something that resembled an ancient mage-duel, almost complete excluding the use of any common soldiers, just between the two of them. Both Wufei and Duo were fine. So he studied the patterns in the magic around him, searching for weaknesses.
He wasn't as good at this as Wufei or Duo or even Quatre, he was better off just stabbing with his power at what *felt* right than in trying to actually see the cracks in the shields. His power had always been more of an instinctive thing, anyway.
He'd discovered something right off, the shields that the demons were holding over the common soldiers kept him from being able to work magic against them directly, but did nothing to stop him from influencing them indirectly, either by affecting himself or their surroundings. Now in the midst of the battle, he found a few seconds to gaze, not at the soldiers, but at the ground beneath their feet.
A hint of a smile appeared on his face. As he'd suspected, there was a deep pocket of air far beneath their feet. He wasn't sure exactly what it was, if it had once been a building, or a cave, or some naturally-occurring phenomenon, but what mattered was that it was there, and there was nothing between it and the men but tons of sand and stone.
Then there came another vicious attack and all he could do was defend himself and keep and eye on Quatre for several minutes. Then there was another brief respite as a number of soldiers nearby dropped to the ground as a controller somewhere died, and he took advantage of it. He reached deep into the ground, and caused a slight shift, concentrating on the soldiers in front of him. There was a low rumble in the ground as the sheer weight of the earth resisted movement, but he was persistent, and suddenly the ground beneath the soldiers feet turned slippery, then soft, like quicksand. Only these sinkholes were being maintained solely because he willed them to, and there was one underneath each of the soldiers. They dropped silently into the earth, with sand pouring in to cover them. He dropped them down a dozen feet, pushing the extra sand into the air pocket he'd found, then left them there.
He came out of the half-trance he'd fallen into and found himself standing in the center of a fair-sized circle of unoccupied sand. Just outside the circle were a number of soldiers, eyeing him warily, and even more important, a wide-eyed mage.
Trowa's eyes narrowed slightly as he saw the mage. There was still plenty of room to move sand down there. He concentrated on the mage...
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Wufei kept his hands together on the hilt of the sword, holding it between him and the greatest concentration of the soldiers. He pointed the end of the sword at them, and a stream of fire shot out from the end, making a line on the ground. From that line sprouted a wall of fire, almost a foot thick at the bottom, and although it wasn't apparent to the eye, completely solid. Anything that tried to jump through or over it would be instantly caught and killed. He'd never told Duo that he knew this spell - he knew that Duo's family had been killed by such a spell. It was almost impossible not to, what with the way they still shared nightmares from time to time. The spell was one that he had inherited from his predecessor, and one of the few simpler ones that he hadn't taught the others, because he knew how Duo would react.
He'd bought himself a few seconds of rest, and took the time to survey the battlefield with magic-sensitive eyes.
Things were going well. He saw only a few bright concentrations of energy that represented the enemy mages. There were still a dozen or so of them back at the enemy camp, probably supporting those still in the field, but they were no immediate danger. He saw Heero fighting with one remarkably bright light... Zechs? It had to be. There were only two enemy mages with that kind of power, and the power felt sort of familiar. Since he'd spent more time with Zechs and was more familiar with his power, it made sense that that power was Zechs.
Wufei turned slightly, and his eyes widened as he saw a brilliant flare of power coming towards him. He'd already identified the one in the distance as Zechs, so that could only mean that Treize had finally been forced to enter the fray. He felt a sharp stab of triumph, but quickly controlled it. Treize would finally be vulnerable, but he was also the most powerful mage that the other side had, and he would be the most dangerous.
Wufei didn't think that any of the others had noticed Treize yet, and he was definitely closest, so he returned his full attention to the battlefield and began working his way over to the power source. It was easier than he'd expected, which immediately put him on guard. It had to be some sort of trap, that could be the only reason for the Oz soldiers to allow him so close to their commander without fighting harder.
A moment after the thought had occurred to him, he realized how stupid it was. Of course it was a trap, that was Treize's only hope for victory. Most of his mages were dead, and the ranks of the common soldiers had been decimated. The only hope they had of winning was to kill one of the five before their power could truly be united against the demons.
He wasn't the tactical genius that Quatre was, but he thought he had a pretty good idea as to why Treize had come after him. They all knew that Quatre was the weakest fighter among them, and because of that, they were all hyper-alert for any threat to him. The rest all had their various strengths and weaknesses, but of all of them, only Wufei was without a partner. Heero would know instantly if Duo had any difficulty, and the same was true in reverse. Trowa would also know if Quatre was in danger, and Quatre... well, of all of them, he was the most likely to notice if Wufei was in trouble, but it wasn't the same, nothing like the link that the others had.
For a moment Sally's face flashed in his mind, but he resolutely pushed it away. He needed to concentrate now, if he was going to survive. And survival in this battle meant death for Treize, and victory for them. There was no halfway here, just as Quatre had said, either they'd have victory or they'd be dead. Wufei opened himself to the others slightly, so that they'd know what was going on.
:You're in position to fight Treize?: Quatre asked shortly.
Wufei sent him a feeling of affirmation, and felt Quatre's concentration.
:Duo's the closest, and it'll take him some time to get to you. If you need any power, just call,: Quatre told him, and then he was alone again.
But not really. As the soldiers gave up all pretense of fighting and opened an aisle for him to walk through, Wufei could still feel the others, still see their powers as they fought on all sides of the fort, and Quatre's last words were with him. If he needed their help, they'd find a way to be there, and their powers were always there for his use, so that he wouldn't be overwhelmed. Holding his sword at the ready, alert for any sign that the soldiers around him were about to attack, he walked through the aisle.
Suddenly the aisle disappeared, and he found himself standing at the edge of a large circle of circles. In the center of the circle stood Treize.
He looked different than Wufei remembered him, thinner, with slight circles under his glowing eyes. But he radiated power that hadn't been there before, and nothing could conceal from Wufei the fact that all of that power was tainted in a way he was readily familiar with, after fighting the demons for so long.
The reminder of the demons and what they'd done to his Clan was enough to make him lower his stance slightly and reinforce his shields, waiting for whatever attack Treize used.
He didn't have to wait for long - a second later a bolt of lightening jumped from the end of Treize's sword to his own, where he tamed and then absorbed the energy. He responded with a lightening-strike of his own, which met with the same result.
For several minutes they exchanged mage-attacks, neither able to gain a clear advantage. Treize - the demon that was controlling Treize - became visibly frustrated, moreso with each failed attack, and finally he actually snarled at Wufei. Wufei was momentarily taken aback by seeing the cultured Treize Khushrenada snarling at him like some crazed animal, and then was suddenly struck by the fact that this was *not* Treize Khushrenada.
The demon in control of his body abruptly gave up on purely magic attacks, and rushed at him, brandishing a long heavy sword. The attack caught Wufei by surprise, and he instinctively raised his shields to block the blow. That reaction saved Wufei from a potentially deadly mistake, because as the sword cut into the shield and nearly passed through it, he realized that Treize had somehow invested a great deal of power into the steel. More importantly, he'd managed to do it in a way that hid the power from Wufei's eyes, making the sword look completely normal. If he'd tried to block the blow with his sword, it would have been cut in half, and he probably would have followed.
He quickly spelled his sword to match, and then dropped his shields to attack Treize. He might have been able to hold up his shields against Treize's attack for some time, but there was a great deal of power in the sword, and his shields would have collapsed eventually. Besides, just protecting himself would do nothing to help the others, and the shame... The demons were responsible for the slaughter of his entire Clan, and he finally had a chance to do something about it.
Whatever was controlling Treize's body was a good fighter, or maybe the demons were accessing his skills, but Wufei was hard-put to keep up with him and was unable to make any real headway. Suddenly he caught a glimpse of something in the shield that protected Treize from magical attack, that had protected him flawlessly so far. It was gone so fast that Wufei wasn't sure if he'd seen anything at all. But a few seconds later it was back, a slight flaw in the shield right over Treize's heart.
Wufei frowned slightly - what was going on? His eyes were drawn to Treize's, and he was astonished to see that the glow in them had dimmed slightly, and seemed to be flickering in and out. Could Treize be... was it possible to fight the possession? Wufei almost immediately dismissed that thought - his predecessor had never seen, never heard of such a thing, and the glow from Treize's eyes was steady again, causing him to question if he'd even seen anything. But there was still that flickering flaw in his shield, and Treize seemed distracted now, and was making a few sloppy mistakes. Wufei managed to get through his guard once or twice to strike at him. Although he never managed to hit the flaw, each time he struck the shield, the flaw became even brighter, as if it was trying to draw attention to itself.
He was on the offensive, now, and it was Treize who was struggling to keep up. Wufei drove him back towards the unresponsive troops, trying to keep his attention on both the troops and on Treize, but it was difficult, and he was beginning to tire...
Treize threw another lightening bolt at him. This time it caught him by surprise, and it almost got through the shield. He only prevented that by dropping the sword with one hand and raising that hand to block the bolt. Still the force of the impact drove him to his knees, badly out of position. Treize struck at him, and only his shield prevented Wufei from receiving a deep wound from the enhanced sword.
Wufei struggled to get his sword up to meet the threat as Treize raised his sword above his head, poised to strike. Suddenly, with the sword at the top of it's arc, straight above his head, he froze, for a fraction of an instant, and the flaw in his shield flared like a miniature sun.
He *is* fighting it. In that instant of hesitation Wufei recalled all of the reasons that he'd come to Oz in the first place, after he fled his homeland. He'd heard that the country had a great leader, a strong ruler, beloved by the people, just... the sort of man he hoped to be someday. And it was this man who somehow managed to do what no other had ever done, he fought the possession to gain control of his body, if only for a moment.
And that was enough, in that one moment of weakness, Wufei thrust upwards with his sword, funneled all the power he could managed through the weapon, and struck the flaw in the shield precisely. His sword passed easily through it and then through Treize's body.
Treize immediately stiffened and sagged against Wufei. He braced himself for the warm rush of blood over his hands, but none came. Instead, beams of light began to emerge from the wound around the sword, the sword that Wufei did not dare remove for fear that Treize would heal himself. Instead, he shielded himself and continued to funnel energy through the sword, as the amount of light coming out of Treize's body increased, finally forming a solid column of light that shot towards the sky, where it detonated, and a huge black circle appeared. Wufei imagined he could see a thousand glowing red eyes staring at them from the other side of the hole.
As the light left his body, Treize had convulsed, once, and now lay still. When the light left him, Wufei felt a sudden warmth on his hands, and saw the expected blood now did flow. Wufei left the faintly glowing sword in his chest. He had to die, or else the demons could return to his body.
Wufei's eyes traveled up to Treize's eyes, and noticed that they were pale blue again, and although filled with pain, there was no fear there. "I'm... sorry..." he managed to gasp out, then coughed, a froth of blood coming from his mouth.
"Thank you," Wufei said simply, bowing his head slightly to acknowledge the man's bravery, and the help he had given despite what had happened.
Treize's eyes fixed on him, a hint of a smile graced the corners of his mouth, and as he lay his head back down on the ground, he died.
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Quatre felt the surge of energy a moment before every soldier around him stumbled, then stopped, each rubbing their heads in confusion. He'd already seen the massive portal overhead, and he knew what that meant. :Link with me!: he shouted at the top of his lungs.
Instantly Trowa joined with him, quickly followed by Duo, Heero, and finally Wufei. The process took only a few seconds, making Quatre think that maybe all those painful hours of practice had been worth it, and then they were all joined.
:Good job, Wu-man!: Duo exulted in their mind(s).
For once Wufei didn't correct him, but merely grunted acknowledgement. Something was bothering him, and Quatre made a mental note to talk to him later, but now they had a job to do. :Everyone know what to do?: he asked, and felt their agreement. :Then lets do this!:
Quatre began to form the basis of the spell that would permanently bar the demons from their world. Their predecessors had never managed to kill the leader of the demon side in their time, just drove the majority of the demons away from the planet and then threw up the shield that shielded the world from invasion, but they had not closed the portal between the worlds, the rip in space that allowed the demons to pass through. That was what they now sought to do.
It took all five of them to perform this spell, which was why the demons had been trying to kill at least one of them for so long.
As the spell continued, with the others picking up their pieces and building on what he had begun, he started to lose his sense of individuality, as he got caught up in the purpose for which they'd been born, the massive amount of power that they were conjuring up, and the determination of the others. He thought he felt the others joining him, but it was almost impossible to tell in the rush of power that consumed him, consumed all of them. He could practically feel it dancing along his skin, roaring in his ears, dazzling his eyes...
Suddenly they reached the brink, the power was almost uncontainable, it was through their own discipline and determination that they'd held it so far, but it was about to get away from them, Quatre could feel, and he started to panic. If they lost control of what they'd built, now, they could destroy their world. It was getting too big, they were about to lose it...
Then a voice, he was never sure which of them it was, if any, said in an incredibly loud voice, :NOW.:
That was the trigger they'd all been waiting for, as one they all let the spell loose, and at once Quatre felt all of the energy rush out of him, and an exhaustion as deep as anything he'd ever felt before hit him, and he dropped out of the link as the others did, his physical form slumping to the ground. He felt the hot sand on the back of his neck as he stared upwards at the huge circle in the sky, the edges of which began to waver and shake, just before the circle began to collapse inward on itself.
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Heero was partially stunned as he dropped out of the link - he'd been in the process of fighting Zechs when Quatre called for the link, and had expended a lot of energy there before they cast that damn spell. He struggled to open his eyes, to sit up and check the situation around him, but his body refused to respond. He finally managed to get his eyes cracked open, and all he saw was a dim golden haze. A second later he became aware of someone crouching over him, and redoubled his efforts to sit up.
"Shhh, be still, you overextended yourself," said a familiar voice, although it took him a moment to place it. He hadn't heard that person speaking that way in a long time.
When he finally managed to place the voice, he actually did manage to sit up in alarm. "Zechs!" The golden haze had faded slightly, enough so that he could see the older man kneeling by his side, his hands spread and his face creased in concentration as he exerted himself to heal Heero. "What are you doing?" he demanded, stalling for time for him to recover enough to stand up.
"Healing you."
"Why?"
"I'm in control again," Zechs reminded him with a bitter smile. "The demon is gone, I'm not fighting you any more." There was a heavy load of guilt obvious in Zechs' voice, but Heero was still angry enough on Duo's behalf that he didn't say anything to try to ameliorate his guilt. It might not have been Zechs who'd said and done all those things to Duo, but Heero was discovering it was very, very difficult to keep the two separate.
Zechs' raised his eyes to look at the rapidly shrinking hole in the sky, and Heero sat up on his own, inwardly wincing at the amount of effort it took.
"You've done it," Zechs said quietly. "I... I apologize."
Heero glared at him out of the corner of his eye. He had a feeling that Zechs was not apologizing for what he had done while in the control of the demon. That would be stupid, to expect that he could assume responsibility for what had happened while the demon was in control. Zechs wasn't stupid. "For what?" Heero asked sharply.
"Doubting you," came the immediate answer. "When I saw you, I thought you were just children, I thought that somehow there'd been some horrible mistake, that you were going to end up getting us all killed. I was wrong, you were equal to your task and more. I apologize."
Heero grunted. Suddenly, he felt a stab of danger from above, and his head snapped up. The hole was almost closed, but it wasn't black anymore. Now it was an intense white, and just before the hole closed, the light emerged from the hole. It wasn't just light, it was a huge sphere of energy, raw power in it's most potent and dangerous form. And it was headed right for the fort.
In a second Heero knew what had happened. The demons, seeing what they were about to do, realizing that they were about to be denied access forever to that world, had responded by trying to destroy everything. They must have gathered as much energy as they could into one place, and flung that energy through the gate just before it closed. Heero stared at the ball, watching it grow larger as it got closer. It seemed to be moving very slowly, but that was because of the distances involved. It was actually moving quite quickly, and that would become readily apparent as it drew closer. They only had a few minutes to react.
Heero struggled to his feet, his eyes fixed on the ball overhead. He knew without checking that he was the only one in any kind of condition to meet the threat - the others had given just as much to the spell as he had, and they hadn't had anyone there to help them recover, as Zechs had helped him. He was the only one of them that could possibly do anything to stop the ball from utterly destroying their world. But he was hardly in peak condition himself.
If he'd been completely healthy, with all of the others' power behind him, he would have stood a good chance at surviving the impact. As it was... there was almost no chance that he would survive. But he if put himself between the ball and everything else, he might be able to absorb enough power that what remained wouldn't hurt anyone. He had to protect Duo.
Duo. Even as he gathered in the last remnants of his power and popped his wings out, preparing to fling himself into the sky, the thought made him freeze. Duo. He had to protect Duo, he had to make sure Duo survived, but he'd made a promise. He'd promised not to lose Duo. If he died in this attempt, Duo would blame himself. He'd think that he was to blame, that his getting close to Heero was the cause of his death. He'd never let himself get close to anyone else ever again.
That thought was physically painful. He didn't like the thought of Duo being with someone else, but he liked even less the thought of Duo spending the rest of his life alone. And he would, Heero knew that.
So he hesitated, plagued by indecision as he had never been before. He couldn't let Duo die, but he couldn't leave him, either.
Suddenly a force hit him from behind and he was flung to the ground. He rolled over, hand raised defensively... and saw Zechs standing over him, a light golden aura around him as *he* started to draw in his power. "Sorry, Heero," he said, not sounding at all apologetic. "You've done enough, it's my turn. Perhaps I can somehow atone for what I did in the last months." He turned to look up at the ball. "Please convey my apologies to my sister, it looks like she's going to have to keep the throne." And with that, he leapt into the air. He had no wings, so he propelled himself up by power alone.
"Zechs!" Heero shouted, furious for no good reason he could think of. But it was completely beyond him to even catch Zechs, much less stop him.
:Heero!: Duo's voice seemed very soft and distant, although Heero knew he was only a few hundred feet away, just out of eyesight around the corner of the fort. :Heero, what's going on?! Heero!: he was beginning to sound panicked.
:I'm here.:
:Heero! Are you all right? What's going on?:
:Zechs is going to try to stop it,: Heero told him, his eyes fixed on the small black dot that was Zechs as he raced to meet the energy ball. It wouldn't be long now.
:Zechs?!: Duo's voice was tinged with horror, disbelief, and deep back where Heero could barely feel it, a little fear.
:Will he be able to do it?: Quatre asked. His voice, too, was almost a whisper, a sign of how much they'd been drained.
Suddenly Zechs' black spot became incandescent white, the same color as the ball he raced to meet, and a moment later, the two lights met each other, and then Heero threw up his arm in a futile attempt to shield his eyes from the blinding light that bathed him from several different planes.
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Duo blinked furiously, rubbing at his eyes with his knuckles, trying to restore his vision. Even blinded as he was, he stumbled forward, weaving his way through the ranks of confused, stunned, and dead Oz soldiers. Tired as he was, it took him several minutes to reach his destination, although he probably could have covered the distance in less than a minute at his regular strength.
It was obvious that whatever Zechs had done, it had worked. The world hadn't ended, although for a few minutes as they were assaulted by the bright light from the explosion that seared his normal eyes and scorched his mage-senses, the backlash reaction he'd felt had made him wish it was. Zechs had not survived the incident, and Duo couldn't bring himself to feel sorry, at least, not yet. For now, he felt safer, and he was alive. So was Heero, he could feel him, but Heero had barely been able to speak to him before the explosion, and Duo had felt much better before that, so it wasn't really surprising that Heero wasn't responding to his calls now. Duo could still feel him, though, and he was alive. Duo hadn't managed to get him killed.
A second later he saw Heero, on his hands and knees, obviously struggling to stand up. His head snapped up when he saw Duo, however, and Duo felt Heero's eyes boring into him, and he grinned in relief.
"Heero!" he cried, and threw himself at his lover, knocking him back to the ground with his enthusiasm. "Are you all right?"
"I'm fine," Heero said through gritted teeth, and it was obvious he was trying not to grimace in pain.
"Heero..." Duo regarded him seriously. "You were thinking about trying to stop that thing by yourself, weren't you?" he accused.
"I was going to," Heero admitted.
"What?!" Duo screeched, not caring if he sounded like an old fishwife. "Heero, how could you..."
"I couldn't," Heero cut him off. "I... I couldn't. I wanted to, I needed to protect you, but I couldn't do it. I hesitated, and Zechs took my place."
"You couldn't?" Duo repeated. "Why not?"
"Because I promised you I'd stay with you," Heero said seriously. "I didn't want to leave you. I couldn't leave you."
Duo's eyes pricked with tears, but he automatically forced them away. "You wanted... to stay with me?"
Heero nodded. "It's because of you that I'm alive. If it wasn't for you, I would have just thrown myself at that thing. Zechs never would have been able to stop me, and I would have died. I'm alive because of you."
Duo stared at him. "Heero..." he whispered. "That... that may be the nicest thing anyone's ever said to me."
Heero's lips twitched upwards once. "I love you."
Duo smiled. "That was even better."
That part with Treize was very difficult to write. I like Treize. I hope that it didn't end up too corny or anything. The last section, the epilogue, will be out in a few days, I think, so there's no need to make any more threats.
Marika 9/1/01
Here was a situation that no one could have ever anticipated or prepared for - one which the five of them were better able to deal with than maybe anyone else could be. All of them had spent much of their lives running and hiding, their adaptability was one reason that they'd survived as long as they had, and now that ability served them well.
This was an entirely new type of fighting, where you dodged a couple of swords, stabbed someone, ducked behind a falling body, and saw a slight flaw in the shield that protected the soldiers from magic attack. Then you used a fast magic attack, and whatever soldiers were supposed to be protected behind that shield would immediately drop dead. Sometimes that bought you a couple seconds of rest, if you were surrounded by the soldiers whose protection had failed. More often, though, the soldiers were mixed together, and they just dropped wherever they were, sprinkled throughout the chaos, and it was immediately back to fighting, dodging, and slashing at those around you.
Duo lost count of the number of times that he automatically healed minor wounds he received in the course of the fighting, several of which were serious enough that they might have disabled a normal human for the duration of the battle. But for the first time, he felt like they were really making progress. More than once he'd seen an enemy mage, thick in the midst of the battle, stumble and fall, and not get up, proof that the poison Quatre had provided was working.
Even more encouraging was the fact that as soon as those mages died, all of the people that they were controlling - the normal soldiers - would immediately drop to the ground, unconscious, like puppets whose strings had been cut. Each mage that died, either by their hands or because of the poison, significantly decreased the number of soldiers that they had to fight. Besides, even though they were obviously completely outnumbered, there were a limit to the number of soldiers that could possibly attack any of them at one time, so that helped.
The real danger came from the mages that hid themselves among the common soldiers, the ones who could strike at them using magic. The only outward sign visible that they were anything different than the regular human soldiers would be the glowing yellow eyes - it was very easy to hide the large eyes, slender figure, and pointed ears that marked a mage, as Quatre had obviously proven. So the only warning you had was a brief flash of those glowing eyes, which hopefully gave enough time to throw up your shields before the attack came. Then you had to hunt down and kill the mage that had attacked you, generally a fairly difficult task in a battlefield. And there were a good many more minor mages among Treize's people then they'd originally thought, enough to make a major impact on the fighting.
Duo had just found a serious flaw in someone's shields, and had managed to kill, not only the fighters under the shield, but the mage who was supposed to be holding the shield in the first place. That was a stupid way to hold a shield, anyway, any idiot knew that linking the shield to your personal energy supply directly resulted in death when the shield was breached.
On the other hand, the mage in question might not have had a choice. Most mages were weaker than they were - this was being dealt with by the demons funneling their power through the human mages, but if the mage in question was weak enough, then it became very difficult for the demons to give them enough power. Kind of like trying to let a waterfall run through a hole the size of his fist, it didn't matter how much power there was on the demon side, it just couldn't get through to their world. So the only way that they could get enough power to the shields to have them possibly stand up to their attack would be by linking them directly to their life force. And, of course, the demons didn't care if the process ended up being deadly to the humans, who didn't have a choice in the matter.
Duo let his mind drift slightly, so that he would know what was going on with the rest of them without letting himself get killed. He would have known immediately if something serious happened to them, but that didn't mean that he knew exactly what was going on or where they all were.
Quatre had his back to the wall of the fort on the far side of the immense structure. He was doing less damage than the rest of them, but his position was much more protected, as well. He seemed to be holding his own. Trowa was definitely holding his own, standing amidst a pile of bodies with more soldiers crowded around him. His style switched from time to time, depending on who was in control of his body, sometimes fighting with cold determination, other times with violent ferocity that reminded Duo of the lions that Trowa had hung out with in the circus. As far as Duo could tell, Trowa hadn't noticed the violent change, and if he hadn't, Duo wasn't about to tell him. If it was him, he wouldn't wanted to have known.
Wufei was, as usual, right in the thick of it, his sword slashing through the soldiers who were trying to get at him. He paused for a fraction of a second, and with an ease that Duo envied, he sliced with his magic at the shield over the soldiers on his left, killing them, and then switched back to the sword with barely a pause. He was doing just fine.
Heero was closest, and dealing with the soldiers around him in his usual efficient fashion, wasting no movements as he used all of the weapons at his disposal to kill those around him. He noticed Duo's attention, and sent a tendril of thought in his direction, just to make sure he was OK.
:I'm fine, Heero,: Duo told him as he cut a soldier in half with his scythe. He might have overreacted a little bit on that one, he reflected as the momentum of the weapon carried it halfway through another soldier before he bothered to stop it. :How you doing?:
:No injuries,: Heero reported, and Duo sighed. If they lived through this stupid battle, this was definitely something they were going to have to work on. It made him feel like an army sergeant when Heero reported to him like that.
:Good, you have any idea how we're doing?: he asked.
It wasn't Heero, but Quatre, who answered him. :Not too badly. We're doing some serious damage to them, and some of them are still dropping from the poison. They've started sending their minor mages into the field, the least effective ones. After we work our way through them, the only ones that they can send are the major mages: Milliardo, Treize, and the others.:
Duo thought about the weak shield and the mage attached to it that he'd just killed. If what Quatre was saying was right, and that really was a sign that they were getting desperate for mages, then the heavy hitters should start showing up soon. Then it would get interesting.
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Heero was in the midst of searching out another crack in the shield over the soldiers when he suddenly became aware of someone *powerful* standing nearby and broke off his search. Instead he scanned the fighting around him, not knowing what he was looking for, but knowing that he would recognize it when he saw it. After a few seconds, he had his answer.
A very familiar figure with long blond hair and glowing eyes stood less than a dozen feet away. As if he wasn't recognizable enough on his own, the soldiers actually stopped attacking him, clearing a circle around the two of them. Heero kept his guard up, not trusting that one of the soldiers at the edge of the circle wouldn't take the opportunity to stab him in the back.
"Zechs," he growled, feeling every muscle in his body tense in anticipation of battle. This was the one who'd hurt Duo, and he was going to pay.
"So, you're the assassin," he drawled in a low voice, a smile openly visible on his face as he studied Heero. "This body's memories of you are quite strong, almost as strong as the other one." His smile widened. "I'm surprised he's still alive. I would have thought that he would have cracked five minutes after the battle ended. You should have seen the look on his face when he saw those little creatures. Truly pathetic."
Heero's rage increased by a marked amount, but it didn't cause him to try to attack Zechs, or to lose control. Mistakes like that were for amateurs, he knew better. Instead, he studied his enemy for possible weaknesses.
There was a very strong mage shield covering him from head to toe, and as far as Heero could tell, he didn't have responsibility for any of the soldiers or shields on the battlefield, meaning that he could devote his full energy and attention to killing his enemy. However, he was also not really the enemy, the true enemy was in another world, and just controlling Zechs' body. That had to be an advantage, if he could figure out how to use it against him.
Suddenly, without changing expression at all, Zechs cast a mage-bolt at him. It moved as fast as a bolt of lightening, and it looked a lot like one, too, if the lightening bolt had been bright red instead of white. Heero grunted slightly as the bolt impacted against his shields, and the force of the blow forced him to take a step back before he dug his feet into the sand. Immediately he felt Duo's touch. :You all right? What happened?:
:Fine,: he grunted, and unleashed a flurry of mage-bolts back at Zechs. For once, he didn't bother to aim too carefully, and as the dozens of bolts of energy struck the ground around Zechs, he killed a dozen or so soldiers. None of the bolts penetrated the shield that Zechs had erected around himself.
Zechs raised one hand to the sky, and suddenly all of the soldiers around him scrambled backwards, obviously trying to get out of the way before they got caught up in whatever he was about to do. Since they were still being controlled by the demons, who had to know what Zechs' controller was doing, Heero took that as a bad sign, and reinforced his shields. Sure enough, seconds later, tiny flames began dancing in the air around his outstretched hand.
That was the only warning Heero got before fireballs began materializing in Zechs' hand and flying towards him with no visible effort on Zechs' part. Heero didn't waste energy deflecting them with his shield, he dropped the shield slightly, and smashed the first fireball away from him with his bare hand. He got a great deal of satisfaction out of seeing naked shock on the other man's face as he caught the next fireball and threw it back at him.
Apparently whatever was controlling Zechs was not a skilled enough mage to duplicate his feat, because he reinforced *his* shields as the fireball smashed into it, disintegrating on impact.
Heero gave him a tight-lipped smile as he glanced over his shoulders, striking at the weak point in the shield over the soldiers who were trying to sneak up on him from behind. About half of them dropped, the rest he set into with his sword, all the while keeping one eye on Zechs, who tried to sneak a few lightening-strikes in on him but otherwise tried no trickery. As the last of that group of soldiers died, he once again raised a hand, pointing at the sky.
Heero's eyes widened slightly as a black circle appeared in the air over him, one that rapidly grew in size until it was several feet across. Out of that hole suddenly leapt five of the demons, the brute killers that were the only one of the enemy that could survive the journey, mostly because they had no minds to speak of. Zechs smiled openly as he silently pointed at Heero.
Heero had only seen such creatures once before, on the edge of the faery forest, but he'd seen into Duo's nightmares more than one night. Duo didn't cry in his sleep, no more than he did when he was awake, but it was easy to tell when he had bad dreams, if you knew what signs to look for. Besides being mindlinked, he knew his lover very well, probably even better than Duo suspected. Ever since Thanatos had shown him what really happened to the faeries, those images had joined a number of others in his nightmares, ones that he had on a fairly regular basis.
These were the demons that had killed all of Wufei's family, too, and had chased him for days. Heero had seen some of what they'd done to Wufei, as well.
Heero's eyes narrowed slightly, and his fists clenched involuntarily. Duo had nightmares about these creatures, and although he'd never asked, he bet that Wufei did too. Now he got to destroy them.
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Trowa made sure to keep within range of sight with Quatre, although he was sure that the other mage would have protested that he didn't need protection. Well, just as Gael had told him before he even knew what he really was, they weren't allowed any illusions, and although he might have wished otherwise, while Quatre was quite competent as a fighter, he was also their weak point, and as such, should be protected. He knew that Quatre would probably be angry with him later, but that could be dealt with when they were out of danger. If they survived.
For now, however, Quatre seemed to be holding his own, so Trowa was free to dedicate most of his concentration on the battle going on around him. He was aware, without really knowing how, that Heero had finally caught up to Zechs and was currently engaged in something that resembled an ancient mage-duel, almost complete excluding the use of any common soldiers, just between the two of them. Both Wufei and Duo were fine. So he studied the patterns in the magic around him, searching for weaknesses.
He wasn't as good at this as Wufei or Duo or even Quatre, he was better off just stabbing with his power at what *felt* right than in trying to actually see the cracks in the shields. His power had always been more of an instinctive thing, anyway.
He'd discovered something right off, the shields that the demons were holding over the common soldiers kept him from being able to work magic against them directly, but did nothing to stop him from influencing them indirectly, either by affecting himself or their surroundings. Now in the midst of the battle, he found a few seconds to gaze, not at the soldiers, but at the ground beneath their feet.
A hint of a smile appeared on his face. As he'd suspected, there was a deep pocket of air far beneath their feet. He wasn't sure exactly what it was, if it had once been a building, or a cave, or some naturally-occurring phenomenon, but what mattered was that it was there, and there was nothing between it and the men but tons of sand and stone.
Then there came another vicious attack and all he could do was defend himself and keep and eye on Quatre for several minutes. Then there was another brief respite as a number of soldiers nearby dropped to the ground as a controller somewhere died, and he took advantage of it. He reached deep into the ground, and caused a slight shift, concentrating on the soldiers in front of him. There was a low rumble in the ground as the sheer weight of the earth resisted movement, but he was persistent, and suddenly the ground beneath the soldiers feet turned slippery, then soft, like quicksand. Only these sinkholes were being maintained solely because he willed them to, and there was one underneath each of the soldiers. They dropped silently into the earth, with sand pouring in to cover them. He dropped them down a dozen feet, pushing the extra sand into the air pocket he'd found, then left them there.
He came out of the half-trance he'd fallen into and found himself standing in the center of a fair-sized circle of unoccupied sand. Just outside the circle were a number of soldiers, eyeing him warily, and even more important, a wide-eyed mage.
Trowa's eyes narrowed slightly as he saw the mage. There was still plenty of room to move sand down there. He concentrated on the mage...
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Wufei kept his hands together on the hilt of the sword, holding it between him and the greatest concentration of the soldiers. He pointed the end of the sword at them, and a stream of fire shot out from the end, making a line on the ground. From that line sprouted a wall of fire, almost a foot thick at the bottom, and although it wasn't apparent to the eye, completely solid. Anything that tried to jump through or over it would be instantly caught and killed. He'd never told Duo that he knew this spell - he knew that Duo's family had been killed by such a spell. It was almost impossible not to, what with the way they still shared nightmares from time to time. The spell was one that he had inherited from his predecessor, and one of the few simpler ones that he hadn't taught the others, because he knew how Duo would react.
He'd bought himself a few seconds of rest, and took the time to survey the battlefield with magic-sensitive eyes.
Things were going well. He saw only a few bright concentrations of energy that represented the enemy mages. There were still a dozen or so of them back at the enemy camp, probably supporting those still in the field, but they were no immediate danger. He saw Heero fighting with one remarkably bright light... Zechs? It had to be. There were only two enemy mages with that kind of power, and the power felt sort of familiar. Since he'd spent more time with Zechs and was more familiar with his power, it made sense that that power was Zechs.
Wufei turned slightly, and his eyes widened as he saw a brilliant flare of power coming towards him. He'd already identified the one in the distance as Zechs, so that could only mean that Treize had finally been forced to enter the fray. He felt a sharp stab of triumph, but quickly controlled it. Treize would finally be vulnerable, but he was also the most powerful mage that the other side had, and he would be the most dangerous.
Wufei didn't think that any of the others had noticed Treize yet, and he was definitely closest, so he returned his full attention to the battlefield and began working his way over to the power source. It was easier than he'd expected, which immediately put him on guard. It had to be some sort of trap, that could be the only reason for the Oz soldiers to allow him so close to their commander without fighting harder.
A moment after the thought had occurred to him, he realized how stupid it was. Of course it was a trap, that was Treize's only hope for victory. Most of his mages were dead, and the ranks of the common soldiers had been decimated. The only hope they had of winning was to kill one of the five before their power could truly be united against the demons.
He wasn't the tactical genius that Quatre was, but he thought he had a pretty good idea as to why Treize had come after him. They all knew that Quatre was the weakest fighter among them, and because of that, they were all hyper-alert for any threat to him. The rest all had their various strengths and weaknesses, but of all of them, only Wufei was without a partner. Heero would know instantly if Duo had any difficulty, and the same was true in reverse. Trowa would also know if Quatre was in danger, and Quatre... well, of all of them, he was the most likely to notice if Wufei was in trouble, but it wasn't the same, nothing like the link that the others had.
For a moment Sally's face flashed in his mind, but he resolutely pushed it away. He needed to concentrate now, if he was going to survive. And survival in this battle meant death for Treize, and victory for them. There was no halfway here, just as Quatre had said, either they'd have victory or they'd be dead. Wufei opened himself to the others slightly, so that they'd know what was going on.
:You're in position to fight Treize?: Quatre asked shortly.
Wufei sent him a feeling of affirmation, and felt Quatre's concentration.
:Duo's the closest, and it'll take him some time to get to you. If you need any power, just call,: Quatre told him, and then he was alone again.
But not really. As the soldiers gave up all pretense of fighting and opened an aisle for him to walk through, Wufei could still feel the others, still see their powers as they fought on all sides of the fort, and Quatre's last words were with him. If he needed their help, they'd find a way to be there, and their powers were always there for his use, so that he wouldn't be overwhelmed. Holding his sword at the ready, alert for any sign that the soldiers around him were about to attack, he walked through the aisle.
Suddenly the aisle disappeared, and he found himself standing at the edge of a large circle of circles. In the center of the circle stood Treize.
He looked different than Wufei remembered him, thinner, with slight circles under his glowing eyes. But he radiated power that hadn't been there before, and nothing could conceal from Wufei the fact that all of that power was tainted in a way he was readily familiar with, after fighting the demons for so long.
The reminder of the demons and what they'd done to his Clan was enough to make him lower his stance slightly and reinforce his shields, waiting for whatever attack Treize used.
He didn't have to wait for long - a second later a bolt of lightening jumped from the end of Treize's sword to his own, where he tamed and then absorbed the energy. He responded with a lightening-strike of his own, which met with the same result.
For several minutes they exchanged mage-attacks, neither able to gain a clear advantage. Treize - the demon that was controlling Treize - became visibly frustrated, moreso with each failed attack, and finally he actually snarled at Wufei. Wufei was momentarily taken aback by seeing the cultured Treize Khushrenada snarling at him like some crazed animal, and then was suddenly struck by the fact that this was *not* Treize Khushrenada.
The demon in control of his body abruptly gave up on purely magic attacks, and rushed at him, brandishing a long heavy sword. The attack caught Wufei by surprise, and he instinctively raised his shields to block the blow. That reaction saved Wufei from a potentially deadly mistake, because as the sword cut into the shield and nearly passed through it, he realized that Treize had somehow invested a great deal of power into the steel. More importantly, he'd managed to do it in a way that hid the power from Wufei's eyes, making the sword look completely normal. If he'd tried to block the blow with his sword, it would have been cut in half, and he probably would have followed.
He quickly spelled his sword to match, and then dropped his shields to attack Treize. He might have been able to hold up his shields against Treize's attack for some time, but there was a great deal of power in the sword, and his shields would have collapsed eventually. Besides, just protecting himself would do nothing to help the others, and the shame... The demons were responsible for the slaughter of his entire Clan, and he finally had a chance to do something about it.
Whatever was controlling Treize's body was a good fighter, or maybe the demons were accessing his skills, but Wufei was hard-put to keep up with him and was unable to make any real headway. Suddenly he caught a glimpse of something in the shield that protected Treize from magical attack, that had protected him flawlessly so far. It was gone so fast that Wufei wasn't sure if he'd seen anything at all. But a few seconds later it was back, a slight flaw in the shield right over Treize's heart.
Wufei frowned slightly - what was going on? His eyes were drawn to Treize's, and he was astonished to see that the glow in them had dimmed slightly, and seemed to be flickering in and out. Could Treize be... was it possible to fight the possession? Wufei almost immediately dismissed that thought - his predecessor had never seen, never heard of such a thing, and the glow from Treize's eyes was steady again, causing him to question if he'd even seen anything. But there was still that flickering flaw in his shield, and Treize seemed distracted now, and was making a few sloppy mistakes. Wufei managed to get through his guard once or twice to strike at him. Although he never managed to hit the flaw, each time he struck the shield, the flaw became even brighter, as if it was trying to draw attention to itself.
He was on the offensive, now, and it was Treize who was struggling to keep up. Wufei drove him back towards the unresponsive troops, trying to keep his attention on both the troops and on Treize, but it was difficult, and he was beginning to tire...
Treize threw another lightening bolt at him. This time it caught him by surprise, and it almost got through the shield. He only prevented that by dropping the sword with one hand and raising that hand to block the bolt. Still the force of the impact drove him to his knees, badly out of position. Treize struck at him, and only his shield prevented Wufei from receiving a deep wound from the enhanced sword.
Wufei struggled to get his sword up to meet the threat as Treize raised his sword above his head, poised to strike. Suddenly, with the sword at the top of it's arc, straight above his head, he froze, for a fraction of an instant, and the flaw in his shield flared like a miniature sun.
He *is* fighting it. In that instant of hesitation Wufei recalled all of the reasons that he'd come to Oz in the first place, after he fled his homeland. He'd heard that the country had a great leader, a strong ruler, beloved by the people, just... the sort of man he hoped to be someday. And it was this man who somehow managed to do what no other had ever done, he fought the possession to gain control of his body, if only for a moment.
And that was enough, in that one moment of weakness, Wufei thrust upwards with his sword, funneled all the power he could managed through the weapon, and struck the flaw in the shield precisely. His sword passed easily through it and then through Treize's body.
Treize immediately stiffened and sagged against Wufei. He braced himself for the warm rush of blood over his hands, but none came. Instead, beams of light began to emerge from the wound around the sword, the sword that Wufei did not dare remove for fear that Treize would heal himself. Instead, he shielded himself and continued to funnel energy through the sword, as the amount of light coming out of Treize's body increased, finally forming a solid column of light that shot towards the sky, where it detonated, and a huge black circle appeared. Wufei imagined he could see a thousand glowing red eyes staring at them from the other side of the hole.
As the light left his body, Treize had convulsed, once, and now lay still. When the light left him, Wufei felt a sudden warmth on his hands, and saw the expected blood now did flow. Wufei left the faintly glowing sword in his chest. He had to die, or else the demons could return to his body.
Wufei's eyes traveled up to Treize's eyes, and noticed that they were pale blue again, and although filled with pain, there was no fear there. "I'm... sorry..." he managed to gasp out, then coughed, a froth of blood coming from his mouth.
"Thank you," Wufei said simply, bowing his head slightly to acknowledge the man's bravery, and the help he had given despite what had happened.
Treize's eyes fixed on him, a hint of a smile graced the corners of his mouth, and as he lay his head back down on the ground, he died.
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Quatre felt the surge of energy a moment before every soldier around him stumbled, then stopped, each rubbing their heads in confusion. He'd already seen the massive portal overhead, and he knew what that meant. :Link with me!: he shouted at the top of his lungs.
Instantly Trowa joined with him, quickly followed by Duo, Heero, and finally Wufei. The process took only a few seconds, making Quatre think that maybe all those painful hours of practice had been worth it, and then they were all joined.
:Good job, Wu-man!: Duo exulted in their mind(s).
For once Wufei didn't correct him, but merely grunted acknowledgement. Something was bothering him, and Quatre made a mental note to talk to him later, but now they had a job to do. :Everyone know what to do?: he asked, and felt their agreement. :Then lets do this!:
Quatre began to form the basis of the spell that would permanently bar the demons from their world. Their predecessors had never managed to kill the leader of the demon side in their time, just drove the majority of the demons away from the planet and then threw up the shield that shielded the world from invasion, but they had not closed the portal between the worlds, the rip in space that allowed the demons to pass through. That was what they now sought to do.
It took all five of them to perform this spell, which was why the demons had been trying to kill at least one of them for so long.
As the spell continued, with the others picking up their pieces and building on what he had begun, he started to lose his sense of individuality, as he got caught up in the purpose for which they'd been born, the massive amount of power that they were conjuring up, and the determination of the others. He thought he felt the others joining him, but it was almost impossible to tell in the rush of power that consumed him, consumed all of them. He could practically feel it dancing along his skin, roaring in his ears, dazzling his eyes...
Suddenly they reached the brink, the power was almost uncontainable, it was through their own discipline and determination that they'd held it so far, but it was about to get away from them, Quatre could feel, and he started to panic. If they lost control of what they'd built, now, they could destroy their world. It was getting too big, they were about to lose it...
Then a voice, he was never sure which of them it was, if any, said in an incredibly loud voice, :NOW.:
That was the trigger they'd all been waiting for, as one they all let the spell loose, and at once Quatre felt all of the energy rush out of him, and an exhaustion as deep as anything he'd ever felt before hit him, and he dropped out of the link as the others did, his physical form slumping to the ground. He felt the hot sand on the back of his neck as he stared upwards at the huge circle in the sky, the edges of which began to waver and shake, just before the circle began to collapse inward on itself.
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Heero was partially stunned as he dropped out of the link - he'd been in the process of fighting Zechs when Quatre called for the link, and had expended a lot of energy there before they cast that damn spell. He struggled to open his eyes, to sit up and check the situation around him, but his body refused to respond. He finally managed to get his eyes cracked open, and all he saw was a dim golden haze. A second later he became aware of someone crouching over him, and redoubled his efforts to sit up.
"Shhh, be still, you overextended yourself," said a familiar voice, although it took him a moment to place it. He hadn't heard that person speaking that way in a long time.
When he finally managed to place the voice, he actually did manage to sit up in alarm. "Zechs!" The golden haze had faded slightly, enough so that he could see the older man kneeling by his side, his hands spread and his face creased in concentration as he exerted himself to heal Heero. "What are you doing?" he demanded, stalling for time for him to recover enough to stand up.
"Healing you."
"Why?"
"I'm in control again," Zechs reminded him with a bitter smile. "The demon is gone, I'm not fighting you any more." There was a heavy load of guilt obvious in Zechs' voice, but Heero was still angry enough on Duo's behalf that he didn't say anything to try to ameliorate his guilt. It might not have been Zechs who'd said and done all those things to Duo, but Heero was discovering it was very, very difficult to keep the two separate.
Zechs' raised his eyes to look at the rapidly shrinking hole in the sky, and Heero sat up on his own, inwardly wincing at the amount of effort it took.
"You've done it," Zechs said quietly. "I... I apologize."
Heero glared at him out of the corner of his eye. He had a feeling that Zechs was not apologizing for what he had done while in the control of the demon. That would be stupid, to expect that he could assume responsibility for what had happened while the demon was in control. Zechs wasn't stupid. "For what?" Heero asked sharply.
"Doubting you," came the immediate answer. "When I saw you, I thought you were just children, I thought that somehow there'd been some horrible mistake, that you were going to end up getting us all killed. I was wrong, you were equal to your task and more. I apologize."
Heero grunted. Suddenly, he felt a stab of danger from above, and his head snapped up. The hole was almost closed, but it wasn't black anymore. Now it was an intense white, and just before the hole closed, the light emerged from the hole. It wasn't just light, it was a huge sphere of energy, raw power in it's most potent and dangerous form. And it was headed right for the fort.
In a second Heero knew what had happened. The demons, seeing what they were about to do, realizing that they were about to be denied access forever to that world, had responded by trying to destroy everything. They must have gathered as much energy as they could into one place, and flung that energy through the gate just before it closed. Heero stared at the ball, watching it grow larger as it got closer. It seemed to be moving very slowly, but that was because of the distances involved. It was actually moving quite quickly, and that would become readily apparent as it drew closer. They only had a few minutes to react.
Heero struggled to his feet, his eyes fixed on the ball overhead. He knew without checking that he was the only one in any kind of condition to meet the threat - the others had given just as much to the spell as he had, and they hadn't had anyone there to help them recover, as Zechs had helped him. He was the only one of them that could possibly do anything to stop the ball from utterly destroying their world. But he was hardly in peak condition himself.
If he'd been completely healthy, with all of the others' power behind him, he would have stood a good chance at surviving the impact. As it was... there was almost no chance that he would survive. But he if put himself between the ball and everything else, he might be able to absorb enough power that what remained wouldn't hurt anyone. He had to protect Duo.
Duo. Even as he gathered in the last remnants of his power and popped his wings out, preparing to fling himself into the sky, the thought made him freeze. Duo. He had to protect Duo, he had to make sure Duo survived, but he'd made a promise. He'd promised not to lose Duo. If he died in this attempt, Duo would blame himself. He'd think that he was to blame, that his getting close to Heero was the cause of his death. He'd never let himself get close to anyone else ever again.
That thought was physically painful. He didn't like the thought of Duo being with someone else, but he liked even less the thought of Duo spending the rest of his life alone. And he would, Heero knew that.
So he hesitated, plagued by indecision as he had never been before. He couldn't let Duo die, but he couldn't leave him, either.
Suddenly a force hit him from behind and he was flung to the ground. He rolled over, hand raised defensively... and saw Zechs standing over him, a light golden aura around him as *he* started to draw in his power. "Sorry, Heero," he said, not sounding at all apologetic. "You've done enough, it's my turn. Perhaps I can somehow atone for what I did in the last months." He turned to look up at the ball. "Please convey my apologies to my sister, it looks like she's going to have to keep the throne." And with that, he leapt into the air. He had no wings, so he propelled himself up by power alone.
"Zechs!" Heero shouted, furious for no good reason he could think of. But it was completely beyond him to even catch Zechs, much less stop him.
:Heero!: Duo's voice seemed very soft and distant, although Heero knew he was only a few hundred feet away, just out of eyesight around the corner of the fort. :Heero, what's going on?! Heero!: he was beginning to sound panicked.
:I'm here.:
:Heero! Are you all right? What's going on?:
:Zechs is going to try to stop it,: Heero told him, his eyes fixed on the small black dot that was Zechs as he raced to meet the energy ball. It wouldn't be long now.
:Zechs?!: Duo's voice was tinged with horror, disbelief, and deep back where Heero could barely feel it, a little fear.
:Will he be able to do it?: Quatre asked. His voice, too, was almost a whisper, a sign of how much they'd been drained.
Suddenly Zechs' black spot became incandescent white, the same color as the ball he raced to meet, and a moment later, the two lights met each other, and then Heero threw up his arm in a futile attempt to shield his eyes from the blinding light that bathed him from several different planes.
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Duo blinked furiously, rubbing at his eyes with his knuckles, trying to restore his vision. Even blinded as he was, he stumbled forward, weaving his way through the ranks of confused, stunned, and dead Oz soldiers. Tired as he was, it took him several minutes to reach his destination, although he probably could have covered the distance in less than a minute at his regular strength.
It was obvious that whatever Zechs had done, it had worked. The world hadn't ended, although for a few minutes as they were assaulted by the bright light from the explosion that seared his normal eyes and scorched his mage-senses, the backlash reaction he'd felt had made him wish it was. Zechs had not survived the incident, and Duo couldn't bring himself to feel sorry, at least, not yet. For now, he felt safer, and he was alive. So was Heero, he could feel him, but Heero had barely been able to speak to him before the explosion, and Duo had felt much better before that, so it wasn't really surprising that Heero wasn't responding to his calls now. Duo could still feel him, though, and he was alive. Duo hadn't managed to get him killed.
A second later he saw Heero, on his hands and knees, obviously struggling to stand up. His head snapped up when he saw Duo, however, and Duo felt Heero's eyes boring into him, and he grinned in relief.
"Heero!" he cried, and threw himself at his lover, knocking him back to the ground with his enthusiasm. "Are you all right?"
"I'm fine," Heero said through gritted teeth, and it was obvious he was trying not to grimace in pain.
"Heero..." Duo regarded him seriously. "You were thinking about trying to stop that thing by yourself, weren't you?" he accused.
"I was going to," Heero admitted.
"What?!" Duo screeched, not caring if he sounded like an old fishwife. "Heero, how could you..."
"I couldn't," Heero cut him off. "I... I couldn't. I wanted to, I needed to protect you, but I couldn't do it. I hesitated, and Zechs took my place."
"You couldn't?" Duo repeated. "Why not?"
"Because I promised you I'd stay with you," Heero said seriously. "I didn't want to leave you. I couldn't leave you."
Duo's eyes pricked with tears, but he automatically forced them away. "You wanted... to stay with me?"
Heero nodded. "It's because of you that I'm alive. If it wasn't for you, I would have just thrown myself at that thing. Zechs never would have been able to stop me, and I would have died. I'm alive because of you."
Duo stared at him. "Heero..." he whispered. "That... that may be the nicest thing anyone's ever said to me."
Heero's lips twitched upwards once. "I love you."
Duo smiled. "That was even better."
That part with Treize was very difficult to write. I like Treize. I hope that it didn't end up too corny or anything. The last section, the epilogue, will be out in a few days, I think, so there's no need to make any more threats.
Marika 9/1/01