Interference
by zapenstap
"You have to tell him, Mandred," Immile said gently but with conviction. It was obvious and they both knew it, but she knew Mandred would study it thoroughly before taking any course of action. Methodical, she liked to call it, and was becoming tremendously fond of his considerate mind, but she could not tell him so.
"I know," he said, blinking in the light of the dying fire as if arousing from a dream. "And I have long since been finished with my business here. Save Heero, there is no reason for me to stay and every reason to return to Elneira. The Crystal Throne will certainly have need for me."
"That it will," Immilie approved. "And so do I."
He looked at her consideringly over his fists. "How long, Immilie?" he said quietly, and spoke to her in their native language, formally and with expression. She had not heard it since she came here, and lowered her eyes as the sound washed over her head. "I have waited a long time."
His face was solemn as a stone, but there was depth in his eyes as he looked at her, and she knew he loved her and would not, could not stop. And she did not want him to, but she feared it all the same. He had lived long and traveled far, had gained great renown with deeds done and counsel given. Even before Kings and Emperors his service was not rendered lightly, and everyone at home knew his name. In his sight, she still felt like a child, but it was her ill fate to fall in love with a legend. When he said he waited a long time, he did not mean the time between their first meeting, his proposal and her delay, but the time he had lived alone, searching the world fruitlessly for a woman to love since his first perished so tragically in the Prism Wars so many ages ago. That he had chosen Immilie was an unexpected, unlooked for thing, but passionately returned. Yet it was not a step she could take lightly. No Alfarian marriages ever were, but her case was particularly unique.
"I know you," she returned in the same language, with as much passion as she possessed. "I doubt not your intentions, nor your love, and I trust you with my life and my heart, but it changes nothing."
He shook his head slowly and pressed his forehead against his head. "Then I will wait longer," he said. "I will wait until the sun dies and everything young grows old, as you seem to think is necessary. But you do not need to be old, Immilie, for I could not love you more. And though you possess the joy and lightness of youth, you do not seem fresh and untried to me. My heart beats as steadily as yours and I do not walk in a different plane than even children of mortal races. I have experienced much, but nothing new have I seen in all my wanderings that you have not, because there is nothing new. Old things just grow more familiar, but I have no one to share them with, and I no longer wish to wander alone."
And then Immilie was silent, choked from speaking, for though her heart yearned that she might yield on the minute, his seriousness frightened her.
There came an urgent knock at the door.
Immilie straightened and crossed the hall to answer it, unsure whether she felt relief or annoyance at this interruption, for her mind was busy with Mandred's words, yet she felt she needed time to reconcile herself.
She opened the door and started in surprise to see the Preventors Wufei Chang and Sally Po standing armed and grave-faced on her doorstep.
"Please come in," she said at once, opening the door wide and stepping back. "I did not know you knew my address."
"We looked it up," Wufei said, entering. "We went to Mandred's place first, but he was not there, so we came here."
She wasted no more words. There was a sense of urgency in their eyes. "Mandred is in the living room. What has happened?"
But Mandred came into the hall on his own accord, and his expression reflected the gravity in Wufei's eyes. "Teleb has made himself known, has he?" Mandred guessed. "What happened and how long ago?"
"Your... acquaintance," Wufei spat, "entered the Cinq Kingdom at eleven hundred hours and kidnapped princess Vice Foreign Minister Darilan. But he came looking for you."
Mandred left his coat hanging on the peg on the wall and walked past Wufei outside. "Oh, I doubt we really wanted to find me."
"We have come to put you under house arrest," Sally said, crossing her arms. "We do not understand the conflict between you and this man, but it has put a dignitary in harm's way, and for that we need to ask you some questions before we can put this aright."
"You can not put this aright," Mandred said dismissively. "I hope rather that you have not acted on this situation. Teleb is more worthy a foe than you have calculated. I must deal with him myself."
"This is not a matter for negotiation," Wufei protested. "We have a warrant to arrest you."
"Mandred exists outside your laws," Immilie informed them steadily. "But he has sworn to abide by them while he remains here. You do not know what you propose by this thing. Lives will be lost because of it, lives very dear to you."
Wufei and Sally stared at her in confusion and amazement.
"And isn't it Relena Darilan's safety that you should be primarily concerned with?" Mandred added.
"Oh, Heero will rescue her," Sally said confidently. "Wufei already talked to your Kyra Anderman and she said Heero had a plan. There is no one I trust to complete a mission like Heero, especially if it involves Relena."
Mandred's head snapped up and his eyes blazed. He swore vehemently in the Ancient Language.
"Kyra wouldn't go after Teleb prematurely," Immilie said hurriedly but soothingly to Mandred, ignoring the Preventors. "Not even with Falora to aid her! She is no rookie."
"Teleb would give them no time to wait," Mandred refuted with a degree of agitation. "I wondered why he took the girl, a stranger to me, but not to Heero. If he means to use him to make the transaction and thereby completely avoid confrontation with me, then I have lingered here too long. Even Kyra can not make a plan capable of capturing Teleb, not even with Falora Eredes and a hundred crystals!"
Immilie could sense Mandred's anxiety, could see it in his face. Mandred was never anxious, but fury stormed in him now. "Then go to them," she urged.
"Evacuate the north sector colony," Mandred told her, his eyes blazing. "If Teleb aquires the crystals, he will be a powerful foe, and I may have little time to deal with him and yet save the others."
"Time? If anything happens to that boy, you will be too enraged to limit your assault," Immilie said in some fear. "I will do as you bid me."
"Thank you," Mandred said.
"What are you talking about?" Wufei demanded. "This has happened before. Heero can handle one man."
"No," Immilie disagreed, watching Mandred stride away to a place where he could make a Portal unseen by human eyes. "This has never happened here. Nor should it ever again. Do you have resources? Everyone who wants to live will be wise to evacuate the north side of the colony. Mandred has not promised to be careful, and it has been many years since he was last this angry."
"Evacuate?" Sally said in astonishment. "What for?"
But Immilie did not explain. "Just do it," she said. "I will aid you."
It was at that moment that Immilie felt the call, a low whistle humming in her blood. Mandred was not yet out of the sight of Wufei and Sally, but he wasted no more time hiding from them. Heero was in a desperate situation. Immilie knew the frequency Mandred had used in furnishing his alarm, in the unlikely case that she would have to aid Heero in Mandred's stead, and felt it clearly. She knew instantly Heero's location, far away on the opposite side of the colony where Teleb's force would not be detected without conscious effort. But she knew more than that, and gasped in fear and shock. The alarm was a peculiar device, one of Ranlath's contraptions, and communicated the emotional state of the user even as it signaled the maker. She felt Teleb's magic now, but more horrifying, she felt the pain and anguish of Mandred's boy. The color drained from Mandred's face.
"I may be too late," he said breathlessly, and whatever fury burned in him before grew suddenly white hot. The white aura of Alfaria sprang up around him, blazing in the daylight, mixing with the rays of a sun. A Portal opened before him without ceremony and he stepped through.
Wufei and Sally stood stock still in utter astonishment as the Portal vanished. "What the hell?" Wufei said, eyes wide.
But Immilie had no time for them. Even as they turned to confront her, she seized Alfaria herself, letting the sweat strains of power flood through her like a raging river, and made her own Portal. "Empty the North Sector," she said coolly, "you will not remember this clearly" and stepped through.
*****
Teleb's heavy boots walked over Relena's body, stepping on her hair, which crunched and crackled as if stiff and brittle. Some of it broke off. Heero raised his face has Teleb passed, but the Renegade Alfarian took no notice of him and passed the space between Relena and Falora without turning his head.
Heero scrambled to Relena's side and touched her arm gently, turning her face toward him. He gasped and put a hand to his mouth in revulsion, forcing down nausea. Her features were unchanged, but her skin was bloated and crisp, singed as if from fire, scalded as if from hot water, red and burnt yellow. Her eyes were shut, seemingly welded shut, but he wondered if she still had eyes at all. Sucking in gulps of air, chest heaving, he placed two fingers beneath her chin to feel for the pulse of life. He almost wished she was dead.
"Heero," a tattered word tore suddenly from her throat at his touch, and he recoiled, aghast that she could still be conscious. Her hands twitched feebly. "I am blind."
"I'm here," he said, moving closer, lightly lifting her head and cradling her.
"Was I brave?" she whispered. "Am I strong like you?" A small smile appeared on her face. "I am not afraid. I do not think I shall ever be afraid again."
"Relena, don't speak."
"But I may never get the chance again. I know I've been a burden to you. Can you forgive me?"
"Shinigami," * a voice said suddenly, and Heero and looked at Duo without expression. He had regained consciousness and was staring at Relena's maimed figure in astonishment and horror. "What happened to her?"
"Damn you, Teleb!" Kyra roared from behind both of them. "Leave her alone. You've won! Let us be!"
Heero turned his head to see Kyra kneeling before Falora, her features twisted in a grotesque expression. Teleb stood threateningly over both of them, still surrounded by a steady white nimbus. Heero could see Falora's face. Her cheeks were flushed with color again, her wounds healed, and her eyes were open. Ignoring Teleb, she was looking his way, at Relena. Heero didn't care. It was too late.
Relena whimpered and Heero turned back to her, forgetting the others. "No," Relena moaned pitifully, straining against something invisible. "Enough," she whimpered, and then she fell completely silent.
Heero stared at her without comprehension. "Relena?" he said, and brushed a finger across her face, calloused and crisp like paper though it was. "Relena?" he said a little more desperately, his voice hoarse. "Relena!" She seemed surrounded in a halo of gold, like the last flush of death before all went gray.
He laid her gently down and trembled. The mission... The mission... Damn the mission; Relena was gone and he had not been able to save her. What would Mandred say? "This is not my fault," he said with a choke, but the pain was intolerable. He brushed Relena's hair from her face, trying to remember what it used to look like every time he had seen it, but the new and terrible face burned before his eyes and sunk itself in his memory. He tried to remember when she was fair and valiant, proud and gentle, but all he could see was her corpse, hot before the heat faded and her blood turned stale. She should be angelic in death. "You didn't deserve this," he cried regretfully.
The most terrifying thing I ever experienced was my only brother in a fight to the death with my only love. If I survived that, this is nothing.
This was his fault. She loved him. She did this to save him. His heart turned into stone and plunged into blackness. Coldness consumed him, a vast and immeasurable chill like the depth of winter where no spring ever came. All extraneous thoughts vanished from his mind as if he were using the Zero System and he stood slowly, straightening to his full height.
"Heero?" Duo said in wonder. "Heero, get a hold of yourself. What are you going to do?" But he scrambled to his feet.
"No more," Heero said in the tones he used to use long ago. "If death is what this mission has bought, than it will swiftly come for all of us, but Teleb will not escape."
Duo nodded and they turned toward Teleb together. "Leave Falora alone, Teleb," he said grimly. Falora's eyes were glassy again. She looked as if she were barely hanging on, and concentrating to remain conscious.
"Were you not content with your lot?" Teleb said in wonder, turning without hurry, and there was poison and mockery in his voice. "You all wish to share the fate of the princess?"
Heero's heart burned.
"You always did enjoy torturing women," Kyra said with something like the clash of metal in her voice. "I think that's sick."
"I'm the God of Death," Duo said simply and grimly. He sounded it. "And I say 'never give a gift you wouldn't buy for yourself.' " And then he laughed eerily, without humor.
"I'll destroy you," Heero said with the blackest of thoughts. Darkness clouded his vision.
"Very well," Teleb said and his eyes blazed with green fire. "I was merciful, but I see my mercy has been spurned. Burn and die slow! Even as she did!" Teleb flung an arm to the front and a fireball leapt from his hand, growing in heat and ferocity as it cut through the air toward them.
Heero stood motionless, dead in heart and eye. Let it come, he thought. I am not afraid.
Abruptly, a Portal opened in the path of fireball, a perfect oval materializing all at once. The fireball was swallowed by the light and disappeared within it. Something exploded.
Heero snapped out of his zombie state as he and Duo were flung backward from the force of the explosion. Twisting to one knee, he raised an arm to cover his eyes and stared out beneath it. A great wind picked up, issuing out from the Portal and gusting around the walls and out the double doors. Heero's hair whipped about his face as he strained to see in the effulgent light emitting from the Portal.
The first thing he saw was Teleb's eyes widen in wonder and change to fright. The next was Mandred, stepping though a Portal of azure blue, wreathed in orange flame. At first, Heero quailed, fearing that Teleb had caught Mandred in his blast and set him ablaze, but then he realized differently. The flames did not touch Mandred; they encircled him in the manner of Teleb's white aura, only crackling with heat and smoking, yet burning away from his skin.
"Is this yours?" Mandred said in tones deeper and darker than Heero had ever heard from anybody and never expected from his guardian. In the glare of the fire he could see Mandred's eyes, boring into Teleb's face like hot pokers, the whites gleaming in the light. His face was as grim as death. And fire still blazed about him.
Teleb said nothing. He cursed in his own tongue, turned, and fled. Mandred did not move, but the fire surrounding him suddenly gathered in one place before his chest and shot away like fireworks. Teleb eluded the blast and vanished out the doors. Even without the fiery wreath, Mandred still glowed bright white, brighter than Teleb had, yet he seemed unaware of it.
"About bloody time!" Kyra snapped angrily.
"Hurry, Mandred," Falora gasped, still lying on the ground unmoving. "I am not going to be able to hold this much longer."
Mandred's eyes swept over Kyra and Falora and turned straight away to
Heero and Duo. His gaze lingered on Heero briefly, but were then
drawn to Relena's tortured body. A vein bulged in his jaw line as
his teeth clenched. "This is highly compromising," he hissed to himself.
"This will not take long, Falora," he said, and swept out of the room.
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