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A GW fan fic: Tevel(Dearly Beloved) - Part Seven
By Stargem
Author's notes: It's done! Oh my God, it's done! @.@ Epilogue to follow once I have time. Bloody annoying how the muses always ambush when there are assignment deadlines to face.
Thanks for the speedy beta, Melanie!
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"So," Wufei said levelly.
The noblemen regarded the three unlikely companions, still not quite believing of their tale. It had taken them the better part of the night to recount everything, including what little they would volunteer about their past. Trowa did not speak at all. Duo wriggled around in his seat, unable to keep still while Heero rested a hand on Wing's feathered head. The Gryphon was not allowed inside the inn – only its head was small enough to fit through the window. The innkeeper being wise and very much in touch with the basic survival instincts, had not complained about the set-up. The Gryphon's wings made a brisk wind with each steady beat, keeping itself airborne.
"You still do not know the stronghold of your opponent."
Duo shrugged and smirked. "It should be easy enough to find. For me anyway. I was gonna slip out a little later after everyone had bedded down. Looks like we're all disinclining the Sandman's charms tonight, though."
Wufei frowned. "You say that this Sze is a... fairy. One with powerful magics."
Correctly reading his doubts, Duo said cheerfully, "No one better at hiding than a thief. And I'm the best there is."
"Of course," Wufei said drily, noting the faintest suggestion of a smirk on Heero's face.
Duo exploded out of his chair in a peculiarly childish huff. "I am *so* the best thief there is!"
"Prove it," Wufei said, feeling oddly pleased at having annoyed him. He blinked as Duo stomped over, kicked him in the ankle and was on the other side of the room in a flash. He gritted his teeth as his mind caught up and activated the appropriate pain signals.
"Ten pieces of gold, the ancient blade of Chang, and a ribbon," Duo said. "You don't carry much in the way of valuables."
Wufei was mildly puzzled until Duo held up the items he had named. Then, the nobleman grabbed at the places where his missing possessions used to be and cursed.
Humour restored, Duo grinned and handed them back. "You know you look better with your hair down."
"Shut up, Maxwell." Wufei gathered his hair and tied it back up, feeling very foolish. It was more comfortable to change that into belligerence. "Even if you are what you claim, how can the best thief in the world know where a fairy lives?"
"Because, Master Chang, I happen to be half-fae."
Two sets of eyes blinked. Eventually, Heero broke the silence. "Hn."
"I expected more of a reaction," Duo muttered, looking somewhat cheated. "Might have worked better if I said I was the Fairy Thief."
Wufei was prompted immediately to retort, "You are not."
Violet eyes swung back to him, amused. "No? Why not? I'm a thief, the best there is and I have the requisite fairy blood running through my veins."
"Because, because..." the nobleman trailed off lamely. He rallied with an effort. "You lied."
Duo's eyebrows lifted. "Oho?"
"You said you would give me information on... him."
"Didn't. Just said that I show up wherever I want and show myself to whoever I want."
"This is pointless," Heero said.
"Thank you so very much, Heero," Duo said sweetly, deliberately misinterpreting his interruption.
Wufei was not ready to give up the previous thread of conversation. "I should arrest you."
"You could *try*," Duo said. "But *after* we break out Quatre."
"Why do you care so much for them?" Heero asked him as he looked over at Trowa, obviously having spent considerable time pondering the question.
Duo spun around, his back to the others. "Because a love like theirs deserves all the help it can get." He shrugged his shoulders, much as a dog would coming out of the rain and clapped his hands together. "At any rate, you should all get some rest. I'm going to go find Sze's castle. I'll be back after dawn."
Without waiting for a reply, the half-fairy left the room.
***
The Fairy Thief returned after dawn and quietly roused his companions. They left the inn in silence, leaving money on the table in the rooms they had rented and followed the half-fairy as he led them towards the castle. It must have happened that way, but Trowa could not be very sure. His memory yawned wide with strange gaps here and there, keeping him ever so slightly separate from the actual world. He heard things, saw things and remembered them vaguely. He was climbing; following the bob of Wufei's ponytail; riding astride Wing with Heero's periodic instructions to correct his posture.
It kept his mind from edging towards the memory of sunlight glinting of blonde hair, laughter and blue eyes and a gentle, smiling mouth. He concentrated. They had arrived at the gates of an impressive castle, the bars carved from solid black rock. A familiar figure dropped from the top of the gates and hissed at them in challenge.
Duo stepped forward, gesturing violently for the rest to stay back; this would be his fight. Mew ignored the customary posturing before battle and went directly for his throat. The half-fairy darted to one side and flung what appeared to be grey mist at her. Unable to correct her momentum, the feline barrelled straight into the tangling enchanted nets. For a minute, she was immobilised.
"*Go*!" Duo roared.
Mew ripped through the silken nets, shrieking in rage and threw herself on the half-fairy. They tore at each other like maddened alley cats even as Heero and Wufei caught hold of both of Trowa's arms and dragged him inside the castle. The various guardians set to protect the paths were swiftly dispatched by the warriors and Heero's Wing. Trowa knew himself to be a burden every time he cared to notice Wufei's tightened mouth or Heero's deeper silences. But they were both professionals, and they had accepted the mission.
Time blurred. At one point, Trowa found himself shifted into his favoured leonine form, tearing out the guts of an unfortunate creature. Heero and Wufei were nowhere to be found. He looked around, surprised to find himself in a high-domed crystal throneroom.
The mist was torn away from his eyes and mind as he saw the crumpled figure curled in on itself on the polished marble floor. Unbidden, his strides lengthened to close the distance, his knees suddenly meeting with the shock of the cold, hard floor and his arms reaching out in yearning.
"Quatre? Quatre?!" Trowa lifted the unconscious healer-mage's body, struck by useless fury and helplessness. Quatre looked too frail, too insubstantial – it was as though he was poised on the brink of what passed for death for his kind. "Wake up," he whispered.
The moment slowed, stilled, crystallised: Trowa was unaware of anything except this beautiful, bruised creature in his arms, not the passage of time, nor sound or cessation of it. Imperceptibly, Quatre's chest lifted as air drew into his lungs with a sigh and he opened his eyes. They stared at each other, penetrating barriers of time, space, distance, and knew. Quatre smiled sweetly, and lifted his hand to Trowa's cheek as he had done so many times in so many other lifetimes. It burned without heat, and Trowa felt tears collecting in his eyes. He did not close them, for fear of losing this vision of his love, the truth of it resonating within him in bittersweet joy.
"So," a silken voice said.
Quatre vanished. An impossibly heavy compulsion dropped on Trowa's mind, wrapping its beguiling tentacles around his limbs as a puppeteer would jerk his puppet's strings. He dropped flat onto the floor without a sound, struggling viciously against it.
"Did you enjoy your last moments with my new, sweet little pet?"
His head was raised almost delicately and slammed down again. Trowa could not answer. The compulsion demanded his silence. Multi-coloured stars swayed hazily against a thin film of red that settled over his eyes. He felt his head being rammed into the floor again. Something was resting on his neck. Somewhere within him, something screamed.
"Your pain is exquisite," the voice went on dreamily. "I can see how it could make you beautiful." Slam. The voice hardened. "But you cannot match me." Slam. Slam. "Pathetic human."
Sze kicked him onto his back and placed her foot on his throat. Her sneer robbed her of any ethereal beauty she might have possessed. He stared at her, unable to do more than hate. She hissed at him.
"You have no right to look upon me," she snapped, jerking an arm forward.
A magical wind picked up Trowa's inert form and hurled it with bone-cracking force against the far wall. He slid down into a heap, dazed. Through the ringing in his ears, he heard her coming, her dainty little shoes making the tiniest of rustling noises that were strangely magnified in the hollow echoes of his mind.
"He is mine," Sze said. "I will break him, sap his power and harness his beauty and build him up again into a pretty little toy. His love for you is no protection. It is weak. It is... *mortal*."
He tried to turn his face to her as she spat the last word like a curse, driven by a cold, quiet little voice.
"And then," he could see her smile, "he will die. As you will."
He will die.
//"...It's not forever..."
"...I'll find you again..."
"...I love you..."//
He will die. As you will.
Trowa felt something inside him break.
Sze watched as the human struggled, forcing his trembling limbs to straighten and bear his weight, trying to find his feet. He stayed awkwardly on his knees in front of her, his head bowed. She smiled. She had won. She always did. Then, she made the mistake of looking into his eyes. They were cold, cold, cold – chips of emerald ice that burned into her. Honed and sharpened to a thin diamond blade from years of abuse, from forgotten memories of being forced to leave something, someone that he *loved* again and again; his rage rose up from depths he never knew existed and gave new strength to his lead-laden limbs. Trowa stood up.
"Impossible!" The blood drained from Sze's face as she stepped back.
"Trowa!"
The enraged roar of a Gryphon pierced the air, climbing up to the highest notes that pressed down on the ears as physical pain. The walls shattered, shards of glittering crystal exploding inward as a dark, shadowy shape glided swiftly through the wreckage. It was a Gryphon; sleek, black and deadly, with eyes that glimmered like blue frost. Distantly, Trowa felt his mind wondering why he kept picturing white feathers. Another Gryphon swept in, this one pure white and familiar, bearing Heero on its back.
"Duo!"
Trowa blinked, the sweat pouring from his forehead getting into his eyes. Heero's alarmed cry made him focus briefly on the shadowy nightmare that was growling at Sze, finding the tiny figure perched on its neck after a moment. Duo's manic smile had a hard edge, and his eyes glinted much in the same way as his mount. Wufei ran in, his red-stained sword held at the ready. Trowa almost nodded as the whispering voice that was powering his movements spoke. Yes. This was how it was supposed to be. He was in motion before he realised it – time was passing in a dream – snatching Wufei's sword and ignoring his startled, furious outcry. Heero jumping off Wing. Duo and the strange Gryphon whirling on him. He barely felt the heat of the Gryphon's breath on him as he darted lightly under it.
Sze's eyes. Her mouth gaping in a scream. The sword, buried hilt-deep in her heart, its deadly song of metal curiously triumphant. Sound returned: he heard the echoes of the fairy's death even as her body exploded into glowing motes that quickly faded to deadened coal and dust.
Trowa stared down at the last traces of his nemesis, dispassionate. The castle was screaming, he realised. It knew its mistress had died. And far away, he heard Mew shrieking.
"Trowa! *Trowa*!" A hand landed on his shoulder and spun him around. It was Duo. "Oi, the castle's falling down around our ears! We gotta move!"
"Quatre," he said. He could not leave yet.
"He's not here!" Duo's eyes still held a hint of that unsettling blue glow, but did not appear to have changed very much. "Do you know where he is?"
//"...I'll find you..."//
"Yes," he said.
Trowa ran, guided by the gentle whispers in his mind, past the crumbling walls and broken statues, past the fountains and waving plants and confused creatures blinking in the dawn of their new freedom. He did not heed his allies' calls, not particularly caring if they could keep up. He found Quatre asleep in one of the enchanted bedrooms tucked in the recesses of the castle. Trowa approached slowly, crawling onto the silken sheets and placing his cheek to Quatre's as he fitted the curve of his body to his love's.
"I'm here," he said, the tears finally beginning to fall. "I've come for you. I love you."
~ End Part Seven
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(© March 2002 by Stargem)
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