Disclaimer: The fic is the only thing that's mine; characters aren't, unfortunately. All rights to these amazing ANIMEs belong to Clamp, Kodansha, Sunrise, Bandai, Sotsu Agency, yadda yadda yadda, so don't waste your time suing me! Your 'corporate bogeyman' won't get anything valuable from me, anyway, except for a bunch of lousy college grades, some leftover cookie crumbs, a Pentel point 5 standard ball pen, and some crumpled research papers.

Author's Notes: I just came back from the Net cafe after uploading Chapter Thirteen, and decided to start right away with Chapter Fourteen. I feel that I owe you guys after having to make you wait for two whole weeks! Now, this is a little short, since I find it VERY difficult to write battle scenes. Gomen about that.

DESTINY by rei-chan

Chapter Fourteen: The Final Battle with the Tzes

Heero Yuy slowly lowered his sword as his eyes grew blank. "The Tzes." He murmured softly, taking in the Oriental garments the two men were wearing as Duo struggled to break free from the ropes binding him. Beside the Wing pilot, Syaoran's green aura was radiating fury as he visibly trembled with rage.

"You killed my father." the amber-eyed boy said softly, addressing the younger of the two men, Tze Kang Peng, as the air surrounding him grew cold. "You killed OUR father."

Kang Peng laughed harshly, brandishing a gray ofuda in the air as the wind suddenly picked up speed. "You're damn right I did!" he shouted proudly, onyx eyes glistening maniacally. "You can't imagine the honor I received after coming home with Yui Ran's blood staining my robes. Such a huge celebration for the death of the most foolish leader of your clan!"

"Shut up." Heero spoke in an unnaturally calm voice, his whole body trembling with barely suppressed fury. His almost-friendly demeanor a while ago vanished in an instant, leaving behind a completely focused and very angry Soldier. Heero's right hand was twitching, as if squeezing the trigger of a gun. "It's best to keep your mouth shut before I kill you." he snarled.

"My, my, so like your father you are," Hao Shu sneered spitefully. "Arrogant, until his painful death by my son's hand."

"Our father was not arrogant!" Syaoran shouted hoarsely. He dropped to a fighting position. "I think you should heed my brother." his eyes glittered with fury. "Shut up and fight."

Kang Peng laughed and inclined his head, mocking the two very angry Lis. "Our pleasure. Father?" He turned towards his sire, who nodded. In perfect synchrony, the two Tzes backflipped and landed on the branches of a tree.

"Halt." Without warning, Eriol suddenly appeared in between the two warring parties, his unsurpassable power vibrating in the air . He looked meaningfully at his two descendants. "It is all up to you now. Good luck, and may the Power of Clow guide you." (1) With that, he and Sakura flew up into the air, joined immediately by their respective Guardians. Eriol uttered a few incantations and a huge, grayish dome appeared, protecting the spectators from the battle that will commence.

Nodding his head slightly at the four, he murmured. "You may begin."

A jet of lightning was issued by Kang Peng. Heero grabbed Syaoran's arm and pulled him down just in time, the sparks barely missing the younger boy's hair. Baring his teeth, Syaoran pulled out an ofuda and threw it in the air. "Raite Shourai!" he yelled, raising his sword in a huge arc and thrusting the blade across the ofuda's surface. Instantly lightning flew from his ofuda at the Tzes, who jumped away and rolled across the ground, laughing insanely. Heero ran over to them and immediately engaged Hao Shu in a fight, while Syaoran hurried over to Kang Peng.

The Perfect Soldier was beyond himself with anger. Calling on his power, he threw a brown ofuda on the ground and stabbed it with his sword. "Kashin Shourai!" A blazing line of fire appeared from the tip of his sword and sizzled over to the older Tze, who in turn raised one of his own gray ofudas in the air and slapped it hard on the ground, shouting, "Power of Wind, come forth!"

A huge, whirling tornado appeared from Hao Shu's ofuda and began moving towards Heero's direction in an alarming speed. Using his Perfect Soldier agility, Heero performed several backflips that Trowa had kindly taught him not three months ago and moved away from the line of destruction. Closing his eyes, he focused on the swirling white light that was his magic and summoned it forward in his hands. "Suirou Shourai!"(2) As the strong force of water spurted towards the swirling tornado, Heero threw another ofuda in the air. "Raite Shourai!"

The two Elements joined together to attack Hao Shu's tornado. Heero's whole body was trembling with exhaustion at the huge amount of magic he was spending, but he held on tight and concentrated, the fingers gripping the hilt of his sword white with strain as he tried to destroy Tze Hao Shu's tornado.

Meanwhile, Syaoran was struggling with all his might against the swifter and stronger Kang Peng. While his father was the one who could control the element of the Wind, Kang Peng was the one who had power over the Earth. It almost took all of the amber-eyed boy's energy just to keep up the protective shield he had raised as Kang Peng pelted him with various stones. The Chinese man held up his arms over his head and shouted out several incantations. The ground shook, and a moment later, it split into two, the jagged center directly under Syaoran. Yelling, the amber-eyed boy clenched his jaw and called upon his magic, and he levitated over the giant crack. Raising an ofuda in front of his face, Syaoran muttered a few Words of Magic to himself, before throwing it into the air, "Raite Shourai!" he shouted loudly. Lightning issued from his ofuda and headed straight at Kang Peng, who was not able to duck in time. With a startled cry, the younger Tze fell to the ground.

Heero saw a bleeding Kang Peng drop to the ground as he struggled against the Binding Magic Hao Shu had on him. He heard the Chinese man swear loudly in cantonese and Heero turned to see what he was going to do. He watched with growing panic as Hao Shu narrowed his eyes at the panting Syaoran and shot Fire at his brother. He tried to scream, but found him unable to open his mouth. He watched in horror as Syaoran struggled to break free from the fiery bonds wrapped tightly around his body as Kang Peng rose unsteadily on his feet and began chanting to himself. Frantically, Heero felt around for his magic. Praying that his plan would work even without his sword, he closed his eyes and focused, saying the first thing that came to his mind as he heard Syaoran's screams of pain in the background.

"Rakurai Shourai!"(3)

Thunder boomed loudly from the sky, accompanied by lightning, and whizzed towards the two Tzes, who were both unprepared for the Wing pilot's attack. They both landed on the jagged ground bonelessly.

The binds around Heero instantly disappeared, and picking up his sword, headed straight to Syaoran, who was slowly picking himself up from the ground. The cut he had received during their battle with Eriol and Sakura had reopened and was pooling blood on his temple. Grasping his brother on the shoulder, the older Li murmured, "Are you alright?"

Syaoran winced as the wound on his head started throbbing, but he nodded, "Hai. Just a bit banged up. You did great with your rakurai. 'niisan." He slowly rotated his right wrist, face pinched with pain. "He did something with my sword-arm, though. It hurts."

Heero took Syaoran's wrist lightly and examined it. "You just twisted it a little bit. It'll be all right in a few moments." He glanced at the two Tzes slowly stirring on the ground. "The battle's not over yet."

Syaoran followed his gaze. "I know." he whispered. Wordlessly, the two Lis turned to face their opponents.

Kang Peng was bleeding from head to foot, after having been hit by lightning twice in a row. Hao Shu looked more or less the same, but the malicious intensity in both their eyes warned Heero not to take the two lightly.

Suddenly, Hao Shu raised a gray ofuda in the air. "Power of Wind. Come forth and help me!" he bellowed. The two Lis frantically looked around for the tornado that they knew was somewhere, when suddenly, both were literally swept of their feet as the eye of Hao Shu's tornado started spinning rapidly right at their feet. Heero pulled out one of his ofudas, but before he could even move, he found himself sprawled on his back a few feet away.

He watched as Syaoran was swept off his feet by the tornado. His heart almost stopped beating at the pitiful sight that washis brother. At the peripheral of his vision he could see Sakura's and Duo's panicked expressions. Narrowing his eyes, Heero summoned his Fire charm and aimed it at the two Tzes. But his attack was easily deflected by Kang Peng who raised a protective shield over him and his father while they laughed insanely.

"You thought we were that easy to defeat, didn't you, Li Raiu?" Hao Shu mocked him as he flipped Syaoran in the air while Kang Peng pelted him with stones and rocks, "Think again, then!"

As the two Tzes tortured his brother, Heero found himself seeing through a red haze. Throwing his sword away, he reached behind his back for the gun he had surreptitiously hidden under his costume and pulled it out. Aiming at the two unaware Chinese men, he pulled the trigger.

Bang. Bang.

As Syaoran landed on the forest floor, bleeding, two newly-dead bodies landed on the ground.

Walking over to where the two carcasses where lying, Heero said blankly, "Ninmu kanryou."

FOOTNOTES:

1. Think Master Yoda. "May the Force be with you." (my sister just watched Episode II, hence the corny allusion).

2. Natsu-chan supplied this for me. She's not entirely sure whether or not this is actually the word used by Syaoran to summon his water charm, but I think she checked chinese dictionaries for this and kinda changed it a little bit to sound japanese. ^-^ Arigatou gozaimasu, Natsu!

3. According to my ever-reliable English-Japanese dictionary, 'rakurai' is 'thunderbolt'. This'll be Heero's hailed 'special' power. (Ugh! I can't believe how corny that sounded!)

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