What if: Myth
By Prinder
Rating: PG 13- R
Disclaimer: I do not own gundam wing or any of its characters. I also do not own Felina or Jasmine they were so gratefully lent to me by my dear role-playing friend Ashley.
Claimer: I DO own Fiora and JinChi, so please don't use them unless you ask me first, thank you.
"…" Denotes Speech
'…' Denotes Thought
(Notes from me)
Chapter 16
Fire blazed, boulders tumbled into the volcano's depths, and melted rock flowed around the small, five-inch wide, stone bridge that was the only thing that still connected them to the tunnel leading out of the hellish pit and to their comrades. A banshee-shriek was heard above their heads of Mossy-brown and Golden-wheat.
"LET'S GET OUTTA HERE BEFORE THIS WHOLE CAVERN CAVES-IN!" Fiora yelled, as a rock fell too close to her for comfort.
"WE JUST CAN'T LEAVE THEM!" Quatre shouted back over the sound of spewing lava.
"WANNA BET?" came Fiora's jocular reply.
"NO! WE HAVE TO STAY HERE! WE CAN'T ABANDON THEM NOW!" Jasmine scolded, along with the liquid fire the continued to travel endlessly closer to their perch.
"WHICH IS BETTER? LOSING TWO OF THE KEEPERS OF MYSTIC, OR ALL TEN?" Fiora screamed.
"REGARDLESS OF WHAT IS 'BETTER' WE MUST STAY HERE, TO ENSURE THAT WE DO NOT LOSE THEM!" Wong yelled back.
"IN CASE YA HADN'T NOTICED! WE'RE USELESS TO THEM LIKE THIS! IT'D BE A LOT SAFER OUTSIDE THEN IN HERE, AND BESIDES THAT; THERE AIN'T NOTHING WE COULD DO TO HELP THEM, EVEN IF WE WANTED TO!"
"PERSONALLY I THINK IT WOULD BE BETTER IF THE WOMAN DID GET KILLED. IT WAS FOOLISH OF HER TO RUN OVER THERE TO TRY AND HELP HIM TO BEGIN WITH!" Wufei remarked.
"FOOLISH OR NOT, I DIDN'T SEE YOU RUN OUT THERE TO HELP HIM! HEERO'S OUR FRIEND! NOW, UNLESS YOU PLAN ON DOING SOMETHING, I SUGGEST THAT YOU SHUT UP!" Duo snapped.
"Oh… no… HEERO! RELENA! LOOK OUT! BEHIND YOU!" Felina cried suddenly, making the others turn to see what was going on at the other end of the bridge.
The ghastly form of the firebird had encircled both Heero and Relena as they tried in vain to protect themselves from the creature's onslaughts. Relena with her orb raised high in her firm grasp as it shined an iridescent orange light all around them like a great shield and Heero with his sword drawn, waiting for an opening in-which to strike-out and put an end to the battle.
Things seemed to have gone from bad to worse since they had first climbed down into the volcano via a small cave opening halfway to the top. At first, many of them, namely Fiora and Jasmine, had welcomed the heat, but, as they gradually descended deeper, they began to have second thoughts at the fires licked at their boots and burning their soles. It wasn't until they had encountered the Phoenix, however, that all of them truly began to dread ever entering the godforsaken pit.
"Heero, I don't think I can--" Relena let her voice trail off as a bead of sweat slid down her tired face, confirming her worst fears; she was running out of strength.
"…Not much longer, just a little more." Heero murmured, more to himself then to her as the Phoenix began to shift and hover directly in front of them; baring it's unprotected chest.
"Heero…?"
"NOW!" Heero yelled as Relena let her shield drop and she fell to her knees as he raised his sword and charged, impaling the beast through the heart, all the way up to the hilt.
The bird let out a horrible wail as it's wings flailed and it hit the lava with a sickening SMACK! Before being devoured by it's own flames, leaving a lowly egg in it's place; which Heero quickly snatched up along with Relena as he made his mad dash across the narrow bridge to where the others were cheering.
"Way to go, man!" Duo exclaimed.
"Let's go!" was Heero's only reply as he sped past.
"WELL IT'S ABOUT DAMN TIME!" Fiora yelled as she, along with the others, rushed after him; the cave falling in on them as they went.
With large clouds of dust and smoke trailing out before them, they staggered to their mounts; who were, besides Heero's horse that had taken off running, waiting nervously for their raiders returns.
"Milady!" Steadfast hummed as she saw Relena's body dangle in Heero's arms; Relena's hands, surprisingly, still held the orb tightly within their gasps.
"She's fine, she just wore herself out." Heero explained as he mounted onto Steadfast's back and had Quatre and Trowa hoist the almost dead Princess in front of him.
"Do we have it?" Quatre asked Heero as he climbed onto Blastfamous' back and took up the reigns, more out of habit then out of necessity.
"Yes." was Heero's reply.
"Pwa! When will it hatch?" Felina chirped as she snuggled deep into Trance's thick coat, gripping the hair around the wolf's neck tightly so as not to fall off.
"Soon enough." Heero said as he put the strangely small egg into a pouch around his neck and tucked it under his tunic to keep it out of sight.
"Quatre, Heero, are we ready to go back to the human world now?" Jasmine asked politely.
"If Heero thinks we have everything." Quatre said, making eye contact with the Persian blue-eyed Dryad, who only nodded his consent.
"Can we get going now? I'd hate to brake it to ya, but, in case ya hadn't noticed, your enemies didn't exactly decide to stop for TEA while we were on this little trip of ours, you know!" Fiora said as she shifted forward on Vertigo slightly, so as to make them both more comfortable as they took off and began circling the others from above.
"Wait!" Wong said as Quatre was just starting the incantation.
"Hum?" Trowa said, looking up at her as she and Chwun descended to the ground, so as to speak with the others easier.
"Where is it that we plan on going to once we do get back? And, more importantly, what do we plan on doing once we get there?" she questioned.
"Back to the fork in the road, I guess." Quatre said with a shrug.
"You mean so we have to camp out, AGAIN?" Fiora said with a groan.
"You seem displeased, Fiora." Wong remarked, a slightly amused tone in her voice.
"Look, all I know is that NOTHING happened when we did that last time, save for some SOUL-SUCKERS coming after our asses, and I don't think that there ever WILL be anything that'll come by… time has been so out of WHACK lately; it wouldn't surprise me if the soldiers had already moved out by now!" Fiora replied.
"She's right, as scary as that sounds--" Duo started to say.
"HEY!" Fiora cut in.
"--Anything could have happened for all we know!" he finished.
"I vote that we split up into teams and see what's happened; we will cover more ground that way." Trowa suggested.
"Right, we'll split up into four teams; Heero and Relena will go back to Cinq and see what's happened there; Jasmine and I will go to my Kingdom and rally my troupes; Felina, Trowa and Duo will go to Encatnta and see what they're doing; while Wufei, Fiora and Wong see what's going on in Benovia. Okay, are we ready to go?" Quatre said with a commanding tone.
"YEAH!" the others cheered.
"Let's do it!" He said as Blastfamous turned and, along with Jasmine and Willow right behind them, galloped off down the road to his kingdom.
Heero looked down at Relena's sleeping form and shifted her slightly so that she would be more secure before riding off, back down the path from which they came, to Cinq.
"You're not going to chicken out on me while you're without me around, are ya?" Duo asked Fiora tauntingly.
"Who in the hell could go chicken with two seriously mean-looking Dragons watching their ass?" Fiora replied with a laugh.
"Pwa! Watch out for yourselves!" Felina chirped.
"Same to you." Wong said back as they parted ways.
*****
Heero hadn't fully realized just how slow a horse was in comparison to a Unicorn until he had made it to the Alter in what seemed only mere moments.
'Halfway to the Cinq Kingdom…' he thought, making the mental note as he dismounted so that they could rest and, possibly, revive the princess.
"Milord…" Steadfast hummed, drawing his attention from Relena's unconscious form, which he had laid out on the forest floor.
"Hn?"
"Milady's magic hasn't returned yet, why is that?"
Heero didn't respond for a moment, he was pondering the best way in which to tell the Unicorn; whom had seemingly gown very attached to her rider in such a sort time. Heero returned his gaze to the body on the ground; her hair was singed slightly at their golden-wheat ends, her face was hot to the touch, weather this was because of the volcano or from a fever Heero didn't know, her brow was creased with a look of… 'Is it pain?' he asked himself, he couldn't tell.
"Milord,"
Heero snapped out of his self-induced trance once again, more then slightly shocked at now close his face had gotten to hers in mere moments. 'What was I doing?' he thought. "Was is it?" he questioned aloud.
"She's starting to wake up…" the unicorn hummed and, sure enough, when he looked back down at Relena, her eyes were just starting to flutter open.
"He-Heero? Are you all right? Or… are we dead?" she asked, surprisingly, not sounding at all afraid.
"Not yet…" was all he could reply, a strange lump had formed in his throat as he backed away from her several feet, he was still unnerved by the way her eyes looked at his.
"You're not hurt are you?" she asked, alarmed.
"No, I'm fine." was his reply.
She made a non-coherent sound 'Most likely a sound humans would make when in deep thought' Heero noted to himself. She pushed herself up into the sitting position and stared into her orb.
"Where are the others?" she asked after a few minutes of silence had passed.
"We split up; Quatre and Jasmine are going to his Kingdom to get his army ready; Fiora, Wufei and Wong are going to Treize's kingdom to see if they can learn something about our enemy while Duo, while Trowa and Felina are in Encatnta doing the same." Heero explained. (Please note that I misspelled Treize's name a long time ago and just now I've realized it, sorry!)
Silence fell upon them once again as Relena looked around them nervously, glimpsing the fairy altar not far away. "The Gate to the Fairy realm? Why are we here...?" she murmured under her breath. Her eyes widened suddenly, "That's why! Heero, are we going to see my Brother, again?" she asked out of the blue, making Heero jump slightly with surprise.
"Yeah." was all he said, once he had regained his composure.
"Heero?" she said softly, looking at him from under her bangs.
"What?"
"Did, did we… did we beat it?" she asked.
"Yeah…" he replied as he stood up off the ground and dusted himself off, trying to avoid eye contact with her. She somehow always seemed to look right through him when he didn't want her to, and it always happened when he would make eye contact with her.
"Well, where is it?" Relena asked, looking around for the firebird, curious as to how he could have hid such a large being so easily.
"Right here." Heero smirked as he pulled out the leather pouch from under his tunic and dangling it in front of her face.
"That's it? How did you get it all to fit in there?" Relena said as she tried to look inside before he snatched the pouch away.
"It's still an egg," he said, having the strangest urge to roll his eyes, Duo must have started rubbing off on him.
"It's an egg?" Relena blinked, completely lost.
"Yes."
"Why?"
"…" He wasn't in the mood for answering dumb questions.
"…Oh, well, we should be moving on then, right?" Relena said as she stood up, changing the subject.
"It's good to see that you're well again Milady." Steadfast hummed.
"It sure is." Relena beamed as she climbed onto Steadfast's back. "Heero, where's your horse?" she said, looking around.
"The poor thing got scared and ran off." Steadfast replied.
"Oh, Heero, I didn't know, you must have had to walk all this way while Steadfast carried me on her back! It's either that or…" she blushed a light shade of pink as she let her words trail off.
"It's nothing, don't worry about it." Heero said, staring off into the distance.
"No! Don't you dare tell me what I can, or cannot, worry about!" she cried as Heero started walking down the road, ignoring her. "Heero, stop it! You're not planning to walk all the way to Cinq… are you Heero?" she asked as she and Steadfast caught up with him.
He said nothing in reply.
"Heero, I didn't want to have to resort to this…but you leave me no choice! Heero, as the Princess of the Cinq Kingdom, I hereby order you to stop walking and ride with me on Steadfast!" she said, her eye gleaming with determination; she wasn't going to take "no" for an answer.
*****
"I can't believe I'm doing this…" Duo muttered as he swung himself into the small tower room via the window, being mindful to keep the hood on his invisibility cloak over his head; as that was the only way for it to be activated, and knocking out the guard that stood just outside the door. "You're the only one that has the strength to climb up there and still be able to fit through the window; they said. You're the only one with the invisibility cloak; they said. Well, you are the thief of the party, after all, you should know how to do these things; they said. Next time, I'll be sure to make myself scarce when they want someone to do their dirty work!" he grumbled as he picked the lock to a the door which held the room with the lever to raise the gate behind it.
"PISSST! GUYS!" Duo hissed out the window, after he flipped the switch, to the two shadows below. "Hurry up and get in here before they notice!"
"Right!" was all he got from Trowa for a reply as the two slipped through the gates as Duo began to shut them before going down to meet his companions.
"So, now that we're in here; what are we going to do?" He asked, looking around casually, trying to blend in.
"We look around and see what we can find, silly!" Felina chirped.
"Can you keep it down? Someone might hear us!" Duo whispered harshly.
"Sorry…"
"Don't worry about it. Let's move." Trowa said as he turned and motioned the other two to follow him.
"So where to first?" Felina asked once they were inside the castle itself and out of clear view of anyone who might be wondering the halls.
"The War-room; it only makes sense that they would have what we're looking for in there." Trowa replied.
"Yeah, but don't you think that'd be a little too obvious?" Duo questioned.
"Maybe he's right, Trowa…" Felina whispered as they padded softly down the halls.
"We won't know that until we check." Trowa responded.
"Right." they said in unison.
"I think it's over here…" Trowa said, after a few minutes had passed them in the quietness that surrounded them, placing his hand upon a large set of double doors and turning one of the handles; it was locked.
"Here, let a master have a crack at it." Duo said with s smug grin as he strutted over and began to pick the locking mechanism; a faint click was heard and the door opened. "See? What did I tell ya? I'm the master."
"Let's get in and get out before we get found out; I'm starting to get nervous with all of this sneaking around." Felina whimpered, glancing over her shoulders, into the shadows behind them.
"Right." Trowa said as he hurried into the room and began looking through the papers, charts, and maps that were all chattered about on a huge table in the middle of the room.
"I can't even see in here well enough to know if I found something or not." Duo complained as he fought the urge to walk over to the window to get better light, knowing that he might get spotted by the guards outside if he did.
"We'll have to make due with what we've got, Duo." Felina chirped as she looked at one of the maps curiously.
"What did you find, Felina?" Trowa asked when he looked over her shoulder at the piece of parchment.
"I don't know, what do you think…?" she asked, handing it to him.
"Hey, guys! Look at this!" Duo said as he waved a small tome in their faces.
"What is it?" Felina said, forgetting her own findings.
"It looks like some kind of log-book; see here…?" he pointed at a page, "It's an entree telling about what happened at Cinq." he said as he began to read it aloud, fumbling every now and then at some of the longer words, as he wasn't very educated when he was littler. (Most people didn't know how to read back in those days, save for nobles, priests, scholars and the rare merchant.)
It read:
"Log 27,
We've arrived at the road leading into Cinq. Our commanding officer ensures us that our enemy doesn't know that we're coming. Some of my men aren't happy, by the time this is all over, we'll be no better then murders."
"Log 28,
He's dead; I can't believe he's dead. Orphic, the one who was acting as scribe, is… dead…many of us are dead; few made it out without suffering injury of some form. Keith tells me that a small boy felled him, a young lord perhaps, with a farmers scythe. 'Won't know what hit them' bloody fool was I; I should have seen it coming! I think that our great King Treize himself set us up! I'd smite him myself if I could only prove my accusations… Alas! They died in vain…"
"There isn't anymore…" Duo finished.
"King Treize? But he doesn't rule this country…" Trowa murmured his brow lined with deep thought.
"What do you mean by 'there isn't anymore'? There has to be…! What happened during the battle that we didn't see?" Felina questioned, frustrated.
"Do I look like I know?" Duo snapped.
"Hey! That's enough. We've got what we came for, let's get going." Trowa said, ending the fight before it had a chance to start.
"Fine…"
*****
"GO, GO! RUN!" Fiora yelled as she purposely knocked over an expensive looking vase as they ran past it and down the halls.
"Fiora, you do realize that that was a--" Wong started to say.
"I DON'T CARE HOW VALUABLE IT WAS! RIGHT NOW, IT'S AN EXTREMELY EXPENSIVE DIVERSION!" Fiora said, cutting her off.
"This is so cowardly, running like a bunch of mice!" Wufei scoffed.
"Yeah, well, DEAL WITH IT! Unless you want to become one with a noose, I'd suggest that you KEEP MOVING!" Fiora screamed as arrows were rained down at their backs as they turned around the corner.
"How much further until we meet up with Chwun?" Wong asked, as she looked back behind her; noting that the guards were gaining on them.
"Not close enough!" Fiora said as she skidded to a stop, Wong running into her from behind, knocking them both to the ground.
"What? Why did you…?" Wong let her sentence trail off.
Wufei had run ahead of them, making another turn before they did and meeting a group of solders that even he couldn't take out all on his own; they had already locked the shackles on him by the time Fiora had stopped.
"Well, well, just in time; you little girls come to play?" one of the men jeered, his eyed glazed over with lust as he licked his lips at the fallen pray.
"You Monster! You keep your filthy hands off them! YOU WEAKLINGS!" Wufei roared, struggling against his bonds.
"FUCK! Get off, Wong!" Fiora yelled as she pushed the slightly taller Chinese woman off of her and got to her feet. "STAY BACK!" she said, drawing her sword and, putting herself between them and Wong, who was just now starting to get back onto her feet, attempting to stare them down.
The guards behind the man just laughed at the little girl as her hands trembled, making her sword shake. "Well, would you look at that; the little girl thinks she's going to fight us!" he taunted.
"BITE ME ASSHOLE! You come as so much as a HAIR closer and I'll beat your UGLY FACE in!" Fiora spat, not about to back down.
Wong looked around for something that would distract them long enough for them to get away. Spying a large, draping, tapestry hung on the wooden beams above them; she quickly devised a plan.
"A little think like you? HA! What could a pitiful thing like you, do to me?"
"How about this?" Wong exclaimed as she hurled one of her ninja stars up above them, cutting down the tapestry and making it fall on top of the soldiers while Fiora; seeing what Wong was up to, dove into the throng and pulled Wufei out.
"Thanks for the help." Wufei said as he watched the man that had been taunting the women get tripped up in the cloth as they ran past him and down the hall.
"You're most welcome Master Wufei." Wong replied calmly as they jumped out the windows at the end of the hall and onto their respective mounts.
"Once we get to someplace safer, I'll try to get those chains off of you!" Fiora said with a laugh as she looked back at their pursuers and waved as they flew off into the distance. The sun just starting to rise behind them.
________________________________________________________________________ Okay, okay, so maybe this is getting a little old…I'm almost finished with this fic! *cheers* about, maybe, one or two, possibly three, chapters left! Now that you have an idea of who the enemy is; what do you think our heroes are going to do about it? Lol. I'd like to thank my reviewers, you guys are really all that's keeping me going on this fic. You know the drill, e-mail or Review on FF.net, byes!