Disclaimer: Heero, Duo, Trowa, Quatre, Wufei, Mili, Treize, Relena, Hilde, Catherine, Dorothy, Sally, Noin and Une aren't mine... every other thing is! And omae o korosu to *everyone* who steals them! *curls finger around trigger*

Warnings: eventual shounen ai, swearing, some OOC, heaps of magic

Notes: Yippee! I got ten reviews this time! *grin* (See, it seems like a lot to me...)

Mariel Yuy: We have good taste! (In food, anyway.) This is going to be long, though - it was Chapter Nine before the actual war started. Didn't mean to take that long, but still... it turned out that way, ne? Did you get my second email? And by the way, thanks... the "persuasion" worked, didn't it?

Duo's ONLY Chick: Thanks! And that *was* lucky, wasn't it? But thanks again for the review, and I'll try and keep the plot going!

Katie: Nup... both Ronterdos are Oz mages with grudges against Sanq. (see the beginning of Chapter 5) But having traitors is an interesting idea, hey? Hmmm... *grin* And the last bit of your review is true - you'll have to read on and see how it works out!

Landlady of the Universe: I luv Italian food too. *grin* And you'll have to keep bugging me about Zechs and Suri for a *long* time... they're both gonna be single for a while yet! (or maybe not... hmmm) Yeah, poor Wufei... *sniff* But I've got to stick with the story, ne? And I'm gonna make BOb fat with another pack of choco *here you go*. Maybe you can invite me to that villa sometime!

Patadragon: Cool name! Thanks - I love the characters' personalities, both in the actual anime and when other authors develop them differently. And the death and sad bits... *sniff* I guess they had to happen, right?

Finny: Pasta and Q-ball... I've suddenly got this really funny picture of Quatre stuffing his face full of pasta - you know, bulging red cheeks, wide eyes and all. *grin* And something bad will happen one day - pinky swear!

Mistique: Thanks for the review! And about Relena - hmm... you'll have to wait and see. *grins evilly*

Rokjai: You know, I was wondering - what does your name mean something in a different language, or did you choose it because it sounded good? Or is that private? And you're right, the story finally goes somewhere! *cheers*

AikoNamika: Ooh... I guess I *will* have to hurry up, ne? I'm glad you like the story - I wish I could make chapters magically appear as well! (Saves me having to type the thing out! hehe)

Mariel Yuy's Next Door Neighbour: Hi - um, both to you and to Mariel. I'm glad you like the story, and just as glad you reviewed. *grin* So here's another bowl of pasta, if you're not yet full!

Part X: Windriders

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ *** Two days later *** ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Suri looked up, grimacing as she saw the greyness blanketing the sky. Oh gods - we *really* don't need a storm right now. They were exhausted, not so much physically as emotionally, but exhausted all the same. The fear of being pursued was all that pushed them on; that, and a need for supplies. We didn't get much time to pack, did we? All we could do was detour past the clearing and collect some food. That was exactly what they had done before fleeing - it was lucky that all of them made a habit of carrying their credits with them, or even restocking would be impossible. Then they had made their way through trails and minor roads, stopping only for brief rations and for Heero to regain his strength.

Thinking of Heero made her glance sideways at the boy - he was paler than usual, but plodded on steadily with the rest of them. The fleeting surges of fatigue her Empathetic gift sensed never showed on his face, which remained as impassive as ever. I still can't believe he managed two portals within two hours - apparently, *one* is difficult enough for a Master Mage. And even then, the backlash of energy is supposed to keep the Mage in bed for hours. I hope we get to rest soon, if only for his sake...

As if responding to her thoughts, Mili - Zechs, Suri corrected herself - scrutinised the surrounding areas, checking for landmarks. "We should be at Zhahalivar in about a candlemark."

They all signaled their acknowledgement, but otherwise remained silent - none of them had much energy to talk, even if they had wanted to. The candlemark passed with barely a word said, though a few drops of rain drizzled from the sky. Sure enough, they were at the edge of the small town named Zhahalivar after a king several centuries ago. Suri's eyes flickered over the place tiredly, then blinked and looked around again, taking in the deserted streets. Strange - I'd have thought this place would be in an uproar after what happened. Or haven't these people heard about it?

Beside her, the other boys, too, had become alert. Even the usually cheerful Duo was grim as he muttered, "This isn't right. News should have reached Zhahalivar by now, unless..."

Unless Oz is capturing all the people travelling to, from or past the palace. The prince's lips thinned as he switched to telepathy.

Wufei frowned. How's that possible? For one thing, Oz doesn't have enough soldiers to cover all the possible routes - that would have taken an army, and we would have sensed it. For another, Telepaths can send information even when they are captured.

Heero shook his head. Magic or telepathic shields can stop the latter.

The girl tugged absently at her dripping hair. That would take a tremendous amount of energy, wouldn't it?

Yes, but Adepts can do it. And I suspect they have more than one person doing the shielding.

The prince nodded. But what about the former - it would take even more energy to place magical barriers on all the roads, wouldn't it? And they wouldn't destroy the roads; then they'd have to rebuild them.

What - Quatre turned his head abruptly, aquamarine eyes wide.

Quatre?

I feel something... northwest, I think.

Suri turned her face in that direction, brows knitting together. You're right - fear. An awful lot of it. Pain... oh gods. She reeled slightly, then slammed a shield over her Empathetic gift.

Besider her, the blonde whitened as he, too, shielded himself. Trowa looked at him in concern, but after a moment, Quatre sent, It's death... I've got to go.

But Quatre... Zechs hesitated, then squared his jaw. You're right. They *are* my people - I still have a duty to them.

The prince was already moving in the direction his half-brother indicated, and his companions followed without another word. It took them several tense minutes, but when they got there, Suri couldn't help wishing that they had taken longer. This... oh gods, this is too similar to...

Oh gods. Quatre's mind-voice echoed. This - is like Zolt'é...

They all stood frozen for a few seconds, though it seemed like hours. Before them was what could have been a replay of the slaughter two nights ago... but slaughter done upon innocents, sparing nobody - not the children, nor the sickly, nor the elderly. Again, the corpses lay scattered on the ground, some charred, some still recognisable, but all quite totally dead. Suri closed her eyes, trying to calm her terror, then gasped. Q, can you sense it?

The Healer glanced at her then reached Empathetically, before his eyes, too, widened. Sending a quick affirmative, he broke off at a sprint in the same direction as before.

Suri and the others followed, the prince sending, Suri, what is it?

There is more fear coming... not everyone is dead yet.

Shock flashed across all their faces and several arms reached for hidden weapons - or in Wufei's case, a katana. Heero did similar, but frowned suddenly and paused in concentration for a quick moment before continuing. But instead of a group of youths running in tattered but obviously well-made clothing, they were a party dressed entirely in black, from tunic to shoes to the small cloth covering their faces. In fact, only their eyes - the single visible part of their body - proved they were indeed humans, not shadows moving in the near-dusk.

Suri kept running, but sent to Heero, Illusion spell?

An affirmative. They continued running, weaving here, turning there... to be met with the sight of about thirty soldiers standing in a rough circle around a group of terrified townspeople. Trowa's hand shot out, preventing the smaller blonde from running to their aid, and the seven of them crouched in the shadows of a building. Zechs glanced around quickly - the soldiers are clad in Oz colours... unsurprisingly. The people - hell, that would be more than half the town. But that soldier there... Heero, who's the person in the robe?

Cobalt eyes narrowed for an instant. Can't tell; his shields are strong. A Telepath, most likely.

Suri looked up, then closed her eyes in concentration. ...I think so too - someone tampered with the townspeoples' minds. They're conscious, but can't do anything against his will.

Zechs was thoughtful for a moment, then sent, We have to do something. Heero, I know you're low on reserves, but can you blind the normal soldiers?

Temporarily, yes. They have no magical protection, so it won't take much energy - the Mage did not expect resistance.

Good. Quatre, stay here - if any of us are wounded, do your best to Heal us. Try to calm the people or terrify the soldiers Empathetically. Suri, stay as well, but shield us; we can't afford to have him discover who we are. Take out anyone who may hurt the people, and keep an extra layer of Telepathic shielding around Wufei. On my signal, Heero will blind the soldiers then attack them physically. I, too, will be fighting them. Wufei, you are to combat the Telepath - just distract him long enough for Trowa to kill him. Trowa, do not show yourself before you have a chance of success.

Suri nodded, like the others. This seems unreal - like I've detached myself from my body or something. If anyone had told me I'd be doing this three years ago, I'd have declared them insane... The signal came. Instantly, the soldiers began clawing at their eyes, some more desperately than others. She could see the fear on some of the faces; the blonde beside her was doing his job. Heero and the prince emerged, slashing through the line of soldiers. A wild, unaimed slash cut into Zechs' arm. After slamming an extra shield around Wufei, who was heading straight for the Telepath, she finished the earlier offender with a bolt of fire... then froze as his feelings of utter terror penetrated her shields even as he died.

Oh gods - did I just... Suri felt a hand reach for her own, then relaxed as a flood of calm flow from the blonde into her. Quatre nodded slightly before directing a surge of Healing energy to his half-brother, whose wound began healing straight away. Wufei was combating the Telepath with his katana, and suddenly, Suri felt something jolt against her shields. Shit - he's trying to attack Wufei mentally... Concentrating all her energy on blocking the probes, she didn't notice as a small, almost invisible needle flew out from the shadows - right into the Telepath's neck. She did, however, see the momentary rush of surprise on his face before he gave a gurgle and fell. Wufei's onyx eyes flickered to the shadows, then he drew his katana across the Telepath's neck before cleaning and resheathing the weapon.

Trowa stepped out as Heero and Zechs finished the last of the soldiers, and knelt beside the Telepath's body, retrieving a tiny object. Wufei turned to him. "Poisoned?"

The taller youth nodded, wiping it and dipping its tip into a small vial before hiding it once more. "Ravulju."

Quatre, who, like Suri, had emerged from their hiding place, gave a small gasp. "But isn't that..."

"It was outlawed, but there are few poisons that can equal it."

The prince gave him a long glance, and emerald eyes stared back impassively. After a few moments - and a private mental conversation, probably - Zechs nodded and turned to the body. "I really have no idea why Oz would massacre a town this way..."

At that moment, small murmurs began among the townspeople - who, at some point, must have recovered. Mili - Zechs - will have to explain things...

Sure enough, the prince moved to stand in the middle of the crowd, raising his arms for silence. "Peace. An Oz Telepath had coerced you all into coming out here, where his soldiers surrounded you. They are now dead, but I would advise you to be wary and to guard against further attacks."

Suri raised an eyebrow. Is that all he's going to say... oh. I guess 'passers-by', like the ones *we're* pretending to be, wouldn't do much more than that.

After a few minutes, a man stepped up and bowed, formally. "I - we thank you for your aid, Mister... pardon me, but would you tell us who you are?"

For the first time, the prince seemed stuck - Suri could see him struggling against all he had been taught as a child, against his duty, against himself. Before she knew what possessed her, she had stepped forward and answered, "We... we are the Windriders."

Instantly, Suri regretted her hasty speech, and fought hard to resist the urge to clamp a hand over her mouth. She could feel the eyes of her companions on her, but after what seemed like a decade, the prince nodded slowly, before drawing himself up solemnly, adding, "We stand between Sanq and the Oz terrorists - and while we are here, they will not win."

Emotions flickered across the minds and faces of the people, but gradually, in the midst of all the disbelief and fear, a small thread of hope sprang into life. The prince glanced at Suri and gave her a small nod, before turning back to the crowd. "We shall need to purchase supplies before we move on - are there any merchants around?"

That broke the spell, and the crowd stood, some plainly bewildered, some squaring their jaws and preparing to face what happened, some moving solemnly to check the corpses for friends and relatives. Zechs and Duo began spirited bargaining sessions with several traders, and after obtaining some necessities, they left, heading north towards another town.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ *** Two hours later *** ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Tydos is dead?" Anokiv Ronterdo, son of the chief Mage of Oz, gave the messenger a penetrating stare.

"Y-yes, m'lord. We are not sure how; the bodies were burnt."

Beside the Mage, a girl asked. "What are the townspeople saying?"

"They are talking about a group of black-clad people called the Windriders. Apparently, this group was what killed Telepath Tydos."

Anokiv nodded and waved his hand in dismissal. After the messenger hastened off, he turned to the blonde-haired girl. "What do you think?"

"It is strange - I have never heard of such a group."

"Nor have I. And someone in that group would have to be a Mage or a Telepath to have killed Tydos."

"Can you scry and find out what happened?"

"Too far away. Now we have to find a way to hide the evidence of that attack from Treize - damn, I was going to blame it on gypsies."

The girl narrowed her pale blue eyes. "Why do you work for him anyway?"

Anokiv turned to look at her. "Simple, my dear. Oz has armies, supplies. And revenge is still revenge, either way."

"Then why slaughter the people?"

The Mage's eyes took on a dangerous glint. "Sanq shamed my father, and thus, my name - I'm making its citizens pay."

The girl said nothing, her expression carefully guarded. It is people like him that cause death and wars... I'll show everyone what a war *really* is.

Anokiv, however, appeared not to notice. "I will blame it on undisciplined soldiers - Treize never trusted Tydos, who had his own revenge to exact upon Sanq, as do all the people under my command. Treize knows that." He gave the girl a calculated stare. "It would help if people in the army were talking about how restless Tydos and his soldiers have been."

The girl nodded, her mask slipping back into place as she smirked. "Ah, yes... hmm - Tydos and his men have been rather distracted lately, haven't they? So much so that quite a lot of people have noticed... at least, they will notice by tonight."

The Mage's eyes glinted in satisfaction. "I certainly hope so. A good evening to you, Dorothy."

"And to you."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Suri sat against the tree trunk, listening absently to the cackle of flames. Suddenly, a thought occurred to her. "Mil- Zechs, why didn't you tell them what happened at the palace?"

The prince turned to her tiredly. "They'll find out eventually. But they should find out the way they usually would - and I want them to react the way they normally would. It keeps things from going even more out of balance than they already are."

The girl nodded in acceptance, hesitated slightly, then added, "I'm sorry for butting in."

Surprisingly, Zechs gave her a half-grin. "Don't be. My mind was totally frozen - I wouldn't have been able to answer. And 'Windriders' seems as good as any other name."

"I had a feeling you wouldn't want to sound too godly or too evil, and 'wind' seemed to work."

Duo smirked. "I wouldn't mind sounding godly."

Beside him, Trowa shook his head. "Then the people would depend on us to work miracles."

The braided boy gave a theatrical sigh. "I guess I'll stick with being a Windrider, then. But at least now, we know that Oz didn't block all the routes too and from the palace or something."

Zechs nodded. "True. But why would Oz attack such a town in the first place?"

Quatre answered instantly, "They wouldn't. Oz wanted to rule the whole continent; their job would be considerably more difficult if all the towns were destroyed."

Suri frowned. "But weren't the soldiers in Oz colours?"

The prince answered, "Yes. That's why it's strange. We'll have to try and find out more - at least we burnt the bodies of the soldiers, so Oz won't know anything more than what passes through word of mouth."

Heero spoke up monotonously. "That's not the only strange thing. I have no idea how a single Telepath obtained enough power to control even a quarter of Zhahalivar, let alone the whole town."

The girl nodded emphatically. "Exactly - I was wondering about that as well. And it's the same for... the other night. Killing so many people in so many different places, then disappearing without trace afterwards would have taken a lot of energy."

"I doubt they disappeared - probably shielded themselves."

Wufei said, "That would have taken a lot of energy as well. But I, too, have a question - Trowa, where did you learn the use of poisoned needles?"

The taller youth looked at him, then replied quietly, "I think you all suspected that I took lessons in assassination - I even mentioned as much when I introduced myself to Suri."

The Asian boy nodded, but Quatre turned to him, aquamarine eyes concerned. "Trowa... be careful with that ravulju. I don't know if I'd be able to force it out of your system."

Trowa gave him a slight smile. "Don't worry, I'm almost immune to its - "

He was cut off when Wufei stood suddenly, his hand on the hilt of his katana. "Who's there?"

A rustle sounded from the bushes and two tangled heads emerged slowly. Suri's silver eyes widened in shock at the sight of the two bedraggled looking children, one of whom was standing protectively in front of the other. The Asian, however, was not impressed. "What are you doing here?"

The one in front - the older one, I think - looked ready to bolt, but visibly steeled himself and managed to stutter, "P-please, m'lords... me 'n me sister smelt the food, see, and we was starvin'... I'm sorry, m'lords."

"Leave."

Suri saw the faint hope in the younglings' eyes die, but the older one put an arm around his sister and led her away slowly. Memories suddenly flashed through her head - the cold winter nights when Granny didn't sell enough to buy food, the days when she had been dismissed from the inns and left starving on the streets... Before she could stop herself, she called, "Stop!"

For the second time that day, she felt her companions' eyes on her, but all she paid attention to was the sudden life on the childrens' faces. Stepping up to them, she knelt and held out a roll of bread. "Here - eat it slowly. But stay within the town next time; this place may be dangerous."

From the looks on the childrens' faces, the bread may well have been a treasure chest of credits. They nodded their thanks fervently and disappeared off into the night and Suri returned to sit by the fire, looking at Wufei nervously.

Sure enough - "Onna! What did you think you were doing?"

Had he left out the first word, Suri thought to herself later, she might not have replied the way she did. But he did use the 'onna' phrase, and she reacted by retorting, "What do you think? They were children, dammit - and they were starving! Have you ever lived on the streets in the dead of winter? Do you know how it feels to be faced with hunger, night after night, and have no hope of obtaining food because you're too weak to even beg? Have you ever even imagined living like that?" She took a deep breath, then glared at the Asian youth.

Wufei had nothing to say - after all, he had never lacked in food since the time of his birth. Instead, he gave a 'hmph' and looked away.

Zechs glanced at them both, then interceded quietly, "Enough. Wufei, I don't think the children were a danger to us, and if Suri chooses to sacrifice her own meal, that is her decision. But Suri, I hope you can survive until tomorrow, because we do not have much rations to spare. Let us sleep - I want to start early, to check what is happening in other towns."

They all nodded and soon drifted off into an uneasy slumber. None of them noticed the pair of blue eyes that watched them from the shadows of the bushes, or the lithe body that vanished into the night soon after they fell asleep...

Notes:

You know, I really, *really* don't like battle scenes. Can't write them properly, nor realistically - after all, how many authors have actually seen somebody kill another? Somehow, when I'm planning a story, my mind jumps straight from before-the-battle to after-the-battle, never considering the actual fighting. And to think - there will be a *lot* more of it before the story ends. *sigh* I hate speeches just as much (you can probably tell by the terrible quality of Zech's speech) - and I totally suck at them. So... well, the next chapter won't have speeches, hopefully. *grin* But hey, at least more characters are appearing.

The next chapter will take about a week as well - at least, I'm hoping I'll be able to finish it. If I don't get it posted by next Sunday, apologies in advance.

I've been through choco, ice cream and Italian food... does anybody like Asian stuff? Or better yet, a buffet? *winks and points at the lil' review button in the corner* (I'm seriously going to go broke one day...)