Warning: Some content in this chapter deals with religion and such. If you are not comfortable with such themes, I suggest you forget about this chapter

(Italic-written paragraphs mean flashbacks.)

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Chapter two: The Power

An officer warily stared at the siblings at customs. Both were waiting for their passports to be approved and a considerable amount of tourists were waiting, regardless that vacations were nearly over. Some guy was arguing something in Italian delaying the whole line. The youngest of the blond pair the officer couldn't keep his eyes off, sighed wearily. His sight traveled around the government office and landed on the officer. Their eyes met for a moment and after a while parted at the exact same time. Apparently the guy at the front was finally done with his complaints or whatever he was saying and now it was their turn.

"Bom dia" said a nice-looking lady at the desk "parla in italliano?(1)"

Iria nodded in consent and proceeded to take care of the requested formalities. Quatre simply stared at his sister understanding probably a word out of every ten. He had really tried to learn Italian, as his Father requested, but left the instruction soon after it had begun. Languages weren't exactly his specialty and he supposed that Arabic, English, French, Japanese and German were enough.

A couple of minutes later his eldest sister, Iria, was done and they were allowed to leave customs. After a quick stop at a car rental they were on their way to their hotel.

"So, are you finally going to tell me what's all this about?" Iria asked her brother finally breaking the long silence.

Quatre didn't tear his gaze off the car window. Instead, he sighed and pursed his lips. Iria chanced a glance at his brother and saw his face reflected on the window.

"Alright then, keep the secret" said the woman.

"I'm sorry Iria" put in Quatre quickly finally turning around to face his sister, "it's just…"

"Don't worry about it, I understand. Only that it's really got to be very important if you're going to miss the first days of school in this truth-searching crusade…You see, when I was 16 and went under the initiation process and all, I was also full of doubts, but apparently yours are way bigger than mine, if you're simply throwing everything away for this… It surprised us, the whole family I mean, that's all"

Iria smiled fondly at her brother. She didn't want to admit it, but curiosity was eating her alive. Still, she was more than wiling to let her brother open up whenever he felt like it.

Quatre on his side was grateful to have a sister like Iria. Even though he had 28 other sisters, he felt Iria was the only one to truly understand him. When he had asked out of nowhere to be taken to The Vatican after spending a whole week shut inside his bedroom with no human contact, Iria had offered immediately to accompany him.

Quatre yet again sighed as he turned back to look outside the window and remembered what had happened that fateful day. It had been precisely a week ago and every single detail stood vividly in his mind

Like I could forget that

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"Aren't you going to do something?"

No one did anything.

No one made a move.

And yet, the boy was still dying.

"He's not breathing!"

They were all like ice statues, not a move.

"Please…"

Just a night before going back into school, Wufei woke at what must've been really early in the morning. Outside it was still dark. Angrily tossing aside his blankets he sat on his bed's edge and vigorously rubbed his sleepy eyes with his knuckles. Blindly staring around he made out his room's outline and headed for the bathroom.

While Wufei took care of his business, the clock flashed in red numbers the hour: 3:14 a.m. So much for wanting a good night's sleep. Back to bed he tripped on a chair, just to add up to his bad mood. Next to his bed was a portrait with a smiling Chinese girl, dark pigtails hanging to either side of her face.

"What are you staring at?" snapped Wufei moodily as if the portrait had been the offending source of all his troubles. To make things worse, or better, depending on the perspective, the portrait didn't answer back and Wufei had to content himself by flipping it face down.

"God!" he sighed, "Ms. Noin's gonna eat me alive if I'm late to her class."

Wufei desperately tried to will himself back into sleep. All he did, however, was toss and turn and end up getting very hot. He angrily disentangled himself of his blankets and just lay there, with his arms spread at his sides and looking stupidly up at the ceiling, knowing beforehand that the whiteness in it would not give him a solution to his sudden insomnia. He knew he desperately needed to get back to sleep, or it would take a hurricane to get him out of bed the next morning, but he also knew that he wasn't exactly keen on going back to his dreams.

For about a week, the same memory kept haunting him in his dreams, and every single day of such week he had woken up, just as he had done a few minutes ago. He dearly hoped he wouldn't have to get used to it. No matter what he did, he always went back to that place… the Winner mansion.

"Please…"

Mr. Winner was beside himself with fury, and a close look at his eyes would reveal hatred unlike any other ever registered in the elderly man.

"How… how dare you interrupt this ceremony?" he asked in a low, quavering, yet dangerous, tone to the insolent stranger. A sudden flood of memories assaulted him, memories of those who thought he and his family were a bunch of liars, and kept making fun of the respectable Winner family, even in local newspapers. He was willing to bet anything he owned that this guy was one of those skeptical fools that had simply taken a step too far.

Wufei knew for a fact that he wasn't really aware of how exactly these sort of ceremonies were held, and normally he wouldn't even have dreamed of interrupting, but before he could stop himself, some unknown force within him had made him speak up. And what was even more unexplainable was that he knew for sure his statement wasn't erroneous. He simply wished that at least someone would just stop trying to bore holes into him with their eyes and checked on the blonde by the altar… just to make sure.

Glancing back and forth, looking pleadingly at those standing right next to him and all the way down to Mr. Winner, it was suddenly clear that nobody was going to make a move until it was too late.

"I'm really sorry Mr. Winner" said Wufei quietly, setting his gaze at the fallen boy.

Without warning, he sprinted up to where Mr. Winner was standing. Caught off guard, the man could do nothing to prevent the agile Wufei from entering the sacred circle made by the rope and reaching out for his son.

"Stop!" roared Mr. Winner after his mind registered what had just happened before his eyes.

With his mind lingering around dark thoughts about wrapping his fingers around the Chinese youth's neck, he simply bit his lower lip and dared to enter the circle. The air somehow felt heavier and thicker there, and if he hadn't been in such a hurry to get to the intruder and his son, he might've even noticed that everything outside the rope seemed blurred.

Wufei tried shaking the kid, both hoping and not that he was wrong, but he got no answer. He raised the blonde's head placing a hand at the back of it and discovering that the boy was burning in fever. Finally bringing a finger right underneath his nose, Wufei's worst fears were confirmed.

"Step away from my son" came the dangerous voice of Senior Winner as he towered over the hunched figure of Wufei.

Wufei took a quick look at the man and weighted his chances. Deciding he had time, he began stripping the young Winner of his heavy woolen outfit before he was brusquely yanked away by the raging father. Breaking his fall with a quick hand, Wufei pleaded once more.

"Please sir, will you just listen!" Wufei almost yelled at the man, but found enough will to keep his voice steady, "look at your son, just take a look at him. You're here now, it can't hurt to have a look." Wufei was just about to attempt something again when he first got no answer, but stopped when the man looked down.

Through the patch made by Wufei's hasty attempt of removing Quatre's clothes, Mr. Winner stared at his son's chest, expecting the normal, steady rise and descent that a breathing motion would provoke. Maybe it was a trick of the light, or something, but his eyes truly registered there was a lack of such movement.

"He's…" Mr. Winner's eyes widened in horror, "he's…"

"Not breathing!" completed Wufei in an exasperated cry.

"But…"

Mr. Winner became suddenly helpless, standing there like a puppet without a puppeteer to pull its strings. Wufei had to fight a new urge to beat the man senseless for his actions, but more important matters were at hand.

Making his way to the boy, he finished stripping the kid of the heavy garments and started looking for a pulse. It was very faint. Deciding he had better do something quick, Wufei pulled the blonde's head back, opened his mouth and proceeded to apply some CPR.

Wufei woke with a start for the second time that day. It took him a while to understand what was going on. A look at the watch told him everything he needed to know.

"FUCK!"

Seeing it was nearly 8:00 a.m. it all hit him like a bucket of ice. Even though he hadn't been able to sleep and had decided to accomplish the incredible feat of keeping himself awake for another five hours, he had miserably failed and dropped snoring only a couple of minutes later. No sooner than that, he had begun dreaming.

The details of his dream weren't really clear, but he was absolutely sure it had been the same dream, or his name wasn't Wufei…and it was.

Trying to regain balance as he hopped around his bedroom with a leg stuck to his trousers, he reached out for the rest of his clothes and tried this time to accomplish a new record of getting dressed, having breakfast and brushing his teeth, all in less than five minutes, the time he had to leave his house and make his way towards school.

"Ms. Noin's gonna kill me!" he whined running to the kitchen half dressed.

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"So, how do you like your room?"

Iria found Quatre neatly folding his clothes inside a drawer. She smiled sweetly at him and made her way next to him as he was putting away a pair of socks.

"One would think that you being a boy made you messy" said Iria, her smile widening. Quatre smiled back.

"There's nothing wrong with me liking order" answered the boy closing the drawer with a push of his hips and looking back at his sister who had now settled on the bed.

"Of course not baby."

"Don't call me that, I turned sixteen a week ago."

"But you'll always be the family's baby."

Quatre sighed and dropped next to his sister putting an arm over his eyes. It was late and outside the sky was already black, dotted here and there with a few stars. It had taken them a while to find the hotel they'd be staying at. However, considering that none had ever been at Rome before, they managed themselves fairly with a map, making only one wrong turn during the whole trip. Still, it was good to finally be able to get a place to sleep. They were both tired of traveling.

"Well, seeing as it's late, we'll make our way to The Vatican tomorrow, 'kay?"

Quatre caught a glimpse of his sister with his left eye, the one he uncovered from his arm, and nodded when she turned to see him. Iria leaned down and kissed her little brother on his front.

"Good night, babe."

"Night Iria."

When his sister closed the door, Quatre found that he was too lazy to get up, get himself undressed and turn the lights off. He just lay there for a couple of minutes more before actually heaving himself up to do what he had to do to get a good night's sleep. Lucky for him he'd taken a bath in the morning, or he would've had to hit the shower first, which would've probably scared the sleep away.

As he finally turned the bedside lamp off he tried to get to sleep, but his eyes just wouldn't keep closed. It greatly annoyed him, the fact that he was always very sleepy, but when the time came to rest, he simply couldn't get to it. Instead he rolled to one side and looked at the curtains moving gently with the wind. Something in their movement made him drowsy, and his mind started traveling to every single thought he had about that day. About the flight, about the city, about the hotel, about the reason for this trip…

You must get your answers

"I must get my answers, but I don't know where to find them"

You'll know in the end

That day, during his sixteenth birthday, he had great fears of failing and looking like a fool to the rest of the people gathered there to see him.

Are you afraid?

Well, he had definitely been. For a long time, all he could think about had been the ceremony, and nothing else. He had been panicking for so long that time had somehow doubled its speed just to make fun of him.

But then, once he was inside the rope, right before the altar, all thoughts had been replace with a familiar, unknown voice. A voice that led him through the most unbelievable experience he'd ever had.

Yes, my dear, come

Unsure of what else to do, Quatre took a tentative step forward, outside the protection of the ring made around the ceremonial space.

At first, there was nothing. Then Quatre saw the light. Bright, blinding, white. It engulfed him, overwhelmed him, and Quatre had to shut his eyes tight, and shield his face with his arms.

It is beautiful, is it not?

When he was finally able to open his eyes and take a peek from behind his arms, he found himself standing in a garden…

"It's beautiful"

He felt an emotion so powerful, so intense, he fell to his knees, unable to keep himself standing. It was a peaceful emotion, reassuring, comforting…

In a flash of light he saw everything go to a tremendous speed, like someone had pressed the fast forward button to this vision. He saw the garden bloom to its full extent, and then begin to wither, taken over by a sudden darkness. After the garden, there was a desert left, everything was dead around him and all he could feel was despair, fear and sadness.

"What's going on?"

You have witnessed good and evil.

Quatre searched around hopelessly to find the source of the voice. All along he knew the voice belonged to him, but he still couldn't help the feeling of not being alone.

You have witnessed life and death.

"Why?"

Once again everything zoomed right before his eyes. He saw humankind's complete history, he saw men fight against prehistoric creatures, he saw men dancing around a fire, he saw men drawing meaningless pictures everywhere… then he saw a storm, lightning, thunder. Lightning fell and everything was destroyed. The images before him shattered to pieces, like made out of glass.

"What was that?"

The voice in his head began to laugh.

Once more, he was taken in a mind-spinning journey. He saw wars, he saw empires rise and fall, he saw life, he saw death.

The he saw two figures standing before him. Two figures he knew well… the very incarnations of good and evil.

The day He was born.

Quatre knew what the voice meant without even asking.

He saw the crosses up at the mount. He saw a man die, and darkness all around.

Quatre slowly walked up to the cross and looked up. The man was definitely dead and his eyes were closed. All around the place, the darkness covered everything, and soon a face emerged from it. It was beautiful, at some point, twisted and distorted once he took a second look at it.

Both emotions of good and evil hit him with such force, and both at the same time, he felt like passing out. Quatre began to gag and then to choke. The air was missing from his lungs and he fell to his knees, coughing loudly.

All around the darkness was replaced with more moving history. He saw more men, more places, more wars. It was all moving so fast he was feeling dizzier with every second that passed. Then he felt himself rise, slowly and steadily, just as history itself was coming to present days.

He was floating, away from the ones in front of him. Just as he was right above them, they looked up at him. Behind, another desert had appeared with dead bodies littering the floor. As he turned to look at the ones before him, he felt a power so amazing, he forgot all about his dizziness and lack of breath. Those eyes were looking up to him… where looking adoringly at him, like…. Like…

A God?

"No! That's impossible…"

Is it?

"I want to go back."

Warmth surrounded him, like someone's embrace, and the images Quatre was looking at were slowly fading away. Everything was dark once more, but he felt safe. And then, a wonderful sensation somewhere in his body. He felt alive once more, for the first time in what seemed a thousand lifetimes, he felt truly alive.

Quatre was dimly aware that someone was pressing lips against his own, but the sole sensation sent something, much like electric shocks, throughout his entire form. He found himself breathing once again, and everything but his lips were numb. Quatre's lips twitched and next thing he knew, he was kissing those lips… those lips that had brought him back to life.

For a second the owner of the opposing pair of lips seemed shocked and paralyzed. Then obliged with the blonde's request into what was unmistakably a kiss. It was quick and soft… almost frightened of breaking the delicate kid lying there.

When they parted Quatre felt cold and shivered. The shiver brought him back to reality and when he opened his eyes he found himself staring into an unfamiliar, Chinese featured, male face. They both stared at each other, ignoring the words of a frustrated father behind them. Onyx-black and aquamarine lost each other inside those pools of color with a silent understanding. That moment they had shared was theirs, and it would never repeat itself despite how good it had been.

Quatre was mumbling in his sleep, uttering undistinguishable words like a drunken man.

"Wufei…" he said, "…shouldn't have kissed him…"

The power now belongs to you. You are now the only owner of the truth.

"The truth…"

Yes… the power to become a God… the power mankind needs to overcome divinity.

"The power…"

You saw it, they were looking at you, adoring you…"

"I don't want it"

It is yours… take it!

Unknown to a sleeping young blonde, an angel in Heaven and a demon in Hell were stirring awake from their sleep.

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(1) I don't really know Italian myself, but my attempts were to say "Good morning, do you speak Italian?" If it's wrong, I'd appreciate it if someone could just tell me the right way to say it so that I may correct it. Thanks!