Disclaimer: I in no way own Gundam W or AD&D. Don't sue; I'm simply an E5 in the USN, therefore I have no money. Ha.
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"Neh, you gonna eat that?"
Heero's eyebrow twitched as he glowered at his black-robed companion, his teeth gritted as he snarled, "Yes. Stop asking."
"But you've been staring at that roll for the last five minutes and thirteen seconds!"
"Duo..."
"But..."
Clearing his throat, Trowa delicately cut into the conversation. "Duo? I'd stop harassing him if I were you. He's going to eat the roll."
Duo leaned back against the cold brick wall behind him with a grunt. "Hmph! Leaving me to starve. See if I ever share my dinner with either of you again!"
"You never have, Duo," Trowa said, a slight smirk upon his lips.
"Aa," Heero agreed as he nibbled upon his roll.
"Oh, shut up." Swinging his arms back and forth before his body, Duo sighed. "These suck."
"If you'd stop swinging them around, they would stop biting into your wrists, baka."
"It gives me something to complain about."
"Hn. Somehow I knew that was why you were doing that."
Trowa simply stared, listening to the conversation between his two adventuring buddies before resuming his study of the door that was before him. It was an ugly door, crafted of overly varnished pine, crudely hung on leather hinges reinforced with steel bits. It was even crafted of the lowest quality wood in the region, flooded with knotholes and distortions. Hell, it even hung crookedly, making it squeal harshly when it was yanked open with all the strength the burly guard on the other side of it could muster.
'Wonder if that same guard's on the other side. Maybe the watch has changed. Damn, do I wish there was a window so I could check...'
With a snort he glowered at the room's only window, which was of course directly behind him, stationed upon the wall Duo was currently leaning against. It was nothing more than a hole in the brick wall that was secured with iron bars placed little more than two or three inches away from one another, allowing the cold night air in and letting the rain from the storm that was rampaging through town pour into the small chamber, but giving no hope of escape.
Looking around the rest of the chamber, using the dimming light of the cloud-obscured moon to aid his eyesight, he studied the other two well constructed walls and the small hole in the center of the floor that was hardly big enough for a mouse to squeeze through, much less offer a means to exit the chamber that was meant to usher the rainwater and their waste away from them.
He had to give the persons who constructed the structure he and his two adventuring companions were currently in credit.
They certainly knew how to build one helluva prison.
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All three of the men bolted upright from their slumber as they heard the huge door that allowed entry to their prison cell being jerked open. Blinking, tears streaming from their eyes as the harsh light of a freshly lit torch poured into the room, the prisoners squinted and attempted to recognize any chance to escape. None being made obvious, they turned to attempting to identify the person who had entered their chamber, bearing the almighty torch of light.
Duo's eyes were the first to adjust, which lead him to laughing happily. "HEY! You finally showed up! Our holy savior! If I didn't have these damned shackles on my wrists, I'd hug you, man."
"Hm. That's something to keep in mind... perhaps I'll petition with the Captain of the Guard to part with those and make them a permanent accessory to your person, Maxwell."
Trowa blinked rapidly. "Chang!"
"Heh. Been waiting for you," Heero chimed in.
With a sigh, the eastern boy shook his head, his hard onyx glare settling on each of the shabby prisoners, taking in their conditions one by one. "You three are hopeless. You know that? Completely hopeless."
Heero simply glowered as his wrists, even as Trowa sighed, "I know, I know."
"Oh, c'mon! How were we supposed to know that the grave I... er... excavated was that of the Paladinson's ancestors!"
"You sacrilegious little cur," Wufei softly muttered, his cold gaze focusing on Duo, causing the seasoned magician to shiver a bit in his boots. "At least you could show proper respect to the dead?"
"Heh. They're great spell components, though..."
"And you'll never be seeing that grave dirt, those ashes, nor those jewels ever again."
"Damn it!"
Heero cleared his throat, drawing the raven-haired boy's attention away from his friend. "Anyway, why are you here, Chang? Going to bail us out, or going to send us to our deaths? Your call, I do recall."
"Actually, that's the call of the Paladinson."
Trowa choked. "You've got to be kidding!"
Shaking his head, Wufei snorted. "It was his family's grave your little friend was caught robbing. And it was you three who were captured in the City of the Dead after sundown. You all KNOW you're not supposed to be beyond those gates after the sun sets over the endless sea... what drove you to traipse so foolishly into that den of evil?"
Heero shrugged. "Good pay for a vampire's teeth."
Trowa nodded. "Rumor that the undead carry heavy purses."
Duo grinned wildly. "Great spell components!"
Wufei simply slapped his forehead.
"So, is there any option other than going to court before the Paladinson?"
"Actually, you aren't to be going before the Paladinson, Trowa."
"Really?" Arching a brow, the acrobat leaned more comfortably against the wall that served as his backrest. "What's supposedly happening to us?"
Shrugging, Wufei sighed. "You're going before the Council."
"Council...?"
"Ever heard of Blackstaff?"
Duo audibly gulped.
"Blackstaff, Elminster, Paladinson, and about 9 other assorted persons from this city."
Heero and Trowa blinked, responding as one. "The Hidden Lords? We're dead..."
Gulping again, attempting to swallow the lump that had appeared in his throat, Duo nodded. "No kidding. No one sees the Hidden Lords of Waterdeep and lives to tell about it, 'less they're assigned specifically to guard them... shit."
Walking slowly towards the door, Wufei glanced back at the three miserable, shivering prisoners. "What was your pay to be used for?"
As one, the three simply sighed, "Hill's Far."
The boy bearing the torch stopped in his footsteps. "Weren't they the ones..."
Trowa nodded. "Revenged by the plague and the pilfering of the goblins that followed... remember the sweep over the Plains? That was them."
Heero shrugged. "Lots of people left homeless. Every gold helps."
And, with a wordless nod, Duo simply blinked.
"Orphans, neh?" Wufei filled in, sighing as the braided boy nodded affirmation of the onyx-eyed boy's question.
Sighing once more, Wufei simply straightened the sword that hung at his side, marking him as a Commander in the famous Waterhavian Guard. "A noble enough cause... perhaps, JUST perhaps, there may be a breech in security tonight. You and I both know nothing of this."
Trowa's eyes glistened with merriment as a slim shard of metal landed by his bootless foot. He swiftly gripped it between his toes and tucked it under himself for safekeeping. "I understand."
Heero smirked, nodding. "Our eternal gratitude."
The acrobat took a moment to study the slouched posture of their friend in the Guard, and arched a brow. "You're endangering yourself, you know."
"Of course. It's not the first time I've done this for you incompetent idiots."
"HEY!" Duo snarled, finally having gotten hold of himself enough to pay attention to the conversation.
Ignoring him, the others continued with Heero nodding slowly. "Still, even though this will not be the first time you've assisted our escape from this prison, it should be your last. Every time you do this, you only succeed in drawing suspicion to yourself. I noticed that you've lost rank since our last encounter... Captain."
With a grunt, Wufei shrugged. "Maybe. But loss of an easily gained title to support a grander cause that truly brings honor to this world is no loss to be mourned."
"True enough," the warrior confirmed with a nod, "but the loss of that person who gave himself for the sake of that hope of honor would be greatly mourned by his friends. You're in danger, aren't you?"
Trowa swallowed harshly. "If they're already on to you, they're going to kill you if we escape again..."
"Hmph."
Duo's eyes narrowed dangerously as he quietly growled, "Then we ain't goin'. We've known you for too long... if you think we're going to abandon one of our ol' childhood buddies just to save our own asses, you're friggin' insane."
"They can't kill that which they can't catch," the Guard simply muttered with a shrug.
Trowa found it impossible to fight off the smirk that was making its presence known upon his face. "We could always use a person with your skills on the road... planning on making this a merry party of four once more, oh honorable City Guard?"
"I'll think about it."
"YEE HA! Gonna be great to have you back, Wu-chan!"
Rounding violently, Wufei grabbed a handful of braid and gave it a swift jerk, landing the magician flat on his face. "Only ONE being is allowed to refer to me as that... and until that diety walks this plane once more, I expect to never have to listen to that obnoxious nickname again in the realm of the living. Understood!"
"Haaaaaiiiiiii... orooooo..."
And, with that said, the black-haired guard marched out of the cell and slammed the door firmly behind himself, muttering something to himself along the lines of 'the magician's no god, no matter how fervently he wishes it... the real Shinigami's much more insane.'
At the mention of Cyric, the guards in the vicinity of the enraged boy simply shivered and returned to their wonderful duties of scrubbing the floors and tending to prisoners.
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As the three figures stole their way silently through the night, their passage through the dark alleyways of Waterdeep failed to go unnoticed.
Brilliant eyes absorbed the gentle light of the moon, their sheen nearly silver with the reflected white from the orb that dangled in the heavens, finally freed from its obscuring cover of clouds as the storm that had plagued the coast had finally progressed inland. Blinking slowly, nearly transparent eyelashes brushing over pale skin, the owner of those eyes crouched upon its perch, delicately balancing upon the top of the easternmost spire of Castle Waterdeep. A ghostly white humaniod hand snaked free from the billowing black cloak that hid the being from detection, carefully gripping the top of the flagpole it was balanced upon.
It leapt effortlessly from its precarious perch moments before a griffin-riding knight of the City Guard swept through the area.
Those silvery eyes stared at the griffin for a few moments before returning their gaze to the city sprawled out before it.
Those eyes vanished into the recesses of the hood, just as the being slowly stepped forward.
The air surrounding the black cloaked being shimmered, the image of the city framing it bending, as it vanished from view.
tbc...
