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.
A/N; Telepathic communication :psionic power:
A/N 2; Once again having butt kicked by QuickEdit. /magical spell/
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Trowa and Wufei slowly stepped into the enveloping darkness that awaited them, both wary and alert.
"Wait a moment, Wufei," Trowa quietly whispered as he knelt upon the hard ground below and began rummaging through the bottomless pouch that hung at his side.
"What are you doing?"
"Light. We won't be able to see anything once we delve further in and away from the light of the sun."
The psionisist stopped in his tracks. 'That's right. I can use the powers of infravision, as can the pseudodragon upon my shoulder, but Trowa can not.' Staring at his companion, watching as he struck steel upon flint over the oil-soaked torch's head, Wufei sighed softly. 'But it will make us more of a target, having this light. It will draw whatever's in these catacombs to us.'
As Trowa rose and nodded to Wufei, he frowned. "I know it'll bring attention to us, friend. That's what you're concerned about, right? Can read it off your face. Some things can't be avoided."
"Right," Wufei grunted quietly, his hand already resting comfortably upon the hilt of his katana.
"So, shall we head onward?"
"Of course."
And, taking stock of their situation, they continued on into darkness, the orange flicker of the torch their only light.
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The tiny blonde whimpered softly as the wizard's icy cold dead fingers gently caressed his cheek, leaving long red scratches to well with bright red blood where they traveled, where their nails had marred the previously perfect skin.
"So, your little friends are coming for you," the lich quietly whispered, its voice a mere breathe of a breeze past Quatre's ears.
Shivering, opening bruised eyes, the small boy chuckled softly. "Yes, they are."
"And you're still so certain that they'll be successful?"
"Of course."
The mage cackled quietly, even as it reached behind its prisoner, pressing its sharp pointed fingertips into the slices in the Solar's back, gripping one tiny protrusion from the boy's shoulder blades and wrenching it harshly. Rotting lips forming a cynical grimace of a smug smile, the lich chortled. "Without you to aid them, little Angel, they'll never succeed."
Quatre's eyes squinted tightly, trying to block the onset of tears that threatened to spill from his eyes due to the pain radiating from his back.
He shivered, attempting to remain perfectly still as he felt the undead mage's fingertips slowly caress the recently healed wound that marred his torso, where his intestines had been spilled but a short day ago.
"You forget, little Angel. I've most of what I need from you. Your blood, a sample of your flesh, a sliver of bone, a strand of feather. I've enough to create spells that are like has never before been seen. I've enough, perhaps, to even rend the barrier between our mortal magics and those divine powers you and yours amongst the Archons enjoy. The substance of an Angel to incur Angelic power is all I desired from you. Anything else is a fringe benefit."
Quatre cried out as the hand cruelly dug into his flesh, freeing blood from his body once more, letting its skeletal construction be darkened by ruby vitae that ran thickly along its length.
"And, should your little friends prove too much of a difficulty, I'll simply destroy you and leave your body for them to find. Thus, not only will I save myself, I'll have the pleasure of knowing that I've defeated your supposedly undefeatable little party."
"Why?" Quatre gasped through the pain that flooded his senses, racing along every nerve that was his being.
"Because, Angel. I am to be the only one to have the treasure that is you. I am to be the only one in these Realms to have the secret of your power. And I do not wish to risk everything I have gained by capturing and studying you to some childish little thief and his psionic friend. Best to lose the specimen and retain my components and knowledge gleaned than risk myself in battle with these wild, desperate children and risk not only losing the parts of you I've gleaned but also having the knowledge you contain spread, the components you can supply being made available to my rivals, or my own unlife being brought to an end.
"Nay, Angel. Rather to see you dead than to see them successful."
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Trowa dragged himself down the corridor. "Does this damned thing never end?" he muttered under his breath, even as the pseudodragon on Wufei's shoulder lazily collapsed into a sprawl around the warrior's neck.
Wufei glanced about. Indeed, the corridor had failed to change in any significant feature during their entire journey. Still it was constructed of the same brown-gray stone that had made up its construction for the entire journey. Still, it was a good three feet above Trowa's head, indicating it to be about nine feet in total height. Still, it was wide enough for the two of them to walk comfortably side by side, being approximately equivalent in width to its height. Still, the ground was the hard, slightly damp soil they'd been trouncing upon for the last couple hours, its grade slanted slightly downhill in the direction they were going, steadily taking them further and further underground.
More suddenly than they expected, the corridor finally did change.
It became a dead end.
"What the hell?" Wufei growled, glaring at the brown-gray stone wall before them, his onyx eyes narrowed and glistening with barely suppressed rage. "We travel all this way for a dead end!"
Trowa sighed, before shaking his head. "This doesn't make any sense at all. There's got to be a secret door or a hidden passage to an adjoining corridor around here somewhere. It makes no sense to have such a long corridor coming to a dead end."
"Or maybe the wall itself is an illusion," the Easterner suggested with a shrug.
"You might be right. Or the passage may continue on the other side. It may be thin enough to cut or blast our way through."
The tiny pseudodragon lifted its head and stared at the wall before hissing loudly, ducking underneath his Eastern companion's long black hair to hide itself from the wall before it.
Trowa stared at the little dragonette, even as Wufei arched a brow and scratched it upon its head. "What's wrong with it?" the acrobat asked.
"Hn. Let me ask it," Wufei replied, frowning. What is it, little one? he psionically whispered to the beast, his touch of :Contact: soft and soothing.
Stay away from it!
Wufei arched a brow, even as Trowa approached, intent on finding out if there was indeed a secret door located in the wall before them, utilizing the skills years of life on the street had taught him.
The thief gasped. "Wufei! Listen here!"
Staring, the onyx-eyed man took one step forward, eliciting another startled hiss and worried titter from the dragon. Breathing softly at it for silence, he leaned towards the wall.
It was then that he heard the moaning of voices begging softly for help, crying to be freed from their prison.
And it was then that he saw the hand shoot from the wall and grasp Trowa's shoulder, trying to absorb him into the stone before them.
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Duo sighed, sitting in the fields directly outside of the cavernous mouth that yawned before him and lead to the chill darkness of the lich's lair.
Gently petting Heero's blood-matted hair, he grimaced. "Dammit, you guys, hurry up. He ain't gonna last much lo-"
Faint rumbling filled the air.
"nger...?"
Lifting his gaze, Duo stared as the grasses around his shuddered.
And, grabbing Heero's broken and bleeding body into his arms, he instinctively rolled away from his position.
Violet eyes stared in complete shock as the ground where he'd just been sitting erupted into the air, the huge mandibles of the enormous many-legged worm-like Ankheg clamping down on nothing but air. Turning, the giant insect focused its multifaceted eyes on the mage and his downed companion, chitinous legs wiggling and antenna waving in the sunlight even as it launched itself forward and burrowed under the earth once more.
"Fucking hell!" the mage breathed, running to the jittery horse's side and hauling it back to Heero. Lifting his lover, he bound him to the saddle and slapped the horse's rear, watching as it charged in a panic towards the west.
And, gripping his staff, Duo whimpered and closed his eyes as the rumblings of the Ankheg's approach shook the ground below his feet once again.
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"TROWA!"
Launching himself forward, Wufei instantly had his friend's hand in his own, pulling violently against the strength of the hand that held him. Wresting the acrobat free, he staggered back a few feet, wrapping his arms protectively around the other man, staring with wide eyes as the hand slowly retracted into the wall.
"The... the secret door!"
"What about it?" Wufei grunted, slowly releasing Trowa from his grasp, keeping himself between the spindly thief and the wall.
"It's in the center of that damned thing. I saw the lines that outline it when I got close."
"You've got to be fucking kidding!" Wufei breathed, his eyes wide. "Who would be insane enough to put a secret door in the center of a Living Wall?"
"Anyone who'd be insane enough to capture a Solar?"
"True."
Trowa stared at the moaning, wailing wall, the fear in his emerald eyes slowly being replaced by sheer determination. "That's the only passage I've seen so far. That means that, somewhere behind that wall, Quatre's being held captive."
"Indeed," Wufei grunted, shaking his head.
"I've got to get through it."
"Such is suicide, Barton."
Facing his friend, green eyes hard and steeled, he smiled faintly. "I've got to. No matter if it's suicide or not. I've got to try."
Arching a brow, Wufei sighed softly. "There's the lich you've got to worry about, as well."
"I'll think about that when the time comes. Now, help me. How do I get through that thing? I can't spend enough time at that wall to find the trigger to open that secret door without risking being absorbed by the Wall."
"I can open a hole for you, my friend. I know not how far back to put a :Dimension Door: though... I'll have to :Detonate: the door."
Trowa stared at Wufei, his eyes wide with shock. "But... that'll..."
"Draw the wrath of the Wall? It's a risk I'm willing to take."
"But...!"
Smirking, the psionisist gently petted the small pseudodragon upon his shoulder. "You go with the silly acrobat, little one. Protect him from the lich's magic - he'll need your assistance. Because he's going through that wall, no matter how much he's going to protest it. Because, whether or not he likes it, I'll protect my friends to the best of my abilities. And it matters not if I fall here, or if I survive this battle. I will do what is necessary to see this mission to its completion, if it's the very last thing I do."
The pseudodragon nodded slowly before spreading its wings and flapping them a few times. Lightly springing from Wufei's shoulder, it flew to Trowa and landed upon his slender collar, curling about his neck, tucking its stinger-tipped tail under its head to hold itself in place like an exotic necklace.
"But..."
"No more 'but's', Trowa. Your Angel's waiting on the other side of that wall. It's time you go to him."
Biting his lip, realizing that there was no way he could possibly change the warrior's mind, Trowa simply nodded.
"Get ready."
Trowa nodded, his grip on his torch tightening.
"RUN!"
As Trowa burst into a run, the wall before him exploded, its sharp fragments of stone blasting into the chamber that laid beyond.
He barreled through the center of the hole Wufei's :Detonation: had created for him, tears coming unbidden to his eyes as he listened to the enraged screaming of the wall followed by the clanging of sword upon sword, the crunching of club crushing bone, the slick wet splatter of weapon slicing flesh, the explosion of magical spell after magical spell.
'Wufei... he's taking all of it on his own.'
'Gods, I know I don't pray to you often. But, if just this once you'll be willing to hear a blasphemous unbeliever out, please, please aid him.'
'He's going to need it.'
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"Well, that certainly was a shock," the lich softly whispered, its glistening, fiery glowing light that it used for eyes glaring into the orb upon the work table. "They've managed to get one of their numbers through my Living Wall."
"I told you," the blonde weakly laughed, "not to underestimate them."
"Then you'll simply have to be dead before he can arrive, won't you, little Angel?"
Stiffening his lips, his eyes instantly hard, Quatre glowered at the lich.
"I don't think so."
Both blinked. Both diverted their stares to the oak door that was directly to Quatre's left, seated in the same wall he was shackled to.
Hard green eyes glared at the undead mage.
And, instantly, Trowa cried out in pain as a huge wall of flame sprang into being directly below his feet, its magical fire still burning his flesh with its sheer intensity rather than with its touch.
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Duo screamed as the beast's giant mandibles clamped about him, the ground erupting from below his feet. The hot, searing touch of its acid sank into his skin, dissolving his flesh even as he fought to escape the monster's grasp as it began to grind its mandibles together. Bringing his staff down with every ounce of strength he had in his thin body, he jabbed its pointed tip directly into one of the monster's multifaceted eyes and was rewarded with being dropped flat onto his back.
The wind knocked completely out of him by falling over seven feet onto hard ground had him stunned and dizzy as he stared at the huge insect that towered over him, its pincher-like mouth swung wide open, acidic juices dripping from them and plopping onto the ground around him, hissing as they dissolved the soil they struck.
Duo rolled with a screech as the beast lunged again, coming to his feet with his hands already prepared.
"/MAGIC MISSILE/."
He stared as the magical bolts of energy raced towards their target and burst against it, sparkling as they penetrated its tough armor shell. The beast shuddered and clacked its mandibles in irritation as the mage cheered.
He was quickly pummeled into the ground by the giant insect's sprawling body as it lunged again, intent now on not simply eating him but on thoroughly killing him.
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Wufei snarled, shielding his face as the fiery blast of a /Burning Hands/ spell erupted from the wall, quickly followed by a billowing /Stinking Cloud/ and a bout of /Magic Missiles/ topped with blast of blinding /Light/.
'Three wizards, one priest, seven fighters and a mace wielded by what felt by its strength to be a dwarf... Gods be damned...'
It was then that Wufei staggered, his hand holding his head as he cringed, his lips curled into a grimace.
'And a psionisist... fuck!'
Quickly, he established :contact: with the psionic mind that'd touched his own.
His mind was instantly plagued with the screams and cries of the souls trapped in the Living Wall, each shoving their decades-long insanity built by entrapment in their stony tomb into the very depths of his brain, forcing their feelings of hatred and despair into his psyche.
He snarled, forcing one last tendril of contact to flow before tapping his psionic strength pool once again.
The :Psionic Blast: ripped along the contact lines, crushing the :Mind Blank: barrier the psionic mind within the wall had erected about itself.
The wall instantly attacked again, arms and eyes making themselves visible, weapons emerging from the stone itself to slash angrily at the Eastern warrior who vainly attempted to protect himself from the onslaught.
The corridor burned with the fire of magic.
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Trowa charged into the room, rolling away from the flames that burned him, only to find himself standing before the lich he'd wished so fervently to face. Slowly backing away, he stared in horrified shock as the skeletal undead mage did nothing more than lift a finger.
"/Die/."
Trowa stared.
The tiny pseudodragon around his neck twitched once before falling to the ground, limp and lifeless.
"And now that your protection against my magic is gone, prepare to suffer, boy."
Trowa barely managed to tumble out of the way as /Lightning Bolts/ erupted from the mage's fingers. Glancing up, he screeched and continued to tumble as nimbly as only the most proficient of acrobats could as the bolts of electrical energy continued to chase him around the room, destroying everything in their path to reach him.
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Quatre stared as Trowa's nimble feet kept him moving as spell after spell burst from the lich's mouth and hands.
'Think, Quatre, THINK! You've got to help him! You've GOT to!'
'I just can't let Trowa die like this! I can't!'
'But there's nothing I can do with that dratted little mole...'
'The mole.'
"Trowa!" Quatre cried as loudly as he could, "The mole! Kill it!"
Trowa ducked as a suddenly appearing beam of light sparkled, aimed right where his head once was and blew a hole into to the wall immediately behind him. "What?"
"The mole! Please! Kill it, so I can help you!"
"Oh no you don't," the lich hissed, drawing upon the powers of the Weave once again.
A multi-colored, nearly opaque sphere of hypnotizing, swirling colors exploded into being around the mage.
Trowa stared, his feet rooted to the ground where they were. "Prismatic... something or other...?"
"Sphere." Quatre whispered faintly.
"Can it be penetrated?"
"No."
"Then he can't attack us."
Quatre stiffened as he heard the beginning of chanting.
"Wrong."
And, for the two companions, time came to a dead standstill.
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Duo tried to crawl away.
He screamed as the Ankheg's mandibles crushed his foot, trying to hold him in place as it lifted its legs from its burrow and placed them on solid ground, starting to clatter forward.
Kicking wildly, wresting his foot away from the spittle-secreting mouth of the gigantic fifteen foot long insect, he hurriedly crawled as quickly as he could to put distance between himself and the frightful monster.
Not to be outdone by its prey, the Ankheg reared back, waving its foremost pair of legs in the air as it clacked its viciously sharp mandibles loudly and lurched forward, spitting a vicious stream of acid.
Duo attempted to roll out of the way, but unfortunately failed to avoid the entirety of the cone of burning digestive enzymes that the insect had released.
Shivering as it burned him, he squinted his eyes, staring through waterfalls of tears as it clattered quickly forward, mandibles wide, prepared to claim his life and its dinner.
'Think, Duo, think! Spells affect it! Spells affect it strongly! You've got to defeat it!'
'But if I unleash a fireball at it, that'll incinerate me as well. I don't have enough magical energy to defeat it.'
'Maybe I can just drive it away. Please, please, I've got to drive it away... make it think that I'm too much trouble to go through with, even though it could crush me like a bug.'
'Heh, that's almost fucking ironic. Being squished by a bug.'
'Fuck fuck fuck! It's right on top of me!'
And, reacting completely out of instinct, Duo threw his hands forward, grasping the huge mandibles as they came in for him, hurriedly reading the runes that burned themselves across the front of his brain like images projected onto a video monitor and activating the magical Weave that laid latent about him.
"/Shocking Grasp/" he screamed at the top of his lungs.
The insect shivered as the massive jolt of electricity roared through its sturdy frame, then wrenched its head away from Duo's grasp before turning swiftly about and plunging back into the ground.
Duo remained perfectly still for many a minute, waiting as patiently as he could.
The ground failed to rumble once more.
Lying on the ground, whimpering as the pain of the lacerations that covered his fair-skinned body became a throbbing reality upon the forefront of his mind, Duo waited for the world to turn black as it was inevitably leaning towards.
He barely registered the slimy wetness of the horse's tongue as it lapped at his face, having returned once the danger presented by the Ankheg was gone.
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Wufei staggered back a few feet, his breath coming in ragged gasps as he held his mystical katana before his body. The corridor burned with the remains of the paired fireballs that had roared from the wall, accompanied by the hateful effects of a hurled /Cause Light Wounds/ spell from the priest within the moving gray mass that was his enemy.
'I've barely enough strength to detonate part of that wall, if I can get past the defenses the psionisist within that thing has placed around it. One more blast, and my strength pool is empty save for my defenses. I can't relinquish them, or I open myself to attack - and I know not how powerful the mind I'm facing is.'
'Only two wizardry spells this time - meaning the other wizard within the wall is of no true power. However, the priest is still going strong, as are the other two wizards... they're going to present problems.'
'The fighters aren't lagging. Many, however, are missing. They aren't overly skilled.'
'I stand a chance. If I can destroy most of that wall with my :Detonation: I can defeat it.'
Reaching into the depths of his mind, he attempted to draw upon that power once more, a smirk falling upon his lips.
That smirk fell into a grimace as the psionisist that the wall held in its depths contacted his mind once more and forced the pain of his body through to his mind, amplifying and feeding it with the physical agony the wall itself had throughout its being.
He fell to his knees, clutching his head, the burning of the contact between them tingling along every nerve in his body, the burning of the corridor behind him caressing his skin, the burning of the fiery pain that raced through his mind pounding on his senses, forcing the direction of his focus away from blowing the wall to smithereens.
It focused instead on the burning.
Screaming erupted from the wall as it fell before the forces of :Molecular Agitation:. Swords slashed, spells flew, and the wall desperately tried to put itself out with conjured water and ice.
Wufei simply screamed as sword and club fell again and again, each strike splattering the stone around him with more of his lifeblood, the fire before him searing his flesh with its close proximity and incredible heat.
Soon, all fell silent in the corridor.
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Trowa groaned as he lay upon the ground, the lich's bony foot atop his head.
Lying in a swiftly growing pool of his own blood, Trowa felt what little strength he had remaining ebbing away.
Quatre cried out behind him, pain and worry in his voice.
After the mage had cast, time had stopped. When it had resumed, Trowa had toppled instantly to the ground, large segments of flesh missing from the touch of magical fire and electricity that had razed him while the lich had been operating beyond the flow of normal time. His legs refused to hold him upright any longer, and his arms refused to move. Quatre was in no better shape by the sound of things, and by the touch of dripping blood that fell upon his feet. He knew that he was lying right below the shackled boy, and that the hot, sticky mess that had fallen upon his heels was from the small blonde's body.
"Quatre..." he whispered softly, lifting one hand to grip the lich's ankle with what little force he could.
As his hand was kicked away, Quatre screamed.
"Free yourself..." Trowa whimpered, his eyes closing as he felt his life flowing from his body. ":Detonate: your shackles... and run... I'll get the rest..."
The lich's laughter met his ears, even as its voice crooned, "And what is it you think you'll be doing, boy, that will allow my little prize to escape?"
Trowa's voice chuckled with what little breath he had left. "This."
And the lich stared as the thief's dart, hurled by the small blowgun it'd failed to notice him maneuvering to his lips, sank into the small, unprotected Brain Mole and poisoned it. As the small creature shivered as the potent poison flowed through its body, the lich cursed the fact that it allowed its Prismatic Sphere to fall.
The lich stood perfectly still as it heard the metal shackles holding the Solar in place crackle and split.
"You hurt him."
He turned, watching as the enraged blonde's pale blue eyes flickered white, all color within those large orbs vanishing completely.
"You die."
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Trowa swallowed the warmth of the Healing potion as it flowed into his mouth, feeling its magic slowly begin to mend his mangled body back together. Closing his pained emerald eyes, he whimpered and laid his head into the blonde's lap. "Thank you... for rescuing me," he gasped softly as soon as he'd regained his breath from swallowing the thick liquor.
"Thank you for coming," Quatre softly whispered, even as he laid his hands on either side of the acrobat's temples, closing his gentle blue eyes and concentrating.
Trowa sighed as the comforting warmth of healing contact flowed over his mind and his body.
It was only when Quatre collapsed to the floor with a loud crash that his eyes snapped open and he stared, panic welling in his spirit.
The boy lay unmoving upon the cold cobblestone beside him.
tbc...
