Hey-o, and welcome to my Lil' World of Weirdness!!
I state for the record that I don't own Gundam Wing, or the wonderful characters that will be gracing this story. . . I do however lay claim to Ensign Saratone *again*, and I use him here purely as a replacement for your average Nameless OZ Minion. Other Characters I lay claim to are Faye Bloom, the wizened old man, Chang Xiao Fao Lan, and the Angels.
Let's just say . . . when my writer's block breaks, it's like a dam breaking . . . [shakes head slowly and winces]
Parings: 1x2x1, 3x4x3 . . .. Eh, heh, not that anyone reads up here, but I realised I'm giving away certain parts of my story with these!!
Okay, that's the legal stuff out the way!!
Please ENJOY AND PLEASE R&R!!! THANK YOU!!
Also, thanks to my beloved Bluegoo for her ever wonderful betareading, I thank her for the many hours that she has put in with me on this one, be it correcting my terrible grammar and spelling, or listening to me mumbling large chunks of it down the phone to her . . . You're great, Blue!! Even if you are Commander and Chief of the Apostrophe Gestapo . . . [ducks and runs off, screaming over shoulder] GO READ AND REVIEW HER STORIES!!
Thank you to Two-Mix for the lyrics, I don't own Just Communication!!
//Thinking//
"Speaking"
*Stress/Emphasis*
Writing/Dream sequence
Telepathic thoughts
:: Lyrics ::
~*~
For The Grace Of Knights And Angels
By Doctor Megalomania
Part Eighteen: Teachings in enchantment
"From now on . . ."
Jikan paused as he glanced at each of the knights, he smiled sweetly. He was now a boy of around eight or nine, the others maturing along with them. The Angels had explained that this was a result of the training. As the knights got stronger, the angels grew to their full forms. As simple as that. Jikan made a cute Quatre . . . according to Duo. The Five knights were now allowed to see each other on a regular basis, mostly to talk never to train together. The time spent together was brief, rarely lasting more than half an hour a day. Quatre glanced at Trowa. He missed his friend's company more and more . . . he blinked and looked at the others as well, not that he wasn't missing them too . . .
"You will be trained in the Arts and the Crafts . . ." Jikan beamed radiantly. "Together as a group."
Duo blinked, "Are you going to teach us the . . ." he stared at his own angel, "The floaty thingy, you did with the pond?"
"Amongst other things . . ." Ogama confirmed with a smile. The dark angel was sat in the shade, away from proceedings, and out of habit now, Duo joined him. Each former pilot sat or stood close to his Angel. Wufei's angel, Konbo, sat on the windowsill, regarding the room with a distain. Clearly thinking they could spend the time better training. Trowa's angel, Armbrust, sat talking quietly to his hawk. Trowa had his head tipped, listening with one ear to the meeting, and the other trained on his angel's quiet mutterings. Heero's angel was sat in a shaft of sunlight near Ogama, clearly enjoying the warmth of the light. Heero sat beside him, his own intricate white and blue-trimmed cloak pooled around him.
"As a group . . . all five of us will train together now?" Wufei asked quietly, he frowned and glanced at the others, "What are the Arts and Crafts?"
"If it's needlepoint . . ." Duo grinned, and winked, shaking a finger, "I'm already pretty good at it!"
There was quiet laughter from the angels as Jikan continued, "Not exactly . . . there is a Dojo near the others' village, we will begin to train there now . . . you will be taught how to handle your weapons, and yourselves in magic and the enchantments . . ." he rose from the floor fluidly and paced around, "by now you must have realised that your magic will have direct attributes from your assigned spiritual being . . . Quatre." The blonde blinked and nodded. Jikan smiled at him gently, "You have Time. You will be taught to weave it to your own spell, to your calling . . . you shall be taught to make it flow in whatever direction you want . . ." Jikan paused by Armbrust, "Be it forward . . ."
Armbrust raised a closed fist, and opened it to reveal a seed. He placed it on the concrete ground by Jikan. The blonde angel knelt, feminine in his movements, graceful in his actions. His small pale hand hovered over the seed. The knights moved closer to observe the spell.
The seed wobbled, jerked into life. At an exponential rate it grew, roots sought out cracks in the tiles, leaves unfolded, and flower buds exploded with colour. Trowa drew a breath . . . in the time for him to fill his lungs, the seeding became a plant became a small bush.
Armbrust reached out, his darker tanned hand brushing Jikan's before stoking the green leaves of the small bush. He raised his jade eyes to Jikan, who smiled again, and flipped his hand over. "Or . . ." continued the Angel of Time, "Be it backward."
The bush became a plant became a sapling became a seed. All in the blink of an eye.
There was a small explosion of magic, fine gold dust sprinkled down around the small brown seed. Jikan looked up and smiled, "Or even . . ." he pulled up his other hand, and held them parallel with each other. Jikan smiled as he made a motion like he was turning a sandglass over. Quatre gasped quietly as the Angel of the Beasts appeared to cease all movement entirely, and Jikan got up and moved around him as if his momentum had been sped up. Jikan left a faint echo of himself as he moved. Armbrust was moving, albeit slowly, he lifted his arm . . .
Jikan sat beside him, restlessly, then ran off and got a book.
. . . then he opened his hand . . .
Jikan walked around him, paced back and forth, reading and flicking through the pages.
. . . Armbrust threw the seed in the air. . .
The small blonde angel smiled, cried, laughed, grew angry at various passages.
. . . the seed spun gradually . . .
The book clapped shut, and was quickly abandoned, as Jikan ran around Armbrust analysing the slow seed from various angles.
. . . His jade eyes started to blinked slowly . . .
A pale hand reached out and grabbed the seed, and twirled it around. The small blonde angel moving agitatedly as he glanced between the Angel of the Beasts and the seed. He glanced up at the shocked knights and put the seed back into its ascension. He raised his hands again as if he was holding an hourglass and twisted them sharply.
Time returned to normal.
Armbrust finished his blink, and the seed landed neatly in his palm. He glanced at Jikan, and nodded. The angel laughed, and turned to Quatre, "You will learn to bend time, and apply it to any situation."
Quatre swallowed and nodded. "I'll try." He glanced at his friends, clearly unsettled by the amount of magic that he was supposedly in command of. "Good." Armbrust's voice was quiet. He looked up at Trowa, "You, Trowa Barton, Triton Bloom, nanashi . . . you will learn that nature is your greatest ally . . . this is not something you have not already mastered . . ."
Trowa blinked pensively, "What do you mean?"
Armbrust stood, his demeanour cool and icy. "How did you survive?" He moved away, plants once more growing and dying in his wake. Trowa had learnt that this was something Armbrust could control . . . when the angel was completely concentrated, not an ounce of magic was wasted on this, but when he was thinking, or talking something through, the angel was prone to growing small things. He glanced over his shoulder at Trowa, extending his falconer's arm toward his hawk. "From what I gather, you were lost at the age of two . . ." The white hawk flew over and perched on his arm, "From what you describe you were not found until you were the age of approximately four or five . . . how did you survive?"
"I . . ." Trowa frowned, it wasn't something he actively remembered, he shook his head, "I don't know."
Armbrust turned to him, his aura of magic filling the room with a shine tingling sensation, like unseen phantoms were running their icy fingers along their bones. The angel stared at Trowa, ". . . Wind . . ."
The green eyed former pilot blinked . . .
. . . and was taken back to a time, when the wind blew hard into his face. Yet he stood, among the tall grasses. His lips parted as he breathed in the crisp taste of the gusting gale. It played with his hair, blowing it around his face. The clothes on his body lifting and swirling around him. . .
Duo frowned as Trowa's face became slack, the usually sharp eyes softening as if lost in memory. Trowa blinked slowly, as Armbrust whispered again, ". . . whispers . . ."
. . . of the tall grasses as they brushed all around him. Hiding him from view, keeping him warm. The grasses bent and danced all around him, sharing whispered gossip, and hushed song all about the lost child who walked among them. The grasses touched his crown as if in blessing, every day when one day he stood and found he was taller than they. The stalks tickled his ears now, teased him as he stared out at the sky and its beautiful twinkling lights . . .
Heero glanced somewhat uneasily from his angel to Armbrust. The Angel of the Beasts stared at Trowa, working a spell over his friend with his simple words. Katana caught his glance and smiled reassuringly. Armbrust nodded, "How did you survive, nanashi?"
"I . . ." Trowa blinked again, and came out of whatever trance he had been in, "I don't remember . . . I . . ." he swallowed, "The plants and the animals . . . I . . ."
Armbrust walked over and placed his fingers under Trowa's chin, "You will learn to accept within your consciousness what you are capable of . . . you will learn . . ." Armbrust brought up his hand, uncurling it to reveal the seed again, "To make things grow . . ." The seed grew again, this time a little slower and into a different plant. This time it had three round rosy leaves, long creamy coloured roots spilling over his palm and trailing eagerly to the ground, scrambling to find the cracks in the tiling once more. A large bud spun and twisted as it grew up, caressing Armbrust's cheek. He smiled in his quiet way, before continuing, "And you will learn to make them become something else . . ."
The bud peeled back to reveal bright sapphire petals. //It's the same blue as Quatre's eyes// Trowa found himself noting absently, before gasping aloud as the petals fluttered and took off. A beautiful azure winged butterfly flickered around the room. The butterfly landed on Duo's nose briefly, and the braided former pilot blinked and stared at it for a moment, his body going utterly still. Heero stared, a single thought running through his mind to describe it, //Baka no Kawaii desu.// Wufei snorted, breaking the spell of silence on the room. The butterfly quivered and flirted off Duo's nose to fly around the room again to land once again, this time in Jikan's hair. The angel smiled, and lifted a hand to brush it off.
"This is not the only thing you will learn . . . nature is so much more than just animals and plants . . ." Armbrust spoke, a tinge of pride in his near silent voice, "You will learn to control many, many other facets of the elements."
Trowa drew a breath as the butterfly took flight once more, and gently dissolved in the air as it flew, wings first, leaving nothing but sparkling jade green powder to even suggest there had been anything there in the first place.
His presentation over, Armbrust sat beside Jikan, and stared expectantly at Konbo. The dragon warrior pushed himself out of his window seat, and landed gracefully on the floor. "Wufei." He began sharply, not even glancing at the others, "You will learn . . ." he opened the palm of his hand, a bright flame just bursting violently into existence, "Fire manipulation. You will learn to control it, master it, and use it to your advantage." The little version of Wufei paced impatiently towards Heero and stared at him, "You will also learn that even the most perfect of soldiers is at your command."
Heero frowned deeply as Konbo raised a pale hand and held it in front of his face.
"No matter their training. No matter their allegiances." He raised his hand, and Heero's face fell slack completely. The perfect soldier shifted, and got to his feet as Konbo walked away. The Angel glanced at Wufei again, "Time may be able to command great armies of men, but only the warriors can band together and form a force that can penetrate and destroy with the utmost of efficiency."
Heero's expression was blank; his eyes dead, as he lifted his sword from its sheaf and practiced fluidly with it. His motions were sharp, defined but lacked any spark of life. He was the perfect solider once more. Duo felt a little uneasy as he watched Konbo control Heero with simple motions of his hand. The Angel of the Warriors nodded, and Heero slumped to the floor once more, his sword clattering against the ground. A sluggish blink or two later, Heero was back to being alert. He frowned, and shivered involuntarily. Konbo nodded, he shook his hand once. A fine blood red sand glimmered as it floated to the ground, he glanced up with bottomless black eyes, "This is what you will learn from me, Wufei."
Wufei's jaw tightened, he gritted his teeth before nodding his confirmation. The dragon's Angel spun and returned to his seat, glaring pointedly at the angel of mercy. Katana got to his feet slowly, and smiled encouragingly at Heero. "Mercy has no definable power; it is something determined by the knight . . . You, Heero-san, are capable of battling fiercely, and yet you hold great compassion within your soul . . ." Katana glanced at Duo, "Hidden deeply, I'm sure, but it is there none the less. You have the power to control light . . ." Cobalt blue eyes flickered in Heero's direction, as Katana lifted his hand. "I must admit, this may not seem like much . . . but when you are dealing with your human Laws of Physics . . ."
The angel smiled slightly as he seemed to collect all the light in the room. Quatre glanced to his own angel, the shaft of light the tiny blonde was sitting in seemed to bend and twist toward Katana. The tiles beneath the merciful angel began to glow a dazzling white and a breeze began to blow around him. The angel lifted off the ground, his whole being encompassed in pure luminosity. He lifted his eyes to Heero once more; they glowed with an unearthly radiance. He smiled as his power started to increase, and small loose clumps of dust started to react, lifting off the ground as if weightless. Duo gasped as he felt his hair suddenly disobeyed gravity. He glanced at his own angel; Ogama scowled at Katana as the angel's chestnut locks started to swirl around him.
With every breath Katana took . . .
Quatre gasped aloud as he found himself floating off the ground and Trowa was silent as he too abandoned the floor. Everything in the room started to hover, Wufei reached out and grabbed the windowsill, his angel glowering extremely. Duo reached out and grabbed Heero's hand to right himself as he slowly began to spin upside down.
. . . the ball of light pulsed with unfathomable power.
Katana smiled to himself, gazing fondly at the magic in his hands. "You suddenly find you have a lot of power under your jurisdiction." He nodded, and spread his hands, gently landing on his feet again. The magic began to ebb back to its original positions. The knights floated back to their previous positions, landing with innate gentleness. Katana smiled once again, and bowed slightly. There was a moment of stunned awe, as the knights took in what they had seen. The angels looked at each other with varying amounts of approval. Duo blinked as he took this in then snorted, //Magic 101// he sighed and looked at his angel. Ogama stood with his usual silent grace, and quietly moved to the centre of the room, to stand where Katana had given his show. The angel of death stared at each of them evenly before settling on Duo.
"You already possess the ability to kill." He stated bluntly, his hair still loose and curling around him in a waterfall of chestnut silk strands. Duo groused internally, as his hair never seemed to look that vibrant. The angel blinked once before continuing, "However I shall teach you not only to take life, but also to become a true Shinigami." His eyes were wide and solemn, as water suddenly started to pool on the floor underneath him. The angel lifted his robes as if not to get them wet, and stepped into the air. The combination of his freed hair, his disturbing barren violet eyes and his black robes made even Heero feel a little unsettled. The angel continued, his magic causing ripples of purple energy in the water below him, "Water is Death's element. For it giveth life, and can take it away. As will you be able to . . ." Duo frowned, obviously a little troubled by this prospect, Ogama continued, "As you are perhaps already aware of . . . stealth is Death's best cover . . ." The angel blinked once, and looked down. The violet ripples increased, and became a whirlpool. The angel looked at them again, and sank straight down into it.
They stared . . .
The whirlpool closed up with a glistening of amethyst residue sprinkling down on the ground.
. . . they blinked.
Ogama's voice echoed around them, "I will teach you to disappear without warning . . . and to travel great distances . . ." A spark of light exploded by the windowsill, and the whirlpool splashed back into existence. Ogama walked out of it, the same unconcerned look on his small face. He continued to walk forward, "Not only through the use of portals, but on the battle field . . ." He blinked slowly, "I shall teach you to be as invisible as air . . ."
Ogama paced forward, and disappeared as effortless as if he were merely breathing. The short angel walked forward and disappeared as if he had walked behind the gateway in the village. This time his voice was not heard, until Duo yelped. They spun to see Ogama's hand grab onto Duo's braid, and then the rest of him reappear. The angel smiled and smoothed his hand over Duo's head and gently kissing his temple. "You will be taught simply this. To take life or to give it."
His presentation of skill over, Ogama simply sank to his knees and waited. The angels simultaneously closed their eyes and calmly waited. Each of the new knights looked at each other with various expressions. Surprise was in everyone's eyes, Wufei looked mildly excited about living out a childhood myth, Quatre looked very awed, his ocean blue eyes wide as he stared from each angel to another. Trowa looked a little disturbed, his one visible eye narrowed slightly as he thought about what he had seen. Duo glanced at his angel, then at Heero. He blinked as he realised Heero still had a hold on his hand. The perfect soldier's expression was carefully blank, but even Duo could see the astonishment in his dark blue eyes.
"You have one week."
The knights blinked and stared at Jikan as the small angel stood gracefully. He smiled at them reassuringly, "There will be no further training for a week, please use this time to prepare yourselves mentally, and to spend with your friends." The other angels stood, and moved toward their friend. Ogama glared at Katana who chuckled. The angel of death tossed his head irritably, "I don't remember you asking to play with my hair."
"We have this argument every time . . ." Katana countered, mirth in his deep blue blank eyes, "I can't help it if you are so beautiful, Death."
Ogama scowled at him, and pointed at the mass of hair. "Fix it."
Katana smiled once more, and bowed slightly. He lifted a hand, and twisted it in a sharp motion. Duo blinked as Ogama's hair quickly braided itself. Jikan smiled again, and looked at the knights. "You may leave the weapons as you first found them . . ." He nodded and motioned himself and the others, "We will sleep there for a week. You may contact us if you need us, otherwise. . ." He tipped his head pleasantly, as he raised his hand, "Enjoy your time off."
The knights stepped back as the Angels started to dissolve like the butterfly, turning into a fine sparkling dust that glowed and faded into the air. The new knights stared at their weapons for a moment, feeling the magic pulse dimly from them. Quatre sighed, and glanced at his friends. "I'm going to sleep here tonight . . ." he started to walk out the communal room, "I need to think before I travel down to the village . . ."
The others swiftly agreed that that was a good idea.
--------------
And Now It's Time To LEAVE IT TO DOCTOR MEGALOMANIA!!!
DrM: [yawns] Too . . . Damn . . . Sleeeeeepy . . . to write humorous . . . author's notes . . .
Wing: [dances] YAY!!!
DrM: [falling asleep] damn you . . . Wing . . . Next chapter . . . will have . . . reveeeenggggeee. . .
Wing: [happily] Please R&R while she's out for a bit! [thinks to self] now, where'd I put that permanent marker pen?