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, 5xM, 6X9, 13xUne, OdinxHelen and hints of DxR and JxG – I know, I know, nobody wants to imagine it, but I kinda think it's fairly cute . . .

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 . . .

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

Chapter Twenty-Three: Daybreak

"Why . . . oh why. . ."

Duo panted as he sank to the ground, and lay back. His silver plated scythe was still attached to his back, like any of the knights; he had to carry his weapon to training sessions. It was interesting to see what everyone got, especially as it reflected their Gundams. Beside him lay Trowa and Quatre. Heero was crouched, beads of sweat running down his face. Meirin and Wufei sat nearby, wearily leaning against each other. Training in the magic arts had formally begun, and for the last month the boys had been travelling up and down the mountain to attend their classes in the dojo in the village. Every morning at dawn, the boys rose and made their way down with the Angel who was giving lessons for that day. Breakfast was had with their families, then a few hours of training, then lunch, then more training with a different Angel, and then dinner. Another hour or so of training, then they had to make the arduous journey back up the mountain.

"Why on Earth isn't there an easier way?!"

 Duo grumbled as he stared at the rapidly darkening sky. Ogama and Katana exchanged a look before Katana smiled, "There will be, when you discover it."

Duo rolled onto his side and glared at the angel, "What is it?"

Katana smiled and kept quiet.

Duo growled and rolled to lie on his back again, "This is getting us nowhere . . . I can see it now. . . the reason we fail fighting the dark chi is because we're all flat on our backs trying to catch our breath from yesterday. . ."

The six humans were standing near the top of the mountain, a small precipice to one side. The setting sun was giving the air a warm amber glow. Ogama and Katana were their trainers for the day, teaching them in levitation. Progression was slow, Ogama said, because the pilots didn't actively believe they were capable of it. Only Wufei had so far succeed in rattling a rock, making it sway back and forth. Apart from that, the Gundam pilots were failing miserably. Meirin was better than any of them, with her ability to cast a small flame of fire with the aid of the Dragon claw. She didn't pass out any more, but still, the principle of the thing ate away at the pilots. Quatre rolled over and stared at Ogama and Katana as they floated a little off the ground, both appearing to sitting upon the air itself. He frowned, and sat up. He picked a pebble out of his pocket and stared at it. The small round pebble was lightly engraved, had a few sprinklings of gold on it, and weighed a little too much for its size.

He put it in front of him and concentrated.

Slowly he extended his hand over it, and made an upward motion. Biting his pale lip, the boy scrunched up his nose in concentration, his aqua coloured eyes sliding shut. He frowned, and opened an eye to check his progress. Not even a wiggle. "This is just so . . ." Quatre rumbled quietly to himself, "Irritating. Why isn't it moving?"

"Because you don't believe it will move."

Ogama sank beside him and put his hand over it, the pebble rocked and eagerly jumped off the ground. Quatre frowned, "how do you do that?"

"Because I don't believe I can't do it." Ogama flashed him a slightly smirk, "because I reject the idea that I cannot control it." He handed Quatre the pebble, "Try again."

Quatre stared at it. He bit his lip, and glanced at Ogama, "you don't have to believe that the pebble will stay on the ground, just because it's . . ." he blinked as realisation settled in, "Just because it's happened before . . ."

Ogama smiled his small smile again, "why should it?" He leant over and took the pebble from Quatre, "what's to say . . ." he covered it in his hands for a moment, before opening them again, "that the next time you see it, it won't turn into a beautiful flower?"

A deep purple rose blossomed in his small hands.

"Or perhaps. . ." Ogama tilted his head, and blinked slowly, "that the flower won't turn into a vibrant beetle?"

The petals hardened and folded in, the dark green stems curled and twitched. A scarab beetle scrawled over Ogama's hand for a moment, before he offered it to Quatre. The Arab flinched automatically. Scarabs were notorious flesh eaters, scavenging not only on the dead but also the living. Had Rashid or any of his men been here, they would have shot at it, stamped on it. Anything to kill it before it crawled inside and made its way around your body.

Ogama blinked, "Are you scared of scarabs?"

Quatre swallowed, unable to take his eyes of the beetle. He nodded.

"Sorry," Ogama passed his hand over it lightly. "I forget that everyone is not as fascinated by these beautiful creatures as I am."

The blonde headed knight shuddered.

"I wouldn't worry . . ." Ogama chuckled, causing Quatre to flick his eyes up to the angel. "You see . . ." Quatre gapped as the purple beetle changed back into the gold speckled pebble. "Because if you don't believe it's there, it isn't."

Quatre swallowed again, and hesitantly picked up the pebble afraid it would cha—

Trowa jumped as Quatre suddenly yelped. He lifted his head, and sat up as Quatre stood, violently shaking his hand. The blonde's eyes were squeezed tightly shut as he yelped again. Wufei jumped over and grabbed Quatre's hand.

A bright gold-shelled beetle was biting into his hand.

Duo held Quatre's shoulders as the boy whispered fearfully, "please get it off me. Please get it off me now."

Duo blinked as he realised his normally unshakable friend was trembling uncontrollably, "Quatre, it's okay, it's just a beetle."

"It's not okay!" Quatre cried out, the beetle was making his hand bleed now. "It's a scarab! Get it off me!"

Wufei knelt down quickly and plucked Duo's knife from his boot. "Calm down, Winner. I'm going to pry it off now." He fought to steady Quatre's hand, "Winner, I'm serious!"

Trowa reached over and laced his hand in Quatre's hair, bringing his lips to the smaller boy's ear. "Quatre, calm down, it's okay, Quatre . . ." Heero tilted his head, and stared at the beetle, he grabbed Quatre's forearm, freeing up Wufei's hands. He glanced over at the two angels, Katana was clearly amused by this, and Ogama looked decidedly annoyed. Heero frowned, and filed this away.

Trowa's whispering was helping, but Quatre couldn't take his eyes off the beetle. Fear was beginning to engulf him, his heart thumped in his chest, and the scarab was preparing to dive under his skin.

Some small part of him asked why he was so scared of it, when it was just a pebble.

Quatre blinked, wasn't that what Ogama was asking him? Wasn't that why he couldn't lift it? Because he believed that the pebble would stay on the ground, because the law of gravity dictated what went up always came down . . . but he had only come to believe this because he had seen it happen. He believed that the pebble would turn into a scarab because he'd seen it happen before and was afraid it would happen again . . .

//turn the beetle into a pebble// Quatre stared at the thing in his hand, // because that is what it is. . .//

Wufei blinked as he stared at the gold pebble. A fine pale yellow sand, as if someone had let off a small party streamer, fluttered around it before fading away. "Eh?" He frowned and glanced at Quatre, the blue eyes were extraordinarily calm.

"You can let go now . . ." Quatre murmured as he continued to stare at the stone. He glanced up, "you did this?"

"No . . ." Ogama pursed his lips for a moment before explaining, "in your visible spectrum my magic would appear as purple . . . anything I create would be purple or black . . . because these are the colours of death."

"It was gold." Duo murmured, "like Jikan's magic . . ." he glanced at Quatre then back at his angel, "like Quatre's?"

Ogama nodded.

Quatre looked resolutely at the pebble. "I thought it would change and it did . . ." he lifted his hand to level the pebble with his eyes. The blonde haired Knight narrowed his eyes. His brow furrowed with concentration as he sucked in his bottom lip, biting it with kitten white teeth. He breathed in and out slowly, and continued to stare at the pebble as he forced his frown to smooth out. Slowly, he lowered his hand, but the pebble remained in the air.

The other knights stepped back, as Quatre continued, "but you didn't do it, I did . . . because we *are* capable of magic . . ." he began to smile, as the pebble began to sparkle brighter, "because I can believe we can. . . we can . . ."

Trowa watched in amazement as a circle of gold suddenly branded itself into the ground under his smaller love's feet. It was two circles, both rings were thick, between them were the various symbols Jikan surrounded himself with, hour glasses, clockwork cogs, and roman numerals. It began to throw up a fine gold dust, which sparkled in the air around Quatre. The fair-haired knight paid no attention as his white blonde locks fluttered away from his face. He continued to stare at the pebble. It began to glow with power, getting brighter and brighter as it floated higher up in the air.

"Because we can do *anything* . . ."

The glowing stone lifted higher, and Quatre tilted his head back. His cloak billowed around him; his two scimitars and their gold blades were criss-crossed to his back. There was a keening sound, a low vibration rattling the air, as the two gold blades were filled with magic. Quatre's eyes were wide and childlike with wonder and they didn't glow with power as the angels' did; they sparkled dully in comparison to Jikan's, but there was an unearthly force hidden in their depths.

The other knights looked on with sheer amazement as Quatre drew a breath, and closed his eyes. All around them, the ground began to vibrate, dust, small speck as of stones were the first to float slowly off the ground. Then rocks, and stones as big as Heero's fist, floated weightless. Meirin made a small cry as the massive boulder she was sitting on suddenly rocked and shook. It groaned as it left the ground.

"Wu . . . Wu . . . Wu . . ." she stuttered with awe, she looked down at the ground that she floated a good three feet off, "Wufei . . ."

Wufei glanced between her and his friend. Quatre's head tilted back as if he were staring at the sun. A small smile graced his lips; a sheen of light sweat beaded his brow. Quatre's voice was barely above a whisper as he murmured, because we can do anything.

Duo's mouth fell open, his shoulders drooping as he stared at Quatre's feet. The cloak was billowing away from them, so he could see very clearly. Duo reached out and tugged at Heero's white-cloaked elbow, Quatre's dark brown boots were no longer touching the ground. "Hee. . . Heero . . ."

"I know . . ." Heero whispered back in shock. Quatre was levitating. Everything Ogama had taught them about, the theory of levitation, Quatre was doing it. He looked at Quatre as the boy's eyes opened again, a pale hand reached out slowly to the ball of light hovering before him. Quatre's weapons fell loose of their dark leather holdings on his back, and slowly floated away from him. The two gold bladed weapons began to orbit Quatre, spinning with deadly grace as they sped up. The air filled with a thrilling, yet frightening sound of sharp swishes. The blades became like two golden meteors, leaving a bright glinting trail behind them as they spun around the blonde haired boy. 

Trowa blinked and stared at the space just behind Quatre, the air was slightly blurred, and every so often there was a reflection of gold light. "Quatre's not floating . . ." he whispered, shaken, he pointed at the ethereal dragonfly wings. "Quatre's flying . . ."

The hovering knight held the glowing pebble to his chest, and smiled over at his friends. He looked awesome, almost like a real angel, as if he wasn't quite aware of himself. His eyes weren't completely focused as he smiled, we can do anything we imagine. 

He blinked slowly, as he glanced over at Meirin. The black haired girl was sat on a floating boulder. Quatre blinked slightly faster as he realised, there were rocks flying all around him. "What . . .?"

It happened in a blink of an eye.

The glowing stone Quatre held to his chest stopped shining; the circle beneath him brightened then burnt out. The magic's visible form, a fine gold dust, faded, falling away to the Earth once more. And everything that floated – including Quatre – fell back to the ground with a thud.

"Ow . . ." Quatre winced as he rubbed his backside with one hand. He winced, and closed one eye, "Aaah! That hurt . . ."

"But wasn't entirely without grace . . ." He looked up, as his Angel suddenly appeared. Quatre blinked, his tiny angel had grown. When he had left that morning, Jikan was a boy of nine, or possible ten, now he looked just shy of Quatre as he had been during the wars. Possibly aged around eleven or twelve. Quatre looked over at Katana and Ogama, they were the same height as the angel who was previously the shortest of them all. Jikan tilted his head, well done Quatre, not bad for your first attempt at serious magic.

"That was so cool. . . that was beyond cool . . . that surpassed cool!"

Duo babbled quickly as he paced beside Quatre. The blonde was still trembling a little and seemed a little drained, but he still babbled back to Duo with an excited timbre. He described the whole experience as if it was a dream to him. It was coming into late evening and the stars were beginning to show. They were just coming up to the temples now. Wufei shook his head, and wrapped an arm around his wife's waist as they traversed a few loose rocks. Heero walked beside Trowa as the three angels walked ahead of them, talking quietly among themselves. Wufei pull a loose strand of black hair from his hair and glanced over at his wife. She had managed to walk through the barrier with him, her hand held tightly in his own. She was the first of the non-knights to visit the temple and the other angels. They were getting steadily closer, he felt, to being these mystical knights. He could feel magic in his hand, when he sat in front of a candle, as Konbo suggested, he found with only staring at the candle he could make it taller at will, or shorter. He could bend it left or right, and make it circle around. With a little more concentration, he could even make the flame go out.

The grip around his hand was tightened.

Wufei blinked and looked over at his wife. Meirin smiled at him, as she looked around. The woman smiled, with appreciation of the old structures before leaning over and whispering, "Where do you rest?"

"In the shrine apartments of the Angel of the warriors." He murmured back, he smiled at her. "Don't worry, the bed is very comfortable . . ."

"And I will ensure that you are well taken of." Meirin looked up at the temple's entrance where Konbo stood with Armbrust. "Welcome to our temples, Meirin, wife of the Knight of Warriors."

Meirin blinked at the formality, but quickly recovered. She bowed deeply, "Thank you . . ." she paused as she straightened, she levelled a cool gaze at him. "Konbo, Angel of Warriors."

He nodded, and turned away lifting his arm to indicate that they should follow. "I should hope that you had a good journey." He glanced over at Jikan, "We sense a strong use of magic . . . Congratulations Quatre."

"Indeed," Jikan reached over and touched Quatre's hand, "You've mastered the first of enchantment's deeper practices." He smiled broadly, "Belief. This will be very important . . ." the blonde headed angel smiled at each of them in turn, "you must believe you are capable, before you are capable . . ."

Morning came slowly.

Relena stared out at the massive engines as they were being built; a sense of fear filled her. They were abandoning the Earth. Dorothy had taken over the building process, her immense organisation skills making the difficult task a little easier to manage. While the Gundam pilots were holed away in their secret position, the rest of the Earth Sphere United Nation prepared for the worst. While one or two of the smaller colonies on the outer edges of Colony Orbital had not responded to the pleas for help, the largest colonies at the five L points had responded enthusiastically, providing much needed information and advice on building new colonies to house the Earth Sphere's populace should the Knights fail. Everyone was able to see the threat now, the massive black cloud of malevolence that blotted out the stars, the small ruin of a colony ship that was advancing toward them now and along side that the bastard child weapon of the Libra and the Balji.

//Shooting fish in a barrel//

Dorothy's words were uncomfortably true, and the decision had come that they were going to abandon the Earth until they could return . . . if they could return. Millions were already being moved, the sick mostly, to the colonies with care enough to support them. Children were being evacuated, too young to help or fight, and the old too elderly to fight or help in construction. Anyone incapable of helping was being moved as far away as possible, and with them some of Earth's most precious heritages, art, statues, the history of the planet, there was even talk of creating a Noah's ark ship, to rescue Earth's flora and fauna. The panic was not so much that of Humanity was facing extinction, the fear and panic was generated more about the fact that Humanity would have to face the idea that all its history, its past would be lost. For Humanity, it was a year long of that moment a father and mother have when their house burns down, that moment just before they escape the house where they look around and see the family pictures burn in their frames, see their furniture and possessions melt and burn, everything they've ever strived for, saved for, going up in flames. 

Her plan to teraform Mars, make it habitable to live on . . . a plan that was projected to take at least half a lifetime was being rapidly reviewed, copies of the plans being sent to anyone and everyone. They were being prepared to be put in practice, even with the colonies assistance, it was widely known that not everyone could live on colonies, the same way colony children found it hard and labouring to live on Earth, many people who'd lived on Earth all their lives would find it impossible to live on the colonies for the rest of their natural lives and besides, the strain it would put on their limited resources would be terrible. It would take only a few minor faults, electrical, engineering faults, and the delicate ecosystem of a community would vanish into smoke. . . and nowhere to turn for succour, except another colony even more stretched than themselves. . . Cryogenics, genetic engineering, status pods . . . technology that had been rejected in the beginnings of the After Colony era was being brought back to life. Money values dropped incredibly, as everyone realised it would be impossible to make money out of this situation.    

Relena closed her eyes and turned away from the massive window, away from the gigantically engines which would become the hearts of their escape.

She could not take the chance that Heero and his friends would fail, and yet her heart sank that she could not trust them so much as to render the need for the escape ships completely unnecessary. She wondered how they were doing, how their training was going. Zechs and Noin reported in every two weeks and their latest report was due in three days. So far everything was proceeding well, they said. They'd made an emergency call that had Une worried. The group had experienced their first attack, but it was a feeble yet frightening strike. Relena glanced around, up to the top set of engineers' offices. The Scientists had taken that as their refuge. They worked, designed, argued, compromised, tested, built, ate, slept and lived in those officers over the last few days. The lack of complete contact with their boys threw the elderly men into their work. They worked harder than anyone else at the rescue compound; they put in more hours then anyone else.

A bright flash of balmy pink past the high window, and she smiled.

Professor G had managed to track down Howard and his scavengers, and convinced them to help out. The sixth Gundam scientist was reluctant to work with Doctor J, the two had had a massive falling out decades before, but they overcame this to work together.

J looked up as Howard paced past the window once more.

"You're making me dizzy, Howard."

Howard glanced up from his clipboard, and shrugged. "Does that make it my problem your old eyes can't handle my shirt?" He sniffed and flicked a page, "this spark plug on the fifth intake valve looks weak, I wouldn't use such a small size for it . . ." he looked at J, "Jōdan, you wouldn't use this on Wing Gundam, I wouldn't use it on Tallgeese. Why use it here?"

"This isn't the Gundam system, we don't need to worry about battle situations . . ." J shook his head, and called up some more information, "we're going to try and limit the amount of technology here so people will be encouraged to build safer colonies to live on."

"That's what I always hated about your methods, Jōdan . . ." Howard dropped the clipboard onto the desk, and leant on his hands to stare at J, "I always hated that you put someone at risk so it would threaten them to improve themselves. Ever hear of encouragement?"

J refused to rise to the bait, flicking through some pages before he slowly looked up at Howard, "we're going to put our differences aside Howard. We're going to work on this together, I am not going to argue with you about things that will not be changed."

Howard frowned darkly for a moment, before breathing out, "of course . . ." he lifted his hands, and shrugged, "I'm never going to get an apology from you, it would be like trying to get blood out of a stone . . . or off your hands."

Jōdan's hand clenched tightly, he raised his claw and showed it to Howard, "you don't think I have a living reminder Howard? You don't think I think about them every day?"

Howard stepped away from the desk, and walked to the window. Relena Darlian and her adopted father walked arm in arm as they looked around the factory. He sighed, and closed his eyes, "if only we'd built Gundam . . ."

"For OZ? For Romafellor?" J got up slowly, the implants in his broken body clearly making themselves known. He trudged slowly over to the window and stood beside the other man, he stared out as he spoke slowly. "My daughter meant a lot to me . . ." he nodded, as he watched Howard's reflection, "and I know she meant a lot to you . . . but the fact remains, and I know she would have understood . . . we couldn't built Gundam for OZ, the Federation or Romafellor . . . for the greater good . . ." he whispered, as he reached out and touched the window as father and daughter Darlian walked out of the immense room. "Always for the greater good . . ."

Another month, and another advancement . . .

Having seen Quatre achieve the first serious display of magic, the former pilots took to the idea more easily that they were capable of supernatural powers. Now Duo found, if he was very hungry and thought of an apple, one would materialise before him. The first few times it happened, the apple would materialise directly above him, or the person he was speaking with. The angels caught it easily, but Heero came close to strangling his partner when seven apples and an orange bounced off his head in succession. Soon though, Trowa noticed that there was a flash of light, usually tinted purple before hand, so the pilots soon found themselves beginning to spot signs of magic before materialising fruit rained down on them.

With practice, Duo became able to call any fruit he wanted and make it appear where he wanted.

Trowa found he was able to help things grow, and on quiet nights he was beginning to find that he could hear the plants and the wildlife a little clearer. The enchanted white dove became his constant companion and was a little easier to understand; it chose to perch on him while it rested. On windy days, Armbrust had Ogama transport Trowa and himself to the roof so they could practice mastering the winds. This was an area that Trowa still had problems with; as he didn't really understand that he could mould the wind as Heero was learning to do with light.

Heero progressed evenly, he was not progressing as fast as Wufei and Quatre were, but not as slowly as Trowa or Duo were. He, like Trowa and Duo, was still having trouble levitating, he could feel himself begin to lift off the ground but he just couldn't get completely away from the idea of gravity. It took a lot of concentration and belief, something that he'd never lacked before in his life and yet could not muster enough of it now.

Quatre and Wufei were not so far ahead of the others, yet levitation became almost second nature to them.

"Yeah, yeah . . . we get the point . . ." Duo grumbled one warm afternoon as the boys sat in the middle of their compound, playing cards as the Angels were discussing the next lessons. Quatre blinked as he peered over the rim of his hand, "what?"

Duo smirked and motioned the floor under Quatre and Wufei, "you can levy, we can't. Now, stop showing off!"

Quatre blinked again and glanced down at Trowa. Trowa was shaking his head good naturally. Quatre made a small squeak of surprise as he realised he and Wufei were floating a good foot off the ground. "Oh!" The blonde boy – as he had done when he first achieved this weightless state – fell back to Earth with a soft thud, and a cry of pain. Wufei chuckled, and slowly floated to the ground, landing gently. In this area of magic, Wufei excelled. He could control his magic expertly, and applied his abilities to each new task.

His fire casting was almost as precise as his former Gundam's; he had yet to try his ability to hypnotise, but had learnt that his elemental magic was devastating within itself. Wufei's magic could be tied with his moods it seemed, just like Duo's. Both Duo and Wufei found that with anger, their magic became wild and destructive, but calm brought controlled almost waltzing magic. Duo's element, Water, moved in similar ways as Wufei's so the two were often trained together in this art.

"What do you think is next?" Quatre's element was found to be the Earth; he could move rocks and make the ground quake very slightly. With more practice, Jikan assured him he would be capable of great Earthquakes. The blonde boy wasn't enthusiastic about becoming the most powerful amongst the group, but accepted the honour with determination.

"What do you mean next?" Duo frowned, as he placed down the ace of spades. He sighed, "that's not good . . ."

"What's not good?" Heero muttered absently, shifting his Queen of diamonds over.

Duo motioned the Ace of Spades, "In every old western I've ever seen, the guy who deals the Ace of spades or the Eight of clubs always kicks the bucket . . ."

"This isn't a Western, Maxwell . . ." Wufei raised an eyebrow, "besides you're the Knight of Death, self-confessed Shinigami. Shinigami can't die."

"Didn't know you had so much faith, Wufei . . ." Duo smirked, "any more, and I'd say you loved me."

Wufei nodded, "My heart belongs only to Nataku." He sighed, and looked over at the Entrance building, "I think if we don't have much to do over the weekend, I'll visit her."

"Bring her up here," Quatre suggested, "she could live with us for a little while."

The black haired boy smiled, "I might . . ." he sighed, "I'm getting bored of this game . . . we've been playing for hours."

"What else could we do?" Trowa murmured as he folded his hand in, he looked around, "aside from visiting our families again, there really isn't much more we can do."

"How about we practice?" Duo winced as Quatre stood up, and brushed down his waistcoat. They had opted to wear more casual clothing, loose trousers, and shirts. Quatre smiled at his friend, "come on. . . today might be the day!"

"The day I finally find my pixie wings?" Duo looked up at Quatre with mock hope, he sighed and hauled himself up. "What have I got to lose . . .?"

"Exactly!" Quatre stepped back, and glanced over at Wufei, "maybe you'd be better at instructing him . . . I'm not entirely sure *how* I do it . . ."

"Fine." Wufei agreed, "you practice with Barton, and I'll practice with Maxwell and Yuy."

"Hey! Just 'cause you two are teacher's pets, doesn't mean you get to teach!" Duo protested as Quatre grabbed Trowa's hand and led the taller boy a little way off, Duo grumbled playfully and hollered out, "If I have to be in a class, then why am I in a class with a dunce!"

Heero raised an eyebrow, as he stood, "dunce? I'm not the one who can't even get the sensation of floating . . ." he stepped a little away from Duo, and closed his eyes. The boy lost himself in his own world as he tried to float by himself, tuning out Wufei and Duo. Wufei sighed and looked at Duo. "It's very simple . . . all you do is try not to think . . ."

"Got that covered, haven't I?"

Wufei snickered, "took the words out of my mouth . . ." Closing his dark eyes, he sighed and lifted his arms away from his sides slightly, "then you walk forward a little, and step. . ." he paused as he demonstrated this, stepping easily into the air half a foot above the ground, "into the air . . ." he opened his eyes, and glanced down at Duo, "now you."

As Duo repeatedly stamped the ground, and Heero almost lifted himself off the ground, Quatre tried a different approach with Trowa. He held the taller boy's arms, and spoke in tones of one who was dictating dance steps, ". . . and then you just . . ."

The green eyed boy chuckled quietly, as he slipped his hands from Quatre's biceps to the smaller knight's boy's ribcage. Under his right hand, Trowa could feel Quatre's heart beat a little harder. Trowa leant forward, careful to make it look like he was listening intensely to Quatre's quiet instructions, "When do you think we could tell them?"

Quatre blinked at the intimacy in Trowa's warm voice. Their relationship was barely a month old now, and they'd managed to keep it from their peers. Of course, it was scarcely more than an extension of their already strong friendship, and Quatre found himself constantly surprised that his taciturn best friend was at heart a deep romantic. He was beginning to get used to Trowa's reserved brushes, they held hands more often and perhaps Quatre would wake to find Trowa stealing a kiss or two. They had travelled to the small grove, half way between the village and their temples often to play their violin and flute duets, and only twice had those sessions dissolved into heated kisses, and inquisitive hands nervously dancing over clothing. Aside from that, their relationship could have been described as a loving friendship. Quatre blushed at Trowa's comment, and dipped his head, "I don't know . . ."

"If you're worried about—"

"No, I trust all three of them with my life . . . but I'm just not . . ."

"Ready yet?" Trowa whispered, ghosting his rough hand over Quatre's cheek. "I understand."

"It's not that I'm ashamed!" Quatre quickly blurted passionately, he bit his lip and continued in a quieter tone, "I love you, but I can't just believe it just yet . . . my dreams are . . ." he trailed off and blushed a deeper red, "it's too sappy."

"I don't think so . . ." Trowa murmured, "but then . . ."

Quatre looked up as Trowa shifted his gaze and muttered in a confessional tone.

". . . I'm a nineteen-year-old former Gundam Pilot who still gets a thrill out of reading how Cinderella outwits her evil stepsisters." Quatre chuckled lightly, and shook his head, as Trowa stole a quick kiss, and murmured into his ear, "I love you too."

The green eyed knight sighed, as the golden heard boy chuckled, dipping his fair face to hide the blush stealing across his features. There was something distinctly disarming about Quatre that forced all the nameless cold from his being and allowed the real nanashi to emerge hesitantly. Instead of reminding him that the world was a cold, cruel place that cared nothing for any lost child, no matter what age, no matter what forgotten background, Quatre almost made him believe that there was an existence of almost fairytale quality; here he could love, and be assured of love in return. In this world with Quatre, Trowa was capable of magic, and his family could tell him who he was . . . In this fairytale, he didn't worry that bored mercenaries would abuse him; he never had to remember how his first childhood love died. In this fairytale, Trowa and his prince of the desert sands would live happily ever—

"TROWA!!"

"I don't want to believe this . . ."

Noin and Zechs glanced at each other as they stared at the pictures Une transmitted to their plane. Noin shuddered as she stared at the Libra/Balji hybrid. It was hideous to her, and made her blood run cold. To imagine that the Dark Chi was so advanced was beyond her. She frowned at this thought, if the Dark Chi was advanced in technology, it was working on power with ships, not with magic . . . what were the Gundam Pilots going to do with swords and arrows, when this massive Hybrid ship arrived?

Noin shook her head, "I don't know if we can survive this. . ."

"We will." Zechs stared at her, and grabbed her wrist as he told her in a determined tone. "The Gundams can, and will save us Noin. Don't ever doubt this . . . they may be slowly proceeding at this point, but I know that it will be successful . . ." he gazed back at the screen and nodded, "We better tell them about the fact that the Dark Chi has been spotted . . . but . . ."

The massive cannon's barrel was pictured up close in one of the photographs. Noin nodded, as she understood his point.

"But we will keep this from them . . ." Zechs saved the images, began to pack up and printed off the reports, as he spoke quietly, "Just for now, we can't let this shake their belief . . . not when they need to make such huge advances . . ."

The clown and his blonde lover jumped apart at Duo's surprised shout.

Duo, Wufei and Heero were watching them both with surprise and small amusement. Trowa felt his cheeks burn slightly, as Quatre dropped his head and gasped as he realised that he was floating again. He sighed, and glanced over at Trowa . . . only to notice that the clown was floating independently. Trowa apparently didn't notice that he was floating a good three feet off the ground either as he glared at Duo with a deadpan expression.

"What?" Trowa asked bluntly, clearly – at least to Quatre – irritated that their private moment had been disturbed.

"Don't 'what' me, you sly dog!" Duo pointed enthusiastically at Trowa's feet, "look at you and your brand new floating!"

Trowa made a small noise of incomprehension as he looked down at his feet, now floating four feet off the ground. He glanced over at Quatre who floated level with him, and gasped. His jade green eyes widened slightly, as he lost his balance and fell back down to the Earth. He landed with his usual grace, bending his knees to absorb the impact and using his fingertips to balance himself.

Quatre smiled brilliantly as he floated a little lower. Trowa looked up at him a little sheepishly, and smiled as he saw the translucent gilded shimmer of Quatre's dragonfly wings. Quatre's wings were like that of Jikan's, yet they weren't as visible. He didn't understand why that was, but accepted it none the less.

Quatre was staring just behind him, with a small wonder-filled smile. Trowa twisted around and caught a glimmer of jade green. Licking his lips thoughtfully, Trowa closed his eyes and imagined his own wings. They were obviously like Jikan's and Armbrust's, thin, and barely visible except for when the light hit it at the right angle, and an arch of magic-tinted radiance would race across it. A lock of hair tickled his nose, as it swayed in the breeze. Trowa opened his eyes to see that his wings had spread to a point where he could see them. They fluttered somewhat impatiently as he stared at them, and folded back into place before fading from their sight.

"Incredible . . ." Quatre breathed, "Yours are much more visible than mine . . ."

Trowa blinked and got up from his kneeling position. He winced slightly, as muscles between his shoulder blades twinged, "I guess they also exist on a physical plane as well . . ." he glanced over at Wufei. "If this isn't confined just to Quatre, then why haven't we seen your wings?"

Wufei's bemused expression faded as he thought, "I don't know . . ." he murmured, and stepped into the air. He twisted his head to look over his shoulder. "I . . . just . . ."

"Try to visualise them . . ."

Wufei glanced back at Trowa who had stood. The tall boy had closed his eyes again, and was pressing one hand to the centre of his chest. "Try to see them . . ." he murmured again, his own wings fading back into reality, they spread again, this time becoming much more visible. They seemed almost tangible this time, and Quatre could see jade green streaks webbed throughout them. He gasped softly and reached out to gently stroke the tip of one.

Trowa gave a small gasp, a shiver running along the wings and into him. He looked up at Quatre with a shy smile, and a little excitement running through his eyes, "they're extremely sensitive . . ." He noted quietly, and drew a deep sigh as Quatre ran his finger back along the edge.

Meanwhile, Wufei had closed his eyes and thought about his own supernatural wings. The first image that came to his mind, was that of dragons' wings. Strong, with hardy scales that could defend against even the hottest of fire. With dark red bony ridges, and reddish orange webbing, and almost yellow horned tips.

They were tall and wide, unlike Trowa and Quatre's, they reached the ground when folded, their arches encircled his head. If not for the shimmer of blood red magic, or the way the dark reds faded to almost yellowish orange giving it the likeness of fire, they would have been very demonic.

Wufei opened and eye and looked at his peers.

Duo was slack jawed, Heero was nodding, Quatre and Trowa glanced at a point just beyond his shoulder. Wufei looked at the ground, and sure enough his normal shadow had the addition of a pair of wings. He slowly twisted his head to see wings that looked as if they were caught between this world and the next. They didn't seem quite real just yet.

"Wow, Wu . . . you got the coolest set of wings yet!"

Duo chuckled as Wufei's wings flicked impatiently before fading from reality again. Wufei nodded, "they suit me . . . I suppose all our wings are going to suit our personalities . . ." He sighed and rested a hand on his hip, "Am I the only one who can't believe I just said that?"

"It's hard to imagine that we're becoming so . . ." Quatre folded his legs up, and sat comfortably in the air. He chuckled and motioned at himself, "so very mythical . . ."

Trowa glanced over his shoulders at his wings. "I wonder . . ." he murmured more to himself, "I wonder if we can use these to fly . . ." he stepped back and concentrated on imagining that his wings were spread.

Quatre's hair fluttered gently against his forehead as Trowa's wings flapped once or twice as the taller boy tested them. Trowa looked very solemn with his eyes closed and a hand pressed against his chest. Quatre opened his mouth to ask Trowa what he was doing, but quickly shut it as the beating of Trowa's wings became stronger. The others watched with surprise, as the lion tamer stepped back again and tensed his body. A deep look of concentration passed over his features; as he drew a strong breathe. Trowa pushed himself into the air, and tried hard not to do any of his usual twists as he allowed the wings to do most of the hard work. He could hear them beating hard as they carried his body up through the air.

He landed neatly on the corner of his own angel's shrine, standing on the very balls of his feet, with one foot behind the other. His arms were out stretched to keep his balance, and his wings were stretched widely revealing their one difference from Quatre's wings aside from colour. While Quatre's were delicate and fine, with two rounded segments of wings, Trowa's looked sleeker with three segments that had straight edges along the top, and points at the ends.

The clown dropped his arms, and reached forward. The enchanted white dove flew around his body before perching on an outstretched finger.

"Well done, nanashi."

Trowa opened his eyes and looked down as his friends turned to find Armbrust and the other angels standing behind them. Armbrust looked exactly like Trowa as he had done when he first landed on Earth as part of Operation Meteor. He strode forward, looking completely out of place with even Wufei and Quatre's angels, making it clear now that the angels' growth was completely linked with the Knights' progress. Armbrust stared up at Trowa, apparently unconcerned that he now towered over his companions, and even Quatre. "You have mastered the next level of magic . . . Imagination . . ." He looked at each other knights, turning in a slow circle, "when you reach this level of magic, you are capable of anything you can imagine, and control it."

The former Gundam pilots glanced at their angels. While Armbrust now looked like a sixteen-year-old Trowa, Konbo and Jikan were short thirteen year olds, Katana grinned up at Heero with the face of an eleven year old and Duo sighed as he knelt beside a very young looking Ogama.

"I'm sorry . . ." he apologised sincerely, "I just can't get my head around it . . ."

Ogama shook his head, and leant forward to kiss Duo's forehead. "Please do not be alarmed . . ." he whispered back, the cherub faced angel chuckled lightly, "I know that you learn to believe it or you would never have passed through the gate."

---

And now It's Time To LEAVE IT TO DOCTOR MEGALOMANIA!!!

DrM: Doubvle Update this week because I missed last week! Only short AN's because I've gotta get these posted!! Please R&R and tell me what you think so far!!