For the Grace of Knights and Angels

By Doctor Megalomania

Disclaimer: You know the score.

Chapter Thirty-Five: I Will Determine Justice

According to tradition, the heirs of the Long clan wed at age fourteen. The husband of Meirin, Long Zi-ling's granddaughter, was to be Chang Wufei. Meirin, who prided herself on being the strongest of her clan, called herself "Nataku" after Chinese Myth of a being created in the Kunlun mountains. The being was able to take on human form when it combined the human spiritual energy and blood of the honourable and just. Nataku was a being who often appeared as a hermit, in legends, or . . . more correctly . . . as a warrior who fought to determine Justice for those who were too weak.

Chang Wufei growled, baring his teeth. Unaware his eyes blazed with shards of hot red fire.

Alex and Mueller stood before; he'd never fought them before when they'd been alive. He'd only heard of them after the wars when all the crimes, all the battles, all the honourable deeds came out. Tales of the two taking a battalion of OZ elite soldiers and eliminating the Federation soldiers, in a self styled execution horrified many. Zechs was the one who'd brought an end to their reign of terror.

Now Wufei would be the one to send them back to hell.

He spread his wings and flew toward them. "You have no honour!" He roared fiercely.

Alex blinked and jumped back, allowing Mueller to raise his arm and blast at the fierce Gundam pilot with his own version of a dragon claw. Wufei gritted his teeth as hot fire burnt past him. He dived toward the sand flying as low as he dared. He gritted his teeth as sand blasted all around him, turning to glass as he passed over it. His staff swirled in his hand once as he knocked Mueller away, intent only on Alex his equal. The blonde man danced away, using his own staff to knock back Wufei.

The blonde man grinned, his blue eyes dancing with battle lust.

"Think you can beat us!" He ground out, kicking Wufei away, "Think you can overcome us! You're weak, you're scum!"

"The only scum here is you!" Wufei retorted, striking out with his foot to block Alex's staff. Driving the dark version of his staff into the sand, Wufei swung around to bring his other foot up and delivered a hard kick to Alex's jaw.

Red lips. Fierce eyes. Thin waist. An honourable family line.

A perfect wife.

Pale face. Studious manner. Black eyes hidden behind glasses. An honourable family line.

A perfect student.

Marriage like a paper lantern. Beautiful and honourable to look upon. Nothing but a small flame, painted paper and a metal frame.

Yet still it would combine and create an honourable family line, ensure both old families would continue to live on.

He touched the rim of his glasses coolly, staring at his new wife.

"So . . ."

He stared back at her as she spoke. Distain clear in her eyes as well as her tone. "You're the clever brat, back from boarding school?" Meirin stared at him, her red lips parting slightly as she took in everything that she saw.

". . . You're displeased?"

Wufei knew he was stating the obvious, but it was enough to trip the tirade that was building in her heart.

"You have no right to succeed our noble clan."

He sighed pulling at the traditional robes. "I see . . ." he muttered, he had other things to do. With the main part of the ceremony over, there was no reason for him to stay on and carry on this charade of happiness. "Well, this wasn't my idea either."

He dropped the ancient hat and threw off his robes.

"Wufei!" Master Fao called after him, aghast at his behaviour.

The young student, now a husband to a girl he found the most irritating person in the universe, glanced over his shoulder aiming his comment more at his new wife than Master Fao.

"GO TO HELL!"

"GO TO HELL!"

Meirin screamed as she kicked back at the other dead people that surrounded her. Her long black hair had long since come loose, and her clothes were bloodied and ripped. She couldn't focus on anything else but her fighting, she wouldn't lose. She was the strongest of her clan, the only person ever to beat her was Chang Wufei, her husband. She would never shame him by loosing to scum like this. Never!

She held up her hand with the dragon claw, "HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!"

Long streams of fire, golden and red all at the same time danced from her hands like a wild bird, a phoenix diving around the enemies around her and scorching them. They fell to the ground again, and left her with a wide circle around her. She looked over to Wufei once more, flame danced on the horizon again. In her heart she knew that her place wasn't here on this battlefield. It was there by her husband's side. Feeling a battle cry well up in her throat, Meirin dash toward the battlefield of the Knights.

She would never fail her husband.

He had failed her.

Wufei stared at the grave of his young wife, even as the rain began to fall. The graves of others that had died in the battle were scattered around, but Wufei could only see one. One cold, dark place where his wife, so much flame inside her, would lie forever. It hurt him, cut his heart deeper than he had ever known. Even the death of his parents hadn't evoked such feelings in him. This deep sense of rage. He could never imagine touching another book while his wife lay here unavenged.

Yes. Revenge beckoned him with long fingers, whispering with taunting murmurs the name of the OZ commander who ordered death upon his wife.

Treize.

Wufei dropped to his knees and leant his forehead against her grave. Treize. He whispered, "Meirin . . . you . . . you will find your rest, I shall avenge you!" He opened his eyes as the rain began to fall harder.

She ran.

She ran faster than she had ever done, her eyes were fixed. She leapt over bodies, some dead, some still fighting furiously. She was grabbed once or twice, dragged to the ground and beaten. But still she got to her feet and destroyed any who stood in her way. She beat a path to the battleground of the knights.

It felt like years to her, but finally she came across the sight of her husband. He was fighting with two men she had never seen before.

Dishonor!

Two men against her husband!

Meirin growled darkly as she raised the Dragon's Claw and aimed for the dark skinned cur that dared to involve himself in a fight that was obviously not his!

Mueller jumped back as a dart of ruby red flame came dangerously close to hurting him. He snapped his head toward the lone figure.

"Kisama!" Roared the girl as she sprinted toward them. Mueller glanced at Alex, he had his hands full with the knight of warriors. Letting off a foul curse, Mueller broke away from the fight and ran toward the girl, determined to stop her before she could intervene. "Who do you think you are!" He roared, throwing a punch toward her, absently noting that she wore a claw similar to his on her hand. His eyes narrowed as she ducked, weaved under him and kicked him in the head. He fell to the ground and rolled, kicking out his legs at the girl. She jumped and spun landing on her feet. Her black hair flailed out around her as she turned to raise her fist, "I am Meirin, wife of Chang Wufei!"

Mueller snarled, rolling out of the way of her well aimed blast and raised his own fist again. "So you think you can help him! Get with the program, bitch! HARR!" He blasted at her with a dark, blood colour shriek of flame. Mueller laughed as she deftly ducked, but was just grazed by the fire, "It is time to end this bastard world, and all that are too weak must perish now!"

"I am not weak!" Meirin screamed as she lunged toward him. She balanced on her hands and swept her legs around in a whirlwind of kicks. "I am the strongest of my clan! Kisama!"

He stared at the Gundam with distinterest.

"What a waste of materials." He sighed, and continued up the stairs with his books.

"Wufei!" The Chinese boy slowed to a stop and looked down, Master O, the scientist in charge of the Operation Meteor on L5 smiled up at him. Wufei managed a half smile back at him, the master was quite enthusiastic about the project for some time, and liked to try and engage Wufei in it but Wufei had no time for war. It disgusted him to think of the amount of mass murder that this machine was going to be used for. However, there really wasn't anything Wufei could do about it so he was going to retreat to his books.

Master O grinned up at him and motioned the Gundam. It had just recently had the other armour added to it, and it finally looked like it was nearing completion. It made him feel proud of it, almost like a father would be proud of his son. He glanced up at Wufei again, "What do you think?"

He knew the answer he would get from Wufei would either be noncommittal or utterly disappointed, but he asked anyway. He was hoping to make either Wufei or his new wife the pilot. Meirin looked to be the favourite, she had fire, and she had passion . . . the only draw back was her radical views of justice. She would fight to protect those who she deemed worthy . . . she might not like the idea of Operation M at all.

Wufei stared at the new Gundam with blank, black eyes then turned his attention back to Master O, "It looks . . . almost done. How are things going?"

"Well!" Master O enthused, resisting the urge to laugh at Wufei's dour expression. Wufei's mind was else where, carefully roaming the libraries probably. "The only problem that we have that is of any concern is that we still don't know what to call it."

Wufei blinked once and glanced at the machine again. "Call it Shenlong . . ."

This surprised Master O, "Shenlong?"

Wufei nodded absently, "It's the family talisman . . . call it Shenlong." He raised a pale hand and pointed at one of the machine's arms, "That piece of weapon looks like a dragon anyway."

Master O glanced at the Dragon's claw on the machine, "I suppose but . . ." he glanced up at Wufei again, "I'm surprise, I would have thought you would call it after your wife . . ."

Wufei sniffed disdainfully and preceded up the stairs, "Neither of them are worthy of the name of Nataku . . ."

Alex stumbled backwards as he spat out a mouthful of blood. The Chinese knight swirled his staff again and resumed a fighting stance. "You . . ." Alex growled lowly, "You don't understand . . . we are the strongest . . . we deserve to win!"

"You deserve nothing!" Wufei roared as he ran toward Alex again, he twisted the staff to knock Alex's away, revealing Alex's weak stomach. Wufei kicked him again, and landed a punch to his head. Alex snarled as he was thrown to the ground hard, and grabbed a handful of sand. He threw it up and blinded Wufei.

"ARGH!"

Wufei cried out and stumbled backwards, the sand stinging his eyes painfully. He shook his head violently, he couldn't see anything. A painful kick to his stomach forced him down to his knees, and he heard Mueller laughing wildly. "Kisama. . ." Wufei growled as Alex's staff connected with his back.

He tasted sand as Alex kicked his head again. Wufei rolled and got to his feet, trying still to rub the sand from his eyes. He could barely see now. He could make out blurring shapes, and shifting colours but nothing he could use to fight with. There was a blur of motion to his left, and Alex's staff whacked into his jaw.

"You are weak. You are polluted." Alex sneered, feeling the meaty feeling of victory in his gut, the taste of blood on his tongue only served to excite him more. He glanced over at Mueller, and grinned darkly. Mueller had the girl under control now; he grasped her by the hair and was dragging her down to the sand. Alex levelled another kick to Wufei's head and growled, "I was hoping for a better opponent . . . both you and that girl . . ." he kicked at Wufei again, this time to the shoulder, "You are both weak. . . this earth deserves to be executed!"

"Ow!"

First Year Cadet Mueller held his head and stared with amazement at the boot lying beside him. He glanced up at the soft chuckle above him, and blinked as a blonde haired cadet smiled down at him. "And that's just proven that Newton's theorem about gravity still rings true . . ."

He raised an eyebrow at the blondie and stooped to pick up the offending boot, "What's your problem?"

"No problem at all." The other smiled winningly; "It's just that I'm now stuck up a tree with one of my boots having fallen off. What a brilliant way to start my first day . . ."

Mueller snorted, and threw the boot up at the blonde.

"You're new too?" Mueller called up, sticking his hands into his pockets. "What class you in?"

"Lieutenant . . . hang on a mo . . ." the blonde pulled on his boot and swiftly tied it up, loosely which explained why it fell off. Mueller rolled his eyes and looked around, the blondie reached into his backpack and pulled out a timetable, "Lieutenant Noin, pilot corp."

Mueller blinked and snapped his head upward, "Seriously!"

"Yeah . . ." Blondie frowned and shifted until he could easily drop from the low branch, "How about you?"

"I'm on Noin's pilot corps as well." Mueller tipped his head back, blondie was tall.

Blondie grinned again, it was a shit-eating kind of grin and he looked like a veteran already. Smug and all-knowing. "Name's Alex . . . how about you?"

"Mueller's my surname, but I hate my first name . . . so call me Mueller."

Alex wrapped an arm around Mueller's shoulder and laughed quietly, "Fine then . . . how about we get some grub . . . and you can tell me what's your problem with the world . . ."

Such ordinary circumstances from which a close friendship was formed. Who would have known that these two were to grow up together, graduate, and become two of the worst criminals of the Wars?

Wufei's wings suddenly spread, the sand swirling around them in the air, turning instantly to glass as the Knight of Warriors suddenly reared up and set fire to the ground around them, "KISAMA!" He roared angrily, his rage finally spilling over, "You will never take my wife again!"

Alex gasped, feeling the hot air burn his throat, and choked as the knight of warriors swiped at him with well-aimed punches of his staff. Sparks flew as Alex raised his own staff to defend himself, still choking on the burning air.

Mueller gasped as he realised that the Knight of warriors was regaining the upper hand. He grabbed the girl by the hair and held her up, he shook her hard feeling her jaw jar in her skull. She was nearly beaten into submission; her punches and kicks had become sluggish.

"Knight!" Mueller called over to the man, Wufei paid him no heed. Mueller's face pulled into an uglier frown, "If you don't want me to pull out her throat . . ." he grasped her by the neck and sank his fingers into it until his nails drew blood.

Wufei's fighting slowly came to a stop; he kicked Alex away to a safe distance and spun to glare at Mueller. His eyes locked with his wife's, she looked a little dazed but there was fight in her still.

She glared at him through her soggy fringe.

"How . . ." she gritted her teeth, she couldn't understand how a bookworm like Chang Wufei had managed to floor her. Without his glasses as well! It was almost too much! Meirin shook her head, "You don't even care about why we have to fight!" She spat at him, "You don't care about anything!"

She ignored the small, needing voice inside her that clarified, 'you don't care about me'.

Wufei sniffed, calmly putting his glasses on despite the fact that the rain was blotching his glasses up wit a point where he could no longer see. He glared down at her, "I don't see the point in fighting . . ."

"You have to fight!"

Meirin screamed at him, affronted by his attitude, "Don't you understand you have to keep fighting!

Always!"

"Why!" He smirked at her, "What's the point!"

"You have to fight for justice! To preserve it! You have to keep it, you have to fight for it!" Meirin shook her head angrily, her hair whipping around her face, her eyes were bright, and if it was not for the rain Wufei would have thought she was going to cry. "Honour is gained, respect is earned, but justice must forever be fought for!"

"Why fight when nothing you do will ever change a thing?" Wufei turned away from her, "Nothing we do here in this field will ever affect anything happening on the other colonies . . . why even try?"

Meirin wanted to scream; she bit her lip until she could taste blood. Her eyes narrowed and to her utter horror, she felt hot tears push out from her eyes and stream down her face. "I HATE YOU!" She finally screamed at him, "I WILL NEVER LOVE YOU!"

"Such a childish response . . ." he muttered, still not looking at her, "When you know I'm right . . ."

Meirin balled her fists and picked herself up from the ground. The rain fell harder, making everything around them seem to turn a horrible dank grey. She stumbled away from him, and spun to run home.

He was wrong . . . she could change; she swore to him, she would change his view one day!

Alex got to his feet slowly, grinning a bloody grin.

"Good old Mueller. . ." he muttered, "Where would I be without you?"

The girl's focus was slowly coming back, Alex could see it from here but she was in no position to resist Mueller. His hand was clamped over her throat and there was no force in heaven or hell that would make him drop it. Unless. . . he grinned darkly, unless Alex told him to . . .

"Well, such a turn again . . ." Alex sneered, "It's time for you to surrender, or we'll kill your precious wife . . ."

Wufei's fists clenched.

Wufei's fists clenched.

The Shenlong Gundam stood stoically in hanger, unaware of the small boy who glared at it so furiously. The battle for L5 was long over; the burial of the dead was complete. Operation M had suffered a major set back. The pilot of Shenlong had been killed by Commander Treize's forces.

Only her husband was qualified enough to pilot her machine.

"Wufei!" Master O called up to the young widower. "Will you pilot Shenlong?"

Wufei stared at the machine and simply said, "No."

Master O's eyes widened, "But without a pilot L5's entrance into Operation Meteor will fail!"

"This machine . . . for my wife I will get revenge . . ." Wufei began to turn away, walking up the stairs to the libraries, "Nataku gave her life for this Gundam . . ."

"Wufei! Will you pilot Shenlong!" Master O called back.

Wufei paused.

He glanced up at the machine with narrowed eyes, the student faded from his features, the patient reader was buried, the hard mask of fury rose from Wufei's rage filled heart and it scared Master O. Wufei's voice was cold, filled with tempered rage.

"I will not pilot Shenlong . . . I will pilot Nataku."

"NO!"

Nataku's voice ground out with anguish as her husband dropped his staff. Alex's blood filled grin widened, blood dripped down from his mouth as Wufei closed his eyes. He folded his arms up and interlocked his fingers behind his head. Drawing a deep, deep breath, Wufei dropped to his knees before Alex.

"Wufei! No!" Nataku called to him, but he shook his head sharply.

He just couldn't let her die again for him.

"WUFEI! NO!"

DrM: See? See? Look, LESS than a week! I'm going to try and get back on my regular Friday updates.