For the Grace of Knights and Angels
By Doctor Megalomania
Chapter Thirty-Eight: Danse Macabre – Movement Two
Rashid ran across the field, unsure now where he was going but being led somewhere. In his mind he could see the moment, the birth of Master Quatre as he was now. The way the boy's eyes lit up, his stance changing. In the hanger, when Rashid couldn't help his men and the boy wanted to take his place. This untested boy had gotten some guts, taken his natural talents and fought. He was brave and driven.
"I want to be proud of myself."
The words ran like a mantra through Rashid's mind, he could hear it in his heart with a thousand voices. His radio spluttered, but even then he could make out the words coming from his men. He ran, he fired his gun, he was looking for someone. He needed to relay the information he was holding in his mind. Tsubarov was the key. The key to the battle. The enemy had made a fatal mistake. It's final mistake.
A flash of gold caught his eye and he turned, automatically firing to protect the long golden haired girl. Dorothy span toward her impromptu saviour and flashed a grateful smile. "Looks like I will owe Quatre another favour!" The girl took the moment to dip to her knees and draw her breath. Behind her, Trieze too took a moment to breath. He stared toward the knights' battlefield. "They are still fighting. There is still hope for us all."
As they stared, a bright golden light filled the sky.
"Trieze." Rashid spoke, his eyes caught on the bright golden light, "We must get to Tsubarov…"
"I can lead you to him!" Zechs shouted, barrelling toward them. His platinum white hair failed out behind him as he ran, it was tarnished with blood. "Come! I'll lead you to him!"
Behind him, Une and Noin dashed. They grabbed onto both Trieze and Dorothy, trusting Rashid to follow behind them. Zechs ran like the wind. He barely spared a glance upward, but knew the flash of white light he had seen was Heero.
"There's still hope!" Trieze called as he ran along, "They are still fighting!"
"I know!" Rashid called back, "But we must stop Tsubarov! Before he fires the cannon!"
"It's too late!" Une shouted, she pointed up wildly. "The cannon has already been fired! I don't know how the boys are doing it but they're holding back the blast!"
They all ran, ducking and weaving through the battlefield. All around them, men cried out as they were cut down by their undead foes. The battle was raging, and it was desperate. Those who had embraced death were eager to spill as much blood of the living. Those who had embraced life, those who still lived and fought for this fine Earth, battled uncaring of what wounds they would receive.
"There is always hope, my lady!" Trieze panted, grasping her hand and squeezing hard, "As long as we breathe, as long as we have eyes to see and hearts to bleed, strength enough to fight, there is still hope for us all!"
"But what hope can we…?" Une began, she looked at Trieze and saw him smile grimly. He let go of her, grabbed up a fallen Earth flag, he raised it and ran along. Trieze cast one look to the horizon, where the boys were still battling. Une realised he was sending a signal to the knights who were still fighting so bravely.
"That there was still one who believed in Gundam."
As time began to go forward once more, the dark arrow of the dead Trowa Barton sliced through the cheek of the boy who'd taken his name. Trowa Barton – the young traveller, nanashi – gasped and instinctively ducked away from the biting pain. As he rolled and came up, he had to wait until the flying sand all around them had come to a rest. He raised his bow and strung an arrow, looking around desperately for his foe. The dark knight of beasts, the original Trowa Barton was on his knees.
The green arrow had found its mark in his forehead.
Barton's eyes rolled upward briefly as he struggled to see what had struck him before he fell backwards.
With grim satisfaction, nanashi claimed back the name of Trowa Barton for his own and span, firing off another shot. A flash of golden and white light drew his attention. He ran forward, looking up as he did so. Quatre and Heero were above him, and beyond them – like a deadly red sword – the beam of the Sessou cannon pierced the heavens. Trowa shook his head and concentrated on getting across the sand. It couldn't be over yet. Not now.
"NO!" A strong voice roared, "NO, GODDAMN YOU!"
Duo gasped as he felt Father Maxwell's blade dig deep into his throat, hot blood welled up in his throat and he began to choke. There was a swirl of darkness all around him, and Father Maxwell screamed in unholy agony. When the darkness cleared, Duo felt himself lifted from the sand. He stared into the deep, intense blue eyes and knew that the man who held him was not Heero.
Duo couldn't help but feel that his heart was breaking.
Solo had come for him, Solo was still alive.
Heero must have lost the battle.
His focus drifted away, as Solo lifted him and clutched his body to his dark armour. Duo struggled feebly in his grasp, but knew that the wound to his throat was a fatal one. It was odd, so very odd for him. Duo felt so at peace, knowing that soon he would be reunited with Heero.
"You idiot!" Solo ranted at him hotly, "Kid, why'd you have to die on me like this?! I did all of this for YOU! Damn you!"
Duo was amazed; Solo's bright, blue eyes were swimming with tears.
He focused hard, trying to trigger the last vestiges of his telepathy, and tried to send a message to Heero.
Wufei braced himself for the next blow, but it never came!
Alex gave a half strangled, surprised noise before collapsing to the ground. When the body fell into Wufei's view, he noticed the earthy green arrow protruding from the side of Alex's head. With a hot smirk, Wufei's head snapped toward Muller. The other man's jaw was slack with surprise, he was still trying to understand what had happened to Alex. He still held Meiran by the throat, but his grip on her was slack.
The beautiful woman's dark eyes were trained on Wufei.
He blinked and that was all it took.
Like a well oiled machine, Nataku snapped her leg straight up to deliver a kick into Muller's face and as soon as his grip was loose enough, she ducked. Wufei took the moment to spin, grab his staff and swing it around. The end of his staff narrowly missed Nataku's head, and smashed hard into the side of Muller's head with a sickening crunch. The man cried out, blood spurting from his crushed eyeball, before falling down to join his dead friend.
Wufei span his staff around his wrist once, and together with Nataku took up a fighting position just in case either man decided to get back up.
Neither Alex nor Muller did.
"Wufei!" Trowa shouted as he arrived beside the two, "The cannon's been fired!"
Both Wufei and Nataku snapped their heads upward and saw above them the deadly deep red beam. It was inching closer to the surface of the planet, held back only by the magic of Quatre and Heero. Nataku turned her attention on the battle and ground her teeth. "It looked like darkness is winning…" She reached out and shook Wufei by the arm, "Turn the tide! Wufei, we've got to turn the tide!"
Trowa nodded, as he motioned upwards, "If they want any hope of pushing the beam back, we've got to destroy the source. We've got to destroy the cannon, and we can't do that while the battle's still raging. Wufei, we've got to turn the tide!"
Wufei nodded slowly, and let his dark eyes sweep over the battle field. He noticed a long mass of Earth fighters, following a flag. They were running toward something, driving through the mass of dark fighters. He narrowed his eyes and focused on the core of the running group. They didn't care that their outer numbers were being cut down, they just ran and protected the core. There he saw the bright blue of an Earth flag, and the brilliant white of Zechs' hair. "What are you doing?" He asked silently, directing his magic on the running mass.
The brilliant-frightened-determined-focused thoughts of each of the fighters boiled down to one thing:
"Get Tsubarov."
Wufei nodded, and spread his arms. Fire encircled the three standing on the dune, eating though Alex and Muller's bodies easily. Wufei felt his hair lift up like black fire as he concentrated all his magic on the Earth fighters. He took each of them gently into the fold of his magic, passing the same message, spreading the skills of both Nataku and Trowa into them. Suddenly, the Earth fighters' shots hit more targets; the close combat became more deadly. The running mass pushed harder than before. Soon, Trowa too had amassed enough concentration to call upon his own magic and the very Earth itself revolted against the dark plague that threatened its very existence. Nataku reached over and grabbed her husband's hand. She smiled brilliantly for him.
The tide had turned.
Wufei smiled at her warmly, until his eyes drifted just over her shoulder.
Nataku watched as Wufei's smile faded from his face.
Above them, Quatre cried out as time snapped forward.
Finally, all he had was focused on the beam.
For a moment, Quatre was afraid that his grip on the beam would fall loose, but when strong hands grabbed his wrists, he knew that everything would be okay. Quatre swallowed hard, the moment that he had foreseen was coming to pass. "Heero…" Quatre said, his bright eyes focused on the terrible beam above them. "By what about…?"
Heero didn't answer for a very long time, his white wings beating back and forth as he struggled to hold them steady. Quatre almost asked again, when Heero finally spoke. His voice was low as he finally answered, "Duo would want this."
"He will die." Quatre said mournfully, "I'm sorry… I couldn't stop time for him and for this as well…"
"I know." Heero fell silent once again. He dared to look around. The tide was turning in the battle. Below them, magnificently, Wufei and Trowa worked together to change the battlefield. He knew that behind him, just out of his line of sight, Solo had just reached Duo. He held out hope that Solo had been in time, but Heero somehow knew that Duo had been lost.
The warm connection that they had had between them in their minds was slipping away.
"He would not want me to sacrifice the Earth for him…" Heero continued, "Already… as he would say, too many people have died for him."
"Then…" Quatre narrowed his eyes and opened his heart and mind. He felt the power rise up in him, felt the power of Heero as the other freed himself from Duo. The perfect solider bent the light around them, focusing it into Quatre. Quatre whispered, "Then we do this … Together."
"Aa."
The pair's combined magic was so intense, so bright and golden, it was almost as if they had called the sun itself down from the heavens. The bolt of pure energy blasted into the deep red beam from the cannon.
Tsubarov clutched at his head as the knights' bolt stuck against the cannon's. Only now he realised the error of his plan, he had tied himself to the cannon and to everyone on the battle field. As he focused on the cannon, trying to call more energy into the beam, he failed to notice the band of Earth Fighters approach his ranks. Only when he heard Trieze call out his name did he turn.
He never realised that Zechs could be so fierce, as the moment the man held his gun to Tsubarov's head.
"For the living." Zechs breathed, "Forever."
Tsubarov's head exploded as Zechs fired a single round into his head.
Above the Earth, the Sesshou cannon stopped firing.
As soon as the cannon above stopped firing, the knights' bolt of energy got through. It struck the station hard, and the massive dark station exploded completely, leaving barely enough fragments to piece together.
Quatre and Heero broke apart, and wheezed. Opening their eyes, they stared around desperately. The battlefield moved uneasily. The dead had stopped, while the living continued to fight on. Looking down, the pair of former pilots caught sight of Wufei, Meiran and Trowa sprinting across the sands desperately. Heero span in the air and stared down. There, below them, Solo knelt with Duo in his lap. Nearby, Father Maxwell's burnt skeleton lay prone in the sand next to Duo's scythe.
Duo was bleeding profusely; his blood – so dark from above – was spreading out all around the pair. Solo rocked back and forth with Duo's body.
Heero was about to move forward, when Quatre grabbed him.
The blonde shook his head silently.
"It's over." Quatre spoke, his eyes grave, "Duo's going to finish this."
"How can he?" Heero asked, wondering at Quatre's knowing tone. "What's happening?"
Even as he spoke, below them Meiran screamed and came to a stop. She stared at the pool of blood that was growing around Duo's prone body. "No!" She called out, falling to her knees, "I won't! Wufei!"
Wufei skidded to a halt, and looked back at his frightened wife. "Nataku!"
"Wufei, I don't want to leave you!" Nataku cried back at him. She bent over and clutched at her head, "I won't go!"
Trowa slowed down as Quatre and Heero landed before him. Quatre looked grim as he held up his hand. "What's going on?" Trowa demanded, "We've got to move…"
"It's already too late for him." Quatre said, "Grab Meiran… we've got to get her away from here as soon as possible."
"What's going on?" Trowa asked again, even as he turned to run back to the woman. Wufei was already pulling her up to carry her, he looked at the other three as they dashed toward him. Quatre shook his head, "Duo's finishing this battle. We've got to get away from here."
As the remaining four knights spread their wings and leapt into the air, only Meiran was brave enough to look back and see what was happening. Solo threw back his head and wailed as Duo gurgled and breathed his very last breath. In that moment, the bloody pool turned violently from deep red to black and spread outward massively. Spikes of darkness struck out across the sand like living shadows. Father Maxwell's burnt skeleton was swallowed by the shadows, Trowa Barton with the bright green arrow disappeared as the shadows crawled over his body. The headless corpse of Quinze and a little further away, the wide-eyed head, all disappeared into the deepening shadows. Finally, the burnt out husks of Alex and Muller both disappeared as the spiked shadows raced across the sand.
And in the centre, Duo and Solo began to sink below the bloodied sand together.
It was over.
Meiran looked at Wufei, then to Trowa and Quatre… and finally, at Heero.
They all stubbornly refused to look down as below them, the golden sand became a land of living shadow.
The soldiers of the undead sank into the shadows.
Heero closed his eyes, as the very last link he had with Duo stuttered and collapsed.
"Lov-ve yu-you, He-hee----"
It was over.
The tide had turned.
The Earth had been saved.
DrM: Sorry for the late posting! Please read and review!