Disclaimers: Don't own any part of Gundam Wing nor it's characters. It's a loan.

Warnings: Shounen-ai, OOCs, AU (what else do I write?)

Circle of Destiny

Part 15

"He still refuses to speak?" Sally asked her worried husband.

"I don't understand why he is being so stubborn about this. He knows how to get the jewel back. We can all go home. Why is he delaying?" Wufei growled, frustrated.

Sally shrugged, shaking her head. It has been weeks since their identities have been revealed to the two nobles and so far, their secret has been safe. Trowa would never say anything, because he had a vested interest in their youngest Prince. It was clear to anyone who looked carefully that they were lovers and very much in love.

As for Heero however, the young King was also mysteriously silent about the whole thing. While he had no reason to keep quiet about the whole thing, he did. Also odd was his unseemly preoccupation of their Master Weaver. The couple didn't understand how Heero knew Duo's real name or how his human mouth was able to shape the words but they did know that Heero was doing everything in his power to try and get Duo to forgive him.

As to for what, they were still very much in the dark.

Heero had gone through a period of self-denial and had avoided Duo for long periods of time. But suddenly, he was practically following Duo around, his expression contrite. It was a very odd turn of events. Both have been stubbornly silent about it.

But Wufei was going to find out if it was the last thing he did.

XXxxXX

"Please go away," Duo said softly, tending to the elves' garden. It had now grown into a beautiful grove.

Heero moved from the shadow of a tree and inched carefully closer. "I didn't want to believe they were memories. But there is nothing I can do when a small voice that grew increasingly louder kept telling me that I did you wrong. But I never betrayed you. It was a…"

"Odin, enough," Duo raised his hand, cutting off the man. "I have no need to listen to your explanations. The damage has been done and it is partially my fault for falling in love you."

Heero lurched forward, hugging the elf tightly from behind. He buried his nose into the back of Duo's smooth neck. "Please, Nefros, don't leave me. You have been haunting my dreams since I was a child. Your eyes lived with me since the first day I could remember. I need to explain…"

"Odin, enough. The myst allowed you to speak our tongue. But I will never allow you to remain in my life. I would have left a long time ago, if not for Quatre," Duo firmly disentangled himself from Heero's arms. "Like you, Trowa has managed to win the affections of my brother. He is repeating the cruel cycle we started."

"Cycle?" Heero asked, not really caring, but wanting to be in the presence of his elf a little longer. He had waited for decades to be with Duo again. He wasn't going to give that up.

Duo laughed humourlessly. "None of you humans understood what the myst was. You believed that it gave you eternal life. You believed that it would make you live forever."

"It isn't true?"

Duo shook his head, his body relaxing as he took on a familiar role of teacher. "The myst sustains life. It is the very soul of our people. We thrive on it. It is the myst that gives us continuity. Because of it, we live forever. And in the odd event that we do die, our souls are used and repeated once again. It's not only souls but sometimes, events, situations, they all seem to repeat themselves."

Heero's smooth brows furrowed in confusion. "Reincarnation?"

"Close enough," Duo nodded. "And that's what happened to you. Your soul was that of Odin's but your memories…" He trailed off, shaking his head. "You shouldn't have remembered them. Unless…"

Heero moved closer again, seeing his elf lost in thought. He was almost within reach of Duo again. Within huggable distance. Perhaps with the elf so distracted, he could sneak in a hug? "Unless?"

Duo turned towards Heero, shocked at how close the monarch was standing to him. He moved away quickly, noting the slight distress in Heero's dark blue eyes. He didn't know why he was standing there explaining things to the one person he had professed to hate to eternity. But most of his animosity had been drained and what was left was exhaustion. Duo was tired of fighting with himself, blaming himself, blaming Heero. He just wanted to bring the others home. Then he could slink away and do whatever he wanted to. For him, that meant ending his miserable existence.

"Unless?" Heero asked again, catching Duo's hands and pulling him closer.

Duo, tired of being pushed, and especially by someone he would never forgive, flung his hands up, breaking Heero's hold on it. "Unless that person has something he hasn't done yet. A desire not yet fulfilled. Now back off!" He warned, his eyes flashing with anger.

Heero wisely stayed away, watching Duo control the quick heaving of his chest. He would be wise to remember that Duo was far from ever forgiving him. But he had to explain himself one day, even if that day wouldn't be in the near future. His elf had to know that he didn't mean to lie to him. That he never meant to lie to him, ever. But his mind dwelled on what Duo had told him. Was it true? The fabled jewel of the elves was nothing more than insubstantial myst? Its value was nothing more than its importance to life within the forest? And it had been living in him for all this time?

He raised his hand and laid it over his heart. It was odd. He felt no different. Was what he saw in his dream really inside him? How did it get inside him? Did he purposely steal it? Or was it just some horrible mistake?

"Are you coming back to the castle soon?" Heero changed the subject.

Duo nodded, still tending to the trees. "Yes, after all, where else can I go? I am your slave, aren't I?"

Heero winced at that word and left Duo by himself.

"So, that's what this whole thing is about," Wufei said, coming out from behind a tree.

Duo gasped, whirling around. "Luinatar, do not creep up on people in that fashion."

Wufei bowed in apology, smiling softly at being called a name he had almost forgotten. "My apologies, Your Eminence."

"How much did you hear?" Duo asked, flopping onto the ground with a sigh.

"Would you be very angry if I told you everything?" Wufei asked, resting his hand on the pommel of his sword. He still looked every inch the elf warrior.

Duo shrugged.

Wufei stared down at the young Elite. With a small sigh, he dropped down next to him. "Duo, you need to find a way to retrieve the myst. I have always thought it was something substantial. But I am sure you know how to get it back. Our people's survival depends on it."

"Do you think I am not aware of that?" Duo muttered. "I left to find it because of that very reason. But Quatre…" He lifted sad eyes to Wufei's.

Wufei exhaled heavily. Yes, their other young prince was a problem as well. Quatre had to fall for a human and knowing Duo's devotion to his brother, would do everything in his power to ensure the younger blond's happiness. "One life for thousands?"

Duo winced, hunching deeper into himself. He knew what he had to do but for his brother, they could wait a few more days… right? He wasn't sure the question was could they wait a few more days or if he was doing it for his brother or himself. While he could not ever forgive Odin, he couldn't deny that the love that caused this was very much alive. He wasn't going to make any excuses for what he was feeling but there were just some things that love could not forgive. Nearly decimating an entire race was one of them.

"I will get it back," Duo promised.

"Please do it quickly," Wufei said, sounding concerned. "There have been rumours circulating that the King has elves as servants and slaves. No one can verify that as truth or lies but I am afraid the other kingdoms would want a piece of us as well. Heero cannot hold them all off indefinitely. It would be better if we left, for our safety and for his as well."

Duo nodded, feeling once again that he was the cause of all their problems. Little did he know, that this was merely the beginning.

XXxxXX

"No!" Heero threw the parchments off his desk in one angry sweep of his hand.

"Heero," Trowa tried to placate his cousin. "You are a young eligible male of marriageable age. You are also lord of a very powerful kingdom. It is only normal that people would start to think of alliances."

Heero shot Trowa a baleful glare. "No! I am not going to allow this to happen again. Nothing is going to come in between Duo and me ever again."

"Heero, be reasonable. Duo is not going to stay here forever…" Trowa trailed off, the impact of what he said finally hitting him squarely in the chest. Just as Duo wouldn't stay within Kyrin, neither would Quatre. He felt a pressure on his heart as it threatened to shatter that fragile organ to pieces. What would he do without Quatre? He was startled by a heavy hand on his shoulder. He looked up to meet Heero's sympathetic gaze.

"Now you know what I feel?" Heero shook his head. "I cannot, will not, give him up."

"We are worlds apart, Heero. There is no way that the elves and us would ever be together." Trowa wasn't sure if he was talking about Heero or himself any longer. They were in the same situation, albeit Heero's was a whole lot odder and happened, what it seemed a few hundred years in the past.

"I don't care," Heero shot out belligerently. "I am not going to allow the Peacecrafts to start an alliance with us. They are aggressive and warlike and they think of nothing but enlarging their empire, usually through conquering less able kingdoms."

"I heard their children, Relena and Milliardo are different. They are against war," Trowa explained. "Relena more than her brother but they do not agree with bloodshed as well."

Heero ran his fingers through his hair. "And that concerns me how? I only want them to leave me alone and stop plaguing me with these marriage contracts. That's how I had to leave Duo the first time. I won't let it happen to me again."

Trowa frowned, keeping wisely silent. He wasn't sure what to say about this entire situation. While he still found it hard to believe that Heero was Odin, or at least had Odin's memories, he couldn't deny the fact that a lot of details that Heero knew about the founding King weren't readily available in the history tomes. Heero's initial disbelief of his dreams had quickly faded as memories of his time with his elf surfaced. Guilt was also a huge factor in the eroding scepticism. Heero believed that even if he wasn't the one who betrayed Duo, his founding father did. And whatever the case, it was up to him to make everything better again. It also helped that Heero was increasingly attracted to the elf and it didn't do him any good to remember how they had spent days together in the wake of their lovemaking, with their limbs lazily entwined with each other.

Trowa had to admit that Duo was enchanting as well, much like his younger brother. He was initially shocked to find out that the king that everyone loved and admired had spurned all women because of a male elf. And one with such lousy attitude as well. He found it even harder to stomach that it was this elf that gave them the groundwork for releasing most of the nobles and peasants from the unpleasant yoke of dictatorship. Before King Odin, the history of Kyrin was one of strife and constant warfare. Many lived in fear and at the whims of their flighty king. Odin had ensured a more stable government and ruled justly to the best of his ability. Trowa had always admired the king and wished nothing more for his cousin to be able to take those lessons to heart. He found it disturbing that Odin was nothing more than a lonely broken man, trying to find something that had slipped through his fingers. He was even more disturbed that his cousin was that man. Or so the dreams and memories told his cousin.

"My Lords," a polite knock sounded from the other side of the door and the large wood panel peeked open to emit Wufei.

Both nobles had been rather at a loss of how to treat Wufei. Once a trusted teacher, he was now relegated to someone akin to the enemy. Wufei had lied to them and had insinuated himself into their lives to get something. While the two couldn't exactly blame him, they weren't noble enough to forgive him for lying either. They were thankful for his interference with their parents and for his raising them but they couldn't get past what Trowa thought to be utter betrayal to their trust.

"Yes?" Heero couldn't stop the slight sneer when faced with the dark haired elf.

Wufei's dark eyes narrowed slightly as hurt was reflected in them but it was quickly smoothed away to impassivity. "You have… guests."

"Guests?" Trowa and Heero echoed in confusion.

"Yes, a Princess Relena Peacecraft from Sanq Kingdom."

"What is she doing here?" Heero blurted, jumping to his feet. It felt like a bad nightmare. It was happening again. Someone was coming in between Duo and him once more. Was this the myst's doing? Was this the horrible cycle Duo tried to explain to him? Was this going to be the end only to begin again?

Wufei cleared his throat uncomfortably. "She said she is here for her betrothal to the king."

Trowa had never heard a death knell before, but he believed it might be akin to this pronouncement.

tbc