Disclaimer: Don't own Gundam Wing... never will. But I do lay ownership to this lil story!

Chapter 14:
The Art of Deception

Heero was rudely awakened by a stern voice at the entrance of his tent in the middle of the night. This would be the third night in a row that he hadn't been allowed to sleep because of the little girl. He shrugged the thought aside, knowing that something had gone horribly wrong, as it had the previous few nights But where? And more importantly, when? Damn! How he hated this time period. The lack of surveillance equipment made the enemy's movements very difficult to keep track of. This new development, whatever it was, could have happened hours ago as far as he was concerned.

As he dashed out to the small clearing that was Susano-o's war council area he looked around. A few of the native generals who had allied with Duo where already there, overlooking the map at the center of the clearing with WuFei.

"What happened?" Duo rubbed the sleep out of his blue eyes as he came up to the map.

"Mariemaia's army is retreating," WuFei informed as he pointed to the small valley nestled between the mountains that had been the young girl's capitol since her assentation into power.

"That's a good thing!" Duo beamed. His smile slowly diminished as no one returned the gesture. Wasn't a retreating army a sign of victory? Or was there something else that they weren't telling him? "This is bad, because..?"

"She's up to something." Heero responded bringing his thumb up to his lips.

Duo rolled his eyes. Of course she was up to something. Any idiot could have guessed that much, especially with this impromptu meeting. Hell, the little girl always had something up her sleeve. Une had informed them a year or two ago that it was Mariemaia's idea to send the gundams down to earth as a distractions before commencing the real Operation Meteor. That way, everyone's attention would have already been focused on something before the true operation came to fruition. Thank goodness that never panned out the way it was supposed to. Duo shivered at the thought. She was a sly kid.

"She gains no strategic advantage by retreating," WuFei half muttered more to himself. "If they retreat they'd be trapped," he looked up at Duo. "The city they are holed up in is flanked on three sides by high mountains. While they'd have the advantage at the pass, taking our forces out in this bottle neck area, they also wouldn't have a good means of retreat from there if we suddenly took the upper hand. Their only means of escape from that valley would be this little passage that leads north to this lake. It'd be way too difficult to move such a large army through such a tiny mountain pass," he pointed everything out to Duo.

"So now what?" Duo looked around. Sure he had fought as an able combatant during the war five years ago, but he wasn't much of a strategist. He was more of an opportunist and go-with-the-flow type of guy. To be honest, he was quite content taking orders from someone who had a better grasp of the situation then he did. "We know Quatre won't allow men to die unnecessarily and Mariemaia would never turn tail and run."

Heero's dark eyes shifted onto Duo. Running away seemed to be out of the question for all Khushrenadas. Which lead him to his next contemplation: like her father, she must be plotting something that would take them by surprise. What was she really trying to cover up with this retreat? Even from having played a few board games with her in the past, Heero knew that Mariemaia enjoyed luring people into a false sense of security before striking back when you least expected it. They had spent days battling it out with the game of Risk once. The only reason that game had ended was because Une had finally lost her temper, stuffed all the pieces back into the box and shoved the game into a closet. The poor game had been condemned to a life sentence of solitude confinement with no chance of parole. He sighed heavily. He really had wanted to finish that game.

"So… do we hold our ground or follow?" Duo voiced out. His eyes meet both of the other pilot's gaze. He didn't push to get either to talk. That would be pointless. The other two only spoke when they felt the need to do so. Nothing short of an epiphany would get either to divulge whatever it was that was going on behind those dark pair of eyes, and even then, you only got a small fragment of what they were really thinking.

"Susano-o no-Mikoto-sama," one of the generals finally spoke up. "It would not be wise to stay where we are. We must follow your Honorable Sister and take the pass leading into the city. Once we control that, she will have nowhere to run and we will be able to take the city within a few days' time."

The three ex-gundam pilots eyed one another. This man clearly did not know who he was up against. But at the same time they couldn't just sit around and wait. That would mean giving the young girl time, and time, as they had all experienced in the past, was a dangerous thing to just hand to your opponent.

"If they don't move by the time the sun is at its highest," Duo began, "we storm in and take the pass at all costs."

All the men nodded before slowly disbursing. Whether Heero or WuFei like it or not, there really was no other choice. They had to move and take any opportunity they could against the little girl. This was a trap and all three of them knew it. They just had to figure out how it would be sprung. The three would spend the rest of the night coming up with all possible scenarios as to what might happen next.

###

Trowa slipped his hand into the slit of the flap of the tent and brushed past to enter. Littered across the dirt floor was a map, several pieces of paper, ink wells, brushes, and his fellow pilots using one another as pillows. His emerald eyes danced from one sleeping face to the next. Knowing his background, Duo had probably done this millions of time before and thought nothing of this sleeping arrangement. He probably even felt more comfort sleeping in such close proximity to someone else. Lord knows Duo had curled up way to close for his own comfort next to him every night during their travels together. The other two must have been exhausted beyond imagination to actually have fallen asleep in such an undignified manner.

The tall man walked up to the trio as silent as a cat. He stood quietly contemplating whether to wake them or let them continue sleeping when his eyes fell on one of the many ink wells scattered across the ground. His slender fingers twitched as the need to pick up one of those brushes and actually draw something on their unsuspecting face overwhelmed him. A faint smile crossed his lips as he weighed the consequences of such actions.

"I'll break your arm if you do," Heero's voice was very hoarse and low. Trowa watched as the other man slowly opened his eyes, stretching his arms before sitting up and unceremoniously swatting Duo's head off his legs. The other man's head hit the ground with a thud and his eyes shot open as he groaned, a sour look on his features. His sudden movement woke the last pilot, who had been using the American's stomach as a pillow.

"What time is it?" WuFei rubbed his almond eyes with the back of his hand.

"Past noon," Trowa answered.

"Has Mariemaia's army tried to move forward?" Duo asked sleepily.

"No. We've taken the pass and most of the city. Their army is nowhere to be found."

The three on the floor shot awake and eyed the tall brunette incredulously.

"Wh-what? Why didn't you wake us up!" Duo was clearly confused. "What do you mean they're not in the city?"

Trowa eyed each of them and shrugged slightly. "They're not there… for the most part." He brought a hand up to his chain and took in a deep breathe. "We're in the city, doing a street by street sweep. So far, very few of her army's men have been located, most of them hiding as civilians."

Heero's face scrunched up in confusion. How could a whole army of thousands disappear in a single night? That was just physically impossible, even for the former dictator-to-be. There was no way in hell that a whole army could move out of the small valley without out them taking notice of it… was there? He swatted aside a few sheets of paper and glared at the map, the others joining him. What had they missed? Where had they missed it?

Tense moments passed before Trowa spoke up. "I could have sworn that there a small set of mountains here, running down this way with a valley behind it…" his slender fingers brushed the map.

The other three looked down at the area. Indeed there was a mountain there, it was the east end of the pass leading into the capitol city. It only showed up as a single peak on their map when in fact it was a small range of about four peaks sloping in a south-easterly direction. The valley behind it was only accessible through another pass located a couple of dozen kilometers north of the one they had currently taken that morning and at the far southern end which ended right behind their camp…

The four glared at one another before quickly getting to their feet and straightening their cloths. They had barely shuffled out the tent when sets of horns wailed somewhere to the back of the campsite. The four stood frozen for a moment as the horns were followed by a deadly silence. Those horns were definitely not from their camp.

A buzzing sound slowly rose above the silence. Everyone's eyes promptly rose to the sky as a barrage of flaming arrows reached their zenith and proceeded to fall, striking their victims indiscriminately while setting everything else ablaze. Men scrambled in a disorderly manner, confusion and chaos rapidly spreading throughout the campsite. The only thing everyone seemed to wordlessly agree on was to race forward towards the capitol and the safety of the bulk of Susano-o's army.

A moment later, a thundering sound began to grow louder at their backs. A quick glance revealed men on horseback rapidly weaving their way between tents. The sight quickened every fleeing man's pace. The enemy struck down any and all who opposed them and seemed to be taking the rest prisoners.

"Don't get separated!" WeFei's voice came from somewhere ahead. An order that was easier said than done at this point. The four young men continued within the crowd of fleeing solders. They couldn't allow themselves to get captured.

A/N: Oh, how I love Mariemaia so much! I can't ever imagine that she wouldn't be a sly and cunning child.