Step Inside the Circle Part 2
Wufei Chang cursed soundly as a persistent knocking at the door pulled him away from his dinner. He hated the way it never failed that the Mormons would turn up on his doorstep just when he sat down and got comfortable. If he wanted to know more about their religion, after all, he would have studied it at College. He was of Chinese descent, for heaven's sake. How would they feel if he rang their doorbells to tell them all about Taoism?
Still grumbling, he yanked the door open, and was almost immediately bowled over by a barking mass of fur that pushed past him into the warmth of the house beyond.
"Declan Sean Maxwell! What the hell are you doing here when I'm t... Duo? Shit, are you okay?" Wufei cut his rant short as he realised that his friend was both panting for air and extremely pale, and refused to look up and meet his eyes. Not bothering to wait for an answer, he grabbed his wrist and yanked him inside.
He glared at the other two still on the doorstep, one of whom seemed to be wearing a cloak, of all odd things. "What did you do to him?!"
"Can we come inside to explain? Please. It's dangerous out here and the night has ears," a soft voice spoke from under the cloak, soothing and gentle. Wufei found himself wondering why he had been angry at the strangers to begin with, they seemed like perfectly nice people...
He blinked and shook his head hard. "I don't appreciate your..."
"Wufei, please," Duo said, putting a cold hand on his friend's shoulder. "Just let them come in. I don't know what's going on, either."
Wufei turned and looked closely at his friend. Now that they were under the lights, he could see Duo's face clearly, and the strange blue markings it bore. Dark eyes narrowed further in his already angry face. "You got tattoos. You're a true idiot, Maxwell." He turned back to the doorway - the taller of the two looked up as he did, and he found himself being drawn in by those deep green eyes. "Fine."
As he stepped back, the two strangers quickly pushed inside, shutting the door tightly behind them. Wufei ignored them for the moment, noticing how shaky Duo seemed to be. He shook his head as he put an arm around the young man's shoulders and directed him into the kitchen, the warmest room in the house. Duo had been the first person to try to befriend him when he'd moved out to the small village to join the school as the new fifth grade teacher, an outsider in more ways than one. He couldn't help the fondness he felt for the long-haired man.
Once Duo was seated, Wufei moved to the stove to put on some water for tea. "We need to warm you up. Jesus, Maxwell, what on Earth possessed you to get tattoos?! And on your face, of all places!" He sat down and immediately had a lap full of Kahn. He patted the German Shepherd fondly. For such a tough guy, the beast sure liked to cuddle.
Duo snorted - the sound held a slight hint of hysteria to it. "I didn't exactly have a choice, Wufei. It just kinda... happened. I'm sorry to bother you."
"Don't mention it." Wufei pushed the dog off his lap and glared once more at the other two. "Who are you?"
He frowned - both young men also wore the strange tattoos, and the fact that one was wearing a cloak...
The tall young man with green eyes spoke first. "My name is Trowa, and this is Quatre. Thanks for letting us in."
"I would not have, if Duo hadn't asked me to," Wufei replied sharply. He took in Trowa's blood-stained clothes and frowned even deeper. "You're hurt. What is this, a gang thing? And you got Duo involved?"
Trowa couldn't help the small half-smile he wore. "In a very odd manner of speaking, yes. But I did nothing to Duo, I swear it."
"Cut the swearing, Trowa, and just tell me when I can go home," Duo complained, absently scratching at Kahn's ears.
"I'm sorry, my lord," Quatre said softly, "but you can't. Now that they know where you lived..."
"What?!" Duo jumped up from his seat, and Wufei's eyes widened as he noticed the tattoos on the long-haired man's wrists, as well.
He paled slightly. "My God - they're moving."
Duo looked down at his hands and quickly moved them behind his back. "Okay, I can explain."
Wufei arched and eyebrow.
Duo fidgeted under his friend's intense stare, suddenly knowing first-hand why the Chinese-American made such a good teacher. "Well, okay, so maybe I can't explain, but they can! The blond guy's the one who did this to me."
It was Quatre's turn to be skewered by Wufei's glance. The blond young man blushed darkly. "Mr... Can I call you Wufei?" he asked, waiting for a nod before continuing. "Wufei, we just met Duo, no more than a couple hours ago. And we would never have involved him if there had been a way around it."
"Involved him in what?"
Quatre darted a look at Trowa. "You're the bard - you tell them."
Before Wufei could say a word about the bard-thing, Trowa cleared his throat. "Duo is involved because of me. I was hurt while trying to help a girl who was giving me some very important information. Your Duo found me while I was passed out and brought me to his house to clean me up. The people who were after me apparently tracked us and, after Quatre arrived, started closing in. We had no choice but to leave. We have to stay indoors now until the sun rises."
Wufei didn't bother to hide his annoyance as he glanced at Duo and saw the young man clearly becoming more frustrated with every word. He steepled his hands on the table and leaned forward, pinning Trowa with a stare. "Now let's try that again, and I want you to pretend that we're all at least semi-intelligent beings. You were hurt because of a girl, and by your clothes you obviously lost a lot of blood, but you're walking around now as though nothing is wrong. What's more, you must have walked here from Duo's place, which I know is no short hike. He can't do miracles, so it appears there is a hole in your story.
"Hole number two - Quatre arrived after you did, but your enemies were tracking you. Doesn't work that way. They either followed him, or you did something to alert them to your presence, and in the meantime got my friend, here, into a whole lot of trouble for simply trying to do the right thing and help you. Furthermore, if you alerted your pursuers from a place of relative safety, you must have known your actions would have consequences, and yet you did it, anyway. That doesn't strike me as the action of a man trying to protect a person who just saved his life.
"Hole three - if they knew who you were when you left Duo's house, they would have followed and probably nabbed you during the walk over here. So either whoever was after you didn't know who they were after, in which case it couldn't have been the same people you fought with earlier, or you just didn't care. And for that matter, you said that you had to stay indoors, but you took the risk of going outside to get here. That further suggests that you really don't know what you're running from, and they don't know who you are, either." Wufei smirked darkly. "Now would you tell me the truth, please."
As an afterthought, he added, "And you can explain what he means about being a bard while you're at it, and what the hell the deal is with all the tattoos."
Trowa couldn't help a small smile as Wufei finished speaking. The man was very smart! "Is that it? Any more holes?"
"Give me more bullshit and I'll be happy to point them out for you," Wufei replied dryly.
Trowa actually laughed. "Fine. Then try this on for size. I was injured trying to secure information from the daughter of the Formorii King, when we were set upon by the Tarvos. While I fought it off, brownies grabbed the girl and left. I was badly hurt, so I fled to the only safe place within a hundred miles, the home of a full-blooded Tuatha de Danaan."
"Translation, please?" Duo groaned, clutching at his head.
Wufei sat back with wide eyes. He was practised at spotting lies from fifty feet away. But despite this Trowa's laughter and carefree manner... he was telling the truth. Or at least - he believed he was. "If I just understood him properly, he was attacked by a bull demon raised by an ancient, goblin-like King to silence his daughter from sharing secrets. And he went to a place of safety..."
Wufei stood and moved around the table to take hold of Duo by the shoulders. "Duo, if what he said was true, you're a reincarnated God."
~*~
Wufei's dinner was a long-forgotten, congealed mess on the plate, and no one paid any heed as Kahn jumped up on his master's empty chair to get to it. All eyes were on Duo, who had been pacing the length of the kitchen, wringing his hands, for the better part of a half hour.
Duo felt a hand of ice clenching his heart. "You said... No. You're wrong, all of you. I'm just... me."
Quatre sighed - the man had to accept it! Why was it so hard for him? "Duo, when I touched you before... it is one of the powers of my kind, and mine are among the strongest. It is called a truth vision - I revealed the truth to you; that is why your markings are now visible. What's more - for someone like Trowa or me, the tattoos are just that, tattoos. You, I believe, have never had ink work done. That would make those natural birthmarks."
"Powers of your kind?" Wufei asked. "Just who the hell are you two?"
Quatre managed a half smile, though he was clearly uncomfortable under Wufei's stare. "I am Quatre Winner. I come from an Arab family, but... I discovered early on in my life that I had an affinity to people's feelings. When I ran away from my family, a woman found me and offered me training in my gifts as she called them. That was ten years ago. I am not Quatre Bean Sidhe, Chief Banshee for Priestess Danu."
"Priestess?!" Duo asked.
"Arab?!" Wufei sputtered at the same time, eyes wide.
Quatre nodded to Duo, ignoring Wufei's outburst. "The Tuatha de Danaan were an ancient race of gods, all dedicated in service to the Earth Mother, Danu. Their worship has waned, as has their influence, but they are still present because they are real, and universal to the world, regardless of what we know today as national or regional boundaries. The Mother Goddess is just that - Mother of the World and of all of us, no matter where we live or what we do. Many of them have pulled away from the mortal world and only influence it anymore as the Sidhe, or fairy folk. Some choose to be present in an actual physical form of their own. Our Prince was one of those - Lugh of the Long Arm, reborn as a mortal by the name of Zechs Marquise. We were attacked no more than two weeks ago, and our Prince was killed, we believe by the Formorii. You seem to be one of those, too, though who you were in your previous existence is still a mystery to me. Others, such as the Mother Herself, merely choose and empower representatives to do their will among mortals. Our priestess is one of those. Lady Relena, Priestess Danu."
"This sounds like a bad science fiction movie," Wufei said, finally, disbelievingly. "D'you have any idea how crazy this all sounds?"
Trowa smiled darkly. "How else do you explain Duo's tattoos? Or his hair? The leaders of the Tuatha De were well known for their good looks and physical perfection."
"Perfection, eh?" Wufei asked wryly. "So he says he's a Banshee? What does that make you? A leprechaun?"
Trowa snorted. "A druid, actually. Gwydion is my Celtic name." Wufei snorted, but nodded, eyeing the tall brown-haired druid curiously. Trowa shook his head. "You know, you're taking this remarkably well."
"I studied religion at College, including the Celtic Parthenon," Wufei replied. "This actually sounds vaguely like what I learned. Still sounds like bullshit, though."
The green-eyed man groaned and rolled his eyes. "Perhaps it does, but it's dark out, no moon to be seen with this cloud cover, and the Formorii will not have gone far. You were right - I don't know exactly who is out there, and they probably don't have any idea of what or who they could be facing, and would therefore be at least somewhat cautious. But to stay at Duo's house... we would have ran the risk that they figured out they would be facing one, lone druid and a Banshee. Powerful though we are in our own right, we would not have withstood an onslaught while both the moon and sun remained hidden. Until the sun rises, I'm not doing anything to prove what I say is true, and neither will Quatre."
"I could have done something, too, you know... What are Formorii, and what happened to that girl you were taking about?" Duo asked in a small voice.
Trowa's face went grim. "The Formorii were the rulers of Old Ireland before the Tuatha De came to its shores. They were not the brightest of creatures and not entirely pleasant to look upon, and their King was called Balor, which means Death in their language. He and his wife Cathlionn had one child - a girl named Eithlinn. Balor kept her locked away from all man and god-kind, and eventually killed the girl for falling in love with one of the Tuatha De.
"Balor has somehow escaped the Underworld he was sent to, and brought his family out with him. Eithlinn in this incarnation... she was no more than six when she slipped past her captors and came to us for the first time. It was she that I was meeting with tonight." He looked down at his hands, frowning. "I was... unable to protect her. I failed her, and now..."
Quatre slipped closer to him and squeezed his shoulder.
"What are brownies?" Wufei asked.
Quatre shot him a grateful look for changing the subject. "They are a small, goblin-like race of men, very tricky and distrustful of humans. There are different tribes of brownies, too, some of whom follow the paths of the Goddess, and others who would serve Her enemies. They pop up here and there in Celtic legend."
Wufei shook his head. "Speaking of legends, I seem to remember a great battle, and this Lugh guy killing Balor in open combat."
Trowa nodded. "Yes. Ironic that Balor's reincarnation should kill Lugh in this life. His loss was... terrible. A great blow to us all."
They all stared at each other for a long moment.
Duo finally shook his head. "You're talking about Gods and goblins and reincarnations... How can I possibly be a... whatever you said I was? I was raised in a Church orphanage, for heaven's sake."
Wufei's mouth went dry. "And you never knew your parents," he said softly, turning back to Quatre this time. "Was this Zechs by any chance a changeling?"
The blond smiled. "As, I suspect, Duo was, as well. I am impressed, Wufei."
Duo turned back to Trowa, though, his dark blue eyes flashing. "Wufei's right, though. Back at my house - when you made the lights explode... Why? If you knew someone would be able to find you..."
"He did what?" Wufei asked.
Duo turned back to his friend and shooed the dog from his seat so he could take it back. "I didn't believe their story and I said I was calling the cops... Trowa got angry and shouted, and suddenly every light bulb in the place exploded, and I felt something throw me back to the couch, and I couldn't move." He eyed Trowa again. "For a druid, that's a fucking stupid thing to do."
"I know, I know," Trowa said, cringing. "And I'm sure Heero will rip me a new one when we talk to him... Quatre!" He turned to the blond. "Quatre, did you bring your cellphone?"
The blond glared at him. "Sure, Gwydion. I had my phone on me, and I still let a band of Formorii bastards chase us, along with a newly-awakened Tuatha De lord, from the only safe place we had."
"Now I know you're kidding me," Duo said, looking back and forth between the two. "You're a Banshee, but you carry a cellphone?!"
Trowa met the braided man's eyes. "We might worship an ancient goddess, but these are modern times, and as this situation illustrates quite well, we can't always use magic to solve our problems. Quat, do you have Heero's number on you?"
"Who's Heero?" Wufei asked.
Quatre answered him, "He's a sworn protector of the Mother and servant of the Tuatha de Danaan Prince. He was Prince Zechs' right hand, before he was murdered."
"A cellphone?"
Quatre rolled his eyes and turned to Duo, his expression just that much darker. "Yes, a bloody cellphone, okay?" His eyes flashed, and he suddenly looked far more sinister than either Duo or Wufei would have believed possible.
Wufei jumped up from his seat. "Fine, whatever, just calm down!" he insisted, stepping between them. "You can use my phone, okay?"
~*~
With Trowa and Quatre off in the living room to make their call, Wufei pulled a chair closer to Duo and sat, absently watching the dancing flames of the braided man's tattoos. "Talk to me, Maxwell."
Duo looked up and managed a half smile. "I don't know what to say. According to these guys, I'm... someone else. And the worst... I think I believe them."
Wufei cringed at the look in his friend's usually bright eyes. "Not someone else, just... a little more than you previously believed yourself to be. Does that make sense?"
"No less sense than anything else tonight," Duo griped. He suddenly began rubbing at his wrists. "I just want them to go away! Let me be..."
"Duo, stop," Wufei admonished, grabbing his hands and holding them in his own. "They're in your skin - they're a part of you." They locked eyes, and for the firs time, Wufei noticed just why the colour looked so good on Duo. "You know the ink is the same colour as your eyes? It matches you."
"You're not helping, you know," Duo pouted, pulling away.
"Maybe not, but your damned dog ate my dinner. Consider it payback."
Duo snorted. "I'll order pizza."
"Someone say pizza?" Trowa asked, walking back into the room.
Wufei looked up. "What did your friend say?"
The green-eyed man blushed a deep red. "He was... displeased, to say the least. He will be coming to pick us up personally. Once he takes care of a little business; my attack tonight was apparently not the only one. The damned Formorii must be up to something!"
"Then who will protect the... the Mother?" Duo asked.
Quatre gave him a smile, though he still looked worried. "Our Priestess is amply protected at all times by her personal guard, don't worry. The Aspects look after her very well."
Duo groaned. "More of this weird shit - do I have to ask who or what the Aspects are?"
Trowa and Quatre shared a glance, and the taller of the two finally answered. "You'll have to meet them to believe it."
"So what do we do?" Duo asked.
Quatre smiled. "It'll take him a while to get here - he probably won't reach us until at least mid-day tomorrow. So... Can we come hang out at your Pub until then?"
~*~
The four men were sitting around the round coffee table in Wufei's living room, eyeing the now-empty pizza boxes and managing a fairly normal conversation. Under the circumstances.
Quatre belched and patted his stomach, eyeing the pizza boxes with a satisfied look on his face. "Now that was good pizza."
Wufei shot him a glare. "Now maybe I'll believe you're an Arab - you certainly act like one."
The blond shrugged. "Call it a genetic throwback or something. I honestly don't know why I look like I do. If you ever saw the rest of my family, you'd say they're perfectly normal Arabs. It was just me who was a freak." He smiled sadly. "And now look at me. A Banshee."
Wufei considered him carefully. The blond had a Celtic wheel tattooed on his forehead over his proverbial third eye, but no other marks that were visible outside of his clothing. He did, however, have an air of power and confidence about him that was impossible to miss. "You're life choice suits you."
"Thank you." Quatre looked down and away.
Duo looked over at the blond, who was feeding the remaining crusts from his pizza to a blatantly begging Kahn. "Quatre, I need you to help me."
"With what?" The blond looked confused. "You know I can't do anything until..."
Duo nodded, but held out his hands, staring at the dancing flames. "I need to know how to hide these. You made them appear; you can make them disappear."
Trowa shook his head. "No, I'm afraid not," he said softly, locking gazes with the Banshee. "He woke you up, so to speak. Now that you are aware of the Tuatha de Danaan power inside of you, though, nothing either he or I could do here, unaided, could affect you. You are full-blooded, Duo."
"I can show you how to do it for yourself, though," Quatre added quickly, seeing the dismay on Duo's face.
Wufei shot the blond a look and caught the guilt hiding in his eyes. Quatre seemed truly unhappy to have caused Duo such anguish...
"I would appreciate that," Duo said, still staring at his hands. "This would definitely stick out at the Eagle's Nest." He absently ran a finger over some of the dancing flames. "They are pretty cool, though."
Wufei shot Trowa a look. "You said you could not do anything to him unaided; what exactly does that mean?"
Trowa sat back, stretching out his long legs in front of him and smiling slightly as Kahn jumped into his lap. "Simple. I am the High Druid, but even the power the Goddess gives me cannot overcome the natural defences of a full-blooded Tuatha de Danaan. Even for something as simple as reading Duo's past to discover who was reincarnated in him... I would need help, and more than Quatre can provide. Lady Relena herself must do it."
"So I'm... powerful?" Duo asked, eyes wide in his face. "I don't feel powerful."
"You don't look it right now, either, Maxwell," Wufei informed him dryly. It was true - Duo's eyes were drooping with fatigue, and wisps of hair had managed to slip out of his braid. What's more, he was completely unaware that he had pizza sauce smeared on his cheek.
The Chinese man stood and began gathering the pizza boxes. "You three are going to have to sleep out here tonight; my den is currently snowed under with grading and school projects. I hope you won't mind..."
Duo looked up at him with a smile and started picking up the dirty plate. "Nah- that's fine, Wu. This will be great, right guys?"
"Absolutely!" Quatre echoed quickly. "We are in your debt, Wufei."
"Hn." Wufei smoothed his ponytail back as he walked out of the room, his arms full of boxes. Quatre and Trowa exchanged worried glances.
"Don't mind that," Duo said, waving his hand in the direction of the kitchen. "He's like that sometimes. But he's a great guy, and the best friend a guy could ask for."
"He's certainly proved that," Trowa said, moving to take the plates from Duo.
"I got it," Duo said quickly, hopping to his feet. "Be right back, guys."
A few moments later, Wufei walked back in and sat down across from the other two with a serious look on his face. "Duo's fetching blankets and the like and will be back soon, so I'll keep this short. You told us a lot, but I know you're holding back on me. I don't know what you plan too do to Duo, I don't know why these Formorii were after you or what terrible secret the girl meant to give you, and for all I know, you could be lying through your teeth. I want to trust you, but you'll understand if I don't quite yet."
Trowa nodded seriously. "Entirely."
Wufei's expression twisted into something darker as he glared at them both. "You do anything to harm him, and I'll make you regret it, no matter what you are. Do you understand?"
Quatre's aquamarine eyes glowed quite suddenly as his face took on a pensive look. "What is he to you that you're so protective of him? What history is there between you..."
"That is not your business to know!" Wufei snapped. "He is my best and dearest friend, and I will harm anything that harms him you got that?"
Quatre was about to say more, but Trowa grabbed his arm and shook him slightly until the glowing look to his eyes subsided. "We understand, Wufei Chang. If it makes you feel any better, we have much more to fear from him than he does from us."
"Just so long as we understand one another," Wufei said, standing in a fluid motion. He turned around just in time to throw Duo a quick smile and reach for part of the veritable mountain of blanket and pillows the braided man was carrying. "Need some help?"
~*~
They were back at Duo's house the next morning, and Quatre had to work hard to fight off the headache that threatened whenever he was in the same room with the overexcited Duo.
The young man had taken to hiding his tattoos quite easily - it seemed he had a ready imagination and needed very few prompts to exercise it. Hiding the marks was simple; all he truly had to do was envision what he looked like before they were there and will it to be true, and the blue marks vanished, leaving behind only a slight tingling of the flesh that reminded him of their presence.
The problem was, Duo could imagine various other little details about himself, as well. In the past five minutes alone, he'd gone from brunette, to gothic black, to platinum blond, green, tattoo blue, as he called it...
On the one hand, it was a very good sign that the young man could accept his abilities so well and adapt to them this quickly. However there were downsides, as well, the greatest of which being that, since they did not know who was reincarnated into Duo Maxwell, they could not predict what abilities he truly had, as yet. The wrong trait showing up at the right time would mean disaster.
The blond Banshee sighed and stepped out of Duo's bedroom, where he'd been changing clothes. His own ceremonial robes would have stood out too much at the pub, so he'd been forced to borrow clothes from his host, who was thankfully not too much bigger than him. The clothes were slightly oversized, but Quatre liked that - it gave him an edgy, slightly scruffy look. More importantly, it covered him up completely. He was a Banshee, after all, and while he could hide the tattoo on his face, there were... other things that could be much more difficult to explain.
The conversation stopped as he walked into the living room, and both Duo and Trowa looked up - Duo thankfully back to his normal appearance after a small scolding from the stoic druid.
Trowa stood and slowly circled Quatre, looking him over with a critical eye, and finally stopped right on front of him, giving a small smile. "Good."
"Finally!" Duo said, jumping to his feet. "I clocked you, Quat - it took you a full twenty-seven minutes to choose something to wear! D'you always take that long?"
The blond smiled and picked up the jacket Duo was lending him, shrugging it on. "Robes are much simpler that way, Duo. Thanks for the loan."
"No prob." Duo looked around his home again; nothing had seemed out of place when they got there, sunlight streaming through the door behind him, but something felt... off. He couldn't quite explain it, but it was no longer the inviting place he loved so much, and he wasn't sure why. Maybe it was just the threat of it not being safe?
He shook his head. "Let's get going. We need to drop Kahn back off at Wufei's before I go to work."
Ushering the other two out, he locked the door quickly and untied Kahn's leash. The two jogged up the lane after the Druid and Banshee and did not look back.
It would be the last time Duo saw his little house and its fir-tree-lined lane.
TBC...
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