Whoo... boy... I let this one sit for too long... it's going to be tough to pick it back up and get it right ^^;;;
Born in Chaos Part 27
"She was my sister,"
Quatre stirred and lifted his head from Trowa's chest, his blue eyes questioning.
"That girl; the one that gave me these," Trowa lifted one arm, staring at the band clasped around his wrist. "I had forgotten," He whispered. "I had actually forgotten her. Catharine... my parents... everything..."
"It was probably your way of surviving," Quatre replied quietly, tightening his arm around the brunette's waist. "Do you wish to tell me?"
Trowa's hand tensed on the healer's shoulder and then relaxed. "Yeah," He stared up at the gray sky overhead. "I think maybe... I need to."
"Catharine was my elder sister by three years. I think I remember her more than I do our parents, she cared for me longer. What I do remember of our parents is vague shadows and gentle voices; a sense of love and security. I was two when mother died and five when we lost our father... I'm not even sure what happened. Just, one day, they were gone.
She was only eight but she refused to be taken in by the others in the village, insisting the she could care for both herself and me. I know she worked hard to make sure we had what we needed. When I was old enough, I helped her wherever I could.
Somehow, the two of us, we did alright. We made it.
She was a water mage... I was the wind mage. I know our power came from our mother, she was like I am now, possessing both. Her power came from her father, who I think she told me was just an infant when the guardian died."
Trowa stopped and took a deep breath, clasping the blonde tighter to him as if he were afraid he'd disappear. "I was fourteen. She'd gotten up that morning and bid me good-bye, saying the she needed to go to the neighboring village to get supplies that we couldn't get in our own. She wouldn't let me go instead and she refused to allow me to go with her.
She never came back. I think she knew when she left that morning that something would happen, that's why she refused to let me go. A couple days later some of the villagers found her body just outside our village boundaries. She had been ripped apart, by what no one seemed to be able to tell.
I left. I couldn't stay there any longer. Somehow I managed to block everything from my mind and just wandered from place to place, learning how to fight and hiring myself out to whoever wanted to purchase my services. Somewhere in the midst of that I discovered that I had her power, but by that time I didn't know where it came from anymore.
I was still wandering that day when you found me fighting the wraiths."
"Do you have any idea what may have happened to her?" The blonde asked quietly.
"I didn't then, but now... I think the shadows got her. I think she knew we were being hunted. I think the shadows believed that if they could destroy one of the warriors, then we'd not be able to band together in the future. What they didn't count on was that her blood bond to me caused her power to seek me out after her death." Trowa replied after thinking for a moment.
Quatre stretched up and kissed him lightly. "Thank-you,"
"It should be me saying that. You pulled me out of my own darkness." He smiled at the healer. "I'm glad I got to see her one more time. I'm glad that I can remember now. It was frightening to not know your own past, no matter what it was."
The brunette pulled Quatre up so that he was lying across him, staring down into his leaf green eyes. "You are my family now, Quatre. She would have liked you." He said pulling the healer down for a kiss. "Now, I think there was a little promise about the day's activities."
~*~
Sally knelt down on the mountain path and studied the ground, ignoring the annoyed look that Saron shot in her direction. "Look at this," She finally stood up, pointing towards the ground.
Letting out a disgruntled noise, the elfin male stalked over to where she was and leaned over peering at the ground. Faint, several days old... the ground bore the light stain of blood. How she had managed to see that was beyond him, if it wasn't being pointed out to him, he wouldn't have known it was there. Standing back up he looked around him, his eyes suddenly picking up the faint traces of a battle.
"It seems like we are still several days behind them," He said finally.
"I wonder if we are catching up to them at..." Her dagger slid noiselessly from its sheath and she whirled around crouching, the blade held out in front of her.
Glancing in Saron's direction she took note that he had also pulled his sword and held it at ready, his grey eyes narrowed. Not a word was spoken as the pair stood, ready for battle, and watched the shadows as they shifted subtly.
"Wraiths!!" Sally yelled as a dark form burst forth from the shadow and with an eerie howl leapt at the woman.
"Stupid woman!! A blade is no use against creatures like these!" Saron yelled dodging the deadly claws of a nearby wraith and grabbing her wrist. "Run!!"
The blonde woman found herself being dragged up the mountain pathway at a dead run, the angry howls of the shadow creatures close behind her. "We can't outrun them!" She screamed at Saron.
"Just do it!"
Suddenly Saron veered off the path and crashed into a dense patch of dead forest, ignoring the lifeless branches as they scratched and tore at his skin and dragging the human woman behind him. Hoping that the trees had slowed the creatures down he skidded to a halt, shoving Sally past him. Landing on her side beyond the blonde elf, Sally quickly scrambled to her feet and whirled around to face the wraiths when her blue eyes widened.
Saron stood facing the oncoming beasts, his fingers interlocked and a flow of alien words falling from his lips. The branches had torn the binding from his long hair and as he chanted the wind picked up and lifted the gold strands, whipping them around his face. His eyes sparked and glowed with a pure inner light as his words increased in power. The stunned woman just stared as he flung his palms outward and a flare of white light shot into the band of wraiths, twining around their shadowed forms, lifting them and tearing them apart.
Saron was a light mage. A true light mage, not just one that had learned to call on the light but one that was born with its power within him. Well, he is Ceris's grandson... she thought wildly.
Sally slumped to the ground gasping for breath as the agonized howls of the creatures faded away leaving them surrounded in silence. Saron turned and knelt beside her, laying a hand on her shoulder.
"Are you alright?" He asked, his grey eyes taking note of the scratches on her face and arms and the blood seeping from her upper leg from where she had fallen. "Here," He ripped a strip of cloth from his tunic and started to wipe the blood from her cheek.
She started and slapped his hand away. "I'm fine!"
"Rubbish!" Saron snapped and continued to clean her scratches. When he finished with that, he stood and took off the small pack he carried with him. Dropping it to the ground he looked her over. "Take off your pants," He finally said as he started to take off his cloak.
"WHAT?!?!"
"Don't even think it!" Saron snorted. "You're a human!" He gestured at her leg. "But that needs to be tended."
Oh... right... human... Sally huffed and quickly stood, wincing as pain shot through her thigh. She removed her pants and Saron sat her down on a large rock, pouring water from his water skin over the wound to wash it out.
She tore the skin pretty bad, he thought to himself as he worked cleaning the wound, fighting with himself to ignore the pale smoothness of her skin. Deciding that it would heal without being sewn, he reached into his pack and pulled out a small pouch. Opening it he started to sprinkle a strange powder over the wound. "This will help it heal without getting poisons in it," He explained as he laid a dark leaf over the powder and ripped another strip of cloth, this time from his cloak.
His eyes traveled the length of one shapely leg as he started to bind the wound with the cloth. They really aren't much different from us... I can see why... he shook his head angrily and stood up. Grabbing a pair of breeches from his pack he threw them at her. "It will heal... now, get dressed! We need to get moving!" He turned and stalked off.
Sally's mind was in turmoil as she clutched the cloth to her and watched him turn away.
~*~
Heero sat glumly at the base of a large tree, his cobalt eyes angry as he stared at the ground in front of him. Control; it was the most important factor in his life, as far as he was concerned. Without it he felt he was nothing. Self-control and honor. And just then, with Duo... he'd lost his grip on that control that he had fought so hard to perfect. How can one little street whore affect me like that? He asked himself bitterly.
Why was there something deep inside that desperately wanted to believe Duo when he denied being that? Especially when he knew there was no other way to survive on the city streets if you were orphaned. He knew... his mother had been parentless. She told him what life was like inside the city walls. That was why she had tried to raise him outside the city. But not even she could escape the dark taint of her own past. She had made sure he wouldn't suffer the same fate though.
*snap*
The dark haired boy stiffened as Duo appeared out of the woods next to him and sat down, his violet eyes staring off into the dark forest. "I think we need to clear some things up, Heero." He said sadly.
"There's nothing we need to discuss," Heero said flatly moving to get up.
"Just once, Heero, sit and listen to me and pretend that you actually believe me." Duo grabbed his wrist. "Give me that much respect will you?" His eyes pleaded with the brunette.
Still in a half crouch, Heero glared over his shoulder at the thief and then a resigned look passed over his features and he sat back against the tree. Folding his arms across his chest he stared straight ahead. "Talk,"
Duo found himself struggling to find a place to begin. He never thought that Heero would actually listen to him. Finally he took a deep breath and plunged ahead.
"My father died before I was born." He started. "It was a stupid injury that he could have prevented from getting infected if he had treated it right, but he didn't. My mother didn't learn about me until after that. Without him to support her, she worked for a couple of the local taverns and did her best to raise me at the same time. Unfortunately, poor working conditions and even poorer pay took its toll on her. She fell ill when I was barely five and died shortly after that."
Duo leaned back against the tree, his shoulder lightly touching the back of Heero's, his eyes wistful. "She was so worried about me. The last thing she told me was that she was afraid of what would happen to me. She gave me this pendant," His fingers brushed against the piece of amber hanging from his neck, "and told me that I was meant for a better destiny. She told me that there would be people that would try to use me; use my body, for their own pleasures and would offer me money for it. I remember her begging with me to never, no matter how desperate I might get, let anyone touch me unless it was something I truly wished for."
Sudden tears at the memory stung his eyes and he closed them. "I vowed to her that I would make my own way, but I would never allow that to happen to me. NEVER!" He slammed his fist into the ground beside him. "I've been starving, cold, sick, and so desperate that I even thought about it once or twice. After all it's only sex, right? I always remembered what I promised her and the fear in her eyes and I always managed to make it through without turning to that.
I know what you believe me to be, but I swear to you... I have never! I will die before I do that! Death is preferable to me than breaking my vow to her!"
He fell silent after that and just leaned against the tree, painful memories swirling around in his head.
"But, just a little while ago... you let me..."
Duo opened his eyes and turned his head to the side to see Heero studying him. "It was a kiss Heero; that was all. And did you ever stop to think that maybe, just maybe, it was because I wanted you to?"
Heero started. Wanted him to kiss him? "How many people have you wanted to kiss you?" He said quietly.
"None."
Heero stood suddenly and looked down at Duo, his expression unreadable. "I need to think." He said and turned away, walking away deeper into the woods.
Duo leaned back again and stared up at the grey sky. "Well, mother at least he didn't run away this time."
TBC...
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