Our battles they may find us no choice may ours to be,
But hold the banner proudly, the truth will set us free
-Lyrics to 'Beneath a Phrygian Sky' performed by Loreema McKennitt
Elements of Great Design Part 62
Dorothy wandered through the ever growing White Fang encampment lost in her own deep thoughts. Having promised Mueller to join him in their tent as soon as she finished her pressing matter, she made her way through the massive strew of tents, work stations and stables that had been built in little time thanks to the many hands able to come together in arranging them.
The person she sought out was not a hard one to find with their magic tied together. And at no surprise, he was waiting for beyond the edge of the nearby stream... away from listening ears.
Smiling warmly, Howard bowed at the waist as he greeted, "Hello, my dear. I had a feeling that you would have concerns after seeing what our visions recently revealed." He had kept his voice so low out of caution that the sound of the rushing water behind him nearly drowned his words.
Her body trembling from anything but the chilled air, Catalonia hugged her arms tight around herself. "The Keepers are fighting for the forth and last Elemental Stone," she confirmed just as softly, a deep frown of worry on her face. Shaking her head, she whimpered, "But the odds they are working against-"
An arm draped around her shoulders and the old man hugged her against his side with a reassured, "The odds have always been against them, child. And yet they have been able to survive all this time. No other creatures in all of Gaia know what is in the balance when it comes to capturing this last weapon. Take faith in knowing that they are doing everything they possibly can to come out of this."
Of course he was right. Dorothy was not about to argue against that sentiment.
Biting her lip, the Oracle released a long sigh that danced beyond her lips in a spiral of vapor. "I just wish that there was something I could do to help instead of waiting here like this."
"Well, there is always one very important thing that we can do for them," Howard replied. When the young woman looked up at him, the Elder told her, "Pray."
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
As Anna's body hung lifelessly by the stake that pinned her shoulder to the rock behind her, Wufei returned into the world in a blind rage.
Reaching out, Duo snagged some invisible thing from the air through the gaps of his cell. When he opened his hand, the glow in his violet eyes faded as he sighed in relief to the glowing orb in his palm, "Got'ch ya, sis." Swallowing roughly, he peered at the thief's impaled, bloody body across the way and breathed, "Good girl." It was all that he could say in light of that selfless act to catch that vial at all costs.
Fists clenched tight at his sides, Chang's head reeled back as he screamed. The echoing sound caused a ripple to rise from the ground that coursed its way from his end of the room to the back, knocking the dark soldiers from their feet or swallowing them whole in the same instant that the stone 'hands' trapping the Keepers exploded into shards that ripped the closest demons to shreds in their wake.
In being freed, Anna's body fell towards the ground. Materializing beneath her through the floor, the Earth Keeper caught her in his arms easily and held her close to his naked body as he glared heatedly at the next wave of monsters rushing in.
Protectively pulling his wife towards him, her blood that had not had time to dry ran down his own skin as he let out a fierce growl of his wolf entity when Quatre called timidly, "Wufei."
Snapping his head back, Chang let out a bark of a snap at the recoiling Water Keeper. With the white Monk robe draped across his arm, Winner held his opened hands up. Wide-eyed, he gestured to the limp body in his brother's possession.
"I need Anna so that I can heal her," he spoke softly as though he were actually trying to tame a wild wolf. "Duo has her soul, so we will work together to keep her safe. Don't let her act go to waste. We need you to help us finish what we came here to do."
The reality of the situation setting in with the aid of the White Mage's easing, Wufei quickly calmed. Frowning deeply down at his soul mate's body, he turned to face Quatre to hand her over with reverent care.
Amidst the bellow of the oncoming troops, he took hold of his robe to drape and close it around his lithe form and bent to press a kiss against Anna's cooled temple. Feeling the fabric sticking in the places where her blood had rubbed off on him, he allowed his hate to build once more for his enemies who were closing in fast.
"For you, Firefly," the Earth Keeper breathed to the unresponsive thief and straightened himself to glare down at the beasts crazed with the desire to kill him. Folding his hands together, he quickly spread them apart to open the ground up.
Then turning his palm-up to palm-down in a couple of successions, he caused the two halves to shake the screaming creatures holding on into the abyss along with the bones of the already dead which would have only served as obstacles.
Once the ground was cleared, it came back together seamlessly as though nothing had disturbed it.
Hearing the whirring descent of a blast intended for him, Wufei raised his right hand to create a round shield of granite that absorbed a fair amount of the energy. What remained nearly pushed his dragging feet back a few yards. By the time he lowered his cover, there were even more soldiers coming in from every angle.
Tightly gripping the hilt of his sword, Heero yelled, "We are still in the middle of Mariemaia's army, so they are only going to keep coming!" Meeting the onyx eyes that fell on him, he told him, "Get moving for the Elemental Stone, Wufei! We'll handle ourselves down here and give you as much help as we can!"
Chang nodded firmly, checked to see that Trowa and Quatre had returned to the hole that they entered the realm though and lowered his lover safely inside. With no time to further satisfy himself in protecting Anna himself, the Monk sank into the decayed ground to rush for the tower. A very subtle bump in the floor racing for the center of the land was the only hint of his whereabouts.
Back inside of the tunnel, Quatre took a careful assessment of Anna's body.
Gently brushing back her blood-matted hair from her chest, he took a good look at the large hole in her shoulder and let out a sharp hiss. "A few inches and it would have nicked her heart," he muttered under his breath. "At least her blood is not running anymore. That will make it easier for me to heal her." Taking hold of her hands, he closed his eyes and began the task of willing her wounds to close.
Trowa kept his sister's head in his lap and brushed the backs of his fingers along her cold cheek. "Good looking out Anna," he whispered as he took in her ashen face. Already, he could see the large gap in her shoulder closing. "We'll take it from here." Within seconds, the gap in her shoulder was closed and a new patch of skin stitched the last bit of the opening closed.
"We better get back to the others," Winner announced while helping his husband shift their sister to lying flat on her back. All but jumping from the tunnel, they raised their hands to bring their powers together to create a frozen sheet of ice that wrapped the thief in a secured dome and spun around to return to the fight against the next surge of soldiers.
Scaling the tower's twisting spiral up to the top, Wufei had reemerged to handle those few monsters standing by with his Chef's Knife. All along his assent, he noticed the absence of the floating villain that was using his Earth Stone's power. It was a complete unknown to the Keeper when and where the creature had disappeared... and he was especially cautious in taking every twist and turn up to not be taken by surprise.
But even all of those plans and awareness was not able to prepare him for when he reached only a few levels from the zenith... where an explosion beneath his feet that sent him tumbling downward.
Crying out when he suddenly heard and felt the floor go out from under him, the Monk plummeted five stories before he was able to reach out and grab onto a ledge. The violent, downward pull on his supporting arm from his body that had been falling freely was enough to make Chang's teeth clamp together as he let out a deep grunt. Tasting blood in his mouth from the nick he gave his tongue, he glared up at the skeletal demon that had reappeared at the top of the tower.
That chest of rib bones vibrated with another silent fit of laughter, the fanged teeth forever frozen in that haunting smile. "Bastard," Wufei gritted out as he pulled himself up onto the smooth walkway that had spared him. Extending a hand for the top of the crater of the earth's surface, he sent a stream of jagged shards of stone for his enemy.
Unmoving, the beast never faltered, allowing the hail of splinters to bounce off the air around him. And it became all too clear to the Monk that the Earth Stone was what had deflected the attack.
It was a grave violation that Wufei took personally... knowing that his weapon was being used against him. As if seeing Anna hurt so badly at the hands of the monster was not infuriating enough, this added insult to injury had the Keeper literally seeing red.
Since he was working against his own powers, Chang set himself to finding a way to somehow best the aggressor. But that was not before finding out one thing first. "What is your name?" he snapped up at the caped demon. Sneering, he growled, "I want to know who I am sending back to Abaddon."
From somewhere in his head, he heard a breathy whisper answer in a hiss, "Lich." The mouth did not open to speak, but there was no question that it was the demon that had spoken. Its red eyes burned intensely before it swung its scepter to have the large, blue gem aim at its target. A bolt of energy shot forth, but Wufei had already faded into the stone of the tower wall behind him in time to avoid the direct hit.
Materializing back on the opposite side of the structure, Chang panted to himself, "For learning what he can do as he goes, this thing is a quick learner." That said, he leapt back into the stone and dodged the next series of blasts that were fast on his heels in his rippled form.
Back on the ground, Heero and Duo had fixed themselves back-to-back in their defensive stand against the monsters coming upon them. Anna's soul chirped and floated around the immediate dangers to act as a means of distraction to spare her brothers a moment's breath before they delivered their death blows.
Peering up at the bulb when they had a moment, Maxwell wiped the sweat from his brow with the back of his hand as he smirked, "Your help is appreciated, sis. Just be careful. Wufei will have my hide if anything happened to you." In response, the brilliant spark hummed and pressed itself against the Black Mage's cheek in what could only be interpreted as a peck. Shaking his head in amusement, he snickered, "Love you, too."
Filling the skies with rain clouds so thick that they blocked out the sun, Quatre brought down a torrent of rain that Trowa's frozen air turned into long, sharp picks of ice that sliced through the armored soldiers. Cutting through heads and limbs, the relentless hail never touched the Keepers amidst the fight.
Meanwhile, Wufei continued to struggle to fend off his own Elemental Stone's power miles above their heads.
As he broke through hands of rock that had reached out of the tower walls to hold him, the Monk finally managed to complete his climb to the top level. There, the surface rounded to house the dull gem perched atop its pedestal in the middle of the cusp. Though its light was gone, a brilliant bolt shot from it to disappear in a straight pulse upward.
In that split second, Chang had only enough time to gasp and duck to avoid the direct hit by diving forward and landing on his stomach. Watching the ball of energy fall down the crater when he looked over his shoulder, he righted himself and glared up at Lich. The demon had reappeared stand between his enemy and the Elemental Stone with his sinister grin.
Wufei began to crouch down, intent on taking a straight shot through the monster for his prize when he heard a series of familiar voices screaming from below. Stricken by the sounds, he had no choice but to rush for the tower's edge to peer down below.
He was not the intended mark for the last attack, as he had assumed. It was his brothers... and the ground beneath them had melted into quicksand that was pulling them down fast. Already, were trapped up to their waists while the dark army waited for the shifting earth to either swallow them or to stop so that they might pick the them off.
Cursing under his breath, the Monk faded into the tower once more to descend it rapidly. No sooner had vanished did Lich send half of the nearest wall collapsing in a massive rock slide at the next bolt... making an already difficult rescue near impossible.
There were only seconds left when Wufei materialized at the ring where his fellow warriors were trapped. The most immediate concern was the quicksand as only the heads of his charges were above ground. So, that was where he had to focus his attention.
Quickly falling to his knees, Chang rested his hands against the shifting ground even as the deafening rubble of the landslide shook the world around him. As the sand solidified, it lifted the Keepers from its grasp until their feet were on a firm surface... but they all stood in fright as they watched the oncoming rocks that they were too late to stop.
"Gather close!" was all the Earth elemental could scream to his brothers at the last moment, his first order of business in freeing them complete.
He watched in as the team fought to stand near each other in a tighter ring... but Duo was too far off to reach them. Heero cried his lover's name as the last thing to be heard before the entire Alliance was swallowed up by the wave of stone and dirt.
Exploding a wide opening in the levels of earth that had buried him, Wufei ran for the new, small hill that he knew to be the tomb of his teammates. His hands folding before his face and then opening to slit, he pulsed his energy out to part the rocks away as if his own hands were peeling them back.
Nearly half a mile of rubble was cleared away to reveal the huddles trio of Life, Water and Air. They were covered in dust and cuts, but unharmed otherwise from the air of a last-minute shield that Trowa and Quatre had raised.
A strong wind lifted the three travelers up to the Monk as Yuy began a desperate scan of the area that had been leveled along with the dark soldiers that had been standing by. "Where is Duo?" he managed, continuing to look high and low for any sign of his lover. Then, the sight of a brilliant spark caught his eye many yards away.
Chirping loudly, Anna's soul dizzily circled the smoothed ground beneath it. "Duo!" the Fighter yelled, running for the spot with Wufei on his heels. As they reached the bulb at the same time, the Monk raked back the rocks to reveal the son of Shinigami at the bottom of the forged hole.
Unconscious and sprawled out on his side along the original floor, Maxwell was a gruesome sight after nearly being crushed by the walls that had crashed onto him. A sharp gasp escaping him, Heero leapt down to carefully curl his lover against his chest. Between the gashes that oozed blood and broken bones, it was a wonder that the injured young man was at all recognizable.
Barton and Winner were not far behind, the White Mage falling to his knees at Duo's other side. Cupping his friend's face, he sighed in relief, "He's alive... barely... but alive. I'll have him fixed up in no time." He placed his shoulders on his charge's twisted shoulders to work his magic.
A new charge had begun, the newest reinforcements coming through the tunnels as they cleared them open a while the others from above leapt through the crater. "We cannot keep up like this," Wufei signed deeply, his dark eyes on the approaching troops. Peering back at his friends, Ann's soul perched on Heero's shoulder, he asked, "Can you fend for yourselves if I take care of this lot?"
"Yes," Trowa promised, coming his feet. "You focus on getting the Earth Stone and finish this."
Nodding firmly, that was all Chang needed to quickly scale the wall of rocks to face the charging monsters head-on. Slowly closing his eyes, he went beyond his inner boundaries of his gift to set off a series of attacks.
To anger Lich, the Keeper used one of his tactics, turning the floor into quicksand that swallowed its captives in rapid succession. For the channels, he brought the ceiling and the ground together to crush the demons within for the first few miles. Then, he raised tall stakes of granite from the edges of the hole around the tower's peak to hold off the masses behind for as long as they could hold against the stampede battering them.
While the use of his power was needed as such, Wufei was drenched in sweat and lightheaded. Catching himself from falling over, the world faded away for just a second worth of a blackout. Taken by surprise by how tired he was, he placed a hand over his chest and felt the hammering of his heart beneath his robe.
And it was then that he realized... he would never be able to reach the Earth Stone. Coming against his own abilities, there would never be a way around Lich. Every last strike was made to wear him down and it was working. He would die in the process along with his family.
But there was another way.
Onyx eyes flying open, Chang spun back to his brothers and saw that Duo was not only completely healed but coming to with the others hovering close to check on him. From up above, the raised pillars were trembling from the battering force of the monsters fighting to get their way through. In time, they would.
"You should have a little time before more start coming," the Monk called down to the rest of his team. "There is something I need to do." He did not wait for a response, only sank into the terrain again to climb the tower in a breakneck pace.
As expected, Lich had never moved from his place of blocking the path to the dead stone behind him. Feeling the strain of exhaustion from his incredible efforts catching up, Wufei was even more convinced that he was not meant to have a hand set on his weapon. Every shot he made would only be blocked off by a blow much more powerful than what he could conduct.
Panting for air as he materialized, the Earth Keeper straightened himself and rolled his shoulders back. Head high, he set a fierce glare on his opponent and sneered, "Get it over with. At least it will spare the others time to escape."
The skeletal form remained still, a glimpse of disbelief on his skull. However, that quickly passed as the breathy voice filled Chang's mind in whispered laughter. Lich moved with the speed and precision of an experienced warlord. Between his scythe and clawed fingertips, he delivered a relentless rain of hits that knocked the Monk back at each impact.
From top to bottom, the very fibers of all of Wufei's being screamed in agony. Blood flew from cuts garnished in a flourish that had eventually sent him back to the edge of the zenith's edge. Feeling the backs of his heels reach open air, it too everything in him to keep upright lest he fall to his death.
His vision blurry, the Monk spat out a mouthful of blood and willed the three demons before him to become the one that it actually was. This was it. Lich had been waiting for this moment to take out his greatest adversary. Ribs rising and falling in that silent laugh, the monster raised its staff to drain a long bolt of power from the Earth Stone.
The glowing gem was aimed at its target for the death blow... only for Wufei to reach a trembling hand up to touch the cold rock. Half-collapsing to his knees in a mass of bruises and weeping gashes, he smirked, "You might wield it... but it's still my power."
A howl broke through the parting, jagged teeth as Lich's red eyes doubled in size. Not only had the scepter in his hand shattered, but the bolt from the gem had been fired back into him. Ivy vines grew through the openings in his bones, spreading and wrapping around him to tear him apart limb from limb until he was crushed to nothing more to dust that spun on the breeze.
Stumbling forward in his steps, Wufei closed the distance between himself and his claim. As he fell against it, the Keeper rested his right hand on top and the stone came to life in a brilliant swirl of golds and greens. And with its aid, the tunnels below were sealed and the walls around the creator were fortified solid just as the forces behind were about to break through.
Finally allowing himself to fall onto his knees and hands, Chang rolled onto his back when a stream of glowing particles spiraled above him to reach the skies that had begun to clear of the thick clouds. Smiling up at the Elder, he released a long sigh and breathed, "Thank you."
Off in the distance, Wufei could hear the voices of his brothers shouting for him in their rush up the tower. Before they reached him, he gave up the battle against his fatigue and closed his eyes to drift away.
* * * * * *
Hours later, the Alliance sat together in a wide ring along with their horses within the confines of a newly cleared tunnel they had established.
Eating their fill after their taxing day, there was an air of both excitement and anticipation over what their victory meant... and yet no one knew what to say in the moment.
Freshly healed of his injuries, Wufei had Anna's head in his lap to run his fingers through her hair the whole time. At the end of the meal, he reached down with his free hand to remove the hand-held Earth Stone in the center of his palm to hold it up for his brothers.
"Paramecia?" he smirked.
Matching his grin, the other Keepers nodded. "Paramecia," Heero confirmed aloud. "And if we are lucky, with the Creator's help, the end of the war."
TBC...
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