Of all the comrades that here I've had, they're sorry for my going away,
And of all the sweethearts that here I had, they wish me one more day to stay,
But since it falls unto my lot that I should rise and you should not,
I will gently rise and softly call. Goodnight and joy be with you all.
-Lyrics to 'The Parting Glass' performed by Loreena McKennitt
Elements of Great Design Part 69
The nails digging in his skin should have caused Wufei at the very least a wince of pain... but the Monk could only stare in disbelief at his brother as the suggestion of forgiveness settled in. He did, however, notice the absence of his wife's weight on him when she shot forth in a ball of fire to re-emerge nose-to-nose with the Fighter rising to his feet.
Eyes narrowed in a fierce glare, Chang gritted through her teeth, "Say it again. Louder this time so that I can hear the words come from you more clearly." Slowly moving forward in a threatening stalk, she moved her wide-eyed sibling back a couple paces as she hissed, "Tell me that I did not hear you actually say we should do anything short of sending that little witch into Abaddon's hell."
Raising his hands, Duo tried to step in, urging softly, "Anna... sweetie, if you could just give him a chance to explain-"
"You're siding with him?!" the redhead shrieked, snapping her head at the son of Shinigami with disbelief and hurt all over her expression. Shaking her head, she stated, "There is not a chance either one of you is seriously considering..." Unable to continue with that train of thought, her face darkened with hot rage as she cried, "After everything she has done?! All the lives she has destroyed, set aside Wufei's and my own?!"
Frozen in shock, Trowa and Quatre numbly stood up across the campfire. Bodies tense and gazes fixated on either side of the two sides that had formed when the Monk stood behind his bride when he readjusted his robe around his slight frame, they were ready to spring in interference should there be any sign that the tension would turn physical.
But neither one of them could fully process what was actually being argued. After all, they had both been fully prepared to deliver what that had believed up to that moment a rightful end to Mariemaia when and if their paths crossed.
Heero could only stand in reluctant defiance against his sister... one who he thought the world of. Seeing the distraught agony in her blue eyes that he had brought on, he swallowed roughly and nearly lost his resolve. But then there was the child who had so few looking out for her. And it was that realization that kept his back straight and chin raised enough to meet the stare boring into him.
To everyone's surprise, Wufei rested a hand on the thief's shoulder and asked gently, "Anna... give Life time to defend his case." That tenderness faded when his dark eyes shifted onto the Fighter with a bite in them. "He will be hard pressed to make a good enough argument, but he deserves the right to try," he half-growled.
And so the line had been drawn in the snow.
Drawing a deep breath, Yuy rolled his shoulders back as he declared, "We are dealing with a frightened girl who has been manipulated into this war from the beginning by her power-hungry uncle. I am convinced of it."
Frustrated with himself, he sighed, "Though I cannot explain how I am so sure in this, there is no swaying how firmly set I am in believing it. Whether it is something that I have some power in grasping or just looking at the facts and thinking logically instead of emotionally-" He instantly stopped at that when Anna stiffened with a warning glare.
Hands raising into the air over his head, Heero yelled in exasperation, "I do not know why, but I see Mariemaia as a victim in the war every bit as much as the people that we have been defending!"
Gripping his sister's shoulders, he felt tears stinging his eyes over her anguish. and breathed, "Anna, please believe me, I have tried... desperately tried to reason against any support of her. You are one of the last creatures that I could ever stand to disappoint or crush like this... but I cannot see any way through what I am being led to feel. It has been tearing me apart for weeks now and it was only right you heard it from me."
"That little girl took the lives of hundreds of thousands," the thief's low voice rumbled, "Eblan was completely wiped from the face of Gaia because of her. If you had seen with your own eyes the slaughter that she had brought down on those poor, innocent people there, you would not have this... unexplainable *feeling*."
Streams of tears ran down her face and Wufei had to turn his head away to hide his own grief at the memory. The movement caught the firelight to bring out the shimmer in his eyes.
Leaning close, Anna left just enough room to raise a finger between their noses as she whispered, "Spend one week without Duo's touch. Without his scent. Without his voice. Without the feeling of his breath on your face. Wake one week's worth of mornings missing having his arms around you. Go without his kiss."
A whimper broke from the braided teenager and he lowered his head as he shook and sobbed silently, already having had imagined such a terrible thing should he and Heero have been the ones who were cursed to the terrible fate their brother and sister faced every day. The mere consideration of having such an existence without Maxwell nearly shattered Heero where he stood.
Brokenly, Anna all but wailed, "Only Wufei did not have the privilege of only having one week of that hell. We had years. *Years* of being at arm's length and unable to be any closer. Everything that he was had been ripped away from me... and a shell was left to taunt me of what might never be every single second. Now you tell me how a little girl who would bring on such a horrific spell could ever be trusted to return any kindness shown to her."
Shaking, Heero murmured, "You said yourself that it was Dekim who insisted to Mariemaia that you die the day you met them." Even Wufei's head shifted at that, his eyes blinking in contemplation. Trying to work on that, the soldier continued, "Instead, she chose to spare your lives... She could have easily followed his orders and killed you-"
"And I cannot tell you how many time I has wished she had! I would have preferred that than the shadow of a life that she left us!" the redhead shouted. "Were it not for my promise to him to stay alive, I would have gladly taken my own life to give Wufei his back!"
Gasps and wide eyes coursed around the circle of Keepers. His skin pale, the Monk's hand fell from his soul mate's shoulder as he whispered, "O-oh, Anna."
Never breaking her locked gaze from Yuy's stricken face, Chang pressed, "Tell me that you know beyond the shadow of a doubt that Mariemaia would return any kindness shown to her if we do show her forgiveness and spare her."
A long silence fell on the Alliance's private clearing spare for the crackling of the campfire. Finally, allowing a single tear to break past his defenses, Heero answered honestly in a breath, "I can't."
Shoulders slumping, Anna's ire melted away and a deep frown marred her face. "I thought as much, she responded just as softly. "Then I cannot show her such mercy."
Turning on her heels, she stormed off into the thick of the trees where she disappeared from sight at the same time that a fall of freezing rain began. With a sniffle, Quatre reached up to wipe at his tears as Trowa draped his arms around him in a loose embrace while his own eyes glistened.
His head shaking off the sadness that had wracked him to his core, Wufei spun to look off in the south where his partner had vanished.
A shuddering sigh escaping him, he faced Heero and Duo as the pair huddled close in the aftermath of the fissure in their family. "I will talk to her," the Monk reassured softly, a hand raising against the words that were about to come from the opening mouths. "Just... please grant us the space that we need for now."
"Of course," the Fighter murmured, voice thick with emotion. Leaning his head against Maxwell's shoulder, he took the quiet solace his lover offered by pulling him close.
Without wasting another moment, Chang hurried after the thief. Following her through the glowing realm was not a difficult feat thanks to the shift in the earth from her footprints that he was able to see through his powers.
When he had walked more than two miles beyond the encampment and the cover of the trees there was still no end to the trail, he almost began to worry... until he spotted a lone cliff of barren rock in the distance.
It was the one place that represented the Earth Keeper best... the most stripped down representation of his element and therefore the most comforting place for his other half. Upon his nearing the darkened stretch of land, a cave not unlike the one that his wife had stayed in during their time together in Eblan made its appearance in the side of the rise of stone.
Easily climbing up to the gaping hole, Wufei slipped inside to find Anna sitting deep inside its shelter with her legs hugged close to her chest and her face lowered to hide in the hollow between her bosom and her knees. Shaking with heart wrenching sobs, the redhead was too lost in her bewilderment to hear her husband nearing her.
Only overcome once again by his own whirlwind of feelings at the sight of her distress, Wufei was helpless in stopping the world from drowning beyond his tears. Taking a deep breath, he moved to the nearest wall and placed his hand against it. At his touch, the entire cave sprouted a variety of overlapping flowers of every kind in the world to recreate the home that they had once shared during their time in his homeland.
Head snapping up, the thief's reddened and wide eyes took in the beautiful sight.
Turning her soaked face towards her sadly grinning soul mate, she began to crumble into a convulsing mass of sobs again when he rushed to fall to his knees at her side and pulled her into a fierce embrace. Chang buried her head against his shoulder and clung to him with all of her strength as though holding onto him would keep her from coming apart.
"I'm... so... sorry... Wufei," Anna managed between her hiccups for air. "It... just... hurts... so... much."
Resting his chin on the top of her head, the Monk closed his eyes as he rocked her and whispered, "Shhh. I know, Firefly. Just let it out." After a long time of staying like that in a comfortable silence, his wife began to calm at last.
Once she was able to breathe normally, the thief pulled back and shook her head vehemently. "I cannot forgive her," she breathed, eyes narrowing at the very suggestion. "Not after everything that she has done. Manipulated or not, that... *girl* is still responsible for tearing us apart and for the lives of countless people."
Rubbing her arms against a cold that did not physically exist for her, she stated, "There cannot be anything remotely resembling a soul in her that would be worth saving. The only compassion I could ever offer her is a quick end when she really should suffer as so many others have at her hands."
Wufei nodded firmly, "We are both in agreement there, Anna. But I also need to make it known that I do not believe for a moment that Heero ever meant to hurt either of us by telling of his dilemma. You saw as well as I did how badly it has torn at him to be at such odds with our wishes."
Brushing her nose with the back of her hand, the Fire Keeper replied sincerely, "I know that he was only respecting us by having this talk... it is just killing me to think that our opposing wishes could break our family apart. Our brothers are every bit as important to me as you."
"It does not have to destroy our family in the slightest," the Earth Keeper smirked. "It all depends on how we go about it from here. Really, the solution would be a simple proposition to be posed to Heero and Duo." His smile grew at the relief flooding over his eternal mate. With a slow, deep inhale of a breath, Chang stated, "However, there is another matter that you and I need to work out first."
Sinking into herself, Anna frowned deeply. "Oh," was all she could reply, nervous understanding in her tone to match the sunken regret in her eyes. "Could we possibly forget my mentioning how I had silently wished to-" She was cut off by the desperate kiss that pressed against her lips. Taken aback by the assault for only one wide blink, the redhead gladly closed her eyes and returned the exchange as best as her muddled mind would permit.
Reluctantly ending the dance of their tongues even when the need for air called, Wufei pressed their foreheads together and fixated their gazes on one another as he said sternly, "These years with you and apart from you in the same hand have been every bit the hell that you have endured for me, love."
Swallowing down the lump in his throat, he breathed, "But I would gladly walk this world as a wolf for eternity as long as I am walking at your side. I simply do not want to be in a world that you are not in because my life would not be worth living otherwise. Do not ever forget that."
The next kiss was initiated by Anna when she claimed his mouth once more. "Dear Creator, I love you so much, Wufei," was all she could whisper when they broke apart.
If there were any more words that needed to be said, they were completely forgotten as the desire to express through action took over. Leaving the rest of Gaia behind them, the lovers gave into their longing to connect in the deepest way they could as they sank into a bed of flowers beneath them at the same time that their clothes slipped away.
* * * * * *
Hours later, the frozen rain that had fallen until Quatre went to sleep had caused a light sheen of ice that glistened in the light of the rising sun in its very early stages of climbing over the horizon.
Curled up tightly together wearing nothing more than their thick blankets, Heero and Duo slowly stirred awake. Remnants of their love making remained from the slight ache in their joints from the ferocity of their joining o their strewn about clothes throughout their tent.
Though they were fully awake before long, they stayed a tangled web of limbs as they stared past one another for a time to gather their thoughts.
Yuy studied the ceiling while Maxwell focused on the wall beside them. Calming as it was for them to be together as they were, the worries over what had transpired the evening before crept up just beneath the surface of the serene.
Beyond their tent, the gloom began to brighten with the continued climb of the sun when Heero sighed, "I just can't do it."
Frowning in confusion, Duo began to lift his chin so that he could look onto his partner's face as the Fighter shook his head, "Any time I even try to imagine not being with you like this... to be so close and unable to touch or talk to you the way Wufei and Anna have suffered for so long, I... I just can't. Everything in me seizes up at even the chance that I could ever lose this."
It had been the very thought that the son of Shinigami had been wrestling with since returning to the conscious world.
Perhaps they were the lucky ones to not have been the ones to have to endure such a curse... and yet there was still a very good possibility that something much more permanent could forever sever them apart.
Against the threat of a new wave of tears, Maxwell pushed himself up and propped his head up on a bent arm as he frowned deeply, "I know. And if anyone tried to take you from me I would gladly send them to my father to be carried away to Abaddon. For that I completely support our brother and sister's wishes to take Mariemaia out. But I also am aware that your feelings towards the Sorceress have not changed in the slightest."
Gulping, Yuy kept staring upward and shook his head shallowly. "That is all I need to hear in making my stand along with you," the Black Mage shrugged without pause. "What this is doing to our family is by no means what either of us want, but I am not about to abandon the guidance of what could very well be some power of yours."
Lightly running his fingers through the soldier's thick hair, Duo told him softly, "Anna and Wufei will come around. I am sure of it. Please try to not let these darker thoughts distract us from what is right on the brink for our team. We need to keep out heads as best as we can to defeat Dekim and his army."
Advice that he needed to voice for himself as well. Advice that was going to keep his secret from the others. There was by far enough for them to worry about already.
Outside, the sound of feet crunching along the brittle ice pulled Life and Death from each other's arms and their bed.
Dressing quickly, they all but ran out of the tent as Maxwell finished twining the end of his braid. At the sight of the Earth and Fire Keepers sitting alongside Air and Water, their lungs pushed out the air that they had been holding to sigh in relief.
The Fighter and the thief were the first to make eye contact... a look of sympathy and regret at the same time.
Jumping to her feet, Chang ran to throw herself into the arms opening to her. "I adore you, Heero," she whispered reverently as she wrapped her own limbs around his neck.
"I love you, too, Anna," Heero sighed, hanging onto her fast. "You know that I would never intentionally hurt-" His voice hitched before he could go on with his sentiment. Fortunately, he was shown a kind smile by the redhead when she leaned back enough to bring their foreheads together.
Biting her lip, Anna reassured, "I know. And I hope you understand my reaction as one that was more upset with the situation than I could ever be with you." Yuy returned her grin and nodded to confirm as much.
Quickly leaning to exchange a quick kiss to the lips, the thief stepped back to announce, "Now, to decide the difference between us. It is obvious that neither you nor Duo are about to budge in your wish to show Mariemaia forgiveness any more than Wufei or I want to see the threat that she poses removed from Gaia."
Like the night before, Trowa and Quatre's tension was palpable in their expressions and tight postures as they rose to stand while watching the two couples closely.
Chuckling at catching them from the corner of his eye, the Monk raised a hand. "At ease, brothers" he smirked, "we have a very simple solution that should satisfy everyone." Ease a bit as they did, his brother Keepers did not completely let their guard down.
Duo stepped up beside Heero, asking, "What do you propose?"
"The first person to the child chooses her fate," Wufei stated, taking his place at Anna's side. "If either of you beat us to her, we will live with her being spared. All the same, you will have to accept her death should we be the first to reach her."
Heart sinking, Yuy considered how the odds were a bit steeped for a Fighter taking on two Keepers.
Of course... he did have the favorite son of Shinigami to even out the score.
Peering over to his lover, he noted the sparkle that had returned to Maxwell's violet eyes as he grinned with a firm nod. Smiling, the soldier peered back to their siblings and agreed, "Fair enough. I see nothing wrong with those terms."
The pact was sealed with firm hand-shakes from the Monk and embraces from the thief that officially ended the rift between them.
Winner nearly fell over from the heavy sag of his body. "Oh, thank the Creator that is settled," he all but cried in exasperation. "The four of you can have her. Trowa and I can see both sides of the argument, so we will have no part in deciding what happens." Trowa nodded, an amused grin tugging his lips as he righted his soul mate.
Snorting, the Water Keeper waved his arms around to the icy world around as he huffed, "Well, look at the mess that I made worrying over this! Now I am going to have to clean up the whole encampment before we can resume our training and that means..."
As Quatre went on and on, his siblings snickered to themselves. Life had officially returned to normal for their little family.
* * * * * *
Water, Air. Earth. Fire.
They were the four targets the Shadow Lord had thought over for a week as to which he would make his victim. Which element could be the most difficult to defeat? There was a valid argument for each of them.
Mistress Mariemaia and Chaos were waiting on his decision... on his move that would bring on the final true fight for Gaia.
Water, Air. Earth. Fire.
But then there was the one wild card. The Fighter who was still a mystery in his role to the Alliance. He had been the one who troubled the demon's thought process from the beginning.
Who... or what was Heero Yuy?
"The one who will die by my hand," the Shadow Lord's breathy voice rose at the moment of his final call.
TBC...
Back to SkyLark's Fanfictions Page