Marked for Death Part 14
Darkness surrounded him like a thick blanket and at any other time he would have enjoyed it, but not now. Instead of being comforting, this blanket of darkness was tight, choking him. The lack of light seemed to become a physical force that was wrapping tighter around his body with every step, twisting and turning until it was a struggle just to breathe.
He could hear the others around him moving silently, their feet crunching on the ground and their hands brushing against the walls. Most were ahead of him, some behind and only one at his side. The one at his side had her hand wrapped securely around his, making sure he was being led in the right direction.
Wufei frowned and walked forward blindly, still feeling the pressure build around him. He didn't want to walk anymore but it wasn't because he was exhausted. He couldn't quite pin down the feeling, but whatever it was he just didn't want to deal with it. He felt like he wanted to run away and hide, but that something was chaining him down to reality. To the truth. The horrible and ugly truth.
His knees grew weak and he stopped walking, moving to brace himself up against the wall. His breathing felt heavy, a weight on his chest, and even though he was breathing normal he still felt the pressure on his body. The hand disappeared from his and he leaned up against the wall, sliding until he was sitting on the ground.
"Wufei?" Annah's voice was soft. So she had stopped when he had and he guessed she was now standing in front of him, even though he couldn't see her.
Wufei ignored her and reached to his forehead, pulling off the gold circlet which crossed his brow. Turning it over in his hands he sighed and gave it an angry toss, listening to the light sound of the precious metal ring off the stone walls.
"Annah?" Yuki's voice called back from the front of the group, where she was leading them. The fact that she had heard such a soft sound from so far away should have surprised Wufei but at the moment he didn't care. Maybe all the others had heard too and just hadn't said anything, either way he just didn't care anymore.
"Don't worry, Yuki," Annah called back. "We're taking a rest, we'll catch up. Just keep going."
Wufei turned his head and rested his cheek against the cold stone wall as he heard the others continue moving. The rock was smooth and cooling on his skin, it felt good. Closing his eyes he tried to sort out his thoughts, but he didn't try too hard. He didn't want to think about the truth of the situation, it would only make him feel worse. And as of this moment he felt pretty horrible.
The sound of movement before him and a hand reached out clumsily for his face, brushing his shoulder instead. He didn't move to respond.
"What's wrong?" Annah asked softly. She and he were the only ones left in the tunnel now, the footsteps of the others fading into the distance. The fact that they were alone slammed into Wufei and he swallowed hard. He hung his head and moved to hug his knees.
"This is all my fault."
His voice was soft, thin in the air. He could hear his own weakness, which would have bugged him at any other time, but right now he didn't care. He didn't care about anything any more. He didn't care about being prince or that he had a responsibility to his people whom he had abandoned; he didn't care about any of it. It wasn't that he'd changed his mind or his personality... no this was different.
He didn't deserve to care any more.
"What?" she whispered, moving closer.
"All of this!" Wufei bit out in contempt. "They followed me to your village, I'm responsible for everyone who died out there, for the home you all lost. I shouldn't be treated as a guest, all I did was bring a massacre on to your heads."
Wufei frowned grimly to himself as she didn't answer. She didn't need to answer; her silence was condemning enough. He knew he was guilty, he knew this was all his fault, he didn't need her to confirm anything.
But to his surprise she didn't stay silent and she didn't stand up to walk away. Instead a light laugh floated from her direction and he looked up in surprise, staring into the darkness around them. She was laughing? Why in the world was she laughing at him?
"Oh please!" Annah laughed again and hit her hand against his shoulder lightly. "You honestly think that? Give us a little credit will you? You saw how many people made it into the caves, that was hardly a massacre, I doubt we even lost ten people. And as for that village? Well, don't worry about it, it wasn't made to be permanent. You act like you brought down heaven's fire on us, when in fact it wasn't your fault at all."
Wufei pulled away from her in anger. "They followed me! Darrin's men followed me right to your people; I shouldn't have come here. I should have stayed behind and solved the problems in the castle. I shouldn't have run away. Kings don't make those kind of mistakes." Standing up he walked a few steps away from her and crossed his arms over his chest in anger.
She stood up and walked up right behind him. "If it weren't so dark and I weren't so afraid of missing and toppling over, I'd slap some sense into you!" She hissed angrily back at him. Wufei jerked in shock. He was so used to Annah being cheery and happy all the time, the last thing he expected from her were such harsh words.
"What are you talking about?" He muttered back, still hearing the anger in his voice.
"You! Since when are kings perfect? Since when is any one perfect? You think we haven't made mistakes before? And don't talk nonsense about something like you should have stayed behind in the castle, because you know as well as I do that if they had caught you they would have killed you. You came back with Heero and the others to fix your mistake, now you're telling me you'd rather be dead? Oh please! Give yourself a little credit!" She moved forward and was now standing right behind him, barely a breath apart. "People make mistakes! Live with it!"
Wufei shook his head. "I don't deserve to be in charge of any one, much less an entire kingdom."
Her voice softened significantly and he felt her arms wrap around his body in a loose embrace. "Most of us don't deserve what we get, and even more people don't get what they deserve. Trowa once told me that the only thing we can do is make the best of what we are given. You may not deserve to be prince, but you are. So you owe it to your people to be the best prince you can. And if there are a few mistakes made, if some lives are lost, you should at least strive to be able to say that you did what you thought was best at the time for everyone, because that's all we can ever do."
Wufei sighed and leaned his head back on her shoulder. "I still can't help but feel that I could have prevented this if I hadn't been so rash in the past. If I'd chosen differently... done something..."
She giggled softly near his ear. "Ok, fine, so it is your fault. What are you going to do about it now? You certainly can't travel back in time and change anything. So what will you do then?"
Wufei opened his eyes and stared off into the darkness, his mind processing her words. What would he do? What should he do now? She had a very good point that there wasn't anything he could do about the past, it was gone. He was always taught that when he became king he wouldn't make any mistakes. A king didn't make mistakes, period.
But everything in his life now seemed to contradict that. Kings did make mistakes and people suffered for those mistakes, just as Duo suffered for when he'd disobeyed. After all that was what having a Shadow was supposed to teach him, that people always suffered for his mistakes even if he didn't. But somehow, along the line, that lesson hadn't stuck with him. Rather than seeing a random person suffering for his action, he'd seen that his friend suffered. So he was responsible for his friend's suffering and always had tried to fix that, to lessen the suffering and try to spare Duo.
What he hadn't realized was that other people, besides his friend, could suffer from his mistakes as well. Any number of people could suffer from any small decision he made. How was he supposed to deal with all that guilt when the weight of his actions affected everyone around him? How could he possibly go on to be king knowing that every day people died and starved because of him?
He knew he couldn't do what his father had done. His father had tuned out their suffering and ignored it, just going about his business. His father hadn't cared, but he did. So he would have to find a way to care and still bear the weight of his actions. And Annah's words rang true. All he could do, in the end, was make the best decision at the time. It was all anyone could ever do.
"What will you do?" She repeated softly.
Wufei opened his mouth to answer as he felt his thoughts set themselves in order. Yes, he knew what he should do, he'd known all along. "Darrin's my responsibility. I'll go back and make sure he doesn't stay on the throne." He pulled away from her and nodded to himself. "I'm taking back what's mine."
"Good!" Annah leaned forward to kiss him, but she missed his cheek because he felt her lips brush up against his nose instead. He couldn't help but laugh at that and she joined in with a few soft giggles.
"Shh!"
Wufei's body went stiff as he hissed at her. He'd thought he'd heard something but he wasn't sure. In a matter of seconds his mind wasn't on his worries anymore, instead he was straining to hear the sounds around him. It took a while and he had to hold his breath until he could feel his heart pounding, but he finally picked up the sound in the air. The faint sounds of metal clanking together... footsteps...
"Darrin's men," he whispered under his breath.
"I can hear them, we need to hurry and warn the others. What about your crown?"
Wufei shrugged and gave a small smirk, even though he knew she couldn't see the expression on his face. "I'm a prince whether I wear it or not. It's just gold; I'll make another when I get home. Let's move now!"
Her hand wrapped around his tightly and the two took off, racing through the darkness as Annah led them on. Both ran as quickly as their legs could carry them, not caring about the noise that filled the cave. They knew they were leading the soldiers toward the end of the cave but they didn't have time to worry about it. Instead the first priority was getting out before the soldiers so they could collapse the entrance.
Wufei closed his eyes and ran as fast as he could, praying Annah knew her way through the dark and that he wouldn't run into anything. But as they ran he could hear the footsteps behind him, they were catching up!
"Yuki!" Annah yelled just as a dim light assaulted his eyelids. Wufei's eyes snapped open and he found himself outside, standing under a dark sky thick with clouds. Without warning Annah jerked him forward and both stumbled to the ground near the entrance.
From behind him he could hear shouting and sharp objects flying through the air. Several cracks echoed and, as water began to fall from the sky there was a thick rumbling.
Wufei sat up and twisted around, watching in amazement as the entrance to the cave collapsed to block off any passage. He could hear the sounds of Darrin's men crying out in surprise as the dust flew up around them. He could only imagine what it would be like to suddenly be locked in that darkness. But then his eyes widened and he jumped to his feet, moving toward Yuki and Brei and the others who stood at ready with their weapons.
"What about Trowa and the others?! Now they're trapped!"
Yuki turned and frowned at him. "They'll find another way out."
Wufei glared. "And if they get lost? What if they don't find a way out?"
Her expression hardened and she turned away from him. "They will."
Wufei's glare dropped away as he watched her walk off and rain began to fall lightly from the sky. In that one moment he'd seen the sadness in her eyes, yet also the icy resolve. So that was what it meant to be a prince, to be a leader. To be able to make the best decisions you can even though you know it might lead to someone's death. No one had ever said if she was in charge after Trowa left, but that didn't matter, the effect was still the same.
Yuki had sent Heero with Trowa for a reason and she'd still collapsed the opening, even though she knew perfectly well that she might be trapping Trowa and the others inside. She had to live with the guilt if they never made it out again. Just as he had to live with the guilt of leaving long enough for Darrin to assume the throne.
Yuki didn't have a choice to go back and try to find Trowa and the others.
Wufei did.
And Wufei was now determined to fix his mistake and get Darrin off the throne, no matter what it took!
~*~
The cave around them steadily grew brighter as they moved. It wasn't a flash of light, but rather a soft glow that seemed to seep into the air around them. Little by little Trowa's adjusted eyes were able to make out the jagged walls and dusty floor. In the distance the sound of running water grew louder, bouncing off the walls to surround them. Trowa walked on, his hand wrapped lightly around Quatre's, leading them down the cavern to his intended goal.
The blond walked silently beside him, his head hung so his eyes watched the ground. Trowa could make out the soft outline of the boy's face and knew he was lost deep in his own thoughts. Strangely enough Quatre didn't even seem to notice the light growing around them. His thoughts had to be incredibly troubling to distract him that much.
Their feet stopped at the entrance to a large cavern with a steeply tilted ceiling. The sound of water rushing was very strong now, but not the sound of a hurried river; instead it was the sound of a stream, flowing unblocked down its course.
Quatre blinked and looked up in surprise as soon as he noticed they'd stopped.
"Where is this?" He asked softly.
Trowa gave a small nod, motioning for Quatre to walk forward; he also let go of Quatre's hand. "See for yourself," he murmured.
The boy stepped forward slowly, his eyes travelling over the walls. Trowa watched as he turned and faced an area of the cavern that was out of Trowa's line of sight. Quatre's eyes widened in the soft murky glow and he just seemed to stare in amazement. Trowa couldn't see the wall, but he remembered what was there, he remembered his reaction when he'd first seen it. Smiling softly he stepped up behind Quatre.
The walls before them were lit with a very soft light, coming from the moss which grew on the edge of the stream. Certain properties in the moss gave it the ability to just barely light up the cavern, and there was so much it caused the same affect as if they'd been carrying a small candle. The wall itself, above the moss, was a dark gray, covered with markings made in deep red, very similar to the color of Trowa's tattoos.
Simple drawings of creatures and humans covered the walls in a distinct pattern, a story. All the markings wove together to tell a tale, and as he watched Trowa could see Quatre's wide eyes travelling over the symbols in wonderment.
"What is all this?" The blond breathed out.
"The story of my people." Trowa lifted his hand and willed his vines to move. One in particular curled off his hand and into the air, flowing through the air to the wall. It rested under the first marking, pointing to something that was vaguely human shaped but with more serpentine features.
"These are the Izardl, the ancestors of my people."
The vine moved, showing the Izardl line merging with that of the humans to produce a distinctly different looking creature that looked human, yet had jagged lines surrounding it. These lines suggested a magic, a power belonging to this figure even though they looked just like a human. The same line continued down to another human looking figure, with only a handful of these jagged lines. This human though, had markings covering their body.
Quatre swallowed. "That's a Marked One, isn't it?"
Trowa nodded. "The Marked Ones are the offspring of Izardl and humans, but many generations down the line. We are more human than we are Izardl; thus the magic in our blood is weak. We countered this problem by taking the blood of our ancestors and using it to mark our skin, thus we have a way to protect ourselves. Our kind have always been hunted by the humans."
Quatre glanced away from the wall at that last line and watched Trowa's face, but Trowa knew he showed no emotion. He didn't hate the humans for hunting them down; there was no reason to. All things killed that which they didn't understand and that which scared them, it was natural. The fact that his people were hunted was just something they had come to live with, no one he knew of held any grudges for it anymore. It was simply a fact of life.
"I'm not Izardl, am I?" Quatre asked, directing his eyes back to the markings on the wall before them. "I mean, I know I said I was when I fought those guards, but it seemed like the best thing to say at the time. In reality I have no idea what I am, I just said it to scare them."
"No, you aren't," Trowa confirmed. "The Izardl look human, save for the scales which replace their skin and their power. If you were Izardl, at the very least you would have scales on your body, on most of your body. But I assume you don't."
Quatre shook his head. "No scales, not a single thing, just my blood that lashes out and kills others every time I'm cut." He sighed softly. "So what does this have to do with me?"
The vine moved through the air and returned to Trowa's skin, melding in among the others. He turned to look at Quatre and offered the boy a small smile. "A long time ago an Izardl mated with a human. No one is sure why the two species decided to intermix but the fact is that it happened, as my people are proof. But before there were any Marked Ones, there were some different then us. These children looked much like humans, almost exactly like them. But the things that kept them different was that the level of their magic and power was too much for their human blood. When these mixed children were attacked this power lashed out to protect them from those who wished to harm them."
"You said I wasn't an Izardl!" Quatre protested, taking a step back.
"You are not. You are the first generation offspring of an Izardl and a human."
"But my mother was human and my father was human! She said so!"
"What did your father look like?"
Quatre opened his mouth but said nothing. After a moment he closed his mouth and looked down at the ground, avoiding Trowa's soft but penetrating expression. "I..." He swallowed. "I never knew him. I've never seen him before, I only know what my mother told me before she died."
Trowa stepped forward and placed a hand on Quatre's shoulder in a gesture of comfort. Quatre sighed softly and looked up at him with sad eyes.
"I'm one of a kind, aren't I?"
Trowa nodded. "All of the Izardl were driven out before the burnings, years before. They haven't been seen since, and even before then they were a rare species. I doubt there are any others like you."
Quatre took a deep breath and nodded. "So we're back to square one then aren't we? I'm a monster, a monster who doesn't have a home anywhere." Quatre did his best to look brave as he said this, but Trowa could see his lips begin to quiver and his eyes became moist.
The leader of the Marked Ones stepped forward and closed the distance between them, wrapping his arms around the young thief. That movement seemed to release something, because almost immediately Quatre wrapped his arms around Trowa and hugged him tightly, burying his head in his chest. Trowa smiled softly.
"No, you have a place. You are more then welcome to stay with my people, we would be honored if you stayed with us... with me." He added the last part very softly.
Quatre sniffled softly and turned his head, glancing up at Trowa in question. "I can stay?"
"I wish you would."
A bright smile moved over Quatre's face as Trowa leaned down and lightly kissed away his tears. The expression on Quatre's face shifted to one of slight confusion and wonderment, but almost immediately it changed to joy once more. Trowa's request was a silent one, one that didn't require words.
He'd asked the boy to stay, not just with his people but with him as well. And from the smile on Quatre's face he could see that his answer was yes.
Smiling happily the two moved to the wall near the stream and sat there. Quatre curled into Trowa's arms giving a soft sigh of contentment as he snuggled against Trowa's chest. And there they slept, protected and safe as the sounds of the running water lulled them to dreamland.
TBC...
Back to Snow Tigra's Fanfictions Page