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"Chosen Ones"Written By: Dùlin
Archive: This arc is archived on this site with permission. Do not reproduce it anywhere without permission. Disclaimer : I don't own them. Life is not fair. Rating : R to NC-17 for violence Warnings : Crossover GW/Buffy the Vampire Slayer
which means, AU and OOC-ness for the GW characters (since they're
not humans, niark niark !) Pairings : 1x2, 3x4, 6x5, explicit references to past 13x5 Author's note : You need to know quite a bit about
the Buffy universe to understand this fic. If you don’t know
what Buffy is or stopped watching after season two, just take a browse
on the official UPN site to see what the heck this is all about. The greatest thanks to the ever faithful Karina, to Amejisuto and the best beta-reader of the world, Laurence-sama ! Please do not take or reproduce without permission.
"Chosen Ones"
Part 12 - Welcome to Sunnydale High “What the hell am I lookin’ at ?”, Duo asked. “Stealing my words”, Heero said. “What is this place supposed to be exactly ?”, Trowa asked, perplex. Quatre merely glanced at the scene. The vast building was completely burnt up and collapsed in the middle of a devastated lawn. It was encircled by the yellow taps the police used to isolate crime scenes. “It is Sunnydale High”, Willow said. “This”, Quatre said with a jerk of his chin, “cannot be a high school.” “Well it was until last year’s summer, actually”, Buffy said. “What did ya do to it ?”, Duo asked. “We blew it up on Graduation Day.” Duo scratched his head. “OK, I have a few notions of human folklore and I know Graduation Day is supposed to a big celebration, party an’ all, but I never heard blowing up the school was part of it. Why did you do that ?” “That would have been to prevent our Mayor’s Ascension. You know, the thing Zechs talked about.” “Where are Zechs and Wufei, anyway ?”, Tara asked. That was a good question. All of the humans and Angel were there, but Zechs and Wufei were missing. “I could check, if you want”, Quatre said tentatively. He only earned a severe glare from Trowa. He pretended to cower a bit, but somehow found a way to snuggle himself into his lover’s arms at the same time. “I was joking”, he said tenderly. “Don’t look at me like that, or I’ll think you took lessons from Heero for glaring.” “No one can do the Killing Death Glare better that my Hee-chan”, Duo joked. “And it’s a trademark.” Two loud popping noises made everyone turn around. Zechs and Wufei were there, but their clothes were a bit messed up, and Wufei had not tied his hair back as usual. “Sorry we’re late”, the Chinese Spirit said. “We were …” “Busy”, Duo finished, “yeah we know. We had the live show.” “What ?”, Wufei asked frowning. Duo pointed at Quatre, who had the decency to blush a little and even managed to look a little guilty. “I just wanted to check on you guys to be sure you were okay, and I realized that you were … how can I say it, a bit carried away ?” “WHAT ?”, Wufei yelled. “How could you …” Zechs was blushing a little too, but he put a soothing hand on Wufei’s shoulder. “It’s okay, Wufei. I think we can’t trust Quatre not to do that again.” “Don’t be so sure about that”, Trowa groaned. “He enjoyed it a bit too much for my taste.” “Let’s be clear, Winner”, Wufei said on a low menacing tone. “You do that again and I’ll burn you one organ at a time.” Quatre stuck his tongue at Wufei. “You didn’t even feel I was there, you dumbhead ! I could have been there the whole time and you wouldn’t have felt me. But I, for once, would have had a lot of fun !” “Winner …” “Maybe this is a bad time to be arguing about … that”, Giles said. “If we could please try to stop the end of the world, and then you can go back to …” “Please Giles don’t finish that sentence, or I’ll know we’re doomed”, Buffy prayed. Giles coughed and stopped talking. Zechs came forward to Buffy. “We’re following you. Just show us the way.” **** The little crowd made its way into the devastated school. The fire had left only the walls standing, and they were not solid. The floor wasn’t either, and each step was dangerous. Buffy managed to find back the way to the library through the darkened bits of woods and stone, followed by everyone else. Duo and Heero had to break the ruined doors for them to come in. “You really didn’t joke about blowin’ the whole place, uh ?”, Duo said. “That’s where we put all the explosives, so it explains why it’s a bit more ruined that the rest of the building. There’s a boiler room just beneath us, and then, … What else, Giles ?”, Buffy asked. “Then, the remnants of a Indian cemetery, Chumach tribe, and finally, the Hellmouth”, Giles explained. Duo took a tentative step and his eyes suddenly turned silvery blue again. He drew a deep breath. “Whoa ! That’s amazing just how much power comes from here !” Quatre, for his part, was wincing a bit, as if experiencing a migraine. “What’s up?”, Willow asked. “I have very few affinities with darkness powers, they tend to blur my own abilities, and they’re a bit antagonist. The Hellmouth is definitely not on top of my list of places to spend some fun time.” “How come you can work with Duo, then ?” “Oh, that’s different. We’re friends. We had time to learn how not to disrupt each other’s powers. And I always have Trowa in case we’re not careful enough.” “What do we do now ?”, Buffy asked. “Our enemies are probably trying to track down the exact location of the Hellmouth too”, Zechs said. “They don’t need to find it until the ritual, since it is basic now, as I told you. All they need is to spill my blood here with an incantation. They already know the incantation, they just miss the other ingredient.” “Which we will be careful not to provide to them”, Heero said, looking around. “We can close the Hellmouth even after they open it”, Quatre said. “I thought we had agreed they shouldn’t open it at all”, Buffy said, frowning. “As a spirit possessing a sense of foresight, I know that accidents happen all the time whether you wish it or not. In fact, accidents always happen when you think everything will be alright. There is not a chance for Zechs to fight and not spill at least some blood”, Quatre said seriously. “Even him can get scratched in a fight, and there will be a ferocious fight.” “And I supposed closing the Hellmouth is not going to be enough”, Trowa said. “No. We need to make sure this will never happen again.” “This meaning the end of the world, or the end of you Spirits coming to have fun in our dimension ?”, Buffy asked sarcastically. “I am afraid there will be other attempts to end the world, miss Summers”, Zechs said, “but we can at least try to make sure that our people won’t be a direct menace to you anymore.” “Thanks a lot. I’m sick and tired of higher beings trying to mess with my world. Especially when they’re groping on my living-room’s couch”, she said with a long look towards Quatre and Trowa. “May I ask what you intend to do exactly ?”, Giles asked, more interested in theory. Quatre looked around at the surroundings. “This being an enclosed location, it’s not going to be easy, but I think we must go to the basics : sealing the door, and breaking the link.” Zechs nodded. “Obviously.” Heero nodded too. “That’s the best thing to do.” Buffy sighed in exasperation for a bout the thousandth times this week. “Will you guys stop talking Chinese at some point ?” “I can swear they’re not talking Chinese”, Wufei said. “I would know about that.” Buffy was left speechless and gaping. It took her a while to recover. “Okay, I’ll try to use simpler words”, she said. “Would you please explain or translate whatever it is you’re saying for us mere mortals to understand ?” “Zechs, what did you do to Wufei ?”, Duo interrupted. “Me ? I did nothing. Well, nothing he didn’t ask for, at least.” “Come on, man ! The Silent Chinese just made a joke, for God’s sake !!! Am I the only one to have noticed that ???” “Maxwell, could you please for once focus on the subject and on the subject only?”, Wufei said. “You know, end of the world in about two days ??” “There he goes again. I think I must have had a drink too much.” “Hum hum !”, Buffy said loudly. The spirits turned to face her. “Can’t you just stop doing that for five seconds ? You’re all driving me crazy, honest ! You can go back to bite each other’s head when we’ve figured out what to do and when someone will have taken the time to explain to me what the fuckin’ hell ‘sealing the door and breaking the link’ means !!!” “Sorry”, Duo mumbled. “Bad habit. Helps me get rid of the tension.” “So ?”, Buffy asked. “Well, basically, it means we will break the connection between the Hellmouth and our dimension. And hopefully trap Morgoth in the dimension beneath in the same time, if we can’t kill him”, Zechs said. “And how do you intend to do that ?”, Giles asked. “We must reverse the ritual”, Quatre said. “Sealing the door will imply shedding the blood of the other five of us to close the Hellmouth and the door that links it to our world. And to break the link, we must get rid of the three spirits who forsook their people.” “I’d like you to try and turn back as many spirits as possible”, Zechs said. “I want as little casualties as possible.” “Yes, sir”, Duo said, but his tone was not a funny one, for once. Suddenly, a bright smile appeared on his face. “We still get to kill the very bad guys, uh ?” “Yes”, Zechs sighed. “What about the ones who won’t want to come back on our side ?”, Quatre asked. “I know what Dorothy may have done to some of them. We can’t bring them all back.” “We must do what we must, Quatre. Other people depend on us.” Quatre nodded, but bit his bottom lip. Trowa came over to him and took him in his arms. He started whispering in his lover’s ear so that no one could hear what he said, but it seemed to comfort Quatre a bit. The blond spirit braced himself. “I think we should still find a way to protect the place”, Zechs kept on. “Our best chance is for them not to come any closer to the Hellmouth, and kill them before they try to open it.” “So total annihilation is plan B ?”, Duo asked. Zechs nodded. He turned to Quatre. “Can you call them now ?” “Yes, but we must get outside, there’s not enough room here.” **** They were back on the lawn outside. Buffy scanned the wide space in front of them, looking for any sign of human activity. Nothing. “I guess it’s safe to do … whatever you’re going to do … What are you going to do ?” “Quatre is going to conjure some spirits from his people to help us protect this place”, Zechs explained. “Why couldn’t he do it inside ?” “Because there are twenty-nine of them”, Quatre answered. “They work as a group. They are called the Legions of the Dream. We are akin. I suggest you to move away a bit if you don’t want some of them to appear on your head.” They all took some steps backs, leaving Quatre alone in the middle of the lawn. The blond spirit joined his hand in the middle of his chest, closed his eyes and lowered his head. When he looked up again, his eyes were glittering gold again, and his whole body was radiating energy. The Dream Spirit held out his two hands in front of himself. “Nino hithaid lië lasto beth haid, rimo nin Irmo a nin u lai.” (1) A golden ray of light erupted from Quatre’s hands and stopped in mid-air. It changed shape, becoming a great vertical oval that grew wider, until it looked like some opening on another world. A world that was very light, since a blinding white light was coming from the opening. “Legions of the Dream, I summon Ye. Come forth to do your rightful duty.” The light in the ‘door’ darkened a bit as a figure slowly appeared in it and stepped out. The same thing was repeated until twenty-nine people were standing on the lawn in front of Quatre. When this was done, Quatre lowered his hands, and all light disappeared. The newly summoned spirits were women. Twenty-nine women all dressed in the same outfit : white desert pants hung low on the hips and held by a golden belt, silken light sky blue tops, and long cloaks of the same color embroidered with golden suns. Gold bracelets were glittering at their wrists and ankles, and they were barefoot. Buffy noticed that they all more or less looked like Quatre. One of them suddenly left the group, and bowed before Quatre, her right hand on her heart. “You Called us. We hearken to the summon. May the peace of the Dream be upon you, Quatre.” “Mae govannen (2), Iria”, Quatre answered. “What do you require of us ?” “This place is to be protected from prying eyes. No one shall enter it without you knowing and in this case, you shall inform me immediately.” “I will see to it.” The woman bowed again, followed by all the others behind her. So did Quatre. “OK. What now ?”, Buffy asked. “Now, we wait for our enemy to do his next move”, Zechs said. “The Legions of the Dream will not fail us, they have sworn allegiance to Quatre. We wait for them to come and then … we fight.” **** Duo and Heero were back in the wood cabin on the heights above Sunnydale. Heero was feeling very uncomfortable, and that was mostly due to the fact that Duo had not been saying a word for the last two hours. For someone who was told to shut up almost every five minutes, it was quite a record. And it also meant something was wrong. Heero didn’t really know what to do. It was the first time he was put in such a situation. If he wanted Duo to tell what was wrong, then he had to start the conversation himself. He shot a shy look to his lover. Duo was lying on his back on the bed, his arms folded behind his head, and staring in the void. His face had lost the usual grin he wore all the time. Heero hesitated, then got up and sat up on the bed beside Duo. He reached out for the end of the long braid and began playing with it. He did that often. He had found out that playing with Duo’s hair relaxed him. So, okay, maybe he had a hair fetish, but now was not the right moment to discuss this with himself. Duo made no sign to acknowledge he had seen him, making the Warrior Spirit even more nervous. He almost wished Quatre would be there. That was what Duo did, usually. He talked with Quatre. But this time, he hadn’t. “Duo …”, Heero said very low. The Darkness Spirit’s eyes came into focus again. He shook his head and gazed at Heero. “Yup ?” “What’s wrong ?” Duo frowned. He sat up and rubbed a point between his eyes. “It’s nothin’, Hee-chan.” “No it’s not nothing, Duo. If it were nothing, you would be chatting so loud it would drive me mad, and I would tell you to shut up, and you would be mad at me, and I would be forced to do something completely crazy to make it up to you. See my point ?” Duo gaped. “You just made a sentence with more than ten words, Heero, you realize that ?” “Stop changing the subject just because you don’t wanna talk about it.” “You’re right, I don’t wanna talk about it !” Heero glared at Duo, but it was not his usual Death Glare. In fact, he looked hurt, Duo thought. Which was weird, and fuckin’ destabilizing and made him feel like he had just said the wrong thing. “I’m sorry, Heero. I … I’m not really myself right now. I didn’t mean to snap at you.” “I know. But I seem to remember a braided baka who told me once it helps sharing your feelings when they’re too heavy for you.” “Did I say that ? I bet I was drunk and Quatre was controlling me.” “Come here, Duo.” Heero had opened his arms. Duo snuggled in the embrace. “I’m listening”, Heero said. “I’m scared.” The words had escaped his lips before he could stop them. Heero frowned a bit. “Scared of what ?” “God, if only I knew ! That’s what freaks me out most ! I can feel the fear in me, and I don’t know how to make it go away !” Heero gently rubbed the back of Duo’s neck until the body in his arms relaxed a bit. “You don’t have to be afraid, Duo. We’ll make it. We always have.” “How do you know ?”, Duo asked, anger rising in his voice. “I don’t”, Heero said flatly. “I think Quatre would say this is related to ‘blind hope in my capacities’ or some rubbish like that.” “Oh, screw Quatre and his theories !” “Seriously ?” Duo laughed nervously. “The world is completely upside down. You and Wufei make jokes and I’m scared to death, and no this isn’t a bad pun ! Damn, what happened to my universe ?” Heero didn’t answer. “They could use me against you, you know”, Duo said suddenly. That was it. He had said it. “They will try to make me come to their side. They don’t need to kill me. I’m a more powerful tool if I am alive and in their hands. Can you just imagine what they could do to me if I was under their control ? What I could do to you and the others ?” “Une tried to make you come to their side and you resisted, Duo.” “I know … but who knows what they have in store for us next ? You weren’t doing that well against her when you were fighting !” “I noticed that too”, Heero said bitterly. “I don’t want to hurt any of you.” “We sure wouldn’t want to get on the wrong side of you either, Duo.” Duo shivered. “If they try to make me do it, I don’t know what I will do.” “Duo !” Duo looked up, surprised by the harsh tone. “Are you quite done with stupid assumptions ? You’re one of the most powerful Spirit of the Darkness, and they could make you do their will just like this ?”, Heero snapped. “Well let me just tell you one thing, if it happens, it will because you will have let them manipulate you ! Because no one can control you !” Duo’s eyes widened. He opened his mouth, ready to snap back, but came to the sudden realization that his partner was right. He smiled apologetically. “I am pathetic, uh ? I’m crying on myself.” “Fear is one of the most irrational emotions that exist. I suppose it doesn’t help that we feel everything with maximum intensity. And with the damage you’re able to cause, I think it’s normal for you to feel a little anxious.” “Oh, damn it, Heero, can’t you just be a little afraid too ?” Heero looked puzzled for a moment. “Would it help you if I suddenly shrieked in panic ?” “Well, yeah ! Panic is something people can share in a time of crisis and …” Duo’s sentence was cut short, since it was kinda difficult for him to talk and be deeply kissed at the same time. Heero’s hand were cupping his chin and the blue eyes were watching intently in the violet ones with unveiled passion. “Heero, what the hell are ya doin’ ?”, Duo gasped when his mouth was finally released. “Panicking ?”, Heero suggested. Duo laughed, but the sound was a bit strangled. “You’re lying, you’re not even freaked out !” “Ok, I’m maybe lying a bit.” “Oh, you’re so lying !” “I confess, I am completely lying. But I do it well, don’t I ?” “Well, yeah. Do it again.” Heero kissed Duo again. This time, Duo kissed back, pressing his body into Heero’s and pushing his leg forward. “You are the best liar I ever met”, Duo finally said. “It’s because you take everything I say for the truth. You’re biased.” “I don’t take everything you say for the truth, I’m just a complete fool for you.” Duo snuggled into Heero’s arms again. “Could you tell me exactly how you do not to be afraid ?” “Quatre is not really afraid either. I mean, if Quatre was freaked out, then maybe I could start to think that maybe we’re a bit lost forever. But that’s not the case. And then, I’ve been involved with you for ages, which is about the second most dangerous thing I can think about. So, all in all, I don’t think that this situation is scary.” “Second most dangerous thing, uh ? What’s the most dangerous thing ?” “Someone trying to take you away from me could experience it.” Duo laughed again, merrily this time. “Une is so going to have her ass kicked !” “She has no idea”, Heero said, his eyes hardening a bit. Duo kissed Heero lightly. “If you get yourself killed, I’ll kill you.”
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