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"Magic, Mischief, and Miracles"Written By: Honor Disclaimers: I've contracted some guy named Doctor
Draken to steal the boys. It's part of his mad scheme to take over
the world. Nifty, huh? Pairings: 3x4, 1x2 already established Warnings: AU, violence, language, supernaturalness,
LEMON, yaoi, etc. Spoilers: nada Author's Insane Ramblings: Okay, this is the result
of watching too much Inuyasha. I was sick, and to keep myself entertained,
I bounced back and forth between watching Inuyasha and writing GW
fanfiction. This...is the result.
" Magic, Mischief, and Miracles" Part 9 Quatre took one look at the cave carved into the mountainside and thought one thing: "It's a trap." "Oh yeah," Duo agreed sourly. Heero tried to look beyond the entrance of the cave with his other sense and grimaced. "I can't even tell if there is a mountain beyond that entrance." "Which means he's tampered with it," Wufei grumbled darkly. "I've run into this before. So? Are we going in, or do we wait him out?" They exchanged glances. It would take days before Quatre could pick up the trail again, and they all knew it. It would put them that much further behind Terandl, and that was something that they weren't willing to do. Terandl was in there now -- they couldn't wait him out and then try to attack. Odds were, the whole scenario would repeat itself a few weeks later. "I can't believe I'm saying this," Quatre muttered, "but I think we should go in. If we stick together, we can handle whatever he throws at us." "You do realize that he made this trap specifically to slow us down?" Wufei looked distinctly unhappy. "And wandering around the mountain until we can pick up his trail is going to be faster?" Duo shot back sarcastically. "Less painful," Heero sighed. "But slower." Trowa looked at the mountain, jaw setting stubbornly. "Then we go in." No one moved. Quatre groaned. "Fine, I'll go in first. Wimps." "Are you questioning my courage?" Wufei glared at his back as the blond walked forward. "I still don't see you moving!" Quatre called back. Trowa reluctantly started to follow, more unwilling to have Quatre go in alone than to walk into a trap. Wufei was right at his shoulder, muttering unintelligibly as he went. Duo gave his lover a courteous bow. "After you." Rolling his eyes, Heero started forward, grabbing a certain braid as he went. "Hey, I'm coming!" Ignoring the protest, Heero kept a good hold. He was not going in there by himself. Quatre passed from the morning sunshine into cool darkness. Blinking, he waited for his eyes to adjust and looked around. There was a large opening, some twenty feet by forty feet in a very rough oval, a single light source hovering just over the center of the ceiling -- and a door. Quatre stared suspiciously at that door. Plain oak, no elaborate carvings or warnings of doom on it, but the fact that it was there at all was odd. Trowa came to stand at his side. "A door." "Yes," Quatre agreed. He really didn't like how this whole thing felt. "There's a lot of energy in this room, Trowa. It's really weird, too -- I can't get a firm fix on what it's doing. But part of it revolves around that door." "We must go through it." Wufei looked at the door in question with acute distaste. "I hate giving my enemy the satisfaction of doing what they expect." "You wanna carve a new door, go right ahead." Duo's smile was a little forced. "As for me, I like doors. They're more cooperative than stone." "We're wasting time." Without a glance at the others, Heero went to the door he could see. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In another, more remote part of the mountain, Terandl watched the five enter through his scrying pool. He had a healthy suspicion about what their strengths were -- and he had to wonder, if he took that strength away, what would they do? He laughed softly to himself as they unconsciously separated, heading for the door that only they could see. Each door was tailor-made for them, and only visible to their eyes. As they passed through, the door shut behind them -- and disappeared. "Let the games begin." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Quatre jumped when the door slammed behind him, spinning around to see -- nothing but rock. "Guys? Trowa?" Whirling completely around, he was dismayed to see that no one had followed him. "Oh now this isn't funny! Trowa? Trowa!" No answer. Groaning, he let his head flop forward. "Why did I suggest that we do this? That was so stupid of me...gah." Well, he couldn't go back...the only way was forward. "Trowa, when I get my hands on you, we're going to have a long talk about letting me wander around alone in creepy places..." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Trowa jumped and spun when the door slammed shut behind him. That, of course, was the moment that he noticed no one was with him. "Quatre?" Of course, his blond didn't answer. Snarling under his breath, Trowa looked around. The door had disappeared after it had closed, and now of course there was only one way to go. Hurling mental curses in Terandl's direction, he started walking. If anything happened to his Quatre, he would kill Terandl! And then smack Quatre for not staying with him as he was supposed to! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- At first it didn't register with Duo that no one was with him. He was rather pre-occupied with his welcoming party. Zombies. Wrinkling his nose against the smell of decay and rotting flesh, the clairvoyant started retreating, hoping to go back out of the door and let Wufei or Heero or somebody but him take care of the shambling zombies. The zombies, of course, didn't want him to retreat and started to advance. That was about the time that Duo's hand hit the wall -- not the door like he had expected, but hard stone. Glancing behind him frantically, he groaned. "They let me go in alone?! Aw, geez, guys, thanks! I don't want to play with the icky dead guys! Can't I have a door number two?" The leader zombie grunted in true zombie fashion, swinging a meaty paw at him. Duo ducked, rolled, and grabbed the scythe from its sheathe on his back as he moved clear. "Heero, you are so NOT getting any nookie for a week! I hate squishy things like this!" Duo slashed at the hand as it came to grab him again, chopping it clear off. This, of course, did not deter the zombie in the slightest because when zombies are revived, little things like nerves and pain receptors aren't revived with the rest of the body. Duo slashed his legs off, hoping that would at least buy him the time to run. The zombie crashed with a grunt, and started dragging his way forward with his remaining arm. As Duo absently cut that arm off as well, he noticed a few things. Actually, it was a few dozen zombies. "Okay, this is serious over-kill!" -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "...can't believe they didn't follow me in. That bastard Terandl probably has something to do with it." Wufei glared at the walls around him. He barely had enough room for his shoulders to pass through the hallway. There was no way in hell that he could transform in this narrow place. Right now he was just focusing on finding a way out, then he would worry about finding everyone else. There was a dim light in sight, and he picked up his pace slightly, hoping it was something other than a passageway to another really long tunnel. "You've got to be kidding me!" Before Wufei's eyes were a series of sheer cliffs, all beginning several feet above his head, and all ending out of his sight. There were places where the cliffs intersected with the next layer, but he couldn't see any way across them but to climb down one until he could run across one of those intersections, and then climb up the next one and so forth. And across those layers of heaped stone and dirt, barely discernible even to his eyes, was another doorway. Well, he was a dragon. He didn't have to obey Terandl's rules and spend the rest of the day climbing. Closing his eyes he extended his power -- -- nothing. A pair of furious black eyes slitted back open. "He's shielding the damn place against transformations, isn't he?" Once again he studied the cliffs, and that door on the other side. Going back wasn't an option -- there was no way out that direction. "I'm going to have to climb these bloody things like a weak human. Terandl, when I get my hands on you -- death will be preferable!" -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- It was metal. Heero looked at the tunnel walls, then behind him once again -- no, there was no doorway there. Just walls of metal. He hated metal, it was the one natural ore of the earth that he couldn't really manipulate. What was worse, Duo wasn't in sight. "That baka. I told him to stay right with me." Grumbling, he started walking. The mountain was large, but not that large -- surely he would run across someone eventually. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Quatre hated running around aimlessly as much as he hated walking into traps. He especially hated running around aimlessly on strange planets with bad guys around without Trowa there to protect him. And he really, really, hated walking around aimlessly without knowing where everybody else went! There was no real way of keeping track of time in the belly of a mountain, of course, but Quatre was fairly sure that at least five centuries had passed before the long tunnel ended and branched out. Quatre turned his head one way -- tunnel with no end in sight. He turned it the other way -- oh goodie, another tunnel with no end in sight. "I feel like I should do eenie meanie minie moe..." "I have a fifty-fifty chance of getting this right," he observed to himself aloud. "And a ninety percent probability of getting it wrong. Well, since that's all decided..." For lack of a better idea, he went right. He was, after all, right handed. That should be enough of a rational for anyone. Five feet later, he stopped. "But Terandl probably knows I'm right handed because of our last fight, and so planned for me to go right...I'm going left." He abruptly turned and went ten feet the other direction before another thought occurred to him. "But what if he realized that I would guess his intentions? Then I would go left...I really hate it when I start second guessing myself like this." Sighing, he stared at the unending tunnel in front of him. "What am I thinking? The whole thing is a trap, there are no good options." Hitching the back pack straps into a more comfortable position, he started walking again. "Trowa, I changed my mind. Now I'm going to smack you for leaving me alone, not just lecture you." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- When Trowa finally reached the end of that very long hallway, he was not pleased with what was in front of him. There were thick walls standing in front of him -- strangely enough, he could almost see through those walls. Coming forward, he tapped a finger against it. No, it wasn't glass. It felt and acted oddly like metal. The whole set up didn't make any sense. Why was Terandl leading him into this place? Why bother setting up a labyrinth that he could see through? A bright flash caught his attention and he turned to see it more clearly. Trivoxor. The green eyes widened as he stared at it incredulously. That was Trivoxor! The sword appeared to be floating in mid air somewhere in the center of the maze. Why on earth would Terandl leave it there? It was obviously a trap, but for what purpose? What did Terandl hope to accomplish with such elaborate preparations? Snorting, Trowa started walking toward the weapon. "Nothing will be solved by simply standing here...let's see what he's planned." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Quatre didn't need Heero's earth sense to tell him that the mountain was riddled with literally miles of tunnels and caves. Any sound he made echoed and disappeared. The place just felt vast. As he walked, he probed the area with his senses, trying to find anyone. At times he felt he was close, but there was no concrete evidence to support that hope. He switched from one tunnel to another, and then to a different one after that, but he wasn't going to hold his breath. He was probably heading deeper into the mountain than out of it. Ahead of him, the tunnel he was in branched out again into three different paths. Sighing, he stopped and just stared at it. Which way...wait a minute, wasn't that...? Running closer, he peered into the middle path. It was! That looked like Duo's energy signature. "Duo?" There was no reply, but Quatre wasn't going to just let the matter drop. The energy looked like it was at least an hour old, Duo probably couldn't hear him. Picking up his pace to a fast lope, he followed that bright light. Every few minutes he would call Duo's name, but there was no response. The energy was starting to look fresh, more recent, and then the path split again. Quatre barely paid any attention as he picked up his pace. "Duo! DUO!" "Q?" Rounding a final bend, Quatre nearly tackled Duo in relief. "Duo! Finally!" Duo hugged him back, blowing out a breath. "I'm so glad to see somebody!" "That's my line! I thought you guys were right behind me!" Blinking, Duo shook his head. "No...you guys were following me..." "Eh? But...there was only one door and I went through it first." Pulling apart, they stared at each other. Quatre canted his head slightly in thought. "You know, the energy around that door was really weird. Maybe...maybe Terandl tampered with it so that it would separate us." "...maybe. Anyway, how did you find me?" "Energy signature." Duo's face lit up. "Then you can find everybody else, right?" "Er...probably? I have to get close enough to see their energy, that's the only problem. It means a lot of walking." "So? You got something better to do?" Quatre sighed, mentally congratulated himself for getting his most comfortable pair of tennis shoes when he went home, and started walking. "So, have you just been wandering around too?" "Don't ask..." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In another part of the mountain, Terandl steepled his hands together as he watched through his scrying pool. "You're the key, aren't you? You are the one that holds everything and everyone together. How very...interesting."
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