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"Duo's Salvation "Written By: Jewel of Hell Disclaimer: Don't own nothin' but these words Rating: NC 17 Warnings: Gratuitous violence, abuse, torture, language, yaoi, lemon, angels, demons, bigotry, hypocrisy, blasphemy, heresy, sacrilege, and general religion-bashing. THIS IS NOT A STORY FOR THE CLOSE-MINDED. Pairings: 1x2, others Summary: When the Prince of Hell is captured and taken to Heaven, it is up to the Prince of Heaven to save him. But what if he believes Duo is already being saved? "Duo's Salvation "
"I have never given it any real thought," Heero said, "ending the war. I think the place to start is not brainstorming solutions. Rather, we should focus on what started it in the first place." Across from him, Quatre stirred. The golden gryphon raised his head from Trowa's lap, those keen eyes of his narrowing slightly. "You two are on your own, then," he said. "It may have spilled into Candora, but it originated in Heaven." That was true. Heero conceded with a nod and looked at Duo. The demon frowned, looking a little troubled. "I don't know the exact reason," he said slowly. "Power? The only angel who could answer that is Kysaan, and he is long dead. He and Bryna were among the first casualties of the last great battle four-thousand years ago." Heero pinched the bridge of his nose. "You said your mother is Bryna's daughter. What about Kysaan? Does he have any surviving children?" Duo shrugged. "Dunno. I never met Bryna, she died long before I was born. And Mother never talks about her." Heero sighed. It was Treize's turn to stir and draw attention. Heero looked to the tall man. He may be human, but Heero suspected there was far more to Treize than simply that. He got the feeling Zechs greatly underestimated him, because something in those ice blue eyes denoted a man of a cunning, sharp mind. He was not willing to write the man off simply because he was mortal and human. "Perhaps," he began, "the reason the war began is no longer pertinent. It has been a long time, has it not?" "Very," Heero agreed. "Tens of thousands of years." "Then perhaps the relevant question is not why it began, but why it continues to this day," Treize said. "There are different leaders now. Duo has said Kysaan and Bryna are gone. The new leaders may very well have new reasons." Duo blinked as though that would not have occurred to him. Heero agreed-he would not have thought of it that way. He nodded. "Good point. Duo, who are the main proponents of the war in Hell?" "My old man," Duo said at once with a wry little grin, "and most of his family. My mother is somewhere on the fence. She has never supported open combat, but neither has she ever run from a fight." "Heero?" Treize inquired. "Who are Heaven's?" "Oraia," Heero said. "She has many, many followers. My parents among them." "Anzuei the Destroyer and Oraia, Bright Lady of Heaven," Treize said. "Duo, what reason could your father have for continuing the war?" Duo gave him a flat look. "Other than Heaven won't leave us the fuck alone?" Zechs burst into laughter. Treize ignored the demon's sarcasm and the siren's scorn. "Heero? What about Oraia?" The question gave Heero pause. He honestly had no idea why she might be such an avid supporter of war with Hell. Did she really despise demons that much? Did she consider angels their betters? Did she want complete control of Candora? And if so, why? "I don't know," he said at last. "I never questioned Oraia's doings before. I never once considered what she was doing as wrong. Angels were good, demons were bad. What other reason did we need, except the ongoing battle between good and evil?" "A bit of a standstill," Wufei inserted. "Anzuei may feel it is a matter of pride, not backing down. I do not know him personally, but I do know the Black Mother. She has let a few things slip over the centuries. And Oraia's motives are in the murky area between black and white. Her reasons could be one of any hundred things. Heero, what do you feel is the most likely?" Heero ran his fingers through his hair. "I don't know. At one point, I would have said she feels it's the right thing to do because demons are evil. Now I don't know what to believe." He blinked and suddenly Duo was behind him, his cool fingers threading through the angel's messy hair and gently massaging his scalp. It felt blessedly good, and he let his eyes slide to half-mast. "Oraia preaches that her war is God's will," the demon said quietly. "Angels have long stopped questioning that. My mother told me there are very few of her generation left. Oraia is one, and there are only about six more in either Heaven or Hell. The King and Queen of Heaven are not among them. They are much younger than my mother. Even my father is about ten-thousand years younger than her. That probably has helped Oraia gain such a foothold. Although I don't know why she didn't become Queen of Heaven when the former queen died. Her lies have become accepted truth because none now live who remember it." Heero ground his teeth. For a moment, he pictured himself back in the gleaming halls of Heaven, a devout angel well on his way to becoming a righteous, good King of Heaven. He had been privately tutored by Oraia from a young age, as had his father and his father's father. She was the oldest scholar in Heaven, and what reason could an angel have for lying? He might still be there now, in fact, if Oraia had not hatched her fool plan to abduct the Prince of Hell and torture him to force him to repent. Only, I would have been a self-righteous, hypocritical King of Heaven. And the worst part is, I wouldn't have known better. I suppose, in a backward way, I should be grateful to her. Otherwise, I would never have learned the truth. Ironic that it should come from a demon, from whose lips truth had never fallen. This amazing, loving, smart-assed creature so free and easy with his emotions, so careful with his love, who had given all of himself to Heero. An angel. I love you so much, Duo. In a way, I bless Oraia. She was the one who brought you to me. Duo's fingers rubbed his temples, perhaps a little too slow and intimate for companions bonded only by common purpose. "Perhaps we could pay her a polite visit and ask her why she wants war," Quatre suggested airily. Heero gave him a Look. It started the gryphon giggling like a fiend. Treize, however, sat up. "That's possible." Blink. Heero grabbed Duo's wrists and made the demon sit back down beside him. "What do you mean?" "Oraia, the Bright Lady of Heaven, is considered the Prophet of Candora's only religion, the Way of Light," Treize said. "She often visits important spiritual leaders of the churches, to see how they are doing in converting all mortals to the Way. A few hundred years ago, when she united all the kingdoms on the main continents into one large country under one rule, she had the king and queen form an army, now called the Army of Light. The army defends the country from all, and they also travel to outlying lands to begin converting or make sure the capitol's reach extends to the farthest borders. The Army of Light is under the command of one individual, the General." It was Zechs who replied first. He gave Treize a bored look. "So?" Heero could only describe Treize's smile for the siren as patronizing. He hid a grin. "So," Treize said, "I am the General." Wufei sensed a sudden surge of strong emotion from a dragon long before he saw her. It was Relena, one of the younger wind dragons. Her lithe, golden body winked in the sunlight as she flew toward them, with all the speed only a wind dragon could attain. She had obviously been flying hard, because when she landed a few hundred feet away her sides were heaving. "Wufei!" she gasped, wings drooping to the ground. "I knew you were planning with the Princes of Heaven and Hell to end the war, so I came as fast as I could. Oraia is still on Candora!" He blinked, and Duo rose to his feet. "Impossible," the demon said, eyes full of distrust and suspicion. "My father had demons watch all the entrances from Heaven to Candora. No angel could have gotten past." Relena shook her head. "I don't know how she is here, then, but she is. Hilde and I were flying along the Keirwhyn River, and we saw her. Wufei, I overheard her talking to some men that she has some plan to kill Heero and Duo. I tried to fly lower to hear more, but they saw us. I think they must have been prepared for dragons, because they had Slayer arrows. They shot Hilde-I don't think they killed her-but they have her now, Wufei! And it's my fault!" The tumultuous tangle of her emotions momentarily flustered Wufei. Even a distraught dragon should not have such shoddy control of her emotions. Shaking it off-she was still fairly young-he rose to his feet. "Thank you," he said to the much smaller gold dragon. "I can see you came as fast as you could. I will go after Hilde myself, you stay here. I will be back shortly." Looking shaken and mournful, Relena nodded and sank to a sitting position. Wufei strode into a clearer area before spreading his great wings and taking flight. Duo watched Wufei slowly disappear. When he could see the great black beast no more, he turned and regarded Relena. Her story bothered him. She was flying with Hilde? He knew Hilde didn't like Relena. He also didn't believe Oraia was on Candora. No way she could have slipped past the demons watching the gates. Unless . . . Duo felt a shiver run up his spine. Unless, after shooting Duo with her Unsummoning arrow, she had never returned to Heaven in the first place. That was possible. But Relena's story didn't sit well with him. He didn't trust her, and he couldn't exactly say why. There was something about her that was just . . . off. For a moment, he found himself wishing angels really could sense lies as Heero had claimed. That made a grin beg to cross his lips and his gaze flickered to Heero. What a clever angel, flat-out lying to the human so he would not immediately discount Duo. Treize rose to his feet, brushing off the legs of his pants. "Perhaps it is not wise for us to let Wufei leave alone." Relena looked at him. "There is no dragon more wise or powerful than Wufei," she said with no small amount of scorn. Duo could not tell if it was directed at Treize, or Wufei. "It is never a good idea to enter danger alone," Treize replied, moving to stand at Duo's side. "Would you carry me to him, my Lady?" Relena looked away, her eyes tracking somewhere to the south. "Your concern is unwaranted, General." Duo did not miss how Treize stiffened at his side. He cast the human a questioning look. "I have never before encountered you," Treize said slowly, softly. "How do you know who I am?" Relena's eyes widened a fraction just as Duo took several steps away from the general. His wings burst free, spread wide and high-a demon prepared to attack. He saw Heero come to the same conclusion a split second later, his actions matching Duo's almost perfectly. Relena went on the offensive in an eyeblink, wings billowing to spin her around impressively fast. The sweep of her long, whip-like tail nearly caught Quatre, but he leaped into flight with a vicious hiss and avoided it. Trowa was not so lucky-her blow caught him on the hip and sent him flying like a ragdoll. His reflexes kept it from hitting him in the ribs-which probably would have broken him in half. The tip of her tail slashed across Treize's chest as he flung himself backward, and in the next moment Relena was bearing down on him. Now Zechs, who had rolled away from her tail, rose to his feet and opened his mouth. His eyes looked like an ocean raged into a frenzy by a storm. Furious and ready to kill. A melody that absolutely bled poured from his throat. Quatre, who had cut through the air toward the dragon, aborted his attack with an outraged scream. It affected Relena the same way-her wings filled once more and she launched herself away from Treize and back into the air. Quatre didn't offer chase, he instead flew to his felled lover. Duo knew his eyes were black. "That bitch probably sent Wufei into a trap. Get up, Treize. We're following." Heero's eyes were no less stormy than Zechs'. Wufei, keeping high and flying in the sun, had no trouble seeing the mercenary camp several thousand feet below. It was quite some distance from the Black Mountains, and it was quite large. Easily large enough to hold and conceal a wind dragon-they were not very big. Perhaps twice the size of a horse. There were at least half a dozen pavilions that could contain Hilde's bulk. He extended his senses, trying to see if he could locate her emotions. But she must be unconscious-there was nothing. He could not approach the camp in his true form. Even an Imperial dragon could be harmed by Slayer arrows, and as quickly as he could decimate a camp, they would probably be on guard and a few of them could get lucky. He was never hasty, and acting on emotion would get both him and Hilde killed. He spiraled out of the sky a long distance from the camp and changed into his seldom-used secondary form. That of a young, slender man with inky black hair and eyes. Like all immortal beings, probably a little too striking for a human. But considerably less conspicuous than his form as a dragon. He chuckled to himself and began to cover the distance to the camp on foot. Heart pounding, unable to believe her slip, Relena's wings beat the air back toward the camp. Bloody Hell! They were now in league with a fucking siren! And judging by how easily he had diverted Relena's attack, he was a very, very powerful one. Most sirens couldn't really affect dragons with their song-spells. This one's song had driven her away before she even realized what she was doing. She had no doubt the angel and demon would follow her, and possibly the gryphon too. All it would take was one tiny warning from them to ruin Oraia's plan for Wufei. He was their biggest threat, after all. As she flew like the wind itself, her mind raced. But it had been a nasty shock, seeing Treize Khushrenada up on that mountaintop. What was the General of Oraia's Army of Light doing in league with those five? She had been unable to find him in the capitol, so she'd gone right to the Black Mountains to follow through with the plan for Wufei's demise. It didn't matter if they knew she was a traitor to her kind. Unless they managed to warn the Imperial dragon. That, she would not allow. Though Duo had been fully prepared to carry Treize between him and Heero, Hilde found them first. The dark wind dragon looked extremely worried. She had sensed the extreme emotion from Relena, and the retreating gold only barely missed running right into her. Duo gave her a terse request to carry Treize and Zechs. As the three flew, Duo told her what had happened. Hilde's eyes flared in anger. "She's a dragon, and she would betray Wufei?" Duo found that odd, too. Traditionally, dragons were more loyal to demons than angels. For a moment, Wufei lingered on the outskirts of the camp. What excuse could he give for entry? Eventually he settled on stealth rather than the direct approach. He carefully observed one of the patrolling men and, when he deemed it safe, lured him away from the perimeter. His attack was swift and silent-the poor human never saw it coming. Wufei then stripped him of his plain gray uniform and shrugged into it himself. Then he slid into the patrol, and simply walked into camp. No one looked at him twice. He began his careful search for Hilde. The moment he found her, these humans would know his wrath.
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