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"Children of a Lesser Fate "Written By: t-shirt Disclaimer: Gundam Wing and its characters are
copyright to Sunrise, Bandai, Sotsu Agency, and associated parties.
I make no money with this fic. Rating: R Warnings: AU/Fantasy, angst, fluff, Mention of
lemon , humor and all the stuff you get with a rolling adventure ^-^ Pairings: 1x2, 3x4 Summary: The fate of a war ridden kingdom is sealed by the undeniable destiny of its most precious children. "Children of a Lesser Fate "
Ch 4 ** A sea of fire lit the courtyard as Rashid burst into the kitchen, his eyes growing wide as he took in the sight of Quatre’s half nude body shaking with rage as Trowa barely blocked a vicious blow from Dorothy’s sword. It took only one word from the servant to seal his master’s fate. “QUATRE!” All in a moment Trowa’s gaze flashed toward his lover desperate to see to his welfare, a mistake the Watcher did not waist turning on her heal to gain strength she thrust her blade forward with such ferocity she could not stop the momentum in time when Quatre stepped in front of the blade. “QUATRE!!!!!!!!!”Rashid screamed as the color bled from Trowa’s emerald eyes. Dorothy knew her sin in an instant quickly retracing the blade but too late to save the young Prince from harm, her blue/gray eyes reflecting the horror in her heart as Quatre fell into his lovers arms. “No!” No one bothered to turn and face the priestess as she rushed into the room where Trowa stood silently holding the gasping blond boy. “What have you done?!” she snapped causing Dorothy to retreat in shame as she ripped Quatre’s cape open to check the wound. “Quatre? Quatre!? Can you hear me?” she called but his cerulean eyes were locked on Trowa. “Is he…” Rashid began unable to finish. “No,” Une replied hastily. “But the wound is deep. We have to take get him inside.” However, her attempts to free him from Trowa’s arms were futile. “We can save him!” she growled trying again but Trowa refused to yield. “I will take him,” he said evenly. “You can’t,” Une replied sternly trying again to pull the blond out of his lover’s arms but Trowa’s hand slammed into her chest knocking her into the far wall, Dorothy’s sudden advance leaving her with a wide slash in her upper arm when the mercenary sidestepped and lashed out. “Can you truly heal him?” Rashid demanded gaining his answer in the desperate affirmation in Une’s eyes. “Release him,” he demanded stepping forward but again Trowa refused to yield, his sword quickly finding its way to being embedded in the giants shoulder but the huge man did not stop. In a flash he had Trowa by the wrist slowly prying his other arm open. “Take him!” Une ordered handing Quatre over to the Watcher. “Get him to the Well! You can heal him there!” “But!” Dorothy objected flashing a terrifyingly determined glance into Trowa’s empty eyes. “Go!” the priestess demanded. “We’ll see he doesn’t follow! Now Go!” Dorothy had just made it past the door when Une drew her sword and turned to face Trowa as Rashid slowly sank to the floor. ** Hiiro swung his sword viciously as Zechs advanced. The battle had forced the young King up the outer wall stair but the long, haired blond realized only too late that this had been Hiiro’s intention shouting to the sky when his opponent hurtled himself at the back of his scaly, white mount. A moment later Zechs silver snatched him off the wall tossing him into the air where he twisted his body into position and landed squarely upon it’s back. The moment he was seated the silver was forced to roll out of the way of a mighty column of fire from Hiiro’s white. “HIIRO!” Duo cried over the rush of wind in his ears, the warning coming just in time for his lover to roll and dodge the attack of a dawn blue and her rider. The thief thrust forward diving between Zechs and Hiiro giving the young King enough time to right himself and defend against the fury of a lost prince. “Your reign here is over!” Zechs shouted as steel clashed in the darkness and Hiiro kicked the silver in the teeth to keep from being gouged. “There is nothing to be gained by force!” Hiiro countered as Duo’s spiny black collided with a gold just before it could slam into Hiiro’s side. For a moment Hiiro’s attention was taken in his concern for his lover as the black clawed and shot fire at his opponent, the two falling away from each other as the cadence stone in Hiiro’s sword pulsed a warning allowing the King to narrowly evade being beheaded by his foe. “That is no longer any of your concern!” Zechs roared breaking free. “Then will Relena become your puppet too!” The blond man stopped reigning in his mount to hover in the air as the battle raged around them. “These people do not belong to you!” he shouted. “Nor do you belong to them,” Hiiro stated clearly. “Relena will lead them!” “Quatre will be King!” Zechs laugh came from deep within his chest spilling over into the maddening fray as Hiiro’s fist tightly gripped his sword, the stone embedded in its hilt pulsing brightly in synch with his heartbeat. “Fool!” Zechs shouted rising above. “Could you really be unaware why we chose him?!” he laughed. “Your arrogance has blinded you!” Hiiro’s eyes slowly grew wider as he listened and all the pieces began to fall into place. “Did you honestly believe you were the only man alive the Ruin Stone would embrace?!” “Quatre,” Hiiro breathed but had only an instant for comprehension to dawn in his eyes before Zechs was upon him. Duo’s head snapped around at the sound of a horrendous clashing of wills, his eyes hardening with undeniable determination as he wrenched his blade free of a vicious red’s skull leaping from its falling form as his black swept by to regain his seat. Amethyst eyes took in the target area calculating quickly that a green coming from beneath was not a threat just before a riderless silver slammed into it. Another was intercepted before it could attach the warring pair that was the center of the young thief’s attention but another red, viciously determined in his lust for blood came from above. Duo counted the seconds in his mind, his feet coming up beneath him as he guided his battle enraged mount in a graceful arch, his eyes reflecting the shock as he drew near and witnessed Hiiro’s left shoulder being taken into the silvers powerful jaws. His jaw set, the raw determination flashing in his eyes mirrored the fiery sky as the red suddenly collided with the pair, a moment later Duo’s black slammed into them as well as he launched himself at Hiiro tethering him to the flailing white with his body even as he forced her free of the clawing tangle that was falling quickly toward the Earth. “Hiiro!?” “It would be less distracting,” Hiiro rasped through pain-clenched teeth, “If you would choose to keep your seat.” “You’d rather I be there?” Duo smiled indicating the spiting, clawing fireball that was quickly falling from the sky. Hiiro chuckled wincing visibly as blood seeped from his wound. “Take me… to the well.” “Can you heal yourself?” the thief asked hopefully as he turned the white. “It won’t matter if they offer Quatre first.” “What?” Duo gasped cradling his injured lover between his arms. Hiiro’s answering silence was all that was necessary to make him understand the dire need for haste and once again bold determination sparked in his eyes as he expertly guided them through the battlefield. ** Dorothy staggered through halls lined floor to ceiling with the sleeping stones that had once given the people power and hope. An ancient pathway thought to be built by the hands of Gods that no longer heard the prayers of the multitudes. Images flashed in her memory of a boy discovered to have the power to converge with the stones, a boy that had been forcefully taken from his homeland and subsequently made King. It was at that time the people of Quatre’s country had become uneasy, the uncertainty of the power such a child might one day wield over them seeding fear and doubt in their minds that inevitably brought about war. “Where am…I?” Quatre garbled though the sound was wet and strained. The Watcher ignored him dropping the menial cover of his cape as she dragged him within the circle of the seven that was engraved on the floor before the Well. “Ah!” the boy hissed clinging to her tightly as the golden collar around his neck glimmered and flared to life. “N…no,” he begged piteously trying to free himself but his injured body was no match for the warrior girl. “Hush,” she soothed laying him in the center of the intricate pattern outlined in cadence stones. Quatre forced his gaze upward, his eyes growing wide as he took in the huge, milky white dome before him. “The Well,” he whispered clutching his chest. “Yes,” she replied arranging the seven chains that hung from his neck so that they matched the lines of the pattern on the floor beneath him. “Everything is going to be all right.” “You can’t,” he breathed painfully. “I am… unworthy…” “Lie still,” she told him forcing his body back to the floor when he tried to rise. “Impure,” he whispered weekly as his blood mingled with the chains and stones beneath him. Her eyes darkened with doubt as she looked down upon him, her gaze rising to consider the seal that protected the entrance to the place where the cadence stones had once been mined. “You will die if I don’t.” Quatre opened his eyes, the piteous despair begging in his tone as he pleaded, “Then let me die.” “Step away.” Dorothy sprang to her feet at the sound of Trowa’s command, her sword drawn in vain as a blot from her own crossbow slammed into her left shoulder knocking her backward and pinning her to the wall. “Stop!” she shouted pulling at the bloody arrow in spite of the pain as Trowa advanced on his lover. “He’ll die if don’t release me!” Trowa ignored her coming to kneel beside the blond boy, Quatre’s smile softening as he gathered him into his arms. “Thank you,” Quatre told him relaxing in his embrace. “You said you did not want her to die,” the mercenary reminded him. “Trowa?” the blond whispered cringing as a cough brought a trickle of blood from his lips. “I’m sorry,” he smiled as his lover wiped it away. “I wish I could have given you everything you wanted.” “You have,” Trowa told him kissing him gently. “My only desire since we met as been to love you,” he told him, his eyes slipping closed as Quatre clung to him tighter. “I don’t want to loose you.” “There’s nothing that can stop that now,” Quatre told him in a voice full of regret. “We cannot allow the well to be contaminated.” “It’s because of me,” Trowa said holding him close. “Because I took you as my own…” “I am your own,” the blond cut him off. “Nothing will ever change that,” he told him forcing his body to ignore the pain as he held him close and kissed him. “Quatre!” Dorothy jerked around to see Rashid’s massive form stumble into the citadel, his right arm clutched uselessly to his body, the left side of his head covered in blood and a battle axe held firmly in his left hand. “Free me!” the girl demanded. “Free me and I can save him!” “Dorothy!” Une barked in shock leaning heavily against the doorway where she held her injured side. “Trowa,” Rashid began stepping closer. “You must allow them to heal him.” “Stand away,” the mercenary commanded laying Quatre on the floor as he turned to face them. “You’re willing to let him die!?” the big man shouted angrily. Trowa’s eyes set hard as his grip tightened on his sword and he replied, “If that is his wish.” Each eye in the room suddenly turned toward the ceiling as a rumbling began to shake the temple walls. Fear for themselves as well as the safety of the Well sprang to life in their eyes as the pattern laced in stones began to glow and Trowa fell on his lover to shield him as the ceiling suddenly exploded skyward. “Hiiro!” Relena skidded to a halt some distance behind Rashid, her trail followed by terrified soldiers uncertain of their right to enter but bound by their oath of allegiance, each trembling where they stood as a great, white dragon bore the Lord of the Cadence Ruin into their midst. Hiiro’s sword burned as brightly as the sun, the domed seal of the Well suddenly shimmering with life as the walls, ceiling and floor lit in greeting of their master. “Princess!” a man shouted above, the green he was riding suddenly lurching in defiance to his command to enter as Nataku settled along the rim of the cavernous hole. Wufei took a moment to grin down at the young King before turning his attention to the sky where no dragon would now come within a hundred yards of the Well. “Are you all right?” Duo whispered lending a discreet hand as they dismounted. “Stay by my side,” Hiiro replied before turning his attention to the boys crumbled in the center of the floor. “Hiiro!” The first wave of soldiers rushed forward mistaking Relena’s desperate cry as the command to advance but Hiiro suddenly turned his gaze upon them, his hand reaching out to collect the iridescent power of the stone, his body absorbing it, redirecting it and unleashing it in a blinding light that sent the entire line crashing into the far wall. A second wave met with the same fate before the princess finally recovered enough to shout… “STOP IT!” and all became still. “Look at him!” she cried indicating Hiiro’s shimmering form. “Why can’t you see!? He is our King! The Cadence Ruin has chosen him!” “I am the Lord of the Cadence Ruin,” Hiiro spoke clearly staring purposefully into her eyes as he confessed, “But I can never truly be your King.” “They should never have given the crown to a commoner!” Dorothy vehemently agreed. Relena’s eyes shined with tears, her hands clutched in trembling fists by her side as she gazed into Hiiro’s glowing blue eyes. Trowa silently regarded her when she turned to consider him and his fallen lover; Une looking expectantly toward the sky for some form of deliverance as the girl suddenly broke and dove into the Well. “RELENA!” one of the soldiers screamed as her body was quickly absorbed, the intensity of the light coming from the seal flaring so brightly all were forced to shield their eyes… save one. “Hiiro?” Duo gasped gripping his lover’s wrist as he moved toward the Well. Hiiro paused a moment taking him into his arms, Duo’s tears spilling down his cheeks as he kissed him soundly. “Come back to me,” Duo breathed embracing him fiercely. Hiiro drew back laying a gentle hand upon his cheek, the luminance surrounding them bleeding away the delicate lines of his face but his eyes were as steadfast as the stars as he swore… “I will return.” “NO!” Une and Dorothy barked in unison, the priestess’s body bouncing off the wall as the glow around Hiiro sent her flying when she tryied to interfere. Trowa turned his gaze upward as Hiiro approached, his grip on Quatre tightening for a moment until he saw the divine promise in the Ruin Lord’s eyes. “Stand away,” Hiiro told him laying a comforting hand upon his shoulder. Trowa turned his gaze back to his weakened lover kissing him gently before he asked, “What will you do?” Quatre smiled glancing at Hiiro as the warmth of hope spread over his face. “No one should have to die.” The moment Trowa stepped away the circle beneath Quatre began to shine more brightly, the blond boy’s form rising from the stone floor as the seven chains around his neck spread out around him. “NO! YOU CAN’T!” Dorothy shrieked pulling frantically at the bolt in her shoulder to no avail as Hiiro turned and walked toward the seal. “Not even you can enter the Well!” Une tried. “You’ll die and condemn us all!” “Hiiro,” Duo breathed taking an involuntary step forward but he stilled when Hiiro turned to smile at him, the thief’s hand reaching toward his lover as he placed his hands on the seal and slowly disappeared. Quatre suddenly coughed, blood spewing from this throat as his body was wrecked with sudden convulsions that had Trowa’s sword at the ready but there was nothing he could do but watch as the blond boy writhed and moaned until finally his body began to descend and was lain quietly in his lover’s anxious arms just in time for Trowa to shield him as the seal flared and shot a thick beam of light straight into the heavens. Soldiers, dragons and their riders, towns folk and farmers for miles around turned to gape at the pillar of light emerging from Orb’s Keep, each gasping as they fell on their knees, dragons returned to the earth, the battle forsaken in the face of the shimmering image that blanketed the sky and a lone soldier with pale blue eyes, battered and beaten in his defeat whispered a single name. “Relena.” Slowly the light faded but the image had been burned into every heart. The company of the Keep regained their sight as shadows were once again allowed to penetrate giving form and substance to the world. “Hiiro,” Duo breathed in relief seeing his lover standing before the seal, his wounds healed, the princess beside him, their bodies pulsing rhythmically in time with the heartbeat of the Well. Une fell to her knees, Dorothy staring incomprehensibly as Relena opened luminescent blue eyes and smiled gently upon them. “Trowa.” The mercenary gazed down into the open eyes of his lover, his emerald orbs shedding silent tears as he bent to kiss him wrapping his naked body in his cloak, the seven chains that had signified his imprisonment to the Keep forever embedded in the lines of the pattern in the floor beneath them. “You came back,” Duo grinned accepting Hiiro into his arms. The Ruin Lord paused long enough to glance back over his shoulder where the shimmering princess stood smiling kindly at them before kissing the braided thief for all he was worth. ** “Good mooorning, My Lords.” A hand emerged from beneath the pile of blankets and sheets groping blindly for something to throw at the interloper but another snaked out before the projectile could be launched dragging it back under. “Let me bean her just once,” Duo grumbled. “The day is bright and waiting!” the girl sang throwing the curtains open to let the sunshine stream inside. “Duo,” Hiiro scolded as the blankets rolled. “Just once.” “Queen Relena will not be pleased if you are late,” she smiled jerking the covers off. “Hey!” Duo barked covering his nakedness with his pillow. “Your breakfast is being prepared,” she informed them cheerily dropping the covers on a chair as she exited while Hiiro stifled his laugh. “I’m gonna get her,” Duo growled. “You didn’t honestly think living in the palace would mean you could laze about?” Hiiro asked rolling closer. “Why do we have to go to the Temple?” his lover grumbled cuddling up to fend off the chills that were tickling his skin. “Because Relena needs help governing the nations,” Hiiro chuckled kissing him warmly. “After that light show no ones gonna oppose her.” Duo remained reluctantly bitter throughout the morning in spite of his lovers soothing affection going so far as to trip their early morning regent making her stumble into a fountain in the courtyard before they left. The journey to Orb’s keep was a much more pleasant one since the Queen had taken control of the nations and Duo smiled in the knowledge that even Soldair had begun to show signs of improvement. The gathering at the Temple had been set six months after the end of the war, each governing body agreeing to meet and exchange information and news of their progress to the New Queen. Quatre had taken Trowa as his life mate publicly binding the mercenary to him giving him the same privileges and responsibilities as himself. Happily, the people of his country gladly accepted the joining as Relena had blessed them personally, most everyone in the common sectors being convinced of her divinity after the incident at the Keep. Wufei, as well, appeared at the gathering bringing with him a company of his countrymen and their dragon partners. Hiiro had convinced him that shutting themselves off from the world had played a large part in the people’s miscomprehension of the great beasts though there were still those who refused to relinquish their power and give up their mounts. The Dragon Lord had agreed to education over brut force to free them having learned that many of the dragons he had already freed were incapable of caring for themselves in the wild. Relena had asked for assurance that violence would not be used but the best Wufei would offer was a promise to keep things peaceful as long as reasonable progress was made. Relena had taken up residence in the temple; Une providing her with the support she needed to touch the people on a personal level though visits to the towns and cities. Zechs was given command of security over the New Queen but no one had been able to discover the whereabouts of Treize. Some thought perhaps he had lost his life in the battle but Wufei refused to believe such a notion. “Take good care of yourselves,” Quatre smiled as he hugged Duo’s neck. “Your journey is longer than ours,” Duo countered releasing him. “But I suppose your well enough looked after,” he smiled raising a brow at the ever mindful Trowa who stood in the shadow of the giant Rashid. “Give it back,” Hiiro scolded stepping in behind him. “What?” Quatre gasped realizing his favorite dagger had been lifted. “Just practice,” Duo grinned returning the blade. “Your skills would prove helpful on my journey to the south,” Wufei commented. “And why would you require a thief?” Duo cocked a half smile. Wufei turned accepting the leg up Nataku offered him settling himself along her shoulders before he replied. “You said the rookery was in the south,” he smiled. “You don’t think he’s still trying to breed dragons?” Quatre gasped. “I will sleep better once I have seen the abandoned nests,” the Dragon Lord replied. “Perhaps we should accompany him,” Duo grinned, the light of adventure shining brightly in his eyes. Hiiro’s only response was a crinkling of his eyes and curt nod. “Trowa?” Quatre beamed clearly anxious to join. “Agreed,” his lover replied bringing a huge smile to the blond boys face as Rashid groaned and closed his eyes. Relena stood upon the temple steps as she watched the company disappear into the distance, her peaceful heart beating in time to the gentle rhythm of the softly glowing Ruin stones that adorned Orb’s keep as she smiled her blessing on them and the world below. owari :)
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