19-June-2001
Title: The Katana Part 1/?
Author: Enigma
Written: June, 2001
Current Rating: PG-13 (possible NC-17 at conclusion)
Gift Fic for the [3x5_5x3list]
Pairings: (3+5)
Category: Angst Shonen ai Mystery [Conclusion based on Popular Vote]
Enigma Story Category: G-Boys High Adventure!
Archive: GW Addiction, Sweet&Sweet
Warnings: Angst, shonen ai, mystery, [due to conclusion being selected by popular vote after the first two parts are published, the final fic may also include: yaoi, death, sap, waff, children, celibacy, lemon, and the gods only know what else! your guess is as good as mine!]
Disclaimers: I don't own a katana or any of the Gundam Wing Universe. I'm not making any money off this story, so please don't sue me.
Important Notes: Chang Wufei's katana defended and protected both himself and those he loved, yet by the end of this deliberately open-ended fic, he will have it no longer. The ultimate choice of *why* he no longer has the blade will be left to the members of the [3x5_5x3list] and their choice will be reflected in the final installment after they get to vote on the matter. Also, in case you're wondering, I made up almost all of the scenes and embellished those I didn't create from whole cloth, but what else is new?
<<flashback beginning and ending markers>>
Razor sharp and elegantly curved, the katana of the dragon clan glimmered in the light, catching the eye where it sat on display in the front of the large but crowded room.
If it could have talked, the unique blade might have spoken of the day it joined its owner's life or perhaps of the times it was drawn in defense of the concepts and people its owner cared most about. All in all, it was an unbelievable series of events that the blade had been privy to, yet they all paled in comparison to this final day, the day it would no longer belong to Chang Wufei. But being merely made of metal, the katana had no understanding of events of that fateful day.
<<flashback>>
"Chang Wufei," the elder addressed the twelve year-old heir of the dragon clan. "This is the sacred katana of your family, it is now yours by right of inheritance. Do you accept it and promise to guard and defend all those you love with it?"
"I do," Wufei answered and bowed reverently to the sword.
"Do you further swear that you will use it in defense of justice and honor?"
"I do," the young boy bowed again to the blade.
"Last, do you accept the burden of responsibility to use it in both war and peace?"
"I do," feeling a bit overwhelmed, the boy bowed to the katana one last time.
"Then I hereby entrust to you our clan's greatest treasure knowing that you will use it to defend yourself and those you love for the sake of justice and honor, both in war and in peace. Use it well and never forget the ties it creates between you and your past as well as your future."
The elder handed the blade to the youth and watched approvingly as Wufei slipped it into the scabbard provided for it and then turned to bow deeply to the assembled members of his exalted clan.
Ceremony complete, the boy then sighed deeply and glanced back at the man he considered a father figure and asked, "Elder? How long am I to be the owner of the family's katana?"
The old man smiled at the serious looking boy and ruffled his black silk hair fondly, "Until the day, my dear young dragon, that either you die or you have an heir of your own. However, I doubt that either will find its way into your life any time soon."
"Oh?" Wufei asked, looking up and blinking wide eyes at him, "That sounds good, I guess. I'm not all that sure I ever want to have a child of my own to care for and being dead sounds boring. But don't worry, I'll take really good care of it just like you taught me to!"
"I expect that from you, Wufei." The elder smiled, then turned the boy and pushed him gently forward, "But go now and allow the others to greet you as the new holder of the sacred katana of the dragon clan. They will each have some words of wisdom for you, I am quite certain of it."
The elder refused to say that Wufei also had the option of setting the blade aside permanently should his life become such that keeping it would cause a greater hardship than losing it might be, he simply could not envision such a thing happening. Neither could he imagine Wufei giving up his right to bear the name of "Chang", but that, too, could cause the loss of the sword that had been passed down through many generations of the descendants of the legendary dragon clan.
The small boy glanced at him and then at the large gathering before his eyes and swallowed nervously before nodding and going forward to do as he was bidden.
<<end flashback>>
That first day together had been a good day for the holder of the blade.
Sadly, the first crucial time he tried to use the katana in battle would be a far less positive experience but again the razor sharp weapon knew nothing of the significance of winning or losing. It simply existed and few of those that looked at it now had no idea how much that first battle had changed the warrior either.
<<flashback: Justice: Chang Wufei>>
Confronting General Treize Khushrenada personally had seemed appropriate to the inexperienced fifteen year-old warrior after Wufei discovered the manipulative actions of the Russian man had led to the destruction of so many lives at New Edward's Base. However, the duel went to the older man far too easily, mere moments being all that were required to disarm his opponent and leave the Chinese teen on his knees.
Defeated and demoralized, Wufei glared up at him and snarled his defiance, demanding his own death as the price to be paid for failure.
Supremely confident, the ginger-haired OZ officer refused, going so far as to invite the youth to return another day to confront him, implying that their duel had been nothing more than a pleasant diversion for him. Furious at himself as well as his enemy, Wufei stated that he would indeed return if only to deliver the man to his death as justice required.
Khushrenada seemed pleased with this and made no effort to stop Wufei's retreat, going so far as to prevent his first officer from taking actions to destroy the Gundam pilot or his mobile suit when they departed and sank into the cold ocean waters.
Falling into the watery depths, Wufei's sorrow and failure very nearly overwhelmed him. Justice had not been served and his own sense of self-worth had been drastically reduced.
Though the battle had ended badly for him, Chang Wufei experienced a positive change in his life because of it. For reasons that baffled him, the emerald-eyed pilot of the Gundam HeavyArms, a boy he would later come to know as Trowa Barton, had followed him to this disastrous duel and it changed his destiny.
In fact, without Trowa's presence at the time, the Chinese teen would have died that day by his own hand, something no one but he himself would even know for years to come.
<<end flashback>>
Shining in the sunlight, the katana lay in front of the large crowd, a focal point for their comments to one another about the past and the unknown future.
All those gathered had known Wufei in various capacities, yet only his closest companions had ever seen the blade in use. All four of the Gundam pilots had shared experiences with the Chinese teen that involved the sword as well as the prophetic words of the elder who had presented the blade to the youth years before.
The first pilot to be in that situation had been the one least able to accept his role in the war initially.
<<flashback: Peace: Quatre Raberba Winner>>
As a battle unwound around them in a Romefeller-owned satellite above the Earth, Wufei wondered yet again why the boy who stood at his back, fighting as best he could, was even present.
"Winner?" The pilot of the Gundam ShenLong called out across the clash of swords and fists, "Are you all right back there, pacifist?"
"I'm fine," the blond Arab growled, receiving yet another slight flesh wound as the enemy soldier he was fighting threw a punch the blond couldn't block in time. "Don't worry about me, Wufei!"
A soft snort and the ring of steel preceded the answer to that, "I'm afraid I have no choice but to 'worry over you', Winner. It is up to us to bring about peace for the colonies, it is our duty and you are needed there despite your unwillingness to fight effectively."
"Peace at the cost of lives is not peace at all!" Quatre insisted, "There has to be a better way than mindless killing."
"Fool!" Wufei shouted as he ran his blade through a man who had attempted to get too close to the boys who were almost to an airlock in their efforts to escape. "We are not being offered choices here! We either fight to win or we die and in dying allow repression to spread like a cancer across space!"
"Perhaps," Quatre answered sadly while actually succeeding at driving back the last opponent he was facing, then reaching back to pull Wufei towards the door, preventing him from killing another soldier as the blast shield slid down, separating them from the OZ soldiers.
"Why did you stop me?" Wufei demanded angrily, "They are the enemy, we must destroy them when we have the chance!"
Quatre shook his head as he saw the blood dripping from the tip of the katana, "Was it truly necessary to kill those men, Wufei? Was peace served by their deaths?"
Breathing heavily and adrenaline still pumping through his veins, Wufei angrily answered, "It was necessary to keep us both alive, pacifist! Otherwise we would both be quite dead by now. Peace will not defend itself, no matter how much we might wish that it could."
Feeling a sense of sorrow, Quatre kept his opinions to himself as their shuttle escaped, leaving behind the dead and the dying victims of the blade and its wielder's strength. Protecting peace sometimes had a terrible price.
<<end flashback>>
Over time Quatre's belief in peace spread to the other Gundam pilots even as he himself accepted his role as one who was forced to be a killer to achieve it.
Deadly force was never an easy burden for him, though, and he shared his misgivings with Wufei when there was time for more philosophical discussions. When it came to light that the Chinese teen was no more in favor of mass-slaughter than he was, Quatre gained a new perspective and Wufei gained the Arabian teen's respect. But neither youth noted the strange similarities between Sandrock's scimitars and Wufei's katana, there just never seemed to be the time or opportunity.
<<flashback: Honor: Duo Maxwell>>
The boy who called himself Shinigami never lied and Wufei considered that an honorable trait, however, getting Duo out of an OZ confinement cell had been easier when the Chinese pilot allowed a few mistruths to conceal his own identity from the enemy.
"Duo!" Wufei hissed, leaning against the barred door and trying to get the other's attention. "Wake up! I've come to get you out of here! Duo, wake up!"
Shaking the fog from his mind, the American teen did his best to awaken, yet found the world far too confusing to accept at face value, some slight carry-over from being captured effecting his usually sharp senses. "Wu? Babe, is that you?"
"Yes, it's me," the angry oriental teen hissed. "And stop calling me 'babe'! You know I hate that!"
A soft chuckle and the sound of someone trying to get to his feet responded, even as Duo said, "Okay, okay, I'm coming! I just needed to be sure it was you, that's all." He leaned against the wall heavily and looked out the door at an odd sight.
Chang Wufei stood outside in full formal Romefeller regalia, the katana that was slung across his hip the only familiar bit of garb that the Deathscythe pilot recognized. "Yo, dude, what's up with the party clothes?" Duo asked irreverently.
"Baka," Wufei hissed again, "Hurry up! There isn't time for this!"
The ShenLong pilot had been rigging the explosive charge that would break the lock on the door and it was nearly ready as he warned and explained at the same time. "Look, you were supposed to be given a hearing today and I got past security disguised as one of Tsuberov's men." He snorted in amusement, "Hn, at least the man has the taste to allow personal weaponry or we would be completely unarmed right now."
"Nani?!?" Duo exclaimed, staring wide-eyed at his friend, "You mean you didn't bring me a gun or nothing here? Shit, Wu, I feel naked without a weapon!"
As the charge on the lock exploded and the door swung free to the sound of alarms being raised, Wufei drew the blade and held it at the ready as the two boys ran for freedom.
Wufei barely suppressed the desire to laugh at the image of Duo that had come to mind at the off-hand remark initially, but after fighting several small skirmishes before escaping, his sword arm was too tired for him to fight effectively. Panting with the effort, Wufei had shouted at the American, "Can you handle a sword, Maxwell? Can you take over for me?"
Nodding and accepting the blood and sweat slick hilt, Duo moved into the defense position and saw to it that they made their way to freedom.
Later that night, as the pair holed up in a cold remote cabin safehouse, Duo had commented in all seriousness, "You know something, Wufei? I felt really honored to be allowed to use your knife today, thanks."
Tired onyx eyes opened in slits and Wufei sighed as he tried to summon up his usual ire and failed, leaning heavily against Duo in front of a fire. "It's not a knife, it's a katana, Maxwell."
"Whatever," Duo shrugged and then smiled at his friend, "No matter what it's called, it was still an honor that you let me use it, so thanks."[1]
"No, Duo," Wufei finally smiled back, "The honor was all mine. I'm just relieved we got you out of there in one piece. We need you."
"Awww, babe!" Duo gushed and threw his arms around the other boy who immediately tried to fight him off and failed due to exhaustion, "I didn't know ya cared!"
"Not like that, baka," Wufei finally sighed as he gave up on struggling to escape the American's embrace, feeling himself sinking towards sleep right where he was even if it seemed like a most undignified position for it. "I meant we need to keep someone who at least knows what honor means. And don't call me 'babe'…" His voice trailed off as he gave in to the exhaustion and slept cradled in his comrade's arms.
With a look of fondness and understanding, Duo closed his own eyes as well even as he remarked, "Yeah, I know, Wu, it's just that sometimes you don't know when to let someone help you out. And I really was honored by that."
<<end flashback>>
The teasing friendship that developed between the two pilots had made some otherwise intolerable situations at least survivable later on, especially an incident on the moon that would test more than just their own relationship.
Duo had respected Wufei's sense of honor before the rescue, but he found it strange that it took such an extreme situation for the Chinese teen to even ask for the help he so obviously needed in defending the two of them. The war forced them all to become more interdependent and eventually the five Gundam pilots grew together into a full fledged team allowing Wufei to learn to trust the others as well as himself.
To be continued...
Note
[1] Duo's line is an homage to "Robin Hood: Men in Tights" courtesy of Mel Brooks! I just see Brooks' films as Duo's favorites, don't you?
Enigma
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