09-Feb-2001
Okay friends, here's the short version: I do not know why, but Laekin has ceased answering or even picking up her email on AOL. If anyone is in contact with her, please ask her to contact me.
This story was left unfinished at Part 7, back on Nov 26. The raw material for the rest of the story has been written for some time, and was only waiting to be cleaned up a bit.
What is being posted here was written by myself and Laekin together, just as everything else in the Companions of Fate series. The plot is hers, with a few small contributions by moi; she writes for Quatre, Trowa and Duo, and the villains. My contributions are confined to Wufei and Heero and some brainstorming.
Category: Action, Adventure, Romance, ANGST
Pairings: 1x2, 3x4x5 (Combinations there of)
Rating: R (Adult Situations)
Disclaimer: Not mine, no money being made or sought here.
Quatre had woken up when Heero contacted him about the shuttle. The Perfect Solider hadn't given any details and Quatre had blinked a couple of times but, he was used to Heero-isms and simply began making the proper calls to smooth the path. He'd tried very hard not to awaken or disturb Wufei. After all... he'd spent a good portion of the night wearing the dragon out!
Quatre grinned impishly at himself as he tucked his feet up under his robe. It was a silly thought but maybe he'd worn Wufei out to the point where the Chinese boy couldn't head off into danger. Fat chance. Still.... the thought made him grin.
Quatre stood in the doorway that lead from the bedroom to the living room for quite some time just Wufei watching. The Chinese boy had migrated onto his back, into the middle of the bed, as he was wont to do when on his own. One arm was thrown up over his head, stretching powerful muscles out across his torso. The blankets had roamed southwards, just enough to give a hint of hips.
Quatre considered a little sleepy dragon molestation but firmly forced himself towards the shower. Let snoozing dragons lie. Closing the door part way so the running water wouldn't disturb his lover, Quatre turned on the shower, making it nice and hot, then stepped out of his robe and under the spray.
Ahh... clean. The little Arabian had been known to spent almost unheard of times in the shower, bath, pool, ocean. Give him a bar of soap and running water and he could be amused for hours. Quatre finished washing his body and stretched himself out against the back wall of the stall, letting the water beat across his face and his chest.
He felt the first twinge like a fleeting thing. Just enough to annoy his conscious mind. Frowning a little, Quatre focused on the ache. He'd felt it once before... when Heero....
The blast that next followed drove the breath out of his lungs and knocked him to his knees. His hands scrabbled at his chest as he breathless forced past his lips.
"Trowa...?"
Then next hit resulted in a louder cry of his lover's name. "TROWA!"
The shower door opened and Wufei quickly turned off the water and took Quatre by the shoulders. He took in the blond's position, his cry, and a severe mask shuttered his features like a wall. Quickly he enfolded Quatre in a big towel and lifted him out of the shower.
Wufei carried Quatre to the bed, then firmly but gently lifted his chin to look into his eyes.
Quatre's eyes were completely focused inwards. The pupils huge, almost eradicating the teal irises. His limbs were tight, trying to curl in on himself as he chased the feelings. He panted very shallow, since those little breaths, while next to useless for air intake, didn't hurt.
Finally his eyes swung towards Wufei and he whimpered at him, as if he expected the Chinese boy to have the answer.
"Trowa?"
Wufei did have the answer, at least he thought he did. His expression became even more rigid, and he tucked Quatre into the covers, then began dressing with efficient speed, palming weapons and tucking them away in his clothing as he went. He didn't need to look at the coordinates on the note, he knew them by heart.
When Wufei moved out of his direct line of sight, Quatre slipped back into himself, trying to grasp the little flicker of presence that was doing this to him. Trying to hold on to it even as it caused him to wriggle in the tight blankets, whimpering. He turned and pressed his face into Wufei's pillow, using the scent of one lover to help him ground in his body, far away from the distress of the other.
Completely dressed and equipped in seconds, Wufei returned to Quatre.
"Can you tell me where he is?" he asked, not pinning much hope on it, but determined to ask anyway.
Quatre tried. He reached.. touched... but though he could key in on his lover's emotional, mental state... he couldn't see through Trowa's eyes. He couldn't touch a mind in that way. Making a helpless noise Quatre shook his head.
"It's alright," Wufei soothed immediately. He asked one more question. "Is his cover blown? If you can't guess, relax, don't push it."
It was a battle. One of the toughest of his young life but Quatre pushed himself away from the pain in his chest, the feeling of weight pressing down on his sternum, all of it. He forced his eyes to look up at Wufei and he nodded. His voice came in breath little whispers.
"From... start. We've been played."
Wufei didn't react to this. He accepted it. It was part and parcel of the universe he'd lived in most of his life.
"I'm leaving," he said. "I'll find him. I'm starting with the coordinates. I have my communicator. Don't worry - I'll get him back."
Quatre's eyes closed again and he curled up on himself, nodding. He whispered. "Be careful. Hurry."
Wufei allowed himself to drop a kiss on the blond's head, then he was gone. He spoke rapidly into his communicator as he moved through the building, and a small, fast shuttle belonging to WEI was made ready with utmost speed. By the time Wufei got to the port, all he had to do was flash his credentials and take off. Being WEI Security Chief did come with a few advantages.
He set course and pushed the ship to its top speed. They'd be expecting him to rush in, then. Fine. He would not disappoint.
Everything moved like clockwork for Wufei, from the shuttle, to hanger clearance. The coordinates lead him back towards the L5 Le Grange point. As he pushed deeper into the territory, he passed the destroyed wrecks of some of the colonies that had once inhabited the L5. It was behind one of these ghostly graveyards that Wufei's destination lay. Built, much like the facility that Heero and Duo had just left, into a used up resource satellite, there rock was lit up with lights and signs of habitation. It was larger then the one Heero and Duo had found and a close inspection on Wufei's part would reveal it was capable of moving itself.
At the moment though, as he approached, his communication consol chirped.
"Chang Wufei," he snapped.
A professional female voice answered him in Mandarin. "Welcome, Chang Wufei. You are expected and cleared for immediate landing in the second bay. Precise coordinates are being fed to your shuttle now."
Without acknowledging, Wufei received the coordinates and pulled the little ship in to land. He landed as if he were flying a Gundam and heaven help anyone in the bay when he came in.
Surprisingly, the bay area was devoid of people. Not even one suit floated around doing any sort of grunt work. It was as if they were expecting a less than polite landing and had called people out of the hanger. Once the shuttle was secure a door slid down behind him, closing the hanger off from space and re-pressurizing the bay.
Wufei moved quickly, taking a space communicator stowed in the ship. This was one of the designs he and Duo had put together for WEI security personnel to carry. Wufei set the shielded signal to pulse and then hid the communicator in the cockpit. He kept his own with him.
"Nataku," he muttered. "I need you now. If only you were with me."
He emerged from the shuttle, his face a mask of cold, arrogant fury.
As the shuttle door swung open, so did a small door at the back of the hanger. A slender figure, dressed in traditional Chinese silk tunic over pants, stepped through the door. At first, it might be hard to place the figure, for the signature long blond hair was caught up in a severe bun, but as she approached, Wufei recognized Dorothy Catalonia.
The pale, cold visage smiled towards Wufei as she stopped a few paces shy of him. Smiling without a hint of warmth, she cocked her head, studying him.
"Welcome, Chang Wufei. So much have I heard about you but I've never gotten to see you. Oh but you were magnificent in the battle with Mr. Treize. This is an honor."
Wufei looked at Dorothy as one might examine an insect.
"I can't say the same. I expected to be treated with more respect. Is this my cousin's idea of an insult - sending a woman to meet me?" he said coldly.
Dorothy clapped her hands together, positively gleeful. "Oh you are wonderful! Such arrogance, just like Chang Kuang Long. What a meeting this will be. If you will come with me? Mr. Kuang is expecting you."
Wufei gave Dorothy a brief but incendiary glare and simply waited for her to show him the way, as if she wasn't worth another comment.
Dorothy bowed her chin in a manner that was much like her uncle and probably a Winner-ism. She turned then and began to lead Wufei through the facility. It truly was a marvel of engineering. Comfortable, decorated in classic Mandarin style, austere yet at the same time beautiful. People moved through the hallways, silently but curiosity could be seen in their dark eyes as they looked past Dorothy to Wufei.
No one actually stopped and stared but hushed little conversations broke out in their wake. The language as pure and flowing as Wufei's home. Dorothy took no notice of the skittish expressions she got. She simply glided along in front of Wufei till finally stopping outside a set of large wooden double doors. The heavy wood had been carved with a dragon and was a magnificent piece of art.
"He is waiting for you." Dorothy stopped, indicating she would be going no further.
Wufei walked to the doors and thrust them open.
The man on the other side knew how to strike a presence. He stood in front of a back-lit silk screen, studying the classic design painted on the thin surface. His hands were folded behind his back, drawing his shoulders up and giving him more stature than perhaps nature had. His thick dark hair was swept back from his aristocratic features, neatly trimmed and glossy with good health.
He was dressed in the finest of silks. Traditional all the way, looking as if he could have stepped out of any one of the portraits that surrounded him.
"I related my memories to the artist but I think he's missing something. Do you remember the original, Wu Fei? Was not this tree just a touch higher in the back ground?"
Under the overwhelming force of lifelong training, Wufei bowed.
"Cousin," he said. Then, "The tree is gone. The house is gone. Everything is gone. I watched it destroyed with my own eyes. If you live, you are a coward and your existence dishonors our clan."
The shoulders tightened beneath the words Wufei flung at him. Kuang took a long slow breath and rotated around gracefully. His face was a perfect mask of civility when he faced Wufei, as if he had not felt the sting of his cousin's words.
"Yes, yes it is all gone, yet you and I remain. To build again. A sad thing it would have been for a clan such as ours to die out. They say that living and surviving when all you know and love is gone, is the greatest show of personal strength. As I recall, you have intimate knowledge of such a struggle."
His voice never rose from the calm dulcet tones of a well spoken man but the thrust of his words was still in his eyes.
"The only tragedy greater than the end of our clan would be its continuance in dishonor," Wufei answered coldly. "That was what I was taught, and that was the choice made by Long Shirin for our clan, to die with honor. The choice to remain was not mine either. It was the will of our clan. Your continued survival is by no one's will but your own."
Kuang smiled and closed the distance between himself and Wufei. His dark eyes glittered with the look of a true madman, the worst kind of madman. An intelligent one who was charming and brilliant and driven by a cause so deeply rooted in his psyche it was like nourishment to the body. "Ah... but, we both know just how strong my *will* is, don't we child. You've felt its strength on more then one occasion. I'm sure you remember your lessons."
"I remember... everything," Wufei said, his eyes meeting those of his cousin. There was not even the remotest hint of weakness in them. The self-doubts of his earlier life had been burnt away with each sacrifice.
Kuang's smile grew and the unholy light in his eyes flared. He stepped away from Wufei, moving to the large desk that sat against the back wall of the room. "You have grown into everything I imagined you would! Magnificent."
"I am here," Wufei said. "What do you want?"
The older man clapped his hands together, then flung them apart, motioning over the whole of the room. "Why, to build our clan back to its strength and power. As you can see, most of the work is already done. I simply needed the last piece of the original puzzle. You."
"I am not a puzzle piece," Wufei growled. "You know what I want. Are you going to give it to me or must I begin destroying all your careful construction?"
The dark eyes blazed but Kuang had himself firmly in hand. "Tsk, tsk. I expected some hostility. You have grown attached to this new life." The man made a dismissive gesture with his hand. "Really, Wu Fei... lackey and bed toy to the likes of Quatre Raberba Winner? No. Unacceptable." Kuang walked behind his desk and tapped on a control panel. In the walls, covered by more decorous silk screens vid screens came to life, reflecting numbers. "Your place is with me, at the head of one of the greatest unifying forces of the universe."
"Now, I expected you to be stubborn. You were always stubborn. So I figured I'd just remove all those hindrances that would only serve to distract you."
"Now that I know of your existence, cousin, nothing will distract me from you," Wufei said softly.
Kuang smiled. "You are fierce. Very well. Come along, I'll show you what you want to see." The older moved his hand in a graceful gesture, motioning Wufei towards a small door set in the side of the room.
Wufei followed the gesture, exerting every hard won ounce of control he possessed over his desire to simply end his cousin's life immediately.
A little something sad swam in those dark eyes and as Wufei passed, Kuang whispered. "It's not all bad memories, is it Wu Fei? There was a lot of warmth and security in the clan."
Wufei turned at the soft words and met his cousin's eyes again. "You will determine whether my memories will all be bad or not, with what you show me next," he said.
"Mm... that might be... unfortunate." Kuang observed in a thoughtful, almost academic tone. "Very well."
He lead Wufei through the door which lead out into a small hallway. The hallway had a couple of doors leading off of it and Wufei got the impression that the rooms these doors led to had no other access then through the main room they had just left. Stopping by one of these doors, Kuang toggled on an intercom.
"If you gentlemen could pause for a moment please? Someone is here to see our young guest."
Kuang waited for a moment, then pressed open the lock and let the door swing open.
The sight that met Wufei's eyes was not a gore fest. In fact... there was very little blood. The two men in the room with Trowa were rather older gentlemen with eyes like dark glass, flat and expressionless. They were also experts in their craft. If Trowa 'saw' Wufei, he didn't recognize his lover, lost in his own world of acute agony.
Though he had been preparing himself, the sight killed something inside Wufei. He froze for a few seconds. Then he entered the room. He appeared to ignore the two men, walking past them, looking down at Trowa. His eyes were dry, and no longer held any spark of banked fire.
Reaching behind him almost absently, Wufei grasped the neck of the nearest man under the chin and crushed his larynx. Then he began unfastening the restraints.
The second man watched impassively as his fellow torture artist dropped to the ground drowning in his own blood. If any thought went through the other man's mind it was simply along the lines of appreciation for the form and execution of the killing blow. He watched Wufei's actions without moving to stop him. He was here to do a job, not keep his project restrained to the chair.
Kuang watched Wufei and he restrained any sort of sigh. "Wu Fei, what are you doing? I won't let you take him out of this room."
Wufei glanced up. "Then you do not wish me to remain. It's simple. You were correct. Distractions. He goes back to Winner. I stay here. There are no other acceptable alternatives."
Kuang waved a hand. "I was going to let you keep this one Wu Fei... if you still wanted him, that was. You don't fully understand. Winner is dead. There is no way I'm letting him continue to breathe in this universe. He is too much of a pain in the ass and WEI is a thorn in my side." For the first time Kuang showed temper, almost that of a child upset with someone knocking down their erector set.
Wufei's eyes flashed something. He left Trowa and walked to his cousin, facing him directly.
"So you concede that you can not beat Quatre Winner? No wonder you require my presence. However, I am here. I have my own requirements. This one goes to Winner. Now. If either of their deaths seem necessary I will take care of that. I have my honor to see to."
Kuang watched his cousin with an unreadable expression in his eyes. He then shrugged. "I've already beaten Winner. WEI is over-extended, on its knees. I'm just waiting for the Earth Market to open then... it will be all over. Send him back to Winner if you wish."
Wufei bowed the slightest faction of a bow, his eyes like shards of black ice. He returned to Trowa and finished releasing him. Lifting the green-eyed boy in his arms, Wufei carried him out of the room.
"I will put him on my ship and program an autopilot back," he said.
Trowa stiffened at first, then relaxed and turned into the arms that held him. Though not as intimately familiar with being carried as Quatre was, Trowa knew Wufei's arms an curled into them. No mean feat given the length of Trowa's legs. Kuang said nothing, the subject seemed to bore him even.
Wufei was unconcerned with Kuang's interest level, only with anything the man might do to stop him.
As they stepped back through the door that lead into the large office, Wufei would be the first to see the small form standing beside the silk screen that Kuang had been studying earlier. Kuang followed Wufei through the door.
"Get him on your shuttle and on its way, we have a lot to..." The older Chinese man's voice trailed off as he looked over Wufei's shoulder.
Wufei glanced up, assessing for threat potential.
His back still to both of them, Quatre lifted his hand the note with the coordinates in his fingers. "You truly have horrible penmanship." He spoke softly. "It took Heero a full ten minutes to translate."
Wufei looked up and met Quatre's eyes. He was surprised, but there was a lock of ice around his heart that only cracked slightly. He said, "Good. You can pilot. Take him home."
Kuang stood in the doorway. For the first time the man looked... flustered. Quatre rotated completely around, his face pale but set in determined lines. His eyes flickered across Kuang, then to Wufei and his precious bundle. Quatre felt his heart clench, not from the empathy, just the pain love brings, as he looked at Trowa. "Take him to the shuttle. Heero and Duo have control of the corridor and Zechs and Noin are in control of the hanger towers." Quatre tore his eyes from Trowa's huddled form to Kuang.
The little Arabian smiled politely. "Chang, Kuang Long... I do hope I pronounced that correctly. I thought you and I could watch the opening of the Earth Market. The bell will be going off in five minutes I believe."
Without another word, Wufei went to the corridor. He spotted Duo and transferred Trowa into the braided boy's arms. Glancing at both of them, he said, "Get him out of here now."
Trowa whimpered just a little as he was transferred and he twisted a bit in Duo's arms but as Duo struggled to get a good grip on his friend, his braid slipped across his shoulder and plunked in Trowa's face. Something about that braid. Trowa shook it free of his nose, wrinkled his nose a bit as a stray hair tickled, then he took a deep breath and settled against Duo.
Wufei watched, his face still, then he turned and went back through the double doors.
Duo staggered a little beneath Trowa's weight and ungainly limbs. The green eyed boy was so graceful on his own two feet but a bit awkward to carry. However, Duo had taken a good look at Wufei's face and was not about to let his friend down. He made his way towards the hanger.
End Part 8a
Laekin
Please send comments to: seregill@aol.com or bonnejeanne@yahoo.com