12 Apr 2000
Disclaimer: I don’t own GW. I’m poor. This story is for entertainment only. It has mention of yaoi, NCS, and other dark stuff. It also has hentai. Lastly, it has Ashi. (She is rude, irreverent, and just plain silly at times, but I like her.) If you can’t deal, don’t read. There are an awful lot of halfnaked bishounen running around in this one.
Treize couldn’t sleep. For most of the night, he had gone over the various reports from his spies, armies, and advisors. Someone was forming a rebellion and no one seemed to be able to catch the elusive new leader. Finally, around midnight, the tired King decided to take a short walk; it would help him think and maybe then he could get some sleep. Dressed in a loose robe, long pajama bottoms, and nothing else, the great leader headed for the Throne Room.
At about the same time the King chose to take a walk, a slender shadow was stalking the halls of his castle. The young woman was called Ashi; she wore simple black clothes and no shoes. Her hair was very short and the pale strands almost glowed in the dark, just like her lavender eyes. At her waist, a small belt held a dagger. Taken in its entirety, the young woman looked very dangerous, right up until she tripped over a bulge in the carpet.
Silently cursing, Ashi picked herself up and once more slipped into the shadows.
‘What, by the Goddess, am I doing here?’ she asked herself silently. ‘This is a huge castle. How am I supposed to find three people in a place this size?’ Yet, she knew there was no way she could just abandon her friends without at least trying.
Four years ago, Ashi had been brought to this city from the conquered country of Stalius. Thrown into an orphanage, the young girl had been lost; she knew nothing of the customs, language, or society. Within the first few weeks, Ashi had been in more than a dozen fights. Then they had cornered her. Quatre, Duo, and Wufei.
Thinking it was another attack, the girl had reacted like a trapped animal. It was only when she saw they were not fighting back that she stopped and gave them a chance to explain. Using mostly hand motions and Duo’s very expressive face, she came to understand they meant no harm and even wanted to help. Since that day, the four of them were inseparable. The boys taught her everything about the kingdom and she adopted them as her Brothers.
There was little they couldn’t handle together, which was why she was swamped in guilt. She had gone on a personal errand and returned to an orphanage in chaos. Soldiers had come looking for her Brothers, lured by tales of their beauty. When Rashid tried to stop the kidnapping, the soldiers attacked him. The poor man would be in bed for at least a month, leaving his wife, Catherine, to run things and the orphanage without the money he earned at work.
She should have been there; she could have done something; she could have prevented this; it was her duty and honor to protect her Brothers. The constant litany ran through the back of her mind. Even after four years without real combat, Ashi could still hold her own with a normal fighter. Twelve years of training didn’t just disappear, after all. So here she was, invading the castle of King Treize, the man who had conquered her country and stolen all she held dear. Walking into a place filled with thousands of enemies on the off chance she could find three young men in the hundreds of rooms to chose from. Ashi came to a conclusion about herself: She was an idiot.
It wasn’t just the thought of dying. By the customs of her people, if a man bested a woman in combat, the woman was bound by the law to give herself to him. The same was true for men. The ancient law ensured that strength was added the bloodlines of her people. Intelligence came to them from this law as well because losing through trickery was not considered a reason to invalidate the fight. For years, the young woman had avoided that aspect of her culture by never going beyond street fights, but with trained fighters there was a very real possibility she could lose.
Shaking out of the unsettling thoughts, Ashi paused at a t-section. Left or right? Up until now, the lavender-eyed woman had been depending on her instincts to guide her. In all her life, they had never once led her to a wrong choice. Taking a deep breath, she searched her feelings. Right. Definitely right.
Using the shadows to hid her passage, Ashi moved down the long hall. A sudden piercing pain gripped her entire body as she passed a closed door. With the pain came the knowledge that one of her Brothers was on the other side. Finding the door unlocked, the female fighter slipped inside, letting her eyes adjust to the dark.
Stray beams of moonlight streamed across the bed revealing two figures huddled there. The amount of hair falling off the bed told her at least one of the people was Duo. Slowly approaching the pair, Ashi had to stop a hiss of rage. Duo’s face was tear stained, his wrists were tied, and another man had his arms wrapped possessively around his waist. Forcing the anger aside, she carefully placed a hand over Duo’s mouth and gently shook him.
Violet eyes flew open, but he made no attempt at speaking; that alone was shocking. Removing her hand, Ashi drew her dagger and tried to cut the ropes imprisoning her Brother. Not a single strand broke; enchanted rope, he was bound with enchanted rope! Could things get any worse?
Shaking her head, Ashi began to back away from the bed. They’d have to figure something else out. Just as she started to stand a rough hand grabbed a fistful of hair and pulled her onto the bed over Duo. Ashi found herself staring into very angry cobalt blue eyes.
"And where do you think you’re going?" The man’s voice growled. Before she could respond, Duo launched himself at the man and broke his grip. Never one to waste an opportunity, Ashi got as far from the bed as possible. Duo was trying to keep the older man on the bed while motioning for her to run. The lack of speech suddenly hit the young woman, as did the fact that both men were naked. What had they done to Duo?
The taller man finally managed to dislodge the longhaired prisoner and he started toward her.
"Put some clothes on," she ordered and slipped out the door. The man’s roar of rage must have been heard three countries. Cursing her inability to keep her mouth closed, Ashi ran down the hall.
She’d only gotten a short way when a door in front of her opened and she ran into a tall blond, nearly knocking him over. The man calmly grabbed her upper arms.
"What have we here?" the blond’s baritone echoed through the hall.
"Onna," an imperious, but very familiar voice came from the now open doorway. "Get the hell out of here!"
Ashi turned from the man holding her to find Wufei’s situation was just like Duo’s; he was completely naked and tied to a bed. The suppressed fury from before wrapped its way around her consciousness and without even turning to face her captor, Ashi brought her knee up as hard as possible.
"You don’t have anything," she growled to the now kneeling man and continued down the hall. They would all pay for what happened to her Brothers. Worry for Quatre danced at edges of her mind and her instincts screamed for her to stop at the next door and almost against her will she did. It opened to reveal a tall slender man wearing no shirt and a whip at his hip. Behind him, she could see Quatre, looking more afraid than she’d ever seen him. Not waiting to see more, the young woman continued to run, now chased by three men.
At an intersection, Ashi trusted her instincts and made a quick left. For the first time in her life, that perfect instinct seemed to be wrong. Ashi found the hallway lead straight to the Throne Room and it was occupied. A very large man with split eyebrows looked up from the middle of the room as she burst in.
Trying to stop and turn at the same time, Ashi found to her horror that the floor had been waxed; losing her balance Ashi slid across the floor cursing whoever had done the waxing and promising him or her a slow death. With a solid thud, the young woman collided with the man’s legs, but somehow didn’t knock him over. She looked up. Startled lavender eyes met warm cornflower blues. The three men chasing her stopped dead at the doorway and viewed the sight before them.
Treize then made three mistakes. First, he saw a young woman and thought: helpless. Second, he began to reach for her, and lastly, the great King made no effort to guard himself. Ashi knew who the half-naked man was and now knew who the three chasing her were. These four men had stolen everything she ever valued. Curling her right hand into a fist, Ashi put all her anger, pain, strength and weight into it and punched King Treize, ruler of most of the known world, feared fighter and strategist, right between the legs. She actually managed to lift him and inch off his feet.
As the older man collapsed, Ashi scrambled around him and ran out the only unguarded door, leaving one groaning victim and three very sympathetic, not to mention shocked, fighters behind. As the three men ran to their King, he ordered them to go after his assailant, but to bring her back alive.
The young woman ran without any set direction in mind. Her instincts completely failed her and she had no idea which way to turn. Eventually, she turned into a dead-end. The only way out was through a door to a Guard Tower. Footsteps from behind warned against choosing to go back. Taking a deep breath, she chose the only option open to her, the Tower.
Quickly locking the door, Ashi hoped it would buy her enough time to find a way out of this mess. Unfortunately, the Tower guard began to come down the steps. She reached for her dagger and found it had been lost somewhere alone the way.
‘You’re getting soft, idiot,’ she silently chided. Luckily, the guard wasn’t very well trained and he was unconscious shortly after reaching her. Halfway up the stairs the door behind her shattered. Not bothering to look back, she raced for the top. As she closed and locked the door leading outside, Ashi could swear she felt the hot breath of her pursuers on her neck.
Looking around, the tired woman found no way out. Nothing was close enough to jump onto and no vines grew this high. Jumping off meant certain death.
"I really hate my luck sometimes," she grumbled. The door groaned as something started to hit the wood and it cracked in places.
The sounds of cracking wood were soon replaced by three very angry faces. Swallowing hard, Ashi backed up until she hit the edge of the tower wall. Only a few more inches and she would fall over.
A very refined voice, filled with a good measure of pain, spoke from beyond the men and the King stepped onto the Tower.
"Come my dear. You have no place left to go."
Glaring for all she was worth, Ashi accepted the statement. It was true but also a lie. She had a place to go, if she had the courage for it. Summoning up all the strength she had left, Ashi got ready.
"I am not your dear and I do have a place to go." In one last act of defiance, Ashi turned slightly and slapped her rear saying, "Kiss it, Kingy!" Then she threw herself backwards and off the Tower. A hiss of sound came to her ears just as something encircled her ankle. A harsh jerk wrenched her right leg, tearing muscles and tendons and then she was pulled back from the edge with Trowa’s whip firmly gripping her right ankle. Not having anything to break her fall, the young woman hit the hard stone headfirst.
In her fading consciousness, she was aware of the Generals gathering around her and Trowa using the whip to tie her arms. It was over. Then there was nothing but darkness.
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