Started: March 8, 2001 Finished: March 12, 2001 Disclaimer: *bounce, bounce* The G-boys don't belong to me... *bounce* they are property of Bandai... *bounce* and others...! *bounce* Duo: You're messing up the bed, Shamera! Stop jumping!! *pouts* ^^;; 1+2/2+1. ^_^!! Don't you just love those two? Should know warnings by NOW... Comments and criticism very welcome! Flames used for marshmellows. Imminent Fate, part 13 Shamera sitafire@hotmail.com There was a beep on the intercom. "Treize-sama, you have a line from 'Daejin'. Should I connect him on for you?" Treize leaned over from the chair he was sitting on and pressed the buttom on his speaker. "No. Tell him to come up here directly." "Yes, sir." Lady Une replied, and then cut off the communcation. Treize leaned back into his chair again, eyes focusing on the shadow on his room. "I'll take it that you failed, Zechs." In the far corner of the room, Zechs stood up. "No, sir. We got through to Elysian and communicated with the alicorn." "Ah." The ginger-haired man lay his elbows on the armrests of the chair. "So it was an alicorn after all." "Yes, sir." There was a silence brought by the footsteps outside the door, and then a dark young man came in, quietly opening and shutting the doors as opposed to the violent manner of which he looked. Treize smiled faintly and addressed, "Daejin?" "Yes, Treize-sama," the man said as he turned. He had dark skin and deep black eyes. His shaggy hair was the only color on him, for it looked to be a light brown. "My name is Kouji, m'Lord." Treize waved a hand. "Sit. We will talk." Kougi eyed Zechs warily, but slinked over the the chair that Treize had waved at. "Do Daejin always sent children?" Treize asked. "Only children can survive this earth." Kouji explained. "Adults cannot walk on the ground which they see as a beauty. They'll die." "I understand." Treize waited for the child to say what he was supposed to. The demon was rather uncomfortable around these settings. "Sir, that information that was sent to us...." he figetted. "We have the key." "Information?" Treize asked. Zechs interrupted, "As soon as the Holy Fire was put out, the Delos' started immediantly on a connection to Daejin to inform the Demons of the information that they had learned." "Indeed." Treize sighed. "Am I the last the know of this?" "We thought you were the one who wanted the information!" Kouji cried, eyes wide. "We didn't know..." "It's quite alright, little one. This only means that we're ahead of scheduale. No harm done." Treize turned from the young demon to Zechs. "When did you give them this information?" "Just a day ago, sir." Zechs replied, his mask hiding anything that he was trying to express. "They worked very fast, sir." Treize nodded. "Can you tell me what the information was and what 'key' you were talking about, Kouji?" Kouji nodded eagerly. "A day ago, we were sent a message about someone having stolen a banished Angel and that may have been the cause for all the chaos in Elysian. The Elders started to work immediantly. "A few hours later, someone from the history department reported that were was a ten year gap in the time that everyone forgot about. They, of course, were talking about the Conosere Battle. There's a very big possibility that it was where the banished Angel ended up. It's out biggest lead by far. Since the Angels do not check more than their own ranks every 2 thousand years, the timing's about right." "The Battle of Conosere..." Treize whispered, eyes darkening at the mention of the bloody war. "Yes, there's a very big possibility. There were many who were lost in the battle, yes?" "Yes. The Elders decided, after reaching 135 deaths, that they couldn't wait for the Angels to figure this out. They chanced it and took a time key from the Barriers." Kouji held up a small, metal key as proof. "They told me to get this to you and that you would know what to do with it." A time key. Treize had never seen one before, let alone operated one. How was he supposed to know what to do with it? Treize accepted the key that Kouji handed to him, fingering it and tracing lines over the rough edges. He narrowed his eyes as he felt small pulsebeats comeing from it. "This is a time key?" "Yes. If you don't know how to use it, all you have to do is find some sort of history book or so and place the key inside the book. There should be a time portal appearing within a minute or so." Kouji nodded to himself, confirming what he had said with his thoughts. "But the difficult thing would be to find a book that records the ten lost years. It won't be in any sort of history book. That's what you're going to have to do by yourself." "Aa." Treize continued to finger the key for a few more moments, then waved a hand to dismiss Kouji. "Thank you. I think I have a idea on what to do. You can go back to your family now." Kouji bowed in thanks and backed up two steps, then shimmered and disappeared into the air. Pointing the end of the key at Zechs, Treize asked calmly, "Do you think that you can get the Gundam pilots to trust you again? We might need their help with this." Zechs did not comment. <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> "I don't understand," Quatre was saying. "The entire family of the Delos were witches? I thought there were no such thing." "I don't know." Duo shrugged. "They said that they couldn't really do a lot of things other than the Holy Fire. Personally, I think that they *don't* like doing what they're able to. Diana certainly seemed aggitated enough about the thought of having to make a Holy Fire. She even seemed angry about it to an extent. All of them did." "Then why did they do that?" Wufei asked from where he was sitting on a chair that had been pulled into the group, voice irritated. He was glaring about Heero while his lips had been set into a grim line. "They said something about their duty." Duo said in a monotone. He was tired, and was still slightly cold. Although he had been warm when he slept with Heero yesterday, (and no, he wasn't ashamed about that) Duo felt as if he could still use a few more hours of just lying on the bed, whether he was asleep or not. But tomorrow would be Monday, and school started again tomorrow. Not that he was going to go tomorrow, tests go screw themselves... Quatre was sitting next to Trowa, frowning. The blond boy at the moment looked too much like Diana for Duo's tastes. Or was it the other way around? He really didn't want to think about it at the moment. But he was sure that he would freak out if one day Quatre decided to dress up as a witch for Halloween. Lucky for him, he knew that Quatre wasn't so cruel... The Delos' was another matter.... "But another matter was that I was stupid enough to go in the fire like they asked." Duo shuddered at the memory, then offered a shaky grin. "I kinda thought that the fire was safe since I touched it and it didn't burn me." "You went in the fire?" Quatre deadpanned. The others weren't better off, including Heero. Duo laughed nervously, scratching the back of his head. "Well, yeah, something like that." Damn, he couldn't lie here. "I guess it was a spur of the moment thing... and I've learned never to do that again!" "That doesn't explain why your arm is in a sling." Wufei pointed out. "Or what happened after the fire." Trowa nodded, making a muffled sound of agreement. "Well." Duo's eyes searched out for Heero's pleadingly, as if asking the other boy to do something to take him off the spotlight. No help there. Duo wrinkled his nose at Heero, and turned back to the others. "You heard how I talked to you about how they called upon a creature from the Angel World using the Holy Fire." "You said Guardian, Duo." Trowa pointed out gently. "Yeah. Guardian." With a deep sigh, Duo shifted his position on the couch, and carefully rearranged the bandages to his arm sling, fingers fidelling with the linen. "The fire was to call your Guardian." He considered his next few sentences thoughtfully. *Guess what, guys, my Guardian just happens to be an alicorn! Isn't that awsome?* "The fire called Duo's alicorn." Heero spoke impassively. Duo slumped in relief, giving Heero a wink and a smile. "Say what?" Quatre said. Duo looked innocently at the blond boy, but was rewarded with a slightly annoyed look that told Duo that if Quatre could give looks like that also, there was no use trying to fool him. "You have an alicorn, Duo?" Even Wufei seemed slightly concerned. Duo blinked, then cringed back. "Hey! There's nothing wrong with that!" he defended himself. The others didn't look convinced. "I don't think that you should believe everything that Zechs said," Duo huffed. "Personally, I don't see anything wrong with an alicorn. In fact, I got to meet her!" Trowa raised an eyebrow, which pretty much summed up all the emotion in the room. "Well, okay," Duo conceeded. "She's the one who gave me the shoulder wound I have, but that was only to help me!" The curiousity in the room only continued to raise. After a few moments of realizing that this was going to be a very complicated story that he needed to tell from the beginning, Duo sighed. And in the next half hour, he told of all the times he could remember coming to be with NightMare, and how she was always there after a tragic event. Not that he would tell them the events. He just told them of how she was there. So he also ended up telling them about how he had been changed by the fire, and left out the parts with Heero, as he saw the other boy shifting uncomfortablely in the couch. Oooh, he was going to have to resolve this later. "So you're saying that she came and you passed out?" Wufei asked. Duo turned red. "Hey, if you were loosing as much blood as I was..." He warned Wufei. "It wasn't as if I could stay awake for long, anyway!" "So you don't know what happened?" Quatre asked. "I do." They all looked at Heero. The said boy in question was looking rather thoughtful. Yes, he still had an expressionless mask on, but by now all the others could sort of see through that. Heero looked like he had given a lot of thought about this. "She said that the Angels already knew what was going on." Heero explained. "Said that all this was because of an banished Angel that they lost. The Delos' were upset when she said that." The waited for more. A few minutes later, they realized that this was all that went on while Duo had been unconcious. So much for a detailed version of the story. "But if the Angels already knew about it, why aren't they doing some- thing about this?" Quatre asked, his voice full of worry. He had also seen the same things that Duo had seen, just to a certain extent. He had seen those creatures, and had seen them die. Seeking out Trowa's hand, Quatre allowed himself to slump back tiredly. He didn't want to deal with this. After getting back from his home colony, he had a lot to think about, and he didn't want to have to deal with some- thing like this when he was already so stressed. When they were all already so stressed. "I don't know." Duo said softly. He was looking over at Heero, who in turn, was looking back at Duo. "I just heard about this right now." Heero turned his gaze on to a nearby wall. "Could it be that the Angels can't do anything about it? Or that they don't want to do anything about it?" Duo asked. No one said a word for a long while. <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> The time key. Zechs could feel the heat that the metal was giving off even through the thick pouch on his side. He had taken off the mask so that he could walk freely among civilians without them having to stare at him in discomfort. As much as he wanted to hide himself, he didn't like that feeling. It made him feel like an outcast and that he would never be able to fit in. So here he was. Without his mask, and outside the door to the small house that the Gundam pilots were currantly staying in. He still remembered the first time he had been there, and how he had been so nervous up to the point that he was scared- to directly face _all_ the Gundam pilots alone. Facing one or two he could take, but if they had not listened to him, he would have been facing all of them. Alone. Now... now he wasn't scared. He had the certainty that they were not going to be able to harm him. But he was worried. He had known about the Holy Fire. He knew they were going to ask him about that, and he still needed their trust into doing things. If the Angels were not going to help out, then they had to take the situation into their own hands. Checking himself mentally, Zechs pressed on the doorbell. He would not be downed by mere children. Just because he needed their help didn't mean too much to him. It was Treize that requested him to do this. Besides, he didn't want to go back to the Battle of Conosere. This time it was 04 who answered the door. The seagreen eyes narrowed suspiciously. Holding up the pouch and making sure that the boy before him couldn't see anything inside it, Zechs pointedly raised an eyebrow. "I have something that you might be able to find use for." And he watched 04's eyes follow the bag and widen at the sight of something magical inside. The boy would be able to see just how powerful a magic makes the time key. He would make sure that they all saw. He might need their help with whatever was happening, but it didn't mean that all of a sudden they weren't enemies. Ohh, no. He only needed their help for a little while, afterall. Besides, the treaty didn't last too long. End part 13. Oh, and sorry this took forever. I started this part about 10 times, and deleted it thinking that I was going too slow. So I went straight to the time key. I guess it didn't come out as well I thought it might. >_< Man! I hope I'm not getting writers' block at this point in the story!! It's injustice, I tell you!