Started: February 28, 2001 Finished: February 28, 2001 Disclaimers: Yes! *slams open door* I'm hooooome! *wince* I'm so sooooore!!! It is soooo not fun dancing with high heels. Of course, I went on the floor for 4 hours without the heels, then I was stupid enough to dance with them on in the last dance. Damn! I guess all that pain was worth seeing Heero and Duo do some *extremely* dirty dancing, though. ^_~ What I get as babysitter. 1+2/2+1 Just a lil' stronger. ^_~ Because of part 8. AU, fantasy. Yes, I do think this is turning into an epic fic.. not what I expected.. ^^;; Imminent Fate, part 9 Shamera sitafire@hotmail.com Perhaps it was the talk with Heero that really got Duo into thinking. He hadn't seen any more of the Demons since they had talked with Zechs, but he was sure that it was only temporary. He had to stop those deaths somehow. Duo Maxwell was not going to let more innocents die if he could do something about it. And so here to was in the library, looking through books of mythical creatures or unicorns and dragons... shifting through the heavy albums and gently dusking the leather-bound covers. It was such an old place, this library. One would think when they got inside that they could find anything they needed on the Comm Net. But he could never get the straight facts and information if he didn't go physically looking for it. All that the Net had about creatures of long-gone imaginations were just enough for a child to do a report on mythology. Duo didn't want a report on mythology. Everything that he had read through didn't shed any light at all to what Zechs had said. They barely mentioned alicorns, and when it did, was said that those creatures were a combination of a unicorn and a pegasus. This was so frustrating! The Greek mythologies all said that they appeared to help a hero carry out the task that his destiny assigned. _Who would have called an alicorn NightMare, either?_ He thought soberly as he carefully carried the large books to a forelorn corner where no one would bother him. _But then, that's just me._ Taking a quick glance around him to make sure there was no one around (well, there was only about two people there anyway), Duo stiffled a yawn. It was nine at night, yet he felt like it was past midnight. It must have been the musky scents of the old books. Time was beginning to feel very surreal. He could almost believe anything that he read in here, he was that drawsy. Setting the blood-red book down on the table, Duo resisted the urge to run his hand over the covers again. The lights were dim were he was sitting, and there were fake torches on the walls to add into the medieval effect. The corners of his lips lifted upward as he pulled out a chair and sat down on it himself. This was relaxing... it wasn't the kind of relaxing where he could fall asleep anytime soon, but the kind there you sit on a pourch on a sunny day and started reading to your heart's content. This book had to be his last hope. He was retiring to his bed after this if he couldn't find any information on Angels and alicorns. He had already gone through tens of books and was wondering whether he would ever find proof other than his gut instinct and his memories before they had to face whatever it was to get through to the Angels. Zechs still hadn't told them what to do except for waiting. That was one of the main reasons Duo had an unpleasent feeling down in his stomach. He needed to know what they were all supposed to do in order to prepare for it- physically and mentally. Wufei was probably meditating about it rather than sleeping at home, while the others did their daily routines and tried to keep in their nervousness when the room got silent. That was why Duo had tried extra hard the last few days to be loud and noisy- he could tell the others appreciated it this time. But he himself didn't know how to prepare for whatever was coming up. He didn't want to go in unprepared... especially when he had so much oppertunity to be prepared. Duo carefully opened the book, taking extra care with the thick yellow pages that looked like it had been soaked with water at one point and dried out in the sun. The pictures in there were amazing, the fiction story holding something adventurous and exciting just at the mere glance. Duo took it all in an instant, mouth hanging slightly open as he saw beautiful Renaissance pictures that littered the boxed. There were pictures of winged people holding spears, posing high in the sky as they faced some unseen force that was presented only be smudges in the painting. There were people littering the ground, wringing their hands and holding crying babes, turning their eyes downcast away from the heavenly figures and preying to the dark winged ones that were below them. He felt a jolt of electricity run up his spine. His violet orbs scanned the page briefly as they settled back on the pictures. Gently turning a page, he was greeted by even more pictures of gloom and war. And again, the winged ones were fighting nothing but smudges on the painting. After about ten pages of this, Duo turned back to the first page, with some pieces of the puzzle in his grasp. It was a history, as far as he could tell. A fictacious one about ten missing years in history that no one knew about during the Medieval times, when the Black Death struck fear into the hearts of everyone and no one even bothered to count the deaths anymore. In the beginning of those ten years, creatures of all sorts of the imagination had started to appear around the small towns. Then the demons started coming, causing much chaos and panic because of the beliefs in Christianity. The demons on Earth were forced to hide for their lives, being that they would get killed as soon as seen by the humans. It was only two years later that a demon had saved a group of small children that had been the only survivers to a massacure. Those children, ranging between the age of babes and journeymen, had been scared at first, but after weeks of decent caring from the demons whom they had once shunned, they decided that those demons were the only things standing between themselves and death. It was only then and five years after the first appearance of the creatures did that small village rebuild itself on the hands of trusting children and under the eyes of knowing dead. It was a year later when the children grew to adults and learned the story of Guardian Angels that were watching over them, just like the bible had told them. Except now, they knew not to trust the religions that had been set up since way before they were born and to see things with their own eyes before believing. That proved to be their downfall. Taking a deep breath, Duo drew a finger across a line of blood that had been drawn into the painting- a line that showed which side either was fighting for. With the Angels in the air, and the humans reaching up yet looking downcast, at first glance it would almost look like the children in the scene were neglecting the Angels and looking to the demons to help them. How curious. Chewing on his lower lip, Duo flipped back to where he had left off. The story of how shadow creatures had followed the demons and how the humans lost hope once the deadly plegue hit them. All the precious dreams the village had as children were lost as they died one by one, no longer believing in a Guardian Angel to look after them. It was then that the shadow creatures hit, swarming and overwhelming the demons and taking sancuary in the former havens of the villagers. There was a great war between the demons and the shadow ones, the demons doing their very best to protect the villagers and cursing the Angels for not doing their jobs. Duo flipped a few pages, skipping over many grusome battle scenes, where the dark-winged demons were in Holy War with the blurrs on the other side of the bloody line. A line to seperate life and death as could be told with the many dying plants and flora life in the background. Finally coming to a rest at the end of the bloody pictures, he took in the new ones with a mild disgust. There were pictures of the same children that had been in the beginning, now complete adults and mourning over the deaths of all the demons that surrounded their village. He read the pages after that, hearing about the one Angel that had broken through the barrier and landed on the Earth as punishment. She had led an army of Angels into the physical realm, battling back at the cost of her freedom. After having done that, she was stripped of most of her Angelic powers and was forced to walk to Earth till the end of time, until she found what she had done wrong and amended for it. Immortal and in eternal grief, she disappeared from the face of the Earth, appearing only at the most desperate times and never regretting the fact that she had been able to help. It was said that she was usually accompanied by a midnight alicorn, black as Death itself, and often talking to that alicorn. With that, Duo closed the book gently, ignoring the rest of the contents in the book and got up, carrying the book to put back onto the shelf where he got it from. About five minutes later, he left the library and didn't look back. <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> "An alicorn?" "I never would have thought it myself, sir." Treize sat back into his chair, fingers on his chin as he rested his elbow onto the armrest. "Are you sure? This is something we have to be absolutely sure of, Zechs." "I'm sure. At first I thought the eyes were a coincidence, then the Yuy boy started asking about alicorns. Something else that I had dismissed until I thought back to it. Although seeing that the others were surprised to hear pilot 01 mention it, I will have to look further into it." Treize nodded. "You do that. If there's a unicorn in our midst, then we might have a very easy chance at contacting the Angels. The Witches refusing to help us might not be that big of a setback after all. But make sure, as I said. Only an alicorn will appear if we do this. If an Angel appears, we will have killed a Holy being." "Aa. Have the Old Ones agreed to help us yet?" Treize hesitated. "No. Not yet. My patience is running out for them. They are ignorant and have not understood the severity of the situation yet. I will inform them of what you have discovered. Perhaps now that they know we might have an alicorn to side with us, they will join us." "And if they don't? Maybe they do not want to be involved in such a thing as this." "Don't be silly. They are the decendents of Hecate. They are destined to be involved, no matter if they want to or not and no matter the side that they take." "You believe that they will be swayed to help us because of one touched by Elysian?" One side of Treize's mouth curved up. "Yes. They have no choice in that matter. They have to be involved in a case of one changed by Elysian." "Aa." Zechs remained quiet, his mask hiding whatever expression was on his face- and more specifically, in his eyes. Treized eyed the blonde pilot for a moment, then nodded in apparent satisfaction. He waved a gloved hand to signal the end of the discussion. "I will ask the Delos' one last time. We will either have to work with them, or," he frowned a bit, "against them." Zechs dipped his head in understanding, and turned to leave the room, a sharp click of the heels being the only sound in the room. As Treize heard the door close behind Zechs, he lifted a wine glass to his lips and drank as much as he could without seeming to do so. "An alicorn," he murmured to himself after he swallowed, his voice husky as the alcohol slowly took effect. "This way, we'll be able to contact the Angels faster. We'll be able to end all the lost souls. "That should be a good thing. That alicorn will help us. There will be no more souls lost if I can help it." He took another drink, finishing the cup. Closing his eyes and leaning his head into the back of his chair, Treize muttered, "Damn." In a sudden movement, he threw the wine glass at a wall, unflinching as the glass shattered into a million pieces and fell to the ground, the peices shinning in the dim light of the room, like fallen diamonds that were waiting to be claimed. He placed his fingers on his temple, rubbing softly and grimacing in a mental sort of pain. "Damn." <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> Violet eyes. Duo had violet eyes. Artemis Delos scowled as she hung up the phone. That damned Kushenada. Why couldn't he leave her family well enough alone? And to dare accuse one of her friends as being touched by Elysian. It wasn't as if violet eyes auto- matically meant that you had been changed. There were people who had violet as a natural eye color. It didn't mean anything. But the fact that Duo had seen the demon... had actually seen the *form*, when even Diana could barely identify what world it had been from... it meant something. Something that Artemis didn't want to admit about her friends. She wanted to leave that life long behind her. She didn't want to be Artemis. But DAMN.... Duo had violet eyes. End part 9. Wai!!! *goes goo-y eyed* thanks to everyone who responded to this fic!!! I've been very, very sick for the past week- even if it didn't cover the week before that. I'm sorry!! It's my fault, I went dancing and came back at 1 in the morning, and IT WAS RAINING. I could barely go to school, let alone write. I'm very, very sorry!!!! Anyway, this plot is going VERY deep. Where as I was introducing things before, now I'm actually *getting* to the point! ^_^ Please be patient as the story unfolds. I'm trying to spin a thick quilt here. Again, THANK YOU for everyone who responded! I had been discouraged and just going through the net _reading_ when I saw the responses. Then I started writing and didn't stop until now.