The Faithful and the Brave Part 12
Heero wobbled once, but stabilized after a moment and took a limping step toward the door. He couldn't help a last look at Odin's body, though.
Duo came up beside him and snuck under his arm to support him, gently guiding him out. "Not regretting it, I hope."
He was silent for a moment. "He was an amoral mercenary. But he took care of his men."
"Yeah, well... he was a mercenary, way longer than any of us was. He knew better than we did that your ally today could be your enemy tomorrow."
Wufei escorted them to a room down the hall while Trowa and Quatre stayed behind to move the bodies of the three felled guards outside the room within. There were still obvious signs of a fight on the floor, but at least it would not attract immediate attention from afar. When they were finished there, they would take care of the two guards left behind at the entrance to the guest wing.
The unoccupied guest suites were locked, but Duo transferred care of Heero to Wufei and bent to make that a non-issue.
"I'm no healer," Wufei observed, taking the opportunity to study Heero's chakras with the skills he learned alongside the monk's bare-handed fighting style. "But I can help get your energy flowing again while we wait."
Heero nodded and uttered his thanks even as Duo straightened and opened the door with a cautious peek inside to make sure the room was clear before opening it all the way. Heero limped past him, then paused and turned and swayed, to be steadied by a quick touch from Wufei. "Forgive me, I've been remiss... Are you unharmed, Duo?"
Duo blinked, then shook himself back to attention. "Yeah. A few scratches, is all." Or close enough, anyway. He urged Heero inside with a gesture and a tiny smile. Heero's time as a sellsword had loosened his formality a good deal, but he had his lapses, and it usually said something about his mood when he did.
Heero complied, and Wufei closed the door behind them. "You fought admirably. Against such odds." He surveyed the room for a moment, a bit disoriented by the fact that it looked almost exactly the same as Princess Relena's former suite, but without the signs of battle. He pulled a chair out at the table and dropped wearily into it. "I regret I could not offer you more assistance."
"You had your hands kinda full." Duo leaned on the table next to him. The table was heavy, oak, and did not move. "Things weren't so bad after we maneuvered ourselves into a defensible position."
"Ah, that reminds me..." Heero punched him lightly in the thigh.
"Hey!" Judging from Heero's wry and somewhat withering look, he could guess what this was about. "What? It's not like I could have said, 'Hey, remember that time at the Sand Rat Sietch?' Odin was there at the Sand Rat Sietch! And anywhere else I could have referenced! He woulda known exactly what I was suggesting."
"Surely there was another way..."
"Hey, I had my hands kinda full, too. I did my best."
"Do I want to know?" Wufei asked, taking up a position behind Heero and placing his hands on Heero's shoulders.
"No," Heero answered with a slight wince. Wufei's work felt like something untwisting slowly inside him -- ultimately good, but not without protest.
Duo crossed his arms in mock-defense. "Well, it worked, didn't it? Hm. Actually, a lot faster than I expected. How'd that happen, anyway?"
Heero suppressed a flinch as an energy flow wrenched itself back into place. It was not a reflection of Wufei's skill so much as one of Odin's skill. "As irreverent as you can be at the best of times... and the worst of times... I knew you would not say something so completely out of line without reason."
"Oh." Duo thought on that for a moment and decided he was pleased.
"And it seems your suspicions about the Cardinal were correct."
"Yeah. So it seems. Though I guess we don't actually know if he has anything to do with the Stone. Just the Princess. But I'd hate to think there were two separate highly placed corrupt officials in the Church. That's pushing things a bit, even for me."
"We came here because of the note you retrieved during our encounter with Kurt's men over the Stone. And this was a trap, set in the Princess' quarters. They must surely be related."
Quatre entered then, followed closely by Trowa. "As much as I would like to investigate this further, we're at risk if we stay here, and for no gain. It would seem the matter of Princess Relena has moved beyond our reach, and as for the Cardinal... Well, if he has decided to start playing politics, whether at the Church's behest or on his own, then I'm afraid attempting to silence us is no great crime. We must look after ourselves now."
"I don't think we'll be getting out the same way we got in," Trowa observed. "Not with the group of us, and not with these two looking as roughed up as they are."
"I don't think we should split up," Quatre said firmly. "The situation is too volatile. Duo?"
He chewed on his lip for a moment. "Well, first of all, you should probably patch up his leg," he proposed, gesturing at Heero.
"Oh, of course!" Quatre knelt beside Heero with a murmured apology as Wufei stepped back to let him do his work without interference. It took him less than half a minute to knit the edges of the wound together once he got down to it, leaving a regenerative spell to help Heero's body finish the job properly over time. Full cures were easily within his ability, but best practices were to disrupt the patient's natural processes as little as possible. A body could become weak if it became reliant upon outside forces for healing.
"Well, I snuck the two of us in, the right and proper way," Duo mused, ignoring Trowa's derisive snort. "And the rest of you aren't complete amateurs. I'm sure I can make it work."
~*~
Duo did make it work, and without undue struggle. Perhaps the guards posted around the area had been very effective in deterring anyone from coming near the ambush site, and yet they encountered no guards out of place re-directing traffic. It was the height of the dinner hour now, and perhaps that too played a part in the strange silence in the halls, broken only by a couple of stressed servants scurrying about their tasks. Duo took the time they saved not having to hide and turned it instead to scouting ahead, half convinced that they were about to march confidently into another ambush. But no such ambush materialized.
The halls gradually became more populated as they reached the lower level, and despite the greater challenge, Duo breathed a sigh of relief to leave behind that strange feeling that something was wrong. He got them past a pair of guards with a simple distraction, and then they were out of the main castle complex and onto the grounds.
The castle was no fortress. The main gate was one way in and out of the castle, but there were others. Duo had explored a bit earlier in the day, and led them now to an ill-frequented side gate. It was barred from the inside, and there were no guards posted outside, though there were two of them standing watch within as a formality. There was a large chapel on the grounds of the castle, and before the cathedral in the city of Lionel was built, cardinals of old had delivered their sermons to the faithful here, and those faithful had entered through this gate to save them the long trek from the main entrance. In keeping with the humility and penitence expected from the common born entering the keep, the gate was modest and unostentatious.
The chapel was empty this night, though the servants kept the candles faithfully lit for the denizens of the castle to come and pray. Or meet their lovers in secret. The guards were known to be willing to look the other way for a modest amount of gil, but Duo had no intentions of interacting with anyone long enough to bribe them tonight. Still, that reputation for laxity could only come in handy to them, and Duo left the others in the chapel while he snuck about to assess the situation.
They waited in tense silence for Duo to return. He was quick about his business. "Their replacements are late. They'll give them fifteen minutes, no more, before abandoning their post to go find out what the hold-up is."
"If those bodies have been found," Trowa mused quietly. "I would expect the alarm to be raised loud enough to reach all corners of the castle. And particularly all exits."
"They could be trying to keep a lid on things," Wufei countered. "Remember, the Cardinal has some political agenda now. Surely he would not wish to draw attention to himself and his household. The guards were his own; Odin, a man in his employ. It would not be difficult to cover."
Annoyance was plain on Quatre's face. "What does the Church have to gain by backing the Princess' claim? Or the Cardinal? He needs no favor from the throne. I cannot see it yet."
"Perhaps you're just not feeling depraved enough tonight. Whatever the reasoning, it can be nothing simple and mundane to warrant upsetting the balance of power like this."
"I fear you are right, Wufei."
"How hard do you think he'll work to cover us up?" Trowa asked, more to the point.
A grim silence fell over the group, and they waited out the watch without further conversation, a sort of vigil the chapel did not normally host. Duo kept an eye out for the departure of the guards, but before he sighted them, he came back to the others. "Does anyone else feel that?"
"A sense of dread?" Quatre responded almost immediately.
"Yeah... I think I felt the same thing up in the castle, on our way out... Stronger now, though. So it's not my imagination?"
Quatre frowned, concentrating. "I don't know... I can't sense a source."
"I feel it, too," Wufei confirmed. The others nodded their agreement.
"I can't wait to be out of here," Duo muttered.
"Now, now, gentlemen," a familiar voice said from the front of the chapel. "No need to rush."
They turned as one to see the Cardinal emerge from a poorly-lit corner that presumably led to offices behind the altar. They all tensed and came to their feet, but none of them drew weapon against the Church man. Fighting the Cardinal's guard was one thing, but this was the man himself.
Cardinal Tsuberov smiled pleasantly at them as he made his way into the light. "I think I would like to spend a moment talking with the mercenaries that managed to best both Ralph Kurt and Odin Lowe. Are you truly so powerful, or did they oversell their skills?"
They glanced uneasily amongst themselves. It was a bad sign that Tsuberov was not pretending innocence at all. "We came only to speak to Princess Relena, Your Grace," Quatre ventured bravely. "What happened with Odin was... unfortunate."
"Ah, the Princess Relena. Now that she has stepped up to take her rightful place, she will be remembered by history as a brave young lady, rising to lead her people in their time of need."
"Er, yes. That's what we came here to determine. We had some fear of Barton's men attempting to divert her from her destiny, but it seems you not only protected her, Your Grace, but guided her down her path. We can depart with a clear mind and conscience, then..." Quatre bowed respectfully, fully expecting his gambit to fail. Regardless, laying on the charm couldn't hurt their cause.
"Our business is not yet at an end." He paced slowly down the central aisle toward them. "In truth, I came here expecting to find the Taurus Stone in your possession, and yet it is not. Perhaps you left it with the engineers? How charming."
"The Stone is in our possession." Heero shivered as the Cardinal passed, but his words were calm and level. "How much is it worth to you?"
Cardinal Tsuberov laughed politely. "I cannot be fooled by your quaint little bluffs. The Stone is not here."
"But we know where it is hidden," Heero responded, unperturbed by being called out, but much more uneasy inside now that the man was standing between them and the door. There would be another exit in the offices, but that was an unknown at this time. "We can fetch it for you, for a small price."
"You risked much to come here to speak to the Princess, following some misguided notion of nobility. Such mercenary words now hardly have any credibility. And if they were merely words spoken in desperation, why, then they ill-befit your blood, young Heero."
His irritation manifested in the twist of his lips. He had made a point of distancing himself from his family name, yet it seemed to be doing him little good of late. "I have been told my notion of nobility ill-befits my blood as well."
"True. Too true, indeed. You are nothing like your brother. He would have kept the Stone for himself. As you should have. Did it not tempt you the least bit, to gain the upper hand over him?"
He frowned. "Of what use would he a Zodiac Stone?"
Tsuberov studied the lot of them for a moment before smiling once more, this one bordering on a sneer. "You think of them as mere religious relics. But the Stones hold power, power of which you are fully ignorant, I see. Had you known, would you have left the Stone behind, I wonder? Or would you even now be trying your luck against me? Perhaps you would challenge your brother for his place at the head of your father's former armies?"
"I have no desire for power."
"All men desire power. Think what such power could do for you. You could spread your absurd nobility across the land, make the world a 'better place' for bastards and princesses alike."
"Nor do I wish to change the world." Though in truth, he did not think he had the power to change the world. Or perhaps he had not the hubris. Perhaps whatever holy power there was in these ancient relics would be strong enough to rein in a man's tendencies to trample others in pursuit of his own aims, but that was for the likes of St. Ajora.
"Then you are an interesting aberration. One not much longer for this world, I'm afraid. In honor of your status, I shall show you the true power of the Zodiac Stones before you die."
~*~
Cardinal Tsuberov reached into his robes and once more pulled out the Scorpio Stone. Where it had once seemed lit from within by a gentle, holy light, the Stone pulsed now, and its blood-red light shining forth left the uncanny impression of the Cardinal having pulled a man's heart from his chest. He held it aloft for a moment and admired it before its light flared, and with it, that sense of dread blossomed into a gut-wrenching wave of terror that rooted each of them in place.
There was a shadow inside that ruby light, one that engulfed the Cardinal's body. It twisted and expanded in quick fits, and then it dispersed in a mad swirl and revealed the figure of a demon, gray-skinned like the revenants that haunted Zigolis Swamp, corpulent like it sucked the marrow from the bones of its enemies with relish. The sigil of the Scorpio Stone marked its great belly.
It laughed, and it was as if Death itself had come to mark them for the grave. "Tremble before the power that you have forsaken. I am Cúchulainn, and I shall end you."
Behind him, the doors to the chapel creaked open. A member of the castle guard stuck his head inside, and he immediately paled. "What the...?"
Duo recognized the man as one of the guards stationed at the old chapel gate. He tried to shout at him to flee, but the words stuck in his throat. Neither could he wave his arms in warning. Judging by the looks of the others, the paralysis held them all.
The second guard pushed the door open farther. "What are you on about...?" He stumbled as he saw just what the matter was. The door fell open, and they both tumbled inside.
The demon half-turned in their direction, and one of his heavy arms shot out, lengthening to cover the distance required to crush the two hapless guards against the other door. The force of it splintered the door and displaced the air violently enough to slam the first door shut.
The paralysis gripping them broke. They were all thrown off-balance by the suddeness of it, but as soon as Cúchulainn turned back in their direction, they immediately got themselves into a combat-ready state.
The demon struck out for the closest target, sending Duo diving with a yelp as an arm came speeding in his direction and took out a chunk of the benches where he had just been standing. Heero ran forward to counter, hoping to gain some advantage in the moment after the demon's attack, but it moved with alarming speed for a creature so large. Heero aborted his approach to avoid a swing of the demon's arm.
"You do impress me, I'll admit," Cúchulainn -- or was he still Tsuberov? -- said. "Or perhaps your willingness to defy your fate in the face of certain failure is nothing more than an animal's last desperate thrashing in the moments before its death."
A gout of flame tore through the air from Wufei's outstretched hand. It hit the demon square on, but once the flame dissipated, the demon remained. Smoke wisped off of him, the faintest tinge of pink where the flame hit turned quickly back to gray, and then all was as before. Cúchulainn stepped forward once, twice, then his arm lashed out again, aimed straight for the mage, but Quatre's spell of protection deflected the blow safely.
Heero was close enough to the arm's path that he lunged forward with his sword and gouged a long furrow with the tip of his sword down the length of that arm as it retracted. The speed with which the arm moved nearly tore the sword from his hand, but he fought to keep it steady, not even flinching when hot drops of demon blood splashed across his cheek. He normally would have paid it no heed, but after a few seconds, the skin beneath began to sting and tighten, and he wiped it off hastily with his sleeve, uninterested in finding out how bad it could get otherwise.
The demon growled in anger and drew his other arm back to attack, but Trowa was there to engage, his glaive slipping in gracefully past its defenses to slash at the demon's side. Cúchulainn leapt back quickly to regain the advantage of distance, but a little bomb chased him down, thrown with Duo's usual accuracy. The small explosion was more smoke and impact than anything else, but it drove Cúchulainn back an extra step, scattering a couple of benches in the process.
Heero pressed his attack again, but the demon proved that he could effectively engage in close quarters combat as well, although with arms that moved at merely mortal speeds. When Heero's advance was blocked by an errant bench, Duo leapt into the fray. He didn't stay long, his style wasn't well suited to holding his ground as Heero did, and when it was a smoother action to yield than block, he did, falling back out of the demon's immediate range.
Before Cúchulainn could give chase, icicles flew across his path. The demon slapped one aside, creating a shower of ice shards in Duo's direction. He ducked reflexively, arms up to shield his head, but the shards skittered harmlessly off one of Quatre's protective shields. A second icicle pierced the demon's side. Its tip could be seen poking out the other side, but the demon hardly seemed fazed by it, nor the dozen or so other wounds that had been inflicted upon it. Indeed, the demon seemed only angrier.
The air rippled out from around him, and in its wake came an even more intense dread than before, one that clenched their muscles tight enough to double them over, gasping painfully for breath that was difficult in coming. "Insects," he growled. "Worthless insects. You would dare to stand in the way of his resurrection?"
The sound of a wooden bench scraping harshly across the floor drew his attention. Heero was leaning heavily upon it, and though it shifted under his hand, he stumbled along with it, refusing to release his grim hold upon it as he fought the demon's debilitating attack and painfully straightened himself.
Cúchulainn casually slammed him against a stone pillar for his troubles, pinning him there with a hand around his throat, his feet off the ground. "Since you have forsaken your noble blood, you foolish boy, let me purge it from your veins."
Heero made a strangled sound as the wounds from his battle with Odin tore his flesh anew. His hands pried ineffectively at the limb holding him, his feet kicked at the air seeking leverage, but the demon merely smiled terrifyingly, and an inarticulate cry of pain forced its way out of Heero's constricted throat. It seemed suddenly as if fire ran through his veins, as if Cúchulainn intended to make good on his words by burning the noble blood out of him.
That cry helped Quatre break the demon's hold over him, and he called out his friend's name with worry even as he sagged against his staff, scanning the damage quickly to see what he could do. The others soon followed.
The demon began to turn at the sound of the battlecry behind him, but too late and Duo was upon him, leaping to bury his twin blades into the demon's flesh around his neck. Cúchulainn howled his outrage and spun, flinging Heero away to focus on the gnat clinging to his back. His arms reached awkwardly back as he attemped to dislodge Duo, their movements limited by his wounds. The mad dance swung Duo's legs against a bench, and then his shoulder glanced off of a pillar, and when the first opportunity arose, he braced his feet against the demon's broad back and jumped off, his knives tearing through trapezius muscles on their way out of the demon's body.
At the sound of approaching footsteps, Cúchulainn spun once more, arms already spooling out in attack, but they were slower now, more easily dodged, and no impediment to Trowa's charge. Once he sidestepped, twice, and when on the third strike Cúchulainn attacked with both arms to snare his opponent between them, he found his trap empty. He drew back his arms and searched with darting eyes. Intuition caught up with him too late as he looked upward and Trowa was already diving at him, a dragon stooping upon its prey, glaive pointed straight and true. The chapel's modestly vaulted ceilings capped the dragoon's full potential, but the height was more than sufficient to ram the spear through the demon's throat and out through his back, tip embedding deeply in the ground as Trowa flipped nimbly away.
Cúchulainn flailed for a few moments before going limp. There was a pregnant pause, and then their breath was stolen from them as the air seemed to condense around the demon's body. A flicker of pale light became a bright ruby glare that spread across the room and expanded the air with it, and when their vision cleared, there remained a mangled human corpse, the Cardinal's robes stained scarlet in way that had nothing to do with the crimson stone hanging in the air above it, once more emitting the soft glow they had seen the first time Tsuberov had revealed it. And then the light went out and the Scorpio stone fell, landing on the body and rolling off to the side in a slow, carefree motion.
"Heero!" Quatre cried once more, running to their fallen friend's side.
He lay where the demon had tossed him, still conscious enough to have observed the battle's ending. With an effort, he pushed himself over to lie flat on his back, just managing the feat as Quatre arrived.
"Don't move," the healer commanded sternly, cataloguing the injuries.
"Everyone?" Heero exhaled, his breathing shallow but steady. The fire in his veins had started to fade the moment the demon threw him aside, but his nerves still trembled from the memory of it.
The others took quick stock and agreed that there was nothing serious among them.
"Well, Quat?" Duo asked in turn. eyes roaming over Heero's form with some concern. "What do you think?"
"I think..." He paused for a moment to concentrate. His patient was battered, but he would mend. "...I had best resume my studies in Holy magic."
Heero's soft chuckle became a painful cough and earned him another reprimand.
TBC...
to whom it may concern, i apologize for representing the great hero cúchulainn as a corpulent and corrupt demon. it wasn't my idea. i didn't name the demon or design its appearance, and final fantasy, well, that's how it rolls.
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