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Kyuuketsuki Duo
Sanguis Draconis
Part II
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	Quatre had grown up on stories about the house that sat silently 
all by itself on the northern outskirts of town.  His nanny had insisted 
that there was something off about the house.  She never went so far as 
to believe that it was haunted, but she did believe that there was some 
powerful force that lay dormant there, and that it would be better for 
everyone if it stayed that way.

	Well, Quatre had found that she was more or less right.  That 
was sort of the reason why they had opted to gather in the quiet, sparse 
woods that encircled the grounds and acted as a buffer between the small 
estate and the rest of the world.

	Duo had left Quatre a simple little charm, keyed into Quatre's 
aural signature.  A few drops of blood and a tiny exertion of power 
would send a signal to Duo that his presence was requested.  Duo hadn't 
promised that he would show up, within a reasonable amount of time or at 
all, but he had guaranteed that he would at least get the message.  He 
had added, however, that if they wanted immediate attention -- and, 
incidentally, to seriously piss him off -- they could always just lob a 
fireball or two at his house.  That would get him there quite promptly.  
The underworld could go to hell for all he cared, but no one violated 
the sanctity of his home without suffering the consequences.

	Quatre didn't want to piss Duo off, but he did want the guardian 
to put in an appearance, and preferrably sometime soon, so he 
compromised and decided to invoke the charm near the house.  There had 
to be at least one alarm on the grounds that would alert Duo if power 
was being used in the vicinity.

	He pulled out his pocket-knife and did what he had to to send 
the page off into the ether, then whipped a small anti-bacterial 
band-aid out of another pocket and adhered it over his wound.  It was 
always good to be prepared.  And then after that, all that was left was 
to wait.

	Wufei sat with his back to one of the trees, jotting notes down 
on a pad by the light of the three-quarter moon.  He wouldn't admit it, 
but it was actually rather nice out tonight, and the clean, fresh air 
was conducive to productivity.  Trowa leaned calmly against another 
tree, staring peacefully into the night, until Quatre coerced him into 
playing travel Scrabble(tm) with Meiran and him.  Trowa was about to be 
crowned the winner of the first game when they were interrupted by a 
light cough.

	"I hope you didn't call me here just to play Scrabble."  The 
smooth baritone slid its way across the small clearing to their ears, 
and they each followed it back to its source to find a figure stepping 
forth from the shadows.

	The guardian hadn't changed at all.  Each of the others showed 
signs of time's passage from their high school years.  They fit their 
bodies with comfortable, adult proportions.  The freshness had faded 
from their faces, though their energy still showed through quite 
clearly.  Duo was the same as they remembered, from the heart-shaped 
face that held a pair of striking, piercing eyes, to the long, chestnut 
colored braid that hung over his shoulder, right down to the tips of his 
black boots.  His body had transcended time to this state of eternal 
youth, but the aura of age-old power and experience that he effortlessly 
exuded easily gave lie to the image.

	Quatre scrambled to his feet to give him a proper welcome.  
"Duo, I'm glad you could make it.  It's been a while.  How are you 
doing?"

	He shrugged carelessly.  "Well enough.  Was there something you 
wanted?"  He noted Quatre's expression, which was slightly taken back by 
the question that dove straight to the point, and with a mental sigh he 
backed up a few steps and smoothed down the rough spots in his mindset.  
It had been a while since he had last engaged in human pleasantry.  
"Sorry.  I'm glad to see you all looking well," he stated in a voice 
that attempted to convey an amiable interest, but fell just a little bit 
short of its goal.  He was out of practice.  He really was glad, 
especially when he looked at the impressions their auras left in the 
ether.  They had each come a long way in learning about themselves and 
their powers.  "I take it this isn't a dire emergency?"

	"Well, not a dire emergency, no, but certainly something 
important."

	Everyone's ideas of 'important' differed.  "I hate to be rude, 
Quatre, but is this going to take a while?  I'm sort of in the middle of 
something.  Well, not a 'right now' middle of something, but a big 
middle of something.  I can't really afford to take a detour."

	"Umm, oh.  Well, I guess we just had something we wanted to ask 
you."

	Wufei took a place beside him to speed up the conversation.  
"Duo," he started off with a respectful nod.  The guardian returned the 
gesture.  "We have each recently noticed a slight influx of Shinma, 
demons, and other creatures from the East.  Do you know anything about 
that?"

	"Hmmmm, that so?"  He shrugged, not particularly bothered by the 
news.  Nevertheless, he took half a thought to scan the ether.  "I have 
to admit, I haven't really noticed.  But like I said, I've been 
preoccupied with something else lately."

	"Might that have anything to do with what we've been observing?"

	"Possibly.  Things have been rather rocky in the East lately."

	"Isn't that outside your jurisdiction?" Quatre asked.

	"Normally, yeah, unless a big Eastern baddie comes along and 
stomps on some Western Shinma.  Demons are normally outside of my 
jurisdiction, too, but--"

	"A demon?" Wufei demanded with narrowed eyes.

	"Yeah.  They had to send someone along to express their 
disapproval, and I guess I got the short straw.  So right now I've been 
temporarily reassigned to... I'm not even sure what, annoy him or 
something, because I'm sure not going to be taking him out."

	"I don't suppose this demon goes by the name of 'Epyon'?"  He 
asked the question with the air of someone expecting a positive answer, 
but hoping for a negative.

	There was a sudden, slight shift in the air, during which it 
seemed as if Duo's eyes dropped a few shades of color, bringing the 
ambient temperature along with them.  The easy-going attitude had been 
replaced with something darker.  "How did you know that?"

	"We've met," he answered simply.

	"Ah, of course."  How delinquent of him not to have recognized 
it sooner.  He had scented Epyon once before in the flaming ruins of a 
home, although he had not laid eyes upon the creature, and that was 
still the case.  He spent far too much time being several steps behind 
the ambitious demon.  That one brief taste of the demon's aura would 
help him identify it again more readily, now that he had the past 
associated with the present.

	"We ran into the demon's bitch earlier today," Meiran spat out, 
raising several eyebrows.  There had been no interaction between the two 
of them that would cause such animosity.  The demoness had just managed 
to rub Meiran the wrong way with a single glance.

	"Lei Fang, no doubt.  I've not had the honor."  She was not the 
only minion of Epyon's, but the one most likely to inspire such a 
reaction and epithet.  Dorothy had told him of her.  The two had run 
into each other before, and did not get along at all.  From what Duo had 
heard, he could easily imagine the sparks that would fly between them.  
Haughty superiority and haughty superiority did not mix well together.

	"You are on Epyon's trail?" Wufei asked intently.  He had not 
expected to find such clear clues tonight.

	"I am.  He is a surprisingly elusive creature."  It might take a 
little work, but they would find him.  Nothing could elude the great 
hunter of the East and his protegé forever.

	"Take me with you."  It seemed that time had taught the boy 
little about diplomacy.

	To his slight surprise, Duo found himself considering the 
request seriously.  But what possible reason could he have to bring a 
human along with him?  No, more likely four humans.  Where Wufei went, 
Meiran would be sure to attend.  Quatre would follow as a concerned 
friend, and Trowa went where Quatre went.  So four humans, on what would 
likely be a trip to hell and back again.

	Duo's own human side desired the company.  He needed it.  The 
hunt had barely begun, and already he was feeling a little off-balance.  
Perhaps they could serve as an anchor.

	More dominant at the moment, his less human side offered 
opinions of a slightly more cynical turn.  What did he care if they 
perished or not?  If they got in his way, he could leave them behind.  
If they turned out to be capable of serving some purpose, then he would 
use them for all they were worth.  If they could not handle the rigors 
of the journey, then so be it.  If they had no idea what they were 
trying to get themselves into, then they would soon enough.

	"You wish to defeat him?" he asked, his voice coming off as 
somewhat bored.

	"Yes."

	"Then I will accomplish my task by leading a nemesis straight to 
him."  He did not know if Wufei would be able to defeat Epyon, or if he 
would merely be leading the boy to his doom, but either way, he would be 
sure to annoy the demon.

	"We're going with you."  Quatre's flat statement brooked no 
argument.  Following swiftly on its heels was a firm glare from Meiran 
to indicate her agreement of the sentiment.

	Wufei opened his mouth as if to protest, but the guardian 
preempted him.  "I expected no less."  He considered that to be the end 
of the matter and turned back to Wufei.  "Did you have a plan?"

	The man blinked before shoving the issue aside for the moment to 
answer Duo's question.  There would be time enough later to protest the 
arrangements.  He had not yet agreed to anything, after all.  "Of 
course.  You will help me find the demon, and then I will defeat it."

	The guardian allowed a loaded silence to stretch between them 
before he voiced his opinion.  "If that is the sum totality of your 
plan, then you will not be worth the trouble of bringing you along."  
Having no patience to listen to the boy's prideful protests, he 
continued right along over the incipient complaints.  "How will you 
defeat him?  The sheer force of your arrogance will not suffice."

	Quatre shot the ever-youthful one an odd look as Wufei sputtered 
indignantly.  The Duo of their acquaintance was not normally so cold.  
He had started out the night in a reasonably casual manner.  His 
expression had been more animated and his inflections less precise.  And 
then a switch had flipped, and it seemed the guardian had taken the 
place of their friend.  Curious.  They had seen the guardian before, but 
previously it had been tempered by something seemingly absent this 
night.

	Pondering the matter would have to wait.  Right now, he jumped 
into the fray before something regretful happened.  "Wufei, how did your 
ancestors defeat Epyon in the first place?"

	Throwing several last wary glances at the distant, unruffled 
face of the guardian, Wufei answered the question.  "They never defeated 
him, only sealed him away, with the assistance of Shenlong, our patron 
dragon spirit."

	"Can you invoke the assistance of Shenlong again?"

	"Shenlong's power is gathered in our ancestral sword.  I am not 
certain of how it compares to its power when it was first forged."

	"It is greatly weakened."  Duo's confident voice broke in quite 
unexpectedly.

	"You would presume to know?" he countered with a hint of a 
sneer.  He may have been lured into trusting the boy, but his initial 
dislike had reawakened and multiplied.

	"The power within still sleeps, no matter how much access you 
think you have to it.  You will not be able to defeat, or even seal, the 
demon with that."

	Once again, Quatre interrupted before Wufei could respond to the 
disdainful implications of weakness.  "I don't suppose Epyon has any 
outstanding weaknesses we can exploit?"

	"Do you really believe things like that exist in real life, 
Quatre?" Meiran asked, amused.

	He shrugged.  "Hey, you never know."

	"And maybe there's a prophecy written about us, too," Trowa 
volunteered with quiet humor.

	Quatre smiled briefly.  "Maybe.  So is it possible for us to 
awaken the power of the sword somehow?"

	"It is not the power of the sword," Wufei corrected, "but rather 
the power in the sword.  The spirit of Shenlong itself resides within.  
It is said that Shenlong gave up its flesh to watch over Epyon in this 
realm."

	He nodded as he assimilated that information.  "Alright.  If 
Shenlong is sleeping, then how do we wake it up?"

	"Maybe if we reconnected it with its source?" Meiran offered, 
drawing on the knowledge and experience she had gained over the years.  
"Maybe it's just been away from home for too long.  That would probably 
be the easiest way."  The only other thing she could think of off the 
top of her head would be to shove it into a direct conflict with its 
enemy in the hopes that it would suddenly wake with a burning thirst for 
defeating its ages-old rival.  Since there was no guarantee that that 
would work before one got oneself eviscerated, she wasn't about to 
suggest it.

	"That's a possibility.  Where is Shenlong from?  What sort of 
being is it?"  He directed the questions to the sword's master.

	"The sort that fights against evil demons like Epyon."

	Duo made a sound of disgust.  "You couldn't possibly still be in 
denial, Wufei."

	He bristled.  "What is that supposed to mean?"

	"You still believe every last demon is evil, do you not?"

	"To varying degrees, perhaps, but yes."

	"That would probably be because you only have to fight the evil 
ones.  You've never been to the demon realms."

	"Your point?"

	The boy's blindness was a weakness that he would have to 
rectify.  He really thought the boy would have realized it himself by 
now.  Ah well.  Better that he find out now than at some critical point 
in time.  "Epyon is known as the Black Dragon, is he not?"

	Wufei nodded guardedly.

	"Implying that he is a member of the dragon clan.  And of course 
you do not dispute that he is a demon as well.  But by your own 
admission, Shenlong is also a dragon, and a member of the dragon clan.  
So what do you suppose that makes Shenlong?"  He leveled a weighty stare 
at the boy until his eyes widened and his lips attempted to form 
denials.  Then, with a blink Duo looked away, satisfied that the boy had 
finally picked up on the obvious.

	"But...," Meiran started softly.  She had been raised alongside 
the Changs, nurtured upon the stories of the revered dragon spirit that 
was their benefactor.  "That can't be right.  The dragons aren't demons.  
They're... dragons."

	"'Demon' is a misleading term, as is 'hell'.  'Hell' is just a 
plane other than this one, and the 'demons' are just the beings that 
reside there.  The dragons occupy a corner of that plane."

	"Wait," Quatre spoke up.  "If we want to get Shenlong back to 
its home, then we have to go to the demon realms?"

	"Yes," Duo answered blandly.  "Is that a problem?"

_________________________________________
This piece of fiction is the intellectual 
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The basis for this fic, i.e. Gundam Wing, 
Kyuuketsuki Miyu, et al., is the property 
of someone else.  The author can be con-
tacted at jchew@myrealbox.com.  This has 
been an entirely automated message.
http://www.cs.hmc.edu/~jchew/misc/gw.html

last modified : 11/27/2002 02:03:24 PST