Lightening the Shadows

Part Fourteen

Chang was still in the same position when Meiran appeared again. There was a loud thump when she tossed a covered body at his feet.

“Here is your little toy, Chang. Now where is my reward?”

Maru smiled slightly. “Your reward? Why it is here, Meiran.” He pulled a small dart from beneath his jacket and flung it at the figure of his assassin.

Meiran gasped and toppled. “You…bastard…”

Just before her eyes closed for the last time she saw Maru step closer. “What’s wrong Meiran?” He chuckled. “I did promise you a reward that would lasu fou for the rest of your life.”

*****

Duo glared at his lead spy. “What have you got, Lady?”

Une gulped slightly. “There’s no trace of him, Lord. We have searched everywhere, and we can find nothing. It’s like he just disappeared.”

Amethyst eyes narrowed, and his voice was quiet and dangerous when he answered. “Disappeared? People do not just disappear unless I order it. Now. Find my slave, Lady, or you will not live to regret your failure.”

Lady Une nearly ran from the room, yelling for her informants.

“Why can’t you use the collar?”

Duo whirled on the new speaker, his hands raised to strike. Seeing who it was he lowered his hands back to his sides though his body was still tense. “The collar?”

Howard swallowed hard. The person who faced him now was not Duo but the cold hard featured Shinigami. He shivered and hastened to explain. “Wufei was wearing the collar wasn’t he? Can’t you uhat hat to track him?”

Duo lost some of his icy expression, and his eyes became thoughtful. “Yes, he was wearing the collar…”

Suddenly Duo dropped to his knees, an awful expression crossing his features. He cried out, the sound agonized, and then lost consciousness.

Howard stood stunned for a moment then ran for the door calling for Sally.

It didn’t take long for the prince to wake. When he did his eyes were cold and dead. Everyone in the room shuddered. The sound of his voice was like an arctic wind, any hint of warmth or compassion leeched from it by his terrible anger. “We go now. Ready the Shadow steeds.”

Heero, in complete mission mode, spoke up. “So we travel the shadows?”

“No. I have to be able to follow the signal from the collar.” With great effort he levered himself up from the bed, then glared around the room. “Why are you still here? Go ready the damned horses!”

People fled the room through every exit and Duo was left alone. Slowly his controlled mask faded and anguished eyes drifted closed. *I’m coming Wufei. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry…*

*****

Horrible screams filled the house. Dark blood pooled in sticky rivers under him, slicking Wufei’s bruised skin in a macabre painting of hurt. Tiny whimpers interspersed with hoarse cries poured from his cracked lips as the man he knew as his father tortured him.

A sick grin spread across Maru’s face as he again viciously sliced the blade deep into Wufei’s flesh. The dark haired boy wailed in agony and twisted against the chains that held him tightly to the hard surface on which he lay.

The razor sharp blade cut deep, parting both skin and muscle, and Wufei screamed again in pure suffering. Finally unable to fight it any longer, the slave collapsed into a quivering heap. His mind blanked and shut down completely, at last freeing powers that had lain dormant for his entire life.

Pearl gray wings burst from Wufei’s shoulder blades and he arched, shrieking again. They twisted uncomfortably under his body and pushed at the binding chains that contained them. Unable to bear the pain any longer, Wufei’s body collapsed completely, and he ceased to fight.

Maru watched it all; face twisting into an ugly snarl. He stormed closer to his ‘son’, delivering a hard, closed fisted blow to the boy’s unprotected face. When this produced no response, he hit him again, and again. The bruises that already decorated Wufei’s golden skin turned darker, changing from faint shadows to livid purple and blue. Even in his unconscious state, Wufei tried to turn from the repeated blows but no matter how he twisted he could not escape them.

Maru sneered, raining more blows down on the hapless boy. “You think you are worthy to call yourself my son?” SMACK “You’re nothing more than the son of a whore and a demon!” SMACK “You’re not even worthy of that bastard Zechs!” There was a sickening crack as the final blow b the the fragile bones of Wufei’s ribs.

Wufei responded with a helpless sounding keen. Dark eyes slitted open to look at the enraged Maru. “Zechs?” The soft whisper sent him into a coughing fit.

“I told you that your mother was nothing more than a useless whore. You are the bastard child of that fucking blond Shadow Lord.” Maru’s eyes blazed. Fury twisted his expression even further until the older man no longer looked human. His hand rose again, this time holding the knife. “Let’s see just what a Shadow’s brat can take.”

With only that warning, the hand descended and drove the blade into the tender membranes of Wufei’s new wings.

Finally the collar reacted. A bolt of pure power shot from the stone and into Maru, throwing him against the wall on the far side of the room. Plaster rained down onto him like water and, after hanging for an impossibly long moment, he slid to the floor. Still awake, he heaved himself to his feet and started back to Wufei. The collar threw him back again.

Maru growled low in his throat. “Don’t think this is the end of it, brat. You’re little piece of jewelry won’t save you for long. And when it fails, I’ll be waiting.”

*****

No more than a few miles away, six very angry men and one Shadow Steed bent on murder, galloped ever nearer. The closer they got the more Nataku and Duo could feel the pain of the boy that each had bonded to. Agony threatened to over come them the closer they got, and each slicing pain drove the flames of their anger higher. It was that which gave them the strength to fight the physical and mental anguish that each felt and press on, determined to relieve the little one’s suffering.

Hooves thundered over the ground. Sparks flew when they pounded over the rocks on the road. Two minds paralleled each other and thought at the same moment, *I’m coming Wufei…*

*…Just hold on beloved. I’ll be there…*

*…soon*

*****

Once again Maru stood over Wufei. This time he held another of those little darts instead of a knife. While he would much rather flay the skin from the boy’s bones while he screamed in pain, Maru was smart enough to have figurut tut that the collar was not going to allow that, so he had been forced to give up some of his fun. However, he had switched from the fast acting poison that he had used to kill Meiran, to something a little more amusing.

Slowly his hand lowered, drawing the poisoned dart closer to Wufei’s unprotected chest. Just before it made contact the door burst open to reveal an enraged Shinigami along with five furious Shadow Lords plus their Steeds. All of them looked livid enough to tear him limb from limb.

Amazingly Maru smiled. “Come one step closer and this will kill him.” He wiggled the dart that was so close to Wufei.

Shinigami growled. “Move even enough to breathe and you will beg me to die, Chang.”

Maru laughed. “I doubt that you will be in any condition to do anything without your little slave, Shinigami. Why couldn’t you just rid me of this little nuisance? If you had done your job, then none of this would have happened.”

Duo’s eyes flared. “My job? I am your prince, not some hired hand. And Wufei now belongs to me.”

Maru’s smile turned even more malicious. “No longer yours, Great Shinigami.” He lifted his hand to strike.

The room exploded into chaos, several things happening at once. Zechs lunged forward, bent on breaking Chang in half. Nataku shouldered Duo out of the way and raced toward her bonded, intent on taking the dart for him, and dying if necessary to protect him. And Shinigami… Shinigami acted.

Dark power blanked the room in unrelieved shadows. Chang was engulfed in pure black shadow. The others paused in mid-movement to watch the scene unfolding in front of them. In sharp relief they watched Maru’s eyes widen in horror as he watched his own hand turn back toward himself. He desperately tried to force his fingers to release the dart, but they refused to obey his command. In slow motion the point pushed into the opposite arm.

Maru screamed and his body convulsed. Shinigami allowed his victim to fall to the floor, where the human heaved and contorted, red speckled froth spraying from his lips. The sounds coming from his mouth were unintelligible and the shocked onlookers were only able to make out one word.

“Please…”

Shinigami watched the tableau with a fixed non-expression. A twisted ghost of a smile drifted over his still features and he delivered his verdict. “You will not die, Chang Maru. Instead you will live until Wufei recovers. Only then will you be granted death. If he does not….” The smile widened. “If he does not, then you will remain like this for the rest of my life.”

Zechs forced himself to tear his eyes from Chang’s twisting body. They immediately settled on the still form of his son. Tenderly he removed the chains from his baby and pulled him into his arms. Gently he pulled the boy into his arms and rocked back and forth, sobbing quietly and murmuring over and over, “It’s my fault…my fault…”

Treize looked over to his lover and their son and gasped, drawing Duo’s attention. For a moment both were startled by the damage done to the slight body. A single thought whispered through his mind. *It’s my fault…* Then he noticed the wings.

What should have been an iridescent white somehow mimicked the pattern of the blood-covered stone at the base of Wufei’s throat. All eyes were drawn to the new appendages and all of the beings in the room were startled. All except one.

Deathscythe chuckled inwardly. *The change is now finished; Wufei is what he was meant to be. Now the cycle will be complete, and so will Duo.*