Hi everyone, here's the fourth part of my Pawns of Power. Thanks to everyone who supports it. I've written its sequel, Fighters of Fate, but haven't typed it out yet. And as for after that... not until I get inspiration for a decent title. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Author: Hayashi Azusa Email: wingdance@h... Title: Pawns of Power Type: Series, Alternative Universe Teaser: Weiss boys in a fantasy setting. (as in sci-fi/fantasy, not your own dream-world) Rating: Either PG-13 or somewhere higher Spoilers: Regarding the four members' pasts, if you know where to notice. (Personally, I don't think you can tell the spoilers from my own crap) Warnings: Strong Language, angst Keywords: Weiss, fantasy, angst ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Part IV-Youji "I want to know why, Persia," Omi said. Youji wondered if he knew how desperate he sounded. Probably not. "Why him? Why Takatori Hirofumi?" The image of Persia regarded him for a long time. "It's not just him, Bombay. Takatori Hirofumi's father and brother are also guilty of many crimes. One of them is treason, plotting against the throne. Takatori Reiji is trying to take the crown from the current King. If he succeeds, chaos will come to our kingdom. This was all about politics, Youji noted, as only one who had been fine-toned to it the way a spy was trained would. Why would Persia be so interested in politics? Youji glanced at the others. Ken was seated on one of the cushions, looking on uncomfortably; Aya stood by the window, his gaze fixed on the glass pane, misty from the downpour outside. Omi sat in the center of the room, a mirror before him-the connection to Persia himself. Youji hadn't even known the existence of such a link. Like Ken and Aya, he had assumed that Manx was their only connection to Persia. Who would have thought hat Omi possessed a direct link in his own room? "But the target you gave us, he's my brother…I have the right to ask; what did Takatori Hirofumi do, Persia?" Omi asked again. The image of Persia considered it for a moment. "The Duke, his father, had used his own influence to put Takatori Hirofumi in a position of considerable importance five years back. He's the Chief Examiner for Knighthood, as I'm sure Siberian is aware of." Ken nodded. "The target has been abusing his power-not without encouragement from his father-to attract talented aspiring squires. Those with talent and loyalty to the King are framed, and often killed." "I can attest to that," Ken said slowly. Youji did not know exactly how the former knight-in-training became a mage-assassin; he had a feeling that he didn't want to find out. "Consequently, all who are being given the knight's shield for the last five years are either incompetent, or treacherous at heart. The latter is gradually brainwashed to become fanatically devoted to the Duke and his cause," Persia continued. "Does that answer your question, Bombay?" "Why didn't you tell us beforehand?" Youji asked. "To prevent Siberian from becoming too involved." "I won't-" Ken jumped to his feet, then sat back down. "I might," he admitted. "But…what do we do now? The target is Omi's brother." "He's your target. The mission still stands." Omi gasped, his face filled with disbelief. His lips moved, but no word came out. They all knew what it meant to disobey: death. "Yes, Persia." "What of Takatori Reiji?" Aya asked, for the first time turning away from the window. "And Schwarz?" "Schwarz…" Persia shook his head. "Takatori Reiji is still too well-protected. And Schwarz will come looking for you soon enough." That sounded ominous. "How do you define well-protected?" Aya persisted. Persia looked at him sharply "Very." ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Youji knew Omi was in his own room. The younger boy had a lot to think about tonight, and this wasn't a topic he wanted to talk about with anyone, not even Youji. Ken had gone to bed early, after taking more wine than what was good for him. Like Omi, Ken had a lot on his mind. It must be hell to finally learn who had been behind him being framed and disowned by his own family. Youji settled himself more comfortably in the haystack. He was no oracle, but he knew exactly what was going to happen here in the stable tonight. He heard footsteps coming, then the sound of the door opening, and light from a dim lantern illuminated the dark interior of the room. "Where do you think you are going?" "Youji!' the other gave a startled cry. "You are trying to sneak away, aren't you? Now that you know the identity of your enemy, you can't think of anything except to go after him, irregardless of the fact that Schwarz would probably finish you off. You might have fooled Omi and Ken, but you can't fool me. You were never in Weiß for any other reason except to seek revenge. The missions were nothing more than a means of getting money for you; you can't care less about the rest of us. Have you ever considered how Omi feels about it all? I don't think so. You suppose it's easy for him to face the accusation in your eyes? All you can think of is going after Takatori Reiji, right?" "Right." "Now, I've no doubt that you hate me for stopping you right now, and I can't care less," Youji hissed, speaking in the same low voice so as to not attract the attention of the two youngest boys upstairs. "I'm Weiß too. I knew your first loyalty is to your own cause, not ours, but I had been willing to put up with it. I was sure that in time, you would really become one of us. I can't believe how stupid I was." "Move off, Kudou Youji." "Not until I finish what I have to say. We've never had a heart-to- heart talk before, have we? You think I'm frivolous and have no sense of seriousness at all, am I right?" Seeing the other's nod, Youji continued. "Have you ever considered what Weiß is for? Hired killers? Why do you think Persia always explains why he wants somebody dead? Do you think we like killing? We do it because we have to, to protect those who can't protect themselves. Have you ever considered that?" "They are no concern of mine." "Typical aristocracy, but I don't think you really mean that. Not after three months in Weiß, Fujimiya Aya. You are no longer a sheltered noble, you've seen the conditions of life of those not as privileged as you had been. You've seen how people suffer when power is placed in the wrong hands. Can't you understand?" "And you do?" That was the last straw. He pushed himself up, strode over to the younger man, jerking his collar up so that they were of the same height. "Yes, I do. I sold my body when I was eight for half a chunk of bread; I became a spy when I was thirteen because it had better odds than the streets. I've been beaten up and raped so many times that I stopped counting since nine, you think I don't know how harsh life is?" He let go of the other man. "Like the others, I believe what Weiß stands for. I'm in it because I want to make sure that as few kids would become child-whores at the age of eight as possible. And if you can't see beyond the vengeance of one family-go. I have nothing more to say." He took one step aside, leaving the way open. "Just get out of my sight, Fujimiya Aya." The redhead said nothing, simply saddled his horse and led it out of the stables. Youji watched him leave. "Correction, I do have something else to say." "What?" "You are one selfish bastard." ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Manx came again, but without her usual greeting of "Weiß, mission." Instead, she held out a scroll, to whomever who would take it. "Where's Aya?" Ken asked, finally taking the scroll. "Gone," Youji replied shortly. "What do you mean?" Omi asked, stirring from his self-imposed brooding. "He's not coming back." Manx narrowed her eyes. "Does he know the consequence of leaving?" "He must have," Ken said. "Youji, when did he leave? And how do you know that he's not coming back? He was normal yesterday." "He wants to go after Takatori Reiji himself, now that he knows who's responsible for the death of his family," Youji replied resignedly. "Just like that?" Ken exclaimed. "It…wasn't because of me, was it?" Omi asked in a small voice. "No, I don't think so." He wasn't half as sure as he sounded-and he didn't sound sure anyway. Aya was Fire, totally irrational when provoked. He might very well decided not to work with a teammate whose father killed his family, leaving his sister half-dead. Not that Youji would voice any of that to Omi. The younger boy was having enough problems already, without this additional guilt. "Weiß," Manx interrupted. "Pay attention to the present, not the past." Ken studied the scroll in his hands carefully. Youji and Omi gathered around him for an unobstructed view. The scroll was made of some parchment, with a strange aroma to it. A red silk ribbon tied it together. Youji sniffed lightly. "Rose soaked in cloves and white wine. Yellow rose, I think." "Trust the one who had bedded half the women in the city," Ken muttered, pulling the ribbon off. The scroll unrolled by itself. It was written in cursive, with silver-tainted gold ink. "Weiß," it read. "You have interested us. Meet us at the peak of Mount Fuji next full moon." It was signed off as "Schwarz: B. Crawford, Schuldig, Farfarello, and Naoe Nagi." "A challenge," Omi murmured. "The Formal Challenge?" Youji asked. "Exactly," Manx replied. "I checked up the original Laws of Magic: such a challenge, if ignored, would take away your mage status." "Manx," Ken said. "Are there things you haven't told us about Schwarz?" Manx closed her eyes for a moment. "Schwarz is a very special organization," she said at last. "They aren't mages, not exactly, nor are they sorcerers or enchanters or shamans. The closest term we could find to describe them is Talent. The last time such an organization was seven hundred years ago. They were known as the Black Talent, an undefeatable team." "Schwarz. Black. Hmm," Youji repeated, half to himself. "The new generation of Black Talent the Undefeatable is issuing us a Formal Challenge? I have a bad feeling about the whole thing now." "Why do you think Persia named you Weiß?" Manx asked quietly. "He has confidence in you. A perfect Circle of Elements is the only thing that stands a chance against the Black Talent, or Schwarz." "We aren't a Circle of Elements anymore," Omi groaned. "It's all because of me that Aya left." "No, it's not," Youji interrupted him. "He left to confront Takatori Reiji himself. If anyone, I'm to blame. I knew he wanted to leave, I didn't stop him." "You lost your temper?" Ken asked shrewdly. The last time he lost it was early on, soon after he joined Weiß and before they had gotten used to each other. Ken and Omi never forgot it. "Yeah, I did." Manx clapped her hands to get their attention. "Weiß, do you accept?" The three remaining members looked at one another. One by one they nodded. They had no real choice anyway. "We do," Ken said for all of them. Youji looked at the moon that night. It was a new crescent. They had approximately ten days to get ready. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- They deactivated all the spells they had set on the tower over the years and no longer spoke to each other via magic. They needed every little bit of energy they could get if they wanted any chance of surviving the duel. Even if, according to the Laws of Magic, a Formal Challenge meant a duel to death. Death of every member of one party. "Do you think we'll come out of it alive?" Omi asked one afternoon, as they sat together by the kitchen fire. The smoke was a bit annoying, but the amount of power released from the spell had been worth it. No one mentioned Aya. They avoided the subject as though it would bite them. It might. Aya was a failure to Weiß, a traitor to their beliefs. "I don't know," Ken replied, taking a bite of ham. They all ate as much as they dared nowadays. Even such energy might come in useful. No one was taking chances. "Youji, what do you think?" "Logically? We ought to consider what to wear into the grave," Youji smiled, a self-mocking smile. "An unbalanced triangle of Elements against a complete team of Talents each individually as good as we are? Logically, we are doomed, but--" "--Since when did you admit to be logical?" Omi and Ken finished for him in one voice. They knew him too well. All three looked at one another, and laughed. This was how he wanted to remember them; the thought came unbidden to Youji. United, supporting, understanding, stupid--but so courageous... This was how he wanted to remember them in his last moments, laughing at fate, daring it to do its worst. "I think we are all crazy," he said with his customary grin, the one that had served to cover all sorts of feelings. "That's why we are Weiß: we deserve each other." "Right," Ken grinned. "But who knows? Going by the path fate handed me at birth, I should have died long ago; but I'm still alive now to gloat about it. If given a choice between fate and luck, I'll lay my chips down for luck every time." "I'll back you." Omi gave his hand. Youji clasped it with his own. Ken laid his over both theirs. Dead or alive, they would never back out. So courageously stupid; so stupidly courageous. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- It would be full moon tonight. If not for their training and years of waiting during missions, Youji doubted any of them could have survived the whole day. Ken stayed inside his room, to clean up, he had said. Omi painted. An assassin whose primary weapons were his arrows and darts had to be very good with his hands. Youji lounged in the garden, listening to the birds and enjoying the sunshine. They were, each in his own way, bidding good bye to this world they loved and had tried so hard to improve. The sun shifted towards the west, inexorably. They set off in the afternoon. It was quite a long ride to Mount Fuji, they did not want to be late, even for a fatal appointment. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- A tall, orange-haired man was waiting for them when they ascended the peak. The sun was setting behind him, creating a reddish gold halo on his head, making it look almost the same shade as Aya's. "I was starting to worry that you've lost your way." "You wish," Youji replied. "Oh I do, indeed I do." Schuldig chuckled humorlessly. "But what's this? Only three of you? What happened to the one who used a blade? The one who is Fire?" "Where are your teammates?" "You can't avoid my question, no matter how hard you try, Kudou Youji." Schuldig's eyes unfocussed momentarily. "Gone? Left? Disappointing. I thought Weiß would at least prove a challenge; I guess I was wrong. I'm sure Farfarello would be disappointed." "You can read minds?" Ken demanded. "Of course. We aren't mages," Schuldig smirked again. "We are Talents, as you've found out for yourselves by now. I am a Mindreader." The sun settled out of sight. Another figure joined Schuldig. The young quiet boy called Nagi. Behind him stood Farfarello, licking a dagger with no concern for his own tongue. Omi shuddered in revulsion and looked away. Youji wanted to do that too, but he was the eldest, and, like it or not, he could not afford to behave that way. :Oh, poor Youji-: Schuldig's voice mocked inside his mind. Youji ignored him. "What of your last member, Crawford?" "He would be here soon enough," Schuldig replied easily. "Crawford was consulting the oracles to see how it would turn out. He wouldn't always share it with us, but at least one of us wouldn't be surprised at whatever happens." The silent Nagi raised one hand, but not at Weiß. He lifted his face to the sky. Winds began to whirl around him, gathering force as they swirled faster and faster. Large black clouds gathered in the sky, and thunder rumbled overhead; Farfarello's fanatical eye grew brighter, he gave his dagger another lick, and Weiß could hear him chuckling. "It doesn't take much to keep Farfarello happy," Schuldig observed clinically, as lightning flashed across the rapidly blackening sky. "Does it, Farfarello?" The white-haired youth shook his head, smiling savagely. The dagger cut into the corners of his lips, causing more blood to flow down his face. Rain began to fall. There were no light water droplets, just a sudden downpour. The fourth member of Schwarz had arrived. The rain plastered their clothes to their bodies, but none of the Weiß made any attempt to change the fact. Creating a rain barrier would drain off more energy than it deserved, and manual, conventional shelter was not widely available on a mountain. "What took you so long, Crawford?" they heard Schuldig ask. "There was trouble at Takatori's," the new man replied. "Somebody tried to assassinated him. You three had all left by then, so I had to deal with it." "You had to deal with it yourself?" Schuldig whistled. "Who was it?" "He gave his name as Fujimiya Aya." "Fujimiya-" Schuldig broke off and started laughing. "Do you know who he is?" "Of course. I Foresaw it," Crawford replied. His tone was different from Schuldig's. Schuldig's voice was venomously malicious; his was deadly menacing. "I told him that Weiß and Schwarz are meeting tonight, and that his friends would die because he left them." "Did he believe you?" "I'm a Foreseer, Schuldig, not a Mindreader." "Good point." The four Talents were all there. Four sources of power that linked to each other perfectly. Foremost stood Crawford, a cold calculating glint in his eyes and dressed in dry clothing; to his left stood Schuldig, as nonchalant as Youji had been in his most outrageous moments, smirking evilly; to his right stood Farfarello, with daggers in his hands like thunderbolts; behind him was Nagi, armed with nothing except a hurricane. "You've accepted our Formal Challenge," Crawford spoke. "Now face the consequences." A silent agreement seemed to pass through the four Talents; their powers converged to form one point, one sharp blade of pure energy. "We wish you a safe journey to Hell." All three of them saw the blow coming, but it was just too fast, and the combined magic too strong. Omi received the blunt of it, he fell back with a soft cry, and landed on the ground, his breath knocked out of him. "Omi!' Youji shouted without thinking, all the comradeship that had become more important to him than life itself contained in his voice. Schuldig laughed inside his mind. "We have to shield, Youji!" Ken yelled, as another blow came. Their shield came up just in time to deflect it, and the next two. "Not bad, but how long can you two last?" Schuldig smirked. "Without a full Circle, you can't tap into the energies of the Spiritual Plane. And without that additional power, you are doomed. One way or other, you'll die." "Not if I have anything to say about it--and I do." All seven of them turned at the sound of that new voice, the attack and defense equally forgotten. A man stood there, on the mountain path that led up to the peak, his figure silhouetted in the rising moon. His coat was torn, and blood caked his face. In his right hand he held a drawn katana, in his left, a sheath with a red ruby on it. "Aya!" Omi cried, getting to his feet once more. "You came back!" "We can talk later," their leader said briefly. They opened their magical selves to each other at the same moment, all four of them. The bond that sprang up was as perfect as Youji remembered it. Together, they reached out-and found the power they sought, the endless supply of the Spiritual Plane. "Well, Schwarz?" Aya asked coolly. "Are you still willing to challenge us? I don't think even a Foreseer can predict the outcome of something that is so delicately balanced. Are you willing to leave it to chance?" He paused. "The clouds are obstructing the moon tonight, it's technically not full moon." The statement hung between them, two groups of magic-wielders with conflicting ideas and beliefs. Weiß. Schwarz. Destined to finish off each other...one day. "You are right," Crawford bit out at last. The rain stopped, as did the wind. The thunder continued rumbling for a while before Nagi shut Farfarello up. No more lightning streaks across the sky. One by one the Talents disappeared, Schuldig was the last one. "The game isn't over yet, Weiß," he hissed. "One of these days when you aren't prepared, we'll be back." "We are always prepared for you," Youji replied. "Really? Face it, Weiß, we are all pawns, destined to go against each other on the chessboard. Only destiny can decide our fate." Then he, too, disappeared. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- The moon was high up in the clearing sky now. The four Weiß members looked at each other. Omi was sitting on a rock, Youji hovering beside him in a protective fashion. Ken stood beside him, adjusting the gloves as he regarded Aya with deep brown eyes. Aya limped over. "Aya, you've been hurt!" Ken exclaimed. "Crawford did it," Aya barely glanced at the injury on his leg. "That's why I couldn't get here sooner. Let's go back." Youji stood up and went over to his leader. "Need help?" He offered his arm. Aya gave him a look, and took it. The two of them started making their way down the mountain, followed by Ken and Omi. An awkward silence. "I can't believe you actually managed to climb all the way up with a wounded leg." "It took a while. I fell down a number of times." "You really went to assassinate Takatori Reiji on your own?" "Yes." "And then you learnt that the rest of us were in deep trouble. So you came to offer us a hand, wound and all? Why, Aya? Why?" "I don't know. I just felt I had to." That might very well be true. Youji had never heard Aya really explain his reasons before. That first mission and the shielding was an excellent example. Aya knew himself even less than he knew other people. But the feeling...Youji was sure that it was friendship. "By the way, I take back everything I said before." "If you wish." For a while they went in silence, then Aya sighed. "What are you thinking of, Aya?" "I'm remembering what Schuldig said, us being destiny's pawns. He has a point." "Oh, we are pawns all right. But not of destiny. We don't submit to it. Power, perhaps, but never destiny." "Agreed." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ That's all! Once again, thanks to everybody who had come this far. The sequel's written, so a word of warning here: Youji-fans, don't kill me! (Yeah, I have this obsession with torturing him, it seems. He gets more of it in the sequel...) Yours, Hayashi Azusa