Part 2

As the servants lead PeaceRift through, Duo tried to see everything at once.  The servants scurring quickly around, the grazing bogrses(1), the high circular walls ringing the first house of Dyansty.  Unlike the white washed stone walls of his homeland, these towering gray rock walls vibrated with magic.  Even the tile stones under their feet seemed to give off a power.  The guards watched them with wary eyes, while Duo gazed back in facination. Never having left the boundaries of PeaceRift before, he didn’t want to miss a thing.

Would you look at that!  Each of them are in armor and no two are the same.  Silver, Gold, Blue, gray, I’ve never seen so many colors in one place.  Ew, what is that ugly yellowish color?  See him?  He looks kind of like a fly.  Duo’s chatter filled the link.

It’s called Sepia.  Responded Wufei, letting thoughts of strangling Duo drift to the rest of the Dagger.

Duo gripped his throat in mock panic, enjoying Wufei’s teasing.  Looking over his shoulder he gave the Dragon a playful wink.  Duo had been worried about Wufei.  The fire controller had been more somber than usual since they left the boundaries of home.  Duo had made it his mission to keep the spirits of his companions up.  Relena had confided in him, “happiness and joy are our secret weapons against Dynasty.  Unlike Heero’s sword, Wufei’s flame, and Quatre’s mind, playfulness and delight are things our enemy/ally knows very little about.”

True he had never met anyone in Dynasty first hand, but PeaceRift didn’t have one of the greatest spy networks in the known Nations for nothing.  He knew much more about them than they knew of him.  In Dynasty they had a very organized social system and well recorded birth records. If you had access to the right information you could trace a persons entire life and that of fifteen generations of ancesestors.  In PeaceRift, due to the former Mistress Une, it was much different.  He hadn’t been born to a family, the first place he could remember was the “Plague.”  The official name of these institutions was “A Place of Guidance.”  Removed from their mothers between 6 - 12 months of age, all male children were sent to these Plagues to learn the skills they would need to function in life.  Nameless the boys were given numbers to represent when they arrived.  If they lived long enough to leave the Plague that date would become part of their name along with any personal label they had choosen for themselves.

The centers were designed to be completely self-sufficent.  Between their studies and combat training the boys grew gardens, raised cattle, cooked food, washed clothes, and basicly maintained the facility.  Anything else that was needed was purchased by the overseer.  Duo’s Plague was located in a poor dry area, where the rain rarly fell and when it did it came in torrents often with hail and high winds.  The rain was collected and rationed along with everything else.  They had so little of even the bare necessities that many died from childhood diseases like the flu and strep throat.  Boys forced to die slowly of dehydration and moaning in pain was a too common sight.   Duo quickly pushed aside his memories of his best friend Solo’s death, life had changed since then.  Relena was Mistress now.

Duo would never forget the day Relena came.  He and Dilandu had been preparing a revolt against the overseer. Duo tried to remain calm as he waited, it was only hours till Dilandu would attack the first guard and start the chain reaction to freedom.  Suddenly the doors of the mess hall were flung open and a fierce looking warrior stepped in.  Fear was almost a tangible thing as his dark orbs swept the room.  Have we underestimated that foolish arrogant overseer? How did he find out about our plan for escape? Is he here to stop us?  Duo stepped forward determined to protect the young ones as much as possible.  That moment, when his eyes met those of the Golden Dragon, his old life ended and a new one began.  Duo’s whole world became drawn into those ebony depths.  The feeling of Wufei’s and his mind touching was unlike anything he had felt before.  Sure some of the other boys had tried out their budding powers, but this wasn’t the cold intrusivness of an inexperianced child.  It was like being wrapped in black velvet and slowly stroked.  Together they drifted through images of his past and present.  His hopes dreams and emotions were an open book that the Dragon carefully read.  When it was over Wufei nodded as if he was pleased with what he had found and gave his attention to the other boys.

It was then, still marveling in this new experience, that he saw her.  Standing just behind Wufei she watched the proceedings with a sad smile on her face.  At that time he didn’t know she was the Mistress of PeaceRift.  All he saw was a girl about his age with shimmering long blonde hair and large lonely blue eyes.  He felt an overwelhming urge to hug her and banish the sadness from her eyes.  Gently gnawing on the end of his braid he tried to think of a way to get close to her.  He may have only been nine years old but he knew males did not approach females without permission.  Unconsiously he slowly inched his way toward her still thinking very hard.

When he was just about ten feet away she suddenly turned and looked straight at him.  Clear intelligent blue eyes locked with his violet tinged ones.  Unsure and a little frightened Duo waved the end of his braid in greeting.  Her eyebrows arched up and an amused smile curled her lips.  It reached all the way to her eyes and for a moment the shadows there lightened.  All of a sudden an almost eropatic wave of joy washed over him.  His mouth dropped open in awe.  She was sharing her happiness with him.  He didn’t know how he knew he just did and it was the most wonderful experience of his young life.

Now with a maniacal grin on his face, he took a confident step forward only to turn at Dilandu’s cry. Duo saw the boy backing away from Wufei, a look of hatred and fear on his face.  The Dragon slowly stalked the him across the room

“Get out of my head!”  Dilandu screeched, clawing at his hair.

“Putrid,” Wufei growled, his lip curling in revulsion.

Wildly Dliandu scanned the room searching for a way out.  The windows, while large, were barred, the kitchen entrance was jammed full of boys watching in silence, and the kitchen exit was often locked during meals.  That left only the front doors where Relena stood.  Trapped.  Like a cornered rat he lashed out.  Summoning his fledging power he launched a metalic spear.  Duo had seen him practice and the metal looking rods would dissapte after impact, but were capable of busting through a concrete wall like paper.  Duo’s first thought was Dilandu was a fool to attack such an obviously well trained warrior, but it quickly turned to panic as he realized that the target was actually the blue-eyed female.

Not stopping to think Duo closed the space between them and flung himself into her knocking them both to the ground.  Looking over his shoulder Duo was surprised to see Dilandu’s attack hanging mid air less than half way to his target.  Wufei now had Dilandu by a shoulder his eyes blazing with anger.

“I’ll kill you! I’ll destroy all of you!” Dilandu shrieked.

Fire seemed to dance around Wufei before Dilandu was consumed in a pillar of flame still screaming of death.

Duo lay still a moment as what he had done sunk in.  He not only touched a female without permission, a crime, but knocked her to the ground.  They disliked getting dirty he remembered idly.  Turning back he met the gaze of the girl beneath him.  Worried and uncertain he said the first thing that popped into his head. “Hi.”

Before she could respond Duo felt something grab the back of his shirt and lift him in the air.  He found himself dangling in the air as Wufei used his other hand to assist the girl up.

“Wufei, let him down.”  Her voice came out soft but commanding.

After the warrior was satified she was unharmed, Duo was reluctantly placed on his feet.

Duo gazed at the golden warrior in facinated wonder.  He was like a fairy tale come to life.  A strong silent hero equal to any woman.  Like most boys Duo felt it wasn’t fair that females were queens, generals, and leaders just because they were born with more power and lived longer.  So they spent their free time dreaming of Ryu or the Bogard brothers, mythical men who fought and defeated the females of their time.

“What is your name?”

Relena’s gentle voice broke through his fanciful musings.

“Duo,” he offered easily.  This girl didn’t seem dangerous and cold like the stories he’d heard about females.  She appeared to be just a kid like himself.  Deep inside he could feel his still untried powers singing at her nearness.  The magical strength in her blood fed the answering potential in his own.

“Duo, I’m Relena.  Thank you for protecting me.  It was very brave and noble thing you did.  I can tell one day you are going to grow into a strong man.  When that day comes I hope we will see each other again.  Till then.”  Gently she ran a finger down the braid draped over his shoulder before walking away.  Wufei stuck protectively to her side.

At that moment Duo wanted nothing more than to leave with them.  It was not until Relena and Wufei were long gone from the Plague that he learned who they were.  He swore that one day he would be a member of the PeaceRift Dagger and walk by their side.

Duo glanced over his shoulder to look on Mistress Relena with pride.  Though he knew her to be over fifty years old she appeared no more than fifteen.  She would not reach adult hood until her two hundreth year.  As a male he was twenty-seven and well into the prime of his life.  He knew in his soul that he would live and die serving her.  The knowledge did not worry him, it was a comfort.  Instead of dwelling on the futality of the short life span of males, he put his life to use reminding his Mistress and Wufei of their humanity and receiving their love in return.  No matter how short his life, it wouldn’t be wasted and destined to be remembered.  He would not be alive to see it, but here and now he was helping lay the ground work for the peaceful future Relena was determined to build.

Watch out Dynasty, PeaceRift is here and we’re going to change this world.
 
 
 

(1)  Large, mean, heavily muscled mounts ridden by high ranking soldiers.  The creature’s large tuskes and curling ram style horns make them effective weapons as well as transportation.  Also, the thick skull and stubborn nature make mental control very difficult, so they have a natural defense against psychic attacks.
 
 

Disclaimer:  I do not own any rights to Gundam Wing, Ronin Warriors or any characters contained herein.  They are the sole property of their creators, producers, and affiliates.