The Three Trials for Power

By Lars the Goddess

Part I

Prologue

The sound of tree leaves rustling in a soft breeze and crickets sounding their mating call floated weightlessly on the night air. A small stream cut a winding path through the dense forest, the sound of a waterfall telling the three figures that traveled the bank their destination wasn’t far ahead.

Coming to the waterfall, one member of the group stopped behind the others and studied their surroundings as if to make sure they were traveling in the right direction. Nodding to herself in satisfaction, she was suddenly startled by a loud shriek and the sound of something large landing in the water below. Rushing to the edge of the fall, she knelt noting the crumbling rock under her hands. Letting her annoyance show itself on her face, she stared down at her clumsy friend as the short haired girl sat in the pool below drenched and laughing hysterically.

"We told you to climb down, not fall down," she growled in an Irish accent even as she stood and turned to the black haired girl behind her.

"Hehe…sowy," came the meek reply from below.

The two ignored it as they approached the edge and jumped down with ease beside the still giggling girl. The two helped the tall girl up and turned to continue their journey, leaving her to wring her clothes out before catching up to them. As she came up behind them, she heard the two talking quietly between themselves.

"We have to hurry if we’re gonna do this. It’s another month before the next full moon and we need to do this as soon as possible," the one guiding them was saying to the black haired girl.

The black haired girl nodded, "I agree. After all, how do we know if our parents will ever send us back to this school. If I go back to India, you to Ireland, and clumsy to Jerusalem or wherever the hell she’s from, we’re finished."

The short haired girl looked up from smoothing her clothes when she heard this, her facial features set in a pout. "I’m from Egypt," she said, slightly insulted her friends couldn’t remember this. The two girls just rolled their eyes knowing the tall friend had missed the point and continued traveling downstream.

*** The hangar was quiet for the moment and the two occupants were counting themselves lucky. They looked around carefully, checking every corner in an attempt to locate what they were there for. One of them made their way over to a truck that was sitting near the large door and opened the back up. His eyes lit up as he took in the contents of the armored vehicle. He turned around while opening his mouth to call to his partner, but quickly stopped as he heard the sound of many booted feet coming their way.

He immediately took actions to conceal himself, knowing he couldn’t make it out before the men entered the room. Anyway, there was no way in hell he was leaving without the contents of the truck. Looking up to see if his partner was behind him, he paused.

"Damn!" Duo cursed when he realized Wufei didn’t run at the sound of the guards coming. That stupid justice boy and his honor!

"Run if you like, Maxwell. I refuse to run from a fight," Wufei said. Duo rolled his eyes in frustration as the guards quickly entered through the door connecting the hangar to the base and the Chinese boy unsheathed his beloved sword.

Duo looked around, taking a quick survey of the battle ground. Stacks of wooden crates lay around the hangar, making perfect cover for a gunfight. To his right was the armored truck parked by the closed door that must lead outside. However, there was no way he could just leave Wufei there although the thought was tempting.

His attention was brought back to the door when he heard the soldiers drawing their weapons. He noted the alarm switch and door lock located beside the entrance before focusing on the small platoon of OZ soldiers. He began to formulate a plan in his head, hoping that he could pull it off and they would survive yet another mission.

The group of soldiers stopped in their tracks for a moment, weapons froze in midair as they took in the two intruders. Duo had to laugh mentally at their faces. What’s so unusual about a 16 year old kid with a really long braid, wearing a priest outfit and carrying a gun? The men quickly burst into action, bringing their weapons up and aiming at the Chinese and American boys.

The braided pilot aimed and shot one of the uniformed men who ran to set off an alarm. One bullet hit him in the leg and flung the man around with the force of impact. A second one lodged into the soldiers chest, flinging him backward against the wall. "No!" Duo shouted as the man’s head hit directly on the button that set off the alarm. Shit, Heero is gonna kill us, he thought as the room began to fill with more soldiers. He and Wufei had only one choice, prepare to fight and hope they didn’t die.

*** Heero walked down the hall of the OZ base keeping his ears open for the sound of anyone approaching. He continued on with his gun at the ready and searched the brightly lit corridor for the room his victim would be waiting in. Everything is going good. Wufei and Duo better not mess up. As if triggered by his own thoughts, alarms began to blare.

"Damn it!" he cursed as he quickened his pace. Luck was still with him as he approached his destination. Out of the officers quarters stepped the bases general who he recognized from the picture Dr. J had sent him with the mission instructions. Aiming quickly, he shot the man in the head before his victim had a chance to raise an inquisitive eyebrow.

The sound of footsteps became loud as guards responded to the alarm and the sound of gunfire. "Mission accomplished," he said before turning and running down the hall. A bullet grazed his arm but he refused to let it slow him down as he turned to fire back.

I’m going to kill Duo and Wufei, he thought as he ran out the door and to his waiting motorcycle concealed near the entrance. Jumping on and gunning the engine, he managed to quickly lose his pursuit and headed back to their current safe house. As he drove on, his mind was focused on one thing, Duo and Wufei are dead. The sound of an explosion echoed in the distance, leaving him completely unfazed as he rode back to base.

*** A short girl with red hair stood on an overhang that jutted out above a larger waterfall then the last. Her Egyptian and Indian friends stood behind her quietly. Bathed in the light of the moon, she almost appeared to be a goddess watching over her kingdom. She raised her eyes to gaze at the moon which hung proudly in the sky announcing midnight. Turning her attention down, she looked at the object she held and focused her mind on the mission.

In her hands was a white rose, which she held up to the sky, charging it with the light of the moon. Moving to face her friends, she nodded to them as she accepted the objects they handed to her. The tall girl presented her with a piece of parchment adorned with runes. Wrapping it around the stem, she then took a long violet ribbon from the long, black haired girl. Using it to secure the parchment, she began to mutter softly under her breath. Behind her, the other girls were doing the same, the three voices blending together with a musical sound.

So mote it be!

The three ended together and watched as the rose fell to the shallow pool at the bottom of the waterfall. Their attention never wavered as the flower swirled in the running waters on its way down stream. Each girl was lost in their own thoughts as they contemplated what they had just done. They had just put magic forces in motion that would affect someone dearly. The three of them could only hope they had done the right thing.

The short haired girl took no time to interrupt the silence, "So, do you think it will work? Do you think our fourth, the one who controls the Elemental Fire, will come to us?" she asked as she helped pack up the few supplies left.

"As long as you concentrated, I believe it will work. I have a feeling that it won’t be long," the one that appeared to be the leader said as she put the remaining violet ribbon into the satchel they had brought with them.

The black haired girl nodded in agreement as she shouldered the bag. "I think it’s time we got back before someone rats us out to the dean. He already hates us enough without us giving him more reason."

*** Wufei watched as Duo sealed off the room by running through a fray of bullets and hitting the lock beside the door to keep as many soldiers out as possible. The two of them were up against about 20 men with guns. The odds were not good at the moment. Holding his sword in his left hand, he sliced his way to cover taking down men as he pulled out his gun and shot three more of the soldiers down. He quickly dove behind a large stack of boxes close to the hangar wall and began to shoot carefully aimed shots. He noticed that Duo had done the same and nodded in approval.

At least the idiot isn’t trying to fight them hand to hand. The guards were down to a little under half their number. Things were definitely looking up. Suddenly, he heard a curse and looked down at the comlink attached to his belt. He had forgotten that the two of them had decided to carry them in case they needed to separate during their mission. "What is it, Maxwell?" Wufei growled into it as he continued to shoot.

"I’m out of ammo, man!" the American’s voice growled back.

Wufei checked his own ammo and cursed. "Damn it, Maxwell. I’m almost out too." They had already used a fair amount of it before while breaching the outer perimeter of the base, and their supply had been very limited. The next comment from his partner caused him to feel the need to send a quick prayer up to the gods.

"Well, it looks like it’s time for good ol’ hand to hand combat." The black haired pilot heard the braided boy’s voice echo through the hangar, "Prepare to meet the wrath of Shinigami!"

Wufei quickly took his last few shots, reducing the number of soldiers to a more manageable four. Then, jumping out of hiding, he started beating the shit out of the first soldier he saw. A second one joined his comrade in the fight against the Chinese boy, causing him to draw his sword to even the odds. As he fought, he noticed Duo take out his first guard and crouch down beside the man holding his ribs and trying to catch his breath.

"Behind you!" he shouted his warning quickly before turning his attention back to his fight.

Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed a silvery glaze in Duo’s eyes as the boy looked up. That worried him and he wondered if the boy was going into shock from some serious injury. He quickly shoved the thought away as he focused more on his fight. If the boy had been injured it would be his fault for fighting without honor. Preparing to block the next blow, he was surprised when it never came.

Looking confusedly at his opponents, he saw they were looking off in another direction. However, before he had turned towards the direction they were looking, an animal-like growl came from it causing the Chinese boy to focus on the source. Turning around, he saw it was Duo! The braided boy stood hunched over in pain with a flaming blue aura around him. The boy’s last opponent lay at his feet, engulfed in the same blue flames and lending the smell of burnt flesh to the room. Shock overcame Wufei and he could only stare as the remaining two guards fell unconscious on the floor.

The blue aura slowly faded as Duo straightened, looking tired yet exhilarated at the same time as a large smile spread across his face. Duo came running over to him, "Wow, that was cool!" he shouted. "Let’s get the parts we need and get outta here! We’re pretty lucky, they’re already in the truck over there. All we have to do is make a run for it and set off the explosives we planted on the way in. That’s it, Mission accomplished."

Wufei let the boy lead him to the truck, running close on his heels. He then got in the passenger side, too shocked to fight over who drove. The boy’s eyes are their normal violet again. What’s going on here? he asked himself as they drove quickly out of the slowly opening door. Pursuit was quick to follow them, but they weren’t too worried. They would be out of range of the explosives before the pursuit was, and could just take the OZ soldiers out with the base.

Once Duo was satisfied that they were far enough away, he pressed the button and listened to the sound of multiple explosions in the near distance. After a few more moments of listening, the braided boy checked the rear view mirror and smirked. "They’re all toast. Time to head back to the safe house!" he said happily as they drove on, the full moons light shining down on them from high in the sky.

All Wufei could think was, He looks like death in the light from the explosion.

*** Chapter 1

Uniformed students moved around the school cafeteria as they collected their lunches and found their friends. All of them seemed extremely caught up in their own lives, uncaring of what was going on around them. The only thing that could possibly distract them from their own selfish lives was the chance of becoming more popular. It just so happened that one such chance had just produced itself as a young boy entered the open room and looked around to locate some lucky individual.

Girls jumped at the chance to come in contact with Duo Maxwell as he moved toward the table the other pilots were sitting at. They had been attending the school for a month now and it appears that the braided pilot had managed to fit it nicely with the school population. However, he was on a mission at the moment as he pushed his way through the gathering crowd of girls around him and offered his best smile as he declined the many invitations to eat at the various tables. He sighed inwardly with relief as he finally made it to the table where the other four pilots were waiting for him, some more patiently than others.

"It’s about time. I thought we agreed to meet ten minutes ago. We do have something very important to discuss." Wufei growled as he stared at Duo.

Duo just shrugged nonchalantly and took a seat at the round table across from Wufei while plastering a big, sloppy grin on his face. "You sound like a nagging woman," he commented, taking pleasure in the furious expression that appeared on the Chinese boy’s face. "Besides, I guess I have to pay the price for being the most popular boy in school," he said as he leaned back and casually placed his hands behind his head.

"We’re suppose to remain discreet," Heero said matter of factly, he still hadn’t forgave Duo and Wufei for the incident at the OZ base. He had pulled a gun on them when they had returned to the safe house and if Quatre and Trowa hadn’t been there, they would have been dead. When the gun had been taken away from the Perfect Soldier, Duo had commented, "Shit happens and wounds heal," before heading off for a good nights sleep and contemplation over the whole fire incident. He may have thought it was cool, but it didn’t mean he knew what had happened. Unfortunately for the two boys, however; even after Heero’s gunshot wound healed, he still hadn’t forgiven the two.

Duo shrugged once more, "It’s hard to remain discreet when you’re as outgoing and handsome as I am. Now, as for why we were put in this school, I have no idea," he said in an attempt to get down to business. The attempt quickly turned into a failure as Duo realized that Wufei was still ranting.

"It’s an injustice that women would flaunt themselves to you. They have to be stupid to want a braided idiot like yourself!" Wufei said rather loudly while glaring at the overconfident boy.

Many girls looked up to glare murderously at the boy who had just insulted their braided angel. "We heard that!" one girl yelled as she threw a half eaten cream Danish at the back of the Chinese boy’s head.

"Injustice," Wufei howled as he jumped up in surprise and attempted to clean the sticky cream from his short ponytail. He looked up to find the American pilot sitting across from him laughing hysterically along with the rest of the cafeteria. Even Heero had a smirk on his face. The embarrassment was obviously too much for the black haired boy. "Laugh at this!" he yelled as he threw a particularly large glob of cream at Deathscythe’s unsuspecting pilot.

Surprised, Duo didn’t have time to react as the cream hit the side of his face causing him to topple backwards in his chair. The next thing he knew, he was staring at a ceiling that appeared to be floating up and down. His head hurt, he realized as he stared at the white tiles trying to make them quit their graceful dance in the air. Just when the ceiling stopped moving, food started flying through the air. "What is going on?" he asked as Quatre’s worried face came into view.

"Wufei started a food fight," he said. "Are you alright?" the young Arabian asked, concern obvious in his blue eyes.

"Great!" Duo said letting a large smile form on his face as he turned his head to locate the rest of the pilots. The movement caused his head to ache more and his vision to blur excessively. When his vision cleared, the violet eyed boy couldn’t help but laugh. The more impassive faces of Heero and Trowa were not far behind Quatre, but what caused him to laugh was the spaghetti that hung carelessly in Heero’s messy brown hair.

No one missed the confused look that crossed Heero’s face momentarily before returning back to its expressionless state. He also did not miss the smirks that were displayed on the rest of the pilot’s faces.

"What," he asked in his usual monotone.

Trowa quietly reached up and removed the food that was intruding the Perfect Soldier’s hair. Heero only nodded his thanks as he turned his attention to Wufei who approached the four of them dripping with various types of food.

"What happened?" Quatre asked him.

*** They had watched everything that had occurred in the cafeteria during the last few minutes. The girls had even laughed with the rest of the cafeteria, but when Duo Maxwell fell, quiet concern had replaced their humor. Observing the full-scale food fight and Duo’s other three friends rushing to his aid from their table in one of the darker corners, Cyanea’s mind began to plot.

She turned to her two friends, "So, it’s agreed that he is the one the spell brought to us?" she inquired of them as she brushed a strand of shoulder length, red hair behind her ear.

The other two girls nodded. "I believe Anika and I are thinking the same thing you are Cy," Cyanea’s black haired friend said.

Nodding her head enthusiastically, Anika agreed. "Yup, now is the perfect time to introduce ourselves."

"Especially now that the psycho sluts are too busy to get in the way," Cy added as she tilted her head to the side and smirked.

"Yah, busy covering the anal retentive boy with their food, like they were actually going to eat it or something," Anika said. All three girls laughed and Cy turned to collect her book off of the table. She was just in time as a green glob of the days special landed on the table right where the book had been sitting seconds ago. Cy glared at the offending piece of food before she turned and smiled cheerily at her two friends.

"So, shall we go see if he really is our fourth?"

"Fourth what?" a preppy voice asked from behind the group of girls.

They all turned to see their enemy standing there with her two followers trailing behind her. "What do you want Kerri?" Cyanea asked as she gave her the evil eye.

Kerri just ignored her. "If you think that the most popular boy in school would hang out with you, you’re stupider that I thought. No one wants to hang out with freaks like you."

"Oh, and you think that he would hang out with you? Every time you come near him, I notice that he seems to have somewhere he has to be," the long, black haired girl said.

"Whatever, Montana. He only does that because he probably gets shy around girls he likes," Kerri said as she flipped her long blond hair over her shoulder.

The three girls just rolled their eyes, "You think too highly of yourself," Cyanea said before turning and walking in the direction of Duo’s table.

As they walked away, they heard the preppy girl talking to her ‘friends,’ "That’s it! One way or another, I’m gonna ruin those girl’s lives!"

"How do you plan on doing that?" her friend with curly red hair asked.

"I’m gonna prove they really are witches."

*** "What happened?" Wufei sputtered at his friends as he tried to clear some of the food off of his navy blue uniform. "Those women…"

Duo tuned the sound of the food fight and the irritated pilot out as he fought to clear his vision once again. Perhaps laughing at Wufei hadn’t been a good idea after all, he thought. Now I can’t see a damn thing and my head is hurting even more. He shut his eyes and placed his hands to his head as he rolled onto his side in a feeble attempt to get up.

"You probably gave him a concussion," Duo heard Heero’s cold monotone voice through the haze of pain. Duo smiled at the thought of Wufei cowering under Heero’s death glare. Now that would be at least a small form of justice, Duo thought. Then he realized that his friends had grown quiet even as the noise of the cafeteria raged around them. Someone was kneeling beside him and he decided it was time to open his eyes again.

Bright light assaulted the violet depths causing tears to well up within them. Finally, his eyes adjusted and he found himself staring at a beautiful girl about the same age as himself kneeling beside him. She gave him a sweet smile and leaned forward to clean the glob of cream off his face with a napkin. He watched in awe as her red hair moved gently across her shoulders to fall into a pair of deep golden brown eyes.

"Are you alright?" she asked him while placing her warm hand against his aching forehead.

Duo gave her his most charming grin, "I’m fine, if you count feeling like your head has been slammed repeatedly into a wall for the past ten minutes as fine."

The girl smiled, "I think I got your point. Let me take care of the pain. Then we should get outta here."

Duo just nodded, wondering how she could take care of the pain by just sitting there. Suddenly, a cool feeling crept through his skin where her hand was laying and started soothing the pain away. His eyes widened in surprise as his vision sharpened and he noticed a pair of silver orbs staring into his own. Just as quickly as the feeling came, it left, leaving him feel like the whole ordeal hadn’t occurred earlier. He let a small gasp escape his parted lips as he watched the girls eyes darken back to their original brown.

"Th…thank you," he stuttered, unsure what to say to the girl who was now helping him up off of the floor.

She just smiled sweetly, "Don’t worry about it. It was my pleasure, but we really should go now."

"Yup," he heard another girl say. Duo looked over to find two more girls standing behind the one at his side. Man do these girls make the school uniform look good. If their skirts were only a few inches shorter, I’d be in heaven! he thought as he studied the girls. It was obvious that they had rolled the navy blue skirts up to reveal an extra inch of skin above their knees. One of them had straight black hair that hung down to the middle of her back and tan skin. The one that spoke however, had extremely short, dark brown hair that framed a pale face. He raised an eyebrow in her direction as he steadied himself with help from Heero and the girl beside him.

The girl with short brown hair just gave him a knowing smile and continued to talk. "Any minute now the dean is gonna be all over this place like white on rice and I have a feeling that we don’t want to be here when it happens."

All of the pilots except for Duo nodded in agreement. Duo was too busy trying to stay standing while gasping with laughter to respond. "Wh…white on rice?" he asked between gasps.

The girl beside him giggled at his reaction. "You’ll have to forgive Anika. She’s just looking for shits and giggles."

The braided pilot was just about to go into another fit of laughter when the girl beside Anika spoke up. "Umm…I think we should go. I see the dean coming down the hall and he doesn’t look too happy."

The group quickly agreed and turned to make a hasty retreat through the closest doors. Duo turned back to see the girl who had helped him bend down to retrieve a book from the floor, giving him the most perfect view of her ass. He couldn’t help but admire her as she gracefully rose and turned toward her friends, oblivious of his staring.

Quickly turning back to the door before he ran into them, the braided pilot followed the group down the path to the dorm rooms. Turning once more to see if the girls were following, he couldn’t find a single glimpse of them anywhere in the confusion. He hadn’t even gotten the girl’s name who helped him. He sighed softly as he continued his trek back to the high school dorm rooms, his violet eyes clouded with confusion and awe as his thoughts began to wonder. Why would a girl like her have a book on demonology?

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