The Three Trials for Power

By Lars the Goddess

Part II

Chapter 2

The next morning, a bright, cheery Saturday without a cloud in the sky, Duo joined the mass of groggy students heading for the assembly hall with a tremendous sigh of reluctance. Of all the possible things to do on a Saturday, this was one that he did NOT want to do. Though he had a cheery smile on his face, he was mentally cursing Wufei for starting the food fight. Nobody looked forward to a lecture from Mr. Runner, the school dean. His broken monotone worked better than Valium. Not that he would know…

He took his seat by his fellow Gundam pilots, well away from a certain Chinese boy. The rest of the student body was doing the same, isolating the boy who had repeatedly pleaded innocent the day before.

Bored to tears as Mr. Runner reiterated for the third time about how they should act better than normal teenagers because they attend a highly honorable prep school, Duo glanced around, hoping to get a glimpse of the three girls that had disappeared abruptly the day before. Looking towards the back of the hall, he noticed the three familiar figures staring off into space with hands clasped tightly between them. Three for the price of one, I’ll have to look into this, he thought.

Now blatantly staring, Duo’s brow furrowed as his thoughts returned to yesterdays occurrences when his injury had been miraculously cured. However, he was quickly drawn back to reality when he heard his name being called by none other than the halted voice of the dean. "Mr. Maxwell, is there something back there that interests you more than myself?" he asked, already miffed about the food fight the day before. That boy caused nothing but trouble in his book. The dean considered anyone with hair that long to definitely be up to no good. Duo stood, trying to find a suitable excuse when the lights flickered then died, followed quickly by a large crack of thunder.

Silence reigned for a few moments before Mr. Runner’s voice could be heard shouting over the sudden din of the torrential rain outside. "Form a line, keep organized, and don’t panic! Consider this a warning and don’t let what happened yesterday occur again! Dismissed!"

Duo shouted a loud whoop of joy as he rose with the rest of the assembly and pushed his way to the doors eager to escape. Stopping outside of the doors that the three girls were sure to come out of, he stood silently waiting for his prey while thanking every powerful being that the school was rich enough to build a porch like structure on the assembly hall just in case weather like this occurred.

Heero walked by, did a double take and asked, "What the hell are you doing?"

"Waiting for some chicks," Duo said cheerily.

Suspicious as always, Heero decided to pry more information out of the American pilot. "Any CHICKS in particular?" he asked while raising a questioning eyebrow.

"You know, the ones that helped me yesterday," Duo responded. "They disappeared in the confusion and I never got to thank them for healing me."

Heero gave Duo an odd look, glanced over his shoulder, leaned closer to him and whispered, "Listen Duo, I asked around and found that those ‘chicks’ are bad news. They’re into some kind of supernatural shit. Rumor has it that they even have powers. I don’t trust them. Stay away," he ordered Duo as he turned his back on him and disappeared in the crowd.

Duo just shrugged off Heero’s warnings and laughed to himself. The Japanese pilot must have used up next weeks quota of words with that speech. Pity it was a waste on him. Little did Heero know that Duo had always been interested in the occult. In fact he had been researching it for years, but never found time to do more than read about it, what with being the God of Death and all. Suddenly, he caught a glimpse of his three targets calmly exiting the building behind the rest of the students rushing off to their Saturday afternoon activities while trying their best to run between the rain drops. He wouldn’t be surprised if some of the girls could, most of them looked anorexic anyway.

He watched a second longer as the three girls all raised their hands and snapped their fingers in the air. Simultaneously, the rain stopped and not a cloud was visible in the sunny afternoon sky. He raised his eyebrows, impressed. These girls definitely know what they were doing, he thought.

As he waved his hand in their direction, calling for them to wait, he noticed that like every other student on a weekend, these girl’s were wearing anything but the school uniform. The first one he noticed was the girl that had helped him yesterday, her bright red hair glowing in the sunlight. She had on a pair of black silk pants that flared at the bottom, black sandals adorned with brightly colored beads, and a canned pea green tank top that tied in the back, showing off plenty of skin. Although not his favorite color, he had to admit it looked good on her. The next girl he noticed was the shorthaired girl, who towered over her two friends. She was wearing a flowing red skirt with a black spaghetti strap tank top. To her side, the girls with long black hair was wearing a pair of dark blue jeans with a dragon on the bottom of one straight, baggy leg and a gas station attendant shirt with the name Fred on it. Her hair was pulled up in a ponytail.

On his way over to the small group of girls, he noticed that many of the students were casting the three sidelong glances that were filled with fear before hurrying back to their blissful lives of ignorance. He couldn’t help but shake his head at their self absorbed attitudes.

*** Cyanea saw the braided one gallop towards them, wide grin spread across his handsome features. She smiled slightly as she noticed how hot he looked in his black jeans and wife beater. A glint of light caused her eyes to focus on the cross that lay lightly against his chest. Worry crossed her face for a minute, I wonder if he’s one of those hard core Christians. She felt Anika nudge her in the side bringing her out of her thoughts. "Hey," she whispered. "Looks like we’ve got company. Not that I mind…" Montana only rolled her eyes as she crossed her arms. "I guess we’ll stop and wait for him," she said dejectedly.

The trio stopped in the quad to wait for the American boy. "Hey guys," he greeted. "Wazzup!"

Montana once again only rolled her eyes and said, "Yeah, whatever. Who’s your cute blond friend?"

Cyanea clamped a hand over her mouth and quickly amended, "Um…what she means is ‘Hi. My name is Montana Anguun. What’s yours?’ I’m Cyanea O’Shea and the other girl who is staring blatantly at you is Anika Micaels."

"I’m Duo Maxwell, otherwise known as the God of Death," he responded nonchalantly.

Cy very cautiously removed her hand from Montana’s mouth. "Yeah, and I’m the Goddess of your Death if you don’t tell me his name!"

"Direct, aren’t you?" Duo said crossing his arms as Cy quickly put her hand back on her black haired friends mouth.

"Well, since you asked so nicely, his name is Quatre." Eyeing Anika, he added. "And he has a friend named Trowa."

"YES!" exclaimed the short haired girl, whose eyes lit up at the mention of the green eyed boy.

"Oi, by the way, thanks for getting us out of the assembly early. I don’t think I would be able to stand another minute of Mr. Runner’s droning.

Anika replied, "Oh, no problem. We do this all the time."

It was now Montana’s turn to smack a hand over the unsuspecting girls mouth. She smiled sweetly and said, "Don’t mind her. She was legally declared insane just last week."

"Mmhf mfnmf fmfnfhn mfhfmfhfm." Anika retorted saucily through the hand of her friend.

Duo, being an avid watcher of South Park, understood every word that she had said. "Wow, for such a sweet looking girl, you got a mouth that would make a sailor’s mother cringe."

Anika huffed as she placed her hands on her hips feeling a little more than insulted.

Cy decided to take charge, seeing that no intelligent conversation was going to occur any time soon. "So, we’re going shopping today. Do you wanna come with?" she asked.

Duo gave the girls his most charming grin, "Sure, I’d love…" Duo trailed off as he heard voices shouting a few yards away.

"What the hell do you think you’re doing insulting my girlfriend!" a jock was yelling at a short black haired boy.

"Wufei," Duo growled angrily, the smile on his face melting to reveal blazing violet eyes. He was tired of having to pull the Shenlong pilot out of trouble everytime the boy decided to open his mouth.

Turning back to the three girls, Duo replaced his scowl with a humorous smile. "Think I should help him?" he asked as he raised an eyebrow.

"No," all three girls said as one.

Duo facefaulted. "No?" he asked surprised. "Look, that jock is gonna beat the shit out of him if someone doesn’t save him first."

Cyanea just shrugged, "So, he deserves it. After all, he’s nothing but a sexist bastard who thinks its his job to judge anyone and everyone while believing that he is the best thing to grace this earth."

Duo burst out laughing. "You’re good. It took me forever to figure all of that out, but he is still my friend," he said as he turned and rushed to Wufei’s aid.

The short girl sighed as she brushed her red hair from her face, "There is no way I am going to let Duo get a bruise on his face because of justice boy." The other two heard this and quickly followed after her with worried looks on their faces.

*** Wufei stood with his arms crossed over his chest and gazed at the irate jock who was yelling in his face. Why the star football player was so mad at him he didn’t know. All he had said was that his girlfriend, who just happened to be the head cheerleader who never seemed to leave Duo alone no matter how many times he avoided her, was stupid for thinking that the food fight had been his fault. He might have also said that it was an injustice that he should have to put up with a weak woman’s incessant chattering. Of course, the woman took more offense than necessary and decided to sick her boyfriend on him. He saw some movement in the corner of his eye and his scowl grew more. Duo was just gonna make things worse, but there was no way he would be able to get rid of him.

"Oi, what’s goin’ on here?" the American pilot asked as he laid a light hand on the muscular shoulder of the jock.

"What do you think? He insulted my girlfriend, Kerri, and now he’s gonna pay," the jock said as he cracked his knuckles.

Duo smiled, "I’m sure he deserves everything that you want to do to him…"

"Maxwell! I don’t need your help," Wufei said angrily more than afraid of where Duo was going with this.

The pilot of Deathscythe just held up his hand to silence his ‘friend’ and looked back up at the boy in front of him, "but, let’s make a deal. I’ll let you punch him once and we all call it even. If you decide to keep hurting him though, I’ll have to beat the shit out of you personally."

The jock’s (we’ll call him Bob from now on) jaws clenched causing his muscles to bunch painfully. "Maybe, you better shut up before I strangle you with your braid you sissy little shrimp," Bob shouted angrily.

Wufei rolled his eyes. Great, he just made it worse. I just hope they beat up that idiot before me so I can witness it all.

"Whoa, lay off the braid! You touch it, and I’ll have to kill you personally," Duo growled, his voice low with obvious danger.

The first offender forgotten, the jock pulled back his fist to hit Duo. Wufie’s eyes brightened at the thought but soon lost their luster as he saw the girls that had helped Duo yesterday approaching. What the hell are they? The boy’s freaking guardian angels?

"Excuse me," the one wearing a green tank top said, distracting Bob and causing him to lower his fist. He turned to the girl annoyed, then gasped and took a step back when he realized who had spoken to him. The girl giggled. "You weren’t about to punch that boy now were you?" she asked gesturing toward Duo.

"N...N...Nuh uh," Bob said wide-eyed.

The black haired pilot watched in disbelief. What a weakling. The boy can’t even stand up to a woman and he was attempting to hurt me?! he thought. He returned his attention back to the conversation.

"Well, perhaps you better get this straight. These two are under my protection. I better never see you threatening them again. Understood?" the girl asked, anger flashing dangerously in her eyes. Wufei’s eyebrows shot up as he noticed silver streaks swirling around within the brown orbs.

Bob nodded in response before grabbing his girlfriend and rushing off to avoid extending the scary encounter with one of the witches of Streame High Academy. They heard his girlfriend complaining, "I can’t believe you ran from those freaks like that! And don’t you ever try to hit Duo Maxwell again!"

The Chinese boy heard Duo laughing hysterically as he congratulated the girl for a job well done. Then Wufei realized what had just happened.

"Now, wait a minute. There is no way I am going to accept the protection of a weak woman like you," he protested anger obvious in his eyes.

The girl just looked him up and down. "Don’t worry, I don’t plan on being around you enough to protect you. Anyway, I won’t mind if you get the shit beat out of you, I just didn’t want Duo to get hurt on your account."

The anal retentive pilot was at a loss for words, for once. Suddenly, the sound of two girls laughing caught his attention and caused him to turn his head to the side. Standing there were the two girls that were always with Duo’s newest girlfriend. Uncrossing his arms and clenching his fists at his side, Wufei turned back to the girl standing next to Duo. "There is no justice in this world. I must go worship Nataku," he said before stomping off.

"What was that about?" he heard one of the girls ask before he was out of hearing range.

*** Heero didn’t even turn from the lap top at the sound of the door opening.

"Hey there!" he heard Duo’s cheery voice say as the braided boy flopped down on Wufei’s bed and began to make himself comfortable. Heero just continued to type as he prepared himself for the onslaught of Duo’s rambling.

"So, watcha doing?" the American asked.

"..."

"Anyway, I forgot my key and couldn’t get in my room. I would’ve asked Quatre or Trowa for one of theirs, but I couldn’t find them." Duo got up and proceeded to lean over Heero’s shoulder. "Anyhow, I needed a place to kill an hour and thought I would come see what you were doing.

Heero decided that maybe if he answered the boy, he would shut up for a while. Then something Duo had said caught his attention. "An hour?" he asked while continuing to stare at the screen. He wasn’t aware of Deathscythe’s pilot having any plans today. Out of the corner of his eye, Heero noticed the braided boy turn his head to stare at him in surprise. He probably thinks I don’t listen to him at all, he thought as he let a smirk form on his face.

Duo nodded, "Yah, I’m meeting some friends to go shopping." He paused for a moment. "So, do we have any new missions yet? I’d really like to know why we’ve been put in this school. Not that I mind it," he added with a small smile. His thoughts were definitely on something other than missions or the school.

The Japanese pilot narrowed his eyes at the sudden change of subject. Usually Duo would go into details of what he and his friends were going to do. Heero shoved these thoughts aside to focus on the question at hand.

"Hn," he answered. "We have a mission for tomorrow night. There is an OZ base two hours from here. I’m to go in and get some information, you will be my back up. Once we are out, the other three will destroy the base with their Gundams. After, we report back here to wait for a new mission," he said in his usual monotone.

Duo’s eyebrows shot up, "Back up? You never ask for back up. What’s the difference from all the other missions?" he asked in confusion.

Heero know what the violet eyed pilot was thinking. How could the Perfect Soldier need back up? He gave the boy a slight smirk. "Security is a lot tighter than in most bases. It will be very hard to get in. The other three will cause a small distraction, but it won’t be enough. While I’m hacking into their mainframe, I need someone watching the door."

Deathscythe’s pilot nodded in understanding. "You can count on me," he said with a large smile while hoping that Heero had forgotten about the alarm incident during the last mission. Looking at the clock, Duo straightened up. "Oi, I have to go. It’s about time for me to meet my friends."

Heero’s head shot around to face Duo at that statement. "Who are your friends?" the dark haired pilot asked knowing he sounded too interested. Even so, he continued to stare intently at the boy framed in the doorway. Duo turned to face him looking slightly guilty.

Plastering a big grin on his face, he said, "Oh, just those three girls who helped me the other day."

Heero’s blue eyes darkened at the mention of the three witches. "I thought I told you to stay away," he said menacingly.

The braided pilot flinched away briefly before drawing himself up and glaring back at the Japanese boy. "Well, I can’t tell them that I can’t go because my friend is afraid of them. Anyway, they’re nice girls," he added with a hint of a smile.

"Then I’m going with you," he said as he closed his lap top and stood to follow Duo out of the door.

Duo lowered his eyes from the other pilot’s in a sign of defeat before he turned to walk down the hallway. Heero simply turned to lock the door and knelt to make sure his gun was safely secured in the leg holster concealed under the baggy leg of his jeans. Satisfied that it was, he turned to follow his friend down the hall.

*** Chapter 3

Duo sighed unhappily as he shoved his hands into the pockets of his black jeans. He knew that him bringing his friend along hadn’t been part of Cyanea’s plans, but he had no choice. He’d seen what happens to people who tried to stop the Perfect Soldier from doing what he wanted to.

Looking up as he rounded a corner, Duo had no time to react as he plowed into the unsuspecting Trowa and Quatre. All three of them went down in a pile of limbs and braid. The violet eyed pilot opened his mouth to start apologizing only to gain a mouthful of hair.

"O..a! Et or air ou o I outh," he said as he tried to remove the mass of bang from his mouth. He noticed Trowa blush slightly as he helped Quatre and himself up. The braided boy couldn’t help it as he laid eyes on his friends bang. "Man, Trowa. How much hairspray do you use in that thing anyway?" he asked as he pretended to spit a bad taste out of his mouth.

"Actually, it’s extra strength mousse," Trowa said with a very serious look on his face.

"Oh," Duo said giving the boy a strange look before turning toward the sound of Heero approaching. He shook his head sadly as he realized that the boy hadn’t veered far from his normal attire. Instead of the normal spandex shorts, he had on a pair of blue jeans, but he continued to sport his favorite green tank top.

"So, where are you two going?" Quatre asked as he realized the two boys had been heading out of the building.

"Uh, we’re goin’ shopping," Deathscythe’s pilot answered as he inspected his braid to make sure every hair was still in place. Satisfied that it was perfectly neat, he tossed it back over his shoulder and turned to look at Quatre and Trowa. He noticed that Quatre’s face had lit up at the idea.

"Oh, shopping! Do you mind if Trowa and I come?" he asked with hope in his voice. Hey! Taking the rich guy shopping! Duo thought, letting a large smile form on his face.

"Course not!" After all, he didn’t want to hurt their feelings by saying no, and he was sure Anika and Montana wouldn’t exactly mind these two tagging along. Maybe they would even forgive him. "C’mon," he said as he turned and proceeded down the hall. "We’re late meeting my friends."

"Your friends?" Quatre asked as they turned to follow the boy with the swinging braid.

*** Anika sighed and put her hands on her hips. "You know, it’s typical," she said to her two friends. "No matter what, guys can never manage to be on time."

"But isn’t it usually worth the wait in the end?" Cy asked her friends.

"Absolutely," Montana said drawing out the word.

Cyanea turned toward her friend to see her staring hungrily at a young blond wearing a gray long sleeved T-shirt with a pair of blue jeans approaching the doors to the boys dorm with Duo and two other boys.

Anika, completely unaware of her friends distraction, continued the conversation. "I guess you’re right. After all, we waited three months to meet our fourth, so what’s a few more min…whoa!" she stopped talking as she turned to see Duo walking through the door with non other than Trowa Barton, the most recent love of her life, trailing behind him. She felt Cy elbow her in the ribs and shut her mouth before the drool began to escape down her chin as she studied the boy who was wearing a pair of tight blue jeans and a turtle neck.

"Um…Duo. We didn’t tell you to bring your whole army," Montana said even as she continued to eye up Quatre.

Anika leaned closer to her Indian friend and whispered in her ear, "Shh. Don’t ruin a good thing." Trowa overhearing her, blushed under her scrutiny.

Cyanea, in an attempt to save everyone from further embarrassment spoke up. "Well, the more the merrier! Let’s go!" as she clapped her hands together and let a perky smile spread across her face.

All heads turned toward the overzealous girl. Anika became wide-eyed with fright. "Who are you and what have you done with Cy?" she asked softly as she hid behind Montana and peaked over the black haired girl’s shoulder.

The Irish girl let the happy expression fade from her face to expose its normal scowl. "Shut up," she said angrily.

"Oh, there she is," Anika said with a smirk.

Cy glared at the tall girl. Crossing her arms in front of her she shifted her gaze to the messy haired boy. "Well, if we’re all going shopping together, we might as well know everyone’s names."

Heero just returned the glare. Both were perfectly pitted against each other. Everyone began to fidget during the long silence that ensued. Finally, Duo couldn’t take it anymore and offered up introductions.

"This is just Heero’s way of saying hello. Actually, it’s better than most. Usually he’ be pointing a gun between your eye’s," he said with a small nervous laugh as Heero turned his cold gaze on him. Choosing to ignore the intense stare, Duo continued with the introductions. "I’m sure that you figured out that this is Quatre and Trowa," he added gesturing to the two boys standing slightly behind him.

Anika decided to do their introductions and stepped forward. "May I present the Mother, Goddess and Protector of all Bunny Rabbits, Cyanea O’Shea," Cy stepped forward and punched Anika none too lightly in the arm. "Ow, what was that for?" she whined. Giving a large sigh, she continued, "That’s Montana Anguun and I’m Anika Micaels."

Quatre and Trowa both nodded in acknowledgement. Heero just continued to glare.

"So, where are we going shopping?" Duo asked as he toyed with the end of his braid, for once at a loss of what to do next.

Anika spoke up, "We’re going to the mag…"

"The mall!" Cy said quickly before Anika could say anything stupid. "Nika, you really gotta work on that speech impediment," she added.

Anika just smiled while slapping herself mentally. How stupid can I be! I almost told them that we were going to the magic shoppe. I guess we’ll just have to lose them or something, she thought as she tried to plan a way to get rid of the troublesome boys. They needed to get Duo alone so they could explain to him about their fourth; as well as, get some much needed supplies for their ritual they planned to perform in a weeks time. Deep in thought, it took her a moment to realize that her skin was crawling.

The pale faced girl looked up to meet the cold Prussian blue eyes of the boy named Heero. Freezing under the scrutiny, Anika sighed with relief as Montana stepped between her and the glare.

"So are we going shopping or just standing here like a bunch of mindless idiots? I really thought you guys were smarter. Although it isn’t a far stretch for Nika," Montana said as she crossed her arms and returned Heero’s glare.

Anika huffed and placed her hands on her hips, pouting. Why is everyone picking on me today?

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