Part 7

            “Where is he?” Duo asked for the hundredths time. He had searched everywhere for Wufei. The police as well as Preventers had joined the search, but the Chinese boy was nowhere to be found.

            **Damn. Damn. Damn. Could he be captured?** Somebody tapped lightly on his shoulder and Duo screamed, “WHAT~~???”

            “Duo. What’s Wrong?” It sounded like Trowa. Could it be?

            Duo turned and saw his friends standing behind him. It was certainly Trowa. Quatre, Heero and Zech were there too.

            “Trowa!! Quatre! Heero~~ Zech. Help! Wufei has disappeared mysteriously after a flying sword attacked us. I don’t know what to do!” He was so relieved to see them.

            “We will find him. Don’t worry.” Heero assured, “Now tell us everything from the beginning.”

            Duo finished all he knew, feeling much calmer and asked, “So why are you here?”

            “We couldn’t trace the source of the money, but we did find that a lot of funding was going into construction expenses here. So, we decided to come here and aid your investigations.” Zech said.

            “Trowa and I have some free time. We thought we would visit China and help in anyway should it becomes necessary.” Quatre explained.

            “Looks like you and Trowa have to cut your vacation short. We have to find Wufei first. Any idea?” Duo was anxious.

            “Well, we can…”

            “You can start by talking to me.” A female voice interrupted their conversations.

            “It’s you! You are the one with the sword!” In an instant Duo had drew his gun out and pointed at the young woman in front of him.

            “There’s no need for that!” She cocked her head, “I wouldn’t be here if I were trying to harm you.”

            “Not for lack of trying!” Duo was not lowering his weapon.

            “I admit I tried to kill you two before. But I have failed. Now it’s time to talk.”

            “How can we believe you?” Quatre intervened.

            “Do you have any other options?” She mocked, “Do you even know where to start looking for the Chinese boy?” With that, she turned and gestured them to follow her.

##

            The young woman led them pass many back streets of Beijing before they ended outside a small, and ruined monastery. She showed the way in. Despite the wrecking look outside, it was clean and well maintained inside.

            “OK. Ask your questions.” She brought them to a small room.

            “Who are you? Why did you try to kill us? Why are you helping us now? Where is Wufei? Is he OK?” Duo burst out all the questions that he had been dying to find the answers in one breath.

“My name is not important,” she quickly added when she saw Duo was about to protest, “You can call me May. I did not try to kill you, Duo. My target was Wufei. I thought that would be the best way to stop the resurrection. Since I failed to kill him, and unintentionally let him being captured by them, my last resort was to help you get him back before they have him complete the resurrection.” She finished, as if what she said was most logical and understandable.

“Is it me?” Duo looked around, “Or is it you are not making sense!”

“All I ask now is you trust me before it is too late!” May snapped.

Before Duo could think of a retort, she picked up the sword. Duo automatically took a step back, as did everybody else. Duo was uncertain if he could handle a flying sword as nicely as Wufei had.

            “Don’t worry, I am not going to hurt you.” Giving Duo a reassuring smile, she pointed the sword towards the Eastern wall, and drew a circle with its tip. Immediately, a tunnel of lights appeared through the wall.

            “Now, this is eerie,” Duo said, feeling his hair rising, “I thought we are only supposed to pass through the tunnel of light after we are dead.”

            “This is merely a way to transport us to another location.” May moved forward, half of her body disappeared into the lights. “Common’, there’s no time to waste! The other end of the tunnel is where Wufei could be found.”

            That alone was enough to get Duo into the tunnel. And after that, there was no turning back.

##

“Where am I?”

            That’s the first thing that came to mind as Wufei gradually woke up. His head hurt like somebody just drilled a hole through his skull. He struggled to open his eyes. After several failed attempts at this simple task, he gave up and let his awakening senses scanned through. A slight movement of his hands brought a pleasant chains jingling sound to his ears.

            “Eh! Not again,” he groaned as he felt the manacles around his wrists. The last thing he needed was to repeat the distasteful experience of being a prisoner.  

            “I am glad you have awaken. She gave you a higher doze than necessary. Then again, given your martial arts background, you couldn’t blame her for being too careful, could you?” Somebody spoke to him, making him realized he was not alone in the room.

Wufei forced his eyes open. His vision swam in and out until it finally focused. “Mr. Li?” His captor was no other but the person that was supposed to aid them in

the investigation.

            “How are you feeling?” Li asked kindly. Wufei ignored his question and gave Li an icy glare that could have frozen a summer afternoon.

“Well, I did promise to help you learned more about this ‘mysterious’ organization, didn’t I? I never go back on my words.” Li smiled expansively when Wufei remained quiet. “Here, you are at its heart right now.”

            Slowly, Wufei took in his surroundings. What he saw made him gasped. He was laid on the floor at the center of a room about 100 square meters. The wall of the room was made by precious stones. The left side was made of ruby, and the right was emerald. Diamonds, except the spot he had been laid on, covered the floor.

            “Pretty impressive room you have here.” Wufei had to agree to that in the least. “But you need a better decorator; just dumping all the stones together and made a wall, is, how do you put it nicely, no taste?”

            “Oh, you have been with the American boy for too long. I can see that he has such a bad influence on you!” Li shook his head, “Sarcasm doesn’t really suit you, you know.”

            “So what do you want?” Wufei’s lips thin to a line, “I am sure you didn’t bring me here just to admire your interior design.”

            “Ah ah ah, this is where you are mistaken. You are correct, I didn’t bring you here to admire MY interior design. This place is not mine. It’s YOURS.”

            For a moment Wufei thought that he must have suffered overdose of the drug. What was this Li talking about?!

            “Yes,” Li continued, “Yours. The wealth of the organization is much more than this, you know. This is merely a trivial, compared to the treasure of the whole organization.”

            “Let me get this straight,” Wufei reasoned, “You sent somebody to kidnap me and brought me here, just to tell me all these riches belong to me? Doesn’t sound right.”

            “Well, when good things happened, you don’t ask why!” Li patted Wufei on the shoulder affectionately. “Actually, a little accident tonight forced us to speed up our plan. The failed attempt at your life alerted us to bring you in immediately.”

            “Oh, so you want me to stay alive.” Wufei regarded the man in front for a while, trying to figure out what was going on.

            “Of course, we would do anything to protect you. Now, let’s get back to our discussion before. Do you agree to join the organization? Everything here and more will be yours.”

            “I assume I will be under your command once I join?” Wufei decided to play along. Since his life was in no immediate danger, this might be his only chance to find out more about the structure of the organization as well as their intention.

            “No.” Li said, smiling down at him, “You will be the number 2 in the organization. We are all under your command.”

            “Who is the leader of the organization then? I want to see this number 1 before I can make my decision.” Wufei inclined his head and demanded.

            “I am afraid that is not possible. You will be able to see him once you decided to join though. I don’t see any reason for your hesitation. You will be the second most powerful person in the whole world. With the wealth and power of our organization, it will be no time before we take over the world.”

             The discussion continued for several minutes until Wufei noticed that he was not going to get any further information out of Li, unless he swore his allegiance. **I never like indirect approach like undercover or spy.** Wufei decided it’s time to make his next move.

            He launched himself at Li like a human canon ball. The old man gave a groan and fell to the ground unconscious.

Wufei quickly unlocked the shackles around his wrists with a lock pick he always kept with him, and cuffed them on Li. After making sure that Li was not going to be awake for quite a while, Wufei left the room and looked for a way out.

            “Where is this?” Wufei asked himself as he walked from tunnel to tunnel, unable to find the exit.

**This is strange, I don’t see a single guard.** All he encountered was life-size terra-cotta army. After paying closer inspection, Wufei realized these life-size figures were grouped in battle order, rank by rank, some mounted on horse drawn chariots, others in infantry groups armed with spears, swords and crossbows.

**This is a mausoleum!** Wufei finally recognized that the operation center of the organization was set in an ancient tomb, if Li had not been lying to him.

“How do I get out?” Knowing that ancient tomb, especially a mausoleum this grand, could be full of traps. Wufei walked with precaution, suddenly feeling uncomfortable moving through the pottery soldiers, who looked too real to be mere statues made of soil. The sense of being under observation by those reddish-brown eyes hit him, lifting the hair in the back of his neck.     

            Desperate to escape the scrutiny of those lifeless eyes, he picked up his pace towards the direction with fewer terra-cotta guards. He didn’t realize he had been running until he heard his own panting echoed in the dead silence of the tomb. In his panic stage, he had let his instinct led his escape, and now he found himself in a huge room. He closed the door behind him; at least there was no statue in this room.

            The room was empty except for a single large bluish stone 10 feet ahead of him. It attracted him like a magnet. He moved closer and closer, until finally he stood right in front of it.

            **Touch it.**

            “Eh? Who is there?” He thought he heard something. The stone glowed a dark blue, the color of deep ocean. Wufei extended his hand and gently touched the sharp surface.  A strange feeling engulfed him.

            **You have come back to me…** Whispers that had so far only lingered in his dreams came haunting him. For one blinding second, he wondered if he was really awake.

            **Free me. Free yourself. ** The voice in his head continued, getting more urgent as time passed, **do it now. Free me. NOW!**

            In a dreamlike state, Wufei gave in to the commanding voice. He pressed hard onto the stone, and immediately the sharp edge cut into his palm. Blood poured out from his wound, sipping into the stone and a glass shattering sound echoed throughout the room. 

            “AH~” The scream broke through before Wufei realized it was his. A searing agony crashed into his chest, making him wonder in his pain filled mind if someone was trying to rip his soul out of his body. He tried pulling his bloody hand back, but it was glued to the stone, which sucked at his blood until the whole stone glowed in red. 

He leapt back when suddenly the stone released its grip on his hand. Unable to hold up, Wufei braced for the impact of colliding on the hard floor as he fell.

            A distant cry alerted everyone in the group.

            “It’s Wufei!” Duo flung himself into motion when he recognized the owner of that scream. He arrived just in time to see Wufei’s legs failing him. Dashing forward, Duo caught the Chinese boy in his arms. His eyes tightly closed and his breaths shaky.

            “Fei? What’s wrong?” When there’s no respond from the unconscious boy, Duo looked around for help, “What’s wrong with him?”

            Trowa put his fingers on Wufei’s wrist. After a second, he eyes came up, “Duo, his pulse is strong.”

            “Then why is he out cold?” Duo cradled the lifeless body closer to him, asking his friends surrounding him.

            It was May who gave him the answer. “He just had a direct encounter with a soul. Let him lay there and he would be ok in a moment or two. We have greater problems to deal with right now!”

            Duo swallowed his bark when he saw the despair in May’s eyes.

            A soft grunt of pain escaped as the first indication that the Chinese boy was coming around. Wufei slowly regained consciousness, aware first of two strong arms surrounding him. He opened his eyes slowly and saw the face of his beloved hovering worriedly at him.

            “Duo?” Wufei asked, slightly confused. “Why are you here?”

            “You’re ok? Oh, thank goodness you are ok!” Duo hugged Wufei tightly. The other boy returned the hug with equal intensity, before standing up and greeted Heero and others. He was still feeling a little disoriented, not quite understanding the events that had took place.

            “Get out! We must get out now! Before it’s too late!” May shouted, but it was obviously too late. Two shadows appeared before her.

            “Look who is here? May? We have missed you.” It was Gao. Evil intention was written all over his face.

            “Have you come to congratulate us? Want to join our celebration?” Li joined in. His face still displayed the results of his meeting with Wufei.

            “You two bastards!” May’s insults bared no effects on the pair. They merely grinned at May’s anger. 

            “May, you have failed. Haha! On the contrary, we have succeeded. Sure, we took three thousands years to accomplish our goal, but success is success!” Gao couldn’t hide his excitement.

            “Maybe I have failed, but I will kill you first.” She attacked him.

“You broke my nose!” Gao’s scream of pain became dull background noise as Li yelled a great deal louder when May knelt him in the groin. 

            It was obvious she was well trained in martial arts, while the other two were not. They fought clumsily, and every kick or punch of hers landed where she intended. The rest of the group did not know what to do.

            Suddenly, a cackle of ancient laughter erupted from nowhere and shook the ground they stood on.

            May and the two stopped dead in their fights.

            “Oh May, are you still ill tempered after so many years?” The voice was low, smooth and seductive. One would imagine the owner of the voice to be an extremely charming person. At the same time, there was unmistakable malevolence in that voice.

            “Guess who do I miss the most during my thousands years of imprisonment here? May, it’s you…  Oh, how considerate of you to spare me the troubles of searching for you!” The voice continued, smooth and sensual as if whispering to a lover. “I have come out with many exquisite tortures designed just for you, May… You shall have the honor of experiencing them one by one… Hahaha!” The evil laughter was spine chilling to everyone. 

            “It is impolite to speak without showing yourself!” Zech suddenly said to the thin air.

            “Ah~ You are most correct.” The voice agreed. Within a second, the ruby wall trembled and fell to pieces. When the smoke cleared, a man about 6 feet tall was standing in front of them. He was wearing traditional clothing from a long time ago. His silver-gray hair glistened in a blue firelight that seemed to be attached to him.

            “Who the hell are you?” Duo asked, recovering slightly from shock. Heero didn’t bother to ask; he just pulled out his gun.

            “That is no way to talk to the emperor.” Li scolded. He knelt down, and touched his forehead to the floor for nine times. Gao was doing the same thing.

            “What were they saying?” Duo had to ask Wufei, since May was as still as a stone sculpture. “Who is he?” he repeated when Wufei did not respond immediately.

            “Shi HuangTi.”

            “Who?”

            “Shi HuangTi. Emperor of the Beginnings, the ruler of Qin Dynasty, the first man to gain control and build an empire out of China. He gave China its name and invented the word ‘Emperor’. ”

            “I still don’t know who he is.” Duo shrugged.

            “He is also the builder of The Great Wall.” Wufei hoped this would ring a bell. He only knew that much of the emperor himself!

            “Oh, the one who hunt for immortality and abscessed with living forever?” Duo exclaimed in excitement as he finally recalled. “I must admit, he looked pretty good for a man dead for 3 thousands years.”

            “Apparently.” Was Wufei’s answer.