Setting: Just after the AC-195 war. Possibly AU, but it’s worked in so it doesn’t warp the TV storyline.

Pairings: 3x4, 1+2, Kreigan+5 (mild)

Rating: NC-17 eventually, but this is a softer chapter.

Warnings: Violence, possible OOC? lemon, angst. No NCS - you’ll see why I had to point that out. Several OCs but they don’t necessarily play a big part.

Disclaimers: The only characters here that I own are any alter egos, Kazimiriel, Machiavel, Sarrow and Malvad and a few other characters that’ll pop up. Characters I don’t own include: Heero, Duo, Trowa, Quatre, Wufei, Zechs, Treize and any other good ones in fact.

Also, I would like to note that I am not Christian - anybody that wants to know why can pick one of two courses of action, either accept the fact that I’m a Mahayanist or email me and prepare for a very complex credo - and I’d like to add that this is just a story. If anything in it offends anyone, I apologize very sincerely.

Rough Peace - Part 4

In the midst of explaining as much as he could to Trowa in the space of half an hour, Quatre’s conversation was suddenly interrupted by Duo bounding into the room with an inane grin on his face.

“Somebody looks happy today,” Trowa remarked, smiling slightly. That grin was infectious.

Duo’s smile broadened - if it was at all possible - and he dropped down to sit next to the Sandrock pilot on the bed. “Quatre man, I *love* you!” he exclaimed, grabbing Quatre’s head in his hands and kissing his forehead, “You’re the best!”

Quatre stared in astonishment, “What are you, Italian?” he laughed as Duo bounced up and down. “Not that I don’t appreciate the praise, but I’m still not sure what I did to make you do this.”

The braided boy bobbed his feet up and down. “You don’t remember!? Geez, I thought angels were supposed to have good memories! You told me to talk to Heero, you dolt!”

The little blond beamed excitedly, “You talked to him!” he said animatedly, “So does that mean the two of you are together now?”

“Quatre, he *kissed* me!” Duo announced, making a note of Trowa’s delighted expression, “Honest to God, Heero actually kissed me! Oh Quatre it was incredible!” he proclaimed, throwing himself backward onto the pillows. “Is this how you feel every time you two kiss?”

The angel nodded enthusiastically and sat back on the bed, “Duo, I’m so pleased! I could feel those emotions coming from you for so long, but I didn’t wanna force you. You’ve got no idea how strongly he feels for you.”

Trowa shook his head, “We’ll all be making Wufei jealous,” he said lightly.

Duo’s expression suddenly dropped a little, “Speaking of that guy… Quatre, you didn’t happen to see who did this to you, did ya?”

“Hmm, yes I did,” Quatre replied, nodding seriously. “I suppose it’s easier if you know about this. Trowa, I know your head must be overloading with information right now but this is pretty important.” He paused and took a deep breath, the memories of what that boy had put him through over the years were still very painful and sent his spirits into some very dark places.

“What do you mean?” Trowa asked, “This is someone we don’t know?”

“Exactly. You see, the place I come from called Niravaana is, to put it in simple terms, like a heaven,” he said, wanting to give a brief but concise explanation, “and with heaven comes a sort of hell. This is Enfir(1) where demons comes from and, more specifically, my nemesis.”

The humans were justifiably confused. “So, if this Enfir is hell, is there a purgatory?” Duo asked with a curious expression on his face.

Quatre thought for a second, “Yes. But that’s making everything very complicated and it’s not really necessary right now,” he said quickly, the subject of Lymbo was just too complex to go into in the space of a few minutes. “The guy that attacked me is called Kreigan and he is a significant pain in the ass. Though, I don’t begrudge what he did to me. He had every right-”

“What the hell do you mean!?” Duo yelled in astonishment and then realized just what he’d said ‘I wonder if hell is blaspheming…’ “How can he have had the right to do this to you?”

“Well, in order to keep a balance, angels only suffer as punishment for some kind of misconduct,” Quatre replied, “In this case, my misconduct was letting him see me in my holy body. He was the one assigned to me to deliver any punishment I might need, especially for the war.”

Duo suddenly held up a silencing hand, “Hold up a second Quatre, do you think Heero needs to know this?”

Quatre’s heart sank and he hesitated, “Why would Heero need to know anything? I mean, I know there’s a very big possibility that he’s one of my comrades but I can’t tell him until I’m sure.”

“Oh,” Trowa bit his lip and stared at the floor, “Well, this morning when we heard you scream, we all went out to find you. Heero included.”

The angel covered his face in his hands and shook his head. “I’m fine,” he said to Trowa’s loving embrace, “worst case scenario is that Kreigan shows up again. The best development of this would be if Heero *is* one of the other two who are supposed to know and I’ve actually gone a long way to completing my task by gaining the help of three of you.”

Trowa frowned, “Three of who? What task?”

“Oh boy this is gonna take a while.”

“I know there’s something weird going on, I just can’t put my finger on it,” Wufei thought aloud, sitting on the porch swing at the back of the house. ‘The whole group of them has been acting so bizarrely today… add to that where I woke up this morning and the entire thing just seems strange.’

The Altron pilot shivered as the warm summer air was broken by an icy bluster from around the side of the house. ‘Now the weather’s playing up. Okay, so *that* one is probably just a coincidence but it’s still weird to get drafts like that in the middle of August.’

“Chang Wufei?”

The Mandarin boy looked up and around the garden, there was no one in sight. “Hello?” he said reluctantly, “Is someone there?” There was no answer and Wufei started to worry. He adamantly got to his feet and clenched his fists, “If there’s anybody out there, you’d better come and show yourselves before I drag you out from wherever you’re hiding!”

He felt a presence to his left and whipped around to see a… was it human? Impossible, humans don’t have gray skin and big black wings. “You’re are Chang Wufei, aren’t you?” the creature said, making his way towards the Altron pilot who instinctively took up a defensive stance.

“Who are you and what do you want with me?” Wufei demanded.

The creature shook his head, “There’s no need for that, boy. I just wanted to come and say thank you.”†

‘I must be dreaming,’ Wufei decided ‘creatures like this… this *thing* in front of me don’t exist in real life. But I feel… something. Something I never feel in dreams. All I know is that I don’t want that thing anywhere near me.’ “What have I done for you?” he asked the creature, “and my first question, who *are* you?”

“Forgive me, my etiquette seems to have slipped a little,” the creature said in an amused voice. “My name is Kreigan. It’s nice to meet you. Face to face I mean, I have been acquainted with you before.”

‘Kreigan… I’m sure I’ve heard that name before.’ Wufei shook his head, “When have we met? I don’t remember anything of the sort. But I feel like I know you somehow.”

Kreigan smiled, “A perfectly normal feeling, I promise you. Earlier today, you were kind enough to lend me use of your mortal body. You didn’t put up much of a fight either. Perhaps I’m just not used to possessing human beings.”

“Use of my mortal body?” Wufei suddenly felt his heart leap into his mouth as a million ideas suddenly sprang into his head. “What… what exactly did you do to me? And what in the hell are you!”

The demon nodded almost sympathetically. “You certainly got my origin right, although your technical correctness leaves something to be desired. Don’t worry, I didn’t damage you in any way. I just… needed you to help me run some errands.” Kreigan had, very skillfully, been gradually closing their immediacy throughout the conversation and was now almost nose-to-nose with the Mandarin boy.

Wufei went to speak again but was silenced by one bitterly cold finger pressed to his lips. “If you need more information,” Kreigan whispered in his ear, his arctic breath sending shivers down Wufei’s spine, “You can talk to your little blond friend. He should be able to help you out. He *ought to* at least… I don’t know many people who could say no to that face.”

With that, Kreigan drew his finger away and placed a freezing kiss on Wufei’s stunned face before disappearing in a burst of ice, rain and feathers so black, they were almost blue. The Altron pilot finally remembered to breathe and shivered violently with the cold and with sheer terror. Terror at the fact that there was something very serious going on and he hadn’t a hand in it.

But… terror at the fact that this demon seemed to like him and, to his own moral disgust, he wasn’t too sure he hadn’t enjoyed that kiss immensely. It had been perfectly possible for him to pull away but he hadn’t. And he wouldn’t pull away if it happened again, he was sure of it.

Wufei ran through the dialogue again in his head, “I got his origin right… what does that mean anyway?” He put every spin on every phrase he could remember uttering during the conversation and only came up with one feasible answer. “Hell…” he whispered to the midday air and looked around desperately for some explanation.

‘My little blond friend is obviously Quatre, that’s it. I’m getting a rationalization of this whether Winner likes it or not!’

The Altron pilot quickly got inside the house and locked the door behind him, panting slightly with the intensity of the situation at hand. He walked through the kitchen and found Heero sat in the living room doing some kind of word puzzle in the newspaper before he looked up.

“Are you alright, Wufei?” Heero asked when he saw the ashen-faced look and the dampness of his friend’s clothes.

Wufei shook his head and looked about, “Where’s Winner? I need to talk to him. I wondered if he could clear up a few things for me.” He took a step back as Heero stood up and advanced on him.

“What do you want with him?” he asked roughly, his eyes boring into an already terrified Altron pilot’s.

Wufei stammered a little before strengthening his resolve and staring back, “Who are you? His mother? There is a whole lot of weird crap going on round about now and some guy has just shown up and told me to talk to Winner about it, so that’s what I’m going to do. Now move!” he yelled, attempting to push his way past Heero.

The Perfect Soldier stood firm and put his arm out to protest, “Why should I believe you’re not going to hurt him!?”

“Hurt… *Quatre*?” Wufei exclaimed, “What in the world would I want to hurt him for!? I need to *talk* with him. Or doesn’t your vocabulary cover complicated words like that!”

Heero swung a punch, which Wufei immediately dodged and jumped back from. “Yuy, wait,” he said in a calmer tone. “This is getting ridiculous, all I want is to talk to Quatre. Look, you can sit by and watch if you wanna supervise! But I need a word with him. And a very serious word at that.”

Prince Machiavel rubbed his forehead in concentration. The amount of harassment he’d had over this latest confrontation development was starting to get to him. He was normally a very cool and collected person but things had been so hectic lately that he could feel himself starting to snap.

At least he could count on Kreigan to get his job done in situations like this. Now *that* demon was a good worker and it made the prince very self-satisfied to think that he’d been the one to train such an outstanding individual in his job.

His train of thought ended with a knock on his study door and he swiveled his chair around menacingly to see who it was. “Enter,” he said abruptly, staring defiantly toward the door. His expression softened somewhat as his eyes fell on the confident figure of his subordinate, another successful demon he’d had a hand in training. But this one, unlike Kreigan, had such a blazing attitude that was impossible to ignore.

“I thought you could do with some extra help,” the demon said, flicking his long blond hair over his shoulder. “Word is you’ve been a little stressed lately. We can’t have that now, can we?”

Machiavel smiled, “Indeed we can’t, Zechs.”

TBC…

(1) Spin on the French word for hell

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