Heero snuck to the gates and pushed them open quietly, sneaking along the path between the two doors. One more set of gates and he would be within the city! The gates were open wide before him.

    The perfect soldier ran forward only to have the gates shut in his face and reveal a huge monster Leo built into them. Teh titanic warrior opened it's cavernous mouth in a loud bellow that told Heero he no longer had the element of surprise. It raise it's double headed ax and he swore violently and dove clear just as the ax fell.

    It hit the gates behind him with a shreik and a spray of sparks. Heero dodged through the Leo's legs and tried to reach the other gates but the weapon delivered another blow, this time a scyth like swing. Heero threw himself flat and watched it wiz passed his nose by only millimeters then jumped up again and scuttled for the wall, climbing a near by buttress he threw himself at the Leo's head and kicked it open, pulling the goblin inside of it out and crushing his throat. He lept back to the wall and then over it and rushed down the main road toward the castle and Duo.
 
 

    Relena was lounging on her throne watching Duo try to fight of her goblins. "That'll teach you to steal my crystal! Get him! Make him bleed!"

    Duo kicked one of his attackers in the groin and sent him flying into a wall.

    "Spiriten little brat aren't you." She frowned. "I think I'll name your demon self Relena." She smiled, "I'll make sure you have my eyes."

    "Come close enough and I'll poke them out for you." He offered with a grin.

    One of the goblins leaned over to his comrade and whispered, "Got her disposition too."

    Another goblin came running into the chamber, tripped on a fellow goblin and fell flat on his face, "Your Highness! the soldier!"

    Relena glanced at him laconically, "What?"

    "The soldier who fell into the bubble and forgot everything. . . "

    "Mhmm."

    "HE'S HERE!!"

    "Hm?" Relena stopped torturing Duo and srutinized the moronic messenger.

    "His here, Your highness! He killed the Leo."

    "Here?"

    "He's gotten through the gates!"

    "WHAT?!" She barked.

    "The soldier who fell into the bubble and . . ."

    "YES!" Relena's faec was twisting in fury, "He got passed my Leo?"

    "Yes, your highness he's blown his fuses."

    "Blown his. . . where is he?"

    "He's on his way to the castle!"

    "Well STOP HIM!" She roared. "Don't mill! DO something! He must be stopped!"

    As one they rushed the door.

    "Wait!" She shouted and tossed Duo to them, "Take this idiot and hide him. Heero can't get the pilot!"

    The goblins ran off with Duo and raised the alarm.

    "He must not get Duo, He must be STOPPED!!!"
 
 

    The Goblin City was a shantytown. About ten block of ramshack houses and winding lanes. All decorated in the Goblin's Grotesque style. The whole town was huddled in the shadow of the castle which rose behind it in pink splendor. //Pink?// Heero almost gagged, //This is getting wierder.//

    The soldier made a silent beeline toward the imposing. . . pink, structure, slipping passed sleeping guards and into shadows to avoid the patrols. "Piece of cake."

    The minute the words left his mouth a bugle sounded and troops poured from the castle into the streets. With the pounding of feet, clanking of armor and an odd uluating war cry Heero was surrounded. There was only one thing to do. run for it. And only one way to run. Back into town. Heero set his jaw, He was not moving back away from Duo!

    With a cry of his own the perfect soldier launched himself into the throng of warrior and ran toward the castle amidst a barrage of spears and arrows. A platoon of bombardiers trundled a cannon in the vanguard of each army but the fool scolided with eachother.
 

    Relena watched all of this from a window and winced, almost imperceptibly.

    Duo's laughter rang through the street.
 

    Heero was refreashed by the sound. "Duo!" He charged into the castle courtyard, up the wide steps and threw open the door, leavig the armies to battle eachother.

    Inside the castle a grande corridor ran ahead of him, and at the end of it they could see a door. Through that door was a throne.

    "Duo." He ran forward, if Relena were there she couldn't stop him now, nothing could!

    The chamber was empty but for a clock that read three minuet to the thirteenth hour, and a vulture who perched in the throne. The bird seemed to grin at him and flew out the window. Heero clentched his fists. "Duo. She's taken him."

    Heero searched the room, they had to be here somewhere! The sole exit from the chamber, apart from the way he came, was a glowing flight of stairs. //That's the only way they could have gone.//

    He ran toward the steps, up toward the bright glowing light at the top. It was a long stair and turned through several angles, he was ready to scream by the time he reached the top and emerged onto a stone plateform. What he saw took his breath away completely.

    Above, below, around him - which he couldn't tell - was a vast stone hall with so many stair cases, balconies, and windows at different hieghts and angles to eachother that he had no clue what was up or down, near or far, inside or out, back and forward. Planes reversed themselves as you watched them. Receding corners suddenly jutted out steps inverted, floor became cieling. . . Heero felt sick. He had to cling to a pilar to stay standing. //Not good, this is NOT good!//

    He forced himself to move forward, or was it back? Duo needed him! But was he going up or under? Sudden;y he heard a voice below him and stiffened, he knew that voice.

    "We've been expecting you." It said.

    He rushed forward and froze. Beyond him, apparently sitting on a vertical wall, was Relena.

    "Where is Duo!?"

    "Safe in my keeping."

    "You aren't keeping him!"

    "Why not?"

    "I'm here."

    Relena grinned and laughed, "Sheer dumb luck."

    "I'm here. Give me Duo!"

    "You understand nothing. You didn't answer any of the riddles, you don't even know the questions."

    "That wasn't the deal!"

    Relen stood and glared at him, "Now you crush my world you evil thing. You starve and near exhaust me."

    Heero watched disbelieving as she walked upside down then suddenly just stepped rightside up again!

    "Everything I've done I've done for you! I move the stars for no one!" She approached and at the same time walked away from him. "You've run so long and run so far. Your eyes can be so crewl."

    Heero glarred, "Just as I can be so crewl."

    "But I do believe in you. Yes I do. Life without the sunlight. Love without a heartbeat, I can't live within you."

    He growled and lept at her but hit an invisable wall, "Give him back!"

    "As I said you learned nothing."

    "Oh but I did. I learned you are hiding behind a wall of fabricated confidence. You're scared Relena. You are terrified."

    "So are you."

    "Yes."

    That caught her off guard. She glarred at him again and made a motion with her arm. "We are matched Heero, you are crewl and I need your crewlty just as you need mine."

    "Never."

    "Well then. . ." She stepped aside to reveal. . .

    "Duo!!!"

    The boy didn't seem to see him. Relena's laughter was all that met his cry.

    He tried to reach his friend but Relena mirrored his every step, sudden'y appearing in front of him from below. He turned and fell with a bruising force. Relena watched him, laughing.

    "I will reach him!" Heero watched Duo walk dangerously close to the edge of one of the balconies. "NO! DUO!"

    Duo did go over the edge, and walked down the vertical wall.

    Heero blinked, it was impossible!

    Sudden;y Relena's hands were on his shoulders. She looked into his face, amused, a look that said 'it's been a fine game, now time for game over.'

    Suddenly everything changed. He was somewhere completely different, Duo was gone. The room was in ruins, stone mostly gone, roof collapsed. Empty, sad, dead. //Duo, God's don't let me loose you now!//

    Relena stepped out from a shadowy archway wearing a faded dress. Her face was older, more harsh and gaunt. In her blond hair there was a trace of grey. How long had he been there?! He himself remained unchanged.

    The goblin queen was waiting for him to speak so Heero glarred, "Give me Duo."

    She paused before answering, "Heero - beware. I have been generous until now but I can be crewl."

    "Generous?!" He advance menicingly.

    "I have done all that you wanted." She steped a pace back into the shadows, "You wanted the baka gone, I took him. You cowered before me I was frightening."

    "Hn!"

    "I have reordered time, turned the world upside down and I've done it all for you. I am exhausted from living up to your expectations. Isn't that generous? STAY BACK!"

    Heero stepped forward and chanted Duo's promise to him, "Through dangers untold and Hardships unnumbered. . ."

    "Listen! Stop! Relena back away even more, "Wait! Heero look what I can offer you!" She gestured with her hand and presented him with a glowing crystal, "It will show all you desire. Show you your dreams."

    "I know my dreams Relena."

    "I asked so little! Just believe in me and you can have the world anything! Everything!" She reached foreward, "I would be your willing slave!"

    "I lo. . ."

    "Don't say it!" She cried.

    "I love Duo Maxwell."

    "NO!" The goblins and their queen screamed together as a clock begain to chim. The crystal in Relena's hand shattered and she swirled into an owl and fell from the turret. "Heeeeeeerrrrrrrrrroooooooooo!"

    The clock continued to chime.

    Heero closed his eyes, tears were streaming down his cheeks. His first tears.
 

    When he opened his eyes he was once again in the safe house. But he hadn't found Duo! "Duo!" He ran to the boy's room and slammed the door open.

    Duo sat straight up in his bed, "H. . . Heero? Are we. . . ?"

    "We're home."

    They crush each to the other and refused to let go. "Heero." Duo sobbed, "Never tell me another story as long as you live alright?!"

    Heero nodded and pressed his lips hungrily against Duo's.

    "Did you mean it Heero?" He asked hopefully.

    He nodded and hugged him tighter, "I love you."

    "That was some adventure huh?"

    "Duo, Our adventure is just beginning."

    Duo kissed him and turned off the light. "You promise?"
 

    Outside the dark window, a white owl had been perched, claws hooked on a branch, an effigy of watching and waiting. Now she swooped away over the park on silent velvet wings up toward the full moon. No one saw her, white in the moonlight, black against the stars.
 
 
 

~Owari~

Finally! Was it worth the wait? ^_^