CHAPTER TWELVE: Of War and Battles

"Let them go?" The man's eyes shifted wildly, never meeting Heero's. "I will not let them go, they are my Others! What you ask is unheard of!"

"You are Common Joined," Heero said tonelessly, "and have no right to keep them. You will damage their Talents and their ability to Join with their true Spirit. You know this."

"You dare say such things to me? How can you pretend to know this? You are new in this township, we have never seen any of you before..."

Heero's eyes narrowed, and the man shivered a bit and pressed back against his pillows. "I know this because I am Spirit, too; you cannot hide any of this from me."

"You may think so! But you are wrong! And if you were right, what authority do you have - a mere child! - to come into my home and say such things to me!"

Heero didn't reply verbally; his hand went to his collar and he flipped out a medallion. His own Others grinned, except Wufei - the other Talents in the room gasped. Wufei snuck a peek at the necklace to see what it was; a flat, round piece of bronze with the WarCraft insignia embossed on it, held around Heero's neck by a piece of braided leather.

Wufei might not know much about what each particular Talent could do, but he had a bit more information about what the different Joinings could do. He'd learned that easily, from talk in the village. He had forgotten, until now, that WarCrafts held ultimate Martial authority during wartime - they were above even the Mayor of this Township, and would be above the Mayor of a City. Only a WarCraft higher in the army's hierarchy could challenge their authority.

The Spirit Talent on the bed - Markin - wiped the shock off his face and gave a disapproving growl. "Where did you get that, boy? It's not a toy for you to play with! You will be in serious trouble when I report this to Cordia's Army Control!"

Heero just smirked. "Report away. But you will not leave this room until you have released these people. You know their Spirit is here, now."

Four heads jerked around to stare at him.

"W-what?!" The man named Paulos sputtered. "What do you mean? He told us our Spirit had died - Markin, you said..."

"And it's true!" The Spirit howled, sitting up sharply, no sign of weakness. "It's true, she is dead! Who will you believe, this boy or me?!"

"How do you know?" Heero's voice was relentless. His face was completely blank, letting his Others that were used to him know that he was quietly preparing to blast this man - just waiting for him to make the first move.

"What... I don't..." Markin was flustered, and trying hard to hide it.

Just not hard enough.

"How could you know, if their Spirit is alive or dead? No Spirit Talent has that ability. We wouldn't need to Seek, or Search, or Call to our Others if we did. We could go straight to them. How can you say she is dead? How can you even say 'she'?"

Markin chose to cover consternation with rage. "Who are you, to say such things to me?! I don't believe you are WarCraft - and you are certainly not going to make me severe my Joining with these four! They need me! They can't do Healing without me!"

"But their Spirit is nearby. She is looking for them." Heero pulled his eyes away suddenly, concentrating, and everyone in the room felt a surge of power ripple past them. They heard words - even Wufei and the Healing Talents - words that Heero didn't speak aloud.

'Where is the Spirit for this Healing? Come to them, come now...'

"No!" Markin shrieked, and threw caution to the wind. He wasn't going to lose this Four - wasn't going to give up the soft, comfortable life they provided for him.

With a sudden blaze of power, he attacked.

********( Traveling With An Army )********

Lucrezia sighed.

She hated traveling.

Especially when she couldn't ride with Zechs. She dearly loved her brother - and it didn't hurt that he was the best-looking man in this blasted army. He drew the women riding with them like honey draws bees; then their boyfriends followed to see what was going on.

Sometimes, they got angry with their sweethearts for being so shallow as to chase after a pretty man - sometimes they got mad enough to break off their relationship.

Lucrezia had gotten most of her boyfriends on the rebound...

Not that she needed to get them that way, of course. She was pretty enough to attract them on her own - it was just easier. And besides, the nicest ones were already taken - so what was a girl to do, except wait until their lady friends were silly enough to make them angry?

On this trip, she had her eye on a handsome young Soldier, an Air Talent in a Building Joining. He was currently seeing a ditzy little creature from another group of Talents - one who was already mooning over Zechs - the Soldier deserved better and Lu was certain she could win him over.

And he was such a sweetie that she might hang on to him.

Especially since his Spirit Talent had been giving Zechs funny looks. She had a feeling the woman was sensing a Calling - Zechs was too worried about Heero right now to feel it, himself. It often took a long time for a Spirit Joining to occur, anyway - one might feel the Calling to their Council for a year before the Spirit Council felt it. It had taken Sally six months of hanging around Zechs' house before he'd recognized the Speaking between them.

"Lu? What are you thinking about? You look so serious?"

Lucrezia turned and smiled at the young man who had ridden up beside her. Fallon was their Water Talent, a bright-eyed boy about a year younger than her. He was Linked to their Fire Talent, Kael. She enjoyed the two boys very much, loving them like younger brothers. It pleased her to have him show up, since the reason she was sighing was boredom.

Zechs had been called into an impromptu war council with the General and the other Commanders, and she been left to be bored almost to tears.

"Ah, I was just daydreaming," she smiled, "wishing we were all together again."

"Yeah, it'll be nice to have Heero and Duo and the others back."

"Yes." Lu agreed. If her Others were like her brothers and sister, than Sally, Heero and their Others were like much-loved cousins. It was as if they had a very large, close-knit family, and they didn't care much for being apart.

Damn war.

Life had been such fun three years ago, when she, Zechs, Kael, Sally and two of her Others had been happily living in the large house Zechs' inheritance had bought them, doing land surveys and buying maps, searching for the perfect place to begin their Township. The enemy had been a bogey-man, a whisper to frighten children in the dark. No one had believed they would ever be forced to war.

Then the Northern Kingdom of Rhom had declared that Talents were 'evil', and had begun putting them to death.

Their own king had been horrified, had sent ambassadors to plead with the ruling family of Rhom, offering to take the Talents into their Kingdom, if Rhom found them so unpalatable.

King Nurek of Rhom had flatly refused - and without any royal politeness to cover it up.

King Treize of Alyans had responded by opening his borders to any refugees from the North.

Since some of the richest people in Rhom were Talents or had them in their families, Nurek had lost half the wealth of his Kingdom.

He had retaliated - more out of spite than any belief in 'evil' - by slaughtering Talents as soon as they were born.

Alyans, along with the Eastern Kingdom of Jystica and the Western Kingdoms of Klyte and Taborn, had promptly closed off all trade and commerce with Rhom, refusing to deal with a madman who was murdering children.

Rhom had answered by declaring war.

No one's life would ever be the same.

*

"Lu?" Fallon's voice was worried. "Lu, snap out of it! You look like you're about to cry."

"I am," she sighed, "I'm sorry. Sometimes, Fallon, I just want to go home."

"We all do," he replied, and fell silent.

She took his hand and wove their fingers together.

Both rode on, deep in thought, drawing comfort from a handclasp.

********( Cordia Township )********

The room was deathly quiet.

Two Spirit Talents stared at each other, both surrounded by crackling white energy.

Eight other Talents sat or stood absolutely still, not wanting to distract either.

Not wanting that energy to suddenly flare toward them.

Markin had made the first move, sent some horribly overwhelming emotion toward Heero, tried to drag the boy down with the first blow. Take him out quick. He'd put a lot of his power into that move, wanting to finish this fight before it really started.

Heero had just shrugged.

Markin was drawing on the power of his Others, now - Duo, watching them closely, could tell by the strained, unhappy expressions on their faces. The Common Joining allowed this, not in the full force of a true Joining, but Markin should have asked, should have made sure they were willing to share this fight.

He very obviously hadn't.

Not that it mattered much. Even with their strength behind him, he couldn't hope to match Heero.

And their Spirit didn't need the borrowed strength of his Others to match this man. Markin had started the fight with an emotional attack, so Heero had answered in kind. The small man on the bed had sobbed, laughed hysterically, and screamed in fear. Duo was tense, knowing the man wasn't going to stay with this type of attack much longer.

He wasn't worried, exactly - but Hee-chan never watched out for himself...

There!

Markin had drawn himself upright and sent a bolt of that white light straight at Heero, who of course didn't dodge - show off - and instead absorbed it right into his own white aura, changing it and sending it bolting back, twice as powerful.

Markin barely managed to dodge - it brushed against his shoulder, making his entire left arm go limp, before diffusing harmlessly against the wall. The man's eyes showed white all the way around, finally realizing some of what he was up against. He leapt to his feet, standing on the mattress, and pulled in a deep breath.

The little female Fire Talent, who was sitting closest to the bed, screamed shrilly and collapsed. She slumped to the floor in a heap at the same time Markin sent a new flash of light, hot and red, swirling at Heero.

Duo felt the faint whisper of a question in his mind and immediately opened his Talent to his First, feeling the coolness of Water flowing out of his soul even as Heero blocked the red light with cool blue.

The others in the Healing had rushed to the girl, surrounding her with cries of dismay. Markin jerked his head toward them, and Gwenneth's head came up, eyes blazing with fury.

"No!" she screamed, her voice a twist of pain and anger. "No, I will not let you have my Air! Look what you've done to Yyssa!" She was cradling the girl in her arms, the young face deathly white. "You let us go! We will not help you any longer!"

"You will! You have no choice!" Markin screeched the words back at her, and Duo knew, from seeing it done before, that he was trying to take her power, trying to take the power of the Others. Paulos seemed strong enough to resist him - Corbett gave a hoarse cry of agony and joined Yyssa on the floor.

Markin sent a rush of blue at Heero now, and he couldn't block it with its opposite - he wasn't Joined with his Fire.

Markin was just strong enough a Spirit to figure that out.

Good thing Duo had taught Heero the fine art of improvising.

A mix of yellow light and green met and clashed in front of Heero, mixing into some color not known to mankind and gobbling up the blue light before it ever reached the young Spirit Talent. It was a trick Heero had to come up with in the years past, needing Fire to block such attacks during his training, taking one too many Water hits to ever want one again.

And this one would have been vicious, not the gentle slaps you got if you missed with your Trainer.

Markin gave a howl of fury at seeing his shot miss - but he had a calculating brain, and it had been working overtime. His eyes darted away from Heero to the four boys behind him, flicking over each in quick turn. He knew the Fire was the weak link, unJoined and not able to hear the Spirit's warning - but which was the Fire?

Ah, there. The little dark one with the bruises.

Wufei's eyes widened when Markin's settled on him, an ugly gleam in their formerly angelic depths. He wanted to run but he wasn't sure that was a good idea - he stayed firmly in place. Heero would tell him what to do - he couldn't Speak to him, but the boy had a voice!

And he used it. "Wufei - down!"

Even as searing white light bolted toward him.

He dropped.

But it wasn't necessary.

Two shields of gleaming white had slammed together in front of him, blocking the attack of the Spirit Talent who was still standing on the bed.

Two different shields.

Everyone in the room - at least, the ones who were still conscious - stared at the doorway and the diminutive woman who stood there. She was dressed in traveling clothes, her face strained and tired, two looping braids over her ears coming undone in little frizzes.

Gwenneth and Paulos looked at her like they were seeing an angel.

"Hello, pets," she said sweetly, "sorry I wasn't here sooner." Her eyes slipped over Corbett and Yyssa and she turned a deadly glare on Markin.

He very nearly wet himself.

"Let them go."

"I will never..."

"That was not a request." She sent a bolt of her own light at him, and the man screamed and clutched his head.

Paulos and Gwenneth gasped and blinked, feeling Markin's connection to them shatter and fade away.

The little woman didn't spare another glance for the man who collapsed, weeping, on the bed. She rushed straight to the four people on the floor, followed by a huge, hulking man they hadn't noticed earlier. She held out her arms for Corbett, first, and Paulos handed him over.

As soon as he was in her arms, he gasped. Color slid back into his face, and his big eyes blinked open. She held out her other arm for Yyssa, and the same thing happened with the frail-looking girl.

The little woman grinned at them, then at the two adults, who were gaping at her.

"I'm Tania, and this is my husband, Greyso." She jerked her thumb at the silent giant who had knelt beside her, easing Corbett out of her arms. "He's our Council, and like I said, we're very sorry we are late."

A/N: Short chapter? Kinda. My sister was in the hospital. Nothing serious, but I spent a lot of time there with her. So anyway, next chapter out soon! An attempt at Joining, and Heero's history. Oh, and Wufei's arm fixed, of course. It's the least Tania can do!