Title: Choices

Disclaimer: I don't own GW..or Zechs..

Warnings: Slight angst, General creepiness?, Very vague hint of Yaoi at the end (if you read it that way)

Pairing: Vaguely implied 13x6



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Wind gave the abandoned warehouse another look over before he walked up to it and carefully tested the lock. A burst of static sounded and he flinched slightly away from the door to dig the small comlink out of his jacket pocket. "Wind here." he said quietly as he depressed the small switch on one side of the small device.

"This is Wing. Do you have the target location in sight?"

"Yes. I am checking one of the side doors now. When is backup coming out here?" he asked trying the handle of the door carefully again, it was unlocked. He raised an eyebrow and was about to report this when Heero's monotone tone came back over the link.

"They are not coming out there. We have other orders to perform a pincher movement on our secondary target and have no agents to spare to back you up."

Wind gave a brief glare at the device and snorted faintly. "Wonderful.. and what if I get my ass in a sling because I had no backup?"

"Do your best, our hands here are tied. Wing out." The static of the comlink went dead and Wind stuffed the link back into his pocket. He pressed down on the handle again and the door opened inwards slowly. He took out his pistol and slowly stepped sideways into the door scanning it silently, the pistol against his shoulder. The building was mostly silent, just the vague suggestion of voices at the other end of it. He carefully walked towards them, keeping his back towards one of the walls. There was a sudden angry shout and he stopped looking around again for the source. It seemed to have come from the direction he was headed in.

The came to a doorway and frowned faintly as he stood in front of it. There was something about the wall and long crimson curtain in front of him that bothered him. The color.. he turned to look back the way he came and his eyes widened as he saw not the large room of the warehouse he had just crossed but a very overly familiar hallway that he had walked down many times. 'Impossible.. A trick.. a hologram. It has to be.' He narrowed his eyes at the hall and aimed at one of the walls. Firing he watched the hall expecting the bullet to pass through the hallway's walls. He was startled when it didn't and caused a small gouge in the wall. Silent and shaken he walked towards the spot and lightly ran his fingers over it.

It felt real, which only unsettled him further. He turned away from the wall and back towards the doorway, hesitating for a moment before walking through the doorway brushing past the curtain. He looked over to his right reluctantly and hissed softly as he saw the long table with the large painting beside it. Looking away, he heard the vague voices again and turned to scan the room for the owners of the voices. He saw the flicker of a candle within a far corner and two silhouettes. Holding the pistol down by his side he slowly walked towards them and stopped again in shock when the one on the left lifted his head to look over at him.

The man was a mirror image of himself.. only there was something not right with him. He wore a white suit, the lapels of it ebony lined with designs in gold. He knew the outfit, he had worn it to the colonies when he had tried to come to them as a goodwill ambassador. But the face that was looking at him was him, only... not. He looked over at the figure on the right prepared to demand an explanation only to fall silent as he recognized the build and the outfit it was wearing. A sudden shiver ran down his back as he took in the trench coat and the long vest underneath it crossed with two belts, one holding a holster for a pistol. It was empty though, and he slowly looked up at the figure's face and stepped back in shock with a hiss.

That mask, the same one that had broken and he had once replaced before discarding it again was settled over the second man's face as if it belonged there. What he saw of the lower face and the hair falling down over his shoulders told him this man was another mirror image of himself. A small smirk graced the lips under the mask suddenly.

"It seems our guest has arrived." the masked man said coldly towards the second man. The other said nothing and averted his eyes away from the other. The White Fang image turned his attention back to Wind. "You must choose one of us to side with. Him.." A gloved hand flicked disdainfully towards the silent figure in the suit. "Or me." The gloved hand fisted in front of second images chest. "Of course, since you're a warrior, you will side with me and we shall show this world what it truly means to war against their neighbor. You know they won't remain cowed, and peaceful for long. That is why you're here isn't it? To prevent another war?"

The first image looked up again at that and looked at the masked figure before looking at Wind. "He's here to keep the peace. He is a Peacecraft at heart. He was born to keep peace, he will not create another war to needlessly kill thousands. He will not side with you." The suited figure stepped forwards slightly and looked Wind in the eyes. "Return to your roots, take the duty you were given with your birth and protect the peace. You were born to be king." The suited figure was suddenly hit from behind and cried out quietly as he fell to his hands and knees, hair falling over his face and shoulders in a curtain to hide his face from view.

Wind looked up at the figure behind the fallen one and shivered slightly again at the coldness seeming to pour off of the White Fang figure in waves. "Milliardo speaks foolishness and idealism for the weak. Ignore him and show that you are strong enough to teach humanity what it really means to fight. The last lesson was not learned well enough and they are forgetting. We both know that you are a warrior at heart. Side with me and they'll never hurt another with their lies and pettiness."

Wind looked back down at the fallen man, Milliardo, himself. He then realized what was amiss with him. He spoke and thought like his sister. He glanced up at the other. 'Zechs..' he thought to himself. Both of these were himself and yet they weren't. Something within fought the idea of joining one and leaving the other in the dark to die. Which he knew somehow would happen if he did make a choice between the two of them.

He stepped back again away from both of them and holstered the pistol under his jacket. Milliardo looked up at Zech's hiss at him. Wind turned then away from them back towards the curtained doorway. "I make no choice. I do not need to choose one of you, I will follow my own path." he said before he closed his eyes and ran for the exit. He felt the feel of fabric billowing around him and then hit suddenly with something hard and metal by the sound of it.

Opening his eyes, he saw the door he had entered by and straightened himself up, hand on the handle. He needed to look back, but he was scared inside of what he would see. Finally he opened the door to have the sunset rush in on him and with the sight of the sun in front of him he looked back the way he came quickly.

Nothing. A wide open empty warehouse. A sudden relieved breath escaped him and he walked out the door and into the growing dusk. He was walking back towards his car when his comlink came to life again with a static hiss. He took it out of his pocket and spoke quietly into it. "Wind here.."

"This is Moon. The fire has been put out, it also seems your mission was a false lead."

"Ah.. Understood."

"You can come back to HQ, Moon out."

Wind lowered the device and slipped it back into his pocket looking back at the warehouse. 'Yes.. that was what they were, false paths.. had I chosen either, I would of destroyed part of myself.' He closed his eyes again and sighed softly as a small breeze picked up and blew past him. He opened his eyes again and glanced at the last of the sun sinking below the horizon. 'I have a path now that is not in Zechs's shadow of revenge and anger, nor in Milliardo's shadow of needing to restore Sanc or trying to somehow redeem myself .. I am something more than that now. I am Wind, not Zechs, the warrior or Milliardo, the heir of the Peacecraft monarchy. I will follow my own ideas now..'

A small smile graced his lips then as he turned away from the building and the horizon to open the door to the car and slide into it. The engine started and he drove away from the darkness behind him feeling surprising lighter and at peace with things around him than he had when he had arrived.

*

Two pairs of eyes watched the car as it drove from sight and both figures smiled silently. The smaller of the two figures looked up at its companion, sapphire eyes holding respect and seeming older than the 24 years the body gave testimony to. The older figure looked down at the younger silently for a moment before speaking. "You got your wish it seems, he appears to have come to terms with his past and his past actions."

The other nodded silently, looking back towards the road Wind has disappeared down. "Yes. And now he can truly live the way he wishes to and not brood over past mistakes or blame himself for things he had no control over."

A white eyebrow raised slightly and the slain king smiled again softly. "Aye." he said softly before fading from view.

The sapphire eyes continued to stare out at the road before closing slowly. A small sad smile shaped the man's lips before he also faded from view with one last parting shot. "As I said before Milliard.. I'll be waiting when you come home, on the other side."