Code Name: Vietnam

By: Danni Lynn

~Hagi~

Years and years I had spent upon this vast Earth, walking every milestone that has been cast and set for mankind to find. Every corner, twist and turn have I meandered through with only a vague sense of gravity boring down on my shoulders to remind me that I have yet to become a true ghost. Though, already I feel as if I have become the written spirit of night as mortality no longer hovers above me in a creeping forward silhouette.

Death has become a joke and in the beginning, it appeared as if it was a mere game. Yet, every time I opened my eyes and the feeling of being refresh rolled over came the sense of joy that I had cheated death with my bait once again. Though the pain of the game was never fun or laughable, I find that if mortality can be conquered so can the nerve endings of pain be controlled as well.

Everything in life is done by the setting of the player's mind and what his actions decree him into doing. A poor man can become a rich man with enough ambition to want to change the lifestyle, as much as an endowed man can be either a fool or a genius, depending on what he does with has been obtained.

Yet, as the seamless fabric of Time no longer kneads me into its will, I still find that the after effects of escaping the knots and strings has hindered me with a strong sense of forlorn and loneliness, but I have not been completely crushed due to the fact that a creature not much different from me stands in the very same position as I do. Though I have never found this endless charade a curse due to the very fact I have my partner, whom I shall give my life for till I am forced to slit my wrists and hang the noose around my neck in the honor of my vow.

Alas, Time's after effects have hit my beloved companion much harder than I, for every time she opens her eyes, there is an increasing black depth swallowing her into the pits of her own hell. To avoid a rapid succession of her sanity, she is to spend time into three decades of darkness, where she rests and slowly mends her mind. This woman of an appearing age of sixteen has captivated my heart and body for me to serve her every whim.

She is my beloved princess.

For this young lass, I have spent hours, days, nights, and years alone without her to keep me company for she sleeps in recovery. As she sleeps...I wait...for the slow beating of her heart to pick up and her lips to part and call my name. The succulent flutter of her lilting voice to murmur the syllables of my birth name, and call upon me, her one and only servant, Hagi.

So...

I wait.

And wait.

And wait.

The Earth has eroded and dissipated but has also rebuilt and given birth to new life. My planet is forever changing, much like my mistress. Never has she been the same more than once. She has destroyed herself many times over and built herself back up again and again and again.

I can only stand by and watch, giving to her every command. I am her servant. A slave can love a master, but never can they be together, so I presume to reason that I'll stay by her side, even when I am no longer needed or wanted.

I love her.

Many times, has my queen damned herself for me, for my blood has become kin to hers, truly bonding us for all eternity. She has felt that she has cursed me, when I only feel as if I have been blessed, for I get to remain together with her. I can become her support, I can love her, I can remember her when everything else has gone away with the sands of Time. I shall be the man in the shadows, who helps guide her when she becomes astray, and the one to protect her.

I have seen mankind unite and self destruct in many shapes and forms. Sometimes, I have to remind myself, that at one point I was a being of humanity as well, but I have left that side long ago because Saya doesn't need a human by her side, she needs a monster. Somebody to grit their teeth and do every wish she commands, whether they end in joy or sorrow.

At one point, I could no longer stand humans and was at a lost for why Saya would want to protect such horrid creatures, that could only steal and murder, rape and abuse one another. Their need for death was irrational while a chiropteran only killed because it was purely instinct, while for humans, it was a corruption of nature. Yet, when I had truly looked at the picture and analyzed it for all of its worth, I realized that not all humans were truly evil, like how not all Chiropterans were truly monstrous as well.

It was a matter of personality.

Through the ages, I have traveled the world, carrying Saya along side me. I would go out and explore and everyday when the sunset and moon rose, I would tell her everything I felt, saw and heard. Every thought, every breath, every scene. She wasn't with me in body but with me in spirit. I knew that even though she was asleep, she was listening to everything I would tell her. One time, many decades ago, she told me that she wanted to travel the world with her sword and her only companion, me.

So, I see the world, and grant her wish. Giving the world to her in a different way. I want to convey to her that there is more to this world than destruction. More than sorrow and death.

There is life and peace and light. A world, Saya has robbed herself from, unknowingly isolating herself from a future that would be so easy to obtain. A future I want to make and give her.

Though for a long time, I have only been able to whisper it to her from the many things I tell her while she rests and the music I lullaby her to sleep with. One day, I will unwrap the shadows from my body and tan my skin in the sun with her, giving her a smile that I could have for all of time.

Suddenly, my thoughts stop and the sound of thunder fades, and light invades the occupied room through the opaqued curtains, giving a bright sheen of white onto the floor and the coffin that lays at my feet. My cello and bow are laid casually onto the wall, resting there momentarily till I pick them back up again.

It has been a long night as the monsoon's on slaughter of water finally died down, and the rank smell of damp air sweltered the outside atmosphere with an almost suffocating humidity. It was summer in Vietnam of the year 1772, and fall was fast approaching.

Life in Vietnam was a mess, American soldiers were everywhere, as the Vietnamese were petrified and angry. Foreigners were taking place in a war that would probably end in a revolution, but those silly Americans were always so battle thirsty that they always stuck their noses in places they didn't belong.

I looked longingly at the casket that held my betrothed in delicacy, hoping she would quickly awaken and come back to me. Yet, I knew that her awakening was still several years off. I got up from my chair and knelt down to the coffin, lifting the lid and placing my ear on the cocoon that my princess was wrapped in. The low murmur of her heart were faint, but I knew that she was still alive.

"Saya, please, hurry up and come back to me. I miss you." I pleaded, almost tempted to rip her out of her encasement and shake her awake.

"She can return to you, you know." A deep voice replied behind me, I quickly turned around, preparing myself for battle, but when I caught sight of the steely eyes and golden hair, I shrugged away my battle tension and stared vacantly at the man that had brought my precious Saya to this unruly battle ground. "David." I whispered, feeling the hairs on the back of my neck rise. He was so emotionless that it almost angered me, though I was more than a hundred plus years older than him, the way he carried himself, I couldn't help but feel threatened.

"Hagi, we have found Diva. She has just recently awoken. Saya is the only one able to finish this war." David's frozen monotone stated as he moved beside me and glanced down at the coffin. I stepped away from him, but still kept close to Saya. "Saya is not due to awaken for several more years. How do you plan on getting Saya to awake?" I growled at him, who simply turned towards me with his almost dead eyes an nodded his head in understanding.

"Your correct of course, but with recent studies, has it not been your blood, Saya's only chevalier, to truly awaken Saya?" David asked, implying something I could not yet make out. I nodded my head, though confused. "Yes, of course. What are you getting at, David?" I cautioned, unsure of where the conversation was going.

"We might be able to awaken Saya earlier than usual if we inject enough of your blood into her. Then we can get her to fight and end this war completely." David answered as he stared back down at the beating cocoon. My eyes widen, realizing what that meant. If I could awaken Saya with my blood and it worked, then all those lonely nights and longing days would disappear and I would have my Saya back again. My precious queen. I followed David's gaze and stared down at the cocoon, and smiled. Kneeling back onto the floor, my hopes soaring.

"Do you hear that Saya? We might be able to get you awake. Then we can be together again!" I cheered, believing that it would truly work, but even as I laughed and gave permission to David and Red Shield to awaken her, somewhere in side of me, I instinctively knew that I shouldn't be agreeing to this, but I quickly discarded the unease, to delighted in the mere thought of Saya returning back to me.

The summer faded into fall which faded into winter, and the war raged on. Red Shield had opened the cocoon after several attempts to break it open, and had gotten Saya out of her encasement. Her sleeping figure brought me warmth, comforting me to know that she wasn't so far away from me after all. Every day they injected some of my blood into her, they told me it was a long process, and that it might even be futile, but yet, I urged them, pleaded them, to keep trying for the simple fact I could hear her heart growing stronger and her body gaining a more living glow to her skin.

It was December 25, 1772, the war was at its climax, and never did I know that things would turn out the way they did.

So, after three months, of my blood being forcefully pumped into her system, we were almost on the verge of giving up when suddenly, she opened her eyes...