Messiah
By mistress amethyst une
"Do we have to say goodbye?" she asked plaintively, "On today of all days?"
"I'm sorry," was all he could manage to say.
His hand remained firmly encased in hers. Her reluctance to release him had a good reason behind it. They were currently standing on a deserted beach. A breeze blew by and gently manipulated her blonde tresses into glorious disarray. He leaned in and tucked a loose curl behind her ear. It was apparent that she didn't want to let him go by the way her hand clenched tighter.
The night was glorious. Blue ocean blended with star speckled darkness. The lack of moonlight served to hide them from the world. A new moon on Christmas Eve...
The island was silent. An ominous shadow was upon paradise though. Even if the warm waters provided sanctuary and symbolized how distanced they were from the chill of winter, darkness lingered. There was no escape now for it had encompassed all.
"Can't they send someone else?" she said as she stared up at the dark fortress that towered over the beach, "I could go and-"
"Relena," he said emphasizing the sound of her name as he spoke, "This is my job."
She wanted to cry, "So what do they intend to do with you? They want to portray you as some twisted form of a modern Messiah by killing you off on Christmas day. Why couldn't you plead guilty? They would have given you life in prison."
He shook his head, "I'm Heero Yuy and I could never admit to a crime I didn't commit."
"You and your damn pride! Now I have to lose you!"
Tears began to stream down her face.
"I'm doing this for the people," he said bluntly, "For the greater good. A suicide mission is a hell of a lot better than rotting away in prison. I chose the lesser of two evils."
"How can you say that?" she wept, even then her hand clung steadfast to his, "Making me a widow is the lesser of two evils? You know I'm pregnant. I told you a month ago yet you insisted on pleading innocent. How will our child cope without a father?"
Heero gave her a menacing glare, "And how would our child cope if he or she knew their father was a criminal? That to see him would mean visiting him in prison? It would be far better for me to die a war hero. I'll be in the history books and my child can see me there instead of the former shell of a man I'd become if I was forced to rot."
Relena seemed to understand now. She couldn't reason with him.
"So what will you do?" she asked.
"Tomorrow morning," he said, "They're going to send me soaring in that new plane of theirs. I'm going to distract the enemy until I get shot down so they can infiltrate that base."
That base... The fortress that towered over them.
He had been a fool but what choice did he have left? His wife had been a former politician. She still had enough influence to save him. Pride kept him from taking that option. He was hardly a man to hide behind his wife's skirts when battle beckoned.
The government's plan had been cunning. They framed him for murder and offered him two choices: plead innocent and be executed in a blaze of glory wherein no one would know of his supposed crime or plead guilty and rot away in prison. The second choice was what his wife offered. It wasn't too late.
The guards came and pulled them apart at that moment. It was too late. He could hear her screaming as she was dragged away. Crying out to him, calling his name, begging him not to go...
On Christmas morning, they put him in his flight suit and loaded him into the aircraft. He was a seasoned professional and piloted with the precision of a machine. As he soared into the heavens and dodged gunfire, he kept her anguished voice in his head. He was shot down after about an hour in the air.
The Messiah had chosen the lesser of two evils. She was looking up at the blue sky that morning and saw the smoke as his plane was downed. Standing on the beach they had strolled on the night before, she fell to her knees and screamed her grief to the heavens as tears gushed out of her. She was crying so hard, she didn't even notice the guard sneaking up behind her with a combat knife.
"Sixteen times," the people had said, "It took sixteen stabs to the gut to kill her and her unborn child."
The government had wanted to wipe all traces of Heero Yuy off the face of the earth. They were horribly unsuccessful though. The grisly murder made headlines and the blackmail and suicide mission were made public. Heero made it into the history books. A pity his child would never be able to read them...
OOO
I just felt like writing a violent Christmas story. I made it relevant to war. It's up to you to decide if it's AU or not. I think it still fits in the Gundam Wing universe...