Title: Fragile
Universe: Gundam Wing
Character: Chang Wufei
Disclaimer: Gundam Wing does not belong to me, nor does the song 'Fragile' by Sting.
Summary: "On and on, the rain will see, how fragile we are... how fragile we are."
A/N: I was listening to the lyrics of this song for once, and I realized that they would fit nicely into a Gundam Wing fic… so I tried it and this is what I came up with.
A slim figure stood at the edge of a battlefield, away from the blazing ruins and the roasting carcasses, still gazing at the carnage before him, and as he watched the blood run off his blade and fall to the already blood-soaked ground beneath him, he wondered what those deaths had accomplished.
A steady rain had started to fall and, as he continued to stand and watch, he could see the dark stains in the ground spreading and knew that at this time tomorrow, not a spot of blood would be left for another's eye to see. And once the bodies and skeletal remain of mobile suits were removed, there would be no trace of the killing that had happened not moments earlier except for the dark blast craters. One day, even those would fade and be filled in.
All the blood here would be washed away and this place would be cleansed and no sign of death would remain.
But what would it take to cleanse the blood from his hands? Or cleanse the blood from his heart? For even though this battle had ended, it would always remain in his mind; and he would always know what had happened here, even though the stains had already begun to wash away with the rain. Perhaps these acts would end the war? Perhaps one day there would be peace? Perhaps his family's deaths would be justified? Perhaps Meilan's death wouldn't have been in vain?
He didn't know the answers to those questions.
He might never know the answers to those questions.
And that was what frightened him the most as he stood there in the rain and watched the water carry away the blood of the people he did not know, of the people he would never know.
And as he stood there and watched the rain cleanse his sword of blood, he wondered at how slender and fragile the blade looked when it was clean. He wondered at how he might look if he could be cleansed so easily. Would he too look so fragile and delicate?
Raising his head towards the sky and opening his eyes, even as the rain continued to fall, the slender youth finally understood. The water running down his face could have been tears or it could have been water, but that did not matter, for as the youth watched everything being wiped away, to never be known or remembered by anyone other than himself, he began to marvel at his fragileness.
His mortality.
Around him the rain continued to fall, continued to wipe away the evidence of battle, and Wufei continued to stand there, watching as the last of the blood dripped off of his blade, watching and standing witness to the frailty of man, the fragility of humanity, and the endlessness and inevitability of the rainfall.
A/N: Here are the actual lyrics if anyone was interested…
"If blood will flow when flesh and steel are one
Drying in the colour of the evening sun
Tomorrow's rain will wash the stains away
But something in our minds will always stay
Perhaps this final act was meant
To clinch a lifetimes argument
That nothing comes from violence and nothing ever could
For all those born beneath an angry star
Lest we forget how fragile we are
On and on the rain will fall
Like tears from the star
Like tears from the star
On and on the rain will see
How fragile we are
How fragile we are"
A/N 2: I had written most of this some time ago and just found it again yesterday. I think I changed where I was going somewhere in the middle of it, but the point I was hoping to get across was the fact that human life is short and that, in the long run, we will all be forgotten and that the rain and Earth have been here for so much longer than humans have and will continue to be, once we're gone. At least, that is my hope.
Here, in this story, I wanted to show Wufei realizing that the battles he is fighting, the people he has killed, and himself included, have no real meaning when faced with the truth they are but a small, tiny part of a huge web that spans millennia.
…Is it just me or did I just confuse myself even more? :P
Please review on your way out!