Redemption day
I flicked off the TV and sighed, so much hate and so much death. It all exhausted me, the battles were no longer waged with lives, mobile suits had replaced our man to man combat. I don't remember the days when men fought other men face to face but some of the sisters do. The war had been hard on all of us, sister Glaynis was worst off, her brother was fighting in one of the gundam mobile suits. I could see her read the paper and cry because she didn't know whether or not he was going to die today, she was young like me but her brother was only about 15. I saw a picture of him when he was younger, he looked just like an angel, thick with sweetness. I can't imagine those children behind the controls of a machine of death.
/I've wept for those who suffer long
But how I weep for those who've gone
Into rooms of grief and questioned wrong
But keep on killing \
Glaynis went away to be with her family, they were all so pacifist it hurt my soul to think that their youngest was already off to war. I prayed for the Winners, and I prayed for the other pilots. But praying was the only thing I did, I hated the war but I couldn't stop it, so I watched in silence.
/It's in the soul to feel such things
But weak to watch without speaking
Oh what mercy sadness brings,
If God be willing \
I heard them speaking by accident, the priest and the boy. He spoke in whispers as he confessed I heard him talking about murder. He spoke about not being able to control his actions, the more I listened the more everything became clear. This child was a pilot, tears were streaming down my face by the time the priest blessed him. He let out a nervous smile and walked out casually but not before looking out the window to make sure no one would see him leave. As the sun set I lit a single candle.
/There is a train that's heading straight
To heaven's gate, to heaven's gate
And on the way, child and man,
And woman wait, watch and wait
For redemption day \
I saw the boy a few weeks later at the grocery store, dressed in black as he was before with that priest's collar. Strange, but I felt something from this boy, when I could stand it no longer I went up to him. "Tell me your name child" I said softly. He turned to look at me and I could see his face strained with memory and sadness. "My name is…it's Duo" He replied "Duo, my name is Sister Helen." I replied rolling his name upon my lips. I thought I would see a tear run down his face but none came "I…used to know someone of that name" he turned away from me and I saw now more than ever that he was only a child. "You, you're a pilot aren't you?" I asked placing a hand on his arm. "Yes" he replied as much as I could see it hurt him, I gasped as he pulled me into an embrace I didn't mind, if he needed this now more than anything so be it. That brief moment I held that child in my arms seemed to soothe his restless soul. We went back to the church and he talked to me, as I was certain he had never talked to anyone before. I saved his image in my heart, it scorched me long after he left my home. I stood at the door in the dark and watched him run away down the sidewalk, run away till I couldn't see him anymore, lost in the darkness of his fate.
/Fire rages in the streets
And swallows everything it meets
It's just an image often seen
On television \
The newspaper burned quickly in my soul, in his, in ours. The news of the war and the new death count. Every night, a single candle, I thought it represented the war best. For the millions of souls lost for nothing, for all who suffered and all who killed, all who died fighting for freedom and all who's souls were singed with the pain of injustice. For every voice that couldn't speak and for every voice who was killed for doing so. For Duo, a single candle represented us best, the silence of its flame and the meager light it produced, our souls trapped in turmoil.
/Come leaders, come you men of great
Let us hear you pontificate
Your many virtues laid to waste
And we aren't listening \
I watched the summit meetings on TV, watched the leaders eat eachother out. Watched the mobile suits fight and watched the millions die. Held hands with my sisters and lit my candles, the day drew ever nearer. The fighting drew nearer until it was almost upon us. Protests and weapons, the gundams were here again. And came with them the heart of the war, hate, death, and sadness. In the midst of the carnage and smoke I saw a boy…it was duo. He was dirty and injured but it was he. They were destroying the colony he told me, using it as a shield but they wouldn't stop, they couldn't. Not when they were this close, I saw his tears fall for the first time and I hugged him to my chest. "I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to, please forgive me…forgive me" he sobbed as my own tears fell. The fires blazed all around us. "Duo, please get out of here. You are needed, bring us freedom" I said, pulling him away from me and looking him in the face. He was scared but he went, ran off until I couldn't see him anymore, his image faded into the darkness of his world.
/What do you have for us today?
Throw us a bone but save the plate
On why we waited till so late
Was there no oil to excavate
No riches in trade for the fate
Of every person who died in hate
Throw us a bone, you men of great \
The church fell to ruins, as did the rest of the town, destroyed by the mobile suits and the flames. Black smoke filled the colony and the sky blazed red with flames, I lifted a beam and took a candle that was only a little smashed. I lit it with a piece of the newspaper that flaunted each of our deaths as some statistic. I lit the candle for my child, for everyone who had died on that page, lit it for the war because that was all I could do.
/There is a train that's heading straight
To heaven's gate, to heaven's gate
And on the way, child and man,
And woman wait, watch and wait
For redemption day
It's buried in the countryside
It's exploding in the shells at night
It's everywhere a baby cries
Freedom \
I choked as the candle was snuffed by lack of oxygen. I didn't scream but died with a whisper, a whisper for my duo and a whisper for the leaders. For everyone who had died to for this war and all who still would, for the voices silenced by death, one word was all I could manage. "Freedom." But my whisper went unheard, lost forever in the darkness of what my people had come to be.
-Naie