Disclaimer: Not mine
A/N: A series of one-shots focussing on one or more of the Gundam Wing guys. Every chapter is stand-alone.
A Great Fall
AC 182. Luxembourg.
The palace in Sanc Kingdom is still on fire, and the king and queen are dead. The stranger doesn't say anything as he hands over a sleeping young boy.
Khushrenada looks at the pale-haired child, then looks up at the stranger. "What of the princess?"
The stranger shakes his head. "Relena Peacecraft is no more. The king wanted his son to live, whatever it takes."
"You realise that I will raise him as a soldier. "
"Whatever it takes" the stranger repeats, before turning to leave. Within a minute the darkness swallows him.
Khushrenada looks after him for a long minute, before closing the door and making his way up to Treize's bedroom. Let Milliardo sleep there tonight. Tomorrow they will leave the base and go back to the country estate.
"We could dye your hair."
"No."
"We could dress you as a pauper, or a servant, or a girl."
"No."
Treize sighs. "Milliardo, we have to hide you somehow. The world thinks you're dead."
The six-year-old looks up from where he has been arranging the tin soldiers Treize gave him. Though only ten, Treize was no longer playing with them, and gave them to the newly orphaned prince. He can use other things for strategy games.
"I could...change my name? Hide my face somehow?"
"All right. William?"
"No."
"Gunther?"
"No."
"Elleve?"
"No."
"Paul?"
"No."
Treize's lips twitch. "Mildred."
"No."
"You're not making this easy. Hmm, sixth name..."
"That."
"Excuse me?"
"Sixth. Six. Zechs."
The newly named Zechs Merquise wears a soft mask of black cloth because, unfortunately, the same fire that killed his mother and four younger siblings left him with burns that ache when exposed to the cold air. And if he keeps the mask on even when he's indoors, few care. The boy is only a companion for Master Treize; he's not important enough to care about.
AC 190. Lake Victoria.
"Zechs, come on. It's our last week, can't you join us for a game?"
Zechs looks up at the girl standing there, looking at him pleadingly. Noin is the only one at the whole damn academy worth anything, so he's allowed himself to become her friend, but he has no interest in any of the others.
He continues to arrange the tin soldiers in battle formations. "I prefer not. The sooner I'm out of here, the sooner I can begin my life."
Uninvited, Noin jumps up into his bunk, jarring the formation of soldiers. She begins to arrange them in a different pattern. "Zechs, please. You need to care about people. Be a friend, and they'll be your friend in return." She grips his chin and forces him to meet her eyes. "Friends are allies, Zechs. And allies are good."
She jumps off the bunk again and walks out of the boy's dorm. Zechs looks at his tin soldiers. The pattern Noin arranged them in is subtly different from his own; they seem to rely on watching each others' backs.
Zechs grins minutely and moves to join the game of Risk..
AC 195. In the air.
That damned terrorist! How dare he kill Zechs' soldiers!? Although...Two with one shot? Not too shabby.
AC 195. Camp outside the Sanc Kingdom.
"Long live...King Zechs!"
Oh, no. Otto. Why did he...How...
How did Zechs come to inspire such loyalty?
He has to make sure he's worth it.
AC 195. Libra.
What happened to Zechs Merquise? What happened to Milliardo Peacecraft?
Sanc is ruined. Relena doesn't know if he's her brother or a monster. Otto is dead. Treize was betrayed. Noin is loyal to him, but does he deserve it? And Heero, that little terrorist, had the nerve to become a good person.
Milliardo Peacecraft isn't a good person. He misses being Zechs Merquise. At least Zechs had integrity.
Epyon whispers to him, shows him possibilites, options.
He picks up the box of tin soldiers, then tosses them out an airlock. Like fragments of a broken life, they float there in outer space.
One way or another, he's ending this.