a leap of faith
Sumeragi Lee Noriega.
The syllables are unfamiliar again, bringing with it cold steel and white walls, and failure, another failure, bitter guilt between her teeth. Space, loss, futility. Forgoing tears, blood and sweat for the bottom of another bottle. Remembering is reliving, and she has had a thousand sleepless nights to account for every slip in her calculations. Sloppy. Unacceptable. Unforgiveable.
Codename Sumeragi Lee Noriega.
The name once had the sound of atonement. Of redemption. Of her chance to right a little of her wrongs. But here she is yet again, sidestepping the elephant in the room, running from past to past and trying to dodge the crushing weight of her guilt.
Now you have nowhere to hide.
He's changed, but his resolve has not. Setsuna is still fighting, and it is faith that keeps him doing it. Faith in Gundam, faith in himself, faith in the world, and part of that faith is still reserved for her. He would not have come for her if he did not, some part of him, believe. And it is with this revelation that she knows that she will go. What she finds, back in the overwhelming emptiness of space she doesn't know. But faith has held Setsuna steady for so long, and perhaps it is time for her to try her hand at it. She cannot shed her cloaks of doubt and guilt so easily, but she can begin.
Sumeragi Lee Noriega. She tries the name again, carefully, underneath her breath. It's becoming more familiar already.
end