After Azure

'I'll wait here for you.

Forever.'

Kazuki felt the water lap against the synergetic suit, and turned to look out towards Tatsumiyajima, his home. The world was a strange blur of mixed colours before his eyes, of undefined blobs. His entire body was alight with fire as he could almost feel his bones tremble from the pressure of holding himself up, and yet his eyes were still numb.

He turned to see a large purple shape, tall and thin, with a small pink shape underneath it, Maya and Mark Sieben. Turning to face her, he smiled. His vision was steadily becoming worse, but he could barely even focus on standing up.

"Maya," Kazuki whispered.

The world was tilting, he couldn't keep straight. He collapsed onto the beach.

"Kazuki!"

A voice was screaming, Maya.

Kazuki felt a double pang in his heart. He hadn't even gotten to say, "Tadaima,"

So no-one could reply to him.

'Soushi…' His tired mind whispered.

-------------------------------------------

'As long as you need me,

No matter what it takes,

I'll come back to meet you.'

"How is he?" Commander Makabe asked, looking down at the monitors Kazuki was hooked up to.

Chizurru Toomi sighed. "We were hopeful, because the medicine really helped Sakura Kaname…"

They had gone through all the data but nothing could reverse it. Kazuki's eyesight couldn't deteriorate anymore, but even Akane Makabe could not reverse time and undo what was done.

"We can have contacts made for him, or we can ask the Neo UN if they have any doctors that can do surgery, but he will never have the sight that he is used to.

Fumihiko felt a weight drop onto his shoulders.

"Thank you, I'm sure you did all you could," He said to her.

Chizuru also sighed. "It's strange, that after all we have been given, that we can't repair his eyes. The medicine is working splendidly on Sakura, but is seems to have no affect on his body at all. It's quite strange.

Other than his eyes, he seems to be making a recovery. His whole body was exhausted, so he will need a lot of rest to replenish the energy he lost," Chizuru looked from Fumihiko to where Kazuki lay on the white bed that lay in the Medical Centre.

"I'll tell the children," Fumihiko offered.

"I'll go with you," Chizuru followed him out of the room to the waiting room to tell Kenji, Maya, Cannon and Sakura that their comrade would never fully recover from his wounds.

'We're fools – chasing after past dreams,' Chizuru thought unhappily, a heavy weight on her heart as she saw the happy expectant looks from the four former pilots.

'I wish we could offer them something more,' A nostalgic thought followed by another, 'After all they have done for us. Kazuki… for you my heart bleeds.'

The room went silent as Chizuru's lips moved. She was glad she had Fumihiko Kanabe to stand next to, as she watched four faces and hopes shatter on the linoleum floor under their feet. But maybe, eventually they could all move forward together, to a place of peace, a place with no war, and maybe time would heal this pain.

She stood to the side and watched as the four pilots trooped in to the ward where Kazuki lay.

They all looked down at their comrade and stood together. Yes, those four would move forward together.

They looked down at Kazuki, tears in their eyes.

Chizuru and Fumihiko left the room, and went out of the hospital and onwards to their homes. Those four would return when they were ready, and Yumiko would check on Kazuki in half an hour.