Author's Note: Standard disclaimer of course - I don't own Gundam 00 and I don't make money off of this either. And this will be more than a one-shot I swear, just give me some time between updates. University life is pulling me under with exams for the next month or so.
"Neil Dylandy." The pale hand reverently touched the rough-weather worn gravestone, fingers tracing over the names that did so little to represent the fullness, the brilliance of the being that it represented. He paused, frowning at the strangeness of the name on his tongue, and tried again. "Lockon Stratos." This time, the name held much more comfort – it seemed more tangible, more real, and if he strained his senses enough, he could almost hear that comforting laugh and feel that gentle reassuring weight on his shoulder.
"I haven't visited you in a long time. Forgive me, Lockon. I wasn't able to protect everyone in the end." Tieria Erde murmured, resting his head against the coolness of the granite with a small yet terribly bitter sigh. He wondered how long it would be before they found him. It would be all too easy – in fact, he had the suspicion that he had never once escaped from the Innovators – that they had always had the ability to merely think and find him like a cat playing with a trapped bird. "Setsuna, Allelujah, and Lyle – I couldn't save them – I couldn't give them the future that you died to give. And yet, I'm still here in the end - I, who would have happily given up my life for any of them." There was a distant rumble of thunder and Tieria sucked in a deep breath of loamy, rain-promised air, closing his eyes as the stinging sensation of linking to VEDA started numbing his body. His arms felt incredibly heavy, as if they were chained down to the ground with heavy irons.
"I'm sorry Lockon." He breathed, stiffening as VEDA forced his legs to stand and his spine to straighten from his slumped position against Lockon's grave. He could feel tears slipping down eyes that no longer belonged to him, tasted the salt on a tongue to no longer obeyed him. "Please…."
"Please, what?" The hatefully smug voice said and he was turning, turning – falling helplessly into inhumanly strong arms and frozen in the electric yellow glow of hungry eyes. "Don't just stop there, my dear. Continue, Tieria Erde." VEDA allowed him a fake freedom, a single breath of cruel self-awareness in which Tieria promptly used to try to punch the Innovator before him. Just as he predicted, the move was useless, and VEDA froze his arm in place scant inches from Ribbon's smooth and unsurprised face.
"Tsk. And here I thought I would find my little lost lamb finally tame." Ribbons Almark lightly moved Tieria's hand to his lips, where he graced the soft flesh with a mockery of a lover's kiss. "How is it that you still defy me after I have destroyed everything you have cherished and known? Even Regene learned to bend his knee more quickly than you – and I was so gentle with him." Tieria blanked his mind as the Innovator deliberately raked through his thoughts and memories with the practiced brutal ease of a man who knew he was untouchable. "Your stubbornness makes me excited." Ribbons confessed, his breath teasingly close to Tieria's ear. "I will savor every moment of your defiance – the last creature that will ever deny me is now mine. Welcome back to your creator Tieria Erde." He said with a serene smile, cradling Tieria's frozen form in front of the battered grave of the Gundam Meister that had made him human. "Let us enjoy eternity forever now, as we were meant to be."
And inside, Tieria could not help but voice a soundless scream.