Echoes
by: zulka


When the kingdom burned to the ground and his family was betrayed, all Milliardo Peacecraft could think about was revenge. It was a thought that grew and came to encompass everything he was and would be as Zechs Marquise.

Somewhere along that long road Milliardo was lost. A prince of peace can't survive in blood and so much blood and metal fell. Zechs Marquise however, was made for such a life. Zechs was the soldier that Milliardo could never be, not in name at least.

It was the feelings of outrage and loss that set Milliardo on a road so far from his dead family. In those early years there was no Milliardo, only Zechs and his revenge and time. Because he knew the time would come when he would get his vengeance, when he would be able to put Milliardo to rest.

Somewhere along that long road Milliardo became past, a name that no longer applied to him and his bloody hands. Those hands had been taught to love and to preach about peace. Zechs, however, was not him.

The prince he could never be anymore, because past is past, looked back with regret. But he had become someone else entirely. He had sacrificed his name to bring justice to his family.

But Zechs is not simply a man who wears a mask. Zechs is and will be the man behind the mask. Milliardo is an echo that Zechs tries really hard to hold on to. He tells himself that once his mask shatters he can't be Zechs anymore. But he can't go back to being Milliardo either. He is one and the same. He is both.

But in the end both of them don't matter, Zechs or Milliardo.

The prince knows he can't lead a nation with all the blood he carries; it would be a hypocrisy. He knows he can't really be Milliardo. But he can't be Zechs once the mask is gone. Both names imply something that he isn't, that he never really was. But perhaps he's simply running from the truth.

In the end all he did was for the good of a kingdom that falls to the ground again.

No Zechs, no Milliardo.

He's just a man who lost everything again.

.


Notes: I watched Gundam Wing again recently and I was just thinking about Zechs and that one episode when he goes back to Sanq and says how his hands are too stained with blood and leaves everything in Relena's shoulders. Which wasn't cool, in my opinion but that is something to dwell on in some other fic.