This is a pretty short fic. I don't have much to say, so just read and enjoy. Please review.
Forgiveness
She walked up the steps. They were old, worn with the pattering of millions of feet over hundreds of years. They were real stone, not concrete. It made things seem so much more real to her. The inside of the building was extravagant and beautiful, every aspect bedecked with gold and silver and mother-of-pearl, rubies, emeralds, and sapphires . . . The atmosphere was rich, and she wondered if she'd come to the right place. The candlelight reflected off of her red-gold hair, making it shimmer in the shade of blood, like she had spilled years ago. She took a deep breath, bracing herself beside the small dark booth. She didn't believe what the people who came to this church believed. She barely even knew why she was here. Yet, something in her heart urged her on. She stepped inside.
"Forgive me, father," she said, head hung.
"What say you, child?" The voice was kind, gentile and sweet, although not old. It encouraged her.
"My name—"
"I have no need of your name, my child."
"My name is Mariemaia Kushrenada. I am the daughter of Treize Kushrenada," she insisted, the words she had spoken many years ago coming back with frightening ease. "My name is also Mariemaia Barton, as I am the granddaughter of Dekim's Barton. My name— my name is recorded in every history book. I am the child that threatened to kill her mother, the womb of her very species, the planet Earth.
"My father was a brilliant man, tactically and philosophically. It was my mother who made the mistake of falling for him. One night and I happened. My birth was not honorable. I was a bastard child until my mother confessed to her father, Dekim, about the great sin of loving the man Treize. My grandfather's own son betrayed him, or at least that is what he thought until he discovered he'd been murdered, and I became Dekim's brainchild. I was going to rule Earth and the colonies, and nothing would stop me. My mother protested . . . and then she died.
"I was young, my mind impressionable, and I let my grandfather pour in his doctrines of war, and falsities of my father's ideals. I grew to learn that my father had died in the process of making an empire of the colonies. Dekim told me my father's will was to destroy Earth, and I grew to have the means to do it."
"I almost killed my own people, father. My arrogance and anger spawned at my grandfather's hands almost ruined everything. My mother died because of my father. How . . . how do I apologize for something like that? It's taken me twenty years just to acknowledge it!"
There was a large sigh. "My child, the world forgave you long ago."
The screen slid back to reveal a face, in his mid-forties, wearing a preacher's outfit and a black baseball cap. He reached over to touch her hand. "Mariemaia, you were a child. We all make mistakes, misjudgments. Come now, I know you aren't Catholic. Why come here?"
Mariemaia looked upon the familiar face. "Mr. . . . Maxwell?"
"It's me. You just needed the anonymity?"
"Yeah . . ." She looked away. Oh, how embarrassing, confessing herself to one of those boys who'd tried so hard to kill her.
"From personal experience, sweetheart, no one fears Mariemaia Kushrenada any more. She's a child that learned a lesson . . . isn't she?" Duo's voice was kind and full of forgiveness. Did he truly believe she was so pure?
"I learned fear. Fear . . . is a powerful motivator and influence, father. Fear is almost hate. Fear is deadly."
"Yet you seem so gentile. The only words I have for you are these: it is what you believe that matters. I tell this to everyone, but it has its own significance to you. Have peace, young Mariemaia." Duo closed the window.
What I believe? Mariemaia thought in silence for a moment. What if I believed the human race had to die? Does Duo Maxwell really believe my future intentions are noble?
She looked at her hands, slender and long-fingered, nails short and clean. Her clothes were nice, but her life was hell. Three months ago she'd stormed away from everything that was hers; her job, her friends, her boyfriend and home. What am I running from? Look at what I threw away to become this lifeless paranoid nothing-woman! Why am I here, in such unfamiliar a place? It feels like my mother's died all over again.
"Thank you, Duo Maxwell," she said. Without another word, a freed soul, Mariemaia went home to pick up pieces of a broken life.
—Owari
So . . . what did you think? It's just a little something I wrote up last night, so don't be too hard on it, huh? (Nah, I'm kidding. I need a harsh review every once and a while. That is, unless you did like it. ^_^)