Chapter 8

In the dead of night, Lista lie in her bed, staring up at the dark ceiling, unnerved by the loud clambering of thoughts in her head. She sighed exasperatingly and pressed her hands against her face, rubbing her tired eyes. It seemed as though sleep was not destined to visit her tonight, as much as she wished that it would.

With a groan, she tossed the covers from her body and got out of bed. She changed from her sleepwear into a pair of shorts and a tanktop and quietly left her room, making her way to Quatre's study and to the elevator to the underground hangar.

While in the elevator, she redid the messy ponytail born from the several hours of tossing and turning. When the doors opened and she moved onto the platform, she saw Duo standing in front of Deathscythe, hands in his pockets and his head craned as he looked up thoughtfully at his suit.

Curiously, she moved towards him, the sound of her footsteps echoing in the silence. Duo snapped his head in her direction, suddenly alert, as she came to a stop next to him. "Lissy, what are you doing up? It's got to be late as hell."

"I could say the same to you," Lista replied. She turned to look up at Deathscythe, sandwiched between Sandrock and her Leo. "I couldn't sleep, so I figured I would come down here and tune up my Leo. You never know when we'll be fighting again. It's probably best to be prepared." She turned her attention back to him, flashing a small smile. "What about you? How long have you been down here?"

Duo shrugged. "I haven't been down here that long. I was just doing some thinking. Just wondering when this is all gonna be over. I lost track of how long it's been since we've been hiding out here."

Lista flashed him a knowing smirk. "Now that we're past midnight, seven days." She folded her arms over her chest, sighing. "We should be grateful that Quatre has been trying to keep us all occupied. I think even he is getting a little restless not knowing when things are going to shift back into motion."

Duo moved in front of her, his face furrowed. "Why the hell were you a part of the Alliance?" Lista stared at him, confused and somewhat taken aback at the sudden change in conversation. "It's downright obvious that you wanted nothing to do with it. I could tell when we were kids, and now here you are, wanting to help the Gundams. So why? Why would you join them when you didn't even want to?"

Sighing, Lista turned around and leaned against the steel railing, curling her fingers over the cool bars. "It wasn't that I didn't want to, I guess. After what I saw happen to the Maxwell Church, I knew I wanted to be involved somehow. I didn't want to see something like that ever happen again." She shook her head and closed her eyes, the smiling faces of Father Maxwell and Sister Helen flashing back into her mind, taking her back to her childhood days, when things seemed far simpler. "They were good people. They didn't deserve that kind of fate."

Duo moved next to her, his arms now folded across his chest. "No, they didn't."

Lista tagged the tightening of his brow and cleared her throat before continuing. "I joined the Alliance because of my father, because of the pressure of family tradition. It wasn't ideal. I didn't want to be a part of the Alliance. But I never spoke to him about how I disagreed with what they were doing. I just didn't want the confrontation with him, knowing he and practically my entire family has been a part of it in some way. I figured it would get him off my back and I could use its resources to find out what was really going on behind the scenes."

Duo couldn't stifle his chuckle. "So you were using them for information. "

"And to hone my skills," Lista added with a confirmatory nod. "I figured they could be good for something. And I just did whatever I could to keep myself off of the battlefield. So I would constantly do little things that I knew wouldn't bring about a discharge, but a suspension. I took on a lot of grunt work and taunting from the other soldiers, but it was a price I was willing to pay to stay off the battlefield. I refused to kill for the Alliance and for OZ. I decided to wait for a sign, anything, to tell me where I was supposed to go."

She turned her head, a small smile breaking through the cloudiness of her frown. "And then you and the other Gundams came on the scene, and it was like this bright beacon. Once I began studying you guys for the Alliance, I just felt something tugging at me. I knew I was meant to help you." Her smile deepened. "And I know I made the right decision. I can feel it in my heart."

She pushed herself from the railing and pressed a palm against her chest. "The one thing that's been haunting me all these years was whether you had been at the church when it was attacked. I always wanted to know the truth, if you had died or lived. And now this choice to join with you and the other Gundams has brought you back to me."

Duo grinned, snickering. "Well, that's reason enough for me."

He felt himself knocked back by a set of arms suddenly around his neck. Lista locked her hands tight on his back, burying her face into the crook of his shoulder. A chuckle rumbled against his throat. "What's with the touchy feely all of a sudden?"

He felt her tighten against him. "Being back with you has made me feel human again," she said, her voice soft and almost meek. "What happened on that colony made us grow up fast, Duo, far too fast than any child should have to."

Duo glowered at the memory and finally returned the hug, tugging her close to him. "It is what it is, Lissy."

"I always hoped that we would meet again, that you were alive and fighting like hell, just like you did then," Lista continued, shifting her head to rest her cheek against his shoulder. "And now here we are."

Duo couldn't help but scoff. "It's probably a fluke," he said. "The Colonies are a big place. I don't believe in fate or coincidences or stuff like that."

"I'm not so sure about that," Lista replied. She lifted her head to look at him, unlocking her hands to move them down his arms. "It's hard to deny things like fate and coincidence and irony when we've been brought back together after all this time and in a situation like this. We're both fighting for what we believe in." Her face grew serious, firm. "I'm going to do everything in my power to keep you safe, Duo. I swear it."

"My hero," Duo chuckled jokingly.

But Lista shook her head, a frown affixed firm to her face. "I mean it, Duo. You meant a lot to me then, and you mean a lot to me now. And like it or not, but you mean a lot to the people of the Colonies, as well as the Earth. You're a symbol of hope. I don't want the people to lose that."

She pushed herself away from him, taking a step backwards. "I couldn't stop our separation back then. But now that we're together again, I'm helping you with your mission to end OZ. And when these wars are finally over, we can both lead normal, peaceful lives, the lives we were meant to have."

Duo threw his hands up in the air with a laugh. "I couldn't even try explaining what the hell a normal life is. I've never had anything remotely close to that."

Lista returned his laugh with one of her own. "I can't help but agree." She shook the laughter away and closed the distance between them once more, resting her hands on his shoulders. "But wouldn't you like to find out?"

He stared at her for a moment before shifting his gaze back to Deathscythe, the thought now plaguing his curiosity.


Trowa sat cross-legged in the uncomfortable wooden chair in front of the television, unaware of the frown cemented on his face as he watched a news report on the lack of activity from the Gundam pilots following Lady Une's threat to the Colonies. Finding himself growing disgusted, he turned it off and looked over his shoulder, lines softening in his face.

Heero lay in bed, his body bandaged tight, and his green tanktop slung over the edge of the bed. Catherine had hand-washed the blood from it and insisted on washing it every day, believing he would like it to be fresh and clean for when he woke up.

If he woke up.

"It's been a week," Trowa said to himself. He pushed himself from the chair, hands now deep in his pockets, and moved to Heero's side. His breathing was slow and steady, his skin sickly pale. "Not that you're missing anything. But it's a miracle that you survived that detonation. It sure would be a waste for you to die now."

But not so much as a flutter of eyelids or the twitch of Heero's mouth responded back. Trowa stood there studying him, wondering just how much longer Heero would continue to teeter between life and death.


Lista's fingers fluttered over the keyboard of the study's computer. A password dialog box had been on the screen in front of her for over 10 minutes, and her attempts to hack into the database had been a failure.

She ran her fingers through her hair with an aggravated groan, fighting the urge to slam her fist against the keyboard. She knew OZ would have tighter security measures than the Alliance did, but nothing to the extent that she couldn't get past the first password.

She felt a hand on her shoulder, and a sharp gasp in alarm tore through her throat. She spun around, finding Quatre standing behind her with an apologetic smile. "Forgive me, Lista. I didn't mean to scare you."

Sighing, she shook her head, a smile painting her lips. "No, it's okay, Quatre. I didn't even hear you. I guess I'm in my own world at the moment."

"Is everything all right?" he asked worriedly. "You look troubled."

She turned to the computer, glaring at the red-lettered denial box staring back at her. "It could be better. Since you and Duo gave me the go-ahead, I'm trying to hack into OZ's database from here, but I can't even get into their mainframe. They have everything locked down pretty tight ever since Operation Daybreak. Either they're insanely paranoid or the Alliance was just sloppy."

Quatre grabbed a nearby chair, sliding it next to her and sitting down. "You shouldn't put so much pressure on yourself, nor do I wish to invite OZ to have you hauled into custody for being a traitor."

Lista tilted her head to the side with a smile. "I appreciate that, Quatre, but I'm tired of sitting around here feeling helpless. There has to be something I can do. OZ has seized all of the Alliance bases. They're under their complete control now. I know a lot of the soldiers joined with OZ to save their own skins, but it looks as though some may have squeezed through the cracks and formed a resistance." She sighed and leaned her chin against her knuckles, her elbow propped on the edge of the desk. "OZ has the upper hand, though, and they know it."

Quatre nodded, his smile fading behind a look of concern. "OZ will do anything underhanded in order to gain an advantage, and they've had no trouble risking the wellbeing of the Colonies to neutralize the Gundams. There's no telling what else they're capable of."

Lista groaned and pushed herself from her chair, pacing over to the large bay window on the other side of the room. She folded her arms over her chest. "The Alliance soldiers who joined with OZ are cowards. They could join with the resistance, fight for what they believe to be right rather than attacking innocent people to save their own hides. Where's their loyalty?"

As soon as the words escaped her mouth, she couldn't help but laugh. She pressed her hand against her lips to muffle the sardonic laughter as Quatre came to her side, staring at her with sad eyes. She pulled her hand away as her laughter subsided, and she turned to him with a shake of her head. "As if I have any room to talk about loyalty. I betrayed the Alliance."

Quatre shook his head firmly. "You shouldn't look at it that way. You said yourself that your loyalty is to the human race and to peace. And you shouldn't fault those for wishing to save their lives against a more powerful enemy. You are risking a lot siding with the Gundams." His warm trademark smile resurfaced once more, much to Lista's comfort. "But you are courageous for what you're doing, for fighting for what you believe to be right. More people should follow in your example. It's what's needed for the necessary change to happen in this world."

Lista couldn't stop the warm, crimson blush from splashing against her cheeks. "I'm hardly a role model," she said, her voice soft.

Quatre was quick to shake his head. "I respectfully disagree. You're a good-hearted woman with a strong sense of right and wrong. You had the courage to do what was considered wrong for what you knew in your heart was right. You are no different than me in that regard. I disinherited my family and their pacifistic beliefs to fight because I knew it was the right thing to do." His smile brightened. "I believe peace will happen. It may not be today or tomorrow, but it will happen. I can feel it."

Lista studied him and his unwavering smile for a moment before responding in kind. "I have to admit, you being so positive does help me feel better. Not many people can be like that in the midst of a war."

"I wouldn't know what to do or who I would be if I couldn't look on the bright side of things," Quatre replied. He turned to look out the window as another sandstorm bore down around them. "There's a lot of darkness in this world. But there's always light somewhere in that darkness."

Lista made a short chuckle against her throat, causing him to turn and look at her. She was smiling. "That's a good way of thinking. I will just have to try and follow your lead."

It was Quatre's turn to blush, and he rubbed his hand against the back of his neck at the flattery. "Let's not worry about all of this right now. We have plenty of time for that." He moved to the computer and closed it, turning back to Lista with a smile. "Would you like to join me for some tea? We can look into OZ a bit later."

Lista's smile brightened, and she nodded. "That sounds great."

He offered her his arm with a wide smile. She took it gladly, and he led her from the study, heading down the hall towards the sitting room. "I haven't seen Duo for a little while. Do you know where he is?"

Quatre nodded. "Yes, he's been down in the hangar doing work on his cockpit system." He turned his head towards her as they moved into the sitting room. "I hear you both were down there the other night. Have you been having trouble sleeping?"

Quatre led her to the sofa and sat down next to her. He reached for the silver teapot on the table in front of them to pour them both a cup of the steaming beverage. He stole several glances at her, silently probing for an answer to his inquiry.

"I don't always sleep through the night anymore," she admitted as he handed her a cup under a saucer. "Thank you."

"Is there anything I can do to make you more comfortable?" Quatre asked hurriedly, leaning back against the sofa with his own cup of tea. "I wish you had said something to me sooner. I hate to think that you're not getting enough rest."

Lista shook her head quickly. "No, no, it has nothing to do with that." She couldn't stifle a scoff as she lifted the cup to her lips. "I sleep better now than I have in probably over a year."

Quatre watched her worriedly, his cup resting atop his legs, as she took a cautious sip of the tea to test its temperature. She slid her tongue over her lips, catching a stray drop. "Then what causes your restlessness if not the accommodations?"

She sighed as she placed the cup back onto the saucer, setting them both back on the table. "It's this war and my own unease, I guess," she answered with a shrug. "I've stayed up most nights fighting with my conscience." She turned to him, catching the worried color in his eyes. She leaned towards him, placing a hand on his shoulder. "To be fair, ever since I actively made the choice to help all of you, it hasn't been quite as bad."

Quatre nodded. "That's understandable." He paused, his finger tapping against the side of his cup. "But I still wish there was something I could do to help you get a restful sleep. I don't like the idea of you being up in the middle of the night toiling away on your mobile suit."

Lista pulled her hand from him and waved it dismissively. "I've mostly gotten used to it. I'd like to think that once the war ends, everything will kind of go back to whatever sense of normalcy I lived before becoming a soldier."

There was a silence between them for a short moment, her words hanging in the air. Quatre placed his tea, untouched, on the table next to hers and shifted his attention to her. "May I ask a little bit about that?"

Lista looked at him confusedly. "About what?"

"About your life before becoming a soldier for the Alliance," Quatre replied. He folded his hands in his lap. "I have to admit I'm curious as to what led you to enter such a war zone."

Lista broke their eye contact, staring forward sadly. "Saying my father is obsessed with our family's military tradition is putting it mildly. I never really knew what it was like to be a normal girl. While other girls my age were playing with dolls, I was learning about his past missions and how to disassemble and reassemble guns."

She turned back to him, forcing on a smile. "On the bright side, I know how to defend myself." She chuckled softly and leaned against the sofa with a sigh. "Which probably didn't matter so much when I was 8 years old."

Quatre studied her for a moment, watching as she folded her arms across her chest and crossed her legs, sinking back against the plush cushions. He scooted closer to her, concerned. "I apologize for asking. Now you're sad."

Lista snapped her head in his direction, forcing on a smile. "No, it's okay, Quatre. Sometimes I just wonder what it would have been like to grow up like my sisters did. They were mostly sheltered. My mother refused to let them see what I had. It was non-negotiable. I guess my father felt the same way, like somehow I was meant to live this kind of life." She pressed her hand against her cheek with a chuckle. "It sounds kind of ridiculous, doesn't it? Like somehow they cared more about my sisters than me, that they were given a normal upbringing while I got thrown into the fire."

Quatre shook his head. "Absolutely not. It's never ridiculous if it's how you feel." He smiled weakly, twiddling his thumbs in his lap. "I can sympathize with feeling that way, although our upbringings were quite different."

She looked at him for a moment and sighed, pushing herself up and turning her body to face him. "I'm sorry, Quatre. It's incredibly selfish to be talking all about me and the hardships of my growing up as if I was the only one who had them." She leaned into him, causing his eyes to widen and a blush to climb onto his cheeks once more. "We can talk about you. I'm here to listen if you need a set of ears."

Smiling gratefully, Quatre shook his head. "No, my story is dreadfully boring. I'm sure we can find something much more interesting to talk about."

Lista flashed her teeth in a wide smile and reached for his cup of tea on the table. She offered it to him. "Your tea is getting cold."

He took the cup and saucer into his hands, feeling that, indeed, the heat had much left the beverage. But he sipped at it anyway, watching closely as Lista took her own cup and did the same.

And somehow he couldn't control his smile.


Lista reattached her control panel after checking the wiring beneath for any malfunctions. She wiped the sweat from her brow with the back of her arm and looked down at the small chip to her side.

"Lista! Are you up there?"

Lista peeked out of the opening of her cockpit, looking down at the platform, where Quatre stood waving his hand. "Is everything okay, Quatre?"

He lowered his arm to his side, staring up at her concernedly. "Lunch is being served. You've been working on your suit all morning without a break. You should take some time to eat and rest."

Lista flashed him a warm smile. "I was just finishing up. I'll be right down." She waved at him and ducked back into her cockpit, flipping switches to shut everything down. She picked up the chip in the center of her palm, squeezing her hand over it, and cabled her way down to the platform, next to a patiently waiting Quatre. "I didn't realize I had been working for so long. I just had to take care of this." She held out her hand, showing off the small chip.

"A tracking device," Quatre said, taking the chip from her. He examined it carefully. "I'm surprised you hadn't removed it sooner."

Lista shrugged. "I disabled it after Operation Daybreak, but I figured it would probably be a good idea to take it out and destroy it just in case OZ was smart enough to try activating it remotely. But they must have assumed I was dead and the suit destroyed and thought it pointless."

Quatre handed the chip back to her, and she crushed it in her palm, letting the small pieces sprinkle to the ground at her feet. "We haven't talked about it, but since you've likely been considered killed in battle, your family…" He trailed off, gauging her reaction.

She nodded, folding her arms over her chest as she peered up at her Leo. "They've probably been notified of my supposed death by now, yeah. It's not the most ideal situation. I don't like to think about how they're all handling the news." Her face contorted at the thought of her younger sisters believing her to be dead. "I wish the situation could be different. But it's too dangerous to contact them and let them know I'm okay."

Quatre placed a hand on her shoulder. She turned to look at him, his eyes saddened and sympathetic. She forced on a smile and shook her head. "My family is strong, Quatre. When I'm finally able to let them know I'm alive, they'll be mad for a while, but they'll get over it eventually. This mission has to come first. And I don't want to implicate them in what I'm doing. They'll have deniability in my involvement with all of you this way."

He couldn't help but nod in agreement. "That's true." He moved his hand from her shoulder and motioned for her to move towards the elevator. She nodded, and they both walked down the platform to the open elevator.

They walked inside, and the elevator began its ascent to the main floor. Quatre turned to her with a curious smile. "Perhaps you would like to tell me a little bit about your sisters." Lista opened her mouth, prepared to describe her sisters, but when the doors slid open, Duo was standing there waiting for them, arms crossed tight over his chest and his foot tapping impatiently.

"I was wondering where the two of you were," Duo said with the shake of his head. Quatre and Lista walked off the elevator, and Quatre moved the wall back into place. Duo pointed his thumb towards the door. "Lunch is on the table. I'm starving, and I didn't want to start without you guys. What were you doing, anyway?"

The threesome walked from the room and down the hall towards the dining room. "I had a tracking device I was removing from my Leo," Lista explained. "I had it disabled but thought it would be a good precaution to remove and destroy it, just in case OZ decided they wanted to double-check anything."

They walked into the dining room, where a lunchtime spread had been set out for them. Quatre pulled a chair out for Lista, who smiled, thanked him, and sat down. He moved to the head of the table while Duo sat across from Lista. "I was just asking Lista about her younger sisters," Quatre spoke up as he unfolded his cloth napkin and spread it across his lap.

Duo dipped his spoon in the soup in front of him, watching the steam swirl up in front of his face. "Oh, yeah. I never got to meet any of them. They all look like you, Lissy?"

Lista didn't touch her food, smiling soft and nodding as she thought about her sisters, hearing their voices and laughter ringing against her ears. "The oldest of the three, Gabriela, looks more like me. Alessandra and Carina look similar to each other. But we've all been told it's easy to tell we're sisters."

Duo couldn't stifle his snicker. "They don't all act like you, do they?"

Lista flashed him a smirk. "Thankfully, no, though Gabriela is outspoken and sarcastic. She never beats around the bush with anything. Alessandra is shy, but she's so smart. And Carina is just so innocent and naïve. She loves to laugh and smile." She looked down to her soup, untouched. "They mean so much to me. I fight for them. I don't want them to ever know what it's like to be a soldier. They don't need to know, and they don't need to grow up in this."

Quatre and Duo exchanged glances with one another, Duo's a scowl and Quatre's melancholy. She sighed and looked up at them, noticing their looks of displeasure. She chuckled and shook her head, finally picking up her spoon. "It's okay. Whenever I feel like I'm making the wrong decision, I just remember them, and I know I'm doing the right thing for them. I'm their big sister. It's my job to keep them all safe."

"And it's your job to live through this," Duo added, pointing his spoon pointedly in her direction. "So don't be doing anything crazy and stupid. You've got a family waiting for you."

Lista stared at him for a moment, mulling his words, before shifting her gaze to Quatre. He was nodding in agreement. "Duo is right. You have people who love you and want you to be safe. So don't choose to die for the right cause. Choose to live and see the peace we're fighting for."

She said nothing as she slid her spoon into her soup, circling it around the bowl and taking their words of wisdom to heart.


Sitting outside alone in a pair of shorts and a tanktop, Lista was surprised how cold it got in the desert once the sun fell behind the horizon. But the stars in the sky were too mesmerizing for her to go inside the house. Instead, she pulled her legs up, hugging her knees against herself as she simply stared up at the sea of stars, wondering how her family was up there, praying for their peace now that they likely believed her to be dead.

She'd had a lot of time to consider the words Quatre and Duo spoke at lunch that day, that she should fight to live, not die fighting. She gave a silent vow at that very moment that she would do just that so she could return to space and let her family know she was safe and never stopped fighting for their peace.

A moan of contentment vibrated against her throat as she rested her chin atop her knees, a small smile spreading across her face. In that moment, it seemed far too serene for a war to be going on somewhere out there.

Soft fleece suddenly blanketed her shoulders, causing her to jerk up and look over her shoulder. Quatre was standing there in a jacket, situating the throw so that it covered her bare arms. "You looked cold," he said as he moved to stand next to her chair.

She smiled up at him and hugged the blanket around her body. "Thank you, Quatre." She turned her gaze back up to the watchful stars above. "This is just one time where it feels like war doesn't exist. And tomorrow is another day where everything can change."

Quatre folded his hands behind his back, nodding in agreement. "I keep hoping that the next day will bring about the answer we need to move forward." He paused for a moment, his head lowered in thought. "And I do hope that the other pilots are doing all right."

He heard the shuffling of the blanket, and when he lifted his head to look at her, she was standing before him. He was comforted by the smile on her face. "If they're anything like you and Duo, then I'm sure they are. All of you have proven to be resilient and strong. This is just a minor setback."

He couldn't help but smile in return. "You speak as if you're patient about this whole thing, but I can tell you're becoming restless," he said. "So is Duo. He doesn't appear to like waiting for something to happen."

"I'll admit you're right about that," Lista confessed with a nod. "Duo and I are alike that way." She paused, readjusting the blanket over her body. "I didn't expect for you to be restless, too, though. You seem to be rather calm and patient, and I can tell you're growing antsy not knowing what OZ has planned next."

Quatre said nothing. He sighed softly and let his arms fall to his sides. Lista took a step closer to him, catching his attention, and she placed a hand on his arm while clutching the blanket around her with the other. "So I guess we're just going to have to balance each other out and keep each other calm when we start to get restless and impatient."

He nodded with an agreeable smile. "Yes, I think that would work well."

Lista took her hand back and fixed the falling blanket from one of her shoulders. "Tomorrow I'll look again into trying to infiltrate OZ's database. I may be able to crack their security long enough to get in, search through for anything about the Gundams, and get out before they can try tracking the IP. The Alliance's databases are probably defunct by now, so even if I try to use Colonel Bellegarde's codes, they probably won't work anyway."

Quatre squinted his eyes slightly in curiosity. "Colonel Bellegarde?"

Lista nodded, smiling sadly. "Yeah. Augustus Bellegarde. He was the colonel at New Edwards. He was my Alliance superior. He was on the OZ shuttle with Marshal Noventa when Heero shot it down."

Quatre's face fell. "I'm sorry to hear that, Lista. You speak of him as if you were close."

"In a manner of speaking," Lista replied. "He and my father trained together. He knew me all my life. When my father found out I was going to be stationed on Earth, he pulled strings to make sure I'd be at New Edwards so Bellegarde could keep an eye on me. I took a lot of guff from the other soldiers. Bellegarde tried to be easy on me, especially once I started defying orders and stacking up my suspensions to avoid going out to battle for the Alliance."

She hugged the blanket tighter over her body, emotions beginning to rile and swirl like a storm inside her chest. "He was a good man. I knew OZ was planning something. I should have stopped him from getting on that shuttle. I should have done something more to prevent what happened. I could have done something. I was a coward. It's my fault he's dead."

Quatre listened to the growing crack of emotion in her voice as she spoke, and before she could continue on, his arms were around her trembling shoulders, pulling her against him. She stopped, a short gasp escaping her throat as he held her tight. "Don't blame yourself for what happened," he said, his voice soft and coddling. "You have to know that there was nothing any of us could have done. OZ had everything planned, including the unfortunate deaths of the Alliance leaders. It put OZ in the position they needed to take control."

Lista sniffled, listening to his words, and she closed her eyes, leaning her forehead against the expanse of his shoulder. "Quatre, I feel so guilty for what happened. They didn't deserve to die, not like that."

"No, they didn't deserve a fate like that," he agreed. He pulled away, his hands settled on her shoulders, and looked into her tear-filled eyes. "But you don't deserve this guilt you have. You need to forgive yourself for what has happened. Somehow I don't believe Colonel Bellegarde or any of the other Alliance leaders would want you feeling this way. You're just one person in the middle of this war that's been blazing for years. It's going to take more than one person to put a stop to it."

As her eyes connected with his, he smiled warmly. "But as we gather allies, the hope to see all of this death and destruction put to an end grows. I believe we can make a difference together, and you will know that their deaths were not in vain. Peace will come, Lista. You must believe that."

Her tears and quiet sobs ceased, and her arms moved around his back, the blanket pooling at her feet behind her. A whisper of thanks muffled against his chest, and Quatre held her under the protective glimmer of the stars, unaware that Duo watched from the glass door, hands propped on his waist with a curious, thoughtful smirk.