Notes: Kies, finished with this story. I hope it turns out better than some of my others *crosses her fingers*
Warnings: Angsty ending okay, I'm not going to lie...this is crazy
Author: Yeah, it's me again (
Pairings: Slight retrospect...shounen ai hints
Archived: GWNation
Disclaimer: I still don't own them. Oh well.
[lyrics]
Fate Is Accepted
Five figures stood quietly aboard the cloaked ship watching the explosion. The fire glinted briefly on the centermost figure's eyewear, then imploded on itself; extinguished by the nothingness of space.
Several seconds of silence permeated the vast command deck, the air weighing more to those five figures than any other on the ship.
The silence was broken by the hurried footfalls of one of the many subordinates. Out of breath, the officer stood beside the five for a second to slow his racing pulse. "Doctor J," the officer said, saluting, "radar indicates that one of the gundams survived the explosion and is now drifting away from us at a rate of fifty miles per hour." J stroked his beard and the other four broke out in a cold sweat. "Which gundam is it, officer Lovell?" J asked, glancing at the officer's name plate. "It appears to be Zero, sir." Lovell answered. J nodded and turned back to the window. "Bring it in." Doktor S. gulped. J noticed but continued. "If the pilot is still alive he is likely to be in some pain. Put him in sick bay and notify me of his medical stability." Lovell nodded and ran back the way he had come.
"You can't be serious." Doctor S exclaimed, mopping his brow, "Why bring him in when we can just blow him and Zero up and be done with it?" J's glasses gleamed and a hint of a smile showed at the corners of his mouth. Doktor S turned red with fury. "He's just an experiment to you, isn't he?! Let me tell you something, that boy has already been trough enough grief and guilt to kill him twice, surely this won't make any difference!" J sighed and signaled the guards, who promptly seized S and dragged him off down the hall. But S wasn't finished. "Why can't you just let him die in peace!" and then one of the guards knocked the whining fool out cold.
J turned back to the window. The other three stared at him in shock, not sure whether or not to follow through with this. J smiled, "Ah, here he comes." he muttered as a small ferry ship carrying Heero docked. The others turned and watched as Zero was loaded into the mechanics garage.
A few minutes later, Lovell ran back into the room. "So I see you're back," J grinned as Lovell saluted once more, "how's our young Heero doing, eh?" J inquired nonchalantly. "The pilot has suffered severe cranial damage, has several broken bones, and it is believed that there is also some internal bleeding. If he regains consciousness tonight he might live." J contemplated things for a few moments, then nodded. "Take me to sick bay."
Four scientists, one officer, a medical doctor, and a badly injured gundam pilot occupied the sterile sick bay room. J stoically observed the short examination that the doctor performed on a sleeping Heero Yuy. The doctor opened Heero's eyes and shined a light into them. J sighed. He didn't need to look into Heero's eyes to know that the former Wing pilot was dying. Heero's soul had long since shattered, and just when he was picking up the pieces again fate decided he was best left scattered in the wind.
Heero woke from sleep slowly, sensation returning first to his mind, then to his other extremities over a period of seconds. He kept his eyes closed, confused by the feel of his surroundings. For the briefest of seconds, he wondered where Duo was and how long it was going to take him to break his restraints. Then Heero remembered. The fiery explosion flashed up on the backs of his eyelids. Duo's face was the last thing he had seen.
Heero's throat closed up and he could feel the tears burning beneath his closed lids. He had failed his friends and lost the only one he'd ever known how to love...and all because of a stupid explosion he should have anticipated from the beginning. Duo's face remained etched on his mind, the hatred expressed therein almost squeezed Heero's heart to death. A new wave of grief and shame washed over him as he wondered if that hatred was for him.
[Oh my friends, my friends forgive me
That I live and you are gone
There's a grief that can't be spoken
There's a pain goes on and on]
Heero's thoughts were momentarily stilled by the sound of a coat rustling. Cold fingers impressed themselves on Heero's neck for about a minute. He could feel himself slipping away again, his heartbeat slowing...and he welcomed it. Then Heero heard a most familiar voice to his right.
"Let him die," Doctor J was saying. "he's served his purpose, just like the other four." After a moment's peace, he added: "S was right, we should have just sent another suit to finish him off and let him die with his friends." He sighed. "No matter, he'll die just the same." The door opened and the doctor, professors and officer filed out, leaving Heero alone.
[Phantom faces on the window
Phantom shadows on the floor
Empty chairs at empty tables
Where my friends will meet no more]
Heero grinned. So, it was all a conspiracy. The new mission, the disappearing ship, the explosion that killed four teenagers...all set up and played out by the very men who started it so long ago. Heero was fighting desperately to hold on, finishing his last thoughts.
And what if he had lived? Life would have been empty. There would have always been four empty places in an equally empty soul. Heero couldn't help but notice the irony; empty chairs at empty tables where his friends would sing no more. The song was finished...and so was Heero. With a single tear, Heero dropped back under the sweet blanket of unconsciousness and there breathed his last, taking with him the only things he had left...memories.
[Oh my friends my friends
Don't ask me what your sacrifice was for
Empty chairs at empty tables
Where my friends will sing no more]
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tada...what'd you think of it?