Bekki's Notes: Whoa! Time for the last chapter! I feel kinda bad for not
posting this. it's been sitting on my computer for a few months now. -_-
I've just been so busy with college. @_@
Anyhoo, after this chapter is an epilogue! Then that's it! No more until the third book in this series, Sacred Dream. Thanks to all of you that have kept with this story! I'm sorry that it's taken so long to post! I promise to stay on top of it from now on!
Anyhoo, this chapter was written by the amazing Amanda! And look, look! We have a cameo! Yay!
~*~*~*~*~ Tainted Dream
Chapter Twelve ~*~*~*~*~
The hallways seemed to be alive. Shadows danced along the corridor, taking on a life of their own, solidified by the cruel intentions of the lost souls dwelling within. Imagine a place as such, where the light of the sun doesn't touch the shadow ridden ground. A place where the merciful water of friendship, relationships, and even mere contact were forever closed off to those trapped within. It was known as the ultimate punishment. For one to be locked away in the darkness forever severed from all other human contact. What would occur first, and which would be more desirable, death or insanity? A shiver passed through Musha's spine. Even after all she had seen, and all she had done, places like these still unnerved her. 'Ultimate Punishment' she thought bitterly, the sound of her feet against the tiling echoing into her heart. 'If they'd wanted punishment, they should have switched places with Tensei or myself. Tensei. that name again! Why was it that no matter what she did, or said, she couldn't rid herself of that name!? She had committed so many crimes, betrayed her in so many ways, why couldn't she just forget all that had transgressed. Then again, that was the whole reason why she was here again, in this place where shadows seemed alive and ready to feed on her very sanity itself. The reason she'd gone to Quatre for help was to in some way, shape, or form, save Tensei. Wasn't it? "We're here." She stopped and snarled. "You think I don't know that Quatre?" Quatre very nearly glared at Musha. "Considering the way you've been acting lately, I'm surprised that you can notice anything at all." "Look, I'm not here to talk to you Quatre, or to make peace. Understand that before you realize anything else. "I doubt that you would have been forgiven even if that was what you came in search of, Hoshi. Should I even bother asking why you came to me then?" Hoshi, he was calling her Hoshi now? Musha froze and stared at him. Hoshi was the name reserved for a killer, a nameless and faceless person of the battlefield, one that had gone as far as to betray her only friend, in the heat of the battle. "I." She couldn't falter! Not now! She couldn't show weakness! "Revenge is a powerful motivator." He paused, and entered the passwords so he could walk into the room before them. "If that's what you live for, why aren't you the one locked inside these walls?" Musha wasn't quite sure how to react. Up until a few days ago, she never would have imagined Quatre being like this towards anyone, much less herself, one of his friends. or, at least she used to be one of his friends. "When did you become so cold, Quatre?" Quatre didn't answer. He didn't have to. As he quietly stepped into the cell, Musha understood clearer than she ever had before. He shared a bond with Tensei. The hatred that she and Tensei shared right now was passed on and increased through that bond. In other words, the hatred that she held for Tensei was now reserved for Quatre. Hmph, it explained why Quatre and Wufei hated each other now though. 'Two birds with one stone, how ironic.' The bitter thought assaulted her mind before she could stop it, and that mere thought brought with it the realization of the truth. She and Tensei were enemies. Everything that had happened before, all the joys and sorrows that they had shared, all of it! Gone. Faded into the past without a trace. They had said it themselves; the day that Tensei left Sanq, this was the day that they died. The dying hadn't meant their lives though - it had meant their friendship. And this man before her, Colin Foster, it was his fault! Adrenaline surged through Musha as she sprinted into the darkened room. It was his fault! All of it! It had to be! She would make Colin pay the same way she had made Master U suffer. She swore on her name. "Colin!" He looked up calmly at Quatre, as Musha ran into the room. "You don't believe her." His voice was level once more, calm, cool, and not a bit shaky. Quatre crossed his arms over his chest. "Of course I do!" "No, you don't." "Are you implying that I trust the word of a mad man over her?" "Hatred, as revenge, is a powerful thing." Colin spoke his words with authority, as if he controlled these very sins himself. Quatre's attention slipped and his eyes darted to the side. Had he not been trained, had he not learned to always pay attention to the smallest of things, he would have ignored it. Instead, his wrist caught Musha's just as she was clicking the safety off of the gun that she so swiftly stole from his pocket. "You see Quatre?" Colin shook his head and stood up. "Hatred is powerful." "And you control hatred in others, don't you, Colin?" The look in Musha's eyes was one that struck an all too familiar chord within Quartre's heart. It was like looking into a mirror, Musha's eyes, filled with so much grief and anger were just like his had been while he was controlling the zero system. Or rather, when the zero was controlling him. "Musha!" He hissed. "What the hell do you think you're doing?" "Don't you see Quatre? It's all him! All his fault!" She clenched her hands tightly over the gun, her hands trembling. If she took away his life.if she ended this fool's life, then all the pain would just go away. Right? "Musha!" She tore her gaze away from the monster before her. Her eyes found Quatre's, but it felt as though she was staring at him through an ocean. "What are you doing!?" "All the hurt, Quatre. Everything Tensei did to me, everything I did to her. All of that hatred! He spawned it all! The broken friendship. it's his fault! He...he needs to suffer as Tensei and I have suffered!" Quatre felt his eyes grow wide. There was a reason for it? For all of it? The blame was all to be placed on Colin? Of course! It made sense! Friendships as strong as the one these two girls shared, they were too powerful to simply be shattered by a few disagreements! Musha felt tears trickle down her face. "Quatre, I'm so sorry! We were under control! Don't you see? All the hatred was created by-" "You're wrong." Colin interrupted. Musha raised the gun again, aiming it where his heart should be. "What?!" "Hatred cannot be created, Musha." He narrowed his eyes and took a step forward, holding his hands out as if willing her to shoot the gun, feed that hatred. "I can suggest it, manipulate it and strengthen retaliation, but I can't force you to say things, do things, or feel things! It was all you." "W-what?" She stepped back, the hatred fleeing from her eyes to be replaced by fear. "No. You're lying! None of it was me!" He shook his head. "You made Tensei feel that hatred, made her hate you! What you feel now, she gave it to you herself! It wasn't me! I can suggest, but I can't create!" The gun fell from her grasp, echoing against the tile floor as Musha herself fell to her knees, eyes wide and seeing nothing but her own grief. "You did it Musha, and she did it herself! Both of you killed each other!" "Stop it." "Musha and Tensei. From the moment that you two woke up in that room, all alone with no memory of who you were, you promised to be together forever, but you two broke that promise. Now, you two are enemies! Because of your own hate for each other!" "Stop it.." "Running! To place the blame upon someone else!" "STOP IT!" Quatre lunged. It happened so quickly, and so suddenly, that no one would have had the chance to react. He himself didn't even realize what he'd done until the sound of flesh hitting flesh sounded in the air. "You know." He growled out, grasping Colin by the front of his shirt and lifting his feet from the floor, feeling his anger strengthen his resolve. "You know who Tensei is, who she really is. You know all about them!" His space heart didn't fail him this time. He could sense Colin's very knowledge of this. "Of course I know!" Colin shouted, "And that's why she's going to come back to me." "What?" Boy, that word had been used a lot today, hadn't it? Colin shook his head, not even making an effort to break free. "Tensei. Her real name, her rightful name is Melody. Melody Foster. My sister." Can a world stop, with a single sentence, with a single revelation? Simply stop spinning? And yet, even as the walls of the world came shattering down, the broken pieces all fell into place. Colin Foster was Tensei's older brother, Melody's brother. Insanity, he could control people with his heart and mind, and that power had ultimately driven him insane. Tensei, was it possible she possessed the same power? How many times had Quatre simply known where Tensei was? How she was feeling, what she was doing. Even before they had fallen in love. He had somehow known of the connection between Tensei and Hikari, before it had been proclaimed. Yes, Tensei did possess the same power. Master U, he must have known about that power, and that's why he had gone after Tensei, in the first place. And that same power, it had been driving Tensei insane! Colin. He just wanted his sister back, but his broken mind couldn't define right from wrong, anymore. All of it! The damn story, all of it made sense! Wait, Colin was still talking. Talking about how he'd win her back and Tensei would come back to him. That she'd stay there with him. Rage unlike anything he had ever felt before, beyond even when his father had been killed by the very people he sought to protect, boiled up within Quatre. He couldn't see, couldn't feel, couldn't think. The only thing that mattered was this burning desire for revenge. Musha was right. Revenge was a powerful thing. Without a sound, Quatre reached back, and punched Colin hard in the jaw. The resounding crack satisfied him on some sick level. "Tensei is not coming back to you, Colin." He narrowed his eyes, and calmly picked up his discarded gun, then aimed it between Colin's eyes. "You've killed so many people, caused so much pain and anguish. You. nearly drove Tensei to insanity. For that, you cannot be forgiven. Colin's eyes widened, perhaps this concept somehow made its way into his clouded mind, or perhaps he was simply in pain from his broken jaw, or the gun pointing at his head. No matter what it was, somehow he understood. "But.she needs me! She will come back! She will. She will. I'm her family!" "You don't deserve her, Colin." He clicked off the safety of his gun. "She has a new family, and I intend to take much better care of her than you did. This is for Tensei and the pain that you have caused her! Goodbye." "HEY!" The officer's voice broke through the confusion. "You two done questioning him yet?" Quatre quickly put his gun away, ignoring the muttering Colin as he grabbed Musha by the wrist and dragged her towards the door. "Yes, we're done! Sorry to keep you waiting!" Colin watched Quatre leave, hate flickering in his eyes. "I have been taking care of her. She was fine until you came back!" "Lets go, Quatre." Musha threw one last broken glare over her shoulder, before standing of her own power and walking out of the room. Obviously having come back to her senses. "Lets just, end this." ~*~*~*~*~
Trowa stepped silently over the Earth, his eyes glassy and emotionless as he began the long hike back home. Of course, he had to tell Relena that Odin had been found. He had to tell them as soon as possible. Then, if that was the case, why had he not taken his car from the prison? Why was he walking, allowing the wet Earth to soak into his shoes with the promise of a painful cold for a few days in the near future? A loon sounded somewhere in the distance, but he paid it no heed. He just continued in his walk, not pausing even once. She was gone, dead. The investigators had called it a nervous breakdown. He snorted, his eyes darkening with grief. It didn't matter how she'd died. All that mattered was the fact that she was dead. Dead. The word taunted him, laughing. Never mind the fact that she had been an enemy, that she had caused so much suffering to the Yuis. The pain in his heart remained. He bit his tongue until he tasted blood, fighting off the urge to scream his grief to the Heavens. Or perhaps, carry her name to the Heavens. In some way, shape or form, make the world remember the girl who had just died that night, and had no one to mourn for her. Mourn. That's just what he was doing, wasn't it? He shook his head. Such a word didn't belong in his vocabulary. He had never hesitated to kill anyone before, and he had never mourned any innocents or victims, so why was he mourning the death of a woman who deliberately lied to him? Why was his heart so heavy, and his soul so filled with grief, for what else could be used to describe this emotion, over the passing of Kashoku. 'Could she.' He thought somberly as he slowed in his trek. 'Could she really have changed me, as she claimed that she would have?' He could have sworn, that for a faint instant he felt something hit the back of his head. As he turned around to discover the source, the wind seemed to whisper around him. 'What did you expect? Of course I changed you? Now stop with the damn pity party and get on with your life! Don't expect me to wait around for you if you go on acting like this!' Trowa blinked his one visible green eye, and shook his head. However, as he continued the walk back through the streets of Sanq he couldn't explain why his heart felt oddly, lighter. *** 'He was right. Truly, it's difficult to say which is worse, the fact that there is no way to go back to the way things were, or the fact that what Colin said was true. I was running. ' I was Musha! In the grand scheme of things, I'd convinced myself that I didn't matter! My life, compared to anyone else's, was worthless! And I would, and should, die for them if it came to the choice of their life, or mine. After a while, you stop fearing death, if you live in its shadow every moment of your life. 'The great and honorable Musha. Right. Damn it all!' She lifted her hand and silently toyed with the Star pendant, which still glittered up proudly from her neck. It had all been true, there had been no manipulations, just pure, raw emotion. Hatred. "Tensei." Lowering her gaze to the ground, tears begin to trickle down her cheeks. "Everything you said, everything I said. All of it was true, wasn't it?" The light caught a small photograph clenched in her fist, of two teenagers laughing in front of a camera. Frozen in time. Laughter, smiles, joy, things sacred between the two girls in the past no longer had a place in the present, or the future. "Our friendship, was it only a lie? All these years?" "Musha?" Wufei stepped quietly behind her, resting a hand on her shoulder. They'd arrived back in Sanq only a few hours ago, and Musha had taken off mere moments after that. "Wufei...I...." She shook her head, a dry sob escaping her throat. "It's all over, isn't it? Our friendship, our dreams, our hopes, all of it is over! Because of me! Because of my damn ignorance and stupidity! It's all my fault!" The tears came then, a great flood of emotions that had waited far to long to break free. "Shh, Musha." He grabbed her shoulder tighter, and she fought him off, turning to run again. Quickly, he wrapped his arms around her and held her tightly in his arms. She pounded her fist against his shoulder for a moment, before her knees seemed to give out from underneath her and she simply sobbed. "It's okay." He blinked in faint surprise as he felt a few tears fill his own vision. With a muttered curse, he wiped them away. One of them needed to be strong now. He could think about loosing his friendship with Quatre later, his comrade. Right now, Musha needed him. "It's my fault." Her voice came out a broken whisper. "No. Not all of it." He whispered, holding her close. "It's all of us. Tensei, she became too lost within her own problems to notice the outside world anymore." "But, my own ignorance kept me from accepting what was happening. I put all the blame on Colin." She paused then added. "Even though it was that bastard's fault and he should pay for it, it was still my doing. I didn't want to accept what was there, and it's my fault that the friendship is gone." "No, Musha." He sighed, how could he explain this to her when he didn't even understand it. "The way things turned out, are just like they were on a battlefield." Oh great, comparing a woman's heart to a bloody war ground. Great. "Battles are always filled with chaos, right and wrong, planning and conscious thought are all lost. People seek for a way to place the blame on something, anything else." A memory of his colony being destroyed, and the brief insanity that had followed it, filled his vision. "It's just the way things turned out." She sniffled and rested her head fully in his embrace. No more strength left. "The way things turned out to be sucks." A sigh. "Human emotions, our faults and our errors, our own damn ignorance." Wufei almost smiled there, it had been his own ignorance that had nearly prevented him from allowing himself to accept his emotions for Musha. "All of these are stupid." "I know." What else could be said? How long they stayed there, holding each other in a comforting embrace was lost to them. It could have been moments or hours until Musha finally spoke. "Lets, go back Wufei." She shivered. Blinking, he looked down at her, surprise lingering on his features. "Why? You, love looking at the stars." "I'm, not feeling very well." Without a word, he gently placed one hand below her knee's, and the other along her back. Then, he picked her up, and holding her close, began the long trek back to their house. *** 'No! No no NO! Just, leave me alone! Why can't you just do that?' 'You already know the answer to that Elizabeth.' 'NO! I refuse to believe it! I am not your puppet Colin! I don't depend upon you to live, or to thrive! I have my own life, my own love. I don't need you there to call the shots!' 'I AM YOUR LIFE, ELIZABETH!' The voice in her mind almost seemed frantic at this point. She could feel him grasp memories buried deep within her and play them before her minds eye. She was nothing more to him than a helpless victim, a random woman who was in the wrong place at the wrong time when Colin decided to seek help. All he had to do was bring back painful memories of her past, and she would do anything he asked until he released her from her pain. These memories, they had always worked in the past. Whenever she'd began to stray, or to wonder if she could make it on her own, he'd brought up these memories and she had instantly discarded the thoughts of life on her own. But not this time, no, never again. 'I'm not going back to you this time Colin.' 'You have no choi-' 'Yes I DO!' Dimly, she heard the front door open and close. Footsteps sounded softly, but all of that seemed so, far away. 'You only have the power to suggest things Colin! And, to the weak of heart, you can convince them of things! I know that, because I AM WEAK! But, not anymore! I'm not coming back to you! Never again!' A faint tingling began in the back of her mind, threatening to be the start of a headache. She rubbed her hand along her forehead, wiping away the cold sweat that had begun to form as well then went back to her mental battle. 'I have too much to live for now Colin. I'm not as weak as I once was, and I won't give up. Tensei is my friend-' 'Renee was your friend! And Tensei killed her-' 'NO! Tensei was the real Renee all along! Don't try to fool me again Colin! It won't work! I'm my own person now! Don't even try it!" The footsteps that had sounded before ceased. They disappeared from Elizabeth's mind, along with nearly everything else, almost instantly. 'I'm sorry you feel that way, Elizabeth. You showed such promise.' Elizabeth's eyes widened with alarm. "Wha-" Pain! Blinding white pain exploded behind her eyelids. A scream sounded from the air, ringing and consuming all before it. The sound almost seemed to grow louder as time passed, consuming her mind and all the rest of her senses. Then, a new sound grew and surpassed even that horrible scream. Colin's laughter, it shouted within her mind until she thought her eyes must be bleeding. Along with God knew what else. Then, she dimly felt to strong arms wrap around her waist, as well as a frantic voice shouting her name. That voice. That new voice shouting almost seemed to drown out Colin's laughter. Dim it somehow, to a certain extent. When unconsciousness finally came, it was a blessing. ~*~ "Elizabeth!" Duo dropped the roses he'd been carrying them, falling to the floor all but forgotten as he caught the girl, stopping her from crashing brutally into the floor below. "Elizabeth!" He gasped as he struggled to hold onto her. Her entire body was shaking, as if she was dying! "Elizabeth! Gods, don't die on me!" He could only see the whites of her eyes, and her sweaty skin made it even harder to hold onto her. Now, he was no doctor but even he knew that that was NOT a good sign! Before he was even aware of what he was doing, he grasped his cell phone and called for an ambulance. The voice of an operator came on, and asked him to hold. Hold? Hold?!? "Listen to me, whoever the HELL you are! Get a DAMN ambulance down here NOW! If you even put me on hold for a SECOND, there will be HELL to pay!" ******* "So that's it? It's all over? That's the end of it?" "Apparently." Quatre flicked off the light and wrapped his arms around Tensei, simply enjoying having her in his embrace. The bed shifted slightly as Tensei rolled over. A great whoosh of air escaped from her lungs. "It's just..." "Tensei." Somehow she was able to see his eyes even in the dark. Filled with love and concern for her. He gently brushed some hair from her face and tucked it behind her ear. Goose bumps littered her flesh from where his skin touched her own. "You don't need to say anything." "Yes I do, Quatre." She shut her eyes and lay down next to him, her head resting in the crook of his neck. "It's all my fault, isn't it?" She whispered. "If I had never left-" "Then the same thing would have happened!" Quatre sighed. This was his love's greatest weakness. She always placed the blame on herself, be it something small like a lost piece of jewelry or something as huge as this. According to her, it was always her fault. That's why he had made it his job to protect her; both from the monsters in the outside world, and the demons within her heart. "Don't blame yourself Tensei, please. Musha didn't understand, she couldn't have understood. Everything, was so easy for her after you left." A trembling sigh escaped her lips, and Quatre gently kissed away a few of the tears that began to trickle down her cheeks. "No more tears, Tensei, no more tears." "No more tears...." She shut her eyes. "Musha, why couldn't you understand me?" A memory lingered in her minds eye. Tensei and Musha saying goodbye that fateful day at the airport. 'This is the day we die, huh?' They had died, not physically or in the sense that most people would assume following that word. Their' friendship had died, the bond that had been there for so long had shattered, and left the two of them apart and, in a sense, dead. Then what of her bond with Quatre? Could it suffer the same fate? "Quatre, I..." He shook his head, and gently ran his fingers up and down her arm. He kissed her one last time on the lips, and then, lulled by the soft petting motions, the thought that had been so urgent to stay faded away, and Tensei fell asleep with a gentle smile on her face. ******* "She'll come back! I know she'll come back! She will come back, she has to!" Colin rocked back and forth, holding himself in the fetal position. His voice grew to a high pitch suddenly, almost in a frighteningly desperate song. "She will come back! She has to come back! She has to!" A harsh beam of light suddenly struck the room, followed by the soft sounds of footsteps. Colin looked up. His eyes grew wide with sudden realization. "You?" The lone sound of a single bullet was the only thing that shattered the silence that followed. ******* Violet eyes scanned the area before in nothing short of confusion. The outline of monstrous machines filled the inky darkness. Cold bitter air assaulted the corridors of the long abandoned basement, causing a few ripples in the puddles of oil and grease that littered the floor. This wasn't right. Musha walked in a circle, inching past the demons that seemed to line the walls. She'd fallen asleep in Wufei's arms, on the soft grasses of Sanq. Why was she in a basement? And why was everything so big? It was so hard to see, why couldn't someone turn on the lights? Everything seemed to crowd around her, suffocating. She couldn't help but let out a nervous squeak when her foot stumbled over a large piece of tin. "Damnit! Ow..." Wait, who had said that? It couldn't have been her voice! It was so, high-pitched. "Hello?" The strange voice trembled, sounding as if it was on the verge of tears. Whatever it was sounded young. But, there was no way, right? Tentatively, Musha opened her eyes and grabbed the piece of tin before her. A crazy impulse, but... A young girl with messy blonde hair and frightful violet eyes, looking no older than five at the most, stared back at her in the place her reflection should have been. "WHAT! Whoa" The tin fell from her frozen hands. "There is no way! I can't be, it can't be." Her eyes scanned the room with a new light. The monstrous outlines no longer seemed as intimating or ugly, but rather strikingly familiar. Forming a shape that she had seen many a times in the past. A being she missed desperately, yet loathed at the same time. Her little feet began to move at an accelerated pace. Soon, she was traveling at an all out sprint. "I know this place! I know! "There! To the left, that's where I cut my knee, the first time I was here! Over there, that's where Tensei somehow repaired the prototype I destroyed before Master U found out. "The oil spills and the hanging wires that were the training grounds for practice assaults!" Her eyes were wide as her child like form began to pant. Finally, as the monstrous shape loomed before her, she finally allowed herself to stop in her run and stare up at it. "And here...this is the place where I first met you. When I discovered we'd be partners." She took small step forward. "How can you be here?" The emotionless gold eyes of Stars Fury hummed to life, before the machine stood up on its own. **** "Have I finally lost my mind?" Tensei looked around, pulling her short messy hair out of her eyes; the same haircut she'd been forced to wear during her training with Master U. Where was she? Everything was dark, a dream, perhaps? She recalled falling asleep in Quartre's arms, content. An ironic smile quirked her lips. "Or maybe, I HAVE finally lost my mind." "How can you be here?" Tensei whirled around towards the source of the voice. The transparent form of Musha stared past her. Not the person who Tensei had grown to hate over the last few weeks, but the confused child she had come to love, and now miss, during her time training with Master U. Before she could so much as utter a scream, the child Musha stepped right through her, and vanished without a trace. "W-What?" Her knees gave out from under her and she gasped. "What was that? I really have lost my mind, just like Colin did." Tears began to flood her eyes, and she shut them in an attempt to stop the assault. She'd shed enough tears over the last few weeks to fill an ocean. There was no need for them anymore! "Why can't it all just end?" A soft hum filled her ears, followed by the creak of machinery. Driven by some unseen power, or curiosity, Tensei somehow found the strength within her to look up. She squinted her eyes- there was nothing there but darkness. "H-hello?" Gah! She hated this! She'd had enough of crying, but the child- like version of her didn't seem to want to stop the tears. Taking a deep breath, she steadied herself. "Who's there? Show yourself and bring me out of this dream!" She waited. And waited. And nothing happened. "Great..." Slowly, she stood up. Apparently, if she wanted to see what was in front of her, she'd have to find out for herself. 'I should be more afraid of this, shouldn't I?' She thought quietly as she took one step, and then another. 'This all feels so familiar though, as if I've been here before.' Suddenly, she stopped. An image filled her mind, a painfully familiar one at that. Raising her head, she didn't so much as gasp in surprise as her little eyes lay upon the figure that she had known would be there. "Kaikou." ***** "How can you be here?" Musha crossed her small legs in StarsFury's large hand, which had been extended for her. "How can I be here at that? I'm, a child again." She swallowed; her childhood had been bad enough the first time around. "We're in the base back at Master U's headquarters. This place was destroyed, and so were you." She lowered her head. "Look at me, five years old again. I'm talking to a machine. One that was already" she couldn't bring herself to say scrapped. "Destroyed. You're gone." 'I'm here.' Musha's eyes shot open, and she would have fallen out of the hand had one of the 'fingers' braced itself along her back. The gold eyes hummed with the same emotionless aura. That voice! She did not hear it, no. no she did not hear a thing, but she felt it. "Stars Fury?" No reply. Standing up, she stared at it unblinking. "You just spoke to me. I know you did!" It was impossible, wasn't it? To the mind of an adult, the concept that a machine would be able to speak and hold conscious opinion was impossible, but to the mind of a child... "Stars Fury. Please...." She refused to lower her gaze. "I, please, I've lost so much! Tell me what's happening!" Tears again! Had she always cried this much as a child? "What you lost, was your own choice." The hand beneath her moved, and she suddenly found herself eye level with the Gundam. "You're real. But, how? How can you be real?" Her fingers touched the cool Gundanium. Lifeless, it had to be. "A soldier sacrifices a part of them self to bring peace to the world. What was torn away was given to me." She shook her head. This made no sense. Perhaps she really was losing her mind. But, did that matter right now? Her Gundam, it was before her. "This makes no sense." "War is chaos. War does not make sense." Laughter broke forth from her lips. "You came back from the dead to tell me that?" "No." "Well then." She placed her small hands on her small hips. An expression that was completely unsuited for a child of her age lingering on her face. "What are you here for?" "To say goodbye." **** "Kaikou? How can you be here?" Tensei shook her head and gently laid her small hand by the base of it. "How...what's going on?" She knew really, to a certain extent. She was a child again, and she was in the place where she had first met Kaikou. Everything was as it was, right down to the age. The Gundam stirred and the eyes glowed with a blue light. "Kaikou?" "I am here." She gasped and stumbled backwards, her back coming against the large mechanical hand, which had been lowered. Once again, tears stung her eyes. Her Gundam, Kaikou was here! Memories of the day of the final battle against Master U assaulted her mind. She'd remained conscious long after the Omega system should have rendered her unconscious. There was no doubt in her mind that Kaikou had somehow kept her conscious through all of that. This machine that she had hated for so long, it saved her life. "How. how can you be here, Kaikou?" "There is no time." "What? What do you mean no time? What's happening?" "Goodbye young fighter." Her eyes widened. "Young fighter...NO!" She shook her head frantically. "NO! Kaikou!" Running forward, her feet seemed to spur on a life of their' own. "Kaikou, my name is Tensei!" She couldn't explain why it was so important that it learn her real name, it just was. "My name is Tensei! I'm no longer a fighter. At first, she thought she was to late, then the soft whispering in her mind seemed to echo. "Goodbye, Tensei." Soft footsteps sounded behind her. As she turned around, a familiar voice echoed the words that her Gundam had just spoken. Another person stepped into view and she gasped. "Who are you?" The boy before her smiled sadly and approached the young girl. "Melody." He spoke her name so reverently, as if he had been waiting all his life to see her, little did she know that he had. "I'm sorry." And then he was gone. "Hey wait! Come back! Colin!" Wait. how did she know his name? "Tensei! Hey?" Quatre shook her gently, still holding her in his tender embrace with concern in his eyes. "You were crying out for Colin, are you alright?" "I-I." She turned her gaze to the window. The rising sun, a new beginning. A new day had dawned. "Colin." her voice was but a whisper, but her heart heard it well. Colin. she knew that name. It was so familiar, yet not. but a voice inside told her just to move on. to forget the past and start new. 'Don't make the same mistake...' "Tensei?" He gently stroked her cheek, and Tensei's heart almost broke at the love in the caress. He was making sure that she was still here, still with him. Did he really love her that much? Yes. She knew that he'd always be there for her. Though her mind raced with questions about who that small boy was, her heart was content. happy. So for the very first time, she decided to follow that still, small voice that had been so persistent for all these years. She would forget about the past and truly move on. "I...Quatre, can we leave?" "Leave?" A moment of silence passed between the two. "..." A soft sigh behind her, and he gently shifted position. Not a moment later, she felt soft lips on her forehead. Was it possible, for anyone, to be loved so much? No more words needed to be said. ***** "Musha?" Wufei practically screamed in frustration when he saw her through the window. Sitting calmly on the roof, staring up at the fading stars. "Damnit! What the hell do you think you're doing?" In two quick steps, he closed the distance between then and sat down in front of her, his dark eyes glaring into her own in the rising sun. "Where the hell were you?" "On the roof." A sound that sounded suspiciously like a growl escaped from his lips. He grasped her shoulders and held her in a near death grip. Amazing how history repeats itself. This is exactly how he had held her when trying to convince her not to leave Sanq for the first time. "What are you doing here? Last night you told me you weren't feeling well. I wake up this morning, and you're gone. What were you doing!?" "Fei, you sound like a worried sick mother." "ONNA!" "Don't call me that." A soft smile lingered on her lips and she turned her gaze to him. "I was just, thinking." "Thinking?" He stared at her incredulously. "You were just, thinking? On the roof?" "Convenient place, huh?" An exasperated sigh left his lips, and he flopped down on the roof next to her. The sun rose and the light began to race along the land. "Odin was found, right?" Wufei watched her out of the corner of his eyes. Why had she brought that up? "Yeah, last night. Kashoku had him all along." She smiled again. "Yeah. Wufei, did you ever think, that Shenlong was more than just a machine?" Okay, now the conversation was getting weird. "What does that have with you being on the roof Onna?" "Just answer the question. And don't call me that." He grunted, and then stared straight ahead again. "I believed, that Nataku's spirit lived inside the Machine she had died to protect." Another smile spread across Musha's face. "So, our Gundams have spirits inside of them." "What does this have to do with you being on the roof?" She grinned and then wrapped her arm around him, kissing him lightly on the cheek. "Nothing, nothing at all, Fei-chan." With that said, she jumped up and walked back inside. Wufei stared at her retreating form. Fei-chan? **** "Odin!" Relena sobbed as she took the young child into her arms. She held him, vowing never to let him go. She'd been given a second chance, how many mothers had wished for such a gift. Hiiro laughed, he actually laughed, as he himself ran into the room. When Trowa had come to get them, told them the news, Relena had taken off at a speed that would make nearly all creatures alive green with envy. Their son was alive! Safe. Trowa stood silently in a corner, his face baring a placid expression, which the likes of hadn't been seen for over two years. Hiiro paid none of this any heed however. Business, fighting, questions. All of them could wait. His son was ALIVE! "Hiiro." Relena turned around, laughing in sheer joy. She kept opening her mouth, but no words could leave it besides that beautiful laughter. Hiiro ran up to the two of them, and picked Relena up in his arms before spinning both her and Odin around. Relena rested her head on his shoulder, gently cradling the giggling Odin. "We're a family again, Hiiro." A family. His family. Pulling away, he stared down at the beautiful face of his wife, and the chubby face of his son. His family, what had he, a soldier stained with so much blood, done to deserve such a thing? Suddenly, his knees gave out from under him and he collapsed into a kneeling position. He ignored Trowa's cry of alarm, and Lady Une's surprised shout. He didn't even flinch when he heard Relena's soothing voice assuring everyone that nothing was wrong. Hiiro Yui paid attention to none of these things. He simply kneeled down at Heavens door, and thanked God. ******** "Are you alright?" Airports were horrible places. The faces of people within were consumed with a mixture of grief and excitement. Driven by the joy of a journey, or the desperation of a sudden departure. Not to mention the God-awful smell that lingered as well. "Tensei?" Quartre's expression was glum. He too was leaving a part of him behind. A phase of his life had been cast suddenly shut, although he refused to let his sorrow show on his face in concern for his lover. Tensei shut her eyes. She could at least smile for him, couldn't she? Tell him that everything would be all right. Force a smile upon her face as she had done so many times in the past. A sigh reached her ears. Quatre placed a gentle hand on her shoulder, neither in a sign of comfort or distaste, and stepped forward. In the thousands of traveling people in the airport, his form was lost almost instantly. "Hey Bekki!" Tensei turned her gaze to the side, where two young women stood embracing. Both of them seemed to have a combination of brown and blonde hair; one with curly and the other with straight. The one named Bekki grinned and stepped back. "Yeah, Amanda?" Amanda grinned as well and high-fived her friend. "Stay in touch! Okay! A border between us is going to make no difference!" Bekki laughed. "Of course! I'll e-mail you!" "Yeah!" Tensei shook her head sadly. 'Good luck you two.' She thought quietly. 'I hope you have better luck than Musha and I did.' Through all the crowds of people between them, she somehow felt Quatre pause and look over his shoulder in wait. "No." Tensei whispered. "No more lies or half truths. That's destroyed enough already in my life." She smiled, before taking off at a jog after Quatre. He grinned, and took her smaller hand into his own larger one. "Welcome back Tensei." "It's good to be back."
Anyhoo, after this chapter is an epilogue! Then that's it! No more until the third book in this series, Sacred Dream. Thanks to all of you that have kept with this story! I'm sorry that it's taken so long to post! I promise to stay on top of it from now on!
Anyhoo, this chapter was written by the amazing Amanda! And look, look! We have a cameo! Yay!
~*~*~*~*~ Tainted Dream
Chapter Twelve ~*~*~*~*~
The hallways seemed to be alive. Shadows danced along the corridor, taking on a life of their own, solidified by the cruel intentions of the lost souls dwelling within. Imagine a place as such, where the light of the sun doesn't touch the shadow ridden ground. A place where the merciful water of friendship, relationships, and even mere contact were forever closed off to those trapped within. It was known as the ultimate punishment. For one to be locked away in the darkness forever severed from all other human contact. What would occur first, and which would be more desirable, death or insanity? A shiver passed through Musha's spine. Even after all she had seen, and all she had done, places like these still unnerved her. 'Ultimate Punishment' she thought bitterly, the sound of her feet against the tiling echoing into her heart. 'If they'd wanted punishment, they should have switched places with Tensei or myself. Tensei. that name again! Why was it that no matter what she did, or said, she couldn't rid herself of that name!? She had committed so many crimes, betrayed her in so many ways, why couldn't she just forget all that had transgressed. Then again, that was the whole reason why she was here again, in this place where shadows seemed alive and ready to feed on her very sanity itself. The reason she'd gone to Quatre for help was to in some way, shape, or form, save Tensei. Wasn't it? "We're here." She stopped and snarled. "You think I don't know that Quatre?" Quatre very nearly glared at Musha. "Considering the way you've been acting lately, I'm surprised that you can notice anything at all." "Look, I'm not here to talk to you Quatre, or to make peace. Understand that before you realize anything else. "I doubt that you would have been forgiven even if that was what you came in search of, Hoshi. Should I even bother asking why you came to me then?" Hoshi, he was calling her Hoshi now? Musha froze and stared at him. Hoshi was the name reserved for a killer, a nameless and faceless person of the battlefield, one that had gone as far as to betray her only friend, in the heat of the battle. "I." She couldn't falter! Not now! She couldn't show weakness! "Revenge is a powerful motivator." He paused, and entered the passwords so he could walk into the room before them. "If that's what you live for, why aren't you the one locked inside these walls?" Musha wasn't quite sure how to react. Up until a few days ago, she never would have imagined Quatre being like this towards anyone, much less herself, one of his friends. or, at least she used to be one of his friends. "When did you become so cold, Quatre?" Quatre didn't answer. He didn't have to. As he quietly stepped into the cell, Musha understood clearer than she ever had before. He shared a bond with Tensei. The hatred that she and Tensei shared right now was passed on and increased through that bond. In other words, the hatred that she held for Tensei was now reserved for Quatre. Hmph, it explained why Quatre and Wufei hated each other now though. 'Two birds with one stone, how ironic.' The bitter thought assaulted her mind before she could stop it, and that mere thought brought with it the realization of the truth. She and Tensei were enemies. Everything that had happened before, all the joys and sorrows that they had shared, all of it! Gone. Faded into the past without a trace. They had said it themselves; the day that Tensei left Sanq, this was the day that they died. The dying hadn't meant their lives though - it had meant their friendship. And this man before her, Colin Foster, it was his fault! Adrenaline surged through Musha as she sprinted into the darkened room. It was his fault! All of it! It had to be! She would make Colin pay the same way she had made Master U suffer. She swore on her name. "Colin!" He looked up calmly at Quatre, as Musha ran into the room. "You don't believe her." His voice was level once more, calm, cool, and not a bit shaky. Quatre crossed his arms over his chest. "Of course I do!" "No, you don't." "Are you implying that I trust the word of a mad man over her?" "Hatred, as revenge, is a powerful thing." Colin spoke his words with authority, as if he controlled these very sins himself. Quatre's attention slipped and his eyes darted to the side. Had he not been trained, had he not learned to always pay attention to the smallest of things, he would have ignored it. Instead, his wrist caught Musha's just as she was clicking the safety off of the gun that she so swiftly stole from his pocket. "You see Quatre?" Colin shook his head and stood up. "Hatred is powerful." "And you control hatred in others, don't you, Colin?" The look in Musha's eyes was one that struck an all too familiar chord within Quartre's heart. It was like looking into a mirror, Musha's eyes, filled with so much grief and anger were just like his had been while he was controlling the zero system. Or rather, when the zero was controlling him. "Musha!" He hissed. "What the hell do you think you're doing?" "Don't you see Quatre? It's all him! All his fault!" She clenched her hands tightly over the gun, her hands trembling. If she took away his life.if she ended this fool's life, then all the pain would just go away. Right? "Musha!" She tore her gaze away from the monster before her. Her eyes found Quatre's, but it felt as though she was staring at him through an ocean. "What are you doing!?" "All the hurt, Quatre. Everything Tensei did to me, everything I did to her. All of that hatred! He spawned it all! The broken friendship. it's his fault! He...he needs to suffer as Tensei and I have suffered!" Quatre felt his eyes grow wide. There was a reason for it? For all of it? The blame was all to be placed on Colin? Of course! It made sense! Friendships as strong as the one these two girls shared, they were too powerful to simply be shattered by a few disagreements! Musha felt tears trickle down her face. "Quatre, I'm so sorry! We were under control! Don't you see? All the hatred was created by-" "You're wrong." Colin interrupted. Musha raised the gun again, aiming it where his heart should be. "What?!" "Hatred cannot be created, Musha." He narrowed his eyes and took a step forward, holding his hands out as if willing her to shoot the gun, feed that hatred. "I can suggest it, manipulate it and strengthen retaliation, but I can't force you to say things, do things, or feel things! It was all you." "W-what?" She stepped back, the hatred fleeing from her eyes to be replaced by fear. "No. You're lying! None of it was me!" He shook his head. "You made Tensei feel that hatred, made her hate you! What you feel now, she gave it to you herself! It wasn't me! I can suggest, but I can't create!" The gun fell from her grasp, echoing against the tile floor as Musha herself fell to her knees, eyes wide and seeing nothing but her own grief. "You did it Musha, and she did it herself! Both of you killed each other!" "Stop it." "Musha and Tensei. From the moment that you two woke up in that room, all alone with no memory of who you were, you promised to be together forever, but you two broke that promise. Now, you two are enemies! Because of your own hate for each other!" "Stop it.." "Running! To place the blame upon someone else!" "STOP IT!" Quatre lunged. It happened so quickly, and so suddenly, that no one would have had the chance to react. He himself didn't even realize what he'd done until the sound of flesh hitting flesh sounded in the air. "You know." He growled out, grasping Colin by the front of his shirt and lifting his feet from the floor, feeling his anger strengthen his resolve. "You know who Tensei is, who she really is. You know all about them!" His space heart didn't fail him this time. He could sense Colin's very knowledge of this. "Of course I know!" Colin shouted, "And that's why she's going to come back to me." "What?" Boy, that word had been used a lot today, hadn't it? Colin shook his head, not even making an effort to break free. "Tensei. Her real name, her rightful name is Melody. Melody Foster. My sister." Can a world stop, with a single sentence, with a single revelation? Simply stop spinning? And yet, even as the walls of the world came shattering down, the broken pieces all fell into place. Colin Foster was Tensei's older brother, Melody's brother. Insanity, he could control people with his heart and mind, and that power had ultimately driven him insane. Tensei, was it possible she possessed the same power? How many times had Quatre simply known where Tensei was? How she was feeling, what she was doing. Even before they had fallen in love. He had somehow known of the connection between Tensei and Hikari, before it had been proclaimed. Yes, Tensei did possess the same power. Master U, he must have known about that power, and that's why he had gone after Tensei, in the first place. And that same power, it had been driving Tensei insane! Colin. He just wanted his sister back, but his broken mind couldn't define right from wrong, anymore. All of it! The damn story, all of it made sense! Wait, Colin was still talking. Talking about how he'd win her back and Tensei would come back to him. That she'd stay there with him. Rage unlike anything he had ever felt before, beyond even when his father had been killed by the very people he sought to protect, boiled up within Quatre. He couldn't see, couldn't feel, couldn't think. The only thing that mattered was this burning desire for revenge. Musha was right. Revenge was a powerful thing. Without a sound, Quatre reached back, and punched Colin hard in the jaw. The resounding crack satisfied him on some sick level. "Tensei is not coming back to you, Colin." He narrowed his eyes, and calmly picked up his discarded gun, then aimed it between Colin's eyes. "You've killed so many people, caused so much pain and anguish. You. nearly drove Tensei to insanity. For that, you cannot be forgiven. Colin's eyes widened, perhaps this concept somehow made its way into his clouded mind, or perhaps he was simply in pain from his broken jaw, or the gun pointing at his head. No matter what it was, somehow he understood. "But.she needs me! She will come back! She will. She will. I'm her family!" "You don't deserve her, Colin." He clicked off the safety of his gun. "She has a new family, and I intend to take much better care of her than you did. This is for Tensei and the pain that you have caused her! Goodbye." "HEY!" The officer's voice broke through the confusion. "You two done questioning him yet?" Quatre quickly put his gun away, ignoring the muttering Colin as he grabbed Musha by the wrist and dragged her towards the door. "Yes, we're done! Sorry to keep you waiting!" Colin watched Quatre leave, hate flickering in his eyes. "I have been taking care of her. She was fine until you came back!" "Lets go, Quatre." Musha threw one last broken glare over her shoulder, before standing of her own power and walking out of the room. Obviously having come back to her senses. "Lets just, end this." ~*~*~*~*~
Trowa stepped silently over the Earth, his eyes glassy and emotionless as he began the long hike back home. Of course, he had to tell Relena that Odin had been found. He had to tell them as soon as possible. Then, if that was the case, why had he not taken his car from the prison? Why was he walking, allowing the wet Earth to soak into his shoes with the promise of a painful cold for a few days in the near future? A loon sounded somewhere in the distance, but he paid it no heed. He just continued in his walk, not pausing even once. She was gone, dead. The investigators had called it a nervous breakdown. He snorted, his eyes darkening with grief. It didn't matter how she'd died. All that mattered was the fact that she was dead. Dead. The word taunted him, laughing. Never mind the fact that she had been an enemy, that she had caused so much suffering to the Yuis. The pain in his heart remained. He bit his tongue until he tasted blood, fighting off the urge to scream his grief to the Heavens. Or perhaps, carry her name to the Heavens. In some way, shape or form, make the world remember the girl who had just died that night, and had no one to mourn for her. Mourn. That's just what he was doing, wasn't it? He shook his head. Such a word didn't belong in his vocabulary. He had never hesitated to kill anyone before, and he had never mourned any innocents or victims, so why was he mourning the death of a woman who deliberately lied to him? Why was his heart so heavy, and his soul so filled with grief, for what else could be used to describe this emotion, over the passing of Kashoku. 'Could she.' He thought somberly as he slowed in his trek. 'Could she really have changed me, as she claimed that she would have?' He could have sworn, that for a faint instant he felt something hit the back of his head. As he turned around to discover the source, the wind seemed to whisper around him. 'What did you expect? Of course I changed you? Now stop with the damn pity party and get on with your life! Don't expect me to wait around for you if you go on acting like this!' Trowa blinked his one visible green eye, and shook his head. However, as he continued the walk back through the streets of Sanq he couldn't explain why his heart felt oddly, lighter. *** 'He was right. Truly, it's difficult to say which is worse, the fact that there is no way to go back to the way things were, or the fact that what Colin said was true. I was running. ' I was Musha! In the grand scheme of things, I'd convinced myself that I didn't matter! My life, compared to anyone else's, was worthless! And I would, and should, die for them if it came to the choice of their life, or mine. After a while, you stop fearing death, if you live in its shadow every moment of your life. 'The great and honorable Musha. Right. Damn it all!' She lifted her hand and silently toyed with the Star pendant, which still glittered up proudly from her neck. It had all been true, there had been no manipulations, just pure, raw emotion. Hatred. "Tensei." Lowering her gaze to the ground, tears begin to trickle down her cheeks. "Everything you said, everything I said. All of it was true, wasn't it?" The light caught a small photograph clenched in her fist, of two teenagers laughing in front of a camera. Frozen in time. Laughter, smiles, joy, things sacred between the two girls in the past no longer had a place in the present, or the future. "Our friendship, was it only a lie? All these years?" "Musha?" Wufei stepped quietly behind her, resting a hand on her shoulder. They'd arrived back in Sanq only a few hours ago, and Musha had taken off mere moments after that. "Wufei...I...." She shook her head, a dry sob escaping her throat. "It's all over, isn't it? Our friendship, our dreams, our hopes, all of it is over! Because of me! Because of my damn ignorance and stupidity! It's all my fault!" The tears came then, a great flood of emotions that had waited far to long to break free. "Shh, Musha." He grabbed her shoulder tighter, and she fought him off, turning to run again. Quickly, he wrapped his arms around her and held her tightly in his arms. She pounded her fist against his shoulder for a moment, before her knees seemed to give out from underneath her and she simply sobbed. "It's okay." He blinked in faint surprise as he felt a few tears fill his own vision. With a muttered curse, he wiped them away. One of them needed to be strong now. He could think about loosing his friendship with Quatre later, his comrade. Right now, Musha needed him. "It's my fault." Her voice came out a broken whisper. "No. Not all of it." He whispered, holding her close. "It's all of us. Tensei, she became too lost within her own problems to notice the outside world anymore." "But, my own ignorance kept me from accepting what was happening. I put all the blame on Colin." She paused then added. "Even though it was that bastard's fault and he should pay for it, it was still my doing. I didn't want to accept what was there, and it's my fault that the friendship is gone." "No, Musha." He sighed, how could he explain this to her when he didn't even understand it. "The way things turned out, are just like they were on a battlefield." Oh great, comparing a woman's heart to a bloody war ground. Great. "Battles are always filled with chaos, right and wrong, planning and conscious thought are all lost. People seek for a way to place the blame on something, anything else." A memory of his colony being destroyed, and the brief insanity that had followed it, filled his vision. "It's just the way things turned out." She sniffled and rested her head fully in his embrace. No more strength left. "The way things turned out to be sucks." A sigh. "Human emotions, our faults and our errors, our own damn ignorance." Wufei almost smiled there, it had been his own ignorance that had nearly prevented him from allowing himself to accept his emotions for Musha. "All of these are stupid." "I know." What else could be said? How long they stayed there, holding each other in a comforting embrace was lost to them. It could have been moments or hours until Musha finally spoke. "Lets, go back Wufei." She shivered. Blinking, he looked down at her, surprise lingering on his features. "Why? You, love looking at the stars." "I'm, not feeling very well." Without a word, he gently placed one hand below her knee's, and the other along her back. Then, he picked her up, and holding her close, began the long trek back to their house. *** 'No! No no NO! Just, leave me alone! Why can't you just do that?' 'You already know the answer to that Elizabeth.' 'NO! I refuse to believe it! I am not your puppet Colin! I don't depend upon you to live, or to thrive! I have my own life, my own love. I don't need you there to call the shots!' 'I AM YOUR LIFE, ELIZABETH!' The voice in her mind almost seemed frantic at this point. She could feel him grasp memories buried deep within her and play them before her minds eye. She was nothing more to him than a helpless victim, a random woman who was in the wrong place at the wrong time when Colin decided to seek help. All he had to do was bring back painful memories of her past, and she would do anything he asked until he released her from her pain. These memories, they had always worked in the past. Whenever she'd began to stray, or to wonder if she could make it on her own, he'd brought up these memories and she had instantly discarded the thoughts of life on her own. But not this time, no, never again. 'I'm not going back to you this time Colin.' 'You have no choi-' 'Yes I DO!' Dimly, she heard the front door open and close. Footsteps sounded softly, but all of that seemed so, far away. 'You only have the power to suggest things Colin! And, to the weak of heart, you can convince them of things! I know that, because I AM WEAK! But, not anymore! I'm not coming back to you! Never again!' A faint tingling began in the back of her mind, threatening to be the start of a headache. She rubbed her hand along her forehead, wiping away the cold sweat that had begun to form as well then went back to her mental battle. 'I have too much to live for now Colin. I'm not as weak as I once was, and I won't give up. Tensei is my friend-' 'Renee was your friend! And Tensei killed her-' 'NO! Tensei was the real Renee all along! Don't try to fool me again Colin! It won't work! I'm my own person now! Don't even try it!" The footsteps that had sounded before ceased. They disappeared from Elizabeth's mind, along with nearly everything else, almost instantly. 'I'm sorry you feel that way, Elizabeth. You showed such promise.' Elizabeth's eyes widened with alarm. "Wha-" Pain! Blinding white pain exploded behind her eyelids. A scream sounded from the air, ringing and consuming all before it. The sound almost seemed to grow louder as time passed, consuming her mind and all the rest of her senses. Then, a new sound grew and surpassed even that horrible scream. Colin's laughter, it shouted within her mind until she thought her eyes must be bleeding. Along with God knew what else. Then, she dimly felt to strong arms wrap around her waist, as well as a frantic voice shouting her name. That voice. That new voice shouting almost seemed to drown out Colin's laughter. Dim it somehow, to a certain extent. When unconsciousness finally came, it was a blessing. ~*~ "Elizabeth!" Duo dropped the roses he'd been carrying them, falling to the floor all but forgotten as he caught the girl, stopping her from crashing brutally into the floor below. "Elizabeth!" He gasped as he struggled to hold onto her. Her entire body was shaking, as if she was dying! "Elizabeth! Gods, don't die on me!" He could only see the whites of her eyes, and her sweaty skin made it even harder to hold onto her. Now, he was no doctor but even he knew that that was NOT a good sign! Before he was even aware of what he was doing, he grasped his cell phone and called for an ambulance. The voice of an operator came on, and asked him to hold. Hold? Hold?!? "Listen to me, whoever the HELL you are! Get a DAMN ambulance down here NOW! If you even put me on hold for a SECOND, there will be HELL to pay!" ******* "So that's it? It's all over? That's the end of it?" "Apparently." Quatre flicked off the light and wrapped his arms around Tensei, simply enjoying having her in his embrace. The bed shifted slightly as Tensei rolled over. A great whoosh of air escaped from her lungs. "It's just..." "Tensei." Somehow she was able to see his eyes even in the dark. Filled with love and concern for her. He gently brushed some hair from her face and tucked it behind her ear. Goose bumps littered her flesh from where his skin touched her own. "You don't need to say anything." "Yes I do, Quatre." She shut her eyes and lay down next to him, her head resting in the crook of his neck. "It's all my fault, isn't it?" She whispered. "If I had never left-" "Then the same thing would have happened!" Quatre sighed. This was his love's greatest weakness. She always placed the blame on herself, be it something small like a lost piece of jewelry or something as huge as this. According to her, it was always her fault. That's why he had made it his job to protect her; both from the monsters in the outside world, and the demons within her heart. "Don't blame yourself Tensei, please. Musha didn't understand, she couldn't have understood. Everything, was so easy for her after you left." A trembling sigh escaped her lips, and Quatre gently kissed away a few of the tears that began to trickle down her cheeks. "No more tears, Tensei, no more tears." "No more tears...." She shut her eyes. "Musha, why couldn't you understand me?" A memory lingered in her minds eye. Tensei and Musha saying goodbye that fateful day at the airport. 'This is the day we die, huh?' They had died, not physically or in the sense that most people would assume following that word. Their' friendship had died, the bond that had been there for so long had shattered, and left the two of them apart and, in a sense, dead. Then what of her bond with Quatre? Could it suffer the same fate? "Quatre, I..." He shook his head, and gently ran his fingers up and down her arm. He kissed her one last time on the lips, and then, lulled by the soft petting motions, the thought that had been so urgent to stay faded away, and Tensei fell asleep with a gentle smile on her face. ******* "She'll come back! I know she'll come back! She will come back, she has to!" Colin rocked back and forth, holding himself in the fetal position. His voice grew to a high pitch suddenly, almost in a frighteningly desperate song. "She will come back! She has to come back! She has to!" A harsh beam of light suddenly struck the room, followed by the soft sounds of footsteps. Colin looked up. His eyes grew wide with sudden realization. "You?" The lone sound of a single bullet was the only thing that shattered the silence that followed. ******* Violet eyes scanned the area before in nothing short of confusion. The outline of monstrous machines filled the inky darkness. Cold bitter air assaulted the corridors of the long abandoned basement, causing a few ripples in the puddles of oil and grease that littered the floor. This wasn't right. Musha walked in a circle, inching past the demons that seemed to line the walls. She'd fallen asleep in Wufei's arms, on the soft grasses of Sanq. Why was she in a basement? And why was everything so big? It was so hard to see, why couldn't someone turn on the lights? Everything seemed to crowd around her, suffocating. She couldn't help but let out a nervous squeak when her foot stumbled over a large piece of tin. "Damnit! Ow..." Wait, who had said that? It couldn't have been her voice! It was so, high-pitched. "Hello?" The strange voice trembled, sounding as if it was on the verge of tears. Whatever it was sounded young. But, there was no way, right? Tentatively, Musha opened her eyes and grabbed the piece of tin before her. A crazy impulse, but... A young girl with messy blonde hair and frightful violet eyes, looking no older than five at the most, stared back at her in the place her reflection should have been. "WHAT! Whoa" The tin fell from her frozen hands. "There is no way! I can't be, it can't be." Her eyes scanned the room with a new light. The monstrous outlines no longer seemed as intimating or ugly, but rather strikingly familiar. Forming a shape that she had seen many a times in the past. A being she missed desperately, yet loathed at the same time. Her little feet began to move at an accelerated pace. Soon, she was traveling at an all out sprint. "I know this place! I know! "There! To the left, that's where I cut my knee, the first time I was here! Over there, that's where Tensei somehow repaired the prototype I destroyed before Master U found out. "The oil spills and the hanging wires that were the training grounds for practice assaults!" Her eyes were wide as her child like form began to pant. Finally, as the monstrous shape loomed before her, she finally allowed herself to stop in her run and stare up at it. "And here...this is the place where I first met you. When I discovered we'd be partners." She took small step forward. "How can you be here?" The emotionless gold eyes of Stars Fury hummed to life, before the machine stood up on its own. **** "Have I finally lost my mind?" Tensei looked around, pulling her short messy hair out of her eyes; the same haircut she'd been forced to wear during her training with Master U. Where was she? Everything was dark, a dream, perhaps? She recalled falling asleep in Quartre's arms, content. An ironic smile quirked her lips. "Or maybe, I HAVE finally lost my mind." "How can you be here?" Tensei whirled around towards the source of the voice. The transparent form of Musha stared past her. Not the person who Tensei had grown to hate over the last few weeks, but the confused child she had come to love, and now miss, during her time training with Master U. Before she could so much as utter a scream, the child Musha stepped right through her, and vanished without a trace. "W-What?" Her knees gave out from under her and she gasped. "What was that? I really have lost my mind, just like Colin did." Tears began to flood her eyes, and she shut them in an attempt to stop the assault. She'd shed enough tears over the last few weeks to fill an ocean. There was no need for them anymore! "Why can't it all just end?" A soft hum filled her ears, followed by the creak of machinery. Driven by some unseen power, or curiosity, Tensei somehow found the strength within her to look up. She squinted her eyes- there was nothing there but darkness. "H-hello?" Gah! She hated this! She'd had enough of crying, but the child- like version of her didn't seem to want to stop the tears. Taking a deep breath, she steadied herself. "Who's there? Show yourself and bring me out of this dream!" She waited. And waited. And nothing happened. "Great..." Slowly, she stood up. Apparently, if she wanted to see what was in front of her, she'd have to find out for herself. 'I should be more afraid of this, shouldn't I?' She thought quietly as she took one step, and then another. 'This all feels so familiar though, as if I've been here before.' Suddenly, she stopped. An image filled her mind, a painfully familiar one at that. Raising her head, she didn't so much as gasp in surprise as her little eyes lay upon the figure that she had known would be there. "Kaikou." ***** "How can you be here?" Musha crossed her small legs in StarsFury's large hand, which had been extended for her. "How can I be here at that? I'm, a child again." She swallowed; her childhood had been bad enough the first time around. "We're in the base back at Master U's headquarters. This place was destroyed, and so were you." She lowered her head. "Look at me, five years old again. I'm talking to a machine. One that was already" she couldn't bring herself to say scrapped. "Destroyed. You're gone." 'I'm here.' Musha's eyes shot open, and she would have fallen out of the hand had one of the 'fingers' braced itself along her back. The gold eyes hummed with the same emotionless aura. That voice! She did not hear it, no. no she did not hear a thing, but she felt it. "Stars Fury?" No reply. Standing up, she stared at it unblinking. "You just spoke to me. I know you did!" It was impossible, wasn't it? To the mind of an adult, the concept that a machine would be able to speak and hold conscious opinion was impossible, but to the mind of a child... "Stars Fury. Please...." She refused to lower her gaze. "I, please, I've lost so much! Tell me what's happening!" Tears again! Had she always cried this much as a child? "What you lost, was your own choice." The hand beneath her moved, and she suddenly found herself eye level with the Gundam. "You're real. But, how? How can you be real?" Her fingers touched the cool Gundanium. Lifeless, it had to be. "A soldier sacrifices a part of them self to bring peace to the world. What was torn away was given to me." She shook her head. This made no sense. Perhaps she really was losing her mind. But, did that matter right now? Her Gundam, it was before her. "This makes no sense." "War is chaos. War does not make sense." Laughter broke forth from her lips. "You came back from the dead to tell me that?" "No." "Well then." She placed her small hands on her small hips. An expression that was completely unsuited for a child of her age lingering on her face. "What are you here for?" "To say goodbye." **** "Kaikou? How can you be here?" Tensei shook her head and gently laid her small hand by the base of it. "How...what's going on?" She knew really, to a certain extent. She was a child again, and she was in the place where she had first met Kaikou. Everything was as it was, right down to the age. The Gundam stirred and the eyes glowed with a blue light. "Kaikou?" "I am here." She gasped and stumbled backwards, her back coming against the large mechanical hand, which had been lowered. Once again, tears stung her eyes. Her Gundam, Kaikou was here! Memories of the day of the final battle against Master U assaulted her mind. She'd remained conscious long after the Omega system should have rendered her unconscious. There was no doubt in her mind that Kaikou had somehow kept her conscious through all of that. This machine that she had hated for so long, it saved her life. "How. how can you be here, Kaikou?" "There is no time." "What? What do you mean no time? What's happening?" "Goodbye young fighter." Her eyes widened. "Young fighter...NO!" She shook her head frantically. "NO! Kaikou!" Running forward, her feet seemed to spur on a life of their' own. "Kaikou, my name is Tensei!" She couldn't explain why it was so important that it learn her real name, it just was. "My name is Tensei! I'm no longer a fighter. At first, she thought she was to late, then the soft whispering in her mind seemed to echo. "Goodbye, Tensei." Soft footsteps sounded behind her. As she turned around, a familiar voice echoed the words that her Gundam had just spoken. Another person stepped into view and she gasped. "Who are you?" The boy before her smiled sadly and approached the young girl. "Melody." He spoke her name so reverently, as if he had been waiting all his life to see her, little did she know that he had. "I'm sorry." And then he was gone. "Hey wait! Come back! Colin!" Wait. how did she know his name? "Tensei! Hey?" Quatre shook her gently, still holding her in his tender embrace with concern in his eyes. "You were crying out for Colin, are you alright?" "I-I." She turned her gaze to the window. The rising sun, a new beginning. A new day had dawned. "Colin." her voice was but a whisper, but her heart heard it well. Colin. she knew that name. It was so familiar, yet not. but a voice inside told her just to move on. to forget the past and start new. 'Don't make the same mistake...' "Tensei?" He gently stroked her cheek, and Tensei's heart almost broke at the love in the caress. He was making sure that she was still here, still with him. Did he really love her that much? Yes. She knew that he'd always be there for her. Though her mind raced with questions about who that small boy was, her heart was content. happy. So for the very first time, she decided to follow that still, small voice that had been so persistent for all these years. She would forget about the past and truly move on. "I...Quatre, can we leave?" "Leave?" A moment of silence passed between the two. "..." A soft sigh behind her, and he gently shifted position. Not a moment later, she felt soft lips on her forehead. Was it possible, for anyone, to be loved so much? No more words needed to be said. ***** "Musha?" Wufei practically screamed in frustration when he saw her through the window. Sitting calmly on the roof, staring up at the fading stars. "Damnit! What the hell do you think you're doing?" In two quick steps, he closed the distance between then and sat down in front of her, his dark eyes glaring into her own in the rising sun. "Where the hell were you?" "On the roof." A sound that sounded suspiciously like a growl escaped from his lips. He grasped her shoulders and held her in a near death grip. Amazing how history repeats itself. This is exactly how he had held her when trying to convince her not to leave Sanq for the first time. "What are you doing here? Last night you told me you weren't feeling well. I wake up this morning, and you're gone. What were you doing!?" "Fei, you sound like a worried sick mother." "ONNA!" "Don't call me that." A soft smile lingered on her lips and she turned her gaze to him. "I was just, thinking." "Thinking?" He stared at her incredulously. "You were just, thinking? On the roof?" "Convenient place, huh?" An exasperated sigh left his lips, and he flopped down on the roof next to her. The sun rose and the light began to race along the land. "Odin was found, right?" Wufei watched her out of the corner of his eyes. Why had she brought that up? "Yeah, last night. Kashoku had him all along." She smiled again. "Yeah. Wufei, did you ever think, that Shenlong was more than just a machine?" Okay, now the conversation was getting weird. "What does that have with you being on the roof Onna?" "Just answer the question. And don't call me that." He grunted, and then stared straight ahead again. "I believed, that Nataku's spirit lived inside the Machine she had died to protect." Another smile spread across Musha's face. "So, our Gundams have spirits inside of them." "What does this have to do with you being on the roof?" She grinned and then wrapped her arm around him, kissing him lightly on the cheek. "Nothing, nothing at all, Fei-chan." With that said, she jumped up and walked back inside. Wufei stared at her retreating form. Fei-chan? **** "Odin!" Relena sobbed as she took the young child into her arms. She held him, vowing never to let him go. She'd been given a second chance, how many mothers had wished for such a gift. Hiiro laughed, he actually laughed, as he himself ran into the room. When Trowa had come to get them, told them the news, Relena had taken off at a speed that would make nearly all creatures alive green with envy. Their son was alive! Safe. Trowa stood silently in a corner, his face baring a placid expression, which the likes of hadn't been seen for over two years. Hiiro paid none of this any heed however. Business, fighting, questions. All of them could wait. His son was ALIVE! "Hiiro." Relena turned around, laughing in sheer joy. She kept opening her mouth, but no words could leave it besides that beautiful laughter. Hiiro ran up to the two of them, and picked Relena up in his arms before spinning both her and Odin around. Relena rested her head on his shoulder, gently cradling the giggling Odin. "We're a family again, Hiiro." A family. His family. Pulling away, he stared down at the beautiful face of his wife, and the chubby face of his son. His family, what had he, a soldier stained with so much blood, done to deserve such a thing? Suddenly, his knees gave out from under him and he collapsed into a kneeling position. He ignored Trowa's cry of alarm, and Lady Une's surprised shout. He didn't even flinch when he heard Relena's soothing voice assuring everyone that nothing was wrong. Hiiro Yui paid attention to none of these things. He simply kneeled down at Heavens door, and thanked God. ******** "Are you alright?" Airports were horrible places. The faces of people within were consumed with a mixture of grief and excitement. Driven by the joy of a journey, or the desperation of a sudden departure. Not to mention the God-awful smell that lingered as well. "Tensei?" Quartre's expression was glum. He too was leaving a part of him behind. A phase of his life had been cast suddenly shut, although he refused to let his sorrow show on his face in concern for his lover. Tensei shut her eyes. She could at least smile for him, couldn't she? Tell him that everything would be all right. Force a smile upon her face as she had done so many times in the past. A sigh reached her ears. Quatre placed a gentle hand on her shoulder, neither in a sign of comfort or distaste, and stepped forward. In the thousands of traveling people in the airport, his form was lost almost instantly. "Hey Bekki!" Tensei turned her gaze to the side, where two young women stood embracing. Both of them seemed to have a combination of brown and blonde hair; one with curly and the other with straight. The one named Bekki grinned and stepped back. "Yeah, Amanda?" Amanda grinned as well and high-fived her friend. "Stay in touch! Okay! A border between us is going to make no difference!" Bekki laughed. "Of course! I'll e-mail you!" "Yeah!" Tensei shook her head sadly. 'Good luck you two.' She thought quietly. 'I hope you have better luck than Musha and I did.' Through all the crowds of people between them, she somehow felt Quatre pause and look over his shoulder in wait. "No." Tensei whispered. "No more lies or half truths. That's destroyed enough already in my life." She smiled, before taking off at a jog after Quatre. He grinned, and took her smaller hand into his own larger one. "Welcome back Tensei." "It's good to be back."