The Second Candle
The Peace That is to Come
~*~*~*~
Lucrecia rubbed the growing bulge of her belly as she picked her way carefully through the pre-dawn darkness. The tree where she and Vincent had taken to meeting was not too far off.
Finally she found it. Vincent, predictably, was already there, sitting at its trunk, arms wrapped around his knees. He looked up as she moved to sit next to him, his contemplative features softening. They sat in silence, waiting for the sun to rise.
"It's growing so fast," Lucrecia murmured, absently rubbing her belly.
"Yes," Vincent agreed softly.
Lucrecia leaned against the tree, looking up at the fading stars.
"I wonder how he'll be able to handle it," she said.
Vincent looked at her from the corner of his eye.
"Who?" he asked.
"My baby," she replied. "He'll be at the center of so much…so much will rest on his shoulders…"
"On the shoulders of Hojo and Gast you mean," Vincent said, a tinge of bitterness in his voice. "All he will have to do is put up with their testing."
Lucrecia flinched, and regret flooded Vincent's eyes.
"He won't be just an experiment," she said firmly. "Yes, testing him will be important, but it's not just his blood…it's his mind too.
"By all accounts the Cetra lived in peace and harmony with each other and with the Planet. We humans don't. But if we could understand the Cetra, how they worked and how they lived, then maybe we could resolve our own problems, and restore the Planet to life and health. People could stop fighting. We could finally live in peace."
Vincent arched an eyebrow.
"That's a heavy burden for one child," he said.
Lucrecia smiled at him, her face washed with the light of dawn.
"My baby will do great things," she said confidently.
Vincent nodded and hesitantly took her hand and squeezed it.
"I'm sure he will," he said quietly, never letting go of her hand.
They sat like that, in comfortable silence, until the sun finished its rise.
~*~*~*~