Title: Ghost Knight (3/?)
Author: Anne Khushrenada
Email: cray@syix.com
Disclaimer: I don't *sniff* own *sniff* Gundam Wing.
Warnings: Mild angst, maybe a bit OOC (Dorothy,
again, and Sally)
Sunlight streamed in through the window, warming the
hardwood floor and the long-stemmed red rose beside
the bed. Lady Une woke slowly, as if from a deep
sleep, and brushed a curtain of hair back from her
face. Her eyes felt sore and puffy, and with a
surprised glance she saw that there were dried tears
upon her pillow.
"What-?" she began to ask aloud, then she caught
sight of the rose and fell silent, remembering.
Remembering everything, remembering Treize's words,
and the love they had shared...
"Oh, Treize," Une said softly, as she reached for the
rose. Its petals were soft, like velvet, and she held
it against her cheek, trying not to weep again.
She gave herself a little shake and reached for her
nightgown. It wouldn't do at all for Mariemaia or one
of the servants to find her like this, and there was
no earthly way she could ever hope to explain to them
what had taken place.
As she rose from the bed and dressed, her eye caught
a spot of red standing out against the white backdrop
of the sheets. It was dry but not yet faded the color
of rust; it had been there several hours.
Blood. Her blood.
And she felt a stiffness as she moved, aches in
places she had never felt them before. And she was
torn between joy that she had not dreamed it, that he
/had/ come to her, and a terrible sadness. She
brought the rose to her lips, deciding that she would
be grateful for the gift of his love which he had
given her.
On her way downstairs, the rose still in her hand, as
if she could not bear to let it go, Une paused to
check upon Mariemaia. She found the girl sitting upon
her bed, absent-mindedly stroking her stuffed turtle.
Une smiled as she stepped into the room.
"Are you alright, darling?" Une asked, sitting down
beside her.
"Yes," said Mariemaia. "I just- I had the strangest
dream, Mother."
As always when Mariemaia addressed her so, Une was
overwhelmed with her love for the girl. It still
nearly brought tears to her eyes to recall the day
when, shortly after she had decided to adopt
Mariemaia, Treize's child had asked if she could call
her 'Mother'.
"Bad dreams, sweetling?" Une asked.
Mariemaia shook her head. "No, not at all. I dreamed
that I saw Father. He kissed me and said that he
loved me. But it was almost too real to have been a
dream..."
Une nodded. "I know, Mariemaia."
"Mother...? Father, wherever he is, he /does/ love
me, doesn't he?"
"I'm sure of it," Une said, wrapping an arm about her
shoulders. "Come on, now. How about some breakfast?"
* * *
Lady Une slid her keycard into the slot beside the
door to Preventer Headquarters, waiting while the
glass door slid aside. She nodded to the woman
stationed just inside, and handed over her ID.
"Good morning, Lady Une," the other woman said.
"Good morning. Is there anything going on that I
should be aware of?"
"If there had been, someone would have called you at
home," the woman said. "So I would guess not. How's
your daughter, by the way?"
"Fine, thank you. I will tell her you asked."
Une accepted her ID back from the young woman and
headed for the elevators.
She paused again outside her office, waving at
Dorothy Catalonia, who held a telephone between her
ear and shoulder, typing furiously at the laptop
before her on the desk. "Yes, I'm certain Lady Une
will get back to you on that... Some year," she added
as she dropped the phone back into its cradle.
"'Morning," Une said with a smile. "What now?"
"Reporters. They're doing a piece on the anniversary
of the end of the war- again."
"And they'd like to speak to me," Une said.
"Yes. About Mister Treize."
Une shook her head. "No, I don't think so. Not this
year, Dorothy. They're better off talking to one of
the others- if they can find them. I understand most
of our colleagues have a habit for vanishing into
thin air when the newsies come sniffing about."
"I can't imagine why," Dorothy said. She scowled at
the phone as it began to ring again. "Preventer
Water's in your office, by the way. Something about
your annual physical?"
Une allowed herself a little groan. "Oh, no. Aren't
you going to get that?"
"Yes. Hello, Preventer HQ, Lady Une's office. Hold,
please." Dorothy raised an eyebrow at her. "Nichol
called again."
Une ignored this, turning her back on Dorothy and
opening her office's door. "Tell those newsies-"
"I know," Dorothy replied. Then, to the phone, "Sorry
for the wait. Can I help you?"
Une closed the door behind her and turned to face
Sally Po Chang.
"Sally," Une greeted the other woman as she took a
seat upon her desk. "Much as I would /love/ to get
the physical nonsense out of the way, I'm extremely
busy. The World Nation Council is demanding another
budget report, which not only has not been put
together yet, but which I have to present them with
in two days. I really don't have the time-"
"Alright. But this is important. It really shouldn't
wait- more than another month. And I'm only giving
you as much time as that because I know just /how/
busy you are."
Une nodded, scanning the contents of a file folder
she'd lifted from the top of the stack upon her desk.
It was clear to Sally that Une wasn't really
listening to her any longer, and the strange smile
crossing the other woman's face was more than a bit
disturbing.
Sally left Lady Une's office, but paused in the
antechamber for a word with Dorothy. The younger
woman looked up and nodded at Sally, then continued
her typing for a moment, until she reached a stopping
place.
"Lady Une," Sally began, not really sure what to say.
Dorothy nodded. "Something's going on with her, but I
couldn't tell you what it is. Does she seem- oddly
cheerful, to you?"
"Yes," Sally replied. "I can't imagine why,
especially with the anniversary of Treize's death
coming up in a couple months."
"Maybe you should keep an eye on Wufei," Dorothy
suggested with a shrug. "Maybe she's-"
But Sally shook her head. "Somehow I just don't think
that's it. He /offered/ to let her kill him once,
remember? If she'd wanted to take revenge, she could
have done it then. But she didn't."
Dorothy nodded slowly. "True. I just can't figure
what it could be, though, and there's not really
anyone who she talks to anymore. Is there?"
"Maybe," said Sally, as she drifted off, her
expression thoughtful. "Remind her about that
physical next month, okay? I mean it."
* * *
Une unsealed her Preventers jacket and reached for a
cigarette as she strode along the path towards the
grave. She lit the cigarette with a sigh, and placed
a hand on the marker upon which was carved his name,
and the words 'For now we see through a glass,
darkly, but then face to face'. His few living
relations had chosen the quote, and she had always
loathed it, but perhaps it fit better than she knew.
"Maybe it is apt," Une said softly, and took a slow
drag on the cigarette. "Maybe." A tear made its way
down her cheek, but she hardly noticed. She dropped
to her knees and rested her head against the cool
stone. "Oh, love. How can you be so alive one moment,
and so very...not, the next? I miss you, Treize."
Une sat there in silence a moment, gazing at the
headstone over the glowing ember of her cig.
"Hey. Lady. You alright?" called a voice, and Une
turned to regard an old man with thinning hair and
spectacles, wearing overalls.
"Yes," Une replied. Then: "No."
"You can't smoke that here-" She looked up at him
then, her eyes meeting his, and the old man seemed to
shake his head. "Forget it." He nodded respectfully
to Treize's gravestone. "Friend of yours?"
"My lover," Une said, the first time she'd spoken the
words, and she gave them forth without thought, with
no caution or same. He had asked, and it was the
truth. That was all.
"I'm sorry. AC 195, it says... been a few years."
"Not enough of them," Une said. She sighed. "I should
be going."
"Don't let me scare you off, miss," the old man said,
reaching out to touch her shoulder. "You stay as long
as you need to."
* * *
The Place Between Worlds
"Ghost Knight, it is time."
He looked up at the voice of Death, and nodded. He
dared one glance back at the Well of Souls, but Death
gripped his arm with ice-cold fingers and drew him
away from the Well, towards what was the River of
Forgetfulness.
"Farewell, Ghost Knight," Death said, his voice not
quite menacing, but close.
His head held high, Treize refused to acknowledge the
other's threatening undertones. Absent-mindedly he
ran a hand through his hair as he stepped towards the
River. He did not speak, having said all he had
needed to already.
The water was cold, like ice, and it gripped him in
its current, tugging him downward. As the river
carried him along, he felt parts of himself being
left in its wake, memory, sense and touch... a name.
His name? Who was he? All he could recall was that
Death had called him Ghost Knight, and then, after a
time, not even that.
Memories replayed as they faded- memories of a
childhood, of school years and later ones, memories
of the organization known as OZ, of fighting with
Lady Une at his side, of mobile suit battles and
Gundam pilots...
Of holding that same Lady in his arms, finally free
at last to proclaim his love for her...
"No!" he cried out, and held fast to those memories,
searing that woman's image into his mind so that he
would not forget it, ever. And he found himself
struggling against the current- or perhaps the
current struggled against him, he didn't know. But
the passage was no longer smooth.
He struck something sharp then, a rock amidst the
River turning the water to rapids, a rock with a
sharp jagged edge, and, though he was dead, he bled.
Another rock followed, and another after that, until
at last he found himself spilled out upon the
opposite shore. Not where he had been, but not where
he had expected to find himself, either.
When his feet touched land, memory returned. And
Treize Khushrenada smiled. For the River of
Forgetfulness /would not take him,/ and that meant
that it was not yet done.
"How much longer," seethed Death, "must I endure your
company? This is /my/ world, and I would inhabit it
alone."
"And gladly would I leave you to it," Treize replied.
"But it seems the River doesn't want me yet."
"You- you-" Death sputtered, seeming at a loss for
words.
"I defied you once for her, and I would do it again,
once, a dozen, a hundred times. I said I would die
again before I forget her, and did you think I did
not mean it?"
"I thought," said Death, "that you would forget that
oath along with the rest of it. Such is usually the
case."
"But clearly, not always."
"I have made you flesh again once; I cannot do so a
second time. That is not within my power. What can
you possibly do, unable to affect the physical
world?"
"Have we not discovered," Treize countered, "that so
many of your precious rules fail to apply to me?"
"That is so, Ghost Knight," Death replied. "But none
may defy me forever. In the end I will prove the
stronger."
"I don't intend to fight you," Treize replied, "only
to do what it seems I must."
And before he had thought twice, Treize felt himself
fading from the Place Between Worlds, crossing space
and time... to appear, no more solid than the winds,
at his own grave site. He strolled towards it,
ghostly footsteps not disturbing so much as one
fallen leaf or blade of grass.
Treize sighed tragically as he bent to read the
inscription upon his headstone. "What pretentious
nonsense," he said. "Well. I'm not about to look at
/that/ for the rest of eternity."
And, as he had done before, he thought himself
someplace else, and, sooner than the thought was
finished, found himself there.
* * *
One month later
"Alright," said Sally Po Chang as she withdrew the
needle from Lady Une's arm, replacing it with a
sterile cotton ball and a piece of medical tape,
folding Une's arm up so that pressure was put upon
the small wound. "That's the last of it. I just need
to run these tests, and once everything comes back
clear, you can return to work."
"I don't suppose," said Une, "that you could just
call me with the results?"
"Nope. Regs specifically state you have to wait here
until you're cleared for duty."
"Are you willing to tell the Council members that the
reason I was unable to return their calls is that you
held me hostage in the medical wing?"
"Very funny," Sally replied. "Think of it as a break.
I'll be back in a few minutes."
Sally departed the exam room, carrying the vials of
blood she had drawn from Lady Une. She calibrated the
scanner for the first test, and tapped her foot as
she waited for the results.
"Well, that's good to see," she murmured, scribbling
into Lady Une's chart. "Not that I thought she was
taking drugs- Although I'm sad to say she's taken up
smoking..." Still working on her chart notes, she fed
the next file into the scanner and set it for the
next test. That, too, was clear, as was the one after
that, but something came up in the last test, an
anomaly the scanner had noted.
Sally looked up at the machine's insistent beeping,
annoyed- and gasped. "What?"
Nearly dropping the chart in her haste to return to
Lady Une, Sally dashed back down the hall, and tugged
open the exam room door. "Lady Une- come with me."
"What is it?" Une asked her friend. "Is something
wrong?"
"Oh, no," Sally replied. "Not at all. In fact...
Well, here. See for yourself."
Sally tapped the scanner's readout, and Lady Une's
gasp echoed her own. "That- that's not possible," she
said softly, although she clearly recalled the
previous month's visitation. It /was,/ in fact, quite
possible. Uncanny, perhaps, but possible.
"I thought so too," Sally replied, "so I ran a
diagnostic on the scanner, and when that turned up
clean, ran the test again. There's no mistake. You're
pregnant, my friend."
Author: Anne Khushrenada
Email: cray@syix.com
Disclaimer: I don't *sniff* own *sniff* Gundam Wing.
Warnings: Mild angst, maybe a bit OOC (Dorothy,
again, and Sally)
Sunlight streamed in through the window, warming the
hardwood floor and the long-stemmed red rose beside
the bed. Lady Une woke slowly, as if from a deep
sleep, and brushed a curtain of hair back from her
face. Her eyes felt sore and puffy, and with a
surprised glance she saw that there were dried tears
upon her pillow.
"What-?" she began to ask aloud, then she caught
sight of the rose and fell silent, remembering.
Remembering everything, remembering Treize's words,
and the love they had shared...
"Oh, Treize," Une said softly, as she reached for the
rose. Its petals were soft, like velvet, and she held
it against her cheek, trying not to weep again.
She gave herself a little shake and reached for her
nightgown. It wouldn't do at all for Mariemaia or one
of the servants to find her like this, and there was
no earthly way she could ever hope to explain to them
what had taken place.
As she rose from the bed and dressed, her eye caught
a spot of red standing out against the white backdrop
of the sheets. It was dry but not yet faded the color
of rust; it had been there several hours.
Blood. Her blood.
And she felt a stiffness as she moved, aches in
places she had never felt them before. And she was
torn between joy that she had not dreamed it, that he
/had/ come to her, and a terrible sadness. She
brought the rose to her lips, deciding that she would
be grateful for the gift of his love which he had
given her.
On her way downstairs, the rose still in her hand, as
if she could not bear to let it go, Une paused to
check upon Mariemaia. She found the girl sitting upon
her bed, absent-mindedly stroking her stuffed turtle.
Une smiled as she stepped into the room.
"Are you alright, darling?" Une asked, sitting down
beside her.
"Yes," said Mariemaia. "I just- I had the strangest
dream, Mother."
As always when Mariemaia addressed her so, Une was
overwhelmed with her love for the girl. It still
nearly brought tears to her eyes to recall the day
when, shortly after she had decided to adopt
Mariemaia, Treize's child had asked if she could call
her 'Mother'.
"Bad dreams, sweetling?" Une asked.
Mariemaia shook her head. "No, not at all. I dreamed
that I saw Father. He kissed me and said that he
loved me. But it was almost too real to have been a
dream..."
Une nodded. "I know, Mariemaia."
"Mother...? Father, wherever he is, he /does/ love
me, doesn't he?"
"I'm sure of it," Une said, wrapping an arm about her
shoulders. "Come on, now. How about some breakfast?"
* * *
Lady Une slid her keycard into the slot beside the
door to Preventer Headquarters, waiting while the
glass door slid aside. She nodded to the woman
stationed just inside, and handed over her ID.
"Good morning, Lady Une," the other woman said.
"Good morning. Is there anything going on that I
should be aware of?"
"If there had been, someone would have called you at
home," the woman said. "So I would guess not. How's
your daughter, by the way?"
"Fine, thank you. I will tell her you asked."
Une accepted her ID back from the young woman and
headed for the elevators.
She paused again outside her office, waving at
Dorothy Catalonia, who held a telephone between her
ear and shoulder, typing furiously at the laptop
before her on the desk. "Yes, I'm certain Lady Une
will get back to you on that... Some year," she added
as she dropped the phone back into its cradle.
"'Morning," Une said with a smile. "What now?"
"Reporters. They're doing a piece on the anniversary
of the end of the war- again."
"And they'd like to speak to me," Une said.
"Yes. About Mister Treize."
Une shook her head. "No, I don't think so. Not this
year, Dorothy. They're better off talking to one of
the others- if they can find them. I understand most
of our colleagues have a habit for vanishing into
thin air when the newsies come sniffing about."
"I can't imagine why," Dorothy said. She scowled at
the phone as it began to ring again. "Preventer
Water's in your office, by the way. Something about
your annual physical?"
Une allowed herself a little groan. "Oh, no. Aren't
you going to get that?"
"Yes. Hello, Preventer HQ, Lady Une's office. Hold,
please." Dorothy raised an eyebrow at her. "Nichol
called again."
Une ignored this, turning her back on Dorothy and
opening her office's door. "Tell those newsies-"
"I know," Dorothy replied. Then, to the phone, "Sorry
for the wait. Can I help you?"
Une closed the door behind her and turned to face
Sally Po Chang.
"Sally," Une greeted the other woman as she took a
seat upon her desk. "Much as I would /love/ to get
the physical nonsense out of the way, I'm extremely
busy. The World Nation Council is demanding another
budget report, which not only has not been put
together yet, but which I have to present them with
in two days. I really don't have the time-"
"Alright. But this is important. It really shouldn't
wait- more than another month. And I'm only giving
you as much time as that because I know just /how/
busy you are."
Une nodded, scanning the contents of a file folder
she'd lifted from the top of the stack upon her desk.
It was clear to Sally that Une wasn't really
listening to her any longer, and the strange smile
crossing the other woman's face was more than a bit
disturbing.
Sally left Lady Une's office, but paused in the
antechamber for a word with Dorothy. The younger
woman looked up and nodded at Sally, then continued
her typing for a moment, until she reached a stopping
place.
"Lady Une," Sally began, not really sure what to say.
Dorothy nodded. "Something's going on with her, but I
couldn't tell you what it is. Does she seem- oddly
cheerful, to you?"
"Yes," Sally replied. "I can't imagine why,
especially with the anniversary of Treize's death
coming up in a couple months."
"Maybe you should keep an eye on Wufei," Dorothy
suggested with a shrug. "Maybe she's-"
But Sally shook her head. "Somehow I just don't think
that's it. He /offered/ to let her kill him once,
remember? If she'd wanted to take revenge, she could
have done it then. But she didn't."
Dorothy nodded slowly. "True. I just can't figure
what it could be, though, and there's not really
anyone who she talks to anymore. Is there?"
"Maybe," said Sally, as she drifted off, her
expression thoughtful. "Remind her about that
physical next month, okay? I mean it."
* * *
Une unsealed her Preventers jacket and reached for a
cigarette as she strode along the path towards the
grave. She lit the cigarette with a sigh, and placed
a hand on the marker upon which was carved his name,
and the words 'For now we see through a glass,
darkly, but then face to face'. His few living
relations had chosen the quote, and she had always
loathed it, but perhaps it fit better than she knew.
"Maybe it is apt," Une said softly, and took a slow
drag on the cigarette. "Maybe." A tear made its way
down her cheek, but she hardly noticed. She dropped
to her knees and rested her head against the cool
stone. "Oh, love. How can you be so alive one moment,
and so very...not, the next? I miss you, Treize."
Une sat there in silence a moment, gazing at the
headstone over the glowing ember of her cig.
"Hey. Lady. You alright?" called a voice, and Une
turned to regard an old man with thinning hair and
spectacles, wearing overalls.
"Yes," Une replied. Then: "No."
"You can't smoke that here-" She looked up at him
then, her eyes meeting his, and the old man seemed to
shake his head. "Forget it." He nodded respectfully
to Treize's gravestone. "Friend of yours?"
"My lover," Une said, the first time she'd spoken the
words, and she gave them forth without thought, with
no caution or same. He had asked, and it was the
truth. That was all.
"I'm sorry. AC 195, it says... been a few years."
"Not enough of them," Une said. She sighed. "I should
be going."
"Don't let me scare you off, miss," the old man said,
reaching out to touch her shoulder. "You stay as long
as you need to."
* * *
The Place Between Worlds
"Ghost Knight, it is time."
He looked up at the voice of Death, and nodded. He
dared one glance back at the Well of Souls, but Death
gripped his arm with ice-cold fingers and drew him
away from the Well, towards what was the River of
Forgetfulness.
"Farewell, Ghost Knight," Death said, his voice not
quite menacing, but close.
His head held high, Treize refused to acknowledge the
other's threatening undertones. Absent-mindedly he
ran a hand through his hair as he stepped towards the
River. He did not speak, having said all he had
needed to already.
The water was cold, like ice, and it gripped him in
its current, tugging him downward. As the river
carried him along, he felt parts of himself being
left in its wake, memory, sense and touch... a name.
His name? Who was he? All he could recall was that
Death had called him Ghost Knight, and then, after a
time, not even that.
Memories replayed as they faded- memories of a
childhood, of school years and later ones, memories
of the organization known as OZ, of fighting with
Lady Une at his side, of mobile suit battles and
Gundam pilots...
Of holding that same Lady in his arms, finally free
at last to proclaim his love for her...
"No!" he cried out, and held fast to those memories,
searing that woman's image into his mind so that he
would not forget it, ever. And he found himself
struggling against the current- or perhaps the
current struggled against him, he didn't know. But
the passage was no longer smooth.
He struck something sharp then, a rock amidst the
River turning the water to rapids, a rock with a
sharp jagged edge, and, though he was dead, he bled.
Another rock followed, and another after that, until
at last he found himself spilled out upon the
opposite shore. Not where he had been, but not where
he had expected to find himself, either.
When his feet touched land, memory returned. And
Treize Khushrenada smiled. For the River of
Forgetfulness /would not take him,/ and that meant
that it was not yet done.
"How much longer," seethed Death, "must I endure your
company? This is /my/ world, and I would inhabit it
alone."
"And gladly would I leave you to it," Treize replied.
"But it seems the River doesn't want me yet."
"You- you-" Death sputtered, seeming at a loss for
words.
"I defied you once for her, and I would do it again,
once, a dozen, a hundred times. I said I would die
again before I forget her, and did you think I did
not mean it?"
"I thought," said Death, "that you would forget that
oath along with the rest of it. Such is usually the
case."
"But clearly, not always."
"I have made you flesh again once; I cannot do so a
second time. That is not within my power. What can
you possibly do, unable to affect the physical
world?"
"Have we not discovered," Treize countered, "that so
many of your precious rules fail to apply to me?"
"That is so, Ghost Knight," Death replied. "But none
may defy me forever. In the end I will prove the
stronger."
"I don't intend to fight you," Treize replied, "only
to do what it seems I must."
And before he had thought twice, Treize felt himself
fading from the Place Between Worlds, crossing space
and time... to appear, no more solid than the winds,
at his own grave site. He strolled towards it,
ghostly footsteps not disturbing so much as one
fallen leaf or blade of grass.
Treize sighed tragically as he bent to read the
inscription upon his headstone. "What pretentious
nonsense," he said. "Well. I'm not about to look at
/that/ for the rest of eternity."
And, as he had done before, he thought himself
someplace else, and, sooner than the thought was
finished, found himself there.
* * *
One month later
"Alright," said Sally Po Chang as she withdrew the
needle from Lady Une's arm, replacing it with a
sterile cotton ball and a piece of medical tape,
folding Une's arm up so that pressure was put upon
the small wound. "That's the last of it. I just need
to run these tests, and once everything comes back
clear, you can return to work."
"I don't suppose," said Une, "that you could just
call me with the results?"
"Nope. Regs specifically state you have to wait here
until you're cleared for duty."
"Are you willing to tell the Council members that the
reason I was unable to return their calls is that you
held me hostage in the medical wing?"
"Very funny," Sally replied. "Think of it as a break.
I'll be back in a few minutes."
Sally departed the exam room, carrying the vials of
blood she had drawn from Lady Une. She calibrated the
scanner for the first test, and tapped her foot as
she waited for the results.
"Well, that's good to see," she murmured, scribbling
into Lady Une's chart. "Not that I thought she was
taking drugs- Although I'm sad to say she's taken up
smoking..." Still working on her chart notes, she fed
the next file into the scanner and set it for the
next test. That, too, was clear, as was the one after
that, but something came up in the last test, an
anomaly the scanner had noted.
Sally looked up at the machine's insistent beeping,
annoyed- and gasped. "What?"
Nearly dropping the chart in her haste to return to
Lady Une, Sally dashed back down the hall, and tugged
open the exam room door. "Lady Une- come with me."
"What is it?" Une asked her friend. "Is something
wrong?"
"Oh, no," Sally replied. "Not at all. In fact...
Well, here. See for yourself."
Sally tapped the scanner's readout, and Lady Une's
gasp echoed her own. "That- that's not possible," she
said softly, although she clearly recalled the
previous month's visitation. It /was,/ in fact, quite
possible. Uncanny, perhaps, but possible.
"I thought so too," Sally replied, "so I ran a
diagnostic on the scanner, and when that turned up
clean, ran the test again. There's no mistake. You're
pregnant, my friend."