Absolution
by solange channonix
Prologue
192 AC, Peacemilion
Duo took his head up, trying to see something in the darkness of a giant dock. Slowly, his eyes adjusted to the lack of light, getting to see the contours of the giant mobile suit. A Gundam, his Gundam...
" How do you like it ?" Asked G, kneeling down to Duo's level, putting his hands on the boy's shoulders.
" Fantastic..." Said Duo almost dreamily, wide smile appearing on his childlish face.
" That machine serves to kill, Duo, you can't forget about it."
" I know..." Nodded the boy, his face growing serious.
" It will make a killer out of you, you'll fight for peace but you'll be a killer indeed. Have you ever killed a man yet ?"
" Yes." Duo answered immediately.
It was just a matter of time till Duo would tell more, he was too talkative to leave it at that, so G waited and after a while the boy spoke indeed, softly, very softly.
" He was trying to stop me from getting medication for my friends, I
shot him." Told Duo, sounding very adult as for a twelve years old boy,
indeed being just a kid he had the soul of an adult man and brave fighter,
it was why he'd been chosen to pilot Deathscythe in the first place.
195 AC, battlefield
Gundam controls, slick with sweat. Pilot's hands, clutching it too-tightly, sharp, quick, viscious moves. Auburn brows drawn together over dull violet eyes. Maniacal grin quivering the pilot's lips up, whole his body trembling with physical and sensual overload.
Two days of neverending battle, no sleep, food or a second of peace, nearly out of fuel and still fighting, because to give up was to die and lose and while the first was acceptable if not hoped for, the second was unthinkable for kind of soldier Duo was.
Another slash of the scythe deprived two Leos of its heads, causing them to explode in a flare. Duo took one hand up to block the sudden offending light, hissing in pain it caused his eyes. He was tired beyond imagination, but that wasn't going to stop him. Another turn of the scythe in the mobile suit's large hands, cutting off another Leo's both arms in one move.
2317... 2318... 2320...
Ever since, Duo had been counting people he'd killed, he didn't know what for, but mere thought of not being able to tell the precise number of his victims was causing the fear to creap at his heart while normally he feared hardly at all. So why did he fear this ? So what would it help that he'd know how many... The crime would be there the same, no matter what he'd do.
2327... 2328...
196 AC
Strangely silent thud, a bit of light, and it was over. Gundams were gone, only black, burned pieces of Gundamium alloy left. Gundams - mobile suits that nothing beside themselves could destroy, were gone. That event clearly indicated the end of the war.
It was all over. Duo felt tears forming under his eyelids as the realization hit him. He forced it down, he couldn't cry anymore. He'd let himself spill a few tears while leaving Deathscythe there to be destroyed, while taking his finger down on its self-destruction button, he wouldn't let more out. He wouldn't...
Duo turned around, to face Quatre and Trowa. Quatre was crying as well, crying and smiling at the same time as he loved Sandrock and peace as much. Trowa was hugging him and letting him do so in his shoulder. Duo felt a distant ache in his chest. There was no one there to comfort him... All was over. What was there left to do after the war had ended, what was there left to care, to fight for ?
Here he was - in the glory of victory but with hands drenched in blood, barely sixteen years old and yet his life held no sense anymore. Deathscythe was gone, his way of fighting for peace, avenging friends, being important to the others, was closed. There was nothing left... It hurt, nearly too much to bear.
Duo put his hands in his pockets, excused himself with a lame nervous
smile and went away, leaving Trowa and Quatre there. He didn't except to
see them, or any other from the ex-Gundam pilots, ever again.
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