Through Time



He stared out the window into the blanket of darkness that is night, or rather, early morning.

Black, empty, death.

Those were the first three words that came to his mind and he felt his whole body stiffened at the thought of it. Imaginary, long forgotten, pain freshly emerged from its' periodic slumber and menacingly came surging back to him, hollering in a deafening scream that pierced through his mind, demanding he remember.

And he did. How could he forget?

He remembered their faces full of emotion, their words that held so much meaning no matter how ironic it appeared to be, and their undeniable passion for the art that is an unforgivable sin; the practice of the damned. To those nomad lost souls who needed a value to live for, they were vulnerably swallowed by the darkness in which the Devil would then lead them forth through a glorified field of blinded pride and naiveity.

Where the light can not reach them. And they were gone.

"Looking at the stars from this perspective is so much different from that of on a ship or a mobile suit." he remarked, his eyes following a plane's blinking lights until it was out of his eye's view of vision in that vast sea of darkness.

Amber eyes watched the young man across the room with a puzzled look and she stared at his calm, serene, demeanor quizzically.

"Something wrong Athrun?" she queried with a gentle voice. He didn't answer.

Cagalli's lips formed a tight line and she stood up from his bed and seated herself next to the blue-haired boy, blocking his line of vision of the neverending sky and shoving her face right in front of his. She leered deeply into his eyes of forest green. "What's wrong?" she asked again, a bit worried, a bit frustrated.

Athrun blinked and stared at her with an emotionless facade, then shifted in his seat and moved back a few inches with a soft sigh. "It's nothing. I'm just... tired."

Cagalli frowned and bit on her bottom lip to thwart away her brimming anger, and she decided not to question him. She did feel somewhat hurt by his secretive self lately. No, it annoyed her to say the least. It annoyed and aggravated her, she wanted to slap him back to his senses so that he can stop silently sulking around so much. She couldn't though. Who can blame her for being worried? She didn't want to think that it was because of anything negative, but her mind would always jump onto those assumption and arrogantly, it clung to them while flashing a bright green color. She would scold herself then for doubting him, for ever thinking of doubting him. But there was always thing feeling...

Warm arms encircled her and gathered her to a warm body where her head rested on a shoulder. She snapped out of her stormy thoughts to look up and see his smiling face beaming down at her pleasantly. She felt chills and tingles travel through her like little excited ripples, and she couldn't help smiling back, albeit hesistantly. She had come to the conclusion that his smile was dangeriously contagious, and she hated it-- or so she thought.

Athrun looked at the young woman in his arms with a thoughtful, kind grin. A soft, heavy weight of a feeling arised from within him, and he didn't know what it was. Until from the moment he saw her smile, every tribulation that haunted his thoughts had vanished and were buried once more in the void of bitter memories he couldn't help keeping.

His eyes traveled to the sky again. The sun was rising.

The dawn reminded him of her. The one who brought forth the light to a furious darkness and banished it back to its' immoral realm of ominous obscurity. The powerful light. The fragile light. He wanted to keep it forever. He wanted to keep her forever. But...

"We better get going, or else we'll miss the ceremony." Cagalli spoke up and moved out of his embrace.

He nodded, his gaze never left the soft colored sky, painted with warm luminous colors. Nature's great masterpiece. The rebirth of the day.

"Get dressed Athrun." he heard her say, he turned his head to see the golden-haired girl walk out of his cluttered room of dicarded pieces and parts of machines and miniature robots. And that heavy feeling returned. He was confused again.

"Cagalli..." The murmur barely escaped his lips.

But she didn't hear him, she was gone.

The feeling is like being compared to a helpless panicking insect glued to a spider's web, paralyzed by poison, then wrapped and suffocated by its' sticky silk, finally being mercilessly devoured agonizingly slowly by the hungry predator, sinking venomous fangs into the victim's flesh. Although, you can not compare her to an insect, but a divine rose trapped in a securely strong hold, intertwined within snake-like binding vines that will never let go, until someone comes along and slashes off its stem, thus ending the life of the rose, for it is beautiful no more.

"Stay still Lacus-sama." Someone commanded and cupped her face and forcefully turned her to the direction of the voice's owner before she could utter an objection.

They offended her. They invaded her personal space. She felt entirely disgusted. She felt ashamed. They cruelly stripped her of her freedom and she was indeed fully aware how idiotically ironic it was for her. Laugh at her if you wish, because now, she felt so weak and feeble. Hopeless, she wanted to break.

They tilted her face up, and told her to close her eyes and open out her mouth widely, and she felt something being pressed against her lips. The air was stuffy, she could feel the teasing of their breaths caressing her cheeks and trailing near her ears. She couldn't breath. They touched her, pulled on her hair, played with her fingers, rubbed her face and neck with thick wet liquid.

She felt violated and disturbingly uncomfortable, like she was being played with, like an used doll.

When they were finished with her, they stared at her with satisfied and very pleased expressions and smirks, as if they were victorious.

She was indeed a doll through their eyes. But through her own pale blue ones, she was a broken puppet.

"Mirror Mirror on the wall... I am not who I am at all..." The pink-haired young woman sorrowfully thought as she observed herself through a large mirror.

She was covered with a thick colorful mask that she felt like she was safe under, for no one could read the real expression on her face unless they drowned their souls through her eyes, and there, they will painfully learn the dreaded truth. Her hands slowly reached up to her face and lingered there, her vibrant blue eyes gleaming yet dull. Different arranges of the hues of brown painted her eyes as her lips were glossed over with a pink-beige color, and her cheeks, flushed with a rosy pastel blush. It was not her at all.

She felt, fake. ... Ugly.

"You look beautiful Lacus-sama." One of them gushed, contradicting the songstress's thoughts. She merely only acknowledged that by nodding and smiling faintly while staring at her wretched reflection, almost mesmerized and stunned, yet also deeply loathing the lovely image of the young beautiful woman.

It was just a mask.

And they have successfully tainted her. Plucking the petals of a rose until only the thorns remained.

"It's time for your performance Lacus-sama."

...Just a toy. A dieing rose.

Author's Notes: Mmmm.... I don't know where I'm going with this story, but I have an idea. Sorry the chapters are so short. The part about Lacus, I was trying to make an illusionary feeling, as if she was being raped, but she really wasn't, they were just putting makeup on her and I made it so that Lacus really disliked it because it was not who she was. Through her eyes, they've molded her into a stranger and put words in her mouth, and later if I have enough time to continue this story, you'll know the reason why. The relationship between Athrun and Cagalli is somewhat of an awkward one to me, since I don't really understand it at all, and because I'm a supporter of Athrun x Lacus, so you'd see me juggle around couplings.