TITLE: Returning (2/?)
AUTHOR: Tari Gwaemir
PAIRINGS: 1+6; implied 6+13/13+6, 5+13, 3+4/4+3, 2+1
ARCHIVE: Email me at tarigwaemir@hotmail.com first, but I always say yes.
DISCLAIMER: Gundam Wing doesn't belong to me, but is owned by Bandai, Sotsu, Sunrise and other big companies, whose names I do not remember. I make no money from this piece of fanfiction, nor do I intend to.
SUMMARY: A Gundam Wing tribute to the narrative style of The Dispossessed, by Ursula K. LeGuin
COMMENTS: A short chapter but necessary in the overall scheme of things. This story is hard to read chapter by chapter, but there is an overall structure to it that will become clear.
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Chapter 2: The Lightning Count
When Zechs Marquise first met Heero Yuy, he did not know that the pilot of the strange mobile suit was only a boy, even younger than the Lightning Count himself. Nor did he know that when you saw Heero Yuy from a certain angle, you would suddenly realize he was beautiful. No, Zechs knew nothing about the pilot who sat behind the controls of Gundam 01, not even that he would become Zechs' greatest, and in many ways, his only opponent. How could he? Heero was encased in a giant mask of gundanium, and as far as Zechs was concerned, the amazing suit itself was much more fascinating than the pilot. Such speed, such power, such majesty--the suit far surpassed his Leo in more than simple statistics. Wing Gundam possessed the elegance of a finely honed and deadly weapon. The shooting star was forged in the blinding atmospheric heat to become the perfect sword. Zechs, who had always been strongly affected by fairy tales (being after all, the lost prince to a fallen kingdom), couldn't help thinking of the fanciful analogy. And underneath, the same question that always drove him to break records, dare the impossible and generally risk his life: What will Treize say to this?
Even as he abandoned his own mobile suit to fall with the gundam and its hidden pilot, he continued to silently think of Treize. Even as he sailed through the sky, floating like a dandelion seed in the cloudless blue, he did not spare a glance for the earth spreading out below. Instead, his eyes were closed, fixed on the image of his lord and leader, the perfect embodiment of the devoted soldier.
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NOTES: Subtle parallel between Heero and Zechs as "perfect soldiers" and fairy tale theme. Interpretation of Zechs' character largely derived from conversations with Lyd-chan, a.k.a. Lush Rimbaud.