The Boy with No Name
By: Tanni
Disclaimer: Uh, yeah, I don't own it. The dialogue here was taken from the Episode Zero manga, so I don't own that either...
The abyss of space, so devoid of life, yet so enigmatic that it draws the life which it does not have, to it. Space was all he knew; space was his world. His world, seemingly, that was so devoid of life. He stared through the thick glass into the endless, starry, span of darkness. And it silently stared back at him.
"Whatchya' looken' at?" The boy could hear him, but felt he had no answer, so was silent. "The void of space..." he continued, "which took everything away from you?" There was so much behind those few words; the kid couldn't even begin to remember.
Odin took a step closer to the young boy, and at the same time, stood out of the light's path to the glass pane. The light reflected brightly back at him, and so did the image of his eight year old face, and age old eyes. "Or, your own image. A face without a name...?"
The boy had no name, and had no place to call a home. He knew nothing of life but its endless bloodshed, misery, and its depression all sewn into one enormous mess that he referred to as his life. His eye's reflection stared blankly back at him, mocking his very existence. The boy had to wonder if he was really at all alive or not. He couldn't feel it, at least not right now. Finally, the boy spoke, but at a tone Odin had to strain his ears to hear.
"Why..." he began and turned to face the older man; his "guardian", as he called himself. "Did you come to this colony?" Odin looked down at the boy, and then turned away, as if he wasn't going to answer.
But he did, "To abandon you." Before the boy had a chance to question him, he continued, all the while opening up his "musician's" case and extracting various items from it. One of the items being a long, fierce looking, sniper rifle. "Kid, soon there'll be coup d'etat here. You'll take advantage of the confusion to settle down at this colony." He paused, but the boy silently waited for him to continue. "You know how to, kid. I've taught you everything you need to know to survive." Odin heard the familiar click of the boy's safety switch being flicked off as he pulled the gun out of his vest pocket, and he didn't have to turn around to know the boy's gun was pointed right at him.
"And..." he heard the boy say, "Who are you going to kill this time?" Odin continued to assemble the riffle casually, as though there wasn't a boy behind him with a gun pointed at his back.
"Septem, of the Alliance Space Force. This'll be my last job." Odin would never have another job, because he wasn't planning on living much longer. This would be his final mission, and the boy knew it. "So you should go to school, and live a normal life." He said.
"I'll decide what I'm going to do."
"Heh." Odin breathed. 'I shouldn't have expected anything more, or less, from that kid. Typical.' And without a final glance backwards to the boy, Odin left down the right corridor with the full intent on never seeing the kid again.