( Okay, I know someone else, Darth Riven, I think, has written a story like this. But I wanted my own go at it. I promise I didn't copy any of that earlier story. )
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The landscape was cold and snowy. Buildings still blazed from the earlier battle, and wreckage of homes and mobile suits littered the once beautiful city. One such mobile suit lay face down on a street, a trail of devastation behind it from where it had crashed to the ground.
But no-one was concerned with the suit, only it's pilot. A man in a black uniform, with long golden hair, lay unconcious on the snow-covered ground.
A woman stood before his form, an expression of shock on her pale face.
It's him...it's Mwu...but how?
His face was the same as Murrue remembered it, handsome and proud. But that scar...the long scar that stretched across that face...how had he got it?
And if he was alive all this time...why didn't he come back to me? Why is he with the Earth Alliance?
Turning to the soldiers who had accompanied her, she motioned to them to pick up the man.
"Take him to sickbay, and have the doctors check him out and run tests on him, okay?"
As the soldiers lifted Mwu from where he had fallen, Murrue touched his hand gently, to make sure he was alive, and this wasn't all some dream. His skin was cold, but she could feel his pulse beating strongly.
Letting go, she bent down and picked up the metal helmet that had lain near his body. It was expressionless and dark, and she didn't like it one bit. Placing it back on the ground, she walked away.
That can stay here. He doesn't need something like that...
Later, when Murrue entered Archangel's sickbay after the ship had helped out clearing up the aftermath of the battle, the doctor turned to her with a smile.
"Ah, Captain. I thought you might want to see this.." He handed over a sheaf of papers, which she assumed were the results of the tests they had run.
Flipping through the sheets, Murrue's face lit up, and her heart skipped a beat in pure joy. The results were clear, a perfect match. It was him, really him...
Mwu lay fast asleep in one of the beds, breathing deeply, a drip in his right arm. But he...his arms were...
"Why is he restrained? He's not a prisoner..."
The doctor frowned.
"Before you got here, he woke up for a moment. He looked around as if he was somewhere unfamiliar to him, and said this..."
As the doctor spoke, the joy and happiness Murrue had felt slowly died away, to be replaced by confusion and uncertainty.
He...he said that? Why...
Wanting to be with him regardless, Murrue sat by his bedside, watching Mwu as he slept. Everything was the same as she remembered, the way he looked, the way he was built, the colour of his hair..even the way he smelt...
This man...he had to be Mwu. The results had said as much. But if so, then why had he...
She reached out a hand, wanting to touch his face, but pulled away just before her fingers made contact with his skin, almost as if she was afraid.
Why am I scared? It's him, it's Mwu, he's alive! So why am I so scared?
She heard the hiss of the sickbay door, and turned to see Murdoch enter. He had been Mwu's good friend, and it had been a given that he would come to see him.
"You okay, Captain? If you want to take a break, I can stay here..."
Murrue shook her head, auburn hair flying with the gesture. "No, it's all right..I want to stay..stay with him.."
The door hissed again, and Kira walked in. Kira was the one who had found Mwu out there, and shot down the mobile suit he had been piloting so that the Archangel could pick him up.
"Is he still asleep?" asked the young man.
Murrue nodded. "Yes. But apparently he woke up during treatment, and said that he was Colonel Neo Lorrnoke of the Earth Alliance's 81st Independent Manuever Squadron.."
She looked down, the confusion evident on her face. "But when the doctors checked his data against the records in the ship's database, they found a 100 match. This man...is Mwu La Fllaga.."
Her marigold eyes closed, the pain in them clear to Kira and Murdoch. "Or at least...physically, anyway."
How can that be? Why would Mwu say something like that?
Murdoch scowled, not understanding a word of this. "So what does this mean? This guy is the Commander, right?"
Kira nodded. "Yes, there's no doubt about it.."
Murrue was glad Kira seemed so certain. Before the doctor had told her what Mwu had said, she hadn't doubted it either.
But now...what did she believe?
"My, my, how disappointing. When did I become a Commander?"
The voice was so familiar, the sound hit Murrue like a bolt of electricity. She jumped to her feet so fast, the stool she had been sitting on tipped over, the sound echoing through the room.
Mwu was awake, and looking up at them. But something was wrong. His eyes, they were the same shade, the same cobalt blue that Murrue remembered. But..there seemed to be none of that twinkle, the spark that was so familiar to her. There was nothing there...
"Didn't I say that I was a Colonel? Don't demote me on your own convienience!" He tugged at the restraining bonds around his wrists, clearly not noticing the horrified expressions on the faces of Kira and Murdoch.
Murrue couldn't take it anymore.
He...he doesn't know where he is. And the voice...it's him, but it isn't him. Mwu's voice was always caring, even when he was being serious. This...it's...
She stood there, frozen to the spot, tears building up in her eyes.
Neo was angry, and confused. Last thing he remembered, he'd been in his Windam, being shot down by that annoying Orb mobile suit...Freedom, wasn't it? Now here he was, tied to a bed in some sort of hospital, with strange people looking down at him. And saying he was a Commander, of all things.
Looking up, Neo saw the woman that had been sitting by his bed. She had tears in her eyes, and as he watched, they ran down her cheeks as she pressed a hand to her mouth.
Too bad she's an enemy, she's gorgeous. But why is she crying?
"W-what is it?" he asked, smirking. "Did you fall in love with me at first sight, Miss Beautiful?"
The woman stepped back, the tears falling harder. Then she turned and ran out of the room.
The boy and the older man who had been standing behind the beautiful woman looked shocked and angry at him. Neo didn't understand why. He had just woken up here, and now he was being treated like he'd done something terrible.
"Mwu-san!" shouted the boy in anger.
Mwu-san...wait. Did this bunch get me confused with someone else? Is that why that woman was crying?
Neo frowned. "Who's this 'Mwu'?"
Murrue huddled against the wall outside sickbay, the tears streaming down her cheeks. Her heart...it hurt so much...
He didn't know me...he doesn't remember me...
When he had said those things to her...his smile had been...there was only sarcasm in that smile. None of her belovedMwu's kindness, just cold indifference. That look he had given her as he saw her tears, that look of blank confusion...that had hurt more than his words ever could have.
I thought...I thought I was over him...but I'm not...and I never will be. I love him, just as much as I did two years ago..
It felt like a wound that had been scabbed over, and seeing that...that man in sickbay had reopened that wound.
The pain she had felt at losing him, and the pain she felt now at his not remembering her combined together was almost too much for her to handle, and all she could do was cry, hugging her chest as though she was trying to mend her broken heart.
It's like Mwu's here...but he isn't...
Murrue felt a comforting arm around her shoulder, and looked up through her tears to see Miriallia was there.
"Are you okay? Do you want to go to your room for a bit?"
Murrue could only nod, not trusting herself to speak, and Miriallia led her gently away from sickbay.
In her darkened room, Murrue sat alone on the bed, still sobbing. She was angry at herself for letting this affect her so much, but he had brought it all back, and it was only now she realised how much she still missed Mwu.
I buried them..Ihid my feelings for him away...I thought they wouldn't bother me again...
How wrong she had been. Murrueonly realised nowthat her love for Mwu had only stayed dormant, not disappeared.
Why did he have to come back? Why did he have to forget me? Doesn't he know that I could never forget him?
Getting to her feet, the auburn-haired woman walked over to the desk on the far side of her room, and picked up the only two things she had besides her memories to remind her of her dead lover.
His uniform hat, which she had found a few hours after Jachin Due, and which she had been able to salvage from the wreckage of the house she had lived in, which those Asshu suits had destroyed.
It felt like he had kept it safe for me, like he was reminding me he was still there...
The other memento was a photograph, taken on Archangel's bridge, a photograph of Mwu, herself, and Natarle.
Natarle's shocked expression always made Murrue smile, and the playful and happy smile on Mwu's face...
That's my Mwu. The one I love. This man in sickbay...he can't be him...
A knock on the door startled her out of her thoughts. A muffled voice came through the metal.
"Murrue-san, are you there?"
Opening the door, she managed a shaky smile as she saw Kira standing there. He looked worried.
"Are you okay? I'm sorry..."
Murrue wiped the remaining tears from her marigold eyes (which she was sure must be red-rimmed) and nodded.
Kira frowned, and looked at the floor. "I didn't know that would happen..I thought that..." He looked up, earnestness in those violet orbs. "But I promise you...he is Mwu-san, I'm sure of it. I just...know. I'm sure he's just lost his memories somehow.."
Murrue scrubbed at her eyes again, not wanting to cry in front of the boy. Kira placed a hand lightly on her shoulder.
"One day, he'll remember you again, Murrue-san. One day you can be together again, and happy. I can feel it."
Murrue smiled, more genuinely this time.
I hope he's right...
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( Aww, teh angst! I wanted to write my own version of phase 33. I know that it seems kinda lazy of me, but meh lol.
I remember being so mad at Neo-san when he said those things to Murrue-san, but I guess he was just confused. But I still wanted to smack him for it, for making her cry.
It also makes you realise just how much Murrue-san must have loved Mwu, since even after two years, she was heartbroken when she realised he didn't remember her. Poor thing. At least she gets her happy ending...
Please read and review! )
