Disclaimer: I do NOT own Gundam Wing or any of the characters for that matter. I am just merely borrowing them as my muses at the moment. However...I DO own Eve, Alexandria and the old woman! If you wish to borrow one of them, PLEASE let me know! Thank you.
Series: Gundam Wing
Title: For Eternity
Prologue: 3 Doors Down to Freedom
Author: Tiasha
I am already here
Down on my knees
I am already here, oh no
I am already here
I must have told you a thousand times
I am not running away
I won't duck and run
[…]
No I pass away
"You won't survive much longer if you continue being a pacifist. This place is meant to break your spirits, mon amie [1], no matter if you're already a soldier."
Relena looked up at her bunkmate and frowned, fixing the other blonde with an icy glare. Just because her bunkmate had given up, did not mean that she would; however, the brutal treatment she had been receiving for weeks now was slowly doing its job, as much as she hated to admit it. Her resolve was cracking and it wasn't until she looked into her bunkmate's eyes this very night, that she realized she just might not survive.
"Relena...I can help you, please! I can teach you to survive! S'il vous plait [2]!" her bunkmate pleaded. The blonde's hair was moonlight in color, perhaps a shade darker than Dorothy Catalonia's and the woman's gray eyes stared at her with a pain she herself could almost mirror at times.
"Midii...my life no longer belongs to me. It belongs to the people, I belong to the people..." Relena heard herself say. She watched as Midii shook her head, moonlight curls bouncing on her shoulders and a chuckle resounded from her throat as she smiled cynically at her.
"What good are you to the people if you're dead? Answer me that, Miss Vice Foreign Minister!"
Relena looked at her—not scowled nor glared—just looked. Midii was right. What good was she dead? She could easily set aside her pacifism until she escaped this place, right? She could escape and then go back to being the Vice Foreign Minister...couldn't she? She honestly did not know. She pulled her legs up to her chest and placed her head upon her drawn-up knees, feeling utterly helpless. Where was Heero when she really needed him? For once in her life she would not mind the perfect soldier showing up to rescue her then disappear right afterwards, but it seemed that that would not be happening any time soon.
She looked at Midii in a considering manner. Should she take the blonde up on her offer? Should she risk losing herself and her ideals in order to survive? And more importantly, was it worth the risk?
"Midii...teach me...teach me how to defend myself, how to take offensive, how to survive...s'il te plait [3]," she said, looking straight into her bunkmate's eyes.
Midii smiled gently at her, "Of course; but first...you have to really want this." The blonde's countenance changed as she continued. "Me, I had no choice... I was six and it was war. There was not much I could do but fight to survive…and betray to survive. I had to…I had to… Anyway, this will change you—you won't be the same person afterwards. Are you ready to become a whole new you?"
Relena was about respond with a 'no' when the door to their cell was thrown open. The shadows of two men darkened the doorway and Relena felt her entire being grow cold. She knew what was to come as the two men entered and advanced toward her. All logical thoughts seemed to recede to the deepest crevasses of her mind as she watched them approach her. Instinctively, she backed up against the wall, shaking and unable to defend herself. The predatory gleam in their eyes did little to help her nerves and the only emotion that ran through her was fear.
"No! Let her go! RUN RELENA!" a voice shouted—a familiar voice, and suddenly there was a flash of moonlight as one of the men dropped to the ground. Relena stared at the two forms struggling with one another on the cell floor. The other man paused as he too stared at the struggling pair and after a moment, he tsked and shook his head. He advanced toward his comrade now, seemingly losing interest in Relena.
The great pacifist Relena Peacecraft watched unthinkingly as her bunkmate was lifted off the one man and thrown against the far wall. She hit it with a loud thud before crumpling to floor and moaning in agony. A moment later, she looked up at the two guards and Relena, blood seeping down into her eyes from a large gash by her hairline. It streamed down her cheek in a dark rivulet but her gray eyes, though clouded in pain, were determined. The determination in her gaze shook Relena to her very core. How could she be so determined in such a hopeless situation?
Midii doubled over as one man planted a vicious blow to her stomach before ramming his elbow down on her bent back. Blood splattered from her bunkmate's—her friend's—mouth as she attempted to take in a steady breath. Instead, she wheezed and struggled to breathe—a clear sign that the blow to her abdomen, had in fact been to her ribs. And yet, the woman did not give up. She struggled to fend off the blows and kicks that the two men were raining down upon her.
Relena stared in horror at the scene before her. Midii was being beaten—she was out-powered in this fight but she still continued to fight. Was this…was this just another time when one had to fight to keep peace? Was this just another facet of human nature that Relena had never seen before? Eyes wide at this realization, she looked at the scene before her in awe.
Blood was everywhere in that cell—on her friend's face, on the floor, on the wall—everywhere. Both men continued to focus on the woman below them, ignoring Relena and she was grateful for it; she was horrorstricken once more as one of the men grabbed Midii's flailing arms and roughly held her down while the other man shoved her worn pants down her skinny legs. His hands roamed all over Midii's body at their own violation, never paying any heed to the blonde's shouts for him to stop.
Relena's mind was screaming at her to do something but what? Herself against two men? Two trained soldiers?! The odds were not in her favor. But she had to do something…she could no longer stand by and watch these pigs violate her friend...and she would not run!
Frantically, her eyes searched the room for a weapon of some kind—a stick, a rock, anything—but produced nothing. Her eyes soon landed on the .9 mm protruding from one of the men's belts, snug in its holster. With speed she never knew she possessed, her hand snaked out and grabbed the gun, aiming it at the man closest to her, hands shaking. Just as the man turned to face her, her shaking fingers pulled the trigger, her mind screaming at her for performing such a horrid, non-peaceful act.
The other man turned and watched her carefully, too distracted by her shaking hands with the gun to even notice the other young woman slink away to a dark corner, pulling her clothes back into place. Relena looked at the wary man with disbelieving eyes before turning her gaze to the one who lay dead before them, blank eyes staring at her. There was more blood soaking the concrete floor and the .9 mm Glock slipped from her now numb fingers, hitting the floor with a clank and an explosion.
"How...you...a...pacifist...?" the other man said, blood spilling from his lips as he too fell to the floor, red staining his chest. He stared up at her with unseeing eyes with an expression of shock frozen on his face for all eternity. The gun had gone off from the contact of it hitting the concrete floor, the second man caught in the bullet's trajectory path.
Relena sat staring at the two dead soldiers, stupidly wondering when they would be missed and when someone would show up looking for them. She had just killed two men—she a pacifist, the Vice Foreign Minister for God's sake! She continued to stare at the dead bodies, slowing bringing her legs to her chest and rocking back and forth. She felt like a child who had just been reprimanded for something she wasn't supposed to have done, like weed she had snuck into the house and smoked, or a gun she was not supposed to touch...but did. Her mind told her that she had done a bad thing...she had made them go away forever.
Suddenly, she realized that Midii had been right. She had done what was needed to survive...and had changed because of it. She was no longer Relena Peacecraft...no longer Relena Dorlain...no longer Relena. Relena would not have done this—she would not have shot two men!
Would she?
A hand fell on her shoulder and she jerked in surprise and fear, unsure of who was touching her. She looked up to see Midii's bloody, swollen face looking at her with worry in her dove-grey eyes. Slowly and gently, Relena felt the other woman's arms slip around her, rocking with her as Midii smoothed honey-blonde hair out of her face. Desperate for the human contact and of a safe haven, Relena clung to Midii, still staring at the mess she had just made…of everything.
"Relena, do you realize...what you just did?" she heard Midii's soft voice ask.
She nodded and whispered, "I'm not Relena…not anymore. I can't be. Relena wouldn't have—she wouldn't have—"
Midii only held her tighter as Relena began to shake, tears gathering in her blue eyes. She moaned in distress, turning to bury her face into Midii. She couldn't believe what had happened. It was another ten minutes before the two men were noticed as missing and more guards entered their cell to find and retrieve the bodies. The French woman glared at every man who entered and sneered as they dragged out the corpses. Midii verbally lashed out as the guards remarked on the pathetic defeat of their comrades. The parting comment was that their leader's plan had worked—the great pacifist Relena Peacecraft had been broken.
As the door to their cell was once again closed and locked, Midii murmured words of reassurance and comfort as Relena stared into space. Deep down the young woman knew that the reassurance given to her was for naught. She was never going to be the same—she was different now. There was no going back—she had changed!
"It'll be okay, mon amie. I promise you, it'll be fine. Don't worry," Midii whispered, and Relena nodded automatically, not really hearing the words. Eventually she pulled herself away from Midii and approached the cell door, looking out the barred window. The hallway was dark and silent, and she could sense the dread and despair emanating from the other cells.
Had she failed the other people here? Had they been hoping she would not cave in? That she would not crack under the pressure?
Regardless, she could not fail them again, she told herself, determination welling up inside her, strong and resolute. She would just have to give them hope again—somehow. She could not go back to being Relena Peacecraft or Dorlain—she could no longer call herself a pacifist. She would have to become someone else—a new entity that would instill the same amount of hope that Relena Dorlain had.
"Relena?" Midii called from her spot on the floor. Relena glanced over her shoulder at the French woman, frowning.
"What am I to do? I'm no longer Relena."
Midii snorted at the absurdity of the comment, "You're still Relena. What kind of gibberish are you talking about?"
"I—I—I want training. I want to help the others—prevent them from having to go through this and changing like me. I want justice... I—I—"
Midii slowly stood, wincing and pressing a hand to her ribs before approaching her. She placed a hand on her shoulder, nodding in understanding. "Of course. I'll teach you to survive and if you really want a new identity, then we'll give you one. But you should rest first."
Relena nodded slowly, "So should you."
"Of course."
Living risky, never scared
Wander closer to the edge
Nothing valued, think no fear
Always wondering why you're here...
All your purposes are gone
nothing's right and nothing's wrong
Nothing ventured, nothing gained,
feel no sorrow, feel no pain...
Kiss me while I'm still alive
Kill me while I kiss the sky
Let me die on my own terms
Let me live and let me learn
Now I follow my own way
And I'll live on to another damn day
The cry of a newborn broke through the night, the sound deafening in the otherwise silent compound. A scream followed not long after and then silence. Most prisoners of the compound silently prayed to whichever deity they held dear. The prayer was for the mother of the child, asking that she rest in peace and be sent to a better place. The death of the newborn's mother was tragic but expected—the woman had simply been a vessel after all. Not that any of the prisoners knew why the child was so special, only that the man pulling the strings had made it clear that the fetus was to survive to term.
Alexandria hung her head as she prayed to Spirit [4] asking that the child would live—no one deserved to die at such a young age; and the man running this place would not let the baby die after all of the effort he had made thus far…would he? She snapped her head up as footsteps echoed against the walls of the hallway. Someone was coming and as she discerned two sets of footsteps, a shadow passed by her cell window. Stealthily, she crept towards the door and peeked out between the bars of her cell window, frowning as she saw one of the prisoners being led down the dim hallway. Her eyes narrowed in recognition as the woman passed but only from reputation and media.
"Relena Dorlain...or is it Peacecraft?" she whispered to herself as she watched the former Queen of the World be escorted down the hall and out of sight. Alexandria watched as the young woman turned the corridor and the sound of a metal door creaking open was heard. Was she being taken to the same room where the child was? Possibly. To die? Most likely. Was Relena really going to just let that happen? There was no telling…
"Come on Relena...don't let us down. Do something," Alexandria whispered to herself, waiting for some sign of rebellion or resistance from the honey-blond woman but none came. The door slid shut with a definitive clang and all was quiet. It was then that she grabbed the bars of her cell window and shook the door in a fit of anger; she felt no sorrow or sympathy towards that bitch if she would not even dare to attempt an escape.
"DAMN YOU! DAMN YOU ALL!" she shouted, hoping that the guards would hear her; if they did then maybe she would get lucky. Perhaps then they would send someone down to toy with her...only this time, she would do the toying.
"My child, be patient. The day of Freedom will come and our leader will rise up from the flames, bearing a newborn child. The child of our eve to a new life," a hoarse voice stated, gaining a few yelps of agreement and joy from other cells on their hall. Alexandria frowned, glaring at the cell across the hall; that old woman was crazy and almost never shut up. She was always spouting off something about seeing the future and other kind of bullshit like that.
Alexandria would never understand that old woman nor how she continued to survive here with all the tests and abuse. Did their captor go easy on the old woman? Alexandria could hardly believe that—their captor may order for the men to go easy, but the guards almost never listened.
"You keep saying that and I have yet to see any sign of deliverance, Crone," she sneered in anger and contempt. She was tired of this place and by Spirit, she was ready to break free and never look back. She was done with this—all of this. Once out, she was leaving this planet for the colonies. Not that they would be any better…
"Patience. The time will come and your role will become clear. You will know which path to take, though you may not want it," the old woman murmured in a manner that Alexandria suspected was to soothe her. It did not. She was not one to believe something unless Spirit told her so or if it was probable; in this case, the old woman's words were not probable. Nor had Spirit told her anything about deliverance. Then again, she had not had much faith since she was placed in the compound some three years ago.
"I will not believe it until I see it," she told the old woman, stubborn defiance evident in her tone.
"Young people these days...it has to be material for you to believe," the old woman grunted.
"No, I just don't see this prophecy of yours happening any time soon, " Alexandria reasoned, moving to sit on her bunk. A couple of incidents had made the guards realize that bunkmates with her was not a pleasant combination; she preferred to be by herself. She was able to purify herself with what little she had and was able to meditate without interruption. Bunkmates were too damn annoying and troublesome.
"My visions, mind you, have never been wrong. I have also seen that I will die in the mists of our escape but that is fine. It is time for me to leave anyway. I've lived my life and you should remember to live yours, young one. We will be set free."
"When I see it Soothe Sayer [5], when I see it."
Oh no I can't let you go,
my little girl
Because you're holding up my world
so I need you
Your imitation of my walk
and the perfect way you talk
It's just a couple of the million things
that I love about you...
So I need you
So I need you
So I need you
So I need you
She stared at the child for a long time; the woman who had carried it to term was dead and its father...did it even have a father? Was it one of the prison guards? The four-month-old child was now hers to take care of—it was her responsibility now. She had to find a job, a home, and a name for the baby girl. And create a new identity for herself as well.
"Relena! Get out of there!" a voice shouted, causing her to look up. She saw a young woman an inch or so shorter than her with dark red hair beckoning her to come with the rest of the newly freed prisoners. She smiled, calmly walking toward everyone and ignoring the small flames of red and orange that burned around her. Holding the crying child close, Relena watched the redhead stare at her in shock, muttering something about an old woman and a prophecy. Frowning in confusion, Relena questioned the redhead.
"The day of Freedom will come and our leader will rise up from the flames, bearing a newborn child. You...Relena, you were our leader! It was your plan that freed us from this compound!" the redhead said in a disbelieving tone.
Relena only smiled politely, not recognizing this young woman at all. "I'm sorry but do I know you?" she asked, her blue eyes searching the redhead's deep hazel ones. She saw the redhead shake her head negatively, dirty and blood streaked curls bouncing haphazardly around her face and shoulders. Oh good. Relena did not feel as terrible now at not knowing her.
"No, you do not. My name is Alexandria and yes, like the city in Egypt," the redhead responded, bowing in greeting. Relena nodded and looked down at the four-month old bundle in her arms, smiling tenderly as a small, out-stretched hand played with her face.
"Well, I suppose I have to name you, don't I? Yes I do," Relena said in a singsong voice to the child. "Eve, that's what I'll call you...Eve. You were set free from that compound on the eve of Christmas Eve, did you know that, baby?"
"You're naming her Eve?" Alexandria asked her, once again in a state of shock and the baby began to wail. "The child of our eve to a new life...the old woman was right!"
"Eve? Is that what you named her?" a familiar voice asked Relena. She turned to see Midii joining them, a long stream of crimson staining the side of her pale face and a forearm. Relena nodded, smiling as she bounced the babe in her arms to silence its sudden cries. Relena looked up as someone in the crowd of free prisoners heralded the name of the child, the youngest child to be freed from the compound...her child.
She had made a promise to herself and to Eve's mother—a promise to take care of Eve once free from the compound. Relena would not break her promise and though it would be hard to start a new life with a four-month-old child, she would do it. Midii would be there to help her, she had already vowed to help raise Eve, and for some odd reason, Relena felt that this Alexandria woman would help as well.
She smiled at the thought of her baby having so many godmothers—she would have to contact Hilde and Sally once possible though, and that would be hard. She already knew that they would ask her to return to her position as Vice Foreign Minister but she would have to refuse them. She would not be able to become the old Relena Dorlain again—that part of her had died the night she had killed two men. Her first two killings... She sighed, hoping that they would accept the new her instead.
To Be Continued
Terms:
[1] my friend
[2] please-formal
[3] please-friendly
[4] Wiccan deity
[5] Fortune Teller
Lyrics: 3 Doors Down – "Duck and Run", "Life of My Own", and "I Need You"
Author's Note:
Some of this chapter is the same but I did flesh out some areas. I am grateful for the constructive criticism that was left for me when I started this back in 2002, and I have gone back to those reviews to remind myself of where I need to be for some of these characters personality-wise. I will admit, some of them are difficult (Heero, you drive me crazy, grr!) but then others I am find are easier to write now that I've matured (Wufei, you were a complete surprise).
In any case, feedback is greatly welcomed on this little chapter. I know it's just the prologue but sometimes an author needs a little push to keep going. I am now on chapter 7 of the rewrite and it's gone in a completely different direction from the original. I posted a teaser for one of the chapters on my Tumblr for those who are interested and I might post another.
Thank you to my readers who are still sticking with me on this one. Once I'm 80 percent done with the rewrite, I'll create a new story for it. I don't want to lose the feedback on this version, for reasons stated above.