The Christmas Truce

By Mangaka-chan

Disclaimer: Gundam 00 and its characters belong to Sunrise, not to me.

Dec 23rd, AD2321

It was a cold, snowy day in Moscow. The pale powder drifted from the sky like specks of white ash, disappearing into thin blankets of snow, which were gently carpeting everything under the sky. Outside the New Sheremetyevo International Airport's arrivals terminal, a figure stood waiting in a reclusive corner by the curb side, holding a holographic handheld phone displaying the words "Voice Only Mode" in his hand.

"You have arrived at your destination?" a baritone voice asked through the speaker.

The man dipped his head slightly as if to nod. Out of habit, his heterochromic gold and grey eyes quickly scanning his surroundings for potential eavesdroppers before continuing.

"Yes," he replied, then added, with a gentle sense of humor in his voice, "But wouldn't it have been easier to pull up the flight's arrival status rather than to call me directly? It's not like you to do things in such a roundabout manner."

A soft "Hmph" sound could be heard from the other end of the phone. The man chuckled at this rare show of embarrassed indignation from his friend, before the serious voice on the other end resumed the conversation. "I needed to be certain you weren't intercepted en route." The voice paused. "Allelujah, are you sure this is a wise decision? He was a colonel in the Federation and he knows who you are."

A second passed before Allelujah answered, "Yes. It will be fine, Tieria. After all, I promised Anne that I would come."

The lingering silence spoke volumes for Tieria's reluctance, but at last he said, "Very well then. Remember to report in every 24 hours so we can keep track of your status."

A sensation stirred in the back of Allelujah's mind, alerting him to a familiar presence. Turning around, he saw two people making their way towards him. Allelujah smiled as he watched them approach, then turned back to the monitor and said, "Understood." After a moment, he added, "And Tieria? Merry Christmas."

There was no reply before the screen went blank, but Allelujah thought he heard a faint huff and imagined a weary smile tugging on his bespectacled friend's lips.

By now the shorter of the two figures had made her way through the crowd and came running at him. "Papa!" cried a grey-eyed little girl with cheeks flushed from the cold. With a gleeful smile, the seven year old jumped into her father's waiting arms. "You really did make it! Just like you promised!" Turning to the woman standing behind her, the girl grinned, "We get to spend Christmas with Papa and Grandpa this year, Mama! Isn't that great!"

The woman, her long snow white locks done up neatly in a bun at the back of her head, smiled back at her daughter. Her golden eyes turned to her husband and the smile deepened. "Welcome back, Allelujah."

----

The taxi cruising down the highway was silent as it drove past the towering sky scrapers of Moscow into one of its suburban areas.

In the backseat, Anne had dozed off with her head on her father's lap. Allelujah stroked her dark hair, letting his hand slide off the end of her short pony tail and onto her back where it rested. He looked up when another hand touched his and looked into the eyes of his wife Marie, a woman once known as Soma Peries.

"Don't be nervous," Marie reassured him, keeping her voice soft so as to not disturb her daughter. "Father forgave you years ago. Or else he would never have let me leave with you back then."

"I know…" Allelujah lowered his eyes, unperturbed by the fact that she had read his emotions with her quantum brain wave. It comforted him in fact to know that he could share anything and everything he felt with her, just like he had done since their early days at the Super Human Institute.

Offering her a crocked smile, Allelujah mused, "It's ironic, because I told Tieria everything will be fine. And yet I'm still a little apprehensive…I guess that really makes me a hypocrite."

He had not seen the now retired Lieutenant Colonel Sergei Smirnov since that rainy night nine years ago. After finally defeating the Innovators, pacifying the A-Laws, and laying down the foundation for a new world order, members of Celestial Being were given a choice of returning to civilian life. Lyle Dylandy, Sumeragi Lee Noriaga, and himself amongst others have chosen that road while Setsuna and Tieria remained as full time members to safe guard the world's present security. And thanks to some information manipulation by Tieria, they were able to live a normal life with their true identities hidden from the world. Marie could even visit her adoptive father once every year without raising suspensions. Everything was peaceful and content. That was, all except for one thing…

"Anne wanted you to be with us this year because she doesn't understand why her father could never be with her for Christmas when she visits her grandfather." A slight frown passed over Marie's face. "She sees all of her friends' families spending the holiday together, but her family could never be together for that one time each year."

Allelujah said nothing, for he understood his daughter's feelings as well. On the other hand, Anne was ignorant of her family's past. She did not know that her father and grandfather were once enemies, that her father had shot down many of her grandfather's subordinates, and even came close to killing him at one time. Despite Sergei's unspoken forgiveness, Allelujah still felt a barrier there, erected by his past connections to this man, one that could not be simply overcome by the knowledge of forgiveness. That was why he had chosen to stay behind every year, citing one excuse or another to the innocent child sleeping on his lap. He had avoided this for many years since he was unable to face Sergei, not because he used to be a Gundam Meister for Celestial Being, but because he was Sergei's son-in-law.

However, before she left for her annual trip to Russia this year, Anne had asked him to come. Initially, Allelujah had been taken by surprise, but inside he knew it was a question she would ask sooner or later and he knew his excuses would run out someday. He had promised her that he would come this year, partly out of guilt for denying his daughter the family reunion she had yearned for, but also because he wanted to use this as an opportunity to cross the gasp created by his past. As he prepared to travel to Moscow he couldn't shake the feeling he was going on a mission like those in the early days of Celestial Being's armed intervention. The nervousness and apprehension were all there, and in a lesser sense, a feeling of dread. What if there were still some echoes of resentment for all the things he had done? After all, he couldn't expect anyone to whole-heartedly put the past behind them, so the doubt lingered like a persistent shadow in the corner of his eyes as he watched his daughter beginning to stir.

"Mm…" Anne shifted and opened her eyes drowsily. "Are we there yet?" she asked, rubbing her eyes as she sat up.

"Not yet, but we should be arriving at your grandfather's place in about half an hour," Marie answered and tucked back her daughter's shirt collar that had been wrinkled while she dozed.

"Oh, okay" Having regained her energy, she turned to her father and said, "Papa, Grandpa told me a story last night. It's a special Christmas story. Do you want to hear it?"

Despite the heavy thoughts weighing on his mind, Allelujah smiled at the innocent, eager expression of his little girl. "Of course," he answered.

"Well, the story starts like this…" Young Anne looked down at her dress, setting her mind to concentrate on her narrative. "A long time ago, Germany and Britain were fighting each other in a very big war. There were these two groups of soldiers from each country and they had been fighting each other for a long time. But now it was Christmas Eve and the soldiers were cold and missed their families. Then one of the British soldiers heard singing, and so did his friends. When they listened closely they realized the German soldiers had begun to sing Christmas carols. So after a while the British soldiers started singing too, so they switched turns singing carols to each other.

When they were done singing, the soldiers from the two countries came out from where they were hiding and wished each other merry Christmas. They gave presents to each other, talked about their families, and a lot of them even became friends. So, they made a promise to not fight until Christmas was over, and that's what they did. For a whole day, nobody fought each other. Later on, people called this the Christmas Truce."

Looking up at her father, Anne was unaware of the impact the story had on Allelujah. Brightly, she quipped, "I think it's a nice Christmas story! Don't you think so?"

Allelujah blinked, then smiled gently. "You said your grandfather was the one who told you this story?" Anne nodded. Allelujah thought for a moment before he replied, "Yes, it is a nice story." He closed his eyes briefly, then looked away from his daughter to the city outside.

Beside him Marie asked, "Anne, do you know why this is a nice story though? Why is it important?"

Anne touched her finger to her lips thoughtfully before answering. "Because…because even though two people have been fighting each other they can still be friends. Am I right?"

"That's right. In wars people fight one another, but these same people can still come together, even if they were once enemies and no matter how bitter the fighting was." Marie patted Anne's head and looked at Allelujah who turned back to return her gaze, his eyes now calm and clear.

Outside, the snow had stopped falling and beams of sunlight peeped through the thick clouds as the gathered snow began to thaw.

Author's note:

- The New Sheremetyevo International Airport is a reference to the real world Sheremetyevo International Airport in Moscow.

- The story of the Christmas Truce, like it was described in the fanfic, is about a spontaneous truce that occurred between German and British soldiers (as well as German and French soldiers in a separate location) in 1914 during WWI.

- In keeping with the quasi-religious theme of Allelujah and Marie's names ("Marie" is the French form of "Mary") I choose the name "Anne" for their daughter, as Anne is the mother of the Virgin Mary in Christian tradition.

I am very tempted to write a sequal to this, but two things are keeping me from doing just that: one being school, and two being the lack of cooperation from my Muse. We'll just have to see I guess. :p I've also drawn an illustration for this story. You can find it here at my DeviantArt page: mangaka-chandotdeviantartdotcom/art/An-Ordinary-Happiness-113187028 (replace the dot with the correct symbol when copy-pasting the URL.)