Rebuilding the world was no easy task.
The second war had been worse than the first, in a way. It made people wary of peace. Made them doubt that any of it was actually going to last. "Peace" worked for barely 48 months the last time –even when billions upon billions put in a grueling amount of effort to restore sanity and normalcy in the world, one fanatic individual was enough to destroy it all in the blink of an eye. There was not an inch in the world or in people's hearts that hadn't been broken, trampled, or shredded to pieces, and it was difficult for anybody to be optimistic about the absence of war.
It was especially difficult for those who lost too much of their own worlds to the war. Like Yzak.
After the month he spent in drunken stupor, Yzak returned to his post in ZAFT. His team carried on as though nothing had happened. Nobody asked questions about why he had been absent, though everybody had some idea, and nobody mentioned Shiho's name unless it was absolutely necessary. He was extremely grateful; it was the best consolation his team could have given him under the circumstances. There were some unwelcome comments by outside observers, about the seeming calmness in which the Joule team accepted the loss of one of its key members. But Yzak knew that they were all mourning with him, albeit silently. The way she would have liked it.
He had hoped that the pain would eventually subside. In the mean time, he worked like a madman, spending virtually all of his time at the office. It didn't distract him anywhere near as much as he needed, but it was still better than nothing. Dearka expressed his concern a few times. Yzak supposed that putting in over a hundred hours a week was, indeed, a little unhealthy. But it was a much more constructive escape than alcohol, and that was the end of that conversation.
The pain never went away, but over the years he slowly learned how to live with it.
He was never able to completely accept the death of Shiho. The mention of her name continued to send sharp pains through his chest, and he continued to look for her warmth beside him every morning only to be disappointed. He still wondered, sometimes, what life would have been like had she survived. And it still hurt. It hurt like a bitch. He still occasionally fought the desire to shut himself off from the world, to return to that drunken state where he couldn't think of anything but at least the pain wasn't so bad –but in the end, her words had kept him going.
"Promise me, Yzak, that you won't just give up on the world."
Of course, any possibility he had of finding true happiness died with Shiho, but contrary to popular belief, he was not completely miserable.
Chairwoman Clyne offered Yzak a position on the council, not long after the war. He politely declined; his experience in the council after the first war was more than enough evidence to him that he was simply not suited for politics. Another reason, one he never admitted even to Dearka, was that leaving ZAFT felt too much like severing one of the few connections he still shared with Shiho Hahnenfuss. So he remained in ZAFT, and a few years later, found himself as the National Defense Committee Chair. By that time, his worked had ceased to simply be an escape, and he no longer needed to put in hundred-hour weeks just to keep himself sane. Leading ZAFT, which had been officially converted into a peacekeeping force, was an extremely rewarding job that he grew to appreciate.
His personal life was a little more bland. He kept in touch with his friends and former comrades, even though their busy schedules kept them from seeing each other too often. There was a large, gaping hole in his life where Shiho used to be, but he was happy to leave that space open. It was not like anybody could even come close to replacing her, anyway.
Once, his mother ran him through the PLANTS database in hopes of finding another companion for him. She had a much harder time accepting that her son was willing to die a bachelor than his friends and teammates. He did not blame her. Despite her ruthless politician image, Yzak knew that Ezaria Joule wanted nothing more than to retire and become a normal, doting grandmother.
The results came back with a single name with a thick black line across it, signifying that she was deceased. He laughed a dry laugh when he saw it; according to the regulations requiring an 80% reproductive compatibility for marriage, Shiho Hahnenfuss was the only person in all of PLANTS that he could have married anyway. Shiho, who in the eyes of the rest of the PLANTS, apparently was nothing more than a name on a paper whose existence could be discredited by drawing a line across it.
His mother, and the rest of the world, left him alone after that.
The world probably remembers the transition to peace through the actions of the heroes of war.
Lacus Clyne became the chairwoman of PLANTS immediately after the war, a post she held through popular election for 23 years. She thoroughly reformed the political structure of the PLANTS, making the rise of another Patrick Zala or Gilbert Dullindal a logistic impossibility. Kira Yamato , the Freedom, served as ambassador of Orb to ZAFT for a few years, then briefly served in ZAFT. He retired from his military career when he married Chairwoman Lacus Clyne, after which he led a quiet, unpublicized life as one of the forerunners of aerospace engineering.
Athrun Zala, the Justice, served as the ambassador of the PLANTS to Orb. He eventually emigrated to Orb, where he returned to Orb's military and became an admiral. His choice surprised many who knew him personally –Athrun was always somewhat torn about pursuing a military career- but Yzak suspected it had to do more with Athrun's relationship with Cagalli Yula Athha. The name Zala, or their relationship, was by no means welcomed wholeheartedly; Athrun needed to prove himself to the citizens of Orb. The couple eventually did wed, many years after Lacus Clyne and Kira Yamato, but their marriage and lives continued to be a heavily publicized and often controversial affair.
The world started to slowly, but surely, heal itself.
And Yzak was happy that the world knew how to rebuild itself, even though he himself could not.
So I lied. This is the last chapter, and THEN the epilogue will happen. Which I swear I will upload within the next 72 hours.
A million thanks to all of you for taking time out of your busy day to read my fic. A billion thanks to those who have been with me since the beginning for having the patience of a god (a god, I tell you) and dealing with the ridiculously slow pace of my updates.
Thank you, thank you, thank you... and reviews are very very much appreciated as well.