Title: Legendary Status
Author: Karina
Rating: PG
Pairing: Milliardo
Notes: Challenge 188. Baby Series 4 # 22 Takes place a few minutes following Legend.
Spoilers: None
Warnings: Extended Length
Many thanks to ShenLong Deb for her work betaing this set of fics.
Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing or the Characters from the series but the baby is mine.
Title: Legendary Status
Anastasia had extended her apologies and he could have wished for her presence. The Dowager Duchess was a force to be reckoned with and he did not doubt she would have had the Elder on the back foot within minutes. The man was wary, tense, obviously unhappy with events.
Milliardo had the distinct impression they had been wise to listen to their Master of Protocol and not skimp on any degree of formality for this occasion. He had preferred a private meeting, but had bowed to the man's insistence. Chang, in this instance, was a foreign dignitary and he would not have the man shorted. If he had the money he would give the Protocol Master a bonus, but the treasury's coffers were abysmally low.
He had paid for the refurbishment of the old military base out of his own finances; moneys Treize had left to him personally. In due course he would reap a return from the investment by opening the base as a high class hotel, but more work needed to be carried out before that day. His bank manager might have an apoplectic fit if he did not soon do something about feeding his accounts instead of draining them, but in his view the costs were necessary.
Treize would know the necessity of setting a stage and the benefits it could bring for no expenses spared.
That man was a legend. Nothing more than a growing legend to the popular masses. Few had truly known him. What good did it do to perform great deeds, to effect much needed changes on a grand scale, if one was not alive to enjoy those changes?
It seemed to him that Treize had deliberately planned to die.
But this was neither the time nor the place to consider the legend that was Treize Khushrenada. He needed to stop thinking of the past and concentrate on the future… but one should always give credit where credit was due. That too Treize had taught him. There were others in the wide world who could claim legendary status, but he was not thinking of the Alliance Military leaders, or the Gundam pilots, or himself.
There were others who, in his opinion, were much more deserving of the status.
The unsung heroes. Those men, women and children who had affected the outcome of the war and given their all. So many people were dead, too many were dead, but some of those who had acted within the shadows to make a difference still lived. Regardless, living or dead, they deserved to be recognised. To be remembered at the very least.
One group in particular he might be able to honour. Anastasia, Pagan and the resistance movement they had been a part of; that group of tough individuals who had fought to restore Sanc. They deserved recognition and it was past time Sanc bowed to those who had stood up for their freedom.
Like it or not there would be a memorial in Sanc to acknowledge their sacrifice.
The time had come for the people to acknowledge that without those who fought, who took it upon themselves to stand up for the freedoms they believed in, there could not have been the peace they now enjoyed.
His gaze swept over the gathering, noting who present had fought in some capacity, military or civilian, and there were more than a mere handful. The resistance fighters, four nobles he knew had joined Oz and survived, but there were those present too who had joined the Alliance. Too many citizens had been forced to enlist in the Alliance whilst Sanc still burned. He smiled.
Oh yes, there were quite a few in this room alone who had lived lives far from the pacifist ideals his father had preached.
The pacifists of the Sanc of today would give credit where credit was due, even if it left a sour taste in the mouths of a few. In his view, Sanc needed an honour roll at the very least, and he would see that it gained one.
End
Karina Robertson 2012