Title: Human Cost
Author: Karina
Rating: PG
Pairing: The Elder
Notes: Challenge 205. Baby Series 4 #72. Takes place following A Long Road.
Spoilers: None
Warnings:
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: Human Cost
"It is not easy. Everywhere I look I see... I see... Well, it's what I don't see, I suppose. People who should be there, people who were important to me. They are not 'there' and they should be."
"Not there and they never will be. And it is all wrong!"
There were nods and the barest inclinations of heads, but there was mutual agreement from the youngest to the oldest. He could not move, could not force himself to begin walking. This was not his place, to stand here and listen to this conversation. It was private but...
"It is harsh, cruel, but it is the lot of those who survive to do the best they can. One can not ever restore things to how it was, all one can do is move forward; move on."
It was so pertinent to him, to his clan. He glimpsed the very human cost of the fate that had befallen Sanc in the recent past. The invasion, the so called 'liberation' by the Alliance, had decimated the country. How many other groups of people might there be having similar conversations? How many more tried to deal with memories as fresh and alive today as it had been as those events had occurred?
"I'm still here. Some days I hate those words, but I treasure them too. I'm still here. My ma'ma died protecting me. She ensured I survived by dying in my place. The old man who took me away from our collapsed house, he died a short time later. The shelling... I don't know how I made it into a refugee column. The girl who took charge of me was maybe four years older than me and there were ten of us kids in the group. We should have died in the city, should probably have died in the march over the mountains. Some did, but I survived."
"And you can keep those memories alive."
The notes taker was scribbling again and he realised she was taking down the words of the young woman who had spoken. A therapist, he wondered, or perhaps a journalist?
"I think I might have glimpsed the young prince being taken from the burning castle, but I... I was never sure. It might have been any of the children; there were quite a few at the palace in those days. We had so many happy days and we saw the Queen regularly. She was always smiling and she was so happy earlier that day."
"I have tried everything I can think of to forget the hours and days running from the soldiers. I resorted to drugs and booze trying to drown it all out. Why can't I forget?"
"It is so clear. I have no trouble remembering the sounds. My therapist has made a difference, so has returning to Sanc, but I honestly don't think I will ever be free of it."
End
Karina Robertson 2013