First of all, thank you for giving attention to this story ! I would like to warn you that English is not my mother tongue, and that approximations or language errors are very likely. This is the reason why this fiction is also published in French, which I master perfectly. French fiction will probably be more updated than English fiction since I have to translate into English what I write in French. If ever you are in a hurry for the rest and the translations are slow, feel free to go to the French fiction for better regularity!

By the way, this fiction will have lots of action, romantic-overtone, angst and emotional closeness with the characters.

Hope you'll enjoy your reading !

Long summary of the fiction :

In a world plagued by wars and crises of all kinds, in which Celestial Being does not exist, the armies of the three blocks (AEU, LRH, UNION) have come together on their own in the Earth Federation. Within this organization, there are human beings endowed with special faculties, capable of controlling or piloting Mobile Suits, ultra-developed war machines. Among these machines are the Gundams, units that alone can make the difference in every conflict and are closely followed by governments around the world.

But all the prestige of these machines, and the hope they carry, are not enough to defy human nature... Feldt Grace, Setsuna F. Seiei and their comrades will learn it at their expense, but always animated by the hope to make a difference.

PHASE 0

It was raining that day. In the darkness of the night, the little girl was thus perceptible only by the sound of her quick footsteps hammering against the puddles of the bitumen. But gradually, her breathing became noticeable, getting even more intermittent.

She had to hurry.

She knew she wouldn't arrive in time.

But she had to.

Even if hope was already far away.

Then, she continued to rush deeper into the abyssal alleys, dripping with water to the smallest inch of her skin. Her clothes stuck unpleasantly, her hair pressed against her eyes and cheeks but she swept them away impatiently without paying attention.

She had the impression that this race against time would never stop. She felt an immutable paradox : she wanted to put an end to all this fear and anxiety, and at the same time, to be able to stop the time around her to be able to react properly, to arrive in time.

Finally, after yet another turn, she had seen it in the depths of the straight. A semi-ajar door, from which emerged a slight golden light, contrasting with all the darkness of the landscape. Her limbs were still burning from the forced race and far too intense and long for her small body of barely seven years. Yet she went there with even more fervor.

If she was fast enough, she could save her.

When she reached the handle, she pushed it with a huge blow that caused a powerful squeak, exclaiming as soon as she rushed in:

"DAD! IT'S MOM, SHE'S BEEN..."

She stopped in her tracks, her blue-green eyes widening with an expression of shock and pain, further finishing her innocence already shattered a few tens of minutes before.

"D-Daddy..."

Her own ghostly whisper brought her back slightly to reality, and she did a few steps in the room, wavering however. The noise under her shoes, similar to the previous one, surprised her a little more, and she exclaimed in an unrecognizable voice without lowering her head:

"It's outside… That it's raining... So why is there a puddle on the ground?... Oh I got it! You made water fall, right? You should clean Dad. Before Mom..."

She stopped in her tracks, her body following her mind.

"Mom... Dad... Dad! Mom, she was attacked by bad guys! They stabbed her! It… was red in her stomach!... Dad, it was scary... Mom... There was red everywhere... And she didn't answer anymore... A-A little..."

She held back a sob as she again approached her father's figure, which was slumped to the ground.

"A little... Like you."

Her own retort was enough for her to understand. And she was unable to control her own body, crashing to her knees with a thud.

"No... D-Daddy... Answer me... Please."

She then brought her little hands close to her father's shoulders, gently shaking him to make him react, but his red hair hid the view of his eyes, that seemed closed anyway.

"Daddy ! I beg you, Daddy! You can't! If you stay like this, Mom, she's going to—"

Tears flowed unreasonably down her cheeks, while each of her words was like violent blows to the intestine.

"I'm begging you, Daddy... Don't leave me alone..." She ends in a broken whisper, beginning to sag more in the fatality of her condition.

"F…Fel-..".

The deep voice took less than a second to ring in her ears. Her senses then awakened immediately, and she resumed herself with unexpected vivacity, exclaiming as she turned him a little more towards her, with relief and excitement:

"Daddy! Dad, you're fine! I'll help you, so don't worry."

"Feldt..."

His intonation was soft but cold, and when she met his amber gaze, she undeniably understood what he was trying to make her understand.

Then the tears returned, as he used his last strength to grasp her trembling little hand. He had so much to say to her, but so little time left to tell her... He had to make multiple concessions... Leave her an irreplaceable thing and save her from the consequences of this harmful day to the maximum...

"Can you promise me something, Feldt?"

With her second hand, she pressed on his, nodding her head so forcefully that her tears splashed a little at what was around.

"In life, nothing will ever be easy, Feldt... You're going to... Probably encounter a lot of obstacles... Maybe... Just as hard as today's... You're going to want to possibly drop everything... But Feldt... We must remain courageous... I know you can, and as long as you continue to be... Everything will be fine in the end... "

Damn, every word was like a thousand burns, and he felt his eyes waver, not least because the image of his crying daughter became more and more vague as she watched him with all the attention in the world.

"Then... I want you to promise me, Feldt... Promise me that no matter what, you will never give up. Same... Even when a situation seems hopeless and doomed to failure, keep believing until the end. Continue to believe in hope."

"Promise, Daddy! You can believe me! I would never give up!"

He offered her a smile in pain, letting go of her hand to mount it on her cheek, caressing it with an indolent motion. He couldn't hold back a tear from his eyes.

He could not protect her. Nor even to see her grow. He was going to have to leave her, his cute little girl, alone in this cruel and merciless world. She was going to suffer, probably a lot. All because he hadn't been strong enough to survive.

He didn't want to. He was not to die. He had to stay with her... Stay with his little and innocent Feldt. He was not to inflict this vision on her, not to make her witness such a horrifying scene. As strong as she was and would become, the trauma will be real. And who will take care of her?

He was anxious, felt even worse. Why couldn't he just stay by his only child's side? Why... Why had he been so incapable and irresponsible?

"I'm sorry, Feldt... So sorry... "

The salty pearls flowed from his eyes, making her even more blurry as she escaped a few sobs as she clung to her forcefully.

Was that all he could say to excuse everything that was going to happen to her? He was pathetic. He knew it. But a part of him, despite everything, was delighted to have the chance to spend his last moments near her, the second woman in his life whom he had not yet loved enough, not sufficiently prepared to live.

"Daddy..."

"I love you, Feldt. And Mom loves you too... And we will always be there... Never forget it, Feldt..."

The end was near. He could no longer distinguish anything but patches of abstract colors, his breath was leaving, he felt unable to think anymore, and it was his only will that allowed him to say his last words:

"Until the end... We will always be... Near... You..."

His eyes closed, his pressure on her cheek disappeared suddenly, and it was up to her to hold his hand so that it would not fall into the blood that immaculated them both completely at that moment. And finally, his breath disappeared.

It was over for him.

That was just the beginning for her.

In the knowledge of what had just happened, she began to tremble more vehemently. Despite her young age, she could no longer deny what was happening. With a slow movement, she approached her father's lifeless body and gripped him frantically. Even though the blood escaped a foul smell and its scarlet red color seemed to drain her sanity, she did not hesitate to stick to him.

Then when it was done, she began to cry for good. Silently but without intermittency.

His dad... His mother... Had just died.

She had nothing left. Without even knowing why it had to happen. The day before, they were laughing out loud together. And now she realized that she would never have that opportunity again. That nothing would ever be the same again.

So, she didn't let go of him. She wanted to stop time, and be able to enjoy this moment, the last, with her only father, while keeping the thought of her only progenitor that she could no longer save. Being longer with the only people she had never loved.

When she was found, it was only a few hours later, and despite the panicked infatuation around her, she did not change her position and had not stopped crying for a single second.

If one thing was certain, it was that she had probably let go of the tears of her entire life that day. That fateful day when everything had changed, when she had finally realized how unfair the world was.

This day that, even in a hundred years, will remain engraved in the depths of her memory, marked with indelible red ink.