A New Life
Author: Sher
Email: sher_sites@yahoo.com
Story Rating: PG
Anime: Gundam Wing
Pairing: Heero X Relena, Zechs X Noin
Summary: Relena finally gets the chance to talk to her brother, and offers him a new life after the wars come to their ends. An introspective fic that takes place right after the Brussel Mansion is destroyed and Dekim is killed, but right before Zechs and Noin leave for space together. Just my take on what might have happened.
The smoke and debris clouded the area and shrouded objects from view, but even the aftermath of battle didn't stop Zechs Merquise from jumping out of Tallgeese III and running fiercely towards the rubble of the Brussels' Presidential Mansion. He could hear Noin calling after him as he scrambled over chunks of walls and metal, past the destroyed Wing Zero, and right up to the point when he stopped at the gaping hole leading down seven stories underground.
By that point, Noin wasn't calling after him anymore - she probably realized that he wasn't going to stop until he found Relena. He had waited for Une's signal that Dekim Barton was dead, and he refused to wait any longer. With one final glance back towards Noin, who was now pelting after him, Zechs slid down into the maze of twisted metal and debris.
He stumbled past several gates and massive security locks, having to force entry through a couple and cutting his hands up in the process. He tried to follow Yuy's path down, but his former rival wasn't as broad as he was, and by the time Zechs reached the roof of the mansion, which was covered in dust and debris, he had several bloody cuts.
But cuts didn't matter. What mattered was finding Relena. He dropped into the opening on the roof, and hurried through the upper levels of the house in a state of controlled fury until he finally reached the control room on the bottom level.
The door had already been forced open. Soldiers were running by, not even acknowledging him, and carrying a stretcher bearing Mariemaia. As soon as they had passed, he darted into the room and stopped just over the threshold.
Lady Une was talking to a soldier at the front of the room, each of them silhouetted before a huge, static-covered screen. Dekim Barton lay dead on the floor, blood chilling about him in a pool. And right in front of the door was Relena, kneeling as she cradled Heero close to her chest, her face buried in his hair as she embraced him.
She must have sensed someone watching her, for she looked up a few seconds after Zechs had entered. She seemed surprised at first, and then a soft smile etched over her lips as her eyes glistened with unshed tears.
"Milliardo... It's all over. It's finally over."
"Is he hurt?" Zechs thought his voice sounded a bit strange - forced, strained, quiet and deep.
Relena just shook her head. "He'll be fine. But we should probably have a doctor look him over just the same." Her hand idly stroked the hair on his neck as she met her brother's eyes again, this time with concern. "Milliardo - your hands!"
He glanced at them, as though he hadn't noticed them yet. "I'm fine."
"I thought you were dead… They told me you were listed as missing in action last December. It seems so strange seeing you here… and yet, you are here…you're alive, and I should thank you," she whispered.
"There's no reason to thank a soldier who can't get used to peace," he responded bitterly.
"But, just the same, I think father would be proud of you," she murmured, the tears sparkling brighter. "He would be proud to know his son fought for peace, even if you didn't follow his teachings."
"He wouldn't be proud, he would have been angry," Zechs frowned and his eyes closed. "He would have disowned me for my actions. I am no longer a Peacecraft. I can never take that name again. I only came back because I was needed on the battlefield. It's the only thing I know how to do."
To his surprise - and Relena's - Heero suddenly spoke. He didn't move; he didn't even open his eyes. And his voice was nothing more than a murmur, but they both heard him clearly.
"You once said… that the world needed a strong heart that could sympathize with people. Can you not even see? You have the same kind of heart that you claim I have."
"The world doesn't need or want me," Zechs replied quietly. "My heart is nothing like yours."
"Zechs!" Noin's voice echoed from behind him, and he turned as she stumbled into the room and caught her breath. "Miss Relena!"
"Noin! I hope you're alright," Relena replied seriously.
"Fine," Noin answered. "Just a bit sore. Heero - is Heero alright?"
He nodded slightly against Relena's shoulder.
"I was wondering how long it would take my Preventers to get down here," Une cut in, walking towards them. She looked grave, tired, and far too serious. "Sorry to keep you all waiting. I had some immediate things to take care of once Dekim was shot. I should thank you both," she added quietly, looking towards Noin and Zechs. "For fighting a battle that everyone else deemed pointless. And I should thank you in particular, Zechs. For returning to the battlefield even after everything that's happened."
Zechs said nothing. He diverted his eyes, refusing to look at anyone.
Noin merely shook her head and replied, "We did it because we believe in peace. We fought too hard to bring peace to this world a year ago -"
"They didn't even kill any of the soldiers!" A cheerful voice called out.
Everyone glanced into the hall except Heero, and Duo pushed inside, with Quatre and Trowa behind him. He waved as he entered the room.
Quatre was smiling. "And we didn't kill any, either."
"I'm impressed," Lady Une smiled. "His Excellency always said you were all the best fighters, and this proves it. I suppose that's one good thing out of all of this. Only one person died - and that was Dekim." Her smile faded, however. "They're taking Mariemaia to the hospital. Hopefully she'll live. And if I have to, I'll teach her myself what His Excellency would want her to know about how to love people and how to cherish life."
"In that case, my job is over. I should be going," Zechs muttered, turning his back. "I just wanted to make sure that Relena was safe."
"Milliardo, wait." Relena gently shifted, rising to her knees a bit. "Please don't leave just yet."
"I have to. I already told you - the world doesn't want me, and they don't need me. As far as everyone is concerned, Milliardo Peacecraft is dead. Dead men shouldn't walk around the streets, Relena."
"Then I have a favor to ask of you," Relena responded firmly. "I'd like to see you privately before you vanish again."
His hand rested on the doorframe, unsure, uncertain. "Very well," he finally answered hesitantly. "Where are you staying?"
"I'm going back to Luxemburg tonight. I can meet you there, or, if you prefer, I can meet you at the Sanc Kingdom palace."
"I have no desire to dishonor King Peacecraft by entering his palace."
"You wouldn't dishonor him," Relena's voice held a hint of stubbornness and anger.
He only smiled and bowed his head. "You never knew father, did you, Relena? You're more like mother."
"Does that mean you're like father? If so, you're right - I don't know or understand him, and sometimes I have the feeling that I'll never be able to know or understand you, either. Whether you believe me or not, I would like to know my older brother. And if you still insist that he's dead, then I'll implore Zechs Merquise to tell me of him!"
There was a long pause before he slowly responded, "Fine. I'll tell you what I can as soon as you can meet me in Luxemburg." He stepped out then, leaving them alone in the room, and started trudging back through the Brussels mansion.
Noin caught up with him, but this was no surprise. He didn't look at her when she fell into silent step beside him, and they went up five floors in this fashion - not speaking or looking at each other; simply walking in silence. He figured it wouldn't last, though even that thought didn't bother him much. Noin was too outspoken and direct; she always had been.
On the sixth floor, she suddenly stepped in front of him and he was forced to stop walking.
"Zechs, wait. I'm not walking all the way back without speaking once to you."
"What do you want to say?"
Her entire body seemed tired before him - limp and exhausted, and yet, she still met his gaze with a strong look of her own. "I… I love you."
His shoulders dropped slightly, as though a weight had fallen from them. He knew she loved him, he hadn't particularly needed to hear her say it, but it felt comforting just the same. But at the same time, it was a little frightening. "Are you sure you want a dead man?" he murmured, looking away from her. "I can't give you the kind of life you deserve."
"I'm sure I want to love you," she smiled, opening her arms slightly. "I don't care what you give me as long as you love me."
They met in the middle of a tight embrace, and he felt her kiss the side of his neck. His body tensed, and he tried to shift out of the position. "Noin - I know how you feel, but I'm not -"
"Don't even say it," she grinned, pulling away to meet his eyes. "If you weren't good enough, I would have turned away a year ago. Contrary to what you seem to think, I'm never going to stop loving you - though I may have given up on you if you hadn't come back to me tonight. And Relena doesn't hate you either."
"I have no idea what I'm going to say to her."
"Well," Noin's look turned sheepish, "if I know Miss Relena, she'll ask the questions and you'll just have to answer. She's not the only stubborn Peacecraft, you know."
He closed his eyes, almost chuckling. "No, I guess she's not."
"Come on. I think my Taurus is officially out of commission. And Tallgeese didn't look too great either."
"They both look better than the Wing Zero. I doubt it can be repaired very easily."
"You really are a soldier if you're thinking about that Gundam being fixed. I highly doubt Une will allow it to be repaired," Noin answered quietly as they started up the next flight of stairs towards the roof. "Mobile suits were banned."
"You kept yours, Miss Soldier."
She grinned sheepishly. "That's Academy training for you. And you have no room to talk - you restored Tallgeese this past year, I noticed."
"Only because Epyon was beyond repair."
They stopped at the door leading onto the roof and smiled at each other. Years of being close friends, understanding each other - even after he had been gone for three hundred and sixty-five days - and she had still kept her faith and hope in him. He wanted to reach out and kiss her passionately, but he didn't dare. He might later, if she really did want to come with him. He couldn't see how she would want to, though. He was stained, tainted, he'd denied his birthright, and furthermore, he'd betrayed her to try and end a war in an incredibly extremist fashion. He'd have to give her another chance to back out.
Without saying a word, he pushed the door open and stepped into the rubble of the deep vault again. Staring up, he could see steel beams and gates, crossing and torn from the Wing Zero's blasts. The night sky and stars were barely visible above the last destroyed lock, clouded by dust.
Noin slipped her hand into his and smiled in a tired way. "Come on, Zechs. Let's get out of here."~*~ Four hours later, at almost 1:00 in the morning, Zechs was standing in front of a window at a hotel in Luxemburg, watching the snow drift down in lazy, sleepy patterns. The majority of the city was dark, having pushed the battle out of their minds once it ended and the world was safe again, and they had gone to bed earlier that evening to wait for Christmas dawn. Truthfully, he should have gone to bed an hour earlier, just like the rest of the world. But he was determined to wait up for his sister. Noin had gone to bed thirty minutes before, exhausted and worn out. He hadn't protested - in fact, he'd encouraged her to get some rest. Relena deserved the chance to talk to him alone. Noin hadn't minded his reason; moreover, she agreed, and left for the bedroom of the suite.
It left him alone in the parlor of a suite, one Relena would probably reside in for the evening once she finally got through the reporters and the hospital wards. He wondered why she didn't hate him. She should. He had given her every right to, just as he'd given everyone else the right to hate him. Perhaps he'd given her more of a right to hate him than anyone else. He sighed and leaned his hand onto the panes, the cold glass fogging from the warmth of his skin.
That was when the door opened. He straightened and removed his fingers from the window. The door shut again, and soft footsteps padded across the room.
"I'm sorry I'm so late," Relena's voice replied quietly. "I had to give some sort of press release for the public, among other things."
"I understand. It's your duty. You handle it well."
"Won't you sit down? I hate the idea of you standing up, especially after that battle. You must be exhausted."
He heard her sit in one of the plush armchairs by the window, and he half-turned to look at her. His expression was masked, and he tried to discern her mood. She didn't seem angry - just tired like everyone else - so he sighed heavily and walked the few steps to the opposite armchair and sat down.
"You have every right to hate me," he started quietly.
Relena merely smiled in a soft way. "And yet, I don't hate you at all."
"Why?"
"In your own way, you were trying to end the war. I disagreed with your approach, but that doesn't mean I hate you. Why did you come back, Milliardo?"
"Someone had to fight this battle. The Gundam pilots didn't have their mobile suits at the time."
"You stand up for what you believe in. That was what I meant when I said father would be proud of you."
"I stand up to fight," he smiled and closed his eyes. "Because that's what I'm good at. Father wouldn't be proud at all."
"I suppose it doesn't matter since Father isn't here. But I'm proud of you, whether you believe me or not."
"I never expected the Vice Foreign Minister to be proud of a blood-stained warrior. You truly have grown up, Relena." He looked at her again, his eyes saddening. "I'm sorry I wasn't there for you. But I had no right to touch you after I joined the Alliance and OZ."
"And yet, you gave me a hug last Christmas. It wasn't much of one, but still..."
"Please don't remind me. I don't like to remember last Christmas."
Relena's eyes saddened a little as well, and she changed the conversation a bit. "I won't ask how you survived. Nor will I ask where you were for an entire year. But I do insist on knowing what you plan to do now. I won't have you roaming aimlessly about when there are things you can do - like helping the Preventers. And I must know where you're going to stay. I can find you a place -"
"There are very few places I could go and very few things I could do that wouldn't look suspicious," he responded darkly. "Not only is Milliardo Peacecraft dead, but he was hated by both the Earth and the Colonies."
"Which was, if I remember correctly, his intention?" Relena arched an eyebrow.
"It was something I had to do," he frowned. "People needed to see how foolish war really was. I had no intentions of surviving that battle, but I did. I'm not sure where I'll go from here."
"The Preventers could use you."
"Working under Lady Une again isn't something I'm sure I'm ready for." His lip wrinkled slightly. "She may have changed, but it's going to take me some time to get used to that change. I remember her too well as an OZ soldier."
"Well, wherever you go, Noin will go with you," Relena said absently, looking more at the arm of her chair than her brother.
"I'm going to give her another chance to back out," Zechs responded quietly. "She doesn't deserve a person like me."
Relena smiled, mostly to herself. "Oh, I don't know. Most girls dream about a handsome prince sweeping them off their feet."
"That's not very funny, Relena."
"I wasn't trying to be funny; I was merely stating that Noin is just as much a woman as anyone else - even if she's had military training. The training may have created an excellent soldier, but she's still a woman."
"There are other princes more worthy of Lucrezia Noin than I am."
Relena frowned at him. "That's a lie, Milliardo Peacecraft, and if you're foolish enough to think I believe you…" Her voice trailed off warningly.
He met her eyes tiredly. "Noin sacrificed more than she had to, and what have I given her in return? She should have the chance for a normal life, not one with me. Because no matter how you look at it, my life will never be completely normal, if it ever was to start with."
"You are so stubborn! Tell me - do you really wish to push her away? If you want to make up for her sacrifices, than you'll forget this nonsense about not being good enough for her, and marry her anyway! You'd both be a lot happier, you know!"
His lips twitched slightly. But before he could reply, Relena was talking again.
"When she first told me that you were my brother, I realized something. She wouldn't let me order Heero to kill you - not because you were my brother - but because she was in love with you! I asked her, and she admitted that to me. Everything she's ever done has been for you, Milliardo. She disobeyed OZ orders for you, she left that organization for you, she protected me for you, she guarded the Sanc Kingdom for you, and finally, she refused to kill you last Christmas when she had a chance, even though the Gundam pilots ordered her to! And she's remained loyal to you ever since that battle! Your being good enough doesn't matter - what matters is that she loves you!"
"I never thought you would play matchmaker."
Relena glowered back. "You're avoiding the subject. Answer me, Milliardo. Do you love her or not?"
"Of course I love her," he growled, meeting her intense gaze with his own.
"Then stop pushing her away! Make the past year up to her by letting her get close to you again. Or," Relena smirked smugly, "are you afraid of getting close to anyone?"
"I'm not afraid of anything," he answered angrily.
"I didn't think a solder would be."
"But what sort of life could I give Noin?" he asked heavily, the anger fading away. "I can't go anywhere. Too many people would recognize me."
"If Milliardo Peacecraft is dead, than what about Zechs Merquise?"
"Zechs Merquise died over a year ago, supposedly - when Treize ordered him to die."
Relena looked a bit annoyed. "It seems all of this is Treize Kushrenada's fault, doesn't it? Well, that doesn't matter - he's dead too." She rose and turned towards the window, her hands clasped behind her as she mused aloud. "Everyone knew that Zechs Merquise was OZ's best pilot. I don't think it would be unrealistic to say he didn't die after all. We could just say that he didn't return to OZ due to…injuries, perhaps. And he wasn't able to participate in the final battle against Milliardo Peacecraft because he was still recovering." She glanced over her shoulder at him and arched an eyebrow.
He stared at her. It was really no wonder she was Vice Minister - she was brilliant in her thoughts sometimes, even if she was slightly naïve on occasion or a bit obsessive in her beliefs and feelings.
She turned back to the window, giving him a moment to think about it. Then she idly commented, "I'm starting a new project for the Unified Nations. It's a terra-forming project on Mars. Humans have always lived on Earth, but two hundred years ago, mankind moved to the colonies as well. And humans continue to explore new horizons. Mars could easily become a new mission. I think setting up an outpost there, and starting work on new colonies on the surface, would be another step towards progress. It would open up new jobs, new opportunities… a new world." She smiled at her reflection in the window, though she wasn't particularly looking at herself. Her fingertips brushed the cold glass lightly. "However, I don't want to put just anyone in charge of such a mission. I would have to find someone I could trust to oversee the construction of an outpost base. That person would not have to oversee the construction of an entire colony, of course - just the initial base and space port. Perhaps…" she glanced back over her shoulder, meeting his cool blue eyes, "Zechs Merquise might be interested in this proposition, when I can pass the idea through the UN. After all, he is a soldier, and the work would suit him. I'm sure his battle injuries are completely healed now…"
His mouth cracked open slightly as he stared back at her, and she simply waited for a response. Finally he managed to get words out. "You're suggesting that I go to Mars and oversee the initial colonization?"
"It's a new world, a new start… That's what you need, isn't it?"
He closed his eyes and smiled, his head slightly inclined, and one of his hands slid across his face and into his bangs. "Perhaps you know me better than you think you do, Relena."
"I'll send you word as soon as I get permission, then," she answered seriously. "But Milliardo…"
"What?"
She walked from the window and stopped in front of him. "You will return to Earth as soon as the base camp and spaceport are completed, won't you? I…" She diverted her eyes slightly. "I would like you to come back then. I don't want you to stay away forever, and in a couple of years, this will have all passed over and you can come home."
He rose and rested his hand against her shoulder, and she looked up at him expectantly. He merely smiled. "Once the base camp and spaceport facilities are completed, I'll return to Earth."
She smiled softly. "I'm glad you're my brother."
He felt his arms wrap around her body, and he hugged her close - genuinely, this time; and not coldly as he had a year before. "Relena. Please, stay strong."
"I promise; I'll do my best." She hugged him back. "I'm glad I finally got to talk to you."
"Do you have enough body guards? Your position is one that has potential for assassination - if you would rather me stay on earth and protect you, I'll willingly - "
She smiled knowingly at him. "I spoke to Heero about that in the hospital. Or rather, he brought it up first. I think I'll take him up on his unspoken suggestions - he wants to protect me, and I won't argue. He'll be good at that. He kept me alive for the past two years, Milliardo."
"You love him."
"Yes, I do. I hope you don't disapprove."
"No, I can't hate him. Back then, he was a respectable enemy, but now…" Zechs sighed, and quite suddenly changed topics. "You should get some sleep. You're tired, Relena."
"You are as well. More so than I am - you were fighting, I was just standing around arguing with Mariemaia. I'll let you go to bed. Will you be leaving in the morning?"
"Probably. I'd like to get to outer space before the reporters start gathering outside this building. That way I'll be closer to Mars when you contact me, and I can go ahead and plan where to put a refueling port between the colonies and the planet itself."
"In that case, this is goodbye for now." She sounded a bit disappointed.
He started walking towards the bedroom door. "I promise," he replied, looking back at her as he opened it, "We'll see each other again."
She gave him a fond look. "Good luck, Milliardo."
The door shut behind him, and Relena Dorlain smiled to herself. Her voice became a murmur before she turned for her bedroom. "Hurry back to Earth, brother. I'll miss you while you're gone."
Back to FOAM: Fanfiction