The Waltz Chronicles: Final Session: Coming Home

I have no past.

No future.

No name.

I go only by a mere code name...Wind.


I'm drifting. Drifting here inside of my mobile suit, with the remnants of colony MO-III slowly becoming space dust around me. That bastard Dakim Barton got away, and now all I can do is wait for a transport to come and pick me up; my mobile suit, the re-designed Tallgeese III, just came out of construction not too long ago and as a result, because of this sudden activity I had no choice but to suit up and take it out regardless. And like a loyal friend, it was there for me in battle – I stand corrected; I meant to say conflict. But the suit's Mega Cannon still needs a bit more hours of work and testing- I believe that is why I am drifting aimlessly here now.


Too much power in too little time, resulting in corruption of the suit's internal system.


I rest my head against the back of the seat and close my eyes. It's so quiet, so empty out here...like my life. I can almost here my heart beating. Like my mobile suit, my mind is drifting. Drifting on my past life. Zechs Merquise, the Lightning Count. Milliardo Peacecraft, former heir to the royal Peacecraft Monarchy. The man known as Zechs died with the mask that concealed a prince's blood-stained hands. I failed my father. I could not lead the country in the manner he'd intended for my hands were too blood-stained and corrupt to even call myself a Peacecraft.


Milliardo was dead.


I was dead.


And with my soul also went my sanity, my past.


I should be dead right now, in every sense of the word. No longer living on this physical plain, but floating in limbo, with a transitory stay in Heaven and permanent stay in Hell, where I belong. But I've been resurrected by some unknown power, some newfound reason to start again. I searched the infinite darkness that is my mind, my soul, in order to find out what it was, calling me to rise from the eternal fires of pain and corruption.


Just when I thought insanity had settled within me, I heard you. I heard your voice, felt your pain, your grief...your feelings of love and affection towards me. Noin, I could feel you and soon, I became guided by your voice – your calling. I believe that is why I have not been sent to Hell just yet. Because of you.


You're the reason I survived.


You love me.


******************


I tread softly down the halls of the apartment complex you live in, with my hands stuffed into the pockets of my new Preventers jacket. The leather pants make soft crunching noises as I walk. And despite the premises being warm, I cannot help but to feel the chill of this winter's night smack me the face. I continue to walk down what seems like an endless corridor, and check my watch. 0200 hours. Then, as I look up again, I recognize the numbers on the door – they're your numbers. And at last, with a sigh, I feel as though I've returned home.


Still foggy from sleeping, your voice and awareness are a bit slow and fuzzy as you come to open the door. You stand there for a moment, motionless and unsure of who this stranger could be knocking at your door this late at night. But then, I reached out to you, and you took hold of my hand. I pull you into my arms slowly, and come out from the shadows of the night; your eyes instantly light up, a lone beacon in the dark, and then you call my name with relish as I hold you still and motionless there in the door way.


"Zechs...? Is that you, Zechs?" You whisper against my chest.


"Yes, Noin. I'm...so glad to see you again."


I looked down at you for a moment, with the warmth of our embrace growing between us, and you nearly were beside yourself with hysteria, or shock. I can only smile, seeing the look on your face.



"Oh, Zechs! I knew it! Your alive!"




Instantly, I'm guided inside and shown your hospitality, even at this late hour. I tell you softly that you should be sleeping, but your so high off of seeing me again that my advice doesn't seem to sway you. Your preparing coffee in the kitchen, and kindly tell me to take a seat and get comfortable. You can't help but beam like the sun as I look at you through the door, and I am reminded instantly as to why it is I'm here, alive, when I should really be dead and burning. Because you love me and yet, you cannot find the words to say it.


We end up catching up on things over coffee, the night slowly slips through our fingers like sand through an hourglass. You look so beautiful, so aglow in the aura of the night. I can't help but take your hand and feel the smooth skin and delicate construction beneath my fingers. Our eyes lock, and I inch closer to you, smelling you and for a moment imagining that I'm surrounded by exotic-smelling flowers – your scent intoxicates me, hypnotizes me.


My name floats off your lips, the ones I've been aching, yearning, to feel against mine for so long. My arms soon find their way around your body and I begin to reel you in, feeling you more and more until your head is nestled underneath my chin. A perfect fit, almost as though it was meant to be. And this moment as a whole feels so right.


"Zechs...I've waited so long. Please...kiss me. Touch me..."


Our eyes lock once more and we suddenly no longer need words to explain what it is that seems to have infected us both. My hand cups your cheek, my vision disappears slowly into blackness as my eyes close and our mouths join in what feels like instant fireworks. I taste you, and you me. Noin, at long last you have awakened the phoenix within me, having laid dormant ever since I first laid my eyes on you so long ago.


We break away then, licking each other clean from our lips. A faint taste of berries lingers in my mouth. My hand finds its way through those dark purple locks of hair that feel like silk against my flesh. I can't take my eyes off of you, Noin. You've always been beautiful, but more so now than I can ever remember. And I can't help but to come in for another kiss, another taste of the fruit I've been craving for so long.

Give and take, our jaws, tongues and lips move slowly and rhythmically together and I become more aware of my humanity, my new purpose. I feel more and more alive with every touch of your lips against mine. You make me feel human, and more alive than anything could make me.



And I cannot help but whisper to you the words I've suppressed for years. The words my responsibility, my duty as a soldier, kept from me:


"I'm not going anywhere – I love you."


And it is then, with the release of those words that my vitality, my soul, finds its way back to my body. In this moment it is now that I know I am truly, finally, home where I want to be and with the one I want to be with. I am with you, Noin. I am home. We're home.


*END*