25 Feb 2000 NATURE'S CALL by: Vries and JejeFish ----------------------- based on: "Wind Song" by: Cynthia du Pontavie I. LAND BEFORE TIME --------------------- He pulled the trigger, and felt the hot metal bullet of his service gun tore his flesh and entered his skull, ripping the muscles and whatever there was inside his brain. The pain unbearable. But as each nerve points broke, he felt more and more of his conciousness slipping away. His head became lighter, his conscious grip over his body receded, his vision blurred red. Then, the blotches of red grew into a blinding white light, and he relented to the warm whiteness of the light. Voices, murmurs and anxiety woke him up from his sleep. His shimmering blue eyes wild at first, trying to focus into the world. /Not dead? Dear God, you do hate me do you? Am I that sinful that even Hell rejected me?/ He tried to lift himself up to a sitting position but he seemed not to be able to find any firm holding beneath him. He lifted his hands to his face and gasped, so surprised was he that he lunged forward. He could see through his own hands, transparent. His whole body was. /So... I am really dead, it seemed./ He mused. And so there he was, floating above the ground, siphoning the shimmering light from the flickering neon lamp into the infirmary below. He looked down and saw his own cold body, the shell of his previous life, the silent testimony of his existance. He was free now, free from all that was binding him. Free from pain, free from longing, free from jealousy and loneliness. Free. Then he saw his sister, holding the now cold hands, bathing it with silvery tears. He saw Noin, holding onto the headboard, touching his gruelsome bullet wound, which was caked with dry blood, singed black and purple. He saw Lady Une, her eyes and her bearing bore no emotions whatsoever. And he saw Treize. Deep in the shadows of the corner, his shoulders heaving slightly, leaning onto someone, Wufei. Zechs could feel his heart clench, or did he still have a heart? in his ethereal form? He descended over to the grieving people, the small group of people he could call friends, the small group of people that he knew in his short lifetime. Relena. He enclosed her with his ghostly touch, one last goodbye. Noin, friend, and confidante. /Please don't cry for me. I am happy now, I am free don't you know? Be happy with me./ But they failed to hear him. They failed to hear his last plea. He reached out into the darkness, where Treize was. Where Wufei was. Zechs halted. And the room seemed to halt with him. All he could hear was the silent sobbing, the rustle of Lady Une's movements and the lazy buzz of the neon lamp. Treize. Love. He wanted to engulf him with his love, wanted to whisper another word of love, but he knew he couldn't. Treize was no longer his. And he's dead. /At least I am free./ Zechs mused to himself. /At least I am happy./ But then, a blinding light, now surrounded him, not the warm whiteness, but a suffocating intensity. ..Are you really happy, Zechs?.. A question of his conscience. Pried into the deepest of his heart's wound. And in that light, which seemed to suck him into oblivion, into another dimension, He questioned himself. /Truly, am I happy?/ And he could feel the growing voidness in his being. He could feel the denial of truth, and the need to search for the missing piece of his being. But what? He couldn't understand. The question replayed itself as he surrendered into the light. Surrendered into the unknown future, trying to search for the answer. --- to be continued to Interlude