28 Jan 2000
This one demanded to be written while I was listening to the radio the other day. Now maybe I can get back to the fic I's *supposed* to be working on!
C&C welcome as always.
Based on the song by Smash Mouth.
DISCLAIMER: All Gundam Wing characters are property of Sunrise, Bandai Visuals, Sotsu Agency, and Asahi TV. This work is not written for profit, but for entertainment purposes only.
Author's Notes: This fic is set in late A.C. 195. In the series, it corresponds to the events occurring after episode 40 or so, when Milliard Peacecraft/Zechs Merquise has agreed to become leader of White Fang and Treize Khushrenada has resumed leadership of Earth. As you no doubt recall, Milliard is in charge of the space fortress Libra, which has a huge beam cannon on it and he appears to be aiming it at the space station Balgi.
I've attempted to get behind Milliard's thinking here - why he chose to join White Fang and why he is targeting Earth in general and Treize in particular. I see his actions here as due in part to sheer desperation to stop all war for good (which he believes was his father's ideal) and in part to his own severe depression over several key events: the way the war is dragging on, the use of his sister by Romefeller, the futility that comes over him when he battles with Heero and then sees he's too late to save his homeland (the Sank Kingdom) from being destroyed yet again and, finally, his break with Treize.
Key for punctuation:
"..." - character dialogue
/.../ - character thoughts
He had told them to go away and they had been rude enough to keep talking. "Aren't you Zechs Merquise?" they had asked him, and he had told them they'd gotten the wrong man. They had. Zechs Merquise had died on the outskirts of the Sank Kingdom in a battle with the boy who called himself Heero Yuy. Zechs had been fighting in Wing Zero, Heero in Epyon, and they had battled until the Zero System had gotten to be too much for them.
During that horrible time, just before he was forced to leave the gundam, Zechs had realized an ugly and bitter truth: he was too late to save the Sank Kingdom from its second destruction. He was helpless to do anything for those who had been his people, as helpless as he'd been when he was 6-years-old and the Federation had shot his father down like a dog in front of him and gone on to destroy his homeland. No one had said a thing then, and they wouldn't now. No one but the Sankians seemed to thing that the kingdom was a real homeland, a place were people lived their lives and raised their children. For the armies of Earth, Sank was a symbol, something abstract, that could be used to send messages to enemies.
So he had fallen out of Wing Zero, exhausted and not a little unsettled by the impact of it all. He had talked to Heero Yuy and they had each given the other the mobile suits they came with because Wing had been made for Heero, and Epyon had been made, by Treize, for Zechs. And as he had left that horrible place that had once, very long ago, been his homeland, the man in the mask had quietly died. And left him, Milliard Peacecraft, alone in an agony of pain and grief and anger, to pick up the pieces.
That's how he'd come to be in that dismal little coffee bar, huddled in his field jacket against the cold, ignoring the beauty of the snow-covered countryside out the window. He had nothing now. Romefeller had taken it all - his father, his sister, his dearest friend and only love. They had taken his country and his sense of himself as a person separate from war. He had tried to free himself from them but their bloody campaigns had pursued him, even to Space. The gundam pilots would not agree to work with him, Relena was a foolish figurehead, a puppet of Dermail's, and Treize... But that was too painful to think about.
That's when they had come, the men from White Fang. How was it, he wondered later, that Quinze had known exactly when to approach him? Or had it all been just some great cosmic coincidence? Didn't matter now. They had talked and he had refused, so they talked more and he refused again. On and on for hours in that damned place until he had grown so despairing, so angry, so grief-stricken, that their arguments started to look like the only possible way out.
So in the end, he had agreed. He would become the leader of White Fang, the will of the Colonies. He would provide the gundam that Treize had made for him, tall and elegant and meant to fight duels, not wars. It would become their symbol in the struggle for freedom from the tyrannical, war-loving nations of Earth. He would give these things and, in exchange, they would provide him with the method to end war permanently. At the time, it had seemed like the best thing to do - to take charge of his life again, to contribute to the cause of universal peace, and to teach the Earth and it's leader that war was anything but a glorious and noble endeavor.
> Paint the town, take a bow
Thank everybody, you're gonna do it again
You are the few, the proud,
You are the antibody, mind, soul, and Zen <
Listen to me, Treize Khushrenada, as I for so long listened to you. I know the way you think, know it intimately. As intimately as I do your heart and your body and I know what comes next from you, my friend. I watch from my fortress while you gather your armada to defeat me. Such a large force, Treize - I recognize that for what it is. You are giving me your nod of respect from the lofty perch you occupy. You have regained control. You are where you always wanted to be, aren't you? On the top of the world.
But your world is a dark and bloody one, Treize. You believe in fighting glorious battles. You believe that war enobles people. You believe that fighting with one's heart and soul makes that same fighting something to be cherished.
You are wrong.
Battles can never be glorious. There is absolutely nothing noble about war - it only maims and kills and then comes back for more. And it doesn't matter in the least if your heart is in your fighting. The result is still the same, Treize. Death.
The people of Space know this. In almost two-hundred years they have kept peace among themselves. They are the "new humans", who have learned from the bloody past and have taken peace into their hearts.
And now you threaten them. Your very presence puts their lives and their cherished ideals in danger. Just as humankind has begun to develop societies beyond war, the Earth reaches out a blood-stained hand to pull them back. With you in charge, the Earth will never see an end to fighting. Because you believe so deeply, millions of people will suffer, and the wars will go on and on.
But I can't let that happen. The peaceful people of Space must prevail.
> And the world's a stage (and the world's a faze)
and the end is near
So push rewind just in time
Thank anybody, you're gonna do it again <
What do you look at when you see yourself, Treize? Do you see the noble man I thought you were? Do you see beauty and grace as I did once? Do you see the sensual predator lurking below the lovely mask of civility that used to thrill me? Or do you see yourself as I do now - just an actor on a stage. Saying the lines that will bring them to their knees for you. They will be down there - groveling on the floor, and giving up their wasted lives so you can play your part indefinitely.
Well, the curtain is beginning to rise, my love. You final scene is at hand. And if I know you, and I do, Treize, you will again bring them to you and they will defend you to the death, and your so-called glory will be spread to infect another generation just a short time into the future.
But this time, dear Treize, will be the very last bow.
> The way that you walk
It's just the way that you talk like it ain't no thing
And every single day is just a fling
Then the morning comes <
Have you mustered any enthusiasm for this little battle of ours? You, who are never surprised but always a touch jaded. Worldly and sophisticated, in control of everything and everyone around you. Even the casualty lists. You memorized them every night, and you could probably recite all the names without anymore than a languid smile coming to your face about the bloody nobility of it all. But what happens when the mothers and sons of those on your list wake up the next morning? Do they come to you, as they should, in rage and grief and demand an explanation of why their precious child had to die for your cause? Or do they grieve in silence, allowing you to carry on about your day, enjoying your many pleasures as if nothing bad had happened?
> Take your knocks shake them off
Duck everybody, you're gonna take them again
You are your foe, your friend
You are the paparazzi
You are the tragedian <
You are the Phoenix, Treize, rising from the flames that you thought had consumed you. How did it feel to walk out of that cave of yours in Brussels and rejoin the living? Well you've done that - and more. You showed them all, didn't you, and you took Dermail's power just as you told me you would so long, long ago. I never doubted you for a moment, love.
And now you have the eyes of the world - they're swarming around you - and their hum will become ten times louder when you take your brave boys and face the evil enemy. Me.
> And the world's a craze (and the world's a faze)
and the end is near
So push rewind just in time
Thank anybody, you're gonna do it again <
We used to play at this, remember? You on one side of the question, I on the other. It took every ounce of energy and intelligence I had to keep up with you, and often I didn't, but the match was always exciting - the sparring such intense foreplay. But this is different, Treize. This isn't a dashing and noble endeavor we engage in to keep us entertained. These are people's lives. These are people's homes. This is the crossroads of peace and war and the time to choose is now.
You may want to retract the things you do in the coming days, dear friend, but the stakes are too high for that. We will show the world how ugly it all is and, having that knowledge, they will choose to forego arms and fighting and the beautiful myth of the glory of battle.
If we don't, it will all happen again.
> The way that you walk
It's just the way that you talk like it ain't no thing
And every single day is just a fling
Then the morning comes <
I don't do this with a glad heart. I do this out of despair, not hope, for I see nothing, *nothing* that will make things different but this. For so long I watched you as you led OZ, seeing bemusement in your eyes as the officers talked of war, and the old men of the Romefeller talked of power. But this had ceased to be an amusing game. I am deadly serious, my love, and I wish only that I could see your face when the jaded smile is finally dropped and your true heart is revealed.
So go to your soldiers. Dazzle them with your easy elegance and your brave words. Enjoy the role you love to play while you still have it. In my future world, there is no room for dashing warriors.
> And when it comes it moves so slow
Kind of like it's saying "I told you so"
Looking back before she goes
Tomorrow's gonna hurt <
Now we face each other across the gulf of space, I in the Libra and you among your armada. You fight for what has always been. You strive to keep the earth mired in bloodshed and battle. And I? I struggle to pull it free from that deadly quicksand - to save the dream of peace that these new people have forged and maintained, but that you threaten to destroy. But if I fail in that endeavor, if the Earth refuses to follow the peaceful ways of Space and stays sunk into its quicksand of war , I will shoot the beast where it bellows and keep those safe who are truly dedicated to pacifism.
It will be a great battle, Treize, the kind you always longed for. It's already brought you into Space from the Earth you think so noble. But this battle will be nothing to glorify and will be remembered only as the horror that finally made the people of Earth give up making war. It will be painful, but it will be effective. I will make sure of that.
> The way that you walk
It's just the way that you talk like it ain't no thing
And every single day is just a fling
Then the morning comes <
At last you come forward, from out of your men, and ask me to fight. You wish a duel - an elegant and gentlemanly way to resolve a dispute between two people. But you misunderstand me Treize. I saw the shock in your eyes when I declined your offer, when I told you this was not a fight between you and me. I will not allow decisions about millions upon millions of lives and homes and families to be made in such a frivolous way.
Today, I free myself from you completely. I reject the Code of Knights that I assumed willingly with you. I refuse to perpetuate the myth that war is noble and soldiers gallant. And I will fight you and your dangerous chivalry to the death.
Tomorrow morning, the people of Space will give the people of Earth the gift of truth. The truth that war is nothing but horror. In doing that we assure that the next morning will dawn on the era of lasting peace.
Prepare yourselves.
owari
(:./kumiko/bblood28)
