| Disclaimer: I don't own any gundam stuff in any way, shape or form. Warnings: Angst. 1+2, sorry about the crosspost The Bell Tower The boy slowly pulled himself up the stained wooden stairs. The dark, smokey air nearly choked him as he ignored the splinters digging painfully into the tender flesh of his hands. / Just one more step... one more.../ Panting, he threw himself onto the platform. Trembling, he sucked in breaths of the hot night air, still clouded with smoke. Tears trembled from his eyes as he looked down on the building below him... a burning building.... a building filled with the bodies of the people he had loved, hated, lived every day with. A building that contained their killers, and the hot ashes of their faith. Forcing the heavy lock closed over the trap door, the boy looked out at the stars. The flame that had took his family would be coming for him soon. He could feel the heat pouring through the old boards below him. Clutching the cross against his chest, he slowly put his hands together and prayed.. for a way to avenge his friends, his teachers, his enemies, and himself. He pulled himself closer to the edge of the small space, trying not to cry, he ignored the knocking, beating sounds that came from below him. They were coming to spill out his life like all the rest. Cringing, he remembered the sight of cold steel slicing through warm flesh. No... he wouldn't die like that. Grasping onto the thick wooden beams with his bleeding hands, he pulled himself up to the edge of the railing, forcing himself not to look down. Closing his eyes, he heard the timbers behind him break. / Now... now was the time.. / Letting go of the battered frame, a small form dove into the air, tears trailing behind him as he waited to hit the unforgiving earth. Heero stared silently at the still form on the ground below.. he was too late again. Watching carefully, he saw a dark form slowly bent over the child, smiling tenderly. Dark wings shed soft feathers over the still form.. covering it quietly in a rain of midnight strands. Suddenly, the child started to move.. coughing violently. Shivering, he put his hands trustingly in those of the being above him, a promise of the future stealing away the warm death and promise of rest that the child had earned. Heero couldn't help but wince as he watched the child walk off, towards a future of death and destruction.. a future bright with dreams of vengence. Thrown painfully back into reality, Heero opened his eyes to look wildly across the room. Curled into a black comforter, his partner slept across from him with the sleep of the innocent.. or the damned. And as always, Heero shivered as he remembered the pain of the child... a pain that was almost his own. |