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Captives of Circumstance Darwin Delantri Well you took me home And you took me back All around, the great cathedral of war shone proudly. It burned with power like a coal in the night, the final headstone of conflict in our age. In the name of peace and of the people of the colonies, it terrified Earth and space alike, no matter whose side it was on. And, at the centre of all this absurd power, at the hub of the human galaxy, was a single man, Millardo Peacecraft. It is said that when you have power over something, you must take responsibility for it. When a man has power over every soul on the face of that cloudy sphere below, the responsibility would make even the most solid, well crafted foundations begin to crack under the strain. But deep down inside, The feeling just died, And I couldn�t see why. Caines, smirking slightly, approached the distraught commander and began to sharply declare something about mobile doll reports. Treize had done a good job in their years of friendship; Millardo still looked down on the dolls as an anomaly, as a warped attempt to vilify the pure essence of survival. Whereas Caines could feel that the dolls would keep valuable lives out of harm�s way, he had to justify his using the damn objects by putting Dorothy in charge of them, making them an extension of her. Caines was always tireless about the White Fang�s ideals and chances. It�s strange how well a man works when he knows that he�s really just working for himself. After he had finished his droning report, Millardo rose majestically, his stringy blond hair separating in the absence of gravity�s dictatorship. �Take care of it.� He ordered coldly, and turned away from the old man�s jilted affirmation. From indigo through to royal blue I travel far but no one will do Anytime, anyplace, every shape, every face, Brings memories of you. Every window he passed on his way back to back to his sanctuary made the feeling worse. They met partly because of her love for the serenity of space, which was now the gaping void that kept them apart. �No, space is not what separates us, Noin.� He whispered aloud, confessing to the empty corridor. �Not the walls of this battleship, or the sentry Gundams, either.� The holes in his mask didn�t blind him, he knew how she�d felt for a long time. However, as long as she was going to sluice her true feelings, he was going to respect her decision. The world had been a painful place for too long, and as long as he still fought for peace there would still be a chance for good people like Noin. �Peace?� He stopped dead in his tracks. The desire for universal peace was a part of his life, a part of his name. Who�s reasoning was it to create peace through death, through fire? He didn�t quite fell Relena�s goal of complete and utter pacifism, most of his supporting her was merely a brother humouring a hopelessly romantic sister. He started walking again, still curious about the fledgling emotion he�d stumbled across. �Not for peace, right?� He asked of himself, �Not for Peacecraft, not for Sanc, but for�� He realized with a start that he�d just walked right part the door to his quarters. Millardo shook his head as if to dislodge the little feeling, splaying his locks in the loose air. Blue to be blue to be blue Ocean blue His quarters were left the way to her always preferred things, tidy, organized, and totally undisturbed. He didn�t allow anyone in to clean, dust, or chance the linens, and the crew knew enough to avoid that door after one young officer wandered in by mistake. Millardo put on a little Vivaldi, his favorite. An inviting decanter of coffee sat on a warming plate, and he poured a heavy splash in a very rare porcelain mug, then sat himself gracefully in a luxurious armchair that overlooked the expanse of stars beyond Earth. Fair-weather friends might drift away As summer ends, and the skies burn gray Between here and the confines of Earth�s enormity the sudden attention paid to MO II satellite was barely visible. The foothold of Khrushrenada�s crusade, and his old friend�s dream of a World Nation without the violations that were the mobile dolls. �I wonder if he praises his own purity in combat?� Millardo asked into the rim of his cup, as the music began to slow and the seasons began to change. Even though the friendship he found before was scarce and bumpy, he�d do anything to spend time with somebody that he really trusted. However, here, on the Libra, he was surrounded by people that wanted to use him for their own purposes. Caines was trying fitfully to manipulate him, and the rest of the White Fang only looked to him as a symbol of power and dominance. Worst of all was that Catalonia, who coolly questioned every damn thing he did. At the same time his empty war put up walls between him and the people that mattered most. Treize was an opponent now, and Noin wasn�t about to come around to his point of view. Although she pledged to follow him, she still had a mind of her own, and she could still tell from wrong. She tried to be a soldier, but she was still human first. A lonely picture, framed in dull pewter, sitting on the end table came to mind. Resting the mug on a coaster, he took the picture in his hands and held it into the light of the stars. He�d taken it years ago, back at Lake Victoria, on the day before she was stationed there as an instructor. She looked as proud as ever in her Alliance uniform, not knowing that she was about to shed it for a Specials outfit. It was the uniform that they had grown into, and parting with it had came as an underestimated shock for them both. He admired the deep blue glint of her eyes, and the grace and peacefulness of her thin smile. Then, as it always did, it hit him. Out of that elegant swath of midnight hair that draped over her forehead, a miniscule bundle of luscious threads had fallen out of place. So I walk to the ocean And pilot these shores Just thinking of you Hesitating, he moved a finger over the photo�s single imperfection, as if to try and push the strand back into place. The thread didn�t budge, just as frozen in that moment as her friendly smile. The calm reassurance he had felt from seeing the picture melted away at his failure to touch her, and the hot drops began to well up behind his eyes. His hands began to quiver, the photograph shaking along with him. �Noin,� he whispered, �I � I�m so sorry.� Millardo snapped his eyes closed to hold back the growing deluge. �I�m choosing to be a Peacecraft instead of our Zechs Merquise.� It�s time we kissed the clouds goodbye From now on in, it�s strictly blue sky Come rain or shine, the outlook�s still fine I�m thinking of you He forced open his clenched eyes to look at her again. She was still smiling warmly, not caring whether he let loose the tears that burned his mind. Millardo set the frame back on the end table, his own gaze never leaving her static one. �Lucrezia,� He whispered again before he began to sob into his ivory gloves. �I�m so�� �Lucrezia?� A voice as liquid as his teardrops queried from the shadows. �Mr. Millardo, are you thinking about Miss Noin again?� �Get out, Dorothy.� Millardo mustered up whatever shreds of dignity he still held on to in an attempt to make himself threatening. �I�m surprised at you, Mr. Millardo. So attached to some Euro-trash floozy.� The tears began to dry, feeding instead the boiler in his breast than the lake in his palms. �If she is going to stand against your cause of peace and sided with the Gundams,. You are going to have to destroy her.� Her last taunt struck to close to home, and a secret, chained nightmare from Epyon burst forth. Noin stood between him and Earth, and he felt no remorse as he saw his own arms raise the beam sabre. He managed to look at her eyes one last time before anger consumed him completely. They were downcast, not because she couldn�t bear to look at her murderer, but because her own tears were sprouting there. �Zechs,� He heard her call softly, before the drone of the sabre drowned out whatever else she had to say. Blue to be blue to be blue Ocean blue �What�s the use in getting so emotional about an enemy?� Dorothy asked again, her voice dripping with confidence. His hand, now quaking from anger rather than sorrow, lashed out, and Millardo screamed, �Get out, Dorothy!� as he let the half-filled mug fly. It struck the brutal gray wall not a metre from her, but she was just as stunned as if he had hit her directly. Paying no mind to the hot splatter of coffee on her cheek, she panicked and dashed out of the room, her running footsteps echoing down the corridor. I stand at the head of the queue There�s mutinies every crew Wishing and wondering �bout you Millardo, still shaken from his grief and outburst, fought himself to relax again. �Noin, Millardo Peacecraft�s time is almost up.� He closed his crystal blue eyes in contemplation, �Soon, we can go back to just being us again. Please�� He uttered a hopeless prayer that she would hear his appeals, and began to cry again. Wishing and wondering �bout you Ocean blue Legal crap that nobody either likes nor reads: All characters are property of Sunrise, or Sutso, or Bandai. Whatever. Ocean Blue is property of ABC and Partisan Management. I think. It�s not like launching a lawsuit against me wouldn�t be an exercise in futility, anyway� |
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