Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ My Empire of Dirt ❯ There Goes Rabbit ( Chapter 6 )

Warning: Graphic OC suicide! Very disturbing! And other stuff.

 

 

5. There Goes Rabbit

 

Snap back to reality, oh there goes gravity
Oh, there goes rabbit, he choked
He's so mad, but he won't give up that
Is he? No
He won't have it

--Eminem

 

 

The passenger, Noin learned, was named Gregory Micheals, and she found that he was rather innocent looking when he didn't have a gun aimed at you. Rather like a kid, really, even if they were about the same age. Of course, she knew an act when she saw one. Gregory Micheals had things to hide.

 

"You're real good, Agent Noin," he said with slight awe. "Not many can lose me the way you did back there, and that's the honest truth. Hell, not many know that I'm tailing them either, come to think of it. Yuy is real pissed about that."

 

There was a snort from the back seat, and it sounded bitter. To her surprise, Gregory's face darkened. He said nothing else.

 

Noin focused on the road. She had to find a safe place to stop for the night so she could take a look at Zechs' wounds. He was far too quiet back there, and he kept nodding off--"Zechs," she said suddenly, her voice stern. "Don't you dare fall asleep."

 

He'd lost far too much blood. This wasn't good. If he fell asleep, she didn't think he'd wake up again.

 

"M'fine."

 

"Like hell you are."

 

"Noin..." It was a slur of agitation.

 

Gregory interrupted them. "He needs to be taken to a hospital. There's one three blocks--"

 

"No," Noin's voice was cold as she glared at him. "It's too exposed and handing him over to a hospital is almost as bad as handing him over to Yuy."

 

"That's what I'm hear for, if you haven't noticed," Greg said, and waved a hand at the bloody, half-alive Zechs in the back seat.

 

She gritted her teeth. "We'll talk about that later. No hospitals. Tonight, we need a safe house and medical supplies. I'm O negative, I can give him all the blood he needs."

 

Greg stared at her. "You can't be serious."

 

"Oh she's serious, Greggy," came a slur from the back. "No point in... in arguing with her, she's..." She saw Zechs frown in the mirror as he faded again. "...She's an impossibly stubborn... emotional... beautiful bitch..."

 

Noin frowned. "You're falling asleep again, Zechs."

 

"Righ'," came a nod.

 

Gregory scowled and glared out the window. His words were meant for Zechs. "I suppose she's right," he said. "If you die, I can't kill you, and you'll never get to explain to me why the hell Treize is alive and after your sorry excuse for a--"

 

"You saw Treize?" Zechs' voice was a little more awake now.

 

Gregory was silent, but Noin was interested to see pain on his features. Something was off between these two...

 

Zechs, she noticed, looked a cross between miserable and amused. "Fucked up, isn't it?" His voice was dry.

 

Gregory snorted. "Only if you really wanna fuck him," he countered.

 

Zechs suddenly lunged forward toward the front seat with a cry of fury, and Gregory dove out of the way, a vicious look of hatred on his face. Zechs slumped in the pain because of his sudden movements and panted as he hung onto the back of seat, glaring death at the other man.

 

Noin was lost. "Men? Is there something I don't know?"

 

Zechs smiled oddly. "There's a lot you don't know, Lu. But Gregory here would know that better than anyone, wouldn't you Gregory?"

 

"Fuck off, Zechs."

 

"Likewise."

 

Noin was losing her patience. "What the hell is between you two? You know each other?"

 

Zechs finally sat back again and groaned. "Yes," he hissed, his face contorted with pain. "We do. Which is bloody hilarious because of... of all the men Yuy had to send, it had to be Gregory... Mother Fucking... Micheals."

 

At Noin's eyebrow, Gregory added, "It wasn't like I asked for this. It was either me or Yuy, and everyone knows that Yuy plans on ripping you apart. They chose me because the President wants you alive for the trial."

 

Noin found this odd. "What about Barton or Maxwell? Chang?"

 

"They're busy with that Ghost Massacre problem on Mars," he said with a flippant wave of his hand. "Or at least Chang is. I dunno where Barton and Maxwell are."

 

Zechs snorted, missing the exchange entirely. "Better Heero than you. I have scores to settle with that bastard, he thinks I killed his wife."

 

"Like you didn't?"

 

"No," Zechs said. His voice shook slightly, but Noin saw his eyes were furious. "After all these years, do you really think I'd kill my sister? Surely even you are smart enough to figur--"

 

Gregory twisted to glare at Zechs with the kind of hatred Noin saw only in special cases. "What I know, Milliardo, is that forensics dictates only two people were in that room, and your hair and your fingerprints and you came out of it covered in Relena Peacecraft's blood. Your fingerprints are all over that knife, and there was a witness--"

 

"Enough!" Noin roared. She quickly pulled into a CVS parking lot and turned the engine off. Gregory snarled, shaking with hatred, and Zechs had gone very white, but was clearly just as furious as he glared right back. Before either of them could explode, she held up a hand and said, "Agent Micheals, go and get us what we need." She handed him cash. "That includes two hypodermic needles and some--"

 

"Right," Gregory said, looking ill all of the sudden. "I'll take my time and hope that he's dead before I get back."

 

"Get out," Zechs whispered in a cold voice.

 

Gregory just growled at him and slammed the door. When he left, Zechs fell back into the seat again and closed his eyes, his face contorted in the kind of pain that said much more beyond physical injury. Noin reached over and took his hand, tugging him awake again.

 

When Zechs opened his eyes, she said, "I don't think you did it."

 

This simply appeared to make him even more depressed. "I know," he said, his voice faint.

 

Noin tugged his arm again, and glared at him warningly. "You're not going to bleed to death in my car, Zechs. Stay awake."

 

"Wh-who said I'm gonna die?"

 

Her eyes softened. She was a lot more than worried, she was downright panicked. He did not look good. "You're damn right, you idiot. Stay awake."

 

"M'awake."

 

"Zechs..." She was really, really worried.

 

He opened his eyes again and looked at her. Stared at her. He stared so hard, Noin wondered what the hell he was staring for, and she wondered if he would say anything. His eyes were blank--not emotionless, but numb, as if unsure what it was he was supposed to feel. The hand that Noin held returned her grip, and he said, "It's been a long time since you've said my name like that."

 

She bit her lip and couldn't say anything.

 

"I'm sorry," he whispered. "I shouldn't have hurt you. Back then, I mean. Mars. Ten years ago."

 

"That was no reason for me to take your son away from you," she found herself shaking her head. "If you apologize, I have to apologize as well."

 

"Bloody right."

 

She smiled for the first in a very long time. "You know, I can't even remember what happened back there."

 

"N'the hotel?" His voice was fuzzy.

 

She tugged his arm again. "No," she said. "On Mars."

 

"Oh."

 

There was silence for a while.

 

Then Zechs said, "I hit you. A lot."

 

She shuddered, then nodded, pushing down the old anger that welled up inside of her. "Yeah, I remember. But I don't remember why. Of course, you never gave me a reason, you just... lost it." It was his turn to shudder and she tightened her grip on his hand, her voice calm. "I don't blame you, you know... not anymore. It's just something that happened, and it's pointless to worry about it now. Ten years is a long time."

 

She'd learned to forgive him after Relena died. Relena, caught between the feuding of the two of them, had quietly asked Noin to drop it and let her brother be a father for his son. She had said that for the child's sake, they should both patch their wounds and move on. Noin had told her very politically to mind her own business and never suggest how to raise her son ever again, but after Relena died, Noin soon wished she had taken the other woman's advice. She had always loved Relena like family, and to have such a bitter moment be the last thing ever spoken between them...

 

She shook herself. Zechs hadn't been himself that night... the night on Mars ten years ago, that is, and although she still wasn't quite sure what happened, she now felt that it wasn't entirely his fault. She remembered that they were arguing... and he'd done something that made her hurt... it was something that he'd said...

 

The images flashed before her eyes. She and Zechs had just made love, before it happened. It was the first time they'd ever done anything that intimate since before the Gundam pilots ruled the war, and it was special. It was intense. But then, when Zechs finally came, he didn't say her name, he said someone else's name. He said Treize's name.

 

She had been hurt, and she yelled at him. He yelled back. He was so angry, but she knew it was anger toward himself--he regretted a lot of the things that he did in his life, and Treize Kushrenada was one of them. He regretting loving the other man and had always, she felt, blamed himself for his death, simply by circumstance. If Zechs hadn't been such an idiot, maybe Treize wouldn't have gone off to battle against him, and then Chang would have never had to kill him in the final stages of the war. It was an odd logic, Noin knew, but it was Zechs' logic and she knew it would never change. The fact that Zechs had tried to move on and love the woman who loved him and failed did not help--he was torn between the memory of his soul mate and the touch of a woman who adored him. He had screamed. She did too. They argued, and it was the loudest argument they ever had.

 

And then something happened. She remembered, something had changed in his eyes. His entire demeanor changed, he wasn't even Zechs anymore, he was someone else. He'd stood calm and dignified and his voice took on a hitch of the dangerous, his eyes so full of hatred, she had fallen back on the floor in shock. She remembered, she'd never seen Zechs hate like that. She had seen him angry, she had seen him desperate and confused, she had even seen him insane, but never hateful. Never blatantly evil, as if he carried the soul of the devil himself inside of him. He had frightened her. Zechs had never frightened her before, but that night, he did. And then, as he stood there smiling that horrifying smile, hating her, he said that he was going to kill her. He almost did. He very nearly beat her to death.

 

Ten years ago, she could not see it they way she saw it now. Back then, the only thing she really understood was that Zechs was extremely dangerous, and she didn't want him to hurt their son. She put a restraining order against him, and almost put him into prison for domestic abuse and attempted murder, before she stopped herself. She forbid him to see his own son and he agreed, she suspected, only because a part of him was afraid of what he might do, himself. Zechs hadn't remembered anything after the incident, or so he claimed. He'd run away. But it hurt him. For ten years, she did so many things to get back at him, to make his life miserable, and she succeeded. They hated each other.

 

She shook her head, clearing her thoughts. She couldn't think about it. It was over, and they had to move on. "It's done, Zechs," she said. "It doesn't matter anymore."

 

But then he shook his head as well, his eyes both angry and miserable. "It matters to me, and it matters to you. Something happened that day, and I... I don't remember why I did it." He frowned deeply. "I just remember..." He shivered then, and a brief flash of terror crossed his face, so brief that Noin wasn't sure if it even existed. Noin squeezed his hand, concerned, but he seemed to be lost in his own thoughts. "I just remember hitting you. Hard. So many times, I couldn't stop, and then I... I beat you, I almost killed you--"

 

"But you didn't," she said.

 

He couldn't hear her. "I thought I did, at first. When it was over, I thought you were dead. That's why I left. I was... I ran again. I'm sorry... it's just..." He couldn't finish that thought. "I didn't even have a reason, it was just blind rage. It was like I just--" Suddenly, he did look terrified. "Oh God. What if I did kill her, Lu? What if this is some psychologic--"

 

"It's not." Her voice was ice. "You know it's not."

 

But again, he shook his head. "No, we don't know that. I almost killed you, and I couldn't even remember the reasons, and I can't remember what happened to Relena. What if there's a connection, what if there isn't a reason at all, what if I'm really--"

 

"Zechs!" He stopped and stared at her, horror written all over his face. "You did not kill your sister and you didn't kill me. You're not insane. Stop that. Please..."

 

He looked down and stared at their joined hands. His eyes were blank again. "How can you be so certain?" And his voice was very cold.

 

She softened and tightened her hands around his. "I just am."

 

He didn't say anything, and she suddenly noticed how pale he was. "Sit back," she ordered, breaking contact with their hands and pushing him back in the seat. "Don't think about it. You've got enough stress, and right now, the stress could kill you. Just sit there, relax, and don't you dare fall asleep."

 

He nodded in a very tired sort of way. "It's... getting harder to keep my eyes open."

 

"Don't," she said again.

 

He didn't answer and Gregory whipped the passenger door open, hopping into the seat with a bag of medical supplies in his lap. He took a good look at Zechs, and growled, "Go! If he dies, I'm screwed!!"

 

Noin nodded grimly, her eyes flashing thanks even as she looked at Gregory suspiciously. She pulled the car into gear, and took off toward anywhere.

 

**

That night, Shade discovered what really happened back at the hotel. It seems they had all failed in more ways than one. Shade did not like it when he failed at things. Especially things so important.

 

"I said I didn't want him harmed." His voice, although calm, was quite furious. "Why was he harmed?"

 

"My lord, we--"

 

"You lost control." Shade growled dangerously, and the man simpered at his feet. He kicked him with his good leg, leaning heavily on his cane. "I trained you, all of you, and you lost control!" He roared and his line of men flinched, some daring to pull back slightly. He focused on his second who was watching the scene with vague superiority, and Shade glared at him.

 

"Thomas, tell me, why did you lose control?"

 

Thomas faltered. "...Lord?"

 

"Answer me!"

 

Thomas cleared his throat and pulled at the collar of his uniform. "Um, I don't--"

 

Shade stared at him and Thomas suddenly choked. He stopped breathing. He turned red and then white and then his face swelled as he brought his own hands up to his neck, desperately grabbing at the air. He made funny noises and collapsed to ground, writhing, glancing pleadingly at his Master, who just stared back at him in cruel contempt.

 

Finally, Shade let go. The man swallowed the air around him in relief, tears stinging at the edges of his eyes as knelt, bowing at his Master's feet, groveling for his life. "Thank you my Lord, thank you for sparing me..."

 

Shade kicked him with his good leg as he'd done to the other, and Thomas went sprawling on the floor. He stepped up to his second as the man tried to recover, and said, "Put your gun in your mouth, Thomas."

 

Thomas paled. "...Master?"

 

"Put it in your mouth."

 

Thomas pulled his gun out if its holster, and staring at it, his hands trembling violently, he opened his mouth as wide as it would go and put the barrel inside. Terrified eyes stared up at Shade, but his Master and Lord did not give an inch of sympathy.

 

"Fire," his Master said.

 

Thomas did as he was told, and all the men in the room except Shade jumped at the sudden loud bang of the gun, echoing in the walls like a crack of thunder. Blood and gore flew everywhere, and most of it dressed Shade's clothes as he stood there. Shade seemed to enjoy this, for his glare was not so intense after that.

 

He turned back to his remaining men and nodded randomly into the line. "Simon," he said. The man, small, wiry, highly intelligent, nodded. "You're my new second. Punish these men accurately, though not too severely. I will need them alert when the time comes."

 

Simon nodded, and if he were pleased with this news, he did not show it.

 

Shade slowly glanced up and down the row, taking in each of his men, and pausing when he found weak links. His eyes narrowed.

 

"I'll tell you why you lost control," he said quietly, as if Thomas' death had never happened. "You lost control because you are all pathetic and a waste of my time. But that, gentlemen, is not your fault. Your wills are fragile--if they were strong, you would not be my servants." The air went cold. "But I have trained you to overcome this, and still you fail me. You have injured Milliardo, and for that, I cannot forgive you."

 

He took a deep breath. "But he will live. You are fortunate. She," his voice was a sneer, "...will not let him die. He is too important to either of us." He waved a hand. "Now go. If any of you harm Milliardo ever again, you'll become like just Thomas." He flicked at the gore dressing his skin and clothes and grinned. He liked that idea very much. Perhaps too much.

 

His men left with fear a permanent scar upon their features.

 

**

 

"Noin, are you really gonna--"

 

Noin heaved Zechs' heavy form out of the car and held him in a fireman's carry. Zechs was now out cold and she glared at Gregory, not having the time or the patience for men who underestimated her. Gregory stumbled for the door, his eyes wide. Noin ignored him and marched through the doorway, looking for the proper place to lay Zechs down where he wouldn't be hurt and people couldn't see him from the windows. In end, she decided on an empty bedroom in the far corner, next to a vent, where she laid him down gently on the cold hard floor. The house was completely empty and up for sale in the lower end districts of L2--they'd broken in because they had run out of options, and this was a last resort. Hotels, motels, relatives (she had a cousin who lived here) and Duo's Sweepers were all out of the question. They couldn't trust anyone now, not even friends.

 

Gregory quickly stepped in and tossed her the bag of supplies, which she caught. He waved to the doorway, and said, "We've got to dump the car. I'll stash it somewhere, empty it and then come back. I assume it's a rental?" Noin nodded. "Good. I don't know how the real estate works around here, but I know that someone usually stops by a few times a week to check on these places. We can't stay here; we'll have to leave first thing tomorrow morning. I'll call up contacts and get us another vehicle." He looked at her significantly. "Promise me you won't run out on me again. With Treize, this is..." He winced and something flickered in his eyes, but Noin couldn't tell what it was. "This is personal," he said, breathing deeply. "Very personal. I want to know what is going on."

 

"We all do, Gregory. But I promise, just as long as you promise not to sell us out."

 

He shrugged. "Yuy wouldn't bother to question Zechs, and as much as I hate him, I need Zechs alive right now. Maybe later." He grinned. "You can trust me for tonight."

 

She sighed, nodded, and he left. She turned back to Zechs.

 

God, he looked like shit.

 

Muttering, she went to work, praying with all her wits that everything Sally and hard earned experience had taught her was enough to save him just one last time. Even if it meant he'd just get himself killed again afterward.

 

**

 

"Mil..." He stirred, and then grimaced. His body ached with old pains. "Milliardo, wake up."

 

He opened his eyes. There was a girl sitting in front of him. A woman. And she was very familiar.

 

He choked and pulled away, his eyes wide with shock. "Relena?"

 

"No," she said with a smile. "And yes, I suppose." She frowned. "I miss you, Mil."

 

"I..." He tried to say it, but he couldn't. It hurt far too much.

 

She sighed and leaned closer. He flinched, but didn't pull away again. "You're dying."

 

"I am?"

 

She rolled her eyes. "You were shot, what, four times? I lost count. Shade was careless."

 

He tilted his head at her. She was the same Relena he'd known, but she was different, she was... younger. Or older. Just... different. More. Hell, was he dreaming? He must be dreaming, only in dreams could something like that make any sense...

 

He stared at her. She still wore her hair long and straight, with the little braid down the back. She was dressed in white--white shirt, white pants, white heels, white earrings, so much white it made him wonder what if it was meant to be significant. And her eyes, well... they were the same, but they were different as well, like Treize's eyes had been, only the opposite. Instead of horrifying, they were wise. Wise beyond all imagination.

 

He frowned and looked around him. It was white. It was nothing but white, everywhere. Endless, indifferent white.

 

"Am I dead?" It seemed like such a reasonable question.

 

She laughed. "No, I told you, you're dying. Not dead."

 

He narrowed his eyes. "You mentioned Shade. Treize called himself that."

 

She nodded, her expression suddenly very serious. "He's bad, Milliardo. Very bad. He'll try to steal you, and make you do some very bad things. But..." She hesitated and looked down at her hands.

 

He took one of them, resisting the urge to flinch again. He was holding his dead sister's hand... "But what?"

 

"When I send you back... you mustn't go to him, Zechs." When she used his other name, it seemed as if she were talking to another side of him. "You can't."

 

"Why not?"

 

"Just don't," her eyes were regretful. "I know Treize is hurt, I know he's lost, I know Shade's stolen him, I know--"

 

"What? Shade's stolen who?"

 

"Treize," she said.

 

"But Treize is Shade." She nodded and he felt like laughing. "This is one fucked up dream," he said.

 

She looked stern. "This is not a dream, Milliardo. You mustn't go to Shade, you mustn't, you have to avoid him. Don't go near him, don't listen to anything that he says. Not even when he shows you Treize, just don't--"

 

"What?"

 

"Treize... You're the only one who can help him. But you mustn't. Earth will be destroyed if you let him--"

 

Now things were getting strange. "Relena, I don't understand--"

 

"Zechs, listen to me!" She grabbed his shoulders and shook him, her wise eyes furious. "Earth is in serious danger, and you have no idea how important you are. Do not, under any circumstances, let Shade take you to Mars."

 

"Mars?"

 

"That's what Shade is."

 

"Shade is Mars?" She nodded again. He sighed. "I don't understand."

 

She sighed with him, a bit heavily. "Look," she said, "I'll keep this simple for you. Stay away from Treize, and do not go to Mars."

 

"Why not?"

 

"I'm sorry, Milliardo. I have to send you back. Remember what I said."

 

"Relena, don't--"

 

"Goodbye, Millie."

 

"Rele--"

 

She faded. He screamed.

 

**

 

Zechs' eyes snapped open and he choked back in mid scream, shaking from the pain wracking his entire body. He sat up, running a hand through his too-short hair and Noin was suddenly there, pushing him back down again.

 

"Go back to sleep," she said. She sounded tired.

 

"Water," was all he croaked in answer.

 

She handed him a glass and he drowned it, shaking his head. "That was craziest bloody shit I've ever dreamed--" He cut himself off when he noticed that he was lying on the floor. He frowned. They were in an empty room, and he was on a hard wooden floor, covered in cheap blankets. It was cold and he shivered. "Where am I?"

 

She smiled in a relieved sort of way. "Our dream home. Go back to sleep, Zechs."

 

"No," he shook his head and put the empty glass on the floor, despite the fact that he was still dead thirsty. Relena's face kept coming back to him, and her words seemed ingrained in his mind. He shook his head again, rubbing his eyes as he sighed heavily. "No," he repeated, "It felt real--it wasn't, I know that, but it felt like it was."

 

Noin was sitting back against the wall with her arms crossed, her eyes heavy lidded with exhaustion. She was very pale, and he vaguely remembered something being said in the car, something about a blood transfusion... His thoughts were cut off when she put her lets-humor-Zechs face back on. She hid pain very well in her own ways, just like the rest of them. He hated that.

 

Her voice was vaguely rusty. "What was it about?"

 

"Relena," he said, and for the first time since she'd died, he did not flinch. Noin, however did, and so he shook his head again. "It wasn't like that, she was... different. She said some very... well, I don't know what she said. It didn't make any sense."

 

"Sounds like a great dream."

 

He snorted. "She warned me that Shade wants to take me to Mars and that I mustn't go. In fact, she said that if I go to Mars, the Earth will be destroyed."

 

"What? By who?"

 

"I don't know."

 

She was silent for a long moment, actually considering the dream, which surprised him. But then, Noin was always one for superstition. Her voice was confused. "Shade?"

 

"Treize," he said. "Treize called himself Shade back at the hotel. But Relena said it was different, she spoke as if Shade and Treize are two different people, as if..." He grunted. "I don't know. I've never dreamed like that before."

 

"Some people think dreams are signs of warning, you know." When he lifted an eyebrow at her, she smirked. "Maybe you're being warned."

 

He shrugged and leaned back on his elbows. "Certainly sounded like it," he said.

 

There was silence for a while.

 

Zechs remembered their conversation before he'd blacked out. He shivered, thoughts of insanity, of the possibility that maybe he did kill his sister and he just couldn't remember it, haunted him, and even the comfort that Noin firmly believed against it couldn't save him. Zechs did not like the idea of being mad. He didn't like it because he knew it was something that his mind should have done a very long time ago, and if he'd been weaker...

 

No one really knew what the consequences of the Epyon System were. Treize had altered it from Zero--it was slightly different, and only Zechs had been able to control it in its raw form. He'd cleaned it up for Dorothy and the dolls, tamed it for Libra, but he'd used it raw in the suit himself and he had piloted that suit with that system for months. There was no telling the kind of damage a mind would have under that stress. Hell, he did go off the deep end toward the end there, didn't he? And even Heero, who'd mastered Zero, couldn't tame Epyon. Epyon, Heero had told him once, was much, much worse. Zero listened, he'd said. But Epyon screamed.

 

It was very possible that Zechs did go insane and he just wasn't aware of it yet. The thought terrified him, and as much as he wanted to lock himself away so he would never hurt another person that he cared about for as long as he lived, he knew that he couldn't run anymore. He'd run when Sank died, he'd run when he's parents died, he'd run when Treize died, he'd run after Mariemaia, to Mars, he'd run when Relena died, and he'd even run when he thought he killed Noin ten years ago. He knew, in his heart, that he could not run anymore. He would not spend his entire life running. It had to stop.

 

Noin's voice seemed so far away. "I love you, you know."

 

"I know," he said.

 

"I tried to marry. I couldn't. I couldn't forget you."

 

"I know," he said again.

 

She sighed. "We're really messed up, aren't we?"

 

He shivered slightly as he stared up at the ceiling. He didn't smile. "In more ways than one."

 

Noin shifted. "Zechs?"

 

"Hm?"

 

"I believe you're innocent because you are, not because I love you. You know that too, right?"

 

He didn't answer.

 

"You're not insane, Zechs. That isn't it. You didn't kill her. There's something else. This thing with Treize... there's something we're missing."

 

A thought struck him. "What if he killed her? Treize? What if Treize killed Relena?"

 

There was a shrug. "Maybe," said a tired voice. "But that wouldn't make any sense."

 

"Madness needs no reason," he said. "Madness just is." The fear in his eyes was unmistakable.

 

She didn't bother to answer him.

 

Gradually, an hour passed, and Noin fell asleep. Zechs waited until she was deep into her dreams, and then he pulled the blankets back. He reached for his energy pistol, which was very low on power, and limped out of the room.

 

There were things that he had to attend to, and people that he needed to see. Dreams be damned.