Pepper & China Roses

Chapter 11

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"You set me up."

It was not said in anger or accusingly, just a statement of fact.

"I didn't mean to. It was dishonorable, I know, you deserved a better match… but you where my only hope."

"Hope for atonement, Kushrenada?" There was malice in the boy's tone.

They stood by the fireplace, facing each other; searching hard for something in each other's eyes, gestures and every move.

"Wufei, I always wished we could meet under more favorable circumstances. Now that we have… my words feel heavy and clumsy."

"What do you mean?"

He motioned to the window… "I should be out there, not here enjoying life again… tricked by fate it seems."

"You mean you didn't intend to survive the war?"

Treize stared at the fire and shook his head so lightly; Wufei could barely say he ever moved.

"I have not thought about that… intent? It implies purpose does it not?"

Wufei felt there was something odd about the man; he didn't look like the self-possessed rival he met few years ago.

"What happened to you?"

The older man closed his eyes and shook his head, more vehemently this time, as if to dispel whatever it was that came to him from the past.

"You didn't die… didn't you?"

This made the leader give him a once-over, small amused smile on his lips,

"No, it seems I did not."

Wufei felt the heat on his cheeks and turned away to hide his flaming face. "Hn!"

They both quieted slightly, looking away at the carpet, while the younger man leaned on the other end of the cold mantle.

"I hated you"

"Why?"

"You where the head of OZ… kill the head, the body dies" In a sudden burst of resentment, he added "…the one pulling the strings that took the life of my colony"

"For this I am sorry"

"Don't be, unless you truly believed they would commit suicide to continue the mission"

 Treize leaned back against the wall and slid down to sit on the floor, his eyes where dilated, his voice steady and tranquil,  " Maybe I didn't but my tight leash on the Lady and Milliardo made things worse than they should have… I know he didn't hate me, I know he didn't…" It was a whispered prayer if Wufei ever heard one. 

"Your forces took a head of their own in the end" the dark eyes didn't leave the man for an instant.  He was gauging every word and couldn't shake the feeling of wrongness from himself.  The war was over, he made as many mistakes as Treize did, and had it last any longer, the Gundams would have finish operation meteor and earth would have been a memory.

"I did what I had to do to save my world, just like 'them'… I realize your way was the right way too late, that's all…"

Wufei rounded up on him incensed "My way? WHAT THE HELL DO YOU MEAN BY MY WAY? Do you even know what my way was?"

"You fought for justice didn't you?"

'And it brought me no peace justice…. I realized I had no way! I only sought justice! I had nothing left but the need to fight for... the mission.  I found myself drifting.  Is that how you feel now, Kushrenada?'

"I later learned, fighting for the living is different than killing to avenge the dead," Wufei said after another long silence.

Their eyes met for an instant, pain was reflecting from both tortured souls.  The tall aristocrat felt like reaching out to the young warrior but his need to hold him close, most have shown because the Chinese boy turned his back to him suddenly.

"We all had our demons to purge, Wufei; the leader of OZ had his duty to the men and women who fought under him… for a better world.  Each one of us, earth and colonies alike shared this need but had a different idea of what that world should be, without a common ideal and the pure need to stop it… war was doom to go on forever, my friend"

"What did you fight for?"

Another smile, this one loaded with meaning. "I didn't felt I was fighting at all… it was, but a game in the end"

"A GAME!? YOU KILLED ALL THOSE PEOPLE BECAUSE IT WAS A GAME?"

Wufei was about to hit him by now and his fist where balled at his sides, testimony to his restraint. The tall red head just sat there his arms wrapped loosely around his legs, a lost look on his face.

"No…Wufei, you know it was not.  I was going trough the motions of my own demise, it felt so simple, a dance maybe… for centuries the music just didn't come to a stop and no one did anything to stop it," he scolded. 

"And you did?"

"I was taught at the academy to whine and dine death. So I chose to do it the best way I knew how… I honored my soldiers this way as I honored contenders. 

Events where set in motion and I got ready for the finale.  Until the colonies built the Gundams I was afraid there was no way out.  You and the other pilots where humanity's only chance of pulling free of this spinning, endless waltz"

They both saw before them, the past.  For centuries now, 70% of earth inhabitants where enlisted in one or another, military organization. In a time where the world grew bellicose, complacent in its wealth and forceful in its ruling, the colonies where the only horse left to be broken in. 

A space colony floating alone amongst others so similar in size and shape, people from different cultures lived apart, so frail and so different from their earthly counterparts.

The wars on earth where meant to spread sooner or later into space, it was a wonder the colonies took so long to organize and strike first.  The scientist probably new it had to be a hard blow and a quick war, the colonies could not handle another long line of battles.  They enough of those in the beginning, before the first Heero Yuy unified them.

The Alliance, the merge of all the conquered armies on earth, taking over earth sphere and attacking the colonies; OZ a small group of elites lead by the young Kushrenada, took over the Alliance in a day; he would have charmed the young colony leaders with his ambassador, Lady Une and ruled the ESUN if not for Romafeller and his opposition to their Mobile Dolls.

"How much of this did you plan?" he jerked his hand out to swipe at the imaginary battlefield only their minds could see.

"I came out of the academy knowing what to do… and I did just that"

"Uh?"

"Knowing the consequences of your acts is a great incentive"

"Epyon" The maze cleared a bit.

He smiled up at him like a child caught red handed.  Wufei floundered for a minute before he too sat down, legs cross and his back ramrod straight.

"So?"

"So…?" answered the redhead, face blank.

"Who was your enemy?"  He exploded, puffing up like an angry dragonling.

"You suspect… Milliardo or yourself?" 

Wufei nodded.  "Wing showed me my enemies. You and Merquise"

From the look in his eyes, it was a sad news but one he expected.

"If you where my enemy, I would have battled you to the end. My destiny was to die and I am indebted to you forever, you granted me an honorable duel.  The outcome was my failure alone" He stood and offered his hand to the boy.

"You son of a bitch…"

Treize eyes widened, he didn't mean to offend the boy. It was just his way of apologizing for surviving their fight.

"Wufei I…"

His eyes wavered and the image in them, trickled away, Wufei swiped at the tears.

"You are a coward Kushrenada. I demand retribution!"

"It was necessary, you were not my enemy and it all had to end quickly we were taking too long dancing around death Wufei!"

"So you had a time schedule to kill yourself too?" Angry now.

"Maybe…" he grinned simpering, Wufei balked.

"Bastard! It was the most dishonorable, unjust battle… I…I blamed myself for so long…  it was much later, when I realized your clumsy attempt at suicide. You truly are a sore looser Kushrenada, you were unjust to your men and to me you …you …dishonored me!"

"I learned... my lesson. I thought everyone had an enemy Wufei… those who died in battle did it honorably, for once in the clear pursuit of a goal; they redeemed themselves from their own humanity. I… wished for this, planned and waited for so long…

Each one of us gave our all to that fight hoping for peace. It was the purity of what I planned for so long, it would close open wounds, achieve a greater good or at the least end the madness… with the mother of all lunacy.

"There was only justice to those out there.  No bureaucracy, no victims…" he looked into midnight eyes and Wufei knew Treize never, not ever, saw him as a child or anything but a fellow warrior. Despite what he said after their first duel: I could not kill a child...

Une had told him about that.

"Humanity watched and learned from its mistake… it was the only way" Treize ended.

"Still you are right on one account"

"Uh?"

"I rushed our fight, maybe I should have given you time to warm up."

Eyes bright and fierce… looking down on the Chinese Preventer.  Another pose…

"You couldn't watch your own creation? Or was it because you knew the sooner you fell, the faster the battle would end?"

"I had the same choices everyone else had, so I chose to DIE!"

"I doubt it," the boy growled. 

Wufei kicked away a chair; it went crashing into a wall, splinters flying around it.  Never had he felt so unbalanced.  His mouth was dry and he was so angry at everything! This conversation was painful but he wanted it as badly as the air he breathed, he had to know everything… NOW! Before destiny lurched him again into another situation where he was left adrift, in the dark.

He breathed deeply, so many years of meditation put to the test. "But you didn't…"

"I am still not sure about that" again that self-deprecating smile, looking so wrong on that regal face.

"Why?" One final try.

"Why what?"  

Wufei just fixed on those blue sapphires "I saw the face of my enemy, whose face did you see? Zero showed you and Zechs as the enemy, not White Fang or OZ or Romafeller… just you and him."

"That was true, then."

"And now?" Wufei wondered, Treize smiled and shook his head.  No…

"Zero was just a machine and so was Epyon…" Wufei doggedly pushed him on.

"You know then.  Why ask if you know…?" The great leader was in tears.

"I suspect; it makes all the difference." Wufei stood before him, shaking and trying to hide it.

"So, yes then, I saw my enemy clearly too, it was myself."

'You thought you had no future that's why …because you were your only enemy'.

"It hurt!" Treize was angry now.

"But it was the truth! Al my life I worked for it to end that way… but I hoped for a match, someone to…" he was pacing the room slowly, blue eyes shined like glitter, giving away the inner turmoil.  Putting into words feelings he spent so long drowning in derision … always performing for the audience.

'It most is eating him alive to speak his mind without artifice and riddles.'

The noble pride he showed while facing the closing stages of his days, on the opposite end of a sword.  Not Wufei's spear but a blade he helped forge, knowingly.   He was the better man.

"Ye…yes, I knew …and I stood for war like it's god.  I knew the joy of watching so many go above their animal nature to become…"

His hand jerked up suddenly to reach for something on his face... he touched the tear on his pale cheek as if he could not believe he was crying.

'Is it possible he didn't notice the tears until now?!'

"But it was also the most horrible out come! It doesn't matter how bright you shine when you die! It's in the end, only a flash… when you could have been so much more. And earth refused to see it.  I had to show them, but on my terms.  I refused to let it become carnage."

"Une said you vowed to teach humanity a lesson" He carefully placed his hand on the broad back. It was warm; a soft scent he cherished since the first night they met floated to the boy… it was wild and fresh, male and vibrantly sweet somehow.  Back then it was hidden under rose oils, but Wufei knew it was there then and just like now he could tell it apart from any other smell.  He pressed his face slowly to the cloth-covered skin.

"She knew I said that? Doesn't matter…" he felt the voice and hearth under his forehead, he turned to press both palms …careful not to startle him, he felt Treize's words thrumming under his ear and the hitch in his breath, when he pressed his cheek softly onto him. 

"It doesn't matter."

"I should have known it worked in cycle: I spy, she spied me back" He laughed and Wufei frowned hard; he didn't like to think about his relationship with the now, Commander in chief of Preventers, the woman who could be soon in charge of arresting him.  Still today was revelations day.

"Do you love her?"

"She wanted me to.  But I could not love anyone knowing my duties, I favored her as a friend, maybe."

'And now, would you still favor her? Could you love her?' he ached to ask, but it was too soon.

There was a hazy mirror on the wall and Wufei could see their reflection, they looked odd… Wufei too shy to wrap his arms around the lanky figure; Treize, too out of it to do more than stare out the window, lost in the past.

"I needed someone worthy to kill me… it was my only request…" He smiled back at the mirror and it hurt to see such wan assurance. Wufei jerked away and forced him to turn around. He spun like a big rag doll.

"I ached to burn out fighting! But Zechs had his dance partner for that battle. I chose to honor you, since, like Yuy and Milliardo… We owed each other a final dance.

"So you wanted to stage your death and I was the prim fool?"

"No! Stage…? No… I did not mean to offend you!" He was crying again but it was short lived.  Suddenly he went back to being suave and cynical.

"You where just convenient my lovely, your temper and our pending rematch chose for the both of us…"

Wufei was seeing a pattern here. The man was wearing out now, broken already and his weak comebacks where just a drowning man's kicking.

'Who broke you, my demon? `

The long hours they spent talking and Wufei's questioning… it was an interrogation now, he was here to confess! And Wufei was the officer in charge.  So he decided to act accordingly. 'Better me now, than a group of strangers later.  Ancestors, you should have stayed hidden!'

"I thought you could take me!"

"What?"

"Your Gundam had the advantage…" he grinned.

"Maybe, but your skill was unrivaled." 'False modesty' he bit back on his proud inner voice and looked away, carefully leading his suspect now...

'You could have won, you bastard… you could have won so easily, you where holding back on me… but… maybe, I was too' Yeah right! Said the mocking other voice in his head.

"You sell yourself short, Dragon" he gave him a pathetic attempt of that half smile he was so well known for, it was a sign of his state that he couldn't even pull it off.

"Speak plainly for once in your life, Treize Kushrenada!

What was it? You couldn't stand to see so many deaths? Or was it your pride? You where so afraid! Like a child tipping the game board to save face. You could not chance to loose?"

The brooding face paled a bit more, his back stiffened. Wufei knew he was pushing it but he had to close this issue.  Somewhere deep inside he knew Treize needed to brake out of that armored shell he hid in.

 "I thought you shared your cousin's views on war? She claimed you both understood the beauty of battle, why then, run out of your last one… a coward after all, it seems." The boy shook his head theatrically.  His audience eyes tracked him slowly.

"Why all this hiding? …Did you think no one would catch on? Sooner or later everybody would have found out!" He snarled, mocking the very situation they shared.

"You will have to face the world and account for your megalomania, general! Or… wait, did you have another battle plan sketched out for the new ESUN…? After all what is a god of war, without battles to be fought… do you think you can get away with it, now that…? Lets see if you enjoy getting as good as you gave…"

"NO! No please I … I … stop it, please… don't!" Wufei had cornered Treize into the wall and he was not expecting it when the man dashed out, searching around for an escape. He was thrown several feet away to land on his back, air rushing out in a burst.

"Uuuph!"

A loud noise was followed. Treize was out the door, leaving the thing to swinging on a single hinge.

Wufei pushed himself up and gave chase down the winding stairs and dark hallways; he almost lost him a few times in the maze o ghostly curtains and heavy double doors.  When they made it into the garden, the terrified soldier slipped on the wet grass and sobbed in horror as his legs refused to respond in time… he clawed the ground, frantic eyes looking only forward.

The Chinese young man felt his own hearth lurch when he saw his target disappear, swallowed by the high grass off the unkempt lawn.  Wufei flashed back to the war; when he came-to, his arms held not his wife but his former enemy. Not bleeding to death but sobbing in shock. He was rocking back and fort and whispering, "I am sorry…. "

"I wanted to die! Why can't anyone believe me? I did what I could to stop it! Soldiers are meant to fight …Earth was…I couldn't… they knew their duty!" shacking, he hid his face in the smaller man's chest. 

"They didn't have to do that… I would have killed myself if I… I knew I deserved to die! They didn't have to that!"

"Who didn't have to do what?" 

Wufei held him tight; it was too much for him, now.

His only answer was a choked noise and Treize's weak struggle to get away. Wufei was frightened too and he buried his head on the trembling shoulder, openly caressing the ginger locks and the body he was too shy to hold before.

"Shhhhh. I am sorry! We will stop talking now… its ok.  I will shut up now…no… don't cry.  I didn't mean to make you cry."

Inside the castle, from behind the narrow windows surrounding the garden, a dozen or more pairs of eyes watched them.

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Tbc.

I am holding my cousin's computer hostage.

Hmmm …sorry if its too preachy, but I had to get this baby off my chest.