Fanfiction by Rune Grey

By Rune Grey, starstrike@softhome.net

"Reflections"

Two angels sail across the heavens...  an angel of gold, and an
angel of darkness.  Their dance is breathtaking, the motions so
intricate that even the greatest pilots of Solaris and Shevat
would be impressed by its majesty.

There is a beauty to war, a beauty that is not often perceived by
those who are not participating directly in the fighting.  It is
through war that we are able to fully demonstrate how far we have
come in our development and advancement.  It is through war that
the greatest acts of heroism and daring are performed, all in the
name of some 'worthy cause'.  Heroes are forged, fortunes are
won, all because of war.

I know this...  for I have seen war at its most glorious.  And at
its most horrid and base.

War is also a demonstration of how little we have progressed in
attitude and manner over the years.  No matter how we attempt to
justify it, war is the means by which a group of humans band
together in order to extinguish the life of an enemy.  War offers
justification for the most inhumane and depraved acts that
mankind has ever committed, all in the name of 'victory'.  And
the greatest advancements that we make in war are advancements in
how we kill one another.

My dear Sophia, did you see war like this?  Did those blessed
eyes of yours look upon the carnage that we had wrought upon the
enemy with pride, or disgust?  Pride that we were turning back
the tide of darkness and evil that was Solaris or disgust at the
lives that were being lost on both sides of the battlefield?  I
can only hope that it was the latter...

I watch the battle rage above me...  a one-sided, futile battle
when Ramses is controlling an Omnigear and Fei controls only
Weltall.  While the battle gear I provided he and his alter ego
is extraordinary on the level of the gears deployed by Kislev and
Aveh, it is no match for the likes of Vendetta.

Damn the Ministry.  And damn you as well Miang.  Interfering with
my plans for the Contact and the Anti-type again and again... 
none of you will be able to accomplish my goals, or your own, if
you kill Fei...  

If only the boy could serve his purpose and be done with it. 
Blessed with gifts that I can only remember in my dreams, endowed
with powers beyond the reach of his feeble imagination, and he
can not even manage to protect himself without assistance.

An explosion blossoms from Weltall...  apparently Miang's pet
general has gone completely overboard with his hatred.  Even the
Ministry would not have give him permission to kill the Anti-type
under any circumstances.

I watch as Weltall began its meteoric descent towards the
surface, my hands gliding over the controls as I activated Alpha
Weltall's sensors.  The black shape, burning with flame and
belching black smoke pulmments like a fallen angel, directly
towards the island below.  I know the area where it was going to
land... I'd been there several times before.

"Melchior...  seems that I'm going to call in a favor, old
friend."

...

The sight of it nearly stops my heart, a bitter anguish that I
haven't felt in ages...

Not since that day, five hundred years ago, when I stopped being
Lacan.

I watch as Fei drags himself away from the crashed Weltall, Elly
cradled in his arms.  I've seen this scene played over and over
during my life...  and it rends my heart in twain every time.  He
only manages to make it a few feet away from Weltall before
collapsing...  his own injuries are too severe to allow him to
travel any farther.  But he still tries to reach for her, until
he too loses consciousness.

I walk into the clearing, a shadow passing through the trees. 
Almost before I realize it, she is in my arms.  Light as a
feather...  was she this way back during the war so long ago, or
am I so unaware of my own strength?  Her face is so much like it
was back then...  strong and caring, an angel of mercy.

I can't let her die again, not before I've realized my plans.

...

"She looks like a ballerina, inside of a snow globe..." I
whispered quietly, the tips of my fingers resting on the
nano-reactor.  She floated within, suspended by billions upon
billions of nanomachines that were working to restore her flesh
to perfect condition.  "Beautiful, perfect...  timeless."

Why couldn't have Sophia been this way?

"Yes, I suppose you could say that," Melchior stated as he walked
up beside me. What a scene we would have made... an old, withered
blue man with white hair and a figure that seemed to be cut from
the shadows themselves, staring at a naked young woman inside of
a glass tube...

I felt a flash of guilt at looking at her like this, and turned
away to look at Fei for a moment.  Young, handsome, strong...  a
perfect copy of the person I had once been, so many years ago. 
And would be again, if I had my way with things.  Fei Fong Wong,
flesh of the body that I currently inhabited.

It was still too soon in order to take that body away from him;
having the patience of ages doesn't mean that you have to enjoy
the waiting, no matter what Krelian said nowadays.

"Lacan, can I ask you a question?" Melchior said quietly as he
again walked up beside me.

"Perhaps...  but don't expect an answer if I find the topic you
choose to be disturbing."  I replied, the thin edge of contempt
in my voice barely hidden from the old man.  Let him ask what he
wants...  I don't care about whatever pretty goals he has at the
moment.  Not when I play for the world as the prize.

"Why are you doing all of this, old friend?  Your actions, and
the actions of Krelian, are catapulting the world to the brink of
Armageddon.  You used to care more than this...  what has changed
you so?"

"That should be an obvious answer Melchior...  I'm insulted that
you even need to ask why."  He had to be digging for something
else.  After all, he knew the story of Sophia and I just as well
as Krelian and Miang did.

I had always loved Sophia, even when it became apparent that we
would never be together.  Even when I thought I would have to
fight Krelian tooth and nail for her...

The old sage shook his head, obviously not satisfied with the
answer.  "I know that Sophia meant a great deal to you... but
this is different.  You are working to undo everything that she
worked for, surrendering the world to Solaris.  That idea would
had horrified you when you were young... why are you so eager to
destroy everything now?"

I stopped, thinking over what Melchior had asked.  "War is what
is destroying us... war that has been instigated again and again
by the Gazel Ministry in an attempt to dominate the world, or to
resurrect their moldy, forgotten god.  These wars have laid waste
to our world again and again, each time reaping thousands of
lives in payment for their waging.  I didn't realize the cost
until the war demanded that Sophia be the life that would appease
its hunger five hundred years ago."

I had been living in some serene fantasy...  the worst thing that
had ever occurred to me was the idea that I would lose Sophia.  I
hadn't seen the pain and suffering, accepted it and fought
against it like she had.  While the Great Mother of Nisan had
take the pain of the world upon her own shoulders in order to
save others, I had been content to live in a world of paint and
canvas. I had hoped that if I poured my heart into my work, the
world might vent its fury upon it instead of myself...  or
Sophia.

When she had died, I had decided to take control for the first
time in my life.  There was no god who would protect me... the
only way that I would be able to fulfill Sophia's dying wish was
to find the power to fulfill it myself.  Both her wish that she
spoke to me over the comm... and the wish she had always held in
her heart.

Sophia had loved me to the end...  I had been certain of that for
every moment of my life for the last five hundred years.  With
her dying breath, she had told me to become more... to better
myself, and to better those around me.

So I would do that...  I would put a stop to all of the war, the
killing, the only way I knew how.  If the world were so
degenerate that it would not accept a peaceful solution to its
problems, then I would destroy it and remake it into a utopia
that would make Sophia proud...  I would live to the end of the
world, and long enough to see a new, better world created in its
place.

Perhaps then...  I could look at my love again, and not seen the
hatred, the condemnation for what I had become...  although a
part of me knew that she would forgive everything, were I to see
her again.

It was my own reflection that I knew I would be unable to face
until I fulfilled Sophia's dream.

I ran my fingers over Elly's nanoreactor again, looking at her
with an expression that was equal parts love, affection,
admiration, and wonder.  She was in good hands here...  Melchior
would be able to take care of her.  And Fei as well.

I turned to go, deciding that being here when they awoke would
not be the most prudent move to make at this stage in the game. 
I would be nearby...  this was my first chance to observe Elly
without her being aware of my presence.  But as I neared the
door, I turned towards the old sage.

"I follow my dreams, Melchior...  you know that.  We all follow
our dreams.  No matter where they may lead us...  Because without
dreams, we are nothing."

Author's note:

To quote Ray from Ghostbusters...  "It just popped in there."  I
got a flash of inspiration for this fic after coming home from a
rather boring day of work, and created this in two and a half
hours of furious typing.  If you want to comment, criticize, etc
(but no flames) mail me at starstrike@softhome.net