Fate's Soldier

by Towoem

     His life up until that day at the old Palace had been based mainly upon one thing: revenge. In order to accomplish this he had to make a mask that wouldn't be weighed down by the name Peacecraft; an identity that would not feel the guilt of becoming a soldier- and one that was part of the organization responsible for the Sanq Kingdom's downfall. The separation between Zechs Merquise and Milliardo Peacecraft had gotten larger as time passed; as the memories of his Kingdom's fall had faded Still, revenge was his constant motivation. He had never had any doubts that he would one day avenge the death of his Kingdom and parents. Things just seemed to happen to him, like his piloting skill or the luck of finding the Tallgeese. As if to make up for his losses fate had given him a perfect set of tools to avenge them. He would free the Sanq Kingdom and then his sister would rule it. Simple.

     But it wasn't. Certainly his revenge had been easy. He hadn't even had to work to drive the Alliance out of the Sanq Kingdom, Otto had done it for him. His mask could no longer keep the guilt away. Someone had given up their life so that he would live. He might have died freeing it, but that was apparently not to be.

     He then had the chance to duel with Heero Yuy, the same boy he had fought in the atmosphere before. He had been without any direction, and he saw how devoted this pilot was to the colonies. He thought that maybe, if he fought this boy long enough that he would be able to gain some of that focus, that will to fight.

     But they had not been able to finish the duel, and Heero had self-destructed. So he had taken the few pieces that remained of the mobile suit and rebuilt it, in hopes that Heero Yuy was still alive, and that one day they would finish it. Again fate stepped in and he was given a chance to finish it. But once again the duel was cut short. And Heero had left to outerspace to combat OZ's actions there.

     He had defied the Romafeller Foundation's order to destroy the rebuilt Gundam 01, and again when Noin had attacked the Inspector Acht. These actions did, however, work for him in the end. Instead of an execution, which would have demoralized OZ, Treize had ordered him to make a martyr of himself fighting against Alliance survivors. It had been a battle to die as Treize's friend, or live as his enemy. And, of course, he had won. While fighting, his mask had broken, and Zechs Merquise was dead- for the time at least.

     So he had gone into outerspace under the name of Ambassador Milliardo Peacecraft, hoping that he could atone for his sins by helping the colonies through these times while still having their beliefs in total pacifism in-tact. It should go without saying that he was not able to do this for long. Someone on Barge had found out his true identity, and called for an attack to be launched against the colony he was visiting. Of course he had been part of the counter attack, and had even saved Barge's commander. Even in space, under a new name, he could not escape from becoming once more a soldier.

     He had found the colonies themselves on the verge of becoming a military power under Romafeller's control. While they still tried to hold true to the teachings of Heero Yui, they were naive and not used machinations of high level politics. As so, rumors abounded and they seemed all too willing to play right into OZ's hands. They seemed so weak, and yet also so pure hearted. They had no direction, and failed to realize that the ones they should be following, the Gundam pilots, were not their enemies.

     With Treize's resignation and the more heavy handed Duke Dermail in control, his efforts as a peace ambassador were no longer allowed to go un-checked. So he had put back on his mask, only this time he wore it to protect his sister and the newly revived Sanq Kingdom. So Zechs Merquise fought Romafeller in his Tallgeese as Relena Peacecraft did in her speeches, but while the second was successful, the first was not.

     He had fought Romafeller until his Tallgeese could serve him no more, and then again in the Wing Zero. The first time he had a taste of the full powers of the Zero system was when he fought Chang Wufei, the pilot of 05. It had ripped apart his mind, but also made it easier to control each time after that. He would soon have another chance to use those powers against a human.

     Of course he had hurried to the defense of the Sanq Kingdom as soon as he had heard of the attack on it. As he came down over it he had met Heero in Epyon and they had once again dueled. They had both fought viciously, and they had both, in the end, left their mobile suits only to collapse upon the ground. During the course of the fight he had found out that Relena had surrendered the Sanq Kingdom in order to hold true to her belief in total pacifism. He had taken the Epyon and left.

     While he admired her commitment to total pacifism, Relena had betrayed him. She had surrendered the Sanq Kingdom. She had no idea how long he had spent with his guilt so that the Glass Kingdom would once more flourish. Only to have it shatter.

     As he sat in that lonely diner he had realized that his life had been, in general, trying to atone for the sin of taking up a weapon. Everything had been an attempt to make up for becoming a soldier; an attempt to bring about Total Peace by using either the methods of his father or the pure Gundam pilots. And they had all failed. It became clear to him that the only way he would be able to end the period of bloodshed would be to shed all the blood that the people were willing to shed. He would follow the path that fate had set out for him: that of a soldier, and he would bring about a period of Total Peace.

     The opportunity for this presented itself in the form of the White Fang, a group that was supposed to represent the colonies, but in reality only represented the fanatical vengeance of one man and the former members of OZ who only knew how to fight. He had long ago realized all this, of course, and also that the Gundam pilots served as a much better representation of the colony citizens. But he didn't care. It would serve his purpose, and without the Earth's influence, the people of the colonies would soon go back to the teachings of their former leader, Heero Yui.

     And so he had become the leader of the White Fang, set himself as the enemy of the Earth. Treize had taken control of the World Nation, and their two armies had fought in a war-to-end-all-wars. He soon realized that that battle would not be enough to end the wars, however. And so he had set the Libra on a course toward the Earth, and awaited Heero to come and finally allow him to rest.

     And Heero did come, and again they dueled. Once Heero's buster rifle was gone, and once he was sure that Heero would not be able to destroy the Libra as it was falling, he made an all out attack on Heero, jumping straight into Wing Zero's beam saber, so that he would finally be able to die.

     And he had come out alive, with only an arm of his mobile suit gone. What was even more incredible than this, however, was Heero's reason for not killing him. "Because Relena would be sad." was Heero's answer. The Gundam pilot had then left to go and destroy the Block A's power core. Because Relena would be sad. Because of someone else, Heero had spared the life of his greatest enemy. It was then that he realized that Heero would be needed in outerspace after this battle was over. They would need a leader who was both pure of heart and steadfast, someone who would not bend to the will of an organization like Romafeller. And he also realized that Heero would almost undoubtedly self destruct to destroy the power core.

     So he went there, and managed to stop Heero from self destructing. He didn't care what happened to the Earth, he would rather have it forced into eternal winter. The Earth, from the view of outerspace, was the corrupting influence that kept dragging the peaceful colonies into war. But the colonies would need Heero, and this way he could finally rest. So, once again he had embraced his fate, the cold life of a soldier, and with his beam sword destroyed the power core. - - - - -

     On January 1, 196 AC at 12:00AM Heero Yuy destroyed the Block A of the Libra. Milliardo Peacecraft was last seen on December 31 at 11:57PM. The remains of him, nor his Gundam were found nor searched for. Neither were those of Treize Khushrenada.- The Sanq Times, January 1, 196AC. - - - - - -

     Zechs opened his eyes, and, as was his habit, touched his face to see if his mask was still there. It wasn't.

     He blinked.

     He blinked again.

     He was alive.

     He shouldn't be.

     He looked at the small clock/ calendar by his right hand. It was January 4, 3:06AM. Who would have thought that would be useful.

     He checked the life support systems, the energy left in the mobile suit reactor, and the sensors. He had enough energy left to take him a reasonable distance. He found the remains of the Libra and set his mobile suit on a course to drift towards it as he put on his space suit. He then closed his eyes.

     As he drifted off to sleep he wondered why he was still alive. I suppose I'll find out soon enough. Maybe after this I can die, or maybe even get a chance to live. At the absurdity of the thought, he admonished himself, I shouldn't get ahead of myself. Fate's not done with me yet.

     My attempt to explain Zechs Merquise, second only to Treize Khushrenada in the amount of people confused by him. All comments are appreciated. Thank you for your time.