The Forgotten

Epilogue

by Dustin

“It was just like we saw,” Calder said. “Gabrielle Borishnikov died in A.C. 162. She fell into a well that she and her sister Alexia were playing by and drowned. Their parents divorced soon after and Alexia was shuttled back and forth before running away when she was sixteen.” He’d found the article in an old Russian newspaper article.

Meela sat across from him, drinking a cup of tea and studying the chess board between them. She reached out and moved a bishop. “Do you feel sorry for her?” she asked.

Calder was quiet for moment as he studied the board and nursed his own tea. Finally he reached out and moved a knight, threatening her bishop. “Yeah, I guess I do. She shut the world out and it was the beginning of her obsession to transcend it all together. I got to know her better in that split second that I had my whole life before.”

They played in silence for a few minutes. “What do you think you’re going to do now?” Calder finally asked.

Meela shrugged. “I figure I’ll stay with the Preventers. Not much else for me to do.”

Calder nodded. “That’s good. We won’t meet people more like us anywhere else in this world.”

Meela sighed. “It’s just too complicated sometimes. It was simpler when it was just you and me, living a simple life, not getting involved in politics or war…”

Calder laughed softly. “You call our life of crime our simple life?”

Meela smiled slightly. “Well, not exactly simple. But a good life.” She sighed. “Going with Marie was the worst decision I ever made.”

Calder smiled. “Well, I’m glad to hear you say that. But it’s over and done and here we are, together again.” He reached out and ruffled her hair. She brushed it off with a grimace of annoyance, but couldn’t hide the small grin.

Calder sat back with a satisfied smile. “See? You’re already smiling more.”

“No I’m not,” she said gruffly and moved her queen. “Check.”

“Ah, getting defensive. Going on the attack.” He moved a rook to intervene, then looked up at her and extended his hand. “Partners again?”

She gave him a measuring gaze. “I think that could be mutually beneficial,” she said with smile and shook his hand. Then she took his rook. “Checkmate,” she said and stood up.

“Ah… I guess that won’t stop you from being viscous though,” Calder said, knocking his king over. “Touché.”

Dominique entered the lounge and leaned over Calder’s shoulder. “Ouch,” she said with a laugh as she surveyed the board.

“Yeah, she’s a deadly tactician,” Calder said leaning back and relishing the feeling of Dominique head on his shoulder. “Or I’m not much of a chess player, one or the other.”

Meela gave him a scathing look and went to join the other pilots as they entered the mess one by one.

“We need to find her a boyfriend, I think,” Calder said thoughtfully. “I’m never going to get any respect from her until then.”

Dominique laughed softly. “She doesn’t approve of me?”

“Oh no, she likes you I think. I think I’m just not allowed to have such soft and mushy feelings.” He tilted his head back and smiled up at her. “But alas, I do.”

Dominique smiled and pulled him to his feet. “Come one, time for lunch.”

Lucrezia Noin and Colonel Une joined them. Une wore her arm in a cast and still bore a few bruises, but was otherwise fine. They were engaging in small talk about the repair of the Peacemillion, and the reintroduction of the colonists, avoiding the thoughts that were on everyone’s mind. Duo was the one to finally bring it up.

“What I still don’t understand, was what happened with the Zero System,” he said nonchalantly through a mouthful of food. Calder smiled. Only Duo could have asked such a question without making everyone feel awkward.

It was Meela who answered. “When a pilot uses the system, he has to exercise a degree of control to keep from losing himself, going insane. Alexia was completely immersed in it and it consumed her.”

Duo nodded. “That I understand. But we’ve never seen it kill anyone before. I mean, Quatre, if you don’t mind me saying so, you lost control of the system when you first piloted Wing Zero, but it didn’t kill you.”

Heero spoke up. “We saw an unprecedented aspect of the system there. With so many of us connected together, Alexia’s instability was the catalyst of a storm, causing a vortex of our combined thoughts. If we hadn’t worked together to keep ourselves under control, its likely each of us would have been consumed as well.”

The table was quiet for a moment. “Calder, how did you know?” Noin asked.

Calder gave a short laugh. “I didn’t. At least, I didn’t know it’d be like that. I had an intuition that if we could fight her through the system, we could take advantage of her instability.”

“It’s a dangerous system,” Colonel Une said. “It’d be wise to try and find any versions of it still out there and eliminate them.” She looked at each one of them. “Then eliminate the ones we use.”

“We can’t eliminate all of them,” Meela said softly. Everyone looked at her. She gave a wry smile and tapped her head. “There was a time when I was like Alexia. Enough uncontrolled exposure, and the system becomes engrained in you. It’s always with me.”

Calder spoke up. “But we can control it,” he said, looking at Meela determinedly. “We saw that when we were immersed in it. We’ll never let it run any of us again.”

Duo nodded. “Whatever I can do, I’m there,” he said, sticking his hand out over the middle of the table.

Arys nodded and put her hand over Duo’s. “Agreed.”

Trowa, Quatre, Wufei, Heero, Colonel Une, Noin, Dominique, and Calder all added their hands. Calder grinned at Meela. “What do you think?” he asked. “Ready to join the madhouse?”

Meela shrugged and put her hand on the top with a small smile. “Looks like its already too late.”

The colony residents were settling back into their lives, mostly no worse for the wear. There was again a swarm of activity around the colony’s axis as the discarded weapon housing was removed and the scars inflicted on the colony structure were repaired. Shuttles to and from the colony were delayed as work pods gathered the debris from the battle into a small area that would be marked at a navigational hazard.

It didn’t really notice this. It was focused on itself at the moment. Feeling out its surroundings, stroking the fabric of space-time, seeing what it could do with it. Drifting debris started to slowly move of its own accord, swirling around a central point, tighter and tighter until a piece suddenly stretched, compressed, then disappeared entirely.

A low laugh reverberated over the cords of space-time. Soon, it thought. Soon.

Afterthoughts: Well, there it is, almost four years in the making. I wonder if anyone will notice a progression of style in the writing…

Dominique ended up not having much development, but we’ll see what might happen with her later on…

The question a lot you are probably asking (and one I asked myself when I was almost finished) is “Where’s Zechs?” I don’t really have a good answer. I didn’t deliberately not use him, he just somehow didn’t find a space while I was writing. So sorry to the Zechs fans… maybe he was on vacation and couldn’t be found… But I’ll probably put him in the continuation, when we find out what this ending means…

Hope everyone enjoyed it and I’d appreciate any feedback, good or bad. (As long as you’re prepared to debate it.) J

Until next time,

~Dustin