By Anika
"You summonded me?" Heero stated. He stood at attention in front of the King's tent.
"Yes," Joshua called from inside. "Come in."
Heero was met with the sad wails of the King's entourage. He looked into Joshua's brown eyes that were seemingly despaired.
"Our father, Heero, has died."
Glancing over to the small cot, Heero sank to his knees by the King's side. And era has ended, Heero realized.
"General," Joshua inquired from over his shoulder, "Will you serve me as you served my father?"
The blue-eyes General only stood from his position, never looking the younger man in the eye.
"The King is dead."
Then, he turned his back on the prince, now king, and strood out of the tent. Joshua looked at two of his father's trusted advisors.
"Go after him. I want him dead. Before this night is over, I want him out of this world!"
The two men nodded and hurried out of the tent. Alone with his father's body, Joshua knelt by it and wept.
"It was the only way, Father. YOu understand," he whispered. From behind him, there came a soft ruslting of the curtains. Whirling around, he saw Relena emerging form the thick folds of the fabric.
"I know what you've done, brother," she stated nervously.
"Ah yes, but would you dare speak against the King?" he countered cooly. Walking up to her, he took her hands in a rough hold and held them to his chest. "Tell me, dear sister, would you?"
She wrenched her hands free of his iron grip and slapped him in the face.
"The King is dead!" she shouted, echoing Heero. She turned away from him and it seemed she was going to depart the tent. But she halted and looked over her shoulder, the hatred pure and unabolished in her eyes.
"Long live the King."
~*~*
Heero sat in his own tent, suiting up in his armor. He had just sheathed his sword when Noin came in.
"General Yui, what troubled you at this hour?" she inquired.
"The King has been murdered, and by his own flesh and blood."
"Joshua," Noin muttered under her breath.
As they were leaving the tent, four armed men strofe into the tent.
"Let me pass, men." Heero commanded. Out of the shadows, the two advisors emerged and stated,
"Heero Yui, you are under arest for treason against our Lord King Peacecraft. Please disarm yourself and follow us."
Noin moved to pick up a sword to fight them off, but Heero motioned for her not to. Heero put down his own sword, and surrendered. As he was being hauled away, he glanced one of the advisors, and he called out,
"Wufei! See that my mother is safe from harm!"
The Chinese man gave him a cold glare and stated, "You will be reuntied with your mother in Alysia."
"No! Don't do this! Leave my family out of this, your quarrel is with me!"
Heero's shouts where heard throughout the camp that night, and sent shivers down more than one back.
~*~*
The first light rays of the morning sun cast themselves upon the harsh winter ground as four mounted guards drug the General into the nearby woods to be executed. When they had reached far enough away from camp, they dismounted and drug Heero over to a flatish clearing. They forced him to his knees and one drew his sword with a flourish. As he approched from the side, Heero asked,
"Will you at least grant me a clean death? A soldier's death."
The soldier seemed to consider this for a moment, then shrugged. He went behind him, to take his head cleanly with a downward thrust. As he pulled back for momentum, Heero swung around, grabbed the sword's blade in his hand, and knocked the soldier in the head with it, rendering him unconsience. Leaping to his feet, he held the blade in his bleeding hands and defended himself against the others. Cleanly, he skewered one guards through the stomach and the other in the throat.
As he relaxed, he felt the woods grow eirily quiet and he tensed again. To his left, he heard hoofbeats approaching fast.
"Damn, I forgot about the other one," he thought as he chided himself for his folly. The remaining guard had mounted his steed and was racing towards the General with his sword brandished. Heero held his own saber in readiness for the oncoming attack. With a war cry, the soldier swung his weapon around to strike, but the captive blocked the initial blow.
As the guard fell off his horse, Heero unmercifully stuck him with the dull side of the blade. The man was struck unconscience instantly.
Heero glanced around, holding a defense stance and listening for more guards. Sensing that there were no more coming, he leapt upon the horse. Pain shot through his left shoulder as heb pulled himself into the saddle. Looking down, he saw the end of the last guard's sword poking through his skin. With a grimace of pain, Heero pulled the protrusion out and glared at the offending object. He wrapped his wound, grabbed another horse, and tore through the woods in the direction of his mother's home. He was certain that Joshua would try to harm her, and he would not allow that to happen.
~*~*
A road winds over a sloping hill, facing west towards a great white house.
~*~*
Heero rode for three days, both day and night. He traveled through a vast wasteland, a lush valley, and the rocky terrain of a dried up river bend. He was almost home, it was almost palatable to him. The feeling of the air on his skin, the smell of the same flowers that grew there were taunting him, teasing him to hurry home.
~*~*
An older woman with black hair and deep blue eyes knelt on the dirt, tending to her herb garden. A small, round locket with a star on it hung from her neck, periodically knocking against the earth.
The woman stood and wiped sweat from her brow. She was tall, her hair reaching the small of her back. As she turned to enter her small cottage, she heard a rumble in the distance. Looking down the windy road that lead to her home, she saw a entourage of horses galloping towards her. As they neared, she recognized the familiar banner of the Sanc kingdom flying above them.
She went to the end of the drive, and they halted in front of her. A man, who seemed to be a General, came foward.
"Did you have a son named Heero Yui?"
The woman's eyes grew wide with excitment.
"Yes, a long time ago. Do you bring news of him?"
The general smiled maliciously and seethed, "That's all we needed to know."
~*~*
Heero spurred his sweat-covered horse onward when his mother's home came within veiw. There was thick, black smoke on the horizon, and as he rode down the windy road, he saw that the feilds and barns had all been destroyed.
Anger possesed him then, shook him to his very soul. He urged his mount forward, but the effort was too much for the poor beast, having gone so far, so fast. The animal reared up, then fell to the ground, its heart having expolded.
The battered soldier struggled to free himself of his horse, dragging himself out from underneath it with his good arm. He continued to hobble up the drive, and what met him at the end of it made the 'perfect soldier's' heart shatter with anguish. He stumbled to the doorway, and stopped at the entrance of his smoldering house. A woman hung there, burned and crucifed, her face still twisted in torture.
He leaned forward to hold her in his arms, but all he could reach was her charred feet. He wept salty, bitter tears into them, pressing his eyes closed tightly, as to deny what was in front of him. A wail of morning echoed through the burnt valley as Heero cried for the first time in his entire life for the woman whom he never knew.
He brought his mother down from where she where hanging, lovingly holding her in his arms, the tears of sadness still making trails down his dust-streaked face. He brushed the black hair out of her eyes, and set her into the ground, into the shallow grave that he had forced himself to dig. Then, he lay down by the small mound and closed his eyes, wishing for death to overtake him as well.