A sidestory for Sainan no Kekka, should be read before
the end of Act 5, after the end of Act 2.   This one
is all by Quicksilver, and she appreciates comments. 
Sainan no Kekka itself can be found at: 

http://www.midnightrevolution.org/gundam

All comments, both positive and negative, are welcome
on any part of the story.
QS

=====
"HOW DARE YOU LOOK SO MUCH LIKE MY SAFFIR-CHAN!"

http://www.homestead.com/quicksilverslabyrinth

http://www.method.org/gundam

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-- Attached file included as plaintext by Listar --
-- File: trio.txt
-- Desc: trio.txt

Gundam Wing is property of Sotsu Agency, Bandai 

Studios, and TV Asahi. Sainan no Kekka and all 

original characters and plot copyright 2000 by 

Quicksilver and Gerald Tarrant. Please ask 

permission before reposting. 



SHIN KIDOU SENKI GUNDAM WING 

SAINAN NO KEKKA

Trio: Milliard 

"The Fates were also three-Clotho, Lachesis, 

and Atropos. Their office was to spin the thread 

of human destiny, and they were armed with 

shears, with which they cut it off when they 

pleased. They were the daughters of Themis 

(Law), who sits by Jove on his throne to give him 

counsel."

-Bulfinch's Mythology

*****************************************************





Create.... 



Preserve... 



....Or destroy? 



The words whispered through his mind as he 

walked down the hallways of the Cinq palace, 

wondering exactly what the hell he was doing 

there. Most likely he had come to see Relena, 

his muddled thoughts reasoned, but why had he 

done that? 



Ever since Christmas, he had been doing his 

best to avoid her. Still, he was here now, and if 

he didn't at least stop by, she would begin to 

hound him again. 



She was a master at that, as Heero Yuy had 

learned. 



Relena Darlian Peacecraft sat in her office, 

apparently waiting for him, but her oak desk was 

missing. In its place was a small stool seated 

behind a looming spinning wheel. Milliard 

blinked a few times, but it was still there. In fact, 

aside from the stool, Relena, and the archaic 

spinning wheel, the office was empty. 

Relena peeked around it, waving with a graceful 

hand. "Hello, oniisama," she said, a smile 

lighting her noble features. "Come on in and 

have a seat." 



He glanced around. "There's no furniture," he 

said in a soft voice, wondering if the whole damn 

war and responsibility he had thrust onto her 

had driven his sister mad. 



"Before there were chairs, man sat on the 

ground," she answered, her amusement 

apparent by the sparkle in her eyes. 



He wasn't quite sure what was going on. Relena 

was dressed in white from head to ankle, in 

gauze and lace, and he noticed her bare feet 

poking out from where she sat. The dress 

reminded him of a wedding dress- pure, virginal. 

Her golden hair was free of all adornment, and 

hung loose around her cheeks. "Relena, what 

are you doing? Don't you have work?" 



Her laugh reminded him of the sigh of bells on 

the wind, as light and sweet as the forgotten 

melody of time. "I am working, oniisama. Can't 

you see?" She motioned to the wheel, which she 

starting to turn with a steady, even rhythm. She 

began to hum again softly as her fingers moved 

to the wheel. 



"Relena..." 



"Aren't you going to sit?" 



He complied, wondering if he should inform her 

personal physician or something. "What are you 

doing?" he demanded. 



She blinked innocently. "I'm spinning, of course. 

You know that's what I do." A delicate twist of a 

hand, and she began to spin an amazingly fine 

thread- from an empty distaff. She was working 

with no material, yet from her fingers emerged a 

strange thread that held no color, yet seemed to 

reflect its surroundings. 



Something was definitely going on. 



"Relena, you're the Queen of the Cinq country. 

You don't have time for this foolishness. Now, 

can I call Pargon to drag all the stuff back in 

here?" 



She sighed, and her eyes looked at him sadly. 

She reminded him of how she had seemed 

whenever another one of the reports from her 

operatives told her there was no sign of Heero 

Yuy, and that according to records, there never 

had been such a person, aside from the colony 

leader. "Oniisama, sometimes you can't see the 

forest for the trees." She continued her spinning. 



"Relena!" 



"It's the truth. How about just sitting back and 

accepting things as they are, rather then forcing 

them to conform to what you want?" 



He barely kept from snorting. "Relena, you're 

being hypocritical. Aren't you the one who tries 

to force the world to play by your rules?" 



"Maybe it's a family trait," she said serenely. 



"What did you want to talk about?" Milliard 

asked. 



"You," she said. "I hardly ever see you anymore. 

You're my brother." 



"Relena..." 



She stopped spinning for a second. "Have you 

spoken to Noin lately?" 



"Noin's dead. In fact, what the hell am I doing 

here? The last thing I remember is being on 

A007, preparing for the attack." 



"Oniisama, when will you stop believing only in 

what makes sense? Sometimes you have to just 

trust in what your heart tells you." 



"She's dead," he insisted. "She has to be; Une 

herself told me that she had been attacked." 



"But that doesn't necessarily mean she's dead. If 

anyone could survive, it would be Noin. After all, 

wasn't she the best student the Academy had 

ever seen?" 



"That would be me." 



Relena shook her head, an amused smile 

quirking her pale lips. "Only because she let you. 

What would you do without Noin?" she asked, 

her smile curious. 



"Same thing that I've been doing." 



"You don't think she's dead," Relena said softly. 

"If you did, you'd throw the whole assignment 

back where it belongs. A007 is hopeless, and 

you would be better utilized at home." 



"Noin's dead," he insisted. 



"And Dorothy doesn't love you," Relena 

countered sarcastically. 



He blinked slowly, unable to follow her train of 

thought. 



"What are you talking about?" 



Relena cast her eyes down. "You know it. 

Dorothy's been in love with you forever." 



"She has not!" 



"She has. The only reason you won't admit it to 

yourself is that you don't want to admit that 

you've abused her love." 



"No-" 



"You don't want to acknowledge the pain you've 

inflicted on her, taking her on a pointless mission 

to save the woman whom you DO love." 



"No-" 



"We always hurt those closest to us. Do you 

know I used to wonder why Dorothy wasn't your 

sister? You two are much more compatible then 

you and I.... wouldn't you rather have Dorothy as 

your sister, someone who can understand the 

pain you've gone through?" 



"Relena...." 



"No. I'm wrong. You like me the way I am; after 

all, why else would you send Noin to me, to 

support me in the pacifism that got our father 

killed? You want me innocent. You see how you 

should have been in my face, yet it hurts you 

each time I speak. I am what you love and fear 

most." She sighed and finished her spinning. 

She handed the spool over to him. "Do me a 

favor?" 



"What?" His mind was reeling from all her 

accusations. Is she right? 



"Deliver this to the next worker. She's in the 

room over." 



"What?" If it was possible, his confusion grew. 

"Go out and go to the room to the right. She'll 

know what to do." 



"Relena..." 



"Shoo!" she ordered, rising to her feet. "I have 

other things to do!" She started to spin again, 

starting from a fresh skein. 



He complied, hoping whoever was next door 

would be able to explain exactly what was going 

on. He felt off-balance, and it wasn�t a feeling he 

liked. He pushed open the next door after 

knocking once, then his heart dropped. 



Noin. It was Noin. 



�I thought you were dead�.� he whispered. 



�Who says I�m not?� Noin said playfully. �If 

Heero Yuy can come back from the dead, why 

can�t I?� 



�Noin�. How did you get here?� 



�You brought me, don�t you remember?� She 

brushed her hands over her dress, smoothing it 

down. 



Noin wore a simple dress of gray, something 

that seemed off to him. He could count the times 

he'd seen her wear a dress on both hands with 

fingers to spare, so it always threw him off. 

Sometimes he had a hard time remembering 

she was a woman, rather then a soldier and the 

person he trusted most in the entire world. 



"Relena said to give you this," he said, 

ungraciously thrusting the spool of thread at her. 



She took it gently, her exaggerated care 

mocking his eagerness to discard his delivery. 

"Don't you know better then that?" she chided 

him, then laughed lightly. "That wasn't such a 

hard task, now was it?" 



"You- you knew I was coming?" 



Her eyes were mysterious as the night sky. "Of 

course I did, Zechs," she confirmed. "I always 

know what you're up to. Will you keep me 

company while I work? I have another errand for 

you to do shortly, after I finish with this." 



He was about to argue that he wasn't a servant, 

but the look of serenity in her calm face told him 

that she, too, was afflicted with whatever 

phenomenon had taken hold of his sister. 



So much for getting answers out of Noin. 



Noin's fingers unwound the thread which Relena 

had labored on. With seeming practice, she 

extended the pellucid strand until it was a little 

over two feet, then touched it with her index 

finger. The spot she touched darkened ever so 

slightly, and she smiled in satisfaction. With a 

slight smile, she materialized an empty spool 

and started to wind it around. "This will take a 

little time, but then, time is all we have." 



"Noin, where are you?" Milliard demanded. 

Hadn't she been lost, and presumed dead by the 

Preventers? Hadn't he been mourning her 

death, seeking... redemption? Yet now she 

stood before him, calmly taking a thread and 

examining it, every now and then making marks 

by touching it with the tip of a finger. 



This time the smile didn't reach her night-dark 

eyes. "Do you like fairy-tales, Zechs?" she 

asked quietly. 



"I don't. I prefer reality," he said, wondering 

where she was going. 



"Well, then I might have a story for you," she 

said. "Sit for a second." Her hands were still 

busily winding. 



He decided to humor her and sank to the 

ground, wondering what affliction she had been 

struck by, and if it was contagious. 



"Once upon a time, there was a prince," she 

began. "This prince was born to a beautiful, yet 

peaceful, country, and his people began to train 

him in the arts that would make him a just ruler, 

as his father was. In time he was even granted a 

baby sister, whom he doted upon." Noin paused 

in her tale to undo a tangle that had mysteriously 

appeared. 



"Now, everything in their kingdom was wonderful 

and peaceful, but the outside world was not. 

Their father, the King, preached peace to a 

world which didn't want to hear about it. 

Eventually he was killed for it, and the prince ran 

away, hiding his face from the world. The 

beloved princess was smuggled away by the 

family's loyal servants, and it seemed that that 

was the end of their story together." 



Noin steadily worked on examining the thread, 

which made Milliard want to yank it out of her 

hands. �Now, if this was a traditional fairy-tale, 

you know what would have happened: the 

prince would have shown the world that his 

father�s values were the right ones and retaken 

the throne, marrying his beloved sister off to one 

of the knights who helped save them. And all 

would be peaceful once again. 



�But it wasn�t; the prince harbored hatred for 

those who killed his father in his heart, and 

planned revenge. He succeeded in this, but only 

by becoming what his father would have 

detested most; a warrior. The prince was wise 

enough to recognize that he could never be kind 

of the peaceful country, so he pushed that 

burden off onto his younger sister, who still was 

too innocent and unprepared for the hardship 

that lay ahead of her, for unlike the prince, the 

princess had never been trained to be a ruler. 



�As for the prince�� she stopped, and continued 

to do her work. 



When it became apparent that Noin wasn�t going 

to continue, he prodded her gently by saying, 

�As for the prince?� 



�I don�t know. That would be up to the prince, 

don�t you think? The end of the story hasn�t 

been told yet.� 



�No happily ever after,� he said softly. 



�In life, there rarely are.� She finished with the 

thread, and handed him the spool. �I�m done. Go 

next door and give it to who you find there?� 



�Noin�� 



�I�ll see you again shortly,� she promised. 



Milliard walked out, feeling even more muddled 

as he obeyed. 



He wasn�t surprised to find Dorothy Catalonia. 



Dorothy knelt on the ground, her ebony skirts 

pooled around her like a deep lake of darkness 

from which she was arising like a goddess. The 

tight bodice lifted her breasts into a cleavage 

that would tempt most red-blooded males, and 

her flaxen hair cascaded like a river down to fall 

into her lap. 



Dorothy looked up at him, her blue-gray eyes 

hard and predatory. Milliard much preferred to 

see her in colors, for black made her look far too 

much like the Dorothy who had been a scion of 

the Romafeller Foundation. "Hello, Milliard. I 

understand you have something for me," she 

said. 



He handed over the skein Noin had sent him to 

deliver. "Dorothy, can you please tell me what's 

going on?" he demanded. Dorothy he could 

count on to be reasonable, even in weird 

circumstances such as these. 



She smiled and produced and ornate pair of 

scissors that looked like they had been made 

out of gold. "If I told you, that would take the fun 

out of it. Come, Milliard, surely you can guess," 

she said, raising a strangely shaped eyebrow his 

direction. 



"Dorothy..." 



"Milliard..." she returned, in the same 

aggravated tone he had used on her. She began 

to take the thread in her hands, inspecting it. 

Then she leveled her shears on a dark spot -the 

first one Noin had made- and made as if to 

sever it with a twitch of her wrist. "Just kidding," 

she said teasingly. "I'm not the one who'll cut 

this thread." 



For some reason, she made him more 

uncomfortable then either Noin or Relena had. 



"What?" he asked. 



"In everything, there is a beginning and an end. 

This," she held up the end of the thread, "is the 

beginning, but where is the end? Should I use 

the entire spool? Or should I let the thread 

weaken, and break by itself? It's good, strong 

thread, but sometimes.. things don't go as 

planned." She made a move as if to break it with 

a jerk. 



"Stop!" a voice said, and Milliard spun around to 

see Noin enter. 



Dorothy's eyes flashed with annoyance. "Can't 

you at least let me finish with him before you 

come barging in here?" she demanded. 



Noin sighed. "I'll be right over here, then," she 

said with great reluctance, earning her another 

glare from the blonde girl. 



"You're ALWAYS around," Dorothy accused as 

Noin vanished back into the shadows. Her eyes 

lingered on the space where the other woman 

had been for a moment, then returned her 

attention to him. "I make you uneasy, don't I?" 



"No," he answered, but it was a lie. Dorothy had 

always made him uneasy. She was 

unpredictable.... erratic.... brilliant. She relied on 

him, just like Noin and Relena had, but he wasn't 

entirely sure he could trust her. 



Her smile was pained. "It's okay," she assured 

him. "I make everyone uneasy." Her eyes shifted 

to a point beyond him, and he could see she 

wasn�t really seeing him. �I speak the truth, and 

no one wants to acknowledge that, you know?� 



�War is glorious?� he said, lifting an elegant 

blond eyebrow, mirroring what she had done a 

minute before. �Didn�t you learn anything from 

the Eve Wars?� 



�What did you learn from them?� she countered. 

�How to kill? How to betray and betray again? 

What did you learn, as my cousin Treize died? 

Wasn�t he your friend?� 



His expression grew pained. �I don�t want to talk 

about Treize,� he whispered. 



�Why not? Why don�t you? Do you feel guilty for 

betraying him?� 



�Dorothy, I see no reason I should have to 

explain myself to you�� he growled, low in his 

throat. He was within an inch of leaning over and 

throttling the combative young woman. Only 

Dorothy had ever dared talk back to him, making 

him question his beliefs. She respected nothing; 

with her, nothing was sacrosanct. It was one of 

her most admirable qualities, but also one of the 

reasons he felt so uneasy around her. 



�Will you explain to me, then, oniisama?� Relena 

stepped out of the shadows, still wearing her 

white dress. 



�Or me?� Noin asked, ignoring the dirty look 

Dorothy cast her as she emerged. 



�I don�t need to explain anything I�ve done!� 



�Not even to yourself?� Dorothy asked, finally 

rising to her feet. She handed the skein back to 

him, and he wondered what he was supposed to 

do with it. 



�It�s time,� Relena said. 



�Make a decision,� Noin chimed in. �Choose 

where to cut.� 



�Where shall you choose, Milliard Peacecraft?� 

Dorothy handed her delicate shears over to him. 

�It�s up to you to cut it. Just make sure you don�t 

screw up, or you�ll live- well, you�ll regret it, to 

say the least.� 

Milliard took them hesitantly, wanting to get rid 

of the things, yet finding himself unable to. 

�Dorothy�� 



�Be decisive, Zechs,� Noin said, her face stern 

and serious. �There�s no second chances. 



�Take command, and do this yourself,� Relena 

agreed. �There are some things a person must 

do for himself.� 



He looked at the two other women in his life, 

wanting to argue, yet words wouldn�t come to his 

lips, no matter how much he tried. 



Past� 



Present� 



Future� 



All were one, and they all meant nothing, 

nothing if he could not, for once in his life, take 

control of his own fate. Raising the sheers to 

toss them away, he was surprised to find them 

close in along the thread instead. "Where do I 

cut?" he asked in a husky voice. Perhaps, 

perhaps, perhaps... 



The other two women deferred to Dorothy, who 

spoke freely. "That's your choice, Milliard." 



"But..." 



"Choose quickly!" Noin said. 



"We don't have all day, oniisama!" 



He nodded, and started to bring the shears 

down, yet his hands trembled. 



Milliard couldn't take the final step. "I can't," he 

said softly. "I can't take the chance I'll chose 

wrong." 



"Is that your choice, then?" Noin asked. 



"I didn't make one!" he retorted. 



"Not choosing is a choice in and of itself," his 

sister said gently. "One of these days, you'll find 

yourself regretting your cowardice." 



"COWARDICE?" 



Relena laughed. "Oh, oniisama," she said, rising 

up on her toes to deposit a kiss on his cheek. 

"You learned nothing from the war. Perhaps 

someday, you'll be ready." 



"Ready for what?" he demanded. 



"Your fate," Noin said. 



She who spins... 



She who measures... 



She who cuts... 



It fit together, in a bizarre sort of way. 



"What is my fate?" he asked, wondering what 

the hell they were doing messing with his head. 

Hadn't the Zero System been enough? 



Dorothy opened her mouth to speak.... 



And then he woke up.



END TRIO


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