Remember: there's still an epilogue that will tie up the loose ends more clearly. Rethinking the whole series now, I've changed my mind-- The epilogue is my favorite chapter.
At the end of this chapter, I've also written out an explanation to the symbolism as well as cleared up something I thought readers needed to be made aware of--maybe to confirm some suspicions.
Enjoy, and thanks!
Disclaimer: I don't own GW or "Brother and Sister."
The man. He who knew her intimate, coital caress; the echo of her heartbeat that thumped wildly in her breast; the feeling of his skin pressed against her heated flesh that made them one? Stood before his lover?s body, the empty shell of a woman who owned him once in sex and soul. And so with a hardened glare he reached for those metal bracelets that held her bound.
Wouldn't be intimidated by the adversary who burned his back with her occult, malicious eyes.
The witch?s hand extended toward the king and mate beneath him, nothing but the wail of the sorcery emanating from her hand and its sinister, black remnants disturbing the deviate silence as Heero pitched his body in front of his wife?s and suffered the pain on her behalf. It thieved the breath from his throat and twisted his bones, contorting his body in evasion--sharp cracks reaching his ears as he was pushed into the wall. He involuntarily threw his head back when his spine arched in trying to elude the raw energy that seared it-- Leaving him rigid, almost impossible for him to turn and face his enemy. Heero clutched the jagged stone to keep from falling on Relena, his form shuddering as breath returned to him and strength gave way.
"I?ll kill you," he vowed dangerously to the shrew at his back, grunting as he forced his knees to raise him. Groaned as he tried to turn himself to glare at her.
Another strike between his shoulder blades was her reply, his tousled strands brushing his wife's lips as his head fell to her breast in weariness, cheek cradled within the softness of her collarbone that reeked of death. His lips were dripping with blood... her own kissed in sweat. So close but never touching.
He lifted his soiled fingers to her jaw, tracing the bone that was so apparent in her depraved, gaunt death. And setting those bloodied lips against her ear, satin to cold skin, he grappled with a song. With lyrics that left his tongue before he even knew them. Of a beauty he wouldn't dare touch but continued to speak against the pain.
You offered me an eagle?s wing
That to the sun I might soar and sing
Abandoned but for the three mortals entombed in that condemned brig, all breathing and utterance but theirs mute-- The voice of a woman distilled the stagnant evening. Her song was quiet as it approached the reticence, then echoing through the guttural, limestone hovel; slowly, languorously the knell joined with his in the second rime, converged with the rhythm of his heartbeat. A cadence of his reviled spirit. Of epiphany.
A voice that hoved over the darkness with a whisper--of a tragic mother who sought her children and the life she sacrificed for the birth of one baby. Her daughter?s life that nearly ended before it had begun. Its resonance cried of a mother who betrayed death and smote heaven to give her daughter the only gift she could render, wrapped in the distance of fatality-- Of one final song. This requiem was the sad memory of the one who bore the king's lover and perished as she gave the child life those many years ago. Unconditional love sputtered from his lips in a hypnotic rune, welling from a buried, demented hollow.
And If I heard the owl?s cry
The mother?s soul sang through the body of the witch as the verse went on. The fair tresses of the long-departed maid shimmered against the nocturnal, dirty strands of her successor, as the wench?s moans faded into the ghost's pitch. The timbre slowed and haunting, retaliatory, cinched the evil one's tongue around her throat, forcing her to gargle on her own flesh. Slender, pale arms of the mother coalesced with those of the other as the righteous lifted her arms to heaven, her notes higher and higher as she sang. Shattering the night into starlit shards, luminary mirrors that reflected the night Heero first took Relena as his lover. Crystal once filmed with lascivious panting; smudged with morbid, carnal sweat; and smeared with the residue of corporeal sex was wiped clean. Clear and scintillant. A beautiful, timeless love gleaned from perverted lust. Evil made virtuous. Wishing into trustful hope.
The shrew fell down on her knees as she was possessed by this once gentle spirit, her sorrel eyes shrouded in a blue as deftly surreal... as they became the sight of the apparition-- Embodiment of something greater. Of something distinctly male and female.
Into the forest I would fly
The baritone of the king, he that served the vigilant mother as her vessel between the supernatural realm and she that fed from his eternal precedent, blended then with her coloratura. The resplendence of her spirit and staves leashed the witch in its dreadful citadel, as the phantom matron embarked for the heights from whence she came-- With her brilliant light arraigning the essence of the crone, slave to follow as the song drew on over the earth. As amidst the reverberant song Heero set his head against the dilapidated, cold wall and used his knuckles to caress Relena's cheek. His hand lightly shook from the physical strain... but his eyes were peculiarly soft, with a sad calmness chipping away at his stoic face. A rare, new expression. He finally realized, but too late in her death. Too late.
"I love you, Relena."
Relena's love had been enough, had purged him enough, received all of his past guilt and pain. Fate made it so, fashioned that love and tragedy into a child. One that would live forever in their hearts, as long as they continued to beat. A gentle, innocent symbol that cooed and cried and depended soley on them for his survival.
As their metaphysical love depended on them.
Them.
Not Heero. Not Relena.
Them.
But too late.
As Fate had intended them to learn. As Une attempted to keep them ignorant. And Fate is a just punisher.
It left Une nowhere to flee but the arms of the spectral maid and her holy glow, surrendering to a ghostly hymn and further lifted to the light by a lover?s harmony. Their voices faded into the darkness... into silence.
And in its darkness find you by
But Heero?s voice continued to brokenly sing amidst the stillness that settled upon the crypt, his mouth near the lips of his lifeless maid as he broke the reticence. The notes were skewed and monotonous... but his own. No ghoulish mother to make his pitches smooth and steady, no one working through him. The apparition was gone, waning like a dissipating, resonant memory.
But she wasn't needed anymore. Her love had been replaced with the call of restored souls. Much more haunting. Much more unitive.
He no longer sang, but spoke earnestly, intensely. Yet still somehow musical amidst dry timbre.
So our love?s not a simple thing
Nor our truths unwavering
The moonlight grazed her white skin beneath him, glistening upon her cheek as warmth returned to illumine her flesh. Her breath clouded in the chill of the night, rising up to his face like gentle fingers. And amidst the glow of the moon these rasps touched his lips and traced his jaw.
A sigh that whispered of resurrection.
Like the moon?s pull on the tide
Our fingers touch our hearts collide
I?ll be a moon?s breath from your side
Relena?s descant, hoarse from death and weakened by the curse? It bespoke his prosaic melody as she brushed her fingertips over his mouth in a silent promise of her life renewed. She shared with him the final line of her mother?s lament... the wretched lullaby a woman sang for her those years long ago.
I?ll be a moon?s breath from your side.
Now usurped by the edict of destined romance.
AN: Why, you ask? Why did Relena and Milliardo's mother's spirit return? What was the purpose? Why the singing? In case you're confused (as you very well might be... it's difficult for me to see how plain the symbolism is, since I'm the one who wrote it. :-? ), I'll use this little space here to offer an explanation.
The mother represented the unconditional love between a parent and a child. Remember, Relena's mother died after she gave birth to her... an ultimate sacrifice. In other words, the mother's ghost symbolized kinship, the bond and love of family. Therefore, in one sense, it embodies Milliardo's love for Relena--his unconditional love and the only real love she's known up until the final chapter.
However, Heero finally, FINALLY is able to differentiate between love and lust, love and abuse, etc. (hence him finally telling Relena's corpse that he loved her--he'd never said that before). Earlier, especially from chapters 4 and 5, we got a sense that Heero needed Relena as an opium, so to speak. He used her and felt the only way her could molest her "honorably" was through marriage. More simply, he thought he wouldn't be sinning/guilty if he was using her as a sexual tool in marriage, rather than out of wedlock. He didn't abuse her consciously, mind you, but he used her, nonetheless. I said that they were soulmates and that Relena loved him... but I never said that Heero loved her in return. Subtleties, you know.
He was connected to her intimately and spiritually, but he didn't acknowledge it on the same level as Relena... until this chapter. He started to recognize it in chapter seven (thus his: "I'll give you my breath"), but he didn't have his full epiphany until this final one. Until he thought it was gone. Until he realized what his actions had indirectly resulted in: her death. I made him protective of her, like in the series, because I wanted that to be the foundation of his love--the one, ignorant, subconscious way that he could show her. He originally said he wanted to protect her because she embodied innocence, like the family that he slaughtered. But once she could empathize with him and show compassion, you could tell that his motivation quickly changed... whether or not he verbally acknowledged it, his actions did. Why would he have slept with her if he was trying to preserve her innocence, as he originally claimed to Trowa? Contradictory. Thus, we knew his feelings and thoughts had somehow changed.
Heero became that innocent little boy again (like before his father was killed), free of the guilt. Relena freed him. That's why the baby being a boy is so important, because the son is the symbol of Heero's newfound innocence and redemption, proof that he can love.
Why was Heero the matron ghost's vessel? Now that I've explained the perverted nature of Heero's love evolution, you can probably guess that him being her avatar and, later, singing/speaking on his own, represented the fact that he finally discovered love. Now, unlike Milliardo, his love would be dominant in her life. As the text says: the spirit's love was "replaced." It's not implying that Milliardo's love is no longer important, but rather that Heero could now love her properly--be her new lover.
Another thing: have you noticed some of the vibes given off by Milliardo in each chapter as he describes his sister? Perhaps that the descriptions are a little more... romantic than they should be for a brother speaking about a sister? If you picked up on those vibes... good for you.
I suppose you could substantiate a claim for Milliardo having incestuous feelings for Relena, if you would--I wrote him that way. Am I saying he and Relena has an incestuous relationship? No. I'm leaving it up to the reader to decide. Before you say that's out of character, stop. In the GW series, Milliardo and Relena's conduct towards each other was remote and respectful (business-like). However, they'd been apart for most of their lives... yet he still hugged her and wanted to protect her (implying that he still feels some sort of kindred bond for her, even when separated for so long by time). This makes me believe that his love for Relena is extremely, extremely strong... just awkward. In this tale, though, he and Relena went through hell together. He had no choice but to dominate and protect her. The witch was their parent for most of their lives... I'm sure she hadn't taught them any great values (luckily Milliardo remembered his father and could, thus, teach Relena a sense of morality). Therefore: perverted upbringing, bad home-life, and a desperate, over-bearing love of a brother. It kind of reminds me of William Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily." Her father was domineering, and she had an incestuous relationship with him. I got my inspiration for the quirk from that story, actually. Finally, why the singing? As you've noticed, song has been an important element throughout this story. In my opinion, when one sings, the words seem to more clearly come from the heart. That's why they had to sing in this final chapter--Heero, in finding love, was finally using his heart.
...update soon!!!