Title: Feathers Author: Hi-chan & Ni-chan Warnings: PG-13 for angst and rather mild gore. Summary: A 11+13 fairytale set to a poem. Author’s Notes/Disclaimer: I don’t own G/W, nor do I own this lovely poem, titled “feathers” by Ni-chan.  ~feathers~ Once upon a time, there lived a young man.  He was a knight with eyes full of pacific innocence, a mind full of idyllic dreams and a heart full of kind hope for humanity.  Clothed in the brightest silver armor, he set himself out to find his quest.  In a land long darkened by the storm clouds of war, he vowed that he would someday bring back the shining sun of peace, at whatever cost.  I was lost in the abyss of the world the corruption so dense I couldn't see the light that once guided my life and helped me walk the way to be But silver tarnishes and soon the price of peace became too high for him to pay.  His quest was a beast, a double-edged blade that gave him purpose as it stole away his soul.  It took away his eyes filled with innocence, his mind filled with dreams and his heart filled with hopes.  Soon, he no longer knew why he fought, only that he had to keep fighting for what he believed to be his dream.  Day by day, his hands would become thicker and thicker with the blood of his kills, but he no longer cared.  but then you were there, my guardian angel silver wings untainted by the politics of mortal existence and you were the one that taught me to fly Just when his spirits were at their lowest, when he thought he had no further to fall, an angel with wings tipped with gold fell from the heavens and caught his plunge.  She had watched him from her perch above the heavens, and she fell in love with the nobility of his dreams.  Her heart ached for him, his dissipated innocence and lost dreams, and so as he had sworn to return peace and sunlight to the storm-ravaged land, she swore to return the same to his pain ravaged soul. She made him remember the reason he fought against the darkness.  Day by day, she helped him to rediscover the innocence, the dreams and the hopes he had thought long dead.   but I guess my sins, too unresolved came back to catch me and weigh me down and you came with me, poor innocent caught in the line of the earthbound The knight’s mind could not comprehend the bridge between their two hearts.  How can light touch the darkness without being swallowed, he wondered. Because she loved him, the angel with the gold tipped wings did everything she could for the knight with the tarnished silver armor.  Desperately in his heart, he wanted to love her back, to touch her soul as she had touched his.  But he knew that though she was strong and her heart pure, she could not forever keep at bay the deaths on his soul and the darkness in his spirit. To save her, he spurned her emotions, but she would not listen.  And he knew when his dreams receded and the darkness once again returned to reclaim him, she would only follow. and the feathers fell softly like the tears in your eyes and the reflections I saw were so sad and confused but then you smiled and the trembling light dissipated and you became my sweet fallen angel To save her knight, the angel ruthlessly destroyed his enemies and fought for his dreams of peace.  For him, she thrust her hands into the blood-streaked battlefields, fighting by his side.  From the lily-paled hands the knight dreamed of touching there blossomed sanguine roses.  so denied, little angel, the skies you were born and from heaven you fell from grace at my hand each night I prayed for your redemption for your return to the golden land The knight saw what she was doing.  He cried out for her to stop.  But her blind faith would not let her listen.  With each drop of blood she shed, he took a step closer to the peace he had once thought to be but a mirage.  With each life she took, he could feel more strongly the warmth of his quest coming to an end. With each pound of flesh and blood she weighed upon her own soul, his own lightened with the nearness of a dream coming true.  And before long, her gold-tipped feathers, now dripping with the blood of her true love’s wrongs, found that they could no longer soar into the heavens.  but you shrugged it away like you just didn't care but with your heart on your sleeve you couldn't lie don't believe that I didn't notice the times when you thought you were alone and you cried Even though she had fallen, she never shed a tear for herself.  She still always cried for her knight, as if her tears could wash the pain from his nightmares, the blood from his hands, the blackness from his heart. More than ever, he saw her love, like his vision, to be a double-edged knife.  Her devotion gave him something more to live for, and yet it tore him apart to see her tears.  Even more, he realized her sacrifices were all for nothing.  His peace-loving heart wept as he wondered how he could bring about a world of everlasting peace by bathing it in blood. Unable to bear his failures, he prayed for release. For the salvation of his Lady’s soul, for the coming of peace to the world.  Nevermind his unfulfilled dreams.  Nevermind that he would be left to bear the burden of his sins alone.  He…just wanted to save the world. it tore my emotions, it made my heart bleed and there was only one thing to do I traded my soul for the love I had wronged unwavering faith only for you The knight, seeing how he had only further spread war’s storm clouds; seeing how he had tainted his angel, the only one he had ever loved and the only one who had ever truly loved him, realized in his heart the only thing he could do.  He would give her back her wings, heal her spirit, lift her soul back to the heavens where they belonged in the only way he knew how.  He scaled the highest mountains amongst the stars, where the peaks curved up like the claws of the Dragon.  On a night the clouds churned thick, and tempest depths crisped with the acrid scent of spilled blood and the storm erupted in a crux of violence and fury, the knight in the tarnished silver armor leapt from the heights and fell from the skies. and the breaths came softly like feathers on air and the words you said were so sad and confused but I smiled as the darkness descended because I knew I was lifting my sweet fallen angel Then angel had followed her knight’s trail to the mountain amongst the stars and as she rose above the final crest separating her from her love, she saw him fall.  She cried out, pleading with the knight to stop.  But he did not listen.  Standing from atop the mountain amongst the stars, the fallen angel with wings drenched in blood and eyes drenched in tears unshed prepared to follow her martyred knight.  Even as he fell, he cried out to the angel, begging her not to follow.  The angel crumpled to the ground in agony. Her tears fluttered to the ground as scattered feathers, and all around her raged the unleashed maelstrom of battle.  and the breaths came softly like feathers on air and the words you said were so sad and confused but I smiled as the darkness descended because I knew I was lifting my sweet fallen angel But slowly, o ever so slowly, the storm clouds began to dissipate, to give way to lancelets of light.  When the sun hovered between the night before and the day dawning, the no longer fallen angel found herself rising with wings washed clean of blood and once again tipped with gold.  As she looked down from the mountain top amongst the stars she saw her knight’s land, torn and ravaged by the storms past, and shined upon by a sun present.  She vowed silently as she soared from the heavens to the earth to fulfill the knight’s dreams of a land borne of peace. Unseen to her, the Apollo’s chariot in the skies embraced her in his warmth, tipping her wings in swaths of sunlight before spilling past her and across the land. Author’s Notes: Thanks to anyone who reads this.  I hope you liked it.  Also, an extra extra extra special thanks to Ni-chan for letting me write this “Treize go boom” fic with her poem!! 11/13/01