❝and it's not a cry that you hear at night, it's not somebody who's seen the light...❞
Title: For Heaven’s Sake
Series: Gundam 00
Words: -800
Characters: Allelujah ; Hallelujah
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: agnostic views
Summary: Written for grammaticide for the holidays! Set between seasons 1 and 2, when Allelujah is held captive. In the corners of his mind, he finds only the ghost of Hallelujah and hymns he has no faith in for company.
For Heaven’s Sake
“This man? He’s a Gundam Meister?” The disbelief is audible in the doctor’s voice as he examines the man, brushing the dark hair back from his ashen face and washing the blood out of his eyes.
“Man?” Another scoffs, tending to other wounds, “Look at him. He’s a boy.”
Truth be told, he is something in between. His body is that of a man just short of maturity. His limbs are long and lanky, his muscles toned but unformed. But his face is lined with worries, and now he stands on the precipice of death.
“What does all this matter? Will he live? That’s what’s important,” a third doctor snaps.
The three doctors look to one another and shrug. Finally, the first looks up from bandaging the Meister’s eye and nods, grimly.
“Oh, yes. Remember, he’s made of stronger stuff than we are.”
As if awoken by the words, the man stirs, groaning.
“For heaven’s sake-keep him under!” The third doctor orders.
The man barely time to blink open his eyes-one gold and one silver-when the doctors stabs the syringe into his arm. As the chemicals course into his body, one phrase triggers something in his memory.
…for heaven’s sake…for heaven’s sake…for heaven’s sake…
---
“Where shall my wondering soul begin?
How shall I all to heaven aspire?”
The melody floats through his mind, and he feels as though he’s swimming through molasses. The world is impossibly dark, and cold. He is trying very hard to open his eyes, but his lids feel as though they are glued shut. A fear grips him, but eventually he lets it go and surrenders himself to the abyss.
“A slave redeemed from death and sin,
A brand plucked from eternal fire,”
And suddenly he realizes something. He knows this voice. Suddenly, he is calling out his name, or trying to-for his lips are as fastly shut as his eyes.
“How shall I equal triumphs raise,
Or sing my great deliverer's praise.”
Great deliverer? He wonders to himself wryly. If there really is someone out there, watching it all, why did they lose? Or, did they lose? All he can remember is the glass shattering his vision, and enemy surrounding him, and someone fading away…
“Hallelujah!” His lips are finally free, and his voice comes out hoarse and harsh.
A wicked, ironic laughter greets him. “Oh, yes, Allelujah. That’s usually what comes after this sort of thing.”
Allelujah wishes he could see. And then he’s glad he can’t. Because Hallelujah is supposed to be gone, isn’t he? And so how is he talking to him?
“Confused?” Hallelujah asks harshly. “But of course you are.” He laughs again. “…a slave redeemed from death and sin…”
“Is that supposed to be you?” Allelujah asks. “Or me?”
“What do you think?” Hallelujah’s voice has not changed. He’s the same in death as he was in life.
“I’m dead, aren’t I?”
“Oh, not yet. But you’ll wish you were, soon.” More laughter accompanies the words.
“I see,” he pauses, “when did you learn hymns?”
“Don’t you remember?” And instead of elaborating, Hallelujah breaks into a new song. “Night is falling, now; blood is on the brow…”
“A song for every occasion?” Allelujah asks weakly.
“A hymn. Those fools who actually believe in them don’t think they’re just songs.”
“…and if you believe, what are they supposed to do?”
“Save you.”
Allelujah ponders over the words. Does he need saving? He thinks back, and sees the hazy faces of the doctors, and, before that, the soldiers. And even before that? Setsuna, Tieria, Lockon. Suddenly, he feels so much older than his twenty-years. As though the wars have lain a heavy weight on his shoulders, he slumps into the recesses of his mind. And never before has he felt so hopeless.
Maybe to comfort, and maybe to mock, Hallelujah’s specter picks up the lines of a new hymn.
“Long have they waited, nearly two thousand years,
Still we leave them in darkness and in dread sinful fears;
Where is the worker who will leave friends and home,
To deliver poor heathens from the wrath that’s to come?”
“No one,” Allelujah answers. “No one is coming to deliver me.”
---
He isn’t aware when they bind him with chains to a throne wrought of iron. They keep him too drugged for him to be much aware of anything. At first, they are puzzled as to why he doesn’t struggle more. Isn’t he the great Meister who took on the whole world?
They do not realize that Allelujah is held by more than iron. He is trapped in the recesses of his mind, made prisoner by hopelessness and faithlessness.
---
footnotes;;
*The first hymn Hallelujah sings, beginning “Where shall my wondering soul begin?”, was written by Charles Wesley.
*The second hymn, beginning “Night is falling, now”, was written by Jim McCardell. It is called “Patiently Waiting.”
*The final hymn, beginning “Long have they waited”, is entitled “Patiently Waiting.”
Series: Gundam 00
Words: -800
Characters: Allelujah ; Hallelujah
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: agnostic views
Summary: Written for grammaticide for the holidays! Set between seasons 1 and 2, when Allelujah is held captive. In the corners of his mind, he finds only the ghost of Hallelujah and hymns he has no faith in for company.
For Heaven’s Sake
“This man? He’s a Gundam Meister?” The disbelief is audible in the doctor’s voice as he examines the man, brushing the dark hair back from his ashen face and washing the blood out of his eyes.
“Man?” Another scoffs, tending to other wounds, “Look at him. He’s a boy.”
Truth be told, he is something in between. His body is that of a man just short of maturity. His limbs are long and lanky, his muscles toned but unformed. But his face is lined with worries, and now he stands on the precipice of death.
“What does all this matter? Will he live? That’s what’s important,” a third doctor snaps.
The three doctors look to one another and shrug. Finally, the first looks up from bandaging the Meister’s eye and nods, grimly.
“Oh, yes. Remember, he’s made of stronger stuff than we are.”
As if awoken by the words, the man stirs, groaning.
“For heaven’s sake-keep him under!” The third doctor orders.
The man barely time to blink open his eyes-one gold and one silver-when the doctors stabs the syringe into his arm. As the chemicals course into his body, one phrase triggers something in his memory.
…for heaven’s sake…for heaven’s sake…for heaven’s sake…
---
“Where shall my wondering soul begin?
How shall I all to heaven aspire?”
The melody floats through his mind, and he feels as though he’s swimming through molasses. The world is impossibly dark, and cold. He is trying very hard to open his eyes, but his lids feel as though they are glued shut. A fear grips him, but eventually he lets it go and surrenders himself to the abyss.
“A slave redeemed from death and sin,
A brand plucked from eternal fire,”
And suddenly he realizes something. He knows this voice. Suddenly, he is calling out his name, or trying to-for his lips are as fastly shut as his eyes.
“How shall I equal triumphs raise,
Or sing my great deliverer's praise.”
Great deliverer? He wonders to himself wryly. If there really is someone out there, watching it all, why did they lose? Or, did they lose? All he can remember is the glass shattering his vision, and enemy surrounding him, and someone fading away…
“Hallelujah!” His lips are finally free, and his voice comes out hoarse and harsh.
A wicked, ironic laughter greets him. “Oh, yes, Allelujah. That’s usually what comes after this sort of thing.”
Allelujah wishes he could see. And then he’s glad he can’t. Because Hallelujah is supposed to be gone, isn’t he? And so how is he talking to him?
“Confused?” Hallelujah asks harshly. “But of course you are.” He laughs again. “…a slave redeemed from death and sin…”
“Is that supposed to be you?” Allelujah asks. “Or me?”
“What do you think?” Hallelujah’s voice has not changed. He’s the same in death as he was in life.
“I’m dead, aren’t I?”
“Oh, not yet. But you’ll wish you were, soon.” More laughter accompanies the words.
“I see,” he pauses, “when did you learn hymns?”
“Don’t you remember?” And instead of elaborating, Hallelujah breaks into a new song. “Night is falling, now; blood is on the brow…”
“A song for every occasion?” Allelujah asks weakly.
“A hymn. Those fools who actually believe in them don’t think they’re just songs.”
“…and if you believe, what are they supposed to do?”
“Save you.”
Allelujah ponders over the words. Does he need saving? He thinks back, and sees the hazy faces of the doctors, and, before that, the soldiers. And even before that? Setsuna, Tieria, Lockon. Suddenly, he feels so much older than his twenty-years. As though the wars have lain a heavy weight on his shoulders, he slumps into the recesses of his mind. And never before has he felt so hopeless.
Maybe to comfort, and maybe to mock, Hallelujah’s specter picks up the lines of a new hymn.
“Long have they waited, nearly two thousand years,
Still we leave them in darkness and in dread sinful fears;
Where is the worker who will leave friends and home,
To deliver poor heathens from the wrath that’s to come?”
“No one,” Allelujah answers. “No one is coming to deliver me.”
---
He isn’t aware when they bind him with chains to a throne wrought of iron. They keep him too drugged for him to be much aware of anything. At first, they are puzzled as to why he doesn’t struggle more. Isn’t he the great Meister who took on the whole world?
They do not realize that Allelujah is held by more than iron. He is trapped in the recesses of his mind, made prisoner by hopelessness and faithlessness.
---
footnotes;;
*The first hymn Hallelujah sings, beginning “Where shall my wondering soul begin?”, was written by Charles Wesley.
*The second hymn, beginning “Night is falling, now”, was written by Jim McCardell. It is called “Patiently Waiting.”
*The final hymn, beginning “Long have they waited”, is entitled “Patiently Waiting.”