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—Dreams of Tomorrow—

Waves of panic swallowed Stellar, dragging her deeper and deeper into chaos. Neo was gone. His mobile suit had been shot down by another one. He probably had died.

No one would protect her, then. She was going to die, too. Everyone was going to die. Everyone was going to be killed.

Like Neo had said.

She couldn't let that happen. She had to fight. She had to destroy all scary things. She had to destroy everything.

Like Neo had said.

That was all she knew. That was the only thing in her mind now.

"You're not gonna die!" someone shouted.

She didn't know the voice, but it gave her an odd feeling. It somehow sounded familiar.

"I'll...I will protect you!"

Then, she remembered. She remembered him. She remembered the promise. She remembered she was safe. Because Shinn was here. He had come to see her. He had come back to protect her.

The storm in her mind was lulled into a calm. All her fear and panic were gone, like darkness driven away by light.

She called out to him, and reached out to him. She thought she held him, and he held her. She felt safe and warm. She was so happy. And she knew she was all right.

But then, the darkness came back to her, clouding her mind and destroying the peace she had felt a moment ago.

···

Someone was holding her. Someone was calling her name. She knew the voice. She knew who it was.

She opened her eyes. And there he was, just as she had expected. Shinn was looking down at her with teary eyes. He looked very sad.

However, she wasn't. She smiled at him. It's all right.

She tried to touch him, and he securely held her hand in his.

Stellar isn't afraid. No more scary things.

Because Shinn had come. He had kept his promise. So she knew she didn't have to be afraid anymore. He had promised she would go to a beautiful and peaceful place. There would be nothing for her to be scared of.

And she knew she would see him again. She had seen him yesterday. She saw him today. So she would see him tomorrow. She knew it. There was nothing for her to feel sad about. And she wanted him to smile, too.

"Stellar...likes...Shinn..." she told him. She remembered Neo had always smiled when she said this to him. She hoped Shinn would, too.

But she couldn't see if he smiled. She couldn't keep her eyes open anymore.

Drifting into a restful sleep, she had a dream. She saw tomorrow. She saw Shinn. He was sleeping down in the clear, deep blue sea, surrounded by floating lights. She liked the sight. The dream was beautiful and peaceful, exactly like he had promised.

She smiled. She would be all right, and he would be as well.

Shinn, see you...tomorrow...

Shinn was standing frozen. He couldn't believe his eyes. He had not expected to see something like this.

He was at the entrance of the park his family used to visit. He was going back to PLANT tomorrow, and had wanted to visit the place again before leaving Orb. He had asked Lunamaria to come with him since he was reluctant to come here by himself. Meyrin had tagged along.

But the park looked completely different from what he remembered. The ground looked recently leveled. Trees seemed to have been recently planted, too. Flowerbeds were empty, though some people were working on filling them, planting flowers.

The further end of the entrance area, where "Keep Out" signs were posted, was still under reconstruction: holes in the ground, burned and battered trees, broken playground equipment and flowerbeds.

"Excuse me. What happened here?" Lunamaria asked an old woman who passed them carrying a seedling tray.

The woman answered good-naturedly, "This park was burned during the war when ZAFT attacked. But it's only the entrance area and no one died or got seriously injured. Thank Haumea."

He was speechless. He was one of the people who had attacked. It might have been he that had burned this park, a place important to him, where his many happy memories with his family had taken place.

He felt glad, again, that Orb had not been destroyed. That he had not destroyed the country. He had not wanted to destroy this place. He didn't want to see the park like this. He had never wanted to be the one to create a sight like this.

"Do you wanna join planting?" the woman asked with a friendly smile.

The three blinked, perplexed.

Holding out the tray, she continued in an almost pushy way, "Just one. It won't take long. We'd like as many people to take part as possible."

He gazed at seedlings. This woman reminded him of his conversation with the brunet he had hated so much and almost killed.

Lunamaria started, "Um...sorry, but we're—"

"We'll do it," he said hastily. The two red-heads stared at him with surprised faces. "Well, I—I want to," he added, his face a little flushed.

The woman's smile became wider. "Good. Come here. Follow me."

He trailed the woman. The Hawke sisters followed suit. They started to plant seedlings in one of the flowerbeds.

Taking notice of a plate on its edge, Meyrin tilted her head. "What's this name written here?"

"That's my son's name. He died in the First War."

The three teens stared at the old woman who was gazing at the name with a sad, but gentle smile.

"I often took him here when he was still a kid. When I heard this park was burned and gonna be reconstructed, I donated some money. They said, I can put my son's name somewhere in the park as a remembrance, and I chose a flowerbed. It makes me feel like those flowers are for him."

She motioned toward other flowerbeds. "I'm not the only one. You can see some of them also have a name on it. On trees and other places, too."

The three soldiers silently continued planting, which was over soon.

The woman looked at the planted seedlings with satisfaction and thanked them. She pointed to a small fountain near the flowerbed and said they could wash their hands there before excusing herself to go to talk to someone.

While the girls were washing their hands, Shinn stood looking at the plate which had the name of the woman's late son.

"We'll plant flowers again, no matter how many times they're blown away."

He shifted his eyes to the seedling he had just planted, and then to his hands. They were dirty, but he liked it. He felt good.

"Hey, are you okay?" Lunamaria asked in a concerned tone.

He lifted his shoulders. "Sure."

Lunamaria put on a relieved smile.

Stepping toward the fountain, he blinked at some water hitting Lunamaria's face.

"Wha—Meyrin!" Lunamaria yelled at her sister who was laughing. Meyrin had collected water in her hands and sprinkled it over Lunamaria.

The older red-head grabbed a watering pot at her feet to splash the water inside it on her sister's head.

Meyrin widened her eyes. "Big Sister! You ruined my hair!"

"Serves you right. You started it." Lunamaria huffed, looking smug.

"I didn't get you this soaked!"

Watching the sisters quarrel and washing the dirt off his hands, he snorted. They're always noisy. But he wasn't really annoyed. In fact, he was glad for the noise they were making. He was glad he wasn't alone.

Wiping his hands on his pants, he straightened up to look around.

Someday, this place would be full of flowers again, and children would happily play among them like Mayu and he used to. And perhaps there would be a girl who liked dancing, like Stellar.

He could picture the scene in his mind. It felt like a dream now, but would be real soon.

Mayu and Stellar wouldn't be there. They would never come back to or visit this park. But the scene was still good enough. It was something worth protecting, something he wanted to protect.

He knew how precious such a scene was, how easily lost. He had not known it the last time he had visited this park. When he had been one of the children playing here. It had been an ordinary, even boring scene. He had never known how fortunate he was to be part of it. He had even complained, for he had wanted to go to his friend's house instead.

He didn't know whether it was a good thing that he now understood it painfully well. If he had not lost his family, he would probably have never realized it. He would have still been ignorant. But he would have been happier even though he wasn't aware of exactly how happy he was.

Perhaps it was a bad thing that he could understand the true value of the scene.

But then again, it didn't matter anyway. Good or bad, he understood it, and that was it. It was the fact, the reality. No one could change it. No one could change the past.

All that mattered now was that he wanted to protect the ordinary, boring, and truly valuable scene.

That was what he wanted to do. That was the reason why he fought. Not to destroy something. Not to kill someone. Not for revenge. But to protect.

That was what he was going to do.

He had not been able to protect Mayu. He had not been able to protect his parents. He had not been able to protect Stellar. He even had nearly killed Lunamaria.

They were painful memories, but he couldn't forget them. He didn't want to. They were still memories of the people he had loved.

And he shouldn't forget them. He had to remember everything so that he wouldn't make the same mistake. So that he could protect something, someone he loved, next time.

"That's your job. Put an end to all the past!" A voice echoed in his mind. The voice of someone else he had not been able to protect.

Sorry, Rey... I can't do it.

He wasn't going to fight to end the past. He was going to fight to protect the future.

He looked up at the clear blue sky, which reminded him of the calm eyes of the blond.

But you understand, don't you?

He had heard about Rey shooting the Chairman because he had wanted tomorrow. So he must understand Shinn.

There would be no tomorrow if there was no yesterday. Right, Stellar?

For a moment, Shinn thought he saw a smiling golden-haired girl, and perhaps a smiling brown-haired girl, too. A warm smile broke over his face.

He moved his eyes down to the two red-heads. Lunamaria was now helping Meyrin fix her hair. His eyes softened further at the sight which reminded him of the times he had taken care of his sister.

To tell the truth, their exchange had sometimes made him feel uncomfortable for that reason. However, he was happy for them, glad that the sisters still could spend time together. He was glad that he had not killed Meyrin, someone's little sister, someone he cared about.

"Luna, Meyrin. Let's go."

They looked at him. Lunamaria asked, "Are you sure? We still have time."

"Yeah. It's fine."

The sisters exchanged glances, and smiled for some reason he didn't understand.

The girls turned around to walk toward the entrance of the park, waving at the woman in farewell and discussing where they could fix Meyrin's hair properly.

He started walking as well, never looking back. He didn't need to. He wasn't leaving anything behind. He was taking all of them with him. They would always be with him, inside him. He would be able to see them again. Maybe tomorrow.

See you, Mayu, Stellar.

So now, today, he walked forward. With his past. Toward his future.

The End

A/N: While watching GSD, I thought the promises Shinn made to Stellar at their first meeting are a kind of lie. Well, they are white lies. He meant well. But they are still lies, yet he didn't seem to realize it.

The thought kept coming back to me, and this fic was born.

You may have been confused about what Stellar saw at her last moment. In the original version, it looked like Stellar and Shinn were floating in the universe during their final conversation. In the remastered version, however, it looked like they were under the sea. This fic is based on the remastered version.

Shinn's last part is also mostly based on the remastered version. But if you watched Final Plus, there should be no problem since what Kira, Rey, and Stellar said in Final Plus and in the remastered version seem to be the same.

···

I respect, and envy, the authors who can write simple, short, beautifully and well written stories (not that long stories are bad. I love reading them, and I respect those who can write and complete them, too). And this fic was my attempt to write a short fic since my fics have this tendency to get longer and longer...

Well, okay, I know this isn't really short. I tried...but I seem to simply lack the talent to write a short fic.

Anyway, thank you for reading. And I thank those who wrote a review of my previous fics, too. You motivated me to keep writing!

*posted 05/22/16*