fairydust and snowdrops
VIII: connections

They are connected through three entirely different people.

The first is how they meet face to face, independent of the war that blossoms all around them…or not so independent. After all, Setsuna needed a permanent address because of his involvement with Celestial Being. He needed a front, and that led him to the empty apartment beside the Crossroads.

And that led him to Saji Crossroad and Louise Halevy. To Saji Crossroad first…when he first moved in, ironically. Then a knock on the door later when he brings a casserole over, playing the friendly neighbour.

Setsuna barely reciprocates, and even manages to avoid seeing him (through no effort of his own) for quite a while. And one-word answers when he does.

And then there's the sudden invitation into the Crossroad's apartment. That's quite a while after the chaos has escalated, and the world's grown even more ugly. But Louise crying on the sofa isn't that ugly. It's simple and childish like fairydust, like things he hasn't believed in for a long time.

The second connection is through Nena Trinity, and it's exactly the sort of tragedy he's been fighting to prevent. His blood boils when he hears of it, but it's too late then. Nothing he can do – except he can do something. Many things, but the path he chooses is the path that keeps him alive and moving forward. He can be the sacrifice for revenge but he chooses to fight to end fighting again. Chooses the path he's always believed he was on, despite all these warmongers pulling the strings for the own amusement instead. Ali al-Sachez, Alejandro Corner, and now Ribbons Almark. But Nena Trinity massacred that wedding for her own reasons. Reasons the original Celestial Being does not agree with.

Not that Saji Crossroad believed that the first few times they told him, and not that Louise Halevy is believing him either.

And then there's the third factor that brings them together, and this is a factor that neither of them considers: Ribbons Almark.

Oh, they both know Riboons Almark, but they know him independent of each other and they don't realise the significance of that connection. But they've both been manipulated to suit his own needs, his own goals. It's the Gundam 0 in the sky that leads Setsuna to become a member of Celestial Being. It's the tablets Ribbons has provided for Louise that's turned her into an Innovate and fed her hatred for Celestial Being.

Puppets manipulated behind the scenes – and yet, the one who brings them together in the end is Saji Crossroad once again: the honest boy who's trying to cheer his girlfriend up and get to know his neighbour a little better.

You don't need a war to connect people after all.