Zechs sighed, glancing at his office mate worriedly. He wasn’t sure quite what force was keeping Duo in the rolling chair. The younger man was curled up on the unstable surface, more than half asleep and listing dangerously to one side.

“Maxwell…”

“…hunh…?” Groggy blue eyes met his in complete incomprehension. “Wha…?”

“You have to sleep, Duo,” Zechs growled. “You can’t keep doing this to yourself.”

“You don’ sleep…” Duo muttered. “An’m awake.”

“Sure you are…” Zechs sighed. “Come on… there’s a couch down the hall in the lounge.”

“No…” Duo struggled upright. “I’m okay…”

“Duo….”

“NO.”

“Fine,” Zechs glared at his co-worker. “Whatever…” He turned away from the young man, and stared at his computer; pretending to work while keeping a silent countdown in his head. As he had expected, less then ten minutes later, there was a soft thud as Maxwell’s head hit the top of the desk. Zechs shook his head ruefully. Gods, was I ever that stubborn?

Standing up, he debated moving Maxwell to the lounge; then discarded the idea. He’d been a gundam pilot himself. He wasn’t about to try touching the ex-terrorist in his sleep, much less try to pick him up. Hoping Maxwell wouldn’t fall out of the chair before he got back, he moved quietly down the hall and took several of the cushions from one of the threadbare couches in the empty lounge.

Setting them down in the corner behind Maxwell’s desk, he turned back to the unconscious agent.

“Maxwell… wake up…”

“…mmnn…”

“I know, you said that already.” Zechs smiled faintly, amused despite himself. “Can you walk or do I get to try carrying you?”

“…mmno…” Duo’s eyes opened halfway in alarm, and he tried to struggle out of the chair. Zechs caught him carefully, one arm around the too slender waist.

“Wher’re we…goin?”

“Bed, Maxwell.”

“Oooo. Didn’t… think… you bent that…way…”

“You have no idea,” Zechs sighed. And half carried Duo to the makeshift bed. “Lay down, kiddo…”

“‘M no’a kid, solo…”

“I know…” Zechs got the younger man down on the cushions, and folded his own jacket over the deceptively small form. “It’s ok. Go to sleep.”

The sleep hazed eyes blinked shut, then opened uncertainly.

“Solo…? Don’t… Don’t leave?”

“I won’t.”

“’Kay…” With a last sigh, Maxwell passed out again. Zechs stood looking down at him for a long moment, wondering at the oddly protective feelings the younger pilot stirred. When did I start to care so much?

‘When you started looking forward to his visits…’ the smooth voice sounded almost amused. ‘So this is the notorious pilot 02.’

“I didn’t ask you,” he muttered between gritted teeth, carefully refusing to look around. While it had always been something of a guilty pleasure to gaze at Treize while he was alive, it was more than a little unnerving to do so now that he was dead. Not to mention that the disfiguring burns were more than Zechs could bear to see.

‘Oh… my mistake. I forget I’m no longer the only visitor you have these nights.’ Ignoring Zechs attempt to not look at him, the ghost moved over to stand over the younger pilot sleeping on the floor. ‘Though he looks rather beyond answering at the moment.’

“Was there some purpose to your visit? Or are you simply rubbing in the fact that I am slowly going insane?” Zechs sighed, sitting back on his heels next to Duo and finally looking up at the specter of his best friend.

‘I missed you…’ Treize shrugged. ‘And since you were asking questions of thin air, I thought it only polite to answer.’

“Ah yes. You were always one to be polite.” Zechs muttered. I really hope Lady Une hasn’t started bugging the office, or I’m going to find myself on the street or in a small padded room very soon.

‘Politeness is a requirement of Aristocracy…’

“So is not having a soul or a sense of fashion,” Zechs growled. “Haven’t we had this conversation before?”

‘Of course we have…and since this conversation is all in your head, we’ll no doubt have it again.’ Treize shrugged nonchalantly. ‘You know, somehow I thought he’d be bigger.’

“What?” Zechs blinked, a little lost by the observation.

‘For one so young to control a war machine like Deathscythe… it’s a wonder any of them survived the war at all.’

“Yeah well, no help from you, that’s for certain.”

‘I did not wish their deaths.’ Treize managed to sound almost insulted. ‘It would have been a shame to smother such bright sparks….’

“Right.” Zechs sighed.

‘You wound me, my friend.’

“I can’t wound you… you’re dead.”

‘Trivial details,’ Treize smiled, and Zechs winced as the burns on his face cracked and began to ooze.

“Why do you appear like this…?” Zechs finally asked, tucking the coat more securely around Duo’s shoulders and standing up. He had been half-afraid the soft, one-sided conversation would wake the young man, but if anything, he seemed to have fallen deeper into sleep. “You have no physical form… so why would you appear as… damaged as you do?”

‘You see your own perceptions of what I look like,’ Treize shrugged. ‘My appearance matters not to me. If it does to you… then the solution is also up to you.’

“I’m too tired for riddles tonight,” Zechs turned away, dropping wearily into Duo’s chair. “Why are you here tonight? You have stayed away since Duo started appearing at night.”

‘Perhaps it was merely curiosity about the one who has been replacing me as the uppermost person in your thoughts. And perhaps it is because the night is full of many lost souls, living and dead.’

“And is finding those souls your punishment…?” Zechs asked bitterly.

‘I prefer atonement.’ Treize frowned pensively. ‘And no, it’s not about punishment.’

“What then…?”

“Tonight I am…merely serving as a guide.” Treize gestured at where Duo lay oblivious, tossing restlessly in his sleep. For the first time, Zechs noticed the shadowy, translucent figure crouched protectively beside Duo. It was a painfully thin, ragged figure, hunched on his heels with arms wrapped nervously around his knees. He couldn’t have been much older than fifteen, with dirty blond hair that fell into his face and a wary look to the gray eyes that met his defiantly.

“Who is that…?”

‘That would be Solo.’

“Solo…?” Zechs blinked at the newest apparition. “I… is the name supposed to mean something… I don’t…?”

‘Not that I am aware of, other than that this is who Maxwell thought you were as he passed out a few moments ago. I believe Solo actually died long before the war truly started. But he doesn’t speak to me… it would appear that the Khushrenada charm does have its limits. Though I am curious whether he doesn’t trust me because I’m a soldier or because I’m an adult.’

Zechs stared at his friend, unable to speak for several long moments.

‘My friend, is something wrong?’ Treize finally asked, sounding concerned.

“I’m losing my mind….”

‘You’ve waited until now to decide that?’ Treize arched one forked brown curiously. ‘I confess I had expected this conversation months ago…’

“But…”

‘But what?’

“You aren’t really here…” Zechs protested.

‘Well, of course not… at least not physically. I don’t suppose I’m anywhere physically anymore.’ Treize shrugged, not looking bothered by that fact. ‘I thought you had figured that part out. Perhaps I was wrong….’

“I… I thought you were just my mind personifying my own guilt…. To allow me to deal with it in a rational and conscious manner….”

‘Someone has spent just a bit too much time with the psychiatrists…’ Treize sighed, and sat down in thin air a few feet away from Zechs. ‘I don’t think that’s necessarily healthy, by the way.’

“I’m talking to someone who’s been dead for 10 months!”

‘Yes and you’ve been doing so for nearly that entire 10 months, too.’ The older man shook his head again. ‘That hasn’t bothered you up until now, so what is the problem? The boy?’

“I… am I going to see dead people everywhere…?”

‘Have you been up until now?’ Treize sounded almost curious.

“Just you… and my father.”

‘Well… and now Solo.’ With another pensive frown, Treize glanced back at the boy crouched silently beside Maxwell. ‘I suppose if you do, that is yet another sin to lie at my feet, and I will have to atone for that too. But I don’t think that you will have this problem all the time. We…tend to be drawn to those of the living that call to us. Duo has no doubt been thinking of Solo lately, so he was drawn here. You were not aware of his presence until I pointed it out to you.’

“No…”

‘Well then. I think it will be controllable. Though you may well see Solo from now on. He does seem to be as protective of Maxwell as you are.”

“Does… does Duo see him?”

“No.” Treize looked sad. “Duo… does not see any of the ghosts that he carries in his heart….”

“There are more?”

‘There are many more,’ Treize assured him reluctantly. ‘There are many things about my life that I regret now, and forcing a war on the colonies that made them turn children into soldiers is one I will never be free of.’ The sad look in Treize eyes reminded Zechs of the man’s earlier comment.

“You said that if I did see the dead everywhere, that it would be your fault. Because you started the war…?”

‘Not exactly.” If it had been anyone else besides Treize, Zechs would have thought they were fidgeting nervously. ‘I can’t honestly regret the war, because I still believe it was necessary. Romefeller had to be stopped, and I tried the only way I knew how. The results… were not what I had anticipated. I will freely admit that I made mistakes….’

“Then what?”

‘Tell me, am I the first ghost you have ever spoken too?’

“Yes.”

‘That, my friend, is my greatest sin.’ Treize was suddenly unable to meet his eyes. ‘What I did to you and Une and to Dorothy… and indirectly to Winner and Yuy. I will be paying for that crime for the rest of my existence in this state.’

“I… don’t understand.”

‘Epyon.’ The single word sent chills down Zechs spine. ‘It was actually never intended for you, you know. I had another pilot in mind.’

“Yourself?”

‘Dorothy.’ Treize had to smile at the raw shock on Zechs face. ‘I made the system for her.’

“But she… was part of Romefellar.”

‘And hated it almost more than I did, if for different reasons,’ Treize pointed out. ‘Though I do not know what those might be. You would have to ask her.’

“I… why are you telling me this?”

‘I have come to realize that I must tell someone my guilt. And most of the dead do not care to talk to me either.’

“Then tell me…”

‘I… made the suit for her. But Une was actually the first person to use the system. You… don’t need to know the details of why. But it left her… rather unstable. As I’m sure you noticed during the war.’

“When she first split…?”

‘Yes. Epyon affected each person that used it differently. Almost as if adapting itself to each user while looking for the perfect fit. I myself… saw only the way in which I was to die… knowing that I had failed and won both. I… am not sure what Une saw. But it took her the rest of the war and a period of time spent in a coma to recover from it. Dorothy… the system was designed for her. She came to me while I was under house arrest in Brussels, and I let her use it. It changed her, but she will not say how, and I am no longer able to ask her. She does…not see ghosts. Later, when my work was stolen and corrupted into both the zero system and the Mobile Doll system… by then you had taken Epyon for yourself. I did not know how to warn you… that it would change you too. That it would change everyone that used it, and therefore change itself.’

“Then… that is why I see you?”

‘I believe so, yes.’

“And it changed Dorothy?” Several things had suddenly become clear to Zechs.

‘I believe that Epyon was the only reason that she was able to control the mobile dolls. No one could use the system that had not been in Epyon, and there were so few that could claim that and still be considered sane.’ The ghost shrugged one elegant shoulder. ‘Was that not why you put her into the system on Libra?”

“I… yes. It was… though I didn’t know why she was the only one that could make the dolls fly for more than a few minutes, much less an entire battle.” There was silence for a moment. “And Yuy and Winner?”

‘As I said, my work was stolen and corrupted. The gundam pilots received a much less… alive version of the Epyon AI. And Winner and Yuy were the ones that used it extensively during the last year of the war.’ Treize smiled sadly. ‘Or did you really think an empath of the degree that Winner is now could survive as a soldier in a war as bloody as the one I started?’

“And Yuy?”

“I… do not know. He was practically a machine before using it. It almost seemed to open up his emotions, and make him more sane, not less.’

“I… can almost see that….” Zechs shook his head dazedly, and his eyes were drawn back to the two figures that had started the entire conversation to begin with. “Duo… did he ever use it…? Is that… is that why he is self-destructing now?”

“I… have come to believe that he may have used the Zero system, though I also have reason to think that Epyon may have been tested on him at least once….’ Treize looked sadly down at Duo. “But he was afraid of silence and being alone long before that… and his nightmares are of things in his past, not possible futures. So it may be…just nightmares and nothing to lay at my account.’

“I can hope.”

‘So can I,’ Treize sighed.

“Can you stop his nightmares?” Zechs asked hopefully.

‘No. I am only a ghost.’ Treize looked regretful. ‘I would that I could do something to help him sleep. But…’

"No... it was a foolish question." Zechs shook his head, and simply turned back to watch over his partner while he slept.