Waking Up to Ash and Dust (Jin)

[Calista Leila Rosa]

"Its almost over...all we've been fighting for. You know I love you, right? I always will...but I have to do this...I'm sorry, goodbye." Calista shoved Jin out of her room, jumping down out the window as she left on her final mission.

Bang, Bang! The shots rang out and Calista dropped to her knees, a sad smile on her face. It was all over. She could hear the faint sound of helicopters in the distance as her eyes fell closed and her last breath left her.

Calista gasped, her dark blue eyes shooting open. She struggled to breath. Beneath her, she felt soft grass and dirt, the fertile ground of Ashford island. What was going on? Calista bit her lip, she couldn't have possibly survived that. She was shot through and through, she remembered dying, bleeding out. She remembered feeling the bullets lodge themselves inside her. She had died. She winced, her body felt like it hadn't moved in weeks, had she just been lying here since then? She struggled to push herself up, looking down at her tattered uniform, still soaked in now dried blood. What the hell had happened? Her head ached. Her mind was dazed and confused. She glanced around, everything was deserted. It seemed like no one had been here in ages. Plants were growing rampantly, the buildings crumbling down, it was as if the island itself was trying to erase the memory of what had happened here.

She took a step and stumbled a bit, as if she was waking for the first time. There was a dull ache in the back of her head. This couldn't be possible. She should have been dead. Calista wandered aimlessly, examining what seemed to remain of Ashford Academy. Barely anything looked familiar. Then she saw it. She slowly came across a building that rose above all the rest, the only one that was still in one piece. The West Tower.

She slowly made her way into the building, navigating through all the debris. The security systems seemed to be long disarmed. Wires were exposed, the walls dripped from leakage. The place was a wreck, but it was still together. It was the place where they had all grouped together. She could still hear the cries of students ringing in her ears, still see the blood as people died in their makeshift infirmary. At the same time, she could remember the laughter that took place here. The light. The hope. Images of the past seemed to dance before her, more vivid than ever.

She slowly ascended the staircases, branching off into a familiar hallway, her feet leading her. She slowly pushed open a door and was greeted with a familiar site. It all felt too surreal. Her room was untouched. Her bed laid there with dust and moth holes, spider webs clung to the corners.

Everything was old and aged, but that couldn't be. She walked towards her desk, brushing her hand across its surface, a thick layer of dust coming off onto her palm. She had spent more nights falling asleep on the old oak desk rather than her own bed. Brushing the dust off, she looked at her reflection in the window, unlike the room and the island, she was still the same. Still 18 years old. Her hair was a bit messy but still possessed its midnight sheen, her eyes were the darkest of blues and her face was that of someone young, who had been aged by all they had been through. Someone who had been forced to grow up, much too fast.

She touched her cheek, as if testing that she was really here. As she stared at her reflection, a shadow dagger formed in her hand, she silently her opposite hand with it. Ruby red blood dripped out. She winced. She was alive.

As she glanced around her room, there was one thing different. Someone had put up her portrait, the one she had done just before the attack on Ashford. Just before she died. Below it was her birthday, and the day she died. She touched the picture lightly, looking down to see the faces of Rolo and Lelouch, staring from their own portraits.

Just what had happened to her?

[Jin Shidehara]

Why was he here? Why had he come back? As he stepped off the boat, and once more onto the island where Ashford Academy had once stood, Jin found that he had no answers to his own questions. It had been...three years. Three years since he'd gotten everything he and Battlefront had ever fought for. And three years since he had lost the only woman he'd ever loved. Life for Jin had been...complicated in the time since they had all at last escaped from their prison. At first, it had been the dreams. He could see it all in his mind's eye. Fighting his way back to the West Tower, determined to save Cali. The sudden dome of opaque blackness, blotting out the sky. The scream that had ripped its way out of his chest when he'd realized she was gone. It was all as fresh as the day it had happened.

He'd survived of course, but not without scars. The nightmares followed soon after. For months he hadn't slept, hadn't eaten right, become nearly a shell of his former self. Eventually he'd recovered some but it had never truly gone away. He'd kept in contact with some of the others at first but before long...he didn't see the point. It had been a year after reaching that point that he had gone after his father. He had gotten word of his presence in New York, and decided that finally, it was time. That...had been a hard battle. The sling supporting his right arm, bandage covering his right eye and the hollowed look in his eye was testament to that. But it was done. And now, before moving on, Jin had returned here. Perhaps to make amends with his ghosts. Perhaps to see the place that had taken his life for so long one last time. He wasn't sure. But he was here now.

With a sigh and a deep breath exhaled, Jin stepped forwards, making his way onto the old grounds. It was hard to believe the island could have aged so much in three years. The forest was overgrown, thick vines and thorns obscuring the once obvious paths. He had to hack his way through the dense brush as he made his way towards the center of the island, which he reached almost thirty minutes later. He stopped at the edge of the trees, just staring out at the ruins of Ashford Academy. It had been his home for so long, he couldn't help but smile just a bit at the decrepit old castle. Jin walked through the courtyard, trailing his hands along the benches and walls of old buildings has he walked. The place had seemed so much bigger when it was the only place he had to go. Now the world was in front of him. It was almost hard to believe it. He almost expected a prefect to come running out of one of the buildings, ordering him to class.

At last he reached the West Tower, pausing outside at the ruin, wincing as all the memories came flooding back. That last battle...so much death...so much pain. He closed his eyes, almost able to hear Cali's last words to him. "Its almost over...all we've been fighting for. You know I love you, right? I always will...but I have to do this...I'm sorry, goodbye." Breathing out shakily, he stepped inside. Despite all the wear and tear, everything was still so much the same. The same halls, the same rooms. He knew just down the hall was the room he and Cali used to share to share...but he wasn't ready to go there yet. He knelt in the center of the main room, talking aloud, his voice echoing and bouncing off the empty walls.

"Hi...Cali. I never thought I'd be back here again. ...It's been...three years. Three years, two months, 15 days to be exact. I've counted... I miss you. I guess I always will. I'm..." he laughed a bit in between his words, "I'm 21 now, can you believe it? I finally went back to Tokyo, you know. My father....he's gone now. And I'll be leaving soon. I just....I had to come back. I had to see it all one more time. I needed to say...that I love you...and I always will. And...I'll never forget you." He bowed his head, kneeling there in silence for a few moments.

[Calista Leila Rosa]

Calista stared with an almost blank look. Somehow, she couldn't believe that it had happened, but she knew it had. She remembered saying goodbye, seeing Meredith cry, hearing her friends. What had pushed her in her final moments was that she was giving them the chance that they all deserved. That she would be giving them, the students who had suffered so much, a chance. She had sworn that Ashford would die with her.

Her heart began to ache. The people she loved most. Where were they now? Were they living their life, taking advantage of the new world they had been given? Calista had always wanted to change the world, make it a better place. In the end though, she settled for giving her friends a second chance. For changing their world.

Where were they all? She didn't even know where to start. They could be anywhere in the world and she had no way to contact them. She supposed she could live on the island for a while, but what would be the point in that? The thought was bitter as she smiled wryly. Fighting to leave this place since she was 13, and now, here she was, contemplating whether or not to stay here. What was wrong with her? Looking at the island and the way that it had changed, it scared her. She hadn't seen the outside world in years and the thought was terrifying. She almost wanted to laugh. She had faced psychopaths, government agents, herself, and training new recruits and she was scared of simply getting on a boat.

With a small sigh, she glanced around her room. The room Rolo had given her for her birthday so many years ago. Where she had spent many of her nights and the place that had become her home.

Then she heard it.

There was a voice, just outside. She could hear it echoing through the empty corridors. The voice was so familiar, it was one she had woken up to so many mornings. A voice that had told her those three little words that meant the world to her. A voice who promised he would stay. The voice she had left behind.

She slowly stepped out of the room, shadows surrounded her, as she walked. Their familiarity was a comforting sensation, like a warm blanket. As she entered the main room, she could hear the voice call to her. as if it knew she was there. Knealing in the center of the room was a boy, no, a man. Older than herself. She stared quizzically. He had the same hair color, the same voice tone. But he looked years older. This couldn't be him. Afterall, she couldn't have been gone for more than a few weeks, right? A few months at most?

.."Its been... three years Three years? That couldn't be right! It couldn't be! How could it have been three years! She remembered the final battle like it was yesterday, it feltlike it was yesterday. Calista's feet felt glued to the ground, but somehow, she forced herself forward, walking instictively up to the man. He loved her. The boy who loved her. It couldn't be anyone else. In her mind, she saw him again. A younger face, that teasing smirk. She slowly, silently dropped to her knees in front of him, her shadows giving way to reveal her. A girl locked in time.

"I love you too..." Her voice was merely a whisper, her hand reached out to him, hesitantly. As if this was just a figment of her imagination and gently cupped his cheek in her hand.