Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Stolen ❯ Letting Go ( Chapter 1 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]
Stolen
chapter one
by Iris Anthe

It was after the unsuccessful Mariemeia coup that Relena Dorlian had her political epiphany--she was a source of power. Up until that time she had viewed herself as nothing more than a tenacious weed fighting to survive in a barren landscape of greed and war, fighting to turn a hostile world into an oasis where more delicate varieties of plant could grow. She dreamt of long, sunny days filled with laughing, well-fed children and satisfied people pursuing their personal dreams in peace. She dreamt of happy men who never heard a call to battle that had to be obeyed, and women who did not cry silently in the night over the lives they had lost, never to be returned. Privately she dreamt of a personal happiness filled with love, friendship and a sense of safety.

From the moment her father had died, she'd worked tirelessly to fulfill this dream, and had even seen a few precious moments in which it fleetingly came real. But then she'd been drugged, kidnapped and to her great confusion held onto for some use by Dekim Barton during his coup d'etat attempt in AC 196. She spent endless hours in the company of a brainwashed child with insane delusions of world domination trying to figure out why on earth they had bothered to bring her along. They explained to her that at the proper time she was to give a speech supporting Mariemeia and that this would somehow end the entire conflict, handing over power to her assailants and instantly sealing humanity's fate. At the time, she didn't tell them that this was probably their biggest delusion of all. She tried not to say much of anything, since the truth had a knack of causing life-threatening temper tantrums in the child.

When she witnessed her brother, Ms. Noin and the Gundam pilots battling to keep her fragile dream intact while the rest of humanity simply waited in fear for the outcome, she came to a realization. If the whole of humanity simply rejected the validity of this force, if the people of the world exerted their will for peace, then the would-be dictator could not possibly hold power for long. And so she made her speech ahead of schedule, urging everyone throughout the world to reject the rule of tyranny and fight for their freedom.

And then came truth. Wing Zero held the inescapable truth of Heero Yuy, the ultimate manifestation of human will. Mariemeia made the mistake of daring a man who had mastered all fear to break down her door. Dekim Barton made the mistake of trying to use Relena as his shield. She knew Heero Yuy, and therefore she knew the truth--her life was cheap and she wasn't afraid to die, knowing that she died to save her dream. She also knew that he wasn't afraid to sacrifice his life or hers for peace. For the first time she saw real fear, true comprehension of death in the child's eyes and knew the nightmare was almost over.

It was later, in the hospital as she sat by Heero's side, listening to machines that kept time with his heart, and studying the beautiful and deceptively fragile looking body of such an indomitable soul that she began piecing together the events that had nearly shattered her world. In the end she realized that she held an enormous responsibility, greater than she had ever imagined. She was a source of power, and as such she could be used.

She was a tool, a political force, and for the rest of her life she would be surrounded by people who wanted to use her for their own personal ends. And so once again she used Heero Yuy as the template by which she would cut her life. Like Heero, she would never let someone else use her; she would seek the truth and follow it to fulfill her dream of peace, and like Heero, she would never let her petty desires get in the way of that ultimate goal.

She stayed long enough to see his eyes open and with a final touch along his cheek she said good-bye to her private dream of happiness and went out into the world to fight.