[Gundam Wing FanFiction] Hinter dem Horizont

Chapter 2

Heero regained consciousness, but it turned out that the enemy wasn't one to underestimate with.

Cochem, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany

May, AC 199

Spring was Relena's favourite season. She loved the blooming flowers and how every living being waking up from their long sleep from the winter. This year, she chose Cochem as her runagate; a small town in Germany near the border of Luxembourg – surrounded by breathe-taking sceneries of beautiful mountains and rivers. Though it was a small town, there was plenty to see and do. The town was fascinating with the very well preserved historic architecture, spanning from Medieval ages to the late nineteenth century.

Her favourite spot to spend an evening was the Cochem Reichburg Imperial Castle that stood high on a hill, and it was the town's most significant impressive site. She could see the impressive view of the whole town with the Moselle River cleaving it into two. She would then bring along her dinner to eat it while watching the sunset. But, most of all, the company of Heero was the one that made her whole runaway perfect.

She would ask her usual question, "What do you see beyond the horizon today, Heero?"

Heero looked thoughtful for a moment, calculating as ever. He turned to the window, and the glowing dusk radiating him with a warm ray of orange and purplish shade that made him as if illuminated – his slightly Asian features, with traces of a few generations of Asian-Caucasian cross-cultural breeding, made him for an exotic and striking combination. He was so handsome, and his dark-brooding aura added his prodigious charm.

"Light," he concluded. "Warm lights from the life of people beneath."

Relena followed his gaze, and nodded. "It's beautiful, isn't it?"

"Yes."

"Do you see the radiance as the form of human hearts?" Relena tried to peek more into his notions.

"No." His answer was immediate and without hesitation. "Human hearts are not that beautiful. The mere existence of people alive out there is beautiful, Relena, but it doesn't make them beautiful. The radiance of the sunset is just simply representing the light of lives."

"Our existence and our hearts are simply something different?" Relena prompted.

"Humans are wicked," Heero told her for the umpteenth time. "But lives are shining like that sun, making this world alive and colourful. Giving this world the life it needs."

"So you no longer value life as cheap?" Relena teased him.

"It will always be," he said calmly, a distant look evidence on his eyes.

"Why?"

"One dies, another born. That was my definition of life is cheap, including mine. But one's life..." he paused, turning at her with a solemn expression, "I value them."

"Then what makes you think that yours is different?" Relena was genuinely concerned; but curiosity took the best of her.

"I am a soldier," Heero said, carefully choosing his words. "My purpose is to fight to end the war. My role has ended. I have no more value in this world of peace."

Relena blinked, and then glared at the ex-Gundam pilot disapprovingly. "That's nonsense, Heero. You are actually very valuable. You saved the world; you created the peace everyone was desperately carving for. Your role has ended? No, you're wrong. You're the symbol of hope for people, Heero. Contradictory, your role has just begun. The journey of your true life has just begun."