Starman chapter 5

[wsprs]

She somehow managed to choke down the bile, and focus her thoughts beyond the throbbing of her heart in her throat.
?He.. Heero??

He blinked. She stared, a deer caught in headlights. Standing taller, he opened his mouth, and, as if for the first time ever, tried to speak.
?Zdrastvoytye.?
She flinched, but he said no more. She cocked her head confused, and he stepped out from behind the couch and tried again.
?Gutenn Taaagg.?
She gave him no response, but retreated a few steps to put space between them while trying to aim the pistol in his direction. Instead, she dropped it.
His gaze followed the gun as it fell from her hand and landed on the floor. Interested, he took a heavy step towards it, and bent over awkwardly to pick it up. Relena only squeezed herself more tightly into the corner, trying to keep calm. When a muffled sound forced its way passed her lips, he looked again at her, and raised the gun in the air and held it towards her.
?Koniiichi Waa. Rueggo. Bonn-jour. Per Cortees?a. Greet-ingzz - ?
When she jumped, he paused to scrutinize her.
??Greet-ingzz.?

?You. You?re not Heero..?
He stumbled abruptly upon her, staring intently, the pistol millimeters away from her face. In a thick accent, he spoke.
?Nott.. Heerow.?
Relena took in a sharp breath and folded onto herself, shaking violently.
?Our Father, who art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name??
He blinked at her a few times, studying her. Moving as close as he could without touching her, he took in a breath and nailed her with his stare.
?Az the Sec-re-tary Genneral of the Uni-ted Na-tions? an organ-I-zation of the onne hunnndred fortty-sevven mem-ber states? who rep-re-zent ah-lmosst all of the hum-man inhabb-bitants of the plan-net earthhh -?
That is all she heard before the world went black.
He looked down at her crumpled body, and cocked his head.
?I sssend greet-ingzz.?

He didn?t understand why the female collapsed, but he was unconcerned. Her life signs were still present, though faint and erratic. He cocked his head to the other side, and looked at her curiously from another angle. Not receiving any new information, he turned around in jerky movements. Looking about, he stumbled around the couch, and stepped on the rectangular shaped object he had seen before. The vid bleeped, and light flooded the room from the screen. He tried to keep focus on the rapidly moving warped colors and surreal overly fast movements on the screen in front of him. Moving his head this way and that, blinking and twisting his body in all directions, he almost toppled over. As his foot lost contact with the device, the images abruptly came into focus, and clear sound replaced static fuzz.

The male he had seen before with the long hair appeared. The image was blurred and it moved as though it was actually a reflection off of an undulating surface of water. The figure was holding an odd box-like contraption to his head. From the bottom of the screen an object resembling a stick was poked into the water, and ripples swelled before calming once more. Then the scene was thrown into nauseating distortion until coming to rest on two figures; the female with the mammal in her lap ? the one who had fallen when he greeted her, and the male he had seen on the paper replications of human faces ? the one who had petted the strange animal before walking away from the girl.

They were sitting side by side on the shore of a lake, lazily skipping stones and quietly enjoying each other?s company. After a few moments, the female cradled her knees with her arms and tilted her head to smile at the clouds. The male beside her threw one last rock on the surface of the lake and watched as it splashed a path before being swallowed. He then contented himself with gazing over the calm water some distance away. He took in a breath, hesitated a moment as if unsure, but opened his mouth to speak.
?One word.?
?What was that??
The female had been rocking herself, grinning at the sky, but turned to face the boy who had spoken. Her soft smile faltered when she saw his solemn expression. She patiently sat and waited for him to continue. Apparently, she was sure that he would when he was ready. He turned towards her and met her eyes.
?With one word, you?ve changed what thousands before you could never, and probably no one ever again, change. With one word, you soothe away the pain, appease the rage, and ease the suffering that war brings??
He looked away, and off into the distance. Stunned into stillness that appeared forced and unwanted, she continued to stare at him, looking as though she were unable to think of something to say for once.
??People like me, Relena, people like me did the things we could the only way we knew how. But we could never win, not like you did.?
He quickly glanced at her before turning his attention back to the water. A moment passed and he seemed to struggle with himself to continue.
?And you did it without force. You dug into the hearts and minds of the people and made them see what they refused to see. You made them want a world without war. With one word.?
He shook his head as though he were in disbelief, then looked down and to the ground where Relena?s hand rested lightly. He considered it a moment, and gently covered it with his own as if either afraid to touch her, or sure that when he did, she would disappear. He took in a shaky breath and held it before letting it escape in a whoosh. It was quiet for a few minutes, and they sat in that quiet just holding hands. Then, he looked at her, anguish and something else - something indiscernible, radiated through the arctic ice of his eyes. It begged her to understand, but as she searched those eyes, trying to see what he so desperately wanted but was terrified for her to see, it retreated in the safety of tired shadows and stony facades. He sighed and looked down, defeated. Yet as he sat thinking of what to say next, it seemed that very defeat pushed his resolve.
?That?s why I will never stop fighting. I?ll fight even though I know the only reason you do what you do is so that those like me no longer need to.?
His voice became rough with conviction, as though he were trying to convince himself as well as she.
?I have to fight, Relena. Because I know that you won?t. Not like I do. But peoples? hearts aren?t like yours and they may fail you someday. And if they do, I will be there. Fighting to protect that one word you?ve made me believe in. Peace, Relena. I finally understand peace. Not the kind I was made to fight for, but the kind I was never meant to have. I?ll never stop, Relena. Even if I can. Because you never gave up fighting for m-- for all of us. ?

He looked at her again, exhaustion just beyond the expressionless mask.
?I can never wash my hands of blood. I?m sorry, I know that?s what you wanted for me.?
He let go of her hand and held her gaze as he stood. She reached for him with the hand that he had held, as if offering a line that could keep his soul from tumbling into turmoil. She balked, as if she knew she was losing him and that it was the only way he would allow it to be.
?But what is wanted??
His expression turned stony and pinched.
??And what is needed? is different.?
He swallowed.
?I just wanted you to understand, Relena. This is all I can be for you.?
With that, in deft and practiced movements, Heero expertly threw a previously hidden gun into the air and allowed it to rotate a few times before catching it in his hand. With eyes still on Relena beside him, he fired it at a dried tree trunk that was half submerged in the water about ten yards away. The wood splintered and chips flew in all directions, forming a plume of shavings before splashing into the water. He lowered his eyes from Relena?s, knowing his target had been obliterated even without her gasp of surprise, and sighed softly.
?Bull?s Eye.?

The image heaved as though the world let out a breath, and a muffled voice could be heard from somewhere unseen.
?Man, Heero. You just turned your back on the only thing that could have ever saved you.?
The sound was cut off as though it had been choked. As the male who had been sitting next to the female left, she turned her eyes toward the peninsula for the first time, where the first male had been filming. Her gaze, wide and unfocused, seemed surprised by his presence. Her stare pierced through the screen. Tears threatened to brim over the lids of her eyes, but she wiped them away before they could fall.
?Turn it off, Duo. Turn it off and throw the camera into the water. I never want to remember this. Ever.?
The screen erupted with the black and white fuzz of obscurity, the sound matching the picture in mourning.

Leaning over, he tapped the vid, and the screen became blank. He glanced to the contraption in his hand, rolled it over so that he held it correctly, and stood straight once more. He turned his head to peer into a mirror to his left, and the face of the boy called Heero stared back. He blinked at himself before turning his head towards the sleeping girl still unconscious in the corner. She wasn?t looking back at him, but he threw the gun in the air just as he had seen the being do on the screen. It rotated a few times, and he caught it with a precise grip that allowed him to place one perfectly aimed shot in the center of the mirror.
He sighed softly as he looked down, his face expressionless.
?Bullzz Eyye.?

He let his aim fall, and let the gun hang at his side. Turning his gaze from the floor in front of the woman to the floor in front of him, he found that for which he had been searching before he had stepped on the contraption that controlled the image projector. There, in the middle of the room, lay seven small, metallic spheres. He put out his empty hand, and the seven spheres were lifted into his waiting grasp. He then walked stiffly to the open door in which he had earlier entered, and stepped outside. The wind blustered by him, and he didn?t understand his body?s shock until he realized that he was bare. The earth people in the animated screen had been wearing coverings, and the female inside was also clothed, albeit less so than she had been on the image displayer. Looking down at his nude form, he took himself in. He was distracted by the strange sensation of pricks, and observed small mounds of flesh rising all over his body. After a few moments, the bumps subsided. Satisfied that the event had played its course and that he had not been damaged, he allowed the new experience to fade into his memory. He placed the gun on the windowsill, and opened the palm containing the metal spheres. With the forefinger and thumb of his other hand, he pinched a ball and lifted it from the pile. He then closed the first hand and let it fall to his side, and enclosed the single ball in a fist with his other. Slowly, the hand began to glow. He lifted it to eye level and concentrated on it, tilting his head and pinching his eyebrows.
?Emergency transmission. Observation craft destroyed.?He could see the distant approach of aircraft, and the blaze left from his crashed pod not too distant from their searchlights.
?Environment Hostile. Completed symbiotic transformation. Rendezvous third day landing area one.?He opened his palm, and the ball lifted into the air.

[kawaiiemogirl]

Hmm. Bravo. I'm gonna read every single chapter. Whooo. I wonder who is this alien..mmmhmmm.