Title: The Greatest Challenge
Author: Karina
Rating: PG
Pairing: Duo + Wu Fei
Notes: Challenge 184. Baby Series 4 #7. Takes place a few minutes following after Sentimental Mush.
Spoilers: None
Warnings:
Many thanks to ShenLong Deb for her work betaing this set of fics.
Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing or the Characters from the series but the baby is mine.
Title: The Greatest Challenge
"What does not kill us, makes us stronger."
Wu Fei inclined his head, acknowledging that truth. "We have, against all probability to the contrary, survived. We are stronger for the trials of our resolve, our efforts and, ultimately, of our faith in ourselves. Even if, at the time, we did not feel that faith. At least, I did not. I was too angry, too hurt to feel much of anything."
"They say anger in itself is a strength."
"True, but it can also be one's greatest weakness. I was fortunate to survive my own arrogance and my rage. I should have died."
"I could have died half a dozen times in the last year of the war alone, and you don't want to know how many times I should have died as a street urchin. I was a poisonous little rat at one stage and I had my own brand of arrogance to wrestle with. I honestly don't rightly know how I turned out so well, but it probably had a shit load to do with Father Maxwell and Sister Helen… and stowing away on that Sweeper ship."
"Surviving. That is the true measure of our strength. Surviving adversity. Accepting the challenge and not stopping until we have conquered it."
"Or surviving it by the skin of your teeth. I scraped through so many things that should have killed me as a kid, but I'm still here, no thanks to the war trying to kill me, but then, it was a challenge. I thrive on challenge. Surviving Sanc… now I think that might just be the hardest challenge I have yet faced."
Wu Fei turned dark eyes to his companion. "Sanc is your greatest challenge? How so?"
"I'm a street rat, Fei. I was born in some gutter on L2 and had no education at all until I was taken in by the Maxwell Church. All I learned on the streets was survival skills to keep me alive. Not complaining, mind you, I know who and what I am. The Sweepers were the ones who really gave me an education and something to aim for in life, but the war and coming to the attention of that rat faced bastard building Scythe changed where I thought I might go with my life. I met you lot. We are a select group, you know? No two of us come from the same background, we've each had our own challenges to face and conquer, but we came from it all in one piece and relatively sane. Stronger."
"What makes Sanc a greater challenge than surviving a war?"
The smile widened on Duo's face, his eyes deepening to violet but there was no hint of Shinigami for once, just a fierce acceptance of a challenge.
"You. You and Zechs. Dealing with high brow assholes who think they are better than me. Working on that power project. Living, Fei. Really living now that there is the chance to do more than just survive."
End
Karina Robertson 2012