05-Nov-2004
Title: Perfect? Ha!
Author: RurouniTriv
I forgot how much fun it was to write - and how good feedback makes me feel. ;) So, by request, and because I got a ficlet-bunny in my head, here's Heero's take on things. Hopefully I was able to "hear" him clearly enough.
Implied 1x2/2x1 - he's not talking about his love life here, and unlike Duo, he knows how to stick to his point. And no warnings whatsoever.
Hn. I don't know why my itoshii told me to talk to you. "Do it, Heero," he said, "it's fun! And it really helps to get things off your chest. Besides, don't you want to have the chance to tell people what you really think about that stuff they keep saying about us?"
Well, yes. I would like to address a certain matter: namely, who was the idiot who started this story about me being the "Perfect Soldier"?
Look. I'm very good at what I do. I don't think I'm arrogant to say that - after all, it's true. But I am a very long way from perfect. If I were perfect, I would not have destroyed Noventa and the Doves, and it might not have come down to outright war between the Colonies - or rather, those of us who were part of the Colonial Resistance - and the Alliance and OZ. I certainly wouldn't have dropped a burning mobile suit right onto a civilian housing complex during my "graduation exercise" before I got my Gundam! I just happened to be the one who was at the right place at the right time and got noticed.
Duo, surprising as some people might find it, is actually a better instinctive pilot than I am, although I have more training. In addition, he's a much better mechanic, and very skilled at improvising, scavaging and adapting the resources available. Add to that the fact that he was our demolition and dirty tricks expert and you have someone that no one in their right mind would want to piss off. He didn't call himself Shinigami - the God of Death - for nothing.
Trowa is a more technically-competent pilot and a far better marksman - as much as I waved my gun around, I prefer hand-to-hand combat. I usually used my weapon as a deterrent more than an actual threat. Trowa is also more level-headed and capable of levels of sheer threat that I can't manage to project - his very impassiveness makes him better able to carry off a bluff than I am, and when the bluff is called... well, he's much more ruthless than I am. Had he been confronted with Relena while in the middle of a mission, he wouldn't have threatened her. He'd have killed her. If anyone in those days could have been called a "perfect soldier" it would have been him, and as for his infiltration abilities - there was and is no one better at slipping into a highly-guarded situation than he is. I know that I never could manage to do a decent infiltration anywhere but the occasional high school, and half the time they thought I was pretty strange there.
Quatre is by far a better strategist: there is a reason that he was the one who determined our missions when we were working together toward the end of the war, and it is because he was simply better suited to the job than I am. I am also a horrible diplomat, unlike Quatre - if you want someone who can broker a peace, or even a temporary cease-fire, he's your man. He's much better than I am at seeing all the nuances and loopholes of an agreement and finding ways to "cross all the 'T's and dot all the 'I's" as Duo says.
Wufei... ah, Wufei. With him, it's pure heart. While he is more than competent at hand-to-hand combat - better than me, in fact - his greatest strength is his sheer fire. He stops at nothing to serve his cause. Where I fought in large part because I knew nothing more, he knew and knows so much more about such a wide range of things. He understands the forces of history, and can give you information on military science, philosophy, strategy, and martial arts at the drop of a hat. He has his warrior's code and will live and die by it. Where the rest of us may bend, he will stand strong, and if he meets defeat, then he uses it to make himself better than ever.
So, given that each of the others has something to do with the components of a perfect soldier that they do far better than I, how did I get the reputation for being "perfect"? If anything, I was a bit of a psychopath throughout most of the war. I'm the one who fell into Treize's trap and killed the Doves. I'm the one who got caught before the first week was out and had to be rescued by Duo - although since he was the one who put me in the hospital I suppose it was only fair that he got me out. And I did return the favor when he got caught a few months later.
The only things that are different between me and any of the others are these: I have a broader range of skills than any of the others - I can do a little of almost all of the things they do; and I have been physically enhanced beyond their level. And that isn't due to my skill, it's due to the training that Dr. J put me through - and a few other things that are still classified beyond your level.
But I'm not perfect, any more than I'm emotionless. And I still do my best to follow Odin's advice: follow your instincts. Sometimes the impulses of the heart and the gut are the best way to deal with a situation, no matter what that Barton bastard said.
The End
(:./rt/pov2)
