Want

Author: Seth

"How can you look anyone in the eye and not see yourself staring back?" 

Ever since day one everybody always asked him the same question.

"Why are you helping the enemy?"

He'd always thought that particular accusation was more than a little unfair. It wasn't as if he was actively trying to help the rebels kill his friends after all. He was just… healing the wounded, regardless of which side they fought for.

It wouldn't have been a problem if they had all taken his answer for what it was, the plain and unvarnished truth, but considering the times he lived in he supposed he should count his blessings for the tolerance he received. At least those close to him eventually realized he wasn't lying, and for that he was thankful.

Even so, it never ceased vexing him that few if any people could comprehend why he did what he did. It was such a simple reason too…

And that may have been the problem. As people grow older it grows harder and harder for them to accept things at face value, harder for them to see things without looking for some other truth hidden just beneath the surface.

He was lucky, he would say. He'd learned at a young age what precious few ever realized during their entire lifetimes.

He learned that no matter where you go, no matter who you talk to, there will always be one undeniable, unequivocal truth that applies to each and every person you might meet.

They all want the exact same thing.

Oh on the surface it might seem as if their goals are as different as night and day. Some are searching for a family, some for honour, some for riches, and even some are simply searching for a ripe banana. All these goals seem to have little to nothing in common, yet when you pull off the fancy covering that envelops them you find that each of their goals is exactly the same.

They all want to be happy.

It's such a simple thing, such a simple thing that he aches every time he steps on a battlefield knowing that he will soon be sacrificing the happiness of others for his own.

When the fight has been spent, when the cries die and the weapons fall to earth he finds that there is little joy in the victory for him, just the sadness of broken dreams and the thought of what might have been. And so he finds what battered bodies he can and he fixes them up to the best of his abilities. He doesn't care if it's traitorous, he doesn't care if it'll get him killed, and he doesn't care whether her might one day regret his actions because if he can give just one more person another chance to chase after happiness, then it'll have been worth it.