Paying his respects to the past (1) - Gabriel and Maritsu POV

When they finally achieved their goal for the most part. A goal which was very hard to achieve, a goal they had needed to fight for really hard over these years, without stopping and resting.

While, their only source of comfort had been their companion, who had been fighting to reach that very same goal.

It was that travel companion their who they could lean on whenever they were tired, but only for just a little while, before having to continue to fight again.

After traveling on that road for years, fighting the same fight, they had a hard time to determine their way forward after finally reaching their final destination.

Reaching a goal which you fought so hard and so long for made them ecstatic, it after all showed that their hard work had finally paid off. They also could finally take a rest.

The road which led to their destination had been filled with obstacles, losses, pain, regret, and despair. That are a lot of negative emotions.

So, All these years, to keep their belief and faith in reaching their end goal, they made sure to cherish every step forward and every achievement they earned.

They cherished their progress by holding a small mini celebration to honor any progress they achieved.

Mini celebrations came in all shapes and sizes, but usually Maritsu and Gabriel grabbed a drink and discussed how far they had come and what differences their achievements made for the world.

Only by celebrating their victories they wouldn't get stuck in all the failures and setbacks they had endured all these years. All the times they had tripped over the obstacles and experienced loss and despair.

Without cherishing the pleasant moments, the wonderful moments, and their glorious successes. They might not have been able to deal with the setbacks, losses, despair, and failures. Their significant moments and successes energized them to deal with all the negative roadblock on the road towards their destination.

Life is all about balance. Without balance, you might get lost in one extreme or the other.

So, while carrying a heavy burden, they made sure to find this balance, no matter how hard it seemed sometimes.

Only by finding and maintaining the balance they wouldn't get lost in their negative emotions of not having reached their end goal.

It was a marathon after all, and not a sprint. When Gabriel and Maritsu started on this journey, they knew the work they had begun would take decades to complete if they were lucky enough to reach the end goal at all.

If they would have only focused on the ending and not on the process and progress they made, then they would probably have given up long before getting close to the enormous promise they had to fulfill or they would have been burned out or they might have suffered from depression.

Simply, because of the constant feelings of despair and helplessness, that nothing changed and all the efforts made were useless.

Keeping balance and celebrating minor victories had created a driving force to keep going and had driven away the helplessness they might have felt because they could not see the final destination at the end of the road.

Now that they had finally fulfilled the promise which they had made so many years ago, it felt liberating. However, while feeling liberated, they felt lost at the same time.

They knew now that they created the organization, all problems weren't magically solved. It would still need time to grow up and become stronger.

To become stronger, the organization also needed time. The organization would experience growing pains. Only by letting time pass they would be able to find the loopholes in laws and regulation, when others would use to these existing loopholes to their advantage.

Only when those loopholes were found they could fill them, but the hardest part and the most demanding job seemed to be done. The Watchers was created, everything that was missing time would fix, with the efforts of others as well….

No longer they were fighting alone to create an organization. From now on, the employees of the organization were there as well, with the same goal as them, to make organization the best it could become.

So, time and effort of a collective would only make the organization better and better, they were finally freed from their promise, but what should they do now?

What was their next goal, and what was their way forward?

When they were trying to find their way forward. They remembered how they had met so many years ago.

The way Maritsu had been caught red-handed, and how Gabriel had punished him for his actions. How the punishment had been about returning to basic, and how that return to basics had enlightened Maritsu and how meeting Gabriel and returning to basics had changed Maritsu's future.

Right now they could really use such an enlightening moment. They needed something to show them their way forward, but not only that they also needed time to recuperate, to rest their weary spirits and to find inner peace once more after years of struggle and despair.

Therefore, they decided that once again they would return to basics together.

The difference, however, would be that they wouldn't return to bootcamp for newly enlisted soldiers. They would return to a place that had once brought grief and joy to Gabriel, a place that held a special spot in Gabriel's heart even after all these years.

The training grounds of the Night Hawk's, a place that once was like a home to Gabriel.

A place he had never returned to after the judgement of the General's son had come down.

Losing his comrades and the fact that they didn't receive the justice they deserved made Gabriel unable to keep viewing this place as his home away from home.

Therefore, after finding out the judgement for the General and his son, he requested a quick transfer.

Gabriel had made a promise to himself on that day, one he could only fulfill if he would climb up the ranks. The transfer would not only help him stay away from a place that made the loss feel that much more real, it would also help him achieve his goal.

Besides, he felt unworthy of being in that place; he had watched his teammates die, with his own eyes, while he was unable to do anything. He felt like he wasn't worthy of staying in the Night Hawk's compound and he figured he only might feel worthy again of being here once he fulfilled the promise he had made to his deceased brother's.

Now that he had fulfilled his oath, it was time to return home and tell his comrades he did it; he had honored their memory. He was finally worthy to return home.

The missions of the Night Hawk's were often secret, but they would never want to forget a fallen comrade. So the Night Hawk's training grounds and compound had a building, with a wall of honor.

This wall of honor, was situated in one of the central buildings of the compound.

On this wall, there was a place for the names of their fallen friends, comrades in arms, brother's and sister's.

Any soldier of the Night Hawk's who sacrificed their lives on a mission would be placed on this wall.

It was a way for the comrades who could never receive a burial in their country to return home.

By placing the name of the fallen soldier on the wall; it became their ultimate resting place, a place of peace. This resting place, was a place which acknowledged their existence, a place that would always remember them and the fact that they paid the ultimate price for their country and all its civilians.

The last time Gabriel had seen this wall was when the nametag ceremony had taken place. After all, placing a name on the wall happened with several ceremonies taking place.

When the ceremony took place Gabriel had already been transferred, but he had returned for the ceremony of the wall placement.

It had been hard to witness the names of his brother's being placed on the wall, and he had stared at the names of his comrades for a very a long time. Such a long time that he had lost track of time, completely lost in thought emersed in his own world.

When witnessing the ceremony, it had magnified the loss he had already felt; After all, the ceremony was once again proof of his comrade's demise and that he would never see them again. It had brought tears to his eyes, and he had clenched his fist during the entire ceremony.

The only thing that kept him from losing it was repeating the oath he had made to his fallen brother's over and over again inside his head. He promised himself that he would bring them justice and he would prevent what happened to them from ever happening again.

All those years he had worn their dog tags around his neck to remind him of this promise, and all that while no matter how much he struggled he had felt unworthy to face the wall. Unworthy to face his comrade's last resting place.

Now that he had finally fulfilled his oath, he would keep wearing the dog tags in their honor, these comrades had changed his future by passing away and their passing had changed his life forever. The contribution these brother's had, had on his life, the lasting impact they had on his future, was something he would cherish forever.

Until his death, Gabriel would remind himself that the changes he made wasn't just because of his hard work. It was also because of them, who had hopefully moved on long ago to a better place, who had changed his future forever. Without them he wouldn't be where he was today.

The impact they had left behind forever lasting. Therefore, it wasn't just their hard work, no those people deserved a big part of the credit to, since without them he never would have changed his future path. If there was karma he hoped god would bestow the good karma, his actions had achieved on them, because without them he would have never been where he was today.

Without them he would probably be death, or retired because of injury, and if that wasn't the case he would have been too old to be a sniper by now, and he would have taught the new Night Hawk's recruits.

Having fulfilled his promise he was finally able and ready to face the wall, he would go there pay his respects and honor them. He would also say his thanks for their company on this long hard journey.