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"Alternative Directions: Options "Written By: Karina Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing or the lovely
boys and their girls in the series. Wish I did. Please don't sue me.
I haven't even got a brass razoo to give you. Rating: Deffinately PG in Australia, at the moment,
but probably safer to say R for later chapters. Not sure about international
ratings Warnings: It will be 6x2, even though it does
not start out that way. After all, Zechs and Duo never met in Gundam
Wing and only spoke briefly over a com line in Endless Waltz. I've
tried to keep them in character as I saw them in the series. A bit
of language creeping in under stressful conditions. Pairings: eventual 6x2, past 2xH, 2+H,6x9, 1+R
Summary: Directions is set post Endless Waltz
and roughly 2 years have passed. Zechs and Noin are on Mars and Duo,
after spending some time with Hilde in a relationship leaves L2 to
join Preventers. Hilde was not happy about his decision. I guess enough
said. Here t'is, and I hope you like it. This is also AU for the standard
setting, as well as the series and Endless Waltz. Spoilers: Gundam Wing Series and Endless Waltz Many thanks to Dulin for volunteering to beta this. //... // thoughts
"Alternative Directions: Options"
2nd March AC 198 Sanc Stephansbourg The Coachman’s Rest Time: 04:15 Relena In the silence the crackle of flame eating into the logs seemed loud and the muted howl of the storm sent shivers down her spine. The night seemed destined never to end and she could only wish the entire horrible day had been the worst nightmare she could possibly imagine. She could survive a nightmare unchanged but this nightmare simply would not end and by the cold hard sensation in her gut she knew it to be no dream. There would be no comfort in waking up in her own bed walking around her own room and knowing it had all been a dream. A frightening thoroughly disagreeable dream. *“If he should have erred in bringing this psychic ability to bare on the wrong person … feasible to assume that someone panicked …”* Sally’s words would haunt her to the day she died if she could not find an explanation to cause her to believably refute the possibility her father had brought the wrath of a world government down on one small isolated country. Could it be true? She shied from the very idea but her position often forced her to face the unpalatable and there was no escaping the question. It needed to be considered, faced with courage to find that weakness and refute it. Was it indeed possible the King of Sanc had pushed the wrong person and doomed so many because of some freakish talent that belonged in a science fiction novel? //Did … did my father … make a mistake? Is it really possible he had some strange ability that could make people change their views and did he use it so indiscriminately? So carelessly? Foolishly. Could Sally be right?// Foolishly? Who was she to judge the actions and wisdom of others when she could all too easily recall instances in her recent past that had meant nothing to her at the time other than a sense of accomplishment at a job being well done. She had managed to convince people of influence and far greater experience that she herself could claim to help other people with little more than the clothes on their backs who ate out of garbage cans. There had been reluctance and a host of arguments against the investments she argued for and she had no recourse now but to wonder if she had convinced them on the merits of a carefully thought out argument exactingly delivered or if she had forced them with her desire to help backed by the unconscious use of this … this … ability. //No. No I can’t do that. He did not either … he would not … knowingly … Maybe he didn’t know he could do that? It’s all supposition anyway and just coincidence that … that … Oh God, I wish she would stop looking at me like that.// The Preventer agent she trusted was watching her and those intense blue eyes never left her as the silence stretched between them and Relena shivered delicately. It was still a little chilly in the room but the fire in the hearth made the temperature bearable and continued to warm the room as she hesitated. If she could just curl up in the bed and go to sleep and succeed at ignoring the world … but no. Ignoring matters was not going to bring about resolution, and much as she might wish she was a coward and could run away from it all she was not by nature one to run away. This unpalatable mess had to be faced and since it involved her bloodline she could not simply ignore it. If her family had brought ruin to Sanc she had a responsibility to ensure there would not only be no repeat but that the ruins of people’s lives be rebuilt in payment for the past. Relena rubbed absently at a toe, her arms wrapped around her calves, hands worrying at her feet, tracing the line of a pink-painted toe nail. Her chin rested on her raised knees and she was thankful for the fall of her hair cascading across her face to give her some meager shielding from those watching eyes. //I do not want to think about this now or ever but it is the kind of thing that will never go away. It will always be there, waiting in the wings and until I deal with it, it will grow larger and darker like some brooding demon. I could do something stupid if I don’t explore the possibilities at least and learn all I can about the pitfalls. I could make the same mistake my father made … if he made a mistake at all, but putting it off will accomplish nothing. I might have done that if Sally had not been here and heard it all. I might have made the mistake of dismissing it and ignoring it and somewhere down the line I could cause a catastrophe like the fall of Sanc … It’s all fairytales … it has to be. I can’t make people change their minds just by willing it. I … can’t. It’s just not possible and he couldn’t do it either. Her eyes are so damn blue! I can’t ignore them. I can’t ignore this.// She sighed softly and looked up at the woman who by her very presence was forcing her to deal with the unpalatable. Sally Po had always struck her as a strong and intelligent woman who had a firm grounding in reality. She would not have thought someone as realistic as Sally had proven herself to be in the past would entertain fairytales so seriously, which gave her pause in simply dismissing the whole matter. If by some weird cosmic jest she was this freak the
elderly man had spoken of so casually then why was Sally not running
in terror of the freak before her and … and there was //Oh God. I really don’t want to deal with this.// Those blue eyes were still watching her and she had the uncomfortable feeling Sally Po guessed much of the thoughts passing through her mind. The woman was a medical professional and she was also formerly an intelligence agent for the Alliance military. Perhaps she had heard rumours about the fall of Sanc? Was that possible? As a former member of the Intelligence Agency Sally surely would have had some access to classified documentation though Sanc had fallen many years before Sally was old enough to join the military. “Do you know what you are implying? The repercussions if … if it was … Sally, you are saying … suggesting the entire invasion of Sanc, the massacre of hundreds of people and the displacement of thousands more … All of it was designed to kill the King?” There, she had swallowed her terror and given the agent an opening. An opening she knew Sally would pounce on and whatever chance for peace there had been in her soul was gone. If her father had caused the destruction of Sanc then was it now up to his children and specifically her as she held a position of influence in which she could take measured action to rectify his mistakes. How did you fix something of this nature though? How could she possibly give back all those lives lost, the property destroyed and the hopes and dreams lost in the terror of a night … a night she had brought back to haunt the people when she had surrendered to the Romefeller organization so many years later. She was just as bad as her father had been if he had somehow caused that massacre … and then there was Milliardo and how he had turned on Earth … There were hints she could not ignore that he had had a plan then and out of it had come this peace but she was still uncertain if that was an intentional part of his design or merely accidental. Had it anything to do with this fairytale magic the old man spoke of or was it yet again coincidence? //I’m getting a headache. I want to go to sleep and forget about it all. Just forget.// Sally straightened on the bed and slender shoulders
lifted in a shrug and the light in her piercing blue eyes grew more
intense. “I am implying nothing, merely putting forward a “Possibility, implications, fairytales and common sense. It just … sounds so … so …” Relena sighed and shook her head, lapsing into brooding silence. “I extrapolate hypotheses, examine the evidence from every conceivable angle and then file it away to be compared to data received at later times until I have a picture that makes sense. That is what my research group does, Relena and no, I will not be sharing this particular tidbit of information with anyone. It is too dangerous to even contemplate doing such a thing with the delicacy of the circumstances both past and present. I believe we need to consider the possibility the attack on Sanc was planned to enable a very complex assassination to take place.” She shuddered delicately. Being a high profile political figure came with risks she was only too aware of and the mere mention of the word assassination was enough to send shivers of dread through her. “What is so complex about killing a man?” “Not just a man, Relena, but a King and a people who believed in a dangerous ideal. Not just the King of a small back water country but a potentially dangerous King who may have made some very dangerous enemies by the power of his glib tongue which seemed able to convince die hard opponents of the virtues of peace and cooperation. Not just any King but a man who was adored not only by his own people but by a great many others. He was admired and looked up to by the people of the colonies and too many people on Earth to be ignored and his influence was steadily growing at the time of the attack. Stephan Peacecraft was an active participant in the movement for world wide peace and cooperation and he had close ties to certain colony officials who were considered to be dangerous by certain leaders in the Earth Government of the time. Stephan was an active proponent for peace, outspoken in the latter part of his reign about the excesses of the Alliance and the conditions on some of the colonies.” “I know all that. I have learned a great deal since I became Vice Foreign Minister and I had to learn whose toes to avoid stepping on and who I could expect to back a policy designed to help and who would ignore it in favour of a policy that would help but not overshadow the influence of others they considered to be more important. There is so much ass kissing in politics, Sally, sometimes it makes me sick.” A sound suspiciously like a giggle escaped the blond agent and Relena sighed, choosing to ignore the woman’s amusement. Honestly did even Sally think that butter would not melt in her mouth? Some of the language she had been exposed to in the so called halls of power would curl the woman’s braids. “Sorry.” Sally waved a hand delicately at her. “I’m not used to hearing you talk like that.” “That is nothing compared to what I have to listen to almost daily. I’ve heard hardened soldiers with tamer vocabularies than most politicians. Why would the Alliance attack Sanc as they did? I mean, surely it would have been easier to simply hire someone, a professional assassin to kill King Stephan much as someone did when they needed Heero Yuy removed from the field. A hired assassin as they used against others who wanted peace and went against the government and its ideals. You see it all throughout history after all. There have been political assassinations take place from the earliest days of recorded history and shocking as it is to say it, it was generally the accepted form of removing the opposition in some eras. Why go to all the expense and trouble of attacking an entire country if they only wanted to kill the King?” “I would think the answer to that is obvious, because they were after more than the King. Let us add to the theory for a moment. Let us add a ‘what if’ and while what ifs can be dangerous they also have their uses in theoretical hypothesis. Let us say for the moment someone discovered the King had this ability and take it one step further and presume for the moment they also discovered King Stephan was not a chance combination of genetics. Let us examine the repercussions of people in influential positions discovering the King who was giving them so much trouble was potentially the product of many generations of a family who were born with special abilities. If they somehow discovered the existence of the psionic potential of the Peacecraft genetics what do you think might happen?” “I would not have expected them to take anything of the sort seriously.” “There are recorded instances of psychics with abilities that defied attempts to prove them to be fraudulent, Relena. I think the abilities are not so uncommon in the human race and there may actually be a genetic shift taking place that is awakening the psionic potential in homo sapiens. Like all genetic shifts this will not be obvious in the immediate future but I believe it has been going on for quite a few generations now and I also think I am not the only one who is aware of the suspected natural shift in genetics.” “Who are you talking about?” “We will discuss the theory of natural evolution and the possible means to enhance it a little later. For now we need to consider the reasons behind the fall of Sanc in light of this information which for the moment we are not considering to be the stuff of fairytales. Let us go back to our original subject of what might be considered feasible action should someone have discovered a family in influential positions who could literally change the shape of the world as it was then known. When we are afraid we are capable of doing terrible things in the interests of survival and by survival I mean our own personal survival, not the survival of the human race.” Sally leaned back slightly and her eyes seemed to glow, boring into Relena with a clarity and intensity that frightened her. Sally Po had suddenly become something other than the friend she had always seemed. “Consider the idea of discovering there are people out there who can make you think contrary to all of your dreams and ambitions, who could theoretically make you a lap dog instead of a bull dog. I think it not too surprising that some people with ego issues might have over reacted to this information. I imagine the first reaction which would have passed quickly would be to kill the King, as efficiently and quietly as it is possible to kill a reigning monarch, for fear others might learn of his abilities. I would imagine common sense would have prevailed enough that someone might have delayed and dug a little deeper and discovered it was not one man but a family that might become their greatest threat. By this time I would expect the kill reflex might have given way to the ‘perhaps we could use them to our own advantage’ view. If they could control the family think of the advantages that would give them in their future dealings with local governments on Earth and in the colonies. Power only ever gives birth to the need for more power in this mentality and I would have expected some cautious overtures would have been made to the King.” Relena nodded slightly. Considering the people she associated with in her position as Vice Foreign Minister she could easily imagine the latter observation. Politicians were forever seeking to extend their sphere of influence and increase their power base. Yes, she could understand the option Sally offered even though she could not condone it. //I can see so much more now and I have to wonder how on Earth I survive the war considering how naive I was back then. I still am too naive to survive in political circles without help. I’ve been tolerated because I am useful … but useful how? Is there the chance that one or more of those who have created this mess I find myself in has some idea of this … ability I might have?// “If he received these overtures I would imagine it possible he might have panicked. The Peacecrafts would not want it known what abilities lay in the family as they would be only too aware of the potential for abuse of those abilities. He would undoubtedly have turned down any overtures made and he might possibly have denied the existence of any special abilities in the bloodline. He may not have been as diplomatic as he might have been either if the offers rattled him and refusal to cooperate would have been the tolling of the bell for the Peacecraft line so far as the Alliance leadership was concerned. It would have resulted in the ‘If I can’t control you I will remove you’ syndrome. Removing a potential power source before the opposition discovered it and perchance took control of it is a time-honored practice that can be found in just about every military faction the Earth has ever produced. Not just one man had to be eliminated but many people who followed that man through ties of blood and belief. They would have been considered an unacceptable threat to the world order.” “You … have some very dark ideas, Sally.” Relena shivered at the scenario offered and for all she wished she could deny it, it made a horrible sense. “To think that so many people could suffer for the thirst for more power by a few … It is something I would sooner not contemplate.” The older woman sighed softly and stared into the dancing flames seeing in their depths the leaping devouring flames and death of other times and places. Dare she approach Relena with an additional theory? Dare she suggest the powers that initiated the massacre might have sought out the Peacecraft children with the idea of rearing them to work their particular form of magic in later years suitably restrained and controlled? Horrible as it was to contemplate the scenario was more than plausible considering the controlling interests at the time. Some days she was so disillusioned with the human race and this constant thirst for more power that seemed a too common affliction. “Yes, I guess I do have some dark dreams but I have seen more of the human condition than you. If there is one thing war shows you, it is the worst and the best of human nature and there is no escaping either lesson when you are a soldier who has seen active service. I suppose I have the advantage over you in that I was in Alliance Intelligence and was not just a physician during the war. You could say that some of the scenario we just entertained was born of what I saw and heard during my tenure in the Intelligence service.” Relena waited as Sally stared into the flames and the younger woman could see the march of memories across her face and was certain some of those memories had been terrible. The woman sighed finally and glanced at her companion and shrugged casting aside the memories and grimaced. “I was a part of a taskforce assembled to monitor Oz and more specifically the Oz Specials. The two organizations were originally seen to be one group but Oz was controlled directly by the Alliance Military since their founding. They were originally founded to be the Alliance’s dirty tricks brigade but after a time there was talk of a splinter group and a proposal was forwarded to the Alliance Command for the founding of a select group, an offshoot of the rank and file in Oz. Nothing much came of it for some years until General Catalonia began grooming a bright young recruit and managed to push for an elite task force to be formed initially from Oz personnel and to be given the designation of the Oz Specials.” Relena stirred, resting her chin on her raised knees. “General Catalonia? Would he have been any relation to Dorothy?” “He was her father and was killed in a rebel uprising. He was ambushed and he and the few men with him didn’t have much of a chance against the rebels. The Specials had their own command structure though they still answered to the Alliance command and it was not until they came under the ultimate command of that bright young recruit that the Specials earned their laurels. He was named Treize Kushrenada and he took the candle flame General Catalonia and a few others had lit and crafted it into a torch that burned far brighter that the Alliance liked. It wasn’t until General Catalonia was killed and Kushrenada orchestrated events to assume command that the Specials became a wild fire that alarmed the Alliance command but by the time they realised what was happening it was too late. Kushrenada was firm in his command of the Specials and Oz had undermined the Alliance and it was just a matter of time before Kushrenada took them down.” “Surely he was young to assume command of so large an organization?” “Age was never a hindrance to Treize Kushrenada and the Specials were never great in number, merely very talented individuals. I think that man was born old. Before Oz took down the Alliance I was assigned to the research group ostensibly to compare the training techniques of the various branches of the military over a fifty year period. I was a bright young doctor interested in human genetics but caught up in the war and initially I was something of an idealistic idiot, like most young professionals. I was requested to pay particular attention to the Specials as their trainees were glowing in comparison to the bulk of the general recruits and told to make it my business to look for any abnormalities that might be found in the training of their recruits. I believe the hope was that we might discover the Specials were using enhancement drugs that might be turned to the use of the Alliance. I was only a junior member of the research team and had no part in the planning but I was smart enough and aware enough of how the wind was blowing to kept my eyes and ears open and ensure my mouth stayed shut. Some of what I learned … it was things I glimpsed and suspected that caused me to begin asking myself if I was following the right course.” Relena absently ran a finger over her toes, watching the woman’s profile and the transition of expression she found disturbing. While she had thought what she had gone through during the war was shattering she was beginning to think she had missed the worst. Yet how could anything be worse than the last great battle above the Earth when Libra had threatened them all? “What did you learn?” “I wasn’t sure then about the implications but now … In light of what I now know to be fact, and more that I suspect ties into the past, I can be fairly certain what I dismissed then as being a tad far-fetched might in fact be right on the money. In hindsight it may not be so outlandish as I thought. There were certain people in the upper ranks of the Alliance Command structure who displayed intensity in wanting to investigate those recruits in the Specials who were from the old European noble families. There was particular interest being paid to investigating the statistical performances of Treize Kushrenada, Zechs Merquise, Lucrezia Noin and Anne Une. These were not the only ones targeted as the Specials were riddled with old nobility from that sector of Earth but these are the names you would recognize.” Relena nodded her understanding of the distinction made and the fact there were others who were watched besides her brother and those who had paid so pivotal a role in the war. “I had to wonder at the time why the main focus seemed to be concentrated on this select group and it was not long before I realized … or at least part of the reason why. This select group had results throughout every stage of their training that stood out like a beacon amid the murky pile of statistics I had compiled covering the past four generations. After my original statistics were noted I was requested to go back one hundred years for comparisons instead of the fifty year term I had originally been required to examine, hence the four generations I ended up compiling statistics on. The nobles who had enlisted in the various military or quasi military organizations during that time period consistently scored higher over almost every field of study.” Relena frowned, locking her fingers around her ankles and rocking slightly as she considered her companion. “I hear what you are saying Sally but I admit I just don’t understand the significance of it.” “That’s my point, Relena. At the time I didn’t realize the significance either. Let me ask you this. Would you not agree with the theory laid down over the centuries that inbreeding will weaken bloodlines with each successive generation until sickness, disease and even mental instability rear from the thinned genetic pool ultimately leading to the end of the dynasty?” //Bloodlines? Inbreeding? I don’t understand where Sally is going with this. What does it have to do with the Peacecrafts and the Alliance Military wanting a comparison with old families?// “I … suppose.” “I take it you are not into the complexities involved in the breeding of horses, Relena? The European Sector nobility have entertained a select genetic pool for centuries. They have been interbreeding for generations keeping their bloodlines undiluted to dangerous levels. For hundreds of years they have rarely introduced new bloodlines within their genetic pool and by all the laws of genetics I am familiar with that should have been disastrous. Keeping a small genetic pool would bring out weaknesses in the genetics that would become stronger and stronger, magnified by each successive generation, spreading throughout the gene pool and widening the circle of contamination to introduce increasing physical weakness, birth defects and deformities and potential disease-related problems. Increasing mental instability has been put forward as being of a high probability should the inbreeding of select bloodlines continue unabated.” “Good breeding. Grandfather continually goes on about the benefits of good breeding.” Relena scrunched up her nose in distaste. “Sometimes I think that is all he ever sees, the importance of good bloodlines and the political expediency of the day and not necessarily in that order.” “Perhaps Marquise Wayridge understands the significance of the bloodlines you come from as you do not? Relena, I may be wrong but in light of this new information I do not believe I am. What I have come to suspect has happened is that somewhere in the past someone has been manipulating the genetics of the old noble families. The European nobility are largely a closed society and that isolated family structure should have led to disaster on a genetic level that would be quite obvious to anyone who observed them. By this point in time, genetically speaking, you should be an insane sickly wisp of a girl. It has not happened. Why? Instead of being the runts of the world you have the noble families of Europe including some of the most intelligent and physically strongest and fastest people in the Earth Sphere. Kushrenada, Merquise, Noin and Une were all right up at the top of the performance charts and their predecessors for the last four generations were also consistently the top performers. It was my job to compare military records, Oz records and the differences in the abilities of the nobles as opposed to the more general gene pool were outstanding. The results were so different that they could only be the result of some kind of genetic modification and manipulation." Her headache was getting worse and she could not seem to make the leap of understanding Sally appeared to believe she should make. “But why bother? Why bother with such a comparison?” “Why make such a comparison in the first place? The Oz Specials were changing under the new leadership of Treize Kushrenada when I was assigned to the study. Under the Alliance Command Oz had been something of a brutish faction used almost exclusively for the dirty tricks needed to accomplish political goals. Under Kushrenada’s control they were making a name for themselves, especially the Specials and that was very far from them being the tool they had been. It was noted after the founding of the Specials that many of their recruits were from the nobility and it was beginning to look disturbingly as though the Specials might become something of a private elitist army. There were a number of reasons, all of them valid, put forward to justify the study but as a physician in training I found it fascinating and I was not particularly fussed with the hierarchy's reasoning.” “Alright, I can accept that I suppose but I don’t see what was so special about them … Milliardo and the others I mean. Heero is about the strongest person I know and he has lightning fast reflexes so what is the big deal with the others?” “Your brother beat him.” Sally murmured watching her closely. //What? Milliardo … No, that’s not right. She must be trying to get a rise out of me but why?// “What do you mean Milliardo beat him? Sally, I think you have that wrong. Heero beat Milliardo on the Libra, you know that otherwise we would not be here now.” “Would we not?” Sally grinned and it was a feral stretching of her lips to bare her teeth. “I was not referring to the Libra and I suggest you approach Heero on that subject. You might find he has a different interpretation on what happened out there. I need to talk with him myself but from the little we have exchanged and what the other pilots have revealed I think more happened in that battle than we assume. What I was referring to was their first meeting when your brother demonstrated it took more than strength to win. It took speed and above all the ability to think quickly.” “I … When was that?” The fire cracked and Sally barely managed to refrain from jumping at the sharp sound. Relena winced, the sound too reminiscent of a gunshot for her liking, but both settled quickly and Relena smothered a yawn in the sudden silence fighting off the fatigue that demanded she stop thinking and give in to sleep. Perhaps that would relieve the pounding headache that threatened to explode her head. “As a matter of fact you were a witness to a part of that altercation. I got the story from Heero while we were talking on MO II in the aftermath of Libra. You would have been on the shuttle returning to Earth with Vice Foreign Minister Darlian when Heero was entering the atmosphere for the first time. He was under instruction to keep his arrival secret and since he had the misfortune to enter the atmosphere in sight of the shuttle he was going to shoot it down. The arrival of an Oz carrier forced him to change his plans. Your brother was in command of the carrier and Heero suddenly had more to worry about than a civilian shuttle.” “He … never told me.” //Heero was going to shoot down a civilian shuttle? But … that is … was … would have been … murder.// Sally shrugged, dismissing the quiet comment. “It was war, Relena, and more, it was terrorism. Nothing pretty ever comes out of that. Heero in Wing found himself facing off against a Leo mobile suit. The Leo was outgunned and outclassed in every statistic by the Gundam but it was the pilot of the Leo who escaped an express ride to the ocean floor and a tour of the continental shelf and the Leo pilot who went for a more leisurely swim. Zechs was the pilot of the Leo.” The Preventer grinned wickedly and winked. “You should ask Heero about it some time and listen to him gripe about that ‘common grubby old Leo’ that locked him up.” “Heero said that?” She could not help the small smile but the knowledge was still there that Heero had thought nothing of shooting down a civilian craft. ‘It was war’ was not an excuse she could easily accept. “Indeed, and I do not doubt he will admit to it. I think that was the beginning of the respect that grew between Heero and your brother. I think you could say Heero was peeved enough to find out who it was who took him down and it would have been easy enough for one of his skills to hack into computer records of the incident. Anyway, that is neither here nor there, is it? We were discussing genetics. Heero is strong and fast but he’s not the only one and I have reason to believe Heero was genetically modified prior to his birth. I am hoping that while he knew nothing of his origins during the war he may have done some investigating since we achieved peace and he might be able to confirm my suspicions. There is a great deal I need to talk about with certain people but I never seem to get the time to chase them up to ask my questions. It has had to wait on more important matters and genetic alterations can wait now too. It is getting late and we were discussing the Sanc Kingdom and the invasion that made you a Darlian and saw your brother come into the hands of the Kushrenadas.” “Could we not?” Hopeful. “I’m so tired Sally.” “Are you likely to sleep?” Relena sighed softly and shook her head after a moment her eyes closing against the sight of the doctor. “I would hope so but I suppose not. I keep hearing him say those words. Over and over again he said it. I can still hear him saying it. Freak.” Sally lightly reached to tug at an errant dark golden curl that wanted to escape the mass of hair. “Freak? I’m sorry but I never heard him say that.” “It’s true though. It’s true if you want to believe this ‘magic’ he was on about. If what he said was true then you can’t deny I’m not normal.” Sally flipped her hand negligently at the girl. “So just what is normal? I suspect you’re perfectly normal for a daughter of the Peacecraft family just as I believe your brother is perfectly normal for a son of the Peacecrafts. Normal, Relena, for your bloodline and I believe those two children on Mars are normal for your shared genetics and that is exactly why they are wanted by certain people in secured quarters away from the prying eyes of the public.” There it was again, that allusion to something Sally considered obvious but she simply could not recognize. She was reputed to be a young woman of quick intelligence and sound insight but she was ignorance personified in this discussion and Relena felt the gulf between her and Sally as a chasm. There was not so many years between them but at the moment those years seemed an insurmountable distance. “I don’t understand what it is you are trying to say.’ Slender hands rubbed at her temples and Sally winced and Relena knew she was not the only one with a headache which made her feel a little better. Sally slipped from the bed and indulged in a long and bone popping stretch before flopping back onto the bed with a sigh. “I am suggesting that for a number of generations now someone has been manipulating the genetic code of the old European Sector nobility. I suspect this has been done with the full permission of the families to repair genetic damage caused through inbreeding and to enhance what is generally accepted as being the physical and mental norm. Exactly what they are trying to produce by these enhancements I do not know but I believe there is sufficient evidence to confirm that something of this nature is going on in secret within the European sector.” “It is illegal. It has been for centuries ever since Hitler and his madhouse of scientists first devised the technology.” “You raise an interesting point. Germany lies within the European sector. Perhaps the Allied Forces were not as thorough in their purge as they believed? The Innkeeper spoke of there being magic in the Peacecraft lineage for centuries and I am inclined to believe that magic is nothing more than a very active genetic trait toward Psi abilities. Psionics, Relena, not sorcery. We are only now beginning to explore the potential of the human mind and the abilities of the human brain and I suspect someone out there is a little ahead of the general field. I suspect the Alliance stumbled onto this and panicked when they could not gain the cooperation of the King.” //With Hitler and his ideal of a superior race as a past example of what could come out of the area I don’t doubt questions might have been raised. No, I can’t make head or tail of this. I’m just too tired.// “I’m sorry, I feel so dumb but I still don’t understand why they attacked Sanc. Why not just assassinate the king?” “Because he was surrounded by family who were no doubt as interesting to them as the King himself was. Because if they could not gain control of the family and the talents hidden within them then no one else would be permitted to learn of their abilities or use the family against them. Because there were too many cousins who might carry the select genetics to be controlled and if you can not control it you must eliminate it.” “That … That is … horrible.” She was cold, a bone deep chill settle within her and she doubted any fire could work it out of her bones. “Unfortunately it is an entirely plausible scenario for what happened given the leaders of the Alliance at the time of the massacre.” It was her turn to slide from the bed and she began to pace the room her honey blonde hair tinted with red highlights by the flickering flames. She was aware of Sally watching her pacing and found herself at the shuttered window, pressing her face against the glass, the curtains scrunched in her hands and the chill of the blizzard penetrating the glass to send shivers through her. If she got any sleep this night she would entertain nightmares after this discussion. Suddenly it was making a horrible kind of sense and she wished she was still blessedly ignorant. “You … think that all of this … Milliardo being hunted on Mars and the massacre before … All of it is linked and it is beginning again? Someone in the government has learned of the psychic ability reputed to be in the Peacecraft bloodline and they want to ensure this time they get us all … or manage to control us?” “Yes. It is probably someone who knew why the Sanc kingdom was attacked, perhaps an aide now in a position of influence.” “You think they have been using Milliardo to control me, to muzzle me so that I could not do to them what Father may have done in the past?” Sally winced but she would not lie to the young woman who had turned, pressing her back to the wall and knotting the curtains in her hands waiting for confirmation of her doom to fall. “Perhaps. I think it would be more likely they saw the opportunity to use you against each other. Using each of you to control the actions of the other gives them time to prepare their own containment facility. It is even possible if they suspect there is another faction involved in this manipulation they may wish to establish a breeding program of their own. I am not the only one with access to the records that suggest the existence of someone manipulating the families and it is only sound reasoning to fight fire with fire. They are behind in the research so why not make use of the oppositions playthings?” “Sally! That is disgusting and … and … No, I don’t want to believe such a base possibility exists. We are not talking about breeding stallions and mares we are talking about living breathing people of intelligence with minds and wills of their own.” “Which is exactly what these people involved in this may not want at least without having established some means of control. The intelligence and certainly the morals of these people are open to debate as far as I am concerned but fine, for the moment we will discount that possibility.” Relena shuddered. The very idea of breeding programs to produce tame psychics sent shudders through her nor did it help that since her eighteenth birthday she had begun to receive gently worded suggestions that the son of this particular noble would make a fine husband for her or the son of that particular noble she had been seen dancing with would not make a suitable escort let alone consort. //Oh God, its all so horrible.// Why was everyone obsessed with her taking a husband since she came officially of age? All this talk of there being someone controlling the bloodlines breeding was getting to her, making her see fears where there should be none. There was only one male she would consider for the role of consort and she already knew many people considered him to be most unsuitable for a pacifist princess to wed. She had a great deal of work ahead of her before she was likely to convince Heero he was just right for her, not that she was exactly ready to take that step at this time. When she was ready she would need a strong consort and Heero would be the rock she could lean on. Strong and reliable … and he had been going to shoot down an unarmed civilian shuttle. “Relena?” “Umh. Sorry. I was thinking.” Dropping the curtain from cramping fingers, she twirled a lock of hair around a finger as she considered the woman watching her. “What am I going to do? How can I go into a conference, a debate or a council session again and be assured of not influencing anyone?” The Preventer agent sighed and waved a hand at the bed looking suddenly defeated. “Bed, Relena. Time for bed and maybe in the morning you should give some thought to whether or not you really want to ignore or crush this ability. It has already come in handy, don’t you think, in dealing with politicians and representatives of companies who were reluctant to help where that help was most needed? From your reaction before and again now I get the impression you realized you do have this potential and in the past you have used it. Was it so bad to use it to help those people who needed it?” “But … surely you can understand … Sally, if I make other people think the way I want them to think … That is sick. It’s rape. Mental rape. I’d be a despot. A dictator. No better than those bastards who ordered the murder of Sanc.” t.b.c.
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