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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"
Chapter 19
Sanc Sanc Palace 1st March AC 198 Time: 02:15 Lady Une Lady Anne Une, known as Earth to the Preventers, motioned Heero Yuy to take the seat opposite and settled onto the divan. The small sitting room had been swept for listening devices by Heero when they had first entered. She was confident in the security of her best agents, and knew that fewer secure locations could be found for this conversation to take place. The tastefully chosen antiques gave the room a genteel, olde worldly air. One she had grown comfortable with as a child. In too many ways, however, this olde world charm reminded her of the war. Or rather, of the one person who had meant the world to her. Everything about the elegance of the room reminded her of His Excellency, his elegance, his charm, his irresistible charisma. She could hear his rich voice whisper to her if she allowed her attention to wander. She could still feel the touch of his hand. She looked for him in a crowd, knowing she would not find him there, yet unable to resist. Realistically she knew he was dead, that he had sacrificed himself for this peace, and unlike that blonde fool who was still causing trouble, he had succeeded. Why should His Excellency be dead and that nuisance still be alive and still be disrupting the plans for peace? // Not now, Anne. Later. // "Ice." Heero had never felt nervous in her presence, unlike so many other agents. He knew of her reputation, both during the One Year War and later as Earth of the Preventers, and neither bothered him. For that reason amongst a few others she found herself liking the young man, and more importantly, trusting him. She was a very different woman to who she had been three years ago, but she was still sharp, keen edged and no one's fool. She knew that he understood that she was still the woman who had threatened to blow up colonies if the gundams did not surrender. She could still call on that cold brutality if the situation ever called for it. She had found her softer side in the intervening years was not up to running Preventers, but combine her two personalities best points and she was afraid of no one. She thrived on running the organization and preserving the peace that He had died to achieve. Beyond the palace the night was dark, the moon hanging low on the horizon, almost set, shedding a silver light as it reflected from the snow covered lawns. Two hours after midnight and the dinner party over, the guests gone home. Relena had retired for the night, exhausted by the stresses and uncertainty of the day. Earth had waited until they were assured that the Vice Foreign Minister was settled to bed before they began this briefing. Heero had checked that all the permanent residents had retired, even Pagan, who was generally the last to retire and the first to rise to supervise the household. Preventer agents patrolled the grounds and walked the halls of the house. The surveillance and alarm systems he had personally designed were working faultlessly. Heero was confident they could have this discussion in complete privacy and she trusted him. "Tell me about the visit to Marquis Wayridge." Lady Une began. "A total disaster. Relena had a very rude awakening. The Marquis is a political creature. He sees the needs of the world over the needs of what little family he has left. I think he made a mistake and it is one he can ill afford to make. Relena will not soon forget what he said to her. If she ever forgets. The look in her eyes when he told her to forget she ever had a brother, and that he should die, just as he was meant to when the Libra core blew, was devastation. Family seems much more important to her than it is to the Marquis." "Marquis Wayridge has ever been a political creature. He married his daughter to Stephan Peacecraft for political reasons, not particularly caring if Katerina agreed to the pairing or not. I recall people commenting on how surprised they were that the royal couple actually appeared to have a genuine liking for each other. It was surprising to many that the marriage worked so well, considering the age difference of the two involved. Wayridge was very active in the push for the world to unite and accept the ways of the Perfect Peace Principle. Until the massacre at Sanc, of course. He decried the principle within days of the fall of Sanc, as all good politicians did, who wished to remain in control of what power bases they had built." "Pagan took Milliardo Peacecraft to the Marquis. In less than an hour the Marquis had them out of his house, handing over finances enough to establish Milliardo in a boarding school." Heero offered. "A very small, very out of the way boarding school, where there was next to no chance of Alliance officials children being enrolled." Old, distant memories stirred in her brown eyes. Memories of times when she had been a very different person. When she had been neither Colonel Une, nor the Oz Representative to the Colonies. Nor the self she now was. "Yes, I know. It was not the best place to send him. I recall that after Milliardo was removed from the school it was audited and closed down. By an Alliance Investigation Committee. Treize told me about it a year or two after it happened. The methods used there to educate the children were less than savory. Duke Heinrich Kushrenada had a hand in closing it down, when Milliardo was coaxed to tell how he received the bruises he was covered in." Earth rose from her seat and moved to the window, watching as the moon lowered toward the horizon. It was a clear night and she watched a security patrol cross the wide expanse of the front lawn. The dog was all attention to the night, but calm. All was quiet. No trouble. "I had hoped that the Marquis might have changed and that he might have a greater appreciation for family than he had shown in the past. I should have known better, but it had to be tried. His daughter was used in a political marriage. His grandson disposed of as being inconvenient and too recognizable. Now he has what he wanted he could prove to be dangerous. A blood relation in power. A young granddaughter he can influence and train in his particular methods. I had hoped we might have been able to ally with Marquis Wayridge. Unfortunately, it seems, not." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Heero Heero watched her, silent. He had been intending to broach the subject of Duo's abrupt departure from Earth, but somehow he knew that needed to wait. This was leading somewhere and he had the feeling it was going to be an important `somewhere' and that he should not distract the subject. Lady Une was leading toward something, deliberately or inadvertently, he would find out shortly. "Ice, are you willing to remain as Relena's body guard for the moment?" Une turned on him, brown eyes narrowed, watchful. Dismissing, for now, the shadows of the past. "Yes." He was, in truth, more than willing to have official sanction from Une to remain in Relena's company. For more than official reasons. He had a lot of thinking to do that was entirely personal in nature. He had to decide who he was going to become and just how far he was willing to take his association with the Vice Foreign Minister. "Good. Various factions in Earth Gov are positioning themselves, and I do not like what I see developing. There have been too many former Romefeller members elected to positions of power in the last twelve months or so. Some of the resignations that have taken place to see this current political assembly form worries me. It will shortly look like an old school reunion." Heero almost smiled at that. Almost. He could see that Une was serious, that she was genuinely worried about the power bases forming in Earth Gov. The top Earth Government officials were the ones who dealt the most with the officials chosen by the Unified Colony Government. Together the two governments made up the ESUN governing body. It was disturbing to consider that of the two hundred and fifty strong assembly in the Earth Gov Council, some one hundred and eleven councilors now were ex Romefeller members. In the last fourteen months some thirty individuals had resigned from the Council and all of them had been replaced by the nobles who once had filled Romefeller's halls. "Relena has rather a unique position in the political community. She plays an important role in controlling the interaction between Colony and Earth Gov Representatives. She is about the only truly neutral political figure in the entire ESUN. As such she is valuable as an ally. If it is determined by any faction in the Council that she can be influenced or outright controlled, then she may easily become a liability. Those who have arranged this fiasco on Mars are an example. There may be others in time. The simple truth is that Relena is a lamb and they are the wolves. We are the sheep dogs, Ice. She is too inexperienced to retain her position and influence on her own. She has many years before she can hope to stand against the political forces opposing her." Heero nodded, seeing that easily enough. Relena was barely eighteen. She had three years at most in political circles. You could not possibly count her growing years under her foster fathers grooming. She had, more over, resented the training he had been giving her, taking her to the colonies with him with more frequency to introduce her to colony leaders was only one small part of the training she had been given. He had fully intended that his foster daughter take up the fight of her biological father for peace to be found between the colonies and the Earth. "Her pushing for Milliardo's release and for the children to be left on Mars, will cause all parties to look at her with doubts as to her continued usefulness to them." Heero was beginning to understand where this conversation was leading. "Yes. Anyone who knows what is happening on Mars, now, will be watching her avidly. I believe that there is only a small core group of individuals who are entertaining this deplorable method of influencing her. Five or six, maybe. We need to acquire trustworthy mentors for her. Milliardo can be used against her. His children can be used against her just as effectively. Who ever controls them has control over Relena. She feels a deep sense of guilt over the way she treated him after the Barton Incursion and that guilt will ensure that she stands balanced on a tight rope. She is vulnerable while Milliardo can be used against her." "She was exhausted after the abduction." It was only recently that he had heard that Relena had apparently spoken out of turn after the battle to contain the forces of Dekim Barton. At the time he had been in hospital, unaware for days of the world around him. "Yes, she was. She was a sixteen year old girl who let her mouth run away with her, a thing a politician and diplomat can not afford to do, regardless of age. I am beginning to fear that Relena is not cut out to be a politician, Ice. While we have her, we must make the best of it, because I am more and more suspicious that it will not last. Eventually the pressure will get to her. She is eighteen years old and the weight of the world and the colonies rests on her shoulders. There is an entire Council of Representatives out there who are more than capable of running the Earth fairly, but who sit on their Laurels and allow a child to run herself ragged because she is the ideal figure head. Queen of the World. She will likely never be free of that bit of doggerel. Romefeller were nothing if not efficient in securing such nonsense a place in peoples psyche. She has now had a taste of the tasteless tactics that are all too common in the political arena. She will lose heart. Especially when she fails to ensure her brothers freedom." Lady Une met Heero's blue eyes, firm, resolute. Confident in her assessment of the situation. "She will fail, Ice. I have no doubt of that. If the ESUN Security Office can not control him, they will have no qualms about killing him as an example and then leaning on her using the children. They will break her to their hand, one way or the other. " "What do you plan?" He did not like the idea of anyone controlling Relena. Especially old politically minded men like the Marquis Wayridge. The Lady turned from the window and settled again on the divan, studying the ex gundam pilot for a long moment. She knew his past history. Since joining Preventers he had filled in numerous blanks in the details OZ had gathered on him. She knew they did not know it all. Knew there was a great deal that even Heero himself did not know about his past, but she knew, also, that she could trust him. Especially where the safety of the Vice Foreign Minister was concerned. His growing attachment to the girl had not gone unnoticed by her . He was very much still a mystery, but a mystery that the politicians were wary of. Though he had vowed not to kill again, she could trust him to kill should any threat to Relena require such drastic action. "Duo Maxwell will be on special assignment, shortly. He has agreed to the assignment and as far as anyone knows he is visiting family on L2. A situation will arise; if I have to I will arrange it myself; but I am hopeful that something suitable might come up that I can use, that will require he go undercover. Needing to work undercover will stop the ESUN Security Office from enforcing his parole, as per our working agreement with them. You will see that Relena is able to function free of interference, by upset individuals in the Earth Gov power sphere. That may just include her grand father after this failed interview with him. I do not believe that killing Milliardo is on the ESUN Security Offices agenda. Not yet, at least. It is more likely they will have him sedated somehow, and remove the children to a safe location. Should that happen, I will set up a group to learn of that location, and have the children removed to a safer and more protected environment. We will have to determine a solution to the dilemma that Milliardo presents at some other time. For now the safety of the children and Relena has top priority." "Miss Noin?" "I am doing the best I can to offer assistance to both Milliardo and Noin. I am uncertain how far Zechs will allow this to go. He may go quietly. Or he may lose it entirely and fight back. His mental state after what has happened is in doubt." she noted the curious look and sighed. "He has been interviewed by half a dozen psychologists over the time he has been on Mars. Even the latest one can not adequately determine his mental state. He could go either way. Lucrezia Noin, on the other hand, will be a fore gone conclusion. She'll fight. Her psyche evaluations leave me in no doubt of that. I have agents already established on Mars. They will offer what assistance they can, as the situation progresses. If Milliardo can make it to the alternate site on Mars, then we may have a chance to get him and the children free of ESUN control. If we can do that, Relena will have a great deal of pressure relieved. She may stay in the power structure that much longer." "Your expecting war if she leaves it?" Une considered him for a long moment and then sighed. "I am expecting trouble, Ice. Of varied forms. Not just war. Not only war. The best case scenario I can entertain is that we somehow solve this situation to the satisfaction of Relena and then manage to acquire some suitable Mentor or Mentors amid the political parties to act as a counter balance and give some much needed support to her. That would allow her to know that not all of the politicians in power are corrupt or addicted to game playing. The problem is to find such a person or group who we can trust not to manipulate her if we relax our guard when the current situation eases." Personally, he reflected, he was not likely to relax his guard over her. However, for now, he had another question. "Duo's assignment is?" a prompt. They had worked as partners repeatedly under the umbrella of Preventers and it bothered him that they were to work separated on the same case. If Duo was to go on assignment he had to know if there was any secure method of contacting him in his new circumstances. With their private investigation they would need to exchange information as they discovered it, and its very nature demanded that it be secret. "Duo will get Zechs off Mars, if at all possible."
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