The Way the People Sway
"Mission accepted."
The oft used phrase echoed through Heero Yuy's head. Silently, he inched his way through the ventilation system of the Romefeller building. A small part of him wondered why he had used those words when he was offered this assignment by underground radicals. But, this small part was drowned out by a larger part. A part that told Heero just to follow the order. After all, he saw no problem with it; he even agreed with it.
1...4...6.
He had thought that his terrorist days were over when the Eve wars ended, but old habits die hard. Bottom line, Heero was a soldier. He had known nothing else in his life, and he doubted that he ever would.
9...13...15...24. Stop.
The twenty fifth ventilation opening. This was his destination. Heero carefully looked into the office, and spotted his target. He could easily accomplish the mission from his position. Even with the thick silencer on the end of his gun, it wouldn't take that much to fire a shot accurately.
Heero didn't want that. He wanted to look his target in the eye when he fired. But, orders were orders. He could not let his personal wants affect the mission. He raised his gun and aimed.
"Are you going to stay in there all day?" his target asked, looking up at him through the ventilation grate. "Or, are you going to have at least the courtesy to come down here and kill me?"
Heero remained motionless for a moment, going through the many possibilities that could occur if he did leave the shaft. It didn't matter. If he didn't do what his target asked, the mission would have to be terminated. At least, this way he still had a chance of pulling it off. Besides, it gave him a reason to see the target face to face.
He pulled off the grate easily enough, and slipped out, landing cat-like on the carpeted floor. Heero stood up, his eyes fixated on the figure who sat calmly at the desk.
"Yes," Dorothy Catalonia nodded, emotionless. "I figured it would be you who ended my life. No one else would have the strength to try."
Heero said nothing, but focused his gun on her again.
"Can I at least ask your reason for assassinating me?" she queried, resting her elbow on her desk.
His focus never wavered. "Romefeller can't be allowed to remain if peace is to be maintained. Without you, it will fall."
"Probably," Dorothy nodded. She raised a brow. "But, why do you think Romefeller is still a threat to peace? Have we not taken a pacifist stand?"
"For now," Heero agreed, slightly. "But, that won't last long. You're too easily swayed by the masses. You will follow whatever they want."
"And that's wrong, how?" Dorothy questioned, curious. "It's our jobs as representatives of the people to speak for what they feel as a majority. Whether it be peace or war, it's their choice. It's our responsibility to give them what they desire, not what we desire for them."
"Your logic's faulty," he grunted. Shoot, Yuy. Finish the mission, and leave.
"No," she shook her head. "Yours is. Yours, and Relena-sama's." Heero's eyes narrowed at the former queen's name. Dorothy took no heed of it. "You believe that the minority should take care of the majority. That we, people of wealth and privilege, should be able to dictate the lives of all of the people below us. Because, we supposedly know better.
"That will never work. If it isn't what the people want, the universe will never know true peace. Treize-sama had the right idea all along," she sighed.
"Most people have no idea of what they want," he stated, coldly. Shoot, dammit! Why can't you shoot?
"Like you, Heero?" Dorothy challenged. He stiffened, and a slight smile appeared on her face. "You're a soldier, are you not? You simply do as your ordered to. You don't know how to do anything else but to obey. You would do just about anything on the orders of just one person.
"But, most people aren't soldiers," she shook her head. "They can think for themselves. They have opinions. Opinions just as valid as yours and mine. As valid as any of their representatives. Are you saying, that if the group opinion is different than their one speaker, their opinion becomes null and void? It becomes meaningless?
"I have more respect for the human race than that, Heero," Dorothy said, her eyes sad. "I've learned the hard way. Because of the Eve wars, because of battles started mainly by a rabid minority, I have no blood family. But," she smiled, "the people are my family, now. I listen to them. And for now, they want peace. So they shall have it."
Heero frowned. "And, when they no longer want peace? When they desire war, what then?"
She sighed, tiredly. "Then, they will have it."
Shoot her now! "That's unacceptable," he cocked the gun.
"Forcing peace down their collective throat is unacceptable!" Dorothy stated, firmly. She frowned at him. "Do you honestly think the people appreciate being told what's good for them?" Heero hesitated, and she took it as a sign to press the issue. "Taking care of the people is like taking care of a rowdy teenager. If you try to tell them what to do, they'll rebel. If you give them the freedom to do as they wish, they'll make mistakes, yes, but they'll learn from them. People can't learn from mistakes they can blame on other people than themselves."
Everything inside Heero told him to fire, to end the mission and leave. But the more he tried to tighten on the trigger, the stiffer his hand became. Was she right? Would true peace come only if the people could choose between war and peace? Must fighting be an option? Should only the people make such a decision?
He didn't know. Dorothy was right on when she said all he had ever done was follow what others told him. Heero didn't know how to function independently of orders. It had never occurred to him that the populace did not have his particular handicap. That they very well could make such important decisions.
He still didn't put the gun down. You have a mission. Fulfill it!
Dorothy sighed, and nodded. "It looks like you're still going to go through with this exercise of futility. Very well. I don't blame you, Heero," she smiled, not unkindly. "You are, after all, just following the orders of the few."
Heero had once said that Relena's idea of total pacifism was need because, while not practical, it gave hope. Without that hope, the future was doomed. But, it wasn't the representatives who needed hope. No, it wasn't the ones in power who needed it. It was the people, the ones who weren't given a voice, but were the very backbone of the war itself. It was the few who began the war. But, it was all of mankind who ended it.
They needed a voice. People in power who would represent the people's wishes, and love her or hate her, Dorothy was someone who would do just that. They needed her.
Mission... aborted. The organization would not be happy that he failed his mission. Not that they would be dumb enough to try to do anything to him. Heero lowered the gun.
Dorothy raised a brow. "You're not going to kill me?"
He walked over to the wall, and jumped up, climbing back into the ventilation shaft. "The people want you alive."
"Ah," she nodded, then looked up at him with curiosity. "And if they no longer desire me living one day?"
Heero stared down at her, his prussian blue eyes hardening. "Omae o korosu."
She smiled, slightly, and leaned back in her chair, her surprisingly soft eyes still on him. Heero replaced the grate, and started making his way out. As he crawled, he could just make out Dorothy's soft, wistful voice.
"Yes. That's the way it should be."