Alpha & Omega
Hades' Phoenix

Even in a world of vampires and shapeshifters, of black magic and transient physics, the five Gundam pilots were unusual...and it had nothing to do with being the Sphere's most notorious terrorists by fifteen years of age. It was because of something much more primal, unconscious, and ultimately complex than mere social convention.

"I want you to infiltrate a prostitute ring on L2-X0843. There's evidence suggesting that it's being funded with blood-money from the war. Romefeller, specifically."

"An aristocrat who decided to invest in carnal sin after the first investment failed?" Maxwell quipped, lounging boneless in the chair before Une's desk. Chang, sitting with perfect posture beside the other pilot, made a quiet noise of disgust at the comment, and Une silently agreed.

"After I had Yuy start tracking down the old accounts, his security net caught suspicious numbers being filtered through several banks, including ones in Sweden and the Cayman Islands. He ran them and found that the accounts were under phony names. A few of them were aliases recycled from dead Romefeller officers."

Maxwell huffed. "That doesn't make sense. Why use known aliases from the war?"

"Overconfidence," Winner spoke up from zero-two's other side. "Or laziness. Proven aliases already have the necessary background to fool most systems. If the ringleaders really are associated with Romefeller, they'd already have access to phantoms that would cut down on the middlemen as well."

Une sat back in her seat to watch the interaction of the pilots. Three were sitting in chairs directly in front of her desk while Barton and Yuy had both taken up positions on either side of the door, subtly indicating that they had their comrades' backs covered. All five held themselves with confidence in their own way; all five maintained a certain amount of personal space and awareness; all five were extraordinarily dangerous, with both weapon and wit. With her expert eye she'd already counted a total of seven semiautomatic handguns and two knives up Maxwell's sleeve, but she had absolutely no doubt that she was only seeing what they allowed her to.

And yet, despite the self-assurance, despite their independence, there was also no doubt that these five alphas were as tightly knit as any other pack.

"Idiots," Chang muttered, eyes flashing with reptilian anger at people's unfailing stupidity. Maxwell snorted, waving a dismissive hand that trailed wisps of shadow in the air.

"So, what's the plan, boys?"

"I'll track down the source of the transactions," Yuy spoke up, "and narrow down our list of suspects. We shouldn't go in until we know who's guilty of selling more than just sex."

"I'll go in as a customer once you've done that and see how far I can get in," Barton added quietly. Neither he nor Yuy were given much to conversation, but observing how muscle shifted beneath his clothes Une knew it wasn't for lack of self-confidence. Preternaturally sharpened teeth flashed briefly in the light of the office as they spoke.

Maxwell, on the other hand, seemed to radiate with life and charisma, as though to make up for what he stole from his victims. "Better be a dealer or something, customers don't get much farther through the doors than the pussy they pay for."

"In that case, Duo, perhaps you'd better make something that looks impressive but won't turn Trowa into a junkie," Winner mused. "It'll give him an edge against the competition."

"Yeah, all right," and the necromancer lapsed into quiet thought, already focusing on his given task. Une carefully kept her expression neutral as the blond turned to her.

"We'll need some wires, of course. There's no way I'm sending Trowa in that kind of situation without a way to contact us. Heero can make them undetectable by any sensors or wards they might have up."

"Of course," Une agreed easily.

"Wufei, I'd like you to go with Trowa. If you're willing to put on a collar, then you can convince everyone you're his bodyguard and entirely off-limits."

A dragon's pride warred with one of the strictest ties of loyalty and possessiveness that existed among any of the Sphere's known races. Eventually Wufei sighed and said, "In the name of watching his back, yes, of course I'd be willing. Maxwell, make one crack about it and I'll string you up by your own intestines."

Purple eyes flashed with amusement, but he wisely kept his mouth shut. All the pilots knew that they would each do the same for another of their own anyway.

"Heero, I want you to keep an eye on their equipment and make sure none of them get tagged. The last thing we need is a mage messing up the wires or putting a curse on Trowa and Wufei. Duo, you're the most familiar with this kind of thing. Besides coming up with something for Trowa to substantiate his cover, do what you think is best, all right?"

"Aye-aye, Mister Boss Man."

Quatre's answering smile was at odds with the calculating edge of his eyes.

"What will you be doing, Winner?" Une asked, and received a rueful little laugh.

"I'm afraid that I'd stand out more than the others in this kind of environment. I'll be keeping tabs on all of them and running communications, but the second I step through the door everyone will know I'm, ah—"

"A high-bred noble who threw up on Persian rugs as a toddler," Maxwell provided cheerfully. When Winner rolled his eyes, the other pilot said, "Hey man, you can shoot and kill with the best of us, but there's no way in hell you're ever gonna get rid of the pansy-ass way you hold out a pinky when you sip your afternoon tea."

"…'Pansy-ass'?"

"Well, as pansy-ass as a Gundam pilot can be," Maxwell amended with an unapologetic grin. After all, it wasn't every day that one could find an empath capable of murder without hesitating to pull the trigger.

Yuy and Barton both came to stand behind the three seated pilots, the first leaning over Maxwell's shoulder to fix Une with the intensity of a lycanthrope's stare. The necromancer seemed to lean back into his presence without being aware of it; considering how jealously all five guarded their personal space, it was as intimate a gesture as anything else she'd seen. Une was once more struck by how they worked together as well as the internal gears of a single Gundam, and that it was little wonder OZ had lost the war to these five young men.

"Preventers will be funding this, of course." Yuy made what should have been a question sound more like a statement.

The lengths we go to for politics. "Of course."