Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing, and am making no money off of this fic.

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Standby by luvsanime02

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Chapter 1

It's not even until the week after all of the chaos happens during Relena's last conference that Heero is finally called into Preventers Headquarters to explain her actions during her last mission. The fact that it takes so long for Internal Affairs to call her back in to explain herself does not instill confidence in Heero at their abilities to do their job impartially or effectively.

Nevertheless, Heero walks into Preventers at eight in the morning on Monday, and she almost immediately feels out of place in this building where she has spent the majority of her time for the last decade. It's unsettling, but she lets nothing of that show on her face, and merely waits through the necessary security checks since she's technically entering as a civilian today.

The idea of her as a civilian is one that fills Heero with dark amusement. She's never been anything other than what she is: a terrorist, even if she is currently considered 'reformed'. All that means is that Heero has government backing for her activities nowadays.

Heero doesn't have that sanctioning anymore, though, which she reminds herself of again when she's finally waved through and allowed to enter the building. Best not to attract too much attention to her recent activities, then. Bugging government officials and hacking into the Preventers database wouldn't be looked on kindly by the Board of Professional Review if they found out.

Keeping her eyes facing firmly in front of her, while also watching everyone out of the corner of her eyes, Heero's not impressed with what she finds out. She can see that the office gossip is still going strong, and it's definitely not in her favor. The way other agents huddle together and start talking in hushed whispers after she passes by them is much too obvious. Not to mention the snatches of their conversations she bothers to pay attention to. Words like 'reckless' and 'full of herself' follow Heero down hallways and to the specified meeting room, but she ignores them. It's nothing less than she expected.

Putting that out of her mind, Heero knocks on the door and announces her presence. She's made to wait a few minutes, even though she's arrived at precisely the arranged meeting time, and wonders if they're trying to make her sweat during the wait. Heero would be amused by the tactic if it isn't so annoying that they're attempting psychological warfare on her.

Eventually, though, she's ordered to enter, and Heero strides into the room, making a point to look each board member briefly in the eyes. The fact that they're all men, and all clearly born and raised on Earth, doesn't surprise her, but it is aggravating.

"Agent Heero Yuy, reporting for questioning regarding the events of May 5th." The man in the middle of all the others is the one who speaks, announcing her. Is she meant to respond? Probably. How tedious. They all know who she is and why she's here.

Still, she nods. "Correct."

There's a pause, and some shuffling of papers, but Heero doesn't blink. She's not going to be intimidated by them. Heero's never been intimidated by anyone, not really.

Eventually, the middle-man speaks again. She wonders if the others are only there for decoration and intimidation.

What's wrong with her? Shouldn't she be a little nervous? Shouldn't she care that these men hold the fate of her employment in their hands? Looking at them now, Heero can't feel anything but impatience and anger. She shouldn't be here, explaining her actions to these men who have never been out in the field and understand nothing about what it feels like to hold other's lives in their hands, only to lose them through no fault of their own. These men know nothing about her, or her life, no matter what documents they've read, and Heero resents that they're now allowed to judge her.

"Miss Yuy, would you explain to the board your version of events concerning the morning in question?"

Well, at least that was a clear directive. Heero nods. "My team and I were assigned a low-risk mission to enter the specified warehouse and collect proof that-"

"Low-risk? Our paperwork here lists this mission as high-risk," one of the others interrupts. Apparently, they can speak after all.

Heero doesn't say anything in response, only looks at the man in the middle, the one who asked the first question, and slowly raises an eyebrow. The man looks uncomfortable, but nods. "We can ask questions about any discrepancies after Miss Yuy gives her statement, Leroy. For now, let's hear the rest."

The man who interrupted now looks suitably chastised so Heero continues, keeping her voice level and calm, no matter how much she wants to grit and bare her teeth at them. Likely, it wouldn't help her case any. "We were ordered to collect proof of the gang's illicit cargo, and leave after placing surveillance and taking some samples, if we judged that we could achieve this without leaving any evidence behind of our tampering."

She doesn't say that of course any team Heero leads would never be so amateur as to leave traces of tampering. It's irrelevant in this case. "We were at the location less than ten minutes before members of the relevant gang entered the building. They opened fire, with one immediate casualty on our side, Agent Sheffer. Agent Miller tried to draw their attention to save the rest of us, and was shot down, with Agent Killian dying while trying to take cover. Agent Parks was injured severely, and myself less-so. The remaining members of our team split from us while taking cover, since we were already fanned out looking for the evidence."

Here, she has to pause, to take a breath before continuing. "Although Agent Parks and I searched for the others, in order for those of us still alive to safely retreat together, Agents Dochart and Preston were already dead when we found them. Agent Parks and I managed to retreat on our own. We took a cab to the hospital, as Agent Parks was losing a significant amount of blood. While he was in surgery, Agent Po entered the hospital and took my statement."

Heero doesn't add anything else. There's nothing more to say.

The board doesn't agree, of course. They wait and let the ensuing silence ring, and then a third board member clears his throat. "This mission sounds high-risk to me," he says. Heero hates his soft, smooth voice after the first syllable. She knows men like him. They're the rats of the bunch. "Perhaps now we can address Mr. Fisser's concern?"

That must be Leroy, since he nods. Heero forces herself not to clench her hands into fists. They should already know the answer to his earlier question. She doesn't understand why the board is wasting her time and theirs by asking. "As Agent Po, who assigned my team this mission in the first place, can tell you, it was listed as low-risk before the events of that morning." She doesn't mention why the paperwork they initially received doesn't reflect this.

"That's some list of casualties for a low-risk mission," another board member states. 'You're lying' is what he doesn't say, but it's there in his voice.

Heero remains outwardly calm. Inside is another matter entirely. She's fast encroaching furious. "The mission was prioritized as low-risk because no members of the targeted gang were supposed to be at that warehouse." She still wants to know why they were present, what happened there. "Intelligence had previously uncovered an important meeting between them and a neighboring gang, and judged that the warehouse would be clear."

"I see." That's the man in the middle again. "Thank you for giving us your explanation of that discrepancy, Miss Yuy."

Heero really hates how he refuses to refer to her as an agent. Sure, she's technically suspended from duty right now, but it would still be a professional courtesy to refer to her as an agent of the Preventers Corps. She waits for their next question.

"You say," the last board member speaks up, "that three of the agents under your command were shot and killed shortly after you were all discovered in that warehouse. Specifically, you mentioned that Agent… Miller tried to draw attention away from everyone else in what I'm sure was a heroic effort to save his fellow agents' lives. Why-"

"Agent Miller," Heero interrupts, "was a woman. She took four shots to the chest and one to the head trying to shield her teammates."

Heero shouldn't have interrupted, but she can't bring herself to regret it. Not even when one of the other men speaks up and scolds her for it. She's seething at how casually the man mentioned Agent Miller's sacrifice, and how he clearly had to pause and look up her name on the papers in front of face, and didn't even bother to sound respectful or look up her service record too.

"Yes, well," the man continues hastily, once Heero's been scolded not to speak out of turn as though she's a small child, "my question is, why was Agent Miller the one who was forced to sacrifice her life for the rest of her team? You were the agent in charge on that mission, Miss Yuy. Should not that burden have fallen to you?"

They'd have liked that, wouldn't they.

Heero shakes her head. "Agent Miller was closest to the intruders after Agent Sheffer fell. I was positioned further away, and not where I could draw their attention to only myself."

Heero hates how they make it sound like Agent Miller didn't fully and knowingly choose to give up her life in order to defend her team. She wasn't 'forced' any more than anyone else was in their actions after their team was discovered.

"I see." The man taps his pen against the paperwork in front of him, but doesn't seem inclined to continue the line of questioning. Heero hopes that he's still feeling some shame in mis-gendering Agent Miller, but rather doubts it.

She hasn't been offered a seat in all this time, but Heero doesn't care in the slightest. She's fully ready to tear these board members apart in any way that she can, and she rather thinks they can see something of her conviction in her gaze because suddenly none of them will meet her eyes. She's both oddly satisfied and contemptuous of that.

The man in the middle clears his throat. "Miss Yuy, you claim that you and Agent Parks were both injured during the initial mêlée. Can you tell us how this affected your ability to move about and search for the rest of your team?"

Is Heero now being brought to task for daring to get injured right after they asked her why she dared not to die during the initial shooting? The hypocrisy is infuriating. "My wound was to my arm, and did not affect my movements," she explains. "However, Agent Parks suffered a from partially lacerated femoral artery, and my first priority was to ensure he would not bleed out before we could retreat. Once his wound was seen to as well as I was able to under the circumstances, I supported him as we moved through the warehouse."

There's some frantic pen scratching at that, and Heero doesn't even want to know why. She can't be blamed for taking care of an agent's injuries, especially one that would have been fatal without intervention.

There's another hour of questioning, of going through the same events over and over. Heero's been on witness stands before, and it's less exhausting and aggravating than this. Hell, she's been shot and blown up during a war, and it was still less annoying than repeatedly giving the same answers to the same questions like this. When the board finally does run out of questions to spare, they make her stand still while they have a short recess for themselves, and then when they return they insist on recapping the whole interview once again.

Heero thinks that she should get an award for not telling them all to go fuck themselves, really.