A/N This was written quite a while ago at the same time as Sally Po: Life after War for a challenge on LJ community one_character, and takes place earlier in the same universe although the style is fairly different from that sequence. This takes place between the series and EW, and focuses mainly on Sally but there are appearances from most of the other characters. It is supposed to explain the preventers actions between the two wars and give a flavour of what each of the characters were up to.

This story is completely written but I'm doing the formatting for in chapters, (if anyone can't bear to wait the rest of it, barring a few minor mostly spelling and grammar revisions, is in my LJ under Sally Po) it will probably all be up in about a week


The death of Treize Kushrienada and the destruction of Libra had marked the end of the war and the beginning of an uneasy and fragile peace. It had been the former Oz officer Lady Une who had pressed for the creation of the peacekeeping agency the Preventers but Noin and Sally had been among the earliest to sign up taking over the responsibility for the peace that five boys had carved out in blood before scattering. Sally and Noin had been quickly partnered and sent off to investigate rumours and deal with trouble spots.

Sally sipped her tea waving to the café waiter to bring her chocolate cake across the table from her Noin sighed "I will never understand how you manage to stay so slim when you eat so much chocolate Sally."

"Chocolate is good for you, it helps regulate hormone levels, trust me I'm a doctor." Sally bit in to the cake with relish keeping one eye on the warehouse across the road, tapping her finger on the table in signal as a truck left

"That's the sixth one today" Noin remarked keeping the tone light so any eavesdropper would assume they were still discussing cakes "It's not good."

Sally looked up at her partner "I'll take plenty of exercise to work it off, I'll go over to the gym later and see what equipment's there."

Noin drained her tea and stood up "That's probably best, I need to go collect a package and ring home I'll see you later."

Sally watched her partner walk off to radio HQ and collect their packs for later, she looked longingly down at the last of her cake before pushing it away, Noin was right she was eating too many. It would be embarrassing to have to relieve herself of duty due to high cholesterol brought on by comfort eating over worry about teenaged ex pilots. Besides she had a warehouse to break into.

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Sally slipped round to the back of the warehouse jumping up and slipping through a window careful to make no noise, and thankful for the practice running around collecting Gundams and clearing up after their pilots. She crouched behind a pile of packing crates watching people working over conveyor belts. Sally was no mechanic but she recognised the mobile suit parts being assembled and packed so she reached down to her radio releasing the prearranged signal of static bursts. Sally slipped back over to the window freezing and holding her breath as a group of workers passed within 2 feet of her scanty hiding place. Her hand reached for her stun gun automatically, fingers clasping over it even as she prayed she would not have to break cover to use it. To Sally's relief they passed on without noticing her allowing her to slide out of the warehouse leaving the arms traders with no idea of her presence.

Meeting up with Noin two streets away she climbed gratefully into the jeep passenger seat to wait for the coming reinforcements whilst filling the woman in on the details.

"Are we leading the assault?" She asked

"We have two units heading this way now to hit the warehouse standard armaments, Une wants us to bring them in for questioning."

"What about the trucks we've seen leaving?" Sally asked cautiously, that last thing they needed was those parts reaching their destination.

"Apparently Heero Yuy is taking care of them." Noin told her with quiet satisfaction

Sally grinned "Hmm… Well I guess we don't have to worry about them then. I wonder if he'll be around HQ for awhile before disappearing again, I've been trying to do a medical exam of him for months but he's never around for long enough."

"I wouldn't worry about it Sally he seems to handle the missions he gives himself just fine."

Sally frowned "That's exactly the problem everyone, including himself assumes he's invulnerable; he pushes himself too hard. He pops up every few weeks to give us some new information or take on a suicide mission before disappearing again to work on who knows what, on his own, with no back up."

"The peace is only six months old, we're all working hard to ensure it continues." Noin pointed out calmly.

The chirp from the radio interrupted the well worn argument signalling the arrival of the reinforcements. Sally grinned looking over at her more subdued partner "Looks like it's show time."

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The assault on the warehouse had quickly descended into chaos as the sleeping gas they used had proved ineffective. Sally swore running to provide covering fire for the Preventers unit caught between a line of soldiers and the pile of rubble that had once been the back wall of the warehouse. Sometimes she wondered if she had grown too dependent on explosives and the timely, but unpredictable, arrival of a gundam that had helped out in the war. As she fired another non lethal dart into the line of soldiers, she took just enough time to check on Noin who was creating havoc over the other side of the building before diving behind a pile of bricks.

Sally noted the grenades as they sailed into the centre of the firefight and was relieved to hear a familiar cocky voice come over the radio "Hiya all, heard the ruckus, I'm hurt no one invited me to the party," She just had time to recognise the effects of sleeping gas before she collapsed too.

She woke up to the smiling face of Duo Maxwell "Hi Sal, how ya doin'? 'Ro's been talking about a bunch of arm traders over this way so I thought I'd better check things out too, just as well you'd made a real mess of that." Sally cringed at the accusation, despit the lack of heat in Duo's voice, but quickly turned her mind to more important issues.

"Someone switched our sleeping gas canisters," she told him quietly, trusting that Duo would understand the implications, she watched his face turn serious for a moment. He nodded calmly indicating his understanding before the grin returned and he walked off to check on the other Preventer agents and the line of arm traders sitting in restraints. Sally always the doctor turned to her partner propped up against the wall, her face cleared as she checked her pulse and she sat back to wait for Noin to wake before checking on the other agents one of whom was almost certainly a traitor.

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Une had not been pleased to receive their report and had immediately begun rechecking personnel files and the Preventer security system. Sally had been given the thankless task of cross checking the families of each of the agents. She was running on her tenth cup of coffee and had a migraine developing but agreed that they could not afford to trust the task to anyone else, leaving Sally, Noin and Une to run through all the details themselves.

Heero had disappeared to God knows where after delivering an address where he had left the trucks and drivers and Duo had skipped off back to L2 with a jaunty wave and not even a backwards glance. Sally was fairly sure that both boys were following their own leads but who knows what that would yield or if they would bother to share what they discovered, so in the meantime Sally was left scouring files for clues and drinking bad coffee.

Noin sat down sighing "Nothing, If any of the prisoners know anything useful they are hiding it well. They are nothing but pawns in a bigger game."

"Nothing here either, it would help if I knew what I was looking for though." Sally said dejectedly

"Looks like we have to wait for someone to make a mistake but we'll get them, hard work and perseverance."