So here it is finally, the (not so) long awaited Chapter Ten. Sorry for taking so long to get this up, I've been having internet issues for the past week. This one's a bit on the long side but there was a lot that I wanted to get in this chapter before the story sets off on a different course ;). Again, thank you so much to every that's been reading this story, and for the reviews and feedback, I'm very glad that you're all enjoying it! Well then, without further ado . . .
Occam's Razor
Chapter Ten – Brave Souls
Tynan
There was a knock on the door, which for some reason he found odd. The closed wing of a high security hospital didn't seem like the sort of place where people would knock before entering. Regardless, Heero stood from the chair he had been dozing in and went to open the door, but before he reached the knob it began turning and the door was pushed open.
Standing on the other side was a slender woman of about 30; her hair jet black hair was cut short and hung in a sort of bob that framed her face, her skin complexion was on the darker side which only made her grayish blue eyes pop out of her long narrow face that much more. She wore a cream colored turtleneck sweater that accentuated her long, graceful neck and a knee-length lab coat on top of that. Draped across her collar was stethoscope and clutched in one of her hands was a rather lager leather briefcase, the other was occupied with a small cell phone; she wasn't even looking at him as she entered the room and sat down.
Heero stood there for what seemed like forever and watched the young woman who would probably have the final say on whether or not he was ever allowed to leave this place try and send a text message on her relatively simple phone. Not sure what else to do and suddenly feeling very exposed in only hospital scrubs he tried to speed the process along, "Do you need help with –"
"No, I've got it, I'm just not very good with these sorts of things." Her voice was soft but sharp, she still didn't look up but as soon as the words escaped her mouth the small electronic device emitted an affirmative sounding beep and she flipped it shut. Bending down to her briefcase she deposited the cell phone in it and extracted several thick manila folders but did not open them, rather she set them on her seat as she stood. "Well then, you must be Heero Yuy."
Despite his rather unstable psyche he had never actually encountered any sort of a psychiatrist and was beginning to wonder if they were all this . . . casual. "Yes, I am."
She smiled, "Well thank goodness for that, I wouldn't have wanted to wonder into the wrong room accidentally and end up locked in with an axe murder . . . happened to a colleague of mine once . . ." She extended her hand and he shook it awkwardly. "I'm Dr. Kelly, I'm here for your preliminary evaluation."
Not wanting to seem rude he nodded slowly.
"Well, sit down then."
He complied with her request, but remained stiff and uncomfortable looking on the large, squishy armchair the hospital had seen fit to provide him with. Dr. Kelly took a seat across from him, "Well before we being I want to assure you that anything said in this room, or anywhere else we meet for that matter, will stay between the two of us. That being said, right now I am here to evaluate you but I will become your primary therapist."
"I don't need a therap – "
She ignored him and kept talking, "I can imagine that you're anxious to get out of here so let's see what we can do about that." She took a small notebook from her bag and flipped it open. "Commander Une is hoping to have you back to active duty as soon as I give her the green light. Assuming that what I've gathered from your case file is true, hopefully we can let you go in a week or so." She stopped and looked up to meet his eyes, "You should know Heero, that you are on the closed ward because Commander Une and Agent Po wanted to maintain a certain degree of discretion and privacy for you; you're listed as being admitted due a potentially serious case of pneumonia. Once you leave here your records will probably say that you're on medical leave, but you'll be meeting with me on a regular basis for that time, which will be at least two weeks, before I can allow you to go back to work."
Heero ran his hand through his hair in exasperation, "This is really all unnecessary."
"No Heero, this is all very necessary."
Resigning himself to the fact that no matter what he did this woman was not leaving, Heero slumped back in his chair and looked Dr. Kelly over once more. "You don't work in this hospital?"
She smiled, "What gave me away?"
"Your ID is a visitor's badge."
"Very observant of you; as it were I'm actually in private practice but I'm commissioned by the Preventers Bureau on occasion, like if they have a special case or something that fits into my area of expertise."
Great, so he was a special case now. "And what is your area of expertise?"
"Psychosis brought on by traumatic events and loss," She was no longer smiling, in fact her expression was somewhat unreadable, "especially for those with backgrounds in the military, those who lived through the war."
His expression must have betrayed his confusion because she continued to explain, "Initially I did a lot of work with the psychological attributes of soldiers; my research dealt with how the mental state, training methods, and intelligence of fighters could factor in to the outcome of battles and wars. But as the war progressed I began seeing men who were done fighting for one reason or another but still suffering the long term effects of constant fighting. Not in a post traumatic stress disorder way mind you, rather that they could not come to terms with what they had lost during the war, or sometimes as a result or after it. Soldiers were returning home without their friends, or to find their families gone, or that lives had moved on without them and they'd been left behind in the battle. Losing what little stability they had in the first place was enough to push many of them over the edge as they began to feel that they no longer held a purpose in life.."
Heero took a minute to mull over what she had just said as Dr. Kelly picked up one of the files and began flipping through it; to his great surprise handed it to him.
"Officially this is your file." she explained. He took it from her hand and opened it to reveal his what Preventers considered to be his official background, history, qualifications, and any number of other lies that had been made up to accommodate his scattered past.
"I won't jerk you around Agent Yuy; we both know that unofficially there is a great deal more to you."
His head jolted up in a questioning manner to which she only cast him a coy smile, "Yes, I know that you were the Gundam pilot Zero One, that you were more or less raised by a mercenary who trained you to be an assassin, then by mad scientist who went by the name 'Dr. J' who brainwashed you to be used as a weapon."
Heero knew he was gaping at her but she kept going, "I know that you were the one who repeatedly saved Relena Peacecraft during the war and that you joined the Preventers Bureau in order to keep her safe . . . I also know that she meant a great deal to you."
Heero was stunned, no one knew this much about him. "How could you possibly know those th –"
"Commander Une is far more resourceful than you give her credit for Agent Yuy." He must have been staring at her in a disbelieving way because her face suddenly became very serious and she raised her eyebrows a bit. "Do you really thing that OZ and Romefeller weren't doing everything in their power to learn as much about you and the other pilots as possible? Who do you think was in charge of finding out this information? Would Treize Khushrenada entrust a task of that magnitude to anyone other than his most loyal and faithful right hand?"
She stopped for a moment, presumably so that Heero could process this information. "In this day and age, Agent Yuy, no one, not even yourself, can slip completely under the radar. In fairness it was not your own carelessness that gave Commander Une something to work off of in the first place; it was in Dr. J's haste to command you to detonate your own Gundam that he did not adequately encrypt and conceal the transmission line he was using. Commander Une was able to trace his location and start working backwards from there."
Neither of them spoke for a moment, Heero waited to see if Dr Kelly would go on but she did not. "I take it she kept this information to herself then?", the statement came out somewhat bitter sounding.
The woman nodded, "Yes, by the time she had uncovered enough information on the five of you to make any use of it, her loyalties, along with her personality, had shifted somewhat and she felt that to protect what was dear to her, she must not share what she had learned."
"And she just came out and told you all of this?"
Dr. Kelly's smile widened a bit, "Before we begin I should probably tell you a little about myself."
He was getting angry now, frustrated by the sudden and casually delivered revelation that his preciously guarded past had been common knowledge to some all along. "I don't really care all that much. As for when we're beginning, it would seem you already know everything about me, so why ask me senseless questions so that you can try to figure out what's wrong with me." His voice was deadpan but effectively conveyed the overwhelming sense of annoyance he was currently struggling under.
"What makes you think that I need to figure out what's wrong with you?"
Heero cast the woman a quizzical, but venomous look. "That's why I'm being locked up here isn't it? Why you're here to evaluate me? So that you could determine for Une whether or not whatever it is you think is making me lose my mind is enough to keep me from doing my job."
"No Heero, that's not why you're here."
He tried not to roll his eyes; he'd never been this exasperated with someone in such a short period of time. "Would you please explain to me why I am here then so I can give you what you want and leave? I have better things to be doing with my time right now then talking in circles with a fake doctor who's going to overanalyze everything I say." The words dripped with venom and distain as he practically spat them in her direction.
Dr. Kelly, however, did not respond to the verbal attack, rather with all in the calm in the world, she removed her glasses and sat them down on the table next to her. Without a word she stood from her seat and closed the ten or so feet between her and her patient.
Heero barely saw her raise her arm, it was more the sting left of the right side of his face that gave him any clue she had just struck him. He did not react but only stared back up at her with a flabbergasted expression on his face.
She knelt down in front of him, her voice had taken on a deadly sounding quality to rival even his own, "Now let me explain something to you Heero Yuy: You are here for one reason and one reason only: because Commander Une feels that you are worth trying to salvage. Most officers and agents who pulled half of what you did, breakdown or not, would have been shown the door quite sometime ago. Une believes that with my help you can join the ranks of functioning adult society again. Two days ago you had a psychotic episode to rival that of a life-long heroine addict coming off a three week bender; you are hardly fit to be left by yourself, let alone continue to try to do your job. I'll be blunt with you Heero, you are teetering on the brink, probably have been for sometime now but something pushed you over the edge. You can go one of two ways right now: let me help you work through this and get on with your life, or suffer a complete psychosis so that the only thing you'll see for the rest of your life will be the inside of your padded cell and the nurse coming to give you your medication and clean the drool from your face." She stood up and looked down to meet his eyes. "Commander Une sent you to me because a strange series of events made me quite possibly the only person in the entire solar system capable of doing a damn thing for you right now."
She gracefully stepped back to her seat, Heero watched her in a dazed and suspicious sort of way but she did not seem to notice. She placed her glasses back on her face and picked up her notepad. "Now, as I was saying, I believe that I should probably tell you a bit about myself." She didn't wait for Heero to nod dumbly before continuing, "My full name is Dr. Irena Lauren Kelly, but during the war I was addressed by my rank, which was Major Kelly. I was a military psychiatrist under the Alliance and then OZ, and a close personal friend of Colonel Une. During her investigation it was that fact, and that fact alone that made her come to me to help her compile psychological profiles of the Gundam pilots."
- - - - -
"Hey guys, wake up! Come on, we're late!"
Heero rolled over on his cot and tried to dampen Duo's voice from reaching his ears; he'd been out of the hospital wing for two weeks now but was still on several medications that left him feeling groggy in the morning. However, he reasoned that he at least had excuse for his demeanor, Wufei was just plain cranky.
"Maxwell, it is 4:30 in the morning, I'm going to roll over and you had better be on fire, you'd better be standing there, in flames and I'm the only one who can put them out because that is the only – "
Duo had stopped listening, "Guys, Liz is leaving in 15 minutes, let's go!" He clapped his hands a few times to get his point across. He stepped outside the door leaving his two bunkmates to roll off their beds and pull on some clothes. Usually it would be them dragging him out of bed, but not this morning.
Aside from Elizabeth departing the base shortly, the three of them were finally going home after nearly four and a half months of trekking around South America and the Amazon. Following over a month of searching they had finally found the last of their quarry and had taken out Jonathan Asturias not hours before he tried to board an aircraft that would allow him to escape the continent for North America, apparently very aware that someone was after him and he had little chance of escaping them much longer.
Heero had been left behind at the base even after being released from the infirmary; his injuries were bad enough that his doctors thought it best that he not engage in any strenuous activity. Surprisingly he had complied with little objection, instead opting to remain at the base and work through the intelligence data gathered on Asturias. In Duo's eyes his friend needed the rest, but at the same time maybe sitting in the same place, slightly bored all day with plenty of time to be thinking was not the best thing for him either. He was beginning to get concerned about Heero; it was a series of little things that most would never notice, but he seemed distracted and distant, much like he had those three years ago . . .
The door opened behind him and Heero emerged, followed by Wufei. Duo grinned at them, both were clearly not entirely awake yet. "Ready?" They nodded in unison and wordlessly followed him off in the direction of the heliport.
- - - - -
Trowa leaned back against the wall and watched as Elizabeth checked her gear for the fourth time to make sure that nothing she was bringing with her would give her away as a member of Preventers. Thorough, as always, she had been ready to leave for two days now should something come up, but that didn't stop her from picking at every last little detail . . . but that's what made her good at her job.
"I don't like this."
She looked up at the sound of his voice but was clearly not surprised; rather she smiled in a sad and sympathetic way. "I know, but it can't be helped."
"You should be taking someone with you at least."
"Trowa, you know that I can't – "
"And working in Covert Ops for four years, you should know that missions like this are dangerous to the point of bordering on irresponsible." He heard his voice get uncharacteristically loud, but he didn't care. She was leaving to join some of the key members of the Eztli Gang under her disguise as a smuggler, supposedly they would be taking her to Africa to meet with several affiliates of Josef and his inner circle. She was going completely alone and would have almost no way of contacting them should something go wrong.
He was so lost in his thoughts that he was slightly startled when a pair of small arms encircle his waist and a mass of fiery red hair came to rest on his chest; instinctually he wrapped his arms around her returning the embrace. When she finally spoke her voice held a quality that he rarely heard from her, she sounded nervous. "Trowa, we both agreed that we'd have to be taking risks and that we had to put the work we were doing before us."
He sighed and held on to her tighter, "I know, I just . . . it should have been me – "
Elizabeth pulled back sharply from him, a look of annoyance on her beautiful face, "Well it wasn't! And if the situation were reversed don't you think that'd I'd be just as worked up as you are?"
Trowa nodded slightly, glad for the fact that half of his face was hidden by his hair, "You're right, I'm sorry." He stepped toward her closing the gap between them again and cupping her face with his hand, "Liz, I'm worried, I think that this is too soon into the operation and . . ." his voice caught in his throat, ". . . and if something happens to you, I might never know . . . and you'd just be gone forever."
Her eyes began to water slightly and he knew she could tell exactly what he was thinking: What if he found himself locked in the same fate of Heero and Relena . . . never knowing what had happened to the other? Without thinking he leaned down bringing her into a gentle kiss and she pulled him closer to her.
A knock on the door ended the embrace much sooner than either of them would have liked, but they separated just as the door opened and Duo appeared.
Liz smiled in spite of herself, "You lot came to see me off then?"
Duo's face cracked into a wide smile, "Of course we did! You didn't think we'd just leave without wishing you well did you?" He entered the room and pulled her into a bone crunching hug before setting her back down. Once firmly back on the floor she glanced over Duo's shoulder where Heero and Wufei were standing in the doorway and smiled. Heero still looked a little on thin side, but that was to be expected. As stubborn as he and Wufei were she had become very fond of both of men.
She stepped back to where her duffle bag was sitting on the floor and slung it over her shoulder, "Well I'd best be off then. When does your flight leave?"
"Not for another four hours." It could have been her imagination but there may have been a touch of concern in Heero's voice as he followed her into the hallway.
She stopped and turned to face the four men who had become like family to her, "All of you take care of yourselves then, yeah?"
They nodded silently and surprisingly it was Wufei who took it upon himself to speak, "You do the same, we'll be thinking about you."
- - - - -
Francheska leaned back against the long white van and watched as the small aircraft she was there to meet taxied down the runway, slowly coming to a stop and turning around to where a ground crew was waiting with a set of moveable stairs. In some ways she hated these sort of things, these meetings at the airport reminded her too much of much happier days; days when she was the one getting off the plane, following Relena Peacecraft onto the runway.
Relena. She had never admired and respected someone so much as the woman she had looked to as her mentor and come to love as a sister. The brief period of time she had spent in her service had been some of the most fulfilling days of her life, ones that she would never forget.
Stepping away from the van she tapped on one of the heavily tinted windows, indicating she'd be right back. Francheska sighed and walked a little distance away from the van so as to make herself more visible; as she went, she couldn't help but think back to how this life of hers had all started.
- - - - -
Francheska watched apprehensively as the uniformed officer checked and double checked her credentials before handing them back to her. As she stuffed them into the leather bag hanging from her shoulder she idly wondered what the hell she had gotten herself into.
"Step through the metal detector please."
The officer's voice startled her and in her rush to make up for the time she had wasted spacing out she half jumped, half ran through the large doorframe-like object, almost tripping over the end of it and drawing a look of speculation from the officer on the other side.
"S-sorry." she sputtered quickly before turning to present herself to the next office who was too busy with the computer screen in front of her to notice.
"Francheska Bidd-ell." The woman seemed to be talking more to herself.
"Biddle, ma'am." She nodded slightly in response before handing her a plastic badge in a laminated cover.
"Take the elevator to the 57th floor; give the receptionist your name and tell her that you're there to meet with Commander Une." She looked her up and down as she said this and Francheska knew the woman was wondering what business this sixteen-year-old could possibly have with the Commander of the Preventers Bureau.
Trying to walk with as professionalism as she could in brand new high heels, she stepped into the first elevator, which was completely empty, and pressed her floor number. Her nerves were starting to get to her again, she couldn't help but be curious as to why she needed to come to the Preventers Bureau Headquarters before she officially started her Parliamentary Internship. She was jarred from her thoughts as the elevator stopped at the 38th floor and a loud voice met her ears as the doors opened.
"Man, I don't get this, why do they need me to report every single move that I make?"
"Hn."
Two men in agent's jackets stepped onto the elevator, neither seeming to notice her presence. One had a large, thick, chestnut brown braid that hung down to his knees and was apparently perturbed about something. The other had mass of dark, unruly hair obscuring his eyes in such a way that Francheska wasn't sure how he could possibly be reading the files he was holding in front of his face.
"I'm serious man, I'm half expecting to have to ask for a hall pass to go use the bathroom, and I swear I'm going to lose this thing and all hell's gonna break loose because I won't be able to go anywhere in this freakin' building." The man with the braid waved his security swipe card out in front of him, his friend didn't seem to notice.
"Hn."
The elevator had begun to more again and Francheska couldn't help but notice that neither of them had pushed a floor button; as soon as the thought crossed her mind the elevator stopped again, this time on her floor and the one reading stepped off, followed by the one still ranting.
"Do they do this to everyone here or is this some sort of hazing for the new guys!?"
She walked behind them and began scanning the lobby area for the receptionist desk, quickly finding it but also discovering that it was empty. Looking around, the only other people in the area were the two men who had been on the elevator with them; they had stopped walking and the one reading was, well still reading, while the other was looking around impatiently. Finally the man with the darker hair lowered the files from his face and turned to his companion.
"Where were you going?"
He looked slightly taken aback, "Where were you going?"
The look on the other man's face was somewhat frightening, "I was following you."
"I was following you."
For a moment they just stared at each other then suddenly the man with the file flipped it shut and stalked back to the elevators, "We don't tell anyone about this."
The braided man let out a small laugh before he realized that his friend had left with out him, "Geez Heero . . ." he swore under his breath and punched the down button.
Not knowing what else to do, Francheska approached him slowly, "Umm, sir, excuse me. . . do you – "
The man whipped around so fast his braid hit her in the face and she stumbled back in surprise. "Oh, hey sorry, I forget that thing a lot."
Francheska stared at him incredulously wondering how anyone could possibly forget that they had a four foot long appendage hanging from the back of their head.
"What'd ya need?"
She composed herself as best she could, "I here for a meeting with Commander Une, they said there would be someone at the desk – "
"Oh yeah, they're always wondering off, no biggie, I'll take you there." Without another word the man strode towards one of the large glass doors and swiped his badge, there was a buzzing sound and the door automatically began to open. He looked back at her, "Well are you coming?"
Starting forward she followed him to other side and had to jog to keep up as he walked quickly down the long hallway stretched out in front of them.
"Oh yeah, so I'm Duo Maxwell."
She accepted his hand as they walked, "Francheska Biddle, you're an agent here?"
"Yup, just started a couple weeks ago, I'm in Security and Intelligence. Don't worry, this place isn't as scary as it seems, you'll get hang of it real quick."
"Oh no, I'm not a Prevent – " but she didn't finish her sentence as the man escorting her cut her off.
"Here we are, hang on a sec. Hey Nicole!" They had stopped at the end of hallway and came to a large open area; one of the walls had a sole elevator imbedded in it and a large desk lined against another. Behind it was a young woman of about 20 now talking to the man who had just introduced himself as Duo Maxwell. After a moment he waved for her to join him.
"Une's on the phone, you can just hang here for a minute and Nicole will – "
"Nicole, is that Maxwell I hear out there?!" A sharp, very angry sounding voice rang out over the intercom on Nicole's desk. Duo's eyes got huge and he turned Nicole, shaking his head silently pleading with her not to reveal him; the secretary only smirked evilly back at him.
"Yes ma'am, and your 8:30 appointment is – "
"Send him in here!"
Duo's head had flopped down on his chest, but he slowly walked through one of the double doors Nicole was now holding open for him and immediately the same sharp voice from the intercom began screaming. After he had entered Nicole did not let it close, rather she turned back to where Francheska was standing. "You should probably go in too."
She felt her self physically recoil at the suggestion, "Oh no, I don't want to . . . umm intrude."
Nicole smiled pleasantly, "Once she gets into stride it can take her a while to stop; if you want to see the Commander before noon today you'd best put yourself in her line of sight."
Francheska nodded thickly and made her way through the door in much the same fashion that Duo Maxwell just had. The office was large to say the least, the entire back wall was made of slightly tinted glass that overlooked the capital city of Brussels, in front of that a tall woman with brown hair framing her elegant face and wearing a Preventer's jacket over a military style business skirt was standing behind her desk screaming at the man who had just brought her here.
"I've been in the military my entire adult life Maxwell, and I have never seen anything like this." She picked up a folder and waved it in front of her. "You managed to fail a simple physical."
"I didn't fail – " he began to protest, but was quickly cut off.
"For blood type you listed 'red'," she had opened the folder and was now reading from it, "for weight you put '0' – "
"I was in space when I filled it out!"
"When asked if you had an allergies you wrote 'paperwork, boy band music, and Agent Chang'! Next to 'Eyes' you wrote 'two'."
He laughed a little, but she continued, "Oh and I forgot to congratulate you on the new addition to your family."
He looked puzzled now, "The new addition. . ."
"Yes, according to your blood work you're pregnant with a little girl!"
He smiled sheepishly, "I may have switched some of the vials around in the lab so I didn't have to actually give them my blood . . ."
"I swear to God Maxwell, if Agent Yuy hadn't personally requested you for this job I'd skin you alive and hang that braid of yours on my wall!" She gestured to the back of the room and stopped abruptly as her eyes came to rest on the figure standing near the door trying her hardest to be invisible. "Who are you?"
"That's Francheska Biddle, Commander. You're 8:30 appointment." Nicole's voice rang out over the intercom on Une's desk.
The woman's face softened a bit, "Oh yes, of course, please come sit down." She indicated the chair beside Duo, "As for you Maxwell, I'm going to be keeping a very close eye on you for the next several weeks and if I hear from anyone in your department that you are anything short of spectacular, well, it would be in your better interest not to let me hear that."
Duo Maxwell smiled in a silly sort of way, "Well, if that's the case . . ." he said as he started to get up.
"Not so fast Maxwell, this is Francheska Biddle, she's starting her first day of the Parliamentary Internship on the Foreign Minister's staff as her personal aide. Miss Biddle this is Agent Duo Maxwell, he's one of our agents in Security and Intelligence and Head of Domestic Security for the Foreign Minister."
The light of comprehension dawned on Duo's face, "Oh, so you're not with Preventers?"
She shook her head but Commander Une answered for her, "No Francheska was selected from a highly competitive pool of candidates for the position; she can hold the internship the entire length of her time at University."
Duo winked at her, "Pretty impressive stuff. Well, I'm sure that we'll be seeing a lot of each other – "
"I said not to go anywhere, Maxwell." He plopped himself back down in the chair with a pout and Une turned back to where Francheska sat, her beautiful face suddenly much kinder. "I apologize Miss Biddle, ordinarily I don't meet with every new intern that enters Parliament but as I'm sure you're well aware, the Foreign Minister is a bit of a special case . . ."
She reached around one of the many piles on her desk and picked up a folder similar to the one she had been reading out of moments ago, "Your background checks all came back clear, I just wanted to explain to you the security situation before you head over to the Medical Division."
"The Medical Division ma'am?"
She looked up, "Yes, we do all the physical examinations for ESUN members here, makes it easier to keep track of things. Is there a problem?"
Francheska sat very straight quickly, "N-no ma'am, I h-have a slight condition, that's all."
Une nodded, "Well you can explain it to Agent Po when you get there. Now, as I was saying, due to the incidents a month ago Preventers has stepped up the security level for all members of the ESUN government, but the Foreign Minister is being given special consideration. That being the case, as her personal aide you will be partially responsible for assisting her security team in matters of scheduling, appointment lists and things like that. Aside from those basic duties I want you to understand that you should report to Agent Maxwell or Agent Yuy personally anything you find suspicious or out of the ordinary; I'm sure that you'll be quite amazed with how quickly you'll begin to sense when things are amiss. That being said, all of the members of the Foreign Minister's security team are strictly of the highest caliber, I'd trust any of them with my life, however if you feel there is something that needs to be brought to their attention go straight to Agent Yuy or if he is unavailable for any reason, Agent Maxwell."
Duo made a noise half between a laugh and a sigh, "Yeah, as if Heero's ever unavailable when the Princess is concerned."
Une ignored him and kept talking, "Agent Yuy is one of the heads of our Security and Intelligence Division, among his duties are overseeing the Foreign Minister's security and personally accompanying her when she is away from secure areas."
"Secure areas ma'am?"
Une smiled a bit, "Yes well, I should specify that sadly we only consider four places completely secure for her; the Capital Building, which is where her office is, this building and the surrounding compound, which she rarely visits, her brother's home in the Sanq Kingdom, and her own estate outside the city."
"Which is where I come in." Duo grinned and pointed to his chest with his thumb.
His commander just rolled her eyes, "Yes, as I mentioned before Agent Maxwell joined us just two weeks ago to oversee the Foreign Minister's security while she is at her home."
Francheska turned to Duo, she supposed she must have looked somewhat surprised because there was an amused look on his face, "So do you have to live there with her?"
He laughed good naturedly in response, "Naw, I mean, I'm there sometimes, but she's got a whole 15 man team stationed there all the time, then I've got my three guys. We all rotate being there overnight to oversee the usual 15 guys. Me and Heero have other stuff to be doing in the department and all, so mostly we just keep an eye on stuff."
"Agent Maxwell is simplifying a rather complex matter, Miss Biddle; the Foreign Minister actually keeps he and Agent Yuy quite busy, but you get the general idea." She flipped the folder in front of her shut and handed it to Duo, "Agent Maxwell, if you would be so kind as to escort Miss Biddle over to the Medical Division . . ."
"Sure thing, Chief."
". . . and then retake your physical while there."
The man blanched but stalked out of the door without a word. Once in the elevator however he began ranting about well, everything and didn't stop until they had crossed the compound and entered the double doors of the large building. After presenting ID and signing in the receptionist handed them both doctor's masks before indicating the door behind her.
Duo slipped the mask over his face, "What's this for?"
"You'll see."
They didn't see so much as smell; it hit them as soon as they walked through the doors. Francheska's eyes began to water and she was pretty sure she heard Duo start gagging; it was a stench unlike anything she had ever experienced, something between chemicals and old meat. After some colorful curse words, Duo composed himself and began leading her down one of the halls, the smell only getting worse as they went.
All along the hallway were people in doctor's scrubs and Preventers uniforms running about, some with buckets containing what looked like bags of ice, others pushing seven foot long carts with sheets draped over them; all were wearing masks, some were even wearing goggles.
Duo stopped as they got to a particularly crowed part of the hallway, an angry voice was yelling over the general noise.
"Don't tell me that you don't know what I'm supposed to do with this! You shouldn't have people coming over from other departments to help you and then not tell them what do! Find Agent Po right now and tell her I want to see her!"
Even with his mask on Francheska could tell Duo was smiling as he approached the yelling man, "Hey Wufei!"
The man turned around to face them, "Humph, did they rope you into dealing with this mess too Maxwell?"
Duo didn't respond to the question, "Man, what the hell is that smell?"
The man who had just been identified as Wufei turned back to the cart he had been trying to maneuver around several large pieces of equipment. "They didn't tell you? The coolant system went down in the entire building; Une pulled everyone from my entire damn department to come over here and help Medical clear out the morgue."
Duo's nose wrinkled in disgust, "Well, Special Operations and all, what do you expect?"
Wufei just grunted at him, "Give me a hand with this."
Duo sidestepped a wayward nurse and joined Wufei; not knowing what else to do Francheska followed him and positioned herself to help them push the cart when a sudden movement from Duo caused the sheet on top to fall to the floor revealing a very pale, very pasty, very cold-looking individual. With a high pitched yelp she jumped back trying to steady herself and regain her composure.
Duo laughed at her reaction, "You alright there Francheska?"
Her heart was still racing, "I-is that man dead?"
"I sure hope so or that autopsy's gonna be a bitch." With those parting words Wufei Chang made his way around the corner and out of sight.
Duo laughed a little too deeply given the current state of the hall they were standing in and began choking; no one around them seemed to notice. The overwhelming stench was starting to get to Francheska, she was beginning to feel lightheaded and was about to suggest to Duo that they just leave when he apparently spotted who they were looking for.
"Sally! Hey Sally, wait up a sec!" Francheska followed him, carefully negotiating their way around the many objects strewn across the hall way until they reached a woman with brown hair pulled into two braids wearing blood stained white scrubs and a large, heavy looking badge on her chest.
"Duo?" She sounded surprised but that quickly faded, "Here for a retake? Well, it's going to have to wait, as you can see we've got a bit of a situation."
"Yeah, well actually it's Francheska."
"Who?" Duo stepped aside to indicate her to the woman who was having a series of clip boards shoved under her nose by a nurse that seemed to appear out of nowhere.
"Francheska's Relena's new intern or something, Une asked me to bring here and get her physical taken care of."
Sally was too busy signing things to actually look at Duo, "Well, it's going to have to wait – "
"Hey, doesn't bother me, just make sure you're the one to tell Une about it."
Sally handed the pile she was holding back to the nurse and rounded on Duo pushing him out of the way. Before Francheska could react, Sally had seized her arm and was taking her pulse, well maybe not so much taking as checking to see if she had one. Next she took a small flash light from her pocket and was holding her eyes open, looking at her pupils, murmuring to herself. "Pulse, evidence of brain activity," she stepped back, "Breathe in," Francheska did, "breathe out," she did, "You're fine."
Not waiting for another reason to be held up Duo took Francheska by the arm and began leading them back down the hall towards the lobby. He flung the doors open and ripped the mask off his face, dramatically staggering to one of the chairs. "Aww man, that was horrible." It could have been her imagination but Duo was starting to look a bit green.
"Agent Maxwell, are you alright?"
He didn't respond immediately, after a minute he looked past Francheska to where the receptionist was eyeing him with mild interest, "Where's the bathroom." She smirked knowingly and pointed to the opposite side of the room and without a word Duo stood and bolted to the door labeled 'Men'.
Francheska sat down and tried to calm her own slightly upset stomach.
"Francheska Biddle?"
She jumped nearly a foot in the air are whipped around to come face to face with the man who had been in the elevator with Duo not 45 minutes ago.
He made no indication that he even recognized she had been startled. "I'm Agent Heero Yuy, Commander Une sent me to bring you to the Foreign Minister's office."
Francheska tried to smile but something about this man was scaring her. "Oh, o-okay."
He picked up her briefcase from the chair next to her. "My car is out front, we should get going."
"S-shouldn't we wait for Agent Max – "
Heero Yuy had already begun to walk to the doors, "He'll figure it out."
She followed him outside where he was already putting her bag into the back seat of a black, two door, sleek-looking something or other she noticed had been parked in the fire lane. Unexpectedly he opened the passenger side door for her before crossing in front of the vehicle and getting in his own side. Without a word they were off, sailing out of the Medical and Laboratory Facility's parking lot and through the grounds of the Preventers Bureau's compound. Heero barely stopped to flash his badge as they came to the security check point at the main gate before launching the car out onto the road.
Heero flawlessly negotiated their way through the considerable amount of traffic; Francheska could barely feel the gears shifting from the car's manual transmission. He never took his eyes off the road and Francheska found herself watching him, fascinated, as they somehow managed to make their way onto the highway in a matter of minutes.
"Do you know how to drive stick shift?"
She turned to him rather quickly, realizing that she must have been staring, blushing a bit. "N-no, I've only just gotten my license. My brother tried to teach me once but I was so bad he was more worried that I was going to ruin his transmission."
"I may sign you up to take a driving course at the Academy with the Foreign Minister. It's important that both of you be able to drive whatever is available should a situation arise."
She only nodded and tried to think back to what her brother had told her, for some reason she felt the need to come across as competent and possibly impressive to this man.
"You seem uneasy."
Again she found herself blushing, "I'm just nervous I guess . . . when I put in an application for the program I never actually thought that they'd pick me for any of the positions, let alone to work with the Foreign Minister, especially not at my age."
"She's only about two and a half years older than you."
"How did you – "
"I read your file; I also noticed that you'll be doing a secondary major in computer science and programming while you're attending the ESUN University."
Francheska had expected this question to come up more than once. The University of the Earth Sphere Unified Nation was a highly competitive institution which accepted only the best and the brightest. Every student that attended was assigned an internship somewhere in the ESUN government and automatically enrolled as a student of government and political science. They were, however, allowed and encouraged to pick up a second field and, needless to say, computer science was not one of the more popular. "I've just always liked computers, they're much more straight forward than people, they only do what you tell them too, there aren't any surprises unless there's a problem, then it's up to you to fix it."
It could have been her imagination but she swore she saw the man's mouth curl into the tiniest of smiles. Francheska suddenly realized that they were entering the check point for the Capital Building, the guard that stopped them seemed to know Heero; Francheska reasoned that he must spend a lot of time here.
After a brief exchange, Heero pulled the car through the gate and off to the left to follow a small road marked "ESUN Personnel". It funneled directly into a large parking garage around the back of the massive building.
"With those ideas about computers it's odd that you'd want to go into government to deal with some of the least straight forward people out there."
Francheska was so taken in by everything she saw she had almost forgotten Heero was there and turned back to face him as he pulled into one of the spots, "I'm not sure that I ever will, I guess that's why I'm here maybe, to see if I'm cut out for all this."
Turning off the car, he opened his door and climbed out, when she emerged from the other side she looked up to find Heero looking directly at her, a serious expression on his face. "They wouldn't have chosen you if they didn't think you could do this."
She rolled her eyes a little and smiled as she shut her door, "I think that you're just being nice."
"I think if you were to ask around you'd find that to be unlikely."
Francheska suppressed a smile feeling that Heero had not intended what he said as a joke. She followed him through the garage and into the elevator. He wordlessly navigated them through the security checkpoint, to the Capital Building's West Entrance, into the Main Chamber's lobby area (where he had to pause for a moment so that Francheska could stop and stare at the magnitude and grandeur of the massive room) before bringing them up several flights of stairs and into the North Wing. Here, he explained, were all of the offices of the members of the Prime Minister's Cabinet. Francheska couldn't help but notice several of the doors they passed had no name printed on them and boxes stacked up outside, indicating there were new occupants there.
He finally stopped in front of a large set of hard wood double doors, holding one open for her and allowing her to step inside. There was nothing particularly special about the office suite, but Francheska felt her breath leave her chest. The only person in the elegantly decorated room was a thin, older woman of about 60 perched at her desk which was lined up beside the door. She looked up as Francheska stepped into the room.
"Can I help – Ah, Agent Yuy."
"Mrs. Bolling." He nodded to her, "This is Francheska – "
"Oh yes, Miss Biddle!" The older woman stood from her desk to shake her hand and Francheska realized that her own were trembling somewhat, "Well, the Foreign Minister is in a meeting right now – "
"Already?" Heero did not sound pleased by this.
"Yes Agent Yuy, did you really think that once she was allowed to return to work and begin her new post that she'd waste time lollygagging about?"
"She's supposed to be taking it easy."
Mrs. Bolling's eyes narrowed, but she did not seem angry, "I could say the same of you. As for Miss Peacecraft, she'll be fine, the work is probably good for her at this point." She turned back to Francheska, "If you'd have a seat over there darling, I'll introduce you to the staff once they've finished in there." She indicated a small hallway which Francheska could see a door at the end of. No sooner had the words left her mouth than the door opened and two disgruntled looking people emerged. One of them was a woman in her early thirties, with light brown hair cut in sharp angles which fell perfectly around her heart-shaped face. The man with her appeared to be about the same age but his hair was streaked with gray and he seemed as though he was beginning to bald.
"How's it going in there?" Mrs. Bolling didn't even look away from her computer screen.
The man leaned against one of the walls and rubbed the bridge of his nose with two fingers. "It's the her first meeting with the opposition party Edith, how do you think it's going?"
"That good huh?"
The woman stepped off to a door in the side of the room and Francheska heard the distinct sounds of coffee being made, "She's starting to get that look in her eyes like she's thinking of ways to kill herself."
"Hn." Heero had taken up a position in the corner of the room and was reading a newspaper.
The woman emerged from the side room, mug in hand and stopped, apparently just noticing Francheska for the first time, but Mrs. Bolling beat her to the question she was about to ask. "Lindsay, Lansing, this is Francheska Biddle, she's the new Personal Aide to the Foreign Minister."
The light of comprehension dawned on both of their faces and they moved to greet her. The slightly balding man made it there first, "Francheska, I'm Lansing Bainbridge, the Press Secretary for the Foreign Minister. This is Lindsay Garrison, she's our Communications Director."
Lindsay shook her hand. "Well then, welcome aboard; it will be great to have you, Relena's constantly working herself too hard, hopefully you'll be able to alleviate some of that for her."
Francheska found herself nodding dumbly when all of a sudden a great deal of yelling erupted from the room in the back.
"Miss Peacecraft, this is not going to get any of us anywhere we need – "
"I know exactly what we need Representative! I'm the one who wrote the proposal! Just because you're never listening when other people are talking doesn't mean that no one else is!"
"I know that you're listening to me, you're just not understanding me!"
"No, I'm disagreeing with you. That doesn't mean I'm not listening to you or understanding what you're saying. I'm doing all three at the same time! There is absolutely nothing in this proposal that can't be reasonably accomplished, but your office will refuse to support it based on party lines alone and that is something that I cannot tolerate!"
"This is politics Minister, you know better than anyone – "
"What I know, Representative is that I'm trying to find a way to make peace here, and when I do you can go on TV and explain to everyone why you're opposed to it!"
The door was flung open and the sound of high heels stomping against wood could be heard fast approaching. In a flurry of manila folders and blond hair, Foreign Minister Relena Peacecraft blew into the room. "Edith, get the Deputy Prime Minister's office and set-up a meeting with her for me as soon as possible, we need to discuss what her definition of 'complete support' is when used to describe our opposition. Lindsay, come up with a draft of a statement for the press explaining the delay in passing the Soldier's Amnesty Act, be sure to use as many synonyms of the words 'obstinate' and 'manipulative' as possible, Lansing, I want that statement distributed before noon today, Heero, if you're here to keep nagging me you can just leave, Edith, don't let him near my office!" And with a slamming door she was gone.
The room fell completely silent, and Francheska slumped against the wall next to Lansing, "I just want to die."
He smiled in a twisted sort of way as he stood and made his way towards the hallway, "It's this building, you'll get used to that feeling."
Edith stood from her desk and walked to where Francheska was still in a state of shock, "Come with me dear, we'll go introduce you, not you Agent Yuy!" She glanced back to where Heero had started to stand from his chair, he sat back down looking highly agitated. Edith guided her through the hallway Relena had just disappeared into and knocked lightly on the door.
"I said not now Heero!"
Edith sighed and pushed open the door to reveal a large, sunny, office. Against the back wall sat a tiny woman sifting through a mountain of paperwork at a frightening pace. "Miss Foreign Minister?"
Her head snapped up, "Oh, sorry Edith, I thought – "
"Minister, this is Francheska Biddle."
The woman's face instantly softened into a warm smile, "Miss Biddle, of course." She stood and walked around her desk to shake her hand and Francheska was surprised to discover how petite the woman was. "I am so very sorry, in all the fuss and confusion of today I managed to completely forget that you would be arriving this morning. Thank you, Edith." The older woman quietly shut the door behind her and Relena stepped back behind her desk.
"Well then, welcome. I apologize for the frantic pace, I'm trying to get a bill pushed through to Parliament before the end of term next month granting amnesty to those who fought in the war, sadly I believe I will only be able to get enough support if the bill applies only to those who were legally soldiers under ESUN's definitions. The rest they consider rouges, vigilantes, and terrorists . . . Tell me, did you know anyone who fought in the war, Francheska?"
She considered for a second how much she should divulge but decided to be as honest as she could with her new boss, "My brother fought with OZ Special Forces ma'am."
Relena nodded pleasantly, "And would you consider him a murder?"
The question took her off guard, "N-no! Of course not ma'am," She could feel her face getting red, "He fought for what he believed in, and well, he did a good job! Maybe what OZ did wasn't the best way, but the Alliance wasn't any better and at least my brother was able to try to do something about it! But the war's over now! We can't keep going back and holding people accountable for what they did in a different time and place when the whole world was in chaos . . . war changes the rules."
Relena gave her a genuine smile, "I'm glad to see that we're like minded in that respect." She picked up several folders from her desk and handed them to her, "These are the bi-laws which layout the procedure for having definitions and titles changed within the ESUN Laws and code; let's see if you could come up with a outline detailing for me how I can go about having their definition of 'soldier' expanded."
"Change the definitions, ma'am?"
The look on her face was a sly and coy one, "Expand upon them, Francheska. The word 'change' tends to frighten politicians. Edith will show you to your desk and get you set up."
Francheska smiled for the first time since she had woken up this morning, happy to see that her boss had a sense of humor. "Yes ma'am." She turned to walk out the door but Relena's voice stopped her.
"Francheska, never doubt that a small group of thoughtful and committed individuals can change the world, do you know why?"
"Because it's the only thing that ever has, ma'am."
- - - - -
It had been almost five years since she had first met Relena Peacecraft; even though she had been missing for three and a half of them, Francheska still thought of her mentor everyday. No one had ever impacted her life the way Relena had, she did not believe that anyone ever would again. When she had disappeared, Francheska had felt lost. She had stayed on with the rest of the staff for four months, trying to help Patrick House as he took over Relena's position, but it had never been the same. When she had told them she was dropping out of the program to enroll in the Preventer's Academy none of them had been surprised, not even herself.
She squinted her eyes and watched the line of Preventers and L-10 soldiers disembarking the plane, easily spotting the three men she was waiting for. Heero was the first to catch sight of her and the other two followed him to the van. She smiled as they approached; she couldn't pretend that she wasn't happy to have her boss back to settle the chaos that had become their department.
He looked somewhat surprised to see her, "Francheska – "
"Get in, they'll explain."
Heero raised his eyebrows but silently climbed in, Duo and Wufei right behind him as Francheska went back to the driver's side. Once they had the door closed Heero realized they were not alone in the back of the van.
"Quat! Dorothy! What are you guy's doing here?" Duo's jetlag was not so much that he could not manage to sound happy to see the couple.
"Commander Une is having me bring you guys directly to another plane that's bringing you straight to the Sanq Kingdom." Francheska was leaning through the window that separated the driver from the passengers.
"What?! Come on, I've been awake for like 24 hours straight!" Duo let his head fall back against the seat in an overly dramatic manner.
"You can sleep on the flight there Maxwell." Wufei, however sounded exasperated and exhausted by the notion of having to leave Brussels immediately again.
Heero turned his attention back to Quatre and Dorothy, as Francheska slid the window shut and began driving. They both looked tired; clad in jeans and loose fitting sweaters, they were wearing possibly the most casual clothes Heero had ever seen either one of them in and were looking somewhat disheveled. "What's wrong?"
Quatre sighed at the notion of being found out so quickly, "I'm sorry for surprising you like this, we've only just arrived back from the colonies half an hour ago ourselves; but we have some news and well, I believe that the Oprichniki may be tailing me now, it would have been hard for me to get into head quarters undetected, Miss Biddle was kind enough to offer her assistance."
Heero and Wufei nodded, Duo looked like he was trying to keep his eyes open as Quatre continued, "Several of my sources have indicated that Josef may be trying to build something in outer space."
Heero sat bolt upright, "In which one of the clusters?"
"That's the issue," Dorothy jumped in, "It doesn't look like any of them."
Heero's face remained calm, but Wufei did not hide his disbelief as well, "That's impossible, you can't build something in space outside one of the Lagrange Points."
Duo lifted his head, "A what now?"
"A Lagrange Point, Maxwell!" Wufei rolled his eyes, "Didn't you ever study physics?"
Duo just shrugged and Wufei looked as though he was about to launch into an explanation, but Heero beat him to it. "A Lagrange Point is a specific area in relation to a two body orbital system – "
"Like say, Earth and the Moon?" Duo asked.
Heero nodded, "In one of those systems there are five points where a small body, left to free float, can be stationary relative to the two larger objects, like the colonies are."
Quatre leaned forward, "That's why the clusters are where they are, those five Lagrange Points are the only places near Earth where there is exactly the right amount of centripetal force from the gravitational pull of Earth and the Moon to allow the object to rotate with them, rather than around them."
"And it looks as though Josef is starting to build some sort of station but none of the five clusters have seen anything, or received any indication that it could be within their Point.", Dorothy concluded with a tone of bitterness in her voice.
"Is it a ship then?"
Quatre looked back at Heero, "I don't believe so, I've been in regular contact with all the major suppliers who could fill orders for something of this magnitude. They're the ones who tipped me off to this development in the first place, but from the lists of orders they've received whatever this thing that is being constructed is, it's too big to just be a ship. Additionally, he's not ordering any sort of navigation related parts or equipment."
Duo tried to stifle a yawn, "So we have no idea what Josef's doing then?"
Dorothy shook her head, "No, the bastard's definitely a step ahead of us. What I came here to ask was whether or not we think it would be wise for me to share this information with the members of ESUN."
Before any of them could answer the van came to halt and Francheska slid the window open again, "We're at your terminal guys."
Heero nodded to her and gestured to give them one more minute and she closed the window again as he Duo, and Wufei began gathering their bags again. He looked back to Quatre and Dorothy, "Don't tell ESUN yet, we don't want it somehow get back to Josef that we're on to him before we even know for certain what he's doing."
Quatre didn't look quite happy with this answer, but Dorothy cut him off before he had a chance to speak, "My thoughts exactly," she glanced out the window, "You had better leave before someone notices that we're here, we may have been followed."
Without another word they wrenched the side door opened a clamored out, silently waving goodbye to their two friends. As soon as they had shut the door behind them, Francheska rolled down the window, "That plane will take you straight to the Sanq Kingdom," she pointed behind them, "Mr. Peacecraft is waiting for you at the palace, Une said she'd be along later tonight so that you can brief her on the mission."
She rolled the window up just as Duo shouted for her to keep an eye on Jimmy for him until he got back; she smiled in acknowledgement from the other side of the glass and pulled away as the three men walked towards their awaiting aircraft.
- - - - -
Heero rolled his shoulder trying to work some of the kinks out as he stepped out of the car that had met them at the airport and taken them to the Sanq Kingdom's palace. He had tried to sleep on the plane, but for some reason was met with limited success. Wufei and Duo joined them on the walkway of the massive building as their driver got out of the vehicle and began removing their bags from the trunk. "Mr. Peacecraft is waiting for you inside, sirs."
With a nod of thanks the three men started up the grand stairs, pausing to show their badges to the small cluster of guards stationed in the front of the building. Once inside they were directed down one of the larger halls to a wing Heero knew contained Zech's private offices. They had barely closed the doors to the massive hall when an angry voice erupted from behind them.
"You son of a bitch!"
Heero looked to his left to see Zechs striding towards him, fast. Wondering what he possibly could have done now, he braced himself for the coming onslaught; but to his surprise Zech's fist landed on the side of Wufei's head. Being caught totally unprepared the Chinese man staggered back now holding his jaw as blood trickled out of his mouth.
Heero and Duo both stood in shock not knowing what to do or say. Finally Heero moved over to Wufei and offered him an arm to lean on while Duo rounded on Zechs who was seething in Wufei's direction and breathing heavily, "What the hell was that for?!"
"That son of a bitch -"
"Have you gone insane?!"
"Shut up both of you!" Noin had appeared in between them and silenced the yelling match. Wufei and Heero stood just in front of her, which was apparently still too close as her hand shot out towards Wufei, this time connecting with his nose. Even Zechs looked taken back; it was well known that Noin was more than formidable, but no one had ever seen this side of her. Wufei's hand did not even make it up to his own face before he fell on his side. Heero made no attempt to catch him nor to stop the now red-faced Lucrezia as she approached the man lying prone on the floor.
"You bastard!! You sick bastard!!!" she screamed at him in a deranged sort of way none present would have ever imagined her capable of; her eyes were quickly getting red and beginning to water but she did not stop, "She's alive! She's been alive all this time and you knew!"
The words hit Heero like a ton of bricks; his blood ran cold and his head suddenly felt light. He glanced over at Duo who, if possible, now looked even more shocked than before. The groan from the floor brought them back; Wufei had raised one arm to grab hold of the table above his head in an effort to pull himself up. It was a valiant attempt, but with another groan followed by a painful sounding thud as his head hit the marble floors, Agent Chang was rendered unconscious.
This, however didn't phase Noin who looked like she was about to go in for more with Zechs right behind her. Duo leapt in front of his indisposed comrade, putting a hand up to Zech's chest. "Whoa Zechs, come on man, he's out cold."
Heero was in no mood to reason with them, he wanted answers; reaching over Duo, he turned Noin towards him. "Who were you talking about?"
Zechs threw him a look of shocked disgust as if to ask if he was really that stupid. "Who do you think? Relena!" he practically spat.
With his suspicions confirmed Heero's arms dropped from where they had been holding Noin's shoulders, Duo too had lowered his hand from Zechs. Glancing behind him, Heero looked over his unconscious friend from head to toe, thousands of question erupted in his head at once. He tried to formulate in his mind what to say but his head was swimming, racing with too many thoughts to even begin to sort try sorting them out. Above all of them however, on question pushed itself to the front: Did he dare hope that it was true? Zechs and Noin certainly seemed to think so. Composing himself, he turned back to the couple, his voice deadly sounding. "Slowly, tell me what you're talking about."
There was something that sounded like a deranged snicker from Zechs, "Now why would we tell you when we could show you?" Reaching into his pocket he produced a torn envelope and from that, a small data memory stick. He turned, indicating that they should follow him; jerking his head towards Wufei he snorted, "And bring him, I want to hear what he has to say when he wakes up." Noin looked at Wufei's prone form on the floor with an expression of pure venom. Zechs put his hand on his wife's shoulder and began leading her down the hall towards the stairs.
As they walked away, neither Heero nor Duo said anything. Duo looked in Heero's direction; his thoughts were racing a mile a minute, so Heero's head must have been about ready to explode. His friend looked pale, there were traces of sweat on his brow, and his eyes were vacant.
"Heero, you don't think . . ."
Heero made no indication that he had even heard Duo speak. Not knowing what else to do he closed the short distance between them and shook his shoulder gently. "Heero buddy, come on." Still no reaction. "Heero look, we won't know one way or the other unless we go see what Zechs wants to show us."
He still did nothing.
Duo knelt down besides the Chinese man on the floor and pulled one of his limp arms over his shoulder, heaving his weight on to his side. "Heero, a little help here buddy?"
Finally snapping out of his daze, Heero mindlessly obliged taking Wufei's other arm while noting the puddle of blood that remained on the floor where his head had just been. Despite his anxiousness he was suddenly overcome with an inexplicable feeling of dread, for some reason he was terrified to see what Zechs had to show them. What would it reveal? Would this only confirm that it was in fact him that had failed her, that had allowed her to be taken? And what could Wufei possibly have to do with any of this?
He walked down the hall to where Noin and Zechs had just left for in complete silence. As they entered the room Heero noticed that his hands were clammy and shaking, his heart was racing, and he was beginning to feel flushed and warm.
They settled into Zechs' private office, positioning Wufei in one of the chairs next to the window. Heero and Duo walked to where Zechs was plugging the memory stick into his laptop. A few beeps and whirring noises later they were staring at a frozen screen of the security camera placed outside Relena's room in the Peacecraft Manor. The time stamp in the bottom of the screen read '21:07 PM, 08/23/199'.
Heero felt a rush of annoyance and confusion; he had seen this before, he had it memorized, there was nothing there. He'd watched it dozens, probably hundreds of times, frame by frame, each time hoping something would be different but it always remained exactly the same.
It was as though Zechs could read his mind, "Just give it a minute, this isn't the part we're interested in." He clicked something on the remote and the video began to play at a slightly accelerated rate. Just like every other time before this one Relena appeared from the left side of the screen carrying her brief case, she pushed the door open and went inside, closing it behind her.
The tape sped up a bit, through the parts Heero knew were only images of her door. As it slowed down again Wufei walked onto the screen, stopping in front of Relena's door to knock, and this time too there was no answer. Again Heero watched Wufei wait for a moment and then knock on the door a second time, this time a little harder. There was no sound on the video but it was obvious that he was yelling to her. Then he was pounding on the door, then he pushed it open and went inside. Again the screen was empty for thirty-three seconds before Wufei burst out of the still open door, radio in hand, speaking to the security team on the other end.
Again he left in the direction of the stairs, then turned back and went to Zech and Noin's room. One minute and forty-eight seconds later three pairs of legs, one clad in standard issue Preventer's boots, one in gray sweat pants, and one covered by a long robe, marched through the upper right-hand corner of the screen.
Again, there was an interval of five and a half minutes during which various other sets of legs and occasionally the people attached to them made their way across the camera's field of vision as they walked the length of the hallway. And here again, twenty-three minutes and forty-five seconds after the last person had crossed the screen, Sally's team emerged from the direction of the stairs and entered Relena's room and the rest of the tape became irrelevant.
Heero waited for Zechs to stop the tape and explain what this was all about, but to his surprise the video continued to play and the older man made no indication he was planning to do anything but allow it to continue. He glanced towards Duo who wore a similar expression of confusion but Zechs waved his hand towards the screen and only muttered "Watch closely."
So they did. Neither of them had ever actually watched past the lab technicians entering the room, well not paid attention to it anyway; there was no need to, someone had been either in Relena's chambers or just outside of it the entire time.
The tape slowed down as Sally's team approached the door and stopped; she was saying something to the seven other technicians, instructions most likely, but Heero was unable to read their lips with the masks covering their faces. They entered the room and tape sped up, slowing once again as the door opened and four of the technicians walked out of the room. A second later his own image became visible coming in from the right, pushing aside several of the white clad people in order to get through the door.
Duo watched these events unfolding with growing confusion; what could any of this have to do with Relena not actually disappearing that night. It was very clear that she had not left the room prior to Wufei's arrival, nor after it, and from that point on the room had been filled with people going over every inch of it. Even if she was trying to hide she couldn't have.
Duo snapped out of his thoughts as the tape, which had begun to speed up again, slowed to reveal Heero walking out of the room and stopping outside the door. Heero knew this was when he had paused for a moment to consider Zechs, who was sitting just out of view of the camera. The lab tech that had found the blood on the bathtub left Relena's room behind him and dashed down the steps with his evidence in hand.
As he walked away the video continued on to where Noin joined her husband, and a few seconds later on the fast forward when Heero again appeared, this time with Une right behind him; and he, Une, Zechs, and Noin walked to Zech's office. Wufei appeared, heading towards the office a moment later.
The images on the screen suddenly lurched forward, covering around ten minutes in a few seconds. When its normal speed resumed the door to Relena's room was opening again, this time the remaining three lab technicians emerged, each carrying a large metal case or a piece of equipment; one of them Heero recognized as the nervous young woman he would later scream at in front of the manor. They stood outside the door and a moment later Sally came out of the room and pulled the door shut behind her. They were speaking but again their masks obscured their faces and Heero could not read their lips.
All four of them headed in the direction of the steps and suddenly the screen went black. Heero and Duo both waited for a moment; finally Zechs turned to them, "Well I take it that both of you missed it then."
Heero was starting to get annoyed now. "Do you have something to show me or not? I'm not in the mood to play guessing games."
Zechs gave a mirthless laugh, "Relax Yuy, I had to watch it over a dozen times before I picked it out." His voice was dry, almost as if delivering the punch line of a joke he didn't really find funny. "Fortunately for the two of you I've made it a bit easier."
He clicked the remote in his hand again and the screen changed to a still shot from the video; it was Sally and the seven lab technicians entering. The picture changed to the four Heero had pushed out of the way exiting. The next was the lone tech leaving the room just after him with the evidence sample. He clicked the remote one last time and displayed an image of Sally and the last three lab techs standing outside the door.
It suddenly clicked in his mind as it must have in Duo's as well; the man standing next to him let out a small gasp and practically screamed, "There's an extra person in there!"
Heero couldn't speak, he could hardly comprehend what he was seeing in front of him but the evidence was indisputable. Eight technicians had entered the room, nine came out. He whipped himself around to face Zechs, "What the hell is this?!"
Zech's eyes were still focused on the screen in front of them. He said nothing, but extended his arm to point to one of the people on the screen. Heero knew what was coming and silently pleaded with his subconscious to let it be anyone but her. Before Zech's finger even reached the mark he knew which one it would be; he felt the blood drain from his face and his worst fears were confirmed as the tip of the older man's pointer finger came to rest on the image of that nervous little lab tech.
"This is Relena."