Warning: Spoilers for Gundam Wing. This goes for both the prologue and the rest of the story.

Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing.

Sins of Our Fathers

Zechs couldn't help but take another look at the solemn Chang Wufei and not enjoy the knowledge of how such a look had been placed there.

Of all the people, he had least expected Chang to have done what he did but he had been proven wrong before. Taking one of the newly discovered Gundams and stealing a shuttle would be on the last thing on the list of what Zechs thought the Chinese man would do. He deserved more than just a lecture from Une but Une had that way about her when in a quiet rage and they needed all the agents they could get at this time.

Relena was still a prisoner, the kidnappers were demanding an enormous sum of money for her release, Duo Maxwell was still missing, a rouge Gundam was out terrorizing the Colonies, and so many upstarts were poking their heads out.

And here he was, still working on finding out who "special interest" was.

But at least he could say he had made some progress on it. Looking at the earlier records, he managed to trace quite a few of these similar transactions involving many officials of the Alliance. Taking a page from this, he expanded his search to involving all the recent activity, trying to find some sort of connection. He hadn't been the only one to have noticed that quite a few of the rebelling groups had somehow managed to get their hands on weapons, many of which were confirmed to be illegal.

Hmm, that was a thought.

His fingers began to fly over his keyboard until he had brought up as many files as he could on the Mariemaia incident and everything that involved Dekim Barton. It was just a small hunch but Zechs thought that maybe there was something there. If everything else he had found out about the other wars were consistent, that meant that "special interest" may have had a few dealings with the Barton Foundation.

Immediately, he began to filter out as many files as possible, trying to find only a few that were noteworthy to his task. Dates were important, financial records, anything along those lines. Much to his dismay, there was still quite a few files to look at. It would take a day or two to get through them all.

He needed to rest his mind; he couldn't keep working like this! Wait, what's this? There were some vid files here. Maybe he could spend some time watching those, let his mind relax before delving into the other stuff. Yeah, that sounded like a plan.

The first few he watched weren't very informative and only served to increase his disgust towards Dekim Barton. The way he had manipulated and twisted that poor girl…it was sickening.

Clicking on yet another vid file, mentally telling himself this would be the last one for a while, he got a yet another video of Dekim. The difference with this footage was that he wasn't with Mariemaia but with a subordinate. At least it would be different from the other stuff.

"Do you think we can trust him? He did say that he was only interested in the money," the subordinate asked.

"No, we can not," Dekim answered as he finished loading a few files onto a disk. "His allegiance is but to himself. He only seeks profit. If we fail at this, then he will get away scot-free. That will not be allowed. Once the Foundation has taken over, we will deal with Mr. Xavien. For now, the only proof we have is on this disk."

Zechs' eyes narrowed as he looked closely at the computer disk that Dekim removed and put into a case.

"Hide this," Dekim instructed. "We can not let him know that this exists. Not yet at least."

"I think I know where to put it," the subordinate commented as he left the elder Barton alone.

Stopping the vid, Zechs frowned in concentration as he went back over what he had just heard. That name, Xavien, who was it? It had to be someone important; could it be that this Xavien character was the same person known as "special interest"? Checking to see when the vid was created, he was a bit surprised to find that it had happened a few weeks before the aborted revolution had taken place.

Looks like he had something. Now to take a much closer look at this "Xavien" fellow.

---

She was suffering, there was absolutely no doubt about it.

Ever since Aunt Une had come home from work late at night, telling her that work was becoming hectic, the young thirteen year old girl that was Mariemaia Barton had begun to worry about the health of her caretaker.

She cared about this woman, the one person who had taken care of her since the end of Dekim's coup five years ago. She wasn't using the woman, no, she was done being that type of person. She honestly and truly cared about her and whatever was causing her guardian this intense stress was not only affecting Une but herself as well.

She had grown quite a bit, not just physically, and she was willing to give the woman she now thought of as her mother any kind of support she could offer.

However, that was easier said than done since Une went out of her way to keep her out of the loop. Well, if she couldn't learn anything from the Director of the Preventers, then she would learn it from those who couldn't hold secrets to save their lives.

The media.

It was from these sensationalist reporters of current events that she learned that Relena had been kidnapped…again. The kidnappers had made demands to the Legislature, demands that had yet to be given to the public, and it was a time of immense waiting as the kidnappers held the world hostage.

It was also from the media that she learned of the rise of Francis Knox. The man had been democratically allowed to assume power over the Legislature until Relena was returned or rescued.

"Despite aiming for a Pacifist society," Knox had one said at a press conference, "it has become clear to us all that the Earth Sphere United Nations is ill prepared for such a situation like this. Thus, I am introducing legislation to temporarily increase the powers of the Legislative Speaker during times of crisis, duress, and/or, God forbid, war. If anything, strong leadership is required in these dark times and I am prepared to step down should anyone protest my actions."

There were no protests, the legislation passing with unanimous support. Mariemaia was no fool; she could see what was going on. Knox, like any petty politician, was trying to increase his governing powers. Unless someone took a stand, it looked like he would be able to get away with it too.

Enough was enough. Une was going to tell her everything, what was happening, what was being done about it. Nothing would be spared or held sacred. If there was one thing that she had inherited from her late father, Trieze Khushrenada, then it was her curiosity and need to learn everything about everything.

So, she laid in wait, waiting for her prey, the unsuspecting Une, to fall into her ambush. If there was anything that Dekim Barton had managed to drill into her head successfully, it was how to wait until the time was right to spring your trap, no matter how long it might take. Dekim himself had waited an entire year after the fall of White Fang before instigating the original Operation Meteor.

Now, since Une was working late, her whole routine would be disrupted, making the young teen draw on her patience and wait. It didn't matter how long it would be. She had all the time in the world. But what if Une didn't come in tonight? There had been some times when the woman hadn't come home for a day or two. Still, she would wait no matter how long it took.

And there she was.

Mariemaia let out a silent sigh of relief; it seemed luck was with her tonight.

The moment Une stepped through the door and noticed the girl, her face brightened. "What are you still doing up, Marie?" she asked, though still looking happy at seeing the girl that she had begun to regard as her own daughter.

"I wanted to see you again," Mariemaia answered, smiling at the older woman. "I haven't really seen you in the past couple weeks. I was wondering if you were really here or just a figment of my imagination."

Une chuckled. "As you can see, I am pretty real," she replied. "Now, it's quite late. You best be getting to bed."

Now Mariemaia was worried. Damn, her chance to get Une to talk with her was shrinking. Looks like she had to go for the direct approach if she wanted any answers.

"What's going on?" she asked quickly.

Une looked puzzled. "What do you mean?"

"I know something's happening," she answered steadily. "If nothing was happening, then you wouldn't be coming home so late. What's going on?"

"Nothing you need to worry about," Une answered abruptly.

Mariemaia's eyes narrowed. "I know someone kidnapped Relena," she stated, surprising the Preventers' Director.

"How did you know that?" she asked.

"T.V." she answered innocently. "The press can't hold their tongues to save their lives. But what I really want to know is what is really going on. Who kidnapped Relena and what do they want?"

"This is nothing you need to concern yourself with," Une snapped. "Now, get ready for bed."

This was going nowhere real fast. She wanted answers and she wanted them now! "Please Auntie," she pleaded. "I want to know. I need to know."

"I'm sorry, Mariemaia," Une said, "but I can't let you get involved in anyway, not even if it's just information. You've been through enough."

"That's just it!" Mariemaia exclaimed. "I have been through too much and I can probably understand what's going on better than most people! Please Auntie! Why can't you trust me?"

Une didn't answer, choosing to remain silent.

"Is it because of my father?" Mariemaia asked quietly. "Is it because you're worried that I might do what he tried to do? Is that why you can't tell me?"

That snapped Une out of her self-imposed silence. "Of course it isn't. That would never be a reason, never. There's just so much happening…"

"Then tell me," the girl said gently. "I'm different from others my age. I've seen things they would never imagine and I've experienced such things."

Une looked deeply into the girl's eyes. Finally nodding, she said, "Okay." However, before she could say anything, much to Mariemaia's displeasure, Une's phone rang. The woman looked positively irritated but answered the call nonetheless. "Une," she snapped.

"I found something out about our mysterious special interest," answered the voice of Zechs Marquise.

"What is it?" she demanded.

"A name," Zechs replied. "Special interest's name is Xavien. I found it in some files involving Dekim Barton."

Une froze and slowly turned to look at Mariemaia.

"What?" the girl asked, confused.