Dossier chapter 1:
The first file he allowed himself to view seemed to be a pre-deployment medical analysis.
Subject: 01, Black Alpha
Date: 4/1/195
Serial: 000-00-0001
Code: Heero Yuy
Age: 15
Sex: Male
Operation M: Physical : PASS
...
This was the last official analysis done on him by Doctor J. He was sure of it. Before he was 'deployed' on what was supposed to be his final 'tour', he had passed one last exam.
...
Subject is immune to most sedatives after prolonged exposure. The prolonged use of anesthesia, lidocaine, opioids, and SSRI medication during testing has had a lasting effect on nervous system response of 01. Use of 0Sys during combat simulation showed no immediate effect on brain activity in post-angiogram.
...
He had woken up restrained to his small cot that morning, but he had learned to pick his battles.
"Ah, you're awake." He found himself unable to answer the smiling doctor standing in the doorway.
"No need to strain yourself- your jaw is wired shut." Doctor J used his good hand to lift the chart from the foot of his bed.
"You took a hard fall during last week's test. You've been out cold since." He narrowed his eyes at the doctor, trying to make any sense of what he had just told him. When he tried to swallow, he felt the pain of his broken jaw radiate through his skull. His eyes burned.
"Do you remember anything prior to your arrival here, Black Alpha?" The doctor asked him. Either he was too young to understand the question, or he was too delirious from pain to decide on an answer.
"Just as well. Once you've healed, headquarters has a mission for you. Your first time on your own. You'll be headed to Earth"
...
Heero massaged his jaw. It had been dislocated plenty of times since that break, but he had never focused on the dull pain that seemed to always be present. He must have always been existing on some level of pain, but he hardly ever noticed. For years he had thought it was due to his own diligence, a testament to his strength as a soldier, but the notion that it was due to the fact that he spent most of his childhood dependent on medications took him down a few pegs.
It most certainly explained his lack of enthusiasm for anything other than those missions. He didn't feel much during that time unless his veins were throbbing with adrenaline. Unless his heart was pounding.
He had completed several missions since that day he woke up strapped to a cot. He had been to Earth for the first time, and he had killed civilians on a colony. He had done a number of smaller operations in between. He had killed many, and each time, his emotional reaction was intense. It was like they were carbonated and under pressure, and once the killing was complete, he would overflow. He both hated and loved the feeling. He shuddered. He was starting to remember little things. Like the "treatments" he received following every mission. Injections, vitamins, body scans...sleeping for days at a time. Staying awake for long stretches otherwise. Shaking like he was cold on those sleepless nights. As he built a tolerance to the "training", his body stabilized under the conditions. It became easy.
But he had spent a year away from Doctor J after he deployed for Operation Meteor. He took no supplies with him to Earth other than the clothes on his back and a small envelope full of forged documents and credit cards. No drugs. Not even food rations.
...
He heard thunder in his ears. His skin was on fire. He was going to drown. He could barely hear the sound trying to get his attention.
"...ear me?" The sound attempted. Wherever it came from, it seemed to push against his body. The sound was so shrill and powerful, it shook him.
Heero opened his eyes.
"He's just a boy..." The sound turned into a voice, and wherever it came from pulled his helmet from his body and freed his face from the hot pressure of his suit. As his eyes began to focus, he saw her, blonde, innocent, angelic.
Witness.
"D-did you see?!" His head swam. Every sound around him seemed trapped in his ears and magnified. The sound of waves crashing was amplified tenfold. The air was too crisp for his throat to handle. It was too clean. His ears popped from the change in pressure.
He wanted to vomit.
"Don't worry the paramedics are on their way."
"You what? You called the...dammit!" He couldn't fail this early. He had failed so many times before. He was such an idiot. He had been on Earth not even an hour, and his cover was already blown. As his ears cleared up, he realized he only had one option.
He pawed at his space suit, until he found the small rip cord. There was a small explosive mechanism that would inject a fast acting nerve agent into his heart if the cord was pulled, and it promised an almost instant death.
To protect the mission, he would die. He should.
He pulled the cord, but it was compromised. A small combustion knocked him onto the sand. He could hear the ambulance in the distance. A kilometer? Meter away? He had no time.
"What are you...oh the paramedics are here! Hold on!" The blonde turned and began to make her way up a set of stairs nearby. Heero ran after her, scaling the stairs without effort.
The first responders were vacating the vehicle, and preparing to approach him. He kicked them out of his way and threw himself into the driver's seat of the ambulance, throwing it into gear with a shaky left hand. He hit the gas hard, pushing it as far as he could before he had to clutch and change gears. His brain was...buzzing.
He barely noticed the blonde reaching out to him in the rear view mirror, as if conversing with his ghost.
...
The memory disturbed him. The vision was patchy, but still there. It was the day he woke up on the beach near the JAP point. He remembered feeling sick and suicidal when he realized his Gundam was trapped on the ocean floor. He remembered his thoughts racing and practically drowning in anxiety. But he did remember Relena's voice guiding him to the surface.
He smoothed his hand over the closed laptop. The first file had revealed to him his higher tolerance for pain was not something he was born with, but rather engineered by Doctor J. How much of the chemicals were still present? Had his body fully detoxed? How long did that process even take?
He flipped open the laptop again, deciding he had spent enough time mulling over a simple physical. If just reading the one medical report took him this long to process, he was afraid of what else he would find.
...
File 2:
To: Lowe
From: Null
Subject: Lancaster
Date: 5/1/188
I was touring the wreckage of a flooded colony, suffering the aftermath of the spontaneous L3 X-18999 fire. I found an orphan there that mentioned your name. I'm taking him with me. If I don't hear from you within five days, I'll know that you are out of service.
Yours,
- Null
...
Heero stared at the screenshot of the old e-mail for longer than it took to read it. The lack of content was disappointing- it didn't give him enough time to prepare for the last file. J must have sent it after he found him. The event was vaguely familiar. It was days after he watched his mentor, Odin Lowe, die after a botched mission. He saw Odin as a colleague, a mentor. Perhaps even a father figure.
Doctor Jay Null lacked in that department. He was more of a master.
There was one last pdf file to open. It was marked: BIRTH CERTIFICATE-01. As if Une wanted no room for confusion at all.
The first line read "Saint Gabriel's Hospital; Maternity Ward; JAP"
Earth.
That was on Earth.
"Heero...Are you busy still?" Came a small voice from the door. Relena leaned on the door frame like a shy animal. Her hair pulled back into a low braid, white seersucker blouse untucked from her navy blue pencil skirt. She must have slipped into flat shoes hours ago. She looked exhausted, and searching for a second wind in his office.
"Hn. Not at all...sorry." He found himself mumble.
"Hmmm...are you bored at all?" She offered, standing straighter on the threshold.
"Probably...I'm just finishing up. Are you about done?" He said as he quickly shut the laptop. He packed it into his Preventer-issued computer bag and slung it over his shoulder, standing in his chair and smoothing his black dress pants.
"I am. Want to head home?" She smiled. He returned a softened version of the gesture. It was rare that they could leave at the same time, as Relena often opted to head home early. She kept a fully stocked office at home, and took advantage of the opportunity to work in her pajamas when available. Heero usually hung back a little later, usually stuck filling out paperwork of some sort. This week Une gave him less assignments in the hopes that he would actually take the time to evaluate his recovered pre-Meteor files. He instead used the time to procrastinate elsewhere in the building.
But he couldn't stew in his own anxiety anymore.
"Lets get you packed up then." Heero said while throwing on his Preventer-issued black officer's jacket. It was a simple blazer with his rank embroidered on his breast pocket, and three gold squares pinned to the lapel, signifying he ranked just below Head Commander Une, who had four.
...
Relena had her briefcase packed and waiting on her desk already, as she did every day this week. She knew that Une had pulled back on obligations for Heero recently, and had hoped he would take advantage of the free time. She hoped she could take advantage of it too.
Finally he seemed willing to skip out early. He had been holed up in his office, in the dark, all morning.
"Minister Darlian!" Her assistant called from her desk outside her office. Heero emerged from the room with her cognac leather brief case in his hand. "Oh! Commander Yuy!'
"Elsa." He mirrored back.
"Is Minister Darlian heading out? She just received a call." Relena locked up her office door, now dressed in a camel pea-coat and fitted in her black sling back heels.
"Can you take the message and forward it to my e-mail? Heero and I are done for the day. I'll answer the message from home."
"Ma'am." Elsa nodded as she retreated to her desk.
...
"Are you hungry Relena?" Heero nearly mumbled from the driver's seat of his black SUV.
"I could eat...or I could cook. Or we could order food..." From the corner of his eye he could see Relena studying a message on her tablet, most likely the call she missed moments before.
"Maybe we can order food. Whatever you want."
"Hn."
"Relena..." He needed to tell her about the files, or rather, he wanted to. He wasn't sure how important they actually were. He wasn't sure he should tell her one of them was his birth certificate. He hadn't read past the hospital name anyway.
"Yes Heero?" She reached out to touch his arm. "Sorry...that was that Minister of Agriculture, what's his name...Siet Clark?"
"...That guy again." He grumbled, half smiling.
"What's that smile for."
"I don't like that guy."
"I know." Her smile lit up the car from the passenger seat. He found that over the past few years, he developed a knack for teasing her. She seemed to enjoy it.
"Heero...can you tell me why Une gave you a restricted schedule this week?" Relena never did like beating around the bush.
"Hn...we got some new information."
"Oh..."
"About us. About us pilots."
"Like what?"
"Like..." he turned the wheel into Relena's gated driveway, which angled and led to an underground garage. After putting the vehicle in park next to her own rarely-used sports car, he exited the SUV and went to open her door. Ever since Pagan had passed away, Relena had adjusted to not having help with flying colors, but Heero still liked to pamper her a bit from time to time. And yes, carrying her briefcase and opening doors for her was what he considered 'pampering'.
She looked at him with wide eyes before stepping out from the vehicle, she was expecting him to complete his sentence. He hated when she expected things from him.
"My birth certificate."
"Your...birth...certi- oh my! Heero!"
"I didn't read it. But...the hospital. I don't know if its the real thing Relena." As they approached the servant's entrance to her Brussels townhouse, Heero robotically submitted to the door's retina scan and input code onto the adjacent key pad. The door swung open.
"Well lets start there. Which hospital?"
"Saint Gabriel's maternity ward, JAP point." Relena stopped briefly, as if to accept the information. She slipped off her shoes and made her way into the kitchen, opening a drawer near the fridge.
"That would mean you were born on Earth."
"Yeah." He stared at her. This angelic creature that kept him calm. His best friend.
"You were born on Earth? At Saint Gabriels? Basically down the road from where I grew up..." He removed a bottle of whiskey from the counter and found two crystal rocks glasses in a nearby cabinet. Relena was thumbing through a selection of menus. It was mundane.
"You were born on Earth! Oh my god!" She yelled this time. Her face grew red. "In Japan?! Not the colony..." her voice faded. He handed her the glass with half the amount of whiskey he normally would drink himself in it.
"Where is it? What else did it say!" Relena requested after downing her whiskey in one gulp. Heero refused to let her see it. He wasn't ready himself to read the rest. The fact that he had not been born in space was betrayal enough. It was almost laughable. He had always thought the Earth was beautiful, but he always slept better among the stars. The only thing more beautiful than either was the woman standing in front of him.
She must have noticed him staring.
"Heero. You look so far away."
She took the bottle from him and poured them another.