The Mandred Chronicles:

Finishing Business

by zapenstap

"Wake up,"

Heero opened his eyes slowly as the light in his room flickered on and Mandred's head peeked around the door. Heero groaned and sat up slowly, rubbing his face. "What time is it?" he said groggily. He couldn't remember now what it had been like to sleep little each night and wake up alert early in the day ready for battles. He supposed it was because he felt safe now and his sleeping habits had changed.

"6:00 am," Mandred said. "Get up. We are going on a trip."

Not surprising really. It was the end of spring break. For the last week all they had done was go on "field trips." They took Ted to a park, went fishing, swimming, bike riding, and everything else recreational that Mandred could come up with. Heero wasn't given a choice; they just went. Sometimes Immilie came with them, and when she did, she usually brought lunch and they would have picnics. Once, she had even spent an afternoon teaching Heero how to cook a casserole, which wasn't that difficult really, though he had no desire to do it again without the directions.

It was strange to think how Melanie's death had changed him. Only a few weeks has passed since the funeral, and though it seemed such a short time, Heero found himself already unable to remember her as clearly as he thought he should have been able to. The solemnity that hung about those who knew her, though the sorrow remained in their hearts, dissolved in the affairs of day-to-day matters. Mandred thought little of it when Heero voiced his distress, commenting briefly only on the nature of death, that it was a complete passing from the world. Heero found it to be true. An acquaintance was stolen away in an instant, snatched out of the world between one breath and the next, and the world moved on without her. The imprint she had made, though significant and long-lasting to those who loved her closely, was like a footprint in the sand of a beach in the scheme of the order of the world, an indentation washed away by the next incoming wave. She would be missed in memory, but she was truly gone.  He had not known her well himself, but it made him think.

The realization set fear upon his heart, not for his own death, but for those he knew better than the girl he occasionally walked home from school. He began to take more active interest in the people around him, which surprised him as much as it did those people, but he was complimented for the effort. He found himself thinking often of the friends he had left behind on Earth, particularly Relena, who he realized had been extraordinarily kind to him in all the years he had known her, in many ways undeserved. Remembering the promise he had made Melanie, he took the liberty of calling her to inform her of what had happened, and also how he was doing. He felt it relief in doing so, considering the rudeness he had shown her recently. She had seemed so happy to hear from him, so surprised at the fluency of his conversation, that he was almost overcome with a sense of loneliness when the conversation ended. She seemed very far away, and the sound of her voice, the unquestioning support and respect in her tone, was a comfort he had taken for granted in the past. He found he missed her extraordinarily. The conversation was short, but did much to relieve his spirits, and he hung up the phone with a sense of quiet victory.

Not once in all that those weeks after Melanie's death did he and Mandred ever discuss anything having to do with the war. The first day Heero brought it up, Mandred changed topics with a simple "we're not going to discuss that now. Is Ted getting fat? What are you feeding him?" And that was the end of that. After awhile, Heero stopped thinking about it. He supposed that was Mandred's purpose in the evasion.

So it was that he finally relaxed completely, let down his guard, his fears, his miseries. He surrendered himself to merely living, and he knew that Mandred noticed, was aware of the changes in him, and there was pride in his eyes. Thus all their recent fieldtrips were pleasant excursions in which he enjoyed himself immensely.

Today was the last day for such outings.

Heero should have been excited, but instead he was unsettled. Yesterday, Mandred had gotten a little strange on him, falling into long moments of silence without explanation. He had not mentioned a trip yesterday, and Heero began to wonder what was going on. Why the mad rush to do a thousand things in one week? He was growing to like this peaceful, fattening life. He no longer missed the battles.

But he felt a change in the air this morning, and it made him nervous. He trusted Mandred as he had never trusted anybody, but an inner voice warned him that something was different this morning, that the world was moving again.

"Why didn't I know about it?" Heero said, his voice still thick with sleep.

"Because I didn't tell you," Mandred said. "But don't get excited just yet. We are going to colony X18999."

Heero was so startled, and in an unpleasant way, that he burst out "What?" and almost fell off the side of the bed. The apprehension he had felt redoubled. His stomach quivered. His head hurt. Fear crawled its way up his back like a scorpion.

"You heard me," Mandred said. "We have some... finishing business to take care of." He lowered his eyes, closed the door and walked away.

"Finishing business," Heero said breathlessly to himself. What about? He was not a fool. Was Mandred finishing with him? Cold fear struck his heart. Surely he would not just be dropped after all this time, abandoned as all the times before? He jumped out of bed and immediately began to prepare for the day. Surely not. His stomach quivered.

So it was that he found himself hours later boarding a small privately-hired plane to fly to a deserted colony he remembered too well. Mandred said very little during the flight, practically nothing at all, but Heero's head was already awhir with thoughts and memories of his training in this place, and the growing fear that Mandred would leave him here. But his trust remained.

They stepped off the space shuttle and walked to the complex where Heero had been trained as a gundam pilot since childhood. He remembered the way very well; it was not the sort of thing one forgot. Memories flooded his head, recollections of a time when life was meaningless, cold and empty as the grave, but yet somehow of worth in a war. His eyes latched onto familiar signs and landmarks, his hands gently touching railings and walls that sparked memories deep in his mind. He could remember destroying certain buildings and manufacturing plants, scouting others, training in others, always training. There were no mobile suits now, not since Relena's decree, but he remembered. They passed a park and Heero very nearly gasped. There was the green field where a little girl had addressed him in a friendly, familiar manner and asked if he were lost. "All my life," he had answered, and then he killed her, her and her puppy. It was during a mission, but it had been his first big mistake in the field.

He hadn't realized he'd stopped until Mandred walked up beside him. "I know," he said.

Heero started, almost forgetting Mandred was there, where he was. His mind was wrenched from the past by the voice of his mentor and he latched onto that voice in love, a desire for safety filling his heart. He felt like a small child. "That was a terrible mistake," he said in a choked voice. "That and Marshall Noventa. Why didn't somebody take my life for that?"

"I know about that too," Mandred said, and put a comforting hand on his shoulder. "I believe Sovia called you a coward."

"Yes, but I couldn't do anything else for her." And he paused. "Although maybe she was right. How would taking my life do anything for anyone but me? I really wanted to die then." It sounded so strange to say that, and know it was true, to remember the hopelessness he had felt, so totally different from what he felt now.

"Hmm." Mandred said. "Thought your life was over before it had begun? Fifteen is too young for that. It's a rough time, but it smoothes out in a couple of years if only you can hold on and endure. Temperance is gained through trial. Still, it was honorable of you to surrender yourself to Noventa's family in a way. You just ought to have asked forgiveness instead of death. That is why Sovia called you a coward, for trying to escape, for wanting to die instead of fighting to live."

Heero didn't reply.

"Did you ever read Mrs. Noventa's letter?" Mandred asked. "The one Relena risked her life to bring you?"

"No. I didn't see Relena after my fight with Zechs. I think Noin took her to the Cinq Kingdom after that."

"Well, I think she still has it. Ask her sometime. Mrs. Noventa is a very wise woman and I think you will agree with what she has to say."

Heero stood for another moment in silence. Would the mother of that little girl say the same?

"Are you tired of beating yourself up for your mistakes?" Mandred asked quietly.

Heero stood a moment in silence. "It doesn't really help."

"No, not directly, I suppose, but holding yourself accountable is still commendable. If you do it, other people don't have to, and that is always good. However, it is not healthy to dwell on your failures. Learn from your mistakes and move on." He chuckled. "It's an old proverb. I didn't make it up."

Heero smiled. "Yeah, I think I've heard that one before."

"Ready to move on?" Mandred asked.

Heero nodded and they left the park.

The complex where Heero was first trained had been destroyed. That had been part of the mission, to leave nothing traceable behind, but Heero recognized a good deal of it, even in the rubble. It was not a place remembered with fondness, but not with bitterness either. He had been only a waif, taken in by strangers and taught to kill, but not abused in any other way. Still, looking back, it was no life a child ought to have lived; it had been lonely and hard and hopeless.

"What are you thinking?" Mandred asked.

"Was Dr. J a bad man for what he did with me?" Heero asked. "Aren't many boys trained to be soldiers, and I the best of them? Wasn't the cause good, to end the war?"

"Or to aggravate it," Mandred said slowly. "I have told you what I think of how this war unfolded. It was not a clear thing. However, put your heart a little at ease. Dr. J was not an evil man. He was perhaps a touch unethical in his methods and motivations, but not a bad man. He was a genius and the goal he aimed for was a good one.  I will admit that I did not like him much and I did not agree with your training, but it was not so bad that I felt forced to interfere. You seemed willing, even eager, to learn all that you were taught. Much of your coldness is self-induced, I think, brought on by your own will, but I still lament that you were nurtured with nothing except the war. Dr. J accepted it; I didn't. Adults should take responsibility for raising youth to be as complete people as possible. You did, as I have mentioned, become obsessed with the war so that it has blotted out all joy of life until death was your only desire. You lived only for the mission, and everything outside that was but an obstacle in your path. You identified yourself as a soldier and of little worth. But you are worth a great deal more to many people, and loved too. You were taught many skills, but few foundations of the heart that make life worth living. I hope I have made a step in curing you of that, but it is not something I can wholly do for you. That is the worst of guardianship, to watch one that is loved go the wrong way and be able to do nothing without restricting the choices and freedoms of the one you love. However, I believe in facing the past if you are to reform the future.  That is why we are here today."

Heero stood silently as the wind picked up and blew his hair about his face. "Why do you care about me, Mandred?"

"How can the why of love be explained? Because you need it," Mandred replied. "If you are like myself, you will always be concerned with who loves you and how much. Everyone wants to be liked, to be loved and cared for. I do love you, Heero, though how I do may be hard for you to understand. It is not because I think you are more worthy than others that I spend this time with you, but you are as worthy, and I want you to know that in your heart before I leave."

Heero felt again a chill in his heart. How strange. He turned slowly around. "Leave," he said in a hushed, almost accusatory tone. "Where are you going?  What are you, my therapist? Is my session over?"

"No," Mandred said, and withdrew a small box from his jacket wrapped in wrapping paper. Heero marveled as Mandred handed it to him. "But you are eighteen today and legally free to live where and however you want. Happy birthday."

His birthday. He could always have left, he supposed, but if he had, he felt somehow that Mandred would have found him.  Freedom.  Heero turned the gift over. "What if I choose to stay?"

"Then you may stay, at least until I am called elsewhere. I would wish to spend as much time with you as I can, but you are too smart not to realize that I have a secret business. When the time comes, I may have to drop everything and go."

"I can't come?"

"You can't come," Mandred affirmed. "I wish I could explain why, but I can not. It is not a mission, I will tell you that much. It has nothing to do with war or manipulation of powers or police forces. None of your skills would be any great service." Suddenly, he laughed. "I sound like I expect to die, don't I? I do not, and I may not be called away anytime soon, perhaps not for countless years in the future. If so, you will be more than ready to leave by then. Are you going to open your present?"

Heero opened it. Under the paper was a box with a lid as he suspected. He lifted the lid slowly and looked inside with amazement. Inside was his birth certificate, with his real name, a social security card in his new name, his school transcript, two picture frames with pictures of, he believed, his parents. Under his birth certificate he found what appeared to be a family tree. There was also a letter from an insurance company and a document with what appeared to be information regarding a trust fund in his name.

"Mandred," he said, and could continue no further for a moment. "This is an amazing gift."

"Immilie called it an identity in a box," Mandred chuckled, "but I don't really think so. These papers don't say much about you, just your connections, or rather, connections you may want to make. I wouldn't be surprised if you choose not to, but at least you are equipped with the resources.  The trust fund is accessible to you at any time. It's more than enough to put you through college if that be your desire, or set you up otherwise if that pleases you more. The family tree I had Kyra make; one of those "errands" of which Duo is so suspicious. Coran and Kyra did a lot of research and interviewing for it, so there will be no hiding from any of the people on that paper who are still alive. I imagine we will be getting phone calls and letters any day now. You have a Great Aunt who is a family woman. I talked to her already. She doesn't seem to clearly understand what a gundam pilot is, and could care less anyway, though she marveled that you were a soldier."

"Where do all these people live?" he stammered.

"Everywhere. Mostly on L1 colonies and a few on the Earth, but really everywhere."

There were a good hundred names on the list. "In the way of most families, many of these people do not even know each other, so if you wish to contact them, you must find the people you like the best and establish connections there."

Heero had completely forgotten his past training by this point. "Let's get out of here," he said. "I no longer have any business here."

"I was hoping you would say that," Mandred said. "In a couple of years, maybe you will be like me and make jokes about it."

"Like you?" Heero questioned, and it was the first he had ever inquired directly about Mandred's past.

"A story for another time," Mandred replied, and Heero was not surprised.

They made their way to the airport in more conversation than on the way down. Heero wanted to know more about the people on the sheet of paper--he didn't feel very comfortable calling them "family" yet--and Mandred was only too happy to supply what little he knew.

On the plane trip back, Heero continued to memorize the names. "Michael," he said suddenly. "From school."

"Yes, he's the son of one of your father's good friends from college. That was a surprise to me too, but a welcome one. Now you two will have more in common to talk about."

"Before we leave this completely behind," Heero began, "do you think my training was worth it?"

Mandred regarded him with that look in his eyes that had so baffled Heero in the beginning. He realized now that it was a peculiar kind of love and care Mandred had for him, even from the first, and it no longer frightened him. Mandred smiled. "You were instrumental in ending the war. That should be answer enough for you. And I think those skills will likely prove useful in the future. When I came to the Cinq Kingdom for you, I told your friends that you were good at missions and oughtn't absolve to quit them. I haven't changed my mind. Just don't make it the center of your life. You can do many things and still be the best at that. Your skill, not your life, so to speak"

"Maybe I will become a Preventor now."

"Maybe," Mandred said.

The idea appealed more and more to Heero on the way home in the plane. He was not meant for school. It was dull and he had little desire to run a business or enter into any field of research. Politics and history interested him some, but politics would be included as a Preventor by nature. He would be doing something important, but he wasn't sure if the organization was for him. Perhaps he would only assist from time to time, and otherwise use his skills how he chose.

He didn't remember when he fell pleasantly asleep, the box on his lap, but Mandred had to wake him up when the shuttle landed.

*****

"Relena," Sally Po said at the entrance of her office. "There's a man here to speak with you. He says it's about Mandred."

Relena poured water into some of the potted plants on her windowsill. "I suppose I can take one more for the day. Please send him in, Sally,"

Relena set down her watering pot and resumed her seat behind her desk.

The man who walked into the room was breathtakingly beautiful, though too old for her personal taste. He swept into the room with the air of a lord, a general, even a king. He smiled at her with a little condescention as he entered and she wondered if he was an important delegate from some country, though she did not believe she had ever seen him before and any gathering.

"Good afternoon, sir," she said. "Sally Po tells me you are here to see me about Mandred?"

"That's right, Lady Relena," he said in a fluid, pleasant voice. "I hear you have met Mandred and...Immilie too. I have some information which might be of interest to you."

Relena frowned inwardly, though the only outward evidence of her apprehension was a small crease in her forehead. "I'm afraid your friend is outside my jurisdiction, Mr....?"

"I am called Teleb, my lady," he said cordially. "Mandred and I are not precisely friends, but more aquaintences."

"Is that so?" Relena said pleasantly, but her mind was churning. Not friends. She remembered what Immilie had said about her business on Earth. Relena had met Mandred only once, but he had seemed of true character and Heero spoke well of him just the other day. This man she knew nothing about, but he seemed highly arrogant, and though his words were civil, she suspected they were insincere. She wanted to know why he was here, but as a precaution, she casually pushed a button under her desk, alerting the Preventors of a possible threat. They would gather outside her door and be there in case something happened.

"Do you know where he is living now?" Teleb asked.

That was a very direct, probing question. "With Heero," she said easily, "on one of the L1 colonies." That would not be enough information if this man was a threat to Mandred, but it was enough to make her appear trustworthy.

"And who is Heero?" Teleb said with a touch of confusion. Relena brow knit in uncertainty. Perhaps she had judged too hastily. "I know of no one named Heero," he said. " I suspected the Master lived with Immilie, or some of those kids."

Relena blinked. The Master? What kids? "Heero is a friend of mine," she said, "and Mandred is his legal guardian. Heero has been staying with Mandred for the better part of a year."

Teleb eyes kindled in interest. "He is a friend of yours and staying with Mandred?" he said, and his eyes seemed to glow. Relena opened her mouth, but was cut off. "I may need your assistance, child," he said quietly. There was a definite threat in the way he said it, and she noticed suddenly that the way he was looking at her was not the way a person looked at another person, but the way a man looked at an object or if at a person, a person of considerably less worth.

Relena felt her back go stiff and steel entered her voice. "I am not one to be goaded and threatened," she said, staring him straight in the face, knowing that belligerence was clear in her features. She reached for the drawer on the left side of her desk and took out the small gun hidden there, barely larger than her palm, but able to shoot with tremendous force. She tucked it unnoticed in her waistline under her coat. "Nor will I tolerate this rude interrogation. Until proven otherwise, I consider Mandred to be a friend of mine, and nothing specific about him will you learn from me."

Then Teleb stood up and his eyes seemed to flame with anger. Relena took a deep breath, feeling fear quiver in her stomach, but she stood herself, not letting him intimidate her. Even both standing, and in her office, this Teleb was still the more threatening. Standing in front of the window with the sunlight streaming through, it seemed as if he was surrounded by a halo of light.

Relena stood her ground, hands clenched into fists at her side. "You're dismissed," Relena said with biting strength. "Preventors," she called, "have this man taken in for questioning. I..."

"You are no trouble," Teleb said smoothly, without any sort of emotion, as if merely making a point.

Suddenly, it was if the lights went out at midnight. Relena felt her body drop to the floor and lost consciousness, but she did not know what hit her.

End of Part 9.