[A/N: I am in the middle of a hatefest against FFN right now. I hate having to use this stupid, ugly horizontal line thing to separate my scenes, especially because it doesn't appear in my word processor just in their stupid editing machine, but they've taken away all the proper methods of indicating scene/time breaks and have ignored my suggestion that they at least permit the use of asterisks. Stupid stupid stupid, grrrrrrr. Okay, just had to get that off my chest. Here's another two chapters -- but just so you know, there may not be another for a while as I've just gotten to college and must somehow find a way to settle in and forge a social life and whatnot. Right, enough whining, here's the fic.]
Part Ten
Une ascended the platform in the Preventers' conference room to the steady flash of camera bulbs and a slowly descending hush. Relena followed behind her calmly, while Sally and Zechs remained in the back of the room, watching over the proceedings. Taking her place behind the podium, Une quietly cleared her throat before beginning. "Yesterday afternoon, at approximately 12:30, the offices of Vice Foreign Minister Dorlian were invaded by a terrorist force hailing from the L-2 colony cluster. The Vice Foreign Minister and all other government officials in the building were successfully rescued and temporary arrangements have been made for them here in the Preventers' headquarters until more suitable accommodations can be made to ensure both their convenience and continued safety. We took one prisoner; however, the building itself remains in the hands of the revolutionaries. Naturally, we are doing all we can to recover it as quickly as possible, and we anticipate results soon, as the rebel force appears too small to hold out against us for long. Colonial officials assure us that the actions of this minority group are in no way affiliated with or connected to the colonial governments, and we are assured their cooperation in every respect possible to aid in the apprehension of this group. Once again, the colonies condemn the actions of these individuals. Are there any questions?"
There was an uproar of voices before one question rang out clearly, "Commander, exactly how dangerous is this group? Should we, for example, expect another attack, perhaps on civilians?"
"At this point, we have found no information indicating that another attack is imminent."
"Did you have information hinting at this attack?" an accusatory voice demanded from the crowd.
Une raised her chin sharply. "Any intelligence gathered by Preventer officers is strictly for Preventer and law enforcement officials' knowledge unless it necessary for the public to know for its own well-being."
"Does this have anything to do with former Pilots 02 and 05?!"
"Once again, that information is on a strictly need-to-know basis." A rumble of protest followed the statement, a flurry of reporters continuing to demand things like, "Is it true that they're behind the attacks?" "Has Pilot 05 really betrayed the Organization?" "Does the enemy have access to your information?" and "What's being done to bring the pilots to book?" Une remained silent until the storm had ceased, then promised, "When more information on the subject is known it will be released to the public."
"When do you expect this incident will be resolved?"
"It's difficult to say. Naturally, we have high hopes."
"What about the prisoner?"
"The prisoner is currently in our holding cells; we are interrogating her every hour, and we are encouraged by our results so far. As I said before, if new information emerges it will be shared with the public on a need-to-know basis. Now if you'll please excuse me, Vice Foreign Minister Dorlian has some remarks and I must get back to work."
Une stepped down to an annoyed buzz, which quickly subsided as Relena stepped up to the microphone, enabling Une to beat a safe retreat out of the room. As expected, Relena's speech emphasized the continued need for communication between the Earth and the colonies. She stated firmly, "We cannot allow this isolated incident to cause an unbridgeable gap between us -- to do so would be sure to provoke animosity where previously there was none!" However, it was plain to see on the faces of all the newscasters as they left the conference that the official word had done little to reassure them.
By the next day, Une had been forced to release most of the information she had. Everyone now knew that the group behind the attack on the Vice Foreign Minister's offices was led by Duo Maxwell, the crazy Gundam pilot who had escaped a mental hospital; and that Chang Wufei, who had aided Duo in that escape, had now betrayed the Prevention Organization in order to further aid Duo in his plans for what looked like war.
The news had the effect of a bombshell. Serious doubts were suddenly cast on the Preventers' ability to handle the situation. In many areas, the panic that Une had hoped to avoid by withholding certain information broke out with riots and wild protests in city streets. Exaggerations of the revolutionaries' attack flew, even in the most respectable newspapers and television programs. Rumors abounded about the true intentions of the rebels and whether or not a new war had in fact already started without the public's knowledge. Despite governmental attempts to keep things orderly and in perspective, the public's faith was, if not shattered by the recent attack and betrayal, certainly stretched to the tearing point.
On the afternoon of August 30, three days after Une's initial conference, Quatre Raberba Winner flew to Earth and issued his own statement there, and though the words were addressed to the rebels, his presence on Earth was clearly a statement of unity. Looking very dignified and every inch the gentleman in his dark business suit, he made his appeal staring straight into camera focused on his face. "To my dear friends, Duo and Wufei, please don't do this. We Gundam pilots fought together for two years to achieve this peace -- and I beg you not to destroy what we have all worked so hard for, what we bled and cried for. Whatever your qualms are, we have made progress over these past years; and there are peaceful methods to achieve your goals -- we will listen to you. We will work with you. Let us help you. My friends, my comrades, let us work together once again. Don't do this. Don't fight this war. There are better ways. Duo -- Wufei -- peace."
Mr. Winner's voice shook with emotion on his last word and he was forced to drop his gaze to gather himself. His unique address was faithfully recorded and reiterated by hundreds of journalists and anchorpeople that night and for many days after. Questions were hurled at him as he stepped down from the stage, demanding to know if his support truly lay with the existing Earth government… If the other former pilots could be trusted or if they ought to be locked away for safety's sake… If his voice truly represented the minds of all the colonies or if once again they would be divided by war. Having already said all that he wished to, Mr. Winner's answers were curt and direct. He had left the building within fifteen minutes of his arrival.
After watching the broadcast for the first time, Duo fell into a fit of abject depression. For several days, whenever Wufei tried to talk him out of it, he was completely unresponsive. Then, finally, one morning he appeared before his troops with a smile on his face. "Well boys," he announced, rubbing his hands together, "I think it's time we sent out our own spin on things, don't you?" For a few seconds all that greeted Duo's proposition were blank stares, until realization settled in and excitement began to shine in everyone's eyes.
Duo in particular threw himself into the project with fervor; it was, after all, his face that was to appear on the tape. He worked for hours, carefully preparing and tailoring his speech. He began by stating the fact of his divine backing. He then sent his assurances to the people of Earth that it was not his intention to pit the colonies against them, that his only problem was with the government. His aim, he freely let the world know, was to bring just men and women into power as replacements for those who did not deserve to be there. He stated calmly that his hope was to accomplish his goals with as little bloodshed as possible. He encouraged all people to join his cause, as surely that would bring about the change more swiftly. He made no mention of any future plans of attack.
The videotape was dropped off at a local television station as soon as Duo was satisfied with it, and by the evening it was everywhere. With high spirits, Duo was bringing his movement out from underground. The next week he began holding rallies in L-2. The turnout to the first one was nothing special, but at the second the crowd was enormous, and continued to grow at all subsequent meetings. Duo confided in Wufei that he believed part of the turnout was due to the fact that L-2 was the poorest of the colony clusters, but he was flying high with the encouragement. And all the while, the team on Earth was solidifying their place in the Vice Foreign Minister's offices, and had already completely overhauled the computer systems to be inaccessible from the outside. The government building had become a fortress under siege.
Mariemaia waited until she could no longer hear the shouts and laughter of the other children before she stood up and brushed the dirt off of her uniform. School had always been terrible to her, especially since Une had made the decision to send her to the Strasbourg International School, a private institution that catered to the children of almost all of the world's political figures. But these last few days had been particularly unbearable; ever since word had leaked out that Duo and Wufei had been behind the attack on the Vice Foreign Minister's building, the children, and to some extent the faculty members as well, had begun treating her as if she were the cause of the conflict. It had begun with an even stricter isolation than was usually imposed on her thanks to her attempted coup six years ago. Mariemaia took that in stride; her pride had made her immune to that sort of thing long ago. But then it had escalated into small acts of violence, and today had been the worst by far.
Mariemaia twisted her arm around to examine a small, painful bruise from a pebble that one of the boys had thrown at her. She wasn't going to put up with it any more. She couldn't very well take revenge, but she certainly wasn't going to stick around to be their scapegoat. Father would never approve of me if I did that, she told herself. Wufei, the only relic she still had of her old life, certainly wouldn't either.
She did so want to know how he was getting on.
As she got up and started across the schoolyard to the road beyond, the thought occurred to her that the only person who might be able to tell her was in the Preventers Headquarters, locked away and unable to leave. A flare of excitement started to burn in Mariemaia's chest -- Middie Une could answer her questions about the rebellion! Mariemaia began to walk much more quickly in her eagerness to reach her destination.
When she finally arrived, she knew exactly where she wanted to go. Mariemaia had been in the Preventers Headquarters enough times to know her way around perfectly, and she quickly made her way down to the restricted access part of the building. She had only rarely been there without Une, but often enough to know some tricks for getting in without being caught by the active guard. Sneaking in was trickier than usual with the extra precautions being taken in case a full-scale war was to break out, but Mariemaia still managed it.
But when a few minutes had passed and she was still wandering along the halls without finding the cell she was looking for, Mariemaia began to get a little nervous that she might never find Middie. Then, a few doors down from where she was standing, a cell door suddenly swung open. Panicked, Mariemaia looked around for somewhere to hide. Of course, there was nowhere, and before she knew it Sally Po had strode out into the hall and was staring straight down at her. The exhaustion evident on her face was momentarily erased by surprise, but Mariemaia had begun to relax -- after all, it was only Sally.
"Does Une know you're down here?"
Mariemaia sniffed disdainfully before declaring, "I wanted to see Middie."
"Oh, you do, do you?" Sally actually laughed out loud, but quickly stopped when she saw that despite Mariemaia's act her desire was more fervent than just some childish need to gawk. She looked torn for a second, then sighed and said, "Well, come on then. I don't suppose it can do any harm…all she's done is sit there for the past ten days. But when you're through it's straight upstairs to talk to the Commander about your not being in school."
Mariemaia was caught off-guard by Sally's generosity, and though she had really only wanted to see Middie alone, she accepted the offer and shyly stepped inside the cell with Sally. Middie sat on the plastic bench built into the opposite wall, doggedly staring at the blank wall in front of her.
Mariemaia knew she couldn't give away the slight bit of loyalty she felt for the rebellion since Wufei had joined it in front of Sally, but at least now that she knew where Middie was being kept she would be able to return in secret more easily. Rather than asking the questions she had come with, she instead attempted to strike up a conversation with a tentative hello. Middie was unresponsive; she didn't even glance over at Mariemaia, let alone reply. Nothing else happened for the remainder of the brief visit, and after a few minutes of silence, Sally led Mariemaia firmly back outside and upstairs to Une's office.
"Preventer Wind and I are supposed to meet with Une in a few minutes, but you'd better go in first, I think," Sally said, and although there was humor in her voice her eyes betrayed her tenseness.
Paul, Une's current aide, told them that they'd have to wait a few minutes as Une was currently in the middle of some rather urgent phone calls. Mariemaia contented herself with examining the dirt stains on her white stockings until she was called in; she didn't really feel like talking with Sally much -- despite the woman's good intentions and friendly overtures towards her, every time Mariemaia had seen her together with Wufei and watched their relationship advance, she had always felt a childish surge of jealousy as though Sally was touching something cherished that belonged to her without permission.
When Mariemaia was finally allowed into her guardian's office, she discovered her bent double over her desk, her face cradled in her hands. "…Une?" Mariemaia queried tentatively, "Are you…all right?"
Obviously startled, Une lurched to her feet. She frowned when she saw Mariemaia, and immediately demanded of her, "Why aren't you in school?"
Mariemaia bit her lip at the accusatory tone and for a long moment did not say anything, only stood with her head bowed and rubbing the back of her left calf with the opposite foot. When she did finally look up and answer it was with a determined look shining in her eye. "I'm skipping," she said simply. "I'm not going back to school."
Une stared at her with an amazed look on her face before sitting down again, laughing and saying, "I beg your pardon, young lady, but you most certainly are."
Mariemaia stood up a little straighter, indignant. "No. I'm not. You don't know how they treat me there so I suppose you don't understand, but I'm not going to be their scapegoat any longer just because of who I am. I'm sick of it!"
Une's eyes narrowed a bit and she sighed. "Mariemaia, this is no time to be difficult. Now please go outside and tell Paul to drive you back to school."
"No! I've just told you, I'm not going back to that school!"
"Stop whining," Une ordered her sharply. "I do not have time for this right now. We'll discuss it later if you like, but you are going back to school, so stop behaving like a spoiled child and go ask Paul to drive you!"
Mariemaia's breath started coming in short, rapid gasps as, for the first time in years, she put up a full-blown fight against Une's authority. "No!" she yelled. "You don't know how they treat me there -- they were throwing things at me! I won't go back there."
Une slammed her hand against the desk with a loud bang before she caught hold of her temper. Forcing herself to speak calmly she said, "Mariemaia, please. Stop exaggerating --"
"They think it's my fault this war is happening."
Une leapt to her feet once more. "May I remind you that we are not yet at war!" she shouted, pushed too far. Then, ashamed, she again forced herself to calm down. "Now then," she sighed, "you're simply at an age where children mistreat each other, but you'll all grow up eventually. Until then I promise you there's nothing to be done except stomach it as best you can, all right?"
"You're not even listening to me!" Mariemaia cried, then without even realizing she was saying them words kept tumbling out of her mouth: "Everyone keeps treating me like I'm still Dekim Barton's granddaughter even though that's all I've been trying to leave behind for six years. Well if Grandpa was the only person who ever cared about me enough to look after me maybe that's who I should be again after all!"
Une's mouth fell open in utter shock at Mariemaia's words, and Mariemaia herself seemed just as surprised by them. Panting and blushing hotly, she quickly dropped her head again to stare at her shoes, her hair falling forward to mask her expression. Speaking gently now, Une told her, "There is a host of people here who care about you for who you are now, not what you were made to do as a child. Your grandfather only took you in because you were the daughter of a powerful man --"
Mariemaia didn't let her finish what she had to say before spinning around and running out of the room. Une followed her as far as the door to her office, then charged Paul with the task of going after her and taking her back to school. Zechs and Sally were standing waiting for her, and Une gestured for them to come in.
She waited until they were both seated in front of her before preparing, taking a deep breath and saying, "I have just been speaking with the President, and he has demanded that we have noticeable gains against the rebels within twenty-four hours." The question raged for a moment in Une's mind as to whether or not she ought to divulge the rest of the call -- in particular his ultimatum that she defeat the rebels quickly or risk replacement as the head of the Preventers -- but in the end, she decided that this particular conference was not the place for such a confession.
Instead, Une continued, "As you both know, over the past few days the situation has taken a very serious and unexpected turn for the worse. The L-2 colonists are supporting the rebels in increasing numbers and the colony officials are having a very difficult time controlling the citizens, especially at these rallies that the rebels have been holding. In fact, they've been so inefficient at everything we've asked of them I have my doubts about whether they're even trying to do anything. Agent Fire and Pilot 01 have been sent out with a task force to try and locate the rebels' base of operations themselves and bring the situation under control. I've instructed them to do whatever is necessary." The cool tone to Une's voice left no doubt that she was deadly serious.
"The time has come for us to take the offensive. We must end this now before things get even further out of hand. We have been attempting to regain the Vice Foreign Minister's offices for almost two weeks without success. I want you to bomb the building." There was a time, not so very many years ago, Une reflected almost longingly, when she could have made such a decision without feeling a shred of the guilt she did now.
"Are you --"
"Of course I'm sure," she brusquely interrupted Sally's question. "Blow it up."
"The people inside…" Zechs murmured.
"Will die if they refuse to come out and surrender. I know." Une went to get something from a file cabinet across the room. "These are the blueprints of the building," she said, spreading the papers over the desk. "Until this point we have been focusing on using strength and numbers to force our way inside, but the rebels have a good defense. So we're going to have to be a little sneakier. As you know, we've been unable to determine the exact number of rebels stationed in the building -- my best guess is between twenty and forty, which should mean that once we get inside it will be relatively easy for you to take the building."
"Une, these are war measures you're talking about," Sally interrupted. "I've got to protest."
Une clasped her hands together to disguise the slight tremble to them and, no longer quite able to meet her colleagues' eyes, dropped her gaze to the prints on her desk. "Save as many people as you can but I want that building destroyed." Briskly, she raised her face again and explained, "I know it's harsh, but unfortunately it's necessary. The longer those rebels stay in there, the more hope the revolutionaries have and the less faith the public has in us. Besides…they knew they were signing on for a dangerous job when they chose to try and start a war. They've been trained as soldiers by a Gundam pilot, Sally, they're not innocents. This is the recourse they should expect for their actions."
"I know that. It's just that -- well -- it's Duo and Wufei is all."
Une softened for a moment. "I'm not saying it won't be difficult. It will be, for all of us. But Sally, you can't let personal feelings get in the way of this fight. Now can you do this or not?"
"Of course I can!" she snapped, offended.
"Good." Une tapped the blueprints with her index finger. "You and Zechs will assemble two teams, small ones, between five and ten people each, and will try and enter via the service entry ports. Plant the explosives, and try to disable and capture anyone you come across. We'll issue a warning and a demand for surrender once you're out of the building -- but if they don't accept…" Une shrugged, signaling that she would do what she deemed necessary. "I want that building turned to rubble by tomorrow morning."