Title: Working through the Night
Livejournal community: BeatofDestiny
Theme: #53 – Never Ending Quest
Genres: Genfic, Contemplative
Characters/Pairings: Character – Lady Une
Word Count: 536
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: None of the Gundam Wing Characters belong to me. I merely borrow them from time to time.

Summary: Another late night at the office finds Lady Une working. Her mind meandering, she finds new strength of resolve, the will to continue on.

Working Through the Night

Lady Une rubbed the bridge of her nose, carefully avoiding displacing the spectacles from their place a mere centimeter above her thin fingers. She had been at the office for nine hours already and had at least another four left to go to clear her desk of the mounds of paperwork.

She glared at the offensive pile innocently resting on the steel gray top of her desk. Some were merely reported rumors of insurgent activity while others were just rumors of rumors. Each had to be followed up and dealt with on an individual basis in order to maintain the peace of a newly born world. Her task was to determine which were more likely to develop quickly into potentially hazardous situations.

She stood up and turned her back on the offensive sight and gazed out the night bright horizon of the city. So many people depended on her and the Preventers to deal with the rumors before they became a problem. Few knew just how understaffed and overworked the organization was. It was a never-ending quest, and one she shouldered to honor the ideals of one Treize Kushrenada.

Her jaw clenched at the memories flooding her consciousness. It had taken so long for her to realize the full extent of his ideals. She had almost lost him before she could tell him she understood. It had been so close…

Her body shivered as the air conditioning kicked on, a reminder that she still had work to do. She closed her tired eyes, basking in the fresh awareness the chill in the air stirred in her body. Sometimes, shock was the only thing that kept her awake in the sea of numbers, reports, and mission statements.

How Treize was able to organize Oz in the midst of war was beyond her. Delegation had been a key, she knew, but she did delegate. She delegated as much of the work as she could. It was the only reason she ever made it home during the early morning hours to brush the hair off Marimaia's face as she slept. Frustration coiled her muscles tight, as her eyes snapped open to look again at the happily bustling city below her. They were so innocent, those people moving nonchalantly through the night, and it was her job to protect that innocence.

God knew she wasn't. Her hands were stained with the blood of a hundred innocents. One look at Releena reminded her of that blood, and she saw her on a daily basis whether in person or on the news. It was blood she had shed in the name of an ideal, a misinterpreted ideal, but an ideal nonetheless. So many suffered for her mistakes.

Turning abruptly back to her desk, she sat down, poised on the edge of her seat to enhance her concentration and pulled the closet report to her. She had paid for that mistake, and she would continue paying for it. The least she could do was prevent others from making that same error in judgment. It would be a task that would consume her entire life. But she did it for Peace, she did it for Treize, but most of all, she did it for herself.