a/n so a couple more things, first after rereading chapter 2 I messed up on Wufei's age relative to the story
A.C. 195 – War against Oz
A.C. 196 – Mariemaia uprising
A.C. 198 – Heero assumes a normal life
A.C. 200 - Heero is pronounced missing
A.C. 233 – present day for the story.
crystal-gundam, I'm sorry but no it's not, it's going to be a past 1R, but to make up for it I'm also working on another story that will be 1xR.
Melodyrasnake, here you go.
Mellie and Pink Delusion, thank you both, I think you've reviewed everything I've put on here. I'm honored.
music gundam, I'm revealing the details of that bit by bit, but most of the answers are coming in the next chapter.
Kate Maxwell, sorry about the length, I'm not a very long winded person, this is about the longest thing I have written to date (it will be the longest when finished) Also I want to say thank you, you seem to have a head start on where I'm going with this and I appericate that a lot, it makes me feel better about what I'm writing.
Chapter 3: Coming Together and Drifting Apart.
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The preventer deputy chief Trowa Barton approached the instructors window that overlooked the firing range. It allowed the chance for instructors to watch students while they weren't aware, giving them a better idea of true performance. The reason Trowa was here was to see the man that was overlooking a random group of recruits that were here practicing in their free time. "What are you looking at?"
"Since I don't have enough knowledge of the current agents in the preventers to hand pick a rescue team I came here to get a pool of candidates."
"The firing range, what is that going to tell you?"
"Take at the one in range 9, notice anything odd?"
"... All his shots are clustered on the neck, why the neck?"
"That's his fourth target sheet, he's picked a different area each time, and made his shots from various positions."
"I see, I'll have to remember that, I assume you want them on your team?"
He nodded.
"I'll approve any team you come to me with, but they need to be volunteers for this mission, ... then again I doubt you'll have much problem with that."
Heero gave no response as he continued to watch over the range.
----
"Daniel Weldon." The recent graduate of the preventer academy turned from analyzing his target sheet, the voice was unfamiliar to him, but the face was unmistakable to any member of the preventers. The deputy chief was known as responsible for most of the duty assignments for the top graduates. Weldon himself had not been high in his class, but his marks were respectable. Nothing had really made him stand out at the academy so he was surprised to see director Barton, to the point where he hadn't even noticed the younger man, about his age, that was standing beside the deputy chief.
Weldon was taken aback to be addressed by someone that important, and couldn't help but let a little bit of a stutter seep into his voice. "y... ye-ss..ss sss-irrr?"
"I trust you are aware of the current alert situation."
"yy-yy e-ss sss-sirrr."
"This man is the commander of the rescue operation. He has requested to have you on his team, but joining is strictly on a volunteer basis, understand?"
"y-yy e-sss ss-sirr."
"Good, I'll leave you to it." Trowa gave a sharp salute then left the room.
Weldon let out a breath he hadn't known he was holding, then promptly gasped in surprise when he noticed the 'commander' who was currently glaring at him, "forget it."
"Sir?"
"Forget it, I'll find someone else."
"But, wha-?"
"You don't have enough control."
"How would you know you neve-"
"You just panicked in front of the man who can make or break your carrier, I can't risk trusting you on this assignment."
"You are passing judgment based on 5 sec-"
"And what didn't I see? What is it about you that didn't show up up in those seconds that should change my mind."
Weldon's head lowered as if to concede, but he was going to add one last statement, "My father was a Teize faction solider who got refuge in the Sanq Kingdom during the war."
"Good, don't forget that motivation."
Weldon looked up, and bewildered. "sir?"
"I need three things from the men on this rescue team 1)skill, I watched your target practice. 2)resolve, I was testing you to see how much you wanted this. 3)obedience."
"Obedience sir?"
"You follow my orders above all others, If i tell you to shoot your left hand, I expect you to do it. Do you have a problem with that?"
Weldon snapped to attention, "If it means getting the vice foreign minister back, no sir."
---
The entire preventer organization was working at a near frantic pace on every lead remotely related to the missing government officials. But one conference room was very quite, 8 men, who weren't there, were reading mission specs, that didn't exist, to go on a rescue mission, that wasn't going to happen. It was classified to say the least.
"They didn't pick this base on accident, it was a staging point for rebellious activities against the alliance, specifically the specials, before the A.C. 195 war. It's well designed, well built, and undoubtedly well equipped and armed. It's weakness is it's strength, being a garbage dump for the colonies, it gets constant traffic at all times, there is no such thing as suspicious activity. We're taking two shuttles, the first one is for the rescue, the second is for if the mission fails, the attempt needs to be immediate with no chance for the terrorists to prepare."
The door opened and closed quickly and quietly as Trowa entered the room, his presence immediately picked up on by four of the rooms occupants. Who then turned back to the briefing. "Why not focus our efforts on one rescue mission?"
"This has to be done with speed and surgical precision. It only needs five, if the first wave fails, the second should be able to accomplish the mission."
"Based on what sir?"
"The expectation that if the first five fail, it will be a very costly win for the terrorists." Heero's voice was as flat as Trowa had ever heard it during the war, seeing the faces of the four other men who just had been told they might well not be coming back alive, they all nodded in agreement to the unspoken question they had been asked. They were committed to this to the end. Trowa felt he shouldn't be surprised, he always knew Heero had that effect on people.
The briefing continued on and when it completed, the 8 hand selected operatives left to sleep, they were to leave in the morning, and if they so much as yawned on the shuttle, Heero would throw them out the air lock to prevent them from being an obstetrical on this mission. They had taken his threats surprisingly well, but they all had their reasons for wanting to rescue either the president or vice foreign minister, Heero had made very sure of that.
Now only two were left in the room. Trowa had stood to leave, But Heero was leaning against the wall, standing between him and the doorway. "You didn't come to wish my team well." It wasn't a question, the statement boarded on an accusation, and Heero's eyes which looked like they were staring into Trowa's soul, told the tale that the solider was not happy with his comrade's presence.
"I wasn't aware my presence in your briefing would be upsetting to you."
"You didn't come hear just to listen to my briefing, your planning something and wanted to know the details of my operation."
Trowa looked away, it was confirmation enough for Heero. Who promptly grabbed Trowa by the throat and held him off the ground pinned against the wall. Trowa's eyes widened in surprise at the actions
"Do not, for even a millisecond, think about getting in my way. What are you planning?"
Trowa didn't answer, but he had regained his composure and began to defiantly stare back at Heero. Who responded by increasing the pressure on Trowa's neck. "I won't repeat myself."
"W..et ...team... twenty... follow you in... clean up..." Trowa was unable to finish as the pressure was stepped up again. "
"You can have your wet team, but they don't go in with my team. They stay well back and only go in if I fail, which I won't."
Trowa had reached his breaking point with Heero, he had been willing to put up with things, but only to a point. He couldn't risk the fate on the ESUN on any one man, even if it was Heero. He reached behind his back to pull the firearm he always kept with him. But the movement had been noticed by Heero who grabbed Trowa's wrist and slammed it into the wall, the crack before the gun was dropped from Trowa's limped hand was unmistakable to either man, but Trowa would not admit to the pain and kept his emotionless face trained on Heero, who now had let up on his grip to where it was just enough to hold Trowa up.
"Don't get in my way Barton, I'm as capable as I ever have been. And if any of your men get in my way on this mission, I advise you not to be here when I get back."
"You're taking this personally." Trowa made a last effort to appeal to Heero's reason, Heero wasn't thinking with a clear head, and that jeopardized the entire effort.
Heero let him down to eye level, and then moved in to stand nose to nose with Trowa. "If I hadn't let my guard down 25 years ago, she wouldn't be where she is today. I made a mistake in trusting Jay, who I thought I knew. If you think I'll trust any of you, who apparently I don't know any more since time changes people, and are the same people who failed to prevent this in the first place, you're delusional."
Heero released his grip on Trowa and began to leave the room. "Oh and Trowa, if you ever try to pull a gun on me again, it won't be your wrist I break." The door closed behind him, and Trowa began to wonder if he had done the right thing by letting Heero out now, and if there would be any stopping the pilots rage if something went wrong.
Which for everyones sake, Trowa hopped didn't happen. And he hopped it was the right thing not to tell Heero the one piece of information he had kept to himself, and was so trivial to everyone else, they wouldn't even think of bringing the subject up.
---
Next time: The rescue is on, and Heero finds out what Trowa has been hidden from him.
a/n The end of the next chapter is where things start getting angsty for Heero. I thought about revising this story so that it doesn't end up that way, but it really wouldn't fit in so I'm going to stick to the original angst driven idea.
However I'm working on two other things right now, first the next part of mythbusters which should be coming up tomarow. And a new story I've been meaning to start that has a happier ending.
Thanks for reading.