Having endured a crushing defeat in the Great War, the Kingdom of Taigaria was forced into many humiliating peace treaties. The Kingdom's rich natural resources were appropriated by the European elites, ostensibly to pay for war reparations.
The Late Grand Duke Peacecraft, disgusted by the seemingly senseless suffering and bloodshed, sought to separate his province from Taigaria, in order to fully embrace his ideals of total pacifism. Yet his actions cascaded into a bloody revolution which lead to tens of thousands more lives lost.
Heero could not remember the last time he slept in such comfort.
It wasn't a particularly soft bed, but the unmistakable gentle scent of a woman was something he has not rested in since he was very small, when it was still permissible for a young child to crawl in with his mother and sisters in the early morning hours.
Heero woke up with a start, the bitter taste of fire and ash still lingered in his throat from the vivid dream.
He was on a straw bed lined with rough linen sheets, a light wool blanket covered his bare chest. A woman wrapped in a winter coat sat by the small fireplace in the little cottage, a pot hung in the flames. It was dark outside the thin glass windows.
If she noticed his heavy breathing, she said nothing. Instead, the woman, Relena, his mind supplied helpfully, ladled a steaming bowl of pot barley and placed it on the table beside the bed.
Heero grunted and sat up, favouring the shoulder that has been dressed in fresh bandages. "What did you do with the bodies?"
Relena tugged at her apron squeamishly, "It's a State holiday, the kids are helping with spring planting. I just locked the school and hid the motor in the bushes."
He nodded and blew on the hot porridge, stirring it with the slightly misshapen tin spoon she handed him. "I'll take care of it."
"You, before you passed out, you called me a Peacecraft," Relena reached uneasily into the folds of her skirts, "My name is Darlian."
Heero ate, unconcerned, "I don't make mistakes."
She pulled out the pistol and trained it on him, "If that's true, then they'll just send someone else after I kill you, huh?"
"You won't kill me," He set the empty bowl back onto the table, grabbed his neatly folded shirt from the foot of the bed and struggled into it with one arm.
She faltered a little but kept the muzzle aimed at him, "I will, if that's what it takes to protect my students."
He looked up at her over the barrel of the pistol and did up his buttons, "Your mere existence is a danger to everyone in this village."
Heero swung his legs off the bed and shoved his feet into his boots, strode across the dirt floor and placed his hand over the gun and lowered it.
Relena regarded his hand, covered in little silver scars and calloused like leather, and took a deep breath. "Then I suppose, it's better if you did eliminate me."
She pressed the gun into his hand and stood back a step, closing her eyes and swallowed a lump in her throat.
He frowned at the creature in front of him, the way she held herself now, with dignity and defiance, grated on him. For a woman who just denied her pedigree, she possessed a great aura of nobility.
Heero wavered. His heart pounded loudly and the hand that held the pistol felt sweaty. His mind raced with thoughts of what could have been, impossible dreams of a restored kingdom filled his vision.
Taking two quick steps forward, he kissed her. A chaste touch of the lips, for barely a moment.
She gasped and opened her eyes, backing away toward the fire, a hand over her heart and another reaching for the fire poker.
Heero slung his rifle and his jacket over his shoulder and headed for the door, stopping to look her in the eyes, "Run."
[Noin,
My charge was found. Urgent action needed.
Sally.]
Heero drove the motorbike down the steep mountain road that lead out of the village. He stopped at a sharp turn overlooking a sheer cliff, and put the pistol back into the blond agent's holster.
The bodies have gone stiff overnight, stuffed awkwardly in the sidecar for the ride down. Now Heero lugged the blond's body over to the driver's seat, and heaved the motorbike over the cliff with his good shoulder. It tumbled down a long ways and landed with a metallic crunch in the dark valley below.
Just another accident caused by impaired driving, the Bureau frowned upon such indiscretions.
Heero squinted up at the tinted sky. Sunrise would be in less than an hour.
Returning to his hideout cabin, he slumped on the cot and ran his good hand through his hair.
What had he done? What did this decision mean for his mission? Not the assignment given by Une, but his life's purpose. Had he just forfeited all the years of trust he's built within the Bureau?
And what of the Peacecraft? What was the point of sparing her life when another agent could easily track her down again?
Heero closed his eyes and saw her standing in front of him, waiting for her death, and sighed. This was foolish, if he had just stayed out of the way of the other agents…the terrified eyes of the little girl flashed before him.
He made a choice, and whatever the consequences, he'd have to live with it.
Having made up his mind, Heero stood up and packed his few items. Out of the corner of his eye, his transponder blinked.
Must be Une heckling for an update. He opened the receiver and it printed the message on a strip of paper.
[Abort mission, return to HQ.]
"But sir, a living Peacecraft heir is a threat to the future of the Bureau," Lady Une was not having a good day, the cancellation of this very important operation by Treize was incomprehensible to her, especially when she's already devoted so many man-hours and resources to it, "Please Mr. Treize, just give me one more day, we are so close to success."
"You are not understanding me, Lady," Treize placed his elbows on his desk and steepled his fingers, "It's been over twenty years since The Revolution, our people are tired of the heavy-handed way the Party has been governing the country."
Such open criticism of the Party shocked Une. She had to steady herself and swallow a knee-jerk rebuke, this was Treize she was talking to, the man at the helm of the Specials Unit and the Secret Police of the Taigarian Republic.
"The Bureau has treated our people as mere numbers, data points on a piece of paper," Treize continued, "People are not machines, Lady, we are to govern a nation of flesh and blood, and we should treat them as such."
Une's mind swerved with doubts, was he testing her loyalty to the Party? Or did Western Liberal ideas somehow influence the most important man in her life without her knowing? No, this had to be a test. She would need to make a show of being sufficiently offended.
Une put both her hands on his desk and leaned in, "Sir, please, stop with such outlandish words."
"My dear Lady," Treize put a hand on hers, even through both their gloves her hand burned at the contact, "You have served with me all these years in the Bureau, and it would please me greatly to have you at my side when I am General Secretary."
"You have no doubt heard the rumours," he continued softly, "Tuberov is falling out of favour with the Romefeller Foundation, they will replace him soon. He represents a bygone era of brutality, the people need to be reassured of the benevolence of this government with a more stabilizing personality."
Une's heart pounded in her throat, wasn't this what she's always dreamed of? Yet why did it feel like the ground was falling away right under her feet?
"You've changed so much since joining the Bureau," He reached up and took off her glasses from the bridge of her nose, "I need you to become the gentle Lady I once knew"
"Thank you so much sir," Noin twirled the coiled wire of the headset nervously, it was a tick she couldn't shake.
[Thank you for bringing it to my attention, lieutenant, Zechs is an important ally and an old friend. Please give him my regards.]
"Yes sir," Noin clicked her heel to attention as colonel Treize ended their transmission. Sighing, she returned the headset back onto the teleunit. Really, Zechs should've said something to the man.
Noin mentally went through her schedule for the week—she needed to chase down Relena and take her into custody, now that her identity and location was known to the Bureau, it was only a matter of time before Romefeller caught wind of her, too.
Tbc.