Author's Notes:
Timeline: This is set about 3 years after Endless Waltz. The boys are 19-20 and Heero, Duo, Trowa and Wufei have been in the Preventers since the end of that war.
Pairings: 1x2, 3x4, Wufei/Sally
Summary: A Preventer mission goes wrong and Heero is killed while the other pilots watch. Will the new emotional trauma destroy Duo's sanity completely or will he use it to become Commander Une's new perfect soldier.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to Gundam Wing.
Lady Une was furious as she stormed down the hallway in the direction of her office. She could not believe the disastrous chain of events that had unfolded in the last three days. She had one dead agent, one AWOL agent, and two other agents that were struggling desperately to deal with the loss while trying to persuade her to avoid launching an all out search for Maxwell. It was infuriating. At least Trowa and Wufei's stories matched. Wufei hadn't known that he and Heero would be walking into a situation that had already been compromised and Trowa had assured her that he and Duo hadn't known that their missions had such direct ties to another.
None of it should have ever happened. She was going to have to be more careful making sure missions didn't overlap, especially missions where the agents were already involved with one another. Her hands tightened into little fists as she swept into the bull-pin outside her office. She needed to find him. She had required all the pilots to undergo psych evaluations before she had allowed them to join the Preventers and Maxwell was the least stable of the five – though she had been assured that the strong support of his friends would keep him in check, that Heero would keep him in check. With Heero gone the teenager was the one in the greatest danger of suffering a mental break. She hated to say it but he was a liability. Heero... why had it been Heero? The pair had lived together and loved each other quietly for years but the two had only been married a few short months. It wasn't exactly a secret but they hadn't really made the news public either. She shuddered slightly. The idea of the young Shinigami losing himself to grief and going rogue terrified her.
Her eyes narrowed at the thought as she marched through the bull-pin. Interns scurried out of her way in desperation and she barely noticed them and when she finally did notice how silent the people around her were she made no effort to calm them down. "Get back to work. All of you." She growled softly. She tried very hard to keep her temper in check most of the time but the situation that presented itself before her was unprecedented. It was not just that she had lost an agent. She had lost numerous agents over the years and each death was difficult. Each death was another name she had to add to her list. Mister Trieze had kept a list. He had always known exactly how many of his soldiers had died for him. It was only fair that she do the same.
It wasn't the loss of an agent that bothered her so much as who the agent she had lost was. In the years that Duo and Heero had been with the Preventers she had expected to lose Duo first, not Heero. He had been the best agent she had under her command and losing him was a crippling emotional blow to the remaining Gundam Pilots. The pain and shock they were experiencing was rapidly trickling down through the Preventers hierarchy and was unavoidably effecting every agent it touched. His death was putting every single person in the building on edge. They all knew that someone irreplaceable had been lost and they were all mourning that loss in their own way.
//At least the death hasn't been leaked to the media yet.// She thought silently. It was only a matter of time though, then she would have a whole new circus to contend with. The death of a Gundam pilot, of the most well known Gundam pilot, would send a shock wave through both the earth sphere and the colonies. She grabbed the handle of her office door with an unnecessary amount of force and twisted the handle viciously, feeling powerless and weak despite her position. The door opened easily and she stepped into the dark cool space and closed the door behind her. She realized immediately that it was too cold and her head shot up to glare out the open window, then she noticed the chestnut braid draped over the back of her visitor's chair and the pair of boots that were propped on her desk.
"Maxwell." To say she was relieved was an understatement. He had come to her instead of forcing her to launch a search for him. She crossed the room to close the window as Duo stood and she noted as she turned to face him that there was a manilla folder in his hand. His stance was tense and guarded and his black ball cap was pulled low over his violet eyes. He looked up at her briefly as she rounded her desk to sit in her chair then refused to meet her gaze again.
"Commander." His voice was raspy and pained and sounded like it hadn't been used at all in the two days since he had disappeared. He didn't look like he had slept at all either. Lady Une wanted to stay mad at him. He had broken numerous organizational protocols when he had left the scene without being cleared to and he had put her on the brink of launching a massive search that would have eaten up valuable Preventer resources. Regardless of her anger what she saw before her was a scared lonely kid who had just had the life he had worked so hard to rebuild ripped away from him.
"Sit down Duo." She found herself saying with surprising gentleness.
"Commander... I..." He fell silent for a long moment but didn't sit. Finally he reached forward to lay the folder on her desk so she could open it. The black ring on his finger caught her eye as he did so and she was momentarily captivated by the way the polished gundanium band caught even the faintest light. "My incident report. Commander." He said after a moment's pause.
"Your incident report?" Lady Une repeated. "So soon?" She looked at the young man critically for a moment. Duo was notorious for not being on time with his his paperwork. She was still waiting for incident reports from the rest of the pilots.
"Yes commander." He shifted uncomfortably under her scrutiny but refused to actually look up and meet her gaze.
"Sit while I review it." Une told him. She made the words more of a command this time and was grateful when he sank into the chair without a word. She turned on the lamp and opened the folder so she could begin reading. She did not make it far before she noticed him unconsciously rubbing one of the piercings in his ear. "Are you alright Maxwell?" She asked tersely. His hand immediately dropped to his lap. He did not touch the earring again until she had finished reading and set the report aside. It told her nothing she did not already know and it matched what she had been told by Wufei and Trowa. It also matched what little she had seen of the surveillance footage from the warehouse. There was another piece of paper in the folder and she turned it over and skimmed it. "I will not accept this at this time." She told him calmly. She replaced the resignation letter and the report in the folder and closed it.
"Commander Une!" He was on his feet in a moment, one hand tight at his side while the other slammed down hard on her desk. She got the first good look at his eyes when he glared down at her and noted how cold they were. "It's not your choice." He growled softly.
"I'm sorry about Heero. I know that he meant a great deal to you but I don't believe you have had adequate time or counseling to make this decision."
"Meant a great deal? I married him Commander." Duo hissed softly. "And now he's dead because of it." Lady Une listened to him in silence and clasped her hands under her chin as she watched him.
"Nothing in your report, the preliminary reports of the other Gundam pilots, or the warehouse surveillance footage indicates that you were responsible for Heero's death Duo." She said patiently. She understood survivor's guilt. She had experienced it to an extent herself after Mister Treize's death. She reached out and laid her hand over his only to have him jerk it away. "What happened is not your fault. The actions you took to protect the rest of your friends were honorable and commendable but there was nothing you could have done differently that would have saved Heero's life without endangering your own."
"You don't know a goddamn thing." Duo growled angrily. He dropped back into the chair wrapped his arms around his torso. His shivered uncontrollably "I'm Shinigami remember? I destroy everything I touch, everything I love. It's my curse." He absently rubbed the black hoop that pierced his earlobe again and looked up at her briefly. There was a pained glitter in his violet eyes and he almost immediately looked away. The sight made Une realize that no amount of counseling was going to change Duo's opinion of himself. The young man truly believed he lived a cursed existence and that death hung over him like a specter no matter where he went or what he tried to do to escape it. Maybe she could use his attitude to her advantage, not immediately perhaps, but maybe when he was a little more emotionally stable.
"I know enough." She told him calmly. "You are hurting. It is understandable and expected considering what you witnessed. I am going to be generous. The protocols you broke by leaving the warehouse would normally require corrective action. I'm going to dismiss them. I'm also going to give you sixteen weeks paid leave instead of the normal twelve and have you attend a counseling session sometime within the next seven days. You are not cleared to leave earth until after that evaluation." She paused briefly to let that sink in and noted that he seemed to stunned to protest. "If the evaluation clears you then I will clear you for inter-planetary travel. Should you choose to spend the duration of your leave in the colonies then I will require an address and contact information. You will be expected to appear at the end of your leave and if you still stand firm on your decision to resign then I will accept it." She watched him steadily and silently dared him to try and reject her terms.
"That is very generous Commander." He said softly. He slumped in the chair with a slight shiver and Lady Une felt genuinely sorry for him, for the burden he had to carry at such a young age, and for the choices she was going to have to ask him to make in the next few moments.
"Sally has Heero's personal effects ready whenever you feel up to retrieving them. As Heero's next of kin you must also make a few decisions about how you would like to proceed with the funeral arrangements. I've done the best I can to keep news of his death a secret but the press will get wind of it anytime and it would be best to have as much planned as possible before they do."
"Oh god." Duo shuddered violently as he leaned forward to rest his forehead on his knees. "I hadn't even thought about the funeral." He whispered miserably. Sympathy overtook Lady Une upon hearing his words and she stood. He flinched when she touched his shoulder but she refused to let that stop her. This young man was one of her agents and as his commander it was her responsibility to help him through his emotional trials to the best of her ability. Mister Treize would have had it no other way if he was under his command.
"I have time to accompany you if you wish to speak to Sally now." She said gently. Her words made him look up at her and at the hand on his shoulder.
"Please don't touch me." He said softly as he moved to stand and before she could protest he had stepped out of her range. "If you have time I would appreciate it." He told her awkwardly. The former pilot glanced at the door to her office in silence and looked reluctant about having to walk through it and face what he had been avoiding.
"I have time for my men." Une assured him. She walked to the door and opened it, then waited in silence for him to follow her. A brief flurry of whispers erupted in the bull-pin as her staff realized that a Gundam pilot had been in her office without them knowing but they were easily silenced by her glare. "There is nothing to see here." She told them icily as Duo followed her through the bull-pin and down the hall. There was nothing to see but a broken nineteen year old boy who, in a few moments, was going to have to make choices that no one should have to make at his age. It was not the first time she cursed the cruel destiny that fate seemed to have laid out for the former Gundam pilots and she had the feeling it would not be the last.
Reviews and comments would be appreciated. This was my first time writing Lady Une and I tried to balance her attitude like they did in the series so she could be severe when she needed to be but not completely heartless either. What did you guys think of her? Did I get her right? Do you have suggestions that will help me write her better?
Chapter Preview: Lady Une accompanies Duo to the morgue where they meet with Sally and what should be a quiet goodbye between Duo and Heero turns out to be anything but when Relena shows up with her own ideas in mind for Heero's funeral.