Surviving on Your Own

Problems

I got lucky last night. And no not in the crude way you're thinking. That's how Maxwell thinks. I got lucky in way that saved my job. I had been going to that stupid fight club for a while, became a regular. Undefeated champion too. I was the crowds favorite.

Anyways, I was running a little late to the bar. As I rounded the corner, I saw police cruisers blocking the front of the place. Officers swarmed all over the place, cuffing people and putting them in the back of their squad cars. I flipped back around and walked briskly the other way. Shit! If I had been busted along with that place, then I would have lost my damn job for sure!

It's for the best though, I know that. People were already starting to ask questions about my constant fresh variety of bruises. Plus, I'm going to Relena's for lunch today, and it would do no good to show up black and blue on her doorstep. She's asked me to personally visit. I'm not really sure why, but I'm about to find out.

A butler answers the door. "Mister Chang Wufei?" I nod in confirmation. "Follow me," he requests. The butler leads me to the back patio where Relena is seated and waiting for me. She looks deep in thought and doesn't notice my presence until I'm beside her.

"Oh, Wufei. Thank you for coming, have a seat." The worried expression on her face only fades a little. "Here, have some tea and some sandwiches. These ones are ham, and the others are turkey."

She pours me a cup of tea, and I pick up a ham sandwich. "You look worried, Relena. What's wrong?" I ask before biting into my lunch.

She lets out a lofty sigh. "I was going to ask you if you could reach Heero for me, but now I'm worried about Quatre as well."

"Why are you worried about them?" I question.

"I had Millardo check in on Heero while he was on L1, because he never answers my calls. He told me that Heero looked disheveled and was acting rather odd. I didn't believe him at first, but Heero called me later by video phone and he had acted out of sorts. And I'm sure you know about Quatre, it's all over the news," she tells me.

Dread slowly starts to fill the center of my chest. "Actually, I haven't heard any news today. And what do you mean by Yuy 'acting out of sorts'?"

Her blue eyes bulge at me. "Quatre's been forced to step down from his position at WEI. Apparently he has a gambling problem and lost a good chunk of their assets."

"What?!" I practically screech. I had just seen him about a month ago! He didn't say anything about this!

"Yeah, he's been kicked out of the company, and when I tried to call his cell phone the number was disconnected." She continues. "As for Heero, he seemed half conscious and slurred all his words. Between him and Quatre, I don't know who to be more concerned about. I need your help."

"I'll do whatever I can to get in contact with them. Yuy will be easier, and I'll do my best to track down Winner," I promise.

We discuss the situation further over our lunch. I'm floored by Winner's predicament, and I'm not sure what to think of Yuy. By the time I get back to HQ and my office, I'm summoned to Commander Une.

"Have a seat Lieutenant, we have an assignment for you," she discloses. Great, I've wanted a mission since getting reinstated, and it couldn't have come at a worse time.

"This is very sensitive, it involves other Preventer employees. We believe there is either some sabotage or thievery taking place." Une swipes her bangs out of her eyes and gives me a hard look.

I ask, "Which branch?"

"Our headquarters on the L1 cluster," she divulges. Une narrows her eyes at me. "Have you been in any recent contact with Heero Yuy?"

Oh fuck, what the hell is going on? "No, I have not. Why don't you have him do this assignment? He's there already," I mention.

She leans back in her chair and clasps her hands in her lap. "There's reason to believe he may be involved in what's taking place there."

No fucking way, she's nuts! Yuy's the most straight-laced guy out of all of us. "What exactly is going on?"

"It's been brought to our attention that security footage keeps going missing in the evidence locker. Usually about ten to fifteen minutes of footage disappears, and this has been happening for a little over six months. A quick scan of all evidence material revealed that nothing had been stolen or switched out with false evidence. But that didn't make sense to me. I ordered a few people up there to double check evidence that was either being released, or destroyed," she informs.

"And?" I implore.

Une begins to rock in her seat. "Well evidence that was being releases, such as things of value or sentimental value, to families who had lost someone to, lets say, murder wasn't going missing. So, they created two check lists for drugs and weapons that were to be destroyed on site," she pauses before continuing. "One check list for those put in for the to be destroyed pile, and one to check off that they were, indeed, destroyed as they were going through the process of loading the furnaces."

My heart is pounding in my chest, and I can feel perspiration break out on my brow. "What did they find?" Goddamnit Yuy, if you're involved with illegal weapons trade I'm going to fucking flip.

She takes a deep breath. "They found that a good amount of drugs that were suppose to be incinerated had vanished."

Drugs? "How does Yuy fit into all of this?" I ask befuddled.

"The security footage is being sabotaged in-house," she says. "Who ever is doing it, isn't leaving a trace. We both know how good he is with computer systems. In fact, he's working in the Computer Science department." This isn't looking good. Marquis told Relena that Yuy had acted strange, and she agreed...

I cross my arms over my chest. "What do you want me to do Commander?"

"You're to leave for L1 Lagrange Point in two days, you'll be stationed there until this mission is over. Make contact with Heero, and try to find out if he's part of the team of people who are stealing the drugs. We believe there are more than one persons involved in this operation."

"Alright," I nod my head.

"I hope your former affiliation with Heero doesn't blind you along the way. Your dismissed."

I get up and leave her office. What is going on? First Barton's accident. Now Yuy's possibly involved with some drug ring? And Winner gets kicked out of his father's company? Fuck, I thought I had problems...