Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Heiwa ❯ Blue Ribbon Fading Hysterically ( Chapter 2 )

"Oh. Just charming," Duo slurred, squinting at the transparency projected on the wall. "This guy got a name to go with that Picasso of a face?" Not surprisingly, there was no laughter at this comment.

Lady Une, ramrod straight, her hair tucked back in a ponytail, brown eyes objective and passionless for the moment, had adopted some of her Colonel tendency from the long, difficult years past. She spoke in clipped, unemotional words, her syntax of that of a completely controlled woman.

"Martin Lewis Raul. He left his identification card in his breast pocket, waiting for us to find it. Dropped out in high school, worked for twenty-nine years in the family business, a somewhat credible space colony citizen’s newspaper," she informed the darkened room, giving credit to the dead man who had just negated all the work of their lifetime just by being casually introduced to the most recognizable woman in the world.

"A nobody," Wufei growled.

"Is there any idea of why he was here?" Quatre’s eyes, scanning Une’s face, reading it intently. His mouth pursed, thin, worried.

"Who’s going to see to it that the officer in charge of security is interrogated?" Trowa piped up levelly. "He needed clearance to even get within a hundred feet of the building. An accomplice is imperative to operations of that scale."

"Interrogations of our suspects are already in progress. They will be extensively thorough, I assure you."

"Leave no teeth unbroken," Duo muttered darkly, sinking back into his chair.

"The media will panic," Wufei warned. "We need a definitive explanation of what happened before we even think about stepping outside of this building. If we do not exceed their expectations, they will tear every attempt at restraint apart, looking for it. They need to be able to point blame, even if they are wrong. The public cannot be allowed to be swayed by even the slightest negative force at a time like this; they are vulnerable, they are prey. They will go looking for reassurance and power. It will mean war if it is the wrong power."

"Fuck, it’s just going to be war no matter what it is. We’re walking on bombshells with fucking cement boots."

"We may have a motive," Une interrupted passionlessly, some how not please with Duo’s blunt assertion. "Though it means little now."

Quatre’s face had not moved, concealed by the heavy shadows in the room. He watched her carefully, his eyes stilled on her face but his mind inevitably moving at the speed of light. There was a reason he had been able to master Zero system at such a young age and that ability did not dim with time. He waited silently, and Trowa at his side, fingers quietly entwined under the table between them, turned his head to look at her as well.

Wufei’s chair moved minimally so he could level a stony stare at her. "Recognition," he guessed grimly.

Une didn’t need to nod. The equal grimness in her entire posture agreed with him. "A year and three months ago he was diagnosed by the LaGrange Mercy Hospital with a malignant tumor the size of a baseball swelling up beneath his ear. Remission came after a surgery and four months of intense chemotherapy. He relapsed, discovered this sometime Tuesday morning, and came to murder Relena Darlian Thursday night."

Thus far the only signal of emotion peering through her strictly schooled face was the sigh punctuating her sentence occasionally. But otherwise than that, she rivaled stone. "No radical political allegiances, no personal dispute, no external motivation, no need for money, no need for revenge. He lead an average life, felt anger at it being cut short, and decided he would make something of it."

Une’s words fell heavily in the room, sinking agonizingly slow through the palpable tension filling the space between the walls. The darkness seemed to take a seat beside each of them, weighing them down so their chests ached. Horrible thoughts ran rampant, but it was Duo who announced the dreadful truth poisoning their hearts with a distant, aloof sneer of his lips.

"So she really did die for nothing."