Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Survival ❯ Making Choices ( Chapter 16 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

Making Choices

May 28th 197 - Sunday - Kharkiv, Ukraine

“Report?”

“He's become even more slippery, your Excellency,” the man admitted with a sigh.

Heero froze. No… It couldn't be…

“I know we were getting incredibly close and he was evading being caught by just a hair with Dumas' men, but he must have realized how sloppy he was being, because he cleaned up his act.”

“I see. Has there been any indication as to why?”

No, there was no mistaking that voice… Treize is behind the hunt for Wufei? Heero fought the urge to smirk; Wufei had been obsessed with hunting down and fighting Treize all during the war, had been excited about the chance to fight him at Libra… The mouse chases the cat? Not that the aristocrat could really be called a “mouse” but still, it was odd to see the chase go in the opposite direction. That explained why this had been so covert of an operation, no flashing lights, and the hunters had run just as fast as the pilot when the cops had shown up back in Ankara…

“Well, there seems to be someone else involved, sir.”

Shit. He slunk a little further away, starting to think fast. He was actually catching a conversation with only a couple seconds of delay, but apparently that hadn't been as good of an idea as he had thought. Stupid… Now he was going to have to fall back too far to keep his bug active. Not covert enough!

“Male, tall, strawberry blonde with a buzz cut. My guess is that he's in his early twenties.”

Heero blinked; he was blonde right now, but it didn't have any red in it, and it was longish, in his face… and no one would ever call him tall.

“We still haven't gotten a good look at him, but Sanders caught a glimpse of him right before we lost them in Kars, then I did, in Sokhumi; he was buying food, but I couldn't catch his face, and when Mihailov got the store's security tapes… Sir, I'm not sure if it's coincidence or not, but he never looked in the direction of the cameras.”

“Mm, perhaps Po did manage to spare someone to help him. Keep at it; we need this connection. It would be wise to consider his accomplice to be highly dangerous unless he is proven otherwise; I'm not losing any men to this, but as I said, we do need this connection. Don't lose them.”

“Yes, sir.” There was silence on the line… and the recorder indicated that that was the end of its track.

Heero stared at it for a moment before hitting back to replay the conversation and watching the man wander back out into the populated street, waiting for the crowd to be thick enough and the man distracted enough for it to be safe to follow. He had a wider range on the bug than he utilized, but while on foot it was difficult to keep track of someone if you weren't close, and moving by any other means would attract too much attention, here. He had a pretty good idea of where his mark was headed though, so it ought to be fine.

He bit his lip. Treize is alive… Zechs had had him reported to the population as dead, before Lady Une's execution. Does he not know, or was he trying to hide it for some reason? Une's execution only made twice as much sense if the man knew; she would have been even more dangerous in her leader's hands than alone, so that thought got him nowhere.

He started making his way after Treize's man. Wufei had been planning on killing Treize… what had happened? The Chinese man had joined them on Peacemillion because he thought the Zero system had told him Treize would be at Libra. So why is he running from him now? With Wufei, it would have made more sense for him to stand and wait for him to show his face. Of course, he could have made the same mistake that Heero had, and not realize that it was Treize after him, even though he surely knew he had survived; it wasn't as if any clear lines of communication were running, just action and reaction. Actions certainly spoke louder than words, but in a screaming mass of profanities, it wasn't as if anything could be made out.

Looking around some, Heero grinned, liking how well he blended in here; he had realized that at least half the reason the men had been changed out was because they were moving out of the Middle East, into the ex-Soviet Union, and the darker agents would have drawn too much attention. Currently blonde and as blue-eyed as ever, Heero was actually tempted to cut his hair; hiding his eyes didn't seem as good a determinant of blending in anymore. The fair color had been popular enough further south, he had even neglected getting the dye close to his scalp to make the dye look older than it was, and there was enough racial mixing that no one would have thought him odd if they'd seen his eyes anyway… but now they seemed more like an asset he could take advantage of. And he should probably think about dying his hair again, since the roots were so obvious.

First though… He checked his watch, considering what time the call had gone out at. He really wanted the phone number that Treize Khushrenada himself picked up.

***

May 29th 197 - Monday - Brussels

Relena smiled proudly down at her brother as she started down the stairs of the shuttle. She had done it… and she had actually caught everything in the original contract that was worth catching before it had been sent home. After arguing over it for another day, it was done with… and soon, the amplifiers would begin arriving by piecemeal, and with the first shipment would come an expert to at least demonstrate their basic assembly and explain the best location for placement within any area they might be installed at.

If she had been the type to do so, or had she truly known and trusted the blonde man below her as she might have had they grown up together, she might have run to him whooping with joy. As it was, she did neither, and there was an image to maintain, so she smiled politely at the reporters instead, though she kept her silence and allowed Dorothy to give vague answers to their questions. When she reached her brother she engaged him in a short hug and let the cameras flash… though, with him looking so proud of her as he was, she might have done it had they been alone, too. He shook hands with Dorothy and Mitchell before turning to the crowd.

“I thank you for the welcome, but at the moment we will not be releasing any official information. We will, however, be holding a press conference tomorrow at nine am concerning Miss Peacecraft's work in China, and the details will be released then. Thank-you.” That said, he turned to lead the small party inside the base, and soldiers moved to discourage the press from following.

Oh, good, I'll have time to collect myself… Having not been sure, she and Dorothy had sketched up notes of possible questions and answers on the way back… and to be perfectly frank, she was exhausted. “Are we ready for that?” she asked him quietly. “Or do we need to finalize anything?” She was a little irritated that he had referred to her as Peacecraft instead of Darlian-Peacecraft, but that wasn't an argument she felt like getting into with her brother when no matter who won she knew he would continue to use their birth name exclusively.

Milliardo shrugged. “I've already outlined the important points and the details everyone should be curious about, and we have no reason to keep any information hidden. This is good news.” He smiled at her. “Let them have fun with it.”

“But don't give in to the ones who wanted to know what you had for breakfast over there,” Dorothy advised.

Relena rolled her eyes. “I did grow up as the daughter of a politician, thank-you. I know the stupidity of the press.” She turned to her brother. “How much fun?”

Milliardo chuckled. “I'll figure out the line where we shouldn't let them push past after dinner.”

She nodded at that, smiling. Dinner sounded really good.

***

Kursk, Russia

His name was Adam. Beyond that, I had no idea.

Well, no, I could tell he was a superb fighter… it had yet to come to any fighting, but the ease with which he handled a gun in the instances where he had apparently started to get worried gave that away. That and now, as we listened to a woman send her kids out the door below us, the man's balance on the supporting beams was superb. Not that my own wasn't perfect, but he made it look as though there was nothing odd about our current living situation at all, as if he regularly lived in random people's attics…

…I really hoped he didn't. The invasion of these poor people's privacy was horrible, even though I was trying my best not to listen, and it made me anxious… this wasn't right. It was so extremely wrong that it made my skin crawl… But when I'd tried to tell Adam as much, he'd smirked and suggested it was the dust and insulation, or flea powder. Or, actually, he didn't see any flea powder about, and that I ought to look out for the creatures themselves.

What a stupid scare tactic… I wasn't worried about fleas… well, not really, anyway… not much. The diseases they carried worried me, but only in that it would be annoying to have to cure myself of them down the line. How can he be so calm about this?! The poor woman thought she was alone she'd probably start doing something she would die of embarrassment to know someone had heard her or something. We had no right to be here…

Adam seemed to be listening closely for something, so I reached out and smacked at his leg. He blinked at me curiously, then rolled his eyes… as there was the sound of keys being picked up and high heels clicking… and the door opened and shut. I could just barely make out the sound of her engaging the lock from outside. Oh.

My companion rolled his eyes… and started for the exit into the rest of the house. I grabbed at his coat. “What are you doing?” I demanded in a hiss. We had infiltrated the house a couple hours ago and climbed up in here while everyone had been sleeping, and now he was leaving? We were both exhausted; we had been trying to get a lead on our pursuers all night.

He raised a brow at me, and held up our empty water bottles. In an entirely normal voice, he said, “I'm thirsty.”

I… well, I felt like a complete idiot.

He shook his head a little, pulling back the panel and lithely dropping down into the pantry. “We should be able to eat something the kids have been hoping would disappear in the back of the pantry, so long as we clean up after ourselves. This family is well off enough that a couple bags of instant oatmeal or a can of stew at the back of the shelf should go unnoticed. So long as it's already been gotten into but there's still plenty, and we don't take more than a serving or two, it'll be fine.”

“We've gotten far enough… can't we buy something instead?” I asked. If conditions weren't so sparse as they were, I wouldn't argue, but…

“They were onto us the last time I did that. I would rather try to keep what we have incase we can't draw on something like this. Besides,” there was a click sound, and water started pouring into one of the plastic bottles, “If you came down here, you'd notice that I pick the rich neighborhoods.”

I considered that, and hopped down into the pantry myself, stepping out into a fairly nice kitchen… with Adam refilling our bottles from a fairly advertised purified water unit in the fridge. I hadn't seen one of those in over a year… This was really nice, actually.

He smiled slightly, motioning over to the sink. “There's a spout that pours scalding water, too.” I narrowed my eyes at him, and he actually laughed. “I've stayed here before, yes… They have a nice system of wireless internet through the house as well.”

I blinked at him. “You don't have a laptop.”

“I do, I just left it up there a couple weeks ago.” I felt my stomach flop. All of my worst fears… He went on before I could give him a piece of my mind, however. “I think of it as a safe house of sorts, and I've never stayed for more than a couple days at a time… maybe two weeks put together in the past year. I try not to make a habit of it, but the house was such a find…” He set the now full bottles on the counter and opened the fridge to pull out the orange juice. “And the husband is one of the Zechs' heads of Development in this area.”

I couldn't help my growing smirk at that. That just had an ironic fit to it that I rather liked… but then I froze. “I didn't hear a husband this morning,” I whispered.

“Of course not,” Adam agreed easily, taking a glass out of the cupboard and shaking the jug. “He's on a business trip further south, hunting for some Chinese rebel.”

I stared at him for a second as he grinned around his drink, and felt myself start grinning as well. This was some fairly thought out poetic justice… When he offered me his glass of juice, I took it; it would be easier the fewer dishes we had to wash. He brushed past me to go rummage through the pantry. “The husband is working off of double pay, though,” he noted. “Zechs doesn't know you were the one who got shot in that skirmish a few months ago. Treize is really the one who sent him out, but I don't think his wife knows.”

I… really wasn't sure what I thought of that. In a way, it further justified what we were doing, right now, but… I really wasn't sure what I thought about the fact that it wasn't Zechs' men chasing me. I needed to think about that…

“Oatmeal?”

“Sure, I guess.”

He came back out of the pantry with a box of cereal as well, tossing me the packets. “I left some boards upstairs to put across the beams for a bed, and there's enough to make two small ones. I hope you don't move much in your sleep. After we eat, we need to rest; I'm not sure we'll be able to leave until late tonight. It all depends on how tired the family is. I would prefer they be asleep, or at least settled for the night.”

I nodded; it made sense… and I certainly wouldn't have trouble sleeping deep after yesterday, and I never moved when I slept deeply. I wasn't sure what I thought about Adam's revelation, but… I was hungry enough to get two bowls out.

***

May 30th 197 - Tuesday - Amsterdam

Really, the entire situation had been hilarious. There was just something incredibly wrong about me walking Karina down the aisle to meet Luc. I mean, it's not like anyone else was any better seeing as the Father had to be up front for the ceremonial part, but, really, how many flower girls past bursting did we have, with bits of homemade confetti instead? Well, there were only five, but last I heard, there was supposed to be one… and some sixteen, seventeen-year-old punk wasn't supposed to be leading the very pregnant bride to the altar.

Not that I was any kind of stickler for the rules, I mean, hell, I'd run around in a priest's uniform for how many years, but the situation still made me nervous. I think I'd crawl under the couch and die if Father Espen ever found one of the photos of me in the cloth. I really hadn't given a shit at the time, it had seemed ironically suitable, but now… I think that was my one hold now on not telling the man who I used to be.

Everyone was happy, though, Karina laughing from her spot on Luc's lap while they attempted to move together so they both cut into the cake that Sister Isabel, Katrien, and Theresia had worked like crazy on. Theresia had surprised us all by stepping up to the plate, since the fifteen-year-old had previously claimed no skill at cooking, but apparently she had always baked with her mother before they got separated, doing decorative frosting and everything, and the cake was beautiful.

Rina really didn't look a thing like the girl I had met when I first came to Amsterdam… and it wasn't because of the baby weight. Her eyes weren't so dark… she wasn't scared, was what it really was. I wasn't sure how I had done it but… she really made me feel special, somehow. And now that it seemed I was officially her older brother or something… I had no idea, actually, but it was pleasant all around. More than ever I was glad I had come here of all places, that I had refused to go away with Hilde again… Hell, if I had arrived a few months later, or had Hilde been captured a few months before she had, I might have just left.

Melissa giggled as Rina squealed from having crumbly cake dropped down the front of her dress and retaliated by covering her hand with frosting and running it through her new husband's hair. The sweet little mechanic bumped one hip against mine playfully, and I grinned and bumped back. I had been so lonely during the war… But now it was outright impossible to be alone. I liked it. I snickered more as I saw something and pointed for `Liss; Cassandra and Casper had taken up residence at Luc and Karina's feet and were happily catching up any of the sweets that were dropped. The other little ones quickly realized what a good idea this was and swarmed… I really didn't pity the Father and Sister trying to put those youngsters to bed tonight.

…And Abby was chewing on my ponytail again. This was the problem with carrying an eighteen-month-old on one hip. I turned to give her a level look and she just babbled happily and continued gumming on it. Scary looks didn't work until they were at least Coby and Roosevelt's age, and I honestly didn't have the heart to do anything else.

`Liss was sniggering as she took her away from me. “That's cute, honey, but I don't think Kay appreciates it.” The baby looked confused for a moment, reaching out to touch `Liss's face, then looking back to me uncertainly. After a moment, she settled where the girl was holding her against her stomach, and reached for her hair. “Nuh uh,” Melissa laughed, leaning back and shaking out her loose curls. “I want them to stay pretty, honey, can't let you…” Abby squealed, delighted at this new game, and reached again, for the same reaction and some bouncing that set her giggling.

…I should try that next time. “That's one way to handle it,” I noted.

She continued grinning at the baby, making funny faces as she answered me. “My mom always did it with Nolan when he was little bity. I did too, but I wasn't really allowed to hold him much.”

“How much older are you?” I asked curiously.

“I was four when they brought him home from the hospital. I don't remember much of that beyond the first time they let me hold him, to be honest, but he didn't start playing this game until he was around Abby's age.” She shifted the baby to one hip and pulled her hair over the other shoulder, looking back over to Karina, who'd started slicing up little slivers of cake for the children threatening to trip her. “I moved Nolan in here after our dad left to find work, when it got really rough, and I was always helping take care of the little ones then… I've just been so busy the last couple months come by too often. I'm actually really looking forward to there being a baby in the house.”

I grinned. “Yeah, unlike normal new parents, they'll get decent sleep. I mean, there's what, twenty-five of us ready to step in and help?”

She laughed. “Something like that. Though most of them don't know the first thing of what to do with babies.”

I snorted. “As if Rina does.”

“Yeah, she told me about that trip to the grocery a few months ago. I'm sure you're going to be the one getting no sleep, every time Renee twitches she'll be screaming for your help.”

“Mm, maybe I'll start sleeping in one of the confessionals,” I muttered conspiratorially. “Then she can wake up, you know, the father.” Shaking my head, I asked, “Did they actually decide on Renee yet?”

“I'm not sure if Sin's actually agreed yet, but she doesn't have any ideas, and Luc really wants to. I'm on Luc's side.” She shrugged a little. “It's a good blessing to give the name of someone you loved, no?”

…Some days I really wished there was a way my name could still be Duo; it had meaning behind it. “Yeah, definitely.”

She noticed the hitch in my voice, though. “What's wrong?”

“I miss my name,” I replied frankly. Despite how everyone had shortened Chaos to the more vague `Kay' in fairly short order, Melissa was one of the people who'd first stumbled on me in that park and would remember that I'd point blank said I wasn't going by my name.

She tilted her head, thinking back. “It's Duo, right? That was what that girl called you?”

I sighed. “When I was little, a kid a lot like Luc took me under wing in his crew. His name was Solo, and when he died I was suddenly more or less in charge, so…”

She nodded. “That makes sense. Why not keep, it, then?”

I sighed again. “It's not exactly a common name.”

“Neither is Chaos.” Her eyes were dancing.

There wasn't really anything I could say to that so I rolled my eyes instead, sticking out my tongue as I took the baby back.

“And of course, we have Kay and Melissa, already practicing passing the baby!” Leah announced happily, coming by with the video camera.

I laughed, bouncing the little girl some. “This one's a bit heavier.”

“I get the feeling we will be the designated babysitters, though,” Melissa noted to the camera, grinning. “Have to make sure we don't drop her, huh?”

Taking that as my cue, I made as if to drop the toddler in my arms and caught her before she could actually fall, making a show of looking nervous before passing her back to my friend and trying to hide behind her. Melissa sniggered and made to smack at me, but I dodged, peeking around her at Leah as if mortified.

“You're such a goof,” Leah muttered, her tone bordering between amusement and annoyance before she moved on to chase someone else around with the camera. I blinked after her, not sure why she'd be annoyed. Well, not unless she was pmsing or something… She should know by now that asking us all to be serious while on film was the same as asking for the sky.

`Liss bumped me with one hip again, smirking. “I appreciated it.”

I grinned back at her; Leah was a pain anyhow. “Let's go get some cake.”

***

Kharkiv, Ukraine

…What kind of idiot leaves his window cracked at night? Heero shook his head and slowly pushed the pane open enough to slide through; this man's completely unwarranted confidence in his own safety amazed him. It might be understandable in more peaceful times, he could excuse a civilian's lack of care… but he was only on the second floor. He was tempted to go see if the moron had even locked his door.

There was no time to waste, though; even with the steady snoring, the oddest noises could bring a person back to, and he had no control over what sound came in here. Moving quietly, he took the cell phone off its charger and slid back out the window; the buttons beeped obnoxiously when pressed, and he didn't care to take chances.

It didn't take long to find the call that had been made earlier that day at the time he wanted; he quickly wrote it down and returned the mobile to its overheating on the charger before climbing back out and leaving the window at that same unwise crack and replacing the screen. Someone was going to rob the man blind in the middle of the night one of these days, but in all honesty, it was none of his business. It would probably take an object lesson before Treize's man realized his bad habits.

On an entirely separate note, he really ought to have looked at his ID while he was in there, since his wallet had been sitting right there, so he had a name to use for him.

He crawled back in through the window to his own room, not liking the way his leg was pulling. He really didn't need to be slowed down tomorrow from this evening's exertions… After replacing his own screen and shutting the window firmly, he used his fold-up cane to block the track; no one would be able to sneak up on him unnoticed.

The bunk he had rented in the hostel was set up for two, but the place wasn't full, so he had the room to himself. The amazing part, really, was that this one, unlike any of the others he had stayed at before, was adjacent to a private bathroom. It was just a stall, not a tub, so he couldn't soak his leg… but he could sit down and stay in the hot spray for as long as he wanted, now, instead of having to wait for an odd hour so he would be alone.

He had bought dye before coming back to the hostel to scale the rooftop, so he stripped off his shirt and set that in his hair first, then turned on the water; he would just keep his head out of the spray until the timer on his watch went off. It wasn't long before the water was warm enough to appreciate and he set the head to spray where he wanted it before settling into the corner.

Pulling the bad leg slowly to his chest, he turned so the water hit it better and tried to massage out the tension; once it was a little more relaxed, he'd go through the physical therapy routine Dr. Srona had taught him. He couldn't do all of it in the stall, but he'd at least start, then move back into the room for the rest… maybe get some ice from the machine downstairs for when he laid down.

It looked better… the scarring would never fade, but he didn't care about cosmetics. The muscles looked right, though, and that eased his worry. They had been ripped in that last battle in a couple different places; Srona had said that there had been three major ones, and probably a number of smaller ones that had mended themselves. The problem was that he hadn't been able to get medical care right away, and the muscles had healed in strange ways because he hadn't been able to rest… his insistence on trying to move on his own had made matters worse in the long run. He was so used to everything just healing itself, and he'd reset the broken bone involved with the injury… but muscle was harder.

Nothing had detached, though, nothing had actually severed, for which he was lucky; his leg would have been entirely useless if that had happened, and he would have needed surgery to use it at all. As it was it would probably help if he could get some reconstructive surgery done anyhow, give him more mobility in the future… but he'd be alright without, too. If I have time… He grimaced. After all this was over, when there was really peace… He would be able to take the time once this was all over. There was just too much at stake, now.

He had had surgery before; he'd had quite a number of nasty injuries during his training, and he'd had to go through physical therapy then, too, but… the muscles had never been allowed the time to atrophy, or to heal incorrectly, so it hadn't taken anywhere near as long to recover. He had to work harder on his leg now than he ever had before because he needed to more or less reprogram the muscles to do their old job again instead of just attaching to what was closest that would make them more stable. It was like a child learning to walk again; he had too much new material that had never been trained to match the rest of his body. He had to catch it up.

The problem was, he couldn't be sure of the overall effects if he worked it too hard. His leg was weak, thinned out… he could risk actually detaching the muscles. The heat of the water was pleasant, and it eased the pain, but that wasn't the point; he was making sure it would actually flex as it was supposed to, not seeking comfort. He couldn't afford to fall behind if he pushed past his new limitations, so he had to baby the injury as much as he could. And the heat really did feel good… He closed his eyes, enjoying the thick steam he was inhaling.

That was one thing about all this… he'd had to learn a different set of discipline. He'd had to learn patience… to sit back and let nature take its course, watch time roll past… and he'd had to learn to enjoy himself while doing so. It had been anything but an easy transition, and he was happier than ever to be back up and about again, but…

…It might be nice to do it again, sometime. Well, not the inability to move by himself, but… Somehow there was more to sitting still and doing nothing than… well, than doing nothing. He hadn't accomplished anything outside of letting the healing process take place, but… the little things, like… like cooking with Mrs. Srona had been, just…

They were just nice. Reading, not because he needed the information but just something to do and… it had been enjoyable. He had no real interest in fiction, but there was so much that he'd always thought he didn't need to know that he could know, if he just… did nothing.

Was this what I was fighting for?

The word on everyone's tongue before the altered Operation Meteor had begun had been of escaping oppression, but after that it had all been about “peace.” He hadn't thought much beyond the fact that it would be good to not fight anymore, to not kill anymore, because so many innocents died… that girl and her puppy… the pacifists on the shuttle he had destroyed, thinking it was all the military leaders… and it had been their loved ones who paid the price of his actions, not him. He had wanted to right that… find a way to keep parents from ever finding their little girl in all the rubble, to make it so mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters and children didn't lose everything they held dear anymore…

…To make it so no other boys would lose their fathers as early as he had.

He hadn't really thought it out beyond that, though… that was what Relena was there for. She led the way, pointed and he followed, at first unwillingly, not sure why he was reacting as he was, then later with enthusiasm. He had forgotten Odin's advice to follow his heart during training; it hadn't exactly been applicable, until he met that girl with her dog…

It was actually odd; when she had given him that flower, he had started to think that that was how it was supposed to be, blending the sweet and innocent - everything that was good - into his life along with what he had found he was so very good at… that maybe that was what he had been missing so much since Dr. J had taken him in. That was what Odin had shown him, mixing work with pleasure; a job was a job, and it had to be done with the utmost perfection… But when they had a hit to do in San Diego on Earth, they had stayed for almost two weeks and gone to the zoos, played in the ocean, built sand castles with a few other boys he ran into at the beach…

And actually, Heero had no idea if he was even colony-born. His memories only went back until he was four… or five… And Odin had always focused on the present and immediate future, never on the past. It was strange, come to think of it, the meticulous detail he went into on every little thing except the past… but that was just how the man had been.

But then when he had found the dead puppy he hadn't been able to just leave it there… its little girl was somewhere nearby, but he couldn't find her… he hadn't wanted to admit that the child had surely been under the rubble near where he had found `Mary.' Her hat had been right there, but he convinced himself that she must have dropped it while she was running away… When he had finally let himself give up, he was reporting over two hours late, and he had brought the body of the poor creature to explain his failure, the destruction of part of the residential block…

For the first time in years he'd had the time to really miss Odin, had wanted to know what he ought to do… and had been told that he was to do nothing; that he wasn't supposed to feel anything.

The training had become harder then… he hadn't had the time to think about it anymore, he was too tired to come up with solutions outside of what he was told… and when he was sent to Earth the following year, he had just wanted it to be over with.

Waking up on the beach where Relena found him had been something of a disappointment, at the time. He hadn't been able to make his own choices for so long that he had been reaching out for anything, not sure what was really right or wrong anymore… but somehow that naïve girl had made him realize that he didn't have to be lost.

Not that he had stopped to figure out exactly where he was going, but she had had compassion… and he hadn't seen true kindness since that little girl had given him a flower just for being lost, trying to make him feel better. Relena had wanted to make everything better… and that had made all the difference. She had been a threat to his identity, a weakness he knew had to be crushed… but killing her when she was only trying to help would have been killing that little girl and her dog all over again.

So he'd started to follow his emotions instead; if he couldn't obey his orders, he had to have something… and it had all started to make a little bit of sense. Even though he had lost that battle at Libra… Time didn't stand still for anyone. This was just one more calm in the storm. The battles would start again soon enough; it wasn't anywhere near over yet, no matter what Treize had said. The idea of a battle to end all battles apparently didn't work if the wrong side won.

And this time, when it was time to really fight again… he'd know what he wanted. There wouldn't be any confusion; he would be as calm and confident in himself as Treize had been. Hopefully, however, his confidence wouldn't be as horribly misplaced as Khushrenada's; Zechs had certainly not been the key to peace in the end. But either way, he wasn't going to be anyone's tool anymore. Whether he made good or bad decisions, they would be his.

He wouldn't be against flying a gundam again, if he was able to get his hands on one… but he would take it and fight what he believed in, like he had at the end of the war. Not on some mysterious mission, not to get rid of liabilities…

He smiled at the memory of Duo's shocked expression when he had cocked the trigger on the gun when he came to him in prison… it wasn't like he had been able to do that even when he had tried. Maybe I wasn't much of a tool during the war after all. He had constantly been rebelling and doing what he thought was necessary the whole while, even when the orders were coming from Relena. That was something of a comfort, really… he didn't regret his actions on the battlefield after a certain point in time.

This time, though, he wouldn't be relying on instinct… he'd be ready with a plan, with clear goals. He wasn't going to be spun about on his head and mislead by someone with ulterior motives.

…That was what made everything I did wrong during the last war, right? He thought so… but it was something he would probably have to figure out as time went on.

Treize, though…

He could contact Treize now, but he wasn't sure if he really wanted to yet. He had wanted to opportunity to do so, but he had no idea what the aristocrat's motives were. Epyon had come with no strings attached - Treize was usually concise if nothing else - but at the same time, he was worried about what the man had in mind for Wufei… and if the other gundam pilot needed his help, he didn't want to alert Khushrenada to his presence.

So he would keep the number… and hopefully Treize would still be answering the same line after Wufei's situation was a little more stable. Chances were that Treize would be an aid to him the same way he had been while the Sanc Kingdom had come back into power, and that would be great… But that was because their motives had been the same. They might still be… but it was hard to say without talking to him… and he couldn't talk to him until he knew his motives in chasing down Wufei…

Hopefully, time would fix that problem.

Considering his leg, he sighed. Patience and exercising caution… I'm going to have to move just as slowly up behind Treize so I can actually catch him where I want him to be. It just figured that he would probably be completely healed by the time he had that chance to catch the man unawares.

Shaking his head, he started to work out the tension in his thigh; need for patience or no, procrastination was a dangerous disease.

***

Brussels

Relena fingered the papers, biting one lip. She was alone in her suite now, and had been planning going straight to sleep… but then Milliardo had told her about this.

She'd been selected as a candidate by the R. L. Tomorrow Today Fund.

It was a private fund, one where the donator preferred complete anonymity, apparently… and was amazingly wealthy. It had only been running for the past five years, but she remembered her father mentioning it as a major factor in cleaning up some of the worst colony slums in L1 and L3. It had coupled with the Barton Foundation here and there, but never really intruded on the Winner Corporation's territory, apparently…

Her father had said that the RLTT Fund was made in very good taste, and well enough invested to last as long as the older organizations it resembled, but that it lacked organization. Milliardo had told her point blank that the organization of the funding was left to its vendors, which was one of the reasons candidates were outright selected. The plans still had to be approved, and this was in part asking for the details of her work in China, but anything she did under its funding would be free reign…

The last candidate had been Howard Oclaire of the Sweepers, the most recent project the commissioning of the spacecraft Peacemillion, created as a sort of “rescue” or “safekeeping” craft for political leaders. It was supposed to be some sort of universal asylum, with room for a small amount of personal guard MS… Of course, it had ended up housing the gundams and their pilots before its destruction, but that had not been its intention… probably, anyway.

She didn't like the mystery surrounding the fund. However, it seemed to be dedicated to specific causes, and she could use the extra push behind her… and if it was dedicated to her cause, then it shouldn't be a problem. Milliardo had seemed proud, excited even, by the idea of her being taken up by the fund… and admittedly, it had a good history despite how young it was, so it would likely help her quickly gain favor. It would mean that she was definitely chasing the best interests of the people, for all that her projects alone should say that much.

And it would mean that she wouldn't have to rely on Milliardo's approval. That alone made the idea attractive, no matter the mystery.

She read through the letter more thoroughly, noting that an interest in other projects she had in mind would be appreciated… That it was understood that the Peacecraft Regime had already struck a deal with the Chinese for the heat amplifiers, and if necessary, money from RLTT could be put forth to forward that project, but they were more interested in other projects she had in mind, especially considering the extremely low standard of living across the globe…

There were heavy implications throughout the paper itself that peace was the goal; the rising new societies weren't actually brought up, but there was a note of “ensuring that dangerous persons do not threaten the greater population.” She honestly had no idea exactly what that implied, because she could take it in so many directions…

…And there was some appeal to that. This was the group that had funded the construction of Peacemillion, and she seriously doubted they had been clueless about exactly what Howard had intended to use it for… and what he had done with it still fit into its listed purpose nicely enough. It had been a sanctuary for Sally Po and the gundam pilots, and they had certainly mattered greatly enough on the political scale… which made the whole idea sketchy. Normally sketchy was bad, but if it meant she might still have full financial backing when she removed her brother from power, she was willing to be as shady as a drug dealer.

So it wasn't as if this was a decision to make; Milliardo hadn't even seemed to think there was any question as to how she should respond to the candidacy. It was just time to plan, work out the fine details… Maybe Jake might be willing to lend a hand again. He seemed like he was fairly well networked despite being a computer geek, and he had made sure to bring in the realism side of the issue when they had talked before. If he was willing to brainstorm with her again, she'd certainly appreciate it.

Pursing her lips, she reached out for her yellow notepad and flipped to a fresh sheet, starting to sketch out a few basic ideas; sleep could wait another hour or two.

Okay, I couldn't pin down a last name for Howard anywhere, so I just grabbed one up. Otherwise, I was mostly trying to develop Heero here and start opening up the venues for further plot. I would love to get your thoughts, or know if anyone thinks I'm moving too slow… I really seem to be, but that's not my intention, honest. I'm trying to not rush it because then all the plot intricacies kinda just get bastardized, but I'm a little worried that I might be getting boring.

General thoughts? Theories?

Sorry for slow update times, but summer courses take an unbelievable amount of time. To everyone in the U.S., happy Independence Day!