Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Theories of Revolution and Affairs of the Heart ❯ Time Will Tell ( Chapter 10 )

Lady Une had hit her limit. 'Enough is enough. Zechs has gone too far this time!' She slammed the latest report of the debacle with the Gundam pilots down on her desk. The base had been blown to rubble, soldiers killed, resources destroyed, and the pilots had gotten away. As had Zechs, with his precious Tallgeese, all in one piece. Une sneered. 'Probably because his lover warned him.'

She had known that the trap was a front for Zechs to get to see 02, but Treize had ignored the fact. And when Treize was set on ignoring something, the world could come to an end and he wouldn't acknowledge it. For a brief moment, she silently apologized for the unkind thought. It wasn't that Treize-sama missed these things, he just sometimes didn't see all of the threats that she did. So it would be her job to make sure he was protected from all enemies... including the enemies that were close to home. Grabbing the 'blackmail material', Une hurried to Treize's office. It was time he saw this, time he knew the complete truth.

Treize looked up in moderate surprise as the door to his office was pushed open, with no knock or announcement of entry. He wasn't particularly surprised, however, to see that it was Lady Une. 'Only the Lady would do something like that,' he chuckled to himself. But he had to be stern. "Is there any dire hurry, Lady, that has compelled you to forget standard protocol?"

Une blushed. "My apologies, your Excellency, but there was something I thought you should see. In relation to the most recent encounter with the Gundam pilots."

His eyes strayed to the video cassette in her hand. "Really?"

"This is security camera footage of Lt. Zechs' first encounter with Pilot 02," Lady Une couldn't control her faint blush, "and it explains a great deal about what went wrong with his plan to trap the Gundam pilots." She looked for permission to load the tape so that Treize could see for himself.

Treize raised an eyebrow. "How will such a tape hold any relevant information?"

"If I may simply show you, Treize-sama? I wouldn't want to bias your interpretation with my own." Lady Une tried not to plead, but if he wasn't willing to even look at the tape, there wasn't much she could do.

He extended a hand to a terminal. "Feel free, I'm perfectly willing to watch. This should be interesting, if what you say is true."

She obediently handed over the tape. "Well, I believe this tape shows that Lt. Zechs was very well aware that he was with a Gundam pilot."

Taking the tape, he placed it in the terminal and pushed the play button. Settling back in his chair, he watched as the scene opened in Zechs' office. Soon, 02 entered. He listened to the dialogue in interest, raising an eyebrow at times. When the conversation tapered off into... other things... Treize turned the tape off. He was annoyed. Looking at Une, he ignored the faint blush on her cheeks and said, "And your conclusions are?"

Une swallowed her embarrassment. "He clearly seems to be lying when he said he didn't know who it was. And the 'full deniability' statement..." She trailed off, allowing the damning words to speak for themselves.

Treize nodded slowly. "So that's how he's going to be," he muttered, knitting his brows. Raising his voice again, he said calmly, "Thank you, Lady. This will be of a great help to me." He retracted the tape from the terminal and put it in a desk drawer, locking it with care. "Was there anything else you wanted to say to me, or show to me, regarding this matter?" It wasn't meant as a dismissal, but as a mere question.

"No, your Excellency." Une kept her voice meek, but not too meek. If Treize-sama's apparent irritation was anything to go by, Zechs' time as the favored boy was over. And this was exactly what she wanted.

"Do you know where Zechs is stationed?" Treize was almost positive Zechs wasn't in the near area, so he'd have to call Zechs and get him over here. He wasn't having this conversation over a video phone, not if he could help it.

"I believe that he joined Instructor Noin at the current pilot training site."

Treize sighed. "Thank you, Lady. You are dismissed."

"Your Excellency." Lady Une saluted and left with much more decorum than she'd entered, barely hiding her smirk of triumph. 'Zechs is going down in flames.'

~~~~~

Zechs strode down the corridor of OZ HQ looking significantly calmer than he felt. Treize's summons had been abrupt, and Lady Une looked entirely too smug. He couldn't shake the feeling that he wasn't going to like what was about to happen. Reaching Treize's office, he knocked politely, suddenly struck by the memory of the last time he'd been here, expecting to explain away his behavior after his first encounter with Duo. He frowned faintly. Why did that thought make his stomach clench?

"Come in," Treize's voice floated out to him from behind the door.

"Reporting as ordered, your Excellency." Zechs saluted smartly.

Treize smiled at him, though it was obvious that the smile wasn't all that genuine. "Come in, Lieutenant," he said, motioning towards a chair.

'Lieutenant? Oh gods, this is going to be bad.' Zechs' stomach dropped even as he gracefully took a seat.

"You say that you didn't know that your... companion... was a Gundam pilot? You said this, if I am correct?" Treize wasted no time in getting to the point.

Zechs resisted the urge to swallow nervously. 'He knows. Oh, shit, he knows. I'm caught in my lie, and there's no way out but to stick to it... Shit! "Yes, sir."

Treize caught the nervous look behind the mask, and didn't acknowledge it. "Then I think you'll find this interesting," he said smoothly. The tape was already in the terminal, and all he had to do was lean forward and push play.

Zechs watched his first conversation with Duo and grew more calm as the evidence condemned him. When Treize switched the tape off, he had nearly achieved an emotionless state. 'When you know you're going to lose, go down with dignity,' he told himself. "Lady Une is to be commended for placement of the camera. I never noticed it."

Treize sighed. "So what do you have to say for yourself?"

For a moment, Zechs eyed him, debating his ability to talk his way out of this, then dropped the idea. He'd already been judged guilty before he arrived. 'Probably nothing that would make a difference, much less anything you would want to hear, Treize.' The faintest hint of smile touched his lips as he answered, drawing upon an old military tradition. "No excuse, sir."

In an uncharacteristic rush of fierce annoyance, Treize resisted the urge to throw the nearest paperweight at Zechs. He quenched the urge and looked at Zechs, taking in his posture, the posture that reeked of his ultimate defeat that he was trying not to show. "And what do you suggest my course of action should be?"

"Whatever you deem fit, sir." 'You're the brains behind the operation, not me.' Zechs finished silently.

Treize turned to his computer and typed silently, his body language clearly indicating that Zechs should not rise and observe. Soon, a printer beeped and came to life, feeding out a few sheets of paper. Treize motioned towards them, still absorbed in the computer screen. "Read those. Mission," he said absently in way of explanation.

Zechs retrieved the papers, read the mission parameters, and frowned. Even the Tallgeese wasn't enough to take out that many Alliance troops, especially not after the latest intelligence he'd read. With a sudden moment of crystal clarity, Zechs realized that Treize was sending him to die, in a manner that would absolve him of public responsibility while ridding himself of a troublesome lieutenant, since removing the mark of his favor would lead to questions Treize wouldn't want to answer. 'Well, well... you're colder than I thought, Treize, if you can do this without flinching. I do believe I underestimated you.'

Sensing that Zechs was done reading, Treize stood up and looked at him carefully. "I am sending you to die, Zechs Marquise," he said, as if it wasn't obvious.

"Obviously," Zechs answered in a sarcastic drawl, looking up to meet Treize's eyes. 'I'm not going to make him feel better about it. If he's going to do this, I want him to feel guilty!' he growled in his head. "Lady Une will be most pleased."

Treize laughed. "No, no, you misunderstand me." His laughter waned into silence, then he sighed. "No. You, Zechs Marquise, are to die. However..." He smiled. "Come back to me, Milliardo. Come back alive, and let Zechs die. And I don't think the Lady will be all that pleased with Zechs' death, but time will tell."

Zechs couldn't control his start of surprise. He barely kept his jaw from dropping. Then he started to laugh, as much in relief as at the absurdity of the situation. "I was starting to worry about you, Treize." Zechs grinned. "As for Lady Une, you might be surprised."

"As I said, time will tell. She'd be happier if you were gone entirely." Treize looked at Zechs, taking a step closer. "But I wouldn't be happier, not at all. I need you here, as Milliardo. However, I can't keep defending you, Zechs. Your actions are less than acceptable. So I send you to die." He sighed again. "I do hope you understand."

Zechs nodded slowly. "I understand. And I should be able to oblige you."

Treize smiled. "That's good to hear." He clasped Zechs' hand in his own two hands, holding it firmly. "Thank you, Milliardo."

"You're welcome, Treize." Zechs spared the briefest of glances to his clasped hand. This wasn't like Treize at all. Oh well, he might be able to make sense of it later. This had been a rather hectic day.

Releasing his hand, Treize stepped back. "When you go, send the Lady in for me, if you will. She should probably be informed." He turned and faced the window. "Dismissed."

"Of course." Zechs rose and crossed to the door, then murmured in an amused tone, "We who are about to die, salute you." Then he suited actions to words with a jaunty salute and left.

Treize chuckled at the statement. Looking at the birds that had come to perch on the window sill, he reached out a finger. One of the birds hopped up on the finger. He lifted his hand. "Come back to me, Milliardo," he repeated, lifting his hand and offering the bird flight. It flapped its wings and disappeared into the glare of the sun as quickly as it had risen. "Come back to me."

~OWARI~