Work Text:
“-me those intelligence assessments as soon as possible,” Lady Une said as she continued towards her office.
Her office assistant nodded quickly, adding that to his list of notes. “Preventer Jordin did say he only has preliminary findings so far. He hasn’t gotten word from all his contacts yet.”
”Jordin is overcautious,” Une said with a note of exasperation. “I’d rather get a feel for what’s happening in the L4 area now rather than wait another two months.”
Her aide darted ahead of her, opening her door-
”Lady, look out! We have an intruder-“
Une laid a hand on her aide’s shoulder, sighing as she looked past him. ”It’s fine. Get a second terminal up here. Full access, I’ll sign the authorization as soon as it comes off the printer.”
”B-but-“
”Take care of that first, then get that report from Jordin.”
“… yes, ma’am.”
Une shut her door as her assistant shuffled off with a look of pure stress. Then she marched into her office and set her briefcase down on her desk. ”You don’t work here, Heero,” she said in a pointed voice, then frowned as she looked past him to her terminal screen. “Historical records?”
The Gundam pilot none of her people could keep track of hummed softly. “Wufei mentioned a cold case to me. I figured I could help out with it.”
”There’s something morbid about you researching the assassination of the man whose name you use.”
His lips quirked slightly into something faintly amused looking. “I don’t use it everywhere. Didn’t pick it, either.”
”… I need my desk and computer back, Heero. And I can’t let you keep digging through these old OZ files without making you an agent.”
That made him pause. Une opened her briefcase and started unloading the files inside. “I appreciate the help, but if you’re trying to get me something I can use on this case, it has to come through official channels.” She gave him a sideways look as she dropped another set of folders into her OUT tray. “I do have agents who don’t get deployed into the field. But I’d need a name and a background to make that agent official.”
Her door swung open again as Heero resumed typing. The files on the screen flashed as he started closing them out one by one. Her poor assistant, meanwhile, brought her a clipboard while wearing a poorly concealed look of disapproval.
”The paperwork, ma’am,” he said in a stiff voice.
Une took it, nodding in approval when she saw the Preventer application forms buried in the stack. It didn’t take long to go through and sign her name in all the appropriate places. She tilted her head to the side for a moment, then filled out one final box before passing the clipboard to Heero.
He looked up with a scowl moments later. “Agent Quill?”
Raising an eyebrow, Une settled for folding her arms across her chest. “Asking first would have left me inclined to let you pick your own codename. Not asking first means you don’t get that privilege."
Heero looked peeved but didn’t argue. And then Une got her own surprise when she saw the name he wrote down.
“Jay Maxwell? Is that even going to pull anything up if we run a background check?”
”I’ll put that together,” Heero grumbled as he started flipping through the stack of paperwork.
“There isn’t anything else we could use that’s already set up?”
There was a pause. Heero’s heavy brows drew together before he slowly shook his head. “Not one you want on an official report.”
”Alright. In that case…” Une looked up and calmly hauled Heero out of her desk chair (knowing full well he was letting her). “Process Agent Quill through, then get him an office. He’ll provide you with the necessary background check and other paperwork. He’s here under special authorization.”
”Yes, ma’am. Agent Quill, if you’ll come with me…”
Une groaned as the door swung shut. What in the world was Heero up to? To bother coming in instead of simply sending her information like he usually did… He continued to be her best source for trouble all over the Earth Sphere and in the Colonies. But he didn’t need to be here for anything to do with that.
It had to be the historical records. Or more specifically, the old OZ files stored on the Preventer’s isolated servers. He couldn’t hack something that wasn’t connected to the broader world networks, and if he needed to dig, then simply breaking in to grab the files en masse wouldn’t work.
Shaking her head, Une sat in her chair (then adjusted it back to fit her height. That little shit had changed the settings-) and gave her terminal a considering look. There was no sign of Heero’s work now, but she knew better than to assume it was exactly back to normal.
… at least with him officially working for her (for now), she could order him to restore it back to normal. Assuming she could find whatever he’d planted.
Gundam pilots. She loved them all now, but good grief. They caused her such headaches. Now she had to message Wufei and find out exactly what he’d said that had set Heero off…
Watching Heero interact with her agents was like watching a coyote trying to blend in with a litter of puppies. They were all vaguely the same shape, but Heero radiated a quiet lethality that every agent could sense, if perhaps not consciously. It was also clear that whatever Heero had been doing since the end of the Eve Wars had not included practicing his socialization skills.
Bless him, but at least he did somewhat belatedly realize he needed to make an effort. Or else have every little request for data or resources held up by grudging bureaucratic nonsense. Of which Une could have broken through for him, but…
Well, this was such an excellent learning opportunity for him.
Heero resignedly accepted the need to eat lunch with other people, he learned to sit and listen to gossip, and kept the threats of physical violence restricted to those persons who got pushy or handsy with others. He even went so far as to put a single piece of decor up in his office after Agent Kee lamented how stark his small space looked for the third time in as many days.
Curiously, it was a small print of modern impressionistic art, one featuring a cloudy sunset shining over water and a distant mountain line, done in brilliant colors. Heero didn’t elaborate on it beyond tersely providing the name of the piece and the artist who'd made it, but still.
How interesting. How human. The other pilots would be pleased to hear about that. Assuming, of course, it wasn’t something he’d picked up at random to make the fretting stop. But Une was hopeful he’d chosen something he actually liked.
Still, getting to watch Heero Yuy discover how office culture worked continued to be hilarious. His technical skills were quickly identified and it didn’t take long before people working nearby started asking him for help. And Une had never been so glad as to have cameras in strategic places in the Preventer building as she was the day Heero discovered the level of technical prowess possessed by an average Preventer agent. Specifically, how much lower they were compared to his.
She had her assistant nudge him towards the IT professionals after that. He needed to know that not everyone was quite so helpless.
Still, having Heero so close proved to have additional boons. He snarled the day she barked at him to take his ass back to his office instead of running down a potential hot spot himself, but she also thought… he rather appreciated it. Une had signed him on with the implicit promise not to deploy him into the field and her refusal to let him follow one of his own leads did a lot to back that up. And it also meant she could throw other leads at him to electronically chase down. It slowed down his work on the Yuy cold case, but that was fine.
Une honestly wasn't certain she wanted that resolved. Solving the case also meant reviving it in the eyes of the public… and with the political set.
She also liked having Heero around in general, and not just for the entertainment factor. He'd long seemed the least suited to life post-war, the one with the least direction and sense of purpose. Having him here meant Une could see for herself how he was doing and growing and evolving past being cast as a mere living weapon.
Heero worked. He did his research, he learned more about socializing, and slowly began carving out a small niche for himself within the Preventer ecosystem. One that included the fact that he was far more dangerous than he looked, as witnessed by the amount of wrath that accompanied him taking down a lunatic who broke into the building lobby yelling about needing to do… something? To prove to Relena Peacecraft how much he loved her, how perfect they were for each other…
Fate could be cruel, as shown by that man breaking in while Heero was actually still in the lobby. There was a small chance the intruder would walk again, though, and it only took a week or so before Heero’s office friends got over their shock and fright.
(And how wonderful was it that Heero had office friends? Une didn't think he'd realized that and had no intention of telling him.)
The true highlight of that event came when Une summoned Heero to her office to help her send the video of Heero's rage-fueled take-down to the rest of their personal associates (the other Gundam pilots, Sally, and certain persons living on Mars). His face was a picture when he saw the folder she had on her terminal with screen captures and video snippets of himself taken from the building's security system.
"You're not allowed to do anything to these or arrange for any kind of computer glitch," Une calmly informed him as he stared stone-faced at the recording titled 'Discovering office birthday celebrations'. (She had made a point to inform the self-appointed 'hospitality officer' that 'Jay Maxwell' would neither enjoy nor endure any kind of celebration thrown for him. She hoped that would help keep the violence down to moderate levels.) "The others have been very happy to see you settling in so well."
He didn't reply, choosing instead to ensure the video she was sending out was properly encoded before stalking out of her office. And if her computer spent the next four weeks with a bug that saw all her fonts defaulting to one that contained a jarring mix of serif and sans-serif letters… And her office chairs suddenly refused to remain set to their appropriate heights and degree of lumbar support…
Well, it could have been worse. Much worse. Duo actually sent a message back to her cooing and complimenting Heero on successfully responding with an appropriate level of retaliation.
Une didn't know how long Heero's office adventure would last; he might rise and fall like a seasonal flower, but still. It was good to have him here.
The box showed up near the end of the work day, sitting neatly on the coffee table tucked into the small seating area off to one side of her office. A folder sat on top of the box with a cover sheet affixed to it bearing a case number and 'Agent Quill' on the front.
Une recognized the case number and felt her stomach tighten when she confirmed Heero had disappeared from the building. His lonely piece of art was still tacked up to the wall and he hadn't wiped his terminal… but he'd clearly decided to make himself scarce.
That concerned her. For him and for what was lurking inside the report and accompanying box of documentation.
She carried out the remainder of her day and sent everyone home. Wufei and Sally were both in for once, filing reports on their recent deployments and feeling miffed at Heero's sudden absence. They ignored her orders to come back the next day to finish and continued to lurk within the walls of Preventer HQ until they felt satisfied with their documentation. And when they came to deliver those reports, they found Une sitting on the couch in front of the box and Heero's report with her head in her hands and a groan escaping her lips.
"What's wrong?" Sally asked, immediately concerned.
Une just sighed. "Heero's ability to land in the middle of a mess is… unprecedented."
"What did he do this time?" Wufei wondered as he peered down at the papers scattered in front of her.
"Nothing. Not himself, at least. Not directly. But…"
Sighing, Une gestured for them to sit. "You sent Heero chasing after this rabbit, so now you get to hear what he dug up."
Frowning, Wufei lowered himself down into one of the chairs flanking the table. "You don't mean the old Yuy assassination, do you? He and I weren't even alive when that happened."
"And yet…" Une flipped through the report and tossed it down so they could see the security camera capture showing a dark haired man standing at a colony check-point. He had a musical instrument slung over his shoulder and a bored look on his face. "Meet Odin Lowe, the man who shot Heero Yuy. Former Alliance military sniper, retired from service with full honors three years before the assassination."
"Odin Lowe…" Wufei's expression turned uneasy. "Heero uses that name sometimes. Or at least, he used to, before he came here."
"That's not a coincidence. But I'm getting ahead of myself. As it turns out, the reason Heero agreed to join Preventers was because of the specific records he couldn't get to on his own. Not easily, at least. And I'm not just talking about records relating to OZ or the Alliance." Une sighed and let herself fall back against the couch's padded back. "He needed to drill all the way into the personal records of the Khushrenada family and only being a member of the Preventers could allow that to happen."
"Aren't you the person in charge of everything relating to the Khushrenada family right now?" Sally asked. "I feel like that was rather loudly discussed in the days following the Earth Sphere's surrender to the Colonies."
"I am, technically. But due to the complex legal situation and a desire to ensure the matter was handled as ethically as it could be, I signed control over to a law firm based out of the Colonies," Une said. "I still have final say, but there's oversight and documentation concerning record releases and refusals both. Something Heero took full advantage of.
"It's a whole web of contacts and money transfers," she continued, "going all the way back to Mr. Treize's grandfather. It's a miracle he found as much documentation as he did. He must have hired help to go through endless boxes and batches of digital files. Which he did have the budget for. There's a line, though, going from Cinquante Khushranada to his daughter, Angelina and her husband, Ein… and then to Heero Yuy, Ein's brother. Political turmoil and power is what ultimately drove everything, possibly including Odin Lowe's departure from the military. But certainly his hiring for the hit. Then, we skip forward in time. Thirteen years forward, to be exact, and head to L3-X-18999."
"The home of the Barton Foundation," murmured Wufei.
"Yes. Mr. Treize was stationed there as an Alliance instructor, unaware that the Barton family had been doing their own legwork to determine who'd assassinated Heero Yuy. They'd found Lowe… and the man who made direct contact with him to arrange for the hit. One Brigadier General Septum."
"Septum was mixed up in this?" Sally sputtered in disbelief. "I had my own run-ins with him back in the day and he was as foul as they came."
"He was. And during A.C. 187, he was stationed on L3-X-18999. Odin Lowe accepted a contract to kill him and…" Une leaned forward and flipped through the report, exposing the other shocking image. It had been taken from security footage once more and showed Lowe, much older now and with a head full of graying hair, filing his arrival paperwork with a small child standing beside him.
A child both Preventer agents recognized.
"Father and son, supposedly, though no name is recorded for the child. Or at least, isn't contained here." Une gestured at the box of documentation. "There is no record of either individual leaving the station, and there was a firefight the next day that nearly saw Septum killed and did see Mr. Treize badly injured. He ended up in the hospital where Leia Barton worked as a nurse, Mariemaia's mother. And I recall Mr. Treize mentioning once, in passing, that he thought the person who'd fired the rocket launcher that took his mobile suit down as being… unusually small."
"… you think that was Heero," Wufei realized.
Sally covered her mouth in horror. "How long… has Heero been forced to fight for his life?"
"The entire incident was thoroughly investigated at the time and no trace of the attacker was ever found. Mr. Treize also never spoke much of it, he'd merely… mention it. In passing. The attack was frightening at the time, however, and development work on L3-X-18999 ground to a complete halt. The Barton Foundation suffered as a result, fueling even more resentment towards the Earth Sphere. And that, in turn, helped drive them towards Operation Meteor, in its original form.
"There's more. Details on everyone involved, financial records, excerpts taken from personal diaries, security footage… This is just the overview. There are more boxes with copies of everything Heero found. And now, I have to figure out how to share this with the rest of the world."
"And Heero's buried in it all through the trigger man himself," Wufei realized. "Anyone who sees him and this photo will recognize it's the same person. And he must have known what Lowe did to be able to weave all this together… Why would he do that, though? Lowe means something to him. He wouldn't have used that name if he didn't…"
Sally picked up the report and closely inspected the image of the (approximately) seven year old Heero Yuy. "… he's on the thin side, but healthy. Clean clothes, though someone like Lowe probably planned that out to the smallest detail. There was a lot of human trafficking going at that time, the security agents would have been training to look for signs of coercion. That they didn't flag Lowe down means he wasn't showing signs that he was being forced along or abused." Looking troubled, Sally passed the folder over to Wufei, who likewise inspected it.
"I wonder… if he wanted to know more about Lowe himself," Une said in a quiet voice. "I honestly don't think he cares all that much about the original Heero Yuy. But Lowe… he mattered to him, as you've said. And digging all of this up means he understands him much better than before. He could probably crack that incident on L3-X-18999 wide open if he wanted. He was there, after all."
Wufei handed the report back to Lady Une and gave her a sharp look. "Are you going to question him?"
She looked back, sensing the edge she was standing on. Wufei took pride in being a Preventer, but in a conflict between his job and Heero, himself… None of them knew which way he might jump.
It was a relief to shake her head no. "Not officially. And I can obscure his face, too. For a while, at least. The law's on my side there since he was obviously a minor at the time. But I do think he needs to talk to someone about this. And that person isn't me.
"I'd appreciate an update on what you and the other pilots learn from him. Off the record," she added as she straightened back up. "I suspect you'll have to chase him down, though. Consider yourself on paid leave for the next six weeks. And tell Heero I need to know if he's planning on coming back. There's no reason Agent Quill can't return to duty whenever he wants. Tell him that for me, please."
Slowly, Wufei nodded. "Alright, I will. I’ll need to head out now, though. Knowing Heero, he's already at the space port."
"I'll drive you," Sally said, rising along with him. "You can alert the others on the way. Director? Good luck. Even without Heero's face being in this, he's handed you one hell of a political bombshell."
"I know. And I need to go through all the records myself before I release anything." Une pointed directly at her agents, staring hard at them. "Update me. I mean it."
"… we will. Director." And with that, Wufei turned to leave.
Sighing, Une propped her chin on her hand and gave the box and report a gloomy look. What a headache this was going to be…
It was better, though, than contemplating what Heero might be convinced to share about his personal history. To get to the point where he could accurately fire a rocket launcher as a child…
War truly was horrible. She'd have to work harder to ensure no other child suffered the way Heero had.
Mr. Treize would have approved. And appreciated the irony of learning how far back his connections to the Gundam pilots truly ran.