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"Alternative Directions: Options "Written By: Karina Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing or the lovely
boys and their girls in the series. Wish I did. Please don't sue me.
I haven't even got a brass razoo to give you. Rating: Deffinately PG in Australia, at the moment,
but probably safer to say R for later chapters. Not sure about international
ratings Warnings: It will be 6x2, even though it does
not start out that way. After all, Zechs and Duo never met in Gundam
Wing and only spoke briefly over a com line in Endless Waltz. I've
tried to keep them in character as I saw them in the series. A bit
of language creeping in under stressful conditions. Pairings: eventual 6x2, past 2xH, 2+H,6x9, 1+R
Summary: Directions is set post Endless Waltz
and roughly 2 years have passed. Zechs and Noin are on Mars and Duo,
after spending some time with Hilde in a relationship leaves L2 to
join Preventers. Hilde was not happy about his decision. I guess enough
said. Here t'is, and I hope you like it. This is also AU for the standard
setting, as well as the series and Endless Waltz. Spoilers: Gundam Wing Series and Endless Waltz Many thanks to Dulin for volunteering to beta this. //... // thoughts
"Alternative Directions: Options"
Chapter 16
Sanc New Port City Date: 28th February AC 198 Time: 16:25 Relena It was a subdued group who left the private shuttle and made their way to the black limousine waiting to one side of the tarmac. The chauffeur wore the uniform of a Preventer and nodded politely as he held the door open for the Vice Foreign Minister. Heero glared and then nodded, recognizing the man as an agent he knew well. "Earth sends her compliments, ma'am." "Thank you." Relena slid onto the wide rear seat and lowered her head. For much of the flight from Luxembourg she had slept, but not before a truly shameful display of weeping and raging against her grandfather. It had left her with a headache and scratchy eyes and done nothing to ease the despondency that the interview had left her with. For much of the flight Heero had held her, saying nothing, merely offering silent stoic comfort. She had never cried like that before. Not even over the death of her foster father. She felt that something inside of her had died when she had left that manor house near Luxembourg. Something she had never thought would shrivel into a pained little ball, and surrender without so much as a whimper of protest. She had enjoyed her power and position. A little too much, she now realized. She was naïve and too young for the brand of politics that ran the Earth Sphere. Her grandfather had shown her the other side of politics and it was a side that frightened her. Terrified her. Could she become her grandfather? Did she want to become her grandfather? Could she walk away from family to further a career in politics? He had claimed that he had stepped away from her brother to curb the excesses of the Alliance. She had seen no evidence that any of his actions had resulted in a reduction of abuses to human dignity. It was something she would have to investigate, because she wanted to know what had been worth so much that he would throw away all responsibility for his family. She was aware of Heero and Pagan climbing into the car; Pagan sliding into the front seat with the Preventer Agent and Heero settling next to her. Then the car was moving and they were driving into New Port City, heading for the palace. Heero lightly touched her shoulder. "Are you alright?" "No. I don't know what to do. About Milliardo. Or about my career. I can't become cold like that. If I left politics what would I do? I could not help Milliardo then. I am as good as useless now to Brother. What can I do to help him, with my hands tied as they are? The only thing I am certain of is that I can't sign those papers, Heero. I can't do that to him." "We will think of something." a quiet promise, though Heero admitted to himself that he had no idea what their next move should or could be. Relena bowed her head, wiping at a tear that threatened to all too visibly slide down her cheek. It was one thing to cry in private in front of Pagan and Heero, another altogether for her to weep in public. At the moment even the chauffer constituted `public'. The other two, Pagan who was so like a grandfather should be, and Heero who was something else again, constituted family. Almost the entire family she could claim, in fact. "I am a figure head. I know that. They use me to help settle disputes. Everyone respects the former Queen of the World. I have been told it often enough. Why? No one seems able to explain it to me. Why do they do that Heero? I was Romefeller's puppet. Could no one understand that? I was never intended to wield any viable power. Now I am the puppet of people like grandfather. It was Marquis Wayridge and others in his central group who made it possible for me to turn the tables on Romefeller. Grandfather and his core group, now most of whom are Councilors of the ESUN Council of Representatives. They're mostly from Romefeller, Heero. I never really thought about it before. Near half of the council are the same people who ran Romefeller. They set it up for me to oust Duke Dermail from power over them, but are they any better than he was? Are they not chaining me as effectively as Dermail did?" "Dermail and his mobile dolls were not conducive to a peaceful world, Relena." Heero sighed. "Much as I hate to see it, I think you are needed to keep reminding the Council and government of exactly what the war was fought for. Peace." "Its not peace, though, Heero. Not true peace. I really begin to see that now. Our political system is flawed. Too many of the representatives are from the days when the Alliance ruled. No one has attempted to overhaul the brand of politics that survived the war. Some people have too much power. The same people who had power during those days still retain it now. Not everyone is using their power to their advantage, but too many are. I still have nightmares of being Queen, you know. It terrifies me. I am Vice Foreign Minister, formerly the Queen of the World. The delegation from Sanc's council have asked me to consider accepting the Crown of Sanc twice now. They want me to become the Queen of Sanc." "Will you?" Relena sighed, shaking her head slowly. "There are no national borders, Heero. There is no kingdom to be Queen of. Why do people refuse to see that? There is no kingdom of Sanc, but the people refuse to accept it. I took Sanc away from them when I surrendered to Romefeller. No one seems to acknowledge that there are no national borders on Earth anymore. As Queen of the World I decreed that all such were abolished, leaving only the World Nation. Why do they want a Queen, Heero? Why do the people of Sanc want to place me on a throne I certainly don't want? If anyone should be crowned it's Milliardo. He was born the heir. He was the one who fought to free Sanc from the Alliance. I was the one who gave in to Romefeller when they repeated the massacre. I was the one who surrendered." "Hn. Why?" "Why? Why what?" bewildered. She met deep blue eyes with her confusion clear in her own eyes. "Why did you surrender to Romefeller?" Relena shook her head slightly, a small tremor of movement. "To stop the killing." she stared at where her hands lay neatly folded in her lap. "It didn't stop it, though. When I surrendered to Romefeller half the city was again in ruins, hundreds of people killed. The city was burning and Romefeller's Oz was storming the streets. The people who had been fighting died or were injured. For what, Heero? They put their lives on the line to defend Sanc. You were one of them. Quatre. Noin. The Treize faction soldiers who sought refuge here. Not just the city, but the whole country. You fought to defend it and everybody in it. It was a sacrifice I didn't understand. After I surrendered myself and their national identity they moved on to defend against Romefeller elsewhere. I gave in to Romefeller, and they had to go and find somewhere else where they could make a stand. Romefeller moved in to occupy Sanc and I have learned of the atrocities that occurred after my surrender and departure from the palace." Relena shuddered, then sighed. "I didn't stop anything." "It was not an easy time, Relena. Do you understand what we were all fighting for? What it was all about?" "I don't know. I honestly do not understand the need to fight. I don't think I will ever understand what makes a soldier. Or why people would want me to be a Queen." "A Queen is a figure head. A symbol." Pagan turned in the front seat and spoke quietly, his voice grave. "You would stand for all that they feel themselves to be. Their identity in this place and time. When they look at you they see a future of hope that their children will be free to sleep at night, without fear of waking to bombs falling and mobile suits trampling their homes. A Queen is a symbol of future prosperity for the people. A tradition that has stood for hundreds of years in Sanc. It is the simple truth that while there has been a Peacecraft on the throne, Sanc has endured and prospered." Pagan's voice was soft, but clear and firm. He watched her from the front seat and in her saw her mother. His mind saw again the days before the invasion and massacre of Sanc's innocence. Saw again the beauty of the young woman who had come into the country and won the hearts of the people, not just the aging much loved and very preoccupied King. "Queen Katerina was a fighter. A beautiful woman who was a mother at heart to everyone who was graced with her presence. She took upon her slender shoulders the welfare of the people of Sanc who needed her. King Peacecraft worked for Peace in the world and loved his people, but as he grew older he worked more for the world than this small corner of Earth. When he wed your mother, he wed a mother not only for his children, but for his country. It was a role the Queen was happy to take on. She was loved for it. She became the symbol of Sanc. The King was respected and loved, but it was the Queen who took him to task, reminding him always that Sanc was their responsibility. Sanc was their home. Sanc's people had looked to the monarchy for over a thousand years for stability." "I don't think I could be all of that." Relena shook her head. "No, perhaps not, Miss Relena. You are young yet, with growing and maturing to do. Your views on life will no doubt subtly change as you mature. You are, however much you look like Queen Katerina, your fathers daughter. You have his driving need to make everyone see your view on peace. To have everyone share that peace that you envision." Heero scowled. "You say that as though it is a bad thing." "In many ways, Mr Yuy, it is. When one can not see the whole picture. When one chooses to ignore the views of others and force only your vision on them. People want peace. People also want to feel a sense of security and belonging. We also have a need to be individuals and to be recognized as such. Individuals who live in this place we call Sanc. Individuals who live in England, or America or Arabia. The principle that the King sought was for people to learn to tolerate, if not understand, the ways of others. We all are of common genetic stock. We all are born to this planet. To different parts of this planet, but still from this one lump of rock floating in space. We all have our own ideas of what peace is. The people also have an inherent sense of belonging somewhere. All people have it. It is ingrained in us before birth, imprinted on us as we grow and mature. It is our home, the place we identify with as being our homeland, be it one we were born too, or one we choose to make our own. It can not be ignored by those who have come to power. Sanc is my home. It has been the home of my ancestors for seven hundred years. Before that my family came from Germany and before that from France. However, Sanc is my home. In my blood and bones I identify with this very soil. Those who have been here for generations also feel it. It is in your blood too, Miss Relena, but you were not reared to the traditions of Sanc. It is tradition that helps bind us to our land. How we are raised is reflected in how we live. Sanc means more to them than you could know. They want to share their national identity with you. You are the daughter of the King they loved and the Queen they adored." "But Pagan, I want the whole world to be able to live in peace. I want no more war. I want peace for everyone. No more bombs. No more mobile suits. No more blood in the streets. I want the people, all the people, not just in Sanc, but in the whole world, to feel that about the World. All of the Earth. Not just this little piece of it." "Being Queen is not about bombs or mobile suits or blood in the streets." he gently returned. "I just don't understand. You say that I am like my father. Not in looks, but ideals. You mean King Peacecraft, not Mr. Darlian, don't you? If I am so like him, then what about Milliardo?" The old man sighed and shook his head slightly. "Master Milliardo is so like your mother. Not to look at, no. He is like his father to look at, but his heart. That is purely your mother. She would take your father to task if he began to neglect the needs of the people tradition made his own. She would bring him back from dreams of world peace to see the reality of what they had before them. A people who looked to them for stability. A country that was a model for what he sought to bring to others. Dreams are all very well, she told him once, but one must ensure one's own backyard is in order, before you tend your neighbors garden. Queen Katerina would take Milliardo everywhere with her as he grew older. He identified strongly with the people. Do not think him a cruel or heartless man. He is not. He saw Sanc die, Miss Relena. He saw his people butchered. He saw his father murdered. He saw his mother thrown from a third floor balcony, a bayonet wound in her back. He saw it and he was old enough to remember it. Like the Queen he determined to care for his own back yard. If not he, then who else? It took him thirteen years, but he restored Sanc and gave to them what he considered the only choice for the future." "And that was?" Heero queried. "Miss Relena. The Peacecraft Princess who had not grown up seeing the atrocities he had. The Princess the people could look to for the Restoration of the place Sanc had been when he was a child." "Hn." Relena smiled and shook her head. "Yes. Hn. I don't know what to do. I wanted so much to have the world nations become one unified place. One country, if you will. It just is not working, is it? Even before the Barton Incursion, it was falling apart. People were not as united as I had thought... hoped. No one seems to want the same thing. Peace, they say, but they seem to mean something different to how I see Peace." "Not everyone sees Peace in the same way." Heero scowled as Pagan turned back to face the road. After a moment he continued, blue eyes intense. "To me, during the war, peace meant no more fighting. I would not have to go and kill again. I did not see then that killing is just about all I know. I was reared to be a killer, Relena. I wandered around for a while, lost. I didn't have a war to fight. I did not have to go out and blow people and buildings up. I was lost. I could not find comfort in something I had so desperately sought and in the end I joined the Preventers. Preventers had something I desperately needed. A structure, a discipline that I found lacking in everything I did. I did not join Preventers to kill, but to find a niche I felt I belonged in. Peace just was not what I expected it to be. I felt lost." "Exactly. I think people are lost. I think, I thought, that if the wars ended and we had peace, then the whole world would instantly be happy." Relena gazed out the window as the last of New Port City gave way to the sculptured parks that would lead them to the Palace. "No more wars. People would be laughing all the time. Well, the truth is that the dancing in the streets only lasted for a day, then everyone went back to their lives. Accept the soldiers. Lady Une was quick to see that they were given retraining, but not quick enough-some joined Barton's army. Do you know, there are still thousands of soldiers who can not accept the peace? They just seem incapable of adapting. Most are not killers. They just can not seem to adapt to the changes. Lady Une thinks some of these are behind the raids on the mining fleets." "Many had no families to return to." Heero murmured. "Many families had to adapt to the loss of loved ones lost as Soldiers, not just in the war at the end, but against the gundam pilots. OZ was initially trying to take over from the Alliance. It is too late now but maybe if things had gone differently then Kushrenada might have succeeded, but the gundams attacked both OZ and the Alliance. Those were our orders. We were not encouraged to think about what we were doing on a human level. They were the enemy. That is what we were taught, Relena. At least Kushrenada and his people taught their soldiers more than to kill. OZ soldiers were fighting for their families, oppressed by the Alliance." Heero glanced at Pagan and the chauffer both watching the road as they drove through the small residential sector fronting the palace, where most of the staff chose to live and then faced Relena. He had had time to think since the wars had stopped. "Not all of them. There are rotten apples in every barrel. Not all Alliance soldiers were bad and much of the blame must fall to the leaders. But sometimes soldiers have to question orders. When those orders are wrong. At least most true soldiers see the faces of people. They see the people in the cause they fight for. Their ultimate goal. We Gundam Pilots were taught to be Terrorists, not soldiers. All true soldiers have hearts. " Relena tilted her head, studying Heero for a long moment. "How do you mean?" "I never saw people, Relena. I saw civilians and I saw enemies. Then I learned to see allies, the other pilots. I never saw individuals until I saw you and the pilots. All the faces were a blur, accept for a little girl and her dog." he sighed and shook his head. That hurt would never fade. "I killed them. I could not forget what had happened to them. It was unacceptable that I was distressed over killing that little girl and her dog, so I was retrained. I was to be a soldier, I was told, but the truth was, I was an assassin and a terrorist, not a soldier. A cold blooded heartless killer. That is what I was trained to be. Your brother fought for Sanc. To have revenge, yes, but he fought to free Sanc. That was his heart. When that was done, he lost himself. He gave everything to free Sanc and have you come here, for the people. I lost myself after the war was over, Relena. Just as Zechs did. I understand why he changed as he did, after Sanc fell, the second time. We are no different. I am no better than he was or is. We are no different to the politicians who are now in power. They are fighting in the only way they were taught, for what they see as peace. Their versions of peace. You are right when you say no two people see peace in the same way. We don't. We can only move in our own ways, for what we can see and understand as our ideals of peace. Not everyone has access to the means by which to make their personal vision of peace a reality, as you do." The car rolled through the last of the houses and out into the parkland immediately bordering the palace grounds. Relena gazed out at the snow covered world and sighed. "I wonder if there will ever be a world where the people are united and see the same thing we call Peace." "It would be a dead world. Differences make the human race what it is. Differences give us strength to strive for change. If we all were the same and all saw the same thing, who would want to live? We need stimulation, Relena. We need a challenge. When we try to force others to see exactly the same things we see, then we become dictators and that is when wars start. We have to acknowledge that no two people are the same. We have to see, that to make someone into a copy of ourselves is wrong. It will lead only to war. We are too different to be the same, yet in those very differences we are identical." Heero saw Pagan nod and caught the lift of the heavy moustache as he smiled. He was beginning to see that Pagan was very important to Relena's future. He was the grandfather figure she needed. He had seen war and peace. He had had access to people in powerful places, and watched as the world was shaped and reshaped time and again. Pagan could be a great help to Relena. He was afraid that Relena was going to have to be a politician. To remain human, to keep that common touch and stay in touch with the people, she would need Pagan, and others like him. "What should I do, Heero? What should I do about the World Nation? What should I do about the ESUN and the Colonies refusal to see eye to eye? What should I do about the Security Office taking my brother and his family hostage to ensure I cooperate with them?" The elaborate wrought iron gates opened smoothly as the car approached, the security contingent waiting for them. Heero sighed, watching as the car slowed to a stop. "I don't know, Relena. The best you can, sounds an awfully pathetic thing to say, but it's the best thing I can offer." t.b.c.
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