Legacy 3/10

[Nightheart]

"I will be blunt," Heero said.



"Are you ever anything other?" Trowa replied. Heero ignored him. The two of them were walking toward the command tent ten minutes before the scheduled meeting dressed in their less formal Preventors uniforms. The two of them had had a scratchy mobile phone conversation with Lady Une via satellite feed a short while ago when Trowa had come to Heero with the news of their impending meeting and the Lady had given them both authority to act in her stead to hold the meeting and a set of parameters. However there were still one or two details the two of them needed to work out before they walked into that meeting. Around them the camp was making its last finishing preparations to batten down for the blow; the air had chilled and the wind had picked up bring it with it the ozone scent of rain and lightning... everyone else was too preoccupied with preparing for the storm to notice them so their conversation went unobserved and they could speak freely albeit very quietly.



It was not a good time to be discussing which of the two of them was going to take the initiative in the meeting. Trowa felt that since he had had prior experience with the leader of the militia when she hadn't been the leader of Homeguard, he should be the one the direct the interrogation... er, conference. Heero felt that Trowa, professional though he was, might let his bias color his reading of the woman as well as of the situation.



"We both know that your past history with this girl this Midii Une will have some bearing on the present," Heero stated.



"That's what experience is for."



"I'm simply saying that it may color your judgment of her current character."



Heero wasn't giving her a break, or even the benefit of the doubt, he never did. What he was doing was ensuring that all factors were within acceptable levels of control. The last thing he needed at these very sensitive opening stages of negotiations with a possible power was to spook her off or make her mistrust them in any way. The presence of an individual she had such an encounter with early on could possibly have a very detrimental effect... or a very positive effect, depending on how things went. He needed to be able to walk into that tent with one hundred percent certainty that the other half of his team was............................



"Current character?" Trowa had questioned.



"We both know that people can change over time, just look at Lady Une or Relena," Heero said. "When we enter that command tent to meet with this Number One we represent Preventors, and the organization needs someone who can accurately assess the military leader she is as she exists now. We can't afford to let your past experience with her cloud your judgment."



"My judgment remains clear. I don't have any problems with her." Trowa had a face like a stone, absolute zero in the expression arena. He could and often did have a poker face that even Heero could only envy.



Heero paused looked steadily at his comrade. It wasn't a skeptical look, it wasn't any kind of look, but as was usual with the two of them the silence said it all. At last Trowa relented.



"Perhaps I am less than objective when it concerns Midii Une," he at last allowed.



"In a situation such as the one you described to me in which you left a lot unsaid I would say that it would be more than anyone, even people like you and me, to see with complete objectivity. Betrayal hurts, and it lingers."



"Yes. It does, and it also makes me wonder what she wants with the Preventors," Trowa muttered darkly. "I can't trust this and I know you don't like this any better than I do."



"But I'm willing to hear what she has to say, there may be a way to negotiate disarmament and an open alliance with the Preventors by meeting with her peacefully like this. If that's possible I want to see that it happens. Aside of that, Midii Une has your sister to vouch for her." Heero pointed out.



"Cathy would take in a Gundam pilot... two of them as a matter of fact," Trowa said with a small smile, or what passed for one with him.



"What's that mean?" Heero asked wryly.



"You and I both know we're trouble," Trowa said. "But Cathy believes the best of everybody whether or not they necessarily deserve it."



"I've made my own observations about your Midii Une," Heero said.



"She's not mine."



Heero continued as if he hadn't heard Trowa.



"She puts a lot into the protection and defense of these civilians, that?s time, resources, and effort she could easily be putting somewhere else and for a lot more profit. She could have killed all of the Raiders yet she disarmed them and let them go. She well liked by the civilian populace, that alone doesn't mean she has good character or good intentions but it speaks strongly of her deep involvement with these people. That's something the Belterre Provisional Government certainly doesn't have going for them, in fact I would say the opposite is true."



"You've been a mercenary; you know that the goodwill of the civilian populace is important for acquiring safe and easy passage across lands" Trowa argued. "And you know as well as I do that people will accept even the harshest of dictators or the craziest of fanatics in a time of desperation if it means that they'll get some measure of structure and safety back into their lives."



"That's true, but I have an instinct that is telling me the leader of Homeguard isn't any of the former," Heero persisted.



"And I have an instinct that says lock her up and throw away the key," Trowa rebutted.



"That's not an instinct, that's a cry for justice... or revenge."



"It's also possible that you're so willing to give her the benefit of the doubt because she helped you save Relena," Trowa pointed out. He had the feeling his comrade wasn't listening to him; he didn't know how dangerous Midii could be.



"It's possible, but not likely. My objective is to get the true measure of the leader of Belterre?s Homeguard as she is and to do that I can't afford to be biased. Thus you may be a liability. My secondary objective is to learn everything I can about this militia and the Havens and in that you may be an asset."



"You intend that I should guilt-trip her into giving away information," Trowa said knowingly. Their thoughts often ran along similar tracks. Of the five youths who'd once piloted Gundams it was probably Heero and Trowa who were the most alike.



Heero nodded once.



"She may be more willing to share if there is someone in the room that she once trusted, or, more importantly, feels she owes a debt to," Heero said.



Trowa nodded. It appeared that Heero was going to proceed cautiously, the lesson he had learned with the slaying of Field Marshal Noventa was still with him and he was reluctant to act without adequate information. Trowa had to unwillingly accede that perhaps in this case it was better this way, he had an active dislike for Midii which probably would color his judgment; but the thought of being a menacing presence during the crucial meeting had a certain amount of savor to it. Trowa would never have guessed that he'd have turned out to have a vindictive streak hiding inside of him.

* * *



The appointed hour was almost upon her. Midii wondered idly if she should change clothes; the clothes she had on right then were the official/unofficial uniform of Homeguard; midnight blue pilots' coveralls with a silver fleur-de-lis on the right breast. Like everything else in their rundown little country it was worn, very worn. The cuffs had given up a long time ago and now the collar was starting to go, the hems were a bit frayed and the material was lightened along the lines where it habitually creased. But like everyone else in Belterre, aside of perhaps the Provies, she didn't own anything better. Midii didn't feel like she was really suited to receive what amounted to foreign dignitaries in her country, or at least as close as the Havens had ever come to receiving foreign dignitaries in her country.



Still, she did the best she could to straighten up; she washed her face in a small bowl of water and brushed out her hair even though it was still damp and unmanageable. She tidied up the command tent, not that there was much to tidy up; two battered trunks and a folding table with all of her maps pinned on it made up the sole contents of the room aside of her cot hidden behind a partitioning curtain. In the "public area" of the command tent she lit the two sturdy oil lanterns that hung from two long stands in two corners of the room then lit the third lantern that hung from the apex of the tent, then she put away the maps; the less that her possible enemies/possible allies knew about the layout strengths and weaknesses of her home ground the better. The maps on the worn table were replaced by a battered tin military tea service. She could serve tea since this Haven, despite its recent uprooting and resettlement due to flooding, had a working water purifier. Dried herbs were a little difficult to come by before harvest but now she had an ample supply of chamomile and mint leaves. As with everything else, there wasn't much and what they had was poor and cobbled together, but it was something.



Seated behind the rather rickety folding table with two empty cloth-and-wood folding chairs on the other side to receive her guests and waited. She wasn't kept waiting long. Soon in through the partially opened front flap of her command tent walked a man with messy dark brown hair, a bomber jacket that matched the description her men had given, and... She blinked; he was no older than she was! Seriously, he was really young! Was he some kind of intern? Was this some kind of joke? She looked twice at him... and that was all it took. Hardened warrior, definitely; he'd seen his share of combat. Probably another of those boy-soldiers she'd become familiar with, the case wasn't altogether unprecedented; why she'd met one of them herself far away and long ago.



Then, as if the mere brushing of her thoughts on a beloved yet painful memory had summoned him from the mists of her past, in through her doorway stepped a visage she had never thought she'd see again. Oh, the years had changed him, certainly, he was a lot taller than she thought he'd be, but that emotionless face and that ridiculous hair... there could be no mistake. Her eyes widened and she gave a small soft and barely audible gasp of recognition before she could stop herself. Her mind raced, trying to come up with a viable formula as to why he would be here, now, in this place and what the Preventors were planning or trying to say by it all. Two boys, her age; one of them a specter from her past. It just didn't make sense, were they trying to manipulate her somehow? Perhaps they intended to catch her emotionally off guard so that she made mistakes and gave herself away. Well she sure as hell wasn't about to let them, she had simply too much riding on this meeting to let her emotions get involved. Besides, that didn't really add up; how would they have known about him and his history with her and more importantly how would they have found him so fast? Unless Cathy... Nah, impossible. Cathy was Cathy for heavens sake!



"Gentlemen," she said her voice calm and steady even if she wasn't. She liked to think she was the consummate professional in all situations. "Please come in and have a seat, I have tea here if you would like."



The two men, moving with the soundless ease of stalking predators, walked in an unusual tandem over to the chairs and seated themselves. She gestured questioningly to the tea set and the both silently declined the offer. She smiled a small professional smile and poured herself a tin mug full of the steaming brew.



"If you don't mind I'd like to start off with introductions. I like to know the names of the individuals I'll be working with." Midii very carefully did not look at No-name when she said this. No emphasis on name. Professional, entirely professional. Lets play nice about this.



"Heero Yuy," the messy haired soldier said.



"Trowa Barton," No-name said. Neither offered their hands to shake, she didn't expect them to but she couldn't with hold a tiny frown from tugging down her bottom lip. She folded her hands on the table in front of her, studying the two of them skeptically for a moment and at last said



"You're Heero Yuy?" she inquired, gesturing to the shorter Preventor. "And you're Trowa Barton?"



They both nodded curtly. Midii graced them with a small look that said she wasn't fooled and said



"So when's Elvis showing up?"



They both looked at her neutrally. She frowned a little deeper and decided she'd cut to the chase... she hated the indirect route anyway.



"Look, gentlemen, I don't know what kind of games the Preventors are playing by sending the two of you here with two very obviously faked up names. I mean, Heero Yuy and Trowa Barton? It's an insult to my intelligence. I can only conclude by this that Preventors either does not take this seriously, does not take you seriously or does not take me seriously. All three possibilities are bad for negotiations."



"I assure you that no offense was meant," Heero stated. "The Preventors does take this opening talk between us seriously indeed."



Midii raised a very eloquent eyebrow.



"We are two of their finest Preventors," Heero said.



"Which one of you is Cathy's brother?" Midii asked.



Trowa made a small raising gesture with his hand, Midii managed to hide her surprise quite well this time. So he'd found a place to go home to, good for him. Perhaps it was irony on the part of the universe that he would find a home as she was displaced from hers. No matter, it was neither here nor there.



"Cathy says that you'll represent the word of the outside world Preventors in good faith with the full backing of the authority in charge during this meeting and any negotiations we may have in the future, is this so?" Midii questioned bluntly.



"Yes," No-name said quietly, that much about him hadn't changed over the years he was still quiet as ever. "The two of us have been granted such authority by Lady Une. Speaking with us is essentially speaking with her."



Midii tucked the fact that the head of the Preventors was a woman away for later thought. Was she possibly related? Not likely but anything was possible. It was more than likely just coincidence though, Une was a very popular last nae in htis part of the world. It was a bit like the last name Smith.



"That's what I wanted to hear. Lets get down to business," she said.



"Let's get your name first," the one who called himself "Trowa" interrupted. He knew damn well what her name was, but for the sake of formality she'd bite.



"Most people refer to me as Number One, but my name is Meridice, or rather Midii Une."



<There. You don't know me, I don't know you and I refuse to let that eagle-eyed stare of yours get to me so nyah nyah!> she thought at him, perhaps a little childishly.



"Miss Une," the Preventor named Heero Yuy (like the famous colonist) said. "We're here on the part of the Preventors to reach an accord with you and your people and I'll be honest, to hopefully negotiate the future destruction of all armaments within your sphere of influence. For now that requires a small show of trust on both of our parts."



Midii wasn't biting.



"While I appreciate your honesty, I'm not certain what you mean precisely," she replied. She was going to play her cards close to her chest until she had the true measure of the two of them and their organization.



"The Preventors has sent in two of its top agents, Barton and myself, to possibly hostile territory with no real promise of safe passage in or out of your lands," Heero stated.



It appeared that the two Preventors were going to play their hands close to their chests until they knew what she was about too. Midii didn't know a whole lot about politics but this whole tit and tat banter had a rather stilted and practiced feel to it. Still she'd keep the little dance going for a while and see where it led her.



"If that's all you're worried about, I can promise you safe passage in and out of the lands held by the Homeguard as well as my personal pledge that nothing will happen to you within our borders so long as I and my people are able to prevent it."



"I was hoping for more along the lines of valuable information," he stated bluntly.



Ah, a soldier she could at last communicate with! He was as blunt as she could have wished, for she had very much feared that they would send in a politician-type, someone very good with words and twisting them around until they sounded like they made promises but never actually gave anything away.



"All information is valuable to someone mister Yuy," Midii replied. Well, he had laid the glove on the table so to speak, perhaps she could afford to take him up on his offer for frank discussion.



"And while we're on the subject I too was hoping for information, as a matter of fact that's precisely the purpose I called this meeting for. I propose an exchange of information."



There. Open, honest, agreeable... but not giving too much away, at least not yet.



"Provided the inquiries are uncompromising, I agree," Heero replied.



His answer as tentatively friendly. They were both still testing the waters. Midii had no intention of lying, merely of not saying everything unless it was necessary, and she got the feeling Mister Yuy was of the same mind. Midii hoped she was reading him right; he seemed pleased with the way things were going. Midii was pleased too. The mysterious Preventors had come with an apparently very real desire to negotiate and hear her side of the story which was more than she had gotten from her Government. Perhaps here was the aid she had been praying for. Nanashi could be ignored since Heero Yuy was the one providing her with what she wanted.



"Very well then," she said taking a small sip of her tea; the calming effect of chamomile did precious little to calm her tightly strung nerves. No-name had always been perceptive, very very perceptive, and his stare felt like it was burning a hole in her forehead. It was unnerving, like he could see straight into her mind. She knew he was analyzing everything thing she said and every little movement she made... and with the history between the two of them she doubted it was in a very favorable light. She had half a mind to glare at him and tell him where to stick the assumptions he was likely making about her but she refused to break or even bend. She could hack this, no problem. A little honesty couldn't hurt, so she said



"Information on this side of our borders is hard to come by... solid information, that is. I called this meeting so that I could inquire about Preventors. You say you target terrorist groups, how do you define "terrorist?" Is it anyone attacking any of the current government officials, anyone attacking any other group, or just anyone holding weapons?"



"The building and maintaining of armaments not suited for personal defense, forage or personal recreation on a large scale is against the declaration of principles of the Earth Sphere Unified Nation and in violation of a great many laws," Heero stated. "Mobile suits are certainly on the list of contraband weapons for the E.S.U.N."



"These weapons are for personal defense," Midii replied. "The Havens and the people in them would be overrun and injured, possibly killed, without them. The Homeguard is a defensive force only, we have no interest in taking our little fleet, sorry as it is, anywhere beyond our nations borders. But you still didn't answer my question precisely."



"Any person or group of people with hostile intentions toward ending the era of peace the Earth Sphere Unified Nation has created," Heero replied. Midii nodded to herself.



"Homeguard has no hostile intentions. It wont have hostile intentions in the future. If it were up to me and the men and women who serve under me we'd have gotten rid of the suits and got on with the business of living by now."



"So it's not up to you?" Trowa questioned, with the very obvious implication that there was someone else, likely unsavory, pulling their strings.



<Oh I so wish you would go away,> she thought as she said



"It is technically, however with the way things are in this country we can't afford to disarm right now."



"And why is that precisely?" he pursued. He was out for blood, she just knew it. What were the Preventors thinking? Were they truly not interested in negotiating with her? Did they really just want to find a reason, any reason, to invade? Was that why they had sent him in? Still, if there was any chance at all of getting aid for her people, she could swallow her pride.



"We have Raiders attacking the Havens from all sides of our borders," she said honestly, meeting both of their eyes in turn. "If we disarmed they'd take over in a heartbeat. I don't suppose the Preventors might be able to offer some kind of aid would they?" Midii asked. She controlled her voice very carefully, her expression was carefully shuttered. This was the big money question; this was what she really needed to know.



"What has your Provisional Government done about the Raiders?" Heero asked instead.



<Damn! He sidestepped the issue,> she thought in frustration. Okay, play it cool.



"Nothing," she replied. At this she was unable to keep her voice from sounding curt even to her. But dammit, the whole stinkin' issue made her angry.



"Nothing?" Heero inquired. "And you're sure they are aware of the issue? The severity of the problem with the Raiders?"



"Yes," she said shortly. "I've sent many letters by personal courier to the capitol. They received them and they occasionally deigned to send back replies."



Midii pulled out a folder, a thick one, and plunked it down on the table in front of her then slid it forward for the two Preventors to take a look. Heero flipped open the folder and read the top page on the left side to himself with Trowa looking over his shoulder.



"Dear Miss Une, while we at the Belterre Provisional Government deeply sympathize with the plight of Belterre?s citizens we regret to inform you that our current funds are too limited to supply any monetary or provisional aid. As for your request for additional man power either trained or untrained to help out in this disaster we also regret to inform you that we cannot now spare the employees. We appreciate that you may view these attacks as direct threats, we at the Provisional Government can assure you that these supposed enemy forces of yours are nothing more than minor inconveniences. We believe they will desist in their attacks if you do nothing. Please stop sending us letters."



"That was written in reply to a Raider attack made on one of the Havens in Sector two. The Raiders had managed to almost completely overwhelm the defenses of that Haven. The cell in that sector lost ten of its fighters and thirty five civilians were injured," she informed him quietly.



"How many requests for aid have you sent to them?" Heero inquired. As he continued to leaf through them. His expression didn't change, but Trowa sitting behind suddenly went still, Midii suppressed a small shudder, she remembered that stillness; it had always spelled out trouble.



"I don't know, I lost count, but I've received fifty three replies. Almost all of them are like that. "We deeply sympathize but we regret yada yada." I know they're a little tight there at the capitol but surely they could afford to do something." she said, trying hard to keep the desperation out of her voice. She felt she'd succeeded admirably. Not that it likely mattered; it didn't take a Gundam scientist to figure out that things in this county were desperate.



"If the Belterre Provisional government was not the one to provide you and your Homeguard with your mobile suits then who did?" Heero asked next.



Damn! He was changing the subject again! She imagined that this issue was one of particular concern to the Preventors, so she supposed she could give it to them; it wasn't exactly a state secret anyway.



"If you want to get technical, I suppose you could say the Alliance Military provided them for us," Midii said. "Before the war in 195 actually."



"You stole them didn't you?" Trowa surmised. It wasn't a very difficult conclusion to make, even though they had been painted over in a new color, the suits were all of the makes and models that the Alliance military had favored during the time they'd been in power.



<Duh genius,> she thought. <What, you thought that the magic mobile suit fairy came down and gave them to us?>



"Yes I did," she replied, without a hint of shame. "But since the Alliance is no longer around I suppose it is a moot point."



"What use would you or Homeguard have had for mobile suits before the Raider attacks started?" Trowa asked.



This meeting was starting to have the feel of an interrogation, but Midii had plenty to back her up on this of all things.



"To get rid of the armies. That was what Homeguard's original purpose was for and that's what it remains. We're here to protect the civilians," Midii said staunchly.



There! No-name could stick that in his gun ports and shoot it! Thankfully at that point Heero called off his tall skinny pit-bull and spoke next.



"I know it seems a little invasive but perhaps you could tell us a bit about your Homeguard, how it got started and why. It would help clear things up and might help your case."



<I didn't know I was on trial,> she thought darkly. Perhaps the Preventors weren't her allies after all.



"My case?" she questioned. If she was to be attacked she wanted to know what it was about and why, in this case a little bluntness would force them to either admit that they were biased or force them to ease off a little.



"A poor choice of words," Heero said. "I did not mean to imply that you had to defend yourself against any accusations or slander on the part of myself or my organization or anyone outside of my organization. I merely wished to know a bit of history; how your Homeguard came to be and why it is still around. It seems to be well led and well organized, especially for a grassroots organization. The Preventors is officially the only organization allowed to bear heavy weaponry within the Earth Sphere so you can understand why your Homeguard might be a cause of concern."



That made sense, if she were the only game in town; she'd certainly want to know about how a new kid on the block suddenly came to be there. Would a little candor on her part bring forth a little candor on theirs?



"Alright, I suppose it couldn't hurt," she said after a moment?s consideration. She paused again, sifting through the years of memories to arrange her words into an accurate and concise order of events. She didn't want to be there all night telling every boring detail about how they'd come to be there.



"Back in the days of the Alliance, Belterre had armies riding through this country every other week after the government collapsed, they generally rode in with their covered supply wagons and their large fleets of suits declaring martial law and rampaging about destroying property and killing people even if only by accident. It was like someone had declared Belterre open territory and nobody worried about what happened to this place, every other day or so saw a new battlefield and you couldn't go an hour without hearing a new broadcast, back when we still had broadcasts, about some house, building or town somewhere in this city getting destroyed in a mobile battle in that area or even worse, people getting killed in the crossfire. We all just got stuck in the middle of everything so me and some of the few other people in this country with any military training or experience got together and created Homeguard as a way to kick these rampaging property destroyers out of our country so we could save what was left of it.



That's also kind of how the Havens were formed up; with all of the cities burned down or destroyed or otherwise unlivable everyone had no choice but to become refugees fleeing from place to place, trying to find someplace safe to call home; only there was no place safe. There used to be great long strings of them stretching from horizon to horizon along the roads. They had no where to go so we said that if they decided to make some encampments, we'd take care of defending them from any of those armies. They did and we did and here we are. Homeguard's original leader bought it early on in this campaign of ours and things just kind of fell to me. I've been keeping things going ever since he died."



"But you and Homeguard are still here," Trowa pointed out.



"It was only supposed to be temporary," Midii replied. "Homeguard and the Havens were just supposed to be around until the end of the war and then we'd all throw down our weapons, pack up the camps and get back to the business of living normal again. But after the war ended the fighting for us didn't really stop, it just changed. I don't know why the Raiders are picking on us; lord knows we don't own anything worth stealing you'd think they'd go pick on someone with more money. But that's why we're still around, because we still have a responsibility to protect the civilians."



"What about your government? It's their responsibility," Heero said.



"Try telling them that," Midii grumbled under her breath. She hadn't called this meeting to gripe, she'd called it to get information, and it would appear she needed to force their hand a bit.



"Okay, I've answered your questions now you can answer mine," she said.



"Fair enough," Heero agreed.



"The Preventors only targets terrorists, or so you say; has there ever been an instance in which you or your fellow enforcers have had to declare martial law within a town or city in order to subdue a threat?"



"No," Heero said. Gee, he was a rather quiet fellow too. It looked like No-name had found a soul mate.



"If such an occasion arose would the Preventors declare martial law?" she pursued. She was interested in this too; she wanted to know just how far this Preventors group was willing to go to secure the peace. If they were going to turn all Captain Ahab on her and her people she wanted to be able to read that so that she could pull her people out before they turned into another Alliance Military; heavens knew those guys had been bad news, for her and her country!



"It's against the declaration of principles," Heero said.



<Like I know what the hell that is,> she thought crossly. It really sucked being stuck out of the loop.



"So they wouldn't," she said, wanting to be absolutely certain.



"Only with a mandate from the President of the Earth Sphere and only under extreme circumstances."



<That doesn't tell me what that new Alliance of theirs would do if it was scared enough or felt threatened enough. Any coward politician or President can get frightened enough or greedy enough to issue an executive order and justify it to their people later. How much power does the Preventors have, and how can they use it?>



"Can the Preventors act autonomously to subdue a given populace?"



"Preventors is not allowed to interfere in local matters excepting where there is a breach of the Earth Sphere Unified Nations Declaration of Principles or its chartered rights for individuals."



"So then what are you doing here?" Midii inquired. "Most would say that this is a local matter. Our Provisional Government certainly seems to think so."



"The Preventors may not interfere in local matters, but it does like to maintain a presence in certain hot spots for trouble."



"Likes to keep its fingers in every pie you mean," Midii said dryly. The Alliance was the same, how were the Preventors different?



"How big is Preventors?" she asked.



"Large enough to encompass most important points within the Earth Sphere both up in space and here on Earth."



"Sounds like a lot of man power," she remarked mildly. They had a big force, to what end did they use it and how?



She switched topics, trying a different direction to get at the information she really wanted to know. Sheesh, getting solid information out of that Heero guy was like pulling teeth!



"How do the Preventors advise the local government on policy?"



Heero gave a small smile, or what could have passed for one, as if he'd finally figured something out and said



"I think you have the wrong idea about the Preventors Miss Une. The Preventors is not another Earth Alliance Military."



"Oh?" she inquired, raising an eloquent brow. Part of her wanted them to prove her assumptions wrong, the other part was skeptical... everybody wanted to be different from the bad guy.



"The Preventors is an agency that does precisely what it's name implies... Prevents. The sole purpose of the Preventors is to stop another war from breaking out by stopping the fighting while its still small."



Midii gave a small noncommittal "Hm" as an indicator that she was listening and wished to hear more. He had her full attention.



"Local governments have autonomy, the Preventors only interferes when there is a direct threat against the Earth Sphere Unified Nation. You could say we're very specialized in that way. If we maintain a base or a permanent presence, it has no effect one way or the other on the internal affairs of the country surrounding it. The only way the Preventors can become involved in a local matter is if it has a bearing on the Earth Sphere or its Advisory Board and Council."



Midii sat back in her chair to digest his words for a moment or two, looking for traps or loopholes in what he had said. The Alliance had been just the opposite. The way they had worked was to put all of their own people in positions of power and authority, supposedly so that everyone was on the same page and they were all communicating and understanding one another. What had ended up happening was the Alliance had gradually taken over completely either by superior politics or superior force of arms. Being the stronger and established power most average people didn't even notice the shift in power when the Alliance took over since their lives weren't affected much by it; why should they notice? The Alliance was the Good Guys! They were out to take care of everyone, they could do no wrong; so anyone fighting against their benevolence must not want peace for why would anyone choose to go against them when they were the sole force of peace in this world? That was what she'd been told when she was little, what she'd been brought up to believe, but it had all been a lie.



So what was the Preventors' game? What were they after? What was their angle? If they didn't take over like some kind of festering cancer what was up?



"Where does Preventor authority come from?" she asked at last.



"The Earth Sphere Unified Nation, its Advisory Board, the President, and the Prime Minister of Foreign Affairs," Heero said.



"That's a pretty long list," she observed. "How is it that they are able to act with any expediency if they have to consult a committee?"



"They are under the direct command of Lady Une, and she answers to them."



"Ah. I see," Midii said. It was crunch time... time to make a decision. These boys they'd sent from the agency might or might not be telling her the truth; she had no real way of verifying it. This new Earth Sphere Unified Nation seemed to respect the autonomy of a given country, staying out of their internal affairs for better or worse to the effect of the general population... the fact that they had not offered to intercede on Belterre?s citizens behalf or force the Provisional Government to offer any form of aid spoke very well that they were serious about respecting a nations autonomy and right to govern itself. The Alliance certainly wouldn't have passed up a golden opportunity like this one to step in on the citizen?s behalf and put their own people into positions of power. Perhaps she could afford to trust them... and perhaps not.



She studied the two before her intently, trying to peel away their masks and get behind their eyes to figure out what they were thinking. Were they telling the truth? Were they after something inside of Belterre? Did they have an ulterior motive? Could she afford to place her trust in them? Midii had spent too much time as a spy winning other peoples trust and betraying them to probably ever trust anyone again fully... Still at time like this Midii knew she could rely on her instincts. Nanashi had never once lied to her and despite everything that had happened between them she still trusted him a little on a gut-level. She was going to go with her instincts. Besides that, she had little choice left, it as either take a chance on them or be destroyed by the wolves.



"You've answered pretty much everything on my list and I thank you for taking the time to come out and meet with me," she said abruptly and decisively. "I look forward to future meetings with such accord."



"As do we Miss Une," Heero said politely.



Midii didn't offer to let him call her Midii, they hadn't reached that stage yet and she had the feeling that if she was too friendly too fast against her nature Nanashi would suspect something was up and advise them to take future meetings slow. She'd get fewer concessions that way. Still there was a final matter that she had wanted to verify from an outside force, another thing her gut was telling her.



"Oh, there was one more thing."



"What's that?" Heero asked.



"It isn't really anything major, just a minor problem I'm worried about and I was hoping that you with your connections in the outside world might be able to shed some light on the subject," she paused wetting her lips. "Have you ever heard of a group called Sacred Omega?"



Trowa and Heero exchanged a very long, very speaking glance. Midii smelled trouble.



"What?" she asked. "What's that about?"



"Where did you hear about them?" Nanashi asked mildly... too mildly.



"A couple of people calling themselves by that name set up shop in sector twelve shortly after the war ended," she said watching them carefully, but old poker-face had his mask as securely in place as ever and the other one wasn't giving anything away either. It was like dealing with two federal agents.



"Are they a problem?" asked Heero carefully.



"No, but that's just it," she said. "They say they're farmers, but they have nothing to farm and no greenhouses. They built this huge fortress that could hold a couple hundred perhaps even a thousand or so but there are maybe twenty people in it all total."



"Is that all?" Heero asked, but there was nothing belittling about his tone. He sounded like he had suddenly received very bad news and was fishing for more info. Well she'd give it to him as a gesture of good faith between them. She shot Heero a look that told him she knew precisely what he was up to and was letting him get away with it... this time.



"They have empty storehouses with empty racks, but there are no weapons," she continued. "My people have made search after search of the premises and turned up nothing but empty labyrinths of underground bunkers and tunnels that go no where. They're too quiet; no one goes in no one comes out. My people have been watching them for months but they've kept their noses so clean you could eat out of them... not that I would want to try because that would be just nasty. Maybe I'm just paranoid but I don't think so. They're up to something, I can feel it. After all, the logical point of building a bookshelf is to hold books; I don't trust the fact that they've built all of this empty space and they're not doing anything wit it. Any information you might have would be useful."



Might as well end it on a friendly note.



There was another long speaking look, the two of them were communicating silently. They knew something, they knew about Sacred Omega and they weren't sure if they should tell her or not. At last, Trowa gave a small gesture as if to say "hey man, it's up to you." Heero turned to her with a serious demeanor and said



"We'll have to consult with our superior, tell your people to keep a close watch on them in the mean time. We'll meet with you tomorrow. Will noon suffice?"



"I have camp-duty then. Dishwashing," she said apologetically.



Trowa looked mildly surprised, of course, he always looked mildly anything. It wasn't so much a look of surprise as a slight change in posture and a sharper observance of her. The jerk.



"You help them wash their dishes?" he asked. "I thought you led the Homeguard."



"No idle hands in a Haven," she replied with a shrug. "I do my part the same as everyone else. Oh that reminds me, Trowa; your sister said that you and she are on laundry duty at ten a.m."



He nodded passively, accepting it.



"I can meet you at two; I get off rescue runs by then. I'll see you here but it's pretty likely that my second in command will be here with me. Actually, I'd prefer it that way if you don't mind."



Heero paused, obviously a little reluctant and then nodded.



"See you then," he said. Midii nodded and they showed themselves out.



"Well," she commented aloud to an empty tent. "That went productively." She then went to find her second in command to tell him the good news.



* * *



"So," said Heero once they were safely out of earshot. "Was she?"



"She was telling the truth. Every word," Trowa verified.



"You're sure?" Heero said.



"I know when she's lying," Trowa said with absolute certainty.



"You sound almost disappointed," his friend observed.



"About what?" Trowa questioned evasively, even though they both already knew.



"That she was telling the truth," Heero said. "You were hoping she'd be lying or practicing something underhanded."



"Why would I want that? Homeguard could prove to be a valuable resource and ally to the Preventors," Trowa said neutrally, what he didn't say neutrally was that he thought they could do without its leader.



"Trowa," Heero said. He had only said the one word in his usual tone but they both felt the question. Was he prepared to do this fairly and without prejudice?



"I won't pretend that seeing her again didn't cause me to react," Trowa said. "I won't say that I didn't bring our past with me into that meeting but I think that in this case it will work out fine."



"How so?" Heero asked. The two of them rarely spoke about their pasts, perhaps it was better that way considering the violence in them, but Heero sounded curious.



"We were friends," Trowa said with a little difficulty. "I get the feeling that at least part of the reason she decided to trust us personally and our organization in general was because deep down she still trusts me."



"Is this okay with you?" Heero asked. Trowa was glad he was asking for the sake of the mission and not out of interest in Trowa?s personal life.



"Yeah," Trowa said, and then his mouth kept moving of its own accord. "Part of me wanted to remember her as this evil specter... I had all but managed to block out the person behind the deed she'd committed. In that meeting I met that person again and she really hasn't changed much. She's still backed into a corner and coming out fighting."



"Hn. What really worries me is that mention she made of Sacred Omega."



"It's certainly a matter to worry about. We knew they had a base of operations somewhere. This place is, as Catherine says, 'the back of nowhere.' A good place to hide but perhaps they underestimated the nosiness of their neighbors."



Heero smiled a little.



"She has good instincts" he said. "But why do you suppose Midii Une decided to give us all of the information she had on them? She certainly didn't have to; it seems to me that she was eager to be cooperative. Too eager do you think?"



"I have a possible motive for that eagerness. Maybe she wants us Preventors to get rid of them for her?"



"A reasonable assumption. With deadly raiders knocking on my door every other day and a government that doesn't care one way or the other about it all I'd be eager for help to get rid of potential trouble as well."



"Something had occurred to me regarding those raiders," Trowa said. "Midii says they attack these refugee camps from all sides of the borders, what I don't see is why. These Havens of Belterre aren't a source of wealth. They're subsisting. They don't produce luxury goods or services, they don't have valuable trade, in fact the only thing they have going for them is food clothing and shelter. Hardly the kind of items that would attract the eyes of an average Raider."



"What you're saying is that a Raider wouldn't be interested in subsistence goods because Raiders steal luxury goods to supply themselves with their basic needs at a profit. Stealing subsistence goods such as you would find in a Haven goes against their modus operendi."



"Exactly," Trowa stated. "If they're not making a profit then Raiders always move else where, usually to places where high priced luxury items are easier to come by."



"The fact that they are attacking her is suspicious now that you mention it. It makes no sense," Heero said.



"The Raiders and Sacred Omega have little to do with each other, and of the two of them Sacred Omega is the one we should be worrying about," Trowa said, focusing down to the real business at hand.



"True," Heero agreed. "I'll contact Lady Une tonight and give her the briefing of this meeting. She's been trying to track their whereabouts and their activities for sometime now, always with difficulty because with every attack we suspect is Sacred Omega there's never any real leads tying the deed to them. We can't find their trade routes for illegal arms smuggling and we can never find any of their bases. Perhaps now we know why."





"You think Homeguard is in on it?" Trowa questioned.



"I won't rule it out as a possibility but I think that it's a very remote one if it's even in the running. No, my theory is that Sacred Omega is using the isolation of this country and its relatively open sea ports and roadways to their advantage. Whether Homeguard knows it or not I'd be willing to wager that Sacred Omega has made this place into an underworld trading Mecca. It wouldn't be very difficult at all with the conditions inside of Belterre. We've seen for ourselves that what passes for the national defense system and disaster relief is just barely meeting the demands of the population. While Homeguard is busy defending against the Raiders, Sacred Omega is probably smuggling weapons past them and into their base."



"But Midii said that her people never found anything when they searched them, and she wasn't lying," Trowa pointed out.





"Maybe they just weren't looking hard enough, or in the right places," Heero said with a tone that implied he had doubts about the Homeguard's ability to run a serious search for hidden weapons. After all, Preventors were trained especially for that and the two of them were better than most. "Lady Une will likely want to conduct her own search and investigation."



"I think we're going to be here for a while," Trowa noted.



"No doubt."



* * *

It had been a blessedly uneventful night and the Homeguard not manning the towers had gotten a well-deserved full night's sleep. Midii reflected on her previous evening conversation as she quickly and expertly slung out breakfast for that particular shift of early risers. Here she was back in the kitchen. It was almost a nostalgic feeling, but she'd always felt most at home when she was cooking. Despite some of the obviously less than pleasant memories that came along with it, it held its share of pleasant ones too; she had cooked for her father and brothers after their mother had died and it had given her a feeling of comfort to spend time in the place she'd spent so much time bonding with her mother in. She finished chopping up the peeled potatoes and threw them into the skillet with some of the butter that had been traded for at another Haven. Adding pepper Midii checked the heat of the pan so that the potatoes wouldn't brown too quickly and burn the outside without cooking the middle. She turned to check on the help she was assigned to watch over.



"Don't stare off into space girl, keep stirring the porridge or else you'll get lumps in it," Midii reprimanded her young helper for the morning. The child seemed a little daft, but she was sweet. She turned back to her pot stirring conscientiously.



"That's the way," Midii encouraged. "Stir the porridge."



Midii grabbed the skillet by the handle and expertly flipped up the potatoes to keep one side from browning too much, then turned to where the trencher breads with ham and cheese were toasting. The cheese was melted and the bread was browned so she quickly flipped all ten of them off the cooking surface onto a platter calling out to the ones assigned to bear food that morning that the order was up, and then began placing buttered trencher breads onto the cooking surface for the next batch. It was a comfortingly familiar routine, breakfast. The fare was pretty slim, even after harvest, but at least there was food to eat.



"Goooood morning," her second in command Michael Bryson said cheerfully.



"If you're not here to help I suggest you stay out of my way," Midii informed him, flipping two pancakes to cook on the other side.



"Actually, I came to get fresh bacon," he said. "You know that by the time it reaches me its almost always cold. I hate cold bacon."



"Out scamp!" Midii said wielding her flat wooden cooking spoon threateningly. "I have a spatula and I know how to use it."



"Awwww, but Midii," he protested, looking at her with imploring eyes like a cute puppy. He knew damned well she wasn't going to fall for that trick. Wasn't going to fall for it. Wasn't going to fall for it...



"Oh fine!" she grumped, flipping him a couple of strips onto a napkin. "Take it and leave." He leaned against the wooden prep table and munched contentedly.



"You're still here," she noted after half a minute of furious upkeep with all of the various dishes she had cooking.



"There're strangers in our camp," he said quietly.



"Yes, we brought in an entire circus last night or don't you remember?" Midii asked, as she carefully finished the browning of the potatoes. "I never want to wake up to the sight of an enormous elephant ass outside of my tent again."



"I don't mean just them," Bryson said. "Although I admit that it was nice to see the lovely Catherine again."



Midii shot him a warning look that spoke louder than words that he'd better keep his paws off her best girlfriend if he knew what was good for him.



"I know we have special visitors. I invited them," she said quietly. "I just wanted a friendly chat."



"And you didn't tell me?" Bryson said, looking injured. "I'm your second in command; you're supposed to tell me these things! How can you just go ahead and have a secret meeting and not tell me?!"



"Keep your voice down," Midii said calmly. "I had every intention of telling you. I just couldn't find you afterwards. You weren't in your tent-platform or out on the watchtowers and when I asked around no one had seen you."



"Well eh... I could tell you where I was but you wouldn't be very surprised if you know what I mean," Bryson said with a devilish grin and a wink.



"Typical," she grumbled. Her partner's amorous pursuits were nearly legendary. "Why can't you think with your head for a change?"



"I do think with my head, just not the one you would prefer," he said roguishly.



"You have no shame do you?" she asked rhetorically.



"None whatsoever," he agreed with no sign of remorse.



"Well, at least you're honest about it. That's something I suppose."



"So... what happened during the meeting?" he asked. Bryson might have been a scoundrel, but he knew when to get down to business.



"I had a friendly talk with them-"



"Them?" he interrupted. "So there was more than one?"



"Yes, there were two-"



"Idiot!" he scolded her. "You know they could have overpowered you and carried you off."



"To where precisely?" Midii asked. "We're in the middle of a Haven surrounded by my most loyal Homeguard members, this place is an enclosed space with only one gate in or out and even on the outside we're surrounded by miles of wilderness. This is our turf in every sense of the word."



"That's true," he admitted grudgingly. "Still..."



Midii ignored him and gave him the basic rundown of the meeting ending with



"...and so I've decided to trust them, for now, and there's another meeting set up for this afternoon. I told them you'd be there."



"Seems pretty convenient," Bryson mused aloud.



"The fact that one of the Preventors is Cathy's brother and the other one just happened to be in the area and they just happened to be in the right place at the right time to get a look at our main forces? Yeah, it does."



"You believe they really just want to talk?" he asked, looking at her out of the side of his eye.



"I believe they want to know if we're going to be a threat to them. I believe they want to know how strong in numbers the Homeguard is and how many weapons we have. And I believe they're hiding something about that group Sacred Omega from us. But for all of that, yes, I think they have good intentions. Besides, with the way things are going lately if these attacks keep up as relentlessly as they are we're going to need all of the help we can get. We should make allies while we can."



"I suppose that's true but I don't like it," he said. "Hey... you think they're after Spooky?"



"That old story again?" Midii looked askance at him.



"It's not a story," he insisted. "Its a proven fact that many of the bases manned by the Alliance disappeared into fire and ruin overnight with no real explanation during the year 193 and afterwards. Homeguard sure didn't launch those attacks, because at the weapons strength and manpower we had back in those days there was no way we could have taken on any of those bases and won. It was some force outside of Homeguard, it had to have been."



"So it was some force outside of Homeguard," Midii said with an indifferent shrug. "So what? Lots of people had grudges against the Alliance military in those days. It could have easily been some rebel mercenary group or crazed faction."



"But the rumors were specifically about a mobile suit," Bryson insisted. "Mobile suit singular."



They had been through this argument again and again and it had worn thin with time. Bryson was obsessed with the mysterious mobile suit that the Homeguard and citizens of Belterre had nicknamed "Spooky" for its mysterious ability to appear and vanish with no warning, seemingly out of thin air. During the year 193 it had appeared to utterly annihilate Alliance military bases all throughout the countryside of Belterre and had obliterated any and all enemy forces threatening the citizens of the country. The local people had treated it as part savior for freeing them all from the tyranny of the Alliance until the fledgling Homeguard could gain enough suits and man power to patrol the borders and part urban legend because sightings of the mobile suit had never been confirmed. According to the few eyewitness accounts, it had simply blinked into being from out of nowhere then disappeared leaving behind only the ruin of destruction in its wake to prove it even existed at all. Many scoffed at the tales of the mysterious Spooky; stating that if such a powerful suit did exist then why hadn't anyone used it in any of the recent skirmishes against the raiders to wipe them out?



"Oh come off it," Midii said scornfully as she cleared away the cooking supplies and started washing the utensils. "No one we've talked to has ever actually seen this supposed Spooky up close and the ones that saw it from a distance weren't exactly sure what it was. And as for the other guys..."



"Dead men don't tell tales," Bryson said agreeably. "It must be one powerful suit."





"It doesn't exist," Midii said flatly.



"Then what do you think killed all of those men? What do you think destroyed all of those bases?" he demanded. "I've seen what was left after an attack by Spooky and there weren't even two stones left standing on top of one another."



"Act of God?" Midii suggested facetiously.



"I'm serious here!" Bryson said. "Man, what I wouldn't give to have that kind of power in my corner."



"Oh please," Midii said scornfully. "You wouldn't know what to do with yourself."



"Of course I would," Bryson said with a mercenary grin. "I'd sell my services to the highest bidder and make a lot of money so that I could retire in the Bahamas."



Midii gave him a long narrow look. Bryson raised his arms.



"Jeez! I was just kidding!"



He adopted a saintly expression. "I'd make it into a giant soup kettle and use all that power to feed the people."



Midii loosened enough to chuckle.



"You liar," she said. "Come help me with these dishes so that we can get out of here and gather up those circus rigs we left behind yesterday. After that we've got a meeting to attend."



"If we're going to be discussing those Sacred Omega loonies do you want me to invite along our most recent spy in that area? He'll have the most up to date information," Bryson said, reluctantly walking over to where Midii had her arms up to her elbows in soap.



"Yes, after you help me with the dishes."



"I'll rinse and stack," he said in resignation.

* * *



Trowa backed off from the outside of the kitchens tent where he'd been eavesdropping on Midii's conversation with her second in command. The young man called Bryson was far less inclined to trust the Preventors than Midii was. One thing Midii hadn't mentioned in her conversation to her second was that she knew Trowa from long ago; if she kept that a secret from someone she obviously shared a good working relationship (if not any other kind of relationship) with, what else was she keeping from them? Then again, perhaps she considered that a private matter with no bearing on the situation.



He wasn't sure how he felt about that. Was it that it didn't matter to her? She'd been utterly professional with the both of them the night before no matter how he'd needled at her. Maybe she didn't care.



Or maybe she was so desperate that she was willing to take a little needling if it got her people the help they needed. Well that fell more in line with her character, what he knew of it that was. The years could change people but he really didn't think that Midii had changed all that much, on the inside that is. She still did what she had to for the sake of the ones she cared about no matter what the price the rest of the world was to pay. She was so narrow sighted! She always had been. When Trowa had been fighting to free all of Earth from the Alliance, Midii had destroyed all of that just because her own little family was in trouble. She never saw the big picture, only the pixels around her. It didn't look any different now; she wasn't terribly interested in anything going on outside of her own small country, save where it affected the people she protected. She wasn't meeting with the Preventors because she was interested in their cause; she was meeting with them because she needed something she couldn't get anywhere else.



<I have to grant her one thing,> Trowa admitted grudgingly. <She really cares about these people.>



Midii could have chosen to sell off the suit she'd stolen for scrap metal and then used the money from it to settle elsewhere, but she'd stayed. She'd stayed to fight what must have seemed to her to be an endless series of skirmishes against an enemy she likely had little true hope of defeating. She'd stayed so that the people of her nation, the people she'd claimed as her own, would not be left defenseless to suffer the depredations of the wolves howling at the gates. She was as desperate as ever, but she was also as brave as she had ever been. He had to grudgingly admire her willingness to take on a losing battle because it was a battle worth the fighting. Perhaps they truly were the same after all.



How peacetime had mellowed him.



Catherine spotted him walking away from the kitchen tent and beckoned him over to her.



"There you are!" she said. "I was just about to search the Haven for you. We have laundry to help out with. Here, help me lift these."



She gestured to a large pile of sorted whites at her feet and he assisted her in bearing the heavy arm-load of laundry over to stir into the enormous tank of heated steaming water with others of its kind. Several other folks who worked at the circus and many that didn't were already there stirring the clothes in the pot to get them clean.



"So how did your meeting with Midii go?" Catherine questioned as he took his place beside her and began scrubbing with the others. She would ask about that; elder sisters it seemed felt that it was their prerogative to stick their noses into younger sibling?s affairs... er, business. This was not an affair.



"Fine," he replied. He hoped she'd drop it, but knew she likely wouldn't.



"Fine? Fine-good? Fine-bad?" she pursued. And he was right.



"Both parties were satisfied in getting what they had wanted to get out of the meeting. Future negotiations between the Preventors and the Homeguard look promising," he answered curtly.



"You sound like a news reporter," she said splashing a little water at him playfully. "Tell me what you thought."



"About what?" he inquired, with a sinking feeling in his stomach.



"About Midii of course!" she said with exasperation. "Did you find her nice? Did you think she was pretty? What did you think?"



Great. He thought Cathy had had an eye out to negotiations between the respective powers of two armed forces and all of the possible political ramifications thereof... but she was really interested in setting up some kind of an insane blind date for her bachelor younger brother. Perhaps his sister and Midii were the ones who were really the same; both protective older sisters who didn't really care much for the big picture as long as their own precious family wasn't hurt.



"She was okay," he said neutrally.



"Is that okay in a good way or just okay?" Cathy pursued.



"I really don't feel much like talking about it," he said shortly. And that was the wrong thing to say and the wrong way to say it. Cathy grew instantly concerned.



"She didn't offend you did she? I'm sure she didn't mean it whatever it was; Midii's a good person." Cathy hurriedly said in reassurance.



"I know," Trowa said softly, almost to himself. Then louder he said



"No, she didn't offend me. She was polite to both Yuy and myself. The meeting was productive."



"You don't like her do you," Cathy said. She sounded disappointed, like someone had cancelled Christmas. Oh bother.



"I said she was okay," Trowa said neutrally, trying desperately to repair disappointed-sister-damage.



"We mostly talked business," he said in a sudden brain flash. "It's hard to get much of an impression from someone if you never discuss anything about yourselves."



"Oh," Cathy said sounding a little relieved, her good cheer restored. "Well that's understandable then. You should try to get to know her a little better. I'm sure you two have a lot in common."



<If only you knew,> he thought at her as he bent back over his scrubbing.



Cathy looked at her younger brother in amusement and exasperation. As usual he was utterly oblivious t

[Eienvine]

Umm, it cut off again. Anyway, another great chapter. I'm really getting to like Midii. I hope Heero realizes that she's not a terrorist, and Trowa stops being so . . . Trowa. Keep up the great work!