Sacrifice Part 7
A Truce of Necessity
Sally pulled six manila folders out of her filing cabinet, all labeled CLASSIFIED in block letters. She handed four of them to the pilots, put one on her desk, and held one for herself.
"Who's the fifth one for?" Trowa asked.
Duo looked at the extra folder. // That's the one that would be for Heero. //
"Sorry I'm late, Colonel."
The four pilots were startled by the new voice behind them. Duo turned around and saw the only other person in history beside Heero Yuy who had ever survived the self-destruction of a mobile suit standing in the doorway of Sally's office.
Wufei's voice was cold. "Zechs."
Wufei stood and saluted stiffly. No matter how he felt about the Lightning Count, the man outranked him. That never failed to piss him off, even more than the fact that Sally outranked him, and she was a woman. Not to mention he had never quite forgiven the man for betraying Treize, although he would never admit that that was the reason he disliked the blonde OZ pilot. Duo and Sally followed his lead.
Zechs Marquise looked at the Chinese pilot. Looked at all of them. His voice was a soft streetfighter's rasp. "Still boys I see." He snorted back soft laughter. "At ease, boys." His smile, directed towards Sally, was both tough and light-hearted. "As you were, Colonel. I didn't mean to interrupt."
An invisible wave of anger rippled through the room, proof that the rivalry between Zechs Marquise and the Gundam pilots was anything but buried. If anything, Zechs Marquise had always known how to place an insult, and which insult would have the most sting. The twenty-five year-old pilot walked into the room and sat down in an empty chair. Quatre noticed that the Lightning Count walked with a slight, almost invisible limp, from his self-detonation in Epyon.
"Thank you, General Peacecraft," Sally replied politely, handing the Tallgeese pilot his own folder.
"What?" Duo asked, looking from Zechs to Sally and back again. "Why-"
Sally glanced at him. "Milliardo is going with you. He is your official Preventer support."
"But we're Preventers!" Wufei's indignant reply made Sally turn sharply to him, reminding him of his place. He stood up and glared back at her, dark eyes flashing, but she would no more back down than he would. In working together as Preventers, they had slowly but surely learned to work as sexual equals. However, both of their natural tendencies towards stubbornness sometimes got in the way, and Sally would have to pull rank on him. She shook her head.
"Not this time, Wufei. This is a black op. The Preventers will have to disavow any knowledge of your actions. If you're caught, no one will save you. There are no negotiations. If you're killed, no one will mourn you, because no one will know about it. And I'm not letting the four of you go in there alone."
"We don't need his help, Sally," Wufei replied, still bristling. "If you haven't recalled, he's tried to defeat Yuy many times on his own. Why should he be trusted now?"
"He's your superior officer. Isn't that reason enough?"
"He was an OZ soldier, and he even betrayed them. It's not reason enough for me."
Sally scowled at him. "It isn't a request, Wufei. It's a order."
Wufei was silent for a moment, his face flushing with anger, and then spoke in a deadly quiet voice. "No one commands me. No one commanded me in the War, and no one commands me now. Especially not a woman, or some dishonorable OZ lieutenant who manipulates civilians to his own advantage."
Quatre visibly paled, and Trowa raised an eyebrow at Wufei's tone. Duo, who was also in the Preventers Corps and under the informal command of Zechs, said a very short and sincere prayer for Wufei's ass, for it now belonged to General Milliardo Peacecraft. A soldier can curse God if he so desires. He can insult his commanding officer if he dares. But a soldier must never, ever insult a general, and especially to his face. Wufei acted as if Zechs could not even hear him.
Knowing the eventual showdown between Zechs Marquise and Wufei had finally come, Sally kept quiet to see what would happen next.
Duo was about to put a stop to Wufei's furious outburst before he got himself into seriously deep trouble, then glanced at Sally, who read his intentions perfectly.
And silently signaled for the Deathscythe pilot to let the scene play itself out.
Zechs' expression did not change; only a slight narrowing of his azure eyes indicated he even heard Wufei. The Preventers general stood up. He looked directly at the Chinese pilot, who felt the general's eyes on his back and turned to glare back at him. Wufei stood stiff and angry, arms crossed defensively over his chest, as if he would stand there all day and night, if necessary. Zechs' smiled slightly at the young man's temper. "I am going in as support for your squadron, Chang Wufei. You are still Team Leader, and in this operation, you will outrank me. You are still in charge. I am accompanying you simply because I know the enemy personally. You would be better prepared to take me along. If you do not comply, you will be taken off the assignment. It's your choice." There was a moment of hard, tense silence, in which neither pilot was willing to back down. The rest of them held their breath, waiting to see who would be the first one to surrender.
Wufei glared at Zechs, then moved his gaze to Duo. The braided pilot was looking at him pleadingly.
::We're going to get him back. I told you we'd handle it. And we will. He's one of us. We're not going to let them hurt him.::
Wufei was torn between two options; he could turn in his badge and stalk out of the office, saving both face and showing his utter contempt of the Tallgeese pilot. Or he could submit to the will of his enemy and sit his ass back down, losing both face and respect. He knew exactly which one he wanted to do. It was not the one he was obligated to do.
// I promised... I promised to find Yuy... I swore an oath... I cannot break that vow. Not for dignity. Not even for honor. //
Finally, the Chinese pilot took a deep breath, raven eyes still flashing resentfully, and sat down. "It's over. You're general. You outrank me."
Zechs smiled. "Please don't tell me this was all a dominance issue?"
Wufei glared at him. "I've spent the last six months trying to explain to my men why I am outranked by my former enemy. Call it what you'd like. I will not be taken off this assignment and abandon a true comrade just because of you."
Zechs shook his head disbelievingly, still smiling. "Your pride is wounded that I'm a higher rank than you, yet you claim to take orders from no one, so rank should be inconsequential."
"Yes."
"You are a strange man, Chang Wufei."
"The feeling is mutual. You are not my concern, Zechs Marquise. Recovering Yuy is my concern."
"If we lose the chance to retrieve him because you delayed us by pulling this macho bullshit, I will make it your concern, Captain."
"You stay out of my way, General, and I will stay out of yours. Our only objective is to help Heero. We will truce and find him together."
"...Agreed."
Zechs stepped forward towards the Chinese pilot, and put a hand on Wufei's shoulder, much to the Gundam pilot's surprise and dismay.
"You're a strange man, Chang Wufei, but you're also a good one. I can see why His Excellency was so enthralled with you."
A bewildered flush passed over Wufei's face, and his eyes widened slightly before he caught himself. He glared at Zechs, grabbing the larger man's wrist hard.
"Remove it or lose it."
Zechs lifted his hand, smiling at Wufei's reaction. "As you wish."
The two sat back down uneasily, not meeting eyes, not comfortable in each other's presence, but not yet ready for ten paces and two pistols, either.
Sally looked around at all of them. "This is a very serious undertaking, gentlemen. Leave this damned shin-kicking for the schoolyard. I won't be able to protect you once you take on your assignment, and neither will anyone else. But if you succeed, if you can retrieve Heero Yuy and take him alive, then we won't have to kill him."
She opened her folder and pulled out a 8x10 black and white photograph. In it, a grim-looking man was smoking a cigar, obviously unaware that he was being photographed. She tapped the picture bluntly. "This is Clive Miller, the leader of Apocalypse L2, the second sector of the Project. He's the one who recaptured Heero. Our intelligence tells us he's relocated Heero to L2. We just don't know where."
Duo looked at his own copy carefully. // So this is the guy... this is the guy who can catch the most dangerous soldier in the world... //
"Bottom line, Colonel." Zechs's voice was soft.
Sally looked at him. "Miller is to be dealt with in an extremely prejudicial manner." The Gundam pilots looked at each other. // Kill him. //
"Your official objectives are in the folders, although you're allowed to take your own course of action in order to achieve them. Memorize your orders, then burn them. Be careful. This is not your run-of-the-mill op, as you well know. There isn't room for mistakes."
Duo's voice was confident. "We can handle him. We've handled worse-"
She let her gaze drift around to all of them, scowling slightly. "Don't be so cocky, Duo. That's what will get you killed. Don't go in and blow the place to hell. You have strict orders to bring out as much tangible evidence of Project Apocalypse's existence as you can. If you just kill Miller and take Heero, you have no proof of what they've been doing all these years. The colonies are very serious about keeping this hush-hush. We're acting in direct defiance of the colonial governments of L1 and L2."
"Rebels again, huh?" Trowa said. He smiled a little. "Surprise, surprise." "We need quick results. If you don't find evidence that doesn't have to be analyzed, the L1 and L2 governments are going to find a way to destroy the labs, eliminate us, kill Heero, and doctor your findings to show nothing out of the ordinary. The peace process is too new right now. If the colonists were shown to have weapons like Heero still active and combat- ready when they're crying 'pacifist', it could damage the negotiations between the colonies and Earth."
Zechs looked at the remaining Gundam pilots. "If we do this right, we can bust this thing wide open. Our only way of making sure this doesn't happen to someone else is to get proof of what the Project really is and break the story to the press. The governments of L1 and L2 will kill us all to keep the secret, and until it's blown, they're going to try."
Duo spoke up, smiling grimly. "Then they can take a number and get in line like everybody else."
TBC...
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