Night Wind
A Gundam Wing fan fiction by The Manwell
Part I – See the Sunlight Fading...
Fading...
Chapter One: Sojourn
A.C. 204, October 5
No one knows the
name of the quiet young man who visits the ridge every evening to watch the
sunset. No one knows what he thinks of
as the sun slowly sinks into the lush landscape of the distant mountains. No one has even bothered to ascertain if he
can speak the local dialect.
With a glimpse of his unsmiling lips and intent gaze, it’s
obvious he’s not a tourist. And this
place sees many, many tourists. No, this
young man is a traveler sojourning here to perhaps catch his breath or to
perhaps allow his breath to catch up with him.
He appears to require little and says even less. His thoughts, it seems, are more than enough
entertainment for him. He is
self-sufficient. Efficient. Proficient in his silence. Boringly so. Most people do not spare him more than a
glance. They give him a wide berth and
go on about their evening, savoring the scent of the Spanish autumn or studying
the way the rosy light changes the shade of their lover’s eyes. No one takes the time to really observe him
in the gathering darkness. No one makes
the effort to watch him absorb the sight of the dying day. And as the infinite indigo of night begins to
bleed into the west, no one sees the way his expression softens and lips curve
as he softly exhales the only word he’s said all day:
“Duo...”
...
Preventer Section
Chief Chang Wufei frowns at the information he’d just received, information
he’ll have to divide up amongst the six teams under his command in the form of
various assignments.
The promotion to section chief hadn’t been a surprise. He’d been in line for a command position for
the last fourteen months. The twinge of
disappointment at knowing others will be doing the investigative work while he
coordinates their efforts from the relative safety of a desk, however, is rather unexpected.
But the information he’s looking at is even more so.
He studies the carefully constructed report, taking note of
every detail. And there are many
details. Details the Preventers could
not have researched this thoroughly.
Details the Preventers could not have legally acquired themselves.
Details that could only have come from an outside
source.
That, in and of itself, is not surprising. But what is
suspicious about this is that well over half of the recommendations for new
assignments follow this same vein. And
work and attention to detail in all of them are frighteningly consistent. In addition, all of the reports tend to focus
on corporate structures financing operations and activities detrimental to the
United Earth Sphere.
If Wufei were to assume that all of the information he’s
received in this manner is coming from one source... If nearly half of the assignments are a
direct result of one informant’s information, then...
How long will it be
before our “friend” begins to offer us faulty leads? How long before the Preventers becomes a tool
for the powerful? How long before our
neutrality vanishes and we become part of someone else’s agenda? Just another player in a
game of chess?
And how long after that will the result be war?
Wufei returns his attention to the data before him and
resigns himself to organizing the assignments that will be required in order to
investigate everything thoroughly. And
he keeps his suspicions to himself.
But in his own mind, Wufei has
given himself an assignment. He will
attempt to ascertain the likelihood that there is a private agenda at work
within the Preventers and if so identify the individual or individuals
responsible.
Preventer Section Chief Chang Wufei doesn’t know who is
pulling Une’s strings or why, but he will find out.
...
“Yuy
here. If you don’t have good news, hang up
now.”
Heero smiles. “Hm.”
On the other end of the line, he hears his sister
pause. “Heero,” she says flatly. And, somehow, he knows she’s grinning.
“Yokaze,” he finally greets. “Are you busy?”
She chuckles.
“That’s irrelevant and you know it.”
He says, “I didn’t expect you to still be there.”
With a sigh, she tells him, “Ah, it seems there’s plenty of
work to keep me busy.”
Heero makes a small sound of acknowledgement in the back of
his throat. He’d been not a little
surprised to learn that shortly after returning to space his sister and her
lover had promptly turned their lives upside-down. Yokaze had resigned from NW and Trowa had
stopped teaching at the academy.
Instead, the two of them had, with a little help from Quatre, started
their own not-for-profit investigation service. Operating out of their new offices in the L4
Preventers’ HQ, the pair of them work to locate not
only missing children but also the missing families of orphans. The children from C555 had been among their
first clients. Heero asks how she’s
coming on finding homes for all of them and he can hear her grin.
“Most excellent,” she informs him. “Trowa just found an aunt and uncle on Earth
who are ecstatic about taking their niece in.
You might even remember her. She
certainly remembers you.”
Heero’s brows rise.
Yokaze continues, sensing his inquiry even without the
benefit of a vid screen. “You told her you were taking her away from
C555. Very far away.”
A corner of his mouth lifts. He does remember that brave little girl. She’d had a rather formidable stare for one
so young. “Hm. I’m happy for her. And how is Jaspien?”
“I hear he just started school.”
“And?”
“He hates it.”
Heero snorts.
“He got into a fight on his first day and beat the snot out
of some rich kid.”
He grins at the vivid imagery.
“We were so proud.”
“We?” Heero asks.
“Duo and I, of course.”
Heero’s smile dims at the sound of that familiar name. And he can tell by the lingering pause on the
other end of the line that his sister has detected his change in mood. He attempts to conceal his unease with a
scolding. “Violence is not the answer,
Yokaze,” he says gruffly.
“Well... maybe not,” she concedes, “but it’s better
exercise than name-calling.”
He sighs.
“Oh, come on. I’m
not that bad of an influence on
him. Duo’s much worse...”
“How
much worse?” Heero demands, wondering if he dares assume she’s merely
joking around.
There’s yet another pause during which he’s relatively sure
she shrugs. “Call him up and interrogate
him if you’re so concerned.”
Heero’s eyes slide closed for a moment at the
suggestion. “You know I can’t do that.”
“Actually, no. I don’t,” she counters. “He misses you. Jaspien misses you. Give the boys a call, Yuy.”
He says nothing, allowing his silence to signal the end of
this particular conversation.
“Or, you could just come to
Frowning, he mutters, “What?”
“Quatre’s renting a—” She snickers. “—villa
for the last week of October plus a bit.
Everyone’s going to be there and I’m pretty sure that if you don’t show up, Wufei will personally
make your life a living hell.”
“Why?”
Her tone subtly changes and Heero finds himself listening
to the voice of a soldier. “I can’t tell
you over an un-secured line. Reestablish
contact in fourteen days to receive the coordinates.”
Immediately, he acquiesces.
“Acknowledged.”
Only after the word has left his mouth does he realize his
sister had just taken advantage of his training to get him to agree to go. He scowls.
For a moment he actually cares that she’d played off of his
conditioning, but then he become conscious of how much he must be missed if she
feels the need to coerce him.
“Oh, and Heero?”
He makes an attempt at being angry with her. “Yeah?”
She ignores his disgruntled growl. “Make sure you bring a costume.”
He glares.
Yokaze glares back.
“You don’t even have to wear it.
The costume’s for me.”
Heero frowns. “You
can’t find one on your own?”
“We all drew names,” she informs him. “You got mine so you have to pick out my
costume.”
“Who has my name?” Heero asks, already beginning to formulate
an iron-clad excuse for missing the party in
“I have no idea. But no worries.
Everyone knows better than to dress you up in fishnet and bunny ears.”
Torn between a glare and a snort, he does neither. “Tell Jaspien I’ll see him in
Yokaze sighs. Heero
knows she’s tired of bearing the messages he refuses to deliver himself. But she doesn’t try to talk him out of
it. Her acceptance gives him the
initiative to break his usual pattern and add, “And tell Duo I...”
The line echoes with perfect silence as she waits for him
to finish his thought.
Heero takes a fortifying breath. He doesn’t say what he wants to say, but he says what he can. “Tell Duo the hot
chocolate here isn’t nearly as good as his is.”
A moment later, after exchanging brief farewells, Heero
re-cradles the receiver and turns in the small phone booth to gaze out at the
boardwalk and the golden orb hovering over the horizon. He takes a moment to let himself
feel the trapped heat of the setting sun through the glass of the booth’s
doors. And then he steps outside and
approaches his customary spot against the railing to watch... and to wait.
He sighs, leans his elbows against the sun-kissed metal,
and savors the coming of the night. He
knows exactly how many minutes it will take before the star-speckled indigo
will tumble across the sky. And he waits
for the moment when he’ll be able to witness the closest thing in all the Earth
and the colonies he’s found to match Duo’s laughing eyes.
~End of Chapter One~