Disclaimers Note - I don't own Gundam Wing, or any of the characters therein. All of the unfamiliar characters are my own, but some unfamiliar ones might become familiar, in which case they are not mine, or they may not! You'll have to read this and find out! Any correlation of this story to any persons living or dead is purely coincidental, honest. Phew! The characters of Hayley Reo, Kaia McInrae and Emma Kentley are mine, ‘though, all mine! MINE!

Hilde didn't like addressing the school. She was the one who sat on the right of Relena and handed her messages and notices. She was the one who took the self-defence classes. She was NOT the headmistress. No way.

She cleared her throat. Silence descended gradually on the 1000-strong audience, all girls. Several registered surprised expressions at seeing her in the headmistress' place, but most didn't seem to bat an eyelid.

'Good Morning everyone,' she began, and was about to continue, when everyone interrupted her.

'Good Morning Miss Schneider.' The voice was enormous, and well rehearsed. It made Hilde lose her thread a little, but she managed to smile weakly, and continue.

'Some of you may be wondering why I am addressing you today and not Miss Darlian…' She swept the throng, looking for Hannah. She wasn't there. Good.

'Miss Darlian left late last night for a conference. She apologises for the short notice given. She was only informed an hour before she had to leave.' Hilde breathed a little. That part was out of the way. Now to try a little humour.

'Also, the more alert among you will have noticed a marked military presence in our school…' The buzz of 500 people whispering to their neighbour broke up the assembly momentarily, but Hilde rallied and carried on valiantly.

'…and this is due to the need for training grounds for young cadets. The soldiers will be using cordoned off areas of the school. Please try and avoid their areas, because we wouldn't want any accidents.'

The marshal, sitting on her left, glared quickly, but none of the pupils seemed to have picked up anything more than humour out of their deputy-headmistress' last remark.

Hilde wrapped up the assembly with a few notices. Relena would have wanted her to carry on as usual.

She rejoiced inwardly, as she dismissed the students, that she had been able to inform them of what was going on, and not what the marshal had intended to do, which was to keep them in the dark.

What the marshal couldn't've known about was the code. It was a brilliant idea. 'We wouldn't want any accidents', was a coded message, meaning the school was under enemy occupation. Every pupil knew the codes, and they'd all laughed at that one when they had first learnt it, because who would want to occupy a school? When they received a code, they had been instructed not to react to it in any way that would give it away. They'd done this brilliantly. Hilde allowed herself one notch on the 'us' column of the 'us' against 'them' scoreboard she now carried around in her head.

******

Kaia ran forward, ignoring the multitude of voices emanating from the mecha ordering her to stay put. When she had almost reached the silent bulk of the fallen feline MS, a huge mass descended rapidly straight in front of her, the back-draft of which nearly blew her off her feet.

She looked up at the owner of the mechanical limb that was blocking her way. Doloria's fixed gundanium expression gave away nothing.

Kaia's gaze remained locked on Omega, until someone grabbed her arm. She let herself be turned around. It was Hayley.

'Kaia, that thing just tried to kill you! What are you playing at?'

'Why…?' muttered Kaia, then raising her head, she screamed, 'WHY DID YOU STOP ME?'

Doloria was silent and still.

'We don't know that that thing…' began Hayley.

'STOP CALLING HER A THING!' yelled Kaia, turning on Hayley, 'You saw that she was being controlled by the enemy…She'd never hurt us otherwise!'

'She?' Hayley's expression was confused.

Relena watched the scene. She wasn't sure why she had stopped Kaia. The mech belonged to her, after all. She just needed time…Yes, that was it, time.

***

'We haven't got time to burn!' interjected Wufei, when all the Gundams, including the newly subdued Delta, were safe underground, 'the enemy we're up against doesn't need to be sparing with their troops…They'll catch up with their scout any time now.'

'Nahhh…' said Duo easily, 'We'd pick them up on the radar…'

He looked at it.

'Oh shit! There're hundreds of them!'

'Told you,' muttered Wufei.

'Hundreds?' asked Emma. The most she'd ever taken out had been a couple of dozen. But she'd been alone.

'No sweat,' said Hayley grimly, looking over at Kaia, who was sat in the corner of the room.

'Where's Miss Darlian?' Kaia was asking Emma.

'She's checking out Delta,' said Emma very quietly. Relena had asked her not to mention this to anyone likely to try and stop her. Kaia nodded.

'I'm going to too,' she said firmly, and slipped quickly away.

***

'Hello Kaia,' said Relena as she heard the door close quietly, 'your MS is truly a work of art.'

Kaia trotted over to her and pulled out a dog-eared postcard. She compared the picture to the real thing.

'I know,' she said.

''What's happening up there?'

'There are lots of enemy MS coming,' said Kaia, without a shred of inflection, 'are you going to fight?'

Relena smiled.

'I'm not a fighter, Kaia.'

Kaia pinned her with a glare.

'You're not? Then why are you still here? You're in their way!'

'I didn't say I couldn't defend. Anyhow, although some members of this team are level headed enough to see that every person is an asset, there are those who would rather struggle than accept help…especially from me.'

Kaia looked away. Her voice had been sad.

'I've noticed that they can't tolerate you…why?'

Relena was quiet, then she spoke.

'My family are by nature pacifists, Kaia, but that could never work in the long run. I'm 16 now. At the start of this war, I believed that my family's ideal of total pacifism was the way forward, and tried to impose it on those fighting.'

'That's why they don't like you?'

'Yes, even 'though now I see that total pacifism could never work. Me becoming Doloria's pilot was a terrible shame.'

'But why?'

Relena looked sadly at the younger girl.

'Just think what good use it could have been put to but for the fact that it only listens to me now… Someone with proper training, better experience could have taken control, helped it achieve its potential.'

'That's not true.'

Relena looked up in surprise.

'There's no one better to pilot Omega than you, that's why it chose you. It found a match for its objectives in you…'

Kaia, realising that she was beginning to sound like a psychology textbook, halted.

'The fact remains,' continued her companion after a reflective pause, 'that to fight or not will not be my choice. As soon as they remember that I'm here, I'll be ordered away and told not to interfere again on pain of death.'

Kaia thought of Emma and Hayley.

'They'd say that?'

'Oh yes,' said Relena, suddenly angry at someone she couldn't reach, 'and they'd do it too!'

'What'll happen to me?'

'I expect you'll be sent away too…with me, back to my school, no less.'

'I don't want to go, not now I've found her…' Kaia looked impassive, but Relena could tell she was distraught. At least it was a step up from Heero, who never had any emotions so he didn't need to bother covering them up… God… Why was she so angry all of a sudden?

****

'ETA?'

'An hour from now.'

'There's too many to risk not evacuating the surrounding area…' said Quatre, glancing at the ominous radar screen. Hayley stood up.

'We need to split up, spread out. After dealing with this lot, we could send Felflowne and Doloria off to the colony base.'

'The what?' spluttered Duo.

'We have a safe port in the colonies?' asked Trowa.

'Yes, they'll be safe there.'

'I don't think Kaia'll like that, 'Ley, she seems to think that Felflowne is hers,' said Emma quietly.

'The thing tried to kill her…why..?' growled Wufei. Hayley shrugged. She left quietly, in pursuit of Relena and Kaia.

'It's true,' interjected Quatre, 'she has a postcard with its picture on it.'

'A card?' Duo suddenly remembered something.

'She told you her surname, right?'

Quatre nodded. Duo glanced at Emma.

'Kentley wanted to know it a while back, but dipstick here couldn't remember it!' He grinned.

'It was and still is McInrae, Duo,' said Quatre.

***

'You have one hour to evacuate this area Relena. Take Kaia with you.'

'No!'

'Quiet kid, you have no idea what you're up against,' snapped Hayley, 'leave or we'll kill you. Both of you.'