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 and Emma Kentley are mine, ‘though, all mine! MINE!!

 

**The Original Age Part 4 – Chronological Leap

<By Espion>

AC 195 - Oceasia

            Quatre Winner looked up from the console he was monitoring and said, ‘Don’t you think that we oughta just leave it?’ He watched as Heero Yuy glared at him, and tried to climb back into the mecha. As it had all of the other times he’d tried, the huge, strangely shaped mech stamped, and tossed it head viciously, throwing Heero clear and smashing him into a wall. Quatre winced. That had to hurt, even if it was Heero…

            Quatre looked at the two other boys sat on the stairs that led own to the Gundam Hangar. One with a cap on looked back at him and said, ‘I say we re-bury it, ‘cos what use is a mech that won’t obey commands?’

Quatre nodded in silent agreement. Duo Maxwell leapt up from where he’d been standing and leant over the rail.

            ‘HEY! HEERO!’ he yelled. Heero hadn’t moved from where the mobile suit had thrown him. Duo rolled his eyes. He turned to face his friends and said, ‘right, with you as my witnesses, I am going to help Heero. If I get hurt, Trowa, you can have my stereo. Quatre, you can’t have anything, because you’ve got it all already.’ Quatre grinned and laughed. Duo began to run down the stairs. When he reached his fallen friend, he attempted to help him to his feet, but Heero lashed out viciously, and Duo only just managed to dodge. Duo turned tail and bolted towards the stairs, leaping up them three at a time. He plonked himself back down next to Trowa Barton.

            ‘Tough luck Tro, maybe next time.’

            Heero glared at the machine, and he swore afterwards that it glared back.

            Dr J. walked out onto the balcony of the hangar.

            ‘Still trying Heero?’ he chuckled. ‘Good luck. That suit isn’t yours, and you know it.’

            ‘It’s a goddamn machine,’ growled Heero.

            Dr J. smiled sadly, ‘I bid you good luck, Yuy.’ He turned and looked at Wufei and Trowa. He shook his head sadly.

            ‘Why didn’t you tell us yes or no, Master O,’ he muttered, ‘then we’d know, but no, you had to just carry on as if nothing had happened…’

*

            Kate sat on the thin railing that was the only thing standing between her and dying from a thirty-metre drop. Suddenly she felt a hand on her arm, and swung around so quickly that the girl who’d tapped her squeaked.

            ‘Er…it’s not really safe to sit there, ya’know.’ said the girl carelessly, tossing her dark hair. Kate looked at her for a second, and then resumed her previous activity of staring out over the valley. The dark-haired girl tsked and walked slowly away, muttering.

            The girl had actually had to pluck up a lot of courage before speaking to Kate. She was only at the school by the request of the head teacher, but no one knew why except the head teacher and Kate. No one even knew if Kate was really the strange girl’s name. Kate lowered herself to the ground, and began to walk out of the school.

*

            ‘Why does Heero give a damn about this piece of junk anyway?’ asked Duo, giving the older mech a derisive once-over with his eyes. ‘Our Gundams are much better…’ Heero entered the room and sat down, a murderous look on his face. The other four pilots shrank away slightly, they knew better than to talk to Heero when he was in this type of mood.

Having said that, Quatre stood up and walked over to Heero, and placing a hand on his shoulder, said, ‘Can I get you a drink?’ The others tensed, wondering what Heero might do. Amazingly, he nodded, and said, ‘Please.’

*

            Kate walked out of the school. She never attended lessons, and she had no friends there, as everyone was too scared of her. Stories about her, where she’d come from, and what she’d done before she’d come to the school buzzed around the school, and as she preferred to be left well alone, she didn’t bother setting the record straight about which were true or not. She walked further, further away from the school, until she was certain she was far enough away. Then she slumped against a tree and began to cry quietly.

            They hadn’t got better, the flashbacks had got worse since she’d started going here. When she’d awoken, she’d been in hospital, with loads of people she’d never met chirruping how it was a miracle. She’d been lucky that her face had changed enough for her not to be recognised as Hayley Reo. When all of the fickle do-gooders had gone, a girl around her age had stepped forward and offered Hayley her hand, and introduced herself as Relena Peacecraft. She’d told Hayley that she was welcome to attend her school, free of charge, if she had nowhere else to go. Hayley had been apprehensive at first, until the strange girl had pulled her handkerchief from her pocket, and Hayley had taken it.

            ‘It’s a handkerchief, so what?’ The handkerchief had been pink.

            ‘So shoot me because I don’t own a purple one. Otashki wants to meet you again.’

            Hayley had blinked. ‘Otashki?’

            ‘He’ll be back from the colonies in a few years. He has a few new…err…responsibilities. Until then, he asked me to take care of you, if you turned up. You can stay at the school, and you don’t have to pay.’

            Hayley had looked stunned, and then said, ‘Why are you doing this for me?’

            Relena had smiled sadly, and said quietly, ‘I just want to do my part for the cause. I hope you feel better soon.’ Then she’d left, and left Hayley very confused. 

            And here she was, almost five years later. She often went out into the forest. It was the only place she could be herself in safety. At that moment a terrible sensation flooded her body and she gritted her teeth, readying herself for the oncoming onslaught…

*

            ‘Guys! I hate to break up this Kodak moment, but we have Virgos approaching, and lots of them!’ yelled Wufei Chang, running past the doorway of the small room that the others were sat in. About five seconds later, all of the pilot were ready to leave except Duo, who paused to look at what he’d previously thought as as a broken-down pile of scrap. Its eyes had suddenly glowed a bright red, and Duo yelped, and ran away.

            ‘Guys….errr….’ he said breathlessly, and all the others turned to watch as the huge mecha pulled itself to its own feet, and walked out of the hangar. Duo blinked.

*

~~*Flashback*~~

            ‘That’s great!’ cried Emma, ‘when can I see it?’

            ‘Whenever you like,’ said the Doctor, only…’ he paused, and looked at Hayley.

            ‘Uh oh,’ said Hayley.

            CRASH

~~*End Flashback*~~

 

            Hayley sobbed miserably into her hands. She lost everyone and everything she’d ever loved. She didn’t know whether or not Emma, Trensa or the Doctor had survived, or Espion, in a manner of speaking. If they were dead, then she held herself completely responsible for what had happened. She should have checked for sabotage before entering the hangar…why hadn’t she…that time…why…why…

            Hayley looked up into the sky, and suddenly had a desire to be able to see further. Without hesitating, she began to climb the tree.

*

            ‘How many Virgos Wufei?’ yelled Duo.

            ‘About a hundred…’ said Wufei, still looking at where the mech had been.

            ‘I’m going after that mech,’ said Heero, climbing into Wing Zero carefully.

            ‘Hang on dude, that mech, is like, haunted…’ Duo voice trailed off as he saw the look on Heero’s face. It was a look that Duo’d seen before, many times. Pure steel. Duo looked away hurriedly, afraid that Heero would sense his doubt.

            ‘I’ll go after it,’ Heero repeated, ‘if you need assistance with the Virgos, I’ll back you up when I’ve recaptured Espion.’ He shut the hatch and ended the conversation abruptly. Duo blinked, and turned away.

            ‘Espion…eh? Well, if anyone can do it, you can Heero.’ He smiled and raced towards Deathscythe.

*

            Hayley reached the top of the tree and immediately felt better. The wind made the tree sway slightly, and she shut her eyes slowly. Then she opened them again, very quickly.

*

            Heero transformed Zero into a fighter and powered after the disappearing mech, which was galloping at full tilt towards…the school.

            He couldn’t let any pupils see that mech, or him, for that matter, or else…

            He started suddenly. The strange mech had slowed, and it was still quite a way away from the school. Good.

*

            Hayley stared, and stared, and stared. Crashing through the forest towards her was a huge fighter. Something smaller was also chewing up trees, but she couldn’t see it yet. A mech!! She stood up and watched intently. She never thought to take cover. Then the leading mech broke out of the trees.

*

            Heero suddenly spotted a girl in the very top branches of a tall tree, and levelled his buster rifle at her. She’d seen him, and that was her only crime.

*

            Espion drew to a halt below the tree that Hayley was in, and its eyes faded to a lighter red. Hayley looked down at her mech, and realised that tears were in her own eyes.

            ‘Oh my God.’ She muttered. ‘Espion.’ Then her face broke into a huge smile. It didn’t last long ‘though, as Heero fired at her.

*

            Heero watched in stunned amazement as the girl leapt out of the tree and landed on Espion’s head. His shot took the top two metres off of the tree.

            Hayley hit Espion’s head hard. Ow.

            ‘We’re in trouble bud,’ she groaned, pressing her hand against the Spanscan lock, and noticing how someone had pried it with some kind of welding tool, and swinging herself into her mech, ‘That dude totally wants to annihilate us, and I’m totally outta practice…’

            Heero shook himself and looked around for the girl, but she was gone.

            That’s probably just as well

            To his horror, Espion started to move again, it turned and crouched, then sprang at him, knocking Wing Zero onto its back. Heero struggled, and managed to throw Espion off, and right into the thick of the battle.

            Duo blinked again as Espion flew past him and landed on its back. Wing Zero shot after it, but it dodged, and kicked out with its back legs, sending Heero and Zero flailing backwards into the cliff. At that second, a Virgo flew towards Sandrock, who was distracted, and none of the others could get to him.

            ‘QUATRE!!’ yelled Duo, but it was too late. Quatre began to turn, but the Virgo was going to get there first, it drew its beam sabre, and-

            -suddenly wasn’t there anymore. Quatre blinked. Hayley had leapt at the Aries and knocked it out of the air. She figured out that if these people were fighting Oz troops, then they must be <the good guys>. She swung around and Espion’s beam sabre flared into life.

            ‘Heero! The mech’s fighting with us!’ cried Quatre.

            ‘I know…’ said Heero faintly.

            You felt the storm brewing, didn’t you Espion? said Hayley silently, You came to find me. I hope you didn’t hurt anyone, buddy.

            At that moment three Virgos converged onto her, and deployed their shield barrier generators. Hayley stared at the small round objects that had been flung into the sky.

            What the hell are they? God, I’m totally behind.

            Hayley gritted her teeth and swung at the attacking mecha. To her surprise, the crackling energy field had absolutely no effect. Then she realised that its primary function was to stop missiles.

            We don’t do missiles, do we Espion? She thought evilly. The Virgos sizzled and plunged groundwards.

            A huge red and yellow mech swung its left arm up to face Hayley, and she gulped. Here was a mech that did do missiles. Lots and lots of missiles.

            Yikes!

            Gundam Heavyarms hesitated for a fraction of a second, and then fired.

            One should be enough, thought Trowa, It’s only a bog-standard mobile suit.

            All the other mobile suits seemed to pause as the missile flew towards its target. It exploded on impact, and the clouds of shrapnel and smoke obscured the results of the positive strike. Trowa scanned the smoke to see if he’d been successful. There was no sign of the renegade machine. He breathed again and turned back to the battle, and saw…

            ‘Aaaaaaaaaaaaaiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiieeeeeeeeeeee!’ yelled Hayley, diving at the red mech and knocking it over. Now, she was really mad. Trowa was winded by the impact, but ignored the pain. Where the hell had the suit come from? Furthermore, he’d heard a voice, which meant that the suit wasn’t rampaging around on its own, not anymore. It had definitely been unoccupied when Heero’d tried to pilot it ‘though…

            ‘Trowa! Dude! Get up!’ Duo’s commands annoyed Trowa somewhat.

            What do you think I’m trying to do, you moron?

            Trowa flipped Heavyarms to its feet, causing Hayley to take a few steps back. Woah. His shot had merely blackened the side of the suit, and he couldn’t see any other damage.

            Impossible, thought Trowa, I’ve seen similar shots knock five Leos out at once…unless…

            ‘Guys! This suit is made of Gundanium!’ barked Trowa. There was a second’s silence.

            ‘You what?’ said Duo.

            ‘How’d you know?’ asked Wufei testily.

            ‘You all saw that. I hit it head on. Barely a scratch.’

            ‘It was fighting with us, why’d you attack it Trowa?’ Quatre’s worried voice resounded over the com. system.

            Trowa chose to answer an unasked question first. ‘There’s someone inside it as well.’ He added.

            Suddenly thirty more Aries arrived, looking as though they meant business. Heero growled.

            ‘Can we discuss this later?’ he intoned. All six pilots swung their mobile suits around.

            ‘Hey!’ yelled Duo at the odd mecha, ‘are you for us or against us?’ Espion’s head turned to face the tall black mech. Hayley thought it was a very impressive bit of work. The person who’d built it obviously knew how to combine effectiveness with the ability to scare to crap out of the enemy. She turned to look at Wing Zero. It looked strangely like Espion in a way, similar platework. Weird. She turned to face the Aries, and scored her left foreleg into the ground, digging up the soil.

            ‘I’ll take that as a for…’ said Duo.

*

            Around twenty minutes later, it was all over. The five two-legged mecha stood around Espion, their pilots trying to decide what to do. Espion hadn’t come out completely unscathed. It was after all, almost half a decade older than the monsters leaning over it. Wiring had come loose on its neck. Hayley had hit her head against the console quite hard during the ordeal, and kept her hand on her head to try and stop the sticky blood dripping onto the mech main computer console and gumming it up.

            What now? These suits are made of Gundanium, I couldn’t touch them. They must be…from the colonies…

            The com. system crackled.

            Very good, thought Hayley, Well hacked.

            ‘Get out of your machine or we’ll destroy it.’ The voice was not friendly. Hayley decided to…be herself.

            ‘Err…you really don’t want to do that.’ She muttered. There was a faint snap, and another voice joined the first.

            ‘What my friend means is that we are grateful for your assistance, but we must ask you to vacate your suit so that we may recapture it.’

            ‘If I meant that Quatre, I would’ve said it.’ muttered the first voice.

            Hayley looked out of the viewscreen to try and ascertain where the voices where coming from, which mecha.

            ‘Yours then, is it?’ she asked nonchalantly. She couldn’t stop herself from giggling, and this gave her away to at least one of the pilots.

            ‘It’s a woman!’ yelled yet another new voice. The second voice replied patiently, ‘Yes, Wufei, I think we’d all figured that out, thank you.’

            ‘Fight against Oz, do you?’ asked Hayley. The first voice returned.

            ‘That’s none of your concern, you don’t understand anything…’

            ‘Try me. What is there to understand?’

            ‘I have no interest in speaking with you further. Goodbye.’ He levelled his buster rifle at Espion.

            ‘Okay, this one I dodge, right?’ Hayley muttered to no one in particular. The first voice snorted.

            ‘Dodge it if you can.’ He said. He fired. She dodged. The blast streaked towards the school.

            ‘No!’ cried Hayley, and dived between the flare and the school. It knocked her off of all four of her feet, and she landed heavily on her back. Wires hissed angrily and snaked wildly around inside the cockpit. She lifted the mech’s head to see if she had been successful in protecting the school. It was still there. She let the head fall to the ground with a loud thud.

            ‘Ouchie.’ she whimpered.

            Heero was stunned. She dodged his shot, a rare feat, and then let it hit her on purpose to protect the school. He looked at the comatose metal shape. Silence.

            There was the noise of something very large beginning to move. Heero turned, and watched as Deathscythe leant over the fallen mobile suit and rolled it over. Espion struggled weakly to stand, but fell again. Hayley’s head wound was beginning to make her see double, and that wasn’t good.

*

            Relena heard the unmistakable sound of mech against mech, and raced to the window. Her eyes widened as they focused on all five Gundams, and a strange mech that she’d never seen before. They were still quite a way away, but better safe than sorry. She was about to send out an order to evacuate the school, when the videophone bleeped, nearly making her jump out of her skin. She trotted over to it and activated it. The face of Otashkin Wakenoi appeared. Relena bowed.

            ‘Honoured sir…’ she began, but Otashki stopped her.

            ‘That’s really not necessary, Miss Peacecraft. I shall be arriving in approximately one hour.’ He paused, as his ears picked up the clashing sounds. ‘What in the Colonies is going on?’

            ‘The Gundams are sparring with a strange four-legged mech…’ Relena began, then gasped. She watched as the aforementioned mech dived between a shot from Wing Zero, which would’ve surely wiped the school off the map, and the school. The horse-mech was thrown back roughly.

            ‘Relena! Are you there!?’ Otashki’s voice was concerned.

            ‘Yes…Otashki…Is that Hayley?’ Relena’s voice shook with confusion.

            ‘I shan’t tell you anything that could put you in danger, Miss Peacecraft. I shall be patching through to my colleagues as soon as I have a positive link. Thank you for taking care of Miss Reo, Relena, you won’t be forgotten. Evacuate the school.’ The link was severed. The young headteacher began to evacuate the school.

*

            ‘I don’t care Heero!’ Quatre’s normally calm voice shook as he moved to help Duo, ‘She helped us. She knows how to pilot this mech. She’s useful, whatever you say.’

            ‘That mech was working on its own.’ said Heero coldly, ‘Its pilot is dead.’

            Heero? thought Hayley, as in Heero Yuy?

            ‘Mobile suits can be piloted by anyone, Heero, don’t be stupid.’ Wufei’s sneering voice grated against Heero’s nerves.

            ‘Not just anyone, Wufei,’ Trowa said calmly.

            Hayley’s eyes fluttered open. The world was now the right way up once more. She realised that the two mobile suits standing at her flank had helped her to her feet. Espion swayed slightly, but then Hayley quickly pulled herself together. She was going to find out what was going on.

            ‘Come with us.’ said the voice of the person called Quatre. It didn’t really sound like an order, it sounded more like a request. Hayley weighed up her options, and was suddenly reminded of the moment nearly five years ago when she’d had to make a similarly weighty choice.

            No Trensa to try and kill me this time ‘though, she thought wryly. The thought of the snide, sharp-witted boy made her sad. He’d wanted to fight, protect his home from Oz. The thought of her best friend Emma nearly made her sob. She missed her so much. Now they were dead, and it was her fault. She’d killed them.

            ‘My fault,’ she whispered wretchedly. The teachings of the Doctor came back to her. It was hard, but she obeyed her training, and said in a sad monotone, ‘All right.’

*

            Dr J. watched in awe as the five bipedal mobile suits landed, with Espion supported by Deathscythe and Sandrock. He raced as fast as he could towards the newly discovered suit.

            ‘What on Earth happened?’ he hissed. Duo, leaning out of the hatch of Deathscythe, shrugged and said, ‘Like I know? All I know is, Heero was chasing the psychotic mech that got up and ran away, unpiloted, and then suddenly, it has a pilot, and she’s helping us…’ Duo’s voice faltered as he met Dr J’s icy stare.

            Geez, you coulda taught Heero to glare. Maybe you did.

            ‘She?’ The Doctor fiddled with his beard and said, ‘is she still in there?’

            ‘She should be,’ said Trowa, climbing out of Heavyarms, ‘there’s no way she could’ve possibly got out.’

            There was a noise like someone dropping a bag of cotton wool. Heero had jumped out of Wing Zero, and landed almost silently. Almost.

            ‘Well, what are we waiting for?’ growled Wufei, ‘drag the onna out and punish her!’

            ‘For what Wufei?’ The Doctor’s tone was pleasant, with a hint of hydrochloric acid. Wufei flinched, despite himself.

            Hayley peered out of Espion’s red-tinted viewscreen, and saw Dr J.

            Doctor? You’re alive? Then maybe, just maybe, the others are too…

            Dr J. glanced up at Espion. Heero stepped up beside him. They both looked at it. For a while, no one said anything, even Duo.

            Hayley decided that it was now or…now. She quietly asked her mobile suit to open its hatch, which it did. She took a deep breath, and jumped out into nothing.

            She landed soundlessly. Even Trowa looked impressed. She stood up slowly and her hazel eyes took in the hangar and everyone in it. No one moved for a moment. Then the Doctor stepped forward, an acerbic smile on his face.

            ‘My sincerest apologies, miss, but our little experiment seems to have gone astray.’ Quatre looked at Duo. What the hell was going on?

            Hayley met his bespectacled gaze. Oh, it was this, was it? Well, she knew the script.

            ‘I could not agree more, sir,’ said Hayley, keeping her voice carefully level. The Doctor leered.

            He’s always been good at that, thought Hayley, so what’s coming next?

            ‘This…thing…has a glitch, a terrible problem.’ Hayley followed his gaze up to Espion, and looked politely interested.

            ‘Is the glitch running around the countryside unmanned and kidnapping public schoolgirls?’ she inquired.

            Trowa looked at the girl. Who the hell was she? Was she speaking in code? It seemed vaguely familiar.

            Dr J. smiled again, and Hayley shuddered slightly. Now the interrogation began. She’d never thought that she’d ever be on the receiving end ‘though.

            ‘Who are you?’ he asked coldly. She sidestepped the question neatly and shot back, ‘Who are you and why have you kidnapped me?’

            Heero darted forward and grabbed her arm, but she yanked free and focused. When she opened her eyes again, she was behind Heero, and pushed him hard. He stumbled and spun around, with fear in his eyes. Duo blinked. Heero? Scared? No way.

            Heero backed away. The Doctor looked worried now. ‘My name is Dr J.’ he said, and continued, ‘we have captured you because we wish to know why Gundam Alpha went to you.’ Quatre and Duo started. Gundam Alpha?

            ‘I wasn’t aware that any mobile suit was capable of self locomotion,’ said Hayley. The Doctor sighed.

            Heero was acting strangely. He kept looking at Espion, then at Hayley, as though they were a sum that he didn’t know the answer to, or at least, didn’t know the value of one of the integers. Duo noticed.

            Espion plus…something, equals...equals…what?

            Hayley turned away from the little crowd of people, and began walking slowly back towards Espion. No one tried to stop her. She hadn’t got a clue what was going on…well…that wasn’t entirely true. She’d figured out that even though she and the Doctor had survived, Operation Umbra had been terminated, and these people were part of the replacement scheme. She wondered what this new operation was called.

            ‘Who are you? Why did Espion kidnap you?’ asked Quatre, picking up quickly.

            ‘Espion didn’t kidnap me, I think I called it…’ said Hayley faintly. She put her hand on her mech. Something she’d done so many times. The eyes faded to a soft, yet urgent kind of green. She heard the person called Wufei growl. This was going to be difficult.

            ‘It’s not a pet,’ said Heero bluntly, ‘it doesn’t come when you whistle.’

            Hayley shrugged. ‘Believe what you like the idea of best. I prefer the truth.’ Duo shook himself. Despite the way the Doctor, Heero and Wufei were reacting to the new girl, he shared Quatre’s opinion, although it was worded slightly differently.

He took a deep breath and said, ‘I know skill when I see it. You kicked ass. You’re okay with me, sister.’

Heero glared at him. Duo took no notice. It was getting old anyway.

            The Doctor wasn’t going to give up, but Hayley didn’t mind. She’d tell them who she was, what she knew, no problem, and then, if they betrayed her, she’d kill them, all of them.

            Rule number twelve – Terminate traitors and enemies of the cause.

            Hayley wondered what the next question was going to be. When it came, it surprised her.

            ‘How old are you?’ She smiled slightly.

            Too young to have to be dealing with stuff like this.

            ‘Fifteen.’

            ‘Where were you born?’

            ‘Colony C-76.’

            ‘Indeed.’ The Doctor paused, and tilted his head to one side.

            ‘Do you have any relatives?’

            ‘No.’

            Again he paused, then smiled nastily.

            ‘Lose them, did you? That was careless.’

            Hayley reeled internally. Ouch.

            ‘What is your name?’

            There was a silence so heavy that everyone in the room drew a short breath.

            Hayley paused for a fraction of a second longer, then thought, What the hell, they’ve probably never heard of me, and the Doctor doesn’t remember me. I though he did, but I must have been mistaken…

            ‘Hayley. Hayley Reo.’

*

            Trowa’s head shot up. Reo? Master O had always spoken fondly of a girl called Hayley Reo, and he’d mentioned at times a girl called Emma Kentley and, on occasion, a boy, but he couldn’t remember the boy’s name. His surname had been Mac-something…

            ‘I was led to believe that the girl calling herself Hayley Reo was killed when a building collapsed on top of her back in AC 191.’ Said the Doctor.

            ‘No, I didn’t die, at least, I don’t think I did. I take it you survived too?’

            This was the first indication to the others that Hayley knew Dr J., and none of them missed it. He smiled, and this time it wasn’t acidic, but as genuine a smile as you were likely to get out of the old scientist. He shook his head and chuckled.

            ‘Dropping a building on you wasn’t enough eh? He he he heh.’ Heero shuddered. He hated that laugh.

            Incredibly, Trowa spoke up.

            ‘Do you know a man called Otashkin Wakenoi, or a girl called Emma?’ he asked in his quiet voice. Hayley looked at the ground.

            ‘Yes,’ she said, ‘Otashki was my trainer up until I was eleven, and Emma was my best friend up until she died.’ There was a sympathetic silence, broken by the sudden creak of joints as Hayley’s mech got up and walked out of the hangar. All eyes were instantly on her.

            ‘Why did you do that?’ asked Heero in a dangerous voice. Hayley met his glare easily.

            ‘I don’t like Espion being in a hangar with people thinking of destroying it.’ Hayley and Heero glared at each other for a good ten seconds. Wufei was stunned. He’d just had that thought a second ago, but how…?

            ‘We’re not going to get anywhere by just glaring at each other,’ said Quatre sensibly. Hayley and Heero glared at him, and he flinched. Getting struck by the Yuy and Reo deathglare simultaneously (equivalent to the Yuy deathglare squared,) was not a nice thing. He rallied and carried on.

            ‘Where have you sent Gundam Alpha?’

            ‘Somewhere she’ll be safe,’ said Hayley quietly. Wufei snorted. The Doctor finally made to rejoin the conversation, but was stopped by a bleeping noise from his pocket. He pulled an old-fashioned digilink processor from his pocket and opened it. Duo stared.

            ‘That thing’s like, ten years old!’ he exclaimed. You’d expect evil scientists to have all the top gizmos.

            Dr J. looked up. He wasn’t going to bother to explain to Duo the importance of this bit of technology, how its frequency was unique in the universe, probably. Trensa had made it. He’d been very good with machines. What a pity Felflowne had never been finished…

            ‘Excellent. Master O has reached Earth and is on his way here.’

            ‘Excuse me? Why?’ Duo, of course.

            ‘We require his assistance in the adaptation of Gundam Alpha for space combat, after all, he helped to design it, and as Hayley’s trainer and friend, I’m sure he’d like to see her again.’

            Hayley’s mind couldn’t take it all in. Otashki was coming here. The Doctor was alive. Espion was intact, and remembered her. It would have been an awful lot better, however, had Trensa and Emma been there. She remembered how Emma had once sat her down and thanked her for helping Trensa. She’d been confused.

            ‘What do you mean?’

            ‘I mean, before you came, it seemed as though Trensa was becoming…I don’t know…cold. Like one of them.’

            ‘How’ve I helped?’

            ‘He’s more open now, just like he used to be. I’d be sad to lose the Trensa I grew up with.’

            ‘You’re his sister?’

            ‘No, more like his adoptive sister. I’ve always been there with him. I don’t know what I’d do without him.’

            ‘You love him?’ Emma had smiled sadly.

            ‘Yes, very much, but not in that way.’

            ‘I understand.’

            It had been the day before Mission forty-seven.

            She was shaken from her thoughts by Dr J. snapping the contraption shut. The boy called Heero turned and began to walk away, and another boy, whose name Hayley either hadn’t heard or couldn’t recall, followed him. She sighed. Some day, and it wasn’t even over yet. Quatre stepped up to her and gave her a sympathetic look.

            ‘Are you hungry?’

            ‘No, I’m all right thank you.’ Hayley looked around the hangar again. Those two-legged things were very impressive. She suddenly felt that she needed to be better informed. She turned back to Quatre and smiled slightly.

            ‘Would it be possible for you to bring me up to speed?’ Quatre hesitated, and turned to glance at his colleagues. Wufei shook his head. Trowa nodded slightly. Quatre turned back to her.

            ‘Sure, no problem.’

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