Royal Academy

"That woman was sitting at the table this morning when I came to breakfast!" Relena Peacecraft raised her bow and let an arrow loose. It dropped to her feet harmlessly.

Trynity could barely keep her eyes open, and now she found herself grouped with these useless girls in archery class. This was absolutely no challenge!

"What is she like?" asked Catherine. She aimed her bow at the target, then moved it until Heero Yuy was in her sights. Trynity's amusement was spoiled when Catherine chose to shoot at the target instead. Heero looked relieved.

"She is a low-life tramp!" Relena picked up the arrow at her feet.

"His Excellency seems to like her," remarked the sly Dorothy.

"Who would have thought he would want such a woman after Noin." Hilde was tightening her bowstring.

Relena shot her arrow, seemingly oblivious to the fact it buried into a target further down where Trowa had been removing arrows. He turned quickly to see where it had come from. "There is only one thing a man would want from her!"

No one responded to that statement.

Sighing, Trynity stepped forward, raised her bow and fired. The arrow hit dead center.

"That was a lucky shot, Miss Stryfe!" Hilde shoved her aside. She gave Trynity an assessing look before she shot her arrow. At least it hit the correct target. Barely. Hilde frowned. Trynity said nothing.

"My brother came to breakfast late this morning, and they did not say one word to each other as they ate." Relena laughed spitefully. "I hoped he has tired of his peroxide tart!" She shot another arrow. It flew erratically until it buried into the dirt just a step in front of Trowa. Trynity almost laughed at the expression on his face.

"Then," continued Relena, "he told her to be ready to accompany him to the mobile suit base in Dover."

Trynity tried not to appear too interested. "I heard on the news this morning that there had been an industrial accident."

The girls looked at her in silence, and Trynity wondered if she had grown another head. Then without responding, they turned their attention to each other again.

"I think that wench was angry at my brother." Relena fired again, and Trynity watched Trowa dive just in time to avoid an arrow in the heart. "Miliardo spent most of the night dealing with the problem at the base."

"Poor Roxie," commented Catherine. She fired an arrow that just missed Heero.

Relena looked at her friend.

Catherine smiled.

"Well," said Relena as she raised her bow. "I won't be seeing either of them for awhile." Her arrow stabbed into a tree behind Trowa.

"Too bad," commented Catherine. She took aim at a fleeing Heero, and Trynity watched with macabre fascination as the arrow flew toward him. A book came between the arrow and Heero Yuy.

Duo retrieved his physics book.

Trowa threw himself behind a target, and Heero was crawling towards the tree.

Relena glared at Catherine. "Did you do that on purpose?"

Catherine smiled. "No!"

"Oh!" Relena started prattling about the dance.

Trynity was walking away from the moronic discussion when she heard Wufei's voice.

"What can you expect from a woman?"

Spinning on her heel, Trynity walked towards him. The contempt she felt was clear in her eyes. Duo dropped his physics book and hurried to get between them.

"Trynity, I'd like to walk you to class."

She put her hand on his shoulder and shoved him away with surprising strength. Duo stumbled to regain his balance. Note to self; don't mess with Trynity Stryfe! Wufei was on his own.

Trynity and Wufei stared at each other nose to nose for a moment before she spun and fired two quick arrows at the target behind which Trowa was hiding. Trowa shouted something that made the teacher reprimand his language.

Wufei copied her and his arrows landed neatly beside hers. He smirked at Trynity. Duo saw the fire in her eyes.

"Move the target back!" she ordered.

Trowa dragged the target further away, no doubt to a distance he considered safe. Duo certainly wouldn't be able to launch an arrow that far. He could barely see the center.

"You go first," Trynity ordered Wufei.

"You!" Wufei snapped. Duo detected reluctance in his voice. If Trynity knew how angry Wufei had been last night after returning from his defeat against the Shadowhawk, she wouldn't be taunting him now. Chang Wufei was looking for revenge in any form.

"There is one way to settle this!"

They glared at each other as their hands moved.

"Paper beats rock," Trynity informed Wufei.

Duo stifled a chuckle as Wufei turned to the target. He nocked the arrow and pulled back the string. The bow was bending in his strong grasp, the string was taut with incredible tension, and sweat broke out over Wufei's forehead. Trynity stood watching with a faint smile although Duo seriously doubted she had the strength to send an arrow that distance. Wufei squinted at the target, and with a shout of triumph, he let loose the arrow.

They all watched as it began a straight and true path to the center of the target. Duo was so amazed he barely heard the sharp twang beside him. Wufei'' arrow never reached the center of the target. Another arrow uppercut it, sending it lower where it bounced harmlessly off an outer ring and fell to the ground as the other arrow buried itself into the dead center up to the flight.

Heero and Quatre joined them as Duo and Wufei turned to look at Trynity.

"Where did you learn to shoot like that?" asked Quatre with amazement.

"My father," she told them. "It was a hobby of his." She tossed her bow to Wufei. "Feel free to practice further. I am done here."

As she walked away, Heero remarked, "Miss Stryfe: three, Wufei: two."

Wufei glared at him.

Trowa joined them after having destroyed the target by digging out Trynity's arrow. He presented it to Wufei. "A little souvenir!"

Wufei seized the arrow, snapped it in half and tossed it to the ground, then he looked at Duo. "Do you know what this means?"

"That you were beaten by a girl-woman?"

The others laughed until Wufei hissed, "Stryfe built that gundam!"

They fell silent and all turned to watch Trynity's stiffly departing figure.

"That witch knows something!" Wufei walked away.

"He's right," said Heero. "It is no coincidence that Stryfe was an archer as well as the Shadowhawk."

Duo couldn't believe Trynity would have anything to do with her father's work and said so.

"There is one way to find out," said Quatre. "You have to get it out of her."

"How? She is tight as a clam!"

"She likes you," stated Trowa. "I've seen the way she looks at you."

"You must remind her of her father," added Heero. "He was well-known for his laboratory pranks. Dr. J told me he was a lot like you, Duo Maxwell."

Duo was sickened by the idea of spying on Trynity. "I can't do it!"

Quatre put a hand on his shoulder and looked into his eyes. "You must, Duo, for all of us."

Before he could respond, Relena came to claim Heero, and Catherine mothered Trowa as they walked away from the archery range.

Dorothy and Hilde jostled each other for the right to walk with Quatre, but he laughed and put one arm around Hilde and one around Dorothy.

"Girls, no need to fight! There is enough of Quatre Raberba Winner to please you both!"

Duo doubted that.

Trynity was already gone, and as Duo walked alone, he wondered what it would be like to walk with her. An image came to his mind of him clinging to her like Relena to Heero. He shuddered.

The rest of the day passed rather uneventfully, probably because no one wanted to risk losing Sally Po's good will. The limousine ride home was painfully silent at first. Wufei glared at Trynity. Trowa, Heero and Quatre sent Duo meaningful looks. Duo wondered what Trynity would do if he tried to hold her hand. Did she think it odd that they sat on a seat alone together as the other four crowded on the seat across? They looked like spectators at a zoo waiting to watch the monkeys…

"What are you looking at?" snapped Trynity.

"I haven't decided what you are," responded Wufei snidely. "It's becoming obvious to me that you aren't a woman!"

Quatre poked Wufei.

Duo glanced at Trynity. She was looking out the window and he sensed that Wufei's comment had hurt her. He certainly wanted to wipe that satisfied smirk off his face. Ignoring the others, he slid closer to Trynity on the seat.

"Don't listen to him," he said softly, leaning toward her.

Trynity turned her head, put out a finger and poked him so hard between the ribs that he jumped back and immediately began to rub his stinging wound.

"Force field," muttered Heero.

Trowa snickered lewdly. "Difficult to penetrate."

They laughed suggestively.

Their comments were the last straw. Duo launched himself across the limo, landing a punch on Trowa's jaw. Trowa struck back, but Duo ducked and Quatre took it in the nose. Wufei was laughing, a sound that was cut short by a yelp of pain. Duo looked and saw that Trynity had seized his ponytail and was smacking his head into the window. Duo's cheer ended when Heero socked him in the eye.

The driver was shouting at them to settle down, but the fight raged on, causing him to weave around the road until he finally closed the back from the front. When he slammed on the brakes several minutes later and jerked open the door, Duo tumbled out, Quatre's hands around his neck swearing about his rude, insensitive treatment of Hilde.

Sally Po was standing above them, her arms crossed over her chest. "I knew it," she said calmly as Heero and Trowa stumbled from the car bruised the bloodied. Wufei was jettisoned, followed by Trynity who stepped out as calmly as a queen although her glasses were bent and crooked, her school jacket torn, and a welt was forming on her cheek. Wufei's eye was swollen and his nose and swelling lip were bleeding.

"I'd call it a draw," whispered Trowa.

"Agreed," returned Heero.

Sally glared them into silence. "An entire day without a call from the academy is a first! I knew it was too good to last!" She stared at them silently for a few minutes, then said, "Do you need to be sent to and from school in separate cars? Get inside and clean up! Trynity, get some ice on that cheek. Who hit Trynity?"

There was no response. Duo glared at Wufei. Trynity walked past Sally and said, "I got hurt when the car stopped. I must have bumped my face." Then she went inside.

Sally shrugged and followed. Duo waited until Wufei was even with him, then tossing a look over his shoulder to see that Sally was gone, he quickly turned to bury his fist in Wufei's gut. When he doubled over coughing, Duo shoved him down to the ground, then quickly moved past Quatre. As he went to his room, Duo heard Sally scolding Quatre when she discovered the writhing Wufei.

That felt good, thought Duo. Very good indeed.

They kept to themselves for the remainder of the afternoon. One by one they disappeared to meet in the secret gundam hanger beneath the Seaside Lab. For a couple of hours they completely ignored each other. But soon enough Quatre drifted to Trowa, and those to found Heero. Duo stubbornly remained with Sam buried deep in Deathscythe's innards replacing cables. He didn't realize how distracted he was until the technician asked if he really wanted to replace the same cable for the fifth time.

Swearing, Duo emerged from his gundam and found Quatre, Trowa, Heero and Wufei waiting for him.

"What do you want?" Duo's eye was throbbing. He knew he looked as bad as the others with bruises and swellings, cuts drying into scabs. Imagining how the girls would view them only days before the Stardust Ball almost made him laugh.

"I believe you agreed to find out what Miss Stryfe knows," said Wufei.

"Why don't you ask her yourself?"

Wufei clenched his teeth and balled his hands into fists. Duo reached into his deep pocket to curl his fingers around a wrench.

Quatre stepped between them. "Enough! Let's just forget what happened in the car!"

"Yes," agreed Trowa, rubbing his jaw. He turned to Duo. "I am sorry I offended Trynity."

"I am sorry also," stated Heero.

"And if you took offense to anything I may have said about Hilde…"

"I am not sorry," stated Wufei.

Quatre ignored him although Duo was thinking how pleasurable it would be to shove his wrench… "Duo, please talk to Trynity. She may know something important without even realizing it."

"I won't spy on her!"

"Then it is up to us," stated Heero.

They drew into a circle from which Duo and Wufei stood aside. Several games of rock, paper, scissors later, the order was determined: Trowa, Heero, then Quatre.

Duo shook his head and returned to Deathscythe. His ribs still hurt where Trynity had poked him. She could definitely take care of herself.

***********

The peace was rather comforting with the boys either banished to their rooms or scattered to the far corners of the residence. Trynity had no intention of seeking a single one of them. She took her schoolwork into the recreation room where she sat on a futon near the window through which she could look up at the stars. Looking into the black, white dotted void reminded her of home.

Soon enough the painful throbbing of the blow to her cheek distracted her. It was a painful, mocking reminder of her underestimation of Chang Wufei. Somehow the fact that he hit her with his fist made her respect him more as an opponent. But she was warned. Wufei did not consider her a weakly woman adversary. She liked it that way.

Thinking of the fight made her smile as she remembered Duo trying to take on Heero, Trowa and Quatre. When Wufei had been laughing at him, Trynity could not sit by without acting. The surprise in his eyes would be a cherished memory. She wasn't exactly sure what had made Duo explode, but all the same, she rather enjoyed the whole experience. It had been every bit as pleasurable as defeating gundam 05.

Her thoughts were interrupted when the door opened and Trowa walked in. He barely glanced at her as he crossed the room and took up a flute. He played a melody that she considered annoyingly sappy, completely destroying her mood. She tried to ignore him by concentrating on the physics assignment, but it was too easy and a quick consultation of the copyright confirmed her theory that Dr. Plume was not up to date with the latest advances in physics. Apparently it was easier to use the same lectures and problems year after year.

Trowa was moving closer, the music louder.

Trynity turned to look at him.

He stopped playing and for reasons known only to Trowa, he came around to sit with her. For several moments he stared down at his flute although Trynity stared at him, hoping to get some insight into his behavior.

Trowa sighed. He was going to speak!

Trynity waited.

Nothing.

She let out a breath.

Trowa looked at her then slowly raised his eyes to her face.

Trynity raised her brows to prompt him.

He licked his lips as if preparing to speak.

Trynity leaned toward him to hear.

He said nothing.

She sat back.

Trowa turned to face her, putting an arm on the back of the futon. The corner of his mouth twitched. His lips parted.

Trynity strained to hear.

Not a single sound came out of the void.

If he expected her to speak first, he could wait until hell froze over. She looked him in the one eye she could see.

Trowa took a deep breath.

Then he paused.

**********

Duo was trying to concentrate on the diagnostic screen running data past his eyes when Trowa stepped out of the elevator. The others crowded around him.

"She won't speak! I tried everything!"

Heero and Quatre looked at each other. "It's up to us."

"We are doomed," remarked Wufei as he crossed his arms over his chest.

"Don't make her suspicious," Quatre warned Heero. "If she really is hiding something, she will become that much more stubborn."

Heero looked him in the eye. "Mission accepted."

**********

Heero walked into the recreation room. Trynity looked up from her book as he sat in the spot vacated by Trowa. She did know that Heero Yuy was capable of speech, so she waited.

He looked at her, then her book, then said, "So that is how you do so well at school!"

"You would be amazed at how useful books can be!" Trynity half turned away from him, hoping to make it clear that she wasn't open to conversation, especially not with a Neanderthal like Heero Yuy.

She could hear his fingers drumming, then he stood. Hope that he was leaving fled when she heard the opening theme to his insipid video game. Turning, she saw him slip a visor over his head and position it to his eyes before taking up a controller. He played with vicious enthusiasm for a moment, his finger rapidly deploying the firing button until finally he burst into maniacal laughter and declared in a cold, ominous tone, "Mission accomplished."

He slipped off the visor. Trynity raised her brows. "I take it you, Heero Yuy, have saved all mankind."

"No. I annihilated the forces from Planet Zorbon," he said proudly.

"And with such minimal effort!" She was surprised his thumb wasn't bleeding.

Heero frowned as her sarcasm dripped on him. "It's not as easy as you think."

"Maybe not for you."

Heero could not resist a challenge. He left the futon to find another visor. "Here. Put this on. We will battle each other for control of Zorbon space."

Trynity set aside her book and placed the visor over her eyes. Heero pressed some buttons and suddenly Trynity found herself looking out the window of a cockpit. Heero placed a controller in her hands and after a moment of disorientation, she was ready to battle Heero Yuy for domination of the Zorbon system in outer space.

At first she took several hits from Heero and was annoyed to hear him laugh. So she called forth reinforcements from her home planet. While Heero battled her forces, Trynity stayed behind the lines learning to master the mobile suit. As Heero sliced her mobile troops with laser sword and shot powerful beams from a rifle to disintegrate them, he began to get carried away. Twice she shoved him away from her side of the futon when he jostled her.

Finally she was forced to meet him because he had destroyed her army.

"Do you surrender, Zorbon knight?" he asked aloud.

What a buffoon! Trynity had no intention of qualifying his lunacy with a response. She launched missiles at his mobile suit.

"So it's a fight you want!" he all but shouted.

Trynity doubted a fight with him would be a challenge, so she slouched on the futon and put her feet up.

"Take this!" His suit attacked with the sword and she threw up a shield. He attacked again and she drew her sword.

Heero laughed a low and menacing sound. "So you think you are my equal?"

Trynity pitied anyone who would stoop so low as to consider himself or herself his equal. They parried for several minutes,

Heero grunted with each blow. Finally she could take no more. Heero was working up a sweat and was almost foaming at the mouth. She activated boosters and jettisoned away.

Heero burst into laughter. "Now you shall die!" He launched a super nova bomb that brightened the screen. Trynity knew the object was to make her close her eyes, so she kept them open. As her monitors flashed warnings, she flew her suit to the far side of a gundanium-loaded meteor where she rode out the blast.

"Mission complete," stated Heero with finality.

"Not quite." She flew out from behind the meteor and launched a single missile into the head of his suit. It exploded and pieces of the mobile suit scattered to the far corners of the Zorbon system.

Trynity slipped off the visor and tossed it on Heero's lap. She yawned. "Now the mission is complete."

Heero tore off his own visor and jumped to his feet. He was wild-eyed, almost frightening. If he could have slammed the elevator door as he left, he would have. The visors remained behind, broken on the floor.

Trynity turned her attention back to her book.

And she smiled.

**********

Heero's shout of rage made Duo bump his head. He peeked out of the Deathscythe to see his friend pacing.

"She is too clever! Far too clever!" He ran his hands through his hair, and he clenched his fists. "Damn! Why didn't I realize that meteor contained gundanium?"

Snickering, Duo slid back inside his gundam. The Zorbon knight must have been triumphant for once.

**********

When the door of the elevator slid open again, Trynity half stood to leave, but Quatre walked in carrying a red rose. Now what? Was this some ridiculous plan to get her forgiveness for that unpleasant ride home from the academy?

Quatre was smiling at her, and she was unable to escape as he took her hand and drew her back onto the futon with him.

"Trynity, I must apologize for our behavior in the car." His eyes were sincere, but his soft, lilting voice was grating on her nerves.

She took the flower he offered. "You are forgiven." Now go away! Standing she gave him a half smile and tried to leave.

Quatre snatched her hand and pulled her back down. "Don't be in such a hurry to go. You have been here for three weeks and I hardly know you."

She raised her brows as she stared at him unblinking. You twit, she told him with her eyes.

"I never realized how lovely your eyes are. They are like a green and gold fire. And your lashes are long and delicate…delicate like…like a butterfly's wings." Quatre smiled at his own cleverness, then gazed at her dreamily although she was openly glaring at him.

"Your hair is as beautiful as…as a sunset." He was leaning toward her, his gaze intensifying. "And your lips are like…like cupid's bow." His eyes closed, his lips puckered and he leaned toward her.

Trynity put her physics book between them and she heard a smacking sound as he kissed it. Disgusted, she dug her knuckle between his ribs, and he yelped with pain, jumping back.

Before he left, he snatched the rose, then departed in the elevator rubbing his ribs.

Trynity decided to leave before she was paid another visit. There was too much work to do on the Shadowhawk and too little time before the Coalition expected her report on Wing Gundam Zero.

**********

"She attacked me!" Quatre whined. He raised his shirt to display his wound. Duo felt an answering throb from a similar bruise on his own rib where Trynity had poked him in the car. What did Quatre do to deserve his?

"Enough of this foolishness!" declared Wufei as he strode to the elevator. "When I finish with her, she will speak and she will not stop until I find out what I want to know!"

Duo cut him off at the elevator. "You had better stay here. I wouldn't want you to get hurt." Before Wufei could retort, Duo took the wrench from his pocket. "Now, you wouldn't want this to become a permanent part of your anatomy, would you? I can think of a darn good place to put it!"

Quatre came between them. "There is no need for this!" He looked at Duo. "You are the only one who can communicate with that…that…"

"All right!" Duo tossed the wrench aside, then wiping his hands on his black pants, he pressed the button for the elevator. But he had no intention of needling information out of Trynity. Besides, he was sure she wouldn't know anything.

Trynity wasn't in the recreation room, nor was she in the first level science labs. As he took the elevator to the fourth level, he regretted the mishap in the lab when he was looking for Trynity, but it looked like the technicians had the fire under control before he left.

Duo didn't know what he was going to say to Trynity. When he knocked on the door to her room, there was no answer, so he shrugged and was about to leave but he heard a noise inside. He tried the door, found that it was locked electronically. After assuring himself that Sally wasn't around, he flipped off the plate over the control panel and hot-wired the lock. The door clicked open and he stepped in to see Trynity disappear through the window.

His heart seemed to stop in his chest, and Duo ran to the window expecting to see her lying in a bloody heap on the beach. But Trynity stood the many feet blow wiping sand off her pants.

"Hey! Are you crazy? Are you trying to kill yourself?"

Trynity looked up at him. "What are you doing in my room? What would Miss Sally say?"

Duo swung his legs over the window ledge. "Here goes nothing!" He regretted jumping even before he hit the ground. His knees buckled and his face buried in the sand.

"At my feet again, Mr. Maxwell?"

Duo spit sand out of his mouth and grinned up at her. Trynity smiled back at him, then reached out a hand which he took and was surprised again by the strength she used to pull him to his feet. And how the hell did she land so gracefully like a cat? Who the hell cared when she smiled like that?

"What are you doing jumping out of your window?" he asked.

"It is the fastest way to the ground," she answered.

Duo should have expected such a direct answer. "I like to take the long way." He spit some sand out of his mouth.

Trynity kicked off her shoes and started to walk along the water's edge. "So, are you here to apologize too?"

"For my friends. They aren't very sensitive."

"Neither are you," she pointed out.

He was glad it was dark enough that she couldn't see his burning cheeks. He shouldn't have let the others goad him into acting in the car. "Where did you learn that poking move?"

"My father. Before the accident there were many men at the lab, including a couple of unruly pilots. He thought I should learn some defensive tactics. If you wish, I can demonstrate the first move he taught me. It can be quite debilitating to those with the Y chromosome. Lars Nelson can attest to its effectiveness."

Duo shuddered as he imagined it and pitied the poor pilot. Note to self: if a jab in the ribs made him ache, he would never walk again after defensive move number one. "Were you in your father's laboratory often?"

Shrugging, she stopped to dig her toes in the wet sand. "There is no sand on the colony. My playgrounds were scraps of gundanium, my toys test tubs and cables. I never really paid attention to what my father had been doing. After the explosion, we were deserted, and my father refused to leave."

"Did he continued to work?" asked Duo, hating himself for doing so.

She did not answer immediately, but when she did speak, he didn't sense any dishonesty.

"He did work for many months, but then he seemed to realize the futility. We spent more time together after that. In retrospect, I am glad that big machine was destroyed because I think he scarcely noticed me standing in its shadow."

There was no clever, amusing reply he could make.

"The tide is coming in," she pointed out. "Your boots are getting wet."

"I better get back. I still don't have my poem done for Drivel's class." Duo waited a moment, and when she made no move to leave the water, he asked, "Are you coming?"

Her curls bounced as she shook her head, and she looked up at the sky. Duo followed her gaze and felt a crushing homesickness himself. They were both children of space trapped on Earth.

"I'd like to be alone."

We could be alone together, he thought, but he turned on his heel and reluctantly returned to the gundam hanger. They were waiting for him in a group.

"Well," demanded Wufei.

Duo sighed. "Her father continued research for a while, but he quit."

Each of them stared at him incredulously. "She spoke to you?" asked Quatre, amazed.

"She's lying!" snapped Wufei. "Where is she? I will make her tell the truth."

Quatre stopped him. "She's not going to tell you anything. If she had nothing to say to Duo, then there is nothing to tell."

Duo was disappointed that Wufei relented. He was hoping to see the after effect of defensive movement number one.