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!
**The Original Age Part 7 – Rendezvous
By Espion
'These people have shown an interest in you, Xara, 'though I can't imagine why…' Tsudiko threw Emma down again.
One of the three stepped forward.
'We have been sent to retrieve a bride for the Prince of our country, and she will do nicely.' He leered at Emma.
'Really scraping the barrel coming here then, aren't you?' muttered Emma. She was rewarded with a kick.
'Silence, and be thankful they came before I could get hold of you, wench!'
Emma lay still on the ground. For what seemed like forever she'd had to put up with this kind of treatment, because she'd had nowhere else to go when Tsudiko had found her sitting outside the spaceport on Colony A, the main centre. What Tsudiko didn't know, because Emma had never told him, was that despite the fact that she couldn't remember how she'd got to A, her memory was completely intact.
There was no doubt about that. Only someone who could remember everything about her friends' deaths would lie awake and cry about it at night, and have such horrific nightmares.
Despite her kind nature, Emma was rapidly reaching the end of her rope. She was kept constantly weak by not be given enough to eat, as Tsudiko knew that she would kill him if she ever got well. Her only hope was her only friend, Eron.
*
'Relena!' Hilde ran to her friend as she saw her entering the school gates. In one glance she took in her injuries.
'What happened?' Relena took a deep breath.
'Kaia went back to Doloria, like you said, but when I went to bring her back, she didn't want to come.'
Hilde felt that she'd glossed over some part of that, but since she wanted to find out more, said, 'Go on.'
'A rock fell from the cliff, and I got hurt, then I wandered back here.'
'Where's Kaia?'
'With them.'
'Oh.'
Hilde pulled Relena's left arm over her shoulders and said, 'We will find out what's going on, whether 'they' like it or not, ne?'
Relena smiled, 'I have to follow what that Doc. told me told me to do.'
Hilde began to help her friend back towards the school.
'Look after it? How?'
'I think the best thing to do first would be to move it somewhere safer; somewhere where it's out of sight.'
'You've gotta be joking, they'll never let you get near that thing now!'
Relena sighed, 'I know, but I've got to try.'
*
Kaia sat next to Hayley, and stayed quiet. She didn't really know what was going on, but she knew she was in trouble. A black haired boy leaning against the far wall gave her random glares, which she didn't bother to return. Finally she had to ask.
'Are you gonna kill me or what?' Hayley's head shot up.
'Kill you? Why?'
'Why not?'
Hayley didn't answer immediately, but then said, 'We're waiting for some other people to arrive, who know more about what's going on than we do…'
'Most of the time,' muttered Wufei from across the room. Hayley nodded weakly in agreement.
Kaia didn't answer, because an answer wasn't required. Furthermore, she couldn't stand chatterboxes, and she was damned if she was gonna be one, ever.
The door opened, and Heero, Quatre and Duo came in. Duo did a double take when he saw Kaia sat next to Hayley.
'Woah, the kindergarten is officially open,' he said. Kaia glared at him.
'Argh! No!' Duo flinched and sat down next to Quatre. He poked the Arabian pilot and surreptitiously pointed at Kaia.
'Scar-ee.' He informed him. Quatre rolled his eyes. Heero sat down on the other side of Hayley. Now only Trowa was missing, thought Hayley, and…
The door opened again, and Trowa entered, followed by the five ugliest men Kaia had ever seen.
{AN Well, have you seen them? Ew!}
*
Relena tried to peel off the bandage that Hilde had put on her arm, but it wouldn't budge. She picked up her mug of coffee. Hilde looked up at her, and she sighed.
'Hilde, I had this weird idea last night…'
'Goddamn dangerous, no da.' Hilde smirked.
'Hee hee. Anyway, you know that thing in the forest…'
'…how could I forget…'
'…did you notice any weapons on it?' Hilde thought. Not many, but there was one…
'Yeah, there was a conduit running up its neck, and that means there's probably a weapon in the head somewhere.'
Relena looked thoughtful.
'Why?'
'It just struck me that it seemed more of a defensive than offensive kind of machine.'
Hilde paused. She was right.
'I thought, that perhaps, since that machine is from a different time than the Gundams, that it came from a time when attitudes to war were different.'
'Dorothy alert,' warned Hilde, but Relena shook her head.
'No, you don't understand. What if, when Hayley and her friends were still fighting, the attitude was more creative?'
'You're losing me 'lena…' groaned Hilde.
'Take Hayley's suit for example. It has just one weapon. One. Compare that with the godzillion that any of the Gundams have.'
'What are you getting at?'
'I'm not sure myself, I just don't really know how to explain it, but say this age, this age of less weaponry, was brought to an end when Hayley's mission failed.'
'Yeah. Oh, I see. So after the failure of Hayley and the others' mission, the developers changed their strategy to one of all out destruction.'
Relena smiled sadly, 'So it seems.'
'So where does Doloria fit in?'
'It doesn't.'
'What?'
'Don't you see? It shouldn't be here; it's a machine of the past. Somehow they've gotta sort this before Operation Meteor goes the way of the dinosaurs.'
*
'I appreciate that the last week or so has been a bit of a strain,' mumbled Dr J, 'but you're all trained Gundam pilots, and should be able to cope. The reason we are here is because we understand there are some questions, which require answers.' He paused and looked around the room, 'Is this true, or have we come here for no reason?'
'I have a question,' said Duo, putting his hand up.
'Duo.'
'Who's she?' he pointed at Kaia.
'We are not entirely sure, but she is definitely a part of this.'
'Why does Hayley's suit have so few weapons?' asked Trowa. J paused.
'It comes from a different era of design, Trowa. We held the belief then that there was more to battle then annihilating the enemy, but the failure of the initial mission prompted us to change our plans.'
'What's that mech in the forest?' asked Quatre. H spoke up.
'Another of our discarded beliefs was that we should also be responsible for the evacuation of citizens before we attacked a location.'
'What was wrong with that?' Quatre again. The developers looked uneasy. They obviously didn't want to answer the question.
'They wanted to kill the citizens to get their point across.' All eyes were suddenly on the person who'd spoken, sat on the left-hand side of Hayley.
'That is… not correct at all… any other questions?' J said quickly. Kaia shut her eyes. She shouldn't have said anything.
'Yeah, I got another question, but it's for Hayley,' said Duo. Hayley looked away from Kaia and looked up at the long haired boy.
'That thing you do, when you suddenly appear behind people, how d'you do that?'
'You mean Focusing?' They all heard the capital.
'I don't know, but it kinda works like, you make it impossible for anyone to focus on you, then you can move without being seen.'
'How?'
'Look, it's complicated, and odds are you wouldn't all believe me anyway, so, d'you wanna leave it at that?'
Duo nodded. 'Thanks.'
'What are we going to do with the Dragon?' asked Wufei.
'We have to move it, but where to?' There was a couple seconds silence. Kaia had to say something, but she wasn't going to risk a repeat performance of what had happened before. She leant forward and whispered in Hayley's ear. Hayley blinked.
'There's a cave in the mountains about thirty miles from here.'
'Is it big enough?'
Hayley looked at Kaia, who nodded.
*
Felflowne aka Espion. I haven't had a chance to check my mail, but I'm so glad that people like my fic. If anyone is worried, this is NOT NOT NOT a HY/RP fic *Ew* I think standard Yaoi pairing apply, but, you know.