Disclaimer: To anyone who reads this, which isn't a lot of you, I'm sure, Sailor moon and Gundam Wing does not belong to me (sob this can't be, I want Heero. And Wufei. And Duo. And Trowa. Wait, and Quatre too. Oh, the list goes on). Unfortunately, I cannot rely on this as a source of income as I gain nothing from this story except the satisfaction of writing itself and perhaps the nice reviews I get.

Author's Notes: Blah. Yep, I'm still alive and breathing (hears the disappointed sighs of readers). And I'm back, with another chapter no less. Sorry, but this hasn't been beta-ed yet, as I just wanted to post this up as soon as possible. So bear with me on the typos. Oh and a thousand thanks to all those who reviewed, this is for you guys.

School of Defence

Chapter 4

First Day Part I

This was it! Serena will be going to the Defence School today. She woke up diligently at half past three in the morning and dressed to get ready to visit Wufei. As part of her school uniform, she was given a set of training clothes to wear to practises. It was embroidered with the white tiger of the beginner's class. She left a note telling the others that she'd gone to school early and set out.

Serena arrived at the gates of her school sometime after. The academy was exactly as she pictured it (of course, that was after seeing all the recent pictures of the building on the Internet). A tall black building was situated in the far east side. This was where the two theory classes, History of Defence and Defence Techniques were taught. It also included the indoor gyms, shooting arena and the dormitories. Out on the courts were a large field of practice yards for hand-to-hand combat, swordplay (Serena shudders at the sight of it), archery and an obstacle course. As it was still only the brink of dawn, the school was—or rather—looked deserted.

Outside the building, Serena hesitated; one step in would mean the start of a whole new life. Did she really want that? She asked herself before nodding firmly. This was her goal; what she has come to achieve. Nobody knows who you are so they can't hurt you Serena reassured herself (A/N: Ha! Famous last words. Lol.) And with a deep intake of breath, she pushed open the exquisite door.

With the indicating floor plan, finding the gym was child's play. Like before, Wufei was, as expected, practising vehemently in the fencing court.

"Hey Wufei-kun! I'm here!" There was a clang and 4 pairs of surprised eyes turned her way. Serena looked around again and noticed four others practising at the shooting arena. Oops. "Errr...sorry. Don't mind me, I'm just here for Wufei." Serena said apologetically, but somehow their jaws seemed to drop even more. Freaky.

"Onna." The one word of acknowledgment made her spin around quickly, her eyes flashing dangerously.

"What did I tell you about calling me that, Chang?" Serena hissed. God, this guy was really pissing her off. How the heck were you going to identify between who he was talking about when half the world's population would fit under the title of 'Onna'.

"Whatever. Serena." Wufei said in dismissal. "You're late."

"I am?" She was? Looking down at her watch Serena was surprised to find that it was already ten past. She sighed. Some habits were hard to break. Punctuality was just not her thing.

"Gomen nasai. But I took some time in finding this place since it was my first time here and everything." Serena said, before quickly adding, "But I swear on my honour as a Sai—um I swear on my honour next time I'll be on time." She cringed slightly, mentally kicking herself for the near slip of tongue. But before Wufei could reply, Serena felt the sensation of cold metal press against the back of her head.

"Stop moving. Omae O Korosu. State your name and whom you work for." The voice was stoic and unemotional.

'Well, let us see, I'm Serena Tuskino AKA Sailor Moon and Princess Serenity, future Queen of Crystal Tokyo. I don't work for anybody except for justice and I have a group of highly trained, magical warrior princesses working under my command to protect me. Yeah, I'm sure that'll go down well!' She thought sarcastically to herself as she put her hand up slowly and turned around. Her eyes met with a pair of deep, Prussian blue orbs, devoid of emotions. Serena smiled sweetly, watching him carefully as his eyes narrowed in suspicion. Quick as lightning, Serena brought out her own gun from her sub-pocket and pointed it on his head. She secretly thanked her lucky stars for the sub-pockets. How else was she supposed to have brought out her guns without being shot through the head?

Trowa and Quatre's POV

We watched helplessly as Heero crept up to the nice, bubbly girl. It had come as quite a surprise when she jumped out of nowhere and started talking to Wufei. Since when did Wufei make friends; much less with girls? Suddenly, our attention snapped back to the scene before us, it seemed that Heero has said the magical phrase for the girl's body had tensed visibly. After a few seconds, she put her hands up and slowly turned around.

We were surprised to see no fear in her dark blue eyes. Who was this girl anyway? Was she really a spy of some sort? (A/N: snort paranoid soldiers. :rolls eyes: Though can you blame them?) To tell the truth, the girl looked as helpless as helpless can get. But then again, appearances can be deceiving; we five pilots were prime examples of that. Suddenly, the girl moved like lightning and before our perfect soldier even had time to pull off the safety, she had two guns aimed at him.

"Heero, Serena, put the gun down." Wufei called out in a stern voice veiled with mirth, we looked over at him in surprise again. What the hell was going on?

Duo suddenly took a sharp intake of breath.

"It's her!" We hear him mutter.

"Who?"

End of Trowa/ Quatre's POV

"Serena!" A loud and bubbly voice filled the training court."

"Hmm...Duo. Uh...can you wait a sec? I'm kinda in the middle of getting myself killed." Serena stated conversationally, with mild sarcasm as she indicated Heero and his gun.

"You know that Baka?!???" Wufei asked as he too came forward.

Ignoring Duo's yell of indignation, Serena replied. "Baka? Oh, you mean Duo-kun. Yeah, I met him yesterday at this wondrous ice-cream tent."

"Hey, Wu-man! I though you never talked to weak girls." Duo queried, that was the question all the other Gundam Pilots had in mind.

Before Wufei could explain however, Serena glared holes at Duo and took aim with one of her guns. She successfully singed the end of his beloved braid. With a satisfied smile, she turned her attention back to the soldier in front of her.

"Do not make this a recreation of our first meeting, Duo." All Duo did was whimper at his braid.

Wufei, on the other hand was guffawing. "Oh, you don't know how long I've been wanting to see that happen. Thanks Serena. Now as we all can see, Serena is not weak. Well, not that weak anyway. For a girl I mean."

"Well, that was why I'm here. To practice." Serena drawled. This was a tiring game, and her arms where beginning to get cramped. God, she didn't wake up so early just for this. And to think she missed breakfast too! "That was what I was doing before your friend there classified me as too cheerful or suspicious for my own good."

"Heero, put the gun down." Wufei and Duo chorused before looking disgusted at the thought that they'd agreed on something.

Heero grunted, but hardly blinked. His gun soon disappeared as he took a closer look at the newcomer.

Serena looked relieved. She really didn't think that starting a long, long day with killing or getting killed by someone was a good idea. She too put her guns back into their holsters. Gees, the guy was hostile. If she hadn't felt so energetic, Serena would surely have broken down. After all, it wasn't everyday you had a gun pointed to your head. But then again, it was the pilots, so she'd expected the worst.

It was at this time that Quatre and Trowa felt appropriate to step forward and introduce themselves.

"My name is Quatre Winner. Sorry about our friend." The platinum blonde said as politely as ever.

"Trowa Barton. Nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you. I'm Serena Moon." Serena said courteously.

As the introductions came into an end (Heero didn't bother to say much) the five pilots went back to the courts and continued to practice. Serena moved to Wufei, where they warmed up and almost started a mock fight. Somehow though, Serena's stance was decidedly...err...off. So for the next half an hour, they practiced purely the basics; attack and defence stances and techniques. Wufei, though impatient, was a great teacher and Serena found her balance and agility improve greatly.

But the time the 7 o'clock dong went, all the occupants at the practice yard were in sweat and puffing slightly. All in all, it had been a good practice.

Half an Hour later...

Serena, freshened and cheerful, stepped out of the changing room and prepared for her first class. The pilots had left her earlier with specific instructions on how to navigate her way through the many corridors of the academy. Her uniform was ruffled and her hair slightly out of place, but other than that Serena looked ready for whatever would be presented to her.

One step at a time, Serena made her way up the grand, marble staircase and turned left. Within a few minutes she stood in front of the History of Defence class. With a deep breath she tapped the door lightly and waited for it to open. When it did, she found herself coming face to face with a stern looking woman in her forties. The grim lines of her thin lips were pulled down into a scowl and wrinkles gathered around her dark, shrewd eyes.

"And you are?"

"Serena Moon, ma'am."

The teacher looked over at her with barely disguised distain. "Alright. Welcome to History of Defence. Please take a seat next to Fuji-san."

Serena looked over at where the teacher pointed, to find an empty desk next to a small girl with blank green eyes. Moving briskly, she made her way to the desk, ignoring the sneers from the rest of the student body.

"Why do we always get the useless ones?" Somebody drawled as Serena sat stiffly.

Serena turned her icy blue yes toward the speaker, freezing his smirk with a glare.

"Don't mind them. People with no brains always seem to have big mouths." The small girl commented quietly. Serena turned to her in surprise, the girl in front of her were fragile but radiated with coldness. 'How could somebody like this survive in such a brutal school?'

"Arigatoo." Serena muttered to her neighbour, who shrugged in return. For the most of the lesson, Serena quietly read through the test book, doing her work as assigned. She ignored the occasional snicker from the rest of the class, vowing to get back at them at the practice courts.

It was hard work, but Serena was determined. Besides, this sure beat the maths homework from her old school! The rest of the lesson dragged on slowly as Serena's view of the school degraded rapidly. The teacher was sneering and unfeeling as was most of the class. Something from one of her lessons with Haruka rang clearly through her mind.

'Here, only the strong will survive. The weak shall perish.'

Serena surveyed her surroundings carefully. She looked for any signs of her impudent classmates. When she found no chase of them Serena slumped down by the tree, her composure slipping away. It had been a tiring morning and she thought that she'd just about had enough of those brats that attended the school. As it was the beginning of the term, there were plenty of new entrance students in the lower class waiting to move up. And none of them seemed too friendly.

She was at some kind of deserted garden at the back of the school. Well, it wasn't a garden exactly. There was a little green field with two large cherry blossom trees situated at the two ends of the garden. From here, the noises of the cafeteria seemed but faint buzzes, like that of annoying swarms of wasps.

Serena wondered briefly why the students were not swarming around this place like they did the rest of the school. Perhaps this was out of bounds. With a sigh, Serena pushed the thought towards the back of her mind. There were enough to worry about as it was. The sheer amount of students at this school was astounding. Who would've thought that defence schools would be so popular?

Her current class shifted constantly, from what she's heard. New students came and went. The good ones advanced quickly with the recommendations of the Professors. The unskilled stayed behind. That was how the school was, and not for the first time that day, Serena longed for companionship and imagined how much better it would be if only Lita and the outers were here.

Author's Notes: Okay, so it wasn't my best... and it's not beta-ed, but I wanted to get this out as soon as possible. I'll fix the grammar and things later. Feedbacks are welcome please refrain from flaming me. If you don't like this story feel free to stop reading anytime you wish.