Penname: Lady Lye

Isabel, Kyla, Estelle, Raisa and Andria stood in a row before Madam Anthony. They were the cavernous basement that echoed ominously with every little noise. They stood at attention, waiting for her to address them.

“Girls, I cannot tell you how proud I am of you, for what you have become. Or how glad I am that it has come down to you five,” Madam Anthony smiled at them. “You have of course kept up with recent events, yes?” they nodded. “Then I need not tell you where your mission will take you. Instead, I present to you, the Gundame,” as she spoke, lights came on all around the huge basement.

The girls were awed and gasped. Before them were five huge mobile suits. One for each of them.

“Dame Addison,” Madam Anthony wasn’t finished.

Kyla snapped back to attention. “Yes, madam?”

“Take Gundame Thistle Wing.”

“Yes, ma’am!” Kyla knew which was hers- she ran up to it, her heart soaring. Hers was a white suit splashed with purple- the purple of the thistle, edged in green and black. As she slipped into her seat and strapped herself in, she flicked on the switches, impressed by her artillery. “Beware the thistle, indeed!”

“Dame Brownlow,”

“yes, madam,” Estelle saluted.

“Take Gundame Final Kiss.”

Estelle gasped in joy. “Yes, ma’am!” She too, ran to her gundame. It featured red, white and blue as it’s decoration. It’s weaponry’s specialty consisted of several rows of miniature laser cannons, one on top of the other. She immediately saw their use- Fire one row at a time in sucession, giving the rest ample time to prepare for the next shot. “No worries with this!”

“Dame Halcon,”

“Si, madam!” Isabel said proudly.

“Take Gundame Bloodied Thorn.”

“Si!” Isabel practically flew to her MS. Red adorned it beautifully, somehow managing to give the impression that it was blood dripping from- A very, very, large canon capable of putting out a laser shaped, and that would work as, a drill. “Caliente!”

“Dame Kobiak,”

“Yes, madam,” Raisa was able to keep herself contained.

“Take Gundame Whisper War.”

“With pleasure!” She ran to the gundame, climbing in happily. “Hmm… excellent protection…” she was equipped with a shield such as the one that the Mercurius had used.

“Dame Ntengi,” (AN: This is pronounced In-ten-gee, ok? She had a great grand uncle who was, I dunno, Zulu or something… I’ll have to look into that.)

“Yes, madam,” Andria was the only one left. Her breath came quickly.

“Take Gundame Jungle Orb.”

“Yes, ma’am!” Andria replied, and ran to her gundame. “Wicked!” she exclaimed, finding that she had a whip-like laser capable of taking out, form the looks of it, several other MS’s at once.

“You have your suits- get to know them. You have one hour to do so, then you have another two hours to pack and say your good byes. You leave at sunset.”

__________________________________

The courtyard was full of the girls of the school, wishing good luck, crying, saying ‘I’ll miss you’s and ‘Good luck’s and ‘Make us proud’s. The Dames replyed in turn, hugging and crying a little as they said goodbye, their things already downstairs in their Dames, which were to be carted to a safer location via an underground tunnel that evening.

Andria searched the crowd again. Heero was tall- why couldn’t she find him? Finally, she noticed him sulking under a tree along the wall that already in deep shadows as the sun set. She made her way over to him, and stood there, silently.

“You leave tonight, then?”

“Yeah.” Silence stretched between them. “I- I probably won’t ever be back here, so you’re free to go with your friends.”

“I feel guilty though,” he looked away.

“Heero-“ she took his hand. Ever since they had first met and become friends, she had tried her best to help free his pent-up soul. He had never told her why he was the way that he was, but she had done her best to make him more human. Now he was cold again. She looked into his eyes. Behind the mask was sadness. “What are you really upset about?”

“I feel like- like I’ve dropped one set of friends to find others- and now I’m dropping them to go back to my first ones,” he said ashamedly.

“Oh, Heero,” she put a hand on his cheek, making him look at her. “You’re not. When you make friends, they’re for life. Those boys are still your friends and they probably always will be. And WE are your friends as well,” she said firmly. “The other girls would agree with me. We won’t be giving up on you that easily, Heero Yuy. We’ll meet again, I know it.”

“Andria…” he didn’t quite know what to say.

“Yo, we’ve got to get going!” Raisa called. They broke apart.

“Whatever else happens- always friends, ok?” Andria said, walking backwards so she could always have this image in her mind.

“Always.”

__________________________________

Heero watched the sunset from his window, able to hear the rumblings of the trucks below the Keep. He stared at the sky for a long time, even after the sun had long since disappeared. Finally, the sounds of the pulley working brought him out of his reverie. He opened the window and went to get his bag with all his things. It wasn’t much bigger than it had been three years ago.

Trowa slipped inside. (AN: don’t ask me how they get from the woods to the roof and back again. I don’t know. They don’t tell me these things. If they did, I would write about them, but my precious GW boys don’t seem to want this crazy author knowing all their tricks *sigh*.). Her kept one hand firmly gripping the rope, not wanting to Duo to get anymore crazy ideas. “So?”

“I’m coming,” Heero said, slinging the bag over his shoulder.

“You’re sure?”

“Yeah.”

__________________________________

Relena Darlian-Peacecraft stared mournfully out the tall windows of her office. Ever since that day when she had first seen Heero washed up on the beach, she hadn’t been able to stop thinking about him. And ever since that day, life had stopped being simple. For a while, she had almost been able to forget about him… but the she would see something or hear someone speak, and be reminded of him. She wished Quatre hadn’t told her that they were thinking of looking for him.

The phone rang. Absently, she picked up. “Hello?”

“Ms Relena,” Hilde’s voice said. “I’ve just received a message requesting you to meet with a Madam Anthony?”

The Dames had taken seats in a large mini van. They exchanged excited looks as the car drove out of the tunnel and onto a highway, the Gundames following in large trucks.

Only Andria stared back the way they had come. ‘Heero… I’m going to miss you…’

---

n Quatre’s private jet (AN: you know he has one. He has to have one. All rich people have them.):

“So where’re we going?” Duo asked, munching on some junk food.

“You’re dropping crumbs,” Quatre said, irritated.

“Well pardon me, your highness. Don’t you have an army of servants to clean ‘em up?” Duo said.

“That’s not the point, Duo!”

“We’ve spent the last three years keeping Duo from seriously being injured, or from injuring anyone else,” Wufei told Heero, who nodded solemnly.

“So?” Duo asked again.

“So what?” Quatre’s nerves had frayed a bit over the last few years… Duo day in and day out… it could become very stressful on a young heir.

“Buttons!” Duo cracked up at his own joke. The others stared at him, Quatre angry that his nice jet was getting greasy crumbs all over it. “Fine then. Don’t laugh. So where are we going?”

“Anywhere without Relena,” Heero said quietly.

“Without Relena?” Trowa asked.

“She’s been the most worried of all,” Quatre said.

“I don’t think I could face her right now.”

Duo stared hard at Heero’s face. He fell backwards, mock gasping. “Heero! You have- a HEART!”

Heero gave him one of his patented death glares.

“You know we never got an answer as to why you were there with all those women…” Wufei said.

“Yeah…” the others agreed.

“Oh no…” A thought occurred to Heero. “Their mission- is to help Relena!”

“Whose mission?”

“Those girls! Their mission is to help Relena- they just left to do it!” Heero stomach was sinking, and very quickly. This was a new sensation for him.

“Hey, then, you’re screwed, man,” Duo said heartily, slapping him on the back. “Welcome to the world of love!”

Death glare. “You’re not helping, Duo.”

“Well…” Quatre quickly pulled out a laptop to do some fast emailing. “Relena’s situated in Europe so… We have a house in Australia we could go to.”

“Next stop- The Land Down Under!” Duo said triumphantly, bad Aussie accent included.

__________________________________

Relena entered the room where she had agreed to meet this- Madam Anthony. She was taken aback to find Madam Anthony accompanied by five girls of about Relena’s age.

“Good afternoon, Ms. Darlian,” Madam Anthony said.

“Good afternoon- I take it you are Madam Anthony,” Relena said carefully. ‘Is this her guard?’

Madam Anthony correctly interpreted Relena’s wary look. “They are not my guard, Ms. Darlian. They are yours.”

“I beg your pardon?” Relena gasped.

“I know that you will not remember me, but I remember you from when you were very young,” Madam Anthony said. “And I’ve watched you grow up from afar. Relena, I believe that you have a gift for dealing with people (AN: I’m ignoring the snorts from all those people who think Heero hates Relena. I have no opinion as to this just yet… I’m developing one.). My gift to you, is five expertly trained MS pilots, ready to assist you in any way.”

Relena stared at Madam Anthony as though she was crazy. “You must be joking. I can’t have a personal guard like this!” she exclaimed. “It would go against everything I’ve tried so hard to work for! It would be seen as militaristic- I’d be a hypocrite!”

“Be that as it may, they’re yours to command. Good-bye Ms. Darlian,” Madam Anthony brushed past her and out the door.

Relena stared after her in shock, quickly followed by anger. She was just about to have that crazy woman arrested when-

“Please- Ms. Darlian?” one of the girls said.

Relena turned, she had forgotten they were there. “Yes?” she responded without thinking.

“Please, it’s not the Madam’s fault,” Kyla had stepped forward, her voice imploring. “She- she does things that don’t ever make sense when she does them, and you hate her for them, but then later you look back and you see that it was all for the best. We never wanted to cause trouble for you, we five truly do believe in aiding you. We agree that you have the heart to do what needs to be done. And it would be a great honor to us if you would let us help you to do so.”

Relena’s heart softened. What was she to say to that? Kyla’s eyes were so hopeful. She looked at each of the girls helplessly.

“I have an idea,” Raisa said.

“So?” They all looked to her. “What are you waiting for?” Kyla said. “Just because we’re out of the Keep you think we’re going to be formal all of a sudden? Just tell us!”

Raisa smiled. Their little friend Kyla always spoke her mind. “We don’t have to publicly be guards or a private miniature army or anything like that. We can simply be a new addition to your party. No one would ever know we were the pilots of the Gundame.”

Relena frowned at the girl’s pronunciation. “I like the sound of that- I would feel better- but where did you get Gundams?”

“Not Gundams.” Isabel said. “Gundame.”

__________________________________

One week later:

Relena sighed contentedly and settled into the lawn chair. Estelle has convinced her it was much healthier to move her laptop outside where they could all relax. Of course, all work and no play wasn’t good either. Relena felt more relaxed than she had in weeks. She was becoming fast friends with the Dames, and they had taken over a lot of duties that just Relena and Hilde hadn’t been able to take care of all on their own. Yes, life was good again. Life was simple…

“Relena!” Hilde’s voice came from the laptop.

Relena shot it an angry glance. It could wait…

“Relena don’t ignore me! I have good news!” Relena grudgingly pulled it over. “It seems Heero Yuy has spent the last week at the Winner residence outside Sydney-“

Heero Yuy… Reality came crashing back. Relena stared into space, having lost it as soon as she heard the name. Hilde’s worried calls brought her back to the present.

“Wait a second- at the Winner residence? Is Quatre there?”

“yes, ma’am-“

“Then why the hell hasn’t he called me?! I thought we agreed that we would let each other know whatever we found out about! Get me a flight to Australia- I’m going to go give that Winner boy a pieve of my mind!”

“Ms. Relena?” Hilde looked a little frightened now.

“Just do it!” Relena closed up the laptop, getting ready to bring it inside.

“Relena?” Andria and Isabel were staring at her.

“We’re going to Sydney.” She said shortly, packing up her things. “We leave immediately.

The Dames exchanged glances. What could possibly be up with her?