Chapter One

Chapter One

Hilde walked quickly down the corridor, head down; books folded in her arms and hugged tightly to her chest.

"Hilde! Hilde!" the girl behind her called as she raced to catch up.

The girl reached her door and turned around, brushing her dark blue bangs out of her eyes.

"What is it, Sarah?" she sighed.

"I need help with my maths work. Can you help me? Please?" Sarah whined.

"Not tonight, Sarah, I'm really tired."

"Geez, what do you guys do in those special classes? Is it like boot camp or something?" Sarah laughed.

Hilde attempted a grin, and failed miserably.

"Yeah, look, I gotta go. Night!" she bolted inside the room she shared with four other girls and leaned her hot head against the cool wood. "If you only knew." she whispered.

As she flopped onto her bed, her roommates trickled in through the now open doorway, as close to exhaustion as she. Relena Peacecraft, her long honey coloured hair lifeless and her sapphire blue eyes drooping with tiredness gracefully collapsed onto her bed. Catherine Bloom, her arm muscles so used to throwing knives in the circus, now failed to lift them as she fell onto her bed, her short, dark brown bouncy hair floating about her face. Dorothy Catalonia, her long blonde hair cascading like a waterfall down her back and her sky blue eyes practically shut, groaned and dumped her body on the bed. The last through the door, Sally Po, shut the door behind her and leaned on it, sighing deeply. Her mousy brown pigtails were undone, and her hair settled on her shoulders as she closed her eyes as she leant back. She dragged herself over to her own bed and lay there, trying desperately to work up the energy to get ready for bed.

These girls were Hilde's best friends and comrades-in-arms. Since the Mariemaia Incident, five years ago, the girls had managed to meet up and had become good friends. Then two years ago, Relena had been deposed from her position as Vice Foreign Minister and painted as a traitor to the ESUN by the grandson of Duke Dermail, Thomas Du Lac. His new regime, named the Dermail Movement, had slowly taken over the ESUN, and Relena had been forced to go on the run as a bounty had been placed on her head. When her best friends heard about this, they immediately went with her, providing comfort that she desperately needed. When Lady Une told found them, she offered them a way out. Although the Gundams had been destroyed after the Mariemaia Incident, Lady Une had commissioned new, smaller gundam suits, especially for them. These battle suits were almost ready, and the girls had been in training for the past two years, in secret. After all, Relena had worked hard for peace between the colonies and earth, finally achieving what both of her fathers had never managed to do. As a pilot, she could protect the peace that she worked so hard for.

"Remind me again why we are doing this?" Sally's voice came from the direction of her bed.

"For peace." Relena replied, yawning.

"Well, do we have to be worked to death? Because if we're dead, we can't fight for anything, let alone peace!" Cathy quipped, rolling over to see the others.

"I suppose Une thinks it best to kill us now. It'll give Mr Du Lac a chance!" Dorothy said seriously. The girls were silent for a moment, and as one, burst into giggles.

Tap, tap, tap. The door opened and light shone on the figure hunched over a computer screen, their fingers flying over the keyboard. The person who stepped into the open doorway spoke.

"Heero, aren't you coming for something to eat? You've been at that computer for hours, you need food or you'll be ill."

Cobalt blue eyes didn't move from the endless search of the screen, the dark brown haired head slightly moving backwards and forwards as the owner's eyes searched.

"I'm fine, Quatre." Heero replied in his usual monotone.

Quatre switched the light on as he walked into the sparsely furnished room, casting a critical dark blue eye around and noting the single table, single chair, computer, and single bed. His platinum blond hair shimmered in the light as he bent to lean on the back of Heero's chair.

"Have you found them?" Another boy asked, as he walked into the room, a single green eye visible underneath his long, mid-brown bangs.

"Not yet." Heero replied, coldly.

"I don't get it." The speaker strode across the room, his long brown braid swinging behind him. His violet eyes would have shot sparks if they could.

"One minute, they're OK, and we can find them whenever we need to. The next, they've disappeared so well that even Heero can't find them!"

"Either something's happened to them, or they don't want to be found. It's as simple as that Duo." A Chinese boy said as he walked silently into the room. His black hair was pulled back into a ponytail at the back of his head, and his black eyes scanned the boys who faced him as he arrived. "Since it is highly unlikely that any of them would have been taken without a major fight, the question is, why don't they want to be found?"

"But who do you think could have covered their tracks so well?" Quatre asked, his usually calm countenance twisting into an uncharacteristic frown. "Trowa, could Catherine have-"

"No way. Cathy doesn't have the skill." Trowa interrupted, closing his eyes as he leaned against the wall and folded his arms.

"Sally does." Wufei said.

"Do you think she has?" Duo asked, looking worried.

"She could have done, but if she had, I would spot her marks all over the cover up. She's not this good. I don't know, it's been a long time. Perhaps."

"What makes you so certain that they are all together, anyway, Heero?" Duo asked.

There was no answer from him as he impassively watched the computer screen.

"Heero?" Quatre sighed. "Well don't you think that it's just a bit mysterious, Duo? All five disappear on the same day. We could find them when they were on the run, so where have they gone? It doesn't make any sense, but you can bet that they are together, wherever they are." Silence followed his speech. Then, a low chuckle filled the room.

"I've found them." Heero said, switching off his computer.

"Where are they?" Trowa asked, rousing from his nonchalant position against the wall.

"Earth. Just north of London." Heero responded, putting on his jacket. "I'm going to find a shuttle that will take us to Earth."

"I'll do that, it'll give me something to do." Duo said, and bounced out of the room.

"Are we going to enrol?" Quatre queried.

"We have to get inside the college. If it means going undercover, so be it. The girl's lives are depending on it." Trowa said, his voice serious.

"Do you think they know how dangerous it is?" asked Wufei.

"Hn." Heero said, his impassive mask slipping into place as he looked out of the window onto the world of L1 colony below.