Rated PG 13 for language and some adult content.

Catherine Bloom looked out the window of their traveling circus caravan at the dim grey skies and endless patter of raindrops oozing down the pane of glass. They had been traveling for two days over that land-route across the nation of Belterre adjacent to the kingdom formerly known as Sanc. Catherine had been through this country once before, while she had been traveling on Earth during 195; what she had seen had both pulled at her heartstrings and rekindled her hope in mankind. She had also met and become friends with a young woman she greatly admired; a strong leader who wasn't afraid to face death or injury if it meant that the people she protected would be safe and cared for.

"How much longer do you think it's going to rain Trowa?" Cathy inquired looking over her shoulder at her adopted little brother who was sitting at a table studiously solving a crossword.

"The weather report said that a bad storm is going to be passing through this area very soon. I think that the manager made the wrong decision to press on," Trowa said quietly, not looking up.

"Perhaps, but his reasoning is that he wants to get through this area quickly and make it to our next stop on this circuit as soon as possible. This area isn't as profitable as it once was but the stop we're journeying to has paid off well in recent years. I think it's because of the reconstruction boom," Catherine replied.

"I haven't seen any reconstruction in this place we're passing through," Trowa said abruptly. "I saw the burned out shell of a town with no sign of life yesterday from a distance as we passed but nothing that has resembled any new buildings. Is that just because we're passing through the countryside do you think?"

"Oh, this country hasn't had a reconstruction like a lot of the surrounding counties," Catherine said, feeling a little pleased that she had some relevant information to contribute to the conversation while Trowa was feeling so convivial... well, convivial for Trowa. "I don't think it has fared as well economically as its neighbors, they're probably all in those camps still."

"Camps?" Trowa inquired, jotting down another answer on his puzzle.

While he looked utterly relaxed and calm, Catherine had no doubt in her mind that he was listening to her and noting everything she said. There was no sign in his posture or countenance that betrayed it, but Trowa was suddenly all attentiveness. He didn't move to face her; he was just suddenly all stillness. Catherine had never seen someone who could stand as still as her adopted brother, one moment he'd be turning flips and the next he could be a statue carved from stone, without even the tell-tale quiver of muscles. A useful skill if someone was going to use you as a target, an equally useful skill for moving from cover to cover in a fight or moving through a darkened room.

"Oh yes, refugee camps," Catherine said brightly. "I stayed in one overnight once while you were off fighting that year. This place got hit hard with a lot of battles during and even before the wars, or so they told me. The circus was traveling this route that season and got caught in a mess of cross-fire between Treize faction members and regular OZ troops; we thought we were done for when from out of nowhere this third army pops up and start whaling on both forces ordering them to take their war away from the civilians and to get the hell out of their country. It made me feel just a little gleeful to see that. Since the circus was full of unarmed civilians we were invited inside the fortified gates of a nearby refugee camp and they shared some of their food and not only offered us a safe place to rest, but also offered to send us on our way with a guide and an armed escort to the border at no cost. The people in that camp were so very friendly, and those refugee children were so sad-looking from their big hungry eyes to their ragged clothes that the manager had us pitch the tent and put on a show for them all as a gesture of gratitude. I don't think I've ever had an audience quite that appreciative. It warms me now that I think about it."

"They probably hadn't had anything lighthearted to entertain themselves with for some time before then," was all Trowa said.

"I even got to meet the leader of the refugee army, well, it's not really an army in the traditional sense, just a lot of really scared people that banded together to try to protect themselves. She was surprisingly young; even younger than me. I still really admire her and respect her strength for doing all she managed to do."

"Hn," Trowa nodded filling in another answer. Catherine subsided into silence, thinking about the unusual young woman she had made friends with for but a short time. She turned back to staring outside the window at the empty rain-soaked landscape.

<I wonder what she's doing now, my good friend, Midii Une...>

* * *

"Thank-you again Vice Minister for taking the time to meet with us, I feel this meeting has been a step in the right direction to forging our countries bright future as one among many nations in the Earth Sphere Unified Nation," the thin frog-legged, pencil-necked official with a drooping oiled black mustache said, pumping her hand vigorously. Her bodyguard glared from his place at her side and one step behind and with a slight straightening of his spine made it clear that the man's proximity and handling of his charge was not permissible.

Relena Darlian, Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs for the Earth Sphere Unified Nation Council Board, smiled gently and extricated her hand.

"No thanks are necessary Mister DuLern," she said. "I'm simply answering an honest request for help and guidance from a valued ally in the Unified Nation. We must remember that we are all valued Allies."

She suppressed a sigh of relief when she was on the other side of the door after being escorted out by the thin official on the Nation of Belterre's Provisional Government. She hadn't spent very long in the tiny little country and already she could hardly wait to stomp the dust of it from her shoes. It wasn't a bad little place; charming countryside really, but it was right next- door to the land that had once been her kingdom back in 195. The Sanc Kingdom, bastion of pacifism and home to the Peacecraft line for generations before her. Part of her was a little sad to see the passing of an era and the ending of a history with her own refusal to retake her rightful name and throne there and her brothers steadfast angst-and-unworthiness fest that he liked to indulge in, was still indulging in. At least he had finally had the good sense to make Noin happy.

No, the Nation of Belterre wasn't the problem... perhaps its leadership was. When she had been ruling the Sanc Kingdom there had been no representative from the government of this country, simply because there had been no government. The men and women who had once proudly called themselves the leaders of this poor little country had gathered up all of their wealth and high-tailed it out of there at the first sign of trouble years before leaving the countries people high and dry and without a voice to defend them against the many armies that subsequently invaded them and turned it into one large free-for-all battlefield. It wasn't the fault of the people themselves that their leaders had abandoned them, nor was it their fault that their country was strategically placed to a number of various and very important targets in this part of the world, the Luxembourg Base, the Eastern OZ/ Alliance Headquarters, the Headquarters of the Romafeller Foundation. They were just caught in the middle of everyone else’s battles because they hadn't had any powerful allies to rush to their aid or rattle their sabers for them. That left the People of this poor nation in worse straights than her own had been, basically, anyone with sufficient force of arms could do anything they wanted to this poor country (and they had... they had) without fear of retaliation.

Now that it was peacetime all of the other countries had rebuilt everything they had lost in costly battles and were preparing for an extended period (hopefully forever) with no battles. They turned their attention to forging a new future and repairing the wounds of the past. Houses and cities were rebuilt as soldiers returned to their homes or made new ones and settled down to their deserved peaceful lives. All except for this nation. Nothing was being rebuilt, mainly because there was really no money to start with; none of the other countries were willing to extend credit to a nation that was still in economic collapse.

Their provisional government was... well, Relena hadn't been terribly impressed with them. Most of them had been hand-picked from the Romafeller Foundation, noblemen's sons with all of the right training in the theory of good leadership and economic reconstruction, but none of the actual talent for it. They had plenty of ideas, but... well, they had made a good many starts but none of their projects were ever completed. In this situation, having half of a loaf was actually worse than having none, the government made grand plans for building a city, they hired all of the best planners, got some other countries (as well as their wealthy Romafeller families) to lend them some money and then pissed away all of the funds on meaningless details like monuments, and useless parks and museums. They accomplished less than nothing because they still didn't have a place to shelter their people AND they still had to pay back the money they had borrowed... which they couldn't because they still had no money.

"So what did you think of them?" her quiet and capable Preventors-assigned bodyguard Heero Yuy inquired as they walked down the hall towards the exit of the newly-built mansion to house the Belterre Provisional Government and it council members. As usual he was alert, scanning down the hallway and into every shadow, every nook and crevice for the slightest sign of threat to his charge.

"I think," she replied tightly. "That making your son part of the head of a nation should not be tantamount to putting him in the Pony Club."

Heero gave one of his rare quiet chuckles as Relena smiled wryly. Heero paused and touched his earpiece.

"Wait," he said, holding her elbow lightly as he bent his head to listen. Finally he said

"The Demar Spaceport has been closed due to a bad storm, we've been ordered to travel with the civilian caravan along the secured route."

"Huh? Heero, what's this about a secured route? This is peacetime, there are no armies to secure a route against!" Relena was mildly offended, thinking that the honor of all of her hard work was on the line.

"It's not defended against an army per se," he replied flatly as he continued to escort her out to her limo to continue on her peace tour.

"Then what are they defending against?" she inquired.

"Reports from this area are sketchy, at best," Heero said, looking disgruntled at his frustrating lack of information. "I only have rumors to go on as any hard or official data is rare and difficult to find. There are those who say that there is a massive ring of terrorists hiding out in the old battlefields of this place. Others say that there are two forces still fighting for control over the countryside. There is a third version that says a peasant army is banding together to take control of this part of the world in retaliation for its ill treatment during the wars. Another version that says that the civilian population has nothing to do with its government and had formed an armed force of its own to overtake it as soon as it gets around to establishing itself as a way of getting revenge for the cowardice of its former leaders. All versions seem to point to there being an armed force hiding itself somewhere in Belterre’s countryside."

"Why hasn't the Preventors investigated these rumors?" Relena demanded worriedly. "That is their job isn't it?"

"Several armed forays into the countryside were sent. All of them were unsuccessful in their attempts to gather hard data."

"My God, what happened to them?" Relena asked, hand to her mouth, expecting the worst.

"They were unharmed if that is what you're worried about. But, they were unsuccessful because shortly after they made any real progress into the nations countryside they were overtaken by an unknown assailant, rendered unconscious, their weapons were stripped and dismantled with key parts taken from them to render them inoperative and the entire team and all of its equipment were left tied up but unharmed on the other side of this nations borders."

"Oh, then how is it that we were allowed to pass the borders unmolested?"

"Perhaps because you are a diplomatic envoy. I would assume that a force that is part of this nation would have a way of keeping an eye on its own leaders and the people that visit them," said Heero.

"It's pretty obvious that the government has little to do with its civilian population," Relena ruminated aloud while Heero made his usual check of the limousine and driver. No kidnapping attempts would be made the easy way while he was on watch.

"After all," she continued. "They were handpicked by strangers and I don't think even one of them comes from this country. They barely even mentioned their people except in passing, and then more of as an abstract notion. A 'yes we have a people, they're around here somewhere I'm sure well get to them later' sort of an attitude is what I picked up. It's logical that if the government isn't part of its people, then its people aren't part of the government. I would also say that they must have some other kind of leadership, perhaps an old nobleman who actually lived within the country provided some kind of protection."

"Interesting speculation... it's equally possible that it's some kind of terrorist group or religious fanatic that's taken over by sheer force of arms and is holding all of the people in forced labor camps," Heero rebutted.

"Pessimist," she grumbled. "Still, I'd like to find out just what exactly happened to the refugees and civilians that live in this country because one thing is for certain; they aren't living anywhere around here. This city that the Provisional government rebuilt as their capitol is creepy... it's like a ghost town! There's no one in it."

"Yes, I expected a landmine to go off at any minute," Heero agreed.

Relena took this to mean that Heero was reminded of an old battlefield rather than seeing just an eerily empty city. He nodded his head and opened the door to signal that his sweep was complete and that it was allowable for her to enter the vehicle, which was a relief because Relena was getting a little bored with holding her umbrella in the rain.

Once they were both situated inside her limo with her faithful Pagan at the wheel Relena turned to Heero and asked

"You said we were joining up with a civilian transport traveling along these roads, who are they? Some kind of merchant caravan or something?"

"A circus, actually," Heero said. "If we have any spare time I would not be averse to visiting an old comrade of mine."

That was as close as Relena had ever heard (or would likely ever hear) Heero say "I want something." She gladly acceded to his silent request as she said

"We have plenty of time for a visit Heero. My next appointment isn't until tomorrow anyway so that leaves us several hours at least with ample travel time included. I have no objections to a long rest for a friendly visit."

"Thank-you," he said quietly.

"My pleasure," Relena said warmly. "There's no reason why my career should rob the both of us of our social lives."

She gave him a last warm smile and settled back and closed her eyes until such a time as they caught up with the caravan. Usually she'd be going over her notes for the next meeting but since she was going to have a rare bit of free time, she indulged herself in a nap instead.

* * *

A young man in his early twenties with messy shoulder-length reddish brown hair and grey eyes walked up to a woman one or two years younger than him with long golden hair twisted into a tight French twist. She was soaked to the skin and looked more than a little tired as she wearily climbed out of the cockpit of her equally moistened mobile suit and caught the chain down to the ground. They both wore dark midnight blue cover-alls with a silver fleur-de-lis patch on the breast above a zip-pocket, although the blonde had her fleur-de-lis emblazoned on the face of shield in front of a sword. The muddied suit they stood at the foot of was obviously very well used, but distinct in that it was not painted the colors that OZ or the Sanc Kingdom or the Alliance had used (back when they had still used them). Instead the suit was a deep midnight blue under the mud and debris sticking to it with silver accents and a matching fleur-de-lis painted at the top of one arm near the shoulder.

"How did your disaster relief go Number One?" the young man asked.

"Everything is proceeding as planned. We managed to relocate and all of its civilians to higher ground before the flooding washed them away. The disaster relief teams have everything under control now that the necessary number of sand-bags has arrived, however they have requested Homeguard assistance in locating any people they might have missed in their general sweeps of the flooded areas. That's what I spent the morning doing by the way, sweeping upstream and down in my mobile suit along with my teams with that frigid water seeping into my cockpit and soaking me. That water is cold! Why couldn't it have flooded earlier in the year, like summer time? Why did it have to wait until the weather had turned so chill?"

"You should be glad it wasn't earlier," the young man pointed out. "We would have lost the harvest otherwise."

"There is that," she acknowledged. "Come on, I'd like to see if I can get at least a little warm and dry before I have to go back out there again. Much more of this and I may have to consider growing gills."

"Are the dams in place going to be adequate do you think?"

"So far, the sand-bag dams have held fine and they should continue to hold through the worst of the storm that's expected to come through this area later tonight. It would take the concentrated effort of a lot more than some water to make the walls fall. The new camp is located in 071925, and has set up adequate shelter and facilities to house and care for disaster victims in case they should be needed," Number One said.

"Here, I got you some hot spiced cider. Drink up, you look like your about to shiver yourself to pieces."

"This is good," she grunted in satisfaction, pausing to acknowledge a wave of greeting from a passing group pf women carrying supplies to go to build some necessary part of the camp and ruffling the hair of a kid as he bolted past her on some errand or game. "Has there been any word from the government on our request for aid?"

"Ye-es," the young man said, obviously hesitant to answer the question. The young blonde raised an eyebrow, turning to face him and holding position.

"Are they sending us any additional personnel to help?" she inquired carefully.

"No," the young man said.

"How about equipment? Boats, cables, winches, floats?"

"No."

"Supplies?" she inquired hopefully.

"No," he said, on the end of a sigh. "They sent a letter."

The young woman’s mouth tightened. She already knew what was likely to be in the letter, she knew she likely wasn't going to like it either.

"What does it say," she asked flatly.

"They said that they regret to inform us that they cannot spare the monetary resources from the country coffers to help with a purely local problem, and that since it has been handled quite well by the locals they see no reason why it should not continue to be so."

The young woman's hands tightened around the shaft of the pencil she had been holding until it snapped in half from the pressure. She threw the pieces to the ground in anger and immediately regretted littering and wasting a good resource.

"There's more," the young man continued. "And please don't kill the messenger."

"Go on," she said, obviously keeping a tight reign on her temper.

"They have heard rumors of an armed and armored force within the countryside of their nation and wish to serve notice to that force, whosoever they happen to be, that unless they dismantle their weapons and stand down their guard they will be persecuted to the fullest extent of the Earth Sphere Unified Nation's law regarding terrorists and armed militia. Furthermore that the leader or leaders of said group will be brought before the Unified Nation in a public trial for crimes against the state of peace in the earth sphere. The group calling itself the Homeguard has been labeled a terrorist group by the Belterre Provisional Government."

The woman stood there in utter shock for a moment, for the first time in her life she was literally speechless with shock and outrage. Her mouth worked but she couldn't seem to get a sound out. At last the moment passed.

"WHAAT?!" She roared in outrage. Even for a woman who was accustomed to bellowing out orders over the sound of a multitude of voices and other noises blended together the roar really carried. Heads snapped suddenly to look over at the source of the cry of rage in alarm, and quickly looked away. They were well aware of what she could do when angered and they didn't want to do anything to give them a tangible target for that anger.

"Calm down!" the young man said. "You don't want to alarm the bystanders. The morale in this camp is fragile enough as it is. At least get out of earshot before you go off on a tear."

The young woman made a sharp gesture for him to follow her and strode off on her heel, headed directly towards a particularly large private tent located at one end of the field with anger radiating itself from a stiffened spine and a hard purposeful stride. The area suddenly and mysteriously cleared itself of all life. There was more than one storm that the people in this camp were battening down the hatches for.

"I don't believe this!" she screamed once she batted at the tent flap behind her. She couldn't slam a door since there were no doors in this camp and slapping a piece of cloth wasn't nearly as satisfying so she began to pace furiously.

"I'd believe a lot of those panty-waisted, tea-drinking, tights-wearing, paper-shuffling, frilly-shirted, collective of incompetents trying to call themselves the government of this nation, but I can't believe this. A terrorist group! My Homeguard, a terrorist group! They wouldn't know a terrorist group if they were car-bombed by one; and right now I wish they would be. Humph, Provisional Government, ha. Those boot-licking pansies couldn't find their own asses with two hands and a map! I'm half tempted to pull all of my camps away from the route to the capitol and let the Raiders ride on past the border and straight into this country to attack them a couple of times now that they've gone to all of the trouble to making their mansions on top of the hills and their fancy museums."

Speaking of which," the young man said, seizing on the opportunity to quickly change the subject back to impending business now that his esteemed leader had blown off some steam.

"Our scouts on the border report that they have spotted Raider activity and it is precisely as we had guessed; they are tracking the civilian transport along route 79."

"Of course they are," she muttered dryly. "It's the wealthiest thing to pass through this sector in a very long time. Have you located one of the locals from the camp in this sector? I could use more information," she inquired.

"Already taken care of," he assured her with all of the confidence of one who had a given situation well within his control. "A local forester and a former highway patrolman were questioned earlier and we came away with the area that they were most likely to strike from."

"Most likely? But they're not sure?" the young woman ascertained as she zipped the top of her dark blue coveralls closed and straightened to look at the young man making his report.

"It's over an eighty-seven percent likelihood that they'll use this location because the layout f its terrain features make it a perfect match for the way the Raiders like to work."

"The perfect place for an ambush you mean," she surmised.

"Yes. The area is a bottle-neck, naturally occurring. There is a cliff-side on one side of the road and a river ravine on the other, well it was a river ravine... right up until the flood, now it's full and overflowing its banks. The road was previously covered in water up until the successful sand bagging yesterday. The waters receded due to the dams our men and the locals of this area have installed approximately three miles upstream and our road crews cleared the route of all debris this afternoon. Its safe to pass without fear of flood waters washing them away and it is the quickest route to that section of the border from the interior."

"A cliff on one side and waters that are now deep on the other with the road passing through between them you say?” she said, her voice concerned. "Show me on the map. Which direction are they likely to come from?"

They both walked over to a laminated map pinned to the top of a folding table in the tent that was large enough to hold five or six comfortably. The problem with their ineffectual government declaring Homeguard a terrorist group was temporarily forgotten in the wake of a far more pressing concern.

"They'll have the advantage in terrain," she muttered a soon as she got a clear look at the area he outlined on the topographical map with the changes the effects of the weather made on the size of the river demarcated in blue dry-erase marker.

The border was to the north a few miles away from the point they were concentrating on. There was a little spot where the land seemed to squeeze together into a bottle neck with a little road sandwiched between a cliff and a river bed ravine as if nature itself had conspired to create the perfect place for an ambush. The road passed northwest to southeast to get around the dense forests along the top of the cliff-side and hills on the northern side of the road and wide river plain at the bottom of the ravine (that was now filled to the brim with water) on the southern side of the road. The Raiders would not have to go very far out of their way to set up their people at the top of the cliff since they would have snuck across the border in the north to wait for their intended prey to come to them. Once they blocked off both ends of the road cutting off their enemies escape routes they would easily be able to move in for the kill. The only place the civilian transports would have to go would be into the river and it was moving too swiftly due to the flood to be a viable option.

"We could try to stop them before they reach the cliff-side, but that would mean trying to fight a guerilla fight in the forests. They wouldn't be able to use their mobile suits but neither would we," the young man, second in command of Homeguard said.

"No good, we'd loose way too many of our people trying to take out theirs in a one on one fight and it’s entirely too likely they would have us greatly outnumbered," she grumbled, putting her finger athwart her lips and frowning in concentration. "We can't afford to loose the personnel, especially now with this flood and these raider attacks happening all along the borders. No, it will have to be fought primarily by mobile suits; we know we can out gun them if we use both our mobile suit team and some of the suits that this cell keep here for defense of this Haven."

"If they reach the cliff overlooking the road they have a very clear advantage in terrain, trying to take them out from the roadside would be much like trying to storm the walls of a castle. They'll be expecting an attack from the forests on either side and will have prepared for it but frankly I can't see another way... not with that river to our backs. It's like forcing your enemy to fight with its back to the sea, we'd have nowhere to retreat to," he said, poring over the map alongside his nominal leader.

The young woman, Number One of the Homeguard, said nothing for a few minutes, studying the map and frowning in concentration.

"They'll be expecting us to take them from the sides parallel to the road in the forests to prevent them from reaching their ambush position at the top of the cliff," she mused aloud. She looked at the map for a moment more then abruptly turned to her second in command.

"Do we have any of those Pisces model mobile suits left or did we scavenge them for spare parts?"

"We kept them around, we've been using them to run rescue sweeps in this area during the flooding in the spots deep enough to accommodate them; other than that we've used them for harbor patrol."

"And is this ravine deep enough?" Number One perused, smiling a little predatorily. Her second in command slowly echoed her smile.

"Yes, plenty, due to the floods."

"Good. Here's what we'll do," she said decisively. "It's never a good idea to do what your enemy expects you to do so we'll give them a little surprise party. Have the Pisces suit covertly take position across from the cliff. Move additional troops into the forests beside the cliffs as well, but tell them to make certain they're not spotted and also that they are not to engage the enemy until I give the order. I'll lead the team that will add themselves under the disguise of some merchant supply carriers on the civilian caravan and travel with them for a ways. Lastly, keep local scouts covertly monitoring the movements of the raiders; when they move I want to know about it."

"Consider it done. And the strategy?"

"We'll wait for them to make their move and then bust out in overwhelming numbers from out of no where... same as always. Homeguard will protect the civilians of this nation, even if they're just passing through."

* * *

Trowa had been surprised to suddenly receive a call from his old comrade Heero Yuy telling him that he was traveling over land in the same sort of caravan as he and the circus were and asking whether it would be alright for him and his important charge Relena Darlian to meet up with them, ditch the conspicuous limo, and travel more or less undercover.

Trowa, who shared Heero's concerns about the lack of information in or around this area, readily agreed. Seeing and traveling with Heero was bringing back some of the more pleasant memories of the wars, ones that didn't actually revolve around battlefields or the circus exactly. He and the pilot of Gundam Zero One had traveled across Europe together tracking down the members of Field Marshal Noventa's family so that Heero could offer them his life to atone for his mistake. Then Trowa had housed him in this same trailer while he recovered from self-destructing. Neither of the two of tem were what anyone would call convivial... they were better known for being the quiet ones of the group in fact and it was even odds which of the two was quieter, but they understood each other. That was all that was necessary.

Relena and Catherine were a little wary of each other. Catherine had been a mixture of surprised, honored and embarrassed to be housing so great and famous a personage as Relena Darlian (THE Relena Darlian) in her trailer. Surprised because Relena was, when it came down to cases a regular woman, honored because it was THE Relena Darlian in her trailer, and embarrassed because it seemed to plain a setting for such an extraordinary person. Relena tried to tell her that everything was absolutely fine and that she thought Catherine’s trailer was pretty neat. Seeing as she'd never been in a trailer before the experience was a novel one for her.

Unfortunately the two of them didn't have much commonality as far as their backgrounds went, so after the young woman was offered tea and a snack Relena wound up going over some papers from her briefcase and Catherine read a romance novel lounging on her couch.

The two young men talked quietly about their lives since they'd parted ways the last time and then the topic switched to the country they were passing through as they compared notes (lifetimes as soldiers being hard habits to break) over what they knew.

Heero knew only about as much as the Preventors had been able to find out; that this area was hiding some kind of force that could overwhelm fully trained teams of Preventors but that it did not seem to wish overt harm to anyone nor did they seem to be openly hostile. Suspicious as he was, Heero felt that if it had been rebel group or a terrorist faction, they would not have taken the risk of leaving the Preventors alive to tell about it (not that the Preventors who'd been dumped at the border had anything to tell). Trowa replied with a mention of the information that he had heard from Catherine earlier that day, that there had at one point been an armed force in this country, back in the war of 195. Trowa didn't know if they were still around but that his sister had talked to the leader. Sensing a fat hare run right into his snare, Heero requested Catherine to come over to them and answer a few questions.

The young auburn-haired woman marked her place in her book and sat down at the table with the two ex-soldiers. Curious now, Relena joined them.

"You said that you met this leader of there's during the war, could you describe the circumstances?" Heero asked; his gaze sharp and focused as a hunting falcon.

"The circus had been traveling over land on a circuit much like this one only I think it was actually farther to the south nearer the old Sanc Kingdom," she said, looking up and off to recall the exact details of the events.

Heero nodded, filing away the detail. He gestured for her to continue.

"We were out in the middle of nowhere and for once the roads were open before us."

"For once? They hadn't been open before then?" he inquired.

"Oh, no. Up until we passed the ridge separating some wider flat plains form rockier soil there had been a lot of really long lines of refugees, strung out as far as the eye could see. I felt so bad for them, they all looked so lost and sad; I'll bet the war had taken everything they had except their lives. Well anyway, the area was mostly open fields with a lot of debris like suit parts and gun parts. There were mobile suits fighting in the distance ahead of us. There was no way to go around them and we couldn't go through them without panicking the animals and possibly risking our own lives so the manager called for a halt and we tried to cluster ourselves together so they'd see we were a civilian transport and hopefully leave us alone."

"Could you identify the two armies that were fighting?" Heero asked.

"One of them was the Treize faction and the other was some large well-established army too, like the former Alliance or OZ. I only know that it was a fight between two powerful enemies vying for supremacy and that they were holding a skirmish against each other in that area."

"How did you know that?" Heero asked.

"One of the trainers said so and he would know because he always kept up on war stuff."

"So the battle had not yet actually reached you at this point correct?"

"Yeah, that's right. It was still a little ways off; you could just see the streaks of light from their weapons and the occasional burst of an explosion. But it didn't stay that way, their skirmish traveled and soon we were right in the middle of it, caught in the cross fire I believe the saying is. I don't remember ever being quite that afraid for my life before. It was like I was this tiny little insect in the path of a monster that wouldn't notice or care if I lived or if it killed me. At least when I was held hostage by OZ my life had some value, but with this... they truly didn't care at all."

"At what point did the rebel army become involved?" Heero questioned, getting the story back on track.

"The best part!" Catherine said enthusiastically. "As I said, we were their alone on the road huddling in our trailers as the battle raged around us, death at a misfire or a mobile suit exploding overtop of us. The all of a sudden, out of nowhere, this fleet of mobile suits, all of them painted midnight blue with silver descends en masse surrounding all of us standing shoulder to shoulder with their guns out and pointing at the two armies skirmishing to either side. There was one mobile suit, it didn't look any different from the others but there was voice that trumpeted out from amplified com systems to the warring suits of the Treize Faction and OZ. The Person inside that mobile suit told those armies without a trace of fear that they and their unwanted weapons were trespassing on their territory and threatening the lives and safety of the civilians under their protection; that if they didn't want a fight on their hands that the both of them would leave immediately or face utter destruction."

"What happened?"

"The leader of the Treize Faction demanded to know whom they were facing and the blue fleet told him that they did not give their names out to pesky soldiers who had no respect for the sanctity of life or the safety innocent civilians. Oz stepped in at this point and demanded that the unknown enemy throw down their weapons and surrender for interrogation. The blue fleet replied that this territory and all of the people in it were under their protection and that if the two armies did not take their unwanted fight elsewhere they would be destroyed. They would only be given one more opportunity to leave."

"Did they?" Trowa asked, by now he was a bit caught up in the tale, for it was one he'd never heard from his sister before.

"No, not at first. They took a little more convincing. The leader of the fleet who had come to protect us then told them that if they continued to remain in the area harassing innocent refugees of their country and making large mobile nuisances of themselves that the fleet would have no choice but to execute all of the soldiers at their home bases. And they sent a screen projection against the ground of the battlefield showing that they had indeed overtaken both of their stronghold bases and were indeed holding all of their officers, support staff and mechanics hostage."

"They had overrun their command posts and were using them as leverage to get them to surrender? A dirty tactic," Heero said, but it didn't sound like it bothered him at all.

"At this point I was more concerned about the lives of my friends and family than I was about the lives of a bunch of fighters who had apparently destroyed the lands around them and left the general population to starve and fend for itself."

"So the two factions broke off and retreated to their forts?"

"For the most part," Catherine said. "A few of them became enraged and attacked the fleet that had ringed itself around us in a wall of mobile suits but the blue fleet stood their ground and came out victorious. None of us were harmed at all. I never found out what happened with the command posts of the Treize Faction and OZ but at that point I couldn't really have cared less. As for the fleets of mobile suits, they were quickly stripped of all of the weapons and rendered inoperable, and then they were tied up, thrown in the backs of jeeps and taken to the borders."

"Is that all that happened?" Heero questioned.

"No," Catherine said. "They took us back to the refugee camp they were guarding and we put on a special show for them. I also got to speak with the leader of their militia."

Heero looked surprised, then quickly asked for details about what she had noticed about the camp itself. How had it been laid out?

"Well, the first thing I remember noticing were the high walls around them and the tall watchtowers above the wall. It had a large heavy-looking gate at the entrance to the road, a lot like a medieval castle does. The refugee camp inside the walls was an actual camp, as in it had mostly tents and some cabins. It was laid out in clusters, like there were several big bon-fire pits where they heated up water to wash and cook in and near these fire-pits there were large tents for eating in and cooking in with showering and sanitary facilities on the other side. Those little public things like baths and eating tents that several people needed to use were in the center and there were ten family tents arranged around the central area. It was all very orderly... well, taken as a whole it looked a bit jumbled because there were clusters and clusters of family tents but it could have been a lot worse; the place was clean, well organized and kept under control. They treated us like guests there, it was very plain that they didn't have a lot of food to spare, they weren't starving but they weren't exactly fat either. But what they had they shared with us unstintingly. I think a good portion of those meals were those soldier foods that come packed up in bags."

"MRE's? Meals Ready to Eat?" Heero inquired.

"Yeah."

"Sounds like a military operation but you said something about family tents, could you expand on that?" Heero inquired interestedly.

"Oh sure. Ummm well, there were a lot of families there, people of all ages. Some young men and women, many of whom were in the Homeguard; but most of the camp consisted of children and the elderly. There were also women and men who were clearly not soldiers. Families of refugees that were fleeing battlefields."

"Did they say how they had come to be clustered into the camp?"

"Yes, I hung around and heard some of their stories and they said almost universally the same thing; that they had lost their homes and some lost their families when one or two of the armies fighting each other that year or one of the years before it plowed through creating wanton destruction in their wake without a thought to the lives they were ruining. That they had traveled from place to place looking for someplace peaceful to settle down and every place they went to a new battle sprung up and it seemed worse than the last. Finally they had either joined up with or been rescued and taken in by a group called the Homeguard in this kingdom. The Homeguard created a place for them that they could call home and all they asked in return as that they look out for each other and help within the camp."

"What did they mean by help out?" Heero inquired. "Forced labor?"

"Well, no one was forcing them to do anything, they were free to leave at any time but no one I talked to wanted to. They had order in the middle of chaos for the first time in a very long time for them. They were being fed and cared for when before they'd been hungry and on their own. They had people who were looking out for them, protecting them all in exchange for just their help in keeping the camp running smoothly; doing dishes, laundry, cleaning, mending, repairs, building on the walls and the gate around the camp and keeping that in repair. All of the necessary chores were on a schedule and each fire-group, which the little boy told me was usually about ten families large unless a sudden influx came pouring in, was assigned a duty roster for a week and the chores changed every week. There was an over-all person in charge of the camp called a Coordinator and there were sub-coordinators under him who took care of a specific fire-group, mediated inter-family disputes and generally tried to keep things going as smooth as possible."

"And these Coordinators were part of the militia?" Heero inquired.

"No, the Homeguard was different from them. They seemed to kind of work together but for the most part they were two different things. She said that it was the responsibility of Homeguard to protect the people from outside armies but that they were capable of running their own affairs to their liking, she had enough to do without trying to take on the running of around fifty or sixty refugee camps as well."

"You said you spoke to their leader, do you mean the Coordinator of the camp or the leader of that military group... Homeguard was it?"

"Yes. And I talked to the leader of Homeguard, the Coordinator was busy."

"What was he like?" Heero pursued.

"She, it was a girl."

"What was she like?"

"Well, we got along great actually. She wasn't what I would expect from someone who'd done all she managed to do. I would have thought she'd be moody and taciturn or a tyrant but she was actually pretty nice once she got over her suspicion of you. Oh, and she was young. I mentioned it to Trowa, but she was younger than me, about your age actually."

"Did she give a name?"

"Yeah, but it took me some doing to get it out of her and she only gave it to me as a symbol of her trust so I'd rather not give it out. Everyone just called her Number One."

"Number One huh," Heero muttered. "Could you give a description?"

"Why do you want to know?" Catherine asked with a tinge of suspicion.

"She's the leader of an armed force, one that might still be armed when the disarmament of the Earth Sphere is going on. It falls within my job jurisdiction to find out all I can about her, in case she becomes a threat."

Catherine blinked then cocked her head to one side.

"You wouldn't say that if you knew her," Cathy said. "Neither Number One nor Homeguard have any interest at all in taking weapons outside their borders. In fact, they don't want any weapons inside their borders."

"Is that so?"

"Yes that's so. Homeguard was started solely as a campaign to get rid of all of the armies that were traipsing through their countryside destroying everything within their path, wreaking havoc on the economy and creating long lines of refugees which were promptly ignored or placed in danger by those uncaring armies. Its one and only mission is to protect the civilians in Belterre and that's straight from the horse’s mouth so to speak."

"Protect the civilians? There are no more armies anywhere in the Earthsphere Unified Nation, so why do they insist on attacking Preventors teams sent to investigate rumors of an armed force?" Heero demanded, taken a little aback that a woman who professed to hate war so vehemently was taking the side of a person who was continuing to maintain armaments in peacetime.

"I don't know for certain, but if I were going to guess... were they armed?"

"They did carry weapons for the purposes of destroying any weapons bunkers they came across, yes," Heero admitted.

"Then there's your answer. Homeguard is against any outside weapons being brought into their nation. The Preventors brought in weapons so they simply followed their standard procedure and dismantled those weapons and escorted them to the border. They don't want to harm anyone really; they just want to make sure their people are safe."

"Pacifism enforced by cudgel," Relena said, speaking for the first time. "Noin would certainly have approved."

Heero didn't look pleased with the reminder, and he knew that Relena was making a reminder, a very diplomatic reminder, that he himself should examine his own motives and actions before hunting anyone else down for theirs.

"I think I would like to meet this Number One of yours Miss Bloom," Relena said after a pause. "She sounds like someone I could talk to, someone who has a better handle on this country and its people than that Provisional Government of theirs."

"Everyone adored her," Catherine said with a small smile. "I guess you would actually have to see it to believe it, but she acts as if the refugees in those camps and the men and women who fight beside her in Homeguard were her own next of kin, or like a queen with an almost personal relationship with her people. They loved her, respected her, admired her; sort of treated her like part mascot, part beloved comrade. I think it was because everyone knew that there was nothing she wouldn't do for them, no risk she wouldn't take on or pain she wouldn't suffer if it meant she could best serve her people."

"A martyr," Heero stated.

"A woman who cared deeply about the suffering of her countrymen and her family," Catherine replied. "I asked her once, why she tried so hard and risked so much for people she didn't know and she told me that by protecting Belterre, she's protecting her home and that by sheltering her people, so too she shelters her family. And really, what other choice did they have? Their leaders had abandoned them long ago, their economy was in collapse, there were about five different kinds of army running amuck in their country... all they had was each other. I think it's good that such a kind and caring leader came to the fore to bring them together; it could have been far worse!"

"I suppose that's true, but we still don't know what her motives are," Heero said.

"Weren't you listening? Number One only wants to protect her people," Catherine said in exasperation.

"What Heero means is that we don't actually know what she's like. We don't know what her capabilities are or what she might do if she was backed far enough into a corner," Trowa said, trying to soothe the hackles that had been raised in his elder sister. Catherine could be a true holy terror when someone was threatening someone she cared about, and for whatever the reason Catherine cared about this Number One.

"I know from experience that if a person, even a kind and caring one, is pushed far enough they're capable of about anything," Trowa said. "You say she wants to protect her people and that is likely very true, however, we don't know that she won’t lash out and attack if she feels her people are threatened enough. It can't be risked, especially if she is in command of an armed force."

Catherine subsided, but looked worried and unhappy.

"Is there a way we could arrange to meet this Number One? Or get her to meet with the Preventors?"

Catherine looked reluctant to say anything, and it was clear by the look on her face that she did have a way to get in touch with the militia leader but that she was uncertain whether she should or not. Finally after a long pause she said

"She left me a way to get in touch with her if I should ever need her again, but last I knew she was hard to get a hold of. As the leader of Homeguard she travels all over the country visiting different cells and refugee camps to take care of whatever major crisis or battle had sprung up nearby. So last I knew she was always on the move. Even if I did get in touch with her, it would probably be a while before we get any sort of reply."

"Could you get her to meet with Lady Une? Or a team of Preventors?" Heero pursued. He was a regular hound on a scent.

"I don't know. Maybe. It would depend on how great a risk she felt the meeting presented. They'd probably have to promise to meet with her unarmed and also promise that they meant her and the people she protected no harm."

Further speculation was brought up short by a sudden jarring stop. The four people occupying the trailer grabbed the nearest bolted-down object the steady themselves against the jerk of inertia. They looked outside the window, to their right was a cliff face that sloped outwards a bit right next to the road and out their left window was a wide muddy river that flowed quickly past. There wasn't much margin for maneuver on either side, only just enough on the road and with vehicles the size of the ones they were traveling in turning around would be difficult.

"What do you think happened?" Relena wondered, trying to look ahead of her through the window to no avail. They were surrounded fore and back by the other vehicles in their caravan.

"It's probably just a piece of debris on the road or the path washed out. There has been some bad flooding in this area or so the weather report said was likely," Catherine said brightly.

"Stay here," Trowa said, standing up. "I'll go check it out."

He opened the door to the trailer and stepped down, looking around him.

The day was dim, grey and overcast, the wind that blew through his hair and clothing was chill with a hint of frost in the air as a promise of things to come. Off in the distance he could see great black storm clouds menacing. More importantly, up in front of him he could see a group of ill-kempt looking men, most of them standing on the road before the lead vehicle in their caravan, blocking the path ahead. There was a single large jeep behind them and Trowa would have bet his Gundam (if he'd still had his Gundam) that that jeep was holding a mobile suit. Out of the woods behind the cliff ranging themselves along the edge of the cliff more of the men appeared some of whom rappelled down to block of their last exit route.

An ambush. There was no way out except for the river, and that clearly wasn't an option. The current was too swift to make an escape route and if they tried they'd make themselves into proverbial sitting ducks. They were well and truly caught.

"You know the drill," one of the men, possibly the ringleader, called from up front. "Everybody out of their trailers with their hands in the air and hand over anything you have of value. Failure to do so will result in us pushing your trailer into the river and seeing what comes floating to the top."

Trowa backed back into the trailer he shared with his sister to meet the worried eyes of two women, and the grim eyes of his comrade in arms.

"Raiders," Trowa said succinctly.

"Do we have any weapons?" Heero asked, looking around the homely interior of the trailer for some high level artillery that his host was well known for.

"Just handguns. They may have a mobile suit or some kind of missile launcher in their jeep."

"Their numbers?"

"I counted thirty on the cliff top and there may be more hiding in the woods. We are surrounded on three sides with no where to retreat but the water. The current is swift and if we try to float on it we'll be making ourselves a target for the snipers on the cliff."

"Its a good thing we got rid of the limo then, something like that would have marked us as entirely too conspicuous," Heero said, running over plans and scenarios in his head, much the same way as Trowa was doing currently.