I knew people would not agree with my ideals. I knew people would not agree with my decisions. I knew that. I guess I didn't think they'd be as stubborn as me. When I stopped the manufacterization of mobile suits and mobile dolls, I decided not to destroy the remaining suits. There were several thousand mobile suits left, and only about a hundred mobile dolls. They never really got off the ground; too many people didn't want to take the soldiers out of the battle.

The Romafeller Foundation hadn't even gotten a chance to move against me when members of my own organization did. They commandeered the remaining mobile suits and mobile dolls before anyone knew what hit us. OZ members calling themselves the 'Treize Faction,' moved simultaneously with no official communications, meaning they bound together through private communication consoles. No one outside of their operation was informed of it until after it happened.

"They must have been planning for this possibility for months to have moved so quickly," Milliardo said, looking over my shoulder from where he stood behind me. The computer console we looked at said roughly 7,000 mobile suits and 128 mobile dolls were now in the possession of the Treize Faction. And OZ had none left. None. Because I stopped the production.

I scrolled down the screen. I had only been in office for 18 hours, and everything had already fallen apart.

"What could they possibly want?" I asked looking at Milliardo and then turning to Noin who stood at my other side. "It can't be world domination, that doesn't make any sense. They haven't touched any of the mobile suit plants, I could easily begin to make them again. If they want to rule the world, you would think they'd want to destroy any attempts to stop them."

Noin and my brother were silent.

"And what's with their name anyway? Treize is the one who picked Lena in the first place!" Duo shouted from where he sat. He was sitting in one of the chairs opposite of my desk with his feet propped up near my computer.

The door of my new office creaked open. Milliardo, Miss Noin, Duo and myself all turned to look at the new comer. A woman wearing a deep blue dress and shoulder length brown hair entered with one of Duo's Gundam pilot friends, Trowa, I think his name is.

"They fought not for OZ, but for Mister Treize," the woman said. "It's possible that they want him to be reinstated."

"Loyally to their leader," Milliardo mused, "Like in the revolutions of the AD centuries. Some fought for new order like we do, and other fought for their leader."

"Like the Treize Faction," Noin said. (Sometimes I get that funny feeling that she wants to start a Milliardo Faction, but I degrees.)

"Okay, we have a possible motive, so now we have to make a plan of action," I said, confident.

"How long would it take to get the mobile suit manufacturing back on line? We could fight them-"

"NO!" All eyes turned to me. "I will not send troops into battle, I will not back down from my principals. I stopped mobile suit production and I will not start it again. All that would be is telling Romafeller and the Treize Faction that they are right, that the only way to stop a conflict is violence. I cannot in good conscience allow that."

Everyone was silent for a moment.

"So don't send out any orders," Duo said with a shrug. Then he grinned. "In a few more days, the docs will have finished rebuilding Deathscythe. Shinigami will once again return from Hell and kick their asses!"

"Why does your Gundam have to be rebuilt? It was fine a few weeks ago, in France," I said.

"Yeah, well, Trowa over here kinda blew the thing up. I got captured by OZ a while ago, back when they were eeeeevil. They wanted to kill me or something at dawn, but got some order to transport me to another holding block. Trowa blew up Deathscythe as a test or something, at least that's what he said. I was stuck there for a while until Wufei got caught, too. Trowa gave us a message from the Docs who built the Gundams, they were makin' us new ones, but aren't done yet. And then Psycho-Quatre busted us out. Not on purpose, but he got the Ozzies out of our way. Me an' Wu-man hitched a ride on a carrier while Trowa covered our escape. Since then I've hiding out on L2 with Hilde between missions and using the one that ole-what's-his-name tried to detonate on a mission, but I can't ever get used to one of it's functions."

"What does it do?" I asked.

"It turns into a bird/plane thing and flies around like a shuttle," Duo said. "Kinda weird for a mobile suit, that's all."

"How many Gundams are there?" Milliardo asked.

"Four pilots, five suits," Duo said. "Well, five once Deathscythe and Senlong are finished, anyway."

"No, Duo," Trowa said, "there are more."

"What?" Duo almost exploded.

"OZ had the docters construct two more suits superior to the Gundams when Treize was in control."

"Please tell me the Treize Faction doesn't have those," I said, massaging my sinuses with my thumb and forefinger.

"It was a little known project," the woman said, "the VayEight and Mercurious are still in our possession. Mister Treize also was over seeing the construction of two more advanced suits, the Tallgeese II and Epyon."

"So," Trowa said, "the Gundam pilots and our associates have 11 superior suits."

"11?" Duo exclaimed. "That's almost three Gundams per pilot!"

"Rudimentary math skills, I'm impressed, Maxwell." I smacked my brother for that comment, so much for pacifism.

"How did we go from no suits to 11 in such a short amount of time?" I asked.

"Duo will have two suits once Deathscythe Hell is completed. That suit and Wing Gundam, the one that has a bird function. I am in possession of Heavyarms, VayEight and Mercurious, Quatre has Sandrock Kai and Wing Zero, Wufei will soon have Senlong Kai, so that's eight. Zechs," Trowa nodded towards my brother, "has Tallgeese, that's nine. Treize's two suits make eleven."

"Will Treize even be willing to fight against a faction that battles for his ideals?" I asked.

"He will," the woman said.

I looked at her. I couldn't shake the feeling that I knew her. I think she knew that I recognized her by the way she looked at me.

"Have we met?" I asked her softly, as my brother, Duo and Trowa divvied up the mobile suits.

"I don't believe so, Miss Peacecraft," she answered in that quiet, kind voice of hers. Satisfied, I nodded.

"We've got a plan," my brother said, tapping me on the shoulder to get my attention. I turned to him with a raised eyebrow.

"Duo and Hilde, Trowa and Wufei, Quatre and some of the Maganoc Corp members, myself and Noin, and Treize and Miss Une will be stationed in those pairs, each one with a Gundam, except for the Maganocs, throughout the Earth and colonies to stop the Treize Faction when they appear. The closest team will strike until we wear them down."

I shook my head. "But they have so many more people than us," I began, but Trowa cut me off.

"They don't all attack at once, so the numbers will not be a problem."

"I still don't like this," I said.

"Look, Lena," Duo said, "none of us work for you an' OZ anymore, 'cept for Trowa, an' he's been a double agent the whole time anyway, soooooo we can operate without you, so OZ's new order thing won't be affected at all. We're not under your orders, so you still got that whole 'peace' thing, and we get rid of the Treize Faction. Easy."

I sighed. No better plans were going to come up. My ideals of pacifism and talking your problems out won't work if I can't get face to face with the opposing faction. "So who gets what suit?"

"Duo will use Deathscythe Hell, Hilde will use Wing Gundam, assuming she's willing. Zechs will pilot Wing Zero, as he's one of the few people we're confidant can use the system, and turn Tallgeese over to Miss Noin. Treize will use Epyon and she'll," Trowa nodded to the woman, "pilot Tallgeese II. I will of course use Heavyarms and Wufei will pilot Shenlon Kai. Quatre will use Sandrock Kai and the remaining suits, the Mercurious and VayEight will be assigned to members of the Maganoc Corp."

"So everyone is going to off to fight again," I murmured, "leaving me here to preach pacifism. We're not any different from the old order of OZ; lying to the pubic, trying to make ourselves look so wonderful so that the pathetic little public will just eat up every word I say." Silence greeted me. I cast a glance around the room, daring anyone to speak. No one did; they saw the same ironies that I did; fighting, killing, destroying in the name of justice and peace. I stood up, pushing my chair away and stalked towards the door.

"While your at it," I spat sarcastically, referring to their plan, "why don't you kill a few civilians as well." With that I left my office, slamming the door behind me.

Once upon a time, pacifism made sense to me, it seemed so clear; if no one fought, there would be no wars, no mass destruction and death, no tearing apart of families when members believed different things. But wars were a part of human nature, an undeniable part of all people. Political smiles and jargon aren't going to suddenly make people believe the same thing. Maybe the only way to make someone believe what you want them to do is to force them, place fear in their hearts.

As I pondered these thoughts, tears streamed down my face. Was peace just an unattainable dream? With my knees drawn up to my chest, I sat in the rose garden Treize had planted in the courtyard of OZ headquarters. I don't know what to believe anymore, and I don't have anyone to turn to. I'm fifteen, damn it, I can't control the world's military. All my ideals were falling apart, this was what Romafeller wanted, this is why they allowed Treize to choose me as his replacement.

"You are a very foolish person," an unfamiliar and slightly amused voice said from behind me. "Miss Relena," she added after a pause. I didn't bother to wipe my eyes and turned my head to look. It was the girl from yesterday, only this time, she didn't look so angry. She had long blond hair and the strangest eyebrows you've ever seen, and a look in her eyes that I didn't like one bit, but other than that she appeared to be a normal girl.

"Why," I asked, "am I a foolish person?"

"You allowed yourself to be put in a place that your enemies wanted. Now you doubt yourself. That is what Romafeller wanted and you gave it to them. That was a foolish thing to do. An other foolish thing about you is that even though you must know people are against you, you blindly trust. You are a fool. For all you know, Romafeller as sent me to help them pick you apart." I just looked at her. She smiled and tossed her hair. "I," she said, "am Dorothy Catalonia, a blood relation of the chairman of the Romafeller Foundation. I love wars, I think they should hurry up and begin fighting again. These private battles of the Gundam pilots aren't part of a true war. A true war will bring out the best of human spirit, these battles do not. Random acts of bloodshed are not a war. If you are going to fight, hurry up and do it. If you are going to make a stand, hurry up and do it. And if you are going to stop crying and decide what you are going to with your own troops in your own organization, hurry up and do it."

"Were you sent to help Romafeller pick me apart?" I asked.

Dorothy smirked. "Yes," she answered simply. "But I won't. I believe in you Miss Relena, I love wars because the people fighting don't want to die, and yet they fight regardless, so desperate to hold on to things they know they will inevitably lose anyway. These people fighting now are willing to give up their lives, there is no desperation. That's boring, perhaps in peace there will be something new to learn about the nature of human beings." With that, she left, I stayed where I was for a few minutes and stood up to return to my office.

Duo, Milliardo and the others were long gone. I sat at my desk and noticed a light blinking on the computer screen. I clicked on it and a message popped up.

Lena, if there's gonna to be peace, you gotta work for it. You do your thing and we'll do ours. Don't be mad at me. :D ~Shinigami

I smiled. I was never mad at them, I was mad at myself. Are my ideals truly just a dream? I wish I had someone to talk to, but they all left; to fight.

For months, it was the same thing. I would just work, signing some papers, refusing to sign others. Making speeches about my ideals, going to school when I had the time, stress building. I cried myself to sleep every night for longer than I would ever admit. The only I heard news of my brother, Miss Noin or Duo was the same time anyone else did. The Treize Faction versus White Fang, led by Zechs Marquise, second in command, one Quatre Reberba Winner. A private war, fighting, the right to fight versus the right to live in peace.

It didn't make any sense to me.

Apparently Dorothy understood very well, though. She tried to explain it to me a few times; I would see her every now and then. When Romafeller planned something against me, she would warn me, tell me what to expect. I didn't believe her at first, but after she had proven herself many times, I learned to, and retained my position thanks to her help. Personally, I believe she did so only to keep the hostility between myself and the foundation the way it was.

As the fighting continued, both I and surprising, Dorothy grew increasingly anxious. After a while, I asked her if she was beginning to be bothered by the fighting. She assured me that was not it, she wanted to meet the Gundam pilots. Boys our age with an incredible will to fight and always come out of top, who have remained victorious when pitted against the greatest pilots of the day, who can even kill a machine. I knew now that she helped me to get to them, I was her ticket to the soldiers.

Funny thing, but, I didn't care. Dorothy gave me someone to talk to, and another point of view on the politics of the time period. I knew she rarely wanted to be with me, to have to listen to me drone on about pacifism whilst my brother and friends fought hard, but she was there anyway, I was thankful of that.

I was also thankful when the fighting stopped.

Author Notes: Sorry this one took so long, but I was really trying to finish the fic in this part. Well that's not happening, there should be one more part to go. (For the record, this thing is VERY difficult to write and I want to get it over with!)