Only The Beginning

Author: I'm falling back into writing fanfics for shows that have been a big part of my childhood. So don't be surprised to see a Sailor Moon one pop up sooner or later, I mean I've already done Swat Kats. I don't own Duke, Wildwing, Nosedive or Fight Club. I picked up the name Ducaine Metropolis years ago, so it belongs to whoever, Disney or otherwise. R&R, no flames for the brutality. Pairing: NxR.

Nosedive glanced down at Ryann. Her eyes were closed and her breathing was very slow. Once in a while he had felt her fidget a little, but her head never left his lap. Gently he brushed a strand of her jet hair from her face. "Sleeping girly?" he asked. A small smile crossed her beak as he spoke although she tensed a little under his touch. For many months after they had found her, she despised letting anyone close. Ryann had even flinched from Duke and she trusted him completely. He had soon learned that she had layers of protective walls up that would need to be broken down before they earned her trust. He tried hard to crack one and ended up accidently shattering them all. Afterwards during an emotional breakdown, she had disappeared but they later found her almost dead while investigating a disturbance caused by the Soriens.

Ryann sighed heavily and murmured softly. Nosedive gently pulled on a strand of her hair and she swiped at him with her claws. "Hey!" he yelped. She sat up, moving away as she did. "Come on Ry. I didn't mean anything by it." he told her. She didn't look at him. Tears rimmed her eyes and slid down into her dark feathers. Dive stared at her, knowing that he had screwed up royally. If Duke ever found out that he had made her cry, he might hold to his promise to murder him regardless of what Wildwing said. "Ryann? I'm sorry..." he whispered.

She shook her head and whispered, "Not your fault. I just don't like having my hair pulled, it brings back bad memories." He stared at her in surprise. None of the ex-thieves talked about their pasts to anyone on the team. It was like an unspoken rule and what little the team did know, they didn't talk about.

"First rule of Fight Club, you do not talk about Fight Club." Dive whispered.

"I'm about to break that rule. If anyone deserved to know my past, it's you." she told him. Ever since Ryann had recovered from her brush with death, they had been very close. He had taken her to meet Thrash and Mookie at the comic shop, to see Buzz and all the other humans who they considered their friends. It had taken a while for her to warm up to strangers but in the end, she did.

"Whatcha mean Ry?" he asked.

She put a clawed finger to his beak and whispered, "Don't speak, just listen."

"I hatched in the slums of Ducaine Metreopolis to an underaged druggie mother who didn't want anything to do with me, so she left me at a hospital. Right from the start it was obvious I was different from all the other ducks: the most noticable reason being my claws but also how my eyes changed from brown to red. Lots of ducks called me a sorien/duck mixed breed. I was eventually put into the foster care system and was in and out of foster homes because nobody wanted to keep me for long. While I was in the foster homes, they wouldn't allow me to play outside or even with the other kids. I'd be kept out of sight and confined to a room when there was company over. But one family that fostered me decided they wanted to adopt me. Daggerite and Zenath Razorwing were decent people at first. They had a nice house, a son about five years older than me and really did care. I was happy for a while until Zenath lost his job when Darkstreak Inc went down the drain about two years after they adopted me." she muttered. Nosedive nodded, remembering hearing about the movie company's fall.

"Zenath took the hit very hard and even though he started working at a photo-graphy studio, he started drinking alot. Daggerite who was a magazine editor was too busy to take much notice and their son Micheal didn't think his father could do any wrong. The drunkard wouldn't lift a finger against his son or wife, but had no problems turning on me. He started to yell at me when he had been out drinking at first but then one night he slapped me and it only got worse. The slaps turned to beatings with either his fists or a belt." Ryann whispered. She trembled as she squeezed her eyes shut and dug her claws into the leather of her pants. It was impossible to forget the pain that she had felt, the sound of leather colliding with feathers and tearing through flesh, impossible to forget the wounds: lines of crimson mixed in with black feathers. A strangled sob tore it self free from her throat. Nosedive pulled her close to him, letting her cry into his shirt.

Author: You've probably noticed by now that I write alot of characters, OCs & otherwise with alot of bad pasts or draw off them when they already exist. For this story & the OC: Ryann, I'm drawing off my own personal experiences & those of people I know. I refuse to name any names or tell what was done to whom. Plz tell what u think of the OC in a review, good or bad.

This is part 1 of 3, her childhood. Part 2: the years b4 meeting Duke (age 10-13). Part 3: the years after meeting Duke until my story: Shadowed Apprentice