-1Closed Heart

Chapter One: Kestril's beginning.

A young girl woke up, then she sat up slowly and looked around. She was in an alleyway, and it was dark. She also realized that it was raining heavily. She stood slowly, then wavered and leaned against the wall as the world seemed to begin to spin. Her head was hurting badly. She put her hand to her head, then looked at her hand. Blood was on her hand, running down to her arm as it mixed with the rain.

She looked around and realize, she had no idea where she was, then she realize, with horror, she didn't know who she was. Her head started to spin again. She shook her head to clear it and looked around.

"There she is!" A male voice shouted. The girl looked behind her and saw a group of men running toward her. She suddenly filled with fear. She didn't know why, she just knew she had to run. She began to run quickly, not sure of where she was going, just that she had to run, to stay away from those men.

She kept running until she tripped and fell. She started to push herself up, but the one of the men grabbed her and pulled her to her feet roughly. She tried to kick away, but he twisted her arm behind her back. She cried out in pain as she heard and felt the sickening snap of the bones in her arm breaking. One man punched her across the face. She didn't make any sound, she only spit out the blood that came to her mouth and glared at him, her eerie green eyes cold and filled with a silent rage.

She didn't know why she was able to show rage in her eyes when on the inside she was terrified. The men all laughed, then she was punched again. She again just spat out the blood, then she kicked one of the men in the groin. He cried out and fell to his knees in pain. She smirked, but received a punch to her eye, just below the gash that was on her forehead. She somehow managed to struggle lose and began to run again. The men laughed and watched her.

The girl kept running, blindly. She finally tripped and fell to the ground, this time she didn't try to get up. She was so tired, she didn't know how long she had been running, or how far she had ran. She was also terrified that one of those men would come and drag her to her feet again, just to hurt her. Her right arm was throbbing painfully, but she was ignoring it now. She needed to get up and run, but she couldn't get her body to move. It protested her commands.

"Are you lost little girl?" A kind, deep, male voice asked. She looked up to him. He looked to be in his mid to late forties, with brown hair, brown eyes, and a brown stiff beard that was about a fourth of an inch long. He was a large man, making the dark haired girls small, fragile looking form seem to be smaller. He was large, but he radiated a kindness. "I…don't know." The girl replied softly.

The man kneeled down and put his hand under her chin gently, then made her upturn her face to look up at his. "What's your name?" He asked. "I don't know." The girl replied, tears coming to her eyes. That was when the man noticed the gash on her forehead. He also noticed the bruises on her face, but he decided not to ask about those, obviously, the girl was upset. "How about you come with me and stay until we find out who you are?" He offered. The girl nodded slowly. "But what name will I go by? I don't have my own." She asked.

The man smiled kindly. "You seem to be a tough little girl, so how about Kestril? It's a type of falcon, they are small like you, but tough." He suggested. The girl nodded. "I like that…but I'm no sure I'm that tough." She said. The man smiled and helped her to her feet. "But what do I call you?" She asked. "Just call me Grant for now." He said, "It's a nickname of sorts." He added. "Grant?" She asked, then she noted that his beard smelled of Sake, but it seemed to suit him. He nodded and they started walking.

The girl, now called Kestril, suddenly bumped her right arm on something. She cried out in pain and gripped her arm tightly. "I'm fine!" She said quickly when Grant looked to her in concern. He looked to her arm and saw how badly it was broken. "My god! You need help." He said, then he effortlessly lifted her from her feet and started to run, careful not to jostle her. He stopped running and entered a mobile suit hanger. "Janelle, we have a problem." He said as he walked in.

"Don't tell me that you got into another bar fight." A young woman, possibly in her late twenties, said as she walked into the room he had entered. She stopped when she saw Kestril. "Who is she? And what happened?" She asked in concern. "She says she doesn't know who she is, and I don't know, I found her like this." Grant replied.

"Well let's go take care of those wounds." Janelle said as she led him back to the medical Bay. Kestril studied the woman as Grant followed her. She had long light colored hair, it was a hard to identify color. Her eyes were a pale, silvery gray.

Grant put Kestril down on one of the medical beds and held her arm steady for Janelle to study it. "She broke it pretty good." Janelle said as she put her hands to it. When she went to reset the bones Kestril started to struggle and try to get away. "NO!" She shouted. "Hold still or you'll hurt yourself worse!" Grant said as he tried to keep her from squirming. "I'M FINE!" Kestril shouted as she kept struggling. "Hold her while I get the sedative." Janelle said, then she went to get a syringe and the bottle of medicine.

Kestril glared at Janelle while she filled the syringe, then she started to struggle when Janelle came over to her. "Hold still and it won't hurt as much." Janelle said. Kestril kept struggling until Grant held her down. Janelle held her arm tightly and cleaned it, then injected the sedative. Kestril tried to get away once the needle was removed, then she started to feel groggy. After a few minutes, she closed her eyes and fell asleep.

Janelle sighed. "I've got it now Yoji." She said as she looked to Grant. He nodded. "I'll go lock the hanger up while you take care of her." He said. Janelle nodded. Yoji left the medical bay and went out into the main area of the hanger.

Later

Janelle came out into the hanger with Kestril's clothes. "I put her in some of my smaller clothes so I could get these cleaned up." She said as she put them on a table. She started to search through the pockets to see if she could find any form of I.D. She pulled out a piece of paper that had numbers on it. "Yoji…this is an ignition code for a gundam…" She said as she looked up to Yoji.

Yoji walked over and took the code. "It is…why on earth does she have this?" He asked outloud. "Maybe she is supposed to be the pilot of a gundam…" Janelle said. "But she only looks 15...maybe 16..." Yoji said. Janelle nodded. "She's 16."

"I'm going to hack into some Gale Corp files and see if I can find the match to this code." Yoji said, then he walked to a computer.