AU: Yes, this is an AU, original character, self-insertion fic. Don't run away just yet! You obviously have not read Konomeitsuki1 or my stories. This fic is written by me, fprincessmirei and Konomeitsuki1, another wonderful writer. Please let us know what you think. Constructive criticism is wanted and welcomed.

DISCLAIMER: Gundam Wing does not belong to either me or Konomeitsuki1, although we like to think so sometimes...

Prologue – What Am I Looking For?

I carefully drag the crayon across the paper. Brown, I need the brown one, then the blue, green... I look up. The other children are racing around the dormitory, playing their games. Was that all there was to life? Games? I don't think so. I want more, I want-

"What are you drawing?" Marina asks curiously as she comes to the side of my bed.

"My family," I reply brushing my auburn hair out of my powder blue eyes, not looking up from my work.

I'm focused so intently that Marina grows bored and wanders off to play with the other children. I'm adding a dog in, maybe I should add some kitties? Yea, I like kitties. You see, I don't have a family. That's why I'm here at the Rose Haven orphanage. Its run by nuns, they're nice enough but, oh, dinnertime. I'll have to finish my family later. As I rise I glance out the window beside my bed and see that girl again. Her family takes her and her little sister to the park a lot. I wish I had a mommy and daddy to take me to the park. Maybe I should add a sister to the picture? I hear one of the sisters calling me downstairs.

"COMING!" I call, taking one last glance down at the park, the girl turns and her blue eye meet mine. I an odd feeling rushes through me, like that one time I out a penny in the light socket, though this didn't hurt so much. She then turns away, long golden blonde hair flying, her little sister is saying something to her.

"MIREI!" one of the sisters calls again. I have to go.

I turn to look back up at the window, but the girl is gone. I sigh, she looked like she had wanted to play. Unable to do anything about it, I go back to swinging, Krisnoko (AN: A name change to protect the not too innocent) on the swing beside me. I love summer, it's so warm, and the sun stays out longer, which means more playtime for me. I watch as the sun begins to slip below the horizon when I notice a silhouette in the distance. Is it a plane? As it comes closer I see a plane I've never seen before.

"Kono, we have to go," Mom says urgently as she picks up Krisnoko. Dad picks me up and we start running to the car. Why do they seem scared? Mom and Dad are never scared of anything. Then I hear a sound that I know from the news, MS, and then I'm scared too. We never made it to the car.

What I would later learn to be a grenade landed with a few feet of my family. We flew through the air, and I heard us all scream. My Dad landed on top of me, knocking the wind out of me. I remember hearing other explosions and screams, the air becoming hard to breathe in, and I remember watching my world go down flames.

I blinked rapidly, barely able to open my eyes through all the smoke, and I had a huge lump on the back of my head that was throbbing. Everything around me was burning, I was terrified, but the will to live kicked and I shakily got up. Burning rafters fell from the ceiling, and hot ash burned my skin, and horrible black smoke invaded my lungs, choking me. I ran, tripped, and stumbled, blindly at times, until I finally manage to find my way out of the Hell that was once my home. I collapse a few feet from it.

Many of the other children are about me, bleeding, burnt, crying. Many sisters are trying to help the children, but are unable to do much. I see the blurry figure of sister Umi above me and hear her voice, faintly, as if she is far away, "Mi-chan, thank God, you're safe," she leans down and I feel her lips on my forehead, "be good Mirei." She then disappeared from my field of vision, and a few minutes later, I hear exploding glass and cries of distress and pain before my world turned dark.

I walked through the wreckage, small fires still pouring smoke into he sky, the smell of burnt metal and flesh mixing unpleasantly. What am I looking for? I'm not quite sure. I watch Nikumu in the distance, her long red hair blowing in the light breeze. Damn Alliance, one good thing I could say about them was that they were thorough. Everything in the city was demolished. They're had been at least 10,000 people in the area at the time of the attack. The Alliance was sending a message to everyone, the colonies, the Earth, and that new group, OZ, that they were not to be messed with. I clenched my fist, they caused pointless bloodshed, but I would one day put a stop to that. To the Alliance, to OZ, and anyone else who came along. I stopped when I thought I hear something, it sounded like, crying?

I watched Mamorou in the distance. He always had to come to a battlefield, see the carnage, he said it was so he wouldn't forget what he was fighting for. I stopped outside a large building were children lay like scattered toys. I walked through them, kneeling by a few to close their unseeing eyes. However, one caught my attention, her eyes powder blue eyes were open, and she was breathing.

I followed the sound and what I found shocked me. A little girl who couldn't be more than nine sat beside the corpses of what had once been her family. She had a few bleeding cuts and several bruises, and her breathing was a little ragged, most likely due to smoke inhalation and crying. She looked up at me, neither of us saying a word. "Do you want to stop this from happening again?" I asked finally. The girl nodded. I held out my hand and she accepted it.

The girl slowly turned her glazed eyes to me. How could she still be alive? I hear Mamorou 's voice calling me. I turn and see him carrying something in his arms, it looks like, no, it can't be, another child? When he is close enough, I see my eyes did not deceive me. "I found a live one," he says. "As have I," I reply, motioning to the young girl beside me. She slowly sits up. "Are you an Angel?" she asks. "No, but I'm someone who can help you, make you strong, would you like that?" I ask. She nods and sits up, she almost falls over but I catch her and pick her up gently. "Guess you found what you were looking for."