Friendship Lost and Found

Author(s) Lennera Darser MercenaryBabe@mediaone.net

Luna Barton

Disclaimer: Luna Barton is owned by her creator of the respective pseudonym just as Lennera Darser, her companions, technology, space station, etc belong to me, under the pseudonym of this account. The story line, as it is stated and is apparent in other stories by Luna Barton, is the property of myself and Luna Barton. Please email us or contact us via Yahoo Messenger if you would like to use them for a story. For a more in-depth background as to how Luna Barton came to be where she is in this story, please read that author's previous stories. This is not a must, you can read here and not miss much.

We DO NOT OWN Gundam Wing, the Gundams, that series or company in anyway and do not claim it. We wish that we did as well as wish we were in this world. We live vicariously through our writing. Suing us would yield nothing but old marching music, drill sheets, notebook paper, a few thousand books ( all Lennera's) a flute and clarinet. It's not really worth it all.

In other words:

If it ain't yours, don't take it without permission. Don't put this on your website without asking, I know how people love Luna's stuff. We don't own any part of Gundam Wing except a few figures, models, images and episodes off the TV. Thanks a ton and enjoy. *= See Author Note at end....

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Faux sun shone down on the small orphanage where two girls played apart of all the other children. In the colonies, there wasn't any real light or sky, leaving the temperature a perfect warmth everyday, every moment. A small and flight suit clad little red head sat on the grass, black trench coat behind her in a heap beside a slender, pale auburn haired and eyed girl of her age. The brown haired girl was playing with a doll, her plaid jumper and black shirt rumpled from the game of tag they had just quit and the red head sat in deep concentration over something in her lap. Anyone could tell they were the closest of friends and that they had so few if anymore than one another. The red head gave a triumphant laugh and held up her hands to her companion, a grin going over her face.

" I did it Luna! I got the whole thing and it only took me three days to do it! My Mommie and Daddie are gonna be so happy." Luna looked at the small and intricate sculpture in her friend's hands. It was a perfect model of the Earth, a planet they had only seen from afar, with clouds that moved across the landscape slightly as they watched. Yesterday when Lennera, the red head, had come for the day she had explained to Luna that her parents wanted her to learn how to put holograms together and they got harder each time. Luna had wished her luck and grinned now at it. It was very lovely.

" Wow! That's great Len! What do you do with it now that it's all done?" Lennera touched a hidden section of it and it stopped glowing and moving, turning into a small sphere of complicated wire, metal rods and switches. It shook for a moment before falling apart into a heap in the palm of Lennera's hand.

" I put it in a box in Mommie and Daddie's room and they give me a new one to try." She looked at the mass, careful not to drop any pieces, then at her friend. " You wanna try Luna? Let's see how long it takes you to do it."

" Alright! I bet I can get it done in three days or less." Lennera laughed and handed her a small felt bag, helping her put the pieces in before jumping up and wiping the grass from her legs.

" Let's go on the swings." Luna and Lennera raced across the yard, shouting at one another as Luna waved to the Sisters who took care of the children. They only really let Lennera here because she was usually home alone and Luna was happy around her. Why begrudge two wonderfully behaved and adorable children* something that was harmless and made them happy? They made it to the swings together and rocked back and forth together.

" When you get adopted, you can come and visit us at my home and come to my parties and meet all my friends. My family would like you too." Lennera said, smiling up at the colony's ceiling. Luna laughed.

" Yeah and then you can come over and have slumber parties and we can visit Earth together and go swimming in an ocean and see the real moon." They giggled. This was an old conversation, something they had spoken of often enough to know each promise by heart and to think that they could actually come true. They had their whole lives ahead of them didn't they? They kicked their legs and raced to see who get the highest the fastest before the gate opened at the front and the Sisters allowed a tall woman in a white coat into the yard. She waved at children all around her and Lennera flung her feet out and ground them into the shallow turf. Lennera wasn't permitted to be near this woman, in fact, the woman shouldn't have known her name but she did.

Lennera wasn't normal for a colony or for Earth. She had shown up in the neighborhood about two months ago, out of nowhere, and moved in next door. She had met Luna that day after her parents had ushered her from under foot as they moved a few spare boxes into the house off their motorcycles and the trailer her father's pulled. Three days later, she had met the scientist that was heading their way now. Her mother had taken her away quickly and backed warily and silently into the house, glaring at her the whole time. Luna had never understood any of it, Lennera did with frightened alacrity. Luna had never been told where it was Lennera had come from and she had never asked. She merely accepted it as a parent tended to be, so she heard. Turning to her friend, Luna took one of her ribbons off her hair and handed it to Lennera.

" Here, for the puzzle. Are your parents home?" Lennera smiled and hugged her friend, shaking her head in answer. She waved as she ran, clutching the ribbon as she went passed the scientist who called her name, gaining nothing in return as she sped across the sidewalk, the street, her tiny lawn and up her stairs. She looked back then, at her friend and the adult that scared her so. Luna still sat on her swing, watching as Lennera reached up high, opening the front door and going inside.

" Good afternoon, Luna. How are you today?" She didn't answer for a few minutes, only sat in silence as the sounds of play and happiness floated all around her. She shook herself from the reverie and looked up at the woman.

" Ok. How are you?" She smiled at the little girl with something hidden in her face.

" I am doing very good, thank you. Now, how are your studies?" They spoke for a long while before Luna had to go back into the school, promised a fine surprise the next day when the woman returned in the early morning. On the other side of the colony, where two strangers were wandering purposefully about, they caught the whisperings of low lives and of spies and of military men stationed nearby. There was to be a great upset, something was moving restlessly like a tide coming from a long way off and they felt it. The assignment they were on was not yet over, far from in fact, but this changed everything and they knew it. The two strangers made a decision and went home again as faux night fell, the cold and impersonal stars nothing like they knew and they never looked up to gaze at them.

Lennera was confused. So much was happening at the moment but she had to grasp her awareness again, she had to. Something inside was telling her that if she faltered now, everything would die and fall apart around her. Her parents were busily packing the last of their things up in the boxes they had brought to this place with them. Her father was starting his motorcycle, checking the holds on the trailer and the straps holding down the cargo. Her mother was putting something on the back of her motorcycle behind Lennera's seat and the little girl saw something out of the corner of her eye, over the collar of her small black trench coat. It was Luna. Her friend came for her, running at her down the road and tears running down her face.

" I was adopted and she is taking me far away!" Lennera started to cry too as they hugged.

" We are going back home, my Mommie says we have to because they need us again. I don't want to go yet." Luna looked over at the adults as they watched the two.

" I can still visit right?" Lennera shook her head sadly and her mother knelt down in front of them, her green eyes similar to Lennera's own yet not.

" Sorry, dear. When we get home, we have to go somewhere else and it's far too long a trip. I wish that you could." Luna cried, her hands over her face and Lennera just stood there, lip trembling silently. Her mother stood, pushing her daughter's bright bangs from her forehead and finishing her work. The scientist that visited Luna came up to them, putting a hand on Luna's shoulder. Lennera stepped back several steps as her parents glared angrily.

" I am sorry to see you go Lennera, I know that Luna will miss you." She smiled and Lennera's mother swept her up, carrying her to the motorcycle. She backed away as if the woman were dangerous and to them, in a way, she was. Lennera squirmed and waved her thin arms towards Luna who stood bewildered and upset, her nerveless hand in the woman's.

" You should have never known her name. Good bye, Luna, dear. Take care, child." It was Lennera's orange haired father that spoke, his voice harsh at first but kind and gentle to Luna. He mounted his motorcycle as his wife did the same with Lennera, putting the small black helmet on her head as she stared back at her friend numbly. In a few moments, the engines roared to life and Lennera put her arm out, waving frantically.

" Friends forever Luna! As long as space is wide!" She cried, the other hand locked on her mother's belt.

" Forever! Bye, bye Len! We'll see each other again when you come back!" The motorcycles revved up and tore down the street, the trailer coming with them as the tiny figure of Lennera. She watched Luna get smaller and smaller, unaware that she wouldn't see the friend she had made so long ago for a number of years, when hope was given to something that they could change. Earlier times were foreshadowed with those more recent.

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Luna was trained as one of the famous and infamous Gundam Pilots though she never saw action. She is a direct blood relation to Trowa Barton and Cathren Bloom, her past a muddled web of an abusive father, terror in her home and the near death of her mother before arriving at the orphanage where she was later adopted. Her time with the scientist was well spent and she is a grand fighter like any of the Pilots. Recently she was reunited with her brother and sister and is currently spending time with them and the other Gundam Pilots. She is eager to help them win the war and achieve peace with her own custom Gundam named Galaxy, which she pilots exceptionally well.

Lennera returned to her home on the forever-wandering Space Station Oblivian, Arald and Shadya Darser, her father and mother, to die in a substitute assignment gone wrong. Lennera was nine when she was taken in by the rest of her distant family and raised like the rest of the station in the part of hired out assassin. She rose to high ranking quickly, fueled by her parent's previous desire for her to try and achieve all that she could. Word of the war finally reaches them in deep space and in hopes of profit they headed into the solar system and as negotiations are made, Lennera abruptly takes her off time and sneaks off the Station with a shuttle and her motorcycle....

Authors' Notes: Lennera laughs evilly about the earlier comment about them as children.

" I don't think I was ever like that. I was far from adorable, I was pure evil! What do you think, Luna?" She looks over at Luna with a wicked grin.

" Me? I was always a little angel." Luna smiles, exuding innocence and Lennera laughs.

" Yeah right!" Luna promptly thwaps and walks away.