"Mama, mama!" a young girl cried out, looking out the window of the shuttle… she pressed her chubby hands to the window, her big, blue eyes growing with surprise. She turned to look at her mother, her dark curls bouncing.

"Yes, Amy, what is it?" The brown-haired woman of perhaps thirty, tall and lean said, turning to the girl.

"There's a dead body out there, mama!" she cried out, pointing excitedly out the window.

"Amy…" the woman warned, then looked, to make sure her daughter wasn't telling a lie. She gasped at what she saw.

It was unmistakable; a young woman dangled there, suspended in space. There was a glint off the painted helmet of the woman, and that's what had caught her daughter's attention.

"Oh my… Tom! Tomas!" she called to the pilot of the small shuttle, a family shuttle used to move between colonies in search of work.

"What is it, Amelia?" her husband, a tall, brawny man with a mass of dark, curly hair on his head that came down to his shoulders asked, coming out of the cockpit.

"Amy found someone's body, but she still looks alive, oh Tomas, go out and get her please? Such a young one…"

A dark-haired young man followed his father from the cockpit. He had a gold earring placed in his left ear, right in the middle on the way up of the outside of the ear. His dark hair fell carelessly into his eyes as he went out. Un-like his parents and sister, he wore a space suit. He was the designated technician on their shuttle, and had to be ready to make repairs to the shuttle as soon as possible.

"I'll go out and get her, Mother." He smiled as he kissed his mother's cheek, picking up his helmet.

"Be careful," He slipped out to the air lock, securing his helmet down with a snap of a button. He opened the outer bay doors and taking a "scooter" - a small CO2 powered jet buoy, he stepped out into the cold expanse of space.

It didn't take very long to reach the castaway… but it looked bad. As he drew near and shined a light on the young woman, he could see blood spattered to the face shield of the helmet. His stomach wretched with nausea as he put an arm around her waist… but he could tell she was alive. He could see the thin material over her breasts moving as she breathed.

He took her into the shuttle, and closed the bay behind him. There was a soft hiss as his family opened the other end, and he took off her helmet.

"Oh my!" the mother, Amelia, said, reaching for a blanket. She lay it out, and wrapped the girl's cold, near lifeless body in it through the suit. The young boy took off the bloodied helmet of the girl… and gasped.

Though her face was smeared with her lifeblood, he could see she was pretty. Some of her wavy red hair had strayed from the rolled-up braid on the back of her head, and drifted into her face, held there by dried blood, crusting hard. Her eyes were closed; her lashes caked with the red fluid. She gave a small groan as they lay her back…

"Blackness… everything is black…" she muttered softly, then fainted away.

"What happened to her?" the young man asked himself.

*~*

Mathew sighed as he lifted the heavy trunk out of the baggage compartment of the family shuttle, he knew his father was talking to the manager of the circus, after all they were a family of acrobats, and they were looking for work. Watching him, with a blanket wrapped around her shoulders and a cup of steaming tea in her lap was "the foundling" - the girl they had picked up in space. She hadn't said a word since mentioning blackness, and his mother, Amelia, was scared she had damaged her brain to the point of being useless.

He looked up at her, the glasses they had found on her had been repaired, the prescription filled as soon as they had reached the colony. Those glasses now lay in her lap as she stared dazed out into space.

"You could be a little help you know!" he joked to her.

She looked down on him from on top of a giant crate, and slipped on her glasses. She sipped her tea.

"I… don't know if I could… lift it." She replied softly, thinking hard about the words.

"Whoa! You talked!" he blinked, setting down the heavy trunk. The girl nodded.

"I've been trying to sort out who I am… I'm not quite sure but I think I'm from one of the colonies out here… and there was something about ravens… ravens and death." She shook her head "It's all sketchy details…"

Mathew smiled slightly.

"Well, do you have a name yet then?"

"No…"

"Well… Raven seems to be a good name for you. Raven's are beautiful, intelligent birds, you know." He said, looking down into the hold.

"In any case, Miss Raven, I'd better get that trunk out of there." Mathew said, jumping off the crate.

"I'll help!" Raven said, smiling as she too jumped off the crate.

*~*

Trowa sighed as the cab he had hired pulled in. Max looked at him.

"You're troubled, Uncle." He said, looking at him "What's wrong?"

"I'm afraid Duo might try something desperate - like taking Scarlet's place."

"That'd be madness." Max agreed.

The manager approached the two men, his face more than a little red.

*~*

Will and Jon smirked as they spotted Amy, the small blonde girl in the new family of acrobats. She was playing near the animal cages with a doll, all alone.

"Hey there, little girl!" Will said, the smirk on his face nasty, devious… like a snake. His stringy brown hair fluttered into his head as he walked up at the girl. He loved to torture the little kids.

Amy glanced up, opening her eyes wide at him. She clasped her doll to her chest.

"How about giving me that doll, huh? I bet the lion would like it." He smirked.

Jon, his identical twin smirked.

Raven looked up from where she sat near the zebra pen, narrowing her eyes. Silently - for her feet seemed to know on their own just how to not make a sound as she approached the boys from behind. She picked up a push broom stick, narrowing her emerald eyes… no one would pick on her adopted little sister.

"Yeah, ol' King there would just love that doll."

"Uh-uh! My dolly!" Amy said, backing away.

"OK kid, let's get this strait, you gimme that doll or I'll…"

"Or you'll what, bud?"

Jon and Will turned, and narrowed their eyes at the redhead.

Her hair, now falling just below her shoulders in a ponytail was held back in a black elastic. She wore a belly-shirt, white in the middle with red on the sides, and spaghetti straps to hold the shell like shirt on. Her green fatigue pants had small heart patches sewn on. She held in her hand the push broom handle, holding it like a quarterstaff in Robin Hood.

"Amy, why don't you go back to mom for now, OK? I'll meet you back there." Raven said, never taking her eyes off Jon and Will.

"OK." Amy said quickly, turned and ran.

"Aw, look Jon, Red here spoiled our fun." Will said, smirking as he cracked his knuckles.

"Let's teach this foundling a lesson, huh Will? Make her see who's the master here."

"Masters? You mean you ain't the dogs that honk those horns? Your faces sure look like it." Raven answered. She spun the staff in her hands. "And if you care to tango, I'll teach you two dogs a couple tricks you won't forget."

"C'mon, Jon, we gonna let some hobo woman make fun of us?" he smirked, and turned to Raven.

"So, what's your name, girl? Mine's Will, you'll be screaming it later."

The redheaded girl smirked, and swung the broom handle around.

The two young men rushed at her, readying their fists.

Raven waited… waited… then at the last moment slipped between them, swinging the staff hitting Will in the stomach and Jon in the back, then ducked, swinging her left foot around in a ground sweep, knocking them both to the ground.

Raven stood, leaping back. She smirked as she narrowed her eyes.

"I told ya, that's lesson number one: Don't mess with me. And lesson number two is don't mess with my family, especially my lil' sister." She said, growling.

Jon was the first to stand; he smirked slightly, wheezing

"What? Are you afraid to fight without a weapon?" he gasped.

Raven threw the stick down in disgust

"You're hurt. You're really stupid to actually want to continue fighting. Now get the hell outta my face before I pound in yours." She turned and started walking back to the trailer where her new family awaited her.

"Fools…" she whispered softly, "They shouldn't fight if they don't know what they're fighting… but should I fight not knowing whom they're fighting too?