Disclaimer: Yeah, yeah, I know, Gundam Wing doesn't belong to me. But do you have to rub it in by making me write these damn disclaimers? Please, I suffer enough pain for that mere fact already.

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Title: Yet to be determined

Description: See Above.

Author: Ashley2323

New Characters: Astrid Honora

Warnings: None that I can think of.

Written alternating from first to third person POV.

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Prologue

Chance

It was noisy, crowded, and completely impersonal. Just the way I liked it. It was the way a bar should be. No matter how many people were there, none were of a threat to me. No one knew me, I didn't know them, and that was how I planned to keep it.

Loneliness had always been a fear of mine. As had getting too close to someone. And, as I sat contemplating this strange combination of phobias, I was interrupted; rather rudely, too, I might add.

"I said, can I buy you a drink?"

I looked up at the man and studied him: tall, handsome, rather sophisticated, and completely not my type.

"You may not," I said bluntly, turning my gaze away from him, making sure he realised his conversation was not welcome.

He didn't seem to get the message. Or at least, that was my first impression. He leaned in closer to me and studied my soft features. I could feel him noting my dark yet stormy eyes, my jet black hair, and my discreet sense of style.
"Hey, are you sure you're old enough to be here?" He wondered.

Great, She thought irritably, He's getting bitter.

"Shit!" He cursed.

"Oh," I said, smirking devilishly. "So you realise now that what you want would be illegal."

He was taken aback by my frankness, and took an involuntary step backwards.

"Shit, kid do you realise how much trouble I could get into just by talking to you?" He snapped.

"Of course."

"What the fuck? Get out of here before I'm forced to call your parents!"

I could only laugh at him, shocking the poor man yet again. Still, I obliged, seeing as my cover had been blown. And, at nearly three in the morning, the bar would be closing soon anyway. I stood up from my leaning position against the bar and sauntered out.

The darkness engulfed me as I stepped outside, with only faint halos of light to guide me back 'home'; and I use that word lightly.

My own footsteps made me nervous as they echoed eerily through the empty streets. I shoved my hands into my pockets and hunched my shoulders against the artificial chill. I blew absently into the air, watching in fascination as my breath condensed into a cloud of fog and rose up above me before dissipating. It was the only good thing about the cold, according to myself, at least.

Stopping at an empty intersection, I blew again, trying to concentrate on something other than the cold. I looked up, and studied the construction of the colony around me. There was nothing better to do.

I started to walk across the road - the streets were empty anyway – and nearly got hit by a drunken motorist.

After screaming my opinions on his mental capacities, and giving him a few rude gestures before he raced out of sight, I continued on my way home.

It took me only ten minutes in the below freezing temperatures before I had decided that a shortcut was in order. Or perhaps it was the warning of an artificial blizzard programmed into the colony's weather systems blaring over radio in someone's window.

Veering down into a dark alleyway, I broke out into a half-run, my hands still tucked safely in my pockets. I cursed myself for wearing only a T-shirt without a coat. I was so busy trying to deflate my ego from my success in the war that I had forgotten I was a wimp when it came to cold.

I was halfway through my tour of the bowels of the colony when I heard a clink from behind me. I paused only for a moment before I knew I was in danger. I started going faster, hoping to break free of the alley before who or whatever was behind me could catch up.

I got so preoccupied with glancing behind me that I hadn't noticed until it happened that I was about to run right into a brick wall of a man.

I stumbled backwards and held in a gasp as I strained my neck to look at him. "Wow…you're really tall." I said, trying to mask my slight inkling of fear.

The man tilted his enormous head down to stare at me, his eyes completely unreadable. "You are very little girl." He said with no particular attention to grammatical accuracy.

"Yeah uh, whatever buddy…Me Thor, Thor hungry, Thor want eat." I joked, trying to sidestep around him.

He stopped me with a mere movement of his huge tree trunk limbs, and I paled.

"Little girl looks good…" He grinned.

For once I was totally at a loss for a wise-ass sarcastic remark. "Erm…"

The man started to close in on me, and I found myself backed up against the wall. Never a position you want to be in when facing an illiterate giant with the IQ of an asparagus.

Think baby, think! I urged my brain to work. But I never really did well in situations where I was so compressed I couldn't even see my own feet. I took a deep breath and forced myself to forget the problem at hand, and instead try to find a solution.

As I was doing this, however, my problem-solving skills being a little rusty, my abnormally large perpetrator had already stared disrobing me.

At least he can figure out buttons, I though bitterly as he undid my jeans and struggled with getting them past my hips. I was afraid he was going to rip them. They were my favourite pair, after all. They were insanely wide-legged black jeans with a red flame stripe racing up the outside of both legs, tight only around my waist, for which I was thankful.

Finally, I felt myself lose my breath, as it would seem I had finally lost my grasp on the situation. No smart comments were going to get me out of this one.

My attacker, whom I had by now nicknamed 'Thor' for his extreme lack of communication skills, roughly dropped my favourite jeans down around my ankles and then looked at my underwear in despair. He was apparently frustrated at having to go through more clothing to get to what he wanted. I hoped he wouldn't rip those either. I had just bought them and was quite proud of myself for shopping for my own lingerie.
Still, foolishly, I held onto the idea that a highly skilled soldier such as myself could get out of this mess. This idea disappeared, however, when the icy cold nipped at my now bare legs. I found myself doing something I hadn't done in years. I was tearing. Not quite crying, but my eyes were watering desperately as if they were trying to drown my criminal rapist Thor.

Thor's huge hands were squeezing my buttocks as if they were ripened fruit, and I felt myself being lifted from the ground. I gasped and made sure that my eyelids were tightly secured shut. I had no interest in seeing what was about to happen to me. I felt Thor forcing his entire huge frame between my legs, while still working on ripping the elastic in the waist of my panties. I prayed they would hold long enough for me to escape.

When I heard them snap, I nearly gave up all hope, and finally I let out a pitiful squeak of fear, for which I was immediately embarrassed.

It proved to offer me liberation, however, for which I was also grateful, yet thoroughly humiliated. I didn't want to suffer through the embarrassment of being a damsel in distress.

"Hey buddy! Leave her alone!" Someone shouted. I noted a slim yet strong figure racing down the alley towards my would-be rapist. I took my chance, after all, I wasn't entirely helpless. I brought up my elbow, and, in Thor's lack of attention, caught him in the back of the neck. He collapsed rather unceremoniously to the ground, and I seized the opportunity before my 'saviour' reached me to grab my pants. I did not enjoy being nude and being caught that way, and from the waist down at that!

I pulled my pants up around my waist in the delicious cover of the shadows of darkness just in time. I was under the impression that he had seen nothing.

"Miss…? Yo, lady? You OK?" He asked, reaching forward to touch my shoulder in what was meant to be a comforting gesture.

"Of all the injustices," I heard another say as he looked down at my Thor. "To abuse power over the weaker sex."

"Ugh," I didn't bother to hide my disgust, and I picked up a can from the ground and chucked it at the guy, hitting him squarely in the head. Pleased with myself, I gave my other rescuer a disgusted look and pushed past him.

"Hey…are you alright?" The guy called again. He was ruggedly handsome, with long, chestnut brown hair kept in a thick braid. He was more my type than the man I'd met earlier in the bar.

The rude one, however, looked completely anal, and I didn't bother to note his looks any further than his clear Chinese origin. I recognised them both instantly.

I brushed off their stares and started to walk away. I didn't want them to see the fear and panic still etched across my face.

When they started to follow me, I ran and grabbed onto a ladder above me leading up to a fire escape.

"What? No thanks for the anonymous strangers who just saved your virginity?" The braided one called after me.

I stopped when I reached the roof and laughed in a way that I would have found irritating if reversed on me. "Sorry, but you missed that event a long time ago." And I turned and was gone from their sight.

"Come on, Maxwell." The Chinese one said irritably as I fled the scene. "Obviously this woman has no respect for what we have done for her."

"Chivalry isn't completely dead!" Called the braided one, spreading his arms wide. He obviously thought I was still lurking around, listening to them.

I waited on the rooftop until they were both gone before continuing on my way once again, this time via the safety of the rooftops.

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When I finally arrived back at the tiny apartment I had adopted as my home for the time being, I found that I had an urgent message waiting on my laptop.

I opened it, knowing what it would say and dreading it.

Astrid,

It's finally time for you to meet them. Be ready tomorrow; further instructions to follow.

I grumbled under my breath. "Perfect timing, doctor."