Disclaimer: I do not own Star Trek. It belongs to Paramount and the Great Bird of the Galaxy. All hail The Great Bird of the Galaxy! I also do not own Getbackers. If I did, oh, the fun I would have with them. It belongs to Rando Ayamine and Yuya Aoki.

Notes: This story take place in the past on the planet El-Auria, long before the Federation or GetBackers existed. I mostly wrote this because I wanted to give one of the minor characters of GetBackers a backstory. You don't need to know anything about GetBackers in order to read this.

Please be kind. This is the first actual thing I've ever written.

An Ending and a Beginning

Prologue

It was early dawn in Tal'ur, capital of the El'Auria. The faint rays of early morning light had barely begun to peak over the high spires of the old First Buildings. The air smelled fresh and cool with the waning night's dew. In a few hours the spring sun would rise and warm the earth and then there would be crowds bustling in the streets. People going to marketplaces and businesses. Millions of people all going about their daily lives, adults working, children playing and going to school, learning, laughing, and crying in the heart of the El'Auria.

None of which has anything directly to do with this story.

In one of the city's many backroads surrounding the Marketplace, light was just creeping across the ground towards the far corners of an alley. As the golden light spilled over a heap of waste, it revealed the unmoving body of a young man.

The young man lay still in the refuse, looking very much like a doll that had been tossed out with the trash, no sign movement at all.

"So, have you decided what your going to get your brother for his Xec'nin?" Arma asked her friend.

"No. I don't have any idea what he would like, and it's in two days! What am I going to do?!"

"Hey, calm down, Gui'. We're sure to find something here, of all places."

The two young women strode down the crowded streets of the main shopping district. The hot, midday sun shone down on everyone in the Xer'Any Marketplace. People who had come to buy the weeks groceries, or out and about for a little lunchtime shopping before returning to work, surged through the narrow streets.

Shopkeepers cried out for passerby's to come in and view their wares. Children ran between people's legs, chasing small, monkeylike creatures called kyex's. The air was filled with the rich smells of cooking meats, baking breads, and hundreds of other wonderful food smells.

The Xer'Any Marketplace was known as the best place in the city, possibly the whole planet, to come to find everything you needed, and many other things that you didn't know you needed until you found them.

It was for exactly this reason that Guinan and Arma had decided to brave the noon rush. Cein, one of Guinan's younger brothers, was going to have his Xec'nin, his coming of age ceremony, soon. And it was tradition for the female members of the immediate family to give a gift to the young men of the family at this time.

"Okay, let's start with what you know. What is he interested in? What are his hobbies?" Arma asked. The bright light shone down on her short, wavy hair, making it appear as dark as a raven's wingtip, except for the solitary lock hanging in her face that was dyed a striking blue. The darkness of her hair made her pale skin stand out in vivid relief. Calm blue eyes, the same color as her hair, stared inquiringly at her best friend.

"Hmm. He's...an art student. I think he's a big fan of sculptures, at least right now. And I think I remember him going on and on about this particular Earth boardgame. What was it? It involved little wooden squares with symbols on them. It was called Ma-something."

Arma's face scrunched up as she thought. "You'd probably have to go to a specialty shop for an Earth game, and then you'd end up paying a ridiculous amount of money for it."

"So do you think some kind of sculpture thing would be the best."

Her friend nodded. "I think you'll have more to chose from if you stick with that idea."

Guinan took a deep breath and pushed her long dark hair behind her. "Okay, then let's get started. We have a lot of shops to cover, and only six hours to do it in."

They had been to too many different shops to count. First, they had tried to get her brother a statue made of clay or porcelain, but then Arma had accidentally knocked over a large statue of a fertility goddess that had been made on commission for a wealthy politician. They had been chased out before they were able to pick anything out. After that, they had tried looking at glass, but they couldn't find anything that Guinan liked. Then they had looked at statues made of bone(which Arma considered to be in bad taste), wood (which would have been a bad idea for her family), and stone. Finally, in desperation, the two women turned to metal, hoping they would be able to find something before the market closed.

Four hours later, they emerged from a tiny metal works shop. This particular shop's claim to uniqueness was its hand –wrought, metal sculptures. Each one was created by the owner and his small school of students, and each piece was one of a kind original.

Guinan had found a small statue made of nickel that was perfectly suited for Cein's Xec'nin. According to the smith, its twisting curves and smooth shapes symbolized a hope for a prosperous future and new beginnings.

She was extremely pleased to have finally found something. She had been running out of hope as the sun got closer and closer to the horizon.

"It's such a relief to get that done. Now I can relax and enjoy the party without anymore worries."

Arma wearily dragged herself alongside her friend. "I'm happy for you, really I am. Now, can we please go get some food? I'm about to chew off my own foot, I'm so hungry. We haven't eaten anything since this morning."

"Alright, alright, we'll go get food," Guinan said happily. Nothing could pull her off her little cloud of happiness. Not even her friends grumpiness.

Suddenly, something small and gray dropped in front of Guinan's face. She instinctively recoiled from it, until she saw that it was only a tiny kyex.

Before she could react, the kyex had swung onto her shoulder. Using it's long, prehensile tail, it reached out to Guinan's hand and plucked the tiny sculpture from her hand.

Then it's powerful little hindelegs kicked off and it landed on an awning hanging overhead. Quick as lighting, it scampered off down the street.

There was a moment of stunned silence between them. Then...

"That-that little thief took my statue! How dare that-that flea-bitten, little--!"

"What are you going to do? You'll never catch up with it on foot."

Arma was right. Even this late in the afternoon the place was crowded with people.

"Well," Guinan said firmly. "I'll just have to take the less crowded route."

She closed her eyes, focusing, and gently lifted off the ground, pausing to glance back at Arma.

"I'll be back in a minute, can you wait for me here?"

"Good luck."

Guinan nodded, and raced overhead after the thieving kyex.

The frightened kyex ran into the alley and skidded to a halt. It scrambled up the side of one of the old buildings, to its nest hanging under the roof. It crouched down and watched the entrance with large, scared eyes.

It didn't have long to wait. A shadow appeared in the street way, coming closer to the alley. In seconds, Guinan glided into the alley and came to a stop, where she hovered in midair. She looked up at the roof, searching for the kyex's nest. She was certain she had followed it to its home and had cornered it. Where...?

There it was.

She floated up until she was level with its nest. The kyex shrank back from her sudden appearance.

Guinan slowly reached her hand into the its nest for the statue, so as not to startle the creature. Her hand closed around the cool metal of the sculpture.

The kyex didn't put up much of a struggle as she pulled her hand and the statue out. She wasn't expecting much of a fight. Kyex's were notorious for taking anything that caught their interest, but at the same time, they were very timid creatures, and seldom attacked anything that offered them a real threat or was bigger than them.

"Now don't go around taking things that aren't yours anymore," she said, even though she knew that it was a futile effort. Kyex's had been stealing from the marketplaces for centuries, and no one had ever had much luck with getting them to stop. People were unable to drive them out and it didn't matter if they moved, more kyex's would simply pop up in the new location.

She sunk back down to the ground, tucking the statue inside her satchel, so no more nimble fingers would be tempted to steal it.

As she turned around to leave, she was confronted with a horrifying site.

There was a dead body lying in the trash.

Time seemed to slow to a crawl as she stood there, staring in shock. After several tense moments, she started slowly towards the corpse.

It had once been a young man. He lay sprawled in the garbage. His clothes were disheveled and torn, and he was bruised and bleeding from cuts all over his body. Most of the blood seemed to have come from a bad gash in the side of his head.

The blood had matted his hair and painted parts of it a dull, dark crimson. What wasn't covered with blood was colored a dusty pink.

She reached out with a hand that trembled to touch his neck. She was expecting it to be cold and stiff to the touch.

But to her surprise he felt warm and...he had a pulse.

The man was still alive.

Guinan fumbled in her bag for her personal 'com. After two failed tries to get her shaking hands under control, she was able to turn it on and contacted the local Peacekeeper station.

"H-Hello? My-my name is Guinan. I've just found a man lying in any alley in the Xer'Any Market! He looks like someone has attacked him! He needs help, I think he's dying!"

There was a few moments of silence on the other end as she waited for a reply. The voice that answered her call was rasping and to the point.

"This is Duru Baskis, Commander of the 3rd Peacekeeper Station. We'll be there in ten minutes with backup and a medic. Please stay where you are and be very careful. Whoever attacked the man may still be in the area. They might try to get rid of you if they think might have seen them."

She nodded, her heart thumping painfully in her chest, even though the commander couldn't see her. "I understand. I'll be careful."

"Baskis out."

Guinan glanced around the alley as Baskis cut off. She understood what the commander meant about the attackers hanging around, but she wasn't too worried. Besides, even if there were some thugs still hanging around, she could certainly take care of them. Her father had seen to it that every one of her family members knew how to protect themselves.

Guinan looked down at the man. Despite being unconcious and bloody, something about him seemed intriguing. She felt drawn to him in some faint, but powerful way. Something about him called to her and she wanted to know what it was.

She hoped he would be all right, and that there wasn't any permanent damage. She wondered what kind of person would do such a thing to another. Hopefully, if--no, when he woke up, the man would be able to tell her why he had been so brutally attacked.

End

Please, reviews and constructive criticism would be welcome.