Once all of the other members had left the base, Astrid was alone with Spandam. He approached her one morning in the middle of the courtyard.
"You're weak Astrid," he said in a low menacing voice. "If it wasn't for your Lucci's mere form of kindness, I would have killed you by now. You are worthless to me and the World Government. Each mission you have gone on these past few years have been nothing but successful failures. You have done nothing but succeed out of mere stupid luck! Can't you do anything right you worthless piece of shit!" he yelled slapping her across the face hard enough for her to fall.
"You are a failure, a disgrace, I could kill you right now if I could!" he continued to yell. "You are one of the reasons why the World Government hasn't achieved a greater world of justice!"
"Justice! JUSTICE! Is this what you call justice? Murdering innocent people for mere purposes of knowledge and obtaining priceless artifacts to which people believe to be Gods. Is this what you call justice? We have slaughtered millions of good people for the good of our own government's belief of this so called justice?"
Spandam yelled as he kicked her down further to the ground, "This justice that the World Government tries to maintain is the whole reason why you are even alive today, or have you forgotten the reason why your true mother is dead. Oh that's right, you hate being reminded that your mother was killed by the hands of filthy bloodthirsty pirates. Well its reasons like that for why we need to do what we need to do to prevent further lives to be destroyed by the hands of those who don't follow the laws and rules of the Government. Justice, is what keeps everyone and everything in order under the World Government, and if you fail to see that, then you are one of those filthy beings who deserves to die for the cause."
"You really believe that a world of justice means a better place for everyone to live in?"
"If you do your job right for once, it can be. You're lucky that Kalifa was able to convince Iceberg to create a position as a bookkeeper for you," he said walking away.
Astrid remained on her knees as a small trickle of blood came down from her nose. Torn between two beliefs, the lives of millions compared to the lives that will be. She wanted the world to be a better place, but she knew that in order to do that she needed to make those sacrifices.
"Just once more, I just have to do this once more. They say that if we succeed after this mission, we would be able to take a gigantic leap towards a better world. Only one life needs to be sacrificed to make this leap. Just one more life compared to millions of others that will live in this new world."
Months had gone by as Astrid trained with great determination. What she believed in was that if she could manage to kill one more life, she would be able to save the lives of many. She would be deemed a hero in the eyes of the World Government. She not only had to play the part of the hero, she had to become the hero. She needed to be stronger, faster, and better at everything. She needed to prove to not only Spandam and the World Government but to herself that she is not worthless like everyone is making her out to seem. She was Astrid and she will be strong.
The day finally came when she would step onto the boat to begin her mission. It has been six months since she had seen any of the other members. In that time she kept true to herself and the belief of a justified world. Once she had arrived at a dock in Water 7 she was given a small piece of paper with an address written on it. Without looking back she began to wander the streets of Water 7. She made her way into town not making eye contact with anyone. It didn't take her long to realize that she had already failed her first task in part of her mission.
"WHERE THE HELL AM I!" She yelled.
"Excuse miss, but are you lost?" a young boy asked.
"Actually, I am. You don't happen to think you'd be able to tell me how to get here?" she asked handing him the slip of paper.
"WOW, you're trying to get to Dock 1?" the young boy asked with big sparkling eyes.
"Sure, yeah can you just point me in the right direction?"
"They are the coolest ever! I can take you there it's not that far," he said with excitement.
"Sure whatever I just need to get there."
"Right this way miss!" He said taking off down the street.
Astrid quickly ran after the boy trying hard not to bump into anyone else that was on the street. As they crossed a bridge Astrid finally caught sight of a yagara bull. She paused for a minute in awe of the strange creature. She quickly realized that the small boy was getting away from her and ran in search of him. She was able to catch up to him as he ran below a second bridge. Not too far in front of them was a small crowd of people.
"Here we are miss, Dock 1! The coolest dock ever in Water 7 with their cool foreman! Hey miss, how are you going to get in? They don't usually open the doors to the public."
"They don't huh. Don't worry kid, I'll get in."
Astrid thanked the young boy and began to walk toward the small crowd. As she pushed passed the few people that were there, she was able to walk up to the gate. She began to knock on the gate as if it were a regular door. People behind her began to laugh hysterically at her. She began to walk backwards while holding her arms out to force the crowd behind her to back as well. Once she had reached a reasonable distance, she took a deep breath. With just a couple of steps she jumped and reached an incredible height and distance. Mid-air she looked down at the small boy whose eyes had shone brighter than ever before. She gave him a small wink with a smile as she was descending into the Dock 1 keep. She stood up from the ground and gave herself a slight dust off.
"Hey, who the hell are you!" screamed a man's voice. "And what do you think you are doing exposing yourself in that way, you need to cover up pervert," a blushing man with a jean jacket and a cigar in his mouth said as he approached her.
Astrid looked down to see what he was talking about, but all she could see was her normal brown jacket and jean shorts, "What are you talking about? Besides it's too hot to be wearing anything else."
"I don't care! I woman should not be walking around with that much skin showing!"
"Who the hell do you think you are trying to tell me what to wear?!" she yelled throwing her fist into the air.
"What is the meaning of this?!" yelled a woman's voice.
"Miss Kalifa, I wasn't expecting you to…" he paused to look at CP9's Kalifa wearing a black skirt that went above her knee, "HOW MANY TIMES HAVE I TOLD YOU TO COVER UP!"
"HOW MANY TIME HAVE I TOLD YOU TO MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS PAULIE!" she yelled back.
"What on Earth is with all of the yelling," came a young man's voice.
Out from behind some board was CP9's Kaku with a Galley-Law hat and an orange jumpsuit like outfit. He paused with a stunned look on his face once he had made eye contact with Astrid. He quickly lost his eye contact and tried to look elsewhere.
"Kalifa, there you are!" said a man with blue hair as he approached the group.
"Sir, this woman has appeared to have jumped the wall," Kalifa replied as he stood next to her, "And Paulie continues to have a problem with the way women are dressing these days."
"Is that so, so you managed to jump that wall, impressive. What brings you here to Dock 1 miss?"
"My name is Astrid, and I came for the book keeper position with Galley-Law," she said as she went to shake his hand.
"Splendid, you're hired," he replied with a smile and returning the handshake.
"But sir!" Kalifa proclaimed.
"Iceberg, you can't possibly let this stranger just become a member of Galley-Law after she had trespassed onto the property and came here dressing like that nonetheless," Paulie cried.
"Paulie, Kalifa, we need a bookkeeper and it's not every day that we get someone as eager as her literally jumping over the wall to get a position here at Galley-Law."
"Sir, everyday people try." Kalifa responded fixing her glasses.
"Is that so? Well it's not every day that someone actually makes it over. Kaku what do you think?'
"I…uhh…uhhh…" Kaku stammered completely caught off guard
"Excellent, welcome Miss Astrid!"
Later that day, Astrid had made her way towards what would be her new home for the next few years in Water 7. In this small apartment were all the necessities already to help start her off as she begins the mission. On the counter was a transponder snail that was connected to Spandam directly. Immediately after finding it she reported her current position in the mission. So far Spandam was very pleased with her progress. She had already advanced farther than what was expected. After hanging up she couldn't help but to sit back and take in what she was now a huge part of. She had met Iceberg on the first day of her mission. She had already infiltrated the Galley-Law company and became the bookkeeper without any sort of complication. So far the mission was far too easy that what she had expected. She even managed to run into two of her closest friend Kalifa and Kaku. Although they didn't acknowledge their friendship towards one another in any sort of way, it was still nice to be able to at least see them after being separated from them for so long. The silence was broken by a knock at the door. As she answered it, there on the other side was Kaku.
"But ho…"she tried to say but Kaku had placed a finger over her mouth and pushed her back into the house. He shut the door behind them.
"I followed you home from the rooftops," he said.
He placed his hand on her shoulders and stared into her eyes. Astrid stared back beginning to feel more and more awkward the longer they stood there in silence. Just as she was about to say something else, he pulled her in for a hug.
"I missed you Astrid," he said. "We all have, we all missed being around your antics."
"I'm glad that's the thing you guys missed about me most," she said with her face being squished in Kaku's shoulder. As she pried herself from his arms she said, "What are you doing here?"
"I'm here to fill you in on what is going on and what you should kind of expect going in."
He continued to tell her that every so often the CP9 member would gather together in the basement of the bar that Blueno currently owns to share details of their mission. Outside of those meeting, Lucci does not speak directly from his own mouth but rather from his pesky pigeon Hattori. Kalifa has managed to become very close to Iceberg as his assistant, but not close enough to where she can get access to his books. But with great convincing he was able to find someone he deems worthy enough to keep an organization to those books, Astrid.
"Other than that, there really isn't anything else," he said sitting back.
"So wait, he'll let a complete stranger he just meet become a bookkeeper of his books that he wouldn't let his own assistant touch? Don't you find that to be a bit strange?"
"Come to think of it, that does sound a little odd. Do you think he has a sneaky suspicion about Kalifa's identity?"
"I don't think so, I think he just doesn't trust her well enough. I mean look at her, we both know how strict she can be."
"That's true, but it still doesn't make sense."
"I should get going, before someone becomes suspicious about us."
The next day Astrid began her job as the bookkeeper for Iceberg. Her first task was to reorganize all papers and all books located in the office library at Dock 1. It took her several weeks to develop an organizing system for the room and have everything in some sort of proper placement. The next task was to repeat the same method within Iceberg's own home. During this process Astrid was sure to keep her eye out for these blueprints that Spandam has his heart set out to find. A month had passed and there were no signs of the mysterious blueprints. Continuously she would confront Kalifa and briefly chat in private about their current lack of luck with the blueprints.
One evening while Astrid was coming off from her shift she was approached by Kaku and Lucci. The two of them unexpectedly invited her out to the bar. Little did she know that they were all gathering to report anything that they had in the basement of the bar. It took several months, but once again all members of CP9 were together.