I hope you like, and just bear with me, all will eventually be explained.

When Ashley and the scientist were thrown out of the glowing light that he had pulled her into she landed hard on her shoulder, and he landed on top of her. She immediately threw him off and rolled to her knees, waiting for the dizziness to subside before she tried standing. The scientist took a look around and gave a whoop of delight. Ashley stood up on shaky legs and looked around, trying to place where she was.

"Hey! Old Guy! Where the hell have you brought me?" She demanded. The scientist spread his arms wide and took a deep breath.

"To the future my dear! A wonderful, war filled future!" Ashley was stunned into silence, then lost her balance when there was a low rumbling in the ground.

"An earthquake? It's not like one that I've ever been in if that's what it is." She then stared in open-mouthed surprise when the source of the rumbling came into view. There were several massive robots heading straight for her and the scientist, who began to jump up and down excitedly, waving his arms to get their attention. And then there was a new rumbling, and she turned around to see even more robots heading their way.

"Holy shit." She said as these new robots stopped and faced the first set, her and the scientist in the middle. A hatch of some sort opened from the middle of the dark red mobile suit from the first group and there stood a man with the longest, palest hair that she had ever seen on anyone and wearing a uniform that she didn't recognize.

"Professor Venivici, you really shouldn't bring your dates to a battlefield, it isn't very romantic." Ashley nearly threw up at that comment. "Though the manner in which you arrived is quite unusual."

"I'm not his date, he kidnapped me." Ashley stated firmly as she stood up and brushed the dirt from her jeans. The guys eyes seemed to sparkle for a second, but it quickly disappeared.

"I see. Can you explain this young lady's accusations professor?" He asked. But the professor was off in his own world, happily exclaiming over the mobile suit. Both Ashley and the guy simply blinked at the oblivious scientist, then the guy sighed, pulled out a gun, and shot the ground by the professor. Ashley jumped and nearly screamed. She'd never heard a gun shot without ear protection, nor had she ever seen a person fire a gun so…so…coldly.

The professor jumped and screamed, then became very mad.

"How dare you! Do you have any idea who I am?"

"I asked you a question Professor. Why did you kidnap her?" The professor briefly glanced at Ashley, then got a glazed look in his eyes.

"Oh her. She was the key to make everything right. OZ was gone, gone I say! But by bringing her here I have brought it back! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Ashley stared at this guy, her mind whirling. Who was OZ? Of all the militaries that were in existence, that wasn't one that she knew about. She had absolutely no idea what to make of this situation, so she latched on to what, to her at least, was the only logical explanation.

"Okay, that's it. I have officially gone crazy and need to be in a looney bin." She said out loud. And then several things started to happen at once. Two of those hatches opened, one from in front and one from behind. One person jumped down from each, both with guns drawn. The one from the white suit next to the Dark red one pointed his gun directly at her, while the one behind her pointed his gun at that guy and pushed her behind him.

"She's a threat to OZ Chang, I will kill her." The first one said, his tone coming very close to making her shit her pants.

"If she's a threat to OZ then I'll protect her Yuy." Chang said, his voice just as deadly. All of the other mobile suits came to life, and Ashley swore that they were squaring off to fight each other. She started to inch backwards, then stopped cold when she felt warm tendrils run themselves through her mind, giving her a monster headache. She put her hands over her ears to help block out all sound and concentrated on her breathing, falling into a light meditative state that her mother had taught her. Not soon enough the throbbing began to subside, and the tendrils withdrew from her mind. She was now quite a bit calmer, but still freaked out. Chang and Yuy were still in a stand-off, neither of them moving or blinking.

After that she wasn't sure quite what happened next. All she knew was that there were very large explosions and that Chang pushed her to the ground, covering her body with his.

"Wufei, get her out of there!" A voice shouted from a loudspeaker system. Wufei hauled her to her feet and began running to his robot, dragging her along.

"What the hell is going on?" Ashley demanded when they stopped at the foot of his mobile suit.

"They're trying to kill you, we're trying to keep you alive. Anything else?"

"If there is it'll just have to wait." Ashley grumbled as he disappeared into his cockpit. She stood there, not sure what to do. All of this was happening so fast. And then she was being scooped up by the mobile suit hand and all she could do was hang on and hope the guy didn't crush her.

She screamed when the suit that was holding her was hit, and the finger loosened ever so slightly. It was enough for her to slip through though, and she barely managed to catch hold of the last digit. She hung on for dear life, squeezing her eyes tightly and praying to every God in existence that this was all a really weird dream and she would soon wake up from it.

She opened her eyes again when her feet touched the ground, and she saw that the mobile suit was kneeling on the ground.

"Try to find a place to hide." Wufei said. Ashley let go of the last digit.

"Um, okay." She said a little uncertainly. She then covered her head to protect it from the rocket blast as he flew off, and then just stood there, listening to the sounds of the battle while trying to get control of her breathing.

She sank down to the ground, wrapping her arms under her legs and laying her head down on her knees.

"This is just a dream. This is just a dream. Just a dream."

888

Wufei snarled disgustedly as the 'Ozzies'(which is what some of the soldiers in the rebellion had started calling OZ)abruptly left the battlefield, taking that crazy scientist with them. He was about to chase after them, but Trowa held him back.

"We'll get them another time Wufei." His friend said, his voice having a calming effect on the Chinese pilot. Eventually Wufei calmed down to the point where he was simply smoldering.

"Dishonorable cur." He muttered under his breath, and Trowa knew that he was once again complaining about Heero. "I remember when he would fight until he died or destroyed the enemy."

"That was a long time ago Wufei. He's with OZ now, and follows their orders." Quatre said.

"Exactly. He's a dishonorable cur." Both Quatre and Trowa shook their heads. This was an old complaint that they had heard ever since Heero had joined OZ, and would probably hear for a long time to come.

"Wufei, where did you put that girl?" Trowa asked.

"Right here." Wufei said and zoomed in on the girls hunched over form.

"Is she hurt?" Quatre asked.

"No, it looks like she's sleeping."

"Sleeping? How is she able to sleep?" Wufei exclaimed.

"Why don't we go collect her and you can ask?" Wufei threw Quatre a perfectly nasty look, which of course he couldn't see since they were in separate Gundams.

888

Ashley awoke to a slight shaking from her shoulder, and for a moment she was back in her high school English class and it was her friend Jess who was waking her up so that they could go to their next class. But instead of seeing Jess's mischievous brown eyes when she opened her own, she was greeted with on unfamiliar green one that was partially obscured by the weirdest hairstyle she had eve seen. She shrieked and jumped away from him, landing in a crouched fighting position. The boy was startled and she had caused him to lose his balance so that he was now sitting on his butt. She looked at his companions and found the Chinese guy from earlier, plus a blonde boy with an eye patch who was laughing his ass off at the boy with the weird hairstyle. They all looked to be about her age, and for some reason she wasn't as on guard as she knew she should be.

The blonde boy finally stopped laughing and helped his friend up, then extended his hand to her.

"I'm sorry that my friend startled you, he was just trying to make sure that you weren't hurt." Ashley slowly stood up and walked to them, though she didn't get to close. If the boys noticed this, they didn't say anything.

"Can you tell me where I am?" She asked.

"Northern England." She had a look of utter disbelief on her face.

"No way." She whispered once she could speak. "That's just not possible."

"How is it not possible? That's where we are." Wufei said.

"Because I was just in California, that's why!" They all stared at her, and Quatre sighed.

"I think that we'll be better able to sort this out after we've had something to eat, so why don't we head back to base?" He asked. Wufei and Trowa nodded. "Would you like to come with us?" Quatre asked Ashley. She sighed.

"I don't really have much of a choice, do I?"