Crossing Paths
Chapter 1
Void Senshi



A girl no older than 4 walked slowly down the street of one of 
the colonies in the L2 colony cluster. Her brown hair that had 
been put up in a pony-tail was coming out at odd angles and her 
emerald green eyes were red and puffy like her nose. The clothes 
that she was wearing were soaked from the fake rain that had just 
stopped coming down. She didn’t seem to be going anywhere in 
particular until she got to the bad part of town. Her breathing 
became quicker as she realized where she was.

The girl continued to walk when she came to a dark alleyway. 
After looking in both directions she decided that she would 
venture down it and see if she could find somewhere to spend the 
night. The alleyway was dark and damp as the last traces from the 
storm that had just passed dripped down the buildings. At the end 
of the alley was a broken down old shack and the girl, shivering 
from the sudden droop in the temperature decided that she would 
stay there for the night.

The girl walked in and found that several ratty-looking blankets 
were placed on the floor and on some well worn furniture. In the 
corner there was a small bed that had a decent looking blanket 
(compared to the others) and a pillow on it. She decided that she 
would sleep on the bed and then go looking for food in the 
morning.

While she slept, a group of young boys stopped outside of the 
shack. They were wet and out of breath but they looked happy. In 
their hands they carried lots of food. The youngest, who appeared 
to be only 5, decided that he would check to see if there was 
anyone in the little shack. He poked his head in and saw that 
there was a figure in the bed in the corner which was his bed. 
The boy walked in to check out the situation further and was 
surprised to see that it was a girl in his bed. He ran outside to 
get what appeared to be the leader of the group. This boy, who 
was obviously the oldest (about 10) went into the little house 
and stopped at the bed.

“ So what do ya think Solo? What should we do with her?” stated 
the youngest boy of the group.

“I don’t know Duo. She looks like she had been walking for a 
while. Lets just let her sleep for now. We can ask her stuff when 
she wakes up.” replied Solo with a wisdom well beyond his years 
that only came with living on the streets all of you life.

Duo made a pouty face but then smiled and went to lay on the 
floor for the night.

“I guess that this means that she will be getting the bed and 
more food ‘cause she’s younger than I am right Solo?”

“Well we won’t know that until she wakes up now will we. Just go 
to sleep now and I’ll look after her.”

“Hmph! Just remember that I saw her first” pouted Duo as he 
drifted off to sleep. Solo went over to the sleeping boy and put 
one of the ratty covers over him and smiled “I will Duo. Don’t 
worry, I will.”


Chapter 2

The mornings rays shown through the cracks in the ceiling of the 
shack to shine on the young girl’s face. The sudden brightness 
caused her to stir slightly which also made the bed that she was 
on creak. She looked around hoping that she was still alone but 
to her horror she was not.

About ten young boys were on the floor sleeping. She wasn’t sure 
just what was really going on but she wanted to leave as soon as 
she could. If she would have known that someone was living in the 
shack then she would have went elsewhere.

She got out of the bed and was about to leave when a very 
pleasant smell reached her nose. In her head she told herself to 
keep on walking but her stomach, growling with hunger, suggested 
otherwise. The girl followed the delicious smell and found a boy 
cooking what looked like would be breakfast for the boys inside. 
She wanted to get a closer look at what was being cooked when……

“You know it’s not nice to go sneaking around someone’s house.”

The girl screamed, went to run, but tripped and fell. She turned 
over onto her back to look up at her would be attacker. He was 
only about 5 years old and had a long brown braid. He looked down 
at her with a bright smile and cheerful cobalt eyes. The girl was 
so caught up in the boy’s eyes that she didn’t realize the 
commotion that she had been causing.

The rest of the boys in the house had heard her scream and ran 
outside to see what was going on. The boy cooking had also turned 
around and had started walking toward the pair.

The girl was still staring at the boy when her emerald eyes 
narrowed. “ And don’t you know that it’s not nice to sneak up on 
people?” There was an edge in her voice that surprised her but 
the boy standing in front of her didn’t seem to notice. He just 
continued to smile.

“She is right though, Duo. You should know better than to sneak 
up on our guest.”

“I was just playin’ around Solo.” the boy pouted but Solo gave 
him a stearn look that mad the other boys “ooooo” and there was 
the occasional “Duos gonna’ get in trouble”.

Duo must have also sensed that he was in trouble and put on his 
best puppy dog face that he could and looked up at Solo and said 
in a baby voice. “I’m weally sowy Solo. I won’t ever do wit 
again.” And to finish off his performance he held out his hand to 
the girl. “I’m sorry that I scarred you. I was just playing 
around.”

The girl just starred at his hand with the same scowl. She was 
still upset at what he had done and the fact that he was trying 
to weasel out of it just made her even more angry. “I’m so sure 
that you are” she said in a very sarcastic voice. With that she 
slapped his hand away, got up, and bolted away as fast as her 
legs could carry her.

“Well now you’ve done it Duo! Go and get her.”

“But Solo, look at her go….she’s as fast as lightning!” wined 
Duo.

Solo just looked at Duo with a look on his face that said “now or 
else no breakfast” For the first time Solo actually looked angry 
so Duo swallowed down any comments that her was about to voice 
and streaked away after the girl that was as fast as lightning.


Chapter 3

Duo was running as fast as he could but he had lost sight of the 
girl that had run away. It had been about 15 minuets and he still 
could not find out where she had gone.

‘ Man if I don’t find her soon, Solo will have my head!’

Duo stopped running when he heard a faint crying sound. He 
followed it and soon came to the wall of an old brick building. 
There were two bricks missing in the wall and Duo looked in them. 
In side he saw her. She was huddled against the wall with her 
knees to her chest and…..she was crying.

“Ano…hey kid? Are you all right?”

She looked up startled at his question. It had not occurred to 
her that her crying could be heard from where she was let alone 
someone would be able to find out where she was. The girl scooted 
closer to the wall and found her voice.

“Wh---who’s the—ther?”

There was no answer. Now she was starting to get scarred. What if 
whoever had spoken found a way in? What if they just left to go 
and get something to attack her with? Maybe they just left and 
they would not come back.

‘Yeah’ she thought, ‘that’s what it is! They just left and they 
won’t be coming ba-‘ Her thoughts were cut short as she heard 
footsteps coming closer to her. ‘ How could someone know how to 
get in here? It took me long enough to find a way in.’

“ Who’s there!?” she asked once again. This time there was a 
reply.

“ Hey babe. Don’t look so worried. It’s just me. Look I’m sorry 
that I scarred you back there.”

Soon the girl started to put two and two together and once a 
stray beam of light came through those two missing blocks in the 
wall and lit up the boy’s face it finally donned on her who it 
was.

“ Oh…. It’s just you. You should learn not to go sneaking up on 
people like that! I thought that I was about to attacked!”

“Look. I said that I was sorry for before. I didn’t mean to make 
you cry. Come on…..let’s go back to the hide-out and get some 
breakfast.” Duo held out his hand and waited for her to take it. 
However, she made no move to take his hand and she just looked at 
him in the eye.

“ How did you get in here?” was all that she was able to say but 
she said it with a stern look. “ Well? How? It was hard enough 
for me to find the entrance. So how?” She was starting to grow 
angry with this boy named Duo. First he had snuck up on her back 
at that place that he called “The Hide- out” and now he found a 
way into her little cubby-hole. She looked at his face more 
closely and was angered even more to see that he was smiling. “ 
WHY ARE YOU SMILING?!”

“ Jeeze you don’t have to yell at me! I was gonna’ answer you. 
Ya’ see this is where I come when I need to get away. Well I came 
to it more when I first became an orphan. I used to cry over my 
Mom and stuff but I soon got over it. This was the only place 
that I could come and no one would ever find me. I mean why would 
anyone think to look behind the dumpster for an entrance to an 
old building? By the way what’s your name?”

The girl was taking all of this in and was only vaguely aware 
that he had even asked her a question.

“ Ummmm It’s” she stopped and thought of the fact that she was in 
an American colony. ‘ I better think up of an American sounding 
name’ “uuhhhh it’s Lita”

“Ok then Lita. How about we go back to the hide-out and get some 
breakfast. Then we will find a way to get you back home.” Duo 
said this with a smile but when he looked back at Lita’s face he 
frowned. “ What’s the matter? You look all sad all of a sudden.”

She just sniffed. He could see that she was fighting back a wave 
of tears. “ umm Lita?”

“I’m sorry. It’s just that…<sniff> I don’t have….anywhere to 
really go back to. I just found out today that my mom and dad 
died in a shuttle wreck ( kk I know that they really died in a 
plane wreck but considering the timeframe I found the shuttle 
more appropriate) I was afraid that the orphanage was going to 
come an take me away since I don’t have any living family.” At 
this she let go of her restraints and started to cry. Duo wasn’t 
sure of what to do. He had always been the youngest in the gang 
and was always the one that was being comforted and almost never 
gave it. He slowly edged toward her and put his arm around her.

“It’s alright, Lita”, he said while stroking her back, “ You can 
always stay with us if you want to.” This seemed to comfort her 
more and she looked up at him with big red puffy green eyes.

“ really?” Her reply sounded so small and helpless that Duo had 
to strain to hear her.

“Of course you can. We are a group a orphans and we all lookout 
for each other. How old are you anyway?”

“Four and a half.”

“Cool then. That means that you will be the youngest and that 
also means that you get the most food and you get the bed.” This 
all made Lita feel a lot better to know that there was still 
somewhere that she was wanted. She was so happy that she started 
to cry again.

“ Hey don’t cry. Come on now. Let’s go to the hide-out and get 
that breakfast.”

Duo smiled down at her and she smiled back. With that they stood 
up and walked out of the building and back to the hide-out.


Chapter 4

As Duo and Lita approached the hide-out they could hear the group 
of boys talking and the smell of a freshly made breakfast greeted 
their noses. Solo spotted the two and walked up to them. He was 
about to offer them some food when he realized that Duo was not 
his cheery self and that the girls eyes were all red.

"We'll talk after you guys get something to eat."

They both nodded and walked to one of the tables that had been 
bade out of an old cardboard box and sat down. Solo soon came 
over to them with some food (a little bit of bacon and two 
apples) and sat next to the girl. He looked at her as if asking 
her to introduce herself but she didn't catch it. Duo did however 
and he answered Solo unspoken question in his usual cheerful 
tone.

"Oh yeah! Solo this it Lita and she is 4 ½ so that means that she 
gets the bed and more food." Duo handed Lita his apple and smiled 
before he continued. "She is an orphan just like us so that means 
that we can take her in. She can stay, right Solo?"

Everyone was now looking at Solo waiting for his answer. Solo's 
eyes went from Duo's pleading ones to look down at the girl in 
question. Lita had her head cast down and was spinning the apple 
that Duo had just given to her. He could tell that she was 
expecting him to refuse.

Solo looked up at the other boy's and saw that they all were 
giving him the 'please we want her to stay and we promise to 
protect her' looks. This made him sigh because they knew that he 
had never turned down an orphan before.

"Well I don't see why not. She is an orphan and that is all of 
the requirement that she needs. But since she is a girl you all 
better look out for her." Solo then turned to Lita. "And I hope 
that you don't mind becoming a slight tom-boy since you will be 
staying with about 10 young men like ourselves. We all look out 
for each other but we all also know how to fend for ourselves if 
need be. That will be our first task. After breakfast we will be 
teaching Lita some self defense and tricks of the trade."

Lita looked down at her plate with a thankful blush on her cheaks 
while the boys applauded and went back to eating. Duo turned to 
Lita with one of his Cheshire grins.

"See that Lita! You are already part of OUR family now. Oh and 
don't think that we will be going easy on you just 'cause you're 
a girl."

"Don't worry, Duo. I used to watch my dad teach a friend of mine 
how to do martial arts." Lita looked back at her plate, the 
thought of her father bring tears to her emerald eyes. " I sure 
do miss them. I wonder if Ken even realizes that I am missing?" 
At the menchion of this unfamiliar name, Duo raised his head from 
his plate.

"Who is this "Ken" guy?" " He is a friend of the family. He is 
about 10 I think. He would come over everyday after school so 
that my dad could train him. And while he was with my dad my mom 
was teaching me how to cook..well kind of. I was still to little 
to do much but I was able to help a little bit. And when Ken and 
my dad were done mom and I would set the table for them so that 
we could have a nice lunch. But Saturdays were always the best 
cause Ken would come over early and we would go on a picnic!" 
Lita was now smiling from ear to ear thinking about all of the 
good times that they had. " My dad always knew of the best places 
to eat too. I think that my favorite was near the lake in Juuban 
park."

When Lita looked around her she saw that everyone was listening 
to her story and that they all had shocked expressions on their 
faces. "What are you guys staring at?" Duo was the first one to 
come out of his shock.

"Umm Lita..where is Juuban? There is nothing like that around 
here."

" Ohhh that's right you guys wouldn't know. Juuban is in Japan." 
If possible the expressions on their faces got wider. "JAPAN!!" 
they chorused in unison. "Lita you never told me that you were 
from Japan!!! That means that you are also from Earth!!! If you 
are though how come you got an American sounding name?"

"I'm sorry Duo, but I just didn't think that it was important. As 
for my name well I thought that my Japanese name would be too 
hard for you to remember so I just chose the name that my 
American neighbor had always called me."

" You gonna' tell us your real name?"

" Umm well it's Kino Makoto"

" So your name is Kino?" Duo was really confused now. Solo just 
walked up to him and hit him over the head.

" You retard! In Japan last name comes first. Her name is 
Makoto!!!" He turned to Lita. "Isn't that right?"

Lita nodded " Hai!" She noticed that once again that they were 
staring at her with confused looks. " <giggle> It means yes."

"oooooooooohhhhhhhhh!"


Chapter 5

The days passed by and Lita seemed to fit right in. The boys 
taught her self-defense and how to steal without getting caught 
and in turn she told them stories about her family and even 
cooked some things for them. This all went on for about a year. 
They were always laughing and even Lita and Duo fell into a 
"puppy love". They were always leaving to go to their secret 
place under the old building where Duo had found Lita crying. 
Above the entrance you could see little carvings like hearts that 
said "D + L Forever" and even just Duo + Lita. Well this day was 
no different that all of the rest so Duo and Lita were in their 
little place and they were watching Solo chase one of the other 
kids through the two missing blocks in the wall when a group of 
soldiers carrying machineguns came up. The group of soldiers 
scanned the group of children and asked in a calm voice.

"Where is the youngest in your group?" This man appeared to be 
the leader of the group. Noticing that none of them were 
answering his question, the man voiced a different one.

" If you wont tell me who the youngest is then maybe you will 
tell me who your leader is. That way we can talk.. Leader to 
leader." The kids all looked at eachother when finally Solo 
steped forward.

" I am Solo, the eldest of the group as well as the leader. What 
is it that you want from us?" The Leader of the soldiers just 
smirked at the 10-year- old boy.

" Well then, I am Colonel Hiroyuki, not necessarily the eldest 
but I am the Leader. And I already told you what I wanted. I want 
to know where the youngest in your group is. Can you tell me that 
kid. Where is he!!!"

(I'm gonna' do a little bit of a character POV with Solo so that 
it is a little bit easier to understand)

+++Solo's POV +++

' He? I thought that Lita was our youngest. But..WAIT! This guy 
must not know that. He must be referring to Duo! I don't know 
where he or Lita went though even if I did...'

"I don't know where he is so go away and leave us alone!"

" Sorry Kid but I can't do that. Ya' see I got orders to take the 
youngest in your group to a friend of mine. So be a good boy and 
hand 'em over....or else!"

"Or else what? You think that we are afraid of you goons? Well we 
aren't!"

' Man I really don't like the look that this guy is giving me. I 
keep forgetting that they got gun with them. <gulp> Hope that 
they don't plan on killing us or something.'

" Fine then. If you really want to know what I meant then I'll 
show you. I guess that the doc will have to find another kid to 
do whatever he was gonna' do 'cause all these little brats are 
gonna' be dead!"

'Awwwww shit!'

+++ End Solo POV+++

Duo and Lita were still watching from the whole in the wall. Lita 
looked on the verge of tears while Duo looked like he was about 
to bolt out of there hiding place.

" They are looking for me! I should just go out there. I don't 
want anyone to die because of me!! You stay here OK Lita?" Lita 
just shook her head

" No you can't go!!! What if they kill you are something! You 
have to stay here! Please don't leave me. <sniff> I don't want to 
be left alone again." Duo wrapped his arm around Lita's shoulders 
when all of a sudden...

*BANG*

Both Duo and Lita froze. They turned to look out of there peek-
hole and Lita almost screamed but Duo had his hand over here 
mouth. He looked down at her with tear filled eyes and shook his 
head 'no'. They both returned their attention to the scene in 
front of them. There in the middle of the alley way laid 
Solo..dead..with a bullet wound to the head.

" HAHAHAHA! That will teach him to lie to me! Now for the rest of 
the brats"

There were a bunch of noises at once. The machineguns going off, 
the boys screaming, and above it all the laughter of the man in 
charge. Soon the only ones standing were the solders. And the 
alley way was covered with blood.

Duo was so outraged that he came running out of the hiding place 
not noticing that Lita was behind him. As he ran out he grabbed a 
dagger out of his shoe that Solo had given him.

"You bastards!!! How could you to a group of kids. You'll pay for 
this!!!" Duo's shouting had caught the attention of Hiroyuki. He 
smirked as he looked at the young boy.

"So there you are. You know if you would have come out sooner all 
of this COULD have been prevented. But please also note that I 
said 'COULD'. Oh and what do you think that you are going to do 
with that dagger, huh? You gonna' throw it at me?"

Hiroyuki started to laugh. Seeing this made Duo even angrier so 
he went to charge at the Colonel but Lita stopped him.

"Duo you can't! There is nothing that we can do. They are full 
grown men and we are not even 10 yet! What chance do we have?!"

"I don't care that the odds are against me!!! I will do what I 
can but I refuse to just stand here while the only people that 
were important to me were just killed before my very eyes!!!" His 
words make Lita stare at him in shock. She looked like she was on 
the verge of tears but she held them back. She had not cried 
since she came to the group a year ago and she didn't want to 
start up again. But during this little conversation the Colonel 
lost his patience.

"You should listen to your little girlfriend." Hiroyuki reached 
over and pulled the dagger from Duo's hand. " Now both of you 
will die!" Hiroyuki pulled the dagger back and brought it 
slashing in front of him. It was a good thing that his aim was 
off 'cause he was only able to cut the two across their arms. 
Because their arms were together both of their cuts matched up 
perfectly with the others in a straight line.

Duo opened on of his eyes to look around and saw that the Colonel 
and his group of soldiers were missing.

"What happened?"

"I have no idea but I think that my arm needs a bandage." Lita 
was looking at her wound but suddenly looked up. There was a 
group of people that had gathered at the entrance to the 
alleyway. A Nun and a Priest came forward ant picked up Lita and 
Duo and took them to the Maxwell church to live.

Soon after Ken, Lita's friend, came to take her to live with him 
and his parents in Japan so that they could be her guardians and 
Duo was left to stay at the Maxwell church. It was a year before 
Lita was able to come back to L2, because ken's family had moved 
there, to see Duo but she was too late. The Maxwell Church 
tragedy had already occurred and Lita was told that no one 
survived. Lita was so heartbroken that she ran to the only other 
place that was familiar to her..the alley. When she got there she 
was surprised at what she saw.

The alley way had been named " Blood Alley" because of the 
massacre of the young children. A fence was put up at the 
entrance to keep people out but she could still see the shack 
that the kids had lived in, the blood that was still on the walls 
( they had tried to rice it down but it would not come off and 
since the alley was just dirt, it had absorbed most of the 
blood), she could still here the kids terrified screams and just 
faintly still smell the blood.

"Duo where are you? I hope that you are still alive." Lita looked 
down at her now scared arm, remembering that day. 'At least if he 
is alive he will remember me every time he sees his scar. And 
when we do meet again, I will be able to tell that it is really 
him because our scars will match up perfectly!'

With that Lita turned around and walked back to the place where 
she and Ken's family had moved into, hoping that she would never 
again return to that alleyway and that she would one day find her 
lost friend...and love.