"Loneliness" ~~~~~ The rain poured from the sky. Wufei sat alone... Alone... That was his destiny it seemed, to spend all of eternity alone. Fine, if that was the way it had to be then so be it. He had been alone long enough now that it didn’t really matter anymore. He had always been the odd man out, the strange one, the quiet one who hated everyone. He it ever dawned on anyone that maybe the only one he really hated was himself? He was a failure and weak. He couldn’t save his colony and that made him unworthy of friendship or companionship in his eyes. That had to be the reason that all of the other pilots, the only ones that even came close to knowing how he felt, had paired off and left him alone once again. It was just to hard to even put up with them now it seemed. Sure, there had been Sally. She had actually been almost like a big sister to him, but one again he had proven his weakness the day he found her dead in her apartment. It was a gruesome sight. Apparently, Oz had found out about her connection to the gundam pilots and had tortured her to death trying to get information on their whereabouts. Sally only knew of his location and of course, she held out to the bitter end and took it to her grave with her. When Wufei had found her he had long ago shed all the tears he had to shed for the grave injustices of the world. He was now left alone to mourn in silence once again. ***** Ryoga walked along the cold damp pathways. He had been lost for days, lost from what he did not know. All he knew was that he was alone now and probably would be for the rest of his life. He currently had the form of a small black piglet, the one *she*, his beloved, called P-chan at one time. But now, those brief moments of happiness and companionship were gone forever, taken from him by the man she *truly* loved, and he, himself was now destined to return to the loneliness he had always known. Even as a young boy he had been left to fend for himself. It wasn’t that his parents hadn’t cared. It was simply they had the curse of forever being lost, just like him. It had been a good two years since he had even seen them. He wasn’t even sure if they were still alive and well. They were strangers to him anyway. He had never really known them, and now... Now, he could stay lost forever forall he cared. He had no real home and no real family. The rain poured harder now, soaking his wary body to the bone. He sneezed and his vision began to blur. In the distance he could see a figure, perhaps an angel, clad all in white. ~~~~~ Wufei wore the ceremonial white robes of mourning. He had vowed to continue to do so for the rest of his live. He felt he owned at least that much to his wife and his people, the people of L5. Wufei was brought out of his reveries by something moving in the grass next to him. He swiftly drew his gun, wondering how anything could possibly sneak up on *him*, and pulling back the grass to see nothing but a small black piglet clad in a goldenrod colored bandana with black stripes. The small creature wobbled on it’s feet and sneezed. It was shivering all over. Wufei scooped the tiny animal up and placed it under his shirt, buttoning his jacket to add extra warmth. He pulled out his rations, taking the last rice ball, heating it with a match, and shoving it in his shirt for the tiny pig. He rationalized it was an injustice for such a helpless creature to be sick and alone out in the rain. He carried the small bundle into his Nataku, shutting the door and laying on the floor, the little animal still in his shirt. Sleep soon found him. ***** Ryoga determined the figure in white to definitely be an angel. Not since or before Akane had *anyone* treated him with such kindness. He snuggled into the warm chest, and sleep soon took him as well. Ryoga slept a good five hours and awoke to realize he needed to use the little piggy’s room. Unfortunately, he couldn’t seem to find his way out of Wufei’s shirt. He rooted about and his angel of mercy soon stirred. He unbuttoned his jacket and pulled Ryoga out of the top of his shirt, a soft smile on his face. The boy had shoulder-length black hair and deep almost black eyes. His skin was smooth and dark, obviously Chinese. Ryoga jumped from his grasp and clawed at the door with his hooves before walking in a circle and sniffing about. He hoped the boy had experience with pets and would get the message. Luckily for him, he had and got up, letting the little pig out. Finding a spot to go was no problem. It was finding his way back that seemed an issue now. He wandered in the completely wrong direction and ended up lost as usual. ~~~~~ Wufei began to wonder about the little pig when it didn’t return in fifteen minutes. It had seemed to be quite an intelligent little thing. He began to worry about it. There were lots of dangerous animals in these woods. So, he grabbed his gun and went off to search for it. Unfortunately, Oz was what he found. Actually, Oz kinda found him. ***** Ryoga ended up tripping over his pack, in his expedition to find his way back to the angel and the giant robot. He felt great joy knowing he had a thermos of hot water in his pack. He pulled it out and was soon dressed and human, but he was still determined to find his savior again and at least thank him. He wandered around hopelessly for a few more minutes when he saw his tenshi surrounded in heavily armed men that seemed twice his size. The boy had his arms in the air in what seemed to be surrender. Ryoga wasn’t about to let this happen. He focused his sadness and torment into his chi. He could feel the pain surround his body in a large cloud of chi. He balled the chi in front of him and screamed, "SHISHI HODOKAN!!!" as he let it go. Half of the guards were taken out with the single chi blast. Several of the other guards turned tail and ran, and Ryoga disarmed the rest with his bandannas. ~~~~~ Wufei quickly drew his gun as a strange boy came and blew away half of the guards with his bare hands it had seemed. Before Wufei could act the boy took out the rest with some sort of aerial assault weapons. Wufei looked at his savior in confusion. Did he know this boy? Something about him *did* seem familiar. Wufei just couldn’t put his finger on it. Why had this boy saved him? He walked up to the boy, hands in the air, gun in one. "I am Chang Wufei. We should get out of here. More will return soon. Why did you save me? Are you with the alliance?" ***** "You can put down your hands, Wufei-san. I will not hurt you. My name is Hibiki Ryoga. I will explain later." With that, Ryoga grabbed Wufei’s arm and took off running. Ryoga was quite shy but it wouldn’t do to loose Wufei again. #Chang Wufei, what a beautiful name...# ~~~~~ Wufei thought this boy quite odd as he drug him along. He had so many questions but knew they would have to wait for them to be someplace safer. Wufei suddenly realized he had no idea where they were going. "Where are you taking me?" ***** Ryoga sweatdropped. He hadn’t thought that far ahead. "W-why don’t you take up back to your giant robot?" "Nani? *Back* to my... *robot*?" Wufei was quite confused. Ryoga could have slapped himself. *He* wasn’t the one there. His pig form was. How was he going to explain this? Maybe he should just be up-front about it before he ends up in a mess like he was with Akane. Ryoga pondered this for a moment. "Look, I am on *your* side and I saw that giant metal robot ship thing you have hidden. You see... *sigh* I am the pig."