Five years had passed since the last war, but yet Cagalli found herself wondering whether some man would ever grow up, especially the one on the television she was watching in her office.

The blonde male in the screen laughed jovially, confusing some of the reporters that could surrounding him. “Let’s see… There’s a rumor going on that I’m in an affair with someone, is it?”

“Is it true, Mr. Fllaga?” a woman boldly asked. “We have unnamed sources that revealed, if I may quote their words, ‘the author of the best-selling The rise of an angel series was seen with one Maria Bernes’ in Sicily in July last year.”

Mwu shrugged. “July… Ah, I guess your sources are correct.”

“How come her name is similar to one of the characters in your book?” another reporter, this time a man, asked.

Mwu laughed again. “Well, the similarities are there, I guess.”

“How about your wife, the mother of your two children? What does she say about this?”

“Murrue? Honestly, I think she’s fine with it.”

Upon hearing that statement, the reporters began raining him with more and more questions.

Cagalli angrily pressed the button on the remote. “Remember, the television is innocent…. The television is innocent…. Must not smash the television...”

While they were still friends, Cagalli was still annoyed with the man for what he wrote in the books. The supposedly fictional story featured a hero by the name of Myo Acre as he fought against the Zeon Alliance, piloting the highly advanced Liberty mobile suit. Of course, no good story would be without some romance thrown in. Mayo found himself trapped between the love triangle between the ship’s voluptous captain Maria Bernes and the strong-willed Carrey Dinar, the princess of the Sphere Colony who accidentally ended up on the ship. In the newest book, Mayo found himself having to fight Zeon Alliance’s masked ace by the name of Geo. It turned out that the masked ace was his former wingmate by the name of Kuro Takato who was captured and brainwashed.

Cagalli could almost see how the next book would turn out. Mayo would probably square off against another pilot by the name of Jin Shizuka who would be piloting a mobile suit named Momentum and lost Liberty in the fight. But lo and behold, he would bounce back, piloting the new and improved Assault Liberty.

She sighed.

The ORB representative didn’t care much for the cheesy storyline. Perhaps she was in the minority since the books were consistently best sellers, prompting speculations that there would be movies based on them. However, she still couldn’t stomach the fact that Carrey Dinar, which was blatantly based on her, was so lovey-dovey with the hero. She didn’t remember being attracted to Mwu.

“Maybe I can still send to him the repair bills for Shizuka. After all, right now he’s rich and can afford it…”

“Lady Cagalli,” Kisaka’svoice interrupted her musing, “there are some visitors here to visit you,”

Her first impulse was to tell him to turn them away but then she realized normally, he would do that by his own accord. His announcing to her about them probably meant that she wanted to met them. Cagalli stood and opened the curtain to her office, letting more light to enter. “I’m free for the hour, so show them in.”

“Very well.”

A minute later, the door opened slightly and a small blue-haired girl peeked cautiously before retreating back. “I thought that we’re going to visit Auntie Cagalli?” her muffled voice could be heard asking someone. “She is not there, mom.”

The door fully opened, this time revealing Lunamaria and the girl. She looked at Cagalli and then at the girl. “See? Here’s you Auntie Cagalli.”

“But he’s a man, not a princess. Look at his… um… dress,” the girl argued.

“Sherryl!” her mother shushed.

Cagalli rolled her eyes. Even if the girl wasn’t a spitting image of her father, she would know; the girl had inherited his ability to annoy her with remarks regarding her way of dressing. However, getting mad with such a cute girl was quite hard and Cagalli found herself breaking into a soft smile at her antics. “Ah, you must be the Sherryl. You look different in person.”

“I am three years old!” the girl announced proudly. “Two years from now I’m going to enter kindergarten!”

The ORB representative asked a silent question at the girl’s mother.

“Athrun thinks that it’s better that we don’t treat her like a studying machine,” Lunamaria said.

“It’s been a while since we met face to face. Video call doesn’t count, off course. How long has it been?”

“Four years, I think. I guess everyone has been busy with the integration.”

“Yeah…” Cagalli agreed. After the end of the second war, a new federation had been formed, comprising of every nations in the Earthsphere. The United Nation Integration Treaty or known as UNITY strove to bring Naturals and Coordinators together, realizing that both have similarities; each had their respective strengths and weaknesses as well. In just five years, it had gone a long way with its efforts and many possible conflicts have been averted. However, that didn’t mean that it could rest on its laurel. “But I’m happy with the progress we made.”

“Oh, right. I forgot. Here are some sandwiches I brought along,” Lunamaria said as she handed a container to Cagalli. “Figured that you might like them.”

“You shouldn’t have,” Cagalli said but then her stomach betrayed her by making a growling noise. “I guess I should have one,” she said as she took a turkey sandwich. Taking a bite, her eyes widened but she continued chewing thoughtfully. “Isn’t this Mary Poppin’s?” she asked.

“Wow, you do know your stuff!”

“Of course! They’re to die for. But I’m surprised that you’re able to bring them here. Even the franchise here in ORB doesn’t do takeaway; something to do with only fresh sandwiches for its customers... I understand its policy, but I can’t be seen at the shop everyday as it would give the impression that I only like the food there and not at other places.”

“Well, that’s why I only bring you the keep warm special container.”

“But how did you get them to agree with it…”

Lunamaria Zala smiled coyly. “I blackmailed one of the owners and she quickly caved in to my request,” she said.

Despite her making the remark, Lunamaria was quite proud with her sister. Sure, at first she did have her doubt when Meyrin suddenly announced that she was leaving the military and set up a sandwich café in PLANTs together with Heine Westenfluss. For the life of her, Lunamaria didn’t know why she decided to do sandwiches. Mary Poppins Pizza or Poppin’s Burger did sound more appealing at that time. However, Meyrin once again surprised her by showing business acumen to complement Heine’s culinary expertise.

It was rather strange that both sisters were associated with men that could cook better than them. While Lunamaria herself do cook for her family and she insisted on doing so, she couldn’t quite match Athrun’s prowess in the kitchen. Well, fair’s fair as he sometimes couldn’t keep up with her prowess in the bedroom.

“Why are you grinning like an idiot?” Cagalli asked.

“She is an idiot, hun” a male voice said.

Lunamaria snapped her face at the sound of the voice. “Shinn?”

“Yo,” the said person said lazily while leaning on the main door, a file in his hand.

She noticed that somehow he had changed. The angry scowl etched on his face during the previous war was replaced with an expression so normal that it was unbelievable. Shinn somehow seemed likeable. “Where were you? We’ve been trying to search for your whereabouts for quite some time now?”

“Getting the file,” he answered thought it wasn’t the right answer to Lunamaria’s question. He walked to Cagalli and handed it to her. “I’ll be going to the convention centre to check up on the security preparation for the summit.”

“Thanks.”

Shinn didn’t move.

“Well?”

“I want my tip for being the delivery boy.” He leaned toward her.

Shinn’s body covered Lunamaria’s view but she didn’t need much to infer what happened. Of course, Cagalli’s flushed face after Shinn had retreated was a dead giveaway. Rather than bursting there and then, she waited until the man left the room. “Let me guess… Smart Aleck Deino?” she teased. “Or is it Alan Raptor this time?”

“Ha ha ha,” Cagalli laughed drolly. “Just for the record, I didn’t give Athrun the name he used.”

“But honestly, you have to tell me how the hell the two of you, well… I was there,” she said, referring to the less than amicable reception Cagalli got from Shinn when they first met in the second war.

“We settled our differences during ‘the Rimane Test incident’. Well, from there on… things progressed naturally.”

“Ah, I remember that incident. Athrun was involved as the commander of the new UN flagship and I was pregnant with Sherryl. The media was filled with leaked reports regarding full-scale training exercises but the terrorists were after mobile suits, weren’t they?”

“Athrun aren’t supp…”

“Oh, please, he didn’t even tell me that he’s assigned on that ship; only saying that he would be away for three months. I do have my own source,” “As in a sister who almost got caught once again breaking into the main defense computers.”

“Then I guess it wouldn’t hurt to tell you a bit then. Shinn was a test pilot for the UNMS-02X Skyknight prototype. Somehow or another he ended up saving my life.”

Lunamaria racked her head, trying to remember bits of information that she and her sister had read. UNITY government was conducting a competition to select the main mobile suit for its military force. As such, it had commissioned three prototypes. Beside Skyknight, there were UNMS-01X Thunderstorm, UNMS-03X Vanguard and UNMS-04X-Phalanx. Then, something crossed her mind. “I remember the other three… but there were four more mobile prototypes, aren’t there?”

Cagalli was quiet for a moment. “The four aren’t ours. Three of them were hostile and the last one… it was an unknown.”

“Unknown?”

“I was there at that time. All I can say is that the prototype has unique design uninfluenced by Alliance, ZAFT and ORB. The weird thing is that the analysis we got is that the unknown didn’t seem complete at that time.”

“What do you mean?”

“Skyknight, Thunderstorm, Phalanx and Vanguards, despite being prototypes, were complete in the sense that they wouldn’t differ much from the production models. However, the unknown was using weapons available in the second war. For example, we don’t know how but it was using a MPG 2-5-2 beam machine gun alongside a heat whip from GOUF. Even then, its capability is estimated seventy percent of,” Cagalli hesitated, “Strike Freedom.”

Lunamaria subconsciously put a hand over her mouth as she remembered a piece of information. Kira Yamato was involved in the test program as well, as a test pilot for Vanguard. According to the scarce detail, he had perished when the terrorists group attacked the test side. It also succeeded in destroying Thunderstorm and Phalanx.

Cagalli smiled bittersweetly. “It’s the first time he uses the ‘I’m the older sibling, so I have to protect my sister’ argument.”

“I’m sorry that I brought up an unnecessary memory.”

“It’s okay now. You know, he made Shinn promise to take care of me, threatening to… in his words at that time… ‘kick your useless butt to space and back’ if he doesn’t. Of course, Shinn said that at that time, the promise wasn’t really required as he wouldn’t even dream of leaving my side.” Cagalli blushed slightly. “That idiotic jerk… even now he can be pretty romantic and still oblivious to what he is doing.”

“Wait… You said that it was using Fallen’s weapon? Perhaps Cherubim…”

“It was destroyed in the second war Luna, you saw its demise. Of course, some crews managed to survive and one of them is Barzhakov.”

“So, where is he now?”

Cagalli shrugged. “You wouldn’t believe me if I tell you.”

There was a loud crash, interrupting their conversation. Sherryl had discovered the law of gravity also applied to a rare and expensive vase.

“They’re not biting, are they, Comrade Robinson?” a slightly older Barzhakov who was lying on a chair asked the man next to him.

“Guess not,” the former Confederation commander replied as he took a sip of lemonade. “But I saw you brought along some steak just in case, so I’m not really worried.”

They were on a small boat in the middle of the vast Atlantic Ocean, watching a flock of bird flew by in their migratory pattern.

“Typical of Barzhakov to be optimistically pessimistic,” Jacques heavily accented words caused the former Cherubim captain’s face to go sour.

“You forgot that I once kicked you off your own ship; it wouldn’t be hard to kick you off mine.”

“Ah, always seek to remind me of the good old time. Feeling old, aren’t we?”

“Damn,” Barzhakov cursed. “He no longer reacts to that provocation.”

“When you become a politician, Barzhakov, you learn to handle provocations worse than that, though you would be afflicted with blood pressure problems,” Mark remarked. “Talking about pressure, Jacques, how about the one the government is facing?”

“The terrorists are becoming more and more brazen,” the man said while taking a place behind Barzhakov.

“Hopefully the problems they are causing are enough to drive you to an early grave,” Barzhakov said.

Jacques kicked the man’s chair few times to annoy him. “I survived you. Besides it’s not really my problem now. You forgot that I’ve retired.”

“So, where is the unknown prototype now? I would imagine it appearing from time to time in numerous hot spots in Earth Sphere,” Lunamaria asked as she lifted her daughter away from the broken vase. “Oh, sorry about that vase.”

“Don’t sweat it. I don’t really care for that décor in the first place. Jona’s gift, thiking that he could buy me over at that time. Perhaps I'll have the fragments shipped off to his prison, you know, to make it more beautiful.”

“Oh.”

“As to your question, honestly I don’t know. Numerous unconfirmed intelligence sources have cropped up since the incidence detailing about the mobile suit as well as its carrier. For example, one source suggested that the name of the model is ‘Daffy’.”

Lunamaria laughed. “Come on. I already looked at the website. Even if you discount the fact that the so-called witnesses’ photos are doctored and the fact that they’re trying to suck the visitors dry by selling those low quality merchandise, there’s no way that the UNGARD is involved. Sure, it does sound ‘cool’ but I went to UNGARD and they’re still trying to improve their astroponics’ crop yield for heaven’s sake.”

Following the unification, UNGARD or United Nation Government’s Agricultural Research Department had been formed to spearhead agricultural researches in space as well as on Earth. It also had its own colony, GH-One that had been completed the year before. Apparently, the two wars highlighted a very undesirable side effect: population starvation. Both PLANTs and Earth had faced that problem in different stages of the wars: PLANTs had to change their agricultural policy after Junius Seven and the Alliance had logistic nightmares after Junius Seven drop.

Because of that, the colony was built as a neutral research facility as well as the producer of food supply. Since the colony was located on in Earth’s orbit, it would be able to rapidly drop needed supplies at areas that required them or in case of PLANTs, sent them via shuttles. Because of its rather unique position, United Nation decided that it was imperative that the facility be defended by a placing a small division. Even then, they mainly used quite formidable but obsolete Murasames donated by ORB.

Cagalli shrugged. “Admittedly, the carrier’s main cannons are dubiously named.”

“That’s the understatement of the year, considering that the ship ‘Never mind’ is ‘equipped with two ONION Blasters’. And you know what irked me the most? Meyrin is a regular visitor to that slimy website.”

“All systems green,” Elizabeth announced over her console.

“Wilhelm?” a male voice enquired.

“Er, what, oh yeah, sorry Captain Zala. UNCSS-01 Nemain, ready to launch!”

Nemain, the only ship sanctioned under United Nation Covert Strike Ship program, had its name based on a fairy spirit of the frenzied havoc of war in the Irish mythology. Unlike its indirect predecessor, Cherubim, it didn’t have any stealth system similar to Shadow Dancer or Mirage Colloid, and instead mounted a radar scrambler. Because of that, while hidden to radar, it was still detectable by visual as well as infra red sensing.

“Flood the underwater hatch,” Athrun commanded.

“Um… flooding,” Wilhelm said absently.

Exactly sixty seconds later the enclosure housing the ship was filled with water and the main door opened. Bit by bit the ship began moving out and into the ocean.

“Are you still playing with that website?” Athrun asked Wilhelm as the latter’s attention was transfixed to the screen.

“Yeah, I’m going through the sales log. It seems that Miss Hawke had ordered our newest product: 1/250 scale Dendrobium Orchis, High Grade edition” Wilhelm answered, either not knowing or ignoring the real meaning behind his captain’s question.

“Dendrobium Orchis?”

“He insisted that this ship be named that when it was built. Of course, no one ever listened to him,” Elizabeth remarked. “But since he’s the one who’s behind the toy line, well, he has the final say in what product we put up for purchase. As much as I hated to admit it, Wilhelm is very capable in that.”

“And the source of annoyance for my wife,” Athrun said. “Wanting to see what’s up with the website, she ordered a souvenir mug. I can’t still forget how angry she was when she got a singing mug featuring a purple dinosaur bleating out broken songs over and over.”

“It can’t be helped,” Wilhelm said defensively. “The product was out of stock. Besides, the replacement mug we sent her worth thrice than the one she ordered. I imagine that that at least your daughter would be happy to get it.”

“She did, which was why she kept using the mug all the time. You imagine having to listen to the same songs sixteen hours in a day, seven days in a week.”

“Sorry about that.”

Athrun closed his eyes, wondering the irony of life. There he was, captaining an unrecorded ship on its way to battle and his second-in-command was busy looking at a website. Granted, the website was set up to cover their secret by purposely leaking ‘information’ that was so outrageous that people wouldn’t take them seriously. But Wilhelm seemed a bit too enthusiastic about it.

Also, there’s the issue of the group’s setup. When approached to join the group, he had half expected it to be ultra-secret elite force that had name like ‘GosGru’ or ‘Splinter Seven’ and had underwater base somewhere.

Sure, it had an underwater submarine pen as well as other depots apart from the main base in GHOne, but it was still UNGARD, the agricultural department.

Of course, UNGARD was another front for the United Nation Geo-orbital Armored Response Division; the naming was purposely given to mislead people. Unfortunately, it had done its job rather too well, judging from his wife’s hatred over the website.

“Activating signal scrambler, surfacing,” Elizabeth announced.

“Fire Orion blasters just as soon as we clear the water,” Athrun issued the order. While less stealthy than Cherubim or Girty Lue, the ship nevertheless had a very unique advantage over them as well as other ships. It was capable of escaping the Earth gravity pull unassisted.

“Propulsion mode, atmospheric nitrogen conversion unit at full peak, backup xenon propellant standing by” Wilhelm said before turning back to his website.

The screen showed that the ship had emerged from the water and beginning to move upward.

“Orion blasters, full power,” Athrun said.

“Full power,” Elizabeth confirmed as the ship rapidly ascend to the heaven.

Looking through the electronic viewfinder, Mirrilia held still as one of her hands adjusted the focal lens. Once satisfied, she pressed the camera button and an electronic snapping sound signaled her that the shot has been taken. She changed another view and took another picture. While the broadcast and other media companies would certainly cover the event, her photos would probably be sought by editors.

They were in a frenzy to get as many information as they could on the concert that would feature both Meer and Lacus.

While she kept taking pictures, Mir thought about what the concert signified. While critics hailed it as reunion of the two divas, it wasn’t as simple as that. Since the end of the war, Lacus pretty much dedicated herself to the establishment of the new government, wanting to make her father’s dream of a unified Earthsphere comes true. She didn’t simply sing in a concert on a whim; the fact of her being there meant that she probably believed that her father’s dream was more or less realized.

That was what she knew, being friend of her. However, as she spied some of the hidden security agents, Mir wondered whether there’s something more complex than that. Especially since she noticed something, or rather two people, standing not far away from. She quickly made her way to that person. “Well, well, isn’t it a surprise to see the billionaire extraordinaire Terrence Shauzer and his girlfriend here. I expected the two of you be sitting at the VIP corner.”

“A true fan always fights for his or her own seat, not just buy their way in.”

Sammy slugged him though Mir could see that the force behind the punch didn’t hurt him… much. “This idiot is so engrossed with his work that he forgot to buy the tickets. Looks like he’s married to his work and I’m just a mistress after all.”

“But honey, I love you more than anything…”

“Then why did I found you sleeping with the hyper particlon accelerator last night?”

“Well…”

“See? You’re cheating on me even though we’re just a couple. I can’t imagine what will happen if we ever get beyond that”

Mirrialia sighed, wondering why she had to hear things like that. Raising her camera to take some more pictures, she asked another question to derail the couple’s argument. “So, besides making civilian mobile suits, what is your next project?”

As expected, the two of them stopped bickering with Terrence turning toward her. “Hmm? Someone paid you to get the dirt on me?”

“Oh, please. I’m just asking a common question. After all, everyone knows that your company,” Mir lowered her camera, “suddenly dropped out of the competition. Sure, your prototype Vanguard was destroyed, but so did Phalanx and Thunderstorm. Beside, UN Government did increase the three design bureaus budgets so that they could rebuild their lost prototypes but your company decided to pull out of the completion. You can bet that there are a lot of people who was puzzled by that.”

In just few months after the end of the second war, Terrence established his technology company and in just a one-year span had grew it to a respectable size. It was said that it was a real contender in the mobile suit competition that the United Nation held. So, it was unexpected when Terrence withdrew his company’s participation.

“How to answer that…” Terrence mused. “I guess we’ll continue on doing what we’re doing.”

“You’re not revealing anything with that statement.”

“Well, we’re working in the agricultural sector and in the near future, we’ll continue on doing the same thing,” Sammy clarified. “Unofficially though, our egoistic designer here is unsatisfied with the fact that Skyknight managed to survive whereas his inferior Vanguard was trashed.”

“Hey! Whose side are you on?” Terrence complained.

Mir wasn’t satisfied with the answer and would have asked more if not for the lights went out while the stage came to live. By instinct, her hands moved toward the camera but she stopped. There would be no doubt that all other photographers would concentrate on the very same event, so there’s no point in her trying to compete.

After all, which media photographer would be out of their minds not covering the reappearance of the famous diva and the senator of United Nation, Lacus Clyne?

“Ejection cockpit.” Terrence said suddenly.

The short statement attracted Mir’s attention to him again. “Sorry?”

“Though it’s a mature technology, five years being a long time, it’s not ready for widespread acceptance since the technology would require a reworking of current mobile suit design practice,” Sammy explained.

“As expected from my mistress. You do know my wife well.”

Mir had to turn her head away from the impending boyfriend abuse case. She was about to relax and enjoy herself when she was struck by a startling thought. The period mentioned by Terrence, it was during the second war. From what little information she knew the only mobile suit that would fit in with that description would be Fallen.

“Fallen was destroyed in the second war,” Terrence, who somehow moved next to her, said calmly.

“I’m surprised that you accepted my invitation,” a woman with smoky black hair said to her companion as they walked toward the stage.

“You’re making it sounds as if I didn’t want to accept your invitations,” the companion replied back, pretending to be put off with the statement.

“No, Lady Lacus, I didn’t mean that.”

“I know… I’m just teasing you, Meer. And I thought that we’re already beyond ‘Lady Lacus that’ and ‘Lady Lacus this’”

“But Lady…”

“Meer…”

“Lad… Lacus.”

“Good. I consider you as a good friend, and I hope you feel the same.”

Meer felt her eyes moistened, touched at that admission. She smiled and offered a hand which Lacus took. Hand in hand, the duo walked up to the stage. Their arrival was greeted by thunderous applause as well eye-blinding camera flashes.

“It’s the first time that we’re singing together,” Meer whispered.

“Yes, but I know that it’ll the best from both of us.”

It had been a while since Lacus had sung, so she felt a little bit of trepidation. She wondered why she had returned to the stage even though if someone had asked her few years prior, she would have answered that it would be the last place that she would go to.

“GOOD EVENING, EVERYBODY!” Meer greeted everyone. “ARE YOU READY FOR A GREAT TIME?”

The crowd cheered even wilder.

“AND I HAVE A SPECIAL TREAT FOR EVERYONE TONIGHT.”

Without being prompted, everyone shouted Lacus’ name. They then alternate between chanting Meer and Lacus.

Lacus finally understood why she wanted to sing to everyone once more. It’s not because of their calling out for her name, far be it for profit.

Meer excitedly raised her microphone while gesturing to Lacus. “AND OUR LOVELY PINK PRINCESS WOULD START THE NIGHT WITH HER SONG. WHAT DO YOU SAY TO THAT?”

“YEAH!” everyone shouted.

Lacus was surprised by Meer’s sudden announcement but she quickly schooled her feature and smiled as the music started. The reason why she wanted to sing was simple.

She wanted her singing to bring joy and happiness to everyone

“Just as the Intel indicated, The Destined targeted the concert in Januarius One,” Athrun said as the radar showed mobile suits moving toward the colony. “Ships?”

“Just two,” Malik Yardsbird, sitting at Nemain’s radar cum CIC console answered. A former radar operator for Minerva, he was among few crew members who hadn’t served onboard Cherubim in the second war.

“I just hope this mission is just hit and run as usual, because Daffy is out of commission,” Elizabeth remarked. “It’s Guardian and us this time.”

“Daffy?” Athrun asked, his mind instantly recalling the cartoon that his daughter liked to watch involving an infamous duck who always being outsmarted by a wily rabbit with nasal voice that always called everybody else ‘Doc’. The name would not really instill fear in its opponents should they know.

“Ah… sorry. Forgot that you just joined. “Daffy is just our nickname for Dämmerungsfee.”

“Dusk Fairy?” Athrun narrowed his eyebrows. “Wait… Is this the same one involved in the attack on the testing base?” He remembered an unmarked mobile suit attacking his ship during Rimane Test.

“Yeah,” Wilhelm answered. “We knew that you’re onboard that ship at that time.”

The newly commissioned captain of Nemain massaged his temple. It looked like he would have to read a lot of past mission logs to even comprehend what kind of missions it carried out. He briefly wondered whether it was also involved in the accident at the ammunition dump in Kenya two months before.

“We were ordered to cripple your ship,” Elizabeth answered. “But if I’m not wrong, the order didn’t prevent us from shooting it down too.”

Somehow Athrun wouldn’t be too surprised if the ammunition dump was destroyed by Nemain. Suddenly reading the mission logs seemed scary. He decided to change the subject. “Why Dämmerungsfee is out of commission?

“Due to its rather unique control requirements, we have troubles replacing the pilot.”

“What happened to the current one?”

The whole bridge was quiet.

“Maybe the best words to describe it are… ‘you reap what you sow?’” Wilhelm suggested with a twinge of a smile.

“I don’t think the commander will appreciate you making that comment,” Malik remarked. “Or do you have death wish on your list?”

“Makes me wonder too how come idiots don’t die easily,” Elizabeth added.

Athrun wondered how Cherubim weathered through the previous war with such an unruly crew. Perhaps he would better suck it up and rue signing the agreement to join UNGARD later. “Launch Guardian.”

“Guardian, going through the launch sequence,” Malik announced his screen showed that the mobile suit’s parts. Going though external diagnostic. Pilot’s 360X2 DBF interface, ‘Vue Divine’, ‘Tereshkova’ and ‘Plume de Lune’ working at fully acceptable range. Zwiling Lanze II, AURORA III, unit one to four at optimal condition. Guardian NOVA is a go.”

“Roger. Guardian NOVA, launching,” a male voice answered.

A second later, a white and blue mobile suit sped away from the ship and moved in the direction of Januarius One at a very high speed.

“Captain, we should ask the commander to use the Assault mode or at the very least the very least we should reconfigure Nemain to Bombardier mode,” Wilhelm asked a bit excitedly.”

Athrun look around the ship for help to answer the question.

“Looking at the situation, I think you better do what the previous captains did,” Elizabeth remarked without turning away from her station.

“And that is?”

“Ignore the idiot.”

The two Drake-class ships moved steadily toward their target: Januarius One.

The leader of the operation smiled. Soon, they would be in range to launch the nuclear missiles they had managed to acquire. Then, Januarius One would be no more and the flame will erupt; the flame of despair that will wash away all illusions and deceits the weak UNITY government perpetrated and will mark the path in which The Destineds would march. And march they would, until they took their rightful place which was to steer humanity’s future toward the correct path as the real Coordinators, not the weak minded cowards who had collaborated with Naturals.

Even as they protested and protested, the government had slowly increased migration of Coordinators to Earth and vice versa. Already, the vile propaganda machinery of that very same government had shown how Coordinators and Naturals had worked together rebuilding Earth and PLANTs. Slowly, but surely, PLANTs were being infested by the genetically inferiors.

That was why, as the keepers of Gilbert’s will, the upholders of Destiny Plan that emphasized genetic superiority, they would attack Januarius One masquerading as Blue Cosmos terrorists. Once they killed everyone, including the damned pink princess who led the betrayal, it would be easy to goad the rest of populous into thinking that the only way to peace was to enslave the Naturals.

“Captain, we have a hostile on radar,” the ship’s radar operator reported.

The leader felt his blood curdled. “Is it the silent killer?”

“No. The energy reading is different.”

He smiled. “Then launch all of our mobile suits.”

The sortie order was issued and soon, twenty mobile suits were ready to engage the lone target

“We have a communiqué through open channel,” the CIC operator announced.

“Put it on screen.”

A very well known face appeared, causing the captain to raise his eyebrows. “Well, well, well, if it isn’t the famous ace, Kira Yamato. It’s a surprise to see you here. I thought that we have killed you. But it's okay, we'll correct that.”

Kira’s face was neutral “UNDER THE AUTHORITY OF THE UNITED NATION GOVERNMENT, YOU ARE HEREBY ORDERED TO SURRENDER PEACEFULLY. YOU WILL CEASE ALL MOVEMENT OF MOBILE SUITS AND SHIPS. AS COVERED BY THE NEW DELHI CONVENTION, THIS WARNING WILL ONLY BE GIVEN ONCE.”

The captain laughed. “Do you think I fear your single mobile suit? You’re barking up the wrong tree, boy.”

In his cockpit, Kira only looked around him as all the mobile suits pointed their weapons at him. He shook his head. “You refuse to stand down?” he asked.

“Foolish words for someone who was about to die,” the leader replied.

He closed his eyes and sighed. “Then regrettably, I have no choice but to have all of you disappear forever.

Lacus lowered her head as the song came to a finish.

It took Meer a few seconds to finally compose herself. Looking at everyone else, she could tell that they were in awe themselves. Moving to the other woman, she whispered, “That was beautiful,”

Lacus slowly raised her head to look at ger, revealing that her eyes brimmed with tears. “Thank you,” she whispered back.

Caught by surprise by what she saw, Meer did the only thing she knew. She held Lacus in her arms, pretending as if congratulating her. “Forget them. I’ll hold you as long as you want.”

Lacus nodded and let her tears fell freely a few more seconds. Finally catching hold of herself, she wiped off the tears away and smiled. “I’m fine now. It’s just that I’ve finally sang it.”

“What was it?”

“A good bye song.”

Both of them turned and bowed toward the audience who broke into thunderous applause.

Amidst the loud din, Meer managed “I’m really envy you. Words couldn’t describe how it beautiful it was. May I know the song’s name?”

A smile, albeit a softer one, was still on Lacus’ lips. “To be in eternal madness…”

“To be in eternal madness?”

“Three years ago, someone told me that love is madness. It was there and then that I realized that I had lost to her.”

“All targets have been neutralized,” Kira reported as the last of his Zwiling Lanze pods landed on his mobile suit.

There was some regret on Athrun’s face. “I wish that it hadn’t come to this.”

“The price of peace is eternal vigilance, I suppose.”

“I’ve been thinking, Kira, have you considered telling Cagalli about you being alive?”

“Well…” Kira understood very well about what Athrun was trying to tell him. It was just that it wasn’t really easy to just suddenly waltz into her home one day and apologize for being absent for his own funeral. Cagalli would probably break his hand or something. Even Athrun’s reaction upon learning that he was still alive was nothing short of explosive. The man was still a bit protective toward his sister.

“Wilhelm suggested that you wear something ugly and come to her house during Christmas.”

“Ghost of the past? I don’t think so.”

“So, when?” Athrun pressed.

Kira let out a tired breath. “I’ll tell her on our birthday.”

“Everything.”

“Yes, I’ll bring them along.”

Athrun smiled. “Good. I don’t want to hear, ‘If only Kira was here’ or ‘I know Kira would like that’, knowing very well that the same person was one the colony, planting daisies.”

“Wheat, Athrun. I get the picture and will be there in time for her birthday next month. But please leave hints to her so that it would be less,” Kira struggled for the word, “painful.”

“Deal. Okay, the cleaners will take care of the scene. It’s time to go home.”

Home. It was where his heart was all the time and he would fight in order to protect it. A soft smile appeared. He’ll probably fight again and again but for the time being, he would return home to his wife and their unborn son.

“This is Kira Allster, message received loud and clear. Returning to the ship.”

1

Author’s note (13th July 13, 2008)

1. Sorry for not answering to the previous reviews as doing so will reveal spoil the story a bit. Now that the story is over, I’ll be more than happy to do so. Just as you will notice, I updated two chapters in one go, because well…

2. While I am happy to answer some of the questions, before someone ask me what really happened to the two, please reread the chapter above. The clues are there, though not really detailed, they are more than enough. You also may interested to know that while certain Asian communities that practice the bride marrying into the groom’s family and therefore adopting the husband’s family name, Japanese are also less strict (depending on situation) in that sense as the groom may marry into the bride’s family.

3. If you’re wondering why Guardian isn’t… thrice as strong as Strike Freedom, please consider this : in military dictum, firepower isn’t the only consideration and while it may play a very important decision, sometimes other factors will override it. That’s why we have jet fighters that have significantly lower firepower than bombers. If the military planners are so transfixed with firepower, all forces would have fielded strategic bombers, preferably loaded with nuclear weapons. The same argument can be used to explain F22 being chosen over F23 which is more stealthy. (F22 is more maneuverable). To quote someone, “Iya, pilotto desho.” or It’s the pilot (rather than the machine).

4. Nope. Not going to write a sequel. Kira and Fllay had reached their zenith and it’s always better to stop when at the peak. I would prefer to write something less technical than Fallen Angel that don’t require me to spend as much time reading through various scientific articles as writing the actual story. Yes, I do take some liberty with science, but not that much. Take my interpretation of Coordinators requiring more food than Naturals. Yes, I use same natural law why we require more food than, say, a snail (sure, that’s a gross exaggeration but you get the point.) Maybe I’ll write a Shinn x Cagalli fic next.