A/N: This story takes place sometime towards the end of Gundam Seed, after Patrick Zala is killed, but not necessarily when the fighting ends. I suppose that mixes up the timeline a bit, but it is not AU. The timeline may become more specific later on.

"All pilots please board your machines!" The captain's voice rang through the halls of the ship as though she were present in each and every corridor.

"Already?" Athrun groaned, and threw his fork back atop his untouched meal. He had only just changed out of his pilot suit.

"It can't be helped," Kira said indifferently. He had become used to having to drop whatever he was doing to run off and fight, it was no more than an everyday chore in the middle of the to do list.

Kira turned and exited the cafeteria, heading for the mobile suit hangar, and a frustrated Athrun followed suit.

"Kira!" Lacus called from down the hall. "Can I have a minute?"

Kira allowed himself to be pulled aside and behind closed doors.

Athrun grunted to himself, but quickly heard his own name called. He looked up to see Cagalli coming towards him. This was odd; she never came to see him off. She felt that if she did, it was as though she might be saying goodbye forever. Athrun never did understand this mentality, but he went along with it anyway.

"Hey, what's up?" He asked as positively as he could.

"Well, um, I just wanted to come see you off." She said, looking away from his face.

"Oh, well thanks," he replied, a little confused, "but I'll be right back." He turned to leave.

"Wait!" She called loudly. "Athrun, I just want you to know that, well – you've really changed my life. After my father died I felt as though I had nothing. And well – I – I love you."

Athrun wasn't quite sure what he had just heard. Did that actually just come out of her mouth? He wished he could hit rewind and hear it again, just to make sure he had heard correctly. No, her expression said it all.

"Cagalli I – " He stared deeply into her bright amber eyes. God she had beautiful eyes.

"Don't say it unless you actually mean it," she interrupted, as though reading his mind. He wasn't sure he really did love her. He thought he did, but on the other hand, he really had no idea what the word meant.

"You've changed my life too Cagalli. And you've been there for me in a way that no one else ever could have been. You've kept me going so many times. I don't know where I'd be without you. I don't exactly know how else to put my feelings into words, and I don't really know what the meaning of love is, but I know I care about you. I've never felt this sort of bond with another person before. And for now, I hope that's enough. Now I'm gonna go out there, and I'll come back to you as soon as I can." He completely pulled that out of nowhere. As he moved away from her, he wondered how on earth he had come up with that. But from what he got from her, it seemed like enough. It was obviously better than just saying I love you back because she had said it first.

"Athrun?" A voice called from behind him. Athrun immediately recognized it as Kira. He turned quickly, still a little lost in his thoughts. "Are you ok?" Kira asked.

"What? Yeah. Sorry, just thinking."

"Well you'll have time to think later, we have to get going."

Athrun nodded and followed Kira toward the hangar. He remained in a sort of trance as he boarded his machine. He couldn't help but wonder if he'd come up with the right response. What if when he came back on board Cagalli wanted nothing to do with him?

"Pilots, prepare for launch," the voice sounded over the intercom. "X10A Freedom, please launch."

What if he'd upset Cagalli with his answer? He had always been told that girls never meant what they said, or they expected something other than what they'd asked for. Had she expected him to easily respond with a meaningful and genuine I love you?

"Kira Yamato, Freedom, let's do it!" Kira cried as his machine was catapulted into the air.

"X09A Justice, please launch,"

"What?" Athrun said aloud from inside his machine. "Right, Athrun Zala, Justice, Launching," he said in a less than enthusiastic tone as he pressed his foot down on the pedal. He felt a gut wrenching jolt and nearly sustained whip lash as he too, was launched into space.

"Pilots, we have detected two Nazca Class ships, and so far seven individual mobile suits and mobile armors have been located. It is vital that we break through this fleet in order to reach the earth's surface."

"Roger that," Kira said.

"Right," Athrun replied, having barely heard what the captain had said.

"Athrun! Heads up!" Kira yelled. Athrun glanced at his monitor, seeing a mobile armor quickly approaching from his left. Immediately his combat sense kicked in, and before he knew what he was doing, he swung around and retrieving his double sided beam saber with a lightning pace, he quickly thrust backward to dodge the enemy whilst swinging full forced down on top of the machine, cleaving it clean in half.

"Nicely done, but watch yourself, hey?" Kira said, just as he jetted off to engage two more oncoming enemies.

"Right," Athrun replied, making a mental note to keep an eye on his monitor. But then Cagalli reentered his mind. What was she feeling right now? Was she ok with his answer? Was she angry? Upset?

Athrun absent mindedly dodged a set of enemy bullets headed straight for him, and pulled out his own beam rifle to fire back. He easily hit two out of the three machines firing at him from a distance, and one exploded on impact.

The newly launched machines from the two enemy vessels quickly closed in around them, and Athrun continued to fight half heartedly. He couldn't get Cagalli off his mind. He was so sure now that he had come up with the wrong answer. Relax he told himself. He had been certain at the time that she had seemed satisfied.

"ATHRUN LOOK OUT!" Kira screamed.

But it was too late. Several shots had been fired at him from less than 200 meters away. There was nothing he could do. He made a last ditch attempt to grasp his shield and pull in front of his cockpit, but had only made it half way when the cockpit erupted in front of him. The screen exploded in his face, and then everything went black. The last thing he heard was a voice calling his name.

"ATHRUN!" Kira screamed. He watched in horror as the Justice's cockpit imploded from the middle of its body. "NOOOOOOO" He felt his intensity build, and there was nothing but protecting what might be left of his friend. He locked in on the five enemy units within a 1000 meter radius and fired, clearing the area of all life other than the battered, silent, red machine. Once he was certain that he had a second to spare, he slammed his foot into the pedal and jetted towards Athrun's machine.

"Athrun! Can you hear me! Come in!" Kira yelled, but to no avail. He could hear Lacus and the captain calling him as well, but no one got any sort of response.

"I'm bringing his machine aboard," Kira said firmly, grabbing the lifeless machine and putting all of his thrust forth to boost him towards the ship.

"Understood," the captain replied, "Commander Waltfeld, please cover him."

"You got it," The Desert Tiger replied, moving ahead of Kira only slightly, and firing off a number of rounds in order to keep the enemy at a safe distance. Kira had done a well enough job before hand in clearing the area.

His mission was simple; get Athrun's machine safely to the ship, then get back out there and ensure the machine and the rest of the ship remained safe. Although there was chaos all around him, his world was silent. There was no sound emitting from the lifeless machine in his grasp.

Faster he told himself. The quicker he reached the ship, the faster his friend could receive medical attention.

Finally, he reached the ship's hatch, and a ground machine was there to meet him. He carefully handed off the machine, and turned around to boost back into battle. The sooner he got through this, the sooner he could ensure his friend was alright.

Then there was nothing else. Nothing but the battle before his eyes. It was as though his mind no longer had any dimension, and the only thing contained in his brain was right here, right now.

Kira's eye piece descended from above, and he targeted four oncoming machines. At the push of a button, intense jets of light erupted from him machine, and the targets were silenced.

Slamming his foot into the pedal, he launched forward, eliminating a machine to his immediate right with his beam saber, and one to his left with his beam rifle. It was like playing a video game. Knock out everything in sight; nothing else mattered. As he continued to boost forward, he counted seven more enemy machines. Commander Waltfeld was engaging two of them, and the other five were headed towards him. Quickly making up his mind to go for the remaining five, he fire shots to the right and left of them in attempt to group them closer together. Once he had accomplished that, he thrust forward full force.

Within fifteen seconds the field was silent. Commander Waltfeld had easily taken out the last two opponents, and the two returned to the ship without a word. The tension was mutual. A common questioned lingered above both their heads: is Athrun alive?

A/N

So anyone who has read any of my other stories will realize that this is unusually short for me, but I'm hoping to get the next chapter up preferable today, but if not then in the next couple of days. This felt like a good ending point for the first chapter. I just wanted to get this part posted and "written in stone" before I changed my mind again, so if there are any mistakes, thats because it may have been slightly rushed. I promise to put aside more time for editing in future chapters.

This story just sort of popped into my head the other day, and I went with it. I have a couple more chapters planned, but I don't know how big of a project this will become. Let me know what you think! The more you guys like it, the more effort I'll put into it. So leave me a review please! And of course, if you have any plot suggestions, I would love your input!

Thanks for reading :)