The Archangel of Peace

Extended Summary: This is a what-if divergence story that will focus on the relationship between Kira and Lacus. The point of divergence is that as part of the secret peace negotiations between her father and the secretary-general of the Earth Alliance, Lacus travels to Heliopolis as a courier due to illness preventing Reverend Malchio from being the courier for this exchange. Consequently, when ZAFT launches their attack she is also caught up in the events surrounding the Archangel and its escape. This story will be a Kira – Lacus pairing, other cannon pairings will exist. I expect the story to continue into at least Destiny.

Chapter 1: A Pebble Falls

Date Posted: 12/24/06
Last Edit: 12/25/06

Disclaimer: A reminder I own none of the characters of this story, all rights are owned by others. However, the unique circumstances of the story are mine. If you distribute the story, do only so freely and inform me of where you post it. If you wish to play in the universe variant that I am creating feel free, just send me a link to you story and give credit where credit is due.

Orb L3 Colony Heliopolis:

For the time, Heliopolis was an oasis of peace from the war that had broken out between the nations of the Earth and the colonies located at the L5 Lagrange Point. For Lacus arriving at this colony was like taking a breath of fresh air. Even though the PLANTS themselves had not been threatened since the Blue Cosmos terrorist attack that had destroyed Junius 7, there still was a constant undercurrent of tension from the fighting within the Earth Sphere. But here on Orb's neutral colony that tension was completely absent. And its absence warmed her heart, but at the same time she was slightly saddened by it was well.

Stopping to look in the window of a bakery, Lacus's thoughts turned more introspective as she tried to figure out why the absence of tension here in Heliopolis was bothering her. After all, Orb was an example of how things should be with Naturals and Coordinators living happily together. Breaking away from the window, she continued on walking. As she passed by a group of residents watching the latest news reports of the fighting down on the Earth, she was finally handed her answer. It was not the lack of tension that was bothering her, but it was their utter disinterest as to what was happening. Lacus of course knew of Orb's ideals and stated position of not becoming involved in the wars of others, but that did not mean that its government and people should pretend that the war did not matter. The war would only stop when enough people stood up and demanded that there be peace.

Peace that being what had brought her, the daughter of the PLANT Supreme Council chairman, Siegel Clyne, here to Heliopolis. She was here covertly to deliver a communiqué from her father that would eventually reach the secretary general of the Earth Alliance who was like minded in his desire for peace. It was their hope that these secret negotiations would eventually be able to lead to a cease fire and lasting peace. Normally, the reverend Malchio was her father's courier, meeting the Earth Alliance courier at his island home outside of orb. But a nasty flu bug had taken a hold in a couple of the orphans that Malchio cared for, preventing him from traveling to the PLANTS.

Siegel, like any parent, had absolutely no desire to send his teenaged daughter potential into harms way. Ideally there should have been no danger in delivering the communiqué, as Siegel fully trusted his negotiation partner and the exchange was going to occur at a neutral colony. But there were factions on both sides who were not interested in peace and would likely not hesitate to attack even their own people if it could be used to escalate the war. And as such, these negotiations were done in absolute secrecy. All the PLANT Supreme Council knew was that he was involved in negotiations, but that was it. They did not have a need-to-know to even know how successful the negotiations might be so as to avoid spooking the more war mongering factions into trying to escalate the war.

Even with a like minded negotiation partner, success of the negotiations was not anywhere near a sure thing. Each new day brought the potential that something might happen which could destroy all that they had worked for so far and as such Siegel worked under a time pressure so as to ensure that he could reach an agreement while he still retained enough influence to get the council to agree to it. And, it was that time pressure that forced him to send his own daughter to in Malchio's place. Even still his desire to protect his daughter caused him to change the rendezvous location from Earth to Heliopolis where she would be closer to home.

Her participation in the memorial service for Julius 7 provided the perfect cover for her travel from the PLANTS and the routing of her ship, the Silverwind, was conveniently chosen to pass by the L3 point. While the ship had not actually approached Heliopolis, they had passed close enough for a shuttle to secretly carry her to Heliopolis. As far as anyone on the Silverwind knew, she was currently indisposed in her quarters with a stomach bug, which would she would magically recover from when she returned from her little trip.

She had of course entered Heliopolis under a false name, using Sagara as her surname. And to further prevent any ZAFT spies onboard from recognizing her identity as well as helping her to sneak off the Silverwind, she had died her hair black. For Lacus this anonymity that her mission was requiring was also giving her the unique opportunity to be a normal teenager for once. As the daughter of Siegel Clyne and even more so as a pop idol, she never had the opportunity to enjoy a normal childhood – she was just too well known to be able to go anywhere without being instantly recognized by everyone. She was in no way bitter about the loss of her childhood as she very much enjoyed being able to sing and bring joy to others. But as she experienced anonymity for the first time in her teenaged life, she found that she was really enjoying it and was glad that the person she was supposed to handle the communiqué to would not arrive till tomorrow.

Moving on from the crowd that was watching the latest war reports, Lacus continued on along the road. With no destination in mind, she just let her feet carry her where they may as she took in the sights. While Heliopolis was an older colony model and did not have any truly distinctive architecture, Lacus was still quite enjoying her sightseeing. For her, just being able to watch Naturals and Coordinators interact in peace warmed her heart and she decided as she walked that her next song would pay tribute to this colony.

Eventually, Lacus's wanderings brought her to one of the many parks that dotted the length of Heliopolis. This particular one was down at the southern end of the colony, the end with the resource satellite. As Lacus entered the park, she had a strong desire suddenly to run and join in with the young children who were playing around. However, she restrained herself and instead simply walked over to one of the swings.

Unbeknownst to Lacus as she was indulging her childhood desires, events that had the potential to widen the war had already been set into motion. As much as Orb strived to remain out of the growing conflict between the PLANTS and the nations of Earth, a faction within the Orb Union government had gained approval for Morgenroete to develop military technology for the Atlantic Federation. And while this relationship was kept secret, ZAFT had, through its spies, learned of the program to develop the G-weapons. Plans had been immediately drawn up to both prevent the prototype mobile suits from being transferred to the Atlantic Federation and to further gain the technology for themselves. And now as Lacus swung on the swings while enjoying the energy of children playing around her, the plan moved from into its overt stage as ZAFT launched an assault on the neutral colony of Heliopolis.

'Huh, what was that?' Lacus thought as she felt a sudden gust of wind. Bringing her swinging to a quick stop, she stood and turned to look behind her towards the factory district, which was just a few blocks away, and felt her stomach drop. 'Mobile Suits? But, what are they doing here, this is a neutral colony.' A very confused and now nervous Lacus thought to herself.

Any hope that there might have been some good reason for ZAFT units to be here in Heliopolis was killed a minute later when the emergency sirens began to sound. Around the colony panicked citizens who had thought that the war would just pass them by began to dash to the emergency shelters, while outside the Orb Union Defense Forces did their best to fight off the attacking ZAFT forces – a loosing battle. In the park, parents did their best to calm their own children as they left for one of the shelters. Unfortunately, many of the children in the park were without parents. Heliopolis was a very safe colony and as such parents often let their children go to this park unescorted, which during peace time was fine. But now that the colony had fallen under attack there was no one who undertook the responsibility for calming the children, who were expecting the colony to explode around them at any moment.

When the alarms sounded, Lacus had moved to join in with the flow of exiting park patrons. But as she walked across the playground to the path, she saw that there were a large number of children who were either standing or sitting on the ground crying for their parents. Unable to ignore their cries, Lacus walked over to the nearest child.

"Hey it's going to be okay." Lacus said as she knelt down by the child. Reaching to give the child a comforting hug, she absently began to sing an uplifting song. And as she sung, the child's tears slowly stopped and he lifted his head from his arm to look up at her with hope filled eyes.

Giving the child a heartwarming smile, she stood up and offered him her hand. Then once he had taken it, she walked onto the next nearest child, continuing her song. Hearing her song, this second child also stopped his crying as his fear fled in the presence of her song. And from there, Lacus moved from child to child, adding each one to her growing group until there were no children left unaccounted for.

Once she had gathered them all, Lacus turned to face the children. Stopping her singing for a moment, she knelt down amongst them and said, "Don't be afraid. We are going to be okay. Now why doesn't everyone take someone's hand and let's see about finding a shelter."

Once Lacus received the tentative nods from her collection of children and she saw that everyone was holding hands, she stood back up. Taking a hold of the hands of two of the children herself, she began again her song and led them out of the park. Though this time as she sung, she purposely chose a song that the children could singe as well and by the time they had left the park all of the children were singing with her.

As they searched for shelters, Lacus initially tried to lead them away from the factory district, but as they came to one shelter after another she found that they were already full and that the occupants were not willing to risk adding even an additional child. It was not till they came to the fourth shelter area that they were able to find room for any of the children and then only two of the children found shelter there. But after that bit of good fortune, Lacus found misfortune where a large explosion had rendered the road in front of them impassible. Doing her best to not let her disappointment show, Lacus began to lead the group back towards the factory district. While there was always the option now that they were away from the immediate area of fighting to just wait out the battle, she knew that that was not a good option. The biggest threat to those in colonies come not so much from the actual fighting, but the possibility that the colony's skin might be punctured.

'At least the children no longer seem to be scared even though we are heading back towards the fighting.' Lacus thought to herself as she began to walk up to another shelter. "Excuse me, but do you have any space available?" Lacus asked as she activated the communication console.

"Yes we have room for one more person." The reply came.

"Who wants to go in this shelter?" Lacus asked the children as she turned back to them. However, to her surprise not one of them replied. "How about you? Why don't you go?" Lacus suggested to one of the younger children.

"No wanna. Stay with you." The little child said as she shook her head while walking forward and grabbing a hold of Lacus's dress with her little fingers.

Kneeling down to unpeel the child's fingers, Lacus stopped as she saw the little girl's eyes. The feelings reflected in them broke her resolve. Sighing instead Lacus turned and looked at the rest of the children and asked, "Do all of you want to stay with me?"

When she got the affirmative nods, she stood back up. She knew what she was about to do was very foolish, but part of her just could not let go of the children. Walking back up to the console, she activated it a second time. "I have a lot of little children; do you think you might take more than one?" Lacus asked, hoping that maybe if they would take more than one then she could convince the children to go.

"Sorry we don't have the room. We are already overfilled as it is." The voice came back.

"Thanks for your offer of taking one of them, but I am afraid that we are just going to have to try the next set of shelters." Lacus said before leaving the shelter's entrance. Then rejoining the children, she reached out her arms to take their hands and resumed their search for a shelter.

OoOoOoOoOoOo

Not far from where Lacus was unknowingly leading her army of children, Kira Yamato was receiving a crash course in mobile suit operation as he fought for his life against one of the attacking ZAFT units. While some of his research work at college involved mobile suit design, in particular OS development, he had never piloted one before today. But thankfully for him, the Morgenroete "engineer" that he had appropriated this suit from, and his friends who had strayed too close to the current battle, he was a quick study. Having now finished rewriting the pathetic excuse for an OS that Morgenroete had originally installed, Kira began to examine what options this unit had in the ways of weapons, hoping to find something before his luck ran out.

"What only Armor Schneiders?" Kira exclaimed as he saw the results of his weapons' query. 'How do they expect to do anything with only those two items as weapons?' he wondered as he dodged out of another attack.

With no other option, Kira activated the Armor Schneiders, which were stored in the hip armor of his suit. Once the suit had retrieved them, maneuvered his suit into position and then rushed the enemy suit. Dodging low under another attack, he brought his suit up at the last moment while slamming one of the "knifes" into the chest of the enemy unit. The force of impact drove the blade through both the cockpit and the protective shielding that protected the battery pack.

Stepping back from the enemy suit, Kira's eyes instinctively moved to scanning the various camera displays to make sure that there was not a second threat. Finding none, he started to give a sigh of relief that was quickly cut short as he noticed the warning signs of a cascade battery failure in the suit he had just taken out. Reacting so as to move his own suit out of the way, his breath caught as he noticed a group of children on the other side of the failing GINN. 'They are all going to be killed!' He mentally yelled.

OoOoOoOoOoOo

In searching for a shelter with sufficient space for her charges, Lacus had lost track of where they were wandering and had ended up getting a whole lot closer to the battle than she would have wanted. She only realized how close they had gotten when the sound of a rapid firing Gatling gun ripped through the air. Looking up, she was startled to see that they were practically right on top of the two battling mobile suits. Around her the children whimpered and when one of suits backed into a building, destroying it, her song died on her lips. Now no better than the children, she watched the ensuing mayhem as fear riveted her feet to the ground.

Lost to their fear, the group could only cluster together as they watched the battle unfold. When the blue suit jabbed its Armor Schneider through the chest of the other suit some of the kids hid their heads in Lacus's dress. If she had been her right mind, she might have tried to get them away from the battle, but as it was they remained standing fully exposed to the pending explosion.

But then to their startled surprise the blue suit lunged forward towards them. Startled by the suit's sudden movement, Lacus's eyes went wide in fear, sure that the pilot was going to kill them. And even though it would make no difference, Lacus tried to shield the children with her body pulling as many of them in front of her as she turned her back to the suit. As such she heard but did not see the damaged GINN explode.

"Shh… it's okay." Lacus said trying to calm the children following the explosion before standing back upright and turning to look behind her. As she regarded the blue suit, she noted how it had likely saved their life as outside of the cone of shelter from that suit, the area was torn up by the shrapnel of the detonating suit.

Amazed and knowing that she owed the pilot of this suit thanks, Lacus watched as the pilot maneuvered the suit so that it was resting with one knee on the ground. Behind her the children who were already forgetting their fear and developing amazement at seeing a mobile suit up close in person formed a pyramid of bodies behind her as they each wanted to get a look at the suit but also wanted to just peak out from behind someone else.

Lacus was wondering if she should approach the suit when a gentle voice that sounded much too young to be a pilot of a war machine asked, "Are you okay?"

The pilot, however, did not wait for Lacus to respond. Instead, after asking the question he released the cockpit seals. For Kira, he was glad now that his time as a mobile suit pilot was over and especially glad that he had managed to save the children. But as much as he wanted to get out of this suit as fast as possible, he patiently waited for the cockpit to fully open, as he after all had a wounded engineer that he needed to help down.

When Lacus saw that the pilot appeared to be trying to remove someone else from the cockpit, she walked over to the suit. As she got closer, she was surprised to see that neither the pilot, who appeared to be about her age, nor the other person were dressed in Orb military uniforms. Putting aside that question for the moment, she held her arms up as Kira started to reach the ground so that she could help him with the unconscious engineer. With her help the two of them were able to get bring the engineer to some shade beside one of the buildings.

"What's wrong with her?" Lacus asked once they had placed Murrue Ramius down.

"She was shot during the attack." Kira replied as he knelt down to check Murrue's pulse.

Now even more concerned over the health of this engineer, Lacus turned to the children who had followed her as she helped Kira. Then speaking to the two who appeared to be the eldest, she said, "Could tho two of you go together and see if you could find us a first aid kit? But if you don't find one quickly just come on back."

"'Kay" the two of them replied before running off down one of the streets.

Watching them go, Lacus thought, 'I hope that they will be okay.' before turning back to help with the patient. Deciding to first introduce herself to her savior she said with a large smile, "My name's Lacus Sagara. Thank you again very much for saving our lives."

Hearing Lacus speak, Kira looked up from the unconscious woman and looked at Lacus for the first time. Blushing from her radiant smile, Kira replied, "It was nothing. I could not let you get hurt." And then after a moment he added, "Oh and my name is Kira Yamato."

"Well thank you again Kira. If it had not been for you, I don't know what would have happened to me and these children."

With Lacus's thanks, his annoyance over being knocked into the cockpit of this prototype suit and forced to fight to save his life vanished. Somehow he felt that it was all worth it to receive this girl's thanks. "Do you know anything about treating gunshot wounds?" Kira finally asked a few moments later, reverting to the task at hand as he was unsure of what to say to such a cute girl.

Shaking her head, Lacus in a slightly deflated voice said, "No, but I think we probably need to get to her wound so that we can clean and bandage it."

With that said, Lacus and Kira worked together to carefully remove the jacket component of Murrue's Morgenroete coveralls. Once that was done, Kira used a pocket knife of his to cut away the shirt where the bullet had entered.

"How did you end up with so many children?" Kira asked when it became apparent that they could not do anything more until they got a first aid kit.

"They were in the park when the sirens sounded and they had no one to look after them." Lacus replied.

"They were lucky then to have you." Kira replied as he gave Lacus a smile that told her that he felt that what she had done for these children was even more important than what he had done.

"Than…"

"Kira!" came the yell of Miriallia as she spied Kira, cutting off Lacus.

Turning to look in the direction of the shout, Kira and Lacus saw that the two kids that Lacus had sent out looking for a first aid kit had apparently hooked up with Kira's friends. Relieved that his friends were okay, Kira, with Lacus following, stood and headed over to greet his friends.

OoOoOoOoOoOo

L3 Colony Heliopolis

Beside the Strike

Slowly Murrue Ramius, a lieutenant in the Atlantic Federation military, began to regain consciousness. As she lay on the ground, she tried to remember what had happened while part of her absently noted the light breeze. It was not till she heard a young voice ask, "So this is a real mobile suit?" that her military training kicked in and she regained full use of her faculties. Opening her eyes, she moved to get up so that she could secure the one surviving G-weapon from the civilians. However, she was not able to raise her back any farther than a couple of inches off the ground before a hand gently but very firmly pushed her back down.

"Careful there, you are hurt." A girl's voice informed her.

Turning in the direction of the voice, Murrue saw a teenaged girl with a concerned expression. "It's okay, I'll be alright." Murrue said knowing that securing the suit was her first priority.

"Then let us at least help you." A male voice from her other side and Murrue felt a helping hand reach around to her back.

Once both Kira and Lacus had helped her to sit up, she turned to the boy and said, "Thank you." 'At least he is still here that should make things easier.' Murrue thought to herself as she realized that Kira was the boy who had piloted the Strike, as protocol dictated detaining all unauthorized personal who had come into contact with any of the G weapons.

Then remembering what had gotten her moving in the first place, Murrue surprised her two caregivers as she suddenly stood up and called over to the kids who were playing around the mobile suit. "Get away from that machine. It is highly classified." And when there was no other response to her words others than some of them briefly turning to look at her, she pulled out her gun, loaded a round, and pointed it at the group.

Seeing the gun, both Kira's and Lacus's eyes went wide, not so much for Kira's friends but for all of the little kids who had of course moved to investigating the "cool" machine that had saved them. "What do you think you are doing?" Kira yelled at Murrue as his arm shot out and knocked the gun free of her hand. Hitting the ground, the chambered round discharged with a loud crack, instantly grabbing everyone's attention. Thankfully, though, through fortuitous luck the round discharged in a safe direction.

"What do you think you are doing kid? You could have seriously hurt someone with that stunt!" Murrue exclaimed as she rounded on Kira, the Strike no longer foremost on her mind.

"But you were the one who pulled the gun on the children." Kira retorted.

"Yes, but I knew what I was doing. You could have easily killed one of them if gun had discharged in just a slightly different direction."

"Why did you bring out your gun in the first place? The children have done nothing to you?" Lacus asked trying to diffuse the building argument between Kira and the engineer.

"I am Lieutenant Murrue Ramius with the Atlantic Federation and that mobile suit is a highly classified project of the Earth Alliance. It is not something that civilians should be playing around with."

"What is the Earth Alliance doing here? Orb is not part of your war. You're the reason why ZAFT attacked aren't you?" Kira said accusing Murrue.

"Kira, ZAFT is as much at fault for attacking your colony." Lacus said trying to calm Kira. While her voice was soothing inside she was very much upset at the actions of ZAFT, as she could not think of any justification for violating the neutrality of this colony and especially for fighting inside of the colony. "The question is what do we do now."

Hearing Lacus's words and remembering again about the children, Kira let his anger deflate. She was right after all, how this started did not matter right now, what mattered was what they were going to do now.

"You have all been exposed to highly classified material and as such I will have to detain all of you." Murrue explained.

At first Kira was going to complain about the unfairness of the situation, but then as he thought about how best to make this Earth Alliance officer understand, he realized that maybe for now this was the best option. In looking over at the others while he thought, his eyes had caught site of the mobile suit and his mind had flashed back over the preceding battle. In particular, he had remembered first seeing his friends run along the street trying to get out of the way of the battle and then Lacus and her children. And with having remembered those two memories he had realized that he still needed that mobile suit no matter how much he might dislike what it stood for. "We will stay, under the condition that you let me pilot the GUNDAM should I need it to protect my friends." Kira said after a few moments in which he came to his decision.

"Gundam?" Murrue asked, confused as to what Kira was referring to.

"Your mobile suit." Kira said as he gestured over to the Strike clarifying what he was referring.

'Hmm… I do remember seeing something like that when the OS booted.' Murrue thought to herself before moving on to contemplate Kira's offer. While ideally she should prevent any further exposure of classified material to these kids, with the current situation that just really wasn't possible. Her best option for maintaining possession of the Strike ironically was to relinquish it into the hands of this kid. The previous battle had shown had incompetent she was in piloting it and conversely how skilled he was. "Okay that is reasonable for now. I am Murrue what is your name?" Murrue asked as she held out her hand.

"I'm Kira, Kira Yamato" Kira said as he took Murrue's hand.

"And I am Lacus Sagara; it is a pleasure to meet you." Lacus said.

OoOoOoOoOoOo

L3 Colony Heliopolis

Archangel – Mobile Suit Hanger

Sometime later and following a second firefight, both Kira and Lacus were starting to have very dim views of the ZAFT commander in charge of this operation. While in truth the second battle had only involved one ZAFT mobile suit, it was quite apparent that its pilot had purposely entered the colony, for what reason neither Kira nor Lacus knew. And while it was Kira who had been the one to blow a hole in the colony's side, Lacus could not blame him, he was not the trained mobile suit pilot. At least an Earth warship had also been hidden in the factory hangers and its appearance into the colony proper had finally scared off the enemy suit, at least for the moment.

While Kira was a bit flabbergasted to see a warship blast its way into the center of the colony, he was at the same time relieved to see it. At minimum, the children and his friends would be able to find refuge aboard it. Once the Archangel had landed and a chain of command had been established on the severely undermanned ship, Lacus was given permission to bring the kids on board into the mobile suit hanger while Kira and his friends were conscripted into helping to recover what was salvageable from the Morgenroete facilities.

Now finished with helping to load the supplies, Kira maneuvered the Strike into its docking bay. Once the clamps had secured themselves to the exoskeleton, he powered down the system, hoping that this would finally be the last time that he had to enter this cockpit. Now that it was onboard its ship, there had to be regular pilots for it and he, his friends, Lacus and her collected children would finally be able to go home.

When he lowered himself down from the suit's cockpit a few minutes later, it was into the middle of a crowd of Atlantic Federation personal who had gathered in the docking bay to see this miraculous suit and its ace pilot. Expecting to see an Earth Alliance pilot, they were all surprised when a civilian kid lowered himself down from the suit.

Putting two and two together, Mu La Flaga decided to step forward and to break the ice. He highly suspected that this kid was a Coordinator and unlike much of the brass in the Atlantic Federation he had no problems with Coordinators and he hoped that the crew would be smart enough not to take issue either. But at the same time he knew that if this kid was one, then they had best get that out in the open first.

Reaching out a hand in friendship, Mu said, "Great flying there kid."

"I just did what needed to be done to protect all of my friends." Kira said and as he said that his eyes caught those of Lacus, letting the black haired girl know that he included her amongst his friends as well.

Nodding his head, Mu asked in an offhand manner "You're a coordinator aren't you?"

"That's right. I am a first generation coordinator." Kira replied

His reply was met by gasps amongst many of the rank and file crew members of the Archangel and they quickly withdrew their weapons and pointed them Kira's way. As they did so, Ensign Badgiruel looked at Ramius who was now in command of the Archangel for orders, wanting to know if they needed to suit this Coordinator as a spy or to escort him down to the brig.

"What are you doing, so what if he is a Coordinator? He's still Kira." Tolle exclaimed at the soldiers.

"And he just saved all of you by piloting that mobile suit." Sai added.

Not to be out down by those two friends, the children who had also been brought onboard, started yelling "No, No!" having realized that these new people wanted to do something bad to Kira.

Watching this all unfold Lacus felt the same disbelief over what was happening. She could not believe that after what he had done to help them that these soldiers would now consider him a threat. As Tolle and the rest of Kira's friends tried to convey understanding to the Atlantic Federation soldiers by staring at them, Lacus briskly walked over to Kira. Then placing herself in front of him, she held out her arms so as to shield Kira from any shots that might be fired with her own body. While the crew did not notice what Lacus was doing until she put her arms out, many of the children saw her move and followed her and then proceeded to replicate her actions.

'Wow he already has quite a following.' Mu thought to himself as gave a chuckle while reaching up so as to sheepishly scratch the back of his hand. "Oops, did not mean to create such a commotion. I was just curious given that the specially trained pilots were barely able to get those mobile suits to move."

"Stand down, Kira Yamato is guest." Lieutenant Ramius said as Mu comment broke the tension his previous question had caused.

"But Lieutenant." Badgiruel interdicted.

"I know Ensign, but Mr. Yamato is not a threat to us." Ramius replied and with that reply, the weapons were safed and returned to their holsters as Kira and his friends breathed a sigh of relief.

As Kira gave Mu a smile indicating that he did not harbor any hard feelings for the question, he also reached forward and placed his hands on Lacus's forearms so as to direct them back down to her side. Then with her arms down, he took a step to the left and forward so that he stood beside Lacus, though as he did so, he absently left his right hand on Lacus's right arm. Once he stood beside Lacus he said, "I am not interested in your war. I fought simply to protect my friends and the children."

"And that is the way it should be." Mu said before momentarily giving Murrue a look that indicated that there were some things that needed to be discussed now.

Seeing the look that Mu sent her way, Murrue nodded her head and then addressing Badgiruel she said, "Ensign, please take charge of readying the ship for a second attack. ZAFT is bound to be back before long and with a stronger force. Also please have someone show these children to some quarters, they have been exposed to the classified material and for now they will have to come with us. Lieutenant La Flaga will take care of Mr. Yamato and his companion shortly; the four of us have some things to discuss first."

"Ma'am" Badgiruel replied as she saluted Ramius before moving to carryout her orders.

Then turning to regard Kira and Lacus, Ramius said, "Why don't the four of us retire to the captain's quarters so as to discuss what we do next." 'Hmm… wonder why the two of them are blushing like that?' Ramius thought to herself as she noticed the red faces and how Lacus and Kira were now standing more ram rod than they had before.

OoOoOoOoOoOo

L3 Colony Heliopolis

Archangel – Captain's Quarters

"I would offer you some refreshments, but I don't think that there are any here to offer, this ship hasn't even been commissioned." Ramius said as she led them over towards the desk is the office portion of what was now her quarters. Taking a seat behind the desk, she indicated to Kira and Lacus that they should be seated as well. For his part Mu decided to lean against one of the walls with his arms crossed in front of his chest.

Having an idea of why La Flaga had suggested this meeting, Ramius began with, "Lieutenant what is the status of your mobile armor?"

"Inoperable. While the damage should be repairable with the facilities that we have aboard this ship, it cannot be used without a few hours of repair."

Even though she had expected to hear those words, Murrue still sighed in response. When she had seen his mobile armor in the hanger earlier, she had actually been a bit surprised that he managed to successfully land it in the Archangel. "What about the Strike?"

"You mean the mobile suit that the kid was piloting? Specially trained pilots could barely get that thing to function and I have not had their training. I am sorry, but sending me out in that thing would be no better than simply giving ZAFT the suit gift wrapped."

"Aren't there other pilots on board?" Kira asked heatedly as he began to realize where this conversation was going.

"Unfortunately, the pilots for the suits were killed when the ship I was assigned to tried to help defend Heliopolis from the ZAFT attack." La Flaga said with honest sorrow over what he was in the process of forcing the kid to do.

Placing a comforting hand on Kira's elbow, Lacus stilled Kira's pending protest. "The colony will not survive another battle will it?" Lacus asked in her quiet voice.

"I am afraid not, that shot from the Hyper Impulse cannon in the Launcher pack, punched a substantial hole in the colony's skin. The shelters are already fully locked down and any more damage to the colony will likely result in their ejection." Ramius admitted.

"But…" Kira began intending to complain how stupid fighting in a colony was, but a slight pressure from Lacus's hand calmed him.

"Is there no other option for us than remaining on this ship?" Lacus asked.

"With the shelters in lock down, even if we found one, we would be unable to get in." Kira admitted as he began to realize that he was going to have to return to that blasted suit once again. And given the way things were, he had no idea when he would be able to finally leave the suit behind. But as he turned his gaze from the acting captain to the girl he had just met this afternoon, he realized that if it meant protecting her and the children then he would make the sacrifice. And while he had no idea how he would be able protect her and them until they all found safety; he vowed to himself that he would find a way. When Kira turned back to look at her, Ramius knew from the hardness of his gaze that he had made his decision.

"Fine, then for now I will protect the ship so as to protect my friends, Lacus, and the children." Kira stated in a firm voice.

Somehow having a sense of how hard this decision to fight was for the boy beside her was, Lacus decided to let him know how much his decision meant to her. She also vowed to herself that she would stay by his side during this trip, to be the support that the gentle heart that she was sure that he had would need in the face of the sorrow that he was bound to face. With that vow made, she turned to Kira and once she caught his eyes said, "Thank you, I know that you don't like fighting and neither do I. But protecting the lives of these children is a noble task and no one can blame you for taking up your sword to do so. Just stay true to your heart." And then to seal her thanks, she leaned in and gave a Kira a quick kiss on his cheek.

Smiling as she saw that this girl Lacus was willing to help support Kira, Murrue felt a slightly bit better about having railroaded him into joining in the war. "Kira, given your position as the Strike's pilot, you will have a temporary field commission as an Ensign." Ramius said and then holding up her hand to forestall any complaints, she said, "I know you have no desire to be part of the military and this is only a formality. The only thing I want from you is for you to where a uniform and in exchange I will have Lt La Flaga show you to one of the officer quarters. The Lt will also escort you, Ms. Sagara, to the crew quarters that the rest of the civilians will be using."

-End Chapter 1

Author Notes:

I hope that you all liked this first chapter. This story will focus on the relationship that will develop between Kira and Lacus. Much of my inspiration for this story comes from the works by LacusFan, IronicEnding and Ben Firebird. Work on this story will be second to my Sailor Moon epic, but I already have some future major scenes mapped out and I look forward to reaching them in the story as much as I hope you all will look forward to reading them. As always I welcome all comments whether positive or constructive.

12/25 update: A couple of typographical errors caught by Ethan have been corrected