Undeniable Truth

Chapter 3: Snow and Ice

Disclaimer: Gundam seed/Destiny is the property of someone else not me, which should be obvious considering I'm writing fanfics. I only own certain original ideas and characters.

A/N: Chapter 3 has arrived, seems I'm getting closer to pushing kira and cagalli together. Will it happen this chapter? Read and find out. Hope you enjoy. Oh and as you've probably noticed kira's personality is a little off from what it is in Destiny, yet more then it was in Seed…I tried to put it somewhere in the middle, good or bad?

Archangel

The trip towards Antarctica was a difficult one, in no small part due to the Archangels damage. They were forced to move at half speed, which the engines could just barley support on their hasty repairs. When they got closer to the continent the ice and cold did not help the exposed ship which usually meant anyone lucky enough to have a spare winter coat on board could make a fortune selling it to another crew member.

Even so they moved silently and slowly despite the threat of the earth alliance growing closer by the day, having already regrouped and gathered reinforcements. The entire ship remained on edge when not huddled under 4 blankets whenever off duty, and no one ever wanted to go on deck for sight seeing.

"Captain, why don't we raise the temperature inside the ship? It seems kind of odd to make everyone freeze like this" Murrue sighed slightly giving a slow shake of her head "We can't…we need all power to the engines, we're lucky we have enough left over to use the lights." Her head snapped up when one of the communications officers reported an incoming message, the face of there escorts captain shown arguing with one of his pilots.

"What are you talking about Clyde? A zaku can beat an earth alliance Wingdam hands down!" They seemed to glare daggers at each other before Clyde shouted back "The wingdam is equipped with better mobility! The zaku can be adoptable, but they don't have the right capabilities!" Before they could continue Murrue cleared her throat, catching the captains attention "Ah…oh sorry about that" pushing aside his pilot he flashed a nervous smile.

"We are only an hour or so away from the base, turn 10 degrees west and when you see a large mountain shaped ice formation look for a large steel door. We are working on getting it open" passing him an annoying look the archangels captain let out a sigh "Right…thank you for that information, you can go back to…whatever you were doing" The screen disappearing from the front monitor seconds later.

Andrew waltfeld couldn't hold back his laugh "I can't believe we are counting on that guy…you can tell he isn't in a regular military though, sort of eccentric" Murrue smiled slightly before giving a nod "Although we can say the same about you…honestly yogurt sauce on any kind of food is just disgusting"

"Hey don't put it down until you at least try it, you can't say its disgusting until then" Shaking her head she contacted the hanger "How is the repairs on the freedom coming?" With a long pause one of the head technicians responded "Oh hey captain, there coming just fine…I swear I don't know why we keep trying to repair the inside, kira won't let us touch it"

"Just respect his wishes and leave the inside of the freedom to kira, if there are any problems let me know immediately" With the tech immediately agreeing Murrue leaned back in her chair, eyes scanning the icy continent.

The base had turned out to be very real; inside of a large steel gate was a completely abandoned military base with plenty of resources and parts left behind, the inside seemed like a small harbor sheltered from the cold and ice somewhat by the solid mountain. A second steel gate in the back led towards the mass driver, and some slightly frozen over maintenance equipment seemed to only need a small amount of tweaked to be brought online again.

Exiting the ship with a jacket wrapped firmly around her, Murrue let out a small sigh watching the cold breath. "Alright! Let's get the repairs started!" Along with the technicians and a few of the invisibles crew they began a hasty completion on much needed repairs.

"Hey kira!" Waltfeld caught up with the teenage pilot in one of the halls, handing him a pistol "The captain of that ship wants you to help him explore the facility just in case; I don't trust him so I have three of the crew waiting for you outside. Be careful" Without giving him a chance to question the orders he left down the hall.

"Hey wait…man I was going to catch up on some sleep to…" letting out a yawn he left to the exit of the ship, moving down the ramp to the cold metal surface. "I knew I should have bought a winter coat in Orb…" He spotted two soldiers from the ship, both armed and looked equally displeased with the mission…and next to them was…"cagalli?"

"Yeah what? It's boring on the ship sometimes, figured it would be a good time to do something. Besides what danger is in an abandoned facility?" There eyes met in a dead lock before he let out a frustrated groan, he really seemed to be seeing a lot of her lately. "Yeah but…"

"There you are kid…" Koji caught him around the neck with one arm fiercely, letting his face turn slightly blue before letting him out of the tight grip. Next to the odd captain was a girl who looked about twenty, blue hair down to her mid-back and wearing a black uniform as most of the Invisibles crew except with a skirt replacing the common pants. Unfortunately she didn't look very friendly, more like the kind of woman who would rather you stayed far away from her.

Looking at kira's armed escort koji noticed the blond again "What are you two dating or something? I heard about you two in the hanger, and now I find you together again?" He couldn't have missed the red that crossed both their faces instantly.

"Cagalli? She's my sister! That's just…." He was cut off by cagalli, who spoke with a pained and spiteful tone "…Sick, Twisted…" She let out a frown before pointing to the small door leading deeper into the mountain "Can we go now? It's cold out here"

"Oh right let's see if we can find some supplies in here then" Pushing the aged door open with ease koji pulled a flashlight out, aiming it down the dark corridor. He led the group, the girl on his left and the two archangel soldiers behind them. The two siblings stayed in the back, their own flashlights examining the old rusted walls. "Kira, this place doesn't seem very safe"

"Yeah I know what you mean…this base looks like it's seen much better days" The group turned a corner to head down another long path, no one noticed when cagalli first started down another extending off that. "Hey guys over here!"

Heading down to join his sister in the hallway he saw a door towards the end of the hallway, a faint light pouring out from underneath. By the time the rest had backtracked to the pathway kira's ears caught a slight sound. Looking up he pointed his flashlight towards the ceiling. With eyes wide he tackled his sister to the ground almost immediately "Watch out!" A mix of broken metal supports and various debris poured down on top of where they had just been standing, cutting them off from the rest of the group.

Amber eyes closed tightly, about to lash out at kira before she realized what happened. Looking up she found herself noticing a second thing…he was on top of her. Cheeks red she stared up at him, who just seemed to be sighing his relief "Are you alright cagalli?"

"Y-yeah…thanks…" She couldn't seem to recall how long she just stared up at him, his concerned look changing swiftly to a warm smile. With her heart pounding a mile a minute she didn't know what to feel when koji's voice caused him to pick himself up, helping her off the floor almost immediately after.

Kira was defiantly glad he heard voices when he did, because staring down at cagalli like that was twisting him up in ways he couldn't quite understand. The only understandable thought in his head at that moment was how cute she looked although he couldn't figure out where that came from. Getting back at the task in front of him, he tried to find a way past the blockade "Koji! Are you there?" The dust caused him to cough, covering his face with his arm.

"Hey kid! Good your alright, look there doesn't seem to be a way through this so were going to look for a way around, stay put!" The tapping of feet was all that proved to kira that they had already took off.

Brushing herself off cagalli frowned, picking up her flashlight "Great, well let's see what's behind that door then" it only took a single step for kira to grab her arm "Shouldn't we just stay here? We have no idea what could be in this place."

"You worry to much kira, besides to get to us those other guys would have to go through that door to so might as well go through anyway" When kira finally stopped protesting she moved towards the door with her brother already holding his gun up.

Opening the door slowly, she let her flashlight scan the room for a moment before moving inside with kira close behind. All they found was what was left over from a small fire, which seemed to be almost completely out by now. Both of them realized people living here would be extremely strange, at least under normal circumstances.

With closer inspection of the room revealing nothing, the two moved through a door towards the left corner. Kira went through first, just barely jumping back as a bullet hit the wall. Moving back into the room quickly, he rolled behind a large table he saw when fist entering, a second bullet missing. Cagalli remained perched against the wall in the first room, peeking out only for a moment. Unable to see anything she pulled her head back quickly, pulling out the pistol at her waist.

With the complete darkness engulfing the room sound was all he had to go by, and even so he didn't want to shoot anyone "We don't want to fight you!" He heard a bullet hit something near him but it wasn't enough to distract him "Please don't fire!"

"Wh-Who are you? Why are you here?" The woman's voice was filled with panic, her hands shaking. Smiling slightly kira stood up slowly, holding his hands in the air. "My names kira…look we were just exploring and…" A bullet nicked his arm slightly causing him to cringe.

"Do-Don't move!" He could hear a slight shuffling noise and soon had to cover his eyes when light engulfed the room. Once she saw him her gun dropped "Oh thank god…you're not from the earth alliance…"

After getting cagalli to come in from the next room she introduced herself only when kira told her to, still suspicious of the whole thing. The woman who had shot at kira wore a lab coat over simple red clothes, blond hair tied back into a bun. Biting down on her finger slightly she nodded "I'm Taira fukiwari…I-I'm sorry about…um…shooting at you"

Shaking his head quickly kira sighed "I didn't mean to scare you…we got separated from some friends…we were just searching for some supplies." Cagalli crossed her arms, glaring slightly towards the woman "What the hell are you doing here anyway?"

Jumping slightly at her harsh tone the woman took a step back "Oh my, you have quite an attitude…your boyfriend here is a lot sweeter when talking to strangers…" Cagalli's temper shot up, her cheeks beat red "He's my brother!"

Looking between them with quick glances her lips curled into surprise "Really? How did that happen…your both so different…" She jumped again when cagalli spoke "Th-That's not the point! I asked you why you were here!" She struggled when kira grabbed her shoulders trying to calm her down "Relax cagalli, you're not helping" When she finally calmed her temper she let out a low grumble.

Smiling weakly the woman sat down in a small chair she found amongst the disorganized room. "I'm sorry…I…was with the earth alliance forces here. They were…researching something, and when they abandoned the base…they abandoned me to"

Even cagalli couldn't help but sympathize when hearing that information "That's horrible. How could they just leave you like that?"

"Well…I guess they were hoping I would just die after awhile. They didn't think I would know where the hidden supply storages were when they left them behind…I thought maybe they were coming to reclaim the base…and would kill me"

With every passing day kira couldn't help but notice how bad of a path the earth forces were taking. "Do you know what they were researching here at all?" She gave a slow nod, and seemed almost hesitant to continue "Of course I do…I was helping them after all. We were experimenting with a drug…when used on a pilot, it would create extreme anger and stimulate the mind so they could fight beyond their normal capabilities…but, it had some…disastrous qualities"

Taira went on to explain how pilots who had been exposed to the drug more then a few times would start to have nervous breakdowns, often clawing at their own body in complete panic. When exposed even longer they would literally start to decompose slowly until they eventually died as a bloody mess. "I…tried to stop them when I found out the side effects, but when the base became unmanageable they figured they could just leave me and my protests to rot…"

Biting down on her lip slightly cagalli clenched her fists tightly "That's….that's just terrible! How can the earth alliance treat people like that…isn't it bad enough we lose some many people in a battle? Now the nations are killing there own people just to get stronger…"

"Taira…why don't you come with us? We're not with Zaft or the alliance. We were planning to head off into space" Kira smiled slightly placing a hand on cagallis shoulder again to calm her down. "I don't really have a choice do I? Its better then being stuck here….well let's get going then." With a smile she opened the door behind her, her face turning white when she spotted the gun barrel right in her face.

Koji smiled, aiming a flashlight over star's shoulder as he noticed the two teens "Oh hey there you are, put the gun down star." When she did so reluctantly he allowed the three to pour out into the hallway "And who might this be?"

"Her names Taira, the alliance abandoned her here because she had a change of heart about some experiments" After all the introductions were over he and cagalli were forced to carry supply boxes back to the ship, despite Cagalli's loud protests.

Antarctica base port

When the search team had made it back into the sheltered port they found alarms going off from both ships a speaker from the archangel coming alive in only a moment. "Earth forces are approaching! Kira, cagalli get to the hanger immediately!"

"Well that was fast…I'll see you two on the battlefield!" Koji and star left for their own ship, while the twins headed for the mobile suits of the archangel. Arriving in the busy room the two were briefed further. "Hey good you two are here" Waltfeld was already dressed in a combat suit, heading for his murasame. "It looks like the earth alliance is getting desperate. There really bringing in an army this time around, there's around 18 alliance ships, 12 of them from Orb. The archangel and the invisible will remain inside the base, while we engage them with mobile suits."

Kira gave a slow nod before looking towards the freedom "So if you count you and me, and the four mobile suits form the Invisible then we have 6. Let's jus hope it's enough…"

"I don't think so, I'm going to launch in the strike rouge to!" Cagalli was gone before kira could even open his mouth. Sighing he boarded the freedom, starting up the system before contacting the strike rouge "Cagalli you do realize we are fighting orb…"

"Of course I do kira! But maybe they will listen to me…and if not I don't want you to be the only one being forced to fight! I can't…I can't let you do this alone!" After getting a soft smile from kira his transmission ended, leaving her to watch the freedom launch. "Cagalli Yula Athha, Strike Rouge…launch!"

A/N: Chapter 3 is down…ended up a bit longer then I planned but I just couldn't stop typing…needed a distraction from an incident. Anyway tell me what you think.