Chapter 3: Fear

Archangel - Hanger Deck

"This is going to be a relief to all of us." Mu said to Murdoch as he finished verifying the repairs to the Moebius Zero. "While I would like to think that we have given our ZAFT pursuers the slip with this silent run trick, we are up against Le Creuset, which means that we only have the illusion of having gotten the better of him while he sets up his next trap."

"Le Creuset you say?" Murdoch replied, having heard of the man's reputation.

"Yeah, unfortunately, that is who we are up against. ZAFT may have sent a small strike force, but they obviously made sure to send their best." Mu replied as he climbed out of the cockpit. "Well I better go tell the Captain the good news." 'God knows that we need every little bit that we can get.'

"Right then Lieutenant," Murdoch replied as he turned back to his men and began directing those that had been working on the Moebius to other items that needed to be addressed and there were lots of those. The ship had after all only just been launched, which under normal circumstances would have been followed by at least one day of top to bottom checks to make sure that all of the systems were operating properly after the cold start. But, of course, this was no normal launch. No, it was both the first launch of the ship, the first of its class, which would typically require at least a week of shake down, and the ship had been launched with over two thirds of the system startup checklist discarded including many of the important hold times to allow for the systems to equilibrate. Already the men he had dispatched to look at the engines had found dozens of issues. Thankfully, so far they were all minor items, such as elements being out of calibration or timings being slightly off. However, that did not reduce the importance of those checks, as there could easily just have been a misalignment in the fusion chambers, something that could lead to a reactor shutdown at best.

While the chief was moving to focus all of his attention on the ship and its engines, Mu was walking across the hanger and as he did so, he began to give thought to the inevitable battle that they would have to fight before they reached Artemis. At least, now with the Moebius Zero back in action, they had a trump card that they could use against their pursuers. The pursuing ZAFT forces would not expect the Archangel to have any deployable craft other than the Strike and so, if he played to that expectation, he would have an opportunity to get a free shot in with the Zero. While it would be nice to get a critical hit in on one of those trailing ships, Mu had no illusions that he would get that lucky. However, that was not to say that damaging one of them would not be of benefit, especially if he could leave it open for a follow up shot from the Archangel's main batteries.

Thinking about that option some more, Mu said,'Yes that could definitely work,' to himself as the outline of a plan began to solidify in his mind. Further thought, however, was sidetracked when he heard an unexpected soft grunt. It was not so much the grunt that grabbed his attention, but the delicate nature of it and so he turned to and looked off to his right. In so doing he noticed for the first time that the Strike had been rotated horizontally and lowered to the ground, which prompted a thought of 'What the? I didn't know that the exoskeletons could be lowered like that.' However, even as that question crossed his mind, the answer was provided to him as he remembered his original briefing for this mission. 'Oh of course, that would be a necessity. Can't really expect to be able to float in mid-air when they are down on Earth.' With that question answered and the Strike having caught his attention, Mu decided to go check on the little miss, who he now realized had been the source of that soft grunt.

Walking over to the Strike, Mu took in the various items that Lacus had strewn about both on the ground, such as various pages of the Strike's Technical Manual that appeared to be actually attached to the ground, and left floating about in the general vicinity. Then as he arrived at the Strike he turned his attention to locating Lacus, whose legs he found poking out from under the unit. Chuckling at the sight, Mu asked, "Hey, how you doing?"

Focused as she was in her work, Lacus had missed Mu's approach and so his comment caught her completely off guard. However, years of performing had taught her control of her emotions and so she was able to hide all outward signs of her surprise. Instead, she put down the tools that she was working with and pushed herself on out. Standing up once she was clear of the Strike, she said, "I think I am finally starting to get a hang of it." Then noticing the odd look that the Lieutenant was giving her, she added, "I had a slight mishap with one of the fluid reservoirs earlier on," which explained why her face and a good portion of her coveralls were covered in grease.

Laughing at Lacus's explanation, Mu with a large smile replied, "Well, I guess the other deck hands won't be able to give you any grief over not having any experience after today. Now you're as much a grease monkey as the rest of them."

Lacus simply smiled in response, glad that the Lieutenant did not think less of her for her mishap.

"However, you will want to be more careful in the future," Mu said, his voice turning more serious. "Some of those reservoirs can be under a fair bit a pressure, even more so if you are servicing the Strike shortly after it returns. And, while this time you just got dirty, some of those fluids can get quite hot when the unit is in operation and I don't want you getting hurt."

"I understand." Lacus said, some of her earlier enthusiasm dropping.

"Now don't get me wrong. You did well here and the kid is very lucky to have you as his girlfriend; actually, I think I might be a little jealous." Mu said recognizing the slight mood shift with Ms. Sagara's response. He knew that if they wanted to make it out of this mess alive, then they had to keep the kid happy and by extension that included the little miss as well. She was the one who had convinced the kid to fight and Mu was sure that if she was to feel isolated by the crew that the kid's willingness to help them out would quickly vanish. Unfortunately, he was sure that there were probably a number of the crew who did not realize the precarious balance that they were in, including the acting XO. After all, this was not something that was taught in boot camp or in officer training. No, they were in one of those one in a million situations where all of your training left you with was being able to do nothing more than to admit failure and to scuttle the ship. Consequently, if you wanted to succeed, then you had to improvise and hope for luck, so as to make the impossible possible.

Blushing slightly at Mu's statement, Lacus replied, "We only just met today."

"In that case, it is only a matter of time. After all, what pilot in his right mind could resist someone as beautiful and kind as you, especially when you take such good care of their mobile suit," Mu replied, causing Lacus to blush very brightly this time. "Well I better let you get back to work. I just wanted to make sure that everything was going okay for you. Maintaining the mobile suit while the kid rests is a big help to him and us, and he does need his rest."

"Thank you," Lacus replied

"You're welcome. And oh, before I leave you, you should know that we are about sixty minutes from Artemis, which means that I expect Le Creuset to make his move in about thirty minutes."

"Kira is going to have to fight again." It wasn't a question; Lacus knew that he was the ship's only real hope for survival, and she knew what going into battle again implied.

"I'm afraid so, but I am sure that you will have the Strike all ready for him by then," Mu said before turning and heading on out of the hanger.

Watching La Flaga go, Lacus's thoughts centered on Kira being forced to fight again and how she wished that he could stay here safe and sound in the ship. Of course, the only reason it was safe to be in the ship was because he was out there protecting it and if he was to keep the ship safe, then she would need to make sure that the Strike was ready for him when he needed it. Therefore in turning her attention back to the Strike, she knew that she needed to pick up her pace. A basic turnaround of the Strike was supposed to take a little under thirty minutes and while she had been at it for a while now, she was really only effectively a few minutes into it - having spent most of the time just learning how to do anything.

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"Attention all hands, the ship is now entering into Level 2 combat stations. Pilots to their machines," Ensign Badgiruel announced over the PA system twenty five minutes after Mu had left Lacus behind in the hanger.

Engrossed as Lacus was in her work on the Strike, the sudden noise of the announcement startled her. However, unlike when La Flaga had surprised her by his sudden presence, this time she was not able to fully suppress her reaction, the anxiety that was spawned by the realization that they were about to go into battle again being more than she could handle. Consequently, she needed to take a few moments to calm her racing heart, to get her breathing back under control, and to shove her fears out of her mind before she could turn back to making the final preparations to the Strike.

'It's a good thing that I finally got the hang of what I was doing.' Lacus thought to herself as picked up the fastener that she had dropped, realizing that she had completed the turn around on the Strike with no time to spare. Then with the fastener in hand, she reached up and finished securing the last of the open access panels on the Strike.

Once the panel was secured, Lacus carefully worked her way out from under the mobile suit, which was not too difficult given that she was in micro-gravity, as all that was required was a light push and the patience to wait as she floated on out. Then, once she was fully clear of the underside of the mobile suit, she reached up and grabbed a hold, stopping her motion. Now turning her attention to the tools and pages that she had strewn about the area, she took a few moments to collect them and to place the pages of the technical manual back into the corresponding binders. Once those items had been collected, Lacus stood up and, pausing for a moment, looked at the Strike, part of her felt a sense of pride over having been the one responsible for making this mobile suit ready for use again. While she very much did not care for the current war and just days ago would never have conceived of herself doing something like this that no longer mattered; instead, all she could think of was that she was doing her part to keep everyone safe.

Unfortunately, as much as Lacus might have wanted to revel in her accomplishment, now was not the time and she still had one thing left to do before it was ready for Kira to take out into combat. Therefore, Lacus turned her attention away from the Strike and walked over to the side of the hanger where the controls for the exoskeleton were located. Once she reached them, she removed a slightly crumbled piece of paper upon which she had written the Chief's instructions and then with a silent prayer that she wasn't about to break something, she began to enter the commands that would bring the Strike back to its standby position.

Unbeknownst to Lacus as she was doing this, Murdoch had been watching. The couple of times he had silently checked on her, he had seen her methodologically following the directions and now he had just seen her looking upon the craft with pride after completing her work. She might be young and untrained, but those two qualities that he had observed counted for a lot in his book. It did not matter how good of a mechanic one was if they did not feel pride in their work; the pilots expected them to take care of the crafts as if they were people, which was not an unreasonable request given that the pilots' lives depended on making sure that the units were always in tip top shape. And, now having seen how much Lacus cared about the Strike, he was ready to assign her as its primary mechanic.

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Some minutes later found Lacus in the head, after having taken a quick moment to wish Kira well, cleaning herself up, which was not the easiest thing given how much grease and grime she had managed to get on herself, and the state of supplies on the ship.'At least it only happened those first two times.' Lacus thought to herself as she worked on cleaning her face, which gave her hope that maybe next time she would be able to escape clean. Ideally, given how dirty she was, she really should have just taken a shower. However, to her a shower seemed too relaxing and peaceful for the fact that the ship was about to enter into combat and besides, she always tended to lose track of time when in the shower – the warmth of the water being just too relaxing, which was an issue as she wanted to be back watching over the children before any of the combat actually began.

Eventually, Lacus managed to get her face and hands clean. Thankfully the coveralls that Murdoch had found for her had long sleeves so her face and hands were the only exposed skin. Her hair, on the other hand, would have to wait till later as there was only so much that one could do using the sink and hand soap, not to mention the fact that she had to be careful about not washing out the dye job and risk revealing her true identity. Taking one last look to make sure that she hadn't missed a large spot, little smudges were okay for now, she began to change out of her coveralls and into a second set that someone had thoughtfully left for her beside the Strike as she was working, a someone that she figured was likely Lt. La Flaga.

Then, when Lacus was finally dressed in clean clothes and mostly clean herself, she left the head and headed back to her quarters. Entering them, she was immediately mobbed by the children who had been wondering where she had disappeared off to.

"Sorry for being gone so long, but I was helping them to prepare Kira's mobile suit," Lacus said.

"You mean that white and blue one that protected us earlier," one of the kids, Jeremy asked.

"Yes, I needed to get it ready so that he can protect us again," Lacus said, to which she get a series of oohs and aahs from the kids. Then continuing, she asked, "So what have you all been up to?"

Following Lacus's prompting, the kids went on to explain what they had been up to, particularly focusing on when Kira had come in to see them about fifteen minutes earlier. The younger ones had been quite fascinated by Birdie, especially when Kira had the robotic pet perform a series of tricks to their delight. Hearing that Kira had a chance to spend some time with the kids and that he had apparently been able to enjoy himself, Lacus smiled.

The animated descriptions of Birdie's tricks eventually reached a lull and with it, Lacus said, "Excuse me for a moment while I use the computer for a moment."

Getting nods of allowance from the kids, Lacus stood up from where she had been seated on the floor just inside the door to the room – she had not made it in any farther, having been utterly bogged down and bombarded by children looking for affection. Walking over to the computer terminal, she sat down and attempted to bring up the combat status screens that she had used during the fall of Heliopolis. However, she quickly found that the crew had apparently locked out the terminal for anything more than very basic functions.

Frowning at her failure to gain access, Lacus considered calling up to the bridge and asking the Captain if she could get a readout of the Strike's status. She really wanted to be able to keep track of Kira's condition, but at the same time she did not want to bother the bridge crew, especially now. However, another answer came when Mr. Pink, who had been playing with the kids came bouncing over to Lacus, seeming to have sensed its mistress's frustration. Bouncing up on to the table it said, "We've got a problem," as it turned to face Lacus.

Giggling at Mr. Pink, Lacus replied, "That we do Mr. Pink. The computer is not letting check on Kira."

"I will not accept this!" the pink Haro yelled in response as it became more animated in its bouncing as it turned to look at the offending computer system.

This announcement caused Lacus to laugh even more, but then to her amazement the terminal suddenly displayed "Authorization Granted," before bringing up the various telemetry windows that Lacus had wanted.

"Thank you, Mr. Pink." Lacus said in response as she picked up her robot.'I know Athrun gave this Haro special lock picking functionality, but I never thought that it would work on a military ship.' Lacus thought to herself, now quite glad that she had given into her childish desire to bring Mr. Pink with her and also glad that Athrun had been willingly to indulge her tendencies to sneak away from her handlers – she liked to sneak out for moments of "fresh air," which of course drove her handlers nuts when they realized that she was missing yet once again.

With access now granted, Lacus quickly began bringing up the necessary windows for monitoring the Strike as well as some others to allow her to stay apprised of the rest of the battle. Then with that completed, Lacus turned back to the kids and asked, "Okay, who wants to play a game?"

Getting a series of enthusiastic responses, Lacus picked up a deck of cards that had been donated by the ship's marines before walking over to the center of the room. For as bad off as the crew was with the situation, the crew had really done a good job in taking a moment to look out for the kids, who had been forced to refuge aboard the ship. During those first hours when they were busy grabbing everything thing that might be useful from Morgenroete, one crew member after another, and especially the marines, had come to Lacus and given her something for the kids. In some cases it was something that they had liberated from the destroyed factory, but more often than not the items belonged to the crew member.

In addition to the cards that Lacus was carrying, she had also been given various chocolate bars, paper, pens and pencils. The chocolate she had given to Kira to hide away from the kids so that she could dole it out as special treats to them. As for the pens, pencils, and papers, the kids had apparently been making good use of them while she had been working on the Strike, if the numerous drawings that lay around the room where any indication. While the kids probably would have been content to continue drawing, Lacus figured that with the ship about to go into combat that an activity that required more focus would probably be a good idea, plus it would give her a chance to play with the kids as well.

"Does anyone have a suggestion for a game to play?" Lacus asked, not really knowing many card games herself. For her part, she preferred to spend her free time either exploring her surroundings or when she not allowed to do that and unable to sneak off to quietly sing to herself.

"I do," the oldest of the kids, Jeremy said before launching into an explanation of the rules for the game that he wanted to play.

From there the group lost track of time as they played various card games, having a good time. Eventually, however, they were brought back to the situation that they found themselves in when the Archangel violently shook as a wave of missiles launched by the Buster impacted against the starboard hull. Reacting quickly, Lacus tried to do her best to calm the children down and to let them know that everything would be alright.

For the most part, Lacus's assurances worked and the kids were able to return their attention back to the game. However, one of the youngest of the kids, who was only five years old, was unable to fully push her fear away. Unlike the others, she had experienced this fear once before when the shuttle that she had been on with her parents had been destroyed during the early days of the war, with only her and the flight crew surviving. Back during those days it was not uncommon for commercial shuttles collide with battle debris or unexploded ordnance, as the pilots had yet to adjust to operating in an environment where n-Jammers made their instruments next to useless. Thankfully, Emily's parents, concerned about the war, though unable to avoid the trip, had insisted that Emily wear a pressure suit; much to the young girl's dislike. That concern had allowed Emily to survive the shuttle's collision with a mobile armor remnant that had ripped open the passenger cabin.

That is not to say that Emily had survived unscathed. Watching her parents and the other passengers die slow painful deaths as they asphyxiated in the vacuum of space had horribly traumatized the girl, so much so that she had subconsciously blanked most of her memories of the event. For months afterwards she had retreated into a shell and it was only recently that her psychologist had been able to begin to draw her out and now that she was finally beginning to put that experience behind her, she was faced with an even worse situation.

As they all turned their attention back to the game, Lacus kept a close eye on the children and in so doing she saw Emily's fear begin to morph from simple fear to outright terror even as the little girl tried to hide her feelings. Not saying anything, Lacus quietly put down her cards before reaching over and lifting Emily up. Caught up in combating her terror as she was, Emily did not notice being picked up, but when she felt the warmth of Lacus's embrace as she was seated into the older girl's lap, she looked up, confusion on her face. Seeing Emily's questioning eyes, Lacus simply smiled in response before giving the girl a kiss on the forehead and wrapping her arms tighter around the little one. Emily did not need any more prodding and she quickly snuggled into Lacus's embrace and closed her eyes, trusting the black haired girl to protect her.

Watching Emily snuggle into her embrace, Lacus couldn't help but smile, glad that she had been able to bring peace to the child. Then as she turned her attention back to the game and the other children, she began to absently sing a soft lullaby for the young child. Picking up her cards and taking a moment to see how the play had progressed while she had been focusing on Emily, Lacus frowned. While she was not playing to win, she still wanted to make a decent showing and without any card to play she was now forced to pick up the discard pile which had grown quite large.

'Guess there isn't any other option,' Lacus thought to herself as she added the dozens of discarded cards to her hand to the delight and snickers of the others.

Of the children, Michelle, who was sitting to Lacus's left had the largest smile on her face; though, she did refrain from actually snickering at Lacus. When Michelle then promptly proceeded to play her remaining three cards, Lacus found at why – the girl had just garnered a slew of points thanks to Lacus having practically half of the deck in her hand.

"Thank you, Lacus." Michelle said with a big smile once she had finished counting up the points that she had gotten from Lacus.

"You're welcome," Lacus replied before saying, "Here let me shuffle the cards for you and then you can deal. Maybe this time I will get all of the points."

However, before the second hand had gone on long, Mr. Pink began yelling, "We've got a problem! We've got a problem!"

Turning her attention to her Haro that was rapidly bouncing on the desk, Lacus was going to chide it for being too noisy when she caught sight of the current telemetry feed. Gasping "Kira" as she saw that Kira was surrounded by multiple enemy units, Lacus's eyes went wide with fear. Gently placing Emily, who had fallen asleep, on the floor, Lacus stood and briskly walked over to get a better view of the terminal's displays.

A closer look, however, did nothing to alleviate her worry for Kira. She could now see that four units had surrounded Kira and if she was understanding the readouts correctly, they were the sister units to the Strike. That, however, was not the worst of it, for as she looked over the status readout from Strike she saw that its primary battery was already fully depleted and that its secondary battery was nearly gone as well. Now frozen by her fear for Kira, Lacus could do nothing more than to watch as the battery indicator slipped closer and closer to no charge. And, then when the indicator finally red lined and the Strike's Phase Shift failed her breath caught as her world began to collapse.

However, to Lacus surprise and relief the Strike's signal stayed strong. Unfortunately, the relief was short lived as Lacus soon realized that the telemetry was indicating that the Strike had been captured for the Strike's signal was overlapped by one of the ZAFT units and all five units were moving towards the ZAFT carriers.

"Kira, no," Lacus whispered as the meaning of what Kira being captured meant began to sink in and with those words Lacus collapsed to her knees. Sitting lifelessly there on her legs, her mind began playing out scenes of what Kira was sure to face once he was brought on board the ZAFT carriers. Torture would likely be too kind of a word for what he would face once his captors realized that he was a Coordinator. The fact that he was a citizen of Orb and was just trying to protect his friends and the other refugees until they could all get to safety would not matter; they would still see him as nothing more than a traitor to the PLANTS.

In her worry about Kira and his treatment as a POW, Lacus's mind also reminded her that in many way that she was just as much as a traitor to her people as he was and in some ways more so. He was not a citizen of the PLANTS, where she was the daughter of the Chairman of the Supreme Council and furthermore it was she who had convinced him to pilot the Strike. However, those thoughts were quickly discarded as being unimportant in the face of what Kira was to face and she would have gladly taken his place as the captured soldier.

"Don't worry. He'll be okay," a soft voice followed by a hug said.

Looking over, the need for that to be the truth evident in her eyes, Lacus saw that it was Emily was the one who was trying to cheer her up. Apparently, the young girl had awoken and was now trying to return the favor. Even though Lacus knew that it was just wishful thinking to believe that Kira would be okay, she said, "You're right, he'll be fine," in response and she pulled the young girl back into her arms. This time, however, Lacus was holding Emily not so as to comfort the young girl, but was instead trying to draw her own comfort from Emily and for the first time since the attack on Heliopolis she let go of her reign on her emotions and began crying over the unfairness of it all.

Seeing Lacus collapse the younger children began to cry and whimper themselves. While they might not fully understand what was going on, the shaking of the ship scared them, and now with Lacus lost in her own grief, they had no one to tell them that everything would be alright. Only the three oldest children, Jeremy, Erin, and Triela were able to keep control of the emotions as they desperately watched the telemetry readout for signs of what was going to happen next and as such a few minutes later they were the only ones to see the Moebius Zero rocket into the formation of ZAFT units.

"Lacus, look!" Triela exclaimed with an upbeat voice when she realized that the Zero was engaging the unit that had captured the Strike.

Reacting mostly to the command to look, Lacus uncurled slightly from how she had wrapped herself around Emily and looked up at Triela. Upon seeing the brunette's overjoyed expression, Lacus's face creased in confusion as followed Triela's gesturing arm and looked at the terminal.

"He... he's free. But how?" Lacus asked, hope creeping into her voice.

"The Moebius Zero," Jeremy replied. "Lt. La Flaga came out of nowhere, screaming in fast. He was hitting the Aegis all over the place with those remote gun barrels of the Zero and it was forced to let the Strike go."

Smiling as she truly began to feel hope again, Lacus quietly said, "Thank you Lieutenant," before returning to her feet so that she could continue observing the battle.

Of course, as good as it was that Kira had been freed by La Flaga, he was not by any stretch of the imagination out of the woods yet. He was still very vulnerable without his Phase Shift armor and he was a good distance away from the Archangel. If he had been up against only one or two of the captured G-Weapons, there would not have been as much of an issue. But with all four of the captured units and only one support craft as escort, making it back Archangel was still a long shot and then there was the question of what would happen once he made it back to the Archangel, as after all the whole reason for launching the Strike had been to protect the Archangel for those mobile suits.

Consequently, while Kira was heading back to the Archangel, he was not heading back so as to land and when Lacus realized that Kira's trajectory was starting to take out and away from the Archangel, she began to get worried again. 'Please Kira, don't do anything foolish.' Lacus silently prayed to herself as she hoped that Kira was not attempting to lure the ZAFT units away from the Archangel or using himself as bait so to bring the enemy units within the firing arc of the Archangel's main batteries. Though, as she looked closer at the readout as she tried to divine his actions, she relaxed a little bit when she realized that only one of the ZAFT units was currently following him, the others for some reason were holding back.

"They just launched something," the redhead, Erin, said, as a new contact suddenly began feeding telemetry data back to the Archangel.

"What could that be?" Lacus wondered, sure that there wasn't anything else down there in the hanger bay that they could use.

"I'm not sure what it is, but Kira is on course to intercept it and its designator is similar to that of the Strike," Jeremy replied as he took a look at the new contact's telemetry.

'Could it be?' Lacus thought to herself, as a memory of something that she had flipped by in the technical manual came to mind, and she took a closer look of her own at the readout, not that she was able to confirm what she thought that she remembered. Even still, she was once again truly feeling hopeful, as she hung on to the remembered possibility. Watching the track of new contact she saw the returns for it and the Strike begin to overlap. However, it seemed that fate had one last curve ball to throw for just as the two returns began to overlap, the display updated to show that the tailing unit was firing on the Strike. If that unknown unit was indeed a fresh Striker pack and assuming that the Strike could exchange packs in time, then he would be okay, but if not then this was it and when the Strike and the unknown object's returns disappeared from the display Lacus was sure that she had been mistaken. But, then to her immense relief, the Strike's return reappeared, as the interference from the detonation of the exploded Aile pack cleared.

"He's okay." Lacus said aloud as she slipped to the ground spent.

"You see, he's okay," Emily said moments later after tugging on Lacus's coveralls to get her attention.

"You're right. I should have listened to you." Lacus replied as she knelt down and picked up Emily into a big hug.

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Even though Lacus now knew that Kira was okay, she was still deeply troubled by his near capture and twice near death during the combat and so, as soon as the ship secured from Action Stations some time later, Lacus bolted from her room. Her sole thought was finding Kira and reassuring herself that he was indeed still alive and well. As focused as she was on those two goals, she did not even think about telling the kids to remain in the room, nor did she even remember that she was currently holding Emily. Consequently, the crew members who were able to leave their duty stations were treated to the sight of a black haired girl floating through the halls at top speed, pushing herself along, and a trail of kids bouncing off the walls behind her as they tried to follow.

In some ways, it was a sign of how much the majority of the crew realized that they owed Kira that no one called out to Lacus to tell her to return to her quarters or to even ask her to slow down. Instead, those who saw the little parade just smiled and thanked their lucky fortune that they had those two on board. By now there was practically no crew member left who did not know about Kira and his friends, the gossip of the Coordinator kid who had saved the ship by piloting the Strike and his friends who had all joined the crew had very quickly made its way around the ship during the quiet of the silent run. It was only the heavy work load of tending to the just-started systems of the ship that had kept Kira and Lacus from having to fend off gawkers.

Reaching the heavy blast doors that separated the hanger from the rest of the ship, Lacus absently placed Emily down on the ground while she turned her attention to opening the doors. Then once the doors had opened sufficiently for her to slip through, Lacus was through them. Scanning the room, she quickly located the Strike and, with a firm push, she launched herself towards it cockpit and Kira. Behind her, Emily and the rest of the children followed her on in as well. However, unlike Lacus their attempts to launch themselves towards the Strike sent them in every direction except towards the Strike and in many cases tumbling end over end. Thankfully, some of the deck hands had noticed their entrance and had quickly dropped what they were doing to intercept the kids before they hurt themselves. Lacus, however, was oblivious to all of this commotion.

Closing in on the Strike, Lacus overhead Mu ask, "What's wrong?"

"The kid won't come out of there," Murdoch replied.

'Kira?' Lacus exclaimed in her mind as her worry for her friend increased. Overcome as she was by concern that something new was wrong with Kira, she missed the rest of conversation. However, the sound of the seals releasing and the hatch opening was enough to remind her of why she was here. She was going to make sure that Kira was okay and if he wasn't then she was going to find a way to make it right.

For Lacus her timing was extremely fortuitous for as she looked up, she realized that she had already arrived at the Strike and so with a quick grab onto the mobile suit, she altered her trajectory to take her on in. Breezing by the other two she politely, but firmly said, "Excuse me," as she inadvertently knocked La Flaga out of way.

"Wha...?" Mu exclaimed as he suddenly found himself tumbling away from the Strike. Reacting quickly, he grabbed a hold of the floor of the catwalk that he was passing by, stopping his motion and allowing him to right himself. Turning back to the Strike he was about to tear into whoever had carelessly knocked him out of the way, as he was quite lucky that he had not been injured, but when he saw that it was Lacus in there with Kira, his anger faded away to instead be replaced by the thought, 'Why am I not surprised?' Turning to look at Murdoch, he gave the chief mechanic a wink.

"Kira," Lacus called as she entered the cockpit. When she did not get any response she repeated her call more loudly, this time getting him to look up her, but with a dead look in his eyes. "It's okay Kira, you're all right. It's all over for now," Lacus said in a gentle voice as she floated up to him. Then wrapping one arm around Kira, she stopped her forward motion and proceeded to undo his restraining straps. Once he was free, she pulled him towards her body before pushing off with her legs, sending them free of the cockpit.

As the two of the slowly drifted into the Archangel's hanger, Lacus undid Kira's helmet and set it loose. Then wrapping her arms tightly around him, she pulled him against her body and just held him, hoping that he would be able to sense how much having him return meant to her. Held there in place my Lacus's arms, Kira finally let the walls down and tightly grabbing a hold of his new friend began to cry.

Using one of her hands to stroke Kira's back, Lacus quietly said, "Let it all out. I am here for you Kira and I am not going to go anywhere," before beginning to sing a soothing tune.

Watching from down below on the ground, Murdoch said, "And, you say the two of them aren't an item."

"Yep, apparently they only met today. But, watching those two, I don't think it matters whether or not their minds have realized it, their hearts have already decided. I just wish that they weren't caught up in this war."

"I know, the lifespan of a pilot is just too short," Murdoch said with a sigh knowing that the relationship of the two was doomed to heartbreak.

Up in the air, neither Kira nor Lacus were aware of the discussion of their non-relationship nor were they aware of the small collisions against their bodies as the crew members sent the kids up their way. Instead, they were wholly focused with each other. For Kira, the simple sensation of being held and sung to reminded him that he was alive and for Lacus the feeling of Kira in her arms meant that her friend had not been lost. It was not the fear of what would have happened to her or the ship if Kira had been captured that had worried her. No, it was the fear of what would happen to Kira. Even though he had done the only responsible thing when faced with war, many in ZAFT would still see him as a traitor and Lacus was sure that he would not have been well treated with Athrun there.

'Athrun!' the name of her fiancé rang through Lacus's mind. She was conflicted about what she should think, but for the moment anger and disappointment was associated with that name. However, now was not the time to think about Athrun, later when she was alone she could indulge her own hurt, now was the time for Kira. He did not need the added burden of knowing about her connection to Athrun; it would just make things harder for him and so Lacus pushed the name out of her mind.

However, her tenseness lasted long enough for Kira to notice that something was wrong. Looking up from Lacus's chest he asked, "Lacus, is everything alright?"

"Don't worry about it Kira, I'm fine. I am more worried about you. How are you doing?" Lacus asked, as she began to reluctantly release Kira.

"Better now, thanks to you." Kira replied with a smile that caused Lacus to lightly blush as he let go.

"I'm glad." Lacus replied with her own smile.

Watching from the ground, Mu saw when Kira's posture changed from clinging to Lacus to simply holding onto her. Smiling, knowing that she had successfully gotten him through the after-combat fears that could paralyze a rookie pilot, he pushed off the ground. While he would have liked to have let them have some more time, they were fast approaching Artemis and there were some things that needed to be taken care of before they met with their allies.

Rebounding off the ceiling first, Mu grabbed a hold of the two, transferring some of downward momentum to them, and said, "You did good kid."

When they reached the ground, Mu did not immediately release the two. Instead, standing slightly hunched over them with his arms draped over their shoulders he said, "Kid listen, I want you to lock down the activation program for the Strike so that only you can use it."

"But why?" Lacus asked.

"We are about to enter Artemis. However, Artemis is a Eurasian facility and the relationships between them and the Atlantic Federation are hardly what you could call positive. And, in our current state we are fully at their mercy should they decide to try anything," Mu said explaining the situation. "I also want the two of you to stick close together and to stay with the children as well. When they realize they can't make the Strike work, they may try something more drastic and I don't want it to involve the pretty miss or the children. Oh, and kid I suggest that you change into the clothes that you arrived in."

Nodding their understanding, Kira and Lacus stayed standing there as Mu left to head off to the bridge. Turning to Lacus, Kira said, "I don't understand this. Why all this unnecessary conflict?"

Placing a hand on Kira's shoulder Lacus said, "It's because they have forgotten what they are fighting for. If everyone remained true to their heart then we wouldn't have as many wars and if we did have them we would be able to lay down our weapons sooner," Lacus said.

"Well I guess I better go lock down the Strike. I will see you later then," Kira said as he turned to return to the Strike.

"Kira let me. I can use Mr. Pink to lock down the Strike for you. Why don't you take the children, get yourself changed, and then get yourself something to eat?" Lacus suggested instead, having noticed that her Haro was rolling around on the floor by her feet.

Tired as he was from the battle and still a bit scared over what had happened out there, Kira welcomed the ability to get away from them Strike, and so replied, "Thank you Lacus."

"I will see you shortly then," Lacus said with happiness fully returned to her voice before turning and launching herself back up at the Strike.

OoOoOoOoOoOo

Archangel - Bridge

"But why do we need to do something like that?" Badgiruel asked, not understanding why the Chief wanted to rig a mock up mobile suit together.

"The G-Weapons are the first mobile suits of the alliance and none of the technicians who worked on them survived the attack on the factory district. I don't want to risk damaging the Strike as my men learn how to maintain a mobile suit for the first time." Murdoch explained.

"Do we even have equipment to spare for such a project?" Ramius asked, wanting to make sure that this option was even feasible first before rendering her decision.

"Actually we do. When we loaded supplies from the factory, as you know we took everything that we could and did not spend any time to examine what we were gathering first. While that allowed us to father far more supplies than we would have been able to otherwise, a consequence to that is that we have a lot of spare parts to the other G-Weapons, parts that cannot be used for the Strike. While it may be possible to, with a lot of work, retrofit them for the Strike, I think that we would be better off using them as a training aid."

"Parts are one thing, but you still need a torso section to fully integrate them and to work with the OS." Mu replied.

"Actually, the incompatible parts that we have include a pair of what appear to be test bed torsos. They are definitely not combat rated, but they should be fine for practice assembling." Murdoch said in explanation.

"But is this really needed, we will be docking with Artemis soon where we can get fully resupplied and we will be able to hook up with the fleet there." Badgiruel pointed out.

"Remember that they are Eurasian and we are Atlantic Federation. About the only reason why our two countries haven't started shooting at one another yet is because of ZAFT. Let's just say that I don't want to put all of our eggs in one basket. Plus, as vaulted as the Umbrella of Artemis is, I am not willing to put my full trust in it to protect us from Le Creuset," Mu countered, indicating his support for the Chief's project.

Badgiruel was, of course, plainly aware of the less than friendly relations between the two major OMNI powers and had been concerned about the resulting breach of security that would result from bringing the heavily classified Archangel and Strike to the Eurasian facility. However, she also agreed with the Captain that their only chance of protecting the ship and the Strike for the Atlantic Federation was to go to Artemis. On the other hand, the possibility of ZAFT breaking through the Umbrella was not something she had even given thought to, she had just assumed that their mission would be over once they docked at Artemis. But now, as she thought about it, she realized that La Flaga had a good point and so, changing her opinion, she said, "In second thought, the Lieutenant is correct, until we have formally turned over command of this ship to an Atlantic Federation fleet, we must prepare for all contingencies. Chief, would it be possible to make that unit, combat rated?"

"What?" the chief asked, taken back by the request.

"Even if it is no better than a standard run-of-the-mill ZAFT mobile suit and even if it is not that good, having the ability to deploy something no matter how under matched it is could mean the difference between us surviving an engagement and being destroyed. For the moment we are wholly dependent on the Strike for our protection. Even if the unit was useful for no more than standing topside with the Agni cannon plugged into the Archangel's power system, it would still be worth it."

"Chief?" Ramius asked, intrigued by what her XO was proposing. Keeping the unit on the Archangel would reduce its required defensive capabilities and could provide them with a needed edge.

"I guess that would be possible. Those torsos don't have any batteries, given that they were simply test beds, but the Striker packs each have a spare battery; so if we were to fuse one of them to the torso, we should be able to have something that could move around without needing to be tied to the ship with an umbilical cord. I would still need to add armor to the torso section, as right now it is utterly unprotected."

"Alright Chief, you have my approval to begin your project as long as you maintain your priority on the rest of the systems and that you combine it with a Striker pack, so that we could deploy it if needed." Ramius said.

"Captain," Murdoch replied with a salute, before turning and doing the same for Badgiruel and La Flaga.

Following the chief to the elevator, Mu stepped inside with him and as the doors closed said, "Chief, not sure if you were already planning to, but I would suggest that you involve Ms. Sagara in your little project. It will give her something to keep herself occupied with while the kid is out there fighting and I have a feeling that she wants to be the chief mechanic for his unit, so this would be good experience for her."

-End Chapter

Author Notes:

1) Sorry for the long delay, a hard drive crash last December destroyed the original chapter 3 (that is what I get for not backing up), and "The Fragility of Time" still gets my priority. However, there should be a less of a wait until chapter 4 is ready. Four is nearly finished, except for a couple of additional scenes that I need to add, so assuming I don't get horribly side tracked I should have that off to by beta in the next couple of months.

2) In case anyone feels like raising a red flag about them putting together another MS, there is no need to worry. I am not creating a new high powered unit and I believe that there is every reason to believe that they have enough parts on board. After all it is the only explanation for how the Strike is always looking new and shiny when it goes out into battle. There is only so much a new coat of paint can hide and the Strike Rouge originally started out as spare parts for the Strike.

3) Well I hope you have enjoyed this chapter, it has been a joy to write and explore how Lacus and Kira's characters would develop from this new set of circumstances.