A/N: Seeing a pattern with the names? Yes, it's on purpose – though I do wonder how long it'll last.

Enjoy!

Forget the Bad Blood Between Us Both

Chapter 4
Sunken Stones

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The Marshall Islands. It was a quiet part of the Orb union: private islands for those who served, or had in the past served, as envoys between the two other great nations of the world. A place of peace, of neutrality.

They found the Strike on one of those little islands. Or what was left of it, scattered with bits of other machines and a rain of ash mixing into the sand.

The war had reached that far.

Cagali stood next to the Strike. Of all the debris, that was the only one recognisable. Almost whole. But it was broken still, and stuck. Stuck in the sand by force or heavy weight. Probably both, she thought, looking at the ash that framed it.

'Lady Cagali.' One of the men who had come with them gestured from near the head. 'You might want to see –'

'No,' Colonel Kisaka snapped, but Cagali was already moving, climbing up the dune to see – and she stopped short at the sight. The cockpit had been blown open, metal curling around the edges to pull back the curtains on what was within.

Melted control board. Cracked glass. A seat bared – the leather she remembered coating it polished off and leaving only threads behind.

She stumbled back, before the absence pointed her towards a glimmer of hope. 'There's no body.' The words were a whisper at first, but they gave her strength as she repeated them. 'Kira! He must have been thrown somewhere!'

She spun around, eyes skimming the sand and the broken trees and the metal and ash scattered everywhere. There was nothing blue: no sign of that blue pilot suit Kira had always adorned. No sight of anything that even marginally resembled a body. Just a mix of purple and green and red –

'Lady Cagali!' Another called, gesturing further down the beach. She ran up, hopeful, feet making imprints in the grey sand. 'Kira?'

The man pointed at the head of another Gundam. She stared without regonition for a moment.

'It looks like another one of the Heliopolis mobile suits,' the man explained.

Then it clicked, and her eyes widened a fraction. 'The Aegis!' Athrun… He did this?

It was hard to imagine that boy she'd been stranded with on some deserted island had been responsible for that. Granted, he'd attacked her with a knife and pointed a gun at her, but she'd done worse. She'd shot down his cargo plane. She'd aimed a gun at him. Hell, she'd shot him – even if the shot had been an accident. But above and beyond that – he could have killed her any time, once she was defenceless and captive. He didn't have to help her. He didn't have to let the Archangel pick her up and take her away, despite his missing being to apprehend the both of them.

They might have become friends that night as well. They'd talked enough, certainly. About what they were fighting for, even though it had seemed back then that neither of them understood.

But now… Kira and Athrun had been fighting there, against each other. And both machines were damaged beyond function. The Aegis wasn't even all there.

Tears fell before she could even register them. Have you killed each other? Her shoulders shook, even when Colonel Kisaka put a hand on her shoulder. How – how could you both - ?

.

Colonel Kisaka sighed heavily. He wanted to comfort the young princess, but there was little that could be said. False hope was a useless thing, especially now that she had grown, and had seen more of the harsh realities of the world. She'd seen Heliopolis destroyed, and so many people in the desert and the sea afterwards.

But even years of military experience didn't desensetise people to death and its possibilities. Especially not when it came to friends. He knew nothing about the pilot of the Aegis except he was of ZAFT, but he too had become familiar with the young coordinator from Heliopolis who had piloted the Strike.

Cagali was right; he could have been thrown, somewhere. But the chances of that were very slim. Worth looking into, but not worth banking one's hopes upon.

'I'm sorry,' was all he said.

Cagali nodded, making no move to rid her face of the tears. 'They really – killed each other, didn't they. The…Strike, and the Aegis.'

'We think,' one of the other men spoke up hesitantly, 'that the Aegis grabbed on to the strike and then self-destructed, taking both machines out.'

'The Strike was that big a threat to ZAFT that it was worth one of their own machines to take it out.' Colonel Kisaka sighed again. That was what power led to: killing and destruction until death. But power was the only thing they had, when words failed. It was one of the sadder things about Orb, that despite how they detested fighting they still had a military, and weapons, and advances on the warfront like this.

Lord Uzumi had been right after all, that creating those mobile suits for the earth forces would only lead to more conflict. Kisaka had trusted that; despite being military himself, he longed for that utopia Lord Uzumi was attempting to create. He admired those principles, that dedication. Yes, they needed strength, but just enough. Carrying the ideals to another place was better than bathing the flag ground in blood.

Cagali still didn't know of the Kusanagi, or the secret that hid in Morgenroeteand Kaguya. A destructive secret, but one essential for upholding their principles. The two most coveted things of Orb: their military strength that would tip the scales of war, and their mass driver. Things that could easily be destroyed and rebuilt, but would, despite their stance, eventually bring the enemy to their doorstep in war.

And yet, without them, their words would reach nowhere. Such was the cycle of war they fought desperately to escape.

'Colonel Kisaka.' One of the men tapped him on the shoulder and he turned around. 'We've found a…body, sir. On a nearby island.' He seemed to hesitate to use the word, and when Colonel Kisaka followed him to that island, he found out why.

It was just bits and pieces, chopped by either the blade buried into the cliffside not far from them or from the debris when the fighter plane exploded. A hand with a glove. A bit of an arm or leg with orange cloth. A head in a cracked helmet leaking blood.

The plane was in even more pieces, but Colonel Kisaka could guess what it was. The Skygrasper that Cagali had taken out a few times. From the message they'd received from Captain Ramius, Tolle had been flying the plane when they'd lost contact with it.

Now they knew why.

'Collect the remains,' he ordered. 'I'm sure the Archangel will want them.'

They left the Skygrasper, but recognising the blade as part of the Gundam series model, they took that as well.

.

Cagali was back on the ship when Colonel Kisaka returned on board. 'Did you find anything?' she asked, eyes bloodshot and wide.

'We found the Skygrasper and its pilot,' the Colonel replied. 'He was ripped into pieces when the plane exploded.

Cagali slumped back into her chair. 'I see,' she said, her tone flat. 'And Kira and A – the pilot of the Aegis?'

Colonel Kisaka caught the slip, but didn't question it. It wasn't the time to work out why Cagali might know the name of the Aegis' pilot. 'There was no sign of them on the other islands.'

'Not with us either. Just a bunch of useless scrap.'

'There's an orphanage on the island,' one of the other men continued, 'but when we knocked on the door, no-one came.'

'Hmm…' The Colonel stared into space. 'Given the circumstances, I don't think it's worth waiting for them. They have the means to contact Orb or the relevant authorities if they do find either of them wandering around.'

Of course, the chances of that were better for the ZAFT pilot if he'd triggered his own machine's destruction sequence, but unlikely for the both of them. Chances were, even if they did escape each other, they had just become victims of another blade or gun.

'Get ready to move out. And contact the Archangel to organise a rendezvous point.'

.

Murrue had declined the offer for rest in lieu of having her other offices take a much needed break. Though she was tired, the children were far more so and grieving much harder than her. After all, though she had been a ground worker prior to the destruction of Heliopolis, she had far more military experience than university students who hadn't even thought of being a part of the war until after they were tossed into it.

Natarle was resting. There had been no need for the both of them on the bridge, and if the ship entered combat status again, they'd need her. She'd tried to order Mu to rest as well, but since they were of equal rank despite her captaincy and he needed to oversea the repairs on his Skygrasper, she'd let him go.

After all, the Skygrasper was their only hope if they were attacked before reaching Atlantis. Even if they hoped the losses they'd caused in that last battle had crippled ZAFT as badly as it had the Archangel.

And so she was on the bridge with the rest of the initial Archangel crew when the call from Orb came.

And she was on the bridge when they received the news.

'We're making a detour,' she announced. 'Admiral, please plot a safe course to the coordinates on your screen. We're rendezvousing with the Orb rescue fleet.'

The officers looked at her, talking over each other in a mix of excitement and dread. "Did they find the kids?" "Are they okay?" "Are we picking up a body?"

Murrue sighed and raised a hand. 'Quiet down,' she said. 'They're meeting us almost on our path to Alaska, so we won't have to go far out of our way. And we're going to pick up the remains of Crewman Koenig. Ensign Yamato's status is still unknown.'

There was silence for a moment, before the whispers started again. "Damn, I'd really hoped they'd be okay." "So Ensign Yamato's still missing huh? Could he have survived." "Even Orb couldn't find out…"

She shut them out and dialled the ground crew. Mu had been just as worried about the kids, and, she'd rather break the news to him before tackling the other kids.

He turned on the video, and she didn't even start to speak before he read the news off her face. 'So Orb couldn't find them,' he guessed. 'Either that, or they're coming back in a casket.'

'They found the remains of Crewman Koenig,' Murrue sighed. 'Kira…they only found the Strike.'

'I see.' And Murrue heard the echo of a fist striking metal – the Skygrasper's frame, she assumed. 'This stupid piece of junk couldn't help either of them.'

'That stupid piece of junk defeated the Buster,' Murrue snapped, suddenly angry. 'And this is a war; you can't sacrifice your own life to help someone. If you'd turned away for a moment, the Buster would have shot you down.'

'I didn't mean it like that.' Mu, in contrast, sounded calmer. Almost soothing. 'It's just…those kids shouldn't have even been a part of this war, you know. I seriously doubt they were ready for this. Not like us, who knew when we signed up for the military, we signed up to die for what we fight for. They just signed up to help out.' He sighed again. 'We should never have let him into that plane.'

'He signed up to help,' Murrue reminded. 'So did Kira. So did the rest of them.'

There was pause. 'You're going to tell them, right?'

'Yes. Before we reach the rendezvous point at least.'