It's hard to recognize anything in the blazing light around him and deep inside he prays both him and Shinn are far away enough to avoid the Minerva's attempt to break up the final large pieces of Junius Seven. He can't see through the blaze and his scanners are malfunctioning so he can't look for the Impulse either, instead he focuses back on the controls. The alarms are going off loudly and his meters spin out of control due to the magnetic interference as he tries to diverge power and set up a trajectory as he continues to fall through the atmosphere.

The rocks spread out following the Earth's horizon, going around the planet before falling down to the surface like blazing red fireballs. Athrun doesn't have the time to look, instead turns his Zaku to face the planet and positions his shield forward to catch most of the heat and pressure.

Suddenly the blaze of red spreads further and changes the sky into a flaring white, filling his vision and lighting up the cockpit bright enough that it almost blinds him. He has to raise his arm to shield his eyes and suspects this is due to the Minerva, he hopes once again that Shinn is doing alright.

As the light fades he lowers his arm and opens his eyes and for a moment he sees the planet laid out bare below him as an endless blue ocean with clouds spreading over them. The red falling stars wash over the land making a stark contrast between the tones of blue and cloudy whites. For a moment he mouths words that describe this sight as something beautiful, blocking out the alarms that sound around him before realizing the destruction that will follow. With a sharp intake of breath he finds himself back in the present, his hands work along the keys to finish setting up his trajectory and he realizes his Zaku's cooling systems are malfunctioning. The damage from before is causing heat to build up in various outputs including the cockpit, the Zaku groans and shakes as he steadies the shield and another loud noise confirms that the assembled back unit is letting loose and is tearing away from the body, flying up into the sky before the pressure from the fall can destroy it fully.

As he works his way around the controls and meters he wonders how many people will be affected by what is happening right now, how many families will be torn apart and he briefly wonders if Kira and the others will be alright. He fears the eventual outcome. What would happen if the world knew that the people who caused this were followers of his father? How would that affect everything he and Cagalli had been building on? The thoughts of his father and his madness anger him deep inside, specially since once again he was helpless to stop it.

Miraculously he makes it through the worst of it, the cockpit is still very warm and sweat is running down his face by the buckets but the red blaze is soon replaced by blue skies and clouds. He doesn't have to lean on the shield anymore to redirect the heat but instead finds himself in another predicament. His meters are still going haywire, their readings incomprehensible and as much as he tries the booster engines simply won't ignite.

If it goes on like this then it isn't the heat or pressure that will kill him. No, hitting the surface will do the job just fine. Seeing the great blue grow larger and larger below him isn't exactly a comfort to his composure.

Another loud groan makes him look up from the meters and controls and before he can fully register it the large shield is torn off. "Damned!" he curses as he tries again and again in annoyance and panic.

"Without the boosters there is no way I can slow down!" he yells at noone in particular but the boosters remain silent as he pulls the controls and the spinning altitude meter adds to his frustration. Suddenly though through the haze of alarms the radio in his helmet flares to life and between the static a voice cries out, "-run! Athrun! Can yo. ..ar m.. .thrun!"

Although muffled Athrun recognizes it and quickly yells back at it as if it is a lifeline, "Shinn? Shinn, is that you?!"

The response he gets sounds much clearer, "Athrun! Stay where you are!.." More static and muffled noises but Shinn continues, "I.. I'll be right there!" he adds in a somewhat quieter tone.

Athrun worries if perhaps Impulse was damaged during the fall and in panic wonders if Shinn is planning to carry them both, he answers swiftly without thinking, "Stop it! Even with the boosters on max Impulse shouldn't be able to withstand the fall with both our machi-!" Suddenly however the Zaku shakes and he falls forward, he thanks the straps for holding him in his seat and finds that he isn't falling anymore, it takes him a moment to realize this.

A video link displays on his dashboard and Shinn looks at him with annoyance, "Why must you always insist on telling us what can and can't be done!" he says with a frown.

With relief Athrun leans back in his seat, still shaken from the fall but after a while he answers back almost comically, "What would you rather have me say..?"

"Perhaps.. something like 'help me, you idiot!' or 'hurry up already!'.. something like that." He almost laughs, one moment he's closing in on death and the other a guy he hardly knows is scolding him for his comments. If it weren't for him almost hitting the ocean he probably would've been more composed, but with his heart still racing in his chest from adrenaline and his fingers still shaking he can only find himself responding to the humor of it. "Would you prefer that?" he answers with a sigh while rolling his neck.

Shinn looks taken aback by his response and quickly answers, "No, that's not what I mean, I-" he suddenly bends over and coughs heavily, something's there that causes him to be concerned but Shinn merely leans back in his seat taking several deep breaths before he continues more careful than before, "..that. that was just an example.." he quietly adds.

"Are you alright?" Athrun asks and observes the feedback. He can't really judge anything from the small screen, but the coughing and heavy breaths worry him, He wasn't injured, was he? he wonders as he looks the other pilot.

Shinn isn't looking at him, if anything he seems rather uncomfortable but before he can ask further Shinn replies, "Don't worry about me, I'll be alright.." But more coughs erupt and both units suddenly sway, confirming Athrun's earlier suspicions.

"You're hurt aren't you? Why didn't you mention that earlier!" he says, but Shinn seems unswayed and almost worriless which only adds to his frustration.

"You.. You wouldn't understand even if I told you so. I'll be fine until we get back to the Minerva." he replies quietly yet determined and Athrun wants to say more but decides not to, it would only start an argument and now wasn't the time and place.

With the humorous banting now over they remain in silence, he focuses his attention on the radio signals to try and see if he can pick up the Minerva's signal or anyone else's in the area, Shinn seems to read his intentions and interrupts, "If you're trying to find the Minerva, don't bother. I've set Impulse's radio signal to broadcast over a wide range, they should've picked it up by now. For now all we can do is wait."

Athrun stopped trying afterward and the silence between them continued. With little to do he looks back at the monitors seeing the clouds and ocean and then looks back at the camera feedback, Shinn seems to be doing alright despite his mysterious injuries, but Athrun feels that the younger pilot is downplaying them as nothing serious. He knows from experience that you can easily hide injuries from others if you want to keep them to yourself.

"Strange isn't it?" Shinn suddenly asks softly breaking the silence, "The quietness I mean, you wouldn't be able to tell that somewhere out there.." Shinn probably wants to say more but instead remains quiet, Athrun turns his gaze back to the ocean with an understanding of what he tries to say.

The blue skies, the clouds and quiet waves of the ocean all covered up the deaths of probably millions of people. It was an ominous quietness. "What are you getting at?" he asks in return.

Shinn groans as he shakes his head from left to right as if trying to expel something. He replies quietly, "Sorry for saying weird things. I just.. Lets hope Minerva shows up soon.."

"Is it your.. system?" Athrun asks, he doesn't know how to address it to be honest. Calling it Shinn's 'body' seems a tad too personal and awkward. "Did it get damaged during the fall?"

Shinn huffs in response, almost laughing as if detecting his awkwardness. "I don't know what you've been told but I guess it's something like that. Apparently it lacks 'proper protective isolation' or whatever-" The bleeping of an alarm interrupted their conversation and looking up Athrun could see three bright flares amongst the clouds and could feel Impulse's trajectory shift to set course towards the signal lights. "Thank God.." Shinn mutters as the ship comes into better view and much alike Athrun is glad to see it in one piece. The ship looks badly damaged, after all it had already sustained damages from the earlier fight with Bogey One. But the fact that it was still in one piece meant that the Minerva was indeed a great war vessel.


It takes them a while to be brought into the hangar, they landed on the top deck at the port side but with the heavy winds outside they had to wait inside the cockpit before heading down to the hangar itself. With support from the mechanics and their gear it was an easy task and the Zaku, or what was left of it, was set up in one of the Mobile Suit racks. As he unstrapped from his seat and lowered down to the ground using the transport cable his eyes searched for the Impulse which was standing a bit further back, still assembled as a single unit, but with no sign of Shinn getting out just yet. This worried him a little.

Once down on the ground he was greeted by a small crowd of mechanics who were cheering for his bravery among them was also Lunamaria who greeted him with relief and perhaps some guilt regarding her earlier comments. It was clear that none of them had heard what he and Shinn witnessed during the final drop, if they had they wouldn't be cheering him on like this. Lunamaria turned to talk to him and he wanted to tell her about Shinn's injuries when suddenly someone else pushed through the crowd.

"Athrun!" Much to his surprise had she remained aboard the Minerva throughout the mission, he thought she would've left with Durandal. Cagalli looked like she wanted to hug him but kept her composure and the surprise in his eyes soon turned to a warm smile because he was glad she was safe and unhurt, he could sense her hesitation and could clearly see that she had been worried about him. She smiles and says, "Athrun, I-" A loud rumbling noise however interrupts her and as the ship shakes he grabs Cagalli's arm before she can stumble.

"What was that?!" he hears someone ask and in the distance he notices Shinn coming down the cable, he isn't looking very stable but Rey is already there to help him come off. Gently he passes beside Cagalli and makes his way over through the crowd, Rey has one hand on Shinn's shoulder but the youth seems to claw at his helmet, reading his intentions Rey removes it for him and with the helmet gone Shinn hunches over and with his hands covers his mouth as deep and discernible, painful coughs rake from his throat. Unsure of what is happening, Athrun stops when he sees white thick liquid pouring from between Shinn's fingers down to the ground. Once the coughing ends he waves his hands down, whatever stuck to his fingers falling off and hitting the floor with a loud splat. Rey is quick to steady him because Shinn looks like he's about ready to fall down. Around him he notices people glaring and backing away from the duo.

"Is he alright?" he asks Lunamaria who walks up beside him as Rey helps Shinn stand. Athrun looks down at the thick white goo lying on the ground, searching for any possible answer, but Lunamaria ignores his question and instead walks up to the two.

"Miss Lesgaft is on her way, you idiot." Athrun overhears Rey say and Shinn laughs wearily. He looks up when he hears heels passing over the metallic floor. Anya Lesgaft, the doctor who had helped Cagalli earlier and revealed head of LR, runs past him carrying a suitcase which she settles down before cradling the boy in front of her.

"I can't believe you! You stupid idiot!" She snaps as her hands work around his face before she kneels down and opens the suitcase she was carrying which apparently holds a computer system in the inside casis, she pulls a long wire out from the side and connects it to the back of Shinn's neck. He tries to smile at her, though the white goo that stains his chin isn't making it a pleasant one.

"Sorry.." Shinn struggles and blinks heavily as he looks up at the ceiling, by now Rey has Shinn's arm wrapped over his shoulder to keep him steady and Shinn leans heavily against him. "I feel.. dizzy." he proclaims.

"That's because half of your nanomachines are going haywire and you ejected about a tenth of them on the floor here." Anya answers angrily while typing away on the computer.

"Oh.." Shinn answers back bluntly.

Athrun tries to walk up to them but a hand around his arm makes him stop. Cagalli who stands at his side clearly shakes her head with disfavor. Together they watch as the four of them make their way out of the hanger, both pilots at Shinn's side to carry him and beside them none of the other mechanics or pilots even dare come closer. Instead they watch from a distance with what could clearly be described as discontent. The three of them don't seem to take notice because Lunamaria is now clearly scolding Shinn as they walk past. He can hear their banter along the way and can't help but miss that feeling of friendship and.. closeness.

"Athrun, are you alright?" he is shook out of his thoughts and turns as Cagalli releases his arm. "Come on, I think we're about to land, you could use a shower and then we both need some fresh air." she states and grabs his hand before pulling him along. The ship makes its landing in the ocean and after a quick refreshing shower and a change of clothes he meets up with Cagalli again as they head outside.

Surprisingly the once blue sky was now filled with grey clouds and al though it was supposed to be summer the temperature seemed to have dropped significantly making it rather chilly outside.

They weren't the only ones there however, many of the crew had made their way to the outside decks and were looking at the ocean around them with astonishment, Athrun guessed many of them had never ever left the colonies. With the previous war and bad economy many of them could no longer afford to.

"I think we've landed in what we call the Pacific Ocean. It's enormous!"

"We're not here on vacation you know!"

He noticed how Cagalli stared at them with disapproval, her gaze breaking away only when he nudged her shoulder and motioned towards an area away from everyone else.

"Let them be, Cagalli. Most of them have never even seen an ocean before." he says as she follows him to a more isolated area. He leans on the railing and looks out over the ocean whilst remembering what had happened earlier.

"Are you sure you're alright, Athrun?" Cagalli asks him carefully. "I'm fine.." he answers tiredly. He knows he has to tell her, but he is unsure on how he should approach the subject.

"I hadn't expected that! I was so worried about you. You never said anything about wanting to go out in a mobile suit." she suddenly says and leans forward on the railing next to him, her shoulder briefly touching his own.

"Sorry about that, I mean for suddenly acting on my own."

"It's alright, I was worried but I also know you can handle yourself, Athrun. I was actually glad you went out there, what happened is tragic but I feel that if it weren't for you, the Minerva or even Yzak's team the situation would've been a lot worse. I'm sure the people on Earth will understand that we did the best we could."

"But it wasn't good enough.." he responded bitterly and Cagalli looks at him with surprise for his sudden change of attitude. She didn't mean to make him feel this way.

"But you did what you could, Athrun!"

"You don't understand Cagalli, if the people on Earth heard what we heard up there then they wouldn't react with such understanding!" he scowls rather loudly as straightens up, he looks over his shoulder to see if anyone else heard him, but seeing no one he turns back to Cagalli and quietly adds, "It wasn't an accident. There were people who caused Junius Seven to drop knowing that millions would die, Cagalli!"

"What do you mean?!" Cagalli responded in shock.

"I.. I'm sorry.. But we couldn't save anything. The people responsible.. They.. Cagalli, they were Coordinators, Cagalli."

She couldn't believe what she was hearing, "But you did everything you could!" she responded fiercely. Athrun however remained quiet, he tried to find the right words to explain it to her.

"We tried but we couldn't fully stop it from falling and now it is wreaking devastation upon Earth. Millions have already died and even though it was done by just a handful of people the fact remains that they were Coordinators, I don't think the people will easily forget that." Especially since they were followers of my father , but Athrun couldn't speak those words out loud, instead he still remembers their words clearly: 'for us Coordinators the path of Patrick Zala was the one and only correct path.'

Tired and defeated he turns and leaves Cagalli.


Waking up was never a pleasant thing, not when you were put under stasis for an uncertain amount of time. With a sudden breath Shinn inhaled deeply, the first breath of air he had probably taken in hours if not days. He never knew how long he was put under until his system informed him about it, normally it didn't worry him, but when he opened his eyes and saw only darkness he briefly panicked until he became aware of a hand pushing him down.

"..Calm down, easy.. easy, Shinn." The sounds were still muffled but slowly the persistent beep he was hearing was clearing up making the voice sound clear and understandable. "Can you hear me now?" He recognized that voice and with strain attempted to respond.

" Anya ..?" His voice sounded deformed, the pitch way off from what it usually was. Before he could ask why Anya continued, "Good, your hearing system seems to be stabilizing. Talk a little more Shinn, let your voice synchronize with its old preferences."

" Synchronize ? You had to reset my system?" he says with a deformed deep voice that turned higher the more he spoke before tuning down to his usual tone and stabilizing.

"Perfect, now that seems to be in order. Now hold on while I turn on your optics, close your eyes."

He did as asked and from behind his eyelids a white flash filled his vision before slowly ebbing from red to yellow to green to blue before finally turning back to black. He was aware of the lack of interface with some concern and slowly opened his eyes, blinking as they got used to the dimmed lighting before finally recognizing the ceiling of Anya's lab onboard of the Minerva. He turned his head and Anya smiled at him before unhooking some of the wires were connected to him. Shinn noticed how tired she looked.

He stretched his toes and fingers and perceived the how heavy his limbs were feeling.

"Don't try and get up so soon.." she scolded when she noticed his intent. "Do you have any idea how close you were to shutting down! Gil and I told you to be careful and this is what you do! You idiot!" He cried out in pain when she whacked some rolled up files on top of his head.

"Always the same, you're not just some machine that we can just fix and send back out, Shinn! If something happens up here.." with her finger she pushed against the side of his head. "Then it's all over!"

"Stop it.. Hey! I'm sorry alright!" he protests as she continued to torment him.

With a sigh she stops and sits back down, "You're lucky I stayed onboard the ship. You would've been in a lot more trouble otherwise. I can't always stick around while you're out there doing whatever, you have to be more careful with yourself!"

She continued to scold him as she worked and only after several hours did Shinn feel safe enough to ask her how long long he had been in stasis for. He learned that he had been out for about 5 hours and that by now the sun had gone under and it was early in the evening.

Anya explained that he had to be put under so that his nanomachines could replicate themselves without having to worry about the rest of his system. With too few they would be overstrained and overloaded which was also why his scanners and usual interface were kept offline, he could only run the absolute basics for the moment being because of the magnetic and gravitational interference from the drop. She had to flush out the nanomachines's malfunctions by resetting his systems, which meant that everything was out of the loop and in time had to be put back in order through synchronization. To Shinn it was as if he had just woken up in a new transplant where the signals from his nanomachines were not yet on par with the signals in his brain. By correcting wrongly received signals his brain had to basically tell his body what to send out when something was hot or cold. It was a slow and annoyingly agonizing process that could take days if not weeks.

"You're not going anywhere!" Anya scowled as she roughly pulled out the remaining wires and typed away on her system. Shinn couldn't help but be reminded of his mother whenever Anya acted this way, he refrained from mentioning it because she would probably despise him for calling her old. "I am contacting Gil the coming morning and I am having him prepare your latest prosthetic, it's useless to try and repair this one when your upgrade is almost ready! I do hope you know what that means!" she added while pointing a pen at his distressed face.

Oh did he know! It meant he was refrained from basically everything that could strain his system: target practise, piloting, heck it basically meant he was only allowed to walk around and rest, or in his case do everything wrong before his brain and body were on the same page now his system would be constricted to a safemode and would therefore be mostly offline. He groaned at that prospect. He couldn't just sit around while-

His eyes widened, "Junius Seven! Anya! What happened to Earth!" He nearly shot out of his chair. He had almost forgotten about it; staying behind with Athrun Zala, the drill, the Coordinators!

"My daughter's tombstone must be dropped and must burn for this this world to change!"

"Calm down!" Anya cried as she pushed him back onto the chair with both hands. Before he could say anything she continued, "I managed to download your radio logs, I already send them over to Gil." She could see the regret in his eyes and leaned down to meet his eyes. "Shinn don't blame yourself. You did the best you could."

"And still it wasn't enough." he answered while avoiding her gaze, Anya noticed his mechanical hand tightly gripping the armrest. Millions of people died, innocent people just like his parents and Mayu.

"Here," Anya turned, grabbed and dropped her tablet on his lap before getting up and to pull off her white labcoat. "This is all the data we have right now, try to get some rest Shinn. Your system is still calibrating so try to get some rest before you break anything again."

She turned to the door and looked over her shoulder before leaving, "It's just for a couple of days, you'll be up and at 'em again in no time, soldier."

"Thanks, Anya." He answered as she left.


"We at the Plants cannot express the great sorrow we feel concerning this calamity of unprecedented proportions. I personally have no words to express how shocked I am to see the scenes of devastation from around the world.." It was somewhere early in the morning when Shinn rewatched the footage available from Anya's tablet, he felt restless and uncertain as he watched Durandal perform his speech during a press conference.

".. I'm sure that the resulting scars are deep and there seem no end in sight to your sorrows, but please my friends of Earth. Please rise from the despair of this day. We are committed to do everything we can to help you through this unimaginable hardship.." He knew Gill was doing his best but even he could see the tiredness in his eyes, the strain of being chairman thinning him out as disaster after disaster followed up to what Shinn thought could be an inevitable outcome. Coordinators were the cause of these sorrows, if people knew the truth or at least saw proof of it then another war might be around the corner.

The late night talk shows all spoke of the same subjects, some already claiming what he had already feared. They didn't speak it out loud but plenty of them were steadily turning their gaze on the Plants as their sole perpetrator. The name of Patrick Zala was dropped here and there but none of them dared to connect the dots without any immediate proof.

Unable to take anymore of these uneducated celebrities he put the tablet aside and instead decided that he needed to walk it off. His reserves were low and his robotic right arm was feeling rather heavy now that most of his functions were kept offline.

Taking his time he got to his feet and grabbed an extra set of his uniform out of one of the cupboards, along with it he grabbed a sling to rest his arm in and pulled his jacket loosely over his shoulders. He felt too tired to bother tidying up his uniform to fit protocol and figured that anyone still out at this hour probably wouldn't care much about it either.

With his muscles still stiff and cramped he slowly made his way down the hallway, passing only a few mechanics who were still working on the ship's repairs. They didn't dare talk to him and simply eyed him as he struggled passed them, their glances moving over the mechanical arm he had in his sling before hurrying up to do whatever it was they were busy doing. Shinn figured both Rey and Lunamaria were taking a rest by now and settled on grabbing something to drink before heading to his bunk.

He passed the corner and entered the cafeteria only to stop when once again he saw Athrun Zala sitting alone on one of the lounge couches. Why is that guy still up? he wondered and couldn't help but feel a sense of deja vu.

Athrun, with his back turned towards Shinn, seemed to be reading something and hadn't heard him stumble in. Instead he looked tired and was rubbing one of his eyes while scanning through a dossier of papers with what seemed to be various diagrams and schematics. Shinn didn't pay notice and told himself he didn't care, that was until he passed Athrun from behind and recognized some of the forms.

"I didn't know Orb bodyguards were allowed to read classified Zaft documents." he declared as he stood behind the other.

Surprised Athrun quickly gathered the papers and shut the dossier, he looked over his shoulder, eyes widening upon realizing who was speaking to him and he quickly shot up to his feet. "You're awake! I didn't think-.." he sputtered but stopped to gather himself before calmly continuing, "I'm sorry, I didn't understand what was happening back there, but are you alright?" he added as he eyed the sling carrying the mechanical arm.

Shinn frowned, not understanding the sudden concern and walked to one of the vending machines. "Who gave you those files? Those are classified you know!" he suddenly asks and scolds himself for making it sound too harsh and demanding. He grabs his can and turns back to Athrun who doesn't seem taken aback by his sudden outburst.

"I guess I can understand your anger, there's quite some interesting stuff in here-"

"You mean interesting stuff about me!" He yells as he clicks open his can with one hand.

"Why are you so angry? The Chairman gave me authorisation and Miss Lesgaft handed me the data when I visited you hours ago."

"You honestly want me to believe that Gill gave you access and that Anya personally gave you those files?! You're not even apart of Zaft!"

"Look for yourself then." Athrun said while reaching out the dossier, Shinn set his can of coffee aside and pulled them from Athrun's hand. Flipping over to see the front he could definitely make out Anya's handwriting and numbering. This was definitely from her office. He scowled at the realisation, "That bitch.." he scowled under his breath.

"I see your injuries haven't affected your good nature, are you always like this?"

Shinn looked up again and practically threw the file back into Athrun's hand. "Wha-?! What do you mean 'always like this'! Yes I am when it involves people I hardly even know reading up on schematics that aren't their business knowing about!" he shouted while taking his coffee back from the machine.

Athrun sighed deeply and rubbed at his temples in annoyance, this felt a hundred times worse than dealing with one of Cagalli's tantrums. He opened his mouth to say something in return but was interrupted by a sudden spewing of coffee aimed at the floor. "Fucking Christ, that tastes awful!" He looks at the younger pilot with uther astonishment as the other rubs at his mouth and eyes the coffee on the floor with a disturbing glare.

"What did you do that for?!" Athrun loudly asks in discontent at the lack of respect. Never ever had he met anyone that acted this vile. "How dare you! You-" he stops when suddenly Shinn raises his left human hand and interrupts him, "Technical issue.." he mutters still coughing, "I'm really sorry about that."

Athrun finds it hard to believe but the look Shinn is giving him is not a mocking one, instead he recognizes shame. "To come back to your first question: my prosthetic was badly damaged during the fall. I am now running on minimum functionality not to overstrain my systems. My system required a hard reboot as you might call it, it basically means that everything has been resetted, this includes… taste." he says while eying the can he is swinging around in his hand, the liquid sloshing against the insides. It felt strange explaining these things when nobody was ever really interested in hearing them. Just like everyone else he'd just be labeled a weirdo or a freak.

"Was the coffee that bad?" He looks up again in surprise when at Athrun's seemingly genuine question, normally people would back off by now. The other however seemed to be smiling actually.

"The first taste is sour like a lemon, then extremely bitter. But.." He takes a careful sip from the can to try out the flavour and when he tastes the usual coffee like flavour he takes another before lowering the can again. ".. now that my brain recognizes it again, it tastes like regular coffee."

"And this accounts for everything?" Athrun asks.

"Basically, yes. It's just temporary but it's annoying as hell."

Not knowing how to proceed the two of them stood there in silence until Athrun spoke, "I'm glad you're alright, I tried to check up on you earlier but-"

"It's alright! If you'll excuse me, I have to report to the Captain." It was a shit excuse but the only thing that Shinn could come up with and he left the room in a hurry after saying their goodbyes. Unused to the kindness of strangers he went back to Anya's laboratory, a place he knew he could find solitary, and wondered about the many things on his mind.

On one end he couldn't help but speculate about what would happen next and what could happen. On the other he briefly wondered about what had just happened. He didn't know Zala on a personal level, actually he loathed the fact that he was behaving like a coward hiding on Orb. Of all places it just had to be Orb and for some reason that damn country kept showing up in his life.

The point was that people he didn't know personally never showed an interest in him, in fact they stayed as far away from him as possible. And so he couldn't understand why Zala was showing concern, they probably wouldn't see each other again anyway. It had caught him off guard.

He had several questions on the tip of his tongue though, concerning the terrorists, Zala's father and what he was going to do about everything. But Shinn couldn't get himself to ask them, it isn't my business to ask.


The bit of rest Athrun had gotten hadn't done him much good in the end, he had come in shortly after Shinn had left and had tried to get some sleep. Cagalli told him to sleep in the next morning while she tried to establish communication with the government of Orb and Athrun truly tried but sleep just didn't seem to overcome him. He still hadn't told Cagalli about the revelations of his father and he knew he should've done that right away. But Cagalli still seemed keen on thinking that whatever he had been doing up there was enough to convince an entire nation that the Plants weren't involved.

He got up somewhere in the early afternoon and wandered around the ship, he met up with the Captain who informed him that the Minerva was heading out to Orb to dock, everything had checked out and the ship was safe enough to make the journey.

When he asked about the damages he was told that Cagalli was going try her best in letting the ship get repaired as a gesture of goodwill after everything that had happened. He didn't know how the situation would turn out but agreed that this was the best course of action for now. He was wandering around the decks looking for Cagalli when he heard gunshots coming from the outer decks. Curious he steps outside where he finds Lunamaria, her younger sister and Rey doing target practice on a quickly set up range.

The weather has calmed down a bit and the temperature is higher than the previous day but the sky is still enveloped with grey clouds from the asteroids. He observes them and takes in the salty scent of the ocean, the wind takes away some of the tension he was feeling earlier.

"Oh, you're here!" Lunamaria takes off her headset and walks up to him.

"Is this mandatory training?" he asks.

"As long as we're out here we might as well practice. At least the weather is great."

"Did you guys drag these outside?"

"We had some help, it would've been a lot quicker if a certain 'someone' could help us out, but doctor's orders." She looks over her shoulder at what her sister and Rey are doing. Rey seems to be doing alright though, hitting each target in a steady streak and Athrun notices the annoyed look on Lunamaria's face. "Honestly though, I'm not doing so well. I thought the air might freshen me up but I keep on missing." she turns back to Athrun, "Won't you join us?"

He knew what Lunamaria was trying to do, but Athrun had to remind himself that he wasn't here to befriend the crew and briefly answered, "Sorry, I'll have to pass."

Lunamaria however was not taking no for an answer, she took off her glasses and spoke, "I'm sorry if I'm out of line here, but there's no need for concern here. Truth is all of us here know a great deal about you.

Formerly a Zaft Red, part of the Le Creuset Team. In the middle stages of the war, you defeated the Strike Gundam, said to have been the strongest.

After which you were assigned to the Faith special forces team which reported directly to the National Defense Committee. There you became a pilot of the ZGMF X09A Justice. You're Athrun Zala.

Look, I don't know much about your father, I doubt any of us do, but to us you're quite a hero, especially after what happened during the battle of Jachin Due."

Athrun was at a loss of words. He had expected people to be judgemental about his relationship with his father and decision to abandon the Zaft forces, he hadn't expected there to be any heroic worship.

"I also heard you're quite skilled with a gun." Lunamaria held out her pistol, "Could you show us? I mean we would be honored if you would."

Athrun felt tempted to say no, but somewhere he felt eager to try for himself. Lunamaria was trying to make him open up a bit, to be less of the guy who stuck around as Cagalli's bodyguard and more as the person he actually was. He thought back to the longing he felt when he saw them drag away Shinn, cracking jokes in the middle of a disaster much like he once did with Yzak and Dearka when he was younger.

"Alright." he answered while taking the gun from her hand and weighing the pistol in as he stepped up to the machine. He didn't have to adjust any settings, the model used at the track was exactly the same as the ones he had been using when he was still a red coat himself.

He gripped the pistol tightly as he raised it, both eyes following down the barrel as he opened fire. It wasn't something he was ever going to forget, his coordinator genes made sure of that, and so with extreme ease he managed to take down target after target, red outlines confirming hit after hit. He vaguely heard Lunamaria gasp out in surprise but kept his focus on the targets that popped up one after another. He didn't waste ammo, taking each of them out with a single bullet until he ran out.

By now both Rey and Lunamaria's younger sister had stopped firing themselves to observe what he was doing and when he turned around he noticed that Shinn had also joined them, though it didn't seem like he was here to practise.

"Wow! Hard to believe you're using the same gun! Unbelievable!" Lunamaria cheered ecstatically.

"It isn't the gun," he said while demonstrating, "you seem to have a habit in twisting your wrist whenever you pull the trigger. That's why it isn't hitting your intended target." He returned the gun to Lunamaria.

"Athrun?"

He saw Cagalli looking down at them from an upper deck overlooking the practise range and turns back to Lunamaria to say, "It is however pretty useless to be good at shooting like that."

Lunamaria responded however in disapproval, "I must disagree, it's necessary to protect yourself and your friends from an enemy."

Their foolhardiness reminded him of himself back in those days, back when he still thought the same way. "And who would the enemy protect?" He realized this as soon as he met Kira again on the battlefield. Athrun turned to leave then but someone called up to him from the hallways and he turned to see Shinn walking up to him.

"I heard the Minerva is heading to Orb."

"That's possible yes."

"Does that mean you'll also be returning there?"

Why was he asking these questions? "Doesn't that seem obvious?"

"But why? What will you do there?"

Thinking about it Athrun couldn't really find a definite answer. What was he going to do once they docked at the harbor? He wanted to actively help preventing another war, but the way things were now, the way the terrorists were linked to his father, he couldn't help but feel doubt.

"I.. I don't know.." he answered and continued.