Disclaimer: I do NOT own Gundam SEED the Dante's or the Raven, the Patriot Series belongs to Patriot-112 and I own the rest, so Bandai, please call off your crazy ninja lawyers, yes they exist just read Nuklearpower's 8-bit theatre and they will appear.

AN: SORRY THE UPDATE TOOK SO LONG!

LittleBlueNaryu: Thanks for pointing that out! I did however mention that Garcia ordered her to be brought along, I should have mentioned that Chris pulled her into the cockpit though.

"Speaking"

"Radio"

'Thoughts'

Chapter Six: The Scars of Space

Archangel, Hallway

Flay sighed to herself as she walked through the halls of the Archangel reflecting on the recent events that had happened in the last few days, first they had been attacked at Heliopolis by ZAFT, then chased for days by said ZAFT forces and when they had finally had a chance to catch their breath at Artemis base they were double crossed by the base commander, had Chris dragged her into the cockpit of the Raven with him who knows what would of happened. She had gained a bit more respect for the pilots of the Archangel after experiencing the dogfight that had erupted during the escape, she had never been so scared, but somehow knowing that Chris was behind the controls reassured her that she would be fine. Also after seeing Kira in that depressed state opened her eyes to how alike Coordinators were to Naturals, unlike what the propaganda said Coordinators were not unfeeling monsters but could be kind and caring people. Artimis had also opened her eyes to the evil that Naturals carry as well.

She stopped at the door to Ryu and Kira's room and hesitated for a minute before knocking on the door "Just a minute!" She heard Kira's voice float through before the door opened a couple of seconds later with Kira standing there dressed in shorts and a slightly large T-shirt "Oh, Flay what is it?"

"I-uh, I just wanted to say thank you for all you've done," Flay stuttered out "You all have done a lot for us and yesterday made me realize that coordinators aren't as bad as the media makes them out to be."

Kira blinked at Flay with the classic 'deer caught in the headlights' look "Uhh, thank you Flay," she began hesitantly before she gave a soft smile "That means a lot, thanks for telling me that Flay. How are you feeling by the way?" Kira asked as she stepped back and made a 'come in' gesture inviting Flay into the room "I mean with everything that has been going on."

Flay smiled as she entered the room and sat down on Kira's bed as Kira moved around getting dressed "I've been doing fine, still a little shocked though at all that has happened."

"Tell me about it," Kira said empathetically "I never thought that I would end up playing tag with against ZAFT elites in an advanced prototype warship piloting a mobile suit. Although I do have one thing to be thankful about all this though." She admitted with a bright smile.

"What's that?" Flay asked curiously.

Kira grinned at the redhead "I'm with Ryu now," she stated "I've had a crush on him since the day he started working with Professor Kato, and well since then I've grown to admire him, he is content with who he is, he admits his flaws and uses his strengths to their fullest." She gave a small giggle "Not to mention he knows when to relax and when to be serious, it doesn't hurt that he's pretty cute too."

Flay sighed "I hope that I can someone like that." She admitted.

"What about Sai?"

Flay shook her head "Don't get me wrong, Sai is a very nice guy, it's just, I don't feel that connection." She said slightly depressed.

Kira sat down beside Flay and rubbed her back and smiled reassuringly "Don't worry, just have some faith," she advised "I'm sure you'll find the right person for yourself."'Besides he might be closer than you think.' She added to herself "C'mon, I need some coffee and Ryu asked me to help him oversee the upgrades to the mobile suits, wanna come?"

Flay smiled and nodded as the two of them stood up and left the room heading to the cafeteria.

OoOoOo

Shuttle, en route to the PLANTS

As he boarded the shuttle to the PLANTS Athrun's jaw dropped at the sight of an empty shuttle but for one passenger, the reason for his loose jaw was that the passenger was his father. "F-father." He stuttered in surprise, but when his father gave a slight glare he straightened himself and saluted "I mean Chairman Zala."

Patrick nodded "You are not to mention that you have seen me here today." He ordered sternly and Athrun and Rau sat down across from him "I've come to talk to the two of you about your report to the council you will be giving on the G-weapons, I want you not to mention that the other G-weapon pilots other than the Dragon of Endymion."

Athrun blinked in confusion "Why?" he asked simply.

Patrick turned his blank gaze to his son "Because we need more support for this war to continue, and if the people believe that naturals are able to pilot mobile suits than they will support a larger military budget, and I don't think I need to mention how much they fear the Dragon alone."

Athrun stared at his father blankly, he wanted to continue the war, sure his mother died because of it, but to continue it would be a waste of good men and women on both sides. "F-father?" he questioned only to be sent a short glare.

"You of all people should know how necessary it is to remove this blight from existence Athrun." Zala growled and he folded his hands in front of him "All I need from you is to omit the fact that the pilots are coordinators during your report than I will handle the rest, understood?"

Athrun and Rau nodded as Patrick stood and left before Athrun sighed and lent back into his chair with his commander frowning in thought 'This is going to be a long trip.' Athrun predicted to himself as he stared out the window.

OoOoOo

Archangel, Hanger

Ryu sighed as he eyed the current problem in front of him in the form of a stubborn mobile suit that refused to cooperate, he had been up all night working on the Strike, Raven, Zephyr and their newest addition the TMSF-081RWG Patriot Zero upgrading them and running general maintenance on them with the maintenance crews watching in some kind of reverent awe, now he was working on his personal mobile sit the Dragon. He took a deep breath, "YOU STUPID ASS MORONIC RUSTED HUNK OF JUNK!" he shouted giving the Dragon a swift kick "HERE I AM TRYING TO UPGRADE YOU AND MAKE YOU EVEN BETTER WHILE YOU ARE REFUSING TO COOPERATE WITH ME! DON'T YOU WANT TO BE THE EPITOME OF KICKASSNESS!"

That was the scene that Kira and Flay walked into when they entered the hanger with the regular crews cowering in fear as Ryu began to hit the mobile suit with a wrench with a sadistic smile on his face. Flay gave Kira a worried glace as Kira sighed and rolled her eyes "Every single time he pulls an all-nighter," she mutter before shouting "RYU! COFFEE!"

Ryu froze and stared at Kira with a borderline worshipping look before he broke the world record for the 50 meter dash grabbing the coffee "Thankyouthankyouthankyou!" He kept repeating hugging Kira whole rolled her eyes again and lightly smacked his head with a grin.

"You're welcome, now please stop scaring everyone." She requested with a giggle as he separated himself from Kira with a grin and motioned for them to follow.

Picking their way through the spare parts and equipment the littered the hanger Ryu led them over to where the Strike was docked "Now as you can see we have permanently mounted the Trikeros unit to the Strike, as per your request we kept the color the same, we have also added a katana for close combat and when your suit is out of power, it's coated with an Anti-Beam Alloy so don't worry about clashing with beam weapons with it." He explained before leading them over to the Striker packs bay "I've also managed to create some new striker packs with the equipment we have on board, the Sniper Striker has a Mirage Colloid and enhanced radar with it, while the Aqua Strike has enhanced sonar and several torpedo launchers for underwater combat and last but certainly not least is the Gunbarrel Striker pack, it comes equipped with Beam Gunbarrels and me and Mu will give you a crash course later when we have a chance."

Kira blinked as she looked over all of the striker packs "Wow, you did this in one night with limited resources?" She asked amazed.

Ryu chuckled "Not really no, Johanna already had some of the base work laid out, I just put it together and gave them a few tweaks." He admitted "The Raven and Zephyr both received hard-points to mount weapons from the striker packs and some additional weapons, the Raven now has a missile armament while the Zephyr has a pair of Gatling Cannons." Ducking under a stray piece of equipment Ryu started making his way back to the Dragon "For the Dragon I'm only doing some basic stuff like upgrading the wiring and tweaking the reactor a bit to increase the power, mostly experimental stuff that I want to test before using it with your guy's mobile suit." Stepping up to the open panel of the Dragon that he was working at earlier he downed the last of the coffee "And that pretty much sums up the upgrades, be sure to go over your OS and make sure that it's up to speed with the upgrade," he gave Kira a quick peck on the cheek "Thanks for the coffee."

Kira gave him a sunny smile before walking away with Flay whose head was spinning at all the information that she just received. Ryu sighed and turned back to the Dragon "Are you ready to cooperate now?" he asked the suit and could of swore that it somehow smirked at him, or was the the lack of sleep affecting him?

Bridge

Murrue sighed as she looked over the supplies list in her hand and eyed the report on the remaining water levels willing them to increase from the low levels they were at. "So does anyone have any idea's on where to get water?" she asked with a raised eyebrow not really expecting an answer.

Mu coughed into his hand "Well there is the debris belt," he suggested "In particular Junius Seven."

"WHAT!" nearly half the bridge shouted in disbelief while the other half simply stared at him. "Is that wise sir, we'd be desecrating the grave of millions." Natarle blurted out in shock.

Mu sighed "Yes I know it would be, but we need that water if we are to make it the rendezvous with Halberton alive." He stated "Do you know where else we can find Gallons of water for free?"

"Mu's got a point." Ryu stated as he walked into the bridge with a coffee in his hand "We are in a life or death situation, as much as I dislike having to do it, it is necessary right now for our survival."

Murrue nodded reluctantly in agreement "That is true, Are the mobile suits ready to be launched?" she asked.

Ryu gave a sharp nod and passed her a clipboard "They are, this is a list of all the upgrades that were made," he answered "The pilots have been given copies and have reviewed them, all they need is some testing."

"Very well," she sighed "Inform the pilots to get ready to launch, your objective is to protect the Mistrals as they gather the necessary amount of ice that we need."

Ryu and Mu both saluted and coursed "Yes ma'am." Turning they both exited the bridge and started making their way to the rec room that the pilots spend their spare time at.

"Are you sure your okay with doing this Ryu?" Mu asked cautiously "You can sit this out if you need to."

Ryu shook his head "No it's alright." He answered "It'll be a bit troublesome but I can deal with it."

Mu nodded in acceptance before he grinned "So how are things going with the little lady?" he asked suddenly making Ryu blink before smiling softly.

"It's going good." He said in a soft voice before stopping and looking out of a view port leaning against a railing "It's funny, I feel more of a connection to her than I ever did to Yuna." He turned and looked at Mu "Loosing Yuna was hard Mu, But if I lose Kira..." he trailed off unable to finish the sentence.

Mu nodded gravely and placed a hand on Ryu's shoulder "You won't lose her kid," he reassured with a grin "Especially if you're the one protecting her."

Ryu smirked at Mu and they both started making their way to the rec room. Upon entering they saw Chris in the workout area running through a martial art kata while Kira and Liz where sitting on the comfy chairs gossiping with each other "Pilots listen up!" Ryu called out getting the three rookie pilots attention "We will be launching soon to collect resources from the debris belt, most notably water, the only thing is we have to collect the water from the remains of Junius Seven." He paused at the gasps from the pilots "Liz, Chris, I can understand if you wish to sit this one out."

Chris shook his head "No, We are low on pilots already and if we sit this one out and we're attacked than we won't be as prepared." He said with Liz nodding in agreement.

"Besides I think we need closure," Liz agreed "So we'll be launching as well."

Ryu nodded in acceptance "Very well, we'll be acting as scouts and guards for the mission making sure that we aren't surprised if pirates or ZAFT, if you do see signs of them DO NOT engage, report back and keep hidden while we determine if they are a threat or not, if they are making hostile actions towards our area or if they spot us than you have permission to engage."

The three nodded and Mu, Liz and Chris left leaving Ryu and Kira alone. "Are you okay?" Kira asked quietly as she wrapped her arms around his waist as he wrapped his around her shoulders "You seem tense and worried."

Ryu sighed deeply "I'm worried," he admitted honestly touching his forehead to Kira's "I don't know what would happen to me if I lost you as well."

Kira smiled reassuringly at him and place a hand on his cheek "You won't lose me Ryu," she stated "because I don't want to lose you either." Kira pulled away slightly to look at him better "So long as we watch each other's backs we'll be just fine."

Ryu smiled gratefully at her "Yeah, yeah I guess you're right." He admitted before he lent in and kissed her "What would I ever do without you?"

Kira giggled "You'd probably become a crotchy old war vet with a chip on his shoulder." She retorted making him laugh "C'mon, we better go get ready."

PLANTS Council chambers

Athrun sighed as he watched the proceeding before him and lent back in his seat a bit 'I can't believe that father wants me to lie to the council about the pilots, he wants to continue the war? What does he gain from this?' he asked himself as he turned his gaze to his commander who had a slight smirk on his face 'I can't help but feel that Commander Crueset is planning something as well,' he sighed again 'oh well, not much about it I can do now, I can't really go against my father in front of the entire council especially when the reports state that the pilots are Naturals.'

"Athrun," Crueset said suddenly breaking Athrun out of his reverie "It's time to give your report."

Athrun blinked and nodded before standing up and made his way to the podium. Taking a deep breath he pressed the video control showing a picture of the Aegis "Right, first up is my personal mobile suit the GAT-X303 Aegis, it is a transformable attack use mobile suit," he pressed the button again showing the Aegis in its transformed mode firing it's Scylla cannon "In its transformed state it is meant for attacking transports, battleships and hardened structures." He pressed the button changing the the Duel as it clashed with the Raven "Next up is the GAT-X102 Duel, it is a close combat mobile suit currently being piloted by Yzack Joule," the screen changed to the Buster as it combined its guns to form the cannon "Next we have the GAT-X103 Buster, a long range artillery type mobile suit whose main weapon can combine to form a high velocity cannon capable of taking down battleships in a couple of shots, it is currently being piloted by Dearka Elsman," the Blitz appeared as it fired the lancer darts from its shield "This is the GAT-X207 Blitz, it's a stealth/melee type mobile suit equipped with a Trikeros defense/offense unit and a prototype Mirage Colloid generator that can render the unit invisible to radar and the naked eye, the pilot is Nicol Amalfi," the screen changed to the Lightning as it sped forward "The GAT-X220 Lightning is a high speed attack mobile suit that uses a prototype thruster system to massively increase its speed, its armaments are minimal because of this though, it's piloted by Yuuka Mizuki," The Grizzly showed up on the screen as it fired off its long range beam cannons "GAT-X130 is a transformable heavy assault ground based mobile suit meant for storming bases, as you can see it comes equipped with heavy beam weapons that can rival a battleship and has extremely dense armor that is hard to penetrate, it does sacrifice its speed for this though," this time the Raven showed up as it transformed into its mobile armor form "The GAT-X305 is the first mobile suit that is still in the hands of the enemy, we didn't know about this mobile suit in our report but from what we have seen it is an attack use mobile suit with dual rail guns and short-range energy cannons as its primary weapons, the pilot is unknown and assumed to be a Natural," the Zephyr appeared as it fired a volley of missiles before transforming back into mobile suit mode "GAT-X310 Zephyr, an interceptor type mobile suit that was not in our report, all we know is that it has minimal weapons including missiles, beam sabers and rifle, the pilot is unknown and is assumed to be Natural," Three different pictures appeared this time of the Strikes three different forms "The GAT-X105 Strike from what we gathered from our reports it is a multi-use type mobile suit with three different packs for multiple situations, a 'sword' pack that includes a beam boomerang, a rocket anchor and an anti-ship sword, the 'launcher' pack includes a Hyper-Impulse cannon that can punch through a colony wall and a combo weapon pod with duel missile launchers and a Gatling cannon, the pilot is unknown and is assumed to be Natural," it switch to the Dragon as it fought against Jacques and Naleen switching from melee mode to sniper "Finally we have what we believe might be the precursor to the G-weapons and the most dangerous of all of them, the GAT-X000 Dragon, it's an all-purpose type suit like the Strike but instead uses different types of shields like the Trikeros unit, a missile shield and a Scylla cannon shield, it also comes equipped with a prototype heat blade that can melt through any metal that it has encountered thus far, a prototype high density beam sniper rifle that is used in junction with its high powered camera hidden in the forehead and finally it comes equipped with two energy transfer cables that can steal the battery power of a mobile suit or replenish its allies, We have confirmed its pilot to be the Dragon of Endymion Ryu Hisanaga."

Chaos erupted in the room as the councilors began to shout out in disbelief as Siegel Clyne tried to restore order when Rau le Crueset stood up and called attention to himself "Councilmen please calm yourselves!" he called out and surprisingly it actually worked "While it is true Mr. Hisanaga is piloting the G-weapon Dragon he was forced into it when we mistakenly attacked Heliopolis. He had spoke to me during our brief engagement and told me that his only wish was to defend his home and friends, I believe that if the legged ship rendezvous with the 5th fleet he may leave and return to ORB, although I am not certain on this matter as the Naturals may try and change his mind on this matter."

Mutterings could be heard throughout the chamber as this new information settled into their minds "How do we know this to be the truth though, he is a well known member of the EA?" Ezalia Joule questioned angrily.

"Have you forgotten what he did during the Bloody Valentine incident?" Siegel asked "If he didn't do what he did than we would have lost more than Junius Seven."

The council broke into mutterings again as Patrick stood up "Exactly, if it were not for him and our faithful soldiers than the Bloody Valentine would have been the end of the coordinators," he shouted angrily "Now that they are able to not only pilot mobile suits, but build these monstrosities! We must step u[ our efforts and eradicate this plight that has set itself upon us!"

The council began to shout their agreements and despite the best efforts of Siegel they would not calm down and continued to give their support to Patrick 'If this continues, the world will spiral into hell.' He thought to himself as he sat down in defeat.

Kira, Junius Seven Space

Kira sighed as she guided the sniper equipped Strike around another piece of debris as she continued her patrol route around the perimeter of the destroyed PLANT, she surveyed the area sadly looking at the destroyed homes in the area, Chris and Liz had taken hard seeing their home again and Ryu had given them permission to go and pay their respects to their family as he, Mu and herself did the patrols. Mu was taking this opportunity to test out the new OS that Kira helped Ryu develop for Natural use while Kira was using this chance to test the Strike Sniper Pack. Looking over to the right she smiled gently at the sight of hundreds of paper flowers that Liz, Flay and the civilian children made for paying their respects to the the fallen innocents of Junius Seven. A sudden beeping caught her attention "What, a distress signal..." she wondered out loud before switching to the radio "Ryu I picked up a distress signal at point 045A, requesting permission to inspect."

"Granted," Ryu affirmed "Use your Mirage Colloid in case of a trap."

"Understood." Kira replied before switching the radio to standby and activated the stealth system and headed towards the signal. When she was about two klicks(Military term for Kilometers) away she stopped and brought up the sniper rifle and activated the high power camera to scan the area. Almost immediately she spotted a totaled civilian ship with a reconnaissance GINN inspecting the wreckage. Kira locked onto the cockpit and raised the rifle as she continued to monitor the GINN when one of the Minstrels suddenly flew by Kira catching the attention of the GINN. Cursing Kira fired her shot right before the GINN could react piercing the cockpit destroying it. Deactivating the Mirage Colloid she radioed Ryu "One Reconnaissance GINN was destroyed, it had spotted one of the Minstrels and was preparing to attack, found the source of the distress signal though, a downed civilian ship, to recent to be a part of the wreckage from the debris belt, should I search for survivors?" she questioned.

"Yeah, see if you can find any life signs aboard the ship or any life pods." Ryu answered crisply "Do you need any assistance?"

"No I'll be fine." Kira replied before cutting the link and moving to inspect the wreckage 'No life signs on the ship...' she thought to herself before switching to long-range scanners 'Hold on...'"I got something Ryu, it's a life pod."

"Understood, bring it to the Archangel, our operation is wrapping up now." Ryu ordered as Kira grabbed the pod and boosted back to the Archangel.

"Yes sir, see you there." Kira answered with a grin and a mock salute that made Ryu chuckle before breaking the link.

Archangel, Hanger

The Gundam Pilots, Mu, several of the bridge staff and some security forces gathered in front of the pod that Kira brought in as Murdoch worked at cracking the pass code to open the pod "Alright I'm opening it now!" Murdoch announced as the security forces raised their rifles and pointed them at the pod door as it opened up.

"Haro, Hello, Haro!" A mechanical voice suddenly shouted as it flew out and smacked right into Ryu's forehead knocking him back.

"Goddammit!" he cursed as a second figure emerged from the pod making several peoples jaws drop in shock at who it was "Well doesn't this make things more complicated." Ryu groaned as he righted himself and looked at their newest passenger.

"Hello everyone, my name is Lacus Clyne," The pink haired pop star greeted "Thank you for saving me."

END CHAPTER

AN: Yes yes I know a cliffhanger, sue me(please don't) and also please review! It makes it easier for me to find inspiration!

OoOoOo

OMAKE

Things not to do on the Archangel(Inspired by gothfeary and caffinebunnies' Thing Not To Do At The SGC)

Shortly after the Heliopolis Ryu stormed into the common room with a piece of paper and stuck it up onto the notice board in the common room before storming back out. Becoming curious several people moved up to the board and saw that it was a list with the title of Things Not To Do On The Archangel with several rules already in place rules on it:

Rule #1: When Ryu pulls an all-nighter upgrading the mobile suits DO NOT get between him and his coffee.
You do want this ship and it's suits running at max capacity right?
(Ryu: I know several ways to kill you and make it look like an accident.)
(Mu: Seriously our old squad member from before Endymion hid it once, during the next engagement his Zero suddenly suffered from several different systems failures just as he was taking it off. It's a good thing nobody liked him.)

Rule #2: It is HIGHLY recommended that you keep your Gender stereotyping OFF of the ship, over half of our pilots and bridge staff are female, we will get screwed.
(Liz: It's just plain common sense.)

Rule #3: Please Keep all star wars 'lightsaber' references to a minimum and outside of combat, the pilots do not appreciate them, especially while in the middle of combat.
A) Especially when we are avoiding enemy fire, we are not Jedis we cannot use the force.
(Chris: It was funny the first couple of times, it got really old after that.)

Rule #4: Peep on the girls at the risk of your health.
A) That means You La Flagga!
(Kira: I will not be afraid to sick Ryu on you, and if it's Ryu... that's best unsaid.)
(All men shiver everywhere. Ryu doubly so.)

Rule #5: Never say: What can go wrong?
A) Or: It's smooth sailing now
B) The worst is NEVER over
C) Do NOT use phrases that have 'I hope' in them during a combat or survival situation.
(Sai: Aren't you being paranoid?)
(Ryu: I have learned in my days as a soldier that paranoia keeps you alive.)

AN: PM me if you have any Rules you want added or any suggestions for them!