Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Seed in anyway shape or form.

A/N: Man that took a while to sort out and get ready for you guys, I have to say sorry for the long wait and that I'm working as fast as I can but life is catching up fast and as such I can only work on my stories once or twice a week at the moment and it's not fun when the writer's block kicks in mid way though doing a chapter.

Anyway I hope you all enjoy this chapter and know that I haven't given up on this story it's just taking a while to get each done to the level you have all come to like for this story.

Chapter 9: A Chance Meeting.

Murrue walked towards the stern of the ship her thoughts on her talk with Mu and the submarine carrier that had to be tailing them. There was no way the force that had attacked them a few days ago could have come from Carpentaria without the units being stripped down to little more than flying fuel cans.

"He is right though. We should be safe from a direct attack from this sub in the area as long as we stay in shallow water, but what about the mobile suits? We simply don't have the equipment to fight underwater." She murmured, nearing the hatch that would let her out onto the observation deck.

She was looking forward to some fresh air and sea breeze, and the chance to quietly mull over the myriad of problems this command had given her. The low murmur of voices stopped her and she paused, concerned.

The welfare of her crew was paramount and the younger the crew members the more problems there seemed to be to deal with. The young people were not trained military officers and they were filling roles that were very different to their care free school days. Sometimes listening in unobtrusively gave you a deeper understanding of their needs.

"Kira how are you doing?"

The sound of Lacus' voice gave Murrue pause. These two above all of the younger crew members she needed to understand and help.

"I'm alright, Lacus. It's…not like that was the first time I have taken a life." Kira's voice was low and Murrue wasn't sure she liked the tone. He was hurting, but then, what more could one expect?

The sound of his shoes on the metal hull of the ship echoed a little in the hallway, fading as he moved away from the hatch

"I just… wonder how many more lives I will take before the end of this war. How much more blood will be on my hands by the end of it."

"Kira it wasn't…" Lacus broke off and fell silent and Murrue wondered if Kira had waved off what ever she had been about to say.

"I don't want to think about the war at the moment Lacus. All I want to do is to forget the images that are burned into my mind. I just want to enjoy this view. It's one of the last few 'innocent' things I can do without… without feeling like I have dirtied it with my blood stained hands." Kira's voice trailed off and faintly Murrue heard the sound of metal on metal.

Moving silently the Captain placed herself in a position to glimpse the couple, deciding the metal she had heard was likely the railing around the observation deck contacting the metal of the zip of the jacket Kira wore, a theory confirmed a moment later when the breeze caused his jacket to flap and the zip to ring gently against the railing.

Deciding to at least let the kids know she was there and available if they wished to talk… and she really needed the air and to feel the breeze on her face, Murrue walked onto the deck. Leaning herself up against the doorframe and turning her face to the breeze she sighed. Kira was leaning against the railing with his back to the main hatch and Lacus stood a few feet behind him. The girl's jacket lay on the deck near her, leaving her dressed in a loose tank-top and pants.

Before she could decide to comment or not, Lacus tilted her head slightly and started to sing softly. Murrue half closed her eyes, allowing the girl's pure voice to wash over her and relax her as it did Kira, whose rigidly stiff back began to slowly but noticeably relax. Murrue sighed softly and smiled as she closed her eyes and just listened to Lacus sing. It had been some time since she had heard the girl and she wondered if Lacus sang to Kira often.

Lacus heard the sigh from behind her but didn't stop singing. What was important was that Kira was relaxing and that meant he was not beating himself up over the death of the ZAFT pilots a few days before. Kira, meanwhile, just listened to the song letting it slowly wash away everything, leaving him feeling calm and at peace for the first time in days.

Mu had considered their present difficulties and had come up with a plan. He had tracked down Murrue, intending to speak with her about his idea on how to deal with the hunting carrier sub and now paused in the open hatch. Listening for a long moment he watched how the singer swayed gently with the motion of the ship as she sang for anyone to hear, though in fact he suspected she sang only for Kira. In the final dying notes which seemed to reach deep down and take a firm grasp on his soul, he joined Murrue .

Her head was bowed with the last notes trailing off into silence and Kirra sighed softly into the silence. The moment was profound and he was smiling as he turned at the soft sound of applause to find Murrue and Mu standing by the hatch, acknowledging the singer. Lacus blushed at the applause, ducking her black and pink crowned head to hide the blush.

"Thank you both, but you don't have to do that. I was only singing in the hope of lifting Kira's spirits a little." Lacus almost whispered, sneaking a peek toward Kira who nodded to show her he was felling a little better.

"Well, if nothing else, you have lifted our spirits." Murrue smiled, walking forward to stand next to Kira and pausing to look out over the Indian Ocean and glory in the beauty of a slowly rising sun. "I hope you know, Kira, that you can come and talk to me… to us… about anything."

Lacus moved to stand on Kira's other side, Mu choosing to remain near the doorway, watching in silence. He would be available to the boy at any time of the day or night, remembering his own long ago struggle with himself when it had been his turn to face the nightmares of his first few kills.

Kira acknowledged her comment with a brief nod, choosing to look outward to the sea in silence, enjoying the view and the touch of Lacus' hand on his shoulder. She leaned into him a little to rest her head there a moment later, drinking in the view and his presence.

Mu, with a small, mischievous smile was about to comment, looking forward to a little harmless teasing of the young pair, that was until Murrue caught his eye. The 'look' was clear warning to keep his mouth shut. A 'little boy pout' had Murrue glaring at him and that was almost worth the disappointment, he decided.

"It is… unfortunate… but we may need to fight the ZAFT forced in open waters again. Mu believes there is a submarine carrier close by and that it is likely to follow us. At the moment we are moving in shallow waters, but that won't stop mobile suits from getting in close. I'm afraid we might not have any other choice but to deploy both the Faith and the Strike in order to combat them." Murrue paused, both teens were watching her closely, "You may have to fight them and it may come to a fight in which you have no choice other than to kill the pilots of the attacking units. I don't want to have to force you to face that, but you should be aware of what we are facing."

"Mu is probably right about the carrier, and you are right about them attacking us, despite the shallow water we are in now. It may not be water specialty suits but with DINNs or even Guuls, they could be dropped right on top of us with little warning."

Kira watched the Captain who had not only thanked him for his services but had even gone so far as to offer to help him get out of the war in the recent past. Every time, however, he had turned her down wanting to help to protect his friends.

Murrue nodded, well aware of their vulnerability and looking back out to sea. "I have to ask you if ZAFT attacks us with mobile suits, would you continue to protect the ship? I have told you before that I will help you leave, Kirra, and I will take this opportunity to remind you that I will do everything in my power to help you leave without a problem."

"Understood."

Kira and Lacus both murmured the acknowledgement before nodding to the pair and heading back into the ship, intent on returning to their rooms and getting some long delayed sleep. They paused when they noticed Mu standing in the shadow of the doorway, acknowledging his greeting.

They, he and they, were the fighters, the defenders of the ship and their eyes locked for a long moment. Just for a second or three, no words needed to be spoken but they understood each other perfectly. A brief inclination of the head and they moved into the ship and Mu knew they would follow his plan to face the next attack. That there would be another attack was not in question, it was simply a matter of when.

Mu watched the departing teens, Kira talking softly with Lacus who, Mu noticed, seemed much brighter and happier than she had a few days ago. But despite that he was not fooled. He could tell she was hurting, if not for herself then for Kira, who was just too stubborn most of the time to display his pain.

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It was a full day before the Archangel's sonar picked up the sounds of the engine of three mobile suits. Two of the oncoming units were quickly identified as GOOhN's but the third was an unknown unit, no information contained within the ships library system. The crew of Archangel, however, were not surprised by the attack; they had known it was only a matter of time, after all. Mu had been camped out near his unit overnight and he moved smoothly into action at the first alert.

Lacus and Kira who had been sleeping at the time rolled from their beds and dressed in silence, running side by side through the ship to the hanger to find Mu already in his Skygrasper and waving Cagalli to the other unit. It was clear the more experienced pilot thought he might need the extra firepower this time around and he had had the other craft prepared for her.

"Remember to hold those suits off while the girl and I track down that sub and sink it." Mu reminded them, channelling the call through to both Kira and Lacus. "Watch your backs."

The Skygrasper took off and a moment later Cagalli was gone too. Kira checked over the prepared pack; he was equipped with the sword pack for this fight and Lacus was waiting in line to be launched. He forced aside concerns about killing anyone, determined to do his best to see them all safe.

Kira took a deep breath and nodded, signalling for launch and the Strike was ejected from the Archangel and he drew the sword, prepared to take on the three enemy units. Before the suit had come to a stop from the launch, and therefore before they could launch the Faith, his fingers were flying over the keyboard.

"I'm sorry Lacus, but I won't let you get blood on your hands," he whispered, one stiff finger punching in the final key. 'Protect1'.

Lacus, settling the Faith into position on the catapult started as her screens flashed and single word in brilliant red type appeared on her screens.

'Protect1'

The Faith died.

In utter disbelief Lacus stared at her screens, then her fingers flew over the keyboard, testing her systems, determining what worked and what did not. She could hear Mir on the radio reporting to the bridge that the Faith was dead in the water, failing to respond to her commands and Lacus gritted her teeth and glared at the keyboard.

It was useless.

"Lacus, what is happening?" Murrue inched forward in the command chair, watching Lacus's image on the main screen even as she gave the order for the Archangel to lift out of the water.

There were incoming torpedoes and the Strike was locked in a fight with the unknown suit type… and now they were down a defender?

"Kira's planted a bug in my OS by the looks of it and has activated it to stop me from entering the battle." Lacus shook her head as she typed furiously, running a diagnostics program and only praying that function too was not locked down. "He's got… How did he do this? He's got quad protection walls around everything except basic life support. I can try to take down the blocks he's set in place but it will take time… unless we can get the counter command out of him"

"Kira Yamato! Why did you plant a bug in the Faiths systems?" Murrue grabbed the arms of her chair as the ship had to yawn deeply to the starboard to angle the Valiant's inline with the attacking GOOhN. They were in enough trouble without being deprived of the Faith's firepower.

For a moment the silence was profound.

"I won't let blood stain those hands of peace and kindness."

Murrue's eyes widened as, with a gasp of pain the link was cut and at her urgent enquiry the sonar officer reported the Strike and the unknown suit were locked in close combat.

"Damn it, Yamanto! Lacus, can you undo those blocks without the deactivation code?" Murrue ran a quick survey of the screens, issued orders to keep on firing and was there any news from Mu on hunting down that carrier sub.

"I am trying, but Kira is far more skilled than I am when it comes to computers. Even if the gap in our skill level wasn't a factor here, there is the fact these protections are normally used only by coordinators of the upper classes… and by that I mean Generals or Council Members. How he manage this… I don't know." Voice and body language clearly said that, whilst her fingers were flying and she was working with everything she had, she was getting nowhere fast.

"See what you can do. We'll try and support the Strike as best we can and hope that Mu and Cagalli can find and sink that carrier sub before we get more company. Chief Murdoch, get the Faith back in the hanger and lock it down. It's too vulnerable in the launching ramp."

Over the sea a few miles away Mu sighed. He had been monitoring the communications of the Archangel until the N-Jammer's finally cut the line from interference.

'Sometimes that kid is a real pain in the backside.'

Switching his system to a frequency that Cagalli could pick up he scanned the waters below them, "Ok, girl, keep your eyes on the water. We are hunting a sub and we have to find it."

"Got you." Cagalli responded, looking down at the sea below them and trying to spot anything beneath its surface that did not look like a reef or sand bank. There was a ZAFT sub down there somewhere. 'We may not even be in the right area at the moment.'

It was a few minutes later that Mu spotted the shape of the sub, his attention caught by the ripples of water set up as the sub began to surface. Teeth bared in a feral grin Mu armed the anti-sub missiles and tipped the nose of the Skygrasper into a dive with Cagalli right behind him. One eye on the readouts Mu poised his finger above the firing trigger and a second later hit the button, the Skygrasper shuddering with the release of the payload.

He wanted that ship taken down before it could launch any DINNs or other types of Mobile suit it might be carrying.

The missiles went into the water a moment later, stirring up a trail of turbulence, a second volley fired by Cagalli right behind it. With a great spew of water from the explosion he watched, circling back, as the sub rose out of the water. One set of missiles had hit, the other lot had missed, he saw. The subs Captain was attempting to get his ship above the water, raising the hull breach above the water line.

He made another pass, eyes narrowing as he saw one of the launch ramps slowly opening. Not as seriously damaged as he had hoped then, but he was not about to let them launch more suits against the Archangel.

"Oh, no you don't." He brought the Skygrasper in for another attack run, this time with the launcher Strikers cannon. The high powered cannon blast hit below the hatch and the whole sub went up a moment later in a spectacular display of fire, water and debris.

"Good job, girl. Now we can head bac…" Mu cut off when a round of machine gun fire rained down on them both.

Cagalli wavered and plunged her machine into a dive and he saw she had been nicked, but from what he could see it was nothing major and she confirmed her status a moment later. Looking around for the source of the attack Mu was greeted with the sight of a DINN coming down out of the sun's glare and aiming for his Skygrasper in a fly past.

"Return to the Archangel, Cagalli. I'll handle this."

Mu pulled his unit around at top speed, gritting his teeth against the g forces and lining up the DINN for a perfect shot. His finger on the trigger he cursed as Cagalli flew into his line of sight, obstructing his shot and the DINN was clear of him.

"Blast it! Hey girl, I told you to get back to the ship!" He pulled the unit around, searching for the enemy unit, glaring at the skies around them.

"But…"

"You've done your job and you have been ordered to return to the ship! Now you are just in the way, this is a dogfight, not a picnic! Head back to the ship before you get your fool arse shot down. I'll be a few minutes taking care of this guy and then I'll follow." Mu snapped at her, firing a few shoots at the incoming DINN to distract if from taking aim at Cagalli.

Cagalli narrowed her eyes at Mu's Skygrasper but never-the-less obeyed his instruction to head back to the Archangel, or rather in the direction where she was sure it would be given her navigation systems had been shot to hell when the DINN first showed up.

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On the Archangel Lacus was fighting with the lock out, her fingers flying over the keys as Murdock watched. The ship rocked again from a hit from the two GOOhNs that were attacking them, the unknown third unit still locked in combat with the Strike.

"Got you. The first lock is down." Lacus reported as the first layer of protection fell. "I'm not going to get this done in time, but I can at least make sure he never does this again." Lacus muttered, determined to put in place her own layers of protection once she unlocked her system.

Murdoch nodded and was about to speak when Murrue called out a general alert over the ships com. "All hands. All hands, prepare for barrel roll. I repeat. All hands prepare for a barrel roll!"

"She has got to be kidding!" Murdoch stared at the ceiling, in the general direction of the bridge, in utter disbelief.

Lacus grabbed for her straps and secured herself in the seat, hoping the crew had locked the Faith down tight. Murdock dropped to the floor and grabbed what he could that was loose, shoving it into a locker and cursing about the idiocy of such a manoeuvre when in Earth's gravity.

Lacus felt it before anyone else in the bay as the ship started to tilt and grabbed a hold of the consol, yelling out a warning. The working instruments on the Faith informer her they were listing to starboard and she watched as the engineering crew scrambled to grasp a hold of anything that would secure them as the ship rolled.

Murdoch was cursing up a storm as the loose contents of the engineering bay pelted his crew. He was sure he heard the sound of a bone breaking and one of his men did scream. He would have words with the woman if they survived this idiocy.

A minute later everything was right side up and Lacus breathed again, the Faith having remained secured to its station and around her the crew were moaning and cursing and scrambling to check on each other.

Over the com she could hear Mir report that the two GOOhNs were destroyed, the Strike taking out the unknown suit a moment later. Lacus breathed a sigh of relief thankful Kira was obviously alright, then silently promised to dismember him when she got her hands on him, and went back to typing.

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Half an hour later Mu reported back in, requesting immediate landing permission. He informed the bridge that the carrier sub was taken out and he was low on fuel due to the need to engage the DINN that had taken him further from the Archangel's flight path than he had wished.

It was only when Mu landed and asked for a report on Cagalli's craft that the Captain and crew realised they had a problem. Cagalli had not returned to the Archangel.

Kira stood to one side of the room, ruefully rubbing his face were a glorious hand print darkened his skin. Lacus had slapped him when he had approached her, intending to deactivate the lock down on the Faith and apologise for the necessity of keeping her safe. He had known she would not be too happy but that was proven to be a gross underestimation of her displeasure.

He had landed the Strike and spent the required time deactivating the machine and readying it for the crew to perform maintenance. When he had exited the suit he had found a stony faced Lacus waiting for him and he knew he was in for a piece of her mind.

The lecture on keeping his paws off her suit had begun with what Murdoch had described as a solid roundhouse punch, except at the last second she had opened her fist to hit him with the flat of her hand. The lecture in full force that followed had his ears ringing.

Lacus was careful not to reveal how her hand hurt and she was not finished with him, even now. Her tirade had been interrupted by Mu's return and the subsequent discovery of Cagalli's disappearance. On hearing Mu's urgent call to alert the bridge that Cagalli had been sent back well ahead of his appearance, Lacus put the dressing down on hold. They had a missing crew member and that would take precedence.

"The Faith is fuelled and ready to go, just as soon as Kira unlocks my system." Lacus delivered a glare that told Kirra there would be no arguments if he wished to go on breathing, and joined Mu and Murrue who must have been enroute to the bay from the bridge on hearing of his return. "The Strike will need time before it can launch, so initially I will hunt alone."

Murrue considered the girl as Natarle remarked they should just list Cagalli as MIA and keep moving. The look on both Lacus and Mu's faces, however, said they intended to look for the spirited blonde, and Kira had the same determination about him. Murrue took a moment to admire the red mark on his face before making her decision. She was not inclined to leave anyone behind, least of all a civilian.

'I wonder if any of the security cameras caught that slap?' She could only lament that there would not be sound, but one could not have everything.

"Very well, Lacus, but you will return by sunset. The Strike will be launched the moment it can be made ready. We will discuss a search grid, Lacus, so don't leave yet. The Skygrasper will be prepared for flight, but will remain in the hanger as we can not afford to be without protection. Sorry, Commander, but you are stuck here."

Murrue offered an apologetic smile to Mu, who made a face but he acknowledged the facts for what they were. The Skygrasper and Strike needed work, the Faith was ready to go and that was that. Kira was already heading for the Strike, presumably to unlock the Faiths systems.

Lacus ran to the Faith, powering up the engines before she strapped herself in, watching as the lock out fell apart and returned control to her. During the search for Cagalli she would work on locking Kira out of the OS. As the Faith launched Lacus had no idea that on a distant island Cagalli had just been tied up by a blue haired ZAFT pilot who had succeeded in disarming her and was now wondering what to do with the blonde firebrand stranded with him on an island in the middle of nowhere.