Shinn was devastated when he heard the information between Captain Talia and the doctor treating Stellar, the Alliance's Extended pilot that he and Athrun captured. Although she didn't suffer from heavy injuries, her condition deteriorated slowly. It seemed that in order to survive, she needed some kind of drugs to be administered to her periodically. Unfortunately, despite their technological advances, Coordinators have not reached the point where they can identify and synthesis the drugs needed for Stellar's treatment. The doctor said that the keeping her alive via life support would make it harder for postmortem to be carried out. In response, Talia said that ZAFT already have a lot of dead specimens for their research and what the High Council wanted was a living Extended. So, it would be best for them to continue to try prolonging Stellar's life, despite how hopeless it will be. Hearing their conversation, Shinn feel helpless and betrayed. Needing to clear his head, he went to the observation deck.

When he arrived at the deck, he saw someone was already there. It was Athrun. Not wanting to watch his superior whose skills were questionable because he lost to a pilot who was piloting an obsolete mobile suit, he turned back to the door and was about to life when Athrun called him. "Shinn…"

"What is it?"

"Oh… it's nothing" His calling Shinn was just a response when he saw the young ace.

Shinn turned toward him and felt his bottled up anger began to spill. "So instead of moping over your loss in your room, you came here? How carefree. Despite you visiting her in the infirmary, she still feel worry for you. She's supposed to worry about herself, but no, he asked me about you, wanting to know what's wrong"

"Shinn..."

Shinn could still remember the conversation between Captain Talia and the doctor. Anger crept into him. "Even if you have that badge pinned to your uniform and act almighty, it's useless if you cannot do anything!" He didn't realize it, but his words were more of a plea for help from the man in front of him. But, Athrun didn't notice it as well.

"What are you saying?"

"It's Earth Alliance's fault! Didn't you return to ZAFT to fight them!" Shinn yelled. "Stop them from doing their ghastly plans. Please try to fight better next time" He stomped off the deck, not really concerned about his outburst to Athrun. How could they treat Stellar as if she was just a piece of laboratory specimen? They had forgotten that despite what the Alliance had done to her, she still a human being. Unconsciously he fisted his hands. If Captain Talia and the doctor treating Stellar couldn't do anything, then it was up to him to help her. Shin began to formulate a plan. Since ZAFT cannot do anything to help, then perhaps it would be better just to return her to the Alliance. He remembered the name being uttered by Stellar. Neo. Yes, Neo would be able to help her. In order to contact Neo, he would need Gaia's identification code. With that, he sprung into action.

Still standing on the observation deck, Athrun pondered on what Shinn said. Somehow, the words were biting into him. He didn't return to ZAFT to fight Earth Alliance; he wanted to protect ORB and Cagalli. But somehow, along the way, his objective changed, and the urge to protect was extended to Minerva as well. Initially he didn't have any problem with that, but after the fight with Kira, he began to feel his resolve wavering. Heine told him that he would know what to do, but after Shinn's harsh words, he felt guiltier than ever.

That night, Shinn was typing rapidly on his computer, trying to hack Gaia's identification code.

"What are you doing?" Rey's words caused Shinn to freeze.

He turned to face his roommate, trying to look as innocent as he could. "Nothing in particular" He then continued on his work. He didn't want Rey to know about what he was doing because Rey was a stickler for rules and would have stopped him.

"I see"

Shin heard the rustling of bed sheet and turned to see Rey lying back to sleep. Relieved, he turned to finish Gaia's decoding.

Meanwhile, in another room, Athrun was also typing on a computer. But he wasn't searching for any identification code. Instead, he was sending an email to Roy, one of his very trusted friend in PLANT. To anyone who was screening through the email to look for anything suspicious, they will be disappointed. It only contained a video recording of Athrun asking how the things were at PLANT, talking while Lacus's song was playing in the background and some attachments containing pictures of places his visited while on shore leave and Lacus' songs. In the video, he also reminisced on how the life was before the war. All in all, the email was a normal one.

However, to his friend, the message is a coded message. To prevent 'brute-force' decoding by possible spies, it uses ingenious method to encrypt a message. A normal encryption method would include the information being coded, two cryptographic keys, one which Athrun held and the other his friend. This is called asymmetric key encryption. The person sending the message will use his key to code the message whereby the recipient will use his own to decode it. With quantum computers being the norm, an encrypted message could be decoded by running it through rigorous key testing. Given enough time, anyone could gain access to the hidden content.

Athrun's message consisted of the message being encrypted as a series of watermark inside the attached songs. The pictures will contain embedded information on how to reorganize the watermarks to form the original encrypted message. It was one of his hobbies, aside from assembling miniature robots, which started when he was very young. He and few of his friends formed a group in primary school, and one of the things they did was to send secret messages to each other to break. The recipient of his message was one of them, a technician at ZAFT's research lab by day, and a hacker by night. Being one of Athrun's very few and closest friends he was very trusted by him. If the team that attacked Lacus and the others are really from ZAFT and under Gilbert, then there bound to be records of them, no matter how secretive the organization was. And whenever there are computer records, his friend could find out.

As he watched the computer displaying that the message has been sent, he leaned back on his seat and let out a tired breath. Despite what happened during the battle at Crete, he hasn't forgotten about his promise to Kira and the others. He would try his best to find out who was trying to kill Lacus. After all, she was his ex-fiancée and still one of his best friends. But truth be told, he really hoped that the investigation turns out negative. Athrun trusted Gilbert and understood his vision to end the war as fast as he could. And he was still angry with Kira and the others for intruding in the previous battles, especially for damaging his mobile suit. He looked at the screen and sighed, switching it off. Athrun wondered about what Shinn said about him joining ZAFT to fight Earth Alliance. He got up and shook his head.

Terrence walked around the mobile suit hangar. It has been two days since they arrived home to their underground base, hidden in the middle of the Siberian desert. Despite having living at the base for more than a year, the place still amazes him. It was so deep underground that it was undetectable by any kind of space-based sensors. When he first came there, he asked how a group like Cherubim managed to build such a place. The answer he got surprised him. The base has always been there for more than a hundred years; it was built during Cold War era by a government called Soviet Union. It has enough facilities and space to accommodate around 5,000 inhabitants, enough population for a small city. It even has its own nuclear power plant that could be used once fitted with N-Jammer Canceller. Cherubim found it, totally deserted while on the run from Earth Alliance.

With the help of some personnel and equipments from the Sukhoi-Gurevich design bureau, they rebuilt the Sukhoi-Gurevich space port there. The original spaceport had to be destroyed to prevent Earth Alliance from having the capability to build Cherubim-class ships. The new port could match Morgenroete's facility in term of production capability. In fact, Terrence would love to build more mobile suits if the facility didn't suffer from a serious problem, lack of components and parts. He looked at a technician holding a component. "Be careful not to accidentally damage the components inside," he shouted toward him.

The man gave a thumbs up signal and continued on his work.

He then looked at two weapon platforms that he and other technicians were working on. The mobile suits designer walked toward them. Most of the job has been completed except for some minor tuning up. Terrence brought out his pocket computer and looked at its units' data and characteristics. Without problem, it would be completed on schedule.

"Here you are," a woman's voice called out.

He turned to see a mug of steaming hot cocoa being handed to him. "I will cherish this day, as my goddess Fllay Allster gave me a cup of hot cocoa filled with her love"

Fllay shrugged and drank hers. She then turned her attention at the unit he was looking at, "So, would you mind telling me about it?"

"That is the SturmVogel, one of the two weapon platform for Fallen's SIREN system"

"So the uncompleted unit besides it is also for SIREN?"

"Right"

"What's wrong with the uncompleted module?"

"Not enough components" He slurped his drink noisily. "Have to wait for another trip to the Junk Guild. When I was in ZAFT, all I need to do to get what I needed was to fill in electronic forms. But now I've to go shop and negotiate for them. Sometimes I feel like we're just a group of poor scavengers. Not enough parts, collect them from battlefields and trade them at the Guild; not enough men, go shoot down some mobile suits and capture castaways"

"But it works, right?"

"Hmm…" Terrence answered half heartedly. "What irks me is that we don't have enough to construct AURORA"

"How about the new mobile suits?"

"Come," he invited her to follow him.

They walked toward mobile suit sections. Fllay saw some of the Murasames she took down were there, as well as four unseen before mobile suits. The heads on the four mobile suits looked sleeker. It was as if someone has taken heads from Dagger units and flattened them a bit before installing them on the mobile suits. They were similar in appearance, although equipped with different weapons. She pointed toward one of them that had already been completed. "Looked like an underwater type to me" "

"Caching! You earn free kisses from me for guessing it right"

"I'll remember that when my shoes are dirty and needed to be cleaned"

"So, you want to be assigned to one of them? They have Naturals OS installed"

Fllay shook her head. "Then who will pilot Fallen?"

He couldn't answer that question. Everyone that tried to pilot the mobile suit have difficulty controlling it, even without Delimiter being switched on. After all, when he and his colleagues designed it, they made it to be nimble, even more than Freedom and Justice. However, its agility came with a cost. Only a select few can control it; and those few either have their own mobile suits or have gone to the place where they don't need mobile suits and mobile armors to fly. Sometimes, Terrence wished that he knew how she managed to do it. "I guess not, huh?"

"I guess so too" She took another sip before continuing to ask, "So what are you going to call the four of them?"

"I don't know… maybe Flugel Null, Schwer Waffe, Sand Fels and Tod Sense?"

"Sounds idiotic to me"

"They are just suggestions"

"While you're at it, maybe you want to give them wings with feathers. Then, every time they fly, they will have feathers dropping here and there, like angels"

Terrence mused. "Seemed like a good idea"

Fllay looked at him incredulously.

He laughed. "I was joking. Geez, who would do such a thing?"

"Oh" She held her mug in both hands and stared at Fallen, deep in thought.

Terrence looked at her for quite some time before deciding to ask. "By the way, I saw one of ORB's pilots that you shot down flirting with you three days ago. What did he say?"

"Nothing…," her eyes were distant, "… important"

He wasn't satisfied with the answer, but he nodded anyway. "Okay. Then let me ask you another one. What's on your mind?"

At another place far away, another person was answering to a question posed to her.

"No, I'm thinking about history of mobile suits' history," Lacus said.

"What do you mean by that, Lady Lacus?" Da Costa asked.

"Mobile suits can be used for construction purposes. They also can perform search and rescue very well, compared to other vehicles. Since they have heights and can fly, they can put out fires easily. It's strange why we don't utilize this technology earlier, during peace time"

The man beside Lacus thought before answering. "Seems to me like most of new technologies will appear in the military first before they become available for civilian use"

"Exactly," Lacus answered as she began to move toward the mobile suit hangar.

Da Costa followed her.

The hangar was quite enormous, having the space and capacity to build and repair 15 mobile suits. Hidden inside a meteoroid along with Eternal, the two of them have been set up there since the end of the first war. The facility received most of its resources from PLANTS factions sympathetic to her father's cause.

Lacus smiled at workers there, showing her gratitude for their work. "I'm afraid that what we're doing is similar to ZAFT and Earth Alliance," she said to Da Costa.

"Sorry?"

"Here, we're also building new and more powerful weapons of war," she commented while narrowing her eyes. "It wouldn't do just to build one on par with theirs. Instead, like them, we're also trying to build units that will surpass theirs" She looked distraught. "Everyday, when I got up, I wonder whether what we're doing is right"

The man didn't expect to see that side of her and was surprised.

Lacus smiled faintly when she saw the look on Da Costa's face. "I do have my doubts now and then; it's just that I can't show them to everyone" She let out a tired sigh. "We're becoming more embroiled in the conflict"

"But we're trying to stop the war"

She smiled. "You're right. Thank you. We've decided to do what we can to stop the war and now it's the time we follow through our commitment"

"Right, Lady Lacus. Then maybe we can put our resources to building mobile suits for peace purpose"

She nodded. "Until that day comes, we have to do our best"

Shinn wheeled Stellar's bed toward Core Splendor, praying that the guards and the technician who were there not to see him. Unfortunately the bed's steel wheels made too much noise and they looked in his direction.

"Hey, you! What are you doing?" One of the guards interrogated. Shinn continued pushing the bed in silence. Upon receiving no answers, the guards and his colleagues ran toward Shinn.

The ZAFT's ace pressed the elevator button while looking at the incoming sentries nervously. He could not fail now, not when he has almost reached Core Splendor's hangar. As they become closer and closer, his button pressing become more frantic. Just as the lift's indicator showed that it has arrived on the floor, the first guard was only a few meters away.

"Halt!" the guard ordered. But the commotion behind him caused him to look away from Shinn to see Rey punching the other guards. "What are you doing!" was the last thing he uttered before he was knocked out by Shinn.

Rey looked at the fallen sentries in front before turning to Shinn. "Are you going to return her to them?"

"Y… Yes" Shin looked at Stellar lying on the bed. "If this continues on, she will die. Then ZAFT will treat her like lab specimen" Shinn pushed the bed into the open elevator. "And I wouldn't let that happen"

Just as the elevator door was about to close, it was stopped by Rey's hand and was forced to open. "Are you going to return here after this?"

"Of course!"

"Then please hurry. I'll open the gate for you to launch" He looked away. "No matter how bad is her life, if she can stay alive, she probably wants to live it" Rey let the door close, looking determined.

As the elevator went up, Shinn wondered why Rey helped him and why he had that look on his face. But no matter. He will return Stellar and then return back to the ship, just as he promised his room mate.

Rey looked around the hangar to see it was empty. The technician probably went to fetch some help. In that case, he has to hurry. He moved in the direction of the control room to open the hangar door for Shinn. Then he noticed the technician's unconscious body and narrowed his eyes. Someone else was there. A frown creased his forehead as he knew who the person was. "What are you doing here?"

"Ah, I believe that's my script, considering you have knocked out the guards in broad daylight. Are you doing this because of 'his' order?" a masculine voice asked.

Rey walked slowly past the unconscious technician and saw a shadow crossing its arms leaning on a giant crate. "No. I'm doing it because of myself, what I want to do and because I pity her"

"Oh? And what would that be?"

He looked at the shadow and snorted. "Just do your own work and stay out of mine" Rey then walked away.

Still leaning against the crate and crossing his arms, a wry smile was on Heine Westenfluss's face.

1
Author's note (30 November 2005)

1) In accordance to Fanfiction's new rule, I am not going to respond to the reviews after the end of the chapter. Instead, I'll use the new reply feature. Ah well, you win some, you lose some. So, sorry to those who reviewed anonymously. But, to focus on the good side of it, if the question is bearing good explanation, and the answer is relevant to everyone, I'll be putting them under the author's note. The people who asked the questions will know who you are. Otherwise, I'll reply to them directly 2) One more chapter for this year. Then, I'm going to put the mobile suits stats. Hmm, Fallen MKII... it keeps reminding me of British's Chieftain tank. And Mortal Kombat II. I'll pass the name.
3) When I say Fllay is weaker than Shinn, I'm comparing her fighting at the normal ability (around the same level with Sting and the others). But she used a 'Zero system' mobile suit and some other things… I don't want her to be an Ultimate Coordinator like Kira.
4) Heine will be playing a bigger role aside from being shot down, that's for sure.