AN: Normal "blah" quotation marks indicate speech said by people within earshot of the Cagali.
The 'blah' one line quotation marks indicate thought or one person quoting someone else.
The –blah- dashes indicate communication through radios, telephones, loudspeakers, video, etc. etc. etc.
By the way, I'm introducing a great big wad of made up characters… Namely four. Please don't hate me; no one from the series really fit the spots I needed so I made up a bunch of characters to fill the slots. I know I don't normally like reading stories with OCs, but maybe with some serious TLC I can make them work for this one…
Identification Number O04172
Part Two, Chapter Two
It was dark, the pitch black that could make anyone afraid of the dark. She was drifting through it, completely blind. What she couldn't see made her afraid, afraid that she would make a mistake while trapped in darkness and afraid that she would remain here, alone.
A hand reached out towards Cagali. She felt fingers trail down her face. They stroked across her forehead, over her eyes and along the bridge of her nose. The hand stopped by her jaw, the thumb caressing her cheek.
She reached up towards her cheek trying to grasp the hand. Cagali could feel nothing, not a person around her, not a hand on her face, not even the air she breathed. It was as if she was floating in the vacuum of space. But the hand remained on her face. She could feel its weight; feel the cool thumb stroke her skin. It was there. She knew it was there, but she couldn't grasp it.
The person chuckled, a familiar voice. "Why are you in the dark, Cagali?" it asked her, "Open your eyes."
She was confused. "My eyes are open," she said, "But I can't see you."
"Your eyes are closed. I can see you clearly, Cagali. Open your eyes."
She tried to no avail. She couldn't see. "I can't."
"Do you recognize my voice, Cagali?"
"Yes."
"Then open your eyes so you can see me."
"I can't see."
"Oh, Cagali," the person repeated her name, seeming to like saying it often, "All you have to do is open your eyes."
She felt the other hand brush across the bangs on her forehead. The fingers stroked through her hair and then held the back of her head. For a moment, a warm breath skimmed across her cheek, sending chills down her body. She tried to find this person in her blindness.
One of the hands caught her own and led her to find the body, placing her hand near the neck. She could feel a strong, masculine shoulder underneath stiff fabric. She grabbed onto the cloth so that she could hold onto this person.
She reached out with her other hand, trying to grasp the figure fully. Cagali found nothing. She reached for her other hand by, which she held onto the figure. She could feel her own body and arm but her hand seemed to pass through this body as if it did not exist. But she knew it was real. It stroked her cheek affectionately and trailed its fingers along her scalp. She could feel the warm breath on her skin, sending spasms to her nerves in her very extremities.
Then he pressed his lips against hers, gently, sweetly, lovingly. It was bliss. She felt like she was being lifted into the air, forsaking the facts of physics and free from all Cagali laws of science in the kiss. He opened his mouth to kiss her deeply and she let him, returning his passion with her own. It was incredible, the emotion they shared. This was something impossible to convey through words yet so easily understood with touch. They remained locked in this sweet romance that only seemed tangible when he lay it directly in her palms.
They pulled apart and Cagali opened her eyes. Suddenly, she could see again. She looked up into two bright emerald eyes and a smooth face, framed with gene coordinated blue hair. The Coordinator still wore the maroon uniform of a ZAFT pilot. She was dressed in the colors blue and white, symbolizing her loyalty to Orb. But it didn't matter. He held her so lovingly, she wanted to remain here, with him, in this dreamy abyss as long as time would allow.
"Can you see now Cagali?"
She nodded. "I can see."
He gave her a sad smile and diverted his gaze down to her breast. "I'm sorry, I seem to have stained the Orb uniform," he said.
"Huh?" wondered Cagali and looked down.
On the white of her uniform was forming a dark, maroon blob, starting from her chest and seeping downward. "What…" She muttered. "What's this?"
The ZAFT soldier took her free hand and placed it on his chest. "I suppose I should have told you, since it's easy to over look. After all, my uniform is the same color as my blood."
Her mind came to sudden realization of a thick, red substance seeping through his uniform. The life must have been draining from him, covering her clothes.
Surprised, she jumped and drew her now wet, red hand away. It was then she understood that she held something in her bloody grasp. A human heart was beating hopelessly in her hand, gushing the maroon stain onto her, the ZAFT soldier, and into the space around them.
Then he collapsed before her, falling in slow motion till he lay helplessly at her feet.
"No…" she muttered, and then yelled, "Take this back! Take it back, you stupid Coordinator! Don't you know you need this to live!" She fell down beside him, trying to rip off his uniform in order to shove the heart back inside his chest. As senseless as it may seem, somehow, she felt that this could do something. If she could only give it back.
There was an explosion from an unknown direction. The dark abyss was suddenly filled with the fire and booms of battle. She looked around and saw nothing to cause the chaos. Then she looked back towards the fallen ZAFT soldier. All that was before her was the dark and distant space, debris from battles thrown a skew this way and that. But he was gone.
She stood up, and in mad panic, began to run out to space in whatever direction seemed to call her. She had to find him. She still held his heart in her hands.
He couldn't be gone. He couldn't be gone.
"Athrun!" she yelled, as loud as she could, the shriek of her voice making the heartbeat faster, spilling more blood. She called out again. "Athrun!"
He couldn't be gone. He couldn't be dead.
"ATHRUN!" but there was no sound in space, and her voice came out muffled. There was a hand covering her mouth. Someone was holding her down; preventing her from getting to him. She tried to run away but couldn't move. She had to find him. He couldn't'… She tried to scream, but this new person would not allow her to yell.
"Cagali!" she was shaken forcefully. "Wake up!"
Suddenly, she was slammed into reality. The deep abyss of space was nothing other than the familiar sleeping quarters of the Archangel. In her hand, she held no heart, only sheets. She was sitting up in bed, Kira was behind her, one of his arms was wrapped around her, pinning her arms to her sides. His other hand covered her mouth and held her head back against his chest. She was shaking violently, cold sweat running down her face where a dreamy apparition of Athrun Zala had touched her moments before. The door to the room was open. Kira wasn't her only guest.
A few other crew members stood looking frightened and surprised. At this point she realized that she must have been screaming in her sleep.
"Get out!" barked Kira. "All of you. You got here before me but none of you did anything but watch. So get out!"
They slipped out of the room, more afraid of Kira than anything else. The sliding door closed, leaving the twins alone in the room.
"You awake?" asked Kira.
She nodded unable to speak.
"Alright," he released her from his bear hug and examined the hand he had used to mute her screaming. "You bit me," he showed her his hand, his skin was bleeding along teeth marks.
"Oh, Kira," she gasped and looked at it. "I'm so sorry."
"It's okay. It's better than having you attract the attention of the rest of the ship, again." She looked down, embarrassed. "This is the third time this week, Cagali. Was it the same dream?"
She nodded. Kira moved so that he was facing her. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close. Cagali held onto her brother, trying to get the pictures out of her mind.
Like he had said, this was the third time she had had that dream this week. The trip from L5 to L3 was a long one when using low propulsion as to not be spotted by their enemies. She had been on the Archangel for fifteen long days, floating through space. They were on course to reach the Orb colony, Heliopolis, within the next 24 hours.
It seemed like every time she went to sleep, it plagued her. She would wake up screaming for Athrun, terrified. Even though the dream had repeated itself, it still seemed so real.
And Cagali tried to hold back her tears, telling herself it was only a dream. She reminded herself that Athrun wasn't dead. Even if he was, there was no way she could know. There was no reason she should wake up screaming the name of a Coordinator that she would never see again, dead or alive.
But they fell, slipping silently down her cheeks. It was nothing like the first time she had had the dream. Kira had woken her, and she had sobbed uncontrollably onto his shoulder. He rubbed her back trying to comfort her.
"I'm fine, Kira," she told him, drying her eyes.
"No you're not," he replied. "I can tell."
"I'm fine, really. You should go clean your hand and go back to bed. This is your shift to sleep too."
"Don't give me that."
"Just leave me alone, would you?" she told him sharply. Kira looked taken aback and even more worried. "I need to be alone, just let me think."
"Do you want to talk about it?" he offered.
"No, I want to go back to sleep. So please, just go away."
Kira paused then hugged her. He stood up and headed out the door, "Goodnight, Cagali."
"Goodnight."
There was no reason that she should be having such an irrational dream, such a nightmare, about Athrun… no, especially about Athrun. 'He kissed me,' she told with herself, 'And I'm over thinking it. I'm sure that's what triggered this. And they'll go away eventually.'
Cagali woke up several hours later. She checked the clock, set on Orb standard time. 3:37, her sleep shift was almost over. On a space ship, odd hours of the day meant little to nothing. There wasn't really a day or night out here and times for waking or sleeping were set in a fashion so that the Archangel would have at least half of a fully awake crew should the EA or ZAFT attack. She stared up at the ceiling for a moment and decided to get up.
She pulled on her uniform, brushed her hair and decided to go get breakfast. Cagali headed out over to the cafeteria. This was her home ship now. When she had arrived, Captain Ramius, a warm and wise Natural woman, had welcomed her and informed her that she would be stationed on this ship as one of its mobile suit pilots until further notice. They now had a total of seven.
As soon as Cagali stepped in the cafeteria, she noticed the four Coordinator boys she had met when she had arrived on the Archangel. They made up the rest Archangel's elite pilot team that she was now a part of.
They all sat at one table. Lloyd Carson, Abraham Brewer and Manuel Gomez were playing a game of cards. Lloyd was the tallest and oldest of the group and native to Orb, a black Coordinator with blonde hair shaved close to his skull. Cagali thought he was rather funny looking. Manuel was a bit on the short side, and had tanned skin, and dark eyes and hair. His parents were wealthy immigrants from the United States of South America who were able to escape when the Earth Alliance took over and began killing any Coordinators they could find. Abraham Brewer was a blonde-haired, blue eyed Scandinavian bred first generation who had been specifically sent to Orb for pilot training two years ago. The last and loudest of the group, the Moorish Mumtaz Barr, had decided to spit off dirty jokes rather than join in on the card game.
Cagali picked up a drink and walked over to the food line.
"It looks like the Princess has finally awoken from her nightmares to grace us with her presence." One of pilots said loudly. Cagali froze, how had she forgotten about him? That brat had been constantly giving her a hard time, ever since it had been announced that she would be joining the mobile suit team.
Logic said that she should just ignore him, but if she did, then he might think that his immature insults and attitude bothered her. Cagali grabbed up her tray of food and walked over to where they were eating. "You don't mind if I sit here, do you?" she asked them.
"No, of course not," said Abraham and gestured to an empty seat between himself and Mumtaz. Cagali sat.
"You know Shinn; you might want to rethink calling her Princess," suggested Lloyd, "She is older than you."
"I may be the youngest," said Shinn, "But I'm definitely not the baby."
Of the seven pilots, Shinn Asuka was the one Cagali liked to imagine didn't exist. He was one of the many Asians that had moved to Orb, his family in particular was Japanese. He had the typical black hair and Asian features, but one glance in his blood-red eyes said that he was a Coordinator. As he had said, he was the youngest of the pilots, and as an additive, his age of sixteen also made him one of the youngest on the ship.
Cagali rolled her eyes and dug into her food. "What is red and pink and can't turn round in a corridor?" Mumtaz was saying.
"What?" asked Manuel, dealing a hand.
"A baby with a javelin through its throat."
'Ew," thought Cagali.
"What is more disgusting than a pile of 100 dead babies?"
"What?"
"One alive in the middle is eating its way out."
The table laughed, Cagali cringed. "That's disgusting," she said.
"Oh, come on, Princess, you know it's funny," pressed Mumtaz.
"Are you going to eat your pudding?" asked Abraham
"Uh…" Cagali looked down at her pudding. It didn't look all that appealing. "No, you can have it."
"Great," he said taking it of her plate and betting it against Lloyd and Manuel.
"Come on, that's not fair," argued Manuel.
"A food item is a food item," pointed out Lloyd.
Manuel frowned, "Well, in that case, Princess, are you going to eat that chicken strip?"
"Yes, I am." She replied pulling her tray closer to herself.
"What's worse than finding a dead baby on your pillow in the morning?" asked Mumtaz.
"What?" asked Shinn.
"Realizing you were drunk and made love to it the night before," he replied.
The boys cracked up laughing and the North African boy grinned.
Cagali grimaced sourly and shook her head. "Mumtaz, do you know any jokes that aren't sick?"
"Princess, you know it's funny," said Mumtaz.
"Would you stop calling me that?"
"What's wrong with Princess, Princess?"
"I don't like it."
"Personally, I think it's very fitting," said Shinn.
"Oh, really?" questioned Cagali.
"Yes, you're like one of those damsels in distress, put into danger, where they don't belong, and left completely helpless."
"Excuse me?" said Cagali standing up.
"You're out here trying to pilot a mobile suit, and you're going to slow all of us down because you're in danger."
"The same danger as you,"
"Yes, but we can handle it," he told her, standing as well.
"I graduated from the same piloting academy as you did, Shinn. We were in the same class. You know that I can handle myself."
"And your enemy will care?"
"No, they won't care. And they won't care about you either."
"Yes, but I can handle it. I can't believe they put you on our team. We don't need a damsel in distress. You barely passed piloting classes and you haven't been in a mobile suit since then. You'll be in danger and then Yamato will panic, forget about the strategy and have to come rescue you. You'll end up getting all of us killed."
"Shinn," said Lloyd, sounding annoyed. "Sit down and shut up. I don't want to listen to this."
The younger boy paused, and sat down to glare at Cagali from across the table. Cagali sat and glared back.
"Ignore him, Cagali," suggested Abraham, laying down his cards "Three kings."
Shinn scoffed and looked away. The other two playing poker put down their cards as well. Manuel won and proceeded to eat Cagali's pudding.
"Say Princess," said Mumtaz "Wanna hear some cheesy pick up lines?"
"No."
"Fine… How do you get a dead baby out of a blender?" asked Mumtaz.
"That one's old, man. Tortilla chips," said Manuel.
"It's not really that old," said Shinn. "I was in the room with Yamato the other day, and I farted and I guess it was a bit loud. You know what Yamato said to me?"
Cagali narrowed her eyes at the use of potty humor combined with her brother. "What?"
"Virgin."
The moment of peace snapped violently. Cagali stood and slammed her fist down on the table. "What has Kira done to warrant this? What have I done?"
"What do you think you, a Natural girl, are doing on a mobile suit team, Princess?" asked Shinn, his red eyes narrowing into slips. He stood up and leaned over the table, closer to Cagali so that his face was inches away from hers. "Why don't you just go run off with your brother? You can have babies with three toes on each finger."
Cagali clenched her fist by her side, wanting to reach over and smack him. Cagali opened her mouth to snap back at him, but she couldn't find any words in the English language strong enough words to explain her frustration. She told her self not to be violent. Shinn, immature as he was, was on her team.
"Awe, but you don't like that idea," continued Shinn. "I've got a better idea. Why don't you go back to your owner? I'm sure that Athrun misses you. And besides, stupid Naturals like you are better off as slaves."
Suddenly, someone grabbed Shinn from behind, pulling him into a choke hold. "You wanna repeat any of that?" asked Kira.
"Why should I?" the Japanese boy hissed trying to escape from Kira. "You already heard it."
Kira growled and let him go to swing a fist at his face. Shinn ducked low and shot a punch at Kira's stomach. It hit and Kira stumbled back with a grunt. The older Coordinator regained his posture and raised his knee to strike the younger under his chin. Too late to dodge, Shinn rolled backwards to avoid most of the impact.
Shinn stood up, about to take a running attack at Kira when Lloyd and Mumtaz grabbed him from behind. Shinn struggled against them, but it was two against one.
"Cut it out, Shinn!" barked Lloyd. Kira stood a table's width away from Shinn and looked at him forebodingly. Shinn growled and ripped himself away from the other two boys. He turned and walked out of the cafeteria, Lloyd followed after him. Kira waited a moment, and then headed out as well, in the opposite direction.
For a moment, there was silence between Cagali and the three other boys. They all seemed equally taken aback.
"Uh…" said Abraham, trying to break the silence, "That was a bit extreme."
"Hey, don't think about what he said, Princess. He doesn't mean in it," said Manuel. "Otherwise he wouldn't be fighting for Orb."
Cagali raised her eyebrows, "Sounded like he meant it to me."
"Would a dead baby joke make you laugh?" offered Mumtaz.
"Spare me," hissed Cagali, and she too left the cafeteria. The blonde could be seen heading down the halls looking like she'd taken a healthy swig of lemon juice.
The seven pilots entered through the mechanical doors to a large computer room. The whole room had a smell of brewing coffee. There were papers scattered across a large desk with things circled here and there, several impressive looking computers, and a wall covered entirely in some opaque-like mirror. A figure sitting at the desk spun around in a swivel chair to face the seven mobile suit pilots from the Archangel. The general look of the group could be taken as exhausted from the long amount of time spent confined to the ship. There were a few exceptions, such as Cagali. Her arms were crossed, her knuckles were white. Her ears were slightly red and she appeared to be taking deep, elongated breathes. The object of her frustration stood between Lloyd and Mumtaz, who were ready to grab hold of him in the worst case scenario. Kira was looking off into space, presumably lost in a pleasant day dream doubtlessly featuring Lacus Clyne.
"Welcome to Morgenroete Heliopolis. I'm Chief Erica Simmons," the person introduced herself; "I'm in charge of the management of the mobile unit construction and programming. I assume you're the team from the Archangel?"
The team paused in responding to the question, not having a designated spokesperson. Lloyd answered for the group. "Yes, we are," he replied.
"Well, now that we've made some introductions, let's get down to business. As your captain has already informed you, you're not staying on this colony any longer than you absolutely have to. But that will at least be 24 hours, so I'd like to brief you over the details of the new mobile suit's we've been manufacturing before you transport them onto your ship."
The pilots nodded to one another. Chief Simmons walked over to a gray metal box on the wall and opened it, proceeding to flip on several light switches inside. The mirror on the wall suddenly lit up revealing that it was in fact not a mirror but one lengthy glass wall looking down upon an enormous hanger that extended downward several stories. The generally impassive-exhausted feeling of the group changed to one of sudden interest. The hanger was lined with mobile suits standing side to side in rows and columns. The sheer number was inspiring to most onlookers. To the pilots from the Archangel, the massive number only gave them another analogy: the Earth Alliance.
"Please follow me," said Chief Simmons. She pressed a button summoning an elevator and they all crowded in.
Mumtaz was the first to blurt out a question, "Go-lly! How many of those are there?"
"We currently have a little under seventy working mobile suits," replied Chief Simmons.
"What is your production rate?" asked Kira.
"We've spent a good two years designing, testing and building parts. But the actually assembly, that has only been in the past two months. I'd say we were able to put together about 2 mobile suits a day."
"That says something about time for repairs," noted Lloyd.
"Half a day is no more than the average time it takes to get a machine repaired," pointed out Abraham. Manuel and Lloyd nodded their agreement.
"What I'm wondering is where in the world are we going to find enough pilots to pilot all those things," Manuel said.
"We have seven here," said Chief Simmons as the elevator came to a stop.
"We do?" wondered Manuel. "Do we get to meet them?"
"She's talking about us," said Shinn, "common sense."
"Oh, never mind," said Manuel.
The elevator stopped and the pilots filed out. Chief Simmons raised her voice so that the others would be able to here her in the large hanger. "We have two new models that you'll be receiving. The first I'd like to show you is the Murasame." The pilots followed her along the rows of mobile suites, heading towards the far end of the hanger. "As you well know, these are just the standard Astrays," she said, gesturing to the machines they were walking by.
"So do you have a moving side walk in here so that you can get around faster?" asked Mumtaz. Half of the group let out a single laugh. The other half rolled their eyes.
"No," replied the Chief without pausing, "But I do have a personal golf cart that works most efficiently, but I don't think that all eight of us would fit."
"This is one crap load of mobile suites," said Cagali, aside to Kira.
"Never noticed," he replied sarcastically.
"Worthy of the EA," said Abraham, from beside Kira.
"Almost," said Cagali, "All that's lacking are the seventy ill-trained, brainwashed pilots to try and cause damage."
They continued to talk amongst themselves quietly, hearing a few bad jokes from Mumtaz. Cagali found that other than her brother, the only other Orb pilot in the group she could get along with was Abraham; and he wasn't even an Orb citizen. He was imported from Norway. They could see the figures of the newer mobile suites farther down the line, but with the Astrays standing in their way, they couldn't make out much of the details. It was a few minute's walk down the hanger till they stood in front of the first of the newer models.
Chief Erica Simmons stopped and the pilots looked at her curiously. She motioned up towards the giant suit. "MVF-M11C, Murasame. The Murasame is a transformable flight model, naturally your ace in carrying out attacks further away from the ship. These are more or less designed to give you an upper hand with speed and agility within the atmosphere, but they are still functional in space. As with all of our mobile suits, the Murasame is equipped with a high energy, type-70 beam saber, 75mm automatic multi barrel CSWI Igellstellungs to the right and left of the main camera, and a high energy, type-71 beam rifle. When in its fighter jet form, the Murasame has a high energy beam cannon as well as two sets of four anti aircraft missiles under each wing. For you to know when piloting it, the beam rifle and beam cannon use up a significant amount of power. Any questions?"
"Who gets to pilot those?" asked Mumtaz.
"That is a decision that will be made by your captain. Any questions regarding the mobile suit?"
Kira had about a dozen questions, which frankly were quite good questions to be asking. That is, at least Cagali thought that the information was useful.
After Kira had spent several minutes on questions, Shinn interrupted him, "Can you give Yamato a manual and show us the other model?"
Chief Simmons looked to Kira, who shrugged.
"Now moving on," she said, "You'll be pleased to note we do not have to walk all the way back to the other side of the hanger to view the next of our new models. In fact, they're just in this row behind our Murasame." They followed Chief Simmons betweens the legs of two of the gigantic Murasame and found themselves looking up at a yet taller grey mobile suit, its feature somewhat more angular than the Murasames and the Astrays.
"This suit," said Chief Simmons, with a slight smirk forming on her lips, "Is an accomplishment by the designers, GAT-X207 Blitz. Of course, it has the standard Igellstellungs, and type-70 beam saber. Its beam rifle is located in the shield on its right arm along with a set of three rockets. However, this suit's firearms aren't any better than our Murasames. This suit, different from the others, is equipped with a PS armor, which renders attacks from the standard ZAFT DINN, GINN, and EA Strike Daggers and mobile armor virtually useless." This seemed to be suddenly appealing to the seven pilots, "You will notice, that when the PS armor is activated, this grey color of the suit will turn a dark black."
"Incredible," muttered Abraham.
"Oh, but I haven't gotten to the best part. Orb has developed a new technology that both the EA and PLANT would figure impossible and made it one of the main features of the Blitz. This mobile suit is equipped with what we're calling Mirage Colloid. When activated, Mirage Colloid renders the Blitz invisible to infrared sensors, radar, cameras, and even the naked eye. The only thing you could use to find it would be sonar, and Mirage Colloid prevents sonar from pinpointing the precise location of the Blitz. The only disadvantage this suit has is that its PS armor and Mirage Colloid cannot be used at the same time."
Cagali was in disbelief and it seemed she was not the only one.
"Impossible," blurted out Shinn. "There is no possible way to become invisible." Several of the boys nodded.
Yet Chief Simmons was delighted to explain the details of the complex Mirage Colloid. Cagali found herself taking in this information like a sponge. It… it made sense. It all made sense, and if Orb had this and ZAFT and the EA had no idea… The possibility was most appealing.
"I still don't understand how…" Lloyd was saying to Kira, who seemed to have analyzed the machine's every detail by Chief Simmons' explanation alone.
"Cagali!" Lloyd paused. There had been a shout from somewhere else in the hanger, heading in their direction. "Cagali? Are you in here?" someone said loudly.
With that, Cagali felt seven pairs of eyes land on her. "What?" she asked.
"Someone's calling you," said Shinn, "What do you think?"
Cagali felt her blood filling her cheeks as she heard whoever was looking for her call out repeatedly. Chief Simmons looked to Cagali and shrugged, "Go see who wants you," she said. Cagali merely nodded, too embarrassed to do much else. With that, she made her way towards the source of the voice, walking quickly through the legs of the Murasames. She could feel everyone staring at her, confused or perhaps annoyed.
"Cagali!" the person who had wanted to speak to Cagali spotted her and grinned.
It was Sai, Sai Argyle. Sai was a Natural with hair a little darker than Cagali's, tinted glasses and a few centimeters on her brother. Consequently, he was also a good friend of Kira's, which said something because although Kira had many friends, he had very few good friends. He, along with the twins, had tested to become an Orb pilot. Only one Natural had passed the test, and that had not been Sai. Instead, he had been specifically trained to work on the bridge of the Archangel, mainly operating the ship's battle weapons.
"Sai? What are you doing here?" Cagali asked.
"Isn't it obvious?" he replied, "looking for you."
"I gathered that much. What do you want me for?" Cagali said, irritation prickling on her tongue.
Cagali boy was caught slightly off guard. "I uh… was just wondering if you wanted to go look around Heliopolis with me before we leave tomorrow. Get back together, you know…"
Cagali closed her eyes and exhaled. "You may have free time, but in case you haven't noticed, I don't. I'll be transporting our new Mobile Suits after this. I don't have time to go exploring the colony."
"I thought you'd like to get out and have some fun for a change. You've been stuck with some coordinator supremacist for the past three months. I think I'd be driven mad, want to just do something to get it off my mind."
"Look, first of all, I have work. Second of all, I wasn't stuck with some coordinator supremacist; I figure I was very lucky to be with Athrun, and he was with ZAFT. They aren't all that you picture them to be. And finally, you aren't supposed to be in here. This area is for the pilots only, and I would suggest that you leave this area and go wander around Heliopolis with someone else." With that, Cagali walked away.
Four hours later, Cagali had settled in for a nap. They had unloaded three Astrays to make room for the newer models. To the pilots, this meant that at least four of them would be piloting a Murasame, Blitz, or in some strange turn of events, the Freedom. (For now it had been decided to only store the Freedom on the Archangel, out of combat and safely hidden.) Onto the ship, they had moved four Murasame, and four Blitz. If necessary, they could have squeezed in another two mobile suits, but as it was, they had seven pilots and twelve mobile suits.
After they had finished loading the mobile suits, the Deputy Captain, a rough but fun coordinator by the name of Andrew Waltfeld, had run all the pilots through a series of simulations to decide which of the Orb models should be assigned to each of them.
"You'll be the easiest to place," Shinn told Cagali. "One simulation and they'll know exactly where to put you: on the ship."
"No need for any of that here," said the Deputy Captain to Shinn. "But you're half right; our Princess" (Cagali was starting to hate that name. She'd been on the ship for less than an hour when it was given to her) "was the easiest to place. Definitely belongs in a Murasame. And I'll also be placing Mumtaz Barr and Abraham Brewer in Murasames. Carson, Gomez," he said to Lloyd and Manuel, "Sorry, but you'll have to stick to the Astrays. Asuka, Blitz, but I should also ask you to watch your attitude. Yamato, where I want to put and where I'm going to put you are two different places."
There was a short pause. "Where do you want to put me?" asked Kira.
"I want to put you in that brilliant ZAFT knight you brought back from Aprillius, but strategically that isn't a very good idea. We'd have fifteen ZAFT ships on our trail if they found out where it was. You'll be piloting one of the Blitz. But just so you know, if we get into a particularly sticky situation and we need that Mobile Suit, you're the pilot."
"I understand," said Kira.
"By the way," said Waltfeld, more quietly to Kira, "You spend a lot of time with Princess?"
"Yeah"
"Ever try her for a girlfriend?"
Kira gave Waltfeld a strange look. "Don't you know? Cagali's my sister, my twin sister."
"I never knew that…" he muttered to himself, looking between the two, suddenly finding a number of resemblances, "Well, in that case I strongly discourage anything of the sort."
"Ah… thanks sir," said Kira, a bit befuddled.
Cagali laid her head against her pillow. The transportation of the Mobile Suits and Deputy Captain Waltfeld's simulations and analysis had been during her sleep shift. Now she had free time on the ship, and the Archangel would be heading out of port within the hour. She didn't need to help with the launching from port; she was just an ex-spy and a mobile suit pilot. Maybe, just maybe, when she woke up they would be back in Orb.
An alarm sounded in the cabin. Cagali sat up suddenly, aware by some unknown source, they had not yet reached Earth.
-All hands to level one battle stations!- Cagali heard the voice of Captain Ramius bellow over the loud speaker. –Pilots stand by in your mobile suits!-
The words played through her head twice before Cagali registered the situation. Cagali jumped out of bed running to the door. It opened automatically. Cagali saw Kira heading down the hall. "It's ZAFT," he told her, "They've spotted us. Hurry up!"
Within the next two minutes, Cagali was strapped into the cockpit of a Murasame, noting for the first time since training how uncomfortable the piloting suit was. Kira popped up on her screen in his cockpit.
-Do we have a strategy?- he asked.
Cagali was, for a moment, surprised that he was asking this to her. Then she realized that he had opened the channel to all of the pilots.
-What are we up against?- Abraham popped up on the screen.
-Laurasia class,- said Kira, -Three GINN, two Zaku, and an unidentified Mobile suit. I can bet you anything that the unidentified suit will be the commander.-
-What's with ZAFT and all their unidentified Mobil suits?- said Manuel.
-They like to confuse us, as if it matters. We'll destroy it anyways,- replied Mumtaz.
-It's a ZGMF-600 GuAIZ,- said Shinn. -Not much better than a Zaku.-
-How'd you know that?- asked Manuel.
-I used my brain,- the youngest replied. -I asked Captain Ramius for the ZAFT armory data that was brought back from Aprillius. I uploaded it into the Blitz's computer.-
-Why didn't I think of that?- said Lloyd to himself.
-Alright, we've got them out numbered, but I don't think they need to know that,- instructed Kira, -Shinn, you and I have the mirage colloid. I say we use it to get up close to the Laurasia class and cause some damage. But in all honesty, all we really have to do is bide some time. We're nearing the Earth's atmosphere, the Laurasia class and the ZAFT mobile suits aren't equipped to enter, so we don't have far to go. We just need to distract the enemy long enough to allow escape. However, keep in mind that the Astrays and Murasame are not equipped for atmospheric re-entry. Get back to the Archangel before that happens. Stay near the ship and fend off the ZAFT mobile suits.
-Shinn, the Blitz is technically able to enter the atmosphere on its own, but I don't think it's wise to test the system just yet. Set the mirage colloid before you launch. Remember that it works; our guys can't see you either. Be careful of stray fire- he finished
-You don't need to tell me things I already know. Let's just get out there and take out ZAFT,- replied Shinn. There was a beep and his image disappeared off the screen.
-We're all ready to launch,- said Lloyd. His image and most of the others disappeared leaving only a view of the hanger and Kira.
-Cagali, this is the real thing,- her brother told her.
"I know that," she said.
-Yeah, be careful.- he paused, and then added, -Everyone on this team is concerned that we're putting a Natural in a mobile suit, you know? We've been working together for a month now. We're a team and… and you're new.-
"Why are you telling me this now?" she asked.
Kira paused again; this was obviously something he didn't want to answer. –I didn't think you'd actually be going with us into battle. I was under the impression that we'd get safely back to Orb and you'd get a discharge.-
Cagali pressed a button and Kira disappeared. "You're out here trying to pilot a mobile suit, and you're going to slow all of us down because you're in danger." Cagali's concentration set. 'So they all think less of me because I'm a Natural?'
They were launching, Kira and Shinn in the invisible Blitz, Lloyd and Manuel in the standard Astray. She was next. All that was before her eyes was the hanger, opening out into space.
"Cagali Athha, Murasame, launching!"
The Murasame shot off. Cagali knew that the mobile suit form was more effective than the flight form in space. With a press of a button, the atmosphere type jet became a space type mobile suit.
Suddenly, with a slower speed than the flight model, Cagali felt the effects of space. Her body lifted off the seat and her seat belt pulled her back down. Everything was instantly and drastically silent, so quiet that she could hear herself breathe. 'Of course there's no sound' Cagali reminded herself. 'Sound travels through air, and there's no air in space.' But there certainly was light and lasers, she thought as she dodged a beam of energy shot in her direction.
Her eyes quickly found her enemy on the screen, the standard ZAFT GINN. It accelerated towards her; Cagali steered quickly to the right and drew the suit's beam saber. The controls were as strange and complicated as she had remembered, but there seemed to be something speeding up her brain so that her next movement did not need thought before it happened.
She clashed with the GINN. It swung its sword for her cockpit. She caught its arm with one of the Murasame's and threw it away from her. She slashed with her own sword. It came down on the head of the GINN, slicing through its chest. When she withdrew the beam, the GINN floated backwards on inertia alone.
-Nice one, Princess!- said Manuel through the radio.
Cagali ignored his comment but joined him as he battled the GuAIZ. As she had expected, the GuAIZ pilot was more skilled than that of the GINN. Within moments, they were joined by Manuel and the Zaku. Both the ZAFT reds and the Orb pilots seemed to have the same level of skill, therefore putting the Orb pilots at an advantage with their greater numbers.
Abruptly, the ZAFT suits shot out of their range towards their mother ship. Cagali clicked a few buttons and her cameras zoomed in on the Laurasia class. It looked like either Kira or Shinn had dis-activated the mirage colloid for the use of the PS armor. Then, the Blitz vanished. The Laurasia class looked to have taken the more serious damage.
-All pilots return to the Archangel!- the deputy Captain's voice order's from the radio.
Cagali turned and retreated to the Archangel, following the other four visible mobile suits as they one by one landed in the hanger. It was then she felt something like a bullet shoot through her head, in through one side of her skull and out the other, tearing her brain to shreds. She gasped, holding her head. The pain resided to a dull ache and she landed her suit in the hanger, directing it to its place beside the other Murasame.
The two Blitz landed, their mirage colloid now deactivated. The launch pad to space sealed itself and the pilots waited for the cue that is was safe to leave their machines.
Cagali felt the bullet shoot through her head again, now leaving a throbbing pain. She gasped again. With every throb, the pain increased. She felt the Archangel jerk as it entered Earth's gravitational field. It brought white, yellow, and pink sparks, dancing across her vision.
"Air levels confirmed!" she heard a shout somewhere distant; "Pilots can exit their mobile suits."
Cagali pulled off her helmet and pressed the button that opened her cockpit to the hanger. Her hands shook slightly as she unbuckled herself. Cagali could feel her body gradually becoming heavier as she climbed out of the cockpit and onto the scaffolding. The other boys were talking to her. She couldn't understand a word they were saying.
"My head," she managed to say.
"Did you hit it?" asked Mumtaz.
"No, it just hurts…"
The next thing Cagali knew, she was being led into the infirmary. She could hardly keep her balance. Someone had her sit down on a cot.
"Take this, its Aspirin. See if it helps." She was handed a glass of water. She swallowed it happily, her head pounding. She lay back on the cot, closing her eyes.
"Get her out of that pilot's suit," she heard. "The heat's probably what's causing this."
"Are you wearing anything under that, Cagali?" she recognized Kira's voice.
"Of course"
She felt the uncomfortable space suit being pulled off her body. The cool air seemed to do wonders; she could feel the pain in her skull gradually residing. She felt cool fingers on her forehead and opened her eyes.
It was Athrun, leaning over her, wearing his distinct maroon uniform. He was worrying about her, a Natural slave. Why he didn't care less, like most coordinators, she couldn't know. She blinked. "How's your head?" asked Kira.
"I'm fine now" she told him sitting up. "Sorry about that, I have no idea what happened. Just when I got back in the hanger, it started hurting all of the sudden."
"Yeah, that's what the others say they saw," said Kira. "The doctor says it was the heat in the cockpit."
"Hmm," Cagali nodded.
"I'm sorry," he said, "For what I said earlier. Not having faith in you."
"Don't worry about it. I'm not really concerned about you not having faith in me," said Cagali. "You're family; you have to trust me anyways."
"Well, you've made an impression on the others," said her brother, "Even your friend, Shinn admits 'She fights well but she can hardly stand afterwards'."
Cagali laughed lightly, "my friend, Shinn?"
"Yup," said Kira, smiling. "It was a pretty good battle, on our part. We're safely on our way to Earth now. Except that the GuAIZ took out one of our engines. Turns out we won't be landing exactly where we wanted…"
"And where is that?" asked Cagali.
"About the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. It's going to take us another three weeks if we want to get to Orb undetected."
"You're kidding."
"That's what I said. I don't think I can stand much more time isolated on this ship."
"But maybe Shinn will be nicer now that he knows I'm not incompetent."
"I wouldn't count on it…"
"Yeah."
"By the way," said Kira, pointing to Cagali's left arm. "You still have that number on there?"
"Uh, yeah," said Cagali, pulling her arm labeled O04172 closer to herself. "I haven't gotten around to taking it off, yet."
"I see. Well, you'll have plenty of time now."
AN: And that's the longest chapter so far… no idea how it got to be so long. Apparently the content I intended for this chapter was more than I thought… Onto more pressing matters: review! (one favor please, I do not use profanity in my speech, or in my writing and I would appreciate it if you didn't use it in my reviews. thanks!)