Disclaimer: Sebastian Connor and the Storm Wolves belong to me

Song of the Storm Wolf

By Storm Wolf77415

Aiding and Abetting Escape

Sebastian tore down the corridor to Kira's quarters, followed hot on the heels by Tolle, Mir, Kuzzey, and Sai. After Kira virtually disappeared after the battle, it had raised concern. When Murdoch said that he had seen Kira with the look of a broken man, Sebastian had raced for his quarters, with his friends close behind.

"KIRA!" Sebastian yelled as he opened the hatch, and promptly stopped. After expecting to find Kira floating dead in zero-gravity, the scene before him would be very much unexpected to most others, but Sebastian, already knowing how Kira felt about Flay, concluded that he shouldn't be surprised at all. Kira was currently lying in his bunk, a fairly peaceful expression on his face, and Flay snuggled up next to him, with a big smile and still blushing cheeks.

"Kira!" Mir cried out, but she was stopped by Sebastian, who put his hand to her mouth.

"Do you mind?" He hissed, "Can't you see the two of them are asleep?"

"What?" she said, and peeked inside, gasping, "Oh, god! What are the two of them doing?"

"They're sleeping together" Sebastian said like it was the most obvious thing in the world. This raised Sai's attention.

"What?" he said, and when he took a peek, his face turned red but he wasn't blushing, "Why those…" He tried to get in the door, but Sebastian blocked his path.

"Hold it right there, Mr. Argyle!" Sebastian said in his best "commander's voice".

"Why should I" Sai growled, "He's in bed with my fiancée!"

"Former fiancée you mean", Tolle said which caused Sai to take a swing at him, which Sebastian intercepted. Sai quelled under the Storm Wolf's steel blue glare.

"Big mistake, Mr. Argyle, big mistake" Sebastian said coolly and evenly, "I think you need some time to cool off. Mr. Koenig, Mr. Buskirk. Please see to it that your friend is taken to his quarters and kept there for awhile." And Tolle and Kuzzey forcefully escorted Sai away, just as Murrue and Mu came up.

"Okay, how bad is it?" Murrue said, fully prepared for the worst.

"You two look and see for yourselves" Sebastian said, the same grin from when he called Allster "Uncle" for the first time on his face.

"Whoa!" Mu said, "These kids today sure don't waste any time, do they?"

"Sebastian, is there a reason why Flay would be sleeping with Kira?" Mir asked.

"I can think of a pretty good reason, Milly, look there on the floor" the ZAFT pilot replied, indicating the discarded pistol that was still lying on the floor outside of Kira's quarters, which he then picked up, "I'm willing to bet that Kira was going to commit suicide, and he was going to use this gun to do it."

"Why would he do such a thing?" Murrue said.

"Think about it Murrue, up until just a few weeks ago, Kira and his friends were ordinary teens, going to school, hanging out together, not a care in the world. And then they get thrown into a war they want nothing to do with in the first place. Wouldn't you be just a little upset?" Sebastian said.

"I suppose so, but committing suicide?" Murrue replied.

"That is just a little extreme" Mu added.

"Take everything into account that's happened over the past three weeks. Kira is forced to fly the Strike, even though he hates it with every fiber of his being, Furthermore, he's always had a serious crush on Flay. She asked both of us to protect her father, we failed in that regard. Sebastian said, "Failing to protect the father of the girl he secretly loved, plus everything that happened at Heliopolis, Artemis, and the Debris Belt, it was too much for him. I know exactly what he's going through, all too well."

"What do you mean?" Mir asked. Sebastian's eyes took on a truly mournful expression.

"Because I nearly did the same thing myself," Sebastian said, "I nearly committed suicide after the Bloody Valentine."

"Oh Sebastian," Mir said, giving the Storm Wolf a gentle hug as Mu put a hand on his shoulder.

"After watching my home go up in nuclear fire, it all but destroyed me" Sebastian said, not afraid to let the tears flow, "I spent an entire day just floating meaninglessly about the Galvani. Trying to find some answer to it all, I was heading to my quarters, fully intending to do what Kira almost did, when I heard the most beautiful sound in the world. I heard Lacus singing."

"He's right you know" a soft voice came from behind, they all turned to see Lacus and Mr. Pink coming down the corridor, "He said that he thought it was the sound of an angel." Sebastian left Mir's embrace for that of his fiancée's.

"A lot of the boys in ZAFT are fans of Lacus' songs, and one of them was playing her latest album. It gave me new reason to live, and I was reminded of the first time I met her. I had saved her life when a Blue Cosmos operative tried to kill her at the concert she was giving. She called me her knight in shining armor."

"That's exactly what you are, Sebastian. Don't you dare let anyone tell you otherwise," Lacus said, and the two shared a delicate kiss.

"Once they wake up, then by all means, we'll talk about where this relationship of theirs is going to go, but I think the best thing we can do right now, is to let Kira and Flay have this quiet time" Sebastian said, "Would both of you agree with me?" to which Murrue and Mu simply nodded, "Then let's get out of here" and so the five left the young warrior and his ballerina princess to continue their peaceful slumber.

Archangel, Kira's quarters

Halfway between sleep and lucidity, Kira stirred. He immediately made some conclusions. Somehow he had gotten from the cockpit of the Strike in the midst of battle with Athrun, to his quarters, where he was lying in bed. Furthermore, something soft and warm was pressed up to and hugging him, and he was hugging it back. Kira's eyes slowly opened up and the first thing he saw was red, a brilliant flame red that he had only seen in one place. His vision cleared to see Flay snuggled up next to him, sound asleep and smiling.

Kira's first instinct was to leap out of bed faster than the speed of light away from Flay's grasp, but that wasn't possible, as in their sleep Kira's arms had unconsciously wrapped around Flay's waist, and any attempt to pull himself away would no doubt result in Flay's awakening, So Kira was stuck, pondering what had happened.

What the hell just happened? Kira thought, Okay, back up, we were rendezvousing with the advance force, ZAFT attacked, I was fighting Athrun, Sebastian was fighting Evans, and then…Oh shit! It all came back to the violet-eyed Coordinator in that moment, the destruction of the Montgomery, Sebastian's berserk attack on Evans. Nicol's turning I failed to protect Flay's father. Why's Flay here? My god, did we? Kira was relieved to find that he was in his undershirt, and uniform pants, but blushed slightly when he saw Flay's tank top and panties. Well, at least we didn't go that far. Kira thought.

A petite yawn stirred Kira from his train of thought, and a set of baby blue eyes opened, locking with his amethyst orbs, "Uh, hi" Kira said simply.

"Hi yourself" Flay cooed back to him in a sweet tone.

"Flay, what's going on here?" He said, "Why are you in bed with me?"

"You don't remember? You were going to commit suicide, because you felt so guilty about not protecting my father, and I stopped you," Flay said, "You looked so pitiful, just lying there, crying. And then said you loved me, all I wanted was to comfort you. You did mean what you said, didn't you?" She said, a mischievous, playful smile forming.

"Y-Yeah, I did" Kira said, becoming speechless at Flay's antics.

"I want you to know, that I'll always be there for you, Kira Yamato. I'll protect you with my heart, my feelings, all of my love" Flay said smiling and she reached up and kissed him.

"In that case, I'll protect you too, Flay Allster, with my very life if I have to" Kira said, with new purpose in his voice, "I was fighting to protect my friends the whole time, and I still am, but now I have another reason. I want to see this war end once and for all. If I can make a difference then I'll do it."

"And I'll be right there alongside you every step of the way, don't you ever forget that Kira" Flay said, "We'd better get dressed, if someone comes in and finds us this way, it'll lead to some hard questions to answer."

After getting dressed, Kira and Flay walked through the corridors hand-in-hand, not caring if anyone saw their newfound love. They headed off to find Sebastian and the others, not knowing that the man in question was also looking for them. They ran into each other just near the cafeteria.

"Ah just the two I was looking for, let me say first off, congrats, it's about time you two got together," Sebastian said quickly, "But I need to speak to you about something very important in my quarters. It's kind of private."

"What is it? Is there a problem?" Flay asked.

"Not quite, my dear cousin, I just need your help getting Lacus back to ZAFT hands."

"Why? You were just reunited with her, why make her leave so soon?" Flay said.

"Come with me and I'll explain", Sebastian said, and the three headed for Sebastian's headquarters. Quite a crowd had gathered, Nicol, Lacus, Mir, Kuzzey, Sai, and Tolle. Sai glared at Kira and Flay for a few seconds, but stopped with a glare from the Storm Wolf. After introducing Nicol and Flay to each other, Sebastian outlined his plan.

"Listen guys, it's just not safe for Lacus to remain here on the Archangel. I mean, we all heard Badgiruel's little statement earlier. The Earth Alliance wouldn't hesitate to use Lacus as some kind of propaganda tool, and if she ever outlived her usefulness, they'd kill her, well sorry, that's not happening as long as I'm around" Sebastian said, "I'm going to take Lacus near the Vesalius, hail them and ask that someone come out to retrieve her."

"Uh, small problem with that" Kuzzey pointed out, "How are you going to past security? I doubt that they'd let you waltz right by if you told them what you were going to do."

"You're absolutely right, Mr. Buskirk, that's where you guys come in. all four of you go on duty soon, correct? I need you guys to scramble the interior cameras long enough for Kira, Nicol, and myself to get Lacus to the hanger and launch"

"All three of us launch?" Nicol said, "I hate to say this, Sebastian, but what are you going to fly? As I recall, Evans did a pretty heavy number on your machine."

"No worries, little brother. After we lost you guys at Artemis, we made a trip through the Debris Field, specifically, to Junius Seven, where I picked up my old CGUE," Sebastian said, "I'll fly with Lacus in that, Kira, you'll be my wingman in the Strike and Nicol, you'll be our lookout in the Blitz. I want you under Mirage Colloid while this is happening. You know old Rau as well as I do, Nick. You know that he'll pull some kind of trap. He's sneaky that way." To which Nicol merely nodded.

"What if we're caught?" Mir said.

"Mir, once we launch, they'll know we're up to something anyway. When it comes to that, I'll take full responsibility for it. It was my idea to begin with. I'll just have to remind old Nattie of her previous actions. Besides, this is the right thing to do." Sebastian said, "Okay, everyone. We all know what needs to be done. Let's do it!"

"Is there anyway I can help?" Flay said, "I want to be a part of this."

"You'll come with me, Lacus, Nicol, and Kira. Even if the others do disable the cameras, there'll still people in the halls, you can be the lookout for that."

"Will do!" Flay said, giving a mock salute.

"Let's go to work!" Sebastian said, and everyone filed out of his quarters, although Sai held Kira back.

"Kira…I've got something I need to tell you," Sai said.

"Yeah, what is it?" Kira asked.

"Sebastian told me what happened between you and Flay. When I saw you two in bed together, I was pissed, and with good reason," Sai said, "He told me she stopped you from committing suicide, and he also said that you loved her, greatly. I was wrong. I know you two will be happy together, but I still expect you to take care of her."

"So that's it? You're just leaving it at that?" Kira said, very surprised.

"Yeah, but only because Sebastian threatened to do bodily harm to me" Sai said, "Kira, you'll come back won't you?"

"Of course, I have to for Flay," Kira said, and the two headed off for their respective positions.

Archangel, pilot's ready room.

Kira, Sebastian, and Nicol quickly hurried into their flight suits, while Flay manned the door, watching for any passersby.

"Here," Kira said, handing Lacus a spacesuit, "Put this on over what…you're…wearing."

"Uh, I think I see a little problem here", Nicol said, noting Lacus' puffy dress

"Good point, Nick" Sebastian said.

"Oh, right" she said, Lacus stripped off her skirt, revealing her pink, lacy panties, causing all three pilots eyes to bug out and elucidated giggles from both Flay and Lacus.

"What the matter boys?" Flay said, "Never seen a girl in her underwear before?"

"Just help Lacus get dressed!" Sebastian said, his face as red as his cousin's hair. All three pilots turned around as Flay helped Lacus get into her spacesuit. When they turned around they saw a massive bulge in her stomach.

"I'm not even going to ask," Sebastian said, "Let's just go and get this done. Flay, return to our quarters. The three of us can finish this."

"Sebastian, you and Kira will come back, won't you?" Flay asked.

"Of course, Flay. I have no intention of leaving", Sebastian said.

"Neither do I," Kira added, "We just got together after all."

"Be safe, you two," Flay said, hugging both of them.

"What about me?" Nicol said, sounding just a little bit hurt.

"You come back too, I'd like to get to know my other brother better" Flay said, "Good luck, everyone!" Flay blew a kiss to her boyfriend, and cousin, and disappeared out the door.

The four made their way to the hanger, Sebastian led Lacus to his CGUE, and as Kira and Nicol were boarding their respective machines, Murdoch came in.

"What are you doing?" he yelled at Sebastian.

"The right thing," Sebastian simply replied, "Don't try and stop us."

Sebastian's CGUE and the Strike launched first, the Blitz soon followed, and then cloaked itself under Mirage Colloid.

Archangel, Bridge

"What's going on?" Natarle said, "Who gave authorization for the Strike, Blitz, and Commander Connor's CGUE to take off?"

"Easy, no one did!" Sebastian's voice came through on the PA, "This is solely on my own initiative. I'm not about to let you use my fiancée as a bargaining chip!"

"Commander Connor, you, Mr. Yamato, and Mr. Amalfi will return to the Archangel immediately!" Natarle barked.

"We'll be happy to, once we're done!" Sebastian said, and cut her off.

"Forget it, Ensign, he's not going to stop," Mu said form the cockpit of the Zero, "If we tried to interfere. All three of them would probably just attack us."

Open space, near the Vesalius

Sebastian's CGUE, followed closely by the Strike, made their way towards the Vesalius. The Blitz, still under cloak, remained halfway between them and the Archangel, at a slightly higher orientation, giving him a full view of the area, just in case someone pulled something.

"This is Commander Sebastian Connor, flying off the E.A.S Archangel. We have Lacus Clyne in our possession, and we are on our way to turn her back over to you. The Vesalius will shut off its engines and come to a complete stop, we will be met by the pilot of the Aegis, and only the pilot of the Aegis. If you fail to comply, then I can't guarantee Miss Clyne's safety," Sebastian said.

"This could be a trap" Ades said, "They have two machines out there already, They could have the others waiting nearby."

"Sir, let me go out there" Athrun said, "Maybe I can find something out. Besides which, I've know Lacus since we were small children."

"Very well, I'll authorize it," Le Creuset said, a devious smirk on his face.

"I still think it's a trap" Ades said.

"Perhaps," Le Creuset said, "Or it could be a blessing in disguise. Bring the ship to a halt and prepare my CGUE. I'm going out there."

Open Space.

"Here he comes," Sebastian said, "Kira, Nicol, be ready."

"Got it" Kira said, and once the Aegis came to a halt near the Strike and the CGUE, a beam rifle came up.

"Open your cockpit so I can see you!" Sebastian said, and Athrun did so, Sebastian soon followed, "Lacus, say something to him, he can't see your face from here and so he needs to know it's you."

"Of course, hello Athrun!" Lacus said, "It's so good to see you!"

"I confirm it!" Athrun said, "It is Lacus!"

"Athrun, I'm turning her over to you, see to it that she returns to the PLANTs safely", Sebastian said.

"You both should come back with us! It's where you belong!" Athrun said.

"I'm sorry, Pilot Zala," Sebastian said, "But I can't do that. I have to stay my course. Any loyalty I had toward ZAFT has been destroyed."

"What?" Athrun said, "I don't understand."

"Let's just say I refuse to be associated with your father and his horde of mass murderers!" Sebastian said, the disgust evident in his voice.

"Mass…murderers?" Athrun said now more confused than ever, "My father would do no such thing!"

"Are you so sure?" Sebastian said.

"Can we just get out of here?" Kira said.

"Kira, you'll come back with us, won't you?" Athrun said, desperation now coloring his tone. Kira just shook his head.

"I'm sorry, Athrun. I can't. Please don't ask me that again."

"Then in that case, next time we meet. I'll show no mercy towards you" Athrun said.

"Same here" Kira replied. The moment was broken up by a white blur flashing by.

"What the?" Sebastian said, "It's a set up! Athrun, did you have anything to do with this?"

"No, I swear to God! It must be Commander Le Creuset!" Athrun said. Le Creuset's white CGUE made a straight out run on the Strike.

"Kira watch out!" Sebastian shouted.

"Athrun take Miss Clyne back to the ship!" Le Creuset said.

"Commander, stop!" Athrun yelled, it was that time that Lacus stepped in.

"Commander Le Creuset, it is your intention to turn this place into a battlefield, right in front of a memorial representative such as myself? Lacus said sharply.

"Miss Clyne, this may not be the best time-" Le Creuset started.

"You will break off your attack!" Lacus said even more sharply, "This is a direct order, Commander!"

"Yes ma'am" Le Creuset said resignedly, "Athrun, return to base."

"Yes sir" Athrun said. As the Aegis and Le Creuset's CGUE sped away. Sebastian couldn't help but smile.

Way to go, Lacus, Sebastian thought, It really pays to be the daughter of the Supreme Chairman.

"That was close!" Nicol said, "That could have gotten really ugly."

"I heard that!" Sebastian said, "Kira, you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm just fine" he said, although Sebastian could tell how upset his friend was.

"Well, it looks like I missed out on quite a show!" Mu said, "Come on you three. We're going home."

"Understood, I'm ready to forget about this day!" Sebastian said, all four machines then flew back to the ship. As Sebastian put his uniform back on, he reached into his jacket pocket, and closed his eyes.

Lacus, I will see you again! His hand came out, clutching a silver ring attached to a thin silver chain. I promise you that!

Author's Notes: Lacus has been returned to ZAFT hands. We see she's not just an airheaded child, and Sai and Kira make peace concerning Flay. Next up the Archangel hooks up with the rest of the 8th Fleet, (finally!)