Armored Seed

Chapter 25

Fallout

A/N: Sorry I took so long getting this out but between my job, my education and my computer needing repairs I haven't had much time to write, I'll try and make sure that the next chapter comes out sooner.

I know that most of you were expecting Yzak to die but I have my own plans for him, (Insert evil laugh here). As always I'd like to remind everyone that I like it when people state the reasons as to WHY they liked the chapter rather than just stating that they just like it, I enjoy some constructive criticism (not flames).

As for one reviewer's question as to pairing Mir up with an OC I'm not entirely sure on that yet but if I do, than it definitely won't be Nathan, he's going to be paired up with someone else but you've all probably guessed who that's going to be.

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-ZAFT Command Sub, personnel quarters-

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What was left of Athrun's team wasn't in very good spirits at the moment. Dearka had been captured by the enemy and Athrun was still MIA out there somewhere. After Athrun's disappearance, the ship along with some S&R units from Carpentaria base had been looking for him for close to twenty-four hours. But so far they hadn't found a damned trace of the acting commander. This only left Yzak and the three remaining members of the Hydras.

Yzak was in the locker room in front of Nichol's locker and had just dented the metal of the locker by punching it just a few seconds earlier. Yzak looked at the damage he had caused at the locker with an angry look on his face but the tears in his eyes showed just how sad he was at his friend/comrade's death. "God dammit!" he cursed angrily as slammed his fist into the locker over and over again.

If only Nichol hadn't been so stupid, he shouldn't have jumped into the way of that blast, he didn't deserve to die like that. Yzak let out an angry/sad sigh as he thought about the green haired pilot. Sure the two of them never really saw eye to eye most if not all of the time but Nichol usually had his heart in the right place. And he was a nice guy to everyone, always trying to play the peacemaker whenever two or more of their team members got into an argument.

The green haired boy also had one hell of an aptitude for playing the piano and after hearing him play one time Dearka had remarked that Nichol could make a killing by playing at recitals and concerts where classical music was being played. Now it seemed that would never occur, thanks to a certain red eyed mercenary. Yzak's eyes narrowed in hatred at the mere thought of that bastard as he punched the locker once again in anger. The next time that Yzak saw the Red Eyed Devil, he'd kill that fucked up maniac himself!

Yzak was broken out of his thoughts by a soft sounding female voice "You alright?" the scarred white haired boy turned around and much to his surprise saw Katrina Massey leaning against the wall close to the door to the personnel quarters in her uniform. Yzak turned and looked right at Raven pilot with an irritated look on his face. He really didn't want to deal with her flirting right now.

Before Yzak could speak up and demand that she'd leave the room at once, she raised a hand and cut him off while she stood up straight and walked over to him. As she did this she spoke without that same flirty tone she almost always had and instead spoke in a calm and almost consoling voice that was completely unlike her previous actions when she interacted with those that were around her.

"I'm not here to try and get into your pants or anything like that. All I'm here to do is simply to offer my condolences, losing a comrade in combat can really hurt. Especially when said comrade gave his life to save yours. If you ever need to talk to someone about it, well, I'm more than willing to listen" she explained while she put a hand on his shoulder.

After a few moments Katrina broke off contact and walked back towards the exit. Before she was within a foot of the door however she heard Yzak let out a small "Thank you" Katrina gave small smile at that before she continued out the door. As Katrina walked out she remembered how Lockhart and his second in command Faulkner had acted after they had gotten back from the mission.

They remained completely impassive about the death of Nichol and the possibility that Athrun was dead as well. They still hadn't found Athrun's body or his mobile suit. Nichol was a good kid and he didn't deserve to die like that. After Yzak and the other Hydras had arrived back on the ship Yzak immediately went to inform Nichol's parents of his demise in combat.

To say that they didn't take it well was an understatement from what Katrina had heard from her eavesdropping when she was standing directly outside the room. Nichol's mother had been crying almost hysterically while Nichol's father was apparently trying to comfort his wife as best he could but anyone with intelligence could tell that he too was also internally grieving over his son's death.

Although Katrina was a shameless flirt most, if not all the time, she knew the difference between right and wrong and the only reason that she had signed on to work with the Hydras was because of the heavy amount of payment that their now small group got and she had only signed on with them about a couple of months ago. She knew about some of their more notorious methods when it came to the jobs they took but she had at first thought that it was just a rumor or an exaggeration but soon found out what she had heard were facts.

However Katrina had no other alternative, she had signed a contract that compelled her to be part of the Hydras for at least a one year tour of duty with the Raven group. After completing her first mission with those psychos she had been secretly counting down the days until her contract's expiration date.

To be honest Katrina never really thought about what it was that she would do once the contract had finally expired. Sometimes she entertained the idea of joining another Raven unit but that idea was usually quashed the instant that she started thinking about it. The only group she would be willing to join after all of this was the Black Skulls but it was unlikely that they'd even let her join seeing as how she would have been part of one of a rival organization.

There was also one other way of getting out of the contract with the Hydras but it would probably end up being even riskier than just waiting for it to expire. The other option was to put her commanding officer and his second in command into a position to be killed, if that happened the contract would be no longer valid and there would be nothing holding her back from leaving.

True Katrina had thought about this numerous times in the past but she didn't really have the gall to even try and pull something like that off. After all Lockhart was a very perceptive individual and no doubt kill her if he so much as suspected that she was even thinking of attempting something like that. Katrina sighed in frustration. It seemed that for now all she seemed capable of doing would be biding her time until the right moment.

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-Archangel, Crew Quarters-

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Almost twenty-four hours had passed since the Archangel's fight against the stolen Gundams and their Raven allies. Shortly after they had lost all contact with the Strike they had pulled back given how they were seriously outnumbered and outgunned. During the battle the Strike and the Aegis had ended up fighting on one of the islands several miles away from the Archangel.

Even if the crash site was only a few miles away the N-Jammers made anything other than direct visual contact virtually impossible. After the Strike and the second Skygrasper went down search parties from the Archangel were sent out to find their missing comrades much to Natarle's chagrin who had insisted that they simply declare them MIA and move onto JOSH-A. Murrue then stated that they would search for twenty-four hours. Just four hours earlier, the twenty-four hours had already come and gone and despite Nathan and Raphael's verbal protests the Archangel was forced to continue on it's mission to Alaska.

Currently Nathan was laying down in his cot and was, for lack of better terms, completely pissed. He had been prohibited to join the search for Kira and Tolle as well as any other combat missions until the Lucifer had finished undergoing repairs. The reason being was that his armored core had been heavily damaged during the previous fight and would be almost completely useless if he were to bring it out into the field. And despite his argument that it would be unlikely that they'd run into that ZAFT force again, seeing as how they had all but decimated their forces during the last battle and that they'd need everyone that had any at all flight experience to join in the search he was still forbidden form doing so.

Then there was the fact that the captain had reluctantly ordered that they continue on their course to JOSH-A despite the very vocal protests he made in regards to that order. This caused him to once again butt heads with Natarle who stated that if they were in a combat scenario and they couldn't rescue or recover MIA personnel then they would have to move on with their mission. It was at that point that Nathan was seriously starting to consider pulling out his sidearm, a .45 caliber pistol and putting a bullet in that woman's face.

Kira had risked his life countless times to protect everyone on that ship. The fact that, that bitch would so callously suggest that they just leave him and Tolle out there to die made him seethe with more than justified fury. Seeing as how it was clear that the captain could no longer be persuaded otherwise Nathan had stormed out of the bridge and back to his quarters. As Nathan contined to lie there he thought that if the captain wouldn't continue the search for their missing comrades, then he'd have to do so himself.

Having wasted too much time already Nathan got up off of his cot and walked towards the room's computer and began to upload something, special into the Archangel's hanger bay door control algorithms. In less than ten minutes the launch doors would open for thirty seconds and no amount of anti hacking programs would be able to stop it. Not wasting anymore time Nathan headed straight for the door, taking his sidearm from the desk and holstering it as he did.

Meanwhile in the crew quarters of this mighty ship Flay was sitting by herself on one of the bunks, her cheeks pink and puffy from all the crying she had done ever since Kira had gone MIA. After the deadline had passed Flay had begged the captain to give the search parties just a few more hours to search the area but the captain of the ship apologized before saying that they couldn't wait any longer. Right now all that Flay found herself capable of doing was sitting down on one of the beds in the quarters she shared with Kira and crying. Mir wasn't taking what happened to Tolle very well either. Even though that Mir's boyfriend was only MIA at the moment she didn't seem to be able to shake the feeling that he was dead rather than just missing.

The members of Black team weren't taking the news that they were moving on very well either. Ever since the twenty-four hour time limit for the rescue had run out they had all but demanded that the captain turn around and continue searching for Kira and Tolle. Despite their demands/pleas, the captain's decision was final. However Murrue assured them that Orb would continue to search for their missing comrades. This made them reluctantly silence their protests and made Flay lose any real hope of going back to search for Kira.

Flay couldn't even sleep since she had awakened from her little fainting episode back on the bridge. Each and every time that she closed her eyes she saw the image of Kira, his dead body completely battered and broken on one of the islands that he had been fighting on. Flay's tears continued to spill as she was caught in her own worry about what could very well have happened to her boyfriend.

The red haired girl was so caught up in her own worry and sadness that she failed to hear the door that lead directly from the hall and into her and Kira's shared quarters slide open. "Hey" someone called out just a few moments before she felt something hit the bed. Flay looked over at the door and saw Nathan standing there with that same stoic look he always had. On the bed was a pilot suit. Flay wiped away the tears that had been pouring down her eyes for the past several hours with her left hand and spoke up "What do you want?" she asked.

"Put that on we're going to go and search for your boyfriend," Nathan bluntly stated much to Flay's confusion. Didn't captain Murrue say that they had reached the twenty hour deadline for S&R and that they had to keep moving towards Alaska? Had Nathan and the others managed to change the captains mind somehow?

"Did the captain change her mind?" Flay asked hoping that Nathan would be able to give some kind of clarification. The Red Eyed Devil sighed. Now came the difficult part. Either A. Nathan could tell her the honest truth in which the captain had done no such thing and that they would both effectively be going AWOL or B. lie to her. However Nathan quickly decided that it would probably be better if he gave her the honest truth. Besides if she said no which he highly doubted he could always just leave without her.

"The captain doesn't even know about this little excursion, now are you coming or not?" he said, just as bluntly as he had earlier. Flay looked surprised at this and quickly weighed the consequences. If she went with him she could face a court-martial and be dishonorably discharged and even face jail time for going AWOL. But Flay found herself not even caring about the consequences. If this helped to save Kira than it would be more than worth it. Right now Kira was the most important thing she had in her life and she was going to help him consequences be damned.

Flay looked up at Nathan who was patiently awaiting her answer "Alright, I'll come," steel resolve more than evident in her voice. Nathan quickly walked outside of the room before Flay changed from her normal civilian garb and into the pilot uniform. Once she had finished changing Flay ran after Nathan who then started to lead her to the hanger bay 'This time Kira, I'm the one who's going to save you' she thought determinedly.

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-Marshall Islands, Orb Territory-

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Lacus was looking out at the beach and watched as the waves brushed up against the shore before they receded back into the ocean. As she watched the waves the pink haired pop star thought back to a certain red eyed boy that she had spent time with when he had visited the orphanage just a couple of days ago. Whenever she spent time with him she felt a strange feeling in her heart, Lacus truly enjoyed spending time with him and despite his stoic façade she could tell that he enjoyed it as well.

However it was clear that Nathan was conflicted about this. He was obviously still grieving over the death of the girl he had fallen in love with and most likely would for a while. Lacus really wanted to help him as best she could through his grief but really had no idea how to accomplish something like that. She was even considering going to reverend Malchio for some advice on what she could do to help him but seeing as how the priest was busy helping the other orphans Lacus decided that it would be best not to trouble him with her own personal issues for now. Especially when one considered how busy Malchio was lately, after all taking care of almost fifty kids could be a very difficult undertaking.

The pink haired pop star continued to look out at the beach for a while longer before she noticed something in the water that was approximately ten feet away from the shoreline. At first glance Lacus believed it to be just a piece of driftwood or something of the like but once it finally finished crashing up on the beach she saw that it was a person in an Atlantic Federation pilot's uniform and he wasn't moving.

Lacus ran up to the individual as quickly as she possibly could and pulled him closer ashore before she removed the pilot's helmet. As Lacus had suspected the individual that was in the ocean water was a boy judging by his frame and constitution. Upon closer examination Lacus recognized the individual.

It was Kira, he had several small cuts and one very nasty looking bruise on his forehead but he didn't seem to have any other injuries to his body but she couldn't be sure since the flight suit was slightly torn up in some places. Not wasting precious time Lacus hurriedly put her index and middle finger of her right hand onto the boy's jugular artery and checked to see if Kira had a pulse.

The pink haired girl let out a sigh of relief when she found one, it was a weak one but at least there was one there. Not really knowing what else to do, Lacus slung the boy's arm over her shoulder and began to take him back to reverend Malchio's for medical treatment. As Lacus helped Kira back to the reverend's orphanage Kira seemed to be in a semiconscious state and as they made their way from the beach to the orphanage Kira continued to mumble out "Flay" once every few seconds, this made it clear that the boy was in a delirious state.

Eventually Lacus managed to make her way back to the orphanage. There were several kids out playing in the back when she returned and they were startled, to say the least that Lacus was helping a seriously wounded boy about her age back to the house. However they all cleared the way to make it easy for Lacus to have better access to the inside of the orphanage. Upon seeing Lacus helping the wounded boy make it to his doorstep, reverend Malchio immediately got up off of where he was sitting and walked towards them and began to help haul the now completely unconscious boy into the house. Once inside they took the unconscious pilot to the infirmary and laid him on one of the beds they had in there.

After that had been finished they began to get him out of the chest portion of the flight suit so that they would be able to get a better look at his injuries. As they took the suit off they noticed that there were a large number of tears on several parts of the suit and it was clear that the ocean water had seeped into the once airtight flight suit. The two of them took off the flight suit they saw that the boy had many more cuts and bruises all over his body.

As they continued to patch up the injured pilot the reverend turned to Lacus and asked "Lacus what happened while you were out at the beach earlier?". Lacus looked over at the reverend and after a moment's hesitation gave a response "Well I was out at the beach when I saw something coming in with the tide. At first I thought that it was just a piece of debris or something but I soon saw that it was a person so I went over there to see if I could help them. After I took off the helmet I saw that it was Kira, the same boy I told you about when I first came here" she explained.

The reverend stroked his chin in thought for a few seconds 'What on earth happened out there?' he wondered looking down at the boy who laid their unconscious.

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-Archangel, Hanger Bay-

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Nathan and Flay didn't attract all that much attention as they made their way for the hanger. After all most of the crew was busy with repairs to the damage that had been inflicted to the ship during their last battle. Even their friends from Heliopolis were busy with their own duties and hadn't really been able to talk with Flay or Nathan since the battle had ended. But Nathan knew how they were feeling.

Concern, for their friends/loved ones safeties and perhaps even a tinge of betrayal at the fact that captain Murrue despite having done her job and ordered a search for the missing pilots had decided after only a twenty four hour search to declare the pilots MIA. At least she had informed Orb government officials who had promised them that they would continue to search for the missing pilots.

Nathan let out a sigh, he really shouldn't be blaming Murrue for continuing onto JOSH-A, she really had gone above and beyond for them ever since Heliopolis. Besides it was standard Atlantic Federation military procedure to search for MIA personnel in a contested zone for twenty four hours at the maximum before heading back to base so that a more organized search could be launched.

However this would take far too long in Nathan's opinion and that by the time that they did send a rescue team, Kira and Tolle could both be dead. Yes the Orb government was looking for them but Nathan doubted that it was a high priority for them. Sure for Cagalli and Kisaka it would probably be a high priority but they were only two individuals that had a handful of S&R teams along with them and even with the extra help it was unlikely that would make much of a difference.

However if two more individuals were to say, 'borrow' an expensive piece of Atlantic Federation military equipment from a classified warship and go out to join the search than their chances would improve, if only by a small amount. As they walked through the hanger Nathan eventually spotted just the thing that he had been looking for. Mu's Skygrasper.

It was standard military procedure that after each and every battle all machines were to immediately have their weaponry and fuel supplies replenished. This was normally a twenty to thirty minute process when it came to a Skygrasper and given the fact that commander La Flaga hadn't piloted the machine in almost twenty-four hours and that there wasn't a fuel hose still attached to the machine indicated that all maintenance duties had been performed on the aerospace fighter some time ago.

Nathan and Flay weren't bothered by any of the engineering teams as they were busy working on fixing up the armored cores that had been scattered about the hanger. They were so concerned with rearming the weapons and repairing the damage that had been inflicted unto them during the last battle that they failed to even notice the two pilots enter the hanger bay. This made getting on board the Skygrasper a relatively simple task.

Nathan climbed up the small ladder that was built into the machine and hopped into the pilot's seat while Flay took the back seat where an additional passenger would be able to help control the beam turret that had been mounted on the Skygrasper's main body.

The Skygrasper's engines started to growl as it powered up but before Nathan could seal the cockpit chief engineer Murdoch who had been standing nearby ran over to their location "Hey! What the hell do you kids think you're doing?!" he demanded angrily. Nathan looked at him with that same stoic face he almost always had on "We're borrowing this for a little while and the only way that you'll be able to stop us is if your willing to shoot a couple of teenagers" he stated calmly.

Murdoch sighed, he knew that these kids were going to go and look for Kira and Tolle and despite not approving of the way they were going about doing it he couldn't' really blame them. In fact he hated the decision that the captain had made just a few hours earlier, feeling that they were leaving Kira and Tolle high and dry when they had always helped them out.

"Alright, just be careful out there okay?" he said before Nathan gave the engineer an approving nod "If anyone asks, just tell them I pointed a gun at you" he suggested before the cockpit slid down and sealed shut.

The Skygrasper made its way to the launch pad and right before it got there Flay noticed that the launch bay doors weren't open, if they tried to leave now then they would just splatter against the doors. "Wait, Nathan the launch pad isn't even open, how are we supposed to get out of here?" she asked as she strapped herself into the rear seat. At first Nathan didn't respond, instead he looked at the time being displayed on one of the Skygrasper's monitors before replying "That problem should take care of itself in just a few seconds" he answered cryptically.

Sure enough in less than five seconds the launch bay doors started to open up. Flay looked over at Nathan and was kind of impressed and wondered as to how he had managed to pull this one off. But now was neither the time nor the place for such trivial details.

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-Archangel, Bridge-

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Crewman Walter Brown was looking over his console that monitored the Archangel's primary and secondary systems and was currently sipping down a cup of coffee when a message appeared on the screen that indicated that something had just overridden part of the ship's systems. Putting his glass of coffee down nearby Brown checked which systems were being taken over and saw that it was the hanger launch bay doors.

At first Brown thought that this may have been some kind of a system glitch and attempted to verify only to find that this wasn't the case. Brown quickly tapped into the security camera for the hanger bay and saw Mu's Skygrasper on the launch pad "Um lieutenant Badgiruel someone's just overridden the launch door controls in the hanger bay and one of the Skygraspers is getting ready to launch," he announced to his supervisor.

Upon hearing what the crewman had just said everyone's head turned to see what was going on even as Natarle got out of her seat and marched over to the crewman and took a communications headset with her "Attention whoever's in that Skygrasper stand down and identify yourselves immediately!" she ordered.

Natarle knew that it had to be one or two members of Black team, after all they were the most vocal against continuing on to JOSH-A without Kira and Tolle. Her suspicions were soon confirmed when the individual who was piloting the machine responded "This is Lieutenant Nathan Fletcher, I hope you don't mind but Flay and I are going to be borrowing this machine for a little bit" he stated.

The lieutenant looked almsot flabbergasted at what the Raven pilot had just stated, but this didni't last long "You are stealing Atlantic Federation military property for which you will be indicted for, now stand down immediately!" she ordered. Nathan then looked direcly at Natarle's face on the communication's screen and said something that nobody had expected him to say "Lieutenant with all due respect I've been wanting to say this for quite some time now, go fuck yourself!"

To say that Natarle hadn't been expecting Nathan to say something like that would be an understatement. Sure the boy had a tendency to be confrontational with people whose decisions he didn't like she hadn't heard him use such profanity before. Before Natarle could make any sort of a response to the pilot, captain Hackett who had been listening in to the entire conversation, took the headset away from her and spoke into it.

"Lieutenant Fletcher this is your commanding officer, now I may not agree with captain Ramius' decision in the matter but you're not helping anyone by doing this, I order you stop what your doing at once, look we can talk this over with the captain and-" Hackett then found himself cut off by Nathan who although still sounded stoic there was a hint of remorse in his tone "Sir consider this my resignation from the Black Skulls" he stated.

This almost floored every single Black Skulls member that was on the bridge at the time in disbelief. The last person that any of them thought would resign from the Black Skulls would be Nathan. After all they were the closest thing to family that the boy had. Before Hackett could give a response Nathan cut communications with the Archangel.

Walter who had was still monitoring the ship's systems said "Lieutenant Badgiruel, the Skygrasper is uh, just about ready to launch" he said "Seal off the hanger bay, close the launch bay doors now!" she ordered. Walter then started to relentlessly type commands into the console's keyboard but to no avail. The computer wasn't responding to any of his commands "I can't!" he exclaimed "I've been locked out of the system somehow!" he said while the Skygrasper on the screen flew out of the Archangel's launch bay.

For an brief second Natarle considered telling Murrue that they still had weapons control and they could shoot down the AWOL pilots but almost immediately after she started to consider it, Natarle's mind soon shot the idea down. The by-the-book lieutenant knew that the captain would never go for it. Instead they'd probably end up having to seek an injunction with the Orb government after this mess was all over in order to put them on trial for theft of military property.

"Captain what are your orders?" asked Natarle looking directly at the woman. Murrue seemed to ponder their options for a moment. On one hand they could shoot down the leaving craft with their guns but then they would kill two valuable pilots and Murrue wasn't one to kill allies, even when they did something as foolish as this. On the other they could just let them go and seek an injunction from the Orb government after they reached JOSH-A. Less than a minute later Murrue let the crew know of her decision "We can't waste time going after a pair of rogue pilots right now, we're going to continue to Alaska and then we'll talk to the Orb government about handing the two AWOL pilots over to an Earth Forces military tribunal"

Everyone on the bridge, even Natarle who was practically notorious for disagreeing with the captain, seemed to have accepted this course of action and quickly returned to their assigned duties

Up in the skies away from the Archangel, Flay let out a sigh of relief. For a moment she had thought that the Archangel was going to open fire on them. After all they were stealing military property and going AWOL in the middle of a mission so it was very possible that they would be shot in the back while they were running. "Why aren't they shooting at us? I mean we just committed desertion" Flay wondered aloud.

Nathan rolled his eyes at the question "It's not captain Ramius' style, besides if she did order us shot down she'd probably end up having to deal with a mutiny. If she really feels the need to have us arrested for stealing Atlantic Federation property, she'll probably just request that Orb hand us over after they arrive at Alaska but that's about it" he assured.

Flay looked out the cockpit's window and saw the vast expanse of ocean surrounding them "So where are we going now?" she asked. Nathan flipped a couple of switches on the dashboard "We're heading for the site of the last battle, we're only about a couple of hours away so we should be able to join up with the Orb rescue teams that are in the area" he said as the Skygrasper continued to gain distance away from the Archangel.

'Just hang on Kira I'll be there soon' thought Flay.

To be continued.

A/N: I know it's short but hey it's still better than nothing