Super Robot Taisen S

oooooooooo

Chapter 35 - Butterfly Wings

Almost everyone on the bridges of the Archangel, the Idaho, the HOME and the Nadesico, already shaken by the destruction of the Montgomery, were stunned into an indignated silence when Natarle gave the ultimatum to the enemy forces... "I repeat, we have Lacus Clyne onboard our ship." Natarle repeated, showing the pink-haired idol singer onscreen in order to confirm that she was not bluffing. "We have rescued her from her escape pod, as was our duty to do... but we cannot guarantee for her safety should ZAFT and their allies continue the attack!"

"What are you trying to do, Lieutenant Badgiruel?" Vega protested, clear anger shining in her eyes even through the lenses of her mask. "You are threatening a civilian onboard this ship?"

"Please, Lt. Badgiruel, we would ask you to stand down and cease any hostile action towards Ms. Clyne!" Yurika tried to convince the black-haired XO to release the hostage. For her part, Lacus was keeping her cool admirably, even though she was clearly rather shocked herself... while, a little farther away, Sai, Misha and Jessica were trying to get a catatonic Flay back to her feet and escort her out of the bridge.

"Captain Misumaru, we are faced with a situation that calls for extreme measures." Natarle exclaimed. "Please do not interfere."

"Is this the way of doing things of the Earth Union? Threatening an innocent civilian?" an indignated Megumi Reinald exclaimed, but was just as readily ignored by Natarle.

Outside, most of the fighters had ceased their battles, and the team of redcoats led by Rau was the first one to stop fighting. Athrun grit his teeth in anger, seeing Lacus being held as an hostage... and after fuming for a few seconds, he turned to the still-shocked Kira in anger. "Do you see that now, Kira? These are the people you are fighting for! How do you justify standing alongside the cowards of the Earth Union?" he asked, even though he was not exactly expecting an answer from his best friend turned enemy. Kira, for his part, was sitting in his cockpit, his eyes widened in an expression of grief and anger, tears streaming down his face...

And Sasuke was not exactly happy with this situation himself. The young man let out an enraged yell and slammed his fist on his console, only managing to numb his hand with a dull pain that did not contribute to a better mood. "Dammit! So there was Lacus... and we had no intel on this!" he exclaimed. "Those Earth Union bastards... I'd like to go there and punch that bitch dead!"

"Sasuke, calm down!" Rin Canaver shook him out of his funk. "I am just as pissed as you are about this whole thing! But if we attack recklessly, Ms. Clyne's life will be forfeit!"

"I'm afraid the legged ship has won this one..." Miyuki answered grimly, taking a look at her radar. Miguel's orange GINN was starting to retreat, as well as his wingmen... but Rusty's GINN was not on the radar. "We have taken some considerable losses too. I'm afraid the only thing we can do right now is retreat and regroup."

"Dammit..." Sasuke growled angrily. "Sorry, Lacus... I couldn't do anything..."

oooooooooo

The Excellence-S' claw arm delivered a powerful roundhouse blow to Meio's Falguen, managing to lightly nick it on the shoulder before having to retreat under an heavy hail of gunfire from the blue Metal Armor's machine gun... and the Giganos ace known as the Blue Hawk snorted in disgust at the message that Natarle had just delivered. "Hmph... there you go, Terran girl. These are the people you foolishly trust. It should be clear now that we have the moral high ground. Terrans are barbarians that need our enlightened guidance to raise themselves from their corruption and moral bankrupcy. This act that your commanding officer has perpetrated is a confirmation of that." he commented haughily.

Fiona grit her teeth in anger, disgusted at Natarle's action... but she was not going to just shut up and listen to Meio disparaging her friends. "So you're going to condemn all Earthlings because of the actions of a few ones?" she fired back. "I don't approve of this either... and I'm going to give that Lieutenant a piece of my mind as soon as I can... but that doesn't make what you're doing right!"

"Hmph." Meio sneered, before backing away and recalling his wingmen of the Practice Team. "Karl, Werner, Dan. All units retreat. We cannot risk any harm to come to Lacus Clyne. We'll get a new chance to recover the Dragonars later."

"What?" Karl exclaimed, as he barely blockd a swing from the D-1's double-bladed laser sword. "We... we cannot retreat just now, Captain Plato! Not ow that we have the Dragonars on the ropes... Argh!"

A powerful kick to his Gelf's midsection from the D-1 quickly shut Karl up, and he was forced to back down while the other Gelfs retreated. "I will not repeat that. We are pulling out for the moment. The Terrans have bought themselves some time for now... but we will soon be back in full force. All units, get back to the Copernico."

"Yeah, that's the ticket! Get the Hell out of here, Giganos bastards!" Kain yelled at him, still furious for having failed to protect the Montgomery. "And don't show you faces around here ever again!"

"This is not the moment to get cocky, Kain!" Light countered. "It's not like our attempt to stop them was a roaring success, either... we did lose the Montgomery, and we only managed to beat them back because Lt. Natarle used Ms. Lacus as a bargaining chip!"

"You think I don't know that? I'm mad as Hell!" Kain exclaimed in an angry voice. "Dammit... if only we weren't tied down with that Hawk bastard and his flunkies, we might have been able to help! What are we going to tell Flay now?"

"I have no idea..." Tapp said with a resigned sigh. "I sure hope she won't take it out on Kira, though I guess I shouldn't put my hopes up at this point..."

Fiona nodded grimly, as she watched her comrades and their opponents disengage, and the remaining enemies returned to the ships they had flown out of... The battle had been short but brutal, and it certainly hadn't gobe the way they had hoped...

oooooooooo

With a loud clash and a shower of multicolored sparks, Glemmy's beam saber met Judau's when the Bawoo and the ZZ Gundam made a lunge towards each other... then, with a frown, the young commander disengaged his opponent, and motioned for Ple to follow him back to the Mindora.

"Hmph... looks like our allies couldn't go on, now that they know they have one of their allies onboard the "legged ship". Oh, well, no matter... Our minimum objectives have been met." he stated to himself. "With the fighting data I've obtained, staying furtherwould be pointless. Elpeo, we're going back to the Mindora. Stay close to me!"

"Hold on a second, you!" Judau tried to hold him back. "What's the deal with you and that little girl? What are you trying to do with her?"

"That's something that does not concern you." Glemmy answered, seemingly uninterested in clarifying things for the young pilot. "If by some chance we happen to meet again, maybe you will be able to have more answers. But... if you ask me, you should be on your way and not get involved with things that you have no business with."

In contrast with Glemmy's dismissal of Judau, Ple waved goodbye to the young boy and followed her leader, even with her Quebeley Mk-2 now lacking legs. She seemed to have paid no heed to the rest of the battle, or to the civilian ship that had been destroyed not too far away. "It was nice meeting you, big brother Judau!" she exclaimed, her Quebeley Mk-2 flashing a victory sign with its fingers as she went away.

Judau let out a breath of relief. "Man... that was unexpected..." he murmured to himself, before receiving a call on his comm device, coming from the Zeta Gundam.

"Judau! Judau, are you okay?" Roux's voice called out to him over the communicator. "What kind of Mobile Suit was that last one? I have never seen such a model before..."

"I don't know that myself, but he was a pretty good pilot..." Judau answered. "I think he could have been trouble if he had stayed to fight. But now... heck, I think we have some trouble on our hands. Those guys blew up our allies..."

"Afraid so... we are running a scan on the remains of the Montgomery, but I'm afraid there is no one left to save..." Lowe answered from his Astray Red Frame, who had shorty before disengaged Shiho's CGUE Deep Arms, after a fierce battle that had left the red Mobile Suit somewhat battered. "Dammit... if only I wasn't so distracted with all those enemies... I might have done something to save the Montgomery!"

Judau sighed and shook his head. "Well, I could say the same myself. That strange girl in that Mobile Suit gave me one Hell of a fight..." he said, doing a quick check to see if anything was the matter with the ZZ. After seeing that all systems were working correctly, the young man nodded and turned back to his friends, just as Elle and Emma's Gundam Mk-2s, Beecher's Hyaku Shiki and Fa's Methuss rejoined him and Roux.

"Do you think that girl could be an artificial Newtype or something?" Roux asked, to which Judau frowned a little, having never heard that term before.

"What do you mean, an artificial Newtype? I don't think there is a way to make someone into a Newtype..." he answered.

Elle intervened in the conversation. "Actually, I did hear that there is a way. Back during the recent Gryps War, the Titans fielded a few people whose minds had been tampered with, using drugs and brainwashing, in order to forcibly turn them into Newtypes." the blonde answered.

Judau frowned at the news. He didn't know much about Newtypes, even with the fact that he had discovered himself to be one only a few days before, but it sure sounded like forcibly turning a person into a Newtype was a terrible thing to do... "Well, that sure means those Neo Zeon guys are scoundrels... but we have more urgent things to worry about." he said, quickly opening a comm channel to the Argama and talking to captain Bright Noa about the latest developments. "ZZ Gundam to Argama. ZZ Gundam to Argama. This is pilot Judau Ashta speaking. I'm afraid we failed to protect the civilian ship. They were blown to smithreens by our enemies, and we were unable to even get close."

He could hear a grunt of frustration and disappointment from Bright on the other side of the conversation, just a moment before Bright's face appeared on his comm screen, with Leina popping up close to him, eyeing her brother with curiosity and worry. "This is certainly bad news... George Allster was an important figure in Earth Union politics, and his unfortunate demise will be a blow to them all." Bright stated. Though he held no special like or dislike for the man - he did hear that he had a daughter he had raised alone after the death of his wife, and as a family man, his thoughts went to the unfortunate girl he had left an orphan - he certainly could feel pity for such an unenviable demise. "But for the moment, we really have no time to mourn. While I do not agree with the way the Archangel's second in command did it, we surely have gotten ourselves a brief respite, which we need to take advantage of as much as we can."

"ZAFT sure won't just lay down and swallow this. Lt. Natarle has just threatened the daughter of one of the most prominent political figures in the PLANTs..." Banjou went on, his Daitarn-3 floating close to the ZZ Gundam. Leina, while keeping silent, was herself quite worried at the news. That would mean that the next attack was going to be even more carefully planned, and this time, ZAFT and their allies could very well get the better of them... "Well, for now, it won't do to stay here and worry. We need to get away from this place as soon as we can."

Bright nodded. "I agree. We are at risk every moment we stay." he said, nodding to the young pilot of Daitarn-3. "I will contact the Archangel and the rest of the allied ships. With your permission, we will accompany you to Earth, where at least we have the advantage of fighting on our home turf. However, we still won't be out of the woods with that."

"Hopefully, the captains will be okay with that... we could use some allies ourselves to deal with the many opponents we are facing..." Judau commented.

"I don't think that will be a problem." Banjou went on. "We have already contacted Captain Misumaru, and she said she is perfectly fine with you joining our team. As for Lt. Murrue and Lt. Badgiruel, well... I can see Lt. Badgiruel having a few problems at first... you know, she's the kinds person who always does things by the book and has little patience for deviations from the norm... but in the end, I think she'll have no problem with it."

"That's good to know..." Judau took a sigh of relief. The battle with Ple and Glemmy had taken more out of him than he had expected... "We need all the allies we can get..."

"In that case, I'll take it upon myself to contact the Archangel, the Nadesico... and the rest of our allies' ships." Bright answered with a nod. "Please proceed in having all units retreat from the battlefield."

Onboard the Nadesico...

Ryoko Subaru sighed in anger, running a hand through her short, bright green hair. The shame and the frustration at not having been able to protect the civilian ship that had been entrusted to them was gnawing at her mind even now, and she was mildly glad that even Hikaru and Izumi seemed to have sobered down right now, and were not going to bother her with their idle chattering. Fiona dismounted from the Excellence-S and took off her helmet, using a small handkerchief to wipe the sweat off her forehead, then took a good look at the Aestivalis belonging to Akito and Gai. The former was still sitting in his cockpit in an ill manner, brooding angrily. Once again, he had been unable to save someone, being forced to stay there and look as the people onboard the Montgomery were being blown up by the enemy forces.

"Dammit... why did it have to end this way?" he murmured to himself, his hands still gripping the controls of his Aestivalis. "Why does it always end up this way? Why, dammit? I... I never asked for this! I'm no hero, I'm just a cook who wanted to live his life in peace... I wanted nothing to do with this war and the military! Why is everyone... always so eager to fight?"

"Akito! Hey, Akito! Are you okay?" came Fiona's voice from outside his Aestivalis.

"Hey, Tenkawa! What are you doing still there?" Gai joined the young woman in calling out to Akito.

The Aestivalis' hatch opened up after a moment, and a dejected Akito Tenkawa walked out, sighing in anger. "I'm here... please, just let me be. I don't wanna be disturbed." he said, walking right past the redhead andhis friend, and beginning to walk towards his quarters. "Dammit, if only I had been faster, or more skilled, I would have saved that ship... and all those who were onboard! Why did they have to die, huh? What harm had they done to anyone? Maybe that Allster guy was a jerk, I have no problem admitting it, but he still didn't deserve to go out like that!"

"Akito... Akito, please, this is not the moment to get angry about this!" Fiona tried to reason with the younger man, seeing that he was getting closer to having a breakdown. "I... I could say the same about me, but we were all locked in battle with the enemy, and we couldn't be everywhere! I wish I could have saved the Montgomery as well, but there was only so much we could do!"

Gai grit his teeth and clenched his fist. "Y'know, Akito, I understand what you're going through... I wish I could go there and take out those bastards in revenge for killing our allies!" he exclaimed angrily. "I hate it when our people die, and I wish I could do something to take revenge... but right now, we have to focus on getting the Archangel and the rest of the ships on Earth in one piece! Then we will get back to ZAFT and their allies, and we're going to kick their asses and avenge everyone! This is no time to be moping and feeling sorry for ourselves! We have friends who need our help!"

"Yeah, fat lot of good our help did to the people of the Montgomery!" Akito shouted, perhaps more forcefully than he intended. "It's like everyone is only thinking of fighting and destroying the enemy! Didn't we start out trying to save the people of Mars? Weren't we trying to do the right thing instead of getting involved in someone else's fight? Ever since we came back from Mars, we did nothing but getting involved in things that were not our business!"

"But we did save the people on Mars!" Gai countered. "Or have you forgotten that without our help, those people would have died or become Meganoids?"

"He's right, you know!" Fiona exclaimed. "You can't just dismiss that as if it was nothing!"

Akito grit his teeth and looked down, trying to think of a comeback that never came. No matter how much he tried to deny it, both Fiona and his best friend had a point... but still, he could not stand how easily and casually innocent people became victims in the fighting... After standing there for a few moments, he jumped up in surprise when Banjou gently but firmly placed a hand on his shoulder, and he turned around to meet the steely gaze of the young billionarie.

"Akito, I understand what your problem is. I wish I could have done more for Mr. Allster and the rest of the crew... and I still feel angry for not being able to save him despite everything... but standing here and moping about it won't solve anything. We have to concentrate on saving what we have left... and the only way to do that, right now, is to fight back whenever they attack us!" he stated, nodding in grim determination. "We have to do whatever it takes to get out of this alive!"

Akito shook his head. "It's only fighting results in... what good will come out of this endless fighting? It only ends up in death and suffering!"

"Not necessarily. We can save our friends, and save thousands of innocent people who would be doomed without us!" Fiona exclaimed. "I... I have convinced myself of this: we may not like the fact that we're here and have to fight and kill... but this is the place where we can make a difference, and I want to take this chance. For now... we can do nothing but mourn for the deaths of Mr. Allster and his crew... but we have managed to at least save ourselves."

"Even though I don't like how Lt. Natarle did that at all..." she added to herself.

"And next time ZAFT and their allies show up, we give 'em the what for and save ourselves and our friends once again!" Gai exclaimed. "If we give up now, more innocent people will die! And isn't this what a hero is fighting to avoid?"

Akito stood silent once again, but he was obviously thinking long and hard about what his friends were telling him. He had never started out with the intention of being a hero, so Gai telling him about what heroes were supposed to do fell rather flat on him... but the implications of the rest of their arguments were breaking through his funk. "I... I need some time to think about that." he finally stated. "I don't know how to deal with this still, but... I guess I need some time to myself, that's all."

With that, Akito walked away, past Ryoko and her friends who were sitting on a nearby bench, trying to cool off. The green-haired leader of the Aestivalis team turned her glance at him... and for a moment, she was tempted to follow him and try to talk to him about what had happened. But the angry and sad look in Akito's eyes soon made her understand that it was not a good moment to try and stay with him. So, she simply sat down on the bench again, inwardly thanking that she was glad Izumi and Hikaru still seemed to be too downcast to tease her about that.

"Dammit, guess I lost another chance to be with him, after all..." Ryoko thought to herself, feeling angry at herself for being so selfish when Akito was in his own personal torment...

In the Archangel's hangar, things weren't going much better... and in fact, they were even worse. Kira, Mu, the Dragonar team, Ginga and Hokuto had just dismounted their robots... and the distraught Coordinator boy was walking away from the rest of the team, ignoring Kain's attempts to stop him and tell him that it wasn't his fault. The events of the past days had caught up with Kira in the worst way possible... and as he walked towards the ends of the hangar, his eyes blank and his helmet held in his hands, Kira felt more like a machine than a legitimate human being...

"Wait, Kira! Please, wait up!" Tapp called to him again, holding his shoulder... but Kira simply failed to acknowledge him and kept on his way...

And unfortunately, it wasn't over yet. As Kira got closer to the hangar doors, he heard a few female voices coming from outside, all of them sounding either frantic, or pleading, or both... and before he could think of who it could be, a frantic, wild-eyed Flay Allster burst into the hangar, with Misha, Jessica, Linda and Rose pleading with her to calm down.

"KIRA!" Flay screamed, running up to the young Coordinator and roghly grabbing his pilot suit, shaking it with all the strength her lithe body could muster. "What were you doing out there? You... you had promised to save my father! You said you would have done your best to save him! So why... why is my father... my father..."

Kira remained unresponsive and silent in front of Flay's sorrowful outburst, knowing that no words he could say would make it better for Flay... and in fact, he felt so empty inside that he couldn't think of anything, if not his dismal failure. He had let Flay down... he had let everyone down... what good was he at the controls of that G-Weapon if he couldn't even help his friends?

"Flay... please calm down..." Rose stuttered, trying to convince the redhead to stand down even though, deep down, she could understand her outburst. "This is really not the time to..."

Flay shrugged off the hand Rose had placed on her shoulder, and turned back to unleashing her pain and sorrow upon Kira. "It's because they were Coordinators, right? You didn't fight seriously against them because they were Coordinators, right? That's it, isn't it? This is why you didn't save my father!" she screamed, almost going into Kira's face. Again, Kira remained catatonic and refused to answer... "ANSWER ME!" Flay screamed again.

"Flay! Please, now you're going overboard..." Jessica tried to reason with the distraught redhead, but Flay didn't even acknowledge her and continued wailing desperately upon Kira, feebly punching him on the shoulders and chest.

"It's all your fault! YOUR FAULT! You Coordinators are all the same!" she shrieked. "It's your fault that my father died! You... you... you freaks of nature! You should never have been..."

*SLAP!*

Flay's furious outburst was roughly interrupted when Kain walked up to her and Kira, pushed her away from the purple-eyed Coordinator, and then slapped her in the face with his right hand! The hangar fell into complete silence as the stunned Flay's head snapped back for a moment and the girl reeled from the force of the blow. Staring at the D-1 pilot with wide, teary eyes, Flay placed her hand to her hurting cheek, and stood there gawking, as if she could not comprehend what had just happened. The reactions of pretty much everyone involved was similiarly shocked and disbelieving... and the uncomfortable silence lasted for a few moments more before Kain spoke up, saying what he had had in mind for quite some time now!

"SHUT UP! Just... SHUT UP!" the young ex-Heliopolis resident shouted angrily. "You think you know everything about Kira, huh? You think he didn't fight as hard as he could to save your father? He was out there, risking his life for us like my friends and I just did! He did all he could to save your father! And you just stand here, accusing him of not doing his best? Just because he's a Coordinator? You will despise a person just because their genes are a little different from yours?"

Still reeling from the earlier outburst, nobody dared to say anything, and Kain regained his breath before starting to talk again. "For your information... Kira was out there doing his best, like everyone else!" he continued. "He didn't even want to pilot that damn machine! And newsflash, neither did we! If it wasn't for those Giganos assholes, my friends and I would be chillin' out there and spending our time goofing off and doing your everyday student stuff! Tapp, Light and I never asked to be dragged in this fucking mess! But we are here, and we have to keep fighting to keep ourselves and everyone alive! AND THAT INCLUDES YOU, in case it slipped your mind!"

Flay remainedstanding in place for a few moments... and then promptly broke down crying and ran away from the hangar, with Misha and Jessica trying to go after her and not leave her alone. The hangar fell into an unconfortable silence, every single one of them either too shocked, or drained, or both to say anything.

"Well... now that is something you don't see every day." Tapp finally said, placing his hand on a worried Rose's shoulder. "I mean... damn, I don't think I ever saw Kain so pissed in my whole life..."

oooooooooo

The Archangel and the rest of the ships had finished doing damage reports and recovering their units... and onboard the "legged ship", as the new Earth Union battleship was known among ZAFT soldiers, Captain Murrue Ramius was finishing giving a resume of the situation to their unexpected allies, the crew of the Argama. Though it ultimately had failed to save the Montgomery, the intervention of the White Base class battleship that had championed the AEUG during the Gryps Wars had kept the situation from spiralling out of control, and the Mobile Suits it had fielded had cut themselves quite an impressive showing.

"We understand your difficulties, Captain Ramius, and we must say we're quite impressed you managed to hold your own so admirably even with the odds stacked against you so much." Bright was saying, his comm screen also showing some of the pilots that had arrived as reinforcements in the battle. Tall, serious-looking Lt. Emma Sheen was standing along with the young trainee pilots, Judau Ashta, Elle Vianno and Beecher Oleg, as well as more experienced AEUG members like Fa Yuiri and Roux Louka. "We can safely say that we are in very much the same boat. You can count on our support for as long as it takes to reach back Earth."

"That will certainly help a lot, Captain Bright Noah." Murrue answered. "And I have to praise the skills of your pilots. Especially the pilot of that new Gundam model, the ZZ. It was impressive that he managed to hold off an enemy unit modeled after the dreaded Quebeley."

"Oh, that one? That's one of my newest recruits, Judau Ashta." Bright answered, casting a side glance to the black-haired teen. Still dressed in his piloting suit, Judau grinned at the "camera", and Murrue, despite the rather sullen mood everyone on the Archangel was in, managed to wave back at the young man. "We have been understaffed ever since this crisis began, and much to our displeasure, we have been forced to recruit people from the farther colonies. Judau and his friends come from Shangri-La, one of the oldest space colonies that has now been turned into a junkyard."

"You could say that I'm working for the captain here to bring food on the table." Judau commented. "And to afford a schooling for my sister, while I'm here."

Murrue nodded. "That is satisfactory. We thank you for your assistance, Captain Bright..." she began to say, before several shouting voices arrived from a nearby terminal, close to which Natarle was engaged in another conversation with members of the crew of the other battleships... some of which had not exactly taken kindly to the stunt Natarle had pulled with Lacus only a few moments ago. "Er... Unfortunately, I have to cut this conversation short, as there are some... rather urgent, I dare say... issues with one of my closest subordinates, whose initiative during the latest battle has not been favorably met."

"Yeah, well, she threatened a civilian." Beecher snarked from behind. "Kinda hard to look at that and say, 'Yeah, that's cool'." That earned him a small elbow butt from Elle for that being the wrong moment to crack jokes.

"Oh, come *on*, Beecher!" the blonde protested.

Bright blinked twice, and when he raised the volume to hear better, he realized that, in fact, there seemed to be a bit of an uproar about certain decisions from Natarle, especially considering that her acts were in violation of international norm. "I understand your point, Lt. Ramius. The Argama will remain in close proximities and accompany your small fleet until you have safely landed on Earth. Let's keep radio silence for as long as we can, in order to minimize chances of being tracked by the enemy. I'll talk to you later."

"Later, Captain Noah." Murrue finished, both captains, giving each other a salute before the communication ended. With a small sigh, Murrues turned to the position beside hers, where Natarle and Vega were holding a rather animated discussion, with the mask-wearing woman expressing a polite but firm condemnation of Natarle's earlier actions.

"I understand that we were in a difficult situation, Lt. Natarle." Vega was saying to the black-haired XO. "I still can't feel comfortable in the fact that we used a civilian girl we rescued from an horrible death in outer space as a bargaining chip. And not just a civilian girl - we are talking about the daughter of Siegel Clyne himself."

"It did buy time for us to get away from a risky battle. And we were taking losses already." Natarle calmly argued, the two women never losing confindence in their arguments. "Were we to be destroyed, all the work we did to get the Strike and the D-Weapons to safety would have been for naught. Have you not considered that?"

"Commander Vega does have a point, though. Using a civilian as an hostage is a violation of the rules of warfare." Murrue intervened, locking eyes with Natarle with a steely countenance. "And while I do understand that we are military, and we need to do what is necessary to survive, there are still lines we shouldn't cross, lest we want to become no better than common criminals. Lacus Clyne was taken onboard this ship in a rescue operation. We cannot simply decide to change her status to hostage just because it is convenient for us at the moment."

"I had no choice. I couldn't let them destroy one more of us." Natarle said, even though she didn't seem very pleased with herself. "I was acting to protect our allied ships and all those aboard. I saw no alternative."

"I understand that, Lt. Badgiruel. But still..." Murrue shook her head. "For all that I understand our situation, I cannot condone the taking of hostages. Even Capt. Misumaru and The Professor have shown signs of discontent over that. Therefore, I want to make sure that such methods will not be used again. Do I make myself clear?"

Natarle kept a cold stare, and finally saluted. "I... understand, Captain." she said, still disagreeing with Murrue, but understanding her point. She was definitely not looking forward to dealing with Yurika and Bright's displeased comments about her stunt...

oooooooooo

Kira Yamato sat in his quarters, feeling still completely drained and tired. It had been a terrible day, to the point where had barely acknowledged the arrival of the new Earth Union battleship joining them for the battle.

He had failed. He had failed to protect Flay's father like he had promised he would. Even with the power of the Strike at his disposal, he found himself unable to do anything to help Mr. Allster, and despite all of his best efforts, he was unable to talk Athrun out of the battle. The words of Rau Le Creuset, the ZAFT officer he had fought earlier, continued to echo in his mind, giving him continuous, painful flashbacks to the battle just concluded.

"Human life... is a rare commodity nowadays, is it not?"

With a pained groan, Kira placed his hands on his ears, attempting to drown out the voice somehow... but it wouldn't go away, serving as a stark reminder of what he and his friends had gotten into. It was a dirty, dangerous business in which life was fleeting and could be over at a moment's notice.

So engrossed he was in his grim thoughts, that he almost failed to hear someone knocking at the door of his quarters. Giving a quick look to his robotic bird Tori, as if the small robot was able to answer some of his doubts, Kira sighed and reluctantly stood up to answer, slowly walking to the door.

"Who... is it?" he asked tiredly. He himself became aware of how utterly mechanic and emotionless he sounded.

There was a moment of hesitation on the other side. "Kira? I... I'm Flay... Can I... Can I come in, please?"

Kira felt his heart skip a beat. Convinced that Flay was there to blame him some more for her father's death, and believing that he deserved that to a certain extent, the brown-haired Coordinator slowly opened the door... only to be greeted with the sight of Flay looking at him from outside, her red hair rather dishelved and her eyes reddened themselves from the crying. She seemed uneasy, and she was obviously still in shock over her loss... with an heavy heart, Kira lowered his gaze, waiting for Flay to start ripping into him, and determined to stand it to the very end...

"Kira..." she said in a somewhat hoarse voice. "I... I'm sorry..."

Kira's eyes widened in surprise, and he raised his glance to cast a bewildered look at Flay, who was still standing just outside his room, looking ill at ease. "F-Flay?"

"I... I was... out of line there... I... said a number of cruel things to you..." she murmured sadly, regret evident in her voice. "And... and when Pilot Wakaba called me out on that... I... well, I was angry at first, but then... I stopped and thought about it... and... I mean, you've been fighting and risking your life for us so much... and you've been fighting one of your friends as well..."

"You... you knew?" Kira said, stepping aside in order to let Flay come into his quarters. Flay silently nodded in thanks, and the two teenagers sat on Kira's bunk, still keeping their glances down in awkwardness and keeping silent for a short while. "Well... I guess it's not like it's this huge guarded secret. It had to come out sooner or later. Yes... the pilot of the Aegis is a good friend of mine. We... we were like brothers back when we were at Copernicus, and it was him who gave me Birdy here..."

"Birdy!" the robotic bird chirped.

Flay absent-mindedly stroke the mechanical bird's head with a finger, while Kira continued his story. "So... that's why I was trying to talk to him. I... was trying to get him to stop attacking us... and trying to protect your father at the same time..."

Flay kept her glance low, taking in all of what Kira was saying. "Yes... I understand what you are trying to say..." she murmured. "I... I had no idea how hard this would be on you... and there were many enemies to keep track of... maybe... I was just being selfish and only thinking of myself..."

"Flay, you were being worried about your father..." Kira said, gently placing a hand on Flay's shoulder. "And... well... I was probably in the best position to save him... but I couldn't see those enemies coming in time... and... I... I'm sorry, Flay... I'm sorry I let you down... I know that saying sorry won't bring your Dad back, but... but..." he couldn't finish his sentence, instead clenching his fists and gritting his teeth.

"I'm sorry as well, Kira... I-I shouldn't have exploded at you... I know that you were doing your best, and it's not your fault or anything... it's just that... I... I..." Flay began to stutter, and finally broke down in tears, throwing herself at Kira and hugging him for all she was worth. "WHY? Why did this have to happen? Why did Dad... Dad..." She couldn't get anything else out, as her words quickly degenerated into sobbing and crying into Kira's chest. Kira hugged her in an attempt to confort her, closing his eyes and feeling hot tears descending down his cheeks as well.

"I don't know, Flay... I really wish I had... an answer for that..." Kira murmured.

Nothing more was said, as the two teenagers found a little bit of support and understanding in each other's company...

oooooooooo

TO BE CONTINUED...

Boy, this turned out to be harder to write than I thought. I'm rather satisfied of how it came out, though, and I hope you guys found it satisfying as well. Flay's fate has definitely been altered - guess that timely call-out from Kain did have an effect after all! It remains to be seen how differently things will turn out, but I can say this for certain - it will be very different from canon

Next chapter, we get to see how things are going onboard the Nadesico, and we will get to see Lacus being returned to ZAFT. And next time, I will also update the series list in the introductory chapter, for what will hopefully be the last time!

See you later! Please review and let me know what you think!