Phase 4: An Eye For An Eye

Cagalli was sitting on a rock at the back end of the cave, while the ZAFT pilot was trying to find them help from his machine. She thought of how her Father tried to protect her from situations like this. Her mind drifted off to the last time she saw him.

Cagalli flew up in her bed. She was dreaming about being in the shuttle again. It was quite a scary situation to be in. She thought being back home would calm her down yet she felt more unsettled than ever. She had heard rumours that Orb was helping build new mobile suits for the Earth Alliance Federation, at the Morgenroete facility up in Heliopolis. She approached her father about it, but he kept changing the subject. She knew that if no one was going to give her answers, she would have to go up to Heliopolis and see for herself.

Cagalli looked at the clock and saw that it was dinner time, she had napped for longer than expected. She started making her way down the stairs to the dining hall and started to wonder what happened to the boy that helped her escape in Heliopolis. She hoped he made it to the other shelters and that he was still alive. Cagalli found her father already sitting at the dinner table and quietly joined him. They were now sitting at the table in silence as they ate their meal.

"You've barely spoken to me since you've returned home," Cagalli's Father said after a while.

"I saw them Father! I saw the new machines that were built for the Earth Forces! Did you know about it? Did you have something to do with this? What about our country's ideals that you preached to me my whole life?"

"It doesn't matter if I knew about it or not. I am Chief Representative, so I will take responsibility for anything that happens in my nation and for the decisions made by the people that work under me." Uzumi said heavy heartedly.

Cagalli couldn't believe what she was hearing. Her heart was sinking into her stomach all over again as her father wouldn't give her a straight no. She used to believe everything her father did and said. But now she feels like she needed to see things with her own eyes before believing it.

"Please don't be angry with me about this, but I'm assigning you a personal bodyguard to stay at your side at all times." The grey haired man informed her.

"What?!" Cagalli was stunned at the turn their conversation took.

"You have no idea how worried I was when you ran away. I suspected that you had gone to Heliopolis, which put me somewhat at ease. But you still scared me."

"I can handle myself. Stop treating me like a child!" Cagalli yelled.

"You are a child! You are my child. You could get killed! Other countries are experiencing a war at the moment, you aren't as safe there as you are here. You have no idea what goes on in the world, Cagalli!"

"Then I'll just have to go and see for myself!" Cagalli said angrily as she stood. "You accuse me of not knowing what's going on in one breath, and then tell me I'm not allowed to go anywhere with the next." Cagalli and her Father often had squabbles such as these especially since she entered her teenage years.

"I think it's time you start settling down and start leaving your childish streaks behind you. Representative Seiran has approached me about moving up your wedding with Yuna, to your seventeenth birthday. The fact that he is older means he may be able to guide you, and after this stunt of yours, I am considering it."

Cagalli knew of her arrangement with Yuna Roma Seiran as she had to marry someone from one of the noble families. She would have been allowed to choose any noble son, but Unato Ema Seiran was the only one that had a son that was close in age to Cagalli and that was not yet spoken for. She always hoped and prayed that a loop hole would come or that her father would change his mind. "What?! How is that gonna solve anything? And besides the guy's a pig!" Cagalli was livid.

"I tried putting it off for as long as possible, as I knew you did not favour him; but now you've left me no choice."

"I can't take it in this place anymore! I'm not cut out to be a princess, I hate it. I'm not a ruler. I want to be normal. I hate dresses and high heels and makeup. I don't want to get married ever and if I ever do, it definitely won't be to Yuna!"

"Cagalli!" The older man called as Cagalli stormed off to her room. She was beyond furious with her father.

"Lady Cagalli!" Cagalli heard a man call to her from down the hall as she entered her room.

"Colonel Kisaka? What are doing here so late?" Cagalli asked standing in the door way of her bedroom.

"I am to be your bodyguard," Kisaka saluted.

"Urgh!" Cagalli growled in frustration and slammed the door in the Colonel's face.

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"Here," the ZAFT pilot interrupted Cagalli's thoughts. "Huh?" Cagalli looked up at his hand as it slowly offered her a cup with a bag inside of it. She had a look of confusion on her face.

"Well looks like the airwaves are jammed, so there's a good possibility that we're gonna have to spend the night here." Athrun informed her as he placed the cup at her feet. The girl didn't seem to want help from him; but Athrun being Athrun, he wouldn't stop offering it.

"You guys are the ones responsible for making a mess of the airwaves," Cagalli stated flatly.

Athrun just looked at her for a second. She was kinda rude and seemed to like to pick fights. Athrun turned and walked to the other side of the cave. "We only did that because of the Earth Forces nuclear attack," he said as he picked up his cup and took a sip. He was now standing near the opening, leaning against the wall.

Cagalli didn't know how to respond. It was a terrible tragedy when the Junius-Seven Plant was destroyed and for such a frivolous reason.

There was only minor conflict between naturals and coordinators at first. Naturals had created coordinators by trying to alter the genes of their children while in the whom. These children however, also came out healthier and more intelligent. Thus the naturals became envious of the coordinators, and the coordinators began looking down on naturals.

The day came when the naturals asked the coordinators in the Plants to share their advanced technologies and the coordinators refused them. Thus the naturals took it upon themselves to blow up one of the Plants with nuclear missiles. This was when it turned into a full scale war.

It had been a year since the tragedy and both sides agreed to no longer use nuclear missiles. To ensure that the naturals would keep to their word, the coordinators created nuclear-jammer technology and fired it deep below the Earth's surface.

Cagalli noticed the cup next to her feet. Is it even okay for him to be sharing ZAFT rations with me? Why is he feeding me, anyway? Is it even okay for me to accept it? Can I trust ZAFT's food or their pilot?Athrun wanted to change the subject as it brought him too much heart ache and seemed to kill their conversation. "It may be ZAFT rations, but it's better than nothing."

Cagalli looked at him stunned, it was almost as if he'd heard her thoughts.

"Yours got washed away right?" Athrun surmised as her aircraft was caught between rocks in the water.

Cagalli didn't have to answer him as he'd already figured it out. She blushed as her stomach began to grumble so loud that she was sure he could hear it from across the cave.

Athrun smiled as he saw the feisty blonde pick the packet up, and made like he didn't hear her stomach trying to eat itself. At least she was finally accepting his help. She seemed to be stubborn and like she would rather die than except help from someone, or be friendly with an enemy. He took a sip from his cup as he looked over at the Aegis.

Cagalli ate her rations in uncomfortable silence. She looked up at the pilot every now and then who was mostly lost in thought or looking at his machine. She did catch him looking at her once or twice and they'd both just look away from each other uncomfortably.

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Athrun threw more wood on the fire and returned to his seat on the opposite side of the cave.

"Hey, what's going on? Shouldn't I still be tied up?" Cagalli asked her peculiarly kind capturer.

"Huh?"

"I could wait until you let your guard down and take your gun, and then the tables would be turned." Cagalli pointed out.

"What?" Athrun asked confused.

"You'd be the biggest laughingstock in the ZAFT army." A few seconds passed as Cagalli's statement met silence. All of a sudden the soldier burst out into a fit of laughter. "Why are you laughing?" Cagalli asked annoyed. It was as if she was a joke to him and wasn't seen as a threat. She was definitely someone that wanted to be taken seriously.

" 'Cause of you! You just won't give it up, will ya?" She's already lost the battle and yet she's still trying to fight. Not only that, she's actually telling me her plan. Is she crazy? Athrun sighed. "If you go for my gun, I'll have no choice but to kill you, so don't even think about it," he said entertaining her ridiculous statement. "Did you survive Heliopolis just for that? Don't push your luck."

"Hmm, I never thought a ZAFT soldier would worry about my life," Cagalli didn't mean it as snarky as it came out.

Athrun found it unfair how it seemed like she was blaming him for the decisions that ZAFT and the Plants made and how she wasn't even giving him a chance as a individual. "You know we... we never dreamed that would happen to Heliopolis. It wasn't supposed to go down that way at all." He said looking out of the cave at the Aegis. "Our only mission was to take the Earth Forces mobile suits that Morgenroete developed. Nothing else was supposed to happen," the young coordinator said sincerely. He figured he's already breaking so many rules here by not killing her and not tying her up, that he may as well break one more and explain to her what happened. How would anyone find out?

"But it did happen! The fact is that you guys attacked and destroyed that colony!"

Again Athrun's sincerity was met with anger from the accusing blonde, he was growing tired of this. "It's also a fact that Orb declared itself neutral and then built those things at Heliopolis!"

Cagalli was surprised by this. Very few people stood up to her; and he had spoken to her so kindly and politely up until this point, she must really be making him mad. She could understand what he was saying though, as it was the same way she felt when she found out. Except it was a bigger and more personal betrayal on her end.

"We're only fighting to protect the Plants, our homes!" Athrun defended. "So we can't just look away when they're building those machines!"

"It's the same thing for us! We're only fighting because you guys came and brutally attacked the Earth!"

They were just staring at each other now, each with fire burning in their eyes, as they both truly believed in what their side was fighting for.

Athrun was the first to look away. He broke the silence when he sadly stated, "My mother was on Junius-Seven." He was slightly surprised at himself for confiding in her about this. The only other person he told was Kira, of course Lacus knew because their fathers were on the council together. He hadn't even told his friends on his team yet; despite the fact that, that was the whole reason why he joined the military.

Cagalli gasped, How terrible. She felt the urge to hug him. She could understand a bit more of where he was coming from now. She could also now understand why such a soft natured person would become a soldier. Her mother died when she was very young. She was too young to remember the loss or even remember much of her mother. It hurt her father too much to talk about her so they just pretended like she never existed. Although she did not realize it herself, there was no denying that growing up without a mother affected Cagalli and put a strain on her relationship with her father.

Athrun began replaying the explosion in his head. "It was only an agricultural Plant. Innocent people were obliterated in an instant, even children! Did you expect we'd do nothing?" He asked wondering if she'd ever thought about what it was like for them on their side of the war.

Cagalli was determined to do the same and she didn't want him to know that he was tugging at her heart strings a few seconds ago. "A lot of my friends died too, all because of your attacks." She said remembering her time in the desert and thinking about her friend Ahmed, that got killed in front of her by the ZAFT Occupation Forces.

Cagalli and Kisaka had been living in the desert the past few months. Cagalli and a boy named Ahmed had grown close, but she began suspecting that he felt more for her than she felt for him. Cagalli just wasn't one for relationships. More often than not, she didn't get along with the opposite sex, or anyone for that matter. Cagalli's suspicions had been solidified after Ahmed's death, when his mother gave Cagalli a massive gemstone and said that Ahmed was planning on carving it and giving it to her someday.

"Let's drop it," Athrun said as he began laying down. "No matter how much we argue about it, nothing's ever gonna change." He propped his head up on his left palm.

Surprisingly enough Cagalli listened to him. She decided to get up and go outside for some fresh air, so that she can calm down and not argue with him any further. If she was being honest, she wasn't still as angry or against him as she was pretending to be. She wasn't sure why she was still forcing herself to hate him.

Athrun watched the natural girl as she walked past him and out of the cave.

Cagalli looked up at his mobile suit's green eyes as she remembered how she felt when she had seen it that day in Heliopolis. "I knew it. The Earth Forces prototype mobile weapons. Father I knew you betrayed us all!" Her words echoed in her head.

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