Chapter 10: Propositions between friends

Summary: After confessing their love for each other, Dearka and Miriallia seal their relationship by having sexual intercourse. The morning after, the couple gets a call from a very old friend, and by friend I mean rival. What will the new couple do?

Review Replies:

Prayer Reverie- Sorry, I deleted it when I noticed that I would have to raised the rating to NC-17. With all this homework I get from college, I forgot much of the scene. Stupid 3 research papers take up my writing time!

BTW, do you perchance...go to the same message board I go to? A name you put in your email brought it up immediately. And I would have noticed your name as well, but then again the board has a ton of joke accounts.

Angel of Dreams- Now you don't have to faint. And thanks for the email.

Lomiothiel-YzaknNicol fangirl- Why yes, he does appear in the OP. Yzak appears after Athrun and the Savior Gundam.

cheerful-pinkstar- Thanks...I guess.

Now on to the story!

-The next morning-

Dearka's POV

I awoke to a light ruffling on my hair.

When I opened my eyes, I saw a smiling Milly with her hands manipulating my hair and her lovely body with the blanket as the only barrier between her and me.

"Good here," said as I pulled her closer to once again meet her lips with my own.

Last night was the best night in my life. Now only that she said that she loved me as well, but we sealed the relationship that night too.

After the kiss, I shamefully asked her a question.

"So...how was I last night?" asked as I rubbed my eyes to see her better.

"I...don't know, I don't have anyone to compare it to, but I felt great," meekly spoke Milly as she traced a circle on the bed with her finger.

"So...how was I last night?" asked Milly as she looked at me with her beautiful eyes.

"I don't know...I don't have anyone to compare to either. But I know I felt like I was in heaven," was all I could say at the moment.

"What's this? Has Dearka, the "ladies man", not once had sex with anyone?" asked Milly in a sarcastic tone.

"Oh hush, Milly. Did you ever do it with...Tolle?"

"No...I just never...well, if he lived...I don't know,"

"That's okay Milly, you don't have to explain. Hey, I'll go make some breakfast for the two of us. Want to come with me?" asked as I grabbed my pajamas on the floor and put them on.

"...No thanks, I just want to sleep here for a while," said Milly as she layback on the bed and let out the most beautiful yawn.

I tucked her in and kissed her on the head, akin to a child trying to sleep.

As I left my room, I pondered what to make for breakfast of this memorable occasion.

I looked around the hallway and I noticed something.

Odd...where are all my soldiers?

-Kitchen-

Ah, what to make for this beautiful event? Oh well, I'm too tired to make anything.

I opened the fridge and grabbed some frosted water bottles.

Hmm... water; a simple, harmless beverage that everyone loves.

As I closed the fridge door, I heard multiple gun clicks behind me.

"Okay...whose joke is this?" Jokingly asked as I turned around.

Soldiers dressed in ZAFT special ops uniforms greeted me.

Hmm...I don't recognize any of them as my soldiers.

Black linings... black upholstery... black leather gloves...night vision goggles with a metal faceplate...and did I mention that they had high-powered rifles with laser targeting aimed at my head?

I dropped the water bottles and raised my hands above my head.

What could I do? Go commando on them and have a very high risk of getting killed?

One of the soldiers moved aside and motioned with his rifle to go ahead of them.

As I walked past them, the same soldier poked me hard with the barrel of the rifle.

"Walk faster, the admiral has been waiting to see you," muffled the soldier through his faceplate.

Admiral? Who the hell is he talking about?

The soldiers "escorted" me to a staircase that splits off to the second floor or the first basement floor.

After all these years, I saw "him" again.

"What...no "I'm glad to see you again?" sarcastically asked the "Admiral", who was leaning on the rails of the staircase.

"Senator Ardel! Who the hell let you in?" furiously yelled as I took a couple of steps towards him, but stopped to the multiple sounds of the rifles readying themselves.

"Tsk tsk, didn't I teach you to respect your mentors?"

"There's nothing respectable about you,"

He put his hand over his heart and sarcastically moaned, "Ouch...that hurt, it really did,"

He then became serious.

He motioned his soldiers behind me to lower their rifles and gave me a proposition.

"I have a proposition for you, my precious,"

"I told you before, I will never join you again,"

"Yes, yes, I've heard that before. Well, depending on the outcome, you will seek me,"

"Oh...and how do you propose that?"

He pointed to the stairs that leaded to the basement floors.

"On the fifth basement floor, all forty-six of your soldiers are imprisoned in the prison cells. And there is a bomb that is set to go off in ten minutes starting...now," smoothing spoke the senator as he pressed a button to a remote.

He then pointed to the stairs that leaded up.

"On the fifth floor, the one you call Miriallia is, as of recent reports, sleeping alone...naked,"

He raised his voice especially when he said "naked."

"Where are you getting at?"

"You, and only you, Dearka Elthman, get to decide their fate. Choose to save the one you "love", your soldiers, who's been loyal to you from the very beginning, will die in an explosion that will occur in...9 minutes.

However, if you choose to save your loyal soldiers..."

"I swear if you kill her, I'll kill you too,"

"Kill her? I don't plan to do that...yet. Simply put, if you save your soldiers, I'll take the one you love away from you.

Now which is it going to be? Loyalty or love for a filthy natural,"

My mind was racing at this moment.

If I save Milly, the soldiers who trusted me with their lives will die.

If I save the soldiers, who knows what Ardel will do when he gets his hands on her.

"Eight minutes left, you better hurry, or you'll lose both of them,"

With no reason, I chose the stairs that leaded to the bottom and ran as fast as I could to the prison cells on the fifth basement floor.

I'm sorry Milly, but those soldiers pledged their lives to me. I promise that I'll save you. I swear it.

I ran and ran until I stopped at the fifth basement door.

I opened the door and ran straight until I came to a fork in the hallway.

Now the hallway leads to the left or the right.

"Oh, which one was it..."

I didn't know much of the basement levels. I spent much of my time on the mansion above ground.

So I chose the left path.

To my luck, I heard muffled screams of terror that only could be the soldiers.

When I opened the door, I saw all of my soldiers on the ground bound and gagged, screaming for their lives.

I could see why they were screaming.

A time bomb that's set to go off...in 1 minute!

I knelt down to figure out how to disarm the bomb.

I knew I shouldn't have failed disarming weapons when I was in the academy.

00:45...

I didn't know which button to press, or which wire to cut...

00:30...

00:25...

00:20...

00:10...

I guess this is it for me.

00:05...

Goodbye Milly.

00:04...

I love you...

00:03...

00:02...

I closed my eyes for the inevitable.

00:01...

00:00...

I braced myself for an explosion that would kill everyone in this room, but instead, I heard a recording from the fake bomb.

"Poor predictable Dearka, always choosing the lives of this soldiers over those you really should be caring about, or in this case, a dumb Natural,"

He knew I would choose my soldiers?

"Now, I'll just take this girl of yours away from you. In fact, you have one week to find me and save her. If however for some reason, you can't get to her in a week, she dies. This is because YOU chose to be with a Natural,"

I'll make it in a week. I promise you that.

"Oh...and if you do want to save her, let me make it...harder for you,"

Then the bomb actually exploded, but instead of the explosion being of a fiery red color, it was transparent, making several consoles in the prison cell explode.

They're EMPs!

I soon heard several other EMP bombs go off around the base.

I untied several soldiers and ordered them to untie the others.

I ran.

I ran up the stairs.

Up to the fifth floor.

Down the hallway.

And into my room.

I expected to see Miriallia just sleeping soundly.

But I didn't.

I saw an empty bed. Even the blanket was missing.

I staggered to the bed and I pounded my hands on the mattress.

I will always regret choosing my soldiers over her.

-5 hours later-

I sat on the mattress as I refused to leave the bed.

It was the last time I saw her after this.

In the meantime, my soldiers were able to untie each other and restored power to the areas affected by the bombs.

Despite what my soldiers did, I needed some damn good news.

Then, if by a miracle, I found it...more like it found me.

I heard the ceiling above me crack.

I heard it crack some more...until the ceiling caved in.

And what caused it to cave in fell on me.

Smoke, soot, and other materials clouded my line of vision of what caused the collapse.

As the smoke cleared, I was face to face with...him.

"Please don't hurt me!" exclaimed Kuzzey, the proclaimed fearless Orb Demon, with legs trembling and arms covering his chest.

I grabbed his chest with both of my hands and furiously threw him across the room.

He collided with the wall and fell to the ground with an audible thud.

As he sat up, he raised both of his hands in a defensive manner.

"Hey, stop it! I said don't hurt me,"

I went toward him in a threatening manner.

As I towered over his trembling body, he broke down.

"Please...I'll tell you anything...just don't hurt me," stammered the supposed demon.

This is the Orb Demon? What a wuss.

I helped him get back up and escorted him to the kitchen, where he voraciously ate most of the contents of the fridge.

Now it's time to get serious.

I pointed a handgun to his head, which he freaked out and cried his eyes out.

There is no way he is even the supposed Orb Demon.

I gave him a proposition; he tells me what I needed to know, and I would feed him something.

Turns out he squeals real easily.

One of the things he told me was that the "Orb Demon" was the Ardel all this time. His soldiers were doing all the killings associated with the Orb Demon. However, they needed a fall guy, or someone to take the blame. Kuzzey was at the wrong place at the wrong time, as the soldiers kidnapped him and taken pictures and DNA samples to fool the authorities.

Ever since then, he was a slave to Ardel. Forced to do laundry work, cook, and make weapons were some of the things he had to do for Ardel.

In fact, he hasn't been to Orb until now.

Sometime 3 years ago, he wanted to leave Ardel, but Ardel asked him if he could find anyone better, so the first name he came up was Miriallia. Ever since then, the soldiers hunted anyone down that resembled Miriallia.

What information I needed right now was the location of Ardel's Base. Kuzzey was more than happy to give me the information.

Now all I needed to get to the base, and soon.

I let him eat whatever he wanted while supervised by my soldiers.

I guess I have to go use extreme measures now.

I used the stairs to head down to the fifth basement level and headed for the...mobile suit hangar.

-Mobile Suit Hangar-

Even though Orb's policy states that mobile suits are forbidden, this was the only viable option that had the highest chance of success of getting Milly back.

After the war, I bought some mobile suit accessories of the black market, and when I was in space, my soldiers salvaged anything that was still usable for mobile suits.

After that, everything I bought or salvaged for mobile suits would be placed here...in case of another war.

This is a war...between Ardel and me.

Out of 46 soldiers, only 2 of them had any training in mobile suit mechanics.

The main body of my mobile suit was the ruined remains of Buster. Since I fought for Orb during the war, they let me keep Buster...if I promise that I don't use it in battle. Using Buster for anything else would be okay. Right now, Buster was in no condition to do anything, and it can't even move since it no longer has any power.

Buster, the mobile suit that protected Miriallia during the war.

My salvage team was able to obtain one very peculiar piece of weaponry. Apparently either Athrun or Kira jettisoned their weapons pack "Meteor" during the last battle. Since Buster no longer had any salvageable missile pods, I hoped the mechanics would be able to integrate any, if all of Meteor's Weaponry into Buster.

Without Meteors Weaponry, chances of getting her back are nearly impossible.

The next technology I acquired was Mirage Colloid, or at least something like it. I was able to get hold of some data on how to replicate the effects. The bad side is I could only be able to use it once and then it is unusable.

Don't want to get Orb's Mobile Suits to follow me.

And the last item was, the Neutron Jammer Canceller. Even though it was banned after the war, a few of these were being sold on the black market, one of them being bought by me.

I ordered my mechanics to integrate all of those parts as much as possible. I also gave them an incentive; if they were able to integrate all those parts within 6 days, I would triple their pay; quintupled it if they did it without sleeping.

So I waited in the mobile suit hangar.

5 days later...

They were finally able to integrate all the parts onto Buster, and then some.

The arms were integrated with Meteor's beam weapons.

The shoulders now had mounted micro missile pods. Granted, they aren't that powerful, but they will prove to be a distraction.

Meteor's vastly superior thrusters replaced Buster's. Now I no longer needed a Guul to sustain flight.

The Neutron Jammer Canceller negated the fear of losing power anytime soon.

Mirage Colloid allowed me to fly past Orb without anyone being notified of a mobile suit.

I was so gracious to hear of how they were able to integrate all those parts, until I heard of a huge flaw.

"What do you mean Phase-Shift isn't working?"

"Sorry Commander, but the wiring for activating Phase-Shift has been fried beyond repair,"

"Well...FIX IT!"

"Well, we need at least 2 more days to..."

"Forget it, I'll pilot it as it is,"

Without Phase-Shift, I needed to be extremely lucky in order to make it in one piece.

I ordered my soldiers to get Kuzzey down to the hangar.

Minutes later, Kuzzey came in...kicking and screaming.

"Why are you taking me here?" asked a very frightened Kuzzey.

The soldiers dragged him towards the newly refit Buster, where I was trying to fix the controls for the Phase-Shift.

"Get him in the cockpit and open the hangar doors,"

My soldiers dragged Kuzzey to the cockpit as he persistently kicked and screamed.

When he finally came in, he cried his eyes out.

"Will you stop crying? It's your fault Miriallia is kidnapped,"

Kuzzey stifled his tears.

"Miriallia is kidnapped...by that monster?"

I saw glimmer in his eyes, almost like newfound courage.

"We have to hurry to save her. She won't live if she's with him,"

The hangar doors opened, showing clear blue skies.

I activated the starting sequence, and multiple consoles lit up.

Buster ignited its thrusters and flew up above the mansion, where most of the soldiers looked up, giving me the ZAFT salute.

I activated Mirage Colloid and with Kuzzey's directions, flew to the direction where, hopefully, Miriallia would still be alive under him.

Since Miriallia was a Natural, there was a very slim chance that she would still be alive when she is under Ardel's wrath.

But I'm holding onto that slim chance.

As I flew past one of Orb's beaches and some miles out in the ocean, I turned off Mirage Colloid and activated Phase-Shift.

But it still won't work.

I repeatedly pressed the button, but it still wouldn't activate.

But I kept calm, and Kuzzey was no longer crying.

"I may not be skilled with piloting a mobile suit, or able to shoot a gun, or stare into the face of evil, or..."

"I get it, you're a wimp"

"But...if one of my friends is in trouble, I'll stand up to anything to protect my friends,"

This is the first time I saw Kuzzey exhibit any type of courage.

As I looked on my minimap, I inputted the coordinates where Ardel supposedly is.

With the speed Buster was going, I would make it there in 2 hours.

Hang in there Miriallia; I'm coming to save you.

I decided if I wanted this to be a success, I needed help.

"Hey Kuzzey, want to help get Miriallia back?"

"Y...Y...yes..."

Oh boy, he's still scared. Well...he's the only help I got, even if it is pathetic...

"Okay...when we get to the base..."

As I finished the plan, he was reluctant at first, but he nodded in agreement to the plan.

"You know, once we get there, I can't guarantee your safety,"

"Are you.... try.... trying to make me...sc.... sc...scared? Well I'm not falling for it,"

He was visibly scared, notably by trembling legs and broken speech.

In 2 hours, I would arrive at his base...and end this once and for all.

Granted Buster 2 didn't have Phase-Shift or any close-ranged weaponry, I am very confident that I would be able to save her.

After 3 weeks, I finally finished it.

It would have been done in 2 but I was quite confused on how to describe Buster 2.

And I was reading some other stories on the site, like Prayer Reverie's completed story and other stories in the SEED section.

Pretty good, pretty damn good.

Now I stated a couple of chapters' back that I had the last chapter "Moving On" already finished.

After the next chapter, I'm going to post it.

This means that the story will end soon...but on a happy note.

Stay tuned for Chapter 11: Ending it all.

Showdown between Dearka's newly refit Buster versus Ardel's Zaku Phantom.

And 72 hours (that's 3 days) after that, I'm deciding whether to release the last chapter, or give it to a reader for critiquing.

But for now, I'm just going to take a break and hang out at the message boards.

Ciao till next time!