A/N: Here we go! Yay! I think I'm out of the ditch with the whole 'no ideas' thing...I hope.. I think.. Well onward! PLEASE R & R :)

Uneasy Spirit

Nicole cursed as the counsel in front of him shot off sparks. He had lost visual as the remainder of the Blitz's power drained away. "Damn it!" He had left an inexperienced piolet to fight on her own. He should have known how to handle the situation! He was the experienced one after all. "I'll never forgive myself if she.." Nicol felt tears well in his eyes. The thought that it would be his fault if she died, ate away at him from the inside out.

High above the crippled Blitz the fighting had come to a momentary stop. The shocking arrival of the Aegis had confused and scared the Earth Alliance forces and surprised Leer.

Leer looked down at the battle screen which was showing a notice that the Aegis was trying to contact her. She quickly opened the comm. link and visual files.

"Athrun!" she sighed thankfully. She only had 20 minutes of flying power now. She would be little match for the Sky Grasper assault if grounded.

"Are you alright? Where's Nicol?" he asked quickly. He was obviously more concerned about Nicol then her.

She sighed and rolled her eyes, "I'm fine. But your little buddy isn't so great. He's on the ground somewhere. He's alive though..." she informed Athrun vaguely.

Athrun looked as if he wanted to ask more but stopped to avoid enemy fire. The E.A. forces had regrouped and were attempting a sweeping attack.

"I see." he said instead, "Well, I guess it's time for you to show me what you got." He charged at a passing Sky Grasper, taking it out easily.

Leer nodded to herself, she took off after him. 'We must work quickly to end this' she thought avoiding fire. "Athrun!" she yelled out loud, "Just so you know I only have 20...oh, now 19 minutes of flight power left."

"Right..." Athrun responded, obviously distracted.

He charged a Sky Grasper head on. Leer came up, further behind the Aegis, acting at a distraction. As the Grasper fired Leer rolled to the right and Athrun to the left. As the Grasper passed between them they both ripped off a wing. No longer supported by wings the Grasper plunged towards the ground. Leer hoped the others would be just as easy, but she doubted the others were fool enough to come so close. If she used energy-based weapons, like her energy cannons or beam sabers, her battery would drain faster and she needed all the power she had.

"Lets take the fight to a lower altitude. The close quarter combat will be harder for them."

"You're the expert." she muttered sarcastically. Inside she wondered, 'Does he even consider that going to a lower altitude would be safer for me if my power cuts out sooner then expected?'. She tried to shrug it off, she was the newbie after all. She focused on the fact that she had only had 17 minutes left.

Athrun dove and Leer followed, just before hitting the ground they twisted apart in opposite directions. Leer landed and skidded a good distance and brought her energy cannon up, took aim and fired at the Grasper that had followed them into the dive. The craft exploded and crashed into the ground with a shower of sparks and fire.

Athrun was handling the ground forces quite nicely on his own, so she took to the air again. She would handle the sky..for as long as she could.

The Elemental jolted forward as an energy surge from the battery fired up. "Not a good sign." she mumbled. Those surges were bad for the battery, possibly damaging it permanently. It would take her a while to build a new one... She quickly shook her head. She had to survive this first before she looked to the future. The Elemental then slowed, much slower then its top speed. She took a quick glance at the energy gauge that was keeping track of how much time she had left. Only 8 minutes now..

She cursed in rage, put all her frustration into the controls and slammed the Elemental's fists into the noses of 2 passing Graspers. "Die!" she shrieked. The two crafts spun to the ground after the crippling impact ending in a violent crash. She noticed another was about to pass beneath her. She immediately cut the Elemental's engines and free fell, feet angled as if to land. The Elemental's feet smashed into cockpit and the right wing, utterly destroying it and ending the piolets life quickly. She jumped away from it and took flight again, leaving it to fall to the ground, never to rise again.

There were only 4 crafts left now but she had only 3 minutes of power to fly on. She would have to make her last attack count. Raising the energy cannon that was on the right wrist she took carful aim. "You should have let us go," she hissed. She hoovered to be accurate, focusing on the Grasper heading strait for her. Another was behind it, attempting some kind of maneuver. "But now I have to kill you." she yelled, putting more anger into the cannons fire. The shot hit the lead Grasper dead on and the one behind it received the remaining energy of the shot and the debris of his comrades craft. Both spiraled down together and crashed.

Unfortunately, the use of her cannon cost her dearly. She was reduced to a little less then a minute of time. She immediately began her decent.

"Athrun! I'm out of time!" she yelled reluctantly over the comm. link. "I have to land. Then I'll only have backup power for an hour..no flight from here on out."

"Right. Recover Nicol..!" He was about to say more but was cut off again. He dodged 2 missiles and returned fire. They shot again but this time he dipped sharply and destroyed his opponents.

Leer landed as her thrusters gave out. She maneuvered the Elemental over to the Blitz that was laying battered, broken and forgotten on the battle field. She tired to reach him thought the comm. link but didn't even get static. She guessed he had lost all power.

She was about to pick the Blitz up when machine gun fire peppered the area between them.

"Damn it! Leave us alone! You've lost!" she spat. She was tired and no longer in the mood to put up with this. The Elemental drew what looked like a beam saber handle from its waist. She charged the low flying Grasper and at the last moment flicked the blade on. It was a mere dagger but sliced through the metal of the Grasper as if it was butter. It took off the whole wing and the Grasper's nose began to dip downwards.

"What the..?" the piolet gasped. It was too late to bring up the nose. It struck a boulder and did a summer-salt before exploding.

She quickly turn the blade off and put it away. She went to the Blitz and picked up what was left of it. The EA forces were finally pulling back, having lost all there Sky Graspers but one. Athrun provided excellent cover for their retreat to the ZAFT base, Caress.

"I hope Nicol is alright.." Athrun whispered sadly. He too looked tired.

"I'm sure he's fine. He's only lost power. If I hadn't slowed his fall though.. things would have ended differently." she fell silent and thought for a moment, "How long has he been fighting in a mobile suit?"

"About as long as I have. He was on some other ships before the Vesalius though. I can't remember their names now.." Athrun answered confused

"Meh, the names don't matter." she shrugged carelessly.

"Why do you ask?" he inquired suspiciously.

"Well, I would have thought that someone as experienced as him would have known that he was running on his APU (Auxiliary Power Unit)." she snorted blatantly.

Athrun remained silent, knowing that this was an insult to Nicol...

(Time lapse)

A little over an hour later they stood outside the hanger of the ZAFT base Caress. Nicol's mobile suit had already been brought inside on a transport truck, but the Elemental just stood there unmoving. Athrun, in the Aegis, came out to help with a large transport truck with a mobile suit carrier following.

The Elemental had run out of power, just outside the hanger. Leer could see the white-haired Yzak and blond Dearka through the hanger doors, laughing it up on a catwalk. She leaned back in the Elemental's seat, putting her hands behind her head and crossing her legs casually. Athrun helped lift the Elemental into the carrier.

She had decided to stay inside her mobile suit till inside. She felt safer in it, even when it didn't have power. Something about the familiar surroundings put her at ease.

Once inside the hanger the Elemental was put into a line with the other mobile suits. Athrun brought the Aegis to stand to her right. She glanced to the left and noticed it was the Duel.

"Hmm.." she mused as the Elemental came to a jolting stop.

She had been brought into a perfect line with the others and was now two feet away from the cat walk. She opened the hatch and stepped out onto the lower platform that acted as a bridge to the catwalk. She walked out to the main catwalk as Athrun came running up.

"You alright?" he asked shocked. He had expected to find a shell shocked damsel in distress, not a cool, calm glance.

"Yes. Perfectly fine." she smiled, "How's Nicol?"

"He has a few burns on his forearms but otherwise he's fine also...thanks to you..so he says.."

She grinned, glad to accept any compliments offered. "I wasn't about to let him die. He helped me earlier so I helped him. It was a fair trade."

"So..you'll only help us..if we do something for you..?" he asked taken aback.

"Well... yeah. Isn't that how it works? If you help me, I help you?"

Athrun stared at her in shock, "No!" he was baffled that someone would say this, "Why would you think that! You do things for each other because your friends and you want them to be happy. Then they help you because they want you to be happy also. It's a bond. You work together. How could you say something so... so business-like about peoples lives!"

She pursed her lips, "Well, I've never had friends. So I guess I don't know... what it's like to be happy!" she snapped at him and stalked away.

Athrun stood there perplexed, "What...did I say..?" he whispered to the empty air around him.

(Time lapse)

Leer frowned as she walked slowly down an empty, Spartan style hallway. She was on her way to the mess hall but as usual she was thinking..thinking too much. She was reflecting on what Athrun had said. 'You do things for each other because your friends...'. She blinked. She hadn't had an friends for nearly 6 years now. She had always been alone, isolated. She had liked her solitary confinement. It had suited her well. All her life she had done things by trading. Someone helped her, she helped them. Someone gave her food, she'd do some kind of chore in return to pay for it. It made sense. She started wondering, 'What is life without people?' Leer already knew what was that was like, but what was it like with people? That, she did not knowSo far it had gone poorly. She would have to be nicer to people, hide her true feelings.. her true reactions if she wanted friends. 'I'll be nice to the next person I see!' she promised herself firmly. As she approached the mess hall and put a smile on her face. There was sure to be people inside the dinning hall.

She reached to press the button, but before she could even touch it the door hissed open. It was Yzak and Dearka, talking about battle simulations by the sound of it. They stopped talking when they saw her. Leer damned her conscious thoughts to hell for making such a promise to herself. 'To the first person she saw', what slop!

"Are you moving or what?" Yzak retorted with a superior air.

"Hello to you too, Yzak." she said tightly, trying to remain calm.

Yzak smiled confidently, "What was your name again...? Lee? A boys name is it not?" he sneered.

"Of course.. Yack." she smiled deviously.

Yzak turned red. Dearka laughed and tried to make it more of a snort, as Yzak glared at him.

"Aw! Of course this is all in good nature, right? You call me 'Lee' I call you a..."

Dearka cut her off seeing that where she was going would provoke the situation, "Oh, I just remembered! Creuset wants us to gather in the briefing room."

There was a threatening silence.

"Sure..now?" Leer asked, her eyes thin and glaring at Yzak.

"Yes." Dearka nodded vigorously, "You can follow us.."

"If you don't know the way!" Yzak finished harshly, still a little red but grinning evilly again.

They headed down the hallway, leaving her to stand alone. She stared after them. 'I failed.' her mind raged at her. Physically she tried to shrug and entered the mess hall. She picked up an apple and headed back the way she had come, alone.. and with tears in her eyes.