Disclaimer: The characters and timelines from Gundam SEED don't belong to me. I only own the plot.

A/N
Well, my first reaction was: "Oh my God! People actually like what I wrote!" Thanks to all those who reviewed. Such nice comments helped be write this chapter just a bit faster. For those of you hoping for a slight continuation to where I left off, you a bit out of luck. This is the other side of the story, so it's almost like contrasting actions…in a way.

Just a little side-note here, I really had to bring Yzak into this fic. Maybe it's because wherever Dearka is, he is, but really I think I just have this weird obsession over his right now. -laughs- I'm such a moron…anyway, I hope I really don't disappoint anyone with chapter 2!

The Present: To Live

He sat inside the cramped cockpit of his Mobile Suit, just glad that the whole battle was over. His team had just come back from the frontlines, as the EAF retreated once again. He opened the door and walked out to the lift. With one hand, he held onto the cord, and with the other removed his green helmet, letting loose his blond hair. He smoothly walked past the maintenance personnel and heard straight to his quarters.

The sliding door of the ship opened as he stepped into the relatively large room. After all, he was second in command. First in command being his friend…there was a knock on the door, "Dearka, you're wanted on the bridge in an hour." Speak of the devil.

"I'll be there, Yzak," he replied, unbuttoning his green ZAFT coat. He floated over to his bed and eventually softly landed on it. He stared up at the ceiling through amethyst eyes, just glad that ceilings didn't pilot Mobile Suits and shoot at you.

It wasn't really paranoia, more just he'd been thinking a lot more about the whole war issue, and what purpose it really served. Before he'd just done as he was told, seeing as that wasn't a big deal. But ever since the battle of Jachin Due…or was it before that? The Conquest of Boaz, perhaps? No, it must have been during the time Orb had been under attack by the EAF. It was then when he'd gotten thinking about how pointless it all seemed.

At that time he was still with the Archangel. 'The Archangel…' he closed his eyes for a moment. It'd been a year or so since he'd last seen that ship. If it still existed or belonged to the Orb fleet, he wasn't too sure. Either way, daydream any longer and he'd have been late.

He fixed up his hair, closed up his uniform and set out for the bridge. He grabbed onto the moving handrail, saluted other soldiers, just doing the regular drill. He floated through the door and towards his commander in the white uniform. He saluted again, and made his way beside Yzak.

They stood in front of a table that was soon to be filled with holographic charts and maps. "You'd think they'd give us more of a break after that battle. Yet another mission," he sighed drumming his tanned fingers on the table.

"Shut your mouth, Dearka," hissed Yzak, as motioned for the officer to speak.

The table now displayed a map. "This," he said with a pointer, "is the EAF's base in southeastern Eurasia. It's recently been destroyed due to all the rebellions that have broken loose lately. Usually such occurrences wouldn't affect ZAFT in any way. However, it seems that they were assisting in the area, and a fight broke out. The place is a bloody mess now, but there have been reports of survivors, or EAF troops that have escaped and are re-grouping."

"So basically it's an investigation conducted by us," the blond said out of line. This earned him a disapproving glare from his commander.

"You can put it that way," the officer said, folding up the pointer, "we'll use the Mobile Suits to scout the area, and some personnel on foot. The Chairman decided to give the Jule team a break from the front lines. It's also a good time to re-supply and maintenance the ship. The ship will descend in half an hour."

"Sir," the other two saluted as he left the bridge. "I'll stay here, please inform the squad," the silver-haired commanded instructed.

"Right, Yzak," the other began to float off, when his superior cleared his throat. That's right, you had to be formal to him in public. "Excuse me, Commander Jule." He'd said it in a sort of mocking tone, but it was better then nothing.

It only took five minutes to explain everything to the team. They hadn't seemed too thrilled about the idea of going to Earth at the moment, but a relaxing rest sounded fine. He returned to his room to continue his previous train of thoughts.

He remembered quite clearly the day he'd left the Archangel to go back to PLANT. He still wanted to protect his home, incase another outbreak started. He felt as if it was his duty. The day he left, rather, just before, he'd pulled a brunette Natural aside.

"So that's it, huh? You're still going to fight after going through all that?" she'd asked him in an uncaring manner.

"You sound thrilled," he'd spoken in return, "and that's my own choice, if I fight or not. I just thought I'd say goodbye to you."

"I see. That really wasn't necessary though." With that, she began to walk away in Orb's direction. "Oh, just one thing," she turned, "don't get yourself killed out there, alright?" She didn't wait for him to reply and continued on her way.

Yes, so he'd stayed alive so far. A promise wasn't something he wanted to break. Well, the chances that he'd ever see her again were pretty slim, since she most likely resided in Orb. It was such a waste, though. He was actually interested in her.

So at the beginning as his first moments on the Legged-Ship it had been a joke. He'd just casually remarked that a Natural was pretty, so what of it? Later on that Natural had decided to come along and attempt to stab him and save him from a gun wound all in the time span of two minutes. So what of it? Later that Natural was the usual to bring him meals, with the occasional odd conversation here and there. So what of it? Later that Natural was the one to return his ZAFT uniform and set him free, so what of it? Once freed, he'd decided to take back his Buster Mobile Suit and protect her ship. So what of it?

Basically speaking, he wasn't quite sure how any of those weird emotions somehow stirred. Either way it had happened and there really wasn't much else to it. However that was the past, and he planned to move on from that. "All hands brace for entering Earth's atmosphere," the warning played on the speakers.

He went over to the desk and stood in front of it. The ship began to shake slightly. He grabbed the back of the chair, not really in any mood to sit down, even thought it probably was safer. But the procedure would only last a couple of minutes, then he'd rejoin the commander on the bridge.

The ship now rocked violently, more so then he'd expected. It gave a sharp jerk, and he went flying backwards, hitting his head on the bed frame. Mental note for next time: heed all re-entry warnings. He remained sitting on the floor, one hand rubbing his aching head.

The floor slowly began to steady once again, and he felt a whole lot heavier then a minute ago. He got up off the floor and headed once again in the direction of the bridge, dusting off his uniform along the way. He walked up next to the commander, who was watching the landscape from the big front view of the ship. "Something wrong, Commander?" he asked, seeing an odd look in his eyes.

"Nothing," the silver-haired man replied, without sparing a glance. The other left it at that, and in turn watch the scenery. An island got closer and closer. That must have been the battlefield that they were talking about earlier.

"We're going in for an earth landing," informed the pilot. "All hands, initiating landing sequence." Within a few minutes, the ship had safely touched-down, and both Mobile Suit pilots set off for the hangar.

He looked up to his unit. He'd been quite careless that last battle. The left arm was completely missing, and his legs had gotten damaged. There was no way he could use it yet. What to do? "Yzak, uh, Commander. I can't use this out here."

The blue-eyed commander stopped and inspected his underling's unit. "Jeez, you said it got damaged but really, Dearka. You should have really been more careful. Now what are we going to do with this…"

"Excuse me, but if it isn't too much to ask, and since it isn't an active battlefield, I'll go out on foot. After all, there may be things closer up that Mobile Suits won't see." Usually he wouldn't be so formal but seeing that his superior was already in a delicate mood, he decided not to push it.

He received an odd look, which caused him to shift uncomfortably. Was it really that bad to set out on foot? It wasn't as if he'd be stepping into a field full of landmines. "Alright," his hotheaded friend finally agreed, "but don't do anything stupid, understand?"

"You can count on that, Almighty."

Right before he turned to leave, those same blue eyes hardened into a glare. "That isn't the best way to start things off either." The other simply waved as he walked away.

When he disembarked the ship a few minutes later, Mobile Suits were walking out of the hangar, and started to make much noise, trampling about on all that scrap metal. Maybe that was a reason he piloted one. There was hardly any noise…while not in battle.

All of the machines headed in one direction. So instead of risking being squashed by one of them, took off in the other direction. He may have battled for years, but this was the first time he'd seen the aftermath of a battle up-close.

Walking more until the ship was out of sight, things looked worse. It wasn't only broken buildings and machines anymore. A new stench filled the air. It was the stench of human blood, dead bodies. That was reason number two why he piloted a Mobile Suit. One couldn't smell such things as nauseating as this.

He covered the lower half of his face with his hand. It didn't help with the sickening feeling too much, but it would do better then nothing at all. His eyes roamed over too a broken fenced area. There in a pit, must have been at least fifty bodies. He cringed. What a horrible sight.

He moved on without looking back. Maybe it'd been a bad idea to come out on foot. That way, he wouldn't have seen such things from a front row seat. He reached some tall piles of what looked like Mobile Armor remains. It was probably easier to climb over them then to go around. Must have been quite a battle.

Once at the top, he wasn't exactly prepared for what awaited him. There was someone at the bottom of the man-made mountain he currently was crouching on. 'A girl?' he thought, surprised, and ducked out of sight, but readied his handgun.

She wasn't doing anything bad, though. She was taking pictures, so it seemed. He leaned over for a better view, but in the process loosened some scrap. It fell down to her feet. He ducked out of sight again, slowly looking for her reaction. Thankfully, she hadn't seemed to notice.

He watched her finally get up, and climb up another mountain of junk. Not exactly sure what triggered him to do it, he slid down the pile and looked up to her. She was a fast one. That time, she took notice. As she turned her face, something hit him like a ton of bricks. That girl had a strange resemblance to someone he knew.

Without warning, she'd disappeared over the pile. Silently cursing under his breath, he followed. The pilot wondered how someone like her could be so fast…for a Natural. But at that rate, he'd eventually loose her, especially since he could see an airfield in the distance. He wasn't too sure if it belonged to the Earth forces, but there was no risk-taking like this. So he took a chance as he slid down the final pile.

"Mir!" he called out, silently hoping that it was her. To his joy, she turned her head and stopped running. "Mir!" he continued to run up to her, but stopped before her to catch his breath. Now that they were closer, he could see that it indeed was her. "You've sure learned how to run fast." He tried to fix his hair by running his fingers lightly through the blond strands. "It's been a long time, hasn't it?"

When she didn't answer, he boldly caught her by the waist and drew her close. "Why won't you say anything? Don't tell me you're still miffed about what happened?" was she still mad at him leaving like that? Or was it something else that was bothering her? Either way, he didn't quite know.

"W-who are you?" he heard her say.

The question caught him off guard. It wasn't like her to joke around like this. Well maybe it was, but why would she say something like that? "That wasn't very funny, Mir. Now try saying 'hello'. It would be nice."

The next part happened in what seemed like the blink of an eye. She'd placed a gun right to him. Something strange was definitely going on. "Let go of me now." Not testing her, he backed away slowly, but still stood a mere few feet apart. "Now, who are you? And God help me, I'll kill you if I need to."

"M-Mir, hey, hold on a sec here," he held up his hands in defense. Seeing the look on her face, though, he decided to be a little less easygoing this time around. "Put that thing away." His tone was a lot more serious.

"Leave me be! Go away and I won't shoot!" she sounded almost scared.

He wasn't really in the mood for games now. "Listen here, you…"

She cut him off. "Where the hell are you getting this from? 'Mir' and 'you' and whatnot? If you must know, I'm Naoko, so go bother someone else please."

He let what she'd said sink in. No, Naoko didn't exist. He was sure this was the Miriallia he knew. Then what…then he thought back to after the war. She'd been awfully depressed, and often cried when she was alone, (he'd walked in on her once). But she was too sensible to be brainwashed, right? Yet, it seemed to make sense.

"I get it," he finally said, dropping his hands. "Now, put the gun down." He hesitantly took a step towards her, once twice. She seemed out of her wits at this point, and clicked the trigger into place. "Do you know how dangerous that is to use? Miriallia Haww, you put that gun away right now!"

She seemed to be having a mental battle after he'd said her name. She looked like the time she'd tried to kill him aboard the Archangel. Her hands had dropped the weapon, and slowly, her entire body followed suit. "Miriallia!" he swiftly caught her before she hit the pieces of metal and cement on the ground. She'd completely blacked out.

"Damn," he spat out frustrated. What was he going to do with a girl from Orb? He didn't want to risk the airfield. "Great, Yzak will kill me…" without a second thought, he lifted her with ease, and ran back to his ZAFT ship.

A/N
You know, I really liked the first chapter better. I think I summed up most of my ideas then. Oh well…again, I really hope it wasn't confusing (it's one in the morning yet again…I really need to write at a better time…) Just one more chapter left! And sorry if it's going to be a long update, guys. I'm leaving on vacation for 2 weeks come July 1st. as soon as I get home though, I'll update! I promise! Until then, hugs!