Chapter 6: All's well that ends well

Disclaimer: DO NOT OWN IT! gets in gundam and starts rapidly firing at evil peopleMWAHAHAHA…meep

Cagalli was driving the crew of the Dark Angel crazy as she continually asked them, 'Are we there yet?' Everyone was now avoiding her, knowing there would be no peace until they reached shore which would hopefully be less than an hour.

The Dark Angel already had an escort, and the excitement about coming home was starting to infect everyone. La Cruse sighed as he ended his transmission with Sir.

"I hope I'm not in Cagalli's way when we get to Sydney." He muttered putting a stack of papers neatly into a file, then putting it away in his file cabinet. He checked in with the hangar crew, and after the com rung for nearly three minutes someone picked up.

"Yes sir?" asked the man looking around anxiously, as if something he dreaded would attack him at any given moment.

"Just seeing how things are going. I see that Cagalli has been in the hangar." He stated grinning wickedly, having told his secretary that if she came asking for him, to tell her he was elsewhere.

"Uh…yeah…" he said jumping, and then all of a sudden whispered, "I got to go. Sorry sir." And with that the transmission ended and La cruse was left laughing.

Cagalli walked down one of the empty halls, looking to see where everyone had gone. "Oh well." She muttered smiling. She yawned boredly as she walked towards the cafeteria to grab a drink. She had just opened the bottle of water when La Cruse came on the ship's speaker.

"Attention all hands. We will be docking in Sydney in less than a half hour. Please prepare for docking." And with that he ended the transmission. Cagalli smiled wistfully as she thought of being 'home'. For in truth she had never felt safer in Australia than anywhere else.

Cagalli noticed Athrun as she entered the hangar. He was helping one of the mechanics who had quickly decided to recheck the engine on one of the skygraspers. Athrun smiled as she walked over, and she grinned back.

"Having fun?" she asked watching the mechanic who was all too much transfixed on his job.

"Aren't we all?" he said laughing for a moment. "So what's going to happen when we get there?" he asked handing the man the tool he had asked for.

"Oh, just a parade, a huge dinner with Sir, um a council party, that's about it." She said looking thoughtful.

"I've never been to Australia. They aren't gonna arrest me are they?" Athrun asked looking at her worriedly.

She laughed and shook her head. "Don't worry. Even if they try I won't let them. My authority is rarely questioned. Even by Sir." She said sitting down in a foldable chair and take a long drink of her water.

Cagalli almost spit out the water she had been drinking, holding back the laughter that threatened to break out when Flay came running into the hangar and tackled Athrun to the floor.

Athrun was struggling to get up, and Flay was saying excitedly, "Isn't this so much fun. You must come home with me and me daddy." She said not even bothering to move as Athrun struggled. Lacus and Kira entered not long after Flay's grand entrance, and seeing Athrun's predicament, the two burst into hysterics next to Cagalli who was still trying not to choke on her water.

"I can't breathe…" muttered Athrun as he struggled to push her off of him.

"Oh I'm sorry." She said quickly jumping up and pulling him to his feet quickly. He nearly fell again as she yanked him forward.

"No problem…" he muttered rubbing his side as if it hurt him. He sent a glare towards the hysterical and in his point of view, monkeys.

Cagalli finally gained control and got her water down. She stood, leaving her water bottle and went to a window and looked out. She nearly shrieked when the outline of a city on Australia's cost caught her attention. The gleaming windows from the building made her shriek as she recognized what she had come to call home.

"We're here!" she said jumping up and down excitedly as she stared out across the turquoise waters. She had so many places she wanted to show her friends.

"Home at last." Muttered Lacus who had come to stand beside her and gaze at the city. "Father probably already has a show for us set up." She said giggling.

Cagalli could tell that Lacus and Kira had grown close as she watched Kira from the corner of her eye look at Lacus and smile. Men were so obvious, she thought to herself smiling. She caught herself looking at Athrun. No! she scolded herself silently. She was to busy to even consider a relationship, let alone one with an ex-enemy that she had kidnapped. Sighing she calmed herself down. She knew she was excited about seeing Sir, but she was eager to see her new weapon even more.

Nikki whistled to herself as she skipped merrily into the hangar. "Leila!" she said stopping next to her sister. "I can see the people on the dock already. I was on the deck with a pair of binoculars." The younger girl said smiling happily.

"Almost there." Cagalli sighed. The group jumped as a beep came on over the intercom loudly. "Cagalli, please report to the hangar. A ship is being sent to bring you to shore immediately. I repeat. Cagalli report to the hangar immediately. This is a 23A status report." The woman's voice said clearly then clicked off.

Cagalli was already moving as soon as she heard it. The hangar door was opening, and she had already grabbed her gundam's helmet. Her eyes were a golden flame as people moved out of her way. A speedboat was coming up next to the open hangar door, and a ladder was being lowered for her to get in.

Without looking back, she jumped into the boat, not bothering with the ladder, and the boat took off as soon as her feet landed, and the man wearing a black business suit filled her in on what the emergency was.

Kira and Athrun looked at Lacus, Flay, and Nikki who was hugging Lacus tightly.

"It's alright Nikki." Lacus soothed. Flay had a worried expression on, and she was looking around nervously.

"What's going on?" Kira asked, looking confused.

"Leila has been called in for a 23A status report." Nikki said as she detached herself from Lacus.

"That means she's being sent out on a mission immediately. Something must have happened." Flay translated looking at her hands intently. There was obviously something the girls weren't saying, whatever it was, the boy's wanted to know.

"You're not telling us everything." Athrun said glaring at the trio.

"We can't say any more. Sorry." Lacus said as she placed a hand on Nikki's shoulder.

"Attention crew. We will be docking in ten minutes." Came the intercom.

"Let's see what's going on." Lacus said comfortingly as she smiled at Nikki.

"Alright." The younger sister said quietly.

Ten minutes later, there was a soft thud as the Dark Angel docked. Commander La Cruse was the first off of the Dark Angel, and he went to salute several of the council members who were present.

After La Cruse came Lacus, Nikki, Flay, Athrun, Kira, and Dearka. The group exited the ship to stand infront of the council members. Kira instantly recognized Sir. The elderly gentleman walked up to where his grandchildren were, and Nikki quickly hugged him. Kira smiled, unsure of what to do.

"We'll talk later." He said. The group of councilmen turned and started walking down a tunneled hallway. Kira and the others followed behind them with La Cruse leading.

"Is that the new weapon?" asked La Cruse as they stopped to see a large gundam with many people working around it and bustling about like ants.

"Yes. Leila will be launching momentarily." He said sighing.

The gundam was a little larger than Cagalli's old one. It had a large cannon attached to its back, and a laser on one of its legs, while a regular gun sat on the other. In all it looked completely normal, but it didn't seem normal. There was a feel to the gundam that would have made anyone think it wasn't normal. The group noticed a figure wearing a pilots helmet in the open cockpit, typing away furiously at the system controls. The girl's curses were heard by them when they noticed she was not pleased on how they had set the gundam. Suddenly she yelled for everyone to clear the launch base.

The crews hurried to elevators that took them away from the launch pad, and the cockpit closed quickly. The gundam roared to life, and in seconds it had disappeared through a hole in the cavern wall above where it had been.

"That's Cagalli's present?" asked Kira a bit shocked. He could tell there was something different about the gundam, but he had no idea what.

"Yes, you can see it when she returns. She has to do a little game of cat and mouse first." He said grinning.

"The Alliance?" Athrun asked staring after it, he too having sensed the strange power.

"Yes. Out satellite have spotted an Alliance fleet just north of our waters. They are carrying nuclear warheads, and it is Cagalli's job to rile them up and destroy the missiles. She does rather enjoy doing that I must say." Sir said looking thoughtful.

Nikki smiled along with Lacus and Flay, and the girls were instantly at ease as the elderly man led them into a building inside the mountain.

"Once Leila returns we will have a party, parade, and you will be taken to my home for a council meeting." After speaking of the meeting, he looked at Kira and Athrun. "I will have to explain things later." The man said sighing as he led them into a large room with sofas and refreshments. The table was loaded with food and drinks, and the group immediately dug in.

"This is really good." Muttered Kira while stuffing a french fry into his mouth.

"You said it." Smiled Dearka as he went to reload his plate.

The girls and Sir merely stared at them as the three boys devoured half of the food that had been set out. And it had been A LOT.

The girls finally snapped out of their stupor and began getting plates and eating.

Sir eventually left mentioning that he had to go see what Cagalli's status was. He returned almost three hours later looking worried.

"What's wrong?" asked a stuffed Dearka as he lounged on one of the sofa's.

"We received a message from Leila. It was staticy, but we managed to make out, 'New weapon…strong…bad situation…unknown group…' and then we lost contact. We don't know if she was speaking of her new weapon when she said new weapon strong, but we are sending out a scout team." The old man looked severely worried, and Nikki ran to hug him. He gripped her tight, then told her not to worry.

The group decided to go wait at the launching and landing area where she would hopefully come in. About half an hour after they got there, they heard alarms going off. A heavily battered machine landed ungracefully where the new weapon had been hours earlier. The moon overhead cast light on the machine as did the facilities lights. The cockpit opened, and a weary Cagalli stumbled out. She was caught by one of the work crew who had been standing by to do repairs.

She stumbled to catch her balance, and gripped the railing as he helped her stand. The group was instantly by her side, Kira and Athrun going under each of her arms to support her. She mumbled something under her breath, then looked up at her grandfather.

"If you got my transmission then you know that the Alliance has a new weapon, and there's a new enemy. It fired upon both me and the Alliance's crafts. It was unmarked, and there were two airships with it as well. It refused to make contact." She paused for a moment rubbing her hair which was a mess since Lacus had removed her helmet. She had a cut on her leg that didn't look too bad. She had another three on her arm, one might need stitches, but she was mainly tired.

"Tell me after you get some rest." Sir said as they sat her in a wheelchair and took her to the infirmary where they waited for information on the new enemy.

-Pre-Story Line-

While Orb was busy making the new weapon for Leila, aka Cagalli, many things were happening elsewhere. A new enemy has surfaced, and has been attacking Alliance and Orb fleets for almost a year. The Alliance has been working on bigger and badder weapons, that don't seem to work very well in the field, but great in simulators.

Reviews: Glad everyone liked it. If anyone likes Hellsing I have two fics started. I haven't been able to update in awhile because my comp won't let me upload. Anyways, check back soon

Thank you so much for the reviews. I love getting comments on how I'm doing, so please keep letting me know.