Title: After The Sunrise

Author: Jusrecht

Genre: Drama/Romance/Action/Adventure

Pairings: Main: Kira/Athrun, Cagalli?; Others: Dearka/Yzak

Disclaimer: Not mine

Warning (for this chapter): Male/male pairings, major AU-ness to Gundam SEED Destiny series

Notes: Thanks to Isarandel, DaredevilX, teno-hikari, JC Maxwell-Yuy, RuByMoOn17, SRSWSSS, and lightyearsaway for reviewing the second chapter. To Dephanie, thank you for reminding me about using the word 'guy'. I hope you find this chapter satisfactory.

Stage Three: Her Annoyance

For the umpteenth time, Athrun wondered why he ever had the thought to offer himself to be her bodyguard.

"Some good stuffs they have here," Cagalli took a small bite of her fruit pie before setting her gaze back cautiously at her personal assistant. "And you were saying?"

Athrun managed to suppress a frustrated growl and resolved on glaring at her. "You have to wear a dress, Cagalli. I know you bring one with you."

"This is a really ugly business, Ath– no, I mean, Alex. You heard what Dullindal said, didn't you? We cannot afford to stand out too much," she attempted a look of earnest sincerity, which immediately fell into an utter rebelliousness once she caught his stern expression. "Oh, come on! That frilly girly stupid pink dress will make me look like some kind of misplaced idiot!"

"I know I should ask Mana to come with us," the longhaired guy muttered sourly to himself. Cagalli grinned victoriously and yet chose not to tell him that it was the actual reason of her giving her nursemaid a permission to visit her relatives out of town.

The party from ORB, consisting of the youngest representative in the Council of ORB, her bodyguard, Alex Dino, and Colonel Edneil Kisaka, was currently resting at a guest room provided by Chairman Dullindal. They had just arrived thirty minutes ago and the Chairman, despite Representative Athha's fervent objection, had insisted them to have some rest first before starting the meeting. For further reason, they still needed to wait for others who would participate in the small meeting and had not arrived yet, or so he had said.

Cagalli finished her fruit pie and glanced at Kisaka who was standing behind the window, watchful of what might happen outside. "How long do they expect us to wait here?"

"Until you're willing to wear a more appropriate outfit?" Athrun suggested helpfully before the third person in their group could reply.

The blond girl sighed and settled an annoyed look at him. "Just give up, Alex. Or I'm really going to send my brother that photo of you wearing my make up."

A look of utter horror passed across Athrun's face. "You don't have it."

"Oh, I do," she nodded seriously even though her insides were about to burst from overdosed hilarity. "I took it when I was bored and there you were, falling asleep on the couch without any second thought of your duty. Won't ever find any easier victim, don't you think?" It was a bluff, of course – Athrun would slit her throat first before she had the chance to do anything evil to his perfect complexion – but seeing the forever-imperturbable young man's horror-stricken look was worth nearly everything in this world.

The old tricks always worked, she decided with sheer satisfaction when her assistant finally fell silent. She was lucky to have the upper hand though, since there was no such person that he could use against her.

Cagalli frowned. That thought again. It was bothering her somewhat lately, like kept reminding her of her solitary state. Sure, Athrun would always be there to help her in many ways and she was in fact too busy to think about anything along that line, but for some reasons the thought resided obstinately in a corner of her mind, bitter and irremovable.

She shook her head, trying to shake off the thought as well, and looked at her companions. "Have some of these too, guys," she offered the pies and tea, rather unruffled by Athrun's still hostile look. "The meeting may be longer than we expect."

Several knocks suspended her next words and Kisaka quickly moved to the door, his fingers set preparedly before his handgun. But they instantly loosened once the door flung open, revealing a brown-haired young man wearing ZAFT uniform. Cagalli noticed Athrun's eyes lighten up a bit at the sight and she grinned herself and jumped to her feet to give her brother a hug.

"Kira!"

The former pilot of Freedom was thankful that the door had been shut behind him; else, his sister's sudden assault would have toppled him to the floor. "Uh, yeah, it's me. Obviously."

"I thought you were in the Special Force," she remarked with a frown, looking down to his dark-green attire. "Did they kick you out? I'll throw a party if that really happens."

"Unfortunately not yet," Kira beamed and gave her a small kiss on the cheek. "Not quite befitting me, isn't it?"

"No ZAFT uniform will ever befit you," she stated decisively before pushing him away. "Now go and kiss your boyfriend. He was giving me a headache by fussing about meeting you all the way here."

Athrun, she noted, was still giving her a stern look even though a kiss her brother had placed on his cheek was somewhat abating its intensity. Kira chuckled at his expression, nudging him to just ignore her and keep his attention solely at him, and a moment later Athrun had returned his grin. Cagalli stared at the little scene with hands crossed in front of her chest, a disappointed look on her face.

"Just that?" she demanded.

"Seriously, Cagalli," Athrun's voice hinted a considerate amount of sweetness which had a lot more to do with lethal venom than harmless candies, "what is it exactly that you're dying to see?"

"What we're about to do isn't for your innocent eyes to see, little sister," Kira added with a somewhat somber voice, a conspiratorial look on his face.

The 'little sister' gritted her teeth and smiled tartly, both of her hands visibly curling into a fist. "I'm your big sister, little brother, don't you dare go off and forget that." Then her eyes shot back to Athrun. "And don't you laugh, Alex Dino. You are positively much younger than me."

"And so she said," the longhaired boy tilted his head, giving his partner in crime a dejected look.

"You could have told her that you were born in 54."

"That would be a serious crime, Kira," Athrun pointed out in a grave tone, which for some reasons made Cagalli's temper flare even higher instead. The boys were pointedly ignoring her, or more precisely, pretending like she was not even there. "You know how they deal with that kind of thing in PLANT. I'd rather not to do that unless you want me to spend the rest of my days behind bars. And, you know, I don't think I quite have the heart to lie to a sweet albeit slightly insolent little girl."

The older boy shrugged helplessly, his face straight but his eyes twinkling with laughter. "But it is for her own good. We don't want to defile her uncorrupted mind, do we? What kind of brother I am to let my sister's mind be harmed with depraved thoughts?"

"This is so unfair," Cagalli muttered under her breath, but none of the two was paying a heed as much as sparing her a glance, too 'engaged' in their boys' talk. Another train of protests was about to slip past her mouth when a finger was placed in front of her lips, ceasing their movement at once. Athrun had turned around and now had his back facing her, one arm set defensively to shield her body yet ready to strike if situation called. There was no trace of frivolity left on his countenance; it was Alex Dino carrying out his duty as a bodyguard.

"Someone's lurking out there," he informed her quietly, sharp green eyes never leaving the door. Kira and Kisaka had readied themselves behind said door, each carrying a handgun, waiting in stiff silence.

A faint click from the brass handle followed a moment later and the door was pushed open with the slightest noise. Kira's tense shoulders slackened considerably at the sight of Da Costa halting before the door as Athrun made a way for Cagalli to greet their newly arrived visitor. The ZAFT officer quickly slipped inside and saluted at them.

"Representative Athha, the meeting will be begun momentarily. I will escort you to the meeting room."

Not even a simple nod had been given as a reply when there was a sound of hurried footsteps and quiet but audibly panic murmurs from the other side of the door. Cagalli frowned and asked, "Is there something going on?"

Da Costa's face was grave but his reply remained noncommittal. "I'm afraid I have not the liberty to answer, but the Chairman surely would be willing to clarify this matter by himself. Shall we go now?"

The small party left swiftly through long corridors. Along the way they came across few Council members who would just pass quickly without offering them a single glance. Cagalli's frown deepened. The look on those officials' face implied that whatever errand they were in, the matter was far from light. Her suspicion escalated another degree when they arrived.

The so-called meeting room was a bright chamber with cushions set comfortably circling a small coffee table. The autumn sun was graciously pouring its merry light into the room, giving her a warm impression of a pleasant, relaxing living room, not a place suited for a discussion that – as Dullindal had said – could disrupt the perpetuity of peace they were trying to preserve. However, something prevented her from feeling right at ease, probably the warmth of the room itself. She pretty much knew Dullindal and his ways, and he would not choose such homey place as a meeting room unless it was his intention to make the topic they were about to discuss seem less depressing.

Some of the seats, she noted, had been occupied. There was the chairman of course, and Representative Canavar by his side. Lacus was there too, even though she could not spot Haro's whereabouts in the room – robotic things, naturally, were not welcomed in a formal meeting. She also recognized in the group a young man in white military uniform, formerly a ZAFT pilot she had met once after the war two years ago, but he had been wearing a Council robe just like Canavar back then.

Dullindal rose from his seat, an overformal smile brightening his pale visage. "How grateful I am that you have agreed to come, Princess. Please take a seat."

After Cagalli chose the farthest seat from him, the Chairman waved his hand at the remaining seats and looked at the rest of his guests. "There is no further need for formality or discretion here, Athrun Zala-kun, Kira Yamato-kun, and of course Colonel Kisaka. Please sit down."

The two guys shared an apprehensive glance before accepting the offer. It seemed to be a high-level problem they were about to converse.

"This is not exactly a favorable topic for us," Dullindal began once he had taken his own seat, his decorous smile dimming considerably. Cagalli rolled her eyes, which immediately earned her a reprimanding look from Kisaka while the Chairman of PLANT was pretending to not take any notice. "I would not disturb you, Princess, if I indeed can take this matter into my own hand, which is almost improbable considering our situation. Concisely said, there was something in our possession which has been stolen six days ago."

There was a moment of tight silence before Cagalli reacted with a stiff smile, "And in what part can I offer my aid to resolve this... case of burglary, I should say?"

Dullindal's smile was no less wry. "In many ways, milady. One of them is to give us your consent for Athrun Zala-kun to help us in this delicate matter."

All present eyes were averted to the referred young man who was sitting quietly with hands crossed defensively in front of his chest. The pair of sea green eyes was narrowed slightly as if finding the proposal rather suspicious, his reply delivered with a flat tone, "If you are willing to provide us with clearer explanation, Chairman."

"Certainly," Dullindal 's answer came swiftly as he nodded to Canavar at his left side. Cagalli noticed that the longhaired woman tightened her lips grimly before proceeding to open a file her fingers had been clinging onto closely all the time, and a shiver suddenly ran down her spine. It was similar to what she had felt two years ago, when she had discovered that her father had been helping the OMNI force in developing new types of mobile suits. She only hoped that Dullindal did not make the same mistake.

"It all began six months ago," Canavar's voice was somber, almost rigid. "ZAFT, under Chairman Dullindal's permission, has commenced a secret project from which we might discover a better way to protect our people. PLANT High Council had come into a conclusion that mobile suits no longer could provide us the security our citizen needed, and thus we sought for a better, more reliable solution. An idea was brought up and later approved by majority vote. It was to shift our center of attention not to rely too much on machines but probably living beings."

There was no need to wait long for a reaction from one of the attentive listeners. "So, I take it that you are developing biological weapons," Cagalli said coolly, yet those with keener eyes could easily perceive that her temper was beginning to heat up. "Viruses, I assume?"

"If that is how you wish to put it, Representative Athha," the older woman stared straight into her eyes, impassive and unwavering. Then she looked back at her file and resumed, "We set up several experiments using common viruses as well as bacteria, but no significant result was attainable until four months ago. A group of our researchers found a new variety which was able to kill a living organism – they were using rabbits – in less than ten minutes. Their hypothetical theory was that the newly-found breed, GARM-Alpha as they named it, might kill a normal human," she flashed a cautious glance at the young ORB representative, "or in this case, Naturals, in approximately one hour at most."

A tense silence stretched in the room as Canavar waited for a response from any of the dire faces around her. When none came, she swallowed and continued with a clear albeit quirky voice. "Not yet contented with GARM-Alpha, two weeks later the same group discovered another new variety they later called GARM-Beta by manipulating the RNA of the Alpha. It was, as they stated, more lethal than its predecessor. However, no one could explain clearly how more lethal the variety Beta was until an incident took place two months ago."

She took a deep breath while the others visibly held theirs. "One of our researchers died because of the virus and he was a Coordinator at his thirty."

And then, among them settled a longer louder silence. The fact that Coordinators were immune to most if not all Naturals' diseases had been widely acknowledged and news of a young Coordinator dying because of any kind of illness was unheard-of. But of course, since Coordinators were the genetically modified form of Naturals, it was not impossible at all that a genetically modified virus could bring harm to them.

"We kept this incident classified to avoid panic," a trace of discomfort emerged in her voice. "There are few, even now in the High Council, who have the knowledge of this incident. But six days ago, an occurrence took place and rendered the confidentiality of this matter no longer possible. Both variety of viruses have been purloined from the third laboratory where they were kept."

"The security level of our laboratories is excellent," Dullindal added, his hands positioned as to form a pyramid in front of his mouth. "However, if our suspicion is correct, it should be relatively feasible for Betelgeuse, with whom several of our former researchers have joined, to break through our security system and accomplish the larceny. The system has been upgraded following their desertion, but of course, with our lack of manpower, we could not do as much as replacing the entire system with a new one."

Cagalli was now staring hard at Dullindal, her voice stern and cold. "I was expecting a wiser judgment from you, Chairman, than committing an act which could lead us to another chaos. Surely, one has learned enough from the previous war?"

"I can assure you, Princess, that my intention was nothing of the sort," again, a stiff smile appeared on the Chairman's face. "Yes, we without a doubt realized that there were flaws in our idea, as Representative Clyne had courteously pointed out in one of our meetings, and yet it was the best one we could come up with at the moment. We have to protect our people who do not wish to enter the battlefield by joining the military or Betelgeuse but often are still targeted by Blue Cosmos. In case if something happens."

"One thing though," Kira's voice rose in the middle of the glaring contest between the two. "Why didn't you just destroy the Beta virus if it could bring harm to Coordinators too? Even after it had taken a victim, I see that you still insisted on keeping it."

The look that emerged on Dullindal's face resembled pity very much that even the compassionate Kira had to feel offended by it. "Surely you have noticed, Lieutenant Yamato, being one who constantly fights bravely in the front line, that Blue Cosmos is not the only association who feels that peace should not reign. Betelgeuse is an organization of Coordinators, and even though it saddens me to go against our own kith and kin, we do not have many choices, do we? Their targets now are not limited to Naturals only, but also Coordinators who are trying to preserve peace alongside with the Naturals. They say that we are the traitors." A dry chuckle escaped his lips at the end of his words.

Before Cagalli could launch another biting comment, Athrun had said briskly, "I don't see how my ability may be of use in this case."

Dullindal looked at his right side. "Commander Jule, as one of the few ZAFT officers who have the knowledge of this matter, may be able to answer your question better than I am."

Yzak, still as proud as Athrun remembered, rose from his seat and walked to the wall at the other side of the room, in his hand a small control device. There he pushed what looked like a lamp switch and the wall behind him vanished, replaced by a wide screen. Cagalli raised her eyebrows at the sight – so much for a home-like room to have such trick inside its wall.

"It was 11 at night when the larceny happened," Yzak started, as a map with colorful specks appeared on the screen. "As soon as I was notified, I sent three Ginns to pursue the ship that we suspected had the viruses on board. It was an unknown model," he flicked his finger on the controller and an image of a small white-grey ship replaced the map on screen. "We didn't have any record on this ship, so it might be a prototype they had recently built. It was fast and even our Ginns had some difficulty to keep up with the speed. I was following on my own ship and keeping a contact with the pilot of the Ginns when suddenly we lost our contact."

"I was at Jachin Due when the report came," the young commander continued as a small green point flickered on the screen which had switched back to a map. Another button on the controller was pushed and a red curving line appeared from the green point, following its way crossing the whole screen filled with blinking white specks, until it halted to a yellow spot at the farthest right end. "The Ginns pursued them all the way to the yellow area, where Artemis once were. One of the pilot reported that they had lost sight of the ship at that site. We lost our contact with them shortly after and when we eventually arrived, the Ginns had been but smashed pieces of metals."

"This is currently hypothetical," Yzak looked back at his audience, "but there is a colony named Hecate somewhere around the area. An old one, pretty much abandoned years ago. Whoever possessing the viruses now may have a base established there, so back then I instructed a quick search around the colony. However, before we reached our destination, my ship detected a massive thermal source surrounding the colony, but when we had gotten closer, there was nothing we could see but the remaining of an old colony. I decided to put the mission into a halt and reported first."

"Could it possibly be something like the Umbrella of Artemis?" suddenly Kira spoke up.

Yzak nodded at him frigidly. "It was also my theory at the moment. A shield, but an invisible one. My ship would have been destroyed if I had insisted to go on and let a collision ensue."

"And the connection with Athrun or Kira is?" The sharp edges in Cagalli's voice were still there.

Dullindal once again took his obligation to deliver the answer. "Once ZAFT dispatched a number of groups to investigate old colonies scattered around our region. Hecate," he paused for a moment, keen eyes moving quietly yet calculatingly to where Athrun sat with an emotionless face, "as Commander Jule recalls, was a colony assigned to Athrun Zala, Nicol Amarfi, and Miguel Ayman. Since the other two are no longer among us, I suppose the choice is rather obvious."

The blue-haired young man returned Dullindal's stare indifferently. "It was four years ago. And if someone does put a base there, I will expect the terrain to be completely changed."

"Better some dim memories than nothing at all, Athrun Zala-kun," the Chairman reasoned before shifting his gaze to Kira. "As for Lieutenant Yamato, the architect of our new Jachin Due's defense system, the one who has the capability to improve the neutron jammers in so little time that we are no longer in fear of nuclear wars, and the pilot of Freedom itself, it would be a grave insult not to involve him in this matter. Of course," he inclined his head at the brown-haired young man, "I would ask for your agreement to come first, even though I must say that your vast technical knowledge would be a great help."

After another round of deafening silence, Dullindal cleared his throat and turned back to Cagalli. "Also in this occasion, I would like to offer Representative Athha a place in Commander Jule's ship to observe this mission, as a verification of our good intention to United Emirates of ORB."

At the end of his words, the PLANT Chairman had both said representative's brother and bodyguard glaring at him in a mixture of disbelief and indignation. Cagalli herself was rather surprised by the offer, and at the same time, very much suspicious that it might have a hidden meaning than the mentioned 'good intention'.

"Since this is a very sensitive matter, Princess," the Chairman resumed and Cagalli glowered at him at the re-alteration of his reference to her, "I would trust your judgment whether or not to notify the officials of your country regarding this incident and the upcoming mission. Representative Clyne would be able to help, I suppose, since being our official Ambassadors for the Earth Alliance, she must be quite experienced in this field."

"We have to do what we could to prevent more casualties," Lacus eventually spoke for the first time, her eyes fixed calmly at Dullindal who returned it with a dry smile.

"I do not expect a straight answer," Dullindal stood, which was quickly followed by the others due to a sudden urge to leave the room as soon as possible. He smiled at each of his guests in turn before his gaze finally rested on Cagalli. Kisaka, closely standing behind the blonde princess, looked warily her coiled fists. "Please take your time to rest this night and consider about this matter. I will be grateful if you have your answer ready by tomorrow morning, preferably affirmative, for the well-being of our co-existence."

The formal smile widened slightly. "Have a good day."

-To be continued –

Ramblings: Phew, what a helluva scene to write. Too wordy in my opinion and there is too much talking. I am sorry if it seems that Dullindal is treated badly in this chapter. Well, I don't really like him but I've tried not to dwell in that sentiment. Do tell me if you have any opinion. Thanks for reading!