"Alright, that's it! Tell me what's wrong" screamed Cagalli, barging into the door of her room and stomped towards the person sitting on the balcony.
Lacus switched her attention from the night sky to her friend.
"The teachers told me your grades have been steadily declining since the past week. You refuse to participate in social activities. And you hair is getting messy by the day" bombarded the brash princess before she knelt down beside her friend and held her hand, "please don't let that idiot ruin your life"
"Thank you, Cagalli. I'm fine. Just had something on my mind, but I assure you, it's not him" replied the other.
Cagalli was about to be convinced as she turned to leave for the bathroom when Lacus suddenly said, "Maybe I should get him a present"
"You told me once that Mr. Zala in your class is great at making complicated machines. Do you think I could ask him to make me something?" she asked, to which Cagalli flinched.
"Of, of course. You don't have to ask me for permission to ask him" she replied nervously.
Lacus smiled and bade her goodnight upon her approval.
"You are that in love with him, huh?" she whispered to herself as she watched her friend settle in.
Widened Rift
"Shouldn't you be moving around?" asked a female voice behind him, which he recognized as Flay's.
"I'm fine now" he replied. "Really, I'm glad. But how long those bandages have to be on?" she approached and touched the bandaged part of his back, which made him tense slightly.
Somehow, after he was hospitalized, that girl from his past suddenly entered his life again. For the past week, she had been visiting him, bringing him food, and feeding him. Kira could not resist as a part of him still feel for her, though sometimes another came into his mind. However, the longer he spent with Flay, the smaller the thought for the other became.
"Why do you do this? I thought you are engaged?" asked Kira turning towards her.
She looked surprised at first but soon smiled and said, while getting closer to him and taking off his glasses, "That was just our parents' arrangement by word of mouth. It's nothing compared to my love for you…"
Kira was caught off guard by her sudden action. He should have been able to push her away, but that familiar taste of her lips pushed him to return the kiss, safe from the surveillance of the disabled camera.
Athrun exited his vehicle and dashed across the snow-covered road, before shaking his school cloak off the snow flakes while standing under the shelter of the building's porch. Since Ireland experience seasonal weather, the school uniform varies differently, consisting of 3 types for spring and autumn together, summer, and then winter. The basic clothing of the collared shirt, tie and pants are still the same, but instead of the coat, boys could wear a forest green, emerald striped, v-neck sleeveless sweater together with a dark green, hooded cloak during winter periods. Girls' uniform is still the same, but they can choose to wear a pale green long-sleeved sweater and the same cloak.
He ran along the student-packed corridor before being stopped by a figure, which stood in his way.
"Hey you, I want a rematch-" said the figure, only to get stopped short by a response, "sorry, don't have time for you" as he brushed past him.
Laughter soon followed the interaction between the two.
"He sure didn't care about you" said Dearka, approaching his shaking buddy, who suddenly screamed out loud, while trashing about, "THAT BASTARD! I'M GONNA MAKE HIM PAY FOR IGNORING ME!"
Dearka suddenly backed away from him.
"What? What's wrong?" asked Yzak, looking at his pale friend, who pointed to the back of him. Yzak turned around and stared right into a pair of purple eyes belonging to a certain black-haired lady.
"Mr. Joule. Detention tonight for cursing, screaming, and trashing in public" said Ms. Badgiruel, the high school's Disciplinary Mistress.
Dearka started cracking-up when she finished, only to get shut-upped by her saying, "Mr. Elsman. Want to accompany him?"
Dearka suddenly straightened up, saluted and said, "No, ma'am. I'm sorry, ma'am"
As soon as Natarle walked a distance away from them, Yzak, thinking that she wouldn't hear, whispered, "Stupid woman" However, that didn't escape the Mistress' superb hearing. She stopped in her tracks and shouted back, with her back still at him, "Yzak Joule! Community service for offending a school official! One month garbage duty!"
This time, all the other students, who had been watching the scene, burst out laughing uncontrollably, with some of them banging their fists on the lockers, rolling on the carpeted floor, and choking from laughing too much. Yzak fumed as he watched them. Dearka ran away from his friend as far as possible upon noticing that he's about to blow up.
Then, suddenly, "SHUT UP! ALL OF YOU!"
"Kira," Athrun approached his friend, who is at his locker, "someone's been trying to get into our system. Look at this log"
Kira read the activity history, frowned, before finally saying, "Don't worry. It's just a glitch. I'll fix it later"
Athrun persisted when suddenly a girl's voice called Kira's name.
"Come on, let's go, Kira" she said, wrapping her arms around Kira's, "I just got the approval to switch classes. Now we can see more of each other."
Athrun stared at them in disbelief as they left and turned the corner of the corridor. He was about to chase after them when Cagalli called him.
"Athrun, there's still time before the first class starts. You want to go grab a bite?" she asked.
Athrun agreed, prioritizing his mission first.
"Where's Lacus?" he suddenly asked, causing Cagalli to feel sick.
"She's still back at the room. Need to tidy herself up. Why?"
"Just wanted to tell her that the thing she asked me to do will be done soon" he replied, looking down on the floor.
From that day on Lacus watched painfully as Kira and Flay get closer by each passing day. Usually, he would be looking at her whenever she turned to look at him during classes. Now, not to mention ignoring her, he rudely brushed her away when she tried talking to him. He also seemed to become distant from interaction to any of his friends. Even Athrun himself rarely sees him around, with him not being back to sleep every night like he used to.
When Athrun investigated, he was shocked to realize that he had been staying with Flay. Furthermore, that was not the only thing he found out. Lacus, on the other hand, just kept quiet about her feelings, with Cagalli only lukewarmly caring about the matter, until that fateful weekend. The songstress was strolling around the school's lake on the misty Sunday morning when she came across Kira, Flay, and another spectacled boy which she heard to be Flay's fiancée.
"Hey, Athrun! Long time no see. How are you?" asked Waltfeld, "I guess, since you forced your way into HQ's connection network, something must be up. Where's Kira?"
"He is the problem, commander" saluted Athrun before he proceeded in explaining the current situation.
"I see..." commented Waltfeld.
"He had been neglecting his duties since the past 17 days. Fortunately, no attempt on the target has been detected" concluded the younger.
"Do you have evidence that the suspect is indeed behind all this?" Waltfeld inquired, putting down his cup of coffee.
"Yes, sir" replied Athrun confidently.
Waltfeld looked at him seriously and said in a low voice, "Very well, I will issue the EI. You have permission to take down the suspect…discreetly"
Athrun saluted before Waltfeld cut off the connection.
Suddenly, at the same time, bangs on the door ensued, prompting Athrun to shut the laptops' monitor down and cover all their armaments. Upon opening the door, he came face-to-face with a flustered-looking Cagalli.
"Ath, Athrun! Help. It's Lacus. She has locked herself inside the room. I can't get in" Cagalli said, in between breaths.
He quickly exited the room, ran downstairs and towards the girls' dormitory building, with Cagalli tagging along behind him. He tapped on the door and called Lacus' name but no one answered. He tried Cagalli's ID card but the room's passcode has been changed.
"Cagalli. Go to the first car parked on the left of the boys' dorm front porch. Inside is a laptop. Bring it here" ordered Athrun, throwing her the vehicle key.
He watched as she disappeared into the elevator, before drawing his wrist-watch close to the ID reader. Pulling out a string-width cable, he attached it to a plug on the side of the reader, and pressed the buttons on the side of the watch. A few seconds later, the light on the reader turned from red to green. He turned the handle of the door and stepped into the room.
"Lacus?" he called, not seeing anybody from his current point of view.
The bathroom and the closet, which are located inversely as the boys', larger and more femininely colored, are empty. 2 twin-single beds beside the bathroom wall and separated by a study desk are empty. The first bed he passed is green and yellow colored, indicating that Cagalli's the owner, while the other is pink, red, and light blue oriented.
As he went closer, the silent but discernable cry grew louder until his eyes caught the pink-hair, all curled up beside her bed.
"Lacus…"he said, stepping closer to her and kneeling down in front her.
She realized who is it and attempted to wipe her tears away but more came out.
"Tell me what happened, would you? I will help to the best of my ability" he assured her, trying to catch a glimpse of her face, which she hid between her knees. She, being an honest and naive person, told Athrun the truth.
He gasped in shock at the last phrase she said. She, unable to hold on, threw her face on Athrun's chest and started crying again. Cagalli, who had been listening to all of this outside the door, watched Athrun hug her friend and started to comfort her. She slumped down beside the doorframe, dropped the laptop, and curled up while feeling tears welling up her eyes. By now, Athrun's insides had been boiling to its terminal tolerance level. He swore he's going to deal with it.
The sky grew darker by the minute, with the clouds hindering the sun's ray. Two figures stood at the side of the half-frozen river of the northwestern sector of the institute's complex. The slimmer of the two snuggled closer to the taller one.
"Kira, tell me the last code for that, will you?" she pleaded, bringing her face closer to his, with her hand holding a knife behind his neck.
The boy couldn't think straight, much too insinuated by the female. He was about to spill the beans when suddenly a gun fire echoed through the silent trees surrounding the scene.
Blood splattered out of the red-haired head, making the other suddenly snap out of his trance, focus his eyes, and gasp upon seeing the shocked face of falling person in front of him, as in slow motion. He quickly grabbed her limp body before it collapsed onto the snowy field.
"Who…what…" he stuttered, gently shaking her limp body.
A voice came from behind saying, "Termination Code 2, Level 3-"
Suddenly, a scream could be heard nearby, followed by random, rapid footsteps of someone scrambling away. However, another shot was fired, and a slush of a body falling on the ice was heard thereafter. Kira turned his head to see Sai's dead body at the foot of the tree 15 ft away, and said in a bitter tone, "Athrun…why"
The blue-haired boy emerged from the shadows, looking coldly at the brown-hair, while putting his right hand, which is holding the gun, down to his side. "Permission to eliminate any and all dispensable materials" he continued, throwing him a disk bearing DARTH emblem on its front, "enforced by Executive Intervention order for the use of extreme measures"
Kira grabbed a handful of snow and flung it at the blue-hair, while screaming, "Why did you do that!"
Athrun was distracted by the high-velocity snowball, while Kira charged at him rashly.
"You…all of people! I thought you knew me!" he shouted, grabbing Athrun's right hand and attempted to disarm him.
"That's why I do this, because I KNOW YOU, FOOLISH CRAP!" Athrun shouted back at him, jabbing the side of his torso with his left fist, before flipping him against a tree to his side.
Kira slammed face on onto the tree trunk and slumped down with his back on the snow.
Athrun tossed at his face a folder, from which various photographs of Flay taking advantage of him and different disks containing video and log evidence fell out. Tears started to roll down Kira's cheeks.
Athrun looked at him in disgust, saying, "You spineless piece of filthy rag. By just sleeping with such a female turned you into a puppet"
He grabbed the brown-hair by the collars, stared into his clouded eyes and hissed, "You would betray the whole organization just for a piece of rubbish who wanted to kill you. Are you blind? There's someone else better, but you gave in to this one. You dirty lowlife!" he swung his fist onto Kira's right cheek, sending him a few feet across the snow with a bloody nose.
Athrun stood back up, watching the pitiful excuse of his friend cry in agony. Several DARTH operatives approached him from behind.
"What now?" one of them asked.
"Clean up the mess and secure this idiot here. The Commander will deal with him" Athrun ordered.
As couple of the agents dragged Kira pass him, Athrun said, "you know of an undetectable backdoor to DARTH's mainframe, but you told her the most obvious way of infiltrating it instead. If it weren't for that small portion of sense left in you, I would have killed you"
"You still want to give him that?" asked Cagalli, looking sadly at her friend, who is sitting on her bed with a small, neatly wrapped box on her hands.
"I'm an idiot, I know…But if he refuses this, I will give up trying from then on"
"Lacus…" Cagalli whispered, angered but at the same time impressed by Lacus' forgiving traits, knowing that she could never be like her friend, "cheer up, alright? The school's going to the Alps for our Christmas Holiday. The others would be sad to see you so down, especially during that time."
Lacus hugged her and expressed her gratitude for having such a friend, making Cagalli fell guilty about the things she had done between Athrun and her friend.
The computer in front of the man beeped, prompting him to draw his attention to it. The lights in the room were not off and the blinds were closed, consequently darkening the room and hiding his face. However, upon reading the message on his computer screen, the outline of his lips curved slightly.
"So it failed…No matter, there are other ways" the man said, chuckling to himself.
A/N: (Argghhh! I can't re-upload a corrected version because the server's overloaded…Anyway) Phew. How's that? Bad? So-so? Tell me, alright? Now that all the outside interference are gotten rid of, I can concentrate on the 4 characters. Feedback welcomed!