Dearka & Miriallia

Author's Note: Okay, as promised a fast update. The first part of this is taken from Episode 31 of SEED Destiny, with slight alterations in order to add Miriallia to the group. The version used was subbed by SEED-Fansubs. Hope you guys enjoy. (smiles) Hugs to all of you! Thanks again for the support everyone!

Disclaimer: It is obvious by now if I'm here that I do not own Gundam SEED, Gundam SEED Destiny or any other Gundam Series. But any characters I create to place in this world are mine (But I don't mind if you guys want to use them too. I have no problem with that. You don't even need to ask me. I enjoy sharing to make other stories the best they can be.)

Chapter 47

Operations

Plains of Russia…

Miriallia stood at attention as she waited for Neo to arrive. It was almost time for operations to start and they were awaiting his arrival for the final set of orders. She thought back, trying to figure out what brought her to this place and what she was really in for next.

The attack on Aprilius 1 had been a disaster and she refused to let it happen again. As far as she was concerned it was her weakness that caused them to lose the battle and retreat. Her eyes dazed off as time began ticking away from her.

Flashback…

The Earth Alliances Air Carrier approached the Bonaparte Ground Carrier near the Plains of Russia and Neo's voice rang clear over the communicator.

"This is Captain Neo Lorrnoke of the 81st Independent Mobile Division. Bonaparte, can you hear me? I'm sending my identification code. Please permit us to land," he said from his mobile suit the Air Carrier following closely behind.

"This is the Bonaparte. Roger that. Your identification code has been confirmed. Welcome, Captain. Please go ahead with your approach," came the Ground Carrier's response.

Miriallia sat quietly next to Sting on the Carrier looking over his lap to see the unconscious blonde in the glass casing.

"I wonder what happened to her," Miriallia thought.

The Carrier landed carefully into the snowy plains. The rough landing caused Stellar to shift uncomfortably in her casing. Both Sting and Miriallia looked over at her. Although, Sting had a more disgruntled look on his face than Miriallia had. As they both exited the Carrier, they met up with Neo. While Stellars' glass unit behind pushed in behind. Miriallia looked over when she heard Sting's voice.

"Heh, you've sure brought us to another remote area," he said speaking for himself and Miriallia and paying no mind to the girl in the glass.

He felt a slight push from Miriallia next to him and looked over at Stellar, a now unknown woman from his mind being altered from her disappearance. He knew what Miriallia was shoving him for, but continued complaining anyway.

"To begin with, what the heck is this? Why did we have to drag what looks like a suicide attempt along with us?" he asked sharply.

"That's enough. There is far too much that you two don't know," Neo scolded the two of them even though Miriallia hadn't said a word.

Sting looked up in shock and Miriallia continued to follow Neo as the glass container rolled behind him. It was strange to her. She felt as though at times she could trust Neo and that she needed to follow his orders and at other times, she was angry with him and wanted him no where near her.

"At this point, that's also something you don't need to know," Neo continued as he walked.

Miriallia began to catch up but her eye caught something else instead. She turned her head to look at a massive machine partially covered by a black tarp.

"What is that?" she thought as she felt Sting brush by her.

"You should hurry. You wouldn't want to be left behind," Sting scolded snapping Miriallia out of her daze.

She saw Neo had made it to the elevator and Jeremy was pushing her in as well. Miriallia and Sting caught up to them and entered as well.

"It's time we get all of you into the pods and help you to heal," Neo ordered crossing his arms in front of him.

Miriallia twisted around feeling her anger begin to flare. Now was one of those times she hated him.

"I don't want to go in one of those. Not anymore. I don't feel right when I come out of them," she yelled back.

Neo shushed her as he looked down at Stellar's struggling form inside the casing.

"But I was already in it on the Girty Lue before we arrived here. Why should I go back in again? I haven't caused any problems and I'm feeling fine," she argued more softly.

Neo shook his head before answering her agitated look.

"You can discuss it with Jeremy. If he feels you need another night in the pod, I want you to spend another night in it. You know he would never prescribe anything for you that wouldn't help you," Neo twisted his words around to convince her.

"Fine," Miriallia said defeated.

Bonaparte Hanger, Present…

And that was just what happened when she remembered as she stood there awaiting Neo. Her mind flashed back to the time she spent in the pod again and then her work just yesterday morning on the Valor to prep it for the mission. Neo had given them all a quick glimpse of the Destroy but now was the time for it's true unveiling. Only thing was, Sting still looked ready for a fight over it as she saw the clueless looking Stellar dazing off into her own world as she had just been doing herself.

Yzak's Office…

The monitor flickered on his screen as the connection was being established. Before he knew it a very familiar face was staring back at him.

"Yzak, how are you doing?" came his mother's softened voice.

"Not so good mother. I need your help," Yzak begged.

She eyed her son with caution when he asked her for help. He wasn't one to show weakness or fall into an uncontrollable situation, which made her worry.

"Do you remember your ultimatum about Dearka and his parents?" he asked being cautious himself.

He had to make sure he didn't accuse his mother for being at fault in the situation. But in all honesty, if it hadn't been for her, he might have tried harder to stop Dearka in the first place. When Shiho had announced what happened to her when his mother cornered her, he knew he couldn't stop Dearka or else his mother would have just made the situation worse. But now he wondered if it could have been any worse.

"Then if you are asking for help, should I be under the assumption he already has?" Ezalia questioned.

Yzak's eyes fell. His mother could always read him so well.

"Yes. But the problem is we were informed of where to find Dearka and I had to send one of my men to get him. Unfortunately, Belle wasn't with him when he was picked up. Unconscious," he added at the end.

He looked up to see his mother's eyes widen at the thoughts of what may have occurred in the Elsman household before he began speaking again.

"Look, he isn't awake yet and he's been back on the ship for almost three days. I just thought maybe since I don't know anything about what happened that the Elsmans' still have Belle. And from the looks of it, it wasn't under Dearka's consent. I was hoping you could do me the favor of finding out whatever you can and see if you can maneuver your way in to stop them from doing anything foolish. After all, if a fellow Councilmember knows about Belle, they would be more reluctant to do something drastic," Yzak reasoned.

"That is under another assumption that they have taken Belle against Dearka's will and have the intention of doing something to her Yzak," his mother scolded.

"Well, if they have her and all is well, then we have nothing to worry about. I just want to know that Dearka will be able to have peace of mind when he wakes up that his daughter is safe. I know it is something you would want for me if I was going through this," Yzak laid a guilt trip on her.

"Fine, I'll see what I can come up with Yzak. But in the meantime, how are you doing otherwise?" she asked.

"Better now that you agreed to help," he admitted.

"And Shiho? That was her name, right?" she pressed.

"Mother, now's not the time," he scolded trying to move her from the subject.

Before she could contest, the buzzer to his office rang making him look up from the monitor in front of him.

"I have to go mother. Please take care and thank you again for helping me out with this," Yzak said sincerely before flipping off the screen.

He hit the unlock button for his door on the desk and sat back down in front of the terminal. He had been standing while addressing his mother just a moment before.

"Enter," Yzak said with authority.

The door swished open revealing a slightly beat up Dearka. But more than that, it also looked to Yzak as though he was a very mad Dearka as well.

"Well, look who we have here. Sleeping Beauty has awakened. You want to tell me what happened to you?" Yzak asked motioning him to enter the room.

Dearka didn't say a word and stepped forward into the room allowing the door to swish closed behind him. He stood there and stared at Yzak intently to see if his friend had really lost his mind in his short absence.

"What is it already?" Yzak snipped starting to lose his temper.

"Had a little visit from Ian when I woke up," Dearka said shortly.

"Man, I can't get that guy to stay off the damn transports between the two ships. He's really starting to irritate me," Yzak said beginning to flare.

Dearka squinted his eyes in annoyance. He didn't need anyone else to take on the battle between Ian and himself. He was quite capable of handling Ian on his own.

"How could you do it Yzak? How could you drag Renee into this?" Dearka asked forcefully.

Yzak looked up from his desk and realized why Dearka was so angry. It had nothing to do with Ian's visiting him and everything to do with Yzak's plan to get Ian off Dearka's back.

"Well, I thought it would help," Yzak answered honestly.

"It didn't. You know as well as I do that Renee will never be able to handle working on a battleship. How can you put her in that situation? Is it just to get Ian out of my way? Because to tell you the truth, I can handle Ian on my own," Dearka yelled.

"Really? The way you handled your parents?" Yzak shot back.

Dearka shook his head at his friend, eyes full of rage. He couldn't believe Yzak had taken such a cheap shot at him. He was hoping Yzak wouldn't resort to the childish I told you so until much later.

"Thanks for that Yzak. I don't know why I bother talking to you sometimes. It's like you don't really hear what I say. You always have to put that damn wall around you. If someone is angry with you, you fight back with misdirected anger of your own," Dearka said turning to leave.

Yzak stood abruptly. It wasn't the first time Dearka had turned his back on him. He had his own memory flash to the Mendel Colony where Dearka turned away from him to return to the Archangel. He could tell this time Dearka really was angry with him.

"Wait," Yzak cried with a hint of desperation in his voice.

Dearka never turned. He walked back to the door as it swished open. His mind racing on what his next move would be now that Yzak was back to being his old self again.

"Lacus! She sent me information to locate the Archangel," Yzak blurted out trying to get his friends' attention.

"No thanks, I'll handle it myself," Dearka said continuing down the hall.

"What the hell was that about?" Yzak thought angrily as he raced out of the office and after Dearka.

Dearka was already out of sight as Yzak rushed by saluting soldiers. He didn't have time to salute back, his pace quickening on the floor. His heart was beating rapidly at Dearka's cold voice.

"I wasn't wrong. Renee will be fine here. Why is everyone so paranoid about this? I was just trying to help him out," Yzak thought starting to become infuriated at his friends' reaction.

Yzak rushed around the corner and still saw no sign of Dearka. He couldn't figure out where he could have gone. He moved quickly to the bridge just in case he went there for some strange reason. When he reached the bridge, he saw his crew working hard at gathering intelligence on the Earth Forces positioning, but there was no Dearka.

"Damn it," Yzak thought irritably.

He exited the bridge and went to check the Rec Room. Pushing by more of his crew, he saw Shiho relaxing comfortably on the couch watching a broadcast from the PLANTs.

"Shiho," he cried out.

Shiho placed the remote down on the coffee table in front of her as she uncrossed her legs to stand up. She watched as other soldiers around her saluted their commander. Tilting her head, she saw his confused yet angry look.

"Now what did they fight about?" Shiho thought annoyed that Dearka hadn't let her come along.

"Have you seen Dearka?" Yzak asked.

"Not since I left his quarters a little while ago, why," she said realizing all the stares she was getting from some of the soldiers around her.

Yzak glared at them with a look of warning, making them quickly shy away and back to what they were doing. Shiho moved from her place and walked closer to Yzak in order to talk with him at a more reasonable distance.

"Because he ran out of the office in a huff," Yzak snipped more quietly.

"Did you think to check his quarters yourself?" Shiho asked with a hint of sarcasm.

Yzak picked up on the sarcasm in her voice and glared at her.

"You know, you have been hanging around him too long," he scolded.

"Oh come on, let's go and look for him," Shiho said slipping her arm through his and dragging him out of the room.

Back in Yzak's Office…

Dearka slipped back into the room and moved to Yzak's desk quickly. It was his lucky day Yzak in his fit of anger had left the screen to his computer unlocked and running.

"I had a feeling you would drop everything to chase after me," Dearka said to himself as he slipped the CD he found in Yzak's top left drawer into the drive.

He read the information Lacus sent over and quickly jotted down a few notes. He felt bad grabbing the information from Yzak like this, but he wouldn't listen to him about Renee, he still had a hatred toward Naturals and when Dearka entered the room he was hit in the face with an I told you so.

"Sorry Yzak, I'm going to do this without your help. If you're not with me one hundred percent, I can't have you around," Dearka thought as he ran back out the door and toward the shuttle bay.

Dearka mounted the shuttle and headed toward the Rousseau leaving his friend behind. All he needed to do was get to Ian and they could head down to Earth. When they got there, he would figure out how to rendezvous with the Archangel without jeopardizing both of their positions.

After all, it was more than Cadey's whining and both their fathers' influences that caused him to lose his elite status. He couldn't face the penalty that he almost did so many years ago. If it hadn't been for Chairman Dullindal, his life would have been forfeited by the orders set in place for all considered traitors of the last war. His body shook at the thought.

"If I had been sentenced to death instead of the Chairman pardoning all the soldiers of the war, I would have never known about Belle," he thought to himself as he sat awaiting the shuttle to dock at the nearby ship.

Trying to rid the ominous thought from his mind, he stepped off the shuttle and headed toward Ian's quarters. It was his turn to visit him and hopefully, they could get the heck of the ship before Yzak figured out what he was up to.

"It doesn't really help my cause that I left the information up on the screen," he thought cursing his stupidity.

He looked around the ship and saluted the soldiers floating by stopping one of the younger females.

"Ellie," Dearka caught her attention.

"Yes Lt. Elsman?" the blonde haired girl asked as she pushed herself to the ground to speak with him.

"Just call me Dearka," he said gently.

The young girl tilted her head unable to understand why he said that. He noticed the clueless look on her face and smiled to himself realizing he had confused her.

"Forget it. I was actually looking for Lt. Randall's quarters. Do you happen to know where he is?" Dearka asked knowing he didn't have clearance to search the Rousseau's computer screens scattered around the halls.

"Uh, no, not off hand," she said softly.

Dearka was almost ready to pull his hair out. He had used his charm to try to get her to look it up for him without directly asking her too and she hadn't picked up on it.

"I must be losing my touch," he thought partially annoyed.

"Can you find out for me then?" he asked bluntly.

Her eyes lit up at his request and she moved over to one of the screens lined on the walls.

"Oh yes, of course sir," she said without hesitation.

"Well it took her gears a minute to start moving, but at least I know her brain is working," Dearka thought smugly.

"It's in Block-B, Room 338," she replied as the information flashed on the screen.

"Thanks Ellie," he said as he pushed off the ground and floated toward Block-B.

She saluted him as he headed down the hall.

"Now I just have to get Ian and get off this ship," he thought heading for Ian's quarters.

End

Author's Preview: Ian and Dearka are heading for Earth to meet up with the Archangel. Will Dearka and Ian make it in time to save Miriallia from the vicious battle about to take place? Yay! Please read and review for me so I can continue on my happy way.

Reviewer Response: Hello to all my wonderful reviewers. Thank you so much for all your support and reviews on all my chapters thus far. I love you all so much! Again, sorry for short replies, I was a little late getting this chapter up because I've been so tired this week. LOTS OF HUGS! Unfortunately due to possible changes in TOS (which is still unconfirmed) all responses are now located on my personal website. Please click on my profile page to link to the website. Thank you.