Author's note: I have brought with me another update! So, in this chapter it'll be revealed what happened to Athrun and what his fate will most likely come to. I've narrowed this story down to about three or four more chapters. I'd also like to thank those who reviewed and I wish to apologize for being rather brash in the last little note I had in the last chapter, the sudden leave of my common reviewers pretty much shocked me. But enough of my blabbering and on with another entry of Burn that Baby!

Pain exploded in his body with such intensity that it was nearly crippling. Athrun hadn't the slightest clue where he had been shot, or if he had been shot at all for that matter. But when he was able to feel something, his body having gone completely numb from shock, a warm liquid-like sensation became present and it was then that Athrun realized that his father was no longer there to support him.

It's not like he ever did anyways.

Frozen at the thought of being shot by his own father was more than enough to stop him from running any further. Instead, Athrun crawled over to a metal trashcan and laid heavily against it and felt his body scream in protest when it began to slip away from him. He had the choice to fight back for all that he was worth, but Athrun would never sink as low as his father had. Never.

Propping himself up using his almost pain free arm, Athrun bowed his head and inspected the damage that had been done, disgusted at what a single bullet could do to one's skin.

It had been a clean shot, missing his elbow in a few short millimeters. The flesh had peeled back from the entry wound, blood dyed and resembling the color of white murky water. It hurt a lot and the blood had seeped out to the point where he would probably have to buy another coat. But he wasn't going back to the PLANTs, that much he was sure of.

Athrun knew he would be leaving his friends behind, disliking it completely, but he had no other choice than this. Kira and his family were fond enough of him to let him stay for a while until he decided on what to do. The way he saw it, he had only two options. Fight against both sides and hope for a good outcome or leave the city all together and never be heard of again.

Kira wasn't that easy to let go though. He had known the brown haired mobster since they were so young and their friendship was unbelievably strong, even now when all the fighting and violence threatened to tear them apart permanently. But if he were to stay, Athrun had the top most confidence that his friend would fight along side him to put an end to everything.

A loud noise rang through his panicked mind as someone neared at a fast pace. Athrun quickly snapped back into reality, emerald eyes huge with something along the lines of fear, but it was fear for his life and nothing else. He promised himself long ago that he would never be afraid of his father, no matter what the old man did to provoke such an awful feeling.

"Athrun! Come out Athrun, I didn't mean to, honestly."

When Patrick Zala was directly behind the continuously slipping trashcan, Athrun used all the strength he had left to push himself upwards, just enough to do a spin on his side and kick the metal garbage container outwards, striking the Don of the PLANTs in the shins.

Athrun heard him fall back, landing on the ground quite a ways away and stood up quickly, grasping his arm as pain quickly took hold of him once more. Now was definitely not the time to give into it, especially when his father was about to withdraw his gun again. So, with no other choices left, Athrun once again had to run away, hoping that he wouldn't be struck again by a bullet that came from his own father's gun. It was the person responsible for his pain that hurt the most.

"Athrun you little prick, get back here now!"

Several shots were fired, all of which bounced harmlessly off the sides of old apartment buildings and the meeting hall itself. Athrun was long gone by the time another round of bullets could be heard, so far that he was now in Orb territory.

At least here he felt safe.

Athrun quickly made for the house which so many good memories had taken place, but stopped abruptly upon remembering that Kira's house no longer existed. In fact, it had been his friends who had set the thing ablaze, though he had no idea how or who exactly did it. So where else could Kira have possibly gone?

He hadn't met much of Kira's other friends. It was latter on in life that Athrun knew his friend had met them, probably at an Orb school or something. But, unlike Kira's friends, the one's the blue haired mobster had back in the PLANTs attempted to murder Kira. If these people Athrun had never seen before were bad people, they probably would've gone after him already, so with this information alone Athrun suddenly wished everyone could be like these people; friendly and purposely trying to be oblivious to the fighting at hand.

Starting his search by asking people around him, Athrun headed towards a group of whispering teens, who were more than likely talking about him. He was a stranger after all, especially in the neighborhood of people who were supposed to be his 'enemies'. Everyone was probably really close; knew one another and where they lived, so Athrun tested that thought by walking up to a boy with glasses and sandy colored hair and a girl who clung obsessively to his arm, wearing obscure clothing and sporting hair that was stuck in between red and pink.

"Have you seen-"

"Who are you?" The girl snapped, who now had both her hands placed expertly onto her hips. She eyed him coldly and took a couple of steps backwards when she came upon the symbol stitched perfectly onto one of the breast pockets of Athrun's coat. "You're one of them aren't you? Get away from me!"

"Fllay...," the boy warned in a soft voice, looking backwards for a moment, then turned fully to face Athrun. His face was very warm and his expression full of understanding, but his mouth was formed as if to ask a question, but Athrun beat him to it.

"Have you seen Kira?"

The boy seemed to become dumbstruck for a moment, as if that was the last question in the world he thought a complete stranger would ask. When he finally managed to compose himself he fiddled with his glasses momentarily before questioning Athrun like he had originally intended.

"Are you from around here? And how do you know Kira?"

"Kira was... a friend of mine."

The boy then seemed to realize the growing red blotch on Athrun's arm and blinked several times. He thought quickly about everything, whether to trust this stranger or not, but if he didn't he knew Kira would be in a more depressed state than he already was. Plus, this guy didn't look all that harmful anyways.

"He lives with his friend Tolle now. Oh, and I'm Sai and this is Fllay," he motioned towards the girl who now stared at Athrun with nothing but hate in her eyes. "I could lead you there if you want."

"T-thanks."

Athrun was beginning to feel extremely dizzy and wondered if he'd have enough energy to make it to this Tolle's house.

He'd just have to wait and see.

Kira flipped mindlessly through an old magazine with torn and stained pages, all of which meant nothing to him and so he didn't even bother reading the small print. He was currently rested upon a borrowed bed, Tolle's to be exact, and was feeling particularly tired.

Just as his eyes were about to close for good and sleep began to work its way through him, a loud knocking on the dusty window beside the bed snapped Kira back into reality. He looked towards it and quickly withdrew the gun he had hidden under the bed, taking off the safety with practiced speed, then aiming it at the glass barrier as he advanced, eyes watching for any sign of an attack.

He bent down so that his knees were touching the hardwood floor underneath him and cautiously undid the lock that binded the window to a old, worn wooden frame, and raised his gun when a loud creak sounded painfully in his ears.

Before Kira had the chance to see if there was really anything at all outside the window, the glass barrier which served as a wall between his isolated world and that of outside was pushed open and somebody jumped inside.

Kira aimed his gun as the person slowly rose, clearly in a great amount of pain due to their body posture. However, as the brown haired mobster readied his finger on the trigger, the features of the person came into few as he staggered forward, surprising Kira completely.

Throwing his weapon off to the side, Kira rushed forwards as Athrun began to lean too far ahead and caught his friend just as bright emerald eyes closed and the blue haired mobster became surrounded into a world of darkness...