PLEASE READ THE AUTHOR'S NOTE!

Good lord I suck…

I am so totally sorry for taking so long.

"Aw! It's beautiful!" gushed the blond haired, purple-eyed vixen as she saw her new suit. It was mostly all black with yellow and red here and there. There were more suits behind it in the hangar with cords and wires everywhere. The boy she held on to smiled down at her.

"Yes, I talked the vice chairman into giving it to you Stellar. It's called the Gaia and it also has a BuCUE mode as a mobile armor mode." If it was possible, Stellar's smile increased and she kissed him soundly.

"Thank you Shinn!" He continued smiling, content to let her mostly sleeveless cream skin to stay in contact with his. He had black hair and red eyes, a frightening combination he was told. There were also two boys behind them, and the taller one, the one with green hair and small black eyes, grinned in amusement while the other one, with light blue/grayish hair and dark green eyes with hints of blue, scoffed.

"Honestly Stellar, it isn't that big a deal," he stated flatly but his grin softened his words. She turned to him and pouted.

"Stop being so mean to Stellar Auel," said the boy next to him. Auel turned away. "Besides, my unit's better." Shinn laughed out loud at the expression on Auel's face as he stared dumbfounded.

"Have you lost your mind Sting? The Abyss is way better than the Chaos!" He gestured at the suit behind the Gaia, a light blue one. Sting shrugged.

"So you can go underwater, big deal. My suit was based off the Aegis, which was the best of those old suits besides the Strike."

"Which was the best period," added Shinn with a cheesy grin. "Which means that my suit, Impulse, is the best out of all these new ones." Auel glared at him, Sting shrugged nonchalantly and Stellar beamed at him with her heart in her eyes. A red haired beauty rolled her eyes.

"You're all such children! Sometimes I wonder-"

"If all of you are really nineteen," said another boy walking up to them. He had long blond hair that rested on his shoulders and lively green eyes. Shinn smiled at him. A smile that made Stellar pout a little.

"Rey!" he called in an excited voice. They had trained together in the academy and grew to be very good friends. Rey was the calmness that Shinn lacked so completely.

"Shinn, Stellar, Auel, Sting, Lunamaria. I see you're admiring our-or rather your-new toys."

"What do you pilot again? I know it's a ZAKU something," said Auel, rubbing the back of his head trying to remember. Rey smiled.

"It's the ZAKU Phantom, one of the first in production. But that's not what I'm here to talk about." Shinn immediately noticed the serious tone in his friend's voice and the slight worried look upon his face. He let go of Stellar and turned to face him fully.

"Rey? What's wrong? What happened?"

"The leaders of ORB and ZAFT have been assassinated."

"Brilliant. Just fucking brilliant," muttered Kira, drumming his fingers against the armrest. They were in his office, which was very moderately decorated. A wide window was directly opposite the door with his desk to the left and a TV on the opposite wall. The news had come just a few minutes earlier. And of course, he was not very happy. "Two leaders gone in an instant. How did this happen?" He refrained from slamming his fist. Art looked up from her position by the window.

She knew how Kira got when he was really upset and as such kept her voice and expression carefully neutral.

"We pulled the team out remember?" Inside, she was cursing herself thoroughly. She had been the one to create the mission plan in the first place.

"So? Where the hell was security?"

"They were the ones to do the killing," replied Akira slowly from on his left side. Kira threw up his arms in frustration, just like Art thought he would. He might seem calm and composed in public but in closed quarters…

"FUCKING BRILLIANT!" he shouted. He leaped from his chair and started pacing, a sure sign of his agitation. "Who's next in line for the head chairman?"

"Some guy named Gilbert Dullindal. He's fairly young, thirty-two, but he was already vice supreme chairman by the time he was twenty-something," replied Art, watching him pace up and down. Only she and Akira were allowed to be with him at that moment. He began spinning his new wedding ring as a way to relieve the stress. Not that it was working very much but still.

"Okay, how much longer till we reach our location?"

"A few more hours." Kira was silent for a moment, obviously deliberating on something.

"Take them into SP-215. All of them."

"Even Lacus?" asked Art surprised.

"Yes, even Lacus. What about that message from the Unknown?" She shrugged.

"Dummy routed. Couldn't get a solid lock."

"And the ground prisoners?"

"Sources say they had false teeth filled with poison." Kira sighed again.

"Wonderful…"

"What's going on Art?" asked Lacus as she was lead into a room. It was only furnished with seats on both sides, two dozen approximately.

"Don't worry about it. Kira will be here to tell you soon." And she turned and left, locking the door quietly behind her. "Forgive me Lacus," she muttered.

"Hey, where is daddy mommy?" asked little Mwu, looking around for him while holding onto his mother tightly.

"Yes, where is he?" asked Cagalli, fear starting to creep into her mind. For Athrun, Yzak, and Dearka, their soldier's sixth sense was going off, blaring into their ears. But suddenly, her eyes fell droopy and she fainted, falling backwards. She would have fallen to the floor if Athrun hadn't leaped forward and caught her at the last second.

"Cagalli! Cagalli!" he shouted, shaking her while everyone stood by waiting anxiously in a loose circle around them. But soon, their eyes too became heavy. A voice suddenly spoke over the intercom.

"I am sorry, all of you, but there has been a change of plans. Do not worry about the gas; it's only going to knock you out for the trip. When you wake up, you'll be in ORB. Sorry for leaving you all like this." It was Kira and his voice did sound mournful but before anyone could respond, the gas went into full effect.

Had any of them been awake, they would have heard the grinding of machinery or they would have felt the pod they were in start to move. But since they were asleep, they knew none of these things, except for troubled dreams.

(Sorry for it moving kinda fast but from here on, this story is going to reflect MY version of Destiny.

YOU ARE NOW FOREWARNED: if you haven't seen the entire series yet and you don't want to spoil anything, I suggest you stop reading. By the way, I'm gonna skip ahead to where Lacus is being attacked.)

Kira had been napping lightly in the cockpit of his Freedom when he was abruptly awoken by the explosions. He looked overhead subconsciously before his fingers started flying over his keyboard mechanically. An image of a security camera showing six or seven mobile suits attacking the residence where Lacus currently resided erupted on his screen. Anger quickly entered his blood, making his fingers move faster than ever to get the Freedom launched.

The system came online as the reactor warmed up. The second it was at optimum efficiency, he gunned the thrusters down. His prized Freedom rocketed out of the water, covering the near thirty meters of water in no time at all. Once airborne, he turned the Phase Shift Armor on and descended upon Lacus' attackers like a god of death. In his mind's eye, he could see his purple seed waiting to burst but with great mental will, stopped it from shattering. That would be a mercy he didn't want to give.

The first suit went down in two side slashes, keeping the cockpit intact but incapacitating it at the same time. Two others began shooting at him as he flew by. He dodged the beams of light effortlessly, somewhere in his mind thanking Art for upgrading the reaction time of the suit. Hanging upside down in the air, he quickly switched to HiMAT mode, destroying four more suits. The last remaining two fired shots at him futilely. Dodging them as well, he chopped off the arms of one and then blasted off its legs with his M100 Balaena plasma beam cannons. The last one was the leader, obviously since he dodged Kira's initial sword attack. He changed forward, one clawed arm primed to attack. With an annoyed roll of his eyes, the Freedom's shield blocked the attack and raised it, flipped the suit over. Turning simply, six shots from his MA-M20 Lupus beam rifle completely disabled it.

The whole battle was over within seconds. Although he himself was not responsible for the kills, the leader of the group activated a self-destruct sequence that destroyed them all.

They're trained professionals then. No one else commits suicide if they lose a fight…he thought. He could see Lacus, Murrue and Andrew all on a safe hill two hundred meters away with the children, watching him. Sighing, he opened hiscomm. frequency.

"Art," he called. The background of the image was familiar then he rolled his eyes again. She was in her hanger, fixing up the Liberty as usual. She was once again sitting in the open cockpit, her butt sticking up in the air as she worked on what he assumed to be the console.

"Damn it! Why won't it-! Oh! He he, silly me, wrong circuit." She continued humming to herself, her head bobbing up and down. Sighing again, he opened the plastic case of a bright orange button to his right and pressed it. Art yelped once and jumped in the air, firmly knocking her head on the top of the cockpit. She turned around and began rubbing the sore spot.

"ART!" he called again and this time she looked up at him. She glared.

"What is it now? Didn't you just go on watch duty?" She stood up and grabbing that one cord that was always hanging around, swung over to the main platform and the computer his face was coming from.

"Don't be mad at me for using your invention." The button he had pressed was a remote control for a small watch on Art's left arm. When he couldn't reach or contact her, he'd press the button, sending a low shockwave of electricity through her. She'd get the message and try to contact him immediately.

"Yeah yeah. So what's up?" Kira's face darkened.

"Lacus was attacked." Art stopped grumbling to herself and looked up in shock.

"WHAT!" Had it not been for the seriousness of the situation, Kira would have laughed.

"Yeah, about seven mobile suits that I don't recognize. They were coordinators."

"How do ya know?"

"Only coordinated special forces commit suicide if they think they're going to lose. That and only ZAFT has unknown looking mobile suits." She moved closer to the screen and he could tell she had started hacking on the laptop she always carried with her. He let a small grin show. That laptop was of course her own invention and was the heart and soul of every machine she touched. With that one laptop, someone could completely and entirely cripple his forces and those of many of other countries.

The Endyminon would be completely lost without her.

"Just give me a minute to hack into your camera feed…glad I installed that…now matching…got 'em! Yup, it was coordinators. And for future reference, those suits are really mobile armors called Ash." He didn't want to ask but he had to make sure.

"Their target?"

"…………Lacus…"

"Just as I thought…"

"And the news gets just a tiny bit worse." Kira laughed scornfully.

"Worse? How could the situation get worse?" Famous last words.

"Cagalli is scheduled to get married tomorrow to Yuuna." His jaw hit the floor. Of all the things he had been expecting, that definitely wasn't it!

"WHAT! Athrun would kill us! We've got to get her!"

"Cool your jets! I'll go get her." The words had their desired effect in sobering him up. His amethyst eyes narrowed in suspicion.

"In what suit?" he asked suspiciously. She laughed nervously, rubbing the back if her head.

"Not my Calamity, if that's what you were thinking." He let out a sigh he didn't realize he was holding.

"Then?"

"The PO series?" He rubbed his eyes tiredly and sat back to think for a moment.

Art + alone + mobile suit + reason to hate Yuuna a damn good idea. It's not his fault he was feeling more than slightly sadistic at the moment.

"Just don't kill Yuuna. We need him to watch ORB for us." Art pumped her fist into the air.

"YOSH! You got it commander!"

Art was grinning sadistically as she and her two friends observed the site of the wedding from afar. Both of them were male and as outgoing as she was. The one on her right was Lowe Guele, a former Junk Guild merchant turned merc for Kira, putting his special Gerbera Straight to other uses. He had wild brown hair and blue eyes (Don't know for sure but work with me). The other one wasAros Ric, an exceptionally skilled merc and thief extraordinaire. Ironically enough, the only reason he was with Kira was because Art was the first person ever to catch him at stealing. He had tried to take the MBF-PO3 Blue Frame, which was now his own personal unit. In his mind, he served Art as a butler would serve his master. He had a fiery temper when provoked; otherwise he was an all around good guy.

"This is going to be fun," commented Lowe.

"Duh! Scaring the crap out of people usually is," repliedAros with an evil grin.

"Alright, I see them. They're leaving the house now," Art cut in, uncommonly serious for once. The two boys sobered up as their cameras zoomed in on the white car bearing Cagalli and Yuuna.

"How long till they arrive?" asked Aros, his hand itching to put his suit into action.

"Roughly three minutes," replied Lowe.

"Remember, Kira is counting on us not screwing up with this. No one is to be harmed at all. Disable the snort Astrays and leave Cagalli to me." She only snorted because of how lame the mass production Astrays were to her MBF-PO series.

"Yes ma'am."

"I don't think the situation is that serious," comment Murrue as she and Kira rode in an elevator down underneath ORB to a secret hanger that stored the Archangel. He had changed out of his flight suit and into a fitting black jacket and pants. Murrue was in black pants and wore a normal orange mechanic's jacket from the Archangel.

"But I do. They used unknown Special Forces against her. For what reason? She is their Princess is she not? I'm not going to stand for that. There's something bigger going on here and I want to find out what. However, I still have a business to run. You think its cheap running your own personal mercenary force? So I'm leaving Lacus with you and Andrew for the time being. We'll rendezvous later. Probably in a few days." She nodded in a resigned way as the elevator stopped.

"Where?" She stared at him from her spot outside the elevator. He smiled in a way that told her he was planning something mischievous.

"I'll tell you later. Just stay out of sight for the time being and remain underwater. Art will tell you when she requires you to be above ground. It won't take long, knowing her. The only things she's patient with is mechanics."

Cagalli sat with her head down, screaming at herself on the inside. She did want to get married but not to Yuuna of all people. She's wasn't as naïve as they thought she was. She knew they only wanted to gain the power that her position had by marrying her into their family.

Yuuna sat next to her, cheerfully waving at the crowd. He noticed Cagalli's inaction next to him. Frowning, he nudged her with his elbow a bit roughly.

"You need to act more happy. It is your wedding day." And he turned back to the people. She glowered at him before smirking.

If only you knew my wedding day was more than two weeks ago…she thought but nevertheless, began waving too, if only to stop him from bugging her anymore. He had already made inappropriate comments about her hair and her grammar in the time frame of just two minutes. Any more and she was sure she'd have no one to 'marry' because he would be in the hospital or dead. Some habits you just don't get rid of.

"There they are," growled out Art, zooming in on Cagalli's tear-streaked face as they stepped out of the car. "You two ready? We have a friend to rescue and a princess to kidnap." She received two roguish grins in return.

"You know it," they replied in unison.

"Is it confirmed that the Archangel is on standby?"

"Yep, no more than three hundred meters off shore. Shouldn't take us more than five to ten minutes to get there," replied Lowe.

"Then let's go, we got us a wedding to interrupt!" The three started their flight units and launched into the air,Aros picking up the ORB frequency that labeled them as unknowns and therefore targets. They outran the Astrays that had been launched and closed in on the temple where the wedding was taking place. The two boys broke off from the triangle formation, off to do their jobs while Art did hers. She started laughing as she saw everyone run away in fear from her but growled irritably when Yuuna first hid behind his 'bride' and then run away like the coward he was. She landed smoothly and gently nudged Yuuna as he ran, making sure he fell. She gathered her 'aunt' in her Gold Frame's hands firmly before taking off again.

She could hear Cagalli shouting at her, demanding to know what she was doing.

No more than five seconds later, Lowe andAros rejoined her, providing escort.

"Good job boys! Mission completed!" she said to them with a smile, mostly because Cagalli was shouting at her again and with very colorful language too. "Now now Cagalli," she spoke over the loudspeaker. "Such colorful language is extremely unbecoming of a Princess." The bride growled irritably and gave her the finger.

"Hey Art, don't speak so soon. We've got three units on our tails!" shouted Lowe. Art cursed violently before raising Cagalli to the cockpit and grabbing her.

"Wow Cagalli, you look nice. Come on now, don't be that way. Just sit still and be a good girl while we take care of you pursuers okies? Lowe, Aros! Let's go!" She received two shouts of confirmation before she drew her MA-M30 Lupus beam rifle and began firing along with Aros. Lowe turned around and engaged them directly with his Gerbera Straight. Although Art was a pretty lousy shot, the Gold Frame's targeting system compensated for that and allowed her to shot the heads off of one entire unit whileAros did the same to the second. Lowe was slicing through the last one when Cagalli started shouting again.

"WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON!"

"Ask your brother."

Nothing more was said as Cagalli was lowered into the waiting arms of Andrew.

Meanwhile, unknown to them as they dropped her off, Athrun was calling to ORB control requesting permission to dock with the Minerva. He was answered with a Murasame welcoming party.

"ORB Control! Can you hear me?" he called but frowned when the sensors in his new ZGMF-X23S Saviour Gundam started whining.

They've locked onto me! But such thoughts fled to the back of his mind as they started to fire upon him. It was child's play to dodge their missiles but that wasn't the point. "ORB Control! I have no intention of firing or attacking your country! So why are you firing at me? ORB Control!" But he still received no answer. For the moment…

"Don't act stupid. Now that ORB has joined the International Safety Assurance Treaty, PLANT is an enemy nation," said one of the pilots before he fired at him again. Athrun gasped.

Cagalli? What's going on?

"Although our forces have yet to engage ZAFT in battle, there's no way we can allow you to enter our nation. Besides that, the Minerva is no longer here." Athrun bit his bottom lip in frustration.

"Let me speak to the Representative! I must speak with Cagalli!"

"Tch. The princess was kidnapped yesterdayat her wedding to Yuuna." That did it for Athrun. With a slight glare, he switched hisSaviour from armor to suit. The two Murasames mimicked his actions and one fired at him. He blocked the beam with his shield and returned fire, destroying the hand rifle with one well-placed shot. He placed another one at the secondary engine of the other Murasame, disabling it. His task complete, Athrun shifted back into armor mode and flew away before his enemies could regroup.

"What the hell is going on?" shouted Cagalli as she faced Lacus, Murrue and Andrew on the bridge of the Archangel. Lacus was in her commander's outfit from when she commanded the Eternal, Murrue and Andrew in ORB uniforms. Art had already disappeared withAros and Lowe to the Endyminon and Kira was conveniently unavailable. She had changed into the ORB commander uniform from her annoying weeding dress. Not that she wasn't glad to get rid of the damn thing…

"You do realize that kidnapping the head of a nation during her wedding would make you international criminals!" Lacus shrugged in a helpless way.

"Too late, Art already is. She's computer enemy number one with every major government in the world and outside of it. She's a hacker at heart you know." Cagalli growled at her attempt to lighten the mood.

"That's not the point! Are you all out of your minds? Why would you do such a thing?"

"Well yeah, we know all that. But with the current situation, it couldn't be helped," said Andrew.

"We know you Cagalli. You are the only reasonable leader left of the three biggest governments so the world will really crumble if you did something stupid."

"What's stupid? I carefully and painfully thought over everything-"

"And that's the point Cagalli," interrupted Lacus. "You are ruled by your heart and are very passionate. And because of that and your love for ORB, you allied with the Atlantic Federation and agreed to marry Seiran."

"No doubt you would have been torn from your place of power if you did go through with the marriage," added Andrew.

"That and Athrun would have killed us if he knew," said a new voice. They all turned to see a happily smiling image of Art. Cagalli growled again.

"This is all your fault! There's no way Kira would have known about the marriage until after the fact!" She pointed an accusing finger at the girl who only began to laugh.

"And do you really think your marrying of Yuuna would have helped ORB in the long run?" she asked. Just like that, all the steam Cagalli had been building up deflated. "He's a politician you know. And all they want is what's best for them. By kidnapping you, you retain your powers as princess of ORB. We will return you. Eventually. Just not yet." She glared at the young girl before sighing.

"You're right. But I still don't like it."

"You don't have to. Just trust us Cagalli, you'll be glad we took you when we did. Who the hell knows what would happen if Yuuna and his fat ass father gained full control of ORB?"

"I know things are hard for you my sister. And I am sorry that I wasn't able to keep you here like I had wanted but things will be better this way for the future," said Kira as his head appeared next to Art's. His eyes briefly flashed to Lacus' and he smiled in a gentle way. She returned it. "We still don't know a lot of things, but now we have time. ORB will be okay for the time we keep you away. I know Todoka will keep the military portion under control. So will you come with us Cagalli?" She sighed deeply before smirking up at him.

"Of course you idiot. Hey Art!" The younger girl flinched slightly. "Don't worry, I'll forgive you if you fix up my Aile Strike Rouge with a special little feature…" As expected, Art's eyes glinted with the promise of doing something new to a suit.

Athrun sighed deeply to himself as he came in for a landing on the Minerva. Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on how you looked at it, the ship had docked for repairs at the Carpentaria Naval Base, less than two hours from the edge of ORB's border. The suit slid into the garage with the assistance of the crane. He got out of the cockpit with an ease born of someone who had done the task more than simply a few times before coming to a stop on the ground. He recognized Lunamaria quickly before tugging his helmet off only to be greeted with a few gasps.

"Athrun Zala, belonging to the Special Task Force FAITH, requesting permission to come aboard." A nearby tech took his helmet before Shinn came into view. As usual, the boy was callous and rude.

"What the hell are you doing here?" With an annoyed glare, Luna elbowed him.

"Shinn! Watch your mouth! He's FAITH now. He outranks us all easily!" With that, she turned and saluted him. Shinn was dense for a moment before he spied the special insignia on Athrun's suit. Everyone else saluted as well. Shinn just stepped forward a bit.

"Why are you…"

"Shinn! Just shut up and salute!" On the inside Athrun was very amused as he returned the salute to everyone. Shinn looked at his hands preoccupied with stuff before he passed them off to Luna's sister Meyrin, adjusted his suit and saluted. Here the FAITH member openly smiled a bit before dropping his arm and turning serious.

"Is the captain on the bridge?" he asked no one in particular.

"Uh…yeah, I think so."

"I'll conduct you after you sign in," said Luna stepping forward to him. He only smiled.

"Thank you." She nodded and walked away, sure in the knowledge that he would follow. Many followed them with their heads.

"Hey! Does this mean you've returned to ZAFT?" asked Shinn to their backs. Athrun stopped and turned his head to address him out the corner of his eye.

"More or less."

"Why? You were totally against the idea before." But he received no answer. The pair walked into the elevator as Luna directed it. Athrun leaned against the wall and sighed again. He was sure that there would be many others with questions like that.

"'Why did you re-enlist?' is what I really want to ask right now. May I?" asked Luna turning to face him. He looked down uncomfortably.

"It's not that I 're-enlisted' per say…I just went to PLANT, talked with the Chairman and…well. But more importantly, when do you all leave ORB?"

"You went there?" she asked him, looking at him like he was crazy. He shrugged.

"Yeah, it was the last known place to me where you were."

"Well, you're obviously okay but that country is now our…"

"I know, they scrambled on me when I was approaching. I tried to radio in but no one answered."

"I think I understand somewhat why Shinn is always so angry at them. They shoot first and ask questions later. We weren't even finished with repairs before they kicked us out and were ambushed by an Atlantic Federation fleet! Shinn's the only reason we're here right now."

"But why would Cagalli-"

"I used to respect her in the past but now she's allied with the AF and then married some guy…" Although he had heard it before, this was the first time he really listened to it.

"Married? To who?" Luna looked at him weirdly.

"To Seiran Yuuna but I heard that she was kidnapped by some Astrays before the wedding could really finish." The elevator finally stopped and he smiled gratefully at her.

"Thank you Lunamaria." She grinned back.

"You can call me Luna."

"We're going to Western Eurasia to help the forces there that are against the AF," said Kira shortly to his main commanders. Shani, Orga, Clotho, Lowe, Duncan for the Blitz, Scott for the Buster and Jeanne for the Duel. He also had a group of Murasames but didn't want to risk pushing his hand too soon with his Trinity as well as the Strikes.

"A bit of hacking has informed me that soon, ZAFT is going to launch an offensive there to help them out and open up the Straits of Gibraltar. Remember, we're trying to stop both sides here," said Art.

"We move in, take out the AF and leave. Normally I'd say keep 'em alive but we don't have time for that. Everyone is going out. Akira?"

"Alright, the AF forces have got themselves pretty much settled in firmly. They've even got a giant anti-beam shield strong enough to take a direct hit from a Tannhäuser positron cannon. The main objective is to take that out first. Lowe, we'll need you andAros to handle that. Your Gerbera Straight will be able to cut right through the shield. Providing cover for you and a distraction will be Jeanne, Shani and Clotho with their teams. Your mission is two fold, provide the distraction and decimate the ground forces. After the shield is down, Orga and Scott will swoop in and take care of everything else. Everyone understand? Good, we launch in two hours."

"Um captain. Are you aware of the situation at ORB?" asked Athrun before he turned to go after his debriefing with Captain Talia. She looked at him surprised.

"Yes, their princess has been kidnapped. And although their government is trying to hide it, she was taken by a three man team of Astrays, the color frame series and taken to the Archangel."

"Art?" he asked quietly.

"We're the ones who want to ask what's going on. Why would Cagalli's niece kidnap her? For what purpose?" Athrun didn't know but he was going to find out.

"Thank you very much," and he bowed out of the room.

And that is that. I hope everyone liked it and will forgive me for taking so long with it. Most of the dialog, especially the specifics will come directly from the anime. I already have the next chapter in the works so hopefully it won't take me long. I'll try to keep all chapters above five pages and each chapter should span more than two episodes at the minimum. There are fifty episodes total but if you notice, I skipped ahead to fourteen.