Stuck on an unknown island, a mobile suit was positioned in a sitting position staring out towards the ocean. Its pilot hatch was open. A dark-haired pilot was sitting in the seat without his helmet.
"Mercenary Unit X, this is mercenary Pars requesting rescue, repeat, this is mercenary Pars requesting rescue, come in!" He started to growl into the receiver. He had been trying for an hour but still no answer. He didn't even know if his signal was strong enough to send out. "This is Canard Pars! Does anybody read me?!"
Canard had been tracking down a job from a client. In the midst, he ended up stranded on an unknown island with barely any signal. He slammed his fist down on the arm rest. He was going to have to try again tomorrow as the sun was setting. He was getting low on fuel too. He needed that just in case of another attack.
He didn't close the hatch all the way, but enough to block the wind. Canard woke up to his instincts telling him something or someone was out there. He grabbed his gun while getting out of the seat. Canard headed over to the side. He tried to view through the small openings if someone was out there. His instincts were right. There were operatives with night vision and guns. He could tell when the moonlight shined upon them.
Canard could only see four of them, but from what he could tell they were scoping out his machine. These people were after him. Someone else and not the job from the client. These people were professionals. Canard moved his gun between the opening and fired off. Shooting down one of the operatives. He jerked his hand back in, clinging to the back for protection.
The operative fell on the ground. Canard was waiting for the sound of them opening fire, but none of it came. He glanced through the openings again, but the operatives weren't there. He moved his head to try where they left to. Canard felt a sting on his shoulder. He patted his shoulder to find something sticking to it. He pulled it out, putting it towards the light. A tranquilizing dart. Who wanted him alive? His sight started to blur while he was thinking about his enemies. He fell to the ground with a thud.
The pilot hatch opened fully. An operative was moving his gun back and forth. "Found him." He went over to see if Canard was out. "Looks like one dart did him in, but remember he is an Ultimate Coordinator, it could wear off any moment. Let's get him tied down and on an IV drip."
"Roger." The others followed his command. They disarmed Canard before hauling him to steel crate. They opened it up. Inside was padded. They laid him down in it. One soldier administered the IV while another was typing in on the modular board. The IV contained a sedative that was given to the patient due to the biometrics the computer acquired. Once they finished getting Canard in the crate, they pushed a few more buttons which closed the crate with an air tight seal, and locking it in place.
Another operative piloted the Dreadnaught Eta into a large vessel on the water. It had the steel crate that contained Canard in its hands. The vessel was unmarked, as it did not belong to any nation. The vessel submerged once everyone was back on board. It headed back to headquarters.
On the Aesculapius, a soldier floated into the lab where Donovan was working at. Donovan was staring into a microscope.
"What is it?" Donovan spoke but never looked up.
"I came to report that the mission was a success," he reported. "The mercenary was taken down with one dart. He was stranded on uninhabited island. Only one causality, nothing fatal."
"I see," Donovan spoke with a smile. "It's a lovely feeling when things go according to plan."
"I also have reports about the mission in the PLANTs," the soldier continued on.
"Go on," Donovan adjusted the microscope.
"The delegation has already a planned outline of the treaty," he explained. "Thanks to Princess Selena. It will end right at seven days. The Orb Representative will leave right on schedule."
"All according to plan," Donovan moved away. He turned his head to put his mask back on. "How is our lovely princess?"
"Her and Chairwoman Lacus have been using each other during the delegation to keep Earth Alliance in a corner," the soldier tried to keep composure. He was a former Earth Alliance soldier.
"Don't fret," Donovan chided. "We will soon have a new era upon us. This is why we are gathering all of the pieces. Unlike Durandal, Zala, Azrael, Djibril, and the others before them, we have a much more solid plan. Let them believe they can guarantee peace. It's what is needed in our plan. Their guard won't be down as much, but just enough to weasel our way in. Stay patient. You can place a disc down to flip the other disc over but the main strategy is to get the most discs flipped to your color. Have patience. We'll make the whole board black."
On an unmarked civilian freighter, a man with a cutoff Earth Alliance uniform placed his head set down. He turned around to view the rest of his group with Earth Alliance and one ZAFT uniform. They stared back at him with interest.
"Mercenary Unit X just asked if we had seen or heard about one of their pilots," he explained.
"One of their pilots?" The man in the ZAFT green uniform with a scar over his right eye and silver hair spoke first.
"Yeah, Canard Pars," the other continued to explain. "Used to be a pilot for the Eurasian Federation, now a mercenary."
"Did the say where he was last piloting?" A man with orange tinted glasses asked.
"Yeah, off of this area here," the first man pulled up the coordinates. "He's been missing for twenty-four hours. He usually checks in and this was his first solo mission for a client. They haven't heard a word since. They're headed to those last coordinates to see if they could find something but this is unusual for him."
"Reed, have they spoken with the Junk Guild yet?" The man with the tinted frames questioned.
"Not that I know of," Reed scratched his beard. "Just a bit frantic on the line."
"I'll ask Lowe right now," the man with tinted frames pushed a few buttons.
Lowe popped on screen. "Must need something if Gai is calling me specifically."
Gai let out a chuckle. "Just wondering if you knew that Mercenary Unit X has a missing pilot."
Lowe shook his head. "No, this is news to me. What was he piloting?"
"The Dreadnought Eta," Reed piped up.
"Canard is missing?" Lowe blinked in shock.
Gai nodded his head. "It's been twenty-four hours since he last checked in. First solo mission. Very unusual for him. I'm sending you the coordinates."
"Alright, I'll keep an eye out for him," Lowe nodded with seriousness. "Let me know if you find something as well."
The screen turned black after Gai was pushing buttons. He sent over the coordinates. "Keep your ears open Reed, Canard is like me. There might be others like us who could be missing. Check to see who else has gone missing and what their background is."
Lowe had the same thoughts. He ordered for information about missing people with similar abilities as well as locations of those who haven't gone missing, yet. He also sent word to Selena. This was information she was needing.
Mikael brought the news to Selena who was resting in a window nook with a sketchpad. She was sketching the outside scenery.
"Your Highness, I have news from Lowe," Mikael brought over a folded piece of paper. Selena stopped sketching to grab the paper.
She flipped it open with her thumb to read. Her eyebrows scrunched together. "He is onto the next step. How is Kira?" She folded the paper back and handed it to him.
Mikael took it. "There have been no signs of anything out of the ordinary. We have just received an update on his activity. Still no signs of someone tailing him. We also received his recent health documents, nothing out of the ordinary was administered or given to him."
She went back to sketching. "What did the health documents entail?"
"Yearly physical," Mikael explained. "Blood test which was all normal, urine test-normal, normal blood pressure, no detection any signs that could lead to disease and such, high sperm count-"
Selena jolted her head up. She turned to him. "High sperm count? Are they trying to have children? Do we have records on Lacus' most recent physical?"
"According to our reports, they are not, as Lacus is in a high position that is taking up her time, she does not want to have children just yet," Mikael reassured her. "It would be too stressful and she does not want to bring a child into a stressful situation. Also, possible rumor, but one informant spoke about her wanting to have children after getting the birth problems amongst the Coordinators under control."
"I see. This isn't Kira's first physical here on PLANTs, do we have that information?" Selena continued.
"Yes, this was the first time for sperm fertility testing," Mikael informed her. He knew where she was headed.
"Find out the doctors and nurses who attended to Kira and what happened to the remaining sample of sperm," Selena ordered. "We won't have to be as vigilant on Kira since he found another way around to obtain what he wants."
"Yes, Your Highness," Mikael gave a slight bow before heading off to fulfill his duty.
"One more thing," Selena spoke, making Mikael pause. "What about Cagalli?"
"No news of anything out of the ordinary either," Mikael informed.
"Keep an eye on Cagalli," Selena raised her chin. "If he has Canard, and Kira's DNA, his next target will be Cagalli. She's safe for now, since she's at the delegation."
"Yes, Your Highness," Mikael continued on.
Selena looked around. "Hala, come out."
A white Haro with red eyes rolled into the room and bounced up. "I'm here! I'm here!" It flapped up to her.
She gave a soft smile. "Hala, show me the chess board."
"Can do, can do!" Hala flapped to the other side of the nook to set on. It projected the same chessboard Lacus had.
"Move pawn of A7 to A5," she commanded. The hologram chess board moved on its own.
The hologram disappeared. Hala rolled around. "Slow game-slow game!" It flapped about.
"Slow game indeed," Selena smirked.
At the mansion, Lacus was reading in the room with the hologram chessboard. It moved on her. Her pink Haro jumped up.
"Your turn! Your turn!" It flapped about.
"Not yet," Lacus looked at the board. "This is not an ordinary chess game, Mr. Pink. A pawn was moved. We are still setting up strategies. We could win with just a few moves, and that's only if they fall into trap but they may try to make us fall into theirs. We have to stay cautious."
"OKAY!" Mr. Pink rolled around on the ground, agreeing with her.
"But we must figure who is all playing the game," Lacus studied the board again. She knew she was the white queen, Kira was the white king, Athrun a white knight, Cagalli was undecided but could be a rook or a bishop. She stared at the black pieces. She only knew who the black queen was. She wanted to know all on that side, but it was easier to figure out who was all the white pieces instead.
The delegation was continuing on a great pace. It would only take those seven days to come to an agreement. The Earth Alliance will have to sign whether they wanted to or not. The consequences for not following the signed treaty were their power being divided up and controlled by the newly selected United Nations representatives. It would need concrete evidence and one to two years before handing the power back. It also included cutting off trading, increase on tariffs for exports, no bailouts from other countries, etc. Anything that could harm the economy and put the government in a standstill.
On the night before the last delegation day, where they sign the treaty, the delegation was invited to attend Gatlin Tzvi's first nightly performance of the weekend. As the signing of the treaty, there was an event to celebrate the treaty signing that night.
The opera house was famous to host the greatest talents. It was swarmed with fans and paparazzi, as a red carpet was laid out with red velvet ropes keeping the people back. Reporters were trying to get answers from the dignitaries on how the delegation was going and what all the treaty entails. The general public did not know what the treaty would be called or what was all included. The dignitaries were vague on their answers. They knew not to leak any information out until it was all signed.
Shinn and Lunamaria were headed through a side entrance for those that were not VIP. Shinn wore a blue ensemble. A light blue blazer with a grey blue asymmetrical shirt that came down to his knee, and a darker grey blue pants. Lunamaria was maroon dress that was tiered with layers. The bottom three layers had black lines while the top two had black roses embroidered. She had a white fur, short cape over her shoulder and chest area with a purple flower. She wore a black choker.
"I can't believe you had tickets to this event," Lunamaria was taking in the fixtures and people in the opera house. "I thought they were all sold out?"
Shinn gave the tickets to the ticket master. "Two seats for center orchestra, please follow me."
"Center Orchestra!?" Lunamaria gaped. "Just how much did you spend?"
Shinn smirked. "Actually, I got a discount on them." He held out his arm for her.
Lunamaria hooked onto it. "A discount? That's unheard of, especially for those seats." The two followed one of the ushers to their seats.
"They would have been free if there was a certain performer in the production, but I got them reasonable instead," Shinn tried to explain.
"Here you are," the usher gave them back their tickets. The two passed by the people to get one of the best seats in the house.
"A certain performer?" Lunamaria sat down first then Shinn.
"Yeah, it's actually thanks to Rey," he looked down for a bit. "He always had tickets to performances like these. We never had to pay. Even had VIP seats and accommodations even if there was no VIP."
"I didn't think Rey was much of a fan of Supreme Council Chairwoman Clyne," Lunamaria assumed.
Shinn chuckled while shaking his head. "He thought she was okay. He was actually a big fan of Princess Selena."
Lunamaria widened her eyes. "I completely forgot about that. You two were always off together whenever she performed. I remember she was friendly with the late Commander Creuset."
"Yeah," Shinn nodded. "He told me she was like a big sister to him. Any time she performed, he had tickets, he had all her memorabilia. I never really spoke with her but Rey would go meet with her all the time. Since I was a plus one, I would wait for him. He would always be in a good mood when he would come back. It's thanks to his connection to her that I got these tickets. I was always Rey's plus one."
"Thank you, Rey," Lunamaria could see that Shinn was conflicted again. Rey had his own problems and it was still hard for Shinn to figure out what he thought of Rey. He wanted to continue to detest him but memories like this where him and Rey would attend opera houses and performance halls together reminded him of how innocent and human Rey was. "So does that mean any performance, you can get discount tickets?"
Shinn laughed. "It depends on who is performing. Since its Gatlin, there was discount. I think if Princess Selena knows them, we would, but if she doesn't, I don't think so."
"Hmm, we'll have to see and have more dates like these," Lunamaria gripped his hand and smiled. Shinn nodded in agreement. The two watched people filing in.
Lacus, Kira, Cagalli, and Athrun made their way as a group. The four had just come off the red carpet. They didn't stay long as Lacus and Cagalli only answered a few questions from the reporters. They didn't want to be bombarded by the same questions.
Lacus wore a white sleeveless dress that had a light grey belt tied to one side of the hip. She had white pearls on her neck and one wrist. She had a dark grey shrug around her arms. She wanted to be in casual elegance as she was use to wearing her councilwoman outfit for so long, she didn't want to be the center of attention. Kira wore a grey blazer with a light pink inlay. The lapels were not buttoned to make it more of a free flowing, ruffle feel. He had on a black belt over it and dark grey slacks. He matched her.
Athrun wore a dark green that seemed black pant suit. The blazer had a light green inlay on the cuffs, shoulder pattern and inside the jacket. He had it buttoned with one lapel open. He wore a red shirt underneath of it. Cagalli wore a green dress that was off the shoulders with a dark green line around the edges and a dark green belt.
They sat down in the first box on the right side facing the stage. The group ignored the audience watching them. Most of the dignitaries had box seats. Some had chosen orchestra seats, whether that be on the left, right, or center. The first box on the left side was still empty.
Lacus kept side glancing at it as she chatted with the rest of her group. It was getting close to show time. The chatter of the audience started to draw into a silence as Princess Selena made her way on the first box on the left. She allowed Luka to sit closest to the stage. He was dressed in a black tux. Selena wore a long sleeve dress with a high neckline. It was gradient dress. It started at the top as gold and faded into gold. It was sparkly and eye catching, especially with her hair pinned up. Next to her was, Ergnes Brahe, who wore his royal Martian attire. He was happy to be her escort of the evening. Nahe was there with them in his fanciest suit. Mikael was standing guard in the back.
Yzak and Dearka had the second box seat behind Lacus and the group. Yzak wore a white suit with a green button shirt. Dearka was in a chocolate three-piece suit with a light orange button down shirt. They had the first two seats; the rest were three dignitaries.
Dearka was trying to keep his composure as he was seeing Athrun and the group was ahead of him. He spotted Shinn and Lunamaria in the center seats. Dearka was people watching. He enjoyed the seats they were in. He glanced over to Yzak. Yzak was focused on the first box opposite of them. Dearka followed his line of sight.
"If you stare too long, everyone is going to notice," Dearka whispered. Yzak turned to look at the stage. Dearka raised his eyebrows for a moment. "She does look amazing tonight, but I think the wrong silver haired man is sitting next to her."
"It doesn't matter," Yzak shrugged it off. "We're here to watch that danseur noble. Let's see what he thinks is art."
Dearka let out a quiet chuckle. He wanted to know more about the slight rivalry between him and Gatlin. Dearka wished to see the two interact. Wanted to see pictures and videos of them dancing. He was so intrigued and curious.