Chapter 4: A Promise Unfulfilled

AngelOfDreams: Here's a longer chapter for you I hope you enjoy it.

Tara: Yeah...Kira and Lacus were a bit OOC but in Episode 17 they seem to be quite suspicious and pissed at Dullindal...so I sort of took that and went with it but I was really having a bit of fun.

Asga: I promise that Shinn will be slapped again though by who I won't say. There will be more Kira x Lacus and Athrun x Cagalli later.

A/N: Here onwards, it shall be mine own ideas entirely based off what I speculate so it will probably go AU when the new episodes come out. Anyway enjoy this. After this chapter you should know what I'm going on about. Did you like the bit of implied one side Stellar x Neo in the last chapter? You can clearly see that she made to kiss him but he didn't kiss her. Anyway, enjoy the chapter and give me your thoughts.

Murrue sat on her chair on the bridge on Archangel which was currently under the sea near Scandanavia. They had just watched the video of the fake Lacus concert being broadcast by PLANT. She could see that the real Lacus, in the CIC chair was getting annoyed at her fake counterpart who flaunted her body much more than the real Lacus would ever have.

"Because I don't know what's going to happen in the future, we have no choice but to do what we feel is right at the moment. If we find out later that we've made a mistake, then we'll cry and get angry. And then we'll think of the future again." She had given those words of advice to the Talia, the captain of the Minerva, but if the truth was told, she had not really followed her advice, herself.

She had certainly cried and gotten angry at the world when her boyfriend, Mu La Flaga, the pilot of the Strike Gundam had sacrificed his own life to save the Archangel from destruction, but if she had been real honest with herself, she hadn't moved on. She remembered that he had promised that he would come back to her, before the battle of Jachin Due, but he had died, and she couldn't move on, even though a year had passed. Sometimes she dreamed of how life would be if he was still alive, but that was the past and she needed to move in the future.

At the same time onboard an Earth battleship, Neo watched the broadcast of PLANT propaganda, of Lacus Clyne's charity concert. He could see that she was being used to encourage the citizens of PLANT to fight, but right now, his mission was to prevent ZAFT's new battleship, Minerva from wreaking havoc on Earth. Once I crush that ship, the war should end and the Earth can be at peace.

Minerva was headed off towards the Suez, hopefully they would have a chance to engage the Minerva once more, and this time they would bring more mobile suits, with better pilots. He had received intelligence about the mysterious mobile suit, it was the Saviour, another Gundam. There was something oddly familiar about that word, he felt as if he knew that someone had used it somewhere before, but he didn't know who or when or where.

Meanwhile, Stellar, Sting and Auel were resting in their cradles. The last battle had taken a lot of energy out of them and they needed time to refresh. He only hoped that they would be ready for the next engagement with the Minerva. Sting seemed to be a fairly good pilot, with a cool head, decent skills and that certain amount of arrogance and belief that good pilots needed. Auel always had something to prove to the others, slightly reckless but it could be forgiven for a pilot in an elite squad. Stellar, he was worried about ever since the beginning when Auel had used the block word on her, she began to show signs of mental frailty, and she seemed to have suddenly developed an unsuitable attachment to himself. Maybe after the war was done, he could sort that out.

On PLANT, Dearka, Yzak and Shiho prepared to launch to assist the ZAFT forces on Earth. These orders had come straight from Dullindal. As the ZAFT shuttle descended into the atmosphere, Dearka, resplendent in his green uniform, looked out the window; he wondered when he would meet Milliaria again. The last time they had been together, something could have happened, but they had parted without words, the battle had been fierce, his Buster had sustained grievous damage and he had returned to ZAFT, without a goodbye. Even though they had been in touch and he knew that she as now a war correspondent, long telephone calls and emails weren't the same as meeting face to face, to embrace each other again. Yzak and Shiho had been going out for a while now and Dearka felt a twinge of jealousy, as they cuddled up to each other on the shuttle down to Earth.

Milliaria meanwhile, sat in the helicopter of the news agency, snapping photographs of the war and its effects on the civilian population, freelancing even though her bosses had told her she should take photos of victories only. The photos of Earth Alliance victories were published daily while the ones showing devastation were suppressed. Currently, she was over southern Scandinavia, where the fighting was fiercest, local resistance groups, aided by ZAFT forces were trying to hold off the advance of Eurasia and Atlantic Federation forces. But they were outmatched, both in therms of numbers and in armaments, especially since the Federation had Orb Murasame Mobile Suits and Windams. She snapped photos of the devastation left by the latest attack. As if they hadn't learned enough from the last war. It cost me almost everything. She had heard that Cagalli had been kidnapped from Orb by Freedom, just after Orb had declared for the Earth Alliance, and that the Archangel had resurfaced. I hope that Kira can stop this again, before we lose too many people close to our hearts.

Lacus was thinking much the same on board the Archangel as it sailed along the bottom of the ocean, careful to avoid detection by either Earth Alliance forces or ZAFT. Kira sat next to her on her bed, as he comforted her. The talked about ZAFT's fake Lacus and if it were possible that it had been ZAFT that had sent the assassins after her to kill her and cover their tracks. Lacus was annoyed at the fact that it had been announced that she was engaged to Athrun again, he must know that she was in love with Kira. That only left a few ugly possibilities, that Athrun had turned back, but it didn't seem likely, or that he was forced into it by Dullindal. Even though he was a member of the Clyne faction, Lacus remembered that her father had never trusted him much, due to his involvement in the Mendel Project. Yes, he's definitely got something up his sleeve. Kira, Murrue, Andy and herself all agreed that Dullindal was not as benign as he seemed. He had been developing new Gundams.

Suddenly the room filled with sound, "Condition Red, Condition Red, all pilots to the hold, all hands prepare for combat." Kira and Lacus both got up and exited, Kira going towards the hangar, Lacus up to the bridge. They kissed once, and then separated, running. On the bridge Murrue gave orders for the ship to surface, and prepare for combat. Lacus's voice rang through Kira's comm. channel, "Freedom, ready to launch."

He replied, "Kira Yamato, Freedom, away," as the right bay of the Archangel opened, and the catapult system ejected Freedom into the sky, as it activated its engines, flying out to meet the ZAFT forces.

"Cagalli Yura Athha, Strike Rouge, away," her voice rang over the comm. as Cagalli launched in her Gundam to join Kira in the battle. Strike Rouge catapulted out of the Archangel's hangar, it rose to join Freedom, as they detected mobile suit launches from the ZAFT ship.

"Prepare for anti-ship, anti-mobile suit combat, ready the Gottfried cannon, load the missiles, Fire," Murrue's voice rang clearly through the bridge as they surfaced to engage the ZAFT forces.

"Unknown mobile suits coming, wait… they are registering as Goufs," Andy called out on the bridge, as Lacus communicated to both Kira and Cagalli, giving them the battle plan. Freedom and Strike Rouge stayed close to the Archangel as it ploughed on towards the enemy ZAFT ship, Gottfried cannons and Neidhart missiles firing.

The enemy Gouf Mobile Suits made to engage the Archangel and its two Gundams. Freedom and Strike Rouge fired its cannons at the enemy Goufs, destroying some as they came on, and then Kira saw the leader, one of the Goufs was a orangey-yellow, carrying a sword. Kira commed to Cagalli, "I'll take the leader, keep the others off the Archangel."

"Yes, little brother," Cagalli replied, as she fired the Strike Rouge's laser cannon at another of the enemy Goufs, turning it into smithereens. Kira's Freedom fired its laser cannon as the Gouf Ignited approached, and he flew away, keeping distance between him and Gouf which seemed intent on close combat. Changing his tactics, Kira wheeled Freedom around, drawing its beam saber as he rushed in towards the Gouf. His saber clashed against the Gouf's sword, producing a cascade of light. When I beat him, the others will run away, and then we'll have to move our position, we can't let either ZAFT or the EA find out where we are.

Meanwhile, Cagalli's Strike Rouge stood on top of the Archangel, and fired repeatedly, taking out the enemy Goufs, as Archangel engaged the enemy carrier in combat. The Gottfried cannon's green beams flew across the gap between the two capital ships. Kira's fingers tapped over the keyboards and moved the joystick like a maestro, as the Freedom performed next to impossible feats in combat against the Gouf Ignited. The Gouf's pilot was good, but simply not good enough. Kira had come close to slipping through the Gouf Ignited's guard a few times already, as they twisted and turned through the clouds, having resumed ranged combat once again.

The lone helicopter flew low to the ground, as they saw flashes of a battle out the right window. Milliaria quickly took some snapshots of the battle, as the helicopter retreated from the battle, as it approached where it happened to cross near their flight path. Stray laser beams nearly hit the helicopter. Kira saw a helicopter near the fight, as he attempted to steer the fight away from the helicopter, the pilot of the enemy Gouf's shots went awfully close to the retreating helicopter. Kira entered Seed Mode, it has to end before any innocent's get hurt. His eyes went almost blank as the Seed within him activated, his flying became even more desperate and more intricate. He slashed down with his beam saber, cutting the left arm of the enemy Gouf off, followed up with a wicked parry, which forced the enemy back, and then he charged and riposted the next attack that the Gouf Ignited gave, sending the enemy spinning down, where it exploded into a shower of fragments.

Unfortunately, the exploding fragments happened to hit the helicopter in the rotor stopping it, sending it into freefall towards the ocean, the door ripped open as Milliaria was sucked out, and then the helicopter exploded.

Milliaria had thought that she was going to die when the helicopter's back rotor was hit by shrapnel from the exploding Gouf Ignited, as it fell she saw her life flash before her eyes, the first years on Helipolis, the group of friends she had, and then the images of the war, the fateful day when Helipolis was destroyed and her journey to adulthood began, she remembered volunteering to become part of the Earth Alliance, the tragedy at Alaska, Tolle's death…and then trying to kill Dearka and then warming up to him, she didn't know what to think about him, she had felt something there near the end of the first war, but circumstance dictated that they go their separate ways, forever, now that she felt that she was plunging towards her death. She wished that it could be different, that she could try to make a relationship with Dearka but it seemed as if fate would intervene.

Then she felt the hard jarring pain on her back as she landed on something, she looked and saw the hands of the Freedom holding her up, as it flew back to the Archangel. Kira, she thought, you've saved me.

With the battle now done, ad the remaining ZAFT forces broken, the Freedom and the Strike Rouge landed within Archangel's hold. Milliaria jumped off the Freedom's hands onto the floor. She saw Kira exit the Freedom and she cried out, "Kira. Thank You for saving me."

Kira turned around as he heard someone call his name. It was Milliaria, "Milliaria, you were in the helicopter?" he asked, as she ran up to him and hugged him. Milliaria followed him out of the hold and into the familiar hallways of the Archangel. As they approached the bridge as the Archangel slipped away, sailing for a new hiding place.

Milliaria followed Kira towards the bridge of the Archangel and inside there were more surprises, "Murrue-san, Andy-san, Lacus, how are you? What are you doing in Scandinavia; last I heard Orb had joined the Earth Alliance. Then Cagalli walked in and saw Milliaria and they greeted each other warmly.

"We're officially not part of Orb anymore," Cagalli explained, "some of the other families tried to force me to marry, and then they made Orb part of the Earth Alliance against my wishes."

"The Earth Alliance is seeking to crush any resistance against it, to make all neutral countries part of it, Orb was the first but it certainly won't be the last. We're helping local resistance in North Africa and Scandinavia retain independence," Kira explained as he and Milliaria sat in the officer's lounge. Murrue came to join them and spoke to Milliaria, "we can drop you off when we next surface, if that's okay with you."

Milliaria faced a decision, part of her felt like rejoining the crew again, she knew that somehow, they would meet Dearka again, but her new job was important too. She decided to ask if she could re-volunteer to help on the Archangel, "Captain Ramius, what would you say if I said that I wanted to volunteer to help the Archangel again?"

Murrue and Kira gaped at Milliaria when they heard her last statement. "We would be honoured if you rejoined the Archangel. We're actually short of crew at the moment so every extra person helps," Murrue answered. Andy joined them in the lounge and sat down next to Kira, "Milliaria is rejoining the crew," Murrue explained to Andy, "that should free you to pilot the Murasame Gundam, you've had made for you," with a small smile on her face.

"Welcome back, Milliaria. I think Lacus would take the job of XO, and Milliaria goes back to CIC," Andy said, happy that he could finally have a chance to test the custom suit he had Morgenraete had made for him.

"Is that okay with you Milli," Kira asked.

"It's fine, it's a job that I can do, but what about Lacus? Will she agree?" Milliaria asked Kira, knowing that she would take the job currently being held by his girlfriend. She didn't notice that Lacus had entered the officer's lounge looking for Kira and had overheard the last part of the conversation.

"What will I agree to?" Lacus said, in her usual happy tone, now that she wasn't so focused on the PLANT fakeup of her, as she slid into the seat next to Kira.

"Becoming Executive Officer, Milliaria volunteered to rejoin the crew, so I thought that she would have her old job back and that we could promote you and Andy can pilot that Gundam he had Morgenraete build for him," Murrue answered.

"Of course I'll agree, it means a promotion doesn't it," Lacus replied, laughing because she knew that on this ship, there wasn't any pay anyway, they were doing what they could for the ideal of peace, her duties would change slightly but she had done some of them before when she had commanded the Eternal in the last war, she was sure that she could handle the job. "Welcome back Milliaria, this time I want to get to know you better, our last time together was really short."

The old gang was slowly reforming, coming back together again, those that had saved humanity the last time; it seemed as if they were going to have to save humanity once more.

A/N: I made Andy's Mobile Suit a Gundam for the sake of it. A ship as venerable and prestigious as the Archangel should only carry Gundams after all (hehe), though I heard it was a custom painted Murasame, well until they actually ID it in the episodes, it can be a Gundam. I wonder how the hell he'll pilot one-armed, but for the sake of this story, I'll just assumed that it is full prosthetic ala Star Wars. And if Andy is going to pilot who will take his place on the Archangel as XO, so I thought that I might as we bring Milly back this way and promote Lacus. Well, the old gang are getting back together again. So Cool! You should catch onto what I'm going on about by now...Next Chapter: Resistance Fighters, mostly with the Minerva.

Command of the Archangel(Main Characters)

Captain: Murrue Ramius
Executive Officer: Lacus Clyne
CIC: Milliaria Haww
Pilots: Kira Yamato (Freedom), Cagalli Yura Athha (Strike Rouge), Andrew Waltfield (Murasame)

Command of the Minerva

Captain: Talia Gladys
Executive Officer: Arthur Trine
CIC: Meyrin Hawke
Pilots: Athrun Zala (Saviour), Shinn Asuka (Impulse), Rey Za Burrel (Blaze ZAKU Phantom), Lunamaria Hawke (Gunner ZAKU Warrior)

The Phantom Pain/81st Independent Squadron

Colonel Neo Lorrnoke (Custom Windam)
Auel Neider (Abyss)
Stellar Loussier (Gaia)
Sting Oakley (Chaos)