Chapter 7: Enter Destiny Gundam

Asga, AngelofDreams: Thanks for your continuous reviews of the story. Hope you enjoy this chapter.

Lodis Lord: It will be finished...and there will be no yaoi.

A/N: Read and review please. It has been fun so far writing this but with University having started again, I will have less time to update sonew chapterswon't be so frequent. Anyway enjoy this chapter.

Stellar wondered into the brig, she enjoyed walking around the ship, enjoying its sights when she saw Shinn, she recognised him from Armoury One, and he had groped her breasts. She took her knife out and prepared to confront him, "you, you groped me you pervert," she screamed at him, drawing her knife to stab him.

Shinn saw the blonde haired girl come towards him with a knife, he recognised her from the day on Armoury One when she had walked in his way and he had accidentally touched her, "Hey stop that, it was an accident, I'm sorry if I hurt you in any way," he apologised, but she still tried to stab him through the bars enraged as she was. He knew that he was captured by those who had stolen the Gundams and restarted the war.

"Help, she's trying to kill me, I'm going to die!" Shinn shouted at the guard in the brig, Stellar heard the boy say the word, "die." Suddenly, she felt really scared and stopped trying to kill him, she was really scared, "I'm not going to die," she repeatedly whispered to herself, as the knife clattered from her grasp onto the floor. She curled up protectively in a ball on the ground, constantly reassuring herself that she was going to live, that Neo wouldn't let anything happen to her, she was safe with him.

The guard was nowhere to be seen, Shinn saw the girl whimpering in fear, "Nothing's going to happen, you aren't going to die," he reassured the girl, "I'll keep you safe," he felt sorry for Stellar who just lay there crying. He remembered the fight with Gaia at Armoury One where the pilot had suddenly had a panic attack, not unlike what was happening to the girl now. In his mind Shinn realised that something he said had triggered some reaction in the girl's mind and now she was scared whereas before she was recklessly brave. He reached through the bars and patted her on the shoulder, all the while telling her it would be alright.

Stellar sat up as she heard the reassuring voice, I'm not going to die, she repeated to herself, she felt Shinn's reassuring touch on her, she looked into his eyes, he touched me again, but this time it was nice, she thought to herself. He seems to make me feel safe, unlike anyone else except for Neo. It was then that Neo strode into the brig, to interrogate Shinn, for the second time. The first time the masked man had just confirmed that he was a pilot of ZAFT and then had left, apparently there had been trouble elsewhere.

"Stellar, what are you doing here," he asked her, "escort the prisoner to my office," he ordered the guards who had come with him.

"Neo," Stellar said as she ran up to hug him. He stopped her, "now, now we shouldn't be doing anything inappropriate, especially in front of the prisoner," Neo said, "now run along and join the others," Stellar exited the brig and went up on the deck to look at the ocean. The guards opened the brig cell and escorted Shinn into Neo' private office.

Neo entered his own office and motioned for the guards to sit Shinn down in the chair. "You may leave, and wait outside the door" he ordered. The guards saluted and went to wait outside.

Slap! Neo hit Shinn on the face, "If you ever hurt her again, I will kill you," he said. Shinn's eyes were full of fire, but he knew that to try to escape now was futile, the guards were still outside the door and armed, and he didn't know how well Neo could fight. "Now you will answer my questions, you are Shinn Asuka, pilot of the Impulse, serving on the Minerva, are you not?" Neo asked.

"I was only trying to help her," Shinn argued, "she was really scared," he continued, omitting the part where Stellar had tried to kill him, "It's not my fault. And I'm not answering any of your questions." A defiant look crossed his face.

"If you don't answer, I suppose that tougher measures will be taken to make you talk. You can talk to me now, or you will talk to the professional army interrogators who will hurt you a lot more. I advise you to talk now; otherwise things will be a lot more unpleasant," Neo threatened, "So I ask once again, you are Shinn Asuka, pilot of the Impulse serving on the Minerva, are you not."

Shinn knew what Neo had threatened would happen if he refused to answer the questions, so he decided to cooperate, "Yes, I am," he replied.

"Good, now you can tell me about the other personnel on the Minerva, I can tell if you lie so don't lie to me," Neo warned. "Who is the pilot of the other Gundam unit, Saviour?"

Shinn was shocked over the sheer amount of knowledge that Neo possessed about ZAFT forces and so he answered, "Athrun Zala is the pilot of the Saviour." Another strange feeling came over Neo that name sounded really familiar, somehow, but he ignored the feeling and continued, "And the kid in white is?"

"Rey Za Burrel, pilot of the Zaku," Shinn answered.

"Describe his appearance to me," Neo asked, now that he had a name to put to that kid in white.

"He's about my age, white-blonde hair, shoulder length, blue eyes," Shinn replied, unsure of why Neo had asked such a question. An image of the past flashed into Neo's memory, "La Crueset," he murmured unintentionally, not knowing why. Neo couldn't shake that uncomfortable feeling about that kid, but he was in the middle of the interrogation. He looked down to his datapad and continued, "And the one in the red Zaku?"

"Lunamaria Hawke," Shinn replied, wanting the questioning to end quickly.

"The Captain of the Minerva is Talia Gladys, is it not?" Neo asked again. Shinn confirmed the fact. "And your mission is?"

"As far as I know, our mission is to help neutral countries stop you from invading them, we are purely deployed in a defensive role," Shinn answered. Suddenly, the comm. on Neo's desk blatted, he looked down and saw it was an urgent priority message from Lord Jibril himself. He called out to the guards after he opened the door and ordered them to escort Shinn back to the brig.

"Lord Jibril," he said as he closed the door.

"Colonel Lorrnoke, the JP Jones will proceed to the following location, there it will receive the Destiny Mobile Suit, my present to you for your good work. With it you should be able to destroy the Minerva," Jibril's voice came through the comm. system.

"Yes, Lord Jibril, I understand," Neo said. Now I have you, little kitten. Lord Jibril's image and voice faded out as the connection was severed. Neo stepped out to the bridge, "we are to proceed to these following co-ordinates," he ordered the helmsman to change course. The JP Jones proceeded along the set course towards the pick-up point. Shinn was escorted back to the brig and locked up again.

Meanwhile, near Victoria, the Archangel remained hidden off the coast. Intelligence from local resistance groups indicated that the Earth Alliance would soon attack Victoria and the African Community, which was partial to PLANT. Murrue, Andy, Cagalli, Lacus and Kira sat in the officer's lounge planning their next move. For Andy it was almost a homecoming, once known as the 'Tiger of the Desert.'

"We have to stop try to stop the Earth Alliance attack on Africa. There are two fronts, the north-western front from which Eurasia and the Atlantic Federation may attack from, as soon as it has finished subjugating Scandinavia and the south-eastern front, on which the South African Union is attacking from. In the way of the south-eastern front, is Victoria Base, belonging to ZAFT. I propose that we have to join forces for mutual benefit, to repel the Earth Alliance attack, with this front subjugated, we may have a better chance of defending the other front in which they hold more firepower," Andy suggested.

"Yes, it is our best course," Lacus agreed, "but how should we approach the African Community, as far as I remember we are traitors and ZAFT did try to kill me."

"I could get into touch with local resistance around the northern front, we served there last war," Cagalli suggested, "I still have the contacts of the resistance fighters, I'm sure they could put us into touch with those on the southern front."

The Minerva sailed and flew down towards Mahamul base and North Africa, even though Shinn was gone. They had searched for a while with the help of local resistance but Shinn had disappeared. Most of the crew now gave him up for dead even though it hadn't been confirmed yet.

Shinn sat in the brig, as Stellar wondered in again, "Hello, thank you for your help last time, you made me feel safe and wanted. What's your name? I'm Stellar Loussier," Stellar introduced herself.

"I'm Shinn Asuka, it is nice to meet you, but I couldn't let you suffer like that, I've seen too much suffering, too much fear. I want to put an end to it," Shinn replied.

"Is that why you joined ZAFT?" Stellar asked.

"Yes, when the Earth Alliance killed my family, I swore to always try my hardest so that no other person had to go through what I had to," Shinn said, the words coming from his heart.

"I don't know why I'm in the Earth Alliance, all I really remember is that Neo makes me feel safe, like you do," Stellar replied. "Neo told me that the Earth Alliance had to stop PLANT from wiping out all Naturals. I remember the last war too, I saw the Genesis on TV, I know that I have to stop that from happening again."

"PLANT has done some bad things in the past," Shinn agreed, "but the current chairman, Dullindal is a good man. How did you know when to steal the new Gundams from Armoury One?" Shinn asked Stellar.

"The mission started at least one year ago, Neo started our training as soon as he heard. The strange thing was that I overheard once that it was someone from ZAFT that had contacted us and told us about the Gundams," Stellar answered. Shinn was shocked, for that to happen there must have been a highly placed traitor within ZAFT. But that project was part of FAITH which reported to Chairman Dullindal directly. He had to continue to talk to her, so that he could find out more.

"Uhhhh…so Neo is the masked guy isn't he," Shinn asked, just trying to continue the conversation, he didn't really know what else to say.

"Yes, he is," Stellar replied dreamily, "he's a really nice man who makes sure that I always feel safe, that's why I like him so much, and that's also why I'm sure you are not evil." Her eyes look reassured and she knew that she was safe here, even though he was from ZAFT.

Shinn found it hard to not stare at this enigmatic girl, she was pretty and brave but she was also scared at the same time. "What's that you're holding?" he asked as he saw something pink in Stellar's hand.

"It's yours," Stellar replied, "I want to give it to you, it is obviously something very important to you." She handed him Mayu's mobile phone which had been taken from him by Neo, "it was in Neo's office and I took it, because I knew it was important for you. But promise me you won't use it."

"Thank you, Stellar," Shinn said, feeling gratitude to Stellar, who had obviously risked a severe reprimand to give him back something that he treasured. Maybe not everyone in the Earth Alliance is that bad.

"Anyway I have to go now, see you again," Stellar replied, disrupting Shinn's reverie, "I have some errands to run."

"Good-bye Stellar," Shinn replied, "Stay safe for me." He sat back down on the bed in the brig, and began to think about what else to ask Stellar the next time they talked again, but all he could think about how strong and vulnerable that Stellar was at the same time.

Neo eagerly awaited the delivery of the Destiny Gundam; finally, the war would be over and the world would be at peace. Now that the Destiny is coming, I don't need to pump that ZAFT pilot for information anymore. The Destiny, in my hands should be able to destroy that Saviour and then the Minerva.

Meanwhile, the Archangel headed towards Victoria base, through Cagalli's contacts they had managed to get through to the local resistance, and they prepared to attack the enemy forces. Murrue and Andy sat in the officer's lounge with the other pilots outlining their plan of attack and who they would be supporting.After the meeting had finished, Andy, Cagalli and Kira suited up ready to execute their plan.

Lacus and Milliaria sat in their shared stateroom, talking. After exhausting the boring topics of conversation, they started talking about their love life or lack thereof. "Kira is really the perfect guy," Lacus stated, "He's really caring, that's what I like about him most, the way he takes care of me, I know that he would never leave me in danger, he would do anything to help me if I was in trouble. After the damage that that Flay girl did to his psyche, I thought that he had almost lost the ability to love, but I was glad that I was wrong. "

"I agree, even though Flay was a friend, what she did to Kira was despicable. She used him and didn't even love him," Milliaria replied, "I can see that you love him with all your heart and that it is a true love. My love life on the other hand, is sort of non-existent, I mean, Dearka and I talk sometimes but I haven't seen him for so long, and keeping any sort of long-distance relationship is a recipe for disaster, or so my parents say." I really wish he was here, with me.

"I don't think so, if you and he are true loves, than your love should be able to survive anything even prolonged separation. I'm not saying that you may or may not make mistakes but in the end you'll be together again, forever," Lacus said, "Just like I knew that Kira and I had true love, as soon as I first laid eyes on him. Dating Flay was his mistake and my engagement to Athrun was mine, but I knew that as soon as we had some time together that we would forget about those mistakes and move on with our lives together. You need to do the same, when you and Dearka meet again make sure you spend a lot of time together, and then you'll know that it is right."

Kira knocked on the door of their shared stateroom, interrupting their talk, "Lacus, Milliaria we have to go to the bridge," Kira said, "We're moving out." Lacus and Milliaria got up, Kira gave Lacus a quick kiss before exiting and going down the passage to the hangar while Milli and Lacus went the other way, up to the bridge.

"Condition Red, Condition Red, all crew prepare for combat," Milliaria said over the comm. as she settled into her place on the bridge.

As the other officers came into the bridge, Lacus took her place in the Executive Officer's chair, "Prepare to surface, on the Captain's mark," she ordered.

"Prepare the ship for anti-MS, anti-ship combat as soon as we surface, start the surfacing procedure, mark," Murrue, in the captain's chair calmly said. The Archangel's thrusters fired as the ship began to move off its seafloor hiding place, into the open sea above. When it surfaced Murrue issued the next order, "Bring us to the side of the resistance base, we will lead their troops. Prepare to launch Mobile Suits from the hangar."

"Freedom, clear to launch," Milliaria's voice came over Kira's comm. system.

"Kira Yamato, Freedom, away," Kira said back over the comm, 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 enemy forces.

"Strike Rouge, clear to launch," Milliaria's voice came over the comm. system.

"Cagalli Yula Athha, Strike Rouge, away," her voice rang over the comm. as Cagalli launched in her Gundam out of the left hangar. Strike Rouge catapulted out of the Archangel's hangar, it rose to join Freedom.

"Murasame, clear to launch," Milliaria's voice again, as the last of Archangel's Gundams prepared to launch.

"Andrew Waltfield, Murasame launching," Andy said, ready for his first mobile suit battle in this war. The Yellow Murasame launched out of the Archangel's right hangar bay, joining the Freedom and the Strike Rouge. They saw the that the battle had started without them, ZAFT forces engaged the Earth Alliance forces on the right, while the local resistance engaged the forces on the left. It was to the left front that the forces from the Archangel headed.

"Gottfried, fire on my mark," Murrue's voice rang clearly through the bridge, as the Archangel sailed into cannon range, "Fire." The Archangel came into the battle from the side, taking the Earth Alliance forces by surprise, the Gottfried cannons fired, destroying the enemy ships before they could do anything to react. "Fire again on my mark, then move turn fifteen degrees to port" Murrue ordered, as the some of the Earth Alliance ships re-oriented themselves to the new threat, "Fire."

A/N: Sweet Shinn and Stellar fluff! Anyway, there will be more Archangel…Apologies about the Flay flaming but she sort of did deserve it. Flay is not one of my favourite characters. And Andy is commander of the corps, even though Kira is the better pilot(especially with SEED), Andy is definitely the more experienced officer. And Shinn got slapped again...