Chapter 10: A Promise Fulfilled

A/N: Thanks for putting up with that rant on the announcement...any feedback on the second point would be very appreciated by me. Anyway, to my new reviewers...welcome and I hope that you enjoy this chapter because I had real fun writing it. Remember to R and R this.

Blitzryuu, Lightyearsaway,aikoo: Thanks for reviewing this...it's really good to have you guys on board

Asga, Lodislord, AngelofDreams,chaosdragon: You guys are really great...thanks for the continuous reviews

His personal pride wounded, Neo stood on the bridge of the JP Jones and its battle group, ready to descend on Victoria. However, unknown to the crew of the JP Jones allied forces had already been victorious against the Earth Alliance fleet at Victoria. I have to recover that Mobile Suit. Neo vowed that he would take the Mobile Suit back even if it meant reducing it to scrap and rebuilding it from scratch.

"Looks like they Gaia and the Destiny have stopped, sir, on the shore," the duty officer reported to Neo as the JP Jones and its support ships pulled closer to the Minerva and their target.

"Good, prepare for the attack, they won't expect such a quick raid, especially after the battle." They had just received intelligence that the ZAFT forces had repulsed the attack on Victoria. That just makes it harder, doesn't it, but I will soon destroy you little kitten. Neo ordered the Chaos and the Abyss and the squad of Windams. "All ships, battle stations, launch all the mobile suits, we are going after them," Neo ordered as he left the bridge ready to pilot his personal Windam, hopefully for the last time. "Neo Lorrnoke, Windam, going out," he said as the mobile suits from the Earth fleet launched. He would personally lead the attack on the Destiny with the Chaos, while the Abyss would take the Gaia down.

Shinn and Stellar, in their Gundams bounded towards the port where the Archangel and the Minerva, where he would reunite with old friends and Stellar would be safe from the Earth Alliance.

Athrun and Cagalli, Dearka and Milliaria met outside on the docks to catch up, and do things that couples do, they were joined by Yzak and Shiho, and decided to all go to the local café for food. Kira and Lacus stayed onboard the Archangel, in Kira's stateroom, the command of the Archangel felt that it was prudent that ZAFT people didn't see Lacus not where she was meant to be. They sat inside Kira's room making out. Murrue and Andy shared some coffee in the officer's lounge.

As Shinn and Stellar approached the dock, they set down their mobile suits near the Minerva on the dock. Exiting the Destiny first, Shinn jumped off onto the dock and then signalled for Stellar to follow him. She jumped down and he caught he as she landed, and they decided to sit around the dock and look at the ocean, underneath their mobile suits until Captain Gladys or Athrun came by. They just sat hand-in-hand next to each other looking out at the peaceful sea, unaware that they were being tracked by Earth Alliance forces.

Chaos, Abyss and the Windams approached the dock, which was in a disarray after the battle, certainly the monitor staff didn't expect an attack by the Earth Alliance so soon after they had repulsed them. The monitor staff were half-asleep and didn't notice until the enemy until the monitors started beeping furiously. "Crap! There are approaching Earth Alliance suits!" the office suddenly went abuzz as the officer pressed the alarm button. The alarms on the base started ringing, disturbing Athrun, Cagalli, Dearka, Milliaria, Yzak and Shiho from their unofficial triple date, disturbing Stellar and Shinn as they sat together looking out at the ocean which was now definitely not at peace. The alarm interrupted everyone on the Archangel, as Lacus and Kira broke out of their embrace and raced towards the bridge, passing Murrue and Andy respectively as the two women went to their stations on the bridge and the two men went towards their Gundams.

The bridge door opened and Lacus threw herself into Milli's seat, knowing that Milli and the others were outside doing couply stuff and so they would be slow getting back. She put on the headphones as Murrue sat at the front monitors readying the launch.

"Catapult system engaged, door opened, Freedom ready to launch," Lacus said.

"Kira Yamato, Freedom, launching," Kira said as he launched out of the right hangar bay.

"Murasame ready to launch," Lacus's voice came over the comm. system again.

"Andy Waltfield, Murasame, away," Andy said as he launched out of the left hangar bay and rose up to join the Freedom, changing into jet mode.

On the horizon the Earth Alliance mobile suits lead by Neo, came swooping in. The Abyss attacked from over the land, this time and with the Chaos proceeded to engage Andy's Murasame which flew in an intricate series of spirals avoiding the fire of its enemies and managing to hit with its own shots, something which only a veteran pilot could do. He continued to hold off the Chaos and the Abyss with his expert piloting skills.

Kira meanwhile tangled with the Windam suits of the Earth Alliance. He noticed that one was a special purple colour, which flew better than the others. Meanwhile, Shinn and Stellar were climbing into their Gundams, annoyed that they hadn't the chance to get their Gundams fixed yet. The Destiny had wires hanging out of its left, a token of the fight with the Freedom, Shinn decided that he and Stellar had to bully their way into the Minerva's hold to get their suits fixed. They took off together and headed straight for the Minerva.

The three couples rushed towards their respective ships, Cagalli and Milli giving their boyfriends a quick kiss goodbye as they scrambled.

Neo had not expected that there would be a second battleship, which came up on the IFF as the Archangel, somehow it looked familiar as was the Gundam, Freedom which he and his multiple squadrons were engaged in battle against. A strange sensation came over him, like déjà vu but not like it at the same time. He had to put that to the back of his mind, as he continued attacking.

Kira entered seed mode as he chased the purple Windam of the enemy commander. Neo tried a corkscrew trick, the inverted drop-kick and all of the piloting tricks he knew but that enemy Gundam kept up with him, it was almost unnatural the way the enemy suit could almost know his movements even before he had thought of them. Damn! That other ship with its mobile suits proved too much, even with only two suits against the many suits I bought that Freedom pilot just destroys them so easily, and the Saviour as well.

Damn it! Neo thought, as he saw more ZAFT mobile suits join in the battle but they went off to engage the Chaos and the Abyss, that Freedom has decimated my forces, too busy wrapped up in his own thoughts, he didn't notice that the Freedom came right at him firing, until it was too late, the green laser shot hit his right engine, reducing his manoeuvrability and sending him into a spin downwards. I have to land this thing and soon. The Windam plunged towards the ground, Neo set the thrusters to full as the Windam came to an abrupt landing. He opened the cockpit and drew his pistol from the small storage hold within the cockpit of the Windam. He carefully landed in the forest and took his bearings, he would have to hope that he could avoid ZAT patrols and make it past the border to the South African Union. He set off towards the South and towards what he thought would be his freedom.

Meanwhile, the combined forces of the Minerva and the Archangel had decimated the Earth Alliance fleet destroying the JP Jones and causing the other ships to flee. The Chaos and the Abyss had fled along with the surviving ships. All the mobile suits returned to their respective ships, as Shinn and Stellar were debriefed and taken to sick-bay for medical check-ups just to make sure that they were healthy. Introductions would have to wait for later as they had to capture the enemy commander, whose Windam had gone down, disabled but not destroyed.

The crew of the Archangel and the Minerva decided that they would have to organise a hunting party to capture the enemy commander, having seen his Windam go down, damaged but not destroyed. This was the perfect chance to gather intelligence on Earth Alliance's secret projects. They were to hunt in groups and to keep in contact at all times, and so the hunt for Neo began, the groups separated fanning out in all directions.

Neo knew that he was going to be followed so he set a few traps, including a pit hole which was cleverly disguised. Even though the command of the Archangel and the Minerva were good pilots and ship crewmen, they were poor resistance fighters. Neo saw that one group had fallen into his trap, except for a brown haired woman with marigold eyes, she looked familiar somehow, but he couldn't place her anywhere in his memory, he cursed at himself for being distracted, these feelings were distracting him from his escape.

Murrue caught sight of the fleeing Neo as she saw her team members fall into a neat trap, their commander is good at tactics as well, he knew that we would hunt him down and took action. She ran through the rugged forest near the shore giving chase even though her team was out of commission temporarily, they would catch up. The burning Windam mobile suit somewhere, in the background blazed as she continued to chase him through the lush forest. She lost sight of him momentarily, she stopped, a mistake, as he dropped from the branch above her tackling her. The force of the impact sent their pistols spinning away, one to the right and the other to the left. They fought hand to hand, she clawed at him as they struggled. She grabbed his mask and then pushed away, the mask flung on the ground; she was tumbling, running towards the gun on the left. She saw that he had rolled to the right and was slowly rising.

His long blonde hair obscured his face as she bought the gun in line with his head, ready to shoot. She saw that he also had a gun pointed at her. It was then that she saw his face, as he turned around to look her straight in the eyes. An icy chill came over her, pure anguish and pain played over her face, her eyes began to fill with tears when she saw his face. She could find no words to say, as she stared at his face, the face that had haunted her for the last year and a half, it can't be him, he's dead, he's dead, he's dead, she repeated to herself as she struggled against her own emotions. They remained frozen as if time had stopped, guns pointed at each other. She had to do something, say something but she remained frozen. But her emotions got the better of her; she only managed a tortured whisper, "Mu…"

Neo had ambushed the woman chasing him and now they stood facing each other, he had lost his mask in the fight, now they stood pistols pointed at each other, they stood still, he saw the anguished pain that passed through her face as she pointed the gun at him. He heard her say something, call out a name, he saw her face clearly, her long brown hair, her brown eyes, and suddenly it all came rushing back…

The house burning when he was a child, memories of the last war, being a mentor to Kira, the Archangel and its crew, the fight at Josh-A, the flight to Orb, the things that La Crueset had said at Mendel, the Dominion and its Lohegrin cannon, the battle at Jachin Due, but most of all his love, his true love, Murrue, he remembered; the times that they had spent together, the shameless flirting, the kiss before the battle of Jachin Due, he remembered his promise to her, that he would return, and now at long last it was fulfilled. "Murrue," the words came out of his mouth involuntarily, "I'm so sorry, I've been away too long."

Murrue and Mu dropped their pistols and ran to embrace one another. He held her as if there was nothing else in the world, he tilted his head down and her head up, and they kissed. It was as if nothing else existed, the burning Windam in the background didn't matter, the other people on the island forest didn't matter, nothing mattered except that they were back together again. Their lips pressed against one another, never wanting to let go… but they had to, when they remembered they were in the middle of a war zone and the fact that she was supposed to be hunting him.

"Ummm…what should we do now," he asked her as they broke away from the kiss, I'm sure they are still looking for me, don't you think?" Murrue went to retrieve the fallen guns and the mask.

"I think that we should play a trick on the others," Murrue said, giddy with excitement and joy, as he handed Mu his mask, "here I'll put it back on and take you in for questioning," she adjusted the mask back on taking great care to ruffle his now long blonde hair. Mu understood what Murrue wanted to do and he agreed with her, it would be funny, "you…you really shouldn't do this you know, Murrue, you are just inviting the others to get back at you for pulling this stunt," he said, but he couldn't keep his face straight as he broke out in laughter.

"Now, now, at least act the part," she said, trying to keep her own face straight, as she restrained him and tucked his pistol away, keeping her pistol pointed at him. "Come on, let's go," she said as they walked back towards where the Archangel and the Minerva were waiting.

Back at the Archangel and the Minerva, the others had gathered after their search. Andy and Talia were discussing the next sweep when they saw Murrue emerge from the edge of the forest, with the prisoner, a tall blonde man dressed in a grey uniform, a mask covering his face and the top half of his face, "I caught him, perhaps we should interrogate him about his involvement with the stolen Gundams and how to treat the girl Shinn brought back with him," she said as she marched Mu towards the rest of the party.

"And now to reveal who is behind the mask," Talia said, as she, Kira, Athrun, Lacus, Andy and her vice-captain Arthur stood around the prisoner. Murrue stood behind all of them trying very hard to stop laughing, as Talia reached down to pull the mask off she couldn't hold her laughter anymore. Talia stopped when she heard Murrue giggle, "What's the matter, Captain Ramius?" she asked, slightly bewildered why Murrue would be laughing when they were trying to interrogate the prisoner. Murrue walked up to the front and decided to pull Mu's mask off herself. She walked up to Neo and removed the mask carefully, taking care to observe the reactions of the people present.

"NANI?" Kira, Athrun, Lacus and Andy shouted at once when they saw Mu's face. They were shocked beyond belief.

"I told you I make the impossible possible," Mu replied, breaking out into laughter, "It's so good to see all of you again."

"What's the meaning of this," Talia asked, when she saw these impossible reactions by her allies.

Murrue explained, "Captain Gladys, we'd," gesturing to the veterans of the last war, "all like you and Arthur to meet Mu La Flaga, Hawk of Endymion, the man who makes the impossible, possible, or so he boasts. But he is a very good friend of ours and my boyfriend, so he's no danger."

The twists and turns were going too quickly for Talia to understand, "So he was reported dead at the end of the last war, but he isn't dead and became a commander of Earth Alliance Forces, but from what I understand the Archangel and its crew were traitors."

"I think that was the reason for the mask, so that the majority of the Earth Alliance didn't know that they were being lead by a traitor to their cause," Mu answered, "Could you guys, please unrestrain me, the rope is starting to chafe at my wrists." All of the veterans of the last war laughed, as Murrue went and untied him.

A/N: So the big secret is finally revealed…to the characters that is. I hope you all were surprised… or not. LOL. But I do hope you enjoyed reading this chapter because I really enjoyed writing it. Please R and R. Next Chapter: Revelations and Reunions