Whoa, I haven't updated for a LONG time...sorry...
Risa-Chan- More descriptions you said? All right, I'll give it a shot...lol. And Dearka's secret...hm...I'm not sure if it's going to come up this chapter but it will come up. Oh, and yes, there's dirt on everyone. Lol...
King Arthur 6687- Yes, more stuff needs to happen between Yzak and Arabella before that occurs...be patient! Lol...
vindicated- A nice love life you say? Well, things won't exactly be easy, but hey, at least he has one...lol...
Absolute Darkness- Yes, Yzak really did improve, didn't he? Lol...
christophirus- Oh, Icedale is a country...lol. And don't worry about asking...I don't mind at all.
Thanks also to Angel of Dreams, DarkFusion, Witch01, cherri-chan, Shadowsin, Kausi, Annie, M.S. Arashi Sumeragi, Rinelwin, Miss Akira, (the smiling happy face), KaRa, Sakura Kuonji, AnimeSiren, nObOdY, sailor-z-360, and PsychicIce.
Ch. 17: The Snow and the Thousand Cranes
"So they almost..." Cagalli asked eagerly.
"Yea, except then Nora interrupted..."
"I tried to stall as much as possible, but I think my grandmother started to suspect that something was going on." Elise replied, regretfully. "But I suppose it was better than nothing."
"So how did the research go?" Cagalli changed the topic.
"Well...um...we couldn't really find much..." Miriallia replied nervously, although she tried her best not to seem so.
Elise raised an eyebrow, but didn't comment on the subject. Instead she went on. "You know, I get the feeling that we won't be able to find anything useful unless we get some access towards the restricted section."
"But that's next to impossible." Kira protested.
"Exactly. It's next to impossible." Cagalli suddenly smirked. Everyone stared at Cagalli, wanting to hear an explanation. "Well, actually, it was more of Athrun's plan than mine." Cagalli blushed. "What I basically did was to convince her that I really needed to research more about Orb in order for me to be a better ruler, and the resources I had now weren't enough."
"Wait, so she just handed over the access codes just like that?" Dearka glared incredulously.
"No..." Cagalli sweat-dropped. "Use your brain. If it were only that easy..." Cagalli gave a frustrated sigh. "She was very hesitant at first, and when I finally did convince her, she only let me have access to a small shelf of books. Supposedly each row, shelf, bookcase, data file, and even the doors have their own access codes. You're suppose to 'log in' on a directory computer before you touch anything, and when you finally do, you can only touch the items that are designated. Otherwise, the alarm goes off again."
"That's such a complicated system." Lacus remarked. "But I suppose that also implies that the things that are there are important enough to be protected like that."
Elise nodded in agreement. "That would make sense. So are you planning to hack into the system when you're in there?"
Cagalli nodded. "That's basically my plan. Anyways, so is everything set?" She asked, looking at Dearka and Miriallia.
"Yea..." They both replied, although a bit half-heartedly.
"Is there something the matter?" Lacus asked, concerned.
"Nothing."
"Well, alright then..." Elise started, trying to get rid of the awkwardness. "So Arabella did agree right?"
Cagalli nodded. "She did, but of course, she doesn't have any idea just exactly what's going on." Again she had a smirk on.
"And Yzak?"
"That was easy." Athrun replied with a smirk that rivaled Cagalli's. "Just had to use his own pride against him as usual."
"Well then, everyone just has to play their roles and everything will run smoothly."
"You know, we can drop this whole thing if you're not comfortable working with me." Dearka suggested when they remained alone. After what happened the day before, they both started to avoid each other. Rather, Miriallia did all the avoiding while Dearka just decided to give her the space she asked for. Unfortunately, hiding the situation from others had become rather difficult.
"No...I'm going to go through with this..." Miriallia replied, although she seemed uncomfortable.
"Are you sure..." Dearka stopped as he noticed Yzak and Arabella coming into the room.
"Hi..." Arabella said confusedly, feeling the tension. "So..."
"Where's everyone else?" Yzak asked irritably.
"Well, Lacus and Kira just disappeared. Who knows what those two are doing." Dearka gave a wink, earning a playful slap from Miriallia. Once she realized what she did however, she withdrew quickly.
"Um, okay...what about Elise, Athrun, and Cagalli?" Elise continued, pretending to not notice Miriallia's reaction.
"Well, Elise is up to spending some quality time with her grandmother again, and well, Cagalli doesn't seem to look so well..."
"She's sick? But just yesterday she seemed very active..." Arabella commented, concerned. "Maybe we should check on her before we do anything else." With that she headed towards Cagalli's room. After softly knocking, she entered slowly, and found a concerned looking Athrun sitting next to Cagalli's bed. "Is she going to be alright?" Athrun nodded his head.
"She's going to be fine. I think she caught a cold. If she has a good rest today, she'll probably be up and running by tomorrow, which will be sooner than most people would want." He managed to joke.
"I heard that you jerk..." Cagalli pouted, her voice raspy. Then she turned her head towards Arabella, looking apologetic. "I'm really sorry that I can't go...but in this case even I have to admit defeat."
"It's perfectly fine." Arabella reassured her. "Besides, I would question your sanity if you did otherwise."
Cagalli smiled weakly. "Thanks. But I really did want to go play in the snow..."
"We could go again anytime you want. Just try to get better soon." Arabella suggested. "Well, I'll leave you two alone now. Take good care of her Athrun." Athrun nodded as Arabella walked out, closing the door behind her.
"She bought it!" Cagalli jumped out of bed once the coast became clear.
"Well, you were pretty good with the acting." Athrun smirked.
"You weren't so bad yourself." She smirked back.
Kira poked his head out the door, looking back and forth to make sure that the coast was clear. Cagalli and Athrun had a believable plan, but unfortunately he and Lacus didn't, so they decided to hide instead. Realizing that they had left for good, he walked out, and proceeded towards the room that Lacus hid in. "Lacus, they're gone..." Kira stopped short at the sight in front of him. Lacus sat down in the middle of the room, surrounded by multiple colors of origami papers, and at the moment she stayed busy making a crane. To everyone else, the sight would have seemed ordinary enough, and if anything, quite adorable. However, to Kira, the display before him seemed almost ominous.
"Oh, there you are Kira. I was wondering when you were going to come and get me." Lacus greeted him, smiling.
"The little girl..." Kira stood still, recalling the memory. He couldn't let the same thing happen again...
"Kira, are you all right?" Lacus looked up, concerned. "Here, why don't you come and sit next to me?" She gestured, and Kira mindlessly followed.
"What are you making?" Kira managed to ask.
"Oh, cranes." Lacus replied. Seeing the confused look on Kira, she smiled once again. "There's a story saying that if you make a thousand cranes one of your wishes will come true."
"And just what is it that you wish for?" Kira smiled, amused, momentarily forgetting his depression.
"What do you think, Mr. Yamato?" Lacus gave him a wink, completely catching Kira off guard.
"Well...uh..." Kira stammered, getting nervous.
Lacus laughed at his behavior. "Want to help make them?"
"Sure...but I don't know how..." Kira replied.
"Here, I'll teach you!" Lacus suddenly got excited. "First you fold the paper into a triangle..."
Kira couldn't help but smile at Lacus. She seemed so innocent, yet she played a crucial role in ending the war as well. Such a paradox...
"Are you listening, Kira Yamato?" Lacus pouted, pretending to be angry.
"Of course, Miss Clyne." Kira replied back, laughing. He pushed aside his dark memories. For now, all that mattered to him was the woman right next to him.
"Come on Athrun, hurry up with the hacking! They'll be back in a couple hours!" Cagalli pressured Athrun.
"I'm trying, but this is very complex." Athrun shouted back, typing madly at the computer at the same time. "Did you at least try to look at the books that were already available?"
"What do you think I'm doing now?" Cagalli replied, frustrated. "There's nothing useful in these. We need to get to the other restricted things."
"All right...here it goes..." Athrun pressed the enter key. The three shelves nearest to them suddenly lit up, causing Cagalli to jump away in surprise. Athrun wiped the sweat off his forehead. "That's all I can do for now, so I hope you're happy with it."
"It's a start." She replied approvingly. "You take care of the top ones and I'll look at the bottom ones."
"Already doing that." Athrun answered with a smile. "After all, you are shorter than me."
"Hey! That doesn't mean anything!" Cagalli protested. "Why you...hey Athrun, what's wrong?"
"What...what is this doing here?" Athrun stammered, not believing his eyes. "These...these are ZAFT secret military records..."
"It's so beautiful here!" Miriallia remarked, forgetting everything else momentarily and staring at the landscape.
"It really is amazing isn't it?" Arabella replied, looking at the faraway mountains covered completely in snow, with a huge frozen lake at the bottom of it.
"You girls need to stop admiring the view and actually start having fun." Dearka teased.
"And just what do you mean by that?" The two girls retorted.
"Like THIS!" Dearka swung his arm, letting the snowball that he had been hiding fly straight at the girls.
"HEY!!" The two girls looked back angrily after they just barely managed to dodge it.
"You two better hurry up and retaliate before I throw another one!" Dearka laughed maniacally while running away from them.
"Should we give him a few seconds before we chase after them?" Arabella suggested.
Miriallia smirked. "Alright, after all, he's going to need it!"
"Okay. One, two, THREE!!" The girls ran after Dearka madly, holding gigantic snowballs each.
"Hey Yzak, help me out here!" Dearka yelled as he ran past Yzak.
"If you think I'm going to..." He got cut off, thanks to a snowball hitting him squarely in his face. "All right, that's it!"
Soon it turned out into an all out war, and somehow, it became Dearka vs. Miriallia, and Yzak vs. Arabella. "This isn't the same as a game of chess. You need stealth for this. There's no way you're going to beat me!" Yzak yelled from across the field.
"Who says I don't have stealth?" Arabella retorted, barely dodging Yzak's snowball. With that, she started charging towards him, completely taking him by surprise.
"Who...what..." Yzak chocked as Arabella rubbed cold snow all over his face. Once he got back in control, he made a grab for Arabella's arm. "So is that the way you're going to play?" He grabbed a handful of snow and dumped it all over her hair.
"Ugh!" She glared at him furiously. "That's it, you're really going to get it." She knocked into him, causing the two of them to roll down the hill. Once they reached the bottom, they were both sprawled out, laughing their heads off.
"Alright, alright, that's enough." Both said at unison.
"It seems that whatever we do we come out as equals." Arabella remarked.
"It's just coincidence." Yzak shrugged arrogantly.
"You never seem to get enough of yourself." Arabella pouted.
"What else am I suppose to get enough of?" He smirked.
Arabella slapped his shoulder jokingly. "You know, your arrogance can't fool me anymore. So why don't you just drop that mask?"
"What about yours?" Yzak retorted.
Arabella sighed. "All right, why don't we do this? I'll try to drop my mask, and you try to drop yours."
"Seems like a fair trade." He replied, showing a genuine smile, which he hadn't done for a long time. "Just don't let the others know. I don't want to ruin my reputation."
"Did you send the invitations Nora?" Arabella asked, typing away at her hidden computer once again.
Nora emerged from the corner of the room. "Yes I did. But princess..."
"I know it's not our usual approach, but this way we can make sure that there won't be any attacks. After all, I don't think any terrorist groups would want to risk attacking if everything goes accordingly."
"Do you really think there would be a chance of an attack otherwise?" Nora asked hesitantly.
Arabella sighed. "I wouldn't put it past them."
Yay! Chapter done!
So how was it? Maybe it's not as up to caliber...hm...
Next up, the New Year's Eve Ball! Wondering what's going to happen? And who did those extra invitations go to? And of course, Ray and Lucia show up again! XD Oh joy...lol.
Oh and I PROMISE to update as soon as possible. (although when that's exactly going to be I can't say...XD)
And of course, thanks for reading, as usual!