As Kira and the rest of his group consisting of Tolle, Kuzzey, Mirrillia and Sai moved toward the infirmary, he decided to ask the question that was on his mind, but Tolle spoke first.

"Thanks for helping me, everyone," Tolle said.

"No problem," Kira said.

"We're friends, right?" Sai added.

"While I'm happy to help with the distribution, I'm curious. Why now, and why us?" Mirrillia asked.

"I asked Commander Fllaga, and he said for CBM,"

"CBM?"

"Confidence Building Measure."

"How come he's using those terms with you but told me not to do so?" Mirrillia complained.

Tolle chuckled. "I did ask him that, and he said that getting those terms wrong during an operation is an unforgivable sin in his book. You know that you riled him up recently,"

"I used it accurately to refer to Captain Murrue! It's even stated in the documents!"

"True, but you got the context wrong. It's for non-visual communication, and most of the time, Commander Mu could see who's talking, right?"

"When you put it that way, I can see why he's annoyed," Mirrillia admitted.

"Even if only text communication is available, you can just type, 'Captain Murrue said' to differentiate between you and her,"

"Okay, non-visual with other parties, got it,"

"Or just stop trying to use the jargon unless you're sure," Tolle said before redirecting the conversation back to the original topic, "So, what CBM entails is us doing activities together with Lacus Clyne's group to create confidence that both our sides are 'chill', according to him."

"Why us?" Sai asked, "and not him?"

"He said that if he volunteers instead, the Lacus Clyne's nanny would suspect that he's trying to get into her or Lacus' pants,"

"You're kidding me," Kuzzey remarked.

"No," Tolle reconsidered his words, "Well, I'm not, though I'm not sure whether he's pulling my leg or not. He did say that he didn't want Captain Murrue to suspect the same thing, so I guess it means something,"

"I think it's a peace offering by sending us instead of them," Mirrillia said.

"What do you mean by that?" Kuzzey asked.

"Maybe the fact that," Tolle said while patting the blue Earth Alliance volunteer uniform he was wearing, "even though we're part of the ship's crew, we're not EA,"

Kuzzey pointed a finger gun at him and made a shooting motion, referencing what Murrue did to Kuzzey the first time they met her.

Tolle shrugged, "Yeah, we'll be too close that they will have to ask,"

"Or we can just introduce ourselves before they ask," Mirrillia suggested.

"Sounds like a plan," Kira said as they finally arrived at the said place. The two sentries watching them nodded and moved out o the way, having been notified of their duty.

The door opened and Tolle was the first to enter the room but then he stopped.

"Tolle," Mirrialia said in annoyance as she pushed her boyfriend inside before doing the same. She then gasped.

Kira was the third person who entered and he finally understood the bizarre reaction from the two before him.

Everyone inside the infirmary was wearing the Eurasian OMNI uniforms; even Lacus was wearing one herself. Kira understood why Tolle and Miriallia were caught by surprise. It was quite surreal watching the PLANTs residents wearing the clothing of their enemy.

"Oh, they didn't bring enough change of clothing," Sai commented as he entered the room next. "It's not as if they can do laundry onboard,"

"That makes sense, I forgot that we changed our clothing because we volunteer," Kira said while nodding with understanding. While showering in zero gravity became possible due to the advances in technology, it was more efficient to use the clothing for a long time before throwing them instead of trying to wash them. Artemis did manufacture and provide civilian clothing for refugees onboard Archangel, but the Silverwind's rescue crew only had the cloth on their when they came on board.

"I thought that it's a ploy by the Command Mu to allow them to be shot as spies if needed," Kuzzey, ever the pessimist whispered to the two of them.

Sai hissed while punching Kuzzey's shoulder to shut him up.

Despite not wanting to, Kira thought about Kuzzey's words. Was Mu capable of such actions? In Kira's opinion, the older man looked like a decent person but there was no denying the several kills under his belt; Mu also seemed to be the man who will do whatever was necessary to carry out his duty.

"It's not, Kira," Sai said, seemingly knowing what was going on in his mind. "Too complex,"

"But there's the Operation Greif…" Kuzzey whispered before Sai hit him again in the shoulder, this time with more strength.

"No, different! Now, shut up," Sai hushed.

Kuzzey rubbed his sore shoulder but remained compliant.

Kira understood why Sai was agitated as all of them took the same history elective. The name Kuzzey mentioned referred to a special operation carried out in the pre-Cosmic Era by a nation called Germany, located somewhere in the Eurasian Federation. The mission involved its soldiers impersonating its adversary by using the latter's uniform to create havoc behind the enemy lines. While Kira either slept in the class or did other works instead of paying attention to what was being taught, he did know that it was a complex military operation, far removed from the current situation.

"Hello," Lacus greeted.

An unfamiliar medical orderly, probably from Silverwind, looked up from her console to smile politely at them before continuing with her work. Meanwhile, Athrun looked at the group and then focussed on him, raising his eyebrows.

Tolle noticed the look and turned toward him but Kira nodded back, convincing him to do the introduction. Even if he knew Lacus already, it was Tolle's idea to do the CBM and he simply jumped on the bandwagon.

Athrun's wariness remained even though Tolle had clearly explained their presence. While understandable, considering Athrun's sad history, Kira felt that his suspicion was unwarranted. Furthermore, Athrun's expression was obvious to everyone present, including the guards, and the guards would certainly notify Murrue or Mu about it. It was a shame since Kira had considered asking for Athrun to be included for the next visit.

After the introduction and explanation were finished, the newly formed group which consisted of Kira, his Heliopolis friends and Lacus left to the cordoned area of the ship where the rest of the Silverlight crew.

The CBM exercise, despite Kira's initial worry, turned out to be straightforward, with no unexpected drama. All his group and Lacus did were distribute some food and clothing. There were a few of them that did a double-take upon seeing Lacus Clyne wearing an Earth Alliance uniform but she explained the situation to them, they readily came to terms with it.

Kira felt that they didn't have a choice in the matter. Even if they doubled down on wearing on not wearing anything from Earth Alliance, it was almost impossible in Kira's opinion, since that would mean wearing their underwear for what could be a very long time. And once they managed to convince themselves to wear those distastefully-designed but functional Earth Alliance underwear, wearing the actual uniform would be nothing in comparison.

Yet, while Lacus Clyne looked good in her uniform, Flay made hers look so hot, in Kira's not-so-biased opinion. He was sure that even if she wore burlap sacks as her uniform, the redhead would still look stunning. A shame that she declined to join the CBM and instead continued working on Aegis. Whether it was due to not wanting to be with Sai or Lacus, he couldn't be sure; it could be both.

Kira decided to look for her afterwards. While Flay was averse to being in the vicinity of both Sai and Lacus, the redhead seemed to have no problem with him.

After distributing the food, his group and the Silverwind's crew sat at a bulkhead modified to be the latter's multipurpose space to have their meal together. Despite the small conversations that the two groups had during the distribution, they still sat a bit apart from each other. Seeing this, Lacus sat between the two, acting as a bridge to reduce the gap between the two. "Let's eat," she said before biting into her sandwich. "Oh?" she uttered in surprise.

"What the heck is this?!" a man from the Silverwind crew shouted.

Kira and his group tensed at the sudden comment.

The man pointed at his own sandwich, "How come it's not crap like before?"

"Er, thank you I guess?" Tolle said.

"You're withholding this from us? This is not fair!" the man continued his tirade.

"Rayleigh, that's enough. You're embarrassing us," Nellie, Lacus's manager said.

Not wanting the other party to have a misunderstanding, Sai began to explain, "We had the same," he hesitated, "food as you. This is the new ration," It was the standard procedure to finish food with older shelf life, so they were using those already on board when Archangel left Heliopolis; they started using the Eurasian supply only recently.

"Wow, I don't know what to say. To think that our food is crappier than the one before this. What did we do wrong?" the man named Rayleigh lamented.

"He's melodramatic and all," Nellie said. "Just ignore him when he's in this mood,"

"Of course he's in that mood," another man said before taking a bite. "I'm in that mood too, considering that I was looking forward to the event despite the paltry pay," he continued with a half-full mouth.

"It couldn't be helped, and we're paying you above industry standard," Nellie said before admonishing him, "and don't eat with your mouth full, Nazmi,"

"Yes, Mom," Nazmi said, not caring.

"A shame indeed. If you look at the view outside," a female Silverwind crew added her thought while gesturing toward the nearby screen, "I think we're approaching Waypoint Four, and just a day's journey's to the site,"

"What?!" Nellie said as she went to the screen to type certain commands and an outside view of the ship was shown. "Are you sure about this, Jia Min?" she asked as her hand touched on it gingerly.

"Yea… look at that Island-3 type remnant," the female named Jia Min answered, "The flight plan calls for movement to reduce discovery, I mean, causing unnecessary friction by belligerent forces, and we're supposed to arrive at that remnant at around 39 hours from now,"

"We're early," the leader of the delegation said in contemplation. "It couldn't be… no, I'm wrong. This ship is travelling straight instead of following our own… Plus the vector," Nellie's expression brightened before turning toward Tolle. "Can you put me in contact with the Triumvirate?"

"Triumvirate?" Tolle said, not understanding whom Nellie was referring to.

"Three Muske… or is it Pashas? Or Troika?"

Tolle's eyes widened as understanding set in before he had put a hand over his mouth in an attempt to stifle his laughter.

Kira was the same. Looking at the rest of his group struggling badly to maintain their straight faces, there was no mistaking that they knew who Nellie was referring to.

A large projectile exited Archangel, propelled by one of its linear catapults. As it continued along its trajectory, it began ejecting smaller projectiles in other directions.

"Croix du Nord Unit 2 beginning deployment," Miriallia announced from her console.

Five minutes later, she announced again, "Deployment completed. Network nodes, 349 out of 360, communication range extension estimated at plus 98.2 kilometres, lag at plus 0.3 seconds,"

That's good enough," Murrue said. "All units connected to the network?"

"Yes, Ma'am,"

"Confirm that the navigation aide onboard each one is functioning. Notify immediately if any abnormality is found. We don't want anyone to get stranded,"

"Yes, Ma'am,"

"Good. Proceed with their launch. Jackie, tell me if radar picks something up,"

"Aye, Ma'am,"

Murrue looked at her de facto second-in-command. "You've been quiet about this arrangement, Natarle. Are you so against it?"

The said person didn't answer for quite some time. "No, I'm not. I'm all for it,"

"You are?" Murrue asked in surprise.

"What they requested, it's not for those departed; it's for those who are still living," Natarle answered as she slowly twirled a red paper flower between her thumb and forefinger. "Even though my head says 'no', my heart says otherwise. That's why I kept quiet,"

Murrue smiled; it wasn't often they agree.

"But, I'm a bit apprehensive about our log," Natarle added.

"What do you mean?"

"We're making an unpermitted stop at Junius Seven. I wonder how we're going to explain it,"

"Oh, that? Commander Fllaga had already taken care of it. We're going there for water and extra supplies. Looks like the Eurasians didn't give enough,"

"I recall they provided more than enough,"

"They did, but remember, it's difficult to supply something that doesn't exist, right?"

"So, we're using the Eurasians as an excuse?" Arnold who was helming the ship asked. "That's why you asked Dalida to create the new log so that we can blame them?"

"We're in this situation because we did them a favor, so they shouldn't complain. " Murrue replied. "Given the animosity between us and them, the higher-ups would believe that,"

To be honest, Murrue wasn't sure but Mu had convinced her that was the case, and he had used that approach multiple times in the past, by using Eurasians as scapegoats to get his superiors to accept his excuses. Murrue wasn't comfortable with the whole idea but had accepted his suggestion due to necessity.

"That's a flimsy excuse! The water from Junius Seven is contaminated with radioactive particles from…" Natarle swallowed hard, not willing to say out loud what had happened, "We can't use it,"

That was something that Murrue had brought up earlier to Mu. While water could be found around the demolished colony, it was unsafe to use without proper filtration. Junius Seven's destruction by a nuclear missile had ensured that all the water it had would be contaminated by radioactive particles. Archangel had an onboard water recycling and filtration system but it wasn't enough to decontaminate the water from Junius Seven.

"Commander Fllaga said that the higher-ups will only see what they want to see, which are 'Eurasians are bad', and 'Atlantic Federation is good, not that the water here isn't potable,"

Even though there was some static in the transmission, Kira was still awed at the sight of the idol, singing as her assistants released numerous paper flowers into the surrounding area. Perhaps the voice was due to genetic manipulation, but there was no disputing that Lacus Clyne put her soul into her singing. Having natural talents was pointless if one didn't put in the efforts to develop them.

A few hours prior, Lacus and her manager met with Murrue, Mu and Natarle to request that they would be allowed a visit to the ruins of Junius Seven since Archangel was going to pass through it. From his knowledge, the ship wasn't going to pass through Junius Seven but they unexpectedly agree to the request which meant that the ship made a detour to the said location.

However, due to the debris, Archangel had to stop at some distance away from the colony and to get to the site, the Silverwind's crew had to use general-purpose MAW-01 Mistral mobile pods. While the pods' armor offered protection against space junks, and because of that, would resist projectiles to some degree, those involved would still be putting their lives at risk.

Strike, by extension, Kira was tasked with escorting them.

On a cursory examination, it looked as if the Triumvirate, not that Kira would call them that in front of their faces, were trying to prevent Lacus from escaping. However, the reason was really for her protection. The mobile pods had limited propulsion and oxygen supply as they weren't designed to work independently away from the mothership. Understandably, the three of them didn't want the Silverwind crew to do something that would put themselves in danger and cause the resulting fallout to affect Archangel.

Kira zoomed in at the figure next to her. Athrun was wearing the red ZAFT flight suit, the one he was wearing when Archangel took custody of him. In another unexpected development, Athrun was permitted to accompany Lacus's group and assigned to pilot the Mistral Lacus was on. While Kira didn't want to be cynical, in the back of his mind, he wondered whether the decision was part of the so-called CBM.

But regardless, Athrun was there, together with his fiancee as she was singing. He stood motionlessly, watching the paper flowers floating away. In a display of solidarity, everyone aboard Archangel, from the Silverwind crew members, Heliopolis refugees to Archangel personnel, made them, showing that the current war hadn't robbed them of their humanity.

The scene would have been touching to Kira if not for the fact that there are multiple groups of people busy filming both Athrun and Lacus from various angles, reminding him that he was watching a show production. While Lacus was singing with her all, watching them did lessen the impact he was feeling.

"Looking good there, Athrun," Kira teased his friend using a private channel.

"Thanks, but do I look stiff from up there?"

"As wooden as can be, but still look good."

Athrun chuckled. "Thanks."

"Sorry," Kira apologised after a few seconds.

"About what?" his friend replied.

"Your mother,"

"Mom was excited about the research on farming here and told me that she would bring back a lot of broccoli and tomatoes from the trip," Athrun chuckled mirthlessly, "She knew that I hated them, but she often served them for dinner whenever the three of us are together. Reminds me to be grateful, she said,"

"She always shares vegetables with my mother," Kira said. "But thinking about it, the vegetables she gave are often those that I didn't like,"

"That's Mom alright," Athrun was silent for a moment. "Now I eat everything,"

Kira didn't say anything as he knew the unsaid words. Even if Athrun changed his eating preference, it was in vain since his mother has passed away.

"After the mission in Heliopolis, I planned to visit her gravestone at the memorial to apologize,"

"Apologize?"

"Yeah. I joined ZAFT because I wanted a face that I can hate, an enemy I can fight and defeat. Father is the same. Mum would never have agreed with what we did. When she was around, whenever Father talked about escalating the war, she always quoted her favorite author, Friedrich Nietzsche.

"Whoever fights with monsters should see to it that he does not become a monster in the process," Kira uttered.

"And when you gaze long into an abyss the abyss also gazes into you," Athrun continued. "Sometimes I wonder, whether we gazed for far too long."

Kira was familiar with the said author, Friedrich Nietzsche, having taken a subject on classical works as an elective a year prior. The author made a sound argument that if someone fight against an evil being, or a monster, by using the same method that the monster used, that someone will end up being as bad as the evil being. As for the second part of the quotation, the more one got involved with something dark or negative, the more he would get influenced by the said darkness.

"She can become your moral compass, Athrun," Kira said, referring to Lacus who was still singing. "It's strange, but I can feel that she's conveying through her songs that we need to strive for peace."

"She is," Athrun confirmed. "Lacus, like her father want Naturals and Coordinators to work together and coexist,"

"I'm not a fan, but I think that 'Quiet Night' is the best song of all the time,"

Athrun chuckled, "The single has just come out, Kira, no need to go overboard with the compliment,"

"I'm confident in its success," Kira replied. "Although 'Fields of Hope' is in the second place,"

Athrun sighed. "Looks like I have a long way to go if a non-fan like you know more than I do about my own fiancee's career,"

"I didn't mean it like that…"

"It's okay," Athrun assured before changing the topic, "By the way, how did the pilot get Aegis up and running? It was pretty difficult to control, even after I modified it"

"That? I recalled she flashed it with the original firmware and then optimized it,"

Kira thought about Aegis and Flay. Unlike Strike, Aegis was assigned on a combat space patrol where it would assume its Mobile Armor cruise mode and fly over in a large radius around Archangel and the Junius Seven recording site. In case a hostile unit was detected, she would contact Archangel, failing which, will immediately return to the ship. In both cases, Mu would launch in his Moebius Zero to engage the target while Kira would protect Silverwind's team, with an explicit instruction to ensure Lacus' protection, even at the expense of the rest of the group if necessary.

"She… I see. I've to admit, that's the first time I've seen a young Alliance officer in active duty,"

"Huh? What are you talking about? Flay is a junior at the same college I went to,"

"She was recently transferred?"

"No. She's been there for almost one and a half years."

"How come you're so specific about that timing?"

"I'm interested in her,"

"I see. Of course, establish a background first. So when we atta.., when Heliopolis was attacked, she joined you?"

"Yeah,"

"Thought so,"

"I rescued her along with other refugees,"

Athrun became silent.

"Don't tell me, you're interested in her as well?"

"What? No, no, no, of course not. I'm just wondering about what kind of person piloting Aegis, that's all,"

Their conversation ended when Athrun signed off, telling that the next segment of recording would require more of his attention and active participation.

After three hours, the recording was completed and the crew packed up to leave. Just as Kira thought that his mission had gone through without any problem, a beep startled him. Strike's sensory system had detected something. His eyes dropped downward at the radar screen and then turned Strike to face the indicated direction and saw a mobile suit. He zoomed in as the computer's threat library identified the mobile suit as a two-seater Reconnaissance-type GINN.

Flay didn't mention the mobile suit in her periodic reports so it entered the area undetected. The GINN was moving through the sector, seemingly looking for something. It then hit him that it was searching for Silverwind since the shuttle was supposed to be at the Junius Seven. Kira moved Strike to hide behind a large chunk of rock. He then engaged the targeting optic while Strike aimed its 320mm Hyper Impulse Cannon at the GINN.

Kira didn't want to shoot but he knew that if the GINN found out about the activity in the area, ZAFT would come in full force to attack Archangel.

The GINN continued to be moving, seemingly not realizing that it was quite close to Strike and the Mistrals. But before Kira could feel relieved, it suddenly changed vector and moved in his direction. The GINN fired at the Mistral that Athrun was piloting together with Lacus. It was only through sheer skill that the mobile pod managed to evade the shot at the very last moment. The GINN fired, again and again, forcing Kira to come to a decision. Letting out a guttural sound, Kira squeezed the trigger. Strike fired its cannon and landed a hit on the GINN, destroying it in just one shot.

Athrun appeared on the screen, "Kira, sorry about that..."

"Kira Yamato, what's going on?" Natarle asked, interrupting Athrun's communication. "We detected a bogie just now before it disappeared,"

Kira switched off the communication and hit the sides of the cockpit's console with his fist. He had killed again. Even though Mu had said that the man was responsible to make the final call, Kira decided to destroy the GINN because he didn't want to risk anything happening to Athrun and Lacus.

With a heavy heart, he set Strike to return to Archangel, following closely behind the Mistrals.

Mu was already waiting at the hangar when he landed, leaning against the nearest railing next to Strike's compartment, arms crossed. Knowing that he couldn't escape, Kira approached the man.

"Okay, kid. What's up? Natarle told me that you found something,"

"I did,"

"And?"

"It's an enemy unit,"

"What kind?" Mu asked.

"Computer said that it's a Long Range Reconnaissance type,"

"Oh, that scout type..." Mu's relaxed expression disappeared, replaced by a rare look of seriousness, "And what happened? It quickly ran away, right?"

"No, I shot it down,"

"Okay… I thought that we had talked about this. We agreed that Captain or I will be the one to make the call,"

"I had no choice," Kira answered ruefully. "When it started shooting at us, I had to do it,"

The answer caused the man in front of him to straighten up. "What did you say?! You didn't Han?"

"Han?"

Mu put his hands on Kira's shoulders, shaking him a bit. "Tell me, that GINN, it's the one who shot first?"

"Yes,"

"Crap, " the Earth Alliance commander said while releasing his grips before turning to move toward a nearby console. "We have to tell Captain immediately. Kira, next time don't be an idiot and simply assume anything," he reprimanded.

"I know. I'm sorry for destroying the mobile suit even though it was trying to search for the survivors of Silverwind,"

"Huh? What are you prattling about? It is a freaking scout, kid! A scout!"

"What?"

"Later. I don't want to explain twice,"

There was an announcement that Aegis was landing. Mu thought for a few moments before connecting to the bridge to say something to Murrue. He then turned toward Kira. "Bridge in thirty. Hydrate and lose the suit," the man said, dismissing him before moving in the direction of Aegis.

1

A/N

1. Travelling and working in space entails solving three major logistical problems, air, water and food. The International Space Station, which was launched in 1998, already has a water recycling system, albeit a primitive one. I believe that Archangel has a more advanced water recycling system since it would be more efficient to have one rather than carry a large amount of water and then discard it after use.

2. In space, it makes sense to wear the same clothing for an extended period before throwing it away. Washing them would make recycling water even harder, even with the technological progress.

3. Potable water is water that is fit for human consumption. Highly radioactive water, on earth or in space is not potable.

4. As they say, fear comes from a lack of knowledge and a state of ignorance. CBM aims to reduce this fear by getting familiar with adversaries. Also, by building closer relationships with them, it is hoped that accidents and miscalculations could be reduced.

5. One more chapter, 'At the crossroad' will be released for this year.