Okay, I am up to date with all my fics. That makes me really happy. I'll actually have time to work on things before school. Yay :D

Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Seed or Seed Destiny

He stood up and rubbed his arm over his sweaty brow. It had been a week since he had started working, although it felt a lot longer then that.

He was getting frustrated. As hard has he tried, he could not remember the reason of why Micka was in the military.

Alex picked up the toolbox per Ralph's request, and slid down the metal ladder.

It was a random, strange thought...but it was something that had been nagging at him for a long time. He had a feeling that Katsuya knew, but he really did not want to have to ask over her head.

"You've worked hard enough, kiddo, come take a break."

Alex flopped down on the floor with Ralph and a few of the other interns, stretching out his long legs on the floor. He had shucked off his jacket a while ago, and the sleeves of his t-shirt were rolled up to his shoulders. Although he knew it looked girly and nerdy, he had braided his hair at one point. It was strange looking on a guy like him, but it was too hot out to worry about that sort of thing. They all looked like nerds anyway.

Ralph tossed a can of iced tea to him, Alex proceeded to down the entire can.

"You're good at this sort of thing." Ralph said, "It's good having a competant around."

His three interns groaned, and Alex raised his can as if to toast.

"Here, here." he said.

"One of the ladies in the mess hall says she heard you singing on the roof." Ralph said, "Says you're damn good."

"I should be." Alex took another can from another one of the interns, "I did concerts on PLANT."

"Ah, so you are THEE Vladamir Alexander."

"One and only."

Alex had been in the music buisness before his little detour to ZAFT. After Lacus Clyne had left, he had slowly taken over the limelight, and he was well known on earth and PLANT. Although only two CDs had released before his departure, they insured him to be independently wealthy when he returned to his old life. It had only helped him when Lacus left PLANT, although, he would be lying if he said he was glad. He had always been a fan of Lacus Clyne himself.

"Gezz, man." one of the interns looked at him, "What the hell are you doing in this line of work? It doesn't really pay all that great."

Alex chuckled, yeah, it was odd for someone like him to be in the military.

"I did gigs for ZAFT." he said, "I've never been a big fan of politics, but I agreed to anyway." He really did not know why he was telling these people his story, but he felt more relaxed on the Kamaitachi then he had in ages, "It was right after Lacus Clyne jumped ship and decided to go to the other side. This side, rather...anyway, I was at a backwater ZAFT base on earth. It was part of this massive tour I was doing, and it was small but the people were nice."

"So?" Ralph caulked an eyebrow at him, "You just decided then to dump your job and fight for a living?"

Alex knew that Ralph was annoyed at this sort of thing, he could read the older man like a book. Ralph could not understand why Alex would want to give up his life for...whatever THIS was.

"While I was at the base, it was attacked." he said, "Or rather, caught in the crossfire of a battle between ZAFT and OMNI. Almost everyone, civilians and soldiers, were killed. I was one of the few that managed to survive, barely anyway. Many of my staff were killed too. It was agreed to keep the whole incedent secret, but that didn't mean I lived any better. Just because the government wants to forget, doesn't mean that I can forget it. Bombs, people dying, screams...a person just does not get over that."

All of them were staring intently at him now.

"I don't give a shit about whether people are Coordinators, or Naturals, or whatever the hell people are all pissed off about...humans are humans, and no amount of genetic crap can change that. But I don't like this war, and I don't like it when innocents are killed for no reason. So if I have to bend over, kiss a few butts, and work a little harder then I used to...I can live with that. Yes, I've had to kill people, but this is war. I live with it everyday, but I would still tell people that my conscience is clear because for every battle I fight, may save even one of those little villages. That's victory enough for me."

There it was, his life statement.

Apparently, Ralph seemed to settle with that.

"You've had a hard life, kid."

"I suppose." Alex shrugged, "It's a dirty job, but someone's gotta do it."

Ralph chuckled, "Here, here."

After the work for that day was finished, Alex stretched his arms, excused himself, and reported back to his quarters.

He had his own room this time, which was a pip for him. Usually, he shared a room with Katsuya, if there even was a bed or a room for that matter. Some of the survival missions they had gone on back in their early days, involved nothing but the ground and the sky. Of course, like the gentlemen they were, if there was a bed it was automatically given to Micka. She would usually throw a fit, but would give in.

The two of them would actually never tell people that Micka scored higher then they did in survival training. It was their one of the only few shames in life that Alex had, and he knew that Katsuya stewed about it sometimes.

Micka looked like a creme puff. She was short, REALLY short. With hair that brushed her shoulders, her dark eyes, and pale complection could give people the opinion that she was very fragile. This was a big mistake, as Alex shuddered at the thought. Micka was more dangerous then either of them. Although her forte was not mobile suit piloting, which Katsuya was the one that excelled at that, she was top notch at everything else. If anyone ever asked Alex who had what skills in the group, he probably would say Katsuya for marksmanship and command, himself for engineering and hand-to-hand, and Micka for everything of the above.

There was a beep of the doorchime.

"Come in." he called, slipping a clean shirt over his head.

Micka stood there, staring at him from the doorway.

"Yo, Mic." he looked at her curiously, "What's up?"

"Nothing." she shrugged, "I just got off duty, so I was going to see how everyone was doing."

"Katsu probably isn't going to be off duty for another 4 hours. They're really workin' him hard."

"That's too bad." she said, "We all need rest."

He was quiet a moment, and then asked, "You want somethin?"

"Sure."

Making a pot of coffee, he handed one to her. She liked black coffee.

"What have you been up to?"

"Analysis." she said, "HQ needed help, and then I worked with Vana for a while."

"Vana?"

"She's the Kamaitachi's OS, who happens to also be an Advanced. Her name is Vanalivka Evenstar."

Alex raised his eyebrows, "I'll be damned."

"She's a nice girl. You should go say hi to her when you can. She's very wise too."

Alex nodded, and took another drink of his coffee. He had been trying to cut down on the alcohol lately, it was starting to get a little into the extreme. Having just turned 21 that year, he did not want to be diseased and immobile before he reached mid-life.

"You look troubled." she finally said.

Alex thought a moment on whether or not he should say anything. Hell, whatever it was, it was probably really bad. In the five years that he had known her, she had never laughed or smiled once. Sometimes it troubled him. Even with Katsuya, Alex was surprised that Katsuya was as expressive as he was becausue despite his life story, Katsuya laughed and smiled from time to time. Alex's nature was too straight forward for him to be able to hide emotions very well.

Micka, however, was a brick.

"Can I ask you a question?" he asked.

"Sure."

"I mean...you don't have to answer if you don't want to..."

"Okay."

"If it's something bad-"

"Alex, what's your question?" she narrowed her eyes at him. He was rambling.

"Micka..." he gritted his teeth, "Why did you join ZAFT?" he finally managed to blurt out.

Micka opened her mouth, and her face went instantly pale.

He frowned, "Micka? Are you-"

"I'm sorry." she interrupted him, standing up quickly, "I have to leave."

"Micka?" he was worried now, she looked like she was going to faint, "You okay?"

Micka turned heel and headed towards the door. He was on his feet as fast as he could go, and grabbed her arm. She struggled in his strong grip. The only reason why he was stronger was because she was a lot smaller then he was.

"Micka?" he said, "What is it? I'm sorry, I didn't-"

A hand connected with the side of his face.

"LET GO OF ME, DAMN IT!"

It took him by surprise. She never displayed the amount of raw feelings before, and obviously, it shocked her as much as it shocked him. The moment she struck him, she stared at him, hand still raised, staring at him like she had seen a ghost. Her black eyes looking at him in horror.

Alex opened his right eye, she had struck him on the left side of his face. There was already a throbbing bruise there, and no doubt his lip had been split. She had hit him hard.

"I..." she was the first one to speak. But for some reason, she could not seem to move, or stop the tears that were pouring down her face.

He did not know what it was that triggered this sudden turn, but whatever it was, now they did not have any idea what to do with each other. Ignoring the fact that half of his face was in pain, and the fact that there was now a steady trip of blood dripping down his chin from his lip, he stepped foreward and gathered her up into his arms.

"I'm sorry." he said, "I didn't mean to pry."

Pry? Hell, all he had did was ask her a simple question and she snapped.

It must be something really bad.

She was quiet, not saying anything. His best guess was that she was in shock, she looked like she was going to faint. Taking her hand he lead her threw the hallway towards the kitchen, poured a glass of water for her, and shoved it in her hands.

"Drink."

"Ah-"

"Drink it now."

When she was moving too slowly, he gripped her hand and lifted the glass to her lips. After drinking a few sips, he looked at her in the eyes.

"Are you going to be alright?"

She nodded slowly. He aided her in taking another sip, and then when he was certain she could do it herself, he let go of her hands. They simply stood in the kitchen a few minutes in silence. Then looking at his face, she touched his chin.

"I hit you."

He felt the edges of his lips twitch into a smile, "You did."

"I'll fix it."

"Nah, that's okay. I'll go to the infirmary-"

"I'll do it."

Alex shrugged in defeat and sat on the counter. Fishing threw the kitchen and the bathroom, she set a few supplies on the counter. Rinsing a cloth in warm water, she began to clean the blood off him.

"I'm sorry." she apologized, "I didn't mean to snap like that. It just sort of happend."

"It's okay." he said, "I was the one who asked."

He flinched slightly as she cleaned the blood of his lip, and pressed a bag of ice to the side of his face.

"You'll have a bruise."

"I assume so."

She sat at the table, looking at the floor.

"Micka?" he said, getting worried again.

"The reason why I'm in the military is-"

She did not finish the sentece. An air raid siren went off, followed by the battlestations alert on the ship.

Yzak strolled down the hallway of the Voltaire. It was nice to be back on his own ship. Since he had become captain of it, it felt like his home now. He lived there, worked there, and practically knew the ship as well as the back of his hand.

Shiho was talking to him and handing him reports. Something about the status of the ship and the crew, then the mobile suits...he was too tired to listen. All he wanted to do was crash. After a twelve hour shift, that was the only thing his mind could process.

"Sir?"

It was so odd when she addressed him formally when they were on duty. His own fiance called him Captain Jule.

Realizing where they were, he yawned and took a left at the next to corner.

"Captain-"

"I'm tired, I'm sore, and I want sleep." he announced to her, heading towards his quarters. That was it.

Shiho let out a sigh and followed him. Punching in the code for his room, the door slid open. Shuffling the papers, Shiho tucked them under the right arm.

"I'll let you sleep. It's been a long week." she said, "I'll go back to the bridge and-"

She was glad no one else was in the hallway to hear her scream as he yanked her into his room by the waist.

"No more work." he murmured into her ear.

She slammed into the wall right in front of the door, and he crashed his mouth over hers as the door slid shut. He took the stack of files from her arm and set them aside. Then promptly resorted to stripping off her uniform.

"Understood." Rey stated to the com link in his room. Chairman Trent nodded to him,

"Good. Don't leave until you complete the mission."

"Roger that."

The link blinked off. He was currently on a ship heading towards Orb. After departing from PLANT four days ago, he spent the rest of the week on a Twilight base working out the legistics of the mission, and assembling the fleet.

There were three Nasca-Class warships. Of course the fleet was massive, but three?

Personally, he thought it was overkill. All they had to do was kidnap Cagali Yula Zala again and that would give them enough leverage to do what Trent wanted. But apparently, Chairman Trent was getting to the point where he wanted to finish this war.

Orb was only an hour away, and he was pretty sure they were being detected now. Soon, Captain Hayworth would order him to the bridge. He would offer the negotiations, and if Orb complied, nothing would happen. If they resisted, he would resort to Plan B.

The old friend of his that sat in the docking bay. That was a Plan B.

"Rey-dono?" Hayworth's face came threw the laptop screen, "Can you report to the bridge? We've been detected."

"Right away, sir."

He stood, and walked towards the door. Absently sticking his hand into his pocket, he rubbed the ribbon between his fingers. Soon, he would be able to get rid of the nagging feeling in the back of his mind. The feeling that told him something was wrong.

Rey had been taught to only follow data, logic, and what he could see, sense, and understand with his own mind. His instincts were telling him to rethink everything. Fortunatly, instincts did not fall into the above catagories.

But that still did not make the feeling go away.

Yzak lay on his back, sound asleep. His fiance curled up against his side, her head resting on his shoulder. What he really wanted to do was jump ship and spend the rest of the month on some vacation with nothing but beach, birds, and Shiho...but that was not an option.

Damn it, when were they going to get married anyway?

It was obvious that this war was not going to be ending for a while. By the time it was over, they would probably be old and grey.

"Shiho?"

"What is it?"

He smiled, feeling her finger tracing the outlines of the muscles on his chest. She had a habit of doing that when she was listening intently to him.

"Let's get married next week."

She shot up, looking down at him. There was a sly smirk on his face.

"Wh-What?"

"Next week." he said, "We'll get cleaned up, dressed up, call a few people, jump in the car, and go. Malchio will do it. We can afford a few days of freetime. If anything Asuka and Hawke can take over things for a little while."

"Yzak...I-"

"What do you say, Mrs. Jule?"

She gapped at him, certain that he had at some point lost all his marbles. It was not like him to be so spontaneous. It was a valid question though, and one she had been pondering in her freetime.

"But the ship-"

"Can maintain itself for a while."

"My dress-"

"Lacus and Cagali-san will find you something."

"Everyone is so busy..."

"They'll make time for this."

She opened her mouth again to protest. It was a known fact that Yzak got what he wanted, and was good at arguing his point down to the last second.

"Okay." she finally sighed.

There was nothing she could do about it. But it seemed all the more worth it at the large grin on his face. When it came down to it, he was so easy to please when the matter concerned her. Leaning over, she slowly kissed him, feeling one of his hands lay gently on her face.

"Let's get married next week." she said.

"Good-"

There was a ring from his phone. Yzak made a face. Who dared to call him while he was off-duty?

Shiho lay on his chest, listening as he muttered a few curses, and picked up the phone. Flipping it open he groaned, rubbing his eyes,

"What?"

"Sorry to wake you, sir." It was Abby.

"Whatever it is, it better be important."

"It's important, sir."

"What the hell is it then?" he snapped, starting to get irritated.

"There is a large Twilight fleet approaching Orb. From the looks of it, there are three Nasca-class warships, carriers...a whole fleet."

Yzak stared at the ceiling. You've gotta be kidding me...

"Alright, I'll be there. Contact Zala, then call Elthman and tell him to get his ass over here."

"Yes sir."

He closed the phone, and lay still a few moments, not saying a word.

"Shiho?"

"Is it bad?" she asked.

Yzak closed his eyes, "Yeah."

She sat up, looking down at his calm face. He was so tired, laying a hand on his face, he pulled her face to him and kissed her. There was always a chance that this would be the last time they would be together.

"Duty calls." she murmured.

Next chapter comming soon! See you all later :D

Arigato

Lilith