Chapter 4 finished. Also, to all those who submitted ideas for Crot's significant other, I have heard your pleas and will be taking them into consideration. Some I know right now won't work but I'll look at the others and see what I can do. And yay the plots moving finally.

The song is by Neutral Milk Hotel and is called Two-Headed Boy. It will be an important symbol for Shani's development. Just as Catcher in the Rye mentioned in the last chapter is a symbol of Oruga's. I'm not sure what I'm gonna do about Crot's symbol… we'll see.

Oruga sighed as he pushes the mop along the cafeteria floor, continuing on his gradual progression towards having mopped one half of the cafeteria. The idiot Shinn was doing the other. He had been working for two hours thus far and he still had quite a ways to go before he could call it quits for the day. This was the fifth day of him being forced to this and by this time he was starting to develop a severe crick in his back from being stooped over for three hours or so each day. He arched his back to stretch the muscle as he groaned at the thought of how bad his back would be at the end of the month.

Moping the cafeteria floors was one of the punishments he had gotten for getting in a fight with Shinn. The two of them were to clean a half of the cafeteria for an entire month between when lunch ended and dinner began. The work was miserable and, of course, thankless but Oruga got to small pleasures out of the deal. One was that he always finished before Shinn did and the other was that Shinn seemed to hate it far more then he did. Seeing the bastard miserable made it almost worthwhile. The other punishment for Shinn was that he had gotten his weapon privileges revoked for two weeks, prohibiting from carrying his military issue pistol with him, in fact he had to turn it in to his commanding officer. Oruga, who had been on the cusp of receiving his pistol, was delayed in receiving it for two weeks, which pissed him off greatly.

While he was stretching, Oruga glanced over at the part of this entire process that had annoyed him the most. The officer in charge of overseeing the completion of their chore was Shani. He was currently sitting there listening to his music and seemed to be doing his usual tuning out of all earthly things but Oruga could tell when Shani was really zoning things out and he wasn't right now. His eye was a little too active, panning across the cafeteria occasionally. Shinn didn't know Shani well enough to be able to discern that and had tried to walk out when he thought Shani wasn't paying attention. That hadn't lasted long. He hadn't gone two strides when Shani asked where he was going in an omniscient tone, its intent not to question but to halt. While he had gotten a chuckle out of that, Shani was an annoyance more often then note. Especially since he had a small habit of checking how many bullets were in the magazine in his pistol. He had always the habit, as long as Oruga had known him, everytime they were practicing marksmanship back at Rodnia he would do that every so often and even after being without a gun for a long time –Azrael didn't trust the Extendeds with guns though Crot did carry with him a empty gun, never bothering to explain to Oruga why- Shani had retained the habit. It wasn't so much the habit itself that bothered Oruga it was the fact it flaunted the fact that Oruga hadn't received his gone yet. What made it worse was that Shani wasn't even doing it to annoy him, Shani wasn't the type to waste the effort bothering someone and was infuriating Oruga without even trying.

There were television sets attached to the ceiling of the cafeteria but Shani had them turned onto the news, with the subtitles on since he couldn't hear with his music blaring in his ear. News was so boring to watch and over the past five days Oruga had develop a hatred for it he never before possessed. The anchor's rambling words just gave an soundtrack of aggravation to something he already hated doing.

Currently, the newscaster, a man possessing a strong bearing and an eye catching head of well shaped red hair, was speaking of the current happenings regarding the peace treaty that had brought to an end the Bloody Valentine War. It was the most common subject for news programs to be on having been only two weeks since it had officially gone into effect and the world still holding its breath as it prayed beneath its covers that it would indeed hold. The specific news he was narrating was a talking point that he and other newscasters had already gone over several times, since they had to fill out 24 hours of news each day. It was the EAF and ZAFT asking too take a look at the different weapons labs and other research buildings directly connected to that force's ability to make war. It was then that a new piece of information was dropped into the report that made Oruga jerk his head toward the screen. "ZAFT has come up with photos that were taken over the course of the Bloody Valentine War from its spy satellites which show what it claims to be a military installation or laboratory of some kind which was not disclosed during the peace signs as both sides had agreed to do. It states that it will hold off allowing any EAF personal into its lab. This may cause concerns for the stability of the peace agreement that has so far managed to hold firm. The only knowledge that ZAFT currently is releasing to the press on the lab is its location in Rodnia. We now have in the studio Professor Charles Carter who will be giving us an insight into the possible mindset of the EAF. Professor Carter, what do you believe could be…"

The man had no idea what he was dealing with. He thought that it might result in a changing of conditions or some minor diplomatic maneuvering. What he thought was a minor sinkhole was really a pit waiting to ensnare the world in its grasp. The EAF would never let ZAFT see the Rodnia facility, it would rather there be another war then reveal the experiments that went on there. If the lab were exposed the EAF would loose all support from the people it governed and the already sporadic rebellions it had been wracked by for sometime would spread into a wildfire. Its very foundation would be put under threat and it would give the ZAFT forces a moral advantage that they could press until all possibility for the EAF's survival was eliminated.

The EAF would rather go too war against ZAFT again rather then take than let itself be torn apart from the inside.

He turned toward Shani who had stood up from his seat and was staring with equal intensity, his head phones resting, forgotten, on his shoulders. Getting closer to Shani so that he could speak with the silent Extended and not be over heard he noticed that his purple eye bore that same look that he, Crot, and Oruga got when they were focus, when all there thoughts were on predicting and killing their opponents. Shani was running through the possible ways this situation would pan out, all the different ways this crises could pan out and their corresponding likelihood's. And from the way his shouldered slumped the odds were not very good.

But then both of them caught each other's eyes and Oruga knew that they were both hoping for war, it was the only reason they had been altered to be who they had become. It was the only way they could validate their existence.

Oruga spoke, breaking the pregnant silence, "We cannot tell Crot about this. He won't be able to keep his mouth shut."

"That's given." Shani replied and then he seemed to sink back into himself. His eyes lost focus and Oruga walked off leave his sergeant to his thoughts. He was running over all the things that could go wrong as well.

Crot bite into a sandwich he was holding as he looked across the table from him at Shinn who as usual took the seat furthest from Oruga and which, usual, happened to be directly across from him. Crot wished that Shani would stop grabbing the center seat when they ate and that Lunamaria would stop immediately sitting across from him when he did so. It was beyond understanding why the girl even continued to bother, as Shani had not shown any major increase in conversational ability, though now Lunamaria had learned to form from Shani's replies a thread of responses that almost managed to come off as a human conversation. If Shani reciprocated the emotion that the girl obviously seemed to possess towards him, he gave no indication.

The problem with Lunamaria's talking with Shani was that it left Crot having to sit across from Shinn – and occasionally Meyrin would sit on Shinn's side of Lunamaria but with less consistency than Shinn. Just because Crot did not normally go out of his way to get into a fight with Shinn did not mean he bore the Coordinator any good feelings. Occasionally they would get into arguments on various subjects none of which were of any particular importance to either of them, fighting merely for the sake of argument. More then once one of the two would leave their lunch half eaten to avoid the other. Even in the calmer days there was an undercurrent of ill will in there interactions, as though both searched each other words for something to take offense at, like a miser searching through grass blades for a fallen coin of value only in that miser's eyes.

Currently, though, Crot's thoughts were not on the obnoxious pilot across the table from him but rather the two annoying pilots beside him.

Crot had been coming to the usual table- as Oruga would say in his haughty, tone, "Humans being creature's of habit are inclined to choose the same choice that with previous experience brought them good or which did them no harm"- to find Shani and Oruga conversing with great fervor on a subject. There voices were low, barely above a whisper, and the discussion reached him only as a series of impassioned hisses. As he drew closer Oruga cast him a glance and immediately the subject between the two was dropped as they turned to start eating their food as though they had just been talking of the weather. Well… as though they were normal people who had been talking about the weather, Oruga would never bother to talk about something trivial like that unless it was with a girl and Shani wouldn't talk about anything at all. When Crot asked what the two of them were talking about he received only a curt, "Nothing, idiot" from Oruga and a dismissive wave of a hand from Shani.

What could those two have been speaking of? Was it some sort of plan that they were hatching? Maybe, Oruga wanted to try and catch the attentions of Lunamaria and Shani wouldn't let him? That seemed like a possibility only he wasn't quite that certain of Shani's interest in Lunamaria, not too mention that he probably wouldn't care enough to get jealous and argue about it. So that left him back where he started with no idea what the two might have been discussing. It must have been something of incredible weight though to stir Shani from apathy, he had almost looked like a normal person arguing about something trivial. His eye had been staring straight into Oruga's, as apposed to normal where the eye seemed stare through people, not even registering the person.

Letting a vague sigh escape his lips, to fall on deaf ears as no one was paying attention to him, Crot slipped his Wonderswan game system out of his pocket and turned it on. There was no conversation that caught Crot's interest, Oruga almost amiably arguing with Rei over the proper interpretation of some stupid book they had read in English, which Oruga considered himself the foremost expert on. Thus, it was that Crot found himself playing his game in silence. It was also while doing this that he found out that his batteries were dead when the screen, once bright with flashing colors as he guided some lonely ship across a sea of stars beset by the requisite monsters and aliens that always tried to the impede the path of travels, fade into the screen's base dismal color that was the some of all colors mixed in a chaotic swirl where all good attributes of each individual hue were completely canceled out in the empty dreck.

It seemed the world hated Crot. Hated him with a burning passion the likes of which no one could comprehend.

With apprehension weighing heavily upon his shoulders, Crot looked across the table at the black haired man sitting across from him. Crot was bored. It was amazing what thoughts would enter the human mind when faced with the impending force of boredom. "Hey, idiot, why weren't you sent to the battle front with some of the other recruits for the battle of Jakin Yue?" The human spirit scuttle like some of sad insect toward would ever bit of jetsam would grant it respite against the deep, drowning waters of tedium. The fear the bug felt toward the ensnaring bosom of water was probably far greater then the pain of the water itself, it was an action with little logical, more tied to instinct and emotion.

Shinn lifted his head up looking at Crot skeptically. Crot knew the boy was confused by the almost… friendly tone? No that would be too strong a word… he was confused by the way that the tone seem almost free of hidden sneers and derogatory turns of phrase. Sure, he had been called an idiot but that was more as a way to keep from being nice then having any actual malice attached to it and the his question was far too conversational to be based out of spite. Still, Shinn seemed cautious, as if not sure whether this new side of connection was a façade covering greater cruelty which he was about to step into if he answered. Crot could read the questions painted on the Coordinators feature with the ridges of furrowed brows and the scorching gaze of probing eyes.

However, Shinn's stare could find now hidden evil in Crot's so careful, ever carefully, he answered the question, his words at first slow and hesitant but gradually falling into a normal talking speed, like young bird emerging for the first time from his mother's nest, as he gradually became used to the concept of speaking with out to Crot without the underpinnings of malice. "because (pause) I was (pause) too young at the time (pause). I only recently turned sixteen (pause) and that was the cut off date for the enterance into actual army, (pause on last time before his face and form seemed to ease and he spoke in his normal tone, which still that vague hint of sadness turned angst turned rage but Crot could tell that it was not borne toward him) as opposed to the academy which allows all those of high school age into it. Shouldn't it be obvious, fool?"

Crot smirked slightly, "Well, forgive me if I didn't know that PLANT was such a pansy nation about letting people into the army. I engaged in my first battle at the age of 12."

"Did you? Can't imagine how someone completely lacking in skills as you could have survived even a moment, and that's not counting that you were only 12, this taking your current skill." Shinn flashed Crot a false sneered but it did not reach his eyes with their bleeding depths.

This friendly, competitive banter continued from sometime, long after Oruga and Rei walked off continuing there argument about the proper use of some esoteric poetic device, long after Shani had slipped away from Lunamaria and stalked off to be alone in some dark corner of the academy, to lay dormant behind his eyes as music buried him beneath six feet of apathy, long after Lunamaria, sighing sadly at Shani's departure, slipped of to go to her next class where she would doodle distractedly as her mind wander wherever will, spend its ephemeral time floating gently on the subjects that girls of her age are wont to dwell on, long after the cafeteria and long after the bell had sounded for their next class to begin Shinn and Crot would be sitting there trading scathing remarks and arrogant comments like two old drinking buddies who are left alone after all the other bar's patrons had long ago left to rest. At the end both would leave thinking that they had done the greatest damage to the others pride and would already be preparing further friendly insults to gore their foe upon.

Lunamaria exhaled a frustrated sigh. She believed she deserved the small solace that sighing at her difficulties would bring, for she had many things to frustrate and drive her to it. Shani, the silent young man she had taken in as her personal responsibility, making it her mission to make sure that, since he showed no ability towards it himself, he made some friends beyond just those he had arrived with, still remained as silent and incoercible as he always did. It was aggravating, though she never let it show, to reach out to him time and again only to have her attempts at conversation easily parried to the side or spat back in her face. He appeared to have no desire to have human contact and she had noticed that he never even spoke amiably with even the people had arrived with which she had always thought were his friends. Deep in her mind, the places where she let no one else, she knew her patience was running thin with him. She bore him a small amount of friendly affection mixed with the responsibility that seniority (at least in terms of being a member of the ZAFT academy) brought and even a small amount of curiosity as to how Naturals were different from Coordinators, but in returned he cast he glares just as icy as he would give to virtually anyone else. Hating him seemed like the most logical thing to do but she just could not bring herself to do that, she did not like to think herself hateful and would give him every benefit that doubt could bring.

It wasn't like his two "friends" had the same problems, they seemed rather normal though they had a battered aspect to them, which there aggressiveness seemed to be forged around, and now that she thought about it Shani's silence seemed to be too. But they were just three normal boys, sure they had been soldiers, but that didn't provide an explanation into Shani's withdrawal. Maybe he was just one of those weak souls that could not accept anyone but himself that he was so selfish that he didn't need anyone else to create his world and rather then drifting out to see people who could only be less then himself he drew inward. Lunamaria chastised herself silently for thinking such dark thoughts as she quietly looked up toward Shani sitting a few seats to her right as the dull sound of lecturing baptized the room with heavy-eyed words. Shani seemed immune to stultifying effects of the teacher's words and looked at her with the same look in his violet eye, that eye which blended blood and ocean water in a single brilliant hue, as was always there. He would be one of the few people who remembered what the teacher had said that day and would pass the exam with ease. Considering is eye's affinity for looking lazy and half-interested even when events were transpiring which required his immediate attention it was a wondered that when the teacher had started lecturing that first day with his sense-dulling tone that his eye hadn't imploded from the lack of feeling and closed for sleep to over take it.

Suddenly, his purple marble, that searing eye, slid over toward her, as if feeling her lazy gaze on his skin. She started at him having sensed her and she forced down the blush that was being forced out of her by his stony scrutiny. For who could not feel that they had trespassed like some curious child, when they are being watched as though they were nothing but?

The bell ending class for the day rang and she let out a sigh of relief as she was saved. Shani exited with the lethargic sloth he was used to and she, fearing that what he may say to her about her having been caught staring at him, even it was more of a stare of wonderment as one stares at a forgotten artifact which one can not construe the purpose of. No matter what Shani might think, she feared what he might say. But she feared one thing more. That he would say nothing.

"What do you think we should do about it? This is a clear breach of the treaty and calls for action but we don't know any specifics about it, we could be sucked into something that we can't escape." Said a brown haired man of middle age, who was gently scratching a patch of dead skin on the back of his hand without noticing it. He had many such habits which were both grating and unnecessary, the product of a socially cloistered life style and not having been properly disciplined as a youth to avoid such actions which might distract the listener. He had a good head on his shoulders and a flexible view of ethics which made him great as one of the chairman of the Subcommittee of Diplomatic Relations.

They were sitting in a grand circular hall with a ceiling that ascended dark, and endless above them. Above the round conference table that they were sitting were bright halogen lights that illuminated them but which cast strange bestial shadows dancing across their faces. The lights seemed to do very little to illuminate the room itself which was wreathed in shade and empty corners where not even a wall or floor seemed to day, just a hole in space. What little parts that the light got to, highlighting them dimmed and blue against the darkness seemed to be shards of some intransient sadness that none could comprehend.

"I'm aware of that potential but at the same time it has to much potential for us not to exploit it. The EAF is protecting something out there and we have to find out what it is, to pass this up may sacrifice too much future bargaining superiority. Besides, if we strike now while they are in a moral weak position, if we turn our phrases properly and slice low, we may be able to undermine their already sketchy public support. The EAF has had rebellions for some time, some of which we have inherited in our conquest, so if we keep striking at their authority we should be able to topple the EAF into a thousand minor nation-states. If that happens we will be able to guide them like so many sheep." Her response had been cutting as hers usually were. She wasn't one of the most respected members of the PLANT council for nothing. She doubted any of these people could tell the scope of what they were dealing with, they were like so many cockroaches, used to dealing with there small little holes and covens that they lost the ability to comprehend the greater picture when it was staring them straight in the face.

"What about those recent defectors? I don't know how many of you bothered to take a look at the data on them or more importantly the lack there of" with a few clicks and a bit of typing the speaker, a man of a smooth pale face from which two yellow eyes of vicious, serpentine intelligence blazed, the face beautifully framed by long black hair, had run a search on the name of one of the deserters. Shani Andras. "Look we see no personal data even in the public records of the EAF. Also, I did research on the individual names themselves, Shani is a celestial being from Hindu Astrology and Andras is a Hebrew Demon. This is not the kind of name that people are normally given. I believe that it may be a proxy name.

"Also, if you take a look at the suits they were found in they are highly advanced, the GAT-X131 Calamity is based on but exceeds the specs that we got from the GAT-X103 Buster, which we stole from Orb while they were preparing to send it to the EAF. It seems to me that the Calamity was probably made using the Buster's specs and therefore is a highly capable mobile suit, one not to be given to just any run of the mill pilot.

"If we also take into account that there is no data on its pilot Oruga Sabnak, his last name also that of a demon though he uses a vernacular spelling of it, the footage we have of the Calamity fighting against are forces – footage showing the pilots ability, the ability of a Natural mind you, to not only keep up but obliterate our soldiers- and the fact that of all the known bases of the EAF, which are every base except the one at Rodnia, we have seen nothing capable of producing a pilot, let alone three pilots, of such amazing skills, it seems to me…" here he paused, letting his yellow eyes catch each other member of the council in slow succession, as the words seemed to only grow louder and more powerful as they faded from hearing, "…that those three soldiers came from Rodnia or are related to it in someway. I can't tell if Rodnia is some sort of advanced training ground or something more sinister but I believe those traitors are tied to it. This makes them dangerous but it also makes them useful. We must address this at once. I think it would be in our best interest to speak to them on these matters at once."

There was silence for a moment before each of the members of the council began to nod their individual accent to the proposition. The woman looked at the speaker, he was new and already he had started making a reputation for himself. Could find no fault in the man's logic and he had taken every possible into account it seems but something had her on edge. She could exactly say what it is but if she had to she'd chalk it to the much famed "woman's intuition" but she was politician, she didn't believe such silly things like intuition and trust. All the same there was a feeling of being in a dark cave with just a match, she could make out only a few scant lines of the walls and that only made her realize more that she had no real idea where the walls were nor any idea about stones in her path. It was the feeling of seeing a wave of an ocean and realizing how little of the ocean you actually see.

She pushed the feeling, now was the time for childish thoughts, now was the time for decisive action, for initiative. "Hmmm…" She muttered aloud, buying time for her to order her thoughts, "That deserves at least some further looking into. I suggest we interview the one we had promoted to sergeant, raises the least fuss. Even if he wasn't directly involved he may know something on the matter."

One of the other suits, a moderately chubby man whose stiff collar at times seemed to strangle his flabby neck. "But we can not be sure of the boys' loyalty! They have already shown a willingness to defect, how can we be sure that they will not do so again? If we accidentally let one of those boys know too much it could come back to cause us severe problems."

"There is little damage the boy could actually do. The world already knows we want information on Rodnia so it will be difficult for the EAF to use the knowledge that we asked a few questions to their former soldiers as any sort of propaganda. As for possibility of the boys' rediffection, we have already separated them from other units to avoid them from being a risk to our other units. If they were to betray us there is little damage that three suit – even suits of the capabilities specified could do to our forces. Furthermore, I don't know if you are aware of this but one of the three boys, Oruga I believe, got into one of our top students, Shinn, and both are under severe disciplinary probations which include the loss of weapon privileges. If these boys were active spies or actively contemplating its dubious they would go around instigating, as many of the witnesses described it, fights. They would want to be model members of the academy which by all indictations they are not. I'm having to read reports from different levels complaining about the sergeant's apathy and contempt towards all aspects of military light. I have to approve allowing one of the boys to even continue taking class because he is so disruptive that they want him removed from the school. If it weren't for the symbolic importance as showing our willingness to build relations with naturals one wouldn't be allowed into a school room another would be kicked out of the academy for starting a fight in his first week and the other would be being disciplined so hard his muscles would burn for months. Do you really think that they are spies if they act like this?" She said her tone growing more angry as she remembered all the paper work the three boys had caused her over the past few weeks. It had been a great aggravation and she couldn't hold back the waves of sheer against that coursed in her veins.

The chubby man spoke up again, his voice laced with annoyance which he couldn't completely hide to her trained ear, "The issue isn't necessarily whether or not they are conscious spies but whether they have any loyalty. I have read the reports from the teachers and peers as well and these boy's don't sound like the type to risk there lives for something, one is to logical and apathetic, another is arrogant and doesn't care about anything but himself, and the other doesn't take anything seriously. These are the types that surrender early and willingly defect if things are not going there way, as has been shown by their actions. While it is important to keep them for their symbolic value, we can't be putting to much faith in their loyalty. Hell, we shouldn't even let them near the front lines. They will only betray us. Therefore, any information that they can glean from us interviewing them could be used against us."

"That won't happen"

A voice broken the argument and all eyes turned to the young looking man with golden eyes and black hair. He had his fingers knitted together in front of his nose and used his two thumbs to cradle his chin as he leaned forward on the circular table the meeting was taking place on, his eyes glazed over with thought and behind them one could see him doing something more akin to math than to understand people in his head. "I remember when Chairman Joule interviewed the three pilots. I remember their responses. I remember the cautious looks in there eyes, they were not afraid, but there was something careful about them, especially in now-Sergeant Andras. I remember how he asked us not to release any of their information. I think that this may mean something. They are worried about what the EAF may do to them if they found out of there continued survival, as though the EAF would kill them without a second thought. I think these three are more refugees then defectors, escape something painful rather then going to wherever they have an advantage."

There was a momentary silence before the other man sighed, "Alright, I concede your point. You and Chairman Joule will conduct the interview- the sergeant would probably prefer to see a face he has already seen and I trust you to wring the information out that we need." The use of the word trust brought a somber cold attitude into everyone's heart, trust wasn't something given lightly and the fact that the chubby man had given his trust so willingly to the person who had argued against him meant something of great significance. " However, do not let that boy onto anything, he's a dangerous one to interview based of his test which gave his tactical ability among the highest we have ever had. We should be interviewing the distruptive student but that would raise suspicion. So be careful, if he pierces are intent, or worse suspects the worst, as wisdom would demand he do when dealing with those with power like us, he may fear for his life. We can't guarantee his actions if he believes that."

She and the serpentine chairman both bowed there head slightly in acknowledgement of his words.

As the other members of the committee filed out of the room, Joule pressed a button on the desk which connected her to a secretary, "Send for Shani Andras".

She looked seeing the other Chairman still in a profoundly thoughtful pose, seeming to reach out from his skull to snatch at the vague floated wisps of truth. She still couldn't say she had completely gotten rid of that feeling of apprehension but still she spoke, " Are you ready for this Dullindal? Or should I postpone it?"

He looked up, his eyes suddenly coming into focus, "Hmmm? Oh no, I'm ready."

Stepping out of the classroom with chill apathy, Shani began to make his way back towards his room. He had seen Lunamaria slip quickly out of the room and it had raised a blurred curiosity in him, since she normally made a point of always talking to him. It wasn't that he particularly cared it was just that he had gotten used to it and now it was different so he noticed the change. "People notice changes in their conditions as monkey's notice changes in their cages it but human nature to react to something unusual with trepidation", Oruga had said that once while he had been reading. But Oruga always concerned himself with illogical things like human emotions. Shani didn't see the point.

Still, Lunamaria was quite possibly the most tolerable of the people whose acquaintances he had been forced to make. Oruga and Crot weren't too bad when they were reading or playing video games respectively. The rest of the time though, Oruga would either wax arrogant or poetic, and Crot would rant about whatever was pissing him off at the time, believe for some misguided reason that Shani cared about what happened in his life. The Shinn boy was pure annoyance. He was cocky, always angry, and would start shouting and crying whenever he saw any of the Extended. His rage was like a florescent light attached to a generator, loud and bright but lacking heat. Rei wasn't too bad since he spoke only rarely, but his demeanor was distracting as he always seemed to be speaking down to people. Meyrin… well he had really been bothered by Meyrin at all which made her better then most.

Lunamaria, he didn't mind too much. It would always be his preference to be alone but she normally made the times he had to speak much less painful. She would follow him around like some sort of dog and, though this annoyed him from time to time, it was normally ignorable. Occasionally, she would ask him questions which he would brush off but she was unobtrusive about it so he normally humored her with a grunt in response. No more.

Today though was different, she left with a darting speed of a frightened deer and he vaguely recalled the incident during class when he had caught her staring curiously at him. Sometimes, he would catch her glancing at him, an action which he still didn't understand, but he never thought much of it and didn't look back. But this time she had looked deep in thought so he had stared back. He couldn't give a precise reason as to why but he supposed that because he had been so unabashedly looking at him he should look back, not to mention that she might tell him why she was gawking so strangely. Honestly, he didn't care about what she thought, but he was having a random fit with curiosity and the wonder was digging into his brain like a barbed arrow. The result was that she blushed and got nervous. Shani didn't know how to judge that response, it was confusing.

Sighing slightly and putting pointless thoughts out of mind, he pushed open the door to his dorm room, an accomadation bearing all the marks that would distinguish it as being just like a thousand others. He set his books down on a small table with series of heavy thumps as each book crashed against the wooden surface. He stepped into the bathroom, needing a shower badly because he hadn't had time for one for the past few days, with watching Oruga and Shinn clean floors and doing piles of homework and paperwork that came with the territory of sergeant. He despised watching Shinn and Oruga sweep those floors because there was nothing for him to do and he almost wanted, at times, to grab a mop himself so that it would go faster.

The bathroom was grey with a blindingly white ceramic sink above which loomed menacingly mirror enclosed in a frame as jarringly, as puritanically, white as the sink. These two pieces of furniture seemed to stand unreal against the existent, drab grays and muted blues of the bathroom, and though the other parts of the bathroom would get sullied by the nature of Shani only marginal cleanliness and the dirt that would accumulate in all military room, the sink and mirror would not. It was as if the dirt slid of these two nothing affecting them save what was put into their making. The ceramic of the sink looked thin a flimsy, like it was a breath's-width layer of substance over a hollow how but not two days ago it had proven itself to be sturdier than expected. That day had been one filled with stress, his class that day had been fruitless, the teacher empty, imperceptive words had failed to say anything about the subject on which he was supposed enlightening the students, a certain series of tariffs that were placed in PLANT in reaction to the squabbling complaints of vested business interests who wish a protective barrier for their products. Thus, it was already obvious he would need to spend time reading but he to watch Oruga and Shinn do their god awful mopping. Furthermore, he had three reports which had been due for several days which he needed to finish – since he hadn't felt any desire to do them before). By the time he had gotten home his rage had built to a point to which it rarely got, though he hid this behind a veil of hair and facial features carefully positioned to convey apathy. Finally, he snapped and in a act of rage and frustration released his ire in a single blow on the counter top. The blow did not affect the ceramic in the least, not a single crack marred its fiery white surface. He had taken steroids while he had been part of Blue Cosmos' Extended –having been conscripted in early adolescence when his muscles would receive the most benefit from use of long term enhancement- and by now, though he did not have the large muscles of a man dedicated to muscles that made the most visual impact, he was stronger than even the majority of Coordinators. His fist could have damaged most any surface but this ceramic form seemed immutable.

Turning on the water, he began to take of his clothes, one ZAFT over coat, one t-shirt underneath, and a pair of pants with cuts across the legs, along with shoes and socks. The only thing left on him was his dog tags from the EAF. One had written on it "Andras, S. F. (his name Shani Flauros Andras) 666-13-2015 (his social security number which no longer existed in any computers anywhere) 123rd Airborne Unit, O, Not Given". One the other was written a brief. "BPU Unit 0000-0000-0231". He removed both and set them on the counter of the sink.

He washed coarsely, doing no more then the absolutely necessary functions of cleaning before stepping out to dry. Putting on his cloths he looked in the mirror at himself, and he noticed, after tugging his shirt on over his thin, muscled chest that the bang which normally covered his left eye was slightly askew and he could see the left eye. An ill feeling flooded him, filled him with an angst which claw scathingly at the innards of his skull. He stared into his eye, moving with his hand the hair so that he could get a better view of it. It looked back at him, with a superficial love and happiness which hid underneath it the chill of apathy. Veins began to bulge from under his skin as his muscles compressed in barely contain rage. Focus on the world around him began to ebb and the edges of each object began to erode. Realizing his own excitement, he knew that his adrenal gland had been aroused and was flooding his system with its chemicals. His mind began to try to calculate and predict but the eye left nothing to predict, it just stared back at him mockingly as the cogs in his mind spun with complete futility. A severe headache began to spread outward from the core of his brain as his subconscious frustration built finding no answers. His hand clasped his head in his hand and looked down, leaning both elbows on the white sink to support him as broke his gaze with the eye and stared down into the drain. An endless hole into which, at that time, he wished to sink so that he would never have to see that eye again, where all things were blackness and he could be free of it, of the guilt.

As his rage built he slipped his head phones into his ears in a vain attempt to calm down. Suddenly, his favorite dirge began to play, the singer killing himself on his words,

Two-Headed Boy
Put on Sunday shoes
And dance 'round the room
To accordion keys
With the needle that sings in your heart
Catching signals that sound in the dark
Catching signals that sound in the dark

His fury broke suddenly, when a knock came on the door, soft and shy. There was a slight nervous impatience to it that, if he had the empathy to catch it, would have told him that he had missed the person's first knock, drowned it out with the screaming of his mind and that off the musician as well. Gently running his hand over his hair to make certain that the bang completely covered his left eye and fixing the cracks that had formed in his shell of apathy, he stood up with lazily slumped shoulders, ambling himself to the door to his room. Certain that his out burst had been completely erased, like paint applied with fervent haste to wood but with later thought was ill placed, he opened the door, not feeling any surprise at the girl he saw before him.

Lunamaria bore an air of authority, conveyed in her rigid posture and her attempts to eliminate any sense of familiarity that she might harbor in her eyes. She was probably here on business Shani supposed. However, when she saw him a lot of that control seemed to dissipate and a vague apprehension crept into her features. She spoke up with a voice filled with cracks and breaks, "um…Shani… Your presence is requested at conference room in the Admin building".

"Hn…" Shani grunted in affirmation before stepping out and beginning to walk away. He looked over his shoulder a moment and his gaze pop some small bubble that had formed around her mind and she caught up to him in order to show him the way to the conference room of which she spoke.

They stepped out of the dormitory building into the flush of a perpetual synthetic spring where no sooner had the blossoms faded from one plant then they appeared in another. The slight wind, warm and full of energy, which blew against blue skies with synthetic clouds dancing over head, attempted vainly to pull Shani's hair from his eye and expose the sin it represented but was foiled since his hair had grown so used to its placement it detested being shifted from it. Green leaves whispered in their branches the entire picture captured the essence of idyllic spring save for one thing. It was all phony. Shani, being from earth and used to the changing seasons, knew that plants should not be so green at this time of year and it made him distrustful of all PLANT. Everything it seemed wanted to make things seem different then what they were, they hid the fact that trees had to be dug up and moved every year to a room of controlled darkness and light, unable to sustain the constant growth for so long a time

"I'm sorry about earlier." She said after a moment. " I didn't mean to leave you after class today."

"…oh… its not important" Shani said simply.

"…heheh…yeah…" Her words seemed more to comfort herself then an actual response to something he said. He looked at her out of the corner of his eye. He hadn't intended it to be an insult, if he had it would have been far harsher. Oh well, it he didn't particularly care either way.

She walked him the rest of the way and when she left him at the conference room it was with a friendly wave. He only looked back and she smiled sweetly in return. He wondered why vaguely. Never once did he notice that the skeleton of a smirk had been on his face.