AUTHOR'S NOTE: The next few chapters cover Phase 8-11, and move the spotlight away from Cagalli a bit to focus more on Athrun and Shinn. This one covers part of what was originally Phase 4, with some new material.

PHASE 04: Scars that Won't Heal

February 15th
LHM-BB01 Minerva
Pacific Ocean, en route to Orb

With the essential emergency repairs complete, the Minerva began its journey towards Orb. Their remaining mobile suits had been returned to the hangar and repairs were under way on the ZAKUs. Inside the ship, Cagalli, Vice-President Marshall, and the other members of the memorial delegation were deep in discussion with Yzak in his cabin; Arthur had the bridge, for now.

"I wanted to thank you, Captain," said Scandinavian Prime Minister Lindemann, "for your timely rescue of our shuttle as well as your efforts to avert disaster up there. I think I speak for all of us when I say we owe you our lives, and so do countless others."

-"Thank you." Yzak replied, somewhat shortly. "It's unfortunate that we didn't succeed."

-"Still, in spite of the circumstances," Cagalli next spoke, "There's no denying that your efforts prevented the situation from becoming far worse than it has."

Vice-President Marshall nodded. Though he did not share Cagalli's naïve optimism, he knew that had the entire mass of Junius Seven impacted Earth, the damage would have been exponentially worse than what had taken place.

-"The ship is currently on its way to Orb." Yzak added. "Once there, you will all disembark, so that you may return to your respective nations. Now, if you'll excuse me." Yzak turned and left.

Cagalli next turned to Durendal, whom she was surprised to note had not yet spoken.

"Is there something on your mind, Princess?" the Chairman asked curiously. She wondered whether to broach the subject that had been bothering her, but Marshall interrupted.

"Chairman Durendal, if I may ask: this ship - it's a new one, isn't it?"

"Correct," Durendal answered, "the first new battleship fielded by our nation since the end of the war, three and a half years ago. As I understand it, it is heavily based on the Eternal, though its size and armament are more similar to those of the Alliance's Archangel-class. Of course, this is only what I have been told - I'm not personally very familiar with that particular vessel."

Marshall nodded. An ex-military man himself, he'd seen the legendary Archangel in action at JOSH-A, years earlier.

It wasn't common knowledge outside Eurasia, but his unit had been nearly wiped out by the Atlantic Federation's Cyclops System at JOSH-A, surviving only thanks to the warning issued by the Archangel and the newly-arrived Freedom.

-"I am. The comparison holds up - the Minerva's not quite so heavily armed, but she's still very similar in capability to the Archangel from what I can tell."

Cagalli briefly looked at Marshall, somewhat surprised, and decided she'd ask Marshall about that later. She kept her attention on Durendal.

-"I don't see why it's even necessary, though; military strength of this kind can only lead to another war." Cagalli replied, looking uncomfortable.

-"Quite the contrary; strength is a necessity: There will always be conflict. I would have thought that you in particular would understand that distinction, Princess. After all, is that not why Orb maintains full military facilities?"

-"Please do me a favor and stop calling me 'Princess'." she said irritably.

-"I beg your pardon, Representative Athha." Durendal said smoothly. "But perhaps you would appreciate a tour of the ship?"

Cagalli would have liked nothing better than to refuse, but Marshall was interested. And she had to admit, she was curious to see how the Minerva compared to the Archangel herself.

The other delegates declined, and remained in Yzak's quarters. Cagalli, flanked by Athrun, as well as Vice-President Marshall, followed Durendal as he led them through the public sections of the ship, broadly describing its features.

They were walking past a lounge, in which the ship's pilots were discussing recent events.

"Man, I still don't believe it." Vino commented. "Just like that, somebody dropped Junius Seven on Earth; all because of Chairman Zala?"

"Don't kid yourself, Vino. That's probably just their own messed up reasoning, using Chairman Zala's name like that." Yolant replied.

"I'd have to agree," Rey commented, "it seems like they used the late Chairman's arguments to justify their own atrocities. Nothing more."

Suddenly, they heard, from outside, Cagalli speaking to Chairman Durendal.

"You said that strength is necessary, because there would always be conflict."

-"I did." Durendal replied slowly.

-"But why would you even need it in the first place?" Cagalli asked, her voice rising. "We made a vow not to repeat the tragedies of the past, did we not? Weren't we - all of us - committed to ensuring a lasting peace after the horrors of the past war?" Durendal opened his mouth to reply, when another voice interrupted.

-"That kind of idealistic garbage has always been a specialty of the Athhas, hasn't it?"

All of them turned towards the speaker; to nobody's surprise, it was Shinn, who glared angrily up at Cagalli.

'Oh boy. Here we go again.' Lunamaria thought, rolling her eyes. Rey frowned, looking over at his best friend as he stepped forward.

Despite having long known that Shinn had a particularly negative opinion of Orb, she had initially thought, after his outburst on the deck, that it had been what she had said that had angered him.

But now, the hatred she saw in those blood-red eyes shocked her as she realized that it had been not only that, but because it was her specifically that he had reacted so violently. She wondered why, nor was she the only one.

"Shinn. Watch what you say." Rey cut across him as Cagalli turned towards him. She opened her mouth to speak, but Athrun intervened, looking sternly across at the younger man.

"I take it you don't much care for Orb. Why is that? Because if you're trying to pick a fight with the Representative for some trivial, unrelated reason, I..."

-"SHUT UP!" Shinn yelled angrily, and stalked across the room to stand directly in front of Athrun. "Unrelated? Trivial? You don't know what the hell you're talking about!…I lost my entire family because of the Athhas!"

Behind Athrun, Cagalli stepped back, frightened by his rage, as Shinn looked past Athrun and straight at her.

"That's right: I was born in Orb. And my family...they believed in the nation, in your so-called ideals. And in the end, they were killed at Onogoro! When you spouted off that garbage about "defending the nation's justice", did you ever stop to think about how many lives would be lost as a result? So don't talk as if you know everything when you haven't got a clue." And he stalked past them both, elbowing Cagalli aside as he left the room.

Later in the quarters that had been provided for them, Cagalli broke down, crying as she remembered how much her father had suffered and how much he - and she - had given up for Orb's sake. And yet...

-"Cagalli, don't blame yourself." Athrun said, attempting to comfort her. "We knew there were going to be people like him out there. He just...he simply doesn't understand."

The worst part of it was, Athrun understood how Shinn felt; five years ago, when his mother and 243,720 others had been murdered in the Bloody Valentine Tragedy, he had, at first, felt much the same. So had his father - and look where that had ended. He only hoped that eventually, this guy would understand…

Cagalli was soon fast asleep. As for Athrun, he left the room and thought he would head up to the bridge to see Yzak. As he passed the door that led to the stern deck, he saw that an impromptu firing range had been set up. And he recognized Shinn. He stepped closer. The kid was a good shot, he had to admit. Then he seemed to sense that someone was behind him, and he turned.

"Oh, it's you." He said, removing his ear protectors. "What do you want?"

"To talk to you." Athrun replied. "Your name's Shinn, isn't it?"

"Shinn Asuka." He nodded, still glaring at Athrun.

"Shinn. Listen, there's a couple of things I needed to talk to you about. First off, I wanted to apologize about what I said in there - I didn't know."

The statement caught Shinn off-guard. Dropping his angry expression, he looked at Athrun. "The second thing is, I don't think it was all that fair of you to attack Cagalli the way you did in there."

"It's her fault! Saying stupid crap like that…" Shinn retorted hotly. "She's just as bad as he was."

Athrun knew Shinn was referring to Lord Uzumi, and he wasn't sure what to say. If he thought back, they'd been completely blindsided by Lord Uzumi's decision to destroy Morgenröte and Kaguya, though it made sense in hindsight.

If they hadn't, things could have gotten so much worse…

"Lord Uzumi did what he thought was best for Orb." Athrun said slowly.

"HE WAS WRONG!" Shinn yelled. "And because of him…"

Words failed Shinn at that moment, and he stood there, his fists clenched tightly as he remembered what had happened.

Even now, years later, he could still see it as plain as if he were still standing there, staring at the mangled corpses of the people who'd been his entire world. After it happened, he'd had nightmares about it for months. He still did.

"So what, he should have surrendered to the Alliance?" Athrun asked. "Because at that point, that was the only other option they had left. And what do you think would have happened then?"

-"How the hell should I know?" Shinn retorted.

-"Try using your head!" Athrun exclaimed, his tone rising. "What do you think the Alliance would have done to any Coordinators in Orb if Lord Uzumi hadn't done what he did? The fact that we held out so long is the only reason so many of the Coordinators in the country were able to evacuate - you included!"

Shinn opened his mouth to reply, but he paused. Athrun had said we - meaning he was there.

Why? The PLANTs could not have been involved in that battle…so what was he doing there?

"What the hell were you doing in Orb?" He asked.

Athrun did not reply for several moments. Shinn's anger, his frustration…he saw a lot of himself in the kid. He'd been through the same thing when his mother died, which is what had let him to enlist as a soldier of ZAFT.

Taking a deep, calming breath, Athrun continued. "That's not important right now. But we did everything we could to prevent what happened."

Before Shinn could say anything, he kept talking. "Was Lord Uzumi to blame? I don't believe so. None of us knew what he was planning, but I believe he felt, at that point, that it was the only thing he could do to prevent Orb from being completely destroyed."

"I do understand why you feel that way, thought." Athrun added quietly.

-"Yeah, right." Shinn scoffed.

Shaking his head, Athrun continued. "You lost your family - I know how that feels; my mother died in the Bloody Valentine. When I saw what happened, I felt the same way you do now. But during the war, I saw things. I saw what that kind of rage could do." Athrun continued. "And I knew that I had to do something; otherwise..." He left the statement unfinished, but Shinn understood what he meant; The pilots of those GINNs were like that. He stayed silent for a few moments.

"Also, remember one thing," Athrun concluded. "You may be angry at the Athhas - at Lord Uzumi - because of what happened to your family - I'm not saying you're wrong about that. But Cagalli had nothing to do with the decisions that resulted in the Alliance's attack, nor with what happened afterwards. And she also lost her family in that battle. So try to at least show a little restraint."

And with those final words, Athrun turned and headed back inside, leaving Shinn alone to think about what he'd said.