PHASE 13: Wandering Eyes

March 23rd
Bandirma

The morning following the crew's discussion with Chairman Durendal, the Chairman himself left early, boarding a helicopter that would take him to Gibraltar, and from there back to the PLANTs.

Athrun woke from an uneasy sleep, and wondered briefly where he was, as he did not recognize the room. Then he remembered the events of the previous day.

After Durendal's departure following their discussion, he and Meer had gone to dinner in one of the more upscale restaurants in Bandirma.

The food had been different, but otherwise the evening had played out much like the time they had had dinner together in the PLANTs. Then they had returned to the hotel and he had gone up to his room, where she'd been met by the same man he'd assumed - correctly, as it turned out - to be her manager.

Meanwhile, he had gone to bed and fallen asleep immediately.

As he pulled back the covers, he glanced to his left and saw that there was someone else in his bed...someone with very long pink hair, and wearing a very short pink nightgown…

With a shocked yell, he tumbled backwards out of bed, landing hard on the floor. The sound woke Meer, who sat up slowly, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes.

Then, someone knocked at the door.

"Good morning, Commander!" Lunamaria's voice came from the other side of the door. "Are you awake yet? I thought...maybe we could go down to the dining room together, sir."

-"Just a second!" Athrun said as he scrambled to put his pants on. Before he could get the door though, Meer had gotten out of bed and was headed towards it.

-"Huh? No...hey, wait!" Athrun said quietly...too late. Meer had opened the door.

"Thank you," she said to Luna, smiling as she spoke, "but please go ahead without us. Athrun and I will be along shortly."

Then she closed the door, right in Lunamaria's rather shocked face.

"That was rude. And what's the big idea, anyway?" Athrun said sharply.

-"I didn't mean to be rude. I was just talking to that girl at the door." Meer answered.

-"Never mind that, I meant what are you doing in my room?" Athrun asked.

-"I told the front desk that I was supposed to visit you," she said, "but when I arrived you had fallen asleep." She replied, looking almost disappointed as she said so.

-"I don't really much care how, what I want to know is why?" Athrun asked, his voice rising.

-"Why?" Meer asked, looking puzzled, "Well, isn't it normal for couples who are engaged and haven't seen each other in a long time?"

-"But Lacus would never do something like that." He replied, perhaps more harshly than he should have. Meer looked taken aback for a moment, but then she looked at him with that same puzzled expression again.

-"She wouldn't? But why not?" she asked.

Athrun groaned, exasperated.

-"Never mind. Just...could you put on some clothes?" He asked, and then went into the bathroom to finish getting dressed.

Downstairs, Lunamaria had met up with Shinn, and they were talking as they went down to the dining room for breakfast.

-"So the Chairman's gone already?" Shinn asked when Lunamaria mentioned it.

-"Well of course he is - he's a busy person, after all. It's a wonder he even had the time to talk to us yesterday." Lunamaria said shortly.

-"I guess so..." Shinn said.

-"You're pretty lucky, Shinn. Getting commended by the Chairman yesterday, and then getting the whole day off today. Things are just great for you."

-"What's with you?" Shinn asked, surprised at Lunamaria's tone and thinking that she sounded annoyed about something. "It's not like I asked for it. Besides, we've all got today off, remember? The Captain gave us two days' shore leave."

Lunamaria opened her mouth to reply, but a pleasant, almost wryly amused voice interrupted the discussion.

-"Good morning you two. You're the youngsters from the Minerva, right? Where's that FAITH operative who was with you guys?"

-"Excuse my manners. Good morning to you sir." Lunamaria said stiffly, saluting the officer who had spoken.

It was the same officer who had met them the previous day and escorted them to the Chairman. Shinn saluted as well.

"I believe the Commander is still in his room." Lunamaria added, and Shinn wondered what she sounded so annoyed about.

Just then they overheard a voice, and Shinn glanced over his shoulder to notice Athrun, looking visibly uncomfortable. Lacus Clyne was clinging to his arm and talking animatedly to him.

-"Ah...never mind. I get the picture, thank you." The officer said. Then he stood and, as the two approached, saluted. "A pleasure to see you this morning, Ms. Lacus."

-"Oh, hello. Good morning." she replied cheerfully.

-"Your show yesterday was quite a success. I'm sure something like that will tremendously help everyone's morale." He continued.

-"And did you enjoy the concert, Mr. Heine?" she asked him eagerly. That was something that Athrun had noticed about Meer: a touch of vanity, perhaps - she always seemed eager to hear what others thought of her, or rather of her performance.

'In a way, her entire life is one long performance,' he thought bitterly.

-"Of course." The officer she had addressed as Heine replied, then turned to Athrun. "There was so much going on yesterday that you and I were never properly introduced. I'm Heine Westenfluss, of the Special Forces. It's a pleasure to meet you, Athrun."

Slightly surprised that Heine knew his name, he nodded, shaking the other man's hand. -"Nice to meet you too. I'm Athrun Zala."

-"Yeah, I know. You're quite the celebrity - although I heard you only recently returned to active duty, you used to be with the Le Creuset Team, right?"

-"Yes, sir." Athrun replied.

-"I was assigned to the Hawkins Team for most of the Great War. Up until just recently, in fact." The name "Hawkins" seemed to Athrun to ring a faint bell, but he couldn't quite put his finger on where he had heard it before.

He dismissed the thought, for now.

They were suddenly interrupted by Lacus's manager, who asked her in his high, nasal voice to follow him in order to discuss the day's schedule.

-"I guess it can't be helped." She pouted, then turned to Athrun. "I'll be seeing you later!"

She left, and Heine sat down, changing the subject. "So, you three plus the blond fellow from yesterday make four, not including Commander Joule himself - you're the Minerva's pilots."

-"That's right." Athrun said.

Heine then turned over and looked at each of them in turn - first Athrun himself, then Shinn, and then Lunamaria, saying as he did so "You pilot the Saviour, the Impulse, and you, young lady, and the other fellow both pilot ZAKU Warriors." Turning back to Athrun, he continued, "And you're a member of FAITH - the Captain too."

-"Right again…" Athrun replied, wondering what this could be leading up to.

-"Though few in number, you actually have considerable fighting strength...So why is the Chairman assigning me to such a powerful ship?" Heine asked pensively.

-"WHAT?" Shinn and Luna both exclaimed.

-"You'll be joining the Minerva, sir?" Athrun asked.

-"Yeah. Once I return to duty that is - I'll be coming by the ship later to officially introduce myself. You know, three FAITH members on one ship...could turn out to be a real pain in the ass." Heine said, wryly. "Anyway, I look forward to working with all of you. The Chairman has such high hopes for this ship - let's try not to disappoint him, shall we?"

-"Yes, sir!" Athrun replied.

A little while later, Athrun stepped outside and saw that Meer was leaving. Against his better judgement he walked over to say good-bye, which she seemed happy about.

"So, I guess you're leaving then?" He asked.

-" Yeah. The tour goes on, I guess." She said cheerfully. "Good-bye Athrun."

-"Bye. Take care of yourself." He saluted briefly, but much to his surprise she leaned in and kissed him.

-"You too." She said quietly. Then she turned around and got into the waiting helicopter, which took off immediately.

Shinn returned briefly to the Minerva where he changed into civilian clothes, and decided he would go into town alone.

After wandering around for a while, he rented a motorcycle and took off, riding the bike out of town; like when they were in Orb, he needed time alone to think, and so he rode out along a smaller road that wound around the edge of a cliff overlooking the sea.

As he rode, he thought about everything that had happened, and especially about what Chairman Durendal had said the day before.

After a while, he pulled the bike over and stepped onto a larger rock formation that jutted outward from the cliff face. He took a deep, relaxing breath and closed his eyes, listening to the sea pounding the base of the cliff below, and the gulls as they cried and flew past.

As he stood there, he thought of everything that had happened over the past few months, especially since the Minerva had left Orb.

His fists clenched tightly as he remembered how Orb had betrayed them to the Alliance so easily. Athrun doubted that Cagalli had had anything to do with it, but Shinn was skeptical.

But then he remembered his earlier conversation with Athrun, before they'd arrived in Orb.

"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!"

'What was Athrun doing in Orb?' he wondered. Athrun had been evasive when he'd asked, and Shinn hadn't thought about asking him again since. But then he remembered a report that, some time later, Orb had signed a treaty with the Eurasian Federation.

Shinn knew that the Eurasian Federation was much less anti-Coordinator than it had been in the past.

'What if Athrun was right?' He asked himself. He shook his head. It couldn't be. Could it?

He was suddenly distracted from these thoughts by a woman's voice, humming a slow tune - very different from the infectiously upbeat pop music of the concert at the base. It sounded a little sad, Shinn thought, but it was a beautiful melody.

He looked around for the source of the sound and saw a very pretty blonde in a two-tone blue dress, dancing along a little farther down the cliff, near the edge.

'Hey...that's the girl from yesterday.' He thought, the memory of the incident still causing him to blush slightly. He smiled, closing his eyes and listening. Then he heard a sudden cry, quickly cut off, and a splash.

'Did she fall over?' He wondered, slightly nervous. He ran over to where he'd last seen her, and looked down over the edge. Sure enough she had fallen in. And worse, she obviously couldn't swim. "Damn it! She can't even swim!" He swore under his breath. Then he removed his jacket, and he dove in.

An excellent swimmer himself, he soon spotted her under the water, sinking fast. He swam towards her, coming up behind her, and grabbed her around the stomach. She struggled to break free, but he held on and pulled her to the surface.

She struggled even more as they broke the surface of the water, and actually scratched his face.

"Damn...just calm down!" He said as he caught hold of her again and shifted her so she lay on her back.

After a while, she stopped struggling and eventually she calmed down.

Carefully leading her along, he headed for shore - which in this case was a narrow culvert at the base of the cliff, where there was a fairly sizable patch of dry rock.

They were nearly there when he slipped and they both fell, landing on their knees in the shallow water.

"Are you trying to die, you twit? You were right on the edge, and you can't even swim! Playing around like..." Shinn snapped at her. His words had an effect he certainly hadn't anticipated; her eyes widened, her expression suddenly terrified. She backed away from him, shaking.

-"No...I don't want..to die!" She stammered. Then with a scream she rushed off...right back towards deep water again.

'Damn it. Me and my big mouth...' Shinn mentally berated himself.

-"Hey, stop! What in the..." He shouted after her as she walked along, still muttering the same thing over and over again. 'What's the deal, here...?' Shinn wondered. He tried to stop her from getting any farther out, but she ignored him, still walking along.

-"I'm scared!" She said, "I don't want to die!"

-"No one's going to hurt you!" He said, but she seemed not to hear, and she struggled against him.

-"I'm gonna die! If I get shot I'm gonna die!" She said, hysterically. She elbowed him in the face and he fell back, losing his grip. The sudden movement upset her balance as well and she fell into the water.

'If she gets shot...this girl...it can't be!' Shinn wondered, and he remembered some of the atrocities perpetrated by the Alliance in the region - the slave labor in the Indian Ocean, the torture and killings at Gulnahan, and similar things in countless other places...the decimation of Orb, four years prior...the death of his family.

Clearly, something similar had happened to her, he guessed, and it had traumatized her.

As she struggled to rise, he stood and waded towards her, pulling her up and into his arms, her head on his shoulder.

"Yeah, I know." He said softly. "You're going to be fine. Don't be scared anymore...you're not going to die. I promise...because I'll protect you." He wasn't sure why he said it, but he meant it.

She sobbed as he held her and began to cry, but she calmed down.

"I'm sorry," he apologized, "I'm sorry if I upset you like that. But everything's all right now. You're safe now, okay?"

-"Safe..." she whispered. After a while, the tears stopped too and the two of them headed once more for dry land - such as it was.

"You'll be just fine." Shinn said as she sat on the rock, shivering. The sun was setting, and the temperature had dropped noticeably. "You're completely safe here - I won't let anything happen to you. I promise I'll protect you."

-"Protect...me?" She said as she looked at him.

-"Yeah. So you don't have to worry anymore - you're not going to die, I promise." He reached over and set his hand down on hers. She took his hand, and slowly moved it until it rested against her cheek. Her skin felt incredibly soft and smooth, ever after her near-drowning.

-"Protect me?" She asked again. Shinn nodded.

-"You bet." He said. Then as he looked he saw blood on her ankle. "You must have cut it on the rocks. Does it hurt?" He asked.

When she shrugged, he guessed it didn't too much. He pulled his handkerchief out of his pocket and, wringing the seawater from it, used it to bandage the ankle, after cleaning it with a strip torn from his shirt sleeve.

"The question is, now what?" He said as he stood, looking around. Around them the cliffs were sheer and probably fifty to sixty feet high - too high to climb. And she couldn't swim, so that was out of the question. "I bet this is going to get me into a lot of trouble, but there's no choice."

Reaching into his shirt, he pulled out a small, grey object tied to the chain with his dog tags, and snapped it in two. The object was an emergency transmitter. Breaking it activated the transmitter, which sent a signal to the Minerva, triggering an alarm on Abby Windsor's console that also displayed the transmitter's coordinates. It was supposed to be used only in the most dire emergencies, but they had no other options.

Abby of course was on leave, but Bart happened to be on board and saw the message on her screen. He immediately sought out the Captain.

Shinn meanwhile looked around and was glad to see a small, dead tree not too high up the cliff. Better yet, there was a small, shallow cave in which they could take shelter.

Climbing up, he tore it down and broke off the longest branches, which he used to set up an impromptu line, on which he hung his shirt to dry. Then he used the rest of the wood to light a fire at the cave entrance, which would both dry out their clothes and keep them warm.

The girl saw what he was doing. She stood and, without a word, stripped off her dress.

Blushing furiously at first, he tried as hard as he could not to look at her as he took the garment and hung it to dry on the line with his shirt. Then he sat down next to her, facing away from her.

As they sat there, he started to wonder who she was.

"What's your name?" He asked, "Are you from the nearby city?"

-"My name is...Stella. City?...I don't know." she answered. Shinn hesitated for a moment.

-"Well," he continued, "there must be someone who would worry if you were missing. Who are you usually with? What about your father, or your mother?"

-"I'm with Lukas...and Auel. Father? Mother?...I...don't know." Stella said.

-"I see..." Shinn said slowly. "Something awful must have happened...but it's all right now."

-"Because...you'll protect me?" She asked, looking uneasy again. "I won't...die?"

-"That's right. You'll be fine - you won't die, I promise."

At Shinn's words she smiled, and he found himself again thinking, as he had earlier, that she really was beautiful. Then it occurred to him that she had told him her name, but he had not done likewise. "Oh, my name is Shinn. Shinn Asuka."

-"Shinn...Asuka." She said softly, and then she stood and walked over to the crude line on which her dress hung to dry, and fished something out of its pocket, then turned around, facing him. He blushed furiously and turned away, trying not to look at her.

"Here." She said, sounding a little more cheerful than she had up to this point.

In her hand, which she held out in front of him, was a small seashell. It was a beautiful little thing, a pearly pink color.

-"This is...for me?" He asked. When she nodded, he said "Thanks, Stella."

Then he looked at the small shell, and he had an idea. He took it and, very slowly and carefully, slid a fingernail in between the two halves of the little shell, then split it in two. And he handed one back to her.

"Here. That way, we both have one." He said. She took the shell in her hand, hesitantly. And then she smiled, and she sat down next to him, resting her head on his shoulder.

It was hours later that Shinn heard the distant, throaty roar of a powerful boat engine. He and Stella had long since put their clothes back on once they had dried, and he guessed he must have fallen asleep, because the sound woke him.

He looked down, and Stella was sitting in front of him, sleeping soundly.

His arms were around her shoulders, and she held his hand in hers even as she slept.

Silently, he woke her and she looked around, surprised and frightened. Then she recognized him, and she relaxed.

He stood, and stepped outside. In the glare of the spotlight he couldn't see who was in the boat, but he recognized the voice when the older man spoke.

"An emergency signal when you're on shore leave? You just can't have a regular day off, can you?"

-"Commander?" Shinn asked, having recognized Athrun's voice.

-"How did you get yourself stranded all the way out here?" Athrun asked. "And who is that?"

Peering over his shoulder, Shinn saw that Stella had stepped out behind him and was looking over at the boat, which Shinn could now see was a big rigid-hulled inflatable, the kind used for fast landing operations and in shallow waters.

-"It's...kind of a long story." Shinn said vaguely.

Athrun rolled his eyes, and he piloted the RHIB close enough for Shinn and the girl to get in. Then he turned around and headed back towards shore.

"This girl fell off the cliff and into the water," Shinn began to explain. "She couldn't swim, so..."

-"So you dove in and rescued her, and ended up stranded in that hole in the wall." Athrun said, his tone half-joking. Though truth be told, the incident reminded him of something vaguely similar happening to him once. "Is she from Bandirma?" he then asked seriously.

-"I'm not sure. But I think she lost her parents in the war. She probably survived something traumatic."

-"I see..." Athrun said. "What's her name?"

-"Stella." Shinn answered.

-"Well, we'll bring her back to base and see if we can't find out more information."

-"Wait! Stop the engine!" Shinn suddenly said. He thought he'd heard something. Athrun cut the engine, and sure enough, distantly Shinn heard someone calling her name. Two people - one young, the other much older. She'd heard too, and she turned around in the boat, facing the sound of the voices.

Athrun nodded, gunned the engine, and adjusted his course. Once the boat was docked the three of them got into a waiting Jeep and drove in the direction in which they'd heard the voices of, Shinn guessed, the two people Stella had talked about, Lukas and Auel.

Sure enough, another car going the other direction appeared, coming down from the direction of the cliff where Shinn had seen Stella. He signaled to Athrun, who pulled over and blew the horn.

The other car pulled over, and two people got out.

One looked to be about seventeen, with blue hair and an annoyed expression on his face. The other was probably in his late-thirties, possibly early forties. He had black hair, pulled back in a tight ponytail, and a narrow, angular face.

"That's Lukas!" Stella said, and she got out of the Jeep and ran towards the older man.

-"There you are, Stella." He said paternally, though Shinn noticed that in spite of his warm tone, his eyes - narrow and dark - remained cold, fixed on the ZAFT jeep's other two occupants. "Whatever happened to you?" he asked her.

-"She fell into the ocean." Shinn answered. "I happened to be close by. Still, it's a relief we ran into you guys. We were trying to help her, but we don't really know much about her, and weren't sure what we were going to do!"

-"Is that a fact?" The older man, Lukas, answered. "Thank you. I'm sorry to have caused you any trouble."

While Shinn was speaking, Athrun turned his attention on the younger man, who was looking fixedly at him, though he looked away and feigned disinterest when he saw that Athrun had noticed.

"I can't thank you enough," Lukas said. "ZAFT and its soldiers have my gratitude."

-"It was no trouble." Shinn said, and he and Athrun turned back towards the Jeep. As they got in, Stella ran over.

"Shinn. Are you going?" She asked sadly.

-"I'm sorry, but I have to." He said, and she looked crestfallen. "But it's all right now - you're with Lukas and Auel - you'll be fine. Besides, I'm sure we'll see each other again."

-"Okay." She said, looking a little more cheerful.

As the ZAFT jeep pulled away, she stood at the side of the road and watched it move away. In the back seat, Shinn turned back, looking at her.

"I'm sorry, Stella! But I meant it...we'll meet again! I'll...I'll come and see you, okay?" He yelled back, and then the car rounded a corner and he couldn't see her anymore.

Stella stood for a while longer, looking down the road at the point where the jeep had disappeared.

-"Shinn...you said you'd protect me." she whispered sadly, then at Lukas's request got into the car, which pulled away, turning around and moving in the opposite direction.

In the jeep, Shinn turned to look back in the direction the other car had gone, hoping that, as unlikely as it seemed to him, he would see her again...