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CHAPTER 8 – LINK

The girl turned to face Keir, her eyes full of confusion and for a moment Keir thought he saw the girl give him a flash of recognition. He saw that Torii had landed on her shoulder, and made a step towards her, not knowing what else to say, his first word to her had left a huge chasm of silence between the two of them. He came forward, and she quickly made a swipe at Torii making the bird take off into the sky to avoid the action. She rose to her feet quickly and ungracefully, and ran. Keir came forward trying to decide whether or not to stop her but he was surprised to find she ran and vanished.

"Haru, haru." He turned around to see Torii sitting on the ground next to a little blue ball that had flappy ears. He recognized it, a haro, his uncle had made a ton of them for his Mother when they had been young, they still were around the house, but his Mother usually took all of her Haros with her, especially always Pink-chan. Again the simple creature gave another cry haru haru leaving Keir to silently wonder how this had gotten broken, or had it been made different. He cupped his hand, taking the Haro and decided he better get home before it got too much darker.

Athrun rang the doorbell giving a swallow, hoping his friend was in the mood to talk. Kira opened the door, and immediately his face turned to surprise, "Athrun? What's wrong?"

"Nothing, I am back to visit Cagalli for a few days and I thought I would stop in and visit you and Lacus."

Kira opened the door, giving a sincere smile, "Lacus and Keir have both stepped out, actually it is odd but Lacus when to go visit Cagalli and Keir went for a night walk, he is in an interesting position now that he is going out with Jaina Sahaku."

Athrun frowned, recalling the wealthy family that seemed to cause no end of trouble for Cagalli, "He is? She doesn't seem to be the girl for him though."

"I know what you mean but he seems to think otherwise, he kissed her during lunch in front of the whole school."

Kira gave a smile, "I can't help but wonder if he is being too fast but this is his choice, he will be the one living with his choices."

Athrun nodded, "Hopefully with the way the world is, they won't have to make choices concerning things like Freedom, Eternal, or Justice."

"I pray they don't have to but after fifteen years of peace, someone would have to be foolish to try to disturb the balance, every year of peace only makes the resolve of the people effected by it to maintain the peace. I must admit Keir intends to join the ORB military though, words are all fine and stuff, he says, but actions are what changes the world or prevents undesirable changes."

Athrun said, "And the ARBITER Project?"

Kira gave a wry look, he was hardly proud of that but he couldn't help it. The Clyne Faction was based and lived in ORB, above all else the home of the Faction had to be protected no matter what the cost, "That has been made only for the last defense of ORB. I am sure ZAFT has no right to accuse ORB, after all PLANT is developing mobile suits too."

Athrun didn't question how Kira had learned that, Lacus had probably told him, he gave a troubled look, "Yes, but aren't we defeating the purpose of making peace by arming ourselves in advance? What are we making weapons for when they exist in a time in which they are not needed, Kira?"

The violet eyed brunette turned to his friend, "Because we have not let go of the past."

Suddenly the door opened and Athrun and Kira both turned to see Keir. Athrun hadn't seen his nephew in a year, not since he had come last year with Cagalli to mourn Kora's disappearance. A robotic bird flitted off of the boy's shoulder, the boy was about 5'9" with hair the color of pitch black night, his eyes were mere dark sapphire spheres. What alarmed Athrun was the fact Keir seemed to be fighting with something internally. He couldn't help but voice this in a question, hoping that the boy would confide in them the trouble so he could find resolve. Kira voiced it first however, "What is wrong, Keir?"

The boy looked up at them, and was about to open his mouth to speak when a light blue Haro jumped out of his hands, bouncing on the floor, it flapped its eyes, "haru haru, hello"

Cagalli sighed and sat down, exhausted from the day but she was at least happy she had been able to spend time with her husband who visited whenever he could but now he was the primary representative of December City, his ill fated home, that had been his home since he had left Earth and Moon during his childhood. Now, his duties seemed to serve as a barrier for his social life not that she had much time to share with him herself. She looked a picture, and saw Athrun holding a baby girl, Kora. She threw the picture across the room, it landed on the floor, and the glass frame shattered from the impact.

She regretted it immediately, going to pick up a little bit of the mess before the maids came to attempt to tend to it. She made a grab for the picture, taking it, sliding the glass shards littered on. She picked up the shards before finally feeling herself fall to grief and its frustration; she hit her hand against the shards feeling an immense pain as the shards embedded them in her hands. She could never suffer enough; Kora's death had been her fault. Athrun never had wanted to give up finding her but Cagalli knew she was never going to probably see her daughter again.

She closed her eyes, crying because of this thought, as she felt a hand gently move her hand from the glass; she expected to see a maid maybe wanting to clean up the mess, a person who knew that this time of year was one which brought distress and tears to the Queen of ORB. Instead she found herself face to face with her brother's angelic wife.

"Please don't hurt yourself, Cagalli. I know you are sad but you suffer enough," Lacus swept up the mess before giving Cagalli a handkerchief.

Cagalli took it, wrapping it around her hand, to stop the bleeding from making a bigger mess of the area, "Lacus, what are you doing here?"

"I am visiting a friend," she gave the golden haired Queen a smile.

Cagalli felt awkward, and really didn't know what to say. Lacus however continued, "You can never forgive yourself?"

"Of course, I can't. Because of my decision, Kora's transport gained undesirable attention, and now she is dead?"

"You never found her body, and Athrun hasn't given up."

"He looks in blind hope, like a fool, but even if he finds her she won't see us as her family."

Lacus sat down, taking a hold of some tweezers pulling out the small fragments of glass embedded in her hand, "Having blind hope is better than having none, perhaps it is you who are the fool."

Cagalli fell silent, totally shocked by the cold and harsh way that Lacus had voiced it, she was even more shocked when she realized Lacus was absolutely right. She gave Lacus an appreciative look, "Thanks, Lacus."

Kira's eyes locked on his blue haired friend, Athrun's eyes expanded in a full state of shock, giving a small grunt of surprise at seeing something that had disappeared fifteen years ago with his daughter. Athrun couldn't mistake that thing and could recognize it anywhere but where had Keir got it, he wouldn't have known the significance of it since talk of Kora was avoided. Kira looked at Athrun, and he held out his hand flat on the floor, the little ball jumped into it, flapping its wing-like ears, "Where did you find this, Keir?"

"Well, on my walk tonight, of course. I certainly didn't have it before, but it isn't even mine. I think I startled its owner and she ran away?"

"SHE?!!!!"

Kira turned to his friend, "Don't get excited, Athrun? Someone could easily make a Haro, right?"

"Not really, I mean on PLANT almost anyone would, but here in ORB while the chances are higher than other Natural nations, I don't think it is likely."

Athrun knew that it wasn't likely that Kora was still alive, and for years many people had tried to convince him to stop wasting his resources trying to find a ghost of the past but this thing might be a lead that someone here in ORB was his daughter or responsible for her disappearance. He wasn't really sure if he wanted to know but he felt like he had to ask, "Keir? What did the girl look like?"

Keir held his breath, the whole trip back home, he had fought over what to do. He didn't want to stir up the family because he had found a girl who had a likeness to Kora. He had decided to keep the little machine and keep it until he found that girl again. He sighed, "She was about 5'7", goldish brown hair and intense emerald eyes."

He kept to himself the fact that he had thought for a moment her hair had been silver like Shinju's but someone suddenly changing the color of their hair without dyeing it was impossible. It was impossible to alter your genetics in such a way to change your hair color at will, wasn't it?

Athrun said nothing, as he looked at the small ball, and examined it. He recognized everything about it, the craftsmanship as his own, he remembered each part he had used to create certain behaviors for the little deviant. This Haru seemed so insignificant to some, he couldn't help to feel like this mechanical companion was the only link to his daughter, dead or alive.

He set it down on the table before Keir before he said, "Find the girl, and give it back to her."

"Athrun," Kira began, but Athrun ignored him and left. Keir grabbed it, a little surprise how frail plans and intentions could be against the situations of reality. The last thing he had wanted had happened, and now he just hoped that this gesture would bring his uncle false hope.

A/N: This chapter is a bit of a bridge chapter and it gave some time for everyone to see how the original main characters from Gundam SEED turned out. Athrun is troubled and hasn't given up yet, Cagalli is believing it to be her fault, Kira and Lacus are trying to be there for both of them, and you have Keir having girl problems along with the confusion in his family. A plus is we have the first mention of the "ARBITER". More stuff between Shinju and Keir next chapter.

NEXT CHAPTER: THAWING ICE