Title: Crossfire

Author: Jusrecht

SeeWarning and Disclaimer in the first chapter.

A/N:I finally give up in inventing names and go with what already there. In this fanfic, I'll sometimes use names from SEED fandom for my OCs. For example, for the three deceased members of PLANT Council, I borrow the surnames from the living CPUs (aka druggies) from Gundam SEED series. Just the name, mind you. This rule applies to every other OC who appears in the story unless I state otherwise.

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Chapter Two: Cagalli – Ignition

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Waking up at four in the morning was but an ordinary happening for the Head Representative of ORB.

Waking up at four in the morning to the news that three members of PLANT's Supreme Council had been murdered however, was not.

Cagalli was sitting behind the massive table in her dining room, a cup of steaming coffee in her left hand and a brief report sent by the embassy of ORB in PLANT in the other while she tried to fight back another urge to yawn. Talking about horrible news. It was obvious that the councilmen – and woman – were murdered. Three photographs included in the report pretty much verified the theory. She glanced at them once more and winced, the throbbing in her head worsening at the sight. Murder was horrible enough, but mutilation? Not to mention, the mad killer was still at loose at the moment. Hell, even clues seemed to be nonexistent.

She sighed and ran a hand through her already untidy hair, upsetting the golden crown even more. At her right, her efficient secretary hissed and held out a small red comb under her nose determinedly. Cagalli frowned, feeling rebellious mainly due to her lack of sleep. Yes, she was about to be graced by the presence of none other but the Chairman of PLANT, but despite the title and all, it was Athrun.

He was her close friend. Her ex-bodyguard. And it was four in the morning!

But Donna was still fixing her a stern look and Cagalli grabbed the comb in the end. Her secretary had this annoying habit to be right every time she admonished her about something. This was certainly no exception. She remembered how fussy Athrun had been about appropriate outfits and appearance when he had been her bodyguard.

Now he was no longer at her side. She still missed him sometimes but of course she knew perfectly what he was doing at PLANT. The price was big, for both Kira and her, but it was worth it in the end. ORB was a powerful country and now with Freedom protecting it, almost no one dared to challenge her ideals anymore in fear of aggravating the sleeping demon in Kira Yamato. However, at PLANT the trouble remained. True that it had recovered from its past mistakes but no one could guarantee that another Dullindal wouldn't step up and seize the power after the temporary reign of the emergency board. They knew that Lacus had to stay neutral in her role as a mediator and so Athrun had come forward. There was simply no one else they could trust but themselves.

She took a deep breath. They were standing at the top of the world and she was aware of this. More than a few antagonistic voices had accused them of monopolizing the power and they had ignored it. It was a price they were willing to pay. Besides, she trusted herself and her friends. They had the same policy, had gone through the same battle and they knew what peace meant.

But still.

Sometimes Cagalli wondered if they were any different from Azrael or Dullindal. One could easily take the wrong path with that much power in their hand.

"Chairman Zala and General Yamato, Ma'am."

The rough voice of one of her aides delivered her back to present attention. Coming through the door was Athrun, immaculate as always, with Kira and Meyrin trailing quietly behind him. Cagalli snorted inwardly when she noticed the dark circles under the chairman's eyes – and her brother's too in that matter. Boys,she thought, exasperated but amused. Restraining urges was never one of their best points.

"Athrun," she stood up and held out her hand, which was received readily. "This is a terrible incident."

"Yes, I'm sorry for the trouble," he replied apologetically.

"It's all right," Cagalli motioned for them to sit down and more cups of coffee were delivered to the table. She pushed her ambassador's report aside, noting the slight narrowing of Athrun's eyes at the action, and spoke up again, "But these three councilmen..."

"Councilman Sabnak, Councilman Buer and Councilwoman Andras," he quickly filled the blank she had left and she nodded, recognizing the names from her earlier reading material. "Yes, as you have undoubtedly known, they were murdered. I have dispatched a special committee to take a look into the matter and I'm hoping for a clearer explanation concerning the murder when I have returned."

Cagalli leant back to her chair, suddenly assaulted by anxiety she couldn't quite place why. But there was a very good chance that her instincts were true. The Chairman of PLANT always had too many enemies, not to mention one as broadminded – and powerful – as Athrun.

"Weren't Buer and Andras two of your most ardent supporters?" she then asked carefully.

"Yes, but Sabnak wasn't," his reply came promptly, the extra explanation indicating that he knew what she was thinking.

It could mean nothing, she was ready to argue but then chose to keep the opinion to herself. No good in hazarding an ill guess at this stage. In any case, she was certain Athrun would be able to deal with the incident just fine. There were reasons why he had managed to climb so high in an age so young and they had little to do with lineage, looks or titles.

At that moment, the door leading to her office was opened and an assistant appeared, holding a briefcase which he handed to her secretary. The latter extracted several files from it and leant down to put them on the table, murmuring in process, "The papers, Ma'am."

"Thank you," Cagalli nodded and then turned toward her guest of honour. "Since you're going to leave earlier than scheduled, I think it's better to sign the agreement now."

"Of course," Athrun signalled for Meyrin who immediately produced an identical document from the stack of paper cradled in her hand. He scanned both documents for a few moments and then inscribed his long, curving signature at the end of the paper. "With this, PLANT agrees to the proposal of implementation of the new design of neutron-jammer."

"Very well," she said after adding her own signature. "The plan will proceed according to the result of our discussion yesterday. We will introduce the plan to the world at the international annual conference at Helsinki in November."

Athrun nodded and in his eyes she could read, and face the risk of igniting another war, verbal and literal.

Cagalli smiled grimly. Of course. It was too much to hope that everyone would accept their idea willingly and obediently, but sometimes risks were just those things they had to take if they wanted to achieve something. No more threats of a nuclear war was good enough of a reason, but it was only if she and Athrun could convince them that no one knew how to make the canceller. Kira hadn't said a word about any probability to make one, and yet she often found herself wondering if the mind of an ultimate coordinator was indeed far more superior than she had thought. For all she knew, he might already have the design of a canceller ready somewhere.

In any case, it was a knowledge best kept hidden. She closed the files and said, "As you wish, a shuttle has been prepared for you at Kaguya. When do you intend to depart?"

"As soon as possible if it isn't too much of a problem."

She stood up, head pounding with what she suspected as the result of an overdose of formality before sunrise, and motioned toward the door. "Then let me accompany you. A car is already waiting downstairs."

The journey downstairs was relatively quiet, only sometimes disturbed by Athrun's low voice dictating instructions to Meyrin and Donna murmuring in front of her ears. When Cagalli announced that she would have the second car for her, Athrun and Kira alone, she wasted a few minutes arguing with her secretary and aides about it. They had the finest bodyguard in the world going with them in that car, she almost shouted at them. If there was a man to be feared on the surface of the earth – in the whole damn universe, really – at the moment, it was the pilot of Freedom. The disagreement was effectively ended when she slammed the door in front of their faces and shouted to her guards to get their ass moving.

"It's almost half-past-four." Kira spoke up at last once the small convoy had made a turn toward the front gate of the Athha mansion.

"We only need a few minutes to get there, fifteen at most," Cagalli said, annoyance still burning in her chest. In front of her, Athrun sat silently, eyes staring past beyond the car's darkened window to the blanket of night. Early morning, she corrected herself, noting the tired but tense look on her friend's face.

"You should have stayed longer," she heard herself stating, her voice softening into a tone close to sympathetic.

Athrun flashed her a small smile. "I know, but this is much too important. I can only let my second handle so much." He fell silent for a moment and a frown made its way to his brow as he murmured, clearly frustrated, "Three members of my council. I can't believe it."

"Do you think it's some kind of protest? After all, you force almost half of the council to go along with this new neutron-jammer plan."

"Ipersuade them," Athrun corrected, faint amusement lurking behind his green irises. "Unfortunately I cannot apply most of your ungainly methods in the Supreme Council of PLANT, Representative Athha."

"Not all of us can afford to be superfluously, dreadfully elegant, Chairman Zala," she retorted and only managed to irritate herself further when he laughed at her sharp response. It was unfair. For some unfathomable reasons, she couldn't seem to win any argument when it came to him.

But it was also a pleasant sound. She couldn't help but to smile herself.

Athrun leant back to his seat, evidently looking more relaxed, and Cagalli had to hide another smile when her brother – unconsciously or not – put his hand on top of his friend's. Thankfully they weren't in the line of sight of the driver's rearview mirror. She also tried not to stare too much. They weren't publicly obvious and she knew that she was probably the only one beside Lacus whom they trusted enough to be around when they finally behaved like lovebirds should.

"It will be very hard for them to accept the plan," Athrun suddenly said, a thoughtful look on his face.

"You mean the other countries?" Kira asked.

"Yes," he nodded, giving his boyfriend a pointed look. "One of the most obvious reasons will be that it's you who design it. They'll say, oh no, it's The Big Four again."

"The Big Four," Cagalli repeated, somehow feeling more amused than annoyed by the close-to-mocking title. "Pretty creative. Let's just hope they don't find a Poirot to overthrow us."

Athrun shot him a surprised look. "I don't know you still have the time to read novels, Cagalli."

"Are you kidding? Christie has been my favourite author since I was fifteen!"

Kira raised his eyebrows and deadpanned, "Now I know where your curious nature and nosiness come from."

She glared. "Shut up, both of you."

Of course none of them saw it fit to obey her at that point. And Cagalli knew that she could only sulk so much in the presence of the two most important men in her life, with them acting so subtly affectionate even less. She couldn't decide which was more heartwarming, Athrun's melodious laughter or the gentle smile on her brother's face as he watched the younger man laugh.

We would be able to go through this, she vowed to herself.

"You've seen the pictures, right?" Suddenly Athrun sounded solemn once more.

"Yeah," she frowned, the terrible images coming back flooding her mind like a black, scurrying group of flies. "Horrible. Inhuman. I mean, couldn't the murderer kill and leave the body intact?"

"I don't know," Kira spoke quietly, pondering. "If it's terror they aim for…"

"Being able to break into the heavily-guarded residence of three council members and murder them all together at one night is enough to strike terror in anyone," Athrun said, his voice laced by silent anger. "But perhaps you're right. There is no other explanation. Maybe whoever did it wanted to enhance the dramatic effect by leaving mutilated bodies on his wake. More impressive, I suppose," he added sarcastically.

Cagalli found herself wondering. "To terrorize PLANT? Because of theagreement?"

"Possibly," his eyes darkened at the idea. "Anyway, there is another problem with the media. I've tried to hold the press back about this incident, but I'm not sure I can do it more than twenty-four hours. It's too big and the people have the right to know."

Of course. And she knew perfectly what would ensue once the words got out. Cagalli leant forward and looked straight into his eyes. "If you need any help..."

For a brief moment, there was a smile brightening his friend's strained face. "I know that I can always count on you. Thank you."

The car skidded to a halt almost without a sound and a guard quickly descended to open the backdoor. She left first, giving the other two passengers a few final seconds of privacy, and greeted her ranks of attendants who had already waited in front of the shuttle port. It was still dark outside but everyone seemed to be in the highest alert. Bad news, she thought, words must have spread about the murder. She glanced at Athrun who had just came out from the car and seemed to have arrived at the same conclusion.

From the end of the ranks, an officer stepped forward and saluted. "The shuttle is ready, Mr. Chairman."

Athrun looked up and smiled at the formal appearance of Lieutenant General Shinn Asuka. "Thank you, Shinn," he returned the salute before turning back to Cagalli. "I should go," he stated, sounding almost reluctant.

"Have a safe journey," she replied, hating the formality but unable to find a way to avoid it under the stares of her armed forces, and extended her hand. To her surprise, he ignored it and pulled her into an embrace instead. Nothing too intimate but for a moment she panicked and almost pushed him away, newspaper headlines of an unfounded rumour flashing before her eyes.

"Thank you for everything, Cagalli." His voice was gentle, quiet.

"It's nothing," she mumbled, fighting back the tears that somehow had made their way to her eyes before continuing with a steadier voice, "I'll see you again at the conference then."

He nodded and turned toward Kira. A firm handshake was all that passed between them and Cagalli ignored a wave of hopelessness which had swept her at the scene in front of her eyes. Appearances, she knew, were important in politics. Only a very selected few knew the true nature of relationship between the two war heroes and clearly Athrun preferred it that way while he was still in the chairman's seat. His position had been precarious enough of late without scandals storming about him.

It couldn't be helped. There were prices to pay.

Still, she felt the painful throbbing of loneliness settling in when his shuttle had departed. She looked at her brother and found him also looking at her, compassion in gentle violet eyes.

"Everything will be okay," he said, his hand clasping her shoulder reassuringly.

Everything would be okay, Cagalli repeated to herself.

A minute later, watching an officer running toward her almost departing car, she knew everything was not okay. She jumped down from the vehicle as the man halted, his words coming out frantic but clear.

"Representative, there is something wrong with the shuttle!"

The control room was not far and yet it felt like miles away as she sprinted in its direction, blood raging in her ears. Countless possibilities offered themselves to her frantic mind but she refused to consider any of them. Not yet. It might be only a trivial mistake, nothing serious.

Kira was the first to arrive at the control room with her following not far behind. The low murmur in the room abruptly ceased at their appearance, leaving a blank silence and the sound of her own heartbeat thundering in her chest. Cagalli opened her mouth and was about to ask one of the myriad questions which seemed to have multiplied as seconds ticked by when she noticed Shinn standing in front of the widescreen at the centre of the room, red eyes intent on the image of the shuttle leaving the earth's atmosphere.

It was pretty normal. What was not, however...

"The second engine is also down! Evacuate the chairman!"

She whipped her head toward the source of the sound, a speaker at one side of the control panel. More panic-stricken voices floated into the room from the line, most of them indistinguishable, colliding with each other and the sound of cracking engine.

"Hurry, it's–!"

An earsplitting blast and then a static buzzing sound. Cagalli froze. Her world seemed to have stopped spinning.

No one spoke.

Slowly, she turned toward the screen and watched the shuttle explode in a sickening display of firework. The pieces left after the smoke had subsided came plunging down to earth, enticed by gravity, and glowed bright red.

They were burning, she realized, fighting back a wave of nausea. Burned by the atmosphere.

She heard a faint choking sound next to her but couldn't bring herself to turn around and face her brother.

End Chapter Two

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Notes: The Big Four, an expression often used to refer to four dominations of power. It was frequently used in many stages of history, like the four countries which played a major role in WWI and many others. My reference here, however, comes from an Agatha Christie's book, The Big Four. It narrates about a criminal organization led by four mysterious characters, who eventually are defeated one by one by Christie's celebrated detective, Hercule Poirot.

Anyway, thank you for everyone who has reviewed chapter one. Review again please.