Disclaimer: I don't own GS/GSD and their characters. If I did, I'd have made Mia Campbell die before half the series was over because she was really tiresome. I wanted a complex character and they tried to make her one, but maybe thy overdid it and she became the shallow person she was portrayed to be. R&R&R, thanks.

Chapter 17

The day had passed so quickly he was down to his final afternoon with her. She had agreed to PLANT's request quite readily after the little argument they had in the garden and after he had held her for about ten minutes, just like that in the garden, but had wrangled some benefits for ORB through the agreement too. They both weren't pushovers even though the person negotiating with them was the person they had just been holding.

He was impressed with how shrewd she could be even when she was dealing with him, and he had bargained on the sum PLANT would allocate for ORB's cause in return for letting their soldiers train with ORB's soldiers in jungles that would move the ZAFT soldier's skills up by more than a few notches. She was tireless in fighting for better chances for ORB, and he too for PLANT, so it took up quite a fair bit of time he would have liked to spend with her in other ways.

The agreement had been finalised after a morning and half the afternoon's hard work and continuous contact with the PLANT secretary, and then she had requested to go back to the ORB embassy house to fetch some documents she wanted to check for errors in the military-exercise clause that didn't agree with his own copy's. So that closed another chance of having her to himself, and he was plagued with doubt. She hadn't said anything after she finally broke the embrace, she still refused to give no indication how she would react to him after that, and he was more miserable than ever.

But then she had come into his room and requested for him to send her back to the ORB houe clearly even though they knew she could have always called for her embassy to do it for her, and he was terribly overjoyed but tried not to show it. Around her, his feelings ran high and his emotion were like a yo-yo. He didn't mind though, not much anyway.

So Athrun sent Cagalli to ORB's embassy house where she asked him to hang around the area and let her change some clauses to suit the finalised version while he didn't waste his time waiting for her in the area where Goebbels would see him and promptly interrogate her.

He drove to the nearby town centre barely a few metres away from the ORB embassy, where the Coordinator engineers had teamed up with the EA Naturals' engineers and the team Kira headed to set up multiple giant screens across buildings to improve communications in the area. He parked his car and got off, but not before he slipped on his sunglasses to hide his face in case anyone recognised him. Dullindal had told him once that his eyes and hair colour had been a dead-giveaway when he had tried to be Alex Dino. Coupled with the fact that his father was one of the most famous Coordinators, and now he was one of them too, Athrun Zala was quite easily recognisable if he didn't take heed to hide it.

As he got out of the car, a man rushed past him, a dark-haired male who had to be only a few years older than him with a crazed expression on his face and the walk that made Athrun think of drunkards. He saw that the man was not right in the head but shrugged and pushed past, since he couldn't quite be bothered to start a scene and get himself exposed.

The male's face was quite striking, pale skin with wide-set eyes, and Athrun suddenly recognised him as Jun Thornier, and was quite startled that he had come all the way from America to Berlin after finding out he had not been recognised as a successful candidate for the relocation project. Maybe he wanted to complain or rant against the decision or something. More work for his secretary then, he thought haphazardly. He could have trailed Jun Thornier for a while, but he chose not too. He had better things to do than follow drunks around town.

So he walked around the streets a bit aimlessly, stopping only to look at some computer drivers when he noticed Kira's department's sign, combined with the ORB symbol on it. The gargantular screens his department had set up was flashing the news all over while people walked cross the roads, not quite unlike the own one he had seen back in PLANT when it was nationally broadcasted that Junius Seven was being blown into smithereens. They still made him feel a little uneasy, those large screens, but now, it was flashing a harmless advertisement of some perfumes Lacus had been asked to endorse. She didn't though, she said she didn't like the packaging.

Then Athrun thought of the ring, still in his pocket and made a promise to himself. Then he stopped at the pavement to look at the large screens, wondering if the news was going to report about the weather soon. Then as the pretty weather-reporter started chirping out the weather for the day, she was interrupted by the main news reporter with an announcement that was again, interrupted by a zapping signal that canelled the screen he was looking at and refocused it on blur surroundings.

As confused as all those around him, he stared, bewildered the blur colours on the screen, and the cars were zooming to a halt and people were all murmuring around him asking what was going on, and then he heard someone who he immediately recognised as Cagalli panting, magnified by the gigantic screens across thousands of buildings and a shaky voice screaming from behind her "It's all your fault!"

He was staring, transfixed in horror like all those around as they watched the interference clear and Jun Thornier griping the ORB chairman tightly with a gun pressed to her temple while she struggled to get free and panted as he half-strangled her in front of everyone. His arm was around her neck and he grasped a handfull of her blonde hair and yanked it, hard.

She gasped in pain but continued to strangle, unafraid of the gun he had pointed to her temple, because she was sure she could wriggle free in time. As they watched in terror, he thought for a minute that she would get free to, but then her captor snickered insanely and pressed her jaw down hard until she cried out. Jun Thornier had activated her office transmitter that she used for speeches and brought the scene of his attempted assassination to the whole country to see.

The secretary was helplessly standing in a corner, shaking, while her bodyguards were pointing guns at Thornier who was screaming something unintelligible, then he lookeddown then flipped his head up and giggled insanely. The bodyguards who had all their guns on the floor lest he really kill Cagalli like he had threatened were all tensed, but there was nothing they could do. Athrun wanted to rave and rant and scream for Thornier to get his filthy hands of her, but from where he was, everybody except Thornier wold hear him.

Athrun was staring in horror and hearing Thornier stammer, "I was smart wasn't I? I-I g-got the secretary t-to take me to t-the chairman by just p-pointing a gun at h-him a-and then I can k-kill the person who s-started it in the f-first place.

He couldn't take it any longer and burst into a mad sprint, shoving the key in and making the engine roar to life while the rest stared and some screamed in horror at the terrible scene unfolding before their eyes.

Thornier was telling the whole world that the relocation project was going to fail anyway, he had only volunteered because he wanted to go to PLANT and kill as many Coordinators as possible, and then he'd been rejected and he was going to kill the person who allowed Coordinators to live with Naturals in ORB in the first place and lied to everyone that they could live peacefully, and "T-that p-person is the ORB Chairman, o-of- course! But he's not h-here anymore, s-so I'll kill h-her i-instead!" he cackled stupidly, then he paused and looked strangley confused for a minute before his face morphed into a snarl, and he started squeezing the trigger at Cagalli who had shut her eyes and was visibly trembling.

Goebbels had burst into her office without knocking, and she had looked up, stunned, then the man who had held a gun behind her secretary made all her bodyguards drop their guns and put the gun at her temple before she could whip her own out of the drawer. She was pretty convinced then that she was going to be assassinated on national television on the screens her brother had developed and front of Athrun.

She didn't even know the man, but he was stammering and laughing and cackling about things she didn't understand, and it seemed like he would hold her there before killing her for along as eternity. She was held at gunpoint, and she could hardly breathe, but her mind was clear although she was trembling and her eyes were shut tightly. She had gotten her will ready at a young age anyway, and she was pretty sure that he would approve of her decision to giv-

"Drop that gun!"

And Cagalli's eyes flew open and she panted, half-fainting from the grip the man had around her throat, and her vision cleared from the blur of pain and tears and saw Athrun standing in the open doorway, crouching in the familiar stance with his gun pointed straight between the man's eyes. She struggled to call out to him, sure that he was in for the kill, she didn't want him to ki-

"N-no, I-I'll kill your g-girl i-if y-you don't d-drop y-your gun." Thornier choked out, shoving the barrel of his gun into her mouth now, and tears leaked out her eyes at the humiliation as she saw Athrun set his mouth in a grim line and slowly crouch down and bend, stretching out his right hand slowly to place down the gun on the floor. Just to prove his point, Thornier took the gun away but fired it into her arm and she watched her white shirt become stained in red blood while she fought to keep sane from the pain, then she felt the gun being shoved into her mouth again and wanted to vomit.

And then the man was twisting her arm backwards and she heard a sickening crack and screamed outright in pain as she felt her arm break.

Her bodyguards were panting now, and the youngest one, a female black-belt she was often affectionate towards, was openly sobbing in front of millions on national television and pleading for him to let the chairman go,it wasn't her fault and they didn't know what he wanted away.

Athrun was crouching down and not looking up, and Thornier was saying very childishly before he held malice in his face, "W-who the h-hell are y-you anyway?"

Cagalli could hear Athrun chuckle a low, sarcastic laugh even though she knew she was going to suffocate very soon, and he said, "How did you know she was my girl, Thornier?"

Thornier, was that the man's name? He hadn't realised that Athrun knew his name and was proudly stammering, half-crazed, that he had trailed them everywhere to the beach and ran off when she had aimed a gun at the bush he was spying at them from. Thornier was cakling again and stroking her arm almost what onewould call gently and pressing his fingers, stained with her blood, against her cheek and she felt sick.

She wasn't some princess in a tower though. She knew her bodyguards and her brother, Lacus and Athrun would avenge her if anything happened, and she knew she would feel irritated that she wasn't able to ask the idiot strangling her now why he was trying to kill her when she didn't even know him. Her arm was bleeding and she wanted to ask him to hurry up and finish her off if her wanted to murder her at all.

She half-sighed, feeling the dull throb in her broken arm, wondering why she hadn't fired, and more tears leaked out of the corner of her eyes as he pushed the gun hard into the roof of her mouth. Her lips were bleeding, and she wanted to tell Athrun that she was sorry she hadn't fired the gun then and killed the lunatic who was pointing the gun at h-

And she forced her eyes open and looked in the nick of time to see Athrun, a split-second before still crouching on the floor with his face down, almost as if he was bowing and kneeling on one knee to Thornier, whip out a glinting knife below his long pants and from his shoe, spring up and ricochet forward in a ungodly flash of speed, his gun still on the floor, but the knife in his hand.

Then suddenly, she was seeing the knife handle, not the blade, no, the handle, sticking out of her captive's chest and the gun sliding out of her mouth, and the spray of warm blood on the back of her neck and her lips as Athrun calmly twisted and pulled the knife out of the unconscious man's chest and saying that the average ZAFT soldier was trained not only in using a gun, but also a knife.

Thornier collapsed, letting go of her and the sudden air that rushed into her nostrils made her more dizzy than ever, and she fell forward but he caught her and dropped his knife on the floor, catching her neatly in an embrace as the youngest bodyguard lead the rest in a whooping cheer while all over the country, people in front of the giant screens her brother had set up cheered, screamed in triumph and hugged strangers they had never talked to before in sheer joy.

When she woke, Cagalli was lying in a white room and staring at a white ceiling and heard his voice saying very quietly but lovingly, "How do you feel?"

And she refocused her eyes on him, smiled and said as cheerfully as she could muster, "Like crap."

Then she felt his lips on hers and her brother and Lacus chuckling from somewhere, and she pushed him off and sat up and gasped in pain as the pain shot up her arm and left her seeing flashes of white light.

Kira had appeared in front of her now and was saying very sincerely, "I'm glad Athrun was around."

Lacus was standing next to him and smiling gently at her, and that was enough to dull the pain. She knew why the coordinators loved her, she was like balm for wounds.

She bit back a cry of pain as her arm trembled in its cast and fought to smile, then when she was sure her voice would not tremble, she looked at the three of them and wisecracked, "At least it's my left arm, so I can till write and someone in my office can type out my work after that."

Cagalli looked up at them smilingly then sobered when she aw their expressions and asked, "Where is he now?"

Athrun grimly smiled back and said, 'In custody. I didn't aim for his heart."

Kira was clearing his throat and leaving the room with Lacus in tow, and Athrun was left there, silently sitting at her side before she spoke again.

"Why not?" she asked, a little curious, because she had been so sure he was in for the kill when he had burst in initially.

"Because I knew you wouldn't approve if I wanted to kill the lunatic." He replied calmly.

She ignored what he had said because she sensed what he might have to say next would make her feel awkward, and switched her question, because silence would have been awkward too, questioning, "How did you know who he was?"

So he told her about Thornier background and his mental breakdown and she stared at a particular spot on the bed sheet, a little relieved that he held no true grudge against her but still a little sorry that she hadn't been able to talk to him and try to help him before he had been taken away.

Athrun was calling her, and she looked up at him, still sitting upright, although she slouched so her arm wouldn't hurt so much. He fluffed the pillows expertly then made her rest on them properly before continuing to say, "We're in a bad shape now though."

Cagalli glanced at his serious expression and sensed something was bowing up behind the calm exterior he was showing and said softly, "What do you mean?"

He glanced away, purposely avoiding her eyes and responded "The people have questioned what he was talking about, although none of them have made any brouhaha on the fact that I stabbed him publicly."

She stared at him, saying "What did he say? I didn't quite hear then," and snorted because it was obvious she couldn't concentrate on what he was saying when he had a gun stuffed up the roof of her mouth.

Athrun sighed and took out an apple he had peeled and cut, and she wondered if he had used the same knife he had stabbed Thornier with to peel the apple and tried not to think about it more.

"It was what he revealed about both of us, and he told a million people on national television that we were together alone on a remote beach. Now, my secretary tells me there are a thousand or so organisations which have demanded an explanation for such inexplicable behaviour and want us to appear on an interview to explain what was going on that night."

Enraged, she screeched, "Those idiots!" and then her arm hurt again and she gasped in pain.

"Actually," he continued, re-fluffing her pillows just for the sake of it, "It isn't that bad. We can always use the fact that Thornier is a crazed lunatic and tell the people that your body guards were hidden nearby but Thornier didn't see them that night."

She looked at him and was about to agree that they could arrange that if she first instructed her bodyguards to cover them, but saw he was still looking troubled.

"That isn't what is troubling you, is it?" she questioned him gently.

"No," he said hesitantly, "but it's my fault you're lying here with your arm broken in this place now."

Her eyes widened and she spluttered in disbelief, "Don't be ridiculous! How could it be your fault anyway? That's like saying I'm in India like at this instant!"

She might have gone on, except that he leaned forward and her breath caught when he moved so close to her she thought he was going to kiss her to make her shut up a bit.

But Athrun cut her off by pressing a finger to her lips and he said morosely, "He brushed past me when I got out of the car, and I knew he was crazy but didn't stop him, and that was how he got a chance to hurt you. And now we're stuck in thi-"

It was her turn to cut him off now, and she threw her one good arm around him in a weird caricature of a hug and murmured that it would never be his fault that he had saved her. His heart was bitter that he had let her get hurt, and he had almost lost control in his rage when he had seen the lunatic trying to kill her, but her loopy embrace made him want to thank the lunatic for every opportunity he had given Athrun.

But she had to ruin the moment by moving away at the most crucial moment, and she didn't notice the indignant expression he couldn't hide and asked, "The knife you used to cut the apple, was it the same as the one you used to stab him?"

He felt like teasing her, so he nodded, saying, "I washed it well though", and she gasped in horror and disgust, because she had eaten a slice of the apple, staring at him with large eyes until he couldn't maintain the serious poker expression he had on. And then he laughed and swooped down to kiss her over and over again, knowing fully well that her one good hand was holding an apple and she couldn't push him away this time.

Author's note:

Someone told me I should release one chapter a week to get more reviews,which is quite true. If you put one chapter there, people will comment on that one chapter. But if you put five there, they will still only comment on it like they would for one chapter which can be a bit of a short-change no? Although all the chapters are there in the document manager, they are waiting to be released.

I'm going to tell you people something, I wrote this for a joke, just after the exams which I studied like a lunatic for, it was a joke at first but it became a full-blown kinda project for me, so I really appreciate the reviews and everything you have done so far. Truth will continue!

PS: to those who PMed me asking if anything sexual was going on or would happen, please don't do ask me that although I'm grateful for your support in this and love the reviews so far. I'm underaged!