:swears: Sorry for the lack of updating. I have no excuses for that, so let's jump straight to the story.


"Dearka, you can't just run through the woods like an idiot in the middle of the night! We need to plan this out!"

"We don't have time to plan this out!" Dearka yelled wildly while pacing back and forth.

Yzak was trying to make him change his mind about going after Milly. Running around with no sense of direction or where she was isn't the best solution, but right now, Dearka didn't care.

"He's right, Dearka, we need a lead, something to let us know where she might be," Murrue spoke from the ground next to him.

"Well then how do we do that?" Dearka answered back hotly.

"Those footprints you found before might lead into the woods that thing took Milly," Murrue made a noise in protest when Dearka made to run over to them. "But you can't go alone. We should all split up to go find her. If you go out, then what will you do once you find her? You saw what that damned thing did to Mu, right? You won't stand a chance!"

Dearka looked down to the ground. "Alright, we'll do it your way,"

Murrue sighed in relief. "Alright, we should go in groups of 2. Dearka, you go with Yzak. You two can follow the footprints. "Athrun and Cagalli, you two go in the direction of where that cave was, who knows if that thing lived in there at one point, it might've brought her there. Kira and Lacus, you two go search the opposite direction of Cagalli and Athrun," Murrue ordered, feeling like the Captain again.

"What about you, Murrue, you're not going out alone are you?" Kira questioned worriedly.

"No, I'll stay here with Mu. We can't just leave him alone," She gripped his hand tighter in hers.

It made sense to everyone else, but Kira saw something else. He knew that she was worried about Milly, almost as worried as Dearka. Milly was like a younger sister to her. Lacus seemed to sense the same thing about Murrue, or else she caught the way her eyes shimmered in the moon, seeing the worry and fear.

"I'll stay with him, Murrue-san. I won't be of much use out in the woods, and if you don't mind leaving his side for a while, I can watch over him while you look for Milly, I know you're very worried," Lacus offered as she approached Murrue.

"Lacus- I, no, I'll stay here," She wanted to find Milly badly, but she also didn't want to leave Mu.

"I know you don't want to leave Mu, but you'll be of much better use searching for Milly. There's nothing I can really do, besides, you're their Captain, and they need you far more than they need me," Everyone looked down on Murrue, faces reassuring and warm.

"Murrue, you can come with me. We'll get this done quick, and you can come back to Mu," Kira coaxed her gently, not wanting Lacus to be involved in their hunt through the woods. He doesn't want her to get hurt.

"O-Okay, I'll go. But, be careful Lacus," Murrue was worried about Lacus being all alone. What if that thing came?

"I'll be fine," She reassured.

Murrue was about to protest when a thought hit her. "I'm sure you'll be fine," Everyone blinked in confusion at her sudden change in attitude.

"I just remembered something. That thing is after me, so I'm sure it wants nothing to do with you," She explained.

"Well, as far as I'm concerned, that things not getting anyone else, so no one has to worry," Dearka stated confidently.

"Ok, let's get out of here and find Milly, kick this things ass and get the fuck home," Yzak ordered and they all split into their groups of two.

Cagalli and Athrun headed off after waving a hesitant goodbye and earning a "Don't die!" from Dearka. Yzak and Dearka were then off following the footprints, figures disappearing into the thick brush.

"Alright, are you sure you'll be ok?" Murrue asked Lacus again. The songstress just nodded and smiled.

"I'll be fine,"

"Ok, just be careful, and please, if anything goes wrong, just scream or something," Murrue stated firmly to Lacus.

"I will, don't worry," Lacus assured her again. The brunette woman gave her a tight hug and whispered a thank you in her ear before stepping back behind Kira.

Kira stepped forward and took Lacus by the shoulders. "Be careful, and don't get killed. I don't know what I'd do without you, Lacus," Kira then hugged her, causing Lacus to blink at his boldness, but that confusion melted away when he pulled back and laced a kiss on her cheek.

"Make sure you both come back alive!" Lacus called after the two retreating forms.

Both Murrue and Kira turned around and smiled reassuringly, well, as reassuringly as they could give the situation.

Kira and Murrue were walking through brush of all sorts, thorns, sticks, twigs, rocks, all the things found on the ground in the forest under there feet. But Murrue was far too distracted to feel the pain. Her mind was on Milly and Mu especially. Kira noticed this, and realized also that her attention needed to be on the task at hand, so she didn't get herself hurt, or far worse.

"Murrue…" He didn't know what to say. What could he say?

"It's alright Kira, you don't have to worry. My minds just not with me right now,"

"That's what I'm worried about. If your heads up in the clouds then you're vulnerable to that thing if it attacks us,"

She sighed heavily. "I know, I'm sorry, I'm just…distracted, that's all,"

Kira smiled sadly at her. "Don't besorry, Murrue, everything will be ok, I know it will,"

Murrue smiled at him in return. "I know you must be right, whatever that thing is, we're ready for it," She reached up and ruffled his hair as they continued to walk.


Yzak and Dearka were following along the trail, closely watching the footprints through the dark. They were both silent except for the sound of their breathing, not saying a single word. Dearka was too intent on finding Milly and Yzak wasn't about to say something that would set him off or upset him even more.

"Dammit, I feel like we're getting no where fast here," Dearka spat out angrily.

"I know, we just have to be patient, we'll find her Dearka, and when we do, that thing is as good as dead,"

"Thanks man, I needed to hear that,"

"Hey, no problem," Yzak smiled.

Things fell silent again, but it wasn't an angry silence anymore. It was confident.

"Hey…you hear that?" Yzak spoke up after hearing a rushing noise.

"Yeah, it kind of sounds like running water,"

"Maybe a creek?"

"Yeah," Dearka agreed. "Maybe we'll find a lead?"

"Maybe, let's go check it out," Yzak suggested.

They were then both running off next to the footprints towards the sound.


Cagalli and Athrun were kicking up dust on their path. They were making their way to the cave that they just came from, and they had no lead what so ever.

"You'd think that maybe it would leave some kind of hint or clue, something to lure the rest of us in," Cagalli spoke, frustrated and angry.

"Maybe it likes to hunt its prey one by one, take us all out slowly?" Athrun suggested.

She sighed. "Maybe, but I sure as hell can't wait until we find that son of a bitch. It has no idea what it has coming,"

Athrun would've laughed at her confidence, if not for the reason her confidence came out. He couldn't wait to find that thing either. He was definitely ready to kick some ass, no matter how hard it was.

"Hey, there's the cave," Cagalli pointed through the dark, the moon light illuminating its structure.

"Let's check it out," Athrun offered.

"Yeah, let's open up a can of whoop ass on this mother fucker,"

This time he laughed out loud at her boldness. She was fired up and ready to fight if necessary, and so was he.


Lacus was sitting quietly next to Mu, not wanting to disturb him. She was kind of nervous about being all alone in the dark, but it couldn't be helped.

'I wonder how long it will be until he wakes up,' She thought to herself, really wishing she had some company.

She reached over and took the wet cloth off of his forehead. She walked over to the log full of water her and Yzak went through so much trouble to get, and socked it. She waked back over and placed it back on his head. She looked over his bandages, and realized that his wounds were starting to bleed through again, but she didn't want to change them by herself, since it took two people to do so; one person to hold him in place when they turned him on his side, and one to bandage him. She could do it by herself, but it wouldn't be worth the discomfort on part.

With a sigh, she decided to pick up on of the fruits and give it a try. She but into it and her face immediately twisted into one of displeasure and spit it out in the bushes. This just wasn't anyone's day. In the midst of her fruit testing, she didn't hear a groan from next to her. Her attention was caught when Mu started to shift around. She crawled the short distance over to him just as he opened his eyes.

He looked around for a few seconds, and then, as if his brain just started working again, he winced in pain and shifted around more.

"Mu-san, try and hold still, it will only feel worse if you keep moving around like that," Lacus wanted to help, but there was no way that she could.

"L-Lacus…" He looked around. "Where's Murrue…where's anyone?"

"They all went off…to look for Milly," She explained solemnly.

"What…happened?"

"We don't know, she disappeared shortly after you were injured,"

"…damn,"

"You had a pretty close call, Mu. You scared us all, especially Murrue. We though that you…" She didn't want to finish, either that or she knew she shouldn't.

He shifted his eyes downwards sadly. Everything seemed to be going wrong. Maybe if he wasn't so blunt back there, none of this would have happened. He cursed himself for being so arrogant. Now Murrue and the others were out in the woods looking around for something that could kill them.

"They didn't all split up and go out there alone did they?" Mu asked quickly.

"No, they went in pairs. Yzak and Dearka, Cagalli and Athrun, and Kira and Murrue,"

He sighed in relief.

'Good, Murrue's with the kid, she should be fine,'

He sighed again and looked up at the stars.

'I hope we can kick the shit out of that thing and get the hell outta here soon. Murrue, come back to me in one piece,'


Murrue and Kira forced their way through thick brush and a bunch of stubborn bushes with branches that seemed to move for no one. They felt like they were on a cat walk, using the bushes instead of the ground to move forward. It was time consuming, crawling through the bushes like animals.

"Kira, where are you, I can't see," It was far too thick to see in front of her and she was starting to think she lost Kira.

"I'm right here," She jumped as his voice sounded from right next to her.

"You scared me,"

"Sorry, you doing ok?"

"Yeah, but my feet kill," She commented, just then realizing the nicecutting job the bushes did on her feet.

"I think we're almost out, I though I saw a clearing through the bushes just before," He assured her.

She would've questioned him if not for his advanced eye sight, and told him that he was seeing things and dismissed it. But, there was no need to doubt him and she wasn't in the mood to second guess anyway.

"Alright," She shoved forward through the bushes.

Five minutes later and that clearing that Kira saw was being embraced by the two.

"I thought we'd never get out of there," Murrue said as she massaged her sore feet from her place on the ground.

"Yeah, if that thing would've come after us in there we would've been done for," Kira agreed while sitting down next to her.

"Can you walk?" He question worriedly.

"I'm not so sure, I can try," She responded uncertainly.

Kira gave her and arm of support as she lifted herself up. She found that she could walk, but she was slow on her feet, and that might not be such a good thing if they happen to run into that thing.

"Come on, I'll carry you,"

"K-Kira, are you sure, I can walk on my own, I just need to get used to the feel of it,"

"No, I don't want you getting left behind if we run into that thing," He coaxed her into agreeing with him and hoisted her onto his back.

Kira walked in silence with Murrue for a little, until he spoke up. "You know, maybe we should give it a name. "That thing" isn't really working for me anymore,"

"Yeah, you're right. What if we called it a…panther or a cat?"

"That might work, but that would also make it sound normal, and it's far from it,"

Murrue sighed, she didn't have any good ideas, and Kira's silence implied that he had none either. She decided to just leave the name thing up to Dearka; he's the one with the sparkling personality after all.

They moved along rather sluggishly, not seeing anything leading to Milly. After a while, Murrue had fallen asleep, head resting againstKira's back. He smiled slightly.

'Now I feel like I'm the older sibling instead of it being the other way around,'

It was true, Murrue's usually the one there for him, but now, the tables had turned, and she was relying on him for once. It was peaceful for a while, but, as we all know, nothing can stay peaceful with them for very long. After about 10 minutes of sleeping soundly, Murrue began to stir, her eyebrows knitted together in pain. She let out a groan of discomfort, stopping Kira in his tracks.

"Murrue, what's wrong?"

"It's close by, I can feel it," He set her down on the ground and supported her with his arm.

"How close, can you tell?"

"Not extremely close, but too close for comfort I'd say,"

She can sense it this time, so why couldn't she the last?

'That bothers me, if that thing can control when it wants her to feel it and when it doesn't, then we have a serious problem on our hands here,'

Kira looked all around him, hoping that Murrue and this thing were working in vice versa. Hopefully shecan feel it, but itcan't feel her. Were they that lucky? He assumed they were about to find out.


Dearka and Yzak had run into much of the same type of bushes as Kira and Murrue had. Of course, there was a lot more cursing and complaining, but mostly the same. At the end, they both managed to tumble out of the bushes, some more gracefully than others. Dearka made it out ok, surprisingly, but when Yzak was about to crawl out, the branch he was standing on broke and he ended up falling out instead of stepping.

"Shit, of all the things to go wrong you'd think I could at least doone thingright," He rubbed at his head and then picked himself up off the ground. He wandered over to where Dearka came out a few feet away from him and spoke up.

"So, do you see the footprints?" When they went into the bushes, they had to assume that they were following the footprints. Now that they made it out, they realized that there sense of direction kind of sucks.

"Hey, wait a minute, I see them!" Dearka yelled out and ran over past Yzaks kill zone surrounded by broken branches and leaves.

They led straight into the water. Dearka and Yzak looked at each other before nodding and stepping into the rushing water. It didn't take long to cross, there was a bit of a complication with a wobbly rock and a slimy patch of algae, but they made it. Once on the other side they searched frantically for the footprints, but no matter where they looked, they couldn't see any footprints.

"Dearka…" Yzak started calmly, but finished with increasing anger. "I think that damnthing went up the creek, and that means…" He couldn't bring himself to finish the sentence.

"DAMMIT!" Dearka kicked the water angrily, the water raising up and getting all over himself and Yzak. The son of a bitch had enough nerve to walk upstream or downstream, they didn't know which, which means its footprints were as good as gone.

"We can still catch it. If one of us goes upstream and one of us goes down, we might find out where it got out," Yzak suggested, but it was to no avail.

"No, we're not splitting up, I'm not letting anyone else get caught by this thing. We stick together," Dearka stated firmly, anger filling his eyes.

"So, we just take a gamble and pick a direction?" Yzak suggested.

"…Yeah…that's all that we can do,"

Yzak clapped a hand on his shoulder.

"Don't worry, we're gonna find her,"

And with that, they were both heading downstream, hoping with all their might, that that thing took Millyto where the water ends, and that they weren't going inthe completely wrong direction.


o.O Well, we're making progress as to why Murrue can only sense this thing sometimes, and the hunt for Mill has begun, so, until next time, you'll be left wondering xD Any ideas for a name for "that thing?" Please, let me know, because I'm as good as stuck :P