JULY 27, CE 74

Two warships entering Copernicus City at different times raised little attention, due to its distinctly neutral existence, even moreso than Orb since the place was something of a hybrid between a terrestrial city and a PLANT. To this the city owed its reputation as a thriving hub of commerce as well as for privacy. Beloved by the rich for its Cayman-esque banking laws and by corporations for its low taxes, many Natural and Coordinator run businesses had local offices. Discretion was the byword, making it a popular place for discreet meetings between lovers, lawyers, and aspiring crime lords.

And it was an excellent place to conduct negotiations you didn't want to be mentioned in the media, and where warships would not be thought strange, since the Alliance had once had several military bases on the surface and the PLANTs were practically next door neighbors.

The negotiating parties would be composed of each ship's command crew and Terminal members, which overlapped significantly. For the Archangel, this would be Captain Ramius, Captain La Flaga, Lieutenant Commander Haww, Admiral Zala, and Representative Athha. For the Diana this meant Captain Joule, Deputy Captain Elsman, Commander Yamato, Squadron Commander Hahnenfuss, the Asuka team, General Waltfeld, and Chairwoman Clyne. This meant that Shiho would be the only one at the table not part of the organization, and the amount of consternation that caused her was precisely zero.

"Yzak, if you had told me about it, I would've joined during the war. Don't you trust me?" she had pointed out when the Captain had broached the question. Then she raised a sardonic eyebrow as he stammered out something between an apology and a denial, before just cutting the conversation off there. The whole exchange entertained Dearka immensely and it gave him an opportunity to consider someone else's relationship problems rather than his own.

Shortly after the call with the Archangel had ended he'd rounded on Lacus. Well, first he'd put his head in his hands and muttered "You have got to be kidding me." Then he'd spun around to glare at the Chairwoman, who was still Lacus to him, political power be damned.

"Did you know about this?" he'd accused.

At this Lacus had adopted a concerned expression and replied "Know about what?"

He'd sighed and turned away, unable to tell if she was lying or not. He wouldn't have put it past her, though. In his experience, girls stuck together and now an angry Miriallia had his boss on her side. Or if she didn't, she would soon. If this wasn't a crisis, he would've ditched the meeting just to avoid dealing with it altogether.

It was true, they hadn't seen each other in two years, and the fallout from their last encounter was still highly radioactive. They'd given it an honest-to-god shot. He'd really tried to make the relationship work, a serious effort, something he'd never quite done before in a relationship. He'd had a few flings in the academy and on leave but nothing that could ever have been expected to mature. She, in contrast, had just lost Tolle, a raw and festering wound that still, to his knowledge, had not been patched up. He'd heard that she was a freelance photographer, traveling all over. He'd come in the time since their break-up to know several people who'd lost loved ones in the war. They had a hard time building meaningful relationships after the loss, sometimes afraid of sullying the memory of the dead loved one, or afraid of being hurt again. And he'd bet she had a similar reason for avoiding people now, spending a lot of time on the road and never really putting down roots. He knew her well enough to hazard a guess, anyway.

And that was an issue, too. He knew Mir well. And he knew that she knew him just as well. They had said as much in their last exchange before she walked out on him. It was a scary thing, to be known, to have someone who knows you well enough to hurt you in ways no else quite can. But it was also intoxicating, that familiarity, and he missed it in a way that felt almost like withdrawal. It doesn't just go away. He'd see things that would make her laugh or get upset at and every time there'd be a twinge of heartache. He remembered what she liked and what she hated, her greatest triumphs and her worst fears. After losing that, it made building a relationship with someone else an exercise in tedium. He'd tried, a few dates here and there, but could never quite get to that depth of feeling that made his time with Mir special. She was almost certainly feeling the same pangs. It would make working with the Archangel awkward.

The PLANT negotiators were stretched out in an auto-limousine, en route to the resort retreat where the meeting would actually take place. Kira and Lacus were very close together, holding hands and whispering to each other. Waltfeld cast an amused one eye over them, just in case anything dangerous decided to rear its head. Yzak, Shiho, Luna, and Shinn were swapping stories and tactics, as soldiers were wont to do. Dearka alone lounged in sullen silence, remembering the last time he'd spoken to Miriallia, and wondering if this time would be any better. Not likely.

They had been together about six months, give or take a week or so. They'd returned to Orb with the Archangel and Dearka was ready to go back home, to the PLANTs. And he wanted Mir to go with him. But by that time the PLANT Council and ZAFT Command had been rebuilt and had finished putting the post-war world into some sort of order. It hadn't registered for him yet, but that would mean he'd be called in for deserting and joining the Three Ships Alliance. It had for Mir.

She had moved in with her parents while she tried to readjust to civilian life and tried to figure out what to do with herself. As a result, she ended up spending a lot of time at the apartment that Dearka had been loaned by the Orb government. He'd been happy enough there, and in Orb, living in the sort of optimistic unreality that always follows times of crisis. He hadn't really worried about the future, content in the day-to-day peacetime existence that he'd longed for during the war but was now beginning to take for granted. He'd started to feel rather aimless, in a sort of limbo, without orders or an enemy now. So he decided to broach the idea of returning to the PLANTs to Mir, ready, or so he thought, to start the next stage of his life. The whole conversation took place in the main living area of the little apartment, and afterwards he'd found himself spending as little time as possible there before he left entirely.

He started out by simply laying out his case: the aimlessness, the uncertainty, the whole next-stage concept and she'd sat there on the cheap couch and listened attentively, occasionally making small murmurs of assent. A few seconds of silence passed before she asked her question: "Do you really think it's going to be like that?"

It had caught him off guard. He hadn't really expected her to question the very foundation of what he was saying.

"Like what?" he'd asked, not quite comprehending what she meant.

"Do you really think it will be that simple? That you'll go back and everything will be normal again? Like you never left?"

He hadn't really known how to reply to that and could only muster a drawn out "uh" in response.

"Do you think they'll just say 'Oh welcome back Dearka, we'll just forget the oath you broke and all the shots you fired at us, because you just want to be normal again?'" Her voice was rising in pitch, her cheeks reddening with emotion. This was not going like he'd thought.

"Well, no," he'd said, "But I have to make the effort. I'm not going to run away from this."

She'd chuckled bitterly at that. "Haven't you already, though? Staying here, with all these people you once fought against, they'll accept that? Getting involved with the enemy? And if I go back with you, setting aside what I have to lose in that sort of change, how would that look? Face it, there is no going back anymore! There's just the here and now! Stop pretending like everything's going to be all right!"

He could see the tears gathering in the corners of her eyes, hear the quaver in her voice as she challenged him, as she had so often done when he was a prisoner in the Archangel's brig. But he wasn't that person now. He'd been away from home for too long, away from whatever family he might have left after all the battles. He was feeling more and more like an expatriate, more and more disconnected from the civilian life he was living. The war was over and he wasn't willing to fight these kinds of moral battles anymore. He wouldn't take those challenges now. In hindsight, he hadn't been thinking. He'd been reacting, convinced he was right.

"Who says I'm pretending!?" he'd retorted, his own voice rising now to match hers.

"Dearka, listen! You go back and they'll court martial you! That's the only way this ends!"

"Maybe so! But I was born in the PLANTs, my family is in the PLANTs, my home is in the PLANTs!"

Mir flinched at that last part. She took a deep shuddering breath before replying. "What about us, Kira and Cagalli and Athrun and me? Where do we fit in up there? After everything we've been through, you're going to leave them too?"

"They've made their choices! Now I have to make mine."

There was a pregnant pause. Both of them retreated from the conversation, sitting in silence. Without thinking they averted their eyes from each other, suddenly uncomfortable in each other's presence despite all the time they had spent together.

Then Mir said in a small voice: "I don't want to be alone again." It seemed to just slip out, like she had been thinking it and accidentally spoke out loud.

"Then come with me!" he said, stretching out a hand. "We can start over in the PLANTs. We can make it work, I promise!"

She shook her head hard enough to dislodge a single tear from her lashes. He watched as it traced its way down the curve of her cheek, glittering. He despised it in that moment. "If you can't abandon your home, I can't abandon mine. I'm not leaving the friends and family I have left."

He dropped his hand back to his side. There wasn't any point holding out anymore. But she had exposed a chink in her emotional armor. "That's not your only reason, is it," he said flatly.

"No, I guess not," she admitted quietly.

He let out a long sigh. "Figures. You're still not over Tolle," he said, almost to himself. Her eyes flashed angrily at that but he didn't notice and continued with his train of thought. ""I bet you don't want to be in that position again, knowing something bad is going to happen or has happened to someone you love, and there you are," he turned to stare directly into her eyes, confronting, accusing, "unable to do anything to help other than watch."

She broke then, rose off the couch, tears now flowing freely, trying frantically to find the words to just shut him up, but they wouldn't come. Dearka pressed on. "So if you're not over him, what are you doing here? Why even try!? WHY BOTHER LEADING ME ON WHEN YOU KNEW, DON'T DENY IT, THAT WE'D GET TO THIS POINT!?" He'd risen from his seat now, too, voice raspy with anger as he worked through all the implications of what he'd just realized.

"BECAUSE I THOUGHT YOU CARED!" she shouted right back into his face, breaking all his momentum. When she continued, her voice was very small. "Because I thought maybe this would help me move on." She raised her head, looking the tall blond Coordinator square in the eye. There were no more tears in her eyes, only the streaks that showed where they had been. "I guess I was wrong," she said in a dead voice that scared Dearka a little. He'd heard it before, from the survivors of particularly brutal battles. Kira had had it at one point in time. So had Athrun. He'd heard it plenty from ZAFT soldiers and pilots that had rotated back from the front lines. But he'd never heard it from Mir before, not even after everything she'd been through, JOSH-A, the Battle of Orb, Jachin Due, to name the major engagements. But he'd done this. He'd broken her. He was suddenly ashamed and sat down, put his head in his hands.

It had been so easy to think of her as a soldier. And she was, on the surface. He'd forgotten that, underneath, she was still the civilian girl from Heliopolis, without the benefits of training, examples, procedure he had to fall back on when things were hard. He'd taken a damaged, vulnerable girl and treated her like a soldier and in doing so smashed her to pieces.

They didn't exchange another word. She went into the other room. After about an hour she returned, having packed a bag of everything she had in the apartment. She left without a backward glance.

The conference room was a large, rectangular, airy space. The North and East walls were composed entirely of plate glass, which could be tinted with a control located at the head of the rectangular conference table that took up most of the middle of the room. It was heavy and like the rest of the room minimally decorated. It let its weight, discreet electronics, and expensive materials show its quality rather than gaudy decoration. Twenty five chairs of similar make were arranged around it, though they would really only be using just over half of them.

The PLANT delegation arrived first. Kira had an uneasy feeling upon entering the room, but couldn't justify the feeling in any way and dismissed it as paranoia. Yzak produced from within his uniform jacket a bug sniffer, quickly swept the room and declared it clean from any surveillance devices. Waltfeld set up a small signal jammer just in case as the others sat down on the other side of the table from the window, Lacus and Kira first, followed by Yzak, Shiho, Shinn, Luna, and Dearka, who was attempting to stay out of the limelight, with Waltfeld taking a seat at the end of the line while they waited for the Orbites. Everyone stood to greet their friends and comrades when they arrived a few minutes later. The women traded kisses on the cheek with each other and shook hands with the men, while the men were a bit more boisterous with the handshakes, often clapping each other on the shoulder or entering brief, one-armed embraces. Shinn was noticeably slow to rise and stilted but kept the peace. Dearka, too, was less than his usual amiable self, though that was mostly due to his and Miriallia's refusal to acknowledge each other's existence beyond mere formality. Kira would have liked to have been more open with his friends, who he hadn't seen in six months, but sensed that this wasn't a particularly friendly moment. If they were lucky, there might be time later to catch up on personal matters, but this meeting would be strictly professional. The Orb delegation took seats on the other side of the table, backs to the plate glass windows. No one sat at the head of the table; this was a meeting between equals.

"Well, it's not quite the bridge of the Archangel, but some political formalities have to be observed, I guess," said Cagalli, leaning back into her chair. "It'll do."

"Just because you did all your planning there doesn't make it the best place to do that sort of thing," cracked Andrew. "These seats, for one, are much more comfortable." Murrue humored him with an exaggerated roll of her eyes.

"Anyway," said Lacus, "we're not any closer to determining the source of the info leak, though we have managed to confirm through other sources that Cape Town definitely was wiped out and the Alliance command is in a state of panic."

"Yes," said Athrun. "There's definitely a threat out there. But we don't have any specs for the mobile suits or any data on the organization that pulled the theft. There's a list of likely suspects but we don't really know anything. But I doubt we can afford to just wait and see what happens."

"My thoughts exactly. As such, the PLANT Supreme Council is prepared to offer the services of the Diana and the pilots and machines aboard it for cooperation with Orb forces as a quick reaction force in case of terrorist attack," continued Lacus.

Miriallia asked an incisive question: "How official is this commitment? I doubt the Earth Alliance would be particularly happy with our two nations working together to combat what they probably see as an internal problem, even considering the obvious friendship between us."

"I don't think it would be wise to advertise that we're working together," ventured Waltfeld. "It'd probably be better to keep it on the downlow. To the public, we'd just have similar objectives and be operating in overlapping sectors. It's plausible and would allow us plenty of flexibility when it comes to pursuing targets. And we'd still be free to work as closely together as we always have. We'd still be coordinated and be fighting side-by-side. Our orders would be the same. They'd just come in separate envelopes."

"In any event," said Mu, "The Orb government is willing to commit the Archangel and its pilots and machines to this… joint venture? Endeavor? Strike force?" He looked around for help.

"Cooperative exercise?" suggested Murrue gently.

"That's good. Let's go with that."

Shinn appeared to be piecing something together in his head. He hadn't really paid the tall, scarred blond much attention earlier, had been more focused on the Chief Representative and Athrun, the people he knew. But something was bugging him. Something about the blond one's voice… He didn't recognize the name Mu La Flaga, but he could swear he'd met the man before. Shinn's red eyes alit on the prominent scar on the Captain's cheek. The man's hair was a familiar golden blond color. He wasn't particularly familiar with Natural hair color variations but of all the Naturals he'd met, only one had had a hair color like that. But he'd been shot down at Berlin, hadn't he? The Archangel was at Berlin, too, his thoughts reminded him. What if… Shinn manipulated his mental image of the man, lengthening the hair down past the shoulders, and composited a facial mask to cover the scar…

He inhaled sharply, a sudden gasp of surprise, his red eyes widening in shock. Luna gave him a curious look but did not interrupt the current conversation. Kira noticed a change in the tension in the air, diverting his glance to Shinn in time to see the emotion behind his eyes shift from astonishment to anger. Mu apparently felt the same thing. He too, turned to look at Shinn and was met with a fierce glare. Luna grabbed Shinn's arm as he started to rise and gave him another look, one that said Later. Kira knew that would be a mess, and soon. His feeling of uneasiness jumped up a couple of notches.

Dearka and Miriallia seemed to be doing their damnedest to avoid looking at each other. Every so often one would stare at the other just a bit too long and would have to hurriedly avert their gaze lest the other would catch them looking. They played this cat and mouse game several times. Once they accidentally made eye contact, lingering for an awkward second before mutually averting their eyes. Yzak was gleefully taking the whole thing in through his peripheral vision. It was excellent ammunition to get back at Dearka with.

"While I think we're making a wise decision here," said Yzak, diverting only a minimal level of his attention to minding the spectacle of Dearka and Mir, "I think our first priority is to figure out exactly who or what actually attacked Cape Town. I don't like all these unknowns, and I don't want to be fighting from the back foot all the time. I want to be able to strike first, if necessary."

"It goes without saying that this is the number one priority for all PLANT intelligence services," said Lacus. She looked expectantly at Cagalli.

"Same here," said the Representative. "I've also got Kisaka running down a lead. I'm expecting to hear back from him within twenty-four hours."

Yzak grunted, apparently satisfied, and leaned back. Next to him, Shiho was quietly observing the others at the table, so far seeming unperturbed at the political power concentrated in the room. Even Luna had more experience than her at the upper echelons of government, but she betrayed not a hint of uncertainty. It mirrored what Kira had seen when she flew her GOUF: steely determination and calculated precision. She hadn't said a word yet, but Kira had no doubt that when she did speak whatever she said would be disciplined and well-thought out.

The conversation now turned to logistical details and political considerations. Kira tuned it out. It wasn't particularly important to him. The freedom the Archangel had had in the last war was a luxury, one they had grown used to and taken for granted. Now they were accountable to the chain of command, and while he was sure that Lacus and Cagalli would just as soon abandon it and go hunting for the rouges, it would be a bad precedent to set, the leading peace activists suspending oversight and going cowboy. So while he didn't enjoy it, he could at least appreciate the necessity of the topic. That didn't mean he had to pay attention, though.

Boredom wasn't the only reason his attention was wandering. He'd been unable to put aside the niggling feelings of unease he'd had since entering the room. It wasn't a pain, a headache. It was more of a persistent prickle at the back of his neck, the sense that something was coming. Every other minute or so he scanned the horizon for threats, not unlike when he was in the pilot's chair. But no matter how often he did so he was unable to shake the lingering paranoia. And paranoia it would remain unless something happened. It clung to him like wet cloth, shrouding his mind, coming at him almost like instinct. Why? What was setting him off? He knew, trusted, everyone here, was among friends. So why was he so concerned? Mu fidgeted in his seat, also showing signs of discomfort, though whether that was due to the same phenomenon that was setting Kira off or from the death glare Shinn was shooting his way was unknown. Every minute the feeling was becoming a little clearer, a little sharper. It was the sort of twitchy feeling he felt before an ambush, a sense honed through countless combat engagements, from every time the Le Creuset team jumped them in the first war, Operation Angel Down, Berlin, the attack on Lacus… He found himself drawn to his memory of the latter event. He wasn't sure why, but he knew his strange feeling wasn't focused on himself, it was focused on her.

Once his conscious thought processes reached that point, an alarm suddenly exploded into life behind his eyes, all his senses screaming DANGER! His reflexes took over, his body moving almost of its own accord as he suddenly leapt from his chair. Unbidden, his mouth voiced a shout: "Lacus!" as he dived and tackled her to the floor, as one of the windows shattered from an impact and a bullet buried itself into the headrest of her chair, whipping casually through errant strands of pink hair, narrowly missing her temple. "Cover!" shouted Athrun, and he went into bodyguard mode, shielding Cagalli's body with his own, hustling her around the table as everyone scattered and Shinn, Dearka, and Andrew overturned the heavy table. Everyone scrambled to get behind it.

Yzak's finger was to his discreet earpiece, immediately barking orders to the Diana's CIC. "Meyrin, get the Harve team in the air, now! We're pinned down by a sniper! Kit them out for a recon job and make sure they keep their safeties on! I'll vector them in, we want the bastard alive!" He dropped his hand, and made a quick scan over everyone, searching for visual injuries and finding none. "Everyone okay?" he asked.

"Nothing worse than a bruise," confirmed Shiho as she passed him a compact laser designator, withdrawn from her boot.

Yzak jumped back on the comm. "All HVTs are confirmed secure, no injuries." He propped the designator on the arm of one of the chairs and set it shining through the broken window. "Target is lit up. Send them and get someone to check the roads for IEDs."

"Aye, captain. Back-up is on the way." Meyrin shifted to the Harve team's channel. "Harve team, we have received the go order. Kit yourselves out for ground recon. Command team is pinned down. Your objective is to flush the rat and make sure he doesn't get away. Target area designated. Open fire only as a last resort."

"Understood, ma'am," replied the squadron leader. "Harve Team is ready to go."

"Very well, Harve Lead, you are clear to launch."

"Harve team headed out." Four ZAKUs and a GOUF left the Diana, thrusters at full burn. Their passage drew gawkers on the streets below and caused the windows on the buildings they passed to rattle.

"Captain, I'm getting queries from the local authorities. What should I tell them?" asked Meyrin.

"Tell them the truth but don't specify our identities. Just say 'ZAFT dignitaries' and leave it at that. See if you can't get them to set up some roadblocks, in case the shooter eludes the mobile suits."

"Aye, sir."

A huge gust of wind entered the conference room through the broken window as the Harve Team passed over them, the high-pitched scream of their thrusters disturbing the broken glass on the floor and forcing the occupants of the room to cover their ears. Yzak noted, to his amusement, that somehow Dearka and Miriallia had ended up next to each other, conveniently ignoring the fact that he was close enough to Shiho that she could feel the body heat he was giving off. Everyone, except Kira and Lacus, was prepped to bolt when the call came and Yzak thanked fortune that they all had at least some military training. Kira and Lacus had yet to let go of each other. Lacus, though she tried not to show it, seemed a little rattled.

"Kira… how?" she gasped as she tried to get her breathing under control.

"I'm not sure," he admitted. "Reflex took over. But that was too close."

"Did you slip into a berserker trance?"

"No. Definitely not."

"Well." Lacus became cognizant of the curious stares from the rest of the group. She let go of Kira's arms and brushed imagined dust off her dress. "Thank you. I'm ready to move now."

"Yzak, have they checked the road?" asked Athrun.

Yzak checked in with the Diana. "They're checking it now. Harve has nothing on scopes and hasn't seen anything. I think we're clear."

Athrun closed his eyes and exhaled heavily through his nose. "Good. All the same, we shouldn't hang around here."

"All right," said Waltfeld. "Two by two. We're not taking any risks. Go on my mark."

"What happened, Harve?" asked Yzak. They had all escaped the resort without further incident and were now awaiting the MS team's commander's report in the briefing room aboard the Diana.

"I don't know, sir." The ZAFT pilot was still clad in his green and dark grey flight suit, helmet tucked under his arm, giving the party an excellent view of his well-maintained mustache. "We didn't see anything out there. Searched three square miles, scopes and visual. Our sensors were good enough to catalogue every imported squirrel and sparrow, sir, but whoever was out there was already gone or had some sort of camouflage that can beat the latest systems from IDB, sir."

Yzak sighed. Shiho took over for him. "You did what you could, Harve. You and your team go grab a meal. That'll be all for now."

Harve drew up in the ZAFT salute. "Aye, ma'am. And Miss Hawke, I heard about what happened in line. The man was one of my pilots and I apologize for his improper conduct. Rest assured he has been strongly reprimanded. It won't happen again."

"Oh. Thank you," said Lunamaria, who'd put the incident entirely out of mind. "I appreciate it."

"Only doing my duty, ma'am." He dropped his salute and left for the changing room.

Once the door closed the conversation returned to the sniper. "Whoever he was, he was certainly a professional," said Athrun. "It's not easy to slip past a police net, not to mention a mobile suit actively out to get you."

"I figured professionals would use bombs. As long as no one sees you plant it, you can be long gone when it goes off," said Shinn.

"Exactly," replied Dearka. "Which makes me think this was a rush job and the assassin didn't have time to prepare a bomb or infiltrate the resort to plant it. So he went the quick route with a sniper rifle. Visual confirmation of the kill wouldn't hurt either."

"So what happens now?" asked Kira, still sitting protectively close to Lacus.

"If this was connected to the thefts and we track down the sniper, we might be able to get a lead on the stolen mobile suits. But there's no guarantee they're connected," pointed out Shiho.

"It's worth a shot, anyway," said Cagalli. "Either way we find some dangerous people."

"That's intelligence work," said Yzak. "What do we do?"

"I will get in touch with the council," said Lacus, "and present the offer. I doubt they'd turn down help. I will also see what I can get from R&D. Otherwise, I think we have to play the waiting game and see what turns up in the search."

Yzak made a grumble of discontent but was otherwise silent.

"As for us," said Murrue, "we should be getting back to the Archangel. We have our own preparations to make. I think we've outstayed our welcome in Copernicus."

There were a few public telephones in Copernicus, leftovers from before the wireless networks were constructed. They generally went unused. However, across the walkway from one of the larger malls in the city, a nondescript man in a baseball cap and dark sunglasses entered the booth. He was tall and well built, clad in a worn jacket with many pockets and faded blue jeans, carefully chosen to be unremarkable. A small scar peeked out from the neck of his jacket. He fed a few coins into the machine and looked over his shoulder before lifting the handset.

"Speak," said the voice on the end of the line.

"The job didn't go as planned," said the man in a voice as worn as the rest of him. It was low, from nature, and raspy, from years of smoking. "The white coat next to her intervened. I didn't get another chance."

"Hmm…" said the voice. "That is uncharacteristic of you."

"It wasn't my fault." The man did not protest, only stated a fact.

"I know. I was merely remarking on your misfortune. Not making a judgment. It's not your fault. Mine, perhaps, for pushing too fast and not preparing early enough, but not yours, that is for certain."

"And the payment?"

"The job was not completed. Keep the front half as a retainer. I might have to use you again."

"Fair enough."

"Stay available."

"Of course."

The voice ended the call. Conversation over, the man left the booth and blended into the crowd in the mall, casually walking past the two police officers stationed outside.

Sorry about the wait on this one! I've got a long list of excuses that I won't bore you with, but rest assured they were substantial. However, I am pleased to announce that I am back on something approximating a regular schedule and that we are out of the prelude and ready to get into the action. I've got a lot of ideas about where to take this story that have got me excited, and I hope you, dear reader, are too.

Additionally, reviews are great. Leave a review, help me get better at entertaining you.