The Isle

by puzzlepuzzle

In the aftermath of the Second War, Athrun Zala vanished without a trace for seven years - Cagalli never thought to find him. But fate deviates when he comes to find her himself and a web of desire and deceit lies before them. Original Cover Art SEQUEL OUT. .

27. Chapter 26

Disclaimer: I own nothing of GS/GSD. R&R please.

A/N: Dear readers/reviewers, sorry for the delay but thank you for being faithful readers/reviewers! Handling multiple research projects and camping at the library just isn't good for either of us. For those who were wondering when this story will end, my answer is that it's not soon but very soon. 3 more chapters, in fact. So here goes!

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Chapter 26

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There was the scent of salt and the familiar but incongruent feeling that the floor was swaying. The world was dark but there was nothing uncomfortable- the warmth of the blankets made her feel more secure than she knew she ought to feel. There was someone next to her.

That was his hand, the soft sensation of their fingers stroking at her cheek. She was sufficiently warm and his hands seemed a little cold to feel.

She opened her eyes a little and in her confusion, she wanted to continue to pretend that she was asleep. With the crack of her eyelids, Cagalli could tell where she was. For that matter, the swaying motions were present. Those existed even within what she did not recognize as his arm's circumference at first. But everything told her enough about where she was.

The bed was a different one that she hadn't expected to see, and it was not a four-poster that the one in their room was. When had she been brought here? And why was she in a cabin of Athrun's yacht? No doubt, it was the same one she had always stayed in when he had brought her to the sea- the same cabin that he'd moved into on their second trip. But there was no reason why she was supposed to be here when the last she could recall was that he'd cooked for her and that they'd gone back to their room.

It was all a little hazy, and her mind was feeling too heavy for her to control her thoughts. Each of those slipped off from the main direction she was trying to recall things in. Once, Aaron had given her a gorgeous antique music box that she'd placed in her modern office- next to the coffee-machine and the multi-purpose fax. Suddenly, it seemed that even she was an anachronism at this point.

She strained her neck a little, almost unconsciously, except that she had done it to confirm he was near her. It was disconcerting, and it was even more so, since she'd been roused from a very good, undisturbed and entirely deserved sleep. To wake and to see him while knowing they were not where they were supposed to be- that was something she didn't want to deal with.

But that strange zone between consciousness and sleep was clearing into that of the former. Besides, there was no way Cagalli could fool herself into thinking that Athrun wasn't aware that she was awake.

She would have preferred it if she could though- it would have prevented her from having to think and to look at him. Still, in the absence of choice, she opened her eyes fully to watch Athrun. He had been observing her long before that, Cagalli knew. Those familiar eyes had always made her think of forests with that particular shade she hadn't quite seen anywhere. But if the connection had been a normal one, an even clichéd one if you like, she'd never noticed how deep his eyes really were. Truthfully, she hadn't thought of his eyes as forests for the sole resemblance of the color. Forests never seemed to have an end or bottom, and little emerged into the light from the foliage.

She looked at him, painfully aware that he had not given her a choice. It would have been foolish of her to have not known in the minute that he'd taken her consciousness, that he was leaving her.

"How are you feeling?" Athrun asked quietly.

Cagalli didn't know how to respond.

Physically, her temples were throbbing a little and her entire body felt sore. There was a strange feeling to her body though- as if she'd suffered some battery and then been anesthetized so that the pain was only a memory even if not a real sensation. Emotionally, she felt more than that.

Oddly enough, she was fully dressed in pants and a soft shirt. It was the sort she recalled training in- the kind which allowed easy, swift movement. She tried to be objective, wondering what was going on, wondering why Athrun had bothered dressing her and bringing her here.

Cagalli did not dare to twitch her fingers and move her hands or even arms as she sat up slowly. Had she been straining herself for so long? But as she tried to recall what the past few days' activities had been, Athrun began to kiss her.

Up to that point, Athrun had been lying next to her, his face turned towards her. She was reminded of how overjoyed she'd been on those mornings when she'd drifted out of her sleep to open her eyes and see him looking back at her. As he kissed her cheek softly, Cagalli moved away, turning her back to him. He was pleading with her silently- she knew that. But how could she hear him out when she didn't even dare to confirm what she suspected he was doing? If she had been aware of his presence before, now she did not want to be.

He froze, and for those moments, Cagalli wasn't sure if she ought to feel relieved or now. They were both quite aware that she'd never refused him after a point, when they'd agreed that there was only one way to come to terms with themselves. But now, she was refusing him.

He watched as she sat up, her back facing him. He remained silent as she shifted away from him, her expression hidden but that of awkwardness nonetheless.

For now, her instincts made her pretend she wasn't aware of anything. As she got up, observing the familiar cabin that Athrun had shared with her during their time on this yacht together, Cagalli knew everything was incongruent with what she wanted to believe in.

"You used the tranquilizer, didn't you?" Cagalli questioned. She did not want to turn back to look at him, knowing that she would be unable to without showing her weakness and the tears again. She did not want him to despise her as much as she did.

"Yes." He told her. What else could he say? "I had to get you here. I had to put you in proper clothes so that it wouldn't be too cold for you out here."

She paled and turned back to him, unable to accept how directly he was telling her of the suspicions that she'd had. "What? I thought there were a few more days until-,"

"But you knew this day had to come." Athrun interrupted her. The intent in his gaze made him seem cruel, but she knew enough about him to realize that like her, he was trying to control himself. "Sooner or later."

"You picked sooner." Her tone was accusing.

"I didn't have a choice." He said simply.

"Because it was never an option in your mind?" She lashed out.

He understood her anger. For now, he would take it upon himself and hide it in the crevices of his mind. All because he knew where her hurt was from, Athrun knew he would have to aggravate her even more for her to leave.

But for Cagalli, his apparent lack of ability to berate her back for her accusation and his lack of explanation as to justify his decisions made her feel even more disconcerted.

Athrun swallowed his grief. "Keeping you here indefinitely was never an option I had the luxury of choosing."

She stared at him, far more betrayed by his submission to what he deemed his lack of an alternative. She wished he'd blame her and lash back at her- tell her it was her own weakness to change the decisions she'd made in the past, tell her that she'd determined their present and not he.

"Did you ever think of the future when I was with you?" She said in a small voice. In that moment, she knew how weak they both really were.

He drew in a deep breath, steeling himself. "No."

In that moment, she knew what it meant to be sick and maddened with burden, and she knew what it meant to be helpless where time was concerned. He knew it too. Too much had passed since they'd been in love and there was only so much human effort could do.

And that was when Cagalli got off the bed.

It took something of a second for her to make her move. He had been stunned by her abrupt movements, but he got up too, trying to catch her back.. There was Athrun's hand narrowly missing her shoulder as he instinctively reached to restrain her.

But she flung open the door and bolted down the passageway, faster than she had ever run in her life, and faster than he'd expected her to. She was dashing forward, past those corridors she'd come to know, running with all she could muster. Her vision was blurred around the edges, and her body was protesting in its sluggishness, but she knew she'd had a head start.

She had a pretty good guess as to what he was doing. He had set the yacht on an auto-pilot course back to Orb.

She ran, barefooted, not caring that the floor was rough against her soles. And Cagalli pushed past the familiar corridors. If she maintained her will, the bridge room seemed nearer than it really was. Simultaneously, he was calling out, yelling for her to stop, and a semi-comical thought struck at her. The ridiculousness of the situation, the childishness of it all- hadn't they left that behind at one time?

Her heart was beating strongly in her ears, but Cagalli knew that Athrun was following behind her, some distance behind.

Still, he was catching up, and his speed was not something she could fight against. If she could just make it however, there would be some hope.

Her feet were barefooted, pounding on the cold floors. The wind was all around them and there was rain pouring down- rain that sliced at her cheeks and wet her hair.

At a turn, she slipped, her soles unable to grip on the slippery planks. Her hands hit the floor hard, as did her knees, but she got up and ran still. The bruising of her knees would not deter her.

Athrun was right behind her, and she knew he had seen her stumble. Cagalli could hear him shouting still, but she couldn't stop to care. Without any more thought, she darted into a corridor, trying to open the door of the bridge. But he'd caught up to her and he whirled her around, their weights making them halt in a very clumsy manner.

In that instant, he was slamming her back against the door. The force was a jolt to her- the way she would expect a person to come back to consciousness quite suddenly with the shock of the forceps.

She was pale, and her eyes was flashing with anger and desperate defiance. Her physical discomfort seemed to be felt only by him, for she was oblivious to the strain of her body from the sudden attempt to get to the bridge.

"I told you to stop," He said breathlessly. "Are you hurt?"

He began checking her for bruises and the usual injuries one would expect from a fall. But she swatted his hands away, trying to turn and get into the bridge room again. She was so flustered she didn't realize he had beaten her to it a long time ago and locked it. She was yanking on the door's handle, trying to open it, begging it to open, not caring that he was watching her as if he'd known how it would turn out even while holding her in his arms.

"Open," She begged. She wasn't looking at him, still beseeching the door to to pen as it might have had if some kind of magic word had been the key to all of this. If only she could open it, she'd find a way for both of them. Why wasn't it opening? "Open please-,"

"Stop it." He told her in a low voice. "You're not going anywhere."

She ignored him, still pulling hard on the door in a manner that suggested that it could possibly and quite probably break off in her hands if she kept at it.

The handle did feel a bit loosened, and she was encouraged by this even though a more rational thought would be that if the handle broke, she'd never be able to get in except through smashing the door. But she was not in the mood to think calm thoughts.

Then Athrun took her hands and forced them against the sides of her head, saying, "I told you to stop it!"

"I'm not going back there yet." Cagalli declared, trying to shake his grip loose. Like him, she was panting and her breath was misty in the cold air. "I'm not leaving yet! We're going back to the Isle now. I'm not going to Orb!"

He faced her with more insistence than either of them thought he'd be able to muster. "You have to."

"Then I want you to come back with me." She demanded. She finally managed to pull her hands loose and grabbed at his collar, shaking him slightly. "You said you'd keep me with you, Athrun-,"

Athrun smiled a little, but it did not warm his face. She thought of any empty scarecrow, solid but filled with straw and with hollowed tunnels for eyes and a mouth- human to look at but without anything inside it.

"I can't let you stay on the Isle for any longer. Don't forget about the reality of our situations. You've always been the one to remind us, and it would be unfair for you to forget it now. You're the Orb Princess."

The blankness of his face told her everything she needed to go on for their sakes. He did not believe in what he was telling her.

"I'm human too." Cagalli shot back. "Of all things, I'm human. You showed me that."

"No." Athrun said. There he was, matching her furiousness with his measured voice, and it riled her even more, as if he'd dug under her skin with his nails while pretending that nothing was wrong. She'd watched classmates take their fingernails and run it in screechy orchestras across blackboards while the other winced- the culprits seemed immune to what they were doing. She felt like he'd done the same, except this was more than a childish joke and she felt more than a simple annoyance.

"You're going to have to go back without me."

"What are you saying?" She demanded. She was still holding onto his collar, and she shook him, almost like they were men who were about to embroil in a bar-brawl. Faces close, her voice was louder than it had to be and her stance was of more than aggression. It was reminiscent of an animal seeking a fight. Of course, he seemed to ignore that.

"Why can't you come back with me? I know you've got your duties with Plant and Zaft's intelligence council. But we'll figure something out. Don't tell me that I should just forget everything!"

"Maybe that would be better." He muttered, thinking of what he had planned. She was already in the thick of that, even if Cagalli scarcely recognized it. He loosened her fingers from his shirt and held her wrists in either hand, pressing her against the door to affirm his insistence.

With their bodies and faces close, she could recognize his scent. It invaded her memories and shaped them into that which she held onto fiercely. It was a matter of instinct now, and it was a matter of her will over his restraint.

"Look, if you're going to make me go back to Orb," Cagalli swore, her hands not free but her stubbornness very apparent, "I'm telling the Elders to call off the engagement with Marlin. It's all a political game anyway- I don't want to be part of it."

Athrun wondered if Marlin would ever look at her again and be able to accept her betrayal. "I'm not sure Marlin would be happy to hear you call your marriage a mere political game. He loves you, Cagalli, and I daresay he can give you everything that I can't. You know that."

"I don't need anything more!"

She was fighting against his grip, trying to get to him, trying to make him listen to her. It was beginning to occur to Cagalli that Athrun didn't understand even half of what was going back on in Orb with concerns to Marlin.

At the same time, Cagalli was beginning to realize that to Athrun, the smokescreen of the engagement and impending marriage was very real. He didn't know better, and Cagalli had never explained what had truly gone on. In his mind, returning her to Orb was the same as cutting everything off with she bit back her urge to explain, more desperate to convince him to go back with her.

He however, stood his ground. "You have to go back and face him. Whether you marry him or not, you still have to go back to Orb."

"It's not a real marriage!" Cagalli insisted, so upset she might have stamped her foot quite childishly. She glared at him, not caring what Athrun still misunderstood about the whole spate of events with Marlin.

To Cagalli, the marriage was a matter of a ploy she'd used against Athrun even while her supporters used against other political rivals and the Council of Elders back in Orb.

"Come back with me," Cagalli urged. "We can explain to the Elders what's really going on. They'll accept it and I can find a way to tell Orb that for these six months, I was very severely injured by the terrorists. They'll be flushed out of Scandinavia by their own government, and Orb won't have to wage a war against Scandinavia. I'll issue another citizenship document to Ko soon- you take the one I personally approved first. I'll tell them that you found me injured in Scandinavia and looked after me, and that's why I decided to give you a chance to come back to Orb to clear the past doubts."

Athrun shook his head again. "So you were planning what to do when you went back to Orb all this time?"

Cagalli's obstinate expression told him that she'd been planning more than that. He was suddenly quite surprised that he'd not seen this coming. Like him, Cagalli had been planning too. But there were things she was not aware of, and those were the things he had to protect. He could not go back to Orb. Nor could she- there were people that Greyfriars must have stationed there by now to kill her if she managed to return.

"You're going to have to go back- whether you still want to carry out your engagement fully or not." Athrun told her.

She flared up, as was her way.

"Are you expecting me to leave you here and to forget everything? Are you asking me to pretend that I don't know how it feels like to have you with me?"

Athrun nodded. "Yes, I think."

Her expression of incredulity morphed into one of rage. Baffled, she looked at him, boring holes through the paper of his mask. "What are you saying, Athrun?"

"Do you expect the Orb Elders to give me the green light?" Athrun demanded, losing a little of his control. While he was saying all this to hide the real and more pressing reasons why he could not go back to Orb, Athrun was intensely aware that all he was telling her was the truth too.

"It was so long ago," Cagalli protested. "And if I explain what really happened when the Seirans had you framed. Please- I promise I won't let anything or anyone hurt you. I would come clean with my part in how you were framed by the Seirans, even if-,"

He shook his head, his voice harsher than he had intended. "I don't want you to do that- it's not worth it-"

"I'd protect you," She said brashly, wanting him to believe her no matter what. "I'd protect you and you'd never have to live in secret any more,and-,"

Athrun interrupted her with a shake of his head. "Not just that. The Zala name's more of a social liability these days than my father would have ever predicted. I can't walk in there with your hand in mine and tell them that we're as good as married."

"Look," Cagalli said sharply, "I wouldn't care even if you were the spawn of some lunatic-cum-social menace."

"Most accurate description of my father that I've heard," He said, almost in a deadpanned manner. It might have lightened everything, except that it was the truth and that it drove home his point.

Cagalli glared at him. "This isn't about your father or your name and past! Can't you see what I'm saying? I'm saying that I wouldn't give two hoots about anything that didn't change how I felt about you! If I had ever cared about your father being a bit crazy and infecting you with that, I wouldn't have slept with you, would I?"

He smiled wryly, but his expression softened. "I know that. But thank you."

Why, she wondered, did she feel that terrible, grinding ache of something in her? Now, as he gazed at her, the words lingering in her mind and on his lips, she thought of the sounds of creaking chains. There was that awful, gnawing ache of something that had nearly rusted but still functioned when a key was put to it. Why did he make her feel like this when there wasn't even an apology or even an attempt to kiss and make up with the way he was treating her?

"But that isn't the issue either." Athrun reminded her. "I'm finally allowing you to go back to Orb."

"After you got me into your bed, that is." Cagalli muttered. She looked at him with an expression he recognized as a determination that charged through her every pore. She seemed to radiate with indignity for a second, then smolder into cinders as she seethed. "The hell I'm going to let you ship me back now."

Athrun chuckled. He gazed at her and the way she was pressed against the door while being still so full of fire and spirit. "I didn't mean it that way, so stop being so bristly. I'm just saying that you're free now. You can go back and return to a life you've been pining for. Nothing happened between us."

His voice became a murmur, that familiar one which was so persuasive and calm- so gentle and steady that she almost believed him. "You can forget. You will."

He might have been a snake-charmer, really. He didn't even require a flute. Or perhaps a hypnotist. He didn't even need some two-bit pendent. She'd always been fooled by that voice- that tone. He'd use it when he'd gotten her to lie on her stomach while he traced his name over and over again on her back. He was using it now. He had used it in the past; to calm her when she'd been numbed by her shock; used it to lure her into making love to him even when they had been in the midst of talking about serious things. Come to think of it, he'd used that voice when things got too serious for him to want to discuss.

"I don't think I can forget." Cagalli said shakily.

"You can." He said softly. "You just have to try. The world around you will help you."

That voice was her enemy now. He'd use it to distract her every time she came close to learning something about him- something that he hadn't wanted to open himself to yet. If they were lying together, talking, and she asked him questions he didn't want to answer, he'd only have to tell her that it didn't matter in that soft, steady voice, and she'd be his fool all over again.

She'd be in his hands; twisted around his little finger, loving him even when it was clear how easily he could manipulate her in so many little ways. It only took a word from him for her to smile or to feel like crying, a single gaze from him to blush- it wasn't fair. He knew he could persuade her very easily and he was trying to do it now. It had happened so many times, hadn't it?

"You want normality. Returning to Orb will give you that, because the Isle won't exist anymore in time to come. Go back to Orb and forget."

Cagalli listened, shaking her head. She stared intently at him.

He'd tell her lies with that voice. She had been so used it to that she might have simply given up with the way he was telling her that she could forget. In so many ways, it would have been easier if she had left it at that, except that she knew it was wrong and that he was lying to her.

"That's bull." She said fiercely. "How would you know what's normality back on Orb?"

"I've seen the way you can live for yourself."

"That was what I had to do to sustain myself." Cagalli said bitingly. "But here, you gave me another way to live, and now you want me to unlearn that and go back to Orb? You want me to marry some other man and clean forget everything?"

It was enough to make something in him rise. Was it anger or sorrow or even jealousy? He didn't even know anymore. But he knew she was provoking him and trying to convince him to let her turn the ship back. He could not do that- he was counting on her to carry out the last of his plans for them both.

"That's enough from you." Athrun said in a low voice. "You know I can't stand the thought of that- you want to make me turn this ship back. But you know I have to accept it- we can't run from reality now."

And so, ignoring her protests and her efforts to pull free, he dragged her back to the cabin, cursing under his breath at how she struggled and how they'd become drenched, thanks to her efforts to run to the bridge.

He had no time or any spare hands to close the door, but deposited her on the bed hastily. She was still trying to fight him and return to the bridge, and with some desperation, he dug into his pocket, brought forth the cuffs he'd rightly suspected he would need, and chained her wrists to the bedposts.

Cagalli was either distracted in her cries to let her return to the bridge, or he'd managed it so swiftly that all she could do was to struggle after that. There was no way that she could escape from this room now, and there was no way that she could return to the Isle.

"Let me go, Athrun! How dare you-?"

"You made me do this." He told her sharply, moving off the bed and watching as she strained, her eyes slit with outrage.

"I made you do this?" Cagalli sputtered, her fingers like individual arms, trying to flail at him because her arms couldn't. She watched him drag a chair to the foot of the bed, straddling it and observing as she struggled some more. "The gall of you, Athrun-,"

While the cuffs were padded, she was being too violent for her to refrain from hurting herself. From the looks of it though, the cuffs would hold her there for as long as he needed. He wondered if he ought to use another tranquiliser.

"Listen good." Athrun told her. "In seven hours, this yacht will reach Orb. You're going back there."

"What about you?"

Where was this hopefulness coming from, and why was she being a fool?

"I'm going now. There's the safety boat I can use."

"No!"

He negated her response with his curt nod. "Face it, Cagalli."

"I don't care what you say about the real world and all that I have to return to." She said firmly. Suddenly, the pain in her didn't matter. If she was going to have to return to her childhood and convince him that she deserved something, she would do it. He would surely give in, like her father, if she was persistent enough.

Granted, she wasn't standing before him and being the most logical or well-reasoned person now. But surely, some things were not meant to be based on pure reason? Hadn't their relationship started without a single reason too? Surely, she could persuade him to go back to Orb with her. It wasn't a matter of reason- it was simply her will against his reluctance.

Unlike her father, Athrun would never look at her and tell her that her assumptions were wrong. If in the past, she'd assumed she was the same as every other child and therefore deserved to go to school, her father had told her otherwise. But Athrun would never tell her that she was not like any other person who deserved a stab at what so many believed to be found only in the pages of written romance.

"Athrun," She said softly, aware she was wheedling in a manner that he was usually susceptible to. "Let me go back to the Isle. Or say you'll come back with me to Orb."

He said nothing, only looked at her. But she was still confident.

He'd tell her that she wasn't like the others, but he'd never insist she was the Orb Princess the way her father had reminded her . He'd surely tell her that she was his person, and that he'd come with her. She would earn him- she would get him at last, and at all costs. It made sense, didn't it? She'd refused him despite wanting him so much, and now that she finally had him, she would beg if she could make him stay.

"You can't go back to the Isle." He said. His eyes regarded her stonily. "You can't go back there ever again."

Her voice grew stronger, and she was so sure that she could convince him there and then. She was so sure that Athrun, as with her father, would believe what she was saying and settle for a compromise eventually. He would surely agree at last, and then he would see that it had been the right decision. "You don't want me back at the Isle? Alright, I'll give that to you. But you're coming back to Orb with me, and I'm going straight to arrange an audience with the Elders. And if they say you're not right for Orb, I'll tell them to stuff it because you're right for me."

He said nothing and her will wavered for a second.

"Or do you-," Her voice faltered. "Do you want something in exchange for me to go back to the Isle?"

How strange it was. When had they started exchanging tiny secrets in the past for her to try and escape the Isle, and when had she decided she would do the same to stay? When had they started to tell each other of their stories after they'd loved completely and even excessively?

But as she looked at Athrun, she knew all that didn't matter. The point was that they'd driven themselves forward and now, something was coming to a pause; a permanent cease- something of a wound mechanism speeding forward and then inevitably coming to and end.

"I know what you're doing, Cagalli, and I assure you that it won't work." Athrun's wry chuckle made her think of the father who'd stood at his desk, listening to a child trying to bargain with him. "I'm assuring you now that compromises, appeals and threats will not work with me. You're going to have to move on- whether you like it or not."

She hissed in anger, so worn by her frustration and her inability to express her wrath otherwise. "That's the same mistake I made when I asked Meyrin Hawke to look after you for me, damn it! You know how stupid that mistake was, and here you want to try and do it after showing me it was pure fallacy and presumption! You told me you couldn't give someone to another person, but here you are, doing it! Athrun, you liar!"

"Hold it," He interrupted, "I wasn't lying- I-,"

"Yes, you are!" Cagalli said loudly, tears beginning to prick at the back of her eyes because of her hurt pride. "And you're a liar too! You made another promise, remember? Or did you forget once I let you undress me? You said that you'd keep me by your side and you promised that you'd never let me go."

Athrun's smile was small and bitter, for he was thinking of the consuming, mad passion of the way they'd spent their times and their emotions. "The context then-,"

"The context is not relevant to what we are in right now." Cagalli insisted. "Or are you saying that you only wanted me with you when we were in bed?"

"Stop it," Athrun said, turning very pale and standing up with such haste that the chair fell to the floor. Like Daphne, he stood there, rooted as a tree disguised from a pursuer would have remained. But there was nobody he was really fleeing from, save that he was trying to disguise himself against their ghosts.

He was breathing hard with distress in his face. "I'm not going to let you goad me into doing stupid things. There was never any inconsistency in what I wanted or what I promised. Whether we were having dinner or squabbling or making love or talking with each other, I wanted you with me. But I can't fight everything! Now that it's time for you to leave, you have to.

"Didn't you hear what you said then?" Cagalli cried. Her wrists were on either side of her head, but the fists were balled in her insistence. "You said you'd never let me leave you. That meant back then, that meant the hours after you'd said that, and that means even now!"

He looked at her, stunned at the force and the vitality she spoke her words with. And against his better judgment, his pulse began to race and he had to pull himself together.

She buckled, straining against her binds, prepared to break her wrists to get to him. "I don't understand what you can't fight, Athrun, if you fought everything I used to keep you away. You fought me until I gave in to you, didn't you? You made me admit that I wanted you! And then now you're just throwing me aside! Or are you telling me that everything I pitted against you was nothing? Did I turn out to be easy to bed?"

He remained there, aware that she'd successfully gotten him to stand up from his chair in the frustration she'd enveloped him in. At this point, the distance was still clear between them, but he was finding it difficult not to move towards her. "I won't let you provoke me. I'll repeat myself one more time. You must return to Orb. I've told you before that this yacht's automated. It's on a one-way trip to Orb, and there's nobody on it."

"But you're here." Cagalli insisted, "And you're not leaving-," She began to pull violently at her chords, ignoring the sharp bite into her wrists. But as the cuffs grew tighter with her staining, she had to yelp a little. Even the padding would not help if she continued this way. "I won't let you. I can't see how you would ever leave-,"

"I was planning to leave while you were unconscious," Athrun said after a moment of watching her struggle. He seemed lost- standing at the foot of the bed but not really leaving. For now, she was glad for that.

And he added distractedly. "But then I thought I'd watch you sleep a little more and then-,"

His eyes regarded her sadly, and his smile looked more broken than ever. Hadn't he once told her that he wanted nothing more than to hold her and watch her at peace in his arms? Hadn't that been his own peace? But asking her to forget after all they'd experienced and learnt together- that was impossible. In her rashness, in the suddenness of the situation, Cagalli made the best decision she could have made then.

She began to shout. It started as a chant, really, but then it grew louder and louder, firmer and more violent until she was nearly screaming. Her pulse was pounding as if she'd run in the rain for miles, and there were tears beginning to form in her eyes. Outside, the rain roared with the spray of the waves. "You liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Li-,"

He cut her off in the only way he might have done. His kiss was swift enough, and she immediately coiled her legs around his waist, pulling him to her even when her hands were not exactly in the best position to be used.

She kissed him back breathlessly, not caring that they were both soaked from the rains that the wind had brushed in, not caring that she would have to fight the world, as he'd said, to get where she wanted to be. His hair was damp, as was hers, and their skins were moist and cool with water, making her shiver.

Without realizing it, Athrun was running his hands through her matted hair, pushing her back against the headboard, demanding from her kiss even when he'd first started it. The force of habit was stronger than his reservations- more subtle than the best arguments he could make in his weakening mind. Then he was pushing against her, trying to break the kiss. Yet, he was too late to realize that she'd managed to provoke him anyway.

When he finally broke it, Cagalli knew his will was weakening.

"I'm not going like this," She said firmly, glaring at him to prove her point. Athrun seemed a little dazed, sitting by her side. But she would make him listen to her, some how. "You'll turn this thing back now and bring me with you, wherever you want. But don't you dare say you're leaving."

Her voice grew a little louder but a lot more imperious in tone. He had to smile at how authoritative she was being despite her having nothing left. Put simply, Athrun was aware that Cagalli was getting desperate now. She was more cunning than he'd imagined, and even this was a sign of how she knew a way of provoking him. The way she'd managed it made it clear how he'd never been able to avoid that or resisting her in the first place.

"Follow me back to Orb." Cagalli demanded. "How many times do you want me to repeat myself? I sound like some broken recorder don't I? So do you want me to keep blaring on, or are you going to give in?"

He grinned, and it was a sardonic one. "You want me to be executed straight for returning and being found to have kidnapped the Orb Princess? No thanks. That's not even considering how they'll want to hang me when they realize I bedded you. No. I can't head back there now because I value the head on my shoulders."

"I'll explain everything." Cagalli promised, still trying to tug herself loose and buy herself time to convince Athrun. "Everything that is the truth- that you didn't kidnap me. I'll tell them that you only worked with the terrorists because you knew that I was in danger. It'll be like before the Second war," Her voice was breaking. "I'll clear your name for you. I'll tell them that I was wrong, and that I told lies in the court. I'll tell them that I helped the Seirans to mislead the judges. They'll forgive me- and they'll forgive you. You'll be a free person again, and you have that Orb citizenship and my signature that permits you to leave the Plants and-,"

"I am free," He said. The strength in his voice made Cagalli wonder if she was trying to give him something he valued very little of.

"How can that be?" She demanded. "Are you telling me that you feel free that you're working on the Isle, where it's a place that makes you question whether you're doing the right or wrong thing every day?"

"I have the truth and your affection, even if it ends when you return to Orb."

"What?" Her eyes widened. Incredulously, she said, "You mean that's all you ever wanted by getting us into this-,"

He looked at her and said very simply, "That's freedom to me."

"Is it really?" Cagalli questioned. "I always told you that reliving the memories and not running away from them was good enough for people like us. But maybe it isn't." She was beseeching him quite shamelessly, she knew that. What more could she do at this point. "It isn't enough for me now."

He shook his head. "You don't belong there."

"I should have said it earlier!" Cagalli burst aloud. "But there's still time, right? I want to stay there if it means I can be with you," She said, looking at him, straight in his eyes, "Every time you kissed me or you told me that you had done everything for me. And there's Epstein and the twins! Harumi and Ko and even the ginger cat in the garden-," Her voice shook. "I want to see them again."

Bitterly, she began to breathe shallow breaths. He stared at her, his eyes wide, and his lips parted slightly.

"I belong there!" Cagalli cried, losing control and rattling her chains in her frustration. "Don't you see? All this time, I tried to go back to Orb because I thought it was the only way I could accept myself! I thought I was of use only in Orb, but you showed me that I was only running from myself!"

He got up from where he'd been sitting on the bed, and in her desperation, Cagalli began to plead with him. If she had tried provocation, persuasion and antagonism, now, she could only rely on an appeal.

"Don't go! Please!"

How, she wondered, how had she been reduced to this begging mess of a person, a woman who had become so dependent on a man who had anyone at his disposal at any time? Hadn't she always been aware of this danger even while admiring the slopes of his shoulders and the way he seemed to know exactly what to do in the times when she didn't? Hadn't she reminded herself to stay away and to keep him in the recesses of the memories she never wanted to revisit?

He was walking away again. This time, she could not turn. This time, she would have to watch.

As someone who could control herself and so much power for the sake of others, what possessed her to throw her pride away and appeal to him to stay? She found no answers except for that swelling, terrible ache in her chest that did not go away even when she tried to think clearly.

"Each time I made a contract with you, I thought I was doing it to escape. I wanted to escape from the Isle and you- to numb myself and pretend I'd forgotten everything." Cagalli was calling out, hoping against hope, her voice trembling. "But all I was doing was escaping from confessing that I needed you still. So don't go- not when you were the one who made me see that."

He had paused, but he had not turned. The deliberate nature of his concealment made her realize that it was unlikely he was going to listen to her for any longer.

Giving up completely now, she began to blab about everything. Why not, when it seemed he would not turn around anyway? "You saw through it from the moment I saw you again, didn't you? You knew I couldn't forget you for these seven years! You knew that by reappearing, it was inevitable that I would have to admit how futile my trying to forget was! You're responsible for that! So don't turn me away now, Athrun-, don't!"

But even as she spoke, Cagalli knew that it was mostly pointless. Her stay on the Isle could not go on forever, no matter how important the people and the place had become to her. Ultimately, she needed to return for Orb, and she needed to sort out the mess of international affairs that was going to escalate into a war.

Nor could she remain missing indefinitely, for that would have been doing what the Isle-dwellers had done- running from the real world. That was impossible for someone like her, someone who would not be able to live while knowing that responsibilities had not been settled entirely.

Still, Cagalli wanted him. She could not let go of Orb, but she did not want to let go of him either. When she'd been a child, hadn't she climbed fences with a pail in one hand and a sandwich in another, her elbows doing the work and becoming terribly strained? But if she could have both even if something else cracked within her and him, why couldn't she?

She watched him turn slowly.

"It's strange," Athrun said, laughing once in that terrible, aching manner. She hated to hear him like that- that laugh that always made her realize that something had died in him. "I shouldn't be here for a minute longer. But I'm here still. Is all this retribution because I made you call out to me and beg me to live?"

"Amongst other things," Cagalli said softly. "That's your price for making me want to see you alive and well when you shouldn't have meant anything to me."

He looked sadly at her. "Yes, amongst other things. My binding you then and even now are acts that I have to answer for.

"Then unchain me," She demanded, reverting back to first few days when she'd been brought to the Isle. They were suddenly captive and captor once more and it seemed that nothing had changed even though everything had. She did not know who he was and he seemed reluctant to familiarize himself with her. "If you do, I won't tell anyone of this."

He shook his head tiredly. "This is going against your rights for the thousandth time. The thousandth time still matters as much as all those instances before that. It's only one more act that I will have to answer to eventually. But remember this and use it against me when the time comes."

"Use it against you? What are you saying?"

He smiled. It was a smile that made her think of either Lacus or of Kira when they'd looked at her during their wedding. She despised that smile- that smile had sympathy and an understanding she did not want them to have of her.

"You'll have to give your testimony about what happened. When you do it, remember that I was the one who took you to the Isle without your consent- the person who injured you and who took away your freedom. Say it when the time comes, because that's the only way to forget. By hating, you'll grow tired of remembering."

"But I'll never be able to hate you." She said in a small voice. "Am I expected to?"

He stared at her, and something of his resolve broke. How could he leave her like this, let her go and never have her or see her again? It would kill him to, and Athrun made up his mind there and then, deciding that a later death in her arms would be welcome than a sooner one by leaving her. Besides, it was unlikely that he could go without appeasing both of them. If he could calm her down and distract her for now, it would serve his purposes better.

He began to move towards the door again.

"You can't leave me here like that!" Cagalli cried. "You can't just take off now-,"

His foot met the door, and he'd locked it and turned back to her. "Who said I'm leaving?"

As his arms met her form, she was only vaguely aware of the moist sensation of the wet textures of their clothes and the way she was chained. If he had to lie again to make her happy, he would.

Nothing mattered when the heat of their bodies radiated through the soaked clothes and when he was kissing her as if they'd never had a moment of doubt while in the presence of the other person. When he began to rid himself of his damp clothes, she faltered a little.

His voice was low and rough with a bottomless, unfathomable desire. "What do you think I'm going to do?"

She gulped quietly, not because she was afraid, but because her shivering was becoming obvious even to herself. She thought of all the pictures she'd drawn. She thought of the painting of a room with a window- a chance or maybe even a lost chance, his shadow cast over the scene and painted in by her hand.

He was stepping near to her to undo her jacket. He could not pull it entirely away from her because of the binds, but it was enough to feel his lips ravishing what he could expose of her torso, and his hands searching and ridding her of all that clung on. Those were stubborn reminders of how everything had always been temporary, and she was glad to feel him against her.

Moreover, Athrun was moving to her and she could think of nothing more than wanting to feel him against her, close to her again. As she tried to break free from her binds, he whispered that she had to stay still, for fear that she would hurt her hands. His eyes warned her not to intervene, and she gazed at Athrun, slightly bewildered, but not able to think anymore when he finished and moved to her.

Her voice was a mumble, and she looked at him shyly, losing a bit of that brashness and that courage in the face of his own daring. "So you'll come back to Orb with me?"

"We'll see." He said gently. "I'll try to work it out, alright?"

Wasn't this some hollow promise from him, a false reassurance she nonetheless wanted and would trade her dignity for? It was no doubt, a promise made on the shaky, vague grounds of what she had intended for- that he'd try to work things out with her.

She did not demand that he clarify exactly what he was willing to do. Neither did she demand that he promise her that he was going back to Orb with her. They both knew what he was saying was a kind of lie- it was a kind of distraction; an escape for them both.

She forced a note of joy into her voice. It wasn't joy that she felt, but relief. Still, joy would make him believe that she believed his lie. "Good."

He studied her, and Cagalli knew that Athrun was trying to discern if she'd realized he was really just evading a promise she wanted from him. In some ways though, Cagalli was truly glad that he was still present in this room.

At least, she had a chance to keep him here and talk to him, rather than have him leave right away. If she played her cards right, Cagalli hoped, he would realize that going back to Orb with her was what they both needed.

But that he would lie to make her at ease was still a good sign. It made her feel that there was a chance to persuade him to go back to Orb with her, and the thought of that gave her the confidence she needed.

"If you're going to stay," She said softly, "You're going to have to keep me occupied."

A small smirk snaked its way on his lips. "Rest assured."

They knew it was not a matter of him staying. Inside them, they both knew this was another contract of sorts. And yet, it was a contract neither of them could find the strength to verbalize and expose as a weak attempt at giving in to what they really wanted.

But it made no difference to her. As long as Athrun stayed here for at least another fifteen minutes, Cagalli swore to herself, she would convince him that he needed her- if only because she needed him. She would convince him not to leave but to stay, and he'd stay even as this yacht entered Orb waters. By then, he'd surely see that he wanted to be with her.

"Kiss me," She commanded. "Now."

He obeyed.

To live, one had to give up the peace one had when one was dead. To have gotten where she was today, she'd shed tears and put in her soul- she'd traded the ideals she'd once cherished.

And to have established this amount of understanding between them both, they'd sacrificed their pride. Something always had to be given for something to be taken in return. If this was the final sacrifice to make Athrun stay, she could not have up the last of her dignity, the last of her independence, and the last of her pride more willingly.

He kissed her, his fingers searching for the ring she wore around her neck as the camisole's buttons were undone. He did this while taking his time, and here was rapacity in the way he took from her. She was helpless in so many ways, tied as a matter of fact, and desperate to make him stay. She was desperate for some kind of change to the always temporary security of his arms, and she was desperate to make him promise that he would come with her even if they had to fight the rest of the world.

She needed a battle plan; she needed some strategy. She needed his cooperation and she needed him to agree to go back to Orb. She wanted a way forward. But there was none she could see, and certainly not a future.

Still, there was the present, and the present shaped the future.

As he pulled away from her, he settled his warm mouth near her neck and bit her neck, ignoring the little yelp that she let out because she had not expected that sudden sign of possessiveness. At the same time, he caressed her, and her fingers tightened while held back by the cuffs.

"Tell me you want me to stay." Athrun said softly, hoarsely.

She nodded, made mute by her emotion, but he discerned what he needed from her expression of trust and absolute submission. This was another contract between them. Her utterance of her desire to be with him would make him stay, and in return, she'd get a promise of an indefinite, unsteady nature. If it would make her satisfied, he'd do it.

Yet in her mind, she knew that the idea of a contract was really an articulation of what life had always been. When he touched the ring she was still wearing around her neck, she closed her eyes and gave in.

And Cagalli thought of houses when he kissed the skin that he'd bared. Houses that seemed to have been filled with light with laughter coming from somewhere and children and pets rushing to greet those that came home. Houses she'd passed by on her own way to a home that felt nothing like those houses she envisioned. Hadn't she dismissed those as romanticized houses while telling herself it was for those houses and the people in them that she worked so hard? And yet the house he traced on her arm was an empty one.

Athrun was pressing his palm against her breast, feeling her heart move beneath it. She could see him thinking; she wondered what he was thinking. Now he moved his head to her, hearing the life within her as she breathed deeply, his fingers running patterns over her. His breath was warm against her and she saw his face with its expression of wonder and tenderness. She thought of the years she'd spent missing that face.

And Cagalli thought of people she'd known only the faces of when he stroked her wantonly. She thought of the postman who she always saw outside the gate and never at her doorstep with the occasional letters.

Lacus always wrote, and Kira had at one point. But those letters from Kira had stopped for a long time. Other than the old friends and the people in her office, she did not rely on anyone else to make her feel less hollow.

Athrun was pressing his lips to her, and she was sobbing with frustration and want even when he withdrew. She knew his face and his name- not the one he'd used to hide himself away from her. The one she would call now, the one he'd burned into her by forcing her to admit why she had tried to run away from him in the past.

This was his face. The same face with its searching, bottomless eyes and quiet, fine mouth. That mouth which was capable of showing searing pain and inflicting equal pain but had been whittled down to something of a wry quirk a semi-smile at most. She would never forget it.

He was whispering that he could feel her trembling. She knew she was. She thought of the young child her colleague sometimes brought to work, the gardener whom she let in once a month, an old man she recognized vaguely as a young servant who'd worked for her father a long time ago in the very same estate. And she thought of the weekly help who came in whenever she was at work and the way all these people smiled at her and how she returned that courteousness but never with the familiarity of actually knowing them.

She did not know the names of these people. She would never have to, even when she'd long recognized and remembered their faces. She thought well of them all though. She was working for them- for every single nameless, faceless person in Orb that she still thought well of because they were part of the place her father had fought to protect and given up his life for.

They had lived because he'd chosen to give up something. At the very least, she would have all these people, even if she could never find her father in the study that she now used. It haunted her to realize each time that she was at the other side of the desk; at the other side of the study she'd entered uneasily as a child to ask favors of him. The world was asking favors- no, demanding things- of her.

It didn't matter that they weren't her children- it didn't matter that she didn't even know the name of the young girl in the car, waiting for her mother. The lack of a name didn't matter when Cagalli walked by and saw the child. All that mattered was that she was working because of a child and the mother and all the people around her.

He was entering her slowly and filling her every sense with the traces of him. As she buried her face into his neck, sighing a little, he began to tremble and then looked at her. She could see her face reflected in the glass of his eyes and she knew that the reflection of her eyes in his showed the reflection of his eyes on hers.

The names of the people that she remembered would not be easy to forget.

His lips were pressed against her forehead and she sensed that Athrun was getting more urgent now. He was whispering words she comprehended less than half of but understood all of because of the heated strength and agony behind them. This was what it was to hide away, a fragment of a past that she enveloped herself in while being swept to the shore. He had found her.

She thought of a shoreline littered with tiny shells that children scrambled to find- pieces of distant seas that waves had brought to them like secrets in a bottled message. He'd told her of Mon Pelier, hadn't he?

How she wanted to see it all with him- even if only once.

The thought of that filled her with a longing that his presence satisfied only partially. She sobbed quietly, wanting to cling onto him, wanting to feel her nails sinking into the bed of his flesh, feel him hiss and move against and in her in response to her contact with him.

"You won't go after this, will you?" She begged.

He was panting, kissing her neck momentarily. He said nothing.

If only she could leave a visible mark on him instead of praying that he would remember this even when the sands of time had buried the last jagged edges of their broken lives. She wanted to have him with her. Would he promise not to go after this? He was here; he was with her now. She wanted him to stay.

She shifted herself as best as she could in her state, fighting back her tears, trying to smile and to be persuasive to him. "Don't go after this. Stay. Come back to Orb with me."

He was still for a moment. Then he nodded.

She was overjoyed.

It wasn't that she believed him for a second. But she wanted to, and he'd understood that she'd needed another lie for her to go on.

"Would you have asked me to go on and leave if I'd said no?" He said quietly.

She surged up to him, kissing his lips. "I don't think I could bear to."

He knew she spoke the truth, and it grieved him to know that he'd given her lies instead. But she was looking at him with that complete trust and a desire that showed in her eyes, and he decided he would rather concentrate on the last of their moments together.

The dim lights of the cabin died as he closed his eyes, giving in. He thought of the places he'd seen- the happiness and suffering of those compressed into the layers of the air and the memories within those spaces his mind was always drawn to.

Hadn't she become rooted in those spaces the way the essentials of the background were always there? Hadn't he learnt to visualize her as more than the faint wish that she would be there? Hadn't she become more than the last of the memories of the past, but the actual present as she had stood there, next to him, facing the winds that swelled and sang against the cliffs?

She kissed him again, her tongue delicate against his lips and then parting his own to tease him. Still not satisfied, Athrun began stroking her thighs and releasing a moan from her. Then he began parting her thighs as he bent down, looking at how her eyes were pure gold, her lips separated in her lust. This was his- she had given herself to him, and he would take her now because she had given him the right to. As he brought his lips to her, Cagalli stiffened and cried out, struggling.

He bent and kissed her eagerly, straddling her and kissing her eagerly, perhaps for the final time. She struggled to gain control of him, but he fought her, the binds serving him well.

"Let me free," Cagalli begged. "I won't run this time, I swear- I only did it so I could be with you, and-,"

"I'm not sure you won't run," Athrun murmured. His eyes looked at her and his lips curved tellingly. "You're too clever for me."

Even though Cagalli continued pleading for him to let her hold him, he ignored that. He didn't need her to hold him back for him to gain his satisfaction, and he was more intent on showing her that she had to simply trust him.

"I'm not going to hurt you." He whispered, burying his face near her neck. Her eyes were wide and she looked a bit jittery. "I'm not-,"

In her position, her chest was thrust, her arms unable to free themselves. She seemed to be in a web of the sheets she'd mussed and tangled herself in, and he preyed on her apparent helplessness, drawing her into their passions.

If he didn't touch her more then, he'd lose control. His eyes were narrowed and his gaze unfocused, but the intensity of his voice told her what he wanted. When she writhed, her legs became bent at the knees. She'd planted her feet into the bed, straining and trying to cope with the sensations. As he touched her, she began to sob with pleasure and some discomfort, and he wondered if all this was fair- that he was able to be with her even now when she didn't know why he was really here.

She was arching for him, throat warm and delicate. He'd slit throats before, Athrun thought. He knew what it was to cut throats open and hear the screams die into silence and to feel the warmth of life on his hands and face despite how he'd just taken that life away. Her voice was coaxing him, begging time and time again.

But he ignored her, laving his tongue and making her squirm. Watching her, he realized she was still begging him to let her go. Her words were nearly unintelligible with her gritted teeth and her efforts to conceal her pleasure, but he could make those words out still.

"Not yet, Cagalli." He said quietly. "Don't ask me to unbind you. You'd run if I released you now."

Desperately, she strained against the chains to feel more of his mouth kissing her as he moved down and down more. Trailing his lips along her belly, Athrun felt her twitch restlessly beneath his searching mouth, and Cagalli was murmuring, her arms thrown back, her back arched, silken hair spilled all around her face.

"Please-," Her eyes were brilliant with emotion and something like the beginning of her tears.

"I won't stop." Athrun promised, "Not even if you beg me." His voice broke. "Stupid, really. I never had the sense to chase after you."

It was enough for her to close her eyes, sinking into him, drawing him into her, shuddering once and then biting into his neck, leaving a mark that would surely stay there with the rest of what he remembered of her.

He let his eyes travel, slowly, almost painfully, over her, memorizing her and imprinting her into his mind. He'd sketched her in his mind, many times. This was another time that gave him that distilled impression of what she was like, and what he would have to do without when she left.

His eyes did not meet hers, but they were filled with a raw emotion that dispelled any doubt that he was still playing mind games with her. Not any more. She arched up to him and mewled his name in her daze, his hands hard on her hips. Consequently, a tiny smirk played on his face unconsciously as he straightened up, facing her.

"Couldn't you have let me have my way today?" She berated him softly, still panting with the exertion of their bodies. "You've already promised me that we'll try to work it out. Surely, giving in to me a little bit more would be nothing in comparison to the risk of going back to Orb and facing the backlash from everyone?"

His gaze focused as he stared at her, coming out of his slight daze.

She knew she was lying too. In the midst of their contact, they were distancing themselves from the fact that he was unlikely to return to Orb. He had promised her he would try to work something out, and she had taken that promise to mean his going back to Orb. They were functioning on a common misunderstanding, but that was the only way she could make him stay a little while longer with her.

"I couldn't help it." He explained, caressing her face. Her cheeks were pink with her physical exertion and they were settling into the warm aftermath of what they'd become accustomed to. Why should this time be any different where their bodies knew the familiarity of being entwined together?

His hair hung over her and she wished she could have the freedom of her hands to tangle her fingers in his hair, the way she'd always done.

"I couldn't help wanting to stay here with you and promising to work things out." His smile was very gentle. But again- that empty promise that she still clung onto.

It didn't seem to matter that Athrun was lying to her and that she knew it. They were both functioning as if he'd told the truth that he wouldn't leave.

For Cagalli wanted to believe what he'd assured her, even if he'd done so very vaguely. As always, desperation provided a route for her, and she found that actually believed what he was saying.

He was stroking her and she keened in pleasure; a cat settling itself into the routine motions of a hand rowing it way across the lake of its body. He whispered, "You'd think I'd have learnt to stay away. But you make me unable to help myself. Even the way I kept thinking of you when we'd both left that island we were stranded on- that was your doing."

She colored slightly, lowering her head. "I don't know what you mean."

He laughed a little, kissing her shoulder, a hand straying from her face to her collarbone. "Come now, you do. I wasn't referring merely to what you'd shared with me about the war. I meant the other aspects of our meeting."

Her color deepened and it seemed as if she was a few degrees warmer with her blush. "That was an accident-,"

"Didn't you realize how uncomfortable I was when you tried to get rid of those crabs?" He pointed out matter-of-factly.

Cagalli looked flustered. "What are you going on about?"

"Lifting your shirt, Cagalli! Then tending my wound in that state of yours- it was more than I could possibly bear. How could you use your power over a poor boy like that?" He put on an expression of mock-exasperation.

She shook her head wildly, very embarrassed. "That's not it- I never thought of it that way-,"

The air was changing again- they were forgetting themselves. They wanted to forget themselves, and they'd launched into dialogue about the past; revisiting the moments they'd claimed each time they were expecting to fall asleep in each other's arms. That was their normality- she wanted their normality to return to them.

"Of course it was rather nice for me." Athrun revealed teasingly. "Scandalous, but very, very nice. I remember falling asleep on that island while wondering what had possessed you to do all that."

Her expression grew even more awkward and slightly grumpy. "Well, I'm glad flashing you didn't give you nightmares, Mr. Impeccable Manners. I'm sure someone flashing you scarred you for life."

At the back of her mind, she knew they were only procrastinating. But if it would make him stay a little longer, she would go along with the routine. The hand at her collarbone strayed down and she shifted a little in pleasure. He laid a kiss knowingly on her lips, whispering, "You might say that."

"Yeah, we all know how delicate and pure you were back then- just like you are even now. We both know you don't really shag per se- you never, ever just throw me into the bed, never, ever ignore my protests that you're being too impatient and you never, ever talk dirty and proceed to rattle the bedposts." Her tone grew more acidic. "You never, ever like me to talk dirty to you, and you always, always, just like to keep things gentle and very easy-going. Isn't that right? What we've just spent the last half an hour doing is a fine example of that."

He chuckled, enjoying her sarcasm. "That's right, Cagalli.

"Really, how was I to know that you were affected by that?" Cagalli demanded. "Was I expected to know that despite your nice-guy, sophisticated image, you were and still are a crazy, horny fellow underneath?"

"Excuse me," Athrun said with great dignity, although his lips twitched. "Any fellow would have blushed at what you did."

She snorted. "Yeah- any fellow who's been deprived of studying female anatomy in their biology classes. Or any fellow who's never seen any female before and assume that discovering the female chest is as significant as uncovering the lost pyramids of Egypt."

"Did anyone tell you that you had a gift for description?" He said mildly, letting his eyes skim over her. Her mouth fell open indignantly, and he continued taking in the view with an almost-illegal pleasure. "Or that you make normal boys sound like oversexed lunatics? For that matter, you make normal girls sound like people who normally and quite reasonably flash random people they've just met, who coincidentally, tried to kill them before that."

Cagalli looked pointedly at him. "It was a very simple thing I did! You're just blowing it up to this epic proportion of scandal. I bet that only the Victorian society would think much of that! Any girl wouldn't have thought much of what I did."

He had a mental image of Lacus descending from the heavens. "Wanna bet?"

She scowled at him. "Stop contradicting me!"

"The problem with you," Athrun said studying her intently, "Is that you never realize that it isn't so easy for others to forget you're a woman. You always managed to forget it yourself- but I didn't."

They knew what he was referring to. Upon returning to Orb, she would be ultimately the same but changed beneath that composed veneer of power, composure, competence and masculine authority. He'd unlocked something she would never be able to keep within the abysses of her forgotten self and past any more than he would.

"It's not really like I was trying to be a tomboy," Cagalli protested. "I always got upset when people mistook me for a boy too, remember?"

"Never happened after the First War." He said thoughtfully. "I guess it's the First Impression of seeing you that makes people think they are dealing with someone who's not exactly the archetypal female. "

"Hey, I know I don't go for all that makeup Fllay Alster used to leave around in the room," Cagalli argued, "But how do I look like a boy?"

"The way you acted, I suppose." He said drily. "Plenty of reference to a boy back then, when you were dressed as a soldier. Besides, you were as tough as nails to the point that most wouldn't think you were a girl." Athrun studied her. "Frankly, I was probably too caught up in trying to kill the enemy without realizing that I always assumed that you'd be male if you were the enemy I was up against. I don't think I've ever fought hand-to-hand with a female soldier before."

"So you didn't notice that I wasn't male." She surmised. And Cagalli looked at him exasperatedly. "Really, Athrun, it's chauvinistic to think that your enemy must be a male."

"Guilty," He said laughingly. "But justified in some ways. There aren't many female soldiers- those who leave the bridge, anyway. I realised that you were female once you screamed and confirmed it when you flashed me. After that, I don't think I ever thought of you as a boy or even soldier anymore."

Suddenly, they were not in this yacht and she was not chained and desperate. It was almost as if they'd been in the room she'd filled with signs of her presence and the room that had become warm with their habitation. She was smiling and laughing with him, and they might have been on their backs, in each others' arms, lying in peace and joking, except that they were not. "I did not flash you."

"Not entirely, no," He agreed. He looked at her mischievously. "I guess I would have liked it better if you'd done more."

"Athrun!" She was thoroughly scandalized now. "Please don't let anyone hear you talking like that- you'll be jailed!"

He laughed with her, then said softly, "I guess I really didn't expect a girl to be on the island. Or in politics, for that matter. The first time I saw you in something that wasn't masculine, it was some time after the First War."

She shrugged, looking remarkably dignified in the state she was in- what with her being bound and his taking advantage of her inability to fight him physically. "It's a fine line between being labeled a bimbo and a butch. I'd rather appear less feminine because it's easier to survive in politics that way."

"Of course," Athrun said boldly. "But you can't survive with just your gift for politics when you're with me."

Her lips parted in an attempted comeback, except that he was sliding his fingers into her and kissing her to shut them both up. She began to writhe, almost violently, but he ignored her and her resumed pleas for him to release her. She was his- he did not want to free her even for her to hold him.

"Bugger, Athrun," She said with some rather justified difficulty. This was given because he was doing a pretty fine job of making her feel like she was on some kind of illegal dosage of whatever she was feeling."We've already done this with me flailing like a fish without the use of my arms. Why don't you just let me free so I can reciprocate?"

He chuckled and kissed her. She leaned back against the headboard, feeling his weight sink into hers.

"Not yet." He said mildly, although his expression suggested he was trying to control himself. As her feet rubbed against his back, he bit his lips, whispering in a trembling voice, "Not yet, because I like having you helpless for once. I'm not finished yet."

"You're a secret chauvinist," She berated him breathlessly, trying to accommodate him as he ran his mouth over a sensitive portion of her neck. "You don't like me having my way."

"No," He whispered. "It's just that your independence is the reason why you leave me behind each time."

And she cried out incoherently until he kneaded, harder, into her, holding her down even as she swiveled and moved furiously, matching his rhythm with her own. When he was satisfied with her, he returned to kissing her mouth, and then in a fit of possession, he entered her, feeling her clamp around him, drawing him in as she bucked and shook against the cuffs.

Her voice became a cry as she struggled against him, writhing and slithering, but bound still. And he pushed her face near his chest, cradling her head with both hands.

"I wish you'd never leave." She whispered. Her face was hidden and so was her expression, and in that moment, he made a mistake.

"I won't go anywhere without you." He said intensely, "Not even if you beg me."

He hadn't meant to lie to her. The words he uttered may have well been the truth, unlocked and springing out like a tightly wound screw that echoed in the air. But he was not supposed to make promises. He was not supposed to disappoint her by telling her what he wanted and then showing her what they could not have.

But he saw her raise her head, looking at him with a growing disbelief, doubt, then anxiety and then finally the worst of it all- hope.

For in that moment, she wondered if she'd doubted him and had second-guessed herself when he'd said before that he wouldn't leave. She wondered if he'd really meant what he was saying when he told her he would work things out. Had he always meant that he would follow her back to Orb?

"Athrun," She said in a low voice, "Are you really coming back to Orb with me?"

He looked at her and that small light in her eyes and he knew what it meant for Titus when the weight on his shoulder had first been borne there. He knew what Tantalus went through, and he knew he could not do anymore but to let her have these few moments of happiness before he took it all away once more.

Athrun's voice broke in its pain and he saw that she believed that he would do as he said. "I always watched as you were taken away from me, and never had the sense to chase after you."

He watched the light in her eyes grow into a brilliant sheen and he knew she believed he would do as she thought. If this was his final lie, Athrun realized, then it would be final only because it would destroy her.

"I want you to live with me again, when we get back to Orb." She said abruptly, looking straight at him.

He went along with her. "Why not?"

She smiled- smile he had seen a few times before. But he could remember nothing of those past instances while faced with this particular moment.

His body contorted as he held her, he closed his eyes, accepting the sensations that were washing over both of them. In the very essence of his efforts not to see was his willingness to blind himself to the ugliness of his lies and the pain of seeing how he was entwining his body near hers. Hers was one that welcomed him and didn't know better of his poison. But that was precisely his helplessness, and Athrun intrinsically accepted that it had been inevitability as they'd met and loved once more.

He spent the rest of the time stroking her, kissing every square inch of her and he noticed that the chains had bit into her, and smiling ruefully, undid those. She sprang onto him like a wild cat, her joy at his promise fuelling her need for him. She was clawing, pulling him to her, enticing him to be with her all over again. He knew that there was nothing else that he could do and he gave in to their instincts, praying for her to wake up, see through the mist of lies he'd spread around her and push him away.

When she took charge, pressing him to lie on his back, straddling him and controlling him, he felt a tear land on his cheek once. But when he looked up, there was nothing that spoke of her fears and her pain, although the rims of her eyes were slightly red. She smiled when she saw him looking at her, and she swept him along with the tide of their pleasure, knowing it would distract him as he'd distracted her previously.

But it wasn't good enough. Wanting his own control, he let her finish with him, then pulled her onto her fours, dealing with her mercilessly, telling her that it was fair that turnabout was completed. In the midst of their heat, hearing his own cries sound in the air made him ache for something more. Her voice became like his until those were inextricably and unimaginably joined- nearly indistinguishable from each other.

"Don't go." Her voice was trembling. "Don't ever leave again."

Then they were suddenly in each others' arms once more, and she was sobbing and trying to tell him something. Was it joy or the aching hollowness that was plaguing her once more? He didn't know. He didn't even know what he was feeling that made him hold her and wish he could change what he'd set out to do.

He let her spend herself with her crying, lulling her to sleep with the comforting circles he drew on her back. Like a child, her pillow was soaked and only his presence could comfort her. She held his fingers in hers, smiling at him, and the glint of the ring around her neck made him unable to watch as she settled near him.

Her head was buried near his chest, and he comforted her with murmurs that bordered on incoherence and his own emotions. Then he brought himself into her once more, locking himself into her embrace, deep, keeping himself there as she curled around him, her hands pressing around his arms.

She whispered that they had all the time in the world now, and he wondered if he'd always known that he never had a choice. It was soon now. He soothed her the way he would placate a child, hushing her, unable to move, unwilling to go, unable to bring himself to leave while she was still awake. He was equally unwilling to promise anything that would make her feel more betrayed when he left.

When she asked him sleepily whether he minded that she'd cleared out his old room a long time ago, he knew he was betraying her in a way that felt as if he'd hurt himself too.

But she was waiting for his answer and Athrun shook his head and told her that he wouldn't ever mind it.

"About time we got a new start." He whispered.

He watched her smile shakily and he watched her rest her head against him. She was still crying a little, although she locked her sobs within her lips and buried her head against his shoulder. As he listened to the semi silence and the lull of the winds outside the cabin, exhaustion claimed them both.

Entwined in each other's arms, they drifted into sleep.

---

As his feet pounded into the floor, he felt no calm enter him.

Shinn was beside himself with worry. It had been five hours since Kira had set off, and it would be soon that he'd reach Scandinavia. Kira had looked quite resolute and Shinn knew that Kira was not expecting to fail- whatever his duties to perform were.

But where Shinn was concerned, he felt as if he'd left his mind and hi stomach behind in the Plants. As it was, he was pacing uncontrollably in Aaron Biliensky's office and he could feel beads of sweat gather and pool vexingly at his hairline.

Shinn's shoulders sagged as he turned in a little corner. "I wish that I could have gone with Kira."

"How would you have helped?" Aaron asked scathingly. "It's not like you're a politician or a diplomat that we need at this point. That's why Kira wants us to stay here. We need to hold Orb together and prevent the Emirs from doing something stupid or worse- letting the Elders declare that she's a lost cause and they're planting in a new leader. "

"I know that. It's just that-," Shinn mumbled. "I feel useless here."

Aaron was watching him irately. "I know this is coming at a terrible time, but will you stop clumping up and down on my carpet with those goddamn boots?"

"I can't help it," Shinn explained, wondering what to say to Aaron. While Aaron seemed to have control over everything, Shinn was quite aware that Aaron was in a mess underneath that composed demeanor. After all, Kira seemed the same as well.

Aaron's eye lingered distractedly over Shinn's choice of footwear. As Shinn had rushed over to Orb as soon as Athrun had instructed him on what to do, Shinn had taken very few things and had very little time to find anything else to wear these days. "You mean the stomping or the bad taste?"

A little annoyed, Shinn still ignored the barb. "I need to stop thinking of the worst things, so cut me some slack here."

Aaron stopped his bingeing, got up shakily and began to pace too. For once, the chocolates on his table were not helping him to take his mind off everything. "Maybe I should try whatever you're doing- I need to stop imagining some kind of nightmare and stop thinking about things too much as well."

They replaced each other quite instantaneously.

Shinn took a seat while Aaron did the pacing.

The clock chimed in the corner and even the picture on the table seemed to beat some kind of warning. Shinn had never seen Cagalli looked entirely relaxed in any photograph, but in this one, she seemed quite at ease with Aaron. They seemed to be this strange little family- Aaron, Cagalli and a girl that Shinn recognized as Aaron's niece. Yet, there was a distance that would always remain between Cagalli and the other two, even in this photograph.

He watched as Aaron completed the seventh lap in his office. "Say- do you think that letter was real?"

"No."

"Why?"

"Why would a captor tell anyone where his captive was, unless he wanted to set a trap?" Aaron spluttered. "It's the classic kind of trap-,"

"It's classic because those who want to save the captive will still go." Shinn wondered if it was God's plan that he was repeating exactly what Athrun had told him but to a person who didn't really know what was going on. "It doesn't leave a choice for anyone."

Aaron ran a hand through his hair, looking very upset. "I hope Kira will be safe. And Cagalli too. This is the first time I've heard of this kind of ransom- if it's a ransom at all. In order to get the captive, we have to bring our own troops there. There were other instructions in there, but I didn't see much of it. What I know of though, just doesn't make sense. What kind of captor would give instructions that allowed us to shoot him down if we identified him?"

Privately, Shinn agreed. It just didn't make sense that Kira was being advised to bring troops and weapons there by the same person who'd captured Cagalli, but no amount of persuasion had convinced Athrun to tell him exactly what was going on. But he still trusted in Athrun. If there was one person who wanted to keep Cagalli safe, it was his senior. As far as Shinn was concerned, Athrun would never hurt her.

"This is terrible," Aaron said hopelessly. "There I was, whining and telling her not to go to Scandinavia. And then she went and-," He shook his head, wringing his hands in the air. "I can't believe that she left telling me favorite chocolates from Sweden!" His eyes were turning red as he tried not to break down. "And all I kept saying to her was that when she came back, I was going to bring her to see some freaking re-run of Chicago. And now some crazy man's gone and captured her and he's not letting us find out what's going on-,"

"What makes you think the captor is male anyway?" Shinn muttered.

Unfortunately, Aaron heard him. "Hunch."

Shinn wondered if Aaron had been around long enough to hear of the faint remainders of the rumors that had once swirled around Cagalli and Athrun. As her bodyguard, Shinn had heard a few of those now and then, particularly when her colleagues wondered why she tended to avoid pub sessions on Friday nights. Some said that she wasn't interested in men or women; just work.

Some said she was too wary of getting close to a male because of the media's scrutiny and the Elders' expectations of her. Some of the more senior ones said that she'd once had a boyfriend who was a bodyguard.

Nobody could really remember his name and nobody really remembered his personality, since he kept away from the rest and did not show his face much. But they were sure there was something between the Orb Princess and that bodyguard, because she didn't want any bodyguard around her except him.

Of course, said one of the more senior colleagues, all bodyguards lived with their employers so he was with her in the Estate, doing God-knows-what. But then he'd left for the Plants and after that, they'd never heard of him. Come to think of it, nobody really remembered him, and all of them had different impressions and different memories of Alex-something-or-the-other who'd been around for a short time and then left the service.

Some swore Alex-something-or-the-other had been a servant's son in the Atha Estate, and some swore he'd appeared from nowhere, apparently, after the First War. All those different memories of the same person who might or might not have existed seemed to contradict each other.

And like all the gossip about Cagalli Yula Atha, those seemed baseless even to those who were scrambling to find a good lunch topic. Unlike other celebrities or key politicians, the little rumours about her always seemed to dissolve in the face of reality and how removed Cagalli Yula Atha seemed to be from all these plebian rumours.

"Whatever the case," One senior clerk had remarked, "He never bothered introducing himself much to us and we never took notice of him because we all too busy."

Nobody really knew what had happened, and frankly, neither did Shinn. Nobody registered the bodyguard's face with the war-hero who'd some how came to Orb and then been embroiled some hushed-up conspiracy and asked to leave shortly after that.

Could Cagalli have possibly told Aaron of who Athrun Zala had been to her, given that Aaron was so close to her?

Looking at the fretting Aaron, Shinn didn't really know.

"Kira should have reached," Aaron was muttering. His voice grew louder. "Here, don't just sit there helplessly, Asuka, make yourself useful!"

"What do you want me to do?" Shinn said haplessly. Suddenly, he would have preferred singing to Leon than being around a highly-stressed, tightly-wound Aaron Biliensky. While having served as Cagalli's bodyguard had exposed him to the idiosyncrasies of this man, Shinn preferred being around more sane people.

"I don't know," Aaron blustered. "Make tea or something- coffee, perhaps-,"

"Would you drink it?" Shinn countered, crossing his arms.

Aaron glared at him. "Look, it's far better than sitting around and leaving all the work to Kira!"

"But that's what we have to do now," Shinn argued, thinking of what Athrun had said. With some irony, Shinn realize they had been taking turns to berate their inabilities to do anything while the other convinced the self-berating person that they would be unable to help Kira anyway.

"The letter said he was to go without anyone else except the troops he trusted the most. Even Kisaka was not supposed to go- Kisaka was supposed to guard Cagalli's house-,"

"I can't believe a captor would warn us to do that," Aaron scrambled his hair again, obviously and very highly vexed. "I mean, is this some kind of trap? I can't play mind games when Cagalli's not safe- I really can't-,"

"Sit tight." Shinn tried to calm him down. "You have to trust Kira."

'And Athrun Zala', He thought silently to himself.

But Aaron continued to pace. As he paced, Shinn tried to ease his aching mind by rubbing at his temples. Then Aaron halted, shocking Shinn into sitting up straight like a Doberman on duty.

"By the way," Aaron said suddenly, "Have you seen Marlin?"

---

She did not know when she did, but when she woke up, she was seized by a panic. It wasn't merely that it took her all of a moment to realize that she'd been bound with cuffs once more or that he wasn't present.

It was the fact that she'd remembered him telling her that he was going to go back to Orb with her, and that they'd fallen asleep holding each other. She began to try to get her wrists free, but found that those were different cuffs now. These were a funny kind of dark metal, which closed in like clay rolls and did not seem to have any kind of lock at all. There seemed to be no way to get free of them unless someone drilled holes there.

In that second, she wondered if insanity had finally claimed her.

And yet, she could hear Athrun outside the room.

Without moving a muscle, she continued as she was, listening intently as his voice carried over in something of a murmur.

"Make sure her place is safe." Athrun's voice was a bit soft, but his enunciation was clear enough for her to catch all the words. "Make sure that he hasn't planted anything dangerous back in her office."

Who was that on the other line? And who was that Athrun was referring to-

"Greyfriars?" She thought to herself.

His voice grew a little more insistent. "I want you to check her house too. I don't care how you do it. Make sure that it is completely safe. Get Kisaka in there if you can. If he wants to take the house apart to make sure it is fine, then let him do it. He has my blessings."

"If all goes well, she'll reach in six hours."

Did Athrun keep in contact with Kisaka too? Why hadn't he told her, Cagalli wondered vaguely, still feeling a bit light-headed and woozy, and what was he so afraid about? What could possibly be planted anywhere?

She shook her head a little, but the slight motion was enough to set her head in a horrible haze. It was as if she'd been in a damp, dark cellar for ages and she was ten floors down and an hour away from emerging.

The sluggish feeling was somewhat familiar. Had she been drugged again?

"I'm going to make sure that she doesn't find her way back to the Isle. He's too dangerous- he could kill her with a single order."

If Marlin got away, that's just too bad for you. I told you to watch out for him- he'll be a liability if he makes it to Sweden in time and finds Kira. Kira's headed to the palace now."

The information he'd revealed made her fight to struggle out of her haze.

What was Athrun talking about, Cagalli wondered. What was he saying that was making him sound so serious? Kira or Marlin shouldn't have been part of the conversation, if she assumed that he was talking to Epstein.

"He will try and kill Kira once he gets there. I don't want her to go knocking on his door. He'd kill both of them for sure. He wants war- he wants Orb to enter Scandinavia. He's waiting at the Swedish palace already- he's only waiting for Kira to get there and enter Scandinavia through Sweden. You know that. I don't have time- I have to head back to the Isle."

And that was when she knew she'd heard enough to surmise what was going on. The gap in the door had been slight, but it was enough. She had seen something of Athrun's profile, and she knew it was unlikely that he was going back to Orb with her. But those lies didn't matter as much now as trying to understand what was going on. She couldn't risk Kira going to wherever Greyfriars was- he'd harm Kira, as Athrun had said. Cagalli couldn't have that.

She struggled, cursing, trying to unbind herself. As Cagalli tried to pull at the wrist-binds, she felt a clinking of immensely heavy, dense metal around her flesh and bones and the sound of it against the wooden bedposts must have alerted him.

As she spied Athrun turning towards the room, she panicked. There was no way she'd be able to break from these casts. The metal was a strange one- not too rough and very fluid to touch, but so heavy and so non-malleable that it fit perfectly around her wrists.

It did not make sense to fight these binds or him. These were hopeless, and she was powerless against his physical strength, let alone his persuasion. Of course, she knew enough not to believe him entirely now, but he must have decided to chain her here and head back to the Isle because he had some urgent business to settle.

Yes, Cagalli decided. That had to be the reason why he was not keeping his promise.

As she was, she was in no position to struggle or to talk him into letting her free to go to Sweden and try to meet Kira. Instinct told her she had not been meant to listen to his conversation and she was supposed to be in a deep sleep. Naturally, she knew she was in danger, although she could not identify exactly what was dangerous.

She could hear Athrun a little better as she strained to listen. But suddenly, she heard the door opening and she clamped her eyelids shut immediately, pretending that she was still asleep.

She heard him move around the circumference of the bed, and then she felt his weight settling as a chair next to her side creaked. He'd sat down.

But while her eyes were shut as she pretended to sleep, she knew he was surveying how much more tightly he had bound her wrists.

Where Athrun was concerned, he knew it was time for him to leave. The small boat would help him speed to the place he needed to be at. Here, Cagalli was safe like this. The metal acted like locks around her wrists, and it would be impossible for her to do anything until it was time to.

Both cuffs of metal would simply disconnect with the tiny amount of explosive fixed in it as Barnett had arranged on his orders, and Cagalli would be free to move once again. The timed reaction had already started taking place when he'd clasped the cuffs around her hands, and it would probably cause the metal to break.

He had to leave now, and he had to return to the Isle. Greyfriars would not let anyone off when he realized that Cagalli had already escaped. If Athrun didn't go back, Epstein and even Harumi would not be able to fend off his rage and the anger of his supporters. Athrun could not risk having Ko and the twins hurt.

After all, Athrun thought, gazing at Cagalli, he'd foiled Greyfriars' plans quite thoroughly. If Greyfriars had wanted to trade Cagalli and the biochemical weapon in to Pietre Harraldsson for Denmark's independence, Greyfriars was certainly not going to be able to do it now.

"I apologize for this treatment," Athrun said evenly and very quietly, moving the attention away from all the questions she'd thrown at him. She wondered if he was aware that she was awake or whether he was pretending along with her. Or perhaps, he truly thought that she was asleep.

She had no choice but to continue. There was that steadiness she had come to associate with him, but something in his voice seemed inconsistent.

Still pretending to be deep in her slumber, Cagalli sensed that he seemed to be observing her the way an interested tourist would view a chained-up experiment at the science center. His voice was soft and a bit sad. "I suppose it's a bit uncomfortable, even if you are on a bed. But you should rest."

He was tucking the sheets more securely around her, and she realized that she was still bare beneath the sheets. When she got back to Orb, would someone find her in this yacht, screaming for help and attention, as bare as the day in this bed? What was he up to now, by preventing her from doing anything? And what was Athrun trying to do by going back to the Isle and intercepting Greyfriars?

Cagalli felt him kiss her forehead so lightly- so imperceptibly that it was almost like she was dreaming. "You'll reach Orb soon enough. Then you'll forget and live the way you were meant to. You'll be safe there."

She kept still, hearing him get up. In the moments that followed, she was begging herself not to break down. As the door closed gently, she knew he'd left, and she knew she'd never be able to escape from the yacht that was headed back to Orb.

And Cagalli felt as if her stomach had been opened and turned inside out- into a gaping chasm of emptiness.

---

Lacus looked anxiously at Yzak. She was seated before him, and the phone was still ringing on the other side with nobody picking up for her. "They won't let me speak to the Head. At this point, I'm still waiting to hear a human voice. I don't think Kira will ever be able to get remotely near the dock if they don't let us near."

The automated replies had been lengthy, confusing and worse- in Swedish.

"It's a good thing you came here then." Yzak declared. It wasn't often that a diplomat came to the Zaft divisions where the Head General and the major divisions' generals' offices were. The Foreign Affairs department was quite a distance away- eight travelators, if he recalled correctly. As far as Yzak could recall, the last time any diplomat had come to this part of the official grounds had been a year ago.

Her eyes widened a little. "I came here to ask if you had any solution- I didn't expect you to want to make the call yourself. Are you sure you should intervene?"

"Trust me." Yzak said. There was the old confidence in his voice, although he wasn't sure he really felt it. "Frankly, Mediator, I'm downright unhappy that the refused to take the call from your assistant and insisted that you take it."

"That's the way diplomacy goes." She said quietly, with a steadiness that always surprised him. "Cold calls."

"Not when it's you." He told her, feeling a surge of protectiveness. Not for nothing had they grown up together as playmates. Athrun had been part of their little motley crew, as had Shiho Hahnenfuss. If Athrun had been somewhat introverted as was his nature to be, Yzak had always been slightly bullheaded about which games they should play. Lacus had been very good at hopscotch, and Yzak had insisted that they play anything but that- he hated being beaten by a girl. But the fact was that he remained highly impressed and always admiring of Lacus Clyne.

Apart from his mother, if he'd been ask to name another woman who could rule the Plants if she'd ever bothered, he would be hard pressed to come up with anyone else but Lacus Clyne. Truthfully, Yzak had always envisioned Athrun and Lacus getting together and having a brood of talented, perfectly polished little diamond-children.

"You know," Lacus told him, "I wonder if Kira will ever find her."

He thought of Athrun and Cagalli Yula Atha. Someone, somewhere out there, possibly up in the highest divisions of heavens in the head department, had other plans.

Frankly, Yzak did not really know what to make of Cagalli Yula Atha. It wasn't that she was incompetent or the sort of person who rubbed him the wrong way. If she had been guilty of that, Yzak would have been cold to her at worst and indifferent to her at best. While nobody really noticed or pointed this out to him, Yzak had always reserved his passionate outbursts and anger for those he bothered with at all. But Cagalli Yula Atha was a woman who made him feel very uncomfortable- possibly because she reminded him of his mother in an uncanny sort of way.

The last time he'd seen her in person, she'd been at a Plant function. She'd been a guest of honor for contributing to Plant's economic recovery, and she had looked rather breathtaking that evening with her gold eyes and hair.

He'd even caught himself staring at her and thinking how much she'd changed. It wasn't an overt change, but it was a change that made him think of petals folding inwards to hide some secret and then unfolding slowly and being frozen in the process. She wasn't as talkative or as chipper as he remembered.

She still knew what she was doing- he could testify to that as he'd seen her grill some over-eager males who'd tried to impress her with their political tactics. She had been biting; vicious while appearing courteous and looking very attractive, and yet she'd seemed withdrawn at other moments. Yzak was confused by her and he did not like to be confused. She however, was a walking contradiction that others seemed to want to unscramble and chart though.

At this point, he stared at Lacus, who was lost in thoughts.

No doubt, Yzak thought with a surly expression, he hadn't expected Athrun to go for someone as unstable and as volatile as Cagalli Yula Atha. If anything, Athrun seemed better off with someone who didn't seem to have a temper and who never accused anyone of anything and never took things into her own hands.

Despite his friend's appearance, Yzak didn't know of anyone as emotionally hungry as Athrun Zala. It would have been better if Athrun had been set up with a girl who would be both a mother and wife to him- someone who would keep him in check instead of motivating him to throw all caution to the wind. Someone who would be a paragon of virtue- someone who had as much sex appeal as the amoeba in the pond-

He stared at Lacus, who was dictating a report to a palm-sized notebook. Her hair fell in cascades over her shoulder and her skin seemed milkier from her pregnancy. Okay- maybe not without some attractiveness. But really, Lacus Clyne was the sort Athrun would have been better off with. Someone who didn't have the qualities that presumably excited Athrun so much- someone who wouldn't make him act like a lunatic.

Despite his scorn for preening and feminine graces, he couldn't help thinking that while Cagalli Yula Atha was not as pretty or as classically-featured as the refined Lacus Clyne, she had a sort of undeniable defiance. There was that strange feeling that she was somehow brash and wild beneath her subdued front. The way her leveled gaze still held a hint of unbreakable pride and natural sophistication and the way she strode with purpose even while retaining her femininity must have thrilled men before.

Still, how could Athrun throw the prize he'd always been after for a single person who probably didn't even know the extent of his sacrifice?

Yzak shook his head inwardly. Idiot.

"Yzak," Lacus said slowly, "I will call again and request to speak to the head of the port authorities."

She nodded to the notebook, which snapped itself shut and fit back into her palm. "I've sent in a request to speak to a human again. I don't want them putting me on hold and trying to get my head around the Swedish instructions to press random numbers for random inquiries."

He got up, stretching slightly. "You should. By all rights, they should let the ships in- especially when those are disguised as Plant ships. I will not accept it if they refuse to speak to even the Mediator Clyne herself."

It was highly affronting that a grunt from somewhere in the Naval Authorities' division of Scandinavia's security department had demanded that nobody less than the head Mediator of Plant ask for permission to enter the waters. "If they don't honor our trade-treaties, there'll be hell to make up for."

"Hell?" Lacus looked highly worried now.

"Hell." Yzak muttered.

He could recall what a member of the Supreme Council had once told him. "International, let alone Galactic law is soft law. Not like normal law. Normal law is hard, good law. If someone doesn't follow the rules you both agree to, what would normally happen?"

Yzak knew. One sued those bastards.

"But if it's a country or superpower that pulls out of an agreement?"

At that time, Yzak hadn't really known the answer to that. How did one force countries or superpowers to honor their agreements?

Of course, there were the good old Galactic Courts which were still facing this massive backlog of war crime cases from way beyond the First War, but he could count on them for mediation if he wanted. The Galactic Courts didn't have any troops they could count on to enforce the international and galactic laws- but they could apply economic sanctions if all the countries agreed. The last time it had happened successfully, it had been about two hundred years ago. Really.

Since then, Yzak had found an answer to the old question and a way to show that Galactic law was good law.

His lips curved into a grim smile.

He turned to Lacus Clyne, the Head Diplomat and a member of the Supreme Council. "Lacus, don't waste your breath anymore. I recommend some good hard knocks."

She gazed at him, a knowing glint coming into her eye. She did not believe in warmongering tactics, but Yzak certainly did. It wasn't that he was open to the idea of conflict. He was open to the idea of coercion though. Given a prisoner who could be either guilty or innocent, Yzak would rather presume the person to be guilty than to presume him as innocent.

He took the phone from her and began dialing. In a matter of minutes, he was connected to the port authorities of Sweden that represented Scandinavia as well. "This is Yzak Joule, Head of Zaft speaking. I want to speak to the head official of the Swedish and Scandinavian Port Authorities."

There was a hastily replied affirmative and in seconds, the voice he wanted to hear was speaking.

"Sir! You shouldn't have- the Zaft Head himself!"

Well, at least being the Zaft Head made him a fairly recognizable name. The world wasn't a lost cause then.

"I called because I received a message from Zaft's head marine biologist that our researchers are being intercepted and asked not to approach your waters."

Kira had called Lacus to tell her of the difficulties they'd experienced, and as it was, Lacus had asked Yzak to do something about it. At the same time, she wasn't the only one that Yzak was receiving a request from.

"Ah- about that-," The voice was flustered and distinctively apologetic. "I am sorry, but as head of the port, I have other instructions-,"

"Oh I understand," Yzak cut in benevolently. "I know that the dateline for the results of the inquiry within Scandinavia is due in four days, but I must insist that you keep to our previous treaties. After all," He chuckled with coldness evident in his tone. "The world can't stop even if the Princess is still missing. Incidentally, I'd like to ask how the inquiries are going."

The man sounded rather uncomfortable. "My most sincere apologies, General. I don't have the ability to reveal any information about the ongoing inquiries."

"Well, it matters little anyway. What matters is that I have some important Zaft marine biologists on board who are waiting to get into Sweden and the rest of Scandinavia." Yzak said composedly. "I want you to remember our treaty allowing our researchers into your waters."

He tapped his fingers regally on the table, watching Lacus look at him. There was a sudden mischief he'd seen in her face and he was reminded of a young girl. She was quite a handful for her husband, he was sure, and he winked conspiratorially at her.

"Surely, the head wouldn't have to remind us?" The man was saying excitedly. "We'll let them in based on the treaty we settled a long time ago- no doubt about that."

"Good." Yzak said firmly. "I'm holding you to that."

"Subject to conditions of enforcing security of course," The person on the phone added in quickly.

"Security?" Lacus whispered.

"Security?" Yzak demanded.

"Er-," The man sounded at a loss now. "The Head of the Royal Guards has issued a declaration that we must check every single sea-vessel and every single crate it has before we let the ship into the inner waters."

Yzak frowned. "Right. Good luck and godspeed then."

He replaced the phone and shook his head at Lacus. "That's the best that I can do."

"It's good enough. Thank you, Yzak."

"You sure?" He said skeptically. Athrun had requested that he find a way to let Kira into Sweden too. How coincidental that Lacus was asking the same of Yzak and that Yzak was still limited in what he could possibly do.

She stood up, shaking out her skirts and looking at the clock in the corner of his rather sizeable office.

Her smile was angelic. "Yes."

---

Cagalli awoke quite suddenly.

Her head still felt sore, and she wondered if she'd bashed it against something. She shook her wrists listlessly, half-expecting herself to be still pressed against the bed. But she heard a clink of metal and something heavy dropped to the floor, then another.

The cuffs had somehow broken. Amazed, she sat up in her bed, the sheets falling off. He'd tucked her in, she remembered, but now she was left with nobody. The ship-

She sprang out of bed, not bothering to even observe the cuffs by picking those up from the floor. With a hurry she had never expected of herself, she was dressing quickly. Her clothes were not difficult to find- everything was neatly folded on a chair. He must have picked those up and readied everything for her.

"Get going, get going-," Cagalli muttered to herself. Even though sleep must have claimed her some time ago, thanks to the effect of the second tranquiliser, she had fallen asleep while clinging to a single thought the way one must have while hugging a bolster. She was not going to go back to Orb like this.

She pulled on the shirt, adjusting her pants and then sitting to slide on her boots and lace them up. Her wrists were quite sore, but the second set of cuffs had been a lot less painful than the first set. Or perhaps, she hadn't struggled so much with the second pair as much as the first.

Had Athrun expected these cuffs to break loose after a while? She gazed at the shirt she'd worn, wagering a guess. The chances were that he had only wanted to bind her to buy himself sufficient time to leave the yacht without her following. Even then, he'd probably drugged her again and ensured that she would be unable to wake, let alone get up and struggle against the cuffs.

Walking unsteadily, she opened the door and was faced with dark seas. She pattered as quickly as she could into the various corridors, checking for signs of him. Although she was mostly sure that he'd done as he'd told the person who was presumably Epstein that he was going back to the Isle, she couldn't quell the rather foolish hope in her that he'd stayed and would explain what was going on.

The other rooms were empty, as was the kitchen. There was a meal there though, and its presence was equivalent to the summation of the roses she'd received every time she'd woken and found herself alone. It gave her comfort and a warmth she required, and she ate ravenously, knowing that she would have to keep her strength up. While Athrun had probably intended that she feed herself and gain the energy she required to face the inquiries back at Orb upon her arrival, Cagalli would still take this meal, even if for another purpose.

When she finished, she left and proceeded to the last corridor of the yacht.

The winds were still howling even though it wasn't raining, and she was glad as she tread towards the bridge. It was still locked.

She treaded over to the side of the deck, staring into the water. The waves were rolling and hitting against he side of the yacht, and uneasy, she stepped back, breathing in deep. When Cagalli felt a little more assured of herself, she looked around and confirmed her suspicions.

The escape-boat was no longer there. He'd probably left a long time ago.

Yet, now was not the time to be asking why he'd broken his promise. Swallowing the disappointment and slight anger in her, Cagalli began looking around to find something that would break the door down.

She was aware that she had little time to waste. Kira was not going to be prepared against Greyfriars if he'd gone there himself. The chances were that he had, since no ransom letter would have simply gotten one to go and allowed him to bring all sorts of helpers along.

Rummaging along the sides of the deck, she found a few jagged bricks. Those seemed fine for breaking the lock. Eagerly, she ran back to the door, finding her strength from her will to meet Kira and prevent him from doing anything more stupid than he probably had.

If Athrun was heading back to the Isle and assuming Kira would know how to fend for himself, Cagalli was sure as hell not going to assume the same. How could Athrun expect that of Kira when Kira was probably desperate to see her safe? It was a recipe for disaster, and Cagalli believed that going back to Orb and being indifferent about her twin's exposure to the risks of entering Sweden was the key ingredient.

Summoning her might, Cagalli struck at the lock over and over again until it gave way. As it did, she allowed herself a whoop of congratulations, then darted into the door.

The bridge room was finally open to her, and from there, locating the coordinates to Sweden and navigating the yacht there would be very easy. After all, she'd had plenty of training with Athrun in return for her company.

"You'd be proud of me, Athrun." She muttered, switching the yacht from the automatic mode to manual. It would not be heading to Orb if she could help it. And certainly enough, she was.

Even before she'd fallen asleep from a weariness she couldn't control, she'd been sure of two things.

The first was herself and her ability to prevent Kira from being targeted by Greyfriars for whatever reason she would deal with later.

The second was Athrun's promise.

---

"This is ridiculous," Kira heard the captain saying in a protesting manner. "Searching our boats? What for? Can't you see we're just traders and fishermen?"

In his makeshift office, Kira leaned back on the crate of would-be oranges, closing his eyes and pressing the device a little close to his ear. The storeroom was quite dark, but it would suffice. If anyone came in here, Kira would simply hide. As it was, there were plenty of places to, despite the ship being rather small.

He was holding a device to his ear and adjusting it to hear a little better.

Outside, the captain of the special forces units of Orb was arguing with a grunt of Sweden's naval security department. Inside, Kira was listening to the conversation. The captain was just one of the man who were arguing with the port authority officer.

"That's the rule these days," The man was saying insistently, with an accent that Kira identified him by. "If you want to dock and enter Sweden, you have to let us check the boats."

"Look, sonny," The supposed fisherman told the over-eager supervisor of the docks. In the background, other disgruntled traders were complaining too. "We have the backing of Plant! We're here as traders, and some of us have Plant marine biologists on board!"

"We have China's backing," Another man was saying as Kira picked it up in the background. "China has a direct trade treaty with Scandinavia, just like Plant, so why are you stopping us from entering the waters and going to the market place to trade?"

"America too!"

There were howls of similar complaints from presumably other ships that represented other countries.

Kira pushed up the thick-rimmed glasses he was wearing, praying that he would not even have to make an appearance. With his after-eight shadow, he might have looked significantly different from what people probably assumed he looked like. Hopefully, if he had to appear in this laboratory coat, he would pull off the disguise.

"At least," The Swedish fellow was saying, "Let us check to verify your claim. We did know that you traders were coming in today, and we did get all sorts of reminders from your countries to let you in. We will, we promise. Subject to the absence of threat from your boats and ships. In fact, we got a special call from Plants telling us they had some guests aboard your ships who were here to study some waters, but I need to make sure."

Kira was glad that Lacus was making some calls to the Swedish authorities at this point in time. At least, Plant was quite useful as a mediator, and Lacus was back in action even if she wasn't reinstated as the Head diplomat just yet.

"I say," One trader was saying loudly, so loudly that Kira picked it up without any problem at all. "I'm not worried about these checks, and neither are my crew- but how long is it going to take?"

"Looks like a fucking Cosmic Era," Another said in the back. Again, he was so loud that the rest had no issue hearing it, or Kira for that matter.

"The market place would have closed by then-," Someone with a thick, German accent said. "I've been here since afternoon and it's nearly evening! They haven't finished checking my ship, and I got here first!"

"Look, your ship is so big the rest of us are going to have to wait even longer than you!"

A scuffle broke out, apparently, and Kira winced.

"Gentlemen! Sirs! Calm-,"

At this point, the device that Kira was wearing in his ear buzzed a little, and he knew that some call had probably come in again. The port authorities' office was definitely crowded with all the captains or heads of the sea vessels waiting to be checked, and Kira reminded himself to congratulate his captain on making the others feel flustered and even more impatient. If tensions ran high in that port office, the chances were on Kira's side.

"Yes, yes. I understand." Through the bug that the captain had on him, Kira picked up that the grunt was having some kind of conversation on his phone.

The voice of the port guard was more insistent now. "I have direct orders from the Head of Royal Guards who insist that these are security measures. These orders are from the High Kin Pietre Harraldsson- all boats must be checked. You are lucky you are not an aircraft- those are not even allowed in- let alone checked and allowed permission subject to our officials' discretion."

"I know." Kira muttered to himself. He got up from the crate of weapons he'd been sitting on and strode out of his office which was roughly at the rear of the average-sized boat. The troops were waiting for his commands now. The captain had done a fine job up to this point, and Kira was relying on him to insist that they bypass the red-tape procedures for a couple more minutes. That was all they needed for the back-up plan to go as Kira had suspected it would have to.

In his ear, Kira could hear the captain launching into a passionate argument with the Swede, who tried to calm him down and assure him that all this was not a waste of time, but protocol that was important for the security of all seas. If they kept this up, Kira realized, they'd have more than the required time that Kira needed.

He turned into a corridor, where the troops were assembled. There weren't many of them per se, but it would suffice for intelligence purposes.

He spotted the first mate of the fishing trawler- the second-in-command, really. Kira looked at him in the eye. "No go. Proceed as planned."

The first mate saluted to him, turned around and faced the men.

"Squadron Alpha- to the East of the market. Watch for any guards. Security has been tight lately."

Addressing a second squadron, "Beta to the West. Check the alleys. The coordinators have been supplied into your watches. Make sure you look at every single person there. She might be within the crowds."

"Charlie, spread towards the central. Leader Charlie, ensure the bulk are combing at every point."

"Delta, towards the palace."

"To all squads- keep in contact."

Dressed in their traders' garb with wellingtons and a few with laboratory coats, Kira almost failed to remember that they were carrying weapons under their heavy clothing. While the captain kept the port authorities busy, these men had other things to do and other instructions to carry out.

"Back door, please, gentlemen." The second-in-command said calmly.

---

"Well, Athrun," Cagalli muttered to herself, steering the yacht carefully into the waters of the bay. "You weren't that careful after all."

He'd taught her how to steer and basically everything she needed to pilot this yacht. Now, she was putting that into practice but in a way that he would surely be highly upset about.

If the waters around the Isle had been particularly rocky, this place was a breeze. He had been a very good tutor, and she'd learnt well under his tutelage. These waters were clear from most rocks, sufficiently deep for even ships five times larger than this yacht, and she had no problem whatsoever.

If he'd taught her how to do all this, she could only think that it was because he wanted to spend more time with her. They'd certainly gotten familiar with this yacht, its rooms and even the bridge. Of course, it always started off with a lesson and she was frankly, quite competent in using this yacht.

It made sense that he'd bound her wrists, Cagalli realized. He must have known that she'd gained the capabilities to change the course of this yacht and prevented it from leaving the Scandinavian region. That had to be the reason why he'd left only after he'd made sure that there was no way she could break the metal casts around her hands. That had been why he'd wanted Cagalli to be sent back to Orb- afraid that she would try and get involved.

But she'd always had the luck, hadn't she?

She smiled grimly. Even his own cuffs had failed him and she'd been able to make use of that. He hadn't been expecting her to wake before she reached Orb, she supposed. But she had, and by that time, the cuffs had broken and given her the freedom of her hands. Admittedly, Cagalli had put those to rather good use and quite quickly too. She'd even broken into the brdige and found a knife and gun that he'd left there. Those would serve her well if she needed it.

There was no way that Cagalli could stomach leaving for Orb just because he wanted her to be safe. She had so many things to do- she needed to see Kira again and to tell him all that she'd been unable to in the past. If Athrun was important to her, then Kira was equally dear to her. She'd be damned if she let him risk his neck to find her in Scandinavia.

She'd be damned if she let Athrun ship her back to Orb without her getting to meet Kira immediately. She wanted to find Kira. She wanted to tell him as soon as she could that she'd never blamed him. More than that, she couldn't let Greyfriars use Kira as his pawn.

In front of her, the clear windows showed an indigo, pink and sable sky. Gulls soared momentarily and then disappeared over the head of the yacht. She switched on the visor to see what was happening outside the yacht, and at ground level, the cameras told her that there was a great deal of activity.

From where she was at, she could see a whole line-up of different boats and ships. Some were yachts seemed as innocuous as hers, and some were tea clippers and the others fish trawlers. Apparently, Scandinavia had some pretty rigorous security procedures where their waters were concerned, and Cagalli would have to wait in line to get checked.

It was all fine and dandy then. As it was, the circumference of sea vessels around the port authorities' docks were crowding up the place, and from where she stood, she could see some annoyed fishermen sneaking out of their boats, apparently keen on getting some beer as their turn to be checked would not come any time soon.

Some appeared to be complaining to their companions, and some seemed to be hurrying to some market place with a crate of things in their hands. From where she was, she could see an obvious lack of planning and a concentration of all the port officials at the first ship. It seemed to be flying Germany's flag, and it was massive. From the looks of things, it would take at least another hour to ensure it was entirely safe.

Most of the crew were sneaking out, apparently keen to get to the market place before the sunset. Most of them seemed miffed at having to wait since the time they'd gotten here. At the same time, the men leaving their ships were hidden by the bigger ships that blocked the view of the overworked, understaffed port authorities of Sweden-cum-Scandinavia.

The inefficiency of the checks suggested a great paranoia that the waters were facing, and Cagalli wondered if it had anything to do with the dateline the Galactic Courts had imposed on Scandinavia to produce the Orb Princess and to provide an explanation for her disappearance in their waters.

As it was, Cagalli decided she'd do the same as the impatient traders. It was pointless waiting for them to search this boat to decide she wasn't a threat. There was nothing on it- absolutely nothing except her. She had to make her way to the palace as soon as possible, and waiting for some random authority to come and look into all the rooms of this yacht would set her back by hours.

The smell of salt was clearer than ever, and the elevation of the yacht helped her surmise that she could slip out and leave the authorities their own sweet time to see there was nothing threatening about this yacht anyway.

Gritting her teeth, she exited from the bridge and threw on a coat. With her pants and boots, she grabbed a knife and gun that Athrun had left behind in the room, and she unloaded a plank to use as a passage to the docks.

"Seriously," She heard one businessman cursing, "The Swedish authorities are idiots! They're not going to finish this even by the time the market closes entirely, and it's not like they don't need us traders to do business-,"

She turned, trying to orientate herself and find some kind of reference to the marketplace that she'd just slipped into. At the other side of the massive throng of people, she saw a few other traders leave their ships, totally unnoticed by the highly stressed and distracted authorities who had fewer than twenty people to check at least three hundred ships, small boats and Haumea knew what else.

The sheer number of boats and ships waiting in a messy, unorganized splatter of complaining, rather upset grid acted as a blockade, and she slipped into the crowds that had gathered at the docks to watch the authorities get flustered. These were the locals who had probably just finished their day's activities and were watching the sun set with some evening entertainment unfolding.

With her heavy coat and dull coloured clothes, she was almost lost within them, and the hood around her face was sufficient. She was glad that it was raining slightly and that it gave her an excuse to shield her face, for nobody seemed to notice anything strange about her.

Someone tried to sell her apples and she tottered away, made unsteady by the shoving people around her. Beyond the edge of the dock, there were plenty of people selling things, although they were beginning to pack up.

Bargains were aplenty and there were the key ingredients on sale for a very good dinner. She might as well have been carrying a basket of fish, pretending to hurry home to her waiting children with some leeks sticking out of the same basket.

The cobbled pavement was not easy to walk on and she was suddenly glad that she'd been equipped with comfortable boots.

The crowds pushed around her, and she felt someone sneak his hand into her pocket. Crying out, although it was lost in the crowd, she slipped her hand into her pocket just in time to deter whoever it was that was trying to pickpocket her. She could not afford to waste anymore time.

So Cagalli grabbed the first person she saw who seemed busy enough to not look at her properly, but not flustered enough to ignore her. "Where is the palace?"

The woman answered her in thick, fluid Swedish that she understood little of, then swatted at her hands with an expression of distaste. Cagalli surmised that normal locals didn't go around grabbing at other locals and asking for directions in what was probably a foreign language to this person.

Beyond them, a church bell chimed.

"Er-," She let go of the person, turning around, lost in the gathering evening and all too aware that the night was looming before her.

At the stone-walled bridge, she felt herself being carried away by the crowds. The lamps were flickering into life and those cast shadows everywhere. There were painters packing up their things, getting ready to leave because the darkness was coming and there were too many ships and overworked port officials and ships ruining the view anyway. A beggar was kicked to the side by one, and some grumbled about something she understood very vaguely.

"Excuse me-," The random person she'd tugged at pushed her hard, muttering a curse she didn't get the complete meaning of but enough to understand that he thought she was a beggar. She actually fell to the floor, caught surprised by the force and suddenness of his shove.

Undeterred, she got up as best as she could and tried to look for someone who would tell her where the palace was. There didn't seem to be anything but steeples and no way to tell where to go; what with the people everywhere.

She grabbed another person- a child this time. He was holding paint things, and he seemed to be slower than the others in packing and leaving. Speaking slowly, Cagalli asked, "Where is the palace?"

The boy looked up at her, his cheeks ruddy with the cold wind and his cap a bulge in his pocket. Whoever who had knitted the cap to keep his ears warm had not had the sense to leave the bell out- or the pattern of kittens either. He stared at her, and for one terrible second, she thought he'd recognized her. But he hadn't, and thankfully, he understood what she was saying. "That way, Miss. You want pictures of the palace? I can sell you some- these are cheap,"

He shoved some under her nose, and she saw what she needed to identify the building.

Without another word, she hurried in the direction he'd pointed out to her, her hands firm in her pockets, feeling the gun in there- hoping that nobody would pickpocket her. The tallest steeple was at least twenty kilometers away, even from where she was. Hurrying was the only way to make it and to prevent Kira from meeting Greyfriars, who had presumably found a way to contact him and lure him into Scandinavia.

Four diagonal stone tiles away and with at least forty people in between him and the edge of the bridge, Kira was moving in an opposite direction. Behind and around him, the Orb troops had successfully left their boats and were spreading out in the locus he'd drawn, based on the letter's instructions.

One soldier stood at the bridge, pretending to puff at his pipe while keeping an eye out for any Swedish Royal Guards who might possibly come alone. He Had received particular instructions and he was of the specific team who was to watch out for that group. There were other groups of course, to do other tasks like watching out for other people. But that was not his job.

He thought he saw someone vaguely familiar from the corner of his eye. He blinked, and instantly he did not see anything he thought to be familiar. He cursed himself, trying to focus on spotting the people he'd been tasked to look out for with the rest of this division.

But as all men with a purpose often found, he had little time and consideration for anything else to the point that he was blinded to the most important thing of all.

---

3 days.