Sorry for the long wait! Chapter 8 up!

Thanks so much to those who still keep track of this fic! Thank you so much!

"What's your name?"

Shinn looked back at the blonde girl who lay on the bed. Her wrists still cuffed to both sides of the bed as well as her feet. "What?"

The blonde girl forced a small smile. She was now wearing an oxygen mask. Her eyes droggy and tired. Her body unmoving only the small rise and fall of her chest can be noticed. "What's your name?"

Shinn kept quiet first staring at the girl questioningly. The doctors had been out again. They were suddenly called and as he had heard, the one who was caught with the girl was also having a seizure. Confirming his suspicion that they are all Extended's from earth. His thoughts drifted back to the girl infront of him."Shinn."

The girl smiled wider and Shinn felt a sharp pang in his chest. The past days had been a craze inside the small room and he always made sure that he was present on the room everyday since the first time he came. He felt an unknown emotion just from looking at her struggles and it intensified as her pain became severe, her trashing restricted and her cries became silent. Shinn could only look away at her pain and when everything calms down, he would need to leave and when he looks back. He would see her breathing heavily and her eyes clouded with unshed tears, but she will unfailingly still give him a weary smile and mouthed the words that he was sure was the reason he kept coming back everyday. And it broke his heart more as he steps out of the room, away from her.

"Shinn?" she asked wearily, a small faint smile on her lips. "...What?"

"Shinn..." he paused contemplating wether to give her his full name or not. "Shinn Asuka."

She closed her eyes as if she was smiling wider. "Shinn...Asuka?" she said his name barely a whisper. "It suits you."

Then she looked at him again, her faint smile still intact. "My name's Stellar. Stellar Louissier."

Shinn was dumbfounded, Although he already knows, he was still stunned as to why the girl just gave him, who was wearing a ZAFT red uniform, her full name.

"Shinn."

Shinn snapped back. Not knowing what to react. "Uh..yeah?"

"Shinn...Shinn"

"...Yes?"

"Shinn...Shinn" she continued to sing his name. Her eyes closed.

Shinn found himself walking near the blonde who was still saying his name. Chanting it like some prayer. "What is it?" he brushed a strand of hair that was falling on her face. Noticing that her face was gravely pale, her lips cracked and her eyelids heavy as she opened them slowly and gazed straight at his eyes.

"Shinn." she said looking at him expectantly.

He nodded. "Yes?"

"Please be my friend."

He heard himself answer even before he can think. "Sure."

Stellar giggled softly. "I made a new friend."

The soldier smiled gently. She was laughing. Although it can't be considered as a laugh, it still made his heart burst. He never really imagined her laughing or giggling. The only thing he can hear from her voice is the sound of her crying in pain. It made him happy to hear that from her.

"Call me Stellar, alright Shinn."

The soldier nodded. "Alright, then. Stellar."

She giggled again making Shinn smile wider. "We need to celebrate. Ah! I know a hotdog stand at the park. Heine and I celebrated there with Cagalli when she first became my friend. Then we went to an Ice cream stand and then Heine prepared a feast that night."

Shinn listened intently to Stellar as she talked and talked. He nodded at times guesturing to the blonde that he was listening. She was smiling. They were talking. Shinn did not know and how often he had unconciously wished to hear her voice and talk to her. He knowingly pushed behind the fact that this girl, who he knows had caught his attention, is the girl who had infiltrated their base, killed many of his own race and had fought with him in near equal terms with him in his Mobile Suit and her in the stolen one. He just smiled with her, silently praying that her seizure would not, never come up again.

"Kira!" Athrun still shocked at the whole scene unfolded right before his eyes.

The brunette held the gun, never wavering. "I said, release her."

The man in the white coat looked from the intruder and then to his Chairman. Confussion and Fear evident on his eyes.

"Kira what are you doing?! This is a violation of the ..."

"I said release her!" Kira shouted not heading any of the words of his best friend.

Soon more guards started barging in the room and immediately surrounded Kira, guns raising directly at him. Some went in front of Athrun, shielding him. Kira, unfazed about being the target of so many guns around him, stood his ground, still eyeing the man in the white coat.

Athrun looked at his best friend, still trying to process everything that happened. Surely his best friend is still on his right mind. Suddenly running inside this room, bringing out a gun and demanding to release this terrorist that they have confined is really absurd.

Maybe something happened within those two years of his dissapearance. Maybe he's not the Kira he knew before. Maybe within those years his loyalties changed.

But maybe their friendship did not, Right?

"Kira, lets talk about this" He reasoned with the brunette. His voice as calm as he can process.

"Not until they release her, Athrun" he answered, not moving.

"But that person is a criminal! This is not like you!"

"Just release her, please." His voice less stern, less demanding and more calm. "We'll talk after. I promise I'll explain everything." Athrun swear he imagined Kira's face having a faint smile as he said this.

Athrun then knew. That's Kira. It was his friend talking.

"Do as he say." Athrun said looking directly at the man on the white coat who is still shocked and scared.

The man swallowed the lump on his throat and shakily reached for the computer beside the screaming blonde inside the metal pod that encased her and punched some buttons. The pod immediately opened as the man stepped back. Kira his gun still at hand went to the blonde then reached into his pocket a small syringe and placed it above the arm of the girl, injecting it on the blonde. Guns following Kira's every movement.

Cagalli stopped screaming, shortly after, her body stopped moving as conciousness left her. Kira immediately unclasped the metals that bind Cagalli to the bed inside the pod and carried her out. Kira then shifted his attention from the blonde in his arms to his best friend who was now infront of the guards that steadily held their gun, ready to shoot if he did something more.

Athrun stepped forward leaving the comforts of protection from his guards and faced Kira, his eyes never leaving his friends'. "Care to explain now?"

"Send them away first" Kira said, mentioning the others that are still in the room.

"You are in no position to make other demands, Kira"

Kira's eyes soften. "Please, Athrun"

Athrun knew that it would get them nowhere if he insisted. He sighed and ordered the multiple guards that surround them to leave and take the doctor with them. But one guard reasoned and that it is not appropriate to let their Chairman be inside the same room with an armed man. Athrun raised his hand effectively stopping the guard.

"Leave. No one is to talk about this outside."

"But sir! Atleast take one or two guards with you."

"Don't worry. I am perfectly capable of protecting myself. Besides.." He eyed Kira. "I believe this person has no guts to open fire."

The soldier tried to reason again but stopped when he saw his Chairman glare at him from his shoulder. His emerald eyes stoned and cold, the same as his voice. "Leave"

The guard saluted then left, the others followed after taking the doctor from the room.

He faced the brunnette waiting for the last person to leave the room leaving the two of them with the unconcious blond the only ones left inside the room.

"What the hell is going on here?!" Athrun shouted already unable to control his emotions.

Kira looked at the ground, not meeting his friends eyes. "Sorry"

"Sorry? Sorry doesn't cut it! Do you know what your actions can lead to?! You just barge in this room and bring out a gun and treathen one of its staff knowing full well that firearms or any kind of weaponry is not allowed here! This is a private facility under Zaft! Under me, Kira! I gave you my trust!Does that not matter to you?!"

"Well, still...I'm sorry." Kira said softly but it did not lessen the anger of his friend.

"Explain yourself now." He said trying to calm down from his outburst. "I'll decide what kind of charges I'll file after I've heard your explenation."

Turning his back from his raging friend. The brunet bend down and placed the blonde carefully on the ground in a sitting position below the table behind him. He brushed his fingers on the fringes that fall on the blonde's closed eyelids befor standing up and facing his friend once again, if he's still allowed to call him his friend.

"As you have known, I left ORB sometime after the War ended two years ago. I've been wandering these past years on different countries on Earth" He said, his violet eyes now on Athrun's. "And I've found something...disturbing"

Athrun did not say anything prompting the brunet to continue.

"I was inside one of the Earth Alliance Territory looking for something. The war already ended at that time and peace treaties were already being signed. I looked through some of their files and something caught my attention. I then learned that they have files concerning the production of the Artificial produced human machines, their so called Extendeds and there are records concerning the facility and its productions. So I investigated a little further about it. It was not that difficult but securities are still tight especially among us Coordinators.b I had some connections on the Earth Alliances Territory and I've used that to my advantages."

"I don't understand what your talking about." Athrun said. "This is irrelev..."

"LOGOS" Kira cut him.

Athruns eyes widen. "What?"

"After the war, Blue Cosmos and its members who called themeselves Logos were suppose to be gone, destroyed, disbanded whatever you want to call it. But those files about Extendeds lead me to something that is suppose to be gone after the Peace treaty's were signed. And that is Blue Cosmos and its last remaining members, the Logos. ButI think they don't plan on making another war seeing they have little to no resources to do so, But they still hold on to their beliefs that Coordinators are not needed in their blue and pure world. I dont think that even the Earth Alliance knows about them too. But they are building their army in the shadows. Some of them are already on the loose executing whatever orders they recieve."

Kira reached his pocket and took out a disk and held it for Athrun to see "Inside this disk are the data's that I have collected within the past years concerning this group and their activities."

Athrun moved walking from side to side "This is bad. If this information you have said is true then we should already make arrangements to stop them incase they do something that may spark another war. I will have a team go down to earth and investigate this. " Athrun looked at the sleeping blond behind Kira "I need more so to keep that girl into Plants' custody. She may just be a member of Logos"

Kira smiled. "I'm flattered that you did not even doubt the things that I have said to you." He turned sideways and looked at the blonde sleeping soundly on the floor. "She is not a part of Logos."

"I say she is." Athrun looked at Kira "and what about you?"

"I am just a man trying to protect what's important to him." His smile never leaving his face as he turned to look at Athrun.

"On what I have seen on your actions you protected nothing." Kira stayed silent which annoyed Athrun more "Who is that girl?"

"She is one of the experiments Logos has been doing in the shadows. I found her when I snuck in one of their supposed hide outs."

"Is she an Extended?"

"No. She's.." Kira stopped thinking of the right words to say "...different"

"What do you mean different? "

"Logos has been making a way to perfect the creation of Extendeds, one that can rival Coordinators. Children were kidnapped for that purpose and no one knew about them during the war since all of them failed. So the only ones sent on the battlefield are the failures that survived. She is of Natural birth and is taken to be made as one of the Extendeds but with different and more advanced procedures and equipments. You can say she is one of the test subjects for that project and is a living proof that it is a success."

Athrun started to pace around the room once again. His hand covering the lower half of his face as he started to think. With what he just heard from Kira, A war will surely rise one way or another and the Logos will surely put up a fight with this. When the war started between Plants and Earth Alliance they sent out Extendeds on the battlefield and the fight did not last that much since the Extendeds are still Naturals and their abilities are not that like the Coordinators, but It was still difficult, too difficult for the Coordinators and even Naturals. Many Coordinators were killed by them and since they are emotionally and psychologically unstable they even kill their own kind.

That was when they are 'failures'.What more if they were not?

His train of thoughts were halted as he heard Kira speak "Do not worry Athrun. She is the only one."

He felt a little relieved. But only a little. There was still one on the loose, it was right infront of him and ironically is being protected by his best friend. A Coordinator.

"How?" he asked. "How can you be sure that she is the only one? They may be making more like her at this very moment."

Kira shook his head. "She's the only one."

The both of them kept silent. Athrun thought about the things the brunnette said and then asked the question that was on his mind for some time.

"So why are you protecting her? Is it because she is a rare one or you just allied yourself with logos in the time you dissapeared."

"I told you that I'm just a man trying to protect what's important."

"Your saying that terrorist is important? To you?"

"I assure you she is no terrorist. She did what she did because she has no other choice."

"She tried to kill me Kira. I am more than positive that she is one." Athrun glared at the blonde behind the brunnete " One sent by Logos"

"Athrun she is not a terrorist and she is not from Logos." Kira said firmly.

"Then why did she try to kill me? The group, her group, infiltrated and destroyed several base here. I do not see any reason to think otherwise, but if I am wrong then tell me. Who is she? "

Kira said nothing then closed his eyes inhaling air into his lungs and letting it out. Athrun waited for his answer but none came. Frustrated, he ran his fingers on his hair "Just tell me who the..."

"She's my sister."

Kira finally said. Athrun stopped his hands on top of his head then looked at the brunette. He then looked at the blonde, letting his hand fall beside him.

"That's.." Still shocked and lost for words on the revelation. He knew that Kira has a sister since he knew him. The only blood family that was left of Kira before he was adopted. Kira told him that when it was revealed to him that he was the Ultimate Coordinator they also revealed that he has a twin and that they were seperated since birth. He did not spoke about it again and it was never brought up by him or Lacus. But after the war, It was one of his and Lacus' speculation when he decided to suddenly disappear. Looking for his only blood relative in the now peaceful era.

The shock Athrun felt was short lived as it was replaced by confusion and hurt. If she is Kira's sister then did he not know of the attack that was planned on Zaft HQ? Did he not know that by doing that he is letting his sister, his only relative to fall right into death's hands?

"D..did you know..?" He was able to ask. His legs nearly gave away when he saw the brunette nod.

"Yes." Kira looked at his friend who was unable to move. "I was with her when it was said that killing the Chairman of Plants is her next assignment."

Athrun felt time stopped for a moment. He was the target all along. "W..Why" Athrun was already having difficulty on breathing. The person who saved him countless times. The person whom he can trust with his life. His bestfriend just betrayed him.

"Because I was sure that you will not kill her and neither will she be able to kill you."

"What if you were wrong!" Anger rised inside Athrun. This person just made a gamble on his and his sisters life. "What if she was killed! What if I killed her! And what if she succeded on killing me! Is it fun for you to know we are throwing our lives on the line!?"

"I just know." Kira smiled. Athrun was tempted to run and just punch his friends face. Taking a deep breath, he tried to clear his thoughts and emotions. There were far more important things that he should bother with.

"You know that I will not hand her over." Athrun said trying to keep his voice neutral. "She is still under Plants law and on that law she is a criminal punishable by death."

" I know and I don't plan on taking her with me" Kira sighed. "I have a favor to ask of you, Athrun."

"You have no right..." Athrun said immediately. He was tempted to say that he has no right to even say his name but swallowed it before it was said out loud.

"Then an exchange." Kira walked to Athrun until they were only three feets away. He handed out the disk infront of the both of them. "This file contains all you needed to know about the Logos activities on their experiments and their plans to revive their group. I also have records about the people involved but I will only give it to you if you agree to give me your consent."

Athrun was dumbfounded. He never remembered his friend like this before. But he has gone missing for years, Maybe it changed something in him.

"What do you want?"

Kira turned and looked at the person sleeping behind him before looking at him again. "She will stay here, but you will take care of her. You will not let anyone or know of her origin or let any harm come to her."

Athrun touched his forehead "I cannot guarantee that" He said not making his shock apparent on his voice. He had one too many surprises for the day already. "As I said she is a criminal punishable by death, It is not only my decision on what charges to give her."

"Tell them that you need her alive. Tell them that she can provide information about Logos."

Athrun thought for a moment. They can interrogate her if she is alive but he does not know how many people wants her dead than alive. But if he told them that she is a hybrid of a Extended and that Logos is still crawling on the Earth Sphere. Well, all hell might break loose.

He looked at the disk on Kira's hands. If he is making an exchange with that for his sister's safety then the contents of the disk may be extremely valuable. He might just need it to stop a war. It might help him protect his people's lives and prolong the state of peace they are in now.

"What about the alliances on Earth?"

"I have not yet revealed this to the other alliances. I want to first make sure that none of the government officials active are taking part on this group. I will have this further investigated once I return to ORB and I will secretely pass on inform to you about this. But once Logos makes their move I will not help you."

"Orb's law huh."

Kira nodded "Orb will not attack another nation, will not allow another nation to attack them, and will not intervene in the conflicts of other nations."

"By doing this you are clearly breaking that, you know?"

Kira smiled faintly. "Right now, I am acting not as an Orb Official, but as Kira, one who just wants the people important to him safe."

"Well then, Kira." He said, the tension between them slowly fading. "How sure are you that I will not make a scene and reveal this to the public? Or that I will stand by our agreement and help aid you in hiding your sister?"

"I trust you." Kira raised the gun he was holding, his arm outstretched to its full length pointing it at Athrun then pulled the trigger.

Looking at his wide eyed friend, he retreated his hand and pointed the gun on the ceiling showing the tip of the magazine to him.

Clearly there was a white price tag attached to it.

"I always have."

Thanks for reading!