Disclaimer: If length and update time is a problem then I should tell you that creating enough story-line is hard because I never really planned this part of the story in great detail. I always seem to think too far ahead, so I'll try and write more for this chapter. Also I'll try to get chapter 25 done before I post 24. This chapter we might finally see Heero and Lacus reunited so enjoy.
Another quick thing. The mistreatment of women appals and sickens me. Such as women being sold into prostitution to pay off family debts, being used as playthings for other people's amusement, women being used as hostages, assaulted, raped, stalked, murdered and underage girls being sold off to men for money. Any man who sexually assaults a woman should be castrated as death is just giving them a quick way out, it's better to have them live the rest of their lives knowing they can never have sex again.
But that's just my opinion.
"Speech"
'Thought,'
"Communications"
Freedom, Justice and Wing-Zero.
Previously.
'I swear you'll pay for this humiliation pilot of Wing-Zero,' Azrael thought. "Very well recall our forces, full retreat,"
30 Minutes later.
Kaguya.
"Excellent work Heero. You gave us the time we needed to load most of our M1s in the Kusanagi and attach boosters to the Archangel. Right now we're in final preparations to destroy our mass driver," Lord Uzumi informed.
"I don't think that'll be necessary. The Earth Forces will be centralising their forces in space to attack the Plants, so they won't have time to worry about Orb. But just to be on the safe side you should start rebuilding Orb's forces once we've launched," Heero advised landing with the Freedom and Justice next to the Buster and Archangel.
And now the Continuation.
It was a sad day to return to space. Despite Heero's advice Lord Uzumi detonated Orb's mass driver minutes after the Archangel and Kusanagi launched into space. Everyone could hear Cagalli's cries as Heero confirmed her father was in the mass driver facility when it exploded. After completing the docking sequence with its two other hull components the Kusanagi retrieved its M1s while Heero kept guard in Wing-Zero, the Freedom and Justice boarded the Orb ship to try and comfort Cagalli. The last thing Lord Uzumi had left his daughter before they parted in the launching bay, was a picture of a woman holding two babies a boy and girl, with a man holding a third infant another boy. On the back of the photograph were the names Kira, Cagalli and Shawn. If what was written was true it meant that Cagalli had two brothers, one who was piloting the stolen X-10A Freedom and the other who was either dead or missing.
"Cagalli, it's Kira and Athrun. Can we come in?" Kira asked from outside her room.
Floating over to the door controls Cagalli unlocked it letting the boys in, keeping her eyes off Kira as she was too confused to look at him directly.
"How're you holding up Cagalli?" Athrun asked taking her hand.
"I'm alright. It's just with watching my homeland being burned by war and my father sacrificing himself, I just feel really warn out," she replied leaning her head on his shoulder.
"I know how you feel, when I watched the destruction of Junius 7, I hoped for a long time that my mother had somehow left before it was destroyed. But I soon realised that I wouldn't be seeing her again and that feeling of deep loss never goes away, it just gets easier to bear," Athrun consoled.
"There's something else it's there?" Kira asked, noticing her right hand hiding in her jacket pocket.
"I don't want to talk about it right now," Cagalli said heading for the door.
Kusanagi Bridge.
Now that they were in space, the question was where to go. With the Earth Forces and the Plants trying to destroy each other, the Archangel and Kusanagi didn't have many options to consider. Mu had actually questioned whether or not Athrun and Dearka could fight against ZAFT seeing how the Freedom and Wing-Zero were two of the biggest targets of both sides.
"So, can we count on you to fight with us or not?" Mu asked, glaring hard at Athrun.
Over on a vid screen, Heero watched patiently for his turn to speak up.
"After the things I've seen in the Plants and throughout the war, I've come to realise that both sides just want to annihilate each other. My father's pushing the Plants to wipe out every last natural and the Earth Forces are the same. But that's not what I want, I don't care that Cagalli's a natural and I'm a coordinator, I love her and that's all that matters to me. I won't let my father's insane ambitions be the cause of her death," Athrun stated defiantly clenching his hands into tight fists.
"Hey, Heero. I think you lovely dovey feelings are contagious," Mu chuckled, earning a slap on the back of his head from Murrue.
"Idiot," She mumbled, smirking inwardly at the butt kissing he'd have to do to get in bed with her tonight. "So any ideas on where we can run and hide?"
"We'd better pick a place soon. I want to get to the Plants and pick up my girlfriend before Zala finds her," Heero said, landing Zero just below the Kusanagi's bridge.
"I recommend we head for the L4 colony group. I've read a report about a group of suspicious people holed up there a while ago but there are still a few working colonies in that area," Athrun suggested.
"It's worth a shot. Zero hasn't picked up anything that could indicate ZAFT or the Earth Forces patrolling the region," Heero informed.
"Well then if everyone's in agreement, the Archangel and Kusanagi will head for the L4 colony group immediately," Murrue said, heading for the elevator.
"Hey Athrun, did you see where Cagalli went?" Kira asked staying behind to wait for the next lift.
"No, I lost sight of her when we left her quarters," Athrun answered, looking at a random spot on the wall. "Heero, can Zero detect where she is?"
"Just leave her be for now, Athrun. She'll come to you in her own time," Heero answered. "Just get over to the Archangel, I need to get back to the Plants soon,"
"There's no need for us to hurry. I was wanting to speak to my father but he'd probably go spouting on about how naturals are own enemy and how it's the only reason we're fighting this war," Athrun said.
"In case you've been living in an alternant reality Athrun, you should know that's exactly what he's been babbling about. Now if you'll excuse me I need to rescue my pink haired goddess," Heero replied transforming Zero into mobile armour mode and jetting off to the plants.
"I hope he rescues Lacus, cause if she's dead then we're all dead," Kira said sombrely.
Plants.
Location: Unknown.
(A/N: you know where they are, I'm just saying it's an unknown location.)
DaCosta had just returned from gathering intelligence on the war, thankful everyone was still alive including Lacus who had been moping for the last two days. She did her best to coordinate the small resistance but her mind always went back to Heero's strong arms wrapped around her naked body. Her only comfort was Aisha who was now like her big sister, she always made sure Lacus ate properly so when Heero came back wouldn't be skin and bones. Today she was looking through all the pictures Heero had taken of them together on her laptop while Aisha combed out her long silken pink hair.
"Miss Lacus, if you're feeling up to it I've got the latest information on the war," DaCosta informed, taking off his coat.
"I could use the distraction," Lacus said half-heartedly, leaving the laptop on an image on a surprised Heero as he had just gotten out of the shower.
"The Earth Forces were able to recapture their Victoria base using their new Mobilesuits, since then they've been increasing the number of troops and supplies being sent to the moon. The theory is that they intend to attack sometime in the near future," DaCosta informed, reading from a printed report he 'acquired' from the intelligence department. "They did however attack Orb, as to use their mass driver for the same reasons but they were driven back, mainly by Wing-Zero,"
"Heero's been busy I see," Aisha pipped in, finished combing Lacus' hair.
"Is there anything else about Heero?" Lacus asked, crawling closer to DaCosta.
"Only that he fought against a new type of Mobilesuit ZAFT captured at Alaska that was manufactured with Gundanium alloy. According to the report submitted by Commander Le Creuset this new machine the Helsion has the same cockpit system as Wing-Zero," DaCosta answered, handing the report to Lacus.
"This must have happened when we were on the Archangel. Someone probably stole the formula for Gundanium and taken one of the Zero System control cards," Lacus surmised, reading over the documents.
"As for us, Commander Waltfeld has recommended we leave sooner than we planned. He says Chairman Zala has increased the amount of troops looking for you and your father. And we shouldn't wait for Heero to return," DaCosta suggested.
"But if we leave now Heero might not be able to find us. You know what will happen to the Plants and Earth if Lacus is killed by ZAFT," Aisha reminded.
"That's why the Commander thought we should go by Jachin Due when we escape. He knows it's risky but he thinks Wing-Zero is already on its way and Heero already knows the specifications of the Eternal. But if we don't leave soon we will fail our primary objective, to keep Lacus from harm," DaCosta argued.
"I agree with Mr. DaCosta, we should leave immediately," Lacus said, getting to her feet. "Heero's on his way right now and it would be better to meet up with him than to wait for him to return to the Plants. If we go by Jachin Due we'll have to get by the ZAFT forces stationed there, and we'll be alerting Heero that we've left the Plants. That way he can come to my rescue,"
"You're putting yourself in danger just so you can be rescued?" DaCosta asked in confusion. "What if Heero doesn't make it in time?"
"I have faith that he will," Lacus whispered, packing her special outfit.
Earth Forces Mobilesuit Carrier Plane.
En route to Victoria Base.
Same Time.
"Is everything alright, Mr. Azrael? You seem upset about something," Captain Sutherland asked, as the carrier began its decent.
"Upset isn't the right word to describe how I feel at this moment. More like royally pissed off and humiliated!" Azrael growled, glaring at Sutherland. "It should have been easy for us to occupy Orb and their mass driver, but instead we got our asses handed to us on a silver platter! And all because of Wing-Zero and those other two machines!"
"You were luck to be able to tell me this if you went up against Wing-Zero," Sutherland said, feeling the jolt as the carrier touched down. "It is by far the most powerful Mobilesuit inexistence,"
"Just because it's powerful doesn't mean it's not invincible, we just have to overpower it! But because of those other two machines the Calamity, Raider and Forbidden can't get the job done!" Azrael hissed.
"You're forgetting the machine we had developed using the Gundanium alloy formula. It could have been used against Wing-Zero if ZAFT hadn't attacked Joshua when they did, forcing us to destroy the base and the Helsion with it," Sutherland replied. "We even had a pilot especially picked out for it,"
"It wasn't destroyed at Alaska, it fought against Wing-Zero at Orb and held its own for while," Azrael explained, a blank expression on his face. "The only reason it retreated that I can think of was it ran out of power,"
"Yes, it's unfortunately that we didn't get the reactor schematics for Wing-Zero. Then maybe we would have an effective weapon against those space monsters," Sutherland growled, tasting bile at the thought of losing the war to the coordinators. Stepping out of the carrier as the Calamity, Raider and Forbidden unloaded themselves.
"But don't forget we were the ones who let them flourish in numbers. However with the Extendeds, we should be able to eliminate every last one of them," Azrael chuckled evilly, as the three machines boarded a shuttle headed for space. "I'll go and take care of the problem, permanently,"
Disclaimer: Ok so, the Archangel and Kusanagi have made it to space and Cagalli has discovered she has two brothers instead of just Kira. I'll be having Shawn discover the truth sometime during or after the Mendel colony incident. And I'd like some suggestions as to what Lacus' outfit is instead of her purple kimono, I personally was thinking a long sleeved leotard or something that shows off more leg, so I leave the choice open for suggestions. See you all in chapter 24.