Update: Tweaked/rewritten September 2020.

Harmony

The cleanup was tricky. Surveying the damage and head count, Eclipse knew, deep down, she shouldn't just leave the bodies there, but other ideas were eluding her. The groaning that had been happening to her left had stopped a few minutes ago, but she had walked over to check anyway. Putting back on her helmet, she found the struggling soldier and, sure enough, he had passed not too long ago. Despite the rather bleak circumstances, she sighed. Greed had said her name and her affiliation out loud so she probably wouldn't be able to let him live even if that would have been the more merciful of the options.

Her thoughts went to the friendly sniper and she attempted to shout a few words up towards his hiding place, but there was no reply. Most likely, he had fled because there had been plenty of times to put a bullet in her head and she was still standing. That also meant the cleanup was on her and her alone.

It wasn't hard to make the leap it was a meeting that had gone terribly wrong, but if anyone looked at the scene any closer, they might see her involvement and even the sniper's. Was it an issue? Eclipse really didn't know. She had never really dealt with the aftereffects of her doings, so to speak, so this was new territory even for her. Would ZAFT protect her if someone came knocking?

She would have to find out.

The artificial light had set by that time and she was drenched in a level of darkness and silence that made her shiver. She made a quick adjustment with her helmet and her night vision clicked on, seeing the satellite in an eerie array of greens and greys that sent her hastily making her way out of the warehouse and back to her GINN. She would need to check the opposite port where the exchange between the EA and SIN-ED was supposed to take place and her suit was the fastest form of transport. If she was lucky, the goods would also be there.

The exhaustion hit her almost immediately as she left the warehouse, her mind sharp one moment and then completely exhausted the next. She was beginning to recognize the phenomena and despite the heightened senses, the immediate aftermath was beginning to take its toll. New scrapes and bruises started to burn as her sweat seeped into the wounds, and her knees and ankles throbbed, most likely from being forced to absorb the impact of her jumping from that catwalk previously. She cursed, but had no choice but to move forward.

Her mind drifted back to the sniper as she walked. While she hadn't seen the full extent of his handiwork, she could tell he was a good shot. Eclipse's kill count had been satisfactory, so that meant the sniper had either done the rest of the work or SIN-ED and the EA had indeed turned on each other. She hadn't seen much of the scuffle on the main floor, so there was a possibility for either scenario. If Eclipse ever did meet the sniper, she would have to be careful. Somehow their partnership then seemed more like one of convenience than planned. She dreaded the day they might have to meet for real.

The GINN had just diploid the mirage colloid roughly 10 minutes before the redhead had reached the harbor. She applauded herself for the time accuracy, but the celebration was short-lived. She still had some things to do before she could leave and the thought of possibly engaging more hostiles in her exhausted state was not comforting. Greed smirked across her vision then, the final smile on his face haunting her as she put a foot on the zip chord and slipped into the cockpit. Perhaps she was a monster, she figured, thinking back on the past couple of hours and even her days prior to Heliopolis. Or, if she wasn't, what was she?

The thought, strangely, haunted her and she had to shake her head to get Greed's smile out of her head once more. She couldn't afford to let it bother her. Switching off both the colloid and her night vision, she maneuvered out of the harbor and made her way to the opposite port.

Eclipse didn't expect anything to be there, she realized then, and found herself relieved. There were skid marks on the floor and some obvious movement of debris, but if anyone had indeed been there from the exchange, they had fled a while ago.

Leaving the harbor, and then ultimately the colony itself, the redcoat switched on the colloid again and sighed, leaving Greed and his insane observations behind.

Or so she hoped.

Eclipse arrived back at the Vesalius earlier than planned, but her untimely coming was a welcomed sight to Le Creuset. He ordered her to report to his office as soon as the GINN was docked, and had the redhead saluting at his desk in the matter of minutes.

The first thing he noticed about his soldier was her condition. While her hair may have been patted down, there were still random stragglers and after closer inspection, he noted some dry blood near a cut in her forehead. Her face and hands were filthy—even though she took an extra second to wash them both—and by observing her stance, he could see moisture around an open wound on her knee seeping through her uniform. On top of all that, however, she was exhausted.

Now he was curious.

"Lunar Eclipse, report."

"Sir, both SIN-ED and the Earth Forces were there as planned, but their numbers were far fewer than anticipated. Only eight from SIN-ED and seven from the Earth Forces were at the meeting, but I'm positive more were in the harbor with the goods."

"And what goods would that be?"

"I don't know for certain, but one of the SIN-ED members mentioned it was enough firepower to equip a warship, though I expect that to be more of an exaggerated statement. Either that or they have some serious connections to the EA."

"Did you get any more information about the drop?"

"No, sir. Another assassin came on the field to start the battle prematurely, so the conversation was cut short."

"Another assassin, you say?" Eclipse nodded and Le Creuset leaned forward with his hands folded near his lips. "Do you know anything about this person?"

They're reckless, she thought, but said, "No sir," instead.

"But you're sure they were there to stop the meeting?"

"They took out Earth Forces and SIN-ED members alike, but based on their grand entrance I don't think they were there to gather information."

"A rash move on his part then," the commander said, taking a moment to think things over. Patrick Zala had mentioned Eclipse getting some help on the missions, but was sending a nameless assassin really what he had in mind? Sounded a bit careless even by Le Creuset's standards, especially since Eclipse hadn't seemed to be aware of the backup. "Did this sniper shoot at you?" She shook her head and he averted his gaze to look off to the side. Was there another group going after SIN-ED? Or were they there to assassinate the EA soldiers?

He sighed and leaned back, deciding to think more on it later. There were too many unknowns. "The goods were gone, though, I take it?"

"Yes, sir."

"I see…" He tapped his finger on the desk. He would have liked to know what the EA was giving SIN-ED and even more so, he wanted to know why. Eclipse seemed just as skeptical as he did, if he was reading her words and expressions correctly. Either SIN-ED had some fairly important ties in the EA, or the EA saw something very tempting about keeping SIN-ED as an ally. "Did you confirm who this Greed was?" he asked after another moment.

"He was SIN-ED representative and a fellow trainee at Januarias 4."

"Was he now? Anyone we should be worried about?"

"He's dead, sir." Her tone gave no room for argument and he found himself both surprised and impressed.

"Very good. Any others you recognized?"

"No, sir, but a few names came up in the conversation: Pride, Gluttony, and Envy."

"Obviously, they're copying the seven deadly sins," he remarked. "But is it merely to hide their true identities? Or maybe they have a form of a republic instead of a dictatorship? That could be a reason for no civil unrest, but that also means there could be seven different agendas floating around the organization." He tapped the desk again. Would they tolerate something so dangerous as seven different agendas? There had to be something he was missing—some sort of common motive that was keeping them all together.

"I'll look into it, sir," Eclipse said simply and he looked at her again. Admittedly, he thought it would be much harder than this to get her to look into and track SIN-ED. Perhaps there was no loyalty there after all.

"Very good. I'll let you retire long enough to freshen up, but time isn't a luxury at the moment, unfortunately. Currently, we're making plans to attack the 'Legged Ship' and the Lunar Fleet stationed not far from our position. We believe the 'Legged Ship' is trying to make it to Earth and this might be our last chance to apprehend them in outer space. Everyone's at the Gamow and right now, I want you to join them. If anything, that ship has the refill for the colloid and since there's some tune-ups for the new GINNs still going on, your best bet for any last-minute repairs is on that ship."

"Yes, sir."

"You are dismissed then."

She saluted and left the office, making her way back to her room instead of dropping her suit off at the locker room. She would have to get it cleaned, most likely, and since she only had the time to shower quickly and put on her ZAFT uniform, any sort of relief for her exhaustion would have to wait.

Eclipse arrived in the Gamow's hanger as soon as she could, dropping off her GINN with the nearest mechanic eager to refill the colloid and make any needed adjustments. She wasn't about to deny the offer and thanked him quickly before removing her helmet and making her way to the locker room. Changing out of her suit, she headed further into the ship in search of her teammates. From what she gathered, she was supposed to meet them there, but what Le Creuset expected after that, she didn't know.

Pleasantries weren't really on the list of conversation topics.

She heard the exchange before she saw it and sighed, stopping outside of the infirmary and gathering up the strength to go inside. This would be the first time three of her new teammates would see her in her shiny new red uniform and based on Dearka's famous scoff and the two-minute version of Yzak's injury, it seemed they were all quite annoyed and primed for an argument.

Taking one last sigh she opened the door and stepped in. All eyes went to her immediately and she held her hands up at her sides. "Am I interrupting something?"

The infirmary could hold a total of two beds, one on each side of the room. Yzak was sitting on the bed to the right with Dearka standing near his side and opposite of her as she came in. Nicol and Athrun were to her left near the other bed, both standing with their arms crossed. Was this a scolding or a team meeting?

"When did you get back?" Athrun asked next, genuinely surprised to see her walk through the door.

"About an hour. I was told to meet you all here."

"You look awful," Yzak sneered, but really he was in no position to say anything. He was pale with a large bandage covering most of his face on the right side. He sat hunched over in nothing more than a blue shirt and boxers, glancing every now and again at the trashcan near his left foot. If he ended up using it, Eclipse was out of there.

She cocked an eyebrow at the comment, but didn't offer a reply other than a shrug.

"You don't look much better," Nicol retorted in her place. Yzak frowned, but said nothing more, his anger losing to his exhaustion, most likely.

"Where'd ya go?" Dearka asked, the curiosity on his face clear. None of them knew about her new little arrangement with the team so the interest was warranted, but she was also not obligated to tell them anything.

"No where important."

"Given a rookie job, were ya?" Yzak mocked, involuntarily wincing when he tried to smirk.

Eclipse gave a wry laugh. "Something like that." A small silence passed. They were probably expecting her to explain more, but that wasn't about to happen so Nicol changed topic.

"Do you know what the plan is now, Athrun?"

Athrun nodded slowly. "We're going to attack the Lunar Fleet and destroy the 'Legged Ship' before it descends to Earth. At least that's what we're supposed to do, but it's not going to be that easy."

"It's not called a 'fleet' for nothing, y'know," Dearka said with a sigh. Eclipse watched him closely after the statement, realizing his sigh had betrayed his cold demeanor before. He seemed shaken and a brief look down at Yzak might have answered the question for her. Whatever had happened in the battle to cause that particular injury had left him with a little bit of guilt to work through, it seemed. Although, she thought, still looking at Yzak. I have a feeling that injury is his fault and his alone.

His anger must have been what tipped her off.

"Yes, but we've failed so many times at getting that ship. If it gets to Earth without us pulling a trigger, we'll be the new court jesters in the ZAFT army," Nicol said.

"I think we're already a freak show," Dearka muttered.

"That damn Strike can be blamed for everything!" Yzak hissed, lifting a fist in the air to add flavor, however, the others weren't impressed, especially the redcoat standing across from him. Athrun looked away at the declaration and straight into the gaze of Eclipse. They locked stares for a moment before another comment by Nicol broke them apart.

She knew more than he thought she did.

"But it's just one mobile suit."

"With surprisingly good luck," Yzak said.

Or is it skill, I wonder? Eclipse thought, deciding not to voice her opinions out loud.

"Well, whatever the reason, we have to come up with some way to destroy it or it'll get us," Dearka said.

"Just leave him to me," Yzak announced to the annoyance of the others. Did he ever quit?

"You're in no condition to—"

"Shut up, Athrun! You haven't done any good against him either! You've had plenty of chances to destroy him, you bas—"

"Enough!" Nicol yelled, jumping up from his chair to intervene. Dearka and Eclipse just sighed. "With things as they are now, we won't even get to the 'Legged Ship' let alone face the Strike. Can we please learn the melody before we start playing in four-part harmony?"

"Huh?" Dearka asked, cocking an eyebrow.

"Four part what?" Athrun added.

"I'm not doing any harmonizing with you guys," Yzak said, not able to mask the disgust on his face. Apparently, he was connecting the musical term with something perverted and judging by who was in the room, Eclipse could see why he was appalled.

Covering up a smirk she turned away as Nicol tried to clean up his mess.

"My point is, we have a whole fleet to take out before we can get to the 'Legged Ship,' so let's focus on that, shall we?"

"Fine, but what more is there to do then hack and slash?" Dearka asked, causing a few raised eyebrows and an eyeroll from Eclipse. This was ridiculous.

"Can we keep the metaphors to a minimum? I think we're all getting headaches," Athrun suggested.

"Yzak already had a headache," Nicol grumbled.

"Damnit, Nicol, I've had a fuckin' migraine."

Athrun sighed, and Eclipse watched him frown, seeming to go back into his thoughts and probably wishing everyone would just calm down. His childhood friend might have been the source of that thinking and Eclipse found her exhaustion coming rumbling back in that moment. Her fingers went to her temple and she massaged the spot, easing the headache away.

"Well, as entertaining as this all is, if no one has a decent plan I say we break this little pow wow and reconvene later. Maybe. Depends on if any of you want to actually plan something or just keep shouting at each other." Her hand dropped back to her side and she shrugged. "I have a lot to do before we commit social suicide, so I'm bailing."

"You're just going to go out there blind?" Dearka asked.

"Whether it's you guys who come up with something, or the commander himself, it doesn't matter to me. I'm not involved in this; just tell me where you need me to be and what you want me to do. That's my job. You guys are the strategists. As it stands, however, you've made it fairly obvious none of you can really work together, so either you seriously make the effort to come up with a plan or do just as Dearka says, go out blind. Either way, I have things to do."

She left after the statement, leaving either behind her either seething or surprised teammates. Even Yzak who always had some kind of comeback, sat with his mouth agape. "When did she get balls?"

"Dear God, let's not go there," Dearka muttered next to him.

Any maintenance on her GINN was finished as soon as she changed into her pilot suit and arrived in the hangar, leaving her to do a final diagnostic and adjust as needed. Her exhaustion was practically unavoidable by that point and she had to take a deep breath to calm down when she settled down in the cockpit. Grabbing the keyboard to her right, she noticed her hands were shaking and she rubbed them together. Shit.

"Ready when you are," a mechanic called from the hangar floor.

"Good to go," she responded and the diagnostics began.

She took another steadying breath and leaned back in her chair. This war was going to end quickly if those four were some of the up-in-coming pilots and the pride and joy of the ZAFT military. And it wasn't going to be a positive end.

Nicol probably had the most level head of the four, but still he was too soft to control the others. Yzak was on a personal vendetta and didn't give a damn about the rest of the crew. Dearka wasn't far behind with his guilt trip and Athrun was still too afraid to open up and help.

It was all so ridiculous.

Then again, she wasn't trained as a war tactician, so perhaps she had no right to judge. Seeing the bigger picture for a large number of people wasn't really her forte. Hell, she could barely get out of her own head to figure out what to do about FS and Stray. Whatever happened with the 'Legged Ship,' she realized, she didn't really care about. She had no vendetta, no want for personal glory, nothing really. She wanted the old Stray and FS back, and despite knowing that was a distant dream, she still couldn't shake the possibility it might come to pass.

Closing her eyes, she rested her head back against the headrest, flexing her fingers when she felt them shake once more. She was exhausted and she knew it was from more than just her most recent rendezvous with Greed. His words haunted her more than she had cared to admit at the time and now that she had a chance to reflect on them, she found herself scared. Had he actually gone insane, or should she be worried? The Berserker, whatever meaning that had, was beginning to define her, so much so others she had no real connection with were beginning to recognize it even if they weren't using the same terminology. Sitting there absently rubbing her hands together to mask their shaking she couldn't help but wonder if it was all a bad omen.

"Eclipse, hey, are you all right?" Athrun had asked, his voice quiet in the distance. He must have come to find her after they had left the infirmary. Maybe they had actually come up with a plan.

"Should we be worried?" Nicol asked, most likely standing near his comrade. It wasn't until Athrun asked again that she sighed and crossed her arms over her chest, opening her eyes and looking at them both.

"You guys come up with a plan?" Athrun and Nicol shared a look and she mimicked the frown on their lips. "Yes?"

"You sure you should even sortie?" Nicol asked.

She shrugged. "Why not?" They looked at each other again and she sighed, one shaky hand moving to rub her forehead. "I'm fine and not really worth worrying about. Just tell me what you need me to do."

There was an awkward pause as she tried rubbing out the headache behind her eyes and her machine beeped, announcing the end of the diagnostic test. She almost spoke up again when Athrun finally said something.

"I think I've decided to keep you out of this plan." He gestured to the hand at her forehead as if that said it all. "You're a liability right now and we can't afford any more mistakes."

"Athrun…" Nicol began but he didn't argue and even the look on the younger pilot's face proved he was having similar doubts.

Eclipse was unamused. Her hand slipped back down as she crossed her arms one again, her exhaustion shifting to anger as her eyes narrowed. "I'm sure you both think you're being noble or something." Their surprise at her remark was clear and she felt herself scowl. "My mental or physical capacity is of no concern of yours. We're all dealing with our own inner demons, aren't we?" Her eyes shifted to Athrun and he tensed, but whether it was from her words or her look, she didn't know. Nicol had grown still through the exchange, but the Berserker had little desire to figure out the reason for it. "Now, I'll ask you again, what's the plan?"

"What the hell was that?" Nicol asked, turning to Athrun as the two entered the locker room. He seemed out of breath, as if the whole ordeal had taken him so off guard his lungs had forgotten how to function. Perhaps Athrun felt the same, he realized, having to take a steadying breath himself.

"No idea." He turned slightly to watch the door close behind him and shook his head as if trying to dislodge the memory. "It was more than just exhaustion though."

"Should we be worried?"

The question made Athrun pause for a moment and looking over at his fellow redcoat he realized the concern was genuine. He still hadn't completely figured out what to make of their new teammate and moments like this made him wonder whether he ever would. Was this really the same person Lacus had said was so lovely?

"Let's just be wary of it for now, but I'm not sure we can really afford to think about it too much. Like she said, she's dealing with… something and we should probably just let her be."

"Is that your solution to everything?" Nicol asked, the sharpness in his voice startling and when Athrun turned to him, the almost accusatory expression etched across his face made him backpedal. Apparently, everyone was surprising him nowadays and it wasn't a comforting feeling.

Especially from someone like Nicol.

Athrun opened his mouth to say something but was cut off when the intercom sounded.

"Attention. We are about to begin our operation. Nicol Amalfi and Dearka Elsmen to the bridge. Athrun Zala and Lunar Eclipse are to transfer to the Vesalius for further instruction. I repeat. We are about to begin the operation. Nicol and Dearka to the bridge; Athrun and Lunar Eclipse to the Vesalius."

Eclipse didn't need any further prodding it seemed, her GINN launching mere minutes after the announcement. Athrun sighed and returned to Nicol, noticing his fierce look still remained.

"Just leave it alone, Nicol," he said and shrugged, heading to his locker and the pilot suit stored there. "We have a battle to worry about and sticking this little mess into the fray will add to the chaos. We'll just have to forget about it until we can confront her properly, that is if she even wants to talk to us about it."

"So, we avoid it?" Nicol sighed and shook his head, turning towards the door and beginning his trek to the bridge. "I expect avoidance from Yzak and Dearka, but I thought you at least had a larger repertoire of tactical maneuvers."

"Be careful, Nicol," Athrun started, stopping the younger pilot before he could leave. "Don't waste your kindness on someone who doesn't want it. That distraction could get you killed."

"Kindness is never wasted, Athrun," was his simple response before he left, leaving his comrade to change and head back to the Vesalius alone.

A/N: Okay, the first thing I have to ask you all is this: Is this getting way too much like a Soap Opera/dramatized? Is it getting really over bearing and redundant? Let me know because I'm not sure if it's my knowledge of future events that's making me worry so much, or if it's well-placed. Please, I would really like to know if I need to tone it down or whatnot. Thanks!

I planned on making this a little longer, but because the next few scenes are going to be a huge mobile suit battle, I thought I'd take a few whacks at it before posting. That being said, I decided to put up what I already had as to not keep you all waiting. It might've been a little boring, but don't worry, the next one will have so much action that you won't know what to do with it all.

Also, if you hadn't noticed, I did have some yaoi references in here and I couldn't resist. It was the perfect moment so I owe you yaoi haters a huge apology. Anyway, without the reference it still works out well. (Shrugs)

Nicol and Athrun seeing Eclipse as Berserk so soon was something I had been struggling with for a while now. I knew I wanted them to see, but could never find the best spot. Greed's words-no matter how insane they were-hit her hard and seemed to dig quite a rut in her mind, so the prospect of her "snapping" outside of battle seemed greater and believable. Hence why they saw her now. It's sad because she had been making such progress with Athrun, but now it looks like her old frame of mind is going to come back. I guess we'll have to see who'll slap her out of it this time, or even if they'll be able to.

Next chapter will be the huge space fight and descent to Earth. Seeing as I'm new at the whole mobile-suit-battle-thing and school's a bear, it may take a while to post. Then again, maybe I'll have an epiphany one night and just dish it all out. Wouldn't that be nice?

A special thank you goes out to all of my loyal readers. I get such a surge of pride when I see new reviews and hits on this story and surprisingly this has lead to some reads for my Blades of Fate, Time's Folly, and Other Worlds II stories. Thanks! I'll get along to writing them soon enough, but this one has been taking up so much of my time and since it's going to be such a huge project, summer looks to be the next time I even open their documents.

Darkangelsonic: Sometimes I think you just try so hard to be the first reviewer and I can't thank you enough for that. Also, I love your reviews so much, so don't worry about the annoying thing; it'll never happen. :P When you mentioned the four Coordinators ripping each other's shirts off and the much needed drooling, I laughed so hard. I'm thinking the yaoi reference in this chapter appealed to you in particular then? It seems we are of chipped off the same insane block, if you ask me. Also, I'll look into the conversation between Eclipse and Greed (Spencer/Spector). Death pointed out to me the other day that my conversations can get really confusing so I'm going to work at it. How did this chapter go? Hopefully a little better.

Death-Scimitar: I really don't know what to make of your sane reviews. I mean how can I make any dumb statements with you being all serious? Honestly, I think I liked the old you... :P Anyway, I didn't even think of the Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz movie! (Y'know, looking at that title and then at mine kind of makes me feel like a copycat... O.o) I'm so glad you brought that up 'cause I really want to watch that show now. I know you started it and ever since then I have gone on a Gundam Wing picture spree. Unfortunately, I have most of the pics out there, but I did find some nice new ones. I do enjoy writing Berserker parts, mainly because if I'm heartless, it's a good thing. I don't have to worry about guilt or emotional drawbacks because the Berserker really doesn't give a shit. Kind of refreshing actually. Oh, and I'm really glad you liked the "Bob" part. I mean it being such a good American name and all. :P

CSS Stravag: It's funny that you mentioned Athrun x Cagalli fans because I am one of the biggest. :P I've been shuffling between many different outcomes concerning Eclipse's and Athrun's relationship and have honestly not come up with a solid "Yes, they end up together" or "No, he's still gets Cagalli." Being such a hard-core fan doesn't help matters otherwise I would've left Cagalli out of the entire equation and just went with my character getting the guy. I guess we'll all have to wait and see what happens. Also, after reading your AAA story I have gained a few tips on mobile suit fighting, so I guess you deserve some kind of "thank you," huh? I wished I could just change the whole space battle into a battle royal between the pilots alone, but that'll never happen. I'm better with hand-to-hand combat writing-and am more comfortable with it-but the prospect of having all the characters dying in outer space for the lack of air and heat pushes me towards the mechanical fighting. (Sigh) Oh, and if only you knew the extent I was taking this story. Oh my...

Strata