Author's note: Here's the next chappie, everyone! Apologies for the delay. I've been thinking long and hard about this chapter, because we're working up to the climax and I really, really do not want to ruin this. Okay, first, I know everyone's going to be disappointed because I haven't been able to squeeze the Kira-Athrun-meeting into this chappie, but I assure you, now that I've worked this thing out, the next chappie is sure to feature it! So keep a look out, guys! Meantime, I won't hold you back, I've gotta go and work on the next chappie and the long-awaited meeting! So read on and enjoy!

Chapter 51:

It seemed as if they were just in time when Athrun pulled to an abrupt stop in front of the safehouse, the gravel spitting from under their screeching tires. Athrun jammed the gearshift to 'park' and got out, leaving the engine to idle. Cagalli hopped out on the other side.

The safehouse was a medium sized, single-storey residence, sitting in the middle of acres of private land thick with vegetation and trees – a house in the middle of the woods. The good thing about it was that the forested area provided cover for the safehouse; few people knew of its existence because unless you were in a helicopter, you couldn't see it. The lushness of the forest also gave the cops cover because no one could fire a long-distance rifle at the safehouse. Not with all those tree trunks standing in the way like obstacles.

But, the bad thing was that the lushness provided cover for the enemies too – the long shadows amongst the trees could hide a dozen people and you wouldn't be able to see them.

So Athrun was careful. He glanced around at his surroundings first, right hand inside his jacket pocket, caressing the grip of his gun just in case he had to whip it out. Right, left, up and down. But he saw no movement among the trees. Deciding it was safe to turn his back, he returned his attention to the safehouse itself. The house looked plain and simple, with smooth grey and white-painted walls. But the simplicity gave it elegance and class. It had the look of a summer-vacation home for the rich, especially with the grand-looking porch that led out onto an expansive gravel driveway, which was now crammed full of black and blue automobiles, their trunks popped open. Agents, detectives and uniformed officers were streaming in and out of the house, lugging heavy surveillance equipment up and down the drive. Standing on the porch, by the door, watching the comings and goings of the personnel, was Yzak Joule.

With Cagalli beside him, Athrun wove his way through the crowd and headed straight for the silver-haired man. "We're almost done here," Yzak said as they drew up beside him. He checked his watch. "We've got another 45 minutes. Seiran's on his way. Dearka told me what happened on the phone. You need to get out before Seiran gets here. Pulling that stunt on Seiran was downright stupid and only someone like you would do it." He cast a look of distaste at his boss, but Athrun ignored the insult - and the proposition.

"The serum?" he asked.

Yzak raised a silver briefcase in response.

"And Seiran's plan?" He gave a questioning nod towards the mass thronging the gravel driveway.

"We're pulling out at 10 a.m. Precisely. All agents and officers. No one left in the safehouse, and the serum's going with us. We're banking over there," Yzak turned and pointed down the open driveway, "Five miles from here, there's a raised hill that oversees the safehouse. We've got motion sensors installed inside the house. The moment they break in, we'll come back down here and round them up." He shook his head and glared at Athrun and Cagalli, as if they had been the ones who had come up with the plan. "This is what an idiot would come up with."

Athrun said nothing, but he agreed. Seiran was a fool to think that he could outsmart those criminals. So much could go wrong with a plan like that, and there was no guarantee that they could keep Lacus safe or discover her whereabouts. But Athrun was more certain that the plan would fail because the people they were dealing with were devils.

And everyone knew devils didn't play by the rules.

The terrain surrounding the safehouse was rough and uneven. The house itself rested in the heart of a shallow valley, its sloping sides covered in thick forest, raised mounds and hills. It was atop one of these dirt mounds that Kira was crouched, hidden from view.

He eased himself down onto his belly – the forest floor felt cool and damp underneath his clothes – and crept towards the edge of his hiding place, peering downwards. The safehouse was splayed out in front, seventy feet below and sixty ahead. He was positioned to its right and he had a glimpse of the side of the house and the gravel driveway in front of it, which, at that point in time, was obscured from view by four dark-coloured automobiles.

And a black convertible.

Kira lifted the binoculars and scoured the driveway through the lenses. There were about twenty agents or so, trooping all over the drive, hauling large briefcases and boxes from the house and cramming them into the trunks of the vehicles. Seiran's plans were in motion then, he thought to himself as he scanned the crowd, searching for the familiar mop of navy blue hair. He found it on the porch. Detective Athrun Zala had arrived on the scene and he was talking to a silver-haired agent whom Kira recognized to be Yzak Joule from the files in Sting's laptop.

In Yzak Joule's right hand, was a silver briefcase which the man raised in response to what Athrun Zala said.

The serum.

It was as Kira had suspected - Yuna Roma Seiran was setting a trap for them. On the surface, it appeared as if Seiran had been frightened enough to withdraw the team from the safehouse, but Kira knew a proud man like Seiran wouldn't back down. People like Seiran thought they were the genius, and that the rest of the world was made up of fools. Kira smiled, that would be Seiran's fatal flaw. He would prove that Seiran could never hope to outsmart them, and he was going to do that by robbing the serum from right under his nose.

Kira had never planned on attacking the safehouse in the first place. Forcing Seiran to withdraw the team was a form of misdirection. His real target was in fact the withdrawing team itself, because there was no doubt that the serum would be with the team.

There was only one way of getting to the safehouse – a single road that branched from the highway and cut through the valley, straight to the house. So all cars going in and out had to travel over the same road. And because of that, the police had a patrol car parked horizontally across the mouth of the road. All who wished to pass had to produce a valid ID. The advantage (or at least, from the vantage point of the cops) was that they could concentrate all their attention on that single entrance. They didn't have to worry about anyone sneaking up on them from behind.

But Kira and his team circumvented the patrol car, by simply leaving the highway from another road two miles away, depositing their mode of transport behind and trekking the rest of the way through the forest.

And as for the disadvantage of having a single entrance and exit to the safehouse, Kira had all intentions of exploiting it. If anything were to obstruct the road – say, a heap of fallen trees – then the convoy would be trapped and cornered. Like being jammed by a cork in the mouth of a bottle. And all that was left would be a bunch of sitting ducks. You could take them out one by one using a rifle.

Like target practice.

Perfect.

Except that there was a possibility that Athrun Zala would ruin the plan.

Kira glared at the blue-haired detective through the lenses of his binoculars, noting the cautious way in which the man turned and surveyed his surroundings, the way in which his right hand was tucked into his jacket pocket. There was no doubt that he was armed. Kira wasn't pleased to see Athrun Zala at all. How much did he know already? How much of a threat was he? The sight of Athrun Zala reminded Kira of Lacus Clyne and he winced internally at the memory of the unpleasant encounter he had had with her. It had taken him a while to calm the roiling in his stomach and wipe the perspiration off his face. Even then, the team had given him odd glances when he emerged from the elevator, still slightly shaken. But he had brushed them off, and they were smart enough not to pursue it.

Before leaving the warehouse, Stellar had asked what they were going to do with Lacus Clyne. And Kira had answered with fake nonchalance, "I'll deal with her later." He had forced mock bravado into his voice, even though he felt sick right down to his stomach. And they had left it at that.

But to be honest, Kira had no idea what he was going to do with Lacus Clyne.

He snapped out of his thoughts when he saw movement through his binoculars. Athrun Zala was descending the steps of the porch and beside him, was a mop of blonde hair. He focused his attention on the blonde woman and found himself staring at the face of Cagalli Yamato.

There was a curious stirring deep inside his mind, and for a second, Kira worried that he would black out again. A barrage of images was flashing through his mind. A little blonde girl pulling at his hand. Tugging at his hair. Laughing. Crying. Calling out to him.

Kira dropped the binoculars on the moss-covered ground and put his head down, closing his eyes. The smell of damp dirt filled his nostrils as he took one deep breath after another, trying to stem the images. He didn't even know if they were his imaginings. Or memories… But he knew he was in danger. Damn. Emotions were dangerous; they were lethal. You couldn't ever have emotions when you were on a mission. Descending into a rage caused excessive destruction, which would easily leave clues behind; succumbing to panic led to carelessness; hesitance when pulling the trigger could get you killed. Emotions were a bane to an assassin's job. But here he was, spacing out when he was in the midst of a mission. Fuck, he slammed a fist into the dirt.

"K? Everything alright?"

He whipped his head round to see Stellar at the bottom of the mound, crouched low to the ground. Her dirty-green knitted top and slacks blended in with her surroundings, just like his own garments. She was addressing him with his codename, which was used only when they were on missions, and that reminded him again that they were in the midst of an operation. He couldn't afford distractions.

Muttering a quick 'yes' before she could press him further, Kira dug his feet into the ground and propelled himself backwards, careful to stay low so that he wouldn't be spotted. Trekking back down the dirt mound, he drew up alongside Stellar and they both melted back into the foliage.

"What's going to happen now?" Cagalli said. They were standing some ways off the gravel drive, watching as the last of the equipment were piled into the trunks. "Shall we stay here in the safehouse? We might be able to hold them off until Yzak's team gets here." She chewed on her bottom lip, glancing at Athrun who was leaning against a tree, a deep scowl across his face. He turned his gaze on her and said, "Do you think they're going to infiltrate the safehouse?" His tone was bitter and sardonic, and Cagalli could sense that it was a rhetorical question, so she didn't answer.

Athrun continued. "They already know where the safehouse is. I don't know how or why. But they're probably on their way here. But do you think they're really going to infiltrate the safehouse? You think they really believe Seiran's going to obey their demands? You think they'll play right into Seiran's hands?" He shook his head. "These people know Seiran. Heck, they played him into obeying their demands because they know he's ambitious. But most ambitious people think that they're smart and everyone else is stupid. So they'll also know Seiran's got some tricks up his sleeves. He's not going to offer the serum to them on a silver platter, no matter how scared he seems. I'll bet they're not coming to the safehouse at all."

"If they're not coming up here, then what are they after?"

Athrun nodded towards the parked vehicles. "They're going to be after the convoy itself. Because they know Seiran will have the serum withdrawn together with the team."

Cagalli stared at him slack-jawed. "If that's the case, we can't just let the convoy drive off with it! How in the world are we going to stop them?"

"We don't," Athrun said.

Again, the same stare from Cagalli.

Athrun shrugged. "Sometimes, the best way to catch your prey is not to hunt it down," he said, glancing at her, "but to let it come and find you. And to do that, you need some bait."

Cagalli quirked a suspicious eyebrow at him. "So in the meantime, we do nothing? Sit back, relax and enjoy the show, is that it?" She protested sarcastically.

Athrun glanced at his watch. They had half an hour more to go. There was still no sign of Seiran, and there was no way Seiran would want to miss his own performance. So he pushed himself of the tree trunk and stepped away from the gravel drive, heading into the midst of the forest. "In the meantime," he repeated, beckoning to Cagalli, "I'm going to teach you how to hunt."

They had found a little clearing not far from the safehouse and set up shop there.

Under normal circumstances, they would have been cautious of doing so, because there would be cops and officers patrolling the forest, watching out for intruders. But Sting had scanned the area with infrared sensors that detected body heat, and the readings had turned up negative, except for slight bursts of red flares on the screen, triggered by the animals wandering the woods. It was all clear. Seiran had completely overlooked the need for patrolmen.

When Kira and Stellar returned to the clearing, they found that Sting and Auel were already back from their mission. They were sitting cross-legged on the forest floor, their camouflaged apparel looking dark underneath the shade of the canopy. Sting tossed a canteen towards him as he emerged from the thicket alongside Stellar. Kira caught it deftly and took a swig from it. The liquid burnt as it coursed down his throat.

"Scotch?" He quirked an eyebrow at Sting, who was grinning at him with a mischievous glint in his eye. "How did you get it?"

"Swiped it when I got a chance," he chuckled, "been saving it up for now."

Kira responded with an amused tweak of his lips, as he took another sip from the canteen. The alcohol was just right - it wasn't too weak, but it wasn't too strong either. It set him on his toes, got him geared up. And more importantly, it awakened his senses, made him more aware of what he was doing. And that prevented him from spacing out, and kept the 'side-effects' at bay. There was no way they could fuck up this mission, not unless they wanted Rau Le Creuset to put them on his next target list.

Tossing the canteen at Stellar, he nodded towards the black box that Auel had in front of him, set on the leaf-covered floor. "You've got it all rigged up?" He asked.

"Yeah, all seventy pounds," Auel smirked, then pointed at the black box he had before him, "And the detonator is all set."

Kira smiled. Perfect.

Cagalli hefted the .22 revolver in her right palm. It was lighter than she had expected, but in her mind, she knew the consequences were heavy. "Are you sure about this?" She asked tentatively.

Athrun shrugged his shoulders. He glanced down at the pile of leaves he had created by shuffling his foot. "I don't want to lose you."

For a second, Cagalli thought that she saw what appeared to be a blush suffusing Athrun's cheeks and she expected him to say more, but Athrun left the sentence to hang, then reached out and took the gun from her, changing the subject. "Lunamaria's got it loaded for you already. Look." He turned the chamber and showed it to her, then racked it back into place again. Then he showed her how to grip it, his fingers brushing against hers lightly, and explained how the firing mechanism worked.

"This is a double-action revolver, which means there isn't a safety catch, like mine." Athrun pulled out his own weapon and pointed out the lever on his gun, then pocketed it again. "So that means there's no risk of you forgetting to flick the safety." Cagalli now had a look of horror on her face and she held the gun outwards like it might accidentally discharge itself.

Athrun chuckled. "No," he smiled, "though the revolver doesn't have a safety catch, it's double –action, which means you need to apply far more pressure on the trigger before it fires. The safety is built into the trigger itself, so unless you exert enough pressure on it, it isn't going to discharge."

"Oh."

"Okay, let's try a little targeting practice." He stepped away, shrugging off his jacket, until he was a few paces away from her. There, he slung his jacket over a low hanging branch and turned around to find Cagalli practicing her aiming, her gun muzzle pointed at him.

"Woah!" He exclaimed, putting both hands up in alarm, "Rule number one: do not point your gun at anything you do not intend to shoot."

Cagalli stared at him, not comprehending, then realizing her mistake, hurriedly dropped the gun. It clattered to the mossy ground and for a second, Athrun's heart nearly sank into his shoes. He moved quickly to her side, and picked up the gun. Thank god it hadn't misfired. "Okay, okay," he said, handing her the gun butt-first, "Rule number two: never drop your gun or throw it at someone. Even though I said the safety is built into the trigger, we don't want it misfiring by accident, do we? And don't point it at yourself."

"Oh, right, sorry," Cagalli said sheepishly.

"Aim at the jacket, but don't shoot okay?" Athrun said, "Your gun only has six rounds in it. We don't want to waste a bullet on my jacket. And we don't want Yzak and the rest of the agents to come running."

"Right." She paused and tried to fix a target on Athrun's jacket, then added hesitantly, "I'm not sure if I'll shoot when the time comes."

Athrun placed a flat palm on her raised gun and lowered it. Emerald eyes turned on her and they were so intense that they made Cagalli feel a little uncomfortable. "Stay close, understand?" he said, voice grim and serious, "You won't need to fire this thing if I can help it. This is just for precaution, in case I'm occupied somewhere else, or I'm down. In which case, remember rule number one? You make up your mind that that's the person you want to shoot, then you aim it at that person. Doesn't matter if your aim is lousy. Just don't hesitate. Once you've got the gun pointed at him, press down hard on the trigger, all the way down, and put all six rounds into that person. You hear? I've lost the people I've loved, I don't want to lose you next."

By the time they trudged back to the safehouse, the .22 revolver tucked discreetly in Cagalli's jacket pocket, they found another vehicle on the drive – Yuna Roma Seiran had joined the party.

Seiran had a bandage taped over the bridge of his nose, and the moment he caught sight of Athrun emerging from amongst the trees, he held a defensive hand over his nose. "What the hell are you doing here?" He said darkly.

Athrun took a step forward, and felt Cagalli rest a hand gently on his forearm. There was a worried expression on her face and she shook her head slightly when he turned to glance at her. A silent warning. Don't do it.

But Athrun wasn't intending to hurt Seiran anyway, no matter how much he wanted to. So he cupped a reassuring hand over hers and nodded. Turning back to Seiran, who was eyeing him suspiciously, he said, "Look, I'm sorry" – although he wasn't in the least sorry for what he had done – "I admit I was rash." He paused to see if Seiran would respond, but the man showed nothing on his face other than distrust and revulsion towards him.

"Look," Athrun said again, trying to sound patient. Damn, he was being reasonable and he shouldn't need to entertain an asshole like Seiran with his polite manners. "It's just that I'm… anxious to solve this case. We both want the criminals to be apprehended, right? So why should we be enemies when we can work together? Huh, Seiran?"

The suspicion on Seiran's face began to fade, replaced by a smirk that Athrun sensed to be hostile. "Let me think about it," Seiran said, "I'll let you know again later whether I'm in a forgiving mood." He gave Athrun a complacent smile and began to walk away.

"Look, Seiran, they're not going to attack the safehouse," Athrun snarled, done with being the nice guy.

The purple-haired detective paused in his tracks and turned his head slightly to look at him over his shoulder. "What are you talking about?"

"They're not attacking the safehouse, Seiran," Athrun repeated. He tried to keep his voice steady and calm. This was his last chance to reason with the man and for Lacus, he had to turn Seiran around. "Think about it. They're smart. They know the serum is with us. The moment we move out of this place, they're going to attack the convoy. So we need to-"

"What you need to do-," Seiran said, raising his voice so that he drowned out Athrun's. A couple of agents and officers, distracted by the commotion, paused in their work and turned to glance at them. "-is to get your ass out of here before I have you run out." He turned and got into one of the automobiles. The rest of the team lingered for a second, hesitant and unsure whose side they had to stand on, but a yell from Seiran had them scrambling for the cars.

The last to leave was Yzak, who stood by the open passenger seat. He glanced at Athrun and Cagalli and nodded grimly - a message that said I'll do my best - then got in beside Seiran, the silver briefcase wedged between them.

The first car at the entrance of the gravel drive began to move and the convoy followed swiftly. The car Seiran and Yzak were in slid into place behind the second car.

Athrun watched it leave, frustration eating at his insides. He couldn't do anything. Nothing at all. And when the drive was empty, he kicked furiously at the gravel and glowered at the little pebbles that rained down onto the ground helplessly, leaving behind a brown wisp of sand lingering in the air.

10:05 a.m.

A finger depressed the button on a detonator and a loud blast echoed through the forest.

Author's note: Well, what do ya think? I know, I know, I'm working on the next chappie and it's definitely going to feature the meeting between Kira, Athrun and Cagalli. But before that, of course, do review, review, review and let me know what you think. That'll help me improve too! And to my readers:

Pinksugardust: Firstly, I'm sorry the reunion didn't take place in this chapter. But I assure you it will be in the next :)

FTS-Peace: Thank you very much for the comment. I really appreciate it, since I strive for as much detail as I can. The reunion will take place in the next chappie, so I hope to hear from you again! Now, about that romance between Cagalli and Athrun, sheesh, I think I'm really lousy at it. What do you think? I can't quite seem to grasp the nature of their relationship and I've been rewatching GS and GSD over and over again. Oh boy… I really need some help in this.

Natsumexmikan43vr: Heh, you guessed right. I tend to have cliff-hangers, because I usually need time to work out the exciting bits, so there really is a chance they might meet at the end of the chapter.

hardcoseGSfan: Hey, are you a Murrue fan? I laughed out loud when I saw your comment! About the tipping off, I'll come back to it in the upcoming chapters so how it happened will become clearer later. As for the reunion, I'm working on it. It'll definitely be in the next chapter! Gosh, and I didn't realize that it was Cagalli and Kira's b'day too, until you mentioned it! Now I feel bad – how could I torture Kira when it's his birthday!?

Cheeseries: hehe, are you as sadistic as me? I just hope I don't go torturing Kira too much!

Ragingwing004: hey, I've tried to follow your request and made my chapters longer, but of course that takes more time. So I figured I'll update with whatever I have completed while I work on the next chapter! So it's not very long, but I do hope it still stays exciting?

AAA: Indeed, Rau is going to be so pissed, but I'll see if I can protect Kira from Rau as long as I can, hehehe. As for the reunion, it'll definitely take place in the next chapter so do look out. Hope to hear what you think about it!

Animedoshia: thank you for the support all this while! I'm really glad you like this fanfic. Do expect more Kira-Lacus moments. I believe they should be coming up after the reunion between Athrun and Kira!

Seiba Artoria: I wouldn't have Kira kill Lacus. That'll be torturing Kira waaaay too much! And I do believe the reunion will be coming up in the next chappie so hopefully, there won't be any other obstacles. I can't wait for them to meet too!