This chapter goes on at the exact same time as the last one.
Chapter 92
Getting the Destiny into the hangar proved to be a bit of a challenge with just one leg, it was only thanks to Nicol taking a hold on his mobile suit from behind that, Shinn was able to get in there without stumbling over.
"Easy there Shinn, I got you buddy" he heard Nicol tell him.
Turning the Destiny's head a bit, Shinn looked into the Adamant's bright orange eyes. "Thank you, Nicol" Shinn said back, barely able to keep the bitterness out of his voice, he just could fathom how this battle could have gone so far down the shitter. When he, Rey, Nicol and Lunamaria had first entered the fray, it had been four against two, in his mind he and his friends should easily have been able to beat those odds. Yet the skills of enemy pilots, combined with their machine's strange features, like the Akatsuki's beam deflecting armor and the Yami's invisible weapons, had made it so that the two of them had somehow been able to keep them at bay, until those new versions of the Freedom and Justice, had suddenly arrived to reinforce them.
When that had happened, EVERYTHING had pretty much instantly gone to hell in a handbasket, first Lunamaria's Impulse had been torn apart by the Freedom, following that, Nicol had been forced to ground, which had left Rey and him to fight the Freedom, Justice and Yami, themselves. But despite their best effort, they had still gotten their ass handed to them in the end. To make matters even worse, was that the stupid moron piloting the Yami, had helped Djibril's shuttle escape, when Rey had tried to stop it, why the hell would that guy do that? And why the hell would he start cursing Rey afterwards? Like he was the one who had screw-up?.
"Damn it, I hate Orb, so much! That whole country is just full of nothing but mindless idiots! If only Athrun hadn't gotten in my way, then I could easily have blown that shuttle to bits!" The red-eyed teen growled angrily out through his teeth, then let out a small grunt of annoyance from Nicol laying the one legged Destiny, down on the floor, thereby interrupting his angry thoughts, for a brief moment.
But even though, Shinn of course realized, that he could now get the hell out of his beat up mobile suit, the pissed off young man, was perfectly content with just sitting there sulking, and mentally cursing the Freedom pilot, the Yami pilot and most specific Athrun Zala, if those three morons had not interfered, he would at long last, FINALLY have been able to get his well-deserved revenge against Orb. He wanted, no needed to see that disgusting country burn, for what it had done to his sister, and the rest of his family. But despite that dire need, there were so many dumb fools out there, that wanted to prevent him from accomplishing that one goal, Shinn really hoped with all of his being, that the Chairman could come up with another way to put an end to Orb, once and for all.
However, he was instantly pulled out of those devilish thoughts, by the cockpit being opened from the outside. "Hey Shinn, are you okay in there?" He heard Yolan asked, as he and Vino peeked down into the Destiny's cockpit, clearly concerned about him.
Silently staring up at their worried faces for a few short seconds, Shinn reached slowly up and pulled off his helmet, handing it to Vino. "Yeah, I am fine guys, I just got a lot on my mine" he said, doing his best to keep the immense anger he felt, from showing too much on his face. While it was definitely true, that Shinn still felt very much like tearing somebody apart, taking his anger and frustration out on his two worried friends, was not something he wanted to do.
"I get why you are so frustrated with the outcome of that battle Shinn, but staying in there isn't going to do you much good, besides we can not start repairing the Destiny with you cooped up in there" Yolan calmly told him, holding his hand out to him.
Sighing begrudgingly, Shinn mumbled a few displeased curses under his breath, as he reached down and slowly started unstrapping himself from his seat, then while loudly asking his two friends, how long they thought it would for them and the other mechanics to fully repair the Destiny, he took a hold on Yolan's offered hand, who with little to no effort, swiftly pulled him get out of his damage mobile suit.
Once on top of the Destiny, Shinn looked silently around the enormous hangar, that was a hive of activity. Aves was shouting out orders left and right, Rey was standing just in front of the Legend speaking with two or three mechanics, most likely about the bit of damage, his mobile suit had taken, during the battle, even from this distance, Shinn could tell that the Legend was missing a few of it's DRAGOONs, another thing he needed to make the Freedom pay for one day, slowly turning his head, he spotted Nicol walking with hasten steps towards the exit of the hangar, evidently just frustrated with the outcome of the battle, as he was.
Cursing mentally, Shinn turned his head and looked over at the Adamant, which was the only one of the Minerva's four gundams, that had not been damage in the last battle, but with its special Guul reduce to nothing but a pile of trash they had left in Orb, there was a limit to how much Nicol would be able to defend them should they come attack, before the rest of their mobile suits was repaired.
'God damn it this is bad, good thing Orb is so cowardly, that they did not pursue us, if they had done that, they could easily have sent us to the bottom of the sea' Shinn thought, feeling very much like beating the snot out of the next person who dare to talk to him.
Of course, easily able to tell, just how frustrated and unbelievable pissed off Shinn was at the moment. It was with a hint of hesitation in his voice, that Yolan started talking to the seething Destiny pilot.
"Sorry to tell you this Shinn, but neither Vino nor me has any idea how long the repairs on the Destiny are going to take, there is just so much that needs to be repaired. The Minerva was damage pretty severely, both from its fight with the Archangel, and that crazy son of a bitch in that weird black gundam crashing his Guul into us. That, along with replacing one of the wings on the Core Splendor and the destroyed DRAGOONs on the Legend, is going to take a very long time, Shinn".
Barely able to keep himself from glaring at Yolan, Shinn nodded slowly a single time in understanding. "I see, I'll talk with you guys later, if you need me for anything I will be at the shooting range" Shinn said in a low angry hiss, knowing that the shooting range, was the best place for him to blow off some steam, which was something the red-eyed teenager was in serious need of right about now, then turned and started making his way down the Destiny's right arm.
"Man, what a grouch" Vino mumbled, just loud enough for Yolan to hear it.
Nodding slowly in agreement. "Yeah, tell me about it. Not that I don't get why, he is in such a bad mood Vino. We got us ass handed to us pretty badly and Djibril escaped from us again, I don't know about you Vino, but I am getting sick and tired of running around all over the place searching for that bastard. First Iceland, then Orb, and now outer space, which I am sure you know as well as me, is very big, and has a lot of good places to hide" Yolan said in a thoughtful tone.
"I see your point Yolan, it's just that... That Shinn seemed almost ready to start taking his frustration out on us" Vino said, while rubbing the back of his neck.
"Yeah, but he didn't, so let's cut him some slack, ok".
Vino's only response to that was a short nod, as he and Yolan made their way down the Destiny's right arm too, knowing that they needed to talk with Aves about what their first task was going to be.
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At the same time elsewhere, Nicol hastily stepped out of the pilot ready room, dressed in his casual clothes, he really wasn't in the mood to wear his uniform right now, so if anybody had any complaints about that, he would not hesitate one bit about telling them to go jump over the side of the Minerva. Truth was he kinda wanted to grab a quick shower, but he needed to see how Lunamaria was doing first, according to Aves she had raced full speed out of the hangar, the very second she had been brought back there, by a friendly GOUF pilot who was now also on the Minerva.
Yet as Nicol stop by one of the vending machines to get a bottle of water, he wondered where in the world Lunamaria could be, he had already taken a quick peek into their room, but there was no sign of her in there. "What the hell did Kira do to you, Luna?" He asked out loud, now heading to Meyrin's room.
But even as he was heading down the long hallway, his encounter with Mu La Flaga echoed loudly through his bewildered mind. 'Mu La Flaga you are...are alive... Yeah, so I have been told numerous times, not that it's any of your business... Ahh, God damn it all, I just don't get how the hell he could survive getting hit by a Positron beam, of all things, did he somehow manage to get out of the Strike before the beam hit, or was he simply that damn lucky... And if that is the case, why... Why couldn't Mayura, have been just as lucky when we fought the Calamity?!... Ahh, just knock it off already Nicol Amalfi, now is not the time for you to be thinking about the past and all the what-ifs. You need to hurry the hell up and find Luna, she is the one suffering right now, all because of Kira' the Adamant pilot mentally told himself.
Rushing past a couple of frowning mechanics, who was heading in the opposite direction, chatting sourly about how much of a bother it was going to be, to properly repair everything that had been damaged on the Minerva. But as curious as Nicol was about how much time the ship's mechanics would need to fix everything, he decided that he could always ask about that later, he was especially curious about how long it would take to repair the massive amount of hull damage, Dearka had caused when he had sent that Guul crashing into them.
'Hmm I wonder, that Guul he used, could it have been the same one Yzak used when he went over the deep end and attacked Orb on his own two years ago, to do battle with the Strike. It does make sense, that Orb still had that old Guul, in their possession. At least Dearka did not have time to aim it properly, if that Guul had hit the bridge, it could have been the end of all of us!. I definitely need to keep Dearka away from the Minerva in the future, his actions today, did after all make it abundantly clear that he hates the Minerva enough to want to destroy it... We need to try and come up with a countermeasure for those, Mirage Colloid cloaked weapons of his, not to mention, the Akatsuki's special armor' the green haired man thought determinedly, while practically tearing the light blue cap of the water bottle.
Finally arriving at his destination, Nicol took a small sip of water before opening the door to Meyrin's room, stepping inside, he saw his girlfriend sitting on her sister's bed, hugging her kness, her eyes red from crying so much. "Lunamaria! Luna, are you ok?! What in God's name did Kira do to you?!" Nicol worryingly asked, rushing hastily over to the distraught redhead, dropping the still opened water bottle along the way.
Sniffling loudly, Lunamaria glanced up at her concerned boyfriend, from her sitting position. "I really do wish I could tell you Nicol that he was a total monster and a creep, when he tore the Impulse apart, But the truth is that he was almost nice to me, despite how bratty I behaved. He... He told me, that Athrun and Meyrin were still alive. So please tell me Nicol, was Athrun the one piloting the new Justice? If he was, then that means, that the Freedom pilot wasn't lying to me about, Meyrin".
Staring silently at her for a few short seconds, Nicol finally let out a deep breath. "Yeah, Athrun was the one using that new Justice gundam, as for what Kira told you, about Meyrin, that is most likely the truth. He is not really the type of person, who would say such things, to hurt another person's feelings, Kira is actually a pretty honest guy, Luna, who is very considerate of other people's feelings" Nicol softly told her, just as he sat down on the bed beside her, wrapping his arm around her.
Resting her head against his shoulder, Lunamaria took what comfort she could get from Nicol holding her like that. "So Meyrin, my sweet sister is still alive... Maybe I could have... Should have... Umm, damn" Luna mumbled absentmindedly, then fell, silence.
Of course curious about what was going through his girlfriend's mind at the moment, Nicol tighten his hold on her, as he slowly reached up with his free hand, gently rubbing her short red hair. "Should have what Luna? Did Kira say anything else to you?".
Upon hearing her boyfriend's questions, Lunamaria immediately snapped out of her far away thoughts, briefly snaking her head. "No not really. He did spout a bit of nonsense about the Chairman being crazy. But most of our conversation after he had told me about Meyrin, consisted mostly of me yelling at him and refusing to believe him, until he suddenly disarmed a random GOUF, then threw the Core Splendor over to that machine with a witty remark, about my nails of all things, Nicol!" Luna said loudly, not entirely sure why, she at that exact moment, decide to hide and NOT tell Nicol anything about how Kira had offered her a chance to defect, when they had talked. It was not like she was actually considering running off to join the Archangel crew, even though it... it meant that she would be able to see Meyrin again.
Rapidly but thoroughly going over everything Lunamaria had just told him, Nicol let out a deep thoughtful sound. "Hmm I see, it does not really surprise me that Kira and the rest of the Archangel crew thinks Durandal is crazy, they are after all trying to prevent him from carrying out his goal to create ever lasting peace, as for Kira making jokes during a battle, that is a bit of a surprise, he is not usually the type of person to do that, but I guess I am not the only one who has changed a bit, since the last war" the green haired man said, mentally reminding himself, that he needed to talk with the Chairman about what Kira had told him, about targeting Captain Gladys, if ZAFT EVER threatened Lacus again.
'Hmm, I guess that means we got no other choice, but to come up with a way, to get rid of both of them, at the same time. That is going to be quite a bit difficult, considering how protective Kira is of Lacus' Nicol thought with a small frown, forcing himself to ignore the intense pain he felt in his heart, at the thought of the two Yamatos dying and their happiness ending. Back during the first war, one of his reasons for joining up with the Archangel, was to help create a world, where Lacus and Kira could live a peaceful life together. But that simply was not possible now, they were a hindrance to the Chairman's plan, to create a new better world, free from war. But despite rigorously telling himself that, Nicol Amalfi could not entirely shake away the deep nagging feelings of guilt.
It was at that moment Lunamaria's soft voice interrupt his thoughts. "Do you think Meyrin is doing alright over on board the Archangel? I can not help but worry a bit that they might have her locked up somewhere dark and creepy, where they can torture her for information" the older Hawke sister worryingly said.
"I, seriously doubt that Luna, the Archangel crew, ain't really the torturing type of people. During that time I was a prisoner on board that ship, I was treated fairly well. I was of course briefly questioned by the ship's Second in Command, a pissy woman called Badgiruel, who glared at me the entire time. But despite me steadfastly refusing, to answer any of her questions, she did not resort to actually torturing me. She just yelled at me a bit, then left with the deepest most angry frown, I have ever seen on a woman's face" Nicol explained reassuringly.
Snuggling even closer in towards him, Lunamaria nodded slowly a single time. "I see, I am so happy to hear that she is not in any danger. Umm, do you think Nicol... Do you think it is somehow possible for us to rescue her?" The girl asked.
Not really needing a lot of time, to come up with a response to that question. "I really do hate to tell you this Luna, but getting Meyrin safely off the Archangel, might be easier said than done, it means getting past the Archangel's massive arsenal of weapons, plus it's defending mobile suits, so we can board her. Then we have to fight our way through a huge part of the ship's crew, until we can finally locate Meyrin, afterwards we then have to fight our way back to whatever landing craft we used, to get there in the first place, while at the same time protecting Meyrin who could easily get hurt or even worse killed during the crossfire, and if that were to happen Luna, the whole thing would be completely pointless" the green haired man explained, knowing full well, that THIS was NOT what his girlfriend wanted to hear, but he just figured, that there was no point lying to her about it.
"I guess... I guess you are right Nicol, but I do wonder a bit what she is doing right now, what she might be thinking... Emm, do you think she is eating properly over there?" Luna asked in a low tone.
"That, I have little to no doubt about, Luna. I am not exaggerating when I tell you, that the food I got served on the Archangel was a lot better, than any of the stuff we get here on the Minerva. Apparently, the man leading their kitchen staff, use to run his own four-star restaurant, before losing it when Heliopolis went up in smoke" Nicol softly explained, remembering thinking the first time, he had met the Archangel's lead chef, that the man did not seem to belong on a warship, but he evidently, had nowhere else to go.
"Hmm, I do kinda wish we had a chef like that here on the Minerva. Some of the crap they feed us, is just so boring, if not downright disgusting. It is no wonder that Meyrin bought so many chocolate cookies and chocolate bars, whenever we reached land" Luna said, knowing better than anyone else how picky an eater her little sister could be at times. The redhead was still thinking about that, when she slowly reached out and picked up a blue box of chocolate chip cookies standing on the nightstand, quickly tearing it open, Lunamaria immediately stuffed two of the tasty treats into her hungry mouth, chewing them loudly.
Listening to her chew and swallow the food, Nicol let out a small breath that made the green hair covering his forehead fly around a bit. "Luna, why don't you go grab a quick shower, while I go to the mess hall to get us some food. Hopefully whatever the kitchen staff has prepared today is a bit more interesting than usual".
"Heh! I do like your positive thinking, Nicol Amalfi. But I am more than willing to bet the Blast Silhouette pack on that it's the same crappy food we usually get" the girl huffed with a small scowl on her face.
Quietly rubbing the back of his neck for a few short seconds. "Hmm well since I don't really have overly much need for that Luna, I think I'll skip that bet, maybe if you had thrown in the Sword Silhouette pack too, then perhaps we could talk about it. For now, even though I find you to be very attractive in your sexy red space suit Luna, I think you should hurry up and get out of that thing, shower, then join me for a boring meal in our room" the Adamant pilot said, gently stroking his girlfriend's hair.
"Hmm how could a sweet girl like me possibly said no to a hot romantic date, like that" Lunamaria said, with a hint of banter in her voice, slowly pushing herself up from the bed, then began making her way over to the door, making certain to put just a bit of extra sway into her hips, to keep Nicol's attention on her, until she disappeared out of the room.
Rapidly shaking his head back and forth a few times, to get the flirtatious seductive images of Lunamaria's round ass, in her skintight space suit, out of his mind. "Ok, it might have been a bit of a mistake on my part, to tell her that I find her attractive in her space suit, judging from her actions just now, that is something she is planning on using against me, from now on, to get her way. Not that I really mind. Now I better hurry the hell up and get out of here, I do not want to show up late for our date, even though a date in our room does sound a little tame. But if it helps cheer her up, that is all that matters. Maybe, I should ask her if she wants to watch a movie while we eat" Nicol said to himself, then with a small tired sigh he got up from the bed, picking up the box of chocolate chip cookies, which he figured now that they were opened, would be a bit of a waste to leave in there, to go bad, Lunamaria and him could always eat them as a small dessert, when they had finished their dinner.
About twenty minutes later, Lunamaria stepped into hers and Nicol's room, in her civil clothes, using a thick yellow towel to dry her still damp short red hair, noticing Nicol sitting by the small table in there with two trays of what could only be described as a pretty dull meal. There was a bit of overcooked meat, some disgusting looking thick brown sauce, and a few vegetables, that like the meat, was cooked way too much, frankly the most interest thing on the tray, was a small red apple.
"Guess that means I win Nicol, what is my prize?" The young redhead immediately asked, while throwing the towel on the floor.
Raising an eyebrow at those words. "You do realize, Lunamaria, that we did not shake on the bet, so it does not really count. But still, if you insist on getting something, what about a nice quiet evening with me, watching a movie, while stuffing our faces with a bit of boring food, then the rest of a box of chocolate chip cookies" Nicol suggested with a small smirk.
"That does sound nice. But I do hope, for our next date that we can dress up and go out to a fancy restaurant, for some more delicious food, then dance the whole night away" Luna said in a slightly dreamy tone, before sitting down at the table, where she immediately reached out and picked up her fork, using it to poke at a small piece of meat, like she was testing if it was still alive, yet with no movement on it's part, the girl with a deep frown on her face jammed the fork down into it, picking it up, she let out a displeased groan, before reluctantly stuffing it into her mouth, chewing it slowly a few times before swallowing it.
"I'll be happy to take you out for a date like that Luna, when we get some free time" Nicol softly told her, reaching over to turned on the movie he had already prepared, with it being Lunamaria's favorite the green haired man was certain that she was going to like it.
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At the same time elsewhere, Rey was making his way through one of the Minerva's long hallways, the blond man was not really sure where he was heading, he just knew he needed to find a quiet spot to think. He had a lot on his mind at the moment he needed to go through, especially one of the things the Yami pilot had called him, kept on echoing loudly through his bewildered mind.
'Mask wearing freak show, why in the world would he call me that? Does he know about my connection to Rau' Rey wondered, as he reached down into his pocket and pulled out a familiar mask, he had picked up from his and Shinn's room not that long ago, staring silently at it, Rey wondered what his older brother would say, to everything that had happened in the last battle, would he be pleased with what he had done.
Yet immediately upon hearing a couple of familiar voices coming from the opposite direction, Rey quickly stuffed the mask back down into his pocket, just Talia along with Abbey appeared.
"So what you are telling me, Abbey, is that the four Laurasia-class we had guarding the space directly above Orb fell under attack by a fleet of Agamemnon-class ships, just as Djibril's shuttle blasted off, and made its escape from Orb?" Talia asked, the young blond woman walking beside her.
Nodding slowly. "Yes Captain, according to the reports we got shortly after you left the bridge, they attacked our forces with an overwhelming number of different types of mobile suits, they even had a yellow Sword Calamity gundam with them, which was responsible for taking out two of the guarding Laurasia-class and heavily damaging a third. Yet the very instant, Djibril's shuttle was safely on board one of the Agamemnon-class vessels, they immediately retreated" Abbey explained to the Captain.
Rubbing her chin thoughtfully. "So which one of the two Laurasia-class is in charge up there?" Talia asked.
"That would be the Bellicose, under the Command of Zelman Junior" the girl hastily answered.
"Hmm, I see, does Commander Zelman have any useful information about where Djibril might be going next?" Talia asked next, a bit disappointed at the sight of Abbey slowly shaking her head.
"Unfortunately not Ma'am. The Sword Calamity, along with all the other enemy mobile suits, made it impossible for the Bellicose to follow the Agamemnon-class carrying, Djibril" Abbey answered.
Sighing loudly, the Minerva Captain, clearly quite a bit frustrated with the whole thing, reached up and rubbed her hair in an irritable manner. "That is quite problematic, guess that leave us with little other choice, but to try and find him again, I just hope we can locate him before he has a chance to cause even more mayhem, than he has already" the deeply displeased Talia said, only then noticing Rey standing close by, listening in on hers and Abbey's conversation, which was all it took for her to immediately make a small gesture towards him, that was meant to tell the thoughtful pilot of the Legend, that she wanted to talk with him, once she was done speaking with Abbey. Seeing him nod, Talia quickly turned her attention back towards the blond haired girl, who was presently using her left hand to rub her tired eyes.
"You are dismissed Abbey, go get some sleep, you clearly need it" Talia softly told the worn out young woman.
Forcing back the tired yawn, that was threatening to leave her mouth from just hearing the word sleep, Abbey quickly gave the Captain a short but still respectful salute. "Yes Ma'am, goodnight" the blonde said, then turned around and walked off with slow steps, yawning loudly along the way.
Once Abbey was out of sight, Talia immediately glance over at Rey, who had not moved even an inch since, she had gesture to him not that long ago. Yet noticing the bland expression he currently had on his face, made the Captain even more determined to talk with him in private, raising her hand, she pointed at a random door, which Rey took a short glance over at, before nodding slowly a single time.
Moving hastily over to the door, Talia quickly got it opened and stepped inside, not all that surprise to discover that the laundry room was empty this time of the day, the only thing moving in there was a single washing machine blinking red again and again, which was a sure sign, that it was done. Judging from the two or three pink skirts she could see inside the machine, the clothes obviously belonged to Lunamaria. The girl had likely started washing her clothes shortly before the battle began, but had ended up forgetting all about it.
"Oh that girl" Talia sighed loudly, as she slowly reached out and pressed the button, to turn the washing machine off. Then just stood there, staring intensely at it. Trying her utmost to figure out how to best broach the subject on her mind, she knew how important it was, that she asked Rey about his actions regarding Djibril's shuttle and the Yami gundam clearly trying to stop it, but she could not help but feel a little worried about how that question was going to sound, the last thing she wanted to do, was accuse Rey of anything, if it was simply nothing more than a misunderstanding on her part.
"Captain, just what exactly is this about? You seem to be quite troubled by something?" Rey finally asked, after a few short minutes of somewhat tense silence.
Giving her lower lips a hard bite, Talia turned slowly around, looking straight into the Legend pilot's, slightly narrowed blue eyes. "Rey, when Djibril's shuttle blasted off during the battle, did you purposely get in the black gundam's way, when he was trying to stop it?" She asked in a low but firm tone.
Upon hearing the Captain ask him that question, Rey struggled for a brief instant to keep his emotions in check, and not show the Captain what was presently going through his mind, even though inside, there was a rush of different emotions flying through him, a bit of anger and annoyance, but also fair a bit of astonishment, it honestly was quite impressive that Talia had been able to pick up on what he had done, to make it so that Djibril got safely away from Orb, considering how busy she had without a doubt been during the battle. It was that high awareness of hers, along with her deep strategic mind, that had resulted in Gilbert choosing her to Captain the Minerva in the first place. Yet if she were to somehow learn the truth about what he had done, the loyalty she felt towards Gilbert, might start to waver, and that was something Rey could not allow, to happen. So it was, with a bit of a heavy heart, that he broke the silence.
"I am kinda insulted that you would even ask me that, Captain. Of course, I did not intentionally get in that creep's way, I was trying to beat him to make him pay, for all the damage he inflicted on the Minerva. However, if my attack on him prevent him from stopping Djibril's shuttle, then that was purely coincidental, Captain" Rey said, his harden expression still not showing any emotions.
Staring straight into his blue eyes in an almost desperate attempt to figure out what he was thinking, Talia finally after about a minute let out a deep sigh. "I see, you are dismissed" the brown haired woman said, barely able to keep herself from losing her temper.
"Very well, goodnight Captain" the Legend pilot said, before leaving the laundry room.
Instantaneously upon the door flying back shut behind Rey, Talia swirled around and gave the closed washing machine a hard violent kick, making an impressive dent in it. 'He lied to me! He, GOD DAMN, lied to me! Just what are you and Rey up to, Gil?' She mentally asked, feeling a couple of tears run down her face, the longer this meaningless war kept going, the more she found herself distrusting the man she loved, it was getting more and more obvious, that getting rid of Lord Djibril and putting an end to LOGOS, was not Rey and Gilbert's true objective.
Still crying softly, Talia opened the washing machine then kneeled down and started pulling Lunamaria's clothes out of it, she of course knew that she had more important things to do right now, like writing her report and talk with Gilbert about the outcome of the battle, along with informing him about the Archangel, the new Freedom and Justice's involvement in it, but she was in no mood to see him, if she did that, she would likely start screaming at him, and demand he told her, about his real goal with all of this.
"Damn you Gilbert... I really, really miss those days when my biggest worry was William eating his vegetables" she sobbed loudly, she missed her son, her sweet child so much right now, that it made her heart ache so badly, and it was with even more tears streaming down her cheeks, that Talia picked up a bucket of clothes pegs and started hanging Lunamaria's skirts to dry, sincerely grateful for the small break this provided her, even though she knew, that she could only stay in there for a few minutes.
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Entering her room after grabbing a quick shower, Abbey threw herself down onto her bed, burying her face in her soft pillow. "Holy shit what a messed up day, I am exhaust" she mumbled, then slowly turned over and looked up at the ceiling.
"I seriously hate this damn ship. The only decent people on it, are Captain Gladys, Lunamaria and Nicol. Shinn, on the other hand, while I did find him cute, when I first met him, is downright crazy. Za Burrel, scares the shit out of me. And the Deputy Captain, is an annoying man child. I really do wish I could ask for a transfer, but with dad so damn happy about me being stationed on ZAFT's most powerful warship, he would never let me hear the end of it" the tired Abbey said to herself, knowing full well that if she mentioned anything to her stubborn military-minded father, who was the captain of his own Nazca-class the Tobitatsu, that she was unhappy being here on the Minerva, he would likely just spout some rubbish about how proud she should be, serving on the Minerva, and how it would ruin the family pride, if she were to be transferred to another ship.
"Oh damn it all, I really wish I could have been born into a less military fanatic family" the blond haired girl sighed tiredly, truth was that Abbey had never really wished to become a soldier, but her dumbass of a father had always insisted on her becoming a mobile suit pilot once she was old enough, yet with her older brother losing his right arm in a GINN during the last war, Abbey had started hating mobile suits with an almost blinding passion.
So when the time came for her to join the ZAFT military, and start her vigorous training to become a mobile suit pilot, Abbey had steadfastly refused. But no matter what she had said and done, her colossal moron of a father just wouldn't hear it. It had only been because of her kind-hearted mother, along with her brother, who had just received a new prosthetic arm, that she had been saved her from becoming a mobile suit pilot, by them telling dad, that she would very likely end up getting killed, if she was ever forced into piloting a mobile suit against her will. But while that had, in the end, been enough to get dad to begrudgingly agree, not to have her become a mobile suit pilot, it had not been enough, to keep her out of the military. Her dad, simply put could not accept the notion that one of his children, did not have some military experience, even if they themselves, did not want it.
"Geez I hate this, I want to go home, I miss mom, bro and my friends" the girl said. Then while cursing softly, Abbey slowly sat up on the bed, reaching over, she picked up her small laptop, placing it firmly on her lap. Once the machine was turned on, she continued writing the fantasy novel, she had been working on for the last couple of years.
To be continued.
There are a few things I wanted to show with the last two chapters, like how the Archangel crew stick together like family, talking with each other about what had happened and helping each other through it, while most of the Minerva crew stick by themselves not really supporting each other through the difficult times, except for Lunamaria and Nicol.
Another thing, the part in the last chapter where Lacus and Dearka talked about Ezalia Jule and Rau Le Creuset having a bit of a fling, that was actually something I considered having them do in the last story, but I just never got the chance to work that into, But We just Meet.
Last thing, regarding Abbey we are not really told much about her, or her personality, the only info I can find about her, is that she takes over after Meyrin, and that she is not all that accustomed to combat, so I thought that her not actually wanting to be a soldier, that it was something she was forced into by family circumstance, would make a good backstory for her.