Phase 32: The Princess and The Proper

After the battle with the unknown 'Savior', Athrun and Cagalli ended up in an abandoned town together, having to wait out a sandstorm throughout the night. However, they couldn't be complacent, as they faced danger from an unknown quarter. With only each other to rely on, they have to defend themselves from the threat. Will they emerge victorious, or will they fail?

The first thing Cagalli felt when she returned to the world of living was an intense need to cough, which she did.

"Here's some water," a voice offered as a cup of water was offered to her.

"Thanks," she rasped while taking the said cup of water and brought it up to her lips, careful to drink a small amount each time. "That joke about hating sand isn't so not funny now," she said, relieved the scratchy feeling in her throat had dissipated by the water she drank.

"Because it's coarse and rough and irritating and it gets everywhere?"

"Yeah," Cagalli said while turning to the person. She then jumped backward and reached for the personal defense weapon at her hips, only to see it wasn't there.

Undisturbed by her reaction, Athrun stoke the fire in front of him and put two metal mugs near it. "I removed your weapon because it might be uncomfortable and we don't want an accidental discharge, and I don't think there are wild animals roaming around during a sandstorm,"

Cagalli looked around her. Illuminated by the fire Athrun lit, she could see saw her weapon being propped up against the wall. "You don't want me to be trigger-happy when I wake up,"

"That too. Since you saved me twice, it wouldn't feel right if we ended up killing each other,"

"You're welcome." Cagalli considered attacking the man when his back was turned back to her but decided not to do so since the risks were too great, and the attack would break the trust he had for her. "After dragging your ass out of that cockpit, the last thing I want to do is shoot you," she added for a good measure.

During the previous battle, she was assisting Mu and Sai in fighting against Athrun when an unknown mobile suit appeared and wrought havoc on the battlefield by damaging everything. With the Skygrasper she borrowed, it got one of its wings clipped, forcing her to land near what seemed to be an abandoned town. She had got out of it when a red ZAFT mobile suit crashed nearby, damaged but with its cockpit intact. Fortunately, it wasn't difficult for her, being familiar with ZAFT's military emergency protocol, to open the cockpit. There, she found an unconscious, but still alive Athrun Zala strapped in his pilot's seat. With great difficulty, she brought him out of the cockpit and into a nearby house. Exhausted by the effort, she sat with her back against a wall, and soon after, fell asleep.

"I appreciate it, since the air supply was damaged and if you didn't open it, I would have asphyxiated,"

"Long charred to well done first," When she had just gotten him out of the cockpit, a small fire had just broken up. By the time she got his body to the house, the fire had reached the cockpit.

"True," Athrun agreed.

She was still suspicious of Athrun, that was still the case. However, the two of them were in the same situation together. "Truce?" Cagalli offered.

"As long as the other surrender to the side who finds us first."

"They'll pay us for your handsome mug."

Athrun smiled. "Speaking of mug," he said as he offered one from the near fire to her, which she graciously took. "I rummaged through your cockpit and got some items and equipment. Other than that, there's the MREs, and the previous owner of this house left in a hurry, so we have at least six days of rations between the two of us, maybe more if we look around. We have water in the tanks, so not much worry about that, but I would like to think they would have found us by the third day."

The two drank their coffees in silence.

Cagalli went to pick up her radio and tried with some settings but only received statics. "Maybe we can try once the storm clears up, or even get the com system in Skygrasper up and running,"

"I think it's going to be difficult contacting anyone because of the interference."

"Anything is better than not doing anything," While Cagalli wasn't sure about how Archangel did things, she hoped Miriallia would send out the drones to scout the entire area.

Athrun considered her words. "I'm not a fan of a prisoner exchange, but anything is better than remaining trapped here. Maybe after the sandstorm?"

"If we're lucky, the inhabitants may come back by then?"

"They wouldn't, since we were evacuating them away from here in the first place,"

Cagalli narrowed her eyebrows. "So, you're protecting the nuclear scientists,"

"Not only them, but their family," Athrun said, while his hand gesturing about the room. "The mother's the one working at the lab while the father does some work with the local community while taking care of their two daughters and a son, and a pair of calico cats,"

"That's quite detailed. How do you know that?"

"It was in the brief." Athrun answered. While not in the main briefing document, his team was provided with supplementary documents, and he recognized the place where they were staying was the researcher's house.

"They got away?"

Athrun shook his head. "A Eurasian cruise missile hit the nearby restaurant, where the father and the children were waiting for her to finish her work." He said nothing after that, letting Cagalli realize herself.

"Oh." Cagalli uttered quietly. "The mother?"

"Convinced her to leave with the convoy," Athrun said before taking a sip, "I was surprised they let you pilot the Skygrasper," upon seeing the frown forming on her face, he hastily added, "Orb wouldn't send important figures to fight in the frontline, would it?"

Cagalli stared at her mug. "Perhaps all of this is Haumea's guidance," she said, sighing, before raising her head at him. "You were there at the Heliopolis, as part of the hijacking team. I was there too, though for another reason. And here we are, coming across each other, again and again. The only thing that can top this is if we run across each other while vacationing at a beach somewhere,"

"I don't think they will let me go to the beach while a war is raging on," Athrun replied.

"Maybe they'll send you to Onogoro to spy on Morgenroete?"

"Maybe, but our meeting means I'm discovered by you and thus must run away."

"I'll shoot at you without questioning,"

"Because I'm a Coordinator?"

Cagalli snorted in annoyance. "Because you're a spy. And you were involved in the Gundam-jacking,"

"Gundam…jacking?"

"Hijacking of the Gundams. I want to blame you for the colony's destruction, but I was made to understand… what they were saying… you were predisposed to a state… of temporary insentient."

"I was unconscious, yes."

"Can you tell me the reason? Kira and the others skirted the issue when I asked,"

"Nothing that interesting," Athrun said as he told Cagalli from his capture up to his return to PLANTs. In return, Cagalli told him how she escaped Heliopolis and ended up halfway across the world, fighting as part of an insurgency group.

"Is it okay for you to tell me this?" Athrun asked.

"Not okay, just like it's not okay what you told me,"

"Argument well made." Athrun looked at his watch. "I'll take the second watch, so you can go first."

"You're putting your trust in me?"

"As you said, you saved me twice," the man said as he went to lean on a wall. "So at least I owe you that trust."

With the sandstorm still raging outside, Cagalli stokes the fire, glancing at her companion from time to time. She knew that despite their interactions, they belonged to the opposing sides of the conflict and were temporary allies at the moment. Still, it made her heart flutter a bit upon hearing that he would put his trust in her. Cagalli stole a glance at him.

Athrun was cute.

If there's something negative that Cagalli had to point about him was the man was too serious, even to overdoing the fake sleeping action. She considered calling him out on that but decided not to and instead filled the time thinking about her future plan.

When Athrun's time came, she just lay down where she was and slept, not bothering to do the same thing as Athrun did. However, she didn't sleep throughout the night when he woke her up again, holding a finger to his lips. He then gave her hand signals, telling her they had company. Cagalli let herself adjust to the situation. The place was dark; Athrun put out the fire. She couldn't hear the storm, so it had subsided considerably. She gave him a look and Athrun pointed in a direction, before signaling.

Unknown.

She looked around and grabbed the binoculars on the floor, switching on the night vision mode, before looking through it. While the image she saw wasn't detailed to make out the faces, it allowed her to conclude that the newcomers weren't part of her group. She then gave the binoculars to Athrun to use. When he lowered it, she pointed at him, and he shook his head.

Not ZAFT's.

When Athrun returned the personal defense weapon, Cagalli realized that they were hostile. A sweat broke out and started dripping on her forehead. Cagalli was not new to such fighting, but she still felt apprehensive. She stood behind a wall, toggling the switch on her weapon from burst-shots to single-shot and disengaging the safety. Athrun was standing across the window, with his back also against the wall.

"This is Signal Wolf, come in Blue Falcon, Royal Blue…, I mean Princess Cagalli," the radio on her crackled to life. Cagalli realized she was supposed to use the earpiece so that it wouldn't be on speaker mode.

With that, the hails of bullets were unleashed on their position.

"I told you not to call me that!"

Athrun, while firing a few shots, remarked, "This is not the place for decorum!"

"Right!" Cagalli said, while popping her head just enough to spot an enemy in a building. Muzzle flashes erupt from the said building. "Signal Wolf, we're in sector A2 Z17! Are you in the area?"

"Yes. There's an ongoing firefight. Are you involved?"

Cagalli tried to recall the exact location of their place on the map but couldn't do so. "Yes. There's two of us being pinned down in a building. The enemies are in other locations. Can you ID our position?"

"A second… I see two bodies standing against the wall of a building in the southwest. Is that you?"

Miriallia had switched on the infra-red sensing. "Yes. Where's the nearest enemy?"

"Hang on," There was a loud explosion in another section before Miriallia continued, "Five, in a building, thirty meters, multiple stories, twelve o'clock. Three, in a building, forty meters away, another three, next to it, two o'clock."

"What was that explosion?"

"Took out sniper team on a roof,"

Judging from the explosion, Cagalli guessed Miriallia crashed a suicide drone into the said sniper position. "You still have those?"

"Negative. But a fire support is in AO, and two bombers are en route, ETA in three. Feather Lite in ten,"

A fire support drone meant it was equipped with a machine gun. While it was almost useless at taking out the enemy, and the ammunition count meant it had to be used judiciously, Cagalli can work with it. "Covering fire at the buildings at twelve o'clock in ten,"

"Roger."

Cagalli pointed at the main building and held out three fingers. Athrun nodded. When ten seconds lapsed, she said in a low but forceful manner. "Now!"

The drone above fired a burst of gunfire at the two buildings, causing confusion among the attacking forces. Exactly three seconds after the drone fired, both Cagalli and Athrun popped up through the window, aiming their weapons. Cagalli saw an enemy through her enhanced imaging scope. He ducked when the drone attacked and was about to resume his shooting position. Breath exhaled, Cagalli stilled her barrel movement and pulled the trigger thrice. Two shots rang out, and she felt the push of the rifle against her body. A window shattered, while the enemy crumpled down. Meanwhile, Athrun also took down another gunman. The two quickly ducked out of sight as the shots on their position resumed.

"Two down," Cagalli reported.

"Two down," Miriallia confirmed.

Cagalli looked down at her rifle, checking the bullets. Twenty-seven bullets were left in the magazine, with another thirty in the other magazine. It felt ethereal; while she had ordered for the enemies to be killed, it was the first time she had pulled the trigger herself, literally. But she had no time to think about it. "Signal Wolf, talk to me,"

"They're still in the buildings, the same buildings. Wait, someone is assuming a kneeling… RPG! Get away from the wall!"

Cagalli took two steps and leaped toward the floor, legs closed together and the feet pointing toward the said wall. Meanwhile, she clasped her hands protectively around the neck and head area, and open her mouth as wide as possible. She got into the position just in time as the room shook very hard and something hit her back.

The radio on her crackled for a second, before Mirriallia's voice came through. "Royal Blue, status?"

Cagalli groaned. Whatever hit her back, it was painful.

"Royal Blue… Cagalli, are you ok?"

"Now she uses my name," she muttered. "Still in one piece," she said.

"I've taken out the shooter and keeping his friends pinned down."

A bullet landed a mere meter in front of Cagalli's head, causing her to roll away from the hole the rocket had caused. Fortunately for her, her gun was within reach of her right leg, and she used the leg to pull it toward her. She turned toward Athrun and saw that he was also taking cover. While the man was alright, he had some bleeding around his left shoulder. "So many friends, that man is well-liked," Cagalli droned as their enemies kept firing at their position despite the overhead drone. Both she and Athrun returned fire. Even though they wouldn't hit anyone, they must keep up the appearance so their enemies wouldn't think of trying to approach them. "Are you okay, Athrun?" she said at Athrun while firing at an enemy. The shot nearly hit, but a near hit was just another miss.

"I am," Athrun said while he kept shooting as well.

The man was too serious, which may be a weakness to other girls, but for Cagalli, she could respect that, having a similar person as her father. "Good to hear that," she said before addressing Miriallia. "Now, where are those air assets?"

"Paveway! Paveway! Paveway!"

"What did you say?"

"I say again, Paveway! Paveway! Paveway!"

"I heard that! What I mean, what are you talking…"

Cagalli's words were swallowed by three explosions which thundered throughout the area. The three enemy positions went up in flames as each of them was hit with a 100-kilogram laser-guided bomb. The air was thick with dust and the smell of burning metal, but the shooting dwindled down.

"All targets splashed."

"Great to hear that. Any of them around?"

"Six hostiles egressing, the rest have been neutralized. Will maintain a perimeter,"

"You do that," Cagalli said as she slumped against the wall, ignoring the throbbing pain in her back. She knew she was supposed to keep up vigilance, but she had been running on fumes, relying on pure adrenaline to keep her on her toes; with the end of the threat, she couldn't muster the energy to remain standing. Her companion, while in a better condition, was panting. "Is it me, or do you look more handsome than before?"

"It is a bridge suspension bridge effect. The high-tension situation causes your heart rate to increase beyond the resting phase, as well other symptoms as well, such as increased blood pressure or shortness of breaths. These symptoms are like the symptoms of people falling in love, which is why you attributed feeling falling in love with me,"

Cagalli rolled her eyes. "I was being sarcastic,"

"Oh…" Athrun s quiet for a moment. "But I find you look more attractive,"

Despite the stinging sensation in the back it caused, Cagalli chuckled. After a while, she heard an aircraft in the distance as Mu's Skygrasper arrived at the scene.

Further conversation with Mirriallia confirmed while help would only arrive later the next day, the entire area was secured. It was still dark, so that meant a few more hours. Even though she was tired and was feeling thirsty and hungry, Cagalli forced herself to get up and go light up the room. She then located the first aid kit Athrun took from her aircraft and approached him. "Let get you patched up. Undress."

"You should treat yourself first."

"Need your help on it later."

Hesitantly, Athrun did as he was told, revealing the injury. She winced, as the dried blood along the jagged gash of his shoulder looked bad, made worse by the dim light.

"It's going to sting a bit," Cagalli said as she pressed a cloth dabbed with on the injured part.

Athrun grunted a bit but remained still. "I'm fine,"

"You're not. And they say the quiet ones require urgent medical treatment," she insisted.

"It's just a scratch."

Cagalli stopped for a moment, the cloth hovering over the wound, her eyes flicking up to meet his. There was confidence there, tempered with a hint of stubbornness. "Look, I'm not doing this for you, but for me," she said, a small smile tugging at her lips.

"For you? You want to see my body that bad?"

She pressed the cloth on the injured part more than she should, eliciting a yelp from him. "How could you be so clueless one minute, and then crass the other?" she said before reaching for the roll of bandages nearby.

"Sorry. I was just trying to lighten the mood,"

Upon hearing the heartfelt apology, Cagalli's expression softened. "I'm sorry too," she said as she reached for the roll of bandages. With great care, she bandaged his shoulder, before taking a step back to appraise her work. "Not bad, if I say so myself,"

"Thank you."

"You're welcome," She then turned around him and removed the top part of her jumpsuit. "I felt something hit my back, can you see how bad it was?"

"Let me see," Athrun said as he watched her exposed back, the pale perfection of her skin marred with an ugly bruise blooming across her shoulder blade, its purplish hue visible even through the dark. "There's a bruise here,"

"Anything else?"

"No."

"Can you apply the cold compress to it? There's one in the first aid,"

"Yes."

Athrun took out the cold compress, and paused for a moment, staring at her bruise. He knew the girl in front of him, yet seeing it caused his heart to constrict with unknown emotions. Gently, he pressed the compress on her, relenting when she hissed in pain. "Sorry," he whispered.

Cagalli let out a long sigh. "It's okay."

As Athrun continued his ministration, Cagalli let her body relax a little, surrendering to his care. He continued working in silence, the steady rhythm of his movements calming them both. Once the bruise was cooled, he rubbed the ointment on it, his fingers tenderly trying to brush away the pain. "Done,"

"Thanks," Cagalli said as she put on her uniform.

The situation between them became very awkward from thereon, with each one didn't know how to react being in the presence of the other. It wasn't the first time Cagalli was together with Athrun, and she had no problem even talking to a leader of a country, but at that point in time, words escaped her. On the other hand, Athrun wasn't exactly clueless, having a fiancée and all, but every time he wanted to say something, he couldn't verbalize his thoughts.

They would find out that morning seemed to crawl by ever so slowly.

Meanwhile, in another location two hundred kilometers away, one Sting Oakley looked at his watch as it beeped loudly.

"Time for a choo-choo train," the young boy next to him sneered.

"Give it a rest, Auel. It got old after a hundred times," Sting replied as he slung the rifle in his right hand over the shoulder.

His younger companion clicked his tongue. "You're no fun," Auel groused as he holstered the two submachine guns he was carrying. Then he brought out a few plastic-wrapped items from a pocket on his jacket. "I have grapes, orange, vanilla, watermelon and blueberry. How about you?"

"Chocolate, lemon and lime, strawberry, grapes… and bubble gum, I think."

"Bubble gum?"

"Bubble gum,"

"Trade for your strawberry?"

"Nope. You know she's going to ask for it," Sting said as he brought out a packet, ensured that the flavor was not strawberry, opened it, exposing a lollipop. He then put it in his mouth, letting the flavor of lemon and lime hit his taste bud, making a slight face at the sour taste.

Meanwhile, Auel did the same. "If she's going to be that annoying, then she should have insisted for all of them to be strawberry."

"Do you want that? All strawberry-flavored?"

"Nope. Would have gotten bored."

"Make up your mind, will you?" Sting said as he started walking. "The eggheads worked on getting them flavored because the two of you complained about the taste."

Auel followed right beside him, arms behind his head. "They tasted like thrash."

"Stellar said it's like broccoli,"

"See? She agreed with me,"

Sting walked to a nearby body and gave a cursory glance. The body was wearing a uniform similar to ZAFT's but with a different logo. The logo, which resembled a triangle with two red horns and one black horn, was the second time he came across during operations such as those.

"Probably an operative," Auel said, referring to the body as a member of a special operation team. "Few of them were so good that they looked as if they read my mind,"

"How did you defeat them, then?"

"Probably the same way you did. While they were trying to figure me out, I already put holes in them. Some of them were being real cringy, trying to be edgelords,"

"Fall into the darknes…" the speaker never finished sentence was never finished as Auel put a bullet right in the middle of the person's eyebrows.

"See?" Auel said as he stored the handgun he used in the holster behind his hip. "Why are they here if all they want to do is spout crap like that?"

"Yea, I think I saw two or three crazies like that guy you shot. Didn't even let them finish, since we're short of time,"

"Maybe they're Extendeds like us but from another center?"

"I don't know, and I don't care. But I'm worried about Stellar, since she may listen to them,"

Auel shrugged. "Stellar's an idiot, but if you think it from another angle, wouldn't Stellar be the most powerful among us since she doesn't think?"

It was as Auel had said; some of their enemies, the ones escorting the scientists, seemed to know what they were thinking. While that would have been useful outside of close quarter battle, in such a fast battle, one didn't have the time to really think. It was all down to instinct, built upon through hundreds and hundreds of hours of training until it was ingrained in muscle memory. When the enemy wanted to shoot to the left, move to the right. Enemy was stabbing in the middle, take a step to the side while pivoting the body sideways, allowing the knife to move harmlessly in front of the body, and counterattack by shooting the enemy in the head. In that respect, Stellar was indeed the most powerful among the three of them. "It's in the SOP, so I'm going to ask. Your sector's clear?"

"Clear." A single gunshot echoed in the night. At the loud report, Sting shared a look with Auel, who simply nodded. "Sounds like hers, so clear as well?"

A few seconds later, Stellar appeared and approached them, a gun in her hand. "Time for medicine?" she asked when she saw the lollipops in Sting and Auel's mouths.

"Yeah," Sting replied as he unwrapped the strawberry-flavored candy and stuck it in her mouth. "Give me one of yours later," he said as he ruffled her hair. Sting knew that adding the flavoring was like putting lipstick on a pig, as they still undergoing treatmeant, but at least it made life slightly bearable while the weaning process, which was predicted to take months, if not years, took place.

Stellar hummed happily and nodded.

"Wait, a minute! Are you going to ignore that?" Auel asked as he pointed at the bulging area around Stellar's chest.

"I was, until you opened your mouth," Sting replied. "Okay Stellar, what do you have there?"

"Kittens," Stellar answered as she brought out a pair of kittens.

"Where do you get them?"

"The nice lady gave me."

"Nice lady?" Auel asked.

"There," Stellar said while gesturing in the direction where she came from. "I shot her, but she didn't get mad. And this," she said as she raised the kittens for emphasis.

"We cannot bring them home, Stellar," Sting said.

"You couldn't take care of your pet shells." Auel added.

Stellar looked as if she was about to cry.

Sting rubbed down his face with his hand in exasperation. "Tell you what. We bring them back with us and find a wonderful home for them. They wouldn't stay with you, but at least Auel wouldn't cook and eat them, just like what he did with your pet sausages," he said placatingly.

"He ate Mister Bobo too."

"Mister Bobo is a chocolate bar!"

"Mr. Bobo is a fish, Auel, not a chocolate bar," Sting corrected.

"You mean…"

"I didn't want to say this before, but you're the one who ate her goldfish,"

"Shit. No wonder she didn't talk to me for a week. I didn't take the meds on time, did I?"

"And that's why the choo-choo must run on schedule. And talking about schedule…" Sting brought out a radio communicator and pressed a button. "Big Stork, this is Chaos Actual," Sting turned to look at the scene of destruction and carnage behind the three of them. The convoy that was carrying the scientists away from the research facility had been destroyed. He, Auel, and Stellar didn't know why they were deemed important enough to be eliminated, but they didn't care; all they needed to know was that the order came down from the temporary boss up there and just like the orders from the boss, it was to be followed. "All targets neutralized."

"Good work, Chaos. Cleanups will take care of the rest. Extraction in twenty," a male voice replied.

"Much appreciated," Sting hesitated, before adding, "Apart from our maintenance guys, get a vet ready."

TERMINOLOGY

AO: Area of Operation

Egress: Leaving a place. Ingress means entering a place.

Paveway: Announcement for the laser-guided bomb (LGB) deployments. Based on the real-life Paveway series of LGB. If an air to ground rocket is fired, the term that will be used is 'Rifle'

Splashed: Air to Air / Air to Ground hit.

A/N

1. Haumea, mentioned in Orb's announcement as it sent Kusanagi to space, is the goddess of fertility and childbirth in Hawaiian mythology.

2. The action of opening your mouth is to prevent your eardrums from fracturing during a sudden change of pressure, something that could happen during an explosion.