As an island nation located close to the equator, Orb was greatly affected by Junius Seven's debris, with every city and military installation taking at least some damage. To make matters worse, despite rapid evacuation efforts, confirmed casualty estimates were still in the hundreds of thousands, a devastating number for a country whose pre-war population of ten million had already suffered from the destruction of Heliopolis and the Earth Alliance's invasion.
Regardless, what the Orb Union lacked in size and numbers, they made up for in technological capital and expertise. Search and rescue teams were operating across the country to prevent the casualty numbers from rising any further, while engineering crews had already repaired the docks at Onogoro Island, just in time for the Minerva to arrive, Chief Representative in tow.
In addition to the standard security detail, Cagalli's cabinet of ministers, among them Unato Ema Seiran, a short, balding man, emir of the Seiran family and the young head of state's prime minister, all dressed in the same white and maroon outfits befitting their station, awaited her return at the docks, many of them greatly concerned by the entry of a ZAFT battleship to their borders.
"The Minerva, ZAFT's newest and most powerful battleship. It seems our princess has returned with trouble," Unato observed to his son, Yuna Roma Seiran, who contrasted his father with his tall height and full head of hair, his well known sympathies for the Earth Alliance making him uncomfortable with a ZAFT ship docking in his country.
Yuna, on the other hand, viewed things differently, even if he shared his father's bigotry against Coordinators. A cowardly, vain man who believed his status, business connections, and low cunning made him the Machiavellian ideal, the Seiran heir saw opportunity everywhere, especially if he thought it could further his goals of negotiating a marriage alliance with Cagalli and securing his family's dominance over Orb. As a result, despite his many deficiencies, he possessed a great deal of patience.
"It's not really Cagalli's fault, father. I'm sure she never expected to be involved in these troubles to such an extent, and we can't really rebuff the ship that returned our head of state safe and sound… for now."
"Yes, for now…" Unato said in agreement with his son, a pessimistic tone in his voice.
Once the Minerva finished docking, its boarding ramp descended to allow Cagalli and Athrun, accompanied by Talia and Arthur, to disembark. Seeing his head of state, Yuna pounced on the chance to sway public perceptions in his favor.
"Cagalli!" he walked towards her, arms outstretched as he called her name.
"Yuna?" she said in confusion, a chill coming over her as she realized he was about to hug her.
Before Yuna could reach Cagalli, however, Athrun, acting on both his instincts as a soldier and his resentment for the slimeball nobleman who kept trying to court his girlfriend, placed himself between them with several long steps. Stopping on his heels to avoid bumping into Athrun, Yuna regarded him with a mixture of confusion and anger.
"What the hell are you doing, Athrun?" he indignantly asked, forcing the young Coordinator to resist giving a satisfied grin as he came up with an answer.
"Oh, uh, sorry about that, Yuna," Athrun disingenuously explained. "My instincts just kicked in when I saw someone running towards us. It's nothing personal, but I'd be a bad bodyguard if I didn't take every precaution."
"Yes, I suppose so," Yuna replied, crossing his arms in annoyance as he looked at Cagalli, who was using all of her willpower to not give her boyfriend an appreciative smile for protecting her from the unwanted advances of her prime minister's son.
Having no context for what was going on, Talia and Arthur simply shrugged at each other, while Unato, not wanting to be further embarrassed by his son, approached Cagalli, hiding his displeasure at the presence of Athrun and now two other Coordinators.
"Forgive Yuna's impulsiveness, Chief Representative. With everything that's happened these past few days, he's simply happy to see you, as are we all," he politely explained to Cagalli before he and the other assembled officials bowed to greet her, a gesture which, while standard protocol, always made her feel uncomfortable.
While Cagalli found Unato to be an able statesman and relatively more tolerable than his son, his pro-Earth Alliance position and mistrust of Athrun prevented her from outright liking him. In truth, she had only appointed him her prime minister because her uncle and first choice for the job, Homura Athha, viewed himself as unfit for politics after being forced to lead the country during the Earth Alliance's occupation.
"Thank you, Unato. It's good to be home," she said before gesturing for the officials to stop bowing, after which she turned to Talia and Arthur. "Captain Gladys, First Officer Trine, this is my prime minister, Unato Ema Seiran."
Respectfully nodding to Cagalli, Talia, followed by Arthur walked up to Unato and extended her hand for a shake, which he accepted after a brief moment's hesitation, something she noticed but chose to ignore.
"Emir Seiran, you have my thanks for letting the Minerva dock at Onogoro," Talia told the older nobleman as they finished shaking hands, letting Arthur do the same. "I promise, my crew and I won't be a burden on Orb's resources in these trying times."
"Please, captain, if not for your crew, Cagalli and her bodyguard might've never returned home," Unato diplomatically replied after finishing shaking Arthur's hand, deliberately choosing to avoid referring to Athrun by name. "Ensuring that the Minerva is repaired and resupplied is the least we can do to repay you."
Having finished exchanging pleasantries with the two ZAFT officers, Unato turned his attention back to Cagalli.
"Chief Representative, I regret to force this upon you immediately after your arrival, but there are urgent matters of state that must be discussed now that you're here. Please, come with us."
Sighing in reluctant acceptance that there was no rest for heads of state, Cagalli moved to follow her cabinet, but not before turning back to Talia to offer her gratitude.
"Captain Gladys, thank you and your crew for what you've done. I'll see to it that our engineers start working on the Minerva within the hour."
At first, Talia opened her mouth to assure Cagalli that such a gesture wasn't necessary, as ZAFT high command might not approve of the Minerva being repaired by foreign mechanics, but, deciding not to look a gift horse in the mouth, instead offered a bow, something that Arthur awkwardly followed in. For once not feeling embarrassed by the gesture, Cagalli smiled and bowed back before leaving, motioning for Athrun to follow her. Before he could even make a dozen steps past the boarding ramp, however, he found himself blocked by Yuna, whose smug expression brought him to the threshold of rage.
"Sorry, Athrun, but this is a high-level meeting, something that bodyguards need not concern themselves with," Yuna curtly told him, taking pleasure in putting his perceived romantic rival down, especially after he literally stood in his way. "So why don't you go take a rest?"
Clenching his fists again, Athrun fought off the urge to tell Yuna to go to hell and instead looked past him to see if Cagalli noticed what was going on, catching her knowing eyes. Looking back at her boyfriend, Cagalli wanted to tell Yuna off, but knew nothing good would come of it, so she reluctantly shook her head for him to stand down, which he acknowledged before returning his attention to the nobleman in front of him.
"Thank you, Yuna. I think I will," Athrun replied as politely as he could, but Yuna wasn't done with him yet.
"I'm sorry, what was that?"
"Lord Yuna."
Feeling as though he put the indignant Coordinator in his place, Yuna smugly nodded at him before turning to join Cagalli, who gave her boyfriend an apologetic glance before having to leave with her cabinet. Taking a deep breath and unclenching his fists, Athrun turned to face Talia and Arthur, who had watched the entire exchange and regarded him with sympathetic looks on their faces. Still too angry to say anything, Athrun politely nodded at them before leaving, Shinn's question now echoing in his head as he decided to take a drive to calm his nerves and think.
Having no reason to remain outside, Talia and Arthur moved to return to the Minerva, but were stopped when they saw a buxom, brown-haired woman and a scruffy-looking man, both of them wearing grey Morgenröte uniforms, with the woman also wearing a beige mechanic's cap, approaching them, though their gaze was primarily directed at the currently docked ZAFT battleship as opposed to its captain and first officer.
"Uh, captain, should I tell them to leave?" Arthur asked Talia, but she shook her head in the negative.
"Must be mechanics," she thought to herself before addressing them. "Excuse me, may I help you?"
Her question caught the woman's attention, who turned to face her, a warm smile on her lips, while the man's gaze lingered on the Minerva for a bit longer before joining his colleague, his face transparently expressing his excitement at the prospect of working on the ship.
"I beg your pardon. My name is Maria Bernes, and this is my partner, Montgomery Scott, the woman greeted with a proffered hand, using the aliases provided to them to hide their true identities as Murrue Ramius and Kojiro Murdoch. "We work for Shipbuilding Division B, and have just been assigned to oversee your ship's repairs."
Talia was surprised that Cagalli or one of her adjutants had already assigned a work crew to the Minerva, but she supposed it was for the best and accepted the handshake, reciprocating the smile.
"Captain Talia Gladys, a pleasure," she said to the mechanic before nodding to Arthur. "And this is my executive officer, Arthur Trine."
"Uh, hello," he awkwardly greeted, widening Murrue's smile as she winked at him, flustering the man, before she ended the handshake and looked back at Murdoch.
"Mr. Scott, would you mind going over the repair plans with Mr. Trine? I'd like to talk with the captain some more," she asked her colleague, who smirked and nodded in the affirmative.
"Sure thing, boss," the mechanic dutifully replied before casting an amused look at the bashful executive officer. "Come on, lover boy. Let's go discuss the specifics while the ladies talk about… whatever ladies talk about."
"Yeah… I mean, of course," Arthur stammered as he tried to sound professional, his face still red as he followed Murdoch away from Talia, leaving her alone with Murrue.
Despite being a grown woman, Talia couldn't help but stifle a small chuckle at how easily flustered Arthur could be, something Murrue quickly noticed.
"They don't make them like they used to, do they?" she remarked with a playful smile on her lips, bittersweet memories of her own executive officer, Natarle Badgiruel, springing unbidden to her head, though she didn't let it show on her face.
"Arthur's a fine man, just overeager," Talia assured Murrue as she turned back to face her, once again reciprocating her smile. "Now, I believe you said you wanted to talk?"
Murrue politely nodded at Talia before gesturing for her to follow her up to an observation platform.
"I've heard the Minerva hasn't even had an official launch yet, but it's already garnered a reputation of its own," Murrue remarked after she and Talia arrived at an observation deck overlooking the ship, its design and maiden voyage reminding her greatly of the Archangel.
Hearing Murrue's choice of words, Talia briefly glanced at the engineer before looking back to her ship, seeing that repair crews were already starting to survey what needed to be repaired first.
"Yes, unfortunately," she replied, somewhat wondering if she could've done things differently. "I wasn't expecting anything like what we went through to happen, but I guess sometimes shit happens."
Murrue looked sympathetically at Talia as she made that comment. While she couldn't possibly know about her past service, as a fellow commanding officer thrust into situations beyond her control, she understood exactly what she was going through.
"It's true about everything. You have no idea what awaits you in the future," Talia continued. "And I believe in that more than ever."
As Talia continued talking, Murrue couldn't help but be reminded of Mu, her late boyfriend who had given his life to save hers and her crew's, and how he would've said something like that were he still alive. Taking a deep breath to hide her grief, she then returned her attention to Talia.
"I feel the same," she solemnly replied, a sad smile forming on her lips as a realization hit Talia.
"Why do I feel as though Orb is a bit touchy about ZAFT?" she thoughtfully asked, momentarily catching Murrue off guard before she provided an answer.
"Well, you might be right about that," she began to explain, her confidence slowly returning. "But it's like you just said, you have no idea what's going to happen in the future, so we have to live in the present and do what we can."
Talia approvingly nodded in response to Murrue's words as she continued speaking. "And if we find out it was all a mistake, then we can waste time moaning and crying about it," Murrue concluded, knowing for certain that was something Mu would say. "Then we'll go on to the next thing."
"Yes, you're right," Talia agreed before the two of them looked back out at the Minerva, both women pleased to have found a kindred spirit in these trying times.
Just as Andrew promised, a rescue ship evacuated everyone from Malchio's island, relocating them to his and Murrue's home in Orb until the orphanage could be rebuilt. Today, Kira and Lacus had taken some of the children to a nearby beach, where they watched them play tag with Mr. Pink and Birdy.
While Kira wasn't sure if he felt any better since Junius Seven crashed into Earth, safely arriving in Orb and finding out his parents were still alive did make things feel slightly less bleak, and watching the children at play, genuinely happy, gave him some comfort. Sensing her partner's improving mood as she stood next to him, Lacus slipped her hand into his and rested her head on his shoulder, the sensation making his heart skip a beat. She knew he was still in pain and felt guilty for asking him to accompany her and the children, but she also knew that isolating himself from his loved ones would only make things worse, so she was overjoyed when he agreed.
"Thank you for coming today, Kira," she happily told him as he turned his head to face her. "I know things have been hard lately, but you being here with us means so much to me."
Kira contentedly smiled as he looked into Lacus's eyes, the love and comfort she radiated lifting his burdens for a moment while he reciprocated her gratitude. "I should be thanking you for always being there for me, Lacus. I just wish there was more I could do for you."
Her own smile weakening upon hearing this, Lacus opened her mouth to assure Kira he shouldn't need to feel that way, but the sound of the children pointing something out cut her off.
"Hey, look! It's Athrun!" one of the kids excitedly pointed out before running off, prompting the rest of them, along with Mr. Pink, who yelled out of his customary "damnits," and Birdy, to follow him.
Visually following the path Mr. Pink and the children were taking, Kira and Lacus were pleasantly surprised to see Athrun getting out of his parked convertible, a relieved smile on his lips as he glanced at Kira and Lacus before greeting the kids and his robotic creations.
"Athrun!" Kira exclaimed, relieved to know his best friend, and by extension his sister, had safely returned to Earth.
Her smile widening, Lacus silently let Kira go and followed him to greet Athrun as the children bombarded him with questions about his time in space and Cagalli's whereabouts, but upon seeing two of his closest friends approaching him, he gently walked past the kids and wordlessly hugged both of them, which they reciprocated.
"I knew you all had survived," he gladly told them as he ended the hug, grateful for both this moment and the distraction from his thoughts it provided. "I heard from one of Cagalli's assistants that Malchio's home had been destroyed and that you were staying here until it could be rebuilt."
Before Kira and Lacus could say anything, the children began loudly confirming what happened while Mr. Pink excitedly bounced up and down and Birdy continued flying circles around them and chirping, the chaos making Lacus giggle.
"Oh my. Settle down, everyone," she tried to tell them before realizing it was a lost cause, instead taking them and Mr. Pink back to the beach so Kira and Athrun could continue the conversation.
"So, uh, where's Cagalli?" Kira asked Athrun as Birdy flew one more circle before perching on his shoulder, continuing to chirp.
"She's at a meeting. There's a lot to catch up on."
Watching Kira and Athrun talk, Lacus realized it would be a good idea for her partner to spend some time with his best friend now that he was back on Earth.
"You go on ahead, Kira! I'll come back later with the kids!" she encouragingly called out while waving.
Both of them knowing what she had in mind, and grateful for it, Kira and Athrun nodded to each other before getting in the latter's car and driving off.
Kira held Birdy in his lap as he sat in the passenger seat of Athrun's car while he drove them to Andrew and Murrue's home. Even though both of them wanted this drive to be a moment for them to reconnect, Athrun couldn't help but get how he felt about what happened at Junius Seven off his chest, something which Kira felt obligated to listen to.
"So you fought them?" Kira asked Athrun after he began explaining the incident, feeling bitterly vindicated that terrorists were indeed responsible for dropping Junius Seven onto Earth, which he confirmed.
"I went to help with the demolition, and they ambushed us. During the battle, one of them talked to me, Kira," Athrun told his friend before quoting what Sato said to him. "'Have you forgotten the innocent lives thrown away here!? You're living in a damn dream world, laughing with the butchers who did this!'"
Hearing this, Kira kept silent for the rest of the drive, his guilt flaring up again. While part of him never wanted to pilot a mobile suit again, at the same time, he wished he had thought of a reason to go to the PLANTs with Athrun and Cagalli, no matter how far-fetched it was. That way, he could've helped.
As Athrun parked the car in the driveway, he turned to Kira and asked him a question.
"Kira, do you remember the question I asked you two years ago?"
"Yeah. You asked me what we should be fighting against, and how we were supposed to do it."
Briefly smiling that his friend still remembered, Athrun tightened his grip on the steering wheel before he guiltily finished the memory by adding his own thoughts. "And you said we look for the answer together, but after all this time, I still haven't found the answer."
Unsure of what he could say to comfort his friend, Kira instead put a hand on his shoulder to reassure him. The two of them sat in silence for a while, both knowing that the worst was yet to come, before saying their goodbyes, after which Kira got out of the car and went inside while Athrun drove off.
Cagalli knew there she had a lot to catch up on after her return to Orb, but she hadn't anticipated the first piece of business presented to her by her ministers.
"You want to sign a treaty of alliance with the Atlantic Federation!? ARE YOU INSANE!?" she exclaimed in denial and fury to her ministers. "We need to focus on our own recovery efforts and start sending whatever aid we can to the disaster zones!"
Having expected this to be Cagalli's reaction, Tatsuki Mashima, emir of the Mashima family and an ally of the Seirans, moved to reassure the young Chief Representative.
"You misunderstand, ma'am. While the original treaty was presented to us by the Atlantic Federation, it is part of an agreement with the other nations of the world. That way, coordinating international relief efforts will become less difficult."
If Tatsuki thought his explanation would placate Cagalli, he would quickly find himself sorely mistaken. If anything, it made her even more resistant to the plan.
"Have you already forgotten that it was the Atlantic Federation and the rest of the Earth Alliance who invaded and occupied Orb!?" she sharply countered before trying to moderate her tone. "If we sign this treaty with them, what's to stop them from attempting to take the resources and technologies they couldn't seize by force?"
"Chief Representative, I believe your youth and time aboard a ZAFT battleship is clouding your judgement," Unato patronizingly interjected, completely side-stepping the question. "I don't think you've grasped the enormity of what took place down here."
Before Cagalli could say anything else, her prime minister showed a tablet with images of the aftermath of Junius Seven's fall to Earth. The sight of refugees, destroyed buildings, and the dead bodies recovered from them made her blood run cold as she tried to process a response, but words almost completely escaped her.
"Where… where did you get these?"
"We received these images from the Atlantic Federation, ma'am," Unato dispassionately explained, pressing onward with his advantage. "They also gave us a rather interesting piece of information, something we're sure you saw for yourself while in space."
While Cagalli still formulated a response, Unato flipped through the images on the tablet before coming to the last few. These images were of the GINN High Maneuver Type IIs operated by the terrorists who had pushed Junius Seven out of its orbit and ambushed the demolition crews sent to break it up. It was at this moment Cagalli fully realized what the Atlantic Federation was trying to do through her prime minister, and she had to do something about it before it was too late.
"If you think ZAFT was somehow behind this incident, then the Atlantic Federation is lying to you! These terrorists were acting independently of any government!" she frantically explained, prompting a response from Yuna.
"The PLANTs mostly said the same thing in the message they sent us, Cagalli, but this is still cause for concern."
"You don't understand! When the Minerva saw the terrorists attacking the demolition crews, Chairman Durandal ordered its remaining mobile suits to help fight them off!" Cagalli impassionately argued, the words just coming out of her mouth as if she were a passenger in her own head. "After that, when Junius Seven entered Earth's atmosphere, the captain of the Minerva had the ship fly after the colony and blow it up to mitigate the damage it would do to the planet."
Cagalli paused for a moment to gauge the reaction of her ministers and see if anyone would interrupt her. When no one did, she pressed her point.
"That ZAFT battleship and its crew literally saved the world. We owe them a debt of gratitude that can never be repaid in full, and forming an alliance with the Atlantic Federation would not only be a betrayal of their heroism, but of the principle of neutrality this nation was built upon."
Having said her part, Cagalli now looked around the room while she caught her breath to see what her ministers thought. Some of them seemed persuaded by her words, but the rest, including Unato and Yuna, remained visibly unconvinced.
"We completely understand what you're saying, Cagalli," Yuna replied in a faux reassuring tone. "But what are we supposed to tell the countless millions of people affected by this tragedy? 'We're so sorry, but since ZAFT saved the world, you shouldn't be upset?'"
Despite her efforts to hide it, Cagalli indignantly bristled at Yuna's condescension and the smug smile that formed on his lips, but she once again found herself interrupted by Unato, who, in contrast to his son, spoke with a sternness comparable to the usual expression he wore on his face.
"Ideals are important, Chief Representative, but we live in difficult times. We might have to make a choice that could save or destroy our nation very soon, and for all our sakes, we must pick the correct one."
Hearing Unato's words and unable to come up with a convincing retort, Cagalli slumped back into her chair as she thought of what to do before going with the only thing she could think of.
"As Chief Representative, I require time to review this treaty and make a decision on its ratification. In the meantime, I would like to discuss the next item on the agenda."
Despite her delaying tactic being plainly transparent, none of Cagalli's ministers challenged her request, much to her surprised relief. She and her cabinet then spent the next few hours going over the rest of the agenda before finally adjourning for the day, leaving her alone in the meeting room, almost too exhausted to get up and leave herself. She knew she had an uphill battle to fight, one for the very soul of Orb, and it terrified her.
Murrue took a deep breath as she watched the sunset from the balcony of hers and Andrew's home. She had spent the past few days working on the Minerva around the clock, and while she enjoyed her conversations with Talia in between her shifts, it was nice having a break long enough to justify coming home for the night. Watching the sun reflect over the ocean as it sank beneath the horizon reinvigorated her, but she soon felt uneasy concern as her eyes darted to Kira, who was also watching the sunset as he sat alone in the garden.
Lacus and Malchio told her that the dropping of Junius Seven had taken a toll on Kira's psyche, and the cracks were showing, despite his best efforts to carry on. She knew that despite wanting to live a normal life again, the guilt of the friends and comrades they lost during the war weighed heavily on him, just as it did on her. Now she couldn't help but think of Mu and Natarle, and how much she missed both of them. Before she was completely subsumed by these thoughts, however, the faint aroma of coffee brought her back to reality. Turning around, she saw Andrew, a satisfied smile on his lips, walking towards her with a proffered mug of coffee in his hand.
"I decided to experiment by mixing charrieriana, liberica, and racemosa," he told her as she accepted the cup and took a sip. "What do you think?"
Murrue wasn't a coffee aficionado the way Andrew was, but her palette could register the nutty aftertaste in the brew, something that complimented the bitter primary taste.
"It's good, Andrew. Thank you," she told him, enjoying the taste before sighing in resignation and leaning back against the balcony. "I'm sorry."
His smile fading, Andrew walked up to Murrue and leaned on the balcony next to her, already guessing the cause of her mood. "It's the kid, isn't it?"
"Among other things, but yes," she sadly replied before taking another sip of her coffee and returning her gaze to the boy who had become like family to her. "Lacus and Malchio told me that apart from continuing his classes with the children, Kira has become as sullen and withdrawn as he was when we first came here."
"Yeah, I've noticed that," the semi-retired Desert Tiger confirmed. "But if I know anything apart from coffee and tactics, it's that Kira is stronger than he looks. Give him time and care, and he will rebound."
Murrue couldn't help but smile as she turned to look at Andrew, an expression he reciprocated, knowing she could trust in his assurances. If someone had told her two years ago that a ZAFT officer would become one of her closest friends and confidants, she wouldn't have believed them. But lo and behold, here she was, and it gave her a measure of peace.
Before she could say anything else, however, the moment was interrupted by the sound of a car approaching the house, after which she saw Kira getting up and leaving the garden out of the corner of her eye. Exchanging a curious glance with Andrew, the two of them went downstairs, where Kira, Malchio, and Lacus were already opening the door to see who it was. Walking outside, the five of them saw that the vehicle had the flag of the PLANTs on it, meaning its driver, a nondescript man wearing a black suit and sunglasses, was an employee of the PLANT embassy in Orb.
"This is private property. What are you doing here?" Andrew asked the man as he got out of the car, revealing he was holding a briefcase in his right hand.
"Ambassador Walter de Lament sent me here on behalf of Chairman Gilbert Durandal, Commander Waltfeld," the employee answered before turning his attention to Lacus, who regarded him with a confused expression while Kira reflexively began putting himself between them. "Lacus Clyne, the chairman wishes to speak with you right now."
Author's Note
What's this? Durandal wants to speak with Lacus and not assassinate her? Why?
Moving on from this, while I think Athrun is too high profile to get away with an alias, the crew of the Archangel would probably need aliases to avoid being hunted down by the Earth Alliance. I know it's a bit clunky, but I wasn't sure how else to implement them. Also, yes, because Murdoch's alias was never specified, I decided to reference Star Trek.
Moreover, as part of my desire to incorporate at least some aspects of SEED Freedom into my rewrite, I decided to make Walter de Lament, who succeeded Lacus as chairman of the PLANTs in the movie, the PLANTs' ambassador to Orb. Considering he's canonically a moderate in the same vein as her, Siegel, and Eileen, I figured it would be appropriate to have someone like him be his country's representative to Orb, which, while tolerant of Coordinators, is still majority Natural.
Happy New Year, everyone, and thank you for reading this chapter. I hope you enjoyed it, and, as always, feedback is appreciated. Until next time.