Gundam SEED Fan Fiction ❯ Equal In Life ❯ Found ( Chapter 2 )

Thank you everyone for the reviews! You all encouraged me to continue! =)

Oh, and note, unless stated otherwise (like the first section below) everything is in Normal POV

CH.2: Found

(Miriallia POV)

"Hey, wake up…" Slowly, I opened my eyes, and saw…Dearka? "What's going on?" I managed to ask, still a bit nauseous.

His annoying smirk showed itself again. "Seems like Zala and Yamato managed to crash land the shuttle somehow."

"Oh." I looked around to see how the others where doing. They weren't there. "Where's everyone else?" Panic suddenly ceased me. "Nothing happened to them, right?"

Dearka dismissed the notion with his hand. "No, everyone's fine, if not shaken up a bit. Although that pilot jumped off the shuttle at the last minute. What a crazy guy." Wordlessly, I nodded. At least no one else was hurt. "They're all in the control room right now, trying to send a distress signal." As if on cue, the rest of the group walked in.

"The radio's dead." Athrun informed us. "We're just going to have to wait until someone spots us."

"That's going to take forever!" Cagalli remarked. "Why don't we go outside and try to find help ourselves?"

Yzak snorted from the other side of the room. "Not in this weather."

When he said that, I suddenly realized that it was really, really cold. Sensing me shiver, Dearka took off his jacket, and handed it to me. "Here…" Was that concern I saw in his eyes? Whatever it was, it soon replaced itself with his infamous smirk. "After all, Coordinators can withstand extreme temperatures more than Naturals." Any other time I would have given him a death glare. But seeing the situation, I decided not to argue.

Trying to ignore Dearka, I looked around the room once again, to see Cagalli and Athrun sitting together in a corner, Yzak wordlessly looking out at a window, and Lacus tending to a small bruise on Kira's head. My gaze shifted back to Athrun and Cagalli. The latter snuggled closer to Athrun, as he played with the tip of her golden hair. They looked perfect together, just like Tolle and I once did…

"Does anyone know where we are?" Lacus asked, breaking me from my thoughts. Although she spoke barely above a whisper, I heard her loud and clear.

"No idea." Athrun answered back. "Although, the weather tells us that we're nowhere close to Orb." She merely nodded, and focused her attention on Kira again, who just smiled gratefully back at her.

None of them seemed to be too worried. But then again, why should they be? They had someone to support them, and peace was underway. It would be so simple to fade away…Shaking my head at these morbid thoughts, I followed Yzak's example-stared mindlessly outside, waiting.

* * *

"Sir! One of our shuttles just crashed into sector 34."

"Crashed? One of our own?" The officer stood up, puzzled. He walked towards the informant, and looked at his screen. "Hm…yes indeed. But I don't remember anyone coming here today, especially in this weather…with the exception of her, of course, but she's already here."

"Excuse me, but is there a problem?" Upon hearing that voice, every personnel within the room stood up and saluted the figure.

"There seems to be a crashed shuttle," the officer began, leading her towards the screen, "and surprisingly it's one of our make."

"Well then, we should go and see." She said without a slightest hint of hesitation. "I'm sure that anyone in there won't be doing too well."

"We'll take care of it right away."

"…And I'll be going as well." At those words, everyone stopped what they were doing, and proceeded to stare at her.

"But…" the officer pleaded, "your safety…"

"I'll be fine." She reassured him, while fastening an extra cloak. "Besides, that could have been me out there."

* * *

"Hey, I see some movement over there!" Cagalli pointed. Sure enough, many figures approached the shuttle, and soon they came inside. "Thank you…thank you…" Cagalli stammered as their rescuers handed them blankets. "I don't think we could have lasted very much longer." Her words were acknowledges with a couple nods, as they continued to look around the shuttle. Suddenly, one of them motioned for the group to follow. Obeying, the group followed the figure outside, almost knocked off by the strong breeze that immediately followed.

"Be careful." The figure warned. "Just a few more steps." Sure enough, in a few moments, everyone found themselves in a transporter, safe. "You were lucky that you rode in one of our shuttles. Otherwise no one would have found you in this snowstorm."

"How did you find us?" Cagalli asked.

"Every shuttle we make, we put a tracking system on." The figure replied. "It works so that as long as the control room isn't completely destroyed, we could track the shuttle anywhere, anytime."

Soon, the transporter stopped in front of a palace-like structure, and the figure ushered them inside. "It's pretty nice in here." Cagalli remarked. The group passed by a couple rooms before stopping. Meanwhile, they tried to see the face of the figure, but unfortunately, the hood hid it from view.

"Just wait here for awhile." With that, the figure walked out of the corridor.

Sure enough, in a matter of seconds, a benign-looking, elderly lady came forth. "My dears! You all must be exhausted and hungry. Now don't just stand there! Hurry and get inside your rooms." Doing as told, each person headed towards an empty room. "Now, just stay and relax, and I'll get you at seven o'clock for dinner."

* * *

(Lacus POV)

Carefully, I stuck a foot into the warm water. Seeing that the temperature was just right, I slowly sank into the tub. Perfect. A bath always helped me to relax. Now all I needed was a certain dark-haired gundam pilot…shaking my head, I mentally slapped myself. Cagalli's really starting to rub off on me. Not that she was perverse. It's just that I got a lot bolder than I used to be. Then again, boldness had its advantages. Cagalli seemed very happy with Athrun, and he with her. And in all honesty, I couldn't be happier for them. If only I could be that happy…

* * *

"Thank you for the hospitality, um…" Cagalli stammered.

"Nora. Just call me Nora." The lady replied.

"Um…all right." Cagalli replied, feeling a bit awkward about calling an elderly lady by her first name. Nora led them through many corridors, until they came across huge double doors.

"Oh, and you shouldn't be thanking me," she corrected as she opened the doors, "you should be thanking her."

A girl with silver, waist-length wavy hair, and cobalt blue eyes looked back at them. She had a pale blue dress on, and she smiled as she motioned for them to sit down. "Welcome to Icedale."

"Oh, is this what this place called?" Cagalli asked. Feeling that she had been a bit too blunt, she continued, "I'm sorry, it's just that I've never heard of it before."

"It's alright." The girl dismissed the comment. "We prefer to stay away from any form of attention anyways."

"I take it that this country is neutral." Yzak suddenly spoke, surprising everybody.

"Yes, for two-hundred years in fact." She replied. "We haven't been involved in any wars since then." Yzak knew everyone stared at him now. He didn't intend to talk at first, but once he heard her voice, he knew he had to figure it out. It was obvious to everyone by now that she had been the hooded figure that led them to this place, but he felt as if he had met her before that.

The double doors opened once again, as people brought in many plates full of food. All conversation momentarily forgotten, the group instantly started piling their plates up. "Oh, excuse us." Athrun blushed. "We forgot to introduce ourselves."

The girl laughed cheerfully. "It's all right. I'm sure you were very hungry."

"Well then, my name is Athrun Zala."

"Kira Yamato."

"Lacus Clyne."

"Dearka."

"Miriallia Haww."

"Yzak."

"Cagalli. And don't you forget it."

"I won't." The girl laughed. "Well then, I guess it's time for us to introduce ourselves then. I'm sure you already know Nora," she said, motioning towards her, "and I'm Arabella Shante."

"Princess Arabella Shante." Nora corrected as she poured herself more water.

"You just had to ruin it for me, didn't you?" Arabella chided with mock anger.

"Well, were you going to hide it from them?" Nora replied, with a glint in her eyes.

"I suppose not." With that, she smiled once again. Soon, dinner ended, with everyone more than content. "I really want to talk more, but I'm sure all of you are very tired right now, so why don't we resume tomorrow morning."

"Thank you for the dinner!" They all said in unison.

"Well then, good night." She waved at them as they started to walk out of the door. "Oh, and one more thing. You're free to go about as you like, as long as you don't go near the first floor of the east wing, or any of the underground floors."

"Oh, all right then. See you in the morning." With that, they walked back to their rooms.

"First the shuttle crash, and now this." Dearka commented. "Life sure got interesting."

"We'll talk about it tomorrow." Kira said, suppressing a yawn. "Good night everyone."

"Night."

* * *

Arabella stepped up to her dressing table. She reached behind the mirror and pressed a button. In an instant, the mirror turned into a computer screen, and a keyboard appeared from under it. She began typing on it, when she heard a knock coming from her door. "Who is it?"

"Nora."

"Come in." Nora came in quickly, and shut the door behind her. "So, did they find out about the plane?"

"It was sabotaged."

Arabella gave out a sigh. "I thought so, right when I heard that a plane crashed." She typed a few more characters into the computer. "It's just too bad that our guests got involved. Hopefully they won't be affected more."

"If this gets out of control, it might be better for them to be involved."

Arabella sighed again. "That's why we're trying to take care of this before it gets to that stage."

"But with the moves the other side is making, this just may be too much for us to handle alone."

"We'll see…" The room stayed silent for a few more seconds until she started typing again. "Oh, and could you have the information on our guests transferred to my room computer right now? I want to verify it again just to make sure."

* * *

There's the end of the chapter!

Was Lacus in character by the way?

And did this chapter meet the standards as the first chapter?

Please tell me your thoughts! =)

(Oh, and I promise, the next chapter is going to be quite interesting, although a bit shorter)