A/N: I have no excuse or reason for taking THIS LONG to get around to posting or even writing a new part for this story, so all I can do is say that I'm really very sorry for my inactivity. Life's just been a big bitch lately and I haven't felt the drive for writing, in fact, I had a huge wall of writer's block for this story and didn't even know if I'd be able to finish it. But I've decided that I will, even if it kills me. The standard warnings apply to this chapter, just like all of the others.
Disclaimer: Gundam SEED Destiny is the property of Bandai, Hajime Yatate, and Yoshiyuki Tomino; and not me. I only own Harmony and the plot; that's it.
Dedication: This fanfic is dedicated to one of my closest friends, Kate. Thanks for the inspiration and all the times that you've been there for me. This story is for you.

Phase 8: Interlude

If anything, the fighting didn't give any of them much of a reprieve, but they were only monitoring the situation for now. Cagalli would let him know if there ever would come a time where they'd need to enter battle, and until then Kira wasn't going to leave Shinn's side.

The first few days had been the hardest, with Shinn waking up to nightmares whenever he even drifted off for a moment, and he flinched whenever Kira touched him in even the most slightest of ways. It hurt to see the strong young man whom he'd fallen in love with reduced to this, and Kira could feel the anger and vengeance burning strongly inside of him. But he kept those darker feelings buried, according to the doctors, they'd only serve to upset Shinn and he would probably take them to mean that Kira was angry at him.

Kira still hadn't successfully convinced Shinn that he still loved him.

Already he and Harmony had talked Shinn out of trying to kill himself several times, and it was beginning to wear on both of them. Kira knew that Harmony hadn't had a decent night's sleep in several days, and was running only on caffeine and adrenaline. She'd spend hours sitting or standing outside the door to his room, standing guard over Shinn and running errands whenever needed.

Slowly, though, Shinn was starting to recover, and Kira had reason to hope that things could regain some semblance of normalcy. He had no illusions that things would ever go back to the way they'd been before, Durandul had successfully destroyed that, but he had hope that eventually everything would work out.

It had been just a little over three weeks since they'd brought Shinn on board the Archangel, and people were starting to adapt to the young man's presence there. Sure, there were a few who didn't agree with the ex-ZAFT pilot being on board, but they'd learned early on that it was a good idea to keep their mouths shut.

Most of the people on board the Archangel had served alongside Kira in the previous war, and respected him greatly, most of them were on very friendly terms with the young pilot and trusted his judgement. If Kira had brought Shinn onboard, then he'd done so for very good reasons. Very few of the crew members knew the full reasons as to why Shinn was onboard, but Kira had made sure that only those who really mattered knew.

Murrue had been very sympathetic to the young Coordinator and his predicament, "He can stay here as long as he needs too, and he doesn't ever need to fear any of us judging him for what happened."

As long as Murrue approved and had no problem with it, then Kira knew that no one else would raise a complaint about Shinn. Well, that was a little too optimistic. Someone probably would, but Murrue would dismiss it easily since she had knowledge of the full situation.

"We'll be following the Minerva for the time being," Murrue ordered. "Since that ship has such a distinguished reputation already, I'm positive that both the Earth Alliance and Orb will be planning something like an ambush. If we want to try and stop this war, then we're going to have to get Orb to pull out of its alliance with the Earth Alliance."

Kira had entrusted Shinn to Harmony's capable supervision, explaining to the young man that he needed to attend this meeting. Shinn was dealing with some issues of abandonment, and it was taking a lot of work on Kira's part to reassure him that it wasn't the case.

"I wouldn't leave you for anything, I promise that I'll be back as soon as I can. Until then, try to eat something, okay?"

"I doubt that's going to work," Kira replied. "Knowing the Seirans, they've been pushing for this alliance for so long that they aren't going to let anything mess this up for them. I doubt even having the Archangel and the Freedom changing sides to ally themselves with ZAFT would even change their minds that what they're doing is good for themselves."

Cagalli looked down, her hands tightening into fists, "I have to try something! I got Orb into this mess by being weak-minded and tricked into believing that this was what was best for my country. I betrayed the ideals and principles of my country, and now the people are suffering for it! If there's anything that I can do to make this right, then I'm going to do it!"

"At the time, Cagalli, there was nothing that you could've done. You weren't of the mindset to stop that alliance, and even if you'd been vehemently against it, I'm sure that it would've passed anyway," Kira replied, trying to offer comfort to his sister even when he was distracted. "The Seirans would've thrown their weight around until they'd pressured all of the other ministers into agreeing with them. There really was nothing you could have done."

"But still..."

"For now, we have the chance to try and fix this. Let's start with what we can do right now and go from there."

~*~

"I'm sorry to report, sir, that the pilot Shinn Asuka hasn't been located. We believe that he's now MIA, most likely he was taken prisoner by the Earth Alliance."

The words echoed with a sort of cruel finality through the hall where much of the Minerva's crew was gathered. It came as a shock to all of them to have lost Shinn like this, after all, they'd all become attached to the fiery young man in one way or another.

Instead of looking too concerned, the chairman merely frowned. This threw a wrench into his plans, he'd been counting on being able to keep the young Coordinator's strings in his hands for at least a little while longer. He knew that the Earth Alliance had nothing to do with Shinn's disappearance, but it was better if, for all intents and purposes, it looked that way. It would play into his plans better, that way, give the soldiers who'd known Shinn more incentive to fight and less reason to defect.

He couldn't count too much on Zala's loyalty, though. Durandul had no illusions about where the red coat's loyalties ultimately lay, and he wasn't about to put too much faith in the man staying with ZAFT if the truth were to come out. Athrun Zala would be much more likely to believe Kira Yamato then he was to believe Gilbert Durandul, and that was something that didn't sit well with him. He liked it when the pieces fell into place around him, where he didn't have to guess and second guess the motives of those people around him. Although, this made the game much more interesting.

And the Ultimate Coordinator had made one crucial mistake, he'd let Durandul know just how precious the young former red coat was to him. Before, Kira Yamato had been untouchable, a god among men, but now he was human with a very apparent weak spot.

Durandul had been counting on Shinn to be his knight, a valuable piece, but also his pawn. For if he controlled Shinn, then he controlled the White King as well. But now, he'd lost the black knight; the white king had stolen him away from him.

He'd need a replacement pilot, one who he could easily manipulate into doing exactly what he needed. If he was right in his estimations, then the perfect candidate to assume Shinn's place in his plans was standing right there in the room with him, not even six feet away from him.

"This is very distressing news," Durandul began, playing up his part to make it seem more believable. He needed the crew of the Minerva to believe his act in order for his plans to come to fruition. "I had a lot of faith in Shinn, I believed that he'd go far. Is there any hope that we'll be able to get him back? Have any demands been made?"

"No, chairman."

Durandul stood up, slamming his fist onto the table, "Damn! LOGOs has to be behind this."

"Chairman!"

Regaining the composure that he'd never lost, only appearing to having lost it, Durandul straightened up and ran a hand through his hair, "I suppose we'll just have to leave it at that until we get more intelligence on whether or not Shinn is still alive, until then, I can't leave the Minerva undefended."

Turning towards the assembled crew of the Minerva, Durandul's eyes settled onto the pink-haired pilot who his officers told him shared a close bond with Shinn. Her piloting skills had been just a little above average, nothing compared to Shinn and definitely not even comparable to Kira Yamato's, but she definitely had the potential to fulfill the role that Durandul had planned for her.

"Lunamaria Hawke."

"Yes sir!" The young woman snapped to attention, surprise written across her hardened features.

"I am hereby promoting you to the status of pilot of the Impulse, I know that you'll make Shinn and myself proud."

"Thank you sir!" Lunamaria's heart thudded in her chest. When she'd first heard the report that Shinn was missing in action and suspected to have been taken hostage by the Earth Alliance, she hadn't wanted to believe it. But the evidence had added up, and eventually her heart and mind caved into it. And with how nearly a month had passed with no sign of him... hope had deserted her.

"That's all I have to say on the matter for now, all of you are dismissed. The Minerva is to begin preparations to make its way to the Gibraltar base, breaking through the Earth Alliance's stronghold in the Middle East on the way."

"Yes sir!"

It took several long minutes for everyone gathered in the office to leave, but eventually Durandul was left with only himself for company. He drifted over to the chess set which he brought everywhere with him. A frown creased his face as he removed one of the black knights from the board, and moved the white king, placing one of the white knights behind it. Now his chances to eliminate both the white king and queen were dwindling.

First his attempts to have Lacus Clyne assassinated early on had failed, foiled by the meddling of Kira Yamato, and now he'd lost his prized piece. Without Shinn, he doubted that he'd have much hope in ensnaring the Ultimate Coordinator within his trap. If he'd had Kira on his side, then he would have been unstoppable. If the Freedom and the Archangel were to join his cause, then no one would form a resistance against him.

After all, if the last war's heroes joined him, no one would question that his intentions were anything other then good. And, to him, they were good. He would be doing the world a great favour with his Destiny Plan, if only he could convince everyone else.

Shinn Asuka had been a key piece in his plans for victory, with or without the co-operation of one Kira Yamato. If it had truly just been rumours that his intelligence officers had gathered about Shinn's possible involvement with the pilot of the Freedom, then Durandul would've simply have to make certain arrangements so that he could eliminate Kira Yamato once and for all.

He'd been counting on Shinn for a lot of things.

Now, though, he'd have to rely on Rey and Lunamaria, his newest recruit. And with the proper manipulation and incentive, he was absolutely positive that he could morph Lunamaria into the perfect replacement for Shinn. She was a very passionate individual, and that was something that he could use.

"Lunamaria Hawke... you'll definitely prove useful in the end... and who knows, you may even be the key that I need to bring down Kira Yamato."

~*~*~*~*~

Sorry that it's so short, but I couldn't think of much else to put in here. The next part may be up in the next few days to maybe the next few weeks, I can't make promises to you guys anymore, other then I'm going to finish this story even if it kills me. But yes, please do excuse this chapter for its shortness; I'll make it up to you all with the next one.

More or less, I just wanted to give you all something to let you know that I'm not dead.