C.E 53 Late June. Sweden.

Exams were over. She received her diploma and graduated top of her class. Without him, there was no competition.

Nadya took one last despairing glance around her dorm room. The two other beds were empty, the shelves vacant, the lounge unoccupied, and the fireplace dead. Nadya drew a shaky breath as she remembered the many nights she spent with her two roommates studying, laughing, and talking about everything, all the while bathed in the warmth of the once vivacious, crackling fire.

There would be no more of that. Nadya had shared a brief, but teary farewell with Chiyo and Diane after the graduation ceremony before the two girls hopped on their early flight back to Japan to come out to Chiyo's parents and be officially announced as a couple. Even though their sexual preferences were differently, Nadya did not feel uncomfortable at all and loved them like sisters. Without a doubt, she was going to miss them bitterly in the next while to come.

The red head sighed. She had fallen in love with Earth, and with its people. What irony…considering she was only human too. Checking once more for her passport, shuttle ticket, and the large envelope that contained her future, Nadya closed the door of her only residence on Earth for the very last time. The coldness in her heart prevented tears from falling.

At the gate of the Academy, there were hundreds of students, some alone, but most crowded together in groups of friends. Kisses and hugs and promises of keeping in touch were exchanged. Not many of them were graduates anymore, most last-year students left campus the night after graduation. They had old loved ones to return to, and for those who left in pairs, new families to meet.

She could've been one of those pairs.

She laughed bitterly.

Then again…maybe not.

"Nadya! Hey!" A guy in her class came to greet her. He was one of her closest friends in the school. "Congratulations, I heard you got hired by T-Fii Corps! That's so awesome! Isn't that the best engineering company in PLANTS or something?"

"Yeah, it's pretty up there." Nadya replied enthusiastically, or at least she tried.

"Man, I'm jealous!" The guy, Ben, joked.

"So where are you headed?" Nadya laughed and asked back.

"Nowhere. I'm staying in the school. Professor Kipling has asked me to be his 'understudy' of sorts. He's retiring soon, so he was hoping I'd take over his class. I always wanted to teach." Ben grinned, and then something seemed to flash across his face.

"Nad…" Ben started, his tone precarious, yet determined at the same time, "There's something you should know."

Nadya's smile faltered, "Yeah?"

"Jean, he never had a fiancée." Ben said sadly, "I'm his best friend. I know him. It wasn't his doing. His father…just ruined everything."

Nadya shook her head, "Ben…I don't understand. Everyone knew…"

"That's not true Nad. We…people lied. Some because Jean's father bribed them, some because they heard the rumors and just went along, and some because they were jealous of you. The rest of us just remained silent. We were afraid of the Leroy family. They are powerful people with connections and money. Especially Jean's father, he personally threatened Chiyo, Diane and myself. I'm sorry. I was a coward. We all were."

Ben sighed and drew something from his backpack, "Chiyo and Diane wanted me to give this to you before you leave. They couldn't face you in person, because of guilt, and they ask for your forgiveness."

Hesitantly, the girl took the envelope from her friend.

"We're so sorry, Nad." Ben looked down with shame.

"No Ben, don't be sorry." She smiled endearingly, "There's nothing to forgive."

Nadya stared out from her first class shuttle seat, her stomach turning slightly as the shuttle prepared for flight, and took out the Chiyo and Diane's letter from her carry-on.

Nad,

Diane and I really screwed up didn't we? (Yes you may yell and curse at us all you want. We deserve it.) To say that we never meant to hurt you is probably uselessly at this particular moment in time, because by staying silent we still ended up equally fucked up as those who lied. Yes, we're cowards for not having the guts to do this in person…but Ben's brave enough to take our places. That's just another thing to add to the list of reasons we need to beg forgiveness for from you.

So, you're probably-

Sorry Nad, Diane's here. Ignore Chiyo. She can't write an apology letter to save her life, but enough about her. The point for the two of us writing this letter is that Jean wrote to us two weeks ago. There were some things he wanted us to give to you, and for purposes we all are very clear on, he felt that it would be the wisest if he didn't mail them to you directly.

So, here it is….We're really sorry, Nad, for everything. Please forgive us. (Chiyo: but we'll understand if you don't)

Love you to bits,

Diane & Chiyo

Nadya started at the letter for a long time, wondering if she should look at the things Jean sent her. Finally, as the shuttle took off from Earth's ground, the redhead coordinator pulled from the envelope a stack of neatly organized paper, every single page an individual letter addressed to none other than herself. The writer, his penmanship so welcomingly distinctive and familiar, ended each entry with his initial J.L.

Please let this be real, she thought to herself. Nadya still couldn't believe the things that were revealed to her and despite the more logical and bitter part of her psyche chiding her, she still felt her treacherous lips curving into a smile. All this time, she had only allowed herself to cry once after Jean left, on the very first night she found out, and she hadn't been able to shed a tear ever since. Life didn't even leave her with the comfort of bawling her eyes out and then recuperate by stuffing her face with ice cream. After Jean left, so did the tear. Now, a whole year later, she was sitting in the first class shuttle ready to return to her home in PLANTS, and unbeknown to her conscience, the first droplet of tear in months came slipping down her chin, uninhibited and free, drenching the surface of her barren heart, staining it red again.

Then, giving no mind to the other passengers of the shuttle around her, she clutched Jean's letters tightly to her chest, turned her face towards the window and cried every hate away.

C.E 54, February. Orb.

"You have a beautiful son."

Daphne Leroy, nee Ginsberg, looked up slowly from her hospital bed, still hazy from the anesthetics. Her first maternal instinct was to check the clear glass crib that held her newborn, where she saw him deep in dreamland, blissfully unaware. Sighing away the unnecessary paranoia that he won't be there, she turned her gaze to the owner of the voice. There standing over her baby's crib was a visitor she's never met, a young strikingly beautiful woman with intense red hair and honey-tinted eyes, the mid-afternoon sunlight lid her pale, ivory skin aglow. She came bearing gifts, Daphne noted, a customary gesture shown by all the guests who've come to give their congratulations to her and her husband…

Speaking of her husband, where was he? Suddenly, the new mother felt the coldness of fear streak through her core: she and more importantly her precious baby boy were only and defenseless with a strange woman who irked Daphne to no end. Never taking her eyes of the woman, Daphne inched her fingers closer to the nurse-calling button on the side of the bed.

"I'd rather you not do that, Mrs. Leroy." The woman spoke again and chuckled slightly. Daphne flinched.

"A-are you a colleague of my husband?"

The woman stared at her for a brief moment before turning her gaze on her baby again, "Yes, I suppose you can say that. What did you name him?"

"Chase."

"Well, congratulations and goodbye, Mrs. Leroy. Goodbye Chase."

A while after the woman left, Jean returned with coffee and sandwiches. Seeing the distress on Daphne's face he asked if she was in any pain and required the doctor. She shook her head no, and told him what happened. When Jean pale considerably after Daphne described the strange visitor, she proceeded to ask him what his relationship with that woman was. Immediately afterwards, she recoiled and insisted that she did not want to know.

C.E 56, December. Orb.

It had the coldest December Orb knew in the Cosmic Era. The Earth was suffering the effects of the economical low point brought on by the crash in oil stocks and by the endlessly drought, followed by massive floods, which destroyed many crops around the world. PLANTS, through their human controlled weather, were somewhat less touched by such nature disasters. Its people were still relatively fed, but since Earth is short on supplies, PLANTS could not sustain its usual imports of exotic produce that PLANTS did not grow themselves. Thus, for the first time in nearly two centuries, food became an issue.

Yet it was this problem that brought Coordinator and Natural closer together again, and it instilled a temporary, though very much welcomed, peace in the human race. The engineers, biologists, specialists, scientists were all going to sit down and find a solution to this issue. It was a cold winter everywhere, and the people had no food. As the days go by, the government was sure it was going to be a white, cold, starving Christmas.

Not too long after his daughter Mackenzie was born in the summer, Daphne died of an aneurism. Jean had been floating around ever since and was enthusiastic to help when he was called upon, at least it kept his mind off his dead wife and motherless children at home. On the 4th of December, C.E 56, Jean and the team of Orb scientists welcomed the visitors from PLANTS. As the shuttle doors opened with that familiar hiss, Jean caught sight of something he never thought he'd see again.

Nadya was the youngest and prettiest woman in the bunch and she looked professional and stunning in black stiletto heels and long navy-blue coat that bore the symbol of PLANTS. Her eyes found his the second she landed on solid ground, and he felt his heart beat faster, faster, and faster. He still loved her, wanted her, and worshipped her. But DAMN! His wife hadn't been dead for half a year and here he was already- UGH!

As the scientists stepped towards each other and shook hands, she approached him. There was no hate in her eyes, as if he hadn't betrayed her all those years ago.

They shook hands, exchanged cordial greetings and he let her walk away.

I'm such a dumbass. He sighed.

Three weeks later…

That's it. This has carried on LONG ENOUGH. For the last three weeks, he had to endure watching his entire body of male colleagues between the age of 20 to 45 throw themselves at the lovely young coordinate and shamelessly flirted with her. How he had to suppress the urge to punch those imbeciles in the face and scream SHE'S MINE!

Jean strutted down the hallway, determined to catch up to the red-haired engineer.

"Mlle. Ashley!" (Mlle stands for Mademoiselle, which means Miss in French.)

Nadya turned around. "M. Leroy, qu'est-ce qui se passé?" Mr. Leroy, what is it?

" Dis-moi, Diane et Chiyo, est-ce qu'elles vous ont donné la lettre." (Tell me, Diane and Chiyo, did they give you the letter?)

"Oui." (Yes.) Nadya stared, wide-eyed, as the young man advanced towards her at full speed. "Jean, quoi-?"

Rapidly gaining on his target, and as he was just seconds away, Jean said in English loud enough for everyone in the hallway to hear, "You can slap me later, but I've been wanting to do this for a very long time."

Before anyone could react, before Nadya could even make out a response, she found herself slammed rather roughly against the cold walls of the office hallway, Jean's hard body pressing heatedly against hers, his warm mouth upon her own, and his familiar soft tongue down her throat.

Strange thing is, despite the fact that this uninhibited, graphic public display of affection was taking place in a packed hallway full of engineers, scientists and elite members of the society, Nadya found herself not caring about anything except the goal of kissing the delicious man she clung to as thoroughly as physically possible.

C.E 58, October. Paris, France.

The little boy jumped up and down excitedly, "Can I hold her? Pwease, Pwease, Pwease!" He craned his little neck to peek over the edge of the bed where his stepmother held his new baby sister. She opened her arms to him as he climbed onto the bed and cuddled next to her, gazing in wonder at the tiny pink bundle.

"Baby!" The blond toddler giggled and wrestled in her daddy's arms to reach down.

"Yes, Mackie sweetie, it's a baby. Your baby sister," Jean whispered into his second child's golden blond curls.

Nadya turned to kiss her husband as he settled down on the other side of her, "What should we name her?"

"She wooks wike angel!" Mackenzie gurgled, her speech even less coherent then Chase's

"That right, Mackie," Nadya cooed, "We'll name her Angelique. But I also like Calleigh."

Jean smiled, "Welcome, Angelique Calleigh Leroy."

C.E 63, March. Paris, France.

She hung up the phone. When she looked up, Jean was standing by the kitchen counter waiting for her to say the evitable.

"That was George." She looked down at her hands, feeling slightly guilty that she was happy to receive the call from her brother-in-law. "They want me back at T-Fii."

She missed her old job. The last five years have been bliss, but a coordinator working on Earth was hell. She's changed more firms than she bothered to remember.

Jean took a sip of his coffee and smiled understandingly, "Okay, you should go."

"Nothing's going to change, I promise."

C.E 64, January. California, USA.

They were supposed to be on vacation, but it wasn't much of a vacation when all your parents could do was snap at each other every five seconds.

"Hey! What the hell was that suppose to mean! You think I'm happy about the new bill?"

They flinched at their mother's high shriek as she slammed the dishes on the table.

"Yeah well you must be! It's you and those freaks you work with that came up with this crap in the first place! Don't try to act like you knew nothing about it!"

"You know what? I can't even talk to you right now." Nadya threw her napkin on the table and left the table.

Jean jumped right up and went after her, "Don't you walk away from me!"

Angie sniffed. Mackenzie put her arms around her younger sister and shared a look of worry with Chase, who just looked pissed off. "What's happening to us?"

C.E 65, November. Paris, France.

Three children stood staring as Nadya walks out with her luggage wordlessly, and Jean followed suit. They don't share a kiss with each other and they don't tell the children goodbye. The door shut behind them. The echo was loud in the now empty mansion.

"How long do you think they'll be gone this time?" Mackenzie, 9, asked aloud.

"Five bucks they won't be here for Christmas," Chase, 11, replied sourly.

"But it's Christmas!" Angelique, 7, pouted and whimpered.

"Yeah well, Mom missed Easter and Dad missed both of Mackie and mine birthdays." Chase kicked at the Persian door-mat and stuffed his hand in his pocket. "This sucks."

"I hate Uncle George!" Mackenzie yelled and ran upstairs in a raging fit.

"Who's Uncle George? Mackie!" Angelique called after her sister. Why doesn't anybody tell her anything anymore?

"Nobody, Angie, it's nobody." Chase took his youngest sister by the hand and pulled her along, "Come on, let's go watch TV."

C.E 66, September. Paris France.

"Boarding school?" Chase yelled, "But we don't want to go to no fucking boarding school!"

"Chase! Where did you learn that kind of language?" Nadya looked aghast.

"Probably from all those shitty movies he watches," Mackenzie replied with a grunt. Jean's mouth popped open, "Mackenzie!"

"Both of you are to go to your room right now and pack your bags. Our minds are made. You two are leaving tomorrow." Then with a softer tone, Nadya comforted, "Don't worry, it won't be forever. Your father and I are very busy lately. It's only going to be for a while, and then we'll all be back again. Besides, England isn't so bad."

Chase and Mackenzie ran up to their room wordlessly. On their way, they passed by little Angelique, who sat on the top of the staircase, tears in her silver-grey eyes.

C.E 70, February. Shuttle Station, Copernicus, Plants.

For a minute, there was nothing but utter silence in the waiting room. The explosion before their eyes was so surreal. Piece by piece, Junius Seven came apart. Then everyone started screaming. Angelique watched her mother sat limply on her seat, her face blank and white. She looked up at her father, face so stricken she wondered if he was going to be sick. Chase held the shaking Mackie while desperately trying not to do the same.

Somewhere not far behind her mother, Angelique saw a blue-haired boy around Chase's age bent over on the ground and pounding his fists into the ceramic tiles, muttering 'mom' over and over again. Then suddenly, she was brought back to reality when her own mother gave an ear-splitting shriek and broke down.

Angelique wasn't particularly sad. She never knew her grandmother, grandfather, uncles, aunts and cousins. To her, this was just a birthday party of an old woman she wouldn't get the chance to go to. But to her mother, those people she just listed were family and loved ones, even if they didn't really approve of her 'traitorous' marriage. Now they're all dead. Angie knew when she saw her mother refuse her father's comfort that she hated Naturals after that day. In a way, Angie guessed she hated him too.

C.E 70, September. Aprilius One.

"So it's true then?"

"Yes Doc, I'm afraid it is." Chairman Patrick Zala told the engineer with a sneer, "Commander Le Creuset has just informed me that the GUNDAMs were discovered on Heliopolis. Apparently Orb is helping the Earth Alliance. Here are the images." He clicked the button and a 3-D model of the Aegis popped up on the desk.

"The Aegis…" Nadya whispered and swayed on her feet. "Oh dear god, he really did it. He lied to me. He lied." Jean promised he wouldn't allow Angie's drawings to be weaponized and manufactured.

Abruptly, she spun on her heel and made way for the door.

"Where are you doing, Doctor Ashley?"

"Getting my divorce paper."

Patrick Zala only nodded in approval, "I'm glad we finally see eye to eye."

C.E 71, January. Panama.

Mackenzie jerked in her cockpit as the Ginn was hit in the legs. She had no fuel, no ammunition. Nothing. Another explosion. Her OS shut down. Looking up she could see a Zaft mobile suit charge at her. She wasn't afraid. She was ready. From the pocket of her deep blue suit, she took out a photo from long ago. They were all there, all five of them, together and happy. Now it's all gone. Closing her eyes, she held it to her chest and muttered her last prayer.

One last drop of tear hit her chin as the Ginn disintegrated. She was 16.

C.E 71, March. Lunar Base.

"Hurry up, Chase." His teammate called out, "I'm starving."

"Just give me a minute. Almost done…" He reached for the wrench in his toolbox, sliding under his mobile suit.

"What the hell is that?" Someone pointed at the light heading straight for them from the window. Chase looked up. His eyes widened. Then it was over. He was 18.

C.E 71, Late March. Aprilius One.

Angie let out a blooding-chilling shriek as another dish smashed into the wall above her. She whimpered, holding her bloody hands against her cut-up cheeks and wiped away her tears. She clutched onto Laura, the old maid who brought her to Plants to see her parents…

"Your GENESIS killed HIM! MY SON! YOU KILLED HIM!" Jean roared. His left sleeve was worn completely and blood was gushing from the large slash on his bicep. The kitchen of her mother's condo in PLANTS was covered in broken shards of furniture and glass.

Nadya stood with her back against the wall, holding her bleeding lip and bruised face. "Who are you to accuse me? Your kind blew up my entire family! AND YOU! You promised me you won't give those blueprints away! We're both killers."

"Oh yeah?" Jean laughed, "Just like you promised to not share GENESIS with George? You destroyed us Nadya."

"Us?" It was Nadya's turn to scoff. She spat at him, "There's no us, Jean. It's just my fellow coordinators against the rest of you vermins. YOUR KIND DESERVES TO DIE!"

BANG!

"Eh-" Nadya clutched her chest, and stared down at the blood oozing out from between her fingers. She looked back up at her ex-husband who stood across from her, eyes wide with insanity, the gun still clutched in his hands.

"Nadya…" Jean whispered, "I-I didn't mean-"

"A-Are you happy now?" Nadya grasped for support but found none. She slid down onto the floor, her bloody hand leaving a trial of red on the white wall. Those hazel eyes faded into a muddy brown, unblinking and dead.

Jean crouched over her, pulling her up in his arms, "Nadya…Nadya…love…wake up…why…why…"

"Momma…daddy…" Angelique called out from the corner where she huddled into a ball. Her father turned his gaze towards her, and she feared for a moment that he was going to shoot her too. Laura hugged her tighter.

Jean looked down at the gun in his hand, held the dead woman closer to his heart, and closed his eyes.

Laura gasped in horror, "M. Leroy, si vous plait, ne-" (Mr. Leroy, please, don't-)

BANG!

"Laura! Laura!" The gun shot was still ringing in her ears when the old woman opened her eyes to see the frantic face of the blond princess, crying over the loud explosions in the distance. The entire living room was blow into pieces by the impact of a bomb set off not far from where they were. The roof was thrown off and summer rain was pouring down. Cagalli was drenched completely, her long blond hair plastered to her face, neck and back. "Athrun! Athrun! Kira!"

She twisted around to see the staircase that had been blocked off by the crumbled wall when the house had collapsed in on itself. The night was dark, and the rain made it absolutely impossible to see. It was a bloodying miracle that she was left unharmed. "Laura, come on, get up!"

"I-I can't." The old woman replied weakly and shook her head, "The wood beam…"

Cagalli pushed at the fallen roof column that had fallen, but her effort was in vain. "Laura, please, you have to try…"

"Oh don't bother now dear, I'm an old woman. It's my time. Princess…" Laura reached with her trembling hands to the young woman, the memory of the past so vivid in her mind. Guess your life really does flash before your eyes. "It's not their fault Princess…they did love each other even till the very end, I k-know…I know…"

"Please Laura! Please! What happened to the family Laura? You have to tell me? Her brother and sister? Her mom and dad?" Cagalli held Laura's cold hand.

"Mackenzie died at Panama fighting for E.A…Chase, at Lunar Base…the Genesis…" Laura gasped for breath, coughing up what Cagalli can imagine as blood, "oh dear, her parents…."

"D-did they k-kill each other?" She felt dead. Completely dead. She knew, she just knew.

"He s-shot her…then himself…p-poor Angelique, she saw everything…" Laura turned to Cagalli, her last breath on her tongue, "Princess…don't…d-don't let their past…be your…your future."

Her hand grew limp. Laura was gone.

"Laura! Laura!" Cagalli screamed. "Oh GOD! PLEASE! Don't go…"

A beam of bright light hit her face and blinded her. Her hands shot up, covering her face. Between the gaps of her finger, she saw people approaching her. She called, "Athrun?"

"Est-ce que c'est?" A voice murmured, as the light flashed at the floor, showing the dead woman under the beam. "Mon Dieu, c'est Laura. Elle est morte."

"Mademoiselle! Oui, toi! Comment vous-appelez vous? Pourquoi est-ce que vous êtes ici?"

"What? I don't understand you! I don't speak French!" Cagalli cried, trembling in the rain.

"Who are you? What are you doing in Laura's house?" The voice asked again.

"I-I…" Cagalli was frantic. Should she tell them? What are they going to do if she doesn't? Or better yet, what about if she does?

"Already, Miss, you are going to have to come with us." A pair of hand pulled her up by the arm. "Damn this rain…hey you, is there anyone else in the house?"

Cagalli felt frozen by then, and her vision was becoming worse, but it wasn't because of the rain, "I-I…"

"Come on Jim, I think she's scared stupid." A female's voice said. She was the one holding the emergency light.

"Let's get the crew back to the shelter. We don't know when another bomb is going to set off. We'll come back in the morning."

Cagalli said nothing as they dragged her away.

A/N: How long has it been? A year? Two years? I don't know, but it's finally updated. I wonder if anyone is still following this. I'm not giving up on this one. So don't worry. Life is just really busy. Not sure when the next on is going to go up, sorry for the wait again.

P.S: I made some changes to the names of the siblings. From Holly and Drake to Mackenzie and Chase. the first two were sort of filler names, I wasn't sure what to name them in the beginning.