Seeing the heaviness in Lacus's expression, Siegfried could not tell how much was sincere and how much was deliberate. Feeling Cagalli gripping the corner of his clothes tightly behind him, he finally let out a helpless sigh.
"The world will not be as gentle as your singing, Miss Klein."
The impromptu meal ended with only Kira finding some relief, and it wrapped up in a rushed and careless way. Siegfried felt it had no meaning at all, while Cagalli still did not understand what it meant for her to meet Lacus. As for what the last person gained from it, perhaps only she herself knew.
Once the signal of the Eighth Fleet vanguard was detected, the morale across the entire Archangel rose to a peak. The days of fleeing like hunted strays since Heliopolis finally seemed close to ending, and even the strict Badgiruel shared that belief. Only Siegfried, who understood where things were heading, returned to maintaining the GINN the moment he received the apology he wanted.
"Kid, you really are strange. When you get angry, you just stop working, but now that we are about to link up with Eighth Fleet, you are the one working the hardest."
Because of his duty, Marduk stayed beside Siegfried, helping him tune the GINN's parameters while chatting in a joking tone. His hands moved smoothly across the console as if this were just another ordinary task.
"I do not have much of a sense of security. The only thing that gives me any is a mobile suit, and besides, space is always ZAFT territory. Do not say a mere vanguard force, even the whole Eighth Fleet would not make me feel safe."
While answering Marduk, Siegfried never stopped working. For a mass produced mobile suit, the GINN's performance had already been pushed close to its limit, and what remained were repeated tests of response values. Since changes to thruster output caused hidden risks over time, careful prevention was vital for a pilot.
"You and Kira really are nothing alike. You are both college students, and he could not hide his excitement when he heard there would be no fighting. You show no happiness at all and instead come here even more often."
"People are always different from each other. And when everyone relaxes, someone needs to stay alert, right?" After calibrating the final data, Siegfried smiled and said goodbye to Marduk. That smile only lasted until he left Ganaku.
"Flay's father. What an interesting future."
As the coming battle approached, Siegfried felt conflicted. After his open clash with Flay, he could not claim the moral high ground to save those three vanguard ships out of pure kindness. He knew he was not that noble.
They had been chased by ZAFT for so long, and while there was still some faint warmth between Kira and Athrun, he himself had been targeted with lethal intent. That was against the most gentle opponent, Nicol. If he did not weaken the Cruze Team now, while only Vesalius was present, it was hard to imagine what would happen once the more volatile Yzak Joule reacted.
Standing at the door, Siegfried finally decided to do his best. In his memory, this battle only involved Aegis and a few GINNs, so his plan was clear. He would work with Mu to quickly dismantle those GINNs, then help Assault damage or capture Aegis.
Just as he raised his hand to knock, the ship's alarm sounded again. With no choice, he called out briefly and opened the electronic door. Thankfully, Cagalli was only sitting on the bed, though Lacus had come over from her own room for some reason.
"What happened, Qi Sai?"
After spending so much time together, Cagalli often mixed up his name. It might have been fine if outsiders were present, but Lacus hardly felt like an outsider at all. The mistake went uncorrected.
"First combat alert. ZAFT probably caught up to us. Nazca class ships are fast, and we stayed at Junius for too long. This is normal."
Siegfried grabbed Haro and told them not to wander around before turning to leave. Lacus seemed to find his attitude strange and looked at him closely.
"Sai. Are you going to fight again?"
"Yes. Your people caught up to us. If we do not fight, everyone except you will die." He turned to Louise and spoke quickly, telling her to watch Lacus and keep her from wandering. With the alarms urging him on, he left for Ganaku.
"With Kira's gentleness, Sai always refuses kindness from others. That must be hard too."
Cagalli did not answer, only watching with a complicated look as the alarms continued. The tension followed them through the corridors.
On the way to Ganaku, he ran into Flay clinging to Kira, with Sai trying to persuade her. He patted Kira to urge him on, since the bridge was close to forcing them into their cockpits. Siegfried could already imagine Badgiruel's furious expression.
As Siegfried pulled Kira away, Flay suddenly rushed in front of him. Her carefully prepared appearance was filled with fear and panic.
"Sai. Sai, right? I am sorry for losing my temper before. I am really sorry. Please save my father's ship. You can ask anything of me. Please save my dad."
Faced with her frantic plea, Siegfried did not panic like Kira. He neither agreed nor refused, and simply kept pulling Kira toward Ganaku.
"Sai. Flay is just worried."
"Can you fire on Athrun?"
"What?"
"If you cannot fire on Athrun, how will you ensure Flay's father is safe? With words?" He spoke coldly and kept moving. "This is war. Anything can happen, and any promise is false. Never make promises before a sortie, Kira."
When they finally reached Ganaku, Marduk was already pacing in anxiety. Mu's Zero launched first, and since Assault still needed equipment, Siegfried's GINN was prepared for launch ahead of it.
The CIC on the screen was still Miriallia. No matter what, everyone was growing in their own way, and when she saw Siegfried, she tried to relax her expression.
"It is fine. Take it easy, or the CIC's mood will spread to the pilot."
After reassuring Miri, the GINN completed launch preparations. The hangar doors opened, three LAUNCH indicators lit up, and Siegfried steadied his mind.
"I understand. Clear the lines, GINN launching!"
He waved at Miri and slammed the pedal. "Sai-Crossroad, GINN, launch!"
Because of the distance, the vanguard had already begun fighting the Cruze Team. Murrue hesitated too long, and in such a situation the decision to stay or leave should have been immediate. By the time the GINN followed the Mobius Zero into the battlefield, the first thing Siegfried saw was Aegis's main cannon tearing through the side of a Drake class ship.
"That kind of output from a battery pack?"
While complaining, Siegfried entered the battle. His memory of the original events was vague, and he could not recall why Mu failed to even cover the retreat while Assault held Aegis back. With his arrival, the collapsing situation quickly stabilized.