After returning, Siegfried explained to her the decision made by Murrue and the others. If the "timeline" that Haro insisted on protecting was the flow of the story itself, then he and Cagalli had already become too deeply entangled. On top of that, the strange warning from Hilde to be careful of Haro when they parted in Heliopolis felt wrong, and with no way to know what tricks that damned thing still had, Siegfried added his own spin to Murrue's orders and changed a simple room restriction into solitary confinement.
No matter how he explained it, Cagalli refused to leave. To show her resolve, she rolled over onto the bed and faced the wall, and when Siegfried tried to speak again, she pulled the blanket over her head.
"I told you to leave, so leave. When are you ever going to listen to me just once?"
"Only if you tell me what really happened, instead of lying to me with that careless excuse." Her voice from under the blanket sounded muffled, and Siegfried could not tell what she was feeling.
"I already said it was because I was unhappy with Flay."
"No, that's not true."
"The entire bridge saw it clearly. How long are you going to keep this up?"
Seeing that he could not persuade her, Siegfried finally lost his temper. No matter how he looked at it, the two of them could not keep going like this. According to how things were supposed to unfold, Cagalli should meet Athrun on Earth, yet just thinking about that made Siegfried feel even worse.
"You always call me driven by animal instinct, a single-celled organism, but it's that instinct telling me you didn't do it. So either you tell me the truth, or I stay here. There's no third option."
The slender back of the blonde girl looked not fully grown yet, and Siegfried did not even know who was actually older. Still, those words carried a certainty that left no room for doubt.
"Do whatever you want."
Whether it was reluctant compromise or quiet emotion, Siegfried did not push Cagalli out in the end. He returned to his own bed without a word and stared at the Haro by his bedside, lost in thought.
After realizing something was wrong with Haro, his first instinct was to take it apart to study it and prevent future trouble. He was surprised to find that none of the tools available on the Archangel could break through its shell. Back in Mendel, he had kicked it around like a ball all day and only thought it was unusually hard, but careful study showed it went far beyond that.
He could dismantle Lacus's pink Haro in ten seconds, yet his own unit did not react even to extreme heat. He glanced again at Cagalli's back and saw that she had not moved at all, then muttered that she really slept fast without a care. Adjusting his posture, he let exhaustion pull him into sleep.
Just as the tired boy was drifting off, shouting at the door dragged him back to awareness. Rubbing his eyes, he saw that it was Miri and Kira standing there.
"Don't you two sleep? If you don't sleep, at least let me. I've been exhausted all day and finally get a chance to rest."
"Sai, I'm going to send Lacus away." Kira's serious tone wiped away all of Siegfried's drowsiness.
"Huh? Then just go send her. Why come looking for me? I'm banned from entering Ganaku."
"Miri said she was scared, so she came to find you."
"Where's your boyfriend? You're scared and come to me instead. That's strange."
Siegfried did not know what to say anymore. In his memory, there should have been more people helping Kira, but he could not recall who, so he assumed it was Tolle.
"I didn't tell Tolle. He refused to come find you and already went to Ganaku, so…"
"Oh, so you don't want to trouble your boyfriend. Since I'm already in enough trouble, what's one more debt."
"I'm sorry."
Just as Siegfried was about to find an excuse to push this problem away, Cagalli flipped out of bed. She pulled Siegfried back into the room while speaking with a hint of excitement, saying that Sai was still in confinement and could not take part in this, so she would go with them instead.
"Hey, hey, Louise, don't go. Hey."
All he could do was watch as Cagalli pretended not to hear him and pushed Miri and Kira away at speed. Siegfried sighed again and returned to his bed, while Haro remained silent at the bedside.
"Is this the timeline you want, Hilde?"
To Siegfried, Hilde was far more than a simple matter of romance. She was the first "kindred soul" he ever saw in this world, and she taught him every skill he needed to survive. Piloting MS, physical training, military knowledge, all of it came from Hilde, making her feel more like a mix of older sister and mother to him.
Even though Hilde hid too many things from him, she still raised him from someone who knew nothing into an MS pilot who could stand alone when Heliopolis collapsed. Without her, with no cheats or background and barely remembering the plot, he would have either grown old alone in Mendel or died somewhere unknown, with almost no chance of ever meeting the Archangel.
Setting aside his feelings for Hilde, Haro had clearly stated its need to protect the timeline. If Lacus did not leave, he had no idea what shocking mess that thing might cause next. That was the "small calculation" behind pushing Kira to send her back, and he had only given a slight nudge from behind.
He stopped worrying about what was happening outside. Kira would never abandon everyone on the ship to run off to PLANT, and Athrun would never attack in front of Lacus. With a bit of regret that he would miss someone changing into a space suit, he joked to himself about Kira's luck and tried to fall asleep again.
Unfortunately, this night was not going to be as calm as Lacus's singing. When Siegfried drifted off for the second time, the door was forced open again, and Badgiruel stood before his blurry eyes.
"I want to sleep."
"There's no time for that, Sai. Strike Gundam has defected, and you need to report to the GINN immediately. You may have to sortie."
With no choice, Siegfried returned to the GINN cockpit before even twenty four hours of confinement had passed. This time, the attitude of everyone, including the maintenance crew, had subtly changed.
"Hey kid, we meet again."