Epilogue: Siblings

Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Seed/Destiny, nor the plot to the animes, but this particular story about Kira, Cagalli, and Shinn is owned by myself, because I made it up. So there.

Caridad Yamato surveyed her ship, one hand over her swollen belly as she stared into the sunset.

She knew they were watching her; her crew, making sure she was alright. Of course she wasn't. The love of her life; her soul-mate, was dead. Murdered by Rau Le Creuset, the most vicious Naval Officer and Pirate Hunter of all time.

She sighed. Such was the life of a pirate, having the Law hunt after her only let her know she was doing her job right. Even though it pained her to relive the experience of his death, she knew that she had to let him go. If she was going to ensure her child's survival, she had to be careful and think clearly.

Two months later

"Congratulations! You have twins! A boy and a girl!" the wet nurse told her after the delivery. She was exhausted but relieved that it was finally over, she wouldn't have to worry about harming her children in a fight, and she could finally defend her ship and crew.

"What will ye name 'em?" the woman asked.

"Let's see, I already had some names picked out, the boy's name will be Kira, and the girl's will be Cagalli." She replied, holding her children in her hands.

"They're beautiful, 'tis a shame ye won't get to see them grow up. Are y' sure ye want to do this, then?" another woman asked as the nurse left.

"Aye, Erica, I have to. This life is not for them, at least not while they're so young. Please, take Cagalli to Uzumi, he's agreed to care for her and won't tell her about myself until 'tis the proper time. Keep Kira on La Strike Island, he'll be taken care of here until I return for him when he's older. Right now I can't risk him staying on board." Caridad told her.

"Of course. I'll take her myself and make sure Kira has a safe home until your return." Erica replied.

"Thank you, Erica, this means a lot to me." The pirate said. Erica smiled and nodded, willing to do anything for her best friend.

First Erica took Kira to a safe home to wait for Caridad's return, because she needed to chase Rau away and make sure he was occupied with someone or something else before she took her son abroad the high seas with her.

She didn't want to take Cagalli, because she was a girl and would be treated harshly if she were caught, and she wanted her daughter to be raised to be a proper lady, something she was unable to do.

Besides, being the Princess of a country would be a great destiny for the daughter of the Legendary Woman-Pirate.

Erica smiled as she thought about what Caridad had told her, the plans she made as soon as she realized she was pregnant. They had to be changed multiple times, of course, what with Rau chasing them and numerous other troubles they encountered during the time, but after Haruma's (1) death, instead of retiring on La Strike Island and raising their children together, Caridad knew that she had to seek revenge and that she could only raise one child to follow in her footsteps.

She looked down at the small child nestled in her arms. Cagalli would have to live with a friend of Caridad's, Uzumi (I made a huge mistake and accidentally called him Ulen which is her deceased father's name…it's a good thing I'm doing this so I don't totally screw up the sequel!). He was kind and agreed to care for her, and plus he was the leader of ORB, and so would ensure that no harm would come to her by Rau if he ever found out.

"I wonder if everything will work out to where you can all be a happy family. But it seems that you may never actually know your real parents or brother, Cagalli." Erica whispered to the sleeping girl.

She arrived at Uzumi's mansion where Cagalli was raised, unaware of her real family sailing the high seas until her thirteenth birthday, the day she was told she would marry Yuuna Seiran to keep ties with ORB in tact (a political marriage). Uzumi told her that he wasn't her real father, told her the legends of her mother, and revealed to her their current location, as well as the fact that she had a twin brother.

She had insisted on meeting her real family, and at first Uzumi refused, thinking it would only hurt everyone if they were to meet, but after telling Caridad, she was just as eager to finally meet her daughter, and assured Uzumi that everything was safe for them to meet.

When they met, Kira and Cagalli instantly bonded and became good friends. Cagalli proved to be much like Caridad, tomboyish and headstrong, despite Caridad wanting her to be a refined lady. They talked about their adventures and the circumstances concerning her birth, and then revealed to her the existence of another brother.

Two years after Kira and Cagalli's birth, Caridad fled to the PLANTs in order to escape Rau, having received a letter from a man named Gilbert Durandal claiming to be able to clear her of all charges.

When she met him, he seemed nice, compassionate, and exactly like Haruma. He told her that since she was a woman he could move the accusations to her now-deceased husband, calling him the Pirate and therefore stopping Rau and any others from coming after them because Haruma was now dead and Caridad couldn't be blamed for her husband's actions.

Everything seemed right and okay, so Caridad planned on living with Gilbert and raising Kira and Cagalli with him once everything was settled and they were safe. She soon became pregnant, but shortly after receiving the news Gilbert (the father) betrayed her to Rau and she barely escaped with her life.

She found out later that it was all a trick, planned out by ZAFT, the PLANTs' military that Gilbert commanded as Chairman of PLANTs. She was scorned and betrayed, and nearly hated the child she was carrying because of that wretched man.

Gilbert ordered all of ZAFT to go after her, demanding he have his child to raise to be the next heir and leader of PLANTs. Caridad fled to ORB, but didn't want to involve Uzumi and didn't dare leave any clues as to her daughter's whereabouts, much less letting Rau know she even had a daughter! So she took him to another friend and Captain of an ORB ship, Takemikazuchi, Todaka, to care for Shinn until he could join her with Kira. He gave Shinn the fake last name of Asuka, the name of a family that was murdered during the second war between the PLANTs and the EA to cover the fact that they looked nothing alike.

Todaka didn't seem to mind caring for Shinn, and did everything he could to make sure Durandal couldn't find him. However, he still found out, and to steer him away from ORB where now two of her children resided, Caridad led him on a wild goose chase.

When Kira was ten years old, both Rau and Gil were trying to figure out where Caridad really was, so she finally made it back to La Strike Island to retrieve Kira before it was too late. She meant to go to ORB, hoping to at least retrieve Shinn as well, but Rau and Gil started to get on her trail again.

By the time Kira was thirteen and Cagalli had found out about her mother and brother, Gilbert had went back to the PLANTs in order to run his nation while Rau continued searching, although other pirates were appearing and getting in his way. And so after meeting Cagalli and telling her of all the events that have passed, and about her younger brother, Caridad and Kira Yamato visited Todaka to retrieve Shinn.

Knowing that any of her crew can leave or get captured, and wanting her children to be as safe as possible, she told Shinn and Kira to keep their relationship a secret, making Shinn the Ship's Boy and promoting Kira to Sailor/Midshipman. Cagalli was to remain in ORB as Uzumi's daughter, but there were already stories of Caridad having a son.

She hoped that Durandal would expect the son that was known to be sailing with her to be his, because she hadn't told him anything of Kira and Cagalli before he betrayed her, just in case. At first he believed that Kira was actually his son, but as the legend of the Woman-Pirate continued to circulate, many stories told of Haruma being Caridad's true love and husband, and that Caridad had become pregnant with his child before he died. Fortunately, the stories never said that she actually had twins, because the only people that knew of Cagalli were the wet nurse, Erica, and Uzumi.

So after hearing the rumors and stories, he pieced together the fact that Caridad had a son from Haruma and himself. However, he wasn't sure which son was sailing with her, and so began searching for the other son. One of Gilbert's men discovered Todaka while searching ORB, and found out that he had taken care of Shinn.

They took him to PLANT to interrogate him, but he wouldn't reveal anything about Shinn or anything else. Durandal had him killed, which erupted into a conflict between the PLANTs and ORB, once Uzumi found out.

He had known that Rau was searching for Kira and Cagalli, but he hadn't known about Shinn until he discovered that Gilbert had kidnapped one of his Captains to interrogate him and then killed him. To distract Gilbert and ZAFT, Uzumi warned Gilbert not to threaten ORB, making it seem like the PLANTs were trying to wage war against ORB.

The Earth Alliance was eager to have an excuse to go to war against the PLANTs, and so Gilbert was busy fixing his mistake and trying to calm ORB and the EA, not wanting a war on his hands while trying to capture Caridad and other pirates. That gave Caridad a breather while she sailed with Kira and Shinn, even though it put Cagalli at a risk of being discovered.

However, Uzumi could only hold Gilbert off for a while before there was nothing to distract him, for Uzumi didn't want a war either since Cagalli could get captured or found out to be Caridad's daughter.

Rau renewed the chase, and when he got a hint of where Caridad might be, Durandal joined him again, and that was when they finally caught Caridad and killed her. After her murder, they had to leave to make repairs, because Kira took over and started fighting harder than before. Caridad had somehow known that she couldn't run forever.

After chasing Rau away, Kira fled, trying to get to ORB before Rau caught up to them again so that Uzumi could help them somehow. However, before they arrived Rau found them and they fought, Kira barely escaping. Gilbert was sure that Shinn was on board now.

This is where The Pirate's Treasure begins.

Yuuna hired Rau to find Cagalli after she escaped ORB, and when Rau heard rumors of the Freedom having two women on board, he figured that one of them must be Cagalli, although he hadn't realized that Kira and Cagalli were siblings (he still doesn't know, despite whatever I said earlier, all he knows about Cagalli is that she's the princess of ORB and is pledged to be Yuuna's wife).

Siegel was already in the Service, a member of ZAFT. He wasn't aware that Lacus had joined Kira with Cagalli until Nicol asked about her. However, he had spoken a little with Rau about arranging a marriage between them, although was having doubts and wasn't entirely agreeing to it, despite Rau promising her a good life.

And so the current predicament the Yamato siblings are in will be further told and explained in the sequel: Blood of a Pirate.

-Author's Note: I figured I should do some explaining, so there ya go!

Haruma is Kira and Cagalli's father (in the series, Kira's adoptive father and Caridad's husband), in case some people were confused as to whom he was.

Kira and Cagalli are full-blood siblings, the children of Caridad and Haruma Yamato, but Shinn is only a half-brother, with Gilbert Durandal being his father. Rey is in fact Rau's son in this story and I'm pretty sure everything else is the same. Thanks for reading and reviewing!-