Trials And Lies

Chapter 1

AN: This is the first Gundam Seed Fanfic by me and I deliberately wrote a Yzak & Shiho fanfic cause it is not so active... I also love this couple... And I don't own Gundam SEED or any of its counterparts... Too bad for me...

As per my previous attempt at this story, I will use the same format...
Italics represents a radio transmission from outside of the character's immediate location, as well as names of ships/mobile suits/vehicles.
Bold represents the time jumps or current location (but I plan to reduce the focus on this, I'm sure it disrupts reading flow, doggamnit!)...

***KxL will be in a later chapter.

Cosmic Era 74

Squinting against the bright explosions of the massive weapon Requiem and the space fortress Messiah, Yzak stifled a victorious grin, knowing that one of the larger walls of corruption and deceit had been broken down. He tapped the horizontal controls of his white GOUF Ignited as a screen flashes above his head, signalling to him that a communication channel had been activated.

"Finally, its done. Can't believe how many we lost this time," Dearka said softly through the video transmission, his usual mischievous smirk replaced by a solemn look.

"Keep your head in the game, Dearka. We still have alot of work to do," Yzak understood how his comrade felt but now was not the time to feel sorry. Dearka gave a blank look and chuckled before the warships of the ZAFT Fleet shot out their retreat flares. Both of them sighed quietly, navigating effortlessly through the debris of space whilst listening in to the transmission by Lacus Clyne for an immediate ceasefire between all factions.

With his distractions now gone, Yzak took a closer look at the battlefield through his monitor as his GOUF cruises back to its mother ship. It was now completely desolate, with only chunks and pieces of once-glorious war machines floating around aimlessly like wandering ghosts. Yzak thought to himself quietly, feeling a slight hint of sadness for the first time that day. Despite being a professional soldier, Yzak could not resist feeling bad about the devastation he had helped to carry out. The lives, though not innocent, he had taken for ultimately stupid reasons.

...Was destroying Destiny Plan the right thing to do?...

Without finishing his own ideations, a blaring alarm tore itself in through his helmet, shocking him out of his sub-conscious state. Yzak Joule immediately brought his keyboard down from the side and typed through the controls, searching for the possible problems that may had happened while he was reflecting. His monitor showed a possible fire somewhere in his Mobile Suit's engines, most probably caused by overheating.

Yzak was puzzled by this information as he had only operated his GOUF for a few hours. As if on cue, smoke started to fill his cockpit, the horrible stench warning him that something bad was boiling deep down inside the machine. Yzak had seen videos of pilots surviving fierce battles, only to be burnt alive in their cockpit caused by inboard fires. He was not going to risk that. An emergency communication channel was immediately opened to the closest ship around.

"Gaius-1 to Rousseau, requesting clearance for an immediate land and check. Inboard fire imminent, how copy?"

After receiving a green light to enter the ship's hangar, the white mobile suit changed its course immediately and accelerated towards his Nazca-class ship. As his GOUF approaches the ship, Yzak thought of ways to give his piece of mind to the engineers of his mobile suit. However level-headed one may have been over the years, a life and death situation always bites no matter what or how.

"Gaius-1, message. Are you alright?" the screen above him lights up, showing his subordinate in red pilot suit, looking unperturbed through the video transmission.

"No big deal, Shiho. Just a minor fire in the engines. Cover for me and get the rest of the Joule Team back to the Voltaire," commanded Yzak, trying his best to keep a stern look on his face. He piloted his GOUF into a vacant hangar, wincing at the obscured visibility of the cockpit as more smoke began getting thicker inside.

"Yes, Commander," Shiho responded as she went offline.

It was only after a month after the Messiah incident that the platinum blonde had time to take a well deserved break. Although he was at a young age, Yzak gave off a frustrated sigh and leaned back on his armchair, looking through the pieces of paper scattered around his table like an old seasoned politician would. He had just escorted Lacus Clyne to the Council Chamber back in PLANTs and was in no mood to talk to anyone. Feeling extremely tired, Yzak released a loud yawn while closing his eyes, feeling the fatigue sipping all around him.

He was about to allow himself some shut-eye when the door to his office opened, followed by the sound of footsteps. He scowled and opened his weary eyes, only to be greeted by the sight of Shiho and Dearka entering the room. Yzak cursed himself for even thinking of giving them the permission to drop formalities when not in public.

"Can you guys at least give me a warning before coming in?" he asked annoyingly, knowing that what he had just said would eventually fall on deaf ears. Shiho took her usual place and stood near the entrance of his office while Dearka sat on the chair opposite of his Commander, legs crossed on Yzak's table. The Commander's eyes twitched trying to fight himself from giving Dearka a good beating.

Dearka gave a content expression and started the ball rolling, "Relax, Yzak. You know we don't do that since the day I found you-" He was immediately cut off by Yzak's intense yell.

"Don't you dare finish that sentence Dearka!" Yzak raised his voice. It caused Dearka and Shiho to jump a little, but they quickly regained their composure, knowing full well that their Commander woke up on the wrong side of his bed that morning. Sensing that his anger had no effects on both of them, Yzak slowly returned to his seat, not even knowing how he stood up in the first place. He decided to stop frowning and relaxed his forehead muscle.

"Well, good morning to you too, Yzak."

"Shut up and leave me alone."

Shiho, who apparently felt left out from the conversation, walked slowly to her Commander's side. "So Commander, what's next for our unit. I know ZAFT is on the supporting role this time but I'm sure Command has something for us," she inquired politely.

Yzak rubbed his temples gently, suddenly remembering the issue that was bugging him. He quickly turned to the other two and began briefing them about a routine reconnaissance mission within the PLANT's orbital path. Ever since Lacus stepped up as the helm of the PLANT's Supreme Council, some people...disagreed. Especially followers of Gilbert Durandal's Destiny Plan, or Patrick Zala's 'Eradicate All Naturals' scheme...or rather mostly simple haters of either Naturals or Coordinators, both out to get at each others' throats. Maybe even space pirates.

"We sortie in the next few days, so get your squad up to speed. As usual Shiho, you're in my section."

"Wow...and we're supposed to be with Terminal too," Dearka complained as he stood up with a sigh.

"ZAFT is stretched too thin, don't you listen? Shiho...lets get going."

"Yes, Commander."

"Uggh-! Gaius-2, flank him and get rid of his shield! I'll distract him!" Yzak shouted through the intercom. He was getting annoyed of the enemy pilot that was absolutely intelligent at what he was doing.

"Gaius-1! What the hell are you do-!? Damn it!" Dearka in return yelled as Yzak pulled out a few insane stunts that would kill most. Yzak simply didn't care. He just wanted to destroy these terrorists and be done with it. It was only supposed to be a routine recce mission, which unfortunately turned out to be a full blown dogfight between warships.

Dearka, seeing an opening, shot a beam and it luckily went through the head of the enemy's Mobile Suit. Yzak finished him off by taking out the legs and hands of the machine, rendering it harmless. Without so much as a pause, they continued the battle. Yzak quickly made his way to Shiho, fighting off a few enemy Mobile Suits. Just like a messy candyfloss, bright deadly beams were fired haphazardly and Shiho gracefully maneuvered through it as if it was second nature to her. Yzak smirked, impressed at the consistency of her skills. A loud beeping sound suddenly knocked him out of concentration.

"Battle Alert, unknown heat source to Rousseau's stern!" Informed one of Yzak's crew members back at the Voltaire.

"From behind us? Find out what it is. Destroy if Hostile," Yzak commanded, his voice still level-headed while fighting off a stray enemy. The explosions around were making it hard to concentrate.

"Be advised, it's a Nazca-Class Destroyer!" The crew confirmed.

Yzak wore a scowl on his forehead, almost struggling to catch up with the intensity of the battle. He cursed a million curses as he heard what was just being said. "Nazca? What the hell is going on, ZAFT got their ships stolen or something? Gaius-2, can you see it?"

"Negative, Gaius-1. Are you sure-! Woah, getting unusual pings on my photo-sensors. What's with the light?" Dearka exclaimed with a few scratches to his machine.

Yzak swore at Dearka's untimely uselessness. He proceeded with Shiho to finish off the other Mobile Suits. "Gaius-3, fall back. Protect the Voltaire, Shiho. The others and I will engage the-"

Yzak was cut off as he felt the cockpit of his Mobile Suit violently shake and began reverberating with the ominous sound of a hard collision, the visor of his helmet effectively cracking open upon hitting a contour of the cockpit. He panicked as he shut his eyes to shield from the shards. Yzak gritted his teeth, trying to turn the GOUF and shouting in his helmet what was going on from outside. The young Commander winced once again when he heard a deafening grind of metal to metal shred into his ears, probably a dagger somewhere into his machine's core system.

"Gaius-1! Hold on!" Shiho warned immediately as her ZAKU began her unfruitful effort of dislodging something from the back of Yzak's machine, "The enemy is clung onto you-! Get off damn it!"

The area was glowing, as if the sun was brought to them. He felt confused...then finally noticed that it was getting harder and harder to breathe, with a gauge at the side of his screen depleting rapidly, "Looks like he got the unit's air supply. Gaius-1, is your re-breather activated?"

"Negative, Gaius-2! I'm exposed!" Yzak exclaimed as the enemy let go of his Mobile Suit, gracefully throttling away. Before everything went FUBAR, Yzak caught a glimpse of what seemed to be a shining machine of glowing red and yellow, and almost similar to the Infinite Justice in appearance. Yzak gripped his controls in anger as the battle grew to a stalemate due to the presence of the unknown machine, tearing away at Yzak's team like a sword through butter. But alas...the young Commander had other pressing issues.

The platinum blonde blinked and shook his head at his surroundings which was blurry and spinning in a tango of flickering red lights of alarm, his head tearing itself with a sickly ache as he tried to hurdle past the alarm of depressurization. He could hear his own labored breathing, his desperate attempt to keep himself alive and conscious. Within what seemed like an eternity, young Yzak Joule suddenly felt weak and blacked out as the oxygen supply depleted rapidly.

"Yzak, respond! Damn! Joule Team, make an opening for the Voltaire and Rousseau. We're retreating, the Commander's out!" Dearka Elsman, second in command, ordered the rest as he took over. That glowing Mobile Suit really did a number on them, and now they were scattered. The two warships, Rousseau and Voltaire, quickly averted their current course and began penetrating the enemy's net.

"Gaius-2, Gaius-3 message. I'm making a break for retrieval of the Commander's unit. Request covering maneuver."

"Gotcha, Shiho. All units, carve a path for the Lieutenant. No one gets left behind today."

Without wasting time, Shiho's ZAKU quickly grabbed onto Yzak's stationary machine, floating there like a piece of disposed junk. A hell lot of mistakes were made that day, but one of Joule Squad's biggest was to let their guard down thinking they have superior advantage of a concentrated defense line. A good pilot and a machine with only an attack dagger was all the enemy needed to create a horrifying chasm in Yzak's GOUF before sending it flailing in mid-vacuum along with Shiho's.

"Gaius-1! Son of a-! All units, full retreat!"

AN: I noticed in the previous attempt of this story that Yzak and Shiho's relationship were too quickly established. So I'm trying to find another angle for this, hopefully I can develop it further in a more interesting & realistic way. Different from the previous version, there will only be 1 new Mobile Suit instead of 3. The 2 OCs will still be inside, albeit less focused. Just as well, I'll bring Kira and Lacus earlier into the story.

Constructive criticisms are MORE than welcomed, more so in PM form!

Also thanks to "autumn's fairy thyme14" for providing me the support/inspiration and character bios for Shiho and Yzak! Seriously, go read up on her "Buttercup" if you're really into Yzak and Shiho!

Thanks for reading!