Zeta Gundam: The Victorious Universe

Prologue

By Nanaki

"The Zeta! What's happening?!" Paptimus Scirocco finally began to sound a bit concerned, and Kamille would have smiled, if he wasn't already so tired and sick at heart. Nevertheless, the Zeta began to radiate a brilliant purple light, and Kamille felt determination welling up inside him, along with something else that wasn't easy to describe. "Is... Is this some kind of weapon that I've never seen before?!"

"You'll never understand, because you think that war is some kind of game!" Kamille shouted scornfully. "You can't comprehend the power that's flowing through my body!"

Scirocco couldn't deny that Kamille was emitting a particularly strong field of psychic pressure right now, but to think that it would somehow allow his mediocre Zeta to defeat The O was just ludicrous. "What kind of power are you talking about, boy? How could something so intangible possibly defeat a mobile suit?"

"Because..." Kamille faltered for a moment, but then he felt the presence that he'd been aching for during all these months surround him.

"It's because Kamille's in a machine that can channel that power." Four stated succinctly.

"Yes, the Zeta Gundam." Rosamia agreed cheerfully.

"Was that… women's voices?" Scirocco's voice had gone from scornful to concerned again. Just how many people did Kamille have in that cockpit? Then he realized that there couldn't be anyone else. What the Zeta had already been through in this battle would have ensured that anyone not firmly strapped into a pilot's seat would have been at least knocked out, if not killed.

Kamille didn't give him time to ponder this, though. "Well, you still wanna fight?!" The Zeta charged forward, and before Scirocco's finger could even begin to tighten on the trigger, it had cleanly sliced The O's beam cannon in half. Scirocco backed up, expecting Kamille to press his advantage, but the Zeta blasted away from him instead. Kamille knew that, even if his trick worked, it would still take a while to blast through The O's incredibly thick armor, so there was only one thing to do. He reconfigured the Zeta into its space fighter mode, then blasted back at Scirocco at top speed. "Aaauuuuggggghhhh!!!"

Scirocco almost laughed as he calmly directed The O to blast up above the Jupitris, but his amusement was replaced by a sudden panic as reality set in. "The O! The controls are dead!" In his displays, the Zeta was rapidly growing larger. "What's wrong?! Why isn't it moving?!"

"Begone from this world!!!" Kamille roared, and Scirocco could do nothing but watch as the Zeta's nose first filled up, then smashed through his display screens. After all the hundreds of miles the Zeta had traveled during the battle, at the end, one foot made all the difference. Since The O's armor was so tough, the cockpit remained airtight even as it was breached. One foot less, and Scirocco would have walked away. Six inches less, and he would have had to wait for his men to cut him out, but he still would have been all right. As it was, the Zeta's nose stopped short of completely cutting him in half, but most of his vital organs were squished into a bloody pulp, and his pelvis and lower spine were completely pulverized.

" I... I won't die alone!" Scirocco made a fist. It didn't hurt as much as he thought it would, but he knew that was only because the damage was so severe. He tried to remain in an upright position, but something else within him snapped, and he sprawled over the Zeta's nose. "I'm gonna take your soul with me when I go... Ugh... Kamille... Bidan..."

Kamille slowly raised his head. There was a ringing in his ears, and for a moment, he though he had injured his left eye, until he realized it was just the face shield of his helmet that had cracked. "Sci... Scirocco... Is it finally over?" He got his answer when The O began to radiate a brilliant blue light. "Huh? That... That light! It's getting brighter..." Kamille raised his hand up to his eyes, but even through the flesh of his palm, the glow still increased. "It's blinding me..." Then, Kamille realized what was happening. "No!" He shouted at Scirocco. His hands instantly hit the Zeta's reverse thrusters, but his mobile suit now seemed to be as dead as he had made The O. Now that he concentrated, he could feel Scirocco's mental pressure surrounding him again.

'Don't tell me you learned all this just from watching me!' Kamille shouted mentally, hoping he wouldn't get the answer that soon followed.

'I didn't get to be where I am by being slow on the uptake, boy!' Scirocco's voice sounded smug again, though Kamille thought he could feel the mental pressure begin to diminish. Then, his vision went black, and he felt like something was trying to tug him out of his own body.

He could fight it, he knew. Scirocco's presence was steadily growing weaker, and there was a fair chance Kamille could beat him. But, at the end of the day, he just didn't feel up to it. Almost everyone he cared about was dead already, and the prospect of joining them suddenly didn't seem so bad… Part of his brain seemed to be telling him that this sudden apathy might also be Scirocco's doing, but by then, it was too late. The Zeta seemed to fall away beneath him, then the hulking form of the Jupitris followed. Finally, even the gigantic explosions of the battle receded into the distance as he raced up into the stars. 'Fine, be a sore loser if you want,' Kamille thought smugly. 'The Titans are practically demolished, and Axis won't be able to beat the AEUG on their own.'

'Just who exactly is the loser here?' Scirocco demanded. 'You've left the fate of this world in the hands of Amuro, Char, and Haman! What kind of miserable future do you think those three will create?' Scirocco's presence didn't seem to be getting stronger or weaker now. He was just... there.

'What kind of future... I have no idea.' Kamille admitted. 'But the world will be better off than it would have been with you in charge.' But before his battle with Scirocco continued, in whatever strange new realm of existence he seemed to be entering, his mind drifted back to that one pivotal moment. The one moment where he really felt that he'd failed. The one moment that could have made all the difference...

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"Everyone is breaking down,
Searching too long for a wish.
You're falling, looking for a place to land,
Wounded and unable to stop shaking." - Gundam Seed Destiny, Opening Song One: "Ignite"

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Zeta Gundam: The Victorious Universe

Chapter 1: The One Moment

By Nanaki

"Four, can you hear me?" Kamille called into the net. For a second, the Psyco Gundam's monstrous face was his only reply, but then he heard her voice, sounding resigned.

"Stop fooling around. Just hurry and put me out of my misery…" At that, his heart began to break all over again, but it steeled his resolve at the same time. He would stop her misery all right, but NOT by killing her. He'd rather die himself.

Kamille opened his cockpit hatch, and squinted as the wind hit his eyes. "I'm on my way over. Open up your hatch!"

"Stop!" Four's voice sounded in his helmet, but there was a quaver in her voice, and it was hard to tell if she meant it.

"I'm coming over!" Kamille stretched a hand out. She didn't reply, but after a moment, the Psyco Gundam lifted up the Mark II until their cockpits were even, then its hatch whooshed open. "Four…"

She seemed to be staring at nothing, her eyes glazed over, but they quickly focused. "You're… crazy." She stated, but there was a slight smile on her face, and there seemed to be affection in her voice.

"No… But there's something I haven't told you yet." Kamille forged ahead.

"Yes? What is it?" She asked, sounding genuinely curious. It should have filled him with hope, but Kamille felt that something was off, as if she had changed moods too fast.

"I want to tell you about my parents… and how they died." He started, kneeling down in front of her. "They were caught in the battle between the AEUG and the Titans… and they died before my eyes. Before that I used to live in Green One of Side 7. That's also where I went to high school. My dad was a famous mobile suit designer. In fact, he's the one who designed the Gundam Mark II. My mom was a specialist in materials engineering, and worked with him on the development of the Mark II. My dad also had a mistress. My mom knew all about it but she didn't say a thing. Do you wanna know why?"

"Tell me." She said, her voice full of apparently real concern.

"My mom enjoyed her work too much." Kamille shook his head in disgust. "A girl I've known ever since I was little talks to me like she's taken the place of my mom. 'You should stop biting your nails, Kamille!' It's always, 'Stop it Kamille!' I never liked hearing my name. Because Kamille isn't a boy's name, it's a girl's name. I hated it! I always did."

Four was clearly smiling now. "And then?"

"And then, I began taking karate lessons, flying a homo avis, and started building mobile suits. I just wanted to prove to everyone that I was a man…" Kamille was surprised to find tears in his eyes. Why was he being weak when she most needed him to be strong? Although… she was sitting there patiently, letting him pour his heart out. Maybe she already understood. He hoped so, anyway.

"Go on." She prompted him.

Kamille looked up at her through blurry eyes. "I just… I mean… What am I talking about? Four, why is that? Why am I telling you this?"

As Kamille buried his head in her lap, Four gently placed her hands on his helmet. "I don't know. Kamille… Can I ask you again? Do you still hate the name your parents gave you?"

"No, I like it now. After all, it's my name." Kamille forced a smile onto his face as he raised his head again.

"I see." Four smiled gently one last time, then calmly reached down and pointed a gun in his face.

"Huh?" Kamille's eyes widened in surprise.

"Let's… Let's just go back to where we both started." Her expression turned severe. "We're not suited for each other at all."

"Are you serious? No…" Kamille tentatively reached a hand out, only to jerk it back as a deafening bang filled the cockpit, and a bullet raced past his right shoulder. "Uh! Four!"

"Get out of here! It's over!" She shouted over the ringing in her ears.

"No… wait!" Kamille was surprised to find his legs slowly backing him toward the open hatch. He wanted to get closer to her, not farther away. But she had such a severe look on her face…

"Don't come near me. Don't come near me or I'll really shoot you, understand?!" Suddenly, he did understand, and he was mad at himself for taking so long. After all, his defection to the AEUG hadn't been an instantaneous process, and in his case, the Titans had destroyed the only things they could have used to blackmail him with almost right away. That wasn't true for her. Kamille felt drained, and he wanted to just give both of them some time to think things over. However, he was also getting a stronger and stronger feeling that this was a 'now or never' kind of situation. Slowly, he began walking back toward Four.

"Four… I'm sorry for rambling on like that. But that stuff about my parents… that wasn't what I hadn't told you yet."

She kept her gun trained on him, her arm steady. "Kamille, whatever you think you're about to say, it won't do any good."

Kamille put his arms down next to her thruster controls, and her gun arm began to tremble a bit as she saw that it was now pointed right at his heart. "Four, the 'something I haven't told you yet'… I love you." She gasped, her arm jerked to the right, and the next thing Kamille knew, he was sitting on the curved cockpit floor, staring dumbly at the trail of blood that was quickly flowing down his left arm.

Four looked surprised at her own actions for a second, but then her cold look returned, and she trained the gun on him. "Kamille, what part of 'We're not suited for each other at all,' didn't you understand?"

"Ugh…" Kamille groaned as he lurched back to his feet. "All of it."

Her eyes narrowed. "Kamille, I'm not kidding around. You need to get out of here, right now."

Kamille staggered forward again. "Don't tell me to run. I don't want to hear it. Four, I'm not going anywhere. Not without you!" Kamille wasn't sure what happened, but the next thing he knew, he was lying facedown on the curved floor, and now neither of his arms wanted to work. When he finally succeeded in turning over, he saw that Four's gun arm was shaking, and there were tears rolling down her cheeks now.

"Please…" She said, her voice full of desperation. "Please just go."

Kamille felt a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach as he realized he might actually die here. 'I guess I should have tried to get the gun away from her first.' He reflected. 'Oh well, too late now.' He somehow managed to get to his feet again, and saw that now Four's eyes were full of fear, not anger. "Four," he began, sounding exasperated, "I don't care if I have to club you over the head and drag you out of here! If you decide later that you were right all along, then okay. But right now, you're coming with me! I won't leave you behind!!"

"Kamille…" The affection returned to her voice for a minute, but then her face took on an anguished look. "No!!" Kamille ducked as the sounds of gunshots filled the cockpit, but when he looked up, it was her control display that was full of holes, not himself. Four pulled her leg back, then landed a kick that shattered the remains of the display into several hundred pieces. The pieces that landed in the streams of Kamille's blood seemed to stick there, while the rest rolled to the center of the curved floor. Four let the gun fall out of her shaking hand, then rushed over to Kamille and threw her arms around his neck. "Kamille… I'm so sorry." She whispered, tears streaming down her face as she buried it in his chest.

It took every ounce of willpower Kamille possessed to keep from whimpering with the pain, and there was no way he could return the embrace, but he managed to savor the moment nonetheless. "I knew… you would be." He whispered into her hair. He happened to glance outside, and saw that, while they weren't exactly in free fall, their thrusters hadn't kept them at a steady altitude the whole time. Very reluctantly, he ended the moment. "This isn't over yet. We have to go. Now."

"Right." Four grabbed her helmet, and snapped it back into place. Kamille staggered out to the hatch, Four right beside him. "Can you make it across?"

"I didn't come this far to give up now." He forced a smile. "But ladies first." Four gracefully leapt from her hatch to the Mark II's, then grabbed on to the hatch frame, and turned to help Kamille. He rocked back and forth experimentally a few times, then jumped. However, he couldn't use his injured arms to steady himself properly, so he ended up crashing to the deck face first. Four quickly helped him up, then he collapsed into the pilot's seat.

"Hold on, I think…" Kamille probed his mouth with his tongue for a second, then he leaned to the side of the cockpit opposite where Four was standing, and spat a bloody gob onto the floor. Glancing at it for a second, he saw that it did indeed contain a tooth, just as he'd suspected. "Oh well, I'm not worried about stuff that can be replaced." Now he turned back to Four. "That's why I had to save you, Four. You're irreplaceable. Not just to me, but to the world as well. The world needs to see what the Titans really are, and you… you can show them…" Four was about to say something, but Kamille looked at the altimeter and saw he didn't have much time to spare. He quickly got his hands on the thruster controls. Once there, they went forward about half an inch, then didn't move any more. "Augh!!" Kamille winced, and fresh blood appeared at wounds that had only begun to clot. In the viewscreens, the Psyco Gundam's head slowly began to slide downward, but not very fast. Kamille leaned back in the seat, breathing heavily.

"Kamille… Maybe you should let me do it." Four gently placed a hand on his arm.

"Huh?" Kamille found himself surprisingly reluctant to let anyone else behind the Mark II's controls, but she was right. There was no way he could pilot it in his condition. "All right." He climbed out of the seat, and Four climbed in. He tried to stay standing next to the seat, but he only managed it for a second before he slid down to the floor. "Ugh…"

"Kamille!" Four leaned over to check on him.

"Don't worry about me." He groaned. "Just get back to the Audhumla…"

Four frowned as she saw that he couldn't even keep his eyes open. But before she raced off to the Audhumla, there was one thing she had to do. She dropped the Mark II back in front of the Psyco Gundam's monstrous face, then shoved its beam rifle into the Psyco's still open hatch. "You!" She snarled. "You're no friend! You're just another form of control. Even if my life is nothing but suffering, it's time to try a new kind. Goodbye!" With that, she unleashed a blast right in the Psyco's head. Thanks to its impressive armor, it didn't completely disintegrate, but the head and the bottoms of its feet instantly disappeared, and its thrusters stopped working as smoke erupted from them. Four waited until the smoking hulk of the Psyco Gundam disappeared into the ocean, then blasted off for the Audhumla at top speed.

If anyone had been paying careful attention to the fight between the Mark II and the Psyco Gundam, they might have noticed that, in the instant the Mark II fired, it seemed to be encased in blue flames. As it was, Kamille and Four's battle was hardly the only one going on that day, so the phenomenon went unobserved.

For the moment.

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"I'm not afraid of the power to change...
In the deep rumbling that lies ahead." - Gundam Seed Destiny, Opening Song One: "Ignite"