Sovereign Minds

AN: I decided to just do the sequel since I couldn't think of anything, well I could but this seemed like a better idea, and I didn't really want to go back with a prequel. Sorry for those this bothers. But hopefully this story goes better.

Chapter 1

A man searched for a secret, or to be more precise a starting point. He was one of the humans with the advanced abilities. They were officially dubbed the 'Whispered'. William Schneider, one of these humans, wanted to know the source of the voice that brought them such knowledge and abilities. In his search for the 'Whisperer' as he had titled the voice he created an organization from bits of another, in order to accomplish this quest. He called this organization 'Origin'. He went through many trials, over the years even having a space colony built in secret. He dedicated much of his life to his work, his wife gladly joined him. During this time he found another human, molded by the experiences of his life into a weapon, and even then something more. Many battles were fought trying to discover the secret of the 'Whispered'. In the end he was betrayed, his work unfinished, his mission to find out the secret of what he, and many others were, ending. At least for him. However maybe it was better they did not know the reason, or source. Some could embrace and others could try to ignore it. It was found that being allowed to live in their own ways the whispered became successful human being. Of course there were still the ones that strained. The search for the way to end this, or perhaps empower it was gone in a single trip through space.

Late in the year 2001 many events unfolded that no one foresaw. A strange increase in multiple unknown and probably advanced arm slaves appeared around the world, while other Arm Slaves appeared and fought off these seemingly enemy AS. Even stranger a, or what seemed to be a satellite approached and entered earth's atmosphere. The reason for this was unknown but when enemy AS started coming with it, people feared the worst. However in the end the whole satellite vanished in thin air, not a trace of it left behind. Less than a day later a large piece of what was confirmed as a space colony landed in the ocean, apparently it had been situated on the moon before. Rumors and conspiracies spread like wildfire. A problem occurred however. Many of the people were reported as people who had disappeared some years before, and many new people existed, non-recorded children, even adults with no records. They needed these people to let them know what happened but had to hold off much of the information from public. The people were returned to countries around the world, of course after investigation. However this many people could not be accommodated and of course many were left in poverty. Even worse military around the world became defensive about the event and tensions rose. Blaming each other some battles broke out but with help from an unknown source wars were avoided. However secrets of something called whispered, and the events that happened that were left a mystery, while some of it was revealed most of it had been maintained as secret international information, or blown off as faux information spread to cause a false panic or give reason for war. Of course an unknown organization helped with this as well. However they did not have the force to accommodate so many, when they only knew of so little before.

In the end battles continued to break out around the world as nations struggled to find out about these rumors, and methods to gain power. So far wars have been avoided and battles kept to a minimum but the world seems to be heading in a wrong direction with the unknown events of that year.

-

What was hoped to be easily covered up had, and could never have been truly contained resulting in these problems. Most battles are kept from cities but the world is not perfect, and people continue to fight for something they are not certain exists, even if it does.

The large mechanical being dropped to the ground as burst of enemy artillery fire zipped just overhead. Nothing could be heard but the sound of steps in the ground, explosions, and artillery fire. That and the occasional sound that came with a strange light that was rare. It was another battle, one of many that were becoming too common in the world. The night did not help the situation much either. The white AS tossed a grenade which lit up the night, and immediately after two large bangs were heard followed by explosions as the sniper rounds pierced the enemy mechs. As the light cleared the RK-99 Carnage looked up as the black M-ARX 10 came down monolecular cutter piercing right into the cockpit of one of the remaining Carnage AS.

When the other turned to fire on him a quick round-house kick sent it flying back bullets going airborne, hitting a stray allied plane blowing it up, and others sending another plane coming down. Before the AS could recover another AS black and gray appeared from the brush and fired into the downed RK followed by her firing on infantry and armored vehicles. As a hind helicopter came into the area for one final attempt against them a rocket collided with the cock-pit. Where it came from no one was sure, well not the enemy until another AS showed itself.

The battle that had lasted several days finally came to an end. Not because it was hard but the enemy kept sending wave after wave towards the Mithril Units. With that cleared they were supposed to stay the night and keep watch in case any more activity came up, trying to move under them, but they doubted that with how many units were sent just to stop them. The problem was they were being ordered to finish missions quickly and while they had the lambda driver they had to limit use so its existence was not confirmed further fueling the reason for battles in obtaining power.

Finally after the AS were hidden and covered the group of mercenaries gathered around a campfire. For dinner, slop. Yes nothing but grounded food, a mixture of who knew what into something to hold them over instead of MREs. Since MRES caused a light constipation as well. However the first thing done by a Sergeant Major Kurz Weber was the use of the forest facilities, which no one really wanted to know where he had gone. They just hoped he had buried it.

Lillian the newest member of their team having joined during the big incident that happened last year started up a casual conversation.

"Finally it's over. What are you guys going to do once we get back?" Lillian took an unhappy spoonful of her slop as she awaited answers.

Mao was the first to answer swallowing all her gruel instantly instantly, and then holding her tongue out in the air showing her distaste for the so called food.

"That stuffs hardly edible. Anyway first thing I'm doing is getting drunk, no ifs and or buts. Not even Tessa could stop me."

"I would not underestimate the captain. You remember what happened that time don't you." As usual Grouseaux was the one serious aside from their young sergeant.

"Aw Tessa's just like a cute kitten, she wouldn't do anything." Kurz said coming back relieved except for the dirt on his body, and unpleasant feeling in his ass. He continued to pull the suit away as he returned. He had the armor slung over his shoulder, his torso and arms covered by the body-suit underneath."Right Sousuke?" Kurz looked over at the youngest member of their group. The infamous being who had supposedly saved the world but was one of the reasons all this was happening. In fact he had taken it upon himself to come on any mission asked to help protect the peace of the world and keep WWIII from occurring.

Sousuke made only a small moan as his answer. Blood, bullets, Arm Slaves, spit, dirt, death, and MREs had become everything he knew once again. Much to his and Kaname's displeasure his leaves were once again frequent. In fact even the school wondered where their dangerous militant student had gone. It had been two weeks since he had been back. Then suddenly a thought crossed his mind. Something he had promised to do after most if not every mission.

Reaching into a bag next to him he pulled out a small rectangular metal device. Flipping it open he pressed a button then pressed talk. The cell-phone began making the connection and soon he could hear the ringing. From what he knew she would be in school or going now. This small metal object aside from letters had been his only way of keeping in touch with his sweetheart back home.

From what he had been hearing though soon he would have a long break, not too long, maybe a week, a month, but long enough that he got to spend some quality time with her. Though from what he knew that probably would not happen he would get a week maybe before he was called away again. The worst part of it was this really was partially his fault. Had he been stronger, not gotten side-tracked he could have avoided this in the incident with Origin. Luckily some other countries were helping to maintain the peace. The U.S. with the recently developed M-10, quickly surpassing the ideas of the M-9 was actually able to help in the war. The RK-99 had been made, and completed in 1999, but only recently made to an exceptional point and was easily massed produced cheaply. So many countries were getting a hold of them.

Finally he heard a clicking noise and was greeted by a sweet angelic voice he had once been accustomed to waking up to. Now he woke up with grumbles, sweat, and gunfire.

"Hello." Kaname spoke again the voice revitalizing him already. He had not spoken to her in over a week now.

"Kaname it's..." But before he could finish she spoke again, her voice a bit cheery.

"Hi honey. Look I read the caller ID, I wanted to well hold on..." Sousuke was greeted by silence for a few seconds. He heard her voice in the background she was covering the part where she spoke into. He could make out some words and knew she was talking to the teacher. After a few more moments of silence she spoke again.

"Sousuke! I'm in the hall now, the teacher excused me. How are you?" She wanted to know his condition first. Back then she would go off trying to ask every question she could but soon learned to calm down, not wanting to be annoying she asked him her questions in order. He smiled finally, just a bit but it was something. His allies noticed too and smirked a bit whispered starting from Kurz going around.

"I am fine, after about a week of fighting we finally finished the mission. They sent an overwhelming number of units, and we could only use limited resources. It was similar to the Vietnam war. Except the enemy did run out of soldiers to use." He answered what he knew would be her next question. The advantage of knowing her for so long, more personally than anyone else gave him some advantages. However before she could speak after his pause he spoke again. "I miss you."

He heard a happy breath from her over the phone and knew she was happy to hear him say that. One of the things he learned was women if its something they like, love hearing it many times. Luckily for Sousuke whatever he said to her was usually true.

"I miss you too. Will you be able to come home soon?" Her voice was soft, he knew she really wanted him to come back, and the fact that she said home made it all the better. The fact that he had a home with her, someone who never had one in his whole life, was something very comforting to the war-mongering young man. She would probably be overly affectionate when he returned but he did not mind. Despite them being together for so long she still had her harisen, and he still made mistakes. But that was part of the fun.

"I should be able to come back tomorrow. Late or early afternoon." He had completely blocked out his allies. As of now Kurz was listening over his shoulder. Mao watched with a bored expression. Lillian finished off her slop, and Grouseaux sat playing a handheld game.

"Urzu6 you should not eavesdrop on Urzu7." When he said this Kurz made a silence symbol with his fingers to his lips but soon a gun was under his chin. Since they were in the field it was really loaded. One of the things Sousuke learned from Kaname was sometimes too much force on subtle things was enough. Excluding the lockers, the computers, the new janitor, the man visiting the school for tests, the backpack a student left in the middle of the school assuming he had lost it and Sousuke claiming it a bomb.

"Sousuke buddy you wouldn't shoot me now would you?" Kurz said with a smirk. He knew there was no way Sousuke would really do it. Almost no way. When it came to Kaname sometimes Sousuke could get touchy.

"The possibility of me shooting you at this moment is 79." Sousuke gave Kurz his warning and he backed off but not before messing Sousuke's hair and pulling his cheek saying.

"Ok but you and Kaname better be nice on the phone. Nothing dirty now." Sousuke sighed, and Kaname blushed where she was, and turned to look out the window in case anyone came by. With the peace returned he continued his conversation with Kaname.

"That's great, I'll prepare us a great dinner. Hey Sousuke..." Kaname's tone changed with the final part, it was something more attractive, seductive, something she used only on him. "...my place is really lonely and the bed just doesn't feel right without you here. When you get back, maybe we can fix that, hm?" Kaname had a look on her face and if he had been there who knows what would have happened.

"Uh, I mean, affirmative I would love to." In these situations Sousuke had picked up a few responses over the time. He could do a flat joke that involved something realistic, for example here telling her to change her mattress. In another way he would return the idea or comment in a similar way except without the seductive hint in his voice. He would do as he just did and agree, or he would go blank with the usual 'uh." Now he figured was not a time to be teased by his friends, but he did not need to upset Kaname with nothing, or a flat joke.

"Good... you know Sousuke I'm alone in a locked bathroom right now. My other hand is running up my thigh, going under my skirt." She used the same voice and Sousuke went blank. Not a word escaped his lips, not a breath escaped his body. Several seconds later he heard giggling from her.

"Jeez Sousuke. I'm still in the hallway. I know your buddies are around so you can't but I'm sure the suit go tight."

"Affirmative." His throat was dry and his response was so quick, it had been an interruption in her speech. That was when she got another idea.

"You know if you really want to, you can go somewhere private and I really can go to the bathroom, class won't end for awhile so..."

"Negative, that is not necessary. I can wait until I see you."

Little did he know that was the answer she expected. Sadly for them with all the time apart they both had to hold off any physical urges they had. Of course Kaname was really not too keen on the idea of doing that in a public bathroom.

"That's good. I wasn't really going to... maybe. Well anyway you have a lot of make-up work to do you know. I'll help you out, we can study together, oh one of them is anatomy." Kaname gave another giggle and Sousuke lowered his head and ran his fingers through his hair. He was relieved very relieved with all the commotion gone, and her being happy, but sadly he could not relieve himself in another way.

"Kaname this is not very nice." His tone was low, showing his displeasure. However his return was her pretending to be innocent.

"What? All I did was tell you what we were studying." She was having a blast. Just the fact that she could do this to him over the phone made her feel better, and anxious to see him again. Sousuke sighed defeated and did the only thing he could.

"I love you..."

"I love you too." She said with a smile he wished he could see. He himself smiled a bit as well, he like her liked hearing that he just did not need to hear it all the time. It was more of a reminder of his luck, despite his harsh life

"I will call you when we return to headquarters, and when I am leaving."

"Alright, I'll talk to you later. Bye Sousuke."

"Good bye Kaname." And with that he flipped the phone down turning it off. Looking up he noticed his allies seemed to be able to hold their own conversations. Kurz was trying to watch Grouseaux and asked to play his game. Mao, and Lillian had resorted to playing cards.

"It's hot..." Sousuke suddenly said out of nowhere. They were in the middle of a rain forest, aside from causing some damage the ground was humid and hot. The suits did not help the temperature either. Looking up at them Mao snorted a moment.

"Of course it is we're in a rain forest after fighting, and in this suits. You expect AC or something, go back in your AS then." Mao slapped down her down a card, and Lillian nodded and placed another.

" Yes sir, if you wish I will activate the air conditioning inside this unit also remember we have Internet access. " Al spoke up finally. He himself had become accustomed to having to entertain himself but still to him nothing beat a good battle with his pilot.

Sousuke opened his mouth to object but then decided he could. After all he was not on watch right now but if someone did come up he would be ready to fight back immediately. As usual his AS was white. The name M-ARX 10 had come from the upgrades to the ARX system and adding the M to the name to signify Mithril specific ARX systems. The name being Mithril-ARX 10. Often they would simply call the arm slaves 'Marks'. Sousuke's however was still different the unit name being changed to AOU-1, or 'Anonymous Origin Unit' partially from the name Anon he had dubbed the AS once, and from finding it as an Origin device. Now the name Falchion was being used, rather than Anon.

Rising he placed the phone back in his bag and headed towards the Falchion. Climbing onto the leg he turned and called down to the others.

"I will be here for quick response time. Inform me when my shift has actually started." receiving a wave from them he climbed into the cock-pit of his AS.

"Welcome back Sir." came Al's robotic voice sounding through the cock-pit. When they were not on mission's the AI continued to be chatty when it got the chance.

"Hello Al, but I never left." Not really he had sat 20 meters from the thing at a campfire. Sousuke pulled up the light keyboard and began typing something in. The letters appeared on the screen 'Tokyo News". A habit of the young Sergeant was to check the going ons in Tokyo if he had to wait a long time before he went back.

So far it was fine, the usual crime levels had increased a bit though. Probably because officer Wakana was off for a bit because of him. Or had been. He had been away from Tokyo for about a month now. It was amazing the school would keep letting him attend. The problem was he spent the first two days of every return working his ass off to learn and make up all the work.

The student council was officially new again, everyone old having learned to maintain Jindai. However Kaname would be graduating this year, and not far from it either. She would most likely go to Toudai University, the most prestigious college in Tokyo. In fact the name was actually University of Tokyo, Toudai being an abbreviation.

Things seemed to be becoming more complicated for him. While Kaname's life was heading forward to a good future he still seemed to be someone who would only be in her way, or not at home. He really wanted to fix this problem but it would not be that easy. The idea of greater technology and power was too great to easily erase, and after the events of what was officially called the 'Origin Jump'.

A time when Origin suddenly appeared on the world and fell almost as quickly. Looking to the right of his cockpit along a hand control was a memento from Kaname. She had given it to him from before and he always kept it. Not a picture as Kurz, or someone else would have. Instead it was her Red Ribbon. One of them anyway. Looking at is slowly his eyes began to drift closed. Al's voice was lost to him as he faded into sleep.

Kaname sighed as the teacher left the classroom. Class was almost over and the teacher had been called away. They had one more class left, and as much trouble as it was, she would have to teach Sousuke when he got back. Of course they could have quality time but he was still horrible at Japanese history. He had trouble with the old form of Japanese language even, surprising considering he could speak Russian, French, English, Chinese, and German. And after the big thing last year he had gotten smarter, of course she was not pleased with the scars and things that had happened to him to make that possible but he could do some more things, thankfully he was still no genius. If he was then he just wouldn't be Sousuke. Since the teacher was gone her best friend Kyouko turned to her.

"So Kana-chan. Earlier, I had forgotten to ask at lunch. That was Sagara-kun on the phone right. What did he say?" As hard as it had been when Sousuke came back, and even though they had all seemingly accepted him, it had been apparent over time that grudges were still held. Kyouko had still been fearful, and Ono-D despite seeming to have forgiven, had a few more arguments with Sousuke about what he had done. However now it had been long enough for them to learn to get over it. Sure somethings still happened but nothing ever really came back to that horrible time. The year had turned out very eventful.

Kaname sighed remembering Sousuke would not be back until late tomorrow. That gave them the day to rest since tomorrow was Wednesday but Thursday, and Friday she would have to teach him like there was no tomorrow. It was the week end. She wanted to celebrate his finally being back after a whole month.

"He said he could probably be back late tomorrow. He might have a break for a week or a month, but he says he would be lucky to have it that long." her voice made her sorrow evident. It was hard having him out in the field of danger so much, and he was still in high-school.

"I'm sorry Kaname. It's unfortunate after all that he still has more trouble. Last year had been really hectic. But even worse because of it things have gotten worse." Kyouko frowned and looked to the side. She really wished the two could have a break from all this trouble. Sousuke took too much responsibility on himself but from what she learned he had become a person quite capable of his job compared to before.

"Don't worry about it. At least he's coming back right. Maybe the three of us can go out and eat. Listen to some of his war stories as boring as they might be, but you know give him something to do. Make him know we care. Then he can rest for the night because Thursday and Friday..." She pulled her harisen and slapped it against her hand. An evil smile spread across her features. "...he's mine. And he will learn all this by the weekend."

"But Kana, it's been a whole month." However her objection was withdrawn when she saw the look on her blue-haired friend's face. Kaname tapped the harisen again and looked up.

"He Will learn." She exclaimed as she thought about the ways she would force all the knowledge quickly into the mercenary. Kyouko took advantage to snap a picture and sighed.

'Kana-chan might need a councilor, and some classes. Sousuke is the only one who can handle her, but shouldn't that be good.' She turned and looked at Kaname once again then sweat dropped and looked away, the way her friend was right now only worried her.

'Maybe not...'

-

Finally school had ended. The friends had parted for the day each having something they had to do, but had promised to spend the day together tomorrow. Kaname's hair cascaded down her back and flowed slightly behind her bouncing with each step she took as she headed for the train station that would take her home. It was silent, and lonely, even though she was surrounded by people. The train was heavy with people wanting to hurry home, or get across town to parties. She hung onto the rail silently as she was squeezed with people. Normally Sousuke would be there and she could hang onto him, or he would block her. The ride, felt longer, it always seemed longer with each passing day. Each day had seemed longer than the last. Truthfully though she could take it, having Sousuke away worried her very much, and sometimes even caused her problems. She would become distracted at times even. He was lucky though. She had to clean his apartment today. Despite feelings, confessions, and actions they each kept their apartments. She would clean his for him when he was away, though not everyday she did it every week. Since he would be back tomorrow she would clean for him to have a clean place to return to. Though he would probably be coming to her first. He was supposed to call her so she could meet him. She would prepare a meal right after she finished her time with Kyouko. She would spend about an hour with Kyouko before she headed home to clean herself up for when she saw Sousuke. She knew he would want to rest first, so she would only make herself good enough to spend time with him, without having to go out anywhere really fancy.

Finally reaching her home she dropped her bag by the door and plopped down on the couch. She had gotten little sleep last night, just because she was busy. She really didn't want to have to work tomorrow but she would for him. However she was not going to clean his place tomorrow. She would do it today. Rising up she pulled herself from the couch and headed into her room to change. Putting on a normal t-shirt, and pair of shorts. She slipped on her socks and shoes. Nodding with a determined look the cleaning supplies she would use were at his place so thankfully she didn't need to carry anything over. Closing the door behind her she locked it and went on her way to prepare.