"Kamille? That's a girls' name isn't it?" Kamille stood in line at the grocer, trying his hardest to ignore the girl at the counter. She scanned his items with a disinterested look on her face and sucked on a lollipop as though it were going out of style. "Your parents should be ashamed for giving you that name."
Kamille snapped. He backhanded the girl with as much force as on that day, when the Titans member Jerid Mesa said the same thing to him at the spaceport. Fa screamed his name and held him back as security scrambled towards them, their faces red from having run from the break room.
"What do you think you're doing!?" Their voices seemed far and distant, as though it were all a mirage. Whispy bits of smoke glided in from the outside, and suddenly a chill made Kamille realize. "This is just a dream." Back in reality, he was looking at the results for a girl who had gotten a pregnancy test earlier.
On the T.V. to his right, the face of the Red Comet appeared. Char Aznable stood at a podium, surrounded by members of his Neo Zeon faction. He was giving a speech, and the details of it, and his reasoning infuriated Kamille to his very core.
"Doctor, are you feeling okay?" The nurse on duty, a girl with light blue hair peered at him from the next room. She reminded him of someone long ago, but he had locked those memories away, thrown away the Key, and settled down in a job where he could do more than just be a killer.
"Nothing, just listening to Char's speech. It's really infuriating, to see more war break out." It has been five years since Neo Zeon had been defeated, with the death of their leader Haman Karn. Peace should have returned to the Earth Sphere, but in reality, things had begun to escalate out of control.
"Oh? I'm not a big fan of Char Aznable. All he's doing is prolonging the death of his stupid nation. The Earth Federation has beaten Zeon before and this time will be no different. But maybe if Char had chosen to be a movie star, now that would be a thing to see!" Kamille scoffed and waved the nurse away, trying to focus on his job.
"Kamille." A voice said. "Kamille. Kamille Bidan." Kamille looked around him. The room was the same as always, an almost sickly white, with shades of green and brown. The nurse had left and he was the only one in the room. "Kamille." He shook his head, it must be from overwork. With the battles in space, and the whole notion of another war, he had gotten a large influx of patients who were worried about possibly being a Newtype.
"Kamille." A woman's voice echoed through his mind. It was sweet, it was tender, it was sad. His heart jumped as he remembered the face that the woman's voice belonged to. "Kamille. It is not over. The earth and space are in danger." He closed his eyes, put his fingers on his temples, and tried to block out the voice. "Kamille."
"Don't try to run away." Another voice, another woman's.
"Rosamy, and Four? Why now? After all this time?!" He looked at his right hand, saw the golden ring and stood up. He closed the files on his computer, and made a note to the nurse to have her call the patient to come in for a follow-up. Leaving the room, he made sure everything was locked, switched off the lights, and left for the evening.
*Outside the Clinic*
Standing outside the door of the clinic, Kai Shiden was thinking on what to say before the door opened. Kamille walked through, in his hands a brown suitcase, and the other a mobile phone. "Well, look at who's all grown up. Kamille Bidan." Kamille looked at Kai, blinked as if trying to wake up, and simply walked forward. "Hey! Wait up!"
The pair walked side by side, the Moon Colony's hallways were big enough to have triples walking alongside one another. "What do you want? I already told you I'm not interested in fighting again." Kamille said with a sour tone.
"That excuse again? Listen Kamille, I didn't come here to hear your excuses. I came to tell you that running away from the fighting isn't going to work. Didn't you hear Char's speech? The guy is practically a maniac at this point." Kamille turned to look at Kai, who simply looked back at him.
"So?"
"So?!" Kai exclaimed. "Char is planning something big, and not like Haman's Neo Zeon big, but something even bigger! This could change everything! It's not just fighting for independence anymore, but Char's got this revenge agenda going on now!"
"Char isn't the type of person to do that."
"You did hear the speech right? This isn't Quattro Bajeena from the AEUG. Char has got to be stopped. The Federation has already gotten wind of something that Neo Zeon has cooked up. It may be another Colony Drop, no something perhaps even bigger."
"Even Bigger?"
The two rounded the corner. Instead of heading to the spaceport where Kamille could take a shuttle back to the residential district, he had instead followed Kai during the conversation. The two stood before a door marked Hanger Bay 07.
"Yes. Something even bigger. If you aren't going to agree, at least let me show you something."
"Fine. But don't try anything funny."
"I won't. I'm still on here on official Earth Federation business."
The two walked into the hanger. It was mostly empty, with a few mechanics and engineers running about.
"Listen, Amuro is on the frontlines. We even managed to get a few ace pilots from different divisions to the Londo Bell. This isn't another war, no, Char is planning something grander than that." Kai waved at one of the engineers, who, after waving back, punched something into a computer console.
"Even Amuro is still in the army. But what does that have to do with me? I'm a doctor now. If you need doctors, the Federation has plenty."
"Listen, Char is getting ready for a big offensive. The Federation knows this, and is pulling out the stops. I know you don't want to fight, but, if the Federation loses, it'll be worst than having lost the One Year War." Kamille felt a prickling at the back of his mind.
"Kamille. You must fight. The souls of all the people on earth..."
Four? Rosamy? Kamille couldn't quite make it out, but the voices mixed in, expanded, then contracted together in his mind. He couldn't ignore them, and they seem to have gotten bolder from Kai talking to him. In his heart, he detested the violence that he had participated in. The Gryps Conflict had given him enough death that would last a lifetime. But, what if this was the last time? What if after this, war could be averted, even if for a single decade? He had chosen to protect life as a doctor, but there are times where even doctors have limits.
"I can already see it on your face Kamille. Just one more fight." Behind Kai, something rose from the ground. It was a gray and red mobile suit, one that Kamille had never seen before.
"The Zeta? No, the Hyaku Shiki?" Kamille's heart jumped to his throat as he remembered the fight with Paptimus Scirocco. The battle was a hard one, but by using the Zeta's Biosensor, he managed to defeat Scirocco by pushing his Newtype capabilities beyond what they normally could do.
"The MSZ-007 Mass Production Type Ζ Gundam. A mass production unit of the Zeta Gundam that you piloted during the Gryps Conflict. The Earth Federation actually prepared you this machine if you ever decided to come back." Kai sheepishly said while scratching his nose. "It doesn't have the fancy gadgets your Zeta had, but it should work just as well.
"What happened to the Zeta then?" Kamille asked. His eyes examined the Type Z and he couldn't help but notice how lacking it was in the weapons department.
"Oh that? Well, the Federation has it somewhere. I think its more along the lines of them not wanting to have you use it."
"I understand. The Zeta itself is powerful, and I'm not a part of the military anymore. It only makes sense."
"Does that mean you'll come back?"
"Only this one time. After Neo Zeon is stopped, no more fighting."
"Okay! That's what I like to hear!"
"Let me go and tell Fa first. I'll gather some of my things as well for the journey."
Kai held out his right hand, and after looking at it for a brief second, Kamille shook it.
*Space Shuttle heading towards Luna II*
Hugues Courand stared at the screen broadcasting Char Aznable's speech. The former Red Comet was no longer just an urban legend. He had appeared before the Earth Sphere and threatened hostilities, even after the death of Haman Karn's Neo Zeon.
Hugues looked around the cabin, his eyes wandering as his destination slowly grew closer. There were few other occupants besides him, and they all wore Federation uniforms. None of them caught his eye until he looked directly in front of him. A woman with red hair looked intently at the leader of Neo Zeon, her emerald colored eyes showing a burning fire hidden deep within.
Smiling, Hugues closed his eyes and wondered about the sudden reassignment from his current unit. The only thing he was told was to pack up and board the shuttle. Hopefully, he could return soon. He thought to himself, as the sound of Char's speech spurring him into sleep.
*Chapter One: The Flames of War.*