This fanfic is way late. EFHT, sorry for the delays! This fanfic is long since overdue and I sincerely apologize. That having been said, I wrote this for EFHT's Sazabi/Captain challenge that I opted to participate in a while ago. This bugger was such a long ways in the making both because of school and how the story evolved from a oneshot to becoming a multiple chapter story. I felt bad for not posting this sooner too… I went back and corrected my grammatical errors too, so it should be fine now. Also, keep your eyes on the Zapper/Grappler subplot going on the in the background. It will be important in the main story as it unfolds. Why? Because I made it that way. Muwa. I now present to you my first chapter fanfic for the SD Gundam Force fandom. I own absolutely nothing, save for the plot and my own insane musings. Captain's name "Chronos" belongs to Chaos Phoenix, too.
You lift my spirit, take me higher, make me fly
Touch the moon up in the sky, when you are mine
You lift me higher, take my spirit, make it fly
Where all new wonders will appear
Lift - Poets of the Fall
Written for EFHT's Sazabi/Captain fanfiction challenge.
i
It was wrong.
As the highly trained mech he was, he had been taught very early on by his handlers how to set apart the distinction between what was morally right and what was not. For example, drawing a loaded firearm on a defenseless individual was classified in his core programming as being wrongful. It was a code of honor - an oath - that he was born to follow and expected to obey without question… how ironic that all those years of training had suddenly become meaningless, he thought. He would still never draw a loaded firearm on the innocent, true, but the comparison itself was otherwise irrelevant. To even conceive that he had be allured into doing as he now did both frightened and enticed him. To be caught by his superiors meant certain serious consequences as well, but the risks were far outweighed by the benefits.
It was wrong, yes, but oh so right.
That code of honor should have made things crystal clear to Captain Gundam about what "wrong" he was currently engaging himself in. Alas, although it may have been wrong in hindsight, he saw nothing morally unjust about his predicament in the slightest. Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder, as the humans would say. He may have thought his situation wide of the mark once in some long since dead past life, but that had been when he looked at his existence through tunnel vision. If taken into a broader perspective - as he, Captain Gundam, had learned to do - there was nothing terribly immoral about what he was doing in the slightest. After all, he thought, it was not wrong to love.
The Gundam had long since snuck out of Blanc Base using one of Kao Lynn's antique stealth boy modulators to hide his energy signature. It was a nifty little device, created some few years after Earth was bathed in nuclear radiation during the wake of its last world war. The evening was calm and his flight was smooth as he left the SDG headquarters' airspace. The cityscape of Neotopia as he passed inconspicuously above its impressive mass was alit with a rainbow spectrum of light that made the ground look like an immense collection of glittering radiance. It was an impressive sight of the manmade utopia spectacular, but it was nothing in comparison to the pristine clear sky overhead. Captain found it somewhat discerning to know that the humans and GMs below would not be able to see the stars because of the blinding city light, however. Up several miles into the atmosphere, it was much easier to see the sky when you were soaring through it. He had never taken the stars and the celestial moon of Neotopia's sky all that seriously before either, but he had long since learned to see it in a different light. He had learned to see many things in a different light as of late. Away from the city however, the stars seemed even brighter.
His current doings were considered illegal but, then again, the risks were far outweighed by the benefits. The ECC - Earth Confederation Committee - who helped set up the space colony projects after World War III turned Earth into a an uninhabitable nuclear wasteland made it a strict law that leaving the designated colony city to explore any uncharted regions of the planet was forbidden. This was established on the account that the alien planets where the "Topia Projects" became established were still mostly unexplored and therefore potentially dangerous. Neotopia itself - settled on a planet in known to the EEC simply as Aegis IIV - only added a few miles of land to the city every few years. This was because of a lack of scientists to analyze the unexplored terrain, chemists to sterilize any potentially harmful foreign bacteria, and foresters to clear it all out. Neotopia was not as steadily growing as other planetside colonies such as Deltopia or Biotopia either - both of those colonies in particular took up the entire planets they were stationed on - because the population increase was not as extreme. As such, Neotopia's city councilors felt no need to expand industrialization as rapidly as the ECC sister cities. Because of that it was both heavily against the law and unsafe for anyone, human or otherwise, to leave the city limits. Captain himself had broken at least half a dozen protocols by breaking that law alone however, and it was certainly enough to cost him his SDG badge or a one way trip to Robo House if Chief Haro ever found out.
Captain had long since traveled over a large section of the ocean bordering Neotopia, leaving the blinking expanse of the city far behind him. The air became cooler and the bustle of the city faded into the calming coo of the ocean's rustling waves and bleating of sea birds. He was already quickly approaching the huge peninsula that was his destination and it eventually entered his sights not too much longer afterward. Even without the glare of the metropolitan blaze however, the mass of virgin land still glowed warmly under the caress of the moon. The landmass rose out of the water sharply so that the peninsula edge itself was nothing more than a sheer cliff face dropping to the ocean below. Water from the tide crashed into the rock face with enough thunderous force to send the sea spray high into the air like an explosion had gone on beneath the waves. The rest of the peninsula, in stark contrast to the chaos at its border with the ocean, was calm and connected to a larger landmass that rose high into the atmosphere with the addition of a monstrous mountain.
Lowering his altitude and gradually slowing his speed, he touched down on the cliff and made sure to deactivate his stealth boy once he assured that he was not followed. He staggered and jogged to a stop, disengaging his jetpack in the process. He would not need it where he was going and it would only slow him down. The Gundam slipped the small stealth module into a subspace pocket and looked around. The open field where he stood was covered in thick sea grass that swayed in the salty wind cast from somewhere north. It bordered a dense forest of tall trees that reached high enough to scrape stars, he thought. It was an entirely undiscovered species of tree for all he knew. Walking into that forest submerged him into a half darkness lit only by the sparse patches of light where the moon was allowed to shine through the dense canopy. It was not long before he came to a partial clearing where there was at least more room to freely move. Wildflowers sat abundant beneath patches of light with their petals tightly wound and closed away the night. The place was oddly quiet without the constant bustle of Neotopia's nightlife, he thought. In fact, Neotopia was no more than a distant cluster of lights on the horizon from the exact place where he stood now. The forest and its peninsula had been entirely untouched by humans in its entire existence and, undoubtedly, he was the first individual to ever set foot there… the first unless his cohort had already arrived, of course.
Somewhere deep in the bowels of the wood, a nocturnal songbird called a song and took up fluttering into the air like a ghostly wisp. Its shadow cast over the Gundam as it cut across the path of the moon right above him. Captain looked up to spare it a glancing look, but the featured beast was gone before he could catch sight of it. Wind caressed the high branches of the trees overhead, rustling the twigs as they swayed in the breeze, and then it was quiet once more. Peepers called out their chorus from the underbrush like a lullaby.
Then something that sounded like an entire tree snapped.
"OW! Owowowowowowow! Damn it all to the Pitt… curse this damn foliage!"
He was not alone after all, but Captain recognized the voice and knew the intruder was his wanted company. The Gundam would not have gone to the extreme of insuring to make sure he was not followed if meeting this person was not so important, after all. Carefully, the Gundam triangulated his sensors and amplified his audio sensors' sensitivity to pinpoint the exact location of the exclamation. He deducted that the exclamation came from his immediate left, over a small embankment that sloped downward into a sweeping ravine. He stepped carefully toward the small hill, peering over it to glance warily down the side. The slope was dark and packed tightly with narrow trees, their clumps of unearthed and tangled roots peeking through the heavy leaf litter. There was also the nearby bubbling of a small creak nearby, and Captain could see its slowly moving water shimmering lightly in the moonlight allowed to penetrate the woods.
Sazabi looked somewhat smaller without all his specially modeled equipment and armor attachments, although not by much. The flicker of the stream's sparkling water had drawn his optic to the glow of the Axian's pink optical lens. As if on cue, the commander of the Magna Musai glanced up and was looking up at Captain through the tree branch that was slapped across his face, caught in his large commander fin. Despite his lack of a mobile faceplate, his terse body language and level of luminosity his optic glowed at gave away his blatant irritation. His voice was tart with annoyance. "I'm very thoroughly not enjoying myself."
Captain had to slap a hand over his mouth to keep from outright laughing at the other mech's situation. It came out through his nose as a snort instead. "Oh my."
"Yes, it's very funny. You amusement is contagious." Sazabi's optic flashed and he crossed his arms with a disdained expression. His tone was scathingly terse and dripping with sarcasm."Either you help me get out of this mess, or I completely annihilate this part of the forest with my hydra cannon."
Captain stifled his laughing. Sazabi's threat was less than humorous, mostly because the Gundam knew from the Axian's temperament that he was more than willing to follow through with it. Carefully, Captain maneuvered his way down the slope through the foliage. His smaller size allowed him easier access to maneuver, and he skillfully moved to where Sazabi had gotten stuck without slipping on the leaves. The larger Axian watched him intently through his one optic, following his every moment until they were just a foot apart. Sazabi inclined his gaze to accusingly look at the branches he was ensnared in and Captain went to work untangling his taller cohort at the gesture of the silent demand. The Gundam shook his head, easily removing the twigs that were clinging to the commander's hell purple armor. They were untangled easily when handled gently. "You know, there is a non-violent solution to most problems, commander."
The huge mech grumbled irritably. "Just hurry up before I get impatient. I would hate to wipe you out too."
Of course, Captain knew he wouldn't. He took care not to voice it, though. It was best not to audibly disagree with Sazabi under most circumstances.
The Gundam untangled the rest of the small twigs that had managed to get snagged on Sazabi's superstructure. As soon as he was free, the commander shoved his way out from the branches past Captain Gundam and scrambled up onto the slope in as graceful of a manner he could muster. Considering his significant bulk and the close quarters of the trees around him however, it was not very elegant by any means at all. Captain followed close behind ready to help his companion if needed. As soon as they were both up the hill and back into the moderate open where there was considerably more space to move freely, Sazabi promptly dusted himself off and made a petulant face. "Next time, I choose the meeting place."
"I forget that you are not as small as I am," Captain said, sheepishly rubbing the back of his head. He was getting much better at showing emotion instead of being constantly monotone, he thought. He decided subconsciously that it might have been partially under the influence of Commander Sazabi. Whilst the Axian was very emotionally inclined, Captain had been programmed at the time of his creation not to be. Simply being around the commander had opened a window for Captain to learn how to express himself as being something other than some mindless robot.
Sazabi threw his head back and laughed musically, putting a hand on his hip and arching his back ever so slightly. "You would think that with me being eight feet tall and knowing me for as long as you have, you would have caught on sooner," he said brightly. It was not the menacing tone that the commander used with his subordinates, Captain knew. By themselves and only in the presence of one another, he and Sazabi were equal. The Axian turned to face him just then, optic flashing in such a manner to blatantly give away he was grinning.
Captain could not help but to smile back in return at him. "It is rather amusing, isn't it?" he asked. The best thing about Commander Sazabi, Captain deducted, was his ability to go from seemingly irritable to cheerful. It was a phase in character that, perhaps three months ago, Captain would have thought impossible for an Axian to achieve. The robots of the Dark Axis were supposed to be hopelessly cruel robots, after all. That was what he had been taught to think when he was first created… now he knew everything that had been taught to him was horribly false.
Sazabi chuckled and straightened himself out. He towered over Captain easily even when he wasn't standing directly above the Gundam, but his size did not make the commander frightening to him. The red mech looked up toward the sky just then, body language suggesting that he was suddenly deep in thought. "I've never seen a full moon before," he said distantly.
Instantly, Captain felt bad that he did not pick a more open spot to meet. The Gundam looked up toward the sky as well to follow his friend's gaze. "You haven't?"
"No," Sazabi said. "Out of all the dimensions I've… hrm… been to," he started out carefully, "there were either no moons or I never had a chance to see to see them at a full phase."
Idly, Captain knew what Sazabi meant when he said he had "been to" dimensions. He did not hold it against the commander. He did once, but he quickly learned that it was not something Sazabi could be fairly blamed for. It was his job to conquer and pillage, and never necessarily the commander's choice. Carefully, he stepped closer toward the larger mech so that they stood side by side. They were close enough to reach out and touch one another now, and Captain could feel the heat of Sazabi's rumbling engine radiating off his hulking mass of an impressive body. Captain carefully brushed against the other mech, his touch hesitant and feather light. "We can still move to another spot to get a better view."
Commander Sazabi snorted. With equal gentleness and just as carefully, Captain felt the other mech's own hand lightly nudge the back of his palm. "I lack my flight equipment," Sazabi said. "The means I used to get here was coming to this exact location through the Zakorello Gate. Unless you want to go hiking for the next few megacycles up the mountain, it's a bit unpractical to look for a better view." He shrugged. "There's always next time."
Captain nodded. "Right."
They stood in silence for a moment longer. The moment of silence that passed between them was brief, although it felt like as though an explicitly long time passed between them. Another songbird called from within the forest and another one answered immediately back in return. Their singing collectively became a duet in the nighttime chorus, like a sort of love song that went nameless into the abandonment of the evening's starlit glow. Both Captain and Sazabi stood at the center of the performance as its sole audience. Suddenly, after that split moment of eternity ended, they both turned to embrace one another simultaneously. It was slightly awkward for them to do so because of their stark difference in size, although they managed to scrounge up what they could of the situation and make the best of it. They always did. Sazabi wrapped his arms around Captain's shoulders so that his fists rested on the small of the little Gundam's upper back while Captain rested his head against the low jutting point of Sazabi's decorated chest plate.
Sazabi immediately spoke first. "I miss you, Chronos."
"I miss you too," Captain said. Being swamped in the Axian's embrace was so overwhelmingly comforting that he involuntarily shuddered. It had been such a long few weeks that he had almost forgotten how good it felt to be held in the way Sazabi did to him. He turned his head and lightly kissed the Axian's armor.
The commander felt him quaver and instantaneously suspected something was wrong. "Are you alright?"
"Yes," Captain said. "I'm fine, Stalemate. It just feels good to be with you again. It's been too long."
"Just a click without you feels too long," Sazabi said cheekily. His voice grinned with mirth. Tantalizingly, his dark fingers probed Captain's back in a comforting gesture. Part of the Gundam could still hardly believe that those same hands had been responsible for the deaths of so many people. The commander was responsible for the killings of thousands simply by pointing in a direction and sending his men after those unfortunate enough to be in the same path, but he had also undoubtedly murdered hundreds more with those bare hands alone… except, all Captain cared about at that the moment was that they were on him and he was loving every second of it. Hazily, Captain heard the commander speaking to him again. "But for spark's sake, it's only been a few days. Pitt, this I wish you stayed with me at my side on the Magna Musai."
"I do to, sometimes," Captain replied. He nuzzled the commander. "But I could not abandon my friends. You know that, Stalemate."
"Yes, I know," the Axian said. He exhaled deeply and hugged Captain tighter. "But that doesn't mean that I have to necessarily like it. I sill hate having to continue through with this entire invasion business as is. I can't convince General Zeong to let me withdraw from this assignment… and even if he did, he would just send the next available commander in to take over where I left off for sure. Commander Nightingale would level Neotopia to the ground in a matter of cycles, the vicious femme." His voice had taken on a vindictive tone at the mention of his rival. He sighed heavily and hung his head a little, optic dimming. "I can't stall forever, Chronos."
"We'll think of something," Captain tried to reassure. "All that matters to me is that you're trying."
"As if it will be enough," the commander muttered quietly in an offhand, unconfident tone. It was a manner of speaking that was not like him, therefore highly out of character and inspiring of little confidence. "For Allspark's sake, I can barely stand not having you to myself anymore either. We need to meet more often."
"It poses a risk," Captain pointed out sadly. "If we were ever caught…"
"It's a risk I would be willing to take," Sazabi muttered. He paused for a moment, seemed to dwell on the thought, and then he nuzzled the top of the Gundam's helm in an affectionate gesture. "So long as there were no repercussions in store for you, of course. I would willingly risk myself, but not when your own safety is involved. Pitt, I would throw myself into the abyss just to keep you out of harms way."
"I the same, Stalemate," Captain replied.
He registered Sazabi's hands on him again. What he was physically doing to him was very typical of Axian behavior. The Gundam had come to learn it from his time spent on the Magna Musai where he fell head over heels in love with its commander. Whether it was genetically or socially inclined was a mystery to the GP-01 Gundam, but they all had the borderline ridiculous tendency to nuzzle. Sometimes it was discreet - a quick touching of foreheads, much like in the frequent case of Zapper and Grappler - and more often than not it was very blatantly obvious. The Zakos displayed the tendency very openly, and Captain recalled many times where he caught a quick glance of a snuggled couple. Zapper was especially prone to it when it came to the Zakos actually, although Captain knew from observation alone that it came from the maroon warrior being so protective of them. Axians loved physical contact, it seemed.
Sazabi was rubbing his hands up Captain's arms, letting his fingers dance over the armor plating like a professional human pianist's hands over a grand piano. Captain had not originally noticed it, but now their energy fields were meshing and it was causing his sensory nodes to become much more sensitive. Sazabi's towering posture over him could have easily been misconstrued as possessive as well, but Captain could read the larger mech's body language better than that. At most, the stance that Stalemate had taken was protective. Captain was more than willing to let himself fall headlong into that embrace, too. He had always been a protector his entire life and, for once, he longed to feel like the one who was being protected. He thought that Sazabi was doing a perfect job of that. A moment later, Captain felt the Axian angle his head down and waft hot air from his mouthpiece onto the top of his helm. His voice had dropped to a quiet, borderline husky alto. "Lie back."
He did as he was told. The thick tree behind him groaned with mild protest, but otherwise did not show sign of breaking from the additional weight taken onto it. He was about to voice his concern for accidentally hurting the foliage when the commander suddenly moved his knee sharply between his legs. Any words that had formed in Captain's vocalizer died away instantly. It was absolutely maddening the effect that Stalemate Sazabi had on him, and being rubbed with such talent right there was making the Gundam's sensory net sing.
A strangled mewl clawed its way out of his throat and the commander chuckled. Sazabi's voice against his audio was like having pure high grade fuel injected directly into his coolant tubes. "Do you want me to keep going?"
He always asked that. Always. Whether or not it was simply out of common courtesy or worry for his smaller size, Captain could not ever find it within himself to adequately determine. He nodded quickly, already beginning to feel his internals heat up and his fuel pump quicken. The haze that was starting to settle over his senses was making him drunk with want. "Y-yes…"
Sazabi was looking directly into his optics, searching him over carefully. Finally, the Axian dimmed his optic and touched his mask lightly against the Gundam's mouth. Warm air caressed his lips and Captain lightly caught his dentals against the commander's fang decal and nipped at it very lightly. It was as close to a kiss as they could muster, but the feel behind it was more potent than any kiss that Captain could imagine possibly achievable. For as brutal as the head commander of the entire Dark Axis invasion fleet could be, Stalemate was also maddeningly gentle. How he managed to be both vicious and tender was a skill the Gundam admired deeply. The commander gently cupped his face with his hands as he blew hotter air against Captain's mouth before drawing away and wafting it against his throat. The Axian had to bend down at what looked to be an increasingly uncomfortably angle in order to accomplish the task, but the way he was able to perform the task so affectionately blew Captain away.
The ache that was building between his legs was looping up into his souldrive and making it twinge with desperate want. Desperate need. Captain arched his back and unconsciously settled some of his weight Sazabi's thigh to stimulate his codpiece. "Stalemate…"
Sazabi exhaled deeply. His engine was humming loud enough now that Captain could clearly hear it as it gave away the commander's own rising arousal. The commander worked his way back up Captain's neck until he reached his audio receptor. "Mmph, say that again."
Suddenly, yet with all the softness Captain had come to know Sazabi for, the commander gripped him between the legs. It was not hard enough to cause pain, but more than enough to send electricity surging up his back and into every circuit ending in his body. The pleasure was so sharp that he could not help but to shamelessly buck into Sazabi's hand. "St-Stalemate!"
Sazabi's hand felt like liquid fire. His palm caressed him while his fingers lovingly scraped at the heating metal around his interface port affectionately. His other arm wrapped around the smaller mech's shoulders and his digits prodded at the crevasse between his shoulder guard and neck, pulling and rubbing the sensitive wiring there. Gods, his hands. His hands. Captain's legs gave out from underneath him and he settled his weight entirely on the tree behind him and Sazabi's leg pressed deeply flush between his own. He felt absolutely no indignity in what he was doing. All that mattered to him was that he felt loved, and there was no dishonor or indecency in that.
Captain bit his lip, a trait he had picked up from Shute. He could feel that his face was flushed hot, and somewhere in his body several cooling fans whirred to life in a mad attempt to cool his sizzling internals. "I must-aahh-ap-pologize in adv-vance Stalemate. My on-ooooh-b-board diagnostic center predicts that I w-will not last another few cycles." Unable to bit it back any longer, he tilted his head back and moaned. He didn't care how loud he was. All he knew was that he loved what Sazabi was doing to him and that he didn't ever want it to end.
Sazabi laughed low against his audio receptor. His silky voice dropped to a growling purr. "Fortunately for you Cappy, that's all the time I need."
In the far corner of Captain's mind, he registered that his souldrive abruptly activated. He cared very little for it. All that mattered to him was that he felt loved, and his entire world disappeared behind a white veil of euphoria.
Then there were the gunshots.
ii
Their first meeting had been carried out in a far less than casual manner. In fact, the circumstances surrounding it had been downright brutal.
More or less, it had been Shute's fault that Captain had been captured. Perhaps not entirely his fault, but there was no denying that the human boy had played some important factor nevertheless. The Dark Axis had warped into Neotopia once again, this time trying to blow up the city's main electrical plant. Without it, most communications that were not limited to ancient, battery powered hand held radios would be wiped out. This would make it impossible for the city's law enforcement to be useful in any sense at all and, without them, tracking any further disturbances caused by the Dark Axis would be immensely difficult. By the time he, Shute, Zero, Bakunetsumaru, and Guneagle had found the Zako soldiers and their disgruntled trio of squadron leaders, the entire plant turned into a battlefield. Guneagle was able to handle the hoard of thirty or forty so Zakos with ease while Bakunetsumaru engaged Zapper Zaku and Zero pit himself against Destroyer Dom. The unusual pairings never crossed Captain as strange in the slightest, even when Grappler Gouf appeared more eager to fight him than usual. There was also the fact that Grappler did not have his grappling arm with him…
That was strange for several nagging reasons. Usually when Grappler wanted to fight close range, he always had his grappling claw. Not only that, but this time he did not have his sword or shield with him either. Strict hand to hand combat was not the cobalt squadron leader's preferred style. Captain realized later that he was a fool to have not taken that observation more seriously. He also later realized that his ignorance was a blessing in disguise.
While strict hand to hand combat was not the cobalt squadron leader's preferred style however, Grappler Gouf was light on his feet and a very easy dodge. Not having the access attachments to hinder his movements, it raised his evasiveness tenfold. When the cobalt mech taunted him into a fight, Captain lunged for him with his beamsaber drawn and swung at him only to miss. Like a dancer, Grappler twirled well out of the way and landed on his feet with a graceful spin. The cobalt Axian's mouthpiece was twisted in a gleeful grin that was as taunting as it was also handsomely devilish. "You'll have to do better than that, Gundam!"
Somewhere in the background of the chaos around them, Shute was cheering for him. "C'mon Captain! Show him what a real robot can do!"
Having the constant morale boost from his best friend was always a great help during battles. The human boy always believed in him, and it was for that reason that Captain never gave up. It was stubborn habit at best, although affective in all uses and purposes nevertheless. Captain lunged for Grappler again, swinging at him with his beamsaber and firing a flurry of bullets at him from his helmet turrets. Grappler dodged the swipe of the Gundam's sword with ease once again, but he was nicked in the shoulder by several of the grazing bullets. He twirled and skidded backward on the pavement, making the metal of his feet screech on the cement as he ground to a stop. He looked ready to say something obscene as he sneered and took a defensive posture. He was beat to the chase. Whatever it was that the squadron leader was going to say, he was cut off.
"Grappler!" Zapper Zaku's voice was hoarse from shouting. "Watch your back, you titanium twit!"
Captain was able to spare a momentary sideways glance at the other mech, as did Grappler. Zapper had his heathawk battle axe drawn, and both he and Bakunetsumaru were deadlocked with only their weapons separating them as they pressed against one another. The Blazing Samurai of Ark had his katana blades pushed against the heathawk as if to force the Axian back while Zapper was trying to shove back in retaliation. Sparks spouted from between the metal of the screeching blades with fiery urgency, but Captain knew it would only be a matter of time before one of them gave up the onslaught. Judging by endurance levels, Captain's statistics center told him that it would be Zapper. The Axian was much older than and not nearly as fit as Bakunetsumaru, and therefore not inclined to last much longer without giving into exhaustion. Despite having more battle experience with his superior age, Zapper Zaku's body was not up to par in comparison to the Arkian Gundam he was fighting. Bakunetsumaru was showing no signs of surrender whilst Zapper had a fine line of condensed sweat lining his forehead from tiring out. Whether or not that was from the combined stress of fighting or the heat of the raging fire not far away from them, Captain could only speculate. Right at that very moment however, the maroon warrior was looking out over toward his fellow squadron leader in what appeared to be aggravation.
Grappler Gouf snarled accusingly at Zapper Zaku. His mouthpiece twisted into a sneer of annoyance at having his fight interrupted. "Mind your own damn business, rust heap!"
Captain used it as a chance to strike, he charged, sidestepped to flank Grappler, and struck out with his foot to hopefully knock the other mech down. Grappler's reflexes saved him. The cobalt mech suddenly - and with an unbelievable amount of poise - jerked his whole body forward and pulled off a stunning summersault. He landed on his feet and spun sharply to strike out with his closed fist. He barely swiped Captain unprepared in the side of his head, although his judgment of the distance between was off so that the blow was not as devastating as the Axian had originally intended. Recovering, Captain Gundam swung his sword in an attempt to retaliate. The cobalt Axian pulled away expertly. Captain leapt backward to gain distance in case Grappler attacked again, but the Axian was only glaring at him in search of another opening. Back to square one.
Shute suddenly screamed.
That was why everything had been Shute's fault from the very beginning, and it sealed Captain's fate forever. The human boy, as the Gundam later learned, had accidentally deactivated the magnetic properties of his roller skates when his thumb slipped on the remote control and it caused Shute to slip off the small pipe he had been standing on. It was a two foot drop to the pavement - the brunette landed with a thud on his bottom - and was thankfully unhurt. It was astonishing and frightening, Captain later recalled, that such a simple thing could change so much and seal the fates of so many individuals. A squadron leader would be murdered by his friend, another squadron leader would die of a broken heart, a commander would slip away in the arms of a lover, and he - Captain Gundam of the Super Dimensional Guard - would burn.
In that split moment of distraction where Captain turned his head to look and assure that Shute was unharmed, something sharp sank into the back of his neck. The needle itself could not have been more than an inch in length, but the icy coldness pierced him so sharply startled him more than the feel of the needle itself. Alarmed, Captain whirled around and delivered an uppercut to Grappler below his mouthpiece in the jaw. The cobalt mech staggered backward, disoriented and momentarily dazed from the harsh blow. In his left hand was a black armored canister with a single transparent, vertical window bar running up its black armored flank. Captain could already see a bright pink liquid sloshing within, but it was not entirely full and a quarter of it was drained. Artificial adrenaline kicking in, Captain lurched forward, turned on his heel, kicked Gouf in the gut, and grabbed the canister out of the mech's flaccid hand. Grappler snapped out of his daze and saw that Captain had done upon regaining his footing. With a growl, he lunged forward at the Gundam.
Captain had not meant to stick the canister into Grappler's chest, but he accidentally did. Upon trying to block the squadron leader's attack, the needle was exposed and Grappler unintentionally stabbed himself on it. The canister made a sharp whoosh sound when the needle pierced and sunk deep into Grappler's plating, and the cobalt squadron leader yelped like he had been violently kicked. With a surprising bout of strength, Grappler shoved Captain away and staggered backward to put distance between them again. Captain's lost his grip on the canister and his online equalizers frantically tried to maintain balance, but Captain found it both surprisingly increasingly harder to keep his head from spinning. He had not been shoved that hard, yet the Gundam's senses were swimming in mild disorientation.
Grappler staged backward and snarled furiously. It positioned himself to attack again, but suddenly froze in place and seemed to become reminiscent of a statue with his posture. Very slowly, he looked down in almost slow motion and caught sight of the canister still sticking out of his chest plate. Shakily, he reached an oddly unsteady hand up to pluck the device off of him. Captain registered, if not a bit slowly, that the canister itself was now entirely empty. Grappler must have noticed it too, because a look of sudden and totally unrestrained horror crossed his face. Arm shaking, the canister fell out of his limp grasp and dropped to the concrete where the transparent glass bar shattered and scattered its fragments on the pavement where they twinkled in the firelight. Grappler wobbled, balance lost, while he continued to look at his empty hand with a looming sense of terror. Finally, his optic rolled back and he fell heavily to his knees. He stayed there, suspended on the spot for a split moment frozen in time before finally falling forward and toppling over onto his chest with a clamor. For what felt like a long time, he did not move. Captain's onboard energy signature register slowly responded that the down squadron leader was unconscious.
"Grappler! Grappler! Oh Pitt, GOUF!"
In an almost unreal dreamlike quality, Zapper Zaku came bounding over and skidded to a grinding stop on his knees beside of Grappler. How the maroon squadron leader had managed to run over so quickly, Captain had no idea. He must have managed to somehow beat Baku regardless of the odds that had been stacked against him. Despite the numbers against his favor, Captain remembered that his estimated statistics had been proven wrong before. The Gundam found that he suddenly did not have the capacity to attack him… or even move for that matter. His limbs were going numb and his head felt like it was swimming. He felt wrong, like he had been zapped with a bolt of a particularly powerful electric current. With his hazing mind struggling to keep up with understanding what was happening, he watched as Zapper looked over his comrade with his hands suspended over his body as if he was unsure what to do.
That was when Grappler started shaking. At first Captain thought it was his hazing vision playing tricks on him, but then he saw Zapper's optic flare and his body tense in a horrified manner. It finally dawned on Captain after slowly looking to search for the word in his almost unresponsive datafiles that Grappler was having a seizure. A large one, at that. The mech was twitching and trembling badly enough that his armor was rattling against the pavement beneath him. It was so gratingly loud that it was beginning to make Captain's head pound from the migraine that was beginning to develop there, although he suspected that it might have been from his dulling perception as well.
Zapper grabbed his fallen comrade's shoulders to restrain him, but recoiled and sharply drew his hands away of him like he had been burned. He frantically looked around as if trying to figure out what to do, suddenly seeing and locking his sights on Captain as he continued to stand there. The Gundam figured that he should at least respond to acknowledge the other mech, but found that his body was ignoring his commands. Zapper looked away at the realization that he was not going to more… and then finally noticed the canister as it lay on the ground just a few scant feet away. The maroon warrior reached over, snatched it up, and looked at it intensely. Abruptly, he snapped his head to look over his shoulder and his voice shook in an uncharacteristic manner when he next shouted. "DOM! Destroyer, get the Komusai NOW!"
The next thing Captain knew, he was struck in the back of the head. It did not feel particularly hard but, then again, Captain barely felt the impact his deadweight hitting the concrete either. His limbs tingled with an uncomfortably hot numbness and, blearily, he realized he was running a fever. He could not conduct a system diagnostic to be sure because most of his onboard calculation functions had gone offline. The last thing he heard before completely loosing consciousness was Shute's horrified scream.
iii
It felt like the darkness only lingered for a second. It may have been longer, though. He was not coherent enough to make an exact calculation, but he could still estimate despite his blurred comprehension.
The commotion bustling around him was what eventually stirred him out of unconsciousness, although he did not snap awake like he knew he should have. He felt hot and feverish, and there was the sensation of a heavy blanket of haze that was smothering him. Judging by the closed off unfamiliar space and the slightly uneven wobble of the entire room, he deducted very slowly that he was inside a small airspace carrier. The Komusai for sure, he reckoned. He could feel a light amount of perspiration clinging to his forehead from the heat his body was experiencing. Exactly what Grappler had spiked him with, he was unsure. It seemed to be preventing his cooling fans from adequately working for one. However, he was convinced even in his borderline delirium that it was taking a much more serious toll on Grappler Gouf than it was on him.
The cobalt squadron leader in question was sprawled out on the floor on his back, and Zakos were swarming around the fallen Axian frantically. The sense of panic radiating off their small hides, Captain was sure, was thick enough to be hacked through with a small machete. Several soldiers were angling the industrial fans scattered all throughout the small space toward the down mech while several others were grabbing whatever medical supplies they could from underneath seats and in overhead compartments. Out of the corner of his vision, he saw the blurred silhouette of a Zako trying to drag an oxygen tank. It was comically done of course, seeing how the little Zako was half the size of the canister. At the center of it all were two Zakos, one holding Grappler's head upright and the other poised over his chest. Grappler was no longer having a massive seizure as he had last seen him, but he was trembling harshly and his chest was heaving with effort.
The Zako who was trying to hold Grappler's head kept having to switch hands. "Slag, he's gonna burn a hole right through the damn floor!"
The Zako kneeling above the squadron leader put a device up to the side of his head and it beeped with shrieking menace. Her demeanor made Captain fuzzily deduct that she was the resident medic. "Just a click longer, Red. As soon as I can get an accurate reading… no, that's not possible. Let me try again… holy Pitt, four hundred degrees and still rising!"
Someone else in the ship called from somewhere outside Captain's peripheral vision. "I put the Komusai on autopilot, Cyan. Frag, what the frell happened?"
"I wish we could tell you, Joyride," the medic said.
At that moment, a flurry of red, purple, and green caught his optic. It took Captain a moment to realize it was Zapper, Destroyer, and a few Zakos. Captain could not count how many. He could not remember what came after the letter three. No wait, three was not a letter. What was it again? A number? His head spun too much for him to recall. He watched Zapper kneel and drape several blankets over Grappler. They made a prominent splashing sound against the down squadron leader's body. Not a second later, there was a hissing howl and heavy steam was rising off the wet towels.
Destroyer cursed crudely in exasperation. "Dah, not working! Too hot!"
"Dammit, this is a nightmare," Zapper moaned. He snapped his head to look over his shoulder. "Storm, did you get an ID on that canister!"
"Not yet," someone called out of Captain's line of hazing vision. "The console datafiles are very vague. Call it a hunch though, I think it's a neurotoxin. Some kind of organic variant anyways. The computer analysis keeps telling me that there are hint traces of cyanide and solanum in the compound."
The Zako medic looked up and said something loudly to probably try conveying something of importance to the other femmebot, but it was drowned in the sea of noise that was making Captain's head start to throb. At that very moment, the entire ship was jarred and Captain felt an electrical tingle in his circuits that momentarily made him dizzier than he already was. Someone at the front of the vessel out of Captain's range of vision shouted over the pandemonium. "We're out of the Zakorello tunnel! Hailing the Magna Musai, now!"
"Tell them we need a damn stretcher!" Zapper Zaku's own shout trembled on the verge of hysteria. His voice was on the verge of cracking with strain.
"I got an ID on the canister," Storm screeched. "It's cataloged in the database. It is a neurotoxin, specifically some kind of venom. It's a bacteria that behaves like a virus by attacking the processor and circuit nervous system. There's a huge file on it… no, wait, this can't be right. The article mentions something about Clarkes…?"
The Zako medic, Cyan, was speaking rapidly. "Clarke venom? Where the Pitt did Grappler get his hands on fragging Clarke venom?"
She went unanswered. Through the haze of voices and flashing movement of bodies, Captain watched as the entire room blurred into obscurity. He wondered whether or not Shute was alright, and whether or not he was upset about him being captured. Then it occurred to him dully that sparing that one split glance at Shute when he fell might have been his last.
For the second time that day, he slipped into unconsciousness.
iv
When he woke up again, he was no longer in the Komusai on the cot. He was sprawled out on a… bed?
At first, he could not believe it. Would not believe it. Not only that, but it took a ridiculously long space of time for his sensors to even register the word "bed" in its stunned state. Whatever Grappler had given him, it had slowed his processing down to just barely above five percent. The bed itself was oddly soft, plush and having the soft consistency of down. The room around him was very dark with absolutely no source of light, and at first he thought that maybe his optical input had been deactivated. The blurred and flickering readings in the corner of his vision said otherwise. Regardless, he did not feel afraid. In fact, he was not even sure if he was even capable of feeling fearful at the moment. He could barely think, barely focus… he was still hot and feverish, and all he wanted to do was go back to sleep. The urge was pressing down heavily on him with suffocating forcefulness, nearly dragging him back into unconsciousness.
Zapper Zaku's voice was the first one he registered, and its crude volume kept him from slipping away. His tone was still shrill with laced panic as it had been on the Komusai. "…what in the Pitt were you thinking, commander! Grappler isn't a trained toxicologist, he's a damn medic. For Allspark's sake, Dom would have been safer handling that slaggin' thing."
That was when a second voice chimed in. How odd, Captain later realized, that he would one day be lost to that voice forever.
He did not recognize to whom it belonged to. Unlike Zapper's rough baritone that rumbled from age, it was a smooth alto that made the speaker sound even younger than Grappler. Almost immediately, the Gundam found himself drawn into that voice for its silkiness alone. It was very strong in both volume and tone, but also firm and unwavering. The speaker wielding it was well spoken and articulated his words with careful poise. "You seem to be forgetting, Zapper Zaku, that Grappler Gouf also became an assassin after he relinquished his medical position and enrolled at the officer academy. With all due consideration, he was more than capable of taking on this mission."
"And now he's in the emergency room puking up his own liquids and everything in his fuel tank!" There was a sharp slam of metal against metal, and Zapper's voice changed from bitingly sarcastic to take on a furious tone. "If he keeps having seizures like he has been, he'll be dead in the next megacycle. Please commander, we need to send out for an antivenin right the slag now. I'll get on my knees and beg if I have to."
So the new speaker was the commander. Captain involuntarily shivered. This was the mech pulling the strings behind the Dark Axis invasion of Neotopia.
"Absolutely out of the question," the commander snapped back immediately. The statement had a certain bite to it that was both defensive and offensive at the same time. "That Clarke venom canister was not rented under knowledge of Professor Gerbera. He would have never loaned it to me under any circumstances other than for research."
Zapper Zaku's voice hitched sharply. "You stole it!"
"To be politically correct, Char stole it," the commander replied with polite tartness.
"And it never occurred to you to have Zako Red also take an antivenin too?"
"Look," the commander started out slowly in a menacing voice. "This is not my fault. I'm not the one who messed up and had eighty kilos of poison injected into his superstructure," he said smartly. "If anything, Lord Grappler Gouf was not dealing with the Gundam and the canister carefully enough."
Zapper Zaku's voice rose harshly, both in pitch and volume. It was not a shout, but there was an intensity held within it that was unmistakably recognizable. "Grappler. Is. Dying."
At first, the commander said nothing. There was a long pause that laced the silence uncomfortably. Finally he spoke up again, but his voice was unambiguously sullen. "I'm truly sorry for what's happened, Zapper. There's nothing I can do. If Grappler Gouf is strong enough to survive, he will. His fate is in his own hands now." There was the sound of weight settling back down onto an object. Captain may have been drugged, but he recognized hazily that it was probably a chair. Perhaps the commander had stood up to shout at his subordinate. "Now go. If there's anything that Grappler needs more than medical attention, it's you… oh please, don't give me that look. You and I both know damn well what exactly goes on behind closed doors when it's just the two of you. You may have fooled the Zakos and Destroyer Dom, but you haven't fooled me. Now get out of my sights. You're dismissed."
There was an uncomfortable pause. Finally, Zapper's voice rose up again. It was much softer than previously. "Yes sir," he rumbled solemnly. There was the sound of footfalls and the hissing of an automatic door opening and closing. Light momentarily touched the Gundam's vision, but it was only a sliver that faded not a moment later. Silence resumed.
For a long time, Captain heard nothing more. Part of him dully wondered whether or not he had imagined the conversation he just heard. Part of him had to wonder whether or not he was imagining everything. Had he really been captured? What was going to happen to him now if he had been? Everything seemed far too real to be an illusion. At the moment, he presumed his own future to be as dim and unfavorable as Grappler Gouf's supposedly was. He was on his own. No one was going to help him. He managed to briefly recall the one occasion where he had been captured by the Dark Axis before, but that had been when Zero was with him and Shute came to his rescue. There would be no rescue this time, nor would there be a daring escape with laughs to spare afterward. End of the line. Game over. He was about to slip away for a third time when his struggling sensors barely registered an energy signature directly looming over him. He could not be entirely sure at first whether or not it was a malfunction from his dulling senses, but then something touched his shoulder and he strained his swimming head to look up.
Outlined in the darkness was a huge figure. It looked down at him with a single pink optic, towering above him almost menacingly. Almost, because the hand that was touching him was not harshly doing so.
"Good to see that you're doing better, Captain Gundam. Get some sleep," the figure said. A hint of cruel mirth tugged at his voice. "It's going to be a long day tomorrow."
Captain did not remember much after that. He fell asleep quickly, letting the darkness swallow him into blissful nothingness. Despite not having his wits about him, he was at least coherent enough to suddenly recall at least one thing when he fell offline. Perhaps he heard the name during the conversation he heard with Zapper Zaku and the commander, perhaps he had heard it somewhere else of less importance. Maybe it was only his imagination trying to attach a name to the voice in his delirium. It mattered little. The name stayed on his mental tongue as sharp and potent as the sedative that was flowing through his coolant veins.
Commander Sazabi.