Unseen Virtue
by étienneofthewestwind
This is a compilation of a few AU ideas. I've changed the histories and actions of several characters, which will be revealed in time. I have this story planned out and will complete it. However, I work full time nights and have other real life obligations that impact my writing time.
In determining the outline for this story, I used the Seed anime, Seed & Seed Destiny manga, and information from Bandai's site, GundamOfficial. Based on the stated ages of Kira and Nicol at various points in the anime, I decided that Bandai's age listings were valid for March 1, 71 CE. So at the start of this story, Flay and Dearka are sixteen and eighteen instead of fifteen and seventeen.
Seed hints strongly that English is the main language used to communicate globally, but its likely placement on the A.D. calendar is not enough time for all other languages to die out. Since Orb/Aube is a nonexistent cluster of islands, it gets its own fictional language, which has a strong Japanese influence. In other words, I get to play around with different spellings, random and made up words.
DISCLAIMER: I don't own--As if my researching the series' rich history and character bios didn't clue everyone in.
"ATHRUN!" Nicol shouted, racing his Blitz to where the Earth Alliance's Strike stood. The Strike had its sword raised over the fallen Aegis. The red mobile suit turned pale gray as the robotic fighter lost Phase Shift, its armor against physical attacks. The Strike still had color, but Nicol had managed to score its Phase Shift with a beam saber earlier--just before the Strike cut off the Blitz's right arm.
"ATHRUN! STAY BACK!" Nicol dropped the invisibility of his Mirage Colloid to activate Phase Shift. With the Gleipnir destroyed, and the Trikeros arm not currently attached to his fighter, he had just one shot at this. I must hit that tear. Otherwise, I'm dead.
"NICOL! DON'T!" Athrun's voice roared through Nicol's cockpit as Nicol dashed forward, a Lancer Dart held tightly in the mobile suit's left hand. If nothing else, Athrun'll esc--
Suddenly, the Aegis stood between the Blitz and the Strike. Unable to stop his advance in time, Nicol's weapon speared the Aegis' left shoulder. The Strike stepped back, leaving its sword lodged in the right side of the Aegis, just below the cockpit.
Nicol stared in horror. Athrun, I...
The Strike's hand flew at the Aegis' chest as Nicol's dart detonated. The force blew the Aegis' arm off, and tipped the suit forward into the Strike's arms. The loud sound of ripped metal spurred Nicol into action. He rushed forward as the Strike drew back. The Aegis' self-destruct charges exploded, throwing the Blitz backwards several yards. The wall of flames blocked the Strike from view.
"ATHRUN!" Nicol yelled, tears streaming down his cheeks. His main battery drained, Blitz's Phase Shift dropped as an alarm sounded in Nicol's cockpit. He forced the Blitz to its feet. Through his radio, he heard Yzak and Dearka demand answers. They got them when the Duel and Buster landed behind the Blitz.
"Athrun..." Dearka breathed. "No way..."
Yzak cursed loudly. "YOU'RE DEAD, STRIKE! YOU HEAR ME? DEAD!" Yzak attempted to rush through the fire, but the Duel got thrown back by a secondary explosion.
"We need to resupply first," Dearka said calmly. "YZAK!" he called more sharply as the Duel tried to race around the flames.
The wall of flames subsided. Nicol watched as the Strike boarded the legged ship, back turned to its three enemies.
The white mobile suit came to a halt in the hanger, its giant hands held in front of it. The technical crew watched stunned as the Strike knelt to the floor. In its hands lay an unconscious youth wearing a red and white ZAFT flight suit. "Help him!" a voice cried out from the Strike.
"STUPID! MORON! FUCKWIT! HOW DARE YOU DIE?" A metallic bang punctuated each of the white-haired youth's words as he savagely kicked and punched the door to Athrun's locker. "SHIT! SHIT! SHIT! SHIT! IDIOT!"
The locker rooms' other two occupants had changed quietly as the tantrum played itself out. But as Yzak paused to catch his breath, Nicol spoke. "I'm sorry, Yzak."
The white haired teen spun around. He had cold blue eyes and a nasty scar that ran diagonally from his forehead, under his right eye, and down his cheek. "What?"
The green-haired boy swallowed hard as tears welled in his brown eyes. "I'm sorry. Everything happened so fast, and I thought I warned him, but--"
Yzak grabbed the front of the shorter boy's red uniform and shoved him up against the lockers. "Don't tell me you're blaming yourself!" he hissed. The other boy looked down without a word. "IT'S THAT GODDAMNED STRIKE! HOW DARE YOU WASTE THE ENERGY WE NEED TO AVENGE ATHRUN!?" Yzak drew back his right arm, balling his hand into a fist.
"YZAK!" Dearka quickly seized Yzak's wrist before he could throw the punch. "He won't be any help if you pound him senseless," the tall blonde chided.
"I KNOW THAT!" Yzak yelled, pulling his wrist free. He leaned forward, so his face was only an inch away from Nicol's. "THE STRIKE KILLED MIGUEL, TOO! AND COMMANDER WALTFELD! SO IF YOU WANT TO BLAME SOMEONE, BLAME HIM! AND TAKE HIM OUT! NO MATTER WHAT!"
Yzak released Nicol. He crossed his arms over chest and slumped back against his locker. Everyone was silent as he forced himself to take several deep breaths. "Unless we hear otherwise from Commander Le Creuset," Yzak said, "I'm in charge now. The ship's captain has orders to search for the legged ship. The minute it shows, we attack. We must not allow it to escape us again. If we don't sink the legged ship within the next few days, it'll be in Earth Forces' airspace and out of reach.
"Rest up. We'll need to be at the top of our game." Yzak gave Athrun's locker one last kick before he stalked out of the room.
"...The only other salvageable part of the Aegis was it's left arm," the technician reported as they walked along the catwalk over the Costeou's maintenance bay. Below them, several people worked over two gray arms, the Blitz's distinguished by its Trikeros shield.
In front of Dearka, Yzak nodded. "And the flight recorder? Smith said you found something. How do we get the Strike?"
"The flaw was in the Aegis," the ZAFT regular replied as he lead the three pilots into a small room. "See for yourself." He sat and typed at the computer station. The monitors began displaying the same data they would in a cockpit.
The camera feed showed the Strike as it jumped down, its sword raised overhead as the Aegis aimed a beam rifle. The image burst into a scramble of squares. When the signal cleared, the Strike stood before the Aegis, the latter's beam weapon sliced in half. "Retreat, already!" a voice spilled from the recording. "You guys... lost!"
"How dare you!?" Athrun responded. He activated a beam saber and the image went blank.
"Was that the Strike pilot?" Dearka asked.
"He has a lot of nerve," Yzak growled.
"Given the Aegis' power level, it was sound advice," the technician muttered dryly as he tapped the lower left monitor, "just designed to goad your leader into recklessness. Sometimes an enemy's best weapon can be your own temper."
"Stop it!" the strange voice crackled from the black screen. "...Don't wan... fight you anymore!"
"...Too late… that!" Athrun sounded even angrier than before. "Shoot... said bef... destroy... next time."
The video came back in time for Dearka to see the Strike grab the Aegis and punch the red mobile suit's face. The Aegis fell on its back. The Strike raised its sword. The Aegis' power dropped to the reserve battery, shutting down its Phase Shift.
"...Hrun!" The Aegis' radio display indicated two incoming transmissions. The Aegis automatically linked both channels. "Athrun! Stay back!"
The Aegis stood faster than Dearka had thought possible. "NIC-" The sound cut completely out.
But the recording clearly showed the Strike duck and turn as the Blitz charged. The Aegis moved as the Strike swung its energy sword. The recording ended when the Aegis stopped between the two suits.
"'Nicol, don't'." Dearka turned to the green haired pilot. Nicol's brown eyes stared unfocused at the screen. "With the static, I wasn't sure I heard right. Then he was between us, so I assumed he hadn't heard me at all..." The fifteen year-old began breathing faster. "But I'd given myself away. I was supposed to save him, not kill him."
Yzak slapped Nicol across the face. "The Aegis gave your presence away. I don't know why it automatically treated the Strike's transmission as friendly, but from where you emerged, you'd have first seen that blade when it bisected your cockpit--and you. Athrun died because he failed to effectively counter the Strike.
"I'll grant it was a stupid, pointless death," Yzak continued. Nicol clenched his fists and glared at Yzak. "But--"
"Saving my life was stupid and pointless?" Nicol asked quietly, his voice hard and sharp as diamonds. The small pilot stood perfectly still, eyes locked with Yzak's.
Dearka had not thought the gentle pianist could get so angry.
Nicol's rage surprised Yzak too. Their default commander took a step backwards before he snarled at Nicol: "The reason behind it was stupid and pointless! Those suits are supposed to keep us alive, not betray us!"
"Yeah, and too bad it wasn't me! Right?" Nicol shot back.
"WHAT!?"
"I know what you think of me," the youngest teen spat. "Soft. Weak. Coward. Why? 'Cause I look at things differently? I've fought as many battles as you, and still--You're not worth trying to prove myself to! Call me when it's time to sortie!" Nicol turned to leave the room.
"Hey!" Dearka exclaimed. He rushed forward and seized Nicol's arm as he reached the door. "Yzak knows you're no coward. He's just--"
Nicol pulled his arm free and drilled his eyes into Dearka's. "He's called me a coward to my face! And you agreed! At least have the guts to stand by it!" He stormed from the room.
Finally, Yzak thought when word came that the carrier had spotted a ship. In the two days since Athrun's demise, Nicol had been quiet and polite the few times he could not avoid Yzak or Dearka. But Yzak had known that the green-haired pilot's anger remained. It was an invisible cloud that followed the boy everywhere.
At least Nicol directed most of his energy at the monitors as the sonar operator confirmed contact with the legged ship.
"Finally!" Dearka exclaimed. "Today's the day we avenge Athrun! And your scar, too, Yzak."
Yzak ignored the blonde's statement as he gave the order to launch. As he turned to go to his mobile suit, he heard Nicol mutter: "I'll get him, Athrun. I promise."
They rose to attack with the sun. The Costeou surfaced and launched their suits as the Naturals doubtlessly detected their presence. The Duel, the Blitz and the Buster shot into the air in rapid succession. Then Guuls for each launched into the air. The suits landed on their platforms and raced toward the legged ship.
"Let's do it!" Dearka exclaimed as he fired a sniper beam.
The enemy ship evaded. The Strike walked onto the rear deck. One of their fighter planes launched. The ZAFT fighters traded fire with the legged ship. The Strike fired several shots of its beam weapon at the Duel's Guul.
Yzak dodged. Dearka fired both his beam weapon and gun launcher simultaneously. Nicol fired several shots from his beam weapon.
The Strike blocked Nicol's shots with its shield. As it lifted up off the deck, Yzak saw his chance. "Gotcha!" he exclaimed as he fired energy blasts from the assault shroud on the Duel's shoulders.
The Strike dodged and returned fire.
Dearka engaged the plane in a one-on-one dogfight. Nicol hit a couple of the ship's Igelstellungs. The ship shuttered visibly.
The next second, Nicol had to dodge Gottfried blasts. Yzak dove towards the Strike, pulling out a beam saber. "I'll never forgive you!" he cried.
The Strike met him with a beam saber of its own. "BASTARD!" Yzak snarled. Their initial charges failed to do damage to either suit. Then Yzak took note of his position relative to the legged ship, and decided to try something even he would call crazy. He drew back the Duel's hand and threw the still activated beam saber at one of the ship's nacelles. The weapon sailed down beam first, but cut off from the Duel's battery, the beam visibly faded just before it hit.
Idiot! Yzak cursed himself. You should have known there would not be that much residual ener--
An explosion ripped open the nacelle in question.
Yzak grinned. Am I a genius, or what?
The next thing Yzak knew, a shot from the Strike grazed the Duel's left leg. He lost balance and toppled off his Guul. The last thing he saw before hitting the ocean was the Blitz engaging the Strike.
He wanted to stay asleep. But the bed kept shaking. Whoever it is, I'll hit 'em, he thought grumpily. Or put honey in their hair and set a sweet-toothed cat on 'em. 'Less it's Tolle, then I'll just yell 'Thief!' the next time we--
The bed rocked hard, this time accompanied by the sound of an explosion. "Wha..." he groaned blearily as the sound registered. Is there an eruption?
"Torii!" a sharp cry filled the air. A light weight settled on his chest. "Torii?"
With another groan, he opened his eyes. He instantly regretted it. Bright light harshly invaded his vision. He saw two blurry mechanical birds peering at him. The green and yellow heads were cocked sideways. The two bird's merged into one, before splitting back up. With a groan, he closed his eyes.
"Torii?" He heard a flap of wings, then the bird's feet landed on his chin. He felt a light tugging on his bangs. He opened his eyes again to find the robot preening his navy blue hair.
At least he only saw one this time.
"Torii!" the bird called when it saw his open eyes.
With a groan, he lifted an arm to knock the bird off. He could not move it past halfway.
"Awake are you?" a voice came from the right. Turning, he saw a man with short gray hair. He wore a white lab coat. The bird hopped onto the pillow. "Hello, Athrun, I'm Dr. Zeks. How are you feeling?" the man asked and sat by the bed. He pulled out a penlight.
Athrun? he wondered, the name echoing through the fog in his head. Athrun... Asuran.
"My... name?" he asked slowly, stumbling over the English words. "How... do you...?"
"Kira told us," the man replied. He leaned over Asuran and shined the light into his eyes. "What's the last thing you remember?"
Asuran closed his eyes and turned away from the flashlight. What was the last thing he remembered? All his memories of school and the orphanage swirled around in a disjointed sequence. He could not say which one was most recent. Then the doctor's earlier words registered. "Ni-chan?" He sat up to look around. After a wave of dizziness, he saw a plain white wall to his left. On his right, curtains were pulled to the far ends of the bed. The doctor sat next to them. The room beyond the doctor stood empty. "Where?"
The room shook again as an explosion sounded. "Fighting," the brown-eyed doctor answered grimly. "Your companions are trying one last time to sink us before we reach Alaskan airspace." The doctor grabbed Asuran's chin and held his head steady as he pointed the light at him. "I need check to how your pupils react to the light. It won't take long."
"Alaskan?" Asuran asked, the word coming out more as 'Raskan'. He frowned as the doctor turned the flashlight back on. Not only did he have trouble pronouncing the words, his voice sounded strange. Deeper. "Fight? Sink?" That all sounds like it should mean something.
A loud explosion sounded. The mechanical bird launched into the air as the room suddenly sloped towards Asuran's feet. A voice spilled through an intercom: "All hands, brace for impact!" Asuran and the doctor were thrown towards the right as the entire room shuddered. The doctor caught the bedpost with his left hand and threw his right arm out to catch Asuran. As Asuran's chest slammed into the doctor's hand, something jerked his left wrist painfully back.
Asuran fell back on the bed as the doctor stood. The blue haired boy looked at his wrist. A black plastic cuff encircled it, and a strong plastic rope connected the cuff to the side of the bed. Asuran quickly glanced at his right arm, and found a similar restraint.
With the discovery, Asuran's breath sped up. "Why am I tied?" he demanded.
"It's SOP for enemy combatants," the doctor replied.
"Enemy?" Asuran repeated, growing cold with terror. He stared into the room, eyes unfocused as the word triggered a rush of memory:
A huge man with red hair and scary eyes glared as blood flowed from his muscular arm... A silver van racing out of sight while arms grabbed him from behind... Blond curls and dull eyes... Rusty brown words:
Those who shelter mankind's enemy shall not be tolerated.
A wave of anger crashed into Asuran, burning away the fear. "WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO TO SAKURA!?" he roared. He rolled onto his side and kicked at the gray haired man. "KAIJOU!" He shrieked, switching languages. Not satisfied with merely calling him a monster, he hurled out a few obscenities as he pulled against his bonds. Pain seared his wrists.
"Take it easy!" Zeks commanded, as he seized Asuran's shoulders and attempted to push him back onto the bed. Asuran twisted sideways, trying to get his feet within range of the doctor. The man merely moved further towards the head of the bed. The doctor maintained his grip.
"WE COULDN'T STAND EACH OTHER, FUCKWIT!" Asuran kept struggling as tears began to flow from his eyes. He could feel the cuff digging into his left wrist. "She's not... SHE HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH ME!" Actually, their teacher had just forced him and the pest to become partners in cooking class, but that was no reason to target her. And nothing that the bigot needed to know, anyway.
Asuran quit pushing against the doctor's hands and threw his back against the mattress. Zeks, not expecting the abrupt stop to the blue haired boy's movements, toppled onto the bed next to Asuran. As his captive threw his head towards Zeks' right arm, the doctor released Asuran's left shoulder and threw his arm away from the approaching teeth.
Zeks may have avoided the bite, but the knee to the groin connected firmly. The doctor cried out and rolled away from Asuran. As the doctor hobbled over to Asuran's feet, two men in white uniforms burst into the room. They held rifles. Zeks caught Asuran's feet. Alarmed, Asuran glared at the doctor and tried to pull his feet free.
"ASURAN!" the doctor roared. The blue haired boy froze as he registered the slight shift in the doctor's pronunciation of his name. "You're sixteen," the doctor spoke in perfect Gato as he hoisted the captive back onto the bed. "You're saf--NO!" the doctor rapidly switched back to English. "DON'T HIT HIM, MORON!"
Asuran turned back to the uniformed men just in time to see the advancing rifle butt. The base slammed into his forehead. Asuran's head spun and white stars filled his vision as he fell limply onto the bed. He saw the rifle butt descend again...
And promptly move away as the doctor snatched the rifle. "Attack any of my patients again," the doctor said in a low, dangerous voice. "And I'll shove this up your arse!" He seized the barrel of the second guy's rifle.
"Sir, I was just trying to knock the prisoner out," a man's voice protested.
"That's the last thing someone with a head injury needs!" Zeks retorted.
Asuran blinked up at the ceiling. It grew blurrier. "Torii?" Asuran turned to the fuzzy bird as the image split up.
"Sir, the prisoner was extremely hostile," the second of the two men said. "Surely you can treat him better now that he's calm."
"A blow to the head never calmed anyone. My patient was panicked, and I've experience dealing with that--Yes, even in Coordinators. Now get out!"
"But if he becomes disrupt--"
"You'll stay out and leave it to me! That's an order!"
Distantly, Asuran heard the door open and close. He thought he heard Zeks asking him to try to stay awake.
"ARGH!" Nicol growled as the Strike's shots grazed the edge of the Blitz's arm. The rebuilt arm refused to respond as before. Granted, the differences were minor, but already at a disadvantage from the loss of the Gleipnir, Nicol hated the thought of more. He blocked more fire with his shield.
Ironically, Nicol had never performed this well against the Strike before. Either the Aegis damaged it, he thought, or his brain's in a different fight.
Lightning danced across the darkening sky. A shot from the Strike hit the Guul under the Blitz. Nicol jumped off the flight platform and kicked it towards the Strike. Good thing we're over an island. The Blitz landed several meters away from the beach. The Strike dodged the wrecked Guul and flew towards the Blitz. Nicol opened fire with the beam weapon in his Trikeros. The downpour started as the Strike fired its beam weapon. Nicol continued firing as he dodged.
He wove his way towards the Strike, which landed in front of a cluster of five small trees. One of Nicol's shots hit Strike's rifle. The Strike hurled the weapon at the Blitz. Nicol dodged, then found a pair of beam sabers descending above him. Nicol leapt back and drew his own beam sabers.
As the Blitz tussled with the Strike, Nicol's proximity alarm sounded. He found one of the legged ship's fighter planes bearing down on him as it fired. Nicol lost his left saber as he jumped away from the plane's shots, and absently noted that the Strike's sabers had lost power. Nicol fired a Lancer Dart at the new arrival. The slender missile penetrated the cockpit--and the pilot's skull--before it exploded. The wreckage fell into the ocean.
CLAANGK! KABROOM! BRAANG!
The Strike had discarded the beam sabers and the red and black weapons' pack. The white suit emptied the shells loaded on either side of its head as it furiously pounded the Blitz with its feet, hands, and a pair of knives that it pulled out of its hips. With the Blitz's Phase Shift activated, the shells and knives mostly drained the primary battery. However, the Strike's feet and hands also had Phase Shift active, which lead to dents and gashes the knives could penetrate. One of the knives knocked out the interface for Nicol's other saber. Nicol caught the Strike's right wrist in the Blitz's left hand. The Strike struggled to pull free and continued to batter with its free hand and feet. Nicol spotted some scores in the Phase Shift on the Strike's right arm. He fired the remaining Lancer Darts. The first flew off into the distance when the arm moved. The other hit and exploded in the Strike's side.
Nicol's energy gage alarmed. The Blitz only had reserve power left.
"Signal the Blitz to withdraw," Yzak instructed. The words left a bitter taste in his mouth. "Have repair crews standing by to work on the Duel and Buster the minute we land. Keep the legged ship in sight. Do not let it get away."
Damn! Yzak swore silently.
The first sortie he ever led had been a disaster…
After the Duel landed in the ocean, Yzak hiked his suit up onto a nearby island. There he rendezvoused with his Guul--the platform had switched to autopilot after his fall and glided down to meet him. Given that the typical ZAFT GINN was far less likely to survive a fall than the captured prototypes, Yzak wondered why ZAFT's programmers had bothered with that feature.
Still, it got him back into the fight.
He arrived to find the Blitz and Strike out of sight. He watched the Buster take a hit from a fighter plane and fall in front of the legged ship's weapons at point-blank range. Heart racing, Yzak fired at the plane, and damaged the wing. He then took out the weapon banks that threatened the Buster.
Yzak looked to the Buster and saw Dearka standing in the Buster's open cockpit, without his flight helmet on. The blonde wore a sheepish expression as he lowered his hands to his sides. He tried to surrender?
That realization cut through the odd adrenaline surge that had engulfed Yzak when he realized Dearka's danger. Furiously, he grabbed the Buster's arm, pushed the cockpit closed, and flew the hell out of there. Yzak fired off a withdrawal flare, though he doubted Nicol could tell which side launched it, even if the Blitz remained close enough to spot it. The signal seemed to satisfy the legged ship, though. It did not fire as the Duel retreated...
Of course, Yzak reflected as he lowered the Buster onto the submarine carrier, they have their own problems to worry about. Nicol better not have damaged the Blitz. I doubt the Buster will be running before the legged ship hits Alaskan airspace, and if the Bli--
"NO!" he snarled as he slammed his fist onto his console. We've come too far to hand this off to a couple of DINNs. We have to relaunch before the legged ship can move!
Yzak descended to make his own entrance onto the Costeou. He frowned at the storm moving up the horizon. It would not make their job any easier. Yzak stepped off the Guul. As he walked the Duel into the hangar, its sensors registered an explosion from the storm's direction. A heartbeat later Costeou's mobile suit control officer spoke: "We've lost Blitz."
Next: Orb launches a search and rescue operation, and Athrun learns some things.