Fandom: Gundam Seed Destiny
Genre: Humor/Romance/Drama
Rating: T
Type: Multi-part, Chapter 1
Pairings: Kira/Lacus, Athrun/Meyrin, Dearka/Mirialla, Yzak/Michelle (OC), Nicol/Melody(OC) ...
Disclaimer: No, I do not own Gundam Seed nor Gundam Seed Destiny
Author's Notes: Revised Edition. My own take on what happened before, during and after the Final Plus Episode. Begins as soon as the battle ended - with the retreating of all Mobile Suits from Battlefield.
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Chapter 1
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C.E. 74, January 20
Venue: Site of Final Battle, Eternal
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"This is Athrun Zala from the 'Justice' - I am now returning on board. I have the Minerva crew shuttle - and the two pilots for the 'Destiny' and the 'Impulse', with me on my return. Seeking permission to grant them entry. " Athrun Zala spoke through his communicator with the Eternal bridge, loud and clear.
"Permission granted. " Lacus responded, matter-of-factly.
The gate of the Eternal had been opened up since the retreating signal were fired off, therefore - there was no need to open the gate, again.
Athrun then proceed to place the shuttle of the Minerva crew and allowed both Lunamaria and Shinn to get off his unit's hand, before docking and landing himself in the empty position slot - next to the stationed unit of 'Strike Freedom'.
Following Athrun's re-entry into the hangar of the Eternal, Michelle's blue 'Murasame' and Yzak's newly assigned silver 'Slash ZAKU Phantom' Unit followed suit. The only unit missing - that helped defend the Eternal was Dearka's Mobile Suit.
Then again, one could only guessed where the other pilot had snuck off to - on his own.
The fellow technicians on board the Eternal then dealt with the shuttle of Minerva crew accordingly, letting them out one by one - in an orderly manner.
Athrun Zala had only just removed himself from the cockpit of 'Justice' and was supposedly on his way over to meet up with the Minerva crew and get himself re-accquitanced with the crew - when he found himself staring at his silver-haired friend capturing a familiar brunette in a fierce embrace.
The Minerva crew members were eyeing the sight in front of them with their jaw dropped and slacken in shock, even Lunamaria and Shinn Asuka had their eyes widen - significantly.
Never in their life would they have a chance to see the usually cold and calm - Commander Jule, expressing himself with such open manner.
"Yzak ?" Michelle started, trying to regain her balance. She had only just removed herself from the cockpit of her 'Murasame' - when she felt the wind being knocked out of her, by her fiance's actions.
Yzak had practically flew towards Michelle as soon as he landed and his cockpit opened up to allow his exiting from the said unit. He hate to admit it - but the fact remained that he missed having Michelle standing next to him, and having the said brunette in his arms.
Ever since the former left for ORB, Yzak was constantly feeling uptight and frustrated. It was as if a certain part of him had went missing - altogether.
Earlier on, when Michelle popped by to pay him a visit on board his Volitaire - he was totally unprepared. Therefore, he was having trouble with organizing his thoughts and hay-wired emotions into sequence.
However, now that the final battle had come to a close - his first thought in mind was to catch hold of his fiancee and never let go of the former, again.
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Athrun Zala felt himself grinning despite the exhaustion that he felt seeping into his bones - after the offical end of the hectic battle, outside.
Yet, that still does not changed the fact that he had something to do - and Yzak was only hindering his movements, around the hangar.
Clearing his throat impatiently, Athrun Zala started speaking - directing his words towards his ex-team mate cum his self-proclaimed rival.
"Excuse me, Yzak ... can you take your reunion with your fiancee - elsewhere ? You are blocking my way ... and I thought I should let you know, you have somehow gained yourself a whole group of surprised audiences with your little display of emotions - in public. "
Yzak threw Athrun Zala a 'death' glare, before removing himself from his fiancee - and turned his attention on to the famous pilot of the 'Justice' unit.
"Athrun Zala! You still had the guts to interrupt me - when I had yet to be done with my earlier lecture on you! How dare you still show your face around me ... "
"... " Athrun and Michelle sighed inwardly as the silver-haired irated pilot launched into another ranting lecture, that no one - was in any mood to listen.
Athrun threw Michelle a pleading look to put a stop to Yzak's episode of ranting, if there was anyone whom Yzak would listen - aside from Eriza Jule, it would be the former's fiancee.
"Alright, enough ... enough ... Yzak - we are all tired from the battle outside. So, there's really no point in enduring your lecture on Athrun Zala, now! Besides, haven't you vented your frustration towards him already - while you are battling fellow allies from the ZAFT Forces.
If my memory did not failed me - you did threw a few dangerous attacks towards the 'Justice' when you first came out to join the battle, with Dearka in tow. So ... can we just drop everything and concentrate on what was to be accomplished - at this point of time ?" Michelle interjected, reasonably and pointedly.
Yzak Jule fell silent, almost immediately - causing many audiences that was watching the whole episode to gape, at the sight.
Michelle then turned her gaze fully on the Minerva crew - whom was by now, crowding around the hangar.
The shuttle had been emptied out by then, and its' occupants were now observing their surrounding warily and in silent contemplation.
Michelle's eyes scanned the surrounding Minerva crew members - until they rested upon the two familiar figures, trying to look just as oblivious as the rest of the crew.
"Samuel Howard and Adrian Mckenzie ... the two of you can stop pretending to be oblivious and /help/ us out - or rather, help the technicians! " Michelle announced, fixing both members of the Minerva crew with a stern expression.
"Athrun Zala ... stop wasting your time around here. Get them somewhere and leave them there, because we all need to report to the bridge before we can do anything else. " Michelle instructed, as she proceeded on to bark out orders to the said pilot of 'Justice'.
Turning back to her fiance, Michelle said. "Yzak ... join me at the bridge. We need to inform the Volitaire for them to ally themselves with the Eternal - before the official response from the 'Gondwana' was made. "
The two experienced pilots nodded in agreement, as Yzak made his move to head over to the bridge of the Eternal with Michelle - following him from behind. He had been on the Eternal once, and thus - had no trouble with finding his way around the pink battle fleet.
Athrun Zala, on the other hand, had to settle several issues with the Minerva crew before the former could report to the bridge for his next task.
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"Right ... I guess, I should probably bring you people to the lounge before anything else. " Athrun muttered aloud, before leading the crew towards the direction where the lounge was situated.
Lunamaria and Shinn shrugged as they followed the lead of Athrun Zala's without much reaction, while Arthur followed with the rest of the Minerva crew behind the two elite pilots; with the sole exception of Samuel and Adrian.
Apparently, those two were very accustomed to the interior structure of the pink battlefleet and was already busying themselves with Michelle's order to help the resident technicians on board the Eternal, out with the machines units on board.
No sooner had Athrun Zala led the Minerva crew members away from the hangar - Auel Neider had arrived from his previous position on the 'Kusanagi'. Besides bringing along his new Mobile Suit Unit - he had also brought along with him, the first handed report on the status of the ORB Forces written by James Mckenzie that was to be submitted to Michelle Haw, immediately.
After Auel removed himself from the cockpit, the first thing he did was to seek the directions leading towards the bridge - while hoping inwardly, that neither Lunamaria or Shinn Asuka was anywhere in sight. For he had still yet to brace himself for the 're-accquitance' session that was bound to come, in time.
Meanwhile, Athrun Zala whom had arrived in front of the pilot's lounge - punched in the password to the lock and beckoned the Minerva Crew to enter the room.
Deciding to do away with the changing of his current attire, Athrun Zala was torn between the option of explaining the situation to them, or to simply leave them to their own devices in the lounge of the 'Eternal'.
Just then, the door behind him slided open to admit the entry of Meyrin Hawke and Michelle Haw.
"Athrun ! " Meyrin started, as she threw herself onto the pilot of the 'Justice' before pulling herself away from the former - and started her inspection on the former's physical condition.
Oblivious to the frown that was seen marring the features of Lunamaria Hawke - Athrun Zala had to refrain from smiling at Meyrin's obvious sigh of relief when the former found no signs of injury on his physical body.
"Meyrin ... I'm alright, and no ... I am not going to bleed to my death - anytime soon. So you can now stop worrying and fussing over me. Instead, why don't you go ahead and greet our humble guests on board ? " Athrun assured, as he stepped aside to reveal the Minerva Crew to the younger redhead.
A look of delight mixed with hesitation graced the younger redhead's features as she stepped forth, heading towards her former team-mates' tentatively - trying to gauge their reactions to her re-appearance.
Athrun Zala stepped aside fully to allow Meyrin Hawke to get herself re-accquitanced with her former crew members, once he was certain that no hostility could be sensed coming from the Minerva Crew members.
Somehow, he had looked up at the brunette to find the former - grinning at him slyly. Feeling self conscious of his actions, Athrun hissed out in response.
"Is there anything you find amusing to your interest ?"
Michelle merely smirked, before responding. "Nothing ... just finding it somewhat strange of you to be re-assuring Meyrin on your physical condition. I don't know but somehow you sounded rather happy to have someone fussing over you - upon your immediate return from the battlefield.
Then again, I supposed that's normal - since Cagalli would never have time to worry over your condition after the final battle, because she was always busy with some other things. "
Athrun threw Michelle a look of annoyance, due to the former bringing up the subject of the blonde princess, at this point of time. However, he soon allowed himself to sigh aloud as he asked the next question that had popped into his mind.
"So ... what do we do now ?"
Michelle frowned, before shrugging in response. "We wait ... the 'Gondwana' had yet to contact us with any response. I think the council were trying to elect someone within themselves to begin the negotiation process with Lacus. "
"... and what about the ORB ?" Athrun pressed on, frowning at Michelle's lack of mentioning of the ORB Forces' actions.
Michelle threw the blue-haired pilot a dirty look, before growling aloud. "Do you have to bloody remind me of the troublesome matters ? "
Athrun shrugged in response, Michelle cursed under her breath as she tried to come up with some sort of response to the former's enquiry.
"The Archangel - were waiting for Lacus to provide them with the response which the 'Gondwana' made ... for the ORB authorities cannot be informed unless we have a definte answer on hand. " Michelle started, before adding on.
"The Kusanagi - on the other hand, had been told to return to the Lunar City with the Ross' cohort; or whatever that was remained from the original Alliance Party. They have already informed Cagalli to resolve the matter of the dissolving of the Alliance treaty between ORB and the Alantic Federation - and were now waiting for the official response from both parties.
I figured the process would probably takes some time to be finalized - with the current Earth Alliance Forces in shambles.
I guess, the Eurasian Forces whom were now the majority in space - situated on the Moon Base will probably made the decision on behalf of the whole organization of the Alantic Federation.
The whole situation will cleared by itself - with time given. For now, everything over their side were still in chaos.
We will see how the situation turns out to be, and Cagalli have been holding Parliament meeting continuiously - for the past 72 hours, and had not been able to sleep a wink for days.
Oh ... and while we are on the subject of the ORB Forces - Auel Neider had just joined us on this fleet - so ... "
Michelle resisted her urge to yell, there were simply too many things to achieve and settled - following the end of the war.
Moreover, with the pale-haired 'Extended' pilot now onboard of the 'Eternal' - would complicated things further. Especially, now that the Minerva crew members had been taken in by the pink battlefleet as well.
Turning to Athrun, Michelle spoke harshly.
"Bloody hell ... do you have to ask me those things ?! Why don't you go ask Kira - instead ?! You know he will be able to answer you the same thing - since he was supposed to be taking up Cagalli's role, with Cagalli dealing with the matters within the ORB Parliament back in the home country. "
That was exactly how Yzak Jule found them in the lounge - the former was rather surprised to see his fiancee glaring daggers with Athrun Zala, with the latter looking rather sheepish.
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"Woah ... what's going on here ? Zala - did you do anything to irritate Michelle ? She looked as if she wanted to stab a knife through your heart ... " Yzak Jule commented as he entered the lounge with Randy Mckenzie, whom had been send over to the Eternal with Yzak's uniform so he need not parade around the pink battle fleet with his piloting gear.
Athrun Zala held up both his hands as a gesture of surrendering, before replying. "Nothing, I swear ... I just asked her what the ORB Forces were doing now ... and that was her supposed response to me ..."
"I see ... Michelle was on the verge of snapping, due to ... the lack of sleep ? I guess ?" Yzak responded, eyeing Michelle warily - inching away from his fiancee.
If anyone was to know about Michelle's temper, it would be him - having been the subject of Michelle's frustration and irritation, most of the time.
"Yzak ... I want to go home and sleep! " Michelle proclaimed aloud, causing Athrun Zala and her fiance to wince at her tone of voice.
"I know ... I know ... but still, we have things to settle before going home ... Bear with it - will you ? " Yzak hurried to calm his irated fiancee down, while trying to hold back his own sharp retort towards the whole situation - at hand.
Just then, Lunamaria Hawke spoke up - with the intention to grill Athrun Zala for the whole details behind his escaping from Gibraltar with her younger sister.
To which, both Athrun and Meyrin eyed one another over the shoulder of Lunamaria - before Athrun responded, warily.
"Lunamaria ... can we drop that discussion for now ? That can wait - until later, I believe. For now, I think we have other pressing issues to be dealing with ... I promised, I will give you a proper explanation - after the whole aftermath of the final battle was resolved. "
"Yeah ... sis, it can /wait/. You had already waited for weeks for your answers to that incident - surely, you can wait for another day or two ... " Meyrin interjected, before Lunamaria could protested aloud to Athrun's response.
At that point of time, the door to the lounge slided open - again. This time, admitting the entrance of the three 'Dom Troopers' pilots of the Eternal crew. They were already dressed back into their respective uniforms; and were sipping their warm coffee with a smile of content on their expression.
"Erm ... did we interrupted anything ? " Hilda, the female elite pilot spoke up - eyeing the occupants of the lounge, uneasily.
Athrun Zala shakes his head to signal a negative response, to which the three Eternal pilots immediately heaved a sigh of relief and settled themselves on the couch of the Eternal lounge.
Their appearances snapped Michelle back to her senses, as she announced. "I think - we should all changed out from our piloting gear, we have already wasted enough time on moping and other things. Its' now time for us to face the music of the current situation ... "
Turning to Shinn and Lunamaria, Michelle beckoned for them to follow her to the locker room where the ZAFT uniforms were kept on board.
Opening the last cabinet locker situated on the far left corner of the room, Michelle took out a brand new set of female ZAFT elite uniform and handed them over to Lunamaria Hawke.
After which, she opened the cabinet locker underneath the one which the female ZAFT uniforms had been stored - and pulled out a set of the male version of the elite uniform and handed the set over to Shinn Asuka.
Once accomplished, she turned towards the other corner of the room and locate the locker which she had claimed for her own usage and retrieved her own ZAFT elite uniform from within.
Athrun Zala, mirrored her actions two steps away from her and did the same - only he retrieved the ORB uniform, instead of the ZAFT elite uniform.
Across the room, Yzak Jule was doing the same - only he had his own uniform with him, and was merely claiming an empty locker for his own use as he hang his piloting suit into the said locker.
"Lunamaria ... Shinn, the two of you can make use of any empty lockers within this room - for the storing of your piloting gear. However, take note - to remove the name slot and labeled them as occupied - so no one would thought to use the same locker as you do. " Michelle instructed, with her back facing the duo.
to be continued
Date started: 25/06/07
Date completed: 25/06/07
Date edited: 17/09/07