STRIKE Reborn
Me: Reuploaded with renewed purpose.
Rau le Creuset: Because you're impulsive. Pathetically impulsive.
Me: Ah, shaddup Rau. I initially thought I didn't want to bury myself with too many stories at once like I had before.
Rau le Creuset: Yet you are. You're very predicable, girl.
Me: Why did I let you out of the lobby again?
Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Seed.
Prologue
"The machine is all prepared. All it needs is the right subject."
A young man stood in a dark science lab, looking at a medical bed which was surrounded by a metal and glass stasis pod. Connected to the top was a grey helmet with eerie glowing crystals on it, connected to the various room sized computers by thousands of wires and connecting cables. The various scientists standing around it were watching his expression with no small amount of anticipation; their prayers and preparations all rested on him. The young man bit his lip, his mind turning over the various possible consequences, but the desire, longing, and above all, hope, in his eyes as he examined the device easily let them know what side he was swaying towards.
"You're sure it will work?" He asked after several tense minutes.
"We've tested it as much as we can without interfering with recent times. After all, to do so would blow our cover, at the moment." The young man gave them an expectant look. "It surpassed all our wildest expectations."
"Can you be sure it will go back far enough?" He asked.
"Data doesn't lie, Mister Yamato. I assure you, it will work, if you can give us the exact date."
"Why offer me a chance to enact a miracle? What do you want me to do? Act as your assassin, removing 'unwanted' obstacles?" The young man asked skeptically, eyes flickering from one man to the other.
"How can you ask us that?" One scientist, a lady, asked. "We came to you because we wanted things to be different...not worse. This isn't some murder mission...this is a plan to save lives..."
The young man relaxed, his face becoming contrite. "I'm sorry; I had to ask."
One of the older men chuckled. "I would have been more surprised, and somewhat concerned, if you hadn't been suspicious of our motives considering the characters you've run into while acting as a Gundam Pilot. All is forgiven."
Hesitation now laid to rest, the young man stepped forward and lay down on the bed. The scientists went about turning the various dials while the woman carefully locked the helmet around the young man's head...a mind deep in dreams of the people he had lost, the people he had failed...and the people he had killed, meaningfully or not.
He whispered the date. That day.
The day Heliopolis was attacked.
The female doctor picked up a sketch the young man had brought with him and examined it. It was the drawing of a sword...but a very strange one. It had a reversed blade, inverted from what a normal killing steel was made as. A blade that wounded, damaged and caused pain...but a blade that wouldn't, couldn't kill.
"Is this the sign of your pacifist heart?" The woman asked him quietly.
"It's a sign of how I battle now. How I always will." The young man smiled ever so slightly; as the mask covered his face only his lips could be seen in the light of the machine as it activated, sending thoughts and memories back
**~Heliopolis, several years earlier~**
"Gah...guuuh...help...no...no..."
Kira Yamato thrashed in his hospital bed, eyes fixed on an unseeing point. He was running a high fever and wasn't responding to any of the treatment his increasingly alarmed parents gave him. He'd been in this state for the better part of a day, and had been brought to the hospital a few hours ago. And now, the doctors assigned to him seemed honestly baffled.
"I don't understand...what do you mean, there's no sign of illness? Just look at him!" Mrs Yamato protested, eyes wide and anguished as she watched her son spasm and struggle.
"Yes, but the devices aren't registering any anomalies outside of brain activity. It leads me to believe this is psychosomatic. It's the only explanation."
"P-psychosomatic? But where could he...what could have happened to him to cause this...?"
"Has your son suffered any traumatic experiences recently?"
"What?! No! We...we've lived in Heliopolis for years. Nothing terrible has ever happened to him...! The worst he's seen of the world could only come from news programs...!"
"You're certain?"
"Uaaahhh..." Kira's wrist twisted and his limbs spazzmed. The boy had cracked the wrist of one of the doctors who had been trying to restrain him; eventually they had tied his arms down to keep him from hurting himself or anyone around him.
Kira's lips were moving, but no noise was coming out – he had screamed himself raw during the night, and while the doctors had managed to get some water into him, his throat was still resting. But his lips were still forming words...
Athrun...Tolle... ...what was his name? ...Nicol... ...No. I see him every night...in my nightmares... ...the death, the death, how many have I caused? I never wanted it, I never wanted any of it...! It's not enough, it's not nearly enough, but I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm SORRY!
His heartbeat spiked on the monitor again. The doctors gave him more sleeping draught, which helped with the struggling, but the boy seemed to still be talking to himself...
...Flay...the ship, his ship, I failed to protect it... ...I failed that little girl... ...saw the remains, the wreckage...why is there so much hatred in this universe? Will this bring back any of the dead...? All I wanted to do was keep them safe...!
Distressed, Mrs Yamato later sat down and gently wiped Kira's sweat soaked brow. Her son was trembling to the touch, body wracked with chills.
Where would I start...? Miriallia, I didn't keep him safe, I can't face you now... ...thank you...you didn't have to forgive me, most people wouldn't have...what is it that I am fighting for...? ...I've always known what...for my friends...but what could that turn me into...?
I have to fight differently...I have to fight better...I never wanted to fight, but I have no choice but to...but that doesn't mean...
Kira rolled over slightly, leaning against his mother's hands. ...To be strong...what does it mean...what I'd give...to be back there...back before it all...back under the stars...back on that road, windswept with cherry blossoms in my hair...back with you...
This went on throughout the night. Kira kept silently talking, to who the doctors weren't certain, and none of them knew how to read lips. What he was saying wouldn't have made sense to them, but he wouldn't have wanted it repeated under any context...
It spoke of massacres and wars and struggles. It was the memory of blood and tears and death and regret and loss. It was a ballad of tragedy, being spoken by a voice with increasing conviction, with strength.
It was as if the past and future were speaking to each other...for they were. A miracle engine, throwing a torch back into the past and illuminating the horrors and the triumphs that lay before it, challenging the child to choose his path. The future, fading away, imparted what it knew to this past so it may no longer exist, and did so with a soft, certain smile.
...Cagalli, my sister...ORB, its peace shattered...the GENESIS, the Nukes...I won't let anyone fire them...I'll destroy them before they have the chance to be used...I'll mark the graves at Junius, maybe leave some sort of note so the PLANTs can come collect their dead...
...I won't kill Nicol or destroy the Blitz, not by accident, not under any circumstances. I'll protect him, him and Athrun. I'll look after Tolle, I'll never give him a reason to come chasing, trying to protect me. I'll even try not to scar up Yzak's face, though he's not going to make it easy for me! ...Even Shinn, Shiho and those others, their sadness was born back in this first war.
...I'll give them the future, a better future, a happy future...
I won't let those mad men destroy anything...not at the beginning, or the end.
As the dawn light passed over Kira's face, he slowly opened his eyes for the first time in forty two hours. Since there was no one in the room, they did not comment on how his eyes seemed so much wiser than his age, and the parents wouldn't have seen the child they would not have recognized. There was knowledge, wisdom, sadness...but above all...
There was resolve, an epic determination usually reserved for old poems and the songs of stories. It was the spirit on which history was written. A lesser man would look into those eyes and quail with fear, or kneel in awed deference.
Kira slowly sat up, shaking his head, weak from lack of food and water. He looked around the room until he spotted the calendar. Tomorrow, huh...? In his minds eye, he saw a familiar shadow. Wait for me there, STRIKE...we have work to do.
End Chapter
I am very sorry about the confusion. What happened was I started the story, then got stuck when I wasn't sure what would happen after the meeting in ORB, then after I rewatched the series and uploaded Knife I got my inspiration back. I'm very sorry I deleted it, it was impulsive due to concerns about school and online work load. Changed my mind, folks!
Pairings will eventually be Kira/Athrun, Miriallia/Dearka, and Mu/Murrue
Read and Review please!