Chapter 1: Prologue/Phase 1-2 Displacement

- Prologue Start -

After the Exia and the O Gundam crashed into the moon's surface the two units righted themselves and prepared for the final confrontation readying their respective weapons, the O Gundam drew one of its two beam sabers from its backpack with its shield held in its left hand at the ready, while Exia's GN Sword Kai flipped into place held in a fencer's stance.

Despite been a first generation unit the O Gundam in preparation as a backup unit had been upgraded with fourth generation tech, the Exia been a third generation unit had received similar yet less extensive modifications. In essence the two units were on almost equal standing.

Taking this into consideration, Setsuna activated GN Drive burst mode releasing the limiter on the GN Drive, after a moment's pause the two gundams charged, aiming for each other's cockpits for quick decisive victory thrusting their blades, the O Gundam's beam saber hit high plunging into the GN Condenser in Exia's chest and piercing the GN Drive behind it, Setsuna's physical blade sliced through the cockpit and into the GN drive behind it, killing Ribbons in the process.

With the destruction of the GN drives all the GN particles stored inside them and the Exia's condensers flooded out through the breach in the torso and engulfing the Exia in an orange glow before vanishing.

- Prologue End -

- Quantum Mechanics Can Do Anything: Phase 1 -

(This chapter covers events during ep1 of Gundam Seed)

The cockpit interior was pitch black when Setsuna woke, he tried to bring his systems online but there was no response the panel was dead; in fact all of Exia's systems were unresponsive. With the fate of the battle unknown he couldn't sit around and wait to be picked up, first he needed to determine his location, then he needed to assess the damage to Exia and lastly establish contact with Ptolemy.

After manually opening Exia's cockpit hatch Setsuna assessed his surroundings, he appeared to be inside some kind of facility, with low gravity often found at a colony's dock or factory block. For all its size it was possible he was back on the Innovade's mother ship 'Celestial Being'. 'Was Exia moved while I was unconscious?' He wondered, seeing that for the moment he appeared to be in the clear he went about assessing the damage to Exia.

Exia was in bad shape, Ribbons beam saber had pierced the GN Condenser mounted in its chest and may have damage the GN Drive, there was no way he could repair this in field, it would have to wait until he could recover it, all that left was to contact Ptolemy. Suddenly an explosion rocked the facility, 'The battle is still being waged? But Ribbons was defeated... unless the Earth Federation is mopping up.' Indeed Celestial Being's truce with the Earth Federation was a tenuous one to begin with; he wouldn't be surprised if they and Karathron were fighting each other for possession of the Innovade's Colony Ship.

For the moment there was nothing to be done about Exia, as much as he hated leaving it behind, it could be retrieved or destroyed later. Right now he had to get off the Colony Ship and return to Ptolemy before he was captured with that decided he set out into the facility.

Cautiously making his way through the facility the sound of battle grew, moving towards it with the intention of joining up with Karathron whom Celestial Being had better relations with before returning to Ptolemy, first he had to find out where his position was relative to theirs and only Karathron could supply that information.

Instead of gliding down the hallways Setsuna was jogging, the result of increasing gravity told him that he was moving deeper into the colony ship's internal structure and further away from Ptolemy.

'Not good, at this rate I'll be stranded.' Sudden movement interrupted his musing and he trained his pistol on it.

"Woh! Wait! Don't shoot!" A panicky voiced called out.

Setsuna paused for half second before demanding, "Come out with your hands up. Slowly."

From out of a side corridor a young man came out hands raised, oddly he was only wearing casual wear with no survival suit. 'A civilian? What's he doing here?' Setsuna then recalled the Gundam type mobile suit Ribbons deployed, 'he must of being brought here to help construct it.' He deduced, and lowered his pistol. "It's dangerous here, you should find shelter."

"Yeah. Your right." He responded then turned to leave.

"Wait!" Setsuna called the man turned to him bewildered. "You can't go that way, there's fighting in that direction. It's safer that way." Pointing in the direction he'd just come from.

"Ah? Right. Thanks." The young man ran past him and disappeared into the corridor.

With that Setsuna proceeded down the corridor towards the fighting which opened up into a hangar of some sort, upon entering the hangar he came across a gun battle between what appeared to civilian workers and Infantry in astrosuits battling for possession of two mobile suits, perhaps gundam types.

There was only one problem, he didn't recognize the infantry's affiliation. Their suits didn't match that of Karathron, Earth Sphere Federation, A-law or Innovade's. Regardless this was clearly a one sided battle and he had to act fast, one of those units could be his ticket out of this fire-fight and back to Ptolemy. Movement on his left caught his eye and he spied an soldier attempting to flank the workers using the catwalk, Setsuna opened fire. Catching the soldier unaware he dropped like a rock.

Hearing gunfire behind them two workers, a man and woman turned to see what was happening the moment's inattention proved fatal for the man as one of the few Infantry remaining scored a hit. The woman called out to the fallen college before diving to another spot of cover in order to get a clear shot and return the favor, with that the assault force sent to take the hangar had been defeated and everything went quiet, the woman turned to Setsuna and called out to him.

Now in the clear Lieutenant Murrue Ramius took a moment to assess the only other person in the hangar, he stood on the upper catwalk overlooking her position and armed with an oddly designed pistol held at the ready. She approved. Looking over his blue suit she noted that it didn't match ZAFT's design and it was too compact to be an astrosuit, 'a pilot's suit? That means...!'

"Hey you!" She called, "you're one of the pilots from the Marseille right?"

After a moment's pause he nodded an affirmative.

Murrue frowned, "there's supposed to be five of you. Where are the others?" He shook his head, he didn't know. 'He must have gotten separated during the attack.' She concluded, "Alright, come down here and help me secure these units." With a nod he vaulted over the guard rail, as he was doing so a burst of gunfire sounded and pain exploded in her shoulder, 'dammit, there was still one left.' She realized as she collapsed from the impact.

For a brief moment in what felt like an eternity her senses dulled under a haze of pain barely registering the sound of movement and gunfire as her senses recovered from the shock to her system. When she came to she found the pilot struggling with her attacker, a ZAFT Red, their red pilot suit an indication that they qualified top of their class in training and were considered to be ZAFT's elite pilots.

With her arm wounded she raised her pistol one handed but the unknown pilot was obscuring her line of fire. "Get Clear!" She warned, the two separated and she opened fire, but the ZAFT pilot with assistance from his propulsion pack, nimbly evaded her shots and disappeared behind the Strike's trailer out of sight.

Holding her wounded arm she called out to her only ally, "come on, hurry!" Before lowering herself into the Strike's cockpit, when he joined her, she closed the hatch, the last thing they needed from their friend outside was a parting gift courtesy of a grenade. She turned to the pilot, "move behind the seat while I move the suit." He followed her instructions.

She was thankful that he didn't argue with her, he may have been trained to pilot one of these units but Murrue had no doubt that the ZAFT Pilot was making his way towards the Aegis and if he got his unit on its feet before theirs, then they were in trouble. She'll hand over control once they had some breathing room.

The hangar began to shudder, "secondary explosions?" She wondered out loud, 'no time to waste then.' With that she powered up the Strike which was still held in by the trailer's restraints, fortunately the Strike was able to force its way free under its own power, not a moment too soon as she raised it to its feet just as the explosions reached the hangar.

- Alternate History Phase 2 -

The Strike jetted out of the hangar followed closely by the Aegis as the explosion erupted throughout the facility exiting into the interior of the colony only to be greeted by a ZAFT GINN, soon after their appearance it trained its rifle on them, Murrue responded to the attack by activating one of the Strike's features.

[Phase Shift Armor Active]

Murrue tried to put some distance between them but the Strike could only stumble about as it clumsily evaded the GINN's gunfire, even so a few hits landed and the Strike was knocked around. There was a pause in the gunfire and when she was able to train the main camera back on him she saw that the GINN had switched out its rifle for its sword before re-engaging them at close quarters, the Aegis thankfully didn't join the assault.

Raising the Strike's arms defensively over its head, it shuddered under the impact but otherwise deflected the sword blow with ease, the GINN paused to reassess their defenses, at that moment two missile trucks appeared and fired a salvo of missiles towards them, the Aegis after activating its own PS Armor shot them down with its head mounted CIWS (Close In Weapons System) before turning them on the vehicles themselves shredding them to pieces.

After finishing what she concluded to be issuing instructions the Aegis took off and the GINN resumed its attack, Murrue attempted to repel him with the Strike's own head mounted CIWS but the shots veered off target and the GINN took flight. 'Damn! The sights are off!' No surprise seeing as they hadn't gotten around to calibrating them, the GINN dive bombed them and when it came within range it delivered a heavy blow with its sword.

The Strike stumbled and collided with a nearby building a jolt of pain from her wounded arm caused by the impact, the GINN landed designed for zero gravity it could only stay airborne for brief periods, it then re-engaged its thrusters propelling it forward sword thrust at out before it aiming for the cockpit. 'This is bad,' she realized while the armor would withstand the attack the impact would knock the Strike onto its back and just like in a human fight it was worst position to fight from. She needed to counter him but couldn't think of how.

As the enemy closed the distance the pilot next to her reached out and manipulated the console sending the Strike into a crouch, the sword went high grazing the Strike's collar, he then reached across her and grabbed the joystick before delivering a powerful right hook to the GINN knocking it on its ass. Murrue was bewildered when he turned to her and said.

"Move aside," it was the first thing he said to her in the short time she'd known him.

"Uh, right." She agreed moving behind the seat.

Taking the controls he focused on the enemy as it made another charge, firing a burst from the CIWS the rounds hit their mark forcing the GINN to break off its attack dropping its sword. 'He's compensating for the misaligned sights,' She realized. After putting a short distance between them, the GINN leveled its rifle at them and fired, utilizing its thrusters the Strike evaded, after a moments search of the weapons panel the pilot deployed the units combat knives. But rather than close the distance and lunge against the opponent he did the unexpected, he hurled one of the knives at the GINN embedding it into the targets rifle barrel just as it fired, the barrel exploded and the second knife was hurled at the GINN's mono-eye destroying its optics.

The Strike surged forward as the blinded GINN fired wildly relying on its backup optics to aim, scooping up the abandoned heavy GINN sword, as it was peppered with rounds the Strike swung the sword destroying the GINN's rifle as well as severing its right arm holding it near the elbow, it then followed up with a second slash by shifting its grip on the blade bringing it into an upward swing under the left arm shearing it off at the shoulder joint, then bringing it around in a circular motion to take out the GINN's legs in a final third strike.

Murrue was stunned at how easy he made it look, that was when the GINN's cockpit hatch blew off and the pilot jettisoned via his pilot suit's propulsion pack.

"Get away from the GINN!" She warned, just before it exploded. Unbalanced by the heavy GINN sword the blast wave knocked the Strike to the ground, Murrue landed on her injured arm, the explosion of pain causing her to pass out as the world faded into a red haze.

When Setsuna awoke he gritted his teeth to suppress a groan, the explosion had done a number on him knocking him out for brief period of time (he wasn't sure how long). Recalling the mobile suit's other occupant he turned to check on her, she had collapsed against one of the side monitors and appeared to be unconscious. Checking his monitors for hostiles seeing as the area was clear he turned back to the woman and checked her pulse to see if she was still alive, confirming that she was just unconscious he secured her behind the seat before turning to his console.

Setsuna noted that the units power cell was starting to run low, he had noticed at the beginning of the battle that power consumption had increase when the woman activated the active defense system and would spike when the unit took fire, opting to conserve power he deactivated the system.

[PS Armor Inactive]

Continuing to examine the panel he noted that there weren't any instruments indicating hydrogen fuel, particle compression/supply or fossil based. The suit was purely electric but unlike the AEU's Enact or the Union's Flag mobile suit it didn't receive power wirelessly via radio, instead drawing power from an internal battery, though the panel implied that it could draw power from an secondary input, probably an external power supply of some sort.

But the Innovades, A-Laws and ESF (Earth Sphere Federation) used GN based technology. Only Karathron uses other types. Which posed a question; what was a purely electric Gundam Type Mobile Suit doing inside the Innovade Mother ship? Was it even a Gundam Type at all? Setsuna recalled what came up on the monitor when the woman started it up.

[General

Unilateral

Neuro-link

Dispersive

Autonomic

Maneuver synthesis system]

To Setsuna it sounded like a bad joke, the Exia was so graceful it practically danced through the battlefield, this thing had the grace of an ambling drunkard. Something was very wrong here, this place, the civilians, the engineers, the soldiers, the mobile suits, nothing was making any sense.

Movement on one of the monitors caught his attention, zooming in he discovered it was the civilians he'd seen earlier during the battle. They'd practically been under the suits feet during the fight and would've been crushed if the battle had continued as had been, that's why he had intervened and taken control of the suit. Whatever was going on here he needed answers and his gut told him that these civilians would be far more accommodating than the woman lying unconscious behind the seat.

He opened the hatch, the front monitor and console retracting and climbed out on top of the suit still lying flat on its back from the fall.

"Hey, over there!" He called out, "my... college is injured, can you give me a hand?"

The group shared a nervous glance before rushing over. 'Their either brave or good natured,' he thought before adding, '…or they're not too bright.' Either way he had to give them credit considering what happened recently. As the group approached he saw that they consisted of three young men and a young woman.

One with colored glasses called up to him, "someone's hurt?"

Setsuna nodded, "she's unconscious, and we'll have to lift her out of the cockpit then bring her down."

Another guy turned to the girl, "Miriallia. Me and Sai will help lift her out of the cockpit, You and Kuzzey wait down here and we'll lower her to you."

"Right," she agreed before cautioning him, "be careful Tolle." With that Sai and Tolle scaled the suits arm in order to reach the torso where Setsuna waited.

"Man she's stacked." Tolle commented.

"This isn't the time." Sai reproached him and Setsuna agreed, between the three of them they managed to lift her out of the cockpit and lower her to the others waiting below.

"Let's move her to the bench over there." Directing them to a sheltered waiting area, this reminded Setsuna of a bus stop.

"Alright, while you four move her I'll get this suit back on its feet." The four shared a nervous glance. "It's just a precaution, I'll join you shortly." He had questions that needed answers.

When they got clear he dropped back into the cockpit and started it up, not bothering to close the hatch he got it standing before moving it closer to the others at a slow walk and lowering it into a kneeling position before shutting it down. Disembarking the mobile suit he found the four tending to the woman's wound but there was little they could do other than a makeshift bandage and a search of the suits emergency supply compartment showed that it had yet to be stocked. All they could do now was wait.

Setsuna approached one of them, "excuse me, but can you tell me where I am exactly?"

All of them blinked in surprise, "where you are?" Kuzzey reiterated.

"Yes, my... ship lost power in transit and I fear that may have drifted off course." He lied.

Tolle and Sai glance at each other, "he must have been heading for Artemis, it would explain what a soldier is doing here," Tolle assumed, "in that case you're not far off."

"Right now you're on Orb's colony Heliopolis," Sai continued, "like Artemis we too are based at the L3 point, so transferring to there shouldn't take long."

Setsuna thanked them and took a seat in the waiting station to ponder this new information while the three boys wandered over to the mobile suit. He had confirmed his worst fears, Lagrange 3 was located on the other side of the Earth opposite the Moon where he had recently been fighting, then there was this colony 'Heliopolis' as well as 'Artemis'. He knew that Celestial Being had a resource satellite which had being destroyed by A-laws and the abandoned Krung Thep colony that Ian told him about once but no others had being built at that location, which for Setsuna was even more was alarming. For one there was no way Exia could of covered all that distance in its damaged state that it was in, in such a short period of time. Second: how on earth did he wind up inside the colony, the fact that he had been alone implied he hadn't been towed in as salvage. Third: he didn't recognize any of the enemy uniforms or the mobile suit that engaged him, something was very wrong and Setsuna didn't like the answer that the evidence was pointing to.

His musing were interrupted when the woman stirred, "your awake." Miriallia noticed.

"Uhh..." She groaned as she tried to clear the haze from her head, before asking "how long was I out?"

"Not long," he answered, that was when she caught sight of the other three around the mobile suit.

"Step away from that suit!" She commanded before drawing her sidearm and firing a warning shot, or at least he thought it was either that or... she has really bad aim.

"Over there," she ordered gesturing with gun before glancing at Miriallia, "you too." She watched as the girl slowly made her way over to the others before clinging to the one called Tolle, Setsuna found this to be completely unnecessary.

"I'm Lieutenant Murrue Ramius of the Atlantic Federation," she announced, now Setsuna had a name to put to the face. "Now, your names?"

The four of them glanced nervously at each other caught completely off guard her aggressive stance; slowly one by one they volunteered their names. She then informed them that because they witnessed the Federation's newest classified weapon they would be detained until she received orders from HQ, naturally they objected.

"You can't do that! This colony belongs to Orb." Tolle challenged her.

"He's correct the Federation has no authority here, you can't give us orders."Sai supported.

"Besides were neutral we're not a part of the war." Kuzzey joined in.

Setsuna wasn't so sure, the fact that Murrue and her group, along with the mobile suit kneeling a few feet from them implied that they at least had some considerable influence here.

Murrue silenced them by firing into the air, "enough! Do you really think that being neutral exempts you from the war? The fact is that it doesn't, you have witnessed a military secret and to protect that information I cannot let you go."

Setsuna could understand where she was coming from, he had a similar talk with Saji Crossroad regardless he had had enough of this, he wasn't going to help her detain them nor could he afford to be responsible for them, the sooner they left the better. Walking up alongside Murrue he placed his hand on her arm holding the pistol surprising her, "there's no point," he said.

"What are you-" she was about to ask before he cut her off.

"The unit captured by the enemy has already left," he pointed out. "Most likely they have already secured it, besides these four haven't learned anything that they can't figure out from the captured unit."

She sighed, "your right, the fact that they're here at all proves that we've been compromised since before now." lowering her pistol she turned the four she was going to detain, "alright, you're free to go."

The four didn't hesitate to bolt though the girl shouted a quick thank you over her shoulder to him. Seeing this Murrue grumbled, "why do I have to be the bad guy," kicking a nearby pebble away.

"So what's our next move?" He asked, while he had nothing to do with her war the fact was he was stuck in the middle of it and no idea how to get out of it, especially if things were what he thought it was.

"We should try to contact the Archangel, but with the N-jammers interference we won't be able to reach them," she informed him. "Back in factory there is trailer loaded with additional weapons systems for the Strike; we can use its auxiliary power pack to boast the signal."

"We should retrieve it..." She paused frowning; Setsuna wondered if his cover was blown. "I didn't get your name?" He considered how best to respond.

"Lieutenant Setsuna F. Seiei." He introduced himself; his choice of rank was based on fact that the only mobile suit pilots he'd met face to face were Lieutenants. Murrue went to salute and reintroduce herself but Setsuna was already making his way to Strike leaving behind a bewildered Murrue.

When he reached the cockpit he turned back to her and called, "are you coming?"

Startled she stammered. "Ah...right, I'm coming." Before muttering, "I guess he's not the type to stand on decorum." Because of her injured shoulder she couldn't scale the Strike to reach the cockpit so Setsuna had her climb into the Strike's hand and raised her to the hatch where she secured herself behind the seat. Turning back towards the way they came he found the GINN sword where it had fallen after the explosion and retrieved it.

"Good idea," Murrue approved, Setsuna queried her with a look. "The Archangel is located in a dock within the factory if the enemy hit them at same time hit us, they may still have a presence within factory and until we find the trailer we've few weapons to defend ourselves with." She explained.

With sword in hand they proceeded into the ruined factory.

Murrue winced as she was jostled within the cockpit aggravating her shoulder wound; it was a constant problem as they made their way deeper into the factory especially when they had to clear away debris. Unfortunately there was nothing either of them could do about it, so she just grit her teeth and endured.

It hadn't been easy moving through the ruined factory, the combination of scattered debris and the Strike's poor handling made the ride rather uncomfortable, especially for Murrue who unlike Setsuna didn't have the benefit of seat and had to hang on for dear life with her good arm. At one point the ground shifted and Murrue lost hold of her makeshift handrail and toppled onto Setsuna, which had the unintended side effect of steering the Strike into the nearby wall.

Needless to say Setsuna found it infinitely easier to drive if Murrue stayed on her side of the cockpit.

They had yet to encounter a single enemy within and from the looks of it they may have already withdrawn. She glanced at the pilot next to her who had introduced himself as Setsuna and a Lieutenant for that matter. He hadn't said one word to her since they entered the factory other than to ask for directions, still something in the back of her mind bothered her about him but right now there were more important things. She attempted to contact the Archangel using the Strike's radio despite what she had said earlier, it was better than doing nothing and the pilot had no objections.

Eventually they found what they were looking for; the trailer containing the Launcher Striker Pack, they couldn't mount the equipment in here due to the low ceiling; they would have to get out into the open first. Climbing out of the cockpit and onto the Strike's hand before being lowered to the ground, she climbed into the trailer's cabin and started the engine and the pair left the factory. A few times she had to let Setsuna go in front in order to clear a path for her so that the trailer could traverse and even then it was a rough ride that didn't do her shoulder any favors.

When they exited the factory Murrue positioned the trailer behind the Strike then exiting the cabin she entered the back of the trailer and started up the control panel for the crane in preparation to mount the equipment onto the Strike. That's when an explosion rang out from the colony shaft and a mobile suit pursued by a mobile armor exited the dust cloud.

"One of ours, and a CGUE…? It's the enemy commander?!" She realized as it flew by, "Hurry! We have to mount the equipment." Turning back to the control panel she quickly loaded the equipment onto the Strike while the mobile armor distracted the enemy, once docked the Strike engaged its PS Armor and turned to face the enemy which in the meantime disabled there only ally.

That was when the artificial mountain used to disguise the factory block's wall exploded sending debris everywhere, out of the enormous dust cloud a ship emerged. Murrue recognized it, "The Archangel!"

- End of Chapter Theatre -

Part 1 Script

Ribbons: *Reading from his script*I have to reenact my death scene?

Author: *Deadpans* Yes.

Ribbons: *Disbelief* But that's all it says on the script!

Author: It can't be helped.

Setsuna: *Turns to the Author* I am killing him at the end of this scene, right?

Author: Yes Setsuna.

Ribbons: *Horrified*

Setsuna: *Starts sharpening his sword*

Part 2 Bad Directions

Kira: *Had a close brush with death* Hi, I'm Kira. Thank you for not shooting me.

Setsuna: *Shakes his hand* Setsuna, you got lucky.

Kira:*Sweet drops*

Setsuna: *points down the corridor* You'll be safe if you go that way.

Sometime later.

Kira: *Lost* I'm so freaking lost.

Part 3 Unhelpful help

Tolle: *Eyes wide* their huge!

Sai: *Struggles* Heavy...

Tolle: *Stares* No kidding have you seen the size of them!?

Sai: *Still struggling to lift Murrue* Will you stop staring! And help. Me. Lift. Her!

Miriallia: *Signs* You do realized I'm standing right here, right?

Part 4 User Unfriendly

Murrue: *Enthusiastic* Setsuna! Get ready, we're going into battle.

Setsuna: *Staring at numerous buttons* How do you turn off the safety?

Murrue: !?

Murrue: *Disbelief* Tell me your joking.

Setsuna: *Deadpans* I'm joking.

Murrue: ...!

Murrue: *Prays* Lord help us.

The Author: *Appears with an instruction manual* You called?

Murrue: *In complete shock* How are you even here!?

Setsuna: Speak of the Devil, and he will appear.

Murrue: *Faints*

Setsuna and the Author: ...?

- Chapter 1 End -

Author Note:

This is something I've being working on since before 'Nightmare of the Void' before benching it in favor of the other. Due to recent inactivity due to writers block, I've decided to put this out for the time being.

Input is welcome, also let me know what you think of the 'End of Chapter Theater' it's partly inspired by the comical shorts that appear at the end of a number Gundam manage volume and part silly ideas that wouldn't leave me alone as I was writing this.

I might put out a few more chapters for this until I can get back into my other story.

For those concerned about Kira's removal from the story, worry not I haven't rendered him obsolete. He'll reappear periodically throughout the story particularly where Orb's involvement is concerned. While his role is currently minor it would gradually increase as the story progresses.