For g00week's Gundam 00 Week hosted on tumblr! The first day's prompts were "Gundam Meisters / Change" and today's are "Celestial Being / Family." I think it's fitting that the first plot bunny I ever allowed myself to have for this show fits them all.
Title from Laora.
Major spoilers through 2x2.
ready aim fire
May 2, 2016
Setsuna waited in the rain, grateful that it meant this already secluded street would be even that more desolate when it eventually became time for their meeting to take place. He stood beneath a broadly branching tree, not caring how the water fell through the leaves to stream down his hair and drip off his nose.
People shuffled past on the grey sidewalk, bundled in raincoats and huddled under their umbrellas; Setsuna watched them all without moving, wondering if the next person to come around the corner would be the one he was looking for.
He had arrived long before the time he'd specified, and realized that he might wait there for hours without catching sight of the other man since there was no true guarantee that he would ever appear. Not truly. But Setsuna trusted that he would come and so he waited on the wet pavement as the minutes ticked by.
Finally, a tall figure came into view across the street, his cap pulled low, obscuring his eyes as he kept his head down.
Setsuna sucked in a shaky breath as he caught his first glimpse because it had been four years since he'd seen that face, but he'd know it anywhere.
The face of the man who had first welcomed him aboard the Ptolemy and defended him in his new role as a Gundam Meister when Tieria Erde looked down his nose in disbelief and Allelujah Haptism protested that he was far too young to join their ranks.
That face had always looked at him kindly, supporting him as he adjusted to life in space, the complicated controls of his mobile suit, and the varied nuances of the crew's common language. He'd always taken the time to pull him aside after simulations to explain what he needed to know in order to survive and thrive in the team.
But he was dead, now. Dead because Setsuna had split off from the crew in order to follow his own personal mission and hadn't been in space to protect the Ptolemy when the barrage of enemy attacks had finally come just as they'd known they would.
Tieria had asked him then why Lockon had had to die. Hauled him up by the collar in the middle of the briefing room as soon as he'd stepped back on board, demanding in a voice that he had never before known to waver why he had had to be the one to die.
Four years had passed and Setsuna still didn't know.
Didn't know if it was his fault for not being there in the first wave of Fallen Angels, his fault for mindlessly following Ali al Saachez in the holy war of Kruges, or his fault for telling Lockon who had truly been the one responsible for organizing the terrorist attack in Ireland all those years ago.
If he hadn't known that the pilot of the stolen Throne had caused the death of his parents and little sister, would Lockon really have left his suit behind, entrusting Haro to navigate the wreckage of Dynames back to the Ptolemy, to stand alone on the sparking wreckage of the GN Arms just so he could take an impossible shot at finally settling the score?
Setsuna doubted it.
He knew that he had been the one who pushed Lockon toward the empty expanse of space where he made his final stand. And had arrived just too late, in an Exia already drained from Trans-Am, to intervene in the mutually destructive duel.
Arrived too late to do anything but look on in horror as the machine in front of him exploded, taking with it the life of one of his dearest- one of his only friends, too late to do anything more than frantically scan the sector for signs of life before the dust expanded to block his view of empty space where before there had been an entire mech.
He had been too late to do anything but scream his ragged denial to the darkness of space, knowing full well that it would do nothing to bring Lockon back. That nothing ever could.
But Ali al Saachez was dead, as well, disintegrated down to the last atom and scattered to the void of the night sky.
At least there was that. Lockon had done in his final moments what Setsuna had been unable to accomplish in his every encounter with the man. Had done more good for the world in that one shot, perhaps, than Setsuna would ever accomplish in his entire life.
Not that it had saved the world, in the end, he thought bitterly. The world was a truly awful place. And humans no better.
Even after the sacrifice of men far better than he could ever be, the world responded by merely changed out one evil for another, swapping out one corrupt government for one even more twisted.
The world truly stayed the same. After all this time, after all this suffering, it learned nothing.
He clenched his fist and watched as the man stepped off the curb to cross the cobblestone pavement in swift but careful strides.
But that was why he was here. That was why he had kept fighting all this time, thinking himself the last of their crew, but nevertheless plowing ahead all alone in the world but for an Exia held together with the makeshift pieces of inferior suits he had scavenged on his solo missions over the years.
Because he couldn't let Lockon's sacrifice be in vain and if he kept fighting, even if he was the only one facing the A-Laws, eventually this world would have to learn that there was no other choice but for it to change. To abandon war. To stop destroying itself needlessly.
To abandon the very changes Celestial Being's actions had made them embrace.
And so he stood at the monument. Waiting for the arrival of the man from across the street so that he could recruit him based on his own instinct in the absence of Veda's recommendations.
Cherudim had been pilotless since its inception and they needed for that to change if they were ever going to move on and continue their work, paying for their sins and changing the world a second time.
Celestial Being needed a pilot with Lockon's skills. Someone with the same drive to fight for the eradication of war. Someone with his same background. Someone-
-who looked exactly like him.
Setsuna had known, theoretically, of course, what he would see at their meeting. He knew from the file that he was recruiting Lockon's identical twin, and so it only made sense that Lyle would look like Lockon.
But still, he waited out of sight and watched the approach of the man who looked just like his old companion, noting on his arrival that he had the same build and shape to his face, the same sweeping hair, even, draping down over his shoulders.
Setsuna closed his eyes.
It wouldn't take much to stand here and imagine that the really was Lockon Stratos walking toward him, alive and well. Resurrected because he had never deserved to die for Setsuna's sins.
But no. His fists spasmed tightly at his sides. God did not exist in this world and neither did miracles.
This was not Lockon.
This was Lyle. The estranged brother who hadn't had a clue what his twin had been doing for the past decade. Who, even now, did not know that he had been dead now for four years. Who would not know until Setsuna told him that his brother had fallen in battle years ago.
This man was not the person he looked so much like and Setsuna had to force himself to remember that as he finally approached the memorial, looking around for his mysterious contact. Setsuna held back, wanting to see what he would do if he had to wait.
Lyle came to a stop in front of the tall black cross, a memorial to the bombing that had claimed the lives of his family. He stared up at it for a long moment then turned his back to it and pulled a cigarette from his pocket. A lighter flicked sharply and was then returned to the pocket of his trench coat.
He blew out a long stream of smoke and as it vanished into the damp air, Setsuna stepped forward, his steps echoing across the cobblestones as he made himself known. The square was empty, now, but for the two of them, and Lyle spoke before even turning to get a good look at him.
"Are you the one who called me here?" he asked.
Setsuna swallowed heavily, because even the cadence of his voice was the same. But he refrained from greeting the man too familiarly because this wasn't Lockon. This man didn't know him. He was a complete and total stranger. Who just happened to wear the face of one of his dearest friends.
At the lack of response, the man turned toward him, stance defensive and sharp eyes piercing. Setsuna's gut twisted, then, as he truly got a look at Lyle for the first time. He clenched his jaw, trying to school his features and keep his voice from wavering as the resemblance threw him off balance.
It made him wonder for just a moment if he hadn't been mistaken after all. If the last few years hadn't been a dream, and Lockon hadn't really died in the explosion, but had been repaired and rehabilitated on Earth so that he could be here standing in front of him right now.
But no.
No, no, no, Lockon was dead and this was someone else entirely.
The closer Setsuna looked, the more wrong this man appeared. Little things like the way he held his weight as he stood, the shade of his eyes… the lack of nearly familial affection in his expression.
This wasn't Lockon.
But that didn't change the reason he had come here.
Something burned in the pit of Setsuna's stomach at the thought that, by recruiting the man before him, he was choosing to replace Lockon, set up an imposter in his place. Someone too similar to their fallen companion to be judged on his own merit, who would just remind them all of the friend who wasn't there and never would be again, no matter what could be said of Gundam Meisters pulling off the impossible.
Because, no, this wasn't Lockon and the difference was jarring, like he was looking at a cracked mirror image or a ghostly overlay.
But Celestial Being needed someone to pilot their fourth suit, the only one still unaccounted for, and who could be better qualified to fill Lockon's shoes than the man who was identical to him in every way?
It was fitting, too, Setsuna thought, that he would be the one to guide Lyle Dylandy into the organization just as his brother had done for him so many years ago. Sticking his neck out to accept the untested last Meister to join their cause.
He looked long and hard at him in the overcast haze. Eyeing him, judging, measuring him.
Wondering how this would all play out.
Because no, this wasn't Lockon. But one day, he might be.