Gundam SEED: C.E. 79
5 years have past since the conclusion of the Second Bloody Valentine War. Despite the end to the conflict, the tensions between the Plants and Earth could never be more intense. While no conflicts have arouse and no battles sparked, no trade exists between the Earth Federation (formerly known as the Earth Alliance).
During these rather scary times, the whereabouts of Athrun Zala, Kira Yamato, and Shinn Asuka were unknown. Not since C.E. 73, have ultra-powerful mobile suits such as the Strike Freedom and Infinity Justice been seen. Moreover, the situations on both Earth and the Plants have changed drastically in these past 5 years...
On Earth, the ruling presence is the Earth Federation Government. In a sort of Unified Nation or World Union, it is the only Governing body to exist on Earth besides ORB. ORB is 'allowed' to exist only as long as it follows the guidelines set forth by the Earth Federation. ORB Chief Representative and Leader Cagalli Yula Athha has been warned on numerous occasions to cease communications with Luna (Moon Colony) and Z.A.F.T. Cagalli, however, continues communications because she fears the collapse of Democracy and Freedom in Z.A.F.T., as do the people of Luna. Their fears were realized in July C.E. 78 when ZAFT elected a new Chairman, Kayneth El-Melloi. Chairman El-Melloi addressed the depressed people of ZAFT, promising them great things...but to accomplish these great things, he required absolute authority... The vote was almost unanimous, and absolute power and authority was granted to Chairman El-Melloi.
Initially, Chairman El-Melloi did exactly as he had promised. He established a stability within the Plants economically, which was in flux ever since the Earth placed sanctions on them. He established a specials working class, which encompassed all those who were homeless, jobless, and penniless. The specials working class would fasten the development what would become Chairman El-Melloi's elite mobile suits Gear Frames. Powered by various mysterious relics found in the depths of space, the Gear Frames had much more energy than a conventional mobile suit. And those who piloted these Gear Frames were apart of Chairman El-Melloi's Rapid Reaction Force (or R.R.F.).
In January C.E. 79, Chairman El-Melloi's R.R.F led an assault on Aprilis-1, the Capital of ZAFT. In the raid, the Supreme Council Hall was destroyed and with it the entire ZAFT Supreme Council, with the exception of Chairman El-Melloi. Immediately following the desolation of the ZAFT Supreme Council, Kayneth El-Melloi declared himself the 1st Emperor of the Zodiac Empire.
On February 14th, C.E. 79, a small rebellion was thwarted and swiftly judged. Emperor Kayneth ordered the use of G-3 Nerve gas on the entire Martius-4 Plant Colony – killing every single inhabitant therein. After committing such a treacherous act of Genocide, Emperor Kayneth orders the forced meltdown of the Martius-4 core. The ensuing explosion causes Martius-4 to shift from it's fixed orbit and descend towards the Earth. Martius-4 crashed in the Pacific Ocean, just off the coast of New Guinea... the result was the utter decimation of the Orb Union and the loss of millions of human lives... This was the beginning of the Third Bloody Valentine War. The Earth Federation Government declared war on the Zodiac Empire following the near-missed apocalyptic attack on the Earth. In response, the Zodiac Empire declared war on the Earth Federation claiming it would cleanse the entire Earth of Naturals so that the true superior race, the Coordinators could lead mankind into the future.
Our story is followed through the eyes of seemingly the sole survivor of the Martius-4 Colony Drop...
It was nighttime, along the coast of the city of Perth, Australia when a woman had washed ashore. She was found by a 17 year old boy, Ashley, and his 16 year old sister, Cameron. They had brought her back to their beach front home, where they lived with their parents. Not many people still resided in Australia due to the natural oceanic backlashes that occurred as a direct result of the recent colony drop which annihilated the ORB Union State. Perth, a once thriving port city known as the "City of Light", was reduced to a quiet ghost town in a matter of days following the Martius-4 colony drop and the natural disasters that followed. Even though Perth was sparred the raging tsunami waves, it did experience massive tremors due to the impact. Now the city lay in near-ruin and declared a national disaster zone by decree of the Earth Federation Government. Those who remained were basically told they were "on their own" as the Earth Federation Government had no intension of aiding them as they were more focused on preparing to go to war against the Zodiac Empire.
After attending to the woman, Ashley and Cameron's mother emerged from the spare bedroom. Almost immediately, she was blitzed by her two children who were anxious to know how the woman was doing. "She'll be fine," she affirmed quietly with a soft smile as she placed her hands on their shoulders.
"Who do you think she is? Do you think she's from ORB?" Ashley inquired.
"Come on, Ash, you know as well as I that there's no possible way anyone from ORB could've survived," Cameron retorted.
"There's still a chance... why do you have to be so negative all the time, Cam?"
"I'm NOT being negative, Ash, I'm being realistic. You saw what happened on the holovision... it was much more concentrated than the 'Break the World' incident that occurred five years ago..."
Cameron's comments had created a rather uncomfortable silence. Ashley knew that she was speaking a truth. A truth that more people had lost their lives from the Malaysia and Aussie regions than in the "Break the World" incident almost five years prior. The silence was broken by their Mother who, like her son Ashley, was quite the positive thinker.
"I'm sure it's not entirely impossible that some people could've survived that tragedy and besides, there's no use in speculating over who this young woman is... but I'm sure when she wakes up we'll get a better understanding of who she is and where she came from. So in the meantime, why don't you two get some rest, no? It's quite late."
Ashley and Cameron smiled in response to their Mother's words. She always had a way of setting them straight without having to yell. It was as if they simply could understand what their Mother was saying and thinking all in tandem and would abide by her wishes without incident. Of course when they were younger, there were always situations that would result in discipline but ever since their Father passed away, Ashley and Cameron did everything they possibly could to make life easier for their Mother.
Nightmare PHASE I
Standing naked in a void of darkness, the woman looked around... her surroundings indicated a void of nothingness and absolute darkness... Fear enveloped her. She ran. She continued to run, however, the more she ran the more she realized she wasn't gaining any ground. It was as if she was running in place, stuck in one single, solitary spot inside a pit of darkness. She screamed. Her scream would echo and become lost in the void of darkness as silence would overtake her surroundings not long after. She fell down to her knees, defeated and desperate... at that moment, two large beams of emerald light shined down upon her flesh... but these weren't beams of light... they were eyes. Eyes of a Mobile Suit... emerging from the darkness, it's hand reached out and grabbed her body...
"Ahhhhh!!"
A scream from the spare bedroom caused Ashley, Cameron, and their mother to rush in. When they did, they say the mysterious blond haired woman sitting up in bed. Her top half of her body was completely exposed, but she seemed unaware of that at this moment. She breathed heavily as the sweat dripped from her brow after awaking from what seemed a horrible dream.
Ashley, being a healthy, 17 year old boy, had his eyes locked on the woman. Only after noticing, Cameron elbowed Ashley in the side and span him around.
"Have you no shame? Honestly, Ash!" Cameron shouted, rebuking Ashley for his intent gaze upon the mystery blond woman.
"Ugh... ow... come on, Cam, that hurt!"
"What do you expect? You're a dirty pervert, Ash!"
"Hey! It's not my fault – why didn't you put a shirt on her or something? Like I knew she was gonna be naked!"
"Stop it, you two. Why don't you stop fighting for a moment and let's try and learn more about our guest. She finally awoke after all... it'd be awfully rude to not introduce ourselves to her now that she's awake," their Mother intervened with a smile on her face, "but first, why don't we let her get dressed before we start asking questions."
With that said, Ashley was shooed out of the spare bedroom while Cameron and their Mother supplied the mystery woman with a set of clothes. Afterwards, Cameron opened the door and called Ashley back inside. Once they were all back inside the spare bedroom, the woman-now dressed in a pair of Ashley and Cameron's Mother's old clothes from when she was younger-was sitting upright at the edge of the bed. She now appeared a bit calmer than just a few minutes earlier. Handing her a cup of cocoa, their Mother spoke to the mystery woman first.
"It's good to see you're awake. My children found you on the beach in the late hours of the night last night... you're lucky to be alive," she said with a smile.
"...Lucky, huh? No... you're wrong. I'm not lucky at all..."
"What are you talking about?" Ashley chimed in with confusion in his voice, "You're alive! That's something to be happy about, isn't it?"
The blond haired woman, still yet to drink from her cup of hot cocoa, looked directly at Ashley. Her gaze penetrated deep into Ashley's eyes. Ashley was unable to keep eye contact with her as he eventually looked away.
"I'm sorry, sometimes he speaks without thinking," Cameron added in, trying to smooth over the atmosphere and ease the tension that was near suffocating them all.
"..." the woman remained silent as she starred down vacantly into her cup of hot cocoa that she held in her hands...
"If it's not too much... could you at least tell us your name?" Cameron asked.
"...Cagalli..."
"Cagalli...? As in Cagalli Yula Athha?" Cameron continued to ask subtle questions.
"...That's what I was once called... but none of that matters now. ORB is gone..."
"No way-you mean you're THE Cagalli Yula Athha of ORB? That's amazing! To think that you survived that catastrophe! I just knew that Cagalli Yula Athha would survive!" Ashley exclaimed as he balled a fist. He was genuinely excited, because in truth he had always respected the leader of ORB. Over the past 2 years he had studied the history of ORB extensively in his World history class in school. Ashley also had a celebrity crush over the leader of ORB, Cagalli Yula Athha... however, he hadn't noticed who she was until just recently, when she said her name and Cameron matched her to the profile of his idol – Cagalli Yula Athha.
However, Cagalli did not share his jubilation. In a fit of anger she threw the cup of cocoa to the floor, shattering it and spilling it's contents all over the wooden flooring. In that instant she slapped Ashley across the face and looked at him with a look of malice and enmity, yet at the same time, there was a deep sorrow in her look as well...
"How dare you... so many people of ORB are dead and you're standing here celebrating my survival? My survival is meaningless – I couldn't do ANYTHING to prevent the catastrophe of ORB! My survival is meaningless... as a leader, it was my duty to protect my people from any and all harm. ...And what did I do? Nothing... I couldn't do a damn thing to prevent the annihilation of my people... I don't deserve to be ORB's leader... let alone deserve to live at all... I wish you would've let me die..."
At first, Ashley was shocked and in awe that he had just been slapped by Cagalli Yula Athha... however, after her latter comments, he was just plane pissed off. And in response he slapped Cagalli across the face, like she did him moments earlier. His actions shocked both his mother and Cameron.
"'How dare me'? Who do YOU think you ARE? Stop acting like just because you were the leader of ORB that you were some sort of God or something – there was NOTHING you could've done to prevent what had happened from happening. It's just pure selfishness and ignorance to blame yourself for what happened to ORB! The important thing is that you're alive – I'm almost ashamed I looked up to you the way I had... you're clearly not the woman I thought you to be..."
Cagalli held a hand to her cheek, where Ashley had slapped her. Her initial look of shock phased away as she regained her composure. Closing her eyes, she chuckled to herself momentarily and then opened her eyes.
"You clearly overestimated my character, kid. I was never a great leader of ORB... not like my Father. While it's true I had aspired to be as good as he was... that aspiration was nothing but a hallowed dream that I was chasing... the fate of ORB makes this fact painfully and obviously clear to me. You could never understand my pain... so don't even try."
"Why...Why are you acting like this? Don't you know how precious life is? Why are you acting like you wanted to die—"
"That's because I DID want to die... I wanted to die with for my people, like my Father before me..."
Clenching his fists, Ashley's anger was evident, "You...you stupid fool!!", he yelled before running out of the room. After he had left, Cameron and her Mother remained quiet. It wasn't long before the silence was quelled, when Cagalli turned towards them and said, "He's right you know, I am a fool... I must sound like an ungrateful bitch, speaking of wanting to die only after you saved my life..."
"Miss Cagalli... there's no way we could possibly ever understand what you had to go through... but never once did I think of such things about you since you've been here."
"I agree with Mother, Cagalli, I'm not a stubborn bull-headed brat like Ash... I would never hold anything against you. There's no way I could fathom the pain of losing an entire nation... but I do understand the pain of losing a Father," Cameron added.
Cagalli, who seemed disinterested in her saviors moments earlier, suddenly seemed interested in Cameron's latest comment, "You lost your father too?"
"Yes, he was a mobile suit pilot for the Earth Alliance. He died in the Second Bloody Valentine War, 5 years ago."
"I see..."
"In any case, you're welcome to stay here as long as you want, right Mother?"
"Of course, Cameron," she answers with a smile, "It's been a long time since we've had a guest in our home."
Cagalli had her back turned to them, she was looking out the large picture window that made up the entire far wall of the spare bedroom. It provided a clear view of the beach and ocean. As the sun started to rise, the view was breath taking. And for the first time since she arrived at their home... Cagalli smiled.
Author's Comments
With it being nearly 2 years since I've embarked seriously on a fan fiction project, I can say with firm promise that I'm back. In case you were unaware of my various projects, one of which I completed about two years ago – Neon Genesis Evangelion: An Alternate Retelling. For all of those who read and reviewed my works I can't thank you enough. Hopefully, this Gundam SEED continuation story of mine sparks some interest in the FF community. As of right now, this prologue chapter is all I have. But with if I receive some reviews/comments on what I've supplied so far – I will definitely continue work on this story. This is definitely a story for all you Cagalli fans out there, you know, the ones who thought she should've/could've been involved more than she was in Gundam SEED/SEED Destiny Canon. Anyway, I hope you like what I've done so far.
RUKAII