Power of the Gods - Chapter 2
Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam SEED, Gundam SEED Destiny, or Gundam 00, so please point that damned lawsuit cannon at someone else!
In the two-thousand years which had passed since the last war, there weren't as many changes as one might have expected. The PLANTs still orbited the Earth, as did the Moon. In fact, most of the changes had been to the Earth itself. The blue sphere now sported three massive orbital elevators, each of which rose 75,000 kilometers above the surface.
The elevators were mainly used to move people and supplies into space. All three of the elevators were connected to a massive geostationary ring that encircled the Earth's equator, the ring itself was covered with countless numbers of solar energy collectors, and the solar energy was transmitted down the towers and into the main power grid.
The completion of the orbital elevators, about fifty years earlier, had all but eliminated the need for mass drivers or surface-to-orbit rocket systems, in addition; the island nation of Orb was gone, but that was because the island had been designated as a memorial to Celestial Being.
Kira sighed softly from the observation deck as the Archangel gently set down in the Pacific Ocean; he looked out to the west and smiled slightly at the beautiful sunset. Heaven was nice, but in his opinion, there was nothing quite like looking out over the ocean during a sunset.
After silently watching the sunset for a few moments, Kira noticed that the wedding ring on his right-hand ring finger was glowing with a dull, but steadily brightening golden light. Now that they were alive again, the wedding rings, which Kira, Cagalli, Hope, Lacus and Murrue wore, acted as inhibitors, blocking them from using some, but not all, of the supernatural powers, which they had received when they first arrived in heaven two-thousand years earlier.
In addition to acting as inhibitors, the rings would also glow with a specific color when one of his lovers was nearby. The brighter the glow, the closer they were. Cagalli's color was gold, Lacus's color was pink, Hope's color was purple, Murrue's color was blue, while Kira's own color was green. When the four women were merged, however, the color was white.
Kira continued to watch the sunset, as Cagalli walked up from behind him and gently wrapped her arms around him and as she did, she whispered into his ear. "I was quite surprised when I first found out that God doesn't consider us to be related."
Kira's eyes widened in surprise, but he didn't move as he replied. "Really, why is that?"
"Well, there are multiple reasons." Cagalli answered. "First is the fact that you are the Ultimate Coordinator, as a result of that our genetics were different to begin with. On top of that, there is the fact that you are a Genuine Innovator. The exposure to those high-density GN Particles apparently altered your genetic code even more. If anyone were to look at our genetic code, it would be very hard for them to believe that we are brother and sister. Our genetic codes are that different now." Cagalli smiled slightly as she continued. "It's the same way with Hope. Even though she is a female clone of you, the difference in your genetic code is so great that anyone who looked at it would have a very hard time believing it."
After a moment of silence, Kira whispered. "So, we've been given another chance at life. But this time we are immortal, we have perfect immune systems and we are able regenerate from injuries..."
Cagalli smiled as she teasingly whispered. "Which means that if I got upset at you and decided to rip one of your legs off and beat you with it, the limb would grow back?"
Kira chuckled slightly and nodded as he turned to face Cagalli, gazing lovingly into her beautiful golden eyes as he replied. "Yea, pretty much."
After a few seconds of simply gazing into each other's eyes, Kira ran a hand through Cagalli's hair before then pulling her into a gentle hug. The blonde-haired woman simply smiled, sighing in contentment as she returned the embrace.
After embracing each other for a moment, Cagalli quietly said. "I still don't completely understand why I had to merge with Hope, Lacus and Murrue before we could be brought back to life. I didn't mind being merged with them; I just don't see why we couldn't have all been brought back in our own separate bodies."
Kira smiled slightly as he replied. "Well, Cagalli, the merger had to happen because God could only send two people back down here without upsetting the balance of life, death and rebirth."
The Destiny's eyes flashed and the Gundam lunged into the air, with twenty-three ragtag, forest-camouflaged mobile suits lifting off behind it. The remaining mobile suits and armored vehicles tramped forward towards the approaching forms of the Akatsuki and the Freedom.
In the Destiny, Shinn Asuka, the descendent of the legendary Celestial Being pilot of the same name, glanced back at the mobile suits following him into battle, and to his dismay, found only a handful of BABIs, a squadron of DINNs, along with a few Jet 105 Daggers and Dagger Ls; hardly something with which could repulse the power of the Archangel, assuming that it was truly the legendary battleship which his ancestor had been based on.
The Destiny rocketed ahead, opening fire on the Akatsuki. Inside the shimmering machine, Cagalli narrowed her eyes, ducking aside from the blasts, but the enemy machine quickly closed the distance, drawing a beam saber as it moved in for the kill. Cagalli somersaulted effortlessly over the Destiny, but she was then forced to send the Akatsuki jetting to the left, just dodging a beam cannon blast from the enemy machine.
An instant later, the Destiny was back, beam saber raised high for a killing blow. Cagalli thrust her beam shield into the Destiny's path, blocking its saber.
"Shit!" Cagalli grunted. As the Destiny ignited a second beam saber, and Shinn grinned victoriously.
Kira's eyes went wide as something sliced across his consciousness, a feeling he had never known before, a feeling of danger. The rest came naturally; "Cagalli!" he cried as the Freedom grabbed the Destiny's head, crushing it, but was too late as the Destiny severed the Akatsuki's head with its beam saber.
"You bastard!!!" Kira shrieked as he freed the EMP Cannon from his machine's rear waist armor and fired it at the Destiny, instantly disabling the machine.
"Motherfucking Christ!" Cagalli screamed in rage from the cockpit of the Akatsuki Gundam a few minutes later. "Thirty seconds, that took! Thirty fucking seconds!" She roared, slamming her fist into the main monitor. "What was the point of coming back if I can't even shoot down a two-thousand year old Gundam?!"
Kira suppressed the urge to roll his eyes as the Freedom zoomed through the air, streaking back to the Archangel, heavily laden with the maimed and smoldering Akatsuki and Destiny in hand.
Cagalli would be complaining about her ignominious defeat at the flashing, beam cannon-equipped hands of the Destiny Gundam for some time, it seemed, which was all the more incentive to quickly land before she decided to turn her anger on him.
Kira was quick to hack the access code of the Destiny Gundam, and escort the pilot to the brig. Kira was quite surprised to find out that not only did the pilot look exactly like Shinn Asuka, the pilot of Celestial Being's own Destiny Gundam, but this man had the exact same name as well. When Kira finally walked into the locker room, fifteen minutes later, he found Cagalli sitting on the bench in front of the lockers. She was sitting motionless, staring blankly ahead; it almost looked like she was in a trance.
"Why don't we just end it?" Cagalli asked her voice barely audible.
"Huh?" Kira asked, not sure that he had heard her correctly.
"Why don't we just remove our inhibitors and end this?" Cagalli asked again, now absent-mindedly fiddling with the wedding ring on her right-hand ring finger.
"Cagalli, you can't really mean that." Kira said, staring at the blonde in shock and horror. "If we did that..." He trailed off, the mere thought of wiping out humanity made him sick to his stomach.
"Even after two-thousand years of peace, another war is about to break out, Kira." Cagalli said, her voice filled with an eerie calm as she glanced at Kira and smiled sadly. "But this time we have to power to end the war before it starts. We have the power to end the entire history of war."
Silence reigned for a long moment, but then Kira noticed the silent tears, which were now streaming down Cagalli's cheeks as she continued speaking, her voice slowly rising in volume. "Orb is gone. Celestial Being has been forgotten, along with what we fought for!" The blonde-haired woman was now openly sobbing as she yelled. "What's the point of fighting to eliminate war if humanity is just going to keep fighting?!"
Kira could see that Cagalli was upset, that much was obvious. Although he wasn't completely sure if she was more upset at the fact that a two-thousand year old Gundam had just beaten her, or if she was suffering from shock due to all of the changes that had taken place in the last two millennia.
In truth, there weren't as many changes as one might have expected. The PLANTs still orbited the Earth, as did the Moon. Actually, most of the changes had been to Earth itself, as the blue sphere now sported three massive orbital elevators, each of which rose 75,000 kilometers above the surface.
After a few seconds of silence, Kira gently took Cagalli's hand in his own, before then leading her out of the locker room and towards the bridge.
And so, Chapter 2 is complete.
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