Gundam SEED: Arbiter Forces
By: Shadow Chaser
An Alternate Universe to Entropy Rising
Timeframe:
In the events of Phase Nineteen, Kira appeared at the last moment to kill Sven Anderson along with Athrun who killed Griever, Kira's clone-brother. However, during the clean-up process, it is where things take a nasty twist.
Story:
Previously on Gundam SEED: Entropy Rising…
"Quinn?" Keiji whispered next to him, anguish in his voice as they stared at the Kingfisher who was had apparently knocked down Kanoko and had taken Kira hostage. For Athrun, it wasn't the fact that Kingfisher had betrayed them all and had pointed a gun at all of them while holding onto Kira, it was that Kira had such a blank look in his eyes, like he wasn't even noticing that he was being held hostage.
Something inside of Athrun suddenly snapped and his eyes flashed with anger. A part of him that was still clinging onto the crumbling form of sanity told him that what he was doing was utterly foolish, but he had enough. He had seen too many of his friends fall, too many of his family suffer and die…enough was enough.
There was no way Kingfisher would ever accomplish what he was going to do. He was going to stop the madman. He was going to save Kira. He charged at Kingfisher, his mind focused on the goal of separating Kira from the man's grip. He didn't care about anything except to save Kira…
He vaguely heard the shout of his name, nor the sudden discharge of a gun being fired, but what he did feel was a sudden radiating pain that pierced him and spread from his chest. It was as if everything was slowing down… He saw his world tip head-over-heels around him as he fell back from the gunshot wound to his chest. It was then that everyone began to get foggy around the edges.
"You will let me pass," he said before he terminated the link and gunned the throttle, shooting forward. As he passed by the LF fleet, he saluted them one last time, a former LF who was now ZAFT. He knew the next time he met them, they would be enemies…
And they did not stop him.
Phase Two – Dreams
"Affie-chan! Wait up!" seven-year-old Athrun turned around from walking to see his best friend Kira running up, his school bag thumping behind him. He stopped and waited as he ran up, all out of breath. "Why didn't ya wait? You know me don't like waking up!"
"Ahhh!" Athrun shook his head before mimicking a sweatdrop with his right hand that he had seen some of the older children on the Lunar Colony, Copernicus City, do, "you forgot Kiwa-chan, they're showing the new robotic models today!" Both boys had lost at least one of their front teeth, making pronouncing their names a bit slurred, but they didn't care. Many children their age were losing their baby teeth and growing in new ones, so much that even the teacher was appalled at their language skills.
"I know…" Kira pouted in anger before a grin lit up his face and the two boys continued on their walk, "ya think they'll let me try?"
"Me first!" Athrun held up his nose play-acting superiority, "I'm taller than you!"
"Well I'm older!" Kira punched him in the shoulder, "me first!"
"Only by a few months," the blue-haired boy shot back.
"So?"
"So, I'm taller, so nyah!"
"Meanie," Kira stuck his tongue out toe Athrun to which the other boy returned before they started playfully shove each other on the sidewalk, seeing who can shove the other to the edge and onto the grass. Athrun finally got the upper hand as he succeeded in knocking Kira onto the grass and he grinned as he stood on the edge of the sidewalk…
"Athrun…why…" it was as if someone had taken a camera and snapped a picture before the scene around him changed. Fire roared everywhere and he found himself in a different outfit. Gone was the school uniform and in place he was in the red ZAFT flight suit, knife in hand, formerly pointed at Kira who had a shocked expression on his face as he stood in front of the woman he didn't know at the time, but got to know as Murrue Ramius.
"Kira…" he said, the shock of finding his childhood friend among this battlefield froze him to the spot. He suddenly noticed Murrue moving and the soldier inside of him reacted without thinking, jumping backwards to dodge the bullets the woman was firing at him. He reached the cockpit of the Aegis and hopped in, quickly calibrating the mobile suit to his specs…
Someone took a succession of snapshots, so brief that he almost didn't catch them, but he knew what they contained. Their fateful battle near Mariko's house…reuniting in Orb under battle…learning to trust each other again and to form that friendship once more...
Suddenly it was a longer snapshot and he was back in his school uniform, handing Tori over to Kira. "We'll meet again, right? We'll meet at PLANT where you can belong with other Coordinators…"
"Yeah…sure," Kira looked sad and Athrun saw tears prick at the corner of his eyes and even felt some on his own. He swore he would never cry as boys never cried…not if they wanted to be called sissy by the others at the LunarPrep School
"Tori!"
The soft wind blew the falling cherry blossoms all around them until it obscured his vision and blackness took over… With that blackness, he started to feel pain around him. His whole body hurt…why did it hurt? He wasn't injured was he? Why did he hurt all over? It felt like someone had ripped his heart out and used it as a sacrifice…and his whole body was in pain because of it. Through the pain he started to hear murmurs that gradually turned into people speaking.
"…think he's coming around…"
"Shhh!"
"You shut up!"
The voices were soft but insistent and as he slowly opened his eyes, he saw the blue-green hued ceiling of a medical bay…it was the medical bay on board the Eternal.
"Athrun?" Lacus' gentle voice spoke to his left and he turned his head slowly seeing her worried expression. Next to her was Cagalli who looked like she had been crying, but had roughly scrubbed her face so that he couldn't see her tears.
"Lacus…Cagalli…" as he eyes focused, he saw that beyond them, peering in from the door of his room in the medical bay was Yzak and Dearka who looked like they had been shoving each other before they spotted him. Yzak raised an eyebrow at him before going away and Dearka just gave him a crooked smile, the two of them seeing that he was awake and was going to be fine.
"We were worried about you…how do you feel?" Lacus asked in her gentle lilting voice.
Athrun swallowed a bit, feeling moisture return to his dry throat. He nodded gratefully as Cagalli held out a small container of water and he sipped it. "I'm…" he tried to flex his fingers, but none of his muscles moved. That was when he realized he was almost numb from head to toe; only his face seemed to be the part of his muscular structure that was functioning. "Numb…" he said.
"The doctor says the anesthetics will wear off in a couple of hours. Athrun…you," Cagalli's eyes started to tear up, "you were shot…there was so much blood, I didn't know if you were going to survive!" She burst out into tears before hastily wiping them away and sniffled slightly. "I'm so glad…that you're alive…"
"Do you…remember what happened?" Lacus asked quietly as he noticed that she was wringing her hands. As far as he had known her, she rarely wringed her hands, the only time he had seen it was when she was extremely worried after an attempted assassination on her father just after they had met for the first time.
Athrun stared up at the ceiling for a moment before turning away from them. He remembered. He knew what had happened, he knew why he had been shot. He had been shot because he had failed. He couldn't save Kira…
"Athrun?" Cagalli's light touch on his shoulder seared across his consciousness. Though he couldn't feel it, he knew she was trying to comfort him. "It's…not your fault…"
"Yes it is," he replied softly, closing his eyes, trying to block out the memory.
He charged at Kingfisher, his mind focused on the goal of separating Kira from the man's grip. He didn't care about anything except to save Kira… Kira was what was important. Kira was his brother, his best friend; an innocent in this war. He saw his world tip head-over-heels around him as he fell back from the gunshot wound to his chest. It was then that everyone began to get foggy around the edges.
"I couldn't…get Kira away from him," he mumbled opening his eyes staring out of the window that was provided in his room. The stars looked distant and faded from his view…and he knew that somewhere out there, the PLANTs where there, and so was Kira – a prisoner.
"You tried your best, that's all, no one blames you in the least," Cagalli said before shifting slightly in her seat, "we don't blame you…" Her hand suddenly moved from his shoulder to his cheek and he felt her cool touch pulling him away from his gaze at the stars. He turned, very reluctantly, and saw the pain in both their eyes that mirrored his own. "Don't pull away, Athrun, don't leave us alone and pull into that shell…please…"
He knew that he was on the dangerous precipice of falling into his own trap of melancholy, but wasn't solitude worth it? He had always been alone for most of his life, his own companions were his robotic pets that he built and Kira. They were the best of friends, so much that they were like brothers and then he hadn't really sought out any other friends because he was able to relate almost everything to Kira. Even when he left for PLANT and met Lacus, he had a distant relationship with her, not sure of how to proceed with the fact that she was his fiancée.
During that time of separation from Kira, he had built a shell around him, only relying on his solitude and his pets, engaging himself with his accelerated studies. When his mother died during the Bloody Valentine Incident, he had withdrew into that shell further, and enrolled in ZAFT, making others feel that he was aloof and cold.
Even Nicol he held at a distance, only meeting his acquaintance and talking with the gentle young man when the conversation warranted it. He had sensed that Nicol was a reluctant fighter in the war and didn't push it.
The shock of finding out Kira was at the neutral colony of Heliopolis was what started to break the shell and Cagalli was really one of the firsts who actually broke the shell completely. Lacus understood him, but it was Cagalli who really knew him from the heart, the only other person besides Kira.
But wasn't solitude what he wanted? Did he want to go back to that period where he was all alone? It felt good at first, he was able to concentrate and think…yet…it was lonely at times. Human natured deemed that companionship, if on the rare occasion was good for the body and soul – especially in times of heartbreak. Bottling emotions up just wasn't good…it eventually became destructive and that was what had sprung he and Kira's fiercest battle during the war two years ago.
He had kept all those emotions of apathy and fear that one day he was going to face Kira in battle, he hadn't shared it with anyone, and feared that more people were going to die by each of their hand. Nicol's death had triggered that avalanche – the death of whom he had considered and acquaintance, he realized that Nicol was another friend, however distant. That was the spilling point…would that happen again if he bottled up and met Kira on the battlefield once more?
That sudden lancing thought burst through his consciousness and a split second later he knew his answer. His father, no matter cloned, would try to use Kira as a weapon and that was something he or anyone could afford. He had promised Kira when he left in Justice to go to Panama that he would protect him and he sure as hell couldn't do it lying on the bed in solitude.
"Athrun?" Cagalli's voice cracked slightly, hoping he would answer her.
He looked at her, deep into her hazel eyes. "I'll stay…" he whispered, "I won't leave you or anyone else anymore."
She stared at him for a moment, tears of joy shining in her eyes before she suddenly threw her arms around him and buried her face into his shoulder, crying. Athrun was partially glad that he was numb from the neck down or else he knew it would probably hurt a lot to have her weight on him at the moment. He smiled gently as he buried his face into her hair. Through the blonde strands, he saw Lacus wipe away a few strands of tears before leaving the room to let them have some privacy.
This time, he wouldn't fail to save Kira, for his, Cagalli, and Lacus' sake.
There were murmurs all around him and he couldn't really figure out where they were coming from, except for the fact that they were everywhere. He didn't recognize any of the voices…but somehow, a gut feeling told him that something wasn't right either. In fact, that gut feeling told him that something was terribly wrong. He briefly wondered where he was as he tried to lift open his eyes.
They felt heavy and he could only squint them open. What he saw through his slightly fuzzy vision was a darkened room with a greenish hue. There were doctors and nurses milling around, all wearing surgical masks, all at least carrying something. They didn't look like those aboard any of the LF ships…in fact; the room was too large to be in an LF ship…
Suddenly he sensed that one of the doctors was going to look his way and he snapped shut his eyes, making his body and breathing even as possible to play the fact that he was still sleeping. However, the murmurs that his ears were picking up on started to dissipate into the conversation of the doctors that was going all around him.
"…biology…fascinating…"
"Components of the human cell…reproduction clone technology…"
"…number of tests?"
"…Zala's notes taken from Hibiki, this is…"
"It's cruel in a way…but…"
"…clone of this boy…"
"Operation of the brain by Sven Anderson, according to notes and sources."
"But we can't do that, he's the original source."
"Which is why we're attempting to clone him…"
"That's too rushed, we have to wait until more tests are done. We have to factor in the physical world and the interaction he plays…"
"The battle results are astounding. Haven't you seen them? What more tests do you need?"
"I agree with Dr. Pagrin," a new voice broke into the quarreling scientists and Kira tensed slightly before forcing himself to relax as he recognized the voice. He didn't want to give way to the scientists that he was wide awake and listening to their conversation. He forced himself to breathe in a steady rate, trying to keep his pulse level instead of racing at a hurdling speed.
"Director Zala," the doctor that had spoken about more testing spoke up in the hush of the room.
"Dr. Pagrin, ladies and gentlemen," Patrick Zala's voice was cold, brittle, and Kira faintly mused that this was the first time since he and Athrun parted ways on Copernicus City that he had even seen or heard Patrick Zala's voice. It was not the warm caring voice he had been used to. "What are the initial results?"
"Skyrocketing, Director," a female voice spoke up near Kira's foot, "the boy has the astounding capabilities that are beyond Ulen Hibiki's notes or what anyone else has observed."
"Hmm…excellent," footsteps to which Kira guessed were Zala's started to walk towards him and they stopped near him. He sensed that something was terribly wrong with Zala and remembered the conversation that had transpired when Kingfisher had taken him hostage.
It wasn't that he couldn't struggle out of the man's grasp, it was that he had been in so much shock in the aftermath of the gunfight and in killing Sven Anderson, the man that had caused so much trouble to his family and friends, that he couldn't really handle anymore and he shut down. It was only seeing Athrun shot that he awakened again and tried to fight his way free from Kingfisher's grasp.
However, the man had knocked him unconscious and he blurrily remembered being placed on a shuttle's bed with an IV dripping before he was sedated again. The next thing he remembered was finding himself here, lying on an examining table with scientists all around him.
"Ha!" Zala's suddenly exclamation made Kira jump slightly and he cursed silently for giving away his position. "So, he is awake…" Zala's voice suddenly turned gentle, "Kira…open your eyes. There is nothing to be afraid of. Uncle Patrick is here…"
Kira kept his eyes closed, wishing that all of this was just a nightmare, he would wake up soon…nothing of this was real. He was still in his mother's arms, there in Colony Mendel. He was surrounded by friends; they had defeated the enemy…
"Kira…don't be stubborn to your Uncle Patrick. Remember what your parents taught you? Don't be rude to others," the warm voice that had been the man at Copernicus City, the man that had been Athrun's father, spoke above him and Kira gritted his teeth in an effort not to open his eyes. He wanted to believe that this was Uncle Patrick Zala, but Athrun said that his father had died in Genesis, shot by one of his own men.
Patrick Zala had gone insane during the war two years ago, and wasn't the same man as he was all those years ago. This was not Uncle Patrick…this was just a trick, a trick…
"A trick…" he whispered as he kept his eyes closed.
"Not a trick, Kira. I'm right here, your Uncle Patrick," Zala said.
"You died. You died in Genesis. Athrun and Cagalli told me," he said in a slightly quavering voice.
"I didn't…Athrun and Cagalli were wrong. I'm right here, and if you open your eyes, you can see me," Zala replied in the same gentle voice, but Kira could hear a brittleness in them.
Kira finally opened his eyes, staring up at the aged face of the man that was Patrick Zala. He looked exactly like he did all those years ago on Copernicus City, except with a lot more grey hairs and crystalline eyes. He narrowed his eyes slightly, "You're a clone."
That provoked a reaction from Zala and Kira felt his head snap to one side, his left cheek slamming painfully into the cool metal of the examination table, his right cheek burning where Zala had hit him. He didn't even cry out, all of the anger and frustration of what had happened to him built up in him to the point that he didn't care anymore. But one thing he cared about, was escaping from whatever this place was and getting back to his family. Back to Athrun, Cagalli, Lacus, and his parents.
His hands curled slightly as he pushed himself up slowly, a bit oblivious to the gasps of the scientists or their exclamations of him overcoming the sedative. His tee-shirt and boxers that he usually wore under his flightsuit when he piloted the Freedom hung limply from his shoulders. Pushing himself to a sitting position, he hung his head and turned a side-ways look at Zala who was smirking at him though anger was burning deep in his eyes.
"The real Patrick Zala wouldn't do something like this. Athrun was right, he is dead and the only thing I see is just an imitation. Whatever you do to me, I will not cooperate," he said in a cold voice, glaring at the man.
"Then you never knew of my true intentions, Kira Yamato. And in due time, you will cooperate or you will see your friends and family suffer," Zala replied in an equally cold voice.
Quinn Misali stepped away from the examination room after hearing what Zala had replied to the boy's defiant words. Walking down the bare halls of the secluded space on the PLANT that was the home to the newest incarnation of the happenings of Colony Mendel, he had to admit that Kira Yamato was either insane or had the guts to stand up to Zala.
The boy had earned his respect as a mobile suit pilot, but even then, he was only human. His job was done and now he had the time to relax before his next assignment. He had wondered if he should help Kira escape, but had shoved the thought to the side as it was just a job…he had no obligations to Kira nor to anyone in the LF to bring back their precious little Coordinator.
That was what had disgusted him when he worked for the LF. Each person on there, with probably the exception of Yzak Joule, had held Kira in such a high esteem, though the boy was barely aware of it, that it made him sickened to see that one person was so doted upon that everything depended on him.
He believed in teamwork, and that no one person was a hero and beacon to others. It just set the team and the person up for martyrdom.
"Are you sure your consciousness wants the boy's capture on it?" a feminine voice startled him and he stopped before staring into the shadows where a woman was leaning against the wall, almost casually.
"It's none of your concern Dr. Madison," he said as the woman walked out of the shadows. She had a brown bob and wore blue-rimmed glasses. She wasn't pretty or gorgeous, but her eyes were sharp and she was a scientist. Dr. Madison Francis was one of the top Coordinator geneticists in PLANT. What she was doing here working for Zala was beyond him, but he didn't concern himself with it. After all, Zala probably needed someone who knew what were the Coordinators' genes to help him continue Ulen Hibiki's research.
"He probably will be tortured," she continued, tapping her foot.
"And?" Quinn asked, daring her to continue.
"Zala will try to change him…"
"Is this supposed to affect me because it isn't working," he said evenly, "I did my job. Now do yours." He spun on his heel and walked away, leaving the doctor staring at him.
"Then if it must be, I'll do my job," Madison pushed up her glasses before adjusting them on her nose. "I only pray for your soul Quinn, and that you'll eventually do the right thing, otherwise, we would all be in trouble."
