A/N: Hello fellow writers and readers
This chapter is dedicated to Naishu. Naishu was awesome enough to review my story and tell me what she thought. My mistakes and my achievements and I appericate all that she was nice enough to do it. This is out to her. (^_^)
The Eternal Love of Guns and Roses
By Alice
Chapter II
[Tokyo Special Economic Zone]
"Because of Celestial Being's armed intervention on Ceylon Island, we suffered the grave loss of 148 fine soldiers. Although they claim to be eradicating disputes as peacekeepers, what they are performing is nothing more than acts of terrorism that threaten our national security."
"Only a few missions and they already hate you greatly. " Lightning said, impassively watching the prime minister spout his speech. She looked over to Setsuna who was sitting on his bed. A question hit her like a bolt, as they usually did. "Why do you and the others do this?"
"We're trying to end war, that's Celestial Being's goal." Setsuna grunted while rereading the paper he had in his hand.
"I know that. No one lets me rest without telling me same thing over again." she hissed in frustration. "What do you and the others really gain for doing all this?"
Setsuna glared in confusion. "What makes you think we have ulterior motives?"
"Because there is no one in the world who would do something to this extent without gaining something, anything in return." she commented almost snarkily as she caught his eye.
"We do this because we want peace."
Lightning smirked, skeptical. "That's bull…It's impossible for people to a truly peaceful world. You may say that, but I have a feeling, you don't believe in it fully either."
The young Gundam Meister went silent. Setsuna wasn't acknowledging anything that the brown-haired girl was saying against his cause, quickly shutting her out from thought and sight. He believed in the philosophy of Aeolia Schenberg. He was striving his hardest to make it a reality, and he would do all he could to see it through. To hear her make such a comment was an insult to everything Celestial Being stood for.
Lightning sighed. She'd irked Setsuna back into his reserved persona, now with a strained tension. Realizing it was pointless to ask anything further, she returned her bored stare to the small holographic screen, watching the prime minister's fist hit the podium for dramatic emphasis.
"We, the Human Reform League, pledge to oppose their acts of terrorism to our greatest ability. In response to Celestial Being's armed interventions, an emergency military act will be put into motion. Be it in the air or on the ground, if they take one step into our territories, we will not hesitate to respond with lethal force."
Lightning inwardly scoffed, thinking that the sweaty prime minister was talking out the side of his neck. She noted how his voice dropped an octave or two, his beady black eyes were glaring angrily into the crowd, pointlessly looking serious in his said attempt to seem frighten to the enemies know as CB. This was silly, she thought.
The councilors were looking into the cameras, faces serious, trying to pull the infamous scare tactics as their prime minister. She could see their wrinkle lines in the close-up, some of them whispered inaudible words in each other's ears. They looked so stiff, like they'd been forced into the overly starched suits and forced to wear businessy, determined expressions.
As the man talked, some part of her wanted to sow his lips shut. His meaningless words of promise weren't going to help the nation, or the world. By the sight of the audiences' faces, they didn't have that much real faith either. It was obvious that they were used to the song and dance that the 'unity of nations' campaign was used to performing, a farce that came easily in the government.
Lightning got up after a few more minutes of enduring the empty foolishness and headed off into the living room for a meal.
Before she left the room, she turned to Setsuna. "Say you prove me wrong, about gaining a world without war, what will you do then?" with that, she left.
"Furthermore, in order to put a stop to Celestial Being's senseless violence, we call for the Union and…"
Setsuna stared down into his news article with Lightning's question echoing in his head. It was far too early for her question to be answered, almost millennia for now. The war had just started, yet her question was stabbing the back of his mind repeatedly.
He focused on the paper headline in the hope of ignoring the annoying question.
"AEOLIA SCHENBERG MASTERMIND OF CELESTIAL BEING. TRUE INTENTIONS STILL UNKNOWN."
His brown eyes skimmed the article of Aeolia's life and accomplishments. The article also went to asking questions about why he'd made the drastic decision to launch CB before his unfortunate death. Yet, Lightning's question still lingered. 'What will you do then?'. In a vain attempt to rid the thought again, he glanced at the prime minister of the HRL. The fat-faced man glared menacingly at him from the page, almost as if he knew Setsuna's true identity.
Silently stressed, he stretching his limbs across his bed to stare up at the ceiling and slowly fluttered his eyes shut, hoping to rest his 'on-the-edge' mind. A short lived moments of tranquility, a burning smell wafted into his nose, setting fire to it inside and out. He flashed up and suddenly finding himself to have sped towards the living room.
He could hear Lightning's choking coughs in the kitchen with the faint sight of gray vapors coming through the doorway. He hurried in, the smoke slightly irritating his eyes, catching sight of the brown haired girl. The young Meister saw Lightning fanning the grayish mist that was spewing from a large skillet on the stove, and she was failing miserably at it. He glared at her while he pushed her away and grabbed the handle to place the scalding pan in the sink and douse it.
Quietly, Lightning followed Setsuna as he went back out of into the living room to open the screen door. The smoke was soon pulled out, yet the room still smelled of charred meal.
"What were you doing?" he asked, slightly coughing the black smoke out of his systems.
"I was hungry. I tried… fixing something for myself. It didn't go very well." Lightning's sight dropped to her bare feet, a tiny tint of pink touched her cheek.
He sighed. "And you went in not knowing how to properly cook?" It sounded like a question, but she knew it was meant as a comment.
"You already seemed mad at me. I didn't expect you to do much, considering I've been annoying you." In a way, her sentence had a tone of sarcasm laying underneath it, itching a frown from Setsuna.
"You didn't need to do it." he said. "And we can't stay in here with the apartment full of smoke."
The girl tilted her head at him. "Then what do you suggest?"
Setsuna went back to the view of the bustling city. Tokyo appeared glassy from the balcony, the way the light hit its reflective, mirrored windows was beautiful. Mid-morning air was refreshing the residents as they made their way outside stories below. An outing, he thought, at least it will give me enough time to breath.
"Get your clothes on." Setsuna commanded more than said.
"Huh?" Lightning asked, stunned.
"We're going out."
He was surprised when the super soldier was suddenly excited. Her incitement seemed to twinkle in her uncertain eyes. Inexplicably, it made him nervous. She was way too enthusiastic to simply go outside.
The moment Lightning stepped outside, Setsuna realized that a child in a theme park had more self-control. She ran inside nearly every store that caught her eye, dragging her charge in along the way. Setsuna even had to apologize to dog owners when she'd started getting tad too attracted to the furry creatures. Any restaurant with a delicious scent wafting from its doors made her stand by the window, where she made customers feel uncomfortable as she loomed over them. The boy felt almost abused, being tricked by the others into having a bodyguard, when the roles clearly were reversed in the most ridiculous way possible.
After her last face plant on a restaurant window, he drudged onto the nearest place that he could think of. Lightning linked her arm in his.
"This is a very nice place." she said, biting into a hot-dog that Setsuna had bought. "Do you come here often?"
"No" he murmured next to her. "At least, I don't come here very much."
She hummed, the airy sound hit a new level of annoying in the boy beside her. Settling back on the pale bench, she gazed into the vast blue sky. It was painted with grayish white clouds overhead. The breeze had an odd taste to it, cooling while uniquely sweet.
"So this is what it's like outside." She said. The corner of her mouth nearly turned upward at the thought. Years of living in a tiny box… well, she couldn't think of an appropriate way to word her horrible experience in that hellish cell.
"I want more food." she bluntly declared.
Setsuna's eyebrow rose as he looked at the ball of aluminum in her hand that was leftover. "You just had a hot-dog." He pointed out.
"And I want another one. Can I have more money please?" Setsuna sighed, digging into his back pocket and handing her some change. "Thank you!" she cheered, hurrying to the food stand nearby.
The dark haired Meister groaned, biting into food with a large chomp while people were going about their lives. The girl was getting stranger by the minute.
June appeared to be in full swing from the looks of the park. Three teens passed by, gossiping about minor things like grades, boys, and what another girl had said the other day. An elderly man was chasing his young granddaughter through the park, a tiny terrier on his heel. A couple was strolling along near the fountain in the center of the park, their arms linked, laughing at jokes and speaking about boring daily activities. So many voices clamored over each other in a whir, it amazed Setsuna that he could hear his own thoughts. Everyone was relishing the day.
…until the bomb dropped.
The world exploded. Everything came to an end and Setsuna was the only one to see the ugly aftermath of it. Trees in the park were splintered if non-existent. Buildings were ripped in half or shredded into crumbled pieces of cement. The once bright blue sky was now a dead black that spread further as more smoke fueled its transformation. All around him were the dead. All were scorched to blackness, they were littered across the land before him. The smell …it was insane that it was so vivid in his mind. Who knew death could smell so horrible? How it brought memories of his lost comrades in Krugis.
"Oh, hey." a familiar voice. Saji Crossroad came into view in the corner of Setsuna's vision, accompany with a particular blonde haired girl. The world around them returned to normal, Setsuna's flashback over. The girl stared uneasily at him as she clung to Saji's arm and hid behind him. The Meister could tell that she had the same jittery feeling as her boyfriend when they'd met.
"Saji Crossroad." Setsuna acknowledged.
"Yeah. So you remembered my name after all." He seemed relieved. Saji desperately wanted to be calm, but the sweat against his temple showed otherwise.
"Who is this?" the girl questioned.
"Oh, he's my neighbor…umm…" Saji struggled to pull his teenage neighbor's name from his memory bank, but had yet to produce it under the stoic and harsh brown eagle eyes that were observing him.
"Setsuna F. Seiei." a dreaded feminine voice played in the air.
The three spun their focus on to Lightning who had been watching the whole scene as she took a large bite of her hot-dog. Saji chuckled with embarrassment after being scared by the unexpected stranger. Setsuna owlishly blinked at her. 'When did she get here?' he thought, his heart rate was strangely elevated, he wondered why.
"Right! That was his name." Saji blushed and smiled before drawing back to Exia's Meister. "Setsuna, this is a friend of yours?" he asked, referencing Lightning.
Setsuna ran a hand over the back of his neck, thinking of a way to explaining Lighting without compromising himself. He never really thought of a cover for her, something that Saji wouldn't pry about, even if the young man didn't appear to have the nosy neighbor quality that he would expect from others.
"I live with him." Lightning impulsively noted, chewing the last of her food and balling up the wrapping as before. "It was just recently that I moved. Setsuna will be taking care of me for now. I'm new to Earth and don't understand very much, so if I do something that's not normal, please let me know." Saji blushed profusely at her, a slight misleading thought had came to mind, his face remind her of a ripe tomato.
Saji had stuttered a befuddled "Um s-sure, anything you need to know about Earth, we'll be happy to help, um…" The young brown haired male was nervously trying to throw away the implications of two people of opposite gender living together.
"Lightning." she confirmed.
"Lightning… I hope you enjoy your time here." he said. Louise gave him a tiny squeeze and he noticed her uneasiness when glancing at brown eyed boy, which was unusual for her. He was more used to her social butterfly habits like talking your ear off if you landed on a subject that she fond of, she was rarely this reserved.
"Sorry, we would talk more, but we have to go." He said when the awkward moment of silence was too much for him. "We'll see you around!"
"Same here." Setsuna agreed, taking Lightning by the arm. The pairs walked off in opposite directions.
"Saji…" the young blonde finally piqued, quickly losing her uneasiness.
"Hm…?"
"Those two seemed a little weird." The blond told him.
"I know. Hopefully we'll get use to them." He gave her a comforting smile, regardless of inwardly doubting the words.
The day became evening by the time the two teens had returned home. They were tired and settled for simple take-out, reluctant to have another go with the stove. After it had arrived, Setsuna had found it difficult to interpret Lightning. She'd started humming after a bite of her steam buns, when he was familiar with the same blank and mocking girl that same morning, but there she was eating with out a care in more slightly creepier way that a normal girl would. It was strange. She was strange. The question soon blossomed, did going out mean that much to her?
"You've been off today." he muttered, picking at his food with his fork.
Lightning blinked at him in mid-bite. "Did I really? I didn't think I was. What part of the day seemed the strangest?" She continued tasting her barbequed flavor pork when another hum erupted from her throat. Setsuna was quiet for a moment, then responded.
"Like now, for example. You've been eating a lot… like you've never had food before." he observed, thinking over the other oddities that had occurred. "When we were out you attracted a lot of attention, moving around the way you did."
"I did…?" she sounded neutral when she asked. "I thought it was normal for a girl to act like that."
"It's not." he replied simply, he shoved a spoonful of curry into his mouth.
"Oh… " she blushed, unwilling to meet Setsuna's gaze. "I guess… I went a little overboard in the moment. I've never experience outside… so I let loose a little bit." She bit her lip. "I'm sorry I became troublesome when I said I wouldn't."
"Just don't do it aga-" He was cut off when his phone rang. He dug it out of his pocket, flipping it open and pressing his ear again the receiver. "Setsuna."
His communications officer answered. "There is a situation in Taribia in need of an intervention. Head there immediately. More details will be disclosed on the way."
"Understood." He hung up, putting the phone away. "I have to go. Don't leave the apartment." He said, pushing his food away on the coffee table. He threw a look over his shoulder, watching Lightning nod back, then left.
Lightning sighed. Another day of watching him walk out. 'How long will this continue.' she wondered, swallowing another bun. What was her purpose here? To stay in the room while her charge was leaving for the real danger? Danger that she couldn't help with? The half-thought plan for her usefulness was falling apart before it had really begun. Until she could pilot a mobile suit, Setsuna and the others wouldn't see her as anything. More than anything, she wanted to be useful.
