Disclaimer: All characters/places/items belong to their rightful owners. I do not own Gundam Seed or any associated characters however, characters like Germaine and Aubrae, came from my head and thus they belong to me.


We sit atop our high pedestals looking down on the world

We are the angels of death

We clasp weapons in our blood smeared hands

The weapons we hold onto so tightly are woven out of our own flesh

We are afraid

We are so very afraid of the world below

The people down there... aren't like us

They've manufactured us

They've built us up only to watch us fall down

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And when we have fallen

They will drown in the ocean of blood we have created.

Verdugo


PART TWO START

*Shards of Dreams*


If you were to ask someone if they remembered anything about what they saw when they were an infant most people would say no. Most people have no recollection of their years of infancy, since a baby's brain has not developed enough at the time for memories to be stored for the long-term, that's why most of us don't remember. Most people say "I have forgotten," But I don't think people can really forget. I believe memory is something absolute, that the things we see, feel and hear never really disappear; they are just locked away in the depths of our subconscious mind. Most things we won't remember, but just because we can't remember it doesn't mean that the memory is entirely lost.

If you were to ask me if I remembered anything of my early childhood then I would have to answer no. I can't remember what I saw when I was only a baby. How on earth could I remember my life that long ago? However, there is one thing that I can remember from that time. My mother.

From what I knew, she was an extremely kind person. She died when I was very young, and if I were to have any memories of her they would be from when I was just a baby. It's sad that I can't remember her; she had already died before I was able to remember defined moments of my life. I do remember one thing though; it is a fleeting memory which rose up from the depths of my mind one night while I slept.

In this memory/dream I was just a small baby being cradled in my mother's arms. She looked down at me and smiled as I raised my tiny hands up to her, reaching for her. I was basking in a warm light as she held me. A warm, gentle breeze blows and I could hear birds singing. I was consumed by tranquility.

"Germaine," Her voice was peaceful and soft; it put me at ease just hearing her speak. "I hope you live a long, happy life, my sweet Germaine."

I clung to her tightly feeling the warmth of her body resonate with mine. I could hear her heart thrumming softly in her chest; I let the rhythm soothe me. At this instance in time, I had no cares or worries, no woes or misfortunes, I was at peace. This is the only time I can remember being truly happy.

I could see her reaching her arms out to me and I ran for her as fast as my little legs could take me.

"Live a long, happy life Germaine. Give your love to the people dear to you," Her image started to fade. The warmth of her body grew cold and the birds' ceased their song.

"I hope you find happiness, Germaine," The sky grew dark and her image abruptly shattered. I remember falling down hard into the dirt. I looked around, my mind muddled and confused. I was scared.

I could hear a baby crying out, wordlessly. It wailed out endlessly as no one came for it's aid.

It's unfortunate, really, that the hopes and desires my mother had for me died along with her body. My life will be a short, unfortunate mistake. Feelings of bitterness and hatred will fester in my body; the feeling will grow the more lives I take, until the point where I drown in this sea of twisted metal.

"I love you Germaine."


Chapter Seven

Can't go back

"X-545, launch!" My machine rose, gently, swiftly out of the hangar and overtop of the moon. The white, mountainous surface lay stretched out before me. I stood there hovering in space for a moment before advancing forward slowly over the white globe. The four of us drifted out and approached the Alliance's new warship; Dominion.

The frame of the Dominion was familiar to me, I remembered that it looked just like that white warship I had seen in Orb, the only thing that really differed about this ship was its colour, the Dominion was a malevolent black, very different from the vibrant white ship I had seen shooting through the sky in Orb.

Shani, Orga, Clotho and I followed the shuttle Azrael was on into the ship and docked our machines in the hangar. We had been at the moon base for about a week now. Preparations were being made to pursue those two machines we had battled in Orb, the red and white ones. For some reason or another Azrael was extremely interested in getting his hands on those them. I could understand why, when I battled the red and white mobile suits I felt something strange about them, something abnormal. There was an ominous feeling which enveloped the being of those two machines, an air of restlessness and almost a certain feeling which made it seem like something big was going to happen, and soon. I didn't know what the future was, so I continued forward, ignorant of the unknown, with my head held high.

Once we had finished docking our machines we drifted out of the hangar and on board the ship. We had been told to meet Azrael up on the bridge. I would have preferred it if I could just go and draw for a little while instead of presenting myself to the bridge crew and the captain of course. I guess all in all it didn't really matter since I was vaguely interested in seeing who the captain of the Dominion was.

The four of us took the elevator up and walked into the bridge. The second I walked through the doors I looked around curiously taking in all the sights. There were various people working at their stations not paying any mind to our entrance, and standing right in front of us was Azrael and some other Earth Forces officer I didn't know. They were talking to a woman with short black hair. Logic lead me to believe that she was the captain of the Dominion, and after listening to their conversation for a bit longer I found that to be true. She had short, black, raven coloured hair which was mostly covered by her captain's hat; she had sharp, defined features, a strict look and light purple lipstick along her bottom lip. The captain stared the four of us, looking slightly shocked at how young we were. Her eyes lingered on me the longest, she must have been fairly taken back upon seeing a female standing among the pilots. I'm sure at the time I was one of the few, if not the only, female pilot in the entirety of the forces.

Azrael followed her gaze and gave us a devious, almost malevolent smirk. I matched his gaze, staring at him unblinkingly.

The other Earth forces officer glanced at us as well, "These are the pilots of the four new machines," He said introducing us namelessly.

"They will be assisting in the mission of terminating the Archangel and capturing the two unknown mobile suits."

The captain's eyes widened in shock, "The Archangel?" She echoed.

"That's the one!" Azrael piped in, "You know of it?"

"Captain Badgiruel was the former vice-captain of the Archangel," The officer said.

"Hah! That's ironic," Azrael mused, "I hope you won't have any problems in shooting that ship down, Miss Captain."

The Captain composed herself and responded quickly, "Of course not sir."

If her heart was in turmoil she didn't show it outwardly. I could tell that she was a strong woman. I wondered what it must feel like, to fight against the people you once called your friends, it was the only thing I could think about as the four of us headed to our designated room. I couldn't put myself in the captain's position at the time since I didn't have any friends. What about Shani and the rest? Well they're more like acquaintances than friends. I had never really fared well in social situations and I had never really had any friends, even when I was small.

Once we entered the room they wanted us to stay in I noticed that it was the pilot's changing room. The room in which pilot's would suit up before heading out to battle. All they had done to liven up the place was throw a few couches in here and there.

I stood at the doorway dumbly for a minute thinking [They honestly just want us to stay here all the time? I'm not even gonna get my own room?]

I got over my disappointment quickly and threw off my pilots' suit. Shani, Orga and Clotho had already settled themselves around the room, absorbing themselves in their activities. I found my sketchbook in my locker and pulled it out with a smile. I took a seat on a vacant couch and began to flip through my book. After turning a few pages I realized I wasn't really in the mood for drawing pictures. I sat there for a moment before my eyes drifted over to the door.

[I wonder if it's locked.] I slid my sketch book under the couch and floated over to the door [zero-gravity is awesome].

"What are you doing?" I heard Orga ask. I turned to look at him as I drifted for the door. I stopped myself on the wall in front of the door and smirked deviously as it opened up.

"I'm gonna explore the ship," I answered him carelessly.

I was about to drift out the door when Orga's voice stopped me, "You'd better not do anything stupid out there Germaine," He looked at me sternly. I could tell that he was worried about me. I knew that they didn't want the four interacting with other crew members but rules were meant to be broken, right?

"Meh," I grunted, and I took off down the hall. After I wandered around for a while I discovered I was lost. After an indiscernible amount of time wandering around the ship I had accidentally burst back into the pilots' room three or four times, Orga and Clotho had given me confused looks since I kept returning back to that room without meaning to over and over again. Well at least I wouldn't have any troubles getting back to them. Other than that this ship was pretty boring, lots of halls and rooms, other than that I had found nothing of interest. I had encountered a few crew members during my travels but they had just ignored me. I didn't have a problem with that; I was used to people giving me the cold shoulder. Even though, deep down I felt kind of depressed that no one would talk to me.

After a while I found myself standing outside of the cafeteria. I stood at the door, wondering if I was hungry or not. I decided on grabbing some grub since I was here and all. A wave of gravity hit me as I stepped through the door, it left me disgruntled for less than a second before I advanced forward. It made sense that they would turn the gravity on in the cafeteria, who wants their food floating away from them while they're eating? There were a few other crew members in the cafeteria, either conversing or eating. I strolled in, grabbed a tray of food and took a seat by myself at one of the tables.

I began shoving the food ravenously into my mouth. I, um, didn't really realize I was eating so violently at the time but, uhh, I was eating my food rather messily. I don't have the best of table manners… It wasn't long before my noisy eating caught the attention of a group of girls a couple tables down. I saw them giving me shady looks and whispering amongst themselves while pointing at me.

I tried to ignore them and focus on my eating. I knew that they must be talking about me and the thought of that began to depress me. It wasn't long before they decided to approach me.

"You might want to keep it down over here," One of them said in a mocking tone, "The cafeteria isn't a pigsty!"

"Although it looks like she belongs in one," The three of them burst out laughing.

I sat there glaring at them, I couldn't think of anything to say.

"Pfft, look at how greasy her hair is," One of them mumbled, "You're just as dirty as a pig too!" more laughs followed.

I grit my teeth and tried my hardest to suppress my anger. If someone had talked to me like that before I had become a biological CPU I would have kicked their teeth in. I was always kind of a fighter who used my fists to get my point across. I know Azrael would look down heavily on any violent interactions with the other crew members. I remembered Orga's words "Don't do anything stupid out there Germaine." I remembered the worried look in his eyes. I couldn't do anything. I couldn't think of the words to use against them, I couldn't use my fists to strike them. I felt powerless; all I could do was sit there and let them shout dagger-like words at me.

Their bullying continued, some other people in the room joined in and laughed along with them. I sat there trying my hardest to suppress the rage but eventually I snapped. I was just about to get up and clock that stupid bitch right in the jaw when I voice cut through the air.

"Stop that!" My head, along with everyone else's shot to the owner of the voice. There was a girl standing at the doorway.

"Leave her alone," She approached us and glared at the girls who had been teasing me. Once she got close I was baffled by her height. She was huge! She must have been at least seven feet tall, I swear, she was like a giant. The mean girls were also shocked by her staggering height.

"Why are you saying such rude things to her?" The girl asked, "Does it give you some sick sense of gratification? Do you enjoy other peoples' misery?"

The mean girls looked at her bitterly before walking off in a huff. The girl watched them go with a disapproved look on her face. When they had left she turned to me and asked, "Are you okay?"

I stared at her dumbly. I didn't know what to say; if I hadn't been so shocked about her height or the fact that she stood up for me than I would have thanked her. For as far back as I can remember no one had ever stood up for me before.

"Oh, I'm sorry," She said quickly before I could clear my mind and answer her, "My name is Aubrae, what's yours?"

"Ah, G-Germaine," I stuttered out.

"That's a nice name," She said kindly, taking a seat across from me. I found the time to look over this girl's features. As I mentioned before, she was freakishly tall, she had milky white hair held back in a tight ponytail with bangs falling around her face. She had choclatey brown skin and icy blue eyes.

"Uhh, thanks," I murmured, blushing at her compliment.

"I'm sorry about those girls but you know, sometimes people are like that," She said softly.

I looked down thoughtfully, "Yeah, I know what you mean."

Aubrae looked at me quizzically for a second before restarting the conversation. "I don't think I've seen you around here before, you're new?"

I looked up at her, "Yeah, I pilot a mobile suit."

"You do?" She gasped, "That's cool! You're probably the only girl pilot I know! You must have worked hard to become a pilot!"

"Yeah," I said softly, there was so much about me that she didn't know. All of the pains I had to go through to be able to fly that damned machine. There was so much people like her were ignorant of. My ability to pilot that Gundam isn't something to be praised for since it's used to kill.

Pushing those thoughts away I decided to try to keep the conversation going, she was the first kind person I had met in a long time. I figured I should be nice to her since she stood up for me and all, "What do you do?"

"Oh, I'm basically a lackey around here. I make sure the ships all stocked up, help transfer the machine parts. Boring things like that," She said smiling faintly. She seemed embarrassed about her job.

I sat there for a minute thinking of what to say, "Your job is important. If there weren't people like you than the ship wouldn't be able to function," I told her in hopes of cheering her up or make her feel more important. I wasn't really sure what I was doing.

She smiled at me, "You're right, I guess every job on this ship is an important one,"

I nodded silently.

"Hey, Germaine?" I looked up at her, "How about you and I be friends?"

I was visibly shocked by her answer. Friends? She wanted to be friends with someone like me! I couldn't remember the last time someone had asked me to be their friend. It felt… nice.

"Oh, u-uhh, sure!" I said trying my best to smile and hope that I sounded enthusiastic. I was happy, meeting someone like her, but I really showed it poorly. Thankfully I think she saw past my outer guise and saw what I really felt inside. She smiled at me kindly, "I'll see you around then?"

"Y-yeah," I watched her leave, right before she disappeared out the door she turned and waved to me. I waved back. After she had gone my mind was buzzing with thought. I had just made a friend. It was a nice feeling. It had also been a long time since I had had a conversation with a girl. I had been around Shani and the rest for so long that I had just gotten so used to boy things. That wasn't really a problem though since I didn't act like much of a girl to begin with but still, the constant burping, farting and yelling that went along with the three of them got on my nerves more than a few times.

I left the cafeteria, still deep in thought. I figured it would be nice to talk to someone other than Shani, Orga and Clotho all the time. Aubrae could be the kind of friend that I would go to if someone had hurt me. I would go to her to tell my secrets, my thoughts, my feelings. I smiled, thinking about how wonderful that would be. She came across as a kind person, like Ms. Lili or like my mother. She didn't seem like a hurtful person and I hoped that she really wasn't one; I hoped that her kindness was not feigned.

Since I was so caught up in my thoughts, I wasn't really paying attention to where I was going. I abruptly bumped into someone while turning a corner. I stumbled back in shock but managed not to fall down.

"Oh, I'm sorry. Are you okay?" I looked up to see who I had run into. My body froze in shock once my eyes fell upon them.

He glanced at me quickly; as if to make sure that I wasn't hurt and took off, not waiting for a response. After he had gone I continued to stand there, frozen to the spot. I couldn't believe who I had just run into. So many questions were piling, one over the other in my frantically buzzing mind.

[Is he really who I think he is? Did he recognize me? Why is he here? Does he know about me?]

It just went on like that until I bolted off towards the pilots' room thinking, [I never thought that I'd ever see you again, Luca].


Authors Note: It's true folks, Shani, Orga and Clotho just sit in the pilots' room the whole time between missions. They don't even get their own rooms. Sucks to be them, eh?