Gundam Seed Destiny Renew
Okay, you all should have read my notes, right?
If not, GO READ IT!
Hmph! Alright, those who have read the notes. Go on with the story!
"Captain!"
Everyone turns around as one of the bridge crewmembers received a message.
I saw the Angel at Dardanelles. I want to see you all again.
The knight in Red is also searching for his princess.
Please contact me.
Miriallia.
"Miriallia-san?"
"Knight in Red?"
"Athrun!"
"This message was passed onto us via the terminal?" Murrue asks.
"Yes"
"She saw the Angel at Dardanelles… Then Miriallia-san was there as well?"
Neumann turns to her. "She is a freelance cameraman now, after all. It won't be surprising if she was there."
"Athrun… Athrun is back, Lacus." Cagalli smiles as she turns to Lacus, who stays quiet.
"From PLANT, you mean. Now, what shall we do? Lacus. It's a rather eloquent message for a trap through." Bartfeldt looks from Cagalli to Lacus.
"But who else would even know of Miriallia-san?"
"And she would know how to get in touch with this ship."
Everyone turns their attention to Lacus.
"Let's meet them. If Athrun has returned, we can find out more about PLANT. But please don't move Archangel. I'll go alone."
"Eh!"
"Don't need to worry, I'll be fine."
"I'll go too!" Lacus was surprise by her outburst. "Ah..um…I mean…"
"Well then, Cagalli and I shall go."
Cagalli smiles as they both went to change out from their uniform.
Chapter 10: Friends of Foes?
After Lacus and Cagalli have left, Stellar too went to change. Murrue was waiting outside her room.
"You may use Cagalli-san's Strike Rouge. But… Are you sure you will be alright by yourself?"
"Don't need to worry about me. I just go to the town to buy some things. I'll be back as soon as I finished."
"You must come back safely! Or your over protective god-sister will kill me."
Stellar giggles. "Alright then, see you later."
On the other hand, Lacus places Freedom under a cliff to hide it from sight. Both her and Cagalli reached the top when they heard a familiar voice calling out to them.
"Lacus! Cagalli!"
The brown-haired brunette runs towards them. "Miriallia!"
"I really couldn't believe my eyes when I saw Freedom, you are riding it right?"
"Well… Yeah."
"I'd heard that you kidnapped the bride and flew off from Orb, but…"
Cagalli blushes. "Well, that story…Um…By the way, where's Athrun?"
"I'm sorry. I had to be careful and not put this in my message, but he returned to ZAFT."
"Eh? ZAFT? Athrun?"
They turn around when they saw a red MS flies towards them.
"That unit is…" Lacus remembers that it was the same unit she saw, when they tries to stop a fight between Minerva and the EAF.
Saviour lands and Athrun came down from it as he went up to them.
"Lacus… Cagalli…"
Cagalli went up to him and grab his arms. "What is the meaning of this, Athrun? This whole time… I've been worried about you this whole time! I couldn't even contact you since things went the way they did, but… But why! Why did you do something like returning to ZAFT!"
A few distances from them, Lunamaria is recording the whole conversation.
'Is that Lacus Clyne? But I thought she had left a few days ago?'
Athrun looks at her. "Because back then, I felt that it was for the best. For myself, and for Orb."
Cagalli steps back from him. "No way… How could that be for Orb…?"
"Cagalli." Lacus stops her as she holds her shoulder. "Lacus…" She steps aside for Lacus to move forth.
Lacus looks from Athrun to Saviour. "Is that your unit?"
"Yeah."
"Then the battle on the other day…"
"Yeah, I was there. I'm part of the Minerva crew at the moment."
"!"
"I saw you and tried to get a hold of you. But I couldn't get through. But why did you do something like that? Something so foolish… Thanks to that, the battlefield became chaotic, and because of you, there were unnecessary casualties."
"Something so foolish? What ZAFT was about to fight back then… That was the Orb military! We were trying to stop that…!"
"Did you actually think that Orb would quietly back down just because you came onto the scene back then!"
"I…I…"
"That's not what you were supposed to be doing! Before going out onto the battlefield and say something like that, you never should've allowed Orb to join that Alliance!"
"That's…" Cagalli clenches her left fist to her chest, as Athrun notice the ring that he gave her.
On the other side, Shinn was walking through the town when he notices a familiar figure.
"Is that Stellar? What is she doing here?"
He was about to call out to her, when he was block by the crowd. Seeing that Stellar was leaving, he squeezes through the people and runs after her.
Back at the cliff, Lacus runs a hand through her hair and look at Athrun. "But then… If you're a part of ZAFT now…What do you intend to do from now on? Why were you looking for us?"
"Lacus, that's…!"
"Because I wanted to stop you all from doing something foolish like that again. I know there was the issue with Junius Seven, but the chaos that followed is definitely the Earth Alliance's fault! Even then, PLANT is making its best effort to end this foolishness as soon as possible! But what you guys are doing is making the situation more chaotic!"
"Is that really so? Does PLANT really think that? That Chairman Dullindal…"
"Eh?"
"Does he really want to end the war as soon as possible and make the world peaceful once again?"
"You've seen what the Chairman has been doing! You've heard his words! The Chairman is really…"
"Then what about Meer?"
"Eh?"
"Her name is Meer Campbell, right? Why is she imposing as me?"
"Well…that's…"
"And why was I almost killed by a group of Coordinators?"
"What?"
Shinn was running until he reaches the port. Panting for breath, he looks around.
"Where is she?"
It was then he spotted her running out from the town, going to the direction of the beach. He chases after her.
"Almost killed? What do you mean?"
"Back in Orb, we were attack by a special ops team of Coordinators and their mobile suits. I was their target."
"No way…"
"That's why I pilot Freedom. Not wanting anyone to die because of me."
Lunamaria, who was recording the conversation, was shock at the information.
"Who want me to be dead? And why? Until that can be cleared up, I can't trust PLANT."
"Lacus!"
Back to Shinn, he lost sight of Stellar again when she went into a forest. Breaking some of the branches in order to get through, Shinn tries to search for the blond. It was then he saw things that are beyond his imagination.
Athrun thought back about the first time when he met Meer and what she told her. And what Dullindal had told him.
"Athrun?" Athrun breaks off from his thought when Cagalli calls out to him.
"Well… if you were really being targeted, then it's really become a more serious situation now. But for you to say that you can't believe the Chairman and PLANT because of that… Aren't you jumping to conclusion, Lacus?"
Lacus stays silent.
"There are people with various opinions in PLANT. Just like the perpetrators of the Junius Seven incident. That attack may have been orchestrated by a small group of people the Chairman doesn't know about! You should be able to realize that!"
Everyone was silent.
"Either way, I'll check up on that issue when I get back to the ship. So you guys should return to Orb for now."
"S-So you're…"
"If you want to prevent battles… If you don't want Orb fighting… Then do something about that treaty with the Earth Alliance first. It's too late once you're already on the battlefield!"
"T-That's… I know that! So you're not coming back? To Archangel? To Orb?"
Athrun avoids the eye contact with Cagalli. "As long as Orb is still the country it used to be, we should be traveling down the same road."
"Athrun!"
"I've re-enlisted. I can't go back now!"
"But that's…"
Athrun notice the ring again as he avoids the sight of it. Lacus pats Cagalli's shoulder again as she looks at Athrun.
"So are you going to keep fighting the Earth Alliance as a part of ZAFT?"
"Until it all ends, it can't be helped."
"Then will you fight against Orb again, like last time?"
"If I could help it, I wouldn't want to… But given that situation, we had no choice but to fight them!"
"Athrun…"
"You should both know what the Earth Alliance has been doing in this area! We need to stop them! That's why I'm telling you to hurry and do something about that treaty and get Orb to pull out its forces!"
"But Athrun… We know that. Even so, we would not want you to fight against Orb."
"Lacus…!"
"In reality, it's not just against Orb. Those lost in battles will never come back again."
Athrun got a sudden flashback about Heine been killed, and what happened to Nicol. "Don't you dare spit out those excuses as if you reallyunderstands them!" Athrun takes out a gun and pointes straight at Lacus. Cagalli tries to stop him but was held back by Miriallia.
"You never really fight or even kill a person in the previous war! Don't say like you have really been through it! Wake up, Lacus. You are not him! You can't replace him, now that he was gone! And you don't know how he and I felt when we fought in the war! You don't know anything!"
Lacus closes her eyes for a while. "You're still the same."
"Eh?"
Blue-gray eyes meets emerald eyes. "Athrun Zala of ZAFT."
Her words brought Athrun back the memories when they were both in this situation too, two years ago.
"Now that you are pointing a gun at me, does that mean that I'm your enemy? And you are going to shoot me right here, right now?"
Athrun was stunned by her question for a while until she shouted out suddenly, "Answer me!" Taken back by her raised voice, Athrun breaks the eye contact.
But what's beyond his imagination was that, for just that short moment when he broke the eye contact, Lacus pulls out a gun from her shirt and points at him.
"Lacus…!"
"If you are really my enemy, should I kill you now? Answer me, Athrun Zala of ZAFT!"
On the other, Stellar was placing all the things she bought in the cockpit of Strike Rouge. It was then she heard the rustling sound of the branches.
"Who's there! Come out!"
She takes out a dagger as she looks at the direction where the branches were moving. Stepping out was Shinn, who has a gun in his hand pointing at her.
"S-Shinn…!"
"Stellar… You are from… You are from Archangel, aren't you?"
"Shinn…How did you…?"
"Why…?"
Okay! Another chapter finished!
I hope that you guys will stop asking me about Kira.
Because he will be coming out soon, since I cut short some of the story. Sigh…
Nvm, pls remember to RnR!
Next chapter, Freedom VS Saviour.
See you till then!