Gundam SEED: Destiny Falling

By: Shadow Chaser

A Sequel to Entropy Rising

Phase Ten – Present Influences

Onogoro Island, Orb

Athrun was not happy. In fact, furious would be more like it as he glared at the man named Canard Pars. He would have held the man at gunpoint and demanded that he swear never to tell of the secrets that had been spilled today, if not for Kanoko's words that had shocked the fury out of him. It left him staring at Canard like a fish out of water.

Canard was what to Kira and Cagalli?! Older brother?! That was impossible a part of him screamed while the other, rational part that had processed all of the information regarding the storied history of Mendel, said that there were many trials of the Ultimate Coordinator before Kira was the final result, why not have a survivor from those earlier tests.

But that still did not make him any less happy at Canard, or at Kanoko for telling the man that Kira and Cagalli were related. However, it did clear up some of the suspicion that he had been having since he met the man on the ReHOME. He had seen the hidden looks of anger whenever Mendel was mentioned and surmised that Canard did not have pleasant memories of that place, and it explained his somewhat, conciliatory attitude towards Kira when they were working together on the Serpent unit.

Meanwhile, Lacus had taken the news in stride and while she looked initially shocked by it, she had quickly composed herself before impulsively embracing Canard much to his embarrassment. Kanoko had then told them never to tell Kira or Cagalli about their relationship to Canard and the two of them had agreed. It was bad enough that Kira could barely cope with the news about Mendel, even after they had blown it up a year ago, but anymore could send him over the edge.

He knew Cagalli could handle the facts, but Athrun also wanted to protect her from her own self-destructive tendencies. She didn't look like she was affected by Mendel as much as Kira, but he knew that there were times where she would just sit and cry, most of them staring at the picture of their mother, holding the two twin babies.

Cagalli and Kira were strong in their on right, probably stronger than he was, but even they had their breaking points. In Kira's case, it was his selfless acts and Cagalli's case, her bull-headedness towards anything that got in her way. For the two of them to be captured and in Blue Cosmos' hands, it was all because he wasn't strong enough. How could he have been so foolish?! He was determined never to make the same mistake again.

"How good are Rodina's defenses?" he asked Kanoko, startling her as he gave her an even look.

"Athrun, you're not thinking of…"

"If that's where the source of all of Blue Cosmos' attacks are coming from, then we should storm it," he looked at Kanoko, Canard, and Lacus, daring any of them to contradict what he said.

"It could be a trap," Canard narrowed his eyes as he stared at him, "that bastard could have just sent you coordinates to some abandoned nuclear wasteland just to set the Liberation Forces on a wild goose chase."

'I'm more disturbed by the possibility of who you described as your doppelganger," Kanoko murmured quietly and he looked at her.

"Do you think…?" he left the unspoken question to her and she shook her head.

"I don't really know, but," she tilted her head to the side as a thought occurred to her, "did you get any headaches whenever he was near you?"

"No…" Athrun was puzzled.

"Then he isn't like Griever," Kanoko nodded mostly to herself before glancing up at them, "Kira confided in me that whenever Griever was near him, he would get splitting headaches. I don't know if it was true for Commander La Flaga's case whenever Rau Le Creuset was around, especially since Rau was a clone of La Flaga's father, but if you're not getting headaches, I think it's safe to rule out the possibility of this doppelganger being a clone of you, Athrun."

"Who's Griever?" Canard looked confused.

Athrun gave him a pointed look before sighing, "One of the scientists from the original project survived, Sven Anderson, and somehow ended up creating a clone of Kira. I killed that clone before we blew up Mendel."

"If one scientist survived, Auntie, could there be more?" Lacus asked.

"I don't know," Kanoko replied, "when the three of us escaped, we didn't dare look back. There is the possibility of survivors like Sven Anderson, but I don't know if Ledonil or Uzumi ever searched for them. I'll ask Ledonil, he may know more, but I didn't want anything to do with Mendel after I took Kira in."

"Why do you ask?" Canard looked at Lacus who pursed her lips for a second before replying.

"It's something Athrun thought up of, but the three of you discovered genetic plans within the Serpent mobile suit's OS core before it self-destructed, right? Why would a mobile suit based on ancient designs have such data within?"

"Besides that, how did Blue Cosmos end up with plans for a Serpent unit or even the Dendrobium Orchis?" the dark-haired man looked troubled.

"The what?" it was the first time he had heard of their names.

"Dendrobium Orchis," Canard gestured with his hand, "the big white mobile armor."

"The Orchis?" Lacus looked shocked, "but those plans were supposed to be destroyed…"

"You know about it?"

"Wait, wait," Athrun held up his hands, "what are you two talking about?"

"When I was with OMNI, I had access to some of the history books that were supposedly destroyed a long time ago. The Eurasian Federation was a bit picky about preserving history of the world, claiming that it was for the pure world and to prove that Coordinators weren't so superior. I saw the books describe what is the Dendrobium Stamen, a Gundam that controlled the mobile armor known as the Orchis."

"A Gundam?! How long ago was this?"

"There was no date, but consider the fact that the book I was reading was in an abandoned library a few hundred feet underground in the city of Brussels. It's also where I read about the Serpent mobile suits."

"You're saying that someone deliberately buried parts of history and that mobile suits and Gundams existed and that this wasn't man's first trip to the stars?" Kanoko looked completely shocked.

Canard shrugged, "I don't know, but what I would really like to know is how Miss Lacus says that those plans were supposed to be destroyed."

Athrun stared at Lacus who turned a slight tinge of pink from all of the attention. His mind was reeling with the possibilities and the knowledge, even though it was all pure speculation.

"My father, before the Freedom and Justice were created, advocated against the building of the Orchis. It seemed that some FAITH members who were stationed on Earth had discovered plans that spoke of a great and powerful mobile armor that could be used to turn the tide in the Bloody Valentine War. My father eventually conceded when it was suggested that they adapt the less violent aspects of the Orchis to build Freedom and Justice's METEOR systems."

"It was still destructive," Athrun muttered. While a part of him was glad that the METEOR systems were all but destroyed in the war, he knew that there were times where he wished he had that kind of firepower at his command. It would be so much easier to command peace from the others, but it was most definitely at the expense of everyone else's fear. The Liberation Forces did not need to enforce their presence with fear. They were supposed to be the hope for the world; the hope that both Coordinators and Naturals could work together.

"I know," Lacus replied, "it would seem that those plans were perhaps stolen by someone and sold to Blue Cosmos."

"So then you also think someone in PLANT could have come up with the virus that's been plaguing Naturals and also sold it to Blue Cosmos?" Canard asked.

"It would seem so given the complex OS that we had to crack," Athrun nodded, "but why would any Coordinator side with the enemy that's trying to kill them?"

"It doesn't have to be a Coordinator," Kanoko interrupted them, "like Lacus said; it could be a scientist who escaped from Mendel."

"Dr. Yamato?"

"I've been doing some analysis and blood work-ups of a few Naturals who've been sick and there's a marker within the mitochondrial strand and on the cellular level of the infected cells that I recognized. It's a bit complex to explain, but the gist of it is that I haven't seen that strand since when I first transferred to Mendel from Rodina," she looked pensive and tapped her chin with a finger.

"Then should we go back to Mendel to find the files? I know they were all flash-destroyed before we blew up the colony," Athrun was confused.

"No…Rodina would be your best bet," Kanoko shook her head, "but it's also a place where you would want to avoid."

"Why?" Lacus touched her hand gently.

She looked up at them, unshed tears shining in her eyes, "It's a place of death and a place of destruction. If it is truly the origin of the virus then it's my fault."

"Auntie?" Athrun felt a swoop of uneasiness fill him.

"I created the original virus…not to be used on Naturals, but to kill Coordinators. I was part of Blue Cosmos…" she whispered solemnly.

Athrun could only stare at her in shock.

Rodina, Siberia

"Chairman Dullindal," Cagalli hissed in anger.

Kira craned his head as much as his protesting body allowed him to and saw indeed, a man who looked eerily like the newly elected Chairman of the PLANTs. Granted he only saw Gilbert Dullindal on the news feeds and never met him in person, but he had no reason to doubt his sister's words, especially since she met him in person during the Armistice Anniversary ceremony on Copernicus City.

"Tsk, tsk, must I remind you, Princess; I am Alexei Terazuma, not Gilbert Dullindal. I am not my clone," the man shook his head as if reprimanding a young child.

"This time," Cagalli shot back, "who knows how many times you and your clone switched places. Last time, it was a man who called himself Dullindal. As far as I am concerned, you're both him, and both evil bastards."

"Such language," he tsked once more before snapping his fingers and a girl, probably just a year or two older than them stepped forward. She had long straight brown hair and severe looking eyes. "Shiho, our Princess isn't being very cordial. Please take her back to her room."

"Wait! You said you would allow me to stay!" Cagalli suddenly grabbed his hand and squeezed it tightly and Kira felt a rush of panic fill him. "Wait!"

He tried to keep his grip on her own hand, but the girl reached over and pulled ripped their hands apart with an iron grip before dragging Cagalli off.

"Cagalli!" he called out before wincing in pain as he saw a flash of his sister's blonde hair before she disappeared from his view. He could hear her protests until the door slid shut behind the man named Alexei Terazuma. Glaring at the man, he managed to prop himself up, even though his chest felt like it was on fire. "If you harm her…"

"Kira Yamato, I don't think you're in any position to make threats," Terazuma stared down at him, before making a gesture to someone behind him and he saw a doctor approach. He shrank back slightly, wondering what the doctor was going to do with him. "Dr. Oligav is only checking your vitals, Kira. We need you strong and healthy after all."

"What for?" he asked as he saw that indeed, the doctor named Oligav was checking the monitors and his vital signs.

"Well, we would like you to become our new champion."

"Like hell I'm going to help you kill Naturals and Coordinators," he shot back before wincing as the doctor touched a sensitive spot on his side.

"No, no, you misunderstand me, Kira," Terazuma opened his hands, "you'll be our new champion whether or not you want to. It's only a matter of if you are willing after a fashion or if you will end up resisting to the point where we will have to use some more meaningful persuasion."

A retort had been forming in Kira's mouth when he abruptly clamped it shut at the man's words just as Oligav was done with his examination. He knew exactly what Terazuma was talking about. It was probably the reason that they had captured Cagalli, but did they know of their connection to each other? He hoped not. But how did they know he was the pilot of the Freedom? Or was the mobile armor's orders to capture the Freedom and they discovered that he was a Coordinator when they had put him in the medical room?

"She is the Princess of Orb. If you harm her, your political hostage and clout may not be of use to you when you make your demands to Orb," he muttered.

"She is your sister, your twin sister, I might add," Terazuma smiled cruelly down at him as he was unable to keep the shock off of his face.

"H-How could she be my twin, much less even related to me?" he quickly stammered, "she's a Natural, and I'm a Coordinator!"

"Don't deny it, Kira," Terazuma smiled, "I know your history. I know you are the Ultimate Coordinator and I know your parents aren't your real parents. I know that your real mother and father were the Hibikis, the progenitors of cloning and of the Ultimate Coordinator Project at Mendel Colony. I know every little detail of your life, for example: how you've fallen in love with Lacus Clyne, how you and your best friend Athrun Zala fought each other to the brink of death, how you found out about you and your sister's origins on Mendel, and how you killed your greatest adversary, Rau Le Creuset. Oh, I know all of this…and perhaps more than you know."

For the first time, instead of despair, bitterness, anger, and the feeling of self-pity, Kira felt something completely foreign and alien. He felt the first real hints of fear as he stared at Terazuma. Just who was this man? How did he come by such information and how did he know so much?

"How…who…"

"I am Alexei Terazuma and Gilbert Dullindal, Kira; we are the perfection of Dr. Ulen Hibiki's cloning technology. And we are agents of fear. You, Kira Yamato will be our instrument."

Cagalli struggled against the vise-like grip her captor had on her wrist as she was dragged back to her room, which also doubled as a cell in the compound. "Let me go!" she yelled, trying to dig her heels into the metal floors, but all they did was slide along.

"If you keep struggling, I will have to knock you out, Princess," Shiho replied in a cold and almost detached tone. "I know you don't like that."

"I wanted to stay with him! You promised that I could!"

"I only promised whatever time I could allow you," she replied back, "it is your fault that he did not wake up sooner."

"Shiho, let me go!" she tried to swing her way out, but to no avail. She was about to open her mouth when a freezing cold voice spoke up behind them.

"If you are having trouble keeping your charge quiet, I may be able to help," the voice was simplistic, almost child-like and soft, but her tone was as icy as the frozen wasteland that covered the surrounding area of the compound.

The two of them stopped and turned to stare at a petite young girl, definitely at least younger than Cagalli appearance-wise, but her icy dark purple eyes glittered with both child-like innocence and malevolent hate. Cagalli didn't know the reason why the girl named Stellar Loussier was so hostile towards her in recent days, ever since she had discovered that her brother had been captured a long with some other ZAFT pilot, but she had tried to avoid the creepy girl at all times.

"I can keep an eye on my own charge, thank you, Stellar," Shiho stated with finality, before tugging on her arm to emphasize her point. "As far as I am concerned, you should be overseeing Gaia's retro-fitting, are you not? Why are you here?"

"Stellar is concerned," her demeanor and voice suddenly changed to a bubbly one before glaring at Cagalli, "he has been having nightmares because of her…" She suddenly took a step forward, arms hooked to her sides before Cagalli's vision was impeded by Shiho stepping in front of her protectively, still keeping a vise-like grip on her wrist. "If I had my way, she would be disposed of right now."

"Stellar," Shiho's voice dropped slightly in a warning tone, "would you like to die right now?"

"D-Die…?" a sudden rustle of cloth made Cagalli peek out from under Shiho's arm to see Stellar on her knees on the ground, her arms wrapped around her, trying not to shake. She felt a flash of sympathy for the girl who was huddled on the ground, staring at nothing. During her captivity she was privy to a lot of information, mostly from her guard, Shiho, but some of it from the random encounters with the pilots who had stolen the four Gundams from Armory One.

She didn't dare tell Terazuma or Dullindal about her knowledge, but instead, knew that when she made her escape or when she was rescued, the information would be very handy to the Liberation Forces. In Stellar Loussier's case, she was a Natural who was subjected to heavy drug use to bring her abilities on par with a Coordinator's and it was one of the reasons why Phantom Pain was able to steal those suits from Armory One. However, she had discovered that each of the Extendeds, as they were called, had programmable trigger words that either reduced them to helpless and scared children or made them into Bezerker.

She had speculated that the Bezerker mode was Blue Cosmos' attempt to provide similar conditions to Kira, Athrun, and her seed-mode. She didn't know how they knew about seed-mode, but she had stumbled across files her father left behind for her describing a rare research regarding rare Coordinators and at least one Natural who had gone into an almost Bezerker like fugue-state during battle. The only time that it happened was during George Glenn's time.

"Let's go," Shiho abruptly turned around and dragged her along.

"Wait! Hey!" she protested before her feet caught up with her and she walked along. She gave a pointed glare to her guard, "You didn't need to leave her like that, you know."

"You do have a death wish Princess. I hope that I am there to see it when she breaks your neck," Shiho retorted before stopping in front of her door and keyed in the code so fast that she didn't catch it. The door slid open before she was unceremoniously thrown in.

Cagalli stumbled a few steps before catching herself and gritted her teeth as she stared at the severe-eyed girl. "I hope you rot in hell."

"Hmph," a smirk appeared on her face before she waved her hand, "go stew Princess while I see whether I can get you another audience with your precious friend." She suddenly palmed the door close before Cagalli could get in another word, leaving her alone in her room.

After all the insults they traded to each other, she still couldn't believe that Shiho was willing to let her see Kira again. Sometimes, the girl puzzled her…

Shinn Asuka knew he should be afraid, especially as a prisoner of Blue Cosmos, but somehow, he did not feel afraid. In fact, he felt quite odd, as if there was somehow a familiarity to this place that he was holed up in. How could a Coordinator like him feel so familiar in a place that was crawling with Naturals who would want nothing more than to kill him because of what he was?

He knew he was a prisoner, yet the room they had put him in wasn't the bare bones cells that he had expected or had seen on the Minerva. It had all the amenities, minus a cooking unit and food storage, a person living in a studio would have. The only thing that reminded him that he was a prisoner in this facility was that his door was constantly locked. It only opened whenever someone brought him food, mostly the doe-eyed girl who called herself Stellar, but rarely was it a regular soldier who basically left his food and got out as fast as possible.

Stellar herself was an enigma, Shinn mused mostly to himself as he laid on his bed, fingers laced behind his head. When he had first woken up after blacking out in the middle of his battle with the Freedom, he had found her staring at him with a child-like gaze. He had initially been on the defensive, wondering if she was a ploy by his captors to seduce him or even make him vulnerable, but when she didn't do anything else but stare, he had become distinctly uncomfortable at the silence.

She had then suddenly introduced herself and told him that he was in a facility that belonged to Blue Cosmos. When she had said that he had immediately expected armed guards storming in, ready to take him to be tortured or worst, shot, but no one came and Stellar had explained that he was a guest.

He had initially resisted the idea, after all, Blue Cosmos hated all Coordinators, no matter what, but ever since then, and his only company had been her and no one else. He suspected cameras were probably recording his every move, but at this point, didn't care. Let his captors sweat a bit at holding a Coordinator. He would be able to beat any of them if they dared come in and hurt him. No Natural's reflexes were as fast as a Coordinator's.

A soft thud from his door, made him turn slightly in his bed, frowning. Who would make a thud? Unless it was someone rescuing him? But how would his rescuers know where to find this facility? He hauled himself up from the bed and tip-toed over to the door, pressing his ear against the cool steel. He did not hear any signs of battle…

Just then the door slid open and Shinn jumped back slightly in surprise before stretching out his hands to catch Stellar's body as she unceremoniously slumped into his arms.

"Stellar!" he gasped before glancing outside. There was no one else in the hallway so why would she suddenly collapse? Glancing down at her, he noticed that she was shivering and her eyes were squeezed tightly shut; he grimaced and glanced outside again. Part of him screamed for him to escape, but he didn't even know the layout of the facility! The other part of him wondered what had made the fragile doe-eyed girl as frightened as this…

"To hell with it," he muttered as he dragged her in as best as he could and the door slid shut with a definitive click, locking him in once more. He managed to drag her to his bed and laid her half on the bed before gently picking up her feet and setting them on the bed. He stared at her shivering form for a few minutes, scratching his head. This was the most physical contact he had with the girl, especially since he had been restraining himself to reach out and attempt to wipe the innate sadness from her eyes.

"Stellar?" he asked quietly, reaching out and tentatively touching one of her hands.

His eyes widened in shock as she suddenly grasped onto his hand with a tremendous force and yanked him down towards the bed. He lost his footing and went tumbling into the sheets headfirst with a startled yelp before he felt his hand being wrenched around painfully, pinned against his own head into the mattress.

"Who are you!" the voice was Stellar's, but the tone, it was so icy cold and frozen. He looked up with his one visible eye and choked out a gasp of shock at her expression. Her beautiful doe-eyes were now frozen slits, glaring at him as if she did not recognize him. "Why are you trying to kill me?!"

"Stellar!" he managed to get out, wincing against the pressure and pain shooting up and down his arm. He could feel the beginnings of a fracture running along his arm. "It's me…S-Shinn…"

He gasped as the pain spiked a bit and looked desperately into the frozen eyes, "I won't hurt you! I was trying to protect you!"

"P-Protect…?" her eyes flashed with an expression he didn't quite catch before the pressure eased from his hand and he swallowed gratefully. He turned his head slightly to see her eyes return to their softened and curious gaze before he tentatively moved his arm and extracted himself from his bed, all the while making sure to move slowly in case he provoked her again with his fast movements.

Finally he sat down on the bed and stared up at her. "Stellar?"

"Shinn…you'll protect Stellar?" she blinked at him and he nodded, feeling a bit hesitant, but he realized that he really wanted to keep her safe. She looked far too innocent to be a member of Blue Cosmos and was probably another prisoner within this base like him. She was probably ordered to make sure he cooperated, but he didn't care. When he escaped from here, he would take her with him. She deserved to be protected, like his sister Mayu.

"I'll protect you," he murmured before reaching out with his good hand and touched her fingers. "Will you let me?"

"Yes," she nodded before suddenly lacing her fingers through his in a move that startled him before he blushed slightly at the contact. He let a small private smile quirk on his lips.

Perhaps, this time, he would not fail to protect the person that was most precious to him.

Author's Notes:

Yes, I finally got to the Shinn/Stellar pairing. No I have no bias between Shinn/Stellar or Shinn/Luna. I happen to like both actually. Each has their own merits and bad parts. Anyways, a lot of information in this chapter as you can see. We're getting to the point where a lot of stuff will be happening so if you need to re-read chapters to piece together this massive puzzle, by all means, go ahead! Again, please leave reviews! I thrive on reviews!