Author Note: Hello, ladies and gentlemen. You awake yet? No? Read the end of chapter nine again. I'll wait. Yeah, you're back now I see, with that all fresh in your mind. Got your attention, didn't it? Well hold on, ladies and gentlemen, this roller coaster ride is just starting. I hope the softcore events of last chapter didn't unduly upset anyone, because this shit is going to get very real here soon. I have a new theme song for Kira, one I've been wanting to get to for a long time now. It's called "Paint it Black", by Rolling Stones. I HIGHLY recommend you listen to it, to me it is the epitome of a grief stricken Kira. Not only that, its an awesome song. And thanks for making Conflagration the most reviewed chapter in the series to date, at 28 reviews currently, and who knows what it will end at? Course, now the bar of what I'm expecting to hear is set higher for future chapters...
I sure do hope that despite the events of Conflagration, no one is feeling like jumping ship, though judging from some of the later reviews, maybe that won't be a problem. I won't confirm or deny anything right now, the story will tell in time. You people should know me better than that. Quitting this story based upon the events of a single chapter, and an EARLY chapter at that, no matter how shocking, would be a disservice to both me and especially you. Then again, I'm confident none of my regular reviewers are the sort to do that, and well, to put it bluntly, those are the people I'm writing for. Doesn't matter how many hits I get, its the reviews and the people that leave them that I care about, even if they are anonymous, at least I know they exist. You've preserved through thick and thin and over 2.2 million words to get to this point in time, it would be a real shame to let it all go to waste without knowing how it all ends, huh? Just trust me... everything will fall into place sooner or later. I promise.
xxxx
Hameya's Attlatl Mass Driver, Orb, October 8th, early afternoon
As Earth/New Eden's sole remaining active spaceport and mass driver, Hameya's Attlatl was one of the busiest places in all of Orb. Named for a stone age tool used by the earliest natives of Orb to extend the technical length of their arms, so they could throw hunting and war javelins further and harder that they could with pure human muscle alone, the facility had been destroyed during the First Valentine War and then rebuilt several times in the years since. The most recent additions, in the years since the end of the Eden Disaster, had seen two large Fusion Pulse Reactors installed, replacing the old wind, tidal and solar power plants that powered the surface to orbit launch mechanism. Mechanisms nowadays, since with all the extra power available they could now afford to run surface to orbit launches on three seperate driver-catapults all at the same time. The catapult ends splayed outwards from each other like a bird's foot, so the sonic booms of one catapult's launch would not interfere with the balance of a load on another catapult.
The skies and waters around the Attlatls were probably the busiest anywhere in Orb, and maybe even the busiest on New Eden, comprising as it did both incoming and outgoing cargo and personnel ships and aircraft, luxury heli-taxis taking important or wealthy personages the quick way from the spaceport to Nara-Attha City, and even Mobile Suits from the Orb Defense Force, on defensive training maneuvers, not to mention the building sized bulk cargo containers that were fired from the catapults every few minutes, like a steady stream of the most massive cannon shells in existence. Splashdown area's for bulk cargo were marked off in the waters off shore, well away from the rest of the facilities in case of an overshot, but most bulk cargo containers tended to come down on very gentle course, taking several days to degenerate from orbital velocity, dipping into the upper atmosphere before taking a parachute assisted drop to the splashdown area, where special ships would rapidly fish them out and ferry them to shore.
Directing and orchestrating this complex dance of ships, orbital shuttles, bulk cargo containers and atmospheric flyers was a full time job for over two hundred dedicated operators at a time, working in five six hour shifts. There was a seperate control tower for each Attlatl, one dedicated just to orbit to surface shuttles, another just for atmospheric craft and finally one more for offshore and harbor operations, and all six control towers had to stay in constant contact with each other. It probably would have been almost impossible if it weren't for Lexi doing most of the grunt processing and data communication work, leaving the human operators to handle special cases and watch for anything going wrong.
A red light blinked into existance in the radar watchroom of Control Tower 5, the one responsible for atmospheric flight type craft traffic, and the operations team immediately went into action. Most of which consisted of stopping their previous conversations and turning more of their attention towards both individual radar displays, and the master plot that took up most of one wall, like the CIC screens of a warship but much bigger and more detailed, colored lights and streaks showing all the various atmospheric craft in a hundred kilometer radius of the Attlatls, their current positions, their projected headings, speed and classifications, and various and sundry other necessary tidbits of information. Civilian and commercial traffic was done in shades of blue, official government traffic was in orange, and military traffic was denoted by white.
However there was a new contact on the board, outlined in pulsing red, its course a dotted line showing that it was only a projection, rather than any filed or regularly scheduled flight plan. This was not exactly a cause for concern... it could be an unscheduled government flight, someone who had forgotten to file a flight plan, or some sort of computer mixup in data transfers between Namara and Lexi, which was very rare these days but could possibly occur. But it was something that had to be watched, and slowly, as Lexi quickly and efficiently trained batteries of sensors upon the unknown contact and information from their findings poured in to update the radar screens, people grew quieter and quieter, until eventually the watchroom was dead silent with concentration and concern.
The unidentified contact was inbound from outside the Glasshouse. That was not particularly strange, the Glasshouse only extended about a kilometer into the air, and about fifteen kilometers out to sea, and though most flights tried to avoid flying through the electromagnetic shield barrier, in case of incidental damage to delicate electronics, sometimes it was more fuel and time efficient to skip out of Orb's protective envelope for a short hop, of course dipping back down through the shield to cleanse off any Green EDEN contamination. And orbital shuttles of course were forced to come from outside the Glasshouse. But this was not incoming on the sort of course an orbital shuttle would follow, nor the sort of course any sane commercial or military pilot would take. This UFO was coming from the ocean side, from out of the vastness of the Pacific Ocean, flying just over a half kilometer from the water on a level course.
"All right, Lexi, what the hell is this?" The watch leader and senior radar operator, who was named Brandon, asked the nearly omnipresent AI assistant. A holographic projection strip on the floor in front of the main radar plot flickered to life, and projected Lexi's image, of a girl that looked remarkably like a twenty something Cagalli Yula Attha but with blue eyes and red hair, dressed in an Orb Defense Force uniform with no insignia, in front of the display at life size, like a weather forecaster on a News Channel. She clasped her arms behind her back and paced back and forth in front of the primary plot as the screen subdivided, squishing the primary display over to one side as a series of sensor images of the UFO came up.
"That is a VERY good question actually, Bran." Lexi answered with a small pout on her digital face. She was unused to this feeling of being in the dark and not knowing what was going on. "The sensor profile of the inbound track is unlike any registered vessel in Orb or the wider USN. It also doesn't match up with any unregistered civilian or military vehicle types we are aware of, either ours or the USN's. I hate to hit a potential panic button, but I think its fairly safe to say this vessel didn't originate from any USN group. The flight path is all wrong, and our long range sensors haven't showed any orbital drops or entries in the range of a shuttle of this size, at least none of our shuttles of that size have such range."
"Is it one of the Envoy's?" One of the more junior radar operators asked curiously. "That could account for the weird flight pattern."
"It could." Lexi admitted with a charmingly girlish smile. That smile faded and was replaced by a wickedly sardonic smirk as the young male tech beamed happily. "But it wouldn't account for this." Lexi added, bringing a long range visual camera picture of the incoming vessel onto the main screens. There was a series of gasps and soft curses, as the operators stared at the unidentified vessel. It looked like no craft any of them had ever heard about or seen before, its wings were "V" like, with the two legs pointing forward, rather than back as they were for most aircraft. There were two fuselages in parallel, of equal length and girth, projecting forward from the V wings, underslung under the wings, with a another, fatter projection mounted between them on top of the wing's V junction, like the bridge of a warship or submarine. As they looked on, the craft's wings fluttered and shifted, adapting to changes in wind currents and air pressure as the craft bled velocity and angled its course more downwards.
"Those variable geometry wings are of the same class of system as the HiMat wings the Dawndrakes and Gundams are equipped with." Lexi pointed out, a puzzled tone in her voice. "Strange to see such an enhancement on an unarmed transport shuttle. At least I can detect no weapons, offensive or defensive, upon it. Heat readings indicated its equipped with a miniaturized nuclear reactor, which is definitely not something any of our shuttles possess. Oh yeah, and unless I totally miss my guess... and I never do that... its made of wood."
"Say that last part again?" Brandon said sharply, his hand tense on the emergency phone line that would connect him to the commander of the Hameya's Attlatls security and defense forces. As Orb's primary and only reliable commercial link to the rest of the USN up in space, the mass drivers and spaceport facility was probably the most heavily defended location in the entire nation, though much of the defenses were subtle or hidden from the casual eye. If need be, they could have interception missiles, a CIWS barrage and several squadrons of Dawndrakes in the air in less than two minutes, if this UFO had hostile intentions.
"It's made of wood." Lexi clarified, taking no offense at his incredulity. If she hadn't seen it with her own sensors, which she reclaibrated and checked a dozen times a second, she'd have thought it was a hacked or corrputed file. "The entire shuttle is made of fiberous dead plant matter, more commonly known as wood. Wood with a density and apparent tensile strength at the very least equivalent to regular structural steel, by all visible appearances, but wood all the same. I think we can safely call this one a bogey, Bran. Don't worry, I'm briefing the military and getting in contact with the government as we speak. Just as I was wishing for something to break the monotony too..." Lexi broke off, her eyes widening. "We're being hailed, wideband channel, high level but standard encryption. Source is the UFO. Connecting for live broadcast..."
Lexi's projected figure shrunk to one third regular size as the main radar screen subdivided even more, with most of the main screen being sent to smaller secondary screens around the room, while the main display was given over to displaying various sensor profiles of the incoming UFO shuttle, and a healthy chunk of screen in the middle was dedicated to the incoming transmission, which Lexi was also relaying to several military and political sites around Orb in real time. The screen flickered just once as Lexi made contact with and established protocols for data transfer between herself and the computer systems aboard the shuttle, which though of course nothing compared to her capabilities, were still quite impressive for a ship of that size. Lexi kept everything in a safely buffered partition zone of her network, in case the UFO was transmitting viruses and spyware at the same time as they talked.
A man appeared on the screen, his face deeply tanned and a bit lined by years spent outdoors in the elements, his age somewhere in the fifty to seventy years that some humans seemed to stay in for most of their later lives, in Lexi's estimation. She ran face recognition software, but doubted she'd get much back from it, not just because her databanks didn't stretch back much more than a decade or so, but because the man was an Edenite, his hair a soft grey mixed with traces of faint green, like lime juice dissolved in tonic, looking recently cut and in the process of growing back out, his eyes a penetrating forest green with distinctive and eerie metalic silver pupils. He was clad in what Lexi could only charitably call robes, like a middle ages priest or friar might wear, though his were made from some form of supple light tan leather, decorated with red, green and dark blue stitchings and hung with a few glistening crystals and beads. It wasn't until he shifted his posture somewhat and the robes fell open to reveal a perfectly modern business suit and tie beneath than Lexi recategorized the outer garment as either a shawl or overcoat of some sort, maybe ceremonial in purpose by the ostentation.
The man had a deeply focused and intent stare, even through a display screen while not looking at any one person in particular, since all Lexi was transmitting in turn was a depiction of Orb's flag, he gave the impression of looking right into your head. Cyprus had eyes like that, Lexi remembered, and she called up a comparison between the two men. Yep, very similar stare, the "don't mess with me, I'm impertuable and I see right through you" look. It was an idle comparison, but there was absolutely no family resemblance between the two men. No one knew what Cyprus's family, if he even had one, was like. It was one of those pet projects Lexi had assigned herself, to find out about the enigmatic Stormhound, if for no other reason than so she could needle him better in the future. So far she wasn't having much luck with it, the man simply did not seem to exist in any official records anywhere!
"Greetings, and blessings of the Tree upon you all. I am Hieronymo, but please, call me Hiero, as I am not here on official business. I am the Consol of Foreign Affairs for Garden City. I have come to your shores today to return one of your most upstanding citizens, and to bear a tale of the utmost tragedy, though it makes my heart clench at the thought. I am unaware of the degree of your nations understanding of the situation outside your own borders, and of the degree of freedom of speech and authority you granted to the unofficial emmissaries you sent to us recently, so you will pardon me if I am perhaps overly cautious in discussing the exact details of who I am and why I am here." The silver eyed Edenite said, bowing his head somewhat, and though he did a good job of keeping his face composed, Lexi's keen sensors could easily detect a quavering note in his voice, the sound of a great deal of emotion being choked back.
"This is Queen Cagalli Zala-Attha speaking." Cagalli's strident but somewhat hesitant voice said in reply, the Queen speaking from within the comfort and privacy of her own home, halfway across Orb. "I greet you in turn, Mr. Hiero, with all the formality your culture might require, but I know almost nothing about you or Garden City, so I hope you'll pardon me if I skip the usual pleasantries, whatever they are. I'm not comfortable talking about Orb's degree of awarness of international affairs in this manner, so perhaps you can land your shuttle and come on over for a face to face chat?"
"Alas, I cannot, that would attract far too much in the way of official notice. As yet only your long range military sensors have been allowed to detect my transport... a very comprehensive system you have, my technicians are impressed... and unfortunately I am under orders to minimize knowledge of our involvement with this issue, at least for the time being. Things are, shall we say, very precariously balanced all of a sudden. We will be putting your citizen into a liferaft and dropping him outside the edge of your electromagnetic shield, and then we will be leaving, because I have a rather urgent meeting to attend to with my own people." Hiero's eyes narrowed in what Lexi could easily read as dangerously focused displeasure, even anger. Someone on Hiero's team had done something to piss him off but good. "Please, you may put your defense systems at ease, we bear you no ill will. Quite the opposite even. But I am not at liberty to discuss such things further, at this time, I am sorry."
Even as they spoke, the Edenite shuttle had slowed even more and descended to the point of skimming over the waves. The HiMat-esque wings folded down and became a pair of hydro-foil like struts, kicking up two roostertails of spray as they bit into the ocean swells like twin knives, the shuttle slowly settling down until the two lower fuselages were resting on the ocean's surface like the keels of a catamaran. The shuttle proved every bit as maneuverable as a boat as it had looked in the air, pulling a hairpin turn just short of the slight disruption and discoloration in the water that marked the point where the Glasshouse was projected up from emitters on the seafloor a thousand feet below.
"Well if you can't talk to us about anything official, Consol, what can you tell us off the books?" Athrun's deeper and somewhat weary voice asked next. The Ambassador had been pulling all nighters at the Orb National Palace for the past few days, working on massaging up more support for Orb's Independence Bill in the USN legislatives. "I'd like to know who this citizen is that you're delivering. And you mentioned a tragedy of some sort?"
"Ah, of course, I am sorry. I forget that you Earthlings cannot hear the Wind." Hiero looked crestfallen, as if he'd made some sort of extremely embarassing mistake. "I am here to return Kira Yamato to you. I am sorry, but Lacus Clyne, Akira Yamato-Clyne and Aoi Yamato-Clyne were killed last night in an unexpected forest fire while staying at one of our deep forest lodge resorts. Kira has been provided with medical care already, but he has been uncommunicative, and we are very worried about the state of his mental health."
The silence that stretched across the communication line could have drowned a fish, it was so thick. The outgoing image of Orb's flag disappeared, replaced with a facial shot of Cagalli, her eyes wide, her normally tanned face as pale as milk with disbelief and shock. "... what did you just say?" She said, the words tumbling from her lips in a whispered croak.
"We are still investigating the cause of the forest fire that claimed their lives, and the lives of thirty other men, women and children. Kira was the only survivor, and we have not been able to successfully communicate with him. My government will be launching a thorough investigation, you can rest assured of that. You have my personal word that we will get to the bottom of this tragedy, and when we do, we will give you a full report. Your citizens were in our care, it is nothing less than our moral obligation to assist however we can, unofficially, for the moment. You have my condolences, Cagalli." Hiero's voice choked up as he spoke, and either he was the best faker Lexi had ever seen, or he really was on the verge of tears of his own. "The world will miss them greatly. This day and all subsequent days are a little less bright than they might otherwise have been."
"You're lying..." Cagalli accused, though there was little conviction in her weakened voice. Cagalli had been dealing with people that lied for a living for most of her adult life. Hell, she sometimes lied for a living herself. She knew when someone was fibbing, when they were exaggerating for effect, when they were stretching a truth or bending terms. And she also knew when someone was letting the real honest truth, no matter how painful, spill unfiltered from their lips. But just because he was speaking what he saw as the truth didn't mean that he wasn't mistaken. "You're wrong... Lacus... the children... they can't just be dead...!"
"I wish I was, Cagalli. I wish my foresight was clearer than it was, but on this issue I was blind. Their fate was written, and we read of it too late to make a difference. I am sorry. They are gone." Hiero bowed his head. "May the Tree save us all, but they are gone..."
xxxx
Orb National Hospital, Nara-Attha City, Orb, 4 pm.
The rooftop helipad was crowded, despite the oppressive heat of the late afternoon sun. Since Orb was in the southern hemisphere, early October was right at the beginning of the hot summer months, and ever since New Eden had come about, summers had become even hotter and more brutal than ever, with the entire world climate being several degrees warmer year round, and more like ten degrees warmer in Orb during the summer. There was hardly a cloud in the sky, and though the most recent arrivals, in the person of the Queen of Orb herself, and the young Crown Prince as well, had only been there for a few minutes by the time the rescue helicopter that had picked up Kira from the Edenite liferaft was in view, they were still drenched in sweat. Well, Cagalli was, Allister, despite vehement protestations, was waiting in one of the private rooms in the upper levels of the hospital, the ones alloted for visiting family members of patients in the critical care wards.
Guarded, watched and kept company by First Sergeant Matthew "Conrad" Kurtz of the Stormhounds, Allister was pacing back and forth in the room, his teeth clenched and fists bunched at his sides, very much like his father and mother got when they were angry or upset. Allister hadn't gotten the full report, he'd been listening in to that Hiero guy in his room, but then the connection had been cut right before Hiero had said something with a very sad look on his face, and Lexi wouldn't let him connect again no matter how much he yelled and begged and tantrumed. He'd gone to see his mom about it when she came rushing out of her makeshift home office, but one look at her bone white face and the wide eyes put the utter kibosh on any petulant confrontation he might have had planned. He didn't see either of his parents look scared and troubled like that very much. Very ever, really.
"What's wrong, mom?" Allister had asked tenatively, reaching up to touch her hand. "What's the matter?" He asked, getting scared himself when she didn't immediately answer his first question, her mouth working, her throat bobbing, but no words seemed able to come out. Her legs and hands were shaking and she slowly sank to her knees and hugged him unexpectedly tight and close. Normally Allister didn't like such PDA's, even at home, but he could tell this wasn't his mom being cutsy-cuddly. Something was wrong. Something had scared her. Shaken her. He hugged her back tightly, just like he'd seen dad do once, a long time ago, when she'd acted kinda like this. "Is everything okay mom?"
"No, honey, things are not okay." Cagalli had at last managed to whisper in return. "There's... a problem with Uncle Kira and Aunt Lacus. I need to go to the hospital now, I promise I'll be home as soon as I can. Either me or dad, just be patient okay?"
"What about Akira? What about Aoi? Can they come over?" Allister asked, and winced as his mother's grip tightened for a moment, her fingers digging into his shoulderblades. "Mom?" Allister had then realized his mother was crying. He'd seen her cry before, but it was usually happy or embarassed tears. This was not like that. These tears made him want to cry too, and he wasn't sure why. It was very scary.
"Sorry honey, but I just don't know." Cagalli patted him on the back and made as if to get up.
Allister clung to her all the tighter. "Are they okay?" He asked, his own voice wavering now. Akira was his best friend! And he loved playing with Aoi, they got along so well together. And they were cousins too! Almost like brother and sister really, since he saw them so much! "Are they hurt?" He asked, choked up.
"I don't know, honey. I don't know." Cagalli had answered. "That's one of the things I'm going to go find out, okay?"
In the end she'd had little choice but to bring her son with her, not comfortable with leaving him home alone with only Lexi around after they'd had that mutually emotional scene outside her home office. But just because she couldn't bear the thought of leaving him alone, didn't mean she was not going to shelter him as much as possible, so she'd had to leave him in the private waiting room with Kurtz as she rushed to the rooftop to meet Athrun, Jiro, Cyprus and several other Stormhounds, as well as a full complement of waiting doctors and nurses. The Edenite, Hiero, had said that Kira's own burns and injuries had already been treated, but that wasn't something they were going to leave to chance.
The wind that the helicopter's rotors threw around when it began its landing approach was hot as hell, the furthest thing from refreshing, indeed it even felt somewhat ominous. The only way it could have been more ominous was if there was a pounding rainstorm with lightning flashes, but then again, something about the broad daylight and wilting heat actually made things worse. Made them more real, more undeniable. The helicopter's side door swept open as soon as its skids touched the rooftop, and Cagalli's hand tightened against Athrun's as they stood side by side. One of the Search and Rescue crewmembers got out, still clad in the bright orange and red wetsuit he'd worn when he was lowered into the water near the liferaft. Of course the man, as well as Kira and the entire helicopter, had been extensively scrubbed and cleasned with anti-Green EDEN nanites before coming in to land. The SAR crewman reached a hand back into the cargo section of the helicopter, and Cagalli had to bite her lip as Athrun's hand crushed her's back with agitated worry.
The crewman was helping Kira get out of the helicopter, and that, right off the bat, put a terrible weakness in Cagalli's legs and filled her stomach with dread. Kira was just about the toughest person she could think of, she could hardly imagine him hurt to the point where he would need assistance to even step down or walk! If he was hurt that bad he should be strapped to a stretcher, not walking around! But though he moved with all the frailty and unsteadiness of a ninety year old Natural, Kira's injuries didn't seem that terrible or life threatening, a lot of bandages but no excessive blood or major casts on his limbs. His hair was a bit singed in spots, and his skin overall looked like he'd been lying on a beach with no sunscreen for an entire day, he was burnt brick red, but while an intense sunburn was pretty painful, it didn't account for his unsteady balance... he was all but tottering and staggering!
Kira had a bandage wrapped package clutched in his hands, held to his chest like it was at once the most precious thing in the world and also a knife stabbed right into his heart, his hands holding it tenderly, reverentially even, but his arms trembling like he itched to hurl it as far away from him as he possibly could. Cagalli took a half step forward, a falsely cheery smile plastered onto her face, her free hand raised in a wave and greeting to her brother. The wave faltered and the greeting died in her throat when she at last got a good look at Kira's downturned face as he trudged towards them like a zombie in the midst of a nightmare, every step seeming to require more energy and concentration than the last.
Cagalli had seen herself in the mirror on her way up through the hospital's levels, and though she looked betetr than she had when Hiero had first made his claims, her pallor was still very pale and her eyes wide, her cheeks moist with wiped off tears. Kira's cheeks were brick red, just like the rest of him, but they were also cracked and dry. Not because he jadn't been crying, his eyes were the most bloodshot she'd ever seen of any human being ever, just that he had already cried himself out, and couldn't muster any more moisture for his tear ducts. His eyes where ghastly, the whites stained pink, veins bulged red, the sparkling violet with silver corneas and pupils dull and lifeless, like the eyes of a real walking corpse. Cagalli opened her mouth to ask the question, the one she didn't want to know the answer to, the one she already knew the answer to. But the look on Kira's face stopped her. The look of confirmation, of hopelessness. The broken, lost and agonized look that told her everything she didn't want to know.
A tug on her hand and the sound of knees hitting pavement brought Cagalli's head whipping around, to find Athrun on his hand and knees, his head bowed as his shoulders shuddered with helpless tears that dripped freely to the concrete below. Athrun tried to speak, tried to control himself, but he could only manage an animal whimpering sob of denial and sorrow, somewhere between a howl and a gasp. He had known Lacus since puberty, had even been her arranged fiance for a year or so, and his bond with her, though tested and strained as Cagalli's had been by some events, was in most ways as deep and strong as Cagalli's was to Kira himself, more a relationship of siblings than friends.
Torn between Kira's crushing despair and Athrun's sobbing distress, Cagalli found hot tears running down her own face. Still, there was something she had to do first, before she could let herself give in to grief and sorrow. She found herself stepping forward at the same time as Cyprus, and even the grey haired, grey eyed Stormhound looked a little disturbed. Not that she expected him to cry, not in public, not where anyone could see him, not even for Lacus and the children. Though, Cagalli reflected that Cyprus probably had a tough conversation ahead of him, just as she herself did. Allister, Akira and Aoi had been like three fingers on the same hand, they were so close. And while it was of course far too early to speak of romantic entanglements amongst the children, no one with eyes to see with had doubted a strong connection between Akira and Violet Finch, a strong connection that could easily have blossomed into something much greater if only given the time.
Seeing that the Queen was incapable of much in the way of coherent words at the moment, while the Ambassador was all but incapacitated by emotion, Cyprus took the lead. He already knew the answer to the question he was going to ask, he'd known it from the moment he'd seen Kira's eyes, but it was a question that had to be asked nonetheless. "Is it true then, Kira?" Cyprus asked, finding his own lips a bit dry and his throat a bit choked up. Lacus Clyne was one of the most exceptional women in history, and one of the few true pacifists that Cyprus had any respect for at all. And in this case, "any" was "a great deal". Lacus Clyne was the sort of woman who could change the lives of even the most twisted and lost souls, just by passing by, and she had left an indelible mark upon him that he was only now truly comprehending. "Are Lacus, Akira and Aoi dead?" Cyprus watched the Queen flinch at those words, out of the corner of his eye.
Kira on the other hand just stared, his eyes dull and unfocused, as his head dipped just a fraction. The eyes and face of a shell shocked battle survivor, the sort that has seen his entire unit die horribly all around him, and expecting death to come for him at any moment, while miraculously coming back alive. It was the expression of a man that had left most of himself behind somewhere, and might never be able to retrieve all of it. "They're dead. I felt them die." Kira whispered, or perhaps that was as loud as his voice could currently go, dry and dusty and choked up as his throat was. "They burned to death. Only ashes left. Ashes and this." Kira let the bandages fall off the top part of the object he had clutched to his chest.
Cyprus narrowed his eyes and wrinkled his nose slightly as the unwholesome smell of charred pork wafted to his nostrils, faintly, but definitely there, the scent of burned human flesh. The bandages had fallen away to reveal a human hand, burned almost beyond recognition as such, a twisted, malformed claw of blackened shreds of skin pulled tight around brittle bones, waxy deposits of melted fat gathered around the knuckles and dripping down the wrist. Cyprus heard the Queen collapse to her hands and knees as well, and vomit onto the ground, and she was far from the only one to react to the gruesome sight that way. The Queen had toured the aftermaths of many battlefields, a burned body was nothing new to her, but the fact that this was the detached, burned arm of her friend and sister in law. well, the loss of a friend or family member was always worse than a stranger.
"And you are absolutely sure it was them?" Cyprus pressed, not sure if he was just being thorough or trying to hold out hope that Kira might have been fooled or been mistaken. An arm so badly burned was almost impossible to correlate to the person it had originally belonged to, past a certain point, all burned bodies started to look the same.
"Completely." Kira replied, swaying a bit on his feet, his eyes and his voice hollow, the tone of a man who has already accepted the greatest of tragedies. "She was wearing her silver ring, the one she wears in place of our wedding band." Kira tilted the hand so Cyprus could see the scorched metal band on one finger. "I felt them die. Our link disappeared. That would ONLY happen if their minds were gone for good. This is all I have left of her. Of any of them."
"I understand you are sure, but your objectivity is somewhat compromised." Cyprus said carefully, wondering why he was so doggedly pursuing this, but unable to stop himself once started. "Would it be okay if we ran some genetic tests to verify that the arm really does belong to Lacus? I know its painful to be seperated from her mortal remains, Mr. Yamato, but we must not have any doubt of her condition. Lacus is too important... to all of us... to be anything less than one hundred percent, verified by multiple sources, sure."
"Test away." Kira sighed. "But you're only prolonging your agony. Do you honestly think I would declare Lacus, Akira and Aoi dead if I had any doubts? Any doubts at all?"
"I think many a distraught survivor, pushed to the edge of sanity by the trauma they have experienced, may have convinced themselves of something happening that may not have occured exactly as they thought." Cyprus answered. "You would not be the first man to give up hope too early, Mr. Yamato."
Cyprus was in the process of saying more when Kira's hand flashed forward and grabbed him by the Stormhound's uniform collar. With a scrap of boot soles, Kira hauled Cyprus bodily over to be practically chest to chest with him. Once, Cyprus had towered several inches over Kira, but time and full maturity had evened their heights, and Cyprus found himself nose to nose with one very unhappy and barely in control Kira Yamato. "I... FELT... THEM... DIE." Kira intoned each word with a gnashing of his teeth. "You cannot understand." Kira turned his eyes away, and all but shoved Cyprus backward. "None of you can... you don't have the ability to understand."
"Then I am sorry." Cyprus returned, his voice rough, but not with anger. "I don't know what I'm going to tell Violet. Akira was her best friend."
"You can tell her this." Kira turned his eyes back to Cyprus, and the Stormhound leader, the master of the staredown, trained by Asmodeus Sark himself to turn a simple gaze into a weapon of brutal intimidation, found himself taking a step back from the look in Kira's eyes. "When I find out who started that fire... and it was no natural fire... nothing in heaven, hell or anywhere in between will stop me from making them pay for what they have done, not just to me, but to everyone."
xxxx
Orb National Palace, Nara-Attha City, October 18th, midafternoon
The funeral of Lacus Madeline Clyne and her two children, Akira Yamato-Clyne and Aoi Yamato-Clyne, had transcended the usual bounds of such a tragic event into something that had managed to reach out and touch anyone who was watching it, even through TV screens, even though they were tens of millions of kilometers removed from where the events were taking place. Of course everyone knew who Lacus Clyne was, either as a pop star, a political leader, a charity organizer or even, to some, a saint, but it wasn't until after she was gone that people truly realized how important she was to them, maybe not in a personal sense, but like a safety blanket or training wheels, a hidden sense of reassurance taken away. Lacus Clyne had, not through personal force of arms but through words, charisma and understanding, pulled the world and the human race back from the brink of genocidal mutual annihilation on multiple occasions, had forged two lasting peace treaties, and was widely considered the most influential woman of the Cosmic Era to date.
The funeral started in the morning with a procession through the streets of Nara-Attha City, with tens of thousands of red eyed, tearful public mourners lined up on the sidewalks to wave and shout goodbyes and thank yous to the coffins as they were driven slowly past in a motorcade. Keeping with tradition, the hearse that carried Lacus's coffin was black, but even such a somber day could not go without a nod to Lacus's preferences in life, and a broad pink stripe ran from the hood to the trunk down the middle of the car. Even if a National Holiday and day of mourning hadn't been announced ahead of time, the only people in office buildings that day would have been those that could get no view from street level and had climbed into offices to see the procession. Orb had not seen such an influx of pilgrims and short term visitors since the protest against Blue Cosmos that had turned into Purgatory Day, twelve years in the past.
It was later estimated that at least seventy million people had crowded into Nara-Attha City to witness the funeral procession in person, and the news broadcasts, across both TV and the internets, reached well over 4.8 billion people across Human Space, making it the most watched single event in the history of the human race to date. Unlike the funerals of many important political leaders, there was almost zero military presence at this funeral, no overflights from jets or Mobile Suits, no twenty one gun salutes, and even the motorcade honor guards, Stormhounds in full dress uniform, which they almost never wore, carried no weapons, only tall banners of various nations, or else armfuls of flowers.
Of course there were still some armed guards, but they stayed out of sight as much as possible, watching the crowds for any signs of disturbance, rioting, or grandstanding. It was a boring watch, because despite the all too common nature of human insensitivity to the suffering of others, this was not like other funerals. Even Lacus's political rivals and personal enemies could not find themselves able to badmouth her, or even rejoice in her passing. Regardless of the problems her opinions and actions had caused for many people in the higher echelons of world politics, the passing of Lacus Clyne could not be said to be anything less than a tragedy for the entire human race, no matter their personal feelings about her. No one acted out during the procession or the funeral because EVERYONE could feel a sense of loss, and no one was going to disturb an event they themselves felt connected to.
After touring through the city, the motorcade drove out of the city proper, and onto a nearby penninsula of land, where the war memorial gardens for the Valentine Wars had been constructed in the aftermath of those conflicts. Taking up several hundred square acres of ground, even the calamity of the Eden Disaster and Orb's desperate need for open ground for agriculture after the construction of the Glasshouse had not impunged upon the memorial gardens, which commemorated, among other things, the first razing of Orb and loss of Lord Uzumi Nara-Attha, Purgatory Day, and all those who had died in both first and second Valentine Wars. Here the funeral was closed to the public, with only family friends and government officials allowed in to witness her ceremonial internment, and those of the children.
Of course what only those closest to the deceased knew was that the three sealed coffins were completely empty inside. The public reason that the coffins were sealed was of course because Lacus and the children had died in a fire, and the bodies were said to be too horribly burned to display. But also, the PLANTS had asked for permission to bury Lacus Clyne, as their most famous daughter, on Aprilius City, and in a rare break from PLANT tradition, they would not be recycling her body, but letting her rest undisturbed for all time in their memorial. All agreed that Lacus Clyne had already given enough back to the human race. After some debate, Orb had agreed to the PLANTS request, on the condition that the coffins be sealed in Orb.
Genetic testing of the burned arm had come back with a completely perfect match for Lacus, leaving no doubts, not that many had been able to entertain them. After testing, the doctors had reverentially removed the ring from her finger and returned it to Kira, before the arm was fully cremated, turned to ashes just like the rest of her body. The cremated ashes were then sealed into another container and given over to Kira as well, who had buried them two days before in a private, family only event on Serenity Island, in a palm grove that he and Lacus had walked through many times together in the past, a few hundred yards from their house. The PLANTS could have the symbol of Lacus Clyne's burial, but she belonged with her husband. Kira now wore the scorched ring on a chain around his neck, where the ring could rest near his heart, the metal, though long cooled, always seeming to burn him a little when it touched him.
It is said by some that the true worth of a person can be measured, not by their actions in life, but by who shows up to be at their death, and by that measure the funeral of the Clyne family was also truly exceptional. Everyone from Orb was there, Kira, Cagalli and Athrun, Dearka and Mirillia, Mu and Murrue, Erica Simmons and her family, all the Stormhounds, Jiro Kurenai, Reverend Malchio, and many more, great and small. Solar President Gilbert Durandel was there, with Captain Talia Gladys of ZAFT on his arm, most of the PLANTS Supreme Council, including retired members such as Ezalia Joule and Eileen Canaver, a longtime friend of the Clyne family, the Elsman clan, and others. Notable in their abscence were Yzak and Katie, but as they lived on Mars, which was a good two week journey from Earth, they would come by during their next home furlong.
Standing in a seperate group, closer to the coffins supposedly carrying the remains of Akira and Aoi, was the new generation, Allister Zala-Attha, Roy and Alice Elsman, Violet Finch, Lewis Andrew la Flaga, Ryuta Simmons, and the children of other guests, including a whole slew of Elsman cousins. The Joule twins, Mina and Jamie, were missing from this group, as they were with their parents on Mars, and would not be back to the PLANTS, much less Earth, until early on in the next month. Many speeches were given, condolences were offered, national holidays and days of mourning declared, moments of silence were held, memories were talked about, but to those truly connected to the deceased, it was all inadequate. How do you fit the totality of the people you loved into mere words, or memories or snippets of the things they said or did? It was impossible, Lacus, Akira and Aoi were so much more than they could ever be expressed as by others!
There was a semi-public wake and reception for the dignitaries and their families after the ceremonial interment was over and done with, but Kira did not stay for it, slipping out as quickly as he politely could. Truth be told politness was far from the foremost concern on his mind, the events of the day, with pictures and video clips of Lacus everywhere, and people who had hated Lacus in life talking with such apparent sadness about her passing, and the tragedy of children's lives ended so short, had almost driven him crazy. Some people were truly sorry, but the constant reminders that she and Akira and Aoi were gone, gone forever, was too much for him to bear! He had buried Lacus but he had no peace with his actions. Not while the people that had murdered his family were still out and about. For all he knew, they might even have been attending the funeral!
Kira's suspicions focused upon the USN, perhaps not surprisingly, given the information Monty had shown him and Lacus only a few hours before the fire had occured, it was plain that the USN and its special interest groups were waging a covert, no holds barred war against the Edenite populations. Whether or not the fire was an intentional attack or assassination attempt Kira did not know, all he knew for certain was that the fire was no natural phenomenon, it had moved far too fast, and the way Monty had died, combusting from within, it was like there had been something in the air that had spontaneously set anything on New Eden it touched alight. But at the same time it had little to no effect upon him and Lacus, and presumably upon Akira and Aoi. It hadn't taken much figuring to realize that the only real difference between himself and Monty was their degree of exposure to and saturation by Green EDEN.
Kira did not live day in and day out on New Eden, and he only rarely ate Edenite foods, and even on that particular night, when he'd gorged himself, he'd purged most of the food before he'd really had time to digest most of it, and the Green EDEN it contained. So he'd only felt heat on his skin and within his body, while Monty and the Yggdrasilwood trees around him, burst into flame like a candle dipped in lighter fluid. That whatever it was appeared to target Green EDEN was a definite red flag, as far as Kira was concerned, pointing to the USN. Why would the Edenites not only kill their own people like that, but create a weapon that was apparently tailored to specifically target their own unique biology to greatest effect? It just didn't make sense, especially with the way they were all emotionally connected through the Wind of Words, they had a hard enough time shooting at each other, much less burning each other to death!
The problem was he didn't have any proof for his suspicions, just the suspicions themselves, and his memories from the fire. And while Cagalli and Athrun and Cyprus and even Mu were glad to listen to his suspicions, it really felt to Kira more like they were just placating him, stringing him along by turning a helpful ear but with no real intentions to do anything about it! It had been more than ten days since the fire had happened, and Orb still hadn't sent an official investigation team to Rex Lodge! Cagalli assured him that they would, but that political complications with the USN's increased scrutiny of Orb, ever since the rumors of Kira being dropped off by an unidentified Edenite shuttle had somehow gotten out were preventing Orb from moving openly outside the Glasshouse. All Durandel needed was the "plasuible" suspicion that Orb was colluding with the Edenites, to find an excuse to quash their Independence bill before it even got off the ground, under suspicion of them planning an assisted revolt!
Ten DAYS! Ten hours on New Eden would have been too long, but ten days and counting? They might as well just burn down a random ten square kilometers of forest and search THAT! They'd have about the same chance of finding anything useful relating to the deaths of his family! The Edenites were supposed to be doing an investigation of their own, but how did that help Kira, stuck in Orb under "bed rest recommendation" by several doctors, due to "physical and emotional trauma"? As if he could ACTUALLY SLEEP in the bed he'd shared with Lacus for the past ten years or so? As if he could rest, knowing that she wasn't there, and never would be there again? As if he could even close his eyes without seeing her charred arm lying there in the ash, and knowing that he had totally and completely failed in his most basic task as a father and a husband! If it didn't hurt so much it would be laughable!
Storming through the halls of the National Palace, looking neither right nor left, nor really even seeing his surroundings, Kira continued to brood over not only his own failings, but the far more pressing concern of what had caused that fire. If it was the USN, then it was all too likely they would use it again, and in the furor and aftermath of Lacus's funeral would be the perfect time to do so, while the eyes and minds of the world were distracted! As much as the need to avenge the senseless and random deaths of Lacus, Akira and Aoi burned inside him, he could not let himself forget the ideals that he and Lacus had lived to their entire lives together. This was bigger than just his personal tragedy, this could be the start of another slippery slope descending into the madness of war! Lacus would never forgive him if he turned his back on the world when it needed him, especially if she herself could no longer be there to pick up the slack for him.
He heard someone call his name, and Kira spun around, realizing for the first time that his legs had carried him to one of the National Palace's many garden spots, a place where he had talked with Athrun several times in the past, when they were both avoiding Cagalli when she was in one of her pissier moods. This time it was Kira that was in the pissy mood, though calling it that was quite the understatement. And it was Cagalli that had come to talk with him, looking a bit breathless, she'd probably had to jog to catch up with him, he tended to walk pretty fast when he was angry and lost in his thoughts. Athrun was probably holding down the political fort at the reception, giving Cagalli time to step out and follow her fuming twin brother. Kira met her amber eyed gaze and didn't know whether he was pleased or appalled when she swallowed nervously.
"Have you sent that investigation team like we discussed?" Kira asked, preempting her as she was opening her mouth. "The trail of the people that murdered Lacus and the kids is getting colder with every passing second, you know."
Cagalli opened and closed her mouth a few times as she reordered her mind from whatever she was going to say, Kira's dry eyed confrontationalism plainly catching her off guard, on a day where everyone else was all but overwhelmed with grief and tears. "Uhm, no, I'm sorry, but I haven't sent them yet. Things are complicated right now, Kira."
"Complicated?" Kira snapped, his eyes blazing. "My wife and kids are killed by arson and its too complicated to send a simple forensics team to the scene of the crime! Your own sister in law, and your niece and nephew are murdered and you won't even launch an investigation?"
"Damn it, Kira, you know that's not how things are!" Cagalli retorted with some anger of her own. "Dramaticism aside, Lacus, Akira and Aoi's deaths hit me just as hard as they hit you, and you know that I would do anything in my power to help you out. But my power has limits, and we've already been over them! I can't send anyone right now, because if any Orb officials, even a simple forensics team, were to leave Orb's territory and head out into the Green Zones, Durandel will take it as a sign that we are conspiring with a rogue government and he'll stomp Orb's Independence Bill flat! That bill is just starting to gain momentum, the hopes and dreams of our entire nation depend on it passing! I can't take that chance away from them. Not even for you."
"Then send someone covert! Give me some Stormhounds and we'll sneak out! Anything! I can't stand just sitting around here! This is about more than just me and Lacus, Cagalli, the entire world could be at stake! Millions of Edenite lives could be threatened by this new weapon, whatever it is! We can't just sit here and do nothing!" Kira replied, his fists bunching at his sides. "I swore an oath with Lacus to always fight against war and injustice, and that has not and will not ever change. I cannot sit idly now while someone prepares a genocidal weapon for use!"
"Kira, we don't have any proof that this was an attack!" Cagalli ran her hands through her hair, her legs feeling trapped by the somber black and silver gown she was wearing for the day's events. "I know what you believe, and I believe you too, it doesn't sound like a natural fire from what you describe. But much as I can't deploy an official investigation team because of political ramifications, I can't send an unofficial military team either! I don't control the military anymore, Jiro does, and while Jiro is as sympathetic as anyone, he's not going to risk Orb for your sake, Kira. Especially when we only have your word to go on."
"Since I've made such a habit of lying about things during my life." Kira snorted with contempt.
"For god's sake, Kira, you know I didn't mean it like that!" Cagalli crossed her arms across her chest and glared at him. "Its not a question of personal trustworthiness, its just, well, you were in the middle of a really bad forest fire, and you were being bombarded with feelings from Lacus and the kids, and well, a case could be made for you perhaps exaggerating what happened. I mean, you did get hit pretty hard on the head, by your own admission."
"So now I'm misremembering the events that led to my wife and children being burned into piles of ash." Kira replied flatly, his eyes cold. "I'm not lying, I'm just unreliable as a witness?"
"You're traumatized, Kira, don't even try to deny that!" Cagalli hissed back. "You don't sleep hardly at all, you're barely eating, and if I didn't have Athrun checking up on you every day, you wouldn't even wash yourself! You're falling apart, little brother, everyone can see it happening! Put yourself in my shoes for a little bit? Would you trust the future of an entire nation on the word of someone who looks like a zombie freshly risen from his grave? Who can't even take care of his own basic needs without prodding from others? I believe you, Kira. I'd fly out there with you myself. But you don't have to convince me, you have to convince Jiro! And Jiro took one look at you this morning at the memorial gardens and just about passed out! You look like death warmed over, Kira, people are going to start wanting to help you by strapping you to a damn table soon!"
"My wife and children were murdered... burned to death... not one hundred feet away from me. I felt them die. How the HELL AM I SUPPOSED TO LOOK?" Kira shouted back furiously. "How would you look if it was Allister and Athrun that were dead? I remember what you were like when Kisaka died, even if you don't! How dare you comment on how bad I look at a time like this! At least I haven't shut out my entire family in a bout of depression!"
"No, instead you antagonize and belittle us when we try to help you in the only ways we currently can!" Cagalli shouted right back. "You did the same damn thing back when Lacus almost died from Noah's poison, so I'm not sure why I expected you to act any different now, but I was! I'm sorry I was clinically depressed because of a pleasure enhancing drug that I was tortured with, I guess I'm weak, unlike you, Mr. Ultimate Coordinator! I guess I lack your ability to be immune to poisons and drugs and trauma and to always be right about everything because I wasn't genetically engineered to be the perfect future of humanity, I apologize! Mom thought I was just fine the way I was, apparently, and in the balance of things, I'm not sure she was wrong!"
"I never wanted to be who I am!" Kira yelled at her. "I never asked for this! But I am an Ultimate Coordinator. I am an Edenite. It does not change who I am. I know my certainty doesn't make sense to you, because you just can't understand the depth of feeling conveyed by the psychic bonds of Newtypes. Its a handicap, I know, but..."
"Oh, so now I'm handicapped, am I? Damn it Kira, could you try, once, to NOT be a jerkass?" Cagalli snapped back. "You have always been pigheaded when you think you're right, we both are. But just because you are certain of something doesn't mean you're right! Remember the Pulsar? You were sure that was the only way forward, and then what happened? You almost died! Don't you lecture me about how I can't understand how you feel, at least the parents you grew up with are still alive! I may not be psychic, but love has a connection all of its own! It seems more like being a psychic is a handicap, because you get so caught up in how you can feel things we normal people can't that you forget that normal people have still been feeling all the same emotions as you have for thousands of years, without relying on the crutch of mind to mind contact for certainty! I don't know how your bond thing feels. But if you think I don't understand how your love for Lacus feels, then you are an idiot, little brother."
"What's the point of even talking to you about it? You just preach at me." Kira turned away from his sister angrily. "You weren't there. You don't know what it was like. You couldn't know what it was like."
"Well maybe you'd like to tell me then?" Cagalli challenged. "Though hearing you complain about getting preached to is pretty damn rich, coming from Kira Yamato, the king of preachiness."
"Just go away. I want to be alone." Kira told her.
"Yeah, sure, like you guys left me alone when I was in my Spiffy induced depression. No, that's not happening, Kira. Talk to me. I'm your sister. I'm your family. Talk to me." Cagalli pleaded, reaching out her hand for his shoulder.
"Don't touch me." Kira said coldly. "Just go away! I don't want sympathy right now. If you can't bring yourself to help me investigate the fire, then go back to entertaining the politicians. I'll do it without you."
"Come on." Cagalli put her hand on his shoulder and tugged. "I'm not going anywhere until you talk to me."
"I SAID, DON'T TOUCH ME!" Kira whirled to face her, tearing his shoulder out of her grip, his arm raised to ward her back. In the process of raising that arm, he also raised his hand, and the act of turning brought the back of that hand into contact with Cagalli's lips and chin. Kira had turned with a lot of force, and his accidental backhand connected with enough power to twist Cagalli's head to the side and knock her stumbling to the ground, blood dripping from where her teeth had mashed against her lips. Cagalli shook her head dazedly on the ground, before looking up at him with a shocked expression on her face, and Kira realized that she thought he'd intended to hit her. Though far from as hard as he could hit, he'd still bloodied her lips and knocked her down, which was a bit more than most accidental contact from an Earthling would do. But Kira was not an Earthling. He opened his mouth to apologize, but then his anger took over again. He had told her not to touch him. Maybe she'd believe him in the future. Today was not his day for feeling sympathetic towards the problems of other people.
"I'm going home." Kira announced, turning away from his shocked sister, not even offering her a hand up, much less an apology. "I need to be by myself. Don't call me, don't come visit me. I'm not in the mood for empty sympathy with no intent for action behind it. If you have an investigation team set up, then you should call me. Anything other than that isn't welcome." Kira kept his back to his sister and walked away, shoulders set and head held high. It looked like it was up to him to save a blind world from itself. He hoped Lacus was watching over him from heaven, because it seemed no one on earth was all that interested in helping out.
Cagalli watched her brother leave, shaking stars out of her vision and rubbing a very sore jaw full of teeth that felt a bit looser than usual, tasting the coppery tang of blood on her tongue and wiping it from her chin onto the back of her own hand. Far from discouraging her, the fact that Kira had physically lashed out at her just made her that much more determined to watch over him. It was more surprise than power that had sent her to the ground, though she dreaded explaining her bruise and smashed lips to Athrun when the time came. He tended to be very overprotective of her, and even if it had been Kira who hit her, that would just make it all the worse in Athrun's eyes. Well, whatever, Cagalli thought as she climbed back to her feet. Kira might not believe it at the moment, but he had friends and family that cared deeply for him and would do all they could for him. Even if it was just leaving him alone so he could work things out himself for a little while.
xxxx
Rural Agriculture District 14, Mandell township, Eastern Coast of Orb, October 20th, Early morning
As if crossing half the fucking pacific ocean hadn't been a big enough bother, just as he was reaching the doorstep of his final destination he'd hit another snag. Namely, the orangy colored energy field that surrounded the entireity of the Orb islands. While easily permeable to water, air and other things, the electromagnetic barrier was pure death for any electrically charged particles or nanomachines that crossed into it, which was what kept Orb all brown and Earthy, compared to green and Edeny outside. It also kept out the Edenite fish and oceanic wildlife, because brushing up against the Glasshouse field was like rubbing your side across a bed of red hot needles. It wouldn't really kill you as it popped all the Green EDEN inside you into plasma, but it sure wasn't fun, so the animals stayed away. But as saturated as most animal and plant life was with Green EDEN, it was nothing compared to the way his body was pumped full of dozens of different nanocolonies, so much so that Frost wasn't sure he could even survive if they all got zapped.
It was ironic, that what amounted to the worlds largest bug zapper, something that couldn't even actually kill a fly, would be anathema to the greatest and most dangerosu killer of modern times. It might as well be made from planes of solid quantum crystal, he could not penetrate it, on pain of ignominous death, which was the absolute worst kind of death. Not in his little patched together and half sinking boat anyway. It hadn't taken too long for a solution to present itself to him, as was usual, as he'd spied a relatively large container type ship inbound from further out to sea, where he'd passed some sort of artificial construction project in the middle of the night. He'd thought about checking it out, but the lights from Orb's shore had been almost visible by then, and so he'd pressed on. Only to encounter the damn Glasshouse just twelve miles short of the goal line.
Getting aboard the frieghter had been simplicity itself, they'd thought he was a fisherman who'd accidentally strayed outside the Glasshouse and had his motor killed by the electromag field. Apparently that would not be the first time such a thing had happened. A pair of dark sunglasses taken from the previous owner of his ramshackle boat, back on the Chilean coast, sufficed to hide Frost's eyes from his "saviors", who did comment on how strikingly similar to the famous Kira Yamato he looked, which earned them the thinnest of tolerant smiles from him, at least long enough for them to escort him to a small medical chamber, where they were going to feed him something to counteract Green EDEN poisoning. Well, then the glasses came off, more or less by accident, and from there one thing led to another.
He didn't kill them. Every cell in his being wanted to soak in their blood, but he forced himself to maintain strict discipline. This was a covert operation after all, he didn't want to tip his hand too soon. With the powers of the mind that his new body granted him, it wasn't too much work to modify the memories of his victims so that they either didn't remember him or only hazily remembered him. No one even called for help, because by the time anyone realized anything was wrong, they were already pinned beneath him and basically having their brains sucked out and spat back into their skulls. The ship only had a dozen or so crewmembers, most everything was automated, a regular supply shuttle running parts and raw materials out to a place called Trieste Harbor, which must have been that place he'd passed last night.
Cover maintained, Frost had stowed himself away in one of the containers inside the ship's hold, inside a metal barrel filled with water. Shielded by the ships hull, the metal container, the metal barrel and the water, he barely even felt a tingle as the ship passed through the Glasshouse. Leaving a ship full of unconscious bodies, displeased that there were no women on board to provide even a modicrum of liesure activity, Frost bailed out over the shoreward side and swam to shore, an invigorating swim to work out the frustrations of not being able to kill those stupid humans. Orb was a lot different from he remembered it being during the brief time he'd been there in his old body, there seemed to be a lot less people and a lot more farms and fields, filled with fast growing food staples such as corn, wheat and potatos.
Harvesting some of the riper spuds for his own use, having not eaten anything substantial since that big yellow snake a few weeks earlier, Frost assuaged the gnawing feeling in his belly that kind of reminded him of how it felt as a fiver when the scientists weren't giving him enough Gamma Glipheptim. It was certainly annoying, but far from crippling. Reaching a road, Frost began following it, ancient memories of the briefing on Orb's layout Asmodeus had once given him stirring to life, creating a map of the country in his head. He'd landed on the northern east shore, to get to where he was going, where he would find the first blades to sharpen, he needed to go west and south, to Orb's capital.
An hour or so of jogging along the road had finally seen him overtaken by an early morning motorist, some businessman or other returning to Nara-Attha City after a meeting in north part of the country. Of course Frost only learned that after oh so casually stepping out in front of the speeding car, allowing it to hit him, denting the hood deeply and sending him rolling and skidding for a good twenty meters. He'd thought about just waving the guy down, or using his mind to make him stop, but where was the fun in that? Picking himself up from the ground, skin abrasions already fading away into new skin, Frost popped his neck a few times and then walked over to meet the flustered businessman, who was alternately profusely apologizing and eyeing the damage to his car with a somewhat stupefied look.
If he thought the dent in his car was surprising, the clawed fist Frost casually shoved right through his ribcage and out through his back had to be the worst shock of his entire life. And the last one too, as Frost's hand clenched around the man's spine and ripped half his backbone out through his sternum, closing his eyes and beaming as the hot gore of arterial spray painted across him. Violent needs satiated for the moment, Frost stripped out of his ruined clothes and used them to, regrettably, wipe himself off, and then searched the corpse for keys and wallet and other goodies, which was when he'd discovered the man's travel planner and other stuff. The suitcase in the car trunk had clothes that were a bit tight but he could squeeze into them, even if they were a bit too stuffy and formal for Frost's tastes. he left the dark grey collared shirt mostly unbuttoned, and forwent a belt for the slacks, and didn't bother to tie the shoes. He was only wearing this as a disguise, and not even a good one. He'd be changing clothes sooner or later.
He did find a rather nice pair of sunglasses that he used to cover his golden pupiled eyes, and a red ballcap with an orange "M" stuffed into the glovebox that sufficed to cover his mop of brown hair. Sucking on his teeth for the last traces of bloodspray, Frost climbed behind the wheel, and for the first time in his life, actually had to move the seat back a bit because his legs were too long. It was a disorienting experience for someone who had to do a pullup to see over some garden walls in his original body. Running over the already mangled body with the owners own car, Frost pulled back onto the road and headed south, cruising with the windows down, ignoring a pestering pinging from the dashboard as a "engage automatic mode" warning blinked above his speedometer. As if he needed a computer to drive the car for him! Humanity's blade was duller than he'd thought if they couldn't even drive their own cars anymore!
Covering the forty or so miles to the next township took about fifteen minutes, with the way Frost drove, which pushed the car right to its mechanical tolerances, his keen ears alert for any noises that would indicate a problem soon to occur. It was the need for information more than fuel or food that drove him to stop at a fuelling station, hooking the car's electric battery up to the charging port and sliding the dead man's credit card through the reader, Frost went into the store and bought a newspaper. Though printed media had largely been killed by the internet and TV in the Cosmic Era, the recent resource glut of Red EDEN had seen a resurgence in printed papers, though mostly they were more the tabloid sort than the news sort. Frost smirked as he remembered the lessons, oh so long ago when he'd been but a tiny boy, where the BCPU's were taught covert intelligence operation tactics. Who'd have ever thought that stuff was actually going to be useful for him?
His smirk lasted about as long as it took for him to walk outside and open the paper. He scanned the main title and actually did a double take. It read "LACUS CLYNE AND FAMILY FUNERAL LARGEST MEDIA EVENT IN WORLD HISTORY" in screaming bold letters across the top of the first inner page. Then there was a huge picture of a coffin, with Pink's picture on it, and two smaller coffins with two kids pictures on them. The kids bore a definite family resemblance to Pink. "They're DEAD?" Frost shouted in disbelief. "How can they be DEAD? I didn't even think at them yet!"
"What the hell is..." Frost trailed off into furious mumbles as he devoured the article with his eyes, growing more and more infuriated and distraught as he did so. Pink and her kids had burned to death two weeks ago in a fucking forest fire? A forest fire! What the hell kind of pathetic, worthless death was that? How could Pink let herself die in a natural accident? What sort of perverted bitch had she become since he died? Where the FUCK was the boytoy? And then he read that Kira had also been in the fire, but had emerged mostly unharmed. That was the final straw.
Frost whirled and punched the cinderblock wall of the fuel station with all his might, splitting the skin on his fingers and carving a palm sized divot in the stone. "WHAT THE FUCK WERE YOU DOING, BOYTOOOOYYY! DON'T YOU KNOW THAT PINK IS MINE TO KILL! WHAT IS YOUR FUCKING PROBLEM! ALL YOU HAD TO DO WAS KEEP HER ALIVE WITHOUT ME AROUND FOR TEN MEASLY YEARS AND YOU DROP THE FUCKING BALL TWO WEEKS BEFORE I GET HERE? WHAT... THE... FUCK...!"
Frost crumpled the newspaper up and hurled it away like it was a piece of animal rubbish. Still fuming, he turned and kicked his car door hard enough to put his foot entirely through the thin metal. It didn't make him feel any better. Pink was dead and gone and burned to ash, he couldn't even feel the luxury of her life's blood pour across his fingers, he couldn't taste her last breath on his tongue, he couldn't watch the light go out in her eyes as he choked the life from her pretty pale neck! The Boytoy's blunder had cost him so many of life's pleasures, the things he had been looking forward to since even before he'd died! Snarling, Frost drew back his foot to kick again. And then stared, down his long legs, at himself and set the foot almost gently down on the pavement again. He looked down at his foot... at the Boytoy's foot. The snarl turned into a rictus grin, and Frost started to chuckle.
"So maybe you took Pink from me, Boytoy. Point to you, having her die peacefully and gently in a fire before I could get to her and your precious little babies. Yes, you win that round, Boytoy. Well played. But the game isn't over yet, and I'm not just here for you and Pink. You two are the worst, but I have a special thank you to give to all of your friends. Loser and Fiery Zala-Attha. Blond Weeny and chick. Scarface. And you know what, Boytoy? I think they'd like the message so much better if it came from you, rather than from me. Or at least, if they thought it did. Heh. Heh heh heh heh." Frost choked down his amusement before it could turn into a spectacle causing belly laugh, his grin stretching painfully tight across his face. "Its going to be one hell of a Halloween, don't you think, Boytoy? A regular Nightmare on Orb's streets..."