Gundam SEED Destiny: Kira

by Tellemicus Sundance

He had no memory, found drifting amongst the final battlefield. Two years of peace have passed since that day, unrest and distrust are again rising. This is the story on how he recovers what he lost, what he forgot, and what he never knew he had. DISCONTINUED

10. Journeying to Western Eurasia

Gundam SEED Destiny
Kira
By: Tellemicus Sundance
Phase 10: Journeying to Western Eurasia

November 6, 73 CE
Eurasian Federation Military Outpost, Pakistan
3:30am

If you said the battle wasn't going well would've been grave insult to the poor souls who were locked in it and on the losing side. Despite attacking with the element of surprise on their side, as well as using seven old Strike Dagger mobile suits, the local rebels were being quickly overpowered by the newer Alliance Windam mobile suits and their superior tactics. At present there was only one remaining Strike Dagger that hadn't been destroyed, and the pilot was putting up a valiant defense for her companions as they fled into the night.

Sarah Ali Muhammad-Dikerson glared hatefully at the swarming Windams in front of her. Crouched behind a rock outcropping with her shield and rifle up, she shot with all the precision her limited view range had to offer. Glancing over at her power supply, she scowled even deeper; she was nearly in the red zone! Another three more minutes at most, even if she attempted to conserve her power.

A dangerously close beam shot past her shield and impacted heavily with the sandstone behind her, snapping her attention back towards the slowly approaching Windams. They had all but won the battle; they knew it as well as she did. Going against both training and protocol, the pilots of the Windams gave into their pride and arrogance by standing out in the open of the valley that their outpost was located in. About five Windams were firing upon her, the remaining fifteen had taken to the air to better survey the battlefield and to locate any remaining rebels.

"Sarah, come in!" a voice growled over the radio. "Withdraw for now! You're our last mobile suit. We can't afford to lose you too!"

"I know that!" Sarah barked, shooting her rifle with careful precision and was finally rewarded with seeing the targeted mobile suit explode. But before she could mentally congratulate herself, a pair of beams shot down from above by a trio of descending Windams. The beams struck her Strike Dagger in the right shoulder and left knee, crippling both joints and throwing her machine off balance.

Jolted fiercely by the vibrations as her mobile suit tumbled down from its hiding place and into a small gorge, Sarah could only close her eyes and hang onto the controls for dear life. Finally, after what felt like an eternity, the Strike Dagger came to a halt with one final crash. Hitting the emergency jettison switch, Sarah leapt out of the ruined mobile suit and dove for cover. Ducking behind a boulder and covering her ears, she could feel the explosion of her mobile suit's self-destruct shake the nearby earth and send vibrations through her body.

Pulling out her pistol and a pair of night-vision goggles from her bag, she watched as the Windams continued their extermination of the rebels. A group of three Windams, no less than four hundred meters away, were mercilessly mowing down the fleeing forms of jeeps and old-fashioned artillery trucks with their CIWS. The same ones she'd been attempting to protect!

"NO!" she yelled as she watched the lead missile truck explode. Her brother's truck. "Jarac!"

Through her tear-stained eyes, she watched as her remaining companions managed to reach the fallback point, a very narrow canyon with high cliff sides. It was at this point that a shower of RPGs rained down upon the Windams. Though the rocket-propelled grenades did little more than dent the improved armor, a lucky few managed to hit one of the Windams' head piece and destroyed its primary camera. Reacting to the sudden attack, the undamaged Windams shot out of the canyon and quickly spotted the retreating rebels. She knew what was coming next, so she closed her eyes and looked away.

A sudden pair of explosions tore through the air, coming from the canyon. Reflexively looking towards the explosions, Sarah expected to canyon in flames. However, the sight that greeted her was quite different. The Windam duo had been reduced to burning debris that fell lifelessly from the sky, down upon their damaged partner underneath.

"What happened?" she asked herself. There was no way the rebels could've done that! They didn't have the firepower, not without a mobile suit at least. And hers had been the last one they had.

As she continued staring in that direction, she heard the distinctive noise of a mobile suit's engines flying past her. Turning to follow the sound, a sudden gust of wind swept over her shoulders, kicking up a slight dust cloud. For just a brief moment, that dust obscured all her vision. So she was unable to see any of the ten near-instantaneous explosions that occurred.

As the dust finally cleared, Sarah was treated to a sight that she would hold in her memory for the rest of her life. Floating high in the sky in the midst of the falling debris of its targets was a winged mobile suit that she had only ever seen in the news or in clippings of the previous war. The Freedom Gundam, wings spread proudly, was firing a series of rapid shots that were so accurate and so quick that it was staggering to watch. Four more Windams were shot down before the remaining pilots finally reacted to the sudden appearance of a new powerful enemy.

Exchanging its rifle in favor of a beam saber, the Freedom dashed forward towards the three remaining Alliance mobile suits. Swinging around the first one with a grace that was almost unnatural, the Freedom easily disarmed the Windam and then kicked its engines, utterly crippling them. Raising its right arm, a pair of beam claws sprung to life as a weird shape launched itself from the Gundam's arm. The traveling beam claws quickly smashed straight through the nearest attacker's head piece before circling around and digging its claws into the engines of the already damaged Windam, sending it falling from the skies with its partner. This whole sequence took place in less than ten seconds.

Turning to the sole remaining Windam, the Freedom merely raised its right arm as its beam claws returned to it. There was a momentary lull in the battle, Sarah was almost positive the pilot of the Freedom was communicating with the Windam. Her assumption was quickly confirmed when the Windam suddenly turned and fled back towards its base like a frightened child. In response, the Freedom merely settled down upon the earth below and stood, waiting patiently.

During the next ten minutes, there was a convoy of vehicles and personnel rushing out of the base. When the last person had fled, Sarah and everyone else watched as the Freedom systematically destroyed all the important facilities of the outpost, paying special attention to the mobile suit hangars and the command towers.

Once all the vital buildings had been demolished, the Freedom lifted up into the air and promptly vanished from sight.

KIRA – Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny - KIRA

November 6, 73 CE
Minerva, Carpentaria
7:30am

Athrun's head was positively spinning off its axis with questions about all that had transpired in the week since he'd left Orb. When he had attempted to land at Orb to dock with the Minerva, he was attacked by a pair of Murasames. Thankfully they gave him some crucial information before he was forced to retaliate and quickly fled. Cagalli had apparently been unable to prevent the ministers from joining the World Security Treaty Organization and that the Minerva was no longer docked in the port.

But as he rode the elevator up to the bridge with that red-haired ZAFT Red, Athrun received some even more much needed information. Apparently someone had leaked information to the Earth Alliance about the time of the Minerva's departure and the Alliance had sent a fleet to sink the ship. But thanks to the heroic piloting skills of Shinn and Lieutenant Koenig, they managed to survive. Despite the seriousness of the topic, Athrun couldn't help the small smile that was trying to pull across his face at the mention of Tolle once again blatantly disorders he didn't agree with. However the biggest shock came from a relatively minor comment. Cagalli had gotten MARRIED?!!

For just a moment, Athrun could only stare lifelessly at the floor in front of him as he saw the future he'd hoped for at Cagalli's side slipping out of his reach. So lost in his own agonizing despair, Athrun hadn't even noticed the elevator doors opening at their desired level. Only the girl's voice managed to pierce his clouded mind and return him back to the present. She then gave him some bad news that was truly frightening. Cagalli had been kidnapped halfway through the wedding ceremony and nobody knew where she was. How much more bad news could she possibly give him?! Well, apparently, she had one last piece of bad news for him: she didn't know the full story.

He was left to stew on the countless possibilities until shortly after he'd been debriefed by Captain Talia Gladys. During that debriefing, he found himself understanding the overall picture far better. Once the Minerva was finished with repairs from its previous battle, as well as upgrades for all mobile suits aboard, they were to head out for Gibraltar to aid in the attack of Suez. These orders were rather peculiar since the Minerva was clearly designed for use in space, not the atmosphere.

"Captain," he said, turning back to face the newly-promoted FAITH agent. "Do you know what's happening with Orb? I've been out of the loop, so I still don't know what happened there."

"Right," the slightly surprised blonde said. "Well, they're going through a difficult time right now with their Chief Representative being kidnapped. The Orb government is doing its best to cover up what happened." That was news that he'd already head, so Athrun was far from surprised. "But the unofficial word is that the Fortitude and the Archangel abducted the Representative."

Now he was surprised. "Tolle?" After a moment, he felt a fifty-ton weight be pulled off his shoulders. Cagalli would…arguably be safe as long as she was on the Archangel and Tolle was there to protect her.

"But that's not all," Captain Gladys said in a neutral voice. "I refrained from mentioning this earlier because it wasn't part of the official debriefing. But a few days before the abduction, the Neo Freedom was spotted flying out of the Morgenroete facility in Orb."

Athrun's gaze snapped up to Gladys' in an instant. The captain had complete seriousness in her expression as she continued, "And ever since then, there have been numerous reports on the media about the Neo Freedom appearing randomly to aid rebels and revolutionaries throughout eastern and central Eurasia, always seeming to head west afterwards."

"Has there been any news as to what Kira's intentions are?" Athrun asked, clenching his briefcase tightly to help him maintain at least a margin of military discipline. "Or how the Neo Freedom just appeared in Morgenroete? Was it being repaired?"

"I'm afraid there's been no news whatsoever," Gladys denied. "The Orb government claims that they had no idea of the Neo Freedom's presence in one of their most secure facilities. And that the true identity of the pilot of the Neo Freedom still has yet to be confirmed, along with what he hopes to accomplish."

Thanking the blonde as he bowed, Athrun turned and left the two officers to their duties. He still had a few calculations to make to the ZGMF-X23S Savior Gundam's OS and fine-tune the rifle targeting system.

KIRA – Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny - KIRA

November 10, 73 CE
Toshkent Airport, Uzbekistan
7:27pm

Information about the numerous rebellions that were springing up all over Eurasia was so common that he could've found it on even the civilian networks. However, learning where the troop movements, supply routes, military installations, mobile suit and armor factories, radio/communication towers, and even the command outposts were located was a considerably more difficult job for Akira with his limited resources. He often found himself having to hack into an installation's network before he attacked it with the Neo Freedom.

The information he was fishing for was always becoming more and more depressing in a manner. No matter how many factories he destroyed (only three at this point) or how much damage he caused to the military, there seemed to be no end to hostilities towards the civilians. Why weren't they trying to come after him instead of leaving the civilians alone? None of the military databases he'd hacked so far had any information about that question, only a rather minor announcement about the Neo Freedom's various appearances and actions.

He had soon realized that they simply weren't taking him seriously enough as a threat to their overall operations. To them, he was nothing more than a minor nuisance who couldn't be shot down very easily. Why? It was because he was only one Gundam with limited funds and no real public backing, despite his apparent aid. He needed to make a serious move against the government in order for them to start taking him seriously.

That was why he was here at this moment. The information he'd come across had been some of the most disturbing yet. The military had apparently met some especially fierce resistance from this area and had actually been pushed back several times by the revolutionaries' unwavering resolve. However, it seemed that with the increased militia that was being marshaled into the area to finally overcome the rebels, new orders had been issued as well. The soldiers were apparently given free rein of whatever happened on the battlefield, and all civilian causalities were to be considered as nothing more than collateral damage. But what made these new orders even worse was the fact that they were targeting the primary means of transportation like highways, railways, and airports in an effort to cut off the rebels' supply routes. Strategically speaking, it was an obvious and generally effective means of attrition and guerilla warfare.

As he surveyed the situation from high in the air, safely cloaked under Mirage Colloid, he studied the layout of the battlefield. The city itself was a positively chaotic deathtrap for either civilian or soldier, given how the two sides intermixed there. Ultimately it would come down to better suburban warfare tactics and absolute resolve to win that battle. As it was, the two sides were surprisingly well matched.

However, the airport was a completely different story. The defenders had drawn their line and were fighting with everything they had to protect the civilians inside who were attempting to flee on the rapidly departing planes. What few mobile suits the defenders had available were all stationed around the runways in an effort to protect the fragile planes as they took flight. And despite their best efforts, the defenders were steadily and quickly being pushed back with more and more enemy mobile suits getting dangerously close to the loading planes.

Akira ground his teeth together as he watched the defenders' lines waver dangerously once again as a plane began to roll out to take-off. Swinging the Neo Freedom down into a steep dive, he changed it back into a mobile suit and took careful aim at the attacking side of Windams. Disabling the Mirage Colloid as he took the shots, his beams struck home and sent the damaged units crashing to ground unceremoniously. Landing the midst of their lines, the Neo Freedom turned and slammed its large shield into the head piece of one Windam, utterly smashing it, as it shot out the knees of another.

"Stop it!" he yelled over the radio as he switched the Lupus rifle for his beam saber. "Can't you see they're just civilians in those planes?!"

Either he was yelling over the wrong channel or something, but none of the Windam pilots seemed to have had a response to his accusation. Instead, they answered his aggression with their own. Scowling at their actions, the Neo Freedom turned and stabbed its shield into the torso of the next nearest Windam, missing the cockpit but still heavily damaging the motor. Spinning around as the Windam collapsed, he swung his beam saber in an arc to ward off the lunging unit at his back. Before the pilot of that unit could properly recoil and prepare another attack, a beam shot through its cockpit from the side, destroying the machine and the human life inside in an instant. Glancing over from where the shot came from, Akira realized that he'd just gained some cover fire from the defenders.

Akira would've smiled if he hadn't seen something out of the corner of his monitor. Turning the Freedom, the image he'd glimpsed came into full view. A pair of Dopplehorn Windams aiming for the plane that was now in the midst of taking off. As he stared at the scene, something at the back of his mind seemed to start to pulse painfully. But since his attention was focused more on the battle, he didn't have the willpower to suppress the pain like he always did before.

He was engaged in a fierce battle with a blue Gundam. They were falling through the atmosphere but that didn't stop either of them from trying to kill one another. As they momentarily separated, a shuttle passed between the battling titans. A shuttle that he somehow knew was filled with innocent civilians.

Before he even knew what he was doing, he'd pushed his mobile suit forward, flying at the best possible speeds he could achieve. "Don't do it!" he yelled over the universal radio channel. "They're onlycivilians!"

"You soldiers wanna be cowards and run away, do ya?!" an angry voice yelled out over the radio.

The Windams fired, their shots seeming to lance out into eternity as time slowed to a crawl. Despite his best efforts to protect the shuttle, the single shot tore through it. This quickly resulted in an explosion as the atmospheric friction ripped it apart, sparing no one.

"NO!!" Akira yelled, launching both his shields forward. The massive pieces of metal narrowly missed colliding with the plane as it flew past. Through the combined surface area of the two shields, the plane was effectively protected from the blasts, which were redirected safely skyward.

For one eternal moment, Akira felt as though he was floating on air. He'd…he'd saved them. He'd protected them! He let out a small sigh of absolute relief as his DRAGOON shield returned safely to the Freedom's arm.

A sudden beam of green suddenly shot forward, tearing linearly through the entire fuselage of the plane, killing many in an instant. Time slowed to crawl as the beam detonated the remaining fuel in the small shuttle, blowing it to pieces right in front of his eyes. Through the cameras of the Gundam's head piece, Akira could clearly and easily see the occupants of the plane, old, young, large, and small, be engulfed in unforgiving fire as the plane exploded right in front of him. Due to his close proximity to the plane as it blew up, the Neo Freedom was knocked out of the skies.

Tears quickly formed in Akira's as the Neo Freedom impacted heavily on the runway underneath him. 'I…couldn't…I tried…but I…couldn't…' his entire body was shaking as soul-shattering sobs tore through his being. WHY?! Why did they have to die like that?! THEY WERE ONLY CIVILIANS!!!

As that thought passed through his mind, Akira felt something explode in the back of his mind. As his eyes glazed over, the berserk blond pulled his Gundam back to its feet. With the wreckage burning fiercely behind him, silhouetting his machine with a fiery background, Akira had only one thought on his mind.

And that thought was: They are going to pay!! ALL OF THEM!!!

KIRA – Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny - KIRA

November 12, 73 CE
Near Imeni Kirova, Turkmenistan
9:09pm

The rugged mountain range that marked the southern border between Turkmenistan and Iran had very few roads through them and even fewer travelers. That made this an ideal spot to hide in, especially since he'd chanced across a monstrous cave that could easily hide his Gundam from satellite and aerial observation. And with what he was currently tinkering on, the Neo Freedom would've been a bit awkward to fight in if he was forced to.

With the Gundam crouched down on one knee, its wings resting against a nearby wall for added support, Akira was draped upside-down from the joint of the right wing with a bag of various tools hanging close at hand. Hanging over the edge of the wing, just out of reach in case he slipped and flailed about, was a lamp that provided him with some much needed light in the complete darkness of the cavern he had taken shelter in. With a final twist, he managed to maneuver the heavy, protesting bolt into place. Letting out a small sigh, Akira pulled himself upright and snatched his laptop. Typing in various commands, he watched with interest as the new joint moved and folded slowly, testing its maneuverability and strength.

"Well, that's one down," he said with a sad, resigned grin on his face. "Only three more to go…" It had taken him almost twelve hours to construct, properly install, and now test this new joint. And he still needed to perform at least a dozen more measurements, calculations, calibrations, adjustments, and further testing just to make sure this one joint would work as he planned. Plus he needed to go and…acquire the necessary supplies in order to build the next three! "Yippee."

Pulling himself entirely up onto the wing joint he'd been hanging from, he set aside his laptop and grabbed a bottle of water, chugging it greedily. Though he had plenty of experience working on the Neo Freedom, it never ceased to annoy him how exhausting it was to do this kind of work alone. Sure, he'd had plenty of available help in the Mathilde Colony, but he and Professor had usually found themselves working alone more often than not. That was one of the reasons that repairing and revamping the Neo Freedom had taken so long.

He blocked the blue Gundam's beam saber with his shield. His enemy similarly blocked his saber as they continued to fall through the atmosphere. The interior of the cockpit was very quickly becoming an oven from the friction, but he ignored it as his attention was trained solely upon his enemy.

"You're finished!" his opponent snarled over the radio.

"You won't defeat me!" he growled back as they separated.

Shaking his head to clear it, Akira grabbed his forehead as he forcefully repressed the memory yet again. As much as he wanted to push it along, follow the trail that he'd finally found in his mind, he couldn't. He had a mission to do, something much more important than finding a lost identity. And as much as that decision saddened him, he knew that it was the right choice.

But despite his best efforts to prevent himself, he couldn't stop from asking one significant question about the recovered memory: why had he been battling the GAT-X102 Duel in the upper atmosphere?

Growling in annoyance with himself, Akira collected his tools and accessories and leapt over to the cockpit. He had more pressing issues to deal with! Like that finding and repairing the 'electrical interference' that shorted out his Xiphias rail cannons in the battle at Bhutan. He'd been intending to repair them but constantly found himself being sidetracked. Well not this time!

KIRA – Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny - KIRA

November 19, 73 CE
Mahamul ZAFT Base, Kuwait
8:32pm

Whatever relief the crew of the Minerva may have felt when they pulled into the harbor of a friendly base was rudely stripped away when they learned of the impending battle they were about to be involved in. Oh sure, they knew that their current orders were to head to Gibraltar to support the eventual attack on Suez. However, after the little skirmish off the coast of Malaysia, a fair portion of the crew couldn't help but hope for a short reprieve while at Mahamul.

Lunamaria let out a sigh of relief as she stepped into the pilots' lounge. She'd just taken a much needed shower and now, dressed in a clean uniform, she felt incredibly refreshed. But at the same time, she was also feeling rather tired. Falling asleep on the stiff couch she sat upon seemed surprisingly good idea. However, the other current resident of the couch beside her had something in his hands that quickly diverted her attention and interest.

"Now this is something I wouldn't have thought you'd do in your spare time, Shinn," she said with an obvious note of amusement in her teasing voice. "Why are you reviewing our fight outside Orb?"

Giving his fellow pilot an annoyed glare, he growled out, "Because I want to."

As he returned his attention to his small laptop, Lunamaria unobtrusively watched as he boosted the magnification and slowed the battle scene down to an eighth of normal speed. But on the center of the screen was a blurry image of the Fortitude Gundam as it painstakingly slowly maneuvered between a series of enemy attacks. Within moments, her attention was drawn towards the strange light emissions that were shining from its engines, always leaving that particular afterimage behind to mark its movements.

"You know," Lunamaria said as she drew up closer to him to better watch the Orb Gundam's performance. "I've been wondering lately why and how the Lieutenant's Gundam was able to do that. It's something to do with the engines, right?"

Letting out another annoyed sigh, Shinn resigned himself to putting up with the girl and her obsession with any new mobile suit technologies she wasn't familiar with. She'd been like this ever since he'd first met her in the academy. At that time, she'd still been drooling over the many different battle footages of the Freedom, Justice, and the Alliance's second generation experimental Gundams.

"Did you notice how the Fortitude seemed to respond faster when its engines are glowing like?" Lunamaria rambled on as she commandeered Shinn's laptop before he could protest. "And that none of the Windams or that armor could get a proper lock on it? I wonder if the engines emit some kind of anti-weapons' lock or radar-jammer? Do you think that that weird light eats up the Fortitude's power? It sure didn't last that very long in the fight before Tolle had to power-down the armor when we were leaving. Then again, the battle was already over and he was flying back to his fleet."

"Luna, give me my computer back!" Shinn demanded as he made a grab for his laptop. His annoyance was quickly turning to anger as the redhead rattled off many of his own questions that he had yet to answer himself.

"Aw, come on!" the girl whined childish as she was denied an opportunity to indulge herself in her hobby. She tried to reach over Shinn to grab the thing he had reclaimed and was holding protectively away from her clingy fingers. "I'm curious about it too!"

"No way, Luna!" Shinn barked as he tried to push her away with touching anything he wasn't supposed to. "I know you! I'll never my get laptop back!"

"Five minutes! That's all I want!" she begged, making another attempt at the device in his hands. "I promise!"

"NO!"

Quiet chuckling sounded from the lounge's doorway, quickly drawing both their attentions. There stood the new FAITH agent, Commander Athrun Zala, trying futilely to hide the smile on his face with a sudden small coughing fit. "Sorry, am I interrupting something?"

Seeing his chance, Shinn slipped out of Lunamaria's reach, which sent the off-balance teenager sprawling to the floor. Letting out a relieved sigh that he'd managed to protect his computer from Luna's Gundam-obsession, he closed the device as he turned a slightly neutral gaze upon his superior. No matter how wise Athrun may have been, which he'd momentarily shared out on the observatory deck with Shinn only a few short hours ago, it was still going to take a bit of time before the Orb-emigrant would be able to get over his animosity of anything or anyone related to Orb or the damned Athhas.

"Nothing special," he answered coolly. "What do you want? Here for another lecture, Commander?"

Scowling in annoyance at his subordinate, Athrun replied in a voice that was as coolly composed as Shinn's had been. "Not everything in this world revolves around you, Shinn. And if you must know, I was going to watch the news." He suited words with actions by walking past them and bringing up an Earth Alliance channel that discussing the assassination of a respected Spain Alliance official, suspected to be the work of more terrorists and rebels.

Before he could leave the young Commander, Shinn became acutely aware of a sad fact: he'd lost track of Luna during his conversation. Catching Shinn flatfooted, Lunamaria was easily able to snatch his laptop and jump safely over the couch before he could react. Quickly booting up the earlier program, Lunamaria danced out of Shinn's frantic lunge and into Athrun's face with the monitor.

"Hey, Commander Zala," she asked in her 'cute voice' as the blue-haired Coordinator was forced to respond to her. "Do you know why or how the Fortitude is able to do these things?"

Athrun stared blankly at Lunamaria's over-eager face as she beckoned his gaze unto the monitor she held in front of him. He was beginning to suspect that she was a mobile suit fanatic because that was the same voice tone she'd used when he'd let her tinker with his Savior when he'd first arrived on the Minerva. As far as he could remember to this point, it was the only time she sounded so…girly with all the squealing she did in her excitement.

Without even looking at the monitor, Athrun let out a sigh as he calmly said, "It's a combination of Mirage Colloid and a new light propulsion system called Voiture Lumiere. When this system is activated, the engines' light scatters the Colloid particles around the Fortitude, which creates the afterimage effect. That's as much as I know about it, Tolle wouldn't tell me anything else about it."

"But…if that's all, why can't any of the Windams hit him?" Lunamaria asked, not putting up any fight when Shinn snatched his computer out of her hands. Her attention was focused entirely on Athrun. "Does this 'Voiture Lumiere' thing or maybe the Mirage Colloid cause some kind of targeting interference or something?"

"Like I just said, I don't know anything more than what I've just told you," the young Zala responded, which caused the girl to pout cutely in her disappointment. Athrun decided not to question why Shinn was so interested in an Orb Gundam, since it was clearly Shinn's computer. Instead, he returned his attention to the screen to watch the news.

As Lunamaria and Shinn quickly got into another discussion about the effectiveness of this Voiture Lumiere system in one of their own mobile suits, and Athrun's attention on the news report, none of them noticed a certain blond pilot quietly walk back out of the doorway from which he'd been standing in. He'd heard every word that Athrun had said about the Fortitude's secrets, and he knew that Gilbert would be very interested to hear about them.

KIRA – Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny - KIRA

November 19, 73 CE
Bandar-e Anzali, Iran
8:50pm

Strategically speaking, the port of the small town Bandar-e Anzali, Iran had never really held much military significance for the Alliance. In the first war with ZAFT, the Battle of Suez had taken place in one day at near the beginning of the battles on Earth itself. As such, the Alliance hadn't had proper time to truly secure it or the lands surrounding the canal. Now that they had the time to properly plan out a decent defensive strategy, they had quickly realized the importance of patrolling and controlling the Middle East so they could maintain their supply lines.

However, due to the landscape of the region, sending the troops to perform the necessary duties of protecting the supply routes from the north or east was essentially stupidity in the making. The convoy would more than likely be forced to use up the supplies needed for the Suez Base just to make the trip over land themselves. Yet they had quickly realized that transporting the supplies across the Caspian Sea and then across the northwestern region of the Middle East cut the travel cost down by half. And with all the resources they were concentrating in Europe to suppress the high amounts of rebellions taking place, this route was honestly their own one that was readily and safely available.

And since Bandar-e Anzali was the town closest to the one ravine that had a clear path through the mountains in the area, the Alliance had made it a top priority to protect this newly built naval port and the nearby power plant. If they lost this one port, the resources available for Suez would quickly dry up like the climate it was built in, making it that much more convenient for ZAFT to mop it up. But the defense that the Alliance had put in place was a formidable one: a Lohengrin positron cannon and Gells-Ghe mobile armor with a positron reflector. Combined with a significant force of easily ten Windams and twenty Dagger L mobile suits, that battle was not going to be as simple as the last few he'd gotten himself involved in.

However, Akira's target was not the actual forces at all. It was the naval port for which they had been placed there to begin with. The Alliance was making a truly grave mistake here. Unlike its protection in the ravine, the port itself was surprisingly defenseless by comparison, only a single pair of Strike Daggers. The defenders were much more concerned with holding the ravine open than they did of the reasons why they were. He couldn't believe the stupidity of the Alliance leader who organized this plan. Although the twenty mile distance between the port and the Lohengrin Gate was only a few short minutes of flight for a mobile suit of any model.

As he quietly sipped his milkshake from the small diner he was sitting in, he continued to survey the information that he'd hacked from the naval port's computer network. Through it, he found some interesting rumors about a possible second ZAFT attack on the Lohengrin cannon. Apparently some 'secret' but savage Alliance unit, called only Phantom Pain in the report, had had an encounter out in the Indian Ocean with the Minerva. The commander of the unit had stated his suspicion of the Minerva heading towards Gibraltar. However, to reach Gibraltar from Carpentaria, they would either have to travel all the way around Africa and the Cape of Good Hope or take the land route through their base at Mahamul.

Since Akira knew it was practically guaranteed that the captain of the Minerva would want to the quickest and most efficient route, the Mahamul would've most assuredly taken on some new visitors by this point. And because he knew the significance of the Suez Canal base, as well as this naval port here, as easily as ZAFT and the Alliance did, Akira was more than willing to bet that the Minerva would be forced to take part in an offensive action against the Lohengrin cannon to help clear a path to Gibraltar for itself. That was the most obvious course of action. The Alliance seemed to realize this as well and were already preparing their forces at the Gate for that possibility, even though this 'Phantom Pain's' commander was just an opinion from a single man.

Thinking for a moment, Akira considered his options. On one hand, he could simply destroy the port now and then head over to the Gate under Mirage Colloid and destroy the cannon before any more lives were lost. But to do that would put the Alliance on high alert before he ever got close enough. Plus he didn't have any information on the actual placements of the defenses that surrounded the cannon, so he'd be fighting blind until they revealed themselves. Though he may not like the thought of actively helping ZAFT in a battle to slowly strengthen their chokehold on the planet, it was the surest way of getting the Alliance to focus more energy on pursuing him and leaving the scattered rebellions alone.

"Please, daughter, think this through!" a quiet voice hissed from somewhere nearby.

If it hadn't been for Coordinator-enhanced hearing, Akira wouldn't have even noticed the hushed whisper. Glancing ever so slightly to the side, he saw out of the corner of his eye a young local girl and what seemed to be her mother having an argument. The pair seemed to be extremely determined to keep their conversation between themselves as they were throwing near constant glances around themselves, looking for anyone who might be giving them too much attention. Feeling interested, Akira closed his eyes as he made a big show of drinking his milkshake before pretending to return his attention to the computer in front of him.

"I already have, mother," the girl whispered, determination thick in her quiet voice. "I'm going to help ZAFT destroy the accursed cannon! For our people! For Father!"

"And what'll I do if you don't return, like your father?!" her mother demanded fiercely. "You're all I got left, Coniel! Don't leave me all alone."

"I'm not going to be doing any of the fighting, mother," the girl, Coniel, muttered in an exasperated voice. "I'm just going to help them get closer to the cannon."

"Closer to the—you mean the cave?!" the mother asked, sounding torn between hopeful, reprimanding, and surprised.

"Yes, I am," Coniel said, there was a level of maturity and seriousness that sounded positively foreign coming from such a young face as hers. "ZAFT are the good guys this time! And I'm going to help them win this stupid war."

Sighing loudly to himself, Akira closed his laptop and stood. His sudden movement attracted the attentions of both mother and daughter and they watched wearily as the stranger walked over towards them. Turning a serious gaze upon the small girl sitting below him, he quietly said, "Anyone who builds weapons during a time of peace can hardly be considered a 'good guy' since he can just as easily turn those weapons upon those who he's supposed to be protecting."

"What are you talking about, mister?" Coniel demanded in a seemingly innocent tone of voice, playing the role of a naïve child perfectly. However, there was a definite edge of awareness and cunning in those 'gentle' green eyes of her, which were mirrored perfectly in her own mother.

Both females watched the blond young man standing in front of them carefully. It was thanks to their scrupulous examination of him that they spotted something particular. Even though his hair was blond, the roots of his hair were dark brown, maybe even black. He'd dyed his hair? And how could he have heard their whispered conversation from the other side of the diner? Was he a Coordinator?!

"Let's not play games," Akira said quietly. "Say you do lend help to ZAFT, and they do eventually defeat the Alliance because of your help, what will they do next? If ZAFT does defeat the Alliance, Chairman Durandal will become the most powerful man in the world and space. Do you truly believe that he will really give up all that power that he's acquired by that point?"

"What are you trying to say?" Coniel demanded hotly. "That ZAFT is as much at fault for starting the Alliance's stupid war as Blue Cosmos?"

"Yes," Akira responded. "If Durandal truly wanted peace, he most certainly wouldn't have sent more ZAFT forces to Earth. By his actions, he has deliberately escalated the war, all the while hiding behind the image that the PLANTs and himself are faultless in this conflict. And by using that fake Lacus Clyne to support his every move, he's winning public favor to completely dominate the world."

"Fake Lacus?" the mother asked, sounding as genuinely surprised as the young girl he was staring at looked.

"Yes, fake," Akira confirmed. "Do you truly believe that the real Lacus Clyne would attempt to talk people in going to war, after all her efforts in the last war to bring about a ceasefire and peace?"

Seeing that he'd completely bewildered the pair, Akira let out another sigh of resignation. There was no point to this conversation; they were steadfast in their belief that the Alliance was completely to blame for the war, especially the little girl. To attempt to convince them otherwise would take a great deal more effort and solid proof on his part before they'd change their opinions. Besides, he had some serious scouting to do if he wanted to destroy the positron cannon with as minimal loss of life as possible before ZAFT arrived to screw everything up.

Shaking his head, he stepped back and bowed slightly to them. "I'm sorry about disturbing your conversation with my weird questions. Have a nice evening, you two."

As he was heading for the doorway, a young voice called out, "Who are you?"

Glancing back with a serious expression, Akira saw only curiosity on the young girl's face. "I'm Akira Iyadomi." He had left and completely disappeared from sight by the time Coniel had managed to rush to the door and look around for him frantically.

KIRA – Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny – KIRA

November 19, 73 CE
Archangel, Scandinavia
9:23pm

With a heavy heart, the pink princess watched yet another news channel that was broadcasting the current state of unbalance within the Alliance. There were so many people within Eurasia, particularly in western Eurasia, that were openly rebelling against the Atlantic Federation. And though she could easily understand their driving need for liberty and justice, Lacus felt that they were taking the most painful path to achieve it. Especially because the Alliance was attempting to suppress the rebellions with brute force, which only enticed the revolutionaries to increase their efforts.

"Anything interesting on?" the Orb official asked as she walked into Lacus' quarters, dressed in her usual government uniform.

"No," Lacus replied softly as she changed the channel absentmindedly. "It's all the same as yesterday." Then the Neo Freedom appeared on screen, it was a report on yet another attack the Gundam had caused, this time in northern Iran.

Taking one look at the machine as it was shown destroying a horde of Windams in an instant; Lacus felt her heart ache once again at the reminder. She truly wished that Kira would've come with them onboard the Archangel.

As though summoned by her thoughts, a soft impact on her shoulder drew her attention. "Torii?" the green, mechanical bird chirped in an almost questioning manner. The gentle toy drew a heartfelt smile from Lacus as she watched it shuffle about on her shoulder. "Torii."

"Torii?" Cagalli gasped slightly as she quickly spotted her brother's dearest possession. "I haven't seen that Torii since…a long time now."

"Yes," Lacus agreed. "I finally found a good reason to bring it out again."

"That reminds me, I heard from Commander Waltfeld that the Neo Freedom saved you from your attackers," Cagalli said in a stiff voice, earning Lacus' attention. Nodding in response to the blonde's statement, Lacus spared a brief glance at Cagalli's frowning face before returning her attention to the monitor. Letting her anger filter through, the Representative demanded, "Why did you let him leave with the Freedom?"

This time giving her friend her full attention, Lacus could see her anger and frustration clearly. Why was she so angry? "Miss Cagalli?"

"How could you let a complete stranger like him take Kira's machine?!" Cagalli demanded, her voice rising in her anger. "I'd have thought you would've tried to stop him when he got out or at least tried to convince him to come with you! Why did you let him run off like that?!"

Quietly contemplating her earlier decision and Cagalli's questions, Lacus' eyes drifted back to the screen where the Freedom was once again shown destroying the Windams. Within a moment, she returned her attention to her friend and said, "Cagalli, do you know how he introduced himself to us when he disembarked from the Neo Freedom?"

"Commander Waltfeld and Captain Ramius only said that his name was Akira Iyadomi," though her voice was softer now, it was still laden with anger. "Why? What does that have to do with anything?"

"I believe his exact words were 'you can call me Akira Iyadomi,'" Lacus said, staring at Cagalli intensely to see if she'd see the significance in that statement. Apparently she didn't. "Also, whenever he was around us, Mr. Iyadomi was always rubbing his head, like he was in great pain."

"What are you trying to say, Lacus?" Cagalli asked, her frown now prominent on her face again. "That Akira is…our Kira?"

"Torii!" the bird chirped as it bounced from Lacus' shoulder to Cagalli's.

Closing her eyes sadly, Lacus gently shook her head. "I think that…he may have once been our Kira…but that he's forgotten all about us and himself."

"Wha—But then—Why didn't you try to stop him?!" Cagalli cried out.

Turning back to the news channel, Lacus sadly said, "As we are now, Miss Cagalli, we can only wait for the best opportunity to make our appearance. But I believe he is in a position that we can never be… Mr. Iyadomi isn't bound by our restrictions and doesn't have to worry about consequences, no matter what he does. He has shown to and likely will continue to fight for the good of the people, alone. And whether through his actions or the consequences of those actions, he believes that he may finally bring the people together…even if it means they must hunt him."

"We, on the Archangel, as a part of Terminal, will only fight when we have to. We are the Earth and the PLANTs' white knights." Looking back at Cagalli with tear-filled eyes, Lacus said, "And Akira has become our dark knight."

---

(Author's Note) Big time shout-out to animefan29! Thanks for the beta-review, my friend!

I know the chapter is rather scattered, touch-and-go, and completely random and cliché in places. But I was running into some issues in deciding whether or not Akira should partake in the Battle of Lohengrin Gate or not as I slowly maneuvered him ever closer to the battlefield. And I have no more idea of what's going to happen than any of you until I finally reach that point.

I think I'll leave the answer of that question up to a poll (if I can manage to get it working this time!). In case I can't get it up in time, feel free to leave your opinions on the matter in a review please! Regardless of what that poll's ultimate outcome is, I think everyone knows what's going to happen to that poor harbor…

On a request of animefan29, I decided to include a brief explanation of how Tolle's Fortitude was able to create those afterimages when only the Voiture Lumiere on the Destiny has been shown capable of doing that. Here's my official response to that question:
The Voiture Lumiere system used in the Fortitude is a very unique version of it. When it has the time to sufficiently power up, the engines emit small amounts of Mirage Colloid particles, which in turn creates the afterimage effect. It is nowhere near as good as the Destiny's version (which had been built for that explicit purpose) since this is only an experimental model installed by Erica Simmons on a whim.