Chapter 12
Nymphetamine Queen
The following morning Kira was sitting on a park stool in the ruined kitchen where Lunamaria had inflicted damage upon the walls from her attempts to kill a rat. Ever since he and Cagalli had returned last night without Athrun who was now most likely dead from gunshots he suffered and drowning in the sea. Cagalli has been up in her room every since crying while Mwu, Shinn, Murrue, Lunamaria and Meyrin were all effected by the news, especially Meyrin. Kira found out that the kitchen was bugged and as a result Haka knew they were coming and set a trap for them.
To make things worse, Cagalli lost the camera with what pictures she had taken. Probably when those guard dogs tore a hole in her paints causing the small camera to fall out. There was a grim silence throughout the Athha household that has remained there since the following night. In another room Shinn was walking towards the door to fetch the morning paper since no one else has gone to get it.
On his way he passed the videophone, which began ringing, seeing no one else was near by, let alone anyone was in the mood to answer it, Shinn waltzed over to the phone to see who it was. "Athha Residence Shinn Asuka speaking." Shinn said as the screen on the phone showed Lacus's face. "Lacus?"
"Shinn is Kira or Cagalli there?"
"Cagalli is in her room and Kira…well" Shinn prayed he didn't have to be the one to tell Lacus that Athrun was dead. "He is unavailable right now, so I can take a message." Ending the conversation before Lacus attempted to probe the matter was the young adult's plan.
"Why? We just got word that Ezalia Jule was killed last night during a prison riot."
"A prison riot?"
"Yeah, but I suspect fowl play. I must speak with Kira Shinn, where is he?"
"I'll tell him what happened, but this isn't a good time." Shinn said as he was becoming more determined in avoiding discussing last night.
"Shinn, something happened…I want to know what happened last night…Kira told me he was going to the island to investigate it. I am going to find out sooner or later please tell me what happened. Is Kira alright?"
"Kira is fine, but Athrun" DAMN IT! Shinn thought as he cursed himself for letting that slip.
"Athrun! What happened to Athrun?"
Shinn had finally lost his patience with Lacus as he snapped "He's dead, the Athha mansion was bugged and they knew they were coming. The soldiers guarding the facility killed Athrun! Ok!" With tears streaming from his eyes he hung up the phone to end the conversation. At the PLANTs, the news of Athrun's death struck her like someone just suckered punched her. Without a word, Lacus could only weep for Athrun.
At the same time at the Haka Mansion: Haka was inside his personal study seated at his desk while he seemed to be engaged in a conversation with someone on the phone via through the speakerphone to talk to one another without Haka having to hold the receiver to his ear.
"As I am sure Strife has informed you we have killed one of the intruders, but the other two escaped."
"Good work Haka." A disembodied and electronically altered voice answered. "Although we have taken care of the leak I want no more delays I want the Murasame armed with the gifts to be deployed today if you have it ready. Warn Mrs. Azrael that being in Washington D.C. isn't a good idea. Two days from today it will be a dust cloud." Queen remarked darkly. "That should be the final push to kick start the new war and when it's over we'll control the world as its new rulers. The rest will take care of itself."
"You do realize that the Atlantic Federation will retaliate against Orb and possibility ZAFT?"
"Of course I do." Queen snapped. "This is another reason why Strife is with you in Orb and not to mention you have Mwu La Flaga, Murrue La Flaga, Shinn Asuka, and Lunamaria Hawke to use as part of your defenses. If they are killed, with the exception of Strife surviving, then it's better for us. I am making arrangements for a scapegoat to be used to quickly resolve the war before it gets too violent and to unite it under our banner."
"Forgive me Queen. What does King say about the matter?"
"Continue as I have instructed you. Don't worry we have everything under control, but keep me posted on the changing situation and I'll make sure you'll survive upcoming events and ensure that you will be our Chief Representative or the Orb Union."
"Thank you Queen. I'll launch the Murasame as soon as it's prepared. It was moved onto a small transport ship that has been sitting outside of our country's waters following last night's fiasco."
"Don't disappoint me Haka." With that Queen ended the conversation.
The following day at the PLANTs, a blindfolded woman with a muscular build, messy brown hair, wearing a prison uniform was pushed into a small room with two airtight hatches. As the ZAFT solider pushed her in, the blindfold was removed from her face.
"Good Morning...I understand you are the prisoner who did my mother in." Yzak Jule said with an emotionless expression on his face as he spoke to the prisoner through an overhead speaking while Yzak stood in a near by control room.
"What the hell do you want with me?"
"I only want to ask you something questions, and depending on how you answer. You may be able to return to your cell in one piece where you may receive a reduced sentence depending on your answers."
"Go to hell I don't know anything."
Yzak ignored that commented and went ahead to his first question "Ok who wanted you to stab my mother in the back. I am convinced it had something to do with the fact Chairwoman Clyne and I had visited her shortly before she was killed now talk, and don't play dumb."
"Or what? You mother said you were a wuss, you can't do anything to me."
"Oh yeah" Yzak replied coldly as he gestured for a solider sitting at a control console who began pushing a few buttons. Suddenly one of the airtight doors opened up slightly by a crack, but it was enough to for air to get sucked out into space. "If I want I can open the door and you can die of decompression in space which I hear is quick, but painful. That is what some say anyway."
"You can't be serious, Chairwoman Clyne wouldn't allow this."
"That's the funny thing; she doesn't know I am conducting this little interrogation. I am going to get some answers one way or another so you better start talking." Yzak warned as he gestured for the soldier in the room with him to close the door. "Now do I need to open the door all the way and dump you into space or are you going to start answering my questions." Yzak remarked sharply. The sliver haired ZAFT commander wasn't fooling around.
"I am not telling you shit!" The prisoner spat.
"Wrong answer" Yzak gestured for the soldier to open the door slightly to let some more air out. The prisoner was screaming frantically for the door to be closed as she was seen placing her hands around her neck as the lack of oxygen was getting to her. "Ok let's try it again." Yzak demanded as the soldier closed the door and allowed some air to fill the room as the woman grasped for breath. Suddenly Dearka and Shiho arrived with worried expressions when they saw what Yzak was doing.
"Damn it Yzak what the hell is going on here?"
"I am conducting an interrogation." Yzak snapped.
"Stop it Yzak, Chairwoman Clyne orders you to return that woman to her cell, you know she doesn't condone this kind of questioning."
"I know that, but we aren't getting anything if we take a soft and nice approach. We need some answers now before someone else dies or worse."
"Look I know how you feel about what happened to Athrun, but doing this won't help the situation in any way." Shiho said as she stepped in while two ZAFT soldiers under orders from Shiho entered the airlock and recovered the prisoner in question to take her back to the prison while Yzak, Dearka and Shiho were locking horns. Although Athrun's death was kept between those close to him, no announcement of his demise was released to the public in the local newspaper obituaries.
Meanwhile back in Orb, Cagalli was alone in her room looking at a picture of Athrun and herself. She was cursing herself for failing her country and her father, and now Athrun was gone when she needed him most. She remembered yesterday when she tried to inform the people of Haka's possible involvement with the terrorist attacks, but she was smacked down by Haka who replied.
Do not listen to the outcries of a small girl who has just lost power over our country to someone more qualified.
Without evidence, the people supported Haka and public opinion was firmly against Cagalli. After since her attempt Cagalli had confined herself to her room while she was running out of opinions while Kira was recalled to the PLANTs in regards to what had happened involving Ezalia Jule's sudden death during a prison riot.
Damn it Athrun I wish you were here.
Later that night in space, somewhere above the North American continent a small transport vessel was moving discreetly through the air as its hanger bay doors were opening up. A black Murasame flew out of the vessel and engaged its Phase Shift Armor before descending into the atmosphere on route to deliver its deadly payload. At that moment at one of the Largepoints, a person was beginning to awaken for the first time in three to two days to the sound of carnival organ music with a dark nature to it.
His vision was burred as he was regaining conscious, but in moments the young adult was wide awake as he began trying to examine his surroundings. He found himself lying a plum colored futon propped up on solid gold legs. The young adult tried to move himself, but his body was still injured and much to his surprise that was when he noticed that he had bandages covering the areas of his body where he had been wounded.
Athrun Zala awoke to find himself inside a dimly lit chamber surrounded by back ebony pillars lined with sliver and gold and the strange organ music playing in the background. He was dressed in a white shirt and paints with no shoes on. He struggled to get to his feet since his knee was still hurting from the gunshot wound he took. He limped through the room towards the center where he caught the glimpse of a shadowy figure ahead.
A few moments later, Athrun reached the heart of the room where it opened into a circular shaped area with the polished black limestone title floor baring the emblem of a heart with two snakes encircling it with a sword over it while the pillars around him had the statue of elegant female angels decorating the pillars around the circle. To his left, Athrun saw the biggest and most astonishing pipe organ he had ever seen.
The massive king of instruments had a total of 30,000 cylindrical shaped metal pipes surrounding the keyboard and the room in total of 300 ranks. The console was designed with three rows of keys and a control panel on both sides of the keyboard console to adjust, preprogram the type of music to be played, even record and playback performances automatically.
The organ's design: the console was constructed out of black polished wood with the images of female angels integrated into the console's structure while the rest of the organ was black decorated with sliver giving it an ominous appearance. Athrun noticed the keys were moving by themselves suggesting that it was on auto-playback.
But the figure at the heart of the room is what had truly caught his eye. She appeared to be about as old as he was, maybe a year or two older or young. But her appearance was stunning, not because she was a beautiful nymph, but because she looked identical to Lacus, a near twin with the exception that she had a figure that was comparable to Meer Campbell.
However their were differences, one the Lacus before him had a much paler complexion and purple eye shadow above her eyes with her long pink hair tied into a the same style Lacus had her hair during the Second Bloody Valentine War with the exception that the ribbon she was using was black and the pins struck into her hair were sliver. She didn't have a gold hairpiece like Lacus or Meer did.
She wore a black strapless tight fitting grown that hugged to her figure thanks its material that was similar to leather, but had the softness and appearance of finest fabric, but was loose from the waist down allowing the legs free movement. However she wore a transparent turtleneck long-sleeve inner gown of pink silk that went down to her legs were the bottom of the gown could be seen whenever she moved her body during a dance. Aside from the black high-heel shoes, she wore black nail polish.
The woman in question was dancing to the music playing, but the way she moved seemed as if she was dancing with an invisible partner. Athrun watched the woman for a few moments and admitted to himself that she was graceful in her dance movements, but also wondered if he was dead and this was heaven or hell.
Drawn to the woman, Athrun slowly approached her, but when he drew near the woman turned around and took his hands and drew him into the dance. She was no longer dancing alone as Athrun was drawn into the dance with the most alluring woman he had ever seen. She wasn't Lacus or Meer that much Athrun was sure of leaving the coordinator wondering who she was.
The dance continued for a few minutes until the music finally came to an end, which ended the dance with Athrun holding the woman in his arms. The woman finally opened her eyes and looked up at Athrun with an alluring smile as she told him. "You're not bad despite your leg." Athrun backed away when he released his hold on the woman realizing he been holding her too close to himself.
"Who are you?"
"I am Terra…Terra Clyne."
"Clyne, but Lacus was an only child."
"Was she? Did Lacus or her father ever mention the death of their would-have-been second born child?"
"A second child?"
"Yes, Mrs. Clyne was expecting to give birth to a second child roughly a year after Lacus was born, but official reports state she had a miscarriage and the child died. However your father brought me into the Wraith Division to become a child soldier. I was altered through various gene therapy experiments that have made me into a type of super soldier with abilities surpassing the average coordinator along with enhanced strength of course."
"You're a member of Wraith Division?" Athrun remarked as he backed away from the woman.
"Oh don't worry if I wanted to hurt you I would have done so by now." Terra spoke as in a blink of an eye she was behind Athrun. "As you can see I am both beautiful and deadly in a fight. I am not involved with Haka or those terrorist attacks, like you I have been investigating them in order to find the culprits whom we both know it's Haka. Your problem is that you lake evidence to prove it, that is why Kira and Cagalli brought you to that island right?"
"How did you know?"
"That is what my agent infiltrating Haka's ranks told me when he had you recovered from the sea and brought you to me. I'll soon have enough evidence to bring Haka down, and I could use your help."
"My help?"
"Yes, Haka is planning another terrorist attack, the final push to trigger a new war. I don't know any specifics because he is being very quiet about it, even his own allies aren't even aware of his plan. It has something to do with those nuclear warheads you saw at that lab."
"Just who are his allies?"
"The Prime Minster of the Eurasia Federation a man named Cal, A member of the PLANT defense committee named Orson White and of course Haka, but he has Mrs. Samantha Azrael of the Atlantic Federation as his main allies and people he can use to take the fall if he was discovered like Mrs. Azrael for instance because of the things her husband and son had committed in the past."
"Why did they ally themselves with Haka, what are they after?"
"Haka controls his allies not because they may gain anything from their alliance with him, but they do so mostly out of fear."
"Fear?"
"Yes Haka is using blackmail and the threat of nuclear strikes against them to force obedience out of his allies and to ensure they don't betray him. Even if they railed against him, the evidence he has over them will surely turn public opinion against them or could simply have them killed before they can step forward. Haka holds control over them with an iron fist. The entire incident involving the Destroy attacking Orb was solely for the purpose of removing Cagalli from office. Just look what happened to Ezalia Jule, she was killed when Haka believed that she was the one who leaked information about the island to your friends."
Athrun was surprised by the revaluation that Ezalia had been killed.
"She died around the same time you and Kira infiltrated the island."
"What do you know about this nuclear attack?"
"I told you I don't know, but I know it's supposed to happen in a few days. I doubt it's going to be the PLANTs; I suspect it will be one of the Earth bound nations. If you attack the PLANTs, sure there will be some people who will be outraged, but think of the effect an Earth bound nation getting hit by a nuclear attack on one of their large cities? There will be chaos and fear on an untold scale than compared to an attack on the PLANTs."
"It will drive the world into another war."
"Right and it will be then that Haka will remove threats to his power. Although Cagalli is no longer in position to govern over Orb she is still a threat, just as my older sister Lacus is."
"What exactly are you planning to do about it? Why haven't you approached Lacus or Cagalli about this?"
"Because I wish to remain unknown to all parties that why I can operate more freely and conduct my investigations without anyone aware of it. You can do that now too, the world thinks you're dead. You can use that to gain an advantage to have an element of surprise over Haka. Once I got all the evidence I need, Haka will be overwhelmed and his allies will gladly stand to testify against him sealing his fate. He'll be a wounded fish in the water and the sharks that were his allies will devour him."
"But" Athrun took a look around "Where I am?"
"You are inside my Mirage Colloid equipped space fortress: Tartarus. I traveled all the way from Mars in it."
"You're from Mars."
"Yes, after the frist war I left Wraith Divison and went to Mars. It would have taken me a long time, but I had some help from the Junk Guild when they used the Genesis Alpha to launch my ship at a fast veocitity that brought me to Mars within a week. I utlized the same techingoly to send my fortress here. Did you know Genesis was orginally intended as a device to propell ships through our solar system?"
"No."
"But when I arrived Mars was in a state of civil war over the matter of how the colonies should live and how they could avoid falling into a war like Earth had, but obvious they still did nevertheless. It took some time, but with some help I united the Mars Colonies under one banner and has since created a successful ruiling planet nation under my rule. I hace succeeded in ways no one thought possbile. I was coming to Earth orginally to take part in the peace celebration, but these terrorits attacks conducted by Haka forced me to stay in the shadows and investigate it. We the Martain government have allways maintained a vigil watch over the Earth mostly in the event that their wars may one day spread to our world which I hope to prevent."
"So you are the leader of the Mars Colonies then?"
"Yes, it seems leadership over a nation runs in the family." Terra mused.
"What are you planning to do with me?"
"If you want while I contuine my invesitgate and you recover I can give you full access to my fortress's computer system so you can learn all of the details of Wraith Divison and more if you want as a gesture of trust between us. I'll inform you once I know more about Haka's upcoming plans."
"I apperitce the gesture." Athrun repiled, but was still wary of Terra as the young woman moved closer to him, but stopped when Athrun finched and he dropped to one knee. His wounded knee cap was effecting him. "My leg."
"Oh dear lets get you back to that futon." Terra said as she knelt down next to Athrun before picking him up and carrying the ace pilot off. Athrun looked at the woman with a surpised expersion. "I told you I was built into a strong super soldier for the PLANTs."
"I believe you." Athrun commented as he didn't expect a woman like Terra could lift him up and carry him around so easily with little to no effort. Terra laid the cooridator down back on the futon and examined his injuries before sitting on one side of the futon to contuine her conversation with Athrun.
"Here use this to browre through our computers." Terra pointed out as she clapped her hands together to prompt a small control console to appear from the floor that rose up next to Athrun while a holographic screen appeared in front of him. "Notfy me if you need anything." Terra repiled as she kissed Athrun on the head before leaving.
Athrun seemed a little less worried, but she had a point. He still needed to recover from his injuries and if Haka thinks he is dead might give him some time and maybe if Terra helps him, he can bring him down. Little did Athrun know, as Terra walked away she was smiling wickly.
