Fandom: Gundam Seed
Genre: Romance/General
Rating: PG-13
Type: Multi-part, chapter 19
Pairings: Nicol/Melody (OC), Athrun/Cagalli, Kira/Lacus
Disclaimer: No, I do not own Gundam Seed.
Author's Notes: As usual, this was my latest written version. I had managed to salvage certain parts from the original version and fits them in -- the rest were in the trash can.
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Chapter 19
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C.E 71, September 26 - 27 September
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Everything started to happen at once, the Yakin Due started its' second battle against the Earth Alliance Forces. At the same time, the Earth Alliance Forces sends out troops which were equipped with the N-Jammer Nuclear weapons to engage the PLANTs Defence Team in battles. It was obviously a ploy, and by the time Yzak realized the nuclear weapons attached to the missiles - the ZAFT Defence Forces had not being able to react in time.
As the missiles made its way to the PLANTs, Yzak was distressed by the fact. The thought of his kins and relatives living on the planet were in danger of being taken from him, he could feel the tears of anguish pricking behind his eyes. Yet being the stubborn person he was, he refused to let his weakness show.
The 'Freedom' and 'Justice' arrived in time to witness the scene, the Eternal attached the 'Meteor' system to the back of the two machines. The moment it was done, both machines sped forth - taking down as many missiles as possible. Thankfully, they had managed to arrive in time thus stopping the missiles from hitting home.
On the other hand, it signify the start of a chaotic battle. The three parties fought against one another, and Yzak had only enough concentration to fire on the offending Earth Alliance troops than to focus on the Eternal and its allies.
Meanwhile, Rau Le Cruez was out fighting the Strike with his latest Mobile Suit - the 'Heavenly'.
Lacus opened up the channel to urge everyone to cease fire, but it was in vain. Patrick Zala ordered for the Yakin fortress to fire its first shot of the 'Genesis'. The first blow of the 'Genesis' destroys more than 40 percent of the Earth Alliance Forces Troops.
The group whom managed to evade in time to escape from the blast gaped at the destruction forces of the 'Genesis'. That was when Lacus and the others realized that 'Genesis' was just as dangerous as the nuclear weapons which were used by the Earth Alliance Forces.
Over at the Dominion, Natarle was about to call for a temporary retreat to regroup themselves - but Azrael would not hear of it and instead ordered for the base to provide back up assistance.
Due to the impact of the 'Genesis' the whole battlefield was caught in a stupor, and the situation in chaos. Dearka, whom was about to launch out - was just in time to hear Lacus announcement of taking down both the nuclear weapons from the Earth Alliances and to prevent the 'Genesis' from firing again.
That causes the blond to gape open-mouth at the order, momentarily, forgetting his place for a second. He muttered a comment about the dangers involved irregardless of which to fight against, that comment was overheard by Mirialla whom was the CIC in charge of launching the 'Buster' into battle.
"If you are scared, then don't go out..." With that, Mirialla turned off the connection.
Mirialla's statement had managed to shock the blond out from his reverie, but the cut off of the connection did not last longer than a minute before it came on, again.
This time, Mirialla paused for a moment before telling the blond to be careful out there. Dearka, hearing that comment had his energies up and running - before long, he was launched into the space for the battle to come.
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Yzak whom had been in a daze due to the first blast of the 'Genesis' was shocked out of his stupor when his system flashed in warning for them to retreat as the second wave was about to come - and this time it was directed to the Ptolemaeus lunar base. Yzak was just in time to yell out a warning to the 'Freedom' and 'Justice' to get out of the shooting range, before the second blast came out eliminating the rest of the Earth Alliance Second Wave Attack Force.
Now, Athrun and Kira and the rest of the third party forces in the battle was more determined to stop the 'Genesis' from hitting earth.
In the meantime, the 'Strike' which ran out of power was on the way to return to the Archangel for replenishing when Azrael all but went berserk at the loss of the troops. Ignoring Natarle's orders of retreating, he insisted that they meet the enemies head on. Natarle resisted and ordered the whole crew to abandon fleet and joined up with the Archangel.
She had just barely managed to get the bridge crew members out before locking both herself and Azrael on the bridge of the Dominion.
Since they were determined to stop the third blast of 'Genesis' from hitting Earth, it was decided that Athrun were to head out with the ORB's Forces to destroy the 'Genesis'. Kira, in the meantime, will keep Commander Cruez entertained with the 'Freedom' - so that the former could not stop Athrun and the rest from approaching the Yakin Due.
Cagalli was nearly taken down by the 'Calamity' when Yzak stepped in with the 'Duel' and took the said enemy down. This allow Cagalli freedom to follow the lead of the 'Justice' thus heading towards the Yakin.
Meanwhile, Dearka was busy trying to deal with the 'Forbidden' attacks and avoid the strays bullets from the ZAFT Forces to hit him. Nicol, on the other hand was helping the Eternal at defending attacks from the ZAFT Forces.
That left the Archangel in a vulnerable position, the shuttle which left the Dominion and was heading towards the Archangel was still floating out there aimlessly. Captain Ramius was about to grant permission for the crew of Dominion to dock when they find themselves facing the start of the Logherin attack from the Dominion. Having no way to evade the attack, the 'Strike' - having been nearest to the Archangel stepped in and sacrificed itself to save the Archangel from becoming dust.
The impact of losing the 'Strike' hit the Captain of the Archangel in full force and she ended up firing its own Logherin attack at the bridge of the Dominion. With the loss of half the lunar base and the Dominion, the remaining Earth Alliance Forces was at a loss of what to do.
Over at the Yakin, Kira was still battling Commander Cruez head-on and Athrun and Cagalli had entered the interior of the Yakin. Outside the Yakin area, Dearka was just about to be taken down by the 'Forbidden' when Yzak steered the 'Duel' into his sight and shield the 'Buster' from the impact. However, that resulted in the loss of the weapons for 'Duel' - Yzak, gathering his wits simply took the 'Buster' weapon and used it as his own. That eventually helped in removing the 'Forbidden' from the battlefield, however - due to that action; both the 'Buster' and 'Duel' was suffering from damages which required immediate attention.
Dearka requested permission to dock from the Archangel, and half pulled and dragged Yzak along with him.
Eventually, the battle come to an end when Yakin Due self destructed. The prevention of the activation of the 'Genesis' lies in the fact that Athrun had self-destructed his own 'Justice' to prevent the 'Genesis' from hitting Earth. It was later revealed that this was the only way to stop the 'Genesis' flow since his father had tied the 'Genesis' attack together with the self-destruction of the Yakin Due.
The battle between Kira and Commander Cruez only come to a close after Yakin Due exploded due to the self-destruction of the 'Justice' and its' own fortress settings.
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C.E 71, 28 September
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As dawn breaks, the Strike Rouge returned on board the Archangel with Athrun Zala and the unconscious Kira Yamato in tow. They were met up in the hangar by Melody Haw whom was busy with the casualty report - and Lacus was notified at the Eternal through the bridge.
Yzak was over at the medic wing of the Archangel with Dearka and Mirialla Haw when the unconscious Kira was taken in with Athrun Zala following behind on his two feets.
"..." Athrun and Yzak stared at one another wordlessly, each trying to gauge the other's motives.
Mirialla was just done with Dearka's bandage when an announcement came over seeking the former's attendence over at the bridge. Mirialla passes the duty of caring for Kira over to Melody whom just strolled in and headed over to the bridge for her duty.
Melody merely took one look at Athrun and Yzak, before ordering Dearka to head out and do his job.
Dearka stared at Melody incredulously, before commenting something about him being injured. Melody, merely glared and asked if the former was unconscious like Kira - otherwise, he had better get out before he was thrown out.
Dearka obeyed her orders, but not with mutterings and grumblings under his breath.
Turning to Athrun, Melody told the former to take a seat while she was going to bandage his arm - which he had somehow managed to injure again during his trip to the Yakin.
Once she was done, she turned to Yzak - surveying the former before shaking her head at how 'pretty' that pilot had stayed. It seems like that guy had not managed to only substain minimum damage to his body and the same to say for his Mobile Suit as well. The 'Duel' was in a better situation than the 'Buster' - 'Justice' and 'Strike' would be the worst, seeing that they had been reduced to practically nothing but dust.
Melody was half-way through her assessment when her cell phone rang, she picked it up - half expecting that it was Nicol when it turns out to be Michelle instead.
Snucking a glance in Yzak's direction, she debated if she would take the call in private. Finally, she decided against it - after all, the war was over.
"Michelle, any news on your side?" Melody asked, as she tried to balance the thick stack of files single-handedly.
"... Yzak was there, was he not?" Michelle asked, from the other end.
"Well...yeah, do you want to talk to him?" Melody asked, but was relieved when Michelle responded that she does not need to talk to the former - at this point of time.
Five minutes later, Melody hung up the call and told Yzak to either stay on board the Archangel or joined the Eternal. The PLANTs was still in chaos due to the lack of Chairman and such - negotiations had yet to take place and his mother and the rest of the supreme council had been held up by Representative Canavar whom had taken temporary control of the council.
Just then Lacus Clyne arrived at the medic wing of the Archangel, and Melody pulled both Athrun and Yzak into the corridor allowing Lacus privacy with Kira.
"The two of you, follow me..." Melody told the two pilots sporting on the ZAFT piloting suits.
Arriving at the changing room, Melody dug through the cabinet and handed the orange sweater to Yzak and told him to change out from the ZAFT piloting suit. As for Athrun, she merely told the fellow Coordinator to go about his own duties.
Once Yzak was dressed, Melody gestured for him to follow her. Athrun had been off to locate the blonde princess a while ago - while Yzak was still changing.
"...Where exactly are we going?" Yzak finally asked, after the silence that hung between them get too stifling.
Melody shrugged, and merely told him that he would know once they arrived. Eventually, they arrived at the hangar - just in time to witness the black Mobile Suit touched down in front of them.
Yzak watched in silence as the cockpit opened and a pilot dressed in their ZAFT piloting suit stepped down from the Mobile Suit. Frowning as he tried to raid his mind for any more pilots which turned to the third party during the war, and was puzzled when none came to mind.
The pilot coming their way seemed to have realized his dilemma for the moment the pilot spotted them, he took off his helmet revealing the familiar wavy green hair.
Yzak gaped, open mouthed at the sight of his familiar ex-team mate whom he was so sure had not survived during the battle near the ORB's territory.
"...Surprise?" Nicol commented wryly, as he floated his way towards the silver-haired teen.
"How?" That was the only word uttered by the silver-haired pilot since the sight of Nicol.
Just then the technician called out to Nicol's attention, but the name uttered was anything but familiar to Yzak. Turning to Melody, he asked. "Who's Nicholas?"
Melody smiled and shrugged, "Nicol was now known as Nicholas Dino - at least, that was his name within the ORB's Military Register. He was recovered by the ORB's Defence Forces after the battle - since 'Blitz' was destroyed and he was half-dead.
Under those circumstances, we could not send him back to Carpentaria or Gibraltar for treatment - for he was wavering on the line of death. Thus, we brought him back with us to seek treatment. He was in a coma of one month before awakening. Since then, he had been with the ORB Military... "
"... and the Mobile Suit?" Yzak eyed the black Mobile Suit, warily as if it would start attacking on its own.
"GAT-X204 Thunderblot, sibling production with the GAT-X207 Blitz... Functions were similar but different as well, was supposed to be shipped over to Heliopolis. However, it was attacked before it was shipped over and thus had been left in the deserted corner of the ORB's Morgenroete.
I found it in half-completed state and told Nicol to finish it on his own. The other machine was now known as the 'Strike Rouge'... it was also in half-completed state when it was found." Melody explained.
After a few minutes spent talking with the technician, Nicol made his way back to Yzak and Melody. Heading back to the changing room, Nicol changed into his orange top and jeans - they headed over to the bridge of the Archangel for further instructions.
"So Nicol ... what took you so long?" Melody asked, as they headed towards the bridge.
"Hm..m..? Oh... I went to retrieve what was left of the 'Freedom' and brought it over to the Eternal first - before coming over. I tried to search the area for signs of Mwu - but all I managed to find was his helmet. Then I came back here, and found the 'Duel' in standing position and 'Buster' in its current state." Nicol responded, matter-of-factly.
Meanwhile, Yzak was still reeling from the shock of finding Nicol alive. Then again, no one would have expected Nicol to still live after such an explosion. Yzak shakes his head in disbelief, he had had too much experience with losing team mates - thinking them dead, when they turned up alive and healthy in front of him recently.
/The worst thing was ... all of them ended up in ORB.../ Yzak thought, the feeling of disbelief sweeping over him.
to be continued
Date started: 05/06/07
Date completed: 05/06/07