Celestial Being Chronicles - Chapter 36
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Gundam series, nor any of the various series which are used or referenced in my fic, so please point that damned lawsuit cannon at someone else, also, don't read this if you are not of legal age to read such material. The story contains possibly disturbing content and should not be read by close-minded people (i.e., people who are easily offended.) Everything in the story is fictional. I am also not responsible for any actions taken by people who read this story and society's problems. I do, however, own my original character; Hope Yamato.
"Are you alright, Kira?" Lacus asked as the Chimera Gundam carefully pulled alongside the Divinity Gundam.
"Yeah." Kira replied, too quickly for the blue-eyed beauty's comfort. "I'm fine, Lacus."
"Shit!" Domon Kasshu shouted, as his recently aquired God Gundam rattled. He raised his shield to deflect another beam shot as the crimson Aegis Gundam went back on the offensive. "How the hell can he do so well in such an old machine?"
The Aegis stormed in with an ignited beam saber and the mobile suits met in a shower of sparks. Domon's eyes widened as his eyes caught sight of a stylized tiger's head stamped onto the Aegis Gundam's left shoulder armor. He'd seen that emblem before; that was the Desert Tiger!
"No way!" Domon snarled, pushing back against the Aegis and forcing it back. He drew a beam saber, scowling at his opponent. "The Desert Tiger! Just my fucking luck!"
The Aegis Gundam charged again, and the God Gundam deflected its saber stroke with its shield, swinging back. The Aegis would not be taken down so easily and mirrored the white machine's move, leaving both mobile suits pushing helplessly against each other.
Domon narrowed his eyes at the Aegis and concentrated.
"Alright, Desert Tiger," he yelled. "Let's see you stand up to THIS!"
Domon pushed the Aegis forward with a blast from his Gundam's thrusters. As the Aegis tumbled backwards, out of the way, the white machine opened fire with its beam machine guns, and the Aegis immediately began to dodge for its life. Domon smirked, watching his foe dive this way and that, and charged towards it. The Aegis revved up its own saber and charged back, Domon saw a flash of yellow at the bottom of his field of vision, the God Gundam rattled as the mobile suits clashed.
Domon cursed as he realized that the Aegis had just torn a long gash across his Gundam's chest.
"Goddamn Tiger." He growled, spinning around to face the Aegis. It came charging in again, but Domon stopped it with another barrage from his beam machine guns, and the Aegis reverted to its mobile armor form and took off.
Still scowling, Domon took off after the Aegis.
"Stop fighting us, you stupid, warmongering jackass!" The voice of Kira Yamato shrieked, as the Divinty Gundam suddenly streaked by, passing less than three feet in front of the God Gundam, severing its head, arms and legs with a series of impossibly fast beam saber strokes.
After a moment of silence, the Excalibur's engines suddenly flared to life, the massive dagger-shaped ship slowly turning towards the Earth. As the Excalibur turned towards the blue sphere, an automated warning was broadcast throughout the ship and to all allied machines. "The Excalibur will commence orbital drop in five minutes. All hands must abandon ship immediately. There will be no further audio warning."
"What?" Kira's five lovers yelled in unison as the Excalibur once again ignited its engines and began to charge towards the blue planet.
"We have to stop it!" Lacus yelled.
"I'm already on it, Lacus." Hope replied, her fingers flying over the keyboard as she desprately attempted to hack into the Excalibur's computers. "Come on, come on! Got it!" The amethyst-eyed woman sighed a few moments later, smiling as she quickly canceled the orders for the massive ship to drop itself on the planet below.
"Kira's gone too far this time!" Athrun Zala roared as the Infinite Justice ignited its wings of light and charged at the Divinity, effortlessly batting the now disabled God Gundam out of the way.
The Divinity ignited the beam saber in its left wrist, slamming the brightly glowing, pure white energy blade down onto the Justice's own, pink beam blade with a shower of sparks. "Look at the way the world ended up!" Kira cried. "I fought and I suffered, and for all that, look where we are now!" His eyes flashed furiously. "For all that suffering, just look at me now! I'm not even human anymore! How am I supposed to smile and wait with you, and wait with Lacus, for a new world that will never come!"
The Divinity charged again, Athrun scowled, switching to his twin beam saber and deflecting the Divinity's horizontal saber swipe. "Killing us all isn't the answer either!" He yelled back, somersaulting over the Divinity's head. Athrun whirled around, leg beam saber flashing to life, the Divinity was there to stop it with a beam saber blow, the blades pressing uselessly against each other. "Have you become that blind, Kira? The answer to people dying is not to kill more people!"
"Then what is the answer?" Kira screamed back, kicking the Justice in the stomach and sending it reeling back. "You don't know the answer, because if you did we wouldn't be fighting each other!" The Divinity took off, saber pulled back for a finishing blow. "But I've found it, and I won't let you get in its way!"
The Justice shook as the Divinity's saber slammed down onto its beam shield. Athrun scowled, throwing the Divinity's arm aside and stabbing forward with his own saber. Kira deflected Athrun's saber with his own beam shield, charging forward and charging up his chest-mounted cannon.
"I've had enough of this!" Kira shouted. "Just die already!"
Athrun somersaulted over the Divinity's head as Kira fired his temporal inversion cannon, the pure white beam blazing down underneath the Justice's feet. Athrun whirled around, swinging his saber towards the Divinity's back, but Kira stopped it with his beam shield, surging forward and throwing the Justice back. He switched to his beam rifles, raising them towards the Justice, but suddenly another mobile suit burst into his line of fire.
Kira's eyes widened in disbelief as a pink and red Chimera Gundam floated before him. It had no shield, not even a beam rifle, but it was still floating defiantly between him and the Justice. He raised the Divinity's right-hand beam rifle, pointing it at the Chimera's cockpit. In the Justice, Athrun cursed under his breath and ignited the booster to move closer.
The hatch opened, and everything stopped as Lacus Clyne stepped out in a pink Celestial Being flight suit.
"Kira!" She shouted. "Kira, why are you doing this? Why are you trying to destroy the world to ease your own pain?"
Kira watched her carefully.
"This isn't the way your wounds will ever be healed!" Lacus went on. "You are traveling down a path of misery! Stop this, Kira! This isn't the way to protect the world!" Kira narrowed his eyes at her. "Didn't we learn from GENESIS, from all of the conflicts we've stopped over the last few millenia? We can't make a future world by destruction! Dropping the Excalibur isn't going to purify the world! You're not protecting anyone like this! Kira!"
"Lacus, get back in the Chimera!" Athrun shouted. "Kira's going to-"
Kira scowled, his eyes flashing, his hands trembling.
The Divinity fired.
Lacus stared at the brightly glowing green beam shot, unsure of what to think, and an instant later she vanished in the Divinity's shot; the blast slammed into the Chimera's open cockpit, and a moment later, the Chimera was gone in the flash of a fireball.
Athrun's eyes widened in disbelief.
"LACUS!"
A green seed dropped through Athrun's mind, before detonating with a electrifying light that seemed to paralyze the entire universe, and the Justice took off with a roar towards the Divinity.
"Why?" Athrun demanded, bringing his saber down with a crash. "You even had to kill Lacus! How many more of us do you have to kill?"
"You've all just been getting in the way!" Kira growled.
The Justice rushed forward, slamming its saber down again on the Divinity's. "I will kill you, Kira!" Athrun swore. "I promise you, one way or another, you will die for killing Lacus!"
"You can't stop me now!" Kira shot back, the Divinity rocketing away from the Justice. Athrun charged again, swinging his saber horizontally towards the Divinity, Kira shoved him back with a point-blank railgun blast. "Whether or not I live is meaningless! You can't stop what I've started here!"
"She was the evangel of peace!" Athrun screamed, storming down towards the Divinity with another saber blow. "She didn't lie to you!"
"Liar!" Kira screamed, surging back up towards the Justice. Athrun opened fire with his beam cannons, but the Divinity plowed through the shots with its beam shield, ramming the Justice with its shoulder, throwing crimson machine back. "I'll kill you!"
The Divinity combined its beam rifles, but before it could fire, the Justice took off. Kira growled angrily, deploying his DRAGOONs. The Justice came down with a saber swipe, but Kira charged back, pushing it against the burning hulk of a battleship. He swarmed his DRAGOONs around the wreck, spearing it on beam shots and blowing it apart. Athrun grunted in frustration as the world shook around him.
Kira's eyes flashed, as he recalled his DRAGOONs and took off.
As the fireball faded, Athrun glared up at the retreating Divinity, but he also noticed a pair of brightly glowing wings, those of the Eclipse Gundam, streaking towards the angelic form of the Divinity Gundam. Within the cockpit of the Eclipse Gundam, Shinn Asuka scowled, he was determined to continue the fight.
The Divinity fired a full burst; Kira scowled at the twisting and turning Eclipse Gundam. "Get the hell out of my way, Shinn!" He snapped.
The DRAGOONs flashed in again, and Shinn dove around them, watching the Divinity carefully. The Divinity opened fire with another full burst, as the DRAGOONs swarmed around the Eclipse.
"What good can you do here?" Kira cackled. "If you stop humantiy here, they'll just come back!" The Divinity fired its twin plasma cannons, spearing the Eclipse's beam rifle and knocking its shield off its arm. Shinn grunted in frustration, abandoning his beam rifle as it was torn apart by more DRAGOON fire.
The Divinity swept in with another full burst. Shinn backpedaled against the attack and swerved to avoid a flashing net of beam fire. He grunted as beam blasts landed against the Eclipse's beam shields.
Inside the Justice, Athrun looked on in disbelief at the wave of beam cannon blasts surrounding a cloud of the Eclipse's afterimages.
The Divinity lined up for a killing beam volley.
"Humanity will be punished!" Kira cried. "There will finally be meaning to our suffering! They brought themselves to this point, do not stand in the way of their own destruction!"
The Divinity unleashed a full burst, as its DRAGOONs swarmed around the Eclipse.
"Why do you keep fighting me?" Kira exclaimed. "I will change the world and end your suffering!" His eyes flashed. "I'll give meaning to your suffering!"
The Eclipse flashed to life, a blaze of beam wings wiped out four of the Divinity's DRAGOONs, and Kira drew back in surprise.
"This world does not belong to you, Kira!" Shinn screamed. The Eclipse darted forward, crushing two more DRAGOONs with its palm cannons. "Human beings are not your toys!" The Eclipse charged, obliterating three more DRAGOONs with its beam wings, and lunged up into the Divinity's face, destroying both its beam rifles with a savage twin palm cannon blow and knocking it back with a devastating kick to the chest. "Even if you are a god, you have no right to decide my fate for me, Kira!" Shinn cried, as the Eclipse rocketed towards the Divinity, slicing the last two DRAGOONs out of the sky with its anti-ship sword. Kira opened fire with the Divinity's remaining weapons; the Eclipse dove out of the way and roared toward him.
Shinn's eyes flashed.
"This is the final war that will finally remake the world!" Kira shouted. The Gundams slammed together again; Kira forced them apart with a burst of thruster exhaust, and, eyes flashing, launched his DRAGOONs in a blaze of sapphire light. "Everyone will open their eyes! Everyone will see the blood they've spilled! Everyone will see the hatred in their hearts! And they will finally learn!"
"You think you're the only one who suffered?" Shinn screamed. "What about all the people you've killed?" The Eclipse lunged up above the Divinity and came down with a relentless sword stroke; the Divinity swung its saber horizontally to block it. "Don't tell me that you're going to make the world understand your pain to bring us peace! You've been shoving it back on everyone else!" The Eclipse swung its sword downward, sending the Divinity careening back; Shinn gave chase with a scream. "You're not going to save the world! You're going to make everyone suffer with you! You've gone crazy, Kira!"
"I will not let you tell me that I have to suffer again!" Kira screamed. The Divinity threw the Eclipse back with a forceful saber swing, swarming its DRAGOONs around the floundering Eclipse. Shinn scowled, drawing back behind his beam shield and letting his afterimages draw the DRAGOONs' fire. "I will not let you tell me that a world full of war is the only way we can have it!" The Divinity swung its saber again, Shinn blocked it with his beam shield. "I will not let you tell me that I can't use my power!"
"You're just using it to kill, Kira!" Shinn screamed back, as the Eclipse surged, putting its force behind its sword and throwing the Divinity back. Kira growled, moving his DRAGOONs in, Shinn rocketed up towards the Divinity, kicking it in the face and sending it back.
The Eclipse came storming in close, only to see its killing slash spoiled by the Divinity's beam saber. Kira swarmed his DRAGOONs again, forcing the Eclipse back on the defensive, and turned towards Earth.
"I can survive atmospheric reentry," Kira grunted as he ignited his thrusters and dove towards the planet below. "Let's see if the same can be said of you!"
Kira ground his teeth and threw his machine through the Eclipse's web of firepower, even as the firey glow of reentry slowly faded. The Divinity whipped around, beam saber held high, and charged at the Eclipse, only for the target to dart aside, leaving the saber to slice through mere afterimages. Kira lunged to the right as the Eclipse reappeared an instant later, charging forward with a killing stab.
"That's it!" Kira roared as he backed away from his foe, and with exhaust blazing, eight of the Divinity's thirty-six DRAGOON units lifted off. "Don't mock me, you bastard!"
As the Divinity swarmed its DRAGOON units around the Eclipse, he noticed four mobile suits rapidly descending towards him, with the massive, dagger-shaped form of the Excalibur following close behind. With a flash of exhaust, the Akatsuki Gundam pulled ahead of the other three machines, charging towards the Divinity Gundam.
"Kira!" Cagalli screamed as the Akatsuki bashed the Eclipse out of the way before then clashing sabers with the angelic Gundam. "Why did you kill Lacus?"
"She's not dead, Cagalli." Kira replied, his voice now much calmer. "Lacus is onboard the Excalibur, she is perfectly safe. You keep forgetting that we can't be killed."
"That doesn't change the fact that you tried to kill her!" The blonde roared, unleashing her DRAGOON units and physically ramming the remote weapons into the Divinity, pushing it back.
A moment later, as the Akatsuki's DRAGOON units finally ceased their ramming attacks, Kira slammed the Divinity bodily into the Akatsuki, sending it tumbling. The Eclipse lined up for another shot from its beam cannon, but Kira launched himself over it. The Strike Freedom was there instantly, saber held high for a disabling blow.
"I don't think so!" Kira roared, even as he thrust up the Divinity's left hand, igniting the palm cannon and catching the Strike Freedom's beam saber blade on the palm cannon's shining energy. Murrue's eyes went wide in disbelief.
"What the? He caught it?" The Strike Freedom rattled and her world shook as the Divinity rammed its knee into the machine's torso, three times in rapid sucession. "Dammit! How the hell can you even catch a beam saber blade?"
An instant later, Murrue's monitors filled with static as the Divinity severed the Strike Freedom's head with a blast from its eye-mounted cross-flare cannons. As the blasts detonated, they ignited into a pure-white cross of energy which rose nearly a mile above the now disabled Strike Freedom.
"Hope, Mayu!" Murrue yelled, even as she was violently rattled within the cockpit of the Strike Freedom. "Hurry! Disable Kira's machine while he's distracted with me!"
The Impulse and Destiny raised their EMP cannons and fired. An instant later, both of the high-power EMP blasts engulfed the Divinity, overwhelming its advanced EMP shielding and causing it to completely power down. The Destiny quickly boosted towards the now plummeting Divinity Gundam, catching the angelic mobile suit before then moving to the Excalibur and gently setting the disabled machine down in the hanger bay.