Author's Note
Welcome to this AU a long time in the making! I'll get more into detail at the bottom, but I hope you enjoy it!
'This is a thought'
"This is regular speech"
In a suburban home
"The Federation government announced the creation of a peacekeeping force under the control of the government in order to eliminate anti-government elements. Working in cooperation with intelligence agencies…"
Sergei muted the news, focusing on his call with Kati Mannequin, sitting down onto his couch. The older scarred retired soldier was curious if this was in relation in the creation of this new peacekeeping force.
"Sergei, headquarters just told me they want to transfer me to this peacekeeping force" the military woman stated with a professional tone
"Do you plan on going?" the scarred man said neutrally
"It might not be a bad idea to take a closer look at the A-Laws"
"That's a group with too many secrets." He heard the door quietly open, and footsteps entered the room, and saw the white hair, yellow eyed 23-year-old super soldier enter the living room "I'd be grateful if you kept me informed of your findings Colonel Mannequin."
"I always intended to."
"Yeah" He hung up the phone and looked up at Soma, seeing that she had a tray with two cups of tea.
"Was that Colonel Mannequin?" Some inquired curiously as she took one of the cups and gave it to Sergei.
"Yes, that's right" Keeping his neutral tone from before.
"What did she want?"
Sergei started to pick up his cup of tea, but then put it down "More importantly, have you thought about the matter we discussed earlier?"
Soma, in the middle of taking a sip of her tea, looked down and replied in a quiet voice "No, not yet."
Closing his eyes, he told her in a comforting voice "There is no need to rush anything. Take your time and think it over."
Soma, blushed and kept looking down, debating internally on an issue she was having an issue with, but didn't want to disturb the current atmosphere of the room, so the drank tea in silence, enjoying the peace.
Colony Proud
Saji steadily moved the plate into location, making sure that it would connect properly. His coworker guided him into the correct position. They had been doing this for a while and it was nearing the end of their shift. He wondered if maybe he could be doing something else, but he came to space to fulfill Louise's dream and found some satisfaction in being an engineer. He was broken out of stream of consciousness by his coworker saying "Perfect. Let's head back in"
Sighing with relief, the short brown haired, brown eyed man responded with "Sounds good"
As they reached the locker room, his coworker turned to him as the glided through zero G "You are getting pretty good at this job rookie!" he said as he gave Saji a teasing smile. The room was full of people who were either getting off shift or starting their shift.
"I've been here for half a year already. When are you going to stop calling me rookie, Eddie?" the brown-haired man bantered in a friendly tone "My name is Saji Crossroads." He looked up and stopped when he saw two armored security, only being able to see part of their faces, at the doorway into the hallway. Their gray shoulder armor, helmet and greaves stood out against the black of the rest of the uniform. Eddie turned around and looked at them with a surprised look on his face with his back to the lockers.
"Eddie Miyasaka, right?" The security offer question with authority as he approached the pair of workers "You are under arrest for suspicion of working with Katharon!"
Eddie threw his helmet at them, hoping to catch the off guard, but one of the guards deflected it, both officers ending up next to Saji near the lockers. Eddie braced against one of locker and as one of the officers tried to grab him, he shouldered said officer and dashed to the doorway, trying to escape the two security members. The guard that just got hit pulled out his gun and hit Eddie twice in his left shoulder, causing Eddie to yell out "Damn" in pain.
Saji then looked at Eddie getting hit, then the other officer next to him. He asked the officer in a confused voice "Mr. Miyasaka! Whats going on here?!"
The officer then grabbed Saji and yelled with force behind his voice "I'm taking you as well!"
"Me! What did I do?!" The officer then restrained him as he saw Eddie get clubbed over the head with a baton by the other security officer and then put into a headlock "Wait a minute! Won't you even tell me what I've done? Please stop it!"
Saji and Eddie struggled at bit as they are pulled away by security to wherever their ultimate destination was, unsure what was in store for them.
Somewhere in space
A Brown-haired girl with two spiral pigtails popped up on a view screen, with the view of a bridge of a ship behind her. With a higher pitched voice, she told the person on the other end of the call "It looks like the Federations new Space cruiser is headed to Lagrange 3". Behind her a black-haired man with a short black coat appeared and stated in a more raspy voice
"Its like Wang Liu Mei told us. Maybe this…" He was cut off by a man in a purple pilot suit with a low voice.
"I'm going out in Seravee."
The man in black replied "Good luck", ending the call
The man in purple, after the call ended, quietly says to himself as a mobile suit rose up from an elevator "He'll come. I know he will."
The Ptolemaios moved steadily through space, hoping to get to Proud in time.
Colony Proud
Saji found himself in an exceptionally large and overwhelmingly hot room full of machinery. He wasn't sure exactly what it was for, but it was most likely some sort of furnace room. He could feel the high gravity pushing down on him as other men were pushing large crates very slowly. He could feel his muscles strain under the pressure and weight of the object. 'I wonder why they are forcing men to work here and are any of these guys actually guilty of anything.' He saw one of the men drop to the ground and moved to try to help him up but was interrupted in a man in a large black exoskeleton power armor like suit.
In an angry tone, the security officer told him in a commanding tone "Don't stop working R81!"
"But he needs help!" Saji replied in a weak voice. He looked down at the man and then the officer, hoping to elicit some form of sympathy. That was broken up when Eddie yells to him "Don't was your time if you want to live. The officer yells for him to get back in line and to get back to work and Saji sighs, moving back into position to keep pushing the crates. "'What did I do to deserve this? Why won't they help that man?' He saw from the corner of his eye that that the officer was keeping his eye on him and the fact he had a baton out just in case.
Eddie turned to him and asked, "You a member of Katharon too?"
Saji replied angrily "I've got nothing to do with them!" thinking about how they just caused chaos and disrupted the new order that had come into being since the gundams showed up.
Eddie sounded more relaxed to Saji than he expected "Just happen to get caught up, huh. Still, things could be a whole lot worse"
Looking curious and a bit frustrated, Saji asked "What is that supposed to mean?"
With a confident smile, Eddie stated "You'll know soon enough". Suddenly, there was a major tremor and what felt like an explosion. Crates of coal fell over and several people also fell prone. Saji heard men grunting in reaction and asked "What is going on? The gravity?"
Eddie stated happily "They've come to pick us up! Our comrades are here!" Another large explosion buffeted the station as Eddie exclaimed "Enemy forces?"
Saji saw a large number of men approaching a bulkhead door when suddenly a cube shaped robot with 4 legs with wheels on it appeared at the opening bulkhead. The gun underneath it chassis started firing into the crowd of men, killing the majority of them. Saji thought 'What is going on? What are those things killing us? I don't want to die! I just wanted to work in space because of Louise!' The surviving men rushed back, yelling about military automatons. The machine moved forward, trying to target the men who were scrambling for cover.
Saji and Eddie were hiding behind one of the crates, hearing the machine getting closer and Saji saw Eddie looking to move from cover to another crate. 'Please don't'. Unfortunately for him, Eddie saw his chance and tried to make a break for it. He was gunned down right in front of Saji's eyes. All that was going through is head was how he wished he could have seen Louise one more time and he never wanted to die like this. His heartbeat increased higher and higher as the machine got closer. Just then he heard gunshots and a call of "Get back!" and a man in a sleek, black military suit threw something at the machine that cause it to explode, leaving a dust cloud in its wake and Saji prone on the ground with his eyes closed. When he opened his eyes, he saw that same man offering a hand with a familiar voice Saji couldn't place. As he took the man's hand and he looked into his helmet face, it snapped into place seeing the dull red eyes and messy brown of his former neighbor "Setsuna? Is that you?" he asked surprised but happy to see him.
"And you are Saji Crossroad" Setsuna replied in a more subdued tone. The two men stood looking at each other for a few seconds, wondering why each of those men were there in this situation. The reunion was broken up when another machine came hovering down, having spotted the two men.
"We need to get out of here" Setsuna commanded in a more monotone voice. Setsuna threw another explosive C4 and dashed into the hallway with Saji. The two made their way through the hallways, Setsuna dealing with the machines as they appeared, keeping a grip on Saji so he didn't lose him. During this, Setsuna thought 'Nothing has changed. Despite all we did, not one damn thing has changed in all this time'. Saji on the other hand was just trying to keep up and not fall, just wanting to get out of this hellhole. Eventually they both made it to an empty hanger.
Looking at saji, Setsuna says "Put on your helmet"
"Right" Responded Saji, raising up the hood on his spacesuit and sealing it up. As he did that, the door opened and a thing of Saji's nightmares was plain to see. While it was heavily damaged, with one arm gone, covered by a cloak of some kind, the end of the blade broken off and parts showing, it was recognizable as a gundam from four years ago. The machines that ruined the life of the woman he loved and destroyed the world as he knew it. And Setsuna piloted one of them. His mind was rapidly cycling through thoughts, 'Was he involved with killing Louise's family? Did he realize they cost him his sister? That her investigation of Celestial Being had cost her her life? How did he not see it? Did they not know how many people they killed?' He just stood there, overwhelmed, as Setsuna walked towards the mech.
Setsuna entered the mech and told Saji "Stay here. Find a place to hide and you'll be safe. I'll get back here after I deal with whatever is outside." He then closed the hatch of the Exia and flew out into space. He saw Saji was conflicted, but that was not something he had time to deal with right now.
Space outside Colony Proud
Setsuna flew out into space, trying to find the source of the enemy force. Those machines had to have been dropped by something, and they were most likely still in the area. Just as he was moving around the ring of the colony, he saw three red mobile suits with red particles behind him. 'These must be the A-Laws', Setsuna thought to himself. He recognized two of them as the GN-X's from four years previously and what seemed to be a new model. Taking the suits by surprise, he dashed quickly into the formation, taking the arm off of one of the GN-X's
Over the radio, he heard the pilot of the new model say "I knew I recognized that trail of GN particles. It was a gundam. Lieutenant, stay back and give us covering fire"
"But Captain Zanine!" Setsuna head the other suit say with frustration in the man's voice.
Captain Zanine responded resolutely "The gundam is still dangerous and we need to be careful. These guys aren't like the Katharon troops we fought earlier"
"Understood Captain." Just as he finished that sentence, Setsuna opened fire with the blaster attached to his blade, forcing the mobile suit team to dodge out of the way to avoid getting hit, then he charged in, trying to catch any of the mobile suits with his blade. The new model pulled out his own beam saber and clashed their blades, hoping the overpower the Exia. Setsuna heard the suit then talk to him angrily "Why wait until now to show up?!"
Setsuna responded with an undertone of anger, rising to overt anger by the end "I'll destroy you. I'll just have to destroy you. All of those who do things like this! I'll eliminate you all by myself!" He pushed the suit back and flipped the blade back, blasting at the new model with a few shots, taking the shield off of it, but missing the actual suit. The Exia was then forced to dodge a few attacks from the supporting suit, putting him out of position
Suddenly one of the GN-X's, the one Setsuna damaged before flew in, beam saber activated, attacking the gundam "Watch out captain!" said the pilot of the other mobile. Captain Zanine desperately yelled to the main "Wait!" But unfortunately for him, his subordinate had already gotten too close. The pilot tried to cut off the remaining arm of the Exia, but Setsuna dodged gracefully, and with one quick turn, cut the attacking mobile suit in half horizontally, eliciting a yell of "You bastard! I will send you where you belong" from the supporting mobile suit as he charged into attack the gundam that killed his squadmate. Setsuna reacted quickly and took a few shots at the suit, knocking off the arm that held the combination lance/blaster and a leg.
The pilot responded angrily "Damnit!" as he floated into space, damaged. The captain then told Setsuna "You'll pay for that!" He charged in, matching blades once again. This time Setsuna couldn't push him back and was actually losing to the suit. The pilot then stated "You maybe a gundam, but you are 5 years out of date. My Ahead will avenge my men!" All setsuna could thing was 'Damnit gundam! What is going on with you?'
Setsuna was then pushed back and with speed he didn't expect, the suit drew out another beam saber and cut off both of the arms of the Exia before Setsuna had a chance to react, leaving him floating helplessly, at the mercy of this new suit. Setsuna thought 'It can't end this way! Not before we fix what we did!' But just as the suit was about to deliver a killing blow, a large energy blast came out of nowhere, destroying the beam sabers of the Ahead. He saw what looked to be a gundam. It looked bulkier, armored and more angular than the one he just face and it seemed to have 4 large blasters attached to it. The A-Laws pilot then asked "Another gundam? I've got to pull back. Lieutenant, we are leaving"
"But sir?!" the other pilot asked petulantly
"We are outgunned and facing a new enemy with unknown capabilities, we are leaving" He stated as he grabbed the damaged mobile suit and flew off into space. The new gundam fired after the two, but none of the shots connected.
Letting the adrenaline wear off, Setsuna looked at the new suit. It looked like a gundam, but was it one of theirs. He then heard a voice over the comms that he recognized. Tieria. "How long has it been Setsuna? Four years?" asked Tieria with mirth in his voice.
"Tieria Erde" he said with relief
"Its nice to see you alive. Lets bring you back to the ship"
"Wait. I need to pick someone up from the colony" stated Setsuna, calming down from the emotions from the battle
"Lead on then"
Colony Proud
Arriving back at the hanger, both mobile suits landed, and the two comrades met each other in the middle of the cluttered hanger. They closed the hanger doors, letting the hanger repressurize, giving them oxygen, letting them breathe as they removed their helmets. Tieria opened the conversation stating evenly "There is something different about you"
"However, you don't seem to have changed much at all. You look exactly the same, besides the height" in a similar even tone. The purple hair, red eyed man looked very similar to when Setsuna saw him last.
"I get that a lot."
"Hmm. So does this gundam belong to Celestial Being?"
"Naturally. It's called the Seravee." As Tieria finished saying that, Saji came out from behind a crate in the hanger and rose his voice in anger
"Setsuna F Seiei! Were you always the pilot of that gundam? Answer me!"
"Yes, I was." Setsuna responded in a neutral tone
"That means you were involved five years ago!"
"Yes, I was."
"Do you know what you've done? Because of what you did, a lot of people that died that didn't have to and you're the ones responsible." Saji waited for Setsuna to respond, but just saw his neutral face. He felt emotions welling up inside him. "Because of you guys, the woman I love lost her family and was injured in the process. Because of you guys, the only family I had left, my sister, died investigating you guys! I lost Louise! And my sister! Say something" He could feel tears streaming down his face, but seeing Setsuna refuse to answer, he rushed him and forcibly took his gun and aimed it at him. "You give them back! Give them back to me!" Setsuna waited for him to shoot, but he saw Saji slowly lower the gun and begin sob as he fell to his knees.
Tieria spoke up "Should we take him and bring him to the new ship?"
"Very well. I'll help you carry Saji." The two men pick up saji and brought him aboard the Seravee and headed back the Celestial Being main ship
A-Laws Ship
As the two entered the locker room to change, Captain Zanine raised his voice "What the hell was that Lieutenant? You could have gotten yourself killed! You disobeyed my orders!"
The Lieutenant angrily responded "He killed my comrade! Did you expect me to stay back after that?!"
"I expected you to follow orders! One more of those and you'll be demoted!"
"But Captain!"
"No 'but captaining' me" His tone softened a bit and said to the lieutenant "I know you are motivated 2nd Lieuntenant Andrei, but you don't want to die stupidly. You have potential and I don't want you to be wasted. You are a new transfer, but you have a lot to learn. Now get out of you unform and lets head to get debriefed"
Andrei, surprised his attitude, relaxed a bit, happier that it wasn't just all anger, but some worry. In hindsight he did disobey orders and that made him a bad soldier. Next time 'I'll follow orders better to make sure I can protect more people!'
On the Ptolemaios II
Setsuna and Tieria landed in the hanger of the new ship, dropping the remains of the Exia for Ian to deal with. Tieria contacted Setsuna "I'll bring our guest to the brig. You go meet the rest of the crew"
"Will do. Don't treat him badly, he just lacks context"
"I'll will" Tieria then took Saji by the wrist and led him out of the hangers and into the hall
Setsuna exited the remains of the Exia and he spotted a familiar black haired mechanic. He did not notice any significant change, other than the fact he seemed to have a new uniform, with a black area reaching to the middle of the chest and a short black coat. Said man called out to him jovially "Good to see you back Setsuna. It's been a long five years. Thanks for bringing back the solar reactor of the Exia, we needed it."
Setsuna looked at him curiously and asked "It's good to see you too. Why do you need it?"
"We have a new suit for you, but we needed this reactor to get it working. Don't worry, I'll tell you when we have it ready for you."
"Besides that, anything I should know?"
"The Ptolemaios now is actually armed, but right now it's only you and Tieria as pilots, which is not enough. Sumeragi is also gone, but we have a lead on her and a new recruit back on earth. We have a mission for you, but I'll let you explore the ship for now. Let you get comfortable. You should head to the bridge and talk with them."
"Thank you. I'll leave you to do what you need to do." Setsuna stated with a tone of appreciation.
With a tone of casual warning, Ian said "Heads up. My daughter is on the bridge and she will have high energy. Don't be surprised if she gets touchy"
"You have a daughter?"
"I've had one for a daughter" Ian said with a smile on his face. "Haros! Let's get going." Setsuna floated towards the door to the hallway, hearing a clamor of Haro noises and words, the spherical robots doing their job as maintenance.
He headed through the hallways; he found the layout similar enough to the old ship to navigate, but was curious as to what had changed. 'Maybe someone on the bridge can help me'. He found his way to the bridge and let go of the handgrip coming out of the wall. Opening the door, he saw three people up there. A short girl with brown hair, who he guessed was closer to his age from five years ago, with a yellow short coat and what looked like drill shaped pigtails and dark purple eyes, another short girl with long pink hair in a low ponytail and a pink short coat with sea blue eyes, and a man with short black hair with a similar colored uniform to Ian with brown eyes. The man turned his head and Setsuna was surprised to Lasse. "Long time no see, eh Setsuna?"
"Lasse Aeon? You survived?"
The two girls then looked at the Krugis man standing at the door He recognized Feldt but noticed she had grown, and her hair was different. He noticed that Feldt had a soft smile on her face. The other girl he guessed by process of elimination was Ian's daughter and she had a more wide, cheerful smile. Lasse spoke up "Yes I did. I'd like to introduce you to our new member of the crew, Mileina Vashti. And I assume you remember Feldt?"
Setsuna gave a slight smile to both "Feldt Grace, it's good to see you again. And it's nice to meet you, Mileina Vashti."
"Yep, I'm Mileina. I've heard stories about you!" She said energetically as she turned to face Setsuna.
"I look forward to working with you" He nodded to her and turned to face Feldt
"Feldt Grace, I noticed you changed your hair" Setsuna said in a slightly warm tone. Feldt blushed slightly and responded "Christina told me I should try to be more fashionable"
"I wouldn't know how to judge that, but it suits you" Feldt's cheeks went a little pinker but she quickly righted herself
"Speaking of Christina, where are her and Lichty?" Setsuna asked how he looked around the bridge. Both Lasse and Feldt looked at each other and Lasse said mournfully "They died in the final battle five years ago" Setsuna noticed a Feldt's eyes get a little watery.
"Condolences. I wish I would have been there to protect them" Setsuna stated with regret in his tone.
Feldt spoke up with rising emotion "No Setsuna, you were needed to fight elsewhere and if Lasse was on the bridge, he would have died too. You saved us, even if you weren't there." Setsuna felt an unfamiliar emotion pass through him, but ignored it, noticing Feldt had looked away from him, blushing. He could think about it later. Feldt calmed down from her outburst, and her blush had faded and said "It must have been a long day for you. One of us can show you how to navigate the ship"
Lasse jumped in and said "I'll do that. We can catch up as we travel." He gave Feldt a smirk and guided Setsuna out of the bridge and started on his tour of the ship.
Somewhere in Spain
"There has been an anti-government force that attacked the Proud Colony, killing a large number of people. They were dealt with, but we also confirmed reports that gundams showed up and are active. We will give more info as we receive it. There is a list of people lost accessible to the public."
Louise froze in shock at the statement from the news. "The gundams are back. Why are they back? We finally have peace!" She could feel herself shaking as images of the past came flashing back, not as intense as previous years, but she could never forget what happened to her family. She saw images of a crater at a wedding full of dead bodies, her first seeing her stump where she now has a prosthetic. Another thought also went through her head 'Wait, Saji was on Proud! Was he safe?'
As she was sitting there in silence, she heard from the new "A number of anti-government prisoners also escaped and if you see any of them, call the authorities at once. Do not confront them. A list of names and faces will be available to the public. Onto our next story…" Louise rushed to her computer, accessing the list and saw Saji was not on the list of deaths. 'At least he's safe'.
She then scanned the list of escaped prisoners and to her shock and horror, she saw Saji's face and name. 'He's not a criminal. He may have been narrow-minded, but he despised the rebels. What is going on?'
Second Authors note
So, this AU came out from an attempt to make Feldt/Setsuna have a better set up, but then I kept thinking I want to change this and that and now it's a monstrosity. The ships are all canon ones besides the one I listed above because that is happening here. As you can see there are already changes and there are more from here. I like to call this a streamlined AU/novelization. Any scene that isn't changed but not present here happens as it did in the show. Also the movie is not part of this universe especially in relation the epilogue. It just makes it less taxing on me. I don't have a set release schedule, but I will get them out as fast as a realistically can.