Normal reminder about scenes

"Normal Speech"

'Thoughts'

"Split personalities speaking"

Crash Site in the Woods

Allelujah woke up slowly, his body sore all over from the crash. He took a look around the cockpit, getting his bearings. He knew he had crashed in the woods somewhere nearby and he had grappled Marie's suit…'Wait, where's Marie?' He jumped out of his seat, trying to locate Soma's Ahead. He opened the hatch and headed outside. Night had fallen since they had crashed. He spotted the suit quickly, still grappled with the Arios. It also appeared that he was in a clearing in the woods. 'Hopefully it was like this before.' Approaching the hatch of the Ahead, he opened it up and saw Soma still upright in her seat, unconscious. Without thinking, he yelled out, "Marie!"

He saw the girl began to stir and her eyes blinked open, but quickly took a hard edge as she jumped out of her seat, throwing a punch at him. He dodged backwards, attempting to keep some distance between the two of them. 'Why is she attacking me? This is Marie!' As she kept attacking him, he once again yelled out, this time confused and desperately, "Please, it's me!"

Anger was apparent in her voice when she responded, "Even without my mobile suit, I'm-" She suddenly was able to make contact with Allelujah, tackling him onto the ground. She straddled him, preparing to deliver a blow to him, but felt a sudden pain in her head as she heard a voice scream out in her head, "Leave him alone!" Soma grabbed her head in pain. It felt like her head was splitting open. Hearing Allelujah call out for Marie only made it worse. This entity forced its way forward, filling her with memories of a girl sitting on a bed with a glass container and a young boy with heterochromatic eyes talking to her. The memories felt familiar, yet separated by a barrier, almost like a part of herself that she forgot. Soma then felt herself falling into darkness as another entity surged forward, moving past her to taking her place. She reached out to the fading light, trying to grasp at it, but gave up. 'Maybe just a little sleep. I'm so tired.'

While Soma was mentally struggling with herself, Allelujah looked at the woman straddling him, obviously in some kind of pain, seeing as her eyes were closed and she was wincing. 'What's going on with her?' His question was answered quickly afterwards as Soma yelled out in anguish, then stilled. When Soma opened her eyes again, they were much softer. She then spoke affectionately and softly, "Allelujah." She then fainted onto his chest, overwhelmed by what just happened. Allelujah looked at her happiness in his eyes. Even with the limited quantum brainwaves he had, he could feel it was her. She was back and he wouldn't let her go again. He carried her to the two mobile suits and rested her against the Ahead and headed to the Arios to grab the camping gear in the cockpit. After she woke up again they would have a lot to talk about.

Hanger of the Ptolemaios

As Setsuna exited the 00 and got on the platform, he saw Ian gesturing for Setsuna to come over to talk to him. Setsuna walked over and saw Ian looked annoyed, saying, "Damnit Setsuna, I told you not to use the Trans-am! Lucky for us the Twin Drive appears to still be working, but even so…"

Setsuna replied with some desperation, "Please get the 00 fixed up. Allelujah is…" Setsuna felt irritation and frustration flow through him. Allelujah was out there, and he couldn't even use the 00. Ian saw Setsuna look more tense than usual, and his annoyance faded away. He knew what it felt like to be useless and unable to help a comrade.

Ian spotted Saji further down the walkway in the hanger and called out, "Yeah, I'll get right on it. Saji, come over here." Setsuna turned his head and saw Saji approach the pair of men, curious about why Ian would ask him for help. He looked Saji in the eyes and asked, "Are you sure Saji? I thought you hated the gundams?" Saji looked down slightly, his eyes gaining a serious look.

"I'm doing it to keep the Katharon people safe. Until that happens, I'll do whatever help needs to be done." Setsuna nodded at both of the men, watching them head to collect the tools they need. It seemed after Saji's mistake at the base, he wanted to make up for it. 'He's on the right path'. Setsuna headed to the elevator to the main deck, needing to find a private area to deal with his frustration.

Ian and Saji watched as Setsuna departed, both of them seeing the frustration in Setsuna's eyes. Saji looked back to Ian, "I've never seen him this tense before." Sure Saji had seen him angry before, but frustration was a new one to him. It was odd to see someone so calm act so irrational.

Ian responded, not looking at Saji, still grabbing the tools they would need, "For a pilot like him, not being able to actually search for a lost friend must be rough. Unfortunately for him, he pushed the engine too hard and now it has to be fixed. Nothing we can do about it. The best he can do is get it out of his system. Let's get this done as quickly as possible."

As the two began to work on the 00 alongside the haros, Saji spoke up, "Mr. Ian? I just wanted to apologize for freezing up on the guns. I know I should have fired, but I didn't want to take a life."

Ian just casually waved his hands in dismissal, "No worries kid. I'm not used to dealing with civilians after all this time. Its hard to look at the world the same after all the fighting we have done. In the future they can probably find a role for you on the bridge in combat. Otherwise you are down here with me. Does that work for you?"

Saji nodded his head happily, "Thank you Mr. Ian." As he continued fixing the 00, he did feel a little weak at the fact he was unable to fire, despite the assurances of Ian. He just wanted something significant to do. Anything to make up for what he did to the Katharon base.

Main Deck of the Ptolemaios

Feldt made her way to the Hanger, going to fix the other gundams while Ian and Saji focused on the 00. The sooner they were fixed the sooner they could be sent out to search. As she passed by one of the observation lounges, she heard a loud slamming sound on one of the walls. Curious, she opened the door from where the sound came from and saw the back of a frustrated and irritated Setsuna standing near one of the walls. 'I've never seen Setsuna like this. Is it Allelujah or the 00 that's bothering him?' She walked into the room quietly and called out, "Setsuna, are you ok?" She got no response from him, so she said it a little louder, "Setsuna?" She could almost feel the frustration and irritation leaking off of Setsuna.

Setsuna turned around, hearing her second call. His eyes were downcast, mostly focused on the ground. His whole body was tense, and his mouth was a grim line. He responded to her question in a distracted voice, "Why are you here?"

Feldt gave him a friendly smile, "I saw you seemed irritated and I wanted to help. Are you ok?"

He spoke in a terse voice, trying to hide his frustration, "I'm fine Feldt, just adrenaline."

She knew he was lying, but she felt the urge to reassure him. In a kind voice, she asked, "Is this about Allelujah or the 00?" He looked at her for a second then looked away from her. It didn't look like he wanted to answer her question. Feldt thought to herself, 'There must be something I can do to help. Wait, I think I know what might help.' When she was younger, sometimes someone being close could help her when she was distressed. She hoped it worked here. She cautiously approached him, looking for any sign of him reacting badly. Setsuna noticed her approaching but did nothing to stop her. He could see Feldt was being respectful and giving him time to react. This wasn't like the time with Nena. Seeing no obvious reaction, she gently laid her hand on his forearm, grasping slightly.

Immediately, Setsuna felt the tension leave his body. The frustration and anger drained from his body, leaving him feeling emotionally drained. It felt strange for someone to be able to do this to him, but it felt right. Feldt also noticed this change in body language and the feeling in the room changed. It felt more relaxed. She asked again, "What's wrong?"

Setsuna looked into her eyes, seeing that he could trust her. He sighed, then said, "Allelujah is lost, and I can't even use the 00. Ian said he and Saji could handle the work and that I should just relax."

Feldt realized what his issue was, "So you feel useless right now?"

"Yes. If I hadn't used the trans-am, I maybe could be helping now." He pulled his right hand into a fist. She moved her hand down to his tensed hand, trying to help with his frustration.

She looked at him resolutely, "Setsuna, you shouldn't feel useless. You did what you thought was correct in combat and you survived to protect us another day. We need to trust that Lockon and Tieria can find him."

Setsuna took in her words, knowing that she was right. He nodded at her and gave her a small smile, "Thank you Feldt." She let go of his hand, seeing him at least mostly relaxed.

She blushed and replied, "No problem. It just looked like you needed help."

"I am going to stay here for a while and think. You are welcome to stay if you want."

Feldt shook her head at that, "Thanks for the offer, but I have to go help Ian with some repairs on the other suits. Do you want me to tell him anything for you?"

"That I think I learned my lesson in the last battle. I'll stop using the trans-am for now." Feldt nodded at that and quietly left the room, leaving Setsuna to his thoughts, which were focused on why Feldt caused him to react the way he did.

A-Laws Carrier

Zanin stood in front of the door out of the pilot quarters, having just received standby orders from command. Andrei stood up and saluted, asking, "What are our orders about rescuing the Lieutenant?"

"At ease. Our orders are to standby and wait to see if the gundams attack. We are low on forces and can't afford to stretch our resources at the moment. The regular forces have been assigned to search the area where she went down." Andrei shoulders sagged a little hearing that someone else was assigned to look for her.

Andrei nodded, agreeing with the assessment, "Understood sir. Do you think she got the gundam sir?"

"Hopefully. If she died taking down the gundam, then her sacrifice was worth it. However we shouldn't get our hopes up. Those gundams are tough bastards and it may very well be likely that she died and the pilot of the gundam survived."

Andrei spoke righteously, "If that happened then we fight to avenge her."

"Let's hope she did survive. Don't count her out just yet. She survived the fighting of five years ago. Don't go on trying to avenge her just yet." Andrei stewed on that for a second, before another thought came to his head, causing him to clench his fist.

"Why are the gundams doing this? The gundams keep killing good soldiers in the name of what? Disrupting a stable government creating peace and prosperity? Didn't they claim to want to stop war? That is what we are doing!"

Zanin gave him an encouraging smile, "That's the attitude. I see you took my lesson from before to heart. All who bring chaos and disorder to this world are enemies of peace. The faster we get rid of these gundams and Katharon, the sooner we will have peace. We will bring these people to justice." The words resonated with Andrei, who felt bolstered by his trust of the A-Laws.

"Anything else to report, sir?"

"Besides that? No. Just stay ready to launch in case we spot the gundams approaching us. Don't stray too far from the carrier." Andrei nodded at that. Zanin, seeing that he understood, turned around and left the pilots quarters, leaving Andrei standing there alone, preparing himself mentally for another battle with the gundams.

Sergei's Ship

Sergei entered the cockpit of the GN-X, ignoring the call of one of his soldiers. If this were anyone else, he would have let his soldiers do it, but this was his daughter in all but name. Sergei closed the cockpit, turning on the machine. Through the speakers on the machine, he commanded the man, "If you don't want to get hurt, get out of the way." No one was going to get in the way of him finding Soma. As soon as he heard she got shot down on the battlefield and they couldn't find her suit, he was ready to go search for her himself. It helped that the regular forces were being assigned to look for her. Come hell or high water, he would find her. He was praying that she was alive. He couldn't take the loss of another family member. Not after Holly and what happened with Andrei.

As he launched from the ship, heading to the coordinates where she was last located in the battle, he reflected on the last week or so. It must have been rough for her. 'Nobody should have to witness or commit the crimes the A-Laws do.' Even someone as tough as her must have taken it hard. He truly wished she didn't have to see this side of war. She only had to fight the gundams before, not deal with the morally dubious side of warfare. He hoped she could forgive him for not preparing her for this part of war.

As he reached the airspace where she was shot down, he began to systematically scope the area. After about fifteen minutes of searching, he spotted rents in the earth on the edge of a clearing. Following the trail from above, he found Soma's Ahead and the Arios grappled, and a bit to the south of that he saw a tent set up. It looked like both of the suits were out of commission at the moment. 'So that's where they are. Have to be careful. Don't know what the gundam pilot will do.' He shined his lights on the tent as he descended near the suits and tent, resolved to make sure Soma was alright.

Tent in the forest clearing

Marie opened her eyes, not sure where she was. She took in her surroundings, seeing that she was lying in a large tent within a sleeping bag. She could also hear the sound of rain bouncing off the tent. It also had gotten dark so she must have been out for a while. 'Where was Allelujah?' She sat up, trying to figure out where he had gone, and just then, Allelujah entered the tent through the flaps.

He gave her a relieved smile. "Marie, I see you are awake." She gave him a soft smile, feeling happiness flow through her. It was good to be reunited with Allelujah. And even if they were weak, she could still feel his brainwaves calling to hers, giving her a feeling of completeness.

"I guess I am."

Allelujah looked at her with soft eyes, "Do you want water? You must be thirsty." Marie nodded her head and he grabbed one of the water bottles from his survival pack, tossing it to her. She caught it and took a big swig from it, feeling better immediately. Allelujah sat down, sitting cross legged, "Well I looked over both of our suits and all systems are down on both machines. I'm pretty sure neither of us can fix them. We are going to have to wait for a rescue." Marie gave him a nod in understanding. Allelujah's voice then had a curious tone, "I have a question. When did you become Soma Peries?"

Marie looked down at the sleeping bag she was in, "They must have implanted another personality to get back the senses I lost. They probably then sent me to the military in order to keep the project open."

"That must have been terrible." But to his surprise, she gave him a smile in response to that. 'After what they did to her, what could possibly have made it better?'

"Yes, but because of that I could finally see what you looked like. I knew it was you right away. I could sense your quantum brainwaves."

He blushed slightly, "Well here we are talking for the first time face to face. It's surreal." She nodded in agreement, and with a curious tone, she asked.

"What happened after you left the institute?"

Allelujah looked down at the ground, the shame and regret coming back to him. He looked into her eyes, "We were trying to avoid disposal, so my friends and I fled together. I really wanted to bring you with us, but in hindsight it was probably a good idea that I didn't."

"What happened?"

"We found a ship and managed to escape the colony in a transport ship, but we had no place to go. We just drifted in space. We ran out of food and ran low on air and Hallelujah…"

"So the other personality…" He nodded his head and she understood what he meant without needing to say it. "It must have haunted you Allelujah."

"I cursed my fate as the sole survivor and when I joined Celestial Being, I realized the only thing supersoldiers were good for is fighting, so I became a gundam meister."

"Soma thought the same way, though she got better as time went on. Did you get along with the other personality?"

He spoke in a low voice, "Not at first, but he and I came to an understanding later, but I still regret killing my friends and many of the things Hallelujah did. I do bear the responsibility of all the actions he committed, including killing our brothers and sisters."

Marie touched his arm, her voice sad, "If you are guilty of those crimes, then I am guilty of what Soma Peries did. Those two are a part of each of us." As she said that, she touched his heart for emphasis. He tried to interrupt her, but she stopped him, "I killed the other personality, killed a part of you and for that I will always be regretful." Allelujah looked down, taking in her words. A part of him wanted to reject that, to pretend that they were two separate beings, but the other half realized that would be living a lie. If she were like Hallelujah and him, then what she said was the truth.

He spoke up after a few seconds, "What do we do now? I wanted to find you ever since I found out, but now that you are here, I don't have a plan."

Marie spoke uncertainly, "I hope your friends can find us first. I don't want you to be captured again. Do you think they would accept me?"

Allelujah responded in a confident tone, "I'm certain they would. Sumeragi would probably run a background check, but I think she would have no problem."

She looked at him with eyes full of happiness, and he could feel her brainwaves surging with positive emotions, however little he could feel, "I'm so happy to have found you. We can finally be together, more than just mentally talk. I can talk with you face to face, hold you, kiss you…" She flushed slightly at that comment.

'Kiss me, huh?' He began to move in to kiss her, her doing the same. Just as both of them were about to meet, they were interrupted by a floodlight hitting the tent, contrasting sharply against the darkness of the night. Both of the super soldiers ran out the tent to see what was shining that light and they were met with the sight of a blue colored GN-X. Marie thought to herself, 'Is it the Colonel?' The hatch opened and the pilot took off his helmet, revealing himself to be Colonel Smirnov. Sergei yelled out, "Lieutenant!" Marie yelled back, "Colonel!"

Allelujah asked curiously, "Someone you know?" Sergei grabbed the hand grip on the rope to get down from the cockpit to the ground, hitting the soft, muddy ground. The voice of the man seemed familiar to him. He thought back to when he heard it and it came to him. 'He was the one when the station incident occurred five years ago. Without him, those people would have been dead.' Sergei looked at Allelujah and said, "You're that young gundam pilot from back then." Allelujah looked at him with some confusion but was surprised when Sergei drew his pistol and aimed it at him, "Move away from the lieutenant."

Marie spoke up, "Colonel! I'm not Soma. My name is Marie Parfacy. Soma was an implanted personality to give back my senses."

"So your personality was overridden by Soma's then? Why didn't you come out before?"

"Because nothing catalyzed it. I didn't know I was fighting Allelujah before."

Sergei replied with some disgust in his voice, "This is what the super human institute did you, huh?"

Marie nodded her head. Allelujah put himself in front of Marie, trying to keep her safe "Marie is a kindhearted woman. She wouldn't have agreed to become a soldier. I will never hand her back to you. If she goes back they are just going to make her fight again!" Marie looked at Allelujah in worry. She didn't want him to die either. 'What would I do without you?'

Sergei responded, a hard edge in his voice, "But you are a member of Celestial Being. Even if she goes with you she'll be drawn into the fighting!"

Allelujah stayed his ground, "I won't let that happen! You have to believe me!" Sergei felt his anger rising. 'Did he really think he could keep her out of danger and the fighting? Did this man forget all the crap Celestial Being did to the world?'

"It's too bad for you I'm not stupid enough to believe a terrorist. Because of all of the shit you did five years ago, I lost a lot of good subordinates. You think I would forget about all my anger so easily!?" Sergei cocked his pistol, ready to take out the Celestial Being pilot.

Marie stepped out from behind Allelujah, shielding him, "Please Colonel!" Allelujah stopped her and once again positioned himself in front of her. She looked at him with worried eyes, "Allelujah?"

Allelujah steeled himself and looked Sergei straight in the eye, "If you think it will keep her safe, then shoot me. Just promise you'll keep Marie and Soma out of any future fighting." Sergei narrowed his eyes. 'This man really believes that's possible. I'm not even sure I have the power to do that.' Behind him, Marie gasped quietly. 'I don't want to go back there. I want to stay with you!'

Marie spoke with fear and anxiety "Allelujah, what are you doing?"

Allelujah spoke with certainty in his voice, "It's alright Marie." Sergei watched the scene with interest as the two continued to talk. Regardless how he felt about Celestial Being, he could see the love and affection between the two. It reminded Sergei of the relationship with his wife. He would have done the same for his wife. There was no way the Federation and A-Laws wouldn't put her into service again.

Allelujah took a step forward, "Please shoot me."

Sergei took solid aim at Allelujah, "Request acknowledged." Allelujah kept his eyes open, keeping eye contact with the Colonel. Just as Sergei was about to fire, he saw Marie dive in front of Allelujah. Allelujah looked down in surprise as she did that, time almost crawling to a stop in his head. He yelled out to her, praying that the shot missed. 'Please not her!' Allelujah heard a gunshot. Marie hit the ground, getting splattered in mud. Allelujah rushed down to check on her, desperately hoping she wasn't hit, but noticed that the Colonel's gun was pointed in the air, smoke still coming from the barrel. He looked at Sergei in confusion, Marie the same from the ground seeing that there wasn't a bullet hole in her. Sergei in an even tone then said, "Just now, Lieutenant Soma Peries died an honorable death in battle. Now, I'll return the news to my superiors." He turned around and began to walk back towards his mobile suit.

Marie stood up, appreciating that both her and Allelujah were alive, but confused by the fact they were. It then struck her. 'The Colonel just wanted to keep me safe.' She raised her voice a bit, "Colonel…"

Sergei replied, not even turning around, "I never did thank you. Five years ago during the accident at the low orbital station. I want to thank you for your participation in saving those people." Sergei then gave him a nod of respect.

Soma spoke up, her voice choked with emotion, "Colonel, you only ever sent me on anti-gundam operations. For that and not sending me on any other fighting, I wanted to thank you."

Sergei put on a sad smile, "Now I'm absolutely positive you aren't Soma that I knew."

"And the Soma part of me wanted you to know. More than anything, I wanted to be your daughter." Sergei turned around, looking at her with that sad smile.

"Those words are more than enough for me." Marie was overwhelmed by emotion and ran to the Colonel, wrapping her arms around him. Tears began to fall down her cheeks. Sergei reciprocated, resting one hand against her upper back and the other against the back of her head. "Keep on living and find happiness with him." They broke the hug after a few seconds. She looked up at him and gave him a salute.

"Thank you for everything Colonel." He replied with his own and turned around to go to his mobile suit again. She maintained her salute as Sergei enter the cockpit of his mobile suit. He then took off, one thought going through his head, 'I hope I can see her at least one last time.'

Allelujah came up behind Marie as the suit faded into the night, grabbed her saluting had and resting it against the side of her head while his other hand intertwined their fingers in the non-saluting hand. He closed his eyes and spoke quietly, "Thank you for being alive and giving me a reason to fight. A reason to live." The two basked in the atmosphere, quietly sending thanks to God for letting this happen. Marie then turned around and looked up at him, happiness shining in her eyes.

"Now about that kiss?" Allelujah gave her a smile and pulled her in for a passionate kiss, the world fading as they focused on what was more important than anything else. Each other.

In the Cheridum

Lockon had been searching for the past few hours but had had no luck. 'Where could he have crashed? It's not hard to find a crash site normally' He was caught by surprise seeing a mobile suit on his radar. He kept his gun raised, just in case they tried to attack. As he got closer to the radar blip, he was surprised to see a regular forces mobile suit. The other mobile suit saw the rifle aimed at it and it raised its hands, showing it meant no harm. 'Well that's good.' He also saw it look like it was sending a message to him and he saw some coordinated pop up on his HUD, showing the signal of an Ahead and the Arios. He spoke in confusion to himself, "Why?" The other suit just flew off, heading back to its home base.

Lockon flew towards the coordinates and spotted the clearing. He zoomed in on the area and to his surprise, he saw Allelujah making out with a white-haired girl. He sighed in exasperation.

"What the hell? We've been looking for him and he's been out here with some girl."

Bridge of the Ptolemaios

As the bridge crew waited for results from Tieria and Lockon, Mileina suddenly saw a message appear from the Cheridum. She relayed it over the shipboard comms.

"It appears Lockon has been able to locate Allelujah."

Sumeragi sighed in relief, "This is good news". 'I didn't lose another one of the people under my command.'

Mileina piped up again, with a scandalized look on her face, "It seems that Mr. Haptism has found a girlfriend." The bridge crew was all thrown by that. Feldt blushed and yelled, "How did that happen?" Lasse asked shocked, "He got a girlfriend?" Sumergai yelled out in frustration, "What the hell does that boy think he's doing?"

In the Hanger of the Ptolemaios

Saji and Setsuna were going over final system checks in the 00 as the announcement they had found Allelujah was said. Setsuna smiled, happy he didn't lose another friend to this fight. Saji noticed him smile, "Look at that. You're smiling."

Setsuna replied back happily, "Anyone can smile if you give them something to be happy about." Setsuna's thoughts briefly paused when he realized he had only begun to smile when he thought about Feldt, confused to what that might mean. Both men went back to the system checks when the info about the girlfriend came over the Comms. Saji looked away for a second, Louise's face passing through his mind. He hoped she was doing ok.

Author's Note Two

Let the ship begin! Look at these oblivious children. I suppose I can go over my feelings on this romance. I will fully admit that I am biased to this romance and it will get the most screentime. Just wanted to give you guys a heads up. And funny enough I didn't really support it till my second watching of the show. I liked the dynamic, which I will mention in more detail later on, and found it cute. A few fanfictions I read made me really like the ship, though one of those is now gone. That was probably my primary motivation. I haven't read any of them recently, especially after I started writing, but if any scenes are similar, it's not intentional on my part. I will freely admit they inspired me and stuck around in my head, so credit to them if you notice a similarity.

But one of my friends brought up a good point. They had very little canon interaction, with one scene in each season with maybe squinting moments in season 2. There is the movie but that's a whole other beast. So, like I said in chapter 1, this fic began as an outline for Feldt/Sestuna moments I could insert into canon without disrupting the plot. Just enough to give in more support in the story. And then the plan changed when this turned from an outline of what I would change to an actual story, which I will say what the change is when it comes up.

But I hope you liked the first bite of the romance. There is more coming, so don't worry. See you guys next chapter! And just for ease in the future, Marie and Allelujah are the primary personalities, so all different text will be of Soma and Hallelujah.