Gundam SEED: Entropy Rising

By: Shadow Chaser

Previously on Gundam SEED: Entropy Rising…

"I sneaked aboard," Lacus smiled as if it was a simple answer, "the locks aboard the Babylon aren't that secure."

For Yzak Joule, he had become a spy to prevent something like what the Talon was doing. He did it to help redeem his own conscience that had been in turmoil, to help others, and to finally see some peace.

"We've have some unfinished business Athrun Zala."

"Just tell me this, who are you and why does the Talon want to destroy the peace?".

"I am Griever and as for why the Talon want to take peace away? You of all people should know why; take a look at what your father did and tell me then why should we not have our revenge against ZAFT and OMNI."

Suddenly the pressure on him was released and he looked up to see a rouge colored suit crashing against the mirage colloid suit, sending it hard down into the water.

"Watch your own back bitch," Cagalli's voice broadcasted over the battle comm. System and Athrun stared at the Strike Rouge, shocked.

"Cagalli…" he whispered.

Phase Twelve – Return to the Battlefield II

Kira looked around the empty house that Cagalli lived in. He hadn't seen his sister for at least a couple of days since their fight. He knew that usually by now, she would have already talked to him, but she hadn't even responded to his calls on her cell or to her governmental office. Even Kisaka wasn't available. More so, when he tried to reach Lacus, she was oddly not available… Haruka had gone home the day before, Taylor wasn't responding to his calls…

"Good day, Mr. Yamato. Do you need anything?" Cagalli's butler approached him.

"Uh…no, but where's Cagalli?"

"She has gone out of the country for some business. She left this for you," the butler handed him a folded note with her loopy handwriting.

"Out of the country?" Kira asked. That was odd…in Cagalli's condition; he knew that she wouldn't leave the country…

"Yes sir," the butler said before walking away to attend to whatever other business he had.

Kira stared at the note, a sense of déjà vu overcoming him as it was the same thing as what Athrun did. With a slight start, he realized what Cagalli did… 'out of the country'. "She did not," he whispered to himself as he opened the note and read it contents. It was short and to the point. Cagalli had left for the battlefield like Athrun did. He didn't know where Lacus was…

For the first time in his whole life, Kira had never felt so abandoned and alone. As he curled up and sank to the floor, tears starting to fall out of his eyes, he realized that he had driven everyone that he loved and loved him away. He pushed away his parents, no matter the fact that they adopted him as their son; he pushed away Cagalli, he pushed away his best friend Athrun, and most of all, he pushed away Lacus by not even going to her for consolation.

Everyone left him because he was too consumed in the fact that he thought the world revolved around him. He didn't realize that his friends were trying to help him out of the shell he had built around him. Haruka and Taylor had cracked the shell further after the war, but it had been built again with the appearance of his look-alike…

Athrun, Cagalli, his parents, and Lacus had tried to break the shell again, but with each of their attempts he hid further from them, until he had retreated too much to drive them away. Fear was what had gripped him – fear of what would happen if he let himself be open and vulnerable to them…he feared for them, for himself, for the unknown future.

But the future was what Athrun and Cagalli had in mind. What Lacus, his soul mate had. They understood that peace had to be fought for, with words and with weaponry like the Justice and the Strike Rouge.

A sudden thought occurred to him as he folded up his sister's letter, pocketing it. There was only one place where Athrun was able to hide the Justice in complete secrecy, even from Cagalli. Morganroete.

He dashed upstairs and burst into his room, running to the corner where he had tossed Athrun's letter and I.D. card to the side days ago in his fit of uncontrollable anger and uncrumpled the letter. Scanning it quickly his eyes focused on Erica Simmons' name. She would have known about Justice and helped Athrun built it…

Holding the I.D. card up, Kira gripped it tightly before making a decision…

He refolded Athrun's letter and pocketed it with Cagalli's before he dashed down the stairs and out the door, Tori following him. Running to where Athrun's car was parked underneath the shade of a few trees, he opened the door and pulled down the visor, a wry grin forming on his face as the keys fell to his lap.

Turning on the ignition, he quickly shifted to first gear and sped off, leaving a cloud of dust and pebbles in his wake. He knew the way to the former Morganroete building and hopefully would be able to find Erica to ask her what he had a hunch on.

As Kira sped away, Cagalli's butler watched, a wistful smile on his face. He picked up the phone and dialed a number. After a few seconds, the line on the other end was picked up and he spoke into it in a calm voice.

"He's on his way. You can meet him down in the sublevels."

"Watch your own back bitch," Cagalli said in a dark voice as she kicked the mirage-colloid suit in the back, sending it down into the water. She hovered next to the Justice and opened up a private comm. channel to Athrun, smiling as she saw that he wasn't injured or anything.

"Cagalli…" Athrun looked shocked and she grinned.

"Surprised?"

"What…are you doing here?" Athrun asked, a frown forming on his face, "you shouldn't be here-"

"Save it," she replied, cutting him off as she wiped the grin off of her face, "you looked like you could use some help so I gave it."

"Thanks, but-"

"Athrun, I took your letter to heart, but I can't just sit around doing nothing. You know me. I'd rather fight than sit in front of so many council members, trying to decide a political way out of this whole stupid thing," she explained.

Suddenly she swerved to the left as two beams of green shot between them and she switched her comm. to audio only before she fired back down in the water. Moments later, the mirage-colloid suit exploded out of the water and she finally got a good read on the suit. It labeled itself on her tactical screen as the Claw…

Inwardly she wrinkled her nose at such a name – it was the stupidest name anyone could name Gundam… Whoever built it was an idiot.

"How dare you?!" the pilot of the Claw suddenly exploded on her comm. and Cagalli pulled out one of her two beam sabers. The Strike Rouge was essentially Strike Gundam in Aile mode – with all of its weaponry on hand.

Activating it she parried a blow towards her midsection before she countered, swiping at the Claw. Both Gundams danced in the air as they charged at each other, neither one giving ground to another. Cagalli narrowed her eyes as she tried to predict the other pilot's movements. She was extremely fast…

Suddenly she dove to the ground as Athrun came up behind her, his beam rifle blazing. She twisted and headed back up, underneath the Claw's feet, and also shot at the mobile suit. The Claw panicked and swerved to avoid both attacks. Cagalli grimly smiled as she chased after the mobile suit. A sudden proximity warning made her swerve to her left and she hovered in the air, facing the mobile suit that read Liberty on her sensors.

"Greetings, Princess Cagalli. I did not expect to see you in battle. This would be a boon if you were to die," the chilling voice of Kira made her freeze, but she shook her head, trying to convince her numbed brain that it wasn't Kira, it was his look-alike – the one who tried to kill her.

"I'm not dying today," she said just as the Justice flew up next to her, hovering protectively. The Claw joined the Liberty on the other side, two against two…

Kanoko Yamato braced herself against the bulkhead of the room she and her husband had stowed away in as another rocking explosion hit the Babylon. She stared at her husband who grimly held onto a railing on another bulkhead. "We can't sit here and do nothing!" she half-yelled at him through the alarms that started blaring throughout the ship.

"I know!" he replied loudly, "but what the hell do you want me to do?"

"Sooner or later they're going to find out we're here. We can't just sit here."

"Yeah," her husband pushed himself off of the bulkhead and Kanoko noticed that there was a look in his eyes that she had only seen twice. Once was when he discovered the true purpose of her running away with Kira, the other, was when he swore that he would protect her and Kira with his own life after betraying his employers so many years ago. That look was now back – and while it reminded Kanoko of the past, it also made her very afraid.

"You remember what I taught you?" he asked.

"Point, shoot, and don't let go," Kanoko half-joked, remembering that when Keiji became her husband, he had taught her the rudimentary basics of firing a gun, in case anything happened to them that had to have her protect Kira on her own.

"That's a good girl," he grinned at her as they left the room they had hidden themselves in and headed into the alarm-blaring hallways. She followed Keiji as he headed up to the control deck, to help Kisaka and the Babylon. They occasionally held to the walls as explosions shuddered throughout the warship, making their steps uneven. Finally, they reached the bridge.

Keiji opened the door and Kanoko's eyes widened as she saw what was going on. What surprised her was finding the long distinctive pink hair of Lacus sitting in a command chair behind Kisaka, who was yelling to his crewmen to get missiles online. She glanced to her left and saw that the communications chair in the command center of the bridge was empty, along with some blood that indicated that the console probably electrocuted its previous occupant when a nasty hit made it overload.

She bit her lip and headed towards the console, while she noticed that Keiji headed towards a firing control station in the front. Putting on the headset, she tapped into the battle network comm. system. She wasn't really experienced with any of the controls, but she had spent a lot of time going over computer systems, and based on what she saw at first glance, they were similar.

"Keiji…what the-" she heard Kisaka say before she turned up the volume on the headset, and switched frequencies.

She touched a few more buttons and a battle data overlay appeared on her side screen, showing her yellow for allies, red for enemies. There was a lot more red than what she had expected. The triangles of yellow indicated the Gundams Justice, Strike Rouge, and Buster and they were surrounded by red triangles that said Claw and Liberty.

Kanoko didn't know too much about tactics, but she did know that the Babylon was suffering a lot of damage. Suddenly she noticed a new red triangle headed towards their way. "Strike Rouge, fall back to defensive position. We've got a new mobile suit on approach," she keyed the comm. to Cagalli's mobile suit.

"Who's this?" was the confused reply, but Kanoko noticed that she was moving towards them.

"It's Kanoko Yamato, Cagalli," she replied.

"Mrs. Yamato?!" Cagalli's face appeared on the corner of another screen and she barely kept a smile off of her face to see such a shocked expression on her face.

"Yes dear. We can talk about it later though. The new suit's called the Corsair and its specs are unknown."

"Oh great," Cagalli groused.

"Doesn't look that tough," this time a boy with blond hair and sharp purple eyes that contrasted his tanned face appeared beneath Cagalli's. Kanoko realized that this was Dearka Elsman, the boy Athrun had told her about.

"We've also got missiles on approach. We'll draw them off, but watch for friendly fire," Kanoko interrupted them.

"Aye ma'am," Dearka replied before clicking the comm. off.

She hoped that the battle ended soon. At the rate, both sides were in practical stalemate…and they were losing a lot of good men and women.

Athrun knew that he could handle two mobile suits at once; it was just the matter of what the hell each was going to do. He watched the Claw and Liberty carefully. Let them make the first move…then he would be able to move defensively. He knew he had to finish them quickly, the Babylon, Eternal, and Archangel were suffering heavy damage with each second he was wasting time with these guys.

Suddenly the Claw charged at him, twirling its beam saber in its hand. Athrun braced himself as he hovered defensively. His eyes darted to the right as the Liberty flew to his left, to outflank him from behind. Moving to his right, he blocked a blow from the Liberty before reach out and firing a few shots at the Claw.

The beam rifle's ammo did nothing to even stop the Claw. Athrun was about to activate his other beam saber to throw at the Claw when a blur of blue-gray knocked the Claw far away where it started to tumble to the ground, only activating its thrusters at the last minute from slamming into the ocean again.

"Sorry I took so long. Bit of a mess in the Retribution," Yzak's voice came over the comm., audio only and just as he finished a huge explosion over took one of the Talon's warships that was in the ocean, and Athrun shielded his eyes from the glare.

The Duel Gundam hovered in front of him and Athrun could almost imagine a smirk on the Gundam's face if it had the ability to do so. A few seconds later, flares of retreat flew up from another ship of the Talon forces, and Athrun turned slightly to see both the Claw and Liberty hesitating before they reluctantly turned tail and headed away, back out to sea.

Athrun realized that the battle was over…they had won to keep Panama safe…but there was also numerous casualties and wounded. They had won, but he knew that the Talon wasn't going to stop until many more were dead. This was only the first round…

The late afternoon sunset brought relief as a cool breeze blew over the remaining warships in Panama, some trying to salvage heavily damaged ships and crew, while others were making quick repairs to the other ships that were still able to function. The OMNI forces had even offered the repair the ships of the Liberation Forces and with Princess Cagalli there, no one could refuse. Though Captain Andy Bartfield didn't like OMNI crews running all over what was technically a ZAFT ship, he still didn't refuse help in repairs were it was needed.

Both OMNI and LF knew that another attack was inevitable, but they also knew that the Talon had been hit hard and were regrouping, as the one of the main ships that blew up was one of their two flagships, the Retribution. That had been a morale boost for OMNI and some LF personnel.

That was also why the three LF ships and its command crews were having a meeting, their seconds overseeing the repairs. Athrun folded his arms across his chest as he stood next to Cagalli, watching Yzak as he brought up a tactical screen from all the information he had gathered in the two years he had been in the Talon. Yzak never struck Athrun as the type to join anything except for ZAFT, which made him realize that he had never really known the fiery white-haired teen. What he did know was that Yzak had changed a lot since the beginning of the war when they both graduated along with Nicol and Dearka at the top of their class for ZAFT.

Apparently, based on what Yzak said, he had joined the LF's Clyne Faction, a secret force of just a few people who were completely loyal to Lacus, and provided her with valuable information that she passed along to Cagalli and Eileen Canaver. Unfortunately, his assignment in the Talon prevented information from being passed and he had been captured after sending a hasty message to them warning them that Panama was next on the Talon's list.

"Their leader's a Coordinator by the name of Sven Anderson," Yzak started, bringing up a striking man's picture on the projection. Athrun faintly recognized the man from somewhere, but he couldn't really place it.

"He looks familiar," Dearka suddenly voiced and Yzak nodded.

"He should. A prominent political figure back when we were all children, he fell out of favor as the radical group when Eileen Canaver and Siegel Clyne brought up their moderate faction to rise in the Supreme Council. He was head of military operations until Patrick Zala, Herman Gould, and my mother Ezalia took over the National Defense Committee.

"As far as I gathered, he only has a few warships under his command, but they're the latest in models, because of his charisma in spreading to those that weren't happy with the outcome of the war to join his side. Ironically, he united a few of the Naturals and Coordinators that joined him, with at least two of his warship commanders being Naturals."

"That's why there were both ZAFT suits and OMNI Strike Daggers there," Captain Ramius murmured from her side of the room.

"Right now, the bulk of their fleet in here, trying to take Panama over. The rest are located at their base, the L4 region, Colony Mendel," Yzak said and Athrun froze slightly at Yzak's words, his hand finding Cagalli's giving it a brief squeeze to keep her fears at bay.

That was where what everything happened in Kira's past…where Rau had revealed to his best friend his origins…where the experimentations went on. It was where Griever had to have been created…and most likely by Sven Anderson. But the question was how? Were the samples at Mendel not totally erased as Kira's mother had said? If not, then they had to go to Mendel and destroy the Talon and the samples once and for all.

"Mendel, but it was abandoned," Andy Bartfield started, confused.

Yzak nodded, "It was, but Anderson found use for it. He found some of the leftover experiments and tried to recreate those experiments again."

"Experiments?!" Murrue looked horrified as did some of the people around her, like Miri and Sai.

"Genetic experiments that occurred long ago and was abandoned by some explosion. Anderson was trying to create some kind of controlling agent program that he could use to infiltrate the highest levels of any of the governments, in all of PLANT, Earth, and Orb. That was why he was successful when he launched his first campaigns," Yzak suddenly looked at Cagalli in a solemn stare, "I apologize, Princess, that I wasn't able to warn you of the traitor in your government's midst." He also turned to Lacus, "I also apologize Miss Lacus that I wasn't able to inform Senator Amalfi or you of Amalfi's aide being the spy in the midst."

"None needed, Yzak," Lacus replied and Athrun turned slightly to see Cagalli nod, but she didn't say anything.

"So what about those Gundams?" Andy turned the conversation back to finding out more information.

"They are the Claw, Liberty, and Corsair. Their plans were actually created just before the war was over. Like the five original Gundams the Earth had built in the second year of the war, these were to be completed along with Justice and Freedom to improve on the five that were supposed to be captured."

The realization that his late father had completed three more plans to build more Gundams after Justice and Freedom made Athrun appreciate the fact that Yzak did not mention his name. He also realized that the plans probably had fallen into his father's supporters hands as soon as his father took command of the Genesis Project. But there was still another question he had to ask.

"Are they equipped with N-Jammer Cancellers?" he asked Yzak.

"No. Those plans were created by Senator Amalfi. The man stored his plans in a safe place," Yzak replied and Athrun nodded in relief. That was good news. At least no PLANT or place on Earth was going to blow up soon and have nuclear fallout for the next hundred years.

"So what the hell do we do now?" someone, a senior officer aboard one of the three warships asked.

"Captain Lya Matato is Fleet Commander of the Talon. She won't give up until Panama falls or everyone's dead. It's a good thing to say that there will be another attack soon."

Kira rushed out of the elevator door as soon as it opened. Though he had not been in the lower levels of the former Morganroete building in a long time, he still retained the memory of it and he looked around the darkened observation room where he had worked with Erica Simmons to improve the Astray Mark I models. It was dark…quiet…as if everyone had abandoned the place to go somewhere else.

He skidded to a stop, catching his breath as he looked around. He had gotten past the security checkpoint and parked the car, no one stopping him as he ran in and into the elevators. Where the heck was Erica?

He wanted to ask her if since Athrun rebuilt the Justice, had Freedom also been rebuilt? He didn't know if he wanted to fight, but he wanted to know that much for now. "Erica?" he called out.

There was no answer.

He walked forward a bit. "Erica?" he tried again.

"She's gone, Kira," a new voice that he didn't recognize spoke from the relative darkness and Kira jumped slightly, cursing silently that he didn't have a weapon on him. He turned around warily until someone flicked on the lights to the observation room, making him wince slightly and shield his eyes against the sudden glare. As his eyes adjusted to the sudden brightness, he saw near the observation windows that looked out into a darkened training field, a man with graying hair dressed in an immaculate suit.

"I was supposed to meet you in the sub-levels, but I decided that here is a good place," the man said without turning around, still staring out into the darkened field. There was something in the field, an indistinct shape that Kira couldn't make out.

He took a step forward, his body tense as he sensed that the man couldn't really harm him, but he didn't want to take the chance. Too many coincidences happened too fast, and he didn't want to risk anything else.

"Who are you?" he asked.

The man turned and Kira stopped dead in his tracks, his eyes wide with surprise and shock. A sad, tired smile was on the man's face, but there was no mistaking who he was…

"S-Senator Amalfi," Kira whispered.

"Hello Kira Yamato," Amalfi greeted gently, "we've never met, but I do want to ease a fear that I know that has been gnawing your mind for a long time. I know you killed my son Nicol, during the war-"

Kira flinched; unbidden memories of what he did in the Strike back in the war coming up.

"-but I do not blame you one bit for what has happened," Amalfi continued before walking forward, his hands clasped in front.

"S-Sir…" Kira started, but he couldn't finish whatever he was going to say as he saw the pain in the Senator's eyes. He looked down, tears starting to burn his eyes as he clenched a fist, unable to do anything.

Amalfi's hand on his shoulder made him jerk up to see the middle-aged Senator smiling down at him. "Please, Kira, don't worry. It was war…and my son knew the risks just as well as you did. He was doing what you were doing, protecting his friends just like you did."

"Yes but…"

"Athrun told me what happened and I don't blame you. I never did. My wife never did. All we knew was that the war had to end…that was why I created the N-Jammer Cancellers on your Freedom and Athrun's Justice," Kira looked up to see Amalfi's eyes take on a faraway look, "I was foolish back then. I thought I could end the war with nuclear weapons. A revenge of sorts for those that sent nuclear weapons into Junius 7. I wanted to stop the senseless deaths of so many younger men and women like you who were fighting at such a young age. I didn't want anymore parents to go through what I and my wife did."

"I'm…sorry," Kira looked down, finding a spot on the ground that seemed friendly enough to warrant his attention.

Amalfi squeezed his shoulder once, making him look back up at him, "Sorry for what? You tried to keep the peace. You realized during your battle that war was horrific and ugly and that was why you took Freedom. You wanted peace like I did. Except you used Freedom in the way I couldn't have seen back then. You were the one to do the right thing…not me…"

"But now…with Lacus…the attacks…Cagalli…"

"I was a fool once more. I let myself be goaded into thinking that I was able to keep the peace," Amalfi had a saddened look on his face, "I blamed myself, but Lacus…she told me that I had to stand strong. You, are also able to do that."

The lights to the darkened training ground suddenly came on and Kira stared in shock, Freedom's face staring at a point on the opposite side of the training room. So Athrun did rebuild the Freedom too…

"You help bring peace, but now, the peace has been threatened. Lacus has gone off to fight. Athrun's gone off to fight. Cagalli's gone off to fight…will you do the same?"

Kira hesitated, thinking back to what he had been doing since the war. He didn't want to fight, didn't want to kill again, but then again…had he killed at all when he was in the Freedom? Not at all. He had only disabled the mobile suits he had fought with. Rau Le Creuset was ultimately destroyed by Genesis' firing mechanism… He had never killed anyone in the Freedom…

"But even as a soldier, you don't have to kill…"

"Which is why I'm not…unless it is absolutely necessary."

Kira remembered what Athrun had said when he had left in Justice and realized that he had been moping around for the last few days, his family and friends had been trying to do something to stop this new threat. He had to be strong to help them. He couldn't let the peace that he had worked so hard for be wiped away by this new threat. If it meant that he had to pilot the Freedom Gundam again, then he would do so.

"Thank you Senator Amalfi," he looked up in Amalfi's eyes, a new determination in them.

Minutes later, Kira was suited up in his customary blue-white flight suit, helmet secured in place. His fingers flew over the Freedom's pads, noting with a smile that Athrun had calibrated most of its systems, leaving very little for him to improve on. As he activated the three main screens, he saw in the distance, Senator Amalfi, staring at him, a salute to his head.

Smiling in response, even though he knew Amalfi wouldn't be able to see it, he stepped onto the flyer with enough fuel to get him to Panama and locked his Gundam in place. Activating the comm. system, he took a deep breath and let it out slowly.

"Kira Yamato, Freedom, launching!"

The Freedom Gundam launched straight up with help from its vernier packs and flyer booster packs and soared out into the clear blue Orb skies, headed towards Panama where the current battleground was.