Chapter 16: Kira Yamato
"Who the hell is he Shiro?" Amura wondered defensively as he edged forward slightly.
"Kira... Yamato... How?!" Shiro muttered in disbelief.
"Who the hell is Kira Yamato?!" Amura wondered again.
"YOU! I know who you are!" Mori screeched pointing. "Akiko has books on you! You're the Coordinator who fought against ZAFT!"
"What... What's going on I don't understand." Kira muttered looking at the floor past the girl he held.
"The year is Cosmic Era 160..." Akiko muttered and Kira's eyes shot open wide. "You've been frozen for almost 90 years..." He slumped to his knees and dropped her on the floor. She rolled from her side to all fours and pulled herself to a sitting position using the wall. "I found you and unfroze you... Don't you remember again?" She wondered looking at the boy.
"Sai... Miliaria... Kazui... Frey..." He gasped quietly as tears welled up in his eyes.
"It's ok Kira... I'll... I'll take care of things..." Akiko gasped weakly then slumped over unconscious.
"Mori do you know anything about this?!" Shiro wondered yanking Mori close to him by the shirt with one hand and flailing the other in Akiko and Kira's direction. Mori looked at him scared and Amura yanked her away. "WELL?!" He shouted.
"They were frozen!" She blurted suddenly and looked at Kira who was looking at her with helpless desperation. "The Coordinators that the Revolution Prevention Agency used to create the Naturalized Coordinators from were frozen in case they needed them later!" She shouted emotionally. "He must be one of the 'origins' as Akiko liked to call them."
"What... I don't understand..." Kira muttered.
"Is that all you know?" Shiro hissed.
"I can't tell you! I'm not supposed to I promised!" Mori shouted at him angrily and Amura held her back. She broke loose and ran over to Akiko and picked up her head. "Where did you find her Mister Yamato?" She wondered gently as she looked at him teary eyed. "Oh she's so cold!"
"She must have stayed in the Cryogenics room where se found Kira waiting for him to unthaw!" Amura gasped running over and grabbing her and running off towards the stairs. Mori followed as fast as she could and left Shiro standing in the hall staring at Kira contemptuously. Shiro held one hand at him and made a shooting motion that shocked Kira then walked away. Kira sat there too confused to do anything right away. Finally he pounded his fist into the floor and stood up.
"Someone who understands..." He muttered but was unsure why. He leaned against his arm on the wall trying to figure out what was going on. "Follow the red arrows." He repeated as he traced his finger over one. "To where?"
Akiko shot out of her bed in the sick room. It was late and the only one left in the room was a sound asleep Mori. She flew up and ran out of the room and to their own. She ripped off the hospital gown and threw on a t-shirt and jeans before bolting down a hallway and to the basement. "Why am I going back down here? He's not going to be down here still is he?" She thought as she slid to a stop at the bottom of the stairs and looked around. Her chest heaved a bit as she stared at the illuminated corridors ahead of her. She shook her head and took off running trying to decide where he might be if he were down here. "THE RECORDS ROOM!" She exclaimed as she ran and headed that way. Sure enough there he was passed out over the console with his head rested on one hand and the other hanging limply at his side. She slowly and quietly approached him and reached one hand out for his shoulder. Just as she was about to set it down he flew up and threw her down to the floor in one motion. She looked on wide-eyed as he threw his hand back and prepared to punch her somewhere in the midsection. Suddenly his resolute features eased and he slumped back looking at her heaving and scared.
"Sorry..." He muttered as his head dropped.
"You really are Kira Yamato... Right?" Akiko wondered as she slid up to a sitting position.
"I don't know who or what I am anymore." He whispered in reply.
"How far did you get?" She asked motioning to the monitor passed his head.
"Most of it... Enough to understand things now... Enough to know they used me to create whole generations of Coordinators that were probably picked on, teased, and then subjugated to the will of this Organization." He answered painfully and angrily as he looked up at her with sympathetic eyes.
"I'm a Natural." She replied knowing why he was giving her that look. My parents were a Naturalized Coordinator and a Natural... By luck of the draw that's what I got... But that doesn't really matter I'm stuck here trying to avenge their deaths." She said indifferently as she stood up and went over to her bag that still sat next to the console. "Hungry?" She wondered as she dug out a small clear box with a packed lunch in it. She offered it to him with a fork and a napkin and he took it slowly.
"So what do you know about me?" Kira wondered as she sat back down in front of him and sat two water bottles on the floor. She pulled the lid to the container off for him and sat it on the ground.
"I know quite a bit. Mostly that your friends really admired you and that you are an incredible fighter with a good heart. It must have been really hard for you dealing with all that..."She replied sadly looking t the floor. Kira tensed up when she mentioned his friends. "Everyone of them wrote such wonderful things about you in their books after you disappeared. Well except Frey... What a bitch..." She added the last sentence quickly and angrily; Kira didn't say anything but slowly ate the contents of the container.
"Are you feeling all right?" He asked finally as he looked up at her. She was leaning back on her hands and looking at the ceiling.
"Yes and no..." She replied bluntly. "But thanks for helping me." She added looking at him again.
"Why did you wake me up?" He asked sitting the container down and looking at her intensely. She stared deep into his eyes for a minute before answering slowly and in a whisper.
"I don't know... I thought you'd be someone who could understand me and how I feel..." He cocked his head to the side and looked at her strangely. "All of my life I've felt out of place and strange. My friends could never understand why I was so sympathetic, why I cared about everyone... Why I let people bully me because of my mother but never hurt them back... I couldn't... I still can't... I got into a mobile suit and went into battle a week ago and didn't kill anyone... They're sitting upstairs in a cell right now waiting to be taken back to the main colony for the RPC. I have to protect everyone Kira... But I can't and it kills me. I thought... I don't know what I thought when I looked at that huge block of ice you were in but when I touched that block I never felt so close to someone in all my life... It's crazy, you think I'm crazy... Sorry" She babbled on and on looking everywhere but at him until the very end.
"Sometimes you just feel so..." He started.
"Alone." They finished together and looked at each other wide-eyed.
"I do understand." He said quietly and sadly as he put the lid back on the container and sat it on the floor. "Even before today I've felt so..."
"Torn." She finished for him as she looked at the floor and he nodded. She looked up at him as she sat up straight and grabbed for the container. He watched and when he realized what she was doing he reached for it to hand it to her. For one instant their hands met on the sides of the container and they felt something strange. A connection, something they couldn't explain but could see in the face of the other.
"AKIKO!" Mori screamed from down one of the halls. "AKIKO PLEASE BE DOWN HERE PLEASE HURRY!"
"MORI! I'm here hold on!" She screamed in response as she bolted up. "What's wrong?"
"We're all going to die Akiko! You need to fight again!" They ran into each other at a corner. "ZAFT tricked us! They sent two forces to wipe out both colonies. They sent one to Starshine first and made Captain Entrada pull away from here with the Michael to defend it! Now they're on their way here too!" Mori gushed crying.
"It'll be ok Mori I'll take care of you. Remember the signal?" Mori nodded. "Remember how to operate the mobile suit controls?" She nodded again. "All right then take Kira and get ready to go." Mori nodded a third time and Akiko took off running leaving Kira standing in the doorway to the records room and Mori in the hall. Mori ran over and grabbed his hand and dragged him along toward the stairs.
"Everything's going to be ok now that Akiko's going to fight!" She beamed happily. Kira started running faster and got to where he was dragging her along.
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"Now remember these people aren't like you and me! They sympathize with the Naturals! They may even try to protect them! They are a threat to our freedom and survival! Tonight we attack their pre-emptive strike force headquarters and wipe it out! That is our objective and our only goal! Get them before they get us or our families! Now let's go!" The leader of the ZAFT space brigade shouted before pulling his helmet over his head. His subordinates let out a cheer before boarding their mobile Jins.