Disclaimer: Gundam Seed Destiny is the intellectual property of Mitsuo Fukuda, and Chiaki Morosawa.
Everything was silent, and almost perfectly still. A mere hour ago, this vast black silence, was lit up by hundreds of explosions, and the flash of beam weapons. Now it was dark again, mostly.
As Lunamaria maneuvered her Zaku around the melted, and warped wreckage of a Dagger L, her blue eyes were fixed on two bright points, set against the backdrop of the stars, and hulking wrecks of hundreds of ships, and mobile suits.
One of these points was Shinn, and the other was the renegade Mobile Suit the ZGMF X-10A Freedom. The fight between these two pilots had been going on for nearly half an hour now, according to the Zaku's chronometer. Lunamaria bit her lip. The truth was she was worried. After she had gotten over her schoolgirl crush on Athrun Zala, she had realized, bit-by-bit, that she had feelings for the hotheaded Impulse pilot. Throughout, the last year, and the renewed war with the Earth Alliance, she had grown to care for Shinn a great deal. They had after all, trained, and graduated together, they had fought together, and they had survived together, when everyone around them was dying. In short, the brash coordinater had become a very integral part of her life. She had lost count of the times he had almost got himself killed, and by extension almost scared her to death, but he had always prevailed, and returned alive.
However, she wasn't sure this time. Shinn was too consumed with his own hatred of the mobile suit that had caused the death of his family. His movements were too reckless, his fighting style too inefficient. And the pilot of the Freedom, whoever he or she was, was good, very good. It was plain to see that he was keeping his cool, initially seemingly content with parrying Shinn's attacks. However, as time passed the Freedom became more focused, it began to make use of its impressive arsenal. As a result, Shinn had already lost both the legs from his mobile suit, and all of his weapons, except for a pair of beam sabers. He had however managed to inflict some damage to the Freedom, as he had destroyed both of the shoulder-mounted beam cannons, and one of its thrusters. If he had been more careful, he could've kept his suit intact, but the sheer ferocity, and recklessness of his attacks, was the only thing keeping his opponent off balance, at the moment.
As Shinn let off a string off obscenities through the open intercom, it was the fifteenth time during the fight that he had done so, the Freedom dove and delivered a mighty kick to him, knocking him backwards and against the wreckage of a Nazca class ship. Shinn was knocked around, but the restraints kept him in the pilot's chair. As he thudded to a stop against the hulking green ship, Shinn shook his head, in a vain attempt to clear it. Offering a quick thank you to the inventor of the flight helmet, he quickly scanned around the battlefield, to find nothing.
"What? Where did he go?" Shinn's query was quickly answered by the proximity alert. He turned his head to find the Freedom deploying its hip mounted Rail Cannons, and beam rifle. Shinn managed to raise his shield in time to block the beam shot, and one of the Rail Cannons, the other rail shot impacted harmlessly against his mobile suit's Phase Shift armour. Shinn engaged his thrusters, and turned around and ran, while dodging shots from the Freedom, and attempted to put some distance between himself, and his foe.
"Shit, this is bad." Things were not looking good, his opponent was by far the best pilot that he had ever faced, and Shinn was beginning to doubt that he would survive this encounter. He had to find a way to turn the tables on the Freedom, if he was going to win. Keeping one eye on his opponent, Shinn typed a few quick commands into cockpit keyboard. Shinn over-rided the computer's protesting safety protocols, and re-routed power from the non-existent legs, straight to his Mobile Suit's thrusters. He wheeled around and approached the Freedom, being careful not to give up his new advantage.
The Freedom responded with a volley of shots, but Shinn managed to dodge or block them all. When he closed to within 20 meters, Shinn kicked in his now super-charged thrusters and flew at his opponent, with reckless abandon, and his beam saber raised over the mobile suit's half-destroyed head. He threw his beam saber at the Freedom, and reached to his mobile suit's hip, to retrieve and ignite the other.
The rogue mobile suit seemed to be taken aback with the sudden burst in speed, but it quickly recovered. Freedom's pilot responded by raising his shield, with the beam rifle protruding out of the hole, in the side of the shield. He blocked the thrown beam saber, and fired off a series of shots with the rifle. Shinn blocked the beam shots with his shield, and closed the remaining distance between himself, and the Freedom. The pilot attempted another shot, but Shinn shoved the tip of his saber down the barrel, destroying the rifle, and damaging the hand the process. The Freedom retreated a short distance, and the pilot discarded the melted beam rifle, and his shield, before linking the two pommel-ends of his beam sabers together and igniting them both, in a double-beam saber.
The two mobile suits charged at each other, once again. As the two combatants entered melee range, the Freedom pilot swung his saber at Shinn. The reckless pilot managed to block the strike with his own saber, and he barely avoided the other end of the saber, as it swung towards him. As the two mobile suits maneuvered around each other, trying to gain an opening, an alarm went off in Shinn's cockpit. However, the brash pilot was too busy dodging another attack, and he paid no heed to it.
Shinn swung his saber at the Freedom, only to have his opponent block his attack. Freedom's pilot performed a haymaker type motion, and slid Shinn's beam saber away, while simultaneously making an attack with the second beam blade. Again, Shinn barely managed to dodge the attack, but he lost part of his mobile suit's shoulder armour, in the process.
Shinn swore, and concluded that he would not prevail in melee, and put some distance between himself, and his opponent, effectively putting them both in a temporary stalemate. The pilot wasn't content on letting Shinn get away. In response, the young Coordinater, continued to back way while he desperately tried to think of a plan.
He thought back to his lessons at the academy, and sifted through his numerous near death experiences, and all the battles that he had fought. He came up with nothing. Not a damn thing! He was well, and truly screwed.
"Shit! As long as that guy's got that double-saber, he's got too much of an advantage. If only I could get rid of it! Wait that's it!" Shinn stopped, and once again he charged at the Freedom, beam saber raised over his mobile suit's head. The rogue mobile suit seemed taken aback, and readied itself to block another thrown beam saber. But instead of throwing his last weapon, Shinn kept it, and when he closed into melee range he swung it downwards, in a powerful overhead blow. His opponent blocked the strike, as Shinn had predicted, but before he could make use of his second blade, Shinn slid his saber down the length of the opposing beam saber. As beam sabers lack cross guards, Shinn's blade was unimpeded along its journey. With a deft flick of his mobile suit's wrist Shinn finished his move, by allowing his saber to sink downwards, and clip off the tip of the opposing beam saber. With a roar, Shinn pushed his saber forward, in an attempt to impale the Freedom.
However, his opponent wasn't quite ready to die yet, as he used Freedom's powerful thrusters to retreat. As the Freedom effectively backpedaled, the Rail Cannons deployed, and began to fire a seemingly unending volley, of magnetically propelled slugs. Shinn raised his shield, and charged after the retreating mobile suit, at full speed.
"Damn bastard, just die!" As the Rail Cannon slugs impacted against his shield, Shinn finally noticed the plaintive wailing of the alarm. Glancing toward a status screen, Shinn noticed that his thrusters were dangerously overloaded. Just then a thudding impact behind him informed him that his most of his thrusters had exploded. Cursing again, Shinn quickly took an inventory of the fight, while he re-adjusted his mobile suit's power levels to normal. The Freedom still possessed its Rail Cannons, but Shinn still had his shield, and maneuvering verniers. They both had one beam saber, but the Freedom was still able to utilize its incredible speed, while Shinn's speed had been more than halved. Advantage Freedom.
Suddenly the Rail Cannon volley ceased. Shinn lowered his shield, as the Freedom folded the Rail Cannons back to their inactive position, underneath the hips.
"Looks like someone ran out of ammo. Maybe I can still win this one," Shinn thought as he, and the Freedom engaged in a saber lock once more.
Lunamaria felt physically sick, her concern for Shinn was making her feel extremely uncomfortable, and she had a very strong urge to throw up. Despite the odds, Shinn looked like he was prevailing, she had even let out a whoop for joy when Shinn destroyed the Freedom's beam saber. However, it seemed that the time for celebration had come a little early. When Shinn's thrusters exploded. Lunamaria slapped her open palm into her helmet.
"That idiot," however it seemed that Lunamaria's chastisement would have to be put on hold, as Shinn, and the Freedom engaged each other in a saber lock. Several tense moments passed. Initially, it seemed as if neither one of them would be able to break the lock, but it became clear to Lunamaria, that the Freedom was, little by little, pushing Shinn back with its powerful, and mostly intact, thrusters.
That was it. There was no way Shinn was winning this fight. Lunamaria knew that he would be furious with her for interfering with his duel, as he had explicitly told her not to interfere before he had charged into the fight. Oh well, better alive, and angry than dead. Lunamaria took a quick inventory of her Zaku. She had suffered extensive damage in the last battle.
"No beam rifle. Beam Tomahawk destroyed. Left arm and shield destroyed. Thrusters at 20 capacity. Two maneuvering verniers remaining, each at less than 40 capacity. Less than 300 seconds of power left. Right arm functional. Life support undamaged," her ability to help Shinn seemed to diminish little by little, as she read off the damage report. She calmly took an inventory of her remaining weapons, as Shinn's cursing echoed in her ears.
"One fragmentation grenade, and one flash grenade. Wait, that's it!" It wasn't much, but she would make due. Lunamaria's genetically enhanced, and battle-hardened mind quickly formulated a plan. Opening a comm. channel, she contacted Shinn.
"What?" Shinn said gruffly.
"Shinn, please listen, I have an idea…"
"NO!" He interrupted. "No ideas, I have to kill this bastard, myself!"
"Shinn, please listen. You can't win. That pilot has too much of an advantage." Lunamaria knew she was pleading, but she didn't care anymore. She was desperate, and she was beginning to tear up.
An unidentifiable look, concern perhaps, briefly passed over his face and his eyes narrowed in determination. Shinn disengaged from the saber lock and began backpedaling away as fast as he could.
"All right lets hear it." Lunamaria relayed her plan through a series of short hand signals. Perhaps she was being paranoid, but there was always a chance that someone could be listening in on their conversation, it had been done before. She didn't need the Freedom's pilot gaining insight, and ruining thier only chance, she wanted this plan to work, and it was already an uncertain thing. However, she was mentally tapped out, and fatigued, and this was the only thing that she could think of.
A look of uncertainty crossed Shinn's face, but he nonetheless agreed to follow Lunamaria's plan, to the letter. As the Freedom closed in, once again, Lunamaria pulled a grenade off her Zaku's hip. She hit a button on her console, remotely activating the grenade. She offered a quick thanks to the weapons designer that had included remotely activated grenades in the design, instead of deciding to rely solely on a pin. Lunamaria counted down from four seconds, and threw the grenade. As Lunamaria was counting, Shinn was parrying beam saber strikes, keying in a command in his cockpit keyboard, and counting up, as well. At four he let his opponent destroy his beam saber, and he threw up his shield, and closed his eyes. As the Freedom moved in, with beam saber raised over its head, the grenade flew in front of the mobile suit's head, and exploded in a bright flash, blinding the suit, and the pilot within.
Shinn discarded his shield, and the arms of his mobile suit shot forward, firmly grabbing hold of Freedom's good arm. With a roar, and the aid from his mobile suit's over-charged arms, he forced the beam saber downwards. The blade cut through the mobile suit, like a hot knife through butter. The blade cleaved through the nuclear reactor, and the cockpit almost simultaneously. The resulting nuclear explosion threw Shinn's mobile suit backwards over a hundred meters.
Lunamaria watched in horror, as the melted, and warped phase shift armour powered down. Frantically, she re-opened the comm. channel.
"Shinn! Shinn! Are you all ok? Answer me!" She yelled in to the comm. He was dead. She knew it. Tears began to bubble out of her eyes. "Shinn you idiot!"
"Luna stop it."
"Shinn! You're still alive?" Lunamaria couldn't believe it, but the proof was right there on her Zaku's 9-inch screen.
"Yeah." Lunamaria was about to reprimand him, but Sinn shut off the communication screen, before she could.
"Fine! Be angry see if I care!"
The two pilots limped their way back to the Minerva in silence.
Several hours had passed, and Lunamaria was pacing impatiently in front of male pilot's locker room. Initially when they had returned to the Minerva, the engineering crews made them wait outside, while they prepared the landing bay for possible nuclear contamination. Then she had to wait outside while Shinn went in, and got decontaminated. When she was finally allowed inside the landing bay, Shinn had already left to change. She had hurried, and changed, and was debriefed quickly by Executive Officer Trine. She had spent the last hour in front of the locker room doors. Shinn was still inside, she had distinctly heard him a while ago, but he wasn't coming out.
She began to tap her foot impatiently. Lunamaria needed to talk to him, see if he was ok, but he wasn't giving her the option. Finally losing her patience, she decided that protocol be damned, she was going in there! Inside the locker room she found Shinn, sitting on a bench, slumped over, with his hair drooping over, and covering his eyes, his uniform jacket in a crumpled pile beside him.
Shinn? Can I sit down?" He made sweeping gesture with his hand, which she took for acquiescence. She sat down beside Shinn, his uniform jacket between the two of them. Minutes passed in silence. Finally, Lunamaria decided that if he wasn't going to
"Shinn, I know you're angry but-"
"I'm not angry." He interrupted, sounding very tired. Lunamaria gingerly placed her hand on top of his. If Shinn noticed this, he didn't seem to care.
"Then what's wrong?" She asked gently.
"I don't feel anything. Ever since Athha," he said this with a trace of disgust, "came a board the Minerva, I've wanted to get even, lash out at everyone that had a hand in killing my family." He paused.
"Well, I did it. I killed the bastard that did it. And I don't feel anything. No happiness, no resolution, not even anger. It makes me think, what did I spend the last year being angry at? Why did I kill that guy? So I could feel empty?"
"You don't feel anything?" Shinn didn't say anything for a few moments.
"Regret. I feel regret. That guy didn't want to kill me; he didn't want to kill anyone. A guy like that isn't a soldier. He didn't belong on the battlefield, he belonged somewhere else, taking care of kids, or working in a day care, or something. I don't know why he was fighting, but he didn't want to. I could tell. A guy like that probably has a family, and friends. And I killed him." Shinn looked worse than he had ever before. He looked beaten, and downtrodden. There wasn't a trace of the usual fire in his eyes.
"Shinn, this is war. People die."
"Maybe. But I still killed him. All of his friends probably know already. They were probably waiting for him to come home, so they could celebrate. But he isn't. There isn't even a damn body to bury. Luna, I've turned into the thing that I've hated for the last three years of my life." A tear fell on Lunamaria's hand. She removed her hand from his, and gently placed it on his cheek, and turned his head, so his tear-stained eyes could meet hers.
"Shinn, listen to me. He's dead, you're alive. Accept it."
"But-"
"No! You may have killed him, you did a bad thing. But you've accepted it, there's no point in dwelling over it, to this degree. Can't you see what's happening? If you keep thinking about this, you'll end up becoming as obsessed with killing this guy, as you did when your family was killed."
"So I should just forget then?!" Shinn replied in anger, shaking off her hand.
"No, but he wasn't your friend, you didn't know him. You shouldn't forget, but you can't let this affect you like this!"
Shinn seemed to mull her words over, as she fell silent.
"I guess," he said as he reached over and embraced her, "Thank you Luna, maybe if I had known you three years ago, I wouldn't have ended up killed him in anger. Maybe I could have been his friend too."
Lunamaria didn't say anything, but she did return his embrace. They embraced in silence for a few moments, before Shinn broke it.
"Luna, I didn't tell you this before, but when you contacted me, I was very happy. The last time we talked, I yelled at you, and after that I lost track of you, and I didn't know where you were. I didn't think…I mean I hadn't seen you for so long, that I was beginning to think the worst. After my thrusters exploded, I was ready to give up then, but when you contacted me, it was like I got my nerve back."
"Shinn you-"
"I couldn't have won that fight without you." Lunamaria smiled when he said that. It was the first time he had admitted, that he needed her. Maybe there was a chance that he felt something deeper for her.
"It's ok Shinn, that's what friends are for, right?"
"Friends?" Shinn pulled away slightly, but remained close enough, that Lunamaria could smell his perpetually minty fresh breath.
"I guess that's all we'll ever be, right? Well that's ok," he said, with a trace of bitterness, before attempting to pull away. He stopped when Lunamaria's hand moved to his arm, and gripped it tightly.
"Shinn, no we're not just friends. We're more than that, at least I think so…" she trailed off. A look of surprise passed over Shinn's face. They both looked at each other, aware of each other's feelings, but both were unwilling to make a first move.
Lunamaria remembered someone, she couldn't remember who, telling her before that if she wanted to achieve her dreams, all she had to do was reach out, and grasp them. Well, her eit was something that she had been aspiring towards for the better part of a year, right in front of her face. She leaned forward, and planted a kiss on Shinn's lips.
Perhaps he was taken by surprise, but Shinn submitted to her advances. He wasn't expected such a bold advance from her, but he certainly wasn't going to complain.
In the heat of the moment her tongue found its way into Shinn's mouth, and they mouth moaned in appreciation. Lunamaria pushed Shinn down onto the bench, as Shinn's hands found their way to the buttons on her uniform jacket. Shinn unbuttoned the jacket, and Lunamaria briefly broke off their kiss. She removed the jacket to reveal a non-standard issue red halter-top, in place of the standard blue t-shirt. They kissed again briefly, and then their lips were gliding over each other's necks, cheeks, noses, and running their fingers through each other's hair. Lunamaria then resumed their kiss, as Shinn's hands roamed over her body, exploring the curves that he had admired for so long.
The soft moan that she let out, emboldened Shinn, and his hands began to roam up her slim, and athletic body. At the same time Lunamaria was exploring the hard muscle that Shinn had packed into his body, while she desperately ground herself into him. As Shinn's hands made their gradually migration upwards, his hand cupped the swell Lunamaria's breast. She let out a gasp, and Shinn released his hold.
"Sorry, did I hurt you?" He asked lamely. She shook her head, and smiled at him.
"No, it's ok" Lunamaria got off Shinn. She offered him her hand, which he accepted, and she pulled him back up to a sitting position, before sitting down beside him. Lunamaria picked Shinn's uniform jacket off the floor, where it had fallen, and handed it back to him.
"I guess we ere going a little fast there," said Shinn breaking the silence.
"Yeah, I guess we were," replied Lunamaria, as Shinn handed her discarded uniform jacket back.
"So what now,' he asked, with a trace of uncertainty.
"I don't know about you, but I'm starving. So I say we go, and eat. And then we can talk," she replied, as she put on the jacket, and re-buttoned it. Shinn followed suit, leaving the top button undone, as was customary, by now.
"Sounds good." He got off the bench, with Lunamaria following close behind. Linking their arms together the two young coordinaters left the locker room, ready to embark on the next stage of their lives.
Authors Notes: Why did I write this fic, some may ask? Contrary to what some may be thinking, it was in no way inspired by any extra attention Lunamaria was showing Shinn in episode 11. I simply believe that they would make a better couple, than Shinn and Stellar. Ever since I saw the previews, I was already thinking, "Yeah I'd like to see those two together."
This fic was originally, inspired by a thread at the anime suki forums. The original poster posed a simple question, "Why didn't the Zaku's use their grenades?" My response to him was the writer's simply didn't work hard enough to create a proper scenario. I then proceeded to make one. It was basically a very simplified version of Shinn, and Kira's fight at the beginning of this fic.
I then threw in Shinn ,and Lunamaria because I haven't seen any fics featuring the two of them as a couple, heck there don't seem to be many stories featuring Shinn, or Lunamaria at all. So then here is my modest submission. So now you're at the bottom of the page, you have no choice but to review! Geez, I'm lame.