Chapter 9: Owaranai Asu E

Nowhere. That was the one word that Andrew Bartfelt of the Eternal would have used to describe the progress they were making. Nowhere. Everyone fought, and very few survived. It was nothing but chaos, soldiers didn't even know if their orders stood anymore. His one good eye narrowed as Lacus continued to plead for peace. She certainly wasn't helping much.

"I demand that the ZAFT forces cease firing GENESIS immediately! We've all experienced the horrors of a nuclear attack, and yet we attack in revenge. Will this sort of twisted logic bring about peace?"

Kira, Athrun and Cagalli flew towards the massive asteroid fortress of Jachin Due and the giant GENESIS array when Kira felt something. The feeling tugged his vision back towards the Archangel and whispered of danger. Heeding this feeling, Kira broke formation and swung about, heading back to the Archangel.

"Kira!" Cagalli said.

"Look after Cagalli." Kira spoke quietly. "Something's wrong."

"Understood." Athrun replied.

Kira was not the only one to approach the Archangel, beating him there was Rau Le Creuset in the Providence, and lagging behind was Crot Buer in the Raider. Standing guard over the damaged battleship were Yzak, Dearka and Flay.

"Incoming mobile suit!" Miriallia warned.

"Is that a friendly unit? I've never seen that kind of frame!" Yzak cursed.

Dearka armed his hyper-impulse rifle and aimed it at the grey suit rapidly approaching. "Shit! Of all the times …" and he fired.

The Providence nimbly avoided the powerful beam and 8 of the funnels detached and began their attack runs. "What the!" Dearka cursed as he launched his missiles in defense. The beam bits fired, rapidly shooting down the missiles, and then concentrated on the Buster, destroying the head and the right arm.

"Dearka!"

Kira fired at Rau from behind, breaking his concentration for just a moment. Rau dodged the twin plasma beams and felt something familiar about his new target. "Not you again."

The funnels fell into a predictable firing pattern, which Kira used to his advantage. There was a brief opening and he armed and fired the missiles on his METEOR. The attack pattern changed and the funnels aimed at the incoming missiles, shooting many of them down. Rau used his beam saber to sweep through the survivors and fired a well-aimed shot at Kira's forward METEOR weapons pod.

Kira ejected the useless pod and armed his anti-warship beam saber. With the grace of a dance, Rau avoided the attack and used his own saber to slice the remaining pod in half. Using the powerful engines, Kira darted back to range.

"There's too many here! Flay! Go support Athrun and Cagalli!" Kira ordered, choosing his maneuvers carefully.

"But what about helping you Kira?" Murrue asked.

"Not in this condition."

"You are something that should never have been allowed to live boy!"

"Shut up!" Kira fired another salvo of missiles, annoyed at the funnels which again intercepted the warheads.

"If people discovered what you are, then they would want to be just like you." Rau fired and hit the empty missile pod on the METEOR's starboard side.

Kira fired back, arming his Hi-MAT and missed. "I didn't ask to be born this way! I am not defined by my abilities alone!"

"And who's going to believe that line?" Rau demanded, closing the distance and slicing the port-side METEOR engine in half.

Stunned at his defeat, Kira sat for a moment. It had been months since he had been this solidly defeated. Suddenly aware of the danger, Kira was about to separate from the heavily damaged METEOR when the funnels came swooping in and fired.

A powerful explosion ripped through space. Rau smiled, having completed part of his agenda. His funnels returned and he plotted a course for the Eternal. Unfazed by the explosion, the Raider charged in, aiming for the Duel and the remains of the Buster.

"I will … I will!" Crot shouted out.

Crot relentlessly fired his shield-mounted hyper velocity rifle, spraying rounds everywhere. Before Yzak could aim his beam rifle, it was hit and very quickly riddled with bullets, rendering it useless.

"Damnit! Give me that beam cannon!" Yzak ordered.

"Yzak!" Dearka warned.

"HE'S NOT BEATING ME!" Yzak fired the still-combined hyper impulse sniper rifle, hitting the Raider directly in the cockpit. The Zorn cannon that was charging was prematurely fired and hit the Duel in the shoulder armor, leaving the joint intact. The combined damaged Yzak sustained and the energy that the rifle used drained his batteries, forcing the phase shift down.

"The Raider has been destroyed, the Providence has moved off, but I can't find the Freeedom anywhere!" Miriallia reported.

"Damage reports coming in Captain. Sensors are only 33 operational; engine thrust is down to half. The Buster and the Duel are docking now." Sai reported.

Even if their sensors had been fully operational, they still wouldn't have detected Kira; his exit was masked by the destruction of the Raider. In that very short amount of time, Kira had come to only one conclusion on how to stop the war.

It was, in retrospect, probably a mistake to think that way, but you act in the heat of the moment; you follow what your heart tells you. In that moment, Kira knew of only one thing, one goal: to kill Rau Le Creuset.

As his mind steeled itself for this task, his body followed suit. Emerging from the explosion unharmed, Kira looked up towards Jachin Due, where his target was. His eyes were cold and lifeless because they showed his altered state of SEED mode. Indeed, Kira didn't even look at his sensors, or use any of his instruments as he sped off to end the war.

And he wasn't the only one with hardened conclusions. Athrun separated the Justice from his own METEOR. "We have no choice. We'll force our way into Jachin Due and destroy the control room. Let's go."

Having already heard the report of Kira's apparent demise, Lacus didn't want anyone else dear to her to die. "Athrun! Cagalli!"

"Don't worry, we'll be fine." Cagalli tried to reassure her.

What Athrun and Cagalli planned on doing very quickly became the least of Lacus' worries. "Incoming mobile suit! Blue 25 Delta!"

"I've always like your songs." Rau whispered as he closed in with the Providence.

"That's …" Lacus feared.

"But the world is not as gentle as those in pop songs!" Rau's funnels deployed and opened fire, damaging the Eternal and the Kusanagi as well as obliterating three of their M1 Astray escorts. Rau's next target was the ship of the songstress, when he was interrupted with the feeling of an electric jolt. He dodged two shots from behind and faced his enemy.

"Another mobile suit incoming!"

"You, and only you!" Kira roared.

"It's the Freedom!"

The Freedom and the Providence circled each other, firing as they went. As the opportunities arose, Kira fired and managed to destroy a few of the funnels, slowly reducing the number of threats around him. As they fought, the two pilots slowly moved away from the two ships and towards the GENESIS array.

"Why won't you die!" Kira demanded just as Rau shot off one of Freedom's legs at the kneecap.

He charged forward, blocking another beam that tore the shield off its mount. Acting quickly, Kira armed a beam saber and clashed with Rau. "You're crazy, and so is your logic!"

"Of course! But how is that wrong? People know only what they've experienced!" Rau retorted.

Memories of conversations past returned to Kira.

"So, you're a Coordinator?"

"What are you doing with the Earth forces?"

"You used to tell me that you hated the whole idea of war."

"But you did betray your own people didn't you?"

"Is her voice a result of genetic engineering?"

"You didn't make any serious effort to fight because you're a Coordinator too!"

"Shut up …" Kira whispered, "just SHUT UP!" and their duel continued once more. Fighting with even more rage than before, Kira nimbly avoided the multi-directional attacks from Rau and his DRAGOON funnels. Destroying one more, he shifted part of his attention back to the sound of Rau's voice.

Laughing maniacally, Rau spoke. "No matter what happens now I've won! When Jachin self destructs, GENESIS will fire!"

Clashing sabers forcefully, Rau continued triumphantly. "There's nothing you can do to stop it, the Earth will burn! And when the cries of the victims are heard, the fires of war will rage anew!"

"This can't be …" Kira was shocked at the finality of Rau's plans.

Dodging multiple beams, Kira missed noticing the Justice and Strike Rouge flying towards GENESIS. He took more damage, losing a shoulder-mounted direction thruster and scoring a very minor hit on Rau's beam saber shield combo.

"You helped bring this about boy!" Rau fired again, taking the Freedom's right arm at the elbow, along with his beam rifle.

"So what?" Kira demanded while connecting both beam sabers and activating them. It was his race against time, he had to kill Rau and destroy the GENESIS before it fired, and at this rate, Rau would win.

Unprepared for the brutality of Kira's charge, Rau started his evasion a second too late and lost the Providence's right arm and beam rifle as a result. The masked man pulled back to the relative safety of the GENESIS array, hiding near the mirror block as his funnels savagely attacked Kira.

His plasma cannons couldn't cycle fast enough to attack the fast moving bits, and he was nearly out of ammunition in his railcannons. "There's only one way to end this …" Kira told himself. Steeling himself, he raised his dual beam sabers and charged for what he hoped would be the last time.

Anticipating a headstrong attack, Rau silently commanded his funnels. Despite prior knowledge, the DRAGOON bits were a second too slow, and rather than destroying the Freedom outright, they instead destroyed both ends of Kira's connected beam sabers. Not wasting a moment, Kira engaged his Hi-MAT mode and fired.

The railcannons fizzled, having no more ammunition to fire. The slower plasma cannons charged and fired, only to be avoided by both Rau and his few remaining DRAGOON bits. Folding his railcannons back in, Kira chased Rau, firing his Balaena's as soon as the cycle was complete.

Rau turned and bolted towards Kira, his beam saber now active. He dodged the few plasma shots sent his way and slashed at the Freedom. Kira retracted his cannons and jetted backwards to avoid the attack. Smiling, Rau had Kira trapped, his remaining weapons undeployed and the boy defenseless against any attacks.

He attacked again, the beam saber seeming to move ominously slow as it aimed for the torso area. Then time moved normally and out of nowhere, the Strike blocked the attack with her shield.

"Flay?"

"I won't let you take him away from me again!" she screamed, obviously at Rau.

"I remember this voice … and yet things might have turned out differently if I knew it better." Rau contemplated.

His funnels started their attack runs again, this time aiming for Flay in the Strike. As they approached, Kira fired a shot from his Balaenas and destroyed one. The remaining two fired, but faster than Kira thought was possible, Flay let go of the shield, grabbed a beam saber and re-deflected Rau's saber. Kira knew this couldn't end well with Rau's funnels still roaming about.

"Flay, your Armor Schneiders!" Kira ordered.

Not questioning the odd commands from her boyfriend, Flay complied and opened the hip compartments, allowing the handles to be seen. Kira grabbed the right one first, letting the blade extend and then rammed it just below the beam emitter of the saber in Rau's shield.

Sparks flew as the saber overloaded and shut down. Flay brought her own saber down and aimed it for the Providence's cockpit. She had barely made contact with the armor when the funnels appeared from behind their cover and attacked, destroying the saber as Flay retreated from the bits. As she flew backwards, Kira grabbed the left Schneider and barely waiting for the blade he stabbed it into the small gouge Flay had made in the Phase Shift armor.

The tip of the blade cut deep into Rau's chest, exposing his entire body to hard vacuum. "This isn't over …" he mumbled. As if to confirm his words, Jachin Due was covered in explosions as the base self-destructed. On cue, the GENESIS array began to power up and fire.

"Look out Flay!" Kira warned, grabbing and throwing the Strike clear of the powerful energy beam. With his girlfriend safe, Kira stole one last glance as the Providence as it was vaporized by the beam. Facing the danger head-on, the last conscious thought that entered his mind was Flay screaming his name in fear. Kira very quickly knew nothing but white, and then darkness.

And that's the end of the war ...
hold on, an Epilogue to go.
And Reviews are nice ...

Prayer