Gundam SeeD: The Whisper of History

Chapter 1: The song of the Brothers.

Written by Spiritblade


Two friends as close as brothers,

Are bequeathed a harsh fate.

Before their path is made clear,

They will pay a high price before they

Reach the Eye of the Storm.

One is a warrior of the Star Kingdom of the Enhanced, his dark hair and emerald hair

That contrasts with his scarlet robe and wings.

The other is a scholar within a star city of the Grey Kingdom, his brown hair and grey eyes,

That contrasts with his white robe.

Theirs is a promise made a decade ago beneath peaceful, tree-sheltered summer skies,

When warrior and scholar were but children.

But, sometimes, we can never keep those cherished promises,

No matter how hard we try.

All that matters is that we did.

When the 2 brothers would face one another once more,

They have become young men.

Their reunion was not beneath the tree-sheltered summer skies of their youth,

But the vista of a city burning.

It was a moment of decision,

When the woman he protected,

Would elevate him to his destiny.

Seeking to protect him, she had laid the foundations of his destiny.

She saw the wings that marked him as one of the Enhanced,

And she asked him to don the robes of a Defender.

The Ivory Princess knew what she asked of the young man.

For the Star Eagle could not do what the young Defender had done,

Nor could the Ice Maiden argue with the possibility of having him protect the Ship of Angels.

Above the burning city, the Steel Angels of the Enhanced Ones

Would clash with the Defender and the Eagle,

And in their fierce struggle, the Defender would consign his home to oblivion,

And be resigned to the fact that his friend was now his enemy.

It was a nightmare shared between Scarlet Angel and Defender,

A nightmare made real.

The Scarlet Angel's brothers stalk the Defender and the Ship of Angels,

With a wrath borne of duty and fury.

It is a lesson in humility that the titan cannot bring down the cunning fox.

The Scarlet Angel sighs quietly in relief,

But he cannot help but look at his childhood friend in a new light.

For one who hated war and violence, he murders as though it were second nature.

He fights with a will and focus of one born to the battlefields of Man.

The Defender does not back down.

There are innocents behind him on the Ship of Angels.

His friends.

The helpless.

The last remnants of the Imperium's warriors.

We all come of age eventually.

Hardship, one's willingness to let the past go,

These are two options amongst many where young men and women become adults.

The Scarlet Angel reaches out to the Defender,

Asking that he cross over, that he spares them the agony of crossing swords.

He pleads and he begs, but his brother says no.

For what value is a promise when it is broken?

What is the terrible weight that must be borne by its bearer,

Who knows that to fail is to condemn the helpless to their doom?

Only the bearer can answer these questions,

And the Scarlet Angel shall have his answer from the Star Princess that the Defender

Delivers safely into his arms.

He finds that beneath his brother's death-bringing façade,

Is the same boy that he had known all his life.

With each stroke that consigns another soul to oblivion,

A scar is gouged onto the Defender's soul,

A tear is shed for the departed,

And a prayer is whispered amidst broken sobs for a flame that can never be rekindled.

Many, many souls have fallen before the Defender's fiery sword,

And many more would pave the way to a confrontation between the Defender and the Scarlet Angel.

The weight and the guilt grows,

And doubts begin to show.

The brothers' oath starts to fragment.

The Scarlet Angel watches many of his fellows die about him, even as the Defender knows that, one day, he will share their fate.

He has written his Judgement in the blood of others, and he knows Justice has a long reach.

But, even as he waits for his Judgement,

There are those who are willing to deny the Defender his fate, even if it means suffering it themselves.

But it is all for naught.

Before their horrified eyes,

They watch as the bloodless battle between the Scarlet Angel and the Defender

Becomes bloody.

An anguished scream that becomes a howling roar,

And their brotherhood dissolves into a hungry desire for retribution.

An image and a voice echoes in the Scarlet Angel's mind,

'You shall smite your brother, and bring him low,

But your wrath shall cleanse him,

And redeem you. Hate him not, for he feels that his death by your hands is just.'

Only after the battle is done, does the Scarlet Angel remember those words that made him cry,

And judged by the golden eyes of the Lioness who loves the Defender.

Her wracking sobs is matched by the sorrow of the crimson-haired Fallen Angel who sought to make the Defender her weapon of vengeance,

And the painful realisation to those abroad the Ship of Angels that one of their own had perished.

This is the Brothers' song,

Where the symphony is written in blood,

And where the song itself is sung as a dirge.

This is the Brothers' song,

That echoes a sin long ago done,

And cursed Mankind to a fate that will remain as long as He exists.

But it is not over yet.

Not yet, not until the Requiem is played to a finish.

Not until those who started this bloody Jyhad,

Realise that when enough lives are lost,

When enough blood has been spilt,

When wrath gives way to horror,

When false justice gives way to realisation,

The course of history can be changed, though the price is high.

One falls into the pit, but may rise the wiser.

The hope of the dead,

Is that the living do not make the same mistakes.