Hey to you all,
I actually had a lot of fun with the last chappy, never thought I'd see Dearka singing, or Yzak getting a bit... emotional in a none agressive way. lol
Anyway, here is the new chappy. I hope you all like. Please R&R, thank ya. Btw, just thought I'd mention, that most of this was inspired by Tchaikosky and several of his works. I was listening to music while I wrote... a lot of my work is greatly impacted on what I most recently heard, so ((waves at ellie)) Thank ya for handing over the files, it helped quite a bit.
Philosophical Explanations
Running, footsteps, whistling... piercing pain... something shattered, there was blood, on the ground, on the walls...
Panting, harsh unsteady gasps for breath... Couldn't get up, struggling, stumbling, falling back down, the metal was cold, the floor, it was so cold... it was sticky, slick with the red liquid, staining pale hands, the smell... metallic, cold, bitter...sweet.
Gasping again, watching theliquid sink under the nails, making them red.
"Oh God..."
The voice, light soft, accented, scared... Scrambling again, pulling on the floor, legs weren't working... blood, so much blood, moving like waves crashing into the walls, rushing over the sleeves and the face and the neck, tainting everything red.
Genes, DNA, chaning shape, color, children crying, babies screaming, nurses, scietists coming close, gently shutting their mouths, ordering that they stop.
And then silence, cold never ending silence, broken only by the drum beat of a heart... Who's heart? Who was it?
The hand, reached and squeezed the neck of a shirt, coughing, gasping...
It's heart, her heart, his heart... the heart...
"I don't want to die..."
The drum beat was slowling, the silence and the darkness thickening, as if the blood itself had grown darker and darker until it just shallowed everything whole...
And the voice had to scream, one more time, just for help, one more time.
"No!"
The scream was caught right in the middle, strangled by the throat closing sharply.
A figure in the dark sat up, choking on the scream and the effort of opening the throat again in order to breathe. Gasping, whomever it was sucked air in heavily, shoving heavy blankets of fur and silk off and onto the ground.
The moonlight was dripping in through the windows, leaking past the heavy black curtains.
Growling, the figure walked over to the intruding light and grabbed the curtains, flinging them in the way, killing off all that was brightness...
The day begun quite late for most of them, Cagalli being the last to wake at 12... by the sheer force of Mir and Lacus dragging her out of bed.
"Come on, Cagalli, you're not being very princess-like." Mir grunted, tugging at her arm.
Cagalli had the other arm tight around the bed's post, face buried in her pillow.
"Well, Lacus takes care of that for us all, now doens't she...?" she grumped, holding on for all she was worth.
Lacus laughed, pulling at Mir's waist in an attempt to help. "come on, Cagalli!" she cried.
Outside, Kira and Athrun glanced at each other, listening to the shouts from inside.
Dearka walked over, having just come from breakfast. "Um... what's going on? Why're we all standing at the door?"
"Waiting for Cagalli..." Athrun murmured. Dearka blinked slightly, then heard a loud shout and a scream. All three boys blinked and reached towards the door then froze, hearing something knock against the door hard.
"OW! Good grief! Mir, that's my head!" Cagalli shouted.
Athrun shook his head, smirking. "Figures..."
Then, Lacus' voice, though soft an quiet. "Cagalli, I'll get Kira and Athrun to give us some help, if needed..."
A scream, shouts, laughter, grunts of effort and the door flung open, Lacus and Mir stumbled out and the door slammed closed.
They stood there, blinking at the boys. "Um..." Mir began.
"I believe my last comment had an effect on her waking..." Lacus smiled innocently.
The three gentlemen burst into slightly nervous laughter at their statement, chuckling at the idea of two being overpowered by one. Five minutes later, Cagalli still had to come out.
Mir sighed and pushed her sleeves up stubbornly. "No blonde spoiled princess of Orb is gonna get away with this one." she stated, leaning down to pick the lock.
The boys and Lacus watched her curiously take a pin from her hair and begin to ingeniously prod the lock. After a moment, with a soft click the door opened.
The group behind her blinked in surprise.
"i did not know you could do taht.." Dearka stated. Mir turned to look at him and grinned. Quietly, she peeked into the room, noting that the bed was empty and the door to the bathroom was open, allowing them to see a heavy flow of steam pouring from inside.
Athrun quickly pulled back, blushing furiously.
Lacus and Mir slipped inside and closed the door rather in the faces of Kira and Dearka, who just blinked and looked at each other in slight surprise.
"What the... " Dearka stated. Silently the three boys leaned against the walls, hands deep in their pockets, preparing for a long and boring wait.
10 minutes later...
"AHHHH! What are you TWO doing in here?"
Kira and Athrun both jumped away from the door at the shout. Dearka shook his head. "That girl..."
Listening intently to her rather loud protests and the laughter from the other two, Kira and Athrun glanced at each other... "Do you think we should go in there and help her?" Athrun asked.
Kira blinked at him. "I have a feeling she's changing." he replied, surprising himself by keeping the smirk off his face.
Athrun turned a deep shade of red and looked down sharply. "Right..."
Suddenly, the door flung open and out came Cagalli,she stumbled right into Athrun, who, obviously, caught her and stumbled himself, ending on the floor with her very much on top of him.
She was wearing some sort of dark green sleeveless turtle neck, hugging her form closely. She was also wearing a darker green skirt, that seemed to just flow as she moved, down to her shin. the movement of being shoved out made it noticeable how much like a bell it swayed.
Her hair had been put up in a small braided bun with tendrils of her hair falling around her face, coming loose from her rather rough make over.
He blinked at her in slight surprise, feeling the same amount of heat spread over his cheeks as he saw spread over hers.
"Good morning." he said, finding a lack of anything else to say.
Cagalli blinked at him, listening to the other's laughing around her. She wrinkled her nose, and found herself sulking.. or doing what she thought was a sulk, but was actually a pout.
Athrun smiled and kissed it off her lips quickly. "Hey!" she cried, while elegantly dragged her off the floor.
The others laughed all the harder, earning themselves looks from the rather abused blonde.
"Come on, we'd better get you something to eat and find out who envited us on this council... before it starts, I don't like surprises." Athrun said, though he was hardly thinking of the council, concentrating instead on not staring at her as she stood.
The skirt and shirt hugged her body all too well, and had he had less retraint he would have rather gone ahead and stared.
Even so, Cagalli noticed him looking at her and blushed heavily, averting her eyes quickly.
Mir giggled at them and grabbed Dearka's arm. "Let's go."
Together they walked to the ballroom which had over night turned into some sort of huge breakfast room.
The pillars were suddenly seperated by wide windows staring out into the never ending see, letting all light shine through and into the room.
The seemingly endless table was still there, weighed down heavily by the seemingly endless supply of breakfast food.
"It's nearly lunch, I thought it'd be all gone by now." she muttered.
"They slowly change it to lunch." Kira explained, picking out a peach for Lacus and handing over to the hungry girl.
Cagalli shrugged thoughfully as they settled down around the table, laughing at random things, talking... all avoiding the subject of the council which was soon to come.
Instead, it decided to barge into their morning.. or... early afternoon, depending on how you look at it.
Quietly, a servant holding several small white envelopes walked towards them and stopped, bowing politely.
He offered the silver tray towards Kira and Lacus with the envelopes in them.
"A message, ladies and gentlemen, from our host."
The group glanced around at each other quickly in surprise, taking the envelopes with care.
Athrun opened his, nodding his thanks at the servant who didn't linger but left as soon as he had handed out the last one.
Each envelope had each name, wripped by hand in a very delicate beautiful style of writing.
Cagalli looked at the small card that fell out, cocking her head at the simply lilly that covered the cream colored paper.
She opened it and frowned at the writing again... It looked to real and yet too perfect to be done by hand, yet she could see large ink blots were the pen had paused.
Silently, she scanned the invitation. "...the writing is rather amazing." Lacus said softly, studying it.
Kira nodded. "Is it by hand?"
Athrun cocked his head at it, uncertain of touching it, should it smudge. "I'd say so..."
Dearka and Mir glanced at each other, then back at the envelopes. "Why did we get an invitation for the council? We're not representatives..." Mir put in, studying the heather decorating the front of her invitation.
Lacus frowned slightly. "That is true... But i was equally surprised at being asked to represent ZAFT... after all..."
"We're not with zaft." Athrun murmured, finishing her sentence. She nodded and looked down at the paper.
Cagalli sighed as well, remembering the look on her father's face. What was it that made him so uncomfortable.
"It says 'high council'." Dearka put in quickly, his clever sight noting the key word.
"I didn't know they were dividing us into councils..." he muttered, looking lower to find a small list of ranking councils and who was in which one...
"We're in the highest set. There is only-" Lacus started, then stared at the paper.
The other's looked up at her, blinking. "What is it?" Kira asked.
"Look... it's-"
They all looked down at the list and stared in surprise as well.
High Youth Council
Athrun Zala
Cagalli Yula Attha
Dearka Elsman
Fllay Allster
Kira Yamato
Lacus Clyne
Miriallia Haw
Yzak Joule
"Yzak and Fllay?" Dearka asked, frowning. Athrun bit his lip. "Something doesn't seem right..."
Mir looked sighed, rubbing her hands together lightly with contained tension.
"What time are we supposed to be there?" She asked, even though she was holding the card.
Kira looked at the time, then at his watch and winced. "Now..."
No one moved, they stayed put, looking at each other apprehensively.
CAgalli sighed and rubbed her face tiredly. "Come on, guys... what could be the worst thing that could happen?'
The room was circular, and there seemed to be no windows. The table in the middle of the room dominating most of the space was also circular and large, leaving a large gap between each rather comfortable looking chair.
At one end of the room was a black curtain that reached down from the ceiling to the floor.
Cagalli hesitated to step in for only a moment, then forced herself to take the step inside. No one else noticed, except Athrun who stood right behind her, tension making his muscles tight.
Quietly, they all looked at each other and took a seat, seeing as there was no name tags on any chairs.
A servant entered the room, and asked them politely if they wished to eat or drink anything, but they were all so nervous that they quickly waved him away indifferently, though they said nothing to each other.
Fllay and Yzak had yet to appear, which was making Kira all th more nervous, however he kept silent and well in control, his eyes narrowed and staring at the table.
The door opened- or... what they thought was a door opened.
They had all thought that there was only one door to the room, however, the door that opened was at the opposite end of the door through which they had entered.
And in came, a girl none of them had ever set eyes on.
She was tall, and slender, her skin just a tinge darker than theirs, large wide eyes set in a delicate little face. Her hair was dark and straight, tumbling down past her knees, however it was so healthy looking that it didn't look bad at all.
She had it pulled back from her face with two silver clips holding locks behind her ears.
The simple black blouse reached only to her elbows, and buttoned down just above her belly buttom exposing a tiny sliver of flat tanned stomach. The matching black skirt fell all the way to the floor, hiding her black sandals as she walked towards them.
"Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen." she murmured, taking a seat. It was then that they noticed that rather than there being three empty seats at the table for the host, Fllay and Yzak, there was four.
Cagalli looked around at the others in slight surprise, trying to understand. The girl noticed this and nodded at her politely. "I am Adrene, first hand servant of your host." she murmured. "I apologize for my sudden entrance, he is having some trouble this morning, however he will be here shortly."
The voice thatcame from those tell tale lips of another culture was just as tell tale. The pronounciation was accented as well, and her voice was lighter, quieter, riding the air as if weightless.
"I see... It's all right, then, I suppose you know who we all are?" Athrun asked,feeling rather unnerved.
The girl nodded. "Yes, I have memorized each of your names and faces, I know well who you all are."
Theyblinked, having not expected an answer like that. A simple yes would have been less frightening.
Then from out of nowhere, surprising them all came a young man, wearing all black as well, a turtle neck and a sort of coat that fell down below his ankles. He was pale as a vampire and looked a lot like one, despite Lacus' best intentions of not thinking such a thing, it slipped in anyway.
His lips were a rather bright color, though red did not match. His eyes glittering blue, his hair black and curly, framing his face. It was a handsome youthful face that they looked at, high cheekbones, a full smiling mouth and large eyes.
"Good afternoon... or, morning, I would suppose" he said, his voice deep and dark, making them all feel as though they were sinking into some deep ocean. His eyes flickered to Cagalli as he said that, and she started in surprise.
Athrun glanced about, noting the unsettleness working it's way around the room.
"I am Nicholas." he said after a moment, to let the sound settle. "And I know for a fact, that you have no idea who I am despite knowing my name, and you don't know why you're here, nor why you've never heard of me before." he stated, putting a folder down on the table and opening it.
He took sheets of paper out in silence while they glanced at each other in confusion.
he looked up after a moment, and began to slowly hand each paper out.
"However, I think I would preffer to keep most of those questions unanswered. You now know what my name is, you have met me in person, therefore you know it is not some zaft, earth alliance or orb leader trying to get their hands on you. However, I cannot tell you anything other than that. Is that clear?"
Dearka was looking around at Kira and Athrun, who were tense, their eyes focused on Nicholas rather than on the paper he was handing out.
"what do you want with us?" Athrun asked, as politely as he could. "A youth council has never made much difference in war..."
Nicholas nodded sadly. "Yes,I know." he said softly, with more tenderness than they all expected. Adrene, who they had forgotten was there, put a hand on over his, which rested on the table. Nicholas did not acknowledge the touch, but did not draw back, which seemed to suit Adrene just fine.
"I am here, to change that fact." he stated, looking directly at Athrun, then turning to Kira. "I know you want to change it too."
Cagalli shifted slightly, uncomfortable with the mystery seeming to hover over the table... and where were Fllay and Yzak, if they were in the council too, shouldn't they be hearing all of this.
"I... I don't think I understand." Mir started. "We are just-"
"Body guards." Nicholas finished for her, nodding. "I know. I asked your 'leaders' to feed you that sad little story of the council in order to get you here unharmed."
"Unharmed? By what?" Dearka snapped.
"Those who oppose me." Nicholas replied simply, turning to look at him. "There are those out there who wish this war to continue. They know my capability and have tried... 'ridding' of me before now, that is why I have remained unknown for so long, and so it shall continue." he said calmly.
"I have brought you here, by pretense under the believe that this is a youth council. The core, however is that the youth council is a cover up for this, what I call the Seed project."
Cagalli started..."The Seed project..." she breathed, remembering her father saying something once, about seeds... what had it been, why did it ring a bell.
"For the last few months we have been carefully monitoring all your activities." he said softly.
Dearka grunted uncomfortably. "You mean you've had someone watching us for the last few months?" he asked, incredilous.
Nicholas cocked one eyebrow at him and nodded. "Yes."
Kira looked a bit disturbed by the idea. "What for? What could you gain from something like that."
Nicholas nodded at him. "Excellent question. We've found, the Seeds. A very long time ago you were all just, potentials, now we have found a big enough group. You're all... different."
Cagalli frowned slightly. "What are you talking about?"
"You all have capabilities that this war is in need of, to stop. And, you are all important enough people in a political sense to make these things happen."
"What things?" Kira said slowly, feeling his instincts unhappily warn him something bad was coming.
"You three." Nicholas said, pointing at Athrun, Cagalli and Kira. "You, are berserkers."
The group froze. "What?" Kira breathed, however, it was not a confused exclamation, but one of disbelieve.
How... how had he known of that. Athrun and Cagalli however, were frowning in confusion. "We're what...?"
Lacus blinked in surprise. "Mythilogical warriors... but- what do you mean?" she asked, eyes wide.
"Just what it means." Nicholas said, nodding. "Just what it means."
"And we're going to use that, to our advantage. What I need is to create a group that no one expects to not only defend the innocent out there, but unite and show the fact that coordinators and naturals have a chance living together." he explained. "If I am correct, this is a mixed group." he nodded.
Mir shrunk slightly. "A bit..." she admitted.
He nodded. "That is the whole idea. We need you, to make this happen."
The group looked at each other worriedly, Cagalli revising everything in her head as fast as she could.
"...you want us to be like..."
"Agents." Athrun finished, frowning at the table. Nicholas nodded.
The group looked at each other, unsure. They needed time... lots and lots of time.
Hey ya all... so there's the new chapter. I didn't really like this one, even though it was driving force in the plot... and even though it actually went okay, I guess... I'm not so sure I like where this is going however, i feel a bit like it's really really OOC. Oh well though. If you all feel like it truly truly is, please R&R and tell me, so I might consider changing the last chapter... OR if i really don't like it, even if i redo several times, I stop. We'll see... I'm a bit, tipsy about it. However, if you all feel like it's good enough to put up with, lemme know too, so i can keep going. ALl righty, thank ya all.