I don't own anything except Kevin Walker and Invictus
The combatants stared at the space where moments before the Blitz had stood, all of them shocked; including Yzak and Dearka, who had managed to leave the water just as the attack hit.
"Nicol," Dearka whispered, his old contempt forgotten as the reality sank in.
"Can't be," Yzak said, stunned.
Kira and Athrun faced each other across the empty ground, Kira in shock and Athrun simply uncomprehending of the events of the last few moments.
None of them knew that a fifth witness hovered above them, hidden by the same stealth technology the Blitz had used. Nicol? Nicol Amalfi? Bloody... You shouldn't have been here, mon ami.
"You did this..." Yzak said in a strangled whisper. "You'll pay, Strike!"
Kira flinched and raised an arm, catching the Duel's beam attack on his shield. As the Buster joined in the bombardment, he leapt backwards, trying to escape the barrage.
"Ensign Yamato!" Badgiruel called from the Archangel, hovering above. "What's taking you so long? Return to the ship at once! There's no need to pursue them any farther!"
Still shell-shocked, Kira obeyed, taking to the air in a leap back up to the ship. Below, the Duel fired ineffectually at him. "Get back here!"
"Stop it, Yzak," Dearka said sharply. "We need to regroup."
Yzak snarled, but agreed. "Later," he whispered harshly to the departing Strike.
The three remaining members of the Zala team leapt back to the water, where their carrier awaited; above, the Stormhawk flowed into view and returned to its own mothership.
Once more safely ensconced the in the hanger, the Stormhawk powered down and Snake removed his helmet. "What a bloody mess that was," he muttered. "At least we got out without a scratch."
He dropped to the hanger deck just in time to see Kira lose his temper with the crowd of mechanics surrounding him. "Stop it!" he shouted, fists clenched and body shaking. "I just killed someone! That's no reason to celebrate!"
Killed someone? Who?
Murdoch looked at him in confusion. "Hey, you've been doing this for awhile now; thought you'd be used to it..."
La Flaga thrust aside the mechanics. "Hey, leave him alone, you guys! Can't you see the kid's exhausted?" He held out a hand. "Kira, come on."
Kira ignored him completely and strode from the room; the older pilot shot a dirty look at Murdoch and followed him out into the corridor. Behind him, a shadow surreptitiously trailed along.
"They didn't mean to upset you," La Flaga said, coming up behind the young pilot. Kira ignored him, and he tried again. "You know, we all consider you one of us, Kira."
"Yeah, I know that." He kept walking.
La Flaga sighed in annoyance. "Kira," he said forcefully, and grabbed his shoulder. "We're not murderers; but we are soldiers." His temper was beginning to rise. "And we're fighting a war here! If you don't get them, they'll get you. That goes for you, for me, for all of us!"
Kira finally looked at him, eyes blazing. "I know that!"
"Get a grip, kid," the Hawk said harshly, "or it'll cost you your life."
Kira stared at him a moment longer, then left, body still tense.
"What was that about?"
La Flaga nearly jumped out of his skin when Snake spoke; once again, he seemed to have appeared out of thin air, a habit that greatly unnerved the older pilot and nearly made him a nervous wreck whenever he passed the super-soldier's quarters. "Snake! Don't do that." He sighed and glanced down the corridor where Kira had vanished. "He's beating himself up over killing that guy; if he keeps it up, it'll get him killed."
Snake shook his head, confused. "Who did he kill? I didn't see him kill anyone."
La Flaga frowned. "He blew up the Blitz; didn't you see it?"
He blinked. "Excuse me? Commander, I killed the Blitz. What, you didn't think the Strike produced that blast, did you? That was Stormhawk's beam cannon. I don't see why Kira thinks he did it... unless that shockwave hit him a little harder than I thought."
"You did that?" La Flaga cocked his head. "Well, that's gotta be a first. I thought Kira did it, the crew thinks Kira did it, ZAFT thinks Kira did it, and Kira thinks he did it, when it was actually somebody nobody even realized was there."
"Fog of war, Commander; that's one reason war crimes are hard to prove." Snake looked grim. "Bloody, this is bad. I knew Kira didn't have the temperament for this, but I figured he'd at least hold himself together... I'll have to talk to him, I guess. If we lose him, we lose everything. I can't do it alone, not with the way I fight."
"Yeah, about that..." La Flaga glanced around, as if checking to make sure no one was in earshot. "What happened out there, Snake? It's not like you to just vanish in the middle of a battle. Something spook you?"
Snake was silent for a long moment. "Something like that," he said finally. "I felt something, Commander."
"'Felt something'? What's that supposed to mean?"
He thought for a moment. "How much do you know about zoanthropes, Commander?"
The commander frowned, puzzled. "Not much. Why?"
"We're empaths, to a certain degree; we can sense each other, and we can recognize familiar presences. It's how we know each other for what we are."
"And you felt another of your kind?" La Flaga thought he saw where this was going.
He was wrong. "That's just it, Commander; that's not what I sensed. Oh, I'm pretty sure it was another zoanthrope, but the main feeling was..." Kevin struggled to find words to describe it. "It was a kind of resonance," he said at last. "That's the only way I can describe it. A mind that was on a wavelength close to my own, if you know what I mean."
The other pilot started in surprise. "A resonance?" It couldn't be...? "Like a connection, between your mind and his?"
"Something like that," Snake agreed. "I've seen and felt a lot over the last couple years, Commander, and I've never run across anything quite like that before. The closest analogues I can remember would be the implant-radio connection between myself and the rest of the Destroyers, and the bond twins share. But my twin is dead, and so are the rest of my kind."
"I see..." La Flaga scratched his head. "Sure you weren't born triplets?"
Kevin rolled his eyes at the sardonic comment. "Yeah, Commander, I think I can be sure of that. Back in Orb, I looked at the real hospital records from when I was born, and there was definitely just the two of us." He did not appear in the least distressed by the memory of the brother he'd been forced to kill; but then, he hadn't been sure of Michael Carnehan's true identity until after his death, and, as he'd once said, grief was an emotion with which he had long ago parted company.
"So, what are we gonna do about Kira?" La Flaga asked, steering the conversation back to where it had started. "I've never seen him quite like this."
"Neither have I; not even when we first boarded the ship, at Heliopolis." Snake frowned, concentrating. "In part, it's because of one of the pilots out there, one we happen to be... acquainted with; he doesn't want to fight him, but I think he's just realizing that we're truly enemies now. It's... gonna be tough on him."
"How can you be so sure of what's going through his head?" the Commander asked curiously.
He leaned against the bulkhead. "First, Commander, I've known Kira for ten years; I know the way he thinks. Second..." Snake shrugged. "We have something of a bond, he and I. You'll recall certain occasions where he's suddenly started fighting better than ever? Those times when he is to mobile suit combat as I am to ground warfare?"
La Flaga nodded slowly, remembering the battle in which Kira had severely damaged the Duel, the first battle with Waltfeld's forces... "Yeah, I remember. What about it?"
"I don't know much myself," Snake admitted. "But the talent is known as the 'Berserker State'; as far as I can tell, it's activated by stress and strong emotion, and it greatly heightens the individual's perceptions. A handful of Coordinators have this 'Berserker' capability, and possibly some Naturals as well, and Kira and I are among them. And yes, there is a point to this: when Kira enters the Berserker state, so do I. Always at the same moment, no matter how far apart we may be. I don't understand it, but ever since that first time, I've been able to dimly sense Kira's emotions. It doesn't work beyond a certain range, but..."
The Hawk scratched his head again. "Gotta say, I've never heard anything quite like that before. Think it's got something to do with your zoanthrope blood?"
"Probably." Kevin closed his eyes, thinking. "I've wondered about this before, and the closest I can come to an explanation is how unique we, and me in particular, are. We're both Coordinators, with Berserker capabilities; on top of that, I'm a cybernetically-augmented zoanthrope, with natural empathic abilities and implants designed to allow me to function as part of an interconnected team. A one-in-a-million occurrence, one probably never to be repeated... if I have any say in the matter." He chuckled quietly. "You know, Commander, it's really quite ironic; ZAFT set out to make me the most dangerous weapon in their arsenal, yet instead they managed to produce their worst enemy." He shrugged. "The connection to Kira is quite irrelevant, of course; like I said, it's dim, hardly noticeable, but it does give us one priceless advantage: it gives us two Berserkers."
"But I thought you already were one yourself."
"Once, indeed, I could enter the state myself." Snake breathed deeply, thinking of a time he hated. "But the experiments, while succeeding in producing a lethal weapon, failed in two respects: the alterations intended to give me enhanced Berserker capabilities instead removed them entirely, or so I thought until recently. And... I can no longer control myself when in my animal form." He shuddered, recalling again the content of his nightmares. "When I 'unleash the beast within', I truly unleash the beast. Believe me, Commander, you don't want to be around when I lose control."
La Flaga winced; he'd seen this young man in action before. "You know, Snake," he said, for about the hundredth time since meeting him, "I'm really, really glad you're on our side."
Later, Snake wandered the ship's corridors, feeling weary and depressed. He knew what was happening to him, having gone through it before; without Cagalli's presence to keep him in check, he was falling dangerously close to fatalism again.
Killing Nicol Amalfi hadn't helped. Kevin knew that it was war, that people died in war, and normally it wouldn't have bothered him anymore than any of the other deaths he'd been responsible for. But, like with Andrew Waltfeld, Snake hadn't wanted to kill Nicol; killing someone he knew personally, with a few exceptions, was something he hated.
He meandered at last into his quarters, where he walked over to his desk and collapsed into the chair. Bloody, I'm tired of war, Snake thought, gazing at nothing. If it weren't for those ZAFT bastards, I'd probably still be in Orb, continuing my fencing career, or maybe working at Morgenroete... Instead, I'm back to my old occupation, the one they made sure I was fit for: killing people. Solkin syn, why am I even still alive? I should have died so long ago...
His eyes came to rest on a framed picture of himself and Cagalli, taken years earlier at a diplomatic banquet in Orb. Next to it was a more recent shot, of him standing with Cagalli and Kira in his study at Onishi Manor. It had been taken the day before the Archangel departed...
"You've got the power to make a difference, Kevin. You can change this war, on your own.""Maybe you've got some kind of part to play in this war. Maybe there's something only you can do. Maybe you can end the war."
Snake had laughed, then, and told them they'd gone off the deep end. And he still thought it was nonsense. But seeing her face, and remembering her words, buoyed him. "It's not my time to die," he murmured. "Not quite yet. But soon, perhaps, I can find peace." He lifted the older picture. "Wish you were here, tovarisch," he said to it. "It's a bloody shame to see you for the first time in years, after forgetting you existed, only to have us separated again after so little time together. But I will see you again, somehow, before the Grim Reaper catches me. I promise."
The next evening, Snake restlessly paced the Archangel's corridors, wandering the ship as he sought to dispel the nervous energy that kept him awake. He was feeling remotely human again, as well; he suspected he'd simply have to deal with the occasional bout of depression for awhile to come, but it at least wouldn't dominate him the way it had the last time.
In his wanderings, Snake happened to pass the cafeteria, where his classmates were chatting; Tolle seemed to be talking about his exploits during the last battle. "It wasn't so bad," he was saying. "Sure, it was scary at first, but I kind of figured, if Snake's girlfriend could do it, so could I."
Having caught that last comment, Kevin leaned into the room. "Feel like wearing that sandwich, Tolle?" he asked conversationally.
Tolle's eyes snapped to the hatch. "Oh, uh, sorry, Snake," he said hastily. "I, uh, I didn't mean-"
"Sure you didn't." Behind his sunglasses, Snake rolled his eyes. "But I'll let it pass... this time."
"Ah, there you are, Snake."
Snake turned and raised an eyebrow as Ramius approached. "Good evening, Captain. To what do I owe the honor?"
"I'd like to speak to you in my office, if you have a moment," she replied. "I assume you're not busy?"
"Of course, Captain." Curious, he followed the Captain to her office; the last time he'd been there, as he recalled, was just before he'd gone off to Banadiya, to kill Alex Jackson and his own brother, Michael Carnehan.
Once inside, Ramius settled into the chair at her desk and motioned for Kevin to sit in the one across from her. "First of all," she began, "I'd like to congratulate and thank you for your efforts in that last battle; I'd also speak to Kira, but..."
He nodded. "Yeah; I think congratulating him right now would just make him feel worse."
"Unfortunately true. But without the two of you, we would not have survived. And, of course, we now have one fewer G-weapon to worry about."
"It'll certainly be nice not to have to worry about having the Blitz appear out of nowhere," Kevin agreed. "By the way, shouldn't you be thanking the Commander, too?"
Ramius smiled. "And inflate his ego even more?" she said dryly. "Commander La Flaga, I'm sure, knows exactly how well he flies, and any reminder would be somewhat redundant. His name is well-known even among the neutral nations." She leaned forward. "Which brings us to the other matter I wanted to discuss with you, Snake. You know, of course, the general prejudice against Coordinators held by Earth Alliance military."
"Too well; Kira and I were fortunate that we ended up with this crew," he concurred, wondering where this was going.
"Well, it's generally known now that 'Kevin Walker' is a Coordinator. Because of this, there's a certain amount of risk involved in your coming to Alaska. However, I believe there may be a solution." Ramius turned on her desk computer and began opening files. "As it happens, Admiral Halburton never had the opportunity to relay our casualty list to Earth Forces Command, so we have an opportunity here to disguise your presence." She turned the monitor so that Snake could see it; it displayed a personnel file. "This is Lieutenant Junior-Grade Drake Ryan; he was killed when ZAFT attempted to destroy the Archangel while it was still in dock, on Heliopolis. He had no living relatives, and mostly kept to himself, with little socializing. So it would be a simple matter to alter his personnel file to match your current appearance, especially with your... way with computers."
Kevin leaned forward, closely examining the image and bio. "You're proposing I take the name of this 'Lieutenant Ryan'? Not exactly according to regs, Ma'am."
"Sometimes," she said quietly, "The Book must be taken with a grain of salt. There are times when I feel the rules must be bent if we are to stay human; that is a lesson I hope Lieutenant Badgiruel learns. In this case, in addition to the moral angle, there's the fact that we simply can't afford to lose you as a pilot. Even Natarle would agree on that." Ramius smiled. "Of course, the name would only be used outside the ship; to the rest of us, you'll still be Walker. But I believe the promotion is well-deserved, so you'll be Lieutenant Walker aboard the Archangel."
Surprised, Snake nodded. "I'm honored, Captain. Thank you. I probably wouldn't have reached that rank through normal channels, since I won't stay with the Earth Forces beyond this war; as I've said, my loyalty isn't with any nation. And if it were, it would be with my homeland, Orb."
"Of course." She cocked her head. "I expect, with your acting skills, you won't have much trouble with the charade?"
He snorted. "Mon Capitan, I played the part of a student from North America so well nobody caught on to me until we got close to Orb and I started slipping. I'll be fine." Kevin stood and saluted. "If you'll excuse me, Captain, I think I'd better go see how Kira's doing. And get my uniforms updated," he added on his way out.
Somehow, Snake was not surprised to find Kira in the hanger, staring up at the Strike; he entered just in time for his augmented ears to pick up Kira's words, spoken with resigned conviction. "So be it... Athrun."
Kevin walked over. "Hey, tovarisch." He concentrated for a moment on the "sideband" of information from their empathic link (a link which Kira himself still seemed unaware of). "So, you've made up your mind?"
"Yeah," Kira said heavily. "We don't have a choice, do we? We've tried to talk each other out of it, but last time we nearly killed each other." He met his friend's eyes. "You were right, Kevin. Kill or be killed."
Snake felt oddly saddened by Kira's acceptance of it; his naiveté, while not exactly conducive to survival, had always been a little refreshing to the young super-soldier, who had seen far too much of the grim reality of war. "I wish it were different too, Kira," he said quietly. "But this is where Fate has led us. Maybe you still have a chance at a normal life, but ZAFT has ensured that my place will always be on the battlefield. And so our confrontation with Athrun is inevitable."
"Yeah..." Kira thought once more on the capriciousness of this "Fate" that his friend believed in, then changed the subject. "So, I hear congratulations are in order, 'Lieutenant Walker'."
Kevin rolled his eyes. "The rumor mill is the only thing faster-than-light on this ship," he said wryly. "Yeah, I got promoted, through some kind of bureaucratic maneuvering that I don't even pretend to understand. Wouldn't want to, either; I'll take the clear-cut issues of the battlefield to the arm-twisting of bureaucracy." He glanced sidelong at the other pilot. "Should have been you, Kira; you've done more than I when it comes to protecting this ship. Until I got Stormhawk, I seemed very good at getting shot up, and not so good at anything else."
"I'm not sure I'd want to be promoted for killing somebody," Kira said quietly. "I'm not exactly proud of it."
"No sane person is. Commander La Flaga was right when he said you won't find many people who fight just to fight." Snake grimaced. "Unfortunately, I'm one of them; it's how I'm built, literally a part of my body. I wouldn't fit in as a civilian anymore."
"You managed it on Heliopolis," Kira pointed out. "You even had me fooled; back then, I thought you'd just had some bad luck by running into Blue Cosmos, then got just good enough just in time to survive it. I didn't know you were a super-soldier until after you rescued Cagalli in the Indian Ocean."
"Yeah, I remember that." Kevin reminisced for a moment, remembering the events that had finally revealed to the crew that he was a cyborg; he was rather surprised Ramius hadn't so much as held a Captain's Mast over his altercation with La Flaga that day. "Yeah, I did have something of a habit of getting Cagalli's bacon out of the fire for awhile there, didn't I? I wish she was here."
"So do I," Kira agreed. "But at least in Orb she's safe. I wouldn't want to be worrying about her, too."
Snake laughed quietly. "Yeah, but if she ever heard either of us say it, she'd have us keelhauled."
His friend raised an eyebrow. "You know, I think the rest of the world has forgotten most of the expressions you use, Kevin. Just what is 'keelhauling'?"
"That, tovarisch, is a very unpleasant punishment from the Age of Sail," Kevin informed him. "You tie the offender to a rope, tie the other end of the rope to the ship, and throw him overboard to be dragged behind. The waves were quite painful on the face, and hypothermia was also a problem... as was the fact that a person in such a position was frequently a tempting bait for any nearby sharks."
He seemed quite cheerful about it, and his somewhat peculiar attitude toward such things, seeming almost amused by it, couldn't help but lift Kira's spirits slightly.
Kira frowned suddenly, though, as he realized he felt something strange... almost an echo of someone else's feelings, at the edge of his consciousness... "Kevin...?"
Snake looked at him closely, then nodded slowly. "So you feel it, too," he said quietly. "I wondered when you'd become aware of our connection."
"Connection...?" Kira's eyes narrowed. "What is this, Kevin?"
"I'm not precisely sure," he admitted. "But you and I have a kind of empathic link, something that allows us to sense each other's emotions. I talked to Commander La Flaga about it, and the best explanation we can come up with is that, when you combine how well we know each other and my own... unique capabilities with the fact that we both have Berserker talents, that first time you entered that state forced some kind 'psychic bond' between us. At first, the only evidence of it was that we both entered the Berserker state simultaneously. But, while the sense is dim as of now, the fact that we can sense each other's feelings tells me that the link is getting stronger; because at the beginning, that sense was not there at all." Even now, Kevin was still considering the implications. He'd told La Flaga that the link was irrelevant, but he was no longer so sure; it meant little now, but if it continued to strengthen...
Kira, too, now thought on the matter. In retrospect, he should have realized earlier that such a connection existed between them; on the other hand, of course, Kevin was more knowledgeable on the subject in general, and was in possession of more data about themselves in particular. "This is weird," he said finally. "I don't think there's ever been anything like this before."
"Not in recorded history," Snake concurred. "I did a great deal of research in Orb, when I first realized the link existed, and as far as I can tell nothing of this nature has ever before occurred. Nor, I suspect, will it again; because -and I don't mean to sound gloating or anything, because I'm just stating fact- I've always been a little beyond even Coordinator norm in terms of ability, and Project ABADDON boosted everything... including, inadvertently, my zoanthrope senses, normal and empathic. I honestly don't believe anyone like me will ever exist again." He met his friend's eyes. "And you're rather above-average yourself, Kira; I've never seen anyone take to flying as quickly as you did, and you too have Berserker capabilities. Taken together, you and I represent something that has never been, and probably never will be again."
"You do like to sound dramatic, don't you?" Kira said dryly. "So how much range does this 'link' have?"
"As far as I can tell, a few square kilometers," Snake answered. "For instance, back in Orb I couldn't sense you when I was at my mansion and you were at Morgenroete. But that's only for the moment."
"For the moment?" Kira tilted his head. "So how do you think it gets stronger?"
"I'm not sure," Kevin said again. "But it seems to be a little stronger after every battle, and every time we enter the Berserker state, in particular. This leads me to believe that stress plays a large role."
"There's certainly been enough of that over the last couple months," Kira said with a quiet chuckle. "Especially-"
He was cut off by the ship's PA system. "All hands to Level One Battlestations! Repeat, all hands to Level One Battlestations!"
They didn't have to be told twice; in an instant, they were up and running to the locker room.
Under two minutes later, Kira and Snake were on their way back to the hanger, going as fast as their legs would carry them to their mobile suits.
Kevin, slightly in the lead, went straight past a side corridor without pausing, but Flay stepped out of it in time to catch Kira. "Kira!" she called. He stopped, curious, and her expression looked worried. "Kira," she said again, struggling for words. "Kira, I..."
He looked away. "Sorry," he said softly. "Not now." Then his eyes turned towards her again. "But... later, hm...?" I still can't believe what Kevin said… so we have to talk. I have to know.
By the time Kira entered the hanger, Snake was already strapping into Stormhawk and running over a mental preflight checklist. "Okay, Sturm Falke," he muttered. "Now's the time to prove last time wasn't a fluke."
Before long, Mir's voice came over the radio. "Commander La Flaga, to the catapult; Strike, proceed to the rear deck. Ensign- Excuse me, Lieutenant Walker, proceed to the catapult and prepare for launch. Deployment at your discretion."
"Roger that." Being ordered to essentially do as he thought best didn't surprise Kevin; while the Bridge crew knew the Strike's and the Skygraspers' capabilities very well by now, the M1000 was still largely an unknown, which only its pilot properly understood. "Stormhawk moving to catapult."
"Be careful."
"Bridge, what's the opposition?" he asked as his suit settled into the launch rig.
"Aegis, Duel, and Buster," Sai informed him. "All riding Guuls. And there's a Vosgulov out there; sink it if you get the chance."
"With pleasure; out." Snake turned his attention to activating the necessary systems prior to launch. "Okay, main power on, phase-shift... no, I think we'll go with Mirage Colloid first. Bloody, I miss fission plants." Wishing the power requirements weren't so high as to prohibit the use of phase-shift armor and Mirage Colloid simultaneously, he continued flipping switches until he reached the last one, protected by a red cover. Without hesitation, he flipped it open. "Zero System activated," Snake said, and pushed the button.
Instantly, the world around him changed, giving him a three-hundred-and-sixty-degree look at the world. It was no mystery to Kevin why the test pilot had nearly lost his mind; it took essentially the same qualities to interpret the data as did the wired gunbarrels of a Moebius Zero. Mu La Flaga might have managed it, but few other Naturals could.
Now it just awaited tactical data before telling him the future...
"Stormhawk, launching," he informed the Bridge, and shot out of the launch bay.
Yzak's eyes narrowed when he saw the Archangel's starboard launch bay open for a few seconds, then close without having deployed anything. "You again," he muttered angrily.
"That new mobile suit," Dearka agreed. "The bastard must have launched under cloak. Let's keep an eye out; remember last time."
"Oh, yeah, I remember last time." Yzak's anger burned hotter as he remembered the humiliation of having this upstart, who had once been a member of ZAFT no less, dodge everything thrown at him without breaking a sweat. "Not this time, traitor."
"Yes, this time." Stormhawk coalesced mere meters from the Duel, and Yzak barely threw himself out of the way of a descending beam saber. "Miss me, Joule?"
"Hardly," he snarled. "This time, you're goin' down!" He triggered a grenade, then snarled again as it missed completely. "Sit still!"
"Sorry, not gonna happen." Stormhawk's head swiveled to gaze at the falling explosive. "You know, Yzak," Snake said conversationally, "when the pin is pulled, Mr. Grenade is not our friend."
"Shut up, you cocky twerp!"
"Don't worry, Yzak, I got 'im!" Dearka had gotten around behind, intent on double-teaming this nuisance (incidentally leaving Athrun to deal with the ship and Kira alone), and fired a sniper rifle-round at Kevin's back.
Stormhawk, however, was no longer there, having moved just far enough to the side to let the attack go harmlessly past. "You know, you guys are way out of your league. Look, even you guys admit it: why else would two of you be trying to take down just one of me?"
That did it. "Dearka, you go help Athrun with the ship; I'll kill this guy myself!"
"Right."
Still standing on the aft deck, the Strike was engaged with the Aegis, firing carefully-aimed beams at the red machine. Come on, Athrun, Kira thought. Let's finish this.
He didn't need to talk to Kevin to know his response; now that he knew the link existed, he read it easily, and felt Snake's agreement. They couldn't read each other's minds -at least not yet- but emotions could be almost as good at communicating such things.
Kira hissed as another shot missed, and lined up for another.
Snake, as of then, was engaged in a saber duel with the Duel, trying his very best to cut his enemy in half. "Is that the best you got?" he said through clenched teeth, pressing his blade against his enemy's.
"Not hardly, traitor!" Yzak thrust against the pressure, forcing Stormhawk away. "You're gonna pay for your treason!"
"Treason?" Kevin laughed. "I was never a loyal ZAFT soldier, Joule; not really. I was a brainwashed puppet. Is it really treason to kill those who made me a monster?"
"You were our best hope to defeat the Naturals!" Yzak snarled. "Chairman Zala's Destroyers would have made this war a walkover, then you had to ruin everything!" He fired his railgun, then snarled anew as it missed completely.
"Sinking to the level of barbarians, eh?" Snake shook his head. "I don't like barbarians, Yzak. I kill barbarians, and I do it very quickly and efficiently."
"You betrayed your own kind, you bastard! You killed Coordinators, when you should have helping them! You're the same-"
"I'm not like you!" Finally angry, Snake raised his buster rifles. "Enough playtime! I'm gonna kill you!" With the Zero System feeding tactical data straight into his brain, the shot was easy. His fingers tightened on the triggers, and a pair of azure bolts lashed out, blowing off the Duel's railgun and right leg... as well as blowing his Guul into itty bitty pieces.
"You-!" Enraged beyond words, Yzak fired his beam rifle, seemingly futilely...
...and the Zero System made its first, inevitable error, resulting in one of the beams striking Snake's left-hand buster rifle. "That's not good," he said to himself, and hastily dropped the weapon... which promptly exploded with approximately the force of a medium-sized bomb.
"Kevin!" Kira called, seeing the explosion. "You okay?"
"I'm fine," Kevin replied, looking gingerly at the remains of Stormhawk's left hand. "But to paraphrase General Douglas MacArthur, whoever said the pen is mightier than the sword obviously never met energy weapons. I'm gonna need repairs, tovarisch."
His friend didn't reply; he was now airborne and busy, flying straight at the Aegis, rifle spitting energy fire while his shield intercepted counterattacks.
"Kira!" Athrun shouted, leaping off his Guul; the unmanned vehicle continued on course, barely disrupted in time by Kira's precision fire.
The two exchanged fire, losing altitude, until a lucky shot from Athrun destroyed Kira's beam rifle; the Strike lost no time in drawing a beam saber and reciprocating.
Finally, the Strike slammed into a nearby island, landing hard, and the Aegis fell after it. "How could you do it, Kira?" Athrun energized a beam saber of his own and brought it down hard. "You murdered Nicol!"
So that's what this is about, Kevin realized, watching the battle from above. But neither of them realizes it was me that destroyed the Blitz; and even if they did, Athrun can't seem to remember that people die in war!
The next few moments of battle between the two former friends was chaotic, impossible to decipher, and his attention was distracted by the Archangel's fall to Earth; unnoticed by the pilots, the ship had sustained heavy damage to its levitators.
"We can't maintain our lift!" Neumann shouted. "Levitators down!"
"Prepare for emergency landing!" Ramius ordered. "All hands, brace for impact!"
Even as the massive ship hit the dirt, Badgiruel was still giving orders. "Aim Gottfrieds and Valiants!"
Above, Dearka saw his chance; having successfully blown the "legged ship" out of the air, he now had a perfect opportunity to destroy it completely. "Gotcha now!"
"Not so fast!" La Flaga's Skygrasper angled toward the Buster, beam turret spitting death; and one of the shots connected, blowing the Guul into scrap.
"No!" Dearka shouted in frustration, and fired his own massive weaponry as he fell.
One shot connected, knocking La Flaga out of the sky, but the Hawk's last shot also hit its mark, blowing off the Buster's right arm. With such devastating weaponry in use, both vehicles dropped like rocks, La Flaga making a crash landing in the water, and the Buster landing in front of the Archangel.
In the cockpit, Dearka ran diagnostics, frantically trying to get his machine on its feet. "Engine output down... hydros damaged... No!"
And that's when he realized the Archangel's enormous Gottfried beam cannons were pointed directly at him; if he moved, he would die. So he chose the only option left.
On the ship's Bridge, the crew stared in disbelief as the Buster's cockpit opened and Dearka exited, hands raised. "Is he surrendering?" Badgiruel said, unbelieving.
Meanwhile, the Strike and the Aegis still fought above, reduced to beam sabers and words for weapons. "Kira!" Athrun shouted, blade swinging.
"I'll destroy you!" Kira's blade blocked the flurry of strikes, and for a moment they stood motionless, blades locked.
Then Tolle, who had launched almost unnoticed in Skygrasper 2, dove toward them beam turret firing. "Kira!"
"Tolle, no, stay back!" Kira warned him frantically.
In that instant, Kevin Walker saw it all. The Zero System showed him the next few moments with perfect clarity, and he watched as the Aegis leapt away from a missile attack, reared back, and flung its shield at the lightly-armored fighter... blowing it to pieces.
I can't let that happen!
The Stormhawk shifted to mobile armor mode and slashed down from the sky, throttle at the firewall. "Warning," a calm computer voice said. "Warning. Speed exceeding Mach 10; if acceleration continues, the airframe will destabilize."
"Shut up!" Snake snarled, seeing the events his mobile suit had predicted beginning to unfold. The Aegis hurled its shield... Tolle began to react in shock, but far too slowly... it was too late...
And then Stormhawk slipped into the shield's path at the last instant. The improvised kinetic weapon slammed into the advanced mobile suit, slamming it backward into the Skygrasper... but Kevin's insane maneuver had bought Tolle an extra second, which he used to reach for his ejection handles.
Below, Kira stared at the explosion in horror. "Tooollleee!" All he could see was an explosion, and it told him his friend was gone.
Aboard Archangel, Mir's face took on an expression of horrified disbelief as Skygrasper 2's signal vanished.
Kira lowered his head, and when he raised it, his eyes were wide and his mind clear; and at the same instant, in a mobile suit only now trying to free itself from the ground where it had impacted, a pair of jade eyes, one natural, one artificial, underwent the same change.
The Strike leapt into the air, its pilot no longer bound by sanity. "Athrun!" The Aegis successfully blocked the first strike, but the second lopped off its left arm.
Forced back, Athrun, too began to change. "I'm gonna..." His mind went crystal clear, into Berserker madness. "...kill you!"
The next several moments were snapshots of destruction: the Aegis returned the favor by taking off the Strike's left arm, and then Kira stabbed through the Aegis' right eye, taking the entire head off and leaving it mostly blind.
Time resumed its normal flow as the badly damaged Aegis flung itself at the Strike, all three remaining beam sabers active, and switched to mobile armor mode. The three claws still left to it grappled the Strike, and the hyper-impulse cannon known as Scylla began to glow...
Then the glow died, and Athrun glanced down at his displays. The Aegis had run out of power, phase-shift going down, no weapons left. He was helpless, and the Strike, still powered, was beginning to recover.
Locked in his madness, Athrun took the only option left. A panel slid out from the right arm of his seat, and he punched two-eight-eight-seven into the pad there. Instantly, a red display lit up on the instrument panel, showing a countdown to Aegis' self-destruction. That done, Athrun bailed out.
Snake realized the danger through his link to Kira, and he redoubled his efforts to get airborne. "Come on, come on...!"
Too late.
The Aegis detonated, sending a wave of destruction in all directions, engulfing first the Strike, then the Stormhawk, and Snake's chair became wreathed in blue static... and the all-encompassing blast reached the Zero System.
The last thing to come over the Archangel's radio link with the M1000 Sturm Falke was an unearthly shriek of pure torment, and then there was only silence.
Author's note: Aegis is gone, Strike is down for the count, and something seems to have gone very wrong with the Zero System. Has Tolle survived?
Now Kevin Walker's empathic abilities have led to something else; what shall become of it?
Okay, looks like these notes will take less time than usual. First of all, arekuruu-inabikari-no-She, you seem to have missed part of last chapter's notes; as I said there, I had it all figured out, regarding the confrontation between Kira and Athrun: in the massive concussion of the blast, their memories of the Blitz's destruction were a little muddled. Thus, everything was preserved without my having to find a whole new way to arrange things (I could probably have managed it, but not without a great deal of difficulty.
Thanks for answering my question, by the way; and I'm glad you liked the dialogue between Kevin and Dearka. I'll have to look over it again myself; I don't think I've read it much since I originally wrote it.
Now you see what I meant about Kevin not killing Athrun; he's not in any position to do so. Soon you'll also see how I intend to handle the N-jammer Canceller.
Gojiro17, one thing you should never expect out of Kevin Walker, especially at this point, is mercy. He takes no prisoners (the reason for which will be fully explained in the sequel, though later on you might make a few guesses), and you'll remember he has no problem at all fighting friends; just look at his actions on that island, when facing Athrun.
I am aware, by the way, of what the Wing Zero Custom looks like. I've never seen Endless Waltz, but I've done a certain amount of research. Good thing, too: for future reference, web addresses don't seem to come through in reviews.
The new story, by the way, will be up very shortly after Brothers in Arms is complete, so you won't have long to wait for it. The sequel will be up and running -I think- not too long after Destiny hits the States; I already have a few plans for it, based on bits and pieces of info I've come across. Believe me, you're not the only one looking forward to it; Kevin Walker is without doubt my favorite OC to date (that I've created, anyway), and after the better part of nine months of working on Brothers in Arms, I've gotten rather accustomed to writing him. In any given situation, I know exactly how Kevin will react, which is something I can't really say about most of my OCs. So rest assured, he'll be back as soon as possible.
However, that's not something to really worry about just yet. After all, there is still almost half of this story yet to be posted.
So, that should be everything. Read and review, if you please. -Solid Shark