Mobile Suit Gundam SEED DESTINY

The New Coordinate

Story:
AU of GSD. Xander Darklighter, a pilot with attitude problem was just assigned to Minerva when three new mobile suits were stolen from Armory One. What will happen when he decided to take that path in front of him?

Notes:
Thanx for the reviews, guys. I appreciate 'em a lot.

About the GOUF. If you look at Yzak's unit, it's actually the very same type with a few customization on it. Therefore, the one that Xander is using wasn't the first one that came out.

Please correct me if there's anything wrong. I'll fix it ASAP.

I don't own GSD, their characters or anything else aside from Xander Darklighter.

Chapter 3: Owner of A Broken Heart

Both Shinn and Lunamaria were approaching the asteroid field cautiously.

"My scores weren't good in this kind of simulation and this situation doesn't help at all." Lunamaria said.

"Be on your guard. They could be anywhere." Shinn replied.

"I know that. Stop sounding like Rey!"

A blue GOUF caught up from behind. "Yo."

"Eh? Xander?" Lunamaria said in surprise. "Xander?" Shinn asked.

"Shinn, you haven't met Xander Darklighter? He was just assigned to work with us." Lunamaria answered.

Shinn frowned. "Oh, yeah. I've heard of it. I'm Shinn Asuka." Xander nods. "Xander Darklighter. Sorry for not introducing myself to you."

Shinn smiled. "It's alright. I understand. With the current situation and all..."

On the bridge of Minerva, Talia and the others were struck dumb by Xander's last words before he took off. Only Athrun, with his true identity had been revealed by Gilbert, managed a chuckle. "What did he mean...Rock and Roll?" Talia asked.

Smiling, Athrun replied; "It's nothing. He's been doing that since the academy days. He just wants to make himself different from the others. Besides, his favorite music happens to be 'Rock and Roll'. And that angered the instructors to no end."

"Still, his scores were astonishing despite his disciplinary problems. But of course your scores were better than him." Gilbert said.

Athrun nods. "Yes they were. Before, he was like you see in his personal records. Then, he just changed during the final exam."

"Changed?" Cagalli asked.

"Yeah. He started to take most things seriously. When asked about, he refused to say a thing about it."

Gilbert smiled. "He might have a girlfriend? Who knows?" The others just stared at him, without blinking.

"What?"

"Something doesn't feel right here..." Lunamaria muttered as they are approaching the ruins of a colony.

"Be on your guard." Shinn reminded.

Xander scanned the area. The sensors didn't picked up anything but he had a feeling that they're walking into a trap. Then, from the corner of his eye, he caught a glimpse of a mobile suit.

"...A trap." Xander finally said. Before the others could say anything, Gaia, Abyss and Chaos emerge from the abandoned colony and attacked. Shinn took on Chaos, Lunamaria engaged with Gaia while Xander and Abyss squared off once again.

Shinn launched a missle attack from the blaster pack installed with Chaos doing the same thing. Chaos retaliated by launching its mobile armor pods at Shinn. This had caused the young pilot to avoid from being hit by the beam attacks from the pods. Cursing, Shinn took cover inside a ruin and waited for the right moment for Chaos to come. Once its in the desired position, Shinn fired a twin beam shot through the wall. Seeing this, Chaos quickly avoided the blast and used its pods again to attack.

"Damn!" Shinn cursed.

"Could you just give it up?" Sting said as the two keep exchanging beam shots.

On the other side, Lunamaria was going against Gaia. She knew how lethal the black mobile suit is on close range and because of that, she used the beam rifle equipped to counter Gaia's speed and agility. Gaia, in its quadruped form, launched a powerful beam attack from its MA-BAR71XE beam rifle. Cursing, Lunamaria avoided it and fired a beam shot of her own.

"Die, you annoying red one!" Stellar Loussier, the pilot of Gaia shouted as she leapt at Lunamaria with the 'Griffon 2' beam blade stretched out.

In the ruin's empty space, Xander was engaging Abyss in this intense 3 on 3 battle. Abyss ignited its lance and tried to hack Xander's GOUF down but Xander easily blocked the attempt with his beam sword. Then, with an amazing speed and flexibility, Xander kicked his opponent right at the cockpit to send it flying away. Smiling, Xander followed it and was within striking distance to finish it off when he received a text message from Minerva to return.

"Aww, shoot! This is an absolute timing at its worst." he moaned.

During this few moments, Abyss recovered and attempted to blast Xander with its various beam cannons. Xander was well aware of this and quickly slipped to the back of his opponent and kicked it from behind, sending it away to where Lunamaria and Gaia located. The amphibious unit landed directly on top of Gaia with a huge crashing sound.

Smiling, Xander turned to Lunamaria. "Did you get the message?"

She looked at the two crashed units and blinked. Both of them were having trouble to move. "Hello?" Xander's voice broke her thoughts. She quickly nods. "Yes. I got the message."

Xander called out to Shinn. "Shinn, you hear me?"

"What?" he replied shortly as he avoided another attack from Chaos.

"Let's get the hell out. We got our orders." With that, Xander turned around and headed back towards Minerva with Lunamaria.

"Fine." Shinn reluctantly replied as he launched various beams and missles attack at Chaos and returned to the ship while the green suit was rendered busy avoiding it.

Xander, Shinn, Lunamaria and Rey met the red haired girl in the hallway. Xander approached her as she looked up at him nervously.

Xander smiled at her. "Hey, don't be so nervous. I just wanna thank you for the help you did on the bridge."

"You're...you're welcome." she replied.

"So, can I know your name? I'm Xander Darklighter. But I'm sure you already know that."

She stared into his aqua blue eyes. She could see the sense of calmness within. Finally, she replied. "Meyrin Hawke..."

"Oh?" Xander raised his eyebrows and turned to Lunamaria. "Your sister?" he asked. Lunamaria smiled at him and nods.

"You don't have to be so friendly with everyone here..." Rey said.

Xander turned to blonde pilot. "Now, now Rey. Yes, I know we military guys have to be strict at all times but once in a while, we need to loosen up a little."

Ignoring Xander's statement, Rey walked away.

"Tch. Weirdo."

The five of them went to the main lounge and saw Athrun sitting alone. Xander looked at his ex-classmate silently. Earlier, Meyrin had told them about 'Alex' and how did he helped in getting Minerva out of trouble.

Lunamaria approached Athrun. "We were just talking about you, Athrun Zala. It was unexpected or maybe it was. Either way, it's an honor to meet a legendary ace in a place like this."

"I'm nothing like that. I'm just Alex." Athrun replied.

"Is that why you're no longer piloting mobile suits?" she asked.

Athrun looked at her.

"That's enough, Luna." Shinn blurted in. "A guy from Orb will never understand a thing."

Athrun gasped as Shinn left.

Rey did a salute. "Please excuse me." Then he too, left.

Lunamaria returned her attention to the former ZAFT ace.

"But I heard that you save this ship from crisis. Thank you so much for that." She saluted him and left.

She approached Xander, who was outside listening all along. "So, you already know about all this?"

"Of course. He's my classmate during our academy days."

"I see. Well, I'm heading back to my room. See you."

With that, she left with Meyrin following behind. "Hey Meyrin." Xander called her out. She turned to him. "See you." Xander winked at her. This had cause her face to turn beet red and hurriedly left.

Xander then went inside the lounge and took a seat next to Athrun.

Athrun turned to him. "Since when did you become such a player?" he asked.

"Hey, I'm not a player here. I'm just being friendly, that's all. So, what should I call you? Athrun? Alex? Boss? Ace?"

Athrun laughed. "Athrun will be fine. We're old friends, after all."

"Thank god for that. I hate calling a friend with false name when I already know his true...identity."

"So, what did you do after our graduation? I've heard you've been assigned to the Dark Crimson under Commander Claire Whitestar. I've heard she was just three years older than us." Athrun said.

Xander chuckled. "Ha. Wanna catch up, eh? Sure. Yeah, I was assigned to the Dark Crimson. We got assigned to various operations. Mostly covert. Hacking, stealing, stalking. We did 'em all. But I'm the only survivor after the battle at Jachin Due two years ago."

Athrun looked at him surprise. "You were there?"

Xander nods. "Yeah. I lost everyone when that monstrosity GENESIS blew up everything in its path."

Athrun looked down on the floor, speechless. "I'm..."

Knowing that he somehow had made Athrun felt guilty, Xander pats his shoulder. "Hey, hey. It's not your fault, okay? Patrick Zala was the one that fired the damn thing. Not you. Not Athrun Zala. Not Alex Dino. And I'm sure as hell she won't blame you for her death."

"She?"

Xander stood up and walked to the window. With tears running down his cheek, he replied. "Claire. She is...was my girlfriend."

Athrun gasped but didn't know what to say.

Xander continued. "We were planning to engage after the battle but...but...GOD, WHY DO YOU HAVE TO BE SO CRUEL? WHY? Athrun, tell me why?"

Athrun slowly approached him, trying to comfort him as Xander broke down and cried.

To Be Continued...