Mobile Suit Gundam SEED DESTINY

The New Coordinate

Story:
AU of GSD. Xander Darklighter, a ZAFT ace pilot was thrown into a string of events that will test his skills, resolve, courage and determination. Which side will he choose to fight with? How will he deal with the events unfolding before him?

Notes:
Shinigami Keitaro: I'm a Malaysian. Born and bred. Born in KL but live in Selangor.

RVD: Where the hell you've been, my man? Well, can't blame you on having a life, right? Glad to see you back.

Wow, never thought Rina's death would saddened you guys. Thanx for the reviews. Keep 'em coming!

I don't own GSD, their characters or anything else aside from Xander Darklighter, Claire Whitestar and Yvonne Norman.

Chapter 21: Redeem Oneself

Xander and Yvonne were paying their last respect over Rina outside the city. Yvonne then planted some flowers near the grave while Xander held the medallion that was Rina's precious possession. Upon inspection, he found a small button on the side of it and pressed it. The medallion was opened to reveal a small picture of the younger Rina with an adult couple most likely to be her parents.

"Rina..." he muttered as he closed it.

"Xander, I'm done here." Yvonne informed.

Xander nods and placed the medallion on the grave. "Rina, I have decided to fight. I want to do whatever within my power to make things right again. And thank you for the wonderful memories..."

Yvonne knelt and clasped her hands together. "Rina, unlike Xander, I barely know you but I always feel that we've been together for a long time. I'm happy and glad to see you as my own sister. Seeing your happy face and beautiful smile reminds me how much more there is to life other than fighting. Like Xander, I thank you for short but wonderful memories of our time together. Goodbye Rina, my sister. May your soul finally, rest in peace..."

Upon finshing, she burst and hugged Xander, crying on his chest. Xander gently carress the flowing black hair. Then from the corner of his eye, he saw Claire, standing not far from the grave.

(Claire...)

"Xan, please live. For our sake..."

(Our...sake?)

Then, Rina appeared beside Claire. She happily smiled and waved at him.

"Yeah. Like Claire said, we want you to live. You don't have to die because of us."

"Xan, even if you don't want to fight, you can always help others in many other ways..."

Xander nods and both of them smiled. With a blink of an eye, they vanished.

At the deck of the Archangel, Kira was thinking about the recent battle against Destroy Gundam and Xander's fate upon the destruction of the Dark Strike.

"Xander..."

"Kira, I've been looking for you."

Kira turned to see Cagalli took her place beside him. "Thinking about Lacus?"

He smiled and shook. "Not exactly. I'm thinking of what happened to Xander after his unit was destroyed by Impulse."

Cagalli turned away when she heard that name.

"You still haven't forgive him for what he did, don't you?"

"I...don't know..."

"I'm sure he didn't expect you to do so. But unlike you, we already known him for a long time. Especially Lacus. Xander never wants to fight. Let alone killing."

"But he USED to kill, right? How could that be any different?"

"Cagalli, he suffered the loss of his loved one two years ago. That was enough reason for him to change. We all saw his condition when we first met him. The look in his lifeless eyes were begging for us to kill him. For him, death was his only redemption of what he did."

"That guy..." Cagalli muttered

"Almost every single day, he tried many ways of commiting suicide. And when his emotion went out of control, he was difficult to deal with. But Lacus was the only one that could stop him from doing anything foolish."

"I..."

"I don't expect you to forgive him but please understand his feelings. That's all I ask."

Xander and Yvonne had returned to the latter's camp at Banidiya to check things out.

"Miss Yvonne! Thank goodness you're okay." Benedict, her servant shouted as soon as they landed.

"Of course I'm okay. How's the camp?"

"Everything is doing fine but with ZAFT gaining more and more influence, it is not wise for us to stay here. Especially after Dullindal declared total war against the Federation."

"I see. Instruct everyone to evacuate to our enclave. On the double. And I mean EVERYONE."

Benedict bowed and left to carry out the orders. Yvonne turned to Xander.

"You're going with us?"

Xander shook. "No. There are things that I must do even I have to do it by myself."

"I see." She then looked at her Windam and returned her attention to Xander. "Take my unit."

Xander was perplexed by her words. "What?"

"I said take my Windam. I have no use of it at the moment but I'm sure you're gonna need it."

"But...I...you..."

Yvonne gave a death glare at him. "I said, TAKE IT, Darklighter."

Xander sighed. "You sure you're not gonna need it?"

Yvonne smiled and shook her head. "I have to be with my men for now. A leader can't abandon her group, right?"

"Ah, you're right on." Then, Xander got into the Windam and waved at her.

"We'll see each other again, right?" he asked.

Yvonned grinned. "The duel. Just remember the duel."

Aboard Minerva, Lunamaria was thinking about the Operation Angel Down. And of Xander.

(Xander...how are we going to see each other under this situation? Please tell me...)

"Luna."

She turned around to see Shinn in his pilot suit. "Are you okay?"

She nods. "I'm...fine."

"Listen Luna. I'm sorry about what I did to Xander..."

Lunamaria shook her head. "How many times do you have to say that? It's alright. I understood the whole situation, okay?"

"Eh, yeah. Sorry. Okay, I have to get ready then. This time we'll take down the Archangel."

With that, Shinn left for the briefing room. Then, Athrun came over. "Thinking about him again?"

Lunamaria smiled. "Hehe. You got me there. You've been with him at the academy, right? Can you tell me how he was during those days?"

"Let's see. Among us graduates, Xander was actually the first member of our group. But somehow his progress was really fast and he managed to cover all the training in just a few months compared to us which was a year. But because of his problems, he kept on failing to graduate. And he seemed to be content on doing so. It was his second year at the academy by the time we graduated."

"According to records, he had discplinary problems, right?"

"He was but mostly minor things like turning in late, took everything in the lesson easily and to some extent, argued with instructors. He and Miguel...were best friends though they quarreled a lot. But for some reason, Yzak didn't like him though."

"But I didn't see him in the graduation picture other than you guys. What happened?"

"I've heard he was called upon and drafted into Dark Crimson right after graduation. But even before that, Xander was assigned to them and did many secret missions for the Council."

"Do you...know anything about Claire Whitestar?"

Athrun shook. "Other than that she was the leader of the Dark Crimson, no, I don't."

On the freezing terrain of North Pole, Xander was trying hard to locate Archangel with his radio equipment but failed.

"Damn, I thought the ship is around here..."

Suddenly, Xander detected a mobile suit not far from his position but the signal disappeared. Cursing, Xander donned some thick clothing and got out of his unit. After around 15 minutes of trudging on the thick snow, Xander saw an AWACS DINN unit seemed to be stalking something.

(Oh? A peeping Tom. Oh, the joy.)

Suddenly, the DINN turned to Xander and aimed its rifle at him. He smiled.

"I'll rip the gun before you shoot. Trust me."

With that, the DINN pulled the trigger but there was no shot because Xander suddenly appeared on top of the rifle and took out the its tip with his sword. He then jumped back down and glanced at his sword.

"Wow. This sword is indeed magical like Yvonne said."

The stunned DINN regained its composure and attacked Xander with its sword. But because of Xander's training from his Dark Crimson days, he easily avoided them. He then landed on top of its head and looked at where the unit was peeking. He spotted the Archangel.

"Shoot! Now that's a reason why I should take you out."

Xander thrusted down his weapon into its eye to disrupt the visual. He then made his way to the cockpit and smashed it open with the magical sword. Xander pulled out the male pilot and pointed his sword at him. The pilot could've swore that he saw the tip of the sword was burning. Xander threw the pilot all the way to the ground and checked the system. To his dismay, the ship's presence had been made known and ZAFT forces and Minerva were on their way to take them down.

"Shoot!" Xander then destroyed the controls and jumped out. He pulled the pilot from the snow and looked at him straight in the face.

"You have to walk, my friend."

The battle had already begun with Impulse and Freedom were fighting each other and Minerva and Archangel were battling to see which side was better eqipped for victory. Minerva also had some aid from a land battleship nearby and Xander decided to take that out to nullify the advantage. As he was approaching it, the ship detected his presence and fired all turrets at him. Xander avoided these with ease and took out each turret and cannon with the beam rifle. After that, he destroyed the main thrusters to stop them from going further.

"Good. Now, be a good boy and watch the battle."

He then moved on to take out the mobile suits that are attacking Archangel.

On the Archangel, Miriallia detected Xander's Windam unit approaching them. She knew that the red Windam belongs to Yvonne but there was no way she could pilot it with relative ease. She knew one person with that style of flying.

"Captain, the Windam requested a communication." She told Murrue. "Shall I pacth it through?"

Murrue nods. A while later, Xander's face appeared. "Ahem. Xander Darklighter here. I came to help you guys."

"Xander!" Murrue exclaimed. "I thought you're..."

Xander smiled. "Hush now, Captain. I'm still alive here. Guess surviving after the explosion is becoming a habit to me."

"But why would you want to help? You have friends at Minerva, right?"

"Yeah. But I trust that you guys won't kill them, right?"

Murrue nods and Xander then turned to Cagalli who was standing just behind the captain's seat.

"I know you won't forgive me for what I did but please let me redeem myself in this battle. After that, I'll turn myself in. You can do whatever you want."

"I..."

Before Cagalli could finish, Xander hastily left to engage ZAFT's mobile suits. Xander smiled to himself as he took each suits down.

(After this battle I might not be able to see her but I don't care as long as I can atone for what I did...)

To Be Continued...