Well, I must say I'm kinda disappointed. I thought I'd get five reviews much faster than that...but anyways, I got five, so I'm updating.
Thank yous:
Merffles: Aren't you getting a bit ahead of yourself? Rin has to survive first.
asucagainluv: Yeah, I think so too, but I don't know yet...we'll see.
ZGMF X-19A Infinite Justice: Read and see!
Spellcasterz: Well, I gave it that title because I think it well suited what Athrun was trying to do. Somehow, he was actually able to speak with Rin during her operation, and so I guess I called it his power since with it he was potentially able to help her.Good question though!
Sword of the soul: Well, it's actually up to the readers whether or not there will be a happy ending or no. That's the one part I haven't decided yet.
Disclaimer: I own nothing! Not even the clothes on my back! It's true, they belong to my mom...we're the same size. Five reviews till I update! Enjoy!
CHAPTER NINETEEN – THE FINAL STAGE PART 1
"WHAT!"
Rin sat bolt upright. She looked around with sharp movements, causing her hair to swish in her face. Two doctors stood at the side of the bed she'd been in…
"What? What am I doing here? Where's Athrun? What happened? What –"
"Whoa, young lady, that's enough from you," said one of the doctors with a chuckle. "You're in no shape to be up and at it right now. We nearly lost you."
"Huh?" Rin was confused. She did a check of her body. She seemed healthy enough. She felt pretty hyper, too. What was the doctor talking about? What the heck had happened to her? Where was she, and what exactly was going on?
Then something popped up in the back of her mind. She remembered Azrael, and that evil smirk he would always wear on his face. She remembered Orga, Clotho, and Shani, the pilots she had fought alongside. While trying to destroy Athrun...
"On Athrun's request, we operated on you, to get the drug out of your body," the doctor's assistant explained. "Your body almost couldn't take it. You nearly died. We thought you were a goner…but you've got some willpower in you."
Things clicked in her head. She wasn't with Azrael anymore! She was in theEternal, the ship Athrun was on! And..."And the drug? Is it gone?" she asked in a hurry, her breath all choked up with the anticipation of what she thought had happened.
The doctor nodded, proud of his work. "As if it was never there in the first place. You're a strong girl."
Rin gasped in delight. She had done it! She had gotten rid of the drug!
Not me, she realized suddenly. It wasn'tbecause of her.Athrun.
Where is he?
She jumped out of bed without another word and took off out the door without leaving anyone anytime to protest and leaving the doctors absolutely speechless.
The assistant found his voice first. "She is one remarkable kid."
The doctor could only nod at first. Then he found he voice, but all he could say was, "Yeah.
"She really is."
"ATHRUN!" Rin cried, bursting through the doors of the bridge to find that the ship was in the middle of a huge combat. Beams and missiles flew parallel and perpendicular to the Eternal in a crazy frenzy, and a powerful male voice was issuing out orders.
The captain of the ship, who was shockingly Lacus Clyne, turned to face her. "Rin, you're awake already?" she asked, clearly surprised to see her up and about, but mainly that she had survived."But this isn't safe for you right now – we're in a big fight –"
"Freedom, Justice, get out of the way!" a familiar voice yelled, crackling with the static of a slightly broken communicator, directed for every Orb ship in the area. Yzak's voice, as she quickly recognized. "They're gonna fire GENESIS! Get out of the way!"
Rin gave a start. "The Justice?" she demanded."Athrun!"
And GENESIS fired.
Rin saw the beam shoot from somewhere in the PLANTS right by the ship as the crewmembers tried in a panic to get out of the way. They succeeded, but everything around them was exploding in blasts of bright light and a frenzy of hectic yells so that it made it impossible to see or hear what was going on.
Rin grabbed the communicator from one of the crewmembers, who gave a start and a protest, but Rin shoved him aside. "Athrun?" she yelled into it, her eyes wide with furious worry. "Athrun, can you –"
"Rin, that's enough," Lacus said in a commanding voice. The tone of hernormally gentle voice shockedRin, and she dropped the headset and turned to look at her.What she saw stunned her. Lacus was staring at the window, her eyes wide and frightened, seeming not at all to have belonged to a girl with such power in her voice. When she continued to speak, her voice was shaking. "There's too much interference with that beam right now…we won't be able to reach them."
Explosions continued to ring out all around them for another minute, during which Rin squeezed her eyes tightly so that she couldn't seewhat was going on. Then, slowly, everything calmed down until there were no sounds to be heard. Rin raced to the window, nearly stumbling, to see what was going on outside.
She let out a huge cry, after which she clapped a hand to her mouth. All around them were the remnants of mobile armors and other space weapons. Everything was in tatters – there seemed to be no survivors.
"A-Athrun?" she whispered to no one in particular, her eyes large and watering rapidly.
"Call all of our forces back," Lacus ordered. "We need to regroup."
A man Rin recognized as Commander Waltfeld (who she had originally thought to be dead but now knew otherwise) repeated the order to the crewmembers, who hurried to inform the Archangel and the Kusanagi.
Then two faces appeared on the screen: Athrun and Kira.
"Is everybody all right?" Kira asked gravely, and then he and Athrun gave a start. "Rin?"
"Rin!" Athrun exclaimed, breaking into a smile. "You're all – are you –?"
Rin smiled, the tears leaking down in her relief that they both survived the terrible blast. "I'm all better now," she said, trying hard to keep her voice steady.
Athrun and Kira gave her huge smiles. "Hang on," Kira said. "We're coming in."
Five minutes later, Rin and Lacus were joined on the bridge by Kira, Athrun, Cagalli from the Kusanagi, and Murrue Ramius from the Archangel. Rin received smiles and hugs from everyone for being okay, including Kira and Athrun, and she accepted these actions without complaint. But there were important matters to discuss, and the happy mood grew serious the instant Commander Waltfeld brought it up. Everyone was worried about what they had all witnessed – the tremendous power of the so-called ZAFT weapon, GENESIS. According to Erica Simmons, talking to them from the Kusanagi, it was a large gamma ray beam that, if fired there, could wipe out all life on Earth. It was a terribly dangerous weapon.
A heated discussion ensued, and it was ultimately decided that GENESIS had to be destroyed, and so did the nuclear missiles the Earth Forces were using. If not, the war would surely end with the total destruction of either the coordinators or the naturals. True peace would never be achieved. And nothing would ever change.
"Attention!" came a voice from the Archangel – Miriallia's voice. "The Earth Forces ships have begun their assault!"
Rin looked sadly out the bridge window, wishing wistfully for more time, and left the room with everyone else to go get ready. Cagalli and Murrue left to get to their own ships, and Rin knew Kira and Athrun were close behind her.
"Rin, hold it!"
Rin turned around just as Athrun reached her and grabbed her arm. "Yes?" she asked, wondering what he had stopped her for.
Athrun's face was etched with lines of worry. "Don't tell me you're going out to fight so soon!"
Rin looked at him weirdly. He didn't think she was capable! "Why shouldn't I?" she asked hotly. "I'm a good pilot. I'm ready for this!"
"You might think so, but your body isn't," Athrun argued. "You just had a huge operation. You almost didn't survive!"
Rin smiled. Given the gravity of the situation at hand, she knew she shouldn't, but she couldn't help it."I know that," she said. "So I want to thank you for what you did for me. I didn't think it was possible, you know. I was sure Azrael had found the perfect way to bind me to his will. And yet you found a way to break that tie. And even when it seemed like I was done for, you brought me back. And for that…" she leaned closer and hugged him, "I'm grateful."
Athrun said nothing. Had she looked up, she would have seen that he was too surprised to move.
Rin broke away quickly, feeling her cheeks heat up. She gave a sheepish smile. "Well, let's get going," she said happily, skipping off. "We've got a war to end!"
Athrun could only stare after her for a moment. Then he joined her with a grin. "All right."
"Rin Amarfi, Harmony launching!"
Rin leaped into the battlefield side-by-side with Athrun and Kira. Each of them was specially equipped with special armor and missiles to destroy many nukes at a time. But by the time they arrived on the battle scene, the nukes were already being launched. Quickly, the Freedom, Justice, and Harmony shot out as many missiles as they could, locking on to every single nuclear weapon and destroying them.
"Yes!" Exclaimed Rin after destroying about a third of the missiles – Athrun and Kira each had their own equal share too. "See, Athrun? I told you I'm fine!"
Athrun smiled and shook his head. "I guess you're recovering quicker than I thought."
Then Kira's voice broke in: "Athrun, Rin, the three machines!"
Rin turned to see none other than the Calamity, Forbidden, and the Raider heading their way, and Rin could tell they were mad.
"Hey, bitch, what the hell do you think you're doing?" Clotho yelled angrily. "You can't go back to them now! You traitor!"
He fired beams at her, as did Orga and Shani, echoing yells of rage, but Rin had worked with them long enough to figure out all of their moves, and dodging them all at once was no problem. In their fury, they fired even more beams, and this time Rin started countering them. Athrun and Kira joined her.
"I was never one of you!" Rin raged at them, firing about two dozen beams at the same time. "I hated you – all three of you!" She prepared to load one final beam at Shani, who was circling, trying to avoid Kira and Athrun's attacks, "So get the hell outta my face!"
SMASH!
Her beam hit Shani's control booth dead-on. She heard him scream as the communicator cackled and broke, and the Forbidden exploded. She felt a tiny pang of remorse knowing what this teen had been through by working for Azrael, but she knew that it had to be done. Besides, his death had been painless, quite unlike his life had been, and he was probably off to someplace better anyways. A world without war. And what a world that would be!
"Shani!" Orga exclaimed in shock, and upon hearing this, Rin snapped back to the reality in which she was fighting. Clotho said nothing, just firedfuriously at Rin. Rin, Kira and Athrun all fired back. Then she heard Kira gasp in surprise.
"Kira?" she asked, concerned. "What is it? Did you get hurt? Is your machine okay?"
"It's not that," Kira said. "Something's not right here. I'm going to checkit out." And the Freedom zoomed off in another direction, closer to the PLANTS.
"Kira!" Athrun yelled, and started to fly after him, but stopped. "Rin, will you be-?"
"Go!" she yelled at him,and Athrun nodded and flew off. Rin watched as the Justice became a speck in the distance, where more explosions were taking place.
She turned back to face her enemies. Clotho in the Raider. Orga in the Calamity. Two teens under Azrael's terrible influence, who once fought on the same side as her.
But not her allies. Never allies. And they would never fight on her side again.
As she faced them, and there was a momentary pause from firing, she couldn't help but grin as her heart started to beat faster.
"Well, boys, it's just the three of us now," she said.
Orga and Clotho grinned evilly.
"I'll crush you," Orga growled.
"You won't get away," Clotho snickered.
Rin couldn't help but grin with the anticipation of finally getting rid of them.
"Well, then, let's bring it on," she said calmly, and they launched at each other for one decisive battle.