Chapter 24: Back to ORB
The fifteenth of May, C.E. 71; nearly four months after the day it all began.
Kevin Walker sat at his post on the Archangel's Bridge; in the absence of Natarle Badgiruel, he had taken over the Combat Information Center beneath the main Bridge; it was a post from which he would be often absent, of course, as his skills and his mobile suit could be even more valuable, but when grounded, Kevin served as the ship's combat commander and strategist.
At this particular moment, he watched Onogoro Island grow on the monitors, as an Orb aircraft under the direction of Colonel Ledonir Kisaka guided them in. It had been about a month since they last left, after over three weeks in drydock; this time, the Archangel was at least as bad off, with a gaping hole in the starboard flight deck where a hatch should have been, badly damaged engines, nonfunctional levitators, slagged missile tubes, destroyed Igelstellungs, and both Valiant linear cannons blown to scrap metal. They'd be awhile repairing that.
Repairs, however, were the last things on Kevin's mind; for he was anticipating a reunion with his closest friend. Though half his face was gone (he still hadn't had a chance to get it fixed), he knew Cagalli Yula Athha would recognize him instantly.
He was also looking forward to seeing her reaction to seeing Kira again. The relationship between them (which Cagalli had always insisted -loudly- was nothing of the sort) had always amused him greatly, the more so since recovering from the desire to blow himself to bits. Kevin figured she'd either berate Kira mercilessly for putting her through this, or cry on his shoulder for half an hour.
Maybe both. Either way, Kevin would be careful not to show his amusement toomuch; lest his friends toss him through a bulkhead. And his augmentation didn't do much to prevent bruises or headaches. Or mild concussions.
"Well, it looks like we made it," Murrue Ramius said with a sigh.
"Yeah," Mu La Flaga concurred from the copilot's seat. "Alaska to Orb in seven days; this old girl could've made it in a lot less without that beating we took."
"Not our fault we got used as bait, Mu," Kevin said, standing and walking to the front of the Bridge. He stretched idly, working out the kinks from having sat in a chair too long. "Speaking of which, something really doesn't smell right about it."
"What do you mean?" Ramius asked, curious; she had learned to trust the young warrior's hunches. "You think there was more to it than simple good intelligence?"
"Yeah, I do." He started pacing. "Think about it, Murrue. Obviously someone gave the Earth Alliance Headquarters information that an attack was being planned on JOSHUA; and I don't believe for an instant that this was a 'spur of the moment' change in targets. If it were, HQ wouldn't have known so far in advance, because nobody else would've, either. And the way ZAFT fought there tells me that the same someone who gave information to the Alliance alsogave information about JOSHUA to ZAFT; 'sudden' change of targets or no, they were far too well-informed about the defenses." Kevin shrugged. "That tells me that someone is playing both sides against the middle, and I don't like that. Unfortunately, I don't have enough data to figure out who; I'll have to wait until I see Orb's intelligence."
"You think they'll just give it to you?" La Flaga swiveled to face him. "I mean, that would be pretty secret, wouldn't it?"
Snake snorted. "You forget who I am, Mu. Kevin Walker is nobody. Baron Onishi, on the other hand, can get anything up to and including a battleshipif he needs it to further his goals. Such are the benefits" the word seemed to leave a bad taste in his mouth "of being high-born."
Cagalli watched with her father, Erica Simmons, and a handful of other important officials as the Archangel slid neatly into the dock, hardly able to stand still. The news from the Archangel had nearly given her heart failure, and even now she worried that it had all somehow been a mistake in communications.
Unable to contain herself any longer, she ran from the observation room, heading quickly to the ship as it came to a rest. Uzumi Nara Athha glanced at her, but made no move to stop his daughter. He knew how important two of the people aboard that ship were to her; besides which, he knew that if he tried to interfere, he would face more than just her wrath. And the Baron's wrath was not often survivable.
Cagalli raced through the hatch as it opened and paused before an elevator door. As it opened, she stepped aside to let the ship's doctor and another crewman pass with a stretcher; she winced as she saw the man's injuries, for among other things, he seemed to have lost an eye. That made her nervous, for the Archangel's message traffic had not included casualty lists. If either of them were hurt...
They won't be, she told herself. If they're alive, they'll be fine. They're too good to get hurt!
The princess was soon walking the corridors of a higher deck, glancing down each side corridor... until she saw the face she was looking for, heading in the opposite direction down a parallel passage. "Kira!"
Kira turned. "Cagalli-! Oof!" Cagalli jumped at him, knocking him off his feet and slamming him painfully to the deck.
She didn't let him up, instead pounding her fist on his chest. "You idiot!How could you do something so stupid? You're just-!" Tears filled her eyes, streaming down her face. "You're so-" Cagalli hung her head, crying. "I thought... I'd never see you again... How could you do that to me?"
Kira let his head sink to the deck. "Sorry," he said quietly.
She finally looked up. "So you're... really alive?" she whispered.
He smiled. "Yeah. I'm alive. And I did come back." His eyes closed for a second, apparently concentrating. "Kevin's coming."
"Huh?" Cagalli managed a smile. "Don't tell me you have a radio in your head now, too!"
"Actually, it's a kind of psychic link," Kevin said from behind her; though Kira hadn't realized it, he'd arrived in time to see the whole thing, and only barely contained himself. He wasn't sure if the barely-suppressed laughter came from amusement... or pleasure, at seeing his friends reunited. "Catch you at a bad time, tovarisch?"
Even the genetically-engineered, cybernetically-augmented killing machine had no time to react as she threw herself at him, knocking him backwards into the bulkhead hard enough to make his ears ring.
Behind them, Kira picked himself up and chuckled as Cagalli pounded her fist on Kevin's chest... which, incidentally, hurt her more than it did him. "You stupid, brainless moron! You tell me you're going to be fine, and then you go off and try to blow yourself up again-! Where have you been?"
Kevin groggily shook his head, trying to clear it; he hadn't been hit that hard since that rocket attack in Banadiya. "Hey, I'm here, aren't I?" he said quietly. "And it wasn't exactly my idea to be blown up like that." He reached up and lightly touched her face. "I came back, just like I said."
She hugged him. "I thought you were gone," Cagalli whispered. "Just like two years ago. All we found of the Stormhawk was a hand, and Athrun... said you were both gone."
He stiffened slightly. "Athrun? You've been busy."
"Yeah." She pulled back, and saw the metal where his face should have been. "The face is gone again? What happened?"
"When the Aegis self-destructed, it kinda turned his seat into an electric chair," Kira explained. "And the Zero System messed up his head a little."
"Fortunately, I have built-in surge protectors," Kevin said dryly. "And I see you've learned some new historical analogies, Kira; I don't think they've used electric chairs in a couple centuries."
His friend grinned. "I did some research; I got kinda tired of not understanding your weird metaphors."
"Well, now that you're back, I'm sure you can get it fixed soon." Cagalli finally stood, allowing her old friend to get up. She winced as she saw his right eye flicker; apparently she'd hit him a little too hard, and now Kevin's eye was flickering between the basic red and life-imitating green.
The problem was gone a second later as he adjusted his internal software to compensate. "Ouch. Yeah, it'll be fine; I'm looking forward to looking like a normal human being again, instead of something out of an old horror movie. I'm fit to scare children, and frankly, peculiar as my fashion sense may be, it doesn't include a bare-metal face."
"Yeah, I bet." Cagalli glanced between them. "So what's this about a 'psychic link'?"
By this time, Athha and Kisaka had arrived on the Archangel's Bridge. "I want to thank you for coming to our aid once again," Ramius said, bowing slightly to the former Chief Representative.
"You're quite welcome," Athha said graciously. "I'm sure you understand why we can't make you and your crew too welcome as yet," he went on, "but at least you'll finally have a chance to get some rest."
"Thank you for understanding." She, too, understood; it could be awkward for Orb to be harboring deserters from the Earth Forces, particularly after all the trouble HQ had gone to to insure there would be none to tell the truth of what had happened. Dead men told no tales, after all.
Yet Ramius was equally certain that Athha had something up his sleeve. He always seemed to, anyway. What was it Kevin called him? A 'crafty bastard'? Not exactly polite, but probably accurate. Of course, our reptilian friend isn't exactly the most unbiased observer, is he? Kevin had told her of the tension that had always been between them, bordering on enmity, which seemed to center around the young man's close friendship with Athha's daughter. I suppose every father feels the same way, even if nothing happens between them. She smiled to herself. He only ever seems to act like a normal teenager around that girl; they really must be close to engender the kind of loyalty he has to her. Kevin would do anything she asked; even if it meant killing someone, I expect. Once the thought would have disturbed her, but Ramius knew both of them quite well by now.
"After you've all had a chance to relax, I'll bring you up-to-date on the latest intelligence we've gathered." Athha had an odd expression on his face. "With the Earth Forces Headquarters gone, the world has once again shifted in a new direction; and the news we've heard will give you much to think about. It may even make you question why you decided to put on that uniform in the first place."
Ramius tilted her head. What?
"So you talked to Athrun?" Kira asked.
"Yeah; we'd gone out looking for you guys, but we found him instead."
Kira, Cagalli, and Kevin were in the Archangel's hanger, standing on the walkway that had once provided access to the Strike, and now stretched before the Freedom.
"I'm still kinda surprised he survived it himself," Kevin murmured. "He couldn't have had time to get very far."
"He was on the beach, half in the water. He was devastated," Cagalli said quietly. "He kept crying about what he thought he'd done to you... and then he realized he'd gone after the wrong guy."
Kira raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"
Kevin had already figured it out. "Athrun must have realized it was me that killed the Blitz, not you, Kira." At his friend's look of surprise, he shrugged. "I guess the shockwave must have messed with your head a little, tovarisch, because it wasn't you that killed Nicol Amalfi. It was my Stormhawk's cannon, which I apparently didn't focus quite enough."
"But... but I..." Kira could hardly understand. "All this time, I thought I..."
Snake shook his head. "That's one thing that needn't be on your conscience, tovarisch. Mine."
"What happened?" Cagalli still hadn't heard that story yet.
"There was another battle before that," Kira explained. "In which I cut down -or thought I cut down- Athrun's friend, and then he did the same to Tolle."
"No, he didn't," she disputed, shaking her head. "We found him, still in his ejection seat. He was hurt pretty bad by the explosion, and he's still unconscious, but he made it."
Kevin sighed in relief. "Good to know. Jason sacrificed his mobile suit and nearly his life to protect Tolle, even though his Machine rammed into the skygrasper afterwords. I wasn't able to get out of range when Athrun blew himself up was because I tried to help Kira, but the Red Queen's Hyperion stopped me by blasting one of my Wings. It's a shamer her machine blew up as well and no she has a new machine." Kevin said with his arms crossed.
"There was no other option," Kira murmured. "For me... and I'm sure for Athrun, as well."
"You three were friends, right?" Cagalli asked. "Ever since you were kids?"
He nodded. "Ever since we've known him, Athrun has always been a loyal friend. We knew that if we needed him, he'd always be there to help out."
She turned. "You must have known you'd have to fight him eventually," she said. "So why did you guys stay with the Earth Forces? I mean, you're Coordinators, so it seems pretty stupid to stay when you know you might have to fight your friend."
Kira leaned back, thinking. "I thought that if I didn't," he said finally, "my other friends would lose their lives. So I stayed, becauseI am a Coordinator." Kira gazed up at the Freedom. "The truth is, the honest truth is... I guess I never seriously thought that I would have to take his life, or that Athrun would have to take mine."
Kevin spent even longer thinking on his answer. "It's not quite that way with me," he said at last. "For one thing, I never intended to stay with the Earth Forces after reaching Earth. I just intervened to help the Archangelmake it through reentry, then the ship happened to land at my destination. I stayed on after that for pretty much the same reason. But unlike Kira, I never had any doubts that we would eventually come to blows." His jade eyes, one natural, one mechanical, closed. "In fact, I swore to kill him. I'm not like you two; not exactly. The last three years, my life's been a little harsher. And after what happened to me, Athrun's decision to join ZAFT was a personal betrayal." He looked at his friends. "I wish it hadn't come to this, but as long as he remains with them, he's my enemy."
Cagalli looked at him, seeing the evidence of Kevin's brushes with death. The metal face; the scars, invisible under the shirt and jacket, that were left over from the brutal torture and horrific surgery... All of it evidence of how close he'd come to death. And she didn't want him to leave her like that.
"Kevin..." she began hesitantly. "Maybe... maybe you should take it easy, you know? Maybe it's time... you left this to others."
His jade eyes narrowed. "What do you mean?"
"I mean... You've come close to dying so many times -you have died, even! Isn't it maybe time for you to get out of this while you still can? Stop fighting while you're still alive?"
Kevin looked away. "Cagalli, please don't ask me that. Please. You know I'd do anything for you, but not that. I... I can't. This isn't just vengeance, tovarisch. I can't even sleep the whole night through until this is over. Please don't ask this of me... because it's the one thing I can't do."
Before Cagalli could protest, Kira broke in. "He's right, Cagalli. I don't like it either, but... after that last battle with Athrun, I saw it. His nightmare, I mean. I saw what happened... and now I see what he has to do, why he has to do it." He shrugged helplessly. "It's not really living if you can't rest, you know?"
She looked away. "I know, but... I've already nearly lost you both. I..."
"I know, tovarisch," Kevin said gently. He reached out and squeezed her shoulder. "I don't much like it either. But there's no point in living if you can't feel alive, and I can't; not the way things are. I've told you what ABADON did to me. Unless I can lay that part of my past to rest, it'll never be over. It's the only way I'll have peace."
Cagalli looked up. "Revenge won't bring you redemption, Kevin. You know that."
"Yeah, I do. But I don't need redemption, now, do I?" He smiled. "You guys saved me, remember? You two and a blind monk took care of that. But the only way I can stop reliving that night is by killing the last person involved. After that, sure, I'll give some serious thought to retiring. But until then, retirement would be kinda pointless."
"Yeah," she said at last. "Yeah, I guess you're right. But you'd better be more careful about it from now on. If you die, I'll never speak to you again!"
How could she, but I am going to protect her from anything, even if its Red, even though she doesn't want to kill people who have nothing to do with her battle. Kevin thought, (Why can't I get her out of my head?) He asked as Kira could hear it.
(She who?) Kira asked.
(No one you need to concern yourself with Kira.) Kevin assured him.
A few days later, they gathered in a conference room at the Morgenroete factory. Athha and Kisaka sat at the table opposite Ramius, and La Flaga, Neumann, Kira, Cagalli, and Kevin stood near the wall behind her.
Kevin's face had been fixed, finally, and that had put an end to the phantom itching that had plagued him for weeks.
Athha began the meeting. "Now that you've all had time to rest and recover from your recent battles, it's time we brought you up-to-date on the political situation. Also," he added, glancing at Kevin, "I'll have one of our intelligence analysts here later; he has some information that concerns you, Baron. And, I believe, he's a relative of yours."
Kevin raised an eyebrow. "A relative? That wouldn't be Cousin Frank, would it?"
"Yes, it is. And no, he is not yet aware that you're alive; I believed you would prefer that to remain your prerogative."
He nodded. "Quite."
La Flaga turned his head. "'Cousin Frank'?"
"It's easy to forget, Mu," Kevin explained, "but I actually do have some living relations. A lot of cousins, in fact. Frank Castile is about ten years older than I am, and he's been in Orb Intelligence for awhile now. I haven't seen him since I was ten. The Castile branch of the family isn't nobility, but they have a respectable fortune all their own, though Frank could care less about money. He thinks he's James Bond, and he goes out of his way to prove it, regardless of money." He shrugged. "The rest of the family doesn't really understand him either, but Frank talks Bond, acts Bond, and even looks Bond. He only drinks vodka martinis; I suspect he's even given up on water."
Ramius smiled in amusement. "Are any of your family normal?"
He feigned astonishment. "Well, of course not, Murrue. If they were completely sane, they won't be my family, now would they?"
Kevin was either distracted or pretended not to notice Neumann's muttered comment. "Like that's hard to figure out."
"Now," Athha broke in, steering the conversation back to pertinent matters, "can you tell me just what happened at Alaska?"
"Sir, we were used as bait," La Flaga told him. He handled the briefing, since he was the one who'd discovered the Cyclops system in the first place.
It took nearly an hour, and at the end Athha shook his head, bemused. "A Cyclops System?" Despite his disbelieving tone, he clearly believed them. "But even if they had intelligence that far in advance, it seems to me that using such a weapon is a rather extreme course of action."
"But," Kisaka put in, "you can't deny that they destroyed eighty percent of ZAFT's fighting strength with one blow. If you consider that, it seems to make a certain strategic sense, and disposing of unwanted forces at the same time would be an added bonus."
"Well, this is the result." Uzumi pointed a remote control at a monitor, and a press release from the Atlantic Federation played.
They watched in silence as the spokesman spoke angrily of the casualties at Alaska (casualties, Kevin noticed they did not mention, they had arranged), and went on to advocate stronger measures against Coordinators in general, especially those few still on Earth.
When it ended, La Flaga's eyes narrowed. "I can see why it's happening, but it sure is tough to swallow."
Athha nodded. "To go along with the tone of their rhetoric, the Atlantic Federation has been increasing pressure on all the neutral nations, encouraging them to join the Alliance. They're saying that any state which does not go along with their demands will subsequently be considered an enemy nation." He looked grim. "Our own nation of Orb is no exception, of course."
"They just want to get their hands on Orb's power," Cagalli said angrily.
"Yeah," Kevin agreed. "And you know, this kind of thing makes me kinda understand why Coordinators in general are so hostile toward Naturals."
"Yes," Athha said slowly, "and you would be in the best position to make an unbiased observation, wouldn't you, Baron? After all, you're neither Natural nor Coordinator."
The remark, delivered in an offhand tone, produced absolute silence in the room, as all eyes turned to the one called Snake. The completely unexpected statement had startled everyone in the room... including the young man they stared at. But his shock had a different cause.
First he said a Russian obscenity in a strangled whisper. Then Kevin's eyes locked on Uzumi's, and his hand twitched reflexively toward the gun he carried even here. "Just how in the world did you know that?" he demanded in a harsh whisper. "There shouldn't be anyone alive who knows that!"
Ramius opened her mouth to ask a question, but Cagalli beat her to it. "What is he talking about, Kevin?"
"GUARDIAN," her father said.
"Project Guardian," Kevin confirmed, eyes still locked on Athha. "And I want to know how the blazesyou found out about that, Lord Uzumi. There is not a living being besides myself that should even know the codeword, much less my connection to it."
"Your father told me of it," Uzumi admitted. "I doubt he would have done so if he thought he had a choice, since, while we were politicalallies, I will freely confess your father and I never quite got along. But John apparently decided someone should know, in case anything were to happen to him and your mother."
"You kept this from me?" Kevin demanded. "We've met several times since my parents died, Lord Uzumi, and I only found out two months ago, from my father's papers. Why didn't you tell me?"
"It was not my place; and I should also point out I was not aware you were alive until after you had already discovered the information for yourself. And, I must admit, the knowledge of what you were was a factor in my... discomfort with your close friendship with Cagalli."
"Is there... something we should know?" La Flaga asked carefully. He'd always thought it didn't matter to Athha what someone's genes looked like, so why...?
"Now that the estimable former politician has spilled the beans, I suppose there's no help for it," Snake said, an edge in his voice. "He's right; I'm not a Natural, and I'm not a Coordinator. I'm something else, something designed from birth as the ultimate soldier. ABADON, you see, was the second super-soldier program I was involved with. The first predated my birth."
The others, particularly Cagalli, were stunned, but La Flaga nodded slowly. It explained a great deal, such as the strength his young friend had displayed even without his augmentation online.
"Maybe you'd like to explain that, tovarisch?" Cagalli said, using Kevin's own favorite word. "And why haven't I heard this before?"
"It was eighteen years ago," he said, leaning back against the wall. "A year before my birth, and two before the Torino Protocol banned genetic engineering again. Baron John Onishi, my father, was a shrewd man; he had to be, to be a successful politician. He saw that war between Earth and the PLANTs was practically inevitable, and he also knew how unlikely it was that Orb would willing enter the conflict. So he decided to take action on his own. What Dad did was use his own twin children as a contingency plan; first by modifying my brother Mike, then using what they'd learned from him to 'improve' me even more. Mike wasn't as strong as I am, not by a long shot, nor as smart; his strength was only twenty-five percent greater than Coordinator norm, whereas mine is a one hundred percent increase, fully seventy-five percent greater than his, and double a normal Coordinator."
"Your brother?" Ramius frowned. "I didn't know you had one."
"Michael Carnehan, wasn't it?" La Flaga said. "The one you killed in Banadiya?"
"That's right," Kevin acknowledged with a nod. "We were to be Orb's secret weapons; but Dad hoped we'd never even have to know what we were, much less go into battle. That's why he always pushed me toward politics. But his plan mostly went right; the difficulty arose when he and my mother made the mistake of separating us as a safety measure. A sound idea on the face of it, but Mike was sent to the PLANTs, where he was fully indoctrinated into their way of thinking. So that part of the plan was a failure, and my father went back to work, attempting to compensate for the loss. Hence MBF-M1000 Sturm Falke. You probably wondered, just as I did, why a brilliant engineer like my father would have devised something such as the Zero System, which even the brightest Coordinator would have great difficulty with. The answer is simple: the production models, had there been any, wouldn't have had it at all, because the prototype was meant specifically for me."
"'A body capable of greater strength, and a mind capable of acquiring more knowledge'," Kira whispered, remembering the words of George Glenn, the first Coordinator. "Kevin, if you're that much stronger..."
His friend nodded. "Right, tovarisch. My mental capabilities were similarly improved over Coordinators, and that's why I can handle the Zero System. Dad was a farsighted man, whatever my problems with him may have been, and his plan succeeded well beyond his highest expectations." He grinned, somewhat ruefully. "See, despite the changes they made to my genetic structure, the scientists who made me what I am did not realize I had become a zoanthrope in the process, and I never told anyone but you, Cagalli, and... our mutual friend. Add to that the further enhancement from ABADON..." (A/N: Its too bad that he doesn't know that ZAFT tried the same super soldier program with Aelan, Chris, Nicola, and the prototype to those three Garret.)
"So that's why you can snap even others of your kind in half," Cagalli murmured. She looked at him accusingly. "So why didn't you tell me?"
"Come on, tovarisch, I only found out back in March. The secrecy habits of three years are hard to break, too. And..." He looked away. "I wasn't sure how you'd react."
She punched his shoulder. "You idiot. Did you really think I'd care? If even seeing you made into a cyborg didn't bother me, how could you think that something that happened before you were born would matter?"
"It doesn't matter to the rest of us, either," Ramius said firmly. "Besides, you're the only person we've got to run CIC, and this would be a pretty silly reason to lose you, now wouldn't it?"
"So, if you're not a Coordinator or a Natural, what are you?" Neumann asked.
Kevin shrugged. "Who knows? The Guardian, I guess, but if I catch any of you calling me that, I'll knock your teeth out."
"The next generation of Coordinator," Athha clarified. "Something which I confess I was never, and still am not, very comfortable with. Even if Orb cannot remain neutral in this war, Guardian was, in my view, a mistake."
"Yes, I'm sure." Snake's eyes narrowed as a thought occurred to him. "And that's another part of why you did what you did."
"Did what?" Kira asked from behind him.
Kevin could see that Athha didn't want him to speak of it, and he still wasn't sure how Cagalli would react to it, but he was too angry to care. "A restaurant. The capital of Orb, two years ago. Freelance assassin Jeffrey Adler, staking out a rooftop ninety meters away; easy shot. Weapon of choice: antique Heckler & Koch PSG-1 semiautomatic sniper rifle, 7.62 millimeter, five-round magazine. His target sits at a table, with one companion; Adler fires one shot, missing when he underestimates the subject's reaction time. The target stands, turns, and draws a ZAFT standard-issue machine pistol. Adler fires a second shot; by the time the bullet crosses the distance, he is already dead, with a bullet through his nose. His target dies eight seconds later, his heart blown away. Both bodies disappear, though Adler's is later found with a note saying 'The Baron is avenged'."
There was silence for about two seconds as those present assimilated the data and remembered just which baron had been killed two years previously in an outdoor restaurant by a professional assassin. Two seconds to remember someone they all knew very well.
And then Cagalli erupted. "YOU HAD MY BEST FRIEND SHOT?"
Everyone present winced at the volume (Kevin in particular; he had ears that could hear the grass grow); but La Flaga hid a smile. Had either of the high-born young people known what he was smiling about, of course, he'd have been killed on the spot.
Athha, usually the consummate politician, was in this case completely at a loss for words. When he'd ordered the assassination, he'd truly believed it was the right thing to do, to protect his nation and his daughter; and he hadn't expected that anyone would ever find out. Now that the victim of the attack had just outlined it in cold, clear terms, however...
"You knew," Cagalli went on, voice still fit to shatter eardrums, "you knew how I'd feel if he died and you went ahead and did it anyway?"
"At the time, I had but recently learned that the Baron had been part of Project ABADON," her father attempted to explain, "and I was not aware that it had been involuntary. In order to protect Orb, and you, I-"
"As if Kevin would ever do anything to hurt me!"
Kevin decided it was time to step in. "Okay, tovarisch," he said, placing a hand on her shoulder. "We get the idea that you're not happy about it. I'm not, either; and frankly, if he weren't your father, I'd probably have killed him for it. But what's done is done, and, for what it's worth, he won't do it again."
The unspoken "Or else" was heard quite clearly by those present.
That mollified Cagalli... a little. "All right," she said. "But this isn't the end of it."
Kevin and La Flaga exchanged looks, in total agreement: they were both devoutly grateful they would both be elsewhere when that father-daughter talk occurred.
Ramius broke the uncomfortable silence, attempting to steer things back to the original -and less inflammatory- topic. "So, sir, what are Orb's intentions in this matter?"
Athha looked grateful for the change in subject. "As you know, Orb makes no distinction between Natural and Coordinator. We are one of the few nations that will let anyone enter and reside within our borders, so long as they adhere to our ideals and laws. We believe that making distinctions based on whether or not someone's genes have been engineered only serves to divide people." At this, Cagalli looked at Kira; for some reason, when he looked back, she looked startled and jerked away a few centimeters. "Cagalli is a Natural," her father went on, "and Kira, of course, is a Coordinator. These are facts which they have absolutely no control over."
As all eyes turned to them, Cagalli blushed, prompting Kira to smile. "You're right, sir," he said a moment later.
La Flaga, however, had a different view of things. "Those are certainly worthy goals, sir," he said carefully, "and forgive me for arguing," he added quickly, "but isn't your position kind of... idealistic? Those all sound like wonderful ideas, but Coordinators will continue to look down on Naturals, and in return Naturals will still be jealous of Coordinators; it's just the way things are."
"I am aware of that. It is difficult for Orb to maintain this position, of course." Athha stood and walked over to the wall. "But if we were to accept their position, we would be left with no choice but to annihilate each other. After that, there would be nothing to do but reflect and regret that which passed. My friends, you would not suggest that we do nothing, simply because that is what the rest of the world is doing, would you?" He turned back to them. "You all may now choose your own path. I would understand if you still felt some loyalty to those whose uniform you wear, but you are all young, and capable." Athha looked back at the wall. "Make your decisions carefully, and be sure to choose the future that you truly desire; there is still time."
"Lord Uzumi, what's your view on all this?"
Athha turned at the unexpected question from Kira; the young pilot, for his part, had clearly changed, from his confident expression when speaking to the man who, for all intents and purposes, still was Orb. "I believe we are entering a time when our swords can no longer be merely for display."
Kira smiled.
"Well, then," Kisaka put in, "I believe now would be a good time to bring in our analyst."
"Quite," Athha agreed. He pressed an intercom button. "Send in Agent Castile."
A moment later, the door opened and a man in his mid-twenties, with black hair and blue eyes, wearing a tuxedo, stepped in. "You called, sir-" He broke off suddenly, seeing Kevin standing on the other side of the room. "Well, if it isn't the black sheep of the family," the man said after a moment. "You're supposed to be dead, Kev."
"Aren't we all," Kevin said dryly. "Kira, everybody, this is my cousin Frank Castile. Frank, meet Murrue Ramius, Mu La Flaga, Arnold Neumann, and Kira Yamato; you know Cagalli, of course."
"The Hawk of Endymion, huh?" Castile looked impressed. "Quite the company you keep these days, Cousin. And, of course, who can forget your royal friend. You two ever- uh, never mind," he said hastily, seeing his cousin's hand reach for what could only be a gun. "So, if you're alive, I guess that explains the briefing I was told to prepare. ABADON, right?"
"Yeah," Kevin acknowledged, head tilted and eyes narrow. "What do you know, Frank?"
"Well, first a little background information. You, obviously, already know it all, but I'm guessing these officers don't." Castile opened a briefcase and took out some papers. "I'd tell you this is classified, but I think your security clearance is higher than mine, anyway, so I won't bother; and you don't care about the rules anyway. Okay, ABADON. Orb Intelligence got a surprising amount of information about it before somebody set off a fusion bomb at the lab -that was you, right?- and we actually know a little bit more than you do."
He proceeded to outline the operation, beginning with the planning stages, of which Kevin himself had little knowledge. Much of the information was conjecture, of course, but it fit with what he knew; and the data, surprisingly complete, of the recruitment stage was spot-on.
"Now, Kevin, I have to admit," he admitted, "that I'm the one who gave Lord Uzumi the intel that you were part of the project; and that it was my analysis that led to you being deemed a threat. Our information was a little off, but then the Onishi branch has never been entirely sane, so..."
Kevin snorted. "You're one to talk, Frank. I remember Great-Aunt Edna Castile, and it would take some doing for any of my branch to be as nutty as she was."
"True, true," Castile acknowledged. "She did go a little 'batty' there in the end, didn't she?" That got strange looks from the Archangelofficers, but Cagalli and Kevin both laughed at the in-joke. "Anyway, one thing we heard about Hydra but were never able to confirm was that he supposedly had some kind of very close relationship with his exec, Rachel Carver-"
"Frank," Kevin interrupted through gritted teeth, "shut up."
Castile audibly swallowed, seeing the jade-ice look and remembering that his cousin was, in fact, the ZAFT agent of whom he was speaking. He was also quite frightened; he was ten years Snake's senior, but he had no doubt the younger man could kill him very easily. "Sorry, Boss," he managed. "Anyway," he said, clearing his throat, "I guess you guys know all that. What you need to know is the data we have on one Jack Carter, and a Aelan Stratos, aka ZAFTs Aelan Le Creuset."
"The Red Queen!" Kevin said. "Her real name is Aelan Strato's" Kevin asked as Castile nodded.
"Yeah one of the daughters of the late Erwin Nexus." Castile told them. "A partner of the late, Scott Nexus aka the Nexus program." Castile began, "The Nexus program, was to be the fail safe for when or if Abaddon failed. As far as we know is that Aelan is the only one left," He told them.
"What about the others from the project?" Murrue asked.
"Because they all died during the bloody Valentine Tragedy." Castile told them. "One of the main reasons the Red Queen, joined the war and is fighting the natural's for what they have done. Especially. . ."
"Blue Cosmos." Kevin told them. "She made that clear when she killed Cardinal and nearly finished me off in the process." Kevin said remembering that day a while back. "She was also part of Abaddon, and something called project Omega." Kevin said as Atha looked at him.
"Now that is some new news." Atha said as Castile nodded.
"Yeah, and project Omega is a cross breed of both Nexus and Abaddon. First the Nexus and then to Abaddon, making the ultimate ground soldier and the ultimate pilot, as that is what Nexus was all about. To make the ultimate pilots of anything they fly in." Castile told them taking a seat. "I am sorry, but that is all the information I truly have on her, besides the ZAFT reports on her activity." He mentioned.
"What of them?" Mu asked.
"She is after the one named Hydra, for killing the rest." Castile told them. "That was from Rau Le Creuset's own reports, if you ever want to know the truth why she hunts Kevin here. You will have to ask her, personally she is just going by how she was designed."
"Well, I guess we will have to ask her." Kevin said with a shrug, "and now Jack Carter: a.k.a. Crimson Tiger. One of my aliases." Snake cocked his head. "But I assume you're referring to Jack Carter, the clone, ace pilot with ZAFT."
His cousin raised an eyebrow. "You've been busy, cousin mine. Yes, John Carter, the clone. Our intelligence suggests that he's gone completely rogue; it seems something went wrong with the genetic sequencing, and while he's still technically sane, he appears to have become a complete sociopath. That makes him very dangerous, Kevin."
"Yeah, I know," Kevin said dryly. "He's got my intellect, but without my memories or emotional controls on how I use that intellect. You don't have to tell me what that means; Andy Waltfeld was a friend of mine, and my teacher. He knew that kind of thing."
Castile blinked. This iteration of his young cousin was proving to be very different from the one he remembered. Frank himself wasn't a bad shot with his chosen weapon (an antique 7.65 millimeter Walther PPK, of course), but if he had to guess, this cybernetically-augmented killing machine would out-shoot him without hardly thinking about it. Not to mention the fact that he was obviously a skilled strategist and tactician, in addition to understanding psychology.
Like Mu La Flaga, he was glad Kevin was on his side.
"Well," Castile said after a moment, "what you should also know is that Carter seems to have stolen a prototype for a new mass-produced ZAFT mobile suit, something called a 'GuAIZ'; and intel suggests he may be heading for Orb. He has no way of knowing what significance this nation has for you or himself, but I'm sure he's quite capable of tracking you here."
"So I should be prepared for a run-in with myself. Wonderful." Kevin snorted. "At least I'll know when he's near. So, Frank, got any other news to brighten my evening?"
"Unfortunately, yes." Frank glanced at his notes. "It's difficult to be certain, but the medical examination conducted when you were getting your eye replaced two years ago indicated that at least twenty-three genetic samples were taken of you, almost certainly for cloning purposes; ABADON was apparently farther ahead in that field than anyone suspected. The problem is, even correlating our data with sources inside ZAFT has accounted for only twenty-two clones. Twenty-one of them are confirmed dead -for some reason, it appears someone was hunting them- so that just leaves Carter... and the hypothetical twenty-third." He snapped his briefcase shut. "That's about all we know. Watch yourself, Cousin."
Snake nodded thoughtfully as his cousin left, then abruptly stood straight up and said one word: "Azrael."
Heads turned at the complete non sequitur. "What, Kevin?" Ramius asked.
"Azrael," he repeated. "Do you recall the name?"
"You don't mean Muruta Azrael, do you?" La Flaga inquired. "CEO of the Defense Industries Association? What does he have to do with anything?"
"Muruta Azrael," Kevin said precisely, "is one of the biggest reasons I never trusted the Earth Alliance. That nekulturny bastard's been on my hit list for years, though I never seriously thought I could get at him." He absently stroked the grips of his revolver. "You see, Azrael is the head of Blue Cosmos."
Athha turned away from the wall, a look of surprise on his face. "Are you certain?"
"Oh, yeah. I... let's say 'interrogated' members of Blue Cosmos from various cells, over the year and a half they were actively chasing me, and they all, or at least all the more senior ones, told me that a major source of their funding was the Defense Industries Association."
"That's... not so surprising, I guess," La Flaga said after a moment.
"Indeed," Kisaka agreed. "After all, the Defense Industries Association isthe largest supplier of military hardware for the Earth Alliance, and the Alliance has firm anti-Coordinator sentiments; so it makes sense." He looked at the young super-soldier. "Might I ask how you persuaded them to give you the information? And what you did with them afterwards?"
"You don't want to know what my interrogation methods were," Kevin said flatly. "Let's just say that during that time I wasn't exactly known for my compassion or mercy. As to what I did with them afterwards, well... I shot them, of course. And don't tell me I shouldn't have done it, either," he added harshly. "You've no right to judge me, not after what I've been through, and I'd do it again today. Those bastards had it coming."
"Who said anything about judging you?" Cagalli demanded. "Lighten up, will you, Kevin? We're on your side, remember?"
He blinked, apparently only then remembering whom he was with. "Oh, right." Kevin stretched. "Well, if it's all the same to you guys, I'm going to go pay a visit home, check up on things. Kira? Cagalli? You coming?"
Both nodded; Cagalli, in part because she still didn't really want to let either of them out of her sight, and Kira because he still hadn't seen much of the family seat of the eccentric Onishi clan.
"Mind if I tag along?" La Flaga asked unexpectedly. He smiled and shrugged. "Sounds like an interesting place."
Kevin shrugged. "Why not? And come to think of it, there's an area that I think you'll find particularly interesting."
Night had fallen by the time the four reached the dark, empty Onishi Mansion. That didn't bother Kevin any; with the Archangel still undergoing extensive repairs, he'd intended to sleep there that night anyway.
This time, they didn't bother with the concealed tunnel; while "the Baron's" survival still was not widely known, he was no longer actively trying to hide it, either. So it was that they entered through the main door, and La Flaga immediately raised an eyebrow. "Whoa. Pretty impressive. So how much did this place cost?"
"Mu, there's an old saying: if you have to ask the price, you can't afford it." Kevin stepped in, taking a deep breath of the slightly dusty air. "I used to live here, if you can believe it. And there's still a lot of interesting artifacts here. Follow me."
He led his companions to a door (this one, unlike his study, in plain sight). Predictably, this, too, had a password lock. But it was Cagalli who stepped forward. "Corpus Caput," she said clearly, and the door swung open.
La Flaga glanced at the young noble. "'Corpus Caput'? Does your family have a fetish for death or something?"
"Not exactly; it simply happens to be quite accurate." Kevin walked through the doorway and swept his hand out. "Welcome to the Onishi family museum and armory."
Cagalli, of course, was quite familiar with the place; and she snorted a laugh at the sight of one statue, a twice-life-size sculpture of a woman holding a machine gun. "Hey, Kevin. Isn't that...?"
He saw where she was pointing and chuckled himself. "Yes, it is. We still keep her around, if only for comic relief."
"'Her'?" Kira repeated blankly.
"My Great-Aunt Edna," Kevin said sagely. "Frank's grandmother. We always knew she was a little ...strange... but we knew she was beyond saving when she tried to have her prize bats do her taxes."
La Flaga burst out laughing. "So that's what he meant by batty!"
"Uh-huh. That's not all; by the terms of her will, Great-Aunt Edna's body was sealed in a marble statue, cradling a machine gun. Just as strange in death as in life, but we indulged her anyway. That was about ten years ago now."
"So how'd she die?" Kira asked.
"Well," Cagalli said, taking up the tale, "by that time she'd actually started to think she was a bat. And her room at the asylum was on the fourth floor, so when someone forgot to close the window..."
"Splat," La Flaga finished. He scratched his head, looking at the huge collection of items in the museum. "Is this place a museum, or a mausoleum?"
"A little of both," Kevin admitted. "And- down!"
La Flaga and Cagalli, both of whom had had military training, obeyed on instinct, dropping behind display cases; Kira, who had not, had his feet yanked out from under him just in time.
Kevin flung himself sideways just as a loud brraappfilled the air and a hail of bullets swept across the room... and he spun around and smacked face-first into the wall, clutching his right shoulder. "Ugh!"
"What's going on?" Cagalli shouted over the din.
Snake fought to separate himself from the pain, concentrating on the distinctive sensation he felt. "It's Carter," he hissed through gritted teeth. "He's here. And I'm hit."
"With what?" La Flaga demanded, just as a display exploded nearby, and fire cut off. "I thought you said-"
"The electromagnetic field was not designed to deal with depleted-uranium slugs," Kevin hissed. "That bastard is using a GAU8 Vulcan cannon out of an old A-10 attack aircraft. And however durable I may be, I'm not invincible. Even a Destroyer is not expected to be able to survive a direct hit from an antitank weapon, which is exactly what those depleted-uranium bullets are meant for." He gritted his teeth and yanked the enormous bullet out. "Son of a-! Ouch! That would probably have killed a normal human being."
Things were ominously quiet, and Carter, if that was indeed the one Kevin felt, still had not said a word. The lull in the gunfire, however, at least gave them some time to regroup from the ambush. "Are you okay?" Cagalli asked worriedly.
"Could be worse." He grunted again, then sighed in relief. "Okay, the painkillers just kicked in. Bad news is, my nano-repair system is toast. No way to fix, either. That technology went the way of the dinosaur two and a half -no, just about three years ago now."
"So it was you," another voice, identical to Kevin's said. "Well, that makes this all the better, Walker!"
"Carter!" Kevin risked a glance around the corner of the display he was hiding behind, and grimaced when he saw what appeared to be himself approaching, with the Vulcan cannon strapped to his back. "I wondered when we'd meet. Here to kill me?"
"What else, Walker? There's no room for two of us in this world, Hydra. If only Aelan was here haha" Luckily, the clone seemed unable to localize the resonance; unlike the original, who had far more practice in terms of psychosomatic phenomena.
"For once, we're in agreement. And what do you mean by Aelan?" Kevin was grateful then for his link to Kira; it had no connection to the resonance with his clone, which enabled him to communicate without being heard. With this happy fact in mind, he smashed his augmented fist through the side of the display case and reached in. A moment later, his hand emerged with an assault rifle. "Mu, catch!" he whispered, and tossed the weapon.
"Oh just that Aelan would love to watch this show, the Hydra vrs the Hydra, haha." Carter said walking towards the group of four.
La Flaga caught it easily. "Antique," he muttered. "Grenade launcher?" he added, fingering the attachment under the barrel.
"M4 with M203," Snake acknowledged. "But forget grenades; I don't keep those here. The magazine's loaded, though."
"Obviously." The Hawk quickly examined the few controls on the weapon, familiarizing himself with it, and set the selector to three-round-burst mode. "Hope this works."
While Kevin dug around for another gun, the older pilot poked the M4 around the case's corner and ripped off a burst, causing Carter to duck for cover. It wasn't hard to figure out why; even a Destroyer couldn't dodge bullets, and the clone didn't have the EM field or the quick-heal nanites.
"So you've got help, huh, Hydra?" Another stream of depleted-uranium went by. "It won't matter."
"Think so?" Cagalli popped out of cover for a moment and pulled the trigger of the esoteric weapon she'd snagged, and the Gyrojet's tiny rocket projectile flashed out and smacked the Vulcan's barrel, rendering it useless.
"Oh, man," Snake moaned. "It took me years to get that gun working!" (Kira,) he said silently, (you'd better stay out of this. I know you're hot stuff in a mobile suit, but you don't have the training for a close-in ground battle like this.)
(I know,) came the resigned response.
Satisfied, the super-soldier yanked another automatic weapon from the case, this time a .50 caliber M60E3 machine gun. Then, after exchanging glances with La Flaga, the pair of trained soldiers rolled from cover, firing as they advanced, and had the satisfaction of hearing a pained sound from Carter before they reached cover again.
"You know, Snake," the older pilot said conversationally, checking his remaining ammo, "this reminds me why I always prefer to leave the ground war to you guys. You're a lot more likely to survive a glancing blow to a mobile armor than to your own fragile body."
"Not all bodies are created equal," Kevin retorted. "Unfortunately, we're dealing with someone who's almost my equal -in fact, with nano-repair down, he is- and worse yet, he knows my moves. That is, if he's got the RNA sample I think he does." He tossed aside the M60. "Having fun yet?"
There was another burst of gunfire, and a moment later Cagalli rolled into cover near them. "You know, this really isn't good for my uniform. What is this guy, psycho?"
"No, unfortunately." Snake grimaced. "He's perfectly sound of mind... he's just a sociopath. How's Kira?"
"Hanging back, behind the battleship armor display." She handed him an Israeli-made Uzi machine pistol. "Good thing you keep these things loaded, Kevin."
"Of course, that gives him plenty of weaponry, too," La Flaga pointed out dryly. "Now what?"
Kevin looked around; Carter was being dangerously quiet again. He needed to end this quickly. Then he spotted something very interesting. "Cagalli, Mu, I need some covering fire."
"What for?"
He nodded at a multi-barreled weapon connected to an ammunition drum. "That's a minigun off an old Huey gunship, Vietnam War-era. If I can reach it..."
"I'll go," La Flaga countered, gathering himself to sprint.
Snake pulled him back. "No, Mu, you won't. I'm the only one who can even lift the bloody thing, let alone handle the recoil. It weighs about a ton."
The Hawk nodded reluctantly. "Okay. On three?"
"On three. One... two... three!" Kevin burst from cover, racing for the huge weapon while his two friends fired on full automatic, keeping Carter's head down.
In a second, he was there, and with a grunt of effort, the super-soldier lifted the ammo tank and strapped it to his back, straining even his powerful muscles, and grabbed the minigun's grips. "Okay, Carter," he called. "Ready for this?"
His clone chose that moment to bust from hiding, firing an AK47 he'd snatched from the wall. Kevin opened fire at the same instant, and the bullets raced across the room...
Carter was nearly ripped in half by the burst of minigun fire, ducking just in time, and his own stream of fire battered the minigun's ammo tank. Since some of the rounds were high-explosive, Kevin was blown across the room, slamming face-first into the wall... which also aggravated his shoulder wound. "Oh, sh-"
"How's that, Walker?" Carter stood in plain view, seeing the original sprawled on the floor with the remains of an ammo drum scattered about him. "First you betray ZAFT, then you betray the Earth Forces... Tell me, do you have any loyalty?"
La Flaga rose to his feet, intending to cut down the cybernetically-augmented clone, then cursed as his gun jammed. "Antiques..." he muttered, frustrated.
"Now, how about we finish this?" Carter reached for a sword rack on the wall, retrieving an ornate rapier. "I think killing you with this would be most fitting; I wonder why you have such skill with a weapon like this? Well, it doesn't matter, for that skill is mine, as well. So come on, Hydra. Let's settle this with a duel, to see which of us is better with a blade, shall we?"
Behind them, Cagalli winced; that was an amoral copy of Kevin Walker, all right. Even down to his sense of ironic justice. But she thought she might be able to throw off the calculations a little. "Kira," she whispered harshly. "What kind of swords has Kevin learned about since three years ago?"
Kira thought quickly. "Didn't he say something about... kendo?"
"Right." Cagalli snatched a sword off another rack. "Kevin, catch!"
In an instant, Kevin leapt to his feet, dropping the possum act, and caught the weapon by the scabbard. As his right hand gripped the hilt and drew the long, curved katana from its sheath, the clone showed his first signs of uncertainty. "Uh-"
"So, Carter," the Snake said, settling into his stance, "what do you know about this style?"
"I don't need to answer that, do I? You've learned, Walker." Recovering his look of calculated arrogance, Carter stepped into blade range, assuming a stance that La Flaga recognized from long-ago matches of the Fencing Prince. "But have you learned enough?"
Kevin's answer was simple. "Let's dance."
His friends were now mere spectators; this duel between Walkers was out of their hands now, and Kira could sense that this was something Kevin had to do himself. (Good luck.)
(I don't need luck,) his friend replied sardonically. (I am Death.)
The intricacies of the fight were lost on all but the participants; it is hard enough to follow the moves when both fighters are using the same style. When they are each using a different sort...
Carter swept his light rapier in an intricate pattern, without wasted motion; Kevin moved with similar economy, but with a harder style and an emphasis on blocking instead of parrying. Blade gripped in both hands, he quickly raised it to block a thrust, then swept it lower, trying to deprive his clone of his legs.
Neither spoke, but both brows were furrowed, and they seemed to be battling as much with their minds as their blades. But they were soon out of sight, ducking through a side door that promptly shut behind them.
"That doesn't look good," La Flaga commented. "How do you fight somebody that knows your every move?"
"I think the Tiger has more to worry about than Kevin," Kira said, straightening. "After all, he was created before Kevin studied kendo, so in a fair fight..."
"Just one problem," Cagalli said nervously.
"What's that?" the Hawk asked, puzzled.
"You know what Kevin always says: the one who fights fair is the one who dies."
And if you're the one who dies, Kevin, I'll never forgive you... but I will avenge you...
Indeed, the words were somewhat prophetic, for Carter was wearying of the semi-stalemate behind the closed door. "We're wasting time, Walker," he said tiredly. "Hurry up and die already!"
"You first." With a final, decisive overhand attack, Kevin's katana sliced clean through the rapier, leaving but a stump in the clone's hand. "Since you're here, I guess you learned the truth about the Project's end. Well, here's your end, too."
"You think I've lost? Think again!" Before Kevin could react, Carter whipped out a strange-looking gun and fired full-auto, straight into the original's body.
"Urgh!" Stunned and bleeding, Kevin fell back, thudding into the floor. "Wh-what...?"
"That EM field you're sporting doesn't do anything at all against plastic bullets, now does it? It's a little trick I learned from the other destroyer that lives." Carter laughed.
"Goodbye, Walker. Now I'mthe 'real' Hydra. So I think it's time to go take care of your friends, too. Especially that girl..." With a final contemptuous sound, he walked out through the door.
On the carpet, his life draining out, Kevin raged inwardly. No! I can't... I can't let him... I can't let Cagalli down! But here I lie, the Most Dangerous Man In History, taken down because I didn't think of plastic bullets! Ugh, I've failed...
Unleash the beast within...
His eyes slowly opened. No, he told himself. I can't do that. Not after the last time... I won't!
There is no choice. Do you want her to die? Do you? Unleash... the beast... within...
I guess it's the only option. And because of that behind Kevin's pair of Jade eyes, a crimson cat like creature broke through a cage. This caused the bleeding body that lay on the expensive carpet to change, as the red-and-black-striped fur, long fangs, and sharp claws began to grow...
The side door opened, and Kira, Cagalli, and La Flaga tensed, the older pilot going so far as to raise the huge autopistol he'd picked up; he wasn't sure that he could even fire the beast, but he didn't trust light weapons against Carter.
As the figure walked out into the light, Cagalli nervously spoke. "Kevin...?"
"Sorry, girl," Carter said with a chuckle, "wrong guy. Your boyfriend's leaking carcass is-"
Two things happened at once: La Flaga pulled the trigger, causing a tremendous amount of noise, a gigantic muzzle flash, and recoil sufficient to blow the gun clear across the room... and the bullet missed as a red-and-black-striped furry ball of teeth and claws slammed into Carter from behind, knocking him off his feet and several meters through the air.
"What the-" The Hawk ducked to the side, startled by the fearsome blur.
"Uh, you might want to back off for a minute," Kira said nervously as the man-tiger got to his feet. "He's not gonna care who's friend or foe for a bit."
"You," the zoanthrope snarled, "have so got to die!" He seemed at least able to speak... but the mind in control of the body was very unstable, as Kira and Cagalli, at least, knew quite well. So when Carter climbed to his feet, looking as if he'd just been hit by a truck, they knew to stay well clear.
"So," the clone managed, wiping blood from his lip, "you are still capable of that. I wondered. So what now, Walker? A final duel, before I blast you to shreds?"
The reply was not by any means verbal, unless one counted the ferocious snarl, more cat than man, as the bipedal tiger launched into a perfectly-controlled series of attacks. Power Palm Press, Kira thought, identifying the moves as they occurred. He winced as the original Crimson Tiger shoved his clone to the ground and smacked him in the face, claws extended, leaving nasty scratches. Merciless Slash; Grasp Sun and Moon; Tsuten Juuji Ha; Juuji Rakan.
Kira knew them all, having seen, in years past, those moves practiced time after time, relentlessly drilled by a young man bent on perfection. The only martial art that he had ever actually seen Kevin use, besides that day on Artemis, Kira had watched his friend pummel a bully into paste in Copernicus using those blows; the extreme damage had prevented said bully from recalling exactly what had happened, but following that no one had tried anything on the young student.
The reasons for that became very clear to Mu La Flaga, since it seemed very evident this out-of-control shape-shifter had no intention of leaving Carter alive.
The clone reeled from the impacts, finally staggering over to a wall for support... exactly as Kevin intended. At that instant, there suddenly seemed to be two of him: the normal-looking human teenager, and the beast-like zoanthrope, the furry form projected out from his body, fist clenched in a powerful blow as the spectral form smashed into Carter's already battered body.
The clone fell to the floor, and Cagalli gradually straightened. "The Ferocious Tiger Laceration," she whispered, remembering her friend's tales, years earlier, of the zoanthropes' ultimate attacks, moves that drew on the body's every resource to produce a crushing blow. Not many could have survived it.
Carter did, though; his enhancement was not as complete as the original's, but it sufficed to keep him alive. So Kevin, once more entirely tiger, lifted him off the floor and tossed him through a window.
His friends looked tense even after that, of course. With the obvious target gone, the man-tiger might decide to turn on them.
It was, of course, Cagalli who braved the danger (Kira could not get through to him, even via their link), and she carefully walked up to the deep-breathing, badly-bleeding zoanthrope. "Kevin?"
The cat-like eyes focused on her, and sanity gradually returned to them. "Cagalli," Kevin whispered, voice still the tiger-growl, but now recognizable. "I'm glad... you're safe..."
The fur faded, the teeth shrank, and the claws disappeared; and the former Crimson Tiger collapsed to the floor, life still leaking out.
Twenty minutes later, Kevin lay in a hospital bed, connected to various pieces of life-support equipment. The three people who had been with him at the time of his grievous injury, stood near the bed, with the Archangel's doctor; he'd been called in due to his familiarity with the patient. "So how is he, Doc?" La Flaga asked.
"For someone who's taken numerous plastic bullets in various vital areas and a depleted-uranium antitank round in his shoulder, he's doing remarkably well," the doctor answered. "Though if you'd taken even five minutes longer, I doubt he'd have survived, even with his impressive resiliency."
"So how is his shoulder?" Cagalli asked. "It looks pretty bad."
"Oh, it is, there's no doubt of that." He shrugged. "In fact, I'm afraid we'll have to amputate the arm completely; a tricky task, given the battle armor. Oh, don't worry," he added, seeing her worried look. "You of all people should know that Orb makes excellent prosthetics. That will bring him up to somewhere around thirty percent mechanical, but other than that..."
"And the other injuries?" Kira interjected. "Even with his augmentation..."
"His body should recover fully," the doctor assured him. "To be sure, this is the first time I've examined a zoanthrope, let alone one who happens to be a Coordinator with cybernetics, but those very peculiarities mean he'll heal faster than even a normal Coordinator. But the augmentation, now..." He sighed. "Obviously, I don't know much about it. But I cantell you that his nano-repair functions are completely gone, along with a few tertiary systems, and that electromagnetic field seems to have acquired a glitch. And since the knowledge of how to repair this kind of technology was lost three years ago, I'm afraid he'll be just a little less durable now." The doc smiled. "But, other than that and his arm, he'll be fine within, oh, a week or so. Zoanthropes have very impressive regenerative abilities."
"Glad to hear that," La Flaga said. "We can't afford to lose him as a pilot. So, when do you get started on the arm?"
"As soon as you people are out of the room," the doctor said, somewhat impatiently. "I'll have to wear full protective gear, myself; this surgery is potentially more dangerous to me that to him. Now that I finally have access to his medical records, it seems he may be a carrier of some very interesting diseases, including, I'm told, a case of Ebola, resulting from a trip to Africa years ago." He turned back to his patient. "Now, if you'll excuse me..."
Two days later, Panama.
A large squad of Vusgolov submarines emerge from the ocean off the coast of Panama. Inside a mobile suit hangar, the nuclear powered Red Queen prepared to launch for ZAFTs vengeance attack for what happened at Alaska. "Red Queen, Duel, and Guul are clear for launch" The announcement called as Aelan braced her controls as she activated her Phase Shift Armor.
"Aelan le Creuset, Launching!" She called as the Red Queen blasted up the vertical catapult.
"Yzak Joule, Duel Launching!" He called as the Guul Launched right behind him as he landed on the Guul and began to attack the Earth Forces Panama base.
Inside the sub, "Do you really think our force is large enough to attack Panama like this?" The man asked looking to the corner where Rau Le Creuset Stood.
"Oh I assure you, we do, and besides if we don't make a move then Chairman Zala's politcal situation will become unstable. Also we need destroy their mass driver to have the Earth forces stranded on the planet." Rau told him leaving to his room where the frightened Flay resides.
As outside the mobile suit forces were making short work on the artillery weapons of the Earth Forces. Especially Aelan and Yzak thanks to their phase shift capability. "You know Yzak" Aelan said firing all four of her weapons at different targets. "I am amazed these fools haven't made any beam weapons yet." Aelan told him.
"Yeah I know, these fools don't know when to learn." Yzak told her as he fired a barrage of weapon fire at the enemy. "Aelan the Lauraisa classes are dropping the Gungnirs." Yzak called as over the radio came the message.
"What the is that the Strike!" then nothing but Static. Aelan turned around and activated her shield just in time to block an rifle attack.
"You fools that is not the Stirke!" Yzak called firing a barrage of weapon fire at the Strike Daggers destroying each and every one of them that he fired at. Aelan on the other hand went into melee combat so she wouldn't hit her own men, as they went to work on the Gungnirs. Five Strike Daggers go for a Gungnir as Aelan rushes in to protect the GINN and CGUE working on the machine.
"Thank you commander." One of them pleaded as Aelan fired her beam cannons at incoming VTOL choppers.
"Listen don't thank me, just get that machine up and running!" Aelan ordered as she fired all her weapons at approaching Daggers.
"Ok we have 5 seconds, 3,2,1 and" The pilot called just as the Gungnir's detonated sending an electro magnetic pulse, Aelan was unaffected by this pulse as her machine shielded the blast. The Electro Magnetic Pulse bombs went off in several key locations, enough to go through out Panama, with the pulse destroying the Mass Driver and major, electronics in the bases.
"And, then it was all over." Aelan said as she looked at Tanks and disabled Strike Daggers as the soldiers with in them began to surrender. Aelan took flight not wanting to take part in what was going to happen next. "Yzak come, we don't need to be a part of this." Aelan told him as Yzak saw what she meant.
Many Zaft Soldiers began to open fire on defenceless opponents, for pure vengeance of what happened to their comrades and friends. Yzak just watched the carnage. "What is the point on killing defenceless opponents" he wondered as Aelan thought of what was to come in the future.
She thought of one main thing, ORB will be the Earth Forces next target, and I cannot allow that. She told herself as her machine went under cloak of Mirage Colloid as she turned around and made her way towards ORB and its surrounding Islands.
Later that day Kevin's eyes slowly opened, as his augmentation gradually removed the anesthetic from his bloodstream.
He just lay there for a moment, cataloguing the input from his senses, natural and electronic, and determining how much of his body still obeyed him. Most of the news seemed good, but Kevin realized quickly that there was something odd about his right arm. His implanted computers, for one thing, seemed much more in control of it than they ought, and his eyes moved toward the appendage.
His startled reaction as he saw the bare metal limb drew Cagalli's eye; she had been at his side virtually the entire time since the surgery had finished. "Hey, Kevin. You're awake."
"Yeah," he croaked; he made a slight adjustment to his augmentation, and when he spoke again, his voice was closer to normal. "How long... was I out?"
"About forty-eight hours," Kira put in from the other side of the hospital bed. "The doc used the anesthetic in your augmentation to keep you out during the surgery."
"That makes sense..." Kevin slowly shook his head, trying to clear it. "How am I doing?"
"The arm, as you've noticed, was a write-off," Cagalli said with a grimace. "But Erica Simmons put together that prosthetic in record time, so you'll still be as deadly as always; maybe more so. She tells me that it'll grow synthetic skin before long, too. As to the rest, well... Your nano-repair's gone, like you thought, and you've got a few other glitches in the system, but the doctor says you'll be fine."
He nodded weakly. "Yeah, I'm sure I will. Solkin syn," he added. "That brings me up to around, what, a full thirdof my body replaced by mechanicals?" Kevin grimaced. "Guess it's my own bloody fault; if I hadn't aggravated the wound, maybe it could have been saved. Of course, a 30 millimeter depleted-uranium slug isn't good for you, anyway."
The hospital room's door opened while he was speaking, and Kisaka stepped in, quickly saluting the two aristocrats. "We have news from Panama," he said without preamble. "ZAFT began its attack at dawn."
Kevin was suddenly very awake. "Panama? I'd've thought they wouldn't have the forces for that; not after Alaska."
The colonel shrugged. "Well, they probably would have lost a straight-up fight, especially after the Earth Forces deployed mobile suits of their own, some kind of mass-produced version of the Strike. But ZAFT used some kind of electromagnetic pulse weapon to knock out the Alliance's electronics."
"EMP," Snake breathed. "Solkin syn." His friends knew exactly why he was frightened; he had EMP shielding in his augmentation, but it was three years out of date; whereas the Earth Forces doubtless would have had more modern shielding of their own Aelan on the otherhand could be upgraded in the EMP department. If the weapon was powerful enough to overcome that, then Kevin was in grave danger from it. It wouldn't kill him (his autonomic nervous system, while also augmented, did not include any electronics), but he would be unable to move.
"Good thing Stormhawk has much stronger shielding, huh?" Kira commented. "But what kind of weapon could have done that? I mean, most EMP is generated by air-burst nuclear weapons, right? And since nobody can even use nukes..."
Something clicked inside Kevin's head, and his implanted database uploaded a piece of data into his mind. "Gungnirs," he said after a moment. "According to the data ZAFT buried in my head, they've been kicking the idea around for years; I guess they finally got the bugs out." He looked up, head turning sharply to Kisaka as an unpleasant thought occurred to him. "What about Porta Panama? The mass driver?"
"It was destroyed, as well," the colonel answered. "A catastrophic short-circuit that ripped it apart."
Snake muttered something highly obscene; fortunately, he was the only one in the room fluent in Russian. "Which means, of course," he added in English, "that the Earth Alliance no longer has a mass driver, which means their only cost-effective way of getting large cargoes into orbit is gone. And that also means that only one mass driver remains out of ZAFT hands."
Cagalli looked horrified. "Kaguya!"
He swore again, even more vilely. "Which means we can expect the Alliance to start making demands on Orb soon. And if we fail to give them what they want..." He flexed his bionic arm in frustration. "I need to be back on my feet as soon as possible. Things are gonna get real ugly, real soon."
None of them felt much like speaking after that.