It had almost been 24 hours since the destruction of the REQUIEM, it was hard to tell in space. The death of the ZAFT chairman and the destruction of the super weapon may have stalled the conflict for a while, but the war was far from over. The battle raged on over Luna and Shinn's heads. They had been marooned upon this enormous, lifeless mass of rock floating through space. It seemed as though it served as a levitating graveyard; countless damaged and now useless mobile suits and warships were strewn across the landscape. They had been looking for a pair of suits that weren't too worse for wear and were still capable of fighting, as their own two gundams were among the casualties. They had already found one, the other had been found sometime after.
Both of the suits seemed to have been owned by incapable pilots. The pilot of the first seemed to have faked his death and escaped somewhere; the suit was practically undamaged and the cockpit was empty. The pilot of the second had died in their seat. Head trauma from the turbulent firing that he'd recieved was the cause of his death. While the suit he was in was made to withstand it, it appeared the pilot wasn't.
That hadn't been the issue. They were in the army. They saw plenty of the dead people every month. It came with the territory. She and Shinn had gotten into the suits. They were going to do something. ORB and the Archangel were slowly losing the fight from their point of view, especially with their forces outnumbered and weary. They had tried to find an place to take off safely, a place that wasn't consumed by the battle. But that was impossible. The battle was everywhere. She spotted an open looking point so they headed for it.
Luna had been horribly wrong at picking it. Shortly after their arrival, they had been surrounded by the sound and the impact of an explosion, followed by a group of EA suits. She heard Shinn as he cursed loudly and told her to get back. She did, but it only sent her right into one of the suits. Suddenly, Shinn was protecting her. He had took a hit that probably would have been the end of Luna for himself as he fought with the rest of the suits. He was surprisingly doing very well against them. He cut them down with cold presicion... it reminded her of the time he fought the FREEDOM.
She felt of little importance. Even though she shot and helped out as much as she could, Shinn seemed to destroy all of the suits with the same ease.
She didn't know what was going on when Shinn had cried out her name.
That was when the sensors in her mobile suit started going crazy, almost deafening her. She turned around and was met with the sight of a harsh-looking beam sent from a suit aiming right for her. She couldn't move. She didn't know if her ZAKU was acting up, or if she was just too scared, or stunned, or hopeless to move.
But Shinn had saved her. He had taken down the suit with a few powerful and well aimed shots. He had also thrown himself into the path of the laser, in order to push her out of it. Unfortunately, he had done it barely in time. He was hit with most of it dead-on. If he had been in his normal suit, the Destiny, he would have surely withstood it. But the fact was that he was in a low-grade, mass-produced suit, hardly comparable to his gundam. The blast nearly tore the mobile suit to shreds, the cockpit was half-collapsed and numerous of his consoles had exploded.
Somehow, the communication channel had buzzed to life. Luna choked back tears as she saw the damage to his body. He was covered in shrapnel from the screens and the cockpit collapse hadn't helped at all. His helmet had a crack in it, but more horrifying than all, she couldn't see his face; she could only see blood. Even if he was alive, Shinn had little to no chance of making it. She tried to hold back her cries but found herself sobbing helplessly.
"Ma... Mayu...?" came a croaking voice, followed by a loud cough. Luna looked up, a bit shocked. "W...why are you... crying?" he was struggling to speak. His voice was cracking on almost every word. "It's... okay... I'm here..." he told her.
Shinn thought that she was his deceased sister.
Luna tried to smile in her tears, as she played along, "I... I know, big brother. I'm okay... with you here."
Shinn was quiet for a bit, "... I can't see... all I can see is... red." He gave a small laugh, "I know it's silly... but... I'm scared... I know what's happening... but I'm.. still so frightened..." he confessed.
Luna wiped at her tears, "I-it's okay... Everyone is afraid sometimes..."
Shinn let another little laugh escape him, "It was... always like you... to think like that.. Mayu," he whispered out. It was getting harder for him to talk. "Hey... Mayu...?"
"What is it... big brother?"
"Be a good girl... and do your brother a favor... You see... there's this girl..." he started, "her name is... Luna... Lunamaria Hawke," Luna's eyes widened a bit, but she remained silent. "T... tell her... that I'm... really... sorry..." he said, voice falling low at the end.
Luna tried to ignore the tears streaming down her cheeks, "Okay... I'll definitely tell her!" she said.
Shinn smiled. She couldn't see it, but she could somehow hear it in his voice. "Thank you, Mayu... I'll... be able to see you soon.. I promise.." he told Luna. "Then we'll... play tag again. Just like we used to..." he promised her. As Luna nodded furiously, he started to talk again, a bit more detatched. "... It's... changing... from red to black... getting darker."
Luna's lip quivered as she tried not to break down, "Be.. be strong, brother. You'll see the light soon,"
Shinn began a laugh that ended with a harsh coughing fit, "Yeah... and I'll see you... and Stellar..." he said the girl's name wistfully. "She.. was right, you know. I saw her... She said... 'tomorrow'. That's what she told me..." he chuckled again, this time harmlessly.
"...that tomorrow... is today."
And then he was gone.