LN: Ok well just 2 things that I kinda wanna mention before we get started, first of all, sometime in the near future I plan on going back and re-editing chapter 1 since I read it and it kinda sucks. I originally started this out of the sake of killing time, but as I kept writing it kinda got interesting, so I might as well make it good. O and uhh...

Chibi-Athrun: And I'm the sidehosts for this show, in case you didnt know, chibi means mini.

LN: Right, but that's not quite what I was getting at.

Chibi-Athrun: I know, you don't own any scrap of Gundam Seed or else you'd be pretty rich by now. So don't sue him, not that you'd get much from it anyways.

LN: Putting that aside, lets get started.

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Tale in Between
Soldier

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Athrun Zala took his usual patrol route at the assembly hall to make sure that everything was clear before Cagalli would make her entrance. Usually the worst that would happen was some minor bugging here and there. In the worst case scenerio, being a few months ago, there had been a minor attempt at kidnapping in order to meet certain demands from the government about certain new founded policies.

"All clear Alex?" Athrun turned around to acknowledge the voice and nodded to it. He really didn't like the name Alex, true he couldn't go parading around telling everyone that he's the son of Patrick Zala and all, but really now, did he have to use Alex?

He took a round about route back towards the front gate, Cagalli would probably be here by the time he got there.

"Athrun..."

Athrun lifted his hand gun from his belt pouch and immediatly flanked it behind him towards whoever had just somehow knew his name and called it out.

It happened to be Kira.

He lowered the gun and breathed a sigh of relief, "Geez Kira, don't do that to me."

Kira held up his hands defensively, "Sorry about that, didn't mean it."

"Come on, we'll talk as we move, Cagalli would be glad to see you anyways."

"It's been a while since I last met the two of you." Kira remembered back to 2 months ago when Cagalli and Athrun had managed to pull some time out to have dinner with him and Lacus.

"Well, Cagalli seems to have gotten awfully busy with the new plans for Morganraete and weapons development. Plus you guys never come over."

"Well, it'd be slightly difficult for Lacus for make an appearance, even in Orb." Athrun knew that it was more like a valid excuse. He could somewhat understand though, it was one thing spending time with Cagalli and making sure she was safe, but he himself couldn't quite stand all those other politicians and they way they did things most of the time.

Kira and Athrun both arrived at the front of the assembly hall. Cagalli was the first to come in, she managed to sneak a peek at Athrun and leave him with a little wink, and she certainly couldn't hold her surprise when she saw Kira there.

Kira gave her a small wave before she made herself turn forward and continue walking, the representative of Orb sure needed to retain her image. Kira amused himself with the thought, it seemed she wasn't doing too bad of a job.

"We can find a place near by and talk." Kira nodded, and followed Athrun to an empty guard station inside the assembly hall. Here he could make sure that they would have a secure conversation and he would manage to keep a look-out on anything that happened at the podium.

"I need your help with something Athrun."

"Hmm?" Now Athrun was interested, he'd never thought Kira would need quite anything now, he seemed satisfied sometimes, yet Athrun could also notice that he was bored and confused still. Athrun had enough to keep him busy, and happy even, yet even he couldn't deny that this had been one of the few things he could have done now that it was peace time, the only thing that was close enough to matching the speed of war time.

"You know about that simulation system Morganraete developed lately?"

"Yeah, based on the data of the Gundam specs, I tested it out once even, quite astonishing how well they worked out all the details." So it wasn't going to be something simple like throwing a surprise party for Lacus, although he wasn't sure he could still remember her birthday, it was strange how easily people could drift apart.

"I was wondering whether you could do some mock battles with me?"

"...what's wrong Kira?"

Kira sighed, there was obviously no way he could get about having Athrun help him with something like this without making him suspicious. Athrun would never be able to handle some second rate lie, after all Kira had strongly made it clear that he was never getting into a mobile suit again, strange how little time it took to change his resolution.

"There's something I need to do, I can't tell you about right now but...I need to do this myself."

"Will I ever find out what it was?"

"No."

Athrun stood up, "As a friend Kira, I will help you, however as a member of Orb and bodyguard to Cagalli Yula Athna, I must warn you that if whatever you're doing puts this country at risk for some selfish desire, I will kill you."

"Is that your Justice?"

Athrun seemed slightly taken aback by that question, but Kira answered for him, "Not quite I suppose, that is your reason to continue to live."

"It is both."

"Does Cagalli have some time after this for a small chat?"

Athrun gave Kira a smile, "Anytime for her younger brother."

"Older brother mind you."

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Murrue Ramius followed Lacus into a some kind of mobile base. It was relatively small compared to Morganraete where she had been working for the last while, but the equipment was up to standard and...it reeked of coffee.

"I'm guessing Andrew is also here then."

Lacus gave off a small giggle and pointed up towards Bartfeldt who was directing some men on the construction project of a mobile suit that looked awfully familiar to the Murasume.

"That's what I'm here to see?"

"YDI-001 - Mushashi, based on the design of Orb's Murasume with certain distinguishable differences." Lacus smiled.

Ramius looked at the blue mobile suit, the thrusters on the back resembled an awful lot to that of a Gin, asides from that, what was also different was that this suit had 6 beam sabers located, 2 at the standard area of the waist, 2 on the forearms, and 2 placed pointing downwards at the side of the heel joint.

"It also seems to remind me of Aegis."

Lacus nodded briefly and looked up at Bartfeldt, "Despite being in Orb, most of us working on this project were former ZAFT soldiers, so certain aspects of the knowledge can only come based off what we learned back then, which is why the main frame structure is taken from the Murasume."

"Now the important question, why are you building this?"

Lacus turned to look at Ramius, "Just as the former Orb required power to accomplish its ideals, just as we in the war required power in order to bring about peace, Kira will need power in order to find his truth."

"The truth about..."

"The answer, to why he should be alive."

Ramius sighed, she could understand what Lacus meant, however, "That's an awful lot of power for one question."

"That is because it's a very large question."

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The chief of programming at Morganraete welcomed Kira and Athrun in, he wasn't trying to hide how excited and grateful he was for what they were going to do for him. The legendary pilots of war, helping with gathering data, for him.

Athrun had managed to find some time on the same day after Cagalli had been escorted back to her residence, well she had plenty of paper work left over anyways, not like we would have done anything together today.

However being in Morganraete itself made him start to wonder, Athrun wasn't quite sure he would like this idea as much he had told himself to begin with, which wasn't even much.

The chief led the two of them to a set of machines in a lab, it looked like an exact replication of a mobile suit's cockpit.

Athrun took a seat in one and the hatch slowly sealed up leaving him in darkness, meanwhile Kira took another.

Inside the cockpit, Kira could feel his hands tremble, it had started ever since he had truly realized that somehow, he of all the people who died throughout the war, had survived through everything. He became afraid, what it was, he wasn't even quite sure, but from that day he couldn't focus in a cockpit, that was mainly the reason he refused any requests until now.

Kira slowly lifted his face up and watched as the screen and controls came to life. He could recognize the suit he was supposed to be in as soon as parts of it showed up on display, it was Strike, and not too far from him he could see the Aegis, and below him he could see an island.

In that instant something triggered in Kira as memories flowed within him, pain, sorrow, regret and hatred. His quivering paused as he held the controls tightly, it seemed more as though it was unconscious, but Kira had become a soldier.

Meanwhile Athrun experienced something familiar, he remember Nicol's death, he shook the sensation out of his head making sure the emotions wouldn't cloud him from reality, after all it was all in the past now, it was over already.

"Kira, you ready?."

Athrun looked up at his screen to see Strike charging full speed at him, instintively Athrun reacted by combating back. Their beam sabers collided with each other and Athrun used the momentum to pull some distance away from Kira.

"Kira! What are you doing?"

"ATHRUN!" The voice screamed through from the communications line, Athrun could feel the blood boil within him.

"KIRA!" Before his logical process could take over, Athrun became completely enticed by the heat of the battle. Aegis' thrusters roared to life as he launched himself forward towards Strike.

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Kira found that as he was fighting Athrun, it was more surreal than he had expected, the fighting wasn't done so much by him as it was by his instincts, he had gone beserk to put it simply.

Kira jetted his suit back and landed it on a small hill top, hoping that both him and Athrun would be able to clear their heads for a few moments. However Athrun, who was also caught by his emotions, chased after Kira. The beam cannon of the transformed Aegis blew straight through Strike's left arm.

Kira snapped, "I can't DIE HERE!" No that's not right this isn't real...

Before he could convince himself, his body and spirit reacted first, Strike deflected another beam by sacrificing its legs in a chain sequence of moves which placed him on top of Aegis on the ground.

"ATHRUN!" Strike brought down his saber right into the cockpit of Athrun, but before he could strike it down deep enough, he found that Athrun had sliced off Strike's arm with Aegis' leg saber.

Aegis use its propulsion and pushed itself off the ground and into the air, it then cut its propulsion and came plumetting back down with its two remaining sabers aimed at Strike.

Kira took his hands off the control, it was over, he was going to die. No that's not true...

He welcomed it, if this was the end then he would no longer have to bother with his answer, it wouldn't matter to him anymore why he was still alive, because he wouldn't be.

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Everything went dark, and for a moment in both cockpits, the only visible sound was a very loud panting.

Kira's hands began to quiver again as he tried to wipe off the sweat that had build up on his forehead. The door on his cockpit opened to reveal the face of the chief programmer, "Terribly sorry about that, it seems we had a slight overload in the transfer of data, it was certianly quite some moves you pulled out there."

Kira tried to stand up and collapsed back into the seat, thankfully the chief had already gone over to check up on Athrun. Kira tried again, this time hold onto the side for support. He climbed out of the cockpit to see Athrun doing the same, Athrun was clearly a lot calmer and well composed.

Well he was a official soldier after all...was I ever one at any point?

He waved to Athrun, Athrun waved back.

They wouldn't talk about what they felt or what they said that day, they would both try their best to forget about it, "Same time tomorrow?"

Athrun looked astonishingly at Kira as if he had finally turned insane, "You're serious huh..."

Kira nodded.

Athrun jumped onto the ground as Kira slowly climbed down, "Fine, but next time come prepared."

Kira felt hesitant at how to answer him, although he never had to, Athrun walked out before he could say anything.

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Kira breathed in deeply as he sat in the cockpit of his new mobile suit, ORB-00 Musashi. It had finally come to the point where he felt ready for what he was going to face.

His hands fell around for the cold but familiar touch of the cockpit, he could almost remember moments of the past where he lay within the Freedom and Strike, each moment wavering him back and forth in front of the division line between life and death.

Lacus waved to him lightly from outside the cockpit window, it seemed to Kira almost as if Lacus was some mastermind behind some grand scheme, whether good or bad. But he had trusted more than his life to her once, and he still wasnt dead, guess there was no harm in doing it again.

"Kira Yamato, Murasume, Ikkimasu!"

The feel certainly was different than the way he felt it in simulation, the light shock from the vibrating cockpit he had practiced with had now turned into a full throttle, he had to admit that he wasnt quite as used to it as he had hoped he would be.

Coordinates: 0.998, 1.367

Just one more time, Kira had to find out what it meant to live, to fight, what he had fought relentlessly for. He would find his answer the way he had for far too long, on the battlefield, one more time...

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LN: Ok well finally, the reason I hadnt written anything was cause uhhhh...well im lazy, come on its summer vacation for me, spare me...

Chibi-Athrun: But you know you stopped working on this back in like...ewww a long time ago...

LN: The point is I got it done (CA: At last!) and I'll keep on working at it, at a faster pace hopefully, the story's picked up some good pace and I work better when it's like that.

Chibi-Athrun: Well we'll see you all next time, if one comes around, to find out just what exactly is going to happen to Kira.