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Chapter 4: Child Soldier
The sudden banging startled Athrun out of his slumber. Sai watched the green eyes, glazed over with sleep, narrow when he saw the EA soldiers Sai had with him. Members of the council, completely anti-coordinator. Slowly, and with grace that should have been impossible for an injured person, Athrun rose. Sai found himself envying the younger boy's movements. Grace and control that even Kira had lacked, it radiated power. And Sai had the distinct impression that Athrun was only doing that to spook the men. It was only freckin' obvious!
The door of the cell opened smoothly. Athrun stood there, his very being defiant. And it was working. The men approached him cautiously, as if afraid he might explode. It was a situation Sai would have laughed at under any other circumstances.
And then Athrun howled.
Sai looked up, startled. One of the men had grabbed Athrun's arms, broken one and all, and none to gently twisted them behind his back. His green eyes, instead of dimming, blazed angrily. And he suddenly looked like the caged tiger Sai had compared him too two days before hand. Dangerous, powerful and with an elegance most could only dream of. The foot darted back before anyone could comprehend the boy's change in stance.
Now it was the man's turn to howl. But Athrun wasn't done yet. One arm wrapped itself skillfully around the man's throat. The other man moved forward, but Sai got there first.
'Athrun,' he hissed, 'Athrun, let him go.' Emerald eyes, like empty tunnels leading to nowhere, flickered to him. No pain, no anger, no nothing. They held absolutely nothing. Sai felt fear ignite somewhere within him. This was not the boy he'd talked too, this was the soldier, the part that wasn't afraid to kill. The prince overcoming the child. And yet, Sai still stood in front of him. He hoped he was mirroring the image Athrun had just portrayed. Athrun looked completely emotionless.
Never the less, the arm slid off the man's throat. Sai noted with horror that it was his left arm, the injured one. And with a small cry, he darted forward to catch the ZAFT pilot. The two men looked beside themselves, and Sai knew Athrun would pay dearly. He looked down at the soft midnight blue hair. The muffled snap of metal startled him, but not as much as the feeling of something cool being pressed into his hand. He didn't dare look down, instead he gripped the object tighter. And then the two men pulled Athrun away.
Sai followed them, trailing a few steps behind. The object in his hand was an odd shape, and seemed to be folded. But how could you fold metal? Unless it was a chain. But why would a soldier have a chain? Athrun didn't glance back, but walked with a proud arrogance about him. Head held high, power oozing from him, Athrun made it perfectly obvious that he would give them no information, and fear for the boy's safety joined the fear of the boy himself.
Murre watched the two older men pull the boy up from the brig. Sai walked behind them looking utterly miserable. She didn't need to wonder why. Handing a life over to Old Boney and pain, that was something a child with no real experience could do without some regret. Hell, she regretted doing it.
Sai walked past her, and turned to stand just behind her right shoulder. His hand, she noticed, was clenched around something. Slight confusion swelled inside her, but she put it aside for now and turned back to the men. Horror erupted when she realized the boy between them had his hands tied behind his back.
'Sir, with all due respect, the prisoner has an injured arm. Why have you tied them behind his back?' The man snorted.
'Injured? The boy has just tried to throttle me. He has proved himself to be well capable of moving both his arms.' Her eyes widened, and she stared hard at the boy. He stared right back, eyebrows raised. The look said: "Well what did you expect?I only reacted to the situation" She shook her head and saluted the men. They pulled the boy off the ship. Well, that was one kid that wasn't coming back alive... Her insides squirmed guiltily. She was effectively putting the kid through hell herself.
With a sigh, she turned 'round. Sai glanced up at her, looking thunderstruck. She stared at him. And slowly, he held up the object he had been holding. She bit her lip, shock taking hold of her.
A rough chain dangled in front of her, two metal plates hanging off the end of it. The catch was broken. It had obviously been pulled off in a hurry. 'One to his army, the other to his family...' she muttered. So the kid knew...he knew he was a dead man walking. He knew...and still he had looked so calm? Sai looked at her.
'Why,' he whispered, 'Why give them to me?' She shrugged. Some other crew members were craning over Sai's shoulder to get a look at the item. The boy looked to be too deep in thought to care.
"You and your race decided to blow over four hundred thousand of us straight to hell for no reason! You took my mother!" Why? Why would you give this to me, Athrun, If you hated me so much? Why me?
He looked up at his captain one more time, and said with utter clarity. 'It was my friend he killed, so if anyone deserves to end his life, it's Milly, Kuzzey and I. And I don't think even he deserves that. I'm not going to let them end his life for no reason other then he wears a different uniform. I'm...I'm going to...'
Athrun winced as the soldiers pulled a blindfold over his eyes. One of them leant on his injured shoulder and whispered in his ear.
'You're gonna pay for that incident on the brig. When I'm through with you, we won't need a blindfold to hide our secrets from you.' Despite himself, Athrun felt a ripple of fear. Just maybe Sai would get his dog tags to his father. At least then the man would know that he'd survived long enough to say goodbye.
Well, too short. Yeah I know. Hopefully the chapters will get longer, as soon as my plot bunny stops having heart attacks when I go over two pages. Damn lazy rabbit. So anyways, R&R?