Seeds of Dawn
By Lady Onuk
Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction based on the Gundam Seed and Seed Destiny series which, by the way I don't own. This is my small tribute to the people who were creative enough to make a series that would hook me so much that I had to offend the English language with my clumsy attempts to write something coherent. Poor Shakespeare must be turning around in his grave --U.
Is an Asucaga fic, but would try not to forget there exist more characters in the whole series. Any comments are welcome and appreciated, but I would be grateful if you could pinpoint any mistakes (grammatically speaking and characterization-wise) for it will be a great help to improve this and subsequent works.
This first part happens in-between the end of Seed and the beginning of Seed Destiny.
Amongst leopards."We have our duties, you have your duties. If there is nobody left to carry on our ideals, then everything will be lost."
-'Orb's Lion', Uzumi Nara Athha-
-.-.-.-.-.-
His fingers moved through the keyboard with the ease born of daily routine. A couple of spam messages deleted here, a new message from the "Mechanical Universum" newsgroup archived there for future reference, a forwarded one from "l337 h4x0r l1f3" which he was sure Kira had thought would interest him, but in fact annoyed him out of his mind just trying to translate it. Another message from Dearka full of bad jokes (which made him want to block his address more often than not) went straight to the trashcan along with a bunch of reminders that he had already remembered (and basically done, but he kept making them just in the -very slim- chance he would forget).
Once he got through his mailbox and rearranged it in what he considered a neat and clear order once again, he clicked the link to take a look at the headings of his favored newspapers.
Slowly sipping his coffee -one of cream, no sugar- he methodically scanned the international newspaper's headings. "Report on the Federation declared inconclusive…", "Ministry of External Relationships finishes program for next period", "New polar bear born in…", "Minister of Environment ask for an increment…" Nothing important as far as he was concerned. He idly went into "The Orb's Centinel" expecting more boring reports about the tax and accounts debates when the heading in the political affairs section called his attention; "Athha in Trouble. Deficiencies in the Actual Administration."
He carefully read the article snorting or grumbling alternatively here and there. It had been written by one of the Athha's most incisive dissenters and, as expected, was making quite a deal about the last reunion the Representative had gone to. It heavily criticized her lack of tact and explosive nature, something he had to agree was not politically correct of her in such reunions; he questioned her capabilities to rule Orb and went as far as stating that they should make a revision for the Head of State's characteristics in the National Constitution. Not that it was feasible to do given the nature of Orb's ruling system, but it annoyed him all the while.
Some of the things this man had written were true, like Cagalli's lack of experience, but the way he had made the statements transformed the whole "analysis" into a downright degrading critique. Exiting the site, he went to the next newspaper and randomly selected a section..
He could have spit his -now cooling- coffee just then, but his strong self-control prevented him from that, after all, a Zala must ALWAYS look cool. "Kitten's meowing disturbs Assembly" and "Too much for a weaned cub" were just among some of the least insulting headings.
"So now it's 'Orb's Kitten', eh?"
He ALMOST jumped out of his chair (nice thing this Zala's self-control is) at the sudden apparition of said 'Kitten' right beside his head.
The only daughter of the late "Lion of Orb" glared at the holographic display on her bodyguard's laptop and, after a few moments, straightened and took her seat in front of the steaming cup of coffee –two sugar spoons, and a jot of cinnamon- the maid had just served.
Athrun turned off the laptop and, after mentally berating himself for letting down his guard, finished his coffee and reached into the bread basket to take a nice looking white muffin.
"You know how the media likes to make things like this." Splitting the muffin in two, he gave the other half to the fuming blonde in front of him.
Taking the offered piece of bread Cagalli Yula Athha gave a loud sigh and, wearily, began eating her breakfast. "I wonder if it was Fong's idea or if he just stole it from another, more creative, underling of his?" She seemed even more tired now than she was before going to sleep. Athrun wondered if the Representative had slept at all.
It would not be the first time she had stayed up late going through the various issues the Emirs had presented for her approval. They were, after all, in the most complicated phase of Orb's reconstruction, both in terms of territory and the people's spirits.
"Knowing him, it was probably the latter."
Trying to rebuild over the debris generated by war, having lost everything they held precious and needing to go on was something that some people were either incapable or unwilling to do. Some seemed to have lost their desire to live, even after surviving the worse of the war… or maybe because of it.
And the only figure they had to cling to was, precisely, the girl in front of him.
Right now the United Emirates of Orb were standing precariously on the shoulders of the last descendant of the house of Athha, the house that represented the true ideals and identity of the nation, and who happened to be not as prepared for such responsibilities as he would wish. And all the media knew this.
Once the war had ended each Emirate had elected new representatives from each of the royal houses (as most of the previous heads had died during the Kaguya Mass Driver incident) and were currently too occupied straightening things out on their own lands. Thus Cagalli had had to make the best she could to rule her devastated country with the advise of her closest friends and the little political experience she already had.
Everything had worked more or less during those few months after the end of the war, in which her military rank provided her of almost absolute power over all aspects of the nation. But it was short lived. Once the country was in more or less solid bases her granted immunity had vanished, and soon, the teenage girl faced the worst enemy she had ever encountered: the mass media.
Funny (and frightening) thing was that the blonde had never been too much of a demure and cool headed princess, and such characteristics that had, somehow, helped her recover her own country and rebuilt it in the first months, were working against her, at least as far as the political counselors were concerned.
Maybe she should have received a deeper tactical training (if she ever received ANY training at all, something Athrun sometimes questioned) from her father or, at least, Kisaka, but as things were now, she was, basically, on her own.
Yes, Erica Simmons and Kisaka Lednoir had proven to be her most important advisors on many fields, but as their responsibilities were modified, both had been able to support her less and less. So it fell basically onto him to back her up, even when, politically speaking, he lacked any kind of power. After all 'Alex Dino' was just Ms. Athha's bodyguard.
"Don't let it get to you." He tried to cheer her up (and failed miserably) after a few moments of silence. "You have made a great work with so little resources available." He finished the last of his muffin and began drinking the, slightly sour, glass of orange juice. "Besides, you have most of Orb's citizens on your side."
"Mmmmh, I wonder." She said so lowly that it was almost a whisper. "I don't really know if I am doing this correctly. Every time I face the Emirs and the council members I feel like a bug under magnifying lenses, being judged and criticized for every word I utter and for those I don't, and I can't keep from thinking that father would have had more tact to deal with this or that matter, having the exact words for each and everyone of the politicians."
She drank the last of her juice in a gulp and made a face. "Sour."
"You just need more experience." He rose from his seat and went to her side. "Besides, not everyone is as near sighted as Fong. You saw that column from Melissa Omiaziki, right? She also believes that what you lack is experience, just that, and that you will become a great leader with time."
"IF I am not first 'eaten by all those political leopards out there', if I quote her correctly." and she said that more forcefully than she intended. "I sometimes wish I could settle things just by jumping on my Rouge and pounding everything into their right order. That's something I have been always good at… the pounding thing I mean." She chuckled half heartedly.
He took her hands on his, and, not for the first time, noticed how small they were. He knew, from personal experience, that those hands were stronger than they looked and that had done (as stated by the calluses here and there) much more things than those of any other respectable princess would do in a lifetime. After all she was no regular princess to begin with; more like the 'Goddess of Victory' if Kira told him the truth about a certain encounter in the desert… and Kira was one of those persons that struck him as incapable of lying. "Trust me in this," he said with that soft and, at the same time, commanding voice he used just with her when settling a nonsensical argument, "you have the heart to become a great leader, and sooner than later you will notice it too."
"Thanks." She said rising to hug the man she loved with all her heart and whose words she so desperately wanted to believe in, but couldn't bring herself to. It was always the thought that she might very well be screwing everything up more than it already was, always the thought that her father would have done something different, something wiser, or even worse, that she would not be protecting the people of Orb he had loved so much (and for which he had selflessly given up his life) and that now were her responsibility. 'The shoes you left behind are by far too big for me, father.' "I will do my best."
Even there, in the arms of her lover, she knew that the road ahead was one she had to walk on her own, hard as it was, following the paw-prints of the mighty Lion and tripping over and over again in the pursue of a dream shared by generations. She just wished she wouldn't mess everything too much on her learning way; after all, it was not just her life she was screwing, but also those of the citizens of Orb.
-.-.-.-.-.-
First draft finished February 24, 2006
First Revision: February 26, 2006
Second Revision: March 28, 2006 (thanks to Rhea SilverKeys for all her help)
Wow! Done! There it is my first try at Asucaga…. What do you think? Anyway, it's just the first draft, so I might come again later and make a few changes here and there to make my heart happy.
Since I began watching Destiny I had always wondered why Cagalli was so royally different from Seed (is it my idea or she cried a tad bit too much?) So this is a little insight of what might have gone trough her mind in between Seed and Destiny.
My theory is that she was far too young to cope with her new responsibilities. After all, for what I could grasp, her father was more concerned on teaching her the ideals of Orb than giving her an insight of what she had to do with the incisive journalists, the political intrigues and manipulations of all sorts, thus Cagalli was raised as a very straight forward person that couldn't really understand the whole world of political subtleties that could be later used against her, mainly by the Seiran family. And don't let me get started with the mass media issues…
Anyway, that's just me. And on the subject of the length of the story… well I have planed at least two more auto-conclusive parts, but I don't know if I will be able to write them. I suppose time will tell, eh?
Just one more thing: I insist, PLEASE constructive criticism will be greatly appreciated. This story can also be found at my LiveJournal (link on my profile).
Edit: Thanks for all the wonderful reviews, I most appreciate (and wish to specially thank) those who pointed out the mistakes in this first draft. Thank you with all my heart!
I will work harder to make something better, and try to get rid of my fixation with parenthesis (love the little tikes , )
