Chapter 5: The turning of gears
Athrun fumed silently, still not wanting to believe the weight of the responsibility he now shouldered. At times like this there was only one person to talk to; the one person is taking the bedside watch for Yzak to regain consciousness. As he approached the door of the infirmary, he could hear Kira speaking to someone about what he met up with in the Messiah. Athrun stood there and listened to his tale.
Basically, Rey shot Dlliundal, Captain Talia chose to accompany Dulliundal in death and told Kira…she has a son in PLANTS. Thtat was a message meant for the Archangel Captain …….So much had happened in the Messiah…
When Kira finished, Shinn was shell-shocked, he managed to stammered: "Rey told me…he was a clone. That he didn't have a future, nor parents… But…but he's a good person…"
"Shinn…" Lunamaria said, her voice and barely above a whisper. She sounded as if she just woken up but was trying to comfort with her voice.
The next moment, Kira came out of the room and smiled wryly at Athrun: "Let's come back later…" he took Athrun by the arm and lead him away.
"Kira?" Athrun questioned, though he didn't resist.
"Shinn, the boy there…is as confused as you described. Let's leave him with the girl for now… …I assume you heard all of it."
Athrun looked away and nodded, feeling as if he just accidentally intruded on someone's privacy as he nodded grimly.
"Can you tell Captain Ramius for me?"
"Why?"
"I wanna speak with Lacus."
Yzak's eyes fluttered open, trying to adjust to the sudden intensity of light and two brown circles that he knew were faces. When the images came into focus, he noted that it was Dearka and Mirillia, both gazing intently at him, staring straight at his face. "What?" he asked, immediately annoyed, though the effort of the sentence cause a sharp pain to hit him in the chest. He gasped in surprise, clutching his chest.
Dearka took his gesture another way, "Ahh… he's pissed. That's a good sign. But alas, a few cracked ribs got in the way… that's a bad sign, real bad."
"Shaddup!" Yzak said with all the strength he could muster, which wasn't much. He felt weak and drained of energy, he could sit up with Dearka's help but that alone left him outright tired and irritable, perspiration dotted his forehead. It hurt to breathe, and his mind was spinning off, refusing to focus on anything. He noticed there were bandages wrapped round his head and chest, sliding over his damp skin each time he breathed. And an intravenous drip was sticking out of his right arm, connected by a plastic tube to a clear saline solution overhead.
"I could hit him for you if you like." Offered Mir.
"Please." He replied with a hint of a smile playing about his lips, there was a satisfying 'splat' when Mir whacked Dearka right between the eyes, who lost balance and fell off the chair.
"What was that for? After two years all you wanna do is punch me?" Dearka said, massaging the bridge of his nose on the floor.
"I wouldn't if you left me alone for another few years." She replied while laughing, offering a hand to pull him up. Dearka was wearing the Orb jacket, and Yzak thought it was odd, to see this two together again. However, it was entertaining too, and helped Yzak keep him mind off the throbbing pain in his head. Ah, the irony…
"How're you feeling partner? We watched you for forty-eight hours and all you did was sleep like a pig."
"I'd rather 'sleep like a pig' for a while longer then."
"Why?"
"Cause my head's hurting and if you don't stop asking silly questions you're gonna start hurting soon." It was an empty threat, and Dearka understood. He smiled his mischievously wicked smile and replied. "Good to have you back, partner. Now please do go sleep, we're going back to ZAFT."
"Are we?" he asked in spite of himself, Mir took up the explanation.
"The high council sent a Nazca class ship named umm…Celsius I think. The captain wanted to pick a few people and items off our fleet. Shinn Asuka, Dearka Elthman, Lunamaira Hawke, Meyrin Hawke and Senator Yzak Jule. Along with your Zaku Phantom and the GOUF Ignited, followed by Destiny and Impulse."
"Basically the entire ZAFT clan." Dearka added.
"Except him." Yzak wondered aloud.
"Ah, but I have a feeling we'll be seeing a lot of Athrun in ZAFT. Thank goodness you weren't awake then. Never knew that guy had it in him, it's a disgustingly frightening experience that will shock the pants off you."
"Mir, tell me he's exaggerating."
"He's not." She confirmed, "That guy might really be up to the mark to be the next chairman." Yzak woke up fully at this point in time, he sat up with a start "He WHAT!" and immediately regret it a pain gored into him like a sledge hammer. Pulsating in his chest with renewed vitality, he gritted his teeth and clutched at the mattress, trying to contain the pain. Dearka held him down: "Wow, calm down, you already cracked enough bones to last a month." "Five minutes! Talk fast before I start breaking things then…" he snapped, and panted from the effort.
Mir explained the situation in that five minutes and at the end of it Yzak's eyes were wide, "Him? Chairman?" The concepts did not seem to want to link together as one entity. But the issue was simple, one more person to add to the TO KILL list, first Kira Yamoto, than Athrun Zala.
Meyrin was summarizing the battle that just took place on the Eternal, her new job. The on-board communicators who had nothing to do were all sitting around her, some gossiping, while others are giving kind advice on how to do it. One particular person keep wanting to add stuff in the middle while another keep asking her to delete stuff, she was getting frustrated but dare not voice it out as she was afraid of offending them.
Miss Cagalli must want it really bad though, with Kira-chan and Athrun-chan both taking key roles in the battle.
She remembered the young woman telling her in a small voice: "Take care of him for me okay?" How helpless she must have felt at the moment to be unable to help their efforts in space as her country just had a serious case of treason. Feeling encouraged, Meyrin stepped up her typing speed, but once again the people around her aren't helping. Just as she thought she was about to scream, a familiar voice yelled. "Get away from my sister!"
Shinn looked at Destiny, repairs were being made to it and he wanted to make sure no one sabotages the suit. He was still shaken by what the Freedom pilot told him yesterday, he wanted time to think alone and Luna excused herself to go speak to Meyrin, who is apparently an onboard communicator on this vessel. So Shinn is left to himself, he had so much to think about.
What should I do now? Can I return to PLANTS? What about Luna? Athrun?
Stellar came to mind suddenly, her parting words haunted his mind yet calmed his soul
I received yesterday, you should embrace tomorrow…
She's right…it's about time I move on…but how? Where should I go, what should I do?
Shinn smashed his fist on the wall to vent his frustration… but to no avail…
Fifty degrees angle of elevation from where Shinn stood were two people peering down into the armory through the reinforced glass.
"Sure has a lot to think about, doesn't he?" Kira said jokily.
"Yeah." Lacus replied with the same patriotism that made Kira wanna laugh.
"And, welcome back." She turned to look at him with the most peculiar look in her blue eyes. Kira reach forward and gripped her shoulders, pulling her into an embrace.
"I'm back." They hugged each other for a full minute, before reluctantly pulling away.
"I feel as if I've avenged Meer." Lacus said quietly, looking away.
"Me too. No more Destiny plan…Athrun's a little stressed up though."
"I know, unavoidable. He doesn't think he can do it."
"I do." Kira replied quietly, Lacus was silent, but replied slowly.
"So do I."
Lunamaria was shocked to find the chattering crowd surrounding Meyrin, she looked like she's about to cry. She chased the crowd away and quickly asked Meyrin: "Are those people disturbing you?" Meyrin smiled: "Not any more! Hi sis…and thanks." She wrapped about her sister's frame.
"I missed you."
Lunamaria returned the gesture. Her dead sister found alive, it made her realize how close they are.
"I gotta tell mom and dad before we get back to PLANTs, you're alive! I thought you died when you left with Athrun…"
Meyrin pulled away suddenly, realizing she still has a job at hand. "What's this?"
"The battle report, I'm supposed to do Eternal's" Meyrin scowled at the screen.
"Need help?" Offered Lunamaria, just glad that Meyrin wasn't treated like a POW.
"Hey…I do, I couldn't receive any calibration data from Impulse or Destiny…"
"I forbade it." She replied simply. "Now I'll reveal some Zaft secrets to help my sister in writing a report…" They worked on it for the next hour, and at the end of it Meyrin clicked 'Send'.
"Ah, I think Miss Cagalli is going to be pleased…" Meyrin said happily.
"So……Captain Gladys has a son, in PLANTs." Captain Rumius said quietly. Athrun didn't reply, he was just a messenger anyway. The revelation occurred to him just as he thought it would to the Archangel Captain. Mwu was beside her, who scratched his ear and asked: "She was a son and she chose to die?"
Athrun considered the question for a while before he replied: "Apparently Captain Gladys and Dulliundal… were more than colleagues. They were lovers, but in PLANTs, you don't really get to choose your partners, because of genetic makeup. Certain people's genes are just unviable when combined and will likely produce deformed or mentally impaired progeny when mated…erm, I mean married, hence is forbidden by law. I think that's why she left him…"
"Right…was that the case for you and Lacus, to get engaged at what…five?" Athrun smiled weakly, he didn't mind terribly that Mwu had a dig at him, but it was odd to laugh at himself.
"Our genes match, so does our parentage, maybe our characters too but right now I don't think so."
"Ah, Miss Cagalli. The little zesty princess has grown up by a fair bit through all these. She's learnt to be a politician…and grown up to be a fine woman, though not woman enough to be compared with my Murrue here." He laughed and grabbed Ramius by the waist. She looked awkward and gave him the not-in-front-of-the-kid look. Athrun quickly excused himself and turned to leave, he blushed as Mwu shouted over his head. "When is it you and Cagalli's turn?" Murrue ignored him.
"Athrun"
"Yes?"
"I think that you've really become more mature… decide on what to do…Then don't look back." Athrun turned to see her smiling at him, an advice from an elder to a junior. "I will."
The Cagalli in question slammed her fist on the desk, she just read through the piece from Eternal. No doubt professionally done, but it ended with… Mobile suit coded Infinite justice succeeded in its mission. At time 2304, Requiem cannon exploded. Achieving 83.4 destruction rate within 10 seconds...Rather ambiguous about the pilot then, such an immense destructive power must have been caused by a nuclear source. And the only nuclear source is Infinite Justice itself… …
Refusing to give up, she proceeded to look through the recovery statues. The highlights were the fact that Destiny gundam and Impulse, a Gouf Ignited and a Zaku phantom too, were all currently in the armory, but Cagalli paid no attention to that. Instead, she scrolled down until she found Infinite Justice Recovery status. Her eyes rested on the capped figure, 63.8. Neither here nor there… but it could be concluded that either it had been seriously damaged, or most of it didn't make it out of the cannon. The grimmest alternative…would be that the pilot chose to destroy the cannon by sacrificing himself…and the 63.8 would have been pieces of scrape metal, and nothing left of the pilot who activated the self destruct mechanism…
She slumped down on her chair, there was no reason for the little girl to leave out the status of the pilot, unless…unless it was only bad news. Tears welled up in her eyes then, threatening to blind her. She quickly wiped it away and told herself, now is not the time to cry, not yet……not till I see the body of that idiot…