Chapter 6: War of Broken Hearts

Part 1

Legend

Italics shows character thoughts

Word shows Date, time, and location

-Word- Shows Noises, or actions such as sighing

Disclaimer: I don't own "Burning Bright" by Shinedown in anyway.

September 23, C.E. 70

Entering the Atmosphere, 3:30 P.M.

The ship rose higher and higher into the air as they began to enter the atmosphere to get into neutral air space. For the past weeks the crew had been lying low since the break away from Orb. They ended up grounded near Orb for one entire week due to so many patrols roaming through the air searching for them. They decided that now was the time to try to get into the PLANT's if they could and at this point Scion was willing to attempt running the blockade. He felt they weren't getting enough down but the man assured him that gaining information was important.

Yumi had contacted the group and told them that they were building a war vessel that would launch sometime after the new year and they would meet up with them. The ship would launch with when the EA completed their machines and Scion's would seem like one of theirs and would then go about the bulk of it's actions against both ZAFT and the EA.

Scion lay in his bunk looking at the ceiling. He had been inside for too long and had only gone into the cockpit to change it's OS from ground conditions to space conditions, he had the two settings saved to disks.

-RIIIIING-

Scion sat up and looked at the monitor at his desk. He walks over to it, and could almost glide but gravity still held, and clicked it on to see the face of the Co-pilot of the ship appear.

"What is it? Are we out of the atmosphere already?" Scion said through a yawn.

"No, not yet…but you should come to the bridge and look at this."

"Huh? What is it?"

"You should come look since we aren't close enough to tell yet."

Scion paused for a minute before nodding.

"Right, I'll be right there."

Scion clicked the monitor off and walked to the door and began jogging to the ship's bridge.

The Bridge, 3:45 P.M.

The door slid opened and Scion ran into the area where the pilot and the other helping hands were. He didn't need to ask what it was he was called up for since it was right in front of him.

"Whoa…"

Some distance ahead explosions could be seen randomly appearing and dying down in amazing numbers. The different colors of beams could be seen coming off of the warships of the two forces. It was a battle between a EA fleet and a ZAFT force.

"How far are they?" Scion asked as he jumped over to the navigator, gravity had become null and he got that feeling of sickness that some do from the change.

"Not to far now, we were slowed by gravity's pull but we should reach them soon if we keep going. We're turning soon though."

Yeah, you do that and tell the mech's to get Revolution ready to launch."

"What! You're going out there?" The man said surprised at the request.

"Of course. I'm supposed to be fighting a war against both the EA and ZAFT and up until now I haven't done that so I'm starting now. Prep my mobile suit for launch and no buts."

"But--"

"You heard him! Get the machine ready!" The Captain of the ship hollered, "We were ordered to help him cause trouble for both sides so get to it!"

"Yes sir!" Came the resounded answer from everyone in the room but Scion who was already out the door and heading to the hangar bay.

The Hangar Bay, 4:00 P.M.

Scion floated through the hangar doors and saw that everyone was going about in a frenzy to get out of the way and to do final checks on Revolution. Soon Scion was in the suit and everyone was evacuated.

"Okay, Scion Kazuma you are clear to launch."

"Roger."

"3..."

"2..."

"1..."

"Scion Kazuma launching!"

The sound and smell of jet fire could be heard and smelled as the white machine lifted off into the black of space, the ship didn't have a catapult. The funnels activated and soon the Gundam was rocketing towards the battlefield, it's first since it's naming.

The EA Capital Ship, 4:15 P.M.

"Commander! Heat source detected coming from beyond the battle field." One of the men on the bridge responded as it watched a new blimp show up on radar.

"Identify it then and tell if it's an enemy!" The captain remarked calmly.

The young man went into a moment of typing and waited for the results to pop up.

"…Negative sir! We can't identify it! It must be a new enemy weapon cause it's not in our database."

"Put it on screen now."

"Yes sir." The man again began typing then all looked as a screen popped up showing the white and azure machine fly through space as if an angel of death descending on them.

"What is that!"

"…." The Captain sat down and looked at the machine with wide eyes.

So that is Doctor Takashi's war machine…the old man actually carried out what he said he would. The first of the Gundam's that he created and the only one the EA wouldn't take…

"Commander Halberton! What do we do!"

"Nothing, see what it's intentions are first and tell all of our MA's to avoid it if possible." The commander of the Earth Alliances 8th fleet ordered.

"Yes sir.." Not everyone understood this order but they trusted Halberton enough to obey.

On the outside the ZAFT forces didn't know what to think but assumed the new machine was an enemy and sent three GINN's to set up communication with the enemy to determine it's objective. They formed a triangle formation and stopped as the approaching unknown came closer.

"Identify yourself!" The leader of the three man group responded through an open com-link.

The answer was a shot from Scion's beam rifle followed be a response.

"To stop this fighting…even if it means destroying your will to fight!"

Revolution dashed forward while the three GINN's opened fire with their MMI-M8A3 76mm heavy assault machine gun. The bullets fly at Scion who simply executes this funnels who make a forward shield to block the incoming salvo.

"Holy shit! It's a shield!" The leader screams as he is rammed into by the shield and sent of backwards while the other two mobile suits blast off to the sides of Scion to try and attack from behind.

Heh, I only need to use four funnels to create a shield like that. Watch out!

As the two mobile ready to fire the pilots are stunned as the two extra funnels appear in front of them, one in front of each, there is only a second of silent before the mobile suits are impaled by the funnels beam lasers. Scion's other four funnels quickly dispose of the third.

"Okay, three down and lots to go!" The funnels returned to Scion who shot off in the direction of the battle field.

On the battle field mobile armors zoomed across the open space blasting at the ZAFT mobile suits who returned fire from their various weapons. The entering of the new mobile suit did nothing to the battle as if he never entered but entered he did and soon Scion was the target of both sides.

The white machine chased after a EA mobile armor while the funnels covered his rear from two enemy GINN's, firing at them to make them concentrate on dodging rather then firing on Scion.

"I got you know you little punk! Just wai…" Scion's taunt was cut short by that feeling of awareness again. He slammed the controls and made a instant boost to the left dodging a beam from one of the ZAFT vessels. Scion turned his attention to the two GINN's and disposes of them by surrounding them with his funnels and firing one after another, the two are destroyed almost instantly.

"Okay, now you're mine!" Scion yelled into the com-link, even though no one was listening.

Revolution turned about, with the funnels re-attached, and blasted off towards the ship that had assaulted them. In response the vessel, a Gamow, fired a salvo of it's 450mm multipurpose missiles from it's vertical launch system which caused Revolution's "Igelstellung" to activate and begin shooting as many of the missiles down. One explosion from a destroyed missile would catch another and soon most of the missiles were no more, the others left over were easily dodged.

"You're going down!" Scion readied his rifles anti-armor shotgun for use, Yumi had the bayonet attachment back on earth, and began a direct charge at the Gamow. The Gamow unleashed it's 450mm dual rail guns which caused Scion to activate his funnels defense system and surround himself in a protective shield from which he could be protected from any shots he couldn't dodged.

"I got you now!" Scion cried as his distance decreased but before he could get within firing range he suddenly pulled back on the controls and blasted to the underbelly of the ship just as it's 937mm Dual High Energy cannons fired at a cluster of enemies behind Scion.

How am I able to see those things before they happen? It doesn't make sense…

Scion's thoughts didn't stop his assault as he finally reached the belly of the Gamow and aimed his rifle.

-BOOM-

An explosion from the shotgun as it tore into the ship and caused a gaping hole in it. Scion boosted away from it and aimed the mini rockets in his shield. Three of them were used and flew into the ships open hull, the explosions spread through the ship and soon it was no more.

The fighting continued and Scion found that his mobile suit had the most trouble dealing with the enemy ships since it didn't have powerful long range weaponry. He had to get close to them and that meant drawing the attention of the entire ship and it's nearby allies which meant a slow fight to the ship. The mobile suits however were a much simply thing since a correctly placed beam rifle round could down a GINN.

So…this is real battle. This is what it means to wage war…huh? Again!

Scion avoided another shot by an enemy mobile suit, ZAFT GINN, and quickly dispatched it and sent the pilot on it's way to the afterlife. He noticed the explosions had died down and that the ZAFT forces, the main target of Scion's attacks, were retreating.

"Pilot of the new war machine. This is Read Admiral Lewis Halberton. Identify yourself and state your objectives for partaking in this battle." Came the commander of the still mostly intact Earth Alliance ship.

"My name is none of your concern, nor that of the Earth Alliance." Scion retorted.

"You helped us in that battle, why?"

"Because, it was needed and in this battle your are the lesser of the two evils. Don't flatter yourself anymore then that."

"That is Doctor Takashi's machine is it not? I had an active hand in the creation of the five prototypes and I'm guessing that was the sixth one that Doctor Takashi tried to convince the EA to create along with their own machines."

"And what if it is? It doesn't belong to the EA anyway so you're wasting air."

"Just tell me your name.."

"Scion Kazuma…a name you will know soon enough."

"Kazuma…the second squad leader that lead the Junius Seven attack."

Scion spazzed randomly at the mention of that operation. He didn't' want to think about it and definitely didn't want to talk about it with someone from the EA.

"You don't know what you are talking about…you don't know anything about me!"

"I know you were the pilot that commander Felix talked to over the secure com. We were sharing that frequency and I heard everything….so you were the one that got away. The one that actually left the EA. The only one to get out alive…a legend among the troops, some people don't believe you were killed, said you were too good to be killed like that…after that performance I believe it. It must have been hard when you heard what was going on and then to witness it, you must have been devastated. You must have hated the EA for what it made you do."

"Shut up! Don't act like you know so much! You don't have a god damn clue why I left the EA! Don't start labeling me like you have any idea what I went through on that operation….don't you dare." Scion's mobile suit turned to face the EA's fleet, staring it down with it's cold yellow eyes.

"It's to bad….we could use a pilot like you. For the other G-Weapons. But what's done is done and you seem to have your own path in this war. I hope we don't meet again for I fear it will turn into a dreadful day for one of us…"

"…." Revolution turned quickly and jetted off into space, to escape that man's talk about Junius and his all knowing banter.

The thing that got Scion the most was that….he was right.

Halberton…I'll be sure to see him face to face someday…

Scion thoughts began drifting back to his time in the EA and he quickly grabbed a frequency for a radio station to drown out his thoughts with music. He went through numerous channels trying to find something he could relate to until…

I feel like there is no need for conversation


Some questions are better left without a reason


And I would rather reveal myself than my situation


Now and then I consider, my hesitation

Scion let the channel stay as he listened to the words of the song. His running from Halberton seemed like he was trying to hide himself and avoid conversation.

The more the light shines through me


I pretend to close my eyes


The more the dark consumes me


I pretend I'm burning, burning bright

Scion could relate this to his entire being. In the light of things, which to him represented justice and peace, he seemed to close his eyes to what was really going on around him. It was because he closed his eyes that he didn't see what was really going to happen at Junius. The part about the darkness too represented Scion, for only when he was on the brink of giving up did he truly try. Like after the attack on Doctor Takashi when he went into a state of increased awareness and was able to do such incredible things, it was in a time of pain and darkness to Scion that he was able to battle like he had never done before.

I wonder if the things I did were just to be different


To spare myself of the constant shame of my existence


And I would surely redeem myself in my desperation


Here and now I'll express, my situation

Scion slumped back in his seat as Revolution tore across space heading back to his temporary base. He wanted to be a pilot to be different, to be better, and do get rid of the shame of being a Natural that couldn't compete with a Coordinator….

The more the light shines through me


I pretend to close my eyes


The more the dark consumes me


I pretend I'm burning, burning bright

Scion sighed and let the words travel threw his head and it served only to reinforce the meaning of the song and it's similarity to Scion's own life.

There's nothing ever wrong but nothing's ever right


Such a cruel contradiction


I know I cross the lines its not easy to define


I'm born to indecision


There's always something new some path I'm supposed to choose


With no particular rhyme or reason

Scion gripped his head after quickly turned the radio off, it was to much for him. The EA attack that was right and yet it should never have happened. The soldiers being killed when they tried to leave the EA. The whole war against the other race that was right to each side but wrong to the other. Scion was also always forced to choose a path but he never seemed to be able to dictate what those paths would be. He choose to be the pilot of Revolution because he killed Axle…because he was forced to by instinct and then he was pushed even further down that path when Doctor Takashi died along with his facility.

And in the black of space Scion wondered if he ever had a choice in the direction of his life. At the time it seemed Scion was only able to control whether he died or lived….

Home Base, 8:00 P.M.

Scion had quickly put everyone into a 'leave Scion alone' mode. They would never have tried to bother him and see what was wrong. Scion had spent his time since he got back unto the ship, which had been roughly an hour, in his room where he just kept beating himself up mentally for his lack of control over his life.

They were a week from the PLANT's since they wanted to keep a low profile and not make a bee-line for the colony housing Siegel Clyne.

September 5, C.E. 70

Outside the PLANT's Aprilius City 1, 12:00 P.M.

It had taken longer to get there then they thought. They were stopped a few times and were almost found out, which would have resulted in some nasty fighting, but got lucky and managed to get near Aprilius 1 only five days later then planned. They now had to wait and go through a number of check points. To counteract this a smaller vessel loaded unto the garbage ship was launched carrying Scion and two others, the pilot and a pretend worker. Revolution was left behind to avoid any unnecessary fighting. Scion was against it at first, he had never been far from Revolution unless he willed it, but eventually gave in and he was now on his way to the colony.

They were checked six times with the only hiccup being that Scion kept his gun with him but had it empty and said it was just for looks incase he needed security while going through EA controlled space. It was enough for the guards.

The vessel was docked and Scion stepped out of the small ship and looked about the hangar in the colony, it was highly automated and advanced, but there was a relaxed feel to it since it was a peaceful place and had not been the target of attack as of yet.

Scion soon went on his way while the other two went shopping for supplies, food, water, repair parts for their ship supposedly which was their excuse for getting things for Scion's Gundam. Scion on the other hand went looking for some way to find where Siegel Clyne kept residence.

He talked to a few people about Siegel's daughter, Lacus, and made ideal chat about the two. He would then slowly bring up the issue of wishing he could meet them and then being sarcastic about stalking them but he didn't know where they lived since he was knew. They laughed and after a while he found out where the two stayed and he was on his way to the living quarters of Lacus and Siegel Clyne.

The Clyne Residence, 2:00 P.M.

Scion looked through the automated gates and stood between him and his target. He just needed a way over it. He didn't like the idea of breaking and entering so he began walking around the perimeter to look for a weak point. It was a nice looking area with few tree's but they were pretty tree's nonetheless. The area was green with a nice view of the city behind the building. The rich and powerful were indeed lucky.

I might be able to use one of the tree's to get over the wall but getting out would require another exit should I need to make a hasty one…

Soon Scion had gone around the entire perimeter of the building and found no suitable entrance that he liked. He could get in but he didn't know if he could safely and quickly get out. He sighed to himself and looked up at the sky as he came about to the front entrance again. He slumped next to the gate and looked at the sky above. If anyone asked what he was doing he'd just say he was taking a walk and catching his breath while taking a break. No one could say otherwise against him.

"Why, what are you doing here may I ask?" A soft voice, obviously from a girl, came to his ears. Scion in turn instantly jumped to his feet from surprise and out of reflex. The girl looked at him with an amused face from behind the bars.

"My, I didn't mean to startle you. Forgive me." The girl continued. Scion by his time had been given enough time to get his act in gear and turn around to face the idol pop star of the PLANT's, Lacus Clyne.

"…You did get a jump out of me. I didn't expect anyone to talk to me, more so from anyone living in that building." Scion said quickly feeling a little inferior now that he looked at the beautiful girl in front of him.

Scion didn't know much about Lacus Clyne since he didn't live in the colonies himself but her music he did hear a lot, and couldn't go five minutes without hearing it in the colony. He brushed himself off and straightened up and waited for her to say something.

"Oh! Where are my manners! I forgot to introduce myself, I am Lacus Clyne. Who are you?" The introduced Clyne said with a smile way to damn sincere to be real.

"I'm…I'm Scion Kazuma." Scion said plainly. He felt like he was talking to Yumi since he felt inferior for being younger then her but in this case he felt he shouldn't be able to speak to such a pretty girl, the same would have been said of Cagalli if she wasn't such a tomboy.

"Hmm? Scion? My what an odd name. Did your family give you that name for a reason?"

"A reason?…I, uh, don't know."

"Hmm, Scion means prophesied one. It's a very odd name for a parent to give it's child. That is unless they knew you were going to be special." Again the smile daunted Scion and shook his at his core. How could something appear to innocent with everything going on around them? Here in this place of nature and calm, with a iron barrier between them Scion stood looking at this Lacus Clyne, who's father was in the middle of ZAFT politics, and yet she seemed completely untouched by this. It was a fearful thing to the damned pilot that survived only by the sacrifice of others.

"Is that? I didn't know that…" Scion's voice was soft and weak against his own will. He turned his gaze away and turned it back by a new voice that came into his hearing.

"Lacus, who are you talking to?" Said a man with blonde hair and of middle age dressed in fine clothes and seemed to have a face that had seen its fair share of disappointments.

"Oh, hello father. I was just talking to this nice young man here. His name is Scion Kazuma. Scion this is my father, Siegel Clyne."

The father came forward and nodded to Scion before whispering to Lacus who gave a surprised look and bid farewell to Scion hastily before taking off back to the house. The father turned his head to Scion and gave a friendly smile.

"She is expecting her finance any day now and had a call from him. I should be going no--" The man was cut off as he noticed something about Scion. Scion adverted his gaze from the man.

"What..? Why are you staring at me like that?"

"It's…it's nothing. You must have come a long way to get here. Why don't you come in and have some refreshments?"

Scion gave a confused look mixed with surprise.

What? What is with the sudden turn around Clyne? He doesn't know me from somewhere does he? No…that's impossible…Either way, it's my way into the compound and if I take care of myself I won't have to run from his place.

Scion nodded to Siegel who smiled and opened the gate. Who then led him inside his house…for what reasons Scion did not know yet.

Author's Notes: So again I am at my notes so here we go. This is a rather lengthy fighting scene though I found it revolved more around Halberton and Scion's conversation then the actual fighting when I finally looked at it. Either way I thought the fighting turned out good but since GINN's don't have beam sabers I couldn't have those cool duels and stuff TT, ah well. Moving along.

I didn't think I needed to describe Lacus since everyone SHOULD know what she looks like, I only described Cagalli cause she was wearing different clothes and Lacus was in her normal attire post the Three Ship Alliance. Her father was a tricky fellow since he rarely shows up and when he does it's never for too long.

Some of you may be wondering what the title of this chapter means and to find out you'll have to stay tuned. Have fun and I hope everyone continues reading!

Also for for any and all typos...I've been wanting to get this through and in my haste I may have missed a few things. I will remedy them as soon as I have time.