Chapter 10: A Lesson Long Coming

Legend

Italics shows character thoughts

Word shows Date, time, and location

-Word- Shows Noises, or actions such as sighing

Author's Notes:

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January 28, C.E. 71

Archangel; 12:00 P.M.

It buzzed throughout the entire ship, the advance party was being sent out from the eighth fleet to escort the Archangel to safety. Yumi and Scion found that it was a bad turn off events, it meant the ship would have ample protection but….ZAFT had four of the five prototypes which meant they could, if they committed to an attack, defeat the fleet with less then a little luck. The Mobile armors were just not match for the abilities of the prototypes, G-weapon, whatever.

Still, Scion was persistent in playing it out until the very end. He had a feeling so to speak and he had to go with his gut, since he couldn't get off the ship if he wanted too.

Scion spent the early morning in his machine, working on the OS for Revolution, or so he said, he was actually hoping to see this Kira Yamato again, no luck. It was afternoon, by earth time, when the alert came.

"La Flaga, Kira Yamato, and Scion Kazuma report to the docking bay! Prepare to scramble!" The level one battle alert sounded.

Scion opened his eyes and removed his headset, he jumped up and after pulling on a shirt of his white tee, he took off towards the hangar bay. He turned a corner to see Lacus looking down the hall, as if she were watching someone who just passed. She turned at the sound of his foot steps and gave a smile.

"Mr. Kazuma, are you going to be fighting as well?"

"Yeah, I'm hired help." Scion said as he jogged in place, not thinking that he should really get moving.

"I see. Do look out for Mr. Yamato, he is a really nice young man. I wouldn't want to see anyone die."

"Uh, right. I'll do my best Lacus, you should stay in your room though. Got to go, wish us luck!" Scion called for luck over his shoulder, he started running ahead after telling her to stay in her room. He waved and then went full speed to the hangar.

Scion's luck didn't hold though. As he turned a corner he ran smack into Flay. He rebounded a bit as they hit each other, his reflexes were to grab her and stable her as his back hit the wall that was behind him. The two floated there for a moment as the shock held their minds.

"Uh, sorry. I should have paid more attention." Scion apologized.

"My dad is out there. You'll protect him right?" She suddenly asked, as if she was unsure of herself or something else.

"If he's on those EA ships, then yeah. I give you my word." Scion promised, putting his word on the life. No one else would die on his watch…not anymore.

The girl, somehow seemed more assured now. As if his words weighed more then what was on her mind. She nodded and pushed herself away from Scion, freeing up his path.

"I well better now, with a Natural telling me this. I trust Kira….but…" Flay stopped herself before bowing in midair, apologizing for the remark. Scion smiled and put a hand on her shoulder.

"Coordinator or Natural, their word is still the same. Don't doubt our word until we are proven false."

She, smiled and nodded before waving Scion off. Her mood became a rather calm and up mood. She seemed to not be worried anymore. Good.

Archangel, Hangar; 12:40 P.M.

"Hey, you're late!" The chief mechanic of the EA ship called out. His name was Murdoc..or something.

"Sorry, I got a bit turned out in the ship. I'm the last to launch?" Scion questioned.

"Yeah, the kid just left. You better get out there and keep your end of the deal."

"No problem. I need you guys too, you know?" Scion closed Revolution's hatch and stepped unto the launching bay.

"Ready to launch?" The blonde haired Pilot Coordinator asked.

"Yeah, Lets go.."

"3..."

"2..."

"1..."

"Scion Kazuma, launching!"

The catapult thrust Scion into deep space. He was trailing behind the Strike and Zero, but he was gaining thanks to his increased speed from the funnels. He soon fell into step with the other two. The com came on instantly with Flaga appearing in Scion's right monitor, Yamato in his left.

"I heard from Kira that you two haven't really talked to each other. Well, get the introductions out of the way so we can start this thing." His face then flicked off.

"Heh, nice guy. Well Mr. Yamato, I'm Scion Kazuma."

"Uh, yeah. Just call me Kira. We met twice before."

"Huh? When?"

"In the lunchroom and outside of Ms. Clyne's room."

"That was you! I never did get your name. Well, we can talk more later. Lets worry about saving those ships. Good luck, Yam…..Kira."

"Thanks, you too Scion."

Then Scion split off from Kira, on their own separate warpaths. Scion sat up in his chair and turned to the first blip on his screen. The Aegis was coming his way. Scion turned his attention to it before Kira came into the picture and engaged him, the Aegis giving his full attention to him as well.

"Traitor huh? Well, Mr. Yamato. I appears we are both traitors to our people. You and Zala…are just like me and Axle…" Scion said to himself before he turned his machine around and blasted off in the direction of the EA advance fleet. He promised that slightly paranoid girl that he'd save those ships and her father.

"Scion! Scion can you hear me?" Yumi's voice rang out in Scion's cockpit.

"Yeah, what is wrong!"

"Don't use the funnels, leave them inactivated."

"What? Why!"

"The engineers were installing new software to make compatibility with the Psycho-Frame easier, it hasn't finished installing and the funnels could go erratic."

"You've got to be kidding me! Yumi, why wasn't I told!"

"The Archangel crew told them they would tell you, but never…got to it." She said with a hit of bitterness, "Either way, just keep them under wraps for now."

"Ugh, brilliant."

At that exact time Scion passed a retreating Flaga who had been damaged by an enemy Ginn. Scion went on a hunt for the last two of the enemy mobile suits. It was attacking the last of the EA's ships. Scion raised his rifle and got a shot off, alerting the enemy mech of his presence., while shooting down the other who wasn't expecting the Archangel to have an extra hand on board.

The Ginn turned its head and fired a round and Scion, out of instinct, raised his arm to focus the funnels, not purposely but out of habit. The funnels came up and shot down the enemy missile from its M66 Canis short-range guided missile launcher. Scion let out a held breath, happy that the funnels didn't blow up or anything.

They did worse.

Suddenly they began to fly in erratic directions and odd formations. They fired at everything, Scion, the Ginn, and the EA ship. They were, like Yumi warned, not combat ready. It was the worst thing that could happen to a pilot in combat, bad communication of Pilot and Mechanic and machine malfunction. It didn't happen often but when it did it was random, unexpected, and completely disruptive. It destroyed anything that the pilot had planned as far as battle.

"NO! I Got to get that Ginn before it takes advantage of this!" Scion pressed his machine forward, wanting to rid himself of the enemy first.

The Ginn pulled back but couldn't escape Revolutions superior speed. Scion fired his rifle several times in a panic and missed each time, his cool blown by his funnels behavior. Suddenly a purple beam pierced the mech and destroyed it, luck had provided one of his insane funnels with the shot that did it in.

That left only the funnels. Scion pulled down his keyboard and began typing madly, to shut them down manually by sending out a signal. He had never had to do this before and had to create the program from scratch. He typed relentlessly, coding and deleting what didn't work. Back and forth across the screen in a mad attempt to fix the mistake he had accidentally made. He was racing against the clock , that EA ship still needed protecting. The faster he typed the longer it seemed to take him, slowing down didn't help either.

"Come on…come on…come on! I won't let anyone else die because of my failing...not like this! Not when I promised!"

He slammed the enter key in and waited. A green light came on and the funnels all returned to their starting positions but were completely cut off from the P-Frame and were dormant. Scion turned and raced to the EA flag ship that was still left.

"There are okay…good." Scion gave a breath of relief before his radar picked up the ZAFT Flagship, he turned and saw that its main guns were charging. The pilots eyes opened wide and zoomed off toward the EA ship. What he was planning to do was beyond him now. He just knew he'd rather die with them then watch them die.

Fate was not kind to Scion that day. Without his funnels to add to his speed, Revolution could not make it in time. With half of its speed gone Scion got within firing range of the Flag ship before it was punctured by the ZAFT guns and exploded in a flash.

Scion sit stunned. He balled his hands together before raising his right fist and slamming it down on his leg. He repeated this over and over again until his attention was turned to the enemy battle ship, who was advancing on the Archangel.

"You…I'll get you!" Scion said before storming off after the battleship.

Suddenly the cock-pit when black, as if the machine was dead. Scion jerked his head around and tried to reactivate but nothing happened. He could feel that he was still moving but that was all. He struggled with the controls more, wondering why his machine wasn't responding! Why!

"What's going on!"

Archangel, Yumi's quarters; 11:40 P.M.

"Damn it! Why!" Scion yelled as he slammed his fist into the wall while he stared at Yumi with hate filled eyes.

"Because, your suit was at half of its combat abilities and we were in trouble. The Strike was going to run out of power soon, Flaga was damaged, AND the Gamow with the other prototypes were coming. We needed you in alive and that suit intact. Everything worked out in the end."

"What! We used Lacus Clyne to make the enemy withdraw! That worked everything out! Yumi…I..you…Argh!" Scion turned around and hit the wall again.

Evidently the Revolution was built with a fail-safe that allowed it to be controlled from short distances by remote-control, though only Yumi had that power. It was to be used incase the Revolution was captured by the wrong people. Yumi used that to bring the Revolution back to the Archangel, she was just lucky that there were no enemies around since all combat functions are useless by remote.

After Scion had returned the ZAFT force was called off by the threat of killing Lacus Clyne. It didn't seem to work at first but eventually the enemy left the Archangel in peace. Scion heard about this from Yumi and it did little to help his mood.

Without saying anything to Yumi, Scion left. He paraded around the ship until he heard crying, he stopped and listened to it from down the hall. He walked slowly towards the source, fearing what…who it was. His eyes widened and he followed Kira as he ran from the room and to a lift, the truth being slammed into his face.

It was Flay.

Scion watched Kira leave as he stopped just before the doors opening. He looked down at the ground before cautiously stepping into the room with a sobbing Flay clutching Sai, and Sai holding her. Scion put his foot forward and drew it back.

It was one thing to fail, that wasn't new, but to deal with the person he had failed, that was new. He finally did take that step in and as if Flay could sense him she jerked her head up from Sai and her eyes were almost instantly on him.

"You promised!" She screeched. Sai tried to calm her but she was in a frenzy, almost violent.

"…I.."

"Sorry! That won't bring my dad back!" She continued to yell.

Scion tried to reach for words, something, anything! But he couldn't do anything. The only thing that came up was 'Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry' always, always, sorry. As if that was the only word Scion could think of.

Scion now found himself shedding his own tears, it all seemed to just be one big joke. No matter how hard he tried, no matter how hard he fought, he couldn't protect anyone but himself. Only himself. He fell to his knees and then went on his hands, his head bowed low in front of Flay.

"I'm sorry!"

The whole room seemed to stay still, even Flay went silent as a result of the sudden gesture. Everyone, Sai, Flay, and Miriallia watched him.

"I swear, I swear on this life of mine. I swear I'll never make a promise I can't keep! I swear I'll make up this lose of yours ten times over! I swear…I swear I will never fail again and come back alive!" His tears hit the ground in rapid and heavy bouts of rain.

And as quickly as Scion had entered and made his oath, he returned to his feet and fled from the room. He ran as far from the room as he could before he found himself wandering aimlessly. With no real destination in mind.

He went on for a few hours, thinking silently to himself, promising again and reconfirming his oath to himself. He needed to make himself understand the promise he had made. But also, he realized that things had changed. He could no longer simply destroy this ship like he had originally planned. He made an oath of protection. Scion felt Doc would have wanted him to keep it. He could find another way to even the odds.

Archangel, Halls; 4:20 A.M.

Scion couldn't bring himself to sleep, so after a bout with sleep he went back to wondering. It was early morning, as far as Earth times went, and most of the civilians were sleeping along with half the crew. He wandered around until he was walking through the hall where Kira's room was. The door slid open before Scion could see it within his complete view. What he did see was Kira hurrying from his room. The look on Kira's face made Scion follow. Something was amiss.

He chased the young, well not so much younger then him, coordinator to the quarters of Lacus Clyne. He stepped in and this prompted Scion to hide on a hunch and sure enough the boy soon left with the ZAFT pop star. Things were quickly become complicated, was Kira going to…kidnap her? Return her to ZAFT? Or was it something along the lines of bad morality?

Scion could rule out the last option, Kira wasn't that kind of person or at least he could assume from his experience with him. The first option couldn't be right either, the Strike couldn't run long enough to make a kidnapping. But he hoped that Kira wasn't going to return her to ZAFT, that wouldn't make much sense…but she was a coordinator and Athurn…he was his best friend. Could Kira be betraying the Archangel?

Kira moved quickly, dragging Lacus with him as he went. Scion stopped himself to see Kira stopped by Mir and Sai, who after exchanging words outside of Scion's hearing, all went towards the hangar. They all traveled to the pilot quarters, to have Kira suit up and Lacus get a spacesuit, most likely.

Kira and Lacus disappeared into the locker room. Scion, as far as he was concerned, had enough information to know that Kira was going to at least leave the Archangel with Lacus. Scion couldn't let that happen, as much as he hated it….Lacus was the only defense they had. His machine was still being fixed with the new funnel system and at this point it looked like Kira was going to betray them all.

Scion wasn't going to let that happen.

He pulled up the back of his shirt and pulled out a gun, ironically, the same one he shot Axle with, from his holster and quickly closed in on the two students. Scion was a lot quicker then naturals so by the time they noticed him, since he propelled himself through space, he had a gun pointed at them.

"Yell and I shoot." He told them, gaining their cooperation.

Scion floated by them and stood in front of the door to the hangar, blocking it completely. He kept the gun on the two kids and Sai stepped forward and opened his mouth to speak.

"Save it, I'll talk to only one person right now. Keep your mouth shut." Scion commanded.

The door opened and Kira came out, holding Lacus's hand, only to find that things were no longer safe. Kira instinctively put Lacus behind him.

"So, Kira. What are you planning to do with Ms. Clyne?" He questioned rapidly, to stop Lacus from getting the up on him.

"Because….because its wrong of us to use her like this!" Kira stated, defending his actions.

"And that makes it right! You could get everyone on this ship killed, do you realize that!" Scion barked back.

"…I know…but I can't just stand by and let this continue." Kira, stated again, it was obvious that Kira had really thought this through very, very little.

"So, you'd risk an entire ship all for the sake of one girl. Is that it? You'd put one life above all others?"

"No! I'm not doing that! I just can't fight if we have to use innocent people as shields!"

Silence fell on the group of kids, and kids they were. Scion could only look at Kira and shake his head. Kira was so…so like himself, not personality wise, but so naïve. Or at least, Scion had been naïve…in another life.

"Kira…I'm going to let you go. But, mark my words. If you endanger this ship in any way…I will come after you, I will kill you." Scion's voice was resolute, but deep down his heart ached at saying it. What did Kira know? He was just a civilian, he didn't know the truths of war…..he was just too young and stupid to know. Just like Scion once was.

Scion stepped aside and Kira, without a word, went through the door. Scion was surprise though, when Lacus still gave him a smile and wave as she was dragged through. Scion, Sai, and Mir all followed them through.

Strangely, it was then that Scion noticed that Lacus had suddenly gained forty pounds, or so it seemed.

Scion, went straight to revolution, he found the head mechanic inside the cock-pit. He told him that an emergency launch was going to be needed. The mechanic nodded.

"Oh! The funnels, who are they?" Scion asked quickly, grabbing the mechanic.

"They can't be used in combat, but you can use them as support boosters. Just don't release them." He responded before leaving the hangar.

As Scion sat in his seat the Strike was already on the launch pad, getting ready to launch after it was equipped with whatever gear Kira was going to take. I turned out to be Aiele.

Scion closed the hatch and turned his machine on, but made no move to follow. He had to wait a bit so that it could seem like he was pursuing Kira and not helping him. Thought it was a little of both, if Kira got into trouble Scion would help but if Kira turned his back on this ship he would be shot down by his hands.

When Mu La Flaga entered the hangar and was getting ready in the Zero Scion announced he would follow Kira, from a safe distance. At this time Kira opened contact with the ZAFT vessel and demanded the Aegis to come out for the exchange of Lacus.

"So Kira…will you betray your friends….or your one best friend? What ties are strongest?" Scion thought to himself.

Scion even felt envious of Kira was he launched. He never had the choice to choose Axle as a friend or foe, he only got the choice to shoot him or die. Some choice.

Scion more or less skipped the launching procedure and just got his butt out their into space. As he did the Aegis and Strike had already closed in and made the exchange. Scion stopped his machine, letting it drift a massive distance from the two machines. From here he decided just to listen, being close enough to hear over the open com.

"Thanks for everything, Kira. Athrun, you too." Lacus beginning of what Scion could hear.

"Kira!" Athrun called out to his friend, Scion could barely pick it up since they were outside the cock-pit. A bit of tuning on the radio frequency fixed that was able to pick up what was being said, it was easier to hear Kira though since he got into his frequency.

"Come with me too! Is there any reason for you to remain in the Earth Alliance?" Athrun continued.

"Kira….what would I have done…if I were you?" Scion thought to himself as he listened in. Would he have turned his back on Doctor Takashi, for Axle? If things hadn't gotten out of hand?

"I…Don't want to fight with you." Kira responded softly, some doubt in his voice.

"Kira…don't make the mistake I did…fight for what you believe…not because of guilt. You are you, decide for you, not because of what you are." Scion's heart conflicted with his thoughts, his mind told him that Kira should shoot Athrun now, as Scion shot Axle. His heart told him that he should try to save their friendship.

"But, in that ship are people I want to protect…..My friends are on that ship!" Kira shouted out, seeming to tell himself as well Lacus and Athurn.

"Then there's nothing I can do. The next time we fight, I will shoot you down!" Athurn yelled out.

"Yeah…same goes for me." Was Kira's last words.

Scion sat in his cock-pit, clutching the controls with his head hung. He laughed a little bit before throwing his head back and looking at the roof of his machine.

"How is it that you've learned something in a few weeks, what took me a year? I committed treason by killing innocents and as a result I ran…from Axle, V….the entire army. I ran like a coward. And then, I didn't understand until I had lost them all including Doc. They taught me…to protect others and not to care for myself. And you, who betrayed your entire race…stand here today to protect your friends instead of going back to your people, because you promised them."

"Kira…you are a better man then me. I've only known you for a few days, but I feel like I've remembered what it means to be human…and not just a soldier."

"Oh, Kira!" Lacus's voice came across the com, though small as the space between the suits greatened.

"Don't hate Mr. Kazuma! He's really a nice man, he's just lost his light!" She called over the expanse, causing Scion to look at the two drifting machines.

BEEP! BEEP!

Scion looked to his radar to show that a mobile suit had been launched from the ZAFT vessel, Scion never found out what the darn things name was…it didn't seem important with everything else on his mind. Or he just forgot with the pressure and drama of the current scene.

He kicked his machine into gear and went off on an intercept source for the Cgue mobile suit. They were quickly closing the gap between them when..

"Commande Rau Le Creuset. Please stop it. Do you want to make a battlefield out of where I, a representative of the Memorial Party, am currently at?" The voice of Lacus again came to everyone's ears over a second frequency. "I won't allow you to do that. Please stop all offensive actions now."

A silence fell over the battlefield but soon the Aegis and the Cgue retreated. Whatever the situation was, Kira, Scion, and the newly arrived Flaga were not going to push their luck. They all pulled back and started for the Archangel.

"Kira." Scion said, after Flaga and Kira had finished a very brief exchange.

"..Wh-what?"

"I'm sorry, Kira. I was wrong about before, you did the right thing."

On the small screen that showed Kira's face Scion caught something that resembled a smile before the boys head dropped again, to hide tears perhaps.

"…Thank you."

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Author's Notes: Aright, this is one of those chapters were drama and conversations and thoughts are the main theme. While in the beginning there is some brief fighting. I know that the funnel thing may seem random but I did it for a few reasons, one of them being that the mobile suits hardly ever have issues and mess up. I always found that unrealistic, as far as Gundam goes, so I put that in there.

Okay, so finally we are getting closer to the thick of the series, with the heavy fighting, drama, and so on. I'm expecting things to be more exciting and for people to see Scion's affect more often, like you did in this chapter. But, I'm kind of finding it more interesting to fit him into the story then to change the line, but some things I will change because I thought they could have turned out differently.

Thanks for reading and please Review. Anything is good, even a good job, or not. Thanks for all the support I've gotten thus far.

-Arc.