"I told you, I'm fine." – Amuro grumbled as Ryu was herding him towards the White Base's sickbay, the latter limping in obvious discomfort from his leg injuries. The burly man was on him like white on the Gundam the moment he climbed out of the cockpit and waved away the concerned engineers looking at the dried blood on his face. – "It's probably just high blood pressure or something."
"High blood pressure doesn't cause your ears to bleed." – Ryu pointed out. – "Nose, sure. But ears? I'd say your cockpit's pressure seal got damaged, but seeing how you didn't pass out by the time we returned, I can't see how that happened. Option number two is you smacking your head hard. So off you go to sickbay."
"But it's not even bleeding anymore! And after what happened, there's probably a lot of wounded, so I'd just be wasting the medics' time. Just let me go to the restroom and I'll wash it off at the tap."
"Are you always this stubborn?"
"Only when people aren't listening to me."
"Cute. Unfortunately for you, I'm not your dad to let you go just because you say you're fine. If the docs say you didn't hit your head badly enough to randomly drop dead in the foreseeable future, you can go, not before. End of discussion."
Amuro rolled his eyes but stayed silent. Even if he were to be completely honest, there was a fairly high chance nobody on the ship even knew what a Newtype was or that it wasn't just a baseless theory by Zeon Deikun. Not to mention that openly assuming himself to be something the namesake of the Principality of Zeon preached about wouldn't exactly endear himself to the Federation's leadership to begin with. Or the fact that 'I'm psychic but my powers aren't working right now and I have no idea why so I can't demonstrate, sorry' sounded like any number of bogus psychics over history.
There was, of course, also the fact that even he had no idea why his ears were bleeding or why his senses were fogged, nor did he have anyone available to ask. He was in completely unknown territory here and couldn't think of any way out, so for the time being he had no choice but to accept it and move on.
He did occasionally wonder in the past whether there were any early Newtypes throughout human history who were the real deal, not hoaxes. But in the end, he decided even if there were, it didn't really matter anymore since they were all long dead.
Finally they arrived to the sickbay and the door slid open – only for a distinctive coppery smell to hit both of them, along with the sounds of injured people suffering at varying volumes.
"What did I tell you...?"
Ryu ignored him and instead beelined straight to a corpsman in the middle of finishing up an injured soldier's sling. After a few words exchanged between them, the corpsman looked in Amuro's direction and returned along with Ryu. Amuro was in the middle of opening his mouth to repeat once again that he was fine when the corpsman abruptly flashed a small light into both his eyes, making him wince. – "Follow it with your eyes." – came the curt order as the man slowly waved the object around a few times within the teen's field of vision before dismissing him. – "This one's fine."
"Finally." – Amuro grumbled, trying to blink the spots in his vision from the sharp light away as the corpsman turned to leave.
"That's it?" – Ryu called after the doctor, evidently not satisfied with how quickly the teen was cleared.
"Ensign, we're in the middle of triaging through several dozen wounded so unless he's about to bleed out, leave us to tend to the people who actually are." – the corpsman shot back over his shoulder in irritation.
"I don't mean to rub it in, but I told you so." – Amuro pointed out.
"Some bedside manner..." – Ryu grumbled, shaking his head before hobbling to a nearby storage cabinet to fetch pressure bandaging.
"Can I go now?"
"For God's sake, kid, would you calm down for one goddamn second?!" – Ryu snapped in exasperation, sitting down and beginning to peel off his normalsuit. – "I got hit too, in case you hit your head hard enough to remember."
"I didn't."
"Could've fooled me. Now c'mere and help me with this. Where the hell are you in so much of a rush to, anyway?"
Amuro opened his mouth to reply but found that he didn't know the answer.
Where to, indeed? He realized with a measure of flusterment that stopping the Zakus and preferably Char was literally all he thought about since his sudden, unexplainable return to this era. With that done (sort of), here he was, sitting on the White Base... without a plan. He didn't even know if they'd even let him in the Gundam again: Bright let him do it out of desperation, but Bright wasn't in charge anymore. He had no idea what to expect from Cassius. The man seemed to be on the level and let him use the Gundam last time, but that didn't mean he wouldn't change his mind as soon as there was an alternative available.
Because there was no denying it: Amuro wasn't in a position to argue. He had no rank, no commission, no combat record, nothing to make himself heard. Especially in the Federation military which has always looked at Newtypes and their extraordinary accomplishments with suspicion and jealousy merely because it wasn't the established elite said accomplishments stemmed from. And what would he say, anyway? What could he say? He had no illusions that anyone would believe him. Nor would they need to: from what he remembered from historical records, the Federation was already beginning to turn the tide towards victory. They didn't need him, even though they didn't know that. The minute he opened his mouth, he'd be declared delusional and kept well away from anything to do with combat.
But he had no intention to sit the war out, not by a long shot. Char was still out there and he was simply too crafty to be left to his own devices; there was no telling what kind of damage the man could do unchecked... especially if he managed to sneak into Jaburo again, something Amuro never found out exactly how he pulled off in the first place. And even if Char wasn't in his way, he could save a lot of lives on the battlefield, lives he couldn't save back then.
That particular thought, Amuro found enough for now.
"I've got friends who were on their way to the spaceport when the attack begun."
"Oh." – Ryu paused. – "Sorry. Tell you what, help me with this and we'll go look for 'em. Deal?"
"Sir, here are the contents of ensign José's flight recorder. He wanted you to see it right away."
"Thank you, that'll be all. Did you run into Lieutenant Ray on your way here, at any chance?"
"Yes, sir. He was inspecting the mobile suits in the hangar."
"Tell him that I want to see him right away."
"Yes, sir."
As the door closed, Cassius slotted the data card into his ready room's computer and drummed on the table while the contents finished parsing. He found the gun camera footage right away and the first few seconds were already on the projector when the door opened again and Tem entered, pausing when he noticed Cassius' attention being elsewhere. The captain simply motioned at him to take a seat.
The footage went on for a while, the two men watching in silence until it ended. From the corner of his eye, Cassius could see even without paying attention that Tem Ray's mouth was wide open the whole time. Truth be told, it was hard for him to maintain his composure himself – for what the man's son was doing was not lucky bumbling, it was pulling off multiple impossible shots at extreme range with no computer assistance, matching a seasoned ace blow-for-blow in hand-to-hand combat and slowly gaining the upper hand before breaking off to keep the colony from being hit by missiles, yet sacrificing his last two shots to narrowly save his ally and still stopping all of the incoming missiles.
And all without showing the least bit of hesitation, fear or even ego at his own accomplishment.
"Well, lieutenant..." – Cassius said finally, turning to Tem. – "I don't suppose you simply forgot to tell me your son has mobile suit pilot training?"
"Sir." – Tem began, visibly trying to find words. – "As you are aware, I was the head of the team who designed the Gundam." – He gestured towards the projector. – "But... that... even I didn't know it could move like that!"
"Better that than for it to not meet expectations, I suppose. But that still doesn't tell us how your son can do it."
"I don't know either, sir. Amuro was always interested in electronics and machinery; a few years ago, he even wrote a heuristic personality simulation for a toy. It's not quite an AI, but he kept tinkering with it ever since, said he was going to sell it. His teachers always said he was exceptionally intelligent, but not very motivated to actually put it to use beyond what he liked."
Cassius nodded. – "Go on."
"Operating a mobile suit, however, is far different from writing software or even operating heavy machinery like construction equipment. Wherever he picked these skills up, I can state with absolute certainty that I had no part in it."
"So he didn't know about your research?"
"Of course not, sir. Project V was classified. While I did occasionally run simulations at home, I followed information security protocols to the letter. There was nothing that could compromise our work, let alone be detailed enough to allow a civilian to learn how to operate a mobile suit."
"I see." – Cassius sighed, leaning back in his chair. – "You slipping up would've made this situation easier."
"What do you mean?"
"As... unpleasant as the thought may sound to you as his father, I can't dismiss the possibility that he's been compromised."
"By Zeon?" – Tem asked with a clear tone of incredulous disbelief.
"That would be my first guess. Intel says Zeon recently begun deploying underage personnel in support roles, probably due to manpower shortages. I don't know how much Zeon knows about your involvement in the project, but recruiting your son would give them a potential in. I presume he's not under your direct supervision all the time?"
"No, sir. My work on Project V required most of my time recently, so he's been looking after himself."
"No other family?"
"I'm divorced."
"Anyone else? Friends? Associates?"
"He doesn't go out much, from what I hear. There's a girl I've seen over at our home a few times, a classmate of his. Sweet little thing, even brings him food from time to time." – A moment later, mild realization appeared on Tem's face. – "Do you think she could be trying to recruit him?"
"A honeypot, you mean?" – Cassius mused. – "Could be. What do you know about her parents?"
"Only that they run a local clinic. But even if the family were working for Zeon, what would they be gaining by having Amuro undergo mobile suit pilot training while I'm away?"
"Stealing the Gundam, for one."
"But if he's with Zeon, why on Earth would he attack them and then bring the Gundam back, instead of flying off with them?"
"Normally I would say 'establishing trust', but... losing three Zakus and crippling a Musai, just to insert a spy?" – Cassius shook his head. – "That's far too high-profile. The whole point of being a spy is avoiding attention, not showing off like an action hero. If he really is one, he's practically waving a sign about it in our faces. Not to mention that while I can't say from experience how Kycilia Zabi operates, any agent of any sane intelligence service would end up in front of a firing squad upon his return after this much friendly fire merely to maintain his cover. Something just doesn't add up."
"Maybe that's what they want us to think." – Tem pointed out.
"Not out of the question, but we don't have the luxury to keep second-guessing every option, lieutenant." – Cassius admitted. – "For now, I want to keep an eye on him. After everything that happened, it's not like we can just leave him here. He knows too much. I know you probably don't like it and I'd rather not pull rank on you because of it, but he's coming with us on the White Base and that's non-negotiable."
"...understood, sir." – Tem replied uneasily.
"Now that I think of it, I think I'll have a talk with him too."
"You mean... interrogate him?"
Cassius shook his head. – "No need for that. He already said he wanted to sign up, roughing him up over suspicion isn't going to help. Especially if it turns out he's actually innocent, in which case what I just saw is more than enough for me to want him on my side."
And that was not a hyperbole. Cassius strongly suspected that if Amuro Ray decided he wanted them all dead once he was in the Gundam's cockpit... they would already be.
"Does your XO know about this?" – Tem asked. – "He didn't see this yet, did he?"
"Bright? No, he's overseeing launch preparations in the CIC but I'll have him watch it after shift change and draw his own conclusions. Speaking of which, how goes the equipment loading?"
Tem looked at his normalsuit's chronometer. – "About 15 minutes and we'll be done. I'll start a full inventory once we're underway."
"You do that. And make sure to rig everything critical with thermite in case Char tries to have another go and we can't hold him off next time."
"That... could be a problem, sir."
"Oh?"
"Most of the thermite the research facility had was used on the servers and foundries. Shortage aside, all the prototypes are armored using lunar titanium alloy and it's been found to resist thermite long enough to require a significantly larger than usual payload to penetrate." – the engineer explained. – "We can destroy the electronics, but the frame will be mostly intact."
"Pity. Can't have things being too easy, I suppose. Carry on, then."
"Yes, sir."
As the scientist got up, Cassius steepled his fingers together on his lap, deep in his thoughts. His mind flashed back to the footage once more, to the Gundam and the youth within, overpowering Zeon's most dreaded ace in one-on-one combat. Something that, by all rights and logic, shouldn't be possible yet has happened. Twice, if Tem's earlier eyewitness account was accurate. And at the center it all was a boy who by all rights shouldn't have even held a gun in his hands yet, let alone the controls of the top-of-the-line, state-of-the-art military machine that was a mobile suit. But despite supposedly being an amateur, he not only matched an ace, but Cassius had a feeling it was Char Aznable who was struggling to keep up.
A curious observation, to be sure, but it wasn't entirely baseless either. He still didn't know how he was going to phrase it in his report of the incident, but it was definitely going to be an interesting report.
His thoughts were interrupted by Tem's voice from just beyond the still open door. – "Oh! I'm sorry, I didn't mean to do that. Are you alright?"
"It's okay. Have you seen Amuro anywhere?" – came a young girl's voice, Amuro's name immediately getting Cassius' attention. – "I've been looking for him, but everyone's busy and I don't want to go somewhere I'm not allowed to. I'm not bothering you at a wrong time, am I?"
"Oh, no, not at all. Why are you looking for him?"
"We split up on our way to the spaceport; he said he had to go get something. I'm worried he might've gotten hurt."
By the time Cassius' feet carried him to the door, he concluded that since the girl was telling on Amuro with zero prompting rather than cover for the boy, she couldn't really be involved in whatever Amuro was up to. So that scratched off one question, only to replace it with another: Amuro knew where the Gundam was and went out of his way to board it? How? Why?
Nevertheless, this was still one step ahead than a few minutes ago. Which is why he stuck his head out the doorway to see the girl for himself. – "Are you a friend of Amuro Ray?"
"Um... yes, sir." – the girl replied, fidgeting in place under his attention. Now he was definitely sure she wasn't involved. Her reaction was too raw for poker face. – "My name is Fraw Bow."
"Paolo Cassius, I'm the captain of this ship. Do you mind coming in? I'd like to ask a few questions." – At the girl's uncertainty, he added – "Don't worry, I don't bite. Lieutenant, you too."
As the door behind the two closed, Cassius saw the girl looking around apprehensively. Just five minutes ago, he would've found that suspicious but right now, he couldn't fault her. She was in an unfamiliar environment with strangers – a situation that historically wasn't advisable for young women, especially where soldiers serving far from home were concerned. Not that Cassius would ever allow or tolerate such a thing under his command, even as he was fully aware not every officer in the Federation military followed suit.
Or every officer in Zeon, for that matter. Some of the rumors he heard about from occupied territories on Earth made him break out in cold sweat just thinking about them.
"Is... this about Amuro?"
"It is, actually." – Cassius affirmed, pulling out a chair for her at the conference table before taking a seat himself. – "What kind of a person he is? What does he usually do in his free time?"
"Sitting at his computer and tinkering with things. He sometimes hanged out with a few of the boys in our class, but he stopped doing that two months ago."
"What happened?"
"Well... I don't know exactly. The school authorities said they tried sneaking into the colony's development sector but got caught. I later heard them saying that they've been shot at by armed soldiers who took Amuro away and sent him home."
Cassius sharply looked at Tem who animatedly made a protesting gesture with both hands. – "I didn't hear anything about that!"
"They said the soldiers knew you're his dad and let him go because of it." – Fraw added.
"And the others were detained?" – Cassius asked.
The girl looked away. – "...they were beaten up. Everyone saw them hurt the next day."
Cold anger flashed in Cassius' eyes as his glare shifted to Tem. – "Lieutenant, as soon as we're done here, I want you to go through the guard rotation for that day. I want their asses in the brig before we launch, even if they're lying half-dead in the infirmary."
Tem just gulped. – "Y-yes, sir."
"Shooting at civilians is one thing, but physically assaulting them after they've already surrendered..." – Cassius shook his head in disgust, turning back to Fraw. – "Anyway. You say Amuro was part of that group too?"
"Yes, sir. The others heard his dad was working there and roped him into it. I... don't think Amuro showed them the computers he had at home."
"What computers?" – Tem asked immediately.
"I saw him in the room opposite of his a few times, the one that had lots of computers in it." – From the corner of his eye, Cassius saw Tem going pale. – "A few days after what I told you happened, he suddenly stopped going in there and I saw scratch marks all over the floor the next time I was there, but he wouldn't tell me what happened."
A few seconds of silence passed in the room before Cassius turned to Tem and firmly asked in a tone that accepted no dissent. – "Lieutenant, what was in that room?"
"The, uh... the server racks I used to run simulations when I was working on the..." – Tem paused for a moment, then gestured at Fraw. – "You know. From home, I mean."
"I thought you said you observed all security protocols."
"I did, sir! I swear I wasn't told it was confiscated!"
"Nor were you told that your son was caught trying to sneak into the facility?"
"Absolutely not, sir!"
Cassius buried his face into both hands, letting out a frustrated groan. – "What kind of operation is this where even the top staff is kept in the dark? Is there any part of this goddamn project that was managed properly and competently?!"
Tem just kept staring at the floor with an expression of guilt befitting a junior officer being dressed down, while Fraw just silently kept looking between the two adults in confusion.
"Alright, alright..." – Cassius muttered behind his palms. – "I think we can rule out him being a Zeon agent."
"Sir, I'm positive that I didn't-"
"Lieutenant." – the captain interrupted Tem, dropping his hands to look straight into the engineer's eyes. – "You said it yourself that your son is a genius when it comes to machinery and computers. The material you left home would be enough for him to figure out the what, that manual the people here left in the cockpit would be enough for him to figure out the how. He pulled off what he did because he knew in advance what he was getting into. If anything, we should be thankful it was him who got to the Gundam first, rather than the Red Comet. Because if he didn't, we'd all be dead right now."
"Um..." – Frau interrupted timidly. – "Excuse me, but is Amuro in trouble?"
Cassius glanced at her for a second before he finally decided that it was pointless to keep beating around the bush. He was just plain done with the whole day.
"Not quite, but he'll have to come with us on the ship."
"Why?"
"Because your friend decided to jump into a mobile suit and get into a fight with four Zeon mobile suits at once, killed three of them, sent the single most feared Zeon ace running for his life and trashed their ship too for good measure." – Cassius deadpanned, ignoring Tem's startled look at him openly laying things out in earshot of a civilian. – "He's the sole reason your home isn't waving a Zeon flag right now and the sole reason why this ship is still able to accomplish the mission we were sent here for."
A moment later, he noted with a measure of mirth that if Tem Ray looked comically wide-eyed and slack-jawed at the combat footage earlier, Fraw Bow knocked him straight out of the water in that regard without any effort. Sweet little thing indeed.
"Wha-how-wha-" – the girl tried to articulate, brain visibly taking a few seconds to reboot and process what she just heard. – " A-Amuro did that?!"
"That's right. In the process of doing so, he has seen things that are classified military information, hence why he has to come with us." – Cassius explained. – "Normally that would be grounds for incarceration until the war is over to prevent him from possibly turning that information over to the enemy, willingly or otherwise, but he's already expressed an interest in enlisting with us."
And yet again the girl had visible difficulty processing the idea. – "Why?"
"I haven't asked him yet but frankly..." – He shifted in his seat. – "After what he'd done, I'd rather have him on my side than with Zeon. Besides, after what happened today, I figure he's got a bone to pick with Zeon for attacking his home and friends. Don't you think so?"
"I don't know... He never seemed to pay attention to the war. Even when there was that big battle at Side 5 in January, he said that he was concerned but there was nothing he could do. But yesterday..."
Cassius perked up at that. – "What was yesterday?"
"I went to his home and he didn't look well. He doesn't eat regularly unless I'm there to make him, but when I walked in... he looked at me like he had seen a ghost and collapsed. That never happened before, but I thought it was just his blood sugar levels being very low. Um... my family has a private clinic, see. Anyway, he was a bit better after he ate, but still looked weak. But when the alarms sounded today and I went to get him, he was... different."
"Different how?"
"I don't know. He was all... serious. I've never seen him like that. He was already waiting for me, said he knew I was going to come and didn't want me to be outside looking for him. Then when we reached the spaceport, he told me to go with my mom and grandpa to the shelters while he went to do something else." – Fraw looked down at the floor. – "I've... seen the people who got hurt. If we had gotten there just a few minutes later..."
"Did he do anything... unusual recently? Meet with suspicious people?"
"No, he barely goes outside after school."
"So he just spends all day shut in his room with his hobbies and no friends outside you?"
"Well... yes."
Cassius looked thoughtful for a few seconds before sighing and standing up. – "I think that's all I wanted to hear, thank you. Are your parents on the ship?"
Fraw nodded. – "Mom and grandpa are in the dining room with the others."
"Mess hall." – he corrected. – "And you said they have medical expertise?"
"Yes, sir."
"Do you think they would mind lending us a hand in sickbay? We aren't fully staffed and could use some extra hands." – He started towards the door but suddenly paused in his step. – "Oh, and one more thing..."
While on his way to the mess hall, Cassius' thoughts once again returned to Amuro but this time, he just shook his head with a sigh. 'I must be getting old, but... I just don't know. That boy is no spy, he's just a nerd. But... something is definitely off about him. He's just too much of a question mark.'
Stepping into the large room and taking a moment to look around, he decided to put the matter to rest for now.
'Maybe time will tell.'
"Can I have everyone's attention, please?" – he called out. In a few seconds, the several dozen civilians in the room quieted down. From the corner of his eye, he spotted the girl from earlier with some adults he guessed were her relatives. – "Thank you. I'm Captain Paolo Cassius of the EFSF, the commanding officer of this vessel. In about half an hour, we will depart for Luna II. While we have the room and life support capacity to accommodate you for the moment, the nature of both our mission and our destination is such that there is a high chance of Zeon forces attempting to intercept us."
He paused for a moment, looking across the crowd before continuing.
"There is also a very high likelihood that, if you remain on board, you will have to remain in Federation custody for national security reasons."
That caused quite the murmur among the civilians, several of them looking fearful.
"The Zeon forces that invaded the colony today were attempting to foil our mission; however, they have failed and have been driven off with heavy casualties. There are no more Zeon forces near the colony and soon we too will be leaving. The danger has passed. Therefore, if you are not injured, I urge you to disembark and remain on Side 7. You are, and will continue to be, safer here than on this ship. The choice, of course, is yours. Just keep in mind the possible consequences I mentioned. That being said..." - He paused again to retrieve a hastily scribbled list from his pocket. – "I have here a few individuals who I'd like to remain on the ship for now. If you hear your name, please gather around me so that we can discuss the details..."
Half an hour later, the White Base slowly cruised out of the colony's dock as Cassius leaned back in his chair, half-listening to the crew's status reports as his eyes were fixed on the starry void beyond the bridge's viewport.
Space thankfully devoid of any Musais or Zakus, for once.
'Maybe we'll live through this.'
Post-it author's notes - 2019.12.15.
Apologies for any perceived drop in quality compared to earlier chapters. Dialogue-heavy chapters are not my strong suit and I wanted to just get this one out already.
I have been asked by several readers which version of canon this story is going to follow, or at the very least treat as Amuro's and Char's original timeline. The answer is that I'm not strictly following either; the story is primarily based on a hybrid of the original animation and the compilation movies, with some elements of Origin that do not explicitly contradict the other two added into the mix (hence why Fraw references events in the fifth and sixth Origin OVAs). Essentially, I'm exercising artistic license at my own discretion. Be advised, however, that I'm not familiar with the non-animated portion of Origin and other non-animated Gundam side-stories, so elements of those will likely not appear in this story.