Author's Note

Welcome to this AU a long time in the making! I'll get more into detail at the bottom, but I hope you enjoy it!

'This is a thought'

"This is regular speech"

In a suburban home

"The Federation government announced the creation of a peacekeeping force under the control of the government in order to eliminate anti-government elements. Working in cooperation with intelligence agencies…"

Sergei muted the news, focusing on his call with Kati Mannequin, sitting down onto his couch. The older scarred retired soldier was curious if this was in relation in the creation of this new peacekeeping force.

The military woman stated with a professional tone, "Sergei, headquarters just told me they want to transfer me to this peacekeeping force."

The scarred man asked neutrally, "Do you plan on going?"

"It might not be a bad idea to take a closer look at the ALAWS."

"That's a group with too many secrets." He heard the door quietly open, and footsteps entered the room, and saw the white hair, yellow eyed 23-year-old super soldier enter the living room "I'd be grateful if you kept me informed of your findings Colonel Mannequin."

"I always intended to."

"Yeah." He hung up the phone and looked up at Soma, seeing that she had a tray with two cups of tea.

"Was that Colonel Mannequin?" Soma inquired curiously as she took one of the cups and gave it to Sergei

"Yes, that's right." Keeping his neutral tone from before.

"What did she want?"

Sergei started to pick up his cup of tea, but then put it down, "It's not really important. More importantly, have you thought about the matter we discussed earlier?"

Soma, in the middle of taking a sip of her tea, looked down and replied in a quiet voice, "No, not yet"

Closing his eyes, he told her in a comforting voice, "There is no need to rush anything. Take your time and think it over."

Soma, blushed and kept looking down, debating internally on an issue she was having an issue with, but didn't want to disturb the current atmosphere of the room, so the drank tea in silence, enjoying the peace.

Colony Proud

Saji steadily moved the plate into its proper location, making sure that it would connect properly. His coworker guided him into the correct position. They had been doing this for a while and it was nearing the end of their shift. 'Finally.' He wondered if maybe he could be doing something else, but he came to space to fulfill Louise's and his dream, so he found some satisfaction in being an engineer, even if his relationship with Louise was nonexistent at the moment. He was broken out of stream of consciousness by his coworker saying, "Perfect. Let's head back in."

Sighing with relief, the short brown haired, brown eyed man responded with, "Sounds good."

As they reached the locker room, his coworker turned to him as the glided through zero G. "You are getting pretty good at this job rookie!" he said as he gave Saji a teasing smile. The room was full of people who were either getting off shift or starting their shift.

"I've been here for half a year already. When are you going to stop calling me rookie, Eddie?" The brown-haired man bantered in a friendly tone, "My name is Saji Crossroads." He looked up and stopped when he saw two armored security, only being able to see part of their faces, at the doorway into the hallway. Their gray shoulder armor, helmet and greaves stood out against the black of the rest of the uniform. Eddie turned around and looked at them with a surprised look on his face with his back to the lockers, the other workers in the room looked on confused.

"Eddie Miyasaka, right?" The security offer question with authority as he approached the pair of workers. Eddie looked at the guard with suspicion. The guard, seeing that reaction, commanded to the man, "You are under arrest for suspicion of working with Katharon!"

Eddie threw his helmet at them, hoping to catch the off guard, but one of the guards deflected it, both officers ending up next to Saji near the lockers. Eddie braced against one of locker and as one of the officers tried to grab him, he shouldered said officer and dashed to the doorway, trying to escape the two security members. The guard that just got hit pulled out his gun and hit Eddie twice in his left shoulder, causing Eddie to yell out in pain.

Saji then looked at Eddie getting hit, then the other officer next to him. He asked the officer in a confused voice, "Mr. Miyasaka! What's going on here?!"

The officer then grabbed Saji and yelled with force behind his voice, "I'm taking you as well!"

Saji called out in surprise, "Me! What did I do?!" The officer then restrained him as he saw Eddie get clubbed over the head with a baton by the other security officer and then put into a headlock. Saji yelled out again, "Wait a minute! Won't you even tell me what I've done? Please stop it!"

Saji and Eddie struggled as they are pulled away by security. The guards, however, kept them from escaping, leading them away from the locker room.

Somewhere in space

A Brown-haired girl with two spiral pigtails popped up on a view screen, with the view of a bridge of a ship behind her. With a higher pitched voice, she spoke to a purple-haired man on the other end of the call, "It looks like the Federations new space cruiser is headed to Lagrange 3."

Behind her a black-haired man with a short black coat appeared and stated in a more raspy voice, "It's like Wang Liu Mei told us. Maybe this…"

He was cut off by the purple-haired man, who was in a purple pilot suit with a low voice, "I'm going out in the Seravee."

The man in black replied, "Good luck Tieria." And he ended the call.

Tieria, after the call ended, quietly says to himself as a mobile suit rose up from an elevator, "He'll come. I know he will."

The Ptolemaios moved steadily through space, hoping to get to Proud in time, the crew hoping that their old comrade would be there too.

Colony Proud

Saji found himself in an exceptionally large and overwhelmingly hot room full of machinery. He wasn't sure exactly what it was for, but it was most likely some sort of furnace room. He could feel the high gravity pushing down on him as other men were pushing large crates very slowly. He could feel his muscles strain under the pressure and weight of the industrial scale container he was pushing. 'I wonder why they are forcing men to work here and if any of these guys actually guilty of anything.' He saw one of the men drop to the ground and Saji moved to try to help him up, but was interrupted by a man in a large black exoskeleton power armor like suit.

In an angry tone, the security officer told him in a commanding tone "Don't stop working R81!"

"But he needs help!" Saji replied in a weak voice. He looked down at the man and then the officer, hoping to elicit some form of sympathy. That was broken up when Eddie yells to him "Don't waste your time if you want to live."

The officer yells for him to get back in line and to get back to work and Saji sighs, moving back into position to keep pushing the crates. 'What did I do to deserve this? Why won't they help that man?' He saw from the corner of his eye that that the officer was keeping his eye on him, holding a baton in his hand.

Eddie turned to him and asked, "You a member of Katharon too?"

Saji replied angrily, "I've got nothing to do with them!" He thought about how Katharon just caused chaos and disrupted the new order that had come into being since the gundams showed up.

Eddie sounded more relaxed to Saji than he expected based on their current circumstances, "Just happen to get caught up, huh. Still, things could be a whole lot worse."

Looking curious and a bit frustrated, Saji asked, "What is that supposed to mean?"

With a confident smile, Eddie stated, "You'll know soon enough." Suddenly, there was a major tremor and what felt like an explosion. Crates of coal fell over and several people also fell prone. Saji heard men grunting in reaction from the tremors and the fall and asked in confusion, "What is going on? The gravity is back to normal?"

Eddie stated happily, "They've come to pick us up! Our comrades are here!" Another large explosion buffeted the station as Eddie exclaimed in surprise, "Enemy forces?"

Saji spotted a large number of men approaching a bulkhead door, when suddenly a cube shaped robot with four legs with wheels appeared at the opening bulkhead. The gun underneath it chassis started firing into the crowd of men, killing the majority of them, bodies collapsing in front of it. Saji thought, 'What is going on? What are those things? I don't want to die! I just wanted to work in space because of Louise!' The surviving men rushed for cover, yelling about military automatons. The machine moved forward, targeting the men who were scrambling for cover, hunting them down one by one.

Saji and Eddie hid behind one of the crates, hearing the machine getting closer. Saji saw Eddie looking to move from their current cover to another crate. 'Please don't. Stay here!'. Unfortunately for him, Eddie saw his chance and tried to make a break for it. Saji saw him get gunned down as he tried to cross over the open ground, horrifying the Japanese man. All that was going through his head was how he wished he could have seen Louise one more time and he never wanted to die like this. His heartbeat increased higher and higher as the machine got closer.

Just then he heard gunshots and a call of "Get back!" A man in a sleek black military suit threw something at the machine that cause it to explode, leaving a dust cloud in its wake and left Saji prone on the ground with his eyes closed. When he opened his eyes, he saw that same man offering a hand with a familiar voice that Saji swear he knew. As he took the man's hand and stood up, he looked at the face of the man who rescued him, it snapped into place as he saw the dull red eyes and messy brown of his former neighbor. With a surprised but happy voice, he asked, "Setsuna? Is that you?"

"And you are Saji Crossroad." Setsuna replied in a more subdued tone. The two men stood looking at each other for a few seconds, wondering how each of them were there in this situation. The reunion was broken up when another machine came hovering down, having spotted the two men.

Setsuna commanded in a more monotone voice, "We need to get out of here." The raven-haired man threw another explosive C4 at the machine and dashed into the hallway with Saji, pulling him by the wrist. The two made their way through the hallways of the colony, Setsuna dealing with the machines as they appeared, keeping a grip on Saji so he didn't lose him. During this, Setsuna thought, 'Nothing has changed. Despite all we did, not one damn thing has changed in all this time.' Saji on the other hand was just trying to keep up and not fall, wanting to get out of this hellhole. Eventually they both made it to an empty hanger.

Looking at Saji, Setsuna said, "Put on your helmet."

Saji responded, "Right." He raised up the hood on his spacesuit, sealing it up. As he did that, the door opened and a thing of Saji's nightmares was plain to see. While it was heavily damaged, with one arm gone, covered by a cloak of some kind and the end of the blade broken off, it was recognizable as one of the gundams from five years ago. The machines that ruined the life of the woman he loved and destroyed the world as he knew it. And Setsuna had piloted one of them. His mind was rapidly cycling through thoughts. 'Was he involved with killing Louise's family? Did he realize they cost him his sister? That her investigation of Celestial Being had cost her life? How did he not see it? Did they not know how many people they killed?' He just stood there, overwhelmed, as Setsuna walked towards the mech.

Setsuna entered the mech and told Saji, "Stay here. Find a place to hide and you'll be safe. I'll get back here after I deal with whatever is outside." He then closed the hatch of the Exia and flew out into space. He saw that Saji was conflicted, but that was not something he had time to deal with right now. There were enemies he had to deal with.

Space outside Colony Proud

Setsuna flew out into space, trying to find the source of the enemy force. Those machines in the station had to have been dropped by something, and they were most likely still in the area. Just as he was moving around the ring of the colony, he saw three red mobile suits with red particles behind him. 'These must be the A-Laws', Setsuna thought to himself. He recognized two of them as the GN-X's from four years previously and what seemed to be a new model. 'I'll have to be careful.' Taking the suits by surprise, he dashed quickly into the formation, taking the arm off of one of the GN-X's

Over the radio, he heard the pilot of the new model say, voice deep and bass, "I knew I recognized that trail of GN particles. It was a gundam. Lieutenant, stay back and give us covering fire."

"But Captain Zanin!" Setsuna heard the less deep male voice from a GN-X say with frustration.

Captain Zanin responded resolutely, "The gundam is still dangerous and we need to be careful. These guys aren't like the Katharon troops we fought earlier."

"Understood Captain." Just as he finished that sentence, Setsuna opened fire with the blaster attached to his blade, forcing the mobile suit team to dodge out of the way to avoid getting hit, then he charged in, trying to catch any of the mobile suits with his blade. The new model pulled out his own beam saber and clashed their blades, hoping the overpower the Exia. Setsuna heard the pilot then talk to him angrily, "Why wait until now to show up?!"

Setsuna responded with an undertone of anger, rising to overt anger by the end, "I'll destroy you. I'll just have to destroy you. All of those who do things like this! I'll eliminate you all by myself!" He pushed the suit back and flipped the blade back, blasting at the new model with a few shots, taking the shield off of it, but missing the actual suit. The Exia was then forced to dodge a few attacks from the supporting suit, putting him out of position.

Suddenly the GN-X that Setsuna damaged flew in, beam saber activated, attacking the gundam. The pilot called out, "Watch out captain!"

Captain Zanin desperately yelled to the man, "Wait!" But unfortunately for him, his subordinate had already gotten too close. The pilot tried to cut off the remaining arm of the Exia, but Setsuna dodged gracefully, and with one quick turn, cut the attacking mobile suit in half horizontally, eliciting a yell of, "You bastard! I will send you where you belong!" from the supporting mobile suit as he charged into attack the gundam. Setsuna reacted quickly and took a few shots at the suit, knocking off the arm that held the combination lance/blaster, as well as a leg.

The pilot responded angrily, "Damnit!" as he floated into space, suit effectively out of combat. The captain then yelled at Setsuna, "You'll pay for that!" He charged in, matching blades once again. This time Setsuna couldn't push him back and was actually losing to the suit. The pilot then stated "You maybe a gundam, but you are five years out of date. My Ahead will avenge my men!" Setsuna was frustrated by his inability to overpower the suit. 'Damnit Exia! What is going on with you?'

Setsuna was then pushed back and with speed he didn't expect, the suit drew out another beam saber and cut off the remaining arm of the Exia before Setsuna had a chance to react, leaving him floating helplessly, at the mercy of this new suit. 'It can't end this way! Not before I can fix what we did!' But just as the suit was about to deliver a killing blow, a large pink energy blast came out of nowhere, destroying the beam sabers of the Ahead. The raven-haired pilot saw what looked to be a gundam, but not one he had seen before. It looked bulkier, more armored and more angular than the ones he knew before and it seemed to have four large blasters attached to it. The A-Laws pilot then stated, "Another gundam? I've got to pull back. Lieutenant, we are leaving!"

"But sir?!" the other pilot asked petulantly.

"We are outgunned and facing a new enemy with unknown capabilities, we are leaving." He stated as he grabbed the damaged mobile suit and flew off into space. The new gundam fired after the two, but none of the shots connected. It decided to not engaged them, seeing that they were leaving the combat airspace and it moved towards the crippled Exia.

Letting the adrenaline wear off, Setsuna looked at the new suit. It looked like a gundam, but was it one of theirs? He then heard a voice over the comms that he recognized. Tieria asked with mirth in his voice, "How long has it been Setsuna? Four years?"

With relief in his voice, he said, "Tieria Erde."

"It's nice to see you alive. Let's bring you back to the ship."

"Wait. I need to pick someone up from the colony." Stated Setsuna, calming down from the emotions from the battle.

"Lead on then."

Colony Proud

Arriving back at the hanger, both mobile suits landed, and the two comrades met each other in the middle of the cluttered hanger. They closed the hanger doors, letting the hanger repressurize, giving them oxygen, letting them remove their helmets. They exited their suits, and met in the middle of the hangar. Tieria opened the conversation, stating evenly, "There is something different about you." The purple-haired man

Setsuna replied, giving Tieria a once over, "You don't seem to have changed much at all. You look exactly the same, besides the height."

The purple hair, red eyed man looked very similar to when Setsuna saw him last. In a similar even tone, "I get that a lot."

Setsuna gave a curious look at the Seravee, "So does this gundam belong to Celestial Being?"

"Naturally. It's called the Seravee."

As Tieria finished saying that, Saji came out from behind a crate in the hanger and rose his voice in anger, "Setsuna F Seiei! Were you always the pilot of that gundam!? Answer me!"

Setsuna responded in a neutral tone, "Yes, I was."

"That means you were involved five years ago!"

"Yes, I was."

"Do you know what you've done? Because of what you did, a lot of people that died that didn't have to and you're the ones responsible." Saji waited for Setsuna to respond, but just saw his neutral face. He felt emotions welling up inside him. "Because of you guys, the woman I love lost her family and was injured in the process. Because of you guys, the only family I had left, my sister, died investigating you guys! I lost Louise! And my sister! Say something!" He could feel tears streaming down his face, but seeing Setsuna refuse to answer, he rushed him and forcibly took the raven-haired man's gun and aimed it at him, "You give them back! Give them back to me!" Setsuna waited for him to shoot calmly, but he saw Saji slowly lower the gun and begin sob as he fell to his knees.

Tieria spoke up, "Should we take him and bring him to the ship?" Setsuna nodded and Tieria stood over Saji, "Very well." Tieria picked up Saji by the arm and dragged him aboard the Seravee. The suit launched and headed back the Celestial Being main ship, the Seravee bringing the damaged Exia with it in one hand.

A-Laws Ship

As the two entered the locker room to change, Captain Zanine raised his voice, "What the hell was that Lieutenant? You could have gotten yourself killed! You disobeyed my orders!"

The Lieutenant angrily responded, "He killed my comrade! Did you expect me to stay back after that?!"

"I expected you to follow orders! One more of those and you'll be demoted!"

"But Captain!"

"No 'but captaining' me." His tone softened a bit and said to the lieutenant, "I know you are motivated 2nd Lieutenant Andrei, but you don't want to die stupidly. You have potential and I don't want you to be wasted. You are a new transfer, but you have a lot to learn. Now get into your unform and lets head to get debriefed."

Andrei, surprised his attitude, relaxed a bit, happier that it wasn't just all anger, but some worry. In hindsight he did disobey orders and that made him a bad soldier. 'Next time I'll follow orders better to make sure I can protect more people!'

On the Ptolemaios II

Setsuna and Tieria landed in the hanger of the new ship, dropping the remains of the Exia for Ian to deal with. Tieria contacted Setsuna, "I'll bring our guest to the brig. You should go meet the rest of the crew."

"Will do. Don't treat him badly, he just lacks understanding. He's a decent person besides that."

"I will." Tieria then grabbed Saji on the shoulder and led him out of the hangers and into the halls of the ship, disappearing from Setsuna's view.

Setsuna exited the remains of the Exia, spotting a familiar black haired mechanic. 'So Ian did survive. I hope the rest of the old crew did.' He did not notice any significant change to him, other than the fact he seemed to have a new uniform, a white suit with a black area reaching to the middle of the chest from the top and a short black coat over it. Said man called out to him jovially, "Good to see you back Setsuna. It's been a long five years. Thanks for bringing back the solar reactor of the Exia, we needed it."

Setsuna looked at him curiously and asked, "It's good to see you too. Why do you need it?"

"We have a new suit for you, but we needed this reactor to get it working. Don't worry, I'll tell you when we have it ready for you."

Setsuna felt a surge of excitement hearing about a new suit, "I can't wait. Besides that, anything I should know or that changed?"

Ian gave him a thoughtful look, "The Ptolemaios now is actually armed, but right now it's only you and Tieria as pilots, which is not enough for any missions. Sumeragi is also gone, but we have a lead on her and a new recruit back on earth. We do have a mission for you, but I'll let you explore the ship for now. Let you get comfortable. You were on your own for five years. You should head to the bridge and talk meet the rest of the crew."

Setsuna stated with a tone of appreciation, "Thank you. I'll leave you to do what you need to do."

With a tone of casual warning, Ian said, "Heads up. My daughter is on the bridge and she will have high energy. Don't be surprised if she gets touchy."

"You have a daughter?"

With a smile on his face, he said, "I've had one for a while. Haros! Let's get going." Setsuna floated towards the door to the hallway, hearing a clamor of Haro noises and words, the spherical robots doing their job as maintenance and repair bots.

He headed through the hallways; he found the layout similar enough to the old ship to navigate, but was curious as to what had changed. 'Maybe someone on the bridge can help me.' He found his way to the bridge and let go of the handgrip coming out of the wall. Opening the door, he saw three people up there. A short girl with brown hair, who he guessed was closer to his age from five years ago, with a yellow short coat and what looked like drill shaped pigtails and dark purple eyes, another short girl with long pink hair in a low ponytail and a pink short coat with sea blue eyes, and a man with short black hair with a similar colored uniform to Ian with brown eyes. The man turned his head and Setsuna was surprised to see Lasse. Lasse smirked at him, "Long time no see, eh Setsuna?"

Setsuna's surprise was visible to him, "Lasse Aeon? You survived?"

The two girls then looked at the Krugis man standing at the door. He recognized Feldt but noticed she had grown, and her hair was different. He also noticed that Feldt had a soft smile on her face. The other girl he guessed by process of elimination was Ian's daughter and she had a more wide, cheerful smile. Lasse spoke up, "Yes I did. I'd like to introduce you to our new member of the crew, Mileina Vashti. And I assume you remember Feldt?"

Setsuna gave a slight smile to both of them, "Feldt Grace, it's good to see you again. And it's nice to meet you, Mileina Vashti."

She replied energetically, "Yep, I'm Mileina. I've heard stories about you!"

"I look forward to working with you." He nodded to her and turned to face Feldt.

In a slightly warm tone, Setsuna said, "Feldt Grace, I noticed you changed your hair." Feldt blushed slightly and responded, "Christina told me I should try to be more fashionable."

"I wouldn't know how to judge that, but it suits you." Feldt's cheeks went a little pinker but she quickly righted herself

Setsuna looked around the bridge, not seeing Lichty or Christina. He questioned the bridge crew, "Speaking of Christina, where are her and Lichty?"

Both Lasse and Feldt looked at each other and Lasse said mournfully "They died in the final battle five years ago." Setsuna noticed a Feldt's eyes get a little watery. 'She must have been close with them.'

"Condolences. I wish I would have been there to protect them" Setsuna stated with regret in his tone.

Feldt spoke up with rising emotion, "No Setsuna, you were needed to fight elsewhere and if Lasse was on the bridge, he would have died too. You saved us, even if you weren't there. And it's good to see you again. It's been a long time." Setsuna felt an unfamiliar emotion pass through him, noticing Feldt had looked away from him, blushing. He shoved it to the back of his mind, not knowing what it meant. He could think about it later. Feldt calmed down from her outburst and her blush had faded, saying, "It must have been a long day for you. One of us can show you how to navigate the ship." She looked around the room, hoping one of the other bridge crew would jump in.

Lasse jumped in and said, "I'll do that. We can catch up as we travel." He gave Feldt a smirk, her glaring slightly at him in response, and guided Setsuna out of the bridge and started on his tour of the ship.

Somewhere in Spain

"There has been an anti-government force that attacked the Proud Colony, killing a large number of people. They were dealt with, but we also confirmed reports that gundams showed up and are active. We will give more info as we receive it. There is a list of people lost accessible to the public."

Louise froze in shock at the statement from the news. 'The gundams are back. Why are they back? We finally have peace!' She could feel herself shaking as images of the past came flashing back, not as intense as previous years, but she could never forget what happened to her family. She saw images of a crater at a wedding full of dead bodies, her first seeing her stump where she now has a prosthetic. Another thought also went through her head. 'Wait, Saji was on Proud! Was he safe?'

As she was sitting there in silence, she heard more from the news, "A number of anti-government prisoners also escaped and if you see any of them, call the authorities at once. Do not confront them. A list of names and faces will be available to the public. Onto our next story…" Louise rushed to her computer, accessing the list and saw Saji was not on the list of deaths. 'At least he's safe.' They may not be together anymore, but she still didn't wish anything bad to happen to him.

She then scanned the list of escaped prisoners and to her shock and horror, she saw Saji's face and name. 'He's not a criminal. He may have been narrow-minded, but he despised the rebels. What is going on?'

Second Authors note

So, this AU came out from an attempt to make Feldt/Setsuna have a better set up, but then I kept thinking I want to change this and that and now it's a monstrosity. The ships are all canon ones besides the one I listed above because that is happening here. As you can see there are already changes and there are more from here. I like to call this a streamlined AU/novelization. Any scene that isn't changed but not present here happens as it did in the show. Also the movie is not part of this universe especially in relation the epilogue. It just makes it less taxing on me. I don't have a set release schedule, but I will get them out as fast as a realistically can.

(7/4/21) P.S. I went back and did some minor editing on the chapter. Just wanted to make you guys aware of that