Chapter Seventy-Four: Relating to a Psychopath

The door led to a hallway of what looked like a giant, imposing laboratory lobby. Every movement caused a loud echo to erupt from the floor, like I was in an enclosed, metallic cave. Flay's footsteps joining in made it sound like the two of us were some giant metal army charging through. It was a miracle that neither Mu La Flaga or Rau Le Creuset had noticed us yet.

More gunshots up ahead. I was amazed that no one had hit each other yet. It just sounded like deflection after deflection.

We paused in the center of what I could only describe as a monolith, but it could have been part of the power system. I could hear Rau Le Creuset's voice more clearly at this point, coming from straight ahead. "Do you have any idea what this place is, Mu?"

Mu La Flaga's reply was characteristically succinct. "Why would I, psycho?"

More gunshots followed Mu's reply. Damn it, those two men had it out for each other.

"Hurry, Flay," I said, and we ran around the monolith, chasing the gunfire. Honestly, I was impressed by Flay continuing to follow me like this. Flay was the type to turn and run. Mu La Flaga and Kira had been a positive influence on her.

Honestly, I agreed with Mu. Why would any of us know what this place is? It was becoming clear that this wasn't one of the biohazard facilities, though.

"It's such a crime for you not to know!" Rau's voice shouted as we made around the structure and into a darkened hall.

"Where's the other pilot?" Flay asked as we moved through.

"Probably with Rau Le Creuset. She would have jumped Mu by now if she wasn't," I replied.

Honestly it would make sense for Asta to hide in wait so she could surprise Mu from behind, or to stop any reinforcements by joining Mu. It was peculiar why that wasn't happening. Why, instead, was it turning into a straightforward confrontation and the advantage for Le Creuset and Asta was going to be lost?

It just didn't make sense to me. Of course, it soon would, but the thought of what could possibly happen didn't occur to me as we searched through the darkened hallway, waiting for Asta to spring at us like a zombie in a haunted house.

Silence. Way too much silence. They had stopped shooting at each other, and I was beginning to get nervous we were going to head in the wrong direction. Maybe there was an ambush up ahead.

"Flay, take cover behind the door. I'm going to call out to Mu La Flaga," I replied.

Flay gave me a look like I had grown a second head. "You sure that's the best idea?"

"I want Le Creuset to know that he's outnumbered. I'm going to force his hand and we're going to shoot the bastard when he does," I replied. I was just talking out of my ass at that point, I was getting scared, and I wanted to know where Mu was so the three of us could join forces.

Flay didn't argue. Maybe she was getting scared too. The thought of finding the lone adult on our side had to be too tempting.

I leaned against the wall, and bit my lip. This was either going to get me what I wanted, or we were about to get a host of gunshots. "Mu! Mu La Flaga!"

Immediately, I heard a response up ahead, showing me we had not gotten lost. "Cagalli? What are you doing?"

"C'mon, Flay." I broke out of my cover then and ran towards Mu's voice. We were going to find him now, and then we would actually have a plan.

But before we made it too far, I heard Rau's voice. Now he was yelling at me. "How delightful for you to join us, Cagalli Yamato! I guess this must really be fate if you're joining us as well!"

I was guessing that Rau must be on some serious drugs if he thought that this was 'fate'.

"How I had to sit there and not say anything when I saw you join ZAFT, join my very unit! Now, I can finally unveil everything to you, child!"

"I've got a bad feeling about this," Flay mumbled beside me, deciding to be Captain Obvious.

"Let him rant. He'll lead us right to him," I replied.

Finally, after rounding a corner, I saw Mu, taking cover besides a statue by what seemed to be a dead elevator shaft. The statue seemed to resemble a DNA straight, or some kind of spiral, I wasn't sure what it was supposed to represent.

"Finally!" I broke cover and ran right up to him, taking cover by the closed elevator door. Flay joined me, and we both gasped for breath right besides him.

I smelled blood when I got next to La Flaga. That was not a good sign.

"Oh God, it's not just you," La Flaga sighed. "Why did you both have to follow me?"

"Like we were going to let you come in here alone," I said.

"You'll always be our Lieutenant-Commander, sir," Flay added.

"Nosy kids," Mu murmured.

I realized Mu was favoring his left side. I looked and I could see blood on his uniform. "Sir, you're wounded!"

"It's nothing," he replied, almost offhand. "And you girls can just call me 'Mu'. We're not exactly military anymore, are we?"

The thought of calling him 'Mu' sounded almost as weird as calling Badgiruel 'Natarle'. I couldn't really think of him as just plain old 'Mu'.

Rau started yelling again from the distance. "Don't be shy! Come along to the place where it all began!"

To make it even worse, he shouted my name then, in total sing-song, before returning to what I guess was his normal ranting tone. "Cagalli, don't you want to see? This was where you were born! You and the reason why you had to be born here!"

"What?" I didn't understand. What did he mean by the 'reason'? Hadn't I heard the reason why already from what I heard from the audio recording of my birth parents? Hadn't I heard enough just by hearing my birth mother wail at my birth father?

Mu La Flaga turned to me, stern. "Don't fall for his tricks, Cagalli. No matter what he says, don't believe a word of it."

He made a persuasive argument, but I was becoming gripped by fear. Fear that somehow, Rau Le Creuset really did know who I was. He was already uncomfortably close to the truth just by what he said at that moment. I couldn't say this to La Flaga though, or it would just make the situation worse.

I heard Asta's voice for the first time, addressing Le Creuset. "What are you talking about, Commander? What's going on here?"

Le Creuset somehow still felt he had to yell, which made me think Asta was farther away from him than I expected. "Oh, you'll understand soon, Asta! After all, it is you who was the reason why Cagalli was born here!"

I froze then. I knew enough, just enough to know what Le Creuset meant by that.

Oh my God.

Asta and her illnesses, her weak organs that were slowly overcoming her. Now it all made sense why that was. Why no matter how strong she tried to make herself, no matter how many pills she took, they weren't enough.

Asta was just like me. Considering she was older than me, that meant she was my predecessor.

"Asta! Asta, don't listen to him!" I broke cover then and charged down the hall, and I heard both Mu La Flaga and Flay tell me to wait.

I didn't care. I knew how I had reacted when I had heard the truth, or part of the truth, back in Orb. I had completely freaked out and was ready to kill myself, or accept my death, or something along those lines. Asta, who wasn't a pillar of mental stability already, what would she do?

I had to reach her before Le Creuset said too much.

I could already hear Asta yelling at Le Creuset, in complete confusion. "What are you talking about sir? What does Cagalli have to do with me?"

"Asta! Asta stop listening to him!" I ran through a doorway, and immediately saw flashes up ahead.

I ducked to the left as gunshots flew past me and right at my cover. My heart skipped a beat. Too close. Way too close.

"What is this place?" Asta yelled, almost wailed. "Where are we, sir? Answer me!"

I heard Rau then, and to me, he sounded almost like a demon. "Oh, Asta . . . how everything's been hidden from you for so long. Just like Mu La Flaga, just like Cagalli Yamato, the truth will be exposed to you as well!"

"What are you talking about, Commander?" Asta shouted, before she had a clear, violent coughing fit. I leaned out, and briefly saw her run to the left through one of the elevated pathways, around what seemed to be like thousands of human embryos and fetuses stored in clear tanks.

Dammit Asta. I was about to run off again when I heard Mu La Flaga and Flay Allster join me. Immediately, Mu La Flaga grabbed me and slapped me in the face before I could do anything.

His voice was low and strangely harsh for him. "You do that again and you're staying outside, Cagalli!"

I knew he was right. I had done something extremely stupid, and I didn't need the slap to realize that. "I'm sorry, sir."

Mu growled something unintelligible, and then he took a look through the hallway, and I knew he was seeing the same embryos and fetuses that I was. "What the hell?"

Flay let out a small gasp. "I think I'm gonna be sick."

Mu let out a short breath, and then aimed his pistol in front of him. "I'm taking point. You girls watch the flanks. I don't care who it is, just shoot if you see one of them."

I could hear Asta desperately yell for Rau Le Creuset, yell at him for an explanation, for something, anything, but Rau wasn't answering her. He seemed content to let her run around screaming for him.

I was disgusted. What kind of man would string someone along like this? Put her in such clear despair, and then leave her fumbling around?

I followed Mu through the hallway. It was difficult to not look at the embryos and fetuses, all in various stages of development, floating in the tanks. I knew. I knew that any of these fetuses could have been me, and someone else, one of these fetuses or embryos, could be in my position right now, learning this, while I was stuck in one of these tanks, like a prisoner in a cage.

It wasn't just Flay who wanted to be sick then. I could feel the bile in the back of my throat. The thought of being one of those embryos or fetuses, forever stuck, frozen like this, never able to fully develop through the decades and centuries . . .

Hell. This place was hell. An extension of it, made by human hands, condemning those who hadn't even progressed to being born.

I could hear Rau then, shouting like he was the devil in charge of this place. "Don't you have any memories of this place, Cagalli? Doesn't any of this seem familiar to you?"

"Don't listen to him," Mu La Flaga growled.

"What is he talking about?" Flay asked. Poor Flay, she seemed to be the only one not involved in this madness, and now she was going to hear it all.

"Don't listen to him," La Flaga repeated.

That's when a gunshot rang out, and I saw Flay get winged in the right shoulder. She screamed.

"Flay!" I caught her, and I heard Mu La Flaga return fire.

"Hurry, get her into the office!" La Flaga barked.

I saw what he was talking about, it wasn't far from our position at all. I draped Flay over my shoulder and immediately tried to shuffle her towards the hallway as I heard Mu La Flaga run out of ammunition and reload, before resuming firing, probably to keep Rau's head down.

I made it inside the office and instinctively flipped a switch, but the power wouldn't turn on. Out of ideas, I ran Flay over behind a table, laid her down, and flipped the table to form some kind of cover for us.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," Flay moaned, managing a sad smile as she stared at me. "I blew it."

"It's okay. That wasn't much more than a graze. You'll be okay," I said before I ran from the table and towards a sofa, and I pulled it in front of the table.

Mu La Flaga ran inside then. "Damn that bastard!"

I heard Rau then, yelling in the distance. "I won't kill the two of you! I let you all come this far, after all! I'll let you live long enough to hear the whole story!"

Gunshots from the outside shot into the office, and Flay screamed. For a second, I thought she was hit again, but as I ran to her position, she was on the verge of tears. She had been so calm inside the Mobile Suit, but fighting this madman with only a pistol was overwhelming her.

"However, Flay Allster, you haven't earned the right to be here! You don't deserve to hear the story! For you, I'll make an exception!"

More gunshots. Mu La Flaga had to flip himself over the sofa and the table to join us behind it as more gunshots fired over and around us.

As he stopped, I leaned out with my pistol. I saw a shadowy figure and fired, and the pistol violently kicked in my hand as I tried to shoot Le Creuset. I apparently missed as he just laughed following my attempt to shoot him.

"Oh fine, Allster can hear it too! It's not like she'll live to tell about it anyway," Le Creuset said after a moment. "After all, she had to do her fair bit of suffering just to make it this far!"

"Shut up," Flay managed through clenched teeth, though it probably wasn't loud enough for Le Creuset to hear her.

This wasn't good. Mu La Flaga looked like he had some kind of metal stuck in his left side, and now Flay had been shot in the shoulder. As far as I knew, no bullet had struck Le Creuset, and there was no telling where Asta was.

That's when I saw a framed picture slide past our cover, stopping right in front of me.

I recognized it right away. It was the picture Uzumi Nara Athha had shown me, the picture that Kira had in his possession! Him and I as twin babies in our birth mother's arms!

Le Creuset was not lying after all. If the picture was in this laboratory, that meant . . .

A photobook landed in front of us, sending pictures all over the place. One picture was upright, showing a blonde man holding a kid with a toy airplane above his head.

La Flaga recognized that one. "My dad?"

"Oh God, what's going on here?" Flay moaned.

Rau's voice was quieter now, almost sinister, sly, smarmy. "Aren't any of you the least bit curious? About the extent of humanity's insatiable desires? About the fools who pursued their insane dreams in the name of progress?"

One more gunshot, seemingly as a reminder against me poking my head out. "After all, Cagalli, you're a child of this too! You and Asta Joule! Children of fools who thought they could play God!"

"Do you have a shot?" Mu La Flaga asked.

"I can't even poke my head out," I replied. "I think we're gonna have no choice but to listen to him. He has us all pinned down."

"I've heard enough," Flay said. "I just want him to die already."

I heard footsteps from the left. It had to be Asta Joule.

Sure enough, I could hear the violent coughs as she seemed to stagger to a stop. "C-Commander . . ."

"Oh, Asta, how good of you to finally join us! Now I don't have to repeat this sordid tale of this forbidden temple! Now you'll finally get to learn that your parents decided to play God with you!"

"W-What?" Asta asked, her voice soft, shaken.

Damn it. He was going to drive her insane, just like him. "Asta, don't listen to him!"

Gunshots, the bullets landing right in front of my head. "That's enough out of you, Cagalli! Don't go telling her lies or false comforts! Either you're going to hear the story, or we all die here, and the secrets of this place die with us!"

He chuckled then. "Oh Cagalli. I do wonder, how was it that you fell into our grasp anyway? How did you wind up so exposed, and so despairing, that you felt joining ZAFT was the best option for you? I wonder, did you find anything out about your tainted past, something that made you decide to try to find justice for it?"

How did he know any of this? How much did he truly know about me?

"You bastard! Shut the hell-" Before Mu could finish, Rau Le Creuset fired another bullet, and this one zinged the top part of the couch, not far from Flay's head. She shrieked and shrank closer to the floor, her hands covering her head. I couldn't blame her.

"Until you literally showed up in my office, Cagalli, I had no idea you were still alive. You and your twin brother. I always assumed the two of you had died. After your birth father, Ulen Hibiki, you were the top target of Blue Cosmos, Cagalli!"

If there was any doubt before, that took care of any other chance. He knew. He knew all too well, and he had filled in a gap I hadn't known before. Now I knew why Blue Cosmos was so intent on killing me. I was their top target for death. And the moment they found out I was alive, they were searching for any reason to kill me. It was a miracle that the facility in the Indian Ocean had tried to keep me alive.

"As for you, Asta," Rau said, "You're the reason why Doctor Hibiki decided to experiment on his own daughter. After all, your survival inspired him! Why not continue experimenting on female embryos and fetuses, when he had insurmountable proof that he was close to figuring out the puzzle?"

I heard Asta then. Distant. Soft. Broken. I wanted to call out to her, but I knew that would only invite another gunshot or two from Rau, and sooner or later, one of those bullets was gonna hit us.

"No . . . why . . . why . . ."

Rau chuckled then. "And now look at the two of you. Both of you, right here, somehow still alive, even after throwing yourselves into the war. You, Asta, with that weak immune system and sick, struggling organs! You, Cagalli, who had lived the life of an ordinary civilian before Heliopolis? How do either of you think you both still live?"

Surprisingly, it was Flay who yelled next. "I was at Heliopolis too! And I'm still alive! What are you trying to say?"

"Oh shut up, Allster. You're an uninvited guest as it is!"

The next gunshot went right through the sofa, barely missing Flay's head. She cried out in fright and fell next to Mu, who caught her.

"One more word out of you, and I know I'll hit you. Do your part in this affair and remain a member of the audience."

"Don't speak up," Mu whispered to her. "I don't want you losing your life for nothing."

"O-Okay, sir," Flay managed.

I heard thumping noises, I peeked through the hole in the sofa, and saw Asta had fallen to her knees, and she was staring into space. She was breaking, and there was nothing I could do to help her.

Even though Asta and I had never been on friendly terms, I still wanted to help her. I knew that if, somehow, I could just make it to her, maybe I could get through to her.

The last thing I wanted her to do was somehow relate to what was clearly a psychopath rambling away.

"Do either of you understand what I'm saying, Cagalli, Asta? Does any of my words have any meaning to you?"

"Shut up!" I shouted. I leaned out and took a shot at him, but it turned out I was way off, I wasn't even close to hitting him.

I ducked back, but Rau didn't shoot back. Instead, he just laughed. "Still in denial, Cagalli? I suppose that's to be expected. You struck me as having one of those rebellious, pragmatic personalities. Again, why do you think that is?"

"I don't know, why don't you tell me if you think you're so smart?" I shouted at him.

I was on the verge of losing it. There was nothing I wanted more in that moment than to put a bullet through Rau Le Creuset's skull. I was still in partial disbelief over all of this. My former commander at ZAFT, the guy who had been so calm, even after JOSH-A, he was nothing more than a lunatic! Spouting off conspiracy theories and ham-fisted garbage!

Le Creuset didn't laugh this time. Instead, he spoke with absolute certainty. "You are what humanity strives to be, Cagalli. You are the Ultimate Coordinator."

I peeked through the hole again, and I saw Le Creuset was standing next to Asta. "And you, my poor subordinate, you are nothing more than Cagalli's failed prototype. The reason why Doctor Hibiki chose to make Cagalli the product of his foolish dream."

"No . . . no . . . I can't . . . I can't . . ." Asta sounded like she was sobbing. Sobbing. I had never heard her sound so sad, so despairing, ever in my life.

Le Creuset chuckled. "Don't you feel the least bit proud, Asta? After all, you're the reason why Cagalli has lived such a perfect, healthy life. Your very existence is why Cagalli has hers! You blazed the trail for Hibiki to make his daughter everything he ever wanted!"

Damn it, he really was trying to poison her mind! But like he knew I was going to try to shoot him, he fired shots at both mine and Mu's positions, pinning us both down.

"Don't any of you realize the meaning of this place? This is where humanity thought could be their new heaven, where they could play God all they wanted! But what they made instead was hell, and what resulted were . . ."

I wondered what Le Creuset was going say. Demons? Hellspawn? What?

His next words were something that I hadn't quite expected.

"Abominations."


You have no idea how long I have waited to reveal all of this.

You thought the true butterfly was Cagalli and Kira switching places? Did any of you not stop to think about why Cagalli and Kira would have switched places? Why Cagalli would be the Coordinator instead?

Heh. I guess this must be what Rau Le Creuset feels like.

Well, anyway, the next chapter will be an even greater doozy than this one. Hope you enjoyed.