Time for the annual update burst. I had to do something different, off-kilter, to motivate myself to keep writing as I hit writer's block. It is likely completely unnecessary, but it needed to be done so I could find a spark to finish this story.
It doesn't change the ending I have in mind, the ending I've had in mind since 2011 (that long ago, God). Just adds something extra to it, something that may be more important than I think because I am not so sure I'm going to write a sequel anymore. This fic is going on six years old. I am not sure if I can face the prospect of writing a sequel for a better part of another decade.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy.
Chapter Seventy-Nine: Plans
It wasn't until I was summoned to this particular briefing that I realized how much time had passed since we had arrived at L4. But it had been over a month already.
I still hadn't been able to meet Siegel Clyne and discuss Lacus with him. He had largely secluded himself somewhere in the Mendel colony in grief, and Talias Gladys was left trying to run the ex-ZAFT side of things on her own. A doctor named Gilbert Durandal was rapidly gaining popularity among the Coordinators in our alliance, and I couldn't help but notice he was attending the briefing too at Talia's side. Perhaps his influence and support was growing to the point where he was becoming a leader too.
As for me, I was deathly afraid. This was the time I was supposed to be having my period and it hadn't happened yet. It was the first time in my life that I wanted my period and all of the lovely side effects that came with it. Every moment that consciously went by was a moment where I felt I was ready to pass out from the stress.
It was a relief when they finally started talking. Naomi Misora, the former Earth Alliance admiral, was the one that broke the ice. "I am sure some of you know why this strategic meeting has been called. About five days ago, the Earth Alliance successfully took the Carpentaria base, effectively eliminating the ZAFT forces from Earth, and Oceania has also surrendered."
That caused murmuring all around me. I heard Natarle Badgiruel say "It doesn't surprise me. ZAFT was effectively isolated. It was only a matter of time."
"It does not help that evidence of war crime activity was discovered by the Earth Alliance," Misora said. I immediately had flashbacks to ZAFT personnel torturing, killing, and tormenting Naturals while I was at Carpentaria post-Spitbreak. Not even Naturals allied with them were spared. I wondered how many of the war criminals had wound up being killed as Carpentaria fell? How many more were going to face abuse just as great or even worse than they had administered at the hands of Blue Cosmos?
Karma has an odd way of getting revenge on people. However, it can take months or even years, decades, before karma finally bites back, when you least expect it. Karma, sure as hell, was coming to bite me, and there was a sinking feeling in my gut that told me that it was.
"With Carpentaria eliminated," Misora said, "The Earth will begin marshalling its forces to head into space and defeat ZAFT once and for all. With the publicizing of ZAFT war crimes, I expect we won't be seeing many more desertions to our side from Earth."
Talia Gladys frowned. "The amount of refugees coming to L4 have been practically nonexistent for a week. We had two ships, neither of them combat-capable, arrive, and one of them was barely crewed at all. That was it. I believe we have everyone who would possibly want to join us openly at this point."
Misora glared at Gladys. The two women clearly saw each other as rivals and both of them wanted to make sure their interests were represented. "What I am saying is that the propaganda will make the Earth Alliance fight harder and more desperately. We don't see many desertions to our side under any circumstances, much less while we're in our holding pattern here."
Kira spoke up softly. He was the nominal leader, being the one who had rallied all of the military personnel here with his speech pleading for peace and unity, but I wasn't sure if he was truly in command. "This is a pointless argument, Naomi Misora. Please continue with your statement."
Misora wasn't keen on being commanded by a seventeen-year-old kid, even if he was the Prince of Orb and basically the leader of his country in exile. "Right, of course, Prince Kira."
She continued then, keeping her voice even, but I noticed she was still looking at Gladys suspiciously. "Blue Cosmos may be running the show unopposed, ruling through fear and propaganda, but they are not fools. ZAFT is a shadow of its former self after the failure of Spitbreak. ZAFT is retreating behind its fortresses at Jachin Due and Boaz, and the Earth Alliance will need to go through both of them to get a clear shot at PLANT. However, they also know that we are here and could potentially attack them from the rear. We need to increase our combat readiness in the event the Earth Alliance decides to come knocking on our door."
"They'll undoubtedly have the N-Jammer Canceller technology unlocked when they decide to move," Mu La Flaga said.
"Exactly. We'll likely be coming under nuclear assault, and if that fails there's a good chance the Earth Alliance will simply try to run us over and then nuke us," Misora said.
"That was inspiring," Badgiruel muttered under her breath.
"Do you think they might simply ignore us and attack ZAFT?" asked a ZAFT captain whose name I did not know.
"Possibly, if they deem us too far out of the way or too insignificant of a threat," Misora replied.
"I could see them deciding to finish off ZAFT first and then circle around to attack us," Badgiruel suddenly said. "Also, we have the GUNDAM weapons that are significantly more powerful than anything they can throw against us. To try to fight us will mean fighting a long, drawn-out, bloody struggle that may only result in a Pyrrhic victory for them. They can't afford those kinds of losses before engaging ZAFT."
"You have too much faith in those weapons," Misora sniffed.
"You have not seen them in action the way I have and how even one of them can be all that's needed to keep you alive," Badgiruel replied, her voice cool.
She was right. I was living proof of that. It still feels strange to think about, but I don't think the Archangelwould have made it to this point if I hadn't decided to fly the Strike. All it takes a pilot with some degree of skill (or, in my case, the necessary reflexes) and all of a sudden there's a chance to survive.
"You think ZAFT will ignore us and instead try to eliminate the PLANTs?" Kira asked.
Badgiruel nodded. "With ZAFT eliminated on Earth, there's only going to be two areas left with Coordinators: us, and at the PLANTs. Blue Cosmos may get cocky and decide to save us for later, and then make a move to crush ZAFT. Remember, the Earth Alliance will have nuclear weapons when they make this move. They probably think they can nuke Boaz, Jachin Due, and all of the PLANTs and end it all in one swift stroke. Then they can concentrate on us and fight a Pyrrhic struggle against the GUNDAM machines, where nuking us may not work because the Freedom and Justice have the METEOR attachments that can fire more missiles and lasers than you and I can count."
"So you're saying the Freedom and the Justice are the nuclear deterrents," Misora said, still not convinced.
"Yes. And fighting us first is a gamble. We'd still probably lose in the wake of an all-out Earth assault, but we'd cause them so many casualties the type of final offensive they'd like to make against the PLANTs would not be possible. So that's why I think they're initially going to pass us by and go right for the PLANTs, likely sortieing from their Moon base."
Gladys bit her lip. "We can't just let them wipe the PLANTs out."
"I'm not suggesting it. Hell, if we let them do it, they'd still come for us, and we'd still probably lose but cause them severe casualties. The only way to stop them is to prevent them from destroying the PLANTs. We have to defeat Blue Cosmos and Patrick Zala's radical government without allowing either side to be annihilated, or our future is also annihilation by either of their hands," Badgiruel said.
"You're full of good news, ain't ya?" Mu said, an uneasy smile on his face. Badgiruel replied by elbowing him in the stomach, which knocked him a bit off-balance.
"All right, so the only way to stop either side from destroying each other, and to prevent ourselves from being destroyed, is to take Blue Cosmos and Patrick Zala out of the game," Kira said. I noticed Athrun wincing out of the corner of his eye, I had a sad feeling he still wanted to sneak out of here and try to reason with his father, but there was no way in hell I was going to let him and he knew it.
"I think we're going to need to depart from L4 with a rearguard standing by in case the Earth Alliance doestry something," Kira said. "We have to keep them from nuking Boaz. At the same time, our sympathizers in the PLANTs have to overthrow Patrick Zala and take him into custody. Do we have anyone capable of doing that?"
"Eileen Canaver is allied with us and is still in the PLANTs," Gladys replied. "She'd be the one most likely to make a move."
"Communicate to her and get her onboard with a coup d'etat," Kira said. "As for Blue Cosmos, I think we're going to have to try to form a bridge with the remaining moderates who can't leave their fleets. That way, when we make our move, they can turn on the Blue Cosmos-aligned vessels and on the nuclear-equipped vessels and catch the enemy by surprise. With Zala and Blue Cosmos both eliminated, both sides can sue for peace."
Misora raised an eyebrow. "You're seventeen years old and you got it all thought out, don't you?"
Kira smiled uneasily. "You can poke holes in my plan all you want, but it's the best I got. It's better than waiting around for Blue Cosmos to show up to finish us off."
"You're assuming that Blue Cosmos won't try to eliminate us first," Misora said.
"Badgiruel has given us a good reason why they won't come for us first, and until you can give us a better counterpoint I'm going to trust her judgment," Kira replied.
Misora gritted her teeth. She was clearly not used to having her authority and knowledge questioned like this. She was an admiral, of course, and had commanded a whole fleet, though not all of her fleet came with her. For someone to last as long as she did in space where the Earth Alliance had a perpetual disadvantage,
And being outmaneuvered by a Natural teenager likely wasn't sitting well with her. She was likely used to running circles around Naturals due to her superior Coordinator abilities, but Kira wasn't like most Naturals. He was well-educated, with the intention of him ruling Orb eventually. He wasn't going to be a pushover for an overambitious admiral.
He had come a long way from when Murrue was able to out-argue him on Heliopolis. Though to be fair to him, he had just survived a battle and had taken a bad blow to the head.
"Even so, having our deterrents, these GUNDAM machines, take off to fight both sides at once leaves L4 vulnerable to a strike if Earth decides to splinter some of their forces," Misora replied. "We are betting on all or nothing."
"So are they," Kira said. "Both sides have taken this to the point of no return. I saw that the hard way at Orb."
The silence hung in the air, weighing down on a good portion of us.
"Well, if no one else has any questions, we should adjourn this meeting," Gladys said calmly.
"This isn't over. I still don't like this strategy," Misora growled.
"Until we can draw up something better, it's our strategy," Mu La Flaga replied. "Right now, it looks like neither side is thinking straight, so let's take advantage of it."
That was when a young officer burst into the room, breathless. "I-I'm sorry to interrupt, but, but…"
"What is it?" Badgiruel asked.
"A recon team went deeper into Mendel, and they found something… something strange!"
"Like what?" Mu asked. "What could be stranger than discovering a laboratory full of half-grown dead fetuses?"
I admit it, he had something of a point.
"We found people. They look like they've been locked up for decades! And one of them is still alive!"
The entire room froze. What the man had just said could have meant so many different things, and it didn't quite make sense.
"Say that again, one more time, with clarity," Badgiruel replied.
The man did.
"My God, how long could this woman have been under?" La Flaga asked.
There was no meaningful identification on the lifepod, which was essentially a glorified cyro chamber. That was a technology thought lost since the Reconstruction Wars. No one knew how to replicate it. And yet, here it was, existing, and there was somebody still alive in there.
"She dates from the Reconstruction War at least, if not longer," Gladys replied. "This is technology thought lost."
"We shouldn't be letting so many junior officers ogle this lifepod," Misora growled, looking at me, Athrun, the rest of the pilots and bridge crew members who were all here, like zoo visitors crowding around a new exotic animal exhibit.
"The cat's out of the bag at this point," Badgiruel replied. "No harm done in letting them see it, as long as we keep her secure. We'll also need to decide whether to wake her up."
"If we wake her up, there is no guarantee we'll be able to put her back under, or even if she'll survive," Misora replied.
"Can we even see what she looks like?" Dearka asked, as he tried to lean over.
"Glass is so frosted over that I think it'll shatter if we touch it," said the Archangel's doctor, Jacqueline Grumman. "Might crack on its own, and we'll have no choice but to revive her then."
"Dammit," Dearka growled.
"Why're you so interested? Think it's gonna be a pretty girl?" Nicol asked, dismayed.
"Always is," Dearka replied, in a weird sort of indignant pride.
"What's the condition of the others?" Mu asked Dr. Grumman.
"They're dead. Their bodies are still preserved, but they flatlined years, if not decades, ago. Stayed under far too long," she replied. "As it is, I can't guarantee the mental stability of this woman if we choose to revive her. Someone who has been put under as long as she has may not be cognizant, or even sane."
There was silence. No one seemed to know what to do. It was a tough question, we were under enough stress as it was without worrying about waking up a woman put under for decades, if not over a century, and trying to deal with her issues. Especially with a final battle on the way.
However, she dated from the Reconstruction Wars, if not earlier. There was a giant gap in history from 2307 A.D. to the Reconstruction War, where it felt like many, many individual pieces of a puzzle were thrown away to be lost permanently. What exactly happened in the Reconstruction War wasn't widely known either, other than it brought about a borderline-apocalypse for humankind that put an end to the Anno Domini era and started Cosmic Era.
And I remembered Waltfeld's conspiracy theories in that moment, especially regarding that fossil that George Glenn, so many years ago, had brought home from Jupiter's orbit.
"Wake her up," I said.
Everyone stared and looked at me, surprised. It was almost enough to make me quiet.
"Wake her up. What happened in the Reconstruction War isn't widely known. All that we know is that we fell apart to in-fighting, and right now this war looks like it's going the same direction. Maybe if we know what happened, and why, in the Reconstruction War, we might know what will happen in this war, or what's happening differently."
There was a lot of chatter then, as people discussed the matter between themselves. Athrun walked over to me, clearly concerned. "Cagalli, you sure this is such a good idea?"
"No, but I don't see any point in leaving her under just so she can die like her friends did," I reply. "Might as well try to see if she can help, right?"
Athrun nodded, slowly, but the concern did not leave his eyes. "I understand."
"All right," Badgiruel said. "We're going to wake her up. Grumman, take it slow and carefully. And everyone, out of the room. This is going to take a ZOINKS long time so we know we're not going to accidentally kill her, so there's no point in all of us hanging around. Go home."
That wound up including me, so I wound up leaving right after she said that, the comatose, cryo-sleeping woman's identity still a mystery.
Seeing Stellar Loussier, Sting Oakley, and Auel Neider together again was an odd sight.
Stellar was no longer bonded to me, as I had expected. Instead, she had attached herself to my adoptive mother, Caridad Yamato. Mom was nonchalant about the bonding, she was more disappointed that the ESP-esque abilities she received had been only temporary and gradually faded away. Honestly, considering my own experience with them, I was happy that they were no longer there.
Still, seeing Stellar clearly adore my mother, while basically ignoring me, hurt.
Elle, at least, wasn't bound by her programming the way Stellar was. She at least said 'Hi' or 'Good morning' to me every day.
Kind of pathetic, isn't it? That all it took was a 'good morning' to make me feel like I didn't completely suck.
It was strange, interacting with everyone I had known again. Aisha had replaced Tolle as the Archangel's co-pilot. Flay was apparently going to receive a replacement Mobile Suit based off of the Strike, an experimental design called the Rouge. Athrun was made leader of the "GUNDAM wing", as Badgiruel called it, which has a nice ring to it I guess. Mu La Flaga was the only one piloting a GUNDAM that was not made part of Athrun's unit, as he was in command of all Mobile Suits and Armors.
Everyone was gearing up and preparing for the end, and all I could do was watch the Freedom getting repaired. That's being a pilot for you. I wasn't in command and I wasn't much use other than for piloting the Freedom. I just hoped it would get fixed in time so I wouldn't go into battle completely rusty.
The next day, I took Elle to show her the rebuilding Freedom. She wasn't impressed. "It has no head."
"They're making it a new head. They're hoping to install it next week," I replied. L4 had manufacturing capabilities and there were no shortage of engineers that had arrived with the flow of refugees. "It'll look just the way it's supposed to."
"Will it fly the way it's supposed to?" Elle asked.
"I'm pretty sure. No reason why it wouldn't, it didn't take super-heavy damage," I replied.
Elle nodded slowly. "So that means you have to go back out and fight again."
"I have to. Anyone who can fight has to. We're all in this together, and the Freedom will be the best Mobile Suit I can fight in. It's top of the line."
And also exceptionally expensive to operate, which was why it wasn't getting mass-produced, but that was besides the point.
"When do you think it'll stop?" Elle asked me.
"There's only one battle, maybe two, left before it stops," I replied. I decided to leave out the possibility that the battle could stop the war simply by killing everyone in the solar system.
Elle nodded slightly. "Is that why you left? To try to make it stop?"
"Yeah," I replied. "I learned it wouldn't stop no matter what side I was on. The only way it all ends is to stop both sides from fighting somehow."
"By killing all of them?" Elle asked.
"Hopefully not. I think if we just eliminate their weapons of mass destruction, and stop their leaders, that'll be enough. We wouldn't be much better than they are if we resorted to killing everyone too."
Elle looked around, and I realized she had spotted Hilda Harken walking around the hangar, watching the maintenance going on Aegis. I put my hand on her shoulder, just to keep her calm. Elle clearly had not forgotten about what Hilda had tried to do to her, and it was hard to explain that Hilda and I were on the same side now and bygones had to be bygones for everyone's sanity.
It also reminded me that I had to stop shying away from talking to Lacus' father. He had basically become a recluse after we had docked at L4. He was leaving a serious power vacuum in the Coordinator contingent by doing so, and more and more of it was centering on Gladys and Durandal. Talia Gladys seemed to have a good head on her shoulders, but I couldn't read Durandal at all, especially since he seemed to be silent most of the time and observe everything. I wasn't looking forward to learning his opinions after he finished siphoning away all of Siegel Clyne's influence.
If he wanted to shut down after this war was over, that was his decision. But I needed to see him eventually and see if I couldn't kick him in the ass enough to be the leader we needed.
"She's not going to hurt you," I said to Elle. "She's not your enemy anymore."
"I don't like you working with her," Elle said as her tiny hand reached up to mine on her shoulder.
"She's on my side now," I said, to soothe her a little bit. "She's not one of the bad guys anymore. She's not going to do things like take you hostage anymore."
"I don't like her," Elle said.
Getting a gun pointed at your head, no, having the gun's hot barrel touch your head, is one of those traumatizing things that will never leave your memory. Elle's saving grace was that she was young. She might be able to get over it as she got older. Maybe.
"You don't have to," I said. "And after this war, I won't be working with her ever again, and you won't have to see her ever again. But for now, she's become one of the good guys."
"She's not," Elle replied. "If she was, she wouldn't have done that to me."
That's a child's logic for you. And it made sense in a weird way.
I knew she couldn't stay here, not long enough before Hilda left. So I took Elle's hand and led her away, but we didn't get very far before I saw a ghost.
I heard frantic footsteps behind me and my paranoia and military instincts asserted themselves before I could stop myself. Putting Elle directly behind me, I spun around and pulled out a pistol, before I saw her.
She looked almost like Lacus.
Her pink hair was shorter, and she was older, she had to be approaching thirty. Her green eyes shot wide open at the sight of my pistol, a look of pure terror in her eyes.
I froze up too, thinking that somehow Lacus had come back from the dead. The only thing that forced me back into reality was something I knew Lacus did not have. There was a blue-colored mark was on her right cheek, looking almost like a bruise, or frostbite.
"Please," she said, in a soft whisper that sounded like her voice hadn't been used in centuries. "Don't shoot me."
She even sounded like Lacus.
"Who are you?" I asked.
The pink-haired woman backed away, her legs and arms trembling like she was in the middle of a blizzard. "A-Answer me first! Who are you? What is this place?"
"You're in L4, a space colony that's broken away from Earth," I replied.
"Why?" the woman asked. "Why would you do that?"
What was this woman doing here, and if she didn't understand the situation, why would she be here at all?
Then it hit me. Especially after looking at the blue mark on her face one more time.
This was the woman they were talking about taking out of cyro-sleep. She must have woken up and snuck out of wherever they were keeping her.
Clearly no one had explained to her what's going on.
Why did these types of crazy things always have to fall to me?
I lowered my gun to calm her down. "It's a long story, and I'm not sure how much you want to hear."
"There wasn't… an L4… not from my time." Tears were beginning to flow down her face. "What year is it?"
"71, Cosmic Era," I replied.
"What happened to Anno Domini?" the pink-haired woman asked.
"There was a war. A bad one, which we don't know very much about. The Reconstruction War. After it was over, it ended the Anno Domini calendar and we started anew."
"No," the woman said, in a tone that sounded almost like it was begging. "Why… why didn't they wake me up? Why didn't they wake any of us up?"
"I don't know," I replied honestly.
"Where is his flower? Where is Setsuna's flower?" the woman begged me.
"I don't know what you're talking about," I replied.
The woman fell to her hands and knees then, her head staring at the metal floor. "Setsuna… what have they done to your dream, Setsuna…"
"What's wrong with her?" Elle asked from behind me.
"I don't know." I was getting really sick of answering questions with that response.
The woman looked to her right then, and she eyeballed the Freedom then. The sorrow in her eyes turned to horror then. "No… the GUNDAMs. You're using them all wrong. They're not supposed to be used this way!"
I didn't need to be a psychologist to know she was about to have a breakdown and do something stupid. I left Elle and grabbed her before she could try anything. She was weaker than I expected, and she didn't struggle for very long.
"I don't know what you're talking about, and I'm sure I'm confusing you too. Please stop," I replied softly.
"Setsuna, I'm so sorry." It took me a moment to realize she had left our world, and now she was back in hers, wherever it was, presumably Anno Domini. "P-Please forgive me, Setsuna. Please."
"There she is!" I looked up and I saw two men rushing towards me.
"Any idea what the hell is going on?" I asked as they kneeled down right beside me.
"I don't know. We don't even have her name yet," the ebony-skinned man replied.
The woman, for her part, had fallen completely limp, like her energy had given out. All she had left were tears, and her croaking voice whispering "Setsuna," over and over again.
"She knows how to get out of restraints though," the bald man said as he took the woman from my arms. "She's gotta be military of some kind."
"Where are you taking her?" I asked.
"Where she can relax and there can actually be a conversation where everyone's questions can be answered," the black man replied.
They didn't look like they were going to hurt or torture her. Badgiruel would have their heads if they harmed her, and I was sure Gladys and Durandal would be the same way.
So I let them take her away, though I couldn't help but notice the pink-haired woman looking up at me, her green eyes pleading, despairing.
She looked so much like an older Lacus.
When they vanished with her, I somehow felt like I had lost my friend all over again, just moments after regaining her.
This wasn't over. I was going to find out who she was, who she truly was, before the final battle began.
For my sake, if not anyone else's.
