Chapter 12, and still going. I wasn't going to post this until I got a review for my previous chapter.However, I promised one a day, and I don't make promises to break them. I don't have much to say before this one. I don't want spoil it.
"Athrun, wait up!" I hollered at him, but he just kept going. I jumped into the cockpit and engaged the engines. I heard Athrun's launch in the background. I waited until CIC told me I was clear. "Cagalli Yula Athha, Akatsuki, Launching!"
My machine roared beneath me and jumped out eagerly into space. We clung to traces of the Justice's heat trail. He sure ran off in a hurry. I guess it was rage. He hated the Chairman, I could tell. Not only was he unsavory, to say the least, his fighting style was arrogant to match. He would embarrass his foe before finishing him. Athrun wasn't like that. He always gave his enemies a fair chance, and almost never fully committed himself to a fight. He would this time though, I knew. De Lin had crossed the line, and Athrun would let him know it, the hard way. It's still all my fault.
"Cagalli," Athrun's picture came up on screen. "I want you to promise that you won't interfere."
"You don't want me here, do you?" I could see it.
"No. I'd feel a lot better if you'd had stayed behind in the Eternal." Ouch. That hurt.
"You shouldn't be fighting anyway! This is my problem; it's my fault."
"You're right, but I'm going to fix it."
"There's nothing to fix."
"He won't have you! I won't let him!" Athrun's eyes grew dark. I knew he felt horribly violated. I couldn't have known he would ask for . . . me, but it was my fault to agree to his request in the first place, not knowing.
"Athrun, I gave him my word that he-,"
"I don't care what you told him!" he cut me off. "You are mine, and I won't let some crazed, horny, fool have his way with you!"
"I can make my own decisions."
"So, you want to sleep with him?"
"No!"
"Then you won't. He had no right to ask you to do that, regardless of the parameters of your stupid agreement." His anger burned through the transmission. I decided to just stay out of it. I didn't want Athrun to fight. I thought the fighting was over, but I guess some wars never end. Morality being one of them. I closed the communication window and sat back, enjoying the view, as much I could.
"Well Akatsuki, I guess we get to watch this one. I didn't want to fight anyway. There shouldn't be any fighting anymore." I knew she wouldn't answer, but it was someone, something to talk to. Only the whirrs of her engines came through after my words, but I didn't mind. "Yeah, I'm glad you're back too."
I imagined what she'd say. She told me stories from her trip with Neo. I could see the dent where he'd hit her dash in frustration. I ran my hand over it, hearing her tale. She told me about my father. She said he was kind, making sure she had every comfort. He gave her the best he could. He was always looking out for her and me too. Father always tried to watch out for us. "I miss him." She said she missed him too. She told me about her trip to Terminal with the Freedom and Justice. I guessed that Athrun's and Kira's suits would be friendly to her. It was a childish fantasy, talking to my toys. I hadn't done that in years, but it felt good.
"This is General Athrun Zala of the United Orb Emirates! I am requesting a communication line to Chairman De Lin!" Athrun called once he was in range of the colony. I reopened his window. He was all business now.
"Request denied, General Zala," a straggly voice answered over the line.
"Why?" he lurched forward a little.
"Request denied, General Zala. Please leave colony airspace."
"I will see him!"
"Colony communication, this is Cagalli Yula Athha, Chief Representative of the United Orb Emirates. I have business with the Chairman and would appreciate a line to him." I called in Athrun's defense. "Please pardon my General's forwardness." I added as an after thought.
The line went silent for a moment. The voice came back with the same tone. "Request denied, Representative Athha."
"Who gives you your orders sir?" I asked, aiming to take this over his head.
"Chief of Security, Rodney Sinclair."
The doorman? The dangly man in a tux who kept giving Kira evil looks, Rodney? "Athrun, um, General Zala, please pull back." I called.
"Cagalli?" he gasped.
"That's an order!" There was no time for questions; we had to get out of the colony feed. "Pull back."
I watched as the Justice reluctantly flew back to me. We pushed away from the colony until their transmission had ended. "What were you thinking, Cagalli?" Athrun spat at me.
"Call Kira."
"Why?"
"He should be near the Chairman, like we asked. He can get you your line." I suggested. If Athrun was so set on his battle, I resigned to help. I watched him pick up his phone when he closed his window. I couldn't hear they're conversation, but it only bothered me a little. I gave him his privacy. It was only right. I guess.
I watched as the Justice slowly crept back towards the colony. "Athrun, what are you doing?" I called out. He didn't answer. So naturally, I followed. When he got close enough he would send out another entrance transmission. I would catch it and find out what was going on then. I waited.
"General Zala, you have my apologies." Ray's voice came across my radio. I heard his launch. "Ray De Lin, Adversary, launching!" A small light shot out of the side of the colony. The machine rushed towards us and pulled up within about 500 yards of the Justice.
"You came?" Athrun asked, not reactivating his camera. I grew nervous by not being able to see him.
"I wouldn't miss a chance to fly again. Besides, I've been looking for an excuse to try out my new toy." Ray never activated the cockpit camera, so we couldn't see him. Akatsuki's scanner brought up specifications on the suit. It was a new model. The suit was smaller is size than the Justice, but it looked a lot faster. It was packed with thrusters on every side for quick direction changes. It seemed to boast little in the way of swords or non-projectile weapons. It carried large thermal guns on its wrists. Its lower body registered as hollow, so it probably carried spare ammunition. It carried two shields, which was odd for any mobile suit in production today, but it held beam cannons in either wrist. It registered one laser weapon, in its right hand. If I were to fight, I'd need to remember to stay away from that hand. Its phase shift armor hid the suit in a deep blue color that almost looked like a haze. It would be hard to see, but he'd want that so he'd be harder to catch.
He wanted to be a hard target to see and hit. He fought dirty, that was obvious. I tried to stow my worry for Athrun. I just had to keep telling myself that he could handle it. My problem was that I didn't believe myself.
"Athrun, may I call you Athrun?" Ray didn't wait for an answer. "There is no need for this duel you proposed."
"If you believed that, you wouldn't be here in mobile suit." Athrun retorted.
"Well, that's true. It would benefit me to have you out of my way." Ray was just blabbing. The Akatsuki received a text transmission. It read: "Cagalli, Kira's on his way with the media. I'm going to record our conversation so we can try to expose his plans, whatever they are. I may need you to stall."
"Why would you need me out of your way, Chairman?" Athrun interrogated, letting his suit go gaunt.
I typed a message in return. "Are you trying to turn PLANT against him?"
"Because, I can't let PLANT rely on the vigil and advice of war veterans. There have been studies that prove them unstable." The Adversary raised an arm out to the Justice. I don't think either of us knew the intention of the action.
Akatsuki warned me of a new message. It was simple enough. "Yes." Athrun then spoke aloud. "Who's doing something that's unstable?"
"Why? I thought you wanted a duel." I typed him.
"I don't want to harm you." Athrun told De Lin. "Answer enough?" he asked in text.
"For now. I trust you." I answered.
"Why would you want to harm me?" De Lin asked.
"Because of your treatment of your citizens, as well as the leader of Orb and my friends."
"Have I mistreated them?" the Adversary dropped its arm and the tension grew. Had I been mistreated? After all, I did agree, but did he do anything before that? I tried to remember. He was very forward, and disregarded his formalities. Was that an insult or a compliment though? I was losing my assurance.
The Justice fell back a little. Athrun was stalling. "You've tortured your citizens, and disrespected my friends' rights as humans." He shot back, trying to check his anger.
"I have done no such thing!" the Adversary aimed its left wrist cannon at the Justice in defiance.
"I have a few friends at the hospital who'd disagree: Yzak Joule, Lunamaria and Meyrin Hawke, Dearka Elsmen, Shinn Asuka. Any of them sound familiar? The Representative and I just recently checked out ourselves. We all came from a place where you sent coordinators to be run through tests like guinea pigs." Athrun spat in disgust. Why won't he call me by my name? "And we aren't the only ones. There are too many others to count." The Justice readied its stance to meet an enemy.
"True, I did do that, but did you ever think of why?" Well, proving his connection to this was easier than I thought it would've been. He admitted it and isn't even ashamed.
"Why?" Athrun asked, labouredly.
"I had to. That was my insurance. I plan to blaze a new future. I will spread the miracle of simplicity. There will be no more problems, no more war, no more suffering. Not only will I feed the hungry, clothe the poor, and give shelter to the homeless, I will unify the entire human race under one banner. I will lead us into an advanced future. Imagine, no more birth defects, every child will be perfect. From the day they are born, they will have every possible advantage." De Lin seemed to have the best of intentions, but sacrificing your own for a possibly corrupt future was no way to go about things.
"Why did you subject us to such treatment, if you were supposed to be looking out for us?"
"To ensure a better world for the next generation. They will be raised on stories of their generous forefathers, who sacrificed themselves to make sure their world would be what it was. You'd be immortalized." The Adversary turned and stretched out its right arm to me. "Cagalli, wouldn't you want your child to have the very best?" How did he know it was me? I haven't said a word.
Athrun hollered for him to leave me out of this. As he argued, I thought for a moment. If I had a child, I would want them to have the best. Any mother would. That was only natural. But his plan was everything but natural! He would be removing chance, opportunity and choice from the world. He'd systematically engineer every child born for a certain purpose, a predetermined role. That wasn't right, tempting, but still not right.
I decided to answer. "I would want my child to have the best."
"Cagalli!" Athrun cried.
"However, I would never sacrifice my family for my pride."
There was a long pause. Nothing moved. Nothing even breathed. I was the one to act. Someone had to break the tension. I pulled back my machine and gave them more room. I silenced my connection to the present company and sent a call to Kira. When he answered, he asked how things were going. "Not good, but we were right. He's planning to reform everything. It's basically a new and improved Destiny Plan."
"I'm receiving a feed from the Justice, your conversation. I have it plugged into every television in the colony. Everyone knows."
"Is that good?"
"We're waiting to find out." Kira answered. He paused before talking again. "Cagalli, are you alright out there?"
"Yeah, I'm fine." Truth be told, I was scared to death. But I had to be strong for Athrun, and . . . just everyone! At least, that's what I told myself.
"Cagalli, do you have a private line to Athrun?" Kira asked quickly.
"I can get one, why?"
"Tell him that he's started a riot."
"What!" A riot? "How'd he do that?" I asked dumbly. I suddenly forgot what was going on.
"Just tell him that the broadcast has caused a riot," he seemed too calm.
"What kind of riot?"
"A mob is marching on the Chairman's office."
"Oh, ok." I hung up my line and began to type a message to Athrun. "Kira says that there's an angry mob marching on De Lin's office building." Send.
"What? How?" he typed back. I reopened my lines to the audio transmission. "Your job may be on the line." Athrun finished saying.
"I'm still right!" De Lin's voice choked out.
"What have you been talking about?" I sent the question to Athrun.
"Breaking him."
"You will all see that I'm right, and my way is the only way!" the Adversary began to charge its right wrist cannon.
"Athrun, what are you doing!" I shouted, seeing the glow from blue machine. Everyone on the frequency audibly gasped. Did I just say that out loud?
No one spoke. The Adversary kept charging. De Lin began to rush Athrun. Before I knew what I was doing, I pushed Akatsuki forward. In the blink of an eye, De Lin loosed his shot. Both he and his beam were heading straight for the Justice, which wasn't making any effort to dodge. Athrun would be killed by a blast at that range. I urged my machine faster. I knew that there was no way I would make it.
Yay, cliff hanger! I think this is where my pre-made stuuf runs out, so you may have to wait before we find out the outcome of the battle.
Hint, if I get a few reviews, I try to post it faster.