Gundam SEED: Arbiter Forces
By: Shadow Chaser
An Alternate Universe to Entropy Rising
Story:
Phase Thirteen – Reaction
Cagalli bowed her head slightly as she tried to regain her composure. It had been a few minutes since the end of the broadcast by Patrick Zala and she felt very dizzy. She finally looked up at the assembled members of the Senate and tried to steel herself. All of them were either whispering to each other or staring at her. The media in the room were comparing notes and probably preparing questions for her.
"I apologize for that interruption," she began and was dismayed to hear her own voice quivering with anger and hurt. "I assume there are many questions you would like to ask of me and my country for what the lies Patrick Zala had said up there but one thing I would like to say is that he is not the real Patrick Zala."
She took a deep breath, "I was there when the real Patrick Zala was shot in Genesis and can verify my whereabouts." She noticed that all had gone silent at her words and she looked at each of them, "Don't let this broadcast break all that we've been working for all these years."
Cagalli couldn't take it anymore and stepped down from the podium, making a beeline towards her office. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Ellie Statler and her aides quickly following her, all silent in wake of what had just happened. It was then that Cagalli started to feel tears streaming down her face and she took off at a run towards her car.
"Cagalli!" Ellie shouted behind her as she ran to catch up.
She ignored her bodyguard and slipped into the car, quickly shutting the door behind her before Ellie could get in. "Take me to Morganroete. Step on it," she ordered her driver and he sped off. She didn't even look behind as Ellie shouted at her, one hand covering her face from the dust generated by the car taking off.
All she could think about was what had happened…and more importantly why?
Athrun was too shocked to even do anything as soon as the speech was over and the vid returned to its normal programming, but he noticed that Andrew Bartfield had gotten up and locked the door to Lacus' office, preventing anyone from coming in.
"Well, that was an interesting speech," Andrew commented quietly as he grabbed a towel from Lacus' small kitchenette in her office and began to wipe away the coffee stains on the carpet while picking up the broken pieces of the mug.
"He's," Athrun started and found that it was hard to find his voice, "he's not…supposed to be alive…" He knew that his father's clone was alive and had kidnapped Kira, but to see him on the screens, making a live speech? That was just too much to comprehend right now.
"It would seem-" Andrew started, but was cut off as a call came through on the vid screen.
"Lacus," it was Yuri Amalfi's face and he looked worst for wear, "the Supreme Council's been called into an emergency session. They're requesting your presence there along with Athrun's, Captain Barfield's, and the assassin's."
"Griever!" Athrun exclaimed. "What for?"
"I don't know, but it's probably something to do with his connection to Patrick Zala and probably his speech," Amalfi replied.
"Yuri, who called the meeting?" Lacus asked in a quiet voice and Athrun noticed that she looked pale, but her eyes shone with determination.
"Louise Leitner and Ezalia Joule," Amalfi replied.
"All right," Lacus nodded, "I'll be there in a few minutes."
The comm. shut off and Athrun watched as Lacus closed her eyes for a few seconds before opening them again, "Captain, please tell the Eternal to stand-by."
"Lacus?" Andrew looked confused.
"I just have a bad feeling about something," she replied before getting up and walking to her desk where she began to stuff a few papers in a folder along with a couple of datapads and datachips.
"You don't think it's a trap do you?"
"It most likely is. After the speech, the Supreme Council will want to hold us for further questioning," Lacus finished packing the things in the folder and handed it to Bartfield and repeated her earlier statement. "Please have the Eternal on stand-by."
"Shouldn't I accompany you to the meeting?" Andrew frowned at her.
"I will be fine, Captain," she replied before giving them a small smile that didn't reach her eyes. "We should go," she said.
Athrun reluctantly got up and followed both Bartfield and Lacus out of the door. Pink-chan was hopping alongside Lacus when they reached a fork in the direction to the Supreme Council chambers, the hanger bay, and the prison cells. He watched as Lacus knelt down and told Pink-chan to go with Bartfield to which the robotic ball blatted a rude comment before Bartfield left them.
They continued to walk to the prison cells and the guard let them in, having been given an advanced notice that Griever was to be brought before the Supreme Council members. When they reached Griever's cell, a sudden urge gripped Athrun and he wanted nothing more than to beat the living crap out of the assassin. He wanted to place all the blame of what had just happened on the assassin, but he also knew that Griever had told them a lot of information.
He curled his fist tightly for a few seconds before releasing the tension and letting out a quick breath, steeling himself to stay calm. To get worked up over such a trivial thing at the moment was pointless.
"Did you enjoy his speech?" Griever had the vid set in his cell on and had no expression his face.
"The Supreme Council requests your presence, Nikolai," Lacus said as a guard opened the cell door and Griever stood up, holding his hands up to let them be bound.
"Then I guess it's time to go meet them," Griever shrugged his shoulders and allowed himself to be escorted out of the cell.
Athrun still couldn't really wrap the concept of Griever being so docile instead of the assassin he had seen. He half expected him to lash out and run away, but instead the boy who was Kira's clone-brother allowed himself to be treated like this. It made him wonder if Griever had some sort of ulterior motive for being so cooperative, especially with Lacus. Still, he kept a sharp eye on the assassin. If he made any moves to hurt Lacus…
As they headed towards the Supreme Council chambers in silence, he couldn't help but stare at the guards that were escorting them – or rather escorting Griever. Would the Council really detain them and have these same guards arrest them? Would they actually believe a word of what Patrick Zala said? He hoped that his hunch wasn't correct, but he did have a very bad feeling about all of this. Even Lacus' remark about them probably being detained didn't help.
He wished he had been allowed to carry some sort of weapon to protect Lacus, but no weapons were allowed in the Supreme Council chambers. When the news of Eileen's assassination by her own weapon in her office was revealed, an immediate ban on any and all weapons by Councilors was enacted. Only the guards were allowed to carry their rifles and weaponry.
They entered the Council chambers and Athrun followed Lacus as she sat down in the chair that Eileen had once occupied. He stood behind her, ever watchful of the guards and the council members faces. Griever was brought to the head of the table where he had a direct line of vision to the other end where Louise Leitner, acting-Surpreme Chairwoman sat, a neutral expression on her face.
"I assume all of you have seen the speech Zala made?" Louise began the meeting without any formalities.
There were murmurs of agreement before she raised her hand for silence again and turned to Lacus, "Representative Clyne, I apologize if there had been any doubt on any of our part in the words that you've told Eileen that Patrick Zala was back. But this speech he made casts so many doubts…" she let the rest of her words hang.
"What doubts, Ms. Leitner?" Lacus asked, giving her a simple stare, "surely you do not believe the words he is saying?"
"But there's still no proof that he is responsible for Genesis," Louise replied, "and so we must consider the facts that have been presented to us. You claim one thing and yet he claims another. We have to find the truth."
"Louise, you can't be serious," Amalfi interjected, shaking his head, "you're actually saying that you don't believe Lacus! After all that she's done for us! For PLANT!"
"Well, she did lead an insurrection against ZAFT and took two of the most powerful mobile suits during the war two years ago. Not to mention she also took the Eternal and the METEOR systems," Orson White said in an offhand matter.
"She did that to stop the war," Amalfi shot back, his brows furrowing in anger.
"She confused the sides!" White shouted at Amalfi.
"There were no sides! We were going to get eliminated by either Zala or the Earth with their devices! There were no sides, but Lacus and her allies were able to destroy the Genesis and the nuclear weapons the Earth had!"
"Oh please," White rolled his eyes, "Genesis took out many of the nuclear weapons and ships before a third salvo could be fired."
"Genesis is an abomination, Orson, it's a weapon of hate and you're telling me that you supported it!"
"We all did if you've noticed," both Amalfi and White glared daggers at each other. "And I do seem to recall that you were under suspicion for bombing the Earth Senate just weeks ago. Tell me Amalfi, what made them clear the charges? Could it be that you actually am in league with Zala's clone?"
Amalfi shot out of his so fast that Athrun recoiled slightly. "How dare you," he started in a low voice, "I was acquitted of those accusations long ago. He can prove it," he jabbed a finger at Griever who, like the rest of the Council had been watching the exchange with either embarrassment or mild interest. Griever, however, had a smirk on his face.
All heads turned to Griever who shrugged and his smirk inched wider. "Oh, now I'm the center of attention," he raised an eyebrow in humor.
"Can you prove it!" White ignored his attempt at jesting, "Because I sure as hell don't believe any of it."
"Oh I can prove it," Griever raised his bounded hands up in a gesture; "I can prove the good Senator's innocence. It's simple, really; because my previous self was assigned to him as an aide. And I was the one who bombed the whole place up." There was a hint of the evil grin that Athrun remembered so well and he tensed slightly.
All members except for Lacus and Amalfi gasped at the statement. Even the guards automatically drew their weapons and pointed them at Griever who just smiled.
"What do you mean your previous self?" Ezalia finally asked after a few minutes of tense silence before they realized he wasn't going to do anything drastic.
"Simple," he turned to her and smiled, "I'm also a clone."
"What!"
"Didn't you hear the speech Zala made?" Griever shrugged, "he said that his clone was the one who operated Genesis and destroyed countless of lives. He also said that his clone suffered from the side effects of degeneration and madness that was once thought to be myth, but is now proven."
"It's not been proven," one of the Councilors countered.
"Actually it is. Ask him, he killed me, or rather, my previous self, during the takedown of the Talon at L4," Griever pointed to Athrun and he blinked as all eyes were now trained on him.
"Sven Anderson the leader of the Talon was experimenting with cloning process. Apparently, he received the DNA of some Coordinator and was able to clone him," Athrun tried to be as vague as possible. He knew that he was in a precarious situation where any slip of words would bring the Council members one step closer to figuring out Mendel Colony's secrets.
"How did he acquire this technology? Was it at the L4 colony?" Ali Kasim, representative of January City asked and Athrun thought he saw a brief hint of warning in Ezalia Joule's eyes before he turned to face the councilmember that had addressed him.
"I wouldn't know. The colony was decrepit when we went in to destroy the Talon. I think the clone of Patrick Zala would know better."
"Then why chose L4 as a base?" Kasim persisted.
"Why not? It's out of the way and one wouldn't go poking for anything in it. Even though the Clyne Faction and ships used it during the war two years ago, it still was pretty decrepit. See," Griever smirked, "that's the problem with you peoples. You don't think like we do. You only see what you want to see and that's why we terrorists, as you call us, always end up getting the upper hand."
Athrun was very surprised that Griever hadn't taken the opportunity to tell everyone Kira's secret. He wondered what the assassin was up to…
"Then what is your connection to Patrick Zala?" Louise asked.
"Simple, I'm his assassin," the assassin smiled wolfishly, "and before you say anything else, your plan might have worked except for one thing."
"Plan!" Louise looked appalled and Athrun tensed, sensing something big was going to go down, "I have no clue what you're talking about."
"Actually you do. How come you've surrounded the whole Council with your own personal guards?"
"I did not," Louise narrowed her eyes and Athrun looked around. Indeed there were an awful a lot of ZAFT guards, now that he noticed. He had dismissed it before as those guarding against Griever attacking anyone, but now…
"You've also bribed the Council to do your bidding. You've already convinced them that Patrick may be correct in his statements against Lacus Clyne. You've just only called Ms. Clyne, Athrun Zala, and Yuri Amalfi here just so you can go through the motions and pretense before arresting them."
"That's preposterous," Louise's eyes blazed with anger.
"Oh," Griever held up his bound hands, "These don't really work that well." With a flick of his wrists the binders that were holding his hands together snapped off and Athrun's mouth fell open as he saw a wild uncontrollable look appear on Griever's face. He was still unused to the fact that Griever looked almost exactly like Kira and it unnerved him.
The next thing he knew, Griever had appeared next to one of the guards on the other side of the room and disarmed him. It was almost as if he teleported, but that wasn't possible, Athrun reasoned as he watch the assassin take the gun he had acquired and shot the guard next to the first one.
"Arrest and restrain him!" Louise shouted as the rest of the Supreme Councilors ducked in their chairs as the guards opened fired on Griever who was zipping from place to place, taking out the guards.
Athrun hovered over Lacus' bent form, intent on protecting her from any stray bullets when he noticed that some of the guards had come towards them, weapons drawn and pointed. With a start, he realized Griever had been telling the truth. This was all a farce…nothing more than a ruse to get them here and then promptly arrest them. It didn't matter what he or Lacus said, they were going to be held because of one simple speech that divided the council.
"Please come with us peacefully," the lead of the three guards that approached them said.
Athrun gritted his teeth and stood firm, hands raised in a defensive position. He wondered how he was going to take out all three guards with machine guns when suddenly, the lead guard jerked back and fell to the ground, the hilt of a knife sticking out from his forehead. That was all the opening he needed and Athrun dove towards the guard to his left.
He quickly kicked the guard's wrist, breaking it and the guard yelled in pain before letting go of the machine gun. Athrun scooped up the gun and pointed it at the guard, firing a burst at the guard's chest before turning around and firing another burst at the other guard, killing him too.
"Lacus!" he shouted, turning around and extending his hand to her to which she took before nodding thanks to Ezalia who was mouthing to them to go. He realized that she had thrown the dagger and knew that while Louise claimed to have the whole Council turned against the Clyne Faction, they still had allies like Ezalia and Yuri. He pulled her towards him and ran for the exit.
"DON'T LET THEM GET AWAY!" Louise shouted over the gunfire as he and Lacus ran. Out of the corner of his eye he noticed Griever making his way towards them, his eyes still wild and uncontrollable, but slowly taking down almost all of the guards in the room.
Athrun fired at the control panel to the door and the door hissed open. "Griever!" he shouted back towards the assassin who slashed the throat of a guard before running towards them.
"Go, go!" the assassin waved them on before sweeping a machine gun around, deterring anyone to follow them before he too ran out of the opened exit. Athrun still didn't trust the assassin, but for now…he placed a small measure of trust in Griever to get them out of this fiasco as safely as possible.
Athrun didn't know Aprilius One that well, but he knew it well enough to get to a few auxiliary hanger bays that his father had used during his tenure on the Council. The main hanger bay was where many would expect them to go, but they would take the roundabout way and hopefully link up with the Eternal on their way out.
They occasionally stopped and listened for the sounds of guards passing by before proceeding on. Luckily, they didn't encounter anymore guards and made it to one of the auxiliary shuttle bays. Athrun thumbed on his comm. device and set it to the Eternal's channel. "Eternal, this is Athrun. Lacus is safe and we're taking one of the shuttles out. What's your position?"
There was a moment's pause before Andrew Bartfield's voice came back, "Good to hear you kid. There's been news that a shootout happened in the Supreme Council chambers and we were worried. We're waiting for you."
"Roger that, Athrun out," he put away the device before glancing behind to see Griever, eyes still wild, staring back at him.
"You could have shot us in the back while we were running," he said.
"There was once a time I would have," Griever replied seriously, "but things…have changed."
"Changed?" Athrun was confused.
Griever gave a little shrug before opening the door to the hanger bay and looking around, gun pointed for any signs of the enemy. Seeing none, they all ran towards the shuttle and got on board. Athrun made his way to the cockpit and flipped on a variety of switches, starting up the shuttle. Meanwhile, Griever sat next to him in the co-pilot's chair and opened up a computer terminal. His hands began to fly all over the keyboard.
"What are you doing?"
"Getting us out of here. If you hadn't noticed, this is a shuttle and we don't have weapons to blow the bay doors open. I'm hacking into the controls for that and opening them manually."
"Oh," Athrun felt a bit stupid for asking such a question, but continued with prepping the shuttle. "Lacus," he turned to see her sitting in the one of the back seats, a grim expression on her face, "do you know where Captain Bartfield's going to be waiting for us?"
"He's pulling out the same time we are," Lacus replied.
"Got it, let's get the hell out of here," Griever replied just as the doors they had came from burst open and a horde of ZAFT guards wearing spacesuits came pouring out, firing at the shuttle.
The hanger bay doors opened and Athrun punched the acceleration on the shuttle, hearing the distant pinging of bullets bouncing off the hull of the ship. They pulled out of the hanger bay and sure enough, the pink-painted Eternal was waiting for them. Athrun weaved into the opened hanger bay and it closed beneath him.
"You two should get to your Gundams. They'll probably send mobile suits after us," Lacus said as they unbuckled their belts and headed out. "Athrun, wait," she put a hand on his shoulder, stopping him as Griever continued out and headed towards the pilot locker room to suit up.
When they had captured Griever he had also told them that he had a Gundam that had been hidden in one of the unused docking bays. Lacus had ordered his Gundam, the Ragnarok to be docked in the Eternal.
"Lacus?" Athrun asked, staring at her.
She pulled something out of her jacket pocket and placed it in his hand. It was a round cylindrical thing with a single button on it. "This is to keep Griever at bay. I trust him, but I know how you feel about him. If you see that he does anything unusual at all, you may use this," she said in a quiet voice.
He stared at her and realized that she trusted Griever completely to protect her, but she also knew how the others felt. It was a measure of her own trust that she placed in him and to also protect him. He never realized that until now…
"I'll watch out for him," he promised before hugging her briefly and leaving her at the hatch of the shuttle. He floated up towards the pilots' locker room, and found Griever almost finished changing into a jet black flight suit. Athrun didn't say anything as he opened up his own locker and quickly changed into his red flight suit.
"My part in this whole plan was to keep you and Ms. Clyne from escaping the Supreme Council room," Griever suddenly said as he fiddled with the air tight clasp of his suit before adjusting his helmet. "That was the plan. Leitner and White were already part of Zala's plan and I was only there to ensure that they made it happen."
"So why didn't you?" Athrun asked, curious.
"Originally it was just you and Captain Bartfield. Ms. Clyne was supposed to be dead already along with Yuri Amalfi and Ezalia Joule. When I decided not to kill Ms. Clyne, I had resolved to protect her with my life," Griever shrugged and fitted his helmet over his head.
"Why? You could have easily killed Lacus and taken me out, but why?" Athrun also placed his helmet on his head and secured it.
"That's for you to figure out," Griever gave him a smirk before heading out the door, leaving Athrun behind, a bit bewildered.
Lacus entered the bridge, floating towards her command chair as Andrew turned around and nodded a greeting to her. "What's our status?" she asked as she belted herself in and looked around.
"The Currie and Da Vinci are pursuing us. We've got at least two squadrons of mobile suits headed our way. What's our course heading?" Andrew asked.
Lacus touched a few buttons on the side of her seat and brought up a full map of the Earth sphere and LaGrange points. "How are the Archangel and Babylon and the rest of the LF fleet?"
"I've gotten a few reports saying that many of our ships are detained at various ports and their crew are arrested. It seems that the Archangel and Babylon managed to disable the ships at Mendel and are now on a vector towards the remnants of Heliopolis," Andrew replied.
"Then that's where we'll head. If anyone follows we can lose them in the Debris Belt before we head to Heliopolis," Lacus replied.
"Roger that ma'am," Andrew smiled before turning to the rest of the crew, "All right, set heading twelve-one-Alpha. We're going into the Debris Belt. Secondary heading at Nine-two-Delta."
"Aye sir," DaCosta replied from his station.
"Sir, Currie and Da Vinci firing missiles!"
"Evade!" Andrew shouted and the first rumbles of battle shook the ship.
"Athrun Zala, Justice, launching!" Athrun's voice burst over the ship intercom.
"Griever, Ragnarok, taking off!" Griever's cold voice also came over and the two Gundams flew out of the Eternal's docking bay.
"What!" Andrew looked shocked.
"Griever is with us, Captain," Lacus met his shocked gaze with an unflinching one. "If you worry, I've given Athrun a means to destroy him."
"Huh," Andrew didn't look convinced but turned around and began issuing more orders.
Lacus just hoped that her faith in the assassin was not misplaced.
Author's Notes:
I had misspelled Cagalli's aide's name. It's not Riley, it's Ellie Statler as in previous chapters. Argh. Too many women to keep track of. I changed it in CH 10 and in this one to Ellie instead of Riley. Sorry for those who are confused. Anyways, thank you so much for keeping up with this fic and more chapters on their way soon!