Gundam SEED: Arbiter Forces

By: Shadow Chaser

An Alternate Universe to Entropy Rising

Story:

Phase Fifteen – Reunited

Athrun knew that they weren't followed, but he couldn't help but feel a sense of déjà vu all over again from the war two years ago. Except this time it wasn't Mendel they were hiding in, but in the remnants of Heliopolis that was slowly making its way towards the debris belt. He knew eventually as always, they would be flushed from this hiding spot – as there was no where else to go, but in the meantime he wanted to rest.

He sat in the Archangel's commissary, having shuttled over from the Eternal along with Lacus, Captain Bartfield, and Griever. Both ships were currently docked together along with the Babylon and Kusanagi, held by supply lines that ran between the four ships. The remnants of Heliopolis swirled around them and while they were still able to salvage some supplies from the debris, Athrun had seen the pained look appear on the crew of the Archangel's faces, especially that of Miriallia, Sai, and Murrue. He had realized that during the war two years ago, the crew of the ship did the same thing to the remnants of Junius 7 to keep themselves alive while they headed to JOSH-A.

The bodies they had encountered, though few since a majority of Heliopolis' inhabitants had made it to the escape pods, still haunted him. And he realized to some extent, some of the crew of the Archangel came from Heliopolis. To go back home…to such ruin. Now they felt what he felt when Junius 7 was used as a launching platform for Genesis.

Sipping the tea he had made for himself a few minutes ago, he closed his eyes and bowed his head, listening to the quiet in the commissary. He was exhausted, but he couldn't sleep as he found his thoughts wandering. With the latest development in Patrick Zala's plans, chasing all of the LF into hiding or imprisonment, he wondered how Yzak, Dearka, and Kira's dad, Keiji were doing on their missions. There had been no word or contact about their status and it had him worried. He was worried about what Zala would do if he captured them, and the most logical course would be to parade that they are traitors – in light of what had happened during his speech as he painted both Orb and the LF in a negative light.

But since there was no word of any sort, he had to hope for the best that they didn't get captured and were still in their mission to assassinate Zala and to rescue Kira. It had been five days since the Eternal had arrived at Heliopolis…five days of doing nothing except watching the news and watching as civil war broke out among the Earth nations and various PLANTs.

The fact that civil war was happening made Athrun hopeful that not everyone had brought into Zala's words, but it was the civil war that also made him sad. It meant that the peace they had been fighting so hard for was deteriorating right in front of their eyes. Many of the pundits on the media broadcasts had wondered where did the LF gone while others called for the immediate disbandment of the independent military force and a swift retribution against Orb for deceiving them.

"Athrun?" Cagalli's voice broke through his dismal thoughts as he opened his eyes and turned his head to see her standing by the door to the commissary, dressed in the white-blue uniform with red pips that marked her as the Commander-in-Chief of the LF. "You okay?" she asked, coming in and sitting next to him.

"Yeah, just tired," he replied giving her a crooked smile, "can't sleep."

"Nightmares?" Cagalli asked, placing a hand over his.

Athrun shrugged, "Something like that, but its fine. It's the waiting that bugs me the most."

"I know what you mean," she replied.

When the Kusanagi had first arrived to their hiding place, they had immediately been suspicious but as soon as Cagalli patched a call through them and told them that the Kusanagi wasn't a rogue ship and she wasn't held against her will on the ship they had let it docked. Cagalli had vouched for the current acting captain, Lieutenant Leah Andrews for her own personal reasons and while Athrun still had his doubts, he trusted Cagalli's decision.

"Did you have a chance to look through the photos?" she asked and he wondered what she was talking about until remembered the package he had been handed from Murdoch right before they had launched the assault on Junius 7 to destroy Genesis.

He had opened it during the time he was traveling to Aprilius One to assist Lacus and had found a bundle of photos, not electronic ones, but ones taken with an old camera and film and it had various pictures of him, Kira, Cagalli, Lacus along with other people he had known all of his life. He had wondered where Cagalli had gotten the photos when he read her note and it said that she had contacted various people and asked them for copies of the photographs. She had also said that the photos were meant to tell him not to lose hope when the world is falling apart around him.

"Yes," he smiled at her, "and thank you. One question though, how did you find the photos of my Academy training?"

"Yuri Amalfi was kind enough to send me a few copies since his son Nicol was part of your class," Cagalli replied a grin lighting up her features.

"Oh," Athrun drained the rest of his tea, "thank you."

"Now, are you done moping around because you are going to take me for a walk this instant," Cagalli tugged on his arm and Athrun blinked in surprise, shocked at how she was acting.

"Cagalli?"

"I'm sick and tired of people moping around. I came up here not to run away from everything as I had originally thought, but up here so I can lead the LF and Orb to show the people that Zala's words are not to be trusted. And with you like this…" she dragged him to his feet and pulled him along the way, taking his empty mug and putting it into the cleaning tray before pulling him out of the commissary.

Athrun stumbled and followed along until he pulled his arm out of her grasp and shook some of the feeling back into it, "All right, all right. We'll walk," he agreed, figuring walking would help him with his insomnia right now.

They wandered an empty corridor for a while, just walking in silence, holding each other. It was soothing just being around her presence and he realized he had missed it so much during his time out in the front lines. And she was right, walking around just thinking of barely anything except that he was with her was calming his agitated mind down.

"Calm enough?" Cagalli asked as they wandered down another corridor and he realized that it was the crew's quarters.

"Yeah," Athrun smiled at her and placed a quick kiss on her cheek, "thank you Cagalli."

"You want me to stay while you sleep?" she asked quietly and Athrun felt a blush creep up his face. She must have noticed his expression to which she immediately flushed red, "no, no. Not like that, it's just that you've been tossing and turning…"

Athrun realized that she had been watching over him since she had arrived, concerned about his well being and he could only fathom that Kira's mother who had an uncanny eye noticing stress or fatigue, had told her his state of restlessness. He smiled at her flustered expression before giving into the impulse and silenced her with a long kiss on the lips.

His hand pushed the button to open the door to his room and he pulled her in the darkened room, never releasing her. Together, they fell onto the bed in a slight heap and he finally released her from the kiss, keeping his face centimeters away from her. Even in the dim light of the hall that was cut off when the door hissed closed; he noticed that her face was still flushed. "Stay, all right?"

She blinked a few times before nodding and he pulled her close to him, reveling in her warmth and presence. Breathing in her unique scent, he allowed his eyes to close and immediately, sleep came to him.

Griever didn't know what drew him towards Lacus Clyne, but he had felt safe in her presence and so always stayed near her, whether it was in the shadows of her room, watching her sleep fitfully, or shadowing her in the corridors. If she had minded his presence as he had made it known that he was following her, she didn't say anything and for that, he was grateful.

He wasn't in love with her, but he did feel a sort of motherly protection from her. There was also one other person that he had felt something towards a mother-son type of relationship and that was Kira Yamato's adopted mother, Kanoko. It had surprised him completely that when he finally met Kanoko again, she did not shoot him on sight. Instead, she had reacted with surprise, but when Lacus explained that he had defected, she had stared at him with a gaze that he found penetrating and it was as if she could read his whole soul.

It had unnerved him that such a woman could have such a gaze, but over the past few days, he had gotten used to the look and had come to accept that she was perhaps concerned about his well being. He had to admit, in his first body, he had totally underestimated her when he had captured her and Kisaka to bring to Sven Anderson.

She was a force of her own to be reckoned with. Whereas she wasn't the fighter that was her son or was she the assassin that was her husband, she was the brains behind the operation of sorts. Her knowledge was her power and in that way she was like Lacus, valuable and most vulnerable.

That was why he protected Lacus. That was why he refused the mission to kill her. Eileen and the others were a liability, but Lacus and Kanoko. They were the figures he had been missing in his life. He had felt such emptiness in his soul until he met them. They would be able to protect him from the demons that plagued him – the curse that was brought to life in Zala's labs. The demons that were unleashed by Zala, Madison Riley, and Sven Anderson. They weren't supposed to be unleashed, however unnaturally. They were supposed to be hidden and dormant; something that was accessed only when one realized that they had the power, not forced upon.

And this was the bane of his existence.

He was an assassin through and through and there was no changing that. So he sought comfort wherever he could. He wanted something to hold onto before he knew his short life was over.

Griever was living on borrowed time.

Lacus opened her eyes, having felt like she had gotten no sleep. She had been having restless dreams ever since they had escaped to Heliopolis. It was still completely dark in her temporary room aboard the Archangel, and she glanced at the digital clock that was set to military Zulu time. It was only three in the morning. She laid on the bed, staring up at the empty ceiling. She knew Griever was in the room, as he always had been since they reached Heliopolis. She didn't mind his presence, but only worried that he didn't get any sleep himself, guarding her.

The room she had been given was one of the few private single rooms, not the shared bunks like a majority of the quarters on the ship. "Are you awake, Nikolai?" she asked into the darkness.

"As always, Miss Lacus," he replied back, "you should be sleeping."

Lacus let a sad smile flit across her face before she turned to her side, "I should say the same for you, Nikolai. You stay to protect me, but what will happen if you should get tired and are unable to do so anymore?"

"My body and genes work differently, Miss Lacus. I am able to go without sleep for a long time," he said.

"Please don't lie to me," she said in a quiet voice, "you are human and need sleep like the rest of us."

He didn't answer her for a while until suddenly she heard a shifting of sorts near the door to her quarters. "Miss Lacus, why do you call me Nikolai?"

"Because Griever is only your codename."

"But it's my true nature."

"No, your true nature is not to grieve for those you have killed or couldn't save, but to live your own life. You told me yourself that you realized that you are an abomination, but yet you are human and humans have names. I call you Nikolai because that is your true name."

"You should get some sleep," if Griever had been touched by her words, he didn't show it and instead fell back into silence.

That silence was broken after a few seconds as a communication screen popped on next to her bed. "Lacus," Murrue Ramius' face appeared from the bridge and Lacus noticed that she had hastily dressed, probably woken up only a few minutes ago and rushed to the bridge. "They're here. And they have Kira with them."

Her eyes immediately widened in surprise. She felt as if a great burden had lifted off of her shoulders. "I'll be there immediately."

Athrun felt a pit of ice grow in his stomach as soon as he saw the medics rushing towards the slightly battered shuttle that was being brought down from the landing strip on the Archangel. Beside him, he felt Cagalli tense and squeezed her hand in reassurance, even though he was terrified himself. Was Kira all right? Did anything happen? A million thoughts, most of them unpleasant rushed through his head. As soon as the shuttle stopped, the medics rushed in and Athrun was going to follow them when just as suddenly then came rushing out, stretcher in between them, rolling towards the medical bay on the ship.

He was startled to see that it was Kira, unconscious and with a breather mask over his face, on the stretcher. "Kira," he whispered as he stared at his best friend's pale and sweat covered face. He felt Cagalli stifle a sob that threatened to come out of her before she grabbed onto his jacket. He automatically pulled her close to him and squeezed her tightly in reassurance, trying not break down himself. Glancing over to where Lacus stood alone, staring in wide-eyed horror at Kira's prone form, she looked up at him, and he saw the raw emotion of pain in her eyes.

He quickly made his decision and followed the medics out of the hanger bay, both Cagalli and Lacus trailing behind him. They followed the medics to the medical bay on the ship, before one of the suddenly turned around and stopped them. "Please, wait outside. We will give you updates on Mr. Yamato's condition." With that, the door to the medical bay closed, leaving all of them bewildered.

"Keiji, don't move so fast! You'll make it worst!" Kanoko's voice filtered down the hall and Athrun turned to see Kira's mother coming down the hall along with a slightly battered looking Keiji who was half dressed in the uniform of a ZAFT regular soldier, holding his side.

"I have to see him! They don't know what's been done to Kira!" Keiji yelled back, his voice full of pain, but his face a grim determination. Athrun's eyes widened in shock at Keiji's words. They had done something to Kira! The anger that had been simmering and building up ever since Quinn Misali kidnapped his best friend started to boil over and he clenched a fist to keep the anger in check. He wanted to either take Justice out and head towards Zala's hiding spot and destroy it all or beat the crap out of Griever right now. The clone of Kira must have surely known what was going on and it made him angry.

He forced himself to calm down as Keiji rushed past him and entered the med bay, his wife following behind only to be ushered out a few seconds later and the med bay door closing behind her.

"What now?" Cagalli whispered.

"We wait," he replied before sitting down on one of the many chairs in the hallway that led to the medical bay. This was one of the few hallways on the Archangel that even had chairs, but it had been designed like a regular hospital, except on a warship.

The wait was long, at least a few hours and Athrun had just started to nod off from lack of sleep when the medical bay doors opened and he jerked upright, nearly throwing Cagalli off of his shoulder. She had fallen asleep using his shoulder as a pillow, but was instantly wide awake as he shifted about. Across from him, Lacus had sat next to Kanoko who had been staring into a blank part of the wall, lost in her thoughts for the past few hours.

"Your son is stabilized, Mrs. Yamato. All of you may see him for a few minutes, though he's not awake yet," one of the nurses said before gesturing for them to come in.

Kanoko led the way while Athrun followed behind all of them. He was struck by how similar the Archangel's medical bay was to the hospital in Orb where Kira and Cagalli had resided after the bombing…just months ago. An involuntary shudder crawled its way up his spine and he shook off the feeling with a shake of his head.

As they entered Kira's room, Athrun noticed that Keiji was already there, sitting in one of the chairs. A cane rested near the wall and part of his forehead was covered by a bandage. Just what had happened on the mission? Both Yzak and Dearka were fine... He looked up as they entered and gave them a half-hearted smile.

"They just let me see him now," he said in a quiet voice.

Athrun peered around Keiji to find Kira was covered in a blanket all the way up to his neck and a breathing mask had been fitted over his face. A heart monitor was beeping out steady beeps while an IV line had been set up to feed him nutrition. But that wasn't what shocked him the most. His best friend had lost a lot of weight and it showed. His cheekbones were very prominent and his eyes were sunken in a little. What did they do to you? He wondered to himself.

"I thought he just had a fever when I got him out of there," Keiji interrupted his musings, "looks like it's more than that…"

"Keiji…what did they do to him?" Kanoko asked, her voice high-pitched with worry.

Kira's dad shook his head, "It's bad…real bad." He reached into a pocket on his medical gown and pulled out a data disk and gave it to his wife. "It's all in here…and I think you should think about getting Ledonil's help on this. I wish Uzumi were alive…he would also know what to do…"

"What does my father have to do with this?" Cagalli suddenly asked.

"Cagalli…" Keiji looked very pained, "you don't-"

"Just tell me," Cagalli interrupted him in a hard, but calm voice. But through that calm, Athrun could hear the underlying worry and tension in it.

Keiji sighed and rubbed his face with a hand, "What that bastard did…Kira's changed. He's like some…other…person. If I were to hazard a good guess, Zala was trying to improve the Ultimate Coordinator and make him beyond what he is. A true Bezerker, except it would be permanent."

Kira floated in the darkness and embraced it. It was rare that he saw the darkness and a part of him knew that he was unconscious, perhaps even asleep. He cherished the darkness because he knew that when he woke up, there would only be pain and more torture waiting for him. He didn't want to go back to Zala's clutches in the waking world and so enjoyed the darkness.

"Kiwa-kun! Wait!" Athrun's voice made eight-year-old Kira turn around to see his best friend running up to meet him, school bag flying about.

"See, this time you're late. Ha! I'm not the only one who oversleeps, Affie-kun," he grinned at his best friend who stuck his tongue out at him.

It had been a year since both had lost their front teeth, but they decided to keep the nicknames they gave to each other since that time as a teasing joke between the two. Together they walked to the school, crossing under the sakura trees that lined the road to the school.

"I've been trying to build something since that robotics class," Athrun explained as they walked before he rummaged through his bag and pulled out a small ball that was half complete.

"What is it?" Kira's eyes gleamed as he wanted to take the thing and play with it. In his attention to the thing in Athrun's hand, he didn't see the start of the staircase that lead to the school and tripped and fell to the ground.

"Owwie!" he cried out as he noticed a scrap on his knee. Immediately, tears came to his eyes and he cried.

"Ahhh!" Athrun knelt down and rummaged through his bag once more, putting the half-completed robotic thing back in his bag before pulling out a fist full of bandages. His best friend was a klutz at times and cried so much. Quickly bandaging the scrape, he poked Kira in the shoulder.

"Stop crying. There's a band-aid on it," he said and Kira sniffled before looking at the dressing and a smile replaced his tears, even though his cheeks were still streaked with drying tears.

"T-Thank you," he hiccupped as he got his tears under control and Athrun helped him up before they continued on their way.

"You always get into so much trouble. Of course I have to carry bandages for you. Between you and me, I think one day I'm gonna mum-mumm-"

"Mummify?" Kira supplied and Athrun nodded vigorously.

"Yeah!" he was a tiny bit jealous that Kira picked up things so quickly, faster than he did, and was a like a sponge for knowledge. "I'm gonna mummify you."

"Yeah right. Whatever," Kira grinned as they neared their classroom. His eyes suddenly gleamed, "I'll race you!" He took off, much to Athrun's protest before he could hear the pounding legs of his best friend, trying to catch up to him.

Kira smiled a bit sadly at the memory. They had gotten in trouble with the teacher and had detention after school. It wasn't punishment as they had sent notes to each other through their computers, the OS rewritten to suit their own purposes.

"Hey Athrun," Kira asked, the two of them precocious eleven-year-olds as they sat at their desks, Kira fiddling with the latest set of mathematical problems, Athrun idly doodling on his computer board.

"Yeah," Athrun sketched out the bare drawings of a bird of sorts.

"You think the Blue Cosmos will ever give up?" Kira asked. Even though Blue Cosmos had been around ever since Coordinators existed they had only recently begun to step up their activities and everyone had been talking about them.

"Probably not. They hate us even though the only thing we've done is just tweak our genes to make us better and more efficient in doing stuff," Athrun replied, "it's sad really. The bigots who always want to blame someone…its an endless cycle of hatred that never ceases to go away."

"Yeah, but couldn't they take a hint from the Orb Nation?" Kira wondered, "I mean look, the Lion of Orb, Uzumi Nara Attha, he's doing fine keeping the peace in his country. They have both Coordinators and Naturals living in harmony."

"You've got me if you're asking how he does it," Athrun made a few notes next to his sketch and began to fill in more detail in and around the sketch. "The PLANTs do have a few Naturals living among us, but even they are rarely seen in the public. It's like a shunned thing."

"So what about this city? I mean, we're just like Orb for crying out loud," Kira absently said as he finished two of the problems he was working on, pleased that he was able to figure out the solution so quickly.

"Yeah, I guess that's why Dad decided to move here. He's part of the PLANT Supreme Council, but he wants to live among both Coordinators and Naturals so he can forge peace with them and stop Blue Cosmos," Kira peered over his best friend's shoulder as he made a few more notes.

"Wow, your dad's ambitious," he said and Athrun smiled and shook his head.

"When have you not known Uncle Patrick to be not ambitious?" he teased.

"Good point," Kira reasoned, "still…I've got a bad feeling that if Blue Cosmos isn't stopped…something bad will happen."

"Yeah…I know what you mean," Athrun replied.

Kira found himself once more in the blackness and wondered why he was having these flashbacks. He sat down on the ground, and curled his knees to his chest. Couldn't he just be left alone in here? He didn't want any memories of the outside world to remind him of what he was.

"But if you let them fade away, you'll eventually fade too. Do you really want to stay in here?" a voice he had not heard in a long time suddenly spoke up and Kira froze for a second before looking up.

"Tolle?" he whispered, seeing his best friend, dressed in his civilian clothing, a grin on his face.

"Not quite, but it's good to see you again, Kira," Tolle's smile got wider.

Author's Notes:

Gah, this was such a monster to write. No one wanted to cooperate with me, stupid muses and characters. Anyways, thanks for keeping up with this fic and thank you for staying by my side as I navigate through junior year of College. Sorry it took so long to post this chapter, but hopefully you'll appreciate it more. There are a lot of things going on, but most of all, is Kira's status…and the war outside. You might notice that this story echoes a lot from my Gundam Wing story, Retaliation. Ahhh…the joys of politics. And there is no specific political entity I am basing the politics of this story on. It's like a mis-mash of stuff…and me generally playing in the pool of "let's-screw-people-over-and-see-what-happens" type of thing.

And if anyone's wondering, I'm studying to become a broadcast journalist, so politics is a biggie in my book, along with war. I want to either become a meteorologist or a war correspondent when I get out of college and into the field for a few years.