Gundam SEED: Arbiter Forces

By: Shadow Chaser

An Alternate Universe to Entropy Rising

Story:

Phase Seventeen – Teacher

Kira felt the instant fury and anger build inside of him and with the next blink of his eyes, he saw the tendrils, surrounding the room, surrounding Griever and pushed at the tendrils surrounding the clone. He watched as the clone was forced back into the wall and held him there with the tendrils. Why the hell was he here! He was supposed to be dead on Mendel!

He barely heard anything or saw anything else in the room; the only sound filling his ears was the rage in which he felt at seeing Griever there. Griever was the enemy, the abomination that wasn't supposed to exist! He let a feral smile crawl up his face as he watched Griever choke underneath his hold when suddenly the clone stared at him, eyes narrowed, eyes that looked animalistic…

And Kira suddenly saw the tendrils that had been holding the boy in place break before those same tendrils came after him. He was so surprised by the speed at which they came that he watched as they impacted him and he was forced back into the wall, toppling from the bed he was lying on.

His mind anguished at the betrayal of the tendrils and he tried to pry them off, but they weren't coming off. His anger grew as he could feel his air supply dwindling. No! He had to escape and kill Griever! Ignoring the fiery pain in his head that pounded with each pulse of his veins, he tried to move the tendrils but they didn't cooperate with him.

"You're supposed to be dead!" he growled, eyes narrowed furiously at the clone in front of him. He struggled within the tendril-bound bonds that pinned him to the wall.

"And you're not supposed to have these powers," Griever replied back in a simple voice.

"What!" Kira replied, still angry.

"Why don't you remember, it'll be easier," the clone said before Kira's head was thrown back painfully against the wall and he saw stars…but he also saw images flash before his eyes.

Flash!

He managed to hold onto it and suddenly felt something change within him, filling him with a new awareness. Even though his eyes were still closed, he though his hearing sharpened and the fabric of the bed and the clothes he was wearing felt different. It was as if every one of his senses had caught fire and were burning all sorts of information into him. He slowly opened his eyes and blinked.

Flash!

"Nikolai, as your clone-brother, had a special ability given that he was the Ultimate Coordinator. He was what myth deemed to be an Esper, one who had ESP, extra-sensory powers. Of course there are countless other names, telepath, telekinetic, psionic, call it whatever you want, he had that ability. That is why you, the original, should also have that power.

"Now, move this," he jiggled the golf ball in his palm.

Kira gaped as he processed the information the man was saying. He was a what? But that wasn't possible. Coordinators had enhanced genes, but not enough to drastically and so suddenly be able to move objects!

Flash!

Hundreds of other images flashed through his mind and he began to realize that he had been forcibly changed. He had been given something to augment those foreign powers. Powers that weren't supposed to exist; powers that were unheard of in society or even in the existence of humans. And he had killed and injured others with his enhanced Bezerker powers. He had killed…

"She had to die," were the cold simple words he had said when he deliberately shoved Riley Onoko into the path of Yzak's bullet. Turning the disabling shot into a fatal one for the girl.

The tendrils slowly receded from his vision as he remembered everything. Every single time he had called upon the tendrils and the horrific acts he had unleashed upon the people of the facility he had been held at. He felt the invisible bonds holding him up release and he slid to the ground. As his vision returned to normal, he realized Cagalli and the others were still in the room…and they were staring at him.

Kira turned his head to the side, unable to meet any of their gazes as the awful weight of his actions were realized and he felt hollow inside. He realized that when he was in between the state of life and death, avatar-Tolle had told him that perhaps he should just let himself die because the others didn't need to see him like this. They didn't need to see him with these horrific powers, but he had lived. He had lived because he wanted to be strong for his friends.

What would they think of him now?

"Kira?" there was a rustle of fabric before a warm presence sat down next to him and he nearly flinched away from Lacus' tentative touch. "It's all right…"

"Kira," Lacus started again and Kira refused to meet her eyes, and instead, stared at the ground in which he was sitting down on. "We knew about what happened. Your mother told us," she said in a quiet voice, "we just didn't know how much it affected you."

"I…killed people, you know," he started in a dead voice, "I don't know how I was able to do it…but…I didn't want them to die! I…"

"Shh, shh," Lacus hugged him before kissing him lightly on the forehead. The gesture brought tears to his eyes. "You're safe now. And we'll help you get through this, all right?"

Kira couldn't take it anymore and broke down in Lacus' arms. He cried, feeling as hollow as he did on that day when he had discovered he was the Ultimate Coordinator. Now, he realized he was a weapon, fashioned from his genes to be a weapon.

Athrun ushered Cagalli quietly outside, glaring at Griever to follow, leaving both Lacus and Kira in peace. The door closed behind him and he took a deep breath before turning around and pitting the clone with a furious stare.

"What the hell were you thinking!" he half-yelled, part of him still realizing that they were in the medical bay.

"He had to know sooner or later," Griever replied eyes narrowed. They too had returned to their normal state instead of their animalistic look a few minutes ago.

Though Athrun had been warned by Kira's mom and dad about the effects of what the drug did to Kira, he still wasn't prepared by what he saw. He had only thought he would see Griever with such an expression, but Kira? Gentle Kira… That had thrown him a large loop and had made him angry at the clone of Patrick Zala. He wanted nothing more than to go to Martius Eight and beat the living shit out of the clone.

But Cagalli's frozen expression of shock had stopped him and he realized that they really needed to get the drug out of Kira's system before anything else could be done. His best friend had been so strong after coming to help them at Panama before they launched their assault on Mendel in the effort to defeat the Talon. What had happened in these past few weeks to change that?

"You were told to wait! We were going to tell him then you were going to test your little stupid theory!" Athrun said, resisting the urge to throttle the clone into the wall, again.

"If we didn't do it now then when would be a good time! You were taking your sweet little time explaining things to him in there, so something had to be done!" Griever replied, a snarl on his face. It was right then and there that Athrun realized how different both Griever and Kira looked. Clone or not, Griever did have his own nuances that were totally different from Kira's.

"Just what the hell are you playing at Griever! You claim to protect Lacus and yet you pull something like this!"

"Oh please, no one was going to get hurt! He doesn't even have control over his powers! I'll admit, he does have the strength and will, but there is no control over them. He doesn't even know what the hell he's doing! It's like a damn kid playing in the water!"

"Shut up," Cagalli voice suddenly cut through their argument and both turned to stare at her. Athrun noticed that her fists were clenched in anger and she was trembling. She stared at them, her eyes devoid and blank of any emotion. "Griever, just tell us, is there any way of helping Kira?"

"From the notes Mrs. Yamato showed me, not at the moment, no," Griever replied in a cold voice, "he was injected with the same drug that were in those pilots you told me who fought you at Mendel two years ago during the war."

"Do you know their properties?" Athrun asked. If those were the same drugs in the druggie pilots of the Raider, Calamity, and Forbidden, he had a very bad feeling.

"Mrs. Yamato is trying to create a synthesis right now. You told me that when you fought the pilots, they retreated on occasion. I think it's because those drugs work for a limited amount of time within a person. Since it's only been days since Kira's returned, he could be feeling the withdrawal symptoms soon."

"So what then?" Cagalli asked.

Griever shrugged, his angry expression gone and replaced by a neutral one, "I don't know. He could go crazy or he could just be fine afterwards. From the notes I was shown, those drugs were meant to augment a Natural's abilities, and weren't meant for Coordinator genes. And probably, most certainly not for the Ultimate Coordinator."

"So how come you're not going crazy yet? If you're the same as Kira-"

Griever gave Athrun a ghost of a feral smile, "Oh I have the same drugs in me. I just have them internally. The clones of Kira Yamato aren't meant to last long. We have our own internal supply that feeds us in intervals, but soon that'll run out."

"How long are we talking?" Athrun knew that Cagalli didn't mean anything malicious in her statement, but he couldn't help but wonder when Griever would succumb to the effects of the withdrawal from the drug and if he did…what would happen?

"I really don't know," Griever shrugged, apparently at ease with his own fate. It was then that Athrun realized what was happening. Griever's defection wasn't only to protect Lacus, but to also try to find a cure for himself. He knew that they were going to rescue Kira, he knew what Zala was going to do to Kira…and he wanted to be on the side that might find him a cure. Because in all likelihood, Griever didn't want to die from the drug…this meant that Kira was also on a short lifespan right now.

Griever was a dead man walking.

Lacus stared at the map in the war room aboard the Archangel. The map was of the Earth and the surrounding LaGrange points. She really didn't want to be here, but she knew that they had to move quickly to stop Colony Mendel from dropping, but also to alert both ZAFT and OMNI of the situation without getting shot themselves. She wanted to be by Kira's side, watching over him, but she was the leader of the Clyne Faction and she had to act.

If they moved now, they would be in a vulnerable position to being attacked by Zala's forces, OMNI, and ZAFT. They would have to wait until Mendel had started to orbit the Debris Belt. But to send out an alert…that would most certainly bring both forces down upon them, either that send the two military powers into a bickering fest.

"That window doesn't give us a lot of time to destroy Mendel before it hits its orbit and even if we send a team in, there are bound to be sharp shooters stationed inside to prevent us from destroying the Colony from within," Andrew Bartfield commented slowly, staring at the map that was laid out before all of them.

"The question is, will OMNI and ZAFT listen to us or fire on us when we tell them?" Murrue said her expression pensive.

"I've sent the information to my contacts in PLANT and Cagalli's done the same to her Orb contacts," Lacus replied, "we'll know soon enough."

"Are you sure that's wise?" Kisaka asked.

"It's the only way of getting the information out. If they come and attack us, then so be it," Lacus replied, "we have to stop this cycle of destruction before everything dies."

"I've asked Mr. Yamato here to prepare a small five-man ground assault team into Mendel so we can try to disable the controls from the inside," Cagalli spoke up, nodding to Keiji who was sitting in a corner, a dark expression on his face.

"What if both OMNI and ZAFT think this is a trap and are there to shoot us?" Martin DaCosta, Bartfield's second-in-command asked.

"Then we will disable them," Lacus replied firmly, "we can't fail. Otherwise, there will be nothing left to go home to."

It was at least an hour later that Lacus finally left the meeting and made her way back to Kira's private room. He had been moved in the last day or so from the Medical Bay to the crew quarters, but had been given a private room and a guard posted outside. Murrue had found out what had happened and though she was reluctant to do so, had posted the guard outside of Kira's door just in case anything happened.

Lacus nodded a greeting to the guard who tipped his helmet before she let herself inside. She sat down in a chair next to Kira's bed and watched him sleep, his peaceful features betraying none of the dangerous or painful expression he had just over a day and half ago. It had been at least five days since Kira returned to them…

She placed her hand on his forehead, and absently rubbed it in gentle circles. He was such a gentle boy, almost the exact opposite of Athrun. Someone who had been confident in his abilities and confident in his goals. What had happened since then? The war and the knowledge of his birth had tore through him…but he had slowly recovered in due time. What had Zala done to her Kira that made him so unhappy, even to the point of breaking him?

She stopped rubbing his forehead as he stirred underneath her touch. After a few seconds, those luminous purple eyes opened up, a bit sleepily before they focused on her. Lacus was almost afraid of seeing his face turn into an unhappy one, but they just stared at her for a long second, his features betraying no emotion of any sort.

"I had…a dream," he whispered, "that you told me it was all right and that you accepted what I've become."

Lacus smiled slightly, "Yes. It wasn't a dream…we know, Kira. Please don't be afraid…we will help you through this."

He blinked his eyes a few times before opening his mouth. "Thank you." His eyes closed and he turned to his side, just as Lacus retracted her hand. She thought he was going back to sleep before he spoke up again. "Lacus…can you tell me what happened?"

She knew what he was talking about. He wanted the whole story of what had transpired from his capture at Mendel to how he got here. "Captain Misali betrayed us and captured you," she stared as he turned back around to face her, slowly sitting up on his bed. "then came the assassination attempts by Griever. Eileen was killed, but we managed to stop him. We also found out that Zala was building smaller versions of Genesis and installing them in various parts. We found one among the ruins of Junius 7 and sent the Archangel and Babylonto investigate the rumor that one was at Mendel. Zala then went public with the implication that Orb and the Liberation Forces were behind Talon and the Genesis. In the ensuing confusion we retreated to the remnants of Heliopolis to regroup and assess our situation."

"And now ZAFT and OMNI don't know where to turn," Kira finished for her and she nodded, watching his reaction carefully. There was no emotion on his face, but he drew his knees towards his chest and rested his chin on them. "Was Chairwoman Canaver the only one to die in Griever's attacks?"

"Yes," Lacus replied hesitantly, wondering where he was going with the question.

"Did you stop him?" he stared at her in a simple manner.

"Yes," she said before her curiosity got the best of her, "how did you know?"

"When I was…in that mode," he started hesitantly before plunging on, "I could feel a connection of sorts to Griever. He had a strong sense of protection towards you, which made me conclude that you must have stopped him."

Lacus stared down at her own folded hands. She didn't know what to say to him…he was being openly honest which made her happy, yet scared at the same time. She had seen him hurt so much before that this open honesty was a bit abrupt. A soft sigh escaped her lips before she stared back up at Kira. She would be honest with him as he was with her. "I was scared to be honest. I was afraid of you and for you…of what had been done to you and how you were coping with it…"

Kira blinked and stared at her, startled by her words. He opened and closed his mouth a few times before turning his head to the side and looking at a spot on the wall. "I was also afraid. I didn't know what to do…I didn't even remember what I was doing for the longest time until Griever forced those locked memories back into me… They're…horrible…I…don't even know what they did to me…"

Lacus reached out and took one of his hands into hers, lacing their fingers together. "Your mother said that they had injected a drug into you and kept you on it for a long time. It was a volatile drug and she doesn't know how to counter act the effects at the moment."

"Oh," Kira said, a sad expression on his face as he stared at his blankets, pulled up to his waist as he leaned against the wall. He was quiet for a few minutes before asking her in a soft but even voice. "Does Griever know how to counter the effects?"

She had seen his reactions to his clone and knew that she had to answer carefully. Even with this open honesty, there was still something about Kira that frightened her. She loved him dearly, but this new found fear of him made her uneasy. It was as if he was a caged predator, meek and docile right now, but ready to spring to anger at a moment's notice. A true bezerker.

"I…don't know," she replied carefully.

"Oh," was all he said before his eyes took on a distanced look. "Lacus…why is he here? He…hurts my head," he rubbed his temples.

Lacus had heard of the effect both Griever and Kira had on each other when they were near. Griever had told her that he had gotten a déjà vu sense that increased in pain whenever they were really close together. This made it so that only one of them would survive while the other had to die in order for the pain to go away. He didn't really know what would happen during prolonged exposure, but Griever had speculated that it had something to do with metaphysics and the instantaneous effects of having two of the same people exist at the same time. Which meant that it was a scientific aberration that needed to be corrected because Mother Nature wouldn't have allowed it.

"He helped Athrun and I escape from PLANT when they decided we were responsible for the Talon after Zala's speech," she chose her words carefully.

"He needs to die," was the simple words from Kira's mouth and Lacus blinked at the sudden change in demeanor. She had been warned that getting Kira angry or annoyed was going to release that same power she had seen hours ago and it seemed that he was nearing that point again. She wondered if he knew… But even so, his words chilled her to the bone. This wasn't the Kira that she knew…this was someone different, someone changed by war and imprisonment. Someone whose gentle nature was ripped away by some brutal experimentation. Someone who had been broken and remade.

She wisely didn't say anything, hoping that the storm cloud would pass.

"He needs to die…because," Kira clenched his fists, "because he can't exist! He's not supposed to be here!" He suddenly stared at her, his eyes hard and angry, "Why the hell is he alive! He should have died when Athrun shot him back at Mendel! He-"

He abruptly stopped and looked back down at his clenched fists. He closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths before speaking again. Lacus noticed that his voice was a lot calmer, but it was also shaky with fright. "I know I shouldn't get angry because then it'll activate the tendrils that I don't want to see… I shouldn't get angry…but I…I can't control it!"

He finally looked up and Lacus was struck at the hurt in his eyes and the pain in them. They bore into her soul and she felt her heart cry out to him, wanting to take the pain away, wanting to make him feel better. "I remember…everything, Lacus…everything!" Tears started to form at the corner of his eyes and on impulse; she got up from her chair and sat next to him on his bed, her arms encircling him in a tight embrace.

"I remember what they did…how they made me do it…how I felt. Oh God Lacus, I killed people that I didn't want to kill! I…" he cried into her shoulder and she rested her chin on the top of his head, whispering words to try to comfort him. She knew that ever since he had received the Freedom, he made it his own personal policy of disabling enemies instead of killing them, but she also knew that he was capable of giving the killing stroke when needed. But to force the killing stroke upon him…it had to be more awful than she imagined.

"It's all right Kira, I'm here now. You're safe…" she whispered to him as she also felt tears prick the corner of her eyes. She held on to him tightly, but gently and started to sing.

"Konna ni tsumetai tobari no fukaku de
anata wa hitori de nemutteru

inori no utagoe sabishii nohara wo
chiisana hikari ga terashi-teta

anata no yume wo miteta
kodomo no youni waratteta
natsukashiku mada tooku sore wa mirai no yakusoku

itsuka midori no asa ni itsuka tadoritsukeru to
fuyugareta kono sora wo shinjiteiru kara
Fields of hope…"

She looked down and saw that Kira had fallen asleep; his features peaceful and sad smile appeared on her face. He had a long road to recovery ahead of him and she would help him as best as she could.

Athrun walked down the hall leading to Kira's private room when he caught sight of Griever just standing in front of the door to his best friend's room, his eyes distantly focused.

"What are-" he started before the assassin glared at him and held his finger up to his lips.

"Shh! Don't you hear the melody?" he asked and Athrun was puzzled until he finally heard a melody filtering out of the closed door.

He realized that Lacus was with Kira and she was singing the song that he had heard back in PLANT. A faint smile crept over his lips as he allowed himself to relax and enjoy the song. He had long believed that Lacus' songs had some kind of healing effect on the people and was glad that she was helping Kira heal from his ordeal.

After a few minutes, Griever started to move away from the door, his face expressionless. Athrun followed after him, wanting to leave both Lacus and Kira alone for some privacy and also curious as to what was the assassin doing there in the first place – and without his usual guard.

"Griever!" he called out, grabbing the assassin by the arm and pulling him around, "where's your guard?"

"You followed me just to ask that?" Griever a smirk plastered over his face, "what a fool you are Athrun Zala."

"Then why were you just waiting outside of Kira's door? Going to kill him for making your stupid head hurt!" Athrun retorted eyes narrowed.

The assassin's eyes blazed in anger for a few seconds before he looked away, an uncharacteristic sad look on his features that made him look hauntingly like Kira. He suppressed a shudder running through him at the assassin's look.

"No," Griever replied, "I'm a dead man walking already. No need to hurry that process along. You wouldn't understand why Miss Lacus kept me alive…no one would."

He turned and stared at him, and for the first time, Athrun saw truth in those eyes. "I'm going to teach Kira to control his powers. I'm going to help him survive because he's the only hope we have in defeating Patrick Zala.

"I'll be Kira's teacher."

Author's Notes:

I think this story is going to be longer than Entropy Rising. w00t! Anyways, I have started work on Destiny Falling, the direct sequel to Entropy Rising. Remember, this current story (Arbiter Forces) is just an AU-Continuation, aka a "What if?" scenario I concoted. I think I'll write two different versions of Destiny Falling (one w/SEED DESTINY characters, one w/out them), depending on what my muses feel like, but so far, the latest draft (there are at least 4 different versions), has the SEED DESTINY characters in it. No need to know SEED DESTINY as everything will be explained, but this is the current draft so far. Anyways, thank you to those who reviewed!

Author's Notes Redux:

Okay, to address a few concerns from readers. One reviewer noted that I had made Kira and Lacus very similar to John Sheridan and Delenn from Babylon 5. And seemed to be appalled at why I did this. Partially because I was channeling a lot of Babylon 5 when I wrote the previous chapter, and partially I draw on different characters from different shows and mold them to make them the best I can be. I try to keep in context, but there will be times where I go off on a tangent. Apologies to those who didn't like that tangent…

Speaking of tangents, one can draw parallels between Griever's attitude here to Mazer Rackham in Ender's Game. Heheheeh…I didn't notice it until my beta reader Algae09 pointed it out. Wow…tangents…

On another note, I hope those who were expecting a Kira/Lacus part found this satisfying… I love writing their parts…heheeh… Also, next chapter, those who wish it, Kira will begin to show off his new powers…and using Griever as a nice little practicing dummy…WAHAHAHAH!