Gundam SEED: Arbiter Forces

By: Shadow Chaser

An Alternate Universe to Entropy Rising

Story:

Author's Note:

I recommend playing FictionJunction's "Akatsuki no Kuruma" through this chapter…

Phase Twenty-Two – Interlude II

Athrun was glad Kira was almost back to his usual self, fully recovered and in good spirits as they sat in the mess hall aboard the Eternal. Lacus was overseeing final preparations with Captain Bartfield before they headed out the next day to intercept Mendel and destroy it. Cagalli had returned to the Babylon to check on the ship and also to talk with the Kusanagi's captain. She had said she would return in a few hours and he was glad…he wanted to stay with her before they launched early tomorrow morning.

The technicians were working miracles aboard the Archangel. Its engines almost completely repaired with the equipment salvaged by the workers from Heliopolis' remnants and also with some spare parts given by the Kusanagi. The ship would be ready to launch with them tomorrow on their assault.

He briefly wondered if Kira was experiencing any memory loss like Griever did, but based on what Cagalli had told all of them after his best friend went to see the clone in his cell, it seems that he had fuzzy memories, but it could have been speculated that it was battle stress or that he was seriously injured at the time. So there was no conclusive results.

He decided to put the issue in the back of his mind and instead focus on what was happening…which was his best friend attempting to childishly throw food at him. "Kira…you're what, eighteen?"

"So?" Kira grinned, lifting up the spoon further. It was covered in some unidentifiable gravy that Athrun didn't want all over him. He shook his head as his best friend laughed lightly and put the spoon down. "Come on, lighten up, Athrun, you're too tense. Is this how you always are just before a battle!"

"Well what about you?" he countered, "you throw food at others?"

"No, I just-" Kira abruptly shut up as Athrun knew he had hit a sore spot. There was pain in his best friends eyes and he knew that whatever pre-battle happenings his best friend did to calm himself down…it was bringing up bad memories.

"Hey," he reached out and gripped his shoulder firmly, "sorry about that…we'll just leave it, all right?"

"Yeah," Kira looked like he was struggling with something but decided against saying anything. He thought he heard him whisper a name, but didn't quite catch it. It sounded a lot like 'Flay' but he wasn't too sure. He knew that during the last days of the war two years ago, Kira had mentioned that the girl ZAFT had been holding prisoner and that the Dominion had picked up was Flay, a girl he had hurt badly, but didn't go into any details.

Athrun didn't know the general facts of what had transpired between Kira and Flay, but from what he had gathered from the crew of the Archangel and from snippets Cagalli told him, they were romantically and possibly even physically involved. And that the relationship had ended badly between the two of them…

Apparently, Flay played a strong part in the pre-battle jitters that Kira had before going out to battle…

"Come on; let's take a walk, all right? It'll stop you from throwing food into my face, okay?" he shook Kira's shoulder and immediately noticed his mood lightening.

Dumping the rest of his leftover food into the cleaning bin he and Kira headed out of the mess hall and started wandering aimlessly through the corridors of the Eternal.

"What do you think would have happened if the war between Coordinators and Naturals didn't start?" Kira suddenly asked.

"I dunno…I had been hoping that your parents and you would have moved to PLANT," he shrugged.

"Yeah…Mom and Dad thought so at first, but I think when Uzumi Attha proposed Heliopolis, it gave them the opportunity to live as Natural parents," Kira replied.

"Father would have protected your Mom and Dad. Besides, they did get along pretty well," he quieted at the thought. Did his Father truly get along with Keiji and Kanoko Yamato? Or did he know that Keiji was the Black Ops person he had hired and that Kanoko was a rogue scientist on the run from Mendel? He realized he would truly never know as his father was dead. The clone running the whole debacle with Mendel right now wasn't even his father, just an insane man who claimed to be Patrick Zala.

"I guess," Kira shrugged, "I just wonder what it would be like if none of this happened…"

"Well, for one, you'd probably have a collection of Haros like Lacus does," Athrun tried to lighten the mood between them.

"Oh God," Kira slapped his hand to his forehead, "you do know…you're insane to build that many Haros for her."

"I know…" Athrun was glad he could make his best friend smile and keep his mind off of other things, "they were floating all around the Eternal when she first launched it to the point where Captain Bartfield told her to please keep at least all of them except Pink-chan in lock-up."

"God…they're still loose all over the place. Did you see her room on this ship? They were trying to escape. And it's your entire fault, Athrun," Kira mock glared at him.

"No, they still have some of the leftover programming of swear words you had when you set them upon both Cagalli and Lacus," he countered with a raised eyebrow.

"No, those were Cagalli's own Haros that I reprogrammed…"

"Oh shit…do you mean I programmed the wrong ones?"

"I thought you gave different multi-colored ones to both Lacus and Cagalli?" Kira was confused.

"No…" Athrun shook his head, "they were all based on the blueprints I had before…"

"Does that mean there are two Pink-chans running loose?" Kira looked appalled.

"Uh…"

"Myta, myta! Haro genki desu!" the electronic chirp of Lacus' familiar Pink-chan startled them into turning around and they saw both Lacus and Cagalli walking towards them, the pink-colored Haro in the lead.

Athrun and Kira both glanced at one another and then at the Haro before collapsing into fits of random laughter; leaving the two women who approached them very confused, but also very happy. It had been a long time since they had heard laughter from each of their loved ones.

Later that night in the wee hours before the beginning of the final effort to stop Colony Mendel from being dropped, Athrun found himself staring at Cagalli's sleeping form, curled up next to him. She had asked him if she could stay with him for the night, no one night stand of sorts, but just to keep him company and he said it was fine by him. He had slept a few hours and knew that he should get some more since he would be facing off against the forces amassed at Mendel and possibly both OMNI and ZAFT.

But he knew what had woken him up. It was the conversation he had with Kira earlier that day. He knew that he had kept up a façade of nothing being wrong just to prevent partially himself, and partially Kira from slipping into a depression of sorts…but he also sensed that Kira had also put up a façade of his own. And it worried him.

He sat up, leaning his body against the wall that the bed was attached to. Glancing down at Cagalli's peaceful form, a small smile worked its way to his lips as he stared at her. She would be devastated if Kira died before a cure could be found…they all would be devastated. Turning his gaze to stare at the near darkness of the room, he wondered how this was all going to end…

"Athrun…?" Cagalli's sleepy voice made him look down again to see her blink her eyes and stare up at him.

"Did I wake you?" he whispered, "I'm sorry…"

"No…couldn't sleep that well," she gave a small yawn and covered it with the back of her hand.

He nodded as they sat in silence for a few minutes before she spoke again.

"Do you think Kanoko will find the cure?" she asked in a quiet voice.

"She will, have hope and faith," Athrun replied reaching out and brushing a few strands of her sun-kissed blonde hair out of her eyes. "She'll find it and Kira won't have to deal with this mess anymore."

"I know…" Cagalli turned her head further into the pillow and Athrun thought she had gone back to sleep when he heard what sounded like muffled sobs from her. It was then he realized her body was quivering and she was crying.

"Cagalli?" he scooted over slightly and turned her face from the pillow only to see streams of tears falling down her face. A strike of fear pierced through him as he saw the tears and immediately pulled her closer to him. Her hands gripped his night shirt tightly as she buried her face into his shoulder, trying to muffle the sobs wracking her body.

"Please," Athrun tried to soothe her, holding her tightly, "don't cry…" Even as he said the words, he tasted something salty on his lips and with a free hand reached up and found that he too was crying. "D-Don't cry…"

"H-He's my brother…I-I can't lose him…not now…" she sobbed into his shirt.

Athrun closed his eyes and grounded his teeth together. "I know," he managed past a painful lump in his throat, not caring that the silent tears in his eyes were falling freely, "I know…he's my best friend…"

"The memory loss quickly gives way to failure of the brain along with the major organs. Depending on the person, it could be a short or long process before death takes them."

Kira…don't leave us…not like this, Athrun thought silently as the two of them held each other, crying, praying, that a cure could be found before death took one of their dearest companions.

Kira stared up at the ceiling of the room he was in aboard the Eternal. Sleep eluded him completely and he felt it was a bit appropriate after all; he had been sleeping a lot since he was rescued from Patrick Zala's freak house in the PLANTs.

"You should try to rest your eyes at least," the soft voice of Lacus spoke next to him as she shifted her body underneath the covers.

He turned to stare at her luminous blue eyes and the soft smile she wore with those eyes. "I thought you were sleeping…"

She gave him a gentle kiss on the lips, "I can feel that you were completely tense and not relaxed."

"I'm fine…just…thinking…" he let his gaze roam the ceiling again.

"Do you regret…" she trailed off and he stared at her again, shaking his head.

"No…never with you…" he replied, reaching over and gently stroking her cheek before placing a kiss on her forehead. He let his head drop to her ear and whispered in it, "Never…"

Lying back on the pillow, he watched as she wrapped the bed covers closer around her body and gave him a small smile. "What are you thinking about?"

"When we can finally end the useless bloodshed and fighting…" he replied with a sigh, hoping that she couldn't see through his lie. He had been trying to piece the memory together…and it had been fuzzy, but he had a faint image of sleeping next to someone before…she had red hair…that was about the extent of that memory. He had also been trying to piece together when he had first met Lacus…and even then, it was a bit fuzzy.

She was quiet for a few minutes before another shift in the blankets told him that she was still awake. "He's not evil, you know? This incarnation…"

"Why does he trust you completely? Why do you trust him completely?" he asked, knowing who she was talking about.

"Because he had the same pain in his eyes like when I first met you, Kira," he turned to see her staring evenly at him.

"He's a clone-"

"He's you…naïve, stubborn, kind-hearted, but unable to express it as freely as you do…" Lacus whispered, giving him a light kiss on the lips, "I think he finally understands what it means to be loved by someone…"

Kira let loose a long sigh and pursed his lips. "Do you want me to give him a chance, is that it?" He still remembered their brief conversation in the cells and it still horrified him at his own mortality.

"No," she shook her head slightly, "I don't want you to give him a chance, just…accept him as he is."

"A clone of me, trained assassin, who tried to kill you," he frowned.

"No…another person of their own will. He's not you, Kira. He may look, act, and sometimes connect and think like you, but he is not you…" Lacus gently touched his cheek, drawing him back to stare at her radiant blue eyes, "to me, he is a casualty of the selfishness of war."

"And what am I? A casualty too?" he asked.

"To me, you are the hope of the future," she replied.

Kira let a small smile appear on his lips and drew her closer to him, wrapping an arm around her waist, letting her head rest against his bare chest. He rested his chin on top of her head, lightly breathing in the smell of her shampoo before placing a kiss on top of her head. "Thank you Lacus," he whispered and felt her hands slip into his.

"Sleep Kira…we will have all of the time tomorrow," she whispered and not too long after, her breathing evened out.

He stayed awake a little longer and stared out at the starry view through the portal of the room. "I'm sorry Lacus," he whispered a hush apology, "I just may not have a future after tomorrow…"

Even during his tenure in ZAFT, Dearka always had a hard time falling asleep before missions and this was even worst. He knew that they had to stop Mendel at any cost, even their own lives and while he was willing to die as a soldier of the LF, he still wished someone would come around and whack him over the head for a few hours of needed rest.

Still, as he rolled over to the other side of his bunk, taking some of the blanket he had over him and twisting it further, they had come a long way. As fledgling as the Liberation Forces were, Dearka had no regrets the day he had surrendered to the Archangel and went AWOL. Even though his relationship with Miriallia was a bit rocky right now, he knew that he would protect her with all of his life and might.

Dearka softly snorted as he heard Yzak's words float through his head. "You're a hopeless romantic Elsman."

Yzak on the other hand was able to sleep peacefully under any circumstances. He remembered during one of their first missions right after they had graduated, Nicol had commented that he slept through a mock drill and almost got in trouble. However, the youngest member of the Le Creuset Team also saw that he was completely alert and awake during a real battle…and attributed to the genes he was given.

However, in recent days since their escape from Martius to Heliopolis he had been having nightmares. Those nightmares involved the pilot of the Freedom and what he did to Riley Onoko during their escape. He had seen the looks Yamato's father had given him and knew that the old man was offering a chance to talk about it, but Yzak spurned his efforts. He was a Joule, a soldier, one who wouldn't easily be scared by such supernatural stuff such as that.

But that didn't mean it still disturbed him.

Freak…

Murrue opened and closed the locket that was from her first boyfriend, the mobile armor pilot… She glanced at the clock that was in it and sighed before closing the locket again and turning to her side to face the wall of her quarters.

"Mu…" she whispered. There was nothing of his possessions that she could remember him by, except a photograph of them taken in Orb before OMNI attacked the country.

She curled up in her blankets, closing her eyes and forcing herself to sleep. Her hands tightened around the locket as she fell asleep.

Onboard the Isis floating near the slowly tumbling Mendel, Quinn Misali sipped on some self-brewed tea, knowing that sleep was never coming to him at this hour. He sat in the near darkness, the only light a faint glow coming from his computer monitor that was lit up in front of him, bathing him in its blue glow.

Movies that were taken of him and Madison along with her newborn, Riley, was playing, the sound on mute. That was taken two years before he had met Keiji Yamato and before Keiji received his orders to terminate the escaped scientists from Mendel. He barely glanced at the moving pictures and instead stared out into his quarters at nothing in particular, his thoughts far away.

Quinn had no doubt that he wouldn't live to see the day after, after what he did to the LF. They were going to be after his blood and while he was glad, he knew that while he was still breathing, he had a job to do and was going to finish it. He had nothing left…his family killed, his career destroyed, his friends spurned…

Taking another sip of his tea, he shut off the computer and stood up. Setting the cup down, he glanced at the photo he had of Madison and Riley, his daughter only seven in that picture, before walking out of his quarters.

It was time to put an end to this.

Kanoko Yamato stared at the vial that held some of her son's blood and watched the testing strip carefully. Its color slowly changed from red to purple to black and stayed at black. "No!" she whispered fiercely, being careful not to wake her husband who was sleeping in the nearby bunk, taking all the rest he could in preparation for his team to land on Mendel and clear out any remnants and destroy the colony from within.

She had volunteered during the briefing to go with him, but Keiji had told her not to, saying that she was needed on the ship. The implied message was that she needed to find the cure so that Kira wouldn't die and she got that message.

That was why she was still up, conducting tests on various samples with no successful results yet. She rubbed her eyes tiredly and grabbed the cup of coffee that she had picked up in the mess hall aboard the Babylon. Draining it with a frown on her face, she put the mug back down and blinked tiredly at the words on her computer. Even with the notes that her husband had stole from Dr. Francis and the information provided by Griever, she still couldn't find a way to replicate the cure. She was racking her brain to find every single conceivable way to figure out how to cure her son. It wasn't nano-tech, nor was it gene therapy… What had made the three psychotic pilots on death row so equal to Coordinators in the war two years ago? It baffled her…

She typed in a few more notes and sighed wearily before rubbing her eyes to force herself to see the words on her computer in a straight line instead of double and blurred. There had to be something missing…something that she overlooked…

She flipped through the data again, some of them she had printed out, some of them she had left on her computer. There had to be a cure! Glancing over at the clock on her computer screen, she stifled a yawn with the back of her hand before clicking a few buttons to set up an alarm. Perhaps a short little two hour nap might do her good…

Finding that the alarm had been set and was sure to wake her up, she grabbed one of the spare pillows on the bed that Keiji hadn't rolled over onto and put it on top of her arms before resting her head on it. In less than five seconds, she was fast asleep with a frown of urgency on her face.

The twilight hours of the early morning hours were quiet aboard the Eternal, especially in the cells. However, one man was staring out into the deep dark of space, now illuminated by the bright distance objects of the PLANTs, the twinkling debris of the approaching Debris Field, and the blue-white vastness of the Earth.

Griever had already put on his flightsuit in preparation for combat that was occurring in a few hours. It was only through the intervention of Lacus Clyne that he got approval to fight in the Ragnarok. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly, forcing himself to stay calm as he stared out of the window of his cell. He had been moved to a different cell from his original one and given a little more creature comfort by the crew of the Eternal, on Lacus' orders of course, but even then, it didn't distill the anxiety he was feeling.

No, he wasn't scared of the upcoming battle…he was more scared that he could feel his life draining away, second by second. It was just an effort to stay awake through the night; and his fear that he was going to slip away into the dark abyss that was death if he closed his eyes and fell asleep. No, he had to stay alive just a little longer…just enough so that he could finish his mission.

Finish what he started.

Curling his knees up to his chest, he rested his chin on them and folded his arms together. A light of determination shone in his eyes as he mentally prepared himself for what he was going to do.

It was time to rectify certain issues.

Author's Notes:

This chapter is the bane of my existence. It almost made me want to stop writing in this story. There is something about this interlude that made me scream in frustration. It's jumbled and I don't like it. I hope I was true to the characters so far in this chapter, but I might end up re-writing it some time in the near future when Arbiter Forces is completed. Otherwise, here's the chapter for you to read.

Oh yeah, for those who forgot terminology:

LF Liberation Forces (and what GSD totally ripped off an called Terminal – hmph)

OMNI/OMNI Enforcer Oppose Militancy & Neutralize Invasion Enforcer

Thank you for all of those that reviewed! I love you all and thank you for staying by me all this time! We are rapidly heading towards the finale of Arbiter Forces and Destiny Falling will be coming soon! Oh yes, and for a treat, here's a sample part of Destiny Falling's tentative Phase 1!

DESTINY FALLING – SAMPLE PHASE ONE

C.E. 74 – 3 years after the Armistice Treaty, 1 year after the Talon Incident

Cagalli Yula Attha resisted the urge to rub her eyes tiredly in the current meeting she was having with her advisors. As Leader of Orb she was beginning to see why her father had always come home at night with such a tired expression on his face. Dealing with these lot of politicians was worst than dealing with the Senate's politicians.

The Talon's uprising almost a year ago had been suppressed though not without a lot of scandal involved. In the ensuing year, Senator Amalfi had resigned his position and retired to live the quiet life in PLANT. That only left Lacus as her only supporter in the Senate. But even Lacus was dividing her time between her duties as one of PLANT's representatives to the Senate and her career as a pop idol singer.

In the year since the Talon bombed the Senate building, it was hard trying to keep the peace between the Earth Alliance and PLANTs. There were times both parties had reduced themselves to bickering amongst each other in the Senate and she had to yell for them to shut up until her voice was hoarse. Those were also the times that she knew her brother avoided her – as not to draw her wrath that she had accumulated during the day.

But even her anger wasn't palpable when facing her advisors and the governmental body of Orb. This was beyond anger…this was her being plain furious at them. She knew she held a lot of sway with the people of Orb, partially due to her actions in the Senate and during the war three years ago, and partially because she was Uzumi Nara Attha's daughter. She was the Lioness of Orb, as some had already started coining the nickname for her. She supposed it was better than being whispered as the Cub of Orb.

And the Lioness wasn't happy with what was being discussed at the moment.

"We should consider the armament deal with the Earth Alliance as more profits for this country. After all, we did help them build the Strike, Aegis, Duel, Blitz, and Buster Gundams along with the Archangel during the first war three and half years ago," Yuuna Roma Seran was saying.

"Orb will not be building arms for anyone anymore," Cagalli interjected, glaring at the purple-haired man. Ever since she became leader of Orb, she had been getting constant marriage proposals and by far, the most aggressive was probably from Yuuna. And while she knew any other girl would have been flattered, Cagalli was no ordinary girl. She detested the idea of marriage and rather spend her time with Athrun, but she did know that marriage for political purposes may serve as an alliance of sorts.

It was also why she had received quite a few proposals from important people in both PLANT and Earth Alliance circles. Any marriage to either one of the two parties would immediately see disaster for the other…and probably an instant declaration of war.

At least the Liberation Forces were keeping tabs on both Earth Alliance and PLANT for anything suspicious. She was glad the LF was created…it at least kept some of the violence toned down by combing ships from OMNI, ZAFT, and Orb itself. While the LF was directly independent of any military influence, they did have strong ties to Orb and reported directly to her. However, Cagalli knew that if Orb was to choose a side in a war, then the LF would fight to prevent that from happening and to pull Orb back into its neutral state.

"The investment we have gained and the increase in technology, Lady Cagalli, it stands in the stocks that the PLANTs have greater technology than we do, especially in the field of mobile suits," one of the other advisors spoke up gravely.

"Any armament deal with either the Earth Alliance or PLANT is like inviting war back into our yards again," Cagalli slammed a hand down on the long table firmly, giving each of them a hard stare, "do you really want to be thrown back into another war?"

"Look, all we are saying is that we should consider it. After all, this will give us a chance to acquire new technology that we could use to prevent another war? We can use this technology to fund the Liberation Forces," Unato, Yuuna's father said in his oily silky voice and she narrowed her eyes.

The way he had worded how it could help the LF…it was like it was all her fault somehow. "The LF was created to be independent from Orb, if I may remind you," she stared at them, "while their funds are mainly provided by this country, need I remind you that both PLANT and the Earth Alliance also fund the LF and provide their ships to co-exist peacefully?"

"We can hide it under the budget, Lady Cagalli," one of the other ministers spoke up and she shook her head vehemently.

"No," she stood up, "I do not want any armament deal with either PLANT or the Earth Alliance. Have you forgotten that Morganroete belongs to us? We created our own mobile suits to defend the country three years ago. We can still do it without any help from others."

Giving each one of them another glare for good measure she calmed her voice down, "If there is no other pressing matter-"

The clearing of Unato's throat made her stare at the older man who was adjusting his glasses. "There have been rumors that you have been getting an increase in marriage proposals…the Council were wondering if any of these provided an alliance of sorts with either PLANT or the Earth Alliance."

"Those proposals are none of you concern," Cagalli shot back, feeling her anger mount again.

"Pardon your forgiveness, Princess, but if these marriage proposals are influencing your decision not to side with one or the other, then it will hinder our efforts to coordinate the peace and prosperity of our country," Unato said in a delicate tone as Cagalli started to see red in her vision.

How dare they….how dare they imply…

It was an effort to calm herself down and when felt she had enough control over her voice, she stared at Unato in the coldest glare she could manage, "My personal life is none of your concern. You'll do well to remember that." With that, she spun on her heel and walked out of the door, barely slamming the door shut behind her. She stalked down the halls and headed out of the government building, making everyone in her path slide to the walls or to different hallways to avoid her angry glare and potential wrath.

Author's Add-on: Yup, that's it.