Gundam SEED: Arbiter Forces
By: Shadow Chaser
An Alternate Universe to Entropy Rising
Story:
Phase Twenty-Three – Arbiter
Athrun blasted the nearest GINN apart with his beam rifle and twisted around to avoid the heated axe of another that had tried to creep up on him. He skimmed the surface of a large piece of debris and holstered his beam rifle, whipping out his double beamed saber instead. Immediately, he skewered and chopped apart two other GINNs. Glancing back, he saw all four ships engaged in a fierce firefight with Zala's forces.
"Barton! Status!" he called over the comm. to the leader of the Astrays, having received a promotion to full Lieutenant in absence of Ami Dena's death.
"The team's landed! We're headed back to support the Archangel," Barton's reply came over.
"Good," he turned around and headed back to the ships, intent on supporting them. There was nothing they could do to take out the defense of Mendel as the former colony was already half-shelled out and dead. It was up to Keiji Yamato's team to disable and destroy the weapon.
Checking his HUD as he took out two Strike Daggers that had been firing at him, he noticed that the blip that was supposed to be the Ragnarok was flying away from the battle…not towards them.
"Griever!" he immediately patched a comm. through to the Ragnarok, his hand hovering over the self-destruct button that had been specifically installed in the mobile suit. "Where the hell are you going?!"
"Abandoning your post?!" Cagalli's angry protest came over from the Babylon, having decided not to pilot the Strike Rouge in the assault and instead was going to command her ship.
There was no answer from the mobile suit and Athrun's fingers inched further down on the button as he ducked behind a slab of debris, making sure that he wasn't spotted by any of the enemy mobile suits so he could figure out what the hell the clone was doing.
"Griever! Answer me!" he shouted, angry. He knew that the clone was going to betray them! It was only a matter of time. What lies had they been fed from the clone?! It was all a set up. There probably was a bomb located on each of the ships and Griever was just clearing himself from the blast radius. Better to destroy the enemy ships and his own ships than to let anyone else interfere with Patrick Zala's mad plans.
"I am headed to Martius Eight," was the cold reply and Athrun narrowed his eyes, fury raging in him.
"So you have betrayed us…you were just faking your alliance and everything else. You saved Lacus just so you could get close to us," he said, disappointment in his voice. He still couldn't believe he let his guard down so much, and even allowed Griever to live despite his own inner protests. He couldn't believe that it had come this far and now they were going to be betrayed. Why? Why did Griever do it?! Anger filled him and he brought out his beam rifle once more, setting the scope-
"Let him go, Athrun," Kira's voice broke through his concentration just as a GINN flew by and spotted him. He immediately launched into action, firing at the GINN who ducked and dodged his rifle before he finally nailed him straight in the gut. The GINN exploded, showering the area with more debris.
"Kira?" he asked, as he put away his rifle and brought out his double beamed sabers again. Flying back into the fray, he tried to spot where the Freedom was and found it wrecking havoc in a furious path of destruction. There were at least two squads of mobile suits surrounding the distinctive blue-white suit, but Athrun watched as his best friend dispatched them with the scariest of ease with his twin beam sabers. However…he also noticed that Kira wasn't aiming to disable…he was aiming to kill.
"He's the only one," Kira's voice was oddly detached as he flew through the cloud of debris and towards another squad of Strike Daggers and GINNs. "He's the only one that can stop Zala."
"What?!" Athrun was confused. He had heard that the mission to assassinate Zala had failed, but what did Griever have to do with it?
"Just let him go, Athrun," Kira replied softly, "he can't harm us anymore."
"Kira…" he whispered, hearing what sounded to him like agony in his best friend's voice. "All right."
"Thank you," Kira replied before they cut the comm. connection.
Athrun returned his focus onto the battle and flew back towards the fray. He noticed on his HUD new blips and those blips resolved themselves into two different forces he had hoped were allies. ZAFT and OMNI.
"This is Captain Alexei Terazuma of the Bernoulli, ZAFT forces. All of Zala's forces will surrender or be destroyed. We do not condemn the mass slaughter of innocents, whether or not they are Naturals or Coordinators," a broadband transmission emanated from the lead ZAFT ship.
"This is Colonel Haili Kawalsky of the Artemis. OMNI forces will defend the Earth from any attack. We will not this terrorist who claims to be Patrick Zala rule over our fears anymore! All hands, defend the Liberation Forces and attack Zala's ships!" another broadband transmission cut in and Athrun watched, eyes wide, as the OMNI and ZAFT ships launched their contingents of mobile suits at the Isis and its small fleet.
It was really happening…both OMNI and ZAFT agreeing on a common enemy and attacking at the same time. He had thought that he was seeing things…
Giving a quick shake of his own head, he focused back on the battle and entered seed-mode, seeing things in a much clearer and sharper quality. "Barton! Tanim! Concentrate your fire on the Isis and Reliquary! Yzak, Dearka, status!"
"Yes sir!" came the quick reply from the two Astray commanders.
"Minimal damage, we're good," Yzak replied, "we're headed to the far side of Genesis with a couple of units that just joined us."
"Good, notify me by light when you've reached it," he replied. A quick plan was forming in his head and he patched a comm. Through to the Archangel and Babylon. "Captain Ramius, Cagalli, we're going to try a two-pronged ambush attack on the fleet. The Duel and Buster are headed to the far side along with some ZAFT and OMNI suits."
"Roger that, I'm sending over the Kusanagi and Eternal to cover them," Murrue came back as her picture shuddered slightly from missiles impacting the Archangel.
The connection shut off and Athrun sped towards where the Freedom was engaging a slew of mobile suits, determined to help his friend no matter what happened. They had to stop Genesis and win this battle or else there was no future for them.
Griever unconsciously rubbed his chest, feeling twinges of pain spreading like sharp knives from his left side all the way up to his shoulders. It felt like an atrophied neck muscle, but he knew better than that. He pushed his Ragnarok to the limits, knowing that each second wasted was a second longer that enabled Genesis to fire.
For a second back there in the fierce battle between Zala's forces and the LF, he had thought that Athrun Zala and Kira Yamato were going to pursue him and shoot him down for abandoning them, but oddly, he had heard both Kira and the pilot named Yzak Joule say to the forces to let him go. They had realized he was the only one capable of stopping Patrick Zala. He just hoped he had enough time to do the job.
He entered Martius Eight's spaceport, ignoring orders from the personnel screaming over his comm. for him to halt and identify himself. Weaving through the complex inner tunnels, he glanced back to see that at least three GINNs were pursuing him.
"Stop! Or we will fire!" the lead GINN called out in the narrow corridor of the tunnels that they were flying through. This was the heart of PLANTs, passageways big enough to fit a mobile suit, the industrial sections where the heart of the colonies was located.
He activated his missiles and targeted the lead GINN and fired. The lone missile flew backwards and hit the GINN dead on, exploding it in a hail of shrapnel and debris, obscuring the other two's vision as he ducked into another tunnel and quickly made a sharp right. Holding his position for a few seconds, he glanced out and saw the other two fly past him, unaware that he had disappeared as their suit's vision capabilities were impaired due to the proximity of the blast.
Confident that no more mobile suits were going to follow him, he flew on towards the secret base Zala had inside Martius Eight. Perhaps those idiotic mobile suit pilots might end up stumbling upon the base too and alert ZAFT and the Supreme Council. He snorted silently…even Coordinators were idiots at times. He highly doubted that they would find him and even if they did, his mission would be completed by the time any forces arrived.
He entered the base and found it surprisingly empty and devoid of any defenses. It wasn't like Zala to have the base so empty…but then again, he couldn't be too sure since it had been a while since he was at the base last. Perhaps the psychotic man did send out all of his forces in the last ditch effort to turn the Earth into an ice ball. Shutting down his Gundam completely, he adjusted the helmet of his flightsuit and took out a pistol, making sure the safety was completely off and opened the hatch.
Slipping quietly out, he floated towards one of the back entrances and landed, immediately sliding himself up against the wall. Holstering his gun, he punched in the code and wore a confident expression on his face as the door slid open and walked into the brightly lit, blank halls.
A new person would find it like a maze, but he knew where he was going and adopted a firm gait as he walked down various halls, the lingering scientists that were there skirting out of his path. A few of them gave him curious looks before whispering to their colleagues, but he ignored them. He made his way without anyone stopping him towards Zala's sanctuary.
Stopping by the door, he took a deep breath and let it out, willing himself to return to the emotionless assassin he was. His weeks in close contact with the LF and especially with Athrun Zala, Kira Yamato, Lacus Clyne, and Cagalli Yula Attha had shattered that fine steeled concentration he always had. It didn't scare him, but just made him feel uneasy, like he was going to slip up somehow.
Palming the door open, he stepped in.
"—atrocities that have devastated our beloved Earth and the PLANTs as well. Nothing would make Orb happier than to be the profiteers within this war. They would liken themselves to the former United States of America after World War II, the only superpower left in the world and thus impose their policy of peace upon rebuilding countries. Do you want your children to grow up under the influence of what a small island nation says you should do? Free choice and free will, will not be present when this war is over if the Orb Union and Liberation Forces win.
"I humbly call upon all citizens to join arms and defeat this menace. We should not endure such a thing! Battle rages upon us all and those that betrayed your military should be promptly executed! We shall have free will."
Patrick Zala gestured grandly to what looked like a camera set up in front of his desk, multiple screens showing the ongoing battle on both Earth and in the Debris Belt happening behind him. Griever stood off to a corner and watched as he finished up his speech and as soon as the red light indicating that the broadcast was going live shut off, he moved away from the shadows and into the glow of the lights that were casting shadows all over the place. Most of those lights were overhead lights hanging to spotlight Zala behind his desk, but a few were hidden behind him to give his picture on camera a quality of depth.
"Griever," Zala greeted him as he sat back down, a tired expression on his face. "I take it your mission was a success?"
Griever stood next to the camera, his hands and stance in a relaxed posture. "Tell me Patrick," he started to roll back and forth on the balls and heels of his feet, "why did I have to kill Lacus Clyne?"
"She's a menace," Patrick replied sharply, "She hinders our plans and she proclaims such falsities that we can do without. Her actions have cost the lives of millions as she tries to avert war."
"But isn't preventing a war good for the population?" he titled his head to the side, "I seem to recall from history books that peacemakers usually try to keep the population alive, not kill it."
"Her words give hesitation to men on the battlefield. That hesitation can't occur in battle or else the enemy would wipe them out. When she spoke her words two years ago, she made many ZAFT soldiers and OMNI ones loose their life just because they hesitated to pull the trigger and their enemy beat them to the punch. She is responsible for all those lives."
"Do you think the Bloody Valentine could have been avoided had she been born earlier?" he stopped his rolling and stared at his creator; the one who gave him life and a name.
"No. Coordinators and Naturals were never meant to co-exist. Our persecution would have culminated into full blown war sooner or later," Zala replied, "we are the next generation of human evolution. We are superior."
"I see," he nodded, "so what about cloning, people like ourselves?"
Zala lifted his head sharply and stared at Griever, "You were not supposed to know that."
"Ah!" Griever gave him a crooked smile, "so I am a clone of the original Griever, who in essentially was a clone of Kira Yamato."
Zala stared at him, eyes narrowed, "You seem to be asking a lot of questions at this day and age. Perhaps some rest before your post mission debriefing is in order?" he reached over to a row of buttons to push one and Griever immediately whipped out his gun and pointed it straight at his head.
"Don't even think about it," he hissed in anger.
If Zala was surprised, he certainly didn't show it in his expression. Instead his hand just hovered over one of the many buttons on the table, the raging battle in the video monitors behind them still flashing strobes of color over their faces. Time seem to stand still for a brief moment before Zala slowly retracted his hand and placed it on his lap.
"Griever, I was only going to call the doctors to help you, not guards or anything," Zala said in a smooth voice.
"No doctors, no guards. Tell me everything Zala, tell me why," he demanded, still keeping his gun straight at the man's head. To his dismay, he could see that his hand was shaking even though it was minute. Damn, his reactions were starting to go.
"Why what?" the man asked.
"Don't give me anymore bullshit. Tell me why all of this? Why cloning? Why did you have to start a new war?" he lashed out with his mind, throwing Zala and the chair he was sitting on back into a section of the screens, breaking them and eliminating a few of the pictures. Immediately he teleported to where Zala sat and grabbed him; hauling him up by the front of his uniform, he slammed him into another monitor screen and shoved the gun into his temple. "Why?!"
"Have you truly killed Lacus-"
"Shut up and tell me!" he cut Zala off viciously, slamming him into the same monitor again, making a few glass pieces fall to the floor in a musical tinkle.
"Very well," Zala glared at him through narrowed eyes, "you, are nothing more than an instrument. An instrument that is meant for only one thing. Destruction. You are the slayer and the destruction that will benefit humanity.
"If you were trying to seek something other than killing as the reason to your life, don't even bother. Destroyer. That's what you are," Zala laughed and Griever tightened his grip, forcing his laughter into choked gasps, "don't deny…what you are."
"Lacus gave me a future," he whispered dangerously.
"Oh did she?" Zala hissed out, "if she truly did, why does she and the rest of those rebels look at you with such hatred?"
"She doesn't look at me in such a way," he shot back.
"She only sees you as a sympathetic person. She sees the face of her lover in your face and thus feels an obligation to help you. A charity cause," Zala's cruel smile grew wider and Griever gritted his teeth, anger filling him. The grip on his gun tightened and he pushed the barrel a bit more into Zala's skin, definitely making an impression.
"People like her have no place in our society. Strong survive, weak will die. Anyone who gets in the way of that ideal will be wiped off the face of this Earth," Zala continued, coughing slightly, "you are the product of that ideal. You are the product of the true Ultimate Coordinator…what that ignorant boy, Kira Yamato, should have been."
There were a few minutes of silence that passed between the two before Griever let Zala go and teleported to his original position, behind the camera. His gun hung limply in his right hand. He stared at the door that he came through, his back towards Zala who was picking himself up on the floor, rubbing his neck gingerly.
"Have you seen the light?" Zala whispered before an almost inaudible click told him that from the folds of his uniform, the crazed clone had produced a hand gun and was now pointing it to his head.
"I've seen it," he replied, not turning it around, "and it is a beautiful light. It's the light that brings one potential to humanity. It's the light that you could never see because of your shortcomings. Your hatred blinds you to the light."
He brought his hand up to stare at his gun, "She showed it to me. And she showed me that while I may be a product of the ideal you talk about…I am also myself. I am no one's shadow so long as I choose my own path."
He finally turned around, staring straight at Zala and the gun he held at his head, "Kira may be that Hope that everyone's been searching." The red light on the camera blinked on again, signaling that it was broadcasting once more.
"But I am the Arbiter of that Hope," he declared before teleporting away from the shot that Zala fired at him. He reappeared a few inches from where he was before and fired.
The spurt of blood from the middle of Zala's forehead was the indication that his mark had been true before the clone fell to the ground, eyes opened in a deathly stare of shock, dead.
Griever stared at the battle images for a brief second before exiting Zala's sanctuary. He walked down the halls, noticing that many of the scientists, nurses, and personnel had congregated in the hallways, all whispering and pointing at him as he walked by, headed back to his Gundam. None made any moves to stop him and all were probably too shocked to see Zala shot dead on a live broadcast to do anything.
Instead, they shrank away to give him a wide berth in the halls. He walked calmly back to the hanger bay, taking what was probably the last ironic amusement he knew he was going to have – those stupid people working for Zala were so afraid of him and now were too stunned to do a damn thing. Poor stupid fools, a part of him muttered to itself.
He entered the hanger bay where the black-matte paint of his Ragnarok glistened a light dull off the various dim lights in the bay. Entering the cockpit, he sat down and tapped in a few commands, bringing the Ragnarok up to half-power. Its eyes flashed a green that briefly illuminated the whole bay before the soft hum of power told him that it was running smoothly.
Bringing up a data file, he typed in a few things before sending away to both ZAFT, OMNI, and LF forces. It was the coordinates to Zala's base and the message that the threat had been neutralized, just in case none of the bigwigs had caught the execution on live TV in the midst of Zala's fanatical ramblings.
Finally letting his guard down, he could feel a gigantic wave of tiredness and dizziness that he had been holding back for so long, ever since his training with Kira days ago, wash over him. His whole body shook from the massive exhaustion and he gripped the control sticks of his Gundam in an effort to steady himself, but the shaking wouldn't stop.
He knew it was finally time.
As a sleepy feeling washed over him, he could finally see the stars once more. Their pristine beauty twinkling in the distance. He reached up for them and saw those who could have been his brothers and sisters. Those that had died in Hibiki's attempt to create the Ultimate Coordinator. They were his family…they were his true family…and so he reached out for them. They welcomed him into their embrace and he glanced back, wanting to leave one more parting thought as they took him away.
It's all up to you now, Kira.
In the cockpit of the Ragnarok Gundam, Griever's head hung, eyes closed and no movement of breathing from his chest. Blood dripped out one of his nostrils before it congealed into a liquid ball and floated around his helmet, but no one stopped it.
Nikolai "Griever" Mercus was truly dead.
Out in the midst of the battle raging in the Debris Belt, the Freedom slashed its way through Zala's forces. Kira had barley paid attention to the insane ramblings that Patrick Zala was broadcasting through the frequency he had hijacked and instead focused his senses on the battle.
Suddenly, Kira clutched his heart as he felt a wave of immense pain followed by a wave of despair that threatened his concentration dangerously. The Freedom wobbled to a halt for a fraction of a second before he regained his senses and pushed both feelings away forcibly and re-engaged the Strike Daggers he was pursuing.
So…Griever was dead.
Kira fell into seed-mode and sharpened his senses. It was up to him to stop the rest of Zala's plans. He sped after the Strike Daggers, beam sabers drawn.
Author's Notes:
This is probably one of my most favorite chapters in this whole story. I like how it wraps up a major plot point. Sorry for not updating in about 3 months, but it was due to massive amounts of school work piled upon me in the beginning of the semester. One more chapter to go then it's off to Destiny Falling!