Gundam SEED: Arbiter Forces

By: Shadow Chaser

An Alternate Universe to Entropy Rising

Warning: If you cried last chapter, you will definitely need a box of tissues for this one. Oh yeah, the music, "Find the Way" by Mika Nakashima would be also good to play starting half-way through Kira's third POV part…Enjoy!

Story:

Phase Twenty-Four – Hope

Kanoko sat grimly at the weapons station aboard the Babylon. She knew her experiments would have to wait providing they survived this encounter. Even with the combined forces of ZAFT and OMNI backing them up, it was still a tough battle as the fleet Zala had assembled were so loyal to the point that they literally had to shoot them down before damaged ships could kamikaze them.

All four ships belonging to the LF had suffered moderate damage, the Kusanagi being damaged the worst. It seemed that Lieutenant Leah Andrews had a personal vendetta of sorts against her former captain, Quinn Misali, now in charge of Zala's Fleet of ships. The battle data that they had all been given had told them that the Isis, still in fighting form with a few scratches on her, was the main flagship of the fleet and there was no doubt in anyone's mind that the particular ship was commanded by none other than the traitorous captain.

"Move us more towards the Kusanagi, I want back-up," Cagalli ordered from the captain's chair. Kisaka had moved to the CIC area and acted as second-in-command.

"Yes sir," their main pilot replied quickly before new targets blipped onto her screen and she carefully inputted the coordinates and numbers before firing away. From her vantage point in CIC, she could see the determination shining in the young leader of Orb's face and a faint smile came to her lips.

Though she never got the chance to see Cagalli grow up from the baby she was when she carried her and Kira out of Mendel, she felt a kind of motherly affection towards her and knew that her surrogate father Uzumi would have been proud of the strong and idealistic daughter he had raised. She also knew that her real mother, Katherine, would have been equally proud of her headstrong daughter. In many ways, Cagalli embodied Katherine's ideals, but was more forceful about it, much like her real father Ulen.

The thought of the mad scientist made her thoughts turn towards her own son, Kira, who was currently fighting outside. When she and Keiji had found out over two years ago that he had joined up with OMNI and was a mobile suit pilot she had almost completely lost it. Kira wasn't a fighter, she had reasoned, he was too gentle to fight and to kill…

And she knew that the innate talents he had been genetically born with as the Ultimate Coordinator had lead him to a path of fighting, however, righteous he was in his morals, it was still fighting. She had been afraid for him then, and knew that he had come out of the war scarred. Luckily, he had Lacus there for him, gentle and dear Lacus and she knew that he would eventually heal from his wounds. But now…she hoped that it wasn't too late and that a cure could still be found. She had worked all the way up until battle stations were called and even until then, she knew that she was missing something from the cure, but it was eluding her.

Perhaps after this battle was over, after the war was won and peace returned, she would know what was missing and thereby cure her son.

Kanoko was so lost in her thoughts that she almost didn't pay attention to her screen until a missile impacted the ship, throwing her hard against the restraints in her seat. Jolted out of her thoughts she quickly brought her mind back to the battle and glanced to her left for Kisaka's orders. In the process, she saw the flash of a familiar face…a face that was supposed to be in the Babylon's brig…

…Haruka Satou…holding a knife…

"Cagalli!" Kanoko cried out as her eyes widened in horror.

"Cagalli!"

Cagalli twisted in her seat just in time to narrowly avoid the sharp knife that tried to cut across her face. Her eyes widened in shock to see the girl known as Haruka Satou with a twisted expression of angry and crazed madness across her face, lunge at her again. With a twist of her hand, she quickly undid her restraining belt and floated free of the chair, grabbing one of its armrests to propel herself away from the knife.

The surprised shouts of the other crew members fell deaf on her ears as she stared at the girl. How did Haruka escape the brig?! They had put at least four guards to keep an eye on her after what Taylor Ren did to the Archangel during their face off with OMNI forces back at the remnants of Heliopolis.

"…Die…die…" Haruka breathed heavily as a wide fanatical smile pulled her lips into a demented Cheshire cat's smile. It was then that she finally noticed that Haruka was holding a combat knife…a bloodied combat knife that looked like it was part of one of the MP's uniforms.

"Haruka, stop!" she pleaded with the girl, knowing that she was probably only influenced by the drugs that they had found within Taylor Ren during the young man's autopsy before they went into battle. It was the same drugs that had been found in Griever and Kira. However, since they were Naturals, the drug affected them far differently and the on-ship mortician had said that it affected the areas of the brain where aggression and memory were controlled, driving the person to become fixated and aggressively pursue a goal to the point of self-destruction.

"You…ruined my LIFE!" Haruka screamed, tears streaming down her face, the crazed smile still plastered on her face as she advanced slowly.

Cagalli noticed that the rest of the crew was still at their stations with the exception of a few, including Kisaka who were trying to ambush Haruka. She shook her head minutely, and Kisaka held back, obeying her orders. They still had a battle to fight…she would deal with Haruka.

"Haruka, calm down…it's the drugs within you," she held her hands out in a placating manner, "you're not well."

The girl gave a harsh high-pitched laugh, "Of course I'm not well. You killed Taylor! You killed my family…of course I wouldn't be well…"

"I killed your family?" she asked, as she backed up away from the front of the bridge and towards the back.

"Oh yes," the crazed girl's eyes flashed dangerously, "don't you remember? You left them for dead in Orb…while your father blew up the mass driver…you abandoned us…"

"My father died in that explosion. I'm sorry," she lowered her hands and hovered near one of the people monitoring the radar. He tapped her back to signal that he had a gun on him and was ready to give it to her at a moment's notice. She made a subtle gesture that she understood. The hand communication meant that the man manning the radar was a part of Kisaka's security team that had been built when she took control of the Council in Orb.

Suddenly she ducked as Haruka charged at her, slashing her knife. But she didn't duck far enough as she felt a line of pain across the top of her head. She instinctively reacted and kicked with her legs, catching the girl across her chest, making her cry out.

BANG!

The sudden discharge of a gun made her looked up to see that the same communication officer had pulled out his gun and shot Haruka in the heart. Silence fell over the bridge as everyone stared at the scene. Cagalli stared at the girl's lifeless body for a few seconds before floating over and closing her eyelids before two soldiers stationed in the back of the bridge came over and took her body away.

She watched them disappear before she turned to stare at the communications officer who had holstered his gun and was now staring blankly at a point, avoiding her gaze.

"Thank you," she said quietly before moving back to her command chair.

Strapping herself back in, she quietly took the offered cloth from Kisaka and dabbed her head, noticing with some dismay that there was a streak of blood running that came off.

"Will you need medical aid, Princess?" Kisaka asked moving back to his chair.

"No," she breathed out evenly before glancing out of the bridge, surprised that Kisaka had moved the Babylon out of the battle so they could deal with the problem. "Bring us back into battle."

That was when she saw the Kusanagi explode, ripped apart by the Genesis that was within Mendel.

"NO!" she shouted, the image of her captain, Lieutenant Andrews forming in her mind in a brief flash before the red destructive beam sliced across some of the OMNI and ZAFT ships that happened to be in the same path as the Kusanagi.

The harsh sound of his breath coming in steady beats rasped in the helmet of form fitting flightsuit. Keiji Yamato pointed to two of his team members to scout ahead before following them along, the rest of his team behind him. Ever since they landed in Mendel, they had found the place complete gutted and filled with explosives. All the computers and terminals had been smashed and Keiji was pretty sure the information that had been hidden about Dr. Hibiki's experiments was discarded to the side. No, whatever Patrick Zala needed he had already received from Mendel long before they had arrived to confront Sven Anderson.

In ways, he was glad that the information was inaccessible. It was one more thing that was supposed to be buried long ago. And now, they were here to finish the job. Not to let Mendel drop to Earth, but to destroy it completely.

"Sir, Wolf here," Yu-Ling Chan's muffled voice came over the headset inside his helmet and he held up a closed fist to stop the rest of the team. There were eight people in total including him in this team and he had personally made sure that all of their records were completely straight and they were loyal to the LF. He didn't want a repeat of what Quinn did weeks ago.

"Go," he replied quietly, checking around the darkened and low gravity hall ways to make sure that no enemy was in sight. He knew that they were walking into an ambush, but he wanted to make sure that when he sprung the trap, it was to his own time and liking. No need getting his team killed before they could destroy Mendel.

Luckily the explosives that they had carried with them weren't really needed and only two C-4s had been used to blow apart a blast door. The place was completely wired and also, to his surprise, filled with a couple of nuclear weaponry from what they had seen coming in from their landing zone.

"Movement coming from eleven-o'clock, west," she was hidden above them as usual. If their first assault on Mendel to deal with Sven Anderson hadn't provided her with adequate cover, this time around, she could not be found. Debris littered the area, piled high and floated everywhere in the low gravity. It was a sniper's paradise.

He signaled for cover and they all pressed themselves against the walls of the halls on either side of where the enemy was coming from. It was a few minutes later that Keiji heard the soft clomping of boots, trying to be as quiet as possible, coming towards them.

He narrowed his eyes as he shouldered his assault rifle…

Crack!

Keiji leapt out of his hiding place as soon as Wolf's rifle echoed its sharp report and immediately targeted the leading soldier. A solid burst of bullets into the soldier's navel dropped him to the ground as his blood congealed and started forming little balls of red liquid that floated around. Keiji immediately rolled to the other side of the hallway and ducked into cover as the rest of his team broke from their cover and fired at the other soldiers.

"Grenade!" one of his team members yelled and they all ducked back into their position before the heat and noise of the explosion passed by them.

As soon as the dust and smoke cleared, he cautiously looked out and saw that their ambushers were dead, a few burnt to a blackened crisp by the grenade. The two that he had sent forward as scouts came around the corner holding up their hands to signal that they weren't the enemy before making a series of hand signals.

Keiji recognized what they were saying even though his sign language was a bit rusty and tapped the team's frequency. "There are two entrances to the Control Room, the rest have caved in. Pointer, take three with you and set up another sniping position. Wolf, cover the rest of us."

Seven audible clicks told him that the rest of his team heard his commands and they split up, according to the new data inputted on their data pads. He lead his group towards the secondary entrance where Haruka had come through the first time they had launched their assault on the control room. It was the most likely place to be ambushed and Keiji wanted to make sure that he foiled the ambush before Pointer and his team made it through. He was feeling oddly vengeful, something that he didn't realize until his wife commented to him when he had been suiting up after the last mission briefing.

"Wolf, hide," he whispered into the comm. before a single click came over. It was his code for the best sniper in the LF to make herself scarce. He had a feeling that Quinn may have sent his own snipers and counter-strike force to take down Wolf and their other sniper Caster.

The rest of his team followed him down the hall and just as they turned the last corner before the control room, a hail of bullets greeted them. Keiji grunted as a couple ripped into his flightsuit and impacted the chest area of the bullet proof vest he was wearing under his flightsuit. He quickly ducked into another hallway before peeking out and blindly firing a few rounds. Ducking back into his hiding spot, he gritted his teeth in anger as he knew he had walked into an ambush, similar to what they had set up for those poor souls only a few halls back.

He quickly pulled out a couple of white patches from one of the pockets of his flightsuit and slapped the adhesive on his chest to prevent anymore air from leaking out of his suit.

"Grenade!" one of his men codenamed Wave suddenly called as the pinging metallic sound of a small tube hit the ground a few feet away from them. Keiji immediately scooped up a piece a small chunk of the wall that had been blown apart by the recent shower of bullets and threw it at the grenade. It sent the small cylindrical tube further away from them and suddenly blew up. Cover his head with his hands, he felt the small bits of debris hit him before he brought up his rifle on instinct and fired.

His bullets hit their mark as he took down two of their ambushers who had been trying to sneak up and attack them as the grenade did its work. Not bothering to waste anymore time, he immediately rose from his crouch and slammed the butt of his rifle into the third man, smashing in his faceplate. The man shouted in pain as the glass from his shattered helmet cut deep into his face. His shouts faded into gags as he choked and tried to get air.

Behind him, both Wave and Fox took out the three remaining ambushers with two sprays of bullets and a thrown knife into the neck of the last one.

They didn't even bother to rest as Keiji sprang ahead to the door that would lead them into the main control room. He pointed his rifle at the unopened door as Fox settled himself at the panel and tapped in a few numbers. Wave covered them with a trained eye, watching to see if anyone else came after them.

"Got it," Fox whispered over the comm. before the door hissed opened and Keiji cautiously stepped in.

The eerie lights of working consoles and hum of computers running cast an unusual light in the control room. There was definitely someone here…

"I'm glad you were able to make it here Akuma," a familiar voice made Keiji spin around and point his gun at the silhouette of a man who stood by one of the blinking consoles, his face hidden in the shadows. But even with the face hidden, he knew who the voice belonged to. While he knew that most others had thought him to be captaining the Isis, having worked with Kingfisher for a long time, he had anticipated their meeting…

"I don't have time to play games with you Quinn Misali," Keiji didn't squeeze the trigger. He knew that his former friend had something up his sleeve; otherwise, he wouldn't have exposed himself so readily.

"Neither do I, so I'll cut right to the chase. Stand your men down and you can walk away from here alive," Quinn stepped forward just as the other entrance hissed open and Keiji noticed that Pointer was the only one who walked through, surrounded by three soldiers dressed in black. The other two must have been killed he surmised, noticing that Pointer looked heavily injured and there was more than one white patch on his flightsuit.

"The four of you…against the four of us?" Keiji looked back at Quinn who had no expression his face.

"Oh, my apologies. There were eight of you…now…six probably," he made a gesture to one of the men who suddenly pointed his gun up at the ceiling and fire two rounds. The thump of two bodies was heard through the silent control room and Keiji narrowed his eyes. How did that man figure out where Wolf and Caster were?!

"He is an enhanced human if you want to know," Quinn smiled slightly, "and of course, as enhanced, he is able to hear a single pin drop…so, now it's four on four. Fair and square."

"What do you want," Keiji asked again, keeping a firm grip on the emotions that threatened to overwhelm him. He wanted to yell at his former friend, beat him to a pulp for kidnapping his son and obeying stupid orders that shouldn't have been obeyed all those years ago.

"I am offering you and the rest of your men a chance to live. Leave now and let this asteroid fall to Earth," Quinn stared at him.

"It will kill billons of people. Don't you even care about that?!" Keiji half shouted.

Quinn gave him a crooked smile before gesturing to the console, which for the first time, he saw were wired with a lot of C-4s. "My family is dead, killed by the boy you call a son. Oh yes, Keiji Yamato, your son, Kira is a very effective killer. He murdered my wife and my daughter."

"Because you forced him to do it! You didn't have to bring him to Patrick!"

"So you're not denying that Kira is a murderer?"

"Kira has nothing to do with this! He wanted to be left alone! I wanted him to be left alone! I never wanted my past to interfere with his future! He should have been-"

"He should have been killed from the very beginning. That abomination to what all Coordinators—no, what all of humanity is should have been destroyed along with this damnable colony and its creations!"

"Dropping it on Earth isn't the right solution! We should blow it up so no one can be harmed by it," Keiji pleaded with his former friend.

"You're wrong," Quinn said in a deadly quiet voice, "Naturals like you and I would have never realized our true potential until a Coordinator gave us the chance."

"Patrick gave you a chance? A chance to do what? Have your family be killed by his actions?!"

"Shut up," Quinn suddenly drew out a pistol and pointed it at him. "Kira killed them."

Keiji shook his head sadly, seeing only a shell of his former friend, "No…you killed them Kingfisher. You could have spirited them away, let Madison and Riley live out their lives in Orb. Instead, you chose to serve your own conscious, your own sense of duty."

"And this coming from a person who went AWOL from OMNI? Ha! You're full of shit Keiji," Quinn clicked a setting on the gun, "you've always been deluded. Why did you stop your mission?! Really! Did you think you could-"

BANG!

Keiji nearly jumped at the report of a sniper rifle's shot as it tore through the side of Quinn's helmet, drilling through his brain and out through the other side. Blood immediately sprayed into the air and Quinn's shocked expression was forever preserved as a hideous mask of death.

However, that didn't stop Keiji from turning and firing shots into the men holding Pointer. Too shocked and slow to react, they fell to the ground dead as Pointer himself sagged slightly, no one there to support him.

"Wave, check the area," he ordered before glancing up at the ceiling. Judging from where the shot came from… "Wolf, report!"

Hissing static answered him.

"Wolf!"

"…Got…him…that b-bastard…" Wolf's voice came faintly over the comm. before he heard her death rattle over the comm. and a sniper rifle dropped from where she had been hiding above the control room amongst the debris. He stared at the rifle, recognizing it as Wolf's favorite one and swallowed the bile that threatened to rise above his throat.

"Clear!" Wave reported back a few seconds afterwards and Keiji walked over to Pointer who was supporting himself against a console. He looked into the man's faceplate and saw that he was sweaty and very pale. A quick assessment of Pointer's wounds told him that the man wasn't going to survive much longer.

Apparently Pointer also knew as he smiled sheepishly and looked up at him. "Sorry Akuma…I know you wanted to set the charges…but…I can stay…m-make sure…they go off…"

"Are you sure, son?" he gripped the man's shoulder, shaking it slightly.

"Yes, sir," Pointer smiled at him before reaching into one of his flightsuit's pouches and drew out a block of C-4. With fumbling fingers, he tried to set it up before Fox took it from his hands and set it up so that it was wired to a remote trigger. One C-4 would set off a chain reaction to destroy Mendel.

Keiji noticed that Fox hesitated to give Pointer the trigger until Pointer swiped it from him, giving them a smiling glare. "Go," Pointer urged in a wheezing breath, "it's too late for me. But it's not too late to save others."

Keiji gave a long look at Pointer…he didn't say anything and instead nodded once before turning around and headed out of the control room, Wave and Fox following him.

They reached the shuttle without anymore incidents and as soon as they blasted off and headed back to the Babylon a series of explosions started to blossom their deadly color inside of Mendel. Keiji stared grimly at the tactical information he was receiving and realized that one of the LF ships was missing…the Kusanagi. It only took him a second to realize that the ship wasn't missing from the battle, it had been destroyed.

The tactical information also showed that the LF, OMNI, and ZAFT were winning the battle, but all three groups had suffered seriously losses… He continued his course with a grim look on his face. His mission was done…but he had a suspicious feeling that it wasn't over just yet…

Athrun swiped and disarmed two more Strike Daggers before he noticed on his monitors that a series of explosions occurred inside of Mendel, culminating into a giant explosion. He threw his hands up to protect his eyes as his screens went white from the last major explosion that consumed all of Mendel. As soon as the explosion died down, its fireball consumed by the lack of oxygen in space, a smile appeared on his face.

They had destroyed Mendel and foiled the mad clone's plans.

"This is Captain Murrue Ramius to Zala's fleet, surrender. Your plan's failed. Surrender now and no more blood will be spilled," Murrue's voice came over a broadband connection.

"This is Lieutenant Renald of the Isis we will never surrender! Long live-"

Communication was suddenly cut off as the secondary explosions ripped through Mendel and a giant piece slammed into the bridge of the Isis who was stationed near Mendel. The ship had activated the Genesis weaponry on Mendel remotely and destroyed the Kusanagi in the midst of the battle after she had dropped Keiji Yamato's team off in the colony.

Athrun watched as more secondary explosions tore apart Mendel. He felt an odd sense of satisfaction and relief, watching the horrid place destroying itself through the explosions and through pieces of it hitting the other debris in the Debris Belt.

Perhaps it was finally over…

Kira felt another spasm of pain twinge through his whole body. It had been happening more and more frequently, ever since he had gotten up in the hours before battle and gotten ready. He tightened his grip on the controls to the Freedom, watching the battered remnants of Mendel tear itself apart.

Ever since he had felt Griever's passing, he had a nagging feeling that he was short on time. He had hoped that it wasn't true…but right now, his gut sense was telling him otherwise. He kept himself in seed-mode, wary of any of Zala's remnant forces' attacking them while everyone was occupied watching the fireworks.

Suddenly, he noticed something breaking away from Mendel… A zoom on his screen showed that a huge chunk of the colony had not been destroyed in the subsequent explosions and was now careening wildly out of the Debris Belt and towards Earth. Looking over to where the Archangel, Babylon, and Eternal were, he noticed that the Archangel was heavily damaged, its repaired engine now smoking once more, while many of its weaponry was blown out or depleted.

Listening to the comm. chatter between the three ships, he tightened his grip on the controls, making the fabric of his flightsuit where his fingertips were squeak in slight protest.

He breathed in before exhaling quickly. He knew what he had to do. It was risky, foolhardy, and he knew that he would die in the attempt, but there was no one else with enough firepower to do so…

Kira jammed the thrusters forward and shot towards the falling piece of Mendel.

Athrun brought the Justice around just in time to see Kira fly towards the still exploding debris that was Mendel.

"Kira!" he called after his best friend before he noticed that the Freedom was avoiding the debris of Mendel and instead focused on something else. It was then that he noticed that a huge piece of the colony had not been destroyed and instead was on a re-entry path with the Earth.

Typing in calculations quickly, he figured that the piece was big enough to at least do a considerable amount of damage and wipe out a part of the world at least the size of the former country known as Brazil.

"Captain Ramius!" he called, uploading the information he had calculated to the Archangel and other ships.

"Can we combine the fire power of all ships to destroy that thing?" Cagalli's face popped up on a small box on his monitors. He noticed that she looked disheveled and had some blood trickling down the side of her face, but otherwise looked all right. What happened on the Babylon? Surely it wasn't that damaged during the fight…

"Negative…" Murrue looked dismayed, "the Archangel's too damaged to risk firing the Lohengrins without considerable damage to its structural integrity."

"Eternal's built for running, not for firepower," Bartfield came over, looking grim.

"What about OMNI or ZAFT?" Cagalli asked.

"They're too far away," Miriallia's face popped on, "we've sent them the information, but they've also suffered considerable damage."

Athrun cursed silently before he stared at the still zoomed in footage and his eyes widened in shock as he saw the Freedom approaching the falling piece of colony, already glowing bright red in the early stages of re-entry. He realized that Kira hadn't been going in for a closer look as he had originally thought, but instead was going to try to move the piece away from its atmospheric re-entry.

"No…" he breathed in shock before he jammed his thrusters forward and shot after the Freedom.

"Athrun?!" concerned voices came over but he ignored them and instead patched a frequency through to Kira.

"Kira! What are you doing?!"

Pain clawed its way out of his head, spreading into his arms, legs, chest, hands, feet…everywhere. He could feel it as he pushed the Freedom towards the remaining chunk of Mendel that had not been destroyed by the explosions. The pain wasn't from his wounds that he had received from his time in Zala's experimental lab, nor from his "training" sessions with Griever, or from stopping Taylor in the Archangel's engine room. This was the pain that Griever had described to him in their chat the day before they headed out to this battle.

He could feel himself dying.

Kira shunted the pain away by focusing his seed-mode on the remnant piece of Mendel. None of the remaining ZAFT or OMNI ships were able to reach it in time from plunging into the atmosphere without getting caught themselves. The Archangel was too damaged to fire her Lohengrins without risking a serious explosion to it and both the Babylon and Eternal didn't have enough firepower to blow the chunk of colony apart. He had been closer to Mendel when the secondary explosions occurred, wiping out Zala's flagship the Isis. And so now, he knew what he had to do, save humanity, and save his friends.

"Kira! What are you doing?!" Athrun's voice came over and he glanced back to see the Justice flying towards him on the same path, "we can't do anything about Mendel!"

"Watch me," he replied, the sides of his cockpit's windows starting to glow a bright orange from the edges of re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere.

"Kira! Stop it! You'll die at this rate! Anyone who tries will be fried by the heat of atmospheric re-entry! You don't have the necessary protection on the Freedom!" Athrun's voice was partially garbled by the interference with the heat but the Justice kept following him.

He knew that during the war, when he had tried to stop OMNI from attacking Orb, he had used the Freedom's shield as a cooling effect against the heat from re-entry, but what he was doing now…Athrun was valid in his concerns.

"I don't care!" he shouted back, before pointing his beam rifle at the Justice, "stay away!" He fired a warning shot, which went totally wide, but the Justice moved to the side a bit.

"Kira!" the Justice kept flying towards him.

Kira turned back around and with shaking controls, he finally reached out and grabbed onto a part of the falling colony. Pulling himself and straining against the controls of the Freedom, the vibrations from him and the piece falling into the atmosphere growing by the second, he forced his way towards the "front" end of the plunging piece. The computer started to beep at him that the temperature inside the cockpit was getting dangerously high and also that some of his systems were starting to malfunction due to overheating and melting.

He hit a button to stop the computer from giving him warnings and instead, inched braced himself against the most heated part of the falling colony. Pushing the throttle on the leg jets and the main thrusters to its fullest, he forced the Freedom against the piece of falling colony, willing it to stop falling. He didn't know the capabilities of how much the Freedom would have in pushing the colony away from its current descent, but he hoped it was enough. If the Freedom blew up in the process, perhaps the nuclear reactor's meltdown and subsequent explosion would be enough to destroy the colony.

A suddenly movement from his left made him turn to see through the hazy fiery red outlines of his cockpit window to see the Justice wedging itself next to him, also maximizing its thrusters to help push the colony away.

"Get out of here! You'll die!" he shouted over the comm. to his best friend.

"So will you! I'm not going to let you die here!" Athrun replied back his voice cold. "It's a suicide mission and you know it!"

"Let me finish it! It was my fault to begin with!" he shot back, angry. He was angry at the fact that Athrun had to come and risk his own life. Couldn't his best friend see that he needed to do this? Needed to finish what was started so long ago? He had to finish it since it was his mistake, because he was born, that started this whole thing?!

"Fault?! You've got to be kidding me! You think that by dying here you'll be atoning for what's happened?! It's not your fault!"

"It is my fault! I let this happen! I couldn't stop-" Kira's breath hitched as he squeezed his eyes shut momentarily before opening them again, "couldn't stop them from performing the experiments, making me into what I am now. I couldn't stop Patrick Zala from executing his plan to drop Mendel when I had the chance. I couldn't kill him."

"You don't mean that. You're not a killer Kira. You're yourself!" Athrun replied, the coldness gone, replaced by an emotion he couldn't identify. Was it pity? No…it didn't sound like pity…it was…

"If I am myself you know what has to be done!" he blinked and saw the tendrils surrounding the falling piece of the colony…Freedom's hands that were half melted into the colony from the friction and heat of the atmospheric re-entry…the whole Gundam...the Justice…

It wasn't the angry tendrils he had seen so many times before…these were the same ones that welcomed him to their fold; inviting him to use them, to save the ones that were his friends, to save everyone.

"I'm…sorry," he whispered to Athrun and pushed at the tendril mass that surrounded the Justice.

"Kira what are you-" the Justice started to move away from its position, "no…Kira, don't do this…!"

Kira narrowed his eyes against the strain, feeling the Justice bring up its thrusters to full power in an effort to counter his telekinetic push. It felt like as if he didn't have the power to be able to push like the other times he had been using these powers. He briefly wondered if they were naturally created instead of being from the drugs. Brushing the thought away, he pushed again at the tendrils and suddenly the Justice went flying away from him, up towards space.

Focusing his thoughts, he made sure Athrun wasn't hit with any flying debris and was safely out of the atmospheric re-entry zone before releasing the tendrils that he had been holding onto. He breathed a quick sigh of relief before groaning as he felt a massive wave of pain slam into him.

It hurt everywhere. Almost as if his mind was being ripped out along with his heart and body. Every fiber of his being cried out, the effects of having the tendrils disappear slashing into him. He muffled his cry of pain as he continued to keep his shaking hands and arms pushed forward on the thruster controls. He couldn't give up! Not now, not ever! He would finish it….

There were several static pops before Athrun's voice came over, grainier as he and Mendel continued their descent into the atmosphere, "Kira! Why—doing this?!"

Kira didn't answer as he re-routed power from his beam sabers and other beam weaponry to the thrusters.

"Kira…-nswer me!"

Two more pops and hisses of static and then a voice came over that made him freeze. "Kira…please answer…"

"Lacus," he whispered, squeezing his eyes shut as he felt tears form in the corner of his eyes. He looked up and through his damaged view screens saw that the Eternal, Babylon, and Archangel moving towards where Athrun was, most of the Justice's armor melted around him, the phase-shift on the red-maroon colorings flickering in and out. He shook the tears away and opened his eyes again just as Athrun's call came over again.

"—answer me!"

"The cure hasn't been finished yet has it…" he said quietly, "and it will take longer to synthesize it."

"What-"

"I'm dying Athrun," he confessed, "My memory's been fragmented for a while now. I can barely remember things that I've done when we were fighting in the war. I remember the face of a red-haired girl. I know she's important, but I don't know anything else. I know you and I fought, but why…I don't even remember…"

"…No…Kira…"

Kira let loose a bark of bitter laughter, "Griever said that if I keep using the tendrils, I will die…I think he meant, every time I used it, it holds back the pain, but brings it back twice as bad. It's…not natural to have such a power. It's not…" He felt tears falling down his face, "I'm not even a Coordinator anymore, Athrun. I'm something that was never meant to be. And it should die with me…"

"I don't care if you're something else. You're my best friend…" Athrun's voice broke over the comm. and Kira could hear a muffled sob behind his voice, "you're my brother…"

He started slightly at the statement before an unbidden smile came to his face. "You're my brother too Athrun…"

"Why?"

"Because with Zala's death, Mendel's destruction, my death…no one should ever have to create someone like the Ultimate Coordinator ever again. I know that you'll see to that… No one should have to suffer like me," he replied quietly.

"What about Cagalli or Lacus, your mother and father?" Athrun asked softly, his voice barely audible over the static and pops of the comm. system.

"My parents…they were the best parents. They don't have to suffer anymore…Mom can put her past behind her…Dad can finally stop that mission that has been plaguing him ever since his departure from Black Ops…" he smiled as he imagined his parents in his mind. He knew that his existence, while they would deny it vehemently, was a burden on them. He remembered running from the people that were looking for him when he was just a baby…

"Cagalli…" he knew that both Cagalli and Lacus were overhearing his conversation between him and Athrun. He didn't know if everyone else in the LF ships was listening, but he didn't care anymore. It was time to put the ghosts that had been haunting his life ever since he was born to rest.

"Take care of her, all right Athrun? I know she will be sad…I know she will blame me afterwards, but she is strong. She's a fighter…she will survive this."

Suddenly Kira had to grab onto the controls and stop himself from being rattled around so much as he felt something give way on the Freedom. A quick glance through whatever monitors he had left showed that he had lost a leg and shunted the power that had been going through his right leg thruster into the left one.

Gritting his teeth, he opened his helmet's visor and shook out the sweat that had beading on his forehead. It was at least feeling like a very hot sauna, if not more, in the cockpit. All of the sudden another there was a crackle before he involuntarily ducked as a few panels surrounding him exploded. He winced in pain as shards of broken machinery embedded into his right arm and side.

He knew he was running out of time.

"Lacus…" he whispered, "thank you…and…I will always love you."

"Kira, stop it! You can still-"

Kira reached deep into his own mind and touched the power that he knew existed there. He would save his friends. He would give them a future…

Giving one last look at the Justice, a faint smile appeared on his face.

"Goodbye…Athrun…"

Turning back to focus on his last task; with all of his might, mind, and powers, he wrapped the tendrils into a tight mesh against the red-hot surface of the burning piece of Mendel. The Freedom was almost an unrecognizable pile of metal against the melted metal, but its thrusters were still working. Inside of the Freedom, the reactor core was turning a bright red…almost to its meltdown point.

Giving a war cry, Kira pushed against Mendel with all that he had.

MOVE!

Athrun watched with horror and growing surprise as he saw Mendel slowly, but surely, move from its deadly plunge down to the Earth. He could see from his vantage point, the faint blue of the Freedom's thrusters pushing against the chunk of the colony. He knew for a fact that both the Freedom and Justice, if combined, would probably be able to move the colony from its drop and the strain would destroy both mobile suits, so how was Kira able to move the colony by himself?

With a start, he realized Kira had used his powers to help move the thing, at what he knew was the cost of his own life. "No…Kira…" he whispered as he saw the reddish hue that indicated the re-entry process start to dissipate.

Just as the reddish hue was about to disappear, there was a sudden explosion of white light before a blooming fireball consumed the spot where the Freedom had been stationed.

Athrun's breath hitched in his throat and he leaned forward against his restraints. "No…KIRA!!!!!!"

He immediately pushed forward on the Justice's heavily damaged thrusters, flying towards the remnant of Mendel that was still moving away from the Earth. He suddenly stopped and raised his arm to protect his eyes from the glare of secondary explosions that started to wrack across the surface of the remnant piece of Mendel, caused by the explosion of the Freedom.

All of it culminated in a huge spectacular fireball that scattered debris everywhere. When the glare died down, Athrun looked across his damaged screens to see that there was small pockets of debris everywhere…no sign of the Freedom anywhere.

"No…" he whispered brokenly as he moved forward. Movements on either side of him made him look around to see the Duel, Buster, and Strike Rouge following him.

"We'll help," Yzak's face appeared in the upper corner of his screen.

"We'll find him," Dearka's face popped up below Yzak's.

"We'll never give up," Cagalli's face appeared and Athrun saw that Lacus was with her in the cockpit of the Strike Rouge.

Together, the four Gundams moved into the debris that used to be part of Mendel.

It was at least a half hour later that Athrun spotted something unusual looking in the debris. He opened the cockpit hatch to the Justice and stepped out, making sure to take a flyer-pack with him. Attaching a tether to the hook on the Justice, he flew out towards the object that had caught his eye.

He moved away what looked like two white panels that most definitely belonged to the Freedom that was wedging the object together. He made a small noise of surprise as he held the object in his hand.

Tori…

The mechanical bird was battered and broken, half of its wires sticking out. Burn marks scorched its green-yellow paint and it was completely stiff in his hand. The pain that had been eating away in Athrun's heart for so long finally broke through its dam and he cried.

Live…for me…

Athrun didn't notice any of the others coming towards him in their own flyer-packs nor that the Archangel, Eternal, and Babylon had stopped at their respectful distances a bit away from them. All he did was cry for the loss of his dearest and best friend…his brother.

Live…and Hope…

END

Author's Notes:

Well, it's finally ended; the last chapter of this massive alternate universe to my universe. This story started out as just a "what if Quinn was really working for someone else?" in regards to Keiji and Quinn's past history. Then it ended up in a massive giant story like this. I sincerely hoped you all enjoyed reading Arbiter Forces and I hope you will all continue to read Entropy Rising's true sequel, Destiny Falling. I've enjoyed reading comments, questions, and whatnot from you, the reviewers and I am very glad to find that a few people were angry at me (though I suspect you'll be angry right now…) and others just totally enthralled at the rollercoaster I've put you through.

I guess the main question I really should answer in this author's note is why I killed Kira. (And yes he is quite dead by the end of this story.) You can find it on wiki if you search "Kira Yamato" or on seedgenesis' site (google seedgenesis): but it's stated that in the early drafts up till a certain point, Mitsuo Fukuda wanted in the original plotline of Gundam SEED for Kira to die fighting Rau Le Creuset and Athrun to lose an arm (and other things happening) that didn't occur in the final drafts and cut of the series. I liked the idea that Kira would end up dying (somehow my love for Kira is a bit warped as it is with all of my favorite characters) and was a bit disappointed that the Ultimate Coordinator didn't die at the end of the series.

I played around with whether or not Kira should have amnesia, live, or die for a bit while writing this story and ultimately decided by the time I had Kira return from his captivity that he would eventually die.

Of course…he is quiet alive in Destiny Falling.

Some of the plot elements many reviewers wanted that didn't appear in this story will most definitely appear in Destiny Falling. I'll throw you guys another bone: Kira vs. Athrun. Wait for it! Look for it! Enjoy it!

Happy reading folks and I will see you soon.

-Shadow Chaser