Respect between Enemies – The BetanWerecat
Gundam Seed: "Descending Sword" and after. OCs with appearances by canon characters. The actions of Kira, Athrun, and the others have far reaching effects. Ah, interpersonal relationships! What joys they are. Rated T for language and off screen activity. (Reviews are welcomed but not required. This is written only for my own enjoyment. Flaming me will get you ignored.)
Weekends are good. I get a lot of writing done on weekends and can keep posting.
Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Seed.
Kayla tried to get her gummed eyes to open. They remained glued shut. She thought about rubbing them with her hand and tried to. Unfortunately, she tried to use her right hand. Pain shot through her shoulder and arm, waking her up very fast.
She shifted hands and cleared her stubborn eyes with the left hand. Her mouth tasted like the bottom of a barn no one had mucked out all winter. She was unbelievably stiff. What the hell was going on?
As her eyes cleared, she discovered she wasn't in the Archangel's infirmary any longer. She was in the left hand bed in the back of the smallish room. It held a total of four beds and they all were occupied. This place also looked like someone's sick bay but it wasn't the one she'd gone to sleep in. Yeah, and just why had she dropped off like that so soon after waking up feeling so good?
The door opened and she saw the Coordinator medic, Dr. McIntyre standing there. "No, they will wake up very soon now Colonel Kisaka. I put them under, I'll supervise their recovery."
"And will you tell them the rest?"
"Do you want me to? I can if you think it best. The others are probably not in the best state to do it right now."
"I would appreciate it Doctor."
"Then I will relieve the other young people of that burden."
"Thank you."
Kayla forced her body to sit up. She understood only a little of that conversation but what she got wasn't good. They'd been put under for some reason and someone or several someones had died while she slept. She was staring hard right at McIntyre when he turned around. He saw her at once and walked swiftly to her side, taking a seat on the inevitable infirmary stool that stood by the bedside.
"What happened and who did we lose?"
"The war is effectively over. The Plants and the Earth governments have begun negotiations to draw up a peace treaty."
"So I missed the last fight. Who did we lose Doc?"
"The Hawk of Endymion flies no more."
Something cut off her air. She could feel her lungs trying but there was nothing coming in. Mu? Mu La Flaga? Dead? She shook her head. That was not possible!
Then McIntyre was supporting her, helping her lay back down. She was having trouble seeing him, where had all this water come from? And who was turning out the lights? Air! She needed air! Mu could not be dead!
The second time she woke up was slower and harder. There was something bad, something she didn't want to wake up to. She fought to hold onto the comfort of the darkness. But it did not choose to stay despite all she did to keep it close. Light slipped in, pushing it away, bringing sound with it. Eventually, she knew she was seeing the inside of her own eyelids and someone very nearby was trying very, very hard not to cry.
It was no good. She couldn't stay like this. She had to know. Kayla opened her eyes, and discovered they felt like someone had rubbed them with sandpaper. They only got like this when she'd been crying for a very long time. Oh, she really wanted to go back to sleep!
Instead, she made herself sit up. Adrian was in the bed beside hers. He was the one trying so hard not to cry. He had his pillow on his chest and was biting it for all he was worth. Captain Thoms was in the bed ahead of Adrian's. He was laying very, very still, his good arm thrown over his eyes and his mouth a white slash of pain. Dr. McIntyre was sitting beside whoever was in the bed below hers, probably Yuri Lubbek. And on a stool at the foot of Captain Thom's bed was Dearka Elsman, head wrapped in bandage and eyes vacant with loss.
It was seeing Dearka that tripped the memory. The association of pilot and mobile suit. And one unbelievable report of one who hadn't come back.
"Dearka." Kayla got the name out clearly and saw his head come up. "Tell me this damn medic lied to me."
"About what?"
"Mu."
"No, he didn't lie. He put the damaged Strike between a Lohengrin shot and the Archangel's bridge. He stopped the shot, saved the Archangel, but the Strike blew at the very end." His violet eyes suddenly glowed with fury. "It was that bastard Azriel! He was on the Dominion! He was the reason for that coward's attack! I know it!"
"Chalk up one more betrayal to Blue Cosmos." Kayla snarled savagely. "Don't tell me the son-of-a-bitch got away?"
"No, oh no. Captain Ramius fired Archangel's Lohengrin back. They didn't have a La Flaga to defend them. The shot took Dominion right in the bridge and destroyed the whole ship! No, the bastard won't betray anyone else ever again."
It was an empty consolation. One rabid dog was dead. But Blue Cosmos was full of them. They would replace that dead dog with another all too soon. Yet nothing would replace a good man like Mu La Flaga. There were worthless dogs everywhere. Why were good men so hard to find?
She needed something else to talk about or she was just going to fall apart. "Dearka, where the hell are we?"
"Huh? Oh, this is the Kusanagi. She belongs to Aube. Right now they're doing final repairs on the Strike Rouge and setting up a pair of Astrays. Then Cagalli, Kira, and Athrun are going out to search for survivors. That's why we're all here. They'll take any Alliance people they find to Archangel and any ZAFT to Eternal. Explaining me and you and Ito would cause some serious problems so we're sidestepping it for the moment."
"I fail to see the logic here."
"You don't have a political mind." Captain Thoms suddenly spoke up. "I would wager Dearka has been on board the Archangel voluntarily for a bit here. That is not what a ZAFT Elite should be doing. If anyone can prove that, he could be up on treason charges. And you should be concerned if there is anyone who could tie you to any act that could be construed as treason back there before you picked us up. Which may be regarded as such by some parties in and of itself."
Thoms shot the younger ZAFT pilot a weary look. "Decided to protect someone, didn't you?"
Dearka just stared at the floor in silence. But there was an oddly reddish tinge to his face that told Kayla the Captain was right on the money. So she and Adrian weren't the only Natural/Coordinator pair.
The Captain shook his head slowly. "Dearka, I've seen this tried many times and there aren't many success stories. You and your girl would be well advised to think everything through very carefully before you do anything you can't back out of. That said, I wish you both the best of luck. Because the pairs that do succeed tend to be very, very happy couples."
He turned to the silent medic. "So Doctor, what is the plan? I assume you know."
McIntyre smiled. "The ZAFT people will be brought over here to the Kusanagi for return to the Plants. We will use the neutral ship for obvious reasons. The rescued survivors will simply find you already here and under medical care. It should deal with any immediate questions. How you handle things when you get home will have to be your problem. We will use Kusanagi to return all Alliance survivors as well. They will likewise come aboard to find Lieutenant Grayhawk here and under medical care. Or that is the plan unless anyone chooses to go with someone else."
Now that was a round about way to ask if someone wanted to get labeled a deserter. She rather doubted it. Adrian wouldn't and she didn't think Dearka would either. She certainly wasn't going to go that route when she could legally muster out in only six weeks now.
She thought of something else. "Dearka, how is Kira coping? You said he's going out to search for survivors. Is he ready to do that?"
"He says he is." The Elite replied quietly. "I don't know. It hit him awful hard. He and La Flaga were something more than just friends. You know how it is when you have someone you depend on in combat. They were a team. Now Yamato's alone. That's one cold place to be in a battle. But the one I really worry about is Captain Ramius. I think she and La Flaga had an understanding. Mir told me she'd already lost one fiancée to the war. Now he's gone too."
"You make me glad to be off the Archangel right now. The depression must be heavy enough to slice and serve on toast." Kayla said morosely.
"That's a pretty decent description, yeah."
Something else suddenly occurred to her. "Hey, why are they taking out a couple Astrays? Why not take Freedom and Justice?"
Dearka Elsman looked up, slightly startled. "Oh, yeah, you don't know about any of that do you? They're gone. Athrun self-destructed Justice inside the core of Genesis just as it was getting set to fire to destroy it. Kira went one on one with Rau Le Creuset in the Providence and won. But the Freedom was caught up in the final explosive end of the Genesis and totaled. Cagalli and Athrun found Kira floating free in space, the wreck of the mobile suite some distance away. No one has the slightest idea how he survived. He sure doesn't remember a thing about it. The Providence, and Commander Le Creuset were vaporized in the blast."
"He's one of Thunderbird's Children. The Thunderbird saw to it he made it." Kayla replied absently. "Since he did, you can be sure Kira has more to his destiny than what he's done already. Same with Athrun Zala. He's the other Child of the Thunderbird. The Spirit power those two carry gives me the willies. I wouldn't want their burden for all the gold in Fort Knox!"
The completely confused young pilot looked at Captain Thoms for a clue. "Did she say anything that made any sense to you?"
"She's a Native American. I believe what she's talking about is something relating to their religion."
"So are you saying God saved Kira?"
"No I'm saying Thunderbird did. Your God and the Thunderbird are not much alike. Your God and the entire concept of the natural Spirits don't have all that much in common come to think of it. You're comparing apples and horseshoes talking about the two at the same time. You really need to talk to Grandmother Spotted Horse. She's a full Medicine Woman and can really explain it."
"Yeah, someday, maybe." Dearka agreed doubtfully. "Grandmother Spotted Horse? What kind of name is that?"
"She's my mom's mother and it's her family name, rocks-for-brains! Makes just as much sense as calling yourself Elsman does! At least Grandmother's name is immediately descriptive!"
Dearka had the rare good sense not to comment on that. Instead he just stood up and left. Captain Thoms gave her a rather unamused look for driving off his source of information. She didn't care. Well, maybe she did at that. Because now there was nothing to stand between her and the empty hole where Mu used to be.
A tiny choking sound drew her eye back to Adrian. He was rocking rhythmically, good arm locked around the abused pillow, eyes firmly closed although tears were leaking from them steadily. Something was very wrong here. He hadn't known Mu well enough for this kind of reaction.
She looked around and found her slippers neatly set at the foot of her bed. The warm robe she'd appropriated earlier was also carefully folded and set at the foot of the bed as well. She reached down and grabbed it, tugging it on awkwardly. Interestingly, Dr. McIntyre made no move to stop her when she pulled herself to her feet and fumbled the slippers on.
The gravity on the Kusanagi was very low. She had no trouble floating over to Adrian's bed. In fact she had no trouble floating right over it altogether! Fortunately the wall was only a short way beyond and she was able to safely stop herself.
She hooked an ankle on his bed and pulled herself down to sit beside him. She was at something of a loss to know what to do for him so she began to just gently run her fingers through his hair, almost like petting a cat. Gradually, the very worst of the tension began to go out of him and the tears slowed. He stopped chewing on the pillow eventually and just lay there, possibly the most haunted, grief-stricken expression she'd ever seen on his face.
She wasn't prepared for him to move suddenly. His good right arm swept around her and he pulled her down beside him. Then he rolled onto his right side and was weeping softly on her shoulder.
"He was like Duncan." The voice was a bare whisper. "He was just like Duncan!"
"Who was Duncan? You've never mentioned him before." She whispered back softly.
"My brother, my older brother. He would have been just about Mu's age too. God, he was so like Duncan! I didn't understand why I wanted to like him so. Now I do. He had the same kind of giving kindness my brother did. And he had the same willingness to give whatever he had to to defend what he believed in."
Duncan would have died at Junius Seven with all the rest of the Ito family. What an incredible accolade for a Coordinator to give an Alliance soldier! Where ever Mu was, she hoped he'd heard that.
"Kayla, I just lost another brother before I could even get to know him properly!"
She had no answer for that heartbroken little cry. What could she tell him? She did the only thing she could, she held him until exhaustion and grief sent them both down into sleep.
