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.)

Now they each have to go home and deal with their own cultures. Only then will they be able to consider how to deal with each other again.

Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Seed.


The small, well appointed meeting room set in the lowest level of the Council's building was not commonly used. It was a very secure spot; one with two concealed entrances in addition to the one public door. Quite private negotiations were the norm when this room was in use and today was no exception. What was unusual was the lack of disguises here. The four people seated around the beautifully inlaid table were each quite well aware of who the other three were.

"There isn't much I can do for Patrick's son. He was just too open, too publicly himself in that battle. If Athrun Zala returns to the Plants, someone will kill him. It is that simple. There are too many of his father's followers left who will never forgive him."

"Nonsense! Just because it isn't possible to allow him to come home doesn't mean there is nothing you can do for him. We've been friends for decades; I've watched you handle worse than this. He needs at least some kind of official pardon. What he did wasn't treason! He saved us, Eileen; he saved the future of all Coordinators when he prevented his insane father from destroying the genetic base we must have available to draw from until we can really set ourselves free!"

"Not everyone can see that."

Roland Ito snorted inelegantly. "Unimportant, Madam Chairman. The blindness of the few or of the masses won't change the reality of the situation. We aren't diverse enough to survive without the gene pool of the planet to draw on for at least two more generations yet. We will be much stronger if we can keep a solid tap into that genetic treasure-trove a half dozen or more generations into the future! Athrun Zala and the Yamato boy literally saved our backsides by stopping that machine. Yamato has a place to go home to, but Zala will need some kind of official deal worked out or too many will look on him as fair game."

Eileen Canaver, Interim Supreme Council Chairman turned a dour eye on both her old friend and the blunt geneticist. They had asked her for this meeting to discuss several other people's fate, young Zala hadn't been on the list at all. Yet he was the first one they'd brought up.

"I'm rather surprised you are so worried about Zala. I would have expected other people to be more important to you, Roland."

"Oh, they are, they are." Dr. Ito agreed calmly but he didn't elaborate.

There was a quiet sigh, then Serin Ito spoke. "Yes, there are those more important to us, Madam, but there are few more likely to take attention away from the ones we want to save. We need eyes focused on Athrun Zala so they won't look elsewhere."

"Well, one honest voice at last!"

"I've been absolutely honest with you!"

"Yes, Miranda, you have. But you haven't been complete in your details and the old line about the devil being in the details really applies here. So you need a red herring and you think Zala will do, is that it?"

"Not exactly." Serin replied calmly. "Athrun Zala will quite genuinely need your help and he quite genuinely deserves it. He has served the Plants with all his heart. The decisions he's made were not made lightly or without great cost to his soul. This is his home and his people; he would readily die to preserve the Plants. What he has been forced to choose to do is live in disgrace to achieve that preservation. You have the power to lift at least some of that disgrace and you should. At the same time; yes, it will distract attention from my son, Miranda's son, the Elsman boy, and even young Joule. It will make it possible to bring them home with their names and honor intact, even if we can't achieve quite that much for Athrun."

"You haven't mentioned the Lubbek boy." Eileen noted.

"Shouldn't need to." Roland said shortly. "Badly wounded hero. Unconscious when captured by the Naturals. His story is written on his body. Also, the family is not and has never been political. He's unlikely to be a target."

Eileen shook her head. "There are going to be some things I can't do you do understand that don't you? I can't make evidence vanish for example. Especially the kind that has multiple copies. Too many people can testify that young Elsman was working with the Archangel in the last months of the war. If some evidence can be found that they had some means of coercion, that would be very helpful; otherwise there may be treason charges filed. Even if it can be proven he was being forced into it, he'll still be out of the Elites. The snobs who run that program won't let him stay if there is evidence he gave in to the Naturals in any way. That just wouldn't be in keeping with being an Elite and they couldn't have that!"

"We know this. No one is asking for the impossible. We just want as many of the young people as possible brought home with their records sliding under the political radar as we can possibly manage." Miranda Thoms said wearily.

"I've asked for my son and his Team and a friend or two but really, there will be many more. Patrick had quite a list of those he planned to purge and those of his followers who remain in positions of power are trying to carry out those plans. They intend to return to the top as quickly as they can. I'm hoping to keep as many of our honest young men and women untainted with this political slop as I can"

"We need to do some purging of our own." Roland snapped. "Including a few snobs on the Elite Selection Board. They're sliding into an obsession with image that is very dangerous."

Serin tapped the table, catching their attention. "What we need to be is damned careful. Eileen here will not be in office very long. There are several groups who have been working to build their power bases that Patrick was suppressing. Unfortunately, Siegel Clyne's moderates are the group he has damaged most. They are Eileen's base too and they won't be able to put enough together in the next election to keep her in office. You talk of purging Patrick's people; that will have to be done by consensus or they will only be restored as soon as she steps down. The reforms that stick will all have to be achieved by consensus; and that takes time. Time is not our friend."

"Dee." Roland said bitterly.

"Most likely." Eileen agreed unhappily. "If not this first election, then by the second he will have his people in power. He may even step forward and seek the Chairmanship for himself. He's too good and he's too well organized. We can't stop him. In fact, purging Patrick's fanatics will only give Dee openings for his."

"We still need to get Patrick's people out of office." Miranda Thoms said flatly. "They pose an immediate danger to too many of our returning veterans. And there are ways to limit the number of people Dee can place immediately. He's always been a man for the long view has Dee. He'll wait for his time to come. He's still relatively young, he can afford to. Moreover, he needs most of Patrick's fanatics out of the way too. At this point, he'll not stop us. He may even covertly help us for the next few months. The trick for our survival will be seeing just when we must appear to bow out and leave the field to him."

"This brings me back to getting our own home with their good names intact and their unofficial contacts on Earth unnoticed and unharmed." Serin cut in. "They have made some very unusual friends, friends who will be in positions of power and influence down there. We will have an ear into Aube Intelligence. It will be a hearing-impaired one to be sure but it will also be one on an unprecedented level. And the Aube have learned a very bitter lesson about not keeping close enough tabs on their neighbor's intentions."

"The Princess of Aube and her hidden Coordinator twin brother." Eileen Canaver said slowly. "Unusual friends indeed."

"Oh, they won't be hiding Kira Yamato any longer." Roland snorted. "I don't know what they'll do with him officially but he'll have a place there and it won't be a minor one or a decorative one. And Cagalli Athha has offered young Zala a refuge as well. So once we can get him some kind of deal, he actually does have somewhere to go now. Lacus Clyne will go to Aube as well. Smart of her to stay out of the Plants and easy reach of Patrick's embittered adherents too."

"Out of Dee's reach as well although I doubt she knows the need to avoid him yet." Miranda said quietly. "Well Eileen, will you do it?"

"Yes." The Chairman of the Plants replied bluntly. "The reasons for it are much better than the considerations against it, even for Elsman's son. I need something for him though and I'll need it soon."

Roland Ito reached into a pocket and withdrew a small data disc that he slid across the table to her. "That should help. It is a recording, supposedly made by an agent of the Junk Guild, that caught a conversation between Captain Ramius of the Archangel and Colonel Kisaka of the Kusanagi. They put several nice tidbits on it for you but the one that matters for this is where they discuss how she got Elsman to defend the Archangel by promising him he would get to fight the Earth Forces all he wanted to and would never be asked to fire on his own people. Since he didn't start helping them until the Battle of Aube, which was against the Atlantic Federation, and he's never been recorded as firing on any ZAFT personnel at all, this should be just what you need."

Eileen picked it up thoughtfully. "And how did we come by Junk Guild information? They don't offer it to us you know."

"Oh, there was that little two man ship the GINN patrol found day before yesterday, remember? Made the news because it was identified as Junk Guild and floating in the debris field of the Jachin Due battle with no evidence of any pilot left aboard? It'll be easy enough to say it came from there." Roland grinned evilly.

She looked at him sharply. "Fine, but what will the Guild have to say about it?"

"They set it up for us. And believe me, they were well paid for it!" Miranda said feelingly. "The whole thing is deniable on their part as there is nothing on the disc or the ship to tie the two together. Nor, when they tear that disc down, will they actually be able to prove it was Junk Guild made either."

"Ah, I see. Everyone is covered all around. Yet analysis of the disc will prove that the people in the recording are Ramius and Kisaka?"

"Beyond any doubt." Serin replied directly.

"Good enough! You may leave the rest to me."

"Thank you, Eileen."

"Don't thank me yet, Miranda. I haven't succeeded, I've only just promised to do my best for everyone."

Miranda Thoms stood calmly. "I have great faith in your best."


Kira pressed his hand to his temple. "Message from Kayla! Actually, she's relaying one from Dacosta on the Eternal. It says 'Watch out for the Commander. All other's all right guys.' Sounds like we have a problem coming down the hall."

"Just what we need." Adrian muttered as he eyed the set-up. The new man would technically outrank Captain Thoms. This could be very bad. He'd never met Waltfeld's Second, but the man had a very good name as a quick thinker and a decent judge of character. And he was damned competent of course, or he wouldn't be the Tiger's Second!

Thoms just snorted. "We take this as it comes gentlemen. Now relax and look happy to see our comrades from ZAFT. We've been stuck on a Natural ship and isolated lately, we will be expected to be glad to see other Coordinators."

Kira stepped back and to one side, separating himself from their group. He'd no sooner moved than Colonel Kisaka entered the lounge with a ZAFT officer in command whites about his own age beside him. Thirty some odd other ZAFT officers and ship crewmen followed him in, all of them much closer to Adrian's age. They lined up neatly behind the Commander.

Adrian stood when a quick snap of Captain Thoms' fingers reminded him he was back in an environment where military etiquette applied. He gave Yuri a hand up when he unexpectedly had trouble getting to his feet and kept that hand on his friend's belt when he proved to be unsteady on them. So it happened that only the Captain had a hand free on the correct side to salute the Commander.

Adrian didn't miss the rather distant look in Colonel Kisaka's eyes. Nor did he fail to note the irritation in the Commander's when only Thoms managed a salute. Wonderful, a self-important ass. He really could have lived with out this.

"Commander Cottman, this is Captain Thoms of the Thoms Team, his Second, Elite Ito, and their remaining Team mate, Lieutenant Lubbek. These are the officers rescued by the GINN piloted by an escaping Alliance prisoner of war. As you can see, they were in no condition to refuse the rescue at the time."

Commander Cottman had dark blue hair similar to Athrun Zala's and bright blue eyes much like Yuri's. He also had the look of someone who lived in a state of perpetual suspicion. He stared hard at them, eyes running over their obvious injuries and Yuri's increasing unsteadiness.

"Yes, so I see." The man ground out finally. Adrian kept his face blank although what he wanted to do was hit the man. So, he thought they'd just surrendered or worse did he? And what did he know about it? Those collar tabs belonged to a ship's Supply Officer. He had no combat experience! Who did he think he was, making judgments like that?

The Colonel didn't give him time to make any more snide remarks as he turned to Kira. "Commander, this is Captain Yamato of our Mobile Suit Command. He is Princess Cagalli's personal representative and will be here to assist you with anything you may need during the trip."

Kira gave the man a crisp Aube salute but said nothing. The note in Colonel Kisaka's voice confirmed what the eyes had said earlier; he did not care for the Commander at all. Given the distain the man was directing at Kira, Adrian decided active dislike was a better option and that he was going to choose it.

Yuri picked that moment to wobble badly. Captain Thoms tossed standard etiquette aside and had them both resume their seats. He let himself sway slightly before he smiled apologetically and sat himself. Cottman was clearly not pleased but he had no excuse for keeping wounded men on their feet either. He turned his irritation on Kira.

"You're a Captain are you?" The sneer brought Kisaka up in sharp anger.

Kira however, stayed calmly neutral. "Yes Commander."

"Mobile suits, eh?"

"Yes Commander." The pilot of Strike and Freedom replied drily.

"Naturals have no business in mobile suits." Cottman snipped.

That was outside of enough! No damned supply officer was going to get away with saying things like that! In fact, he wouldn't take that from anyone who hadn't been out in a mobile suit themselves to face the Naturals in combat! Kira could be polite if he wanted to but Adrian had something to say to this barking dog.

He pitched his voice to carry and made sure the contempt was very clear as well. "Depends on the Natural. The Hawk of Endymion was one hell of a mobile suit pilot. He was a Natural. The Tomahawk can fly a mobile suit, she's a Natural. Those Strike Daggers that caused so much trouble at Boaz and Jachin Due weren't being flown by rogue Coordinators. And never forget those three special suits that almost let the nukes through to the Plants. Naturals at the controls there too. Not to mention that most of the Astray pilots for Aube seem to be Naturals as well. No, I'd say the Naturals have learned what to do in mobile suits all right."

Commander Cottman turned, eyes blazing. "Your opinion was not sought, Elite! Your Team Leader needs to speak to you, very firmly!"

"His Team Leader agrees with him." Lance Thoms snapped. "I had the opportunity to watch the Tomahawk, when very unwisely offered the chance, learn how to pilot a standard GINN. It was all simulator work but that simulator had unmodified software and an equipment package meant as a standard training aide for our cadets. In two months of intensive effort, she mastered the basic skills needed. When she got a chance to steal a real GINN, she turned out to be able to operate it well enough to be mistaken for an advanced cadet! And she took advantage of that mistaken identity to actually escape! Moreover, I've seen genuine footage of her handling the GINN in real combat. She wasn't particularly good, but she was good enough to survive."

He paused, then said with careful emphasis; "She was good enough to survive in actual combat flying a ZAFT GINN. A Natural, flying an unmodified, stolen ZAFT GINN! Think about that one for a bit, eh?"

Thoms stared hard at the shocked Commander while Adrian mentally cheered from the sidelines. "The brutal truth is if you give any above average Natural pilot a mobile suit with an operating system written to compensate for his or her limitations, they will be formidable opponents restrained only by the quality of their equipment. The day when we could sit back and happily kill nearly helpless mobile armors is gone. From now on, we will face mobile suits that will not be all that inferior to our own. To go into battle believing in the blind myth of automatic Coordinator superiority is to go out to die. And we don't have the population to afford that kind of stupidity!"

Adrian noted that Captain Thom's report of what Kayla had done had certainly caused a stir among the other ZAFT personnel standing behind the Commander. He could pick out the mobile suit pilots now. They were the ones who understood just what kind of accomplishment that really had been. And they understood why they should be a little afraid of it too. There seemed to be quite a number of them clustered around one tall Oriental youngster with cadet badges on his collar. He was talking very rapidly, hands flying as he illustrated whatever story he was telling. Commander Cottman on the other hand was gaping at the Captain like a fish, eyes and mouth wide open.

"It would seem you haven't had a lot of combat experience, Commander." Yuri suddenly spoke up, his tired voice managing to carry surprisingly well. "If you had, you'd know how dangerous Naturals can be even with their often inferior equipment and always inferior physical skills."

"And a child like you has?" The man came out of his fish trance to snap at Yuri.

"Well, the Team didn't start at the Grimaldi Front but it has been in most of the major space actions and several major Earthside battles. Yuri and I joined just in time for the abortive strike at the Seventh Orbital Fleet. We've been part of everything since." Adrian replied for the weary Lubbek.

He paused, then added coolly, "Including "Operation Spit Break."

That produced immediate silence. For reasons beyond his comprehension, there was a mystique growing up around the remaining survivors of that disaster. Especially those who, like the Thoms Team, had actually been in combat at JOSH-A when the Cyclops went off and lived to tell the story. There weren't all that many of them really. The initial number had been small. The vicious fighting planetside that had seen ZAFT driven back to just the area around Carpentaria had claimed a number of those who'd survived Alaska. This last round of battles here at the Plants had cost more of that small group of veterans. But if it would shut this fool up, Adrian would milk 'Spit Break' for all it was worth.

The Oriental cadet broke the silence. "You, all three of you, were actually at JOSH-A?"

"Yes." Yuri replied gently. "We were the lucky Team that day. We only lost one man. Now we're all that's left. The Thoms Team wasn't so lucky at Jachin Due."

It was Kira who broke the uncomfortable silence that followed. "Commander, if you will, we've set up a buffet for your people. There will be cabin space for those who are tired to nap later. We expect to meet the Magellan in approximately twelve hours."

Commander Cottman made one last jab at being unpleasant as he asked Kira very shortly, "Just what are you to the Princess of Aube?"

"Kin." Yamato replied briefly as he turned and with a wave of his hand, indicated the ZAFT survivors should help themselves to the buffet.

The younger ZAFT people proved to be hungry. Kira rounded up a couple of the Kusanagi's mess crew and saw to it that the three of them had food brought to them. When Adrian looked questioningly at him, he got a small hand sign that warned him to play along. It didn't take him long to realize that Kira was making sure everyone saw that they were all too injured to stand in line for their own meal. More fuel for the cover story then.

While Commander Cottman grabbed one of the few tables to dine in splendid isolation, everyone else broke up into small clusters to just eat and talk. A few of the boldest chose the seats in their cluster, giving them someone new to talk to. Among them was that one cadet. Kira hovered nearby as well, almost as if he was using them as a bit of a shield from the Commander. He finally sat down when Captain Thoms formally asked him to join them for lunch.

The Captain's apparently casual questions got them a flood of information about the last battle, the one they'd slept through. And while the small group sitting with them didn't know the whole battle, they did know a couple parts of it surprisingly well. They were told of the rescue of the Plants for a second time by Justice and Freedom. Of the destruction of two of the special Earth Forces mobile suits by Yzak Joule, running on a spectacular temper explosion he successfully channeled into action. They knew the third had gone down but weren't sure if Freedom or Justice had gotten it, just that it had been one of them.

The most interesting story of the group though, was Cadet Lu's. Actually he had two stories. The first was about being abandoned on the battlefield with sixty-two other cadets on the first day of the battle only to find there was a leader in the group. He told them about the plan, and the somewhat haphazard execution of it, to defend the Plants from those nukes that got past the front lines. And then he told them who he discovered they had been following.

"I finally couldn't stand it. She just knew too much, planned too fast, picked up broken pieces too well. And she called the main battle a 'furball'. That's not a ZAFT pilot's term. So I shot over a private comm line and flat out asked her if she was one of ours."

"Are you insane?" One of the other pilots demanded. "Who else would a cadet be?"

"That wasn't a cadet." Adrian told him quietly. "You haven't put this together with some things Captain Thoms mentioned earlier."

Lu eyed him with interest. "You're right sir. She said her name was Kayla Grayhawk, 421st Air Wing, . ."

"3d Mobile Squadron." Adrian interrupted with a small smile. "Tomahawk. A nickname she despises."

"Yes sir." Lu agreed.

"Bad joke." The pilot who had spoken before said warily.

"No joke." Captain Thoms told him. "I did mention I'd seen footage of her handling a stolen GINN in combat. I did not mention it was during that fight. Nor did I note that I was the one recording it. It is unfortunate that my suit's records didn't survive, they would have been very instructive to those who want to insist the Naturals can't ever match us in anything. And while her actual combat skills in the machine weren't all that impressive, her flying skills were. She won that fight by out flying her enemy. An enemy who was a very experienced GINN pilot by the way."

"You just let her kill one of ours?"

"No, we didn't." Adrian snapped. "By the time that happened we were already completely disabled and floating power down. None of us had a weapon left that could have lit a candle let alone knocked over a GINN. Yuri here was unconscious and trying to bleed to death by then too."

"So it was the Tomahawk who decided to save you. Why?" The pilot asked.

"We were in the firing line of Genesis." Yuri replied. "She told me it pissed her off to see people with no chance just left out there to die. It was too like how her people were betrayed by their own at JOSH-A. So she grabbed us since we were on her own shortest flight line out of the death zone too."

"Tomahawk was at JOSH-A. She said that was where she'd been captured." Lu remarked.

"Yeah," Adrian agreed, his mind drifting back to that wild day. "It was."

Lu gave him a very thoughtful look but didn't say anything more. The discussion chewed that story down to rags and went looking for a new topic. Lu was ready to oblige there too. It seemed he'd been a bit stupid on the second day of the fighting and had gone forward after the nukes were accounted for. Even he called it a fool's move and admitted he'd survived on pure luck. But it had left him with a disabled GINN drifting alongside the Genesis machine itself. He'd seen the Justice and the Strike Rouge blast their way into it. But he'd also drifted far enough forward to see and record the stunning battle between Freedom and Providence held between the machine and the mirror block.

He tried to describe it and told them he was failing. They had just moved too fast! All the DRAGOON's involved hadn't helped either. He couldn't begin to keep track of them.

"But he could! He was unbelievable! His fighting was superb right from the start. Then, very late in the battle, something changed. He went from simply better than good to beyond human. It was as though a switch had tripped, sending him into a whole new level of ability." Lu shook his head slowly, awe in his eyes at the memory.

"Suddenly the DRAGOON's that had been able to hit him were missing. But he wasn't. He was picking them off, one by one in rapid succession. Just taking them out of the fight. A last shot destroyed his one remaining beam gun. He grabbed his beam saber and just charged straight into the other suit. He slammed that saber right through it, through the cockpit most likely from what I could see. Instants later, Genesis tried to fire again. The Providence was caught in the mirror field and disintegrated in seconds. Freedom jumped out. But I know it was too close when Genesis blew up since it was closer than I was and I was too close! I still don't know how my GINN missed being smashed to bits by all the junk that blast threw out!"

He sighed. "I lost track of Freedom then. And I couldn't find it again when the worst of the trash cleared. I don't know if it survived or not. I hope it did. I'd like to have a chance to talk to that pilot some day. The things you could learn from someone like that!"

"He's Earth Alliance," someone pointed out morosely, to the gloomy agreement of the group that had gathered while Lu had been talking. "It'll never happen."

"No," Adrian corrected. "He's with the Archangel. And that ship is with the Clyne Team. Properly approached, you might very well be able to talk to him someday."

Kira looked up, eyes tired and deeply sad. "I would hope and pray it would never be necessary again. We've won a peace here. Lets not talk about needing the skills to kill again but about developing new skills that will let us get along without any more wars."

Lance Thoms nodded. "That's the dream. That's what all of good will must work for now. But, Kira, in reaching for that dream and working your heart out to make it real, never let yourself forget that there are those who will be working against it just as hard. The hatreds that started this war are still with us. I will join you in praying for the success of peace. I won't abandon the means of defending myself if those prayers fall on deaf ears."

"Adrian?" Kira asked quietly.

"I am going home. I plan to get married and start a family. Peace is my dream too. But I am also the only surviving son of a Junius Seven family. I will be staying in the ZAFT, Kira. Because someone will have to be standing ready to protect my family if the peace fails."

"We're combat veterans." Yuri said suddenly. "We know war first hand. None of us would want to start another one if we can get what we need by peaceful means. But the leadership of Earth and some of the leadership of the Plants is not trustworthy. I too, will pray for peace and keep a wary eye out for war. Because I don't think the hogs who started this are satisfied yet."

He looked over at the unhappy Ultimate Coordinator. "Sorry, Kira. I don't trust the politicians."

Kira Yamato just dropped his eyes to his empty plate and said nothing. He had very little to say for the rest of the trip in fact. He came alive enough to do his public relations bit at the exchange with the Magellan but that was all. They shook hands and wished each other well but it was obvious Kira's heart wasn't in it. They hadn't told him what he needed to hear. They'd given him the truth instead. He was going to be a while digesting that.