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.)
And now someone learns people have been withholding vital information from him.
Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Seed.
Adrian yawned. It had been a long, dull patrol before they'd all reboarded the Gagarin to return to the Plant. This was good in some ways, he wasn't interested in trouble and anything not dull generally involved trouble. It was not as good from a training standpoint as dull tended to blunt reactions, especially those of the rookie pilots. They had a dangerous tendency to get in the bad habit of taking dull for granted when it happened too often.
Still, he was pleased with his sub-team. They'd done a thorough job in the section assigned to them. Everything not instantly identifiable had been noted and checked. Considering they were on the far edge of the Second Jachin Due battlefield, there had been rather more of those objects than he'd been expecting. It was pretty clear that the debris field was expanding faster than anticipated. Patrol zones were going to have to be stretched to cover it before long. All that material was going to have to be collected and gotten out of the shipping lanes after all. Adrian wasn't looking forward to more rounds of 'reclamation duty' either.
For today though, their job was done. A fairly heavy jar announced the final docking of their transport with the harbor for Aprilius One Mobile Suit Base Prime. The four sub-teams from the Thoms Team were the last to board, they would be first off. Adrian positioned his GINN by the hatch to observe his people as they disembarked.
One could tell a good deal about the overall state of an individual pilot by how they handled their machine when they were tired. Even the best could get careless when coming in off eight hours of uninspired patrol. But today there was no carelessness, no missteps, no close calls with ground personnel. He was pleased; the Team was shaking down very, very well for just seven weeks together.
He was especially happy with Voril Joule. The younger Elite was definitely not his cousin. He was a cheerful, surprisingly even-tempered young man with a truly wicked sense of humor. The veteran's fears of Yzak however had made him very hard to partner. After four of them had turned him down and two who had agreed to try hadn't worked, Adrian had simply taken Joule as his own wingman. The rookie he'd had in that position wasn't happy with the extra responsibilities that went with being the Second's wing. When he'd traded with Voril's last discontented partner, four pilots ended up much happier and the Team much more stable.
It was a relief to turn the GINN over to the mechanics and head for the locker room. He needed a shower badly after being in that flight suit so long. He actually managed to get the shower and almost completely dressed before anything interrupted him. It was his wing who stuck his head in the locker room looking for him.
"Captain," there was an unusual seriousness in the silver-haired pilot. "You might want to listen to this story Chen Lu is telling right now."
"Which one is it?" Adrian asked as he fastened the white belt over his red coat.
"He's claiming he and some sixty other cadets defended the Plants from the nukes on the first day of Second Jachin Due under the leadership of an Earth Forces officer!"
Ito looked up, mildly surprised. "You haven't heard that one yet?"
Voril's deep gray eyes opened very wide. "He's made that insane claim before?"
"He's reported the incident before." The Second corrected. "The story, weird as it is, happens to be true. Go listen, you'll find it interesting."
"An Earth Forces officer was defending the Plants? From their own nukes?"
"That's correct." Adrian waved Joule out the door. "Go and listen! Chen was really there. In fact, he was functionally her Second!"
Voril whipped back out the door immediately. Adrian just grinned at the closing door. Chen liked that tale. It was actually surprising Voril hadn't heard it already, considering how often Lu told it. He followed his shocked wingman out the door, curious to hear what details Chen was going to remember to throw in this time. Each time he told it, there was something new to hear. Eventually of course, he'd remember it all and there wouldn't be any new tidbits. Until then, it was worth sitting through the main story just to get the new crumbs. There had been some very useful ideas buried in how Kayla had handled those cadets. But this wasn't the day for hearing them.
"Adrian!" He turned to see Yuri bearing down on him, data slate in hand. "Lance needs this checked over and signed off ASAP so he can get in the pipeline."
He sighed quietly. One of the biggest disadvantages to being Second of a large Team like this was the never-ending administrative details it involved. With the Commander now off-base with the second half of the Team for their share of patrol duty, all these emergencies became his problem children. He took the data slate from Yuri and grabbed the nearest chair.
Fifteen minutes later, he'd made three serious and two minor corrections and signed the requisition. The Commander was trying to get them into a queue for an entirely new line of mobile suits, the ZAKU. Having read the specs, Adrian was every bit as interested as Lance Thoms in the upgrade. The new units would just about fly rings around their current GINNs. Unfortunately, every mobile suit team in the ZAFT flying GINNs had the same interest, making the competition for the limited production of the new suits fierce. As soon as he handed the slate back Yuri, as bitten with the ZAKU bug as any of them, dashed off to get it filed.
Free again, Adrian headed for the pilots lounge, hoping Chen hadn't actually finished his story yet. But luck was not on his side, the younger pilot was already working on the plate of snacks by his seat. Since he never touched them until he was done with his stories, he needed his hands for illustrating the action, it was obvious the tale itself was over. He might still be doing question and answer though and interesting things sometimes popped up there too.
The sight of Chen with his piled plate reminded Adrian he hadn't eaten for hours. Food suddenly sounded like a very good idea. So he detoured past the snack table with its load of finger foods and tasty treats. He found himself in line behind Rusty Dahl and his rookie partner, Evan Marakis.
"I just wish they'd agree and sign a peace treaty." Evan was saying as his Captain picked up a plate behind him.
"There's worse things than peace." Rusty agreed. "But we need the right kind of peace you know. I'd hate to waste all the blood and death so far on a bad one. Why are you in such a rush for a treaty? You planning to tour Earth or something?"
Marakis grinned sheepishly. "Not exactly. But it is only ten days to Thanksgiving and no treaty means another year I won't get to go to Mom's parents place and stuff my face with the best food in the universe."
"What's Thanksgiving?" Rusty asked.
"A North American holiday." Adrian told him. "Has something to do with the early European settlements. Nowadays I'm told it's pretty much an excuse to, as Evan here put it, stuff your face."
Dahl stared at his wing in shock. "You go to North America for food? Are you crazy?"
"No I'm not crazy! And yeah, I go to North America for my grandmother's cooking! You haven't lived until you've had her turkey and dressing! Not to mention her butterscotch pie! It isn't like we can invite them up here you know. My Natural grandparents are way too old for getting on a shuttle and taking launch g's."
"Yes you are nuts! What about Blue Cosmos? North America is dangerous you idiot!"
"Hey, my grandparents live out in the middle of a national forest. Their nearest neighbors are five kilometers away. We just go in and come out very quietly. There's never been a problem." Marakis protested.
"There's a first time for every disaster." Rusty said darkly.
Privately, Adrian agreed with Rusty. At the same time, he completely understood the desire, the outright need for many, to keep in touch with family. That the Marakis family was willing to do this, wanted to do it, despite being Coordinators and Naturals, was actually a very positive thing. He sighed softly. Someday he and Kayla would have that same problem. Part of him hoped they would be as welcomed at her family's home as the maternal Marakis grandparents had made their Coordinator grandson.
He took his plate and claimed a deeply stuffed chair in the conversation group where Chen was still holding forth. As he began to relax into it, Adrian realized just how tired he really was. This would require precautions then.
There was a tray in a pocket alongside the chair. He pulled it out and laid it over the arms to give him a place to put the plate. Normally he didn't bother. But he knew he was tired enough to run a real chance of falling asleep here in this chair. If he did that with the plate in his hands, well, dumping food in your lap was undignified and even more so when you were a Team's executive officer.
He nibbled and listened. Chen didn't seem to be covering any new ground, damn it. Oh well, couldn't win them all. He continued to listen, and eventually to drift towards sleep.
It was a question from Voril that pulled his fading attention back. "I don't understand. You just let the Tomahawk escape? Why"
"Ah," Chen paused, then said something that brought Adrian right up out of sleep altogether.
"Well, that isn't what's in the official report. That says she evaded me during the last of the nuke strike and got away. I lied about that part."
"Why?" Voril demanded. "Did you do something that stupid?"
Chen Lu stared off into the distance thoughtfully. "I suppose that would depend on how you looked at it. What I did was back off and let her go."
There was a very long silence after that, then Voril remarked, "Yes, I'd call that stupid. I hope to hell there was a reason."
"Oh yeah, there was. But I doubt you'll believe that part of the story. I wouldn't if I hadn't been there." Chen replied quietly.
"What did happen?" Adrian asked, careful to keep his own voice low and the tone calm as he realized he was finally going to get the details he'd never been able to get out of Kayla.
Lu sighed then just began talking. It all came out quickly and quietly. It took no experience really to understand this had been chewing on him ever since it happened.
"It was after the battle. The nukes were all gone, the Freedom and the Justice had flown off too. We were hanging around being a last ditch insurance policy just in case any stray missile or mobile suit got past the real soldiers. I had that comm line I told you about tagged onto her machine and she was flipping through our combat frequencies, using the chatter to track how the fight was going. I was listening in with her over that line."
He looked up at the ceiling but Adrian suspected he was seeing something very different in his memory. "She finally ran across a real nasty situation. Someone, one of our people, had snapped out there. He was claiming he deserved Team command and was going to kill his remaining Teammates to be sure they couldn't stop him from getting it. The crazy was also pissed at one of the others because that guy was involved with a Natural girl. From what he said and the way he said it, I think he was jealous, that he really, really wanted that girl himself."
"What!" Voril's exclamation came out as a strangled squeak, throttled by shock before it could become a shout. "Kill his own team? Over a Natural? That's nuts! And who'd be involved with a Natural anyway? There's a war on, where'd you meet one to get involved? You're making this up!"
"No I'm not!" Chen snapped. "The crazy, name was Hobman or something like that, he really wanted to kill his own team and especially the one guy and it was about a Natural girl!"
Adrian saw Yuri slide into a free chair nearby, eyebrows going up as he recognized just what Chen Lu was telling everyone about. They exchanged a serious look. Chen knew way too much and had already said too much about it. There would be questions now, questions the Board of Inquiry had missed the first time.
"Even if he did, what does this have to do with letting Tomahawk go?" Joule asked angrily.
"Because she said she owed those guys and she was going to help them." Chen sighed. "I told her she couldn't go, that I couldn't let an Alliance officer like her just leave."
"Well, that much sounds smart." Voril agreed. "What changed?"
Chen looked straight at him. "She asked me if I'd heard the part about the one being involved with a Natural. Well, yeah I had. She said she was the Natural they were talking about and the guy the nut wanted to off was the father of her twins."
The universe came to a stop for Adrian Ito. He was vaguely aware that Chen was talking but it had no meaning for him. "The father of her twins"? Kayla was pregnant? And she hadn't told him? No, he realized, she hadn't. Because she knew he'd have done everything in his power to keep her from going back to Earth if he'd known. And she'd made it very plain she was not going to desert her own service.
Suddenly he blinked as a very important bit of data registered; how did she know she was having twins? Someone had to have told her. There was only one person that could have been. And that person hadn't said one word to him since he'd come back to the Plants without her!
He sat up abruptly, knocking the tray and the plate half way across the room. He didn't notice. Nor did he notice when everyone in the room turned to stare at him as he pulled air into the very bottom of his lungs.
"GRANDFATHER!" He screamed. "WHAT THE HELL ELSE DIDN'T YOU TELL ME?"
"Captain?" Chen asked, his voice shaken.
"Oh shit!" Yuri whispered, horrified.
He was on his feet although he didn't recall getting up. He could only point at Chen; his voice had deserted him suddenly. He did know he was shaking so hard it was difficult to stand.
Yuri Lubbek was many things but indecisive wasn't one of them. "Chen! Do you remember exactly what she said? Think hard, because it really matters!"
"I'm not sure." He faltered, staring at his wild-eyed and trembling Captain.
"Calm down for a second and think." Yuri prodded.
"Uhm, I think it was something like," he paused, then shook his head. "No, what she said was "Well, I'm the Natural he's been screwing and he's the father of my twins! Now get out of my way!" That's it, exactly as she said it!" Then Chen's eyes suddenly widened. "Hey, the crazy, he was threatening you Lt. Lubbek!"
"Yes, and Commander Thoms and Captain Ito." Yuri said quietly. "When you let Kayla leave, you saved all three of us, Chen. She came up behind the man who'd snapped and took him out almost before he knew she was there. Lt. Grayhawk can fly a GINN. Get her mad enough and she can fight in one too. It's really kind of scary what that girl can do. Especially when you consider it was a standard ZAFT machine and she's a Natural."
"I'm going to kill Grandfather." Adrian whispered, bringing his friend's eye back to him immediately as he judged the state the Second was in.
"Adrian, I'll look after the Team and explain to the Commander." Yuri said decisively, then turned to the Second's wing. "Voril, you bring the Team's command car around! You'll be driving the Captain over to the Ito Project's offices."
"Sir?" Voril Joule asked, completely lost.
"Just go get the car!" Lubbek shouted.
The younger Elite jumped to his feet and ran for the door. He stopped abruptly a few feet from it and turned back. He stared at his Captain and then at Yuri Lubbek.
"Lieutenant Lubbek," He suddenly spoke firmly and evenly. "How did Captain Ito ever become the father of the Tomahawk's children?"
"Do you know what the Ito Project is?" Lubbek countered.
"Of course I . . . . . . ." He stopped. "Oh!"
"Get the damned car, now!"
"Yes sir!"
Serin hung up the phone. This was going to be remarkably ugly if she didn't keep them apart. At least the Lubbek boy had the good sense to call her before Adrian could get here! She walked quickly to the door and checked for her secretary.
"Ani, please find Dr. Sakarov for me at once. Tell her she's going to have to take over the afternoon rounds. I have a family emergency all of a sudden. It seems my son is intent on murdering his grandfather for withholding information. I think I'll be tied up the rest of the day preventing that."
"Yes Ma'am!" The startled woman reached immediately for her comm as Serin charged on out of the office.
It was going to be necessary to get Roland out of the Project for a while. If he were here, Adrian would find him. If he did that before she could get him calmed down, he really might do something he could never take back and would regret to his own dying day. The old man was a creature of habit; he should be in the reproductive lab at this hour. She headed that way at just short of a run. He wouldn't budge if she didn't tow him out in person.
Roland was exactly where she expected him to be. Unfortunately, he was in the middle of supervising a gene splice. She shook her head angrily, he was going to have to let his team complete this one without him or Adrian would be here before he was done! She barged right into the lab.
"Roland! Come with me, right now!"
He looked up, furious. "Are you mad? Get out! Whatever it is will wait!"
"Not this time!" Serin snapped. She grabbed him by the arm and hauled. He was totally unprepared for a physical assault; she was able to get him moving towards the door easily. The problem lay in keeping him moving.
"What do you think you're doing!" He howled and planted his feet to stop her.
"Believe it or not, saving your stupid life! Adrian's coming and he's ready to kill you! You didn't tell him the girl was pregnant, did you? Well he's found out somehow and he's lost control! Yuri Lubbek just called to warn me."
Her father-in-law's resistance collapsed, probably more from shock than any agreement. She didn't care as long as it made it possible to get him out of the lab. Once away from there, it would be much, much easier to convince him to leave the Project altogether.
"Serin, are you saying the fool girl didn't tell him?"
He'd expected Kayla to do that? Hadn't he ever read any of the analysis she'd done on that young woman? She glared at him as she dragged him toward the main doors. But the look on his face told her that no, he hadn't considered for one moment that she might not tell Adrian. Gaaahh! This idiot genius was such a fool with people! Thank God he'd left raising the children to Mai! She shuddered to think what her Donald would have been like if his father had had much to do with his upbringing!
"Of course she didn't tell him! He'd never have let her leave if she had! And she has issues of military service and family that she has to deal with before she can make any kind of life with Adrian that would last! Why do I give you assessments, Roland? You never read the damned things!"
"I read it!" He protested vehemently.
"No, you looked at the words! If you'd read it you'd know she couldn't tell him and that you'd need to as soon as she was gone! He'd still have been mad but it would have been manageable. Now, well now it's been over two months and he's lost control. Where can you go for the afternoon? Because I assure you, you must, and I do mean MUST, not be here when he gets here. And he'll be here in about fifteen minutes."
"I can tell him the truth!" Roland snapped indignantly. "There isn't any lie here you know. I simply assumed the silly girl would do the reasonable thing!"
"No, I can tell him the truth. You can't. He won't hear it from you. All he'll hear from you is more manipulations. You've been far too ham-fisted with him these last few years Roland. He's now trained to see conspiracy whenever you open your mouth! Get out! I don't care where you go, just go! Now! And don't come back until you've called me to be sure it's safe! Because I assure you, he's out of control right now and he will strike to hurt! He's insanely in love; do you grasp that? Go someplace where he won't see you until the insanity part wears off!"
She looked around and spotted Logan, the Project's jack-of-all-trades who was also Roland's driver. "Logan! Get the car! Fast!"
The man didn't stop to ask questions. He saw his boss being hauled along by his daughter-in-law and assumed an emergency. He turned and ran out the door. As she pushed them open, he pulled up with the car. He was out and had the door open for Dr. Ito before Roland could collect his thoughts coherently enough to speak. Serin gave him no chance to set his feet or protest; she pushed him into the door and Logan immediately stepped in and got him seated.
"Go to Miranda." Serin ordered, an idea coming to her. "He's going to go after her. He'll need clearances, documents, permission to board the diplomatic shuttle, the works. She can expedite those for us. Oh! And be sure to get the necessary papers to let her come back with him!"
"Serin, . . . ."
She gave him no time to interrupt her. "Just get the clearances! If I can tell him you've gone to do that, and you really have, it will help immensely! He may even forgive you in something less than ten years. We don't have time for arguments right now. This time, just do it my way for a change!"
"I, . . . . , all right." He finally agreed, a look of puzzlement and shock on his face as Logan closed the door.
"Logan," she said crisply, "Madam Thoms should be at her estate at this hour. Try there first. If she isn't home, the staff will be able to help Dr. Ito find her. Do not let him talk you into coming back until he's spoken with her! It is imperative that he do so. The safety of his great-grandchildren depends on this!"
The man paused, startled. "Great-grandchildren?"
"My son has chosen a wife. But there are some serious complications. However, she is already expecting twins and now we need to get her home safely. Please, get Roland to Miranda Thoms as quickly, and safely, as you can."
"Yes Ma'am!"
Logan took her at her word. The car fled the Project's compound like there were demons after it. Serin watched, nerves stretching, but Roland's car was completely out of sight before a military command car came whipping in the same drive Logan had just so precipitously departed. They'd missed each other.
Now all she had to do was manage her raging son. Serin Ito stood perfectly still as he bounded out of the car. He almost charged past her but something in her stillness caught his attention and he stopped.
She'd never seen his eyes that kind of liquid gold before. They were lit from within by a burning wrath that lay over an icy terror. So, it was fear that drove him almost more than the anger. She understood that. The girl, no, the young woman had chosen a very dangerous course when she elected to return to Alliance space over two months along with Coordinator babies.
"Where's Grandfather?" He asked hoarsely.
"Gone to see about the permits you will need to go to Earth and fetch her back." Serin replied quietly.
"Really?" Adrian asked sarcastically. "How cooperative of him. When did that disease strike?"
"When Yuri called to let me know Kayla hadn't told you about the children." She turned cool eyes on her son. "Your fool of a grandfather assumed she would. He never really reads the assessments I send him you know. He simply goes through life taking for granted that things will go as he wants them to."
"You knew?" The accusation was blistering.
"Of course." She returned as calmly as before. "She was under our medical supervision Adrian. I knew before she did."
"I can understand Grandfather's silence, but why didn't you tell me?" He asked, some of the anger draining off into pained betrayal.
"Because it was an unsupervised cross Adrian. They often fail. The data is fairly thin but even so, what we do know shows at least fifty percent of all such Coordinator/Natural embryos will fail to implant. Of those that do manage an initial implant, sixty-three percent miscarry within three months. Neither Roland nor I wanted to get your hopes up only to lose the embryos"
Now he stared at her in confusion. "But, what is this whole damned Project for then if the failure rate is so high?"
"The failure rate," Serin pointed out with a small sigh, "is for embryos produced the old fashioned way, by natural sex, without a geneticist to make sure the best egg and sperm are the ones united. In other words, the way you two did it."
He stared at her, horrified now. "You're saying we may have lost them by now?"
"Unlikely. I have the last medical reports from Dr. McIntyre. The babies were doing well and had developed properly up to that point. When they fail, there is normally evidence by then that it will happen. No, Kayla was very securely nine and a half weeks along when she left the Kusanagi. All evidence to that point would indicate these children would not be lost."
The emotional ride he was on abruptly dropped her son from rage and fear into depression and fear. He sank to the steps, breathing hard. Seconds later, he folded over as uncontrollable tears began to fall. In moments he was sobbing into his own knees, huddled in a tight ball.
Serin sat beside him, holding him as the fear roared through him. She pulled his head over until he toppled and was crying in her lap. It was too soon to try words again, he couldn't hear anything right now but the blood pounding in his own head and the racking sobs that he was trying unsuccessfully to suppress.
She gradually levered him up so he was leaning against her shoulder. Now she could hold him properly and still have one hand free to stroke his hair. It had always calmed him as a child. Serin had no doubts it would be as effective on the young man he'd become.
She looked past Adrian's shaking shoulders to the embarrassed and uncertain boy standing by the car. This, unless the description was completely wrong, would be his new wing, Voril Joule. It was remarkable how much he resembled his cousin. One would guess them brothers if one had no more than appearances to go on. He looked like he was going to need some reassurance before this was over as well.
She smiled gently at the boy. "Being hopelessly in love is not an easy thing. It is all the harder when they are both such independent people."
The deep gray eyes darted around, never staying on anything very long but always returning to Adrian. Oh, yes, this was something far outside this youngster's expectations. Had he imagined love was all flowers and bright laughter? Possibly, so many of them did.
"She's, ah, really, . . . ." He stumbled to a halt.
"Expecting their children? Yes."
He shook his head violently, silver hair flying as he rejected that. "No, I mean, is she, really, Earth Forces? The Tomahawk of all the stories?"
"Ah," Serin looked at him understandingly, "yes she is. Adrian captured her at Alaska. He expected it to be a clinical thing, a matter of careful genetic manipulations that had no emotional factor at all. Then, they both found there was nothing clinical in how they felt about each other. It happens sometimes. It can be a blessing, or a curse. The difference is all in how the two involved let themselves see it. Adrian and Kayla wish to see a blessing. They will fight for that vision. I believe they will achieve it."
"But, she's a Natural, isn't she?"
She smiled at the confused youngster. "Oh, my! That's not what matters. What counts is that she is just as human as he is. We are kin, Voril. We all come from one genetic root stock. There was only the one available to use when they began making us after all. And this really has nothing to do with any of the issues that divide us. This, in truth, is the thing that proves we are still essentially one people. They love each other. She cares enough for him to want him for her partner, to bear his children, and to be content that they are like him instead of like her. He can see no other partner for himself or mother for his children. That's what matters between two human beings after all; its all in the caring."
"Oh." The idea was completely novel to him. Serin watched the boy try to digest it as she gently rocked her son in an effort to calm him all the faster. The hand on his hair and the slow, repetitive motion combined to gradually reach him. The sobs died away to the occasional heavy breath and the tears eventually stopped. At some point stress and exhaustion took over and he simply went to sleep.
She sent young Joule into the clinic for a team and a gurney. Adrian didn't wake when they picked him up or while he was moved through the halls. Not even being put to bed woke him. She understood his resistance to awakening much better when Voril explained that they'd just come in from many hours of patrol duty when he learned of Kayla's pregnancy.
In the end, she not only had Adrian but young Joule for an overnight guest as well. He proved impossible to pry away. This was interesting. He was far too dedicated to Adrian for so brief an acquaintance as they had. She resolved to run this surprising boy past a few tests to see just what was going on here.
But that was something for the morning. Even Roland and his triumphant return with almost all of the documentation Adrian was going to need already in hand would wait until morning. For now, Serin Ito had a comfortable chair placed in the room with her son and his wingman. She would watch them both safely through the night.
