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.)
Well, this took forever! Sorry about that. Had a few medical issues that rather fried my brain. Somehow, I don't do well writing with a fried brain. I'm notsure this is even a half-way decent chapter but, oh well, at least it's here and I can move on again.
Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Seed.
Aube was really a beautiful place. Yuri Lubbek stood quietly in the small boat house beside the alertly interested Voril Joule and watched as a yacht somewhat larger that he would have expected to fit in doors slipped gently up to the dock. Martin Dacosta, who had met them at the shuttle station, nodded at her.
"Your transport, gentlemen. Please stay below deck at all times. The Sundancer is a regular on the run to where you're going but ZAFT personnel are not. It would endanger more than you know if you were seen."
"We understand." Yuri accepted the order for both of them. "We aren't here to upset this operation but to help it."
Dacosta nodded at a trim young man in dark sunglasses who was putting the mooring rope over a bollard. "You can give the details to Alex Dino there. He'll be the one assisting you."
Yuri glanced at the man, then took a second, somewhat longer look. "Alex Dino?"
Martin nodded. "Yes, Alex is Princess Cagalli's personal bodyguard and she often has him helping any project her brother Kira is working on. Believe me, Kira is up to his neck in helping on this one."
"That'll improve the odds of this going well." Yuri agreed. "Adrian likes Kira and will usually listen to him. I believe he approves of Alex too."
"You know him?" Voril asked, curiously studying the navy-haired man who was waiting patiently for them to board now.
"Oh, we've met." The one-eyed ex-pilot said dryly.
"You don't care for him?" Voril's study grew sharply pointed.
"No, you mistake me here. I respect the man and his choices. But he's not an easy person to get to know and he guards his own privacy fiercely. So while I can honestly say I like what little I've had a chance to know of him, he has depths I'm ignorant of and they inform a lot of his decisions. I can't predict what Alex Dino will do from moment to moment."
"Ex-ZAFT then?"
"Yes. A decision he had less choice about than many assume by the way." Yuri's good eye was looking inward at that moment, reliving the not so distant past. "He chose the only course he could live with back then. I just hope it has rewarded him. He paid a higher price for this current peace than most and he did it with full understanding of what he was doing and what it would cost. He's a good man Voril, even if he is somewhat hard to know."
Martin eyed the pensive Lieutenant with respect. "Not many understand him that well. You must have known him for a while."
"No, not really. I didn't honestly have a chance to get to know him until after Second Jachin Due. By then he was committed to the Clyne faction and had played his painful part in that battle. The man I met had already made his choices and could talk about them. Our conversations while aboard Kusanagi were enlightening to say the least. I've learned a great deal about facing the unsettled future from Alex Dino."
"Oh," Voril was mildly surprised by the sound of it. "Maybe I should sit and listen to the guy then. Everyone tells me I have no idea how to plan for the future."
Yuri grinned. "You don't. But that doesn't keep you from charging headlong into it anyway."
He looked thoughtfully at Dino. "He might be willing to help at that. He knows Yzak and, I think, likes him despite his nature. He should be able to talk to you too since you're actually so different."
Voril nodded agreeably. "By the way, who is this Kira person? I'd never heard that Lord Uzumi had a son."
"Ah, now that's one long and complex story." Yuri told him. "Barest of bare bones; they're twins and were separated shortly after birth. Lord Uzumi adopted Cagalli and another family adopted Kira. They grew up unaware that they were each half of a twin set. I gather they were actually deliberately kept apart too. Moreover, he's a Coordinator and she's a Natural. It isn't a happy tale by the way so I'd be very careful to have Kira's permission before I did any digging in it if I were you. He's a good guy but he does have moments when he values his privacy."
"The Princess is adopted?"
"That's right. Now, you never say that out loud again, hear me?"
"Ah, yeah, sure." Voril blinked several times. "That would cause a lot of political trouble if that got out."
"I doubt it's all that much of a secret to the inner circle here but it still isn't something the man on the street appears to know and it isn't something he needs to."
"Yeah, I understand that!" He paused then asked, "So where was her brother that they never met?"
"Heliopolis from what I've been told. He was in tech school there when the Le Creuset team came raiding for the G-weapons."
"He got out of there alive? Lucky guy too isn't he?"
"That's part of the complex story." Yuri noted quietly. "We can see about going into it when we get wherever we're going."
"All right. We are here to help the Captain first anyway." Voril agreed promptly, his curiosity carefully shelved for the moment.
Dacosta smiled wryly at them. "Yeah, tell that to Captain Ito! He will not be happy to see, ah, babysitters."
"Nobody ever is." Voril replied serenely. "And right now, he's not thinking clearly enough to understand why we should be here. I do expect a lot of noise about this before it's over."
"You understate that well." Yuri noted.
Just over two hours later he decided that Voril had missed his calling. He should have gone into prophetic predictions. They'd arrived and walked up to the residence. Everything fell apart right there. Adrian had spotted them and met them on the porch. The shouting began immediately; it had been going on for nearly half an hour now. It was getting repetitive too. Nor did it help that 'Alex Dino' was still leaning silently against the doorframe, listening to it all.
"I outrank you Joule! You will get back on that boat and go home! How many times do I have to give you a simple order?"
"No." Voril replied just as calmly as he had the first time Adrian had screamed at him.
"That is an order, mister!"
"Tell me Captain, what part of 'no' don't you get?" His wingman finally asked.
"Excuse me?" The tone of voice was dangerous.
"What part of 'no' don't you get?" Joule repeated civilly.
"I am going to kick your ass so far out of the ZAFT they won't find you for a thousand years!"
"No you will not sir." Voril told him. "You will eventually run out of temper and then we can discuss this like rational people. Understand sir, you're an amateur at this temper game next to my cousin. I learned from the Plant's greatest expert on uncontrolled fury. If I can outwait Yzak, I can outwait you."
For a wonder, that brought Adrian to a stop. For the first time in over half an hour, there was silence. Yuri eyed his friend's face with great interest. The range of emotions flitting across it was amazing. As the silence continued to stretch, he wondered if they'd finally come to the turning point in this that Dr. Serin Ito had promised them they would reach if they could just not let him run them off.
"Lieutenant, go home." Adrian's voice was dead flat.
Yuri sighed mentally. No, they weren't at the turning point yet. Voril though had apparently had enough. To the shock of all onlookers, he pealed off his belt, red coat and blue undershirt. He hung them all, in correct order, on the coat tree from the hall. He then placed that item, with a hastily snatched pillow balanced up at head height, in front of his Captain. Adrian stared from the coat tree to his wingman in some confusion.
"One of the major reasons," Voril began only to stop and start over. "No, the major reason I'm here is because you've always seen me before. You never once suggested you ever saw Yzak; it was always and only me, Voril. But now you aren't seeing me. You're yelling at my uniform. Well, sir, you can do that whether I'm in it or not. Since I find it rather painful to just stand here while you chew my clothes out, I thought I'd just leave them here for you to scream at for a bit. I'll be over on the other side of the porch when you want to talk to me again."
Voril Joule marched over to the sunny side of the porch, found a well padded chair and flopped into it. He did not look back or say another word. By the look on his face, Adrian couldn't manage any words either.
For several minutes, Yuri honestly thought his friend was going to have a heart attack. The amber eyes were as wide as they could go and his face was a brighter red than his hair. He was having trouble breathing too.
Then something changed. The head lowered and the eyes, barely visible behind the hair that immediately fell forward, drifted to half closed. The vivid coloring faded to an equally dangerous looking pallor. The hands opened and closed in an oddly helpless manner. The only thing unchanged was the trouble he was still having with his breathing. There were more long minutes of silence before he slowly shook his head.
"Yuri," Adrian's voice was barely audible, "he's only just sixteen. He has no combat experience. He doesn't know what he's asking me to allow him to do. This isn't a safe place and to make the situation even more unstable, I'm a Coordinator looking for a Natural girl. This could go bad so easily! I don't want him here for that. Is this so unreasonable?"
"No and yes." The one-eyed former pilot replied quietly. "No, it isn't unreasonable for any leader to want his people safe. Yes, it is unreasonable to try to wrap someone who has earned that red coat in cotton and put him on a ledge. Unfortunately, deliberate or not, that's what it looks and sounds like you want to do here. He won't let you do it Adrian. He's earned the right to take his own chances and to decide for himself when he should go in harm's way."
"Yes, in a mobile suit! He's had the training to be able to judge his chances there!" He stepped back and sank onto a chair by the door. "This is a trip to North America for reasons that have nothing to do with the interests of the Plants. This is for me alone. He didn't sign on for this kind of thing. I have no right to take him or even to allow him to go!"
He looked up, eyes a bit frantic. "Or you either for that matter. Please, Yuri, take Voril and go home!"
"Not a chance. We have full rights to volunteer for any thing we chose to. You know that. You also know that's exactly what we're doing. Now, since I'm also getting tired of dancing around and listening to you be a stubborn fool, just tell me what's really wrong with you, eh?"
But Ito just shook his head, refusing to answer that question. This, this was so frustrating! Yuri wanted to scream at him, to slap him in the head, anything to get him to talk about it. Unfortunately, he knew from experience that when Adrian folded up like this, it was next to impossible to get anything out of him.
"He fears loss, Lieutenant Lubbek." A new voice said quietly. "He fears being forced into a situation where he will have to chose who to save. He dreams vividly and talks during his nightmares you see."
"Reverend Malchio, please shut up!" Adrian cried.
Yuri looked at the tall, slender man in his simple shirt and pants held up with a string tied at his waist. So this was the famous blind monk, the man who had been trusted as a go-between in the failed, last ditch effort to end the war before "Spit Break". He bowed politely to the oddly commanding figure.
"Thank you, sir. I was afraid that was the problem."
"You have seen this before in him then?"
"No sir, what I saw was the situation. We were part of the ill-planned attack on the Seventh Orbital Fleet. We were all fairly green then, it was only our third actual combat mission. Two of our Team went left when the plan called for going right. The other two in the group went the right way. But by splitting apart, all four were confronted by more enemy forces than they could handle. Adrian and I had to choose who to save. We could only help one pair, there were too many mobile armors to let us even consider splitting ourselves. We had fractions of a second to decide. We saved two, and lost two."
Yuri hesitated, then added softly, "It was a soul-breaking choice. They were all our friends. We'd been together since entering training. We had to listen as they screamed for help, and died because we'd gone to assist the others."
"Ah, I understand." Malchio nodded gravely. "You know then, that he believes he already knows where his choice would go?"
"Of course. He'd choose Kayla and the children. That's a forgone conclusion. I'd be pissed as hell if he didn't."
"How can you say that?" Adrian asked shakily. "How can you even consider this insanity knowing I wouldn't stand with you?"
"Because we want you to have a wife and kids to go home to at night." Voril said calmly, he'd come wandering back unnoticed. "If you don't grasp that, you're crazier than I thought you were over this."
"We did bring a plan with us; we aren't here just to throw ourselves away blindly. A bit of faith in at least me would be nice." Yuri added. "I can understand why you might not think Voril was prepared but you could at least credit me with some forethought. Oh, and he is very prepared by the way. He's the one who blackmailed his Aunt Ezaria to get us the travel papers."
"You did what?" Alex Dino blurted, shocked out of his silence. "Have you lost your mind? Don't you have any idea just how slippery that woman is? People don't blackmail Ezaria Joule! She gets even!"
"I didn't blackmail anyone!" Voril snapped. "I traded her some data she didn't have for the papers, all right? She's my Aunt, Dino! I know how to deal with her."
"Father used to think he did too." Alex replied grimly.
Yuri just watched as that comment brought Voril's attention sharply onto 'Alex Dino'. He saw him take in the whole man this time. The sunglasses were off, leaving the unmistakable green eyes exposed. Recognition hit very quickly. The gray eyes widened slightly, then narrowed. Voril turned to him.
"You do know who this is correct?"
"Of course." Yuri replied.
"And what you said in the boathouse, you did mean that?"
"Yes, I did."
Voril turned back to 'Dino'. "Sir, I question if the late Chairman really knew anyone by the end there. He'd become someone I could no longer recognize. I don't think many who'd met him before the war knew the man who was there at the end of it."
Athrun just looked down. "No, I don't suppose they did. I couldn't even recognize him anymore."
Kira was suddenly standing beside him, one hand on Athrun's shoulder and a wealth of sad understanding in his eyes. Reverend Malchio smiled slightly and slipped away, seeming to think he was no longer needed. Voril's eyes flicked over to him, asking Yuri who this new one was.
Kira now wore an Aube Colonel's uniform, the mobile suit insignia on his collar catching the stray bits of sun. That aside, he looked the same as ever. At least this time the sadness in the gentle eyes was for someone else. Looking at him, Yuri was amazed all over again to realize this was the most formidable mobile suit pilot of the entire war. He never looked the part.
"I suppose introductions are in order now." Adrian said quietly, still sitting in the chair he'd fallen into earlier. "Kira, Alex, this is my wingman, Voril Joule. He's a cousin of Yzak's. Voril, meet Colonel Kira Yamato and Alex Dino. I know you know Dino by another name but you'll kindly forget that one please. The change is for security reasons and if you never use the old name, you'll never make a mistake in the wrong place."
"Yes sir." Although he hadn't reclaimed his clothing from the coat tree yet, Voril nevertheless saluted them both.
Athrun nodded but Kira managed to return it with an Aube-style salute. The violet eyes smiled now. He promptly put out his hand as soon as he'd finished the salute.
"Pleased to meet you, Elite Joule."
"Thank you, Colonel."
Kira turned to Adrian. "Is he always this formal?"
"Only when he's unsure of his ground."
"Actually, you two should get along quite well." Athrun said quietly. "Voril is not much like Yzak. He lacks his cousin's unreasonable temper for one thing and he has a very accessible sense of humor for another."
"Oh, good! Two Joules who wanted to kill me would be a bit much!"
"Yzak wants to kill you? Whatever for? He's never fought Aube that I know of." Voril asked, completely puzzled.
Kira turned to Yuri, one eyebrow slightly raised. "How much have you told him?"
"That you and Cagalli are twins, separated at birth and raised apart. I rather thought if there was much more you wanted him to know right now, you'd tell him yourself."
Kira shook his head. "That isn't enough. He'll make mistakes with so little to go on."
"It's still your story, Kira. I didn't know where to draw the line and once you start on that one, finding a stopping place is not easy."
"He has a point." Athrun noted.
"Yes, I understand." The brunette looked quietly at Voril, then shrugged and began. "I suppose the fastest way to get into this is to tell you I was the pilot for the Strike and the Freedom."
"Captain?" Voril's eyes were wide as they could go.
"Absolute truth, Voril. Kira Yamato was Strike and Freedom's pilot. He's the finest mobile suit pilot alive today and possibly any day. And yeah, I know, he doesn't look it. Doesn't matter. That's who he is, which does matter." Adrian replied gently. "He's also a good friend."
"Strike," Voril said very carefully, "was an Earth Forces mobile suit."
"I know." Adrian agreed. "But by the time I really met Kira, he was flying Freedom and the Archangel had joined the Clyne Team. The earlier encounter in Alaska doesn't count. I never knew who I was talking to that time. Mu, . . . . . . . ., Mu had the Strike by then."
The younger pilot caught the pain so clear in that strange name. "Who was this Mu? You've never mentioned him before either."
"Mu La Flaga." Kira replied softly. "The Hawk of Endymion. My teacher and friend. We lost him on the last day of the shooting war."
"He was a great deal like my older brother." Adrian said. "He had the same kind of generosity, humor, and willingness to give all he had for what he believed in. I knew him one day; I'll miss him the rest of my life."
Voril turned to the coat tree and reclaimed his uniform, dressing silently. No one else had anything to say either. Yuri could see they were all lost in memory and thought.
"I'd like to hear the whole story sometime." Voril said quietly as he fastened his belt back where it belonged. "But this may not be the ideal moment. We did come here for quite another reason."
"Be very careful here, Joule." Athrun spoke softly but firmly.
"Zala, please tell me one thing." The other pilot turned to him. "Yzak respected you, to this day he still respects you. I don't understand what I'm hearing here but I can deal with that later. I do need to know what you did in that last battle at Jachin Due to keep Yzak's respect. He won't tell me."
"I was piloting the Justice."
Voril went very still. "Chen Lu tells us that he watched Freedom and Justice shoot down most of the nukes aimed at the Plants. That you did this both days of the battle. Is this the truth?"
"Yes." Kira and Athrun replied together.
"I see." The pale gray head went down. "Then whatever else you two did or did not do no longer really matters. You saved the Plants. That debt must be recognized first and foremost."
"There is no debt." Athrun said harshly.
"You don't get to decide that Zala." Voril straightened and looked the legend right in the eye. "I have a sister. She's five months old. I get to decide if I feel a debt to you both for saving her, and my parents as well. And I tell you that I do feel one. You may choose to ignore it, but you can not tell me it isn't there. No more than I can tell you that you must accept anything from me for it."
"Good. Because I won't." Athrun snapped.
"That too we can discuss at another time. For the moment, I will not attempt to push anything on you in gratitude if you will simply let this go. We really need to get back to our original reason for coming here. Time is passing and somehow, I don't think we want too much of it to get away from us."
"Probably not." Kira agreed. "You said you had a plan? That's more than Adrian came with."
"Oh, we have a plan all right." Yuri agreed with a quick grin. "It will account for three Coordinators wandering the American mountains and should keep most people from really bothering us much. Money talks after all and even if it comes from the Plants, well once it's in your account, it spends just like any other money."
"That makes no sense." Adrian complained.
"Very basic outline here; I am a wool buyer for Lubbek Imports. Adrian and Voril will play hired security. I'm hoping you will have connections with one of the real security firms based here so we can do a convincing fake job for ourselves."
"You're a what?" Kira stared at Yuri.
"A wool buyer." Athrun said, eyes lighting. "Lubbek Imports is the biggest single supplier of natural wools to Plant industries. It's a real firm and they do have people who come here every year to buy wools all over the globe. The war will have broken that pattern and it would surprise no one to see a Lubbek buyer trying to get a jump on the peace."
"Yuri," Adrian asked carefully, "do you know how to buy wool? And does this other Lubbek group know you're using their name?"
"Lubbek Imports belongs to my father. Yes, I can buy wool. In fact, Dad has set me up with a line of credit through the Bank of Aube and any contracts I write will be very real. Wool delivered under those contracts will be paid for! I'm killing two birds with the one proverbial stone here; helping you and reestablishing Dad's markets." Yuri grinned like a cat in a dish of cream.
"We can set you up with the biggest security firm in the western Pacific." Kira told them cheerfully. "Dreyfus Security has worked for the Aube government any number of times."
"But I'm still not getting the hang of moving like a one-g native!" Adrian protested.
"This way, you don't have to." Voril told him. "You simply become a Dreyfus agent from the lost colony at Heliopolis. That will cover your moving like you're space born and may even make some Naturals a bit sympathetic."
"Yes, I'd say you have a plan." Athrun told them. "It's even a logical one. This is good because while Dreyfus may have helped the Aube government in the past, they won't go for this if you can't measure up to at least their minimal standards. They can't afford to lend their name to incompetents."
"Understood." Yuri agreed.
"If this falls through because they don't like us for some reason," Voril noted, "we will need help setting up a new plan. This is the only one we brought with us."
"Lets see what they have to say before we start worrying about that." Kira advised.
"You really won't go home, will you?" Adrian asked wearily.
"No." Voril and Yuri chorused.
"Then I guess I'll go with your plan. It is a whole lot better than my vague ideas were."
"Yes!" Voril yelled in triumph as Adrian just winced.
"I will regret this for the rest of my life." He muttered.
"Oh, I don't think so." Kira told him happily as he headed for the interior of the residence. "If it lets you bring Kayla out safely, what do you care that someone else thought it up?"
"No Kira, that's not the point. I will have to live forever with Voril Joule telling everyone how he rescued my wife. Athrun only thinks Yzak's a pain. He's never had to deal with Voril's insane enthusiasm. I swear, he acts like he's ten sometimes."
"I heard that!" Voril yelled.
"Doesn't make it wrong!" Adrian yelled back.
"They're lead and wing?" Athrun asked Yuri. "How can they function when they argue like kids?"
"They don't when they're in mobile suits." He replied calmly. "Point of fact, they're almost frighteningly professional when they close the hatches. But until then, well, Voril's become the kid brother Adrian never had. And he sees Adrian as the light of the ZAFT."
"Adrian Ito, the light of the ZAFT?" Athrun stared. "What is the kid on?"
"Bad case of hero worship." Yuri sighed quietly. "You know Yzak. You know how widely his reputation's spread. Now imagine being his cousin and following him into the ZAFT. I'm sure you can see for yourself just what kind of problems that would cause you. He was assigned and transferred out of seven units before we got him. Their commanders were all afraid of how Yzak would behave when they had his cousin in their team. Adrian didn't want the trouble he thought would come with him either. But when it became clear there was no chance to move him on, he did his best for the kid. And Voril has just developed amazingly. All because someone sees him, not his cousin."
"Ah," he gave a slow nod of understanding and agreement. "He's good then I take it?"
"Very. Not many people can keep up with Adrian. Even I used to have problems with it. But not that kid. He's always right where he's supposed to be. Moreover, he's got outstanding instincts too. He can spot trouble coming a thousand kilometers out. And he reacts well when it arrives. No, Voril Joule will give his cousin's name as a mobile suit pilot a run for its money over time."
"Hey!" Kira shouted from somewhere inside. "Anyone hungry? Food's ready!"
"Coming!" Athrun called.
"We can go over everything after dinner." He added to Yuri. "Colonel Kisaka may be here by then too. He's the one who will have to set things up with Dreyfus."
"Good, I'll be grateful for his input." Yuri replied.
"Hey, food is waiting!" Voril yelped. "You two want to stop obstructing the doorway?"
Athrun raised both eyebrows but stepped aside. Voril headed in with a long stride and a cheerful grin. Yuri just shook his head, glad he'd decided to include food supplies in the pile of gear he'd brought to the island. Voril, who had an appetite to go with his age, would eat the place out of house and home if he hadn't.
"Wait! Voril! Slow down!" Adrian cried suddenly. "Look out for . . . . . ."
There was a loud crash and something shrilled 'haro!'.
"For the haros." Adrian finished, too late.
"Oh! Mr. Green! What have you done?" Lacus Clyne's unmistakable voice carried clearly.
"Well," Yuri noted. "I did say he could see trouble coming. Toys on the other hand, he's a bit blind to."
Athrun was looking down the hall at the wreckage with the young Elite pilot on the floor in the middle of it all. "Ah, yes. I must agree."
"So don't just stand there you two." Adrian grumped. "Help me get him up and this mess taken care of!"
He stamped off to pick up Voril. Athrun gave his back a rather odd look. Yuri tipped his head, asking a silent question.
"The Captain needs to be a bit less tense, don't you agree?" Zala said innocently.
"Eh?"
"Haro! Haro! Haro! Haro!"
"Mr. Pink! Mr. Navy! Mr. Yellow! Mr. Red! Stop!"
"Yahhhhhh!"
There was a second crash. Yuri stared. Four of those insane haros were bouncing all over Adrian and Voril, pinning them to the floor. Lacus was trying to catch her toys. And Athrun Zala stood there like butter wouldn't melt in his mouth.
Yuri looked down. There seemed to be a small control unit of some kind in Athrun's hand. Oh, yeah, he'd built all those things hadn't he?
"How long do you plan to keep this up?" He asked the former Elite.
"Oh, until they both seem to have lost some of that stress."
"Hope the power units last into next week then."
"No," he said regretfully. "Lacus will spot me before then."
"Zala."
"Yes?"
"I think she already has."
"Oh, not this soon."
"ATHRUN!"
"Zala."
"Yes?"
"Run!"
