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. 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 still get you ignored.)

I now have a beta reader! A very good friend with some of the sharpest editing judgment I know of has agreed to help keep me from rambling all over the known universe and beyond. So from now on, it will all be beta'd by T'Amara.

Threads continue to weave, the trip to safety begins.

Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Seed.


He was going to have to remember to do something extra nice for Serin. She was the one who'd found this helpful young man after all. She paid him a bit extravagantly true, a complete spaceship couldn't be considered standard wages even if he'd had to fix it himself, but he certainly produced results for it!

"Roland, what are you staring at now?" And then again, she was a busybody who couldn't mind her own business.

"Your Captain Martin is a good man, decent diplomat and fine negotiator."

"Ah, so we now employ the Serpent Tail do we?" She asked eagerly.

Roland nodded, deciding he would have to be nice after all since she was agreeing with him. "Yes, your boy took the offer to Murakumo and he agreed. I expect a large part of the agreement is because all he has to do is sit tight and run off intruders. I rather suspect he'd be doing that anyway but it never hurts to get paid for it."

"How long a contract have you set up?"

"One month." All humor fled the old man's eyes. "Either we have stripped the place by then or we haven't but that will make a total of almost seven weeks on-site for the recovery team and that's dangerously long. We can't leave them there past that point. Not with Gilbert, or someone with his kind of reach and power, trying to pry already. Murakumo is on the colony at the moment to do refit and repairs to his equipment. Those won't really take a full month more but he can stretch his time that far without it looking suspicious. Much more, and there will be unanswerable questions asked. We aren't doing this to attract attention."

She raised one eyebrow. "Do you want me to contract for a second team to increase the pace of the work? If you know where to find the money, I know a few more people in the Junk Guild who can keep their mouths shut."

He shook his head regretfully. "Can't really use them. The team already there seems to be just about maximizing their use of that Probex System we sent. I can't justify purchasing another one right now. And, unfortunately, a unit that size will be something Gilbert's loyalists would notice on an invoice. That's another reason we have a time limit on our explorations by the way. I can't explain away our lack of record condensing much past that extra month since that Probex they have is supposed to be working in our basement!"

"You know, life would be ever so much easier if you'd just tell me what lies you were telling everyone else!" Serin glared at him and he reconsidered being nice again. "Roland, we really need to stop working at cross purposes here. Has it ever occurred to you that I could make a right mess of one of your convoluted plans out of simple ignorance that you had the power to cure? Which, by the way is me telling you that I informed that agent of Dee's that the Probex wasn't here yet since you hadn't given me any other clues to work with and have been making yourself as unavailable as you possibly could for the last few days."

Roland Ito gave his daughter-in-law a flat stare. "You told him it wasn't here yet. We've paid for it and have a delivery invoice and you told him it wasn't here. Serin, what were you thinking?"

"I told him it was at Maklins Instruments being calibrated for your special project. I did not tell him which project. And I've got that old Probex you were going to scrap over at Maklins being repaired and calibrated right now! So the story is quite true, and utterly false, at the same time. Do not denigrate my intelligence Old Goat!"

Roland could feel his stare getting even flatter than before. That was the silly girl's insult he'd just been handed. No, he definitely wasn't doing anything nice at all! Although, he did have to admit she'd covered them rather well with the Probex issue.

He hissed in irritation. "Fine, you managed that better than I'd expected. Considering how old that thing is, and what kind of shape it was in, I gather we can expect it to take a few weeks to get back here then."

"Just about five." Serin agreed. "Which, if you really intend to pack up and pull out in a month will be just about right for when we can expect the new one back as well."

He sighed softly, no, he really was going to have to be nice about this. Too many things were working out well because she could and did think before she acted. How had his scatterbrained son managed to attract such a sensible, logical woman?

"Oh," she added offhandedly, "we need to discuss those plans of yours for the Mendel genetics too."

Roland Ito carefully put the letter down on his desk and settled in behind it. The tone of her voice was not promising. Had she busybodied her way into his files again? He sighed again. If he was going to be honest, and being anything else would be very counterproductive right now, she had a right to this. He sat back and eyed her. She stared levelly back at him.

"Have a seat Serin." He told her as he began to bring up DNA spiral after DNA spiral. "This will take a bit to go over."


The road through Utah had been better than the roads in Colorado. Of course, much of Utah was lower lying land and didn't see the same kind of abusive winter conditions the mountain roads had in Colorado. But there seemed to be a difference in state emphasis too. Their current driver, George – all five male drivers had introduced themselves as George and the four women had called themselves Martha, something Kayla said went back to the founding of the late United States – had pointed with an almost arrogant pride to his state's determination to keep it's transportation net in good order.

This George was their seventh 'freighter' and the first one Adrian didn't like. Oh he was affable enough but those cheerful smiles never touched his eyes. There should have been two of them too but this guy had talked the older woman who'd intended to accompany them out of going along. Kayla had accepted the decision despite being disappointed in not having another woman to talk to. Adrian had his own thoughts on what was going on.

It was the man's roving eyes that disturbed him. Most specifically, it was the way they tended to linger a bit too long and a bit too often on Kayla. They hadn't told any of these people she wasn't another Coordinator, they didn't need to know that, but he was getting more and more sure this 'George' had somehow figured it out. Adrian was also becoming very convinced this guy was resentful of a beautiful Natural girl keeping company with three Coordinator boys.

He'd been driving one of the longest legs so far too, having picked them up in Provo. They were near the Nevada state line now and he hadn't said a word for close to an hour. Both Kayla and Yuri were napping now. But Voril was awake, aware, and if you knew him well enough to see it, growing steadily less comfortable with the situation. The driver coughed, waking both the sleepers instantly.

"Ah, hey!" George called just that bit too heartily. "You guys hungry?"

"Yes!" Kayla snapped before anyone else could say anything.

"Food would be good." Voril agreed calmly.

"There's a small truck stop just up the road. If there's nobody around, you want to get a bite there?"

Kayla approved instantly, settling the matter immediately. Voril agreed with something the uninformed could take for his regular attraction to food. Yuri nodded sleepily, unless you saw his eyes which told a very different story of his level of awareness. Adrian just shrugged, striving to project indifference.

The truck stop was a small place with half the number of fuel pumps of most such places they'd passed. But it had a neatly kept look to it that spoke well of the managers and gave him some hope for the quality of the food. A pair of motorcycles, both Alliance military issue, rolled out of the parking lot just as they pulled in. That left one large, squat vehicle in the space beside the one they parked in.

Like the bikes that had just left, it was Alliance military. Adrian caught the brief flash of satisfaction on George's face before he schooled it to neutrality. They had a deadly serious problem here.

"Not good." Kayla eyed it grimly.

"You need to eat." Adrian reminded her, his hand briefly resting on the bulge in her abdomen. "And we're all disguised well enough to pass as Naturals."

"We hope." Yuri muttered darkly.

"Yeah but unless the rest of them are hiding someplace, I'm only seeing one overcoat hung up in there and no extra heads." Voril said quietly, eyes scanning as much of the place as he could through the windshield.

George either missed their soft conversation or was good at pretending because he turned very calmly and asked, "You guys still want to get something to eat? The lady can stay here of course, out of sight."

Kayla reached over and popped the door open before any of them could think of a safe answer. "Nope, not staying out here. I want a chair that doesn't move under me and a chance to get really warmed up."

"Besides," she added as she stepped out of the van, "we'll be less suspicious if I stick with the guys."

For a split second, Adrian caught something very ugly in George's eyes. It went with the attempt to isolate Kayla and the truck stop frequented by the Alliance. Treachery was no longer a possibility, it was a sure thing. As he moved to follow her out of the van, he gave the other two quick handsigns, asking them to make sure their luggage was taken out of this trap of a van before something happened to it.

George was trying to be subtle about it but as soon as he was out, Adrian noticed the touch-lock for the van was in his fingers. Kayla must have noted it as well because she grabbed the man's arm and dragged his attention to the vehicle they were parked next to, asking quick questions about capacity and the kinds of terrain it could cross.

George eyed the low slung machine without interest. "That's a modified land crawler. See, it's got wheels instead of treads. Holds fifteen with full field packs, more if you're just hauling bodies without extra supplies. It'll go pretty much anywhere."

"Yeah? And what's it doing here then?"

"Hey, we're almost at the state line. There's a huge training base just over the line, right outside Wendover. Soldiers like to eat something besides service chow when they can get it. I picked this place because it's fairly far from the closest base gate and is a lot less popular than just about any other spot around."

"So, what about that soldier?" Kayla jerked her chin at the window of the restaurant.

He shrugged carelessly. "You're all disguised, shouldn't be a problem."

Kayla locked eyes with him, holding his attention with her suspicious hostility for a good couple of minutes while he tried to placate her. Adrian leaned against the doorframe, using his body and a blanket he'd grabbed to wrap around his shoulders to block the man's sight as Voril and Yuri got the bags out of the van and stashed them under it to hide them for the immediate moment. He didn't move until Yuri tapped him on the shoulder and asked if he was wearing that blanket inside. He let Yuri take it and toss it in the van before he closed the door. All of them heard the small snick as it locked behind them. Adrian couldn't completely repress the shudder the tiny noise triggered as it put, at least to him, the intention to betray beyond all doubt.

The lone Alliance soldier in his small corner booth and the five of them were the only customers at this early hour of the morning. Voril picked their table and positioned himself to be able to keep an eye on the soldier's booth. Kayla neatly seated herself beside him and Adrian grabbed the chair next to her before George could. Yuri took the spot that put his back to the soldier but left him with a perfect line of sight on the door. That left the one seat with it's back fully to the door for the discontented George.

The waitress, an older woman with sharper eyes than most, brought them menus and coffee and left them to make their choices while she refilled the soldier's cup from the pot she was carrying. Adrian heard a light laugh that hadn't come from the waitress, apparently she'd said something to amuse him. Voril was still entirely relaxed though so whatever she'd said hadn't directed the man's attention to them.

When she came back they gave her their decisions, mostly varieties of breakfast; in Voril's case, two of them. She gave him the kind of indulgent smile Adrian was used to seeing mothers give happy small children who were behaving exceptionally well and just noted them down on the tab. When George ordered even more however, her look was not so tolerant. It gave him the feeling that George was no stranger here, and that he wasn't particularly welcome either. She left them a full pot of coffee when she took the order to the kitchen.

The wait for their food was uncomfortable. George kept up a running commentary on the nearby base, the frequency of the military patrols, and how much the base commander despised the coming peace. He also had a good deal to say about the roads in Nevada, which he apparently regarded with contempt because it allowed gambling and legal prostitution. It was becoming obvious that George had a rather strong religious streak and that his convictions were something he was heavily inclined to push on others.

Adrian was beginning to see where their problem was coming from. George was one of those people who could accept Coordinators as long as they kept to their own kind and what he saw as their 'place'; a location many steps below that of a Natural. But Kayla was a Natural who was unmistakably romantically involved with a Coordinator and this violated his beliefs. And it was clear that George had his beliefs ranked in order of importance. Enforcing his version of genetic correctness was distinctly more significant to him than keeping his word to them and the organization he worked with to transport them safely.

The man never once uttered the word 'Coordinator'. He never mentioned the underground groups that aided Coordinators to escape from dangerous situations in North America. He was very careful not to say that that's what these people sitting with him were. But unless that soldier in the corner booth was deaf and stupid both, he couldn't possibly miss the implications. And once the food arrived, he kept up his fairly cleverly worded denunciation all the way through the meal.

Adrian had to admit the man was sharper than he'd credited him with being. His carefully chosen wordage implicated the three actual ZAFT officers. He was distancing Kayla from them, making it seem as though she was separate from their group. The performance was actually impressive. It was also infuriating but there was nothing he could do about it at this instant. That didn't mean something wasn't being done though.

The four of them played tired and stupid, avoiding rising to his insinuations by coming as close to ignoring them as they could and still hold a conversation. Voril had gradually dropped out of the chat altogether, yawning in the familiar manner of someone who is very weary and who had just eaten too well. He looked ready to fall asleep in his plate. By the meal's end, Yuri was communing with his coffee and looked only slightly more alert than Voril. His responses had fallen off to the occasional agreeable grunt.

That left Kayla and Adrian to keep the man's attention and the conversation going. It was imperative that they do so. His attention could not be allowed to settle on his plate. The Bronze Spider understood the dangers this trip posed to her sister and she knew more about the people who ran this operation that Adrian suspected they dreamed in their wildest nightmares. She'd given them something to deal with situations just like this one. So every time George's eyes left his food, Yuri or Voril saw to it that the powerful sleeper drug she'd given them was scattered onto the next bite. Unfortunately, given the man's size and the amount he was eating, it wasn't acting as quickly as usual.

They were down to the last crumbs before his words began to slur. Then his eyes started blinking rapidly. It was hitting him at last. Kayla began to smile at him, paying strict attention to everything he said. It instantly locked what attention he still had on her as Adrian took to nodding over his coffee rather like Yuri was. George was so intent on impressing the girl he was now drugged enough to just short of admit he had designs on that he failed to recognize his own deteriorating condition.

The farce ended abruptly when the man's head suddenly bobbled, then slowly folded down onto his chest. The rest of his body began to go slack at the same time. As his torso started to fold, Voril reached over and removed the used plate and coffee cup from the 'landing zone'. Neither he nor Yuri made any effort to catch George. He hit the table with a fairly solid thud, face first, and started to snore instantly.

"Ok," Kayla eyed him with malicious dislike, "we've managed to knock out the driver. Any cute ideas on where we go from here?"

"Not yet." Adrian admitted quietly. "But we really didn't have a choice here."

"Yeah, I know. He was making it pretty clear what he wanted there." She agreed bitterly. "And I'd have killed him if he'd tried it too."

"Agreed." Yuri said softly. "It leaves us with a situation though."

"Ah, what do we do then?" Voril got back to the point quietly. "He's gonna be out for hours. If we take the van, then its theft and he'll have every police officer and their military cousins looking for us. If we take him along, we are just bringing danger with us."

"Besides which," Kayla muttered, "do any of us know where we're supposed to meet the next driver and what the sign and countersign are?"

"We meet them at what George here and the Martha who didn't make the trip called a monster truck stop somewhere between Wendover and Wells. The sign is any remark about the weather in Vancouver and the counter is the claim Seattle is better." Yuri replied with a small smile. "Sometimes eavesdropping pays."

"All right, thanks to Yuri and his sharp ears we know how to make the necessary contact. As for this lump, let me see what I can do." Adrian stood quickly. "The waitress may have a useful idea or two. I got the impression she knows and doesn't like our George here."

He picked up the bill and moved just briskly enough to the counter to pay it.

"I see Eric finally passed out." The waitress told him with a somewhat malicious grin. "That girl got lucky. He ain't one who takes no for an answer."

"Kayla is my wife." Adrian said quietly, filing this new name for 'George' in him mind. "He would have taken the no. One way or another."

Tired but surprisingly shrewd eyes studied him. "Been married long?"

"No." He shook his head and gave her their cover story. "We had to wait until she mustered out. The services don't like their women officers married unless he outranks her by a good margin."

"Huh, yeah sugar, I've seen that a time or two." She nodded sagely. "Waiting was smart of you both, even if there are kids on the way."

"Yes, well, that wasn't supposed to happen." Adrian tried his best to look at least somewhat ashamed of himself.

The woman grinned, a quite genuine expression this time. "Ha! Yeah, I'll bet! Still, its good to see a boy honest enough to do right by his girl."

Captain Ito blushed. He couldn't prevent it. The tone of voice, while kind enough, really managed to bite at the same time. He had to wonder how many this woman had seen who hadn't 'done right' by their girls.

"Uhm," he needed to change the topic, fast. "Having him pass out like this leaves us with a problem of transportation. Is there a bus we could catch? We're headed to Reno to visit her aunt but promised her uncle we'd stop by his place on the way and it's in Elko. Does one bus go both places?"

"Well, yes." The woman frowned. "But you don't want to wait for it here. What with the war and all, the only bus won't be here until almost noon. It'll take you to Elko right enough and you can catch a Reno bound bus there but this won't be any place to have that pretty wife of yours in about an hour."

She looked up the highway as if she could see something coming in the dark where no headlights shone. "It won't be any place for you either. You three boys all look like you're part Coordinator. Now I know no one picks their parents or grand-parents so I can't hold that against you but our place is real popular with that special ops team that came for training last month and they can, do, and will hold it real bad against you all. They're called the 81st Independent Mobile Battalion and they're Blue Cosmos to a man. It might be no more than bad words and such if there's an officer with 'em but they come without one most of the time and that'd be the death of you boys. No, you need to be gone before dawn."

Adrian noted she hadn't mentioned what these bastards were likely to do to Kayla and he mentally thanked her for not going into any detail at all. "That will be a problem. We aren't going to steal Eric's van."

"Tell you what." She nodded toward the corner booth. "The Lieutenant there is a good boy, honest, decent, and he's got nothing against any of the people you came from. He can get you to the White Rock truck stop on the far side of Wendover. It'll be safe for you to wait for the bus there. Those Phantom Pain fellas don't go that far from the base; they can't beat up someone they don't see."

"Phantom Pain?"

"Oh, that's what those 81st Mobile boys call themselves."

Adrian tucked both names away in the back of his mind. He'd never heard of the unit before. While he wasn't here to play spy, when someone handed him intelligence on a platter he wasn't fool enough to hand it back. Besides, a pure Blue Cosmos unit was something the Plants should be aware of. He wondered how long it had been around.

He had a more pressing problem though. It seemed the changes in clothing, the hair paints, and the discrete use of makeup General Grayhawk had managed for them was at least partly effective. They weren't being spotted as Coordinators but he had to wonder if being taken for a part-blood was all that much better. Still, even that had to take second place to just getting out of here. And he really, really, didn't want to take her suggestion. Not only did he not want to test the disguises against the observational skills of another trained soldier, he knew none of them knew enough about conditions on Earth to be able to hold a real conversation without getting caught.

He decided to tackle the smallest of his problems first, hoping inspiration would hit in the mean time. "I'll think about that. We need to do something about Eric though."

"No problem. We got rooms for truckers upstairs. He can have one. It isn't like he's the first we've ever had who drove too long and passed out after getting a decent meal into him. We've had fools drive straight through from Fresno, all the way in California, through the High Sierra and the basin country before they'd finally stop here for a bite." She shook her head. "And the idiots wonder why they drop over into their soup!"

She gave him a crooked grin. "I know Eric, he's not broke. I'll get the price of the room outta him. You don't have to worry about it. You bought him a meal after all."

He nodded and ducked back to the table. It took a couple minutes to fill them in on what they were going to do with 'George', also called Eric. Kayla just snorted when he explained, she thought he should be out a lot more than the cost of a motel room. But the news about the bus time and this 81st Mobile Battalion was received with the grim thoughtfulness it deserved. The suggestion that they catch a ride with the Earth Forces officer was just tossed aside immediately.

They didn't have time to discuss it yet. Being most closely matched in size, he and Yuri picked the unconscious man up and more or less dragged him over to the elevator where the waitress was waiting. It was the work of minutes to have him upstairs and dumped in a bed with his shoes off and the coverlet dropped over him.

The woman put Eric's watch, wallet, and a gold bracelet he was wearing into a small lockbox that she secured behind a grill-plate in the wall. She took the key to that grill with her. Adrian was relieved. This way, there was little chance the bastard would be able to file false charges of theft against them.

Kayla smiled as they settled back at the table. Adrian returned it weakly. He still had no good idea of how to get them out of this place.

"So what do we do now?" Yuri asked the inevitable.

"I don't know." Adrian admitted unhappily.

"Ah, one part of the equation is moving." Voril said softly, his head carefully tipped down toward his coffee while his eyes watched the Alliance soldier through the shield of his bangs.

Adrian glanced over, making sure he avoided staring. He didn't want the man getting any suspicions of any of them. But when he got a good look at the enemy officer, he nearly dropped his jaw in shock. This was an Earth Forces soldier?

He was terribly young to start with. He honestly looked about fourteen although he had to be at least two years older than that to hold a commission rank in any Alliance service. And he was tiny. If he stood five feet tall he'd be amazed. He looked dangerously thin, like he hadn't ever eaten well in his life.

The Lieutenant had the most delicate hands Adrian had ever seen on a male human and he was honestly and truly girl pretty. The light in the restaurant made his hair look a dark auburn and it curled gently to his collar. But it was the strange sunglasses he was wearing, inside, at night, that didn't make any sense at all.

"Oh shit!"

"It can't be!"

Kayla and Voril's soft voiced but shocked exclamations tripped over each other. The Lieutenant had shrugged his overcoat on and was starting for the door when he apparently looked at them for the first time. He froze, shock written across his handsome face. Then he moved again, headed their way slowly, head turning just enough to tell Adrian that he was looking back and forth between Kayla and Voril.

He stopped at the back of the chair Eric had been sitting in. "Captain Grayhawk? What's going on here?"

Kayla visible dragged herself back together. "Nothing's going on. And it isn't Captain any more. I've resigned my commission."

Even up close it was not possible to see into that very odd set of sunglasses he was wearing. They lay across his eyes more like liner goggles than standard sunglasses and they were obviously fit snuggly enough to be very difficult to dislodge. There was something weirdly familiar about them too. Adrian was sure he'd seen something like them before but he definitely did not associate that memory with anything related to the Earth Forces. No, he couldn't see them but he knew those eyes were studying each of them in turn.

"Perhaps a better question would be, do you need any help?" The young officer asked quietly, and the query was directed to Voril.

"Justice, . . ." Kayla said quietly, then let it die, plainly not able to think of how to finish her thought.

"Why would you?" Voril asked, deadly seriously.

"Consider what I owe your cousin." The Lieutenant replied, just as seriously.

"Someone want to clue me in?" Captain Ito asked, voice soft but the tone like steel.

The small Earth Forces officer nodded. "I'm Lieutenant Justice Rockway, Alliance Navy. And it was your friend's cousin who saved my life. I'm a Rockway, we pay our debts. And somehow, I doubt I'll ever get another chance to pay this one so completely."

"Tell me, where did you get that medical visor?" Yuri asked gently. "I didn't think those could be found here."

"It wasn't made here. It was made where you think it was, at the Vision Research Center on Marius 4. And I was given it as part of a course of treatment for severe visual injury while I was a prisoner of war."

"Adrian, Justice is ok. And he knows a bit too much to brush off. His only brother is a Coordinator." Kayla said quietly.

"Specifically, Bridger is a Commander in the ZAFT." Rockway said evenly.

Adrian stared at the blind band the other wore where his eyes should be. Now that he knew what that was, he knew they might not even be behind it any longer. Those visors could restore a functional form of sight to anyone with a working optic nerve although they couldn't help someone if the nerve had been destroyed. He made a split second decision based on nothing more than his impression of this too pretty, too small boy in front of him.

"We need a ride." He told the Naval officer.

"My leave is good for the next twelve hours. How far do you need to go?"

"To the far side of Wendover."

"I can get you there."

"Then, thank you."