Memories
Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Seed, but I suppose I own Rusty's personality since it never is mentioned in the books or show.
Ok, I had fun writing my one-shot, Ultimate Sacrifice, and I got some good reviews. I decided to do another Rusty story, but this one going more into his background (that I invented since, again, it wasn't mentioned in Gundam Seed. Please read and review!
Character: Mostly Athrun and Rusty, though it has a few others. I'm going from Athrun's POV, the last one to actually sit down and think about it, all the way down to Miguel's before Kira kills him. (Damn Kira…got Rusty killed; killed Miguel, Nicol, and Raw Le Klueze (or however you spell it); gave Yzak the scar…etc, etc…)
Also, from now on, any memories are going to be in the character's point of view.
Oh, and I WILL update my Shani fanfiction soon, if anyone wants to know. I'm in SUCH A WRITERS' BLOCK THAT I AM GOING CRAZY!!!!! (GAHHH!!! D:)
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Sweat blots the silver haired man's forehead as he tosses and turns, his fingers splayed against the mattress beneath him. Sharp blue eyes are clenched tight with past-haunted sleep, and his lips move in a repeated chant of denial from whatever is happening behind those ice-colored eyes. Tears streak down a pale cheek; his wild struggles slowly calm until he is silently crying.
Those same blue irises open slowly to the darkness of the room. Climbing to his feet, Yzak rubs at his eyes furiously, shame heating his face at having been found with such a weakness. He punches his pillow in annoyance before getting up and looking around the room. It is so much different from his home with his mother. He can't even remember why he had agreed so readily when Dearka asked if he'd like to room with him in this fair sized apartment. Maybe it was because he wanted to spend as much time with his friend in case death took him from the world like it had with Nicol, Miguel, and Rusty. He shudders at the very thought that he may have to go through the pain of losing his best friend once more. He still feels the terror when he had thought Dearka was K.I.A.
Actually, every death of the people close to him called terror to his soul. He can still remember the first person to have died in the war; the first person he knew, at least, to die in the first Great War. Rusty Mackenzie was one of the kindest, yet toughest, people that Yzak has ever known. Rusty's death probably hurt Yzak the most. Well, no. He can tell for a fact that it hurt the most. Before Rusty's death, he didn't actually understand that the Naturals would actually be able to take them down. He thought that ZAFT would have no problems taking the EAF down. He was naïve then. Rusty's death was the very thing that shoved the reality of the situation into his face. After that, Yzak had to harden himself to death; numb himself to the loss of his friends and comrades.
Yzak gently runs a hand through his silver hair wearily, glancing at the door of his best friend's room. It is dark and empty; cold without the blonde's boisterous personality to lighten the apartment. Dearka is out on a mission; he hasn't been here for over a week now. It feels empty without him. It gives Yzak too much time to think about the wars. Just like now…
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I watched silently as Dearka chatted with the new kid, or at least, he seemed like a new kid at the time. Rusty had always stayed in the back. His scores, while not low, were not anything to bring attention to like mine and Athrun's almost perfect scores. At the time, I thought that Rusty was an average fighter; now, I know that he did the same thing as Dearka did. He held back his true potential to make it seem like he was average when he could be one of the top students in the academy.
"Yo, Yzak!" Dearka cried, waving towards me with an amused grin on his features. I sighed heavily and walked towards the two, not knowing what to expect. I certainly didn't expect Rusty to be the kind of person he was. I expected him to be a joking slacker like Dearka, not the kind-hearted fighter that he was.
I stopped in front of them, setting a hand on my waist impatiently. People still make fun of me for that; they say it makes me look even more feminine that I already do, the bastards. I caught Dearka's amethyst eyes steadily with my own ice blue ones, drawing an explanation out of him.
Dearka ran a tan, brown hand through his unruly blond hair under the steadiness of my gaze. "Yzak, this is Rusty Mackenzie. He is in a lot of our classes, now that I think about it. He's an awesome guy…" he muttered calmly, motioning to the small red-head. "Rusty, this is Yzak Jule. He's my closest friend," he told Rusty, smiling as he motioned to me.
"Nice to meet you, Jule-san…" Rusty said softly, holding his hand out to shake mine.
Shaking his hand, I sat down in front of the two. They were sitting at one of the six-seated tables in the cafeteria. Rusty sat beside Dearka, so I sat across from him. I peered silently at the boy, not sure what to make of them. He spoke with a Japanese-like dialect, adding the honorifics, though it was quite obvious that he wasn't from a Japanese line. After all, how many pale, red-headed Japanese people have you met? "You, as well," I murmured, deciding that he knew someone who was Japanese and that person had raised him. How correct my theory was, now that I think about it.
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Yzak can't help but smile sadly at how cold he was to Rusty in the first few meetings. Indeed, Dearka had been right that Rusty was in most of their classes. Yzak was unimpressed with the boy's scores and thought him to be like Nicol; too kind and weak. Though, unlike Nicol, he wasn't known to have excelled in anything while the green-haired boy was an amazing strategist.
It took two months to actually find out that Rusty was hiding his true strength. And, as much as it shamed Yzak to think about it, the only reason he found out was because he held no trust for him.
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My eyes narrowed suspiciously when I saw Rusty sneaking off after curfew. I was up to get a glass of water. Not trusting the red-head, I decided to follow him out of the academy, glad that I had changed into a pair of sweats and a long sleeved shirt when I got up for the late night stroll to the kitchen. Quickly ducking behind him, I followed him out into the night and into one of the empty fields.
He pulled of his jacket in the chilly night air stubbornly, only wearing a t-shirt, sweats and running shoes. Setting it down onto the due-damp grass, he pulled his shoes off leaving him only in his socked feet. He set his shoes beside the jacket. Kneeling so one knee touched the grass and his hands held him up in front of him, he carefully fell into a starting position. He quickly starts to run, easily beating his normal scores and actually beating me and Athrun's speed with ease. He was quick.
Gasping softly, he stopped and turned to look in my direction. I knew that I had been caught and stepped out of the shadows.
"Jule-san…" he whispered softly, walking to his stuff before slipping his shoes back on. He slipped his jacket over his bare arms, looking over at me with guilt-filled smoky eyes. "I…why did you - -?" He didn't finish his question and instead gazed sullenly at his feet. "I'm sorry. You must have seen me sneaking out and followed me. You…don't trust me, do you, Jule-san?" he murmurs faintly, not meeting my eyes.
The soft words of the kind boy nearly stabbed me in the chest. It made me feel so guilty. How could I not trust this boy? He has given me no reason to doubt him. "I…I'm sorry, Mackenzie. I didn't. I do now, though. Why didn't you tell me you were that fast? Why don't you show that speed in class?" I questioned, leading him back inside. He didn't follow. I turned back to face him, catching sight of the tears slipping down his cheeks. "W-what?"
In the moonlight, he looked absolutely heartbreaking like that. The tears almost glowed against the porcelain-like skin, and his smoky eyes mirrored the eeriness of the night, showing sorrow. "I'm a no-name orhan to everyone at this academy…if I suddenly beat them like it was nothing, what do you think they'd do? What would YOU do, Jule-san?"
I blinked in surprise. "What are you-" I stopped when he shot me a hard look and decided to humor him. What I came up with wasn't pleasant. I hated Athrun because he was better than me, but I knew that was because he was the son of assistant-chairman Zala. If Rusty had beaten me before I became ucustomed to his personality, I would hate him because I was beaten by a no-named orphen, just as he said. "You're right, and I apologize."
Rusty grinned weakly and wiped his tears away roughly. "Ain't I always right, Jule-san?" he joked, laughing lightly. He turned to the the stary sky and smiled patiently. "When the final week hits, I'll show them what I really can do. That way, I won't have to deal with any bitter failures," he told me, his smoky eyes trained on me carefully. "Thank you, Jule-san. For trusting me, now. Thank you."
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Yzak rubs his eyes from the moisture collecting once more. When Rusty looked at him, he saw such respect and caring that it nearly broke his heart. It did break his heart when Rusty never made it out of Heliopolis. Like Nicol, Rusty never liked to fight and wasn't cut out for it; he was just too kind. But also like Nicol, even if he wasn't made for fighting, he could hold his own if he needed to.
When finals did come, Rusty beat Yzak in marksmanship, speed, and flight simulation. He had incredable reflexes that he may have inhereted from his father. He probably would have been the only one out of their team who could have taken out Kira. Actually, if Nicol got serious and lost his caring nature, he probably could have come up with a strategy to win, as well.
Rusty's death broke Yzak's melting ice heart into pieces. He was the closest friend he had besides Dearka.
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"Athrun, where's the Strike?"
Even through the communication device, I could hear the fear and worry in Dearka's voice. My own blue eyes stung slightly and my heart felt crushed. I ran towards the bridge of the ship from the piolts' little waiting room, fear blinding my hatred for the Aegis's new pilot.
"Athrun!" I shouted when I caught sight of the blue-haired coordinator. "Where is Rusty?! Where is he?!" I don't even know when I had grabbed the front of Athrun's mobile suit uniform, but I had. I pulled Athrun close threateningly, my blue eyes searching emerald desperately. I saw unshed tears and I felt my heart fall into my gut. "N-no, he can't be-" I whimpered, letting Athrun go and falling to my knees. "No…"
I felt a hand on my shoulder and I looked up to see Dearka's pained, but calm expression. Out of all of us, Dearka was the only one who could keep his composure in these types of situations. "I…see..." he whispered, amethyst eyes dry. "How?"
Athrun fell to his knees beside me and Nicol hugged him tightly. "The Strike fell into the Earth Alliance's hands. Before it did, though, Rusty was going to shoot the pilot. He…just seemed to stop, though. A boy our age warned the woman and she shot him; Rusty didn't move! He let it happen!" Athrun cried, sobbing into his hands. "Miguel is handling the pilot. The boy is in the Strike with her…"
My eyes widened and the only thought that went through my mind was that Rusty hesitated. I couldn't believe that he would allow himself to die; he hesitated.
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Now that he thinks back, Yzak believes Dearka knew something then that none of them did. Athrun still believes that Rusty allowed it to happen. Yzak knew that Rusty wanted life more than anything in the world, that makes him think that Rusty hesitated. But, Dearka thought completely differently. He thought that Rusty saw it coming, just couldn't do anything to stop it.
"Dearka, I never saw it happen, but you might just be right…"
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Ok, there is Yzak's. Now I'll finish Nicol's sometime. Hope you like,
-LaZ