A/N: Well, here is my second chapter for GSJ. Hope that you like it. It will be really long, just so you are prepared. After all, I had to have Kira's perspective as well as the OC's, which ate up a lot of space.
Some personal replies to some reviews:
-Dragon Shinobi- Yeah, I wonder too…just going to have to find out aren't we? Heheheheheh ;)
-Mathiasosx- Yes, it is going to be a Kira and Lacus fiction. I warn you though; this "different" is going to get even more so later on, although the same basic plot will be there from the anime.
And now, for the main event, chapter 2!
Gundam SEED: Journey
Phase 2
The Secret's of Heliopolis
Previously: Kira, Miriallia, Tolle, and Sephiria are introduced to us. Sephiria is shown to be a ZAFT spy and we receive our first glimpse of Rau Le Creuset.
"Code in acknowledged. Sephiria Elsman of the Le Creuset team. Commander Le Creuset will be with you shortly. Stand by." Sephiria nodded and the screen blanked. She nibbled on her lip, waging a mental war. She had already betrayed her home enough as it is, and she was averse to doing it more, but to not betray her home and friends would mean that she would have to betray her brother and ZAFT. Unless….perhaps she could tell the Commander only about the units she had already reported, but not the others? After that, she could simply…disappear. Go to Orb, get a new name, then come back in a while and rejoin the others. Her brother would be in no extra danger, and her friends would never discover her secret. She nodded to herself, her decision made, and waited for the Commander.
On the bridge of the Vesalius, the communications technician turned away from his console to face a tall man with blond hair who wore the white and black uniform of a ZAFT commander. Over the upper half of his face, he wore a white mask.
"Sir, Agent Elsman is on the line, as per you communications order. Shall I patch her through to your terminal?" he asked, and the blond masked man shook his head.
"No, just put her onto the main screen for the bridge." He replied, and the comm. tech nodded. Tapping a few keys, he patch Sephiria's signal through to the large screen above the viewport on the bridge.
Down in Heliopolis, Sephiria blinked. From what she could tell, the entire bridge could see-and hear-her. She saluted to the camera, and Le Creuset returned the salute.
"Report, Sephiria." He ordered, and she lowered her hand, but remained at parade rest.
"Yes sir. I have only to report that the Mobile Suits being built here were still in their hangers five hours ago, although I have reason to believe that they will be getting moved very soon. The Earth Forces may have already begun transferring them over to the Assault Ship that is being constructed here as well. At this time, I know where the ship is, so eliminating it should be simple. I am sending you the relevant data now."
"Excellent. Well done. The team is suiting up now, and should be ready to take all six machines after they eliminate the spaceship. The operation will commence in 45 minutes. Make sure you are someplace safe. Our people will find you after things cool down and smuggle you out."
"Yes sir, thank you sir. Operation commences in 45 minutes. I understand!" Sephiria replied, appearing to be every inch the willing and loyal soldier.
Le Creuset nodded a dismissal and shut down the link. He sat in his chair and smiled to himself. He had been waiting for so long, manipulating the world, and now it was time. Time for the curtain to rise on his little play.
Sephiria, on the other hand, was leaning against a tree and crying. She hated this. She had already decided to betray her nation, but it was too late. She had less than an hour to try and protect her friends, evade detection, and somehow not get picked up by ZAFT. She felt so lost. At first, she had hated everything about this place, everything it represented. The stars were for the Coordinators, not lowly Naturals, and especially not a bunch of Naturals to cowardly to pick a side, instead insisting on remaining "Neutral". Then Miriallia had approached her. Surprised, Sephiria had rebuffed her offers of friendship, rather aggressively and rudely. Far from being put off, however, Mir had simply seen it as a challenge, and had wormed her way past the barriers in Seph's heart. Before Seph knew what had happened, they had become friends, and Mir was brining her along when what she called "The Gang" hung out. There she had met Kira, and Tolle, and Kuzzey, and Sai, and even Flay. They had all accepted her with ease, and she had found it so strange that a bunch of Naturals would be so friendly. With amusing ease, they had destroyed all of her ridiculous misconceptions about Naturals and about Orb itself. Peace, she realized, was an amazing thing. The peace that came from Neutrality, and the lack of conflict, was something to be admired and envied.
Then, the last thing she would have expected happened. She had started to fall for Kira. She hadn't tried to, didn't want to, and didn't even realize that it was happening, but by the time she did, she couldn't have stopped it even if she had wanted to. She expressed her feelings to Mir, who had not reacted as expected. Instead of being annoyed or overprotective of her friend, or using it as gossip, she had rolled her eyes, said that it was about time, and helped her to figure out how to, as she put it, "land him." Seph didn't know how she felt about treating Kira like some sort of fish, but she had appreciated the support. One thing had followed another, and they had started dating. Then it struck her how bad it could be if anyone back in the PLANTs found out that she was dating a Natural. Her brother and his friend Yzak would raise nine kinds of hell if they found out, and she knew that her superiors would assume that she was compromised. Then, quite by accident, she had found out that Kira was actually a First Generation Coordinator. She had been the happiest girl alive; because that meant that she and Kira could be together without any…repercussions. She had hoped to get him to join ZAFT eventually, especially since she could see that he had extraordinary abilities, even among Coordinators, but he had been violently opposed to both sides when she asked him which side he supported. He had declared his distaste for killing and war in general and rightfully pointed out that he and his friends were obvious evidence for the point that Naturals and Coordinators could get along, and even be close friends. Sephiria had to admit, his reasoning was very strong, and she agreed with him. But now…he would hate her when he found out, she was sure of it… She dashed away her tears angrily. This wasn't the time to feel sorry for herself. Even if he ended up hating her, she was going to follow this path all the way to the end. She pushed herself off of the tree and, pausing only long enough to push a button in the small comm. case, walked away. Behind her, unwanted and abandoned, the comm. case sat on the ground. A few seconds later, with a small explosion, it shattered into a thousand pieces, leaving no trace except a small scorch mark on the grass.
Morgenroete Factory District-Professor Kato's Office.
Sephiria walked through the double doors leading into Professor Kato's office, and stopped, surprised. Everyone in The Gang, except for Flay, was there. A girl with blond hair that no one seemed to know, since no one was talking to her, stood in the corner. Kira was busy talking to two people that Sephiria didn't recognize, a girl with long midnight-black hair and a boy with spiky red hair. It was obvious that he knew them, and knew them well. Seeing Kuzzey, who was standing against the wall, alone and the closest of the group who wasn't busy, she sidled up next to him and whispered:
"Hey Kuzzey."
"Hey Seph, you alright? Kira, Mir, and Tolle told us you looked scared earlier. Kira wanted to go looking for you, but Mir stopped him." Kuzzey murmured back.
"It…it was nothing. It's fine now." Seph whispered, relieved that her friend had stopped Kira. "Who's the Blond, and more importantly, who are those two, and how do they know Kira?"
"A pair of old friends apparently. They know Kira from when they all lived back on the Moon. They were here when he arrived. He was pretty surprised, to say the least. The blond is apparently the Proff's guest, and was told to wait here."
"Guess Kira is a pretty popular guy, huh?" Sephiria murmured to herself, eyeing the girl as she smiled at Kira, but unfortunately for her Kuzzey noticed both the words and the look, and chuckled softly.
"I wouldn't worry about her, Seph. She and the red head are together. Besides, we all know that Kira would never look at another girl. You should know that."
Sephiria blushed, not only at having got caught in the act of jealousy, but at the fact that she had been worried about it in the first knew Kira wasn't like that, and know that she looked closely, Kuzzey was right. The way that the girl and the redhead interacted and the way they stood around each other was clearly in a romantic way, while the way they interacted with Kira was more of a sibling-esque attitude. Just then Kira noticed her standing over by the door, half hidden behind Kuzzey.
"Seph, come over here, I need to introduce you!" he called, and she blushed as she walked over and Kira planted a kiss on her cheek before wrapping an arm around her and facing the other couple.
"Guys, this is Sephiria. Sephiria, this black haired devil is Faith London. Be careful around her, she's a tomboy and a beast." Kira said, before yelping as Faith smacked him upside the head.
"Quiet fool! You may give her the wrong impression!" she said with a smirk. "I ought to beat ya!"
"You already did, and she doesn't need me to give her a bad impression, you can do that by yourself." Kira muttered, rubbing the side of his head. "That hurt!"
"Aye, Kira. Ye should have known better than to say such things with the Wildcat around." The red-head grinned, his thick Scottish brogue making his words almost indecipherable. "Pleased to meet you, Sephiria. The name is Cu Hawke."
"I'll show you "Wildcat" later, you big lout." growled Faith, and Cu just wiggled his eyebrows at her.
"Do you promise, love?" he relied cheekily.
Faith blushed a fascinating shade of scarlet before laughing. Looping her arms around Cu's neck she gave him a prolonged kiss. Sephiria, thoroughly bewildered, looked at Kira, her eyes questioning, and he nodded with a wide grin.
"Yeah, that's just the way they are. They've been like that forever, so you might as well get used to it."
"How long is forever? They seem extremely close." Asked Sephiria, as the other couple had yet to come up for air.
"7 years or so. They may not act like it, but these two idiots are in their early 20's. Anyway, they were just telling me that they moved up here just a week ago. They've been living in Orb for some time now. Evidently, they found out that I lived up here, and decided to join me."
"Aye, just like old times." Cu said, as he and Faith finally broke apart. "And it doesn't look like you had any trouble building up another entourage, have you now?"
"It's not like that, Cu, and you know it." Kira said, frowning at his old friend, but Cu just smirked.
"You have always been the one who has people following him. You're just one of those easygoing, leader-types. Might as well get used to it."
"I don't want to." Kira muttered, and all three of his companions laughed.
Sephiria smiled, but her smile faded quickly. Elsewhere, at this moment, she knew that ZAFT soldiers were preparing to attack. She had to get started.
Elsewhere in Heliopolis, six ZAFT redcoats and 12 regular greens flew down a ventilation shaft on their backpack thrusters. Coming to a four way intersection, the lead redcoat held up a closed fist. As his fellow reds gathered around him, he looked down through a grating at the large white warship in the secret hanger beneath them. Looking up, the leader made several hand signals to his fellows, and the entire group split up, spreading out and planting explosive charges at key points around the hanger.
Outside Heliopolis
"It's time." Rau said simply, gesturing towards Heliopolis.
"Aye, aye!" Captain Ades replied, rotating his command chair forward. "Weigh anchor! Vesalius, moving out!"
The two ZAFT warships activated their powerful main engines, coming around the asteroid at high speed. GINNs shot out of their hanger, activating their thrusters and rocketing towards the colony.
Heliopolis Control Room
"Chief Controller!" yelled a tech over the whooping alarm.
"Calm down! Cut of that alarm!" the Chief Controller ordered, grabbing a headset from a nearby worker. "Approaching ZAFT vessels, cease your advance at once! Your actions are in a direct violation of you treaty with our nation! I repeat, ZAFT vessels, cease your advance at once!"
"Sir, electrical interference emanating from the "ZAFT vessels"!" reported the man the Controller had taken the headset from. "This is clearly a hostile act!"
"Damn it all! Launch the defense drones, before they take the harbor over!" the Chief Controller said, trying to keep himself together.
The Bridge of a Marseille-III class transport ship of the Earth Forces
"What's the situation?" asked Lieutenant Mu La Flaga as he flew onto the bridge.
"Two ships, Nazca- and Laurasia-class. We confirmed the launching of mobile suits prior to the commencing of jamming interference."
"Have Luke and Gale board their Moebius units, but don't have them launch yet!" Mu ordered, heading for the door. "I'm launching too!"
Within moments, Mu was climbing into his Moebius Zero's cockpit. Strapping in, he started to bring it online.
"Lieutenant La Flaga?" the captain asked, clearing asking for further instructions.
"Launch the ship, the harbor is about to be taken over." He said, before switching to his flight's channel. "Gale, Luke, you two stay together and cover each other! If it gets too bad, retreat! Is that understood?"
"Yes, sir! We understand sir!" they replied in unison, and Mu grunted in approval.
Secret Hanger Complex: Control Room
"Captain! What do we do?" shouted an Earth Forces officer.
"Calm down! If we launch, we will be playing right into their hands!" The Captain said sternly. "Let Heliopolis handle this!"
As the timers clicked down to 4:26 left before detonation, the ZAFT team flew at increasing speeds down the ventilation shaft, knowing that they were running out of time.
Back in the control room, the Captain was busy conversing with someone on the phone.
"Yes, I know!" he said firmly. "We're prepared to launch if we have to!" he slammed the phone back down, then turned to a black haired women in the uniform of an Ensign, and a blue haired man in the uniform of a Chief Petty Officer. "Ensign Badgiruel, you and Chief Neumann get Lieutenant Ramius for me, and commence transfer of the G-weapons!"
"Sir!" they saluted and flew away, headed for the central shaft.
Vesalius's Bridge
"We will move in as soon as we eliminate the mining operations." Rau ordered softly.
"Yessir!" confirmed the pilot as defense drones started launching from the colony.
As the counters hit 19 seconds, the ZAFT pilots were almost at their target. The Earth Forces convoy moved ever onward, carrying their precious cargo to the ship. All throughout the colony, the people of Heliopolis went about their lives. Innocent, carefree and happy, they had no idea how much their realities were about to get shattered. People shopped, children played in the park, Kira attempted to fix a malfunctioning robot suit with Tolle inside as everyone else laughed.
Then, in an instant, it was over. The charges detonated, washing over the ship in waves of fire. Two charges detonated on either side of the control booth for the hidden hanger, and the Captain barely had time to scream before he and everyone else inside the booth was consumed.
Natarle Badgiruel looked behind her at the sound, and didn't even have time to yell out before the shockwave swept down the shaft, picking her up like a doll and throwing her into the wall, knocking her unconscious instantly.
All the students stumbled as the building suddenly rocked sideways.
"What was that?" Sai cried. "A meteoroid?"
Damn it all, it's started. I have to get everyone out of here! Sephiria thought desperately. But how? I had wanted to have them near the shelters beforehand! It might be too dangerous to head there now!
All of a sudden, the blond girl ran out the door and down a side hallway that lead straight to the factories.
"Hey, hold it!" Kira shouted, charging after her.
"Kira! Come back!" Sephiria shouted, but the loving, protective fool simply yelled over his shoulder that they had to get to the shelters, and he would deal with the blond. Moments later, the floor collapsed behind him, cutting off any chance of them following him.
"Sai, Tolle, Kuzzey, you three take Mir to the shelters. We three are going after Kira. That fool needs someone to watch his back!" Cu ordered, and the others nodded.
"Wait, what about you guys?" Mir shouted as she was pulled away.
"Don't you worry about us; we know a thing or two about this place!" Faith called out, before shutting the door. "Now, anyone know a parallel route to the area?" She looked straight at Seph, and raised her eyebrows.
"I…yes, I do." She said, leading them over to a door marked "KATO" on the far wall, near where the blond had been standing. She tried the handle, only for it to be locked. "Can you guys open this?"
"Leave it to me!" said Cu, pushing her aside gently. He took a deep breath, and then lashed one foot out in a powerful blow. His foot connected with the door, which smashed off of the hinges and fell down the stairs the door had concealed. "Good thing I didn't ram it with my shoulder. I would need the hospital." He said, staring down the steep staircase.
"C'mon, there are some things down here that can help us protect Heliopolis, and Kira." Sephiria said, pushing past him and starting down the stairs.
"Oh? You mean the GAT-X030 Werewolf, the GAT-X911 Assault, and the GAT-X231 Renegade?" Faith said, and Sephiria stumbled slightly in shock. "Are those what you're talking about, Miss Sephiria Elsman, ZAFT pilot and spy?"
Sephiria froze in horror. They knew!
"How did you know?" she asked in a strangely flat voice, and they laughed.
"Kira doesn't know this, but Cu and I work for the Orb Special Forces. We were sent up here to pilot the Werewolf and the Assault, which were being built secretly for the Orb military. As for you, Orb's intelligence division is exceptional."
"Are you going to tell…Kira?" she whispered.
"No, but answer me this:" Faith said, her voice suddenly growing cold, and Sephiria heard the distinctive sound of a handgun being cocked. "Did you just use your relationship with Kira as a cover, or was it genuine?"
"It was genuine, but he will never forgive me for lying about who I was." Sephiria said sadly.
"Don't count on it. We know Kira, and he will forgive almost anything." Faith said, and Sephiria hear a pistol being holstered. "Let's get going. We need to get to those units and protect this colony. Besides, you have proven your loyalty to him by betraying ZAFT, just like us. He makes people want to forget about the war…and what has been lost." Faith sounded so sad that Sephiria turned around.
"What…what happened to you?" she asked tentatively.
"Cu and I…we're Coordinators too, just like you. Our parents were killed in the Bloody Valentine. We hated Naturals so much, we accepted a mission posting to the Moon for an assassination ordered by Chairman Zala, but….we met Kira. And his friends from the Moon. Over half of them were Naturals. What happened to you happened to us. We couldn't find it in ourselves to hate them any longer, and sp we went to Orb. There, we heard some things that made us…leery of ZAFT. Growing genocidal factions, things like that, so we joined Orb. And here we are."
Sephiria turned around and kept walking, feeling ashamed. She had brought something painful up to them, and she regretted it deeply. "C'mon guys, 300 yards to the hangers." She murmured, setting off at a trot.
Factory District: Above Ground
Kira caught up with the blond and grabbed his arm. A blast of wind whipped down the tunnel, blowing the strangers hat off, and Kira looked on in shock.
"You...you're a, a…girl!" he exclaimed, the tactless words escaping him as his mouth betrayed his shocked brain.
"Yeah, what did you think I was?" she snapped back, but wrenched her arm out of his grip and started walking away before he could reply. "You should go back. There's something I have to check up on, ALONE."
"Easy for you to say! The way back is blocked!" Kira said, coming up beside her and looking around. Grabbing her arm, he started to pull her down on of the passageways. "C'mon, this way!"
"Let GO of me, you JERK!" she yelled, and Kira looked back at her, amused. She certainly was a loud one!
"Jerk, huh?" he asked, before noticing the tears in her eyes.
"I…I just never thought that we'd get…involved!" the girl said, half sobbing.
None of us did. Why would they do this? Kira thought to himself, but aloud he affected a calm and reassuring tone, saying: "C'mon, there ought to be shelters left over in the next block. C'mon now, RUN!"
Murrue Ramius gunned down yet another ZAFT pilot, and felt a small flash of triumph, but it faded quickly. Most of her men were down, and she herself was almost out of ammunition.
Behind her, she heard a voice yell something. Whipping around, she emptied the last few rounds in her current clip at the source. Shockingly, the people who made the sound were able to get out of the way, and she felt a surge of guilt as she saw what they were.
"Those were…children?" she muttered. She shook of her guilt as they dashed towards the shelters, and she reloaded her rifle, facing forward again. Not two minutes later, she heard another youthful voice yelling for her too look out behind her. She slid down off of her perch, spinning around as she did, and heard several bullets spang off of her old perch, exactly where her head would have been. She emptied an entire clip into the ZAFT pilot that had snuck up behind her, and turned to look at the voice that had saved her life. It was one of the kids she had almost shot, a young man with brown hair. Nearby, one of her last troopers went down, and an opportunistic ZAFT attempted to charge forward. Drawing her pistol, Murrue dispatched him with a pair of shots, and then gestured to the kid.
"Get down here!"
"No thanks, I'm headed for the shelters in the next block!"
"There isn't anything left behind that door!" A large explosion from the door to the next block added punctuation to Murrue's comment. The kid dashed several feet down the catwalk, and Murrue froze in horror as the kid vaulted over the edge. That was a 30 foot drop! He couldn't possibly….her mental horror screeched to a halt as blank shock overcame her. Landing lithely on the shoulder of the 105, the kid rolled onto the arm, slid down it, and jumped onto the torso. Murrue's final soldier managed to take down a ZAFT redsuit, but was promptly gunned down in return as another dashed sideways, strafing the soldier's position, killing him instantly. Murrue spun around, firing her pistol at him while he fired his rifle at her. She missed him by inches, while his short burst bit into her shoulder. The ZAFT soldier worked his weapons bolt and then dropped it, pulling out a combat knife and charging. Kira ran down to the woman, wanting to protect her. He stood in front of her, and met the ZAFT soldier's eyes. The he stared in surprise. This couldn't be! He wouldn't be here, not as a soldier!
"Ath…run?" he whispered, and the soldier's eyes widened and his jaw dropped.
"Kira?" he gasped, and the two old friends stared at each other. Neither could comprehend that the other was there, then, doing what they were.
Murrue took advantage of the pause to raise her pistol, pointing it at Athrun, who quickly hit his thrusters, flying away and over to the next unit, the X-303. He paused outside the hatch and watched as the Earth Forces officer pushed Kira into the mobile suit they were on, before jumping in and closing the hatch. As explosions shattered the hanger around them, Athrun climber into his unit, and two mobile suits broke their bonds and rose to their feet amid the flaming wreckage.
A/N: Are you still alive? I hope so! I'm really sorry that this was so long, but I had to show the OC's actions without doing what everyone else does, and having every ones mobile suit in the same place. Please, don't abandon me now! This will be a good story, I promise! REVIEW PLEASE, I WANT TO KNOW WHAT YOU THINK!