Chapter 4: And Now…
In Anticipation of Your
Insight Into the
Future…
Both mobile suits clamored and clashed hard into one another repeatedly, slashing and blocking with their melee weapons as the two corkscrewed higher into the void of space, never relenting.
Zenna laughed wildly, fully enjoying the Varian's obvious edge in speed and power, despite the Gundam's blue glow. "HOW DOES IT FEEL TO BE IN AN UNEVEN FIGHT, CAERLISE?" the girl demanded tauntingly, leveling the beam rifle and taking a shot at the swerving blue suit.
"Shit!" Lise swore as the Gundam rolled hard, barely blocking the beam blast with its shield. The Gundam's arm slammed back from the force of the blast, nearly ripping it out of its socket. The girl gritted her teeth as Agilent bit down and increased its speed, slashing hard with its saber. The girl's face was awash with sweat, struggling to keep up the pace of the deadly fight as the two suits power locked their melee beam weapons, each trying to get the upper hand. The beam weapon's destabilizing interference caused each to spike violently in power, sending a cascade of sparking electrons showering into the void. Crackling electricity coursed through space at the collision of plasma against plasma.
"You're so antiquated Caerlise! With your cybernetic parts and that ancient Gundam! HAHA!" Varian swung its beam rifle up high, a blazing yellow bayonet beam edge erupting from below the barrel. The girl swung down hard on her nemesis.
Lise pulled back on her saber, grasping it with both of the Gundam's hands, barely creating enough room on its red 'blade' to block the second melee weapon. The Sapphire Suit locked in close, its blazing baby blues glaring deep into Varian's malice drenched crimson eyes.
"Do you see it now, Caerlise?" the girl's voice taunted across the channel.
"This is how CLASS and SUPERIORITY prevail over all else!"
"DUMBASS!"
"Class is just something idiot humans created to justify themselves! WHO GIVES A DAMN IF I HAVE TO DO A DIRTIER JOB THAN YOU?"
"Well if you can do better, then PROVE IT!" Zenna's voice replied as Varian slowly overpowered the Gundam.
"Small minded people just HAVE to feel justified!" Lise's voice spoke.
"So now you're insulting me?" the girl laughed, enjoying her high ground.
"I'M TELLING YOU YOU'RE WRONG!" the girl shouted back, blue GN particles saturating the space of the battle ground.
"… Heh…"
Varian's black chin piece slid down and the faceplate severed in two on hidden tracks, its lower jaws splitting apart like an insect's mandibles to reveal a gaping reflective maw in one sickeningly frightening motion.
"DON'T YOU DARE JUDGE ME!" Zenna shouted back, her eyes crazed with revenge. The head mounted beam cannon breathed in deeply as the Gundam blasted backwards through the blue swarm. With one resounding belch, Varian fired its yellow beam cannon at the retreating mobile suit.
Lise angled hard and zipped past the careening ball of energy, looking up as the Varian leveled its beam rifle and fired repeatedly, intermittently peppering the field with its head cannon. "I'm telling you, money and power aren't everything!"
All across her radar layout, the detachment of GN-XIII swarmed about the ailing Pythagoras, picking it apart second by second. "Shit!"
"PAY ATTENTION!" The white and black suit swooped down on the distracted blue suit and took a clean shot at its abdomen and face. The Gundam seemed to double over from the first shot and then fall backwards in space from the second, its left eye lens cracking and fading out.
"DAMN YOU!" Lise immediately counterattacked with the beam saber now in Agilent's left hand, her attack blocked easily by Varian's melee defense. The girl grinned, delivering a Vulcan barrage right fist straight into Varian's torso-
The Suit was nowhere in sight…!
"BEHIND YOU GUNDAM!"
The mobile suit spun about in its blue haze to see from its functioning eye camera a shimmering red Varian discarding its spent rifle, drawing from its side a sharp heat katana. The enemy suit was basked in a red hot blaze, both its Tau Drives screaming for death and destruction.
"That's right Caerlise! The true face of superiority! TRANS-AM!" Zenna jammed on the controls, hurling the blazing Varian towards the shimmering blue Gundam as it swung its melee weapon.
The suit barely put up a guard as the grievous heat blade sank deep into its more than spent medium shield, severing the front half clean from its left arm. The blade continued to bite into the suit, slashing it deeply across the chest and face. The blow landed hard and shattered the Gundam's already cracked eye.
The force of the impact rocked Caerlise to and fro, the seething heat from the weapon splaying across her suited body. The girl's eyes sprang open wide when her helmeted head slammed hard onto the side wrap around panel of the cockpit. For an instant her vision blanched; the only noise she could hear was the dull ringing of her eardrums recovering from the collision.
Caerlise's head slammed forward hard as the seatbelt she wore dug deeply into her normal suited body; she could still feel the sting of the initial impact deep in the center of her sternum.
The view monitors cracked hard and splintered loudly. The left most panel shattered, stabbing a sickeningly long blade of thick glass-like material through the girl's helmet, racking her head back into the headrest.
Lise cried out in pain, but quickly silenced herself, forcing her psyche to focus on the situation at hand. She blinked, unable to make out the interior of the cockpit as warnings and klaxons blared loudly. It had all happened so fast! A spidering crack all along her visor killed any sort of view. The girl reached up and ripped the helmet off, gasping from the pain coursing through her body as blood streamed from just above and below her left eye. She could taste the steadily trickle of crimson liquid, her still healthy eyes darting to the rightmost view screen which showed the Pythagoras absolutely overrun. Her face contorted into a defiant snarl-
The Gundam was jarred HARD by a sudden kick to its blindsided face, rusty red coolant seeping from the remnants of its cracked eye and slashed face, dripping down and dribbling off into space. Another kick sent the blue suit hurtling aside, its slashed chest sparking madly.
Varian zipped up behind the Gundam, ensnaring the near disabled unit in a tactical strangle hold, leveling its heat katana near the cockpit. The heat made the Gundam's armor pucker and bubble slightly. It couldn't take much more!
"How does it feel to be in the hotspot, Caerlise?" Zenna laughed, slowly spinning about so that the Gundam's good eye was aimed at the carnage in the distance. "I've even given you the best seat in the house! Do you see? That is how you drive rats out of the trash!" she laughed. "Any last words? Caerlise Alna?"
Lise struggled to move the Gundam, but it was held fast in place. "Yeah! What the HELL do you have against me?" She sucked the escaping air in her cockpit quickly, trying to silence her pain. "AGAINST YOUR CLASSMATES?
Zenna's beautiful lips contorted into a scowl, her eyes hardening wildly, "The fact that you just won't DIE!"
Lise could hear the anger in her voice. The hate and the hysteria… She could tell there was something underlying. Something disturbing and distorting Zenna Renault. As it was, there was nothing she could do.
"I want you to see your friends die! IT WAS MORE THAN I GOT TO SEE!" Zenna added, her voice slathered with sadness and giddiness. She would finally get to avenge him…
The Gundam's cockpit monitors flickered as the chokehold further strained the sparking camera connections. The mobile suit was missing body plating; the battered, destroyed, and scorched remnants of shimmering blue armor barely hung on…; the Gundam was close to destruction.
Static on the radio…; an image on the screen
"Lise!" Kyrie's voice sounded exhausted yet strong. "Jidane! He's okay! I've got him right here! We're taking pretty heavy fire but Akio is doing his best… and Tieria too."
The camera blipped, now at a wider angle. Lise could see her childhood friend lying in Kyrie's arms on the floor, his normal suited body shrouded by the helmet.
"Hey you…" the boy started. "I made it, huh? Haha, man your good luck must really be rubbing off on me after all these years." The boy sounded so tired… so near death…
"JIDANE! KYRIE!" the girl shouted loudly, tears streaking from her eyes.
"I see a whole lotta this," Jidane laughed, snapping his hand open and closed slowly, "but I'm not hearing anything. Your com connection to us busted," he said with a tired grin. His expression changed, "Hey… you're bleeding all over the cockpit again? What am I gonna do with you… Lise…"
Kyrie's eyes watered, shaking her helmeted head, "I don't want to cry… but I guess that's just me, huh? Lise…" the girl held tightly onto Jidane's hand, her bottom lip quivering as she looked dead into the camera. "… No matter what you do… you have to live!"
"Yeah," Jidane added with a confident nod, "We're not screaming for our lives ya know. We fought hard… just wish I could come rescue YOU for a change, haha…"
Caerlise's body shook as she remembered that fateful afternoon, 8 years ago… The orphanage had gone downtown for the annual Color Guard Parade, a Union festival which commemorated the Veterans of wars past and the men and women who were serving the Union. It had been wonderful fun, especially since the entire orphanage had been invited to view the festivities from the executive box seats located in the Union Trade Center down town.
Everything was so fun that day…
Until the plane crashed into the top of the tower.
People cried and the tumult was nightmarish as the orphans all struggled to run away, some getting trampled underneath the feet of the adults, others not knowing what to do. Caerlise gathered everyone as best she could and helped them all escape, only to be led out by a kindly bearded man, decorated in numerous military honors.
As they neared the exit, Jidane had stumbled and fell; Caerlise wasted no time going back to fish him out, fighting her way past the retreating crowd. She hoisted the boy up to his feet and practically carried him along to the exit, shoving him through just as the only exit collapsed shut…
Lise snapped out of her memory, taking in his kind expression. She had never met a kid quite like Jidane.
"You taught us all something, Lise. You're a rough, tough person… but you made sure we all knew WHO we were on a daily basis. You're our anchor!" Kyrie said with a tired smile.
"… You grounded us," Jidane added with a nod.
"So that's why… even if we die here, keep on living! Not for the sake of us, or for being scared to die! Just remember us and live… for the sake of living!-
The video cut out and the com bled static. She watched as the Pythagoras gave another valiant effort to keep fighting and continue living, belching pink beam fire at the swarming enemies.
Always fighting. Always pushing towards the future…
Always living.
Lise was speechless. Her bottom lip trembled as twin tear drops streaked down her face, hidden by her brown hair. The tears mingled with her blood, slowly warbling and elongating in the absence of gravity, floating upward.
"ENOUGH CHITCHAT!" Zenna shouted, the mobile suit tensing to slash through the cockpit.
In a loud burst of blue light, the Gundam Agilent broke free of the hold, its blazing blue aura ten times as bright.
The Gundam's belching GN Drive split open on four hidden hinges into a four leaf blossom shape, revealing an inner drive encased in a fiery blue conical haze. The blazing blue Gundam slowly spun around, glaring at its enemy with its one good eye.
"What the HELL?" The high-classed girl's eyes were wide in amazement.
"Don't even try! YOU WOULDN'T UNDERSTAND!" Caerlise's voice rang loudly through Varian's cockpit as the Gundam's exposed drive churned more and more blue particles out, flooding the area.
"You don't understand emotions…, people…; YOU NEVER WILL!" Caerlise's eyes were wide with passionate fervor, her spatial awareness increasing by the second. "Not unless you open that cold heart of yours… AND SHUT THE HELL UP!"
The girl's honey brown eyes flickered an iridescent, sweltering gold as the spiral hum from the blazing GN blossom on the Agilent's back grew louder, the blue particles brighter.
"My friends…, the bond we share…; this Gundam shines BECAUSE OF IT! WHO THE HELL ARE YOU TO DECIDE THEIR FATE?"
Zenna watched in awe, unable to comprehend the pressure she was feeling. It was as if something… someone was invading her thoughts and memories. She was scared…
"Even if our bodies burn…; even if this universe caves in on us all…, THE HEART THAT WE SHARE WILL NEVER… DIE!"
The DRC Gauge racked up to 100% as the cockpit washed with white light. Across the glowing control panel screen, text flashed brightly:
K.I.W.I. COLLAPSE: ACTIVE
The shimmering blue Gundam burst into a searing pure white glow as a massive wave of blue light soared across the battlescape. Not GN Particles. GN Waves.
_…_
-...-
"Hardy! Marriner! It's time! We're going to back up the Captain, alright?" Kaino barked into the com, his blue GN-XIII falling from the transport ship, followed by two others. All three of them had made it into space along with the Captain and her Varian, barely surviving the aerial conflict earlier.
"Roger!"
"Roger that, Lieutenant!"
Kaino's eyes glared forward with concern, "And If I'm lucky… neither one of them killed each other-
The sudden blue wave of light cascaded across space, startling the three men. From the epicenter of the wave, a blinding white flash emanated brightly, churning more and more blue waves of light across the distance.
The waves slammed into the three man squad, having no ill effects. "Lieutenant Jenesis! What the hell is that light?" Ensign Marriner asked out loud, his voice full of surprise.
"I don't know but we-
He saw the high classed man sitting at his desk, mulling deep thoughts.
He saw the young woman talking to him, her eyes hiding an ulterior motive.
He saw the high classed man's video image screaming angrily before it was snuffed out.
"Lieutenant?" Ensign Hardy asked loudly, eying the sudden deceleration of his leader's suit.
"I-I'm fine!" Kaino muttered as he picked up speed, a niggling headache biting at his brain. "Let's go!"
_…_
-...-
"Look at that light!" Akio shouted in awe as the two kids on the floor looked out the main window, the searing wave of blue light cascading over all of them.
All it took was one GN-XIII. The single suit slipped past the ships turrets and leveled its lance at the bridge.
All three… they were not scared. In fact, they all felt as though Caerlise was nearby. Right beside them, protecting them… always…
In the next instant, the GN suit was shorn in two by a blazing column of white light. The massive explosion rocked the ship hard, causing the lights to flicker and dim, gently turning back on strong.
Past the explosion, they all three saw it.
They saw the glowing White Angel.
The Gundam Agilent's searing white glow burned their eyes as it turned away from them, brandishing it's now blazing white beam saber. Space warped for a microsecond, and then the suit vanished, reappearing far away to engage the enemy. The crew was doubly shocked to see two other white Gundams blazing along the battle field like white hot comets, taking down enemy after enemy, never relenting, using a similar space shifting ability to traverse the battle areas near instantaneously.
Inside the E.F.S.F. Bruker, it was utter chaos. Alarms sounding, personnel running about, the chain of command utterly broken…
"WHERE THE HELL DID THOSE THREE MOBILE SUITS COME FROM?" The Captain demanded, his white knuckles practically breaking through the skin.
Within the sea of blue light, the divine radiating white Gundam's lone blue eye blazed as an ice inferno. The suit motioned an upward slash as the bridge and all personnel were reduced to molten metal and ash long before the holy white beam saber sliced through. A Second Gundam appeared at the rear of the ship, leveling its Vulcan cannon to rend the entire ship's engines and power plant asunder with one round of fire.
The Bruker went up in a glorious explosion, heralding the Pythagoras' route to safety. Both suits warped the GN Wave space about them and bolted to separate battle zones, continuing their tirade.
The Crew of the Celestial Being ship were all in awe, taking in the scene. Three Gundams?
"Impossible!" Tieria piped up, analyzing the data, "The Gundam's waveform is completely collapsed within this light! The laws of Quantum Physics no longer apply… the Gundam is in multiple locations at the same time, even capable of super imposition!"
_..._
-...-
"WHAT… THE HELL?" Zenna cried, her eyes wide in fear of the blazing white God. Within the blue light and the white blaze of this deity before her… she felt her mind slip away…
Caerlise could see it. Everything.
All of her friends.
Kaino.
Zenna.
Even time itself…
The brunette opened her eyes to see Zenna's wide eyed look of fright, basked in a white ocean of light. They were both completely nude, the bleach white light making their bodies glow brightly. Behind the blonde girl she could see a memory of her past… There she was as a small child, holding her father's hand. The two walked, hand in hand, their backs to the girl.
Her smile.
Her laugh.
She was such a happy little girl.
A new memory of little Zenna flashed. She was walking with her babysitter, glaring at a lowly homeless girl, the same age as her, playing with a beat up dirty rag doll. Little Zenna stopped, noting the happiness in the little girls eyes. She looked down at the doll in her own grasp.
China.
Expensive.
Zenna grabbed the ragdoll from the girl's grasp and threw it into the dirt, smearing it in deeply with her dainty saddle shoes. "How DARE you think you can have fun with a doll? Dolls are only for good little girls. SMART little girls! Not some stupid piece of TRASH like you!" The baby sitter attempted to scold her. "You keep your mouth shut! Do you hear? My father PAYS you so you should shut up! Unless you no longer want your job…" At such a young age... so precocious.
Another Memory. The 10 year old Zenna sneered angrily at the crowd of people below the observation deck. How cute she looked in her blue and white dress. She turned to see all the orphans clamoring to get a better look at the Color Parade from their amazing location, high above. Zenna shook her head as her father walked up beside her.
"Zenna… why don't you go make friends with the other children?" he asked kindly.
"Now why would I want to do that, Father?" she replied back, hardly minding her manners.
Her father placed his hand on her shoulder. "You are a model to them, Little One… never forget that." He bent down to her height… his kind bearded face smiling.
Caerlise's eyes grew wide. "So this…!"
"You are a person of high status… and you must never forget the people who have nothing." The man shook his head lovingly. "There are more of them than there are of us, Zenna. Without the foundation of strong friendships… bonds between all peoples of every kind… we have no future."
The girl's expression phased arrogant and disrespectful. "Father I hate it here! I hate this parade, I hate those smelly children… AND I HATE YOU!" She shouted, bolting from the room.
Her father motioned for her, but instead let her go. He shook his head, turning back to the window to look out at the beautiful procession. "… Where did I go wrong Aria…? Was it in letting our Daughter know of her riches and status too soon?"
"That man… he was your father…?" Caerlise's memories flashed before the both of them. She remembered pushing little Jidane out to safety just before she was sealed to her fate.
"Sweetheart!"
The 10 year old looked about, hearing a kind man call toward her. She spotted the bearded man who had led the children to safety earlier. "Mister!" She ran over to him, noticing his bleeding wounds.
"No no… don't worry about me little one…" he looked up at her, his stately black uniform filthy with dust. "… Young ones like you…" he looked deep into her eyes, "… exactly like you… will be our future… Please… speak for us. Stand strong for Humankind… Show them all… that we Humans are capable… of understanding-"
The building caved down as the man reached for her, shielding her as best he could from the falling debris and burning shrapnel.
Caerlise's eyes streamed tears, remembering for the first time in her life experiencing what it felt like to be loved by a father. Her eyes slowly glistened to Zenna who was bawling, running her hands through her hair. "…Zenna-
"SHUT UP! JUST SHUT UUUUPPP!" The girl screamed. "THOSE ARE MY MEMORIES!" Her voice was hysterically shrill. "You would never understand… YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT ITS LIKE TO LOOSE YOUR DADDY! YOU DON'T KNOW THAT PAIN! The pain…."
"… AND I HATE YOU!"
"… AND I HATE YOU!"
"… AND I HATE YOU!"
Over and over Zenna's 10 year old voice shouted those last words to her father.
"… You're right…" Caerlise started, her tears whisking away. "I don't know that emotional pain. The only pain I ever knew was living with this disability…" She looked down at her arm and legs, slowly shaking her head, "Every few months growing up I had to have new implants put in because I kept on growing… and as I get older I guess I'll have to keep doing it to keep up with how my body changes… I'll never be able to afford full regenerative surgery. It always hurts like hell."
Lise looked up at Zenna whose gray eyes were focused on her, neither hate nor compassion in her steely gray gaze. "I act tough because I'm constantly in pain… I don't want to show it to anyone else. Heh!" She laughed, "I guess it's foolish, but it's become who I am… It's my barrier. Only my closest friends ever see me differently."
Zenna shook her head angrily, "Like I give a DAMN about any of that!"
Lise only gazed at her, supreme pity in her eyes.
"My Father… my… daddy… He DIED because he was protecting people like you! Penniless… classless… WORTHLESS children!"
Caerlise's brow displayed a maternal love towards the confused girl.
"My daddy chose to die with a piece of trash… than to live with his own daughter…" Her eyes glared deeply into Caerlise's soul. "In the end he chose YOU over ME!"
Another Memory. It was one year after the terror attack and young Zenna and another girl were chosen to present a memorial at Ground Zero. Zenna watched as the brunette girl in her out of style dress walked up to her side, smiling big.
"Heya! I'm Caerlise! Caerlise Alna!" the 11 year old said with a smile. "You must be Zenna Renault, right? Wow… you're beautiful!"
"Keep your mouth shut, you rat," Zenna replied flatly, smiling for the camera.
Caerlise was surprised. She didn't even know the girl! "…Excuse me?" she asked, her voice edging angry.
"I said for you to keep your mouth shut, you little rat." Zenna replied again, smiling and waving for the cameras.
Caerlise blinked, taken aback by the sudden firestorm of animosity from the beautiful girl.
"I hear you were the one they pulled from the rubble… lost your arm and legs did you?"
"… Yeah I did. Thanks to the Orphanage Fund, I was able to get-
"Cybernetic Parts? I see." The girl replied, leaning back to whisper into her ear. "So I suppose you really ARE a freak, aren't you? Hehe!" The rich girl returned to smiling and posing for the camera, never missing a step. The girl's mind raged with hidden thoughts. "So this is the bitch my father died to protect? One day… I'll make you pay for taking my daddy away…"
Zenna laughed, setting back into her composure. "It was all you… you and your worthless people. ALL of you! Because of you, my father, a man among men, died that day! And it was all for YOU… to protect one… wretched life.
Caerlise only shook her head, that same look of pity in her eyes. "You really blame me… for your father's death…?"
Zenna glowered at her, her angry expression slowly melding flat. Dead set conviction.
"… Yes."
Caerlise closed her eyes, her bottom lip setting in place. "… I'm sorry… but…-
_..._
-...-
"THAT'S FUCKING STUPID!"
The girl's resounding shout shattered the ethereal, otherworldly meeting ground they were in, throwing both girls back to the harsh reality of the battle field. The blazing white Agilent blasted forward, ramming hard into the Varian, its blue eye blazing with passion. Near instantaneously, Agilent rammed Varian again from behind as the white and black mobile suit staggered forward in space, trying in vain to evade the hit and run tactic.
"Shit happens in this world, UNDERSTAND THAT! You can't control it, and you sure as hell can't change it after it happens, SO STOP LIVING IN THE PAST!" Lise's shouts were slathered with conviction and defiance. "The only thing left to do is decide how you live your life after the fact! How do you let your past effect you?
Do you let it build you up?
Do you let it tear you down?
How do you make the most out of your life? Out of all your experiences?" Caerlise and Agilent were a blinding white fury about the overwhelmed Zenna and Varian in the midst of the blue light waves. "All your hopes? Failures? Dreams? WHAT DO YOU DO WITH THEM?"
Zenna swiped wildly with the heat katana, the weapon flinging from her grasp.
"With all of those summed up as one… THE CORE OF WHO YOU ARE…, the thing that matters most is…
What do you do…
WITH YOUR FUTURE?"
Two blazing white Gundams punctuated the resonating statement by slicing the Varian's arms off at the shoulders, one Gundam in front and one Gundam behind the white and black suit.
Caerlise looked up with infectious determination, her eyes sweltering a constant gold.
_…_
-...-
"ZENNA!" Kaino eyed the glowing white twin beasts rip apart the Varian, his eyes going wide. The boy didn't know if he should be scared, or begin praying to this new Deity. "Marriner! Pull hard on your right-
One of the two Gundams was gone!
A stark explosion beside him rocked Kaino's GN-XIII, as Ensign Marriner's suit cleaved in two, exploding brightly.
"DAMMIT!" Kaino shouted, turning to see his other wingman stopped before him, observing the explosion
The other XIII exploded spontaneously as the White Gundam appeared exactly in its place in a menacing pose. The Gundam superimposed itself in the space of the Federal suit, erasing its existence with a fiery blast. The Gundam's blazing white saber was drawn, pointed at Kaino menacingly.
The boy trembled, swearing he could see space warping about Ensign Hardy's GN-XIII before it exploded-
He was at a party, dancing with a beautiful lady in a red dress…
He was talking to that lady… she pulled a gun on him.
He sat on a plush couch, perfectly content and at ease.
He felt emotion. Surprise that something uncalculated had occurred.
He felt emotion. Smug with his own wiles, just as a bullet screamed through his forehead.
He felt emotion. Superiority as he gazed back into the dirty little boy's reverent, awe filled gaze.
Kaino blinked hard, staring into the holy Gundam's battered, yet beautiful, white face-
He saw the end. A similar Gundam spearing him straight through.
The burning white mobile suit lowered its beam saber, paying the still GN-XIII no more mind as it turned and blasted up high and out of the way, looking for more harassing enemies surrounding the Pythagoras.
_…_
-...-
The lone, blazing white Gundam stood before the armless and pride less Varian, Lise's eyes glowing a iridescent gold. Agilent grabbed the Varian's head and leveled the scorching white beam saber at the cockpit.
"This is it, Zenna… now's the time to change! What will it be? Your past that's held down by gravity? Or your future which is dying for a chance to be lived without boundaries?" the golden eyed brunette questioned.
The blonde shook uncontrollably in her seat, losing all control of her bowels. All she wanted was her daddy… her daddy… The one that girl took away from her.
Even her dead father couldn't save her now…
"I DON'T WANT TO DIE!" she shrieked, her eyes filled with hatred and terror.
The Gundam tightened its grip, rearing back with the Beam Saber.
"WRONG-
The mobile suit instead gave a hard roll, tossing the wounded Varian hard above it.
-ANSWER!"
Lise shouted out loud as the Gundam shifted out and into space above the black and white MS, delivering a HARD punch with Agilent's erupting, burning white fist, squarely connecting with the oncoming Varian's head.
In the brief instant where the Gundam's fist collided, Lise could hear the skin-linked scream of the girl as her suit hurtled through space, headed earth side.
Near the Pythagoras, a Gundam slashed hard through a GN-XIII, the rest of the forces hastily retreating back to the High Orbital Ring. All four Gundams hovered within their respective battle zones, slowly turning into ghostly white apparitions within the sea of blue light… gently disappearing, giving one last shimmer of white light before vanishing completely.
The Gundam nearest earth side hovered gently, its saber still drawn. Agilent looked downward as its white glow died down; likewise, the waves of blue light dispersed into a sea of blue GN Particles. The canonical blossom of azure fire on its back closed together tightly, extinguishing a large portion of the blue particles being formed, regulating them to their original quantities.
The battle was over!
Lise's hands trembled as a tear gathered and rose up into the air. It had been so intense… that encounter in space… that insight into her future… She bore her heart so brazenly to the person who hated her the most. Never in her life had she felt so naked and vulnerable.
Both she and that person saw potential and life in the unknown future by gazing into the past. All it needed was a change… an innovation… in mindset and understanding.
For a split moment, she knew someone… like no normal human ever could… There were no blocks. Every obstacle of self barriers and false fronts were cast aside…
And that person refused to try and change. She blinked hard, her tears streaming and globbing through her blood and into the cut below her now normal honey brown eyes.
Such is life. People will be as they will be. Change in humanity must be voluntary, otherwise what hope, what merit is there in a future created for humans, if not by those who are willing to change and adapt to the future? To each other?
The weary girl looked forward at the sparking monitor to see the damaged Pythagoras bank and head her way… ready to take her home. The girl's weary head set back against the seat's head rest, her helmet slowly bobbing in the zero gravity. A tired smile crossed her sweat and blood covered, beautiful face.
"…Everyone… thank you."
_…_
-...-
The Varian sparked like mad, hissing as internal struts and gears struggled to compensate for the volatile suit's hard use of the boosters.
Zenna's eyes glowered beneath her helmet, her pride utterly dashed to pieces. For some reason that girl had let her live. "… God… damn her…" she seethed, slamming her fist on the side of the view screen. Even in a far superior suit, that Caerlise Alna bested her a third time! The radar screen blinked, showing Lieutenant Kaino's GN-XIII hovering quietly in space. Instantly the girl's anger skyrocketed.
"KAINO! Where the hell WERE YOU?" her voice screamed over the com channel to her subordinate. Her shrill demands were all too similar to a spoiled brat who did not have her way. "Look at my VARIAN! It's all because of YOU! YOU could have KILLED HER FOR ME-
The boy's GN-XIII delivered a resounding backhanded slap to the Varian's crushed head, dislodging it and sending it crashing off towards Earth. Across the com channel, he could hear the girl's shout of surprise and pain. "… Yet another… greedy little girl…"
"KAINO?" Zenna's eyes were wide as the GN-XIII leveled its beam rifle at her.
Blast after blast peppered the already crippled Varian, blasting a hole clean through the cockpit.
"NAAAAAAOOOOOOO!"
The girl's cockpit suddenly flushed with vacuum, numerous explosions going off at once inside the exposed control station as the boy continued to violate the disabled MS.
Zenna could hear her own flesh rip and tear and feel the resounding splatter of blood against her helmet; in a white-hot rage of pain, her left arm was forcefully removed from her body. Another series of violent explosions robbed her of her legs in a gloriously violent display of impartiality. Another series of explosion rocked her head to the side, repeatedly slamming her helmet ferociously against the side of the cockpit. She could hear the wet grind of her small vertebrae against each other. She could feel it. The visor cracked, shattering a shard free, to expose her wildly hysterical eye to the void of space as blood and her mangled limbs floated about her, peacefully tumbling out of the open hole.
The boy merely watched as the rifle exhausted its beam clip. The magnified image of the girl reached forward towards him with her right arm, her eye conveying a desperate plea to survive. To live for the future! Any future that she could participate in! She drew her hand back to her blood stained throat, grasping at it in agony. The boy only grinned, his voice coolly knifing the silence in his cockpit, "It's hard to breathe in space." The once proud Varian drifted on through the void. He couldn't care less what happened to it.
The GN-XIII turned and blasted away, back towards the transport ship. The boy reached up and took off his helmet, relishing the cool temperature of space. He looked down, noting his reflection in the helmet's shiny visor with a laugh. "This must be some clever irony…" the boy grinned, happy for at least one constant. "This certainly is serendipity." He reached down into the flight suit, and pulled out the dog tags reading them out loud.
"Kaino S. Jenesis."
The boy laughed, clutching them tightly in his fist. "A renewed beginning indeed…" The pastel green haired, violet eyed boy breathed in deeply, setting his gaze. "I thank you for providing a powerful enough medium for me to upload myself back into an Innovade, Gundam…" The blue suit blasted on, his ideals churning rapidly through his mind.
"Veda… Let me glimpse again into the future… You and I both have been waiting for those… dialogues to come…"