Gundam SEED Destiny
Kira
By: Tellemicus Sundance
Phase 7: Calm Before the Storm

October 9, 73 C.E.
An unknown location, 12:12pm

Taking long, deep breaths to slow his heart and calm his panicking nerves, Akira glanced around the room he was in without turning his head or making any move to draw attention. From the limited view he was getting, it was clear that wherever he was seemed to be a rather non-standard hospital room of some kind. The ceiling was a pristine white, there were no windows, and there was a door with a thick locking mechanism in place.

The bed he was in was rather stiff and confining, and he was dressed in the usual hospital apron. There were little metal sidings, probably to minimize the possibility of him rolling out of the bed in his sleep. His wrists, ankles, and torso were bound tightly down by leather straps to the metal frame. Giving a few experimental pulls at the leather, Akira restrained a groan. It was strong stuff; he would be hard-pressed to break free if he had to.

A loud buzzing sound rang out through the room, coming from the door. After a second, the noise stopped and a green light flashed to life over the doorframe as the heavy lock opened. A pair of figures entered, dressed in the common doctor uniforms.

As the male doctor turned towards Akira, there was only a momentary pause in his composure with a flicker of surprise over his features as he realized that Akira was awake. However, it passed almost immediately as he realized that Akira's eyes were gazing up towards him. He was a slightly nondescript man, with his slightly heavyset body, neatly combed and cut blonde hair, easily in his late fifties.

"Oh, you're awake," he said. "You are one lucky young man. If you hadn't been found when you were unconscious, I'm quite sure that the tide would've washed you back out to sea."

"Where am I?" Akira asked quietly. For some reason, he was getting a very bad feeling from this man. Though just how he was feeling this strange vibe was completely lost to him.

"You are in the Special Treatment Ward of Orb General Hospital," the nurse answered, a kind smile on her face as she began leafing through some papers on a nearby desk.

"You're probably wondering why we had you tied down," the doctor said easily as he came forward and began loosening the leather straps around Akira's torso. "You started thrashing quite violently as we were trying to treat you when you were brought in two days ago. You've been doing it randomly for the past two days." As the straps came free of his torso, Akira finally sat up.

A sudden feeling of burning pain erupted across his previously motionless body. It was searing through his muscles and felt like a white-hot iron poker being driven into each nerve of his body. It took all of Akira's considerable self-control to keep from yelling in pain.

"What's your name, boy?" the doctor asked, glancing up at Akira. That unexplainable feeling of being in the presence of an extremely dangerous person returned again full force. And as Akira stared at the man's face, he saw barest hint of a deadly gleam in his eyes. "We couldn't find any identification on you or your flight suit. Only that necklace you were wearing."

As that last phrase was processed in his brain, Akira momentarily forgot about the burning pain that was cutting his body to pieces. His free hand immediately snapped up to his chest, feeling for the reassuring circle of metal that usually hung there. But the ring necklace was missing! "Wh-where's—?"

Before he could properly finish his question, a familiar ring on a chain dangled in front of his face. The nurse was wearing an amused smile on her face as she watched him snatch it away and drape it lovingly around him.

"Who's the lucky lady?" she asked teasingly.

Akira just glanced up at her with a small, pained smile pulling at his own face before he returned his attention to inspecting the ring.

"What's your name, boy?" the doctor repeated impatiently as he moved to the side to pick up that doctor's flashlight.

"A…Kira," Akira lied, choosing the first name that came to his mind. "Kira—Yatate."

"Well, Mr. Yatate," the doctor said easily, clearly not believing him if that look in his eye was any hint. "What is an Earth Alliance pilot like you doing drifting up into Orb's territorial waters? Did you somehow get separated from your unit and crash or something?"

They thought he was an Alliance pilot? They must've assumed that because he was still using his old flight suit from two years ago. Normally, Akira would've corrected them on their understandable mistake. But that feeling he was constantly getting… Maybe he should play it safe this time.

"That's—classified, I'm afraid," he answered with an obvious hint of iron in his voice, hinting at a sudden spike of pain. "You'll have to…contact my superiors for clarification."

"I see," the doctor said as he examined how quickly Akira's eyes dilated in the bright light. "Well, then I guess there's nothing more to say on that matter then." Turning to the nurse, the doctor said, "Judy, please go inform the office that the patient has awakened and doesn't seem to be experiencing any ill effects to the treatments."

As the nurse left the room, Akira discreetly observed that she had to pass her ID card in front of a small scanner just above the doorknob. Treatments?! For some reason, the very mention of these 'treatments' began to set his rising sense of danger to even greater levels. Something else was going on here, something that he just knew he didn't want to be a part of!

He then watched as the doctor moved over to the desk again, digging through a drawer. "Judging from your coloring," the man said as he extracted a small bottle filled with amber liquid. "you still seem to be experiencing some discomfort from the sedatives we had to give you yesterday."

Okay, this time he could agree with the man, despite how much of an understatement it was. His body was screaming in pain, even if he wasn't. He would love to have been given something to ease the pain he was feeling. However, that ever-present sensation of danger was still there and quickly growing stronger as he wearily watched the doctor pull out a syringe and fill it with the liquid.

"Don't worry about the gun," the doctor said, amusement in his voice as he guessed what 'Yatate' was staring at so intently. "This sedative will only put you to sleep until you've recovered a more natural coloring to your skin."

"No, that's okay," Akira said quietly. "I'm fine."

"Please," the doctor said as he walked over. "I must insist. You really don't look at all well."

"I said I'm fine!" Akira growled, catching the doctor's hand before he could grab Akira's left arm. His danger sense was now screaming even louder in his mind than the burning pain of his body. "Leave me alone."

Rather than answer, the doctor just fought to free his hand from Akira's surprisingly strong grip. Seeing his actions, Akira immediately began wrestling to prevent him from freeing himself. Giving up on freeing himself, the doctor angled his hand to stick the needle into Akira's arm. At the last second, Akira shifted his body and the needle plunged into the doctor's own arm, the amber liquid injecting automatically.

The doctor didn't even have time to draw in a breath to scream. His body seemed to lock up, the syringe gun dropping to the ground from his badly shaking hand. Staring at the man's fear-stricken and pained face, Akira finally felt that strange danger sense lessening as the doctor's body fell the ground, convulsing in nerve spasms and pain.

That was no sedative, Akira realized spontaneously. Immediately climbing to his feet and ignoring the burning pain of his muscles, he savagely yanked the IV out of his arm. Wincing at the new pain, Akira awkwardly walked over to the desk in search of some bandages to wrap his bleeding arm up with. Quickly finishing, Akira turned towards the door with every intention of escaping.

After using the doctor's identification card to open the door, Kira started walking down the hallway in an unhurried pace. The hallway was filled numerous doctors, nurses, and patients who were mostly in wheelchairs. Seeing a light at the end of the hallway that seemed natural, Akira moved towards it. His heart was racing in fear, panic, and the burning pain, but he forced himself to continue walking forward towards the light.

Upon entering the sunlight, Akira found himself staring out a large window. He could clearly see a large body of saltwater that ran right up to the edge of the hospital that seemed to be located on the edge of a rocky cliff. He quickly estimated that he was located on either the sixth or seventh floor of the hospital, if the view was any hint to go on.

"Somebody help me!" a loud feminine voice yelled down the hallway that he'd just vacated. "Doctor Strum is convulsing and the patient is missing!"

Not turning to look back at the confusion that was ensuing behind him, Akira walked down the new hallway, following the windows. There had to be an exit around here somewhere.

"Hey, you!" a new voice demanded from somewhere nearby. "What are you doing out here?!" Glancing back, Akira saw a male nurse staring straight at him. "Get back to your room! We haven't—"

His newfound danger sense began to ring again. Security personnel and more doctors were quickly approaching, and some of them were heading towards him, attracted by the nurse's voice. Without a word, Akira launched himself into a pained sprint away from the nurse, cutting the man off in mid-rant.

"Come back here!" the man yelled, immediately giving chase. "Somebody stop him!"

Ignoring the man, Akira continued his pained sprint. He was desperately looking around for a means of escape as he evaded the hospital personnel and patients with an almost scary precision. As he deftly slid past yet another doctor, Akira caught sight of a chair stationed outside a nearby room. Why not? Desperate times call for desperate measures!

Swiping the doctor's feet out from under him, Akira smoothly grabbed the chair, whirled around and smashed it against the window. As the glass shattered, Akira's danger sense screamed to life as strong arms latched onto Akira from behind. The person quickly hoisted Akira clear off the floor in an attempt to limit his mobility. However, the man misjudged both Akira's resolve to escape and his flexibility. Lashing out with his feet, Akira's luck held true. His left heel slammed into the man's knee with unnatural strength, snapping it at an unnatural angle and utterly breaking it. Ignoring the man screaming in pain as he fell to the ground, Akira made a frantic dive out of the window.

For the average Natural, such a fall would've certainly killed them if they landed improperly or put them straight back into the hospital. For the average Coordinator, such a fall was survivable, but only the strongest or luckiest could have walked away with only a sprained ankle at the very least. But for Akira, even in as much pain as he was currently, he had angled his dive with the cliff's slope.

As he fell, he awkwardly shifted his body so as to not land on his head. He had just managed to rotate enough to be out of immediate danger when he reached the rocky cliff. After skidding several feet down the rocky surface on his bare feet, he threw himself into a tumble, rolling the rest of the way down to the small beach.

After he finally came to a halt, Akira let out a small sigh of relief. He wasn't in danger anymore…or not nearly as much as the scale that he had been earlier. Tenderly climbing to his bleeding feet, covered in countless scrapes and bruises, he glanced back up at the broken window he'd just leapt from. There were several people staring at him in disbelief and talking amongst themselves. They knew he'd survived, with minimal—if any—injuries.

A sudden spike of pain in his torso forced Akira to momentarily give into it, with him collapsing to his knees as he clenched his burning chest. It took all his willpower to not start screaming from the pain that he was experiencing. Finally, after what felt like hours despite being more seconds, the pain lessened and he was able to climb to his feet and start a stumbling run along the shore in the general direction of Onogoro City business district.

He needed to find clothes, a place to hide, and what was happening. After that, he'd find and repair the Neo Freedom. And then he'd find out what it was that 'Doctor Strum' was going to do with him.

KIRA – Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny – KIRA

October 10, 73 C.E.
Onogoro Library, 8:00am

It was early the next day and he was now dressed in a simple black long-sleeved shirt with some matching pants that he'd pilfered from the trash of a nearby clothing store. The clothing itself wasn't really dirty, or even worn; all that seemed wrong with it was an ugly tear that ran from the collar down towards the right shoulder, exposing his skin. Apparently that little tear had been reason enough for the seller to throw it out. The things that people threw away nowadays! The shoes he was wearing were another story. He had gone to a nearby gym for athletes and stolen a pair of shoes when he found some that matched his feet size. Though he did feel bad about that, the sad fact of the matter was that he was completely broke.

After spending the night sleeping in a motel room that he broke into, Akira was now sitting on a street bench reading a newspaper as he waited for the library to open. Whatever Doctor Strum had done to him in the hospital had worn off because he'd woken up feeling immeasurably refreshed and healthy.

The paper he was reading was a few days old, but it still held some interesting information that he hadn't known. The true extent of the damage done by Junius 7 was positively staggering, leaving Akira with a horrible sense of failure. He couldn't help but think if only…

However, that wasn't the only piece of information that was interesting to him. After he'd started looking for a more recent paper, he'd come across several more articles that surprised him. The first of which was the Neo Freedom's role in attempting to divert the disaster. Despite the important role it played in the event, the apparent return of the Freedom Gundam just wasn't deemed important enough to have even made it into the front page articles. No one on Earth really cared about the sudden return of a single lost person or mobile suit who'd formerly been a potential enemy. There was an enlightening article on page seven, though. The people who wrote the article seemed convinced that the return of the Freedom was a sign; that it was heralding in not only another war, but the return of someone named Kira Yamato, the former pilot of the Freedom. As he read that, Akira couldn't help but snort slightly as he wondered what Kira Yamato would think of this article.

But that wasn't the only thing that interested him. Apparently his little escape from the hospital had attracted the attention of several reporters. Though their theories on the rogue patient were as radical and unfounded as a common tabloid, the one point that they all agreed on was the patient was dangerous to the general public. Did he not inject a very well known and respected doctor of Orb nationality with a lethal dosage of unknown drugs? Did he not also break the leg of a good, honest, and hardworking hospital employee in his desperate escape attempt from a sixth floor of the building? Clearly this man must be some kind of escaped criminal from an insane asylum to do such horrible things!

Oh, the irony was staggering. But then, if it misguided the public into looking for some kind of violent lunatic and not someone of his general description, who was he to correct their mistakes?

The ringing of a bell alerted Akira to the library's opening. Discarding the newspaper, he quickly entered the library and claimed one of the computers for himself. From there, he quickly established a defensive virus that would attack any system that attempted to track his cyberspace trail. Hacking into the multi-layered defensive program of the Orb military network was quite challenging. It took him almost half an hour to fully and safely access the restricted sites after breaking almost a dozen passwords.

Just as I thought, he muttered silently to himself. Orb's trying to locate the Neo Freedom. But it's not where the Minerva originally indicated? Someone is either lying in the higher-ups of the Orb military or the Earth Alliance found it first. This isn't good; I didn't have time to put a proper lock on the CPU before I bailed out.

Snooping around the roster of Orb personnel, Akira came across the record of Doctor William Strum. According to the record, Dr. Strum was an unmarried and highly skilled professor who specialized in and experimented with drugs and their effects on the human body, formerly employed by the Atlantic Federation during the Valentine War.

Maybe I'll pay a visit to his house later, Akira decided. Do some investigating. I bet that he never stopped working for the Alliance.

Just as he was about to close down the file, a warning sprang to life on the monitor. Someone was attempting to trace him! Reacting immediately as his virus jumped up to defend him, Akira located the hacker and reversed its signal. Riding the signal to its source, Akira found himself browsing through files that were clearly marked as the Prime Minister of the Orb Union, Unato Ema Seiran.

What does he have to do with this? Akira wondered, freely exploring the minister's personal computer. There was a lot of data pertaining to the state of the nation and the state of the world. Opening the Prime Minister's 'little black book,' Akira found himself awash with a lot of information that he didn't understand and a lot that he did.

Minister Seiran had already planned to ally the Orb Union with the Earth Alliance? His son, Yuna Roma Seiran, was scheduled to marry the Chief Representative on the same day as the official treaty signing, the date of the Earth Alliance's scheduled nuclear attack on the PLANTs, and then Yuna would then be 'reelected' to the position of Chief Representative?

Drawing in a sharp breath, Akira couldn't help but stare at the information. How the hell did the Minister hope to get his son elected into the Miss Athha's position when the public clearly adored her? How the hell did the Minister even know for sure that the Alliance would attack the PLANTs with nukes on that specific day?! Not wasting time, Akira immediately printed the schedule so he could ponder its contents later.

I do not like this man, Akira decided instantaneously as he continued digging deeper into the man's schemes. Deciding that there wasn't anything else of interest on the man's drive, he began searching for any ghost drives and quickly discovered several. The first file caught Akira by surprise. It was the technical, combat, and system data of the Neo Freedom. Seiran's people had found it?! Where was it? What was Seiran planning do with its data? Could Akira somehow recover it?

Akira attacked the ghost drive with a vengeance.

KIRA – Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny – KIRA

October 25, 73 C.E.
Morgenroete - Orb Facility, 9:42pm

Yuna Roma Seiran watched in distaste as the mobile suit continued to drill relentlessly through its complex maneuvers. Though he had no love for combat and pointless training, he always did feel a sense of righteous superiority each time he successfully trounced his enemies in all those combat simulations that his father had raised him in. Perhaps that was where he acquired his general dislike of battle and fear of putting himself into the heart of the conflict.

But, regardless of how he felt in matter, Yuna did silently acknowledge that the pilot of this particular mobile suit was quite skilled. If the damn brat wasn't so hopelessly loyal and dedicated to Cagalli and the Orb Union in general, he would've made a promising candidate for their revamped and quickly-improving Extended program.

"Well this is an unexpected surprise," a feminine voice spoke up from his side. "To what do we owe the honor, Intern Representative?"

"I merely came to inspect the progress of the repairs being done to your newest toy, Mrs. Simmons," he lied smoothly. That was far from being the true reason he had come but it was still something he'd been meaning to check up on. "With the Alliance massing its forces at its lunar base, the possibility of another war breaking out is growing very quickly. Orb will likely need all its resources to protect ourselves in the coming months. And this particular mobile suit just happens to be ranked as one of our best. Though the fact that the pilot has a less than stellar record, especially in terms of his piloting skills with the numerous new models you've built, is quite worrisome."

Putting on a thin smile to hide her distaste, Erica glanced out at the training Fortitude. "While I agree that he does have a habit of crashing our mobile suits, the fact of the matter is that he's young and very skilled for someone of his age group among Naturals. Give him time, proper training, equipment, and a just cause, and I predict that he'll be one of Orb's greatest Natural pilots in five to ten years."

Yuna kept his face empty of any negative reaction towards Erica's praise. The sad fact was that he agreed with her. If only Lieutenant Koenig wasn't so blindly faithful to Cagalli, he would've made a wonderful tool for he and his father.

Rather than answer the Coordinator, Yuna turned to leave, ignoring the lady as she ordered the Lieutenant to finish up for the night. Walking down a series of hallways, Yuna carefully watched everyone who was near him. Timing it just right, he slipped into a specific elevator when no one was watching. After triggering a hidden button, he waited for the secret backdoor to open and then hurried down the hallway that appeared. It was a fairly long walk, but what he saw in the large hangar was exactly what he'd intended to inspect.

Striding into the hangar with all the strut and swagger of an emperor, Yuna surveyed the construction that was taking place in front of him. The twisted and blackened wreck of the Neo Freedom was a thing of the past now. This new machine that he was seeing was an almost perfect replica. All that was needed, as far as he last heard from his father, was someone to reprogram that accursed CPU to accept a Natural pilot. Whoever the previous pilot was, he was certainly a computer expert. The best engineers and computer analysts/hackers they had at their disposal couldn't even begin to comprehend the complex matrices and coded programs that filled the Neo Freedom's memory banks. Sure, they'd been able to copy all the necessary data, but anything else was simply improbable at the moment.

"Magnificent, isn't it?" a familiar drawling voice asked from behind him.

"Indeed it is, father," Yuna agreed easily. "I certainly hope that it will be properly prepared for when Lord Djibril commences the attack."

"Unfortunately, that just isn't possible at this moment," Unato said with a deep frown on his face. "Though we've been able to restore it this far this quickly, it's still angers me that we weren't able to secure the pilot. It would've been so nice to have had him unlock the blasted computer for us."

"Look on the bright side, father," Yuna said, a sneer pulling at his lips. "With the data we did acquire, we will be able to construct our own army of Freedom Gundams in the near-future. And who knows how much the Alliance would pay to get just a glance at that data?"

"You are treading on extremely thin ice if you continue harboring such thoughts, boy," Unato snapped, throwing a glare at his unrepentant son. "Lord Djibril and Alwin Ritter may have entrusted us with this secret project, but to assume that we now control it is foolishness bordering on stupidity! I taught you better than that!"

As his father stalked off, Yuna couldn't help but scowl at his back. How could his father be so blind to the potential profit they could make here?! That man had such minuscule dreams of glamour and power. He wanted to rule the Orb Union as he saw fit, without the useless squabbles of brats like Cagalli. But why not use what they now had to help them eventually rule the world?

Shaking his head piteously, Yuna turned to look back upon the almost-completed Neo Freedom. How much longer would it take for their hackers to finally crack the Gundam's CPU? That was the only thing that was currently preventing them from turning it over to Logos to use as they saw fit.

KIRA – Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny – KIRA

October 29, 73 C.E.
Athha Manor - Orb, 6:00am

Sighing in annoyance, Athrun idly ate his small breakfast while watching numerous news reports from around the world. Things had been steadily progressing for the past month since the Junius 7 drop, and heading towards the worst possible outcome. Despite Durandal's best efforts to maintain the peace between ZAFT and the Alliance, the grief-stricken populaces of Earth were screaming for vengeance of some kind. They wanted to see someone be severely punished for the deaths of their beloved lost friends and family. But there was logically no one to punish left alive, all the terrorists had been killed during the skirmish on the PLANT. Therefore, it was only logical that they'd now turn their desire for vengeance to all Coordinators, regardless of whether they were innocent or not. This was quickly shaping up to be another all-out war, despite everything the PLANTs had done to minimize the inferno of hatred that was consuming a major part of the planet.

In one sense, Athrun was lucky. He didn't have to keep his mind on the matters of the state like Cagalli constantly did. And while he was no less worried than she was, he had other matters to occupy his time; namely the recovery of the wreck of the Neo Freedom. As soon as he'd returned home and met with Lacus to see she and the children were alright, he'd volunteered his services to the Orb navy that had been dispatched to locate the wreck. Since he was quite skilled in the cockpit, Athrun had insisted that he be allowed to pilot one of Orb's few aquatic models.

What he'd found at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean where he knew for a fact that the Neo Freedom had crashed was a lot of upturned seafloor and mud. Apparently the multiple impacts of the Junius 7 debris had badly churned up the oceans' floor; there was a layer of mud and dirt so thick in the underwater currents that visibility had been practically nil. But that hadn't stopped Athrun from painstakingly exploring every square-inch of the seabed in the hopes of stumbling across some sign of the Gundam. All that he found was a rather peculiar looking crater nestled in the sandy seafloor, but there was no Gundam or even any trace of metal that could've hinted at its presence.

The search had been called off almost a week ago. But Athrun wasn't dissuaded. He had known almost immediately that someone else had come before them and taken the wreck, every single piece, away for an unknown reason. It was only a suspicion that had no possible logical grounds, but he had shared it with his friends and Cagalli anyway. Despite Cagalli's assurances that Orb hadn't been the one, she agreed with him that someone had clearly taken it away and tried to hide the evidence.

However, the identity of the ones who'd taken the Freedom had long been on the back-burner at this point. The rising crisis between Earth and PLANTs was escalating and without the Freedom to occupy his time, Athrun was once again finding himself in a position that he was growing to hate: useless. He had no real duties to attend to. Whenever he was in Orb with Cagalli, Yuna would always dominate her free time and have his own servants attend to their needs, usually causing Athrun to end up standing in the background.

But there must be something he could do! He was sick and tired of just sitting by and letting others handle these important issues that kept popping up. He wanted to help someone, somewhere, somehow! For Alex Dino, there wasn't a chance of that happening at this point. But…maybe…Athrun Zala might be able to make a difference somewhere…

He needed to go to the PLANTs and talk to Chairman Durandal. That way, regardless of which identity he used, Athrun knew he could get some much needed good advice. His decision had been made before his mind had even fully processed the thought.

KIRA – Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny – KIRA

October 31, 73 C.E.
Southern Beach - Orb, 12:00am

The beach was a place of pleasant silence, broken only by the gentle crashing of the waves as they hit the shoreline. The moist night air of mid-autumn was amplified down here at the shoreline, making the comfort temperatures drop several degrees. With the added benefit of the ocean spray, a person could end up getting quite wet and cold quite quickly. But Akira was no more paying attention to the ocean spray that was slowly soaking into his clothes than he was of the falling temperatures along the shoreline.

His gaze was focused solely upon the night skies above him. Somehow, some way, he knew that a battle was taking place up there. Akira didn't know how or why he could suddenly feel all this, only that he now could. And he certainly wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth, since this strange sixth sense had saved him from Dr. Strum and his benefactors' nefarious schemes.

Using that sixth sense now, Akira could feel so many countless emotions raging forth up there. He could feel them like the wind and spray on his face. The pulse-pounding fear, nerve-wracking anxiety, vile envy, red-hot anger, blind hatred, giddy rage, and cold resolution to fight, to protect, and to avenge; all of these emotions and urges were cascading down upon him like rain in a typhoon.

Then he saw a series of bright lights begin shining in a pattern that followed a generally straight line. Those lights, mixing from violet-white to neon reds and blues, could be only one thing. Even if he hadn't piggybacked into the man's computer and stolen his data, Akira would've recognized those lights for what they were in an instant: thermal nuclear explosions.

As he continued watching the string of distant explosions light up the night skies in a deceptively beautiful pattern, he felt a new series of emotions reach him. There was a clear set of confidence and triumph erupting from the defenders, once they'd overcome their own awe at the devastation. But prominent among the attackers was fear, confusion, and anger. However, unlike only a few minutes earlier, these emotions were no longer the driving force of the attackers. He could feel their resolve had weakened drastically. They were quickly retreating since they'd clearly anticipated the PLANTs not surviving that direct assault.

"I should've been up there," he said quietly to himself, his gaze still fixated on the spots where the explosions had been. "I should've been…I could've made a difference…I know I could've!"

But the sad fact of the matter was that he was still waiting on Minister Seiran's mechanics to finish repairing the damage done to the Neo Freedom. Ever since he'd discovered that Seiran was having his Gundam repaired, he had been keeping extremely close observation on the man's activities and the progress reports he entered daily into his computer.

Akira had even snuck into Morgenroete to visually confirm to himself that the Neo Freedom was indeed there. It had taken some exploration, but he had eventually found it. Even though Akira had no clear memory prior his awakening two years ago, the obvious familiarity that he'd felt when he reached the Level Four facility was almost frightening to him. Maybe his parents had worked there prior to whatever had happened to him, and they'd allowed him to accompany them to work? Maybe that was where he'd somehow picked up his hidden skills for mobile suit design and computer programming?

Resolving himself to investigate more thoroughly into the matter later, Akira finally turned and left the beach. He had a Gundam to recover, even if it wasn't completely rebuilt when he reached it. He had a war to wage, though against who still remained to be seen.

(Author's Note) I've got a special shout-out here for paintball-gamer. Thanks a million for beta-reading this chapter!

I hope that this chapter turned out better than the previous one. I know I'm stretching things a bit here, namely with Akira suddenly gaining heightened spatial awareness.

But one of the things that I did on purpose here was stretching the timeline for how long it took for the Earth Alliance to gather its forces to attack the PLANTs. I always thought that things were shown to have happened much too quickly in canon, there was no real build up in the suspense or drama. One episode the Atlantic Federation is warning PLANTs to disarm themselves, and in the next episode the Alliance's attack has already been repelled by ZAFT. No build up or anything, just a minor mention of the EA's forces being marshaled to the lunar base, carrying 'spare parts' (aka nuclear missiles) for the attack.