Gundam SEED Destiny
Kira
By: Tellemicus Sundance
Phase 20: Falling from Grace

January 17, 74 CE
ZAFT Garrison near Albacete, Spain
12:30pm

It had been scarcely two hours since the battle. Outside, the remaining ZAFT garrison personnel were hurriedly rushing about to find as many survivors under the debris that had formerly been their outpost. Sadly, yet predictably, the search was proving fruitless and was driving a deep stake of despair into the hearts of many involved as they found one mangled corpse and disembodied limb after another.

What kind of monsters could do such a thing as this?! This was the common thought tread that many of them were sharing as they went about their work. Their only saving grace was the fact that one of the demons had finally been brought down by the famous Impulse super ace pilot. Regardless of whatever happened to the boy next, they'd always be grateful and support him for his heroic efforts here today. Him and the Savior's pilot as well!

However, unknown to them, their great savior was not getting a hero's welcome aboard his mothership. To a degree, Athrun was relieved that he didn't have to participate in that…discussion. Shinn had all but ignored the orders of a superior officer and his combat commander, choosing to follow his own impulses. This matter was indeed a grave one because, like the incident with the Extended girl, Shinn had once again blatantly disregarded orders and military doctrine to pursue his own ideals. Though this time was arguably a much more severe crime than his last incident, because it had happened in the midst of battle where lives of many were on the line. It was really only luck that things hadn't degenerated after Shinn's attack on the Neo Freedom.

Although, to a very small amount, Athrun could also understand why Shinn had done what he'd done during the battle. He had been given strict orders not to attack unless he was attacked and in a sense he had been. Although, the fact that the Neo Freedom hadn't followed up on it while Shinn had been disoriented should've been enough for the boy to realize that it had been an accident. Yet Athrun knew that Shinn had merely used the attack as an excuse to attack the one he deemed to be the master of all evils.

Though how the young ZAFT Red had come to hate Kira so much was beyond Athrun's current understanding because he never talked about his reasons, his real reasons, for it. But there was no denying that as his skill and experience grew, Shinn had rapidly grown to view himself as being an invincible super ace. He seemed to believe that ending the Neo Freedom's 'reign of terrorism and chaos' was a job that only he could accomplish. How the boy had come to this conclusion was beyond Athrun's understanding, but it was obviously a new and powerful driving force in the boy.

Whatever respect that the two of them had had for one another during their early engagements together was no longer there anymore. Shinn treated Athrun with a clearly mocking air of respect, because he believed that he was as untouchable off the battlefield as he was on it. Athrun, for his part, was really starting to get fed up with this new flare of disrespect.

He refused to reprimand the boy on account of that. They were soldiers, fighting in a war. Personal disputes like what was happening between them were only a minor annoyance in comparison to the mission objectives of the battlefield. Besides, there was always the chance that Shinn would eventually realize that he was being an immature brat and snap out of it. And by antagonizing the boy, he was only playing into the boy's game, encouraging him.

Athrun was merely trying to be a professional in the only occupation that he had ever really been good at. But Shinn's new attitude was starting to make it very difficult, especially when it came to arguments over Kira's actions and the consequences of them.

Shaking his head to rid it of those thoughts, Athrun returned his gaze back to the sight he'd been watching earlier. It was the loading of the Gundam that Shinn had managed to defeat into a transport. And the FAITH agent certainly didn't envy those who had to do the job because he'd heard the pilot had made quite a mess in the cockpit when she'd been killed. Whatever their plans for it were, it was almost guaranteed that there was something they wanted from this machine.

From what Athrun had heard, the machine was to be transported to Gibraltar where it would be analyzed and then disassembled. However, Athrun couldn't help but frown at the idea. He just couldn't believe that the military would willingly throw away a mostly intact mobile suit like this Gundam. All it needed was some repairs, recalibrations of various systems, most likely needing several Natural-friendly systems replaced for Coordinator-friendly ones, and then an able pilot and it would be fit to fight, within a month's time at the earliest.

"Want some company, Athrun?" a familiar voice asked from the doorway of the observatory deck that Athrun was standing in.

Glancing back at his superior officer, Athrun shrugged slightly in response. Taking that as an invitation, Heine walked fully inside the compartment and stared out the windows down at the loading scene below them.

"How's Shinn's punishment being handled this time?" Athrun asked after a moment of silence.

"He's being held in the brig again for the moment and the Captain is sending a report to Headquarters," the orange-haired Commander responded easily. "We should be hearing back from them within a few hours at the earliest. Although, considering the fact that he did destroy one of the Hands, I doubt that he's going to get anything more than a warning. The Chairman would be a fool to pull one of our best and remaining pilots off the roster, especially when the Impulse is currently our only fully operable mobile suit."

"That's kinda what I thought too," Athrun admitted quietly.

The sad truth of the matter was that thanks to the damage inflicted to the Savior during the battle, no matter how marginal it was, the Gundam had to be pulled off the active-duty roster until it was properly repaired. Although the Minerva was fully stocked with replacement parts for each mobile suit it carried, it would still take almost a week for the repairs to be completed. A lot could happen in a week's time. And of all the pilots on the Minerva, only Shinn was fully trained in piloting the Impulse, which was a tricky machine to fly, especially when they had to do the alignment and attachment or detachment of the various modules. Yes, to pull Shinn off the Impulse would be a very foolish idea indeed.

"That pilot of the Neo Freedom is quite an interesting person," Heine said suddenly, a strange smile on his face.

"You talked to him?" Athrun asked, slightly surprised.

"Only for a little bit, after Shinn attacked him," Heine explained, his smile widening slightly at some memory. Glancing at his companion, he continued, "I understand that you believe you were once friends with him. If he was always anything like he was during that fight, I think I can understand why you're so loyal to his memory."

"What did he say?" Athrun asked, both curious and desperate to hear Heine's opinion.

"Not much actually," Heine admitted, returning his gaze out the window as he leaned onto the railing in front of them. "But he did signal his emotions through the ways that his mobile suit had moved. I could tell that he was angry at the Hands, yet sad that he had to fight them like that. He didn't seem like he was a bad person and he never seemed to aim for the cockpit itself."

Glancing over at Athrun's slightly wistfully smiling expression, Heine's smile faded slightly. "If things were different, I wouldn't mind getting to know him better myself."

"Yeah, if only," Athrun quietly agreed, returning his gaze to the activity outside. "Let's just hope that after this war is over, we still have the chance to do so. I have so many questions of my own."

KIRA – Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny – KIRA

Linz, Austria
12:45pm

She was in the middle of delivering yet another midday meal for a customer. After spending several weeks doing this same routine under the watchful guidance of her host and partial friend, Meer was finding herself growing extremely adept in the duties of her 'job.'

"Thank you, Meer," the customer said gratefully as she set down the teenager's meal in front of him.

This young man, who was clearly still in high school, had been among some of the more recent customers who'd started dining here since Meer's arrival. To a small degree, Meer kind of liked him because his awkward attempts at flirting with her were very flattering. And though Meer would proudly proclaim that she was still very much in love with her dear fiancée Athrun Zala, she had silently admitted that this boy's eyes were very beautiful, almost as much as Athrun's were.

The sixteen year old Natural, Herrick Hildebrand, just smiled up at her and tried to be as unobtrusive as possible when he watched her as she walked away. There was a certain sway to her hips that was very alluring to a teenager like him. It was thanks to his attention being solely attached to her bum that he failed to notice exactly what was happening around him, or what had caused her to suddenly stop only a few strides away from him. But when he did notice the unusual silence a few moments later, he did look up in time to see a news update taking place on the television.

On the screen was a mobile suit battle taking place. Being a simple teenager, Herrick simply watched the screen with a wistful expression on his face. He wished that it was him that was one of the pilots of those battling mobile suits. For a moment, dreams of fame and glory were intermixed as he watched the battle taking place. If that was him in there, he'd probably easily crush those three terrorists like they were nothing but—that was when the Freedom attacked.

With the sudden appearance of the Gundam whose pilot he worshipped above all others, Herrick's attention was instantly snapped back to reality as he began paying extremely close attention to the still-battle damaged machine as it fought. This return to reality was also what allowed him to hear a voice that he and most of the Earth had come to recognize quite easily.

It was the ZAFT Supreme Chairman, Gilbert Durandal.

"—appears to be fighting the Hands, I implore upon you all to not be fooled by this seeming display," Durandal was saying, his voice carrying a faint not-quite-there edge to it. "This is clearly just an act by Iyadomi in an attempt to further confuse us to the exact nature of his intentions."

As he was speaking, the screen was suddenly filled with a high-speed clash of two red Gundams stabbing each other through their cockpits. But where the unfamiliar one suddenly lost power and fell from the sky dead, the second one that Herrick recognized as the Impulse continued to hover in the sky victoriously over the wreckage of its enemy.

"This here is the real hero of the battle," Durandal's voice continued as scene was momentarily frozen to allow the audience to fully view the partially damaged Impulse. "Unlike Iyadomi, who had ultimately allowed the remaining two Hands to escape—" The screen shifted to showing the two remaining Hands flying off to the horizon at top speeds while the Neo Freedom was hovering near the Minerva, watching it and the all red Gundam wearily.

"—the pilot of the Impulse had managed to defeat one of the Hands before his machine had run out of power. And if the pilot of the Neo Freedom had indeed intended to destroy the Hands, as he tries to imply by this battle, why did he attack the Impulse when he'd first arrived?" The screen again shifted to show the exact moment of time that the Chairman was speaking of, when the Freedom had accidentally blown the Impulse's right arm off.

The screen then was filled with Durandal's face which was drawn into a tight expression. That expression alone immediately told Herrick that whatever he was about to say was of something of extreme importance and not something good either.

"I'm sure that many of you are wondering why I'm trying to turn you against this person, Iyadomi," he said in a rather blunt statement. With a small sigh, the man continued, "I will admit that I was hopeful that this young man would eventually cease his criminal activities when it became clear to him that we do not appreciate his attempts at ending this war, especially when it results in more death and destruction because of his underlings' interventions. But I have recently come across some rather disturbing information into this young man's past."

His past?! Herrick sat up ever-so-slightly straighter. There was so little known about Iyadomi as a person, only his actions and interventions in the war, and the fact that he was using an alias were known to the public. Herrick, and a good deal of the populace, was starved for more information about the controversial hero.

"According to a loyal informant of mine," Durandal continued softly. "This young man, this Akira Iyadomi, had been an orphan who was found and raised for as long as he could remember by a band of blood-thirsty pirates."

There was a moment of absolute silence permeating the small restaurant after that statement. …What?! He was raised by pirates?! That was ridiculous! But Durandal wasn't finished yet.

"They had taught him their ways. How to fight, how to pilot, and how to accomplish his goals while delivering the maximum amount of necessary damage to his enemies as possible," Durandal's expression was completely serious. "He had taken the name of ZAFT's pilot 'Akira Iyadomi' as means of covering his true identity from all of us. I strongly believe that when he finally achieves whatever his goals are in this war, he would then return to society with his previous identity and live without the repercussions of his deeds of today."

"I am sorry to say that we still are unable to determine his exact identity thus far," Durandal said, clearly in the closing of his speech. "That is why I implore upon you, the people of the Earth, once again to aid us in capturing this criminal and the rescue of Miss Lacus Clyne before he attempts to divide us further from one another. We must all stand tall and resolute in the face of a terrorist like him."

Durandal's face was replaced with a picture of the Neo Freedom as it was hovering near the Minerva as the two Hands fled in defeat, the exposed eye-camera seeming to glow in a new and deadly light. Herrick found himself torn for a moment. Akira Iyadomi was raised by pirates? But…he had still been responsible for saving many lives on the battlefield, including Herrick's father. Iyadomi was a good person!

Wasn't he?

KIRA – Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny – KIRA

Aprillis 1, PLANTs
2:13pm

Sitting in his chair, Durandal let a small smile across his face. The world was in confusion again over whether to believe his statements of Iyadomi's past or not. He knew that they would continue to discuss the sudden revelation for weeks to come as they tried to decide who to believe in. A recognized politician who was the leader of an entire nation, shown to be a strong believer of carrying out what he thought was for the good of the people (Coordinator or Natural), and was seen as a man who kept to his word. A man who they all knew was working to end the war as quickly as he could, and someone who they thought that they knew what his intentions were. Or a faceless Gundam pilot who, despite his many interventions and attacks, had yet to even give a statement of his intentions.

Ultimately, the man who they could put a face to the name would triumph.

A sudden buzz on his intercom system drew him out of his thoughts. "Yes?" he asked, tapping the link.

"Sir, I have a Mr. Hajime Yatate waiting for a meeting with you," his secretary answered immediately.

"I see," Durandal acknowledged as he remembered that this was arranged meeting time. "Very well, please send him in."

"Hai," the man said quickly before cutting the connection.

A few moments later, a rather nondescript man walked into the office. He wore a ZAFT Red uniform with his FAITH badge pinned proudly to his collar. The man came to a halt just in front of Durandal's desk and threw a fast, perfect salute.

"Captain Hajime Yatate reporting as ordered, Supreme Chairman," the man said formally, holding his salute for a moment before lowering it at Durandal's nod. "What are your orders, sir?"

"I have reviewed the information you've brought to my attention," Durandal said calmly as he brought up the said data on his computer. "And your assessment is correct; we do have grounds for an attack on this…factory. Though I'm curious as to why it has taken you this long to bring this information to me."

"I'm sorry, sir," Captain Yatate said neutrally. "For the past few weeks, the factory has been subjected to repeated attacks by numerous factions and the Captain wasn't allowing anyone to leave until he'd deemed it safe. And the engineers had been ordered to keep the projects secret until such a time it was deemed necessary to reveal them. I believe that the Captain had done this to cut back on unnecessary rumors among the crew."

"I see," the Chairman said quietly. "Clearly this Captain is quite familiar with leading his crew."

"He is among one of the best I've ever seen, sir," Yatate admitted.

After a moment of careful contemplation, Durandal nodded to himself before reaching into one of his drawers and extracted a small folder. Handing them to the Captain, he said, "These are your new orders, Captain. You're to depart immediately and rendezvous with the Minerva in Western Eurasia as soon as possible."

Opening the folder, the Captain quickly reviewed the orders with his eyes widening ever so slightly in his surprise. "Sir?"

"That is correct," Durandal nodded. "Carry it out immediately. I believe you will have the advantage should you ever cross paths with that boy again. You did help to teach him how to fight after all. Isn't that right, Lieutenant Hidai?"

Captain Yatate merely raised an eyebrow at the use of his codename. Quickly closing the folder, he snapped into another picture perfect salute, "Yes, sir. Captain Hajime Yatate will carry out this mission to best and fullest of my abilities."

"I expect nothing less," Durandal said smiling lightly. With that said, the Captain immediately turned to exit the room. Before he left though, Durandal called out, "And thank you for providing me with that extra information on Iyadomi, it has proven to be most insightful."

"Anything for my homeland, sir," the spy uttered in a quiet voice, his face hidden in shadows. "And I hate pirates."

KIRA – Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny – KIRA

January 18, 74 CE
Warsaw, Poland
7:26am

Stellar watched the inferno of the destruction that she had caused with an impassive expression. The once-metropolis of Warsaw was now nothing more than a smoldering pile of ruins, completely annihilated by the power of her new Gundam. Stellar had targeted everything within sight, be it scrambling mobile suits, ancient buildings and homes, or the countless fleeing numbers of terrified civilians.

Normally she wouldn't have even considered aiming at civilians because they were defenseless and often had nothing to do with her mission objectives. But Neo had just told her a frightening truth, something that she'd never even considered before. All those people down there were helping the scary things! Scary things that could and would kill her, Neo, and everyone else in the world if she couldn't stop them. And Stellar feared death more than anything else in the world. She would stop those people from helping the scary things! She didn't wanna die! So she'd kill them to stop them from killing her! She would protect Neo…

Like…Shinn…said he would protect her.

That was why she watched without remorse as she blew up one street full of people after another. Never again would she fear the scary things that were creeping steadily closer, just waiting to claim her life! Never again!

(AUTHOR'S NOTE) I know, I know. It's short, but hopefully very sweet and tasty. A lot of stuff happened in just fewer than five pages, eh? Durandal is once again trying to turn Earth against Akira after receiving information from a spy (check chapter two for a reference to Hidai if you want). Shinn, despite being presently arrested (again), is likely to once again escape any punishments due to the war situation. And now Durandal is sending his loyal operative off with a secret mission. Quite a chapter eh? I apologize for the briefness of the chapter, but I swear that the next one will be MUCH longer. And many thanks to animefan29 and FictionReader98 for your help on this chapter.

Oh yes, I have two small announcements to make.

1) I have recently put up a new poll on my homepage. I would be very grateful if each of you readers were to take part in it because I'm very, very curious about your opinions on the matter that it addresses. And yes, this matter is going to become a significant one in the near future.

2) I recently received a request from a talented author named Maileesaeya, who has also written several rewrites of Akatsuki Leader13's Gundam Seed: A Retelling, to create an AU version of this story. I don't know when or if Maileesaeya will post this story, but I can guarantee that it will be decidedly different from Gundam SEED Destiny: Kira based on what little Maileesaeya has shared with me already. I hope you all will at least drop by to see that story when/if it gets posted, I promise to add a notice should that happen.

Next chapter: Going Down in Flames