Celestial Being Chronicles - Chapter 56
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Gundam series, nor any of the various series which are used or referenced in my fic, so please point that damned lawsuit cannon at someone else, also, don't read this if you are not of legal age to read such material. The story contains possibly disturbing content and should not be read by close-minded people (i.e., people who are easily offended.) Everything in the story is fictional. I am also not responsible for any actions taken by people who read this story and society's problems. I do, however, own my original character; Hope Yamato.
The remains of the Divinity Gundam now silently stood in the Excalibur's hanger bay. Even though the angelic machine appeared to have been destroyed a few days earlier, the explosion had been a highly complex hologram which had been created by the Divinity's holoprojectors.
Kira sighed slightly as he walked into the hanger and looked up at his Gundam, or more accurately, at all four of his Gundams. Since the angel-winged machine had been cleaved into four seperate pieces by the Aile Strike Gundam, there were now four exact copies of the Divinity Gundam in the hanger bay.
Kira's version of the Divinity Gundam bore the standard color scheme of white, with black accents, and was once again being outfitted with four wing mounted weapons racks, with two racks on each wing. The wing mounted weapons racks on the Divinity Gundam's wings currently carried four AIM-9X Sidewinders, four AIM-120D AMRAAMs, four B61 nuclear bombs and four AGM-84 Harpoons.
After a long moment, the amethyst-eyed man turned to look at the other three Divinity Gundams. Pilots had not yet been assigned to these three machines, but he already had a number of canidates in mind.
Kira climbed down into the cockpit of the Divinity Gundam, looking right and left, up and down, working the kinks out of his neck as he ducked his head under the low ceiling of the cockpit space. Kira already knew that with his newly regenerated Gundam there was little need for all the screens and control sticks and even big padded flight couch that he was used to seeing crowding into a cockpit, but it was still a bit of shock opening the hatch and finding a space barely even big enough to sit upright in was all that was allocated for him. There wasn't even any padding on the floor for him to sit on, though Kira soon discovered that the flight suit he'd been provided included extra cushioning on the rear of the legs for just that purpose.
"Well, here goes nothing..." Kira sighed as he climbed down into the cockpit of the Divinity Gundam, ducking his head down and sliding the helmet into place, adopting a cross legged sitting position in the middle of the cockpit space, as Lexi had instructed him before he boarded. The cushioning in the flight suit was surprisingly comfortable, like sitting on an memory foam office chair, and then Kira found his body locked in place by an invisible field that pressed down across his body, the force only noticable when he tried to twitch and found himself as paralyzed as if he was encased in solid ice! Kira put all his effort into throwing his body to the side, even knowing it was barely the tiniest fraction of the force of the acceleration or deceleration he would suffer during combat maneuvers, but he stayed still as if glued in place. The helmet settled into place around his head, deploying monitoring sensors as it attuned itself to his brainwaves. And then, with a sensation like a long blink, Kira found his eyes opening once more, except this time they were the now royal purple colored lenses of the Divinity!
'Neural Interface Connection established.' The foreign thought appeared in his mind as the Gundam started coming fully online. 'Closing and sealing hatch. All vital signs of pilot slightly elevated, within acceptable parameters. Zero Point Module coming online in two...one...Zero Point Module start. Ultracompact Hyper Duterion Nuclear Reactor coming online in two...one...reactor start.' Kira jumped slightly as he felt the burning throb of the chained star that was the ZPM at the center of the Divinity as it ignited and began to oscillate eagerly. The heat was almost unbearable, he felt like he was cooking from the inside out, but then blessed coolness washed through his limbs and chest. 'Coolant systems online and flow is optimal. ZERO System coming online...weapon systems coming online... all systems, online. We are Divinity, God's blessing upon every universe...'
Kira looked down at his arm...at the Divinity's arm, and once more marveled at the technology that allowed his consciousness to so easily transpose itself into the control of this gigantic war machine, so that even the slightest motion felt completely natural and comfortable. His body felt light and strong, his eyes could see in a dozen different spectrums of the visible and invisible bands, and his wings flexed eagerly, longing to unleash the bright blue wash of thruster flame to propel him as fast and as far as he desired to go. It was quite a rush, but Kira only let himself enjoy it for a few moments before he dragged himself back do to reality. Much as it might feel like it, this was not his body, it was a Gundam that he was piloting. He was the Divinity Gundam, but the Divinity Gundam was not him. Even if the Divinity Gundam somehow ended up suffering enough damage to be rendered inoperable, Kira wouldn't be harmed in the slightest.
Kira rotated one arm through a complete three hundred and sixty degree turn, since it was another thing to bear in mind that the Divinity wasn't subject to the limits of motion of a human body either. Kira rolled his shoulders, his wings rustling and shimmering as their MCPS armored surfaces reacted to the tensing of his shoulders and upper back, preparing to sweep wide and launch him into the air. From wingtip to wingtip, the Divinity's regenerated wings stretched more than fifty meters, almost brushing the outer edges of the maintenance stalls on either side of Kira. The angular feather-pods of the DRAGOON units rattled and clicked against each other, twitching in their docks among the armor and flight surface feathers that surrounded them, thirty-six specialized deployable feather-pods to a wing, each capable of firing beam blasts, or temproal inversion blasts, in addition to being able to generate either a beam shield or a geischmedig-panzer beam deflecting shield around itself, and by combining the DRAGOON units, progressively larger and stronger shields could be formed. By creative and practiced use of the DRAGOON units, Kira could capture incoming enemy beam fire and send it back at them, plus many other more esoteric strategies, such as cocoons with which he could trap enemy machines.
Lines of data scrolled along the bottom corners of his vision, detailing the parameters of each system as he brought it under his scrutiny, and Kira was pleased to see that both the detached operating time and shield power of his wing-mounted DRAGOON units had been significantly increased from the Divinity's previous incarnation, in line with the far more powerful ZPM he now had as a power source. Movement in the periphery of his forward vision arc caused tingles of attention snaring alarms to crawl down his spine, and Kira turned away from the inspection of himself, to find himself face to face with the Akatsuki, Chimera, Destiny, Destiny Impulse and Strike Freedom.
"Magnificent..." Murrue Ramius said, not having to fake her admiration for the masterpiece that was the reborn Divinity Gundam, as it stood in front of her. The angel-winged mobile suit seemed almost too beautiful to actually be a war machine, but the trio beam rifles sheathed on its hips and rear waist, the pair of twin buster rifles sheathed across its back, and the physical shield on its right forearm, which mounted a third twin buster rifle, belied any notion that the Divinity was anything other than an weapon of mass destruction. "If you think you've got the hang of it, walk out the entrance there and..." Murrue half turned and was pointing towards the ramp leading up to the exit of the maintenance hanger, still in the midst of her sentence, when Kira brushed by her with liquid grace and disappeared outside inbetween blinks of her eyes. "...remind me that you're not a rookie at this." Murrue finished a bit lamely, even as the Strike Freedom, along with the other five Gundams charged out of the hanger after him and took to the skies in pursuit of the swooping white form that was now racing down into the valley below at breathtaking speed, hugging the rock walls with barely five meters to spare as Kira put the Divinity through a few simple paces, Cagalli, Hope, Lacus, Mayu and Murrue falling into formation slightly behind him after a few seconds of catch up.
Kira smirked slightly as he landed the Divinity on a nearby cliff a moment later, freeing the beam rifle from his rear waist armor as the other five machines landed on either side of him, still in formation.
A list of defensive systems, including a mirage colloid stealth system, a phase cloak, beam shield projectors on either forearm, positron reflectors in the palms and a nano-self repair system, were followed up by something called; Lucifer's Grasp Gravitic Manipulation Field Generator. The GMFG could quite literally catch and store plasma and beam weapon shots for use as melee or ranged weapons of almost any sort conceivable, and the pilot was able to manipulate the fields to generate any weapon that came to mind, through actual manipulation of gravity in a localized manner. The GMFG could not only catch plasma and beam blasts, but it could also levitate vehicles, mobile suits and even warships, affecting up to 750,000 tons of physical matter!
"As of 12:30 today, a special state of emergency has been declared for the Kanto and Chubu regions surrounding the Tokai district. All residents must evacuate to their designated shelters immediately." An automated voice suddenly boomed.
"What the hell is-" Kira began, only to stop when he saw a giant, green, humanoid silhouette, with large bony structures on its shoulders and torso, gill-like structures on its legs, tridactyl hands, and a distinctive beaked face, advancing into view from behind a pair of skyscrapers. "God, no."
"Kira, that's an Angel?" Lacus said in alarm, only to be cut off an instant later, when the Divinity Gundam opened fire with its beam rifle, the searing green beam blast impacting on a transparent, orange, hexagonal energy shield, known as an AT Field, the impact causing the creature to turn and look at the Divinity Gundam, which stood on a nearby cliff, flanked by five other Gundams.
"Hello, Sachiel." Kira snarled, his voice booming from the Divinity Gundam's external loudspeakers, as he narrowed his eyes and raised his left hand, grinning manically as Sachiel was suddenly lifted off the ground by the angel-winged machine's Gravitic Manipulation Field Generator.
"Why do this?" The amethyst-eyed man roared. "What's the point?"
The only response that Sachiel provided was to rapidly fire the energy cannons in his eyes, six times in reletively rapid sucession, the impacts sending multiple white energy crosses lancing into the sky. Kira simply smirked as all of the blasts had missed, not only him, but the other five Gundams as well.
"Wow." Kira mocked, even as he continued to keep Sachiel suspended in the air. "Learn to aim."
Suddenly, Evangelion Unit 04 dropped out of the sky, landing on Sachiel's back as he hung suspended in the air.
"I have a score to settle with you and the rest of your kind!" Misato Katsuragi roared from within the entry plug of Evangelion Unit 04, even as the now purple and black Eva ignited a glowing pink beam blade on its right wrist.
'How is this possible?' Kira heard Sachiel's voice ask in his head. 'You are almost as powerful as the creator himself!'
'I am the one you refer to as the creator!' Kira shot back.
'Why are you helping the humans then?' Sachiel asked.
'Because you and your kind promote warfare!' Kira snarled as Evangelion Unit 04 swung its brightly glowing pink beam blade into Sachiel's right arm at the shoulder, the extreme heat cleaving through the flesh, muscle and bone as though it were passing through air.
Sachiel let out an ear-shattering shriek of pain as his now severed right arm fell to the ground, the arm and shoulder wounds both spewing massive amounts of navy-colored blood.
"Crap." Murrue's voice spoke over the communications line, even as the proximity alerts began to sound within all of the machines. "We've got company!"
Kira glanced at one of the sub-screens, which was now showing a hollow, translucent blue octahedron slowly floating towards the six Gundams. This was the Angel known as Ramiel.
"Lacus, Cagalli! Take care of tha-" Kira began, only to be cut off as Ramiel's form suddenly changed from its octahedral shape to what looked like a pair of massive crosshairs. None of the pilots had time to contemplate this, however, as a blindingly bright, pink positron beam shot towards them.
"Holy shit!" Kira yelled, instinct taking over as the six Gundams took to the air, dodging the searing positron beam and allowing it to hit the ground, the blast carving out a huge thirty foot long, twenty foot deep trench.
Misato growled slightly as she deactivated her beam saber, kicked Sachiel's now falling form into Ramiel and quickly took her position within the formation which was now hovering defiently before the two Angels, even as Sachiel's severed arm regenerated.
"Damn." Misato muttered. "I was hoping that by kicking Sachiel at Ramiel, they would fire on each other and end up fighting one another."
"Well, even if it didn't work, it was a good idea." Lacus smiled from the cockpit of the Chimera Gundam.
"Ok, enough talking." Kira sighed. "Let's show these two idiots why humanity is superior to them!"
"Another one?" Hope growled from the cockpit of the Destiny Gundam, as a large, floating, black-and-white patterned sphere suddenly appeared to Sachiel's left.
"Hmm, that's Leliel." Kira scowled, quickly scanning the newly arrived enemy with the Divinity's highly advanced sensor systems. "It seems that this Angel, when attacked, will vanish and re-manifest as a large black shadow below whatever attacked it, and that means the sphere we see now, isn't its real body." The amethyst-eyed man paused for a few short seconds before continuing. "Apparently Leliel possesses an inverted AT field, which allows it to take into itself anything in range of its shadow-like body, but keeping it contained."
"Yeah." Misato spoke up, having recalled the first battle with this particular Angel. "During our battle with this Angel, Ritsuko Akagi, Nerv's head scientist, theorized that within the inverted AT field is something called a Dirac sea, which could lead to another universe."
"Wait a minute." Cagalli said, pointing to the sphere, as it continued to float next to the still motionless form of Saciel and Ramiel. "How the hell can the body of that thing lead to another universe?"
"Cagalli does have a point." Hope smirked. "Leliel has the appearance of nothing more than a huge rubber ball that was painted by somone who was stoned."
Instantly, the other six pilots began roaring with laughter. After a few short seconds, Sachiel at Ramiel, whom were not only telepathic, but could understand human speech, also began to laugh hysterically.
Even as the seven pilots, along with two of the three Angels, continued to laugh, a fourth Angel approached, this one with the appearance of a floating creature but lacking humanoid limbs, and with a malformed skull as a face.
'Zeruel.' Ramiel telepathically spoke, the hollow, translucent blue Angel's voice still stifled with laughter. 'One of the humans said that Leliel has the appearance of a huge rubber ball painted by somone who was stoned.'
'That's hilariously accurate!' Zeruel laughed. 'Maybe we should consider living peacefully with them.'
Kira noticed Zeruel's thought and immediately took advantage of the situation. 'So, you guys want to live peacefully with humanity?'
'After something as hilarious as that, we'd be insane not to want to live in peace.' Sachiel answered.
'Ok.' Kira replied, smiling. 'Although, you'll have to be willing to fight alongside Celestial Being, in return for your willingness to fight with us, we offer you our eternal protection.'
'I've heard rumors of about a group of humans which go by the name of Celestial Being.' Ramiel replied, having finally stopped laughing. 'And believe I speak for all my brethren when I say that we greatly admire the dedication that you have put towards completeing your mission of eradicating all conflict from every world and universe that you encounter.'
The seven pilots could only blush at the praise as the three Angels then turned and left, moving in the direction of the Excalibur. As soon as the three were out of sight, a blindingly bright white light shone down from the heavens, and an instant later, it was as though a thousand needles were stabbing into Kira's skull.
He lost all sense of orientation, and was aware of a violent shudder as the Divinity Gundam abruptly dropped to one knee. Somehow, he managed to keep the machine upright as he fought against the white-hot tendrils that seemed to be trying to burn their way into his brain. His left hand flew to his head as he grimaced in agony, his right forearm moving out before him, beam shield igniting with a brilliant blue flash, as if trying to block the cascade of sparkling, multicolored lights that were now glistening all around him.
While the Divinity had only slumped to one knee, the other six machines simply went limp and fell to the ground, their pilots having been taken completely off gaurd by the sudden mental assault and instantly rendered unconscious.
In Kira's head, there was a strange chattering, quiet at first but slowly increasing in intensity. It was as if dozens, maybe even hundreds or even thousands of voices were speaking all at once, questioning him, scolding him, berating him, mocking him, ridiculing him. Some of the voices were very familiar, some were not, but all of them seemed to be saying the exact same things.
'Useless.'
'Weak.'
'Coward.'
'Failure.'
'No one needs you.'
'No one wants you.'
'No one loves you.'
'Stop wasting your time...you can't help them.'
'You can't help anyone.'
'All you ever do is let people down.'
Countless white sparks exploded in his mind's eye, and then the image was replaced by the face of his first true love, Murrue Ramius, her glittering marigold eyes narrowed at him scornfully from behind her thick brown forelocks.
'She'll never respect you.'
There was another flare of sparks, and then all five of Kira's lovers appeared before him. They all began to laugh, a cruel, derisive laugh that somehow felt more painful to Kira than the sharp stinging sensations jabbing into his skull. After a few seconds, random faces appeared, people he didn't even know, adding to the mocking laughter with their own cackling jeers.
All of them laughing. Laughing at him.
'You're weak.'
'You're stupid.'
'You're a coward.'
'You're useless.'
'You're nothing.'
'We hate you, Kira.'
'We ALL hate you.'
Kira felt a wave of nausea threatening to overwhelm him as he fought desperately to maintain control of himself. His whole body was shaking, his eyes shut tight against the mental onslaught as he tried to force himself to maintain his focus.
'Shut up, just shut up.'
The thrumming in his head intensified, a low basso profundo that slowly grew stronger and stronger, until it was almost as loud as the mocking voices still echoing in his thoughts.
'We hate you, Kira.'
"Shut the fuck up." He whispered, his voice ragged and shaking.
'Everyone hates you.'
'It's the truth.'
"Shut up, shut the fuck up!" He repeated, louder this time. His head was pounding now, the battle raging in his head worse than a hundred migraines.
For a split-second, Kira's eyes cracked open, and through the strange kaleidoscope of lights surrounding him, he could see the immobilized forms of the other five Gundams, along with Evangelion Unit 04, projected on his main screen, as well as the twin buster rifle, clutched in his right hand as he held the weapon out before him. The back of his skull was absolutely throbbing, and an icy electric sensation was now spreading down his right arm, as if he were holding a live power cord.
'Accept it.'
"SHUT UP THE FUCK UP" He screamed, caught between two opposing forces that both seemed to be trying to overwhelm him. "Get...get out...get out of my head!"
"GET OUT THE FUCK OF MY HEAD!" He roared, raising the twin buster rifle towards the sky, aiming at the source of the painful light.