Celestial Being Chronicles - Chapter 135
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.
"I must commend you, Kira Yamato, for what you've done to the world." Morgan Chevalier cackled as his humming GAT-X165 Providence Gundam, its armor clad in white, blue and red, mimicing the color scheme of the GAT-X105 Strike Gundam, soared into battle. "Side of righteousness, indeed!"
In the CB-X60D Divinity Gundam, beam sword blazing with a pure white light, Kira tensed as the Providence launched its DRAGOON units and the remote weapons wove a web of green beams. He threw the Divinity through the nearest opening and swung up his anti-ship sword, just in time to avoid a beam saber blow from the Providence. It leveled off the beam rifle in its left hand; the Divinity darted aside as it fired and charged again, falling into a spark-spewing swordfight with the Alliance machine.
"I'll confess some curiosity, though, as to which side you're fighting for." Morgan went on, sparks dancing around the two mobile suits. The Providence's eyes flashed and the mobile suit went on the offensive, with a volley of saber blows barely parried and a wave of gunbarrel fire barely dodged by the Divinity. "So let's make it clear, right now, once and for all!" The Providence charged, saber blazing. "Whose side are you on, Kira Yamato?"
Kira flung the Divinity backward, dodging Morgan's final blow, and then slammed his Gundam forward again and pummeled the Providence's beam shield with his own sword. "I'm against the Alliance and ZAFT!" He shot back. "Both sides massacre innocent people!"
"Some might call that retaliation, kid!" Morgan laughed, and with a blast of sparks the Providence blocked another sword blow with its saber. "After all, even Celestial Being has been killing people all over the planet and in space, ever since this war started. Ever wonder how many of them were civilians? How much blood is on Celestial Being's hands?"
Memories rippled through Kira's mind, memories of Junius Seven, memories of the GENESIS gamma-ray laser, memories of the GRMNY-X01 Retribution Gundam constructed by Nazi Germany, memories of reducing the entire planet to a radioactive ball of molten lava, memories of the attack on the Copernicus Lunar City, memories of the siege in Seattle. "I've been killing them too." The amethyst-eyed man sadistically grinned.
The Providence surged forward. "So I've heard!" Morgan roared with a grin. "Yes, we all know, you butchered a ZAFT remnant detachment that turned on the Minerva! One might begin to question your loyalties, little man! So I ask again, whose side are you on?"
The Providence Gundam's DRAGOON units darted across the inky sky and showered the Divinity with pulsing beam fire. Kira's eyes darted back and forth between them, two of the remote weapons suddenly ignited beam blades along their leading edges and charged in close. The Divinity batted them aside with its beam sword; an instant later the Providence was there with an upraised saber, and it slammed the blade down onto the Divinity's sword.
"This is a much better fight, I must say, much fairer." Morgan chuckled as the sparks crackled around the two mobile suits.
The Divinity flung the Providence back with a forceful swing of its sword and then rocketed upward to dodge a wave of DRAGOON fire. The Providence lunged up after the angelic Gundam; a pair of beam cannons flipped up from its back and opened fire, and the Divinity backed away behind its beam shield.
"But you don't seem to be taking me seriously!" Morgan continued, and the Providence intensified its fire. "I wonder why?" The Providence snaked its way through its own beam blasts. "Is there someone better for you to fight?"
Kira glanced to the right, long enough to find those approaching human presences, and then she flung the Divinity to the side, letting Morgan's finishing saber stab pass through a cloud of afterimages. The Divinity backpedaled as a wave of beam fire filled the space around it.
"You!" Kira grunted; the RX-93 Nu Gundam was suddenly there to pummel the Divinity with a blast from the hyper bazooka in its right hand, then with a flash of exhaust, the Nu Gundam's white fin funnels filled the sky with more blazing energy beams; Kira rocketed up over the blasts. Kira glanced over his shoulder and dove to the side as the Nu Gundam lunged at him from behind with a scissoring slash from its beam sabers, only to encounter the angelic machine's glowing beam shields. The two mobile suits darted apart again, just as the Divinity unleashed all 36 of its DRAGOON units, each of the remote weapons leaving an army of afterimages in their wake as they quickly swarmed around the Nu Gundam.
At the edge of the battlefield, Morgan sniffed contemptuously as he recalled his own DRAGOONs. "Nice of you to let me know ahead of time."
"This one is our target, Captain Chevalier." The voice of Earth Alliance Lieutenant Natarle Badgiruel's voice warned through the communications line. "Two mobile suits are inbound. We will handle the Divinity."
"Will you now?" Morgan asked, arching an eyebrow.
As if to emphasize her point, the Nu Gundam brought a beam saber crashing down onto the Divinity's beam sword.
"It's my specialty." Natarle answered.
Morgan snorted in disgust and turned his Providence Gundam towards the approaching units, both of which he recognized as prototype Alliance units; the GAT-X10A Freedom Gundam and the GAT-X105 IWSP Strike Gundam.
"You're not going anywhere!" Kira snarled as eight of his DRAGOON units quickly surrounded the Providence and ignited a glowing cube-shaped beam shield, trapping the Alliance mobile suit. As the eight remote weapons caputred the Providence, the Nu Gundam had rushed in and severed the Divinity's head, right wing and right arm.
"Give up." Natarle's confident voice filled the Divinity's cockpit. "I'd rather capture your machine, but I will destroy it if I have to."
"You can not kill a god." Kira's emotionless voice laughed, even as the Divinity Gundam's head regenerated with a nearly blindingly bright orange flash of light. Unlike before, however, the head of the angelic mobile suit now had brightly glowing, blood-red eyes and a large mouth filled with pure white teeth.
Suddenly, everyone was nearly blinded by a burst of white light. When the light faded, Kira found himself in an all too familiar fortress city, with alarms blaring.
"A special state of emergency has been declared for Tokyo-3. All civilians, must evacuate to their designated shelters immediately." The recorded voice of a woman called out, as the alarms continued to sound. Kira looked around, noticing that he appeared to be alone.
"So, I'll need to destroy all three Evangelion Units on my own, huh?" He rhetorically asked himself, even as a pair of large rails suddenly shot out of the ground. An instant later, a huge hole opened in the ground and Evangelion Unit 01 rumbled to the surface. Two more pairs of rails shot from the ground less than two seconds later, and Evangelion Unit 00 and Evangelion Unit 02 stepped from their respective emergence points. Asuka carried a spear. She was nearest the Divinity Gundam. Kira sighed slightly as he freed Soul Calibur from his machine's back, wielding the massive crystalline blade in his left hand.
Evangelion Unit 02 lunged, grabbing the crystalline blade and wrenching the Divinity Gundam to the ground by it's own weapon. Kira rolled, using his own leverage on the blade to pull and trip the Eva over his fallen body, and regain control of his weapon. The crimson Evangelion Unit crashed to the ground. Asuka's head slammed against the controls as it fell, stunning her. Blood floated away from a cut on her forehead, mixing with the LCL. Kira brought his weapon back for another swing, ready to impale Evangelion Unit 02 on the weapon. As he brought it down, the crimson Evangelion rolled out of the way, and kicked the Divinity's legs out from under him. Dizzily, Evangelion Unit 02 righted itself, and half leapt, half fell on top of the other angelic mobile suit, pinning it, one hand on each shoulder. She brought her right fist back to cave in it's face. Kira smiled, almost sadistically.
'Idiot.' Kira thought to himself. He raised his now free right fist so that it was level with the crimson Eva's face. The shield on his right arm suddenly split down the middle, a pure white beam blade igniting as the thrusters on the back of the shield began to activate. Asuka's eyes widened, and her face slackened as she realized what was about to happen.
"Eat this!" Kira screamed.
The shield bored through Unit 02's skull. Asuka's scream rang through Central Dogma as the crimson Eva collapsed on top of the Divinity. The flying shield flew through a wide arc, then returned to it's master. The Divinity pushed the Eva's decapitated form off from itself, hefting it's crystalline blade as it stood.
Suddenly, dozens of memories resurfaced in Kira's mind. "No! I won't let this shit happen again!" His sentence trailed off in a battle cry, one which the Divinity Gundam echoed, the bellow reverberating throughout Tokyo-3.
Eva Unit 00 and Eva Unit 01 held their ground, although Shinji suddenly felt that running like hell was a very good idea, especially since the angelic machine was now sheathing the massive crystalline sword behind its back. The angelic mobile suit then broke into a run, sprinting directly towards Evangelion Unit 00. Rei screamed and raised her machine gun. The Divinity grabbed the blue Evangelion Unit by the wrists, then, with it's other hand, grabbed the gun by the barrel and, with a flick of it's wrist, seperated the barrel from the grip as though the gun were made of plastic. Rei's eyes widened in terror. The Divinity released Unit 00's wrists, then each mighty hand grabbed one of the blue Eva's shoulders. The angelic machine roared again, then it ripped Unit 00's's arms clean from their sockets, throwing each of the severed limbs away, then moved on to grab the blue Eva by the neck, crushing it. Finally, the angel-winged mobile suit slammed the ruined Evangelion Unit to the ground and began to rip away the armor plating, strewing flesh, blood, organs and mechanical components all about.
Most satisfying to Akira Yamato, perhaps, was the massive piece of wreckage that suddenly slammed sidelong into the Providence Gundam and sent it sailing out of the fight, its DRAGOONs going with it. Akira let his instincts take over as he quickly guided his custom-built Destiny Gundam, dubbed the GN-X425 Fortune Gundam, through the flying debris and enemy fire.
"Akira, we're starting reentry procedures!" Lexi's voice cut in. "Find Rau and both of you get back here!"
"Rau?" Akira echoed from the cockpit of the Fortune Gundam, taking the opportunity to quickly scan the battlefield and pinpoint the telltale pressure of Rau Le Creuset. "Wait, what's going on?"
Rau's masked face appeared on the auxiliary monitor. "Ah, Akira. I could use a hand here."
"Wait, where?" He fell silent long enough to dodge another attack from one of the Alliance mobile suits, and then another wave of wreckage that carried one of them away. "Is that, oh no, what happened?"
"Enemy fire is what happened." Rau answered, his image on the screen flickering. "The Legend can survive reentry on its own, but my maneuvering system is disabled."
Akira felt his blood run hot as he evaded another wave of attacks and fixed Rau's location in his mind. "I'll be there, hold on!"
With a blinding flash of light and a wave of afterimages, the Fortune's Trans-Am system came to life as the Gundam gave a few flaps of its wings and rocketed its way through the wreckage, leaving the Alliance mobile suits far behind. Akira's eyes darted back and forth as he scanned among the wreckage, the edges of which were starting to glow red.
"There!" He cried, and then the Fortune rattled as Akira lunged down, seized the Legend with its right hand, and deployed the beam shield with its left. "Okay, let's go!"
"Too late." Rau interrupted. "Watch the altitude. We will have to reenter on our own."
Akira merely nodded as he reached back into his memory, groping after the reentry procedures, performing the actions as he recited them aloud. "Activating beam shields, redirecting power to the cooling systems, shutting down the beam wings, igniting GN field."
"I have done this before as well." Rau added. "We will survive."
"Excalibur." Akira said into the communications line. "We're reentering separately. We'll, uh, meet you down below."
The ocean breeze lilted over the deck of the Alliance submarine supercarrier Aristotle and swirled around the man on the conning tower. These nights on the Pacific Ocean, only a few hundred miles off the east coast of Japan, weren't nearly as cold as Antarctica. Nothing was as cold as Antarctica.
Shinji Ikari stood on the conning tower of the submarine and wrapped his blue service coat over his white Earth Alliance uniform. He pushed back his white peaked cap and looked up to the sky, at the huge red streak amid the stars.
An officer with a bushy black beard climbed out of the open hatch and came to a stop by his side. "So that's the Excalibur, huh?"
Shinji nodded. "They're on atmospheric reentry. Projections put them in our neck of the woods." He glanced over at the other man. "Is everything ready, Camwell?"
Camwell, executive officer of the ship, nodded. "Hikari has her team ready to go at a moment's notice. And we've got various nearby naval forces on call too, if we want or, god forbid, need reinforcements." He looked up towards the large red streak in the sky and smirked. "Fresh out of the shipyard at Pearl Harbor and we're up against the Excalibur. Who'd have thought?"
Frowning, Shinji fixed his gaze on the approaching warship and pondered.