Gundam 00: Phoenix
Crushing Blows: Part Two
September 9
Tieria watched the Vier pull back from the battlefield with the 00 in tow as the Innovators attempted to close in and destroy what potentially could be Celestial Being's triumph card. They could not let that happen, not when they were so close to getting the 00 to its full potential. It would take more than a few of Ribbons' own to destroy it and the Ptolemy while the Gundam Meisters still drew breath.
"You won't have your way!" The Seravee's cannons roared into action against the two Gadessa, forcing them to seperate. His eyes then momentarily flickered to his particle reserves. Still not optimal, barely above one percent, despite the number steadily rising again. They had no Trans-Am to rely on, and at this low percentage, anything they did to defend themselves, aside from dodging, would limit their offensive capabilities.
A sniper shot then struck Hiling's Gadessa dead center. The shot failed to penetrate, but it did send the machine reeling back with its aim thrown completely off. If only they were at full strength.
"I gotta say, Celestial Being sure likes cutting it close," Lyle remarked before Cheridum continued with its attack. Each strike kept the Gadessa from acting in anything but a defensive manner. "I'll keep focusing on this one, Tieria, think you can handle the big guy?" he asked, referring to the Empress.
Tieria gave a nod. "It may be impossible, but someone has to." His computers then began locking on to the mobile armour, linking the bazookas with the cannons.
The Seravee then fired, particle beams ripping through space, yet the foe did not change course. The Empress' GN field shrugged off the particle beams without slowing, the particle output simply not high enough to deter it.
"You cannot win, Tieria Erde," Devine said in a confident tone as if victory had been assured from the start. "This is the will of the Innovators." The Empress's main cannon glowed orange for a moment before releasing the built up energy in a massive particle beam.
"It may be your will, but not mine," Tieria simply responded, having his machine dodge and then fired while the Empress came back around for another pass. "Nena, what's your status?" he then asked. They needed as many guns and people up here as possible. They would not reach the base at this rate.
"00's back aboard, I'm heading back out," she answered.
"Focus on the other artillery machine, Allelujah will handle Judgement," he ordered. Best to keep people who had grudges away from each other. Judgement would favour having Nena as his opponent, best not to let him have that. Allelujah's lightning-fast Arios would also do far better against a close-quarters opponent simply due to speed.
For a moment it seemed Nena would question his orders, but instead she simply nodded her head and went after the unattended Gadessa piloted by Revive.
"Tieria, how can you act like you are one of them? You know you are superior, you know that the Plan must be completed for the sake of mankind and the world. Why do you try to fight it?" Tieria then heard, but to his utter surprise, it was simply not just one Innovator. Instead, they spoke to him in unison, a chorus that rose, getting louder and louder with more power.
The voices continued to speak while he tried to tune them out. He needed to concentrate, but the voices simply got louder and louder. Were they communicating through one of their own and then transmitting it to him via Quantum Brainwaves?
He knew the Innovators were wrong, though. He knew how they twisted the plan, but all these reminders, all of these demands, brought painful memories forward and questions that came from the past, reminding him how he had acted at first to the crew of the Ptolemaios. Even with his resolve to push through, they were drowning him out and breaking his focus on the battle.
By this point, he lost track of the Empress forcing him to check his sensors and screens. A light then flashed within his cockpit while he still searched. Instinctively he prepared to dodge the incoming attack.
Pulling on the controls, a particle beam narrowly missed him, but blinded his screens as he continued to move out of the way, but another warning light went off.
'It can recharge that fast?!' the thought came before he prepared to manoeuvre once again.
This time, however, he was not as lucky. Even with him activating the GN Field, he found the Seravee spinning out of control after being blasted back.
"Tieria!" he heard Allelujah cry before others of his team also called out for him.
Desperately, Tieria activated emergency systems and thrusters, trying to stabilize. If he did not find a way to stop soon, he would found himself too far out from the rest of the team. And out of all machines, he needed the most support.
"I have to hold on!" he grunted, pulling back on an emergency lever before on the main controls and computer, rapidly making fine adjustments to try and get Servaee back under his control.
The Seravee struggled, but eventually the spinning stopped and the machine came to a halt with the controls finally returning for Tieria. Already he began to regroup with the Ptolemaios II, even while the voices continued to speak and the Empress closed in for another strafe.
'Do you truly believe that you are a human being who can choose their path and corrupt it? They need guidance, they do not know how to settle their petty differences on their own which is why they have forced our hand on several occasions.'
"By using the A-Laws," Tieria muttered back before setting his sights on the Empress. "Yet, you do all this for the sake of simply logic rather than trying to reason with those who you're dealing with. How can they understand if you do not? You separate yourselves and that is why you'll never truly complete the Plan."
'Are you truly that foolish? We bring ourselves down to their level then the Plan will never come to fruition.'
"Maybe I am foolish, but I've chosen my path and I will stand-by my comrades to the end. I will not abandon them or let you carry on with your so-called Plan. At my core, I'm still human just like the rest of them. We just have to accept it."
Linking its bazookas and cannons, the Seravee zeroed in on its target. Around him his allies were doing well at keeping the opposition busy, now he needed to do his part.
With a series of blast from Seravee, the Empress raised its GN Field, but before it could drop it to fire its cannon once again or manoeuvre into a better position, the Seravee appeared right above it in a sudden display of speed that belied Seravee's size and bulk.
Before it could move, a pair of beam saber came plunging down. It did not seem to be effective at first, but another set of arms sprung from the Seravee that plunged through the GN Field with ease that had cannons begin to power up with a pinkish hue.
"My choices are my own!"
"It can break through the field?!" Devine cried out in utter surprise with widened eyes. He had not expected Seravee to get this close, let alone reveal something such as this.
Immediately, Devine dropped the field and diverted power to the engines, trying to clear the blast before it hit home.
Too late. It was Devine's turn to lose control as a particle beam struck through the main body causing the Empress to erratically spin and dive off course.
"Finish him off!" Tieria instructed to the others.
"Already in my sights," Lyle said, the Cheridum spinning around and firing.
Two shots struck through straight Empress, despite its effort to raise a GN Field that only flickered on and off before it died away with a whimper. Within a second after impact, the Empress exploded into a shower of parts and sparks.
"He's not dead," Tieria muttered he saw an object propel itself out of the wreckage while the remaining Innovators closed ranks to cover the retreat of their comrade. "But you've all lost."
Turning back to the Ptoelmaios, the remaining Innovators began to pull away after they were sure Devine was clear. They were not keen on engaging a foe who now had numerical superiority, but Tieria knew they would be back. They would not take this insult so easily. And for a moment, he took pride in knowing that the Innovators had been temporarily knocked off their high and mighty perch. They could fail after all.
Setsuna found blood on his hands and in front of him, there were dozens, if not hundreds of people frozen in time. They were all in many different poses and expressions, but one thing they did have one thing in common, they were in their final moments of life before they had died. Most seemed to be soldiers, but some seemed to be innocents who had been unfortunate enough to have been indirectly killed.
The bodies were dressed in a variety of clothing and uniforms. Some looked to be those from Azadistan, others from the three superpowers, some looked to be ordinary people. There were two particular figures that caught his eye, however. His parents. Their eyes were still wide with shock and fear when he last saw them as they begged him to cease before he killed them in cold blood.
Despite this scene, he remained calm, he had long come to gripes over what he had done from his experiences as a child soldier and as a Gundam Meister. And what point was there to crying or feeling remorse over years ago? While the memory always remained, he knew that changing that past would be impossible. Even if he did, what would happen? What future would that even bring?
"This is what I've done," he muttered to himself, staring at his parents before his eyes carried on to the other scenes around him. "I wanted to become a Gundam to end war, but still this happens. Be it others taking lives or mines taking theirs. Nothing's truly changed, yet how can people live in this world?"
Part of him envied Princess Marina Ismail. While she may not have the power, she refused to turn to violence to change things. She understood and listened rather than drawing the sword in hopes that blood would enact change, despite the problems that she has faced. If only he could follow her path, but that was not for him. The only thing he could do would be to keep fighting as a Gundam Meister for fighting was all he truly knew.
The scenes then fade away, getting smaller in size before they vanished. He found that his body was drifting in no particular direction as if he had ended up in space.
"Setsuna," he then heard which caught his attention. A familiar voice and tone that he could easily distinguish between the twins, Neil and Lyle. The first Lockon.
"Lockon?" Setsuan simply said, finding his body coming to a halt, reaching solid ground, or what appeared to be. He could not tell in the darkness.
The man then appeared with his trademark red vest, yet the eye patch from his injuries also remained.
"I've really screwed up, haven't I? Not the way anyone expected, huh?" Neil joked to him giving a sad smile. "Setsuna, have you found your answer yet?"
Setsuna gave no response, he had none.
"It was never going to be a straightforward thing. Even with the Gundams there's only so much that we can change. It sounds incredibly simple, ending war once and for all, yet it's always the simple things that are complex," he began. His gaze then shifted to a serious manner. "I always think we did not get ourselves ready for what we were going to do."
"What do you mean?" Setsuna asked. What did he mean that they were not ready?
"You, me, Tieria, Miss Sumeragi, everyone, in a way, we wanted to force about change while remaining ourselves. Sure, things got better, but I don't think we would have been ready for the world if it did follow the Plan."
"Even if we did change, would it really bring about an end?"
"I don't know, Setsuna. That's a question I've failed to answer. I sought revenge and that was it." Neil then walked up to Setsuna and placed an arm his shoulder. "Remember, Setsuna, you have to change for me where I couldn't. "
Lockon then began to disappear, his person fading into the darkness leaving Setsuna to himself once again.
He then looked at his hands. The blood was still there.
"Setsuna?" Those were the first words that Setsuna heard as he regained consciousness. He winced and groaned as the bright lights of the Ptolemaios stung his eyes that had begun to open.
The first sight he saw was Feldt and her pink hair. She seemed to be relieved that he had finally awoken.
"Glad you're awake," she said with a smile.
"What happened?" Setsuna muttered, trying to get up, but Feldt stopped him. A good thing too as he felt pain begin to tear into his body.
"You suffered some injuries during the fight. It wasn't bad, but..." Feldt's voice trailed off, her eyes gazing to part of his torso that was wrapped in dressings. "It was painful to see," she finished, referring to his wounds.
Setsuna eyes looked around. He could only see Feldt around. And he felt her clasping his hand, but he did not stop her.
"Is everyone else, alright? Did we make it?"
"We've just made it and we're all fine in no big part to Tieria," Feldt responded.
"Feldt." There was something he needed to say.
"Huh?" Feldt then noticed that she had been holding his hand and let go. "Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't- I just-" He saw her face begin to have a red tinge to it.
"Not that," Setsuna slowly began, still maintaining eye contact with her. "It's about the others. How much have they changed since the past four years? Was it all for the best?"
Feldt did not respond, immediately. It took a couple of moments for her to think of an answer and he did not blame her. So many people had been lost four years ago, could anything really change for the better with all that loss for no gain?
The young woman then gave a slight nod. "Not everyone, but I'd like to think the last four years have been good for some of us, despite all the problems we've faced. I mean Mister Erde, it's almost like he's a complete different person, even if he doesn't show it. He's there and seems to genuinely care about his friends."
"Would you say that I've changed?" he then asked her, his eyes then gazing up at the ceiling.
For a moment, Feldt did not speak making Setsuna wonder if he had truly stayed the same and she was trying to find a way to be polite about it.
"I wouldn't say so," she then began. He had expected such an answer. "But I don't think you need to change everything, Setsuna. We all know you want to end war for a good reason. You always talked about becoming a Gundam to bring an end to it all. I think that's something people could aspire to even if it does seem crazy for some." She then took a pause. "I guess you could always change why you want to become a Gundam or the reasons behind it, but we don't have to change every bit of ourselves."
'A good reason,' Setsuna repeated those words in his head. 'Changing the world so that it can have a future for the better. What Lockon would have wanted. What we all wanted.'
The man then turned back to Feldt once more."Feldt, you're a good friend."
He did not smile, but he could tell that Feldt knew how much of a compliment that was.