AUTHOR'S NOTE: As a long-time Gundam fan, I quite enjoyed Mobile Suit Gundam SEED when I first saw it, and I was quite excited by the release of its sequel, Gundam SEED Destiny. Unfortunately, while it had a very promising start, the series itself ultimately turned out to be a disappointment.
Years ago, I set out to take the basic premise and cast of the series, and rewrite it to my satisfaction, with particular focus on providing its protagonist, Shinn Asuka, with opportunities to grow and develop which he was denied in the original series. Over the years, I have gone back and retooled my work a few times over the years, leading to this finished version.

I decided while I was writing this story that it would take place in the same continuity as my previous one-shot, Alternate Fate, rather than serving as a direct sequel to the original series. I would therefore encourage you to read that, if you have not yet done so.
This prologue, which draws heavily from Phase 20 of GSD and expands on it, serves to introduce Shinn.

PROLOGUE: Angry Eyes

Cosmic Era 71
United Emirates of Orb
Onogoro Island

Shinn Asuka had never paid much attention to the War between the PLANTs and the Earth Alliance. Of course, as a Coordinator, he knew that Naturals and Coordinators had been at odds for a very long time, and he understood that the Bloody Valentine - the nuclear attack by the Alliance that had destroyed the PLANTs' colony Junius Seven - was a horrible tragedy. But he was twelve years old when it happened. He wouldn't really understand what the repercussions could be until much later.

Additionally, the Orb Union was a neutral nation, neither allied with the PLANTs nor with the Alliance. And its mixed population of Naturals and Coordinators got along well enough, unlike everywhere else.

Shinn had been born in Orb, though his parents were not. His parents always said that the reason they moved to Orb was its open policy towards Coordinators - the Athhas, who ruled Orb, would allow anyone into the country, regardless of whether they were Naturals or Coordinators, as long as they believed in Orb's ideals.

We will not attack another Nation.

We will not allow another Nation to attack us.

We will not intervene in the conflicts of other Nations.

His parents believed in Lord Uzumi Nara Athha's ideals, and had raised their children to believe in them as well.

Those ideals were what allowed Orb to remain peaceful, for Naturals and Coordinators to live together, work together, even start families together. His mother believed that, saying that it was the best -or rather, the only way to live in peace. And that the PLANTs and Alliance ought to find a way to reconcile their differences and live the same way.
His father said that as long as Orb continued to follow the ideals of Lord Uzumi, then neither the Alliance nor the PLANTs would ever have a reason to attack Orb, and they would be safe.

January 31st

"SHINN! GIVE ME BACK MY PHONE!" Mayu screamed, running after him. Shinn just laughed, snapping a picture with the phone's camera as his sister ran after him.

He knew her anger was at least partially feigned - this was a game they'd played before. They could go on for hours. He would let her almost catch up, and then take off running again.
He ducked behind a tree, looking around and catching his breath, when Mayu bowled him over and he rolled to the ground.

"HA!" She said, grinning triumphantly as she snatched the bright-pink flip phone from his hand. "I win!"

Shinn grinned, and then caught his sister in a bear hug, until she squirmed and yelled for him to let her go. After a while, he did. Then their mother was outside.

-"Shinn! Mayu! Get inside and help me set the table, your father's on his way home!"

-"Coming, Mom!" both siblings replied almost simultaneously. Shinn made to snatch the phone again, but Mayu pocketed it, sticking out her tongue at him. They both laughed.
Then they stood and headed inside together.

After dinner, they sat in the living room. Shinn read a book, while Mayu was flipping through her phone's photo album, deciding which ones to keep and which ones to delete. Since receiving the phone for her last birthday, she never went anywhere without it. Their parents were watching the news.

Shinn looked up suddenly, when the news announcer said that Heliopolis had been destroyed.

"At this time, the reasons for ZAFT's unprovoked attack on a peaceful, neutral colony are unknown." He said. "Most of the civilian population of Heliopolis is believed to have escaped the colony in lifeboats. The Orb government has strongly condemned this action by ZAFT, but at this time, there has been no comment from the PLANT Supreme Council..."

The TV went blank as Shinn's father turned it off.

"Time for bed, you two." he said firmly, and Mayu protested. Shinn shrugged, and went up to his room. He went to bed, but stayed up a long time, wondering why the PLANTs had attacked an Orb colony, until he finally drifted off to sleep.

The weeks went by, however, and nothing more was said on the destruction of Heliopolis. Eventually, Shinn stopped thinking about it.

He was more worried about school, though he did decently well. He was also concerned with when the latest GWS game would come out and how he might convince his parents to buy it for him.
Of course, he knew Mayu would be a pest and want to play it, too.
But that was okay.

It was in March that things started to change.

Shinn was in school when there was a broadcast, saying that there was a battle outside Orb territory between an Alliance warship and ZAFT forces.
The battle was broadcast live, and Shinn became nervous.

"Hey," he asked his classmate Takanori, "What'd you think'll happen? If that Earth Forces ship tries to enter Orb, I mean."

-"That'd never happen - Lord Uzumi wouldn't allow it." Takanori replied. "Besides, I'll bet the Orb Defense Fleets are already out there to keep the Earth Forces and ZAFT from invading."

-"I'm sure you're right." Shinn said slowly, as he watched. Eventually, the ZAFT forces pulled back, and the broadcast ended. The news announcer later said that the Earth Forces ship had been turned out and left Orb territory as well.

Even though he was still nervous, Shinn was relieved. And after a while, the tension died down and he went back to his life, not sparing much thought about the war.

Outside, the Earth Forces continued to fight against ZAFT, and the bases in Alaska and Panama fell. But for Shinn, his younger sister Mayu, and their friends, the war was something that was happening far away, in other countries or in space. It didn't concern them.

Until, one day, it did.

June 15, CE 71

"I don't believe this! The Alliance is attacking us."

-"But why?" Shinn asked, looking up at his father. "We haven't attacked them, or done anything, have we?"

-"No, Shinn. But with the war turning against them, the Alliance has been trying to force Orb to join them. And now, they decided to invade and take whatever they want by force. Bastards!"

-"Honey!" His mom interrupted. "Watch your language in front of the kids, please."

-"But what's gonna happen to us?" Shinn asked.

-"Lord Uzumi and the government have ordered an evacuation - just to be safe. We'll be fine."

They hurriedly packed bags and left, heading for the docks on the south shore of the Island, where Orb Naval Defense Force vessels would evacuate them to the Equatorial Union.

As they ran, the battle raged above them, mobile suits firing on each other. Shinn slipped as he ran, but immediately regained his footing and followed.

-"Dad!" Shinn called out as the four of them stopped.

-"We'll be all right." His father replied, his tone reassuring. "They're only targeting military facilities. Keep moving, Shinn."

-"Right." Shinn replied, and they continued, his mother almost dragging Mayu along behind them.

Whatever his father said, Shinn was worried. How much could Lord Uzumi do against an invading army from the Alliance? Orb was a wealthy nation, but it was very small…

-"Mayu, hurry!" His mother yelled as behind them, explosions flared. Mobile suits, firing up at the Alliance forces, had been destroyed. Shinn had never even known that Orb had mobile suits.

-"GET DOWN!" His father yelled, and all four of them got down to the ground, his parents shielding Mayu and Shinn as a dark-blue mobile suit, apparently standing on the back of some kind of plane, shot straight past them at low altitude. Once it was past, they looked up, but the same mobile suit fired two beam cannons, mounted over its shoulder, at something on the ground, and as its target exploded they ducked again.

After a while, they stood up again, and Shinn noticed that the blue mobile suit had landed on the hillside above them.

Shinn and his father both looked downhill, and saw that the docks were in sight - they were almost there. They started running, faster now. As they ran, Shinn glanced over his shoulder and saw a flying mobile suit unlike any he'd ever seen before. Black and white, with huge, blue wings, it leveled a rifle and fired at the mobile suit on the ground.

There was an explosion, but Shinn was running and didn't see whether the blue mobile suit it had been firing at had been hit or not. It didn't matter to him - they had to get to the docks. That was all.

As they ran, Mayu's phone slipped out of her purse and bounced down the hillside.

-"NO! My mobile phone!" She yelled, and stopped dead, trying to go after it. Their mother held fast, trying to force her to keep moving.

-"Forget about it!" she exclaimed, but Mayu screamed in protest.

Shinn didn't say anything, he just dropped his duffel bag and ran. Straight down the slope, where he had seen the phone fall.

-"SHINN!" He heard his father yell, but he kept moving. He found the phone easily enough, on the ground next to a tree, about two thirds of the way down. He picked it up, and as he stood, he saw out of the corner of his eye the black-and-white mobile suit again, in the air above.

Two cannons, deployed from its wings over its shoulders, aimed downwards. And then, as he looked up towards it, it opened fire.

The hillside above him exploded, and the force of the explosion threw him off his feet, the phone still clenched tightly in his hand. He rolled down the hill until he landed on concrete, dazed, and struggled to his feet.

A few hundred feet away, the evacuation was ongoing.

"Don't panic!" someone onboard the ship was saying. "Please form two lines to board. We have plenty of room onboard for everyone."

Major Fumihiko Todaka, of Orb's defense forces, stood at the bottom of the gangplank. He was stationed onboard the Aegis-class cruiser Tonbogiri, which was docked behind a cargo ship being used in the evacuation.
The Tonbogiri was also taking on refugees, although its smaller size compared to the massive vessel meant it could take on far fewer people.

"Attend to the injured!" His CO yelled from the deck. "Make sure to let them know these are refugee ships!"

Todaka looked up when he saw Shinn struggling to get up, and ran towards him.

"Hey! Are you all right?" He called out as he reached him. He tried to help him, but Shinn managed to get up on his own, the pink phone clenched tightly in his hand. "This way, come on. Hurry."

Shinn started, and looked up. "Mom...Dad. Where..." He turned around, facing towards the slope. The top of the hill was a blasted hole. Rock and debris had covered the slope...He saw, behind a large rock, his sister's hand, and started running.

"Mayu!" He called out his sister's name as he ran.

Then he stopped dead. His blood ran cold, and an expression of horror crept onto his face as he realized what he was actually seeing.

His sister's arm had been severed just below the elbow, the sleeve ripped and the limb covered in blood. His sister's body was about ten feet away, also covered in blood, the remaining limbs twisted at strange angles. His mother's body lay just a little distance away. A little further up the slope, he saw his father's corpse on an outcropping of rock, pinned underneath a tree. The rock was stained red all around it.

He knew they were dead. All of them.

Major Todaka saw what had happened, and realized what he was looking at. He had to fight the urge to vomit.

The kid was shaking like a leaf, and he collapsed to his knees in front of his sister's arm. Tears were flowing down his face now, and Major Todaka stepped forward.

"Hey..." He started to say, and then the kid turned around, looking straight past him at the mobile suits above, his expression twisted by horror, grief, and rage.

Shinn saw it again. The same mobile suit, the one he knew had destroyed his family.

Its image, down to every detail he could make out in the distance, was burned into his mind, as the anguish and rage that welled up in him overwhelmed him, and he screamed.

Somehow, he let himself get dragged to his feet, and the Orb officer led him to a ship. He got onboard, was led to an area that had been set aside for refugees, and then crouched in the corner, still tightly gripping Mayu's phone. He never once said a single word.

He could hear people talking - asking each other if they were all right, children complaining of hunger or thirst, parents scrambling for water, food, or whatever else they'd been able to scrounge up, or asking where the ship was going.

But no one even looked at him, or spoke to him. And he said nothing. He just sat there. A doctor might have said he was in shock, or suffering from post-traumatic stress or whatever.

But no doctor came to talk to him, nor even look at him. Nor did anyone else.

His own family was gone, and he had nothing left except the clothes he wore and his sister's phone. Not even his hat, which had been blown off his head in the explosion, before he fell.

On the Tonbogiri's bridge, Major Todaka stood with his fellow officers, as the ships headed away from Orb and towards sanctuary in the nearby Equatorial Union. Also a neutral nation, Equatoria had a weak military and no major resources to speak of, which meant the Alliance had ignored them, and in all likelihood would continue to do so.

"Major Todaka!" One of the other officers, a First Lieutenant named Amagi, hailed. "Sir, Kaguya and Morgenröte...they've been destroyed."

-"They what?!" Todaka exclaimed, turning towards the other man.

-"Lord Uzumi and the others members of the Council...they all stayed behind and...they blew it up, sir. Kaguya, the mass driver, Morgenröte...it's all gone."

-"Damn." Todaka swore as he realized that Orb had fallen. The Alliance's invasion had succeeded, even if they had not obtained what they wanted.

He left the bridge, stating he was heading below to check on the refugees.

"We will not attack another nation. We will not allow another nation to attack us. We will not intervene in the conflicts of other nations."

The words played through Shinn's mind over and over again as he crouched in the corner, weeping bitterly as he dwelled on the loss of his family.

He remembered a speech he and Mayu had watched very recently. It had been delivered by Lord Uzumi, once again repeating the same ideals and claiming them as justification for their actions...actions which, he now realized, had led to the brutal death of every single one of the people he held most dear.

And he hated the Alliance for it, but he also found that he hated Uzumi Nara Athha for the same reason.
He felt a hand on his shoulder, and looked up. It was the same Orb officer again.

"At least you made it out alive." He said softly, almost kindly, Shinn supposed. "That's something to be thankful for. And I'm sure that your family feels the same way...I think they are at peace, knowing that at least, you are safe."

-'How can they feel anything, if they're all dead?' Shinn asked himself. And he collapsed, crying harder than ever, as Major Todaka stood by, helplessly.

Nothing he or anyone could do would bring Shinn's family back.

CE 72
ZAFT Military Academy

"Your name?"

-"Shinn Asuka." Shinn replied, handing over his application form. The man looked it over, stamped it, and motioned for him to enter. Shinn did, and sat down in a corner. The room was filled with people around his age, all of them, he knew, looking to enlist in the military.

In one corner, a slight young man, handsome, with blue eyes and long blonde hair, was looking at him, but Shinn ignored him.

Not far away he saw two girls with similar red hair, who he thought were probably sisters, and looked to be about a year apart. The older had her hair, which was somewhat darker, cut short, while the younger wore it in pigtails.

The latter was talking animatedly to another girl the same age, with blonde hair.

After leaving Orb, the Tonbogiri and the other ship had docked in the Equatorial Union, which had made arrangements to house the refugees until the war ended and it was safe to return to Orb.
Shinn had stayed with Major Todaka, whose own family had met him there - a wife, and a daughter named Tsubaki who was a little younger than Mayu had been.

Major Todaka had offered to adopt him. Shinn had been touched, but after thanking Major Todaka, had privately and firmly told him that he never wanted to set foot in Orb ever again.

Todaka had been saddened, but had promise to arrange for him to make the trip from the Equatorial Union to the PLANTs. He had paid for his ticket, bought him clothes and things he would need.

The hardest part had been saying good-bye not just to the Major and his wife, but to Tsubaki, who had already decided, all on her own, that Shinn would be her big brother.

When Tsubaki had asked if he would visit, Shinn had said he would try. But he knew that was a lie, and so did Major Todaka. Still, the officer nodded and wished him luck, and he boarded the flight alone. For all he knew, he would never set foot in his homeland again - and that was fine with him.

Eventually, the war had ended. On March 10, CE 72, the PLANTs and the Alliance had signed the Treaty of Junius Seven, but Shinn decided he would enlist in ZAFT, the PLANTs' military.

He learned that eventually Uzumi Nara Athha's daughter, Cagalli, had become the Chief Representative of a new Orb government, and adopted the same idealistic line of bullshit that had gotten his family killed.

He didn't buy it. Not anymore.

Instead, he decided that the best way to keep something like that from happening ever again was to fight.

After a while, the good-looking blonde guy stood up and walked over to him.

"Hey." He said. "You here to enlist?"

-"Obviously." Shinn retorted, but the other guy simply smiled.

-"Yeah, I guess it is. No other reason anyone'd be here, I suppose." He said with a wry sort of smile, and sat down. "Of course, the war's over, they say."

-"Yeah, that's what they say." Shinn said. "Doesn't mean there won't be another one. And if there is, I wanna be able to make sure and do something about it, rather than sit on my ass waiting for it to go away on its own."

The blonde guy looked pensive for a minute or two.

-"You're from Orb?"

-"How do you know?" Shinn asked peevishly.

-"Just a lucky guess." The blonde guy replied. "But it makes sense, after what happened. A lot of people came up here from Orb during the war. Makes sense that some'd want to stay."

-"Yeah," Shinn said, "well I'm never going back to that damned place."

-"Welcome to the PLANTs, then." The blonde guy said kindly, and held out his hand. After a moment, Shinn shook it.

-"My name's Shinn Asuka." He said.

-"Pleasure to meet you, Shinn." The other guy responded, smiling. "I'm Rey Za Burrel. I hope we get to work together at the Academy."

-"Yeah," Shinn said, and smiled, really smiled, for the first time in months. He'd been alone for so long, but now he'd found someone that he hoped would be a friend.

And maybe that wouldn't be so bad, he thought as the group of new recruits, himself and Rey included, stood at the prompting of a newly-arrived instructor, and they filed after him to complete their enrollment and begin training.

He'd found a new home in the PLANTs. And now, he would be able to fight to protect it, if he ever had to.