What's up, everyone and Happy Valentines Day? Warmachine375 here and I have adopted the "Meister of Your Future", a crossover fic between Gundam 00 and Gundam Build Fighters from The LandMaster after I have gained his permission to take over the story on the PM.
Credits go to The LandMaster and check out his stories. They're good read.
Synopsis: "Daryl Lancer has many regrets in his life. But he's found a path to forget his sins, and strive for something greater. And he will find it in a world embroiled in war, with salvation resting amidst an organization that fights to end war, and of souls wishing for change."
Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam 00 and Gundam Build Fighters series. They both belong to Sunrise that owned the long-running Gundam franchise.
Enjoy and don't forget to review. :)
Chapter 1
"Driving in the rain is such a pain at this time of the year… Still…" thought Aaron Weber as he drove through the streets of his hometown, hearing the downpour slam against the chassis of his car. His radio was off, leaving the man to stew in his thoughts and worries, both of which were born and directed at the note still stuck to the dashboard in front of him.
Written by a man he hadn't heard of in almost twelve years.
Aaron
I found it. What I needed and wished for.
I annexed an address for you. Meet me there.
It'll be the last time you see me, as me.
Daryl Lancer
"Daryl… What the hell did you do?"
-O-
The address he had been given turned out to be for a plain, two-story house, walled off from the rest of the neighborhood and with a thick metal gate at the entrance. Amidst the darkness of the rain, Aaron saw the lights of the second floor were still on, and he could see Daryl's car parked on the house's lawn. The gate was closed, but as soon as Aaron drove closer, it slid open, allowing him to drive in and park next to Daryl's car. Cutting the engine and climbing out of his car with an umbrella open, the man managed two steps towards the house before its front door slowly creaked open, revealing a large figure framed in the light coming from inside, casting a shadow over his entire front. "You're here… Good."
"Daryl?" asked Aaron, even though he could tell from the body shape that it indeed was his old friend.
"Come inside. I want to show it to you." And with that, he disappeared into the house once more, leaving the door to the new arrival. Quickly rushing inside, Adam dried his boots on the large towel thrown haphazardly onto the ground and looked at the room around him.
It was just as it had been all those years ago. The same furniture, in the same place, yet not a speck of dust accumulated on them. The pictures were all still there, of a time when he still knew Daryl, when he was still so filled with joy and life.
And them… So many pictures of them still left.
But Daryl was not anywhere on the first floor. With so little walls to hide anything, Aaron could see the empty kitchen, living and dining rooms, and even the open door for a bathroom. He turned towards the stairs leading to the second floor, and indeed, the last room at the end of the hall had its light on and door slightly ajar, with a loud, soothing hum coming from within the room.
"Daryl…?" called out Aaron apprehensively, as he paced closer towards the room. Aaron stared nervously at the door, his hand trembling as he reached for the handle, when suddenly the whole thing swung open, revealing his old friend on the other side.
Now visible in the light, Aaron saw how the years had changed him: his once immaculate face now had three scars running diagonally across it, with two scraggy sideburns framing his cheeks. His hair, once black as the night sky, was colored silver, falling past his shoulders and most likely down his back. His frame had become bulkier, with more muscle and mass on it, only partially concealed by the large red trench coat he wore atop a featureless black shirt and black cargo pants. His favored sneakers had been replaced with two heavy-looking boots, and to Adam's horror he could see a faint glimmer of a large pistol holstered inside the coat.
And his eyes, once so full of life and cheer, had become a dull, faded color.
"Thank you for coming, Aaron," said the man before moving away from the door and back towards the back of the room. Aaron followed, and was surprised to see what now occupied the room. Several computer towers lined two of the walls, blinking and whirring as they ran whatever programs they possessed, with several AC units and fans directly above them for cooling purposes. Cables snaked out from behind and beneath the towers, all converging into a large metal capsule resting in the middle of the room. Said capsule was gunmetal grey in color, with blue lines running over it, and panel lining indicating it was capable of opening. On the other side of the room, large tanks marked with the Yajima Trading logo were lined side-by-side, and finally on the wall closest to the windows, a large work table filled with work tools, piles of paper and discarded boxes of Gunplas of many makes. Daryl was kneeling beside the pod, typing mechanically on a keyboard plugged onto it, with his back turned to the door.
"Daryl… What the hell is all of this?" asked the newcomer as he walked closer to his friend as he turned to look at every single corner of the room.
"A project. Something that took me forever to find, but finally did," replied the man, unmoving and seemingly uncaring of his friend. Aaron walked towards the worktable and dug through the papers in nervous curiosity, seeing them filled with equations, written jargon and some research material. One of said piles was a thick bound pile, and when Aaron took it to examine, he saw the words ZERO SEED INCIDENT written in large capital letters, right beneath them RESTRICTED ACCESS and the logo of Nielsen Labs stamped on the corner.
That includes the "QUASI-VEDA" paper as well.
Although there were few posters of Sumeragi Lee Noriega on the wall.
"You remember Adam Winslow?", he asked.
"Yeah, he was a battle system programmer, but went off the grid for two years and then suddenly reappeared again with some unknown research. Never heard anything about it, though…" Aaron flipped through the document, skimming through the technical-heavy texts and many different schematics that it showed, his dread only building the further he went. "Daryl, where did you—"
"His research was cancelled because of the results it gave," continued Daryl as he stood and walked towards the server towers, pulling a monitor attached to the tower by a hinge closer to his face. "He intended to create a self-sustaining simulation of the Gundam universe, so that builders and fighters could experience the plot of any series and make changes to the story as they saw fit. But instead, Adam Winslow found himself physically transported to the Cosmic Era, living through the entirety of the Bloody Valentine War."
"How… How did you-?"
"I called in favors from a few contacts that work on Nielsen Labs. They got me the files related to the incident after the company conducted its investigation, along with schematics and data on the machine itself." Daryl moved back to the capsule and pressed somewhere near its back, and with a hiss of air its hatch opened, revealing inside it a piloting seat not unlike those you'd find in the Gundam series, alongside an entire recreation of a cockpit. Monitors, data readouts, everything looked genuine.
At the feet of the machine rested a large rectangular box with Plavsky emitters inside it, and several more of said emitters could be seen on the inside of the mock cockpit as well.
"I've made improvements to it, however. Necessary ones.", he revealed.
Aaron felt the papers slide out of his grasp and land back on the table, scattering some of the loose sheets into the floor, but he did not focus on that. He instead turned to face Daryl, just in time to see the man pass right by him, grabbing something off the table and carrying it back to the capsule. When Daryl turned and knelt down to place it onto the box, Aaron saw it was a black warship, which he noted to look similar to the Baronche from Gundam AGE, alongside two Gunpla.
Two Gunpla that he recognized very well.
Daryl closed the box, then stood and turned towards his friend once more. "Once I activate the system, it will run for one minute, then the power supply will be cut. It'll guarantee that my transition is permanent and final, and that I won't be returned to the capsule in any event."
Aaron looked from the capsule to his friend, swallowing a lump that had gotten stuck inside his throat. "Daryl… Are you planning on… Leaving?"
"Yes.", he bluntly replied.
It was with no hesitation. The answer flew from his mouth in a completely dry, emotionless tone, as if the question wasn't even that important. As if wishing to transpose dimensions to arrive in a fictional, seemingly unreachable world was a normal decision. Aaron took a step forward, the questions flying through his mind a million miles per hour. "What… About everyone else?"
"I messaged them. They didn't come, only you."
"Where do you even plan on going?!"
"Anno Domini. It'll be a good place to start again."
"And you really think this will work?! That it won't end up with you… Brain damaged or something?!"
"I've made all my calculations. The process has been proven to work, and I've made sure to replicate it."
"Daryl, please! Think about you're doing! You know they wouldn't want—"
"THEY'RE THE REASON I'M DOING THIS!"
His roar of fury took Aaron by complete surprise, and made the man take a step away from Daryl. His eyes had become wild and widened, teeth grit and fists clenched, like he was one second from jumping onto Aaron and tearing him apart.
"TWELVE YEARS! TWELVE YEARS, I LIVED WITH MY CHOICE! AND ALL OF IT WAS HAUNTED BY THEM! THE FACT THEY WEREN'T THERE, THAT THEY WERE TAKEN FROM ME!" he screamed, spittle flying from his mouth as he roared. "EVEN WHEN I FOUGHT, WHEN I BATTLED, WHEN I DID ALL THE JOBS THE GUNPLA MAFIA TOLD ME TO, I KEPT BEING HAUNTED BY ALL OF IT!" Daryl glared for a moment more, slowly slowing his breath until finally, the man managed to school his fury enough that he did not look menacing. And yet still, Aaron saw the rage be replaced by another equally painful emotion: sorrow.
He saw as Daryl walked towards the capsule, placing one hand on the seat in front of him before letting out a weary sigh. "Not anymore… I can't… I can't live anymore with this, knowing that I couldn't make a difference…"
He motioned to the capsule, to the ship and Gunpla inside the box, and to the computers still running. "But this… This will give me a chance. A chance to finally make a difference on something. To make the world better."
Aaron stared at his friend, and for the first time in that night, he saw how… Tired he seemed. His posture slackened, arms going limp and head hung low.
Twelve years… Twelve years under the Gunpla Mafia, acting as their enforcer and hitman… How much had they worn him down?
"… I called you here in case the procedure fails," continued the man as he typed away a few more times on the keyboard before tossing the piece aside. "… In case the power being cut instead leaves me brain dead… Or worse. It's… The reason I called all the others."
"Daryl…"
"… Just promise me that you'll remember me, Aaron. Not for who I am… But who I was… And for why I did this."
And just like that, Daryl stepped onto the capsule, seating himself onto the cockpit as the hatch closed around him, the metal cocoon soon beginning to hum and pulse as, one by one, the Plavsky Particle containers emptied onto the capsule. And all Aaron could do was watch, uncertain of whether to allow or stop what he couldn't decide if it was madness or not.
One minute later, as Daryl had said, the power to the capsule was cut, its lights and sound dying down slowly as it stopped functioning. Hesitantly, he reached towards the capsule, just as the sound of screeching tires outside piled one after another, and the voices of many familiar acquaintances began calling out to Daryl.
He opened the hatch…
-O-
Daryl opened his eyes, and was greeted not with the cramped interior of the capsule, but instead by the moderately spacious spaceship bridge, with eight coat-clad figures standing silently to the side. He looked down at his hand, and clenched it into a fist.
It had worked… It had worked flawlessly.
Finally… He was in a world where he had a difference to make.
Quickly, Daryl rushed to one of the consoles and began typing away at it, bringing online the Quasi-Veda he had installed upon his ship for just this occasion. The rudimentary AI quickly came to life and began cycling through dozens of pre-made calculations he had left within its programing since the last time he had utilized the ship on a Gunpla Battle System.
Once again, he had been correct: the Plavsky Particles had indeed maintained the changes applied in the virtual space to the ship, even if they had not been made while linked to the computer servers meant to recreate the Zero System Incident. If it was due to an effect through his memories, or even something else entirely, he did not know.
All Daryl cared was that his hypothesis had been correct.
"Varia, activate the Umbrella Stealth System, and connect to any possible networks. Find out if we landed on the Anno Domini era, where and when," said Daryl to the machine, a beep of confirmation showing the computer had accepted the command. The monitors began showing streams of data scrolling at blinding speeds, most likely security protocols being broken apart as Varia began infiltrating these systems. Soon, the data streams were replaced with images, videos and documents, all related to the various governments of the world and current news.
The Human Reform League, the Advanced European Union, the Union of Solar Energy and Free Nations, the Solar Elevator, the Solar Wars and…
Celestial Being.
So it had worked flawlessly indeed… Daryl had arrived on the Anno Domini era.
A massive weight lifted from his shoulders, as the relief of leaving the world behind washed over him. The ex-mafia enforcer stumbled onto the command chair, resting his head on his hands as slowly, tears of joy began welling on his eyes and dripping to the floor. "Eric… Hannah… Thank you… I'll do this in your names…"
"In recent news, the self-proclaimed organization Celestial Being has issued a message declaring its intent to end warfare through armed interventions, a declaration that was made mere hours after reports of four unidentified mobile suits in several parts of the Earth Spheres. All three power blocks have declared such actions as terrorist acts, as world leaders continue to…"
It was the voice of a news caster being broadcast inside the bridge that drew Daryl's attention to the main screen, and indeed in it was aired a news report on the arrival of Celestial Being following its attack on the AEU's reveal ceremony for the new Enact machine and their orbital elevator base, the interruption of a terrorist attack on the HRL's anniversary celebration, and the worldwide broadcast of Aeolia Schenberg's message to humanity.
So in the end, he had arrived quite early in 00's timeline, but still after the interventions had begun.
So the next target would be…
"Varia, ready a flight route to Ceylon, download it onboard both the Cornix Furia and G-Razer as well. Ready the ship to deploy there one hour after I launch," spoke Daryl as he stood from the chair, another confirmation beep marking his orders as logged. He walked towards the hall leading to the hangar, but stopped at the archway, one thought quickly crossing his mind. "… Delete all data related to Gunpla Battles or the real world, keep all Mobile Suit technical data and lore information… And delete user Daryl Lancer, register new main user… Chronicle Bringer."
And with those words, the rechristened pilot resumed his way to the Dark Veil's MS Hangar.
His new life… was about to begin.
Author's Notes: Alright, the first chapter of "Meister of Your Future" is done and the second chapter will come next after this. Of course, The LandMaster provided me the notes of his plans for this story before he decided to drop it in the PM, and I'm going to take some liberties from them, gotta shake things up a little after Chapter 2.
After all, what's the point of a crossover if there are no divergences from the canon made by the presence of a character from another world that would cause changes for better or for worse?
Enjoy and don't forget to review. :)