Gundam SEED Fan Fiction ❯ Alternative ❯ The Truth ( Chapter 2 )

AN: Welcome to chapter two of Alternative! You’ll find out the answers to all of your questions in this chapter. Read and review!

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Standard Disclaimer: Sugarpony does not own Gundam: Seed. Go sue someone else.

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Key:

“Speech”
< br> Thought

-Dream-

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Alternativ e

Chapter Two

The Truth

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Once Athrun had safely reached the Vesalius, he quickly opened his cockpit door. “Hey,” he called, “I need some help over here!”

In few seconds, Dearka was at his side. “Damn,” he said softly as he saw Kira for the first time. “What the hell happened to him?”

“It doesn’t matter right now,” Athrun replied. “We need to get him to the infirmary.”

The other nodded and gently lifted the young brown-haired boy onto his back and called for a
stretcher. Athrun climbed out of the cockpit, followed by Lt. La Flaga.

The coordinator collapsed against the mobile suit. He ran a shaky hand through his blue hair and let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding. Tori was still on his shoulder, playing with his hair. He was approached by the natural beside him. He placed a hand on his shoulder and asked, “Are you gonna be okay, kid?”

He nodded, straightening and regaining his composure. “Yeah,” he said. “Come on. I need to get you to the infirmary and then report back to the commander.” He strode forward, gesturing for the man to follow.

When the pair arrived at the medical wing, the doctors brought aboard for the mission were all scrambling around Kira’s figure, which was lying face down on a bed. The other Yamatos were sitting in identical beds, watching them work. Dearka was leaning against the wall, and he turned to Athrun as he and the natural entered.

“You might want to tell the doctors to not put the Earth Forces guy in a prison cell,” he said. “They won’t question orders.” He then turned to the soldier in question. “You need to get checked out. If you’re anything like the others, you’re in rough shape. Hurry up so we can report your condition.”

The two nodded to the tanned boy’s words, and they hastened to follow them. Dearka still stood by the door, looking at everything unfolding in front of his eyes.

What the hell is going on here, he wondered. This thing’s bigger than one simple mission, there’s no doubt about that. Why were there civilians and an Earth Forces soldier in the prison?

And what was up with the locks on the place? Everything was encrypted-- it was way too complicated to be a natural’s work.

And what was that mechanical bird? How did it know the pass code to the prison?

What the hell is going on here?

---

Yzak Joule felt very good about himself.

He had just single-handedly destroyed the Umbrella of the Artemis, the damn thing that had been the bane of ZAFT’s existence, along with the Artemis base itself.

Okay, so Nicol had helped, too.

But still, he did most of the work himself.

Alright, Nicol was the one who actually destroyed the Umbrella.

But it really was Yzak who brought down the base! And he would have done it sooner, too, if Nicol hadn’t stopped him.

So what if he killed Zala and all the prisoners? He hated them all, anyway.

But then, he would have killed Dearka, too.

Ah, who cares? The mission’s complete, and I got to blow up a bunch of damn naturals.

Yzak smirked to himself as he strode down the hallways of the Vesalius. He had changed out of his flight suit after docking the Duel, and he now was on his way to report back to Commander Le Creuset. Nicol, being the concerned fool he was, went to the infirmary to check on Athrun, Dearka, and all the (ex-) prisoners.

It’s his own fault if he gets chewed out by the commander.

But instead of that self-righteous smirk remaining on his face, it melted into a frown. Neither Athrun nor Dearka had been acting like themselves when they came out of the base. Yeah, Athrun is quiet, but he usually responds to my bating. And Dearka being quiet? That in itself is wrong.

Yzak paused on his way to the control room. What went on in that base? Determined to get an answer one way or another, he turned around and followed Nicol’s footsteps to the medical wing.

---

Nicol Amalfi rounded a corner and nearly collided with Dearka, who was still dressed in his flight suit. “Oh,” he cried out in surprise. “Excuse me, Dearka.”

His teammate shook his head, shrugging off the apology. “It’s no problem. Listen,” he said, a
seriousness that Nicol had only heard come from him once or twice, “go check in with the commander. Athrun and I will be along shortly, and we’ll fill you all in on our part of the mission.”

“But I wanted to check on the prisoners you rescued and--”

Nicol didn’t get to finish his sentence, however, or he was interrupted by Dearka spinning him around and pushing him in the direction opposite of the infirmary. “Don’t worry about them,” he said. “You’ll get to see them soon enough. For now, though, let’s go report so that we can get some victory food afterwards!”

Athrun watched from behind the corner as his two friends walked off. Thanks, Dearka, he thought.

Nicol’s a good person. He’s kind and gentle. He doesn’t need to see something like this.... At least
not until absolutely necessary.

He smiled and walked after them, not noticing as Tori left his shoulder to explore the ship.

---

Yzak had walked down the hall with the full intention of getting the answers to his questions. Halfway to the infirmary, however, he was abruptly stopped and turned around by his three teammates and fellow mobile suit pilots. Now, he was standing outside the locker room with Nicol, waiting for Dearka and Athrun to change into their uniforms.

He was leaning against the wall with his eyes closed, mulling over the fact that Zala had once again gotten in his way when a strange voice came from directly in front of him.

“Tori!”

He opened his eyes to the sight of a green and yellow mechanical bird flapping its wings in very close proximity to his face. “Waah!” He screamed, lost his balance, and fell over, startled.

Nicol looked over to where he was now sitting on the floor. The younger boy blinked, surprised, and then noticed the bird, which was now pecking at Yzak’s head.

“Well hello there, little bird,” he said, smiling, and held out a hand for it to land on. The toy flew over to him and cocked his head at him.

“Tori?”

“You know, it’s not very nice to scare Yzak like that,” Nicol scolded.

“Hey! I was not scared!” The grouchy teenager’s indignant cry was ignored by all present. Instead, the bird simply cocked it’s head to the other side.

“Tori!”

Yzak was still grumbling on the ground when the locker room door opened and Athrun and Dearka walked out into the hallway.

The two pilots’ first expressions were exactly the same. They each blinked, a confused look on their faces. Dearka, however, broke the silence when he burst out laughing. Athrun merely shared an amused look with Nicol.

He was startled, though, when the mechanical bird flew over to him, landed on his shoulder, and chirped.

“Tori! Tori!”

Athrun blinked, as did the others. He turned his head to face the bird, surprised by its actions. “Tori? Did you do this to Yzak?”

The toy simply gave a happy chirp and bobbed its head in response.

“Tori!”

The blue-haired coordinator gave an amused smile to the bird.

“Athrun, is this your bird?”

The boy in question turned to Nicol. “No,” he said. “Dearka and I found it inside the Artemis compound.”

Yzak immediately leaped to his feet at this news. “Didn’t you ever think that this thing could be a spy, then? !”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Dearka said. He walked over to his silver-haired friend with a knowing look on his face. “That bird there helped us out on the mission. And besides, there’s no one left on Artemis to spy for.” He smirked at Yzak. “You’re just sore that it made a fool out of you.”

“Don’t be so stupid, Dearka!” Obviously, Yzak was being stubborn. “That’s what it wants you to think!”

“Calm down, Yzak.” The others looked to Athrun, who had interrupted the argument. “I’m the one who built Tori, back when I was a kid. I would know if its programming had been tampered with, and it hasn’t. So just... back off.”

And with that, he walked off down the hall, Tori still on his shoulder.

Nicol looked at the other two remaining pilots. “Come on,” he said. “We need to go make our report.” They nodded and the three all followed in Athrun’s wake.

---

Muu La Flaga was frustrated.

Currently, he was sitting on a hospital bed, sulking as the doctors wrapped Kira’s bandages and carefully placed him on another bed. He had strict orders to either stay in bed or get sent down to the prison cells, where the doctors would be able to keep a close eye on him without worrying about him running off.

Muu La Flaga hated sitting still and doing nothing.

It made him feel useless.

He wanted to help Kira and his parents in some way. Or at least go blow something up in his Mobius Zero.

But nooo, he had to stay in bed, feeling useless.

Feeling useless made him frustrated.

Being frustrated gave him headaches.

And thus, here sits Lieutenant Muu La Flaga, Hawk of the Endymion, with the biggest migraine known to man kind.

Which made him even more frustrated.

Which in turn made his migraine even worse.

He sighed and dropped his pounding head into his hands. “Why does this type of thing always happen to me?”

He winced, the words adding to the pain. He dully registered the sound of footsteps approaching him before a soft voice that said, “Here. It will help with the pain.”

He looked up to see a female nurse with long blond hair holding out a glass of water and a couple of aspirin to him. He reached up and gratefully swallowed the tablets. “Thanks,” he said, handing back the empty glass to her. “I really needed that.”

She smiled back at him and walked away. Muu sighed in relief, already beginning to feel the effects of the medicine. “God, I love whatever coordinator developed this extra-strength stuff.”

He heard a tired laugh to his right and shifted in his bed to see Mr. Yamato sitting up in his bed, facing the mobile armor pilot. “You know, for the Hawk of the Endymion, you’re not exactly the soldier type.”

Muu gave a cocky smirk. “And for a civilian, you’re not exactly the scared innocent type.”

Kira’s father smirked right back. “After being around you for so long, how can I not be cocky?”

Muu laughed. “Alright, you’ve got me there. But seriously....” His carefree face vanished and was
replaced by a solemn look. “We’re in quite the situation now, aren’t we?

“First imprisoned by the Atlantic Confederation for nearly two months, and now rescued by ZAFT-- and the Le Creuset Team at that.”

“So what are you going to do about it?”

Muu looked down at that question, staring at his hands. “....”

---

“Civilians, you say?”

“Yes, Sir. And also an Earth Forces soldier, Lieutenant La Flaga.”

So it is him....

“Sir?”

Yzak and Nicol had each reported their part of the mission to Commander Rau Le Creuset, and Athrun was was now finishing his own report. The commander had a thoughtful look on his face beneath the white mask, and it was making the young elites a bit nervous.

“I would like to speak with each of them. They are all in the infirmary, no doubt?”

“Yes, Sir.”

Le Creuset nodded, the thoughtful look still on his face. After few moments of silence, Dearka opened his mouth to conclude the report, but the commander stopped him.

“There’s no need to inform me of their conditions, Dearka,” he said. “I will simply ask the doctors when I speak with them.”

He moved to the door and signaled the end of the meeting. The four boys clad in red all saluted, and it was returned swiftly. “Come. I think we all should be present for this little confrontation.”

---

-“I’m not with the Earth Forces! I’m only a civilian volunteer!”

“Yes, but you’re already a traitor to your fellow coordinators, are you not?”

“That has nothing to do with this! I won’t create more weapons for you to kill people with!”

“Oh, but you will, Kira Yamato. You will.”-

---

“Kira!”

Mrs. Yamato’s horrified scream brought both her husband and Muu out of their stupor. They looked the bed in which the young coordinator was resting, and they saw why she yelled.

Kira had broken out into a sweat, and he was tossing and turning in the bed. He was murmuring
unintelligible words, and he had a look of fear on his face.

Muu leapt out of bed, yelling for a doctor. “Hey! Doctor! Hurry up and get your ass in here! There’s something wrong with the kid!”

Kira’s father went to console his wife, hugging her small frame. “Don’t look,” he whispered. “Kira will be fine. You don’t need to see this, he’ll be fine.”

Three doctors rushed into the room, followed by a man in white and four boys clad in red.

---

-“You’re a monster! You don’t even deserve to live!”

“No! It’s not true!”

“It’s your fault they’re all dead. You killed them!”

“No! I-I didn’t!”

“Oh, but if you had just done as you were told, they wouldn’t have had to die.”

“It’s not my fault!”

“Kira! Come on, you need to wake up now, Kira!”

“Of course it is! You’re not even human!”

“Snap out of it, Kid!”

“It’s not my fault!”

“Kira, please. You need to wake up now.”-

---

“It’s not my fault!”

Kira’s amethyst eyes snapped open and he sat up in bed as the words tore out of his throat. He felt something wet on his face, and he realized that he was crying. He held his head in his hands and sobbed.

“Kira.”

He flinched at the voice, and his muscles tightened.

“Relax, Kid. It’s alright now.”

He wrapped his arms around his knees and squeezed his eyes shut tight, afraid of what would happen.

“Tori!”

What?

Kira slowly opened his eyes and lifted his head to see none other than his pet mechanical bird, Tori, sitting on his knees and staring at him with its head cocked.

“T...Tori?” Kira was in disbelief; he hadn’t seen Tori since it had flown off when the soldiers at Artemis tried to dismantle it!

The little bird chirped a happy “Tori!” in reply and flew off. Kira followed it with his eyes until it landed on his best friend, Athrun Zala.

“Athrun,” he whispered. “What...? I’m on a ZAFT ship.”

His friend nodded. “My comrade Dearka and I rescued you, your parents, and Lieutenant La Flaga from Artemis.”

Kira still sat there. “So they’re safe?”

Athrun nodded once again.

“Good.” The young boy closed his eyes, allowing himself to relax a bit now that he was with Athrun.

He was approached by a blond nurse, who handed him a glass of water and a pill. “Take it,” she said. “You need your rest, and it will help you have a nice, peaceful sleep.”

Kira slowly nodded and cautiously took the medicine. “It will take a few minutes for it to work,” the nurse said.

Commander Le Creuset cleared his throat, calling attention to himself. “I’m going to go over the
conditions of our guests with the doctors,” he said. “Boys, why don’t you introduce yourselves in the meantime?”

Sensing that it was an order and not a request, the four elites saluted as their commander left the room.

“Oh, Kira!” Mrs. Yamato rushed over to her son the moment the door was closed, tears running down her face. She scooped him up in a gentle hug. “I was so afraid for you.... Oh, Kira! Don’t you ever worry me like that again!”

Lt. La Flaga and Mr. Yamato watched all this with twin smiles on their faces before Muu finally broke apart the touching reunion.

“So,” he said, clasping his hands together in eagerness, “we finally get to meet the famous Le
Creuset Team! As you may or may not know, I’m Lieutenant Muu La Flaga. I piloted the Mobius Zero in our battles.”

Yzak was the next to speak up. “Wait just a damn minute,” he said. “Do you mean to tell us that you’re from the legged ship?”

“Well, yeah,” Muu responded, scratching his head, “except on board, we called her the Archangel.”

Yzak sputtered indignantly. “Then what the hell are you doing here? !”

Dearka interrupted him, however. “Chill, Yzak,” he said. “That was then, this is now.” He held out his hand to the blond man. “The name’s Dearka Elsman, and I pilot Buster.”

Muu gladly shook the proffered hand. “It’s a pleasure to meet your acquaintance.”

Nicol, ever the gentleman, stepped forward and bowed. “My name is Nicol Amalfi, and I’m the pilot of the Blitz mobile suit.”

Athrun came next. “And as you know, I’m Athrun Zala, and I pilot the Aegis.”

“And this stiff over here,” Dearka said, “would be Yzak Joule, pilot of the Duel. Don’t mind him; he has absolutely no social skills at all.”

“You all.... You all rescued my Kira!” Mrs. Yamato jumped on the unsuspecting boys. “Thank you! Thank you so much!”

She hugged each one of them-- including a protesting Yzak-- before making any introductions. Afterwards, she wiped the tear out of her eyes. “My name is Kanoko Yamato, and this is my husband, Keiji. And I just can’t thank you enough for--”

“--Really, Mrs. Yamato,” Athrun interrupted, “it was nothing.”

The boys in red all looked at Kira expectantly. He was now sitting up in bed, leaning against his pillow and playing with Tori, a small smile on his face. He looked up to face the other pilots, and his smile faltered a bit. He took a deep breath before introducing himself.

“My name is Kira Yamato. I’m a first generation coordinator, and I piloted the Strike.”

Yzak immediately screamed in outrage. “What? ! This kid-- this coordinator-- is the Strike pilot? !”

“Yzak, calm down--”

“--Shut up, Dearka! This traitor doesn’t deserve any of your pity! He was fighting for the Earth Forces!”

“Yzak--”

“--You stay out of this, Zala!”

“NO!”

The entire room turned away from the fight to look at Kira, who was clutching his head in his hands. “NO,” he cried. “I’m not a traitor! I’m just a civilian from Heliopolis-- I’m a citizen of Aube! You were the ones who attacked us! There were other civilians on the ship, and I was the only one who could pilot the Strike! My friends were on board-- I had to protect them! They were just innocent civilians-- and now they’re-- and now they’re dead!”

Kira stopped for a moment, as if he was realizing something for the first time. “God, no,” he whispered. “It-- it really was my fault. It was my fault! Everyone is dead, and it’s all my fault! I-- I should have just done like they told me to, and then maybe-- maybe....”

But the others did not get to find out what might have happened, because at that moment, the drugs took full effect, and Kira collapsed on the bed, fast asleep.

Muu La Flaga took this moment to punch Yzak in the face, momentarily stunning everyone in the room. When he regained his senses, the pilot of the Duel scowled, glared, and yelled at the man.

“What the hell was that for, huh? !”

“What gives you the right? !”

Muu’s response startled the boy. “What?”

“What gives you the right,” he repeated, an angry look on his face, “to decide who and what he is? You don’t have any idea about the half of what that boy has been through! He always takes it upon himself to keep everyone safe, and he always, always blames himself! If that’s not enough, then why don’t you take a look at his back the next time his bandages are changed, and then you might have the slightest picture of what went on at that base!”

The mobile armor pilot crossed the room, gently lain Kira in a comfortable position, and pulled the soft blankets around the small boy.

The room remained in an uncomfortable silence until Le Creuset returned carrying a grim look on his face. He gave La Flaga an irritated look and then asked the question everyone was dying to ask.

“What happened at Artemis?”

Muu heaved a sigh before replying. “You might want to sit down for this.”

---

Once everyone had gained a seat, Muu began his story.

“As you know, we docked at the Artemis base two months ago. Unsurprisingly, we weren’t exactly welcomed with open arms. Artemis is-- was an Atlantic Confederation base. The Archangel was a Laurasian warship. They kept everyone on board except for the captain, her second in command, and me.

“I don’t know what exactly happened, but somehow they found out that the kid was not only a coordinator but also the pilot of the Strike mobile suit. Before we landed at the base, I had told him to put a lock on the OS so that he would be the only one able to use it, but now I wish I hadn’t. They forced him to undo the lock and then tried to force him to develop new weapons for them. One technique I know they used a lot was calling him a traitor to all coordinators.”

Here, Muu paused to glare at Yzak, who had enough good sense to look abashed.

“Now to understand everything, you must understand that Kira is not nor has ever been a soldier. He was just a kid who happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time during the raid on Heliopolis. He found his way to Captain Ramius, the captain of the Archangel, and the Strike at Morganroete. He managed to rewrite the OS so that he could pilot the thing and keep himself from getting killed. By the time I found them, he was already in deep trouble.

“Not only had Kira witnessed military secrets, but he and his friends had also missed the last escape shuttle off of the colony. We had no choice but to bring him aboard the ship.

“I’m not going into all of the details, but we also ended up taking in a shuttle full of civilians. When you and your boys attacked, Kira was the only one who was able to pilot the Strike. He only fought to defend his life and the lives of the innocent civilians aboard the ship. He never joined the Earth Forces, and he therefore cannot be treated as a soldier by either the Earth Forces or ZAFT.

“So when he was asked to build new weapons for the Earth Forces, he naturally refused. That is when things got messy.”

He took a steadying breath before continuing his story.

“You see, since they couldn’t force him to do anything, they tried to use threats as a motivation.
They killed every single crew member and civilian on the Archangel except for two. One was Fllay Alster, the member of Blue Cosmos who is also the one who let it slip that Kira is a coordinator. She joined their ranks. The other was me.

“They told me why they didn’t kill me, too. They said that the Hawk of the Endymion was too valuable to lose and decided to lock me up in the prison instead.

“That would have been a nice little threat if they had kept everyone alive, but instead it just proved to Kira that he made the right decision in not helping them. He still refused to work for them, so they used other methods.

“As I said before, Miss Alster was a member of Blue Cosmos. She hated all coordinators and wanted them all to die. I do believe that she was the one who thought of Kira’s torture.”

Dearka started. “You mean--”

“--Yeah. She was so frustrated one day that she just picked up a knife and carved the word MONSTER right into his back. Apparently, the higher-ups liked the idea and made Kira her personal billboard. They would reopen the wounds every day, trying to get him to work, but he still refused.

“After about a month of this, everyone was fed up and frustrated. So they thought of another plan. They sent some soldiers down to Aube, kidnapped his parents, and threatened to kill them if he didn’t work for them.

“Well, obviously, he finally gave in. But the sadistic bastards were having so much fun torturing him that they just on and continued with it. They kept carving into his back, and they barely gave him enough food and water that he needed to live.

“Another month later, your guys show up, break us all out of there, and destroy the base. Thank God.”

Silence reigned at the abrupt end of the story. Everyone in the room was tense.

Nicol quickly stood and saluted, looking a bit green. “Permission to leave, Sir?”

After the quick “Granted,” the boy raced out of the room.

For once, Dearka didn’t have anything funny to say.

For once, Yzak wasn’t being a bad ass.

Athrun clenched his fists. “Those... those bastards....” He looked forlornly at his resting friend. Tori was now perched on his chest, moving up and down in time with the boy’s breathing.

Kira....

---

AN: O.o Wow. Over thirteen pages. That’s definitely a new record for me. I wanted to end this chapter ages ago, but I did promise to tell y’all the whole story behind Artemis. I just hope you understood it all right.

At least now you don’t have too much of a reason to complain, and I can take a little break.

SO! Review! I really want to know what you think of this chapter. I’ll start working on chapter three after you give me five new reviews, kk? KK!

Happy New Years!

-Sugarpony