Mobile Suit Gundam SEED DESTINY

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Phase 33 - The Enemy of My Enemy

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“Shinn Asuka is not a normal opponent,” Shiho said authoritatively, arms crossed before the Minerva’s mobile suit pilots in the Minerva’s briefing room. “He has undeniable skill, and is a good enough pilot to render most combat tactics useless. We have to be creative and diligent in order to defeat him.” She glanced coldly at Rey; he looked back just as coldly. “Rey has come up with a strategy we will use against him in our next encounter.”

Rey glanced over the pilots; Luna was staring suspiciously and contemptibly at him, Aoma looked tired and unhappy, and Ruumari looked like an animal ready to strike.

“In order to defeat Shinn we need to attack quickly enough to leave him no time to react to our attacks,” he said. “We will try a new formation for aerial mobile suit combat, wherein all of us will line up single-file and attack Shinn’s Impulse head-on.” He glanced at Lunamaria. “Because we need to stun the Impulse and knock Shinn off balance before the rest of us can attack, Lunamaria will be the leading attacker.”

Lunamaria’s eyes widened in disbelief at Rey, but she said nothing. Shiho glanced at him suspiciously and frowned.

“Captain Gladys has not yet ordered the Minerva to attack the Kasselheim,” Shiho continued. “However, when she does, we will attempt to use this maneuver against Shinn. In the meantime, we are all to practice getting it right in the simulator.” He paused for a moment. “The Eternal-class cruiser Deliverance will be joining us for our attack when we choose to make it.” Rey narrowed his eyes momentarily at Luna. “Dismissed.”

——————————————————————————————————————————

The Megami and the Kasselheim had strung between them a long rope bridge, which allowed for fairly easy, if not somewhat nerve-wracking transport between the two ships. Cagalli Yula Athha had been spending a considerable amount of time on the Kasselheim, going over battle plans with Mev Typhoon.

Shinn Asuka sorely wanted to know why she couldn’t stay on her own damn ship.

He was standing on the Kasselheim’s open-air deck, staring disdainfully at the sleek black hull of the Megami. Cagalli was on the Kasselheim, but as far as Shinn knew, she was on the bridge, meaning Shinn was going to steer clear of the bridge until she left. He was not ready to face her yet, and did not want to get into an argument or cause a scene or deal with her in any way. And the easiest way to avoid that, of course, was to avoid her.

He looked back out at the sea, determined not to look at Cagalli and her ship. He turned over Athrun’s explanation about Kira in his mind— a complicated figure to be sure, this Kira Yamato. Coupling Athrun’s explanation with Rey’s, he began to put together a crude biography of his enemy, and saw his foe as a victim of circumstances, who had not been strong enough to deal with all the agonies life had inflicted upon him. And life had been quite liberal in the infliction of those agonies— but Shinn couldn’t bring himself to feel sorry for Kira. For as much suffering as Kira had gone through himself, he had inflicted it all back on other people.

Shinn heard the sound of one of the doors opening, and for a moment, dreaded that the argument had come to him. Instead, even before he turned around, he felt another presence…and immediately the sinking feeling in his stomach returned.

“What the hell are you avoiding me for?” Kika demanded, storming up to him with all the elegance of a lahar. Shinn turned around, cringing and steeling himself for the conversation he had been dreading. “You’ve been hiding from me for the past three days,” Kika said, stepping in front of him and demanding his attention. “What’s going on with you?”

Shinn looked away, wondering what he was supposed to think.

“This is what I was afraid would happen, Shinn,” Kika said tiredly, taking him by the shoulders. He looked back at her, blinking. “You attached all this emotion and meaning to the simple act of having sex and now look where it’s gotten you. You can’t even talk to me.”

Shinn turned away angrily, looking back out at the ocean resolutely.

“Shinn!” Kika exclaimed just as angrily. “Stop being so difficult! I thought I was doing you a favor!”

“You said I attached all that emotion to it,” he said quietly, looking down at the water. “Isn’t that interesting.”

Kika fell silent, blinking at what he had to say. He whirled around angrily.

“You wanna know why I attached emotion to it?” he asked, glaring at her. “You’re the one who keeps calling me some kind of Newtype super-soldier. Well, you know what? That’s the problem! I attach emotion to it because I feel emotion about it! And it’s not even how I feel! It’s how someone else feels!” He shook his head and seized her by the shoulders. “I want to protect you,” he said, “as much as I want to protect Stella. I know how you feel about me. You want to know how I feel about that? It scares me. Because I don’t know how I feel about anything, and nothing feels worse than that! I don’t want to have to choose between you! I’m not going to choose between you! I care about you both and I’m going to protect you both! So don't make me choose!”

Kika stared into Shinn’s wide, angry, quivering eyes for a moment, before she threw her arms around him. Shinn blinked in surprise, backing up against the railing.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered. Shinn blinked again.

“What?” he asked blankly.

“It was selfish of me,” she said, hugging him tightly. “I only dragged you into bed because I wanted to have a set of happy memories to look back on in case one day you did something insane and didn’t come back.” She pulled away far enough to look into his eyes, but kept her arms wrapped tightly around him. “You keep going out there and attacking battle fleets on your own, and I get scared that that’s the last time I’ll ever see you.” She looked down sullenly. “I know you’re trying to protect me and that seems like the best way of doing it, but I’ve seen people die doing stuff like that, and I don’t want the same thing to happen to you.”

“I’m not going to die that easily,” Shinn began.

“I know, but when I see you throwing yourself at battleships armed with a beam saber, it’s not very easy to remember that,” Kika replied, looked back up at him.

“You want me to be more careful?” Shinn asked. Kika looked away awkwardly.

“I…just want you to come back,” she said.

Shinn hesitated a moment. “I promised you I would,” he said. “I can’t protect you if I don’t.”

“Is that all it’s about?” Kika asked. “Just protecting people?”

Shinn looked back at the ocean. “It’s all I can do,” he said.

——————————————————————————————————————————

“This is intolerable!” Jona shrieked, hurling a ream of navigational charts across the bridge of the Takemikazuchi. “We are the navy of the United Emirates of Orb! We possess technology that rivals even the PLANTs! And yet we were defeated by a handful of cobbled-together machines and junkyard rabble? Impossible!” Another chart went sailing across the bridge, narrowly missing a less than fortunate sonar officer. “Todaka! What is our ETA for Orb waters?”

From his hiding place near the captain’s chair, Todaka stepped forward warily. “We have another three days’ sailing ahead of us, sir,” he said. “And the reactors are too overworked to be pushed beyond 100 percent. If we go any faster, we’ll blow the reactors out and then we won’t get anywhere.”

“I know that!” Jona snapped. “But as long as we’re drifting along like this, we’re easy prey for Cagalli and her little children!” He turned angrily towards the bridge displays. “We will— ”

“Admiral!” a voice spoke up. Jona and Todaka turned to face a breathless crewman, holding a sheet of paper. Jona seized the page from him and stared down at it contemptibly. His anger vanished, replaced with ashen horror.

“What is it, Admiral?” Todaka asked uneasily.

“Read this,” Jona said, shoving the page into Todaka’s hands, “and tell me again that we can’t push the reactors.” Todaka looked down at the page, and a moment later his own eyes widened in disbelief.

“ZAFT is planning an attack on our homeland?” he breathed.

“We are still 72 hours out from Orb,” Jona growled, “and the intelligence says ZAFT intends on attacking in eight days.” He swung around angrily to face Todaka. “You get these ships operational and back to Orb by the 20th, or so help me God I’ll have you shot!”

“Yes sir,” Todaka said dourly. Jona stormed off the bridge— Todaka glanced warily over his uneasy crew. “You heard the Admiral,” he said. “Notify all ships that we’re heading back home at flank speed.” He narrowed his eyes at the page. “We have a greater enemy to fight now.”

——————————————————————————————————————————

Neo Roanoke sat back, arms crossed, studying the screen with interest.

“So the Orb Raiders and the Mad Typhoon Gang have joined forces,” he said with a chuckle. “I guess it’s worth it to have that kid in the Impulse on your side.”

Lee cast Neo a wary glance. “What are our orders, sir?” he asked.

Neo sat back and activated the main screens from the panel on his armrest, and immediately the screens came to life with an image of the Destroy Gundam wiping out another Muslim League army.

“That thing,” he said, “is probably going to take another week, tops, to finish off the Muslim League.” To punctuate Neo’s point, the Destroy crushed a Muslim League land battleship underfoot. “ZAFT, meanwhile, is planning an attack on Orb in order to relieve pressure on Carpentaria and the Muslim League. We are setting course for Orb to hang out there and wait for ZAFT’s attack.” He sat back with a smile. “Things are going well, Lee. The Muslim League’s on its last legs and Carpentaria won’t last through the month. All that’s left is to crush them at Orb and finish them off at Antarctica.”

“And then what?” Lee asked dubiously. Neo’s smile grew a little wider.

“What do you think, Lee?” he asked. “Would the Alliance be content to let ZAFT slink away back to space to lick its wounds?”

Lee looked back resolutely at the ocean. “Last time we followed them up there, they stopped us at their doorstep.”

“That was because we didn’t bring a big enough battering ram,” Neo responded. “This time will be different.”

Neo allowed himself a feral smirk. Lee said nothing more.

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Talia Gladys tossed her clipboard back onto her desk with a sigh. Another day, another farcical order from a far-away commander with at best poor knowledge about the situation on the ground.

“Did you see this, Arthur?” she asked, glancing over her shoulder at Arthur, standing uncomfortably behind her, and gesturing disgustedly towards the clipboard. “Mideast Command is ordering us to the Muslim League to fight that Destroy thing.”

“But we’ve already been ordered by the Chairman to follow the Kasselheim,” Arthur said, crestfallen.

“Exactly,” Talia said with a sigh. “It’s only been two years, have we forgotten how to fight a war? In October things were going awfully well.”

“Which order are we going to follow, Captain?” Arthur asked. Talia glanced up at him.

“If we go the Middle East, we’ll get out of this miserable assignment to hunt down Shinn,” she said, sitting back. “On the other hand, we’ll just be getting in line to get torn apart by that Destroy unit.” She paused. “If we stay with the Chairman’s orders, we’ll probably avoid the Destroy…but we’ll have to keep chasing Shinn, and we both know how much drama that’s causing.” She shrugged. “We’ll stick with the Chairman’s orders. It’s a devil we know.”

Arthur looked sullenly down at the clipboard. “When will the Deliverance arrive to join us?” he asked.

“Five days,” Talia answered, standing up and wandering towards the front of her office.

“They give me chills,” Arthur complained. “Le Creuset never takes that mask off.”

Talia nodded grimly. “He should give you chills,” she said. She turned around. “He’s got a storied past.”

Arthur blinked, but said nothing more. Talia sighed again and looked back towards her bookcase.

“Carpentaria won’t last much longer,” she said wearily, “and it won’t be long before they take out Antarctica too.” She glanced back at Arthur. “Order some refresher courses for space operations for the crew. We’ll probably be needing them soon.”

Arthur paused solemnly for a moment. “Yes ma’am,” he answered.

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The Kasselheim, Athrun decided, was just about the ugliest ship he had ever seen. Not that he really minded— the Gamow hadn’t been much of a beauty either— but the cobbled-together battlecruiser looked ready to fall apart at any moment. Clearly, it was some genius construction, some excellent captaining, and some outstanding mobile suit pilots that kept this thing in one piece.

Clearly, it was Shinn.

Athrun stood on the deck of the Megami, in the warm Pacific sun and the cool breeze, looking at the creaky Kasselheim. He glanced towards the door as it opened, and turned towards Lacus with a polite smile as she stepped out onto the deck.

“Athrun,” she said, surprised. “You spend a lot of time up here.”

“The Earth’s sea is a lot nicer than the PLANTs’,” he said with a shrug, looking back out at the Kasselheim. Lacus followed his gaze and smiled.

“That’s not all of it, though, is it?” she asked, coming up next to him.

Athrun smiled himself and shook his head. “I feel like I have to watch over him,” he said. “Shinn, I mean.”

Lacus looked at the Kasselheim herself for a moment. “He reminds you of yourself,” she said, “doesn’t he?”

“When I was younger,” Athrun added. “During the Valentine War.” He allowed himself another smile. “When you smacked me over the head and told me to wake up.”

Lacus looked back over at Athrun. “I didn’t smack you,” she said, smiling at him. Athrun let out a chuckle.

“Well, that was the effect it had,” he said. “That’s what Shinn reminds me of.” He looked back at the Kasselheim. “He wants to do his best to protect what he cares about, and he feels like the only way to do that is to run around the battlefield and kill the people who want to destroy what he‘s protecting. It’s how we all feel. We just have different ways of protecting what’s important to us.” He sighed. “Except that Shinn’s a lot more determined than I was.”

“You were determined enough to fight,” Lacus said, glancing over at Athrun. “Regardless of what side you were on when you fought. You did what you felt had to be done as well.” He shook his head.

“I was determined enough to fight people I didn’t know,” he corrected. “It’s easy to kill your enemies when they’re just a bunch of mobile suits, and you can’t see the people inside. Once you’re fighting a mobile suit with your best friend in the cockpit, it gets more complicated. I had to fight Kira, and I felt that I had to capture him and bring him back to ZAFT, or failing that, to destroy him. I couldn’t do that. I don‘t think Shinn would hesitate— if he’ll throw himself at an entire battle fleet, I doubt he’d hesitate if he felt his best friend had betrayed him, and that friend had to be destroyed.”

Lacus looked back at the Kasselheim, pausing for a moment. “Determination is a two-edged sword,” she said. “If you are on the wrong path, your determination makes it harder to step off that path and find a better one.”

Athrun nodded. “That’s why I feel like I have to watch over him,” he said. “And that’s what I’m going to do.”

Lacus was silent another moment. “There is something special about him,” she said. Athrun looked at her in surprise. “He has such power and skill and determination, but all he wants to do with it is protect that which is important to him.”

Athrun cast his gaze back towards the Kasselheim. “He’s like Kira,” he said quietly.

Lacus nodded. “And that,” she said, just as quietly, looking at Athrun, “is why I want to watch over him as well.” Athrun looked back at her in surprise. “Because Shinn should not have to go down the path Kira went down.”

Athrun nodded slowly. “He shouldn’t,” he agreed. He glanced at Lacus. “And we’ll make sure he won’t.”

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Stella Loussier stared confusedly across the deck. On the port side, she had been looking out at the sea, happy as ever, when she had heard the door open. Shinn had stepped out, but he hadn’t even seemed to notice her, as he angrily made his way over to the starboard side, glowering at the Megami. She watched him uneasily. He was so angry, but he couldn’t imagine why— the people on the Megami didn’t seem like they were mean.

“Why’s Shinn so mad?” she asked quietly. Shinn turned around in surprise— his eyes widened as he caught sight of Stella.

“It’s nothing,” he said quickly, turning away again. Stella stared at him for a moment, before she looked at the Megami.

“Shinn doesn’t like them,” she said. “How come?”

Shinn was silent a moment. He glanced back at Stella unhappily.

“It’s complicated,” he said at last. “Don’t worry about it.”

“But it’s making Shinn angry,” Stella pressed on, coming up next to him and looking at him worriedly. “Stella wants to know why.”

“It doesn’t matter,” Shinn said. “We have to work with them no matter what we think.”

Stella did not appear satisfied, but said nothing. Shinn glanced at her uneasily. “They’re nice,” Stella said quietly, looking over at the Megami. “They were nice to Stella.”

“Of course they were,” Shinn grumbled. “They’re nice to everyone.” He glanced at Stella again and shook his head. “If you had to fight Neo, Stella, would you?”

Stella looked at him blinkingly for a moment. “Stella has fought Neo,” she murmured.

Shinn blinked in surprise. “You did?” he asked. “When?”

“In space,” Stella said, looking up blankly at the sky. “Neo attacked Stella…”

“And you fought him?” Shinn asked.

“Neo was gonna hurt Stella,” she said. “…and Shinn.”

Shinn fell silent, staring at her, and then he looked back at the Megami. “Would you fight Neo again?” he asked. Stella looked at him in surprise. “I mean, I wouldn’t make you fight him…but if you had to…”

“Neo lied,” Stella said simply.

She looked back at the ocean and said no more. Shinn shook his head. It was so easy for her to fight even her beloved Neo, and yet Shinn could hardly stand to look into Stella’s eyes. He glanced at her again, turning to leave, but she was happily distracted by the sea.

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“Why, exactly, are we going off to join some little rebellion in Orb?”

Mike stared skeptically across the bridge at an indignant Cagalli Yula Athha, while Athrun Zala tried to get her to calm down and listen to reason.

“You have to help us!” Cagalli shouted angrily. “We need your help! We have to bring Orb back!”

“Looks to me like it’s still where you left it,” Yun said sarcastically, glancing at Mike’s navigation console. “And why are we obligated to help you?”

“We only agreed to help you attack the Takemikazuchi Fleet, Miss Athha,” Mev added, glancing stoically at Cagalli’s companions and then back at her. “We did not sign on to fight a civil war with you.”

“Cagalli,” Athrun began helplessly, “we can’t expect them to join us out of the goodness of their hearts. They have a crew to feed too.”

“It’s not just our concern!” Cagalli snapped. “The world has to have a haven like Orb, so that only the people who want to fight a war have to fight one!”

“You seem to be dragging us into one whether we like it or not,” another voice spoke up. Athrun and Cagalli turned around in surprise, and all eyes fell on Shinn Asuka at the bridge doors.

“Shinn— ” Viima began angrily, rising from her seat. Mev stopped her, looking wordlessly at Shinn with an almost imperceptible nod. Shinn caught it and took a step forward.

“You’re trying to make a place where we can find refuge from war,” Shinn went on, “but you’re dragging us all into a war to do it. You want to make some place where we don‘t have to fight a war if we don‘t want to, but you‘re making us fight a war we don‘t want to fight in order to do it.”

“That’s not what we’re doing!” Cagalli shouted. Shinn scowled back.

“Then what are you doing?” he asked.

“And when will ‘the time’ be, then?” Shinn shot back. “Why should we have to fight your civil war with you?”

Athrun said nothing, looking at Cagalli.

“If this is because of the battle at Onogoro— ” Athrun began cautiously.

“No,” Shinn snapped, “it’s not.” He scowled fiercely at Athrun. “I don’t want to fight for Orb. I don’t want to fight for some false pretense of building a sanctuary, when the leaders will be idiots and get us all attacked again.”

“Idiots?!” Cagalli shouted, forcing her way out from behind Athrun and storming towards Shinn. “My father was not an idiot!”

“Only an idiot would look at an Atlantic Federation invasion fleet and tell it to go screw itself!” Shinn responded, glowering at her. “Did your exalted father ever think of what might happen if he pissed them off and they attacked?! Did he think of the stakes he was playing for? Or was his little ideology so much more important than the citizens?!”

Athrun stopped Cagalli before she could get any closer to Shinn; she glared hatefully at Shinn instead. “You have no right to speak of my father that way!” she cried. “He was a noble man, and it was his ideals that gave you a place to live, where you wouldn’t be persecuted for being a Coordinator!”

“And a lot of good that did me,” Shinn shot back. “In the end, it was his stupid policies and his stupid decisions that made the Atlantic Federation invade us! He said he’d protect us? He did a hell of a job protecting my family!” He pointed vindictively at Cagalli. “Don’t give me that bullshit about him being a great man! I don’t care if he was or not— it was his fault that the Atlantic Federation destroyed us!”

“It doesn’t matter who the Chief Representative was, Shinn,” Athrun put in quickly, interposing himself between Cagalli and Shinn again. “The Atlantic Federation wanted that mass driver and one way or another they were going to get it.”

“And we could have just let them use it!” Shinn raged. “Nobody would have had to die that way! We wouldn’t have been conquered that way! But your father,” he cast his glare back to Cagalli, “he just had to try and tell them off! Are you saying that’s how we should live? We should forget what’s going on around us and do something stupid, because that’s our ideal? We should assume that everyone’s going to just go away because we’re standing so firmly in our position? This is a war, you idiot! You stand firmly and refuse to retreat on the battlefield and you’ll die!”

Cagalli said nothing, trembling in rage. Shinn whirled around furiously to storm out of the bridge. Athrun glanced at Mev; he nodded wordlessly, and Athrun released Cagalli to follow Shinn.

——————————————————————————————————————————

Shinn didn’t need to turn around to know who was following him. That vaguely confused, generally surprised and angry presence was obviously Athrun Zala.

Nonetheless, Shinn whirled around angrily, startling Athrun. “What do you want?” he snapped. “Are you here to tell me how wrong I am and Cagalli’s really a wonderful person with a wonderful goal that will of course not fail?”

“That was unnecessary,” Athrun said flatly. “Disagree with Cagalli if you must, but there is no reason to go picking fights with her, or anyone else.”

Shinn snorted in disgust. “Someone has to tell her when she’s doing something stupid,” he said. “Obviously, none of you have, or else you wouldn’t be cavorting after the Seirans like this.” He crossed his arms. “Don’t tell me you don’t see the hypocrisy here. You can’t be that stupid. She wants to create some place where we won’t have to fight in wars, and to do that, she’s trying to drag us into fighting a war.”

“It’s better than our alternative,” Athrun answered. “It’s better than running around the world killing people, getting dragged into wars where we have nothing to protect and no reason to fight, killing people for no greater reason than some politician told us to.” He took a measured step closer. “Would you rather be fighting to protect your friends, to protect Stella Loussier, or would you rather be fighting for Dullindal and his failed ambitions on Earth?”

“Does it matter?” Shinn shot back. “Either way, I still have to fight.” He uncrossed his arms. “Your little paradise is supposed to mean that I don’t have to fight at all. Well, guess what, not everyone is as lovey-dovey and peaceful and idealistic as you. They’ll do what they did Orb in CE 71 again, and they’ll keep doing it. Whenever you insist on doing your own thing, there’s always going to be somebody trying to get you to do things their way. Orb is not going to change that. In the end you’ll have to fight again, like you had to fight at Orb two years ago.”

Athrun watched Shinn carefully for a moment. “Why do you have such a problem with what we’re trying to do?” he asked. “Why won’t you join us? It would be in your best interest— a place where you no longer have to fight to protect Stella.”

Shinn narrowed his eyes at Athrun. “Because I know that you’re going to fail,” he said.

With that, he whirled back around and stalked down the corridor, turning around a corner and disappearing from sight.

——————————————————————————————————————————

Shiho stared ruefully at the Savior’s controls, her work on the operating system grinding to a halt as she was filled with a sudden distaste and depression. She thought back to why she could possibly be feeling this way.

“This is a terrible assignment, isn’t it?” she asked at last. She glanced up at the open cockpit hatch, where Lunamaria was kneeling with a laptop, running diagnostics on the hardware. She looked up in surprise. “We’re chasing a traitor,” Shiho elaborated, “who’s skilled enough to evade us and beat us back when we do catch up to him. He was one of our own, a comrade in arms, we all knew him for better or for worse, and now we have to track him down and kill him. And to do that, we’ve got five mobile suit pilots who can hardly get along.” She sat back in frustration. “The drama is thick enough to cut with a knife.”

“If we weren’t chasing Shinn,” Luna said quietly, “we’d be fighting that Destroy. And,” she paused, “we’d probably be dead.”

Shiho shrugged. “I suppose,” she conceded. “I just wish we were all reassigned. We can’t fight Shinn. We all know him, and that acquaintance is affecting us.” She shook her head. “If it were anyone else, we would’ve captured him long ago.”

Luna looked down at her laptop for a moment. “Shinn wouldn’t let himself get caught,” she said. Shiho sighed, conceding again. She looked up at the top of the Savior’s cockpit. She was supposed to be the leader…but she felt far from it. She knew it was her duty to lead her team in hunting down and capturing Shinn, but she couldn’t bring herself to do it. Either he was always too skilled and always slipped away, or she just couldn’t pull the trigger. She hesitated. She second-guessed. They all did.

Everyone except Rey, of course.

Shiho wondered what she could have done differently. She wondered what Yzak would have done— he ran a tight ship, to be sure. He would not have tolerated Shinn’s first stunt in returning Stella to the Earth Alliance. Not that Shiho had either, but she had made the mistake of not paying enough attention to Shinn at Arzachel Crater. And before she could do anything about it, he had crippled Rey and Luna’s ZAKUs and made his escape with the Gaia.

Yzak would never have let that happen.

“Was I not hard enough on Shinn?” she asked, staring up at the top of the Savior’s cockpit.

“It wouldn’t have mattered,” Luna said quietly. Shiho looked at her, surprised. “Nobody will stop Shinn when he has his heart set on something.”

Shiho looked back up absently and said nothing else.

——————————————————————————————————————————

Emerging like a tornado onto the observation deck, Shinn stormed up to the railing, glowering out at the ocean. Immediately, he felt another presence behind him, but this one was not familiar. It was peaceful; tinged at the edges with sadness, but overwhelmingly calming and soothing. He immediately felt his anger begin to fade away, and, baffled at who could have a presence like this, he turned around.

Immediately, he found himself face to face with Lacus Clyne.

“Hello, Shinn Asuka,” she said, smiling politely, extending her hand. Shinn looked down at it hesitantly and then back up at her. “Is something wrong?”

“You’re Lacus Clyne,” Shinn said guardedly. Lacus nodded, still smiling. “Have you come up here to yell at me too?”

“I’m not here to yell at you, Shinn,” she said, her hand dropping, but her face still smiling. “I just wanted to meet you. Athrun has told me a great deal about you.”

Shinn blinked at her. “Athrun?”

“He holds you in high regard as a mobile suit pilot,” she continued, walking up to the railing next to him. “He says he‘s glad he doesn‘t have to fight against you.”

“He likes me for my skills?” Shinn asked morosely, arching an eyebrow at her. Lacus shook her head.

“No, he likes you because you aren’t using those skills to destroy and oppress,” she answered. She paused. “Is something wrong, Shinn?”

Shinn looked away, glowering at the sea. “No,” he said quickly.

Lacus looked back at the sea herself. Shinn glanced at her out of the corner of his eye; her calming aura quelled his anger further. He vaguely wondered if she was a Newtype.
But then there was that hint of sadness. Where had it come from?

“Why are you sad?” Shinn asked suddenly. Lacus looked over at him blinkingly.

“What do you mean?” she asked; Shinn sensed a tiny flicker of nervousness, but he was determined to know. Her sadness would become his own; he couldn’t afford for that to happen.

“I can feel it,” he said. “Your sadness…it’s like it’s around the edges of…your heart.”

Lacus stared at him in disbelief, masked well but not well enough. “You can feel it?” she echoed. Shinn nodded dourly; she searched his face for a moment. “You are a Newtype,” she concluded.

Shinn felt his blood run hot at just the mention of the word. Lacus looked down at the floor sullenly.

“I’m sorry,” she said.

Shinn’s anger vanished; he blinked in surprise at her.

“You’re sorry?” he asked.

“It is a terrible burden,” she continued. “To feel your pain with the pain of others, to feel the deaths of everyone around you and to be trapped in a war.” She looked back up at him. “But you have been strong to endure it all so far.”

“What does it matter?” Shinn asked. “No one else can possibly understand what this is like.”

“No,” Lacus agreed, “but they can try.”

A metallic beep sounded through the air, and Lacus produced a small cell phone from inside her long coat. She put it back and looked back up at Shinn.

“I apologize,” she said, “but the Megami will be disconnecting from the Kasselheim for battle preparations soon, so I will have to return.” She extended her hand again. “But I am glad to have had the chance to talk to you, Shinn.”

Shinn looked at her hand hesitantly again. She knew what he was, she knew his pain, she knew why he was suffering, but she didn’t understand what it was like. She couldn’t.

But she could try.

Shinn shook her hand. “You too,” he said, with a weak smile.

——————————————————————————————————————————

To be continued…