I do not own Gundam Build Fighters/Try or any of the Gundam franchise.

This story is inspired by Eyes in SEED authored by Nemesis Astrea and is written with his permission.

CHAPTER 1:

Into the Light

~ Japan, Nielsen Labs ~

Nielsen Labs was the premier Gunpla institute of the east. It was in these halls where new methods of building or testing one of the world's most prolific hobby were conducted. The facility boasted several large rooms with Plavsky Battle Systems, viewing rooms above those and, of course, test laboratories. Despite being open to anyone who could pay the usage fees, not all sections were accessible to the public. It was for this reason that Aya Inose sat on one of the benches in the waiting area, passing the time by observing potential rivals for the upcoming tournament and picking up careless declarations of what their models could do.

About a month ago she received a message from her old friend, Alex, about "an exciting development" for gunpla. Other than feeling his excitement virtually leaking through message there wasn't much on details, only a request to drop by and help finalize the project. On the way to the laboratory, Aya didn't really think much about it being pre-occupied with thoughts of school and the upcoming tournament. However, after being exposed to an environment that breathed anything Gundam related she began to get curious.

Her friend was a self-declared gunpla nut but leaned to the technical side of building and fighting which included research on the still-mysterious Plavsky Particles. She, on the other hand, enjoyed the fighting aspect of the hobby more which was made possible by the discovery and utilization of Plavsky Particles. Her skills in building model kits was in the middle ranks at best. One of her reasons for this was because she was in college and enrolled in a fairly demanding course. Alex, however, chose to enter the research field on Plavsky Particles which, to her at least, was just an excuse to remain close to his passion. What could she, a gunpla fighter, contribute to the technical field of Gunpla battles?

"Hey! Aya!" a voice called, "Were you waiting long?"

The red haired teen turned around to see a young man waving at her, as if she couldn't see him from the crowd. Aya smiled as she stood, only Alex could make it sound like he had asked her out rather than requesting a favor for whatever project he was working on. She only hoped that he wouldn't take whichever girl that would catch his eye out to a place like Gundam Front in Tokyo on a date. That would be...awkward to say the least.

"A little," She answered as she stood, "So what's so exciting that you couldn't tell me over the net?"

"Ah, sorry for that, both of them I mean." Alex said, "I was fine tuning the last bits of the project I need your help on. As for what it is...I"ll tell you on the way to the lab." He gestured for her to follow him.

Aya picked up her suitcase and followed her old friend through the hallways. Once again she couldn't help but smile as she noted how Alex seemed to have a spring in his step, almost like they were kids again. Well, Gunpla tended to do that to a person but whatever he was working on must have been pretty special to get him in such an excited state.

"So, how've you been?" Alex asked as he swiped an access card on a door lock.

"Uh, a little bit busy." Aya confessed, "Between college and the upcoming tournament things are pretty hectic."

"Did I ask at a bad time?" Alex said, looking a bit guilty.

"Not really" She waived him off, "Exams finished a couple of days ago and I was going to get ready for the tournament. It looks like there are some tough contenders this year. I was actually planning on using this time to relax a bit but Gunpla Battles also help me blow off steam."

"That's true" Alex thought, "Aya did enjoy the fighting more than the building." When he had first seen her fight she had performed as expected of a newcomer, but during that time she looked...free. It was the look of someone who discovered something totally new. She seemed to enjoy the range of movement afforded by the Battle System on the Gunpla.

"Well, this project is for people like you." He said internally, "You're going to be able to enjoy Gunpla Battles like never before."

"What's the project about?" She asked, intruding into his thoughts.

"Well, you know how there are some problems in the system right?" Alex answered, his thoughts snapping back to reality, "Like how the fighter has to stand, the view etc.?"

Aya shrugged in response. After playing for a few years on the Battle System she had learned to ignore these minor inconveniences. After all when your model kit came alive did anything else really matter? Oh yes. There was.

"Did you fix the awkward announcer's voice yet?" She joked.

"Maybe we should." Alex chuckled in response, "But its not that sadly. There are a multitude of problems in the system. For example Gunpla Battles primarily require multiple players for you to even have some fun. Blowing up Mocks gets old pretty quickly."

"What are you getting at?" Aya narrowed her eyes, "How else would it be any fun when not squaring off against real opponents?"

"Most players get into Gunpla Battle because they're Gundam fans," Alex said "They want to see their favorite Mobile Suit in action and how their custom job would hold up against another from a different universe.

The system we've developed here allows players to enter their favorite Gundam universe and participate in the entire show's battles and alter the outcome based on the decisions they make."

"Right...how's that different from a video game?" Aya asked, not sounding too excited about the idea.

"Because Plavsky Particles thats what!" Alex declared enthusiastically, "I don't mean just set events. Those video game sequences are like analog computers. You do path A1 and the corresponding path unlocked is B1. That type of programming is extremely restrictive since for example, it doesn't take into account how you accomplished the goal or even what suit you're using. Can you imagine the reaction of characters in Wing if you suddenly appeared in a GN Drive mobile suit in a middle of a fight? You can even interact with the characters by speaking to them!"

Aya was now intrigued. A reactive system that simulated not just fighting but human reactions as well?

"We're going to change that," Alex continued to speak excitedly, "We're going to give players the option live out their fantasies in their favorite alternate universe! The replay value on this thing is endless!"

"So its a video game." Aya deadpanned, "Just like how Gunplas are basically toys."

"HERESY!" Alex roared.

A beat passed. Then both of them chuckled and then laughed. They knew each other too well to realize when another was joking.

"Here we are!" Alex declared, swiping one final lock with his key card.

As they entered a rather large laboratory filled with wires and computers and...a giant metal sphere. Aya noticed a man who appeared to be in his early forties. Like Alex, he was a foreigner and possessed the same look her friend had as someone who enjoyed their job rather than consider it mere work.

"This is professor Nielsen," Alex said introducing her to his mentor, "Professor, this is Inose Aya the person who's going to help us test out the system."

"A pleasure to meet you." The elder man said in flawless Japanese extending his arm for a handshake.

"Professor Nielsen? The boy genius?" Aya asked with mild surprise as they shook hands.

"Not a boy anymore," Professor Nielsen chuckled, "Though I am a child at heart, does that count?"

"I saw some of your past performances in the tournaments," He continued, "I must say I'm very impressed."

"I'm not," Aya said with a bit of sadness, "I could have done better in them."

"You're too hard on yourself. Alex has told me a lot about you Miss Inose," Professor Nielsen said as he led them to a table, "Thinking of your future is very important."

"And what else has Alex told you about me professor?" Aya asked while shooting a Alex an annoyed look.

Her friend had his arms up in the air but maintained a mischievous look on his face.

"That you like Gunpla Battle very much, and always find time for it despite your busy schedule." Professor Nielsen answered diplomatically, "If you don't mind me asking, do you favor one side to the hobby, such as building?"

"The fighting." Alex leaned in conspirationally.

Aya elbowed him in the ribs.

"Hmmm, as expected. The fact, is for a great many people Gunpla Battle is just a hobby, even the serious ones." Professor Nielsen nodded understandingly, "Tea or coffee?"

"Coffee, please."

The trio sat there sipping their drinks for a few minutes, until Professor Nielsen deemed it proper to break the silence.

"Are you aware that there has been a decline in the hobby miss Inose?"

"It was bound to happen," Aya shrugged, "Now that its available worldwide, people will treat it as normal due to the saturation. Its great still but people have simply gotten used to by now. There just won't be as much hype as before. The same goes for the shows, they generally adhere to a formula set almost in stone. For viewers, its not the only mecha show out there."

"Precisely, it seems that the rest of Alex's description of you wasn't exaggerated." Professor Nielsen smiled.

"And his description of me was...?"

"He described you as intelligent and pretty-"

"-talented Gunpla Battle fighter!" Alex said a little too quickly for Aya's liking, "Which is exactly what we need right now!"

"Thank you for recommending me Alex..." Aya said giving her friend a suspicious look, "But surely there were other candidates? I mean, you're in Nielsen Labs! You're surrounded by Gunpla fanatics!"

"That's true." the professor interjected, "We did have a list but you're exactly who we wanted among the pool of potential testers."

He looked down and saw that they had finished their drinks.

"Now I think its time for you to see what you'll be helping us with."

Professor Nielsen led her to a corner of the laboratory that contained the sphere she saw earlier.

"I'm sure Alex already explained to you what we're trying to accomplish here?"

"Development of a system that allows players to interact with battles and characters from the chosen Gundam universe in a realistic manner as possible." Aya summarized.

"Correct. The system is in its beta stage, all that's needed if us to see if that feature works properly." the Professor said running a hand down the sphere.

"With this system, it'll open a new avenue for Gunpla Battles!" Alex exclaimed, no longer able to contain his excitement, "Think about it! If you're not that good in battling then you can immerse yourself in your favorite universe itself!"

"So I'm really not that good then." Aya mumbled.

"Wha- No! That's not what I meant!" Alex said apologetically.

"Miss Inose, Alex has told me you enjoy the hobby despite not being the biggest Gundam fan," Professor Nielsen intervened, "What we need is a fairly objective person to test out the system and not subconsciously adhere to the associated lore. Also said person must have a degree of piloting skill to make it all the way to a portion in the story where we can collect enough data to see if the system is functioning properly."

Nils Nielsen turned to a computer and opened a folder that was named "Candidates".

"See this person here? He loves Wing and he will most likely not try to alter key events. This angry looking young lady over here? She dislikes G-Savior that, quite frankly, is alarming."

"We can't get any accurate data like this," Alex said, "If we don't give them any instructions they'll just do something extreme and if we do tell them to do things we'll have influenced the outcome of the experiment."

"That's where you come in." Professor Nielsen continued, "Being a moderate with the lore we only have one instruction for you: Explore the system's capabilities."

Aya placed her hand on the metal sphere, digesting what the two researchers told her. Interaction with fictional characters? Was it really possible? If what they had said was true this could open a whole new genre of entertainment. She looked at both of them.

"I'll do it."

Alex pumped his fist and immediately opened the hatch of the sphere. Stepping inside Aya noticed that its interior was similar to that of a panoramic cockpit of late Universal Century Era mobile suits. It even had a linear seat in the middle!

"Like it?" Professor Nielsen asked with a grin, "Alex salvaged the seat when it was about to be thrown out after last year's hobby fair."

"Looks like the one in the anime." Aya agreed.

"You're Gunpla gets scanned like the regular Battle System," Alex informed her, "Which we ought to do right now."

As they stepped out and returned to the table Aya popped open the case to reveal her chosen model.

"The Crossbone X2 Kai?" Alex was surprised, "Aren't you using your Queen Kshatriya?"

"Your message was really vague," Aya pouted, "The Queen is for tournaments only, sorry but I'm not gonna risk it getting damaged at this point. I figured one of my early models would do."

"Any Gunpla would actually," Professor Nielsen said as the duo examined Aya's Gunpla, "We were even prepared to lend you one if you didn't bring a model. This was an early work of yours? Nicely built for a beginner, just enough additions to make it look personal."

Despite looking like a well made straight build, one could find enough details that truly set it apart from the standard model. The heels of the model were elevated making it taller than any average High Grade Crossbone unit, though it still pretty short. The heat daggers behind the legs appeared to be fully functional as well. Its fingers, rather than the standard squarish Federation designs were sharpened making them look more like the GN Claws of the GN-X series. Aya also took into account the unused spots at the side of the shoulders, adding a single thruster to each side which slightly increased the unit's mobility. The final and most obvious change was the removal of the skull motif on the forehead which was replaced by a beam emitter of some sorts. Perfectly in line with the Crossbone theme, the unit held a lot of nasty surprises to those who thought it was merely an unassuming straight build.

"Let's have it scanned so we can start!" Alex said excitedly.

Aya took only the regular loadout of the Kai which included the Buster Launcher and the Beam Zanber. In addition, she included an extra Buster Gun so the unit could dual wield the beam pistols. Professor Nielsen took her Gunpla carefully and had it scanned by the Battle System while Alex helped her into the sphere.

"Step into the light," he said dramatically while waggling his fingers, "the light is you friend."

Aya gently pushed him out of the way as she entered the sphere and closed the hatch after. Once seated comfortably in the "Linear Seat" a start menu popped up.

"What...is this?" She asked befuddled.

"You didn't think the system would just start or drop you in the middle of something did you?"

She looked to the side and saw Alex on a screen. He winked at her.

The Hard Light controls of the Battle System activated, a scanner's light discretely passed over Aya who only gave it a passive glance as she browsed through the starting menu.

"Select your class" The annoying droid like voice of the Battle System prompted. A list of the different classes appeared along with a brief description and what players could expect from them.

"Let's see what we got here..." Aya mumbled to herself,

"Gundam Fighters - Gundam Fighters dominate close range duels but have limited anti-army attacks...

Human/Innovator - The most difficult class to start in but will eventually have access to devastating weaponry and Quantization skills as well bonus stats on any GN equipped MS...

Coordinator - They have the highest initial stats and is the easiest class to start in...

Newtypes - can 'see' trajectories of enemy attacks and starts out with balanced stats as well as access to additional dialogue options with other..."

Aya selected "Newtype" as her class and the screen prompted her one last time to select her flight suit. She was surprised when she saw that the scan had managed to get a 3D picture of her face and attach it to the flight suit. Aya cycled through the suit choices until she settled for the one similar the Banshee's flight suit, only this time she changed the orange-gold tint to purple to match the X2's color scheme while keeping the midnight blue as the primary color. Lastly, she entered her name into the system.

"Please set your GP Base."

"Profile created" The system's voice said after Aya connected the GP Base.

"What universe are you going in?" Alex asked.

"The SEED universe."

"WHAAAAAAAT?!" a horrified wail escaped Alex's mouth.

"Hey, you said I was supposed to test the interactive system right?" Aya said with amusement, "What better universe to test it on other than the one filled with emo teens?"

"What about Zeta?" Alex suggested, "They were pretty emo there too."

"Do you really want my character to become a vegetable if I kill Scirocco?" Aya wrinkled her nose.

"Oh, well now that you mentioned it, I did input the series lore rather than the movie one." Alex said sheepishly.

A chuckle came from somewhere offscreen from professor Nielsen.

"Alright let's do this!"

Aya activated the controls and selected her starting "episode" of the show.

"Beginning Plavsky Particle...Generation"

"Huh, that's new." She noted as the light filled the sphere and continued until it was too painful for her to bear.

Aya screwed her eyes shut as she made a mental note of the first "flaw" she'd found in the beta test. The two researchers would have to do something about that light generation otherwise they'd be up to their necks in lawsuits for eye damage. There was also a strange ringing in her head unlike what one would experience after just waking up. After several moments passed she risked opening her eyes partially and found that the screens around her were black as if they were shut down but then they immediately activated a moment later, giving her a breathtaking view of space that only a panoramic cockpit could provide. Aya tested the controls, rotating the Crossbone X2 Kai in space. Alex and Professor Nielsen weren't exaggerating, the system really did make it look and feel real! Flashes of light in one direction caught her attention.

"That must be the battle in episode 9." Aya mused.

She maneuvered the X2 and drifted in the battle's general direction in order to get a better view. The camera zoom functions were even better than those in the Battle System, maybe Alex and the professor could sell it as system upgrade. As was in canon the GINNs were dominating the mobile armors but it seemed the fighting wasn't even done halfway yet. After locating the Strike and the Aegis and watching them fight, or what passed for it, Aya decided that it was time to intrude.

"Let's break stuff!" She yelled with exuberance as she activated the X2's thrusters.

~ Back in the Lab ~

"How's your side Alex?" Professor Nielsen asked. Minutes ago screens monitoring Aya and her progress in the simulator went black. Any attempts to get an image resulted in failure. Curiously, the data was still being recorded if the numbers were any indicator.

"Nothing." Alex replied, "What's wrong?! I just checked the systems yesterday!"

"Maybe you should check on miss Inose." Professor Nielsen suggested.

"Don't worry sir, the sphere's well ventilated and there's an access handle from the inside." Alex assured him.

Nevertheless, genuine concern for his friend prompted him to investigate. Placing his ear on the side to listen Alex shuddered in fear as he heard a familiar whoop of joy. He had been on the receiving end of such a cheer before. Back when Aya asked him to test out the first version of the Queen Kshatriya. She had disabled his F91 custom in seconds, enveloped it with the massive binders like a Venus Flytrap and slowly took it apart with the reinforced sub-arms piece by -

"Yeah, she's fine!"

~ Space ~

"We're being destroyed by our own machines?!" Minister Allster yelled in disbelief as he watched the rear of their escort vessel explode, "Is there anything more absurd?"

"Minister, please head to the life boats..." The Captain said in a resigned voice.

"Main Gun destroyed! Seal all bulkheads in that area!" another crewman yelled as the ship shuddered.

"Sir!" the radar officer yelled, "The Archangel is headed our way! It looks like they're going to reinforce us!"

The captain slammed his fist angrily at the armrest.

"They shouldn't have bothered!"

Emotionally the captain was grateful, however, his mind responded with cold, hard logic that the effort would not only be a waste, but it could also result in the prototype vessel's destruction. Even if the task force was wiped out they would at least have bought the ship some time since the ZAFT task force would have to re-arm and refuel!

"Enemy mobile suit approaching!"

A GINN broke through the curtain of Anti-Air fire and rocketed towards the bridge, its bazooka shouldered and ready to fire.

The captain felt calm as he saw the gray machine's mono-eye light up as it took aim and then there was flash of light...

~ Archangel Bridge ~

"Ready Valiants!" Ensign Natarle Badgiruel barked, "Target that GINN heading for their bridge!"

"New contact!" another one of the volunteer operations teenager whose name Natarle didn't bother to remember yelled, "Its heading towards the task force flagship!"

The stern tactical officer of the Archangel was about to order the second volley to target it when a follow up report was shouted.

"Its not registered as a ZAFT mobile suit!"

"What do you mean its not a ZAFT mobile suit?!" Lieutenant Ramius asked, delaying Natarle from giving the order.

The screen lit up showing a magnified image of the unknown mobile suit and everyone's eyes went wide.

~ Space ~

The formerly calm Alliance ship captain's eyes bulged with surprise, as did everyone else on the bridge he imagined when the GINN didn't fire. Instead it jerked with surprise as its cockpit was run through with a large bright pink energy blade that stopped mere feet from the viewing port. The blade then descended, cutting down diagonally through the already pilotless mobile suit and finally ripped free at it reached the end its victim's hip. The almost bisected mobile suit then was shoved away unceremoniously revealing the ship's savior, which frankly, was not what anyone was expecting.

Rather than the Strike, the sole remaining G-Weapon that the Alliance possessed which employed beam saber technology or even the Aegis, it was mobile suit unlike any the officers had ever seen.

The color of the body was as black as starless space while its wrists, feet and forehead were purple, and finally its V-fin antennae, thrusters and machine gun ports, and part of its chest area were a yellow-gold. The mobile suit's most distinguishing feature, however, was four long thrusters on its back arranged in an X pattern. The thrusters' structure was dotted with additional exhaust ports and fins giving the mobile suit an aggressive look. In its right hand was beam saber that emitted a massive curved beam blade while its other hand held what almost looked like a flintlock pistol. Behind, secured to its rear skirt armor was a cannon that looked like it belonged to a capital ship instead.

The crew's trance was broken when an sharp beep from one monitors sounded.

One the ZAFT pilots recovered from the shock of the mobile suit's unexpected demise and charged in vengefully. The black mobile suit turned lazily and fired its ranged weapon hitting the mobile suit in the area where the cockpit should be. The beam cored through the cockpit, vaporizing the pilot inside in an instant effectively leaving the mobile without a brain. The mobile suit continued to move forwards on its momentum, but with no one to control it the GINN mercifully strayed from a collision course with the Alliance ship. The black mobile suit then dashed off, looking for more prey...

~ X2 Kai cockpit, Aya Inose ~

Aya let out a squeal of glee. She was having the time of life! She hated to admit it but the professor and Alex were severely underplaying about how fun this was! It felt so real, almost like she was actually there in Cosmic Era piloting a mobile suit, except that she was using one originating from Universal Century. Aya almost completely forgot regular Gunpla Battle when she was in the pilot's seat. After scoring her second kill, she had dashed off in order to give an outlet for her excitement.

A damaged GINN with a bazooka in one hand and a machine gun on the other tried to chase her but its efforts were futile. The Crossbone X2 Kai was a machine originally designed to operate under Jupiter's heavy gravity and with no such restrictions in normal space it was faster than anything on the field. Furthermore, the system scanner faithfully recreated not just the machine's basic characteristics but also Aya's customizations which boosted the machine's capabilities beyond the standard specifications of the unit. Despite this the damaged GINN's pilot still tried his best stop the mysterious interloper.

The GINN fired its machine gun at full automatic, no longer caring about saving ammunition while holding its bazooka in reserve. Aya recognized the tactic the pilot was using. The pilot would "lead" the enemy mobile suit by limiting its movement with an automatic or rapid fire weapon while an ally or in some cases the enemy himself would wait for opportunity to use a heavier weapon. In fact another GINN joined the fray, helping its comrade limit her movements by firing its own weapons. Both mobile suits maintained a "L" formation in order to prevent friendly fire amongst themselves. Aya, was in fact, impressed that the system utilized real world tactics against opponents. But then again so did most Gunpla Battle fighters.

"Seen that enough of that!" Aya declared as she prepared to finish the fight.

What she never saw before, however, was a thin faded red line that emerged from the damaged GINN's bazooka. At first she thought it was some kind of targeting laser but GINN bazookas didn't have that. She looked the other way and saw something similar with the other GINN's machine gun only it was line of broken dots. Time seemed to slow when Aya returned her gaze to the damaged GINN she saw a bright red beam exit the barrel. Now that she had seen before, and she knew exactly what was coming next.

Just as the round left the barrel the X2 dashed "upwards" and almost immediately zipped sideways using the X2's large thrusters. Both shots went wide and the two ZAFT pilots stared dumbly at the seemingly impossible maneuver. The X2 rolled for a brief moment in space before it righted itself and, taking advantage of it's enemies' shock, accelerated towards the damaged GINN. Before the surprised ZAFT pilot could react the X2 was in front of it, between its two arms, the movement of one was hampered by its bazooka. Placing its hand on the slightly larger mobile suit like a friend the unit's "mouth" vent opened and the X2 buried the Zanber's beam blade through the GINN's head and zigzagged its way around the chest.

The X2 pulled away before the GINN exploded and headed towards the last one, taking advantage of the blinding light of the explosion as a distraction. Being a coordinator the pilot recovered faster than expected and managed to squeeze off a burst at the approaching X2. It was all for naught though as the X2 evaded its fire and cleanly bisected the mobile suit.

Aya let out another joyous cry for what appeared to be the umpteenth time that day. The mobile suit moved exactly as she wanted! And what were those red lines? Were those a visual representation of her Newtype class precognition ability? Awesome!

Deciding to reign in her glee before she exploded, Aya turned the Crossbone X2 Kai to face the Nazca class ship. The Vesalius was still angling towards the Alliance vessel she'd saved earlier. Suddenly Aya remembered that Flay Allster's father was on the ship and that his death was one of the turning points of the series. Deciding to see if she could really alter the course of the series as advertised she combined the Zanber and one of the Buster Guns to form the Zanbuster and flew towards the Vaselius. Using the beam launcher would probably destroy the ship, ending the game too quickly which was what Alex and professor Nielsen didn't want in the first place.

"Time to alter the timeline!"

As she approached Aya heard a warning tone and the Aegis was shown to have broken off with its fight with the Strike. Ignoring the desperately fire beam shots, Aya activated all of the X2's thrusters and outpaced the red mobile suit.

"So much for being three times as fast!" the red head laughed, "Should have used my F99 Record Breaker instead!"

As the X2 neared the sea-green ship its anti-air batteries opened up but Aya dodged them nimbly before taking aim at one of its sides. A shot from the Zanbuster resulted in a massive explosion which caused the ship to tilt to the side, though it was still far from sunk. The warning tone sounded again and the rear cameras showed that the Aegis had caught up. Before it could fire though it turned around and looked at the Archangel.

"Ah, this must be the part where Flay threatens Lacus," Aya thought, "Heh, she must have still been blathering during the battle."

Several moments passed until finally the Aegis lowered its arms, the mechanical equivalent of a slump, before it slowly returned to the Vesalius. It passed by the X2 though Aya turned the mobile suit around to show the Aegis that she was watching in case he tried anything funny. Once the red mobile suit entered the ship and the vessel limped away from the battlefield, the X2 turned once more this time to the Strike. Which was still some distance away.

Aya used small bursts of speed to show she wasn't hostile while looking for the communication button. Finally she found it buried under a menu and hailed the Strike. During the brief period of her trip towards the Archangel she decided to adopt a role for herself to play when communicating with the characters in SEED to test out the system's responses. Static greeted her for a while before she could hear a few garbled words. It appeared that Kira was cycling through the different frequencies in order to communicate with her.

"Let's get random!"

~ Archangel Bridge ~

Murrue Ramius and the crew of the Archangel watch in disbelief as the black mobile suit not only wiped out an entire squadron of GINNs with ease but also drove off the Nazca class destroyer that had been hounding them since Heliopolis. That fact that the girl, Flay Allster (and Natarle Badgiruel) threatened Lacus Clyne to get the ZAFT forces to cease their assault was moot and academic. The black mobile suit had almost sunk the destroyer before they finished broadcasting. Ironically it was Natarle's declaration that halted any further combat and thus spared the Archangel's nemesis.

Murrue Ramius was the first to snap out of it.

"Signal the Strike!" She ordered, "Tell Kira not to attack it!"

"There's some kind of interference coming from the mobile suit!" one of the operators reported, "We can't get in touch with Kira!"

"Don't say anything!" Natarle snapped as everyone turned to her in surprise.

"If that mobile suit really has some kind of ability to disrupt communications only part of the message might get through," She explained while still holding Lacus, "...the attack part."

Everyone's eyes on the bridge widened at the implications of what the tactical officer said.

Murrue looked at the image of the Strike and the mysterious mobile suit. It had come to a rest close to the Strike now, slightly higher above it like it had descended from the heavens. It had an almost effeminate posture about it as it came to halt, with one leg tucked behind another while its arms were spread slightly apart. The mobile suit's posture along with its X shaped thrusters reminded Murrue of a pixie.

A demonic/vampiric pixie.

Someone on the bridge cried out as the unknown mobile suit raised its hand that held the beam weapon and took aim at the Strike.

Normally Murrue tried her best to be reasonable, kind and polite even during war but inside her head, her thoughts were her own.

"We're screwed."

~ Strike Gundam, Kira Yamato ~

Kira brooded at Athrun's outburst at how the Alliance members were monsters and the angry look his friend threw him before he left. It wasn't fair! He never wanted to fight! Hell, using Lacus as a human shield never even entered his mind! His thoughts were interrupted, however, when a warning signal beeped. He looked up and saw the unknown mobile suit approach him and he tensed. The way it brutally tore apart those GINNs! Whoever the pilot was acted like he did those things on a regular basis. It didn't even bother to use the giant cannon on its rear skirt armor.

A new icon flashed informing him that the mobile suit was hailing him. Hesitating for a brief moment Kira pressed the button. The screen opened and he was surprised to see a young face, apparently the same age as him, on the other side. The person in question was wearing a midnight blue space suit with purple lines.

"Ah, you finally found the right frequency." a cheerful voice said. It was a girl with striking blue eyes.

"Uh-, yes! This is the GAT X105 Strike." he replied with as much seriousness as he could, "Please identify yourself."

"Greetings Earthnoid!" she said in the same cheerful voice, "I come in peace."

Kira's jaw dropped. Well, as far as the helmet allowed anyway. Earthnoid? And what was with that accent?!

"W-What?"

The girl seemed to misinterpret his reaction, however, since her eyes narrowed dangerously and she raised her mobile suit's weapon, taking aim at him as she spoke once more.

"I insist - on peace!"

Author's Note:

Here's something that I just had to get out of my head. Now that its out of the way I can finally return to my first fanfic project.

As mentioned above, the story is inspired by the one written by Nemesis Astrea - "Eyes in Seed" and credit goes to him for coming up with the premise.

Some of you may be wondering why there's some interference whenever the Crossbone X2 Kai is near something. That's because Minovsky Particles have been consistently made to appear as having that effect. I did some research and found out that the lore doesn't say if its just the ships that release said particles or if the mobile suits can do so without harming the pilot so I came up with a compromise: anything near the mobile suit is going to have its electronics messed up but no where near the same level as if a UC ship was present.

As to what year this is I won't give a specific date. Let's just say Aya is a second generation Battler, and her physical description is already enough to tell you who she is.

Lastly, the description of Aya's X2 Kai is an actual mod I plan on doing to a Crossbone Kit.

Something not clear or confusing? Ask away.

Any questions submitted will either be answered in this portion or explained in the story.

Constructive reviews are welcome! Till next time.