Catch you, catch me

Disclaimer: Gundam Seed and all belong to its creators...etc

Summary: Nicol and Tolle debate about their reasons for fighting what seems to be a useless war, just before their deaths. They never knew each other, but the younger pilot is killed first…

A/N: a short drabble I came up with while leafing through the manga volume at the store - I missed the actual scene during the anime about two weeks ago

Nicol POV

It's actually weird, the way everything slows down when you realise your best friend lives in constant danger. Athrun's at it again, exchanging not very flattering words with that Strike pilot. Well, all right, I'll correct myself – they're actually screaming their heads off and being very rude. If I didn't know better, I'd say they're smitten with each other. But perhaps I'm wrong.

That's how time is for me right now, very slow. I see people and places flashing before me, and suddenly, our 'enemy' has a face.

Yeah, that's right, I've often seen a face inside the faceless Strike Gundam, a boy who really did not want to fight and only fought because he was protecting those who couldn't fight like that. Now though, like that music I often hear, the Strike's pilot became clear in my mind, along with the theme of uncertainty and struggle.

My teammates might think that weird, me seeing faces and hearing stuff all the while, so that's why I have never told them. I never told them what I finally can distinguish – a boy no older than Athrun, maybe even younger, with messy brown hair and pained amethyst eyes staring at the targets.

He doesn't want to fight.

Yet, he fights.

I know Athrun Zala better than anyone on the Versalius, and I often see frustration and confusion on his face. Sometimes, when he thinks nobody's listening to him, he whispers, Kira, so softly, even I wonder if the sound was real. But, well…

Now I'm able to put both a name and a face to the Strike pilot, as he flashes through the air and clashes with Athrun's Aegis. I know now it hurts, so I put myself between the two.

The blinding light goes unnoticed as the various images flash through my mind.

Was this how everyone died? Did they know they were going to die, and did they actually have their whole lives flashing through them? I can still see those I've killed, with whatever good intention I had I still feel bad about it. I wonder, does that Strike pilot – Kira – feel the same way each time he has to kill someone?

I sigh and file that question away, knowing full well that I probably won't be able to think about it again. But then, he probably does.

Was there really something worth fighting for, I ask myself.

And something else answers me – yes there was, as long as you fought for what you believed in –

After that, nothing.

Maybe, I'll catch you there when you'll fall – after all, I fell way before you did.

And my universe went black.

Tolle POV

Can they catch me when I fall, I wonder.

Captain Ramius warned me it was not some stupid simulator game, after all. They might miss. Or I might miss – seriously – and end up dead.

Oh, well, everyone dies sometime.

"Tolle Koenig launching the Skygrasper!"

Kira was in shock when I joined him wearing the EA uniform like his. I told him that I decided to join with him, you know, back him up in that fight.

Now he's screaming his head off at that ZAFT pilot, like he's got nothing else to do.

Well, at least, I know it's from something, what I'm wondering is – how does he know that pilot?

Well, to tell the truth, I stopped wondering that a long time ago. I've observed Kira a couple of times, and he'd get that look of longing on his face, and stares off in space. I guess he misses his friend.

Then I listen to the unflattering exchange between the Strike and the Aegis and realise that the Aegis pilot was someone Kira knew very well once.

Maybe the two met before the war, when they were only children, but I really do not have time to speculate on that.

The Blitz Gundam inserts itself between the Aegis and the Strike, taking on a full blast aimed for Aegis and its pilot.

I gasp in shock. This was a first fatality in war.

Well, I'd correct myself here. It was first fatality among us teenagers. I knew somehow that all the four pilots of the Creuset Team are teens, just like us. Unlike us, though, they were seasoned warriors, and rather dangerous – almost invincible.

That blast taking the Blitz apart, just like that. Just like that, it ends a life.

I know Kira won't take it lightly when we return – if we return. I know Kira must return, and I shudder as the Aegis almost blindly charges the Strike. The pilot of the Blitz must have been a close friend of his, I think.

Without thinking, I insert the Skygrasper between the two Gundams who now charge at each other.

Tolle, get away from here! – Kira's panicked scream through the radio reaches me, but I tune it out.

Faces start flashing through as I notice the Aegis aiming for Kira and block it.

Everything goes black, but I know that other pilot will be there to stop me from falling further. Only one thought escapes my mind as I feel the rest fading.

'Miriallia.'

FIN