Strike Reborn

The author is lying with her head down on a desk, paper and textbooks surrounding her. The theme music for Gundam 0083 is playing from a nearby speaker, but even with its energy filling the room, she shows no signs of stirring. Kira hesitantly walks around the room, shakes her, and finds the next chapter.

Kira: Four essays due around the same time period, huh...I guess that explains a lot.

Disclaimer: I do not own the Gundam Franchise in any capacity.

Chapter 13: Ten Minutes to the Eighth Fleet

Kira examined the Strike's OS, only partially concentrating on the lines of data flickering on and off. His stomach prickling uneasily. The Gamow's overdue.

In the previous timeline, the Vesalius and the Gamow had attacked shortly after they met up with the Advance Fleet, destroying all three ships and convincing Natarle to use Lacus as a hostage to ensure the Archangel's escape. In doing so, she near universally hardened sentiment against Earth and Naturals, gave Patrick Zala immense fodder for his political campaign to replace Seigel Clyne, and in the grand scheme of things greatly assisted Rau le Creuset. All in all, not a good day. However, some quick thinking with the benefit of hindsight had ensured that Lacus was returned unscathed to the Vesalius, who presumably were returning her to the PLANTs. Which meant that the joint attack on the Advance Fleet couldn't happen as it had before.

That meant one of three things would likely happen instead. One, the Advance Fleet and the Archangel would join up with the Eighth Fleet without any trouble, at which point they would face the combined ZAFT fleet while attempting to descend to Earth. This was possible but not very probable; the PLANTs wouldn't be keen on giving them time to prepare. Two, the Gamow would attack anyway, relying on superior mobile suits and the stolen Gundams to overpower the unfavorable odds. Yzak would want to do so, but Kira wasn't sure that Captain Zelman would share the pilot's recklessness. Three, the Gamow would attack, but they would be backed up by ships dispatched following the announcement of Lacus's safe return, the most likely outcome. After all, the Archangel's location had been broadcasted in order to make the transfer. It would be easy to send troops to the last known location and have them back up the Gamow. The latter two did not quite fit with the script he was cheating from.

Hence his stomach rebelling.

He groaned and sat back in his seat, telling himself to be rational. Pre-knowledge was pretty much useless within the chaos of battle; both his previous fights had been quite different from the first run around even though the events leading up to them were almost the same. So whatever happened, would happen. Nothing he couldn't handle at this point in time. He was more at risk from his own muscle memory than he was from ninety percent of the standard ZAFT force. His memories of Freedom and Strike Freedom, which handled so different from the Strike itself, had tripped him up a couple of times nearly resulted in a beam rifle shot to the face. Hell, even if Rau personally joined the battle, Kira could meet him on even terms. The CGUE wasn't advanced enough for the masked man to fully cut loose like he had at Jachin.

Rau...

Kira rubbed his eyes. A thought was nagging at him, bouncing throughout his dreams in which his memories of the man rested. Rau was suffering. He was in pain, had been in pain all his life. A clone, a tool of humanity, a tool of war...years and some perspective granted by three pointless wars had given rise to feelings towards the masked man that Kira didn't know what to do with – empathy, pity, sadness. He pitied the man's bitterness towards the manner of his creation, and he understood his bitterness towards humanity. It had only taken two years for the PLANTs and Earth to start a war almost more devastating than the first...and then five years to nearly wipe out humanity.

He understood. But he didn't agree.

In the end, people were people. They chose good just as often as they chose evil. When they had the chance, they chose good more often than otherwise. He could provide that chance if he could pull off his scattershot plan to derail this war and the setup for the second. Maybe he could even help the last person who would want that.

Being the Ultimate Coordinator had to be worth something, right?

He sighed heavily. It was so tempting to blame everything on Hibiki, part of his eternal silent war on the-man-who-'created'-me-but-isn't-my-father. It was also fairly childish, but in the late hours whenever things were falling apart or threatening to fall apart it tended to be the first thought that jumped into his head. Hibiki, may the devil use your spine as a ladder to hell; or some variant thereof. He usually saved that particular one for either the aftermath of combat, or politics.

And anyone who thought that was petty hadn't met Yuuna Roma Seiran.

Kira shuddered. He needed some sort of plan to deal with them, though god knew what would work. Hopefully telling Uzumi that they had shady connections to the Earth Forces would be enough to at least make them back off, depending on how angry the old lion got about his conscription. Kira wasn't certain what his exact reaction would be, but he was pretty sure Orb Parliament was in a state of organized chaos right now.

Cagalli was going to have an epic screaming fit when she heard about that, for sure. Shinn would turn the air blue in two different languages. Assuming Yuuna wasn't within punching distance. He grinned slightly at the thought. He missed them both.

Minor differences in battle plans aside, Kira knew he had to take this as an omen of things to come. The more he changed in the grand scheme of things, the more likely it was that his enemies would pursue other options or retaliate in a way he was ill-prepared to counter. Who knew what Andy was thinking right now, if he was being updated about the Archangel. Hell, unless he intentionally threw himself in that direction, he might miss out on their previous landing zone entirely. And Rau...well... he knew that Rau was plotting. Always. But whether the man suspected where he came from yet...he had no way of knowing. He didn't know exactly when Rau pegged him as the ultimate coordinator last time around. And if Patrick Zala didn't have a strong case to win the Supreme Chairman seat, he might do any number of things...

Troublesome. Gah. The big problem being that he was mostly a soldier; this time travel event was a crash course in manipulation and tactics, but he was very much a beginner in that arena. He could only guess according to available data.

"Hey kid."

He blinked twice, coming out of his reverie, to find a plastic tray with a soup container hovering a foot in front of him. He looked up in confusion to find Murdock grinning at him. "Thank you," He said slowly, accepting the food. "Is it that late already?"

"You need an alarm clock," The engineer responded with a chuckle. "Or a minder. You've been in there for five hours. Aren't you satisfied by now?"

Kira gave a small smile and a shrug, affecting a bit of helplessness. "Call it paranoia. I...I don't want it to suddenly stop working in the middle of battle. I gave it a few stress fractures when I took it out against the other Gundams, didn't I?"

Murdock grimaced slightly and nodded. A number of Kira's crazier stunts during the first sortie had unexpected consequences; the frame of the machine simply hadn't been designed with someone like him in mind. The Freedom would have been able to preform the acrobatics and rapid weapon shifting without trouble, but the Strike had a lower tolerance for bullshit Coordinator antics. The result being three fractures in the left side that Murdock and the other engineers had only just finished repairing. "True, but you can let us worry about that you know. We're paid to."

Kira tried for exaggerated wide eyes. "I'm not getting paid? I thought the new rank at least meant I was getting paid." Dearka's better at this, he thought ruefully when Murdock winced instead of laughing. "Thank you, Mister Murdock." He got out of the cockpit, wincing slightly because low gravity did not make one immune to muscle cramps.

Some of the replacement crew stared, curious and wary and uncertain, as he moved about. After two days, he'd gotten used to the weight of their eyes. Many of them came from Earth, their families starving or freezing in the wake of Operation Oroboros, and they couldn't make sense out of this Coordinator who protected them with the might of ten thousand men. A coordinator boy who smiled patiently when one of them let slip 'gene freak' when he was in earshot, his eyes saying he'd heard it all before. The man who said it spent most of the night rethinking his life before apologizing the next day, a half-meant gesture, because he still saw his sister's emaciated corpse when he closed his eyes. ZAFT did that, and it was hard to separate this seemingly invincible, seemingly perfect boy who'd been crafted to have everything he'd ever need and more from that. The boy answered questions that made his friends bristle and glare and snap at men and women twice their age with compassion and an easy laugh when applicable. Some thought he was too young to pilot, seeing him as a child press-ganged into an adult conflict, and told Murrue as much. Kira never mentioned that the PLANTs considered him an adult, instead deciding to take the concern in the spirit it was intended.

They were good people, all in all – especially considering they came off George Allster's ship. Oh, there was one or two Blue Cosmos sympathizers, but they didn't dare criticize him within earshot of the original crew.

Not after Mu punched a man's teeth out for calling Kira a space monster.

Kira smiled to himself. No, those three people wouldn't last long on this ship.

Miriallia was standing in the doorway when his feet touched the floor again. "I thought I was going to have to drag you to the cafeteria by the hair," She commented, tone deceptively mild as she reached out and grabbed his hand. "Have you rested at all?"

"I think I drifted off a couple times." Kira answered, letting her drag him in the direction of dinner. "I don't feel tired, just stiff."

"...To be honest, I haven't been sleeping much either, yet I'm not tired. When I asked him, Lieutenant La Flaga said that being in combat rewires your brain." Miriallia hesitated. "It also shifts your perspective, y'know? I've spent some time down in the CIC on my off hours, just...looking at old combat data. So far, I've mostly pushed buttons and relayed commands from the Ensign, but I've been looking and...trying to learn combat patterns. I've pretty much memorized everything the stolen Gundams did when they first attacked us."

"Really?" Kira blinked. Already? Mir hadn't really taken over CIC until halfway through the Second Bloody Valentine war, previously. Until they had left Alaska, she'd only followed direct orders and didn't have much in the way of initiative, seeing the war as something she wanted to escape rather than plunge into. "Not to sound critical, but why?"

"...I guess I want to feel less helpless. It's not like I'm in a position to give orders or act without the Ensign's permission, since I'm only a low ranked Crewman. But...you've had to carry the fights up until now, and...and I want to be able to contribute." Miriallia shook her head. "And not just in relaying information and repeating orders. That's trivial in the grand scheme of things."

They floated by one of the Archangel's view ports. Miriallia set down on the floor and turned to gaze at the stars. Kira floated up near the ceiling.

"I haven't told Tolle." The brunette admitted, to his surprise. "I don't want him to worry. But...I can make some sense out of the logs. See tactical patterns. I mean, outside of the obvious, like the Duel's pilot being a reckless glory hound." Kira thought about Yzak's likely reaction to such a description and choked on a laugh. "But I can see what their plans were when they made their moves. I think if I studied and sat in the simulators for a while...I could do the job the Ensign currently holds. I think I could get good at it. ...And that worries me."

She tilted her head up and stared into the stars. "People are dying out there...I never wanted to be a part of that. But I'm here now, and I think...I could be. I could be good at it, if I tried. I'm afraid Tolle might not look at me the same if he knew."

"We're talking about the same Tolle, right?" Kira asked gently. "Mir, if Tolle isn't afraid of me, why would he be afraid of you?"

Mir let out a small laugh. "I know. Really. I just keep thinking...the Captain said that we'll get safely to Orb. But I keep thinking, by the time we reach safety, I won't be the same person he knew when he asked me out. I'm...not sure I want to be."

"...Where's this coming from?"

"One of the men from the advance force called you a space monster. After everything you've done and been through."

"...Yeah? He's just one man, Mir. It doesn't bother me."

She twisted to look at him, blue eyes burning. "It bothers me, Kira. It bothers me that he could say that so casually, to your face. It bothers me that no one looked surprised when he said it. And then I realized...while we were living in the safety bubble at Heliopolis, those words, those thoughts...important people were using them as battle cries. And people are just shaking their heads but going along with it because they've lost so much themselves, or getting sucked in. And I knew all of that...I thought I did..."

Kira made his way to the floor and put a hand on her shoulder. "You're thinking about entering the war all the way?" He asked.

Mir closed her eyes. "This is not going to stop," She said softly. "It doesn't matter that war is awful, that it damages the soul, that people shouldn't fight. It's not going to stop because of people's principles. It's only going to stop in fire and blood. Everyone's lost too much."

A chill went down the young coordinator's spine. She's already realized... How long had it taken him to realize that the first lifetime? Five years and two wars? He could almost hear Shinn shouting in vindication.

"It might not come to that," He said softly, even though he didn't believe it himself.

Mir took a deep breath and leaned on his shoulder. "I hope you're right."

And that's when the alarms started blaring.

Line Break

Miriallia raced to the bridge, once again embroiled in organized chaos. Captain Ramius was shouting commands, the new officers were finding posts that needed occupation, and she needed to get the situation relayed to Kira and the people in engineering. Her friend had slipped right back into his new enigmatic persona, remarking quietly 'so they are taking the risk. A full ten minutes, huh?' before heading towards the Strike. She doubted he even realized he'd said it aloud. Everyone from Heliopolis knew that Kira was acting weird ever since he'd been sick. Melancholy, pensive, often like his mind was somewhere else entirely. Some days he hid it better than others, but since they got on the Archangel he'd pretty much discarded any pretense of being the exact same boy who'd suddenly become feverish one gray Saturday morning.

Perhaps it was just as well. Mir was changing too...albeit a change expedited by the situation at hand. She wondered how Tolle had avoided change, so far...maybe he was good at hiding it too.

She clambered into the station, giving Sai and Flay cursory nods as they welcomed her. Poor Flay was shaking; handling the guns of the Archangel put her much closer to the death and destruction than any other post. Likely regretting all of her life choices. Mir gave her arm a squeeze. We'll get through this. Kira is protecting us. He won't loose.

Line Break

This is a lot of forces to commit to a ten minute battle; Kira thought idly as he rendered a Nazca-class immobile and impotent with two shots from the Angi. After some quick thought, he decided to take the heavy ion blaster and use it in place of the Aile pack's gun; not an ideal setup, since he couldn't draw from the Launcher pack's superior energy reserves, but it allowed him to hit harder without sacrificing his mobility. Fairly necessary with the Duel flittering about like an annoying firefly. Aegis was focusing on attacking the support ships. Blitz, once again, was trying to get close to the Archangel. Buster was supporting Duel.

If the four of them couldn't beat me, why do they think they can beat me with just the two of them?, Kira thought wryly. Dearka's confidence was nigh-unshakable, true, and Yzak was easily riled by defeats less embarrassing than the one he'd handed him earlier, but they were trained soldiers. They should have better planning ahead of time.

I remember being terrified of this, once. Now all I feel is tenseness...like I'm wasting time.

From a certain perspective, I am wasting time. Winning this battle doesn't make any dent in Azreal or Zala or Creuset's plans. This is a waste. A waste of lives all around. He knocked off a few GINNs getting too close to the Montgomery. I hate this. I hate that there's not much I can do from here. I need to get to Orb. He gave himself a shake.

Two minutes left. Could he keep his promise to Flay? Duel was crippled. Yzak wouldn't appreciate that. The Blitz needed to be intercepted. Aegis incoming. I miss the Freedom. How am I going to get it this time?

A sharp pressure on his skull. A familiar one. His spatial awareness. Rau? No. That didn't feel right. What was...? Who was...?

Eventually, humans might be able to control time itself!

What?

Kira.

!

Find the future, Kira.

Ten minutes. Ten minutes and he was falling.

End Chapter

(shrugs) What you leave in your past rarely stays there. I finally got around to watching the original Gundam 0079 and part of Zeta Gundam, in between university classes, so I can use that line!

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