Author note: This story is meant to be a crossover between Gundam 00 and Borderlands. When I wrote this story I was deliberately completely ignorant to the epilogue of Awakening of the Trailblazer since a lot of the details in it will contradict with this story(at least from what I know). Also disclaimer as always: I do not own Gundam 00, I do not own Borderlands, and I do not own any of the songs mentioned in the story.

Setsuna F. Seiei

CBS-74 Ptolemaios

Out in the deep and silent space, out within the asteroid field near the space station Lagrange 2, a single prototype blue mobile suit flew past the space rocks and stardust while continuously spraying out green particles from its back. On its left arm was a GN shield with its six advanced GN bits properly stored in it, with the suit carried a retractable sword on its right, as the pilot sitting wearily inside the cockpit had preferred.

The mobile suit bound for the Celestial Being warship Ptolemaios II was no other than the 00 QanT, the most advanced mech humanity could possibly offer. Inside was the first purebred Innovator of all mankind, the man with few words commonly known as Setsuna F. Seiei. His head shifted left and right, struggling not to suddenly black out after staying awake for solid week because of his meeting with the ELS, the aliens which originally were his, and his comrades', worst enemy.

He was too drained to think about anything the ELS shared with him at all. Though even the QanT itself was yelling at him to get some sleep, he knew better than any mechanic or Meister that suit was not fitted with auto-pilot. A part of him wished he was still using the double O, as he could just request Saji or Haro to take over control and let his body rest without worries. But unfortunately for him he lost it in the fight against his new alien pals, and he concluded that both his deteriorating skills due to a lack of practice and the fact that 00's drives were replaced with condensers, making its performance drop a notch.

He made his way to the battleship concealed within the asteroid field and carefully landed the state-of-the-art Gundam unit in Ptolemy's catapult, but not without receiving an alert hail from Milenia Vashti, the ship's chief CIC operator after the late Anew Returner was revealed to be an Innovator, a dreadful hostile at that time being.

"Approaching mobile suit, please state your affiliation and current objective." She requested plainly.

"This is 00 QanT, Setsuna. F. Seiei. Requesting for permission to land on Ptolemaios." He answered in an equally plain tone.

"Great! Just checking if it was you. Opening hatch 2." Milenia was all too quick to switch to her usual cheerful voice as she hit the controls on her touchscreen, followed by a muted screech coming from in front of her. Moments later the suit vanished into the hatch, and was quickly caught by one of the hangar's manipulator arms hanging above the bright ceiling.

Once Setsuna stabilised his prized Gundam he instantly switched off both GN drives with the master switch next to his right arm, the red button with warning labels around it to be precise. The chief mechanic Ian Vashti exchanged positions with him as soon as the hatch popped open, but not without giving him a proper greeting considering the young innovator was gone for a whole week without contacting anyone on the Ptolemy at all.

Setsuna made to the bridge and unlocked the door to it. A hiss from the hydraulics played above him, and he hopped into the considerably compact bridge where Lasse Aeon and Milenia were waiting in their seats, along with a couple of Haro assistant bots floating near the terminal opposite to Milenia's seat.

He scanned the bridge as he noticed there were only two humans in front of him, two less than normal numbers. "Where's Feldt?" Surprisingly he refrained from asking about anyone else. But with the ship's previous captain Sumeragi Lee Noriega mostly likely to be drunk and passed out in her own cabin with bottles of beer drifting around, the Vashtis in the hangar busy maintaining his Gundam, and Marie Parfacy being more of a pilot than a bridge crew, there really wasn't any point to ask for them.

"Feldt's gone with Marie and Allelujah. She wouldn't tell me why but from what Marie passed to us, it's not a very safe job." Lasse explained.

Yet Setsuna's gaze only grew even more threatening, and the newly promoted captain was eventually broken down by his eyes and decided to spill the beans. "Alright! For goodness sake, she's trying to be a Meister." He shouted. "That's why Linda isn't here as well." Lasse spared the rest of the details, confident that Setsuna the Innovator was smart enough to put two and two together.

"By the way, Sumeragi-san has retired. So she is right about the last mission thing after all...at least for her." Lasse continued, but Setsuna's boundless mind was filled with a ton of unanswered questions, mostly about Feldt Grace becoming a Gundam Meister herself. He certainly had no doubts about whether she can uphold the values of being in such a vital position, what truly concerned him was her motivation.

He stood in his position motionless for moments, his drowsiness completely wiped out and his attention fully restored. But before he could say another word, he was caught off guard by Lasse's sudden verbal assault. "Do you miss her or something?" He joked.

"I need to speak to Ian-san, right now." The next thing the bridge crew knew, he bolted out the door, and back towards the hangar. A few tight turns and a few automatic doors was all that took to get Setsuna to where he came in from. Waiting inside the cockpit of the 00 QanT was Ian, with a wrench slipped in his trousers. "I'm not letting you go out there, for any reason." He demanded instinctively upon hearing the sound of Setsuna stepping onto the E-carbon armour shielding the interior of the mobile suit.

"Why did Feldt want to be a Gundam Meister?" Setsuna questioned. As emotionless as he seems, he wasn't fooling anyone. Ian could already tell he wasn't curious just by his facial expression he never knew that gave him away.

"You have to respect her decision." Ian simply replied, hoping Setsuna would knock it off and do what he was supposed to do; report his findings about the ELS to Veda, or rather, Tieria Erde, the Innovade now acting as a software inside the complex artificial intelligence of Veda.

Setsuna only grew more furious when his demand was rejected. "And I do. But I…"

"You're tired. You need a sleep. End of story." Ian eventually had to shove him out of the QanT's cockpit, leaving Setsuna with no other option but to head for a Veda terminal on board the ship. He floated and drifted through the hallways and past Lyle and Lasse's cabin, and into a dark room that only glowed in an electric blue.

"Tieria." He said. "Tieria Erde!"

Soon enough a holo image in a pink and untucked shirt and grey trousers appeared before him. Any man or woman would take that figure as a girl, save for the crew of the Ptolemaios who knew he only looked like a girl because he kept his hair.

"Good to see you, Setsuna F. Seiei." He greeted.

"Same here. About the ELS, their home world is dying, and they're desperately seeking a new place to live in." Setsuna explained briefly as he clipped his helmet to his flight vest that resembled a chest armour to keep his hands free, as he always preferred.

"Nothing more than that?" Asked Tieria.

"And that they live on some purple crystal called 'Eridium'. Just like the blood that keeps us alive." He replied. "Or electric, in your case."

Little did Tieria know Setsuna was in face multitasking in his head. He would've known through his quantum brainwaves, if he hadn't had his machine assimilated by the ELS sometime ago. "That's all." He finished, wanting to leave the room and stare at the stars outside the ship aimlessly so he could tidy up his mind now swarmed with a hundred thoughts that didn't relate to each other.

"You don't always have to be that strict. Now that I'm in Veda, I can be a part-time psychologist as well if you ever need some advice." Tieria reminded, surprisingly casual.

"I'll keep that in mind." Setsuna simply finished, and left the room after Tieria's image faded behind him. He flew past Lyle Dylandy who happened to wake up from his nap, and tried his best to ignore him as he headed for the side section of the Ptolemy where the view of the stars looked the best.

He rested his head on his palms and leaned on the wall, gazing at the space filled with flashing lights and nebulas in the distance. He had already came up with a hundred more excuses shall he ever be bombarded with questions that involves Feldt, just to hide his true reason he was reluctant to see her become a Meister. Straight forward for any normal person, but rather uncomfortable for an Innovator like him.

I don't want her to die. No, I really don't want her to die.