Last chapter everyone! I hope you like it.
Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Seed or Seed Destiny
Athrun walked down the street, hands in the pockets of his jacket, as he stared at the ZAFT Academy. Even though his bodygaurds had tried to insist that they accompany him there, he refused. After so many years since he had been there, he wanted to walk through the doors with the knowledge that he could easily defend himself in a fight, and that the 3 years of his life thathe gave up where not for nothing.
The three most difficult years of his life were spent there.
Walking through the front doors, flashing a badge at the gaurds and smiling at their alarmed faces, he continued down the hallway. Athrun Zala was a legendary name that was muttered as a rumor in ZAFT. Some people thought that he was actually someone that was made-up. Athrun heard other explinations once in a while, and they made him laugh. Although, he had not come to the Academy today for a walk down memory lane.
There was a fencing tournament going on today that he had change his entire agenda to see. There was no way he was not coming, and he had promised Cagali he would go for her since she could not be there.
Cagali was on Sextillius right then, ironing out some last minute contracts with Chairman Dullindal. Athrun found himself wincing slightly, it was really hard to think of Michael Rhinner as Kenji Dullindal. Over the years he had gotten accustomed to calling Michael 'Chairman Dullindal' in meetings, but out of a formal setting Michael was still Michael.
The young blond man was quickly becoming one of PLANTs greatest Supreme Council leaders. He whipped PLANT back into shape in less the a year, and now he was the head of a massive disarmerment program. The only forces that were being kept were being combined with the Black Ops force. The Earth-PLANT Allience had started a joint department known as the Black Ops, which was a new anti-terrorist force that was started for the soul purpose of keeping the peace between Earth and PLANT. Once in a while, little conflicts sprung up, and the Black Ops were the ones that handled it.
No more war.
It was a three-word phrase that Athrun never thought he would be able to even think to himself. The the last 11 years since the night Michael shot Djibril and they seized control of Blue Cosmos, Athrun had finally been able to relax. He settled into his new role, and let life fly by him. He and Cagali had finally submerged themselves into their own married life, only worrying about the things that they wanted to do, taking one day at a time. In the last couple years, Athrun had suddenly found himself taking up to fishing in the lake behind the mansion.
He got up, got dressed...and lived. That was all he was obligated to do now, and all he wanted to do.
The arena was full of people, and below there were two people fighting. Athrun took noticed of their movements as they fought. The boy on the left was a little sluggish, but average for a 15 year old. The other boy, however, was amazing. Athrun was positive that the older boy would probably have trouble beating him. He looked like he was barely 10 years old.
Scanning the audience, his eyes fell on someone he was hoping to see.
Yzak Jule sat in the stands, his arms folded. His blue eyes followed the match closely, like he knew every move before it happened. That really did not surprise Athrun, though, fencing had always been one of the things that Yzak could possibly beat Athrun in.
"Is this seat taken, Chairman Jule?"
The silver-haired man smirked, "I didn't know you'd be here."
"My wife would beat me if I didn't come." Athrun chuckled, "How are you, old friend?"
It had been five years since Athrun had seen Yzak. It was not that he never contacted him, they just had their own lives now. Being one of the senior advisors on the Council, even though he was young for a 'senior' advisor, Yzak took care of many of the military sanctioned duties in the council. He was the most experienced, and he was trusted throughout the entire Allience as a very capable man.
The year the war ended, he had promptly resigned his commission to take on his council duties, and disappeared for a few years with Shiho Hahnenfuss. Athrun remembered going to their wedding, but between those few years he could not remember hearing anything from Yzak. Athrun suspected that Yzak had wanted to do the same thing that Athrun was doing. Wake up, eat, and sleep without worrying about battle stradegies, or plasma cannons, or anything of the sort.
Below, the match was over as the younger boy overtook his opponent, pushing him out of bounds. There was a loud buzzer, and the audience clapped. Athrun heard the annoucer's words overhead,
"Match, set, Seito Jule."
Athrun's eyebrows promptly went up. The last time he saw Seito Jule he was a year old and clinging onto Shiho's every move.
The boy had straight hair like his father, but it was a dark shade of brown. It fell long, to about his chest. Part of it was kept in a ponytail that was bound at the base of his neck. A few strands fell in front of his face as he pull the helmet off, shaking the sweet off his forehead.
He had bright blue eyes. There was no mistake in Athrun's mind that Seito was Yzak's son. He could have known just by looking in the boy's eyes.
"Last time I saw him, he couldn't even ride a bike let alone fence." Athrun smiled, "He's really good, Yzak."
"Damn right, he is." Yzak said, "No one can beat him. There are a few new competitors this year from the other Academy, but none of them can defeat him either."
It was obvious that Yzak was really proud considering the amount of bragging he was giving. Athrun shrugged nonchalantly,
"I'll bet he can't beat you, though."
Yzak smirked at him. He did not need to answer that question.
"Shiho was a little uneasy about letting him train here, but I wanted him too." he said, "It's important for him to know the basics."
"I agree."
"He can pilot a mobile suit too, but I suppose that is a little pointless. He probably won't need it."
"Thank the gods."
Yzak nodded, knowing perfectly what Athrun meant by that sentence.
The next challenger walked into the area, Seito made a face. A girl?
"They sent a girl to fight me?" he tilted his head to the side.
She already had her helmet on. Adjusting it a bit, she said, "Don't underestimate me just because I'm a girl, Jule-san."
"Well, well." he sneered, "I expect you to follow up on that threat."
"I promise you I will." she said, taking a perfect stance.
Seito took this moment to analyz his opponent. She definantly knew what she was doing, she was probably trained before coming to the Academy, like he was. Her footing was strong when she finally did strike, and he could not knock her off her feet like he could with the others.
Blocking her strikes, he found himself taking a step back.
"I'll give you credit-" he said, "-no one has been able to make me do anything except knock them on their asses yet."
"Pity." she said, "It'll make it harder on you when I beat you."
It was not what she said, it was how she said it. Like she knew everything, or like she could see his soul. Seito found himself leaping quickly in the air as a foot swept under him. Holding the foil in her hands, she flipped backwards once, whipping the sword in her hands when she landed.
"Damn it-" he cursed as she shot towards him. He barely had time to block that attack, and when he shoved her off, he stumbled backwards closely to the boundery line.
Yzak was sitting at the edge of his seat, gapping widely at the fight in front of him. He stood up,
"Yo!" he roared, "Seito, this isn't a gala ball!"
"I know!" Seito snapped back, "I know what I'm doing!"
She was cunning and crafty, and could make split-second decisions.
She was also merciless.
Seito shot towards her, hearing her gasp as he tripped her footing as she had to bend over backwards to avoid missing his foil sweeping over her. Planting her hands on the mat, she flipped over once more, righting herself on her feet.
"You are good." she said, "I've never fought anyone as good as you."
"I'll take that as a compliment." he said, carefully dodging to the right to avoid her attack, "You're not half-bad either."
"I'll take that as a compliment." she chuckled, "I'm sorry."
"Sorry for what?" if he was not wearing the mask over his face she would have seen the odd look on his face.
"I'll beat you in front of all these people." she said.
He laughed out loud at that one, "Look, you couldn't beat me if I had both hands tied behind my back."
Seito side-stepped her, expecting her to fall foreward.
She did not.
Instead, she sunk to the floor, tripping him. He stumbled backwards, suddenly feeling the foil knocked viciously from his hands. She caught it in mid-air, and promptly shoved him out of bounds.
Seito was laying on his back, staring at the two fencing foils pointed directly at his face.
Yzak stood up from his seat, "Holy shit." he murmured. Who the heck is that girl? How the did she learn that?
Athrun felt a smile creep across his face.
Seito stood up and yanked the helmet from his head, apparently he was thinking the same thing his father was.
"Who the hell are you?!" he roared.
She stood up straight, tossing his foil back to him.
"Your guard is a little weak on your right." she said, "You're left-handed, yes? You probably could have defeated me if you used your left hand and not your right."
Seito made a face, she was too perceptive. It made him nervous.
Reaching up, she pulled the helmet from her face. Immediately, her long blond hair fell about her shoulders. Some of it was braided, some was bound together into a high ponytail on her hair. It reached her waist, and seemed to shine in the light as she walked. She was short, not too short, but petite for someone who obivously trained deligantly.
"It's an honor to fight you." she smiled brightly at Seito.
Oh no.
It was her eyes. Her deep, green-blue eyes that drew him in. She bowed slowly to Seito, her eyes flashing at him once more.
Yzak stared at the girl in the ring. He knew who she was, and turned to glare murderously at Athrun.
"You sneaky son of a bitch!" he yelled at his old commrade.
Athrun smirked at Yzak as the announcer's voice came on the intercom again.
"Match, set, Lenore Zala."
Before Yzak could say another word, Athrun stood up, walking down the bleachers towards the edge of the arena. It was an intermission now, the tournament had started 3 hours ago. Athrun leaned over the edge of the retaining wall.
"Len." he called, waving to her.
She smiled, ignoring the fact that Seito had just opened his mouth to say something to her. Athrun found the doorway to the arena, and she threw her arms around him as he walked towards her.
"Mama said you might not be able to make it." she said.
"It all worked out." he said, "Kisaka threw a fit when I told him I cancelled all my meetings for today."
"Really?" she smiled, "That sounds like him."
"Yes, it does." he said, "Now, go get cleaned up so we can go eat."
"Good! I'm starving." she said, "Can we go find a ramen stand, Papa?"
Athrun laughed, Lenore always had a taste for simple things.
"I was thinking more along the lines of steak."
"That works."
"ZALA!"
Both Lenore and Athrun turned to see Yzak heading towards him. He gave Athrun a look as Seito moved to stand next to his father. Athrun laid a hand on Lenore's head, ruffling her hair, "Yzak, this is my daughter, Lenore. Lenore, this is Yzak Jule and his son Seito."
"You didn't tell me she was in the ZAFT Academy." Yzak said.
"She asked." Athrun shrugged, "Cagali thought it was okay, so why not?"
Yzak sighed, and then gave Seito a sympathetic look. The dark-haired boy shrugged. Part of Yzak knew that from now on Seito would have the same frustration at dealing with a Zala as he had, and the other part of him was glad. Someone strong enough was finally going to the Academy other then Seito. She would be more then enough to keep him on his toes.
"You wanna come eat with us?" Athrun asked, "We always have room for more people. Right, Len?"
She nodded.
Yzak and Seito exchanged looks.
"Sure." Yzak consented.
Lenore smiled, and grabbed Seito's hand. Neither Athrun nor Yzak missed the slight tint of red on the boy cheeks, "Let's go get changed, Jule-kun! I haven't eaten since this morning!"
"Let go of me!" Seito promptly struggled as she pulled him towards the locker rooms.
"Oh?" she turned to look at him, a worried look on her face, "Oh no! Did I hurt you? I'm sorry! I didn't mean it! I was just so happy to fight someone that actually gave me a challenge for once!"
Seito opened his mouth as she continued to ramble, "It's okay..."
"I was so happy!" she figgeted, smiling at him.
"Ah..." the young boy closed his mouth and marched past her, "Let's go change, Zala. I'm hungry."
Lenore grinned, "Wait for me!" she bounded after him.
Watching them run off, Yzak made a face, "Oh hell no."
Athrun laughed, clamping a hand on Yzak's shoulder, "Oh come on, Yzak. Maybe they'll get married someday. Then you and I would be related and that would be damn ironic, wouldn't you say?"
"I swear to god I'll shot myself if it comes to that."
As their children disappeared into the backstage hall, Athrun smiled.
"You know, Yzak..." Athrun said, "...the worse thing I worried about today was whether or not I would get here on time to see my daughter's match."
Yzak was silent a moment, then he smiled sadly, "Yeah."
"Isn't that great?"
Yzak thought about it for a minute. This peaceful life was hard to get used to, but he liked it.
"Yeah."
I just wanted to take this time to thank everyone that have been sending reviews from the beginning. You guys are awesome, and I love reading all of your reviews. I honestly did not think this story was going to be as popluar as it ended up being. Now that it's over, I'll miss writing it, but I'm satisfied with the overall ending.
The first chapter of Owari 2.0 is comming out very soon. There will not be too many appearences of the original characters, but there will be soon. Kira, Lacus, Cagali, and Athrun for sure will make a few appearences.
Anyway, thanks again to everyone. Send a review and tell me what you think, and Merry Christmas!
Arigato
Lilith