As the Other Half Lives - 3

Athrun was about ready to throttle Dearka.  He'd been imprisoned in the cell next to his teammate's for almost a week now, and if the blond opened his mouth to make one more crass joke about their situation he would not be held accountable for his actions. 

"You know - "

"Shut up, Dearka."

"Right." 

He could practically hear the blond rolling his eyes.

It had been an immeasurable relief to see a familiar face on the unfamiliar ship, even under such circumstances.  It was certainly better than having to mourn yet another comrade.  Nicol's death, and Kira's, still cut him to the core, but he was slowly working out just how he felt about everything that had happened - and learning to live with the consequences.

"Could be worse, you know."

Athrun sighed.  "How?"

"You could be stuck here with Yzak."

He had to snort at that, his lip twisting upwards despite himself.

"Hah!  Got you that time!"

Dearka had been ecstatic at first, when he'd told him that he'd destroyed the Strike.  Then came incredulousness as Athrun had laughed hysterically at the offered congratulations and admitted he'd killed his best friend.

"So, what's yellow and orange and growls like a tiger?  The food on this ship as it leaves your body!"

He'd then been very quiet for some time, until Miriallia had arrived with their dinner trays.  Dearka had been unaccountably awkward in attempting to talk with her.  Athrun had simply thanked her by name, which had set Dearka to complaining, as she'd apparently never told him.

"That's because even though he killed Tolle, at least he's not a jerk about it!"  Miriallia had yelled at him with tears in her eyes, and Dearka had fallen silent for the rest of the evening.

The next morning, Athrun had found himself having his first ever serious discussion with the blond. 

"I kind of forgot that the people we were fighting were, you know, people," Dearka had confessed.  "It's just so easy to think of them as The Enemy, and not as brothers or boyfriends or sons or whatever.  When I first saw that girl, Miriallia, I made some comment about how I should be the one crying, not her."  He snorted disparagingly.  "I had no idea that her boyfriend had died, I mean, how could I?  But... she kind of snapped.  That look in her eyes - for a second I could have sworn she was going to kill me with her bare hands.  She didn't, but another girl tried to shoot me instead.  Miriallia knocked the gun out of her hands just as she fired.  Not that I'm ungrateful or anything, but I don't understand why she defended me like that, when she was obviously hurting."

"It wouldn't have made her happy," Athrun had replied, remembering her words to him in the hanger all too well.  "It wouldn't have changed Tolle's death at all, merely added to the number of people suffering the loss of a loved one."

Truth be told, Athrun was amazed that Miriallia could bear to look at him, let alone take care of him when he was in the infirmary and now bring their meals to them.  It was testament to the type of character of the people Kira had chosen as his friends, that she could still show compassion to the enemy who had killed her boyfriend and friend.  It was one more reason why Kira had chosen to protect them over coming to the PLANTs with Athrun.

He'd told Dearka about how he had tried to convince Kira to come with him rather than fight against him, to no avail.  In the end, it was only his anger at Nicol's death that had given him the resolve he required to kill Kira - but he couldn't feel at all pleased that he had avenged one friend's death with another's. 

"Nicol would have understood," was all Dearka had said in response.  Those few words made Athrun feel even worse than before, because he knew Dearka was right.

Would it have changed anything, if Nicol had known that he and Kira had been childhood friends?  Possibly, but there was no way he could ever know for certain now.  All he could do was sit in his cell and reminisce, with one oftentimes ribald teammate and a mechanical bird for company.

The bad jokes had started shortly after that.  Athrun supposed it was Dearka's way of trying to keep their spirits up, and had to admit the blond had succeeded at least in a small way.  Their situation was still rather desperate.  The crew of the Archangel had, on the whole, treated them with considerable forbearance, possibly due to having had a Coordinator working alongside them for several months.  He held no hope for such considerate treatment at the hands of JOSH-A's forces.  It was surely only a matter of time before they were transferred to the base as a matter of procedure.  Yet every day that passed with the ship docked and their status unchanged made him that much more anxious regarding their fate.

"So, how many Earth Alliance officers does it take to screw a light bulb?"

Athrun suppressed a groan - but was saved from having to hear the answer by the low thrum of the ship's engines firing up.

"We're moving?"

"Sounds like it - but where?"

"Who knows?  None of what the Earth forces do makes much sense."

It was strange that they hadn't been offloaded at JOSH-A.  It would have been as good a place as any to hold two prisoners of war who happened to be the sons of members of the PLANTs Supreme Council.

"The only other place they might take us is Panama," Athrun spoke slowly.  From the other's hissed intake of breath he knew he understood: there had been whispered rumours floating around ZAFT about a major assault planned against Panama.  If they were taken there, they had increased chances of both being rescued  - and killed.

It wasn't long before they discovered that they wouldn't have to wait for the assault at Panama.  The unmistakeable sounds of battle informed them that ZAFT had arrived en masse at Alaska.

"They're going into combat with prisoners still on board?  What's wrong with these people?!" Dearka protested as the ship shuddered from a hit.

Athrun swung the door to his cell open, moving swiftly to the lock on Dearka's cell door and setting to work, ignoring his teammate's gaping expression.  Birdy followed him, landing on his shoulder a little unsteadily due to missing a toe from each foot.

"How long ago did you pick that lock?" Dearka demanded as Athrun set about prying open the cover and shorting out the mechanism.

"A few days ago," he replied absently.

"Oh, for the love of..." Dearka covered his face in his hands for a moment before looking up at the ceiling imploringly.  "If there are any gods out there listening to this, the next time I'm captured with a teammate can it please be someone with some common sense?!"

"Oh, so it's common sense to want to be alone and unarmed in the middle of enemy headquarters?"

"Okay," the blond admitted, grimacing, "you have a point there.  But if we escape now we're not going to be that much better off." 

"With the battle distracting them this is likely the best chance we're going to get."

"I know."  He reached through the bars to touch the other's shoulder.  Athrun looked up into sober purple eyes.  "Don't get killed, okay?"

Athrun nodded sombrely.  "Same goes for you."

The door swung open, and they left the brig together, making their way towards the ships hanger.  Athrun's memories of the path he'd been led down the first time were rather sketchy, but Dearka had sufficient recall of his movements around the ship that they were able to keep on the right track.  With the ship at battle stations there were few crew members to stray across their path, and the first couple who did were easily rendered unconscious by the ZAFT pair.  The third was somewhat more problematic.

"What the - "

By the time Athrun and Dearka looked up from their second victim it was already too late: the blond lieutenant from the hanger, La Flaga, had his gun pointed at them.  The distance between them made it touch and go as to whether they could take him out before he took one of them out.

"We really don't have time for this," La Flaga growled, his expression a mixture of anger and frustration.  "Both of you, move it!  Now!"

The Coordinators exchanged a contemplative glance that quickly turned startled as a bullet cut the air between them.

"I'm serious!  I don't want to die here any more than you do!"

Athrun frowned, tapping Dearka's arm.  The older boy scowled, but nodded as they let the Earth Alliance officer herd them to his destination.  It was with no small amount of surprise that they ended up on the Archangel's bridge.

"Commander!  What do you think you're doing?!"  The woman in the captain's chair was anxious and harried.  "The prisoners - "

"Never mind them!"  La Flaga dashed over to the woman, gripping the back of her chair tightly enough to turn his knuckles white.  "We have to get out of here, now!  Just what kind of orders did they give the defense forces?!"

"What - ?"

"Listen to me: there's a large Cyclops System installed under headquarters.  It's powerful enough to incinerate everything within a ten kilometre radius.  It's impossible to defend the base with the forces that are left, and there's no way reinforcements from Panama could make it in time.  As soon as the defenders are gone and that main gate comes down, the headquarters will make the decision to activate the Cyclops System, taking more than half of ZAFT's forces with it.  That's the scenario we're facing, as imagined by the top brass!"

Everyone on the bridge was staring at him in horror.

"That - that can't be - "

"I swear, I saw it with my own eyes.  The command centre is empty.  The only people left are the Eurasian forces and the Archangel, because those damn bigwigs have given up on her!"

"So they left us here to die?  Is that it?" one of the crew demanded in disbelief.  The others all had similarly dismayed expressions. 

Athrun understood the simple maths.  This would wipe out a very large proportion of ZAFT's fighting strength, the thought of which left him sick to his stomach.  Yet, to sacrifice so many of their own...

"What the hell kind of commanders do you people have?!" Dearka burst out from beside him.

"Don't think your side is any better," La Flaga snapped at him.  "Rau Le Creuset was there, too.  He knows about the Cyclops System, and he got out of there well before I did.  So why aren't ZAFT pulling back?  Why hasn't he said anything to save his own people?"

"That doesn't make any sense," Athrun muttered, taken aback as much as Dearka.

"If the objective of this battle was to lure the ZAFT forces into the base, then I believe that we have accomplished that mission," the captain spoke in a strained, but determined voice.  "Let it be known that I, Murrue Ramius, Captain of the Archangel, made this decision alone."

"Don't pressure yourself," the commander cautioned, but Captain Ramius didn't pay any attention.

"Signal the other ships!  We're going to begin a withdrawal!"

"This won't be easy.   ZAFT aren't going to just let us go..."

Athrun turned to Dearka as the Archangel's crew set about following their new orders.  The blond Coordinator's jaw was set in a grimace.

"It just can't be true.  If Commander Le Creuset knows then he would definitely order a retreat!"

Athrun wanted to be able to agree with him, but just couldn't bring himself to disbelieve the Earth Alliance officer.  Perhaps if Commander Le Creuset had been detained or delayed in some way...  In which case, he and Dearka were the only other ZAFT members who knew about this devastating trap that the Earth Alliance command had set.  His eyes strayed across to the communications console in front of the crewmember closest to them.

"Captain!  It's the Duel!  Behind us!"

There were several gasps of dismay.  Athrun locked gazes with Dearka.

"Damn it, why now?  I'm going to launch!" La Flaga hadn't taken more than two steps towards the door before Dearka had pulled the young crewman out of his chair and Athrun had contacted the Duel.  "Hey!"

Athrun ignored him, moving down beside the Captain as Yzak appeared on the main screen.

"What the - Athrun, you bastard!"

"Yzak, listen to me!"

"Why the hell should I - "

"There's a Cyclops System under the Alaska base, set to destroy everything within a ten kilometre range.  Tell everyone to retreat, immediately!"

Yzak's blinked in surprise, before scowling at him.  "I'm not falling for any lies you've swallowed!"

"It's the truth, Yzak," Dearka moved forward to stand next to Athrun.

"Dearka?" Yzak's eyes widened.  "You're serious?"

"Yes!  We don't want to die here either, you know!"

"Yzak, for once in your life, just obey the damn order!" Athrun cried out in frustration.  "I'm asking you to save our people's lives!"

Blue eyes darted between them for a prolonged moment, before narrowing.  "Yes, sir!" he saluted, and the screen cut out.

"You know," Dearka grinned weakly across at the younger ZAFT pilot, "I think that might be the first time Yzak's ever saluted you properly."

Athrun smiled wryly.  "Probably," he agreed.  Looking around, he discovered that Commander La Flaga had once again pointed his gun at them, but Captain Ramius stood between them, her raised hand holding him back.

Dearka moved back to the communications console, adjusting the channels until Yzak's voice could be heard.

"...Yzak Joule in Duel, all ZAFT forces are to return to the transport vessels at once!  I repeat, this is Yzak Joule..."

"Captain, some of the ZAFT mobile suits are withdrawing," a crewmember announced.  Athrun was surprised to recognise Miriallia's voice.  So was his teammate, judging by the expression on his face.

"Good.  Tell our ships to withdraw as soon as they can, and get as far away from the base as possible."

The situation was improving.  All they needed now was time enough to convince everyone -

The forward view was suddenly filled by the bulk of a GINN as it pointed its gun directly at the Archangel's bridge.  There was a collective gasp as everyone instinctively flinched from the intended attack - but the blast never hit them, the gun and GINN knocked away by none other than the Duel.

"I said get back to the ship, damn it, or I'll take you out myself!"

"Thank you, Yzak!" Dearka exclaimed fervently.  Athrun breathed a sigh of relief.  That had been too close.

"Get us out of here!" Captain Ramius ordered.  "Maximum speed!"

Mere minutes later, a crewman reported an energy surge from within the base.  The Cyclops System had been activated.  All they could do now was hope, and pray.


March '06
[MirrorForest][Fanfics][rhionae@hotmail.com]