Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Reflex- PHASE-13 (PART 4)

"And so, I thought about it for a long time," Akira told his team-mates. "After all these years having lived a very different life than what it was, when I was very young…the time was coming for me to do something about the way the world happened to be, in my eyes."

"You eventually reached that decision, right?" Kazunori asked.

"I did," Akira nodded. "But not until after having spent those years being only with my grandmother."

"What happened then?" Katherina queried.

The brunette Yamato sighed. "After living with my grandmother for about three years or so," he explained, "I received word from her that we would be coming to PLANT. However, she didn't exactly tell me why we would be there, at first." Akira then smiled thinly. "But then, as soon as we arrived there, I would happen to know why it was…"

---

May 1, C.E. 86
Armory One, Lagrange 4
1300 Hours

Commander Kira Yamato awaited behind the windows of the spaceport, as he saw some of the civilian and military shuttles touching down onto the airstrip, and some of the others taking off from a runway. It was a long wait for him through those years, since the day that saw him become physically apart from his wife and son. He missed both of them so much, and it had pained him dearly for quite some time, as he felt that their presence was still there with him. That would all change, after all of the events that happened a year prior, which eventually resulted to where he is right now. He was waiting for two shuttles to arrive on the ground—one of them carrying his wife, and the other bringing his son here.

His heart throbbed with anticipation, the feelings of anxiety running through each and every nerve of his body. He had never felt so nervous before; the last time he had, was when he anticipated the birth of his son. It was an emotional experience he had faced, and it certainly wasn't the last of it he would have to go through in his life. As soon as he saw the two designated shuttles arrive and about to touch down, Kira gulped in air down his throat, before he began to leave the waiting area and towards the tarmac.

On the tarmac, Kira watched the two shuttles behind each other, taxiing on the series of lanes away from the runways, before they reached the large area where the commander was waiting. He observed the shuttles distancing away from each other, as they slowed to a stop, a space of two average civilian aircraft lengths apart from one another. After the staircases were brought underneath the passenger doors of the shuttles, Kira could see the doors themselves opening up slowly. Once the doors of both aircraft were opened up widely, the ZAFT commander gazed upon the shuttle to his left, a pink-haired woman carefully stepped out the door and onto the stairs descending to the ground. His eyes widened open, as he excitedly called out to her.

"KIRA!" She called back at him in the same tone, as she rushed down the steps and onto the ground.

They ran towards each other as soon as her feet touched the pavement, Kira and Lacus hugging each other tightly, in an exhilarating embrace. All those anxious feelings he had all those times, were finally gone, only replaced with spontaneous emotions of joy and happiness. She also felt those same feelings, too, as they whirled around in their hug for a little bit. They could then hear a voice of a woman break away from the open door of the other shuttle.

"Akira, hold on!" Caridad called out to the young boy, as he peeked out the open door of the shuttle he was in.

Kira's adoptive mother then joined him, as she could see his parents already on the ground. She then pointed out to him, of where his parents are. His eyes bulged wide open as he saw them there.

"Father!" Akira cried out, as he ran down the steps by himself. "Mother!"

"Akira!" Both of them called out to him ecstatically, at once, as their son rushed towards them with his arms out wide open.

Kira then hugged him tightly as soon as his son finally reached them, before Lacus also hugged him, as well. They embraced each other very happily, Lacus shedding a few tears along with Kira as they were finally reunited with one another in years.

"Akira, Lacus," Kira gasped as soon as they pulled away from each other. "We're finally together. All of us."

"Yes, Kira," Lacus agreed with a tearful smile. "We all are."

"We are never to part away from each other like this again," Kira told her and his son. "Never again."

Lacus nodded her head. "Agreed."

They then focused towards Caridad, who approached them closely, before she finally came to them.

"Mother!" Kira called out to her.

"Ms. Yamato!" Lacus gasped in surprise.

All three of them then embraced her, both Kira and Lacus having met her for the first time in a short while, as they all shared their laughter and happiness in collective harmony.

---

"We were all reunited at last," Akira smiled brightly. "After all those years of pain, hardship, and misery…it was something that I thought would never happen. But it did."

Jorgen, Katherina, and Kazunori shared his smile with theirs, having found a greater impression of him through his story.

"A few years after we came back together again," Akira continued, "my mother would run for PLANT Supreme Council for the second time. I didn't know what really happened with the previous head of state, the Chairman and all, but there were changes along the way."

A brief moment of silence followed.

"She became the head of the Supreme Council again, and the world was slowly becoming what I had expected to be all along," he went on. "But even with that…I wondered about if I still had the power in myself to make a difference in this world."

"You already decided on that, right?" Jorgen asked. "You told us that."

"Yes," Akira nodded gently. "I had taken the decision to make good use of my life in making that difference, and so, I enlisted in ZAFT when I was 15."

"And there you are."

"And here I am," Akira repeated what Jorgen had stated, in agreement with him. "Talking about the story of my life to you guys."

---

March 16, C.E. 93
Baltic Sea, Spengler-class ship Perun
1400 Hours

Several kilometres away from a Nationalist Eurasian naval base, a large naval carrier skimmed across the waters at its leisurely pace. High cloud cover partly filled the skies, a line of storm clouds in the very far distance, as the ship traversed through the massive body of water it was surrounded with. Inside one of the top levels of the ship, three male mobile suit pilots were standing around near each other, at a hallway. Their lips were straightened out into neutral expressions, but there were dreary stares that filled their eyes, as they stood around in silence and all of them with their arms crossed. One of them, a curly-haired male with auburn locks, had glared upon an orange-haired male to his left.

"What's going on with you?" He quietly asked the orange-headed pilot, who looked away from the two of them.

"Not too much, Damiano," Clotaire let out a faint sigh. "I'm still wondering about what happened in our last mission."

"What, the one where we tried to screw 'em over at South America?" The other male asked.

"That one," he nodded, an indignant look in his eyes. "I still couldn't comprehend why Aleks would go ahead to chase both of those bastards by himself, even if I told him to stand down."

"It's not his fault, Clotaire," Damiano growled. "They were the ones who provoked him to do it, and they should be the ones to go down in what they're trying to do."

"It's understandable," Clotaire acknowledged. "But I'm concerned about what Aleks would do that would have an impact on our efforts to achieve the goals of our nation."

"You just have to look at it in a good way," the third pilot told him. "At least he's the one who can help us all out by taking out most of the trash brought on by the Coalition, eh?"

"I'm still not sure, Lance," Clotaire shook his head. "I still have reservations about him."

"Well, why don't we all focus on the matter at hand first," Lance responded, "and just see where it all takes us then?"

Elsewhere at the bridge of the Spengler-class ship, the captain of the naval vessel watched the seas through the windows of the area, a heavy gaze through steely eyes as he observed the conditions ahead. He could then hear the voice of a female nearby, calling for his attention.

"Captain Ramsey, sir," C.I.C. officer Roxanne Del Porto addressed him. "I have something to discuss about the state of the situation concerning us."

Keith Aldous Ramsey turned to the female communications officer, with a stern look directed at her. "Yes," he murmured. "What is it?"

"After what happened over at South America," she explained, "I'm unsure about how we can put our naval strength into efficient use for our next operation."

"We know what we did wrong," Keith sighed to himself, the captain scrunching his eyebrows. "We didn't respond fast enough in time to slow the advance of their second fleet. Therefore, that operation became a lost cause, plain and simple."

"I know, sir," Roxanne acknowledged. "But there's something else that's concerning me about our strength in the waters."

He looked away towards the windows. "What about?"

"It's him, sir," she explained to the captain. "It's Captain Kartemis. He doesn't seem to know how and when to use his naval resources at the crucial time, when it's needed."

Captain Ramsey then turned to her again. "Look, I know him for a long time, alright?" He replied in defense of the actions that Andre took. "He knows what he's doing. It's his first time commanding a fleet of such scale in an actual battle situation, but he'll eventually understand everything and will put to use whatever he has given to him."

Roxanne slowly nodded her head at him.

"He has more years of experience in military combat than you, Roxanne," Keith pointed out. "He'll fully know what to do in the next campaign of action."

---

"Of course," Akira concluded his story, "I've already told you how and why I came here. What also I wanted to tell, at least to Jorgen, is how I met one of my best friends who's now serving for the forces at Orb."

"Who's that?" Katherina was curious.

"Oh, you mean that friend of yours?" Kazunori furrowed his eyebrows angrily, as he could immediately recognize the friend that Akira was particularly referring to. "The one who called me out for blowing the enemy up, even if I wanted to help him out?"

Akira chuckled to himself lightly. "Well, Leon and I go way back to when we were younger," he told them. "Not as further back as it was when I was very young, but…"

"I get it," Jorgen nodded his head in understanding.

"The first time we met, however," Akira explained, "was a couple of months after I was together with my parents again. We were simply adjusting back to life, the way it was, before all this happened. We went to a community park at Orb, when we first met."

---

Ten-year-old Akira was strolling with his parents at a park, under the bright skies and shining sun that marked a beautiful day in the country. After an hour of walking around to take in the wonders of the scenery around them, all three had decided to take a brief rest, underneath the shade casted by the trees around the grassy areas. They sat and relaxed against the trunk of a tree, as they cooled themselves down from the warm temperatures, the shade having provided the cooling with winds blowing across lightly. They relaxed for a little bit more, before they heard a couple of people calling out their names. Kira and Lacus opened up their eyes to see two familiar faces they had recognized from before, along with a young boy alongside them.

"Athrun!" Kira called back in surprise, rising up to his feet. "Cagalli!"

Both the blue-haired male and blonde-headed female were in their civilian clothing, as were Kira and Lacus, the couple having approached them with their son beside Cagalli.

"What brings the two of you here?" Lacus asked, smiling.

"We're here to have a little walk with our son," Cagalli answered her. "Say, isn't that your son as well?"

"Oh, why yes, he is!" Lacus cheerily replied. "That is our son!"

Cagalli's smile widened. "He sure looks more grown up than the last time we saw him!" She gushed. "Hey, maybe we could set them up for a play-date, someday! How about it?"

"I'm sure we can!" Lacus responded.

As the couples began to have a delightful conversation with each other, Akira looked at the blue-haired boy around the same age he was. With a polite smile on his face, Leon waved hello at him. Akira waved back in response, a sincere smile across his face as well. They both walked a short distance away from their respective parents, before they took their seats on a wooden bench that was away from the shade.

"You must be their son, right?" Leon asked him, dangling his legs around, when they were off the ground. "It's actually nice to meet you."

Akira nodded. "Yeah," he quietly replied, also dangling his legs around. "It's also nice to meet you, too."

"You know, I've heard a lot of things that were going on at PLANT," Leon explained to him. "Some things related to your parents that I don't understand."

"Me neither," Akira agreed.

"Well…what do you hope for, when you grow up?"

Akira sighed to himself. "A world where all people can learn from each other, so they won't make the same mistakes again."

"Same here," Leon smiled. "What's your name?"

"Akira."

"Leon," the blue-haired boy introduced himself. "You know, I believe that you and I have a lot of things in common."

Akira raised an eyebrow. "You do?"

"Yeah," Leon turned away from him for a moment. "I believe what you believe, too. Just a world where peace is seen instead of war, and nothing else."

The brunette boy looked at him with a bright smile, cherishing his memory of meeting another boy like him, who would eventually become his very best friend in his life.

---

"We talked a lot to each other, after that," Akira recounted. "Spent some time camping with our parents, played some sports with him, and sharing the moments we ever had."

"This Leon guy," Katherina voiced her thoughts, "he seems to be quite a gentleman I would most certainly like to hang out with."

Akira turned to her. "He's currently serving for the Orb military, as I said before," he explained. "I don't know where he is right now, but I have a feeling we'll meet again somewhere."

Katherina smiled sincerely, as Kazunori had continued to frown at thought of Akira's best friend.

"Well, that's all I have to say about myself," Akira sighed, before he turned to Jorgen. "I've already told you about how I got here, so why don't you tell me about how you came here…just like you said?"

Jorgen blinked in surprise. "Oh! Me?" He pointed to himself, before he looked at his watch. "I would love to tell you how I ended up here, but I just happen to forgot about something I should've checked at my room!"

Akira raised his eyebrows in confusion, along with Kazunori and Katherina. "W-what?"

"I must apologize, but I have to go now!" Jorgen then rose up quickly onto his feet, took his bottle of soda off the table, and hurriedly paced towards the doors out of the lounge. "Maybe I'll tell you about my story some other time!"

"W-what?" Kazunori repeated Akira's reaction as they focused on Jorgen, as he left in a rush.

"What…was that?" Katherina also shared their confusion.

Akira could only look at the doors that were closing after Jorgen left, before he turned to the other two pilots with a befuddled stare in his eyes.

---

It was later into the evening, where the Minerva-class Gemini I was hovering near the edge of the Caribbean Sea, under the moonlight and partly cloudy skies. Davis Leung paced himself slowly down a short hallway at one of the lower levels of the ship, submerged in his thoughts that kept himself occupied, uninterrupted. It had been a long day since the last mission he undertook with his Specter team, having been emotionally and physically drained by the fighting that the soldier was involved in, gradually recovering at a slow rate.

Rounding the corner to his right, Davis took a few steps towards the long corridor in front of him, before he stopped dead on his feet. His eyes widened in surprise, body trembling in the slightest, as Davis was stunned to see who was approaching in the opposite direction of the hallway he was travelling through. The sickening feeling of anger quickly took him over, Davis having seen the same raven-haired teen in the red ZAFT uniform, the same one who engaged in the argument with him that night. He did not want to face him again, he just simply wasn't in the mood to do much, especially based on their last encounter with each other. Turning himself around back to where he came from, Davis walked the other way, hoping to get as further away from him as possible, without being noticed by the red-coat.

"Hey, you!" Kazunori called out at him. "Wait!"

'Oh, crap,' Davis thought in his mind.

The ZAFT Specter slowed himself down to a sudden stop behind the windows at the starting end of the long pathway, having turned around towards the red-coat, with a doleful expression on his face.

"What do you want?" Davis quietly asked, his eyes visibly upset. "Are you going to chew me out for my place in the military again?"

"No!" Kazunori shook his head. "No, that's not what I wanted to say."

"What is it, then?" Davis hissed aggressively. "If you're going to say something negative about what I do, then I'd like to hear it!"

Kazunori stared at him with stoic eyes, and a slight frown on his lips.

"I hope you realize," the dark-haired Specter admonished him, "that whatever you say to me…it wouldn't matter much. Okay?"

Disregarding those feelings that Davis had projected towards him that sent waves of guilt across his body, Kazunori found his way to make the apology he intended to give.

"Look, what I wanted to say," Kazunori calmly began, "is that I'm very, very sorry for what I said about you during that other night…and whatever happened between both of us."

Davis did not respond right away. He remained standing still, staring at Kazunori with the upset expression on his face, his arms crossed.

"I just…I just felt quite jealous about you and your team, alright?" Kazunori explained, looking away from him for a few seconds. "But, I also didn't know that such a prestigious unit like yours actually existed in the military. That's why I assumed you guys were only regulars here, of a special kind."

The Specter's narrowed eyes shied away from him, tilting his head to the right, before he stared straight into his eyes again.

"Furthermore, I made the other assumption that you guys were going to replace us in times of combat," Kazunori continued. "And I was very wrong about it, too."

Davis still did not respond back to him, his eyes softening slightly as the feelings of anger and harboured resentment towards him, had begun to die down.

"So, with all that being said," Kazunori concluded his apology with a sincere look in his eyes, "I hope that you can find it in yourself to forgive me, for what I had done towards you that other night," he bowed his head down in shame. "It was bad conduct of me to do so…and I've learned a lot from that."

The ZAFT Specter continued to look upon him as he finished his apology, arms still crossed against each other and to his chest, breathing quietly through his nose. After a moment of deep thought, he had finally come out with a response to his atonement.

"Very well," Davis breathed out. "I accept your apology."

Kazunori nodded his head in acknowledgement. "Thank you," he murmured. "I'm glad you've found it to forgive me for what I have done."

A brief pause followed, Davis having looked away from him again, before turning back to face the raven-haired teen. There was a thought that had crossed his mind.

"But about what you said to me, the other night," Davis told him. "I've been thinking."

Kazunori raised an eyebrow. "Well, what's that?"

"You've told me that your team risks your life in fighting for the same goal my team has," Davis explained. "And as far as I make it out to be, your team and my team don't see it that each of us are more highly important than anyone else in the force."

"Yeah," Kazunori sighed and nodded.

"Then I must ask you about that," Davis sternly attested. "Would it even matter a lot, if you've made that point, when there are those whose lives are lost from all the fighting going on?"

Kazunori was bewildered for a moment, before he shook his head shortly in response. "No," he quietly answered.

Davis then turned around towards the windows behind him, and took a couple of steps towards them, as he looked out through the panes and at the ocean under the night sky. His back was facing the raven-haired pilot, as he stood with his hands folded behind his back.

"I've always asked myself these questions, being across the planet, from one point to the other," Davis spoke forlornly. "Why does humanity always seem like it wants to cause trouble in the world, through all this conflict and struggle? Why can't we all settle our differences in ways that never resort to violence and bloodbath?"

Kazunori remained silent, as Davis' facial expression darkened a little bit.

"War never solved anything," the Specter told him from ahead. "People still suffered because of it. Not only those who were civilians, but the ones doing the fighting out there. I've seen way too many stories of families weeping for their lost loved ones, those who were caught in the whole crossfire of the battle."

The ZAFT red-coat lowered his head down to look at his feet, a solemn expression conveyed through his eyes and mouth.

"I always wondered, if it would happen to someone like me, as well," Davis quietly reflected. "Once a life is taken away from the body of a person…it can never be replaced again."

"But, it's not always the case with those who fought," Kazunori suddenly objected.

"Where were the Snowdens of yesteryear, then?" Davis questioned him, his back still facing Kazunori.

Kazunori raised both eyebrows in both surprise and confusion. "Ah…what?"

Davis turned his head to him and repeated his question, in French. "'Où sont les Neigedens d'antan?'"

Again, Kazunori was confused at his response, remaining silent only for Davis to continue.

"James Snowden…he was one of my best colleagues that I know from before," the dark-haired Specter explained, his eyes narrowed, as he turned back to face the window. "He served for another team of my unit, for several years. We talked a lot to each other about ourselves, ever since the very first time I met him."

The raven-haired teen nodded, as he listened to him.

"He was quite a friendly guy," Davis recalled. "Never meant any harm to anyone else he met personally. I remember him for his ever-so-subtle humor that would make all of us laugh together. Always committed and determined to what he does best. A skilled person ever to fit into the standards of our unit."

Kazunori faintly smiled for a very brief moment, before it faded, as soon as Davis continued.

"But one day," Davis breathed out, "my heart sank when I heard the news that he was one of those among his team that was killed in action, during an operation in the Andes." A tense pause. "They said an improvised radioactive explosive was the cause of their demise."

Shock and horror overwhelmed Kazunori for a while, as he shook his head and continue to stare at Davis, barely struggling to contain his emotions.

"After that happened," he continued, his eyes becoming a bit glassy. "I had struggled for a long time, wondering why someone like him had his life taken away like that. They were all just trying to do what everyone was striving for—to keep the balance of the world from tipping over into certain destruction." Another long pause. "And yet, I doubt I'll find the real answer, as to why the world keeps getting divided in conflict."

An earnest gaze was on Kazunori, as he took a step closer towards where Davis was standing.

"It doesn't have to be that way," the raven-haired teen told him. "We all are trying to find the real answer for that question, too. But, together, we can solve this question as a single group, not individual."

Davis let out a deep, tranquil breath, before he recomposed himself. "You're right," he murmured. "We can do find a solution, together."

"So, why don't we be the ones to do so?"

The Specter turned himself around, facing Kazunori once more. "Absolutely," he smiled. "We can get together to tackle this problem ourselves."

Kazunori smiled back at him, before he approached him closer by a couple more steps.

"I believe we haven't formerly introduced each other, last time we met," Kazunori extended a hand to him. "Kazunori Asuka."

Davis looked at him sternly for a moment, before he accepted his introductory gesture, shaking his hand. "Staff Sergeant Davis Leung," he introduced himself.

"It's nice to meet you," Kazunori replied.

"Same here," Davis said. "Too bad we didn't get off on solid footing, last time."

"We'll try to, next time," Kazunori nodded, before he walked past Davis and off into the short hall to his left.

Davis turned around behind to look at him as he walked away, before he himself began to continue walking down the long pathway by his own.

---

To be continued in PHASE-14: "A Day in the Life".