Five Things That Never Happened in Zeta Gundam: Side Titans

[Dean_the_Young]

The first in a plan of five one-shots about the Titans of Zeta gundam. The longest one I have planned (three pages, instead of one or two), but if I can't indulge in my favorite character, who will? And yes, I know you'll figure out who is who pretty early on.

And of course, anything you point out that needs correcting will be edited.



Five Scenes That Never Happened in Zeta: Titans

--Pilot--

The alarm blared, and all the pilots in the rest area looked up as the intercom blared the expected alert.

“The drop operation will commence in thirty minutes! All pilots get ready to launch!”

The pilots threw down whatever cards they had been holding and hurried to get their helmets and final effects from the locker room of the Argama.

---

“Bask was wondering where you were, you know. I figured you’d be in your quarters if you weren’t out there.”

“You’re back. So they really…?”

“Shoved out the airlock less than an hour after that farce of a trial. I don’t know whether his father was informed before or after, but I couldn’t begin to tell you what’s going on through his head.”

“But this is crazy! Sure, the kid punched me for no real reason, but that was no reason to space him!”

“Punching you? Maybe. But punching Bask on the bridge was what really signed his death warrant. The fact that he had a history in attacking Titan personnel like you, which you testified to, was just the coup de grace Bask needed to execute him as an un-uniformed combatant. So tell me, how does it feel to be an accessory to murder?”

---

In the locker room, the atmosphere was tense. It had been a long month with multiple engagements that had cost a number of friends. However, weeks upon weeks of working together had made them a fighting force, not a rag-tag group of rebels (traitors, depending on who you asked) who had found a common enemy in the Titans. The rag-tags were slowly straightening up, and the stricter ones had loosened already. Trust was no longer the issue it had been; everyone knew that a defected Titan was just as reliable a pilot as anyone who had started from the beginning.

---

“Murder? I am not a murderer!”

“Oh really? Whose testimony did Bask hold up to kill the boy?”

“I argued for leniency! I stood up and said he could have used time to cool off in a cell, but that he shouldn’t be killed. Bask just…”

“Bask just slapped you and reprimanded you for being a soft and sentimental. Said you were the most pathetic excuse for a Titan he had ever seen. Are you saying that, had you had the power, it wouldn’t have happened?”

“Yes! I’m going to go to the top, and when I do things like this won’t happen! Bask won’t be able to order something like this, I swear it!”

“This goes far beyond Bask. I think now that it goes far beyond any one person in the Titans. Now tell me; why do you pilot? Are you piloting for the Titans, just to get to the top?”

---

Helmets and piloting suits secured, the pilots hurried to their respective mobile suits, cat calls and jeers following each other as they reached their own mobile suits.

“Hey, Titan! Don’t die out there, you hear me? I want to win more of your money at dice!”

“At least I’ll get it all back and more at cards, Apolly!”

And so the banter went, a remarkable change from the beginning. On the catwalk, a figure who wasn’t a pilot was looking for one pilot in particular.

“Lieutenant Emma! A word please!”

The Titan defector, hearing her name, floated over to the ship’s Captain. “Yes, Commander?”

“Lieutenant, are you sure we should keep that gundam painted in Titan colors? It’s becoming a bit of a problem. We aren’t the Titans, and don’t need people associating us with them. Are you sure we can’t convince him to let us repaint it? It’s not like we can do anything now before the drop operation, but perhaps when the force returns…”

---

“I fight for myself. I’ve always fought for myself. I want to have power, to not be under anyone else’s control. The Titans…”

“The Titans don’t care why you fight. They’re just using you for their own purposes. They used you to kill that boy’s mother in cold blood without your knowledge, and now they’ve used you to kill a civilian. They’re using you, and they’ll keep using you to kill anyone they don’t like as long as you let them. Are you going to let them? Is that why fight, to serve as an instrument of murder as you blindly claw your way from where you are?”

---

“I don’t think that is really needed, Commander Bright. Like it or not, he still has a strong link to the Titans, even if he despises them for what they made him do.
“Besides, we’ve already painted the other gundam that we use for combat, so why not let him keep his favored colors if it helps him focus in fighting? Hasn’t he already proven himself enough to be allowed to pilot the gundam? If Mr. Wong could accept him after their rocky start…”

---

“No, it isn’t why. I already told you, I’m not a murderer. But what else am I going to do, Lieutenant Emma? If you’ve got all the answers, why don’t you tell me?”

“Here.”

“Huh? What?”

“It’s a helmet. To complete the piloting suit you’re wearing now.”

“I know what it is, but why?”

“Because the only way to not let yourself be turned into a murderer is to leave the Titans. And I need someone to watch my back and pilot the third gundam from the Alexandria after we free Kamille’s father.”

“We’re going to defect?”

“We’re going to fight for ourselves and our own beliefs.”

---

“Perhaps you’re right. I’ll drop it for now, though I might bring it up again if he gets slated for a new model after the force returns. Go finish getting ready, Lieutenant, and good hunting out there.”

“Sir!”

---

“Uh, Lieutenant…”

“Make it quick. We’re almost at Mr. Bidan’s quarters.”

“If I had said the wrong thing, or hadn’t agreed…”

“Silencer. No one would have found you until well after our escape. I probably would have wrecked the third Gundam, though it might have been tricky. But I knew you wouldn’t, you’re different from most Titans. Still arrogant and rough around the edges, but that can be fixed.”

---

The elevator moved the black gundam into space, and onto the launch catapult. The pilot inside looked at Earth, and at the target of Jaburo. He was fighting for himself now, and he’d show the Titans what happened when anyone tried to play him as a murderer or pawn.

“This Jerid Messa, Gundam Mk. II. Launching!”

[Paul McCartney Jr]

I dont get it, Apolly wasnt in the Titans and Jerid had no way of knowing Emma would defect.

[Dean_the_Young]

I dont get it, Apolly wasnt in the Titans and Jerid had no way of knowing Emma would defect.

It's a counter-factual, as indicated by the title "Five Things That Never Happened in Zeta Gundam." A "what if" without a what if, if you will. It traces an alternative time line, if you will, and it's up to the reader to spot the differance.

Apolly isn't a Titan; this is a one-shot scenario where Jerid defects as well, due to being twice used as a tool for cold blooded murder (Kamille's mother, and then a farce of a trial) by Bask and the Titans, and some arm twisting by Emma (who was the one who approached Jerid, not the other way around). The main idea behind this was to try and think of some half-way reasonable way to have Jerid fighting for the AEUG during the events of Zeta Gundam. Using his disgust at being used for cold blooded murder as well as using someone with influence over him (Emma) seemed the best way to do it. I used Kamille's imagined death as an aditional catalyst to throw Jerid off balance, during which Emma could take advantage of him and use his own traits (a hatred of being used, an unsteady self image) as a tool against his loyalty to the Titans.


The next counter-factual is supposed to be a bit more humorous. It should be done in a day or so, and the three basic points are Jerid, Scirocco, and Captaain Kirk Syndrome. Or, as it relates to the story, "Why Scirocco keeps women away from Jerid."

[Paul McCartney Jr]

I see, thats a good idea then. Keep going