2022-10-23 Ghosts of Side 7

• Cast: Kamille Bidan, Full Frontal
• Where: Side 1
• Date: U.C. 0096 10 23
• Summary: Space is deep, vast, dark...and yet, a calling draws Full Frontal to Side 1. The Ghost of Char inadvertently recreates Quattro's chance meeting with Kamille at Side 7 from so long ago, but these two men are haunted by lingering wills and regrets that have yet to be put to rest.

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<Pose Tracker> Kamille Bidan has posed.

There are a number of scattered colonies just trying to rebuild and rework themselves in Side 1, and Kamille is on one of them, in civilian clothing of a sweater and jeans. He spent the day quietly and as anonymously as possible helping with a pop-up clinic for colonists needing vaccinations, blood pressure tests and other minor but necessary check-ins.

He is now quietly and anonymously as possible sitting outside on a park bench as light flurries of snow fall, sipping from a covered coffee cup and reading his book, or trying to read it.

It's hard not to think about that photo, wrinkled as it is.

Kamille doesn't always realize what a beacon he really is. Any Newtype nearby searching for a presence will feel him, powerful and constant as the stars. He's not trying to broadcast. He's just /there./

<Pose Tracker> Full Frontal has posed.

Full Frontal's head pulses, as his shuttle back to Side 3 passes by the outskirts of Side 1. This presence...it was nothing like Banagher's ephemeral, uncertain echo. No...this was strength. Pure and as potent as the sun itself. Zinnerman had reported on the Nu Gundam's surprise appearance at Torrington, a new fact in the fabric of the here and now that relight the ashes of his being into a smoldering blaze.

Amuro Ray

If there was a possibility the White Devil had survived, that his inherited rival and foe persisted, then it was his duty as the host of Char's lingering will and as the Red Comet's successor to put a final end to the legend.

Moving forward to the pilot's compartment, Full Frontal rapped a knuckle on the door. "Dock at Side 1 for a moment. There is something I need to investigate." A formal affirmative echoed through the door to the compartment, and the leader of the Sleeves returned to his seat. A sense of nostalgia and deja vu flickered briefly through his mind, the restless spirit within stirring for but a moment. An errant thought slipped through the mesh, almost as if Char's ghost was sleep talking.

Side 7

Full Frontal shook his head as his shuttle prepared to dock. He mused as he began idly thumbing the side of his hidden pistol. Perhaps this too, was as fate ordained...

<Pose Tracker> Kamille Bidan has posed.

Kamille senses...something.

Someone.

An intent, not of malice but of duty. A sense of nostalgia?

He sighs, runs his hands through his hair and just throws the book back in his shoulder bag. He knows when something is reaching out to him, and for all of his power as a Newtype he has yet to figure out how to psychically block a number. If someone wants to find him, they'll full well do it. He just walks towards the spaceport, not far off, shivering and wishing he'd brought a heavier jacket as the leaves crunch under his feet.

Who is it? Who would seek him out like this who is still /alive?/ That Dispersal woman, he has a feeling he wouldn't sense her intent from inches away. Banagher? No, it doesn't feel like Banagher. Who else could...

It couldn't be Amuro Ray, could it?

He follows the sense of what seeks him, standing just outside the spaceport, waiting. If it is Amuro, what is he going to do?

<Pose Tracker> Full Frontal has posed.

Full Frontal places his mask into his coat pocket before disembarking from his shuttle. No sense in spooking the harbor workers with a surprise visit from the Sleeves' leader. No point in painting a target on himself either. Instead, Full Frontal chose to don a pair of wide-brimmed sunglasses, much as his predecessor once did while undercover. While not the same brand of eyewear, there was a curious sense of nostalgia attached to the shades. As he passed customs without incident, Full Frontal made a note to reward whomever was responsible for his false ID. Unnecessary, perhaps, but magnanimity suited his role as the Red Comet well.

Noticing the presence growing closer, Full Frontal's normally practiced expression began to play host to an unnaturally natural smile. Buried emotions and anticipation began to leak forth as both he and the ghost within awoke and trembled with eagerness at the thought of being able to settle things once and for all with Amuro returned.

Yet, even with these inherited feelings and his own desire to finish what Char Aznable could not, there was a snag. Some corner of his mind, some edge of the abyss could sense that this presence was...off, somehow. Even so, Full Frontal moved forward. It was the only thing he knew to do in this moment: a quick, brisk walk that stretched into a chasm of slow infinity, as each step felt like a lifetime. Char's implanted memories began to flash. A Baoa Qu, The Battle of Gryps, Axis...and beneath it all, the dogged, single-minded determination.

So we meet again...

<Pose Tracker> Kamille Bidan has posed.

So we meet again...

"Who? Meet who?!" Kamille forgets for a second that he's in public, that others can hear him seemingly talk to himself. He's too hyper-aware of the sense of that intent, that bullseye focused directly at him. It's impossible to miss. He sees flickers of...

Of battles he saw on TV. Of Axis, of...

"Quattro?!"

He blurts it as Full Frontal arrives, then covers his mouth. No, it can't be. But who besides Quattro would remember Gryps from /that/ perspective? Is his theory true? Could the return of Amuro herald that of his fabled rival? Is that intent focusing on him the duty of the Oath Over Omega?

He is pale, and staring, and looking right past Full Frontal at first.

<Pose Tracker> Full Frontal has posed.

As the presence reaches its zenith, Full Frontal pauses and looks around. Nothing noteworthy amongst the crowds around the park he had just entered, no Amuro Ray in sight. And yet...the presence was here, there was no mistaking it. It was...warm. Nostalgic. Feelings of attachment, respect, pride, and regret echoed within his mind all at once, as they guided his gaze to a blue-haired man, just barely through the door of adulthood. He stood tall, but confusion reigned on his delicate features, as he too looked around. He was the presence? Such power...if this was not Amuro Ray, then who?

Full Frontal winced slightly as a pain shot through his temple, a cry from the spirit chained within him. Inherited feelings, memories, desires...they all coalesced into a shard of a man thought lost so long ago, who wrested the reins from Full Frontal for but a moment. A moment that paused the time around them.

"Kamille."

The voice that burst forth from his lips had uncharacteristic warmth and longing behind it, a surprised expression blooming on Full Frontal's face even as he wrested it back into the depths, a nonchalant expression and painted smile replacing it swiftly. Kamille. Kamille Bidan. The legendary ace of the AEUG, who vanished after the war.

And mentee of Quattro Bajeena...

So this was the presence he'd detected, drawn like a month to the flickering flame. No, not a flickering flame. His presence was a scorching flame, but one that was smoldering. There was a weight to him...this boy carried something beyond his years. Perhaps he could be a useful pawn...

<Pose Tracker> Kamille Bidan has posed.

The voice breaks Kamille out of his panicked trance. Not a voice he recognizes. Not Char. Not Quattro. Right?

And then his eyes go back into focus and he sees who addressed him. Blond. Tall. Sunglasses...

No, none of that means anything. Lots of people wear sunglasses. Lots of people have blond hair! Lots of people...do not know his name.

But that isn't Quattro...

Cautiously, keeping at least an arm's length distance between himself and the stranger, Kamille turns to address Full Frontal. He is guarded, prickly, on edge, unnerved.

"...That's me. Do I know you...?"

<Pose Tracker> Full Frontal has posed.

Full Frontal lets his practiced smile grow a little wider, injecting a little warmth into it, curating it into a facsimile of trustworthiness. "Perhaps you do, perhaps you don't. I'm not the same as I used to be. After all...Axis changed me." Full Frontal took off his sunglasses, letting the recreation of Char's scar bask in the colony's artificial light. He looked down at Kamille as he folded the shades up and placed them in his front coat pocket. "I heard you've been through quite the rough spell after the war ended. Forgive me for not visiting you sooner." Turning away, Full Frontal let the ghost's regret echo in their Newtype link. "Perhaps things would have been different if I'd come to see you before Axis."

Closing off his heart from the rest of the link, Full Frontal mused deep within. His inheritance of the Red Comet's feelings, memories, lingering spirit...they were beginning to take him to some interesting places. How many of these feelings were still the ghost of Char's? Were they not his own as well, seeing that the two of them were two sides of the same coin? These sentimental emotions and desires welling forth from within...this wanting, to embrace this youth like he was family. They were all unfamiliar, but admittedly...he was envious. A new feeling, this. The ghost within demanded to move forward, to show Kamille that Char still lived on, that Quattro wanted to see him again. Full Frontal bit the inside of his lip.

Not yet.

<Pose Tracker> Kamille Bidan has posed.

Kamille gasps audibly when he sees the scar. It's one thing to see sunglasses and sense familiarity, but watching his body language, hearing his words, it's all too much. It's uncanny. The regret hits alarm and confusion, and behind it, hurt. Deep, deep hurt.

He wanted to hear that for so long. But...

"You're dead," he snaps, taking a step back. "Don't apologize to me from beyond the grave! You're /dead./ How are you here? Is this some kind of sick trick? Are you just another fanatic trying to emulate Char, and you did your damn research this time?" But it feels...so /familiar./

"Rough spell is a nice way to put it," he adds with a barking, mirthless laugh. "If you'd come to see me before Axis I would have done my damndest to smack that foolish idea out of your head. Wait, why-why am I talking to you like you're /him?/ That...that's not his voice..."

And this man looks different. Could Char really reinvent himself so often? Who would claim to be...

"...You're the one Banagher told me about. Full Frontal." His eyes narrow, and he keeps the distance between them.

<Pose Tracker> Full Frontal has posed.

Full Frontal turns around and makes eye contact with Kamille, a sad-looking smile on his face even as Kamille grows wary. "That I am. The return of the Red Comet, and Char reborn, or so everyone would have you believe. What I can tell you is fact is that I am Char, and Char is me. Come, sit. We might as well take this opportunity to speak." The leader of the Sleeves motions with his head, nodding in a very Quattro-like manner towards a nearby park bench. Without waiting to see if Kamille followed, Full Frontal continued, knowing the young man could still hear him.

"Let me ask you a question. Is it really so far-fetched that I'm back from the grave? How can you know for real if I actually died that fateful day with Amuro?" Locking eyes again with Kamille, Full Frontal gave him a determined look, augmented by the stirring ghost within him, desperate to connect with its former mentee. "You know I've taken many names over the years. Many faces, many factions, all for the same goal. To save our planet, to make humanity wake up and see what they're doing to our birthplace."

Full Frontal frowned, taking out his mask from its resting place within his coat, making sure Kamille could see it. "I was maimed, Kamille. Torn apart after Axis. Rebuilt just barely, and after much time. I've lost so much. I witnessed how humanity saw a miracle that surpassed all of our myths and legends born on Earth...and even still, we weren't able to change." Putting the mask back into his coat, Full Frontal nonetheless donned a saddened expression. "I was a fool for trying to make people change, for daring to hope in possibilities. All I can do now is to work to lift up the Spacenoids, even if it means I have to close my heart away. Tell me...Kamille. Did our fight mean anything, in the end?"

<Pose Tracker> Kamille Bidan has posed.

Kamille should not sit. He should walk as quickly as possible away from this man who claims to be his former mentor. What Full Frontal claims is impossible.

(But so was the return of Amuro Ray and GGG. So was the reappearance of Guy Shishioh. So was Kamille's own recovery, those years ago.)

He does follow and he does sit, still carrying the now-lukewarm coffee cup. He bites his thumb the way he used to do so often when he was younger, even his body language reverting to older habits as if even his reflexes are nostalgic for old, troubled times.

"I had this sense of...of you both being gone. Something tangible that carried weight, that was there and not. Both of you, at the same time." He stares forward at a tree shorn of leaves rather than make eye contact with Full Frontal. "Why should a miracle force us to change? You were wrong to try to make people change because there's no one person who can do it. Everyone has to choose to change, and some just..." He kicks at the ground. "Just won't. I can't tell you what that battle means. I still don't know what the Gryps conflict meant in the end, since the Federation swept it under the rug. At least that affords me a little more privacy than Amuro got..."

He sighs. "Listen to me, already talking to you like I believe you. Tell me, why are you working with Zeon remnants now? Do you still think they're the path to a better future, or something like that?"

<Pose Tracker> Full Frontal has posed.

Full Frontal leans his head back wistfully, staring up towards the current ceiling of the colony. "Amuro...It's ironic, isn't it? I was drawn here by a powerful presence, hoping to settle the score with him once more...and instead, I find you. Funny, how history repeats itself." A frown grows on his face. Not painted, not crafted. This was honest dissatisfaction, pure and tapped from the source. "Yes, I was wrong, and I paid for it with my very being. A part of me did die that day, I suppose. The madness, the passion, the dreams and hopes. I awoke on an operating table with a body that no longer felt like my own, but a mere fabrication. Imagine you have been wearing the same clothes your entire life, Kamille, and then one morning you wake up in a completely new set, alien and unfamiliar."

Looking back down at the coffee-cup focused Zeta pilot, Full Frontal answered his query. "I'm with the the Zeon remnants because we believe in the same truth: if a miracle can't bring humanity to change for the better, then we are better off ignoring it. Look around you, Kamille. The Federation still oppresses and chokes the life out of the Sides. The Spacenoids aren't able to enjoy the fruits of their labor, or receive fair representation in the Federation government. I lead the Sleeves because we believe in trying again to liberate the Spacenoids. To give everyone in the sea of stars the life that they deserve, even if it means we exclude the Federation from it."

Full Frontal silently cursed within. The ghost's influence? Or the sentimentality of inherited memories and emotions? He'd almost let too much slip. It wasn't yet time to reveal his intent for the Co-Prosperity Sphere. Standing up, Full Frontal turned to face Kamille. "I will not ask you to join me, Kamille. You've been forced into far too many fights, and you've already given up far too much. I just don't wish to meet you on the battlefield as an enemy." Full Frontal paused as he pulled out his sunglasses and put them on without thought. His voice wavered slightly, to his shock.

"Please."

<Pose Tracker> Kamille Bidan has posed.

Kamille looks down at his hands. "...I can count a few times when my body didn't feel right, at least. Different ways, but...it must feel so /off/ all the time."

He doesn't know if Full Frontal is telling the truth or not. Maybe he does want to believe it. Maybe he wants this to be the honest conversation he thought he'd have with Char one day, the one that would start with him slugging the Former Lt Quattro in the face. Again, as he told Banagher.

But he hasn't taken a swing at Full Frontal, has he? Wanting to believe isn't the same as being convinced.

He listens to Full Frontal's pitch, to his plea. It hurts.

"I."

Silence.

"I wanted so, so badly for you to ask me, that last time, before Axis. So I could say no, I think. Arrogant, right?" His laugh is weak this time, hoarse. "But it would have /validated/ me. Isn't that childish? I'm still childish."

Maybe it's easier to talk honestly to someone who may be Char, rather than someone he knows for certain is. The ambiguity is safe.

"I don't fight much, nowadays. When the situation calls for it, sure. But I'm a medical officer now, primarily. A doctor. Made that clear, that combat was a secondary duty because my soldier days are over." He leans against the back of the bench, staring up at the gray, artificial sky.

"So who knows, maybe we'll both luck out."

Not a promise, not a refusal. Again, that ambiguity.

<Pose Tracker> Full Frontal has posed.

Full Frontal nods in that Quattro-like manner and turns to leave, pausing. "Perhaps. Cherish that inner child, Kamille. It's proof there's still a better path waiting for you. I'm too far gone, and all I can do is finish this long, bloodied path, before I also disappear into the burial mound that awaits me." As he began to walk back to the spaceport, he called behind him to Kamille. "I hope for your sake, over mine, we do not face each other on the battlefield. I still need to settle the score with Amuro. For both who I used to be, and who I am now." A long silence followed, before a softer, more gentle voice echoed. "Save lives, Kamille. You're better suited to making sure no one else has to feel the same anguish you did so long ago."

With those final words, the leader of the Sleeves trudged back to the spaceport amidst the artificial breeze, a veil of fallen leaves accompanying him on the wind. Not what he had expected when landing in Side 1, and certainly no Amuro Ray. Yet he felt like he'd gained something from this exchange. Not just uncertainty, but something more. As he struggled to grasp this newest experience, a thought briefly bloomed within his mind.

So this is what it means to be human.

<Pose Tracker> Kamille Bidan has posed.

Kamille, when he was younger, had the energy to say what was on his mind immediately. To lash out, to beg Char to just stop, that at some point it has to stop, that even he could just disappear into life the way Kamille had and...and what?

And what, Kamille? Have /you/ disappeared into life, while CMO on the Londo Bell Ra Mari? While finding yourself mentoring several people younger than you were when you were a pilot and frankly better behaved on top of it? While still piloting a damn Gundam? How's disappearing gone for you there, buddy?

And an adult has the self-reflection to understand his own hypocrisy, and try to work through it.

The body language is so similar. So unnerving.

He should warn 'Quattro' that the Amuro he faces is not the same person, that the scales are tipped by a universal force far beyond Axis.

But /Full Frontal/ is Sleeves, and an enemy. So he stays silent when Frontal leaves, and then covers his face.

"Still talks like a damn philosopher," he whispers in a hoarse, breaking voice.