I'm using this fic to tide people over for the moment, until Gundam SEED: Kismet is ready to be posted and completed. Much like Kismet, the mechatalk forums will receive the chapters first, but FF will get the improved version. In this case, FF gets the first chapter within hours of mechatalk.

I hope people enjoy it. Expect updates roughly once a week, maybe twice if I can afford to be generous.

EDIT 10/6/2012: For much of the fic, there is a young girl featured prominently. Originally, she was called "Melanie". The truth is, she is the girl that Kira meets in Gundam SEED, the girl who goes on the space shuttle heading back to Earth in episode 13. That girl is canonically named "Elle". I have taken the action of changing all mentions of "Melanie" to "Elle", to emphasize that she is NOT an OC, but a canonical character. Thank you for reading.

EDIT 12/24/2012: I've labeled Kismet as a deadfic. I've folded a couple of the plotlines into the Bloodlines universe, though they will be portrayed differently than they were in Kismet.

Life is so peculiar,
all you really have to say is "that's life".
-Louis Armstrong

Part One: Invoke

Chapter One: We Were So Close Together

I guess the best way to tell the beginning is to start at an end. Not the end, of course. But an end of something.

I was leaving the academy on the dark side of the moon that day. I was finished with junior high, and my parents, who had adopted me as a baby, wanted me to attend high school and college as an Orb citizen. They didn't want their child to grow up a pawn of the PLANTs, the orbital cities controlled by the Coordinators.

I didn't fully understand why at the time. I was still young. And I was a Coordinator myself. Why should I be separated from my friends? My kind? The kind of people genetically superior to normal human beings?

It's become clear to me that my parents wanted me to learn tolerance, and make friends with normal human beings, who, unsurprisingly, are called "Naturals". I had to learn that Naturals are humans too. Coordinators are not evolved from Naturals . . . just different. But we all have our humanity in common.

Those who forget that are destined to cause only strife, chaos, and hatred. And there are many who forget.

At the academy, you graduated at age thirteen. Just as hormones started to kick in. And, much to my surprise, I was becoming more and more drawn to my best friend.

That's not supposed to happen. People don't fall for their best friends. But we were becoming drawn to each other.

As we met in the park one last time, I saw my best friend, with his silly yet endearing beret on his blue-haired head. The beret did not disguise his long, flowing hair, that made him look somewhat feminine.

He smiled at me, in such a gentle, kind way. "I guess we'll see each other after high school, huh?"

I smiled back. "Yeah."

We both knew it was a lie. My best friend was Athrun Zala, the son of an important politician for the government that controlled the PLANT orbital cities. The Zodiac Alliance of Freedom Treaty, or ZAFT, dominated Coordinator affairs, even for Coordinators who lived on Earth. I don't get the government's name, personally, it seems unnecessarily awkward, but no one listens to language majors like me.

Athrun walked up to me. "I know things don't look good right now, but my father promised there won't be any conflict between ZAFT and Earth. I believe him."

I didn't like Athrun's father very much, but I knew better than to argue with him. "I hope everything turns out okay, then."

Athrun gazed in my eyes, and then looked away, his face turning red a bit. I was well aware he was crushing on me, which made it even harder for me to avoid showing any overt feelings.

We were thirteen. It was so awkward.

Finally, Athrun took his robotic bird, appropriately named "Tori", the Japanese word for 'bird', and cupped it in his hands. The bird chirped in a confused manner, but then its head swiveled to look at me, and it seemed to realize something I wasn't.

"I . . . I want to give you something to remember me by," Athrun said, his cheeks flushing even more than before, if that was possible.

"You're giving me Tori?" I asked.

"Yeah. You've always wanted a robotic pet, and I think it's about time you had one." Athrun looked at Tori, and said "There's your new master, right over there."

Tori's head turned at me, and then it took off from Athrun's hands, and flew in a couple of circles above our heads, before it rested on my left shoulder.

Now I was blushing. "Thank you."

Athrun nodded. He turned, and I looked in the same direction. All of our friends were already with their parents, and preparing to leave the student grounds. Athrun's father was nowhere to be seen, but that could change at any moment.

Athrun bit his lip. "I . . . I've wanted to say something to you for a long time."

"Yeah?" I asked.

"I . . . I like you. I really like you."

I didn't quite know how to answer that. "Uh . . . thank you? I mean, we're friends, but . . ."

Suddenly, I heard Athrun's father. "Athrun, what are you doing? We need to leave! I have a meeting in three hours and we're four hours away from getting to the nearest PLANT!"

Athrun shook his head. "I can't believe I'm doing this."

He ran forward and kissed me.

Tori took off from my shoulder, and flew all around us. I thought about punching him, which is what I usually did when boys messed with me, but I realized I didn't want to do that. Not to Athrun.

I felt so uncomfortable in that instance, but it didn't feel wrong, either.

I had no idea how to react. I had never been kissed by a boy before.

He separated, and then shook his head. "I . . . I'm sorry. I just . . ."

"It's okay. I think," I replied.

His eyes seemed to moisten just a little bit. "I hope we can see each other soon . . . Cagalli."

"Yeah. Me too."

And then he took off in the direction of his father, who had a most amusing expression on his face. After all, he had just witnessed his son kissing a girl on the mouth. I'm sure Athrun's father hadn't exactly envisioned his son kissing anybody for a couple more years.

As usual, I was left waiting in the park, waiting for my parents to come get me. They were always so slow, because they had to clear roughly a zillion levels of ZAFT security just to gain access to the academy. I was almost always the last child to be picked up at the end of any given semester at the academy because of that.

But this time, it felt different than usual. I had the uncanny feeling that Athrun was leaving me behind.

It turned out that the feeling was true. Horribly true, in ways I could never imagine.

Because it was the day we were destined to be on different sides.

It was three years later when the beginning happened in force. One thing hadn't changed: I was always shipped off to an Academy, except Orb didn't strip-search my parents five or six times before letting them into a colony. The result was that I was picked up like any normal kid at the end of the semester. That went for being dropped off, too.

In the end, I was happy when I finally became a college student and could control my own destiny.

Orb liked the emulate the PLANT education system, which meant you entered college as a sixteen year old. The idea was that you would graduate and be ready for adult life once you left your teens. Theoretically, the immaturity would be beaten out of you as more and more responsibility and pressures were placed upon you. You could not be a "party animal" and survive in an Orb college, at least not for long.

Orb's education system was considered more difficult than either the Earth Alliance's or the ZAFT's, because Naturals were being put through a regimen made for Coordinators. For me, I felt comfortable, comfortable enough that I was a rare double major, in both language and political science. For the Naturals that surrounded me . . . not so much.

Let's put it this way, athletics, especially at industrial colleges, were not on the priority list. Orb was regularly blown out whenever their college teams faced EA schools. It didn't help that EA schools had a two year age difference too, our students were playing twenty-somethings.

Of course, Coordinators were disallowed from competing in athletics, and I didn't make a deal of it. I didn't want people to know I was a Coordinator, and so I did my best to hide it. The result was that I came off as an unusual prodigy, and while there were rumbles that I had to be a Coordinator, no one really investigated, because I wasn't doing anything wrong. And it wasn't like Coordinators could be turned away from Orb classes. After all, it is based on the PLANT system. Practically the same education.

At the same time, I was filled with so much pent-up energy that I ran and worked out on a daily basis. I had been a great athlete at Coordinator academies, and being denied that opportunity drove me insane. So I ran, lifted weights, even experimented in parkour (and broke a bone more than a few times attempting something stupid even by Coordinator standards).

It was my first year of college, my second semester actually. The colony of Heliopolis was considered a haven for the weapons corporations Morgenroete, they loved to pull students out of Heliopolis colleges. Heliopolis had a beautiful interior, but unlike the PLANTs, it was obvious that you lived in the colony. Distant skylights were visible above. If you dug too deep into soil you hit metal. Oftentimes, you would spot workers trying to fix up a mild issue in the plating or circulation, a rare, and heavily disguised, occurrence in the PLANTs.

It was just a reminder that I was with a generation of people whose nationalities were from the Earth.

I had finished my homework early that morning, and spent the remaining time jogging. It felt more productive to me than sitting down and watching TV.

I collapsed on a park bench near the college, wiped my blonde bangs away from my eyes, and Tori, like always, landed on my shoulder. I just stared at it. "Oh sure. You never get tired."

Tori chirped.

"Stop rubbing it in, why don't ya?" I looked up and stared at the artificial sky.

No sign of the simulated rain that was going to begin later today. I almost wished it would start early so I could cool off.

I then heard a familiar voice. "Cagalli! Hey, Cagalli!"

"Tolle." I got up just in time to catch him as he embraced me. Tolle Koenig happened to be my boyfriend.

He separated pretty fast. "Oh man, you're sweaty!"

"I took a run this morning."

"I keep forgetting you're a health nut."

"Well, I keep forgetting that you like to hug me." I turned and saw Miriallia Haw, a girl about my age with blue eyes and caramel-blonde hair, standing right behind Tolle. "Hey, what's up?"

"I have a question for you, political-science major."

"Oh yeah?"

"Take a look at this."

She was bringing over her tablet, and I sighed. Miriallia was paranoid over Orb being attacked by ZAFT even though Orb was neutral. Given that Orb was governed by Naturals, the Coordinators' enemy, I didn't blame her.

Tolle just sighed and rubbed the back of his brown hair. "Miri, do you have to keep shoving that stuff in Cagalli's face? I mean, we're already dragging her to the lab on Professor Kato's orders."

"What, Kato wants me again?"

"You make his papers readable," Tolle said with a laugh.

"I'm sick of him leaning on me like a crutch," I said.

"You're the one who made human genomes sound exciting. You did it to yourself," Tolle said.

Professor Kato had a reputation of being a brilliant mind but also being a horrendous writer. Dull prose, misplaced modifiers, atrocious grammar, you name a writing flaw, he had it. It made him a bit of a laughingstock until he hired me to edit and fix his papers. It was good money, but highly stressful considering he gave me really short deadlines.

I wasn't looking forward to spending half a day fixing yet another paper for the guy.

"Yeah, I guess I did," I said.

Miriallia got her tablet turned on, and shoved it in front of my face. "Seriously, look at this!"

I stared at the news anchor. She looked professional, trim, young, and soulless. News anchors had to look so perfect that you couldn't see the humanity in them. They looked almost like machines.

"ZAFT forces have invaded the island of Taiwan, after it was leaked that the neutral nation had secret dealings with the Republic of East Asia and the North American Federation last week. The ZAFT promised retribution for breaking neutrality rules, and currently Taiwan's forces are fighting a losing battle. Both the REA and NAF are promising reinforcements but as of right now Taipei in under siege and the entire southern half of the island is under ZAFT control."

"Look at how close Taiwan is to the Orb mainland," Miriallia said.

I sighed. "Don't worry about it. I doubt Lord Uzumi would be stupid enough to provoke ZAFT."

"You sure?" Miriallia asked.

"Look, we have nothing here ZAFT would want."

"What if there's something secret?" Miriallia asked.

"Then we're screwed. But I doubt either Lord Izumi or Morgenroete would be stupid enough to provoke ZAFT. And if they are, well . . . what happens, happens."

Miriallia's face looked like she was about to be hit by falling sky. Tolle stepped in.

"What Cagalli means is that the war isn't coming to Orb, okay? Don't worry about it."

"Y-Yeah, Tolle. Right," Miriallia said.

"So," I said, "Does Kato want me now or can he afford for me to go to the dorm for a quick shower?"

"Uh, I think you have time for a shower if we drive you," Tolle said.

"Deal."

I felt refreshed as Tolle drove us through the Heliopolis suburbs. Ready to face the day, and Kato giving me extracurricular activities.

Though the music Tolle was playing was driving me insane.

"Do we have to listen to this?"

"What?" Tolle asked. "Lacus Clyne is awesome!"

"Oh please. She's all 'Oh, look at me, I love peace and understanding and fluffy bunnies, pay no attention to my father's army nuking you all, ha-ha'!" And yes, I said this in a high-pitched voice mimicking Lacus, and the result was grating almost beyond belief. I have a deep, husky voice for my age, so any attempt to raise my pitch gives the impression of metal being scraped across concrete.

Miriallia just laughed. "After your demonstration I think I'll take Lacus."

"Oh, sure," I said.

It was joking among friends, nothing more. Tolle and Miriallia were the first Natural friends I've ever had. They, without meaning to, taught me that Naturals were humans too, just as human as I was.

We parked Tolle's car, and Tolle stretched his arms. "Come on, Cagalli. get with it. At least Lacus throws strings behind her music instead of electronics."

"That's supposed to make me feel better? It gives the impression of an orchestra being wasted behind a toothless, milquetoast pseudo-singer."

I had a thing about Lacus Clyne, driven more by politics than by dislike for her music. Her father was the Chairman of the ZAFT Supreme Council, which was conducting the war, and authorized decisions like shooting Earth with a neutron jammer to disrupt long-range communications. Damage that will not go away for centuries was approved by this council.

Of course, the Earth Alliance wasn't much better, but Lacus was a more visible target. Nobody among the EA top dogs had children who wanted to be pop singers.

What can I say? I was cynical. Considering everyone seemed to love Lacus' lavish hope-tinged music except me, I was the anomaly. The crazy one.

Before our argument over the merits of Lacus Clyne could continue, we saw someone very familiar approach us.

"I told you, it's not like that!"

That was Flay Allster, a 'draft dodger' of sorts. Her father was a bigwig in the Earth Alliance, and when relations with the ZAFT deteriorated he sent her to Orb to keep the military from drafting her. Considering the high casualties the EA was taking, I don't really blame him.

She was beautiful in every sense of the word. Her red hair was tied back in an elegant ponytail. Her face was angular, with high cheekbones that emphasized a striking face. She also had certain other features, like filling out her clothing well, no matter what she was wearing. Here, she was wearing a pink two-piece dress, clearly tailored and carefully made.

She was desired by every boy. Even Tolle, despite being my boyfriend, still had some obvious, if brief, pangs for her.

One of her friends, a girl whose name I can't recall, ran up to us. "Guess what?"

"Oh no," Flay said, a mortified expression on her face.

"Sai Argyle just gave a love letter to Flay!" said blue-haired girl.

"From Sai?" Miriallia asked.

"That's right!"

Sai Argyle was kinda like a male Flay in how he was desired. And he was handsome, and had a wild but superb taste in fashion. He wore glasses, but he made them look impeccably cool.

Flay stepped in. "This doesn't have anything to do with them! Miriallia isn't involved in this and Cagalli's like from another planet! Stop talking to them!"

Her friend put on a pouty face. "Come on, Flay. Stop freaking out about it. He's not that bad."

"I said enough already!"

I broke in. "Excuse me, but I have to go save my professor's ass, so . . ."

Flay glared at me. "I swear to God you're some kind of alien, Cagalli Yamato."

"She'd just be even more cool if she was an alien," Tolle said, chuckling.

Flay shook her head. "What do you see in her, Tolle? She's like a man!"

"A man, am I?" I put on a false smile, and got ready to show Flay that while I'm not a man, I hit like one. Thankfully, Miriallia got between us before I disturbed Flay's makeup, and nose, and lips, and teeth . . . you get the idea.

"Cagalli, come on," Miriallia said.

"Yeah," I said. "You're right."

The conversation broke off and we went walking our separate directions. Tolle sighed. "You know, Cagalli, for a language and political-science major, you do way too much talking with your fists."

"It's Flay and nothing else. I just want to hit her," I replied, not being fully serious.

"That doesn't make it right," Miriallia said.

"You're right," I said, with total seriousness.

"Why does she drive you so crazy? It's worse than Lacus Clyne," Tolle asked.

"I don't know. I just don't like her. That's the truth. I see her and she automatically makes me want to hit her. She's just so . . . arrrgh."

"If you can't explain why you hate her so much then stop hating her," Miriallia said.

"Yeah, I'll try that." But thinking of Flay's image in my head just made me infuriated and I forced the thought of her out of my brain.

My dislike for Flay was totally irrational, just like with Lacus Clyne. She never deserved the abuse I wished upon her. She was just an ordinary girl in the end, with all of the flaws of a normal human being.

Thankfully, the thought of Flay vanished from my mind, as we approached the laboratory, where my appointment with Kato was waiting.

It turned out Kato had gone out to an early lunch, leaving me hanging around in his facility with his two student assistants, Kuzzey Buskirk and Sai Argyle, the ladykiller himself.

Kuzzey was just an unassuming young man with dark eyes and hair. Perfectly average, with nothing extraordinary about him. And he knew it, he seemed to have a bit of an inferiority complex about him.

Sai, unlike him, had a cool, confident exterior. He wasn't an intentional ladykiller, but his attitude and handsome looks, with a short yet stylish haircut and trendy clothing, made him the object of a lot of girls' desires.

Sai greeted us all with smiles. "Hey, you gave in to the prof again!"

"Kinda had to," I said.

"Uh, I thought it was just kinda supposed to be Cagalli," Kuzzey said.

"What's the matter, got a problem with us being here, Kuzzey?" Tolle asked.

"Uh, no," Kuzzey said, fidgeting with his hands as he spoke.

"What are you guys working on?" I asked as I approached their latest project.

"Virtual reality simulator thingamabob, and it's not ours," Sai said. "Morgenroete's thinking of branching into training simulators. It's got a ton of bugs. Some other prof asked us to store it for him until he can pick it up."

"Cool!" Tolle said, and he ran up to the simulator and sat down in the cockpit chair. "Let's try it!"

"I don't think this is a good idea," Kuzzey said, and I personally agreed with him.

"You know, this is military equipment," I said. "Last thing I need is my boyfriend in jail."

"What's one little trial? They wanna find bugs, I say we help the military guys find them," Tolle said. 'Now how do I turn this thingie on . . ."

He started pressing random buttons. Miriallia walked up to us with a bemused expression. "Tolle, seriously, I don't know about this."

"What's the harm in taking it for a spin? Sai, find the manual, won't ya? Lemme figure out how to turn this thing-"

The lights went out all of a sudden, and we were drowned in darkness.

Nobody spoke for a second. Then Miriallia finally said "Nice one, Tolle."

"It wasn't me!"

"Cagalli and I told you not to touch it!"

"I'm telling you I didn't do anything!"

"Actually, it was unplugged," Sai said. "I just wanted to watch Tolle struggle with it for a while."

"Very funny, Sai. Now turn the lights back on," Tolle said.

"Uh, that wasn't me."

"Not me either," I said.

A brief pause. Then everyone asked "Kuzzey?"

"Hey, hey, hey! Come on, guys! It wasn't-"

The emergency lights came into being then, shrouding the room with eerie, intermittent soft green light.

"Okay, emergency lights mean something really bad just happened," Sai said. "This isn't a joke."

"What, a joke means we stay in darkness forever?" Tolle asked.

Sai just gave him a look. Before anyone could say anything else, the room suddenly seemed to jump into the air. Loud crashing, exploding noises erupted, and caused all of the equipment to crash into the floor. Sai and Kuzzey fell to the ground, and I futilely tried to hold onto the laboratory sink before doing the same. Mirialli crashed into Tolle and they wound up a tangled mess.

"Okay, what the heck was that?" Kuzzey asked.

I got up to my feet, and I looked around the room. The emergency lights remained on, but it occurred to me we had no contact with the outside world. I walked up to the nearest wall, by the emergency exit, and tried to listen. I could hear faint crowd chatter, and a couple of low rumbles.

Sai got up to his feet. "Was it some kinda accident?"

"No," I said.

Everyone looked at me.

"I think we're under attack."