Weapon's Waltz
is a Fan Fic that takes the typical Type-two Elsewhere Fic and uses it to make Mobile Suit Gundam SEED far bloodier than it ever was.
Weapon's Waltz's storyline starts before the Gundam SEED storyline proper, though not long into the Waltz story do the two lines merge. The narrative focuses on Lexi Rymyr, a runaway from Orb with parents high up in the government, who decides to take sides in a war that Orb wants no part of. Soon after volunteering and joining the ZAFT war effort, she is shunted off to a 'special training program' at Januarias Four for special, field operatives that requires Supreme Council-level clearance to deal with. The training is designed to create "weapons," more so than "soldiers." Ones who follow orders and do even the most bloody tasks without hesitation, or so the program was intended. Teenagers are, perhaps, not the best equipped for such intense training programs and while it's hinted at what went down at the facility, nothing is ever explicitly said.
As the story progresses, Lexi (going under the code-name Lunar Eclipse) operates off-and-on with the Le Creuset Team, as well as operating solo on her own assignments, one of which is to track down rogue operators from the same program she graduated from. It is later revealed that these "rogues" were her classmates from the program and they joined with some BCPU program deserters to form a collective called SIN-ED. The group becomes an organization attempting to play both sides in the war in an effort to escalate it. They asked Lexi/Eclipse to join the effort to end the war on their terms, but she refuses. Along the way, Lunar Eclipse (She does not like using her normal name after the training) does battle with the Archangel several times, as well as the pilot of the Strike Kira Yamato, though never prevails in direct battle against the Earth Alliance pilot.
A notable point of this story is the insertion of a complete second story set without disturbing canon in any fashion that would require an Author's Saving Throw to keep it logical. Though the two stories merge for better than half the series, the way they are merged displays canon by showing the events from the other side of Gundam SEED, as well as showing more background of the ZAFT point of view. The divergent points is what makes it an Elsewhere Fic and not an AU, given the adherence to the SEED story. Though the core and backdrop of the story is Gundam SEED, the plot is split roughly fifty-fifty between SEED and Lexi/Eclipse's personal missions against the renegades.
The story is continued in the second book Sibling's Serenade which plays around with the two years between Gundam SEED and Gundam SEED Destiny. That story is currently in progress.
This Fan Work provides examples of:
- Drill Sergeant Nasty: Played with in the form of Captain Vindur. On first appearance, seems to fit the bill to a fare-thee-well. Oddly enough, this is one of the few DSNs in fiction that follows the fate of the original (Gunnery Sergeant Hartman, Full Metal Jacket) in that he is later killed by his recruits. Also notable for being an abject failure: by the end of the series, every one of his students has turned against the program, and/or ZAFT in general.
- Interquel: The second story Sibling's Serenade takes place during the two years in between SEED and SEED Destiny.
- My God, What Have I Done?: When Lunar Eclipse realizes who the "prisoner" was she executed, this is her reaction.
