Rey Za Burrel
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Rey Za Burrel is one of the young elite mobile suit pilots in ZAFT, known as 'Reds'. They wore the special red uniform that meant that they had graduated at the top of their military cadet class. Rey was first seen in ZAFT's Armory One greeting the Chairman of PLANT Supreme Council Gilbert Dullindal, who has arrived to meet with Orb Union representative Cagalli Yula Athha. The objective of the meeting set up by ORB was to voice concerns regarding both ZAFT and Earth Alliance members building up their military powers again. Armory One was preparing for the launch ceremony of the first post-war battleship, the Minerva.
While Cagalli met with Dullindal, Earth Alliance pilots Sting Oakley, Auel Neider, and Stellar Loussier infiltrated the base, commandeered ZAFT's newest Gundam-type mobile suits, ZGMF-X24S (RGX-01) Chaos, ZGMF-X31S (RGX-02) Abyss, and ZGMF-X88S (RGX-03) Gaia, and heavily damaged the installation. Rey joined the fight with Shinn Asuka in an effort to stop the three stolen mobile suits from escaping Armory One in his commander class ZGMF-1001 Blaze ZAKU Phantom, which is painted with his custom white color scheme. When Captian Neo Lorrnoke, the commander of the EA's 81st Independent Mobile Battalion, pilots his mobile armor TS-MA4F Exass in battle to buy Sting, Auel, and Stellar some time to escape, Rey had a Newtype reaction to Neo.
Rey Za Burrel is a very quiet, cool-minded, and polite person who keeps himself out of other people's way. Among the crews of the Minerva, Rey is best friends with fellow ace pilot Shinn Asuka. They worked closely together to develop the tactics used by Shinn in Operation "Angel Down" that successfully destroyed the legendary ZGMF-X10A Freedom. Rey deeply respects and obeys all orders from Chairman Dullindal, and a young Rey was seen to have accompanied the late Rau Le Creuset to meet with Dullindal in the past. While Mu La Flaga used to have a Newtype reaction with Rau Le Creuset, Neo Lorrnoke has a Newtype reaction to Rey as well. Rey has fought valiantly to defend the Minerva and he idolizes Chairman Dullindal, whom helped to raise him.
It is implied in the series and was confirmed in an interview that Rey was one of hundreds of clones of Al Da Flaga, "deceased" ace pilot Mu La Flaga's father. When the elder Flaga discovered the defects in Rau Le Creuset's telomeres, and learned of the shortened lifespan that would result, he commissioned Dr. Ulen Hibiki to produce hundreds of clones and place them in cryosleep. The idea was that as each clone aged and died off, another would be awakened, allowing Al Da Flaga to live forever, in a sense. Presumably, Rey was released early for unknown reasons, and the rest died off when Colony Mendel was abandoned. Rey once mentions that the profits Hibiki made from producing and storing these clones were used to fund research into his Ultimate Coordinator project, which ultimately produced Kira Yamato.
In the Battle of Crete, his ZGMF-1001 Blaze ZAKU Phantom unit was severely damaged when defending the Minerva from the assaulting ORB mobile suits force. After the defection of Athrun Zala, he took over as the pilot of ZGMF-X666S Legend, which was originally intended for Athrun, with approval from ZAFT Chairman Gilbert Dullindal.
In the battles with the Earth Alliance forces at Heaven's Base, and also with the Orb forces Rey utilizes the Legend very well, working with Shinn to form a formidable tandem. Later at the Daedalus lunar base, Rey managed to destroy the Girty Lue battleship, thus killing Lord Djibril who was fleeing in the process.
Rey confided with Shinn that he too is a clone, just like his "other self" Rau Le Creuset, who was seen to be with him on important occasions when Rey was little. He also suffered from intense pain that requires medications due to the shortening of telomeres in his cells. Telomeres are sections on either end of strands of DNA which shorten with age. This shortening is related to many of the effects of aging. Clones are born with the same length of telomeres as their DNA donors, thus, a 20 year old clone could have the telomeres of a 50 year old, and already be experiencing the effects of age. Due to this, Rey knows that he does not have much of a future. However he still passionately supports Chairman Dullindal's "Destiny Plan".
In the final battle, Rey was determined to obliterate Kira Yamato, believing that he also has no future in the Destiny Plan; however, Kira convinced him that, just because he was a clone like Rau, did not mean he had to repeat his mistakes by saying "This is your life you're living, it's not his!". Shaken by this statement, Rey was defeated. He returned to the space fortress Messiah, to find Kira and Dullindal in a standoff. Moved by Kira's desire for a future in which he could exist, Rey shot Dullindal in the chest. Due to the damage it sustained at the hands of Kira Yamato's Strike Freedom, the Messiah exploded. Rey chose to remain onboard and die, along with Dullindal and Talia Gladys, whom he called "mother" at the very last moment.
Despite the unfortunate circumstances of his life, Rey's personality is decidedly different from Creuset's. Where Creuset wanted to facilitate man's own destruction, Rey believes that any life, no matter how difficult, is worth living. This view is revealed when he assists Shinn in returning Stellar Loussier to the Earth Alliance. Perhaps he saw a little bit of himself in Stellar, as they were both beings doomed to die, though for different reasons. Even though he comes to be viewed as a "villain" later in the series, he is motivated at all times by the thought of improving the world for the future of humanity. This both drives him to fight for the Destiny Plan initially, and later to ensure Kira's continued presence in the world, even though it meant killing the man who had raised him. For these reasons, his death is a tragic one.
Personal Data
Date of birth: Unknown
Age: 17
Height: 168 cm
Weight: 56 kg
Genetic type: Clone
Blood type: O
Mobile Suit: ZGMF-1001 Blaze ZAKU Phantom, ZGMF-X666S Legend
