Gundam Wing: Reaper of the SEED (Gundam Wing/SEED-verse/UC/Sekirei/Nasuverse/whatever else that counts as an element later)

**Xamusel** · May 3rd, 2012, 08:27 PM

Okay, for those of you wondering, this was approved by Dark Pulse last night due to it having the Nasuverse in it. I was not lying when I asked him over IRC what would be a good place to put this in, because for one thing, I hate lying.

True, I can tell a nice April Fools Joke, but that's beside the point.

Anyway, *ahem* the Nasuverse isn't entirely an important element in this until Shirou gets out of active duty for a while, and that won't be until after the next 51 chapters of this story... even then, he doesn't get screen time until the end of this portion of the story, but afterward he gets a proper time in the story under an assumed name (would I really kill off Shirou in any Nasuverse story? ...Didn't think so). In any case, just, bare with me here.

However, if you do want to know where Shirou is, then go "Control+F" on the keyboard... he'll be above the A/N in that section.

Oh, one other thing, there's a lemon mid-way down the first post. I should've warned you guys about it sooner, apparently, but I didn't know to warn you guys until a bit ago.

---

Original story by Rellik Eht Deraj… I'm changing stuff, adding stuff, and fixing his mistakes

Current incarnation by Xamusel

Beta Writer is F-14 Tomcat Lover, "The Big Cat is on the Prowl, so Bee Eaters… Start Running."

Gundam Wing: Reaper of the SEED

Phase 000: One Waltz Ends, Another Begins

Beep, Beep, Beep

Duo Maxwell, currently clad in a specially made one piece suit and confined within a life support vessel, his violet eyes closed due to being under sedatives, was currently contemplating what had happened when he was last awake. As far as he knew, he was in a state of limbo, with no way of knowing the actual date and time as he felt his body grow what seemed to be more and more useless. What he recalled, though, was that this was supposed to be a simple mission for the Preventers and he screwed it up by letting himself get captured... all because someone had to stay behind and open the way out.

“Condition?”

“Stable.”

“Good.”

If he could summarize it further, he would, but he knew it would take a while to remember the important details regarding the whole event that was the “Professor X” start-up incident. He knew that he was going to need to finish this at some point, but at the rate of his ‘sleeping,’ he figured he would need some time to reflect on what he had done and what had resulted from it. What had started this off was a day gone horribly wrong, where particular things that happened in his apartment he shared with Hilde Schbeiker, his girlfriend, made him really upset at certain intervals.

“Damage Control Party Fourteen report to Hanger Deck Three.”

Then she headed out on a small vacation and thereafter things started to go nuts for him. First his business had begun to spiral out of control, followed by some problems in contacting the Sweepers for some help, then Quatre was unavailable, and finally, he was being pestered to report in to Preventer HQ, again! Normally, he wouldn’t have minded, at least at first, but now the Preventers were making regular use of his skills more than he would like. He had sighed and given in, figuring he could get something good out of it in the long run, but then found he had forgotten to do his laundry and that forced him to go to Preventer Headquarters in a uniform that he didn’t want to wear. Then it had gotten worse on the way in, when he was accosted by someone that hated Preventer on the way there. As soon as he made it to headquarters, he was told to go and report straight to Commissioner Middie Une for an immediate mission briefing, at least he learned of a skillful new recruit while there, and then he asked why he was the one that had to go through the mission.

“All new recruits are ordered to report at Fourteen-Hundred hours for Physicals at the Primary Medical Bay.”

However bad the week had started, it had ended better than he thought it would. It was during the briefing that he realized that Middie was pretty fond of him and that it was mutual. This in turn, led to them both starting an affair that neither thought poorly of. It was during that time that he never realized he had put Hilde out of his mind. That was something that would later come back to haunt him when he saw her next.

“Will Doctor Payne please report to Medical? I repeat. Will Doctor Payne please report to Medical?”

After a week had gone by, Duo had made it to the space station where Professor X was at, which was unnamed because X didn’t believe in superstitions like “it’s bad luck to leave a space station unnamed”. As soon as the data was pulled off of the computers, Duo was in the process of ensuring that nothing was left of the station when he realized that Hilde was also on board, and in the process of being forced upon by a notorious criminal. As her boyfriend, even though for the last week he wasn’t much of one, he had to ensure her safety.

Beep, Beep, Beep.

“Still out cold?”

“Yeah, though I wonder why the boss even thought up such a screwed up idea?”

“Hey! Be quiet! Or we’ll be next.”

“Sorry.”

Beep, Beep, Beep.

Soon after, he got a group of victims that were kidnapped by X and his men, including a Preventer Agent that had spied on the professor, and set them free shortly after finding them. It was also a time for Duo to, inadvertently mind you, help test out the more human-scale robots based off of Cylons in combat, something he’d rather not do again if it could be avoided. In general, he’d rather not do anything for the professor willingly, but it seemed like he had no other choice in the matter.

“Seventeen hundred hours, Beta Shift, Replace Alpha Shift, Charlie to awaken, Delta is to rest.”

At the last moment, though, the mad scientist had finally managed to do his best to rid the way out for the Preventers and victims on his station, only to be thwarted by Duo as a defiant last stand to let the others out. It was technically not a way for him to die that easily, but it was also not a way to let him live to tell the tale, either. If anything, he needed to be free, but this madman was at least a few steps ahead this time.

“You think the Professor and the others are serious about us having his children?”

“We’re women in the best of health and they want to do their experiments.”

“I just don’t know, it seems so...”

“Look hon, we can either go with it and enjoy what we can or go through sheer hell, which do you want?”

“Well... At least he’s not bad looking, a few more years and we’d give anything to be in his bed.”

“Have you even seen his size?”

“No.”

“Then be glad that the professor wants us to have his children.”

“He’s that small?”

“No, he’s that BIG and his fertility tests are shocking!”

“EEP!”

Now that he thought about it, he wondered if everything that was back home was finally put in order when he was captured, or if things were waiting for him to get back. He even hoped that his signature braid would remain intact, mainly because of the sentimental value it had to him. At least he was somehow safe, hopefully at least.

“Subject Thirteen is awaking.”

“Good.”

“We’re hopefully ready.”

“Good help is so hard to find.”

“You’re the guy that can be called the mad scientist here.”

“Touché.”

And then he opened his eyes for the first time in almost two months...

Professor X was not your average mad scientist. Granted, he did things in a very mad scientist way, but he was at least eccentric enough to have one little quirk of his own. While other mad scientists were sure of their defenses and their plans that they never had backups, X had backups in spades for all his plans and defenses. Then again, Duo Maxwell had bypassed both almost two months ago, and he wasn’t about to underestimate the man again.

X himself was not much to look at, except for a pair of wrap around dark shades that hid his cybernetic plate that passed for his eyes, allowing him to see on many different spectrum’s or one at a time if he wished. He was barely as tall as Professor G and only kept his gray hair long to hide his modifications of cybernetics to his own ears. He was a thin man and was slightly bent over, though he could actually stand straight, he just did so to lure others into a false sense of security.

The way he held himself suggested that he was older than his appearance would lead one to believe. However, it would take too much work, and no little amount of invading his privacy, to conclusively determine his age.

As far as what he knew, his current batch of experimentation was sure to be a success, but there were too many potential flaws that could be opened up. For instance, the Reaper Nano-machines were not of the variety that he knew would work, because he had made them too recently for his liking. There was also the fact that he needed to combine the Lemmings System and the Zero 2.5 System in a way that wouldn’t blow up in his face, even literally in some cases.

‘Twelve times before, and not a working solution until now, I believe,’ X thought to himself, really starting to get irritated with a lack of success. Before, however, he was lucky to even get a living experiment. Now that Duo Maxwell was about to awaken, with a device installed that had been tested on others but not on him, X figured that it might be a good way to finally create that pilot he had craved for.

As soon as he saw Duo open his eyes for the first time in almost two months, he turned his head to face his right and said, “Doctor Inman, empty the vessel. The subject needs to get his limbs back in order now.”

Doctor Harry Inman, a scruffy looking doctor that X had hired after he was originally caught in the wrong place at the wrong time and forced on the run, looked sad at the revelation that Duo was going to get tortured further by X. One wouldn’t have known it by looking at him, but Inman had been a family man. He didn’t know if his son would’ve turned out like Duo, but at least Duo was able to be a nice audience while unconscious for him. Needing to unwind from a stress filled job was something that a father was supposed to do, but his wife had died delivering their only child and due to the chaos he had found himself in the center of, he didn’t know what had happened to their child.

‘Damn it all! Why me?’ the man thought, ‘Now I’m too deep for me to be considered innocent anymore!’

Still, he had a job to do, and he was required to get Duo out of the life support vessel. With a few keystrokes, he commanded the vessel to empty and let Duo down in the process. He didn’t have the time to focus on memories from a long ago past, but as it turned out, Professor X was a very demanding boss and that helped keep his mind busy and off the past.

As soon as the good doctor let Duo down and eventually out, Harry knew this would not end well for one of the men in this very room by the time the next few tests were completed. What X or him or anyone including the young man himself didn’t know, was who Duo’s parents were, but that would soon be remedied by way of a DNA test that X told him to perform. This would allow them to get an idea from where Duo was actually from and if he had any living family. The idea being that they could use them if something happened to Duo, what with his incredibly high body resistance to such things as gee forces and illness.

Soon enough, though, the room felt a drop in temperature courtesy of Duo glaring at X as if the glare itself would be able to kill him as the young man became very coherent once more.

‘Amazing recovery,’ Inman thought, ‘Most take days to recover to half their strength and he’s done in so short of a time period! So this is the power of a Gundam Pilot.’

The man was impressed as he watched Duo glare at X and X just stood there taking it.

If X were a lesser man, the glare would’ve worked, but he wasn’t a lesser man. Instead, he just waved it off, letting the glare die around him. As soon as the glare faded in intensity, he turned his head to face Duo and said, “Welcome back to the Realm of the Living, Mister Maxwell. I hope you had a nice rest for almost two months.”

As soon as Duo heard this, his mouth dropped open in shock and his eyes widen ever considerably. It was clear that he didn’t know if this was a practical joke or not. He looked around, only to see a different doctor than Professor X shake his head sadly at the look in his eyes, as if he knew what Duo was going to ask. With that confirmed to be the truth, Duo realized things were about to go rather bad for what he knew of his life, he cynically thought would be suddenly very short, as he was stuck in a lab that who knows what they did in here.

As soon as he saw the look of horror that manifested on Duo’s face, X grinned evilly and secretly gave the order for Chuck Bertram, a large ape of a man, to guide him to a testing ground for testing his latest toy, the GRIM, out. When Bertram grabbed Duo and dragged him away, X led Inman away from the lab where Duo was resting in liquid nano-machines, to ensure that someone could help him facilitate a test.

When Professor X and Doctor Inman made it into the control room, the test was about to commence, with only X’s order to start not being issued preventing it from starting. When X made it to his chair, he issued an order, “Doctor Payne, bring up a display on the Reaper nano-machines.”

“Right away, boss sir,” eagerly replied Doctor Mitch Payne, who was a bit over-eager to get a promotion to second in command, though that never got in the way of his work. With a few clacks of the keyboard, a display on the Reaper nano-machines had shown them in an inactive state, which was nominal for while the GRIM was not turned on.

As soon as the screen was filled with them, Doctor Payne turned to face his boss and asked, “Do you want us to turn on the GRIM now? It would make a nice test to see what happens next.”

“No,” replied X with a shake of his head, “Wait until the right moment where I’ll tell you when. After that, however, you may turn it on.”

Internally, X was contemplating whether or not to let Bertram know of the change in schedule that might result in him going to the morgue, but eventually decided against it. If he told the apish man at all, it would most likely devolve into a massacre on Maxwell, which he didn’t want. He wanted Duo to live, he wanted a test subject that would help him make a place in history, he wanted more than what Bertram would ever give him the satisfaction of if he told him about the change in schedule.

Then again, if he had had more time, the idea of Bertram trying harder might actually just be some raw data he needed, but alas, the Preventers were mobilizing even now.

‘They are serious about keeping their peace,’ X thought idly.

With that in mind, he opened up a com-link with Bertram and said to him, “Bertram, commence test one. It will need some clear results here, you understand?”

“Yes, sir, I understand,” Bertram replied a few seconds later, ready to beat the snot out of Duo. With that, the pounding began, and Duo was taking pain worse than what he usually dished out.

X had ordered that a screen be shown to the people in the control room shortly after that had happened. As the screen fully displayed the situation of what was happening in each brutal detail, X couldn’t help but notice that Inman was shuddering at the heavy blows that were inflicted on Duo, no doubt because of some case of sympathy the doctor had for the boy.

Finally, after what seemed to be an eternity, but was really two minutes, X spoke to Payne and said, “Doctor Payne, now you may turn on the GRIM.”

“Right-o, boss sir,” Payne replied cheerfully as he typed in the sequence of keys to unlock the GRIM in its host body.

While X was awaiting the right time, trying to ensure that he had accurate test results, Duo had a bit of Hell in Space in the form of Chuck Bertram. This was mainly because the bigger man was, for lack of a better term, a mammoth gorilla of a man! Duo had gone up against the man having beaten men just as big and ugly, but he was still a bit weak from his two months of forced sleep and his body was still adjusting. At least as far as keeping Bertram from killing him easily, yet Duo knew it was a losing battle and whatever it was that X did to him had been one big epic failure. If anything, it was holding him back and it was this lack of power that Duo had that had him tied down to the proverbial whipping post like a slave boy being whipped by his master starting back in the Stone Age!

Duo began assessing his injuries as soon as they could occur and as far as what he could feel, which was an awful lot thanks to whatever treatment X had given him that countered any numbing sensation, Duo had probably broken at least two ribs, broken his left arm at the elbow though Mr. Gorilla had a nose injury in return for that one, and then he was certain of fractures throughout his spine in a couple of different places. His face was bruised over quite a bit, which was rather strange for him, but he knew that he needed a lot of medical care if he survived this beating. As far as his chances of survival go, well... things were pretty grim, to be honest.

‘Damn it all to hell,’ Duo thought just a second before the two minute mark, ‘I’m gonna die!’

When Duo thought what he felt would be his last thoughts, however, it turned out to be the time for him to awaken a force that was surgically implanted into the base of his skull. At the moment Duo was about to be completely thrashed and possibly killed, a surge of hidden strength unveiled itself and coursed through him, increasing his physical abilities and his ability to be aware of what was going on to the most minute detail. What also increased was a sense of hatred for the man that had dealt all this pain to him, which for whatever reason was going away, oddly enough.

As soon as the strength and healing started kicking in, Duo sensed a punch coming to hit him from Bertram, which he blocked by grabbing it with his right hand. As soon as the block completed itself, Duo squeezed with his hand on the apish man’s fist and was sadistically delighted to hear all the bones in the hand turn into dust, relishing in the man’s pain. As a finishing touch, Duo released the busted hand and brought up his own hand and pulled it back, turning it into a fist for a blow that would finish off Bertram once and for all. When he prepared himself to deal the fatal blow, he launched the punch and connected it through the giant man’s heart and out the other side.

As Duo extracted the fist, he could only feel grim satisfaction that he had taken a life in cold blood, and had exacted revenge for the beating of a lifetime. Soon the body toppled backwards and with enough force to shake the ground a bit, though Duo held his ground for a bit, feeling invincible for managing to kill the threat to his survival.

As a reward for killing the ape, however, Duo got clocked in the back of the head by a person that had snuck up from behind him. With that sneak attack, Duo crumpled up like a rag doll, not even knowing what was going on.

Doctor Fuji brought up the test data automatically once Duo had been rendered unconscious and moved to medical for treatment. It was more precautionary and procedure than anything else, but it was still required. After that had begun, Bertram’s remains had also been recovered and moved into the morgue for study and review. Then the room would be examined and study and data and information collected and then cleaned and sterilized.

Doctor Inman looked over the data with a whistle and then spoke, “Looks good, but not what I would consider a wild success, especially this early on.”

“Agreed,” Doctor Payne was also looking at it, “I think though that we just might have a winner here.”

Professor X nodded at the two men’s assessment. He had been surprised to find someone of Inman’s caliber, but the man still had some morality left, but at least he now knew what his chances without him were. With a group as good as this, he had been quite pleased... until the failure of Subject Number 6. Then he started to get angry with them.

But with time, they deduced as he had, it hadn’t been so much themselves, but the issue of the correct subject. The wars and conflicts had made great cover, but even some of the best in the Alliance, OZ, White Fang, and more were simply not good enough. They needed someone better and, to his surprise at Fuji’s personal research, younger. Only one group filled that void perfectly with viable candidates just below them... the Gundam Pilots.

The doors at the back opened and in step one of the security guards nursing a head injury. He was one of the more veteran remaining guards, but he never learned. That was one woman he shouldn’t be trying to hit on.

“How many times now?” X asked with a tone of cold annoyance.

“Not her this time,” the man would shake his head, but didn’t dare for what it would do, “One of the women we brought in freaked and managed to clock me good enough that hit the damn bulkhead and she tried to bolt.”

“What could you tell about her, hm?” X was curious, the women they brought in from time to time, some to work, others to do research, and others as servants or the research.

“Long purple hair and could be rather quick when she wants to,” the man smirked a little here, “But I slammed a bulkhead closed in front of her with a remote and she tried not crash into it,” he chuckled, such a petty way of revenge, but for his current head injury, it was worth it for the moment.

“Put her in Isolation until I say otherwise,” X ordered, his tone different, back to his normal tone, “That should teach her and when do you plan on seeing Medical?”

“When you say it’s okay or I get too much of a throbbing sir.”

“Good man.”

As the two spoke, Inman, Payne, and Fuji were beginning to get reports from others. The three men wondered who the person was that managed to get the drop on their guard. It was no matter for now as Payne turned and spoke.

“Boss sir,” X turned and the guard simply stood off, “We’ve completed the data download and studied some of the early wave lengths, but we may have a problem.”

Before X could speak, Fuji turned, “It’s the GRIM, we may have been unable to fully control it as originally thought.”

“It would have contributed to the high loss rate we’ve seen until now,” Inman added as he looked over some read outs, “While an issue, we can proceed though it recommended that we do so carefully and make sure we take all necessary precautions.”

“Very well, I already anticipated such a probability, but it is nice to know I was not unduly preparing for nothing,” X spoke as he looked at a replay of the ‘fight’ between Duo and Bertram.

The one punch that finished Bertram off was simply very bloody and the hallmark of the Lemming System. That would need to be addressed, they needed the Zero System to also function or the whole project was a failure, plain and simple. Stepping over and looking personally at the data flow, X spotted an error in the recording system and cursed. They would have to review everything now by hand and one piece at a time, but at least they had a little opening time.

Meanwhile, several hours had past and down in Medical, a busty brunette stood guard over the unconscious form of Duo Maxwell. She could see that under that entire tough guy persona, he was a really nice man, contrary to what she learned from Professor X. She wondered, not for the first time, how the others were doing and how she missed them. Then that line of thought turned to anger and anger was never a good thing for her.

“Please Miss Musubi, not in my Medical Bay again,” Doctor Chelsey Wright spoke as the scantily clad woman walked up beside the personal guard of Professor X, “I don’t need you breaking things again. Our budgets are not that big nor do we have the resources we once did.”

“Why do you always call me Miss Musubi?” Musubi asked, the young woman more than a little annoyed now, she hadn’t had a decent fight in a while and truthfully, being held up and unable to fight or let off steam was really getting to her.

She really wished she could have been viable for X’s research, but that wasn’t the case.

She felt the blond woman slip a hand under the back of her shirt and begin to caress her back as she always did. Musubi hadn’t really cared before, but now she was getting mad about it. She wanted to tell the woman to stop, but before she could, the woman found just the spot to begin to work the hidden knot out of her back.

“Damn you are simmering like unstable explosives in a fire,” the blond haired, green eyed woman was surprised at how tight the knot was and this was one of the easier ones, “We need to find you a decent lover or a decent fight and personally I think both are needed.”

Musubi only moaned, the female staff already used to the by play between the two. In fact, it was a surprise they weren’t a solid couple. Something held Musubi back, but what was unknown. Not that the medical doctor complained, stating she had no time for a wife and children.

The older woman began to work Musubi’s top off when someone spoke up.

“As much as I would like the free show, I figure that the bastard has more cut out for me,” Duo spoke with a snarky tone.

The two blinked as they looked down at Duo already awake and groaning at his head injury from the way he moved his head... or tried too. The head of the Medical Ward had his head strapped so he couldn’t move it. She was quite surprised that he was even coherent. Then again, he is a Gundam Pilot, an elite who could take more of a punishment than others and had been given far greater improvements by Professor X.

“I am surprised to see you are awake and I don’t think it’s X you’re awake for,” the woman nodded as she called over several of her nurses as Musubi stepped back, “I’ll see to that head of yours first, you are in pain, clearly but what kind?”

Duo didn’t honestly care where he was right now. He felt the woman begin to press on his forehead, trying to find where he was hurting most. Though he gave accurate reports about his head injury, he still admired the fact that the woman was only in a pair of panties and a doctor’s coat. She was very shapely, well formed, he wouldn’t call her bust very big, just modest, but it suited her.

He always thought the whole interest in the size of women’s busts and hips to be overrated, though that was probably why he was attracted to Une and Hilde. They wouldn’t stand out in a crowd and valued their skills as much as their abilities. Being damn beautiful was not only good, but a bonus and how they could keep their looks while working on strengthening their skills and abilities helped a lot in keeping a good figure.

He noted that the nurses wore skirted versions of the usual space medical outfit. He had already pegged X as not a sexist, so this was probably more of a morale thing for the crew. They probably had long legged pants stashed somewhere for when things were more active. The colors he noted as well were standard soft blues and whites, breaking up the whole mundane creme color look and the room smelled of something scented that wasn’t powering or invasive nor hiding anything out of place.

The next to have his attention was the brunette, Musubi. She wore a loose gi top with a skirt split on both sides, colored in tones of red and black. She only wore a tight sports top under the gi and it was a green color, but while tight, didn’t needlessly advertise her massive G-Cup bust. Her footwear was hidden, but the armored fighting gloves on her hands were telling. She was likely the one, who knocked him out, but what had been happening, he couldn’t remember much and he doubted it was a blow to the head only.

“Right,” Chelsey said at last, “We got a report of injuries now, so I guess I better go get properly dressed,” she spat the word out like it was poison, “and go give my report to the professor.”

“Understood,” Musubi responded, looking down with undisguised distrust in Duo who only shrugged and smiled, infuriating her.

“Down girl,” Doctor Wright said as she dropped her medical coat in the middle of the room and began to simply dress there, “I think the good Professor might just let you two have a spar in the future,” Musubi turned quickly to the woman and then back to Duo with a smirk that was simply both joyous and feral at the same time.

Fuji groaned as he put his stack of papers down, but sighed when he felt a pair of hands begin to mead his shoulders. If there was one thing to be said about Professor X, it was that he took real good care of his people. They had been tackling these bloody documents for some hours straight. They confirmed the sensor error was no one’s fault, just some bad programing in the sensor that simply occurred. Those happened from time to time after all and there was no way to fully get around them, but to do the work yourself.

Payne also sighed as he put his tea down. One wouldn’t know it, but Payne was actually of Russian heritage and they, like a lot of Europeans, preferred tea to coffee. It was to them more soothing than the hard hitting coffee and stimulated the nerves more evenly than coffee ever did.

Inman was also drinking tea with Payne, the man toying idly with a servant’s long hair. The girl wasn’t particularly older, just barely into her teens and Inman tended to act like the father he should have been with the younger girls. This particular girl had hair like his late wife and he couldn’t help himself, but toy with it in a distracted fashion, now that they didn’t have to worry about their thrice be damned reading material for the moment.

A phone rang and one of the servants in the room picked it up. She was relatively new herself, poor family back home, a wounded brother from the wars that X had ‘kindly’ cared for and agreed not to use for research in exchange for her services and her silence. She was rather loyal that way, but all knew it wasn’t the kind of loyalty you really wanted, but that hardly mattered at the moment.

“Yes, yes, thank you, I shall inform them then,” she spoke into the phone as the person on the other end spoke to her, “I’ll make things ready and inform the guards myself and yes, yes, of course, good to know,” she pulled the phone away and the others could make out a male voice making a nuisance of itself over the line, “Yes, strong lungs indeed, very well, good bye.”

Once the phone was hung up she turned to the gathered researchers that filled the rather large room and used a clip on microphone to speak clearly to all so they didn’t miss anything.

“Doctor Wright is on her way up with the latest on Subject Number Thirteen,” she said pointedly, “He has regained consciousness and is very alert and, I quote, ‘Quite noisy down here,’” laughter erupted from the gathered men and women throughout the room, “Once Doctor Wright arrives, she will present Medical’s report, thank you, I shall now inform the guards and arrange for additional drinks and food to be made ready for you all and the good Doctor Wright as well as summon more servants so that there will be no lag or inconvenience, thank you once more,” the woman bowed Asian styled and then turned and left to carry out the assignments.

X nodded from his spot and looked at his watch. Duo may be back up, but he was honestly doubting up to any ability to do research today or tomorrow. Well he couldn’t really guess, so he would need to wait on Doctor Wright’s report, but until then he turned to Professor Hefner, a woman from Austria and the two began to speak on something concerning the Zero System.

“You were saying Frau Hefner?” X asked as the woman moaned a little, the professor knowing that the woman preferred feminine company to bed rather than male, but she was not one to ‘turn down a delightful evening with a proper man’ as she put it often.

“My apologies Herr X,” she felt the knot in her shoulder get kneaded out and she felt the bones pop and realign themselves, “So much work by hand,” she rolled her shoulder and nodded to the servant who nodded as well and left to get some more drinks for the pair, “How did our ancestors do this so regularly?” she asked rhetorically before moving on.

“As for the Zero System,” she adjusted her glasses, “I believe that certain stimuli are needed for the actual system, even in mobile suits, quite a feat really.”

“We may not have seen eye to eye, but I do respect my former colleagues for the work and insight,” X admitted with a sad and fond sigh, “I shall miss them and their work, we have lost some good geniuses, ja?”

“Jawhol Herr X,” Hefner replied and then continued, “Another theory I have is personality creation, independent of outside stimuli, such as programmers or even the original creators themselves.”

“Oh?” X looked curious now, “Do continue.”

“I believe that Lemming and ZERO will not work together, but will operate differently with Lemming becoming a psychotic male persona and ZERO an intelligent -perhaps too much so- female persona,” Hefner dabbed at her chin to remove some tea that began to run down, “It is all in the programming and the person programming it and it is quite possible to be the result of stimuli from there that begins the progress, literally conveying and bringing to life the long held belief that things we use will have a personality and gender based one at that.”

“An incredible theory and do you have some means to back this up?”

“Why yes actually,” Hefner looked him in the cyber plate, “The Deathscythe reacts in a strong manner akin to a man, but the Shenlong models had more of a female response and grace, despite the design of them,” she took a fresh cup as the servant had just returned with fresh drink, orange flavored green tea, to which she thanked the young woman and went back to talking with Professor X, “We believe Heavyarms to be male, the same with the Wing Zero Original, but the Wing Zero Angel responded more femininely than its previous incarnation and so did the Wing Gundam, but Sandrock is tougher to classify at the moment and believe it is more because of its pilot.”

“Astounding I must say and this will no doubt affect our work and research, but still, I cannot help but find it incredible, do continue with the research I will supply as best as I am able to.”

“Danke Herr X.”

“Presenting Doctor Chelsey Wright of the Medical Division!” the servant from long before had returned with Doctor Wright, dressed in a knee length skirt and button up blouse with the medical seal on it in red and the clothes themselves in blue and white.

“My colleagues, I have brought the information on Subject Number Thirteen, Duo Maxwell,” the woman spoke, “Also known as the God of Death and an elite Gundam Pilot.”

The room went quiet as the unneeded servants filed out and guards stepped in. Once the last of the details had been taken care of and some small talk made during this time, the servants filed out as a few more guards filed in to keep the researchers safe and orderly. It was likely to be a long and boring lecture to the guards, but to the researchers, it would be long and filled with questions they would need to ask at the end.

Duo had been through so many difficult things before that it wasn’t funny anymore. This was especially true while he had still been living at the Maxwell Church, but compared to back then, this really took the cake as he would admit to a certain few and only to a certain few. Now as he was being led to his what would be passing for his quarters, just some other holding cell or something he figured, he glanced to the side and noticed that there was a section for isolated prisoners that he was being led past. He was a bit surprised to see one of the rooms had a lit light above it with a single occupant in the section and in the nearest room no less. It took him a while to find out a way to ask what her story was, but when he settled on a way, he asked, “So, what’s the purple-haired beauty’s story for being in Iso, anyway?”

The younger of the two guards, a man with average looks and height and weight in his mid-20s, asked, “What?” he followed Duo’s line of sight, “You mean the Speedy Woman? She tried to bolt for freedom when she was brought here, knocking a senior guard into a wall beforehand, only to get a bulkhead closed on her before she succeeded,” looking Duo in the eyes, he said with a straight face, “Don’t go anywhere near her if you want to live, please, it’s for the better that you even live right now.”

Duo could see the worry in the eyes of his guard, so he said back, “Relax, I’m not going to go near her anyway, I’m stuck to a schedule now that X wants me to keep. Thanks for the warning, though, I appreciate it for what it’s worth.” Turning to face the woman in the cell one final time, he saw something that he never thought he’d see in anyone like her.

Duo though had seen something different in the woman. The way she watched them go by and seemed to be waiting in a relaxed, yet ready pose... THAT was the look of someone on a mission. That was something that had caught Duo off-guard, as he wondered who she’d be looking for, though he could see that she had suffered a recent loss. It was as if an intimate part of her life was stolen from her very arms and she could do nothing but watch what was happening at the time that it occurred. He felt something deep within her, a pain that only the passage of time could ease, and Duo couldn’t help but feel that despite that, this woman was looking in a place that was all but unfriendly to find what her mission was.

‘Who is she?’ he mentally wondered.

The elder of the two guards, a new guy in the duty, said in a gruff tone befit someone who did this multiple times in the past, “Alright, scum, keep moving. No watching the lady who got stuck in isolation, unless ya wanna try it?”

Duo, turning to face the elder of the guards, exclaimed at him, “EH! You’re no fun!”

As Duo turned to face forward, the elder guard responded, “I don’t get paid to have fun on the clock.” As soon as those words left his mouth, Duo tripped on the seamless floor, accidentally taking the younger guard down with him with a yelp of surprise.

“Rookies...” the elder guard sighed.

As soon as Duo got himself upright, he shot back at the guard, “Sarcastic bastard,” at least in a bit of a playful tone that meant he was joking around. In any case, this was one guy that he could just not hate, quite like two of his friends whenever he used the same tone for something they did.

When Duo awoke, he felt that he was fully aware of his surroundings then he had been the previous day. Though now he could feel something was off about his body, as if someone put a weight on the base of his skull and it was now affecting his whole body. He knew that it was something he couldn’t notice earlier, given what’s been happening and the current because of circumstances that prevented him from thinking coherently, he could be forgiven. Yet he still but felt he couldn’t quite help but get the feeling that it was something that had to do with what X had in mind for him.

Shaking his head, he decided to sit up in his bed and look around the room, just to see what could be off from the night before. To his surprise, it wasn’t a standard holding cell, but instead a middle-class room that looked good for at least a couple that couldn’t afford the high-end fixtures and furniture. The room was good for him to rest in, and yet... why did it feel like he was being watched, especially by someone predatory?

Turning to face the left side of the bed, he saw that there was a window that connected to a room that belonged to the guard named Musubi, with her looking at him in her uniform from the day before from the other side of the window. Duo couldn’t help but wonder what Musubi was trying to do at the current time, but he then squashed that thought, especially since she was looking at him like a predator would look at prey. Somehow, he felt this would end up in a ridiculous position later on, but he didn’t know how so.

Musubi, when she looked at Duo with her predatory gaze for what she deemed enough time, which was fifteen seconds, then pushed the talk button on a console next to her side of the window and said, “Subject Number Thirteen, you are hereby ordered to go into a spar with someone that is at least twice as strong as you, as per orders from Professor X himself,” here she smirked excitedly, “Your opponent will be me, and just so you know as well, it was I who was the one to knock you out after that test with Bertram. No questions, and don’t try sneaking out of the fight, I know you can understand this message.” With that, she ended the message and walked away from the window, leaving Duo confused as to what was going on.

As soon as she left, Duo took the time to look into her room. He noticed something off to one side, it looked like some sort of medical gown for children. That made him curious as far as he could see; it was the only one in there. The room was only stocked with largely equipment for training fighters, largely fist fighters. Yet he could see peeking out from the corner of one bed a magazine.

It was a typical style magazine for young women concerned about something or other. One would have to forgive him for not knowing women just like any other man out there. He looked the room over very carefully, the magazine he already figured was a ruse, but the cotton white panties off in one corner, looking forgotten and forlorn for the time being, were not and he could see the little animal print on it.

The size was also telling, they were likely only a few years old. He had already deduced that there was something different about the woman, but that and a few other items told him more than anything else. One such thing was that she was likely only a few years older than him and despite her outgoing appearance and attitude, he concluded that she was a real big softy at heart.

‘Almost childlike,’ Duo thought and was curious as to how she could live with herself as she stood, ‘she can’t and she’s starting to reach her limit.’

For Duo this was cause for concern, as he wasn’t sure what to think of that woman for the moment, but at least he knew that she needed some sort of help to prevent travelling down a road of self-destruction.

Turning to the dresser, he got out of the bed and walked on over there, noticing that he was in his boxers this time instead of what he was wearing the last time. As far as what had happened to him, however, he noticed that his muscles had grown in his sleep and could feel something trying to make a mess of things in his boxers. Well, at least he didn’t do anything like have a wet dream the night before, which helps some matters.

When he reached the dresser, he opened it up and saw his trademark outfit was already there and waiting for him, so he grabbed it and put it on, starting by removing his boxers... and stopped when he saw his crotch. He didn’t know how it happened, but he saw that it had grown a few inches since he last checked, possibly topping at 11 instead of 6 like Hilde last measured. Now he felt like some sort of hentai character, and he didn’t want that one bit, though he couldn’t help it now.

Shaking his head, Duo put on his clothes that were assigned to him, and then walked out the door to find that the elder guard was waiting for him on the right side. With a chance to get some reprieve before the beating happened, Duo walked slowly and meaningfully, considering trying to find out what Musubi’s problem was... that is, he was about to walk that way, until he realized something important.

“Which way did she want me to go?”

The guard yawned as he entered the ISO section of the Cell Block. He rapped his Night Stick against the glass and the woman inside awoke at once.

“Breakfast,” he said plainly and opened the little hatch to slide the food in, “Sorry that it doesn’t amount to something better, but no one in ISO gets even napkins.”

The woman nodded, heedless of her nudity she got up from the bed and walked over to her food. The food service and lack of privacy aside, the room didn’t look like a typical ISO chamber. In fact, there would have been a solid metal door, not some pseudo-glass door, albeit, a see through door made off strong and durable materials that could withstand a medium-class AFV slamming into at 50 km/h. The woman picked up the package from a special lift that carried it half a foot up and towards her, the tray having been held onto.

The guard simply leaned back against the glass; for all intents and purposes, he looked to have fallen asleep.

“Did you have to hit my guy that badly?” the guard grumbled, giving her some privacy, the cameras wouldn’t be able to zoom through his body, “He’s one of a few I’ve got and you know how hard I worked for this?”

“He will be fine, he’s much stronger than he looks,” the woman replied, though to the listening devices, they heard nothing except soft snoring and gentle eating, the camera being blocked and with the guard’s hat dipped as it was, no one would be able to tell that they were speaking, “Besides, he was originally our man and is my back up, but enough of that, what do you know?”

“The woman was brought in as a girl,” he said pointedly, “She’s got something of a personality hidden away, but I doubt Musubi can last long before she simply breaks, mentally.”

“And the young man?”

“Nothing like you described, nothing at all,” came the reply, “But knowing the God of Death, things will be getting inter-” he suddenly pretended to just wake up and receive a call, “SHE DIDN’T?!”

“What’s wrong?” the woman inquired as the guard took off running.

“She ditz again!” he shouted.

At that moment, Duo was slamming another guard into a wall. The sound of bones breaking told him that the guards arm and leg were now broken as he stepped back and round housed another guard, sending the poor man flying down the hall into a pack of other guards, knocking them all out of the fight. A third guard managed to restrain him while a fourth attempted to strike from the front, only to hit his fellow in the head, knocking him out and freeing Duo.

The fourth guard was soon on the ground as Duo took off running.

“Don’t tell me Musubi unlocked all the doors and forgot to tell where to go again,” Professor stated rhetorically as he watched Duo smash into several guards, knocking three out, injuring the rest, and escaping again.

“It would appear so,” the senior guard muttered in disbelief, “How does she do that?”

“I’ve noticed childlike behavior at times, but I believe it’s unrelated to this mess,” Harry Inman supplied and winced when Duo crashed into two more guards and he was certain limbs were not meant to bend that way.

Then Musubi rounded a corner, in hot pursuit, a middle ranked guard could be seen yelling at her. The man was clearly reaching his peak, but he managed on, surprising everyone in the CIC. The two soon caught up with Duo and the guard tried, vainly, to get him to return.

It was in vain as Musubi knocked him back and then lunged forward to attack.

“Start recording!” shouted Professor Hefner.

“I’ve been recording!” Dr. Payne shouted back.

‘Such good research assistants,’ X thought with a bit of pride, for he had chosen well.

Musubi struck out with a lunging punch, but Duo leaned back and half spun to give her a side kick.

Musubi saw this and couldn’t counter in time, but rolled herself with the kick and was able to get her feet under her. She landed on the wall, crushing the metal beneath her as she coiled and then sprang forward intending to deliver another lunging punch. Duo side stepped though was knocked off his feet as Musubi cratered the floor with the impact of her blow. There Musubi was briefly trapped from her punching through the floor plate.

Duo leaped back up onto his feet and tried for a straight punch, but Musubi slapped his hand down and tried to strike him with the back of her hand in an upwards strike. Her attack though failed as Duo stopped the attack with his other hand as Musubi finally broke free of the floor. Duo leaped back a couple of paces as Musubi charged at him, trying to strike him with a series of punches. Duo dodged once more and managed to knee her right thigh, though he winced at what felt like he just struck the battle plate of a Tragos’ frontal plate. Nevertheless, Musubi clearly had been hurt, but then she spun around and kicked out at him as he dodged with a jump back.

Musubi saw this and began to think how she could close rapidly. Then an idea came to mind and punched down into the floor plates again, knocking Duo off his feet once more. As Duo quickly recovered, Musubi had already closed the distance to attempt a complicated round house kick that Duo only really saw in action movies. He saw her spin a couple times as she closed, clearly wanting more striking power. She was in too close and he couldn’t dodge, so he jumped up and took a defensive posture and allowed the attack to connect.

Duo went sailing down the hallway, but he landed on both feet and was able to get his hand down to help him balance out as he slid. Once he was stopped he saw Musubi in front of him trying to one two him. He barely dodged and then, with Musubi now extended and his own balance fully restored, countered with a punch.

Musubi threw her arms up in defense, but felt the blow strike her stomach, causing her to cough up fluid as the air was forced from her lungs. She had stopped the attack on her face, but it had been a feint and she regretted it. Never the less, she managed to keep standing up until Duo did a back flip kick into her and sent her flipping through the air before she crashed to the floor.

Duo knew he couldn’t waste time and quickly moved to restrain Musubi, but she was able to both get up and defend herself quickly enough and force him back with a series of defensive punches, that while weak, caught Duo off guard, forcing him back.

“Crap,” the guard muttered from his place around a bend, “I need to stop this before they really get going,” he listened into the radio he was issued and grimaced, “Now or never!” he shouted into it and his face looked like he had eaten something bad, “Dammit!”

The other guards huddled just behind them, all nervous and frightened. They knew what Musubi was capable of, but now Duo was in the mix. They were scared at the mere thought of what could happen.

“Right,” the man said, before turning to his fellows, “Grab the injured and let’s get out of here!”

They didn’t need to be told twice!

Now both Duo and Musubi were in close, trading blows, mixing and changing up their styles of combat. The two were really going at it now. Their moves both fluid and rigid, they glided from one style to the next, changing their motions as often as they could, and each seeking to gain dominance in the fight to be a winner.

Duo blocked an attempted high kick with his leg, the pant leg vanishing in an impact explosion. He responded with an open palm strike to the sternum on Musubi, causing her top to explode open. Musubi responded with a powerful right hook that missed, but shredded the shoulders of Duo’s top, but her punch continued on and the metal plate wall exploded into the next corridor, but the two kept on fighting even as Musubi lost a stocking and part of her skirt.

‘When did she put that on?’ Duo distractedly thought, before realizing his error and barely escaped her response to his attack.

“FLOOD THAT AREA WITH GAS NOW!” Professor X shouted, knowing both were beginning to go too far.

The others responded to the command as X wondered about Duo’s power output. It was much higher if Musubi was on such a defensive fight at times. This had not been planned on and he decided for now, that it was better to move on to other tests.

“Commencing flooding boss sir,” Payne said as he and Fuji hit the controls and Inman sealed the hatches against any leaks and evacuated the next sections in order to over pressurize those compartments.

“Confirming all bordering compartments sealed and empty, over pressurizing commencing, additional bulkheads closed and sealed,” Inman reported with a clenched cigarette between his teeth.

“All personnel evacuated from affected areas and accounted for,” one of X’s senior guards stated.

“Gas is taking effect,” Hefner stated.

“Medical reports ready,” Fuji supplied.

“They’re down now, boss sir,” Payne stated with relief.

“Give the gas a little more time,” Hefner supplied as well.

“Keep me informed,” X turned to leave, “I’m going down to see them.”

“Understood,” Inman responded for the others.

The doors soon shut behind Professor X, hiding his trembling form. While unexpected and truthfully unwanted, the experiment was becoming a huge success in its own right. Yet, as he walked down the halls to a lift, he couldn’t stop himself from smashing his fist into a wall and being furious with Musubi.

‘That girl has done it again!’ he thought angrily, though he knew it wasn’t by design, she could get too easily excited at times and forget things, ‘I will need her to learn a lesson, a very important lesson,’ he thought as he reached the lift.

The doors soon closed and he was on his way down to the situation that was now under control.

**Xamusel** · May 3rd, 2012, 11:22 PM

As soon as Duo woke up again in the room provided, he felt as if he had slept for 24 hours straight. Surprisingly enough, he actually did, as he checked a calendar to confirm his theory. The calendar showed him that the day was February 11th, After Colony 198, and it would be nearing his 18th birthday in a couple months. When it came down to it, he wasn’t sure how things were going back at his apartment, or if anything would’ve been gone for good at that point.

The funny thing for today, however, was that instead of Musubi speaking to him or anything, it turned out to be Professor X who came in through the door. Duo was about to jump up to kill him when X said, raising his hands up to ease the tension, “Easy there, Maxwell, I’m not here to give you harm right now. I’m just here to escort you to the place where you’ll eat, if anything.”

“Uh-huh, right, like I believe that,” Duo shot back, unsure what X’s game was, but sure as hell not going to play by it intentionally.

“It’s true,” X answered, before he walked to the door to let Duo have some privacy for dressing, “I’ll let you get dressed, as I’m sure you’ll prefer your own clothing to some jumpsuit right now. Please hurry with the dressing, I won’t wait all day for you, you know.” With that, he opened the door and then walked out, closing it behind him.

As soon as Duo felt X was being honest, he hurried to get clothes on, ensuring that nobody would have to bring him some meal that he couldn’t choose what to eat. As soon as he got his boxers and pants on, he heard his stomach growl at him for not giving it a good amount of nutrients, as he burned a lot more calories than he needed to yesterday. Fortunately for Duo, he had the decency to blush about the situation, which he shook off soon after.

After that, he put on the shirts and his shoes and socks, and then he walked out the door to see X waiting for him on his left side. As soon as X noticed Duo, the mad scientist led Duo down a corridor, while keeping silence as key for the time being. Duo was wondering what sort of eating place would be available to him at this time, and imagined a mess hall for prisoners, though he also figured that X wouldn’t just lead him to a prisoner’s mess hall.

As soon as he got to the end of the corridor, the answer revealed itself to Duo, and he couldn’t help but stare.

The room he was led to turned out to be a banquet hall, where the meal would do more than just satisfy him, and in the banquet hall was a whole group of servants that were waiting directly for X and Duo to enter, preparing to serve them at the meal table. When one of the servants came directly to Duo, he was led to a spot at the banquet table that was at the end opposite the table for the master of the servants, as he was at the honored guest section.

Soon, the meal began, with Duo wondering what X’s game was. They were both eating and keeping to themselves, but that would soon be disrupted, if anything.

It was X that made the first move in this proverbial game of chess.

“So, tell me,” X started the conversation after finishing eating his portion of food, “What do you think of the current political climate to be found within the ESUN?”

Duo looked up at X from across the table. He had been eating, but he didn’t want to seem like some brainless monkey, so he did his best to maintain proper table manners. Admittedly he never really had enough to begin with, but at least it wasn’t too bad.

“It depends on what you mean?” Duo answered, “Politics is no simple matter after all.”

“Indeed,” X nodded before continuing, “How about the politics of Weapon Laws, hmm?”

Duo sent a dirty look at the vampire looking doctor on that subject, but he answered, “As stated, legal ownership of firearms is permitted, only they depend on class and type of weapon,” Duo rattled off, “The right is guaranteed under the Charter prohibiting any and all total restrictions on firearms,” Duo took a moment to think, “Other weapons, which are also covered, are also heavily regulated, though this is mostly in areas where weapons can be too brutal or too easily concealed.”

“So what is your opinion of the ongoing counter insurgency against various pro-gun groups that have declared the ESUN unlawful for restrictions on their rights to carry any and all types of weapons?”

“Those groups have either been a pain in the neck for centuries or are opportunists believing they can land grab since there are only the Preventers.”

“Oh is that how you see it?”

“I’m a simple man, but I don’t take kindly to a bunch of guys who just want weapons to have them,” Duo stared up, he could often see where these guys were coming from, but... “Though that’s just simplifying it, as they do have a legitimate reason to be a concern, but now those concerns are being blown out of proportions and paranoia is being acted upon instead of reason.”

“I see,” X chuckled as he held his glass out to be refilled, “Though it’s clear that you’re pro-choice on the matter, yet believe in what would fall under the heading of ‘with-in reason’ as well, but then again, I wouldn’t exactly sleep well if I knew a deranged man or a harden criminal had legal access to some high caliber firepower,” X took a sip before continuing, “Then again, knowing the police are better armed and armored would make any simple citizen sleep well, so long as the police are there to protect them and their liberties and not oppress them or cause harm to them.”

“If you look at history, there will always be corruption, it cannot be fully stamped out, ever,” Duo thanked a servant that gave him a fresh plate of food, he was surprised by the amount he was eating, but continued, “Yet if you let paranoia cloud your view and believe yourself the one who is always right, are then not that which you fear?”

“Less of politics isn’t it then?” X asked and Duo shrugged, it was rhetorical either way, “Very well, what about the Preventers and their mission to keep the peace?”

After swallowing with a short drink of grape juice, Duo spoke, “I think keeping the peace is a difficult undertaking rather than just duking it out, but that is to be expected, there’s still a lot of open wounds and damages to be overcome, that it will take time to do so.”

“Spoken well and smartly,” X nodded, Duo was keeping himself in the loop at least, “There have been some food riots and resource riots despite the ESUN’s best efforts, but then again the Libra’s attack on Earth and the pieces that were destroyed in the upper atmosphere have had a negative aspect on the Earth as well.”

“Yeah,” Duo remembered the firing of Libra and still felt a chill run down his spine at the mere thought of it.

“Nevertheless, the Preventers are heavily over worked, though they do make up for it in skill and resourcefulness,” X gently cut some honeyed ham before taking a piece and eating it.

Duo eyed the man warily as he ate and couldn’t help but notice something. The servants all varied narrowly in the age range. Some seemed to be barely 14 and others had to be hardly into their 20s. He remembered down in the Medical Lab they appeared much older in general, though not too much older than these servant ladies.

“The chances of war are still high and as time passes’ so do the chances of war fall,” X said as he looked down the table towards Duo and continued, “But at the same time, the chances for war increase as well, do you not agree?”

For most it might be a question they could answer quickly or have to sit down and think about it, but for Duo. To him it was a pointless question for someone like X to ask, as it was a question with no real answer. It was clear as day and easy to see, so the real question was, “Why do you ask a question that has such an obvious cliché about it?”

X only smiled as he spoke, “Indeed, the cliché applies here, that it will be inevitable that war would break out again,” drinking a fine cider from North America’s Sonoma Valley in California, X continued, “So why seek peace in the first place and for that matter why seek war, hm?”

“Two questions that are eternally asked, but never answered,” Duo said from his seat as he took a drink. He guessed the grape juice on the station must be Californian as well, going by the taste.

“So the real question is why be bothered with both?” X said as he swirled the contents of his glass, one of the reasons he never thought to fully cyberize was the delightful taste that came with such things as food, “Or rather for those of intelligence, why fight either? Why not accept the inevitability of both war and peace and instead of when, but ask of the where.”

“I get it,” Duo stated nodding to a servant who poured him some more drink, “‘It is not our reason to wonder, but rather to do or die,’ in a poetic sense.”

“Indeed Mister Maxwell,” X beamed at the young man who understood, “In fact, this ‘war’ station isn’t really that, but more of a mobile fortress to bring battle where battle is, but its real function is to understand the wars to come and help humanity to be ready for them.”

“Oh?” Duo looked surprised, he had a feeling this guy wasn’t the conquering type.

“Indeed, my real purpose here is to simply become famous and be remembered in history,” X stated and chuckled as Duo did a spit take, accidentally spraying one of the servants as he cough and choked afterwards.

Once Duo could speak, he managed a harsh sounding sorry as he tried to get his voice back. The servant only nodded and proceeded to step off to one side and change where he had a good view of her body’s silhouette. He gaped a little, regretting it before regaining his voice and decided to save that question for later.

“You’re doing all this to become famous?!” Duo couldn’t shout and his voice was still rough and horse sounding, “All that fighting and those guys dying and all the experiments you’ve done, so you can get yourself into some high school text books?!”

“Please do not insult me Mister Maxwell,” X said evenly, “Even with my genius, without the others here, I would not be so far along, even the dumbest guards have value that makes the old chess cliche invalid.”

“Okay, okay,” Duo surrendered that point when the servant returned; he could barely look at her without blushing deeply.

“You see Mister Maxwell,” X began again, “Even if I were to lose, my research would survive and become captured by the Preventers and even they would see the value of the research and thus use it themselves, true not like I would,” X nodded to the young lady that Duo couldn’t look at and she nodded, reaching up as she knelt down and removed her top until she was nude from the waist up and began to toy with her breasts as she leaned back, ensuring her skirt rode high to reveal her panties to him, her face a crimson red and her eyes screaming that she didn’t want to do this.

“What have you done?!” Duo shot up angrily, but didn’t move for fear of what else X might do.

“You see I’m not the only one researching Nano-Technology, but this unknown party wishes for something else I do not understand at this time,” X didn’t nod this time, but several of the servants began to do the same as the first girl, “This is what they want, to strip away human nature, to enforce a will upon us all,” X turned to Duo, “And you will help save humanity as you can see, there is more to my research than merely weapons.”

“A cure and likely even further than that,” Duo answered simply, falling back into his seat.

“Yes,” X said softly, “A weapons maker would not gain the respect I crave, you could say in some perverted and twisted way I follow a Taoist philosophy on such a matter.”

“Can you restore them?” Duo asked, looking at the servants that were trying their hardest not to suffer further embarrassment, until the first one began kissing at Duo’s hand and he began to worry.

“This is actually slightly based off of Musubi’s own genetics,” X spoke of his bodyguard, “I found that certain people with the proper genetics sequence and something else, like a spiritual internal energy of some kind I theorize, is able to resonate with her own, then she becomes bound to that person through a process called Winging whatever that is.”

“Interesting, but I won’t ask the details if ya don’t know it,” Duo’s sarcasm was clear as day, “The other part of it?”

“Some of the nanites we took,” X stated, “Which leads to one of the next stages of testing,” X then suddenly rose, the servants looking nervous as he turned to leave, having finished.

“Dammit!” Duo looked about, “I’m guessing I’m the answer to this Winging Research you need?”

“It’s actually a bonus,” X stated, “I care little for war, but the research I have done will allow humanity greater freedom than it has ever had, but true its far from finished and there’s more to it,” before Duo could say anything X turned and briefly swept the room, the servants dropping, the signs clear, “This will be your new quarters in all honesty Mister Maxwell,” X turned and started out again, “Do enjoy and we can talk some more at a later time.”

With the closing and locking of the doors, the women were already jumping Duo.

As X could hear the sounds, he concluded that the drugs placed within Duo’s drink and food were already taking effect. He wanted to talk more, like how humans are genetically predisposed to their region, regardless of their ancestry. Or rather how they adapt to their new surroundings or fail to do so.

Such research as he now had Duo working on was not new. There was that one case in the early 21st Century when it was discovered that the old United States of America had been involved, though an unapproved clandestine method even within its own government, of purposely infecting a mentally ill hospital’s patients with a disease that has long been dead by today’s time. The Central American nation had been unaware of the action just as the United States Government had been and the results had proven damaging to both nations in many ways.

Yet at the same time, the research had been poorly handled and narrow minded. Had the research been properly taken care of, who knows what discoveries could have been made. Though at the same time, X honestly doubted the foresight of such bigots. Their research would not have mattered in all likelihood beyond the regions that it would have originated, especially under such primitive conditions, but add in the bigotry and stupidity of the involved party and it was simply wasted research time and damaging to the human population.

“What small minds they had back then,” X muttered aloud, thinking of how he and Duo could discuss this very matter.

He concluded that Duo would agree with some remarks about twisted logic and the passage of time about how he might just be right on that subject. The subject was handled hardly better than those Nazis and their research, then again, from the files and journals that had survived centuries in that South American Nazis fortress he once used, it shouldn’t surprise him that they were so bad at it. They were simply less interested in finding the proper path than in finding the solution, hence why they could not win, as they were so simple and narrow minded themselves and their bigotry might even be worse and could have been the basis for that previous line of thought he had.

“Such a shame,” X muttered again, “The Germanic people even today are both hard working and very intelligent, but cronyism played a big part in their stupidity.”

X then came across Inman who looked displeased and sighed, the man really needed to learn that he was too deep and that having last minutes like this could be annoying, but so was human will and in a twisted sense of justice, X was going to protect it and allow it to flourish like it hasn’t in centuries.

Meanwhile, over at the Preventers Headquarters on Mars, Middie Une was in the middle of inspecting the new Gundams that were being built there when she suddenly shivered. As she looked around to find the cause, her long brown hair swaying as she did so, she noticed that the temperature readings were normal. So she was curious as to the chill she felt, but decided to hide it away.

Something was tickling the back of her mind, however, a stray thought regarding Duo. It was starting to get rather annoying, but what she didn’t know was whether or not it was true, so she thought to herself, ‘I feel as if I should castrate Duo relatively soon.’

With that thought out of the way, she shook her head and resumed what she was doing, with the new Gundams still in the process of inspection. She wished that they had Duo’s permission to rebuild Deathscythe, but apparently that was one unit that they didn’t have the right to build until after Duo returned, if there was a chance of that happening.

Turning to Howard, a man who worked alongside the Gundams original developers and was now in charge of rebuilding the Gundams, she asked him, “Tell me, what do you have planned for the two female-model Gundams?”

“Actually, yeah!” Howard stated enthusiastically with a huge smile, “The added armor is little more than reinforcements, armor, and-” seeing Une’s look, he wrapped it up quickly, “Basically we cut down the overall armor, threw in some more sensors, cooling systems, and redesigned the body for speed, that’s been the whole point of these Femme Fatales.”

“Speed?” Une asked, clearly not buying it.

“Well,” he looked embarrassed, “Truth be told the gee force acceleration on them is much higher than is the norm and we have improved the turning radius, allowing these new suits to make much tighter turns, plus there’s their deceleration and much improved AMBAC systems.”

“But why the design?” Une pressed, feeling something coming in from this.

“The problem being is that these suits are too much, even with dampers, for a normal man to pilot and these two are even more so,” he looked very nervous, “New pilot suits had to be designed and made just for all the new designs we’ve been working and well...”

“Well what?” she wanted to know what he was dodging.

“The problem is not even Heero can easily handle these new suits, hence the design allowed for some improvements to the original plans, but also allowed us to clearly state who gets them.”

“Only women can handle these mobile suits?” Une was a lot of things, and she was proud of being a woman, but this she felt was pushing it.

“Well, women breath less air than men, have higher pain thresholds, can be subjected to greater gee forces, and a few other noteworthy facts that an old man like me can find pretty damn attractive in my old age, but younger kids take offense to,” he stopped for a moment, “Even if they don’t mean it.”

“So rather than strength and power, these Gundams are meant for speed and accuracy, correct?” Une asked, keeping a level look at the man before her.

Howard actually brought up some papers, “Our guy brought these back, no one noticed it until it landed on my desk and Franti happened to be in that day looking for them to build up a profile on Bertha Hefner, one of X’s top researchers.”

Taking the sheaf of papers and leafing through it as she read Frau Hefner’s notes and research documents. Her eyes went slowly and carefully with meticulous concentration that was her hallmark. Her eyebrows began to rise a bit as she read through the documents and she looked furious at one point, but continued until she was done.

Then she turned to Howard and asked the question on her mind, “What do you put into their computers?”

Howard chuckled, “I can’t say I’m surprised,” and began to relate his own theories.

Duo woke up in a pretty awkward manner later that day, as he was trying to remember where he was until he placed his right hand on something soft but...firm, which was when he fully woke up and recalled what he went through because of X. Daring to peek at what his hand was on, he immediately retracted his hand as soon as he saw it was a bare breast that belonged to one of the currently sleeping servants, which elicited a moan of pleasure from the girl. It was something that could easily count as embarrassing if he were to be caught by Hilde or maybe Middie in this sort of position, at least if they were in the immediate area, though he wondered something important.

Looking at that particular girl, he didn’t know their names to know who was who, he saw that she still had her panties on and sighed in relief. He didn’t want to have screwed every single girl here in this room, but he also knew that X probably wouldn’t let him leave the room until he did indeed impregnate them all, so he felt he should at least get it over with the correct way. Instead of either side jumping the other, he felt it important to at least talk it out with her before even doing it, and then determining things from there.

Gently, so as to ensure that the other girls stayed asleep, Duo nudged the poor girl awake while whispering in her ear, “I heard that the Professor has a plan for you tomorrow, Sleeping Beauty.”

While the poor girl was fully waking up, Duo couldn’t help but notice that her golden blond hair, while in a bob-cut, was of the variety that was rather hard to come by just because of the color. He also couldn’t help but notice that her body was like a perfect hourglass - which was odd considering the fact that she should be somewhere around his age -while he was trying to ensure that the girl had some modicum of privacy for her troubles. What fully caught his attention, however, was the pair of brilliant red eyes that told him something he didn’t know was possible in his lifetime.

“Kyouko?” Duo asked incredulously, trying to figure out what one of his fellow street urchins from L2 was doing here and alive, if that were the case. Surprisingly enough, the girl completely woke up when she heard him utter that name and then looked him in the eye, with a surprised look in her eyes.

“Duo?” she asked back, with a tone befit of someone that was wondering if they were seeing things. After a moment to process the sight in front of her, she leaped through to Duo’s location and happily cried out “DUOOO!!” As soon as she finished crying out Duo’s name, Kyouko had wrapped her arms around him, her large breasts pressing into his chest and making him wonder what she normally ate while growing up.

Duo, for lack of a better term, was speechless that his old friend was still alive. Sure, he was hoping to keep a piece of the street urchins alive inside him, but he never knew that someone from his past was still alive and well. What he remembered was that everyone else had died shortly before being found by the Maxwell Church, but that turned out to be somewhat inaccurate.

Then again, Kyouko was always the luckiest of the urchins, so maybe she was found by a loving family or something, at least before X had found her. With that thought in mind, Duo asked, “What happened to you, Kyouko? Something must’ve happened while the epidemic was going on, but what?”

Kyouko, upon hearing that, lowered her head and said ashamedly, “I was found by Professor X back when I was rather sick, and he took care of me until I was old enough to be a servant, while I learned of many vile things he had planned to do to different orphans that he collected.” Hearing Duo’s gasp of shock, she continued, “I was lucky to stay a virgin all this time, actually, as I was slated for being impregnated by many of the past test subjects but it never happened for some reason or another.” Hearing Duo growl in anger, she added, “I never did anything that would get me killed, Duo, he saw me as too valuable with the computers and everything else that required a bright mind!”

Duo, upon hearing those words, recalled the fact that Kyouko was indeed one of the smarter orphans in the group. He wondered how many of their activities would've ended in failure had it not been for her, how many of their own wouldn’t have been properly adopted, and so on. His anger for X cooled down, allowing him to also recall something from the distant past, a conversation that involved he, Solo, and Kyouko in some form of wedding with either of the two boys marrying Kyouko. Although the details were fuzzy, he recalled something about how Kyouko liked spending time with him over Solo, and how Solo figured he could get the two of them to be married. The plans were arranged for when they were older, though, and that was enough time for the other orphans to be no more.

With the memory sorting itself in Duo’s head, he spoke up and said, “Hey, Kyouko, remember the time Solo tried to get the two of us married at some point?” Internally, however, he felt that he was going to regret it because both Hilde and Middie were going to skin him alive for this - probably after castrating him.

Upon hearing those words, Kyouko simply looked into his eyes, her own soft with a light that he had never expected, a light that said ‘Yes I remember. I remember, and I’ve waited so long to make it a reality...,’ before she vigorously nodded her head and said in a dreamy voice, “Please, Duo. Please...make me yours and yours alone.”

Duo, upon hearing those words, swallowed, finding that he couldn’t control himself any longer. She was the girl that he’d often thought about throughout the years, wondering where she was now, what she was doing, if she still remembered him - if she was happy. And now she - the girl he had loved for pretty much his whole life - was here in his arms, warm and whole - and wanting him.

Not entirely conscious of his actions, Duo moved as if drawn in by a deep magnetism, his head tilting and shifting forward to capture Kyouko’s mouth with his own. They came together with a frisson like static as their lips came together, slowly at first, in the way of new lovers unsure of themselves, then all at once, lips on lips hungrily, as if they weren’t sure it was real, but weren’t going to let a moment pass by. One of them - Kyouko, maybe? - decided that merely sight, scent, sound, and touch weren’t enough, and so wished to taste the other, tongue darting out to trace the other’s lips teasingly.

Duo let out a small sound of pleasure at his lover’s touch, his lips parting slightly as he tried to suck on her tongue, but it pulled away for a moment, forcing him to chase it with his in a sensual game of cat and mouse till he caught it at last, eliciting a moan of anticipation and need from Kyouko’s lips.

‘Please...’ her eyes seemed to say. ‘Please...’

And being a gentleman, he obliged, his arms wrapping around her body and drawing her close, as their mouths came together once more. In the damp heat, their tongues entwined, with Kyouko seeming to shudder at every one of Duo’s touches, every bit of warmth, as if addicted to him. Her eyes were moist and dim, her breathing quickening as his fingers began to explore her form, leaving trails of fire in their wake as one hand slid up the groove of her spine, as the other traced intricate patterns across the small of her back and the taut skin of her hips.

Gasps, shudders, quiet moans echoed in the chamber - and how they kept from waking up any of the others, no one knew, and neither did they care. The chill air, the presence of other naked women, the fact that they was being kept as an experimental subjects and prisoners - all of these faded into nothingness, with their worlds shrinking so that the other was their everything.

They’d thought of the other, dreamed of the other, loved the other for close to a lifetime - and now, with that long held dream finally coming true, they wouldn't mind if this moment lasted forever...

...yet they knew it wouldn’t, so they resolved to savor what they could, groping, caressing, exploring one another with a sense of wonder and childlike abandon - until their hands brushed against the achingly hard proof of their desires.

Kyouko knew the basics of what male genitalia looked like of course, in a very intellectual manner, but there was nothing intellectual about the way Duo’s quivering member was hot and throbbing in her hand, standing at attention...for her. Not completely aware of what she was doing, she squeezed it gently, as the God of Death’s breath hissed out between his teeth at her touch, his eyes wild as he pulled back to look into her eyes.

To her, his hungry gaze made him seem like a wild beast, a ravenous animal who couldn’t get enough - could never get enough - as if her body was a drug that he craved - and that desire, stirred something raw and primal within her, her lips trembling as she thought he was about to devour her...and that she’d welcome those attentions.

The former urchin’s premonition proved true, as he all but pounced on her, his mouth not content with her lips alone, but moving to trail hot kisses along the line of her jaw, as she gasped softly, a quiet sound of pleasure escaping unbidden from her lips.

Duo growled in approval as he saw this, continuing his ministrations, as he licked and sucked his way down the side of his lover’s neck, his fingers teasing the arch of her ear and the sensitive skin above her collarbones as he moved ever downward, stopping only to suck gently at the hollow of her throat.

“Oh-hhhhh....”

Kyouko couldn’t stop her voice from leaking out as her back arched from the new sensations she was being exposed to - something she’d never experienced, never dared thought she’d ever experience. Far from being with another man (or woman), she had never even touched herself - so she had no idea of what intimacy could bring, least of all with her first love. Overwhelmed but desperate, needy for more, she found herself pulling Duo’s head closer still, her fingers digging into his hair.

But as a man, the God of Death was not content to simply kiss her neck, and so moved down to what he knew to be a more tasty morsel - his lips moving slowly, painfully slowly down toward her breasts, descending in a straight line from her collarbones and trailing kisses down the sternum.

His face buried in the valley between the breasts, Duo’s tongue darted out to lick the inner curves of his lover’s bosom, tasting her sweat as she cried out shamefully, her heart feeling it would explode from the sheer force of pleasure he was giving her. This must be the pinnacle of ecstasy, she thought to herself...only to be proven wrong as his lips completed their trek across her mounds, closing upon one of her dark pink nipples, as left hand mirrored the motions of his head to tweak her other nipple with thumb and forefinger.

She gasped uncontrollably at the sudden, unexpected onslaught, a ragged cry tearing from her throat as her body shook and went stiff, everything that had been building till now coming together in a blinding flash of heat that drove away her name, her memory, her situation, and all she ever knew as all went black.

When she came to herself some unknown amount of time later, the blonde was slumped in her lover’s arms, her head resting on his shoulder as his fingers traced circles on the delicate skin of her inner thighs.

“D-duo...” Kyouko whispered dreamily, as her hand idly stroked the length of his swollen maleness. “You...ahhhh!”

Taking her voice as a cue to ramp up the intensity of his ministrations, the death god raked his thumb across her slit, making sure to grind it against the small nub revealed from the folds of her flesh. His fingers played, teased, stroked her nether lips, toying with her by moving as if to dip inside her core, but never quite going through.

“Duo...” she said again, her voice a barely audible whimper, since her lover’s caresses were heightened into exquisite pleasure pain in the aftermath of her orgasm. “Please...”

He didn’t seem to hear her as his fingers continued to tease, moving closer and closer to the petals of her womanhood, till suddenly they were there, with one of Duo's fingers pushing into Kyouko's core, with Kyouko letting out a tiny cry as she tried to move away from his hand as he found the tiny nub at the apex. He moved his finger around it until it began to swell ever so gently and Kyouko was openly writhing. Then he used his fingers to hold her open as he began to rub the point of her need while his fingers thrust in.

Inside, she was hot as a furnace, her slick walls gripping at his finger as if they didn't ever want to let go. Gradually sliding it into her until the entire digit was inside her warm passage, Duo then pulled it almost all the way out until only the tip was still surrounded by her heat and tightness, the finger now slick and shiny with her juices as he pumped it back inside.

In his arms, Kyouko unconsciously bucked her hips forward to meet his finger, her legs spreading even wider as she savored the sensations screaming pleasurably through every inch of her virgin body. Her mouth was open and cute little cries were coming from the back of her throat as moisture flooded against his hand, drops of wetness running down his hand and dripping onto the floor.

“Please...” she whispered hoarsely, eyes looking at her lover with a quiet desperation for more than just his fingers. “I...I want...”

“More?” Duo filled in almost cruelly - though his actions belied his words as he lowered her gently slowly onto her back, with his mouth retracing their earlier course down her neck and the valley of her breasts, but this time continued its descent across the smooth, unmarked skin of her stomach, pausing only to lick and suck at her navel before moving down, down, down, kissing her hips, her thighs...and then moving to the space between.

Crimson eyes widened as she saw his head between her legs, leaning close to inhale musky scent of her ardor. He was looking at her, seeing parts that no one had seen before, his hot breath an exquisite agony that heralded prelude to his tongue's arrival.

The blond groaned as Duo's tongue traced her lower lips, as slowly, painfully slowly, he licked her, knowing how sensitive her hardened little nub was in the wake of her first orgasm, and deliberately licking there.

"Ah...ahhhh...a-"

Kyouko threw back her head as Duo bent down and licked her directly, knowing her body well even in the darkness. He kissed her her lower lips passionately, his tongue entering her in the way his fingers had earlier, tracing the contours of her sopping pussy's insides and outs, many many times, as each time, her body seemed to bend back upon itself, unable to contain the tide of sensations inside her.

Fluids dripped from her uncontrollably, faster and faster, heat and dampness welling up in her core faster and faster, building to dizzying new heights that she thought would drive her nearly mad. Or maybe she was mad - surely nothing logical, nothing rational, nothing sane could possibly feel this good?

Or so she thought - until the moment when Duo’s lips closed upon her nub and sucked hard, whereupon all thought was banished from her mind, as her pleasure once more overwhelmed her consciousness and her body shuddered as she collapsed into a heap.

In the dimness of the room, she could half make out how her lover’s face was slick and wet. She was mortified, thinking she’d made quite a mess, that she must not have been able to contain herself...but it seemed Duo didn’t care, as he slowly cleaned her juices off his face with his fingers...and licked them clean with a look of indescribable rapture.

Did she...really...taste that good to him?

And how...would he...taste?

In her normal state, Kyouko would have blushed beet red down to the roots of her hair at such a thought - but she was long past embarrassment. Duo had seen her most secret parts, and tasted of her in every way - so shouldn’t she return the favor?

“Duo...?” she spoke softly, as some bits of strength began to flow into her limbs again, and she pulled herself up unsteadily onto her side.

“Hm?” the God of Death inquired, reaching out to steady her, given that he was responsible for her current state. “Kyouko? What...?”

“Let me...” she whispered, as she took hold of the hand whose fingers had recently been inside her, bringing it to her lips and sucking on his index finger, her pink tongue swirling about the tip and making Duo moan. It was odd...was this what his hands were like, callused and worn from years of piloting, so strong when they touched her earlier - yet now trembling at her touch?

“Kyouko...”

It was she who didn’t appear to hear him this time as she sucked the finger into her mouth, where the digit was once again surrounded by a strange wet heat. Seeing her do this was almost more than what what Duo could bear, as his member throbbed at the thought of her lips wrapped around it instead of simply a finger...

“Kyouko...” he repeated, raw need seeping into his voice as he thought he’d never wanted anyone so badly in his life. Slowly, ever so slowly, he brought his hand to the back of her head, running his fingers through her hair as she sucked his finger sensually.

“Kyouko...” he almost sobbed, his hands guiding her head softly but firmly in the direction of his rampant prick, painfully hard as he looked with her with desire. “Please...”

“Huhu...don’t mind if I do,” she said coyly, letting his finger slip from her lips with a wet ‘pop’ as she gazed upon his maleness from up close, her tongue darting out to taste the smooth mushroom-like head.

Duo nearly lost it right there and then.

He’d been with other women - was currently involved in a menage a trois with two lovely ladies (who were quite, quite talented in bed, let it be said), in fact, but it had never been like this before. Her shy expression, the way her inexperienced fingers awkwardly worked his shaft, the way her tongue explored his swollen maleness as if it was the best thing she’d ever tasted - it was somehow sexier, more captivating, than anything he’d ever known.

His hands wrapped around the back of her head and despite his attempts to control himself, he could feel his hips beginning to move on their own, pressing his member gently but against her full and perfect mouth. Feeling this, Kyouko made a faint sound of surprise, her lips parting at the pressure, as his cock slipped into what he could only describe as heaven. Her lips closed upon the welcome intruder, her tongue swirling around it much like it had his finger.

“Kyouko....I...”

But whatever he was about to say was rendered meaningless when Kyouko made a soft hum of pleasure on tasting his precum and sucked upon his shaft, sending him over the edge in the most powerful orgasm he’d ever experienced (making him truly understand why it was called the little death), as three ropey spurts of semen filled her mouth.

Kyouko made a surprised sound at this as she hadn’t expected so much so soon, but she instinctively swallowed, finding that although the taste was a little nutty, it wasn’t too bad. She swallowed once, twice, three times, with Duo enraptured by the sight of his innocent childhood friend drinking the proof of his love - or at least, his lust, before letting his limp member fall from her lips, still slick with their mingled fluids.

Still, she wasn’t one to leave a mess if she could help it, so she leaned forward and proceeded to lap at his prick with her dainty tongue, to clean him off as he had her.

It wasn’t long before the God of Death was hard once more, and this time, when he lifted her chin so that he could kiss her properly, passionately, longingly, no more words were needed. He pulled her down on top of him, his hands cupped and squeezed the curve of her smooth, delightful bottom as his swollen maleness rubbed against the petals of her womanhood instinctively.

They simply remained like that for some time, hips grinding against one another, rubbing without words, never quite entering, till Kyouko, seeming know what needed to be done, spread herself as much as she could, lifting her knees as her nether lips spread to accommodate her lover’s rock-hard shaft. Those lower lips trembled as they touched something hard and hot, something that pushed into her slowly, entering her core. It was hard for her just to imagine the movement, as Duo's prick stretched her slowly, its passage eased by the sweet nectar she had earlier produced.

"This is..."

A reverent whisper, almost as in rapture, as they were joined as last, with Duo putting his arms around Kyouko, holding her tight as if this was a dream he never wanted to end. She felt a brief, sharp pain, an "ah" escaping her lips as Duo's maleness plunged through the proof of her virginity into fulfilment, with the slick walls of her pussy wrapping around it tightly as Duo's entire length filled her, reaching to the base of her womb.

With their organs entangled in the most intimate kiss nature could offer, the two had become one.

Oddly, Kyouko was the once who set the pace as she rocked against her lover gently, not quite ready for anything too rough yet, just enjoying the feeling of him inside of her, his shaft filling her and giving her a feeling of wholeness. There was certainly still a remaining sense of pain, and a bit of discomfort from where they were connected, as even a welcome intruder was still an intruder, but slowly, as she rocked back and forth, it began to give way to something strange, something sublimely close to pleasure.

Though he was by far the more experienced of the two, Duo was mesmerized by his new lover, feeling almost as if it were the very first time he’d made love to a woman, as his hands reached out to cup Kyouko’s firm breasts.

His palms found Kyouko's full, heaving breasts, and he began to caress them, finding her dark pink nipples already stiff as he rubbed his thumbs against them. She gasped, her lips parting as she pressed into his hands as he teased her nipples gently, her swanlike neck curving as she arched back.

"Ooohhh...."

Kyouko's face was slack from sensation, not from pain, but from pleasure so intense she could not keep from crying out. She still felt jolts from where they were joined, but as powerful as that haze of pleasure-pain was, she had at least had a bit of time to acclimate to it, while this was utterly new, the pleasure immediate.

She placed a hand under one of Duo's arms, lifting it from her chest in reaction as she leaned forward, but undaunted, Duo instead leaned forward and captured her right nipple between his lips, teasing it, playing it, and tonguing it.

"Huh, you'll uh..."

A guttural moan, as he shifted position, taking her right breast in his hand and lowering his lips to her left nipple, hearing her heart pounding as he gently kissed the nipple. Kyouko gripped his shoulders and gave a tiny cry right as he flicked his tongue over the hard point.

"D-D-Duo," she gasped as she fell forward onto him, each of his motions building up the erotic heat in her core, stoking the flames of her pleasure, causing her womanhood to drip, to flood, as Duo placed a hand on her hips to help pull her to him greedily, penetrating her deeper and deeper with each stroke. Her hands sought his waist to pull them closer together as rocking turned into thrusting, in a slow, sensual rhythm like a dance.

With her breath hot and cheeks flushed, Kyouko looked down to see at where their bodies were joined, finding herself stretched open by Duo's hard shaft pumping in and out of her. In the soft glow of night, she could see the salmon-pink folds of her nether lips dripping, their folds contracting and pulsing around the organ filling her. Seeing the lewdness of their coupling was nearly indescribable to Kyouko, especially how he was penetrating her fully, and how both of them were wet and slippery with sweat, the sounds of their bodies coming together echoing in the chamber.

"Kyouko," Duo groaned as he felt what little was left of his control slipping, as his rhythm speeding up as Kyouko ground against him, their hips moving on their own.

And Kyouko for her part, moaned, soft cries of pleasure leaking from her lips as she clung to Duo, shaking as he pierced her over and over, filled her, pulling out, filling her and pulling out again. With Duo's hardness as a guide, the shape and meaning of her womanhood grew clear. Until now, they had done nothing but bring forth her monthly issue on a regular basis, but now, she was learning the delight that they were capable of causing first hand.

"Duo," Kyouko gasped, barely able to form words as her body shook. "Duo, I love you - I love...!!"

"Kyouko..."

Duo slid his right hand between their bodies to where they were connected, brushing through a honey blond bush to the nub at the apex of her folds, his fingers kneading it gently at first, then rubbing it more roughly, causing his lover to cry out whimper softly and move faster against him. A full body flush covered her face and chest, and her pores had opened widely, the scent of her musk wafting into his sinuses, arousing him even more.

"D-Duo!"

Kyouko's nubile body froze in its up and down motions, her inner folds clamping down around Duo's hard cock, squeezing enough that Duo could hardly bear it anymore.

"I, so tight..." he groaned, his face slack with pleasure, which in turn made Kyouko happy, so much so that tears of joy sprung to her eyes.

Her pussy had been churned up beyond recognition, sopping wet and clenching as it took in all of Duo's thrusts, wanting to milk him of his seed. But Kyouko was happy, for her dreams of being with Duo had finally come true.

"Kyouko, come...I'm going to -"

It was too painful for Duo to hold on any longer, and with a nod from Kyouko, both of them slammed their hips together in one blinding stroke, as Duo penetrated deep into Kyouko's womb, rubbing her weakness to squeeze out every last bit of pleasure.

"Come," Kyouko whispered, and Duo's cock spasmed within her tight womanhood, volleys of hot semen spilling deep into her core, filling her womb with liquid warmth as she cried out, clinging to Duo as she gave everything to him, and he in turn gave her the proof of her love, releasing into his lover again and again and again, drowned in the utter pleasure of the moment, drunk on one another.

And then came a quiet interlude, where the only sound to be heard was the ragged breathing of two lovers in the afterglow of passion. In the quiet, Duo leaned over and pulled Kyouko down to him, planting a delicate kiss on the hollow of her neck, making her body melt once again, boneless in his arms, with a bouquet of musk rising from where they were joined, before they drifted off into the realm of dreams in one another’s arms.

**Xamusel** · May 3rd, 2012, 11:24 PM

Duo groaned a bit as he walked. It had been a day since Kyouko and him had made love and frankly he knew he was going to be in the doghouse big time. It had still been worth it for the two of them, but then came the rest of the servants he had to pretty much have to have sex with. He swore that the only thing that made it easier was the fact that X had promised no cameras throughout the whole thing apparently.

Now after a day and night of sex and some scanners apparently giving X a closer idea to something called Wag Tails, Duo now found himself being lead to a mobile suit hanger. Inside the hanger he could see all sorts of mobile suits that X had been working on. From the familiar suits that everyone knew to what looked like an incomplete Gundam with a cannon over one shoulder and an X like array of solar mirrors on the back.

He even spotted one mobile suit that was clearly an attempt to mass produce his good buddy of all things!

“Alright, now I think I’m starting to get royally mad in a way that isn’t very good for X’s long term health,” his eyes never left the incomplete Deathscythe Mass Production Knock Off.

“Eyes front,” one of the guards said, that sarcastic bastard, “Unless you want us thinking that you have more girlfriends than you already have?”

The look on Duo’s face as he turned to the man was pure pain promised, “I am so going to enjoy beating the hell out of you later.”

“Then I guess that’s going to make me a saint then,” the guard replied with a smirk.

“Sarcastic bastard,” Duo turned back to look forward.

“Maybe.”

“Geez, have some fun why don’t’cha!”

“I’m not paid to have fun,” the guard replied and Duo smirked, stopping full tilt and not moving.

“HA! I’m not gonna-”

-BANG!-

“Ow~” Duo was instead hit by a moving crane and the only thing keeping him from falling, were the bindings that were tied to lines held by two of the guards.

“Works every time,” the guard chuckled as he led the group to a lone Space Leo.

The Space Leo had red desert paint scheme and as Duo looked it over, he noted a Mars Garrison logo. That marked this Space Leo from the Alliance Mars Garrison. What was it doing here of all places and just when was it made? The mobile suit looked too shiny to be an older unit, plus he could see that the rifle mounting was not for a standard Leo weapon either.

Duo looked over the edge and sure enough, the Space Leo he was likely to be using had a Taurus Rifle instead and twin mountings for two Beam Sabers. Another difference was significally improved armor, or rather Armor Add On Packs. A lot like the reactive armor of a tank or IFV, this was pretty much just an added layer of extra optional armor. That might not mean much to most folks, but it wasn’t easy for a mobile suit to be able to carry around that kind of protection, since it wasn’t like, say, wearing an old fashion flak vest, which he understood wasn’t much protection in its early days.

Yet, this also told Duo that the Space Leo likely had a new generator and drive system with an improved AMBAC layout.

That wasn’t good and he had the funny feeling he was about to find out what good were all the upgrades to the venerable Leo. Still, it was a good overhaul to the quickly obsoleting mobile suit model. Duo had to admit at least it was better than those pesky T-55s and their knock offs that still kept popping up every now and then.

‘Seriously, just how many did that old relic nation actually make!’ Duo mentally wondered as his last Preventer mission had him blowing up a couple of full strength divisions of the things.

Duo was then led off to a pilots changing room. He saw Musubi there and she shoved a flight suit right into his hands and then forced him into a changing area. As she turned away, she didn’t see Duo’s smirk.

‘Come on, I’m better than that!’ Duo thought as he continued to smirked.

Duo walked the Space Leo out to the launch point. The mobile suit was fully armed and combat-ready. It had the new Hydrogen Reactor Power Plant and had some modifications to the joints that allowed for smoother movement. The cockpit was a new 360 degree panoramic affair with actual crash balloons like a car’s inflatable air bags.

Duo was surprised by all the upgrades, but it was still a Leo and Leos were getting old and outdated despite such upgrades.

Duo patted this new Leo with a friendly pat as he launched out into space. The only added difference to a normal upgrades mobile suit was the fact that X had a metaphorical finger on the Self Destruct System. That meant that Duo couldn’t flee, at least not yet. Not that he was actually planning to simply run away in a Space Leo after all. That was even crazy for Heero to try and Duo knew that in his place, Heero would.

“Relena would ream up worse than what Une and Hilde could and would ever do to me,” Duo muttered as the test began with a sneak attack by Space Mines, “Seriously here! Those things are only a threat to rookies and shuttles!”

The Space Mines weren’t many, but they were still a good test for various systems to get a work out and Duo to stretch his legs as it were. The real test had yet to begin as Duo constantly shot the rather useless weapons apart. It was over in a mere few seconds.

“Reload and begin the next phase,” X ordered and Duo saw a supply ship come up and resupply his Leo.

Once the resupply was complete, Taurus Mobile Dolls came swarming at him and Duo responded, easily ripping apart the Stock TMDs, though they put up more fight than the SM, especially as they had nearly gotten the left leg of his unit hit and destroyed with one of the Taurus Rifles by the last one to go down. As soon as the last of the TMDs was destroyed, another supply ship came to resupply the Leo as well as leave afterword.

The third phase of the test was rather interesting, to say the least, mainly because X decided to up the ante with the mobile units and send in Virgo Mobile Suits. There was a particular reason why this was interesting, and it had to do with the fact that there weren’t really Virgo Mobile Suits as far as he knew of. Then again, if his mobile suit was anything to go by, somewhere had to be busy.

Duo heard the call to start and he began jinking fast, but these guys were no slow pokes. They were led by one unit that was a deep blue and green and had a modified horned head that had a sliding mono-eye design. This mobile suit was moving faster than the others and seemed to be the one in command. Other than that it was pretty much stock, if you didn’t count the upgrades, Virgo MS.

Duo cursed as a shot came in too close as he spun the Leo on its vertical axis to avoid shots that would have gone for his arms. He returned fire, this time with an improved Leo Machine Gun. The bulky drum had been removed and replaced with a box magazine. Most Space Leos were equipped with semi-automatic rifles because of the clunky nature of the conversions as Leos were really not originally well suited to space operations.

Duo ducked under one Virgo’s attempt to take his Leo’s head. Duo was thankful that an upgrade included having the cameras for the main monitor placed on a moving system. As such, he was able to turn the Leo’s ‘head’ and see a lot more around him.

That was quickly proving useful as he shot the arms off one Virgo, both legs and the head and left arm off another, and destroyed the shield generators for two others before they even had shields.

Then that blue and green custom machine came straight at him and rammed the Leo good.

Toga Avanel sighed as he worked his mobile suit to quickly fire off a few shots; he was able to destroy the reserve rifle, which was jettisoned by the Test Subject. Then, not staying in one place, he vectored down and to the right with a quick jink that put him in a new spot. Once there, he saw his opponent take advantage of the debris, including two disabled Space Mines headed his way!

“Dammit!”

Duo watched as the Virgo II Custom easily destroyed the two mines he had thrown its way. Yet there was something about the reaction that caught his attention. It was too quick to be something as mundane as clearing or even training against mines.

“This guy is used to things getting thrown his way, literally,” Duo now knew he was up against some ace from a war, but the question was, which kind of ace was he?

“Dammit all ta hell!”

People were only as good as the Intel and that appears to have been inaccurate.

Toga threw his mobile suit hard again as he watched the Leo gun down a Virgo that was getting too close. While the fighting wasn’t hard per se, Toga was having a flashback to some rookie pilot and a certain devil that tormented him and his allies. The movement was a lot the same, no matter the mobile suit.

You could always tell a Gundam Pilot.

‘This is getting so boring!’ a voice suddenly said in Duo’s head and Duo felt something within him freeze...

‘No!’ was his last thought as he felt something... vile... swim through him and take control of his body, locking him away.

“His movements changed?” Toga looked on quizzically.

The Leo suddenly pulled off a whole set of different evasions and then suddenly...

In her cell, the purple haired woman sighed to herself.

“More killing.”

“Confirming GRIM activation boss sir,” Payne reported as he monitored the ongoing test, his voice detached as the Leo began to slaughter people.

“Mein Himmel!” Hefner said in shock, she had never seen anything like it.

“Hm?” X shifted as he rubbed his chin, he felt something was off.

Kyouko stopped her work and turned to look out a window into space.

“Duo.”

The Leo punched a fist away, nearly severing the Virgo’s arm off, the pilot barely avoided a fatal slash, but the Leo just kept charging at her. The pilot knew she couldn’t escape as she screamed for her life, only for the beam saber to flash by. The Virgo rocked by explosions began drifting.

Two guards watched the massacre on a closed circuit. They couldn’t believe what was happening to people they knew. They also knew that Duo wasn’t the one in control... or the Zero System.

“Lemming,” one guard said with distaste.

“So that’s the Lemming System,” the other said with disgust, “What a dumb and useless device, unless it’s for wholesale slaughter.”

The other only nodded.

“By the Grace of something good and noble, let it end, please!” a voice said in silent plea to some greater power.

“Conclude the test!” X shouted, he was certain now, beyond a doubt.

“Yes sir,” Fuji flipped a switch, but the Leo kept attacking, “I can’t shut the Leo down!”

A crackle of static that had even X covering his ‘ears’ came about and then mad laughter. It was completely psychotic and distorted and a complete mockery of Duo’s own laughter. That meant it could only be one thing and one thing only.

“Oh, YEAH!! Let it burn, let it burn, LET IT BURN, BABY!! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!” exclaimed ‘Duo’ from that distorted version of his own voice, with the voice giving way to mad laughter even worse off than a mad scientists’.

The sound was shocking, but X only gave an annoyed sigh. He thought that was what had happened as he calmly walked over to communications and spoke, “Enough GRIM or else.”

“Or else what DAD! YAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!” GRIM continued to attack, but then turned towards the station, fully intent on causing damage.

Yet, before that could happen, Toga was in the way with a double bladed beam sword that he twirled with expert skill and calm experience. He stopped GRIM cold, forcing it back from the station. It was rather surprising, but Toga was no pushover mobile suit pilot and GRIM simply hadn’t had time to react to the veteran ace.

“Fuji the gas,” X simply ordered and Fuji nodded and the man hit the controls, thankfully they still worked. As such, gas flooded the suit that Duo was wearing, immediately the obvious began to happen. GRIM slowed down as Duo’s body was forced into rest and despite its best effort, it couldn’t control Duo’s body like Duo could.

“YOU SUCK!” were GRIM’s last words before silence prevailed.

Toga move forward carefully, prodding the immobilized mobile suit. No reaction, everything was now under control. The Custom reached out and promptly lost an arm.

“JUST KIDDING!!!” GRIM seemed to smirk, before, “HEY?! WHAT THE?!”

“Back in your cage!” Duo roared and then suddenly silence.

“Breathing rate is now normal and consistent with slumber,” Inman reported, “Subject Thirteen is asleep.”

“Fuji, recall all remain-ing...” there, drifting in the now silent void, were numerous badly damaged mobile suits. The pilots clinging to their suits, more or less unharmed. It would appear that not everything had gone wrong.

“Can you hurry and get us!” one female pilot shouted, the one who thought she had just met her maker as she clung to the remaining third of her Virgo.

Hilde Schbeiker was currently inputting her personal preferences for her new Mobile Suit when she suddenly felt a shiver go down her spine. She felt someone important to her go into a mad rage that made it next to impossible for them to break out of it, but she wasn’t sure who it was that went into such a rage, yet she could guess the one person in her life that was more important than anything else was somehow responsible for the shiver. She didn’t like it, but it was something that she had absolutely no control over, at least currently.

Sighing, she was about to finish inputting her preferences when she suddenly recalled that the next-best computer guy wasn’t even there to help set up the computer systems of her female-esque XXXG-02PT1 Persephone Terra Gundam, for whatever reason. As fear crept towards her, she couldn’t help but ask the following question, which had a lot of merit to hold.

“Where did Heero go, anyway?” Hilde asked, without really meaning too.

“Good question,” Une mentioned as she came within speaking range, with a pilot suit in hand that she tossed over to Hilde that was measured to her exact size. “He went missing a few months prior to Duo getting caught up in that mess, which is why we had to send Duo in there in the first place, although it also hurts that Relena’s also missing.”

“Wait! Miss Relena is missing as well?!” Hilde exclaimed with shock, for this was the first she had heard of this.

“Yes, she is,” Une replied, shrugging as she spoke, “though we know the general location of where she’s at, it’s Mars to be specific and we know it is for a lover’s vacation with Heero.”

“Wait, aren’t we on Mars?” Hilde asked in a skeptical tone, wondering where this was going.

“Oh? I almost forgot about that part,” Une answered with a tone of remembering something important, causing Hilde to sigh in frustrated annoyance at what happened.

‘She’s toying with me or can’t say geez.’

Hilde became very worried. It was now not only Duo who was gone, but Trowa had apparently vanished as well. Wufei was rarely seen anymore and no one knew what kind of trouble now lurked for Quatre who was always busy.

For Middie Une, it was that she knew the truth, but couldn’t tell Hilde yet. Relena had been lost to them, because of some mad cult or group. She didn’t care which, the fact of the matter was, was that Relena was actually on her way to Mars right now under heavy security. The situation was dire, so dire that they had Heero also placed into cryo suspension in order to either protect or kill Relena, depended on conditions, but if there was thing one about Heero that could be trusted, was that he knew how to follow his instincts and save lives in the long run.

‘Good luck Heero, you’ll need it.’

An hour later, back at X's nameless war station; Duo was strapped to a table in an operating room. The brunette was heavily sedated to the point it was doubtful he would awaken for at least a day. This was needed, because the GRIM might reactivate and override Duo's personality again and take control of his body again.

"Doctor Wright, begin the operation," ordered X, both of his arms held up with white surgical gloves on and his form covered head to toe in a medical surgical uniform.

"Yes sir," the woman replied as she brought a scalpel to the marked areas.

Doctor Wright then proceeded to cut into the flesh at the base of the skull until he came to the protective covering of the GRIM that melded in perfectly with the rest of the bone of the skull leaving it undetectable from the outside. Once done, Professor X and Doctor Fuji moved in to join her in carefully removing the covering until the inner workings of the GRIM were revealed. Then Wright stood back as both men were taking care not to touch any other part of the system as they put the inhibitor chip in its proper place then replaced the protective covering on the GRIM followed by Doctor Wright stepping forward again to stitch up the flesh around it.

"Boss sir the installation of the inhibitor chip is a success," reported Doctor Payne from his spot at the monitoring equipment.

"Good, take him back to his room once we're sure there's no complications," commanded X, as he moved off to clean up, Doctor Wright supervising just that.

"Thirty-Three Percent, boss sir?" Doctor Payne questioned him, knowing the drawback to the inhibitor chip.

"I am well aware of the effects it will have on it," X bit back angrily at his lackey, "The portion the inhibitor chip will allow it to operate is the portion based on the ZERO System," X stated before continuing in an annoyed tone, "and it will only allow that to work if the nano-machines detect high levels of stress in the subject's body caused by life threatening situations," X explained, "But it is necessary to keep the GRIM from taking control and to keep its level of influence over the subject to a minimum until we know how it got out of control in the first place."

"Understood boss sir," Payne did understand and was thankful, but the Preventer's corvettes and patrol ships were starting to really tear into them and on that thought he decided some good news was in order, “We've also finished reconstruction of the his Gundam to plans originally put forth by Professor G."

Professor X scowled at mention of his former colleague before he developed his ‘Slasher Smile’ and Doctor Payne wondered if he should've just gone to jail way back when.

**Xamusel** · May 3rd, 2012, 11:25 PM

Loni Garvey, a young woman with aqua eyes and deep ocean blue hair, wearing the standard guard uniform worn by all the guards that work for X consisting of a posh coat, a pair of pants, boots that were squeaky clean from constant polishing (courtesy of the servants for normal guards, though Loni wanted to do that herself) and a tri-corner hat, groaned as she got herself stuck with guard duty over the woman that had caused the veteran guard to get his latest headache recently, Miya if memory served her right. She didn’t know why Miya’s usual guard wasn’t in, but frankly, the woman scared many people here for one reason or another. It could be that her usual guard was taking some time away for mental reasons....

Loni shook her head, not sure what she was going to think, but knowing that it would get her nowhere fast. Therefore, she decided to do something that she hadn’t had a chance to do in a while, probe the minds of people here to see if there were Newtypes on-board the station... and get some conversation in from Miya in the process.

“So, Miss Miya,” Loni started while feeling around for proper minds with her own, “where are you from in particular?”

Miya remained silent for a few seconds, before she decided on saying, “I’m from a place you probably haven’t heard of in Japan, though that shouldn’t be a surprise, considering you’re not from around here either.”

Loni gasped in shock from what she heard, thinking that the woman she was speaking to was a Newtype and that her own Newtype training was lacking. Deciding to test the waters somewhat, Loni asked a question that was meant for testing purposes of Newtypes, “What’s my father’s name?”

Miya chuckled a bit at the question, before she replied, “Why do you think I’d be able to know that?” Hearing her guard sigh in annoyance, she clarified, “You were basically broadcasting that you were from another portion of reality with your mind, so I decided to give you an honest enough answer without giving away too much information.”

Loni looked over in Miya’s direction, which allowed her to at least have a better chance of knowing whether or not Miya was telling the truth. Seeing no trace of lying in her, Loni asked, “So, how did you know that I was basically broadcasting that with my mind, Miss Miya?”

“It felt like an ability I was used to from where I’ve come from, though it’s hard to properly explain right now, dear guard of mine,” Miya replied, feeling a bit generous to explain a bit of her heritage. It was hardly something she could talk about, if only because of the fact that she didn’t know how many people knew of said heritage at all, when it was supposed to stay secret.

“Is that so?” Loni asked, before she received a call on her phone that she answered, “Hello, Seo, what is... WHAT DO YOU MEAN MAXWELL ESCAPED AGAIN?!”

At that moment, Musubi ran around the corner and asked in a manner fit for a superior guard, “What is it, Loni?”

Loni, turning to face Musubi, noted that Musubi was not the one at fault for this escape attempt, so she told Seo, the one on the other end, “I’ll call you back after this is over with, I’ve got Musubi with me in the ISO area and she needs to know what happened... uh-huh, yeah, bye.” After hanging up, Loni answered Musubi’s question by saying, “It’s Duo Maxwell, and he escaped again!” Hearing Musubi’s gasp of shock, Loni clarified, “He’s heading this way and we need to be careful for the sake of everyone involved.”

“Understood,” Musubi replied, something Loni didn’t want to be wrong. With that, the two of them headed off towards Duo’s estimated escape point, not even noticing that Seo, who turned out to be Miya’s original guard, was coming with a package in his hands from the opposite direction that they were headed.

As Seo turned the corner and came to Miya’s doorway, he said in a bit of a carefree tone, “You got a package, Asama-san, and it wasn’t approved by X yet.” Seeing the confusion in her eyes, he clarified, after ensuring that nobody would be able to hear the conversation, “I got your clothes and your sword back, Miya, now it’s time to go get Musubi freed from X, if anything.” Pushing the package through the slot at the bottom of the door, he told her, “We got to get her out of here; otherwise this trip will have been for nothing, especially if it turns out that she’s going to leave here with another group of people.”

After picking up and opening the package, Miya noted that it was her usual outfit from when she took care of the inn before being called away, along with the ‘training sword’ that she uses on occasion. Grabbing the hilt and the blade, she pulled them apart to reveal that, no; it wasn’t a training sword, but a blade in a wood-covered metal scabbard instead. After putting the sword back into the scabbard fully, Miya got dressed in a hurry before the camera could register that she had dressed, which left the camera with one final thing that it could see before it was destroyed.

Miya had drawn the sword at an inhuman speed and then slowly sheathed it, and when it clicked close, the cameras and sound system in the ISO area went down with a bang.

Duo, earlier in the day, was technically out of it while he was being wheeled over to a different training facility by guards that were definitely not his usual. It should be noted that he was under a powerful sedative during this day for the majority of it, but the sedative was wearing off faster than anticipated, as Duo started to shift a bit while being dragged. There was a reason for this particular thing going on, the shifting at any rate...

'Duo, wake up,' spoke a feminine angelic voice within Duo’s mind, trying to gently wake him up mentally.

'Urrr,' was the reply from Duo within his head.

'You need to wake up Duo,' urged the angelic voice, hoping that he’d wake up this time within his head, though....

'Five more minutes Sister, just five more minutes?' Duo begged as he tried drifting to further sleep.

No such luck was to be had for the metaphorical agent of God trying to wake Duo up.

Deciding to play it a bit more roughly, the voice became more like a man’s for a short bit as it barked at Duo, 'Would you hurry and wake up idiot!'

'Stuff it Heero and let me- HEERO!' Duo was up in his mind faster than a blink of an eye.

'Actually no, this is the ZERO System; remember I was installed along with the Lemming System,' the voice clarified in its angelic nature this time.

'Oh right! Is that why I get the feeling I didn't kill those pilots?' Duo asked optimistically, in hope that he didn’t actually take innocent lives during the test phase the day before.

'You would be correct in that, but listen, GRIM is active and trying to get past both an inhibitor chip and myself at the moment,' ZERO replied, hoping that it would help cheer Duo up.

At the mention of what the GRIM was trying to do, Duo asked a bit dejectedly, 'Will I…?'

'No, remember there's an inhibitor in the way now, but play dumb and GRIM will never realize I'm here, just in case,' ZERO reassured her boss, to ensure that he would know what would happen.

'Agreed to that, I really hate that guy,' Duo declared adamantly.

'Professor X only altered the state of Lemming System after combining it with me and as such GRIM was born with the Lemming System believing itself to be GRIM, but…' ZERO began explaining, then trailed off to let Duo fill in the gaps himself.

'He ultimately failed and I have two computer systems connected to my brain, right?' Duo asked in a rhetorical sense.

'Yes,' ZERO replied in a non-rhetorical sense, unaware of the definition of rhetorical questions.

'Oh goody, remind me to thank him as soon as possible,' Duo brought up sarcastically, which, due to her being a computer system, ZERO failed to pick up.

'I believe that's what Lemming wants, but remember, play dumb,' ZERO reminded Duo, to be on the safe side.

'I always do!' Duo shot back in a bit of a happy go lucky manner mixed with a bit of anger that his pride was hurt.

'Why couldn't you have been that guy with ego complex instead,' ZERO lamented more to herself.

'I heard that!’ Duo shot back at ZERO, not wanting to be reminded of his Chinese friend, though something was nagging him for a good while. ‘And now that I think about it, why do you sound like a girl?'

'Here he comes! Play dumb!' ZERO urged for a final time before leaving Duo to his own devices for dealing with GRIM.

Speaking of which....

'Wake up Duo,' said the voice of a gruff-sounding man that sounded like he’d seen his fair share of battles and wanted to continue fighting.

'Urrr,' came Duo’s waking up noise, which he faked to ensure that the GRIM would not even know that he was speaking with the ZERO system.

'Duo you need to wake up!' the voice was insisting this time, though for what reason...

'Huh? Wha-?' Duo asked out of curiosity more than he should have, which he didn’t want to do here.

'This is your only chance to escape. You have to wake up now,' the voice, properly identified by Duo as GRIM, further insisted as if speaking with a fellow prisoner.

'That voice… Why would you care?' Duo questioned to ensure he had a good idea what was going on with the psychotic part of his head.

'Let's just say it's in both our best interest if you wake up?' GRIM said as he tried to plead with Duo to properly wake up.

'Really?' Duo asked skeptically.

'Yes,' GRIM replied, to which Duo was given reason to be more of a skeptic.

'No personal reasons?' Duo asked in an even more skeptic tone.

'No,' GRIM replied with what could be considered a straight face, which got Duo wondering what his game was.

'You sure? Because I don't think so,' Duo countered with his own common sense.

'Well, maybe I do, maybe I don't,' GRIM replied vaguely.

'Oh! So you do have an ulterior motive. Fine I'll wake up,' Duo relented after he heard the answer and took it for an ulterior motive being hidden.

'Good,' GRIM answered before Duo opened his eyes.

Duo came to and saw he was being carted towards a training area if the signs were anything to go by. A mental smirk crossed his face as he noticed he was still in the pilot suit from before. That made life easier as he thumbed the hidden detonator that was hidden in the cuff of the flight suit. The signal went out, but nothing happened, as planned.

One of the guards noticed the slight movement and leaned over him to look, only for Duo to grab the man and roll to the opposite side, giving him enough power to flip the guard over and crash him face first into the floor plate.

Duo was up before the guards could understand what was happening. Their slow reaction times enabled Duo to spin around and clock the nearest guard in the solar plexus, dropping him like a sack of potatoes. The next guard got a chop to the shoulder that caused him to cry out as he was then slammed into the wall. The last guard found Duo striking out with two fingers into his throat, not a fatal attack, but the guard would be choking, though he would have problems speaking for the rest of his life as Duo cracked a knee to the collapsing guard’s face and turned to see another guard in a choke hold.

“Knight Dancer of the Deep Cover Section,” the guard choking his fellow said and Duo quickly covered the man’s nose and mouth, “Nice to meet you.”

“So that’s why you were such a pain in the ass,” Duo hissed, “That crane hurt you know.”

“I figured as much,” increasing his hold on the man, “Amazed me you didn’t dent it.”

“Sarcastic bastard,” Duo muttered and then noticed the guard face color changing, “I think he’s out.”

Knight Dancer took a look and confirmed it, “Good, we don’t kill unless we have no choice,” and with that, the man was unceremoniously dropped to the floor plate.

“Seo and Miya should be starting their party right about now, so let’s get our job done,” Knight Dancer turned to head out, Duo right behind him, a small metal shaft 3 feet long in hand.

“Seo and Miya?” Duo didn’t recognize the names.

“Two people with a vested interest in that Musubi woman,” Knight Dancer explained as they stacked up around a corridor, “Don’t know who they are and where they come from, but they’re both good, simple as that.”

The two headed out, Duo thumbed another hidden switch and an explosion finally let off, wrecking the corridor they just exited. Another explosion detonated in another connecting passageway, one they didn’t need to use. Then another blast wrecked another area of the station. All these areas were where Duo had rampaged through just before his capture and again before and during his fight with Musubi.

Alarms sounded immediately.

Then came more alerts as Miya started her own plan.

There was no time to be quiet and they both knew it. They had laid low, very low, long enough for the large scale sting operation to get as far as it had. They were also, off the record, stealing data from Professor X.

In fact, Duo had originally been planned to get captured so they could learn even more about X’s operations and anything else he might know. It had been a dangerous gambit, but it was aimed at a group that called themselves the Perfect Peace People. A yet identified group of radical pacifists that for a reason that went with the whole insane bit, decided on nefarious means to achieve and hold onto peace.

With the new technology, they might just have a chance to break even with them.

They ran up and to where the doors that leads to the corridor down into power. They forced the doors open and on the other side, guard after guard was laid out and stacked up like logs. The women from medical weaved between the unconscious guards and lifted and stacked them and right in the center of the room was Doctor Wright.

“About time hon,” she said as the two males walked in, securing the door behind them.

“Sorry for being late dear, but you do know how it goes with some folks,” Knight Dancer pecked her on the lips, before turning to a shocked Duo, “My wife and I couldn’t be happier.”

“No freaking way,” Duo muttered in disbelief while Wright was pleased to have a moment with her husband, which was a story Duo would rather not know at the moment.

“You two better be off, no telling when X will realize a number of us are against him,” but she guided KD’s hand to her belly, “I’m nearly three months by the way.”

“Frag a barrel of crap and call me lucky!” not the most poetic words as Dancer picked up Wright and spun her as he gave a cheer, “I’d better survive so I can teach the little tyke what it means to be a guardian of peace!”

The two shared another kiss and then Duo and Dancer were on the move.

“Oh yeah, call me KD, those are my real initials too,” KD told Duo as the two breached into another corridor.

Miya cut her way through the guards, moving so much like her apprentice Yume does. The guards’ weapons were destroyed before they could react and some were crashed into the walls, nothing fatal, but most definitely painful. Miya appeared as she was dressed as though she was some Sword Maiden from the ancient times of Samurai. There was nothing that could be done to stop her as she sliced bullets out of the air and cut through armored emergency bulkhead hatches.

Eventually she arrived at a large enough space and several Mobile Dolls chose that moment to attack her. The gravity had also been killed, so she was forced to float up. That of course, did little to slow her as she tore through the Mobile Dolls before they could react and then there another hatch, where she cut her way through a bunch of infantry automatons. She was after all on a mission, looking for the spot where she and Musubi would meet and fight.

Meanwhile, Loni and Musubi were trying to figure out where Duo was headed, which in itself was a massive chore that they didn’t need to do unless there was no other option for this. They had run towards the hangar bay, which turned up with nothing, and were about to label this a false alarm when they heard the explosions ripple through the area. That in itself was what tipped them off that something wrong occurred while they were looking in the wrong place for Duo.

Loni, having less experience with the place, turned to Musubi and asked, “Do you know which way the explosions came from, Musubi?”

Before Musubi could open her mouth, another person made himself known in the room, “It won’t help to know where they came from, they weren’t where the explosions came from, mainly because of when those explosives were placed in the first place.” As the two women looked over in the direction of the voice, near that custom Virgo II Mobile Suit, they could see a youthful man with gray hair and hazel eyes wearing a khaki uniform coat and pants with yellow pipping with a blue patch on the sleeve and the name Avanel printed on the right chest. It was clear that the outfit was a naval uniform from appearance alone, but Musubi couldn’t place it… on the other hand it came from one place, which is why Loni recognized it easily.

“What’s a Federation officer doing here?!” she shouted out in surprise, though out of habit, there was some venom in her words. Given her past, the whole distrust of whatever Federation she was talking about actually had merit.

“Actually,” the man replied, taking out his pilot suit from within a crate that he was in the process of moving to show who he was really with from back there, “I’m surprised to run into another member of the remnants.” Pausing for a bit as he heard her gasp in shock, he shook his head as he wondered aloud, “How did I know that? Your gait gives it away every time you move.” Clearing his throat, he said to the women, “Call me Toga Avanel, so as to avoid unneeded attention from people, as the fewer that know the better.”

Shaking her head to get the shock out of her system, Loni glared at the man in front of her as she asked him, “If you’re not from the Federation, then why do you wear the uniform of a Lieutenant in their space navy instead of-“

“Good question,” Toga answered, “I don’t know how this thing kept following me from one place to another,” as he cut her off before she could reveal sensitive information to whoever might be listening, “But it doesn’t matter, I will always be a son of the Fatherland!” Seeing Loni gasp again was proof enough that he got the message across as needed, so he continued with, so as to give her a good idea of who he is, “In actuality, I hold the rank of Lieutenant Commander and I was assigned to the last defense line before we were forced into hiding, but we came out and struck a mighty blow to the corrupt dogs! So, until which time I can make it more official, I shall refer to you as an Ensign, are you well with that?”

Loni was speechless at what she had heard, mainly because she now had an idea to who the man was. He was always said to be the last out unless ordered otherwise and even then, he had to be held within the ship he was assigned. Sure, she was only around a year old when he was in active service before the time of his final operation as it were, but like any other child growing up with the remains of Zeon’s ground forces, she had heard of his exploits. To be under the command of a legendary officer such as Toga Avanel, as she could sense his real name from, but out of respect, remembered that walls had ears.

Before Loni could answer, Musubi cleared her throat and said, “If it’s not so much trouble, we have a prisoner to capture once more, so we’ll be on our way for now.”

Toga understood what Musubi was trying to say. What she was saying was they ‘needed to be elsewhere in order to fulfill orders that were important to fulfill under punishment of’ something that he didn’t know what it was particularly, nor did he want to know right now, mainly because of the survival instincts he retained. He eventually settled upon telling them, “Alright, but you both better be alright by the time the prisoner gets captured, otherwise this problem will not go away by the standard methods at all.” Holding up his hand in the salute that he’d rather use to salute a fellow soldier, he barked out as a rally, “SIEG ZEON!”

While Musubi didn’t understand the rally, Loni perfectly understood what Toga meant, as she returned the salute and cried out as well, “SIEG ZEON!” Turning to her fellow guard, Loni grabbed Musubi’s arm and dragged her away, while saying to her, “Okay, we’ve got a prisoner to recapture, so let’s get crackin’ and capture Duo Maxwell!”

Though if truth be told, to be an ensign, a proper officer of Zeon’s military, Loni wouldn’t trade that for the world, but then she remembered what she was told, but then shrugged it off. She needed a clear head for now. Torrington Base and what had happened there could wait until later.

KD breached the doors as Duo chucked in some flashbangs. The cries of the guards and personnel were heard as both rushed in, Duo using his staff, extended to just over 5 feet in length, to begin knocking opponents around as KD entered with all the professional of a trained operator. In moments, between the two men, they had secured the control room for the power generation reactors for the station.

At least, they thought they did, until the door on the other side opened up to reveal Doctor Harry Inman with a manila envelope in his coat and explosives in hand. As soon as the man, who walked the whole way from the door, made it to the core of the power generation reactors, he started putting different explosives grades onto the different powerplants and set them to go off at the press of a control stick that he had on hand, while he made his way to the control booth where Duo and KD were at, which he didn’t know, with the mission to destroy the station in his mind.

Duo, who was shocked out of his mind that one of X’s lackeys would so openly cause a big betrayal like this to happen, could only think, ‘What is he thinking?! Doesn't his family even wonder how he is now?!’

Before KD could even react, Inman was already at the control booth and about to go to the console when he noticed that he wasn’t alone in there. Standing stock-still with Duo looking at him strangely, Inman wasn’t sure who’d be the first to break the silence, he or someone else in the room.

It turned out that KD decided to break that silence, what with him clearing his throat and saying, “You have some explaining to do, don’t you, Doctor Inman?” Seeing Inman turn to face him, KD continued, “I assume you’re here to do something to get back at X for something.” Seeing the look of horror in Inman’s face, KD clarified, “I’m not with X, never had been. I’m a deep cover agent of Preventer and I’m here to get rid of X like you are about to.”

Inman sighed from the exhaustion that was taking its toll on him, and then said, “I was ordered to get a genetic test done on Mister Maxwell to see if he had living relations and where he came from.” Taking out the manila envelope, Inman turned to Duo and handed it to him while saying, “This is the result of what happens when a father finds out that he has willingly used his own son as an unwilling test subject, a revelation of an irony that shouldn’t be, but yet is.”

When Duo heard that, he was curious as to what Inman meant, at least until he opened the envelope that held the genetic test and took out the results. What he saw shocked him to the core of his being.

As far as Duo knew, he was related to the street urchins and the people that helped him be who he was today by association and name only, with no living relatives because they had supposedly died in the epidemic of that L2 colony while he was barely an infant. Now, however, it was proven to him that his family was still out there, and his father was right in front of… him.

“Why…?” Duo asked in a pained tone, not trusting his voice to carry the words that he wanted to say other than that one word spoken already. He had a lot of questions to ask, so many of them, that Duo wasn’t sure he could put them into words. He felt his knees going weak, his stomach turning, and his body feeling like lead. He just didn’t know what to do or to think.

Harry Inman, as if he knew what Duo was trying to ask, answered the unasked questions, “Your mother, Mari Inman, died while delivering you the day you were born, and the chaos of the time you were born in had forced me on the run with no idea what happened to you because of being caught in the wrong place at the wrong time.” Seeing the shock of realization that Duo showed on his face, Harry continued, “Irony abounds in war, especially in this particular war fought in the shadows, and I wanted to deal with this threat that was X without worry for my conscience from this day forth.” As if to elaborate, Harry further said to his son, “What X had done instigated a full-scale war with the Preventers that caused nothing but heartache for everyone,” and not even realizing what he was about to say was something Duo had once said himself, “and I intend to take this war with me straight to HELL!”

“Father….” Duo muttered, feeling the words that he said come and fly right back to him.

He really was a death god, for it followed him as eagerly a puppy would a person who feeds it. He looked at the man who had sired him and then as realization of what he had been doing finally came down on him... He would end his part in this madness with his own hands, not even trying to live for tomorrow, was there even a tomorrow for him?

Duo couldn’t help it; his reunion with a living relative wasn’t what he thought it would be, as it would prove to be a bittersweet moment which had no happy ending, not even divine intervention would prevent his father from losing his life in a final act of redemption… and those in the room all knew it as truth. As such, Duo dropped the test results and embraced his father, crying a river of tears into the man’s shoulders while knowing full well this wasn’t a dream. He needed reassurance that he was loved by the parent that had no choice but to run for his life, a reassurance he received when Harry returned the embrace and soothingly said, “There, there, Duo, it’s alright now. We may be parted today, but some day, I believe we may have a second chance, just be careful and don’ make the same mistakes I did, okay,” Harry embraced his only child for the first and only time ever in their lives, “You’ve gone and made me proud son, you’ve made me and your mother so very proud, you’re a hero to everyone, a champion I only wish I could have been growing up as a child, but here you are, having made a difference for the greater good, I can’t even begin to say how proud I am!”

KD, while he knew time was of the essence, didn’t want to force things to hurry along, particularly with a reunion that was so bittersweet he felt his faith reaffirmed in what he was doing was right, so he gave them a minute to be like father and son. He didn’t know what it was like to be separated from your family at birth, something he was glad for, but he did know that Duo needed to know what others knew: Family, while it may be split through one means or another, is still family and should be treated as such for all of time.

‘This sucks though,’ KD thought sadly.

Loni and Musubi soon discovered that the path they had chosen had led them right to Miya who had patiently awaited Musubi’s arrival. The two came to a stop, seeing dozens of men and drones lay in a circle around Miya who merely looked up and then stood up. She drew her sword upon the two, even as Musubi launched herself into an immediate attack.

“I’m Sekirei-Alpha, Asama Miya!” the purpled haired beauty declared to her opponent, “I shall be your opponent!”

Musubi’s attack had missed and hearing Miya’s declaration, a fiery burning sensation entered Musubi. Here was one of her kind, ready for a fight. A sudden urge to battle quickly swept through Musubi and took control.

“I’m Sekirei Number Eighty-Eight, Musubi!” the brunette declared with a vicious smile on her face clenching and unclenching her hands, “I hope you prove a match!”

Before Loni could say or do anything, Seo reached out and pulled her back, just as debris crashed down where she had been standing.

“Leave them,” Seo said as he pulled Loni to her feet and began to lead her away, “When Sekirei meet, it’s like watching the Gundam pilots battle it out on a whole new level!”

He led the younger woman away, knowing that sticking around anywhere near those two fighting would be bad. There was also the fact that the station had started to come undone as explosions ran across it from every possible direction. Duo’s bombs had done their job and if the reports he heard were true, then the power stations were about to go as well!

“We need to get off the station, it’s about to blow big time!”

“BUT!” Loni began, looking surprised.

“Listen!” Seo took a hold on both her arms, “We can’t do anything when they get like that! Musubi needs to burn off all that excess energy that she’s been storing! I know what I’m talking about, so let’s go!”

He pulled her along, but she resisted, so he simply turned around, slapped her across the face and then picked her up and placed her stun form in a Fireman’s Carry and got the hell out of the block moments before a power attack from Musubi tore the area up!

“AND THAT’S WITHOUT HER NORITO?!” Seo shouted as Loni saw the devastation behind them.

As the two traded fire with X’s guards, Duo couldn’t stop thinking about what had just come to past. A grenade thrown by Knight Dancer blew away a number of guards and allowed the two to switch to a new hallway and make a run for it. Moments later, a fireball ripped through where they had been battling, killing everyone else behind them.

“Keep it together there man!” Knight Dancer turned and gunned down two more of X’s guards. Their shots having perforated the area above the two’s heads. They simply kept going even as automated drones rolled around the corner before them, they both chucked adhering explosives to the two as they ran past. Seconds later, both drones exploded.

A burst of fire then caught KD and he went down, Duo though swung and was able to get off return fire that silenced the threat. Grabbing KD by his tactical gear, Duo dragged the wounded man into cover, as said man cursed up a storm. Once both were behind cover, an explosion ended the threat to them.

Leaning out carefully, Duo saw some help in the form of Dr. Wright and her girls.

“Looks like we all met up here,” Wright said as she came around the corner and spotted her husband with bullet wounds.

“Get me patched up so you can treat and yell at me later,” the man groaned at the end, pulling up his TAC-Vest to see that the body armor he wore took the damage for him, “That’s going to hurt later,” he muttered as his wife began fretting over him.

“The tram is still there and working, but it’s taken damage,” one of Wright’s women reported after checking on the transportation they were planning on using to escape.

“How bad?” KD asked as he felt the disinfectant spray go to work around his wounds, his teeth grinding in pain at the burning feel.

“Not too bad, but someone’s gonna need to remind behind,” the woman responded.

“That would be me, so get going,” Duo said as he started to walk off, his staff back out, and his intent clear.

“Good luck,” KD ground out as he was helped up and all of them began to make their way to the tram.

Duo only nodded, but he headed, not even looking back. Several drones appeared before him, the three legged heavy machine gun types and the bipedal loosely humanoid looking models. He smirked as energy burst forth from his staff and he swung in an arc. Duo then got the opportunity to smirk further as human guards showed up to try to again capture him.

“Time to take this all to hell, first class!”

“LOOK OUT!!!” a guard shouted and everything cut loose as one as Duo roared as he crossed the distance.

Explosions were beginning to really rock the station now as Loni and Seo were doing their best to stay a step ahead, literally in several cases, of the station ripping itself apart. They both were getting a distinct feeling that Duo had gone to town on the high grade explosives or the stations construction just sucked. A major blast that nearly threw them into space and they both agreed on Column C, BOTH!

“IF WE EVER GET OUT OF THIS I’M NEVER GOING BACK TO SPACE!!!” Seo shouted as they started to outrun a fireball that thankfully was stopped by a bulkhead hatch.

“We made it,” Loni said as she took a deep breath to regain her breath, but Seo only slapped his face.

“You had to say it, didn’t you,” he asked rhetorically and before Loni could ask what he meant, the floor plating beneath them failed and they fell to a lower level, “That is what I meant.”

Loni looked embarrassed, but before she could apologize they turned to the sound of mobile suits. They both looked up to see a group of Mobile Dolls, of all three stock designs standing there. Then they saw all the bodies and wreckage and immediately knew that these Mobile Dolls were malfunctioning. Then a light cast itself over the pair and a Taurus took aim at them.

“Crap,” Seo muttered.

Then a segment of the wall fell upon the Mobile Doll, crushing it as a Mobile Suit landed on top, further turning the weapon into a compact. The other Dolls sensed the intruder and turned to engage it, but it was already engaging them, rapidly destroying many before they could fully react or even react at all. Its beam rifle spitting death faster than the Dolls could begin to move. Soon the Dolls were reduced by half their number, but even with the pilot’s great skills, these were Mobile Dolls.

The two soon got a look at the newcomer when they saw that it was the Virgo Custom. They both knew now that it was Toga that had come to save them. They watched as he quickly deployed his barriers and was able to withstand the fire. Using that advantage, Toga, as they could see, dug his heels in and fired when he could.

Suddenly, the area where the Dolls were, erupted into flame, destroying them all and beginning to rip the section to pieces. Explosions and flames began to alight left and right and Toga could see the two were still alive. He quickly turned around, storing his beam rifle and held his hands out. The two jumped onto them and were lifted up to the cockpit and quickly entered, both complaining about the tight squeeze to fit three people in.

“Hang on!” Toga yelled as he slammed the controls all the way to the firewall and the Virgo II Toga Custom shot off, exiting the section as it exploded behind them, emergency bulkheads and hatches failing to see the damage off.

The Virgo shot down the length of a MS corridor as explosions rung out behind it. Pillars of flame shot out adjoining passages, bodies and wreckage floated as out of control Mobile Dolls just randomly fired their weapons or fought with each other. The whole section was aflamed and then they shot out into open space, just as the whole area they had been in exploded behind them.

Though, now that they were out, they had only less trouble to worry about as they found a heated battle between the Preventers, X’s forces, and the mad Mobile Dolls going on. It was a three way brawl that had everyone shooting at something. Yet, there in the middle of it all were the Gundams, several of which were very clearly new models.

“Okay, ogre looks I can stand, but that’s...” Toga trailed off at the sight of female inspired Gundams that zipped faster than most mobile suits he had ever seen, “This day can’t get any stranger, can it?”

“She said a few certain words and look where you found us,” Seo supplied and Toga winced at that, now wondering what was in store for them next as he shot down a Mobile Doll and took off to find cover, as three people made for complicated operations in a space battle inside a single seater mobile suit.

Kyouko made sure all the other girls were off the station as another blast rocked the escape shuttles. That last blast seemed to damage a connection for one of the shuttles. It wouldn’t launch at all, even as she threw a wounded guard into the spot that should be hers. She had taken the man’s rifle and after a burst of fire, the shuttle launched.

She turned in time to see Miya appear, shoulder carrying an unconscious Musubi over one shoulder.

“That was the last shuttle in this area, but the dock and the Calculus isn’t too far away!” Kyouko quickly told Miya, helping to support the defeated Musubi as all three made their way to the dock area.

Minutes later a mobile doll crashed into the section of escape shuttles and exploded, thankfully it was also empty of any shuttles and personnel.

Duo looked over the Calculus as she sat in her berth. The ship had been built to resemble a freighter, but was in reality a capable warship. He wasn’t too sure where X got some of the technology, but it was a big step up from the MS carriers that he had encountered. The Alliance had never gotten around to building space based warships, neither had any of the following powers until the Preventers, but the Armored and Protected Cruisers were little more than anti-pirate ships and fire support vessels for when things got hot.

The Calculus on the other hand...

He could make out stream lines for speed, her armor belt stood out, the turrets were clear if someone looked, and she had two launch catapults hidden away, fold out models, same with the turrets. She had large VLS cell forward and two smaller ones on her flanks, as well as a forth, small VLS cell astern. She did lack the ability to launch large missiles though, something Duo noted off the bat, but he had an idea as to why, but truthfully didn’t care at the moment.

Then he heard movement and turned to it and blushed despite the situation.

Miya and Kyouko entered with Musubi between them. All three looked like they had been caught at the worst time possible for the station to go under. Miya barely had any decency left in her clothes, Kyouko wore only her panties and seemed to have taken a dead guards coat, but Musubi was flat out naked. Though he could see the wounds on Miya and Musubi which showed that the two had fought one another, and Kyouko looked like she had been too close to a couple of overpressure waves.

He shook his head to stop gawking; the station was coming apart soon.

He moved over, taking Musubi himself and all four made it to the ship. Once inside they found some others, mostly some servants had boarded the ship with some of X’s loyal medical staff that Wright didn’t control. Duo asked about it and was told that the ship had been fully loaded and supplied, with enough provisions to last a while. Some of the surviving dock crew and technicians were trying to turn over the ship’s engines, but they really didn’t know what they were doing.

“Miya,” Duo turned to the woman, having learned her name during their brief trip over to the ship, “Take charge here, I’m gonna get us under way!”

Miya only nodded as Kyouko joined her in getting things under control. They began to organize the mess they had found, even some loose supplies. They soon had the ‘crew’ getting things in order, though really, only Kyouko had an idea of what they were doing and not much at that.

As Duo drifted off towards engineering, the ship was rocked by a blast. Duo was able to steady himself, but he immediately hurried off to engineering. What he found was a nightmare as some portable generators had exploded, killing most of the technicians and dockworkers that were there. He found though, that some had survived unharmed and that some of the dead were in fact some of the original crew.

“Right let’s get to work,” Duo instructed and the scared survivors followed his calm voice and soon, the ship was beginning to turn over.

“Didn’t anyone fix that by the way?” Duo asked because he began to wonder.

“Fix what?” one of the original crew asked, confused.

Duo sighed and floated over and found that his earlier sabotage to the ship was still there. After a few quick turns of a wrench, a new connector, and a flip of a switch, the ship came back to life. Then Duo headed for the bridge, along the way, he found that the hanger crew were all aboard and hiding in fear. He gave them something else to be afraid of and they ran back to their posts in terror.

As Duo reached the bridge, he found the few bridge crews left and none of them knew how to helm the ship. Duo though simply dropped down into the helmsman’s seat and began to go through the flight launch list. He quickly cut out many as he made the final calls, but he saw members from the Mobile Suit Hangar Deck trying to load a few remaining suits aboard the ship. He called to them to hurry and they did, getting the last of anyone alive in the area aboard ship, just as rogue Mobile Dolls broke in.

The bridge member at the weapon controls immediately started the ship’s auto turrets which began to lay down suppressing fire as the ship tore from her berth just as explosions tore the berthing area apart. Some missiles leaped from their VLS cells and flew straight and true, destroying a couple of Dolls, but one of the Mobile Dolls wasn’t completely destroyed and crashed into the fuel bay. The resulting explosions immediately began to destroy the Dockyard as Duo red-lined the Calculus’ engines in order to escape, smashing through the collapsing bay doors and out into space with a tongue of fire and a field of debris right behind the the ship!

Une sighed as she tried surveying the area for where Duo might be at, honestly because of the fact that he had to be out here somewhere, hopefully in a Mobile Suit of some sort. It was really something that she didn’t want to have to admit, but she missed Duo an awful lot, and the pain of losing him was immense. It would only be worse if it turned out that he had not made it out of there alive.

Suddenly, she saw a strange Mobile Doll – no, wait, it was a Mobile Suit that was made from a Virgo II for some reason – arrive onto the scene while trying to get to a freighter, which she could tell was being piloted by Duo of all people. She didn’t want to lose Duo simply because of someone shooting him down, so she readied her beam rifle and took aim at the customized Virgo II....

Toga was starting to get rather peeved at the fact that there had been no available cover within range for the past five minutes... not a single place was clear for him to snipe from or anything! It was even worse because of the Virgo II Toga Custom not having the Panoramic View that was in the Leo upgrades to know if he had missed anything... which wouldn’t help that much because of the extra passengers in the cockpit. At least he had the ability to fly through the battlefield without having to worry about the freighter in the zone....

Wait, freighter?

Toga turned his camera to the position he noted the freighter in, and gaped at the sight of it apparently red-lining to escape a fireball from the station’s hangar deck. He knew that whoever was piloting the ship was some sort of expert at piloting, so he figured that he could get into the freighter and use it as the means of cover in this battlefield, regardless of the situation.

While he was heading over to the door of the freighter, he could see the outline of one of the new models of Gundams about to shoot at him, which he didn’t want to have happen if he could help it. Before he could change the IFF tag on his Virgo II, he heard the beeping of an IFF transponder go off; telling him one of his passengers was trying to get in contact with the female Gundam about to shoot them down.

Une was about to shoot the mobile suit when she heard a friendly IFF being broadcast from it. She approached and tapped it on, Hilde covering her back. The Virgo Custom spun about, but Une put her Gundam’s arms up and away and then tapped out a series of recognition codes with the main camera. The Virgo Custom promptly realized she wasn’t about to kill them and lowered its weapon, just to take a stray shot to the back that damaged it.

Une caught the damaged suit and then picked up Duo’s attempts to keep from getting shot by friendly fire. Signaling Hilde, the two beelined to the ‘freighter’ that Duo was clearly aboard. Once they were spotted, she saw a hanger hatch open up and she alighted at once with the damaged mobile suit as Hilde covered them.

Hilde watched as AA turrets came to life, spitting death out at all hostiles, mostly now just rogue Mobile Dolls. She glanced over at the station and saw it was just a mass of fire feeding off the bleeding oxygen in the station. Explosions continued to rip through the entire 2.34 kilometers of its length. As she looked at it, it vaguely reminded her of a colony, but it had more of a resemblance to a gun than anything else.

‘In just a matter of minutes, that station will be no more,’ Hilde thought as a monster explosion ripped out a huge chunk of the station’s flank, ‘Just a matter of minutes.’

She got the call and entered the airlock, just narrowly missing have her Gundam’s left leg blown off.

Deep inside the station, as smoke and flame ate away at the oxygen-nitrogen mix of breathable atmosphere, one of X’s greatest and most secret inventions was sparking madly. Damage was clear to the whole thing as smoke and small flames burned across it. Arcs of electricity filled the room as the device went haywire, showing that it had been accidentally activated in all the chaos.

Only X and a select few even knew what the device did. Most were dead and others were dying. Only X was left that knew what the device did.

If he saw what it was doing now...?

The battle raged all around his station as X grabbed onto a console. He had no idea what had happened to Hefner, Fuji lay dead on another deck, Inman was missing, and Wright had abandoned him with a Preventer agent! With him, trying to get the chaos under control was Payne. Still, the station had suffered extremely heavy damage, but it could survive, if they could get the situation under control.

Another explosion ripped across the station, but this time, it was much weaker. X turned to a relieved Payne as the man nodded. The station, despite all the damage, would survive.

“Sir,” one of the operators reported, “I have Hefner’s location, she’s off the station and her beacon indicates she’s in life threatening condition,” as the operator finished, he was suddenly killed as the console before him exploded.

“Life support is secure, we have control over the Mobile Dolls again, and the power plants are unharmed,” another operator reported.

“Most of the staff is either dead or evacuated sir,” a third operator reported.

X only nodded in disappointment. He knew that they had soundly evacuated from the station, but most were now to be caught. The station itself was a mess and would likely take years to repair; meaning abandoning it would be a lot smarter.

“I’m getting a weird reading from Block Cee-Twenty-Seven,” a fourth operator spoke and X turned to the man as he approached to see.

“Sir, message from Power!” a previous operator shouted.

‘BOSS SIR!” Payne suddenly shouted and X turned his attention to his remaining assistant.

“What is it, Payne?” X crossed over to the man rather than to the operator.

“The Calculus launched before the docking area was destroyed, but now it’s joining the Preventer Fleet!” Payne indicated on the map where the Calculus was now approaching the Preventer cruisers and they were preparing to receive the ship.

As Professor X watched his personal warship head t meet up with the Preventer Cruiser Fleet, he felt certain only one person could have done this. He felt naught but anger burn inside of him as years of hard work and research was now just gone. Completely and thoroughly gone, with very little chance to recover any of it, let alone all of it. He felt it only fitting that his greatest weapon thus far be used to eliminate the scorn that had become his downfall once and for all!

“Target the Calculus with the Oblivion Cannon!” X shouted at the weapons controllers, but they’re dead from overloaded consoles.

“I’ve got it boss sir!” Payne hopped over and began powering up the massive weapon that the station had in fact been built around.

“Sir,” the operator from before gulps as he indicates that X should really take the message from Power Central Control.

“What is it?” X demands angrily as he looked into the monitor only to gasp at seeing Harry Inman sitting in one of the seats.

“Sorry X, but this is where we must part ways,” Harry Inman could be seen looking at a picture of his pregnant late wife, “It turns out that I really had some foul luck in life, the worst being the inhumane research I helped you put my own son through.”

Professor X realizes what was being said. Duo Maxwell was Harry Inman’s long lost child. Alive and well, a real hero to the people. The one thing that could turn a man like Inman against him.

“Now X,” Harry held up a glass, in a mocking way and then downed the contents, “Why don’t you join me on my journey into hell!”

X can only watch hopelessly as Harry Inman, a man wracked by guilt and guided by determination, smashes his thumb on the detonator switch and the monitor goes to static snow as the station is thrown directly into her death throes.

“FIRING!” Payne shouts, but then suddenly a power surge hits the control and command center, followed by a powerful explosion as the whole room is simply vaporized as Oblivion Cannon misfires instead.

The unknown device that only X would truly understand, at the moment of the Oblivion Cannon’s misfire, also misfires, the two energies joining as one as the station explodes in an indescribable release of energy as the entire station goes to pieces and becomes a new debris field where it once sat.

On the other hand, the released charge of energy from the Oblivion Cannon finds its mark and the Calculus simply vanishes with in the raw energy as the Preventers Fleet desperately evades the unrestrained energy that shoots by.

The battle ends in a climatic explosion of energy that marks the end of the Campaign X.

Within an apartment in an hourglass-like space colony, an orange-haired youth that lived alone was tossing and turning in his sleep, a sleep he wished was far more restful than it was at present. While he knew that these dreams would stay with him for a long time he also knew that the dreams wouldn’t decrease in intensity. He would have to bear the weight of those dreams for a very long time - dreams that retold over and over again of his sudden, violent rebirth.

The first thing he could ever recall now was that there was a fire, a raging inferno of devastation that had been unleashed from a source as evil as Hell. The fire itself varied in size at certain points, some of the flames were the size of skyscrapers even, but for the most part the flames were smaller still. The fire had some attributes of green and even purple flames spewing from it, it looked that evil and even had that evil stench coming from it, though it was hard to tell what it was really like other than it being even remotely evil.

The fire itself was so immense and powerful; he had lost his prior memories of everything except for his name. He didn’t know how it happened, but he guessed that it had to do with brain damage along the way, the smoke causing a condition he couldn’t recall right then. It would only be later that he knew the term was “Brain Asphyxiation”, and it would be sooner than that to learn what it did to him, even if he didn’t know how it could happen.

It had happened in Fuyuki, Japan, and had engulfed a good portion of the area of the town he lived in at the time. The fire was so horrific; it wasn’t even funny how awful it was, considering that he was at ground zero at the time. He had no idea how it occurred, but he knew for a fact that this fire wasn’t natural, especially since it had no known source by which anyone could put it out before it spread that far. How he knew this, he wouldn’t even be able to tell right off the bat. What he could do, however, would be to live on for those that couldn’t, especially those whose voices would continuously call out for a savior, and yet never get one.

He trudged onward for a while, with no way of knowing the time that passed, and for all he knew it was at least five hours since the fire started. He was never any good with an internal clock, that’s why he wouldn’t know how long ago the fire started, even though he should at least be aware of when the fire would go out. What he knew for a fact from that experience was that he would never be the same again.

At last, he fell onto the charred ground beneath him, which was still burning to the touch. He turned off of his front half and onto my back, feeling as if he could just die right then and there, and nobody would even know where he was or who he was.

The fire that he was about to be burned by got doused by an incoming shower of rain that had come finally, which in turn did its best to soothe his wounds, though as the saying goes, “Too little, too late”. It would seem that the burns that he suffered from would be the death of him if he didn’t get some sort of healing at any rate....

Suddenly, a man appeared over the prone form of the youth, one who was almost on his last legs as well it would seem. If the youth hadn’t been on the verge of death, he wouldn’t have been as quiet and without anything to try telling the man what hurt, though it didn’t seem to matter. However, there was something strange about what the man was doing at that particular time, and it bugged the youth.

The man was smiling.

It wasn’t the fact that the man was smiling that was the issue, but rather the look in his eyes that seem to have said, ‘I’ve found someone to save in this mess’. While the youth wasn’t sure what that was about, he was glad that someone decided to at least rescue him from this literal Hell, though it was strange to admit that little fact at the current time.

Then, a strange light filled into the youth’s vision, as he saw the man grab it from within his coat. The man did what he could to ensure that the light made its way to where the chest cavity of the boy would go, and as the light touched the boy, a healing presence overtook the boy and started to heal some of his wounds. As the healing occurred, the boy couldn’t help but feel faint, as if his life would be over in but a brief moment.

By the time the boy woke up again, it was within a hospital setting, with a group of doctors in the room looking over various children that had been found in the fire itself. The boy himself had been given a chance to get a medical test to see whether or not he’d be alright in any amount of time, though why he had to deal with someone trying to spike his food at least twice, he’ll never know until he was older. It probably had to do with some bigoted hate for him that he felt he did nothing to deserve.

A few days had gone by, and the head doctor of the rooms in the immediate area of the hospital said to the boy, “Alright, I’ll go and call someone to take you somewhere safe, where bad guys won’t find you.” As he turned to go call on his phone outside, he said, “I’ll be back in with the person soon, alright?” As he turned around fully and walked out the door, he muttered under his breath so that only he was supposed to hear it, “Patchworker.”

The doctor didn’t know it, but the boy had heard the word as clear as day, but didn’t know what it meant. He hoped that it wasn’t an insult to him, but he honestly didn’t know any better, something he would later be proud of when he learned the terms for it all.

He had only waited a few minutes when the door opened up again, this time revealing the man from before that had saved him in the fire. It wasn’t something he knew about, but the man was getting close to dying as it were. The boy didn’t know what brought that sense to bare, but he knew that it was something from in the man, yet he didn’t know what that was about.

As the man found the boy and walked over to him, he spoke to the youth and said, “Hello, you must be Shirou-kun.”

As the boy looked at the man in front of him, he felt that the man wouldn’t have much of a future, but he knew that the man would be straightforward enough to help him in anything that was asked of him. It certainly helped that the man knew how to make a good impression, at least for right now.

The man, unaware of the thought process of the boy, asked the youth, “Tell me this. Would you rather go to the orphanage run by the Church, or go with this man right in front of you?”

The boy, who wasn’t able to recall what either was like, orphanage or having someone willing to adopt you, simply went with what he felt was the better option, the adoption from the man who felt like he had no future.

“Ah, that’s good,” the man said, “I was wondering what you’d choose in either case.” Moving to pack the boys’ things into the suitcase that was provided, he put the things in there in a manner akin to someone not used to doing this in a long time, which could be considered the truth. “Truth be told,” the man continued, “I would’ve taken you out of the hospital on my own, anyway, if only to avoid certain people that wouldn’t like you.”

Soon enough, the two of them made it out of the room and passed the head doctor, who was standing stone-still, with the man making a gesture in the doctor’s face as he walked on by. With that, the doctor began resuming his movement, at least in a confused manner at first before he pulled out his cell phone and began dialing the needed number for his friend in a terrorist cell belonging to Blue Cosmos.

As the two of them made it out of the hospital proper, the man said to the boy, “Oh, there’re some things I must tell you before you agree to be my son, is that alright?” Seeing the boy nod his head, the man continued to say, “Right, the first thing I must tell you is that I’m a Sorcerer.”

The boy, unsure of why he believed the man like that, could only say, “Whoa, you’re so cool, Dad!” Knowing that that wasn’t what he meant to say, but aware that it was better off not to ask why he said it, he went with that statement as his words spoken.

Thus, the life of a boy who would’ve been a Blue Cosmos toy had he stayed there ended, and the life of Shirou Emiya began in the Cosmic Era, year 59 to be exact about it.

An explosion rocked the outside of the colony, even though it was a fairly distant explosion, which got Shirou, as he turned out to be named, to wake up in a heartbeat. He thought there was a battle taking place outside the colony, but that was something that he ruled out, because there weren’t other explosions that were going off then. He was unable to go to sleep, however, as he normally awoke at this time of day for training purposes. He was even lucky he got his father to check for the requisites for how to be like him, mainly because Kiritsugu Emiya was unwilling to check for that on a Coordinator, due to the fact that genetic tampering usually destroyed ones’ capacity to use Magic Circuits or even house them… at least, it was a fact to Kiritsugu, who had dealt with Coordinators who were trying to be Magi beforehand, only for those to fail by a long shot.

Shirou would’ve gone to train for that portion of the day, at least, had it not been for the communications device that informed him that someone was trying to get in contact with him. Taking a look at the Caller ID, he noted that it was his benefactor, Rau Le Creuset. Turning on the device, Shirou spoke to Rau, “I’m up earlier than I normally am, sir, what do you need out of me this time?”

Rau Le Creuset, a masked man that hid his face from the nose up from everyone around him, replied to his charge, “At ease. I heard you were aiming to be in the ZAFT military academy, Rusty, so tell me this much. What do you plan to do when you get into the program? Pilot a Mobile Suit or work as a ship-hand for a low ranking Commander?”

Shirou grimaced, mainly because of the fact that he had to go by the name “Rusty Mackenzie” for some reason to throw off certain pursuers that were out to try getting him to work for them. Then again, it wasn’t something he would like to do, considering that he was not interested in terrorism in any way, shape or form, given his opinion of nearly being sold off to a terrorist cell.

Though, if he had a say in the matter, he would really want to be a Mobile Suit Pilot, yet why would his benefactor...?

Something was off, and Shirou wanted to know what it was. Therefore, he asked Rau, “Sir, what are you trying to say right now?”

Shirou saw Rau smirk and felt that maybe he shouldn’t have asked, but almost immediately the feeling left as Rau answered, “I have a certain pull with the National Defense Committee Chairman, Patrick Zala, who is quite willing to help out on certain issues like this. If you want, I could have you be a Mobile Suit Pilot in a very prestigious team, and so much more as well....” As Rau trailed off, he noted that Shirou was trying his hardest to comprehend all of what he was trying to tell his ward, so he finished it up with, “Of course, you’ll need to pass the test for that as a matter of policy.”

Before anything more could be said from Shirou, an alarm sounded in the background from Rau’s end, which told them that a battle was to be expected soon.

Rau grimaced visibly, knowing full well that he had a duty to fulfill, so he said, “I have to go now, so please, make sure you don’t get in trouble while waiting for your graduation. I’ll speak with you soon.” With that, the communications device turned off, signifying that the call was over.

Shirou sighed, hoping that nothing bad happened while he lived on the colony of Junius Eight, though he certainly hoped that he didn’t jinx people living here with him.

A/N from Xamusel:

Okay, everyone, this is what I consider the longest piece of writing I’ve done so far with anyone helping me write it out. If anything, I would hope that it doesn’t get this ridiculously long again, but you never know.

Alright, there are plans involved with this story, but those plans could go haywire at any time. To be absolutely fair, the plans are sorta hard to set in stone, but one of those things that I’m trying to do is clarify that “Rusty” is indeed a different person than what he was in canon.

For those of you who think this is using pseudo-cameos, no, those are full-fledged crossovers in the works. I hate having to make a mess of my own story, but this is one time that I will need an awful lot of input to know what I have to do to fix the story and so on, which I’ll be more than happy to do at the right time but not before.

In any case, I’m not planning on making this a major mess, that would be something rather stupid if I actively planned on that outcome. So far, though, I hope that you all would consider that this is a major work in progress that, compared to the last version, will be undergoing heavy revisions for a long while without posting the whole story again.

Then again, Tomcat and I don’t want to re-post the whole story again, so this will be a way for us to get the kinks worked out while getting some constructive criticism about the whole story and what should work with it. If there’s something a reader notices that needs fixing, we’ll both get to fixing it post-haste, if at all possible.

Still, there are things that would need clarifying, such as why Loni and “Toga” both were in the After Colony for any length of time when they both belong in the Universal Century (especially if you get the reference to who Toga is) and how come Musubi, Seo, and Miya made it over to the After Colony as well. To quote a certain Mazoku, however, that... is a SECRET!

Okay, all joking aside, it’s actually what misfired with the Oblivion Cannon in this story, though I won’t reveal the name of the device in any Author Note until something like the arrival of Riddhe Marcenas in Phase 003 or some time later, which I’m not budging on. I’m seriously going to bring Riddhe in, though for those of you wondering, not the same Riddhe that “killed” Loni in this case. I’m going by this as my theory, and it’s “The Extended Universe of the books and non-anime and the Shows are different time-lines altogether”, to be fair.

Really, I’m more generous to keeping certain characters alive, while Tomcat is not so generous with those characters. One of those characters is Miguel, who I want to have live past the Battle of Heliopolis and Tomcat is honestly hoping for a way to get rid of the poor guy.

At any rate, enough about plans that won’t be important at the moment, I’ll let Tomcat have the podium for now.

A/N from F-14 Tomcat Lover:

How I got into this? Some of ya must be asking. Well, I go where the winds blow, like any old sailing ship of olden times.

Well, this was a bit of a PIA to make. Section after section had to be scrutinized and redone several times over. Not easy having to redo the whole thing, something I was very much against, but in the end, Xamusel and I had painted ourselves into a corner.

Fortunately there was a window there, so we crawled out and have since started work on this one here. So here’s hoping we do a better job this time around. So do be prepared for large scale changes.

Okay, on to more detail items.

Well, first off, many of ya have noticed this here is a larger crossover. I would have preferred to keep it small, but Xamusel wants a challenge and I’m bored, so I figured why not. As you can see, there are multiple Gundams in this, but details are being kept a secret for some, and no prizes for those who figure them out!

Others are clearly Fate/Stay Night, why Xamusel wanted this, I don’t know, but hey, might make for something fun. Still learning that one well enough, talk about a long prologue! Xamusel that was no one hour either, more like two hours! So, Xamusel will be taking care of it all until I’m caught up.

The other is Sekirei, still trying to figure out the reason, but hey, sounded like fun and I always wanted to put Seo into a situation that had him running faster than a drunken Rock Lee. It’s going to be a bit tricky, but I guess that’s where the fun will be, so might as well enjoy it. So as things move along I’ll state more and more details. So until then, please enjoy the story.

On another note, we’re gonna try to salvage things as much as possible from the older story, but as you can guess, we went a bit overboard with it.

So we’re hoping, as stated above, to do better this time. So expect a lot of the equipment, but more balanced than we had before. We’ll still be using some of the previous characters; it’s just a balancing act we’ll have to play, so expect a few to appear later on in the story.

Well, I’ve got to run now, I’m also doin’ beta work for others and I’m a bit behind. Hopefully they won’t be too upset with me. Please Read and Review and enjoy the story.

Sincerely,

F-14 Tomcat Lover

A/N from Xamusel (again):

Alright, that ought to end the whole debacle of the past story, so how about people read and review the story like Tomcat suggested? If so, that’s a good thing, and I would prefer that over anything else as a matter of fact.

Now, as this is still a work in progress, I’ll have people do their best to help me out of whatever pickles I’ve gotten Tomcat and I stuck in.

Anyway, until next time, Farewell.

Xamusel

PS: Expect a timeline of the AU Cosmic Era at the end of the next chapter.

---

No, really, this does have the Nasuverse in it. I'm not lying when I say it, either, and this is not bait to get you to read this.

Either way, read and review, if anything.

**ZidanReign** · May 4th, 2012, 12:20 AM

Oh my lord in shining stars.

Words do not even comprehend the amount of awesome inserted into this single fic.

Xam, I applaud you.

You have brass cajones.

**Xamusel** · May 4th, 2012, 12:26 AM

And the funny thing is that I'm not even close to done with the story as a whole.

*sees tomatoes about to be thrown*

No, that doesn't mean that I'm going to post each chapter as one post, I'll split it up properly this time for each chapter.

**ZidanReign** · May 4th, 2012, 01:06 AM

Add Zeorymer into this and I'll be your Bitch forever.

**Xamusel** · May 4th, 2012, 01:07 AM

...

Let me consider that one for a good portion of time (and let me watch the show first to know if I should).

**ZidanReign** · May 4th, 2012, 01:09 AM

Originally Posted by Xamusel

...

Let me consider that one for a good portion of time (and let me watch the show first to know if I should).

It's only OVA's and a manga.

But their fucking great. I consider him to be one of my favorite Super Type Robots.

And the theme.

THE THEME.

**Xamusel** · May 4th, 2012, 01:11 AM

Okay, I'll have to really consider how a Super Type Robot is going to be there, but I'll find a way to put the franchise in the mix.

Now if only I can get this cleared with my co-author.

**ZidanReign** · May 4th, 2012, 01:17 AM

You don't have to have him if this going to be mainly Real Types. But it would add even more awesome to have him. I mean he is Literally "Zeorymer of the Skies.

**Xamusel** · May 4th, 2012, 01:20 AM

I'll keep that in mind, Hazama, I honestly will.

**Xamusel** · August 16th, 2012, 12:50 AM

Okay, so it turns out that I was dead wrong about when the Fate/stay Night portion would show up, but at least it gave me some ideas for what to do with this after Phase 001. No, the rest of the Nasuverse isn't being ignored, nor is it being ignored at all. That's not my intent with this... and you'll see why soon enough.

Anyway, on with the story, and, whatever you do, WAIT for me to finish posting the chapter before you comment on it! This is to be done in 10 or so minute intervals, posting the chapter, at least.

---

Within the deep vastness of space surrounding the third planet of the Sol System there lay five points of stable zones for the artificial constructs - the space colonies. These stable Lagrangian Points, or "Lagrange Points," designated with the simple names L1 to L5, house different types of colonies for the nations that dwell within the Earth Sphere. From simple cylinders attached to asteroids to the more structurally complex that resemble an hourglass, the colonies nestled within the Earth Sphere were as diverse as their citizens. While most of the colonies are not specifically built to be of the hourglass-shaped PLANT-class variety, the one-hundred and twenty that did required a massive requirement of funding due to the unique architectural challenges involved with the construction of a PLANT-class colony.

Thus this left the PLANT-class as only limited in availability to the larger powers.

While most of the colonies were built by their respective nations and maintained by those nations, there are a few that were privately funded. The number of space colonies owned and operated varies from nation to nation, as does the cluster of these colonies. The largest two operators are the Atlantic Federation and the Eurasian Federation, the two most powerful power blocs on Earth.

This has caused some contention among the blocs, especially those with few or no colonies to call their own. This is especially true in the cases of the United States of South America which operates only a handful of colonies and only two small resource satellites. It is the neighbor of the Atlantic Federation and for years, border skirmishes between the two were common place until both jointly founded the Porta Panama Mass Driver in the hopes of peaceful cooperation as they both set out for the stars.

Another power that was jealous was the Oceania Union. It had plenty of territory, but it currently lacked a Mass Driver, relying on older Linear Drivers and chemical rockets. The nation was dependent on resources from space due to their lack of it in much of their ground. Though despite this, unlike the USSA, the Oceanian military included a small fleet of space combat warships and was considered the fifth power on Earth.

Of all the power bloc nations, the Atlantic and Eurasian Federations as well as the South African Union and Republic of East Asia operated the PLANT-class Space Colony.

The remaining nations of the Orb Union, North African Community, USSA, Oceania Union, and the Equatorial Union did not have PLANT-class Colonies. Though Orb, despite its small size of just having island chains in the southeast and central Pacific, did rate as the third greatest power because the nation had been able to, early on, obtain both Linear Drivers and the Kaguya Mass Driver and as such was able to get into space quick enough for the resources it desperately needed to be self-sufficient and with both a strong Naval and Marine traditions, the Orb Union Space Forces were considered second only to that of the Atlantic Federation despite a smaller number of ships and of lighter tonnage no less.

If it were only the nations on Earth trying to get a one up on their rivals, then war would be averted. Instead a new issue that had never been properly addressed and allowed to continually deteriorate had arisen. This was an issue, or rather issues with the populace of the PLANTs...

The Coordinators.

These unique people were dubbed as such from a word taken from a speech that George Glenn, the first Coordinator in history had given when he left for Jupiter on an expedition to explore the far way space beyond the Asteroid Belt. The word had been taken out of context and used to describe those who had been genetically modified before birth. If it had ended there, then perhaps things would have settled down, but that wasn't the case. These people grew up both stronger and smarter than the average Natural, those who had been unmodified, and tensions simmered between the two.

Again, things might have calmed down, had the second generation not only received their parents more advance genetics, but also appeared even more capable than their own forebears. This created strife between the unmodified Natural and the modified Coordinator. Then there were the offspring of the couplings between Natural and Coordinator.

This unnamed third group held neither the disadvantages nor the advantages of the first two groups. At first glance, they appeared to have received little, if any advancement or drawback. The reality though was quite different as these members of the third class of human held all the most vital advantages that were found in both Natural and Coordinator.

Though few in numbers, they are a force to be considered.

Yet alone, neither had reason for the problems inherent with the existence of Coordinators. Instead it had to do with the intense racial bigotry originally from religious groups. Though here, cool heads prevailed as the religious leaders could not find any real common ground to unite against Coordinators.

Despite that, an international protocol was established forbidding genetic modification in any event. The implementation of the new protocol was left up to the individual nation and thus did not have as strong a backing as had been originally thought. Nonetheless, the cost of the modifications and the few available hospitals capable of even performing the procedure did more to regulate the number of Coordinators than any law could have hoped to do.

Unfortunately, while attitudes were thawing, an environmental group known as Blue Cosmos began to act out against Coordinators. No one is quite sure how the group, originally a legitimate organization, managed to grow from a small, peaceful group into a worldwide terror organization not seen since the early 21st Century of the AD calendar. Their infamous rally cries of "FOR THE PRESERVATION OF OUR PURE AND BLUE WORLD!" instilled fear and paranoia wherever it could be heard among the citizenry of Earth and Space with regular clashes between it and both law and military organizations throughout the Earth Sphere.

As later investigations would prove, Blue Cosmos and its opposite force, the Coordinator Liberation Army, would both be proven to have manipulated all events and actions to great degrees that caused the devastating Saint Valentine's Day War...

The Earth was locked in a war between itself and the PLANT-class Colonies collectively called PLANTS, protected by its fledgling military force of ZAFT militiamen, as a result of the tragic and horrific events that had ravaged Valentine's Day of Cosmic Era 70... Though that story itself will be saved for another time and place.

What is important now, on the other hand, is why stars were falling towards the Earth...

The answer to this is simple:

Those were not stars at all.

"First layer traversed, decelerate to Mach Four, trajectory's good. Twenty-eight seconds until termination of cooling stage. Commence aerodynamic control." A voice from within one of the orbital drop-pods plummeting to the Earth's surface spoke with disciplined calmness, indicative of the speaker's professional nature.

One of the soldiers, within the cockpit of a mobile weapon called a GINN, replied to the bridge crew of the ship they dropped from in the drop pod, "This is Alpha-One, confirming weapons are loaded and ready to fire."

As the soldier spoke, he mentally noted that the color hadn't changed back from the reddish-tint that came with atmospheric re-entry, which meant that they hadn't breached the Earth's atmosphere yet.

The second soldier of the group spoke up over the communications line, "Bravo-Two."

"Charlie-Three,"spoke a third soldier.

The last soldier of the group spoke to let the others know he was alright, "Delta-Four."

The one whose call-sign was Alpha-One replied to the others, "Second layer traversed. We're about to deal a severe blow to those still clinging to the planet's surface!"

In a short bit of time, the color started to tint back to its regular shades and allowed Alpha-One to say, "Last layer of turbulence. Decelerating to Mach Zero-Point-Nine, cooling stage ceased, attitude good." With that, the only thing left he could think to say was "May fortune smile upon us."

Delta-Four brought up from his GINN's cockpit, "Activating programmed descent coordinates!"

Alpha-One finished that line of thought with his own line of thought, "Okay... HERE WE GO!" With that, the group of soldiers turned off their comm devices and called out as one, "For ZAFT!"

With that, the drop pods disassembled themselves to reveal the GINNs hiding within. The units dropped from the sky, revealing their humanoid bodies and mono-eyes and head fins to all who would look upon their powerful visages.

A Heavy Sword, a seemingly reminiscent weapon of that which was wielded by the knights of a long past era hung from their hips, the blade was strangely complimented with a weapon that contrasted starkly with the sharpened steel - a Mobile Suit-sized Assault Rifle.

Then the heavy anti-air fire flew up into the heavens in a bid to stop the oncoming invasion.

Year 70 of the Cosmic Era, tensions were rising between the Earth Forces and the ZAFT Organization.

Due to the events of the Saint Valentine's Day Miracle, these tensions suddenly escalated into a full-scale war.

It seemed a foregone conclusion that the Earth Forces with its superior numbers would be victorious.

But these initial assessments proved to be false.

Almost eleven months have passed since the conflict began, with not an end in sight.

Gundam Wing: Reaper of the SEED
Phase 001: False Peace
Return to war, Shadow of Death!

Heliopolis Colony, Union of Orb
January 25th, CE 71
Local Park
1527 hours, L3ST

Within the peaceful colony Heliopolis the citizens went about their normal lives with seemingly no care in the world. This was to be expected, considering they believed as being a part of a neutral nation and one of the original top two strongest nations in the Earth Sphere, they were safe. Some were getting groceries for their dinner that evening, others were going to work, and children played in parks, lovers went for midday strolls as the young dated, it was just another peaceful day. They simply had no idea what it meant to be in war...

For those born far from conflict, that may seem redundant, but it is a truth nonetheless. War was both destructive and constructive in both how to kill people and what tools could be re-purposed for peaceful means. War also brought experience to those who fought in it as such, within the monotony of normalcy that held Heliopolis; the citizens would learn that swords left to dull will not cut.

Though for now, peace reigned as two figures are found within a veranda of a park going over some computer work on their laptops, one a student and the other an assistant to the student's teacher.

One of the pair, the student, was a teenage girl of around the ages of fifteen or sixteen. She appeared to be the type that was one of those people that you'd possibly find modeling in a swimsuit magazine, with curves in all the right places and an attractively sizable bust. Because of her beauty, it was no surprise that many would-be suitors would go to great lengths to try to go out with her. Even the girls would do anything to earn her affections.

It was often too bad for them all that she already had someone in mind to be her boyfriend. Though she just didn't have the courage to ask him out at all being terribly shy on the subject. Even for someone with her looks it was still difficult to ask someone you admired from a distance to go out on a simple date, let alone to be romantically involved with under any circumstances.

Her clothing was fairly modest for a girl such as her. Although when considering how her 'modest' clothes conformed to her body's contours in the end the clothes were unintentionally not very modest at all. What she wore was a blue t-shirt, a knee-length skirt, a pair of sneakers with ankle socks, and a bracelet that doubled as a hair tie for her moderately long hair.

The teenage girl's appearance was of a soft face framed by coffee-brown hair and with Asian featured violet eyes. Her body aside from having all the right curves with a massive bust for her body frame, was toned and in shape. She was an active sports player and it showed from her appearance as a leading volleyball player.

The other was a teacher's assistant, a young man of eighteen years. He was a relatively tall person, well built, and sported a military crew-cut of light brown hair with a pair of green eyes. He wore a pair of black pants, a red shirt that showed off his muscles, a pair of shoes with normal sized socks, and a watch that looked like it was an older Smith & Wesson military watch.

The two of them were doing programming troubleshooting for the colony's prestigious Heliopolis Technical College. The HTC was a point of pride for the colony that helped to give it its college town feel. The HTC is generously funded by Morgenroete Incorporated, a semi-nationalized technologies corporation. Without both Heliopolis Technical College and Morgenroete Inc, the colony of Heliopolis would be just another of the dozen plus mining colonies floating in the Earth Sphere.

It also went without saying that Morgenroete was trying to hire the student, her brother, and their friends because they were the best of HTC students since the HTC's founding. That is something which would actually be an honor for most people, be they Natural or Coordinator, as Morgenroete was very picky about who worked for them. Still, when it came to what the pair were trying to do, one had to wonder why they were acting as professionally as they were at present time or if they were up to something else as well.

As it turned out...

"Y'know, Ryu-senpai," the girl spoke up at long last, after having been silent for a while because of being absorbed into her work, "I wonder what Onii-chan is up to right now?"

"You mean you forgot, Kyou Yamato?" Ryu Hisanaga looked up from his own work that was for the Deep Space Survey and Development Organization, or DSSD. Ryu had been staring at his screen for so long that he was glad for the interruption as he replied to the student. Shaking his head in disbelief with a light tone of amusement as she scowled at him before he continued, "He's at a martial arts tournament currently, something that's supposed to help relations between the PLANTs and Orb."

Kyou blinked and then, and after searching her memories to find out if what Ryu was saying was true blushed at recalling what turned out to be the truth. It would rather be odd, indeed, to those that really didn't know that even Coordinators had memory issues or could be so flaky. Which was the sad truth and why so many people had begun to accept Coordinators in nations that allowed them to live in peace.

While the two of them continued to attempt to find ways to get conversation going, they hadn't noticed that someone had moved into a blind spot to surprise them. Some might think it was in an attempt to humiliate, but that wasn't the case at all. This offender, wearing a black biker jacket, black pants, black shoes, and a black baseball cap, was only sneaking up to the two just for a good laugh. He had no intention to cause any more than a little fright for them, because he was simply a fun loving joker of a guy.

As soon as the offender, a man named Duo Maxwell, reached the desired location, he suddenly yelled out loud, "HEY! Kyou! Ryu! You two still going at your work more than each other!"

The two responded to Duo's shout by literally jumping out of their seats. They hadn't heard him coming and his shout had been very sudden, like he had planned. The two very quickly landed in a pile on the ground, with Kyou on the bottom and Ryu on top. The two blushing very deeply and very embarrassed as Duo laughed in the background at his success.

What made it more embarrassing was the fact that Ryu was accidentally groping Kyou with one of his hands while the other hand was holding her left arm down.

Due to the nature of this predicament, Kyou felt extremely violated at what her senpai was doing, even though she had fostered feelings for him for a long time. However, because of her feeling violated, she only had one option open to her to deal with the offense.

With that, she slapped Ryu hard with her right hand, causing Ryu to yell out an expletive in pain, earning him another slap from Kyou, this time for the language.

While that was happening, Duo had fallen on his butt laughing so hard, he was having problems breathing. Though, unfortunately for him, that only lasted for about fifteen seconds or so, before he was picked up off the ground by the ear by Kyou. The brunette female had managed to right herself after knocking Ryu off her with her second slap. Ryu had also gotten up from the predicament in which Duo set them in. Both were blushing from embarrassment, but rather than stand off to the side, Ryu had taken a hold of Duo's long braid in a rather painful manner best left indescribable.

"Ow, ow, OW!" Duo began crying out due to how painful it was to be in the grips of two rather strong individuals like Kyou and Ryu. Doubly so when considering his ear felt like it was going numb and his braid was about to be pulled right off his head. He hoped that whoever might be watching would send someone to give him relief from this mess.

"Kyou! Ryu-senpai!" was the response from those prayers being answered in the form of a voice belonging to a male friend of Kyou's that was approaching relatively fast.

'Speak of the devil,' Duo mused to himself as Ryu and Kyou both let him go, right before gravity kicked back in and forced him to fall back down with a muted thud.

When Duo righted himself, he noted that Ryu and Kyou had walked over to the source of the voice. With that in mind, he took a look at who was speaking with Kyou and Ryu. Who he saw didn't really surprise him all that much.

There was one other person with the male friend, but both people knew Kyou and her brother pretty well, so Duo didn't tag them as trouble. The male of the two had dark mocha-brown hair and crystal-green eyes, while wearing a blue t-shirt underneath a white button-up long-sleeve shirt with the sleeves rolled up, dark blue pants and normal boys' sneakers, which meant to Duo that he was Tolle Koenig.

The other person, who happened to be Miriallia Haw (Mir to her friends), and Tolle's girlfriend, wore orange sleeves on her arms that didn't connect to her orange and yellow dress with a main body cover of a white bodice and had girls shoes to compliment the clothes she owned. Her honey-brown hair stuck out on the sides and went up at the points, and her sea-blue eyes shone with brilliance that said she was hoping for peace between the warring factions, even if it were just a temporary peace.

As soon as that thought passed through Duo's mind, he heard Tolle ask Kyou and Ryu, "Okay, what was that thing with Duo about, guys?"

"I surprised them in a spectacular manner!" Duo crackled with almost evil laughter as he put in his two cents, "I ended up causing them to land on the ground by surprise yelling and Ryu took advantage to start groping Kyou who slapped him in response!"

While the others blushed heavily with both Kyou and Ryu desperately trying to tell their side of the story - but both ended up stuttering and spluttering instead - Duo broke into a hearty, deep belly laugh that was only interrupted by both his ears being pulled and his braid tugged downward with a lot of force, courtesy of his three lovers who were less than amused.

"Duo~," the women said as one, "What made that seem like a good idea?"

Before Duo could answer, a digitized woman's scream came from Kyou's laptop, alerting the group to what was going on in the news broadcast. This grabbed their attention and they headed over to where Kyou and Ryu were working before Duo decided to prank them. Knowing that what was on the screen would be important in some way, the group looked over to the laptop surrounded by all the disturbed papers from Duo's prank.

As soon as they looked over holo-screen, the first thing they saw was a battlefield that used to be Kaohsiung behind a reporter who worked for Communications Broadcasting Network, or CBN for short, who gave a clear report of the situation as best he could as weapons fire and explosions continued to occur behind him as people fled left and right.

"I'm within seven kilometers of the city of Kaohsiung where the sounds of fierce combat continue to echo," the reporter said while two GINNs in the background were going to continue the battle with the OMNI Enforcer, the Earth Alliance's military, only for a pair of missiles to land critical hits to the GINNs and causing them to explode, likely from the batteries being hit directly.

As the camera moved to keep track of the battlefield, there were more mobile suits, but not painted in ZAFT bluish-gray colors. They also looked different as well, but a cursory inspection would tell at one point in life, they had been GINNs. The shoulder armor was flatter, same with the hip, knee, ankle, and waist armor components while the GINN head had been replaced with more 'normal' looking head with an armored face with a visor slit through it with two glowing eyes hidden behind the protective transparent material. They were also armed with modified GINN weapons and some sort of light cannon. The most obvious mark that these weren't ZAFT, were the OMNI Enforcer emblems on their shoulders and the national seal of the Republic of East Asia on their chests.

All of that meant that these machines were from Kaohsiung's own military units. As soon as the former GINNs made it to the defensive perimeter, they began targeting the enemy Mobile Suits threatening their home. They hit hard, managing to slightly outnumber the attacking ZAFT forces, pushing ZAFT back and thus once more expand the size of the defense perimeter to secure the area back under East Asian control, though….

"Uh, Kyou, when exactly was this recorded for news broadcast?" Duo asked as he turned to face her instead of continuing to watch the valiant efforts of the East Asian MS Pilots, though clunky and poor, were better adapted to both urban and gravity combat.

Kyou, turning to face Duo, could only tell him the truth as she knew it as she said, "I believe sometime last week. Why is…" and then it hit her why it was important that Duo asked that in the first place.

If it was footage from last week, January 18th, just three days after the battle started, the ZAFT forces may have already taken over Kaohsiung and their Heaven's Gateway Mass Driver.

For anyone affiliated with the Earth Alliance, that was definitely not good news. For anyone affiliated with the terrorist group Blue Cosmos, that was the best possible news that they could ever hear. Anyone with half a military brain would know that less Mass Drivers in the hands of the Earth Alliance equaled less means possible to send staggering amounts of military supplies out to fight ZAFT in their own front yard. If that were to happen, the battles would most likely become permanently locked on Earth as the Lunar and Asteroid forces would run out of supplies and be forced to capitulate.

For Blue Cosmos on the other hand, they could more easily force their mad doctrine on the war. Panic would undoubtedly follow the capture of both the Lake Victoria and Porta Panama Mass Drivers as well. If that were to happen...

Blue Cosmos were murderous psychopaths like any terror group, so it was clear to anyone that they would likely go after the Orb Union's Kaguya Mass Driver after forcing every nation on Earth into the Alliance or into ZAFT's camps. In the end, they would spread the flames of war to kill Coordinators and Orb would have no choice but to either try to remain neutral and be attacked by either sides or side, logically, with the PLANTS due to their Coordinator citizens.

Just like any other terrorist group, they didn't care about the little people they dragged headlong on their journey to self-destruction.

"Kaohsiung isn't very far from us, is it?" Mir asked the group at large with a worried tone, "Will the homeland be alright?"

Before Tolle could open his mouth, Hilde turned to Mir and answered, "Don't worry, Orb will be alright, mainly because Orb and Kaohsiung aren't that close together to begin with," though she switched to a thinking pose as she added, "Don't discount an attack because of neutrality; there could easily be something going on that would incite an attack by the PLANTs if they hear about it, but it is more likely that the Alliance would attack first as Orb is open to Coordinators to live freely and safe."

Hearing Tolle and Mir gulp, Kyou sighed in annoyance, due to how much she wanted the peace to continue regardless of circumstances involved. If there was anything that she wanted more than peace, though, it would be the chance to properly confess her undying feelings for Ryu to him in a private setting. Though she only hoped neither would attack the Homeland, Orb may have a LOT of island chains under its banner, but its population and resources were no match for even the smallest power because Orb is the smallest nation!

Now, she began wondering how her brother, Kira, was doing in his Martial Arts match.

Kira flung another PLANT citizen to the ground and out of the ring with a basic counter.

It was times like this when Kira truly thrived, in times of combat amongst people that posed even more a challenge like fellow Coordinators who took their skills to the next level. To be able to take on those, Natural, Coordinator, and the Middles, who chose to master their bodies and focus their minds, it was truly living as even a basically taught Natural could trump superior Coordinator strength with the right moves. It was truly great to know the Martial Arts, but he also knew that the most advanced techniques were currently beyond him and some were locked away by his own mindset, but he could live with that.

It had nothing to do with his Martial Arts training; it was actually far from it. It was said that only Naturals could successfully learn the secrets in order to be a Master of the Tendou-ryu Free Form, a rather ridiculous style that took Martial Arts from the world over and combined them into a single form. Kira had to admit, with how hard any of that training had to be to just be a proper master in the first place, it was no surprise, but he was further held back because he was in a word, unbalanced from his Coordinator Augmentations.

It was a sad fact, but no Coordinator was said to be able to bring their body into perfect harmony when it came to the Arts.

Kira regained his focus and idly noted that the point was in his favor for now. It was in the semi-finals, but it never hurt to meditate and relax his inner self before his next match, just to reel in anything that'd distract him. As he gave thought to how to lightly meditate, he walked over to the locker room, heading to his spot in the large room, and heard his cell phone go off like crazy as soon as he approached his assigned locker.

'Huh? Who could that be, I wonder?' Kira thought as he headed off to answer his phone.

When he pulled his cell phone out, Kira noted that the caller was Kyou, and he gave an annoyed growl that she had forgotten that he wasn't allowed long to talk on his phone while at the dojo that hosted the tournament. Still, it would be rude to leave his sister hanging on the other end, so he flipped opened the phone, and brought up the holo-screen as he answered, "Kira here and Kyou, you know I can't talk long while I'm at the dojo."

"Onii-chan, I wonder when you'll get freed up to get to Professor Kato's lab rather quick!" came the meek whine of a reply from Kira's little sister as she pouted over the screen.

Kira sighed in frustration; he really knew he should've seen this one coming sooner, him going to class at the regular time for some days being a problem with Kato for a long time. He thought it was a good idea to go train his body as a fighter would, but apparently the school of academia hated that he spent so much time on it, even though he was in the Top Ten students of the school. It was as if they needed him to be a top programmer for the government or something, but he chose a different field than what they considered appropriate and were on his case about it.

Still, it was not like him to leave Kyou hanging like that, so Kira answered, "I'm going to be at my last match soon enough, they announced a five minute break and I have four to go, so I'll hurry up with the match and get right to you guys at Kato's seminar. Does that sound good for you and the others?"

With a pause of a few seconds, Kyou looked off to the side and then turned back to finally answer, "Alright, but you'd better hurry up. Otherwise, you won't be hearing the last of this from me or anyone else!" With that, she hung up the phone on her end.

Kira sighed as he saw the words 'Disconnected Signal,' and closed his phone and put it away. As he was doing so, he inadvertently let out his pet robot bird, named 'Birdie' from what it always says, from underneath his tucked away shirt. Within the panic of trying to get Birdie to go back underneath the shirt, Kira recall that day his best friend, Athrun Zala and a Second Generation Coordinator, gave Birdie to him when they parted ways.

Three Years Ago

A pair of young boys, one a slightly younger looking Kira when he was attending the Copernicus Primary School, the other a blue haired boy wearing a green beret, a white shirt and a green vest, were preparing to say goodbye to each other.

"The PLANTs and Earth will see eye to eye, and then there will be no war," Athrun said just as the boy in a greenish-blue shirt and pants, Kira, was about to accept his parting gift. After this was said Birdie jumped from his hands and onto Kira's outstretched palms. The robot comfortably situated itself on Kira's hands.

"The evacuation doesn't mean a thing. You'll join me in the PLANTs, right, Kira?"

Shaking his head to clear out the thoughts, Kira finally managed to get Birdie back into his little bed under Kira's red shirt. When he got that taken care of, he did the standard breathing exercises to calm himself down, which also helped put him in a calmer state of mind. As soon as he got that taken care of...

"Kira, your final match is coming up in two minutes."

...He was reminded of his match by his sensei, Kagami Yahagi. Looking at her to see what she was doing by coming into the men's locker room and trying to brace himself. So, though not a complete surprise, Kira got treated to the sight of her in a two-piece microkini that left nothing to the imagination in regards to her shapely figure, womanly assets, and how she was the Miss Heliopolis for six years running...

Though he had tried to prepare himself, her pose left Kira's face turning a shade of red despite himself! The only way to actually describe his face is that it could be described as what happens when you mix an over-sized tomato with the human head. Kira's face was so red, that he was certain that parts of his body were deathly white and that he was glad for the loose nature of martial art outfits.

As he was about to shake off the blush, Kira heard his sensei laugh at his expense, which caused the blush to increase instead of decrease... if that was even humanly possible, nobody will ever know.

"Relax, Kira," Kagami said after calming down somewhat, "You know that I wouldn't really tease you if I didn't want you to succeed properly." Turning to get her own uniform back on, she said to her favorite student among the Coordinator population, "That was a test to see if you had the mental strength to resist temptation regarding women with rather enticing figures, which you passed better than most of the other students to date."

"R-really, sensei?" Kira asked, completely unaware of the fact that it was a test to begin with. In truth, he wanted to be completely focused on the match to come, but his libido was starting to act up and he didn't like that one bit... all because of his sensei teasing him more often than not.

"You bet~" was her cat like reply, while she gave him a rather suggestive wink to signify she was teasing him even further. Before the teasing could be taken any further, Kagami put her uniform back on completely, adjusting it accordingly, and became serious before saying, "Then again, this is one of those times when you really have to be prepared for just about anything, whether you like it or not."

"Oh?" Kira asked, honestly not expecting that sort of answer out of her, but glad for it nonetheless.

If he could be honest with himself, he would say that he was finding himself falling for more than one person at the current time, Kagami-sensei being one of them. However, he had already given his heart to another sometime before and that had been all he was willing to say on the subject. He didn't want to be known as the guy that cheated on the woman he gave his heart to, even though he doubted he'd ever see her again, at least in person. Still, he wanted to at least wait a while, but truth be told he would wait as long as possible as he wasn't the kind of guy to play around. That was some dork he knew whose name he couldn't remember, but nonetheless, Kira had put the guy in the hospital for being a 'forceful' player, even with that bastard's own adoptive sister.

"Yes, that's part of the reason why I continuously tease you, Kira," was Kagami's reply in her serious tone, though there was a slight twitch of her mouth indicating she also got a kick out of it, "Also, the rest of the reasons include-"

"Kira Yamato, one minute to go before your last match in the tournament!" the loudspeaker interrupted the rest of the reply, forcing the two of them to stop their talk and hurry outside the locker room... well, in Kira's case, he shot off so fast, he actually caused rapid air displacement that left Kagami shielding her eyes.

'Hmm? Since when could Kira perform supernatural feats of agility?' she then smirked, knowing what was happening and smiling, 'About time too!'

Flay Allster was not your average young teen.

Sure, she was a spoiled rich kid, but that was as far as people would go without looking beyond that which they were allowed to see. In reality, she was a very practical young lady and cared for the friends that she made deeply, though she didn't have an awful lot, but she didn't waste time on things that would try building her 'friend' list at all. She wanted to get to know her friends on a deep and personal level, for one thing, knowing them beyond their surface and deeper down into their character. It was one reason why she had such a good friend in Miriallia Haw, a friend that she confided her deepest secrets into and likewise did so as well.

Then again, what really made her not so average was the fact that she was a Reader, a person that had the innate instincts like that of an ancient master of some martial arts, the ability to read the energy within a person and to see their character, actions, and even emotions. While she was watching the matches prior to this one, she only sensed it happening from three students of the local Dojo master and from one person from the PLANTs... though she didn't know what that was about. She could also sense it coming from the Master of the dojo, but she didn't know what that was about either, and yet...

She shook her head, hoping to figure out when the match would be able to start when she and the other participants saw a large cloud of dust - funny, where did that cloud of dust come from? At least it stopped and revealed Kira was the cause of it, five seconds after the one minute mark to go, at least... wait, how did he do that?

'Must be a Martial Arts thing,' Flay thought, 'Or something similar to that.'

Still, she had a bit of trouble remembering why she agreed to watch this particular tournament, even though...

Five hours ago

Flay was doing what she normally did with her friends, which was playing a few choice video games, reading a couple yaoi, het and yuri mangas before going shopping since they lived in the same housing complex on Heliopolis. Mir and the few others she had found as good friends were all laughing, with Flay remarking how funny it would be if their boys had found them playing 'their' kind of games, when she got a vid-letter from her father over the Mail-Net. Curious as to why he would send her a vid-letter out of the blue, she walked over to the letter and noted that he had given it a post mark of private and so Flay decided to take it alone in her personal room.

"Hello, Flay," came the image and voice of her father, George Allster. Unlike Flay's red hair and steel blue eyes, George had graying brown hair and dull brown eyes, which were showing signs of stress and defeat, "I have a particular request for you, if you don't mind my giving you one."

'Oh? What sort of request, daddy?' Flay asked in her head, nervous, as her father appeared to be, knowing that 'his' requests were never anywhere near as good as he made them seem to be and how she could usually find some kind of loathing in them.

"You see, I want you to get close to a certain young man, a Coordinator actually," her father seemed more than slightly trifled by what he was saying and tended to look over something just off screen, she knew that habit of his well enough.

'Not again!' Flay hated her father's colleagues as he tried his best to shield her from them, hence her arranged marriage to Sai Argyle of Orb's Argyle Family, a sub branch of one of the Five Clans of Orb.

"I would like you to get him to aid the Earth Alliance in the war," George said, getting the hint, Flay began to realize that the man that she thought she knew as her father was a facade, and here she could sense even now how a cold fury was hidden beneath his face, "by any means necessary. I want you to know that this youth is shy around women, so help him get over it, and have him do what is necessary to ending the war. This is a long term request, Flay, so please get on it."

She felt a sign that he wanted her to be happier than anything else.

"The arrangement was voided, actually on the Argyle end, apparently they felt the war starting off with nuclear weapons was in very poor taste," Flay felt her lips twitch as she saw her father's own twitch as well, "Anyways, the youth is named Kira Yamato, and he's the reason I sent you to Heliopolis in the first place, so that he can help preserve our pure and blue world."

And with that, George Allster's letter ended, and Flay was worried about what would happen should she not get on it, but also knew her father cared deeply for her, as the way he said that last sentence and even the Blue Cosmos rallying cry, told her he had sent her there, because somehow, Kira Yamato was protecting her.

"I love you daddy, take care," she said aloud before securing the message so no one would find it and then returning to her friends.

Oh... that's the reason why. She was supposed to help Blue Cosmos as a proxy, and make sure that Kira helped them out in their ultimate goals, whether he liked it or not. Though that would be hard as she could see that he was more interested in...

Well, it's not something that she knew how to properly do, get a Coordinator to join a known terrorist organization. It would be easier to tell him that Blue Cosmos was out to get him dead than to convince him to join their ranks through any methods that they had on hand. Plus there was the fact that anything she did might be noticed by whatever protection that Kira was supposed to be giving her. She honestly wondered about that, thinking he might actually be the Orb Princess' twin brother for example.

Boy, when she recalled that thought line, she would deck the nearest person and thus Rau Le Creuset really had need for his mask.

Still, it was a bit easier to know how to find Kira, mainly because she recalled his sister talking about a Martial Arts tournament in Heliopolis' Tendou-ryu dojo three days prior. Of course, her memory from that point in time was a little bit shoddy, she swore never to drink Yuazhan Beer again... or any beer for that matter, but she did her best to go watch the tournament at the correct time.

However, it was something that she knew would be awkward enough to get him to notice her here, because, so far, he hadn't looked in the stands quite yet.

Kira dusted himself off, ideally wondering how he managed to kick up dust in the first place, and got to his portion of the mat, all the while looking his opponent over to see how his opponent was doing. He noticed that it was that ZAFT pilot, Shiho Hahnenfuss, one of the very few ZAFT militiamen, or militia girl in this case, to know the martial arts. He remembered that she was both a weapons specialist and a leg fighter.

'Probably why she's touted as one of ZAFT's best aces even if she hasn't been on the field for months,' Kira thought of what he knew about her and admittedly that aside from what was public, she had very little in the way of personal information.

Well, there was the fact that the two of them had met just before the matches. She was in the Red ZAFT Dress Uniform, Female, with a skirt that was angled on one side to show a little leg with that leg covered by a long dress heeled boot. She had clearly been against the Dress Uniform, and he didn't disagree, he thought it made her look something of a loose woman. Something he could tell she was not.

That night, after they had ditched the ceremonial banquet, the two had gone swimming. She was very happy to be out of the Dress Uniform. The funny thing was, she didn't pack a swimsuit, but underwear made for a good intermediate.

The two had spoken shortly thereafter. She was engaged, to an Yzak Joule, but while she liked him and might even love him, she didn't want their engagement to be like that. The two had shared much about their lives, such as Kira's father dying in a CLA attack, the revelation that he had an older brother named Canard and worse, he was adopted along with his sister.

Now though, they meet as opponents as cheers for Kira from the Orb side began to fill the air as cheers for Shiho from the PLANTS side also began to fill the air.

The official called the two to their lines and they both followed the woman's instructions. Then she declared the fight as Shiho tried for an immediate power round house kick, but Kira ducked under it, if barely. Shiho then turned the motion of her kick into a heel drop, but Kira rolled into a one handed hand stand and tried to kick out from that position.

The fight had only just begun, but Shiho knew Kira would be a far more formidable opponent. Her kicks flew at controlled, but fast speeds that had even Coordinators dropping their jaws. She finally landed a kick on Kira, but he simply flipped in place, landing and striking out with some fast karate punches that almost blurred to all but Shiho and the higher tier fighters.

Shiho deflected, wincing internally and glad she didn't try to block them. Kira had some power behind his punches, but then he put too much force into one and she managed to knee him in the stomach. Kira countered with an elbow to her back as they broke apart, but she was able to get a parting strike to his face, causing him to spin to his left and hit the mat hard, but he rolled back up and managed a defense with both arms to block a downward kick.

Kira pushed back and Shiho instead did a back flip kick with the added force from Kira's push. Kira was stuck in the chin and he winced at the pain as he retreated back out of her range for a moment to catch a breath. He had to say this was shaping up fairly good. He hadn't had this much trouble with a fellow Coordinator at all and he had to admit he was surprised, that he could swear as well that she was holding back actually.

Now he could see why she was a famed ace of ZAFT.

She knew how to fight.

**Xamusel** · August 16th, 2012, 01:00 AM

Shiho Hahnenfuss couldn't help but admire the fact that there was a guy out there willing to take such a beating from her, even though she was technically trying to hold back, Kira just kept getting back up! It honestly surprised her at how strong he was and durable. He was by far well above Coordinator norms, even by the fact that what she had gathered had pointed to the fact he might be a successful Ultimate Coordinator.

'If he's this tough from that alone, then his training might have literally made him that!' she thought as she gauged her opponent.

She would have to put more power into her kicks and yet the blows were starting to get more and more deadly towards her foe as it stood. Shiho was abnormally strong for a Coordinator, let alone a female in general. Her upper body strength was far above the norm that was considered normal for a female, but she didn't work out to get that strength. It sometimes bothered her that even Coordinators who built up their strength, men and women, were so easily handled by her.

She often wondered if it had anything to do with the fact that her family line included a guy named Appachai Hoppochai.

Kira twitched before and she was in front of him before he could react. Shiho saw the surprise, but then the determined look as she buried her left leg into his exposed side, only to be surprised when he trapped her leg there!

Shiho saw that Kira now had her trap and he knew it, but was still being cautious as he tried to punch her, keeping her leg trapped. She deflected that punch and surprised Kira with a punch of her own, not nearly as refined as her kicks, but it was the kind of blow from a kick boxer none the less. Shiho felt her leg go free and then reversed and kicked out with her right and Kira was actually nearly thrown off the mat, but he was able to reach out with a hand to turn the force of the kick in order to land a kick of his own that knocked Shiho off her feet, but she rolled and recovered, though clearly that one kick had surprised her and managed to do something to her.

Shiho though looked up at him with a smirk that she didn't know she had.

This was a fight she would be happy to have.

She hadn't had this kind of a fight in fact since the Zero Moebius Wings were wiped out at Endymion.

Now she had a real fight again.

Kira felt like he couldn't take any more of the pain that was being dished out at him, with what felt like death blows almost. Then he felt 'The Pain' again that Kira was suffering from for some reason that could never be fully understood. Though today it felt as though it led to him going closer to a sense of unity... he didn't know how, but it was something akin to a circuit-board being activated for the first time in a while. A feeling of energy began to rush through him as he saw his opponent suddenly close in on him at seemingly a slower pace as he let out a gentle breath and...

"Block!" Kira said as Shiho's leg was intercepted, neither noticing a number of people raising eyebrows at the fact that the blow was so easily blocked, though everyone else let out surprised cries as the sleeve and the right part of Kira's gi vanished into an explosion of cloth along with Shiho's pant leg.

Kira then forced the kick away and started punching, only to block or deflect away a series of returns, both kicks and punches. Then Shiho threw a power house of a kick that would be seen that day, but Kira deflected and made ready to counterattack. He briefly paused when he saw Shiho smirking.

Then he saw her managing to rotate her leg without adjusting her stance with in a small area and in response, Kira simply switched styles after the first two blows that reset the match back to square one for the two fighters.

Rusty Mackenzie still couldn't believe that they were supposed to raid Heliopolis of all places. He mainly thought it nonsense because it was supposed to be neutral territory. Even if they were manufacturing weapons for the OMNI Enforcer, they had a perfectly good right to do so without a military response from ZAFT. They could just as easily request something from Orb to make sure that the Enforcer didn't get too much of a lead on them.

Though he would have to ask his commander, Rau Le Crueset, about that detail if it was even possible, politics seemed to be a bit natural to that guy.

Still, it wasn't something that he wanted to do, raid a neutral area that is even for this. Yet he knew that, before this started, he would have to speak with Rau about the chances that this place was really holding what they were looking for. It would look pretty bad and make him feel too guilty if they had gone on a red herring.

'Still, what could be the worst out of this particular incident, someone else trying to chew Rau out on this mission before we get back to the PLANTs?'

Needless to say, Rusty was in for a wild time, especially as a superior from his class at the academy, Taikobo Akihito, came up and slapped him on the back lightly and asked, "Hey, Rusty, ready to help us out of this little mess? I just learned that we have one Red Coat too little for the Mobile Suit extraction, so I thought to ask if you wanted a Mobile Suit, as a friend that is."

Rusty, confused at the sudden request, asked Taikobo in a worried tone, "Wait, why do you want me to pilot a new Mobile Suit? Is it possible that my scores were that high compared to the other Greencoats?"

"What are you talking about, Rusty?" Taikobo asked in a confused manner, before clearing it up with, "I'm only asking if you wanted to be a Mobile Suit Pilot for one of the machines we're going to extract, because a friend doesn't leave a friend out of things that are important like this. Besides that, I don't see what being a Greencoat has anything to do with this, do you?"

Rusty shook his head in slight disbelief, before answering, "No, I don't think it has anything to do with it, Tai. Yeah, I'll go and grab a Mobile Suit with you guys."

"That's the spirit, Rusty!" was Tai's response before slapping Rusty on the back again, only hard enough to send him flying to the wall and hitting his head against it.

Needless to say, they had to wait for Rusty to feel better from that incident, due to a shortage of people that were supposed to help in the extraction in the first place... and, surprisingly enough, it took less time for him to feel better than it did for Tai to get his hand healed.

"And there you have it," the old OMNI Enforcer officer, Captain Brandon Riley, said while taking his hat off and letting it float next to him in the weightlessness on the bridge of his ship, the OES Crescent Star, "This old ship has just completed her final mission. You served admirably as an escort, Lieutenant La Flaga. I am in your debt."

"Sir," the blond officer and ace pilot, Mu La Flaga, stated, "I'm just glad we arrived without incident," before asking what was on his mind, "Any ZAFT vessels in the vicinity?"

"We've spotted two, but it's no cause for alarm," Capt. Riley replied, convinced that they were safe, "they know they can't initiate any hostile action once we've docked."

Mu, in his personal sense of humor, gave a bit of a small laugh before saying wryly, "Because it's neutral territory? What a joke, that is."

Captain Riley barked out a couple laughs before saying, "Well, it's thanks to them that our plans have progressed this far. We're fortunate that Earth has recognized Orb as a nation."

"But weren't the G-Weapons designed based on those suits from Junius Seven in terms of technology as well as the metaphorical 'God of Death' in appearance?" Mu couldn't help but ask, since like most people, there had been questions since Junius Seven and the Sahakus were rarely ever fully trusted.

"Excuse us, Captain," a voice interjected from Captain Riley's right side, causing him to look at the crowd of Ensigns that had gathered in the bridge. Seeing them salute, he returned the salute and sent them off.

As soon as the Ensigns left, old man Brandon looked back at Mu and replied to his question darkly, "That is true, Lieutenant," he admitted, more than a little annoyed at the fact, "but we believe that it was either a coincidence or that they stole our designs, since these plans have been around for a little more than two years by this point."

"You don't say?" Mu asked in surprise.

"Yes, they were actually designed by an officer, rest her soul, of the old AFSF Fourth Fleet under then Commodore Lewis Halberton," the old captain said sadly and closed the argument on the design, though since he moved things, he knew of that Actaeon Industries was hard at work on a line of female-type units just as Morgenroete built the male-type units.

"Still..." Mu couldn't help but say at the end of the argument, having looked at the design plans recently himself, so he wasn't fully convinced, but decided to drop the matter, and brought up another issue. "Anyway, think they can handle themselves alone on the ground?"

Captain Riley, quick to get into a happy mood, replied, "I know they're young, but they're all top guns selected to be G-Pilots. They'll be just fine. However, someone like you would stick out like a sore thumb," he added at the end as a light joke against Mu, who took it in stride before looking out the view port of the bridge, honestly hoping that there wouldn't be a problem so far.

Despite everything though, Mu La Flaga was still alive because he listened to what a feeling was telling him right now.

Meanwhile, hidden behind a asteroid near the colony itself, two ZAFT ships of the Nazca-class and Laurasia-class varieties, the Vesalius and Gamow respectively, were preparing to launch crews for the Mobile Suit extraction. However, given the fact that they were unable to leave quite yet, Rusty had a bit of time to check on Rau to see if they really were going to acquire units from Heliopolis. After looking for a bit, he finally found Rau in the bridge of the Vesaliustalking with the ship's captain while floating to the tactical table, "Try not to look so frustrated, Ades."

Frederick Ades, unsure of what he really should be doing at the time, turned his head to face Rau and said, "Well, I don't imagine it'll be too late to hear back from the Council, at least." Before Rau could continue the conversation, Ades noticed that Rusty had entered the room, so he asked, "Well, Rusty, what's the matter now?"

"My apologies, Captain Ades, Rau," Rusty said while saluting the two in ZAFT style, "but I was wondering what the chances were of us finding what we're looking for here."

"Rusty, you know that it's-"

"Very well, Rusty, I'll show you an image we obtained from our spy in Heliopolis."

"-against protocol for you to request- wait, what, Commander?"

Rau ignored Ades in favor of grabbing a picture from the tactical table and tossing it over to Rusty, who grabbed it and looked at it to see, to his shock, Mobile Suits that looked like the metaphorical 'God of Death' in appearance. There were, of course, obvious differences, but it was as if the Earth Forces stole the design and possibly the technology involved in those units from Junius Seven that fought to prevent its destruction.

"If it's any consolation, Rusty," Rau brought up, "the odds of us finding nothing here are so slim it's not even funny. I do believe that you have to catch a ride to Heliopolis now, so get to it."

"Sir!" Rusty saluted again, making sure to give the picture back to Rau before heading back to the infiltration teams.

Once Rusty had left the room, Rau turned to Ades and said, "In response to your earlier statement, it will be too late to hear back from the council. I have a sixth sense about these things. If we don't seize the moment now, later we'll pay with our lives for our reluctance to take action. The Earth Forces new mobile weapons... we must secure them before they attempt to move them."

Ades looked at Rau with a bit of concern for his CO, before asking him, "Do you really think this has to be done? We're going to be labeled as war criminals if we fail, and I don't like the idea of us being such in this war or even after."

"Ades, I know what you mean, but I can't help but feel as if this has to be done or else the war will be lost for the PLANTs," Rau answered as honestly as possible. With a bit to collect his thoughts, he added, "Besides, I don't want to see my home lose to Blue Cosmos, nor do I want it controlled by the CLA."

With the mention of two big enemies to the safety of the PLANTs, Ades decided that now would be a wise time to shut up, because Rau didn't say what he just did lightly. He also didn't know what was going to happen in the long term, but this was one of those times when he didn't want to be the butt-monkey of jokes regarding some sort of screw-up that would happen if things went wrong, especially in the extraction phase.

Now it was time to wait for the commandos to get their job done.

The match had finally ended in a draw to everyone's surprise. Kira Yamato laid clad only in his gi pants, with a missing pant leg from below the right knee down and a tear in the left leg hem, and he still had his belt, though the edges were somewhat frayed. This was different from Shiho Hahnenfuss.

The ZAFT pilot had a whole pant leg missing and the other had tears throughout it. Her gi top was a shredded mess mixed with Kira's, but the undershirt she wore was gone from the waist to just above her stomach and the right shoulder was held by frayed edges. The only thing undamaged on her was her gi belt.

The official called the match and both were taken out on stretchers with support team members rushing to their friends' sides.

Up in the stands, a lavender haired woman sat next to a woman with white hair that held flakes of black in it, like pepper mixed into a white potato. The two women were very stunning, the lavender haired woman being a short 5'2" in height and if a few masters were correct, barely 99 pounds. The apparently older woman was aging quite gracefully and stood at 5'3" and was barely 110 pounds herself. Though it was noticeable from her walk that her hips had widened on two occasions, indicting she had had two children, a boy and then a daughter most masters were confident on.

Taking a puff on her mahogany pipe, the taller of the two spoke first, "I think those last two might be interesting additions," Sahashi Takami remarked as she leafed through the files on the two, which surprised her that it contained so little, "Even Matsu was unable to gain much on either of them for some strange reason."

Next to her, Asama Miya only giggled in that way she does with one hand held above her mouth with the sleeve of her white haori, "Then it might add the excitement that will be oh so glorious."

"That was a bad impersonation," Takami's lips quirked, "But yeah, I get the feeling these two might work... hmm..." she trailed off as she noticed something.

"Maybe even more so," she held up the picture and in it was Kira, his friend Miriallia, his sister Kyou, their mother Caridad, and finally three more people in the background.

Two people, both female and male, with dark brown hair, one like chestnut brown and the other with nearly black hair, respectfully, but with them was a woman with light brown hair with a whitest hue to it and Asian colored white skin that reminded one more of snow than of health issues. This woman wore a kimono that was bulging at the belly as she and the male held one another close in an intimate fashion. The woman wore a light colored straw hat, like in Ancient Japan as the two walked together faces close by one another as the third person, the other female, took a picture of the happy couple who were expecting.

"Found her," Takami said as Miya looked longingly at the picture, in her mind that was her and her late husband and her belly was swelling with a child yet born.

"We cannot interfere," Miya stated plainly, "She has achieved what we set out for."

"We don't have a choice, but there isn't a rush either, even Minaka can respect a woman pregnant and not do anything stupid," which was the truth as he always tried to cuddle her when she carried both of his children.

He was also much more approachable then as well.

The quirks of her ex-lover, Takami shook her head and in doing so, noticed two men in another photo. The two men had security and protection detail written all over them. More than that, they were clearly Orb Royal Guardsmen from how they stood. Obviously, the group tailing Kira Yamato, had been tailed themselves, which only added to the mystery that now surrounded the Yamato Family.

Miya noticed it too, and now realized that the tail following them, had traced MBI's people back to itself and now they had a tail for it.

Good question is why aren't they doing anything about it yet?

Kira awoke, believing he had only been out for a few seconds, to find himself on a stretcher being carried to the infirmary.

"Uh, could you guys please let me off here? I feel better than before, so..." Kira asked after a few moments to orient himself.

The two stretcher bearers carrying his stretcher simply looked him over before shrugging and letting him get off. They were aware that it was a common occurrence for the current champion of the Tendou-Ryu dojo to get better shortly after a match that pushed him to his limits. If it weren't for the fact that he was hardier than the average Coordinator, then he wouldn't be able to survive most things thrown his way. Then there was the training as well and truthfully, he never liked speaking about it at all, period, end of discussion not talking about it and for reasons he felt good enough to not explain either.

With that out of the way, Kira walked on over to Shiho's stretcher and looked at her, noting that she was regaining consciousness almost as fast as he did, before saying, "You did great there. I hope you don't ever lose sight of your abilities."

As he saw Shiho blush a light red on her cheeks, Kira walked back to the locker room to get dressed in his regular clothes. As he walked, he wondered all the while to why he decided to talk like that to his Shiho. Yeah the two of them had some fun and got really close, if the fact his mother was planning on no longer grounding him in time for his 600th birthday was any indication. The only saving grace was the fact that they had done nothing, if it looked very much like that to anyone who would have found them. Also, if he didn't know any better, he would've assumed that he was hitting on her at that moment, when he knew that he absolutely wasn't, though they were clearly getting close and that bothered him to some degree. The two of them having just met and now he was seriously thinking about her in a serious matter such as Shiho Yamato...

Get out of town!

Soon enough, he got to the locker room while he had been in deep thought. He strode to his assigned locker and opened it, seeing his extra gi and a brand new one with the bill tab pinned to it! He sighed, knowing his mother would like get on his case for needing to buy another uniform. He sighed again, because he knew Kagami was also going to tease him endlessly again even as he pulled out and put on his clothes and making sure his things that he brought with him were all accounted for as Birdy alighted on his shoulder like some archaic pirate bird. As soon as Kira got all the remains of his gi together and stored them in the usual slot, for either repair or recycling, he gathered the rest of his stuff and headed on out to Heliopolis Technical College, making sure to do what was needed to clean after himself before leaving the locker room.

Given the fact that Kira would prefer it if he had enough free time to get to Kato's seminar and enjoy to shoot the breeze with his friends beforehand, he focused his mind a bit, preparing to make a mad dash for it, but then he felt something, similar to what he felt earlier, though not as strong. It seemed to sense and react to his desire and want and began to spread throughout his body. His mind showing him how the energy was going as he felt something else well up inside of him and join the flow and then he could feel it, he could do it. He was now certain that he could ensure that he could speed up enough to get to where his friends were very quickly and in five seconds after he walked out of the dojo, he was already speeding off to the car port that left a number of masters impressed behind him.

Kagami only smiled even as she patted down her billowing skirt as her favorite student blasted off as he did while both Miya and Takami blinked at the speed he was going, Miya keeping up with him and Takami having the ability to simply track where he was about to be simply from being around Miya and the others like her so often.

For Flay, she had to hand it to Kira as he certainly was fast when he needed to be, among other such things. She only saw a blur of where he had run by, but apparently all that was needed to be seen was the blur, nothing more and nothing less. Then again, she was unique in a way that even her father didn't know about as she tracked as well as she could where Kira was darting off to. He was harder than her trying to read signs of passing vehicles and trains and even seeing the faces of people in airlines and shuttles.

She didn't know how it was possible for anyone to run that fast to begin with, but she had her suspicions of how it was possible. After all, her father had said that a friend of her mother had to give her a treatment when she was about to turn seven years old while she was asleep one day. Yet whatever it had been, it had done more than just give her a special tattoo that she would learn about.

As she thought about her tattoo, her body heated up barely with it centered around the tattoo, which she knew wasn't entirely normal in any event. She didn't know how to use it to her advantage, but she thought of one particular thing that might help her out, something that was supposed to help trigger her abilities as it were. It was something she learned about several years ago and she still recalled it to this day, the events that had transpired and what they truly meant, though she still did not fully grasp it even now.

Flay's Seventh Birthday

Flay was considerably lucky that she had invited her friend Miriallia over for a special birthday party for just the two of them. Considering that they were going to see a magician of considerable renown, who, for the time being, was going to be in Washington DC, this was a once in a lifetime opportunity for both of them. It was too bad her father couldn't chaperone them, but that was due to his crazy work schedule, so mister Haw would be sufficient enough of a chaperone.

Finally, the time came for the show to start, with things about to be very fun… for the first three minutes or so.

A strange man appeared in the box seat where Flay and Miriallia were sitting at, muttering a few words in what seemed to be another language under his breath, while he was being watched by Flay and Miriallia. He had a gray beard and hair, red eyes, and wore a strange coat over a strange shirt and pair of pants. When he got to the last seat in the box, he sat down in it and started chatting to the person next to him. The person who sat knew to him just so happened to be Flay herself.

"So," the man started off with a cordial smile and a gentle and kind tone, "Young miss, what sort of person can easily get away with getting this sort of seating arrangement?"

Flay, for her part, was taught not to speak with strangers, so she remained silent in hopes of the man getting the hint that she wasn't supposed to speak to him. 'Come on,' she thought, 'please leave me alone!'

"Oh? Cat got your tongue?" the old man asked of her with a slight bit of mirth in his tone now, still hoping to get conversation out of her.

No such luck was going to come to Flay that easily, as it would seem.

"I'm sorry," the young redhead's tone both polite and cordial, "but my daddy taught me not to talk to strangers, especially his work friends," Flay replied as honestly as possible. She didn't know how to tell him to leave her alone, but she knew that he was someone not to be trifled with just by being in his presence, considering that he exuded some sort of aura that said he could easily push the moon into orbit and had already done so, but that was impossible, right?

"Oh?" he seemed genuinely surprised by Flay's response, "Your father is a smart man to teach you that lesson, then, missy. I just hope that he doesn't mind a little talking to happen between a curious old man and you yourself." Really, the old man was not going to let her off the hook, was he? "What is your name, by the way? I'll have to congratulate your father for having some common sense in this day and age, and possibly your mother as well."

It was at this point that Flay's body made a natural depressed motion, which she didn't want to do, but she had no choice in the matter, "I never knew my mother, because she died when I was born, mister…."

At this point, the old man bowed his head as if in reverence, and said, "My apologies, I didn't mean to remind you of your misfortune. My name is Kischur Zelretch Schweinorg, though my friends and colleagues call me Zelretch. I hope to at least earn your trust on this matter, because I'm honestly concerned about the way things are."

With this admission of a name and an apology that honestly made her feel better, Flay replied, "it's fine, mister Zelretch. My name is Flay Annisette Akane Allster, because you were polite and asked."

With a clear mind, Zelretch said to Flay, "Flay Annisette Akane Allster, huh?" he looked to gaze not at her, but into the past, "Your mother was Maria Nekane Allster, was she not?"

Curious as to how Zelretch knew of her mother, Flay couldn't help but ask, "How do you know of mommy?"

"Well, she was a student of mine for a while, at least before she got married to your father," Zelretch admitted, though being careful to avoid his occupation that led to him teaching Flay's mother. It was the least he could do to help her know when the time was right, but he didn't think now was the right time.

"Does it have to do with your aura of a sort, mister Zelretch?" Flay asked with the innocence and curiosity of her young age.

Surprised now, Zelretch looked at her, taking her measure before speaking the question now on his mind, "What sort of aura do you feel off of me, Miss Flay?"

"It's hard to explain," Flay frowned as she tried to understand what she was seeing, so she opted for something simple to her child's mind, "but it's as if you can easily push the moon into orbit and have already done so," she replied honestly, wondering why Miriallia's father hadn't noticed what was going on so far and tried to stop the conversation.

Instead of a stopped conversation, Zelretch gave out a chuckle and said, "How very flattering and accurate, but that is a tale for another time," Flay watched Zelretch sigh as he gazed afar, "You truly have your mother's gift."

Now Flay was shocked out of her wits end. Here was a man that said that she had been accurate about pushing the moon back into orbit, and but the real shocker, to her young mind anyways, was her mother. She instantly became curious as to how this man named Zelretch knew her mother. It was only the fact of the matter was that she didn't know what to ask specifically that stunned her and all that left her mouth was an inquestive of young children yearning to know a parent lost before they could know them, "How?"

"A couple of things, but the more prominent one is that I was her teacher and we both studied arts, arts known as Magecraft," Zeltretch glared down at the stage before he contuniued, "but not like that two-bit fake that pretends to use great mysteries for the crowd to watch him make a fool of himself," Zelretch's tone was hardly kind in that moment, "but I was one that could use a specific type of Magic beyond what science can replicate. I don't know how much of your bloodline can hope to replicate the Second True Magic, but I taught your mother to try, and the same ability should be within your mother's Crest somewhere on your body."

"Wow…" Flay uttered as if in sheer reverence to what her mother tried to pull off, before she recalled something important. "Wait, what's the Second True Magic?"

The wizened old wizard chuckled before he replied to Flay's question, "Kaleidoscope, the Operation of Parallel Worlds. That is a long story in and of itself and best left for another time, but I can explain some things and perhaps help you begin to walk your own path and to learn more of your mother."

As the conversation wore on, Flay had obtained some understanding of how to be like her mother. She learned of what made her different, though not technically special compared to others, as they spoke. To make herself truly stand out and be special, she would need to make a bit of a name for herself, but that didn't surprise her one bit. When she found out about her mother's gift to her with help from her friend, she finally understood what she had inherited from her mother that made her so special.

Finally, Zelretch had to draw the conversation and few brief, but important basic lessons to a close, because he noticed that the 'Magician' was about to draw the show to a close with one final act. He normally would've ignored the man, but he felt that the final act was one that would fail so spectacularly it wasn't even funny, so he decided to try and intervene if possible. After all, he had been around for a long time, survived countless fights, and seen and done things that boggled minds; a gut feeling was something developed just like any other skill and one that had saved his life on more than one occasion as well.

"And now, for my final act, I'll need a volunteer," it was the same cheesy ending line, but there was little one could do with how to end a show, "I shall pick a person at random, hopefully a young child in a box seat," the 'Magician' stated with a comic smile and with that as his cue, the spotlight operator moved the light to search the room around and around, until it finally stopped on Flay herself.

As soon as Flay made it down to the stage, she heard the 'Magician' say to the audience, "Now, my volunteer is going to be the person who I use the disappearing trick on, with a great chance that she'll be many times better than before when she returns." Turning to Flay, he asked her, "Now, what's your name, young miss?"

"Flay Allster, sir," Flay replied a bit enthusiastically. Now that she was down here, she didn't know why Zelretch considered the man a fake, but it was perhaps due to how he was more aware of how things were supposed to go with mysteries like what he used.

"Ah, I know the name," the 'Magician' smiled, "Flay Allster, daughter of Vice-Foreign Minister George Allster," the 'Magician' brought up, with a strange gleam in his eyes that was supposed to be the hint that something off was about to happen. Before Flay could think much about it, the 'Magician' said to the audience, "Now, Miss Allster is going to disappear, but technology disrupts the process, so I'll have to ask that she hand over whatever technology she has on her that would disrupt the entire process."

As Flay complied, she couldn't help but get an uneasy feeling about the man that wanted her to follow through with the request, though she didn't know what to expect of the man and his act. When she finally got the technology removed from her person, Flay was then asked to head over to the box that contained the process to make her disappear, which was in the center of the stage. Though as she stepped closer and closer, something more and more felt wrong. In fact, the 'Magician's' aura was not right in some way and that was setting off alarm bells in her head.

As Flay headed on over there, the 'Magician' closed the door behind her and gave a snap of his fingers, causing three things to happen almost at the same time. First off, a lever was pulled that caused the floor underneath Flay's feet to leave and make her fall with a loud scream. Second, Zelretch, having heard Flay's distress while everyone else hadn't, channeled Prana to his legs and feet and ran and jumped to the stage, ready to clobber the kidnapper. Third, the door leading outside burst open and a SWAT Team arrived with an enraged Vice-Foreign Minister George Allster in tow.

As soon as Zelretch landed, George Allster yelled over a megaphone, "Diego Montez, you are hereby under arrest for multiple counts of kidnapping, extortion, and murder!"

Before anything else could happen, Zelretch landed a punch to Diego's liver, causing him to crumple over to be carted off by the SWAT Team, while also causing people to panic at the scene and what was revealed of their entertainer. As soon as Diego was put in the hands of the authorities, Zelretch decided that he'd better raise Flay up from that pit she was stuck in, so he recited a small chant to lift her up before anything bad happened.

Finally, two minutes after the whole fiasco started, Flay was back in the arms of her daddy, who was just grateful that his daughter was safe and sound. While the father-daughter bonding was going on, Zelretch used that opportunity to leave the area unnoticed, except by Flay and Miriallia, who were both glad that he was there to help out and even teach them about the real side of the supernatural.

After all, it wasn't often that a person like him was around to help people.

Flay shook her head, then muttered something that to some might have sounded like a chant that. Once she was sure enough of herself, for whatever reason to those who didn't know what was going on, she turned and sped off after Kira to make sure he didn't leave her behind, though comparatively speaking, she wasn't going very fast, given that she was in a skirt and her shoes were not the type for running. Though as she ran, she wondered what she would say. She thought that she would want to say congratulations, for one thing, and then eventually ask if he was free to do anything fun after school.

'That sounds cornier than popcorn and a movie,' Flay thought as she hurried along, surprising people that she could move so fast in a skirt and flats.

Nevertheless, she kept her pace and sped off after Kira and tried to make it to the carport he was heading to in time. Goodness knows what he would do without a girlfriend to help him live his life, though she had heard from Miriallia that Kira had been caught by his mother with that Shiho girl in his bed. Both naked and looking for all and intents and purposes like lovers, but they hadn't actually done anything either. It was a strange thing and for some reason, she felt something spark to life with in her and she groaned...

It couldn't be that time of the month could it?

Now she was worried she might give her father a grandchild before she was 16 years old. The things she had to do for her father from time to time. At least she hoped Kira would be a good person, though, as she thought earlier and after mentally reviewing what Mir had told her and what information her father had sent her...

Kira was indeed in need for a girlfriend in his life.

Kira, upon reaching and then stopping at the carport, sneezed. He didn't know what caused him to sneeze all of a sudden, but it certainly wasn't the common cold, if anything. He was in good health and had just been checked out earlier and confirmed to be just fine, so he wondered about that. Plus he was a First Generation Coordinator, he didn't get sick very easily, but he could get sick, just not as bad as some Naturals might.

Suddenly, he realized what could have made him sneeze. It was someone talking about him behind his back, something that he didn't know was possible outside of the anime he would usually watch with his friends. Though that made practically no sense, but there had always been a rumor attached to that bit of comedy that it was based on some old Ancient Japanese custom or saying or some such thing that predated the Age of Science as people knew it.

'And the Age of Science brought with it the Recon Wars and left the human population barely at just over seven billion people compared to the one time high of close to eleven billion,' Kira thought with a bit of cynical attitude, something that had developed though rarely manifested itself from the few horrors of his life.

He shrugged off the nature of the sneeze, since it wasn't important at all and he decided to just wait for his sister and friends to make it to the carport. Which would take a while given that they didn't have speed powers or something strange like that plus Tolle and Mir might disappear for a few moments to have a make out session or Mir might be showing off a new bikini she brought to Tolle. It always surprised him that the very proper and well-mannered Miriallia Haw had such a streak about her and Kira remembered the time she had mistaken him for Tolle and showed off the bikini bottoms she had brought one day. They couldn't look one another in the eye for nearly a year because of that, though thankfully Tolle didn't realize it and Kyou had a good talk with Mir about it.

Shaking his head, Kira remembered hearing his mother say that both her and their biological mother had tried the same thing to get a boy they both liked. Instead, Via Shirahama would eventually meet and marry Ulen Hibiki while Caridad Shirahama ended up with her late husband Haruna Yamato before she graduated high school and would marry him after they graduated. Life could be funny like that, though his mother always threatened to make him lighter between the legs if she got a grandchild before he was 20 years old...

Shaking his head again and noting it would take a while before they got there, apparently, so...

"Kira! You made it before we did, you sly dog!"

...or not, as proven by Tolle. Turning to see his friends, he suddenly got the distinct impression that, with Miriallia here, Flay's other friends would try to crowd in on Flay's love life, which was starting to get rather old pathetically quick. Like that time with that letter they thought was a love letter that Sai had sent Flay. Tolle had hyped himself up on it and as it turned out, it was a dud and Kira didn't let Tolle live it down for a month thereafter!

Though speaking of them, now where were Jessica and Misha...?

"Hey, Miri-chan!"

"You hear about that love letter Flay got?"

As if on cue, the two girls that were behind him and starting to pester Miriallia, pinpointing where those two had been this whole time. While they were gossips in their own right, Kira had the talent to be oblivious to such people unless they made themselves known in such a remarkable way, like what those two did regarding Flay.

Kira noted that Jessica Donalds had just grown taller by a small amount within the last week. The black-haired girl originally not being as tall as she was now, which was shorter than Flay or Mir, while Misha Hawkins, roughly Flay's own height, plus or minus, had stayed at the same height that she was at for the last month, the kogal not having had enough nutrients apparently... Actually, both of them didn't have enough nutrients in their system. The fact of the matter, as Kira recalled it, was that they thought dieting would do them good, when it obviously didn't, as they were nowhere near attractive enough for most guys, though they did have the curves in the right places, it was just that curves needed something to help them stand out and a little bit of exercise would go a long distance in evening out their intake as long as they didn't pig out.

As the two love freaks, at least according to what Kyou had told Kira, converged on Miriallia's location, Kira couldn't help but think that somehow this would make Flay rather mad if she ever found out. She had a need for her privacy to be respected, and if that love letter was from whom he thought it was from than she would be mad. Though he semi-remembered hearing from Mir before his bouts that day that Mir had gotten a... oh...

"What love letter?" Miriallia asked, unaware of the nature of what was going on.

Hook, line and sinker.

"She got a love letter from Sai Argyle shortly before she left for the Tendou-ryu Dojo earlier today, and she didn't even give it more than a cursory glance, which must mean that she's harboring ill feelings for him for some reason!" Jessica blurted out for nobody to escape from the wrath of Flay later if that ever left the mouths of anyone else.

...Yep, it was from who Kira thought it was from. Kira honestly didn't want to be bothered by this, after all, but if it turned out that Sai was going to have his name tarnished, then...

'Wait? Jessica mentioned the Tendou-ryu Dojo, didn't she?' Kira thought as his dojo's name finally filtered across his mind, 'And what's this about the letter not getting more than a cursory glance?'

Kira didn't know whether to thank his lucky stars or worry for the safety of those who lived in the immediate area of Flay Allster. After a moment to think it over, he decided to worry, so as to remain faithful to that one girl that he had met so long ago but connected with so well. Yeah, sure he and Shiho had shared a bed one night, but there was a difference there:

They both had wanted to live a little dangerously for a night and broke a ton of rules and likely a few laws while they were at it, but hey, that was what it meant to be young right?

'As the saying goes,' Kira thought with a mental chuckle, 'The Wise have tread with the Fools dare.'

Then again, why was Flay at the Tendou-ryu Dojo in the first place? Maybe she wanted to learn Martial Arts? If so, then-

"Kira!" Flay called from her position fifty feet away and approaching faster than she had ever shown before, causing all eyes to turn towards her at the moment she ended up tripping during her run. With her forward momentum, she couldn't recover in time and was actually sent flying through the sky until she met with a force that didn't want to be moved. That force turned out to be her tackling Kira to the ground with her wrapping her arms around Kira to keep from crashing to the ground painfully, though appearing to be a hasty hug from the side rather than a survival instinct, catching everyone by surprise.

"Owie ow ow! That was still painful," Flay complained only to feel her skirt get yanked down as she realized she had just flashed the whole area.

"F-Flay?" Kira couldn't help but ask, slightly disoriented from the fall, unable to determine what he did to deserve the sudden bit of attention and the hug-tackle combo. If he was honest with himself and not more than slightly naive when it came to the fairer sex, he would've been able to notice that he had this certain ability to attract girls and even some older women. He didn't need to work at attracting girls, apparently, the girls just came to him for some reason... unless you counted his sister as part of 'The Girls,' in which case she was attracted to someone else entirely and he would be eternally grateful as that would just be plain strange in a weird way.

Flay, for her part, had realized a bit late that she might have hurt Kira little as she had been going pretty fast when she tripped and bowled into him. So she quickly got off of Kira and helped him up, all the while checking to make sure that he was alright. What she failed to notice was the exchanging of glances between Kyou and Mir at how Flay was fretting about Kira who was saying he was fine. After ensuring that nothing was hurt, Flay finally realized that people were staring at her, making her wonder if she went overboard on this plan of her father's that was forced unto him in the first place.

'I really hate daddy's acquaintances at times,' Flay thought with a bit of mental bitterness.

"W-what?" Flay asked uneasily, unsure of what she was supposed to do to keep this quiet.

"Flay," Misha began, a little shock by what she was seeing, "Is this the reason why you ignored Sai's love letter?" Misha had the guts to ask, unaware of the repercussions of what she asked.

"What love letter?" Flay asked confused, until it hit her like a car hitting a Mobile Suit at full speed, what the scene may have looked like to others. Needless to say, her face lit up like the color of her hair as she remembered the letter that she only glanced over to see if it was important that was in fact from her as of late ex-fiance. Flay remembered the letter enough that it was Sai apologizing for the end of their engagement and informing her of his thoughts on the matter. He had wanted to continue, to ask her to marry him rather through their own choice, but he had been quickly engaged to another daughter of another noble family in Orb. He apologized to her and stated he had to up hold his family's honor, being retained by one of the Five Great Clans of Orb demanded it in fact. She always knew she really didn't love Sai, but the two suspected that they could have been very happy together nonetheless.

It just so happened to include a letter that was a farewell haiku poem to her.

'Oh boy,' Flay thought mentally and then she saw the looks on Jessica and Misha's faces and sure enough, the two began pestering her as she tried to come up with one defense or another or to correct them or inform them, but they just wouldn't stop.

Before the two gossips could continue for much longer to pester her about her relationships between Kira and Sai, Flay quickly got the jump on the two, "WILL YOU TWO JUST SHUT UP ALREADY!" she yelled at the top of her lungs, silencing both girls, "My daddy told me of complications regarding my engagement with Sai as a result of the Junius Incident!" the group was floored as Flay blushed in embarrassment.

Despite the fact the Junius Cluster was saved, one didn't really speak much about it, especially if they were from the Atlantic Federation. This was especially true in Flay's case as the daughter of a government minister. She wasn't really supposed to speak about the matter, a massive embarrassment in the international scene that had undermined Atlantic Federation creditability for a while. As such, Flay began to take some deep breaths and try to push the memory of the embarrassment and the horrid conclusion had it not been for the Hero of Junius' timely appearance to the back of her mind.

Continuing on calmly, Flay spoke, "Because of that, the Argyle Family, retainers to the Sahaku Clan, decided after a long deliberation to cancel the engagement and withdrew from the agreement under a number of escape clauses," Flay sighed, no one from her home nation liked thinking about the Junius Cluster anymore, "As such, Sai is currently engaged to another and I'm free to do as I want, but daddy asked me to get to know Kira here as his family is retained by the Attha Clan and Sai and his parents always spoke so well of him, that even Sai recommended Kira as a potential replacement for himself," that last part she remembered that Sai did not do, but had she really looked at the letter Sai did say he had been asked about friends he had and Kira, of course would have been mentioned, had been one to stand out, having survive the CLA at one point in his life.

With all that said, Kira felt like a weight had dropped on top of his shoulders, for some reason that he wasn't made aware of. Then again, he wasn't sure how come he had a crush on Flay Allster, but he knew he had had it since he'd first seen her when she moved up to Heliopolis around three or so years ago. He also knew that for the longest time that she had been out of his reach and that it was something that he needed to come to terms with one of these days. Yet now, he was being told that she was free and was being encouraged to get to know him, but that worried him as only Tolle and Mir, plus Ryu, Kyou, and a few others on the entire colony even knew that he was a Coordinator to begin with. That made it difficult for him to like Flay because she was from the Atlantic Federation which had developed a serious case of anti-Coordinator sentiment over the last 50 years. He didn't think he could handle it very well and then there was Shiho and that one other girl, but what could he honestly do about it?

He wanted to shake his head and tell himself that it wasn't as he was hearing or wake up and find that this wasn't a reality, but a cruel dream that feels to real and is what he wants. He saw Flay start something among the onlookers that were with them, drawing attention away from her and likely himself. He felt the weight on his shoulders bearing down, becoming heavier with each passing moment.

Then suddenly and soon enough, however, the weight was removed from his shoulders as Flay turned her attention to him and said in a low voice so only he could hear her, "Besides," she blushed only that he could see her as her eyes darted slightly off from him and she looked the nervous girl part so well, "I actually like you, Kira and I can't change my feelings that easily, anyway."

Anything else that would be said was interrupted by a woman in a red business suit that managed to hide the exact numbers, but not the curves with wrap around dark colored shades over her eyes coughing into her hand, causing everyone to look behind the group centered around Kyou as the woman spoke, "If you're not getting in, mind if I do?"

Duo, who had decided to go with the group alongside his lovers, gave a lazy salute before saying, "Ma'am."

This caused the woman and her two associates to stiffen slightly, not expecting anything that might reveal their true nature and their purpose in Heliopolis... at least until the golden-blond haired woman with the group bonked Duo over the head with a Karate chop.

"Ow~!" Duo whined, before turning to the one responsible and asking, "What was that for, Kyouko?"

Kyouko, mainly due to her being jealous of Duo doing what he did, decided to whisper in his ear, "You hit on any other woman again, and you'll lose the ship and the kids!"

Duo, upon hearing this, involuntarily widened his eyes from the revelation. He didn't intend to come off as hitting on another woman, but if it came across as that... well, he'd have to fix that soon.

Kira, who wasn't sure what the big deal was, turned to Middie and Hilde to see if they had any ideas. As soon as he looked in their direction, however, he decided to keep his question to himself. He had seen righteous female anger go towards Duo for some reason, and Kira wasn't about to risk any of that on his person, in any form.

"I got to admit, AF women are hot!"

Kira turned his head to Tolle who looked after the dark hair woman as she moved on with her two escorts. Tolle then turned to grin at Kira as Mir sighed off to the side. Tolle would be paying later for that remark, Kira knew, but at the same time he had to agree.

"Yeah," Kira admitted "If she was anything to go by, maybe Flay will look that good in five years," then he realized what he said as his face turned red and Tolle started laughing his ass off as Mir giggled and Flay was stock still while her friends' mouths had dropped open wide, "Tolle you're a pest sometimes."

Finally, the group behind his sister's group left for a car, which had prompted Jessica and Misha to try bugging Flay to take them clothes shopping. However, Flay beat them to talking by saying, "I have a gamers card that needs to be cashed in, you girls wanna come with?"

As the two girls pondered the question, Flay turned to Kira and said, "By the way, congratulations on your martial arts tournament, Kira. I hope that you and your opponent then decide to settle the score some day."

Before anything intimate could be initiated between the two of them, Jessica and Misha took the opportunity to reply to Flay by yelling simultaneously, "YOU BET!" As soon as they yelled that, they ran over to Flay and grabbed her, then dragged her over to the next available car from the carport.

Needless to say, Kira was getting emotionally confused by what he was supposed to feel for Flay, and especially for his princess and... rival?

Rusty had to hand it to whoever designed the air ducts of Heliopolis, they were certainly tough to navigate in comparison to a Nazca-class or a Laurasia-class, and those required some getting used to. Still, he wasn't in the lead, so that might have to do with it partially.

Eventually they made it to where they were supposed to go to. When they got to looking at the new warship, Rusty thought out, 'Man, if only Rau didn't have to do this, so that the colony would have a better chance of survival.' It just didn't sit well with him, mainly because of his desire to save people, not end their lives.

Regardless of the normal situation, Rusty knew that he had a job to do, so those thoughts had to go onto the back burner so as to keep focused on what he had to do. In the meantime, Rusty decided to look at the Redcoats of the team and do what he did best with people, analyze them.

First, there was Yzak Joule, son of PLANT Supreme Councilwoman Ezalia Joule. With with straight up silver hair and steel blue eyes, he fit the label of bishounen quite easily, if only his frown was turned upside down, pun aside.

Personally speaking, Rusty felt Yzak's only true friend was able to tolerate Yzak because of similar views regarding Naturals, but that was biased thinking on his part. If one wanted an unbiased opinion of the entity known as Yzak Joule, it would be that Yzak was almost always known as a perpetual frowner, with little in the way of happiness in his life. Of course, because Rusty didn't know much on Yzak, he'd leave that well enough alone and go with the things he did know.

For starters, it was rumored that Yzak was actually born in wedlock with a Natural, a high-ranking Earth Alliance Forces officer no less! Why his mother took the last name of Joule, nobody knows, but Yzak certainly wasn't related to the Joule family in any event.

Then there was the fact that Yzak was engaged in a a rumored loveless -though both Tai and Rau said otherwise- relationship with one of the Top Five Aces of the war, Shiho Hahnenfuss. If Rusty didn't know better, he'd say that Yzak had no feelings for anybody, man or woman, but that wasn't the case. There was this flaming red-head that Yzak apparently went out of his way to help in the ZAFT Military Academy, and it certainly wasn't Rusty, that much was certain. Rusty had witnessed a time when the red-head would do her best to catch up to Yzak's level of skill, though she fell short of being assigned to the Le Creuset team, mainly because Supreme Councilman Zala wanted to keep possible romance out of the teams that were being formed.

Then there was the fact that everyone on the mission found a traditional Pacific Islander good luck charm in their lockers before the mission. Only Yzak could have done that as it was not so secretly known that he was into that mythology. It was a touching move by their comrade and it made everyone feel a little better.

Rusty shook his his head and refocused then on his thoughts, such as if he hadn't gotten placed on Rau's team, then he probably wouldn't have met the guys that had their own different quirks, but he also knew that he was lucky he wasn't placed on any of the all-girls teams that were slated to be formed. He most certainly didn't want a harem unless he knew life had demanded it.

Rusty shook his head, knowing that he had to get his head back in the game, and that reminded him that he didn't finish analyzing the team.

The next guy on the team worth noting was Dearka Elsman. This was a that was sorta the exact opposite of Yzak. A practical joker than a serious attitude kind of guy, a guy that hits on anything with a hole that can hold his interest long enough, and yet the son of a Supreme Councilman, Tad Elsman, who he got his personality from if the scuttlebutt was to be believed. Nobody knows who Dearka's mother was, though thanks to the rumor mill, it was as if he was the product of another Supreme Councilwoman as well, one named Eileen Canaver, but that was indeed speculation. That the woman was known to fret about him if something had happened, though it could be from the fact that practically everyone on the Supreme Council went back quite few years, some well enough before even its founding.

Still, if anything was clear about Dearka, it was that his blond hair and purple eyes had nothing to do with his Egyptian heritage. Nobody knew what made his family leave, but his Arab side of things is something that had made him attractive to girls, as he was a pretty genuine bishounen, but then he actually was an active kind of guy. As such, most of the bishounen look was lost behind a solid build that made him stand out as a man in any crowd at any distance unlike Yzak who would probably need to be topless just to make sure people didn't mistake him for a woman, something that Dearka apparently got a good laugh out of all the time.

Next on the list was one who was labeled as 'Sir Plays-a-lot' by a number of the cew, Nicol Amalfi. Nicol was the youngest; apparently he was 15 years old and the eldest son of the Amafli family who had been blessed with several kids, the lucky parents. His father was a member of the Supreme Council too, but for the life of him, Rusty couldn't recall the name, though he did know why it was Nicol who got that label because he was a very accomplished Pianist and been doing concerts on tour when he signed up. Of course, he was a calm and mild matter kind of guy, the only thing missing were the glasses that would shine in an ominous way if anything were to happen to his Baby Grand. It was a well-established fact, that he was known to throw a huge fit and hurt people in between him and the piano, unless it was just getting a tune-up and/or it needed to get repaired, or rather a well-established rumor anyways.

Then again, if that was true, than that was quite rare of the peaceful Pianist, so nobody had to worry about him going berserk.

Nicol was technically the shortest guy on the team, as well as the youngest, at 165 centimeters when compared to Rusty, who was technically taller than average people back home, but that was neither here or now. He had a light shade of green hair and orange eyes that radiated such innocence; it was a wonder what he was doing in the war to begin with, though it had to do with a sense of duty to protect the PLANTs.

While on the topic of Nicol, his father, Yuri Amalfi as he now just recalled, was the Supreme Councilman from Maius City and part of the National Defense Council, so it was as if Rau had a vested interest in the military careers of the children of the members of the Supreme Council. That on its own was enough to worry most people, but Rusty knew that Rau wasn't like that at all, so it was all good.

Then there was the one guy that didn't have a parent on the Supreme Council among the Redcoats, Taikobo "Sir Snarks-a-lot" Akihito, an orphan from Junius Seven. With blood red eyes, tan hair that goes down in a long braid and easily being the tallest guy in the group at age 16 and 188 centimeters, he was able to pull off an acting job that required an older person normally. Add in the fact that he could do his own stunts and you had one expert actor for when the time was right to have him act... if this damn war ever ended so he could have his shot at stardom, if even wanted it.

Nobody knew much about him, other than he had a cool head when he wasn't snarking or trying to be a good friend. He was known for so few things, but apparently he had a talent that so few people would think he had, one to get himself and anyone with him out of trouble when they least expected it. He kept a lot to himself, which he wasn't too surprised, he barely and rarely opened up to Rusty, who was an orphan himself after his father passed away when he was a kid, but he also had family and folks to look after him and a roof over his head, a solid one with solid walls. As such, there was a distance between himself and Tai that just could not be put into words.

Although, maybe it had to do with what was known as the Newtype Phenomena, but Rusty couldn't tell if Taikobo was awakening to a potential that he wasn't even aware of, and that could be why Rau was so interested in Taikobo if that was the case. Yet at the same, Rau knew very little about it, most of his information coming through second hand sources and Rau believed it watered down some. Rau had admitted he wasn't even sure if it existed, so perhaps that's why he was interested in seeing if Tai was one or not, so he could see it with his own eyes and feel it too, since according to someone from over in the Gato Fleet, you could feel it if you opened up to it.

As the saying goes and literally applies in this case, "That's what she said," and it was a girl who told him it, apparently she was one herself.

Though Rusty had his own sixth sense about things and somehow, she seemed to know what she was saying to confirm what he felt about there being something he didn't know.

Shaking his head again, to get back on track, he finally ran the name and personal history of the last guy of the important ones, a person that was even less likely to join the war than Nicol, the son of the National Defense Committee Chairman himself, Athrun Zala. Blue hair, green eyes, and also a natural Bishounen, he was not the kind of guy to really fight without a good reason, if anything. He was also socially challenged, preferring machines to people, and was very adept at making small robots if Yzak, Dearka, and even Nicol's complaints about round abominations was to be believed. Though when the going got tough, he was surprisingly cool and level headed, he was a stark contrast to Yzak who was hot tempered and easily swayed by his emotions.

He had no real reason, especially since his parents were both still alive, and Junius Seven was still up and around. It was reported that Lenore Zala, his mother, had been on Junius Seven at the time, but with the colony still alive, nothing would force poor Athrun to fight in the war against the Earth Alliance.

Getting a hand on his shoulder from behind, Rusty turned and saw that Taikobo wanted his attention, at least before Taikobo pointed at the explosive material they were supposed to put the time bombs on. Then he got the idea and went to work, putting all his thoughts to the back of his mind and leaving them there until long later. He glanced around, making sure no one noticed him as he quietly went to work and felt the bile develop in his throat as his stomach churned. He thought that maybe he should have considered himself in the running for guy not to be in a war. This flew in the face of his beliefs, beliefs that he tried to hold onto desperately, but this was a stone cold reality. This was a war and he ideally wondered if this was how she felt? Probably.

For whatever reason, Taikobo looked his way briefly before going back to work himself. Rusty ideally wondered if he could sense his thoughts, making him wonder if all Newtypes could pull that off in any regard. Then as soon as he thought it, he shot it down, almost hearing a voice chuckle in the back of his mind that was saying no, Newtypes were nothing like that. They were much different from ones that could be called psychics.

Then Rusty nodded his head, remembering that time was of the essence, so that they could get out of this mess and to the Mobile Suits. With a time constraint like that, he knew that it was vital to make it out alive, in any case.

---

Ugh... need to do something for the moment while I wait for the time to post this particular portion.

If anyone bothers to read this, tell me, does the story make sense at the moment? If not, good, I need it not to make sense quite so soon.

**Xamusel** · August 16th, 2012, 01:12 AM

Ugh... more filler needed... what's everyone's opinion of what's here so far? If anything, I'm hoping this doesn't become a major fiasco, or that this gets purely ignored...

Oh well.

Not my problem if this gets ignored, but I'd like to see the fruits of my efforts soon, at least.

---

When Kira, Kyou, and their friends that were with them made it to Professor Kato's seminar, Tolle made their presence known by calling out, "Hey!"

Sai, looking out from behind where he was working, said happily enough, "Ah, Kira, Kyou, you finally made it!"

Sai Argyle was quite the charmer, one could say, especially with his blond hair and hazel eyes, though the eyes were covered by his orange glasses. He wore a black shirt underneath a red and yellow flaming shirt, with dark tan pants to boot.

Kira looked at Sai with a bit of surprise, mainly because of the fact that he didn't know how to approach him about Flay. Kira figured it was nice of Sai and all to recommend him, but how do you even start talking about such a subject. He had been very serious about Flay, and Kira meant the kind of serious you associate with matters like life and death, which it was in a way itself. So how did one approach this matter?

Before he could delve any deeper into the self-making madness, Kira noticed someone out of the corner of his eye. It looked like a boy that wore a too brown and tan heavy coat and slacks with a cap over his blond hair... Wait? That was a girl as Kira could tell where there were curves on her body. There was also a noticeable indentation at the front of the coat that told of her bust and then the slacks, how they sat on her hips and their higher placement told the story. Though for some reason, she was very appealing, but he didn't know how come. She had eyes that were an amber color, almost like gold that had just finished cooling. That should mark her as a Coordinator by any definition of the word these days, but somehow, he doubted it, largely from her breathing rhythm which sounded to rapid and deep for a Coordinator. Maybe she was a Middle then, one of those that were of both worlds, that would be an interesting thing as he only knew a couple such people.

Before he could do anything to confirm any of his suspicions, Kira could note Tolle had crossed the room and noticed her only then and turned to a pair of classmates of theirs, Katsuhiro Yamanashi sitting at a computer station and Kuzzey Buskirk, who was leafing through some files, about their guest, "Who's that?"

"Oh, the professor's guest," Kuzzey replied.

The youngest of the group of males, Kuzzey was also of Korean descent wearing a green hoodie with tan baggy pants and had black medium length hair with black eyes. Kuzzey was a Space born as well and had never left Heliopolis beyond the occasional research and class trip to nearby areas. Truth be told, he'd never been more than a couple thousand kilometers away from Heliopolis and never even remotely near the Earth. Well, at least not until they started working with the Sweepers anyways, but that was a story for another time.

"Yeah, hell if I know who she is, though she was apparently told to wait here," Katsuhiro "Katsu" brought up before remembering, "As for how I noticed she's a girl, her voice may have been gruff enough to mistake initially, but I noticed something about her that makes it a girl, her curves." Katsu had dark-brown hair with a silver highlight down the middle at the part, with hazel eyes that had golden flecks in their centers, and he wore a blue shirt, green jeans, and a Rolex on his right wrist that he had received as a gift from a friend of the family who only goes by "Gramps".

"Really?" Tolle mused to himself, while trying to find the curves in question with that heavy coat obscuring them, but then he noticed the indentation of the coat sticking out and how high her slacks were set and how they hugged nicely going up and underneath the coat, "I see it now, I wonder how I missed that oh well, between the Karate Kid and the Song Master, I shouldn't be surprised."

"Tolle," Katsu looked him in the eye, "You're a pest sometimes," the girls broke down laughing as soon as that was said.

The blond though was blushing as she shyly peeked from under her hat's brim at the group. Then when Kira looked her way, her face went a darker shade of red and she seemed to find the floor interesting. Kira only shrugged as he turned to speak to someone only to note that they were missing. The missing person was another classmate named Emiri Takahata. As he was about to ask Katsu where she went, however, Katsu spoke up to Kira’s unasked question, "She's in the restroom at the moment, making sure that she doesn't get snappy at anyone again."

Kira blinked as he looked at Katsu, who looked up from his own work running a vibrational analysis.

"How do you do that?" Kira asked with confusion laced across his face.

"Do what?" Katsu asked, genuinely curious himself as to what he did this time.

"Did you read my mind or something, Katsu?" Kira clarified for him with a raised eyebrow.

"I... what?" he hadn't honestly noticed that or not, but in the end only shrugged and continued with his work, "Maybe or maybe I just know you guys too well which honestly worries me."

"Haha, very funny," Sai responded to that.

Giving a shake of his head, Kira turned to Kuzzey, "So? Where's the Prof?"

"Kira, good thing you asked, mainly because he wanted me to give you and your sister some stuff, though I do have more for the rest of you as well," Sai replied with a smile as he removed a data disc for the siblings to work on, "It's extra stuff, but important he says."

"Great..." Kira sighed while facing Sai to accept the disk.

After handing the disk off to Kira, Sai asked him, "So what's on it? I'm assuming it's somehow connected to the work from Morgenroete."

"Not exactly," Kira replied, "It's to improve the frame setup module. It's actually just a program analysis, or so I'm certain of."

"Just a program analysis?" Kyou asked, looking at the disk skeptically.

"What is it, Kyou?" Kira asked his younger sister with a surprised look, turning to face her as he did so... only to be blindsided by Tolle.

"More importantly, tell him about what happened!" Tolle said loudly, holding Kira in a headlock.

Sai blinked at the sudden change with confusion clear in his voice, "What happened?"

Kira didn't feel like having Flay brought up so... "No, no, come on, its noth-GACK!-"

"It's not nothing!" Tolle declared while increasing his hold on Kira, the poor teen unable to recall his training at the moment, "After all, you gotta thank him, right?" Tolle's face looked ready to split in two with the cat caught the canary look smile on it.

"Thank me for what?" Sai asked, really confused by what was going on.

"Well, you see-" Tolle began, but the door opened to reveal Emiri having just gotten back, still tugging at her hemline.

Emiri, wearing a red shirt to accent her blue hair as well as her bodily curvature and a pink skirt that was barely legal even in the fashion industry, which she worked part time as a local model. She was also a martial artist in a similar, but different style to Kira's own. Though another difference on that front was that she also received personal tutoring from a Martial Arts instructor who only ever goes by 'Touhou Fuuhai.' Like the others of their group, she liked to work with computers and she had a natural talent for it like Kira and Kyou did. Another thing that she had related to her was the fact that her measurements are even better than Kyou's for some odd reason, even having people go so far as to comment that it was a "perfect" shape for her age.

"Okay, guys, I'm ba-" Emiri began until she noticed that Tolle had blindsided Kira again, so she promptly marched over to Kira's rescue and slapped Tolle upside the head, "What the hell are you doing, Tolle?"

"Ow~!" Tolle complained as he held his head, "Emiri, what was that for? All I was doing was getting Kira-"

"Goading him on, you mean, Tolle," Katsu cut in at that moment, cutting Tolle off.

Tolle, glaring at the grinning Katsu, failed to note the posture of Emiri behind him.

Rau looked up from his watch and said two words with far reaching consequences, "It's time."

Ades nodded in understanding and barked out, "Weigh anchor! Vesalius, launch!"

The ship's mighty engines cycled from idle to combat speed and the Vesalius followed by its Laurasia-class companion, the Gamow, came about, bows aiming their way to the Heliopolis Port for a takeover of the harbor.

Captain Riley was just going to take a break on the colony when his ship's battle alert went off, prompting him to turn his head around to see that the ZAFT vessels were heading away from where they were previously stationed and now heading towards Heliopolis. Getting a sinking feeling in his gut, he immediately called for Mu to come to the bridge at once.

Alarms blared in the Heliopolis Port Control as a port worker called out on his speakers, "Heliopolis here, approaching ZAFT vessel, please respond! ZAFT vessel, please respond!"

As the Chief Controller made his way to a station, the man operating the station turned to face him, all the while trying to say more than "Chief Controller."

"Calm down now!" the Chief Controller yelled out. Right after that, he turned his head to the guys at the alarm and barked out, "CUT OFF THE ALARM!" Taking an opportunity to snatch the speaker set from the operator, he spoke through them, "Issuing a warning to the approaching ZAFT vessel!"

As he spoke, he tried to say the following through the ZAFT vessels' electrical interference, "The actions you are taking are a direct violation of your treaty with our nation! Cease your advance at once! ZAFT vessel, cease your advance at once!"

However, due to the N-Jammer levels that were rising and causing such electrical interference, the operator turned his attention back to his superior and said to him, "Electrical interference. Emanating from the ZAFT vessel. Sir, this is clearly a hostile act!"

With those words spoken to him, the Chief Controller widened his eyes, as his worst nightmare was finally coming true. Heliopolis was going to be attacked by people that didn't care about the treaties or anything, and nobody would stop the colony from being a battleground, even if Heliopolis could stop the ZAFT soldiers.

Rau nodded as the distance and gave the order to launch the GINNs out. Outstretching his hand, he made a gesture for them launch. The GINNs activated their main cameras as systems cycled on as the hangar bay started opening up. When the last launch preparations completed, the linear catapult uncoupled from its stand by position and began to charge up. The first GINN moving to cat and locking itself into the magnetic boot with one last check before the launch itself could initiate.

Rau was informed of the readiness, nodded and soon enough, the GINNs were launching one by one, with one from the Gamow and the other two from the Vesalius as stand by GINNs moved into position.

Mu arrived on the bridge quickly and turned to Captain Riley once there, "Enemies?"

"Two vessels," Riley replied, "Nazca and Laurasia-class. Confirmed Mobile Suits launching prior to jamming of communications."

"Huh," Mu replied while looking at the data that was being played over, before nodding and heading out, "Have Luke and Gail board their units, but don't deploy them yet!

As Mu was about to go to his Moebius Zero, the CIC officer remembered something, and asked, "Sir, what about those new units that we're carrying? You know, the ones command wanted deliver?"

Mu stopped and looked back towards the Captain, unsure of what the man would say, "Sir? Your call on this matter."

Old Captain Riley nodded, as he knew command had sent them along to be delivered as thank you gifts to both Orb and the Sweepers for their assistance. Still, he had some crew who had spent time in simulator, training on the things. So he could field a larger force, but there was trouble with that, the men had only simulated training. It was also to be said that he knew that the rumors that had been going about would also be proven true sooner or later, so now might as well be. It wasn't like they weren't going to announce it, given that they were turning over several units each to Orb and the Sweepers anyways. Yet, they were not delivered and the receivers had not come to collect, so could he still order...

"No," he made his decision, "Have the men who can move them get them off the ship, notify that Orb patrol craft to stand by to receive the Orb units and have the others locate and deliver the Sweeper units to them," he took a deep breath, "Prep for immediate launch, secure all hatches, activate all weapons, emergency launch stand by, prep Mobile Compliment for sortie at once!"

"Aye, aye, sir!" everyone responded as Mu nodded, glad for that captain's choice and headed down to his Zero.

Within the secret harbor in which the new warship was being docked, some of the pilots were getting restless with what was going on. The new pilots felt as if it were most likely going to die if they stayed where they were. One of them tried to speak up, "Captain-"

"Don't panic," the Captain cut off the pilot, "If we overreact, we'll be playing right into their hands. Let Heliopolis deal with this situation," the men began to calm, but they were all frighten still.

At that moment, the phone went off, causing the Captain to pick it up and put it to his ear. "Captain Keeler here... What was that?... Yes, I know... We're prepared to launch if we have to."

With that, he hung up the phone and turned around to face a pair new arrivals, both had just arrived from their temporary housing in the colony and changed into their uniforms and reporting to him, "Get Lieutenant Ramius for me! Commence transfer of the G-Weapons!"

"Sir!" the woman replied while the two of them saluted Captain Keeler before they left for where Lieutenant Ramius was.

The ZAFT GINNs were moving towards Heliopolis, assault rifles at the ready as they waited for the Heliopolis Defense Force to deploy against them. The pilots were veteran Green Coats Olor Koudenburg, Matthew Sims, and Miguel Aiman and all three were the only ones assigned to pilot this mission, though another trio were sitting alert just in case they needed a few more GINNs launched. Leading the other two was Miguel as he was the most senior, having been in service and comabt since the Blockade of 69. He had fought and survived in some of the worst battles to date, even surviving and escaping the failed First Battle of Victoria, though he wore out a pair of boots doing so.

He had really gained attention though during the Junius Cluster Battle, when he survived a chance encounter that put his skills to the test against a more powerful Mobile Suit, but that duel was put off on the side when the real threat came about.

Miguel sighed, knowing that he couldn't go back to that duel no matter how hard he wanted to, not unless he could face off against the guy while on his current mission... which was next to impossible. However, knowing his luck, he'd probably get that chance of a duel soon enough. Then again...

Shaking his head, "Dammit Miguel, keep yourself on target! No distractions!"

He right back to focusing on the here and now.

Rau spoke from his seat in the bridge of the Vesalius, "We'll move in once we take out the mining area."

"Yes, sir," replied the helms officer, as he relayed a series of designated speeds and courses to both helmsmen.

Within minutes of the GINNs approach, Mistral Mobile Workers arrived to do battle with them, though the vastly inferior units were only meant to do space work, not combat. While combat wasn't their strong point, they were the only units Heliopolis had available to them, so there was little choice but to go into battle with no chance of any returning.

Meanwhile, within the secret hangar bay of the Archangel, the countdown was at the twenty second mark and nobody even noticed the bombs counting down. While the bombs were counting down, civilian life was going about in a normal enough style of manner, with families going shopping together, politicians heading to the city hall, Flay and her gossipy friends shopping for video games together, Kira and the rest of the Kato seminar preparing to get their exo-suit to work right, street musicians playing for the general population, a woman and a couple paying for their groceries at the local supermarket, and Mobile Suit trailers moving to the secret hangar bay, with a female factory worker issuing an orders to her charges, "To the Archangel! On the double!"

At that moment, the bombs went off, causing a great deal of damage, wrecking primary controls and conduits throughout the attachment between the mining satellite and the colony itself killing hundreds of workers and miners. Within the secret dock yard, where the bombs detonated en mass, the area was immediately destroyed the chaining explosions tore through causing the deaths of the majority of crew and officers in the general area of the Archangel as well as the civilian technicians and dock workers. Ensign Natarle Badguriel had just enough time to look back as an overpressure wave slammed into her and her companion, the wave hurtling them both further down the shaft they were in as an explosion followed killing everyone in its way. The explosions could be felt throughout the entire colony, as many people stopped what they were doing and grabbed onto whatever they could for dear life as the colony briefly lost gravity for several moments as the colony shook and rattle and threaten to tear itself apart as the chaos continued... and then all hell broke loose outside the colony.

Mu La Flaga got within his Moebius Zero just as Captain Riley tried to say more than "Lieutenant La Flaga—"

"Launch the ship!" Mu ordered from within his Zero while setting it up for combat, "The harbor is about to be taken over!" As soon as he finished the start-up of the Zero, he sealed his helmet and said, "I'm launching, too."

As he made his way out of the dock and into the space battle, the enemy GINNs fired into the last of the Mistrals that were assigned to fight them off, but paused as they saw five older GINNs in Orb colors launch out of an adjoining port with three patrol craft. Before they could be engaged though following on the telltale orange and red of the Zero were a couple of new machines that looked really armored and had thrusters all over them in Earth Forces' markings. The suits powered out into space, the pilots not some rookies, but clearly not used to Mobile Suit Space Combat yet. The one mobile armor, seven mobile suits, three patrol craft, and lone Enforcer supply ship charged the ZAFT forces with weapons locked and loaded even as the Stand-by GINNs were launched to join the battle as the six ships began to duel for control of the local space.

Though Patrick 'Cool Hands' Luke and Ryner 'Storm' Gail were still getting used to Space MS Combat, they weren't new to Space Combat in general. Still, it was not the best set up as the Laurasia-class before them easily dispatched two of the three patrol craft. Then the reinforcement GINNs began to mix it up as another pair of GINNs were launched out from both ships, making eight ZAFT GINNs in combat, but because they had more accurate weapons to use against the ZAFT forces, they had been able to quickly trim some of the numbers, destroying one GINN and forcing a second to break off its attack against the Orb GINNs. Though that had given the ZAFT pilots pause for a moment, given the range they were able to destroy one of their number, the battle was far from over as the pilots reacted to the changing battlefield and the four ships began their duel.

The battling forces began to close in as both sides exchanged fire as they moved to and fro as another Orb patrol craft went down destroyed, but in its death blows it managed to knock out of the Gamow's AA clusters, leaving a gap in its defenses. An Orb mobile suit lost an arm, but was able to swing back and take the arm off one of the GINNs as both suits retreated for repairs. The Crescent Star got a shot off from her both her dorsal and ventral batteries and the Gamow was struck a second time, knocking out two of her primary batteries and scrotching and gouging the armor as paint was vaporized. The Versalius barely defeated a missile barrage, but some still got by and explosions blossomed along her hull, though the tough armor of the Nazca-class vessel shrugged off most of the damage, a large section of her armor belt had been destroyed and she had a three sections vented to space from a direct hit on an airlock. The damage was avenged as two of the GINNs managed to fight their way through the Orb pilots and damaged the last patrol craft before being driven off with damage from Luke and Gail.

The fighting itself was really starting to go rough, but then three of the GINNs managed a break through as Gail managed to finally take out a ZAFT GINN. The trio shot over to the colony approaching a section that was labeled as "Area Seven." Harbor defense turrets came to life, but were either evaded or destroyed as the three punched through into the harbor and began firing at anything not theirs and that included into the harbor control center and rendering the area useless as well as leaving Olor and two others out there on their own against the OMNI Enforcer and the remains of the Heliopolis Space Defense Force.

Yzak smirked as he spied the trailers carrying their targets begin to leave the factory area. He was one of the lookouts that was assigned to look for the Earth Forces new Mobile Weapons and it was his luck to be the first to finally find the units. Switching the zoom magnification followed by clearing the blurs and cleaning up the image a little, he spotted the Mobile Suits and checked each one over, before stopping on the lead unit. Chuckling to himself, he spoke to the others as they all turned their attentions to the small convoy, "That's it," removing the binoculars from his helmet, he continued, "It's exactly like Commander Le Creuset said."

Dearka chuckled and rhetorically asked him, "What? You prod them a little and out of their hole they come?" several others chuckled, "Too easy."

"Dearka, Yzak" Rusty spoke up, drawing their attention, "When it's too easy, it's a trap, Basic One-oh-One."

"Come on Rusty," Yzak rolled his eyes, "Naturals are both pathetic and stupid! They couldn't set a trap to save their lives!"

"So we say after developing tactics written two centuries ago by a Natural when space combat was still satellite based and theory," Rusty countered causing several to shift, "Or did you skip that reading in the Academy?"

Both Yzak and Dearka didn't have a counter for that. The book, "Space Wars: The Fourth Dimension of Combat," was the basis for all of ZAFT's combat tactics and technologies. Written in early half of the 21st Centurty AD by an American who became wealthy on the sales of the book and a series of no longer theorized wars in a number of books, the series was brought by amateur Natural couple whose children were second batch of First Generation Coordinators. The books were later taken in by the Zodiac Alliance and read front to back and then back to front after it was learned they were required reading by Mars Military Academies. Hailed as the Sun Tzu writings of space warfare, they are the basis from which both the Mars Federation and ZAFT drew their combat tactics and technologies. Regrettably, ZAFT has been unable to fully understand the books as there is considerable resistance compared to the fact that even now, centuries later, the Mars UN Forces and Exo Fleet still read them and study them religiously.

Yzak sighed, knowing damn well what a few of the tenants were of the reading, "Alright, I get it. Now can we please get back to our job? I'll contact our support."

Miguel's GINN brought up a map of Heliopolis, which showed an icon of where the new Mobile Weapons were located, as Matthew reported from his GINN, "Seems they found the treasure chest. Sector S, Factory District Thirty-Seven!"

Miguel gave a whistle of appreciation, "That's the way Yzak!" Miguel then glanced up at Matthew briefly, "Say, Matt, how long until we get to pilot units better than these GINNs? After seeing those Orb units, I'm starting to get worried."

"Beats me," Matthew answered honestly, "Resources and all, plus changing the production lines, but I'd like to be a test pilot for something cool, like Shiho is for a particular project I heard she's a part of."

"You mean the Thermal Weapons project?" Miguel asked with a laugh, "Matt, you know that we'd probably have won the war by then!" both men shared a laugh at that.

"Still, I really hope to get transferred over to the official R&D department after this is over with, if only to stay closer to my girlfriend in Jay-Seven," Matthew continued, hoping that Miguel would understand what sort of issues were going on with him.

"Yeah, I get what you mean," Miguel replied, "but it's not going to be approved that easily, especially since our Commander wants us to stick together for now," then a thought crossed Miguel's mind, "What about the Gato Fleet and their Beam Weapons Project? Any word on that?"

"Not a thing, but it's largely resources and power I hear, though I have heard talk of a new mobile suit that might get introduced," Matthew shrugged at the end; it was the same story all around really, that is always the issue, really.

Hearing the alert, Miguel realized that they were bantering for too long, as they were nearing the correct factory district, "Matt, we have to cut the chit-chat, we have a job to do and it requires our full attention," signaling the third GINN with them, they got a response and all three drove in with one lagging to cover the other two.

At the targeted factory, the woman in charge was trying to get everything moving even as two Messers deployed themselves for overwatch as a man, H. Allens, cursed before turning to the woman, "Lieutenant! The ship isn't responding, status unknown!"

Before she could respond, one of the Messer pilots called out, "INCOMING!" and opened fire with his assault rifle.

The Lieutenant and H. Allens took cover in a culvert with half dozen others even as others scrambled left and right to avoid the straffing GINNs. Several men and women were trapped in their loaders and didn't make, drivers unaware of the attack died in their trucks, and the two Messers returned fired, one boosting up and causing the leading two GINNs to divide, the third GINN though was gutted by assault rifle fire as 90mm rounds punched through the frontal armor and the GINN exploded into pieces. Despite the two Messers's stand, most of the equipment, including several of the mobile suit prototypes, had been destroyed and fire swept the loading yard and truck depot.

When the dust cleared, the woman began to take stock of the situation, "Those are ZAFT!" as the two Messers and the GINNs continued to trade shot, she noticed another GINN appear and fearing more might be on the way or already there, she quickly orders, "Prep X000, 104, 105, 112, 208, 212, 301, 302, 303 and 309 for combat!" Getting onto her feet, she continued, as defenses were promptly being prepared, "Get them out of the factory district!"

"Yes, Ma'am!" replied a man who's ID tag called him Brian Anders, as he rushed off to fulfill his duty.

Back within HTC, it was a mass of fear and confusion as people evacuated. The lights flashed, dimmed, and failed, some stayed steady as the walls groaned and cracked and pieces of ceiling fell or began to rain down in dust form. The group from the Kato seminar were all trying to get out of this mess alive themselves. Miriallia, frightened asked fearfully, "What's going on?"

Sai, frantically tried to get the elevators working as, but Emiri slapped him over the back of the head as Kira, Kyou, and Ryu forced the doors to one of the shafts and began to help people out of the stuck lift. Tolle, with Kuzzey and Katsu, rammed the door to the stairs and, under their combined assaults, opened up with a groan as it fell of its hinges. The three grabbed the falling door and drew it back in as people continued to rush down the stairs under the guidance of security. Tolle stuck his head in and he asked whoever would answer, "What's going on?!"

One man answered as he made his way to the entrance, "I don't know! But they say we're under attack!"

A younger man then answered, "We're under attack by ZAFT! Some of their Mobile Suits have infiltrated the colony!" the unknown girl gasped and looked in the direction of the factory district, only turning back to hear, "You should hurry, too!"

Decision made, the blond turned and started running towards the factory area. Her sudden movement surprised the others and Kira, Kyou, Ryu, Katsu and Emiri began chasing after her. Debris then rain down, blocking the passage they had taken and making the others go on without them.

As the GINNs made their way over to assist the Redcoats and the Greencoats in the capture of the enemy Mobile Suits, the Messers were taking defensive formations around the convoy. After getting a solid lock on the GINNs, the four Enforcer Mobile Suits fired off a volley of semi-guided rockets at the GINNs. The pilots expected to hit at least one GINN, their rockets outranged their opponents Assault Rifles, but before contact was made, the GINNs fired their Assault Rifles on the incoming missiles, destroying them.

Then the two GINNs increased speed towards the convoy, even as the Messers discarded their rocket launchers for their Submachine Guns. The two mobile forces exchanged fire, but the rounds of the Submachine Guns fell short as the ZAFT pilots suddenly vectored back and away from the convoy and then counterfired with the range advantage, piercing the Messers with a barrage of fire that also tore up the roadway the convoy was on and destroyed several IFVs and the leading pair of AFVs.

Yzak yelled over the fighting, radios aside, out to the others, "Destroy any parts we can't carry and the factories! Intel indicates six of them!"

Noting that there were three there, he asked rhetorically, "Are the other three still inside?"

Athrun answered non-rhetorically, "Taikobo and I will continue and try to get a Greencoat to pilot one of the others. Yzak, you guys take these three."

"Okay, go for it," Yzak replied. Turning to the group on his right, he says, "If you're piloting one, be sure to disarm the self-destruct first!"

As the soldiers on the ground opened fired on the ZAFT commandos, the incoming commandos were forced to dodge, but lost some of their number, some rather explosively, but were able to land none the less. The Enforcer ground troops took cover, but they now lacked armor vehicles to support them and the ZAFT commandos had managed to get in cover and with mobile suit support were able to make rapid headway.

Though it had not been without cost to the landed commandos. One of the Messers turned out not to be so destroyed and the pilot had survived, launching a couple of Anti-Personnel canisters reminiscent of the out of service Bouncing Betty Landmines, the pair of ordnance slaughter half of the ZAFT commandos before the nearest GINN caught on and destroyed the Messer for good.

In exchange, a tank belonging to the Orb National Defense Force was able to lock up the GINN and destroy it before scrambling to another location to avoid counter fire.

On the ground, the fighting was tough and the commandos found that some Enforcers were taking shelter inside the carriers for the mobile suits. The only way to clear them out was to throw grenades into the trailers for the Mobile Suits, but thankfully, the grenades were not enough to damage the suits, but enough to kill the Enforcers inside. Though they still left their mark and a couple had managed to survive long enough to plant Fifty cal pistol slugs into the faces of several overeager commandos before the rest killed them quickly.

As soon as Kira and company caught up to the unknown girl, he caught her arm and spun her around to face him, "What are you doing?! It's a dead-end there!"

The unknown girl tried to pull her arm free, all the while saying, "Stop tailing me! You better get out of here and hook back up with the others!"

At that exact moment, a powerful explosion occurred back down the hall behind them. The overpressure hit them, but debris had already fallen, limiting the power and protecting them from the blast. Nevertheless, it had enough strength to set them off balance and force those with skirts to shield their modesty. When it subsided, the group looked to see the blond girl wasn’t just any girl, but...

"You're Princess Cagalli?!" Kira felt his jaw drop open, mainly because he felt he’d seen her somewhere before, but couldn't quite place where.

First Crown Princess Cagalli Yula Athha, looking rather angered by the fact that her cover was now blown, demanded in the snappy tone, "Yeah, who'd you think I was? Let's hear it!"

"Uh, I just thought–" was all that Kira could say before a secondary explosion went off, more powerful than the first one because it was closer and with enough force to knock everyone off their feet. The new overpressure wave then hit as they were falling and threw them further down the hall, causing more collapses in their wake as they finally came to a landing. After the earsplitting and bone numbing seconds ended, Ryu decided then was a good time to take roll call, to see who was able to continue moving forward to the destination ahead.

"All right, guys, who can answer now? Kyou?"

"Here, senpai," Kyou answered as she got up, rubbing where she hit her head.

"Katsu?"

"Ugh… Remind me to never do that again, senpai," Katsu replied with a groan as he audibly popped his back.

"Duly noted. Emiri?"

"Ow… My boobs hurt," Emiri complained as she rubbed her rather large chest.

"Tough. Suck up the pain and let's get on our way. Kira? Princess Cagalli?"

While Katsu and Emiri got up and started looking around, Kyou was worried for elder brother; she didn’t want to lose any more family. She then looked in Kira's direction and assuming the worst, only to find…

Kira was lying on top of princes Cagalli, one hand holding her left arm down, the other hand gently caressing her right breast, all the while with him kissing her in as fond a manner as he could possibly be doing so, if it weren't for the fact that it they are in a critical situation and in the middle of a hallway that wasn't meant for this situation.

"You know, senpai," Kyou said, "If we weren't in such a mess right now, I would've suspected Duo of pulling off this sort of prank."

Ryu looked in Kyou's direction and saw what she was talking about, seeing Kira get slapped by Princess Cagalli and seeing Kira yelp in pain at that. Pinching the bridge of his nose, Ryu muttered to himself, "Just where is Duo, anyway? I could've sworn he was with us…."

It couldn't have been his imagination, could it?

Duo couldn't believe his luck. He was hoping to embarrass Kyou and Ryu again, but this opportunity was too good to pass up!

Of course, it was not the retainer position that Kira's family had, but something else completely. He had his suspicions, but until then and such time, he was just going to roll with the deal he was getting. After all, it was not every day that he got to play matchmaker with royalty after all, right? Not like some intergalactic devil princess meddling in the affairs of her of grandnieces’ life by setting her up to marry the boy she likes, the really lovable, but klutzy type, along with three other females and then arranging for another four women to marry him to secure a political alliance to combat pirates and for entertainment value too.

Seeing that he needed to get back to his lovers, Duo left the scene in a quiet hurry, hoping to make sure that nothing bad happened to them, but needing a good excuse to...

“DAMN PATCH WORKERS!!! KILL ALL OF THEM IN THE NAME OF OUR PURE AND BLUE WORLD!!!!!!”

“Thank you!” Duo said to the heaven’s above looking like an angel, before he grabbed his weapon of choice.

Within the actual factory itself, the people that were left to protect the Mobile Suits fought with their lives. The last two Messers had been destroyed, but a third GINN had been damaged by them and forced to retreat, and the remaining vehicles and several disassembled prototypes all burned throughout the district. If that wasn’t already bad enough, there were still ZAFT commandos that had survived the onslaught of bullets from the defenders' guns still pushing in on them. When the commandos made enough headway to try claiming all the Mobile Suits…

Rusty couldn't help but feel something was off here. He could easily see that there were more than the three that they were supposed to capture, but he didn't have the chance to double-check before now. Getting behind cover to check, he decided to count to make sure that there was maybe one extra, but soon saw something really was off. He counted to confirm what his eyes were telling him, and then he sped off to Athrun and Taikobo's position, yelling at the top of his lungs when he got there, "We've been had! Do you know how many Mobile Suits there are here?!"

Athrun, blinking, couldn’t help but ask dumbly, "Uh… Three?"

Taikobo, knowing he was gonna hate himself when he said it, but he had to ask it, "Okay, Rusty, what's the correct number?"

"I counted ten here, and that's if we're lucky! We got to find a way to get rid of the extra units!" Rusty yelled and insisted.

At that moment, several of the combatants in the factory heard a female shout, "FATHER! I KNEW YOU BETRAYED US ALL!"

Cagalli collapsed in tears just cried at the sight of the OMNI Enforcers’ mobile suits and the battle being waged over them. Kira didn’t leave her collapsed for long as he yanked her out of harm's way as bullets flew up to ping off the metal guard rail. Then Kira began pulling the distraught princess away as the others followed him out of the warzone that was the factory floor below, and what a warzone it was, with explosions and dead bodies everywhere as both sides continued to exchange fire. Both Kira and Ryu on the other hand knew that Princess Cagalli's father wasn't entirely to blame, but only because they had worked on a few Sahaku projects before and this smelled suspiciously of Sahaku.

Meanwhile, the Duel had raised itself out of its trailer it was previously being carried in, rifle and shield in hand, the battle for the prototype Mobile Weapons over and with ZAFT victorious, though not without considerable cost.

All about the highway the Enforcers had been using were the scattered remains of troops from both sides and nearly all of the Enforcers had been killed, but the ZAFT commandos had lost more than 70 percent of their number. It had been a bitter contest and the survivors were already packing up and leaving. It was a stark reminder to the ZAFT soldiers that they could have used a smarter approach that didn't flaunt their strength or intelligence and result in such a bloody gun battle over a trio of mobile suits.

Yzak, shaking himself as he cleared his thoughts, was getting himself used to the Mobile Suit before he managed to say, "Wow, pretty impressive," turning to the VIDCOM that let him speak to his friend longtime friend Dearka Elsman, he asked, "Dearka, how's yours?"

"Great~" Dearka replied with a drawl happily, "Update activated, Nerve Links reconstructed, Calibrations set. It'll move," To prove his point, the Buster got out of its trailer, ready for action.

Yzak, with his characteristic impatience, asked, "And Nicol?"

Nicol Amalfi, who was still typing away at his keyboard, said, "Not yet... almost there," As soon as he finished saying that, the Blitz stood up, awaiting its spy missions as a Special Forces-type Mobile Suit with Mirage Colloid.

Dearka, who was starting to get worried, asked, "Where are Athrun and Taikobo? Taking their time as usual."

"Huh?" something wasn't right as those two never took this long, "I don't think they'll have any trouble," Yzak responded, before saying, "Let's stick with the plan. We'll leave with these three. Let's take them to Commander Le Creuset before they get damaged."

With that, their Vernier Thrusters activated, and the G-Weapons moved off with their escort GINN that had managed to survive the skirmish. As soon as they managed to get clear of the ground, they headed off into the central shaft of the colony, where they were to return to the void of space where their ships were at.

“Just how many GINNs have we lost?” Deakra asked as he saw several burning wrecks and frowned, that was too many.

While theft of the first three was going on and succeeding, Kira and company had made it to the shelters in the next block, with Kira in the lead all the way through. As soon as they got to an open shelter, Kira said to Cagalli, "See? Some people have evacuated here."

*BEE-BEE-BEEP*

"Is there still someone out there?" came a man's voice from within the shelter.

Kira, being the quick-minded guy he is, quickly replied, "Yes, my friends and I need to get inside. Please, open the door."

"Friends? As in more than one?" asked the man incredulously.

"That's right," Kira answered.

A short wait later, the man inside replied, "We're filled to capacity already. There's Shelter 37 in the left block. Can you make it there?"

After taking a while to survey the damage and the route to the left block, Kira turned his head back to the speaker system and said, "Could you at least take one of us? Especially one of the girls!"

With a bit of a pause in the man's voice, he finally gave in, "Yeah, okay... sorry. Besides, I don't think one of us will be needing air any time soon, anyway." As he mentioned that tidbit, the doors opened up to let only one person in, and the group was in debate as to who to send.

Fortunately enough, the answer came from an unusual source. The group turned to see a young mother clutching a crying baby in her arms as she rushed to the shelter. The group knew only one could go in, so they automatically elected her and her child.

"Change of plans!" Kira said quickly, "A woman and her infant child have arrived, we're sending them down instead!"

"Roger that!" the man couldn't think to leave those two out there for the life of him.

Just as the doors began to close, an explosion occurred nearby which jarred the doorway to prevent it from properly closing at all. The woman looked out the door in terror, as Kira tried to override the doors, but they didn't open all the way to allow for exit either, so nobody was actually able to get in or out at all now.

"What.The.HELL?" demanded Katsu, apparently angry that this actually happened, because he wanted to ensure two's safety.

"Sorry about that, didn't know that would happen," the man's voice came, "We're trying something down here, so hang on..." he trailed off as another explosion occurred in the distance and then suddenly a feminine shout over the commlink and suddenly, the lift began to descend the woman looking both surprised and relieved, "I guess you might want to go to Shelter 37 now, so please get going and don't worry, there's a Sweeper down here named Lamia..." That was the last anyone heard from that shelter, because they decided to take his advice, and hurry off to the left block, at least feeling good that they did something right.

While they were hurrying back, the battle waged on in space. Mu cursed and shot down another GINN, but something wasn’t feeling right about this battle even as Gail managed a clean kill with his beam saber. There were simply too many GINNs for just the two ships before them and then he saw it! A lone GINN trying to get the drop on an Orb pilot, but the Crescent Glow fired her main batteries and the suit was destroyed, but in the moments before...

“Dammit! The CLA is here!”

**Xamusel** · August 16th, 2012, 01:24 AM

Kira noticed out of the corner of his eye that the battle in the hangar area was down to the three Red Coats and a Green Coat, or so it would seem. But there, in the rafters and girders were a couple of others and as he was watching, he heard one of the men, who he could only guess later was named Brian, yell out, "Lieutenant Ramius!"

The very same woman who shot at Cagalli, though she stopped when she saw what she was aiming at, yelled out an order, "Hamana, Brian, get them up and out of here NOW!"

When she got back to firing on the ZAFT Soldiers, she was perfectly oblivious to the soldier that was aiming his sights on her back, which, for all intents and purposes, should have ended her life immediately when he got to a proper firing angle. However, Kira was able to tell something off was going on when he saw the soldier behind her, so he yelled, "BEHIND YOU, LOOK OUT!"

Lieutenant Ramius spun around to shoot the invader trying to kill her, got off three rounds of her machine gun before running out of ammo, and killed her would-be killer with at least one of those rounds. When she looked in Kira's direction, she noted that the whole group of young people was converging on Kira's location, which made her wonder aloud, "Those kids again, why did he...?"

"BLARGH!" was the last cry of Brian, who was shot by the ZAFT Green that was on the ground and close by to him. When Lieutenant Ramius realized something was wrong, she took out a handgun and leaped towards the direction of the Green Coat, firing two shots into the soldier and ending his life.

Turning back to Kira and company, she yelled to them, "Come here!"

"Thanks," Kira responded, "but we're off to the shelters in the left block, never mind us!"

"There's nothing left behind those doors!" the Lieutenant cried back.

As if being prophetic of her words, a big burst of flame erupted from within the left block, effectively destroying what chance they had of getting in a shelter. That left them no choice; they headed over to the Mobile Suits, and started to figure out which ones to save, after being told by the Lieutenant that they had to save at least one each.

At around this point, the remaining "factory worker", Hamana as the group would learn his name was, noticed movement over near one of the units, the one that had the strange requirements for who would pilot it, so he aimed his semi-automatic at the person moving that way only to find it was a civilian heading towards it. He then ran over to the civilian and yelled at her to get her attention, "Hey, you get away from that machine! It requires rigorous Martial Arts training to even operate properly!"

Emiri, turning to face Hamana, was about to retort angrily when her brain caught up with the words "rigorous Martial Arts training". When she spoke, it was as if she was channeling the very presence of her master himself, "Tell me, do you know how rigorous the man known as Touhou Fuuhai is with training?"

Hamana got the idea who she was talking about, so he relented by saying, "Alright, you win, but someone's gotta help maintain the Adamantine." Before anything else could be said, Hamana snapped his fingers, which opened a leg compartment on the newly labeled "Adamantine". As soon as the compartment opened, he ran inside while yelling, "I'll be the Adamantine's personal mechanic after this fiasco!"

With that, Emiri ran to the Adamantine, making sure to notice the label of "Adamantine Gundam" on the side of its head. As soon as she got to the cockpit, she couldn't help but notice why the Gundam was supposed to be operated with Martial Arts.

Suddenly enough, people nearby heard the Lieutenant receive a bullet to her right shoulder, causing her to gasp in pain as she fell down onto her back atop the resting Mobile Suit.

Kira, who was nearby due to jumping from a ridiculous height onto the Mobile Suit, gasped in shock as he ran over to check on the factory worker, to make sure that she was going to be alright from that attack.

The ZAFT Redcoat noticed that he was out of ammo in his machine gun, so he discarded it in favor of drawing his combat knife and charging the downed factory worker before she could get up and try shooting him.

Another ZAFT Redcoat and the last Greencoat in the group were busy getting to two of the last units when a third ZAFT Redcoat appeared, running towards another unit, causing them to wonder who she was. Before they could call out to her, however, she saved them the trouble of asking by ordering them from her location, "GET IN A MOBILE SUIT NOW!"

They'd recognize that voice anywhere, especially considering who her fiancé is supposed to be and that said fiancé was on their team and possibly out of the colony already with a Mobile Suit obtained from the Earth Forces.

Rushing to get to any of the Mobile Suits not already taken by what appeared to be civilians, the Redcoat saw a civilian that he couldn't help but recognize rush to a Mobile Suit, even though it was almost a year since they last saw each other….

"Katsu…hiro?"

Shaking his head, he headed off to the nearest Mobile Suit, so that he could somehow survive the explosion that was bound to be coming by here.

If he stuck around near where he saw his friend, he would've heard his friend question in a shocked tone, "Taikobo?"

What really counted as true irony, however, was the scene that described what Kira ran into while trying to check on the factory worker, because of one particular thing that could go wrong… a friend on the wrong end of a combat knife, as it were.

"A…thrun?"

The Redcoat, now identified as Athrun, stopped his advance long enough to utter "K-kira?"

Right then, another explosion occurred, causing whatever thoughts of advancing his position to leave Athrun and making him relax his guard while Kira got up in a standing position to look his friend in the eye.

The factory worker managed to get enough of her strength back in her wounded arm to raise her gun at Athrun, causing him to move as far back from the two as possible before using his jetpack to get to another Mobile Suit.

The factory worker then got up and forced Kira into the cockpit of the Mobile Suit that they were on, before jumping in on her own.

As another explosion was made known to the people in the factory, the factory worker ordered Kira, "Move back behind the seat!" As Kira complied and let the factory worker drive, despite better judgment, the worker said mostly to herself, "At least we can save this one. Even I should be able to operate it."

As Kira looked out a window that showed him the Mobile Suit that Athrun apparently went into, he had the chance to think, 'Athrun? No, it can't be. That's not possible!'

As soon as he finished that line of thought, Kira heard the Mobile Suit's computer whir to life; causing him to look at the activation program and see the following words come to life:

OMNI Enforcer
General
Unilateral
Neuro-link
Dispersive
Autonomic
Maneuver

"Gun-dam?" Kira couldn't help but ask out his thought, wondering where he heard it before.

Soon enough, the eyes flashed online, which signified that the Mobile Suit cameras were active and ready to go all the way. With that out of the way, the Mobile Suit with the designation of "Gundam" got out of its mobile suit cradle and started to stand up by itself.

It was not just the Mobile Suit Kira was in, though, it was all the units that were in the secret hangar. The Strike Gundam that Kira was in, the Aegis Gundam, the Deadfright Gundam, the Dragon Gundam, the Vanguard Gundam, the Highliner Gundam, the Enhance Gundam, the Hurricane Gundam, the Adamantine Gundam and the Crystal Gundam all moved out of their mobile suit cradles with varying levels of difficulty… though in the case of the Highliner Gundam, someone had to pry it out before carrying it out of the cradle for whoever could be its pilot in the future.

A/N from Xamusel:

Okay, people, this is the end of my biggest chapter to date, possibly even bigger than Phase 000… no, wait, it actually is bigger than Phase 000. Well, to talk about the chapter, I think that this particular chapter was possibly excessively longer than needed. However, due to the fact that there was a lot more ground to cover than the last version of this Phase, you can possibly imagine the fact that this was well beyond the point that's normal.

Now, more fandoms are brought into the field of this story's crossover list, and I wasn't even made aware of this until sometime after Tomcat and I started work on Emma Sheen's introduction (which was later removed for certain reasons that are best left unmentioned… and don’t ask who she is, she’ll be introduced better by the time Phase 004 comes around, not to worry). The main issue that I thought was gonna happen was the fact that it would turn off even more readers, regardless of the fact that this already turned off quite a few readers, but that's the price he and I are willing to pay.

To start the list of fandoms introduced into this chapter, Robotech/Macross was the first one that was brought in, especially seeing as it was a childhood memory of Tomcat's. He also brought in a piece of nostalgia for him, ExoSquad. As I'm nowhere near knowledgeable enough to answer questions based on that series, I'll leave it to Tomcat to answer them, as he's the one to ask.

Oh, there's a reference to Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple in here, be sure to catch it soon! I'm not going to leave any hints at location, but to those that can correctly answer where the reference was by the time of the next Phase, you'll get a special mention of congratulations… wait, actually, make that to the first one to correctly answer.

Now, to bring up the review corner that I mentioned last chapter, here you go (from Fanfiction.Net, by the way, not from here on Beast's Lair):

Mega1987: Shirou, while he does have the ability to attract Tsundere/Yandere/Kuudere girls like bees to a barrel of honey in canon and in this story, has special circumstances that have occurred in his life in this version of events, forcing him to adopt the identity of Rusty Mackenzie to shake off pursuers, namely the CLA variety of pursuers.

Yes, CG!EMIYA is a chew toy to Alaya, but that isn't particularly relevant quite yet. He wouldn't know what hit him, true, but at least he doesn't need to know quite yet.

Also, no, Zelretch isn't bored enough to even think of pulling that off. Crazy hijinks aside, the inter-dimensional travel was all scientific, and only X could've pulled off building that device without a name that used the law of "Conservation of Mass" to its full advantage… and nobody else will ever be able to replicate the Second True Magic with Science ever again!

Witchsoul531: The original became known as my Fail Story Corner, the only story to fit so far. If you really want to see me continue that version, then I'm afraid it won't be possible any time soon, unfortunately.

Now for the Beast's Lair Review:

Hazama (aka ZidanReign): Still need to talk with Tomcat about adding Zeorymer, but I'm pretty sure that's not gonna happen for a while, if at all.

…Alright, end of the review corner, so be sure to ask more questions when you feel the need to. For now… here's Tomcat!

A/N from Tomcat:

Howdy folks! F-14 Tomcat Lover here and let's just say that had corporations actually had any brains, then and now, we wouldn't be missing out on some really good stuff! Take ExoSquad for example: it has been compared as groundwork of US Anime had it been allowed to flourish, but regrettably, Corps decided they wanted to prioritize their own failing crap instead. While technically a Cartoon, all of us born in the 80s would have likely seen ExoSquad, unless yas was a girl, then you would probably have been watching Jem and Barbie and Sailor Moon.

Boy that feels like long time now that its 20 years later.

Okay, I decided on a mix of Robotech and Macross to help build this one. I figured it would be a nice addition, since it keeps us from having to create OCs to keep up, plus Xamusel was always wanting to expand, so here we go. Happy Early Birthday Xamusel.

It was also my idea for the Kenichi additions. I figured if Kira was going to be Martial Arts fighting, might as well have a little fun, yes? Sekirei was Xamusel's idea, but I convincingly brought up the argument for a single verse for the sake of simplicity. Nevertheless, we have had it hard, what with my nice new computer having FOUR crashes since I got in December, you can understand how I've been going through a LOT of stress. Well, we got this one done, thank the good heavens for small favors.

Well, back to Xamusel now.

(Xamusel quite poking me! You'll have your turn now to talk!)

A/N from Xamusel (again):

As promised, I put the timeline in here, even though it had to go through a lot of revisions to reach what it is today. I stopped at the Battle of Kaohsiung at the timeline because that was, currently, the last spot that the timeline needed before the current battles our heroes are to be stuck with.

Next chapter is going to reveal Mobile Suit complement stuff for the Archangel and the units that were stolen by ZAFT (not the canon units currently).

Until we meet again, farewell,

Xamusel.

PS: Anyone that reads this should at least leave a review, please, otherwise Tomcat and I won’t be able to know what else we need to deal with certain chapters down the road.

Oh, the CLA was Tomcat’s creation, but I had asked if it could be used in this story since the first version. In any event, the CLA is not going to have an easy time fighting the Archangel, at least while the heroes’ still draw breath.

Timeline Now:

Timeline Details

---

Okay, so the timeline was considered super long, and I was given the suggestion of putting it in a spoiler by ItsaRandomUsername (Thanks IRUn). If you all wish to know, the timeline was at least 5k words on its own, so that's part of the reason why this seems short when compared to the rest of the chapter.

Anyway... please review? I'd appreciate it while I go to work on the rest of my projects.

Thread: Gundam Wing: Reaper of the SEED (Gundam Wing/SEED-verse/UC/Sekirei/Nasuverse/whatever else that counts as an element later)

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Gundam Wing: Reaper of the SEED (Gundam Wing/SEED-verse/UC/Sekirei/Nasuverse/whatever else that counts as an element later)

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