At first, he was silently cursing his friend Athrun for launching the ship’s squadron of twelve mobile suits to deal with just three enemies; an obviously unfair fight. Not only that, the mobile suits that they were facing were slightly upgraded GINNs carrying self-contained beam rifles instead of the original projectile-based weapons, compared to the top-of-the-line mobile suits his team was using. It looked so unfair that it was an insult to his dignity.

“Fox Three,” Dearka’s wingmate announced as his Windam launched a pair of active radar guidance missiles at a GINN. “Fox Two,” he announced a few seconds later as he launched another pair of missiles; this time they were infrared-guided. By alternating the launch of different guided missiles, it was hoped that the enemy would be fooled into thinking that the second missiles were radar-guided and would deploy active countermeasures against them.

Dearka, his wingmate and the other two pilots would never find out whether the enemy that they were facing had been tricked by tactic or not. The enemy pilot simply destroyed the missiles like they were nothing more than annoying flies and continued attacking the four of them.

Dearka was still silently cursing his friend Athrun, this time for sending his team to fight an unfair battle. With him barely keeping the GINN from chasing after the other three, it was a very uphill battle indeed. He wryly noted that it was as if fighting against Kira Yamato.

Three Kira Yamatos, a rather unfair fight indeed.

“Shamrock’s hit,” a female pilot from another squadron announced with a straight face as a GOUF in her team exploded. Although it was as if she wasn’t affected by what happened, the slight stress in her voice was tantamount to her screaming over the airwave.

There were oddities such as Kira and Yzak but mobile suit pilots were expected to remain calm, or falling which to appear calm at all time; not to do so was unforgivable but then again Kira didn’t become a pilot out of his own will and Yzak didn’t give a damn about what other people were thinking anyway.

“Pull out and abort any attack,” Dearka instructed her and the other team leader. “Everyone maintain your distance from the three of them and don’t open fire except to prevent them from attacking you or others.

While attacking from distance would let the GINNs evade the attacks, the inverse also applied as well. By matching the skill of the GINN’s pilots with numbers and technological superiority, the blonde leader had a simple battle plan, to run the enemy mobile suits power dry. As long as none of his pilots was a stupid prick that didn’t know his or her own capability, Dearka would make it work. “Duck King, fire at Tango One. Wheeler, Tango Two. Bunny, Tango Three. Fullhouse and Potluck, cover us with ECMs.” As he fired at the three GINNs, he continued, “The rest of you, stick to the plan and don’t get someone else killed because you’re stupid enough to follow orders.”

“Roger!” everyone chorused.

“Puma, do we have the permission to use Cloud Reaper?” he asked the mothership’s CIC operator.

The man looked elsewhere and talked to someone else before turning back to him. “The captain confirmed that you have the permission to request it at any time.”

“Understood.” He and Athrun had talked about its use before. While his friend was reluctant to let the enemy know the existence of such weapon to prevent countermeasures to be developed, he was more concerned with lives of those serving under him. In the end, they came to a compromise. He was allowed to call for its deployment and thus was responsible to reduce the chance of it happening.

Even though he wouldn’t call for its use except in the most extreme cases, it was a bit comforting to know that there was a backup plan in place.

The plan in place, the battle continued, this time in his squadron’s favor. Dearka had piloted GINNs before and use his knowledge of their capabilities to the maximum advantage. If possible, he wanted to capture at least one of them to know what kind pilot controlling them. As the attrition fight dragged on, he began to notice that one of the GINNs began to slow down. At first, he wondered whether it was a trap to goad his people to attack it but all of them followed his order to the letter. .Further near hits convinced him that something was wrong with it.

“Commander! We have an unidentified coming your way fast!” the CIC operator announced suddenly.

Before Dearka could say anything, precise beam shots tore through the three GINNs that his squadron was facing, utterly decimating them. He quickly turned toward the originating coordinates and saw a black mobile suit slowly storing its beam rifle. He glanced at the remains of the three GINNs and then back again at the newcomer. Slowly, understanding began filtering in his mind. The three GINNs that they were fighting had been sent as part of an experiment, probably involving their pilots since he couldn’t see anything special regarding the mobile suits themselves. From what he had just seen, it was probable that the experiment was over and the single newcomer destroyed them.

“Puma. Request two Cloud Reapers aimed at Tango Four immediately.”

“Two? But that’s…”

“Just do it,” Dearka interjected, looking at the lone threat warily.

Two slightly larger than normal missiles were launched from the mothership, their target was the black mobile suit.

“Come on… let’s see what you will do…”

The projectiles were designed for atmospheric reentry and thus the warheads were protected with thermal resistant ceramic coating that would also allow them to withstand normal strength beam blasts. However to targets facing them, attacking the prominent warheads seemed an obvious thing to do which is why Dearka was surprised when the black mobile suit aimed the shots at the their main bodies, incapacitating them easily. Athrun’s fear of countermeasures being developed against the missiles was unfounded.

A method already exists to disrupt them.

With its main objective achieved and threats neutralized, the mobile suit simply turned to leave the area. Dearka sighed as he knew what he was going to do next was stupid and useless. “All units retreat to the ship perimeter. No need to be stupid and heroic”

“How about you, skipper?” one of his pilots asked.

He didn’t give a reply as his GOUF gave chase. He knew what he was doing was hypocritical but at the very least he wanted to try and defeat the black opponent without involving his squadron. He noticed that his prey didn’t react to his approach but instead maintaining its current vector.

There was no way the pilot wouldn’t have noticed his mobile suit on radar.

Yet, he continued on, preparing himself for a close range combat even though his specialty was mid-to-long range engagement; he had no illusion that his foe could avoid such attacks easily. But he must win. Just when his GOUF was not far away, he blinked.

He must have blinked because a moment before the black mobile suit was quite a distance away and a moment later it suddenly appeared in front of him.

As Dearka stared at its beam rifle’s muzzle pointing at him precariously, he cursed his mind for coming up with the explanation on how his enemy managed to perform such ‘magic’ instead of thinking the way out of his current predicament.

He had heard about battle stories about a mobile suit broke into particle of lights and then reappear at another position from one place or another one that could changed its vector so fast that it was leaving after images; Dearka personally believed that those stories were more unbelievable than the abominable snowman or ‘Nessie’. Sure enough, having served on a team that had a mobile suit equipped with Mirage Colloid and knowing seen schematics on Destiny’s Wing of Lights, he knew that almost total stealth and optical illusions were achievable. However mobile suits turning into particle of lights or the changing its vector so fast simply went against the law of physics. Plus, there’s no way of preventing the pilot being turned into a giant pancake with such an extreme g-force caused by such maneuvers.

In the case of the mobile suit he was pursuing, he was so transfixed in the chase that he didn’t notice its steady drop of speed until it came to a stop. So, what seemed to be it ‘teleporting’ to in front of him was actually his reflex action of braking his GOUF to avoid collision with the static mobile suit.

Not only Dearka’s reflex had been used against him, the pilot could also be commended for such a brazen tactic.

Yet, all those overanalyzing of situation wouldn’t help the blonde pilot. His prey turned hunter was clearly mocking him with its inaction, as if daring him to make a move knowing full well that he would fail. There’s no one here that will able to prevent me from shooting you point blank. An image of a boisterous and smiling girl entered his mind. “Mir…”

Then it all turned white.

“What can we learn from what happened?” Athrun asked at everyone inside the room with a stoic expression.

“You must always keep calm,” someone offered.

“Good point. Also, no matter who you are, there’s a fine line between heroics and stupidity. Don’t let what happened to your commander happen to you. That is all,” he said before saluting them and went out of the room. However, someone else quickly followed him.

“Oh, come on, Athrun, give me a break. You referred to me as if I’m already dead.”

Athrun rolled his eyes. “If not the fact that it was aiming for the main camera instead of, say cockpit, you might as well be dead. That, and the fact that it left you alone after that even though it had plenty of time to skewer you and hang you out to dry.”

“Well, thanks for bailing me out. I could have landed in the hot soup for this.”

“You should, but we’re short of experienced pilots as it is. Also, since you kept everyone else out of your silly attempt and technically ‘the black mobile suit attacked you’ even though you had yet to fire a single shot at it and your squadron is keeping mum about what happened, I have no choice. They’re good people, you know, so don’t let them down.”

“I know.”

“Just to let you know, you’ll still be reprimanded. Repeat this stunt, however, you will be grounded and I’ll have you scrub the toilets with a toothbrush.”

“Women’s?”

Athrun groaned.

Mwu looked at the document in his hand and then Lacus on the screen. “We already have the information on the experimental pilots. It seemed that they’re conducting trial tests on upgraded pilots able to fight at a level higher than they’re capable off, a bit similar to the Extendeds if I have to say so. You know, Lacus, I’m impressed. How do you managed to figure out what them even though all the the initial data we had was their fighting capability?”

Lacus shrugged. “I have a feeling,” she said a bit untruthfully. “The confirmation came from Sleipneir?”

If Mwu noticed how she reacted to the question, he didn’t show it. “Yes. However, there’s a little bit of a delay in getting the information unlike the last time.”

“Perhaps something can’t be avoided.”

“Perhaps,” the man agreed. “Although I’m not going to ask you to tell me where you are or when you’re returning, I hope you understand the longer you’re missing, the more people will start to ask. You haven’t appeared publicly for two weeks already and we’re covering for that but eventually you will have to appear again.”

“I understand. I appreciate everything that you’ve done.”

“If that’s the case then I trust that you’ll provide foreword for my next thriller.”

Lacus giggled. “I still think that Kuro Takato is supposed to be the real hero instead of Myo Acre. Plus, I don’t think Carrey Dinar would enjoy finding out that she’s in a love triangle with the hero and Maria Bernes.”

“There’s no pleasing everyone,”

“True. See you then.”

“Wait.”

“Hmm?”

“This seems a bit weird but Sleipneir left something strange. I reckon you could probably make out what it is.”

“Tell me.”

“He or it or whatever asked the question ‘how?’ Our crackers are balding themselves trying to figure out what it meant.”

Lacus smiled sadly while shaking her head slowly. “It’s okay. The question is for me after all. Is there any way for us to relay the answer back to Sleipneir?”

“Yes. But it would take some time since he wouldn’t trust us to deal directly.” Mwu rubbed his smooth chin. “May I hazard a guess? Since it is for you, Sleipneir is asking how come you’re not appearing in the public”

“No. Sleipneir already knows about it.” In fact, Sleipner or rather the fake Kira was the reason why Lacus stayed out of limelight. The question asked of another nature. “Tell Sleipneir, it because a woman has a higher pain threshold.”

The former masked Phantom Pain commander frowned. “I don’t get it.”

“That’s because you’re not supposed to and trust me, the day you found out about it will be the day Sleipneir will cease to provide us information.”

Sitting on a blanket spread on the sand, Lacus smiled as she looked at the orphans playing in the water. When she came to the newly relocated orphanage, she was told by Reverend Malchio that some of the kids had already moved out but evidently there were newcomers as well. Negotiations are being finalized but ORB government was quite keen for the good reverend to head its own welfare agency, recognizing the fact that his blindness wasn’t a liability preventing him from carrying out humanitarian works. Lacus sometime wished that she had dedicated herself to welfare work instead of dabbling in the political arena.

As it is, Sleipneir’s information or rather the fake Kira’s information was shedding some light on what was the pro-Gilbert’s faction or rather The Destineds was planning. The attack on Puma was only to test the stability of the artificial aces that the faction was creating. That was why the pilots used obsolete mobile suits; they were expendable in the trial. Although it looked like it didn’t go the way the group wanted, Lacus had no doubt that the data gathered would help the faction to improve the stability more and more.

Of course, even without Sleipneir’s information, with a little bit of time and analysis, she would have reached the same conclusion. The fake Kira was mocking her, telling that she would fail in stopping his plan even though he was helping her. She wanted to stop the plan but there was a part of her that was quite reluctant. Lacus could already see where it was leading and if it succeeded, she could end up together with the real Kira; the impersonator’s plan, would cause the death of Fllay Alster, the contender, no, the one who was reigning inside Kira’s heart at that moment. With the knowledge of what will happen, a real dilemma emerged which was whether sacrifice her conscience and be together with Kira or stop the plan and risk losing Kira.

Somehow she knew the answer but yet it was very hard for her to accept it.

She had already lost him. No, that wasn’t entirely correct. He wasn’t hers in the first place. She thought that he was enamored with her just as she was with him; it seemed that he believed the same thing as well. However, his actions betrayed his subconscious yearning of being with her. Even the protectiveness he displayed when escorting her shuttle to the edge of the atmosphere during the second war was influenced by his desire to not lose anyone else after losing the flame-haired woman.

“I didn’t expect you to be here, Lacus,” a female voice behind her interrupted the Pink Princess mussing.

She patted a spot next to her. “Have a seat first, Cagalli. We have some catching up to do.”

Cagalli did as she was told. “When the jerk told me that there’s someone like you at the orphanage, I had to prevent myself from rolling my eyes. I mean, how come he was dense enough not to recognize you? Geez, hasn’t he heard about the sameness factor?”

“Jerk?”

The ORB representative pointed to a man that was walking toward the orphans.

“Oh, him.” Then a thought occurred to Lacus. Despite Cagalli’s wide vocabulary of colorful and overtly words, there were some words that have other meanings. For example, she had used the word ‘jerk’ to refer to Athrun whenever the man annoyed her. To have her using the word to refer to Shinn, it meant that the relationship between the two of them was a bit out of normal. “You’re going out with him?”

“Um…” Cagalli answered self-consciously.

Lacus turned toward her friend to see that she was blushing. “When?”

“I’m not sure myself when but we’re currently testing the water.”

From her vantage position, Lacus could see a prank by the orphans cause Shinn to fall into the sea. “Cagalli, do you think it’s true that love is eternal madness?” When she noticed that the person next to her was silent, she clarified her question. “I’m not talking about you and Asuka. Recently someone told me that love is eternal madness that can cause one to do things that are irrational and detrimental to one’s self interest.”

“I… maybe that person has a point… not that I’m referring to my situation of course.”

“I see…”

“Anyway,” Cagalli said, changing the topic, “You have yet to tell me why you are here in ORB.”

Lacus nodded as her mind went through the rehearsed story that she had prepared; the story would be as close as possible to the real truth but with some information omitted such as Kira’s current involvement with UNITY’s intelligence agency.

“Few months ago, I found out that…”

Erica signaled a crane to lower the contraption it was carrying so that she could connect it to one on the platform. “Gently does it. We don’t want to be spending another week building this.”

Murdoch snorted and whispered to the technician next to him, “Somehow I really doubt her words seeing how she worked us to the ground and still have the energy to do her own work. It’s like having a Duracell™ bunny as head of research here.”

“I know. Kinda scary when I saw her with that look after the plan was transmitted.”

The lowering operation was slow and tedious but in the end the equipment was successfully lowered and Erica moved in to secure it.

Murdoch rubbed his eyes. “I am seeing things. She is skipping around!”

“You and me both. But I have to say it is a relief that we have come far to finish Project GARUDA.”

“Geo-orbital Assignment Robust Unilateral Deployable Armour. A bit fanciful for a big mobile armour.”

“I can hear you from here!” Erica shouted from where her position as she tightened a bolt. “It is not just a big mobile armour. It is the most advanced mobile armour ORB have ever built.”

“With all due disrespect, Erica, all we did was rebuilt Terminal’s FALCON and then just rebadged it GARUDA. Besides, it is quite easy to achieve the target of building ORB’s most advanced mobile armour when this is the first time we ever the so-called advanced mobile armour!”

Erica was quiet for a while but wasn’t ready to admit defeat. “We’ve carried out a lot of modifications!”

“Sure, instead of one beam cannon in FALCON’s design, we stick in two; replace a slot carrying two missiles with one that carries three missiles. Oh, not to forget, we also changed the color as well!”

The head honcho of Morgenroete’s research department fell silent as she continued with her own work.

“Wow,” Murdoch’s friend quipped. “You managed to out-logic her.”

“Well, it’s been four years I’ve been working under her so I learned a lot.”

Of course, Murdoch admitted silently to himself that the craft that they were building wasn’t just a rehashed version of Terminal’s FALCON. Only an idiot couldn’t appreciate the fine engineering feat orchestrated by Erica. After all, she was the one who refit Archangel so that it could function as a submarine. However, every genius has his or her own weird kind of thinking. Murdoch couldn’t still understand the real reason why Erica tore down some rooms in the legged ship just so that she could build a Japanese style bath along with its men and women partitioning; at that time he had called her an idiot for wasting precious space for something as trivial as that. Besides, since the ship’s operational theatres included outer space, wasn’t it rather pointless to build the bath if it couldn’t be used in space?

Despite that she wanted a Japanese-style bath inside a battleship, she got what she wanted and Murdoch was quite accommodating since she didn’t involve him in the implementation of her quack idea.

“Murdoch,” Erica called out to him. “Please finish this up while I work on the OS.”

The man turned toward his friend and grinned. “And after four years she accepted that I’m better at assembly and repairing even though she’s the main designer and planner.”

“Zwiling Lanze! Attack him” Kira commanded and the remote drones launched from Guardians. In retaliation, Dammerungsfee launched its own DRAGOONS to intercept them. With the remote units engaging each other, the two mobile suits closed in to do battle with their melee weapon.

Dammerungsfee launched itself at Guardian, both of its hands holding Saitenwaffe blade for increase in power, ready slash the latter to oblivious. But the slash was redirected away by one of Guardian’s beam sabers while the other one was raised in retaliatory attack that would have severed the black mobile suit’s head. However, Dammerungfee spun on its axis and kicked Guardian, forcing the two apart.

“It is look like the original is better after all.”

The two continued to dance around each other, trying to find openings on each other that would have lead to a swift conclusion to their fight. Even though he had the definite advantage in skill, Kira couldn’t use it because his enemy was faster, compensating for the lack of skill. Also, his enemy wasn’t showing any kind of pattern or style he normally associated with other opponents that he had fought. Athrun, Yzak, Shinn and even Creuset; all of them had one definitive fighting style whereby they would favor certain battle tactics.

Kira realized with a start that his fake didn’t really have a favored fighting style apart from the one bastardized from him; how could he had not noticed such an important information until then?

However, he wasn’t given much time to think about it as his enemy renewed his attacks. “The world is already changing and the people who changed it is no longer needed, Kira.”

“Yet you’re still here, trying to force the world to move in the direction you wanted.”

“I told you before; I’m guiding it to its path. I also told you that the world doesn’t need her.”

“Damn you!” Kira cursed as Guardian performed a double slash only to be blocked by Dammerungsfee’s Saitenwaffe.

“It’s useless.”

However, that was what he had planned. He retracted the two beam sabers, causing the black mobile suit to be off balance and lunged forward. Then Guardian kicked at the mobile suit’s beam sword using the momentum to force it away from its owner. Then taking the advantage of the fact that his opponent was unarmed, he pressed home the attack, stabbing Dammerungfee with his beam saber. “Die!”

Then the world turned white.

Instead of his mobile suit, Kira was the one holding the beam saber and instead of the black mobile suit that he was fighting, he had stabbed a redhead woman with a sword.

“No!” he denied as he pulled the sword away. Without anything to support her, she toppled to the ground as blood began seeping out of her wound. He threw away the bloodied sword, sat down and put her head on his lap. “I’m sorry.”

“Kira…” the girl called out weakly.

“Congratulations.” The fake Kira said while appearing in front of the two. “You have succeeded,” Kira said as he smirked.

“No! This is wrong! This is not supposed to happen!”

“Why it wasn’t supposed to happen? That bitch used and manipulate you! Isn’t it natural that you hate and try to kill someone you really hate?”

“But it was you, not me!”

“What are you talking about?” Kira asked as he began to fade out of view. “I am you.”

“NOO!!!” Kira shouted in despair.

“Kira,” the woman called out, exerting to put a hand on his face. “Shh… It’s all right, Kira, all right.” She cooed.

“How can it be all right if I killed you?”

She gave a fleeting smile. “If it is you, Kira, I don’t mind.”

“Why? Why are you able to say such a thing and smile? Don’t you want to live?”

“That’s the thing… You told me that my feelings weren’t real which was why you couldn’t reciprocate it. But I find out… that I can’t live without you and don’t want to… That’s why…”

“Wait…,” Kira stopped as he tried to think of her name, not realizing that the hand that he was holding was already limp.

“NOOO!!!!”

Kira woke up, mouth opened in a silent scream. Upon realizing that it was just a dream, he put a hand on his face in order to calm himself. Dream or not, it felt horrifyingly real and he could still his blood curdling from it. However, there was one lingering question that was left unanswered.

When he asked Terrence about it the day after, the man seemed to hesitate before asking him a question. “Kira, humor me if you will, but why did you join UNGARD in the first place?”

After thinking about it, the young man gave his answer, “To make a difference while the world is moving toward reconciliation.”

“Nothing else? No other reason apart from that?”

As hard as he could, Kira couldn’t come up with another reason which was quite strange since instinctively he knew that there was another reason. A blurry image flashed in his mind where he kissed someone in his room back at Archangel in the second war… although the feeling and passion brought by that image was very intense, for the life of him, he couldn’t identify the person that he was kissing.

Then it came to him.

“I join UNGARD to help make sure that Lacus’ safety is ensured even if it means I have to protect her from the shadow,” he added with false conviction.

Terrence shook his head a bit and gave weird look; a look that seemed sympathetic. “Since you put that way, then you don’t need to worry about those dreams. They’re probably figments of your imaginations.”

Shinn leaned on the rail of the ship, looking at the horizon.

“I almost mistake you for a mature person there, kiddo,” a gruff voice commented.

The Skyknight’s pilot smiled. “Oh, it’s you.”

“Geez, it’s not fun if you don’t react to my taunts.”

Shinn chuckled. “Sorry I couldn’t make your day then. So, how can I help you apart from being the usual doormat?”

“Heh, you’re finally learning to speak back. Good. Keep it up,” Murdoch said as the older man took a spot next to him. “By the way, what did you do to our guest from Confederation?”

“Sven? What about him?”

“Whenever I see him, either he has a popsicle in his mouth or he’s licking a cone ice cream or savoring a sundae.”

Shinn knew exactly the exact moment the change occurred in Sven but decided that his involvement was better kept hidden. “Beats me.”

“Just thought you may know something.” Murdoch leaned on the railing. “So if you don’t mind me asking, how is it going between you and the beauty? So, you’re all dovey-dovey right now, I take it?”

“I wish.”

“Why? She’s not good enough for you?”

“No, the problem is she’s too good for me.”

“Of course, of course, that’s pretty obvious,” Murdoch said condescendingly.

“I’m not falling for your taunt, old man.”

“Crap.”

Shinn let out a long sigh. “I like her, that’s a fact and strangely enough I can picture myself being beside her. There’s something else looming, you know, as if threatening the whole thing.”

Murdoch stared at the young man for a while before grinning. “Oh, I know what’s causing it. The solution is simple, actually.”

“Really? Tell me.”

“You wouldn’t like it.”

“Please, tell me.”

“You have to forgive yourself…,” Murdoch paused a bit, “and when I said forgive yourself, it also involves forgiving her father.”

“But…” Shinn stopped when the other man held up a hand.

“Think about it. I’m not taking sides here but right now her father is holding you back, but only because you put him in that position.”

“But… it was he that…”

“True, but I would like to ask you: based on your viewpoint, he’s responsible for many deaths as well, right?”

“Yes…” Shinn said testily.

“Good. But do all of their kin invest their time in hating him rather than live their own life.”

“Yes!”

“Are you sure? Really, really sure about that? Is there any proof to your statement?”

The young man shrunk. “No.”

Murdoch put a reassuring hand on him. “I know you’re angry with that guy but you still have to live your life, kid. Look, life is never about fairness, just like a game of poker. Sometimes the hand you’re dealt with isn’t that great but you know what? It doesn’t matter as much as what you do with it.”

“Then, what should I do? If I forgive him like you said, it’s like sullying my family’s memory.”

“That’s bullshit and you know it. In fact, if I may say so, I think you’re sullying their memory by thinking about that particular event only. If I’m you, I would rather remember of the good times I enjoyed with them and I believed that they want the same thing, the best for you as well.”

Shinn gasped. He remembered Ryanna saying something earlier when they met. What she and Murdoch had said finally made sense to him. “Why can’t I forgive myself only?” he asked as a feeble attempt to vindicate his current viewpoint.

“Forgiveness is just another word for letting go. Besides, you’re currently dating his daughter, right? You can’t have your cake and eat it. Something has to give; relationship is all about giving in for the person that you love. Look, your going out with her is somewhat unusual since she’s basically the leader of the country but I can see that there’s a chance of it working out but only if you’re willing to give it a chance.”

“But her father…”

“I’m in no position to judge whether what he did is right or wrong,” Murdoch said, cutting him off, “but perhaps he made that decision at that time thinking that it was the right thing to do. That’s the risk a leader has to face every day, making decision that would cost the people that he lead. Stick around Cagalli and you’ll see how it eats her having to make such difficult decisions. You can help her, but only if you understand and understand means you can forgive her father.”

“Letting go…” Shinn said while exhaling softly. It was such a difficult thing to do but perhaps he needed to really consider it. “I’ll think about it. It’s a bit too much to swallow but I promise I’ll consider it.”

“That’s all I expect from you, since the final choice is yours.”

“Thanks, Murdoch.”

“Any time, Shinn.”

Although it took some resources, the trial had yielded a pretty encouraging result. The manufactured Kiras had become more and more stable due to the data yielded. Of course, they couldn’t compare to the Alpha Kira that was piloting that stolen prototypes but they would be more than capable of fighting against UNITY’s normal grunts.

With the recent attack successfully executed and the Confederation’s prototype successfully destroyed, it was about time to proceed with the next stage of plan.

While some may think that drawing the wrath of both Confederation and ZAFT was akin to signing one’s death warrant, Hilbert didn’t think so. But striking deep at their secret facilities, The Destineds had ensured that their resources would be redirected to protecting other bases around the Earthsphere. That would get The Destineds the time it needed to mount the final attack on UNITY.

An ensign came, saluted him and handed a piece of paper before leaving the room.

The enigmatic leader gazed at the information on the paper. It seemed that everyone was in their respective positions, ready for the upcoming operation. He smiled. If all went well, it would get another valuable addition to its burgeoning pool of talents.

And the world would find out about them soon enough

A face appeared on the screen in front of him. “Sir, all preparations have been completed and the C-grade pilots are standing by in their mobile suits.”

“Excellent. Give the order to proceed with the attack at 0200 hours.”

“Yes sir!”

At the specified time, three ZAKUs emerged from their Mirage Colloid shells and quick opened fire at the six defensive satellites in the vicinity. Since the satellites were positioned right above ORB to prevent orbital drop, their destruction would ensure that such operation could be carried out successfully.

“This is Stuka-One, targets have been eliminated within the time frame,” the leader of the trio reported.

“This is Stork-One. Message received loud and clear. Moving to the seeding position.”

Few minutes later a modified transport shuttle arrived, a drop pod attacked to each of its wings. “Beginning seeding operation,” the pilot reported as the two drop pods detached themselves and began descending to Earth.

“Stuka-One to Stork-One. Are you sure we’re supposed to ignore the low observable satellite that is spying on us right now?”

“Positive. We want them to find out our ‘surprise’ attack and thus react to it.”

Author’s note (1 November 2009)

1. I’ve finally written the second last major event to take place.

2. I already had fun poking at the 'onsen' scene where Lacus and Cagalli had their little talk in my previous fiction Fallen Angel and I'm poking it here again. Honestly, when I saw that scene, I'm a bit confused to when they arrived at their destination since 'logically', an onsen or even a Japanese style bath is only found on land. Heck, building them even on an Earth-bound aircraft carrier is already nonsensical, what more a spaceship.