Chapter 2: Neverending Conflict

-2 years before canon, secret research facility-

It has been about three years since that fateful day where Charles found the Banshee and learned some interesting truth about humanity through the Banshee's mainframe. To think that there was once a war that destroyed humanity and send them back to the dark ages. If it were not for the very real proof which is Banshee itself, Charles wouldn't have believed it. But everything was real and this is humanity's second chance.

The cavern where he found Banshee had changed a lot since back then. Now there is a whole research facility dedicated to the study of Banshee, the Dark History, and old world technology as a whole. Of course, there are so many things that they don't understand and can't even hope to replicate from the old world with their current level of technology but they are trying.

Charles can't believe how much his life had changed since then. Learning of the truth of the world that nobody knew and learning of things that would make people shake on their feet in fear would do that to someone. Not to mention he had also learned that Banshee is not the only machine of its kind lying around.

According to Banshee's salvaged database, there are three units of its kind in the world, three mobile suits known as the RX-0 units, the Unicorn Gundams. What he found was the remains of the second unit of its kind, Unicorn Gundam 02, Banshee. Out of the three of them, two are on earth while the final unit is in space. Since they have no way of going to space right now, Charles decided to find the other unit on earth.

Surprisingly, the other Unicorn unit on earth is the first of its kind and was found in Japan. But of course, while their activity in their own homeland can be kept a secret to a certain degree, a foreign activity in foreign land would get some attention from the locals. That is how he fell deeper into the pit that is the dark side of the world and brought in front of the UN Security Council. That was one of the most nerve-wrecking moment in his life.

After getting UN's support, they at least got the funding and proper facility to work on the Banshee. Most of the first few months are focused on unearthing the pieces of Banshee buried inside the cave, and there are many pieces scattered all over the place. At least they managed to find the large pieces like the arms, legs, and body. After that, they try to salvage whatever data they can from the mainframe, which is a lot but actually not much.

The most complete data they have is about the Dark History itself complete with some live combat records contained inside the mobile suit's black box. There are also data on mobile suits of the Dark History era and early UC era, the eras where Banshee and its brothers were active. But many of them are corrupted so it's hard to decipher what is what, especially because most of the technologies are unknown to them. The only MS data closest to complete that they got is about an MS called the Jegan and even then it is only some bits and pieces with very little details.

But there is one data that drew his and many researcher's interest. It is the main powerplant of the mobile suits from back then. Something called the 'Minovsky Ultracompact Fusion Reactor'.

One of the greatest advantage IS possess is being a clean and safe source of energy comparable to and even exceeding nuclear reactors in terms of energy output. All nuclear power plant on earth relies on nuclear fission to produce energy and the process is what left the dangerous radiation nuclear power possess.

But according to what little data they managed to salvage, the process used by the Minovsky Fusion Reactor is, as its name implied, nuclear fusion and the reactor leave behind no radiation even if it exploded. It is a clean and safe source of energy, and best of all, not gender locked. But that is the most they could get from the salvaged data. Being a combat unit, Banshee does not actually possess any blueprints or anything that would help them build one.

But that didn't dampen the scientists' spirit. They are willing to figure out the rest by themselves with through studying Banshee's destroyed Minovsky Ultracompact Fusion Reactor and piecing together whatever data they have. That project is being worked on by another separate group though and last Charles heard, they made a breakthrough where they found out that one of the chemical compounds used in the reactor is some kind of gas found only in space.

In this lab, they are more dedicated to studying and then possibly reverse engineering whatever technology they can find in the Banshee. There are so many technologies in Banshee that could help them advance their spacefaring technology by decades, even centuries. Like the alloy that made up Banshee itself. It is extremely durable while also being light. According to the database, Banshee's armor is made out of what is called as Luna Titanium, a special titanium alloy compound. It is one of the most difficult things to reproduce aside from the fusion reactor.

Well, not really. There is one thing that is nigh impossible to reproduce. Luna Titanium and the fusion reactor can be reproduced given time and ample study. But there is one technology in the Banshee that they have absolutely no idea about, and a piece of it is currently on the palm of Charles' hand.

Charles dressed in a suit and a lab coat eyed the metal piece with great curiosity. What he is holding is a piece of Banshee's armor that is not made of Luna Titanium. It is part of Banshee's inner frame and there is nothing in the database that could give them even an idea of what it is. Some thought that it is an armor for the inner frame or something. Its makeup is completely foreign and its purpose is completely unknown. But Charles has the feeling that this is actually the most important part of the Banshee. Because what he is holding in his hand is a piece of whatever it is that glows in the ground back when he first found the Banshee.

Charles never told anyone but it was this piece of metal and the light it emits that guided him to the Unicorn like what it did with the Banshee. It is one of the things he kept as a personal secret. The metal never glowed since he found the Unicorn though and it never glowed in front of anyone else but him. Whenever it glows though, Charles would get the feeling that something is going to happen. The glowing metal, it is something out of this world, just like the man he saw back then.

Yes, the spirit of the man that he presumed had called him to Banshee. He had only ever told his father about him but when he brought his father to Banshee, the spirit was gone and never showed himself. Sometimes Charles even thought that the man was only a figment of his imagination but what made him sure he was not imagining things is because he found the man's picture and name inside Banshee's database. The Banshee have only ever had three pilots in its service. Its last pilot was a man simply known as Lionheart. Its first pilot was a woman identified as Marida Cruz. But the second pilot was what made him sure he was not seeing things. Back then, Charles had seen the spirit of Banshee's second pilot, Riddhe Marcenas.

Charles was brought out of his thought when he felt his phone vibrating inside his pocket. He quickly picked up his phone and see who the caller is. The caller is Aaron Terzieff, one of the department chief in the facility. If he is calling, then that means it is the scheduled time. His father, Ronan, is scheduled for a visit today as one of the primary financial backer of the research. It wouldn't do for him to be absent. Charles got up from his seat and exited his bunk. Just as he walked outside, he bumped into a man in orange engineer uniform. He apologized to Charles and walk away.

The blonde then hurry up to meet with Chief Aaron so he could welcome his father.


Charles waited in front of the elevator with a dark haired and well-dressed man. The man with him is Aaron Terzieff, the researcher who is mainly working on the Banshee's armor and one of the department chief Charles is close with, or perhaps it's better to say that he is the closest person he has to a friend in this place. It is hard to make friends when he is the youngest person working in the facility.

When the door to the elevator opened, a tall, broad shouldered man walked out followed by two armed guards. The man is dressed in an expensive suit and has slick blonde hair of the same shade as Charles. He is Ronan Dunois, Charles' father and the CEO of Dunois company who first made the facility and later on became of the primary financial backer in the 'Mobile Suit Revival Project' as it was dubbed by the UN when their secret was found out.

It is sometimes hard to see them as father and son. A relative maybe but it can be hard to relate the large and muscular man with the lean and baby-faced Charles.

"Charles, it is nice to see you again."

Ronan greeted his son with a handshake that Charles accepted. When Charles grasped his hand though, the man pulled his son into a hug that surprised Charles but he nevertheless returned the hug with his own. It's rare for them to be able to meet like this so every moment truly counts.

"It's nice to see you too, father. It's been a while since we talked, what with our respective responsibilities."

Ronan nodded. They both have their respective life and responsibilities after all, especially with the project. The father and son finished their greeting to allow Ronan to greet Aaron.

"Chief Aaron."

"Sir."

With the formalities out of the way, the three of them began their tour of the research facility. It is only a normal inspection where Charles and Aaron reported any progress they have made in their research as well as show what they are currently working on at the moment, namely the armor and the frame.

Aaron is passionately explaining about how incredible the armor and the frames are and by studying them, they can not only advance their space faring technology by several decades but also their robotic technology which include prosthetics and whatnot. Though to be honest, Charles has no idea how that would work, but that is Aaron's job. If he can make his ideas work, then good for him.

While Charles and Aaron are giving Ronan the usual inspection tour, in another part of the facility, something else is happening. In the security room, three security guards are watching the CCTV monitors as is their daily routine accompanied by four armed guards. That was when they noticed several suspicious movements caught by the monitors. Some men in engineer clothes opened some of the elevators and out came some armed men with… three Infinite Stratos units!

"Emergency! We have a bre—"

The security guards did not manage to finish his words when he was shot dead from behind. Three men in engineer clothes had come in and shot everyone dead with silenced guns. One of the guards still has life in him though and before he breathed his last, he triggered the alarm which would quarantine the whole base.

Charles and his party are surprised when the alarm was sounded. The three of them had reached the hangar where the Banshee was kept. Behind them, the mobile suit is slowly being rebuilt but with some parts missing like the armors. Right now Charles is sitting in the cockpit in order to show what they found out about it.

"A security breach?! How is this happening?!"

Aaron shouted in surprise. Charles immediately took out his communicator and called for security.

"Security, this is Charles Dunois. What is happening out there?"

Charles asked. He waited for a while but there was no reply. He tried asking again but the result is still the same. The security has most likely been compromised. Charles cursed. Then the whole facility vibrated. They could hear guns and explosions coming from beyond the walls.

Suddenly, the metal door that sealed them in was dented. Moving quickly, Aaron sealed the Banshee's cockpit hatch with Charles inside. Before the hatch fully closes, Aaron signaled Charles to escape. When they put the Banshee together again, they did not put it as a whole mobile suit and there is a hole inside the cockpit just under Charles' foot that would lead to the Banshee's torso that has an opening behind.

The opening would lead to a platform behind the Banshee's torso used to study the lower half of the mobile suit's body. The platform has a small ladder leading down to the ground which have not been build on which has an opening that will lead to the underground river system they have just finished mapping earlier this year.

Charles knew this but he doesn't want to run away when his father and Aaron are still out there. But with Aaron sealing the hatch from the outside and cutting the external power source, Charles has no choice. Just as she got down to the hole under the cockpit, he heard an explosion and the sound of the metal door giving out.

"An Infinite Stratos!"

Charles heard Aaron crying out in surprise. This alerted the blonde and stopped him from escaping. Instead, when he got out of Banshee, he went to the right side of the unit's waist and took a peek at what is happening.

"What is the meaning of this?! Who are you people?!"

Aaron demanded. The pilot did not answer him and simply point her machinegun at them. Following the IS is a squad of armed men entering from the hole made by the IS pilot. They all lined up in front of the two of them, aiming their guns at them. Aaron flinched while Ronan simply stood calmly in front of the man.

"I take it you are people from Phantom Task."

Ronan spoke. Charles' eyes widened. He had been warned of this group by the UN Security Council and their allies in Japan. A secret armed terrorist group working to spread chaos throughout the world. What makes them particularly dangerous is because they are in possession of several stolen IS cores. So far, they are the only known terrorist group that utilize an IS, making them extremely dangerous.

"So you know about us, Ronan Dunois."

The IS pilot, who Ronan belief is in charge of this operation, glided slowly towards him. The face of the pilot is hidden by a mask to conceal the pilot's identity. The voice itself sounds mechanic and scrambled, caused by a voice modulator to mask the pilot's voice. The pilot lowered her weapon, even going as far as dismissing them as she floated in front of Ronan.

"You hid quite a treasure trove in here, mister Dunois."

The pilot said as she looked up at the partially rebuilt Banshee.

"To think that the UN is keeping such a technology in secret. We wouldn't have known if not for the spy we have in your company."

Aaron and Charles who is still hiding behind the Banshee's torso was surprised at the pilot's words. Ronan though, even if he looked calm, is feeling angry. He had made sure that there can be no leak about the Banshee and had separated everything that has to do with Banshee's research from his company. The pilot, seeing his expression, felt pleased even if her face can't be seen.

"You have done a good work on keeping all these a secret, Ronan. But we have eyes and ears everywhere. How do you think we can get something like this Rafael Revive?"

The pilot mocked as she spread her arms, showing off her IS to Ronan, the very same IS that his company produced. The man let out a small growl. Charles was shocked. There are spies in his father's company. And from what the pilot implied, those spies have enough pull to provide them with their own IS technology.

"So someone in the company leaked our secrets to some terrorists."

Ronan growled. Charles is of the same feeling as his father. To think that some people in their company are working with terrorists. People that he might know personally. It is a lot to take in. Their company have been infiltrated by terrorist spies and now their secrets are being revealed.

"You should've kept a closer eye on your ledger, mister Dunois. After all, money don't lie."

"Hmph, I see. You had us. But tell me, why are you telling me all this? You don't expect that you will get away with all these?"

Ronan said. The pilot chuckled and she pulled out a small gun and point it at Ronan.

"Consider it a gift before sending you to hell. It's only polite for you to know before we send you to hell. Nothing can hide from Phantom Task. Ohh and don't worry bout your wife and children. We'll take good care of them."

Without any hesitation, the pilot pull the trigger of her gun. What happened next would continue to haunt Charles' dream forever. Even if it is a handgun, it is a gun made for IS and an IS-caliber weapon used on a human result in a messy death. At that moment, Charles could only see red.

"Father!"

Charles cried out in anguish, alerting everyone that he's still here.

"The Dunois boy. So he's still here. Kill him. We don't want to leave anyone here alive."

The pilot ordered her subordinates. They immediately move to kill Charles. They went to the edge of the platform where they saw the young Dunois still gripping on the railing of the platform he's on. He didn't even look up when they aimed their rifles at him. Aaron who had been restrained by some other terrorist soldiers screamed at him to run but Charles couldn't hear him due to the shock.

The Phantom Task soldiers aimed their assault rifles at him. Without any hesitation in killing a young boy, they pulled their trigger. Blood was spilt and the body of the young Dunois fell to the floor… or that was what was supposed to happen. To their shock, no blood was spilt and Charles' body did not fell. Instead, his chest started to glow as bullets fell harmlessly to the ground far below after hitting something in front of Charles.

The boy looked up with anger in his eyes as light began to appear around him. He grabbed the thing he hid under his shirt. A piece of the Banshee's frame that is now glowing with green light as it resonates with his emotion. At the same time, Banshee's body also started glowing, bathing the hangar in its light.

"People's lives are not toys. It is not something you can take at your own leisure. People who can do that are nothing but monsters."

Charles started speaking. The IS pilot tried getting to him but she finds herself unable to fly towards the young Dunois. Her systems are going out of control as it detected an abnormal spike of energy coming from the Banshee, its curtain of light preventing her from approaching the blonde young man.

"W-what is this power?!"

She had never seen anything like this before. A power that could stop an IS in its track, rendering her nearly unable to move. Fortunately, she's not wholly immobilized so she managed to move her hand enough to switch her handgun for a heavy caliber rifle. With some difficulty, she aimed at Charles. Not caring about the men in the way of her shot, she pulled the trigger. The shot tore through her own men… but it never reached Charles as another machine moved to block the shot.

To her surprise and absolute shock, the Banshee had moved its arm to block the shot aimed at Charles. The supposedly defunct machine had moved and once its job is done, it moved its hand once more to give Charles a clear view of the person who had tried to kill him. The young man raised his arm and made a waving motion. The Banshee's glowing arm followed. Light bursts from Banshee's arm even as it fell apart from millenniums of neglect and sudden strain. But it is enough.

The light crashed into the IS' absolute barrier. To the pilot's horror, the shield energy of her IS is being depleted at an immense speed, more than any weapon could've done in a single shot. And when her shield energy was depleted, to her further shock and fear, her IS did not just deactivate, it fell apart like useless pieces of machines. The pilot fell to the ground as her IS fell to pieces. But it did not just stop there.

Glowing crystal-like materials shot out from the Banshee. No, not just from the Banshee. More of those crystal-like materials pierced through the metal walls of the hangar and headed straight towards her defunct IS. It ripped through the metal armor and stabbed into the place she knew is housing the core of the IS.

Banshee's whole body began to break apart as the crystals began to converge into the IS. The Revive's armor was disassembled and the core was carried out of the unit. More and more of the crystal-like material converge into the core as the light carry it towards Charles until the core floats right in front of him.

"Show me the power that ended Dark History, BANSHEE!"


Right, this chapter is quite hard to write because I don't know how much I should reveal at this point. This chapter is the hardest chapter I've ever written for this story yet, although this is only the second chapter but well, okay, this stuff is hard as hell since I'm trying to go with realism and Gundam stuff. I know for a fact that I likely didn't do well in this chapter but I tried my best. Anyway, this is the end of the intro chapters with Charles. Don't worry, we'll be seeing him some more in the next chapter but we'll also be seeing Ichika.

Seriously, I think I'm taking quite a bit of liberty in what Psychoframe can or cannot do in this story but let's just chalk it up to fanfiction hacks. That and Pychoframe is the closest thing to some supernatural mumbo jumbo we have in UC series that we might never find out what it is actually fully capable of doing, which is a lot and very magical in some way.

Anyway, this will be the last we see of Banshee itself in a while because after some consideration, Charles won't be piloting an IS version of Banshee for a while. Ohh he'll use a psychoframe IS unit but it won't be Banshee until much later due to some reasons that I will elaborate in the next chapter when we will see him use his unit, which will be after a 1 year timeskip and will feature Ichika and Unicorn. And other than Ichika, I also have a big surprise for Gundam fans, including myself. A Gundam reference no self-respecting Gundam fan would be able to resist in making. I might just write the next chapter faster because I can't contain the excitement. Next episode preview: Orimura Ichika meets the Unicorn in a real teenage Gundam pilot style.

marhaenaldi123: You can use the ideas. It's not like I have some kind of copyright here.

NexusPrime42: Well it would be hard to make a decent fight scene between an MS and an IS if the MS is in real scale. The size difference for one thing will be hell to write. The size difference problem was brought up in the Crossbone series manga between the larger early UC MS and smaller late UC MS and I have to point out that the size difference between an IS and an MS is much greater than between early and late UC MS. It will essentially be constantly writing something similar to an MS vs MA battle due to that difference alone. And if we go with all MS and no IS, the IS part essentially lose all their identity. So it usually goes down to MS being scaled down to IS.

Kharn: He'll appear as a side character in some form. All characters with strong ties to one of the Unicorns will appear. That means Jona will too in some way once Phenex appear.

Speaking of Phenex though, I have decided that it will be piloted by someone who is NOT one of the main girls in IS.

CasualFictionWriter23: It's one of the main reason why I even do this crossover. The seiyuu reference is too hard to resist. Speaking of which, I'm waiting for an update for your Rise of the Unicorn.

VoidLing: That is the best news I've had about Gundam since I heard about NT. The upcoming Hathaway's Flash is not a good news to me though. I know how that ended and I don't want to experience the pain.