Author's Note: OK, this chapter is a bit on the shorter side and, to be honest, only the very end was something that I was originally planned when I sketched out the plot. The rest kind of was be pouring things out of my head freeform and cleaning them back up later, but I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.

I know it's passé to ask for reviews, but I would rather like to hear how people liked it.

"What are you talking about? Where is E-0057?" Soma yelled at the man she currently held at gunpoint. "This is his machine, isn't it?"

"It is." The man replied, a very dour expression in his face. "We were careless. We didn't assume that both parties would be deploying our machines the same way. And because of that, everyone on the battlefield is in grave danger."

"You're not making any sense!" Soma shouted, bringing the barrel of her gun against the man's head. "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't kill you where you stand?"

The only warning that Soma received was a slight scuffing on the floor, and then something very sharp nicking through her uniform and pressing against her back.

"Perhaps this will do for a reason. Don't turn around. A woman like you should have known better than to come alone." There was a new voice this time. She had been so focused on taking on E-0057 that she hadn't been concerned with the possibility of reinforcements.

"Stupid. Careless. Soft. It's what you get for pretending. Pretending to be a daughter. Pretending to be human."

"You won't be able to kill me in time. Not fast enough to stop me from pulling the trigger. If I die, your friend dies as well." "Keep stalling. We have the advantage of time. Every second I wait is another for backup to arrive. "

There was a dismissive snort from the man behind her. "Believe me, that's the only reason you're still alive."

"Come now, this is unnecessary." The blonde began. "And we don't have time for this."

Soma turned back to him, meeting his eyes and regret and sorrow. :"Why couldn't I save them, why couldn't I think of a different way?":

:"What.": The words were there, and clear and as plain as day, and they had the same tone as the man who was standing in front of her at that very moment, but the man hadn't spoken a word. They simply were in her head. :"You? What did you do?":

The blonde seemed to try his hardest to sounds sheepish. :"I honestly don't know. I've always been able to read people better than most. But this is something else entirely.":

Which was a fine response, except that it wasn't in words. Words diminished truth, hid it, added a layer of lies onto an experience and no such filter existed now. It was knowledge without language, understanding without a single word or image passing other than what as spurred in her mind by raw emotion.

:"And why shouldn't I think of you as any other?": Suspicion, doubt, betrayal. Thoughts, feelings, conveyed quicker than words could be formed, the echoes of her emotions resonating with her as they left with thoughts.

:"Because if you don't, people are going to die. People who would otherwise have been safe.":

:"Then you shouldn't have attacked! You shouldn't have tried to kill people to change the world!": Righteous indignation.

:"It's something we all choose. We have to decide whether the pain we cause is worth what we get. But that's not what he'll look for. He'll look for total victory.":

"I don't understand." Marie's thoughts(who is Marie?) swirl, taking a memory. She sees a colony (but there's no such thing as a colony) and she's drifting away. She's watching as every single weapon is pointed at a defenseless resource satellite. She knows her father is on it. She watches, unable to do a single thing as they open fire. She screams, begs, pleads for them to stop, makes promises to God that she would do anything, anything at all to stop this, to wind back the clock one more day, for one more hour. She can imagine in her mind's eye as her father is ripped apart because he was too stubborn, because he had to do the right thing. She feels her last ties from family pruned away. The last blossoms of humanity withering on the vine. And suddenly, Soma Pieres knows what total victory will mean to such a person. What she would do if her Colonel was killed in such a fashion.

She can feel the gun go slack in his hand, and her body begin to drop. She is vaguely aware that the man in front of her has done the same.

"Quatre!" The voice behind her is now a shout, the weapon at her back forgotten as he drops to deal with his distraught comrade. "Quatre!"

Soma Peries' eyes haze for a moment, and the next thing she sees is black.

Allelujah gripped the sticks of his new machine. He was honestly shocked and surprised as to how well the blocky thing handled, especially when it came to dodging he incoming fire of the Ahead squadrons as they advanced. The heavy plating of GN composite might have slowed the machine's vertical line speed, but it was surprisingly nimble, and the extra bulk prevented serious hits from being truly effective in a way that simply wasn't possible with the Kyrios.

The enemy had begun to drop clouds of smoke, a layer of gas that obscured the immediate vision of his visual sensors. But that didn't matter. A pair of heavy, solid state blades were pulled from the shoulders of the machine. "Those machines will follow me into the fog, and press their advantage with the lances."

Allelujah brought up the blade in time, parrying the attack of the first incoming machine, using the sheer bulk of his weapon to redirect the Ahead into the path of its comrade, sending them both sprawling. A moment later he brought up the second, using the additional momentum to bisect the next machine. Those machines were probably built to be a high speed machine that could negate Celestial Being's advantage in beam technology, using a solid lance to puncture their opponents in close range. The only real question was, "How did I know that?"

Allelujah could see the Ahead coming and could see the pair he had sent spinning moments before recovering and the next wave attacking from the top to try to cut him off and the barrage of GN missiles coming from the capital ships and the wind currents carrying the cloud of anti-beam gas and the ground forces and the next round of shock and awe and the body is a slow wet mechanism of muscle and bone that creeps as your mind races, tells you what you already knew. He had a full 1.78 seconds until the next shot would be fired from the machine coming in at 2 o'clock high. A supercomputer can do over a trillion mathematical equations in one second, and to that machine that second is an eternity.

"Never mind the enemy mobile suit, you're fighting gravity which affect the imcoming missiles, which further will have tail drag from curving in the atmorsphere, but not the beams, and never mind that I'm flying over a thin cool crust of a gigantic ball of molten rock hurtling though frozen space, spinning in another direction over me, affecting the positioning of shots that reach me before I can ever hear the sonic boom and OH GOD WHAT'S WRONG WITH MY BRAIN? I'll run back to the guards, beg for forgiveness, tell them to lobotomize me, to set this damn machine at ground zero of a weapons test, to liquefy anything I've ever touched…and…and…"

A slow grin spread over E-0057's face. The pilot brushed the hair out from over his mismatched eyes, making sure that both were unimpaired. "You always were good at handling all that logical stuff!" A smirk came over the supersoldier's face. "I've been sleeping for four fucking years. It's time to get out and play a little." He gripped the controls a little tighter, quickly thumbing through the weapon controls. "You pussies want to stay in the fog and fight? Fine! Come get some! GET SOOOOOOOME!"

"Heero, we have a problem!"

Heero ducked an incoming swipe from an enemy unit, the feather Fang immediately behind him which he had set as a trap firing into the Ahead at point blank range a second later. He had always been talented with the Planetary Defensors, and the OS on the Fangs was far superior. The Wing Zero Seraphim relied heavily on speed, maneuverability and the traditional shield, but other than that it was rather lightly armored, appearing spindly compared to the Deathscythe Samael, not to mention the Ifit. However, the machine fit Heero's old fighting style, and with the ZERO system he could manage better than before. Well, in combat matters.

With some annoyance, Heero keyed the video call for him, giving him a quick shot of Wufei's scowling face.

"This really isn't a good time Wufei. The mission objective is almost complete. Quatre's extraction been accomplished, and the heavy anti-beam gas they've been deploying ought to give us our escape route. Why aren't you with your Katharon squad." Heero's eyes narrowed as he took a more careful look at the background behind his fellow pilot. "And what are you doing in a mobile suit."

Wufei let out a derisive snort. "Because someone had to take Celestial Being's new toy. They took Quatre's."

Heero blinked for a moment, clarity coming almost immediately. He turned to watch the Ifrit rush headlong into another pack of Ahead, its heavy curved blades flashing as they charged. "So, where is Quatre now?"

"I have him here."

"Good." Heero responded curtly. "Withdraw immediately the rendezvous point we planned for everyone else. We'll need to alter our plans and get you back later."

Wufei nodded. "What about the other one?"

Heero took stock of the battlefield. Cover fire from a sniper had continued to bombard the scene, even if its effectiveness was now being reduced by the anti-beam gas. The other two Celestial Being machines were no longer pinned down, having accomplished their mission as well.

"He won't stop, not until he is stopped. You know that Heero." Wufei reminded him. Once the ZERO system began, you continued until complete victory was achieved, or you weren't able to fight any longer.

"That man…" Heero narrowed his eyes, brow furrowing in thought. "They said he had been confined to a straight-jacket for four years? How would your body hold out after that long?"

Every moment was perfect. He was free. All he had to do was to think about whoever missed him off most, and the perfect solution presented itself. Hallelujah felt his hand tremble, obviously from excitement! Here he as, finally out again, alive of all things. He had been certain that he had breathed his last but it seemed his old buddy and pal still needed him.

"Allelujah? Is that you? Withdraw at once! We're done here." The voice sounded familiar, but it still took a moment for him to place it.

"Tieria! You still have that stick up your ass! But you got it wrong on both counts. We're not done here…" The metal of his swords rang as he lined it up, ready to stab through that heavy armor. The huge ass sword could go through that stupid GN Field no problem. The danger was only just beginning to dawn on Tieria as he tried to reach an escape vector, but that stupid old clunker was still too damn slow. "It's Halleujah!"

From out of nowhere, Setsuna intervened, blades crossing in an 'X' shaped patter to catch the heavier weapon. A second later the blades were broken apart, twisting the larger and heavier blade out of his grasp.

"Yare, yare…" Came another familiar voice. "I thought he was a comrade. He just looks like some psycho."

This voice again took a moment to process. But…there was no way. Something buried in Hallelujah's logic was screaming at the sheer wrongness of it. The impossibility of such a scenario that made it feel like he was being stabbed in the gut. He could feel himself suddenly frozen by indecision and, in that moment, winning didn't matter anymore. He had to know.

"Lock…on?" The adrenaline suddenly faded from his system and Alleujah was suddenly aware about how his muscles ached and burned, how his eye was twitching and that the shaking in his hands from a moment ago had returned, and was running across his whole arm. He was tired…so very, very tired. The corners of his vision began to turn black as he felt his body slacken, and fall against the cockpit. He could hear a startled cry, but couldn't care any more as to who it was, or what it meant.

Kati Mannequin watched solemnly as the Gundams collected one of their strange new friends and began to escort it out of the battlefield.

"Colonel Manequin, they're getting away!" Patrick called. "Permission to sortie?"

"Permission denied." She replied bluntly, adjusting her glasses.

"But Colonel-"

"If we pursue, we lose any hope of cover fire from the base. We're down to less than 20% of our anti-beam canisters, which we began deploying en masse when we realized what firepower they were capable of and our Ahead forces have taken devastating losses. Lieutenant Coulasour, what would happen if we engage them over open water with the Celestial Being flagship and that machine?"

"We take…" Patrick seemed to ponder the question for a moment. "Devastating losses?"

Kati nodded in agreement. "We lost today. We don't have to like it. That doesn't mean that we go out of our way to make sure that we lose the next battle as well." The tactical forecaster bridged her fingers, apparently in thought. "There is much we need to take into account for the future.

A/N #2: Alright, I have to give serious mention to John Dies at The End, which more than perfectly summed up how I would imagine what I could possibly imagine what it would be like to experience the ZERO system to its full, to have a human brain converted into a pure supercomputer. (Seriously, buy/read/watch the movie) Every single one of the characters in Wing which tried the system had horrible initial results, and I wanted to try to imagine what it would feel like to attempt to process all of those thoughts at once. Handing it off to a character who's primary personality is rational planning, with a secondary, protective personality based on pure emotion…well, it was simply too much fun to ignore. Describing emotions in words was stolen from Patrick Rothus from Wise Man's Fears.