Exams are over so look forward to more chapters~

Disclaimer: All characters/places/items belong to their rightful owners. However, characters like Germaine and the Reign gundam, came from my head and thus they belong to me.

I was held quarantine in a room dark as night. Even without the helmet on, it was pitch black in here. I hadn't eaten in days and my body showed it. My bones were protruding out of a thin blanket of flesh. The joints showed and my ribcage was horribly evident. A gray, featureless helmet was placed over my head; concealing my face. I couldn't see through it since there were no eye-holes. The only feature it had was a small grille placed in front of my mouth so that I could breathe. I was naked; they hadn't bothered to clothe me which only left my dying body openly exposed. I know I said that I wasn't eating, but that wasn't because the people in this facility were starving me, it was because I refused to eat. I had fallen into a deep depression ever since I had experienced the effects of my drug. I didn't want to do anything, I just wanted to wither away and die, and that was perfectly okay with me.

I was shut in isolation. They kept me alive, in this cold empty room and I waited for the day when I would be taken out, thrown in a mobile suit and told to kill all those who stood before me. I had lost all reason for living. In this room, I lost all grasp on time, I had no idea how many months… or years had passed since I was confined. I just wanted to die so all of this could come to an end. The far away point of my death was a sweet release I craved.

I heard a door open and the room was filled with light which poured in from the hallways. It's not like I could really see any of it anyway, only four thin slits of light were shining faintly through the grille in my helmet, against my lips. I heard footsteps approaching me, once they had reached me they stopped. Someone put a tray of food in front of me, setting it on the ground. They popped open the grille on my helmet and instructed me to eat. I could see the food faintly through the hole in my helmet. It looked like it was made of plastic. I just sat there not making a move towards the food placed in front of me.

The person who had brought the food, I wasn't sure if he was one of the doctors or perhaps security personnel, stood there impatiently.

"Listen," He said, his voice sounding anything but kind, "If you don't start eating soon then we're just gonna have to tie you down and force you to eat, or we could simply inject the nutrients in you too, would you like that?"

I just sat there.

"I don't think you understand how much of a privilege it is for you to be able to eat freely, you better start being thankful for it," He said.

"NOW EAT!" He commanded.

I paused for a moment before making a move for the tray of food. With one swift movement I overturned the tray, sending the contents spilling across the floor. I closed the grille on my helmet and curled back up into a ball, turning away from the man. There was no movement for a minute until the man broke the silence with laughter.

"You really want to die, don't you?" He sneered at me, "Oh well it's your life,"

And with that, he left. From that day on, my meals were injected into my body.

Chapter 4

Shoot me into the sky.

They shut me into a room and monitored my withdrawal. I had curled my body into a tight ball, withering and sobbing. Tears streamed out of my eyes and a thin line of blood broke from my lips which were torn and smeared with blood. I was in that hellish world and a circle of doctors hovered around me. I guess I hadn't improved enough to meet their expectations; it still makes me sick that they can just watch me suffer through all this pain. It'll be nice if I can end them before I die. It was sweet bliss by the time they stuck the injector into my neck, because I'm sure my body was reaching its limit, eventually it would have gave out and I would have died.

They held me down and they stabbed the needle in, I felt the drug shoot through my body and the pain died away, still, after a few moments they continued to hold me down.

"You won't attack us again," They commanded, "Understand?"

"Yes," I answered quickly, emotionlessly. I wasn't going to attack the doctors again. I knew if I did they would probably terminate me.

They slowly released me and I was free to stand. I stayed on the floor for a minute before I slowly picked myself up. The first thing I saw were soldiers holding guns in their arms, watching me closely, looking for any signs that I might attack. They were standing against the walls and their eyes were trained on me. I felt a sharp sense of unease when I saw them, because I knew one wrong move would result in death. I knew better than to rebel, if I tried to make a move against them I would be killed. I valued my life, even though it's filled with such heartache.

I turned for the door, feeling the eyes of many doctors and soldiers staring at me, making sure I was kept in line. That I obeyed.

I joined Orga, Shani and Clotho on the way to the hangar. We didn't even greet each other, but I was perfectly fine with that. I wasn't in a conversational mood. I did however want to thank Shani for saving my life during the last sortie. While walking, I turned my head to face him but the second I saw his eyes I was immediately dissuaded from talking to him. He didn't look at me but there was something that I saw in his eyes that made me timid and uneasy. I didn't know what it was, I didn't have words to describe the feeling, but his eyes looked painfully cold and empty.

We boarded our machines and I could feel the tension building within me; it's a pre-battle feeling. The four of us were the only machines being sent out. We flew over the burning nation, it was completely in ruin. I didn't feel any sort of remorse from seeing the nation of Orb aflame. I just found it hard to even care anymore. The deaths of all those below me had not the smallest effect on me. In fact, this whole world could burn for all I care. Since this world didn't care that I had been burned.

We saw Orb's Mass Driver silhouetted against the sky. The red and white mobile suits were out there waiting for us. The two of them stood alone in the sky poised for attack, Orb really was making a last stand. Another feeling grew within me; I could sense a feeling of closure. I realized that this would be the last battle I would fight over the nation aflame; Orb.

The battle began. It took place in the air which forced Orga to stay atop Clotho's mobile suit this time. Shani was entwined in a battle with The Red One. Swiftly, and without being noticed I jumped up behind the Red mobile suit and shot a barrage of missiles at him from the gun barrels on my machine's arms. They hit him dead on and sent him tumbling through the air. I was overjoyed at having landed a good hit on that annoying red bastard but he regained himself rather too quickly for my tastes. Not only were these pilots skilled but their machines were something else too. They never seemed to run out of power and they were unbelievably dense and well-armed. It's no wonder it was hard to shoot them down. But besides all that I liked to think that they could still be brought down. They couldn't be invincible, it just wasn't possible.

My eyes suddenly caught the shape of a warship rising out from one of the islands situated near the mass drivers starting point. I recognized this warship. Its body was painted a snowy white; it seemed to shine in the sunlight as it took off from the island. I had seen this ship in the previous battles but had never engaged it, by the path it was taking I thought that I would have to fight it now, it looked strong and I was a bit uneasy about that. Thankfully enough though it flew right past us, charging upwards in an arch towards the sky. It fired a shot from one of its main cannons and blasted up towards the sun. I realized that it was going into space. From the place that it was now, there was no way that any gun on my machine would be able to land a hit upon it. Orga's suit would probably be the only one with a chance of hitting it. But he and Clotho were too caught up in a fight with the White One to have a chance to fire at it. So I just watched the white warship shoot into the sky out of the corner of my eye, having an eerie feeling that this wouldn't be the last time I would see it.

The battle continued. Since the four of us had a perpetual fear of being punished again I noticed that we had improved even more than last time, not by a lot but our skills were obviously improving. That gave me a small but sure confidence boost.

[I can take these two down!] I thought with devious joy [I'm going to crush them!]

My attention was abruptly drawn away from my battle with the Red One as I noticed some sort of ship running down the mass driver's track.

"What's that...?" I murmured, gazing at it confusedly.

Both the red and white mobile suits made a sudden dash for the fleeing ship, grabbing onto it as it shot down the track. They were escaping, following the white warship up into the stars.

Orga, Shani and Clotho realized it too and began to focus all of their firepower on the ship which had the red and white mobile suits clinging onto it desperately, blazing down the metal railway.

I was about to join their onslaught when I remembered Azrael's words. "Do not destroy the mass driver, understand?"

I hesitated; Shani and the other two knew it as well. Their aiming was sloppy and none of their shots were connecting with anything. We all knew we'd be in shit if we damaged the mass driver. That made it incredibly difficult to land a hit upon the fleeing ship. What was I gonna do?

As it neared the end of the mass driver's track, which bent into a violent arch towards the sky, I decided that I didn't care.

"Fuck this!" I said as I shot towards the ship. I wasn't really sure what I wanted to do, maybe jump onto the retreating ship and throw off one of the two mobile suits or just blow it to pieces, but I suddenly didn't care. I was going to die anyway so I might as well blow up these two bastards before I croak.

"Germaine! What are you doing?" I heard Orga shout to me as I charged at the fleeing ship.

"Get out of the way you idiot!" Clotho shouted angrily. I aimed my guns at the ship as it sped down the mass driver. It was almost at the end of the track, if I wanted to attack I had better do it now.

Before I could pull the trigger the red and white mobile suits had turned on me.

I hadn't even noticed them until it was too late. They fired their guns on me, the shots flying right towards the cock-pit of my mobile suit. I panicked, pulling wildly on the controls out of impulse in hopes I might dodge the onslaught. Luckily I managed to spare my life for the time being, but I didn't get out of it completely unscathed. The shots fired from the red and white mobile suits had blown the legs right off of my machine. I lost control and went plummeting into the sea. The last thing I saw before I was engulfed by the water was the ship soar up the mass driver and into the sky.

"Germaine!" I could hear someone calling out to me as I sank slowly into the depths of the ocean. Who was it? At this point I couldn't even think straight, I had smacked my head off something when the red and white machines had attacked me. My brain was muddled and a thick stream of blood was pouring down from my forehead. My vision was clouding and becoming blurry.

"Germaine?" My mobile suit was drifting down deeper into the darkness. I was trying my hardest to stay awake but I could feel myself going under.

"Germaine!" Through the fog covering my eyes and the deep, black water of the sea which consumed me I could make out the image of Shani's Forbidden Gundam reaching out for me. Was he one who had called out to me? I didn't know.

"Sha..." I tried to call out his name but the words fell ill in the back of my throat. He grabbed onto my sinking machine and pulled me up towards the surface. A bright light hit my face as I was pulled to the surface of the water. It took me a few minutes to figure out what was making such a strong, bright light. Then I saw, over in the distance, a massive explosion erupting up from Orb. It travelled up the length of the mass driver; and it lurched and collapsed into a heap of twisted metal into the ocean. I watched in shock as the nation of Orb burst into flame. I seemed to be mesmerized by the dancing flames that burned over the horizon. I turned my gaze to the fallen Mass Driver, lying broken beyond repair in the ocean. A sad smile spread across my face as I realized that our whole battle here in this nation had now been meaningless. All we had achieved in this fight was destroying a neutral nation.

"Germaine? Are you still alive in there?" I hear Clotho's voice call out to me.

"I'm okay," I called out in a weak voice. My eyelids began to feel heavy; I was losing consciousness quickly, any moment now I would drift off. The flames on the skyline became distorted as my eyelids drooped.

"I'm...okay..." I repeated absentmindedly as my vision started to go blank. It faded a few seconds later and I slipped into oblivion. My consciousness subsided and I fell into a dream.