Athrun had gotten changed into his uniform. Athrun had no time to waste, he quickly entered his tank and he loaded his assault rifle, the MP44. He had only ninety rounds of ammunition. He also had his secondary weapon, the Luger P-38 and three stick grenades. If he wanted to rescue Cagalli, he would have to be swift and cunning. Athrun rolled his tank towards Colditz with extreme caution. As he approached Colditz, he saw that the main castle door was closed. Athrun hid his tank behind a hedgerow and aimed his tank's 75mm high velocity gun at the main gate. Athrun opened his hatch, ready to storm the castle. Athrun fired at the main gate, the gate had been completely destroyed, a wide opening inside the castle was seen, Athrun dashed out of his tank and stormed the castle, only a few moments later, the alarm in the castle was sounded.

As Athrun stormed the castle, he was met with two guards with K-98 bolt-action rifles, Athrun had given two short bursts of his assault rifle at the guards; both the guards had dropped, one guard was screaming in pain the other lay motionless. On his way to Cagalli's prison cell, two guards with MP40 sub-machineguns had appeared out of the corner, they started spraying the area around Athrun with 9mm projectiles. Athrun dived for cover behind a crate. When the firing had stopped, Athrun took a little look from behind the crate, but as he lifted his head to see where the guards were, the MP40's lit up another hail of bullets and Athrun had no choice but to stay down. Athrun pulled out his grenade, he pulled the pin out and threw it over the crate, when he heard the guards shouting, he popped out and squeezed a short burst of his rifle at one of the guards before ducking again. The grenade exploded just as Athrun ducked. Both guards were instantly killed.

In the distance, The Major and his squad heard the rattle of machineguns and the sound of the alarm. "What the hell was that?" Major Park shouted. Lieutenant Jensen suggested that: "It must be a bunch of drunken Germans sir." Captain Bratkov looked bewildered. "Germans do not get drunk Lieutenant." Captain Bratkov said in a harsh tone.

"Maybe it's one of our allies. Should we go and see what's going on?" The Major suggested. Sergeant Asuka and Lieutenant Jensen disagreed strongly with this idea.

"We have to get moving man, our lines are so far away, it can't be anyone except a bunch of drunken Germans." Lieutenant Jensen said sternly. The Major reluctantly took Lieutenant Jensen's suggestion. "Let's hope you're right Jensen." The Major gave Lieutenant Jensen a cold look raising his brow. "We should go Major, while the Krauts are diverted." Shinn said. "Alright squad, get in the jeep. We're moving out. Keep you're eyes open. If you see anything, tap me on the shoulder." The Major said as the squad squeezed themselves into the camouflaged 'Kubelwagen'. "God help them if they are our allies." The Major prayed.

As Athrun continued his assault on the castle, resistance had weakened. "I must have taken them completely by surprise." Athrun muttered to himself. All he could now think about was getting to Cagalli, hoping that nothing had happened to her. As Athrun got closer and closer to Cagalli's prison cell, Athrun got more and more worried. As Athrun unlocked the cell door, he started opening the door slowly. As Athrun swung the door wide open, Cagalli was not seen, Athrun was shocked, he saw a blanket and a chocolate box in the middle, as Athrun reached down to grab the blanket and chocolate box, a figure had come up from behind Athrun and put their arms around Athrun holding him by his neck. Athrun used training that the Elite Forces had taught him, he twisted the figures arm and flipped the figure over to hit the ground hard.

The figure was none other than Cagalli. "Athrun?" Cagalli said, looking surprised. "Cagalli, let's go, I can't let you die in a place like this." Athrun said as he helped Cagalli up. Cagalli's eyes started to water as she hugged Athrun. "I'll protect you now Cagalli." Athrun said as his emerald eyes met Cagalli's amber eyes. Both were gazing at each other for a moment. "Now let's get out of here Cagalli." Athrun said. Cagalli drew Athrun's pistol and followed Athrun. Athrun was surprised to find no more resistance as he got down. He was starting to get suspicious. Usually, more guards would be swarming in, but not one was seen. "Cagalli, we have to get back to my tank. There's something wrong." Athrun said looking worried. Athrun and Cagalli exited the castle in a matter of minutes. "My tank's over there come on."

Athrun dragged Cagalli by the hand. As Athrun approached his tank, his tank suddenly exploded, small bits of metal flew around the disintegrated tank. Athrun and Cagalli dived to safety. Suddenly a horde of soldiers surrounded Athrun and Cagalli, Athrun dropped his weapon, Cagalli dropped hers shortly after. Out of the horde of soldiers, a tall, well built man in very formal military uniform stepped out. "I see now with my own eyes what my son was up to." Athrun looked up at the figure. "Father?" Athrun said in disbelief. "That's right traitor! Colonel Steiger informed me of your traitorous actions." Patrick Zala said in anger. Colonel Steiger came out of the shadows with a grin on his face. "We knew that you'd do something as stupid as this, especially after fraternizing with the enemy." Colonel Steiger grinned.

Patrick Zala had his eyes fixed on Cagalli.

"So this is the little bitch that has caused us a lot of trouble." General Zala insulted. He went up to Cagalli and gripped her chin tightly to have a good look at her. Cagalli gave a silent cry as General Zala gripped her chin. "Don't touch her!" Athrun exploded. "What did you say?" General Zala turned to face Athrun. "Don't touch her." Athrun sternly repeated. "I can't believe this. My own son is on the same side of the Allies. Tell me Athrun. What did this bitch tell you?" General Zala looked furious.

"She told me nothing and don't call her a 'bitch' father." Athrun sternly answered. General Zala approached Athrun, he balled his fists clenching it and punched Athrun as hard as he could on Athrun's chest. Athrun fell in pain, blood came spewing out while Athrun was clutching his chest. Cagalli went down to help Athrun, until General Zala interrupted. "Take these two pieces of trash back up to the castle, if they like each other so much, let them share a cell. I will punish them later." The soldiers saluted General Zala and Colonel Steiger and then grabbed hold of Cagalli and Athrun.

"I'm very disappointed in you Athrun." General Zala spat. Athrun looked back and said:
"I'm also disappointed in you too father." The soldiers dragged Athrun and Cagalli back to their cell roughly. Athrun was still in pain from the hard punch that his father had given him.

Thirty miles from Colditz, Kira had continued his advance as usual. Kira was desperate to stumble upon a town that had a supply depot or a supply convoy. The Freedom had guzzled up too much of the weaker concentrated gas and fuel supplies were desperately needed. Although Kira had covered more than half the distance to reach Colditz, Kira used up three fifths of his total gas supplies. Had Kira have gotten decane (C10H22); Kira would have had just enough gas for a return journey. Kira was only five miles away from the nearest town, he was sure that fuel supplies would be found there. Kira had calculated that he had enough fuel for only thirty miles; enough to get to Colditz. As Kira rolled forward for an hour and a half, Kira saw a supply convoy heading south. Kira had stopped his tank to scan the battlefield. He saw that the supply convoys were escorted by five Tiger tanks and a platoon of Volksgrenadiers in an SS lorry. There were about ten supply trucks altogether. Kira saw this as an opportunity to get fuel supplies. Kira set his tank's 90mm gun on the Tiger tanks rolling past him. He waited for the slow Tiger tanks to expose their rear armour.

As minutes passed the Tiger tanks had finally exposed their rear. Kira took the first shot on the first Tiger. The Tiger tank had completely been destroyed, but Kira had no time to celebrate yet, the other four Tiger tanks had turned around, spotting Kira's position. Kira thrust forward and to dodge the Tiger tank's 88mm gun. The supply trucks had just kept moving, they could not drive any faster due to the heavy supplies that weighed them down. As Kira moved from hedgerow to hedgerow, the Tiger tanks started firing every hedgerow. They did not know where Kira was hiding; so Kira would take his time carefully aiming at the Tiger tanks weak points. As Kira shot his second Tiger, directly near the turret, the turret had come off completely.

The other three tanks spotted Kira's 90mm gun emitting the sulfur flashes as he fired. Kira had to move again, avoiding a direct hit off an 88mm projectile. Kira headed towards the three Tiger tanks, they all needed to reload, Kira fired his AP (Armour Piercing) shell in the Tiger tank's turret, which was reduced to nothing but a burning tin can. The second Tiger tank had finished reloading its gun, had fired its 88mm shell into the Freedom's front armour, The 88mm shell had exploded on the thick steel plating of the Freedom, to Kira's surprise, only a large dent was made. The Freedom automatically reloaded the shell, whereas with other tanks, the shells had to be manually reloaded. Kira turned his tank around the Tiger tanks rear, he then fired a comfortable round at the fuel tanks. The second Tiger tank had completely disintegrated. The entire tank was nothing but a heap of scrap metal. The last tanks crew members jumped out and fled, as they did so, Kira bet out a burst of his 50cal machinegun on the ground near them to help them run faster.

Kira then directed his focus towards the supply convoy. As Kira turned his tank towards the pack of SS lorries, the men all jumped out of their trucks and sprinted as far as they could away from Kira. The Volksgrenadier platoon had all fled at the sight of Kira's tank coming towards them. As a warning, Kira shot at one of the supply trucks. Kira's 90mm gun cut through the SS lorry like hot knife through butter. The shells impact on the lorry was so big that the lorry landed upside down when blown. Not a single person was in sight. The supply convoys were completely deserted. As Kira went to take supplies from deserted convoy, Kira found two barrels of octane (C8H16).

"Perfect!" Kira cried. He also found some food and water supplies that he would need. As for the rest of the supplies, Kira lit them all ablaze to make sure that the Germans would not be able to reuse the supplies when found.

Only a mile away from Colditz, The Major and his squad were riding comfortably in their newly acquired 'Kubelwagen' jeep… almost everyone, Lieutenant Jensen felt very uncomfortable. "EEEK! Easy on the foot you moron!" Lieutenant Jensen hissed at Shinn. Lieutenant Jensen had been complaining the whole way. The Major stopped the jeep almost immediately pushing everyone forwards. The Major turned to Captain Bratkov. "Do you mind being in between Captain Bratkov?" he asked politely.
"I'll do anything just so he just shuts up." Captain Bratkov whispered to Major Park.
"Thank you Captain Bratkov. Alright then, Jensen up here, you're gonna be directing me around the countryside. Captain Bratkov, please hand Jensen the map." The Major requested.
"Thank bloody gosh." Lieutenant Jensen yelled as he took the map from Captain Bratkov.

As Jensen got out of the jeep, an enemy soldier started yelling out: "Americana! Americana!" Everyone started panicking. "Jensen! Get in the car, quick!" Christian jumped in front seat while Captain Bratkov, Sergeant Asuka and Corporal Loussier locked and loaded their weapons. The squad could hear motorbikes coming from behind them. "Sergeant Asuka. Take my Thompson and pump their guts full of lead!" The Major said as he accelerated away from the motorbikes. "As the three motorized patrols got closer, Captain Bratkov and Sergeant Asuka started to give the enemy short bursts. "Come on guys, keep em off of me!" The Major shouted. "Unleash hell on em." The Major kept shouting. Captain Bratkov sprayed a hail of lead causing one bike to explode and one of the gunners on another bike to be wounded. The gunner on the third bike started to unleash a hail of bullets, the bullets pinged off the metal plate of the car. "Asuka! What the hell are you doing? Stop saving ammo, give them all you got! Let em have it!" The Major screamed. Shinn reloaded the Thompson and fired the entire magazine cartridge. Both the motorized patrols were hit and trailed behind. "WOHOO!" The Major let out a cry of joy. "That's how we do it Sergeant Asuka. Good job."

In Colditz, Cagalli and Athrun were both moved to another cell, much higher up and had double the amount of security. The room was small, dark and exceptionally cold. Cagalli had barely had enough clothes to keep her warm, let alone properly cover her. Cagalli kept shivered uncontrollably. She wrapped her arms around. Athrun was also stripped of his entire military uniform, seen by the others as a traitor to the great army. But they were on the losing side. The V2 bases were destroyed, their major cities: Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, Leipzig, Nuremburg and Dresden were all reduced to rubble by the ferocity of the Allied bombings. The war productions were crippled as a result of these bombing campaigns day and night with the new incendiary bombs.

When Athrun saw Cagalli shivering, Athrun came closer to Cagalli. "Here Cagalli, lie down over here." Athrun directed her to the floor. The cold concrete hit Cagalli's bare skin. Athrun had gotten down with her and kept her close to his warm body wrapping his arms around her. Cagalli started to blush madly while smiling. Cagalli felt the embracive warmth about Athrun. Her golden amber eyes had met the emerald green eyes of the midnight blue haired coordinator. Cagalli blushed, she broke off her eye contact with Athrun. Athrun could see that Cagalli was blushing to a bright red. "You look cute when you're blushing Cagalli." Athrun said charmingly. Cagalli blushed even more. Cagalli saw Athrun smiling at her. "I'm glad I met you Athrun." Cagalli shyly smiled back.
"I'm glad I met you too Cagalli."

Athrun gave Cagalli one last kiss that night before both had dazed off in a peaceful sleep. For once, Athrun did not have any nightmares about the Nazi atrocities that he experienced. Instead, he dreamt a peaceful and happy dream; a dream where there was no anguish, anger, sadness or destruction. Everything was bright and clean, for a moment Athrun felt that he was in Heaven.

Meanwhile, Kira had forgotten to read the letter that his girlfriend Lacus Clyne had sent him a week ago. Kira immediately stopped the Freedom next to a hedgerow. He searched for the letter in his pack that he was looking forward to reading all week. He sniffed the scent of the envelope hoping to pick up the smell of Lacus. Kira had been away from her for almost a year and a half. He missed stroking her long, smooth pink hair. He missed hearing her soft voice in his ears when he awoke in the mornings next to her and most of all, Kira wanted to ask Lacus the most important question in the world. He pulled out a small box out of his breast pocket. He opened the box containing a silver ring with an ocean blue sapphire stone. The sapphire had reminded Kira of Lacus's sapphire blue eyes. Kira digested Lacus's letter, he kept it close to him, not wanting to let it go.

Dear Kira.

I hope that tank I sent you is helping you survive. Our factories have received twice the amount of raw materials for our tanks and aircraft. My father uses the remaining manpower and materials to design and engineer new tanks and planes for the war effort.

I've also heard that the ZAFT military is on the defensive, you really must be giving them a beating. I really hope that this war will be over soon, I really miss you and I want my Kira to be back safely in one piece. And don't worry, I'm not seeing anyone else unlike the other girls in town. Almost all the girls had actually taken all their boyfriends belongings and left town with another guy. It's such a sad sight.

You'll see me soon, I'm going to come over in about two weeks with a little surprise for you. Try to apply for RnR as soon as I come over, I would really like us to spend some time in France.

Lacus

Kira then looked at the date of when the letter was sent. "This was a week ago." Kira stated in surprise. "Lacus is coming here in two weeks." Kira jumped in excitement. Kira then hardened his face. "But first, I have to get Cagalli."