During the USSA independence war, their freedom fighters based their strikes on strategically placed firebases along the continent. That way, they could attack in different places at once, and confuse the rotting EAF of that time. Now, since the armistice and Confed intervention, most of these firebases were more like outposts for trading inside the USSA. The one that Zaitzev spoke of, was one based on a small town. The place seemed more like a town than an outpost, but was enough for the Lorelei and their tired crew to make some needed repairs on the ship, getting enough supplies to reach Callao and gathering some information with the locals about the Heirs moves.

As the ship was being refitted, Kira, Rosario and Galen, alongside Zaitzev, went to the local command. The senior officer, a bulky man with moustache, started the chatter.

"I didn't expect guest of this kind, Sniper. Maybe the ship, but not a VIP like the General." Before anything, the man spoke first to Zaitzev. Like the pilots of old age, he also had a handle, one that spoke greatly of his ability.

"Someone said once 'Small universe', Colonel Adagio."

"Nevertheless, your story is quite interesting, General Yamato. And it quite concurs with some events we've been watching in the last weeks."

"You mean…?"

"There have been some strikes all over the USSA, not only by raiders, but unknown MS and some infantry personnel have been sighted by different firebases. The reports aren't accurate, but they seem to gather around the central part of the continent."

"Smart move, strategically speaking. Inside the deep rain forest, it would be almost impossible to track them, even with a Murasame AWACS. There's too much unmarked terrain after the independence war." Galen added the technical data of the scenario.

"That's why some of the prisoners you brought back will be of great use. By your permission, Captain, I would like my men to proceed with the interrogation."

"You think that your people can make them sing?"

"They can make them spit even the exact day they sell themselves."

Inside the main hangar, and with the settings of the Omega completed, Flay was helping with the supplies. All things counted, that was another thing she remembered of her days in the Archangel, and with the ship short handed, all the help counted. As the rest of the crew was following her instructions, Flay spotted a child inside the hangar. Strange enough, she decided to speak to him.

"What are you doing here, little one?"

At first sight, he was an average 8 year old kid, holding what seems to be a MS toy. Eyes centered in something and his mouth wide open, with an air of admiration that was strange these days. When he didn't respond to her, Flay followed his line of sight, just straight into the Strike Freedom and the Omega.

"So, you like Mobile Suits?"

"Yeah! When I grow up, I wanna be a MS pilot."

"Why so?"

"Because these are made to fight for good, specially the ones called "Gundam"!"

Flay decided that the bright that was on the child's eyes was enough to let him stay a little longer here. Since he wasn't meddling with the supplies, and he was really enjoying seeing the Lorelei's Gundams, she let him be. Chief Logan stepped in after Flay left the kid to speak with her.

"What was that?"

"A dream for the future… of a future good man."

Far from almost any known contact, the light carrier Forbes was skimming the coast of what was once Chile, in search of the raider squad that was supposed to be attacking trading routes. For Lt. Eddie Clayton, making these raids was a total loss of efforts. In his humble opinion, an opinion that almost every member of the Heirs ignored, they could be destroying right now the crumbling EAF, or attacking Orb or Atlantic Federation bases. Enough saying that he was bored as hell.

"Where are those idiots?! They should've been right at this point!"

"Lt, we got some heat traces. Some of them match the DINN squad, but there are remains of others."

"Of course, you idiot! They're supposed to attack the trade routs!" Clayton was well known for using brute force first and then try to recognize the bodies later. The kind of man that is more useful in a brawl than in a well planned operation.

"But sir, one of the readings matches a tachyon heat trace."

"Tachyon? That scrap metal MS and its whinny ship! Maybe we can get a little party after all in this God-forgotten place."

"But we're scheduled to return to base in a couple of hours."

"Shut the hell up! The hell with that arrogant bastard of Graham and his dammed honor! We'll be the ones that will gain His Excellency's favor by destroying those things! Set course at once!"

With Claus and Andrei attending the interrogation – for practical use later they said –, Kira found himself back into the ship solving some glitches with the internal systems. They still lack the necessary radio systems to reach Orb, but at least the unidirectional system with the MS is now active.

"Some things never change, I see." Flay entered just as Kira was thinking on what to do with the defense logarithms. "A ship with internal programming problems and you're jumping right to it to fix it."

"It seems that your memory is recovering itself fast."

"I still got some blank spaces, but the daily activity, and the time we're spending here has opened more things to me."

"Is still too early for the rest of the crew to say your real name?"

"I'm still not very comfortable with that… Just as you're uncomfortable on how to act with me." Deep inside, Kira didn't want to start this issue with Flay unless necessary. Now, he was out of options.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"You're trying to be closer to me when you already got Lacus Clyne. How am I supposed to think about that?"

Kira got busted again. There was no escape from that. The thing is that she was right in a way,

"Can't I be closer to a friend and help her to regain her memories?"

"Only if you really think that I'm only a friend to you?

"How can I think on you as only a friend when we were…?!" Another bad thing about losing the Seed Enhanced, Kira noted, is that his feelings got the best of him more frequently, especially with Flay. The fact that the red haired woman got a little red shade on her face after what Kira spoke didn't help either.

"Look, what we got is past time. Right now, Lacus Clyne is here for you, just as you were here for her for the last 3 years."

"Even when it seems that we got the chance to clarify things between us?"

"I already did that… in Jachin Due…"

"You only gave to me that part of you that wanted to be with me. What did the whole you want right now?"

Kira didn't let Flay time to answer that, as he exited the room. The red head pilot stay there for a while, pondering about the last words of the Sword of Freedom.

Rosario was amazed.

No, amazed is not the right word for what she saw half an hour ago. Adagio's men unexpectedly were unsuccessful on gaining information from the captured raider pilot. That's were Claus and Zaitzev entered. Rosario thought that taking the POW in a joyride in the Murasame's hand, and having Zaitzev's playing target practice with him was a little extreme, but that was enough to make the poor guy spill everything. Just as things were running smoothly, Galen entered the bridge, sweating.

"Captain! We need to get the hell out! The Heirs may know that we are here!"

"What?!"

"For what the POW said, they were expected to rendezvous with an enemy carrier later on! If what happen in Antarctica was accurate, they can triangle our position and…!"

Rosario didn't let Galen finished, as she acted at the same moment.

"Alert Level 2! Mai, order all stations to get back to the ship, and link me to Commander Adagio!"

"As you command, Captain!"

Minutes later, not only the Lorelei was ready to lift off, the whole base was already on full alert. Not only that, Commander Adagio made the residents evacuate the city to a safer location, just in case things got out of control. Before partying ways, however, Zaitzev stayed onboard, which surprised Rosario.

"Are you sure you can expend one of your pilots?"

"You're going to need him more than us. I really don't think we can withstand these so-called Heirs, but we can delay them so can you reach first Antofagasta and then Callao." Adagio made himself clear, and Rosario knew he was right. The firebase wasn't enough to hold a full scale assault, and with the people evacuating the site, she knew that the lone defenders will sacrifice themselves before letting the Heirs pass.

"We're in your debt, Commander."

"Just give our regards to Lacus-sama."

Moments later, the Lorelei took off; their crew knew that they may won't see again the brave soldiers of the USSA.

Clayton wasn't amazed.

After all the problem to get to the estimated position of the stolen ship, his squad only found a small firebase with some MS that may give them some problems.

"The Den'an's are ready, sir. What's your plan?"

Clayton knew that the ship's trace was already lost, and the fact that he didn't want to expend resources in what he thought was only trash, make the decision for him.

"Let's use 'that'."

A general gasp in the bridge sum everything. Things were going to get ugly…

Too ugly…

A full hour later at cruise speed and following Hirvonen's course made the Lorelei almost invisible to any scopes or radars. Rosario was going to call off the red alert when an enormous rumble shakes the whole ship.

"What the hell…?!"

"Energy reading off the scale! It came from the direction of the firebase!" Mai's scanners were completely overwhelmed with the amount of energy generated. In the hangar, Kira, who was with Flay on stand by, tried to communicate with the bridge.

"What was that?"

"We don't know! I'm relying the data from the scanners to you, General!"

Moments later, and after seeing Mai scanner's readings, Kira went pale.

"These readings! They couldn't…! Captain, we got to get back there!"

"Why?"

These readings only mean one thing… a Cyclops.

It took only 30 minutes to get back at full speed, but Kira's worries were true. The 10km radius crater was enough proof of the usage of a Cyclops. The whole bridge of the Lorelei was shocked after seeing the destruction.

"It can't be…" Mai never saw such destruction on Earth before.

"How could they manage to use such a huge device in a short time?" As always, Galen was preoccupied with the technical issues, just in case the Lorelei got to fight against them.

"I don't know, but I want to know more about this. General, Razgriz, take off. Scatter through the zone and see if you can find any traces of survivors or something that gives us an idea of how they managed to pull this stunt so fast."

As Kira and Flay (still clad in their uniforms) took off and started the search, memories of JOSH-A returned to Kira. He saw first hand what that damn device could do. The fact that maybe Flay didn't knew what happened that day after the ZAFT attack also bother him, so he prefer to save the explanation.

Just as they thought that there was nothing left in the area, and a sudden rain started the Omega's scanners found something. What seem to be the remains of a transport were in the ground. Flay was the first to got there, but as she approach to it, she step into something. As she looks at it, her eyes went wide. It was the toy of the boy she has seen earlier in the Lorelei's hangar. As she approached to the transport, what she saw make her legs fail, crumbling in the now muddy ground, her eyes wetting.

Still inside the Strike Freedom, Kira saw these, but couldn't do anything but seeing the red haired woman sobbing. Suddenly, Mai's voice was heard in the SF comm. System.

"General, we found a heat signature. Is very weak, but there's no match with known vessels. It got to be them!"

Flay also heard that. As she slowly rose from the ground, her eyes were already darkened, and in her mind there was only one thought.

"I'll kill them…"

Clayton was bragging of himself… as always.

"Decimating a base is such an easy task with the right tools, isn't that right."

Just an hour ago, he just drop what the Heirs call a 'Cyclops Charge' in the middle of the USSA firebase and only watched as the tactical weapon did the job in his place.

"I'm in such a great mood now that we clean the world of those maggots that nothing can be wrong."

The sudden explosion of one of the escorting Den'an's over starboard make Clayton jump in his seat.

"What the f…!"

"Heat signature detected! It's the Omega!"

"What?!"

"And also the Strike Freedom!"

"Make all units to scramble! I'm also going out! Let's play real hard ball!"

Charging right into an enemy's nest is a tactic that is considered suicidal. But with a couple of angry pilots flying Gundams, that tactic is pretty well effective. Without losing time, Flay wasted the patrol Den'an's with the Whispers, while Kira make his classic slice and dice with the rest of them. As three new units deployed from the enemy ship, they saw a Den'an with a different painting.

"That may be their commander!"

"He's mine…"

Kira could sense the animosity of Flay against the bastard that make the attack on the firebase and let her handle him personally, as he took for himself the remaining two.

Flay was not only mad, she was completely enraged with this guy, whoever he was, and she was going to make him pay for his sins slowly. As the Omega circled around the Den'an, Flay went close and personal, sparring with Clayton with all the speed that the Omega had. The Heirs' commander was having problems just by parrying her beam saber.

"Not bad for a mere bio weapon, but you can't win against one of the most skilled warriors of the Heirs."

Even with the overstatement, Clayton knew how to fly the Den'an, and Flay discovered that as Clayton hit her beam shield with his own and fired his hand-held machine gun over the Gundam, which was completely useless thanks to the VPS armor. Flay knew that this guy only took this as a game. A play in which he may believed that he was some kind of "chosen one" that can make everything he wanted, and that enraged her even more.

"You won't kill anymore innocent lives, you bastard!"

Meanwhile, Kira has already dispatched the remaining Den'an's; one with a direct hit from the rail guns and the other with a blast of the joined MA-M21KF beam rifles, and as he turned over the Heirs' ship, a Quadra-energy blast appeared from behind him and tore the side port of the enemy vessel. Kira watched as the Lorelei's frontal guns were aimed again towards the now sinking ship.

"Mister March, make sure that those SOB have an agonic death."

"Aye, aye, ma'am! Tristan, Gottfried, fire!"

The second burst of the Lorelei hit hard, and the enemy vessel went down slowly, exploding a second later after touching ground.

Back to Flay, she was really fed up with this guy, so she set herself to finish him once and for all. Remembering a similar maneuver from Kira's flight against Athrun a year ago, she deflect the Den'an beam saber with one of her own, and then, tore the enemy MS right arm. Without stopping, she took the legs, head and remaining arm of the Den'an, and held it on mid air, just as she charged a full blast of the Omega's right Whisper.

"People like you…

As she release Clayton, the targeting system of the Omega had the Den'an locked on.

… deserves to die!"

With the setup on wide expansion, the Whisper blast engulf the remains of the Den'an and went all the way to the ground until the enemy MS disintegrated moments before. For Clayton, an agonizing death seems to be the right thing.

Flay, panting after this ordeal, suddenly reacted to her own Seed. More images of the past, new images of her past being were showed. Images that make her shame. Images of her planning Kira's demise after her father's death. Images of her hate towards the Coordinators. Images that make her understand more of her own self.

And it scared her.

"I see… that was my true self…"

Kira sense her internal struggle, but before everybody could react, the Omega took off. Galen, being the first noticing that, reacted as only him could do.

"I knew it! Aim Tristan! Shot down the traitor!"

A second later, the bridge of the Lorelei was watching right into one of the Strike Freedom's MA-M21KF beam rifles.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you."

Rosario understood the indirect fast.

"Override that order. All hands, change to Condition Yellow! General, what's going on?"

Kira's answer was as cryptic as the red haired woman known as Flay Allster, or rather, Razgriz, was up to now.

"Seems that she cannot forgive herself…"

AN: Ok, first the apologies as this chapter is almost 2 months later, officially, a month later as I was sick during November. As for all December, the classic writer's block took its toll on me. Thanks to Mosh and StormWolf's updates, I'm back on track, and finish the latest chapter. Sorry if the battle seems a little rushed, but with Flay's mental status, I couldn't think on something else. This is mostly the first part of Flay's next phase of recovering herself, a phase that will necessarily need Kira's help.

Next chapter may be the return of the Archangel, or maybe I'll get to finish with Flay's internal struggle.