Disclaimer: Mobile Fighter G Gundam is owned by Bandai and Sunrise. I just write about it in my spare time.

Author's Note: Many thanks to ALittleSalty1 for beta reading this chapter! Please check out her story, "The Long Road to Hell"!

On the Dark Side

Chapter 11: The Rising Darkness! Rain vs an Old Enemy!

He's done for. That's what Ulube told himself as his beam saber finished tearing through the Burning Gundam's chest plates. He dug his Gundam's fingers into the slit he created and began to pry the plates apart. Just as he got them partially open, however, he heard a shout from within the cockpit. A powerful force suddenly knocked his hands away. He looked down to see Domon climbing out of the gaping hole. Ulube took the opportunity to reach down and grab the King of Hearts, but Domon managed to elude him by jumping down to the ground.

Once he landed, however, Domon toppled over and couldn't get back up. One of his legs was sticking out at an odd angle. Whatever happened to it, it sure made Ulube's job easier.

He reached for Gundam Fighter again, ready to crush him into a bloody smear. He stopped, however, when the ZERO System warned him that Domon was about to unleash another attack. Sure enough, he was twisting his body into one of his ridiculous poses down there, this time on his knees. Ulube simply moved to one side, and the oncoming ki blast harmlessly sailed past his Gundam's shoulder.

As he reached down once more, Ulube saw Domon trying desperately to hobble away. He was dragging that bad leg of his behind him. It was so amusingly pathetic, Ulube was tempted to laugh. He resisted the urge, reminding himself of the consequences of allowing his ego to get the best of him. Instead, he blocked Domon's path with one hand to prevent him from taking shelter underneath the Burning Gundam. He balled the other hand into a fist and raised it high above his enemy's head...

But just as his fist came halfway down, the sound of roaring engines grabbed his attention. He looked up to see an immense Gundam flying right toward him. He quickly got up and leapt backward to avoid being rammed. The massive machine barreled past him, then swooped back around. It caused the ground to tremble as it landed right between him and the fallen Burning Gundam.

The monstrosity before him resembled a giant version of his Rising Gundam, right down to its weapons. Now that he was able to get a good look at it, however, intuition dictated that something was wrong. Its shoulders were a little too broad, its hips and legs too wide, and its midsection too thin.

In fact, its body shape reminded him of a very different Gundam. Curious, he decided to give it a quick scan for DG Cells. It was infested with them. Just as he suspected.

"That's enough, Ulube!" a familiar woman's voice sounded from the strange machine's loudspeaker. "I won't let you hurt Domon!" She pointed her naginata at him as she made her demand.

Down on the ground, Domon had crawled over to the Burning Gundam's arm and was leaning on it for support. A quick zoom-in on his face showed him staring up at the false Rising Gundam, confused. He was also glancing at the back of his right hand, probably looking at his Shuffle crest.

"Why, Dr. Rain Mikamura," Ulube said, turning back to his new opponent. "What a pleasant surprise!"

"There won't be anything 'pleasant' about this if you don't let Domon go!" she snapped.

"Can I still thank you for bringing the Dark Gundam to me?" he continued. "After all, you've saved me a lot of trouble."

Ulube quickly glanced at Domon again to see how he'd react. His face was pale, his eyes were wide, and his jaw was hanging open. Priceless.

"There's no way in hell I would do that," Rain sneered, "Besides, this is not the Dark Gundam you tried to make it to be! So I dare you to take it from me!"

"Well, this is interesting," said Ulube. "The last time we saw each other face to face, you fainted out of sheer fear. Now it seems that you've come to actually present a challenge."

"I'm not going to take anything less than unconditional surrender, Ulube," Rain demanded, "So don't get cute."

"Unfortunately for you, Doctor, surrender is not an option for me," He pointed his beam saber at her. "Now then, about your mobile fighter. Hand it over, and I won't have to kill you."

The giant Gundam spread its legs apart, bent at its knees, and brandished its weapon. "Never!"

"Alright, if you won't cooperate," the major replied, "then I'll just have to take it by force!"

His Gundam charged at the massive machine, beam saber first. The ZERO System warned that Rain would try to block his attack with her naginata. Indeed, she was starting to hold up her weapon, right on cue. With that, he aimed his blade for the polearm itself and cut it neatly half. Just as he was about to stab the giant Gundam in the chest in order to pry open its cockpit, he received another warning of an oncoming attack. He jumped back, his Gundam just missing being slashed across the midsection as his opponent swiped at him with the bladed half of its broken weapon. He noticed that the blade's edge left an odd trail of water vapor as it arced through the air. The Dark Gundam then touched the two cut ends of the pole to each other, which fused back together seamlessly. The naginata now looked as if it had never been damaged in the first place.

Rain then charged at Ulube, holding her naginata up high and tried to bring it down right on his mobile suit's head. He was easily able to parry her attack, as well as the next few predictable strikes. He didn't even need to use the ZERO System at this point; the doctor was clearly not a fighter.

As he blocked her next attack, however, Ulube was taken by surprise when Rain suddenly changed the shape of her blade. It turned into a long sickle which curved right over his beam saber and pierced one of his Gundam's chestplates. This shapeshifting had gone completely under the ZERO System's detection. Ice crystals began to form around the puncture.

It was then that Rain started pushing down on him, using its size and superior strength to overpower him. Green cables snaked out of the massive Gundam's wrists and began to wrap around his arms. Ice started to spread across his chest. It seemed that Rain was a tougher opponent than he thought, though he figured it was largely thanks the highly advanced mobile fighter she was piloting rather than her own skill.

Ulube waited until the ZERO System gave him the signal. He then shoved the sickle off to the side, breaking off much of the ice and knocking the larger Gundam off balance. He then jumped backward, making sure to yank the cables as hard as he could. The oversized Rising Gundam pitched forward and fell on its hands and knees. The tendrils immediately lost their grip on him.

Ulube wasted no time in dealing the finishing blow. As the giant began to get back on its feet, Ulube charged forward and stabbed it right in its chest. Now all he had to do was remove Rain before the thing could repair itself. Then the Dark Gundam would be his once more.

Before he could do anything, however, the Gundam's upper body suddenly turned silver. It began to shift and warp as if being molded by giant invisible hands. Its red chest became olive green and covered in studs. Its pauldrons thickened and turned gold and green. Its head molded itself into a helmet with a single spike on top. Ulube quickly removed his saber and stepped back in shock. The mechanical monster had partially turned itself into the Haow Gundam - they very mobile fighter that had defeated him back in the 12th Gundam Fight. If he still had a stomach, he knew he'd be nauseated by now.

The chimeric mobile suit stood up, the hole in its chest sealing back up. It raised its hands and fused all of its loose tendrils together. It molded them into what was supposed to be the Haow Gundam's cloth weapon, which it immediately lashed at him. Ulube was able to shake himself out of his disgust fast enough to dodge it by jumping up into the air.

"Was that some sort of attempt to intimidate me?!" he barked at his opponent.

The bizarre machine used its tendril cloth to pick its freezing scythe up off the ground and return it to its hands. It then retracted its cables and reverted itself back to its Rising Gundam appearance.

"No, it was an attempt to make you give up!" Rain replied. "We know you've got the ZERO System. It won't work on us!"

"What? How did you...?"

How she even knew about the system was puzzling; it had fallen into obscurity thanks to its spectacular failure. But no one could have known that he had stolen it. Did the Dark Gundam find out somehow? He shook his head; it didn't matter.

"As I told you before, I absolutely will not surrender to the likes of you!" Ulube barked, his annoyance boiling in to agitation.

The Dark Gundam strapped its scythe to its back and readied its beam bow.

"Alright, have it your way!" Rain said as she aimed the laser arrow.

Ulube scoffed. The Rising Arrow was a very slow attack, easily dodged without precognitive software. So he was quite surprised when his own precognitive software warned him that the bow was already charged, even though Rain had not pulled on the energy string at all.

"DARKNESS ARROW!"

Three purple beam arrows flew out of the bow's muzzle. Ulube was able to dodge the first one, but the second grazed him, and the third hit him right in the midsection. The blast sent his Gundam flying, where it eventually skidded to a stop on its back, scraping against dozens of boulders in the process. He managed to cling to the mobile tracer to avoid being ejected, but the impact caused his limbs to shatter.

He sneered as he reformed his DG Cell body. Of course the beam bow had been modified too, why wouldn't it? He scolded himself for underestimating his opponents so much.

Ulube took a moment to reconnect himself to his mobile trace system by placing loose wires back into his body. Outside, the Dark Gundam was cautiously lumbering closer, its bow trained on him.

Clearly he would not be able to defeat this thing using the ZERO System alone. In that case, he was going to have to use this Gundam's special attacks. He had been trying to avoid using them, as he wanted the Dark Gundam as intact as possible. However, his enemy's bizarre, unpredictable abilities and great strength gave him little choice.

Energy began to charge up in his mobile fighter's hands as he stood up. Ulube had selected this particular experimental Gundam out of all the others due to the weapons it had been testing. Though he had never used them before, he had seen them used enough times in the field to have an idea of how they worked.

Once again, he heard Rain ordering him to give up. He didn't bother to respond, and instead checked with the ZERO System to see when he should strike. But as the software began to make its calculations, it suddenly became sidetracked as it began to predict what forms his opponent might take. Ulube tried to stop it and force it to concentrate on only the relevant parameters, but it wouldn't respond. After several more attempts to cancel the process failed, he tried to restart the system. It didn't respond to that command either.

He silently cursed to himself. Never mind, he would just have to ignore it. As he began to place his arms out in front of him, he quickly realized his software wasn't the only thing that was unresponsive. His arms wouldn't budge. Was his body damaged in that fall somehow? No...it was because of the ZERO System. It was taking up so much processing power in his CPU, that it was causing everything else to lag!

He immediately tried to find a workaround to shut off the system, but even that was painfully slow. Outside, the massive Gundam lowered its weapon and stepped right up to him. He watched helplessly as green cables began to slither out of its wrists again.


Back on the ground, Domon had managed to hobble all the way to the Burning Gundam's head unit. He began to paw through the various cables and wires looking for anything out of place. He remembered that right before his Gundam lost power, Ulube had been feeling around its neck. Domon figured the major had injected DG Cells in there to shut it down.

It wasn't long before he found masses of wires coated in silvery scales. He started to peel away at the scales in hopes that he could restore power to the Burning Gundam if he cleaned them out. It was a good thing his hands were already covered in latex.

At first, he didn't believe Ulube when he revealed that Rain was piloting the Dark Gundam. After all, it didn't make sense; it should have been locked up deep in a military base somewhere. But then his Shuffle Crest reacted, and the Gundam transformed and grew tendrils. He didn't know how it escaped, or why it was seemingly co-operating with Rain at the moment, but it didn't matter right now. What mattered was getting the Burning Gundam up and running again.

He glanced up to see that it had its cables wrapped around Ulube's Gundam. He then turned back to his work, tearing out the DG Cell plaques with both hands. He knew that once it was done with Ulube, it would immediately form another colony. He wouldn't let that happen again.


Daylight poured into Ulube's cockpit as the tendrils pried open his Gundam's chestplates. He watched in horror as they crawled in, oozing all over the floor like giant worms. They squirmed into the mobile trace system where they began to poke and slither up his feet and legs.

That was uncomfortably familiar. Being paralyzed in complete fear and awe before the Dark Gundam's might was where his fall began, and seemingly, this is where it would end. The only thing he had left that could be taken was his mind, the last thing that Ulube perceived as being genuinely his. All of his flesh, organs, fluids, and bones had been consumed by DG Cells. Even whatever soul he had was the price he paid for being 'blessed' with the cells. He was deader than Gentle Chapman was. And to erase the last of his being would make him as much of a puppet as he was as he piloted the Grand Master Gundam, only to end up as a pile of sand.

He wanted so desperately to escape, but he was once again under the Dark Gundam's spell. His eyes couldn't budge, they were completely glued on its glowing red optics as the crevice in his chestplate widened. Even the most minute movement was inhibited by the lagging ZERO System. All of his attempts to shut it down were fruitless. The system carried on, now calculating the movements of the cables, and all of nearly infinite ways they could fuse, multiply, or change shape.

He felt a cable crawl up his back and burrow into his neck. Instantly, he was bombarded by security errors as a foreign presence invaded his CPU and the filaments injected themselves into his brain stem. He wanted to block it, but the ZERO System continued to eat up all of his resources. His consciousness was quickly overwhelmed by the Dark Gundam's familiar and dreadful presence, and he could feel with its dull irritation at him. Strangely enough, it seemed angrier at him for attacking its life unit than attacking it personally.

"Commencing repairs."

It could speak now? He didn't remember it having a voice last time. Wasn't he its voice?

Suddenly, the ZERO System's interface disappeared from his field of vision. Ulube collapsed to the floor as his whole body relaxed at once. As he hobbled back to his feet, the word "Initializing" appeared in front of him. He then felt a tingling sensation around the cable in his neck which began to slowly radiate outward into his skull. "Initializing" was now replaced by a percentage sign that was steadily rising.

With the ZERO system shut off and his locomotion restored, the first thing he did was to rip the cable out of his head. He shuddered as he felt the filaments in his neck slide out dripping in liquid gundarium. Now that a few of his cells were repaired, he figured his body could fix the rest on its own. However, the Dark Gundam was still connected to his mind despite their physical link being severed. It immediately punished him by making his arm go numb. A burning sensation was quickly followed by the squelching sound of his arm falling out of its socket and hitting the floor. The clawed fingers writhed and twitched and eventually fell still as the arm quickly melted into a silver puddle.

Do not resist, it ordered.

"Get out of my head!" he screamed at it. He tried to disable his wireless communication, but kept getting errors; the Gundam was blocking all of his attempts. Meanwhile, more cables began to wind themselves around him, inserting themselves into his body creating bastardized veins underneath his scaled skin.

You are a rogue unit and must be contained, the Dark Gundam explained, Furthermore, you have tried to terminate my life unit several times already. You ought to be grateful that I am repairing you instead of dismantling you.

Ulube touched the puddle that was once his arm with a toe. It was reabsorbed into his leg, and a new arm grew out of his shoulder in an eruption of cables and fluid. He then began tearing wires out of his body with both hands.

"Let go of me! Let go!" he shouted as he ripped a handful of the cables out of his skin. "I've already given you enough! I refuse to be your puppet again! I won't!"

As he swatted away a small group of tendrils that tried to inject themselves into his back, a new error appeared warning him that his motor functions were being compromised. Almost instantly, his body felt like it weighed a metric ton. His arms felt like sledgehammers and it took a vast amount of effort just to lift a hand. He toppled over, the wires catching his fall before tying him up.

Ulube opened his mouth to scream, but his jaw just hung open, silent. It was then that the cables that had coiled themselves around him carefully lifted him off the floor. They slowly started to drag him out of the cockpit.

His eyes could still move, and they rolled around in their sockets desperately looking for a way out. He suddenly spotted a button on the main panel that might help. The trick was finding the strength to move so that he could press it.

Perhaps you can redeem yourself by becoming my auxiliary life unit, the machine continued as it began to pull him out of the cockpit, I have not yet fulfilled my prime directive of restoring Earth. However, Rain Mikamura has said that she will only agree to remain my pilot if I do not kill any more humans. I estimate that if I were to have more than one core, I may accomplish my directive without having to take any more human lives. Your DG Cell body would be ideal, as it is more durable than a normal human body.

His gut sank. It was planning on absorbing him. That gave Ulube enough motivation to summon up every last ounce of strength and thrash his body side to side. The thin tendrils eventually gave way, dropping him on top of the main console. As luck would have it, he landed right on that button he saw earlier. His Gundam's chestplates opened further. The Dark Gundam's irritation gave way to confusion.

This momentary distraction caused it to release its grip on Ulube's body, and it was all he needed. He was able to sit up and hit the button again with his palm. The plates slammed closed, severing the green cables and freeing him. The percentage disappeared from his vision as repairs abruptly stopped. The pressure lifted from his mind as the Dark Gundam's confusion was replaced with shock. Acting quickly, he began blocking all of his wireless access points. The Dark Gundam's presence became weaker and weaker with each point disabled.

When it was down to the last two points, however, the Gundam suddenly came back with a vengeance. It clung as hard as it could to the last entryway, refusing to let him shut it down. He heard something scratching against his mobile suit's chest, as well as loud, low growling.

Ulube hopped back into his mobile trace unit and quickly reattached a few loose wires. He then fired his Gundam's vulcan guns, assuming that the beast was directly in front of him. Its hold on his CPU faltered again, and he was finally able to block the last points. Its presence completely faded from his mind.

Immediately, Ulube continued his attack from earlier. Energy once again flowed into his Gundam's hands. He may not be able to use the ZERO System against his enemy, but maybe he didn't need to.


"What happened?" Rain asked.

I was not able to contain Major Ulube Ishikawa, the Dark Gundam explained, Furthermore, he has disabled all communications.

Ulube's Gundam was holding its arms out in front of it with its hands glowing. The stance looked awfully familiar...

Suddenly, a small plume of fire burst from the glowing hands. The flame was scarcely strong enough to singe a mobile suit's paint job, but the Dark Gundam took several steps back and moaned loudly. Rain could feel its fear rising in her mind.

"Well, well, well," Ulube chuckled over his loudspeaker. "If I didn't know any better, I'd swear you're scared of fire!"

The major shot another plume out of his palms for emphasis. The Dark Gundam hissed through its mouthplate and brought out its second pair of arms. It fired its palm cannons at him, but he was able to swerve around them. He flew up close and let loose with a few larger flames. Now that Rain got a better look at it, Ulube's technique resembled a very weak Sekiha Tenkyoken...

From the Dark Gundam's abdomen, two giant tendrils as thick as tree trunks burst forth. The rudimentary teeth and jaws on their tips told Rain they were supposed to be Gundam heads; however, with the self-replication ability disabled, they could not form properly. The fanged tendrils opened their mouths and rapidly fired beam shots at Ulube. He charged forward, missing their hits, and grabbed onto both tendrils in each hand. The hands began to glow again, and the tendrils suddenly caught fire.

The Dark Gundam let out a deafening scream. Rain fell to her knees as the crippling surge of terror washed over her.

"Stop! Calm down!" she yelled at it. "This is what he wants!"

Unfortunately, the Dark Gundam was already in a panic. It lost its focus on the battle as it stopped to sever the burning tentacles. Meanwhile, the major unsheathed his beam saber.

"Didn't like that, did you?" he asked mockingly, "Then you're going to hate this!"

His Gundam suddenly began to spin around in place, kicking up high winds. Though it was nowhere near as powerful, Rain recognized it as the Burning Slash Typhoon. How was Ulube able to use all of Domon's attacks like that?

WARNING: Major Ulube Ishikawa is building up large quantities of energy, the Dark Gundam cautioned. Despite its "voice" being as monotone as ever, Rain could feel its fear continuing to mount. We must retreat.

"No we won't!" Rain shouted.

She summoned up all the mental energy she could to overcome the pyrophobic machine and force its pauldrons to disengage from its shoulders. The pauldrons came together in midair to form the shield. The Dark Gundam quickly grabbed it and held it up just as a wave of energy burst from their spinning opponent. The wave was just strong enough to toast the shield and whatever parts of the Gundam's body couldn't fit behind it. Its DG Cells quickly repaired the damage, but it still moaned in pain. Meanwhile, Ulube was still spinning, charging up another attack.

Rain tried to get the Dark Gundam to stand up, but it wouldn't budge. It grumbled in protest at every attempt she made.

"Listen, I know you're scared...but-," she began.

I...am not scared, the machine interrupted her, I am...simply concerned, as I have not developed fireproof armor yet.

"You weren't kidding when you said you were bad at lying," Rain said. Never in her life had she ever thought she would have to give a pep talk to the Dark Gundam, of all things.

"As I was saying, you have to get up and fight back! Remember how you used that fake Ulube to try to get me angry? This is the same thing, only now the real Ulube is trying to scare you into giving up!"

Perhaps, it replied, However, I am unsure as of what I should do. I believe the mobile fighter he is using is the one used to test the Burning Gundam's weapons.

Rain blinked and looked up at Ulube, who was continuing to mimic one of Domon's special attacks. "That...makes a lot of sense," she said. "But that should give you even more reason to fight! You don't want to be defeated by a fake Burning Gundam, do you?"

She felt the Dark Gundam's terror begin to subside, No, I do not.

"Exactly," Rain continued. "And remember, you took on an entire army of mobile fighters once and almost won! One little test Gundam shouldn't be a problem."

Yes, you are right, the machine replied, as it stood up, I should not let my aversion to Domon Kasshu's techniques develop into an irrational fear. I must finish subduing the rogue unit.

With that, the Dark Gundam charged through the high winds, shield first. Ulube created another energy shockwave, and Rain felt a small spike in fear. However, its fright quickly dissipated, and plowed right through the wave without slowing down. It rammed the prototype Gundam, sending it flying. It crashed to the ground several meters away.

The Dark Gundam removed the scythe from its back with its free hand. The weapon then turned silver and melted into the machine's arm. Schematics for a new special attack appeared before Rain's eyes.

Let us finish our task with this, the Gundam said.

Rain quickly analyzed the images, which showed that the blast chiller had been placed inside the machine's palm. Suddenly, she noticed that, in the distance, Ulube's Gundam was starting to sit back up.

"Right," she nodded, "Let's do this."

Frost began to coat the Dark Gundam's hand as it glowed an ominous blue. Ulube had just gotten back on his feet when he heard Rain's scream.

"FREEZING DARKNESS FINGER!"

Before he could do anything, the massive machine pounced on him and grabbed his Gundam by its head with its glowing hand.

"HEAT DEATH!"

Gigantic ice crystals engulfed the test Gundam's body with the sound of thousands of panes of glass shattering at once. When it was over, Ulube's mobile suit had been completely frozen solid.

Major Ulube Ishikawa has been successfully contained, the Dark Gundam reported. It tucked away its extra arms and powered down the chiller.

"Thank goodness," Rain sighed, rubbing her temples. Once again, the coolness of the metal gel was soothing against her flushed face.

"Rain! Are you okay?!" a familiar voice shouted to her.

"Domon?" she looked up to see that the Burning Gundam was operational again and was coming toward them. It was looking much worse for wear; in addition to its previous damage, it also had its chestplates hanging open. They swung back and forth with each step.

Its hand was also glowing bright red.

"Just hold on, okay?" Domon said, holding up the glowing palm, "I'm going to try to get you out of there!"

Rain felt a pang of alarm from the Dark Gundam that was quickly replaced by irritation.

Please tell Domon Kasshu that he is being very ungrateful, it snapped as it took a step back and held up its shield.

"Wait, Domon!" Rain cried, "It's not what you think!"

"Rain, I know it's the Dark Gundam," he replied, "I don't know how it captured you this time, but I'll make sure it never does it again!"

The machine in question growled at him.

"Would you two just calm down already?!" Rain snapped at the both of them. Domon stopped in his tracks but kept his hand charged up. The Dark Gundam let out a defiant snort.

Rain sighed before continuing. "The truth is...the Dark Gundam didn't capture me. I agreed to pilot it."

"What?" the Domon lowered his burning palm.

"I...I'm sorry, Domon. I thought Ulube was going to kill you. Then the Dark Gundam escaped, and I didn't know what else to do."

"It doesn't matter, I need to get you out, anyway," Domon replied, raising his palm again. "We can't let it form another colony and absorb the Earth!"

"Actually, it can't. I've disabled some of its abilities," Rain explained, "What we should focus on first is Ulube. We need to turn him into the authorities before..."

WARNING: Major Ulube Ishikawa's energy levels are rising at an exponential rate.

"Right. Before his energy levels rise at an expo-," Rain cut herself off, "Wait, what?"

The ice crystals imprisoning Ulube radiated a bright light before shattering and vaporizing. His Gundam emerged from the steam, revealing that it was used to test more than just the Burning Gundam's weapons. Its armor was now completely golden and was emitting incredible energy.

"I don't suppose you have a hyper-mode, too?" Rain asked the Dark Gundam.

Negative. I was never able to obtain the schematics to reverse engineer one, it replied.

Ulube suddenly lunged at the Dark Gundam, palm first. It tried to defend itself with its shield, but Ulube's hand managed to burn through it and grab the larger Gundam by the head. As it reached up to pull him off, the liquid silver began to rise up from the floor of the cockpit and create a bubble around Rain. Before she could ask it what it was doing, however, she was knocked to the ground by the shockwave of an explosion. Intense light and searing heat poured into the cockpit before the bubble protectively engulfed her. She curled herself up tightly as she was violently jostled around by what felt like an endless string of blasts. Despite the heat outside, the interior of the capsule became very cold; the DG Cells were working hard to keep the heat out at all costs. Finally, there was a tremendous crash and her bubble fell to what she assumed was the floor. While it cushioned most of her fall, she still yelped in pain as she fell on her side and bumped her head.

The silver bubble opened and slowly dissolved. Rain gagged from all the smoke and the acrid smell of burnt metal. She found that she was actually on the back wall of the cockpit and concluded that that last horrible sound had been the Dark Gundam falling over. The rest of the room was a mess of slag and burned cables. Her harness had been completely severed, and the wires around her chest fell to the ground. The Gundam's chestplates were now partially open, and what few fans were functional were trying to blow smoke out through the gaps.

Two new, partially singed cables slowly crawled up to her. One formed a breathing mask on its tip and pressed itself into her face, covering her nose and mouth. She felt relieved when fresh air flowed into her nostrils. The second cable connected to the back of her neck and began to scan her body for injury.

Body Temperature: 37.9°C

Breath rate: 50 breaths/minute

Pulse rate: 140bpm

Blood Pressure: 125/80 mmHg

No fractured bones detected.

No concussion detected.

"I'm fine, I'm fine!" Rain cried into her makeshift oxygen mask, "What about you?"

The Dark Gundam showed her its schematics via another floating image. Its head, torso, and upper arms were colored in red.

That last attack caused severe burn damage to 55.6% of my body, the Gundam answered, Repair is underway. However, this process will take approximately 2.5 minutes. Even with you as my core unit, I am uncertain if we will have sufficient recovery time.

There was an ominous pause before it added, Are you sure that you do not wish to restore my abilities to their full capacity?

"No! We can make it without them!" Rain cried. She didn't want to admit it, but it was somewhat tempting right at the moment.

The schematics disappeared, and the panoramic screen flickered back to life. Through the digital artifacts, Rain could see that Domon had been quick to retaliate. He was currently unloading a flurry of rapid-fire punches right at the golden test Gundam's chest. Ulube wasn't dodging or blocking as quickly as he did earlier, but he seemed to be shrugging off what blows did connect.

The Burning Gundam suddenly ceased its blows and jumped backward. It raised a glowing clenched fist as the rest of its body became glided just like the experimental Gundam.

"Thi...and of mi...bur-rning red!" Domon shouted as the audio skipped. "It's l...or tells me-e to...asp vic...ry!"

"ER-R-RUPTING BURNING FING-!"

Rain gasped as the screen suddenly became consumed by digital static. "Domon!" she blurted out.

A moment later, she could see the outlines of the two Gundams through the graphical glitches. Each one had an arm in the air. It vaguely looked like their raised hands were locked together.

As the picture cleared up, Rain could see what had happened. Ulube had countered Domon's Erupting Burning Finger with his own. However, his knees were beginning to buckle, and his hand was losing its radiance. The young King of Hearts was able to bend the test Gundam's arm back and force Ulube to his knees.

That's when she noticed Ulube was taking out his beam saber with his free hand...

Rain sent the mental command to turn on the speakers and yelled "Look out!" into her mask. She was immediately answered by loud feedback screeches.

"What's wrong with the loudspeaker?!" she shouted to the Dark Gundam.

It is still undergoing repair at this time, it answered.

"AN-N...OW, HEAT EN-!"

Domon wasn't able to complete his garbled finishing move. In one quick motion, Ulube sliced off the Burning Gundam's right arm at the elbow. As the arm crashed to the ground, both it and the rest of the Burning Gundam lost their glow.

"NO!" Rain screamed. She trembled as tears came to her eyes. This couldn't be happening.

Do not worry. I believe have a solution to our current predicament, the Dark Gundam suddenly spoke.

"What is it? Tell me!" She prayed it didn't involve becoming a colony.

Outside, Domon tried another Erupting Burning Finger, this time with his left hand. However, Ulube managed to block it by grabbing the Burning Gundam by the forearm. Her view of the fight was suddenly blocked when a new schematic popped up in front of her. She took one look at it and became confused. Was it for a new form? The image showed a pieced-together Gundam that looked like...

She let out a little gasp when she realized what it really was.

I do not think Domon Kasshu will like this idea, the machine admitted, However, on such short notice and what few parameters to work with, I could not calculate an alternative solution in which his life was spared.

"You're right, Domon won't like that!" she replied. She looked up to see Ulube sawing off the Burning Gundam's left forearm with his beam saber. Meanwhile, Domon was repeatedly kicking him, trying to make him let go.

With only a twinge of hesitation, Rain conceded, "But we don't have a choice right now!"

There was ominous creaking and groaning as the Dark Gundam slowly picked itself up off the ground.

With one last kick, Domon managed to force Ulube off of him. Unfortunately, his left arm ripped right off as Ulube staggered backwards. Ulube tossed the arm aside and began to charge up his own Erupting Burning Finger; he wanted to have the satisfaction of killing the King of Hearts with one of his own techniques.

He stopped in his tracks when the smoking, smoldering Dark Gundam suddenly stood up. New cables slithered out of its abdomen and carefully wrapped themselves around the Burning Gundam's damaged torso. It dragged the ruined Gundam up to its chest.

"Rain? What's going on?" Domon asked, "What's it doing?!"

Rain remained silent. She wanted to tell him everything would be alright, but the loudspeakers still weren't working.

The front half of Dark Gundam's body turned silver, and liquid metal began to slowly engulf the Burning Gundam.

"Rain! Are you there?!" Domon shouted as he thrashed about, trying to break loose from his bonds. "Make it stop! RAIN?!"

The Dark Gundam responded by creating even more cables to keep the Gundam Fighter from moving as it dragged him into its depths. Domon let out one final scream as the Burning Gundam was completely swallowed whole.