Phase 21: Providence Strikes
"Here I go again..." Shani muttered, catching the girl before she fell to the ground. 'Whew, safe and sound...now about my explanation...' Shani thought. "Uh...you know, it's not what you think! I swear! Nothing happened!" Shani remarked, still holding onto Ai.
"Very convincing..." Orga chuckled.
"What? Hey! She would have fell if it weren't for me!" Shani retorted with a very bitter look on his face. Suddenly shockwaves shook the manor.
"What!" Cagalli exclaimed.
"Those are missals!" Dearka remarked.
"Damn! What now!" Yzak grumbled.
"We have to stop this!" Kira remarked. "ORB is full of innocent people!"
"Then let's get our asses out there!" Crot yelled.
"Right behind you." stated everyone else.
"Ai, you gotta wake up! We need all the help we can get!" Shani urged, hoping that the sleeping girl would open her eyes. The others went on ahead and began to get suited up.
Ai shook off her exhaustion as she heard a familiar voice. Her eyes sprung open at the feeling of another shockwave. She jumped up to her feet in surprise as she immediately glanced around every which way.
"Wh- What's going on!" she shouted dazed and confused. It was then that she finally pieced things together and saw a battle raging in the distance. She nodded to Shani as she followed along with the others to get suited up for the battle. 'To protect... that's my choice now..' she thought to herself as she made her way into Cerberus' cockpit.
"Okay, we've got some serious work to do!" she shouted to the machine as she readied herself and launched onto the battlefield, though she was way behind from the others. 'What is this..?' she thought to herself as she saw ZAFT's forces advancing on her friends. 'This is insane, why would they be attacking?' she continued to question as she closed in on some nearby units and shot them down before they could get any closer, all completely nonfatal as was her specialty.
"Hey are you guys alright out there?" she questioned as she tried to keep her area under control, though she was having a rough time with her current state of health. 'I don't know how much longer I can take this...' she thought to herself trying not to let her fatigue show to her friends or the enemy. 'Wait... What's that-..!' she gasped as an unknown mobile attacked her from out of nowhere and shot Cerberus into the water. Ai retaliated and charged the mobile as Cerberus burst from under the water, though it was a failed attempt due to Ai's non-killing tactics.
"Ah-... ! Cer-... Cerberus!" she shouted trying to regain control over the Gundam as she tried to shake off the oncoming barrage from the new unit attacking her. 'I can't shake these things off, what is it!' she thought as she desperately tried to dodge them but was hit dead on as her Gundam received a high level of damage. 'My systems are going critical and I can barely keep up with him... Why did it have to be now..?' Ai was now completely open to fire and all it would take was a few more blows to take her down. Any other time here skills and performance would have been flawless but so much had been going on lately her body and mind just couldn't keep up. The secret to her fighting was the fact that she could synchronize herself with Cerberus and any other mobile depending on their capabilities but in order to do so she would have to be in good health, which was beyond her reach.
"Can't be..." she said as her eyes widened at the sight of the enemy getting ready to finish her Gundam off. Ai was completely helpless now, all she could do was wait for whatever was about to happen. Taking hold of her pendant she took a deep breath.
'Please don't let it end this way... I have to keep... my promise...'
"What the hell is that!" Yzak remarked as he saw an unknown signal in Duel's sensors.
"I dunno, but it's wiping the floor with us!" Dearka exclaimed. The new unit immediately began to fire at the opposing Gundams. Everything was thrown into a frenzy as lasers covered the field. Shani managed to get Forbidden's Panzer system working and deflected some of the shots right back. It was then that he noticed Ai, about to become prey to another unit.
"Leave her alone!" Shani growled, ramming Forbidden into the unit with brute force. It seemed to have caught the attention of the new Gundam for it then focused it's attack on the Forbidden.
"What kind of unit is that? I've never seen anything like it before..." Athrun pondered, still trying to keep the ZAFT units at bay. Forbidden was having a hard time trying to hold off the Gundam, for it had stopped with it's laser barrage and had now begun to use physical force, which therefore, makes Forbidden's Panzer system useless.
"Hey! Who the fuck are you! Answer me! And what the hell is that Gundam!" Shani demanded, noting that Forbidden's energy was down to a minimum.
"Oh...you need not ask those questions...it will not matter where you are going..." came a voice from the other end of the com. system.
"Oh screw you! I never should've asked anyways!" Shani retorted, swinging it's scythe towards the unit's cockpit, intending to end their confrontation. However, the Gundam was one step ahead and retaliated with a strike from his beam sword, slicing the scythe an half and blasting the shield deflectors off of Forbidden. "Wh-What did you do?" Shani stammered, seeing how fast his Gundam had been wasted.
"You see? You are nothing..." stated the unknown pilot, who dealed another blow to Forbidden, sending the green Gundam plummeting into the ocean.
"Shani!" Orga remarked, seeing what had happened to the other Gundam. "You'll pay for that you sniveling bastard!" Calamity rushed in, firing rounds from it's cannon at the same time.
"More? I thought that you would learn after you saw what happened to your friend..." taunted the pilot.
"Shut up! I don't need your witty comments!" Orga growled, trying to focus on the Gundam he was trying to shoot down. The Gundam reacted by firing a cage of lasers around Calamity, trapping the Gundam. "Let me out! Damn! Some cheap trick this is!" Orga sneered, trying in vain to get Calamity free.
"Oh, you think that this is some mere trick!" the pilot retorted. "I'll show you!" Immediately, the lasers closed in on Calamity, destroying most of the Gundam's weapons and sending the downed unit tumbling onto the mainland.
"Hey, what gives?" Dearka remarked, seeing the other Gundam demolished.
"That's no ordinary unit... Keep your guard up, who knows what the hell a unit like that could do..." Crot stated.
"Fine, then let's all attack at once!" Yzak suggested.
"Maybe then we can destroy this Gundam." Dearka muttered. The three Gundams positioned themselves for a direct attack and charged in for the strike. The unit easily evaded the planned attack and launched one of his own, having the lasers trail the Gundams until there's nothing left.
"These things, they keep following us!" Yzak growled.
"We can't keep dodging these..." Dearka mumbled. Crot had shifted Raider to it's mobile armor form and was busy trying to fire back at the homing lasers. Pretty soon, all three of the Gundams had been disabled by the lasers.
Meanwhile, Aegis, Strike and Blitz, who had been trying to keep the ZAFT forces away, found that they were the only one's left on the battlefield, not to mention Ai's Cerberus being almost destroyed. They all turned to face the Gundam and rushed in to deal a blow. The Gundam seemed to have anticipated all three of their moves and dished out counter measures for all of them.
"You guys...make sure that Ai doesn't get hurt..." Nicol murmured, as Blitz was sent crashing to the ground, with no energy left to spare.
"Nicol!" Athrun hollered.
"Athrun, we have to focus on bringing down that unit..." Kira reminded.
"Yes...I know." Athrun replied, bring Aegis around for another strike.
"I've had enough of your games, come at me so I can end your misery!" exclaimed the other pilot. Both the Aegis and the Strike rushed in, only to be confronted by lasers and brought down, with several severed limbs in the process.
"We can't lose...not here...not now." Kira murmured, trying desperately to get the system back online, but to no avail. The Gundam then turned to face Cerberus.
"Now where were we? Oh right, I was about to destroy you..." the pilot stated, advancing towards the crippled unit.
Ai watched in horror as all of her friend's Gundams were sent crashing down and she was left wide open for attack. Her body felt cold and she felt helpless as the unknown enemy closed in to her. 'No... It can't...' she thought, her hands shaking as she attempted to do something. 'It can't end this way!'
"I won't let you hurt any more people!" she shouted as a sudden feeling came over the young pilot. It was as if she had experienced a second wind as she struck down the unit. Mobilizing her blades the fires from before engulfed the unit as it spiraled down and took out the Gundam's weaponry. Ai continued her ruthless assault on the enemy, never backing down as Cerberus was slowly losing it's bearings. It was as if some unknown force had taken over her that very moment, performing near impossible feats in her condition. The pilot, however, noticed her sudden change and reacted to it as he finally was able to shake Ai off. Using his remaining energy he restrained Ai's Cerberus ready to press a single button if need be.
"Get off me!" she sneered as her uncontrollable rage continued to flare. Cerberus tried as best it could to shake the unit off but they fought a losing fight. Ai's strength combine with the Cerberus was beginning to waiver and as her rage continued it had begun to drop dramatically. The pilot laughed menacingly as he readied his ploy. Her eyes widened in disbelief as she returned to normal finally realizing his plot. 'No...' she thought as she finally shook off the unwanted unit only to find that Cerberus had lost all power. 'I can't move...'
"Cerberus!" she shouted desperately trying to get movement from the unit. Nothing worked, all of her energy had been depleted. Ai was helpless now as the unit closed in with one intention in mind; take the child down...
Author's Notes: Well this one was quite a big project. Especially if you look closely, you can tell who did most of the writing in this one, huh? Anyway, for those of you who couldn't figure out what exactly it was they were fighting it's the Providence. And for those of you who misread some of the pilots' comments, they're all still A-L-I-V-E!