"Captain! Incoming missiles barrage from unknown sources!" Chandra said as he track their trajectories. Despite Cherubim and Minerva fighting each other, the ZAFT's missiles barrage continued on. .

"Activate our CIWS except the ones near the repair jobs"

"Yes, Captain" Amagi said.

Everyone watched as the missiles were safely destroyed before they could reach Archangel. Murrue asked, "What about the repair work, Miriallia? Are they done?"

"Still a bit more"

"Another incoming barrage"

"Intercept them again. How about our Murasames' refueling and rearming?"

"On the way" Miriallia as she checked their status. "We're trying to finish the process as fast as we could, but…"

"I understand," Murrue said, cutting her off. "Nevertheless, send them out as soon as possible. The other two doesn't look as if they can last any longer. How about those two ships?"

"Still battlin$g," Cagalli said. "I wonder what caused them to be fighting each other. Aren't they're supposed to be allies, fighting against us?"

"I don't know" Murrue said. "But in our current situation, this turn of the event is probably the thing that will determine wether we'll be able to leave this place in one piece…"

Cagalli could see where Murrue was going with her statement and said, "But we couldn't side with the ship that has helped to destroy mobile suits!"

"Which one are you talking about?" Murrue asked.

"That Earth Alliance ship, of course"

"I can see your reasoning, but we can't side with Minerva, not when it was trying to capture us"

"But…"

"It was ZAFT that attacked this ship in the first place" Murrue pointed toward Impulse which was on the screen. "And you shouldn't forget the fact that the ZAFT's mobile suit had also killed many of our friends"

"I…"

"Seems to me, Lady Cagalli, it's better for us to assist Cherubim"

"Amagi!"

"Or we can just wait" Murrue said. "Siding with any of them is a moot point right now, as we're in no position to do so"

"Another attack, Captain!" Chandra announced.

"We can only wait… and watch" Murrue repeated as the main screen continued to show the battle between Freedom, Impulse and Gaia.

Athrun looked as Minerva and Cherubim exchanged shots. "What the hell…" Something must have happened that have caused the supposed ZAFT's ally to backstab and attack Minerva. But whatever the reason, the ZAFT flagship needed help and support to fight it. He called Shinn. "Shinn, we must return to protect Minerva!"

Only static noise greeted his attempt do so. Not wanting to give up, he tried again, but due to Merlin's jamming his message didn't get through to Shinn.

Meanwhile, the said pilot was busy trying to get a lock on Freedom. "Come on, Freedom. I shall let you free. Just sit still, will you?" He grinned maniacally. "Just like you attacked Stellar, I'll finally get you this time" Impulse fired at Freedom and missed by a fraction of a meter. "Damn"

The FAITH member wondered about what he should do. His first thought was to leave the area immediately and return to assist Minerva, but he couldn't leave Shinn to fight Kira alone. He didn't want a repeat of what happened to Nicol. He pressed the communication buttons, trying to recalibrate the communication signal but to no avail. Athrun had decided to approach Impulse and dragged it back when he saw Impulse's beam rifle was destroyed by a precise shot from Freedom's rail bazooka. "SHINN!"

Shinn, unperturbed by what has happened to his mobile suit's rifle decided to draw out the beam sword instead. For him, the fight against Freedom was no longer centered on avenging Stellar only. The fight has put his pride on the line as well; the pride of that young boy who bested every other ORB residents in many fields, the pride that caused him numerous troubles with ZAFT higher ups. Impulse engaged its thrusters at maximum and rushed at Freedom.

Athrun watched as Freedom keep firing at Impulse and the latter evading the shots by twisting and turning. While what Shinn did was no less than spectacular for a pilot of his caliber, Athrun felt that it was strange the Kira didn't fire all of its weapons, preferring to keep Impulse occupied with its rifle. Then it dawned on him.

"Few hundred meters more…" Shinn said as he pursued Freedom who was flying backward. He knew that the mobile suit couldn't fly backwards as fast as forward, a minor detail that will spell the end for it. Freedom tried to lose him by zigzagging and changing directions a few times, but he doggedly followed it around.

"Shinn!" Athrun called out.

"What!" Shinn answered, distracted. "Can't you see that I'm busy right now?"

"The jamming has ended?" Athrun asked himself. Then, realizing that he had an important thing to tell, he said, "We must go back! Minerva needs us!"

"If you want to go back, go ahead, Commander. Me? I'm going to finish Freedom off once for all" Shinn said cockily. He continued his pursue of Freedom which also continued to dance out of his way. "Damn you… Freedom!"

"Shinn, Minerva is…"

The young pilot switched off the communication, wanting to concentrate on getting his prey into the crosshair. Just as he had targetted the mobile suit and was about to fire, Freedom swerve out of the way again. But this time, the mobile suit changed its direction and engaged its boosters toward Impulse, as if wanting to ram into the mobile suit. Shinn quickly evaded and tried to slash Freedom. To his surprise, Freedom moved passed his mobile suit. "What the…" It was when he turned Impulse around did he see Freedom was engaging all of its weaponry to fire at him. "Oh no, you don't" He quickly manuevered Impulse out of Freedon's fire, only to have on of the shots destroying the legs. "Damn you, this isn't over…"

Unfortunately for him, it seemed that the fight was over, as Fredom had aimed its beam rifle at the spot where Impulse would be. It turns out that the previous attack was to force Shinn to move into its rifle's target area. Inside Freedom, Kira calmly pressed the trigger button. "Sorry"

Just as the beam was fired, another beam shot destroyed the rifle, almost taking out Freedom's hand if it hadn't for Kira realeasing it. "Athrun…" Freedom quickly drew its beam saber to block another subsequent attack from Gaia.

Athrun's grip on his mobile suit's joystick tightened. "I'm not going to let what happened to Nicol to happen today"

Meanwhile, Shinn has recovered from the shock that he had nearly lost his live to Freedom. Renewed with fervor, Impulse joined the battle.

Kira expertly maneuvered his mobile suit to evade an attack by Shinn, and use the oppurtunity to move in front of it, preventing Athrun from attacking him. He then slashed at Impulse chest, but Impulse caught the sword with one hand, and the the hand exploded.

"Shinn!" Athrun commanded with authority in his voice. "Move aside!"

It wasn't often that Shinn comply with what Athrun told him to do, but that time he wisely moved his mobile suit out of the way. Gaia and Freedom resumed their fight. Freedom tried to push Gaia away by engaging its shoulder beam cannon, Gaia moved to Freedom's side and destroyed them as well as chopping of Freedom's head. At the same time, Freedom also slashed at Gaia's head and managed to decapitate it. Before Gaia could attack further, Freedom turned its body toward it and engaged its bazookas. The shots got Gaia in the chest and Athrun lost control of his mobile suit and it began to fall.

Shinn looked at Gaia falling and felt anger coursing through him. "Freedom…" With fury fueling him, he attack Freedom head on.

Although Freedom'ss main camera was taken out by Gaia, the headless mobile suit still managed to counterattaked by using its secondary cameras. Impulse lost its left hand. Not to be deterred, Shinn disengaged his mobile suit parts and attacked Freedom using Core Splendor, utilizing its nimbleness to evade Freedom's attack. "DIE!" The aircraft shoot its machineguns, scoring direct hits on it. However, the shots were ineffective against Freedom's Shift Phase armor.

"What is he doing?" Kira asked as he tried to target Core Splendor. Suddenly the computer beeped its warning, while radar was showing sometthing approaching him from behind. He quickly switched to the rear camera. "What the…?" It was Chest Flyer flying toward him at high speed. Instantly Kira realized that Impulse pilot was trying to distract him so that the other aircraft could attack him. A good attack, but not without a flaw. Kira was about to destroy Chest Flyer when an explosion on Freedom's wing, throwing him off guard. Kira searched for the source of the direction. It was from Gaia. Then his eyes widened as he realized that he has forgotten about Chest Flyer. He turned back and saw that Core Splendor has reintegrated with Impulse and the mobile suit was very near to him, its MMI-710 Excalibur sword clearly targeting Freedom's cockpit. It was already too late to avoid the attack. Impulse sword pierced through Freedom's body and a second later both of them were engulfed in a large explosion.

"Kira… " Athrun said, full of guilt and regret.

"There're so many of them…" Zachary muttered as he maneuvered his mobile suit away from enemy missiles. While his Murasame was more advanced than some of the ZAFT mobile suits attacking him and he had skills and experience to augment it, it was a fact that they outnumbered him and his wing mate fifteen to one. They realized it and used the advantage to the fullest. Four mobile suits were chasing him at that time, ganging him up so that he couldn't retaliate. At the same time, another mobile suit aimed its rifle at his Murasame and fired. Zachary saw the shot, but it was already too late to avoid it and merely closed his eyes and waited for the certain death. It didn't.

Zachary opened his eyes to see that Vishnu's Murasame was standing at the beam's supposed trajectory, a large gaping hole on its body.

"Sir…" Vishnu's face appeared, speaking with a weak and strained voice. "Despite your redeming qualities, you can be a damned fool and idiotic ass hole"

"Vishnu…"

Vishnu nodded. "But I respect you sir. It was an hon…" His mobile suit ignited into a giant fireball, engulfing and drowning anything that he could have said.

"Vishnu!" Zachary shouted.

"Where are you looking at, amateur?" a foreign voice invaded his communication channel.

Zachary looked away and saw a Gouf coming toward him with its beam sword at ready but just as the blue mobile was about to cut his Murasame into two, it exploded.

"You owe me two pints of whiskey," an unfamiliar voice said as a Murasame with a Windam head moved to his side.

He looked at the markings on the newcomer's mobile suit and recognized it. "Wha? That unit… you're Kurosaki?"

"Close enough. I'm a 'J' instead of 'K'"

"He's Nash Jackson of Cherubim," another voice chimed in. This time, he knew the pilot's voice.

"Vince?"

"In person"

"What are you doing here?"

"Swatting some annoying single-eyed mosquitoes buzzing around your ship"

Jackson interrupted. "Hey, let's chat latter. We still have some work to do"

From the explosion that has engulfed it, a limbless and damaged Freedom emerged, crashing to the ocean below. Inside it, an unconscious Kira Yamato was strapped to its seat. Somehow, he managed to evade Shinn's attack at the last possible moment so that it wouldn't hit the nuclear reactor. However, with most of Freedom's parts destroyed and Kira knocked out, the situation looked grim for him.

Meanwhile, a blackened Impulse also emerged from the explosion, its white and blue colors were gone because of it being powered down. Then, the mobile suit disengaged and fell to the sea, leaving only Core Splendor still operational. Shinn let out a chuckle of bittersweet victory as he looked at the crashing mobile suit. He leaned back on his seat and let his thought lingered on a golden haired girl. In his mind, he was imagining her smiling at him. "Stellar…" he said fondly, letting a tear rolled down his cheek as he felt the weight that was clutching his heart ever since the battle at Berlin dissipate away. "I did it, Stellar… Thanks to Athrun's help, I did it. I have avenged your death" He turned his head toward Gaia. "Thank you, Athrun," he said softly.

But his words weren't heard on Gaia, as Shinn did not activate the communication to convey his gratitude for his commander. For the first time since his family was killed, Shinn let himself feel respect for someone. "Thanks to you, I have avenged Stellar" Little did Shinn know that the person he was thanking at that time was in the middle of turmoil at having to fight and possibly murdered his very own friend. The young ZAFT ace turned back his attention toward Freedom, thinking about what he should do.

But before Shinn could decide, a Gouf passed by his Core Splendor by at high speed, giving chase to the damaged mobile suit. Inside its cockpit, the Gouf's pilot was cackling with glee as he was fantasizing about the Order of Nebula medal he would receive after he had killed the famous ace who piloted Freedom. Although it would be easy for him to fire at limbless Freedom from his location, he decided that he could derive better satisfaction as well as glory by cutting through the cockpit. Besides, it would certainly get him some respect from his drinking buddies if he could boast that he destroyed Freedom using a sword. Of course, he didn't have to mention the fact that Impulse and Gaia did most of the work and he was merely grabbing an opportunity.

A whooshing sound being picked up by the external audio receptors brought him out of his day dream and the pilot saw his view being blocked by something that moved in front of his mobile suit. "What the hell?"

Then he saw some movement being made by the object and his mobile suit's audio receptors were also confirming this by broadcasting the sounds of metal parts meshing together. It was as if the thing was transforming. Deciding to find out about what was blocking his view, he moved his Gouf's main camera to look downward a bit. Legs… hips... chest... head. "Looks like a mobile suit…" He was shocked to see a Windam's head peering at him. "A Windam's head being attached to a Murasame's body?" Then he realized that it was jabbing something toward his cockpit. To his consternation, it was a beam weapon. He couldn't react fast enough to move his mobile suit out of the way. Multiple beams pierced through his cockpits and through him. In less than two seconds after he first had his view blocked, the hero wannabe died at the hand of the newcomer.

The newcomer then kicked the Gouf away and transformed into a mobile armor. With the ZAFT's mobile suit exploding behind it, it flew toward the still spiraling Freedom at high speed. It then transformed back into mobile suit and caught hold of Freedom, engaging its afterburners to stop both of them from descending further. Unfortunately, the weight of Freedom cockpit was too heavy for it to lift and they continued their uncontrolled descent. Not wanting to give up, the Murasame momentarily released its hold on Freedom's cockpit, transformed into a mobile armor again and fired all of its missiles. It then assumed its mobile suit form to grab Freedom with its right arm and fired at the missiles with the other one holding the MPG-5Z. Before the beams reached the missiles, the Murasame quickly released its MPG-5Z to bring up its shield, twisting a bit so that Freedom's cockpit was safely behind it when the missiles exploded. The resulting explosions knocked both the mobile suit and its rescued cargo toward Archangel.

If it wasn't for the helmet that covered his head, Jackson would have rubbed his eyes in disbelief. He wasn't sure whether Ezra, the mobile suit's pilot was a Coordinator or not, but in order to execute such a risky maneuver needs precise timing as well as plenty of guts. It wasn't as if the pilot had plenty of chance to practice the technique. Too far from the explosions and the force created by the explosion wouldn't be enough to propel both the Murasame and Freedom. Too close and both mobile suits would be burnt to crisp. "Whoohoo! ORB pilots are confirmed nut cases," he commented dryly.

"Stop badmouthing Ezra's idiotic and suicidal tactic" Vince retorted, referring to his other wing mate.

"You're the one who called it idiotic and suicidal" Jackson complained.

"But I'm her superior officer; I can call her whatever I want"

"Then why do you take offense whenever I insult her?"

"Because I'm her superior"

"That reasoning is useless and illogical"

"Only to a dimwit like you"

"Oh yeah!" Jackson's Murasame sped toward Vince's while bringing out its beam sword.

"Yeah" Meanwhile, Vince's unit was bring out its MPG-5Z and aimed it toward Jackson's.

Jackson's unit slashed at something behind Vince's. A beam shot was deflected safely. "Weep and grovel at my feet for forgiveness later as I have saved your sorry ass"

"Fat chance" Vince said through gritted teeth as he fired at a DINN behind Jackson's unit.

"Huh. Ungrateful wretch!" Jackson said as he gave chase to the mobile suit that was behind Vince's

"Talking about yourself?" Vince asked as he blocked subsequent shots from the DINN.

"I thought we still have some work to do?" Zachary asked, hoping to diffuse the situation.

"You got that right, Zach" Vince said. "We'll settle this afterwards, Jack" he asked as he shot his MPG-5Z back at his opponent. The shots rained on the DINN and it exploded a moment later.

"My pleasure. Poker?" Jackson said as his Windam's slash went through the cockpit of the another ZAFT mobile suit.

"Anytime, if you don't get shot down

"Save the words for yourself"

1
Author's note (7 June 2006)

1. This chapter and the next one, which I will probably finish in a week's time will focus more on other characters apart from our favorite ones. Although I can just do the fight between Kira, Shinn and Athrun and ignore the rest, I feel it's best if I focus them as well so that there will be continuity. After all, it lets me try some scenes that I have been wanting do ever since I start writing Fallen Angel. Examples of those would be the Murasame transforming to take out the ZAFT's mobile suit at close range, and the Murasame exploding its own missiles so that the force created would propel both Freedom and it toward Archangel. I think those scenes suited Murasame very well as opposed to using Freedom (Freedom couldn't transform into a mobile armour and has lotsa, lotsa thrust ). But in case someone wonders, no, I'm not making them as strong as Kira and the others. Think of them as on par with the trio that took out Chaos and the trio that piloted DOM Trooper.

2. At last! I have achieved what I set out to do! I have reached 70,000 words pinacle. Looking back at when I started, I estimated the story to be around 70,000 words and aimed for it. But as I reach my goal (total words 72420 words as of this chapter) ... I realized that the ultimate goal which is to finish this story isn't achieved yet. Now I'm looking at 100,000 words. I thank myself (of course. I have to be conceited enough to motivate myself to write), Nick, Zidane as well as other reviewers who helped me a lot by giving me feedbacks and opinions. Not to forget other readers who also helped me by simply reading it (I use the power of positive imagination to pretend that my story is good enough to be read by you).

To all of you: Thank you!