Chapter 10

The crude square materialized in front of the team, making them cock their heads in confusion. Only the Gundam Force smiled in hidden relief. Even the soldier smiled in hidden relief.

"Geez! Where did that come from?!" Voltage blurted.

"Who cares? As long as it's a way home, who cares where it came from?" Baston snapped.

"Hey!" Voltage turned to face the other Gundam. "Watch it!"

"Break it up!" Sayla snapped, grasping both Gundams by the shoulders and pushing them apart before a fistfight broke out between the two.

"But…"

"No buts, Voltage!" Sayla snarled.

"C'mon. Let's just get back home," Shute said wearily.

"Hold on. What about Baston's past? I mean, we haven't found anyone or anything that can give us a lead!" T.J. remarked.

"That may be the case, but as of right now, we should be glad we're even alive," Kicker reminded him. "Besides, the Dark Axis is much tougher than we thought."

"True, but maybe I can help with something," the soldier said.

Sayla snapped her head back towards the soldier. "Okay. Name and rank, soldier!" she ordered.

"Name is Princess Relehimana Mia De Lacroa! Rank is heir to the throne!" the soldier said.

"What?" Zero's eyes widened as he stared at her. "Princess?"

The princess ('Is she really a princess?' Sayla wondered) spread her arms and spoke one word clearly. "Mana!"

Her uniform faded as magical light engulfed her. Wherever it faded, there was new clothing. Arm length gloves covered her hands and arms while her body was covered in a short dress with high heeled boots covering her legs. Her military helmet gave way to a tiara perched on her head, though her hair remained the same length.

"…P-Princess!" Zero flitted over to her and embraced her in his arms.

"O-okay, Zero. You can let me go now!" she gasped.

"I thought you were a goner," he murmured.

"Well, I managed to sneak into the dimension where you guys reside, and I disguised myself as one of her soldiers. I was there ever since," the princess said.

"How long were you hidden in my unit?" Sayla asked as her eyes narrowed at the princess.

"About three months."

"…" Sayla stared, speechless.

"No way…" Zane whispered. "No one has managed to evade her for that long…"

"Evade? You mean that no one has snuck inside her unit?" Rele asked.

"No. Last person who tried that wound up nursing three broken limbs and a sprained ankle for three months straight!" Syrus blurted.

"What? Are you serious?" Rele blurted.

"Yep."

"…" Rele was silent at the remark.

"Enough. We need to get back home. Princess Relehimana, do you mind coming with us?" Sayla asked.

"No. Not at all, and it's Rele. Just Rele," Rele said.

"Okay. That I can deal with," Sayla replied, a smile appearing on her face.

Voltage grasped Sayla's arm before she turned to head into the portal. "What about Deed?" he asked, pointing at the weakened knight.

"What? Deed?! He's here?!" Zero gasped.

"Yeah. He's right there," Voltage said.

"Impossible! Deed is dead! I killed him!" Zero protested.

"No…Zero. What thee killed…was a clone," Deed murmured, collapsing to his knees, his strength fading from his body.

"A…clone?" Zero rasped.

"Yes."

Zero placed his head in his hands. "How…I don't understand…"

"I think I do," Zane said calmly. "It seems that someone created a clone of Deed in an attempt to spare his life, only to imprison him and torture him into this state."

"That…is correct."

"Any idea as to who would do that?" Meisha asked.

"I think I can take a pretty good guess," Zane said simply. "Shift."

Elsewhere…

Visions of the future pass by in his mind, each one becoming cloudier than the next. One vision is remarkably clear, but only because it is becoming closer with each battle. The future that they are working so hard to prevent crosses the very edge of his consciousness before fading into the mists of time and the ageless wisdom of the ages. Dread fills his very spark as he takes in the fact of defeat.

Never has he been dealt such a devastating blow in his life. Defeat…it was as alien to him as death was to Primus. Victory has always been his calling, and peace his drive.

Vector Prime sighs heavily as he closes his optics. The future is now becoming certain, and sealed.

Time is running out.

On Orca…

Night was beginning to fall upon the great Orcan city. The many lights twinkled in the darkness and the fading light from the sun. The twin moons of the planet came into clear view, the smaller one dwarfed by the larger. If one looked closely, then they could see the many lights on the outposts faintly against the moons' light.

It was on one such outpost that there was an intense study being conducted on the Soul-Drive they had taken from a Zako a few days ago.

The lab in which the study was being done wasn't anything special, save for the fact that it housed the latest in Orcan medical and scientific knowledge: the soul transfer machine. The machine itself was similar to a Cybertronian medical laser, but it was wired to a portable generator and the beam was designed to remove the soul from the dying body and preserving it in the form of a computer chip or a Reploid power core.

The machine could also be used to study different effects that intense emotions had on disembodied souls.

This time, a small analyzing beam was shining down on the Soul-Drive which was clamped down to a table.

Ciel studied the readouts from the scanners, her blue eyes narrowing. This just didn't seem right to her. The entire scan seemed to be malfunctioning.

She hit a couple keys on the keyboard, resulting in the laser shutting down and rebooting, scanning again from the top of the Soul-Drive to the bottom. The beam of light reached into the depths and began scanning the lightning energy inside, resulting in a flurry of activity from it.

"Looks like we've hit the jackpot," a techie murmured.

"No. We couldn't have. The scanners must be malfunctioning," Ciel said.

"What? No way! If they were, then would we have detected a human soul?!" one of the engineers asked her.

"That's just the thing. We couldn't have. The soul of a human can't be picked up by our scanners. They're meant to scan for the presence of a soul, not the actual thing," Ciel stated, shaking her head in disbelief.

"The presence is the same thing as the actual thing being there," the techie said.

"…" Ciel was silent as she scanned the data again. She hated to admit it, but the techie was right. The data did seem to be pointing towards the indication of an imprisoned soul, unable to reach out from the depths of the hatred encasing it.

"Even so, how can we free it from this?" she asked finally.

"We're not entirely sure, so we'll just have to go along with the studies until we can figure out a way for reversing the amplification of negative emotions, focusing on restoring this thing to normal, if it's even possible," the techie said as he rubbed his head.

"It may be possible, or it may not. It all comes down to chance," the engineer replied.

"That's what I hate about these kinds of things. Chance isn't always working in our favor," Ciel said softly.

"Why not?"

"First time we fought in a universal war, we nearly lost ourselves. And chance wasn't working in our favor that time," Ciel replied.

"Maybe, but sometimes it can."

"I sure hope this time it does turn in our favor…" Ciel murmured. She turned back to face the windows. "I hope so."

On Earth…

The portal closed up behind them as they emerged back on Earth, the light and warmth from the sun relieving them of their tension. Shute let out a sigh of relief as he looked around the campus of the TCDA.

"Man! I'd never thought I'd be glad to see Earth again," he murmured.

"Tell me about it," said Sayla. "After that battle with Subzero, I have to agree, although seeing Lacroa up close and personally has given me a new respect for the medieval ages. They knew what they were doing back then."

"Yeah, we already knew that. We were there, remember?" Kicker said, poking her in the shoulder.

While the others were chatting, Shute and Captain broke off from the main group and snuck off to be alone together.

Shute flopped onto his back under a tree, staring up at the cloudless blue sky. A few starfighters flew overhead and he squinted his eyes, trying to identify them. He knew that they were supposed to be in the attack class, but the type eluded him.

"Hey, uh, Captain?" Shute asked.

"Yes, Shute?"

"Can you tell me what type of starfighters those are?" the boy asked, pointing to them.

"They are of the Alpine Wind type, built for attack and speed," Captain explained casually.

"Attack and speed, huh?" Shute's eyes clouded over and he instantly fell silent.

"Shute…" Captain could tell what Shute was thinking.

"Still can't believe that the Dark Axis is much stronger…" the boy murmured.

"Shute, we're also getting stronger, and the Federation is learning as well. We will beat them," Captain said, placing a hand on Shute's shoulder.

"You sure?"

"Of course, Shute."

"Captain, um, well, there's something I wanted to tell you…but…how can I put it?" Shute closed his eyes and began tracing a squiggle on Captain's stomach. The Gundam jerked slightly at the touch, and he grasped Shute's hand gently, yet firmly enough to get the boy's attention.

"Shute…don't do that."

"Huh? What? You mean this?" Shute asked, tracing yet another squiggle on his friend's stomach.

"That," Captain said, grasping the boy's other hand.

"Why?" Shute asked, a small question mark hovering over his head.

"Just don't do it, okay Shute?"

"Okay."

Captain released Shute's hands and the two continued to stare at the clear blue sky.

Earth Command

12:30, 12:30p.m. Local Time

President Warren sighed as she finished reviewing the reports from the scouts and the data they had accumulated. Screens littered her desk and were tossed on the floor as if she had just skimmed them before tossing them aside. Her hair was disheveled and her jumpsuit was wrinkled, her eyes glazed over as she set the screen she had been reading down on her desk, losing it amongst the other clutter.

"Almost…has it really been four months?" She couldn't believe that so little time had passed. Already it seemed as if they had been fighting for four years, not months.

"President Warren?" a voice asked.

"Yes, that's me. And who are…you…?" Her voice trailed off as she stared at the form before her.

"That is not the important thing. What is important is that you must make a decision and fast. That decision could very well mean the difference between freedom and destruction of your universe," the visitor said softly.

"Why? What does this have to do with anything?" she asked, sweeping her arm about the cluttered office.

"What little data you have is—" Her guest was cut off abruptly by a wave of her hand.

"Little? You call all this…a little amount of data?! We've been sending in teams, gathering data from other organizations, and we even risked a scouting mission just so we could get some idea of the conditions within the camps, and you call that amount of data insignificant?! Huh?!" she cried, again motioning to the screens littering her office.

"I can see how hard you have worked to gather the data that you need, but there is one part that is key to your victory, and that is what you lack," the figure murmured.

"So? You're saying that we can't win with what data we have?" she snapped.

The guest shook his head. "No."

"Then what are you saying?" she asked.

"That your knowledge of what they do to humans is insignificant," her visitor said simply.

"What makes you think that? We have teams studying the Soul-Drives we found and—" This time it was her who was cut off, not her unexpected guest.

"The Soul-Drives are merely part of their experiments. Try capturing a Zako and studying that. You'll be surprised," her guest said.

"We have. We've also uncovered some surprising facts. The Soul-Drives they use are humans who have been corrupted by amplifying the negative emotions within their souls. It's a very complicated technique, but we're working on cracking it."

"It is not that simple. It is not like a computer program that can be cracked. It is much more than that," the form quietly muttered.

"Then, what is it?" President Warren asked, narrowing her eyes.

"…Are you sure you want to know?" the form whispered.

President Warren's face was set in determination. "Yes."

"It is a process that removes humanity from the souls that are used and the emotions are selected to boost the specific Soul-Drive's power. All positive emotions are robbed from the human soul and the negative ones are allowed to grow stronger, making them dark. Only three hundred remained untainted by evil power," the form explained.

"Three hundred Soul-Drives?" President Warren asked.

"Yes. And they can be found in the main base, although some have been turning up in labs across your organization, right?" the form inquired, a smirk underlining the voice.

"Yeah. As a matter of fact, they have. Who's been leaving them there?" the President asked.

The form spread his arms. "That would be me."

"You?! You left them there?!" President Warren blurted.

"Yes. I feel that you can find a way to return those humans back to their original bodies, no?" the form remarked, smirking beneath the cloak, although she couldn't see it.

"I doubt that. We don't even know how long they were stuck like that," the President admitted.

"…" Her guest was silent.

"You know, don't you?" she asked, suddenly jabbing a finger at her guest.

The visitor nodded. "Yes."

"How long?" she prodded.

"Ten years."

"What? Ten years? Then, there's no way we can return them to normal," the Federation leader whispered.

"Then, can you give them a second chance?" the form asked softly.

President Warren nodded. "It depends. We need bodies that can house them, so we need the mineral needed to build them. Unfortunately, we don't have enough to build them."

"The Dark Axis has tons of bodies being built even as we speak. If you can find them bodies that you feel will be suitable for them…" Her guest's voice trailed off.

"Then things would look up for them, and us, right?" President Warren finished.

"Yes. You catch on quickly."

"I do what I have to do. Now, who are you?" she asked.

"In time, President Warren. In time…" the form whispered

The figure vanished into the shadows of her room, leaving her staring in shock and wonder.

Two hours later…

Kicker let out a sigh of relief as he flopped down onto his back. The light from the sun shone in through his window, illuminating his room. The light touched his face, warming his flesh as he narrowed his brown eyes. Something had gone wrong with one of the recent patrols, and one of their students, a boy named Coby Hansen, one of the Omega Squadron, a group of kids able to hear the Omega frequency, had gone missing.

He ran over what he had heard from the 17th Division's patrol forces.

SDGIFSDGIFSDGIF-Flashback-SDGIFSDGIFSDGIF

Private Greg Jackson narrowed his blue eyes as he watched the Zako soldiers creeping off with Coby bound and gagged, unable to even move, although his eyes were blazing with hatred towards them.

"Sir? Shouldn't we try to save them?" he asked the lieutenant in front of him.

"Not yet, Private. We need to see what—" Lieutenant Zack Kenneth was cut off abruptly as a Zako looked over in their direction.

"Crud! We've been spotted!" Jackson blurted.

"Don't think I don't know that!" Kenneth snapped.

"Zako! Get them! And begin the project! Zako!"

"I don't think so!" Kenneth hissed. He grabbed a grenade on his belt and pulled the pin. He drew it back and chucked it as hard as he could. The shaped projectile flew through the air and exploded against the Zako in front of Coby.

"Zako! Project commencing! NOW!" the Zako cried.

"WHAT?!" Jackson's eyes widened.

"NOOO!" Kenneth cried.

SDGIFSDGIFSDGIF-End Flashback-SDGIFSDGIFSDGIF

He frowned slightly. What had happened to Coby? What was this project?

Thump! Thump! Thump!

"Huh?" Kicker sat up abruptly, his hand going for his code instinctively, even though he knew he couldn't enter the New Mode, let alone Matrix. He moved his hand away and grasped a nearby laser pistol that he had been given right after he had become partnered with Ironhide.

He swung his legs off the bed and landed on the floor.

He tensed, listening.

Thump! Thump! Thump!

"Something's here…" he murmured. He clicked the safety off his pistol and crept towards the bathroom door. He pulled back the trigger and placed a hand on the scanner.

"Open." The command came out as a mere whisper, but it did the job. Kicker flattened himself on the wall and held his pistol close to his body.

The door slid open with a soft hiss and he tensed, ready for whatever was lurking in there.

Nothing came out, except for a slight moan.

"Hello?"

No answer, except for a muffled groan, followed by what he recognized as Japanese swearing, but muffled.

"Sayla?"

More swearing, followed by a slight thump.

A hunch began to form in his mind and he took a wild guess, hoping that he was right on the money.

"Who's in there?"

A slight thunk, then slight moaning.

Kicker lowered his pistol and peered in, only to let out a gasp and back up, pointing the pistol at the form inside.

A Gundam lay in the bathtub, bound up with energon twine.

Kicker's eyes darted over the Gundam's body. From what he could see, the Gundam had a strange helmet with a Japanese symbol with a pair of wings flanking it acting as the helmet crest. A strange purple symbol adorned the chest and a pair of golden shoulder pads stood out. Armor covered the Gundam's wrists and lower arms, emeralds located in strategic places. What appeared to be a mustache covered the Gundam's mouthpiece. The eyes were displaying the dizzy emotion, indicating that he was out cold. A shampoo bottle lay beside him.

"What in Primus name?!"

Captain stared out the window to their quarters, thinking about the efforts of the Dark Axis to try and get the power they sought. For some reason, it bothered him that they would try to become so powerful. They had the weapons to take it, so why didn't they? This wasn't their style.

He was so busy thinking that he failed to hear the door to the room slide open and Shute walking in with bare feet.

"Hey Captain."

"Huh? Oh. Hey, Shute," Captain said without turning.

"Just came back from the hot springs. I really needed it."

At the mention of the hot springs, Captain turned, and immediately felt his face flush at the sight of Shute in nothing but his boxers. Water dripped down from Shute's hair which lay flat against his head, his hair tuft somehow defying gravity, even when it was wet. His skin was covered in the remnants of the spring water and his boxer shorts were plastered to his legs, a towel draped over one shoulder.

"What?" Shute shrugged.

"N-nothing," Captain stammered, slamming his mouthpiece on over his mouth to hide his blush.

Shute shrugged again and began toweling off his hair. He turned away from Captain, leaving the Gundam to take in Shute's wiry frame. His body was sort of scrawny, but he more than made up for it in his ever increasing reflexes.

For some reason, he found his eyes wandering over Shute's body, looking him up and down. The skin looked untouched by battle scars, but he could barely see a few wounds that had never fully healed, such as a slight nick to his back that Grappler Gouf had given him before the formation of the Genki Energy Force.

He shook his head, wondering what was coming over him.

"Hmm?" Shute looked over. "Something wrong, Captain?"

"No. Nothing's wrong," Captain said quickly, his gaze darting to the floor.

"Okay."

Captain glanced up and found himself wondering what it would be like to feel Shute's flesh against his armor, the soft, gentle beating of his heart against his chest. He brushed those thoughts aside, but for some reason, his Soul-Drive began to purr softly in its compartment, making him blush even more.

What was happening between them?

On Kax…

Seto sighed as he stepped into his office, holding three new reports concerning the petrification process sent up from his scientists in his hands, a small folder held on the top of the reports.

"Man. All these theories and no test subjects. How are we supposed to reverse this if we don't have any test subjects?" he muttered.

He glanced down at the file on top and shrugged. He had gotten it from one of his scientists, who had, strangely enough, been visited by someone. As to who, that remained a mystery.

The CEO of KaibaCorp set the reports and the file folder down and began to examine the data they had recently discovered. The data was the usual mix of theories and methods of reversal, along with a few diagrams. But there was something else thrown in.

As he scanned the third report, it became obvious: they had discovered it through a test. But, then again, how could they test it when they didn't have a test subject?

His gaze flitted over to the file folder and he picked it up. Something was inside it. He opened it up, and his eyes widened.

Trapped in the folder was a BagguBaggu, stuck down with energon paste. The wings fluttered madly as the little stinger flitted in and out like a tongue. He placed the folder down and picked up a small leaf from a plant on his desk.

He dropped it next to the critter and it jabbed out the stinger, striking the leaf. Seto watched in fascination as the process took place before his very eyes.

"Wow…"

He grasped the interplanetary comm system and activated it.

In President Warren's office…

Beep! Beep! Beep!

President Warren glanced up from a few screens and pressed the comm button just as a screen came up, showing Seto's face. "President Warren here."

"Good. President Warren? You there?" Seto asked.

"Seto?" Her eyes widened at the sound of his voice.

"One and only. Look. Remember that report I sent you?" the CEO asked.

"Yeah. So?" President Warren remarked, cocking an eyebrow.

"Well, this time, I'll be sending you some new data. Give me at least three days and by then we'll have something that may be of some help to us," Seto said. Relief and happiness was evident in his voice.

"What're you getting at?" President Warren asked.

"Just trust me, okay?"

President Warren sighed. "It's not that I don't trust you, I just want to know what you're getting at. Does it have to do with petrification by any chance?"

Seto's image smirked.

"I'm getting a cure for this." With that last remark, he closed down the connection.

"…A cure…? Could he have possibly found a way…?" Her voice trailed off as she placed her hands in front of her on the desk. She glanced out at the complex below her office windows, wondering what kind of method Seto had found to reverse the process. If it even worked, maybe then they stood a chance of reversing it on those who had been turned into stone statues.

If it worked…