Author's Note

"Regular Speech"

'Thoughts'

Reminder that all scenes in the show not changed but not present happened but just aren't written

High Security Prison

As Allelujah sat in the dark of his prison cell in a chained chair holding him back along with his arms in a straitjacket, he could feel the weight of his exhaustion. He was kept decently fed, but sleep came difficult, and it was short. They even kept a mask on him that kept him from talking and only took it off when he got food. He had lost track of time a few months into his holding here and was utterly alone, not even the voice of Hallelujah to talk to. After living so long with another voice in his head, it was strange and lonely to be without it, especially since the two had come to better terms in the final battle however long ago that was. He wished his friends, or anyone really, would be able to find him, but he knew he was most likely somewhere top secret, and he wasn't even sure what happened to them. Were they alive and reformed? Had they been caught one by one and eliminated? 'No, stop thinking that way!' he thought to himself. They had to have made it and he just had to be patient.

The only thing that could distract him from that thought process was Marie. In that final battle where he lost Hallelujah, he finally saw the soldier who had tormented him so much. It was her. It was Marie. There was something about her personality that was completely different. Marie had never wanted to be a soldier. He was sure of it! They must have done something to her, seeing as she could function physically now. He immersed himself in the memory of when he first found Marie when he was a child and how he got his name.

Superhuman Institute

A boy found himself wandering the empty, stark white halls of the institute, having heard a voice of a girl calling out in his head for someone to react to it, wondering if anyone could hear them. He followed the voice as best he could, going up stairs and passed door after door. As he neared a large pair of sliding doors, he could feel the voice was coming from behind it. He stepped up to the door and he saw it slide open, revealing what looked like some room for medical experiments. On the sides of the room were weird box like devices and in the center was a large medical bed with a clear container over it, which had a girl around his age laying there, looking like she was unable to move. He noticed she had long white hair that went to the middle of her back and yellow eyes and covered with bandages of some sort over her lower torso and chest. He heard her call out again desperately again, "Can anybody hear me?"

He approached the container and asked the girl curiously "Are you the one that's been calling out?"

With relief clear in the voice coming in his head, she said "So you can hear me? But where are you?" He looked at her confused and said, "I'm standing right next to you"

He heard the voice apologetically say "I'm sorry, I can't tell, but I'm really happy I can talk to you. Because up to now, I've been all alone. Thanks for coming to see me." Allelujah understood what it meant to be alone, and if he made this person happier to not be lonely, then he would make her happy. He asked, "Who are you?"

"I'm Marie. What's your name?"

Allelujah looked down at the ground, just realizing he had no idea. He replied, "I don't know. I can't remember it. I don't even know what I'm doing here."

He heard the girl's voice speak up curiously, then with tone of confidence. "If you don't have a name, then I'll give you a name. Let's see, a good name for you would be…" she paused to think for a second "Allelujah!"

They boy asked curiously, "Allelujah?"

She informed him, "It's the word you use when you give thanks to god."

He spoke slightly incredulously "Thanks to god? What would we give thanks for?"

"Why that's obvious. For being alive" The words struck a chord in him, but he didn't know why. He stayed with her for a little while more, but eventually he was found by a staff member and taken back to his room. He hoped he would see her again sometime.

High Security Prison

He was awoken from the memory by a light turning on above his head and what looked like some new government troops he has never seen before entering the room. Two in particular stood out in this group. One was a brown-haired man with a stern look and the other was her. It was Marie. She looked older and had definitely grown since he saw her on the battlefield last, but it was obvious it was still her. Allelujah tried to move closer to her and tried to yell out Marie, but the mask gargled the words and the chains on chair held him back. He saw Marie raise one of her arms and one of the soldiers came to undo his mask.

As he raised her arms to have his mask taken off, Soma was curious as to why her brainwaves weren't affecting him like they did before in the gundam attacks from four years ago. She thought to herself, 'It could have been the damage to the head he took in that final battle.' She heard the man speak up, noticing that mask had been fully removed, "Marie, you finally came."

She looked at him with a slightly curious look and asked, "Marie?"

Allelujah spoke in a surprised and desperate voice, "It's me. You and I used to talk all the time back in the institute. It's Allelujah!"

Soma's voice rose in anger as she spoke, "Stop calling me Marie! My name is Lieutenant Soma Peries!" Something about that name brought out strong emotions in her, but she didn't know where it was from. Something that seemed to call out from inside her that wasn't her, but she shoved that down.

Allelujah replied with quiet conviction, "No, there is no doubt about it. You are Marie." Soma stormed out in anger, signaling for the soldiers with her to follow her. She felt a quiet voice in the back of her head saying, 'Wait, don't leave', but she ignored it, not sure what that was.

Allelujah, back in the darkness once again, was curious as to what was going on. That was definitely Marie. The institute must have done something to her. He had to get to the bottom of this and get her back.

The Ptolemaios

As the ship was restocking and resting in one of their asteroid bases, Tieria found himself assisting the new Lockon about how to operate his new gundam. He saw Lyle pressing some buttons on the inside of the cockpit and asked, "Do you have any combat experience?"

Lyle responded casually, "Well obviously I don't. I have worked with industrial loaders before"

Tieria scowled and looked away from Lyle, "So Setsuna brought us someone with no experience?"

Lyle looked at him in a friendly manner and with a teasing tone in his voice said as he extended his hand towards the purple haired man, "Well that just means I have a lot of things to learn, oh so great instructor"

Tieria recoiled back slightly, biting back harshly "I prefer less teasing." Lyle shrugged his shoulders and started asking Tieria questions about the gundam and how it worked. As they talked, Tieria realized more and more that beneath the surface, this man wasn't his brother, and he was hiding something. He would keep two eyes on him.

In Saji's Cell

Setsuna had the terminal attached to red haro opened to the entry on the wedding as he told Saji evenly, "The records have it right. Our group had a different point of view than the thrones when it came to armed interventions." Saji turned in surprise to Setsuna, "So you guys weren't allies with them?"

The raven-haired pilot replied "No." Saji stood there for a second. And turned around, facing the wall, as he said with some anger in his voice "Even so, you hurt and killed people in your gundams. Those people you killed had friends and family, like you hurt my family and girlfriend. It's only natural for people to hate you for killing the people they cared about."

Setsuna replied, "I know that." He wondered where Saji was going with this.

Saji continued, "Life was peaceful back then. My everyday normal life would have continued, if not for you people!"

Setsuna spoke up in a challenging tone, "So everything's alright as long as you have peace?" Saji jerked up in surprise, responding with less anger "That's not what I meant. But no one wants to be unhappy." Setsuna was about to reply when he heard an announcement over the ship speakers from Feldt, "All crew, report the meeting room. We have important info about the location of Allelujah."

Saji saw Setsuna turn around and just as the Japanese man was about to say something, Setsuna interrupted him, "Before you say the world was peaceful before us, tell those people that fought and died for nothing in Krugis that they lived in peace." Setsuna then floated out of the room and closed the door behind him, leaving Saji and haro the only beings in the room.

Saji stood conflicted. He knew Setsuna had a point, but did he not matter. Did his feelings not come into account? And what did Sestuna mean by that last statement? What was Krugis? That sounded personal. He remembered the incident four years ago with Celestial Being in the Middle East, but there sounded like there was more to the story than that. 'What happened to Setsuna that made him this way? That made him willing to kill to fulfill his goal?' Saji was confused and wanted even more to just get out of this and go back to when life made sense

Meeting Room in the Ptolemaios

Sumeragi floated into the meeting room in a rush, having heard the announcement about Allelujah. She grabbed onto one of the railings that dotted the room and noticed that everyone else on the crew were already present. It seemed they had beaten her here. They all had determined faces as she looked around the room. She saw that setsuna had changed into a similar uniform as the others, with a light blue color at the top of the uniform and a darker blue jacket. Lyle was wearing a green color shirt of the same type and dark green jacket. She asked with some desperation in her voice "You found where they were holding Allelujah?"

Lasse responded happily, "Yeah, this is reliable information from Wang Liu Mei." Ian spoke up next, "We are working on coming up with a rescue plan now."

Sumeragi asked curiously, "How are you going to rescue him?"

Setsuna stepped forward and stated, "That's what we want you to figure out." Sumeragi turned her head to face him, and he continued, "Miss Sumeragi, we want one of your tactical forecasts."

Her voice wavered, "But I'm…" Tieria spoke up, interrupting her, "If he's with us, then we can start operations with four gundams again." Lyle jumped in at this point, stating, "Hey, I'm not so sure about this." Tieria glared at him and Lyle looked away, muttering under his breath

Lasse joined in again, in a pleading voice, "Please help us out, we can save Allelujah!" Sumeragi looked down, conflicted about what they were asking her to do. She didn't even trust herself and they did? Her thoughts were interrupted by Feldt stepping up and telling her, "Ms. Sumeragi, take this." Sumeragi saw it was a purple-colored version of the outfit the others wore.

The tactical forecaster took a step back and in a desperate voice pleaded to the crew, "Stop it! I can't live up to your expectations of me. I can't actually change what happens. I'm just putting everyone in danger!" She tried to rush out of the door but heard Setsuna's voice behind her with a righteous tone, causing her to stop in her tracks, "There are no regrets! Even if the mission fails, we'll never blame you for it, no matter what happens. Allelujah is our comrade, and we are going to save him. So please, work out a tactical plan for us."

Sumeragi's shoulders slumped defeated and replied to the group, "Feldt, can you update me later on our strength in our present situation." Feldt responded in a happy tone, "Yes Ms. Sumeragi!" Sumeragi floated out of the door, heading back to her room to contemplate what she was going to do.

Bridge of the Ptolemaios

After the ship had left the resupply asteroid they were parked in previously and begun their travel back to earth, Feldt found herself back at her station monitoring the ship systems. Suddenly she saw bunch of info that had been sent by Wang Liu Mei. As she scanned through it, she realized what it was. It was the names of all of the prisoners in the prison Allelujah was located at on a map of the hexagonal prison. None of them seemed to stand out, except for one. Marina Ismail, the princess of Azadistan. 'Setsuna would want to know this info. She seemed important to him last time.' She felt a shadow of jealousy pass through her head for a split second, but it was gone in just as long. She would tell Setsuna before they launched about this.

Moving on from that info, she also wondered if Sumeragi was going to send them a plan. She believed she would, but it hurt to see the woman who was almost the mother of the bridge crew four years ago so depressed and despondent. She turned her head to the side and asked, "Lasse, do you think Ms. Sumeragi will come through?"

Lasse responded confidently, "I'm positive she will. Have faith." Just then the console chimed and Lasse, Feldt and Mileina saw that Sumeragi had sent a plan to them. Looking it over, Lasse said in an impressed voice, "Well this plan is bold." And Mileina equally impressed saying, "That's daring!" Feldt just smiled to herself. Even in her current state, she was still a brilliant tactical planner.

Hanger of the Ptolemaios

Setsuna guided himself towards the 00, keeping a grip on the railing of the catwalk. He spotted Ian doing a last-minute check and Ian looked at Setsuna and said, "The reactors are operational but not fully stabilized. You should be good as long as you don't use trans-am." Setsuna felt annoyance at the fact he couldn't use trans-am, but Ian was the mechanic. He responded evenly, "Roger that." Ian made his way back to the catwalk, moving out of the way of the gundam.

The raven-haired man entered the cockpit and as he booted up the system, he saw a communication from Feldt pop up on his display. She spoke up immediately, "Setsuna, after getting info on where the prisoners are located, I have found the location of Allelujah and another person of interest. I'm sharing the info on Allelujah with everyone, but I thought you should know I saw Marina Ismail was there as well. Here is her cell." He saw data on her cell had been sent by Feldt to his gundam.

Setsuna paused for a second, taking that in. 'She must have been taken after we showed up again. The A-Laws must have assumed the previous incident in Azadistan showed a connection between the gundams and her.' He would probably have enough time to grab her after he rescued Allelujah. He responded to Feldt with gratitude, "Thank you Feldt. I owe you for that."

He saw her cheeks blush slightly at that and she replied, "No problem and you don't owe me. Just rescue Allelujah."

"Roger that." He saw the communication drop and he mentally prepared himself for the mission. It had been a long while since he had been working with backup and he was grateful for that. As the ship headed to Earth, the crew was as ready as they could be to rescue a friend.

Bridge of a Guyana Class Ship

Kati sat in the center of the bridge of the Guyana class land battleship. It was currently hovering over the rear cliff that led into the valley where the prison was located. Celestial Being would eventually come and either the government forces would defeat them, or they would gather info on the capabilities on the gundams. The mobile suits of the A-Laws were to be kept as reserve forces while the outdated mobile suits near the actual prison would take the brunt of the initial attack. 'The worst part about an ambush is the waiting.' As she was thinking that she heard one of the bridge crew yell out, "Large object coming from orbit, too big to be a gundam. Most likely their carrier ship." Kati was surprised. 'They would risk their carrier this early?' It also meant the gundams had more firepower available if they were on earth. 'This got even more tricky.' She yelled to the bridge crew, "Prepare for the attack! All mobile suits mobilize." Alarms started blaring as she saw the defenders starting to mobilize. She opened communications to Lieutenant Peries, "See to E-57."

Soma replied, "Roger that." And dropped communications with Kati. Suddenly, two large purple blasts came blasting from the sky, destroying a mobile suit hanger when they landed. She heard another member of the say, "Its Celestial Being's spaceship!" Kati responded decisively, "All forces, open fire on the Celestial Being carrier!" As the government forces opened fire ineffectually, she realized how sharp an angle the ship was coming at. Their GN barrier around the ship was blocking all of their shots. She now realized what they were doing. 'They wouldn't!' She saw the front wings of the ship fold in as they approached the water and yelled out the defense forces, "Brace for a large wave!"

As the ship hit the water, a large wave came exploding out of the ocean, crashing onto the fort. Mobile suits were washed away, and windows were broken as water came flooding into the prison. Kati smahed her forearm into her chair. 'Damn! Beam weapons will be fifty percent less effective. And the ship even has submersible capabilities. I will have to take that into account next time.' She ordered to the bridge crew, "Fire missiles into where that ship landed. We will hit it sometime"

With the Gundams

The Seravee and the 00 came flying in from behind the prison. They only had 300 seconds when the enemy had less effective beam weapons. Setsuna opened comms to Tieria, "Tieria, after I find Allelujah, I have one more target to grab."

Tieria nodded his head and replied, "Understood, just remember the time limit." Setsuna nodded back and the two began their attack. Tieria started picking off the large defensive turrets located on the top of the prison as well as the concrete walls surrounding it. One by one they went down, one even crushing a mobile suit under it as it fell to the ground.

Setsuna began picking off a few of the mobile suits that he could see has he came crashing down into a wall of the prison builing, opening a hole in the wall allowing him access inside. Setsuna parked his gundam standing outside the hole he made, and he left the cockpit, headed towards Allelujah's cell. Tieria moved in front of the 00, hearing the call that there were more enemy mobile suits on the way. It was his job to guard the 00 while Setsuna was inside the prison, so he put on his GN barrier and began to fire on the A-Laws troops with their distinct red suits. As more suits gathers, he could feel the intensity of the shots hitting his shields, but he could take it. He kept up the fire with all of his blasters, keeping the A-Laws suits at a distance.

Tieria then saw that some of the mobile suits were getting taken out not by his shots. 'The new Lockon must have begun his part.' The covering fire, while not as accurate as Neil four years ago, was more accurate than he expected from a new pilot with no combat experience. He heard the bridge crew say something similar to that. So, he wasn't the only one. Something is up with that. I should investigate that. He put that in the back of his thoughts, he had a job to do. The covering fire did provide him some relief and put less pressure on him. 'Hurry up Setsuna. We can only hold for so long.'

In the Prison

As Soma and Andrei, along with the other men in their group, reached a T junction, there was a sudden explosion from the hallway to their left. Suddenly they were under fire by a group of militia looking troops. Soma thought, 'This must be Katharon'. Unfortunately for her, they were pinned by the fire of those troops. She and Andrei returned fire with their pistols, but they were outgunned. She heard Andrei yell to her, "I'll cover here! You find another route to E-57." Soma nodded and rushed back the way they came, knowing another route to get to Allelujah's cell.

Meanwhile Allelujah was confused as to what was going on. One moment it was calm and the next the prison was shaking, and he heard explosions hitting the prison. He saw the door blow open, expecting a soldier coming to execute him, but was surprised when he saw Setsuna raise his gun and shoot his bindings. 'They did come back for me!' Allelujah removed his mask and asked, "Setsuna, what is happening?"

Setsuna tossed him a mini comm unit and said, "We are here to get you out of here. Head to the point listed there. You'll find the Arios."

Allelujah looked at him questioningly, "The Arios?"

Setsuna turned and replied, "Your new gundam." Setsuna rushed off, trusting Allelujah to make it to that location. He opened up communications with the bridge and the other pilots, "Allelujah has been found and is heading to the rendezvous point"

Mileina responded, "Understood, launching the Arios." Setsuna, completing that objective, headed towards Marina's cell. He didn't have a lot of time. It took him a minute, but he found the correct cell and shouted, "If you can hear me, step away from the door." He heard a gasp and then he planted an explosive on the door, blowing up the locking mechanism.

Looking in the room, he saw Marina in prisoner garb. Marina reacted with surprise, asking "Setsuna?"

Setsuna replied, "I'm here to rescue you. Follow me." She followed him, realizing she didn't have any other options and trusting that Setsuna was here for a good reason. Setsuna guided her back to his Gundam, with a little time to spare.

With Allelujah

Allelujah ran through the halls, noticing that some sort of militia were here freeing other prisoners. He ignored them focusing on getting to his rendezvous point. He wished he could grab Marie, but there would be other opportunities for that. As he reached the point, he didn't see anything other than a view of the ocean from a row of windows. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a fast-moving object heading towards the wall he was near. 'That must be the Arios.' He dove for cover as the gundam hit the wall, giving him access to the cockpit from where in crashed. As he ran towards the gundam, he heard Marie's voice call out, "Hold it!" He saw that she had a gun aimed at him. She continued, "End of the line. Don't move subject E-57."

He looked at her calmly, though his eyes showed some desperation "Marie, it's me, Allelujah."

Soma yelled angrily, "I already told you that's not my name!"

After seeing her react, he looked at her with more certainty than he had before, "No, I'm more certain than ever that's your real name. Marie Parfacy." Something about that name caused Soma to react, like she should know yet she doesn't.

"Marie…Parfacy?" She asks uncertainly. She heard voices in the back of her mind. A young boys voice saying marie as images of a medical lab flash rapidly of a place she doesn't remember yet knew. And lastly, she heard a voice that sounded just like hers say "Don't shoot him!" She grabbed her head in pain. Falling to her knees as she fought these images and that new voice. Allelujah tried to approach her but was interrupted as Andrei came around the corner and spoke to Allelujah, "Give yourself up, E-57!" The male super soldier ran to the cockpit and heard them opening fire as he started to move, avoiding hits from the small arms fire of the soldiers shooting at him. He entered the cockpit and took off, his muscle memory assisting him despite being held for so long in prison. He wished he could have grabbed her, but he couldn't with the gunfire.

Back with the Gundams

The Seravee, 00 and Arios all rose up from the prison, seeing as their objective was complete. They all headed out into the ocean, seeing only four GN-X's standing in their way. Setsuna quickly cut one in half as Tieria got two of the caught in one of his larger beam blasts. Lastly, the supersoldier cut through the last one with his beam saber, opening their escape route.

Lockon followed them from a short distance, making sure no one was following them. He spotted no mobile suits maintaining pursuit. Out of the corner of his eye he could see a few boats moving behind the cliffs, looking full of escaped prisoners. He smiled seeing that, then followed his fellow pilots as the left the battle zone. He spoke to himself, "They got away safely."

Pilot Prep Area of the Ptolemaios

Allelujah found himself in the prep area with a cup of coffee given to him by Tieria as he talked to Allelujah about how they found him. He heard the door open, and he saw Lockon enter the room. 'Wait, didn't Lockon die?' Lockon looked at Tieria and said in an impressed tone, "This ship is amazing. It even operates underwater!" Allelujah looked up in shock, "Lockon? You're alive?"

Lyle replied casually, "I'm getting tired of that reaction." Alleujah looked at the purple-haired man in confusion. Tieria spoke up in a friendly tone, "Don't worry, you haven't changed. This is Lockon's brother." Lyle put out his hand and said, "I'm Lyle Dylandy, welcome back to the team!"

Hanger of the Ptolemaios

As Setsuna exited the 00 behind Marina, he saw her resting on the railing on the platform he enters the gundam from. He spoke to her back softly, "It's my fault you were held there. It's all because I approached you before."

She responded with confusion in her voice, "Why Setsuna? Why have you decided to start fighting again?"

Setsuna responded honestly, "It's all I know how to do." She turned around rapidly and with confusion and desperation lacing her voice, she asked, "That's not true! There are countless ways you can live your life that don't involve fighting!"

Setsuna looked away from her, "I can't think of any." He heard her gasp when said that. He continued "My wish will only come true through fighting."

In a saddened voice, Marina responded, "That's just sad." She felt tears well in her eyes as she turned away from Setsuna. Setsuna looked back up at her, surprised to hear her crying, "Why are you crying?"

"Because you can't."

Setsuna put some firmness behind his voice, "Of all the things I regret, fighting for Celestial Being isn't one of them. Follow me and I'll show you around the ship." Marina followed him, not knowing what to say.

Author's Note Two

For this week's change, I will get talk about the elephant in the room. Princess Marina. After watching the show 6 or so times, I came to learn that I didn't hate Marina, but realized she was a badly done character. My editor would like me to just kill her off, but I already said no. I like Lacus and Relena and other pacifisty characters, but she was uniquely bad in that she was useless at basically everything and too naïve for her own good. The other princess characters at least realized you need to use some force to maintain peace. So, her arc in this fic will be different than the regular story. You'll see how it progresses, but I hope you like it more. I'm not claiming it's great, just an improvement in my eyes.

Also, from a romance POV, I think she's a better mother figure to Setsuna than GF, so its strictly platonic between the two, if the pairings in the description don't give that away. So, I do have plans for her in the future and hope you find it better. See you guys in the next chapter.

P.S. My editor got salty at me for saying that about him, but he is allowed to be wrong.