AN: Long time no speak! I'm starting to get wickedly busy again, so updates aren't going to be held to a standard schedule other than "probably every two weeks". This is a longer chapter, but I didn't want to cut it down because I couldn't find a distinct place to do so. Like the last one, this was written in pieces, and surprisingly out-of-order. I went through it a few times to make it more smooth, so hopefully that shows. Let me know if there are any fix-ups that need to be done and I'll go back and do them (as I did with chapter 23, and Chapter 14). I have a lot of fixing up to do, so don't be surprised if the story gets cleaned up a lot.

Stormy: Well, in German, 'Karen' would be 'Karin' and 'Deiter' would be 'Dieter'(depending on area/tradition). Gundam likes to mess around, so I decided to. As for Gallagher...he's about to have a rude awakening! *squees in delight because I'm so excited!*

Let me know what you think, and for this chapter I listened mainly to a Three Days Grace mashup, as well as "The Last Song" from Rihanna. I don't know why.

White-Washed

"Older men declare war, but it is youth who must fight and who die."

Herbert Hoover

Though her expression was calm, Marina's heart was pounding harder than she could ever remember. The dim lighting in Panic Room Three fell on the faces of the children gathered around her, and for once, she didn't know how to explain what was happening. She shivered as she thought of what was happening outside. The automatons, the silent massacre, people she cared about left defenseless. How could she explain to these children the sound of the single shots? The sound was so innocent itself… it betrayed the horrible truth that people were dying. They weren't only dying, they were being sorted. Some for life, others for death. Why? Because the A-Laws valued some over others. Politicians, defected members, Katharon operatives. Everyone else was discarded. It made her angry and sick at the same time. How anyone could choose between lives was something Marina never wanted to understand.

Shirin had come by the room a handful of times to bring more people into the small safe-haven, and each time Marina tried to convince her to join them. She knew better though, Shirin would never put down her weapon, whether it be her mind or her rifle. Still, she tried.

"Stay here, help the injured and the disoriented."

As Marina looked around, she knew she could say she'd done that much. Shirin had snatched people here and there from the Automatons and dragged them to the room, half asleep from the tranquilizers in their systems. Others she'd pulled out of the wreckage of their rooms, bullet-riddled yet fortunate enough to not receive a killing shot. Marina had tended to each; stitching wounds, calming the disoriented, and stopping bleeding. It was all she could do to save the people that had come to be her family. The children had been eager to help, and she taught them basic first-aid; bandaging, disinfecting, and how to apply pressure to wounds. She'd wondered if it was the right thing to do, but keeping their small hands busy lowered the chance that they'd succumb to shock.

She carefully worked on her line of stitches, closing up a gash from a grazed bullet. The woman who'd been shot was one of the weapons technicians that Marina didn't know very well. Still, she worked with extreme care. She wanted the wound to heal properly, but she also wanted to hide the shake in her hands.

"Stable! He's stable!" the robotic voice of Reverie's pet robot whirred.

The small bot had insisted on putting Reverie to sleep almost immediately upon their reunion. She was curled up in one of the corners of the room leaning against the wall, her weapon resting in her lap. Before she'd fallen asleep she'd insisted that Marina use the small bot to keep an eye on the sleeping figures that were almost tangled together. Now the small bot was bouncing from figure to figure, sitting on their chests, and giving Marina their reports. She was relieved. She didn't want to teach the children to monitor heart-rates lest someone pass on. There were too many heavy things happening that she couldn't explain, she didn't need to add one more.

She tried not to flinch as she heard a shot that sounded nearer than the last. She kept carefully stitching, willing her hands to stop shaking. Another shot rang off and she dropped the needle, her fingers trembling.

"Are they hammering something outside?" One of the young girls asked, picking up the needle and handing it back to the trembling princess.

Marina shook her head. "I'm not sure, We'll have to ask them later, right?" she did her best to muster her usual warm smile.

The girl seemed to accept it. "You must be awfully cold, princess Marina."

"Why do you say that?" She passed one of the few remaining alcohol swabs over the needle and resumed her stitching.

"You're shaking an awful lot."

Marina froze, then nodded. "Yes, it's a little bit cold in here for me." Children had the most questions, but they were also excellent at giving answers that an adult wouldn't think to use as an excuse. "Can you be a big help and count how many swabs we have left?"

The girl nodded and sat down, picking up as many swabs as her little hands could. Marina knew that the girl had been basically illiterate upon arrival at the base, but she was getting stronger with her numbers and letters every day. "One, two, three….."

She listened to the confused silence and focused on the girl's counting to drown out what had become the rapid fire of automatic weapons.

"Four! Five…six.."

If she held onto that small voice, she could remember the things that were meaningful in the world, the things that the A-Laws had forgotten were important.

Life, friendships, caring.

A little girl learning to count.

Her hands steadied as she stitched. Yes, there were people dying outside, people that she'd come to know and love. In here though, there were people she could save. If she could focus on that, maybe she could keep the threat of shock at bay long enough to help them make it out.

She could try.

Tieria had never seen anything like the absolute chaos around him. Countless mobile suits were standing ready at the Africa Tower, A-Laws, Earth Federation, and Coup d'état forces alike. Katharon had been present, but had disappeared shortly after arriving for reasons that Sumeragi was withholding from the comms. Regardless, the silence that surrounded the area was permeating everything, as though the whole force was holding their breath. Even the fight between A-Laws and Celestial Being had come to a standstill, for now.

He looked around the area. He could see the Ptolemaios II at a distance, its field still at maximum. Cherudim was hovering far to his right, a little worse for wear, and the A-Laws Gundam that had been chasing it was nowhere to be seen. Arios was to Seravee's left, and it was in remarkable condition. Hallelujah had opted to pilot the machine under loose orders instead of having to sit out a battle in his padded cell, and Tieria had never been happier to see him. So far he'd done an impressive job of tearing apart their opponents and following orders, surprisingly. To be honest, he was most relieved that they had three functioning Gundams again. 'Four'. He corrected himself. As of minutes ago, Setsuna had returned.

Tieria's happiness stood in stark contrast to the situation before them. If the coup d'état went according to plan, it seemed inevitable that the world would react quickly and violently to the government's betrayal. It would gain Celestial Being and Katharon a great following, but it would result in bloodshed that would directly conflict with Celestial Being's goals. The world wasn't ready to peacefully reform, not yet. He knew this with fearful certainty. On the other hand, if the coup d'état was stopped – no, silenced – the A-Laws would gain even more support, and it would cement their necessity in the federation. There was no easy solution to the problem, but either way, people would die. The question was 'how many?'.

Amidst the hushed uncertainty, Tieria couldn't help but mull over Katharon's strange disappearance. If there was one organization that would definitely benefit from being present, it was the anti-government people's group. It was almost a necessity to have Katharon be present, yet they'd pulled back so suddenly. What could make them pull away from such a pivotal event? They hadn't had a large force present to begin with, and their closest branch was on the southern end of Europe.

He shook his head and opened his comms link, targeting Marie Perfacy's station. Her face appeared in the corner of his central monitor and he didn't waste any time. "What's Katharon's status?" He hoped that Sumeragi hadn't issued a specific order not to speak about it.

"There's been an attack by the A-Laws Eastern European contingent."

"Where?"

"Katharon's Eastern European branch. We haven't gotten any more than that."

"That's fine." He closed the link.

Katharon's departure made a lot more sense. The group that had been at the Africa Tower must have left to replace the defence at their Southern European branch, allowing reinforcements from the southern branch to engage the A-Laws in the east. The eastern branch was somewhat of an underground fortress, its tunnels reinforced from wars three hundred years prior, and new additions that resulted in miles of tunnel under permanently frozen ground. That was the reasoning behind its use as a safe-haven for political refugees and Katharon's leaders.

Tieria's eyes widened as he realized what the A-Laws were doing.

"They're taking the refugees…"

If they managed to retake those who had defected and the executives of Katharon, it would cripple the efforts of the organization. Everything that the organization had accomplished could come unravelled if the A-Laws captured those people. Reverie Traum would be a likely target as well, but in the scheme of things she would be a treat, not their intended target.

He punched in the comms code for the bridge immediately. "Sumeragi Lee Noriega, we must send machines to aid Katharon."

Her expression wasn't one that he'd expected. It was strained, yet reserved. She knew. Of course she did, she was a forecaster… she would have come to the same conclusions that he had almost immediately. "I know."

"Then why haven't we sent anyone!?"

"There's no time." She tapped at the keyboard in her armrest and his left monitor lit up with satellite imagery of the top end of the tower. He could see the vibrant colors of an explosion, and he could see the metallic reflections of the outer shell as it shattered.

"Because the tower is starting to fall."

The tunnels and halls of Katharon's base were overrun with A-Laws soldiers. They'd been working their way through the tunnels in teams, tranquilizing some members and shooting others as they awoke. It was terrifying, and it had been carrying on for over three hours. It was nothing like they'd seen before. There wasn't the brutal sound of doors being smashed in or the rapid fire of machine guns, just the silence between silenced shots and the sound of unconscious bodies being carried by automatons.

Mirial's breath caught in her throat as she darted through the hangar to one of the Tierens that was partially disassembled. She chose her steps carefully and tried to remain as silent as possible, squeezing her eyes shut as she crossed the last few metres. Finally, she reached the leg of the giant machine and slid into the cavity of its disassembled foot. Like some of the more fortunate members, Shirin had managed to reach her before one of the armed teams had made it to her room. She was supposed to make it to Panic Room Two, but that plan had been thoroughly thwarted when both halls that lead to the room had the telltale blue hue of A-Laws rifles emanating from them. The hangar was her next logical choice. If push came to shove, she could pilot at a strong enough level to help the evacuation effort. The likelihood of anyone finding her in the mobile suit's leg was minimal, for now. Soon the launch would start and the hangar would be bathed in light and action. Until then though, she had to stay hidden.

She silently whined. As she sat under the protective armour shell of the foot, she wondered how something like this could be happening. Why weren't the alarms ringing? What had happened to panic rooms three and four? Why wasn't the hangar buzzing with launch activity already?

The last question was the easiest to answer; the pilots couldn't get to the hangar because of the A-Laws firing teams that were roaming loose in the halls. The others made her sick. The base had over three hundred members, and she wondered how many of them would manage to make it out of their rooms. In her own hall, only a handful had made it, courtesy of Shirin. The rest? Who knew. In the blackness of the power-dry halls, it was impossible to tell how many more could have survived. The alarms, like the power, had likely been tampered with. She shivered. How could something like this have been allowed to happen?

She forgot her train of thought and tensed as she heard nearby footsteps, eyes wide. She drew a slow, shaky breath and tried to look for the blue light, but there was nothing. She relaxed.

"Mirial!"

The whispered voice made her flinch, but she recognized it and exhaled, her pulse racing from the miniature jump-start.

"Deiter!"

If it were any other day and under any other circumstances, she would have bubbled over in happiness, but today she was washed with simple, noiseless relief.

"Come on, get out of there, you have to help me get the hangar ready for launch!" he offered his hand and she slid out of her hiding place.

"How did you know I was there?"

"A hunch."

How he knew her so well still amazed her. Right now she didn't have time to appreciate it, though. They made their way through the dark and to the service panel of his GN-X. "Without power I'm not sure how much I can do for you."

"The machines don't need power to launch, though."

"Yes, but the massive hangar door does."

"Can the GN-X open it?"

She thought for a moment, balancing the GN-X's power and structural intergrity haphazardly in her mind. "Yes, but you'll need something to keep it open afterwards. If the door slams back down, it could be permanently sealed shut." 'And be the end of the rest of us' she added silently. From what she could see in the shadows, he looked dejected. "But… we could use one of the repair suits as a doorjamb!" she suggested, trying to be optimistic in her whisper. She was still shaking a little, she hoped he couldn't see.

"Can you pilot it?"

"Of course." She replied matter-of-factly. Her piloting skills were something Katharon was only aware of on her file, and she'd never seen any reason to demonstrate her abilities.

"Alright. I'll go ahead, you follow with the repair machine. First, though…does your pager still work?" he asked, unclipping his from his belt.

She nodded. "I'll page the other pilots."

"You always know what to do. Here," he said, sliding his leather jacket off. "You look like you could use this, you're shaking a little."

She was relieved that he couldn't see her blush… she had no right to be blushing in a situation like this, but it didn't stop his kindness from making her calm down. "I'll be in your old Enact." She said, pulling the one-armed jacket on.

"And I'll be out there." He pointed at the hangar door. She turned to leave. "One more thing!" he said. She turned back to face him.

"hm-!" She was silenced as he placed a quick, soft kiss to her lips. She was so caught off-guard that she didn't respond. Had it finally happened? She'd liked him for as long as she could remember, but they'd danced around their feelings constantly. Until now. She looked at him curiously. "Why now?"

"In case I don't get the chance again." He watched her with worried eyes, and turned to leave. She caught his wrist gently, and hugged him worriedly.

"Deuxie?"

"Yes?"

"Come back in one piece."

"I'll do my best."

With that, they darted away to their machines, each trying to focus on the task at hand.

Large slabs of the tower's outer shell were falling everywhere around Cherudim. Haro had taken control of the Gundam, allowing Lyle the freedom to focus and destroy as many of the giant pieces of destruction as possible. His form was flawless and his accuracy should have been second to none, but he was being ruthlessly distracted by the A-Laws telepath. He fired and destroyed another set of the falling tower fragments before Cherudim lurched hard enough to make him sick.

"Dammit Haro, what happened!?"

"Enemy Gundam!" it said, its voice warping as Cherudim swerved again.

He didn't have to ask who the enemy was. He refocused and targeted the attacking Gundam. The man didn't care about life; that had never been more clear than it was now, with tens of thousands of lives depending on the eradication of the falling debris. The fact that someone could disregard human life so easily gave him his resolve. He would take this man out of the sky.

"Is that so, Lyle Dylandy?"

He could feel his anger grow as he was taunted by his own voice through the comms. He wasn't close to people, he'd never been one to care about those around him as much as his friends, or even his brother had. Still, what kind of evil had to live in this man to ignore the thousands below?

"Your brother, Lyle? I can call you Lyle, right? Why don't you tell me about your dear, dead, brother!?"

Lyle groaned through his teeth as Cherudim swerved violently again as Haro dodged a very close slash of the telepath's beam saber. His brother? How could this man know!? He didn't think of his brother in times like these… had he dragged the information out of Reverie?

"Not everything needs to be spoon-fed, Lyle. It wasn't hard to find out all about your precious twin brother…I wonder what he'd look like now…"

He was intentionally trying to rile him up. Why? Lyle didn't have a god-damned clue, and he wasn't about to give in. He targeted a chunk over the Gundam's shoulder and took it out before firing a set of warning shots at the offending suit.

"If I didn't know any better, I'd say you've got a thing for me." He quipped as the suit followed him. There, sarcasm. If that couldn't throw him off, he'd be stuck. He could feel the pressure of impending death all around him. There were people counting on all of the mobile suits around him, and he needed to lose this man as fast as he could.

"You could say that, but I've never seen your face, Meister dear."

His face. That voice. His twin. Is that what this never-ending chase was about?"Is that what you want!?" he demanded, dodging a set of expertly-placed shots. Haro yelled an alert in time for him to take out a tower chunk directly above them, and Cherudim's sensors whined at him as the rubble of the piece clattered along its armour.

"It'll do for now… I know how badly you want to help all the little oblivious people. What I don't understand is why, Lyle. Why help the people who rejoiced when the Earth Federation formed, and why protect those who'll hold the A-Laws up like battle-worn heroes after we destroy you?"

Lyle's jaw clenched and he silently willed his anger to calm. He knew these kinds of things would happen, and he knew that the general public would never know what had really transpired. Lies like the ones this man was exalting were the things that had driven him to Katharon. If he'd wondered before, he knew from the man's lack of concern that there was no way it could be Neil. His brother had his demons, but they were nothing like this. They didn't support the death of innocents, only the guilty. "How can you go on about this crap when people are going to die?"

"Die today, die tomorrow, it's irrelevant. Isn't that how you approached your brother's death, Lyle?"

The sneer in the copycat voice sung with truth. The man could read him, and he wasn't in a place where he could debate the endless angst of his relationship with his brother. He had no time to debate anything. He pulled his helmet off harshly and let it clatter to the floor of the cockpit.

"My brother is dead, and this is my face. You have what you want, now let me help save these people!"

His voice resonated in the small space, and then everything froze. The relentless suit stopped, its weapons lowered and it hung in his monitor like a dormant titan.

"How…?"

The seconds dragged on, long and empty, and his nerves were standing on end as he waited for it to attack. It didn't. The communication link closed.

Slowly, the Gundam dropped from his screen and fell helplessly towards the ground. He watched the massive figure of green and black steel as it plummeted. He didn't go after it, there was no time. He targeted a set of debris chunks, finally free to do so.

"We'll check it out later Haro, right now we have bigger problems."

He could feel the weight of the strange action on his mind, but the Gundam would shelter the pilot from the fall. Nothing would shelter the people below from the ruins of the orbital elevator.

The world was blurry as Reverie opened her eyes. Dim lights and faces swirled for a few moments before slowly settling. Her head was pounding, but she couldn't think of why.

"Miss Traum!"

Marina's voice. She opened her eyes further and focused, trying to take in her surroundings. She was still in the panic room with the children and Marina, though they'd gained a number of new faces in the time she'd been passed out. Half of her body was asleep as well, pressed against the frigid wall of the underground room, and if she wasn't mistaken she had the imprint of her rifle on the side of her face.

"Are you alright?" Marina was kneeling in front of her, hand on her shoulder.

Reverie nodded. "How long have I been asleep?"

"Around four hours, but we have to go immediately, Shirin can explain on the way."

Reverie looked past Marina to see Shirin standing in the doorway, two armed men with her. Whatever was happening, it required them to leave the safety of the room. Reverie stood slowly, supporting herself against the wall as the room started to spin. "How did you wake me up?" she asked suddenly, realizing that Haro had knocked her out.

"Let's go, I'll tell her on the way." Shirin instructed from the doorway, it appeared that the injured had mostly been moved out of the room by the time she'd woke. Reverie stepped out into the hall and followed the group of people that Shirin was leading, Marina and the armed men behind. One of the children was holding onto Haro, who seemed content with the attention. She made a sluggish effort to catch up to Shirin, her limbs were still not very cooperative, yet somehow she was filled with energy.

"What's happening?" she fell into step with Shirin. Her symptoms were dying down slowly, but the pain in her head remained.

"A-Laws are planning an airstrike, they've left the base completely. We've managed to evacuate almost everyone, Panic Room Three was the last to clear out as it was closest to the hangar."

"Are there mobile suits in the air?" She was starting to recognize the droning pain. Still, it wasn't as powerful as it should have been if there was a full-scale mobile suit battle raging.

Shirin nodded. "Our forces have been deployed for the past hour, the GN-X units were first to launch, and we've had to resort to launching anything we have left."

Why would they have mobile suits in the air if they were planning an air strike? The A-Laws suits weren't designed for attacks that would penetrate underground. It didn't make sense. As they wove through the tunnels she tried to analyze the situation, but her concentration was non-existent. "How did you wake me up?"

"With an adrenaline shot to counteract the tranquilizers."

Reverie didn't have time to retort about the ill-safety of the method as a stream of shots penetrated the silence. One of the Automatons was still in the building. The rapid fire of the machine ripped into the walls behind them, catching one of the guards and sending their group flying behind any form of protection that the dilapidated corridor offered. She cursed as her back dug into thick wire that was woven into her makeshift concrete shield.

"Is everyone all right!?" Shirin's voice echoed through the hall. A muffled cry from one of the children ruined that hope.

"No, Jada's been hit in the leg, and one of the men is…" Dead. Marina wouldn't say it around the children, Reverie knew that much. There was silence from Shirin for a moment.

"We need to get rid of it, its blocking our exit to the Hangar. If we aim for the camera, we may be able to take out its motherboard."

Reverie didn't respond, but checked her magazine. Still the same amount as before she'd been knocked out. Good. She didn't know how many shots it would take to get rid of the machine, and they had no idea what would be waiting for them outside the hangar. She hoped that her sessions with Lyle had improved her abilities… the Automaton's camera wasn't exactly a large target.

She turned and pushed some of the rubble off the concrete slab and propped the rifle up on it, making sure she remained covered while targeting the small, moving red dot. The rifle was tight in her shoulder, she was set to take recoil, and she tried to drown out the pain in her head and the sound of rapid-fire as the others attempted to immobilize the machine. She pulled the trigger slowly and watched as her first shot dinged the metal near the camera, and missed.

She let her breath out and started her aiming process again. The surface of the Automaton was riddled with missed shots, yet it was still firing back at them, destroying the concrete around her and raising more cries of pain from their group. She wouldn't have long before the machine's shots started zeroing-in on her exposed weapon and face. She steadied her breathing again, struggling to do so as the effects of the adrenaline shot made her tremble. "It won't be easy to focus when you're being shot at, but that's when you need to focus the most." She focused on Lyle's words from weeks before, stopped her breath, and pulled slowly again. Her hands trembled as she followed through. The shot was closer this time, but still a miss. She could see the indent barely on the edge of the camera's lining.

She shifted to ready the rifle again when something impacted her shoulder with a sickening thwack. The force threw her off her knees and onto her back, her head connected harshly with the ground. She was dizzy, and as she looked up she saw bright spatters of red sliding down the bullet-riddled wall behind her. She'd been hit. Where? Strangely, she couldn't feel the pain at all, just an uncomfortable heaviness in her right arm. Her mind settled and she sat up, pushing her rifle off her chest and looking up at the Automaton in time to see its camera shatter. The machine powered down and she climbed shakily to her feet. She looked at her shoulder and saw the entry-wound; blood was soaking her shirt and running down her arm, staining the ground beneath her. Still, she didn't feel it.

"Take this and press it to the wound." Shirin appeared out of thin air in front of her and held out a torn piece of rough fabric. "It didn't go through, so keep pressure on it. How is it?"

Reverie shook her head. "I can't feel it…I don't know."

"It's the adrenaline. Good, because we need to go now. Give me your rifle, do you have a handgun on you?"

Reverie nodded and handed over the heavy weapon. Shirin passed it to one of the technicians that had been grouped into the panic room with them, then motioned for Reverie to follow as she lead the way. She followed behind, pressing the fabric into her wound, pistol in hand. She couldn't shoot well with her left hand, but she doubted she could shoot anyway with the overload of the fight-or flight response that was overtaking her mind. She was nauseous, shaking, and she couldn't feel the pain of her cuts, scrapes, head, or shoulder at all. She was picking up bits and pieces of the thoughts of those around her, and the streams were becoming clearer moment by moment as her sedatives were pressed down by the adrenaline shot, and the adrenaline that resulted from the situation.

They crossed the Hangar quickly. Marina was carrying the injured child, and the rest were holding hands and running alongside her. Those who could walk were helping those who were injured, and the remaining guards were keeping vigilant eyes out as the band made it towards the mouth of the empty hangar. Snow and cold were blowing in through the open mouth of the expansive room, and for a moment Reverie was reminded that they were in Eastern Europe.

They stopped before reaching the mouth of the hangar and Shirin swung open the door to a small equipment room. She pulled parkas quickly out of the room and handed them out, then handed out wool blankets for those who couldn't slip their arms into the winter jackets. A set of smaller parkas were given to Marina and the children, and Marina's eyes were filled with a moment of warmth. "Shirin…"

Shirin smiled as she slipped on her massive winter coat. "I had them ordered when we took the children in." She turned to the rest of the group. "There are two pairs of gloves in the pockets, one thick and one thin, as well as a toque. Please give the warmer set of gloves to those who don't have parkas, as well as the toque; those of you with parkas can use the hood that is attached. There's a personnel carrier waiting on the other side of the compound, we have to make it there."

Reverie watched the woman's lips move with frightening intensity, then was snapped out of her focus as a toque was placed on her head and she was handed a set of gloves. She followed the group to the mouth of the hangar and squinted against the swirling wind and icy shards that met them. She looked across the giant white expanse and could see the carrier at the far end of the compound's borders, then she looked up.

Dozens of mobile suits filled the sky, diving and shooting, slashing and crashing to the ground. The ground below was littered with pieces of all types of mobile suits, and debris rained down, mottling the white-scape with flames, red smears, and charred chunks of metal.

-This suit is fast!-

-We only have eight more minutes before the drop, we have to get out of here!-

Reverie listened to the pilots far above. The A-Laws had been planning an air strike, right? If that's what the second pilot was talking about…"Shirin! We have eight minutes!" she yelled above the noise.

Shirin looked back and nodded. "Let's go! We don't have much time!" The group followed her as she carved a path into the destroyed landscape. Reverie held the wool blanket tight around her as she looked up at the battling suits and tried to hear more.

-That's a group of survivors! We have to make sure they get to the truck!-

-How can these out-of-date suits be destroying our brand-new machines!?-

-My control panel, I can't keep my suit in the air!-

Deiter's voice caught her attention and she looked frantically for his suit as she chased after the others. She couldn't see clearly through the swirling, freezing winds that were being kicked up by the torment above. She listened for his voice again, the distance between herself and the others slowly growing as she focused.

-One more shot and he'll go down!-

-I can't make it…but this suit…I have to take it down. I have to take him with me.-

Her eyes grew wide as she saw Deiter's suit, and as she realized what was happening. It was badly damaged, its thrusters pumping out black smoke and its left arm and leg were missing. The reddish particles from the pseudo GN drive were barely visible. He was in trouble. An A-Laws suit was shooting towards him, gun raised and saber active.

"No! Deiter!" Her voice was lost to the wind as she watched the suits collide, and start to plummet.

-Wha-what the hell!? He's suicidal! He's crazy! He'll die!- The A-Laws pilot was terrified, realizing that the impact would likely destroy him, his cockpit having been damaged.

-If I can just take this one…if those people can get out of here…It'll have been worthwhile.-

The suits grew larger and larger, and Reverie heard voices behind her yelling, but she ignored them, watching the suits drop and willing something to happen to stop the impending collision.

Nothing did.

The ground shook violently as the suits hit, kicking up a wall of harsh wind and snow that settled quickly, leaving the two suits damaged and sparking on the ground. Reverie ran towards the crater made by them, but she was stopped at its edge by strong hands that avoided her shoulder. She stared at the mangled suits, searching for anything to indicate life.

The A-Laws pilot was dead, she could feel his emptiness in her mind and see the bright red streak that marked the snow outside his cockpit. The white GN-X though, there was no blood. She struggled against the hands that held her, but suddenly stopped as she saw her brother.

He was laying half out of the cockpit, his machine sparking and smoking dangerously. She could see the deep red under him, but his head moved and looked up. He was alive!

"Deiter!"

"Let me go!" she snapped at the technicians that were holding her back.

"We can't, the suits are gonna blow!"

No! She looked back up at her brother. He'd seen her now, and he was propped up on one arm. The look on his face terrified her, and she could feel her tears spill over her cheeks. He was calm, smiling, resolved. He knew he was going to die. He'd given up. He didn't have the look of a man that had a hope of survival. Instead, he had the carefree, sad, loving smile of her little brother.

She shook her head and struggled harder than before, breaking free from one of them. This couldn't be it, he was right there! He was alive!

"You have to come with us now!" One of them pleaded, pulling on her good arm. She started to pull away, then stopped as Deiter's voice filled her mind.

-Karen-

She stopped breathing.

-You have to go. This was my decision, it's what I want.-

"No! You can't say that! Deiter!" She struggled again as the mobile suit ruins cracked with electricity again.

-Promise you'll let me go-

The world exploded.

As the suits were blown to pieces, the imprint of her brother's form was left in her eyes. Pieces of the suits rained down around them, leaving black smoky trails in the air that were whisked away by the wind. She stared until the hands started to drag her away again. "We have to go now!"

She struggled and screamed and wretched at the sudden feeling in her chest.

Then everything went white.