("Normal Dialogue" / "Thought" / "Innovator Mental Projection" / "Ribbons Mental Projection")

"Damn it! Damn, damn it!"

Lockon Stratos was not having a good time. Not since he had engaged in close combat with that dark red mobile suit, Arche, piloted by the man who had shot and killed his twin brother.

Said man haughtily called out over the open communications channel, "You're certainly persistent, Celestial-whacthamalit!"

And within the relatively tight confines (for mobile suits) of the enemy mothership's interior, he was losing badly.

Cherudim's GN Pistol IIs barely scratched the E-Carbon armour of the Arche, and the latter's swings of its large sword kept throwing Lockon off balance. It wasn't helping that Cherudim was already down half a leg, as well as all its Rifle Bits and nearly half its Shield Bits.

"Gggh!" Lockon grit his teeth as Cherudim was thrown back by yet another swing by the Arche, which he barely blocked with the anti-beam-coated undersides of the GN Pistol IIs. "Damn you!" He cried out in his desperation, trying to seek an opening that never presented itself.

With the Arche raining attack after attack down, Lockon sought to evade to shift the momentum of the battle. However, even as he yanked the control sticks to strafe Cherudim to the right, the enemy pilot reacted, pivoting from what had been an overhead swing to a high side-swing and catching Lockon off-guard in another heavy hit.

"Gaah! I cannot lose here!" Lockon steeled himself as he brought Cherudim to a brief stop, the GN Pistol IIs readied in their axe mode. "I promised Anew!"

Sword met axes as Lockon stood his ground… for all of half a second, as the Arche pressed forward and slammed Cherudim against a bulkhead. Lockon could only shift Cherudim from side to side after getting his bearings back, and even that was complicated by Arche using the beam sabers on its feet to further constrain his movement and split his attention, having to counter 3 different weapons from varying and unpredictable vectors.

Desperate, Lockon took to charging Cherudim at Arche, who was winding up for another downswing of its large sword. The sudden blow gave Lockon some breathing room, but the Arche turned the knockback into an opportunity to put even more momentum into its swing. Lockon scarcely got the Cherudim's GN Pistol IIs back up again before the whole Gundam got slammed against the floor and the bulkhead, grunting in pain from the impact forces.

"You bastard!" Lockon defiantly steeled himself. But there was no leverage for Cherudim to gain any sort of advantage in the duel, and the Arche's sword inched ever closer towards the Gundam itself…

Nervousness filled the space of the Ptolemy II bridge.

It had been barely ten minutes since Sumeragi left to personally defend the bridge against the automatons that had breached the ship. Barely ten minutes since Anew suddenly seized up in pain, scrambling to a corner to put herself as far away from Feldt and Mileina as she could in the event Ribbons Almark took control of her body before fainting from the mental attacks Ribbons was putting her through.

Feldt effectively became the senior operator on the bridge, having to split her attention between the increasingly disadvantageous battle raging on outside, trying to keep Mileina in the opposite station from freaking out, and watching over Anew's unconscious form… just in case.

Her turquoise eyes flitted about as she processed the data on her terminal console. The shifting battle map, additional intelligence flowing from her deployed trojan programs about the mothership that Ptolemy was currently wedged in, the masses of numbers and characters would have overwhelmed most other people in her position.

But to Feldt Grace, who grew up with computers and code, her substitutes for the parental love and warmth stolen from her in her infancy, it was another mission. One which she was intent on helping to succeed no matter what.

Yet, something in a corner of her conscience gnawed at her. A flitting gaze at Anew, who was in and out of consciousness in the corner, gave context to that seeming pull on her soul.

Feldt's pistol lay on her lap as she worked her console, ready to be fired. And although she was very much willing to fire that pistol, to ensure beyond doubt that Anew would no longer be a threat because of her being taken over by Ribbons…

"Does she deserve this? A summary judgement on her life?"

Anew's hitherto unconscious body jolted, giving Feldt a momentary distraction. Mileina whimpering behind her did not help the situation, the pressure to perform despite everything going against them building to a tipping point.

"At this rate, Ptolemy's doomed!" Mileina snapped, shrieking as shivered in her seat.

"Not yet! We can't give up yet!" Feldt asserted back, her determination renewed even in the face of the odds against her and everyone else on the ship. "This time… this time I will stick it through to the end. We will change the world, and we will live to see it!"

"You're not giving up too, are you?" The pink-haired tactical operator thought, as if Anew would have been able to telepathically receive it. "You are… making your own stand."

The breath Feldt had subconsciously held was slowly let out. "There's no point waiting for it. If you were with them, you would have let go. Isn't that right, Anew?"

Anew didn't respond. Feldt did see her chest rise and fall, but nothing else indicated she was conscious.

But that did not affect Feldt at the moment. She would do her part, and Anew would do hers. If the situation changed, she would adapt, as she had had to do before.

Hearing a lack of activity behind her, Feldt would order out, "Continue the mission, Mileina! Support the Meisters as much as you can!" The younger operator only whimpered in response, but Feldt took a small measure of comfort in that there was even a response.

All of a sudden, Anew yelled.

Anew felt like she was in what humans would define as 'hell'.

Retreating into her own mind, resisting Ribbons Almark's intrusion and attempted takeover of her body, was something she had instinctually done.

There was no light, there was no darkness, there was practically nothing… besides pain.

"Submit, Anew Returner. Thou shall fulfil her purpose, that she has shirked."

"S-shut up…" That was the only retort her mind could come up with, due to the tortuous pain she was experiencing.

"You dare talk back against me? When you are but a speck in your own body? Are you attempting to make some crude human humour?"

"We… will stop you. If not myself… my comrades…" Anew snapped back at the disembodied 'voice' of Ribbons, who was utilising the same quantum brainwave channels he was attempting to control her whole being with.

"You DO NOT even have the presence of mind! Humanity has made you, Anew Returner, weak!" Ribbons appeared to exclaim in exasperation, something which gave Anew a very brief glimmer of hope.

That glimmer was quashed by a resurgence of pain. Anew lost the feeling in her fingers and toes, as if they no longer responded to her. The confusion turned into dread when she then felt them again, and felt them move haltingly, as if being tested… by him.

"You are losing. It will be quicker if you just give up." Ribbons taunted, albeit with an element of frustration seeping in.

"I will not." Anew declared, although the pain she was experiencing hit a new, even more intense extreme.

"Then suffer."

"I can't! They're still all fighting for their future… Sumeragi, Feldt, Mileina… Lyle…" Anew internally resolved, although in the mental environment her thoughts were not exactly private only to herself.

"Have you forgotten that your every thought comes to me through Veda, just like my voice is reaching you? I can assure you that their defeat - their painful and tortured demise - is at hand, with or without you."

Anew wanted to surge forth - as futile as that would be inside her own mental landscape - and throttle Ribbons with her own hands, but instead she felt restrained, crucified even. The crippling pain swept up her limbs, enveloping her torso. She felt like she couldn't even breathe, that it was all over, Ribbons had finally won…

But the pain instead dissipated all at once. Anew still felt sore, but free. She could mentally hear Ribbons, but his monotonous voice seemed to now have a heavy static filter to it, to the point that he was now incomprehensible. Anew found light - and she pretty much threw herself at it.

Everything still felt like a blur to Anew. But there was a weird tingling that she felt, one of warmth, strength and determination, and her senses gradually returned to her.

"Anew? Are you ok?" Feldt had leapt out of her bridge station in concern when the brief yelling stopped, settling in front of the catatonic woman, whose fingers were barely twitching-

-and then Anew breathed, consciously. Anew opened her eyes, last scrunched up in pain, and blinked. Anew let out a squeak, for Feldt was definitely not in front of her last she remembered.

"Miss Anew! You're alright!" Mileina squealed right before an alert on her console brought her attention back there. Feldt looked at the young operator in very slight disdain, but returned to look at her Innovade comrade, turquoise eyes meeting red.

"H… has it stopped?" Feldt asked with trepidation. Anew could only reply, with hesitation of her own, "I... think so."

Feldt took Anew's hands and brought her to her feet, a rather trivial feat in the zero-gravity environment of the bridge. A sudden thought seemed to flash in Feldt's mind, and her expression turned serious again.

"Could you please check on Miss Sumeragi? Things appear to have calmed down for now, but Mileina and I still need to support the Meisters."

"Understood." Anew replied, catching on again to the gravity of their situation. Aside from her still elevated breathing, there was nothing one could infer from observing Anew that would have suggested that she had been under mental attack barely a few minutes ago.

It was only then that she felt something tap the back of her palm…

… the grip of a pistol, extended out to her by Feldt. The same pistol that minutes ago, Anew wished Feldt would fire to cease her existence, should she have truly lost control of her own body to Ribbons Almark.

Anew was confused, stunned, even as she curled her fingers around the grip (keeping her index finger well off the trigger) and Feldt let go of the top. "W-why?"

"You'll need it if you run into the automatons out there." Feldt stated, her eyes looking slightly away and her voice a bit quieter than usual. "And… I trust you."

Anew nodded, and kicked off towards the bridge door as Feldt returned to her elevated seat. At the threshold as the door slid open, Anew brought her head high, staring at the wall now directly in front of her with regained focus.

"Feldt, Mileina… Thank you."

"You're wel-come?" The younger woman swung her helmeted head around, enthusiastically returning the expression, only to find the bridge door already closing and the lavender-haired Innovade out of earshot. Feldt telling Mileina to focus on helping the Meisters was the only thing shaking the latter out of her very brief stupor.

From seemingly out of nowhere, Lockon experienced a resurgence of energy, and positive energy at that. Noticing the glittering particles that now seemed to be everywhere, he pushed forward on Cherudim's control sticks, bringing his Gundam back on even footing (actually half-even, since one leg was missing everything below the knee) against the Arche. For their part, the enemy seemed to be slightly wavering, definitely less aggressive than he was mere moments ago.

"I don't understand what is going on at the moment, but this is my chance! I have to end this, right here and now!"

Lockon broke off the blade lock between the Cherudim and Arche, bunting the latter mobile suit back before charging forward again. "Damn you! You're the one who murdered my brother, my family… you are a monster!"

He would be surprised when he suddenly "heard" the thoughts of the Arche's pilot. "Heh. You're that asshole's little brother?"

Lockon barely blocked the next sword swing, but brought up a GN Pistol II to shoot the Arche's right shoulder joint, blowing the entire arm off. "You have a problem with that, you bastard?" Lockon mentally retorted, barely evading the Arche's spin kick that would have taken off Cherudim's hands with the foot-mounted beam sabers.

"It'll make murdering you so much sweeter!" was the reply, which sickened Lockon to the core. The next time the two mobile suits clashed up close, Lockon opportunistically shot at the Arche's head, although the beam shot did not do nearly as much damage as he would have.

"What kind of psychotic devil are you?" Lockon faltered momentarily, allowing the Arche to grab Cherudim with its remaining hand and shove it into the wall. Lockon clicked on his control sticks in desperation, trying to get past the Arche's armour with the GN Pistol IIs without success.

"I'm me, dimwit!" Lockon would mentally hear, enraging him further. He would attempt to use Cherudim's remaining intact leg to kick off or do something against the Arche, only to have to manoeuvre the Gundam's lower body to avoid the Arche's beam sabers sweeping at it.

Then, he heard her.

"L-Lyle?" Anew's hesitant voice came over the communications channel.

"Anew? You can hear me?" A mixture of confusion and hope filled his mind, yet there was a sense that the latter was not wholly his own. "Wait, what about-"

"I hear you, clear as day. And Ribbons can't hear us, I think."

"Anew, I…" Lockon began again, only to grunt from parrying the Arche's beam sabers.

"Focus, Lyle! You can win this." Anew encouraged over the communications link. "I'll be waiting for you. Anew out."

If Lockon needed more motivation, this conversation provided it in spades. Immediately, he brought down Cherudim's left hand and shot the GN Pistol II the hand was holding point blank against Arche's knee. The explosions from the shots staggered the mobile suit as broken armor panels fell off, creating a secondary wave of explosions. Being released from the wall pin he had gotten the Cherudim in, Lockon backed away, keeping up the pistol fire until he and the Cherudim were well clear, as the lighting in the massive corridor they were fighting in cut out and flames began to appear on the flooring.

The Arche's lanky frame cut a menacing figure amidst the blackened surroundings, now hovering just slightly over the floor, its remaining hand still clenched in a fist with the intent to attack. Lockon prepared to defend yet again, exhaling whilst steeling himself mentally. "I will get through this. For them. For her."

As he expected, the Arche surged at him and Cherudim, and he began shooting on reflex. However, the Arche soon appeared to lose power, its legs contacting and then crumpling into pieces on the floor, bringing the mobile suit to a kneel well short of its opponent. If Lockon hadn't begun to feel fatigued from the drawn-out duel, he would probably have been confused. However, in that moment all he felt was vindication.

"I can't blame you for what you did, big brother. A monster like him… can't possibly deserve forgiveness!" With that, Lockon laid onto the powerless Arche with multiple shots from Cherudim's GN Pistol IIs, causing more explosions on the mobile suit which up to a few moments ago had had the upper hand against him.

Panting, Lockon believed for the briefest of moments that it was all over. However, looking through his displays, his eyes widened in disbelief as they showed that the Arche's pilot had managed to exit his mobile suit, attempting to flee down a side passageway. Lockon gave chase at once, wanting to end it all personally.

At the first sight of the pilot - the man who made his life hell, who ultimately robbed him of his parents and his siblings - Lockon fired his pistol, delivering a shot into the pilot's right shoulder. "Stop right there!" Lockon ordered, advancing slowly as his opponent put his own pistol on his left and raised his hands in surrender.

All the while, Lockon refused to think of his enemy as a person with a name, as if the name was anathema and giving the person validation. But his rage was overwhelming, and he spat out with proverbial venom:

"Ali Al-Saachez."

"Yes, sir, but you can just call me Ali. Or Max, if you prefer something more… European." Even in his obviously injured state, Ali still found the energy to jibe back, which perplexed and angered Lockon in equal measure.

"Turn around and face me." Lockon ordered. When Ali seemingly refused to reply, Lockon would repeat himself with a much harsher tone, "TURN AROUND!"

As Ali slowly presented himself and met Lockon face to face, the latter found himself looking at an unrepentant man, if "man" was an adequate descriptor for the heinous being that was Ali Al-Saachez. "He took Mom, Dad, Amy… Neil as well…"

"What's the matter, coward? Can't pull the trigger?" Ali slyly snarked.

"S-shut up! You're in no position to speak." Lockon sharply snapped back. But his aim wavered, his mind recalling, of all things, that conversation in the quantum plane:

"Hey. We understood each other, didn't we?"

"Yeah, of course we did."

"Then… I'm glad…"

Re-assessing Ali's condition, Lockon decided he wasn't worth the bullet - blood loss from the obvious injuries in his abdomen would ensure he wouldn't get halfway to any sort of escape craft. The pistol Lockon held was lowered -

"Dumbass~"

Only to be raised yet again, and fired.

The first shot was higher than Lockon had intended - the travel of the pistol causing the bullet to rip right into Ali's forehead. As the body that used to be Ali began to lean and move backwards, Lockon settled his aim momentarily and shot twice more for good measure, hitting the sternum and trachea.

As Lockon turned and began to return to his Gundam, the cold comfort he had gotten from eliminating Ali slowly receded. He had settled his feud, but on the path to that settlement, he had been given a new, greater responsibility.

"I will live my life from now on as a Gundam Meister. Even if the world should judge me, I will continue to face their ills and shoot down the impediments to a peaceful world."

"But I will not be alone. Anew and I… we will face the world together. I will take on her joy and grief as my own, if only so she can take on mine in return."

"If we are guilty, then we will work towards our penance, come what may. But as long as I live, I will never abandon her."

"I just hope he's alright."

Reaching out to Lockon was a spontaneous decision on Anew's part. She didn't mean to distract him in the middle of a pitched battle, but just hearing his voice soothed her heart. It also distracted herself from the stinging pain in her head, although said pain was already fading into nothing.

She rounded the corner of the passageway to find Sumeragi embracing a tall, brunette, bespectacled man in an A-Laws space suit. The pistol in her hands still ready if needed, she slowly approached.

"Sumeragi?" She asked with slight hesitation, causing the commander to awkwardly break off the embrace. Sumeragi would quickly wave off Anew from raising her pistol at the man, who for his part looked out of sorts himself.

"He's… a friend of mine." Sumeragi attempted to explain. "I… lived with him before I got called back."

"I see." Anew replied, still suspicious of the man. "He must have been leading the automatons that breached the ship. Then…"

Her Innovade-enhanced hearing picked up the whirring noises from the automatons' motors before Sumeragi and the man she was with. On instinct, she reached out for Sumeragi and pulled her back, firing the pistol in her left hand at the dark grey legs as they appeared before the main bodies. Anew was so focused on providing covering fire, albeit with a proper two-handed grip on the pistol when she could, that she was quickly pulled back around the corner herself by Sumeragi, who had pulled the male along in the initial motion.

"Are you alright?" Sumeragi asked worriedly, before the three of them had to retreat slightly due to the automatons firing blindly down the corridor, showering the exposed wall with bullets. Taking advantage of a lull in the firing, Sumeragi took a knee and returned fire with her own rifle. Anew quickly followed suit, leaning out the corner and aiming at the automatons' sensors with her pistol… until it clicked empty.

In her haste to assist Feldt in checking up on Sumeragi, Anew had not considered taking extra ammunition for the pistol the former loaned her. This fact would make Anew momentarily kick herself mentally.

"I'm out!" She shouted over the noise of the shooting battle, and instantly received a tap on her shoulder. Leaning back in, Anew saw the man brandishing his own pistol - briefly alarming her - but upon making out "Allow me" from his mouth movements, they traded positions.

At this point, Anew felt flat-footed, unsure of what to do. On one hand, she felt it irresponsible to leave Sumeragi and the A-Laws man (even if said man was at least temporarily on their side) to go back to the armoury on the bridge and retrieve more ammunition, since her whole task was to in effect ensure that Sumeragi was still alright. On the other hand, she was effectively deadweight without any useful means of fighting the automatons.

Yet, almost as quickly as the conundrum had manifested, there was a resolution - as the automatons rapidly shut down one after another, ceasing their machine gun fire. Both Sumeragi and the A-Laws man expressed their shock, as did Anew.

"What… What happened?" The man uttered.

"I think… that was Tieria." Sumeragi would reply in amazement.

"Didn't Ribbons kill Tieria?" Anew wondered internally. She then felt somebody trying to contact her via quantum brainwaves, causing her to raise her guard, but the other party quickly moved to assuage her fears.

"Anew. It is me, Tieria. Please do not worry."

"Tieria, aren't you-"

"Please do not alarm the rest. I am, perhaps, physically dead, but I am now completely linked with Veda."

"So that's how you shut down the automatons."

"Correct. I have activated the Trial System and am working to permanently deactivate the enemy units through Veda. We, Celestial Being, should not encounter any more armed resistance."

Anew pondered for a moment, which Tieria picked up upon. "Ribbons no longer can have any control over you now. On my existence, I promise you that."

"What about the other Innovators?" Anew queried, still wary of their capability to disrupt the mission even without Veda's support.

"Mostly neutralised. There is one who decided to change sides and is helping me with Veda, Regene, but other than her, the others are stuck adrift with no help. Ribbons has fled, but I am confident we can locate and put him down."

"I see… finally, I'm free."

"Indeed. Although… I would like to make a request, if I may be so bold."

Anew was caught off-guard by Tieria's sudden reticence. "You're… being awfully polite. What do you need my help with?"

"You see, even with the vast capabilities of Veda that I can tap upon, I can only distantly watch over everyone from now on. That… does not reassure me as much as I would have wanted."

"So… you want me to help protect them? Where you, within Veda, cannot?"

"Correct."

"I will accept this responsibility." Anew responded resolutely.

"You have my gratitude." Tieria would reply in turn. "Setsuna approaches Veda. I need to converse with him about what I have learnt about Aeolia's Plan. If you require my help, you know how to contact me."

Anew felt the quantum brainwave connection gently fade. Blinking, she noticed Sumeragi worriedly looking at her, realising that she had spaced out yet again.

"S-sorry, Sumeragi. That was Tieria. He… He's busy making sure Veda is completely under control, and the Innovators are finally dealt with." Anew explained herself, selling the white lie to respect Tieria's wishes.

"Understood. Let's return to the bridge."

"What about him?" Anew queried, side-eyeing the A-Laws man who looked as if he would rather not be on Ptolemy at all.

"He will stay with us until we can safely drop him off at a place of his choosing… after we're done here." Sumeragi informed the Innovade. "Billy, your pistol, if you may."

Billy wordlessly handed his service pistol to Sumeragi, who then passed it off to Anew. Holstering her own now-empty pistol, Anew took the man's pistol as the three of them began the walk back to the bridge. And as she brought up the rear, although still wary of any surprises from the automatons, a happy thought repeated in her mind.

"I'm free, Lyle. Finally, I can properly be by your side, without reservation."