A/N: This chapter does contain some spoilers about the GW timeline. For the most part, I have taken some liberties and such with it.

When All Is Lost...

Chapter Two

Jess frowned as she pushed forward on her controls, seeing the amount of enemies approaching on the screen. This is what all their efforts had come to; the final battle between Oz and White Fang. She gritted her teeth as she edged her thrusters forward a bit more. She already felt tense and drawn, as if this would be the final battle of her life.

"Perhaps I am looking at the end of the road." she murmured as she closed her eyes briefly.

When her monitor blinked and beeped she pressed the button. Duo's face popped up, with something of a grin. "You ready?"

"Hai...Shinigami." she gave him a shaky smile. "How about we go and get something decent to eat afterwards?"

"Sounds good to me." he said giving her a thumbs up. "Watch yourself out there."

"Roger that." she said giving him a final smile before she pressed the button.

She gave a sigh as the monitor went black, red dots filling the screen once more. It seemed as if she was off once more, in an event that was caused by her doing. Oh, it had been her; she had convinced Treize to go back and that had brought about the split, the men loyal to him following when he defected from the Oz organization. She bit her lips hard as she fought to keep herself from berating her self. There was no way that she could anticipate what would happen, much less prevent it. She was still on Earth with Quatre when the faction had formed. And the rumours of Zechs being involved in it weren't lost upon her.

As the others slowed down, she did also; the last thing she wanted to do was be the one to set the keg off. There may still be a chance that this could be resolved before any blood was shed. Spying the blinking radio button, she flicked the switch and listened to the words that came out.

"This is Zechs Merquise of the Libra. Stand down and deactivate your weapons." his voice sounded calm and prepared; he knew that this was simply a formality.

"I can't do that Zechs." came Treize's cool response. "We both knew it would come to this one day. Main forward troops advance."

Jess swallowed as she readjusted her grip on the thrusters once more; the sweat was making it slippery and hard to hold onto. This was the first time that she was ever nervous about...well about anything in general. So nervous that she felt as if she could throw up right now in the cockpit.

"It wouldn't do you well to have chunks of barf floating around your head as you fought." she muttered grimly to herself. "Keep it together and you'll live through this."

The nervousness in her stomach intensified as she waited along with the left flanks. The others had been spread out and were most likely waiting for the next command. When Treize's voice came over the radio once more, ordering them out into the field, she rammed her thrusters forward. The mechas surged out into the clash, beam sabres and guns firing madly.

Her pikes cut and slashed as she moved through her opponents as they came. One explosion after another lit up space for a moment before followed by another. Both were falling on both sides in rapid numbers. She swallowed back the bile that was starting to rise in her throat and continued on; all of this leading to peace wasn't her idea of a successful war. It simply galled her and made her feel sickened.

"Atashi wa megami no sensoo da1..." she muttered as she sliced through an opponent before her. "Atashi wa megami no sensoo da!" she screamed suddenly, as her finger strayed and hit the switch beside the thrusters.

More than anything, she wanted this to be over now. She simply wanted to go home and forget all the things that she had to go through just to ensure that people could live in peace; the same people who created this problem in the first place. Her pikes moved faster now, coming down in vicious powerful blows that decimated the enemy mechas before her. They were the enemy, the ones she was fighting; they were the one that had the dreams of world conquest and domination; the ones who ruined it all for so many.

Time seemed suspended as her weapons moved, raining on the targets she sought out. But it seemed that they weren't diminishing at all; they seemed to be more of them than before. 'Where are they coming from?' She smashed her pike through the midsection of the Leo that came at her. She scanned the area quickly, seeing fresh reinforcements come from the ship just around the side of the planet. 'Kuso.'

She took off through the madness, heading for the ship she saw in the distance; if she cut off the flow at the source, this could end a lot. When a flashing red blip appeared suddenly on her monitor she halted for a second. Another ship was coming in from the distance, heading straight for the one she was heading to. She turned around, facing more of the Aries and Leos that came at her; if the ship ploughed into the other one, perhaps this would cripple it enough to give them the edge.

The fighting grew thicker than before, as the reinforcements arrived, swelling their ranks. She growled as she snapped her pikes together and twirled the staff around, cutting through the metal as if it was nothing. Her mind seemed to become devoid as she continued on, unrelenting and merciless. One after another, the suits before her were dispatched until she noticed something that caught her attention; a chunk of metal starting towards the atmosphere from the Libra. She froze for a minute, unsure of what to do; she could go after it and try to stop it from falling down to Earth in such a large dangerous piece. Or she could do as the soft voice inside her head was telling her to do; to simply keep fighting the enemy before her and pay the debris no mind.

To keep fighting or to try and break up the piece of debris, she couldn't decide. Her grip tightened around the thrusters, mind struggling with its internal debate. Many could die. 'Many more still would die anyhow; you're already killing up here.' But the damage would be longer lasting the Earth. 'Wasn't the damage here just the same, only of a different nature?' But the people on Earth would have to suffer more if it wasn't stopped. Hadn't the people of the colonies and Earth suffered enough as it was? 'Simply fight the enemies before her; someone else would take care of the debris.' But no one is close enough except for her; who could? 'It's suicidal; fight the opponents before you and leave it be; destroy your enemies.' But the debris was her enemy also. She should be the one to deal with it. 'The enemy before you is more immediate.' It was, making everything suddenly clearer.

Jess shook her head clear for a second and rammed the thrusters forward more as she headed for the chunk of debris, snapping apart her staff. Her mind felt as if it were clearing rapidly as she reached her target. Keeping pace with its descent, she started to slice away at it systematically, in a frantic pace; it was falling faster than she had thought. If she didn't hurry, it would fall the way it was. Her pikes hacked away, decimating the front half of the chunk. It was the bottom half that she had to take care of next. Gritting her teeth, she slammed the thrusters to full as she blasted past the chunk and started working on the bottom.

"Jess, what the hell are you doing?!" Duo's voice came over the com link, frantic. "Get out of there!"

"I will. I just have to finish this." she said; sweat started to bead on her brow. It was getting rather warm.

"Are you mad?! Leave it be!"

"No! If I don't do this, well, I'm sure you can put two and two together." she grunted. The sweat was starting to run down into her eyes and sting.

"Jess, leave it be! You're starting to enter the atmosphere!" Quatre's voice came over the radio now, albeit static filled and breaking up frequently, frightened and scared. "You've done enough!"

"I'm almost done." she said as she continued on. The piece was starting to fragment rapidly now, assisted by the fiery descent it was taking. "I'll be back in a second."

Suddenly, her pike broke through, the hand jamming on a severely twisted piece of metal. 'Kuso!' She pulled frantically, the hand coming free with a jerk. With her action, the piece started to break up entirely, small and large fragments drifting off. 'Time to jet.' She fired the thrusters once again, trying to break free of the fall. She didn't make it very far when a large chunk slammed into her Gundam, shaking her around. She never noticed when her head whipped against the corner of her seat when she was slammed back, connecting with her temple. Her vision started to blacken, sliding in and out of consciousness. The entire cockpit was screaming with alarms, glowing red. She could have sworn the beeps and frantic alarms sounded panicked and anxious. The radar screen was dead, the radio com link sputtering in and out erratically. Something else slammed into her suit just as she blacked out completely, the static filled radio cutting out as she continued on her flaming descent to Earth in silence and darkness.



1 Atashi wa megami no sensoo da. = I am the Goddess of War.